— COMING IN FEBRUARY: Carbon Fast Forward – Manchester —
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TOP STORY
Doubts emerge for China ETS launch amid new leadership, virus outbreak
Uncertainty is emerging over the amount of progress China will make on its national emissions trading scheme this year, as responsibility for the key climate policy this week shifted to a new senior government official, while the outbreak of the Coronavirus raises risks of a policy standstill.
INTERNATIONAL
World Bank REDD programme adopts changes to align with CORSIA
The World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) has made revisions to its deforestation reduction programme methodology in response to comments from an UN aviation expert panel, with an aim of becoming eligible for the international flight offset programme CORSIA.
EMEA
New Spanish government raises climate ambition as Brussels readies member state scrutiny
Spain’s new government plans to ratchet down its 2030 emissions goal by a further two percentage points, in a move likely to get firm approval by Brussels this month.
UK levy on airlines, big oil could fund land-based carbon trading, say government advisors
The UK should consider imposing a levy on airlines and fossil fuel companies to help spur a woodland carbon trading scheme, the country’s official climate advisors said on Wednesday.
EU Market: EUAs slip back below €25 as China virus worries markets
EUAs slipped 1% on Wednesday as the energy complex weakened while wider financial markets fretted about the spread of a flu-like virus in China and elsewhere.
AMERICAS
California offset investigation could conclude this month -sources
California regulator ARB could decide by the end of January whether to invalidate offset reporting periods under review for regulatory compliance violations, three WCI market sources told Carbon Pulse.
NA Markets: California carbon dips ahead of first 2020 auction, RGGI stays flat
California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices continued dropping on the secondary market this week as participants looked to unload volume ahead of the February WCI auction, while RGGI prices stagnated on low liquidity.
LCFS Market: California prices break above $210
California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) credits surged to new all-time records on Thursday, pressing up against the clean fuels programme’s pending ceiling price.
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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Model host – Scotland is shaping up as an exemplary host for this year’s UN climate conference, Renew Economy reports, with data showing it is likely to meet its national target of 100% renewable electricity in good time for the crucial November meeting. Scotland, whose southern city of Glasgow was named last September as the host for COP26, has a goal to source the equivalent of 100% of its electricity demand from renewable energy sources by the end of this year. And it is shaping up to do just that. Having closed its last coal-fired power plant in 2016, the UK country’s only remaining fossil fuel source is a gas-fired power station at Peterhead in Aberdeenshire.
So close – In 2018, the share of energy from renewable sources in gross final energy consumption reached 18.0% in the EU, up from 17.5% in 2017 and more than double the share in 2004 (8.5%), the first year for which the data are available, according to figures from Eurostat, the bloc’s statistical office. “The increase in the share of renewables is essential to reach the EU climate and energy goals,” it added. The EU’s target is to reach 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 and at least 32% by 2030. Among the 28 EU member states, 12 have already reached a share equal to or above their national 2020 binding targets: Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Finland, and Sweden. Four member states are close to meeting their targets (i.e. they less than 1 percentage point away), while nine are 1-4 pct points away and three are 4 or more away.
Circular motion – Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud said on Thursday that Riyadh would present within the next two months a circular carbon economy program to achieve the country’s sustainability goals. “[Riyadh] will demonstrate within the next two months that we have a national program which has to do with circular carbon economy,” the energy minister said at the World Energy Forum in Davos. Saudi Arabia plans to develop a circular carbon economy, based on a carbon trading mechanism, to re-use and recycle carbon materials. In late October, the energy minister said that as a pivotal global energy producer, Riyadh saw it as its responsibility to create a sustainable framework for growth, for which, he added, the new mechanism was a step in that direction. (UrduPoint)
Risk request – Massachusetts Senator and US Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is asking the biggest American banks for details on their assessments of, and preparations for, risks related to global warming. “I write to ask for more information about the risks caused by the climate crisis on the financial industry and your institution’s practices, including what steps, if any, your institution is taking to adapt to mitigate these risks,” she said in the letters, provided to Reuters. The letters were sent to top executives at Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, State Street, and Wells Fargo.
Soil siblings – Massachusetts-based agricultural technology company Indigo Ag is partnering with US offset registry Verra to develop a protocol for enhancing soil carbon. The process is on a similar timeline to Indigo’s development of a Soil Enrichment Project Protocol (SEPP) with fellow registry Climate Action Reserve (CAR), which is expected to result in a protocol being approved by CAR’s board in June. (Successful Farming)
Listening mode? – There are signs US President Donald Trump is starting to engage more seriously on climate change and is listening to the concerns of corporations, the EU’s climate chief Frans Timmermans told Reuters at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “He’s probably doing the math and thinking that if I want to be re-elected, I have to take this seriously … Corporations in the US are on the same page as we are. States are. Cities are,” he said.
And finally… Bedtime reading – The head of the IMF said she couldn’t sleep after reading the landmark IPCC report into climate change and its effects last year. Kristalina Georgieva said during a session at Davos on Thursday: “The big eye opener was when last year I read IPCC report. I tell you, I could not sleep that night.” The 2018 report, which took two years to compile, warned that there are just 12 years left to limit planetary warming to 1.5C this century, and that a rise above that would severely increase the risk of droughts, floods, extreme heat, and poverty. “All I could think of was my 8-year-old granddaughter,” Georgieva saiad. “What have we done? By the times she’s 20 there could be 100 million more poor people because of climate change. By the time she’s 40 there could be over 100 million climate refugees. If she lives to be 90 and the temperature is 3 to 4 degrees warmer, this planet will be barely liveable.” (Yahoo)
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