COMMENT: Domestic carbon initiatives in Europe – a powerful key to climate mitigation
An increasing number of companies, organisations and governments are taking action which goes beyond what can be achieved using current UN and UNFCCC instruments. One such measure is the voluntary compensation of greenhouse gas emissions, usually based on offset projects in countries without international reduction commitments.
Read MoreCOMMENT: Emissions trading in China – Early lessons from low-carbon pilots
China’s upcoming national ETS will significantly alter the balance of power in global carbon markets in the mid-term. However, significant challenges remain, and the IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is helping China to overcome them with a project in Shenzhen that addresses key barriers to carbon trading, writes IFC Senior Carbon Finance Specialist Lasse Ringius.
Read MoreDIALOGUE: What now for climate policy in Australia?
Australia has finally released its 2030 emissions target, but is it a fair contribution to fighting climate change? Will it require the government to design new policies, and could a carbon market emerge to help meet the target?
Read MoreDIALOGUE: How will US states shape up to Obama’s Clean Power Plan?
The US administration’s Clean Power Plan was published this week, tasking states to cut CO2 emissions from the power sector and aiming to ease the creation of carbon markets by making individual states’ emission units “trade ready”.
Read MoreDIALOGUE: What can China learn from its pilot carbon markets?
China has been operating pilot emissions trading schemes for two years to gain experience ahead of the 2016/2017 launch of the national carbon market. What are the main takeaways so far for Beijing as it designs what will eventually become the world’s biggest ETS?
Read MoreCOMMENT: Going, going, gone – timeline of the World Bank’s first reverse CER auction
Private investors bought price guarantees for 8.7 million tons of methane emission reduction in an innovative auction, attracting bidders form across the globe, writes World Bank Carbon Finance Specialist Scott Cantor.
Read MoreCOMMENT: Record spike in ERF registrations – auction looming or nervous twitch?
Over the past three weeks 73 projects have been registered under the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF), a new record for project registrations under both the ERF and the former Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) schemes – at more than 2.5x the previous monthly registration high of 28 – set in March 2015, just prior to the first ERF auction. A sign of things to come?
Read MoreDIALOGUE: Will post-2020 ETS reforms change the game for EU industry?
We asked several experts how they expected the proposal to affect the approach that heavy industries take to participating in the EU ETS, and what kind of effect this would have on the carbon market.
Read MoreCOMMENT: Business ambition and commitment is key to EU ETS success
The EU ETS has been around for 10 years and, like other emissions trading systems, has been plagued by an excess of allowances keeping prices low and reducing the incentives for business. Yet Europe has decoupled its growth from its carbon emissions – the former up 19% and the latter down 45% over the period of the ETS. Is all of this down to the recession and downturn in production?
Read MoreDIALOGUE: Is China’s INDC any good?
China on Tuesday finally submitted its INDC to the UN, but is the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter ambitious enough?
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