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TOP STORY

EXCLUSIVE: New California cap-and-trade extension plan floats supply cuts, protectionist measures

California lawmakers are considering more post-2020 changes to the state’s cap-and-trade scheme, including a bank adjustment, further cuts to offset usage, and measures to protect industry in lieu of giving them free allowances, according to a new draft proposal to reauthorize the programme scheme seen by Carbon Pulse.

ASIA PACIFIC

Malaysian REDD project in doubt after central bank places operator on warning list

The Malaysian central bank has put a private company operating a massive forestry project for Kelantan state on its Financial Consumer Alert list, casting doubt over the project’s credibility and ability to generate UN-issued offsets.

CN Markets: China’s Tianjin reports 100% ETS compliance rate in thin market

All 109 companies participating in Tianjin’s pilot emissions trading scheme surrendered allowances to cover their 2016 CO2 emissions by the June 30 deadline, the municipal government said Tuesday.

EMEA

Dutch corporates extend REDD buying, see wider interest

Four Dutch companies including utilities Eneco and Essent have extended their long-standing REDD investments, and are teaming up with a Dutch business group to promote similar moves among smaller firms keen to extol their climate and sustainability credentials.

EU Market: EUAs defy weak auction to extend 1-month high

EUAs rose for a second straight day on Tuesday to a fresh one-month high as power prices touched their loftiest levels for four months, before carbon slipped back late in the day.

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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

The incumbents – The conservative alliance of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU and its Bavarian sister party CSU has pledged to stick to the country’s national climate targets, including the long fought-over Climate Action Plan 2050, which it said it will achieve through market-based mechanisms. However, the two parties’ joint programme for September’s federal election is weak on detailed energy and climate policy proposals, containing contains pledges to expand renewable energy use, prioritise grid expansion, and create a structural development plan for coal regions amid a long-term exit from lignite.  The parties also want to create a country-wide network of 50,000 EV and hydrogen charging stations, and to make Germany into a leader in low-carbon transportation and battery cell production. (Clean Energy Wire)

Methane blow – A federal appeals court ruled on Monday that the EPA cannot suspend an Obama-era rule to restrict methane emissions from new oil and gas wells, dealing the Trump-led agency its first legal blow in its efforts to roll back environmental measures.  According to the New York Times, the ruling signals that the Trump administration’s efforts to simply delay environmental and public health actions are likely to face an uphill battle in the courts and require a more painstaking process.  But experts said the verdict did not represent a significant setback to EPA boss Scott Pruitt’s deregulatory agenda, in part because the agency can still weaken the rule and because a separate proposal calling for a two-year stay on methane regulations could enter into force later this summer.

Walking the walk – The EU’s biggest investors are partly aligned with the Paris Agreement’s target of keeping global warming well under 2C but still invest too much in coal, according to a new analysis by WWF. The report shows that 30 of Europe’s major asset owners, mainly pension funds, from the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland have already implemented changes to bring their public equity portfolio more in line with the well under 2C climate goal. Almost all of them have cut funding to coal mining; however many of them are investing too much in coal power and still lagging behind on renewable power.

Bad report card – The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) has evaluated the performance of Malta’s turn as EU President, giving the nation poor grades in the subjects of climate change and energy. “On climate change, Malta was too accommodating of member states’ requests and efforts to create loopholes in relation to the Effort Sharing Regulation and did not adjust the ambition upwards to account for the Paris Agreement,” the EEB said. “The Maltese Presidency oversaw the weakening of the Energy Efficiency Directive with a move away from a binding 30% energy efficiency target.” Estonia on July 1 took over the rotating six-month EU presidency.

Record plantings – Volunteers in India have planted more than 66 million trees in just 12 hours in a record-breaking environmental drive. About 1.5 million people were involved in the huge plantation campaign, in which saplings were placed along the Narmada river in the state of Madhya Pradesh throughout Sunday, The Independent reports. India committed under the Paris Agreement to increasing its forests by five million hectares before 2030 to combat climate change.

And finally… Bumped by climate change – More heat waves in the future could mean flights get cancelled, delayed or have to lose some weight, The Washington Post reports. In the aviation business, really hot days are called “weight restriction days,” because when it’s hot, fully loaded planes can’t get off the ground. To take off, a plane has to reach a certain minimum speed, but on hot days and at high elevations, that minimum speed increases. Researchers at Columbia University predicted that by 2050 there could be four times as many weight restriction days at the most at-risk airports in the US. Longer runways can help pilots to attain a faster speed, but in the absence of that there are only three ways for a plane to lose weight: fuel, cargo, or passengers.

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