New Zealand, Australia carbon brokerage rivalry builds

Spanish Market: Electricity, Emissions
17/07/24

Commodities broker Marex announced today it opened an office in New Zealand and launched a new carbon trading platform for local emissions units, days after New Zealand competitor Jarden rolled out its own trading platform in Australia.

Marex will initially focus on execution and clearing services across carbon, electricity and dairy sectors in New Zealand, in both listed and over-the-counter products. Its New Zealand-based and global clients will also be able to trade New Zealand emissions units (NZUs) in a newly launched platform called Neon Carbon.

New Zealand clients will have access to clearing directly through Marex on the Singapore Exchange and Australian Securities Exchange, with the latter planning to soon launch physically settled futures contracts for Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs), large-scale generation certificates (LGCs) and NZUs.

The new Marex team will be led by Nigel Brunel, formerly Jarden's head of commodities in New Zealand. Jarden is considered to have the biggest share of the brokered NZU market through its CommTrade spot trading platform, followed by domestic trading platforms CarbonMatch and emsTradepoint, which is operated by state-owned electricity transmission system operator Transpower New Zealand's Energy Market Services.

CommTrade expansion

Marex has hired several other former Jarden brokers in recent months in New Zealand and Australia, as it looks to expand its environmental products business across Asia-Pacific.

But the increasing brokerage competition in Australia with growing trading volumes for ACCUs in recent years prompted Jarden to roll out CommTrade in the Australian market. Jarden's clients in Australia had until now only a price display mechanism for ACCUs. But they are now able to directly input bids and offers through CommTrade, with real-time matching capabilities displayed on screen.

"Transactions remain anonymous until matched, after which clients receive a contract note from Jarden detailing settlement terms," Jarden announced late last week. All transactions are settled directly through the company, with clients also able to trade other products such as LGCs.

Marex told Argus it would not be able to share any product details on Neon Carbon at this stage.

UK-based broker Icap entered the New Zealand carbon trading market earlier this year with the acquisition of domestic brokerage firm Aotearoa Energy, while several other brokers have entered the ACCU market in recent years.

By Juan Weik

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14/10/24

India industries confident of 2030 renewable energy aim

Mumbai, 14 October (Argus) — Indian industries are confident about reaching the country's renewable energy target of 500GW by 2030, senior executives said at the Financial Times' Energy Transition Summit in New Delhi last week. This is especially given strong capacity installation of solar and wind projects in the coming years, delegates heard. India's renewable energy capacity stands at 199.5GW as of August, a rise of 12pc on the year, data from the Central Electricity Authority show. "India's [renewable] power sector has already grown at a [compound annual growth rate] of nearly 20pc in the last 10 years … The pace at which some of the bids are coming, we should reach 500GW by 2030," said domestic utility Tata Power's chief executive officer Praveer Sinha. A record 69GW of renewable energy tenders were issued during the April 2023-March 2024 fiscal year, surpassing the government-mandated target of 50GW. Tata Power is operating 4.5GW installed capacity of renewable energy that produced 64.6Th of electricity in the April 2023-March 2024 fiscal year. It aims to add another 5GW of installed capacity in the coming years, underscoring its commitment to providing round-the-clock renewable energy through solar, wind, and pumped hydro storage projects, Sinha added. Indian steel manufacturer ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel (AMNS) also plans to add 1GW/yr of renewable energy capacity for its captive power consumption, managing director Dilip Oommen said. AMNS has developed a 975MW hybrid renewable energy project at Alamuru village in India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh. The project will generate 661MW of solar and 314MW of wind power capacity, which will be integrated with a pumped hydro storage facility owned by renewables developer Greenko to overcome the intermittent nature of wind and solar power generation, ensuring round-the-clock power. Power generated from the solar and wind sites will be connected from Andhra Pradesh's Kurnool district via a 400kV interstate transmission system up to AMNS' Hazria facility. The firm is also considering using hydrogen in its electric arc furnace, but remains skeptical about the cost economics. "At present, the cost of hydrogen is $3.50/kg," Oommen said, adding that if this falls below $2/kg, it would be feasible for commercial use at its facilities. The reduction in the cost of renewable power generation over the last few years has also raised interest in the sector, incentivising the coal-dominated eastern regions of India to adopt renewables, said Indian independent power provider Ampin Energy's chief executive officer Pinaki Bhattacharya. The domestic steel sector, one of the country's largest carbon emitters, is looking at ways to reduce emissions in light of the policies under the EU's carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), which will take effect on 1 January 2026. This was echoed during a session on 9 October when India's finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman noted that India has been consistent in promoting domestic investment in renewables and establishing transmission lines. But she described CBAM as "a trade barrier" that could hurt investment in India's heavy industries and hinderthe country's transition away from fossil fuels. CBAM is a "unilateral" and "arbitrary" measure, which would "not be helpful" for India, she said, adding that India's concerns "would definitely be voiced" with the EU. Her sentiments were in line with that of commerce minister Piyush Goyal, who said last year that India will not accept any unfair taxes on steel that the EU imposes under the CBAM. Coal to renewables switch "We are not on track yet to displace coal," said Indian not-for-profit thinktank Centre for Science and Environment's director general Sunita Narain, when asked about India's transition from coal to renewables, considering that coal still dominates the country's electricity mix. Renewable energy generation capacity has currently increased to 13pc of the total electricity mix, but the country needs to hit the 35pc target by 2030, she added. India's power generation continues to rely on coal because of an abundant supply of the fuel as well as its cheaper price over other alternatives. Out of India's total installed capacity of 451GW, coal comprises 48.27pc, followed by solar at 19.84pc and wind at 10.47pc, as of August, data from government think tank Niti Aayog show. By Ankit Rathore Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

Japanese firms eye developing CCS project in Alaska

11/10/24

Japanese firms eye developing CCS project in Alaska

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Erex starts building two biomass plants in Vietnam

11/10/24

Erex starts building two biomass plants in Vietnam

Tokyo, 11 October (Argus) — Japanese renewable energy developer Erex has started building two 50MW biomass-fired power plants in Vietnam, the company said on 10 October. Erex started construction on 4 October in the Yen Bai and Tuyen Quang provinces of northern Vietnam. Each plant will have 50MW of generation capacity and burn around 500,000 t/yr of wood residue secured in northern Vietnam. Both plants are scheduled to come on line in mid-2027. Both projects are backed by Japan's subsidy scheme that supports potential projects that could contribute to its Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The construction cost of each plant is estimated at $100mn-120mn, Erex said. Erex plans to start operations at the 20MW Hau Giang plant in December, which is its first biomass-fired power plant in Vietnam. The company aims to build up to 19 biomass-fired power plants and 20 wood pellet factories in Vietnam by mid-2030s. The company also runs biomass projects in Cambodia , aiming to construct up to five power plants. The company's profits from Vietnam and Cambodia are expected to grow rapidly and account for more than 70pc of its whole profits around 2030, the company said. By Takeshi Maeda Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

UN carbon market regulator takes 'agile' approach

10/10/24

UN carbon market regulator takes 'agile' approach

Berlin, 10 October (Argus) — The regulator of the new UN carbon crediting mechanism under Article 6 of the Paris climate agreement decided on key rules this week, adopting an "agile" approach to difficult issues to allow the rules to adapt to "ever-evolving developments in addressing climate change". The Article 6.4 supervisory body decided at its meeting this week in Baku, Azerbaijan, to adopt standards on methodologies and greenhouse gas (GHG) removals open to additional guidance by parties at the UN Cop 29 climate conference in Baku next month. This will allow the supervisory body to review and further improve the standards "whenever necessary" and to "keep up with market developments", it said. The body has requested that the parties meeting at Cop 29 to endorse this approach. The standards will help project developers create and submit methodologies for their projects, to allow them to be registered under the new Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM), the group said. Article 6 takes a bottom-up approach to methodologies, allowing project developers to draw up their own methodologies provided they comply with the standard. The standard includes principles such as the downward adjustment of GHG mitigation paths to "encourage ambition over time" and the selection of a baseline against which the mitigation is measured that is below business-as-usual levels. It also includes provisions for equitably sharing the mitigation benefits between the participating countries. This could also be achieved through applying the so-called Sustainable Development Tool adopted at the meeting. The tool, a key objective of which is to set apart the PACM from its predecessor the clean development mechanism's indifference towards environmental and human rights, will require all participants to assess, demonstrate and monitor the environmental and human rights impacts of their projects. Activity participants must also notify the supervisory body of any potential reversal of the achieved mitigation within 30 days of becoming aware of the event. The supervisory body will establish a Reversal Risk Buffer Pool Account in the mechanism registry to compensate fully for avoidable and unavoidable reversals, by cancelling an equivalent amount of buffer Article 6.4 emissions reductions. The supervisory body has tasked experts on the so-called Methodological Expert Panel with continuing their work on various unresolved principles, such as developing a tool for assessing the reversal risk of removals, including the possible application of upper limits and specific risk factors. The supervisory body did not look into the issue of registries at this week's meeting, considered another tricky issue among several outlined by UK department for energy security and net zero head of carbon markets negotiations Dexter Lee at a conference in London this week. But speakers at the event noted a renewed willingness to agree on Article 6 rules this year. By Chloe Jardine Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

EU CBAM application to UK would be ‘political failure’

10/10/24

EU CBAM application to UK would be ‘political failure’

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