CP Daily: Friday February 12, 2016

Published 22:14 on February 12, 2016  /  Last updated at 11:10 on March 12, 2016  / /  Newsletters

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

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EU Market: EUAs climb back above €5 but post sixth straight weekly drop

EUAs ended above €5 for the first time in seven days on Friday as prices were boosted by a strong German auction, higher energy, and short-covering ahead of the weekend, but the gains weren’t enough to prevent EU carbon from notching its sixth straight weekly fall.

EU imposes steel import tariffs ahead of industry crisis meeting

The EU set import tariffs on some types of steel and launched anti-dumping investigations on others on Friday ahead of crisis talks with corporate leaders over the future of big-emitting industries in Europe.

Norway seeks 20 mln more CERs to meet 2020 Kyoto goal

Norway still needs to buy around 20 million CERs to put it on track to meeting its 2020 Kyoto Protocol emissions target after contracting a little over 10 million over the past year via an open tender.

NZ Market: NZUs fall to 8-week low as market absorbs fresh supply

Spot NZUs fell 2.1% this week to close Friday at NZ$9.27 ($6.18), their lowest level in eight weeks, as larger-than-average supply came to market, allowing buyers to pull back a little.

Australian advisory firm seeks carbon aggregator role in ERF-driven offset market

The carbon advisory arm of consultancy Ndevr has teamed up with a global trading firm to offer early payments to project developers in exchange for ownership of carbon offsets.

Voluntary market data from CTX for Feb. 12, 2016

A table of Verified Emission Reduction (VER) prices and offered volumes, based on voluntary market data from Carbon Trade Exchange.

Bite-sized updates from around the world

**Have you bought or sold carbon offsets in 2015? Ecosystem Marketplace is once again collecting market data to produce their annual State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets and State of the Forest Carbon Markets reports, both of which are freely available and respectively track corporate trends in voluntary offsetting and results-based payments for forest conservation. EM cannot produce these insightful reports without the thousands of individual data points that provide that insight, so if your organisation supplied offsets to voluntary buyers in 2015 or developed forestry or land-use offsets for voluntary or compliance markets, please complete their survey. Email Kelley Hamrick for a login if your organisation does not have one already. The deadline for participating is Feb. 26.**

Dutch put CO2 pricing on the agenda: The Dutch EU presidency today confirmed carbon pricing would be part of an Apr. 14-15 informal Environmental Council meeting, which could be the next opportunity for all 28 EU environment ministers to discuss EU ETS reform plans ahead of a formal June 20 Council meeting. Dutch environment minister Sharon Dijksma gave only vague references to the benefits of global carbon pricing initiatives during a meeting with her French counterpart Segolene Royal in Paris. Royal reiterated four much more specific aims for EU carbon pricing reform, including for a carbon price corridor. (Government statements)

Germany can’t guarantee how long lignite-fired power stations and mines being sold by Vattenfall will stay open, potentially crimping interest in a bid for the assets by Czech utility CEZ.  (Bloomberg)

Pennsylvania has become the latest US state to declare that it will continue to develop its CPP implementation plan despite the Supreme Court ruling earlier this week, with officials telling the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette it sill aims to submit the plan to the EPA by Sep. 6. Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton also plans to carry on, saying in a statement: “While the Court’s temporary stay is disappointing, it does nothing to diminish our resolve in Minnesota to keep moving forward on clean energy initiatives, including the development of our state’s Clean Power Plan.”

US president Obama’s $10-a-barrel oil fee signals intent for sector-by-sector carbon price – The proposal has little chance of passing Congress but offers a marker for how a sector-by-sector approach to carbon pricing might be made to work in future, writes analyst John Kemp.  The White House is creating a shadow carbon price one sector at time, and if these were adopted in enough sectors, coordinated and aligned they could behave as if they were a nationwide carbon price. (Reuters)

At least half of California’s ETS revenue ‘slush fund’ should be spent on repairing existing roads and traffic-cutting projects, says Republican State Senate Minority Leader Bob Huff in an op-ed piece: “Cars stuck in traffic with their engines idling away are a needless source of greenhouse gas emissions. Spending those cap and trade billions on road repairs and congestion relief will provide real results faster, instead of waiting decades for results we may never see from high speed rail.” (CityWatchLA)

The final details of China’s coal mining reduction plan shows it is far more ambitious than initially thought, and will cut coal production capacity by 1-2 billion tonnes per year, according to the Greenpeace Energy Desk.

Kiribati has become the 60th nation to ratify the Kyoto Protocol’s Doha Amendment. For the second commitment period to enter into force, 144 countries must ratify. (UNFCCC)

And finally … Does it matter which company department handles carbon trading?  A company that delegates its ETS compliance to its financiers is more likely to become a buyer, whereas giving control to manufacturing departments makes it more likely to be a seller, according to Hamburg-based academics in a paper examining transaction data from EU ETS Phase 1 (2005-2007). (Climate Policy)

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