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TOP STORY

PREVIEW: Traders see greater uncertainty for WCI auction, with some anticipating high discounts

WCI carbon traders anticipate the August current vintage auction on Wednesday will settle below the secondary market, with some participants expecting a steeper discount than the Q2 sale despite allowance prices surging over the summer.

AMERICAS

Nova Scotia carbon pricing future uncertain after upset conservative election victory

Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston saw his party win an unexpected majority government in Tuesday’s election, rendering uncertain the future of the Canadian province’s cap-and-trade programme.

ASIA PACIFIC

Australia’s carbon market value hits A$226 mln, analysts find

Australia’s carbon offset market was worth A$226 million ($164 mln) in FY2020-21, according to analysts Reputex, as pressure on major corporations to set net zero emission targets helped add 20% to total demand year-on-year.

Itochu eyes Japan’s first mangrove project as blue carbon market begins to form

Trading company Itochu on Wednesday announced it will develop Japan’s first mangrove project in a boost for the country’s fledgling blue carbon market.

EMEA

Euro Markets: Carbon recovers to settle 0.9% lower after gas-driven plunge

Carbon whipsawed on Wednesday, recovering from a drop of 3.3% when gas prices plunged amid rumours that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline had begun to ship.

Second forest carbon investment fraudster handed extended UK jail sentence for failing to repay £10 mln

A second member of a gang of Oxbridge-educated carbon credit investment fraudsters has been handed another decade in a British jail for failing to repay £10 million in ill-gotten gains.

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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Carbon Pulse has teamed up with CME Group to provide its clients with regular updates on the global carbon markets. Check out these briefs for the latest insights on pressing trends and events impacting markets, published every other week. Registration required

INTERNATIONAL

Natural solution  – The COP15 UN biodiversity summit has been delayed for a third time due to the pandemic, the Chinese environment ministry has announced. The ministry confirmed that negotiations for this decade’s targets on pesticide use, plastic pollution, and nature protection will be split into two phases so that governments can meet face-to-face in Kunming, China. The talks had been scheduled for October this year after two previous delays due to the coronavirus pandemic. The first phase of the meeting, which will be largely procedural, will be held in the Chinese city between Oct. 11-15, with most people attending virtually. Countries will then negotiate 2030 targets in Kunming from Apr. 25 to May 8, 2022. (Guardian)

EMEA

Sunny delight – Solar power supply in the EU during June and July rose to a record high in 2021, accounting for 10% of total electricity produced in the region, according to a report by independent climate think-tank Ember. The 27 countries in the bloc generated nearly 39 TWh of power from solar panels during June and July, up 10.9 TWh from 2018. But total generation from solar panels lagged the electricity supply from coal, which stood at 14% for the region in June and July of 2021, the report said. (Reuters)

Phaseout folly – Germany’s Social Democrat (SPD) chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz has said Germany should stick to its existing timetable for exiting coal no later than 2038. During a campaign visit to East Germany’s coal regions, he stressed the importance of clarity for companies, workers, and the region. Green chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock countered that an earlier coal exit is necessary to achieve climate targets. The Greens call for a coal exit by 2030. (Clean Energy Wire)

HYBRIT theory – Swedish green steel venture HYBRIT said on Wednesday that it had made the world’s first customer delivery of steel produced without using coal. HYBRIT, owned by steelmaker SSAB, utility Vattenfall, and miner LKAB, said it would deliver the steel to truck-maker Volvo AB as a trial run before full commercial production in 2026 from its operations replacing coking coal with fossil-free electricity and hydrogen. (Reuters)

ASIA PACIFIC

Getting around to it – A survey by the Investor Group on Climate Change showed that some 40% of investors in Australia and New Zealand now have portfolio-wide net zero targets in place, compared to 27% a year ago. But regulatory uncertainty and the Australian government’s climate policy are constraining further investment. (Business Insider)

Joining the party – A first Malaysian company has gotten involved in the controversial “carbon neutral LNG” industry, with oil and gas company Petronas sending a shipment of offset-backed LNG to Japan’s Shikoku Electric. The credits involved are from the VCS programme, and cover upstream gas exploration and production, transportation, liquefaction, and shipping of the cargo, Petronas said, but made no mention of regasification and combustion.

Stranded – Australian mining giant BHP would pay a bidder about A$275 mln to take the biggest coal mine in NSW off its hands even as prices of the fossil fuel soar to levels not seen since 2008. BHP has been shopping its Mt Arthur coal mine near Muswellbrook for more than a year, and on Wednesday slashed its value from about A$550 mln to a liability of A$275 mln, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

AMERICAS

RNG glee – California-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp. on Tuesday announced a slew of new deals in response to the demand for renewable natural gas (RNG). Among these area a multi-year agreement with the City of Pasadena for an anticipated 5.7 mln litres of RNG, a contract extension with Big Blue Bus in Santa Monica for an additional five years to supply 37.9 mln L, and a multi-year agreement with Gold Coast Transit in Ventura County for 15.9 mln L. Additionally, Houston-based renewable gasoline and green hydrogen company Arbor Gas on Wednesday announced its underlying capital commitment from EnCap Investments and Mercuria. SunGas Renewables, a subsidiary of GTI International, has also entered into an exclusive Joint Development Agreement with Arbor Gas to provide its gasification systems to Arbor Gas projects.

VOLUNTARY

Striking gold – Vancouver-based mining company Central African Gold on Wednesday announced it is evaluating the feasibility of implementing a carbon credit revenue stream on its land in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The firm said it is working closely with two internationally recognised leaders in the carbon credit accreditation and project engineering space to structure its carbon plan. Central African Gold added initial carbon sink opportunities exist both in leveraging the development of large tree farm ecosystems as well as solar PV farms which would be in close proximity to existing mining operations that are desperate for cleaner power to meet their own ESG obligations.

In the Vicinity – Boston-based Vicinity Energy, the owner of the US’ largest network of portfolio of district energy systems, announced Wednesday it has purchased carbon offsets for its Grand Rapids, Michigan district energy operations. The company purchased offsets equalling 95,400 tonnes over a three-year period, without disclosing where the credits came from or what price was paid.

SCIENCE & TECH

Fusion ignition – The National Ignition Facility in the US is on the verge of achieving a longstanding goal in nuclear fusion research, the BBC reports. Harnessing nuclear fusion, which is the process that powers the sun, could provide a limitless, clean energy source, but scientists have never managed to achieve this goal. It says that a recent experiment suggested that the goal of “ignition”, where the energy released by fusion exceeds that delivered by the laser, is “within touching distance”.

AND FINALLY…

Sci-fi solar – Solar power beamed from satellites could provide the UK with a continuous supply of green energy as soon as 2039, according to a report commissioned by the government’s space agency. The idea of space-based solar power dates back to a 1941 short story by sci-fi author Isaac Asimov and a 1968 paper in the journal Science, but technology developments and climate change concerns means the concept has seen renewed interest in recent years from countries including China, Japan, and the US. (New Scientist)

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