Tag Archives: carbon-markets
China Test Markets May Help Set Emission Cuts, GreenStream Says
By Mathew Carr – Jun 18, 2013 Karl Upston-Hooper, general counsel at GreenStream Network Plc in Helsinki, comments on emissions trading in China , including the nation’s seven test carbon markets and offsetting program called China Certified Emission Reductions, or CCERs. He spoke by phone on June 14. China started today its first test carbon market in Shenzhen. On how China will use its test markets to help determine a trajectory for its own emissions output after 2020: China negotiators will travel to a key United Nations climate conference in Paris near the end of 2015 “knowing what they can achieve. Environmental problems are a potential disruption to social harmony. The government knows it.” On whether China is genuinely embracing carbon markets: “I don’t think it’s a sham or a facade. I’ve got a very positive impression of Shenzhen’s program.” The test programs “are not going to burst into life as a liquid, functioning market.” On China’s preference for spot trading: “The problem with having a spot market is you have no long-term price signals. I can’t lock in the price of carbon. In the EU, I can hedge.” On challenges: China will face setbacks as it sets up a system that links its programs, transitions to a national market and allows outside traders to participate, Upston-Hooper said. On trading: GreenStream expects it may after about 2015 be able to sell some of the 3 million metric tons of CCERs it’s already arranged to buy to emitters including in Shenzhen, Upston-Hooper said. CCERs will become “a currency that links the pilots. We’re a firm believer there will be in due course a functioning carbon market in China.” To contact the reporter on this story: Mathew Carr in London at m.carr@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lars Paulsson at lpaulsson@bloomberg.net Continue reading
China Starts Carbon Trading Scheme
18 June 2013 China is the world’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, but the country is experimenting with ways to cut emissions. One of them is through its new carbon trading scheme that will initially pilot in seven regions, and could be rolled out nationally after 2015. The first pilot scheme has been launched in the southern city of Shenzhen. The BBC’s John Sudworth reports. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/22947197 Continue reading
EU Carbon Defies Logic as UN Talks Stall, Climate Mundial Says
By Mathew Carr – Jun 17, 2013 Daniel Rossetto, managing director of Climate Mundial Ltd., comments on the European Union carbon market, plans known as backloading to delay supply temporarily and United Nations-overseen climate talks in Bonn that ended June 14. He spoke today and June 14 by e-mail. On EU carbon prices, which fell 4.2 percent today to 4.57 euros ($6.10) a metric ton after rising 16 percent last week: “EU carbon continues to defy logic, providing a price signal based on a belief that there will be long-term carbon cuts through 2030 and beyond that have yet to be agreed. There is no other way to explain why the commodity has any price whatsoever when there is no scarcity today and backloading only deals with half of the glut.” On UN envoys’ plans to negotiate changes to decision-making rules at climate talks: “I am far less concerned about this procedural issue than I am about the process for getting commitments within each country that would bind them to the negotiated outcomes in 2015. As we have seen in the case of Canada , it is very easy for a country to withdraw from the treaty without consequence. Given we are already at 2013, each country should by now have started the process of seeking a domestic mandate for what they can agree to in 2015 at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change for post-2020. I don’t see much evidence of this going on, so it makes me very worried that we will get to 2015 and we will not be any closer to having a legally binding agreement.” On a proposal to change the decision-making threshold at climate talks to 75 percent of nations voting from consensus: “The threshold of 100 percent is unworkable. Giving the chair discretion is also too open to personal opinion. A lower threshold of 75 percent would be much better and allow decisions to be made. Financial penalties are also essential to ensure countries have the greatest possible incentive to comply in every way with the provisions of the eventual agreement. A best-endeavors basis is not enough.” On penalties under climate agreements: “The penalties can be paid into the Global Environment Facility and distributed to abatement and adaptation projects in the poorest countries. Each country should also have its own domestic law, not just ratification of the treaty, mandating its commitments under the UNFCCC.” Those domestic laws would make the UN agreement “fully legally enforceable.” To contact the reporter on this story: Mathew Carr in London at m.carr@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lars Paulsson at lpaulsson@bloomberg.net Continue reading
