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TOP STORIES

California seeks cap-and-trade amendment to close loophole after bankruptcy ruling

The California Air Resources Board (ARB) on Tuesday said it is seeking to amend its cap-and-trade programme to ensure that the new owners of an installation covered by the system also automatically take over the facility’s historical emission obligations.

Some of Ontario’s proposed offset protocols should be scrapped -Environmental Commissioner

Ontario should consider scrapping several of its proposed offset protocols due to concerns over permanence, additionality, leakage and mitigation potential, according to a report by the province’s Environmental Commissioner’s Office (ECO) released on Tuesday.

AMERICAS

Oregon senators play down chances of passing cap-and-trade bill this year

Senior Oregon legislators on Monday played down the chances of passing a bill this year that would create a cap-and-trade programme in the state from 2021 and align it with California’s emissions trading system.

EMEA

EU ETS stationary emissions rose in 2017 to buck six-year declining trend – report

Stationary emissions regulated under the EU ETS rose by 0.3% in 2017 as industrial production climbed and fossil fuel-based power made up for shortfalls in low-carbon hydro and nuclear generation, a report found on Tuesday.

New German renewables deal to knock €1.40 off EUA prices through 2030 -analysts

A more ambitious 2030 renewables target provisionally agreed by Germany’s two largest political parties would be enough to knock €1.40 off average EUA prices next decade, as more coal generation would be forced offline, Point Carbon analysts at Thomson Reuters said Tuesday.

EU Market: EUAs dip further below €9 as power prices slide

EU carbon prices dropped for a fourth straight session on Tuesday as weaker power prices and a mixed auction result failed to reignite the bullish sentiment seen during a rally to six-year highs earlier this month.

ECOSYSTEM MARKETPLACE

Clipping coupons for the climate: The Dutch plan to make carbon trading fun

Jos Cozijnsen shakes his tangled mane of black hair and adjusts his leathery blue suit – fashioned, it turns out, from overalls discarded by German railroad workers and available through his sustainable clothing company, Goodfibrations.

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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Recuse yourself – US environmental and legal groups are calling on the EPA to withdraw its proposal to repeal the Clean Power Plan and for agency boss Scott Pruitt to recuse himself from any further CPP proceedings. The groups, which include Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the Sierra Club, and the Union of Concerned Scientists, said evidence shows that Pruitt has predetermined the outcome of the process by making public statements showing that he had already decided to repeal the CPP. “He has described the CPP’s repeal in ways flatly incompatible with the Clean Air Act’s requirements for a meaningful public process before a final decision is made,” the groups said. “These statements cross a clear line and show that Pruitt has a fixed position … [and] an ‘unalterably closed mind’,” they added, noting that if proven, the latter would prohibit him from presiding over the CPP’s rulemaking process. The EPA last October released a proposal to repeal the CPP and replace it with a new set of rules that are widely expected to be less onerous for emitters.

On his watch – Separately, Pruitt was personally involved in and paid particular attention to erasing climate change information from EPA sites early in his tenure, according to documents released Tuesday from EDF. Emails obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request detail the agency’s process of singling out and removing climate change pages while replacing online information on the CPP with information on President Trump’s executive order to roll it back. Messages between Pruitt advisors and agency communications staff show that Pruitt was monitoring the website changes personally, with one email reading that he asked for the new CPP information to be posted “ASAP.” Pruitt testified Tuesday for the first time to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, but he largely avoided discussing efforts to combat climate change. (Climate Nexus)

Glass half full – New Zealand is considering whether to bring agriculture into its ETS. Many in the sector itself are against this, arguing they have few means to reduce emissions beyond cutting production levels. But if NZ was to go through with it, it should be considered an opportunity, not a threat, according to Climate Change Minister James Shaw. “There is no country in the world that currently has agriculture as part of its emissions trading scheme. If we focus on that now, that’s something we can say to the rest of the world: ‘that’s how you do it’,” he said, according to the Otago Daily Times.

Record cemented – The global production of cement is the third largest source of human-driven CO2 emissions, a new paper finds. Using a range of datasets, including new estimates from China and India, the research finds that global cement production released 1.45 billion tonnes of CO2 in 2016, which is the equivalent to about 4 % of the emissions from fossil fuels in the same year. (Carbon Brief)

Fears misplaced – The Alliance for Market Solutions has analysed how a revenue-neutral carbon tax would affect consumers in each county in the US, in an effort to rebut the conventional wisdom that traditional Republican voters would be worse off under such an approach. “Some Republican lawmakers are reluctant to support a carbon tax because they fear their constituents will end up paying more for gasoline and electricity,” said Alex Flint, executive director of the conservative, pro-carbon tax group. “This research suggests that these fears are misplaced.” (Politico)

Show us the money – The Ghanaian government is aiming to transform its climate change policy into law in order to secure funding from the Green Climate Fund. In an interview with Xinhua after the one-day stakeholder engagement session for GCF readiness in the country last Friday, Peter Dery, head of the Climate Change and Sustainable Development Unit at Ghana’s Ministry of Environment, said that until these regulations were turned into laws it would be difficult to enforce them. Dery added that Ghana had undergone the GCF Readiness programme and had helped strengthen a number of the country’s institutions that will undergo the accreditation process to become national implementing entities for the multi-billion dollar fund. The government is confident that Ghana is ready to access some $310 million from the GCF to implement adaptation and mitigation programmes, including three centred around renewables, REDD, and resilient agriculture.

Penny for your thoughts – The Alberta government on Tuesday launched 30-day consultation periods for two draft offset protocols governing aerobic composting and landfill gas projects. The pair are amongst nearly 30 approved protocols listed on the government’s website.

And finally… Another lawsuit, Colombia edition – A group of young Colombians, one aged just seven, filed a lawsuit against the Colombian government on Monday demanding it protect their right to a healthy environment in what campaigners said was the first such action in Latin America. The lawsuit, filed at a Bogota court, alleges the government’s failure to stem rising deforestation in Colombia puts their future in jeopardy and violates their constitutional rights to a healthy environment, life, food and water. “Deforestation is threatening the fundamental rights of those of us who are young today and will face the impacts of climate change the rest of our lives,” the 25 plaintiffs, whose ages range from seven to 26, said in a joint statement. (Reuters)

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