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TOP STORY

EU climate chief officially resigns, with former energy boss Sefcovic named as replacement

EU climate chief Frans Timmermans officially handed in his much-anticipated resignation on Tuesday, with the European Commission temporarily handing responsibilities for the European Green Deal and climate action files to Commissioner Maros Sefcovic.

AMERICAS

Brazil president’s ETS language incorporated into advanced Senate carbon trading bill

Language from Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s draft emissions trading system proposal was incorporated into an already-existing carbon trading bill in the Senate on Monday, with experts noting some potential tailwinds and challenges for the legislation’s passage.

US gov’t announces $150 mln in funding for connecting small forest landowners to voluntary carbon market

US President Joe Biden’s administration on Tuesday announced it will allocate $150 mln in grants to organisations that assist underserved and small acreage landowners in accessing revenue from the sale of carbon credits.

California power sector emissions remain depressed through July

California electricity sector CO2 output continued to hold at 10-year lows through July as the share of renewables and hydroelectricity increased and imports fell compared to 2022 levels, according to data published Tuesday.

RGGI compliance entities boost allowance holdings after Q2 auction

Emitters in the power sector RGGI carbon market added to their allowance positions in the time between the June auction and end of the second quarter, while traded volumes overall declined during the spring period, according to a report published Tuesday.

EMEA

Euro Markets: EUAs, UKAs strengthen on bullish energy complex and speculative trading

Benchmark European carbon prices rose as much as 3% on Tuesday as participants eyed up key technical resistance levels, with support continuing to filter in from the risk of strikes at a key Australian LNG export terminal that boosted continental gas contracts, while UKAs soared as much as 14%, to levels last seen in July, on bullish British energy prices and speculative trading.

Germany to fall short on “overestimated” 2030 climate targets

Germany’s plan to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions is likely to fail short of the nation’s climate targets, an independent panel warned on Tuesday, in a release that could pile pressure on Berlin to ramp up its mitigation policies.

Russian gas project sells first carbon credits through blockchain platform

Amid Western sanctions, the largest integrated petrochemical company in Russia has teed up the domestic voluntary market by selling its first carbon credits to a Russia-based financial services platform.

Two ports in North Africa identified as possible carbon leakage hotspots for ships

Two ports in Northern Africa have experienced a jump in activity in the past year in what may be a pre-emptive attempt by ship operators to avoid purchasing EU carbon allowances once the shipping sector is part of the EU ETS in 2024, a piece of additional draft legislation by the European Commission has outlined.

Power-hungry Bitcoin miners turn to hydro for new European data centres

Bitcoin mining companies are increasingly looking to use renewable energy to sustain their new cryptocurrency data centres in Europe as carbon and energy costs bite.

ASIA PACIFIC

BHP makes the case for ‘high quality’ coking coal, continued reliance on carbon credits

Australian miner BHP has forecast that coal-based steel and iron making processes in major production economies like China and India will be required for decades, due to lack of readiness, and the industry will need to continue to purchase carbon credits for a “considerable period” to become carbon neutral.

NZ may apply new ETS governance standards from 2025, investigations into national exchange to continue

New Zealand might apply new governance standards to its emissions trading scheme from 2025, and will begin work to procure a national exchange, but no final decision to proceed with it has been made, the government said Tuesday.

ASEAN makes move towards ‘interoperable’ carbon market as part of climate strategy

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has signed a strategy for carbon neutrality with eight targeted outcomes that include enhancing interoperable carbon markets and the necessary standardisations of carbon, greenhouse gas emissions, and energy efficiency reporting.

Singapore adds Sri Lanka to stable of Article 6 carbon trading partners

Singapore on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Sri Lanka to collaborate on trading carbon credits aligned with Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement.

Policy and national oil giants drive SE Asian renewables push

Southeast Asian national oil companies are poised to increase spending on renewable energy, with each of the major companies picking an area where they see the greatest synergies, although the majority of spend in low carbon sectors is still coming from elsewhere, according to a report released this week.

Vietnamese conglomerate works to improve emissions reporting via local RECs registry

A Vietnamese conglomerate with 600 megawatts of renewable power under operation and over 800 MW more in the pipeline has signed with a Singaporean ESG reporting powerhouse to assist the nation’s 785,000-plus small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) better report their emissions and carbon footprints.

Japanese startup works with regional bank to expand carbon credit generating farming business

A Tokyo-based climate startup has teamed up with a regional bank in Japan to expand its carbon farming business at home, the latest in a growing line of Japanese firms to announce plans for the generation of agricultural carbon credits.

VOLUNTARY

Bolivian biochar developer targets ramp-up after gaining certification

Bolivian biochar producer Exomad Green aims to remove 200,000 tonnes of CO2 a year from next year after gaining certification under the Puro.earth carbon crediting standard, the certifier said on Tuesday.

BIODIVERSITY (FREE TO READ)

$7 trillion investor group asks G20 to reform agricultural subsidies

Thirty-two investors managing $7.3 trillion in assets have asked the G20 group of wealthy countries to align their agricultural subsidies with climate and nature goals.

New global standard for biodiversity uplift certification due next year

A UK-based environmental research organisation is developing a site-based biodiversity standard, applicable to any project size in any geography.

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CONFERENCES

Argus North American Biofuels, LCFS & Carbon Markets Summit – Sep. 11-13, Monterey, CA: Join 600+ key government representatives and industry stakeholders from across the entire biofuels value chain and carbon markets sector for three days of networking and knowledge exchange. Hear from leading policy makers from California, Oregon, Washington, Canada’s ECCC, Alberta, and British Columbia and industry experts from LanzaJet, BMW of North America, Morgan Stanley, Chevron, Southwest, Mercuria, Radicle, Phillips 66 and more. Take advantage of this opportunity to gather the latest policy and market insights and reconnect with industry peers. Learn more here.

North America Climate Summit – Sep. 19-21, New York City: The International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) looks forward to welcoming delegates to our flagship North America Climate Summit (NACS) 2023, an official accredited event of New York Climate Week 2023 and the UN General Assembly 2023. The Summit is the ideal forum to take stock of the world’s evolving net zero landscape and clean growth opportunities, and a zoom into North America. Hear from policymakers, business leaders and innovators who are leading the pack in building, scaling and collaborating on carbon pricing and markets for net zero. Register here

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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Carbon Pulse has teamed up with CME Group to provide its clients with regular updates on the global carbon markets. Check out these briefs for the latest insights on pressing trends and events impacting markets, published every other week. Registration required

VOLUNTARY

Swapping out – Trafigura has replaced carbon credits from the Southern Cardamom REDD project in Cambodia –suspended by certifier Verra since June – in a sale to a corporate client, Bloomberg reported, in an interview with the trading house’s carbon boss Hannah Hauman. The article outlines ‘stranded assets’ in carbon, such as the credits long held by Vitol and ACT from the UN’s now-dead JI market. Hauman said over-crediting claims were leading voluntary buyers to focus on fewer projects they had scrutinised closely and to lock into longer-term contracts, adding to the risk of getting lumped with defunct credits. At least one company has written off credits from South Pole’s Kariba REDD project in Zimbabwe after discovering over-crediting, Bloomberg reported, citing an anonymous source. Read Carbon Pulse’s recent reporting on approaches to addressing the treatment of surplus ‘legacy’ credits lingering in the ledgers of the voluntary carbon market.

Mombak money – Brazilian carbon removal startup Mombak has reached the $100 mln target of its first reforestation fund, with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board investing as much as $30 mln alongside a smaller commitment from the Rockefeller Foundation. Mombak began to operationalise this fund in Dec. 2022 with existing investor support. The company recently began pre-selling carbon credits at more than $50 each for its carbon removal project planting native trees on degraded land in the Amazon. The investment arm of French insurance firm AXA purchased a minority equity stake in the startup for $49 mln last month. (Bloomberg) 

EMEA

As you were – Spanish utility Endesa on Saturday secured government approval to shut down the As Pontes coal-fired power plant in the region of Galicia, northwestern Spain, nearly four years since first petitioning to close the facility, Renewables Now reports. The Spanish ministry for the ecological transition confirmed over the weekend it had granted the request for closure after receiving a report from the grid operator stating that the total shut-down would not jeopardise the security of the electricity system. The power grid operator, Red Electrica de Espana (REE), approved the full shut-down of As Pontes’ four units in 2020, but was forced to rethink the decision in 2022 in light of the European energy crisis provoked by the invasion of Ukraine.

Capture digest – French oil major TotalEnergies has agreed to buy the 40% participating interest held by the company CapeOmega in the CO2 storage exploration licence ExL004, located off the shore of Bergen in Norway, Reuters reported. Meanwhile, Denmark plans to allocate 26.8 bln Danish crowns ($3.9 bln) in state aid over 15 years for projects to capture and store 2.3 MtCO2 a year, the climate ministry said, noting that this was a means of ensuring it met the nation’s goal of reaching net zero emissions in 2045. By 2030, CCS should help to reduce at least 3.2 MtCO2 of Denmark’s CO2 emissions. Having awarded 8 bln crowns to Orsted earlier this year to capture and store 0.4 MtCO2 a year over 20 years, it plans to allocate 10.5 bln for a tender next June, and 16.3 bln for a tender in 2025 to capture and store 0.9 MtCO2 and 1.4 MtCO2 respectively.

Seal the deal – German chemicals group BASF has signed a long-term contract to import US LNG, the latest in a string of deals inked by German companies after the country was forced to abandon Russian gas. Under a deal announced on Tuesday, BASF will purchase an annual 0.8 Mt of LNG from Cheniere Energy, America’s biggest producer of the super-chilled fuel, from mid-2026 to 2043. The agreement comes as the German company wound down several of its plants in the country earlier this year due to high energy costs, and vowed to invest outside of Europe, prompting worries of EU deindustrialisation. (FT)

Space age – The UK Space Agency will fund 10 new projects that use Earth observation tools, satellite tracking and population demographic data supported by AI to produce forecasts and models to support a wide range of sectors from agriculture and energy, to finance and insurance. The climate services data will enable the monitoring of methane and nitrous oxide emissions, watercourse resilience, biodiversity changes and low-carbon technologies. The total £530,000 funding represents the second tranche of investment by the UK Space Agency directly into climate services development.

Charging up – Northvolt has raised €1.2 bln in convertible bonds from investors including the world’s largest money manager BlackRock, as Europe’s biggest homegrown battery maker plans to boost production to meet electric vehicle demand, the FT reports. The debt issuance on Tuesday comes as the Swedish start-up prepares to raise more than $5 bln in equity financing in the next few weeks ahead of a planned stock market listing likely to be next year, according to people familiar with its plans. The green battery group, whose shareholders include Volkswagen, Goldman Sachs, and BMW, needs billions of euros in capital to fulfil its plans to build or expand at least four gigafactories, including one due to be announced in the US or Canada in coming weeks.

AMERICAS

Setting precedence – The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) faces a lawsuit from environmental groups and a landowner over the approval of a natural gas expansion project on the East Coast. Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co’s nearly $1 bln pipeline project would account for nearly 48% of New Jersey’s total target greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, along with “significant percentages” of the emissions targets in Delaware, Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania. The case takes place amid heightened tension at FERC over what analyses should be done before approval of new natural gas projects. While the company submitted an independent report to FERC last year finding that the pipeline project was needed “to meet the reliability requirements” of gas utilities in New Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania, a separate report commissioned by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities found that New Jersey gas utilities “easily” had enough fuel supplies to meet customers’ needs using existing gas infrastructure until 2030. (E&E News) 

DAC at scale – Direct air capture company CarbonCapture and a team of strategic partners today was selected to receive $12.5 mln in funding by the US Department of Energy (DEC) to initiate the development of a megaton-scale DAC hub in Southwest Wyoming. The funding comes from a May 2022 allocation of $3.5 bln to a DOE programme looking to establish multiple megaton-level regional DAC hubs. 

ASIA PACIFIC

Agwaste – Indonesian energy companies are investing in a compressed biogas factory in Lombok to process agricultural waste that will reduce emissions by 5,448 tCO2e, the Ministry of Energy announced. The project will be built by PT Kaltimex Energy in collaboration with NTB BUMD and PT Gerbang NTB Emas, and is expected to begin operating in 2025. The factory will process corn cobs into raw material for making compressed biogas (CBG), which can be used as a substitute for LPG. The plant is expected to produce up to 10 tonnes of CBG per day. Indonesia imported 6.7 mln tonnes of LPG in 2022, according to Kaltimex.

New rice project – Japanese climate startup Green Carbon and the University of the Philippines have jointly launched a demonstration project to reduce methane emissions from rice fields in Bulacan Province, northern Philippines, based on the alternate wetting and drying (AWD) method, they announced Tuesday. According to the statement, the two parties plan to introduce AWD on 1,000 hectares of farmland by November this year and expand the target farmland area to 10,000 hectares through collaboration with another province in the northern Philippines, Nueva Ecija, by 2024.

Slow down – Financial commitments to new wind and solar projects in Australia have hit a new low, while battery storage investment has surged, RenewEconomy reports. Quarterly data released by the Clean Energy Council showed that investment in new battery storage projects surpassed the A$1 bln barrier in the June quarter for the first time, with financial commitments for six projects totalling 3,802 MWh added across Australia. However just four generation projects, totalling 348 MW of generation capacity reached financial commitment. This represented just A$225 mln of new investment, more than 80% below the more than A$1 bln recorded in previous quarter.

AND FINALLY…

Thunderstruck – Thunderstorms have recently become the most expensive natural catastrophe for insurers, in due part to a combination of population growth, expanding cities in storm-prone regions, and severe weather driven by climate change. More water vapour and heat are entering the atmosphere because of warming seas and air, which results in increased energy for severe weather outbreaks. The first half of 2023 saw $19 bln in insured losses from non-thunderstorm catastrophes, relative to $35 bln in insured losses from thunderstorms, according to insurer Swiss Re. (Axios) 

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