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Just a third of largest emitters on track to meet 2030 GHG targets -report

Less than a third of the largest emitting countries are on track to meet their Paris pledges, according to research by the NewClimate Institute.

MEP support builds for granting Greek utilities free EUAs

Support is mounting among EU lawmakers to include Greece among the states allowed to give their utilities free carbon allowances despite claims that it could help pave the way for new coal-fired power plants.

Study urges stronger control over carbon offset market

The international carbon offset market needs an independent monitoring process to guarantee the credibility of credits, a Stanford University-led study said, highlighting a Kenya-based project that it showed huge discrepancies between its own findings and the project-owners’ reports.

Analysts tip price increase at ERF auction as project registration slumps

The average price in next week’s Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) auction is likely to increase as a big drop in new projects means less competition for developers, analysts said Tuesday.

EU Market: EUAs hold above €6 amid tumbling coal, power

European carbon slid further on Tuesday but held above €6 in the face of tumbling coal and power prices.

CEZ ups forward hedging in face of lower production, higher coal-fired output

CEZ increased the percentage of future generation it had hedged compared to a year ago, but in its Q3 results the Czech state-owned utility forecast lower energy production in the years ahead.

Chinese aggregator offers loans for discounted CO2 allowances

Chinese carbon aggregator GreenTech is offering hard-to-get loans to emitters in exchange for Guangdong CO2 permits priced below market value.

Canada’s Yukon elects pro-carbon pricing premier

A pro-carbon pricing Liberal candidate was elected premier of Canada’s Yukon territory on Monday, ousting former leader Darrell Pasloski, who was a vocal opponent of the federal government’s carbon price plan.

COP-22 Roundup: Nov. 8 – Day 2

Climate negotiators in Marrakech are soldiering on, attempting to focus on the issues at hand without getting caught up in Tuesday’s US election. Carbon Pulse will continue to report the latest developments from the COP as they happen.

BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

On track for ’20… – The EU is on track towards meeting its goal to cut emissions by 20% below 1990 levels in 2020 having achieved cuts of 22% by 2015, the European Commission said Tuesday.  “After an emissions drop of 4% in the previous year, 2015 saw a slight rebound of 0.7%. While the EU’s industrial emissions continued to decline, transport emissions increased and emissions from space heating were higher this year after an unusual warm winter in the year before,” it added as it published its annual progress report during the opening days of the COP-22 summit in Marrakech.  The bloc’s executive noted that the EU economy had increased by 50% between 1990 and 2015, showcasing how economic and emissions growth on the continent was being decoupled.

… But off track for ’30, ’50 – Also coming on Tuesday was a separate report by the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), warning that the EU risks falling short of its goal to cut by 40% by 2030 if it doesn’t introduce more ambitious policies or a stronger ETS. “The rate of change is insufficient. Too much of the change in aggregate emissions has been driven by cyclical effects” like the financial crisis and the bloc hasn’t adequately formulated options for industrial “long-term decarbonisation,” Bloomberg reported.  The report added that the bloc is not on track to meeting its 2050 target to cut by at least 80%, and therefore should consider separate regulations to help phase out coal in the absence of a higher carbon price, and aim to completely decarbonise road transport by 2025.

Balkans baulking at renewables – Coal continues to dominate the energy systems of the Western Balkan countries aspiring to become EU members, while the uptake of renewable energy has been extremely slow. These are the main conclusions of a new scorecard report launched Tuesday by a group of NGOs, ahead of the publication of the European Commission’s annual enlargement reports scheduled for Wednesday. Kosovo is the most coal-dependent country in the region with 97% of electricity from coal in 2014. Macedonia and Serbia come second and third, with 69.5% and 64.8% of their electricity coming from coal respectively. For comparison, the EU generated 26.3% of its electricity from coal in 2014.

This tax idea might be hard for many to swallow – Instituting a tax on meat and milk along with subsidies for healthier food could help avoid one billion tonnes of GHG emissions in the year 2020 while saving half a million lives. A new global study finds that a 40% tax on beef and a 20% tax on milk would offset damages done by climate change (cattle production is the largest source of food sector emissions) and lead to a significant drop in consumption. This would help to decrease food-related health issues like obesity. The study recommends pairing this theoretical tax with subsidies for plant-based foods. (Climate Nexus)

Milking it – Small-scale milk producers could soon have access to voluntary carbon markets thanks to a new methodology developed by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), EurActiv reports.  Despite the many potential areas for improvement, livestock farming has so far been excluded from VER markets as no methodology has been developed to certify emissions reductions in the sector. But enter the FAO, which has worked with the Gold Standard to develop this methodology to allow farmers to calculate the GHGs emitted over the whole milk production process before and after the implementation of emissions-reduction measures.  The system is already being tested in Kenya, a country where milk producers, most of whom are smallholders, suffer from low productivity and high emissions.

And finally… Walk the walk – UN agencies and programmes emitted more than 2 million tonnes of CO2e in 2015, releasing an average of 7 tonnes per staff member.  The output puts the UN on par with the per capita emissions of Slovakia, according to IISD. The breakdown was as follows: the running of UN facilities (46%), staff air travel (40%) and other forms of transport (14%).  The UN is expected to offset its emissions using CERs as it has done in previous years.

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