Carbon Pulse

The US should adopt a lower discount rate for its social cost of carbon (SCC) schedule and reincorporate global climate change damages into the calculation, experts said on Wednesday.

Carbon removal project developers are striking deals to help channel their offset sales and build scale as demand rockets even with sky-high prices.

California doled out more than 930,000 compliance offsets across nine projects over the past two weeks, with the majority of the new issuances going to projects that do not provide direct environmental benefits to the state (DEBs), according to data published by state regulator ARB on Wednesday.

European carbon prices rebounded back towards €40 on Wednesday amid a stronger auction result and a mixed energy picture, with data showing investor interest surging to fresh record levels.

Putting a price on emissions from vehicle transport and buildings at EU level will not weaken national policies to decarbonise these sectors, a senior European Commission official said on Wednesday, attempting to allay concerns that the move could replace domestic emissions targets.

A California Senate committee will hold a cap-and-trade oversight hearing next week to examine ways to improve the WCI-linked programme and its role in achieving the state’s long-term climate plan, a legislative source told Carbon Pulse.

Australian exporters risk huge additional costs and shrinking markets as the country’s main trading partners bring climate policy into trade negotiations, but it would be relatively pain free for the government to steer clear of such sanctions, according to two reports out this week.

China’s National Energy Administration has proposed to increase the share of renewables in the nation’s power consumption to 40% by 2030 in a move designed to ensure the world’s biggest-emitting nation meets its Paris Agreement obligations.

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Madagascar signed an agreement last week with the World Bank-led Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, becoming the eleventh country to ink a REDD deal with the fund.

Romania’s second-largest utility CE Oltenia will begin to buy Phase 3 EUAs for 2020 compliance in spot tenders starting on Wednesday, despite a probe into the company’s restructuring plans launched by the European Commission last week.

Two members of California’s Compliance Offset Protocol Task Force (OPTF) stepped down on Monday, arguing that the majority of the group stands to financially benefit from expanding and deregulating the state’s carbon credit programme, contradicting the wishes of environmental groups and the environmental justice (EJ) community.

The European Commission must ensure the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will not “unduly” affect free EUA allocation through 2030, according to heavy industry representatives.

RGGI’s impending Emissions Containment Reserve (ECR) trigger price spurred a rise in allowance prices throughout Q4 2020, as the volume of units transferred between unaffiliated parties surged over the final months of the compliance period, according to a report released Tuesday.

EUAs slipped back below €38 on Tuesday as energy prices gave back some of the previous session’s gains, even as freezing temperatures continued to bite.

Landfill gas and beef herd management projects picked up the majority of credits in Australia’s latest offset issuance, as secondary market prices continued to firm.

The cumulative value of Southeast Asia-generated carbon credits surpassed $100 million last year, according to a report released this week, with projects in Indonesia securing around four-fifths of the total for their avoided deforestation efforts.

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California regulator ARB should provide greater guidance and streamline its compliance offset issuance process, while also adopting new protocols, reducing the default invalidation period, and allowing for tradeable compliance limits, an expert group wrote Monday.

Voluntary emissions reduction (VER) values soared this week as more participants expressed interest in CORSIA-eligible credits following private sector efforts to scale up and standardise the voluntary carbon market (VCM).