New policies to boost Msia’s solar demand – TNB lead
The stage is set for Malaysia’s solar demand growth to pick up pace following the introduction of new government policies last year aimed at broadening access to renewable energy, said Khirul Nizam, Strategic Partnerships and Business Development Lead at Malaysian state utility Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB)’s New Energy Division, which oversees TNB’s overseas and domestic renewable energy portfolio. Read More
Largest EU Parliament Party: CBAM ‘Should’ Be on Hold for 2 Years
The leaders of the European People's Party (EPP), the party with the most representatives in the European Union Parliament—the EU's legislative body—with 188 out of a total 720 seats, said the carbon border tariff that importers are expected to start paying next year "should be put on hold for at least two years." Following the EPP's leaders' retreat in Berlin over the weekend under EPP President Manfred Weber, the party published a three-page brief criticizing regulatory burdens and obligations for companies in Europe that are stymying economic growth and investment. Read More
Singapore Seeks Nature-Based Carbon Credits in Landmark Article 6 Tender
Singapore's first public tender for carbon credits, seeking at least 0.5 million metric tons (mt) of credits from high-quality nature-based projects, positions the city-state as an early mover in government-led Article 6 transactions under the Paris Agreement, potentially setting a benchmark for the nascent global market, sources said. Read More
CDC2024: Indonesia’s Carbon Market Looks to Regulatory Clarity for Growth
More regulatory clarity is needed to tap into Indonesia's carbon market potential following a moratorium on international trading that has stalled the market's growth for years, participants at the Carbon Digital Conference 2024 held Dec. 9-11 in Jakarta, Indonesia, said. Discussions at the event focused on aligning domestic standards with international frameworks and addressing barriers and opportunities to enable the market's progress. Read More
INTERVIEW: SE Asia Drives Renewables Market: Peak Energy CEO
Opportunities abound in Southeast Asia's nascent solar market but quality still trumps quantity when it comes to project development, according to Peak Energy's CEO, Gavin Adda, undoubtedly drawing from his decades-long experience of navigating solar markets around the world. Read More
Washington Carbon Allowances Rally $10/mt; Cap-and-Invest Program to Continue
Washington Carbon Allowance (WCA) secondary market prices spiked $10/mt Wednesday morning following state voters' decision Tuesday night to maintain the Cap-and-Invest Program. Ballot measure Initiative 2117 failed with 61.69% or 1.57 million votes "no" and 38.31% or 973,000 votes "yes,” according to preliminary state results published Tuesday. The measure sought to repeal parts of Washington's Climate Commitment Act (CCA) including the Cap-and-Invest Program. Read More
DG Fuels to Build 193-Million-Gal/Year SAF Facility in Minnesota by 2030
Biofuels producer DG Fuels plans to turn corn stover and wood waste into 193 million gal/year of sustainable aviation fuel at a facility in Minnesota by 2030, the Washington, D.C.-based company said last week. DGF's plan represents "the most significant commitment towards commercial scale SAF production in [Minnesota]," according to a Monday news release from Greater MSP, a public-private partnership that supports economic growth in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Read More
Washington State Voters to Decide Fate of Cap-and-Invest Program on Tuesday
Washington voters on Tuesday will decide the fate of the state's cap-and-Invest program ahead of what would be the program's second anniversary in January. The program has been marked by allowance price volatility and rulemaking updates as the state's Department of Ecology continues to make tweaks to balance its potential impact on retail fuel prices and its role in helping the state achieve its goals under the Climate Commitment Act. Read More
First-Ever Sustainable Aviation Fuel Reaches Detroit Metropolitan Airport
Montana Renewables (MRL) and Delta Air Lines have introduced the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in Michigan as a 7,000+-gal shipment of SAF has been transported to the Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW), the companies said in a Thursday release. Read More
India Approves Ten Sectors for Carbon Offset Market Rollout in Phases
India's government has approved a list of ten sectors to participate in its voluntary carbon market under the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS), including energy, agriculture and forestry, according to a notice from the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) dated Sept. 20 and published on Oct. 15. Read More
Washington Cap-and-Invest Offsets Rule Draft Maintains Program Stringency
New draft rules for Washington state carbon offset credits show the state is maintaining a tight approach to verification and environmental justice in the emissions offsets market. Regulators on Tuesday published full draft rule language for Cap-and-Invest offsets rulemaking ahead of public meetings later this month. The state Department of Ecology would operate the offsets market more strictly than other compliance offset markets, according to OPIS analysis, highlighted by a focus on direct environmental benefits to the state (DEBS) and State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) compliance in the draft rulemaking. Read More
Delaware Receives $14.3 Million Federal Grant For I-95 Charging Projects
Delaware will receive $14.3 million in federal money to build medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicle charging infrastructure along the I-95 corridor in the state, EPA said on Thursday. Read More
Jupiter International Sticks to Solar Cell Roots Amid Expansion
India's Jupiter International is staying close to its roots as a solar cell manufacturer even as it embarks on vertical integration to navigate the country's new solar landscape, according to the company's CEO, Dhurv Sharma, during an OPIS interview at the Renewable Energy India Expo on Oct. 3. Read More
U.K. Confirms up to £22 Billion in Funding for Two Carbon Capture Clusters
The British government is committing "up to £21.7 billion" ($28.57 billion) over the next 25 years to fund two carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) clusters in the northeast and northwest parts of England, a decision that could pave the way for 8.5 million tons of carbon emissions being sequestered each year. The funding will go towards carbon capture projects in the East Coast Cluster in northeast England and the HyNet cluster in northwest England and north Wales. Read More
US Attorneys Unseal Criminal Fraud Charges Against Former CQC Executives
US attorneys and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have charged former executives of CQC Impact Investors with alleged criminal fraud for manipulating cookstove carbon project data to inflate credit issuances and secure an investment of more than $100 million, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday. The charges were brought against former CQC CEO Ken Newcombe and former CQC Chief of Carbon and Sustainability Accounting Tridip Goswami. Read More
UK closes last coal-fired power plant
Uniper's Ratcliffe-on-Soar power plant, the last coal-fired facility in the United Kingdom, is closing today. The plant began operating in 1968. With the closure, UK becomes the first of the G7 economies to completely eliminate coal from its electricity generation. Read More
EU Climate Regulations to Catalyze Stronger Global Carbon Policies – Panel
Tightening EU climate regulations are expected to catalyze stronger global carbon policies, with policy certainty crucial for building confidence in investing in transition technologies and initiatives, panelists said on Wednesday during a discussion hosted by OPIS, a Dow Jones company, at the Wall Street Journal's Journal House in Singapore. Evolving EU climate policy, particularly the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) that seeks to level the carbon emission costs for products imported into the EU, will have a material impact on major EU exporters such as China and India. Read More
China to Add Cement, Steel, and Electrolytic Aluminum to ETS
China has launched a public consultation on expanding the national emissions trading scheme (ETS) to include sectors such as cement, steel, and electrolytic aluminum, with emissions coverage to start from 2024, according to a notice from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) on Sept. 8. China's ETS was launched in July 2021 to cover only power generation entities, accounting for around 5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) emissions annually. Read More
NZ Report Suggests VCM as Avenue to Scale Blue Carbon Projects
The voluntary carbon market (VCM) with access to international trading would be a more suitable option to facilitate blue carbon projects in New Zealand, than the country's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), initial findings from a government-commissioned report released on Sept. 3 outlined. Funded by the Nature Conservancy Aotearoa New Zealand and the Ministry for the Environment, the report emphasizes the greater flexibility and financial viability of the VCM for blue carbon projects, which focus on the carbon sequestration potential of ecosystems such as salt marshes, seagrass, and mangroves. Read More
NZ Emissions Auction Fails to Attract Bids for Second Consecutive Time
No bids were placed in Wednesday's September quarterly New Zealand emissions unit (NZU) auction, leaving all 7.6 million NZUs unsold and rolled over to the year's final auction on December 4. This marks the second straight auction without any participation, following the June 2024 auction, the first on record with no bids. Since March 2023, NZU auctions have struggled to fully clear, with only the March 2024 auction selling a portion of the available units. Read More
China Lists First CCER Projects Under National Voluntary Carbon Market
China has listed on Monday the first Chinese Certified Emission Reduction (CCER) projects for public consultation, around eight months after the relaunch of the Chinese Certified Emission Reduction (CCER) scheme in January. Read More
Japanese Firms to Develop Verra IFM Carbon Credits in Hamamatsu City
Eight Japanese companies, including Sojitz Corporation, SBI Sumishin Net Bank, and Salesforce Japan, have announced a partnership with the country's Hamamatsu City to develop voluntary carbon credits under Verra's improved forest management (IFM) methodology, the firms said on Aug. 30. The alliance, which also includes Temix Green, Maply, Fuyo General Lease, Green Carbon, and Sustainacraft, will begin verification for the issuance of credits under Verra's Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) program in September, using the IFM methodology for artificial cedar and cypress forests in the city. Read More
INTERVIEW: NZ Climate Diplomacy Paves Way for Article 6 Agreement – Minister
New Zealand is continuing to advance its international climate cooperation efforts as a way to potential cooperation under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement to meet its climate targets, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts told OPIS in an interview on Aug. 20. "We're looking for opportunities to work with other countries, particularly in Southeast Asia, on how we can achieve a win-win... in decarbonization and emissions reduction," said Watts on the sidelines of the Carbon Forestry 2024 Conference in Rotorua. Read More
India adds record 15 GW of solar capacity in H1 2024
India has installed a record 15 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity in the first half of 2024, an increase of 282% year to year, the highest half-yearly and annual installations to date, due to the commissioning of several previously delayed projects, according to research company Mercom India on August 22. Read More
Meyer Burger Nixes US Solar Cell Factory Plans
Swiss manufacturer Meyer Burger has announced it is not moving forward with the development of a 2 GW cell factory in Colorado, saying the plans are "no longer financially feasible." The company's German cell plant, previously slated for retirement, "will continue to form the backbone of Meyer Burger's solar cell supply," the company said in a statement Monday. Read More
Verra Nature-Based Issuances Are Down, Removals Make Up Growing Share
Carbon credit issuances from nature-based projects registered with Verra have fallen sharply so far this year, with REDD+ taking a greater hit than removal project types like afforestation and coastal environment restoration, records show. Read More
Beyondsun starts production at 3 GW module facility
China-based solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturer Beyondsun Green Energy has begun operation at its new intelligent manufacturing facility, the first in Zhongwei City, Ningxia, producing the company's first N-Power-Pro series N-type TOPCon photovoltaic module, Beyondsun said on August 1. The facility at an investment of 3 billion yuan ($417.75 million) will be built in two phases. Phase one involves the establishment of a 3 gigawatt (GW) high-efficiency N-type TOPCon module production plant, while Phase two involves the establishment of a 2 GW high-efficiency Heterojunction (HJT) module production plant, a 3 GW aluminum alloy frame production line, and a 3 gigawatt hour (GWh) energy storage battery production line. Read More
Washington to Lose $3.8 Billion if Cap-and-Invest Repealed: Sec. of State
The Washington state Office of Financial Management estimates $3.8 billion in lost revenue from canceled emissions allowance auctions through fiscal years 2025-2029 if citizens vote to repeal the state's cap-and-invest program in November, according to a new fiscal impact statement released this week. The Washington Secretary of State published the statement along with new ballot materials this week for the vote on Initiative 2117 in November, which would repeal the state's cap-and-invest emissions trading program if passed. Read More
Analysis: UK CCS Projects Face Delays But Retain Political Support
Reports and announcements published over the last week have crystallised both the challenges facing the buildout of carbon capture storage (CCS) projects in the UK, but also how the technology retains widespread political support, including from the country's newly elected government. Read More
Chinese Solar Makers Sinks into the Red on Price Falls Across Supply Chain
Major listed solar manufacturers in China are expecting net losses for the first half of 2024 after price drops across the solar supply chain wiped out net profits made a year ago, according to company announcements over the past week. Read More