1. Solarig to invest 845 million US dollars in building a sustainable aviation fuel plant
Solarig has announced that it is beginning work on a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant in Spain with a production capacity of 60,000 tonnes a year, in which it plans to invest 845 million US dollars (780 million euros).
2. SSAB to build a steel plant that uses no fossil fuels, cutting Sweden's CO₂ emissions by 7%
The board of steelmaker SSAB has announced plans to build a steel plant in northern Sweden that uses no fossil resources. It will cut the country's CO₂ emissions by 7% and will require investment of 52 billion Swedish kronor (4.9 billion US dollars).
https://www.ssab.com/en/fossil-free-steel/timeline
3. Court bans Eurowings “green advertising”
A German regional court has, in a case brought by Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), barred the airline Eurowings, part of the Lufthansa group, from advertising its flights as carbon neutral where the emissions are offset using credits from forest protection projects.
4. IKEA Foundation commits 100 million US dollars to the “Drive Electric” campaign
“The IKEA Foundation has awarded a 100 million US dollar grant to the Drive Electric campaign to help accelerate the shift to electric vehicles in Africa, Latin America and South East Asia,” Reuters reports.
5. Civitas Resources retires more than 800 thousand tCO₂e from carbon projects
One of the largest corporate retirements so far this year – data from MSCI Carbon Markets show that the US oil and gas company Civitas Resources last week retired more than 800k tCO₂e of credits from US energy efficiency and landfill gas projects and from a hydroelectric plant in Turkey, making it the sixth largest retiring party of 2024 to date. Civitas was one of the largest retirers of credits in 2023.
Market activity
1. China's State Council publishes interim ETS regulation
China's State Council has published the first legal framework for governing the carbon market. It will take effect on 1 May 2024 and includes penalties for falsifying emissions data as well as institutional support for the functional operation of China's emissions allowance trading system.
2. Citigroup, JPMorgan and RBC to offer a new climate metric following shareholder calls
Citigroup, JPMorgan and Royal Bank of Canada will publish a new climate metric based on the ratio between their financing of low-carbon projects and their financing of fossil fuel projects. As a result, the New York City pension funds have withdrawn the shareholder resolutions at each bank that called for such disclosure.
3. Rules adopted on the allocation of free allowances under the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS)
In the first week of April, when they were published in the Official Journal of the European Union, new rules on the allocation of free carbon dioxide emission allowances under the EU ETS came into force, bringing the system more closely into line with the bloc's target of a 55% net reduction in emissions by 2030.
4. BMO updates its sustainable bond framework
Bank of Montreal (BMO) has broadened the green and social use-of-proceeds criteria in its Sustainable Bond Framework to include financing for nuclear energy, low-carbon fuels, the electrification of key industrial processes and climate change adaptation.
Policy developments
1. Integrity Council names the first carbon crediting programmes to qualify against its highest criteria
The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market has announced the first carbon crediting programmes assessed as meeting the high-integrity criteria set out in the Council's Core Carbon Principles (CCP). They are ACR, the Climate Action Reserve (CAR) and the Gold Standard.
2. United States to invest 20 billion US dollars in clean energy generation for low-income communities
The US Environmental Protection Agency has announced 20 billion US dollars in grants to give low-income communities access to capital for clean energy projects. Three of them fall under the 14 billion US dollar National Clean Investment Fund and five under the 6 billion US dollar Clean Communities Investment Accelerator.
3. French negative emissions association established
The French Negative Emissions Association (AFEN) has been set up in France to act as a catalyst for the development of carbon dioxide removal and storage technologies in the country, following to some extent the German example, where Deutscher Verband für negative Emissionen (DVNE) was recently established.
4. Methane reduction targets in New Zealand to be examined by independent reviewers
New Zealand's climate change and agriculture ministers have announced that an independent panel of experts will review the evidence and targets relating to agricultural biogenic methane.