OUR TOP NEWS:

DIALOGUE: How will US states shape up to Obama’s Clean Power Plan?

The US administration’s Clean Power Plan was published this week, tasking states to cut CO2 emissions from the power sector and aiming to ease the creation of carbon markets by making individual states’ emission units “trade ready”.

BRIEFING: EU ETS Modernisation Fund keeps west-to-east cash transfer, aims to step up scrutiny

The European Commission’s post-2020 ETS review proposes to keep allocating a higher share of carbon allowance auction revenue to poorer member states via a new Innovation Fund, but aims to tighten scrutiny on how governments spend the revenue to ensure it cuts emissions.

WCI market: CCAs tick up as turnover eases, early action backlog swells on deadline

California carbon prices nudged slightly higher this week though volume fell sharply from last week’s high for the year.

EUAs post 1.1% weekly fall as demand lull neutralises auction curbs

EU carbon prices fell 1.1% this week as bullish sentiment based on this month’s reduced auction supply faded with so many potential buyers away from their desks.

NZUs edge up in rangebound market

Spot NZUs moved up by 5 NZ cents this week to close Friday at NZ$6.90 ($4.53), but liquidity was low as traders show little interest in taking new positions before more is known about the ETS review.

Chinese pilot market data for week ending August 7, 2015

Closing prices, ranges and volumes for China’s regional pilot carbon markets this week.

Bite-sized updates from around the world:

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said it is “tragic for the wider world” if legal safeguards are allowed to stall large mining projects, adding people have grounds to be “angry” that a court overturned approval for Australia’s biggest coal mine, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. The Guardian’s Lenore Taylor pointed out that while Abbott’s defence of the coal mine was passionate, he was also mostly wrong.

A potential joint U.S.-China carbon tax is more important than whatever happens at the United Nations climate talks in Paris, said NASA climate scientist-turned campaigner James Hansen, in a wide-ranging piece from Rolling Stone revealing that the acute impacts of climate change are already upon us.

Benin has become the 53rd UNFCCC party to submit its INDC.

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