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Carbon market can prop up China’s Silk Road plans, help globalise RMB -ex-official

By extending its emissions trading plans into south and east Asia and working towards an RMB-denominated Asian carbon market, China could help realise President Xi Jinping’s Silk Road plans and internationalise its currency, a respected economist and former official said this week.

Following pressure, RGGI to discuss effects of deeper CO2 cap cuts

RGGI’s operators unveiled the results of analysis on the projected effects of a 2.5-5% post-2020 annual emissions cap reduction on Tuesday, following pressure from environmental campaigners urging more ambitious climate action.

Updated study upholds EU steel sector’s post-2020 CO2 allowance shortfall, but sees tumbling costs

Consultancy Ecofys on Tuesday updated its November study commissioned by the EU steel sector, largely upholding findings that European steelmakers face a shortfall of free allowances to comply with ETS obligations by 2030.

EU Market: EUAs extend 3-week low despite strong auction

EUAs were little changed on Tuesday as a strong auction was unable to lift the bearish mood, with more market watchers predicting downward pressure.

NZ Market: NZUs break through NZ$17 as momentum returns

New Zealand carbon allowances traded above NZ$17 ($11.94) on Tuesday for the first time since July 2011, as a late surge of demand pushed the spot contract up.

Guangdong carbon exchange to ease process for new members

The Guangdong carbon exchange on Tuesday approved four organisations to open trading accounts on behalf of new members in a bid to draw more liquidity to the provincial emissions trading scheme.

Korean chemical firm bolsters leading role in offset market

South Korea’s Hu-Chems Fine Chemical Corp. has cancelled another batch of UN-issued CERs with an eye to moving them to the domestic emissions trading scheme, where the company is among the key suppliers of offset credits.

BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Transportation is top – For the first time since 1979, America’s cars, trucks, and airplanes emit more CO2 than its power plants, according to Sam Ori, executive director of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago.  Emissions from electricity generation, which account for a third of the US total, have fallen over the last decade as utilities switch away from coal to cleaner fuels.  But transportation, another third, remains tougher to address, with CO2 from the sector steadily rising since 2013. (Vox)

Rolling back the years – US House Speaker Paul Ryan was due to unveil a raft of proposals Tuesday aiming to dismantle many of President Obama’s signature reforms, the Washington Post reports. The document includes a bill to repeal all climate change regulations under the Clean Air Act and has a focus on increasing US energy production by slashing regulations on the coal industry. Ryan hopes this compilation of bills Republican members have introduced will provide areas of common ground between the party lawmakers and presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump.

California fears – The LA Times becomes the latest mainstream media outlet to describe the state of California’s cap-and-trade system as in peril since its quarterly auction sold just 11% of available allowances. The paper highlights the pressure on the state’s lawmakers to underpin the programme’s future by the end of the current legislative session in August. Read a comment featuring a more nuanced take on the issue by The Climate Trust.

Climate ad campaign targets WSJ readers, editors – A series of 12 ads kicked off today in The Wall Street Journal, bringing mainstream climate science to WSJ opinion readers twice a week from June 14 to July 21. The ads, which will run on the op-ed page of the Journal, are sponsored by the Partnership for Responsible Growth (PRG), a D.C.-based nonprofit that is working to build support for a carbon tax as a market-based solution to climate change. The first ad poses a pointed question: “Exxon’s CEO Says Fossil Fuels Are Raising Temperatures and Sea Levels. Why Won’t The Wall Street Journal?” (H/T Climate Nexus)

BC laggards – British Columbia is a climate change laggard compared to other Canadian provinces despite its eight-year old carbon tax, according to the Pembina Institute.  The environmental think-tank said in a report that GHGs in BC are expected to rise, while those in the other top-emitting provinces of Alberta, Ontario and Quebec are due to drop, the Canadian Press reported.

Bureaucracy live – The next board meeting of the Green Climate Fund is coming up (June 28-30), and this time the meeting will broadcast live on the Internet meaning you will be able to watch it even if you aren’t in picturesque Songdo, South Korea.

Japan still loves coal – Japan, faced with increasing calls from environmentalists and other G7 nations to phase out coal, is standing by its support of the fossil fuel, saying it will help developing countries adopt the best available technologies for coal-fired power plants. (Bloomberg)

Cash from angels – Investor network Anges (Angels) Quebec has directed C$700,000 in funding to Quebec-based Ecotierra, which develops forestry and agricultural projects that generate carbon offsets.

Eyes on the prize – The French government has launched a competition for corporate environmental reporting practices, and will award prizes to companies who best report their climate change data and risks.

And finally… Extinction – The first case has emerged of a mammal becoming extinct primarily due to human-caused climate change. The Bramble Cay melomys, a small rodent found only on a small island in Australia’s Torres Strait, has been wiped out, according to scientists. None has been seen since 2009, and a major effort to track some down in 2014 failed, leaving scientists to conclude that the melomys is gone forever, mostly because of sea-level rise which ruined 97% of the rodent’s habitat over a 10-year period from 1998. (Guardian)

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