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TOP STORY
WCI auction sets new record, but still at a discount to secondary market
The May California-Quebec current vintage auction sold out at the highest level in the programme’s history, but the price marked a double-digit discount to the secondary market that has been driven by an influx of speculative interest in recent months, according to results released Wednesday.
EMEA
British Steel collapses to leave UK government’s ETS loan payback in doubt
British Steel has entered compulsory liquidation, putting one of the UK’s biggest emitters at risk of closure and throwing into doubt the government’s ability to recover a £120 million loan given for EU ETS compliance weeks earlier.
UK needs sectoral CO2 prices of up to $204/t for net zero 2050 goal -report
The UK should deploy sectoral carbon pricing rising to as high as £160/tonne ($204, €183), including breaking up pricing for EU ETS-covered industries, to meet a net zero 2050 goal, prominent academics said in a report on Wednesday.
EU Market: EUAs lift nearly 4% on looming auction shortfall, higher gas
EUAs climbed by almost a euro on Wednesday to notch a third straight day of gains as next week’s auction dearth continued to lift sentiment while higher gas prices lent support.
AMERICAS
California distributes nearly 800k offsets across three protocols
California regulator ARB this week awarded some 777,000 California Carbon Offsets (CCOs) across the forestry, ozone-depleting substances, and livestock protocols.
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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
REDD flags – A new report from investigative news outlet ProPublica raises red flags about the environmental integrity of current and future REDD offset projects worldwide. The organisation enlisted satellite imagery analysis firm Descartes Labs to review radar data for 13 forested sites as part of the Cambodian Oddar Meanchey REDD project. While project documents said those areas were 88% covered in forest as of 2008, Descartes’ findings showed they were only 46% forest by 2017 , with one of the sites cratering from 90% forest to 0%. The project has not received an emissions verification update in over five years, and standard and registry manager Verra said credits from the projects have already been sold and used to offset emissions. ProPublica also travelled to the state of Acre, Brazil, which for roughly a decade has been the subject of a possible REDD link to California’s cap-and-trade programme. However, several government officials told the news outlet that their priority is getting foreign aid to protect forests, with the environmental validity of the resulting offsets being an afterthought, and other locals spoke of financial difficulties in forgoing more lucrative timber and ranching operations in favour of conservation-based activities, along with trouble in enforcing deforestation-related laws.
What next? – Australia’s Labor party is reeling from this weekend’s surprise election loss, and is now tasked with choosing a new leadership to take it to the next election. One major question is whether the party will continue to stand for firm action on climate change or whether it will conclude that the issue is too controversial to campaign on. MP Anthony Albanese looks set to become the new party leader. He is no climate champion, but has been very critical about the ruling Coalition’s lack of climate policies, writes RenewEconomy.
GHG gathering – CEOs and representatives of more than 75 businesses met with a bipartisan group of US federal lawmakers on Wednesday to call on Congress to pass meaningful climate legislation, including a price on carbon. The Lawmaker Education and Advocacy Day (LEAD) on Carbon Pricing is the largest business gathering on Capitol Hill to advocate for climate legislation in over a decade, and includes 21 Fortune 500 companies, along with trade associations and businesses from all 50 states. Representatives from these businesses met one-one-one with lawmakers to advocate for carbon pricing, and the discussions were hosted by Delaware Senator Chris Coons (D), who on Tuesday said he planned on introducing a bipartisan carbon fee and dividend bill in the upper chamber in the coming weeks. (Climate Nexus)
Finn fault – Finnish flag carrier Finnair has admitted to providing misleading information about emissions reduction targets as part of its ‘Push for change’ campaign to sell carbon offsets to airline passengers. While the airline’s campaign page suggests that Finland’s national carrier is aiming to reduce overall emissions by 2020, the company admitted that the airline only has a 2020 goal to reduce emissions per passenger kilometre. It said it plans to expand its business and has no absolute emission cut targets until 2050. (YLE)
Green gain – Spot exchange CBL Markets and market infrastructure provider and registry APX on Wednesday announced the first exchange trade of a North American Renewables (NAR) product that meets specific certification requirements in the Green-e Renewable Energy Standard for Canada and the United States. Green-e Energy is administered by the non-profit Center for Resource Solutions, and the programme provides independent, third-party certification so that certified renewable energy meets strict environmental and consumer-protection standards. CBL recently connected to the NAR registry, which enables market participants to electronically transfer voluntary and compliance Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to and from all states connected to NAR.
And finally… A royal pain – US television network ABC’s World News Tonight programme spent more time covering the birth of the royal baby Archie in the week after he was born this month than it covered climate change during the entirety of 2018, according to analysis by Media Matters. From May 6 – 12, the ABC programme spent 7 minutes and 12 seconds covering the royal baby, compared to only 6 minutes and 3 seconds covering climate change last year. The outlet also looked at the May 6 release of a UN summary report on biodiversity, which found that up to one mln species are at risk of extinction due to climate change. However, networks ABC and NBC failed to even mention the UN biodiversity report in their programmes that night as they focused on the royal baby instead, while CBS was the only national broadcasting network that featured a segment on the summary. By the end of the next week, all three networks had dedicated a total of 17 minutes and 56 seconds to the wee baby, while the extinction report and climate changed garnered a mere one minute and 21 seconds – all on CBS.
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