Tag Archives: carbon
China Takes Cautious Step Toward Carbon Emissions Trading
http://s1.reutersmed…r=CBRE95H0GNH00 By David Stanway BEIJING | Tue Jun 18, 2013 1:59am EDT (Reuters) – China launched its first pilot carbon emissions exchange on Tuesday, though plans for a nationwide rollout and efforts to apply the scheme to some polluting heavy industries could be undermined by a slowdown in the world’s No.2 economy . High-emission industries such as aluminum and steel are likely to resist higher costs as they are already battling weak prices due to tepid demand and a persistent supply gut. “It is a very big concern for Beijing and for local governments – how to strike a balance between controlling emissions and maintaining economic growth especially amid a general slowdown in the economy ,” said Shawn He, lawyer and carbon specialist at the Hualian legal practice in Beijing. While the exchange in the southern city of Shenzhen will not immediately lead to a big cut in China’s emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gas , now the world’s highest, it does still represent a statement of intent by Beijing, campaigners said. “This is just a baby step when you look at the total quantity of emissions, but it enables China to establish institutions for carbon controls for the first time,” said Li Yan, head of environmental group Greenpeace’s climate and energy campaign in China. Under such a cap-and-trade scheme, companies must buy allowances from others if they want to exceed carbon limits. But there is still a long way to go in China, and the design of its pilot platforms – as well as the national scheme that would eventually replace them – face economic and social pressures. “Of course, decision makers have to look at the social impact – the carbon market cannot be designed in an idealistic way and you have to make sure the design of the mechanism will address such issues as social stability,” said Wu Changhua, China director with the London-based Climate Group consultancy. And the example of carbon markets overseas is not encouraging, with the global financial crisis saddling Europe’s Emissions Trading Scheme with a crushing oversupply of carbon credits and record low prices. The Shenzhen exchange is one of seven pilot schemes due to be launched this year or next, and will involve 635 local industrial enterprises accounting for more than a quarter of local GDP and more than 30 million metric tons (33.07 million tons) of CO2 emissions. But that is still a drop in the ocean compared to the country’s total emissions of around 8 billion metric tons last year Other platforms due to start in 2013 include one in the business hub of Shanghai, where leading steel mill Baoshan Iron and Steel will participate, and Hubei province, home of Wuhan Iron and Steel. INDUSTRIAL IMPACT While giant oil firms like CNOOC and PetroChina will take part in the Shenzhen scheme, few of the companies involved will be from bloated but carbon-intensive heavy industrial sectors such as steel or aluminum , and figuring out how to include them is likely to be a bigger challenge. Late last year, China’s industry ministry told firms in sectors like steel to reduce their 2010 carbon intensity rates – the volume of CO2 produced per unit of output – by 18 percent by 2015. That was a massive burden for a sector already bruised by rising input costs and minimal returns, with the country’s economy growing at its slowest pace for 13 years in 2012 and data so far this year surprising on the downside. But while it will add to the costs of struggling firms, it could also give Beijing another tool to bring wayward industries in line with state policies and force polluting firms to close. Carbon trade will give local governments an alternative source of revenue as well as an incentive to free up some of their CO2 allocations by closing small steel mills. Jiang Feitao, a researcher at the China Academy of Social Sciences who has studied the impact of environmental policy on the steel sector, said smaller companies would be hit hardest by costs. NATIONAL TRADE After Shenzhen, Shanghai and Hubei, four more pilot exchanges are due to open in the capital Beijing, the sprawling industrial municipalities of Tianjin and Chongqing, and the manufacturing center of Guangdong province on the southeast coast, probably next year. The National Development and Reform Commission said the seven pilot schemes will begin a process of integration in 2015 and that a nationwide platform will go into operation some time before 2020. But the seven regions were given considerable leeway to design their own schemes and it remains unclear how they will connect together. “My guess at this moment is that they will set up a national platform and gradually integrate the seven pilot schemes into that one, but we don’t know the architecture yet – this is very new,” said Climate Group’s Wu. He, the lawyer, said China still needed legislation to give legal recognition to the concept of carbon trading. It also needed to solve the longstanding problem of measuring emissions. “I don’t think it is possible to get to a national market by 2015 – there are many technical issues to be addressed to integrate these islands into one continent,” He said. China also eventually needs to set a national limit on emissions and allocate this to individual industries and provinces to establish a full countrywide trading scheme. “Realistically, we are looking at 2025 before we have a cap – a few years ago some were saying 2040 or 2035 so we have already made progress,” said Wu. “Growth will continue to be the No.1 priority. Cap-and-trade will be one of the ways of trying to grow differently, but China is still a developing country and we have to grow.” (Editing by Joseph Radford) Continue reading
Obama’s Climate Change Policy ‘Coming Soon’
June 17, 2013 President Obama has reportedly told Democratic Party donors at closed-door fundraisers that he will unveil a new climate change plan in July, with separate actions that could potentially address the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline project and the EPA’s emissions guidelines for new and existing power plants. The White House is still working out the policy proposal, The Hill reports. The EPA in April postponed rules to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants — proposed more than a year ago — after the power industry objected. The EPA has also been working on guidelines to curb emissions at existing power plants, which will be proposed in the next 18 months, and may be part of the new climate change policy, Bloomberg reports. Green groups and some Democrats have been pushing the Obama administration to set clear limits on coal-fired plants, but the White House and the EPA have not given a timeline for launching such action, The Hill says. Pipeline proponents have warned against combining approval for the pipeline with new climate change guidelines, while environmental activists oppose a climate change policy that allows the pipeline to go ahead while proposing separate emissions curbing guidelines. President Obama has warned he will take executive action if Congress does not pass the climate change law, but the prospects of a Congressional consensus appear remote, The Hill says. In March, manufacturers said they were “very freaked out” by reports of new climate change standards . Earlier this month, some 22 US investment firms with about $240 billion in assets under management signed the Climate Declaration , calling upon federal policymakers to address climate change as an economic opportunity. These financial firms join more than 150 other US businesses, including General Motors , Intel and Nike , and more than 100 ski areas in backing the Ceres-led initiative that asks lawmakers to draft legislation and regulatory initiatives to reduce carbon emissions and incentivize renewable energy development. Continue reading
Government Lacks 2020 Vision On Biomass
15 June 2013 Today’s policy measures for renewable energy are just the start and there could be bigger challenges for timber in future, says Alastair Kerr, director-general of the Wood Panel Industries Federation With the Energy Bill going through its last parliamentary stages and proposals for the non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive tariff currently out for consultation, the UK’s package of measures aimed at meeting the EU’s 2020 renewable energy targets is virtually in place. Much of our concern and recent media attention has focused on large-scale power generation for reasons which still remain, ie. there are no assurances that these subsidised energy companies won’t substantially target the UK’s commercial coniferous stands for fuel. However, if pressure on the domestic resource is going to increase to the point where it jeopardises established wood processors, it will come from the cumulative impact of demand from both renewable electricity and renewable heat. Renewable heat, in particular, provides an opportunity for domestic growers and indeed wood processors, but placing a reliance on market pull to bring more wood to market, particularly from private growers, may not be enough on its own to prevent a disproportionate demand being placed on the coniferous resource. Something we shouldn’t lose sight of is that policy measures in place today are only just the start. Governments are in discussion with the European Commission regarding the 2030 renewables targets. The energy companies are already lobbying to make an even larger contribution from biomass (wood). If the flow of wood from material uses towards energy is to be controlled, then collectively the woodprocessing industries must continue with efforts to speak up for the carbon benefits that using more wood products brings. The recently confirmed EU carbon accounting rules open a door for the development of policies that actively promote the use of harvested wood products, but it is not a given that such policies will emerge, not least because competitors are fighting to oppose such benefits being bestowed on wood. These challenges may seem to be remote and some way off but they are very real, and a robust industry defence has to be put up if wood products are not to be sidelined in the future. Continue reading
