‘Uncharted territory’ The Trump administration has been in battle with California over its right to take actions to cut carbon pollution, announcing it would revoke California’s authority, enshrined in federal law for nearly half a century, to set air-pollution standards that are stricter than the country’s. The administration also threatened to pull billions of dollars in federal highway funding from California because of the state’s chronic air-pollution problems. In the Oct. 23 lawsuit, the administration is claiming that in creating a cap-and-trade agreement with a foreign jurisdiction, California violated the country’s constitution, which enables the federal government “to speak with on

Canada’s ‘backstop’ output-based pricing system (OBPS) may not have an adequate supply of offsets available before next year’s inaugural compliance deadline, stemming from the slow rollout of federal and provincial protocols, a conference heard Tuesday. “We’ve been working on this supply and demand analysis to show the federal government that … you’ve put this federal programme in place with offsets as a possibility, but you’ve created no supply,” said Michael Berends, managing director of origination for Toronto-based analysts ClearBlue Markets, during the Argus Biofuels and Carbon Markets Summit in Napa, California on Tuesday. ClearBlue’s updated OBPS supply-demand forecast presented Tuesd

An erosion of Canadian voter support for the incumbent Liberals and poll-leading opposition Conservatives may open a range of minority government possibilities ahead of the national election on Monday, the outcome of which will have a significant impact on the country’s federal and provincial climate policies and environmental markets. Emboldened by government data showing that Canada is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, along with the rise of youth-led climate strikes domestically and abroad, climate change has become a central concern among voters heading into the Oct. 21 election. The Liberals and Conservatives are each on track for roughly 125-140 seats in Parliament – wel

Analysts have lowered forecasts for the price of European Union carbon permits in the fourth quarter as the threat of a no-deal Brexit hangs over the market. EU Allowances (EUAs) are expected to average 26.13 euros/tonne in Q4 2019, according to a survey of eight analysts polled by Reuters, a 3.4% drop compared with figures given in July. But further out, forecasts for 2020 and 2021, at 34.50 euros a tonne and 36.79 euros a tonne were 0.4% percent and 6.9% percent higher, respectively, from the July forecasts. The European Emissions Trading System (ETS) charges power plants and factories for every tonne of carbon dioxide they emit. With Britain poised to leave the European Union at the end o

In the era of the Paris Agreement, every participating country will be taking action to cut emissions in a way which best suits its economy. For some, like Mexico, this action will be a continuation of things which were already in motion in 2015, while for others such as Canada, it will be new ideas and approaches developed ina the past few years. Below are two profiles of how the national governments of these two North American nations are approaching carbon pricing as they work towards their Paris contributions. ClearBlue Markets' Case Study: Carbon Pricing, Canada-Style The Canadian Federal Backstop is comprised of a two-tiered system: the Output Based Pricing System (OBPS) and the Carb