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Ukraine floats improbable plan to start ETS in 2017, link to EU market in 2019
Ukraine’s environment ministry has published a draft plan to set up an emissions trading scheme by Jan. 1 2017 that foresees linking to the EU market by 2019, but experts said the proposal was fantastical.
UK to phase out coal power by 2023 -paper
The UK will close all its unabated coal-fired power plants by 2023, The Times reported on Tuesday, without saying where it got the information.
RGGI must be reformed to meet CPP, 2050 state goals -report
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the first US carbon market, will be recognised as a means of complying with new federal rules forcing utilities to slash their GHGs, but its regulators need to make a few tweaks during their program review next year to ensure the north-east regional scheme is fit for purpose.
EU carbon steady despite bullish auction, power gains
EU carbon ended little changed on Tuesday, shrugging off strong demand for a government auction and higher power prices.
ANZ to provide A$10 billion in clean energy funding
Australia’s ANZ bank will provide A$10 billion ($7b) in low carbon funding by 2020 and stop financing conventional coal-fired power plants, it said in a new climate change statement.
Centre-right MEP welcomes carbon leakage measures in EU ETS reform plan
Belgian MEP Ivo Belet focused on the need to protect EU industry from carbon leakage risks in one of his first comments assessing the EU Commission’s post-2020 ETS reform plans on Tuesday.
Bite-sized updates from around the world
India is opening a coal mine a month as it races to double coal output by 2020, putting the world’s third-largest polluter at the forefront of a pan-Asian dash to burn more of the dirty fossil fuel that environmentalists fear will upend international efforts to contain global warming. (Reuters)
War-torn Afghanistan published its INDC on Tuesday, conditionally pledging to cut GHGs by 13.6% below BAU levels by 2030. It will focus on its energy, natural resources, agriculture, waste and mining sectors, and has requested financial assistance of $17.4 billion. The document did not mention the use of carbon markets but said that Afghanistan would like to implement a Low Emission Development Strategy (LEDS) as well as NAMAs. Check out Carbon Pulse’s INDC Tracker for all the pledges submitted so far.
Greenpeace is exploring funding options to buy Swedish state-owned utility Vattenfall’s German lignite operations as the green group seeks to shut the power plants and prevent others from starting new coal mines. (Bloomberg)
A report released Tuesday said that if Virginia achieves its current goals to improve efficiency and increase use of renewable energy while also making more efficient use of existing natural gas plants, the state can decrease carbon emissions from Virginia’s power sector by 43 percent below 2012 levels by 2030 – well beyond the state’s mass-based target of 23 percent reductions required under the Clean Power Plan. (World Resources Institute)
A recent report by consultancy Perspectives looked at a number of initiatives that can provide lessons for the design of new market mechanisms, such as Japan’s Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) and the World Bank’s Climate Investment Funds (CIF). A key challenge will be to sustain environmental integrity, it concluded.
And finally… A former US ambassador to Austria and an ex-Congressman are helping prepare a carbon tax proposal to present to lawmakers. However, unlike previous iterations of the idea, proponents are appealing to businesses by promising them a share of the proceeds, and in turn asking them to pressure Republican lawmakers. The bill would put a $30/ton on GHG emissions and use the revenues to cut the top corporate income tax rate to 25% from 35%. The proposal’s authors also claim there will still be money left over to offset the burden on low- and middle-income households, and the pair are sweetening the deal for Republicans by including measures to kill the EPA’s Clean Power Plan in the process. Read more about it from Bloomberg View.
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