Tag Archives: climate
Carbon Market Data Grows Emissions Database
Author: Faye Kilburn Source: Inside Market Data | 13 Jun 2013 European carbon market research and data vendor Carbon Market Data has added new data covering carbon emissions reduction projects to its European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) database, to provide carbon traders, brokers and research functions within financial institutions with more granular information on the carbon emissions of countries in Europe. The EU ETS scheme , which is designed to tackle climate change, requires organizations that consume commodities , such as factories, power stations and energy providers, and other carbon-emitting industries such as pharmaceuticals, airlines, food and drinks manufacturers and hospitals — all of which are allocated carbon allowances each year — to monitor and report their CO2 emissions and return leftover emission allowances to their governments. Carbon Market Data aggregates all information generated by the scheme and published by the EU — including CO2 verified emissions and distributed allowances for each company — into a single database. In recent weeks, the vendor has updated the information it holds on emission-reduction projects developed under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which operates in tandem with the EU ETS to reflective the most recent data issued by the UN. This information includes details of the type of projects being operated-for example, whether the project is a Joint Implementation (JI) between industrialized countries or a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project, which focuses on sustainable development in emerging economies; the country of origin of the project; the greenhouse gas reductions the project delivers, as well as data on the number of carbon credits or offsets issued to the countries involved by the UN in return for a reduction of atmospheric carbon emissions through the project. “The United Nations initiative collects data on new emission projects being developed by companies around the globe and publishes information, which we have added to the database,” says Cédric Bleuez, managing director at Carbon Market Data. Core users of this information are carbon traders and brokers who want more information about the sustainability profile of a company they are looking to invest in. Earlier this month, Carbon Market Data published emissions rankings of companies involved in the EU ETS scheme, and an accompanying report, following the release of verified emissions reports by the EU at the beginning of April. German electric utilities company RWE, Swedish power company Vattenfall and electric utility service provider E.ON were the three biggest CO2 emitters of the EU ETS scheme during 2012. “We found that the companies with the biggest capitalization are usually biggest emitters… and usually those having the biggest surplus of carbon allowances are steel makers and producers, while those with the biggest shortage of allowances are power producers,” Bleuez says. This data allows fund managers, carbon traders and brokers, analysts and M&A advisors to assess the business risks and opportunities associated with investing in a particular company, and to manage their exposure to carbon risk. The rankings and analysis are free to download in PDF format from Carbon Market Data’s website , and may be of interest to research professionals and analysts trying to understand the how companies’ shortage and surplus of carbon credits impact the price of carbon and stocks in the market, he adds. Continue reading
Govts Inch Towards Framework For Global CO2 Market
Source: Reuters – Thu, 13 Jun 2013 04:44 PM Author: Michael Szabo and Andrew Allan Environmental activists stage an open-air carbon auction in front of the European Parliament in Brussels, April 9, 2013. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir BONN, June 13 (Reuters Point Carbon) – Governments may this year launch a global framework to tie together national and regional greenhouse gas reduction efforts, a move that U.N. climate negotiators meeting in Germany this week said could lay the groundwork for a global carbon market. The plan would unite schemes currently being developed in nations including the United States and China onto a single platform, encouraging governments to share ideas with the view of eventually designing a global market to help fight climate change. “The idea is to start to road-test a framework for including various mitigation approaches around the world,” said one senior negotiator who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It would be (open to) anyone that wants to voluntarily connect to this framework, to see if the software and hardware is there to build (something) bigger.” The U.N. climate talks are tasked with launching new market mechanisms that will leverage billions of dollars of private sector finance to help poor countries grow economically in a sustainable way. But the negotiations have made little progress in the area, prompting Poland to first float the idea to other governments earlier this year. The plan could include launching a pilot scheme to examine developing common standards that could, for example, join existing and future carbon markets with mitigation efforts or initiatives to slow deforestation rates in developing countries. “It started as an ambitious idea but it’s been adjusted towards a more general approach following a few rounds of consultations with parties,” said Sven Braden, a negotiator for Lichtenstein. “The hope is it will eventually bring in different mechanisms to try to find common ground and assist in producing proposals for new market-based approaches.” Other member states said the concept remains vague and will need further work at U.N. climate talks in Poland in November, or at a yet unscheduled two-day workshop before or after the meeting. “At the moment, it’s very sketchy as there’s not much detail. It will depend on formal negotiations (in Warsaw) in terms of what happens to it,” said Artur Runge-Metzger, lead EU negotiator at the climate talks. MARKETS Existing international carbon markets under the Kyoto Protocol, such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI) are used only by the 35 or so signatories to the 1997 agreement to meet their climate goals. As such, countries that never ratified the treaty (United States), pulled out of it (Japan), or were not forced to cut emissions by it (China) cannot use credits from those markets to meet existing or future climate goals. Any new framework to be launched in Warsaw would be under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, meaning any of the 190 or so parties could take part. Frustrated with Kyoto’s markets, Japan has designed its own offset scheme and is pushing for international recognition that reductions made under it would count against the nation’s pledge to cut emissions by 2020. One Japanese negotiator said his nation would support the Polish proposal if it allowed Japan to offset emissions via its Joint Crediting Mechanism. “We’re implementing a real scheme, so if this proposal is for a test phase with no specific meaning for 2020 (goals), we wouldn’t have much interest,” said Yuji Mizuno, a director at Japan’s environment ministry. Green groups were opposed to Poland’s idea and called for a review of existing carbon markets before launching new ones, noting the CDM, JI and EU carbon markets are suffering from record low prices due to weak national pledges. “It’s a recipe for disaster,” said Kate Dooley, a campaigner with Third World Network. “Instead of learning from these failures and figuring out what went wrong and (how) fix that, northern governments in particular are pushing forward this discussion of markets … with even looser rules and very broad eligibility criteria.” Continue reading
“Carbon Farming” Makes Waves at Stalled Bonn Talks
By Stephen Leahy Civil society organisations warn that if agriculture becomes part of a carbon market, it will spur more land grabbing in Africa. Credit: Patrick Burnett/IPS UXBRIDGE, Canada, Jun 12 2013 (IPS) – U.N. climate talks have largely stalled with the suspension of one of three negotiating tracks at a key mid-year session in Bonn, Germany. Meanwhile, civil society organisations claim the controversial issue of “carbon farming” has been pushed back onto the agenda after African nations objected to the use of their lands to absorb carbon emissions. “There is a profound danger to agriculture here, with real potential for more land grabbing and expansion of monocultures in order to harvest credits.” — Helena Paul of EcoNexus At the Bonn Climate Change Conference this week, Russia insisted on new procedural rules. That blocked all activity in one track of negotiations called the “Subsidiary Body for Implementation” (SBI). The SBI is a technical body that was supposed to discuss finance to help developing countries cope with climate change, as well as proposals for “loss and damage” to compensate countries for damages. The SBI talks were suspended Wednesday. “This development is unfortunate,” said Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Figueres also said the two-week Bonn conference, which ends Friday, had made considerable progress in the two other tracks. A complex new global climate treaty is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2015 with the goal of keeping global warming to less than two degrees C. “Governments need to look up from their legal and procedural tricks and focus on the planetary emergency that is hitting Africa first and hardest,” said Mithika Mwenda of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), an African-wide climate movement with over 300 organisations in 45 countries. And where there is “progress” at the climate talks it is in the wrong direction, according to civil society. “We’ve seen many governments in Bonn call for a review of the current failed carbon markets to see what went wrong, why they haven’t actually reduced emissions and why they haven’t raised finance on a significant scale,” said Kate Dooley, a consultant on market mechanisms to the Third World Network. “If we don’t learn these lessons we’ll be doomed to repeat these environmentally and financially risky schemes, at the cost of real action to reduce emissions,” Dooley said in a statement. In Bonn, two key African negotiators appear to be pushing the World Bank agenda rather than their national interests, civil society organisations claim. Those negotiators are also working for organisations receiving World Bank funding. One appears to want African nations’ mitigation actions to be based on agriculture, they said. The World Bank and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation and other organisations favour what they call “climate smart” agriculture. This is defined as forms of farming that are sustainable, increase productivity and with a focus on soaking up carbon from the atmosphere. African environment ministers from 54 nations recently stated they were not obligated to use their lands to mitigate carbon emissions since Africa is not responsible for climate change. They also instructed African negotiators at the Bonn climate talks to focus on helping African agriculture adapt to a changing climate. “Are these people serving two masters?” asked Mariam Mayet of the Africa Centre for Biosafety, which works to protect farmers’ rights and biodiversity across the continent. “What is the World Bank’s level of influence over these individuals, and is there a risk that this is impacting on their actions and the outcome here?” Mayet told IPS. In December 2011, more than 100 African and international civil society organisations sent a joint letter to African ministers asking for “no soil carbon markets in Africa”. Globally, agriculture is a major source of global warming gases like carbon and methane – directly accounting for 15 percent to 30 percent of global emissions. Changes in agricultural practices such as reducing or eliminating plowing and fertiliser use can greatly reduce emissions. Agriculture can also be used to absorb or trap carbon in the soil. When a plant grows, it takes CO2 out the atmosphere and releases oxygen. The more of a crop – maize, soy or vegetable – that remains after harvest, the more carbon is returned to the soil. Civil society organisations warn that if agriculture becomes part of a carbon market, it will spur more land grabbing in Africa, with woodlands being used mainly for carbon sequestration instead of food production. “There is a profound danger to agriculture here, with real potential for more land grabbing and expansion of monocultures in order to harvest credits,” Helena Paul of EcoNexus, an environmental NGO, previously told IPS. Soils are extraordinarily variable and different climatic regimes affect how they function, said Ólafur Arnalds, a soil scientist at the Agricultural University of Iceland. While soils are a key part of the planet’s carbon cycle, we don’t know enough about soil carbon, Arnalds told IPS at a recent Soil Carbon Sequestration conference in Iceland. That complexity does not suit carbon markets well and drives up costs of accounting and verification. However, Arnalds does believe that soils and agriculture have an important role in climate change and farmers should be compensated for their efforts. Continue reading
