**Due to a public holiday in the UK, no CPD will be published on Monday, Aug. 26**

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TOP STORY

EU Market: EUAs slip to 9-wk low near €25 as China stokes economy fears

EUAs fell to a nine-week below €25 on Friday amid ongoing technical weakness and renewed economic fears as China struck back against the US on tariffs.

AMERICAS

Oregon Senate Democrats will seek constitutional amendment after ETS bill failure

Oregon Senate Democrats will look to amend the constitution next year to prevent Republicans from denying the majority party a quorum to conduct legislative business, a feat that helped sink the US jstate’s WCI-modelled cap-and-trade proposal this summer.

California LCFS stakeholders remain split on details of potential price cap, borrowed credits mechanism

California regulator ARB’s proposal to implement a firm maximum price and borrowed credits mechanism in the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) has generated further suggestions to treat multiple crediting pathways fairly and improve environmental integrity, according to public comments.

ASIA PACIFIC

NZ Market: NZUs end week in vogue as they hit 2-mth high

New Zealand carbon allowances ended the week on a strong note, climbing 1% to hit their highest levels since late June on healthy demand.

Woodside earns biggest share of Australia’s latest offset issuance

Oil and gas firm Woodside Burrup was the biggest recipient of new Australian carbon offsets this week, earning A$1.1 million worth of credits for a tree-planting project.

CN Markets: Pilot market data for week ending Aug. 23, 2019

Closing prices, ranges and volumes for China’s regional pilot carbon markets this week.

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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Amazon meddling – As the raging fires in the Amazon capture global attention, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro acknowledged for the first time that it could be farmers, not NGOs, illegally setting the rainforest ablaze. Despite earlier saying that Brazil alone lacked the resources to control the fires, Bolsonaro blasted foreign powers for meddling. “These countries that send money here, they don’t send it out of charity. … They send it with the aim of interfering with our sovereignty.” France and Ireland’s leaders threatened to tear up the EU’s yet-to-be-ratified Mercosur trade deal and the Trump administration said it was “deeply concerned” about the wildfires, which now look set to be discussed at a summit of G7 leaders in France this weekend. Brazilian Business leaders also warned the backlash could sink the country’s efforts to join the OECD. (Reuters)

Very well then – German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she could “very well support” the Netherlands’ proposal to step up the EU’s 2030 emission cut target to 55%, up from the current 40% reduction under 1990 levels, she said in response to a journalist’s question following a meeting with her Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte and their respective senior ministers on climate issues, Clean Energy Wire reports. Germany’s influence would likely to sway other EU nations into backing a steeper 2030 target that underpins the bloc’s EU ETS cap, however EU leaders are likely to first focus on agreeing a 2050 target, with current presidency holder Finland targeting a net zero deal by year-end, leaving discussions on 2030 goals until next year.

All in the timing – Current policies – including the EU ETS – fail to recognise that removing forest carbon stocks for burning in power plants leads to an initial increase in emissions, and that the periods during which atmospheric CO2 levels are raised before forest regrowth can reabsorb the excess emissions are incompatible with the urgency of reducing emissions to meet Paris Agreement goals. That’s according to a review of scientific studies by EU academics, who urge reforms to allow short-term warming impacts to be taken into account. (Global Change Biology Bioenergy, HT, Carbon Brief)

Taking another punt – Predicting when coal consumption in China will peak is popular among energy researchers everywhere. The latest ones to give it a go is the CNPC Economics and Technology Research Institute, owned by the state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. The analysts expected Chinese coal use to start falling in 2025, and that by 2035 coal consumption will have dropped 18% compared to last year, Reuters reports.

Route ready – Nebraska’s Supreme Court on Friday affirmed an alternative route through the Midwestern state for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, the latest chapter in the international project’s nearly 10-year legal fight. The ruling confirms a route that was approved by Nebraska’s Public Service Commission in Nov. 2017, even though it was not the preferred route of owner TC Energy, formerly known as TransCanada. While Canadian politicians and industry groups applauded the decision, local activists and environmental organisations continued to express their opposition to the project and doubted it would ever be built. TC Energy is yet to make a final decision on the pipeline. (Reuters)

Doug-mocracy in action – Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he will reconsider the province’s Supreme Court challenge of the Canadian ‘backstop’ CO2 tax if federal Conservative leader Andrew Scheer loses the national election this fall. The conservative premier said he would first consult with Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey on legal options in the event of a Scheer loss, who has been campaigning against the ruling federal Liberals’ carbon tax. “We’ll be consulting with the cabinet and we’ll move forward from there, but I do respect democracy,” Ford told reporters on Friday. (The Toronto Star)

Boreal Bloc – Quebec sovereigntist party Bloc Quebecois has announced that it will run a carbon neutral campaign in the lead up to Canada’s federal election. Party leader Yves-Francois Blanchet indicated that for every tonne of GHG emitted for transportation, the Bloc will pay the University of Quebec in Chicoutimi’s Carbone Boreal programme that plants trees. The Bloc also said it will pay double the normal amount to the project, or C$94 for every 1,000 kilometres driven by its campaign team. (The Canadian Press)

And finally… Koched out – Billionaire industrialist David Koch died at the age of 79 on Friday, having established a lasting effect on the failure to pass substantial climate policy in the US. In a Friday interview with The New Republic, Christopher Leonard, author of the new book “Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America”, details how the conservative political network of David and his brother Charles bankrolled a constellation of think-tanks and funded thinkers to sow doubt about the science of climate change. Beginning in the 1990s, the groups produced study after study predicting terrible economic consequences if the federal government regulated GHGs. Leonard said that culminated in the Koch network playing a “vital and unrivalled role in burning down the moderate wing of the Republican party that acknowledged the reality of climate change”, reaching its zenith a decade ago when the US Congress failed to pass the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill and coinciding with the rise of the GOP’s Tea Party movement.

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