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TOP STORY
ANALYSIS: The tangle enveloping China’s environmental markets
China’s launch of a new green certificate scheme and other planned environmental markets risks diluting the value of carbon offsets by issuing different types of credits to the same projects for the same efforts, according to market observers.
Colombia to allow emitters to use offsets to cover CO2 tax obligations
Colombia has approved a measure allowing fuel producers and importers to cover 100% of their carbon tax obligations through purchasing either domestic or international carbon offsets.
ASIA-PACIFIC
Official stresses need for stable China ETS while issuing warning to speculators
China will make sure its national emissions trading scheme starts in a stable manner, a senior government official said Friday, declining to offer any further information on the market’s rules or start date but sending a warning to speculators.
Australia issues 250k carbon credits to five land-use projects
Australia this week issued a further 250,000 carbon offsets, nearly twice as many as last week but slightly below the weekly average.
CN Markets: Pilot market data for week ending Jun 16, 2017
Closing prices, ranges and volumes for China’s regional pilot carbon markets this week.
AMERICAS
California and Quebec to offer 73.6 million allowances in August auction
California and Quebec will auction 63.9 million current allowances in their next joint quarterly auction on Aug. 15, with a further 9.7 million futures allowance on offer.
EMEA
EU Market: EUAs dip further to lodge 3.2% weekly loss as auction glut looms
EU carbon allowances fell to a seven-day low on Friday to end the week in the red, as an upcoming auction glut trumped this week’s two-day sale pause.
VOLUNTARY
Voluntary carbon market data from CTX for June 16, 2017
A table of Verified Emission Reduction (VER) prices and offered volumes, based on voluntary market data provided by CTX.
ALLCOT’s Voluntary Carbon Market Report – June 2017
In this month’s issue, ALLCOT notes quieter market conditions as offset traders occupy themselves with preparing portfolio proposals for corporate clients rather than carrying out deals. Will this trend continue into Q3?
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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
AIIB backs green stuff – The board of the new China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has backed the bank’s proposed sustainability rules, which among other things stipulate that it will align its financial support with its members’ national energy investment plans, including their nationally determined contributions (NDC) under the Paris Agreement, it announced Friday. According to the bank, this means it won’t back projects with adverse environmental impact.
Coal to gas – British power producer Drax is assessing whether to convert its remaining coal-fired power units to run on gas instead so they can compete in the country’s annual capacity auction, the company said on Thursday. Drax has converted half of its Yorkshire coal plant, once Europe’s most polluting coal-fired power station, to burn wood pellets but plans to switch the remaining units to biomass have stalled since the government changed renewable energy subsidies. (Reuters)
Bring in the people – Shell, Didi Chuxing and the Beijing Energy and Environment Exchange held a signing ceremony for a strategic partnership on how to bring the public into emission reduction efforts. Didi is China’s biggest taxi-share company with 400 million users across 400 cities that recently bought Uber’s China operation. The exchange, meanwhile, hosts carbon trading activities in the Chinese capital. The parties declined to mention any specific options during the ceremony.
Finkel, Finkel, little star – Last week’s Finkel report has caused fresh controversy in Australia with its recommendation to set a Clean Energy Target in order to try and find a bipartisan climate compromise once and for all. The right-wing of the ruling Coalition does not like the plan. However, analysis by The Australia Institute shows that Finkel’s recommendations will lead to lower renewable energy generation in Australia than if the states simply carry on with their current policies and targets, according to Renew Economy.
And finally… Sweden’s swats – Sweden’s largest national pension fund, AP7, has sold its investments in six companies that it says violate the Paris Agreement, a decision environmentalists believe is the first of its kind. According to Reuters, AP7, which provides pensions to 3.5 million Swedes, said on Thursday it had sold out of ExxonMobil, Gazprom, TransCanada Corp, Westar, Entergy and Southern Corp, adding that it would no longer invest in companies that operate in breach of Paris. “Since the last screening in December 2016, the Paris agreement to the UN Climate Convention is one of the norms we include in our analysis,” the company said in a statement.
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