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SK Market: KAUs extend losses as supply finally comes to market
Korean Allowance Units (KAUs) dropped to 3-month lows in Thursday trade as sellers are finally emerging following a prolonged supply drought that had pushed South Korea’s CO2 price to one of the world’s highest.
EU Parliament sets early marker against forestry offsets
Seven political groups in the European Parliament representing 93% of MEP seats urged the European Commission to keep preventing land use emission (LULUCF) cuts being allowed to offset emissions in other parts of the EU economy.
EU must tackle near-term gap on ETS reform, says coalition of energy firms
EU lawmakers risk keeping the bloc’s ETS ineffective as a robust carbon price signal for at least ten years by continuing to focus reform efforts on the longer term, a group of 30 energy companies said on Thursday.
ICAO can meet global aviation’s carbon offset needs with high quality units -study
International aviation will be able to offset around three-quarters of its expected demand over 2020-2035 using high-quality carbon credits, and units with only a slightly higher risk profile, and not including REDD+, able to make up the shortfall, a study found.
Sandbag reshuffle complete as EU green lobbyists regroup
Staff at UK-based environmental campaigners Sandbag have come and gone in completion of a reshuffle featuring several carbon market specialists following the departure of its founder late last year.
California, Quebec issue 32k offsets amid slowdown
The governments of California and Quebec have awarded a total 31,921 offsets to three projects, with the US state making its smallest bi-monthly issuance ever.
South Pole taps sustainability expert as senior advisor
Project developer and carbon credit vendor South Pole Group has hired a sustainability expert as senior advisor, it said on Wednesday.
BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Shrill rebukes in Brussels – Lead EU ETS reform MEP Ian Duncan has written in The Parliament Magazine to defend his approach to the “notably shrill” response to his recent draft amendments to the Commission’s post-2020 proposal. He maintains his approach is both a step beyond the original report in ambition and provides an effective means of raising it in future. Some analysts have agreed with him and have said his ‘consensus-based’ report is more likely to resemble the final Parliament position than the more ‘provocative, ambitious’ approach of his industry committee counterpart Fredrick Federley.
Cutting carbon fills pockets – A study led by researchers from Harvard University finds that nearly all US regions stand to gain economically from a power plant carbon standard like the Clean Power Plan, and do so fairly quickly. The researchers calculated net benefits of some $38 billion a year when the health benefits from cleaner air are set against higher power bills, according to the study published in the online journal PLOS ONE. (Climate Progress)
CO2 output plateaued in 2015 – CO2 emissions from energy rose just 0.1% in 2015, the slowest since 2009, spurred by greater renewable energy use and a scaling back of coal. According to BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy, solar power output rose the fastest at 33%, with China overtaking the US and Germany as the world’s largest solar power generators. Coal global production and consumption tanked to its lowest since at least 1980. CO2 growth was below average in every region except Europe and Eurasia.
Zero emissions by 2050 – Australia’s Victoria state will stop emitting greenhouse gases by 2050, Premier Daniel Andrews pledged on Thursday. However, the state government did not release any policies that would drive the carbon phase-out. Andrews said the plan would bank on industry taking on voluntary targets, and no mandatory measures such as carbon pricing or a planned phase-out of coal would be implemented. Victoria accounts for about a fifth of Australia’s total emissions. (The Age)
And Finally… Another instance of climate activism by Trump – Republican US Presidential nominee Donald Trump was a signatory to an open letter to President Obama and the US Congress in 2009 that back urgent climate action. A full-page ad by US business leaders and liberal personalities in the New York Times read, “If we fail to act now, it is scientifically irrefutable that there will be catastrophic and irreversible consequences for humanity and our planet.” The letter contradicts Trump’s attacks on Obama’s climate commitments and his pledge to undo the Paris Climate Agreement. The letter is also signed by his three adult children. (Climate Nexus)
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