NEW YORK CITY, 23 September - After two and a half days of events discussing carbon markets for net zero, IETA's 2022 North America Climate Summit came to an end on Thursday.

More than 600 delegates attended the meeting in person, with many more participating virtually in more than 31 sessions covering the state and latest developments in global carbon markets.

Participants underlined the critical need for carbon markets for companies and countries to meet their net-zero ambitions. 

There was excitement and strong support for the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act that is aimed at stimulating climate action across the country.

During the Summit, IETA released an essential framework agreement for secondary market transactions in verified carbon credits. 

Emphasising the need for the framework, Dirk Forrister, President and CEO at IETA said, "As the voluntary carbon market continues to grow, market participants need to be assured of credit integrity and transact in a safe and efficient manner and effectively manage risks." 

IETA will now shift its event focus to Latin America; the organisation’s annual Latin American and Caribbean Climate Summit takes place on October 18-19 in Rio de Janeiro. 

NEW YORK CITY, 21 September -The International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) in collaboration with the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP) are proud to open the North America Climate Summit (NACS), to be held in New York September 21 and 22 as part of the Climate Week activities.  

This official Climate Week-accredited event will discuss a wide range of subjects related to emissions trading, including the crucial role carbon markets play in helping countries, regions and subnational jurisdictions achieve their net zero aspirations. 

“We will discuss what climate leadership looks like, take stock of carbon policy and market developments across the world,” said Dirk Forrister, President and CEO of IETA. 

“Putting a price on carbon is a fundamental first and necessary step to kickstart action to slash carbon pollution,” said California Air Resources Board Chair Liane Randolph. 

“I look forward to hearing the conversation in New York on this crucial subject and sharing lessons learned from successful emissions trading programs around the world.” 

“As we convene for Climate Week NYC under a shadow of climate catastrophes from Pakistan to Puerto Rico, seizing our opportunity to harness the potential of carbon markets is more urgent than ever. The world is clearly ready for carbon markets that deliver," said Fred Krupp. President of the Environmental Defense Fund.

But to leverage this mounting demand, we must have high quality supply. It will be critical to unite all stakeholders under a clear set of principles for quality, including social and environmental integrity,” Krupp added 

Registration to attend the North American Climate Summit can be found online here. This hybrid event can also be followed online.

SAN FRANCISCO (20 July) – Washington state and California share an interest in eventually linking their carbon markets, according to a paper by the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). 

Washington’s rulemaking already adopts many practices from California, including rules governing the use of offsets and the use of a common auction platform to sell allowances. These alignments show substantial coordination and significant forethought, according to the IETA-EDF paper.

The IETA-EDF paper argues that linking is best achieved after alignment of key program designs. To that end, Washington State’s new carbon market could further facilitate a link with California’s carbon market by making changes to its noncompliance penalties, price ceiling mechanisms, and cap setting processes. 

“A carefully designed link between California and Washington would reduce costs and enhance ambition”, says Clayton Munnings, Strategic Advisor at IETA.

“By linking carbon markets, states can boost the benefits of climate action, clean air and the clean energy economy,” said Katelyn Roedner Sutter, Senior Manager for US Climate at EDF.

“With climate impacts bearing down on communities across the West, we need climate leaders like Washington and California to leverage opportunities that ramp up ambition, and unifying carbon markets across jurisdictions would do just that."

Regulators in Washington state are presently drawing up rules for the market’s launch next year, after the legislature passed the Climate Commitment Act in April 2021. California’s system has been in place since 2013 and has been linked with Quebec’s carbon market since 2014.

The paper can be found on IETA's website.

GENEVA, 8 June - The world’s carbon markets are adapting to meet governments’ strengthened Paris Agreement goals and net zero ambitions, with changes over the past year captured in the new 2022 edition of IETA’s Carbon Market Business Briefs.

Climate negotiators are gathering in Bonn, Germany to progress talks on implementing the market provisions of the Paris Agreement. Meanwhile, over the past 12 months lawmakers have continued to develop new systems and reform existing ones to meet future goals, a trend that is expected to continue as 2030 draws ever nearer. The updated Business Briefs capture all developments in the 12 months to May 2022.

IETA’s Carbon Market Business Briefs is a collection of market summaries covering major news and developments across compliance-driven emissions trading, designed to offer executives a quick and accessible overview of all key components and trends in the world’s carbon markets.

These include briefs on developing markets in Singapore and Germany, the start of China’s national ETS, the latest on Australia’s Safeguard Mechanism, and planned reforms to the EU ETS. The updated collection is available now on the IETA website.

“For many countries, carbon markets will play a pivotal role in achieving net zero goals, as we are beginning to document in the Business Briefs,” says Dirk Forrister, IETA’s President and CEO.

“As both governments and the private sector ramp up their net zero ambitions, carbon markets will continue to grow and expand – we won’t reach net-zero without carbon pricing,” adds IETA Managing Director Katie Sullivan.

“There are some great strong foundations laid and we call on policymakers to keep building on these to deliver the future promised by the Paris Agreement.”

The IETA Carbon Market Business Briefs outline the coverage, deadlines, penalties, flexibilities, pricing/trading dynamics and other features for each market. The briefs provide commentary from local IETA members and partners on recent market developments and outlooks, including on policy decisions and price movements.

GENEVA, 24 May - IETA, ICROA and ITN Productions collaborate to produce a news-style programme "Net Zero: The Integrity Pathway”.

Climate change is the most pressing issue of our time and reducing emissions has become vital, but decarbonisation represents a huge challenge for companies. Globally, organisations have a responsibility to act if the Paris Agreement’s climate protection goals of achieving net zero by 2050 are to be achieved.

The pathway to net zero follows a mitigation hierarchy, which states that organisations should have both long and short-term science-based targets to address greenhouse gas emissions, not only from their own supply chain (insetting), but also offsetting unavoidable emissions by investing in carbon projects.

IETA, ICROA and ITN Productions Industry News are producing a news-style programme, “Net Zero: The Integrity Pathway.” Anchored by author and presenter Claire Nasir from ITN’s London studios, the programme will educate on best practices in corporate GHG mitigation, including high integrity carbon offsetting and insetting, and why a responsible approach to net zero considers avoiding, removing, and reducing emissions.

The programme will raise awareness of best practices in carbon reduction and offsetting, showcase the organisations performing well in this area and highlight the benefits and impacts these activities have to individuals and communities on the ground. The programme will also explore the difference between compliance markets and voluntary markets and the latest technological advances and innovations surrounding the trajectory to net zero.

Featuring expert interviews, news items and reporter-led sponsored editorial profiles from leading organisations filmed on location, the programme will launch in early November 2022 and will be supported by an extensive campaign targeting IETA members and professional networks.

“Building on last year’s success with ITN Productions in showing how carbon markets work, this year we hope to illuminate public understanding of how businesses are embracing the net zero challenge – with innovation, enthusiasm and the “can do” entrepreneurial spirit of our community," said Dirk Forrister, CEO and President of IETA.

"We want to feature “the do-ers” who are already showing success on the net zero journey.”

Nina Harrison-Bell, Head of ITN Productions Industry News said: “We are delighted to be working with IETA and ICROA to make a programme that raises awareness and demonstrates the importance of setting new global standards for high integrity carbon offsetting to help reduce and remove greenhouse gas emissions and shows the organisations who are accelerating progress in the role carbon markets play.”

For further information or if your organisation has a story to share please contact:
Lukasz Biernacki, Communications Director at ICROA;
Jeff Blackmore, Programme Director at ITN Productions or
Jamie Connolly, Programme Director at ITN Productions.

About ICROA

The International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA) represents the interests of service providers in promoting emissions reductions and offsetting to the highest standards of environmental integrity and in support of the Paris Agreement. ICROA provides an Accreditation Programme and represents its members through advocacy and action-oriented activities aimed at advancing best practice in the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM). ICROA is a non-profit initiative housed within the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA). www.icroa.org

About ITN Productions

ITN Productions produces bespoke creative and commercial content for broadcasters, businesses, brands, rights holders and digital channels. Industry News forms part of this offering and is a communications tool for leading industry bodies and national associations produced in a broadcast news-style programme format, including interviews, news items and sponsored editorial profiles. www.itnproductions.co.uk

Today the European Securities and Markets Agency (ESMA) published its final report on the EU emissions trading system (EU ETS), in which it concluded that the market is working well.

The report found "no major deficiencies in the functioning of the EU carbon market", but recommended a number of improvements with regard to market transparency and monitoring

The recommendations include: 

• extending position management controls over EU Allowance (EUA) derivatives;

• changes to EUA position reporting;

• tracking chains of transactions in regulatory reports required under the Markets in Financial Instruments directive; and

• providing ESMA with access to primary (auction) market transactions.

Furthermore, the ESMA report identified possible courses of action for the European Commission to consider related to position limits and enhanced market monitoring.

IETA welcomes ESMA's report, noting that it confirms that the EU ETS is working as intended and that carbon price developments reflect market fundamentals. 

We support clear and efficient monitoring of the market. Any  additional market oversight proposals should seek to assure proper market functioning without damaging liquidity or increasing price volatility. 

IETA stands ready to engage in dialogue with the European Commission and other stakeholders about market oversight policy options following the publication of the report.

The full report can be found here.

GENEVA, 15 February - Last week, the IETA Council‘s Task Group on Integrity in Digital Climate Markets began its review of new digital market developments. Today, it announced plans to continue its consultations during February 2022 and to present findings and recommendations at a public webinar on 9 March 2022. Pre-registration is required – and is available here.

“The Task Group is hearing views from market leaders and digital innovators as we form a set of guiding principles for integrity in digital carbon markets,” said Lisa DeMarco, CEO of Resilient LLP and Chair of the IETA Council. “Our starting point is to ensure that the potential of digital markets is harnessed to help support the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, delivering ambition with integrity and transparency.”

“Used properly, digital offerings offer exciting potential to broaden the effectiveness, efficiency and accessibility of carbon markets.,” said Dirk Forrister, IETA President and CEO. “Our aim is to develop a set of principles that will help assure public trust in these new market offerings.”

The Task Group is examining four key questions:

• What are the opportunities for digital tools (digital monitoring/reporting/verification, distributed ledger technology and/or tokenised carbon credits) to improve market efficiency and broaden market access to new and developing parties?

• What consumer and other risks should digital offerings address in providing new market services?

• How do digital offerings in the carbon market relate to the Article 6 guidance agreed at COP 26 in Glasgow – and how can they be used to deliver the goals and objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement?

• What market integrity principles and/or regulatory recommendations should IETA support for digital market participants and service providers?

GENEVA, 20 January - The IETA Governing Council today announced the formation of a Task Group to examine the new trends in digital carbon markets and recommend steps to ensure integrity in this growing field. The group will be led by the IETA Council Chair Lisa DeMarco. 

“Digital innovations offer powerful new approaches to carbon market design and performance, and we are eager to explore the expansion of their proper use,” said Dirk Forrister, President and CEO of IETA. 

Digital tools hold the potential to revolutionise monitoring, reporting and verification, and they offer new means for highly secure, transparent and globally accessible registry infrastructure. There are also innovations in asset formation, such as issuing carbon credits in the form of digital credits or native tokens secured on a public blockchain.

“Like any aspect of carbon markets, the efficacy of digital tools depends on their ability to engender broad public and market confidence, rooted in high environmental integrity,” Forrister said.

“A wide spectrum of different types of digital assets are beginning to trade in voluntary markets, and we know that many digital platforms, market operators and service providers are interested in following high integrity principles and practices, similar to those in the ICROA Code of Best Practice.”

The IETA Council will organise IETA’s new work on digital market issues, along with guidance for members and other market practitioners on digital market integrity. 

It will undertake a review of market developments and make recommendations for principles of best practice in the development and use of digital markets and assets. The process will involve inputs from experts within the IETA membership and the wider carbon market community. 

More information will be made available in a webinar (date to be confirmed) in February 2022.

GENEVA, 16 December – IETA is pleased to release its GHG Market Report 2021, which examines the carbon market body, capturing the various components that combine to form the vibrant – and growing – market, and how it is kept healthy.

The Anatomy of the Carbon Market is structured around the market’s nerve centre, connective tissue, and health measures, covering topics such as key trends in emissions trading, how to maximise climate ambitions, and how to grow a robust voluntary carbon market. The report also includes an overview of Blue-Sky Thinking, a project conducted jointly with ITN Productions Industry News on the race to net-zero emissions, which also encompasses the different parts of the carbon market.

Some of this year’s authors will be discussing their contributions at a special launch event later on Thursday – participation is free, and registration is available online.

“This has been a pivotal year for emissions trading, with existing markets racing to record high prices, and growth in coverage as other jurisdictions breathe life into new systems,” says IETA President and CEO Dirk Forrister. 

“Interest is only going to continue to surge, especially now that the rules for international cooperation under the Paris Agreement have been finalised, and as ever more corporates adopt and act on net-zero pledges,” he continues. “At this critical juncture, this year’s report takes a step back and dissects the various drivers and components for carbon markets around the world, and how we can ensure robust, healthy growth.”

Other highlights include how markets can help the move to net-zero emissions, the role of the financial sector in the carbon market, how Article 6 can be used, and why transparency is vital.