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MEPs keep talking as early EU ETS reform deal hangs in balance
Talks on the post-2020 EU ETS reform bill among lawmakers in the European Parliament’s environment committee (ENVI) are delicately poised with a week to go before a crunch vote.
WCI auction floor price up 6.6% in 2017
California and Quebec have increased the WCI auction reserve price for 2017 by 6.6%, reflecting a late-year rise in inflation, while cutting the allowance sale quota by 8.2%.
EU Market: EUAs sink despite supportive energy complex
European carbon slipped on Thursday, bucking a bullish energy complex as sellers pushed EUAs back towards the previous day’s two-month low.
Investors cash in as first PAF CER sale deadline passes
Five investors exercised their right to sell a total of 1.3 million CERs to the World Bank’s Pilot Auction Facility (PAF) as the first tranche of bonds from the facility’s first auction matured on Wednesday.
Australian offset developer teams up with local community groups
One of Australia’s biggest carbon offset developers is building partnerships with local natural resource management groups, aiming to improve land management practices and contribute to local economies, it said Thursday.
BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Germany to make climate a G20 priority – Addressing climate change will be one of the central pillars of its G20 presidency, the German government has said. On Wednesday, it released its first policy guide to the July 2017 Hamburg summit, with the climate listed as one of only a few headline issues Chancellor Angela Merkel wants discussed, according to Climate Home. The meeting will be one of the first major gatherings for incoming US President Donald Trump to engage with fellow world leaders and gain a sense of the level of global commitment on climate. Separately, Merkel signaled she’ll challenge Trump’s skeptical views on global warming, setting the stage for a showdown between a vocal champion of environmental protection and a man who once dismissed climate change as a Chinese hoax.
Stop the chop – Deforestation in Brazil has grown by 29% in the last 12 months, government satellite data found, reaching more than 7,000 square km in removals for the first time since 2010. (Xinhua)
What price reform? EU power association Eurelectric has published a 42-page study it commissioned from analysts ICIS Tschach Solutions on post-2020 EU ETS reform options. The study helped guide its views on favouring a two-pronged approach to raise annual emission cap cuts and tweak the MSR, both of which it says are necessary to deliver a meaningful carbon price for the short and long term.
Paid for performance – Royal Dutch Shell plans to link part of its executive bonuses to GHG emissions and conduct more active screening of future investments to further efforts to reduce the energy group’s carbon footprint, its CEO told Reuters. The new initiative by the Anglo-Dutch group comes in response to mounting pressure from investors to adapt to an expected flattening in oil consumption within as little as five years and international plans to phase out fossil fuels by the end of the century to combat global warming.
Swedish plane tax – A government-appointed commission has recommended that from 2018 airlines operating in Sweden should pay a tax of between $9-47 per passenger and flight to compensate for climate pollution. Currently airlines pay 6% VAT on domestic flights while international flights are exempt. The plan could form part of the centre-left government’s Oct. 2017 budget. (Reuters)
A mother in love with fracking – A Colorado think-tank chief who opposes key Obama administration energy regulations has been added to Donald Trump’s EPA transition team, The Hill reports. Amy Oliver Cooke, the vice president and director of the Independence Institutes’ Energy Policy Center, “is famous for her provocative messaging like ‘Mothers In Love with Fracking’ and ‘I’m an energy feminist because I’m pro-choice in energy sources.’”
And finally… A glimmer of hope – Retired US Marine Corps General James Mattis, nominated by Donald Trump to be Secretary of Defense, understands the relationship between climate change and global security, according to a longtime military colleague. Retired Marine Corps brigadier general Stephen Cheney told Climate Home that Mattis will ensure climate change remains in long-term military strategy regardless of any opposing orders from the Trump administration.
And a second glimmer hope – Ivanka Trump, climate czar? Trump’s daughter is poised to be the first “first daughter” in modern history to play a larger public role than the first lady, and as Politico reports, she wants to make climate change one of her signature issues. According to a close source, Ivanka is examining how to act as a bridge to moderates and liberals disgusted and depressed with her father, and is in the early stages of exploring how to use her spotlight to speak out on the climate issue.
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