Presenting CP Daily, Carbon Pulse’s free newsletter. It’s a daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world. Subscribe here
Energy forecast showcases burden-sharing challenge for China ETS
China’s State Information Center (SIC) on Thursday released province-level energy forecasts to 2020, highlighting the challenges for officials setting CO2 caps for the national emissions trading scheme as poor and rich regions face vastly differing CO2 trajectories.
South Korea examining possible ETS market manipulation
South Korea’s Ministry of Strategy and Finance is looking into two recent potential cases of carbon offset market manipulation on the Korea Exchange, a government official said.
China, US to announce Paris ratification before G20 meeting
China and the United States will jointly announce their ratification of the Paris Agreement ahead of the G20 meeting in China on Sep. 4, the South China Morning Post wrote Thursday, citing anonymous sources.
EU Market: EUAs rebound slightly in very thin trade
EU carbon prices recovered all of the previous session’s loss in steady gains on Thursday, which was one of the most thinly-traded sessions of the year.
WCI offset supply dips in wake of bumper issuance
California handed out 281,713 offsets eligible for the WCI cap-and-trade programme in its latest issuance round, easing up after a record 5 million were awarded earlier this month.
CARBON FORWARD: Weak ICAO deal may see EU tighten grip on aviation emissions
In October, 191 governments will vote on an historic deal to limit emissions from international flights, which, if not deemed sufficient to continue international aviation’s exclusion from the EU ETS, may be reinstated under the policy.
BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
California Senate backs 2030 CO2 goal – The California State Senate passed a bill setting 2030 climate targets for the state, in a widely-expected move following a positive vote in the lower house earlier this week. The bill will now pass for certain endorsement by Governor Jerry Brown but gives only the slightest bullish signal to WCI market participants as the lawmakers rejected Brown’s amendment that would have specifically extended the cap-and-trade programme. Read Carbon Pulse’s article on the bill from earlier this week.
Ontario ETS opposition – Opposition against Toronto’s plan to join the California-Quebec carbon market is increasing after another weak WCI auction result was posted this week. The Ontario PCs and NDP say the recent results show that Ontario is likely to earn a lot less in auctioning revenue than expected, which will create trouble for funding its climate action plan. (Ottawa Citizen)
Record-breaking revenue – The EU ETS raised a record-high €4.9 billion in revenue from auctioning carbon allowances in 2015, 50% up year-on-year as higher prices eclipsed the withholding of 300 million EUAs under Backloading. Ireland is the only one of the 28 member states yet to meet the end-July reporting deadline and could add €40 million more, writes energy and climate expert Mark Johnston on his blog, ahead of the European Commission which collates the data later in the year.
And finally … Warming started earlier – Human activity may have started warming the climate as early as the 1830s, decades earlier than currently thought, according to a study published in the journal Nature. Temperatures are just above 1C more than they were in the 1880s, the commonly used reference for climate scientists but setting an earlier baseline would make the Paris Agreement’s 2C goal even harder to reach. It would also put more of a historical responsibility on older industrialised nations such as the UK and Germany for tackling the problem. (Reuters)
Got a tip? Email us at news@carbon-pulse.com