Carbon Pulse

The UK should front-load its efforts towards its 2050 net zero goal by setting a 2035 emissions reduction target of 78% under 1990 levels, and should consider forcing airlines to buy domestic removals offsets, the government’s independent advisory body said on Wednesday.

California Governor Gavin Newsom may announce ARB Chair Mary Nichols’ replacement in the next week, with the appointee to guide the state agency through the 2022 Scoping Plan, numerous sources told Carbon Pulse.

Low allowance prices earlier this year may have contributed to fewer California entities surrendering offsets at the interim compliance deadline in November, but participants anticipate the trend skewing back to historic levels next year.

Call it the ‘first-mover disadvantage’. Researchers are urging for carbon credits generated from historical emissions reductions, as well as the older projects that created them, to be all purged in a bid to save the global voluntary offset market.

A strengthened EU ETS resulting from a higher bloc-wide emissions reduction target by 2030 will be an important tool to support industrial decarbonisation, a panel featuring representatives from heavy manufacturers, government, EU legislative bodies, and green groups heard Tuesday.

EUAs touched €30 early on Tuesday but slipped back as markets await signs of progress on a Brexit trade deal, while carbon traders brace for the expiry of the Dec-20 options contracts.

New Zealand carbon allowances on Tuesday notched a fifth straight day of record high prices, with spot NZUs firming almost 5% over the period as willing sellers remain elusive.

Japan’s greenhouse gas emissions fell 2.7% year-on-year in FY2019, preliminary government data showed Tuesday, keeping the country on track to easily meeting its Paris pledge from five years ago.

Chinese market participants believe prices in the national emissions trading scheme will start off slightly higher than the level they estimated last year, though overall price expectations remain modest, a survey showed Tuesday.

The European Commission has released draft values for the benchmarks used determine free EUA allocations to each industry over 2021-25, a step in the delayed process for handing out the units from next year.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

TradeFlow Capital Management will offset the emissions from the movement of goods under its commodity trading business, the Singapore-based hedge fund announced Monday.

Two Massachusetts generators are holding short positions in the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) programme, with recent prices averaging $7.00 in the thinly-traded market, according to a market oversight report.

The EU could freely allocate EUAs for shipping if the sector is brought into the bloc’s cap-and-trade system, which could prevent carbon leakage and ensure predictability, a senior MEP from the assembly's transport committee (TRAN) said on Monday.

EUAs slipped back below €30 on Monday as a weekend Brexit trade deal failed to materialise, though observers are still bullish on carbon due to the upcoming auction drought.

The TSVCM rightly calls for science-based target setting in tandem with robust carbon offsetting, clear claims guidance for credible communications and broad public support, and long-term corporate commitments and futures contracts to de-risk project development. Yet having sat in Taskforce discussions and observed several emerging instruments that seek to operationalise the forthcoming ‘blueprint,’ Gold Standard's Owen Hewlett spots several concerns about the quality of what is meant to scale.

Dominion Energy anticipates its Virginia-based emissions will declined by more than 10% over the post-2020 period as it joins the RGGI cap-and-trade scheme, and that allowance prices will near $10 by 2030, according to a public filing.

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South Korea plans to strengthen its carbon pricing system as part of its 2050 net zero emissions strategy, though Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki on Monday would not commit to putting in place a carbon tax.

Japan is planning an emissions trading market for its car industry similar to schemes operating in California to help reach its 2050 net zero target.