Tag: carbon market

The EU's flagship scheme for cutting carbon emissions suffered one of the most serious setbacks in its chequered history on Tuesday (16 April), when MEPs voted against a proposal to shore up the price of carbon in the Emissions Trading System (ETS).

Climate and environment ministers from Germany and five other European Union states have reportedly urged EU lawmakers to approve proposals for backloading emissions trading allowances, in order to prop up carbon prices and sustain “a central instrument of EU-wide climate protection”.

Europe is staring at a ‘lost decade’ that will make decarbonisation impossible and reduce carbon credits to the value of ‘junk bonds’ unless politicians back a carbon market reform package, the head of Europe’s electricity industry association has told EurActiv.

The European Commission has moved swiftly to deny a Polish data analysis contending that plans to suspend - or ‘backload’ – 900 million carbon allowances from auction on the Emissions Trading System (ETS) will blow a hole in the revenues of new EU member states.

Some of the companies that have complained loudest about the EU's environmental measures are using the EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS) to give money to rivals in other countries instead of cutting their own greenhouse gas emissions, it has emerged.

The European Commission will try to shore up its battered carbon market today (14 November) with a structural report signalling a future squeeze on carbon credits to augment a planned  ‘backloading’ or postponing of 900 million allowance auctions until 2019 and 2020.

Günther Oettinger, the EU’s energy commissioner, greeted the launch of a new coalition promoting renewables and gas power with a call to set fixed emissions reductions and clean energy targets for 2030.

The European Commission has proposed an Emissions Trading System (ETS) ban on €440 million of Kyoto-era carbon credits from non-EU countries such as Russia, which have not signed up to a second Kyoto commitment period.

A high–level UN panel has proposed a hard-hitting package to reform the centrepiece of the carbon market established by the Kyoto Protocol, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

Europe’s airline executives launched a new salvo against the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) yesterday (24 May), just weeks before an international working group is due to make new proposals aimed at resolving the dispute over pricing air carbon emissions.

The use of middlemen to leverage private sector climate cash is putting investments at risk because of the rich world’s negligence in ensuring transparency and adequate monitoring, according to a new report by the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad).

Sagging carbon prices lost nearly 14% of their value yesterday (2 April) as recession and a warm winter sparked a predicted 2.6% drop in carbon emissions from the 10,000 installations covered by the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) last year.

A senior Shell executive has called for “decisive action” to recalibrate the Emissions Trading System (ETS), as a key European Parliament committee prepares to vote on a ‘set-aside’ of EU allowances in a bid to raise the carbon price.

European finance ministers will today (21 February) call for the EU executive to prepare a paper on raising climate funds through carbon pricing on aviation and maritime transport by June, if draft conclusions seen by EurActiv are approved.

Institutional investors with a collective $26 trillion under management have opened a new front in the fight against climate change, urging the private sector to mobilise and find new technologies to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Coal plants in developing countries get billions of euros in climate finance for new projects that do little to reduce CO2 emissions, the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) says in a new report.

A UN panel has suspended Romania's right to trade its surplus carbon emissions after it breached rules on emissions reporting, Bucharest's environment ministry said on 28 August.

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) agreed to force energy efficiency design standards on new ships from 2013, but developing countries will probably delay implementation until 2017 or 2019.

A predicted oversupply of 1.9 billion tonnes of carbon permits in the EU's emissions trading scheme (ETS) between now and 2020 is risking a carbon price slump, according to a report by the environmental NGO Sandbag.

The French government has sent Brussels a letter demanding "rapid action" to protect the integrity of the EU's carbon market from countries such as China, which is demanding exemptions for its airlines.

Yvo de Boer, the former UN climate chief, has called for the private sector to participate in international negotiations about the financing of the yearly $100 billion Green Climate Fund. He spoke to EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

Carbon markets in Europe and California could soon be working in synch, after a meeting between EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard and California Governor Jerry Brown on Tuesday (April 5).

Bulgaria, Ireland and Norway will reopen their national emissions registries today but security doubts have led two carbon spot markets – Climex and APX-ENDEX – to close their operations for good.

Italian taxpayers are set to pay €1.7 billion for unnecessary international carbon credits to meet the country's obligations under the Kyoto Protocol while Italy's government hands out free allowances to companies, according to climate NGO Sandbag.