Carbon markets
Overview
Carbon markets are developing as a crucial economic lever in the challenge of reversing the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere, while CO2 remains a key factor in a range of industrial sectors.
National governments are embracing carbon markets, with a proliferation of carbon pricing policies worldwide. The private sector is channelling finance into projects that generate carbon emissions reductions and removals to mitigate their hard-to-abate emissions.
And the United Nations is making progress in building a global marketplace for carbon emissions reductions that will facilitate nations’ attempts to meet their obligations under the Paris Agreement.
Industrial sectors remain a key source of CO2 emissions and consumption, with innovation looking towards sustainable methods of production and utilisation.
Argus is setting the stage for an extended period of growth, evolution and interconnection of carbon market participants and initiatives.
Latest carbon markets news
Browse the latest market moving news on carbon markets.
MUFG to invest $30mn in Japanese biofuels firm Euglena
MUFG to invest $30mn in Japanese biofuels firm Euglena
Singapore, 14 May (Argus) — Japanese bank MUFG has agreed to purchase up to $30mn of shares in Japanese biofuels developer Euglena, which will allow Euglena to increase its share in a joint venture to build a biorefinery in Malaysia. Euglena will issue the shares in stages via their overseas special purpose company Euglena Sustainable Investment (Esil). Esil currently owns a 5pc equity of the joint venture and plans to increase its share up to the maximum of 15pc with the new funding. The other partners are Eni's biofuels unit Enilive and Malaysian state-owned refiner Petronas' Petronas Mobility Lestari. The biorefinery started construction in the fourth quarter of 2024, and is scheduled to start operations in the latter half of 2028. It will have the capacity to process about 650,000 t/yr of raw materials, such as used vegetable oils, animal fats, waste from the processing of vegetable oils and other biomass including microalgae oils, to produce up to 725 kilolitres/yr of SAF, hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) and bio-naphtha. The biofuel developer, whose initial business was the cultivation of the microalgae Euglena for food, had previously also announced that it will put more emphasis on UCO procurement and SAF supply to domestic consumers. Euglena aims to achieve a production capacity of 100,000 t/yr of microalgae-based oil by the 2030s, and is currently working with Petronas' subsidiary Petronas Research in a joint study to establish technology for large-scale microalgae production. But microalgae has so far faced challenges in commercialising as a biofuels feedstock, including high production costs, difficulty scaling up and low lipid yields. By Deborah Sun Send comments and request more information at [email protected] Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Ampol imports Australia's largest SAF cargo into Sydney
Ampol imports Australia's largest SAF cargo into Sydney
Sydney, 14 May (Argus) — Australian fuel retailer and refiner Ampol imported a cargo of nearly 2mn litres (700t) of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) into Sydney Airport on 7 May, marking the largest ever commercial SAF import into Australia. The fuel — sourced from Malaysia — was imported into Ampol's Kurnell facility near Sydney Airport, where the former's oil refinery has direct pipeline access into the airports refuelling the supply chain. There are no plans to import more SAF cargoes into Sydney Airport in the near term, a source close to the matter said. Ampol's managing director and chief executive officer, Matthew Halliday, said "this delivery marks Ampol's first major import of SAF into Australia and leverages our advanced supply chain infrastructure to deliver this product directly from a key domestic fuel terminal to the nation's busiest airport." Sydney Airport accounts for nearly 40pc of Australia's total jet fuel consumption, according to the airport's chief executive officer Scott Charlton. The announcement came a day after Ampol said it is shifting its focus to electric vehicle charging and renewable fuels , by selling its electricity retail businesses in Australia and New Zealand. Australian airline Qantas is the end user of the imported SAF cargo.The fuel, once blended at a ratio of approximately 18pc, could power the equivalent of 900 flights from Sydney to Auckland on Qantas 737 aircraft, Qantas said. This will cut resulting carbon emissions from those flights by a total estimated 3,400t, it added. Qantas is targeting 10pc of its fuel use to come from SAF by 2030 and approximately 60pc by 2050. Qantas' chief executive officer Vanessa Hudson said "the creation of a SAF industry is key to our efforts towards the decarbonisation of aviation, increasing Australia's fuel security and creating thousands of new jobs across our economy … we pick up 70pc of our fuel in Australia so we're looking forward to working closely with the government to chart the next course for SAF in Australia." This import of SAF follows the signing of an initial agreement between Qantas and Sydney Airport to work together to further facilitate the development of a domestic SAF industry in Australia. If established, domestic SAF production has the potential to contribute approximately A$13bn/yr ($8.4bn/yr) in gross domestic product by 2040, while supporting nearly 13,000 jobs in the feedstock supply chain and creating 5,000 new jobs to build and run the facilities, according to a Qantas and Airbus ICF report published in 2023. Consultations on a potential biofuels mandate in New South Wales (NSW) are expected to begin in the near future. NSW minister for climate change, energy and environment, Penny Sharpe, said "we want to see a strong domestic SAF industry here in NSW, which is a win-win for jobs, fuel security and the planet". By Tom Woodlock Send comments and request more information at [email protected] Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
US clean energy groups decry House budget bill
US clean energy groups decry House budget bill
Houston, 13 May (Argus) — Renewable sector advocates are warning that changes to federal incentives for clean energy proposed by Republicans will undercut the growth of new generation as demand on the power grid escalates. Industry groups representing wind and solar companies were quick to critique the House Ways and Means Committee's portion of Republicans' budget bill for its potential to undercut President Donald Trump's objective of "energy dominance" by reducing the viability of resources on which the US will depend in the coming years. The Ways and Means proposal "simply goes too far too fast", according to Jason Grumet, chief executive of the trade group American Clean Power Association. "With energy demand surging, this is not the time for disruption," Grumet said. "It is possible to phase out incentives for clean energy investment, production and manufacturing without harming American consumers or businesses." The Ways and Means bill would begin to sunset the 45Y production tax credit (PTC) and 48E investment tax credit (ITC) after 2028, with incentive values decreasing by 20 percentage points/yr from 2029 to 2031 before disappearing entirely in 2032. Moreover, the bill moves a key goalpost by pinning eligibility for both the PTC and ITC to a project's in-service date, rather than when it begins construction, which is currently the relevant deadline. At present, the PTC and ITC will remain at current levels until the end of 2032 or when regulators determine that annual US electricity sector emissions are equal to or less than 25pc of their 2022 level, whichever comes later. Democrats who passed the law in 2022 intended the minimum 10-year window to give developers certainty when investing in projects, shifting from past practice when Congress often waited until the last minute to extend earlier versions of the incentives. In addition, the Ways and Means bill would cancel the advanced manufacturing production credit, also known as the 45X credit, after 2031, rather than 2032, while completely disqualifying wind components after 2027. At present, wind turbine blades, nacelles and towers receive credits of 2¢, 5¢ and 3¢, respectively, multiplied by the total capacity, on a per watt basis, of the completed turbine in which those components are used. Offshore wind foundations receive similar incentives. The legislation would also remove the ITC for residential clean energy installations after this year, up from 2034. The bill also would repeal credit " transferability " two years after the law takes effect for the PTC and ITC, and at the end of 2027 for the 45X credits, and restrict projects' eligibility for all three credits if its construction includes "material assistance from a prohibited foreign entity". Republican lawmakers wrote their proposed changes with an eye on saving billions of dollars that they could use to partially offset over $5 trillion in expected tax cuts. But the updates would be particularly harmful for "local, red-state economies", according to Solar Energy Industries Association chief executive Abigail Ross Hopper. Over three-fourths of factories and investments threatened by the changes are located in regions represented by Republicans, and the changes will force "hundreds" of factories to close, raise electricity bills and damage grid reliability, she said. The loss of the manufacturing credits could be particularly harmful to the offshore wind industry's supply chain, "threatening billions of dollars of investments in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and American South", according to Stephanie Francoeur, senior vice president of marketing and communications at offshore wind business group the Oceantic Network. By Patrick Zemanek Send comments and request more information at [email protected] Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
US budget bill would prolong 45Z, boost crops
US budget bill would prolong 45Z, boost crops
New York, 13 May (Argus) — A proposal from House Republican tax-writers would extend for four additional years a new tax credit for low-carbon fuels and adjust the incentive to be more lenient to crops used for biofuels. Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee on Monday introduced their draft portion of a far-reaching budget bill, which included various changes to Inflation Reduction Act clean energy subsidies. But the "45Z" Clean Fuel Production Credit, which requires fuels to meet an initial carbon intensity threshold and then ups the subsidy as emissions fall, would be the only incentive from the 2022 climate law to last even longer than Democrats planned under the current draft. The proposal represents an early signal of Republicans' plans for major legislation through the Senate's reconciliation process, which allows budget-related bills to pass with a simple majority vote. The full Ways and Means Committee will consider amendments at a markup this afternoon, and House leaders want the full chamber to vote on the larger budget bill before the US Memorial Day holiday on 26 May. Afterwards, the proposal would head to the Republican-controlled Senate, where lawmakers could float further changes. But the early draft, in a chamber with multiple deficit hawks and climate change skeptics that have pushed for a full repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act, is remarkable for not just keeping but expanding 45Z. The basics of the incentive — offering benefits to producers instead of blenders, throttling benefits based on carbon intensity, and offering more credit to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) — would remain intact. Various changes would help fuels derived from US crops. The most notable would prevent regulators measuring carbon intensity from considering "indirect land use change" emissions that attempt to quantify the risks of using agricultural land for fuel instead of food. Under current emissions modeling, the typical dry mill corn ethanol plant does not meet the 45Z credit's initial carbon intensity requirement — but substantially more gallons produced today would have a chance at qualifying without any new investments in carbon capture if this bill were to pass. The indirect land use change would also create the possibility for canola-based fuels, which are just slightly too carbon-intensive to qualify for 45Z today, to start claiming some subsidy. Fuels from soybean oil currently qualify but would similarly benefit from larger potential credits. Still, credit values would depend on final regulations and updated carbon accounting from President Donald Trump's administration. Since the House proposal does not address the current law's blunt system for rounding emissions values up and down, relatively higher-carbon corn and canola fuels still face the risk of falling just below 45Z's required carbon intensity threshold but then being rounded up to a level where they receive zero subsidy. The House bill would also restrict eligibility to fuels derived from feedstocks sourced in the US, Canada, and Mexico — an attempt at a middle ground between refiners that have increasingly looked abroad for biofuel inputs and domestic farm groups that have lobbied for 45Z to prioritize US crops. That language would make more durable current restrictions on foreign used cooking oil and significantly reduce the incentive to import tallow from South America and Australia, a loss for major renewable diesel producers Diamond Green Diesel, Phillips 66, and Marathon Petroleum. The provision would also hurt US biofuel producer LanzaJet, which has imported lower-carbon Brazilian sugarcane ethanol as a SAF feedstock to the chagrin of domestic corn ethanol producers. The bill would also require regulators to set more granular carbon intensity calculations for different types of animal manure biogas projects, all of which are treated the same under current rules. Other lifecycle emissions models treat some dairy projects at deeply negative carbon intensities. Those changes to carbon intensity calculations and feedstock eligibility would kick in starting next year, meaning current rules would remain intact for now. The proposal would however phase out the ability of clean energy companies without enough tax liability to claim the full value of Inflation Reduction Act subsidies to sell those tax credits to other businesses. That pathway, known as transferability, would end for clean fuel producers after 2027, hurting small biodiesel producers that operate under thin margins in the best of times as well as SAF startups that were planning to start producing fuel later this decade. Markets unresponsive, but prepare for new possibilities There was little immediate reaction across biofuel, feedstock, and renewable identification number (RIN) credit markets, since the bill could be modified and most of the changes would only take force in the future. But markets may shift down the road. Limiting eligibility to feedstocks originating in North America for instance could continue recent strength in US soybean oil futures markets. July CBOT Soybean oil futures closed 3pc higher on Monday at 49.92¢/lb on the news and have traded even higher today. The spread between soybean oil and heating oil futures is then highly influential for the cost of D4 biomass-based diesel RIN credits, which are crucial for biofuel margins and have recently surged in value to their highest prices in over a year. The more lenient carbon accounting will also help farmers eyeing a long-term future in renewable fuel markets and will support margins for ethanol and biodiesel producers reliant on crops. Corn and soy groups have pushed the government for less punitive emissions tracking, worried that crop demand could wane if refiners could only turn a profit by using lower-carbon waste feedstocks instead. The House bill, if passed, would still run up against contradictory incentives from other governments, including SAF mandates in Europe that restrict fuels from crops and California's efforts to soon limit state low-carbon fuel standard credits for fuels derived from vegetable oils. By Cole Martin and Matthew Cope Send comments and request more information at [email protected] Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
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