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France to abandon carbon floor price -media
France is set to abandon its plan to introduce a carbon floor price on its energy sector, French media reported late on Thursday, citing several anonymous sources.
China SOEs building carbon trading teams as cap-and-trade programme looms
A number of China’s biggest state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are setting up specialised emissions trading teams to deal with next year’s launch of a national carbon market, with some companies – such as Chinalco, the world’s second biggest aluminium producer – expecting to face a shortfall of CO2 permits.
EU Market: Late surge pushes EUAs to minor weekly rise
EU carbon prices surged on thin volume late on Friday to nudge EUAs into the black for the week, but they were still short of the four-month high of €6.14 touched on Tuesday.
Ontario, Quebec ink hydro power deal seen cutting CO2 by 1M tonnes/year
Ontario has inked a deal to buy 14 TWh of hydro power from neighbouring Quebec between 2017 and 2023 in a bid to cut its emissions and reduce reliance on gas-fired generation.
Second Chinese province launches major forest carbon credit programme
China’s Jilin province will roll out a 6-million hectare carbon credit forestry programme that it expects will net local industry some 800 million yuan ($118 million) from offset sales a year by 2020.
109k tonnes of methane leaked from California’s Aliso Canyon -ARB
California’s Aliso Canyon natural gas leak emitted 109,000 metric tonnes of methane between late Oct. 2015 and mid-Feb. 2016, according to the final estimate released by the state’s Air Resources Board (ARB) on Friday.
Clean tech firm to buy stake in Hubei carbon exchange
A Shenzhen-listed clean tech firm has agreed to buy a 55-million yuan ($8.14 million) stake in the China Emissions Exchange in Hubei, although the deal is subject to government approval.
Project developer Carbonbay names new MD
Renewable energy project developer Carbonbay has appointed a new managing director, the Hamburg-based firm told Carbon Pulse.
BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
How does $42 sound to you? – Hillary Clinton was examining an aggressive carbon tax as a central pillar of her US presidential campaign’s climate agenda, according to internal emails leaked. She asked several advisors to specify how a $42 “GHG pollution fee” applied to every tonne of CO2 would affect Americans financially and how the tax would work. They responded in a 12-page memo on Jan. 20, 2015, released by WikiLeaks in a continuing dump of documents that is increasingly frustrating the Clinton campaign with less than 20 days before the election. (ClimateWire)
Fair dinkum – Australia’s 2017 climate policy review will be “fair dinkum” and “very serious”, Liberal cabinet minister Arthur Sinodinos promised on Friday. A number of potential policy changes might be subject to the review, such as introducing a baseline-and-credit scheme for electricity generators and allowing the use of international offsets. However, comments from Energy and Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg earlier this year that the review would only be a ‘situation report’ had caused some concerns that its scope might be limited. “In this day and age you can’t get away with just doing things within government,” Sinodinos said Friday. (AAP)
Dutch fudge – GHG accounting changes could relieve pressure on the Netherlands government to close coal-fired power plants, writes Climate Home. The country’s latest national energy outlook puts the country’s 2020 target closer than previously thought, though the new numbers owe more to methodological tweaks following updated UN reporting guidelines than carbon-cutting initiatives. The government is due to publish a climate policy package in November. (Read more from Carbon Pulse here).
Alberta’s coal exit – Premier Rachel Notley says her province will roll out specifics this fall of its plan to phase out coal-fired electricity and promote renewable energy. In a state-of-the-province speech Wednesday, she said the plan will include financial help to coal emitters closing their plants and transitioning to cleaner forms of power. There will also be details on how proponents will be able to bid to replace coal generation in the Alberta market. (CBC)
Charting the way to 1.5C – Governments have given the green light for a UN IPCC scientific study due in 2018 on how to meet the 1.5C global warming limit laid down as an aspirational goal in the Paris Agreement, despite growing worries by some scientists that the goal may be unrealistic. (Reuters)
Typhoon disruption – The Shenzhen emissions exchange was closed on Friday after Typhoon Sarika dropped 224 millimetres of rain on the city over the previous two days, with Typhoon Haima set to make landfall nearby this afternoon. Haima is the 22nd typhoon to hit mainland China this year.
And finally… Climate goes grape – Global wine production for 2016 is projected to fall 5% from last year due to “climatic events,” according to the International Organization of Vine and Wine. Global production could be among the lowest in 20 years, led by a drastic disruption in South America and a 12% decline in France, the world’s second largest producer, due to frost and hailstorms in the spring and drought in the summer. Weather volatility and rising temperatures are predicted to increasingly impact wines. (H/T Climate Nexus)
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