US Carbon Pricing and LCFS Roundup for week ending Apr. 30, 2021
A summary of legislative and regulatory action on carbon pricing, clean fuel standards, and clean energy at the US subnational and federal level this week, including developments in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
Read MoreARB issues strong rebuke to new study’s conclusions of rampant over-crediting in California’s forestry protocol
California regulator ARB repeatedly pushed back against a new study that found the state’s compliance forestry offset protocol allows for inaccurate baseline levels and for developers to utilise these loopholes to inflate credit issuances, according to responses published by the agency late Thursday.
Read MoreNA Markets: Bullish pressure pushes CCAs to 14-mth high, as RGGI prices rise amid Q1 emissions uptick
California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices surged on the secondary market amid increased speculative demand over the week, while RGGI Allowance (RGA) values rose as entities looked to move positions further out on the curve.
Read MoreUPDATE – New study identifies gaps, over-crediting in California’s forestry offset protocol
California’s compliance offset programme could have erroneously issued up to nearly 40 million credits to forestry projects, and developers utilised gaps in the state’s protocol to inflate emissions reductions attributed to those initiatives, according to a non-profit study released Thursday.
Read MoreCanadian ‘backstop’ emitters likely to forgo Alberta offset purchases for second straight year
Large stationary installations regulated under Canada’s ‘backstop’ output-based pricing system (OBPS) will likely not use any Alberta offsets for compliance against 2020 emissions, as higher prices and political risk make such purchases difficult, a panel heard Wednesday.
Read MoreCalifornia issuances slump to one-year low, as Quebec mints credits for the first time in a month
California regulator ARB issued roughly 63,000 new compliance offsets to two livestock projects this week, while Quebec divvied out over 40,000 credits for use in its cap-and-trade programme, according to data published Wednesday.
Read MorePolicy and trust-building, not technological breakthroughs, viewed as key to scaling CCS
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) of various types is technologically ready to be deployed at scale but needs streamlined permitting, increased tax incentives, and broad public outreach to do so, a conference heard on Wednesday.
Read MoreCORRECTION – Companies should immediately plan for 2050 GHG removals to secure supply -panel
Companies with net zero pledges set decades into the future should begin planning and implementing emissions removal strategies now, both to ensure long-term credit supplies for themselves and to generate demand signals for market benefit, a conference heard on Tuesday.
Read MoreNorth American developers dispute usefulness of price transparency in VCM
Efforts to bring more price transparency to the voluntary carbon market (VCM) have split some North American voluntary emissions reduction (VER) developers, though they agree higher prices are key to greatly enhancing supply and satisfying heightened corporate demand, a panel heard Tuesday.
Read MoreIncreased financial sector participation to dramatically change voluntary carbon market -panel
The structure of voluntary carbon markets (VCM) is expected to change dramatically as financial institutions become ever-larger participants in the space and corporate purchasing decisions shift from marketing departments to finance, a conference heard on Tuesday.
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