Newsletters > CP Daily: Monday April 25, 2022

CP Daily: Monday April 25, 2022

Published 03:52 on April 26, 2022  /  Last updated at 03:52 on April 26, 2022  / Carbon Pulse /  Newsletters

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

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TOP STORY

EU metals supply squeeze to drive sectoral emissions increase -report

The EU’s clean energy transition is likely to cause a short-term increase in emissions from the metals sector as soaring demand is met by imports from coal-intensive producers, according to an industry-commissioned report published on Monday.

EMEA

Macron’s landslide victory brings continuity to French, EU climate policy

Emmanuel Macron’s re-election as President of France on Sunday is likely to keep the nation on track to ramp up domestic and EU-wide climate action, removing the threat of climate-sceptic leadership under defeated rival Marine Le Pen.

EU ETS emissions rose 7.3% in 2021, European Commission confirms

Verified emissions from operators covered by the EU ETS rose by 7.3% last year, according to official figures published by the European Commission late Monday.

Euro Markets: Carbon unwinds most of last week’s sharp gain amid growing macro concerns

EUA prices tumbled on Monday as the macroeconomic outlook darkened amid widening Covid-related lockdowns in China, while energy markets edged higher as the US threw more weight behind Ukraine, saying it wanted to see Russia military capacity “ground down”.

UK advances corporate climate regulations as investors brace for £100/t carbon price

The UK government formed a taskforce on Monday to come up with rules for its listed companies and financial institutions to outline from next year how they will align with Britain’s 2050 net zero ambition.

Trading in non-EU carbon markets support looser European capital requirements

Trading activity in emissions trading schemes outside the EU ETS supports the idea that new European banking regulations could impair the markets’ functioning and hamper low-carbon investment.

ASIA PACIFIC

Major Indonesian project expects no disruption to offset issuance despite govt intervention

A major Indonesia-based offset project expects to continue delivering carbon credits to clients as usual despite the government recently confirming hold-ups for some schemes, even though some experts believe the regulatory uncertainty over VCM projects in the country goes beyond what has been confirmed by officials so far.

China’s carbon exchanges team up to streamline local offsets

China’s nine regional carbon exchanges will band together to launch a unified offsets scheme, aiming to connect the many local offsetting schemes that have emerged across the country over the past year in the absence of a national market.

Mitsubishi invests $100 mln in Bill Gates-led climate tech venture

Mitsubishi Corp. has become the first Asian investor in Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, a Bill Gates-founded programme funding innovative climate technologies such as direct air capture and sustainable aviation fuel, with Inpex and JGC among other Japanese firms announcing international low-carbon initiatives on Monday.

VOLUNTARY

VCM Report: VER prices meander as market searches for buyers

Voluntary emissions reduction (VER) values largely faded or held steady this week as traders pointed to a lack of activity in the voluntary carbon market (VCM) and uncertainty about where the next round of buyers will come from.

AMERICAS

US EPA to finalise multi-year Renewable Fuel Standard quotas by June 3

The US EPA will publish several years’ worth of Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) biofuel volumes by early June as part of a consent decree approved Friday.

INTERNATIONAL

Global emissions to peak in 2023 with 1.5C out of reach even with current pledges

Global emissions are set to peak next year before falling through 2050 as the world remains far off track from limiting warming to 1.5C even if countries deliver on current climate pledges, analysts at a leading consultancy said ahead of a landmark report due on Tuesday.

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CONFERENCES

City Week 2022: Resetting Priorities for a Better Future – Apr. 25-27 at London Guildhall: Now in its 12th year, City Week is the premier gathering of the international financial services community. Organised in partnership with the UK Government and leading City institutions, City Week brings together industry leaders and policy makers from around the globe to consider the future of global financial markets. Each day will address a specific theme, with Day 1 focussing on “Meeting the climate change challenge – the role of financial services in achieving net zero”. www.cityweekuk.com

IETA European Climate Summit 2022 – May 24-25 in Barcelona: Join us for the 4th edition of this IETA-led European summit, bringing together leading private sector experts and policymakers from both the carbon and energy world, to analyse and discuss the current state of play, and what’s next for compliance and voluntary markets.  Why attend?  1. gain a comprehensive understanding of current and forecast carbon market drivers and developments; 2. how are we implementing our transition to a net zero economy, both on the ground and through policy; 3. understand the pricing evolution, risk profile, and investment opportunities across the compliance and voluntary carbon markets; 4. what/how/why of digital climate assets. www.europeanclimatesummit.com

Reuters Events: Global Energy Transition 2022 – June 14-15 in New York City: The conference unites CEOs and changemakers from the energy, industrial, and government ecosystems to shed light on the defining issue of our time, and help companies meet a uniquely difficult challenge. Over two days and five critical themes, we will define the future of energy, inspire a decade of action, and prepare the sector for challenges still to come, with diverse voices from around the world bringing passion and expertise to deliver a new path forward. Find out more by visiting the website today: https://bit.ly/35H7cgb

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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

EMEA

“Smart” oil sanctions – The EU is preparing “smart sanctions” against Russian oil imports designed to minimise economic damage to the continent’s economy, a senior Brussels official has said. Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commission’s executive vice-president, told The Times that Brussels would soon present a sixth package of sanction measures against President Putin that would include “some form” of an oil embargo amid pressure for the bloc to deprive Moscow of lucrative energy revenues.

Stop funding war! – Some 50 members of the European Parliament addressed German Chancellor Olaf Scholz with a call to support an immediate Russian energy embargo, wrote Andrius Kubilius on Twitter, centre-right MEP and former prime minister of Lithuania. He added that “Germany has a responsibility to lead the European democratic community in the face of an authoritarian aggressor.” The missive comes after the European Parliament urged the EU to establish a full embargo on Russian imports of oil, nuclear fuel and gas as the war continues to rage in Ukraine. But Brussels has since then only approved a ban on coal, which is due to come into full effect only by mid-August. 

Green rise in the East – Slovenia’s populist prime minister Janez Jansa has suffered a heavy defeat in parliamentary elections to a left-leaning environmentalist party that was recently formed and led by former businessman Robert Golob. Jansa’s party took about 24% of the vote, compared to 34.5% for the Freedom Movement party led by Golob who said his win will enable him to lead his country back to “freedom.” An outspoken supporter of former US president Donald Trump, Jansa was seeking a fourth term as prime minister and stood on a platform of stability. Meanwhile, Golob is a former executive of a state-owned energy company that launched green energy projects and is expected to back EU climate ambition (AP).

AMERICAS

Gas loves carbon pricing – A price on carbon doesn’t have the environmental lustre it used to, but it enjoys support from one group: US natural gas power plant owners, Politico reports. With gas generators fearing their investments will be disadvantaged by a patchwork of clean energy policies, they are rallying around state and regional pricing schemes to keep them competitive. “It has been the experience of the state-by-state approach that it has not been as successful in securing emissions reductions as some would like to think, and it has proven to be much more expensive than a well-crafted, economy-wide price on carbon would be,” said Todd Snitchler, president and CEO of the Electric Power Supply Association, which represents several major energy companies including BP Plc, Shell Energy and NRG Energy. But getting a carbon pricing policy adopted is proving a challenge. Climate-focused Democrats have largely averted their attention toward clean energy tax credits and other incentives to spur renewable development. And partisan battles, tensions between states that have emissions reduction goals and those that do not, and environmental justice concerns have thwarted attempts to expand these programs at the state and regional levels. Environmentalists are also skeptical about a program that may lower overall emissions but further bake natural gas into the grid for the long haul.

View from the top – Summit Carbon Solutions, the company behind a huge carbon pipeline proposal in the US Midwest, has close ties to Iowa officials and regulators charged with approving a large part of its route, according to a Reuters review of public documents and company websites. At least four members of Summit’s leadership have direct links to the Iowa governor’s office or the Iowa Utility Board (IUB), both of which could influence the future of the roughly 3,200-km pipeline, according to the review. One member, Bruce Rastetter, is the top individual donor to the current governor, Kim Reynolds. Another is a former Iowa governor, Terry Branstad, who nominated two of the IUB’s three commissioners, including its chair. (Reuters)

Burning planet – A Colorado man who set himself on fire in front of the Supreme Court on Friday in an apparent Earth Day protest against climate change has died, the New York Times reports. The court had heard arguments in late February that could restrict or even eliminate the EPA’ss authority to control CO2 from power plants. The court’s conservative majority had voiced skepticism of the agency’s authority to regulate these emissions, suggesting that a decision by the justices could deal a sharp blow to the Biden administration’s efforts to address climate change.

ASIA PACIFIC

Humble beginnings – China Southern Power Grid has sold the first 66 GWh worth of green energy in Guangxi province under the nation’s new Green Power scheme, it announced Sunday, estimating the deal will reduce CO2 emissions by some 58,000 tonnes. The scheme was introduced late last year, and some market participants expect renewables companies to increasingly opt for that market rather than the carbon offset scheme, which has been suspended for more than five years. Companies can use the Green Power credits towards meeting government-imposed energy targets, but they can’t be traded within the market.

SCIENCE & TECH

Some concrete ideas here – An international consortium has been formed to produce sustainable aviation fuels in Germany by combining CO2 extracted from cement production with green hydrogen generated from wind and solar energy. CEMEX, a global construction materials group headquartered in Mexico, will supply CO2 generated at its cement plant in Ruedersdorf, the green hydrogen will come from the German renewable energy company ENERTRAG, and the ecoFT business unit of South African energy and chemicals group Sasol will provide the technology to convert the combined CO2 and hydrogen to e-kerosene for blending with jet fuel. The three companies are equal partners in the newly-founded venture, Concrete Chemicals GmbH. The project is significant as it singly reduces the emissions of two hard-to-abate global industries, air transport and cement production, and will contribute to the EU’s planned mandatory minimum blending quota for power-to-liquid (PtL) e-kerosene, reports GreenAir. Separately, CEMEX has invested $6.5m in Carbon Upcycling Technologies, a Canadian start-up whose innovative processes could reduce the emissions associated with cement making by up to 30%, BusinessGreen reports. Carbon Upcycling’s Technologies is one of a growing wave of companies to develop new processes that promise to slash emissions from the cement industry’s supply chain. The company’s ‘carbon utilisation’ solution infuses carbon into a grinding process using by-products of cement-making, such as fly ashes and slag. The approach creates a reactive supplementary cementitious material that can replace clinker – a solid, intermediary material created during cement production. The resulting blended cement and concretes can achieve CO2 reductions by almost a third, according to the firm. CEMEX is one of a number of leading cement producers to set a target to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, as the industry works to tackle a carbon footprint that is estimated to account for around 8% of global emissions.

AND FINALLY…

One step forward… – Twitter on Friday said it will no longer allow advertisers on its site who deny the scientific consensus on climate change, echoing a policy already in place at Google. There was no indication that the change would affect what users post on the social media site, which along with Facebook has been targeted by groups seeking to promote misleading claims about climate change. Twitter said it would provide more information in the coming months on how it plans to provide “reliable, authoritative context to the climate conversations” its users engage in, including from UN scientific panel IPCC. However, it is unclear what is in store for this policy after Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, on Monday reached an agreement to buy Twitter for roughly $44 bln, promising a more lenient touch to policing content on the platform where he promotes his interests, attacks critics, mocks national and corporate leaders, and opines on social and economic issues to more than 83 mln followers. (AP)

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