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Baby steps for Japan’s JCM as it seeks to break new ground
Japan’s Joint Crediting Mechanism is inching forward by registering a handful of new projects, but progress is slow with no firm demand and as regulators take a firm line in tackling issues not previously faced in international carbon markets.
Japan environment minister won’t give up on carbon pricing
Japan Environment Minister Tamayo Marukawa on Tuesday released her long-term vision on climate change, opting to include carbon pricing as part of her preferred future policy portfolio despite lingering opposition in other quarters of government.
China’s NDRC passes emissions trading bill to State Council
A bill on China’s planned national emissions trading scheme has been passed to the State Council for approval by the country’s top economic planning agency, with no changes from an earlier draft, a leaked document showed on Tuesday.
EU Market: EUAs slip as market awaits direction from ETS data release
EU carbon prices fell slightly on Tuesday, the first session after the four-day Easter holiday, with analysts predicting a stable week ahead of Friday’s release of 2015 emissions data.
UK govt hits eight facilities with £100k in EU ETS penalties
More than £100,000 in penalties have been levied on eight UK-based installations for breaches relating to the EU ETS, including two military air bases, the country’s prison service, and a brewery.
Guangdong sells 500k CO2 allowances at minimum price in latest auction
China’s Guangdong province on Tuesday sold all 500,000 allowances on offer in the third of four planned auctions intended to cover 2015 emissions, with prices dropping to the 12.69 yuan ($1.95) price floor, which was more than 20% below the secondary market.
Hubei exchange to launch carbon forward contract on Apr. 20
The Hubei carbon exchange will launch a forward contract for CO2 allowances, it announced Friday, making it the first of China’s seven pilot emissions trading schemes to offer on-exchange forward trading.
CN Markets: Pilot market data for week ending Mar. 25, 2016
Closing prices, ranges and volumes for China’s regional pilot carbon markets for the week ending Mar. 25.
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Job listings this week:
Energy Analyst, Environment and Climate Change, IEA – Paris
Programme Officer, Land-use & Forests, Gold Standard – Freiburg/Geneva
Senior Programme Officer, Cities, Gold Standard – New Delhi
Sales Representative, Carbon Offsets, ClimatePartner – Munich
Regional Technical Specialist, Climate Change Mitigation & Energy, UNDP – Panama
Associado Senior em Mudancas Climaticas e Sustentabilidade, IDB – Brasil
Or click here to see all our job adverts
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Bite-sized updates from around the world
Recent reports that China’s CO2 emissions have been dropping by up to 1.5% per year may have been premature, according to a study published in the Nature Climate Change journal. Researchers at Norway’s CICERO said the reliance on preliminary coal consumption data to calculate emissions is inappropriate, and that a more thorough analysis showed that emissions in reality fell by much less and may even have increased.
US federal regulators have filed their first defence of the Clean Power Plan in a court case addressing the law’s merits, arguing to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that it has the authority to limit emissions from existing power plants and that climate change is a “monumental threat”. (H/T Utility Dive)
Recommendations for proposed EU ETS Innovation Fund – The German environment ministry has published elements of work it commissioned from consultancy adelphi into the proposed post-2020 EU ETS Innovation Fund. It suggested splitting funding into three categories: CCS, all other industrial projects, and renewables. It also said grants of up to €1.5 billion each for CCS projects “do not seem justfied” though interesting projects can probably be triggered with grants of up to €600 million. (adelphi)
Vattenfall delays coal sale – Vattenfall has postponed the sale of its German lignite operations, insiders told Handelsblatt’s Jürgen Flauger. The Swedish utility initially planned to make a decision on Wednesday but is now targeting mid-April, according to the report. Whereas Vattenfall management is said to strongly favour Czech utility EPH as a buyer, union representatives are campaigning for transferral into a foundation, reports Flauger. (H/T Clean Energy Wire)
Poland approves large-scale logging in Europe’s last primeval forest – government approvals to harvest more than 180,000 cubic metres of wood outside protected areas of the Białowieża forest over a decade are up from original plans for 40,000 and intended to combat a beetle infestation. Greenpeace warned the move could trigger the EU to launch punitive procedures for violating its Natura 2000 preservation program. (The Guardian)
Developing nations urged to boycott Paris Agreement signing – countries should refuse to sign at the April 22 ceremony and until they receive stronger assurances on finance, technology and compensation, according to a briefing from think tank Third World Network send to Arab Group nations last week. Other developing nation advisers said a mass boycott was unlikely and urged all to sign quickly to ensure they could play an active role in implementing the deal. (Climate Home)
And finally… Climate change still absent from US presidential primary conversation – Despite the mild temperatures and unusual lack of snow, climate change was missing from the discussion at this weekend’s Alaska Democratic caucus, as it has been through most of the election cycle thus far. According to Media Matters, just 1.5% of questions in the 20 presidential primary debates were about climate change, and moderators were more than twice as likely to ask a climate question to a Democratic candidate than to a Republican candidate. The presidential candidates continue to be divided on the issue on party lines, with the exception of Republican John Kasich, who has at times acknowledged the human role in climate change. (H/T Climate Nexus)
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