Polluters who have reduced their carbon emissions can now apply for a reduction to their electricity bill, thanks to a new system rolled out by the carbon trade center in Beijing. Electric Carbon Contract, a cooperation project between Beijing Environment Exchange and GP Power Electricity Group, was launched on Tuesday in Beijing.
The system links carbon trading with preferential electricity rates, said Mei Dewen, director of Beijing Environment Exchange. Since 2013, China has tested carbon trading in seven pilot cities, including Beijing. Local governments assign tradable carbon emission allowances to key emitters based on their emissions history………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The EU carbon market is supposed to make polluters pay. But generous handouts to industries deemed at risk of losing business abroad are undermining the system, a watchdog has warned. Cement producers reaped a €5 billion windfall from the emissions trading system (ETS) between 2008 and 2015, their annual reports reveal.
Companies like Lafarge, Heidelberg and Cemex profited from selling carbon allowances they received for free, substituting cheaper international offsets and passing through costs to customers………………………………………..Full Article: Source

New Zealand is seeking to offset its global warming emissions by investing almost $5 billion in green projects overseas, saving six times that figure to meet its Paris climate commitments.
Climate Minister Paula Bennett sounded out countries willing to sell emission-reduction credits as she met them at the United Nations climate talks in Morocco this month, she said by phone, declining to be specific because the talks were private. The government may be able to buy credits for a price that’s 88 percent cheaper than reducing emissions at home through 2030, an environment ministry research report shows………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Demand for California pollution permits rebounded in the latest carbon auction after plummeting earlier this year, state officials said Tuesday. Still, the permits did not sell out, heightening uncertainty about the program’s future.
About 88 percent of the available credits were purchased at the quarterly auction held last week by California and its trading partner, Quebec, Canada. That’s an improvement from the 35 percent sold in August and 10 percent in May………………………………………..Full Article: Source

On Nov. 7, two days before the U.S. presidential election, diplomats and climate change experts from around world gathered in the Moroccan city of Marrakech to hash out commitments and chart the way forward to slow down global warming. At the time they did not have any premonition that a climate skeptic, who has described global warming as “a hoax created by China,” would be elected president of the United States.
Negotiators were upbeat because three days earlier, on Nov. 4, the Paris climate agreement, which aims to control global temperature increases to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, had come into effect, and a global consensus on climate action finally seemed within reach………………………………….Full Article: Source

China is planning to open a national carbon market next year, and the consequent scale of this market is expected to enable emissions reductions from 2020. According to experts, the market is particularly important as it will be the first of its kind to be set up at a national scale.
The market is expected to be in the range of 3-5 billion tonnes of carbon allowances per year in the beginning, which is a lot more than the EU-ETS scheme – currently the largest carbon market in the world with two billion tonnes of allowances…………………………………Full Article: Source

As Donald Trump’s victory plunges US climate action into uncertainty, China is going ahead with an ambitious policy. In the wake of Donald Trump’s surprise victory in the US presidential election, and his refusal to recognise climate change, China’s new carbon market is attracting particular attention.
China’s move is not just one of the most important outcomes of the US-China bilateral climate talks – it may be the most watched national climate change move since the Paris Agreement came into force…………………………………Full Article: Source

China just rejected US President-elect Donald Trump’s widely derided claim that global warming is a Chinese hoax created to harm the American manufacturing sector. Speaking at the UN climate summit in Marrakech, Morocco, China’s Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said that his country couldn’t have invented climate change because previous Republican administrations actually put global warming solutions on the international agenda.
“If you look at the history of climate change negotiations, actually it was initiated by the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] with the support of the Republicans during the Reagan and senior Bush administration during the late 1980s,” said Liu………………………………………Full Article: Source

No immediate emissions reduction is expected when it opens next year, but the huge scale of China’s carbon market provides hope for reductions from 2020 onwards. In the wake of Donald Trump’s surprise victory in the US presidential election, and his refusal to recognise climate change, China’s new carbon market is attracting particular attention.
China’s move is not just one of the most important outcomes of the US-China bilateral climate talks – it may be the most watched national climate change move since the Paris Agreement came into force…………………………………….Full Article: Source

The ongoing Marrakech Climate Change Conference is the first meeting among member states since the Paris Agreement went into force, and also the first meeting that focuses on what actions will be taken.
China will continue to abide by the purpose and regulations of the agreement; pursue the principles of common but differentiated responsibilities, equality and respective capabilities; follow the rules of multilateral negotiation; and support the work of Morocco, the conference’s presidency so as to ensure the complete success of the Marrakech meeting…………………………………….Full Article: Source

In the wake of Donald Trump’s surprise victory in the US presidential election, and his refusal to recognise climate change, China’s new carbon market is attracting particular attention. China’s move is not just one of the most important outcomes of the US-China bilateral climate talks – it may be the most watched national climate change move since the Paris Agreement came into force.
In the short-term, experts are not expecting China’s national carbon market to be perfect. They say it will take several years of growth before it delivers emissions reductions, and that the most urgent task is to put the market mechanism in place quickly so that its operation can be studied and improved……………………………………Full Article: Source

If we take the incoming president of the United States at his word, things look dire for the cause of sustainability. Donald Trump and many of his advisers appear hostile to action on climate change and to progress on many social issues that companies have already embraced, such as diversity and LGBT rights.
Even if Trump himself stays ambivalent on some of these issues, Republican leaders have much clearer aims, including extensive plans to slash environmental protections……………………………………Full Article: Source

US President-elect Donald Trump has expressed doubts over climate science, signifying it as a hoax. How can we expect such a country to pay for the carbon sink when Trump threatened to withdraw from the already ratified Paris Agreement?
The United Nations Framework for Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’s 13th assembly in Bali, Indonesia, in 2007, first developed the concept of REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation)……………………………………..Full Article: Source

Rather than adopting an approach similar to the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standard in the United States, the European Union could achieve similar carbon dioxide emissions reductions simply by extending the existing emissions trading system to encompass transportation (in addition to the electricity generation and energy-intensive industries it currently covers), according to a new study from MIT and its research partners.
Using such an approach would be far cheaper (as far as costs to the economy) than utilizing something similar to the CAFE standard, the researchers involved argue……………………………………..Full Article: Source

Before everyone gets overly upset about Donald Trump and climate change consider this one thing: Donald Trump’s denial of climate change is irrelevant.
Climate change is a scientific reality and the denial of climate change as a problem does not make the threat go away. The reality cannot be changed by the personal beliefs of the president of the United States. This is akin to King Canute demanding that the tide cease to rise. When he failed to force the Ocean to his will, he proclaimed, “let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings.”……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Paris climate agreement that was adopted at the Climate Change Conference in December 2015 to replace the Kyoto Protocol, came into force November 4. Within the framework of this document, representatives of 195 countries agreed, in particular, to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
Meanwhile, Paris agreement is subject to serious criticism as some experts insist on stricter control measures and express doubts about successful implementation of the document’s aims………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Anyone expecting that President-elect Donald Trump will have a free hand in tearing up U.S. rules on auto emissions may find a rude shock in precious metals markets: The ratio between platinum and palladium prices is collapsing. The platinum-palladium ratio is close to its lowest levels since 2002.
About 72 percent of the world’s palladium goes into catalytic converters, the filters attached to vehicle exhausts that capture soot and convert nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide into less toxic gases………………………………….Full Article: Source

The European Commission’s top climate official says a nationwide emissions trading scheme (ETS) to be rolled out in China next year could pave the way for a link-up to the EU system, taking a step towards an international carbon trading market.
Further talks with other countries that could eventually become part of the system are scheduled for this week at the COP22 climate summit in Marrakesh. Among them is New Zealand, said Jos Delbeke, director-general for climate action at the Commission………………………………….Full Article: Source

Donald Trump is all wrong about climate change. Not only does he risk becoming the only world leader who fails to understand that dangerous climate change is the central environmental challenge of our time. He also risks negating U.S. leadership on climate change at a time when the global community has reached consensus on the need to address this crisis.
Trump is also wrong when he claims that all action to protect the climate is “done for the benefit of China, because China does not do anything to help climate change.” …………………………………….Full Article: Source

With Donald J. Trump the President-elect of the United States, the momentous Joint Agreement on Climate Change, signed by U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping, which was heralded as a rare moment of policy coordination, may soon be relegated to the dustbin of history.
On the American side that is. The good news is that China will stick with its pledge to peak greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 or sooner, according to Chen Zhihua of the NDRC, China’s Chief Climate Negotiator……………………………………..Full Article: Source

Government divisions over approach to climate change plan are bridged, but targets will be reviewed in 2018 to consider their impact on industry. Germany’s coalition government has reached an agreement on a climate change action plan which involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 to 95% by 2050, a spokesperson said.
The plan, which will require German industry to reduce its CO2 emission by a fifth by 2030, and Germany’s energy sector to reduce emissions by almost a half, will be reviewed in 2018 with a view to its impact on jobs and society…………………………………….Full Article: Source

Adoption of the Paris climate accord could spur more action to limit fossil fuel use. It was one of the most curious moments in the run-up to the UN talks that sealed the landmark Paris climate change agreement last December.
The chief executives of six large European oil companies, including BP and Royal Dutch Shell, declared that they hoped the negotiations would lead to “widespread carbon pricing in all countries”. In other words, they would be happy if it cost more to burn the fossil fuels on which their revenues depend…………………………………..Full Article: Source

The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States is a “real and imminent threat” to the fight against climate change, and “completely upends every single element” of the Paris Agreement, making it almost impossible to deliver, the MEP leading EU carbon market reform has warned.
Trump, elected today (9 November), has called climate change a hoax, saying it was “fictional”, and “created by the Chinese”. The president-elect has threatened to pull the US out of the UN deal to cap global warming at no more than two degrees above pre-industrial levels with an aspirational 1.5 degree target………………………………………Full Article: Source

A global pact to battle global warming entered into force last week, but the latest long-term look into the energy market by the Opec oil cartel sees climate change measures failing to quench the world’s thirst for crude.
Each year Opec releases a report that looks at how the energy market will evolve in the coming two decades, and Tuesday’s report slashed estimates of coal and gas use due to efforts to limit climate change, but left oil unscathed…………………………………….Full Article: Source

Virtually every clean energy record in the world has been broken in the past year. The most investment in clean energy ($329billion in 2015), the most new renewable capacity (a third more than in 2014), the cheapest ever solar power (in Chile, where it’s half the cost of coal), the longest a country has been run entirely on renewable electricity - 113 days over this summer in Costa Rica.
The pace of the shift to a clean economy is astonishing. This year, half a million solar panels have been installed every day, while China has erected two wind turbines an hour…………………………………….Full Article: Source

The State Council, China’s cabinet, has issued a new climate plan that targets an 18-percent cut in carbon emissions by 2020 compared to level in 2015. The central government is said to have already drafted detailed measures to develop a low-carbon economy by 2050, with plans to unveil the measures soon.
Also, China will set up a nationwide carbon trading platform, likely the world’s largest, which will help companies to trade their carbon emission quotas while saving energy and cutting costs. I estimate the carbon market will explode by 2020, and that the annual trading value could reach 400 billion yuan by then………………………………………Full Article: Source

UNFCCC climate chief Patricia Espinosa says Agreement’s early entry into force ramps up pressure on negotiators to complete treaty’s rulebook as quickly as possible. More than 100 countries have now ratified the Paris Agreement that came into force on Friday, as the next round of UN climate talks get underway today in Marrakesh.
Speaking on Sunday ahead of the formal start of the COP22 conference today, the UN’s climate chief, Patricia Espinosa, announced that over the weekend the Paris Agreement reached the 100 country mark, thanks to a flurry of submissions from South Korea, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Estonia, Ireland and Luxembourg late last week………………………………………Full Article: Source

Public funds from Europe’s carbon trading programme – set up to help poorer countries reduce emissions – will help build two plants that will emit about 7m tonnes of CO2 a year.
Greece appears on track to win access to a controversial EU programme that could earmark up to €1.75bn (£1.56bn) in free carbon allowances for the building of two massive coal-fired power plants………………………………………Full Article: Source

U.S. negotiators want to speed global efforts to slash carbon emissions — and keep developing nations like China and India from veering off course at next month’s COP22 climate summit in Morocco.
The meeting will produce few final decisions, but the U.S. and other countries are expected to detail additional steps they could take to achieve dramatic carbon reductions by the middle of the century………………………………………Full Article: Source

The European Energy Exchange (EEX) has registered its first trade in European Union emissions permits for the post-2020 trading period of the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS), it said on Wednesday.
The trade was conducted between Bavarian public sector bank BayernLB and carbon trading company Belektron on Friday at a price of 6.02 euros ($6.68) a tonne for the contract expiring in December 2021. The transaction had a volume of 50,000 tonnes, the exchange said in a statement…………………………………….Full Article: Source

In the wake of the failure of the U.N. summit in Copenhagen in 2010 to agree on methods to reduce global warming, an internal Chinese government think tank document obtained by Western media revealed their fears of a rich nation’s “conspiracy to divide the developing world” and stifle the rapidly growing Chinese economy with onerous and expensive environmental regulations China could ill afford.
In 2016, however, the shoe is on the other foot. Reuters reports that lead Chinese climate negotiator Xie Zhenhua, the same man who led the delegation accused by disgruntled Western leaders of ruining the Copenhagen summit through stonewalling and intransigence, has broken with Chinese civic norms to criticize Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s lack of interest in environmental stewardship…………………………………….Full Article: Source

In a rare comment on a foreign election, veteran climate chief says a wise political leader should make policy in line with global trends. China on Tuesday rejected a plan by US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to back out of a global climate change pact, saying a wise political leader should make policy in line with global trends, a rare comment on a foreign election.
The world is moving towards balancing environmental protection and economic growth, China’s top climate change negotiator told reporters, in response to a query on how China would work with a Trump administration on climate change……………………………………Full Article: Source

China successfully reduced its carbon intensity by 20 percent during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2010-15), surpassing its original 17 percent target, said a senior environmental official on Tuesday.
Xie Zhenhua, China’s special representative for climate change, said at a Beijing press conference Tuesday the use of non-fossil fuels hit 12 percent, a little above the 11.4 percent target set by the 12th Five-Year Plan. Moreover, China’s forest reserves have grown to 15.1 billion cubic meters, reaching its 2020 goal four years in advance, said the former environment minister……………………………………Full Article: Source

China leads the charge for emissions efficiency, but faster progress is needed to meet the Paris climate goals, reports Climate Home. The amount of carbon needed to power the global economy fell to record lows in 2015, as coal consumption in major economies plummeted.
PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) annual Low Carbon Economy Index report has found that the global carbon intensity (emissions per unit of GDP) fell by 2.8%……………………………………Full Article: Source

I used to live in Washington state. I’m no longer registered to vote there, but if I were, I would vote “Yes” on Nov. 8 for the Washington Carbon Emission Tax and Sales Tax Reduction, also known as Initiative 732, or I-732.
I-732 would make Washington the first U.S. state to have a carbon tax. The tax would be levied on refineries and utilities, who would then pass the tax on to consumers in the form of higher gasoline, electricity and natural gas prices. The tax would start at US$15 per ton of carbon dioxide in July 2017, increase to $25 after one year, then rise with inflation plus 3.5 percent in each subsequent year…………………………………….Full Article: Source

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has been heavily criticised by climate campaigners for failing to draw up a comprehensive plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the sector at a meeting in London last week.
The IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) did agree to cap sulphur emissions from marine fuel by 2020 and launch a new three-year data collection project to monitor ship efficiency, but no agreement was reached on capping carbon dioxide emissions…………………………………….Full Article: Source

With the challenges for the Paris Agreement having shifted from ratification to implementation, increased attention is being directed to financial assistance to developing countries to help them achieve their commitments under the Agreement. In this context, there are high expectations for the contribution green bonds can make. This is logical and welcome.
Yet, the link between the Paris Agreement and green bonds can be well established only when a missing link is provided. Central to the Agreement are countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)……………………………………..Full Article: Source

Fund house says companies should pay more for the pollution they generate. BlackRock has called on governments globally to make businesses pay a higher price for the pollution they generate, in a move aimed at forcing companies to reduce their carbon emissions.
The world’s largest fund house, which manages $4.9tn for investors, said it is struggling to understand the climate change risks it faces when making investment decisions because the price companies have to pay for emitting carbon is inconsistent……………………………………Full Article: Source

Major trading countries are urged to make a big contribution to the battle against climate change by introducing a carbon tax on imports. The US, China and the European Union (EU) should bring in border taxes on carbon emissions contained in imported products not already taxed in their countries of origin, according to a former New Zealand cabinet minister.
It would mean that if China, for example, includes rice in its emissions trading scheme, any rice it then imports − and which had not been subject to an emissions tax in its country of origin − would incur a border carbon tax…………………………………..Full Article: Source

Aviation’s greenhouse gas emissions could consume around half the carbon budget available to the UK in 2050, even if the sector’s emissions growth is constrained.
If aviation emissions increase with rising demand for flights, the sector could claim as much as two-thirds of the budget for 1.5C, Carbon Brief analysis of the latest official climate advice shows. The numbers make for awkward reading as the government prepares to approve a new runway at Heathrow, which it says is needed to meet ever-rising demand for air travel…………………………………..Full Article: Source

Viet Nam will successfully implement commitments in greenhouse gas emission reduction and climate change mitigation, the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha has said at the Assembly Meeting of the Partnership for Market Readiness (PMR) in Ha Noi.
As a country severely affected by climate change, Viet Nam has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GGE) by 8 per cent a year by 2030 and mitigate the effects of climate change. The figure could increase to 25 per cent if there was more international support, Ha said on Tuesday…………………………………..Full Article: Source

New analysis finds more international carbon trading could drastically reduce costs of delivering deep emissions cuts. The cost of mitigating climate change could be reduced by almost a third by 2030 through greater cooperation via carbon trading, according to a new report released this week by World Bank.
The analysis, prepared with technical support from consultancies Ecofys and Vivid Economics, found an expanded international carbon market could enable large-scale emissions reductions at a far lower cost than is currently the case………………………………….Full Article: Source

According to a new World Bank report released this week, increased global cooperation through carbon trading could reduce the cost of climate change mitigation by 32% by 2030. Released at an international carbon event held in Vietnam on Tuesday, the State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2016 report shows that increased international cooperation on carbon trading could enable large-scale emissions reductions at much lower costs than are currently present, based on the carbon mitigation goals currently outlined in the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) filed under the Paris Agreement.
A total of 189 countries representing 96% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 98% of the world’s population have committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change, but now these governments must follow through on these promises………………………………….Full Article: Source

Global co-operation on carbon trading could reduce the costs of climate change mitigation by 32% by 2030. That’s according to a new report by the World Bank which adds the figure could rise to more than 50% by 2050.
It shows increased international carbon trading could enable large-scale emission reductions at much lower costs based on the carbon mitigation goals spelled out in countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCS) under the Paris Agreement…………………………………….Full Article: Source

In a race toward global catastrophe, the Earth’s climate has been setting records faster than Katie Ledecky. 2014 was the hottest year on record, until 2015 supplanted it in the record books. After months of history-making heat, it is almost certain that 2016 will take the crown.
Experts say that if we want to keep the global thermostat at a tolerable level, we’ll have to do more than drive Teslas and install solar panels. We’ll have to scrub decades of accumulated carbon pollution from the skies. Techno-utopians envision planet-saving machines that would vacuum up surplus greenhouse gases, but early attempts are costly and impractical. So far, our best tool is a tree……………………………………Full Article: Source

Vietnam, one of the countries worst affected by climate change, has reaffirmed its commitment to an 8-percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, saying it can even do better with international support. A reduction of up to 25 percent could be possible if global organizations offer their helping hands, Tran Hong Ha, the environmental minister, said at a conference on Tuesday.
Official data showed that Vietnam’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2010 were around 266 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, not including effects of land use and forestry. Energy-related industries accounted for 53 percent……………………………………Full Article: Source

Greater global cooperation through carbon trading could reduce the cost of climate change mitigation by 32% by 2030, according to a World Bank report.
The State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2016 report was released by the bank at an international carbon event in Vietnam. New modeling analysis undertaken for the report shows that increased international carbon trading could enable large-scale emissions reductions at much lower cost than at present…………………………………Full Article: Source

International agency signs off on 10 low carbon projects capable of mobilising $2.6bn of investment. The high profile Green Climate Fund has signed off on $745m of low carbon investment, taking funding from the agency past the $1bn mark.
The latest meeting of the GCF, the international agency formed to mobilise low carbon investment in developing countries as part of the Paris Agreement, approved investments in 10 projects spread across 27 countries, which combined boast a total value of $2.6bn…………………………………..Full Article: Source

‘If the home has 1 acre of young trees, just care of forest growth, in addition to the benefits of trees after each year can be an additional 30 yuan of carbon trading income’
At present, the province’s first forestry carbon sink project pilot project has been launched in Longshan County, Xiangxi, ‘Thirteen Five-Year’ period, Hunan will be the first carbon sinks in Hunan Province to start the project, Hunan Province will be the Office of Carbon Sequestration Management Director Dai Chengdong, so described the development of carbon sinks benefits, Development of 30 million mu of carbon sinks…………………………………..Full Article: Source

Hopes were high on Friday that world envoys meeting in Rwanda will agree to phase out potent gases used in refrigerators and air conditioners that are one of the biggest contributors to global warming.
While delegates expressed optimism that a deal was in reach, there was still horse-trading to be done, especially on the timetable on phasing out production of the gases. US Secretary of State John Kerry was to meet with delegations from India and China, both major producers of hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs, whose agreement is crucial in reaching a deal……………………………………..Full Article: Source