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Emitters, investors urge RGGI states to double carbon cuts

A group of more than 90 businesses and investors on Tuesday urged the governors of the nine RGGI states to double the annual reduction of the scheme’s emissions cap after 2020.

Planned steel mergers seen to bring surplus risk to China’s ETS

Reports of planned mergers between some of China’s biggest steel companies could mean racking up a surplus of permits in the national emissions trading scheme unless the government opens for ex-post adjustment to allocation levels, market participants said.

EU Market: Strong auction interest, falling coal lift EUAs back from 1-month low

European carbon firmed on Tuesday after hitting a one-month low, bolstered by falling coal prices and the best bid government auction so far this year.

Korean firms convert 290k CERs to domestic offsets

The Korea Water Resources Corporation and Solvay Fluor have cancelled almost 290,000 CERs from the UN carbon registry to have them converted into offsets eligible for the domestic emissions trading scheme.

New York, Massachusetts make strides in boosting renewable power

New York regulators on Monday approved a plan requiring 50% of the state’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030, while lawmakers in neighbouring Massachusetts passed similar legislation over the weekend.

COMMENT: California’s cap-and-trade program – the crisis that wasn’t

Recent reports on California’s cap-and-trade program could mislead observers to conclude the system is “collapsing” and undergoing a “meltdown.” But hyperbole isn’t reality, and quite the contrary, the state’s climate policy is succeeding – the most recent data show California is just three percent above its 2020 goal of reducing emissions to 1990 levels as required by AB 32. Meeting California’s 2020 greenhouse gas emissions goal is turning out to be easier and cheaper than expected.

BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

After all this, a voluntary scheme? – The anticipated ICAO-designed global market-based mechanism to limit GHG emissions from the aviation sector may be voluntary for the first five years, several negotiators told Reuters.  Facing a fast-approaching deadline in the form of the early-Oct. end of this year’s ICAO Assembly meeting, countries say they have been unable to agree the terms of mandatory regulations.  One source from an unnamed Asian country said many countries were receptive to a voluntary first phase, while a second source from a Western government said the deal would be effective if the largest emitters signed up to mandatory cuts.  This follows proposals from some countries earlier this year for a ‘pilot’ practice phase and a later start than the agreed 2021 date.

Achtung on coal – A policy document prepared for Chancellor Angela Merkel shows the German government is hesitating to set fixed coal-reduction targets ahead of next year’s national elections, Bloomberg reports.  The four-page document from June was drafted by the chancellery following the Federal Environment Ministry’s advice that Germany can meet its commitments to cut emissions.  Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said in January that a coal phaseout could be possible by 2050, but according to the document the government now wants to postpone firm decisions on timing until after elections take place.  In addition, Germany is just at “the start point” of formulating its national strategy to comply with the Paris Agreement, according to the document.

And finally… Anthrax-spewing zombie deer – When it comes to the potential threats from climate change, that one’s probably the least of your worries.  A melting Arctic is thawing out the carcasses of deer felled by anthrax during World War II some 75 years ago, and warmer temperatures have reactivated the infectious disease, which has already claimed the life of one child and hospitalised dozens of people.  And to make matters worse, a heatwave combined with the anthrax outbreak may have killed more than 2,300 deer – new ones.  But as apocalyptic as this may sound, it’s perhaps the least worrisome byproduct of rapidly warming temperatures near the earth’s poles.  Bloomberg summarises the dangers that may do “more damage than a pile of dead deer”.

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