Latest news with #climatetargets
Reuters
2 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
COP30 host Brazil warns against over-reliance on carbon credits
BONN, June 26 (Reuters) - Countries should not over-rely on buying carbon credits to meet climate targets, the chief executive of this year's U.N. COP30 summit said on Thursday, as the European Union readies a new emissions goal that may include credits for the first time. The European Commission is due to propose a new EU climate target for 2040 on July 2, and has said the legally binding goal should be to cut emissions by 90%. But faced with pushback from some governments, Brussels is considering a lower target for domestic industries, and buying international carbon credits to make up the gap to 90%, Reuters has previously reported. They allow a country to buy "credits" from projects that reduce CO2 emissions abroad - for example, forest restoration in Brazil or Guyana - and count them towards its own climate goal. Proponents say this is a way to raise funding for CO2-cutting projects in developing nations. Opponents point to recent scandals, where credit-generating projects were found to not deliver the climate benefits they claimed. Ana Toni, CEO of the COP30 climate summit, which will take place in the Brazilian city of Belem in November, said Brazil did not oppose the use of carbon credits in countries' targets - known at the U.N. as nationally determined contributions - but warned against relying on them to meet a large chunk of a country's climate target. "The amount is important, because it shows how much you change in your own economy ... if it's really a big amount of (credits), you're not changing your own economy," she told Reuters. Toni also said countries must ensure any credits used to meet climate targets deliver quality environmental benefits. While the view of Brazil, as COP host, is not binding on delegations, it is responsible for guiding the negotiations at the gathering and also doing the diplomatic work to try to get countries to set ambitious goals. Nearly 200 countries faced a February deadline to submit their 2035 climate targets to the United Nations. Most, including the 27-country EU and China, missed it. The EU is expected to present its 2035 and 2040 climate goals together next week. EU countries are divided over how much of their 2040 target should be met through credits. Germany has proposed using credits to meet 3 percentage points of the 90% goal, while countries including France suggest a bigger share, officials said. EU members including Denmark and Finland say credits are not needed at all.
Free Malaysia Today
28-05-2025
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
Japan enacts law obliging big firms to join carbon trading
The companies include electricity generation firms and manufacturers of steel, chemical products, cement and paper. (EPA Images pic) TOKYO : Japan's parliament enacted a law today obliging hundreds of major companies to participate in a carbon emission trading system as part of its efforts to achieve the country's climate goals. The revised law requires companies producing 100,000 tonnes of carbon emissions to participate in a trading system, which will be introduced in the fiscal year starting April 2026. An industry ministry official told AFP that the companies – which include electricity generation firms and manufacturers of steel, chemical products, cement and paper – account for roughly 60% of Japan's greenhouse gas emissions. 'With them joining the carbon trading market that the EU already has, we expect that companies will be motivated to reduce their carbon emissions and will be prompted to work on technological innovation' towards a carbon-free society, said the official. Under the trading system, companies will be allotted an annual maximum emission allowance. Carbon credits will have to be purchased on market for any amount above that cap from firms able to sell them given that their emissions are below the threshold. Japan, the world's fourth-largest economy, has set a target of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050 and to cut emissions by 46% by 2030 from 2013 levels.
Reuters
19-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
British benchmark carbon price rises on EU link talks
LONDON, May 19 (Reuters) - The benchmark British carbon price rose more than 6% on Monday after Britain and the EU signalled they would work towards linking their emission trading systems. Both the EU and UK charge power plants and other industrial entities for each ton of carbon dioxide they emit as part of wider efforts to cut emissions and reach climate targets. The benchmark UK allowance (UKA) contract was up 6.5 pounds at 51.50 pounds ($68.85) a metric ton by 0908 GMT. Prices in the UK are currently lower than those in the EU and analysts said that linking the two schemes would be likely to result in higher UK prices. "Linking the schemes would drive UKA prices ... to parity with EU allowance (EUA) prices," Redshaw Advisers analysts said. The equivalent EUA benchmark contract is trading around 70.35 euros ($79.24) /ton. ($1 = 0.7481 pounds) ($1 = 0.8879 euros)
