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POLL: Analysts predict EU ETS emissions flat in 2015

Emissions covered under the EU ETS were mostly unchanged last year compared to 2014, a poll of six analysts taken by Carbon Pulse showed.

EU leaders pass on upping bloc’s 2030 climate target

EU leaders have declined to revise the bloc’s 2030 climate and energy goals in the light of the Paris Agreement at this week’s Council summit, instead urging lawmakers to speed laws to ensure the bloc’s existing goals are met.

NZ Market: NZUs smash through NZ$11 on minister’s comments

Spot allowances in New Zealand’s emissions trading scheme recorded a fourth straight week of gains as Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett’s comments on impending rule changes pushed the price above NZ$11 ($7.52) for the first time in nearly four-and-a-half years.

EU Policy Roundup: MEPs talk climate, UK’s Duncan proposes cancelling EUAs

Brussels hosted a range of EU ETS-related debates this week, including lawmakers from the European Parliament’s environment and industry committees beginning to dissect the European Commission’s post-2020 reform proposal. Carbon Pulse assesses the key developments.

Main EU carbon auction host EEX calls for changes

German energy exchange EEX, which hosts the vast majority of the EU’s near-daily carbon allowance auctions, has called for changes to the sale process ahead of the introduction of the MSR.

EU Market: Carbon notches 1% weekly drop, could be readying for breakout

European carbon dipped in quiet range-bound trade on Friday to post a small 1% weekly drop, with prices potentially positioning themselves for a technical breakout next week.

South Korea adds 40% to carbon offset supply

South Korea on Friday issued 2.9 million carbon offsets, adding nearly 40% to existing supply, though CO2 prices in the nation’s emissions trading scheme showed no sign of weakening.

Guangdong to auction 500,000 CO2 allowances on Mar. 29

Guangdong will hold its third CO2 allowance auction for the 2015 compliance year, offering 500,000 allowances at a minimum price of 12.69 yuan ($1.96) each.

Ex-Morgan Stanley carbon trading head joins Shell

A former London-based head of emissions trading at US investment bank Morgan Stanley has joined the trading arm of oil major Shell, Carbon Pulse has learned.

CN Markets: Pilot market data for week ending Mar. 18, 2016

Closing prices, ranges and volumes for China’s regional pilot carbon markets this week.

Voluntary market data from EEM for Mar. 18, 2016

A table of Verified Emission Reduction (VER) prices and offered volumes, provided by European Environmental Markets (EEM) and based on voluntary market data from Carbon Trade Exchange (CTX).

Bite-sized updates from around the world

The Joint Implementation Supervisory Committee (JISC) at its 38th meeting elected as chair Konrad Raeschke-Kessler from the German Federal Environment Agency, and as vice-chair Albert Abel Williams, Member of Vanuatu’s Parliament and the small island nation’s Special Envoy for Climate Change, Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction. Raeschke-Kessler takes over from Julia Justo Soto, and Williams from Raeschke-Kessler. Both will serve one-year terms.  The JISC has prepared detailed suggestions on how the JI mechanism could be improved and put to continuing use. When parties to the Kyoto Protocol met in Paris late last year, they asked the JISC to prepare further recommendations for consideration by parties in Bonn in May and in Morocco at the end of the year. The JISC’s work in 2016 will focus on preparing those recommendations.  JI currently suffers from lack of demand and its future role is uncertain.

China accounts for a tenth of all the greenhouse gases and aerosols that have collected in the atmosphere over the industrial era, according to a new study in the journal Nature. Its contribution to climate change has remained steady, the study finds, despite soaring CO2 emissions. Cutting some types of aerosol in a much-needed bid to improve air quality could drive faster warming in the coming decades, the authors say. (Carbon Brief)

Brexit a threat to Paris Agreement, says UK climate advisor – Strong voice for climate ambition at heart of world’s largest internal market is vital to maintain momentum post 2015 pact, says Lord Deben. (Climate Home)

Australia’s GHG emissions in the year to Sep. 2015 were 549.6 million tonnes of CO2e, the Department of Environment said on Friday as it released the quarterly update of the GHG inventory. The number was a slight increase of 0.5%, or 300,000 tonnes, compared to the previous quarter. The rise was primarily driven by increased carbon in electricity generation.

The EPA’s Clean Power Plan, if upheld by the courts, could force more coal plant retirements than initially expected in the nation’s midsection, according to the most recent modeling by the region’s grid operator, Indiana-based Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO). (EnergyWire)

California and Quebec will hold their next join auction under the WCI programme on May 18, offering 67.7 million vintage 2016 allowances and 10.1 million vintage 2019 allowances.  The sale’s reserve prices have been set at $12.73/C$12.82.

Legislators in the Maryland House on Thursday voted 100-37 to approve a new target of cutting GHG emissions 40% below 2006 levels by 2030. Currently, Maryland has no climate target beyond 2020. The state Senate approved the target earlier this month, and it will become state law if signed by Republican Governor Larry Hogan.

And finally… A snowball’s chance in hell.  Some might have used that saying to describe the odds of the US Senate’s most vocal climate change sceptic supporting a Republican presidential candidate whose views on greenhouse gases more closely resemble those from the other side of the congressional aisle.  But to the surprise of many this week, Oklahoma’s James Inhofe, who last year famously brought a snowball into the upper legislature to support his contention that global warming was a hoax, threw his support behind Ohio Governor John Kasich. As The Blaze points out, “even when the field was 17 strong, Kasich was the only GOP candidate who said climate change is a problem and humans have something to do with it.”  However, an Inhofe spokesman notes that the two lawmakers’ ideologies are not actually that different, as Kasich believes fossil fuels will always be a part of the US economy and wants to scrap the EPA’s Clean Power Plan.

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