Emissions from entities covered by California’s part of the WCI – a joint ETS between that state and the Canadian province of Quebec, which is the world’s second largest carbon market by traded volume – totaled 256.6 Mt in 2024, down 6% year-on-year. The 2024 emission total is 9% below the California ETS emission cap of 280.7 Mt. This marks nearly a decade of California entities’ emissions being less than the caps meant to incentivize reductions. Quebec’s covered entities collectively emitted 57.7 Mt in 2024, bringing the total to 314.2 Mt for the joint carbon market (only 0.3% (0.9 Mt) below Veyt’s initial emissions forecast of 315.1 Mt) which is a decrease of 16 Mt or 5% from 2023.
In California, emissions decreased over the year in all four sectors covered (transportation, power, buildings, and industry), with the largest absolute reduction coming from the transportation sector. Emissions from combustion of fuel in vehicles declined by 7 Mt (6%). Industrial emissions, specifically from the oil and gas sector declined by 16% (6.7 Mt). Emissions from power generation dropped by 1.9 Mt (4%) and those of the building sector by 7% (3.2 Mt).
Quebec’s 2024 emissions, in contrast, were 12% higher than the provincial ETS annual allowance budget – the province’s 2024 cap was 51.6 Mt and emissions from covered entities totaled 57.7 Mt. They were slightly lower than in 2023, however, declining by 0.4 Mt (1%) year-on-year. The overall decline is due to fewer greenhouse gases being emitted from vehicles in the province, while Quebec power plants’ emissions doubled to 1.1 Mt in 2024.
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