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Korea, Beijing carbon exchanges to cooperate, study ETS links
Carbon exchanges in South Korea and Beijing on Thursday signed an MoU to cooperate in developing their markets, boosting speculation that China and Korea at some stage might link their emissions trading schemes.
New Zealand to draw on Kyoto surplus to meet 2020 emissions target
New Zealand will use over 30 million Kyoto units from its massive surplus from the 2008-2012 period to meet its 2020 emissions target, the Ministry for the Environment said Thursday.
Hyundai Steel loses first lawsuit over Korea ETS allocation -paper
A Seoul court has dismissed Hyundai Steel’s lawsuit against the Ministry of Environment over the allocation of CO2 permits in the nation’s emissions trading scheme, the Korea Herald reported, the first of several legal cases over the issue to receive a verdict.
Guangdong carbon exchange issues rules for permit-backed loans
The Guangzhou Emissions Exchange this week issued rules for using Guangdong carbon permits as collateral for loans, an increasingly popular way for struggling Chinese companies to get fresh cash, in a move designed to prevent defaults and other irregularities.
EU Market: EUAs dip as US rate decision dents energy, euro
European carbon prices ended lower on Thursday due to a weaker energy complex and euro, which were dented by the US Federal Reserve’s decision late on Wednesday to raise interest rates for the first time since 2006.
German government announces tender to buy 138k CERs
The German government wants to procure 138,038 CERs via a tender to offset all business travel lodged in 2013, the country’s environment agency announced on Wednesday.
COMMENT: Carbon markets in the Paris Agreement – an early holiday gift
Last Saturday, UN climate negotiators from 195 countries agreed on a historic climate change accord in Paris after two weeks of intense negotiations. While many of us were hoping for a hook that would support the use of markets, we were happily surprised to see the extent and detail on carbon markets that was ultimately included in the Paris Agreement.
Bite-sized updates from around the world
China needs to implement a real and effective emissions trading scheme to help reduce the share of coal in the energy mix, Bertrand de la Noue, vice president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China told reporters in Beijing Thursday at a post-Paris briefing. He said the national ETS would help shutting down the huge over-capacity in China’s manufacturing industries and that the risk of so-called carbon leakage was limited. De la Noue added China was likely to easily meet its target of peaking GHG emissions by 2030, and said how early the peak would be depended partly on how quickly China can cut coal consumption, given “there is a lot of push-back from provinces and state-owned enterprises”.
He was backed the Joerg Wuttke, the president of the Chamber, who pointed out the massive increase in new coal plant approvals after the responsibility for those were transferred to provincial governments last year. In the first nine months of 2015, new coal-fired capacity equal to that of Italy was approved. “I hear Xie Zhenhua speak in Paris, then I look at the approval data and I’m puzzled,” Wuttke said. While the EU Chamber was positive about the prospect of clean coal in China, Greenpeace not so much. In a new analysis, the green group’s Energydesk said “nearly half of China’s new clean coal power plants are violating emission standards — often because the technology isn’t even switched on”. Analysts from Greenpeace China caught 12 out of 26 ‘ultra low emission’ coal power plants producing more pollution than new limits would allow.
Polish utilities advanced as the country’s energy regulator increased its budget to support coal-fired power plants. State-controlled Enea SA was the biggest gainer, rising as much as 5.2 percent, while ZE PAK SA, owned by billionaire Zygmunt Solorz-Zak, climbed as much as 2.2 percent and Tauron Polska Energia SA added as much as 4.8 percent. The benchmark WIG20 Index rose 3.2 percent by 2:39 p.m. Warsaw time, heading for the biggest increase in more than two years. Emerging-market stocks rose after the Federal Reserve said Wednesday that further interest-rate increases will be gradual. (Bloomberg)
Britain received European Union approval on Thursday to compensate firms in some energy-intensive industries for the cost of “green taxes”, offering help to its ailing steel sector. (Reuters)
Ireland has set out a target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 80-95% by 2050, and to become carbon neutral by 2100, according to a new energy white paper that sets out how it will transit to a clean energy future over the next 15 years.
New Jersey’s State Assembly passed a resolution Thursday pushing the government toward rejoining RGGI, some five years after Governor Chris Christie pulled the state from the cap-and-trade programme. (northjersey.com)
You can’t get any point across these days without the use of infographics. Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator has taken the consequence of that and created one on the status of the Emissions Reductions Fund called “Emissions Position”. It will also publish a “Monthly Abatement Statement” with features such as “fund facts”.
And finally… The US clean energy boom is about to be transformed. In a surprise move, US lawmakers agreed to extend tax credits for solar and wind for another five years. This will give an unprecedented boost to the industry, estimated by BNEF to be worth $73 billion, and change the course of renewables deployment in the country. In solar alone, the extension will add an extra 20 gigawatts of capacity – more than every panel ever installed in the US prior to 2015.
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