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TOP STORY

Australian MPs back mechanism to cut carbon emissions

In a rare show of bipartisanship, an Australian cross-party parliamentary committee on Monday backed the creation of a mechanism to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector, but stopped short of making detailed recommendations.

AMERICAS

New Jersey senate committee passes bill to rejoin RGGI

A New Jersey senate committee on Monday advanced a bill to rejoin RGGI, taking the state a step closer to re-entering the northeastern US regional carbon market.

EMEA

EU Market: Bargain hunters lift EUAs 50 cents intraday, to back above €9 from 2-week low

EU carbon prices extended Friday’s heavy selling, which sent prices to a two-week low early on Monday, before bargain hunters emerged to lift prices by more than 50 cents to back above €9, defying bearish expectations from higher auction supply and weak fundamentals.

ASIA PACIFIC

Shanghai to resume offset trade on Feb. 6

The Shanghai Energy and Environment Exchange will resume trade in carbon offsets on Feb. 6 after having suspending deals for over a month.

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Job listings this week:

• Clean Energy Transitions Programme Co-ordinator, OECD – Paris
• Senior Associate, Climate Policy and Communication, US Climate Alliance Secretariat – Washington DC
• Junior Climate Change and Sustainability Consultant, ICF – Washington DC
• Carbon Trade and Investment Manager, Aboriginal Carbon Fund – Cairns, Australia
• Senior Key Account Manager (Nordics), South Pole – Stockholm
• Renewable Energy Expert, South Pole – Amsterdam/London/Stockholm
• Senior Manager/Director, EU Energy and Climate Policy, Burson-Marsteller – Brussels
• Research Assistant/Associate in Climate Policy, Cambridge Judge Business School – Cambridge, UK
• Deputy Editor, DeSmog UK – London

Or click here to see all our job adverts

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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

** There are seven events marked for this week in Carbon Pulse’s calendar, providing subscribers with an exportable resource highlighting important events that this week include details and timings of an EU Parliament vote, webinars on corporate climate action, internal carbon pricing and offset co-benefits, and two major conferences. **

Exxon expects – Oil major Exxon Mobil has said that it expects global oil demand to drop sharply by 2040 if the Paris Agreement regulations is fully implemented. Under this scenario, Exxon projects world oil consumption will drop 25% below current levels by 2040 but believes there will be little risk to its investments. The findings were contained in a report produced after Exxon’s shareholders supported a climate-impact resolution last year and Exxon’s board approved a plan to analyse the effects.

All or nothing – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said British Columbia’s climate change and spill protection programmes would only progress if the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion advances as well. Trudeau explains that “if we don’t move forward in getting our resources over to markets overseas in safe and secure ways, the rest of the plan no longer holds. We won’t get the Oceans Protection Plan investments, we won’t get a national price on carbon and we would never meet our Paris target”. The pipeline is still highly controversial and is facing court challenges by the area’s First Nations. (CBC)

Risk, underpriced – California State Controller Betty Yee and CalSTRS CEO Jack Ehnes said carbon pollution is costing billions, yet too few are including carbon pricing in portfolios. “We all know the capital markets work best when we have honest pricing signals. Currently carbon pollution, which is costing society hundreds of billions of dollars per year, is priced too low, or in some cases not at all. That’s unacceptable,” said Ehnes during a press conference at the Investor Summit on Climate Risk at the UN last week. According to the World Bank, 85 percent of emissions are still not covered by carbon pricing, but the idea is taking root. CalSTRS and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has joined more than 256 institutional investors, with more than $28 trillion in assets under management, in Climate Action 100+, an initiative to engage the world’s largest carbon-emitting companies to improve their governance, increase disclosure of climate risks and opportunities, and reduce emissions to be consistent with the 2 degree Celsius target in the Paris Agreement. (ai-cio.com)

Green growth – Good climate policy can contribute more to a stable, growing economy than previously thought because carbon prices do more than just reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The declining return on fossil fuel assets due to carbon pricing leads to increased investment in equipment and machinery, infrastructure and innovation in other industries and thus not only averts damage from climate change but is also a key to lasting prosperity, according to researchers from the Mercator Research Institute in a study published in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.

Power up – Some 50,000 homes in South Australia will receive solar panels and Tesla batteries, the state government announced on Sunday, in a landmark plan to turn houses into a giant, interconnected power plant. South Australia is already home to world’s biggest battery in an Elon Musk-driven project to provide electricity for more than 30,000 homes. The state government has since been looking for more ways – particularly through renewables – to address its energy woes after an unprecedented storm caused a state-wide blackout in 2016. (AFP)

Bio-carbon credits – Project developer and offset seller South Pole has launched a new product to support the regeneration and preservation of Australia’s biodiversity. EcoAustralia combines Australian government-endorsed biodiversity credits with international carbon credits, giving organisations the opportunity to compensate their carbon emissions and contribute to the regeneration and preservation of Australia’s most vulnerable ecosystems. This new offering is the result of a partnership with Cassina Environmental, an organisation whose mission is to protect, restore and regenerate native areas and ecosystems in Australia, more specifically in Victoria. EcoAustralia will support a selection of biodiversity projects under Cassinia, offering a new globally relevant offset option that has a tangible local impact. EcoAustralia currently supports two project areas in central and southern Victoria: The Lavers Hill project and the Myamyn project both contain important native biodiversity and protected from clearing, degradation and pests under this initiative.

And finally… White out – The Trump administration has withdrawn its nomination of climate denier Kathleen Hartnett White to lead the Council on Environmental Quality. During her confirmation hearings last year, Hartnett White, who has a long history of promoting fringe denial theories, told lawmakers the extent of human contribution to warming is “very uncertain” and that CO2 does not harm human health because it is “a plant nutrient.” Hartnett White’s nomination and her open denial drew fierce pushback from Democratic lawmakers, stalling a vote on her candidacy, while sources told the Washington Post this weekend that Republican senators were also questioning her fit for the position. (Climate Nexus)

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