This month, South Korea became the second Asian country after Kazakhstan to officially start a national carbon market. The first carbon allowances that were traded on the Korea Exchange were sold at a similar price to that in Europe’s emissions trading system (EU ETS). South Korea’s ETS could therefore be a good candidate for linking with EU’s carbon market now that the EU is looking at linking as replacement for the barred use of international offsets. While linking can have significant consequences for the integrity of the EU ETS, the European Parliament is currently not in a position to scrutinize the linking negotiation process.
During the night of 23 October 2014, EU leaders brokered a deal on the 2030 climate and energy headline targets. EU’s Heads of States settled on an EU-binding renewable energy target of at least 27%, an indicative energy efficiency target of at least 27% and an at least 40% binding domestic greenhouse gas reduction target …
Read more “Analysis of Europe’s 2030 Climate Ambition”
Scroll down for French and German Brussels, 20 October. This week EU Heads of State are expected to agree on new headline targets for the EU’s 2030 climate and energy framework, including a target to reduce the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030 within the EU’s territory. Flexibility options to make …
Read more “Media advisory: Integrity of Europe’s 2030 climate target in limbo over choice of flexibility options”
The latest leak of the 2030 Council Conclusions (dated 16 October 2014) provides further reason to worry about the future integrity of our 2030 climate target. As explained in our previous reaction from 2 September (see here), due to technical loopholes in the current climate framework, 4 billion tonnes of hot air will accumulate which …
Read more “Carbon Market Watch reaction to the leaked 2030 Council Conclusions”
On 23 and 24 October 2014, EU’s Heads of State will determine Europe’s future action to avoid dangerous global temperature rise. It is expected that they will propose to reduce Europe’s domestic greenhouse gas emissions by merely 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. While this target is not nearly enough to combat climate change, some governments …
Read more “Europe’s leaders must protect the 2030 climate target from loopholes”
For the last couple of years, the European carbon market has failed to provide a signal for decarbonisation with carbon prices hovering around 5 euros for a tonne of CO2. To address this, earlier this year, the European Commission proposed to reform the EU’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) in order to provide a more …
Read more “EU carbon market reforms must go further and arrive sooner”
While Europe is trying to get its emissions trading system (ETS) out of the doldrums, China is busily preparing to launch its national carbon market. By 2020, China’s carbon market will have surpassed the EU ETS as the world’s largest carbon market, covering around 3 to 4 billion tonnes of CO2. South Korea, which in …
Read more “Capping the Dragon: prospects for Chinese and European emissions trading linkage”
On 24 September the European Parliament’s Environment committee, voted down an objection to the European Commission’s new carbon leakage list, 34 to 30. The objection was lodged by Green MEP Bas Eickhout and argued that the proposed €30 per tonne carbon price, used in determining which sectors are placed on the list, was grossly inflated. …
Read more “Carbon leakage: a blank cheque to industry”
On 23 and 24 October 2014, EU’s Heads of State will determine Europe’s future action to avoid dangerous global temperature rise. At this important date, it is expected that they will propose to reduce Europe’s domestic greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. Of course, this proposed target is not nearly enough …
Read more “4 billion tonnes of hot air in the EU could turn the proposed 40% climate target into merely 26%”
