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Researchers outline path for Australia to bipartisan, market-based climate policy
Australia could create investor certainty and break its political deadlock over climate policy by making simple changes that would establish a carbon market while upholding both major parties’ main core principles, according to think-tank the Grattan Institute.
EU Market: EUAs break key resistance level to hit 10-week high
EU carbon prices broke and held above a key technical resistance level around €5.50 on Monday to reach their highest in 10 weeks.
NZ Market: Strong push from buyers extends NZU gains
Continued demand from emitters pushed NZUs to new highs on Monday, while some observers urged the government to announce the ETS review outcome sooner rather than later in order to bring certainty for market participants.
BC carbon tax to stay frozen until 2018, says env. minister
British Columbia will keep its carbon tax frozen at C$30/tonne until at least 2018, the Canadian province’s environment minister said late last week, rejecting calls for an earlier increase.
Green group, developer set up new carbon aggregator for Australian market
A CO2-cutting project developer and a conservation group have teamed up to launch Biodiverse Carbon Conservation (BCC), a carbon aggregator that will seek to sell offsets under Australia’s Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF).
CMIA launches search for next executive director following shift to outsourced model
The Climate Markets and Investment Association (CMIA) has issued a request for proposals to appoint its next executive director and supporting secretariat following the lobby group’s move to an outsourced model based on an annual appointment process.
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Job listings this week:
Executive Director, RGGI, Inc. – New York
Committee Specialist, Energy and Climate Change Committee, UK House of Commons – London
Senior Consultant, Sustainable Investments, South Pole Group – London/Stockholm/Berlin
Senior Consultant, Sustainability Supply Chain Risks, South Pole Group – London/Stockholm/Berlin
Senior Project Manager and/or Team Lead in Energy & Climate Change Mitigation, INFRAS – Zurich
Administration Coordinator, Climate Friendly – Sydney
CMIA request for proposals: Executive Director and supporting resource
Or click here to see all our job adverts
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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Israel approves climate plan – The Israeli Cabinet has approved a plan for how to meet its target of cutting GHG emissions 25% below 2005 levels by 2020 while saving $8 billion. The plan entails improving energy efficiency, boosting public transport, cutting coal use while increasing natural gas and renewables, and growing the cleantech sector. The plan’s budget is still pending approval. (Jerusalem Post)
Mmm… Chinese sludge – China cut could 380 million tonnes of CO2e every year by treating just 10% of the sludge from its wastewater plants in bioenergy plants instead of just trucking it to landfills, according to a World Resources Institute report. (Reuters)
China’s steel cuts and the global response – China plans to cut steel production by 100-150 million tonnes by 2020, but a senior Ministry of Industry and Information Technology official said this weekend a further 200 million tonnes should be cut to really make a difference. This came as thousands of German steel workers were due to demonstrate across the country, protesting what they see as a flood of cheap steel from China and unfair EU ETS costs. The OECD will on Apr. 18 in Brussels convene a high-level meeting of US and North American government and industry leaders to discuss global steel overcapacity. The talks aim to discuss how governments can facilitate industry restructuring and reduce competition-distorting policies. (Reuters, Deutsche Welle, OECD)
Mas dinero – The Inter-American Development Group aims to double spending on green projects to US$4 billion a year by 2020 to help countries realise their INDC pledges, Climate Home reports.
(Corrected) Money, Money, Money – The Swedish Energy Authority has paid nearly 15 million euros for Chinese CERs that went to developer Carbon Asset Management (CAM), a subsidiary of Tricorona, according to an article published by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation. In 2008, the Swedish government and CAM bought 9 million CERs from two Chinese companies, including state-owned Datang, at around 12 euros each. CAM took 95% of the offsets. But as CER prices collapsed, CAM wanted out of the deal, and it eventually went to an arbitration court in the Netherlands in 2014, where the Swedish Energy Authority agreed to pay a settlement. It ended up paying the full settlement, but never got CAM’s share of the CERs back as the company was about to go bankrupt. The bankruptcy was finalised in July last year, and papers show the Energy Authority still had unmet claims of nearly 15m euros. The entire article is available here (in Swedish).
Hot off the press – The March/April issue of industry mag Carbon Mechanisms Review is out. The latest issue of this quarterly by the JIKO unit of the German environment ministry examines in-depth the market provisions of the Paris Agreement.
And finally… Signing off – Anonymous carbon trading and climate investing pundit Climate Trader is shutting down his/her blog, he/she announced over the weekend. “Being anonymous is weird. I’m also moving back to London this summer and will likely open another website,” he/she wrote. “I’m currently researching open source options for automating analysis, as well as developing machine learning EUA algorithms, so stay tuned.”
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