Newsletters > CP Daily: Monday January 13, 2020

CP Daily: Monday January 13, 2020

Published 22:53 on January 13, 2020  /  Last updated at 12:47 on March 5, 2020  / Carbon Pulse /  Newsletters

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

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TOP STORY

Oregon will operate standalone ETS to show stringency to WCI partners -lawmaker

Oregon’s potential cap-and-trade programme would operate independently of the WCI scheme during the initial part of the ETS, but lawmakers still included language in a new bill unveiled Monday to enable a future linkage with California and Quebec, a state senator told Carbon Pulse.

AMERICAS

Chile introduces offset provision in updated draft climate change law

Chilean emitters may use offset credits to comply with potential GHG limits under part of the country’s updated draft climate change law, as the beleaguered national government resumes work to hit more ambitious emission reduction targets.

Climate Action Reserve policy director joins soil-based carbon credit start-up

The policy director of offset registry Climate Action Reserve (CAR) has left the company to lead carbon methodology development at a Massachusetts-based agricultural technology firm, Carbon Pulse has learned.

EMEA

Ireland announces domestic €26/t offset scheme for government air travel

Ireland on Sunday unveiled a new programme to offset the emissions from government air travel, with public sector departments required to pay €26 for every tonne of CO2 towards domestic mitigation efforts.

EU Market: EUAs re-test €24 as market faces added auction pressure

EUAs dipped towards €24 on Monday, testing recent support levels as a strong auction only temporarily lifted sentiment, while observers flagged higher sale volume as a weight on prices this week.

ICYM

POLL: Analysts cut EU carbon price views again as bearish clouds darken

Experts have cut their EU carbon price forecasts for 2020 for a second straight quarter, a Carbon Pulse survey of 15 analysts has found, illustrating the increasingly bearish sentiment that is sweeping through the market and keeping investors on the sidelines.

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WE’RE HIRING!

Climate and Energy Correspondent – Brussels

Carbon Pulse is looking for a Climate and Energy Correspondent to help us bolster and expand our coverage of the EU ETS and other energy and environmental markets, as well as climate and energy policy at a national, EU, and international level.

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Other job listings this week

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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Evolving? – Australia’s climate policy will “evolve” over time, Prime Minister Scott Morrison told ABC television over the weekend, though he immediately stressed that a carbon tax or any other new policy that might increase electricity prices or add burdens to industry was not being considered. He later also clarified that the government would not increase its Paris ambition to cut emissions 26% below 2005 levels by 2030. However, he did say that Australia might be able to meet that goal without using the 411 mln Kyoto carry-over credits it holds in its account. Meanwhile, the opposition Labor party accused Morrison of using a “fake number” to mislead Australians about cuts to GHGs. The dispute centres on the PM’s claim that annual emissions are “50 million tonnes less on average” under the Coalition, when experts say the fall has, in fact, been marginal. The government’s own figures show emissions were 533 Mt in 2014, the first full year of the Coalition government, rising to 530 Mt in 2019.

Sticking to the deal – Germany’s Siemens on Monday announced it would stick to its contract with Indian firm Adani to deliver equipment and services for building the massive Carmichael coal mine in Australia. Environmentalists had hoped Siemens would pull out of the projects, which will establish one of Australia’s biggest coal mines, after having agreed to reviewing its involvement last month. But after intervention from Resources Minister Matt Canavan, the company said Monday it would keep its word and stick to the contract, reports RenewEconomy.  Separately, Adani said it won’t let protests and scrutiny, including from climate activist Greta Thunberg, dissuade it from completing the project. “With construction of the Carmichael project well and truly underway, we have repeatedly demonstrated that we will not be intimidated or deterred from delivering on our promises,” the company said in a statement Monday. Those promises, it added, include to “people in developing nations who desperately need affordable energy to help lift them out of poverty.”

Talkin’ bout a referendum – French President Emmanuel Macron said he wants a national vote over proposals to respond to climate change, Bloomberg reports. “A referendum on some of those measures would enable everyone to take part in the issue,” Macron told members of an advisory council Friday. The meeting in Paris was Macron’s first encounter with a group of 150 voters selected at random who have been working in concert with climate change experts, economists, and diplomats to come up with recommendations on policies to reduce France’s carbon emissions. “People want more democracy. They don’t just want to follow the laws, but to participate,” Macron said. The potential referendum on climate policy wouldn’t necessarily be legally binding, he added, but would add pressure for the National Assembly to adopt new laws.

Off track – Europe’s 13 top car manufacturers will miss their 2021 targets and will face fines of more than €14.5 bln, according to an annual forecast of car manufacturers’ performance against mandatory EU CO2 emissions targets published by PA Consulting. After four years of steady progress, PA’s research has revealed a step backwards for the industry, with emissions increasing across the board mainly due to customers buying SUVs, strong demand for high-powered and heavier cars, lack of low-emission options in showrooms, and shifting preference for petrol cars after the diesel scandal. Some carmakers will see penalties high enough to have a material impact on their profitability and reputation, PA added, with Volkswagen potentially facing fines of at least €4.5 bln due to its high sales volumes across Europe.

An air of competence – A new “competence centre” for climate action in the aviation sector has been launched at Germany’s largest airport in Frankfurt to facilitate progress in synthetic airplane fuel production and other climate-friendly technologies, the government of the federal state of Hesse announced. “We need more climate action in transport. While CO2 emissions in the power sector are falling, they remain high or even rise in the transport sector,” said Hesse’s economy minister Tarek al-Wazir, adding that “CO2-neutral aviation will not be possible without using synthetic fuels.” Al-Wazir said the state government would invest €15 mln over the next few years to foster power-to-liquid projects for synthetic fuel production and a pilot facility. The competence centre will be headed by former Lufthansa manager Bernhard Dietrich.

Unhealthy competition – The US RGGI carbon market could harm employment and production, underlining the challenge that proponents face in enacting similar policies at the national level, according to a report by the National Bureau of Economic Research that highlights the challenge of carbon leakage. The analysis, written by a Clark University economist and researchers at the think-tank Resources for the Future, found that a carbon price of $10/ton under RGGI would reduce employment by 2.7% in participating states, while raising employment in neighbouring states. However, national employment falls by just 0.1%, suggesting that most of the adverse economic effects on the RGGI states occur due to domestic competition between states, rather than employment lost overseas. “Domestic plants in other states as opposed to foreign facilities are the principal winners from state or regional carbon pricing,” the paper says. By contrast, a national carbon price would prevent states from losing production to other states, but would also raise the question about jobs and commerce being lost to other countries. (Washington Examiner)

CES: Consumer Emissions Slashed – Delta Air Lines announced that it will spend $100,000 to offset the CO2 emissions from its 2020 flights serving last week’s CES consumer tech show. CEO Ed Bastian used his keynote address at the event to announce that the company would be offsetting its flights to and from Las Vegas for the week beginning Jan. 6. Bastian said Delta would be investing $100,000 with The International Small Group & Tree Planting Program (TIST), a non-profit that works with subsistence farmers in countries such as Kenya and Uganda. Since 1999, the organisation has planted over 19 mln trees. (Simple Flying)

To an extreme – The US government branded a group of nonviolent pipeline activists as “extremists” and included them on lists with mass killers and white supremacists, documents obtained by The Guardian show. An intelligence bulletin on domestic terror threats authored by the Department of Homeland Security and obtained through a FOIA request shows that a group known as the Valve Turners, who shut off the valves of pipelines in four states in 2016, are defined by DHS as “suspected environmental rights extremists.” Two of the group’s members are listed in a section on highlighted domestic terror incidents over the past few years with Dylann Roof, who killed black churchgoers in a mass shooting in 2015. “There is little evidence that environmentalists have engaged in the types of deadly violence that would meet the statutory definition of domestic terrorism, as codified by Congress,” former FBI agent Mike German told The Guardian. In November in the UK, Extinction Rebellion was placed on a similar list of extremists, which police now admit was “an error of judgment.” (Climate Nexus)

And finally… In hot water – The world’s oceans are now heating at the same rate as if five Hiroshima atomic bombs were dropped into the water every second, scientists have said. A study released on Monday showed that 2019 was yet another year of record-setting ocean warming, with water temperatures reaching the highest temperature ever recorded. An international team of 14 scientists examined data going back to the 1950s, looking at temperatures from the ocean surface to 2,000 metres deep. The study, which was published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, also showed that the oceans are warming at an increasing speed. While the past decade has been the warmest on record for global ocean temperatures, the hottest five years ever recorded all came in the last five. (CNN)

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