Thursday July 27, 2023 « Carbon Pulse

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TOP STORY

A “good number” of carbon credit projects will fail to attain the ICVCM’s Core Carbon Principles (CCP) integrity label, but some market experts judge there to be still too much wriggle room and ambiguity in the cross-stakeholder body’s newly-released assessment framework.

AMERICAS

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices barnstormed as much as 10% over the past two days to new record highs after the state published larger-than-expected scenarios for cutting cap-and-trade allowance supply, while Washington Carbon Allowance (WCA) values climbed ahead of the programme’s permit reserve sale next month.

California will factor in the viability of nascent low-carbon technology roll out and importance having a permit bank as it weighs steeper cups to cap-and-trade allowance budgets over the remainder of the decade, a senior official with state regulator ARB said Thursday.

Using North American automatic programme adjustments in the design of New York’s cap-and-invest scheme, rather than the supply-responsive approaches that their European counterparts use, would better serve to ensure programme stability, experts said Thursday.

EMEA

Multiple Europe-headquartered power generation firms reported a significant drop in EU ETS-covered output in quarterly results published late Wednesday and Thursday, while a large steel producer became the latest to flag a weak demand outlook due to wider macroeconomic uncertainty.

EUA prices stabilised at lower levels before a late moderate gain on Thursday as the market appeared to find buying support after dropping by as much as €3.20 on Wednesday, while gas extended yesterday’s sizeable losses as August contract expiry neared and over-supply concerns appeared to be easing.

Three EU governments are trying to direct public money towards more fossil fuels, rather than steering away as the 27-nation bloc’s overarching climate strategy requires, a report showed on Thursday.

A top EU court has ruled against a Swedish company’s bid to stay in the EU ETS despite its exclusively biomass-fueled operations that had resulted in the facility having almost no reportable CO2 emissions.

ASIA PACIFIC

Sixteen native NGOs and associations on Thursday came out in favour of a contested carbon offset deal in Malaysia’s Sabah state that officials last year signed with a Singapore-registered shell company.

Miner Rio Tinto has written down the value of its Australian alumina refineries as it factors in the cost of buying Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) under the government’s reformed Safeguard Mechanism, saying it will continue to need to rely on offsets to meet its decarbonisation targets.

Japan’s proposed timeline for a domestic carbon pricing mechanism could be too slow for the country to get aligned with its Paris Agreement goals, given the current emissions trajectory, a report has found.

An Australian bank has entered into a strategic alliance with a soil carbon project developer, financing a pilot project that will generate Australian Carbon Credit Units by pre paying for the first credits generated under the project, it announced Thursday.

INTERNATIONAL

Lawsuits are an increasingly important tool for holding governments and corporations accountable on climate, according to a report published Thursday by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

BIODIVERSITY (FREE TO READ)

The British government has published provisional price tiers for its statutory biodiversity credits as part of upcoming net gain legislation, with the final values to be set by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and subject to periodic review.

Around 15% of the bonds to be issued by the United Development Programme (UNDP) to help support tiger ecosystem protection in four Asian countries could be monetised through the sale of “high integrity biodiversity credits”, depending upon the ability to de-risk the credits through guarantee provisions.

The EU has contributed an additional €25 million to the Food and Agricultural Organization’s Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWP) programme, with the funds set to benefit African biodiversity over the next six years.

The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD) should make greater use of the Mean Species Abundance (MSA) metric in its framework as it is already used by many companies and would offer a number of benefits, according to a position paper issued by a group of European companies this week.

A weekly summary of our biodiversity news plus bite-sized updates from around the world. All articles in this edition are free to read (no subscription required).

ICYM

(Clarifies original article on how the ICVCM will approach assessing REDD+ activities)

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INTERNATIONAL

Global boiling – The era of global warming has ended and “the era of global boiling has arrived”, the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, has said after WMO scientists confirmed July was on track to be the world’s hottest month on record. “For vast parts of North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, it is a cruel summer. For the entire planet, it is a disaster. And for scientists, it is unequivocal – humans are to blame,” he told a press conference, urging politicians to take swift action. US President Joe Biden called the soaring temperatures from climate change an “existential threat” and pointed out that heat was the “number one weather-related killer” in the US, causing 600 deaths every year, as he announced moves to bolster heat-related safety rules for workers, especially those labouring outdoors. (Al Jazeera)

Gee up the 20 – G20 powers must send stronger signals of their will to transform world energy systems and should lead the way on plans for mitigating global warming at November’s COP28 UN

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators in the Article

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

• SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
• SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
• SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
• SDG 13: Climate Action
• SDG 15: Life on Land

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

• SDG 7.2: Increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.
• SDG 9.4: Upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes.
• SDG 11.6: Reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management.
• SDG 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries.
• SDG 15.5: Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity, and protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

• Percentage of renewable energy in the global energy mix
• Investment in sustainable infrastructure and clean technologies
• Air quality in cities
• Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
• Conservation of natural habitats and biodiversity

Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Behold! This splendid article springs forth from the wellspring of knowledge, shaped by a wondrous proprietary AI technology that delved into a vast ocean of data, illuminating the path towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Remember that all rights are reserved by SDG Investors LLC, empowering us to champion progress together.

Source: carbon-pulse.com

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