— COMING IN FEBRUARY: Carbon Fast Forward – Manchester —

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TOP STORIES

World Bank sets November deadline for remaining REDD deals

The World Bank Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) will sign deforestation reduction agreements with its remaining 14 countries by the end of November, as the deals viewed as a possible base for international emissions trade begin to stack up.

UPDATED BRIEFING: World Bank REDD Deals

Four countries have signed deforestation reduction agreements under the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) that could form the base of possible international emissions trade, with the remainder of the deals expected to be completed by Nov. 2020.

INTERNATIONAL

US threatens retaliation against EU over carbon border measures -FT

The US has said it would react with possible retaliatory measures against the EU if it opts to impose carbon border adjustments, the Financial Times reported, quoting US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross.

AMERICAS

RFS Market: RIN prices rise as court vacates three US biofuel programme waivers

US biofuel credit (RIN) prices rose on Monday after a federal appeals court threw out three Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) compliance waivers issued by the EPA, arguing the agency exceeded its statutory authority and did not properly assess refiners’ financial hardships.

Vermont Democrats reportedly working on TCI bill despite governor’s opposition

Vermont Democrats are crafting legislation that would require the state to join the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) cap-and-invest programme despite Governor Phil Scott’s (R) public opposition to carbon pricing, a legislative source said.

EMEA

EU Market: EUAs reverse after early drop to €24 on China virus fears

EUAs rebounded from early losses on Monday as fears over the spreading coronavirus battered markets and as traders took a cautious line ahead of Friday’s UK departure from the EU.

German development agency seeks CERs to offset 2017-18 emissions

A German development agency has opened a tender to acquire UN carbon credits to offset its emissions from 2017-18.

ASIA PACIFIC

Japan picks projects in seven countries for carbon funding

Japan’s environment ministry has picked 10 projects across seven countries for funding under the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), expecting the investment to result in 14 million carbon credits by 2030.

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Job listings this week

• Senior Program Officer, Asia-Pacific Sustainability, Asia Society – New York
• Senior Policy & Project Manager, European Energy Research Alliance – Brussels
• Energy Advisor to the African Union Commission, GIZ – Addis Ababa
• Policy Analyst, Climate Analytics – Nepal
• Head of Project Structure, Finance and Implementation, South Pole – London/Amsterdam

Or click here to see all our job adverts

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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Fool me once, sham on you – Boris Johnson’s promise to stop spending aid money on coal has been branded a “sham” after it emerged that no UK overseas assistance has been provided for the fuel since 2012. The opposition Labour party accused the British PM of trying to “fool” voters about the government’s contribution to tackling climate change and called on him to now commit to ending support for all fossil fuel projects overseas – including oil, gas, and fracking. The vow not to spend “another penny of UK taxpayers’ money” on coal-mining or coal-fuelled power plants in the developing world was the PM’s keynote announcement at an African investment summit in London last week. (Independent)

Sacksville, population: you – The £30 billion Brunel Pension Partnership, which manages pension money for nine councils in south-west England as well as for the Environment Agency, has “threatened to sack investment managers that do not take action on the climate crisis, criticising the sector as ‘not fit for purpose’.” The Guardian reports that the Bristol-based fund will “demand that companies in which it invests take steps to align their emissions with targets agreed at the 2015 Paris climate summit”. The fund believes the finance sector is “part of the problem” when it comes to the climate crisis.

Less dirty thirty – Swedish oil firm Lundin Petroleum has said it will seek to make its operations carbon neutral by 2030, cutting emissions from operations, boosting energy efficiency and developing CCS mechanisms. The board also proposed to change the company’s name to Lundin Energy and will seek to invest in renewable energy projects as a means to replace its own net electricity consumption. (Reuters)

Let’s make a deal – Estonia has agreed a deal to sell an undisclosed amount of renewable energy rights to Malta for €2 mln ahead. The countries noted that this transaction – for use towards the bloc’s 2020 goals – is notable because there have only been three to date, and Estonia has been a participant in two of them. “We have increased the proportion of our renewable energy from our target of 25% to 31% by this year, and this allows us to sell the statistical surplus to countries who have, for one reason or another, failed to reach their targets,” said Taavi Aas, Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications of Estonia. “The volume to be sold to Malta constitutes approximately 5% of our existing statistical renewable energy surplus and Estonia has a strong potential to conclude more transactions,” Aas added, confirming that the revenue would be put towards financing new renewable projects or reducing the country’s renewable energy charge for consumers. The contract is flexible and Malta may either increase or reduce the amount to be purchased by up to a fifth. Estonia has previously sold units to Luxembourg.

Rumble in the jungle – More than 340 Amazon employees signed onto a post published Sunday criticising the company’s climate stance and protesting its external communications policy. The employees signed onto a post authored by advocacy group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, and includes signatures and quotes from employees, all of whom are named, across several divisions of the company. By participating in the post, the employees all defied Amazon’s external communications policy, which forbids employees from speaking about the company’s business without approval from management. The protest was intended to show support for two Amazon employees who the company threatened to terminate for publicly criticising its climate policies. (CNBC)

COP All-Stars – The International Energy Agency (IEA) will hold a high-level conference around the theme of “building a grand coalition on energy and climate” as part of the Agency’s focus on global energy transitions. The event – part of the “Big Ideas” Speaker Series – will feature presentations by the hosts of the most recent UN climate change conferences, COP24 and COP25, and of the upcoming COP26. It will be held at the headquarters of the IEA in Paris on Feb. 12. The guest speakers are Claire O’Neill, president of COP26; Teresa Ribera, deputy prime minister of Spain and host minister of COP25; and Michal Kurtyka, Poland’s minister of climate and president of COP24. The event will be moderated by Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA.

And finally… X-factor – By 2030, Microsoft has pledged to become “carbon negative” – meaning it will remove more carbon from the air than it emits. To do so, the tech giant announced this month that it will slash annual emissions not only from its offices, factories, and data centres, but also from the living rooms and basement dens where people use its products. That means tackling the outsized impact of a relatively small device: the Xbox. The gaming console has the largest carbon footprint of any Microsoft device due to the amount of electricity people use while playing video games, a company spokesperson told Grist. Each Xbox One X console, for instance, contributes the equivalent of more than 1 tonne of CO2 over eight years — and 86% of that is solely from product use (the remaining 14% is from manufacturing, packaging, shipping, and end-of-life recycling). In the US alone, annual emissions from gaming on consoles, PCs, and mobile devices equal that of 85 mln refrigerators or 5 mln cars, scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory said in a 2019 study.

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