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Lawmaker Duncan calls for end to UK carbon floor price

UK MEP Ian Duncan has urged for the country’s carbon floor price to be abolished in order to give relief to the stricken British steel sector.

NZ Market: NZUs surge to year-high as sellers step back

Spot allowances in the New Zealand carbon market rose 5.5% on Tuesday to trade at NZ$11.60 ($7.88), extending the gains made this year as buyers moved to lift any sizeable offer in a market where most sellers are happy to wait for prices to go higher.

CN Markets: Shanghai CO2 price free fall continues as prices hit record lows for 5th straight day

The price collapse in Shanghai’s emissions trading scheme continued Tuesday as allowances fell 10% to 5.40 yuan ($0.83), a fifth consecutive session ending in record lows.

EU’s ‘bioeconomy’ sectors warn against tiered approach to free EUA allocation

EU paper and pulp firms and other ‘bioeconomy’ sectors not likely to be in the top tier of post-2020 free EU ETS handouts are urging EU lawmakers not to adopt a tiered approach proposed by the UK and France.

EU Market: EUAs slip 1.7% despite strong auction demand

EU carbon prices gave back most of the previous session’s rise to defy a strong auction on Tuesday, though some traders took the move as a mere pause ahead of further gains.

Senior emissions trader parts ways with Italy’s Eni

A senior emissions trader has parted ways with Eni Trading & Shipping, departing the Italian firm’s London office in late February, sources told Carbon Pulse.

Bite-sized updates from around the world

A recent International Energy Agency report on how energy-related emissions have “decoupled” from economic growth over the last two years was widely cited last month. WRI analyst Nate Aden dug into this area further and discovered a startling new fact – since 2000, more than 20 countries have successfully curbed their emissions while boosting their GDP. The countries ranged from Austria to Uzbekistan and includes Germany, the US and the UK.  In a blog post, Aden breaks down his findings and some of the underlying drivers – and check out the data-rich infographic that tells the story. (H/T WRI)

Six nations urge IMO to set global shipping GHG target – France, Germany and Morocco have joined an effort by the Marshall Islands, Belgium and the Solomon Islands, who last year unsuccessfully called for the UN shipping body to set a goal. The IMO’s environment committee meets over Apr. 18-22 in London. (Climate Home)

German energy intensive industry emissions virtually unchanged for the second year in 2015, according to the country’s Federal Environment Agency (UBA), which blamed a low CO2 price. “The industry has to make its contribution, too,” said UBA president Maria Krautzberger. (H/T Clean Energy Wire)

German industry rejects French proposals for a minimum ETS price – “Minimum prices would be an inadmissible market intervention,” said Hans Jürgen Kerkhoff, head of the German Steel Federation. Yet, Ottmar Edenhofer, chief economist of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said minimum prices would solve two problems: Firstly, that prices are too low because market participants have been disappointed by politics, and secondly, that national efforts to protect the climate lower prices further. (H/T Clean Energy Wire, Handelsblatt $)

Scrapping Hinkley for renewable alternatives would save ‘tens of billions’ – Solar and wind would generate the equivalent power to Hinkley over the plant’s planned lifetime for £40bn less, says analysis comparing future costs. (Guardian)

Mexico’s Comission Federal de Electricidad (CFE) has surrendered enough allowances to cover its shortfall for 2013 and 2014 plus the necessary number of penalty units to make up for not complying under the California carbon market’s first compliance period, data released by ARB showed.  CFE initially failed to hand in the carbon units required to cover its 472,600 tonnes of CO2e during the two-year phase, meaning it was forced to surrender four allowance for every tonne missed, or 1.9 million in total.  Meanwhile, Lake Shore Mojave – the only other facility in non-compliance following last November’s deadline – again failed to comply, having only surrendered some 12,800 units to cover around 41,700 tonnes of emissions.

And finally… Are carbon offsets the new green M&Ms?  Musician Jack Johnson is a pretty devout environmentalist, and according to The Huffington Post he has a long list of demands that must be met for him to play a venue.  His rider, as it’s called in the music business, includes requirements for the concert organisers to purchases carbon offsets to cover the event’s emissions, as well as for reusable beer cups to be sold, energy-efficient lightbulbs to be used, and for any recyclable waste to be separated from the regular trash.

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