Daily Update — April 3, 2026
Pressure on Europe’s Carbon Policy; AI and Cyberrisk; and Insurance’s Exposure to Private Credit
Today is Friday, April 3, 2026, and here’s your curated selection of Essential Intelligence on global markets from S&P Global. Subscribe to be notified of each new Daily Update.
Energy Transition & Sustainability
Listen: Political pressure mounts on Europe's flagship carbon policy
The EU Emissions Trading System is facing its greatest challenge to date. European leaders and companies are warning that high carbon prices are undermining the bloc's industrial competitiveness and may prompt manufacturers to go abroad. In this episode of the “Energy Evolution” podcast, host Eklavya Gupte examined the factors driving turbulence in Europe's carbon market and the implications for the energy transition.
Irina Breilean, carbon price reporter at Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, explained how political pressure from member states has dragged EU allowance prices down by almost €30/metric ton of CO2 equivalent in recent months. Julia Michalak, EU policy director at the International Emissions Trading Association, outlined the Emissions Trading System reforms under consideration and explained why industrial competitiveness concerns are dominating climate policy debates. Pedro Barata, associate vice president for carbon markets and private sector decarbonization at the Environmental Defense Fund, offered a perspective on the political economy of carbon pricing and how the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism is changing from a climate tool to an industrial policy tool.
Artificial Intelligence
The Frontier Of Cyber Risk: AI Will Multiply Threats And Bolster Defenses
There is an adage that change happens slowly, then all at once. Nowhere is this more apparent than at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity, where AI’s speed, scalability and autonomy are transforming both cyberthreats and cyberrisk mitigation. AI is empowering attackers by reducing the cost of attacks and allowing threat actors to strike more quickly and effectively. The technology also increases cyber resilience by improving threat and vulnerability identification and shortening defense response times.
The change is not just evolutionary: Advancements in AI are creating new cybersecurity challenges. The use of agentic AI, for example, amplifies the risk of attackers compromising and controlling autonomous AI systems via prompt injection. In this report, S&P Global Ratings highlighted AI’s impact on cybersecurity and how this could affect companies’ creditworthiness.
Private Markets
US insurance regulators pulling back the curtain on private credit
US insurance regulators are taking steps to better understand the industry's exposure to private credit as investments in the asset class grow.
Exposure to private credit has sparked investor concern across industries as defaults and redemptions rise for the asset class. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has made several changes to how it analyzes investment risk, including the formation of new task groups and updates to reporting requirements, to increase transparency and ensure regulators have the right tools to assess risk. The changes will allow insurance regulatory oversight to be more "nimble and responsive," according to Carrie Mears, an investment specialist with the Iowa Department of Insurance and Financial Services.
In case you missed it
- Major Turkish cement producer Çimsa reduced the Scope 1 and Scope 2 emission intensity for its products by 17% compared to the 2021 base year through renewable energy investments, the company said in its March 30 integrated activity report.
- US President Donald Trump called on countries facing jet fuel supply disruptions to buy from American refiners or "just take it" from the Gulf in the Middle East, according to a March 31 Truth Social post.
- Rising fertilizer and fuel costs are influencing farm-level decisions across key rice-exporting regions, market sources said March 31. Thai and US market participants are signaling potential acreage cuts and lower input use that could tighten global supply in the next marketing cycle. However, India could emerge as a stabilizing supplier due to strong inventories and government support.
Upcoming events
- Mercury Rising: European Corporates Have Stepped Up Climate Adaptation Planning | April 9 (Webinar)
- From Data to Drivers: Linking SNL + Visible Alpha Financials to Research Insights in S&P Capital IQ Pro | April 14 (Webinar)
- Powering AI Infrastructure in a Volatile World: Fact Checking Supplier Escalations for Transformers & the Role of Copper | April 15 (Webinar)
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