Presenting CP Daily, Carbon Pulse’s free newsletter. It’s a daily summary of our top news plus bite-sized updates from around the world. Subscribe here
OUR TOP NEWS:
Final US power plant rules seek to make carbon trading easier
The United States on Monday released the final rules of its Clean Power Plan, allowing state regulators to pursue regional emission markets to meet their targets without first having to establish and pass bureaucratic inter-state agreements.
EUAs slip towards support after briefly topping €8
EU carbon prices briefly sneaked above the psychological resistance level of €8 on Tuesday, but fell back ahead of the day’s auction and ended close to support levels.
Bite-sized updates from around the world:
Top Republican presidential candidates took turns attacking President Barack Obama’s new Clean Power Plan but lack alternate proposals to address the growing threat. (Bloomberg)
Analysts at Climate Action Tracker say the slightly deeper emission target in the final Clean Power Plan could deliver an additional 50 million tonnes worth of abatement towards the US INDC, which they rate as ‘medium’. But they note that the CPP alone is not enough to meet the INDC and other policies will need to be implemented to meet the -26-28% 2025 target.
South Africa’s upcoming INDC may set a 2025 goal to cut emissions 34% below BAU levels, which could be boosted to 42% with international support, RTCC reports, citing a document authored by a senior climate official. The goal matches one set out in 2009 and would mean the country’s emissions would only start to decline by 2035.
All of our options for keeping warming below 2C above pre-industrial temperatures now involve CCS – a technology that doesn’t yet exist on a large scale, according to research published in Nature Communications finding that ‘negative emissions’ alone are unlikely to achieve 2C. Carbon Brief breaks out the paper here.
One of the main reasons renewable electricity is not being developed more quickly in New Zealand is the low carbon price on gas and coal, a laughable NZ$7 per tonne of CO2. This could be lifted to around NZ$50 by, for example, the government introducing a rising floor price in the ETS, writes Ralph Chapman of Victoria University of Wellington in this op-ed. (Dominion Post)
Got a tip? Email us at news@carbon-pulse.com