The EU is on track to meet its 2020 greenhouse gas emissions reduction target but needs to increase efforts in energy efficiency and renewables, according to the European Commission’s latest State of the Energy Union report. All three components are needed if the EU is to meet its 2030 climate targets. Today, the European Commission…
The aviation sector must not escape an effective tax on its emissions “A great, great deal has been said about the weather, but very little has ever been done” – Marc Twain On Friday 15th of March, Carbon Market Watch took to the streets with more than 30,000 people as part of the Fridays for…
A Luxembourg court has confirmed that its government can reclaim free pollution permits that were given to steelmaker ArcelorMittal to cover emissions at a closed plant under the EU Emission Trading System. While the big polluters cling on to the very profitable free allocation under Europe’s carbon market, solutions exist that would set the industry…
During a closed door session, the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) –the UN body responsible for global aviation– approved the eligibility criteria for what offsets can be used under the new aviation pollution scheme. While an important step, the decision leaves the door open to billions of older ‘junk’ emission units that…
A new paper published in Nature Climate Change confirms that relying on outdated Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) carbon credits to compensate aviation emissions will do nothing for climate action. You can read the full paper here (paywall): Warnecke et al. (2019): “Robust eligibility criteria essential for new global scheme to offset aviation emissions”, Nature Climate…
Aviation emissions have increased by 10% in Europe between 2014 and 2017, according to the 2019 Aviation Environmental Report, as efficiency improvements are not keeping up with growth of demand. Last week, the Dutch finance minister invited other European Member States to consider the implementation of a European carbon tax for aviation, and announced an…
Die deutsche Kohlekommission, beauftragt mit der Prüfung der Realisierbarkeit des Kohleausstiegs in Deutschland, veröffentlichte Ende Januar ihren Bericht, mit dem das Land auf Kurs gebracht wird, bis 2038 kohlefrei zu sein. Der progressiven Kohleausstieg, den der Plan vorsieht, ermöglicht Deutschland, seine Emissionsziele in der Energiebranche bis 2030 zu erfüllen, nachdem offiziell bestätigt wurde, dass das…
Deutsch The German coal commission, tasked with assessing the feasibility of a coal-exit in Germany, published its report at the end of January, setting the country on course to become coal-free by 2038. Through a progressive phase-out approach, the plan would allow Germany to meet its 2030 emissions reductions target in the power sector, after…
After 10 successful years of scrutinizing market-based mechanisms designed to combat global warming, Carbon Market Watch sees a change of leadership at the beginning of 2019. Sabine Frank becomes Executive Director succeeding founding director, Eva Filzmoser; and Sam Van den plas takes over from Femke de Jong as Policy Director. Leadership Transition Eva Filzmoser led the…
It’s been a month since the closing gavel fell on COP24 in Katowice, Poland. Negotiations on the rules that will govern international climate policy over the coming decades -commonly known as the “Paris rulebook” were supposed to be agreed in full during this session. However as the talks ran into overtime and countries could not…
Kaisa Amaral, Media Manager
kaisa.amaral@carbonmarketwatch.org
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