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TOP STORY
EEX teams up with new incubator run by former ECX chief, other CO2 market veterans
German energy bourse EEX has joined forces with a new financial markets incubator chaired by the former CEO of the European and Chicago Climate Exchanges and co-founded by several carbon market veterans.
ASIA PACIFIC
Chinese power giant sets up carbon trading desk ahead of ETS launch
China Guodian Group, one of the country’s biggest coal-fired power generators, is setting up a carbon desk to handle emissions trading for all of its 103 subsidiaries that will be brought into the national cap-and-trade system.
ADB raises $1.25 bln in climate finance through green bond sales
The Asian Development Bank has issued two new green bonds that have raised $1.25 billion in funds to be used to cut greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change in poor nations in the region.
CN Markets: Hubei CO2 prices plummet ahead of compliance deadline
Hubei CO2 allowance prices are plummeting ahead of Friday’s last-chance for emitters to comply.
AMERICAS
RGGI emissions fall by around a fifth in Q2
Power plant emissions covered under RGGI fell by around 20% year-on-year in the second quarter, according to like-for-like data.
ACR releases new offset rules for ODS and climate-warming foam destruction projects
The American Carbon Registry (ACR) has published a new methodology for earning carbon offsets from the destruction of ozone-depleting substances (ODS) that expands on California’s rules.
EMEA
EU Market: Big buys help lift EUAs to 2-week high
European carbon rose to its highest in two weeks after several large purchases on Wednesday afternoon helped lift prices.
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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
An unaffordable luxury – Brexit may affect the UK economy so severely that climate policies become a luxury the government can no longer afford, the head of the country’s independent Committee on Climate Change John Gummer told Politico ($). Unlike other areas that risk significant disruptions with Brexit, the UK’s climate change policies are mostly controlled at a national level and not directly reliant on what happens in Brussels.
Fixed, not gone – US industry has delivered a clear message to the Trump administration during a series of recent closed-door meetings: Don’t completely gut the Obama-era Clean Power Plan. According to ClimateWire, leading industry associations are pushing White House and EPA officials to drastically roll back the landmark climate change rule. They’re advocating a new approach that still limits power plants’ emissions but is narrower than the one envisioned by President Obama’s team. The heavy-hitting US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers advocated an “inside-the-fence” approach to power plant regulations during a July meeting with the Office of Management and Budget and EPA staff – something that S&P this week reported the Trump administration is considering. Critics of the Obama rule have argued that it overstepped by allowing emissions reductions “outside the fence line” of coal-fired power plants.
Up again – Germany’s rising consumption of oil, gas and lignite in the first half of 2017 indicates that the country will see another increase in emissions in 2017 after a rise in 2016, said Agora Energiewende head Patrick Graichen. “The data translates to a 1% increase in energy-related emissions, compared to the same period last year. This corresponds to about 5 million tonnes of CO₂,” Graichen told Clean Energy Wire. New data released by energy market research group AG Energiebilanzen (AGEB) saw energy consumption in Germany increase 0.8% in the first half of 2017 due to positive economic development and slightly cooler weather at the beginning of the year.
And finally… 10 things I like about you – It’s been seven months since Alberta introduced its economy-wide carbon levy and the province is still here and hasn’t collapsed economically. In fact, unlike what many politicians and pundits were predicting ahead of the implementation of the $20/tonne fee, the cost of gasoline at the pumps hasn’t spiked. In fact, it’s been consistently lower than when politicians made photo ops by filling jerry cans at the end of 2016, right before the tax was rolled out. To mark the occasion, DeSmog Canada has compiled a list of 10 ways the carbon levy revenues are being used to benefit Albertans.
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