China is planning to roll out a national greenhouse gas emissions trading market by 2017, creating the world’s largest market for carbon. For the program to be effective, however, a greater focus on the creation of a market economy and a deeper political commitment to the environment will be essential.
In particular, the government must wean highly polluting industries off state subsidies. The establishment of a carbon market is widely viewed as confirmation that China is moving toward greater use of market-oriented approaches in national policy……………………………………Full Article: Source

Climate advisors recommend government waits to enshrine net zero carbon target in law. The government’s climate advisors have said it is too early for the UK to set new climate targets, instead advising ministers to concentrate on making sure they meet current legal targets over the coming decades.
In a new report released today on UK climate action following the Paris Agreement, the independent Committee on Climate Change (CCC) said the country’s priority should be to take action to meet existing targets set out by the Climate Change Act……………………………………Full Article: Source

Carbon pricing is the headlines again. Last week Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told premiers they could impose carbon pricing themselves or Ottawa would impose it for them. Yet, misunderstandings abound about what carbon pricing can and cannot do. The confusion comes from supporters and opponents alike. Even some economists, for whom prices are second nature, seem confused.
Generally, carbon pricing comes in two varieties. The first is a carbon tax, which sets a price on carbon directly and lets individuals and companies decide how much carbon to produce. …………………………………….Full Article: Source

Following the EU’s ratification, the Paris Climate Agreement has now passed the threshold for it to come into force. The agreement, which was created during last year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, needed 55 countries to ratify it before it could come into force.
In addition, these 55 countries would need to account for 55% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. While major CO2 emitting countries including the United States and China had already signed on to the agreement, together these countries stood just below the 55% emissions threshold……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Australian investment bank Macquarie is poised to become the first private owner of the Green Investment Bank (GIB), according to reports this weekend that it has become the preferred bidder in the £2bn privatisation process.
Macquarie is understood to have made a higher bid for the bank than its rival in the process, a consortium by the name of Sustainable Development Capital (SDC) comprising the Japanese trading house Mitsui, General Electric and insurance firm John Hancock………………………………….Full Article: Source

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will require every province to adopt a carbon tax or develop a carbon trading system by 2018. The idea could prove an interesting model for the United States.
Earlier this week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dropped a bombshell: He’ll require every province to adopt either a carbon tax or develop a carbon trading system by 2018. Polluters in those provinces that don’t would be hit by a gradually increasing federal tax starting that year. The idea—particularly the provincial option– could prove an interesting model for the U.S………………………………….Full Article: Source

Prime minister announces nationwide carbon pricing will start in 2018 at C$10 per tonne. All Canadian provinces will have to adopt a carbon tax or develop a carbon trading system by 2018, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has announced. The news was met with some controversy.
The government has proposed that the price on carbon pollution should start at a minimum of C$10 (£6) per tonne in 2018, rising by C$10 annually to C$50 per tonne by 2022……………………………………….Full Article: Source

All businesses have trade secrets. It could be something easy to identify, like a database of customer contacts, or a new product or service in development. It could be something less easy to describe, like a business process. The EU has recently published Directive 2016/943 on Trade Secrets, which will soon make its way into UK law. So, how will this affect your business?
Existing UK law is currently pretty flexible. It states that confidential information is protected when a person acquires information he knows, or ought to know, is fairly and reasonably to be regarded as confidential……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Earlier this week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dropped a bombshell: He’ll require every province to adopt either a carbon tax or develop a carbon trading system by 2018. Polluters in those that don’t would be hit by a gradually increasing federal tax starting that year.
The idea—particularly the provincial option– could prove an interesting model for the U.S. Some of the most populous Canadian provinces have already moved towards pricing curbs on carbon……………………………………….Full Article: Source

China’s first national cap-and-trade scheme is expected to start in 2017 and cover roughly 10,000 companies in eight industries. As illustrated in the chart below, the market will capture upwards of 4 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases (GHGs) annually, making it the largest carbon market in the world.
Sustainalytics, a leading global provider of environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and ratings, recently published a report analyzing the key features of China’s emissions trading scheme, and identifying companies that may be best positioned to comply with future GHG regulation………………………………….Full Article: Source

New Zealand has ratified the Paris Agreement, which aims to tackle climate change. The agreement is between the countries that make up 90 per cent of global emissions, including New Zealand, to limit global warming “well below” 2 degrees Celsius, and if possible below 1.5C, until 2100.
“By ratifying today, we are helping to get the Paris Agreement officially over the line, and [have] demonstrated our commitment to global action on climate change,” Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett said………………………………….Full Article: Source

Landmark global climate treaty set to enter force next month after the EU Parliament green lights ratification. The European Parliament has this morning approved the fast-track ratification of the Paris Agreement, clearing the way for the historic treaty to enter force in time for the next UN climate summit in Marrakech next month.
In the presence of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, the United Nation’s Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the President of COP 21 Ségolène Royal, the European Union today voted to approve the ratification of the treaty, which commits the world to limiting global warming to “well below” two degrees…………………………………….Full Article: Source

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday the federal government will set a national “floor price” on carbon that all provinces must levy on emissions, a move that will force the nine provinces and territories that do not already have a pricing mechanism to act.
Trudeau said pricing should start at a minimum of $10 per tonne of carbon dioxide emissions in 2018, rising by $10 each year to $50 a tonne by 2022. Roughly 85 per cent of Canadians already live in a jurisdiction that has a price on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions — programs in B.C. and Quebec are already up and running, with Alberta and Ontario soon to follow in January 2017……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Prime Minister unveils plans for Great Repeal Act and rattles business community with hints government is favouring ‘hard Brexit’ approach. Prime Minister Theresa May has confirmed the vast array of EU environmental regulation will continue to apply in the UK post-Brexit, while raising the prospect such rules could be repealed or reformed once the country has left the bloc.
During an eventful first day at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham yesterday, May confirmed the government would bring forward a Great Repeal Act that would effectively transfer all existing EU law into UK domestic law……………………………………….Full Article: Source

As preparations for the UNFCCC COP22 set for Marrakech, Morocco, gather momentum, a comprehensive introspection is needed in order to find out what Africa’s climate change concerns vis-à-vis those of established habitual polluters are.
Africa will be impacted disproportionately and will experience massive deterioration because of a lack of sustainable solutions, so we are always bombarded by the gospel of sustainability. Does Africa really need a conference of the parties that includes the world’s greatest carbon sinners or that a separate one, specifically for African concerns is the way to go?………………………………………Full Article: Source

Two years after President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that their countries would work together to combat climate change, Republicans and conservatives in the U.S. continue to cite China’s rising carbon emissions as a reason not to bother cutting our own.
Earlier this month, Donald Trump’s economic advisor Stephen Moore claimed that limiting our carbon pollution is pointless because of China’s supposedly growing coal dependency. “Every time we shut down a coal plant in the U.S., China builds 10,” Moore told E&E News. “So how does that reduce global warming?”……………………………………..Full Article: Source

Coal-heavy states and companies have centered their political challenges to U.S. EPA’s Clean Power Plan on arguments that the rule is unachievable. But those arguments didn’t fare well this week in front of federal judges.
A range of studies have shown that many states’ power companies are already near the 2030 greenhouse gas levels EPA has assigned. Those that are not could use carbon trading to get there while keeping costs low for consumers. The rule would allow companies that do not shut down enough coal units to reach their own carbon levels to purchase allowances or credits from companies with greener portfolios………………………………………Full Article: Source

Sebi’s move aims to enhance liquidity and broad base participation in the commodity market. Capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Wednesday allowed commodity derivative exchanges to launch options contracts for trading with the aim of increasing liquidity and attracting more investors to the commodities market.
Sebi said commodity options will facilitate hedging by market participants and help deepen the commodity derivatives market. The exchanges have been allowed to trade in options following a recommendation by the Commodity Derivatives Advisory Committee (CDAC), Sebi said in a circular……………………………………Full Article: Source

Delegates can offset travel carbon emissions as GlobalGAP pledges support for UN Sustainable Development Goals. GlobalGAP chairman Guy Callebaut said that in at least seven of the SDGs, GlobalGAP is “closely concerned”. “Our commitment to the SDGs will be public from now on,” he said.
Chief executive Kristian Moeller explained how carbon trading business Gold Standard is sponsoring the initiative to offset delegates’ carbon emissions. “Every time a delegate hands in a completed form, we put a peanut in the container. We hope to get one peanut for all 400 delegates, and thus become the first carbon-neutral conference. We are using peanuts to show that carbon is not peanuts – we need to talk about this, let’s really make it happen,” he said……………………………………Full Article: Source

Unless it does more, the United States probably will fall short of goals set under last year’s Paris agreement to dramatically reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases, according to a new study.
The U.S. pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions in 2025 by 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels. But taking into account current efforts by state and local governments, the nation will only reach about four-fifths of that goal, according to a study in Monday’s Nature Climate Change…………………………………..Full Article: Source

An aviation emissions offset appears set for take-off, but environmental campaigners warn it does not go far enough. The long-awaited general meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) kicks off in Montreal today with hopes running high that the UN-backed body is poised to deliver an historic agreement to tackle aviation emissions.
Support is growing for proposals for a Global Market Based Mechanism (GMBM) that would require airlines to purchase verified emissions offset credits to cover the greenhouse gas emissions they produce, imposing a carbon price on the sector that would reach far beyond the existing EU emissions trading scheme……………………………………Full Article: Source

As China prepares to launch the world’s biggest carbon trading market next year, the British foreign secretary’s special representative on climate change has said he has high hopes that the scheme will help accelerate China’s transition from coal plants to wind farms, solar and nuclear power, and other sustainable energies.
“I think it is going to be very, very good for the Chinese economy,” Sir David King said last weekend during a visit to Shanghai, where he attended a meeting with the municipality on flood defense and held a lecture on climate change at East China Normal University……………………………………..Full Article: Source

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announces his government will ratify the climate agreement on Gandhi’s birthday. India will ratify the Paris Agreement on October 2, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced.
The announcement, widely reported in India’s national press, will come exactly a year to the day since India submitted its national climate action plan - or Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) in UN jargon - to the UN climate change secretariat……………………………………..Full Article: Source

Today, let’s examine the only transparent and effective method of reducing greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change. One that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canada’s premiers are ignoring. It’s called carbon fee and dividend.
It’s 100% revenue neutral, unlike the carbon pricing schemes underway or soon to be implemented by most provinces. (B.C.’s carbon tax comes closest to revenue neutrality.)…………………………………..Full Article: Source

Almost no one is talking about it, but California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a hugely consequential bill this month. The law, SB 32, drastically ramps up the state’s landmark climate change law in the world’s sixth-largest economy. The world is watching closely: If California’s policy appears to be working, it will be copied in states and countries across the globe. Which makes it all the more important for state leaders to get it right.
California is well on its way to meeting its first emissions goal, set a decade ago, to cut the state’s carbon footprint to 1990 levels by 2020. That transition has been driven in part by traditional, command-and-control environmental regulations and in part by a statewide cap-and-trade system, which makes polluters pay for the emissions they produce…………………………………..Full Article: Source

Scheme designed to cap energy consumption by allocating quotas to companies. China is planning to use a pilot programme for energy trading between companies next year as it seeks to curb carbon emissions by forcing companies to use energy more efficiently.
The pilot programme will allocate energy consumption quotas to companies, who will have to pay if they exceed the limit. It will be introduced in four provinces initially: Zhejiang, Fujian, Henan and Sichuan, and pending a review in 2020 then be rolled out nationally………………………………………Full Article: Source

The Paris Agreement on climate change moved closer to enter into force this year as 31 more countries on Wednesday joined it at a special event hosted by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York.
The number of the countries, which joined the Paris Agreement, has now reached 60 - five more than the threshold of 55 nations required for bringing the Agreement into force. The Paris Agreement will enter into force 30 days after 55 countries, representing 55% of global emissions, deposit their instruments of ratification, acceptance or accession with the UN Secretary-General………………………………………Full Article: Source

China is planning to roll out a national greenhouse gas emissions trading market by 2017, creating the world’s largest market for carbon. However, for the scheme to be effective a greater focus on the creation of a market economy and a deeper political commitment to the environment will be essential.
In particular, the government must wean highly polluting industries off state subsidies. China’s establishment of a carbon market is widely viewed as confirmation that it is moving toward greater use of market-oriented approaches in national policy…………………………………….Full Article: Source

China’s carbon market ‘probably as consequential, in some ways, as Paris’ says Ontario’s environment minister. As Canada’s provincial, territorial and federal leaders grapple over carbon pricing policy, China is moving ahead with a cap-and-trade market that some believe could transform the dynamics of the international climate change battle.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrives Wednesday in Ottawa to begin a four-day Canadian visit, including bilateral meetings with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau…………………………………….Full Article: Source

As Canada’s provincial, territorial and federal leaders grapple over carbon pricing policy, China is moving ahead with a cap-and-trade market that some believe could transform the dynamics of the international climate change battle. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrives Wednesday in Ottawa to begin a four-day Canadian visit, including bilateral meetings with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The Prime Minister’s Office will only say that environment and climate change are on the table for discussion, and a spokeswoman for Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said Canada “commends China’s plans” to launch a national cap-and-trade market by July 2017………………………………………Full Article: Source

Amid bullish clean energy predictions and packed climate policy events, fears are growing over the impacts of a potential Donald Trump presidency. Bar the most colourful expletives, there are two words you’re unlikely to hear at Climate Week in New York: Donald Trump.
Inside the sophisticated cool of the New York Times building off 8th Avenue, business leaders and politicians addressing the CWNYC launch party oozed determination and optimism………………………………………Full Article: Source

Walt Disney and Goldman Sachs are among more than 1,200 companies preparing for a future in which governments make businesses pay for their carbon pollution to help stop climate change, new figures show.
According to a report by CDP, an organisation that collects company environmental data on behalf of investors, some 1,249 businesses — 23 per cent more than last year — now have an internal carbon price or plan to adopt one soon………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Fast-track ratification, which could see the EU approve the climate deal within a month, will need the backing of all 28 national environment ministers. The EU is looking to fast-track the ratification process for the Paris Agreement, in a move which could see the trading bloc formally approve the treaty in a matter of weeks.
Speaking on Friday after an informal summit of leaders in Bratislava, French President Francois Hollande said the EU is preparing to ratify the accord “as soon as possible”………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The booming industrial center of Shenzhen is a showcase for Chinese efforts to cut CO2 emissions and make the nation’s burgeoning cities more livable. But it remains to be seen whether China’s runaway industrial development can give way to a low-carbon future.
The northeastern fringes of Shenzhen — a fishing village that has been rapidly transformed into a global port city of at least 11 million people — are a patchwork of drab factories spewing smoke, and multi-lane highways packed with container trucks. The area epitomizes the severe pollution and runaway urbanization that have dogged southern Guangdong province since China’s ruling Communist Party began to embrace capitalism in the 1980s………………………………………..Full Article: Source

With our major trading partners, the United States and China, having recently ratified the Paris climate agreement, there is mounting pressure on Canada to come up with a plan to meet its emissions reduction targets. It’s time for Ottawa to take action and put in place a floor price on carbon nationwide.
If the goal is to reduce Canada’s carbon emissions in a way that causes the least amount of economic damage, a uniform price on carbon that applies across the entire country is the best option. A national carbon price has many advantages: It eliminates unproductive jockeying between provinces to attract business and doesn’t push firms across borders solely because of carbon price differentials………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The World Bank has a novel plan to jump-start projects aimed at cutting emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases: It is auctioning off financial contracts that give investors the right to sell a certain amount of emission reductions—known as carbon credits—to the bank at a fixed price over the next four years.
The bank has conducted two auctions focused on methane emissions already and is reviewing plans for a third auction focused on nitrous-oxide emissions. By offering investors certainty in an especially volatile market, the World Bank says it is hoping to revive some of the hundreds of methane-emissions projects in the developing world that have been idled or abandoned following a sharp drop in the price of carbon credits………………………………………..Full Article: Source

As COP 22 approaches and negotiators face the task of implementing the Paris Agreement, they will be required to interpret, expand on and operationalize the various Articles of the Paris text. One such piece is Article 6, which offers a framework that can support the establishment of a global carbon market. But the rules of that market may be very different to ones that have preceded it.
The design of the Kyoto Protocol resulted in a particular emissions accounting architecture that is a mixture of allowance allocation against a cap, combined with a provision for project based credits originating outside the cap (supplied by developing countries in the case of the Kyoto Protocol, i.e. non-Annex 1)………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The European Union wants its own measures to reduce airline pollution from 2018 to 2020 ahead of when a proposed global deal is due to come into force and may extend its own system if it sees fit, European officials said.
Some EU lawmakers argue the global accord falls short of EU ambitions to cut back greenhouse gases and does not justify extending an exemption for flights from the EU’s own aviation emissions trading scheme beyond 2016. Aviation was excluded from December’s climate accord in Paris when countries agreed to limit the global average rise in temperatures to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Government officials, experts and representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from China and South Korea gathered in Beijing on Sept. 10 to share their views and experiences in cutting carbon dioxide emissions in people’s daily lives.
“It is a trend that emissions arising from investment-driven development will see a gradual drop, while consumption-based emissions will keep growing,” said He Jiankun, vice chairman of National Experts Panel on Climate Change and director of Institute of Low Carbon Economy of Tsinghua University………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The UK must immediately kickstart an industry to capture and bury carbon emissions in order to save consumers billions a year from the cost of meeting climate change targets, according to a high-level advisory group appointed by ministers.
This requires the setting up of a new state-backed company to create the network needed to pipe the emissions into exhausted oil and gas fields under the North Sea, the group said. With this government backing, carbon capture and storage (CCS) could deliver clean electricity at a lower cost than an expanded Hinkley Point nuclear power station and almost all renewables, the group’s report states………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Domestic energy-consuming companies will get the chance to improve their core competitiveness and sustainable development ability, but still face many challenges after China and the US ratified the Paris climate deal, experts said Sunday.
China and the US, the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, ratified the Paris Agreement to address global warming the day before the opening of this year’s Hangzhou G20 summit, which was held during September 4 to 5, in East China’s Zhejiang Province………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The U.K. could build facilities to capture and bury carbon pollution under the sea at a similar price to offshore wind farms and nuclear plants, a government adviser will say Monday, setting out options for tackling climate change.
Carbon capture and storage could be deployed at a cost of 85 pounds ($113) a megawatt-hour in the early 2020s if ministers introduce policies to back the nascent technology, according to a report by Lord Ernest Ronald Oxburgh, former Chairman of Shell Transport & Trading Co………………………………………..Full Article: Source

UNFCCC meetings in Asia Pacific region and developing countries have recently explored new market approaches towards tackling emissions. Tackling climate change is perhaps too often seen by the public as a job for governments, but in recent years it has often been businesses, cities, and public organisations that have been leading the way with their decarbonisation efforts.
As the window for keeping global temperatures rises within 1.5C - or even well below 2C - gets ever narrower, it is increasingly necessary for action to come from a broader range of areas, including cities, public bodies, the private sector and even individuals………………………………………..Full Article: Source

In 2012, when California began its cap-and-trade program, it was hailed as a model for the rest of the world. While Congress had failed to pass a similar system two years earlier, California was going to demonstrate how a large, industrialized economy could cut greenhouse gases while also raising billions of dollars for clean energy projects.
The idea was fairly straightforward: By forcing oil refiners, power plants, and factories to buy permits to emit greenhouse gases and then gradually shrinking the supply of those permits, the state could steadily raise the cost of carbon dioxide pollution and compel businesses to lower their carbon footprint………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Premature deaths due to air pollution are costing the global economy $5.1tn annually, or roughly twice the economic output of the UK, with more than half of that burden falling on China and other developing economies in Asia, according to a study.
The estimates released on Thursday by the World Bank for the first time put a “welfare cost” on the toll from both indoor and outdoor air pollution and highlight how it has soared over the past quarter of a century, as developing economies such as China have rapidly industrialised and become more urban………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Tepid interest in market reflects legal uncertainty and effect of shale boom on electricity sector. The price of carbon dioxide in fledgling US emissions markets has been softening even as officials try to encourage investment in projects that spew fewer heat-trapping gases.
Futures contracts on carbon credits in the US north-east were this week trading for $4.64 per short ton on the ICE Futures US exchange, down from a peak above $8 in January. An auction for allowances scheduled Wednesday was also expected to draw bids in the $4 range, brokers said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

A proposal to include emissions from shipping in the EU’s 2030 emissions reduction target through the EU emissions trading system (ETS) has gained cross-party support among MEPs.
The amendment calls for shipowners to buy ETS allowances from 2021 onwards or pay an equivalent amount into a new climate fund that minimises administrative burden by buying allowances collectively on their behalf………………………………………..Full Article: Source

China was responsible for 25 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions in 2012. According to World Bank research, cities consume more than 65 per cent of global energy and emit some 70 per cent of greenhouse gases. Transforming cities into ‘low-carbon cities’ will therefore be an important policy tool in mitigating climate change.
In early 2008, the Ministry of Construction of China and the World Wide Fund for Nature introduced ‘Low-Carbon City’ pilot schemes in Shanghai and Baoding in Hebei province. In 2010, such schemes were formally endorsed by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Shell is often cited in climate change discussions, sometimes disparagingly simply because it is an oil and gas company, but increasingly as a company that has recognised that major changes in both the provision and use of energy across the globe will be needed to both meet demand and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Following from the Paris Agreement, it is hard to see how this won’t be the case. The leadership in Shell regarding climate change has always come from the top. The first major steps were taken in the period 1997 to 2001 when the foundations for change were established by former Chairman Sir Mark Moody-Stuart………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Last-minute deal breaks political stalemate to deliver $900m to programmes to cut greenhouse gases. The EU’s carbon market may be spluttering, with carbon plummeting to its lowest price in more than three years on Friday, but elsewhere in the world there are signs carbon trading systems are finally demonstrating a degree of maturity.
In the US last week years of fraught negotiations came to an end with an agreement by the Californian state legislature to spend $900m of revenues from the state’s carbon-trading programme on a host of policies to support its ambitious climate change programme………………………………………..Full Article: Source