European Union carbon permits for December rose for the fourth time in five days as traders focused on lawmakers’ proposals to boost prices after data showed emissions declined 1.4 percent in 2012. The benchmark future closed 2.7 percent higher at 4.94 euros ($6.34) a metric ton on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange, after having fallen as much as 6 percent in earlier trading.
Carbon emissions fell to 1.787 billion tons last year from 2011, according to incomplete European Commission data from 89 percent of factories and power stations. Discharges from the 68 percent of airlines that submitted reports by the April 30 deadline totaled 55 million tons, the data showed………………………………………..Full Article: Source

A senior Chinese official has told a conference on climate change that his nation faces a “horrific” future with unimaginable environmental consequences if China does not act now to establish a carbon trading scheme and install more renewable energy. Dr Jiang Zhaoli made the comments at the Australia-China Climate Change Forum, held last week at the University of NSW (UNSW).
Federal Minister for Climate Change, Industry and Innovation, Greg Combet co-hosted the bi-lateral conference, alongside his Chinese counterpart, Vice-Chairman Xie Zhenhua, China’s most senior minister responsible for climate change. Mr. Zenhua said China planned to reduce carbon emissions by 40-45 percent by 2020………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Until 2012, Europe was central to the global carbon market; heck, it was the only “real” market. Carbon offset project developers invested billions to earn Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and sold them to European companies and traders participating in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS).
Projects had sprung up in almost all parts of the developing world. Countries otherwise isolated in the weird geopolitical arena, like North Korea and Iran, were also hosting CDM projects. With too much supply, the quality had to be affected………………………………………..Full Article: Source

As the world watches China take the lead on a national carbon-pricing scheme, experts from Australia’s prestigious University of New South Wales (UNSW) will begin work with leading Chinese universities in a landmark collaboration to be announced in Sydney this week.
The collaboration will be announced at the Australia China Climate Change Forum at UNSW on March 27. It will be attended by senior Australian government officials and their Chinese counterparts. The forum will unite policy and technical experts in emissions reduction as well as representatives of major industries and businesses from both sides of a growing sphere of Sino-Australian cooperation………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The volume of carbon traded globally is likely to rise by 14 per cent this year despite depressed prices, but this growth is unlikely to last, analysts say. Research by Thomson Reuters Point Carbon finds around 12 gigatonnes of CO2 will be traded over 2013, with most of the growth coming from the 10 billion EU Allowance (EUA) credits expected to change hands - a rise of 40 per cent on 2012.
Anders Nordeng, senior analyst at Thomson Reuters Point Carbon and author of the analysis, said large volumes coming to market through auctioning would trigger more exchange trades, while the current volatility of prices is driving high levels of speculative trading………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The EU Emissions Trading Scheme “no longer has a significant impact on emission reductions”, according to one in five respondents to Thomson Reuters Point Carbon’s annual carbon market survey. The results of the survey – Carbon 2013 – reveal that 20% of respondents said the EU ETS caused emission reductions in the past but has little impact on emissions today.
“We attribute this to the weak price signal currently generated by the EU ETS, which saw prices fall to historic lows in 2012” said Emil Dimantchev, Thomson Reuters Point Carbon analyst and author of the report………………………………………..Full Article: Source

China will have to raise up to $243 billion a year by 2020 to finance clean energy development, said a report commissioned by Beijing which will be presented to the government this month. Premier Li Keqiang this month pledged more action in tackling China’s heavy pollution which sparked public anger this winter.
Last year, China accounted for one quarter of world investment in renewable energy. It invested a record $67.7 billion in clean energy - 20 per cent more than in 2011 - in a year when overall global clean energy investment declined………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Ireland favors a European Union plan to bolster the bloc’s emissions trading system and expects EU lawmakers to support the measure, the country’s environment minister said.
Carbon permits for delivery in December jumped as much as 14.6 percent after the comments by Phil Hogan, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency until June 30………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Political groups in the European Parliament will not propose a new compromise solution on a draft carbon market fix before the full assembly vote scheduled for next month, according to lawmaker Eija-Riitta Korhola.
Korhola, who leads the work on the measure in the European People’s Party, said representatives of political groups were unable to agree on potential changes to the legislative proposal yesterday during their last meeting before the April 16 vote. The Parliament and EU governments are considering a one-sentence amendment to the emissions law to allow curbing a record oversupply in the carbon market by delaying the sale of some permits. The draft plan has divided policy makers and industry………………………………………..Full Article: Source

EU policy-makers should scrap the Emissions Trading System and replace it with new binding long-term targets for specific clean energy technologies and boost interconnection, Eddie O’Connor, president of the Friends of the Supergrid said Tuesday.
Friends of the Supergrid is a group of energy companies, power grid operators and renewable energy equipment manufacturers that proposes linking offshore wind farms in the North and Baltic Seas to form the basis of a new pan-European power grid. O’Connor, who is also chief executive of Irish generator Mainstream Renewable Power, was addressing the group’s annual conference in Brussels………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Chinese government has unveiled a detailed roadmap for a national emissions trading scheme in a significant sign the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter will introduce a country-wide carbon price.
Speaking in Washington, the deputy director of China’s powerful National Development and Reform Commission, Wang Shu, backed a national scheme, saying it could provide ”an efficient and lower-cost approach for addressing climate change and realising low carbon development”………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The European Union’s executive told EU national governments last month that it expected the bloc’s Parliament to approve in April the start of negotiations on a proposal to reduce a record glut of carbon permits.
The European Commission updated representatives of EU nations on the status of the draft measure during a meeting of climate experts from member states on Feb. 27 in Brussels, according to a summary of the gathering obtained by Bloomberg News. The proposal, which includes an amendment to the EU emissions trading law, has divided EU governments and members of the Parliament, which is next scheduled to discuss the draft measure at its plenary meeting starting on April 15………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Australian cleantech sector boasts revenue of $29 billion a year and employs 53,000 people, making it larger than Australia’s automative manufacturing industry and one quarter the size of the country’s entire manufacturing sector.
A new study produced by research and advisory firm Australian CleanTech says an analysis of 1,340 Australian cleantech firms shows they were involved in capital transations totalling $1.3 billion in the 2012 calendar year in 126 separate capital transactions………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Carbon prices shot up by as much as 20 per cent after a whisker-thin vote in the European Parliament in favour of propping up the world’s biggest emissions trading scheme.
The 292-289 vote on Thursday proved a brief piece of welcome news for the ailing EU market, which has suffered a disastrous meltdown over the past year thanks to the weak economy and a glut in the supply of carbon allowances………………………………….Full Article: Source

Right now, the carbon markets of the future are under construction in all corners of the world. China is determined to pursue low-carbon development and is embracing the market as the most efficient way to do so. Wang Shu, the deputy director of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, told us this week that he sees the “magic of the market” as the most efficient way to drive China’s green growth.
Five Chinese cities and two provinces are piloting emissions trading systems with the goal of building a national carbon market. Chile is exploring an emissions trading system and focusing on energy efficiency and renewable energy. Mexico is developing market-based mechanisms in energy efficiency that could cut its emissions by as much as 30 percent by 2020. Costa Rica is aiming for a carbon-neutral economy by 2021………………………………….Full Article: Source

Last week saw a remarkable five of the Group of 10 central banks hold policy board meetings: the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Bank of Canada (BOC), Bank of Japan (BOJ), Bank of England (BoE) and the European Central Bank (ECB). All were on hold and none made any policy moves. Yet the hints that they gave were enough to infer that this is just an interregnum in what’s been called the “currency wars.”
The meetings made it clear that the “currency wars” are still with us, and clarified each central bank’s stance in these wars. It’s not yet clear who will “win” the wars by weakening their currency the most, but the U.S. seems set to be a “loser” by having its currency rise in value against the others………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Japanese government may revive discussions about a carbon market that would reduce pollution levels after elections for the Upper House of parliament due in July, a government adviser said.
Takashi Hongo, a senior fellow at Mitsui Global Strategic Studies Institute and a delegate for Japan at United Nations climate talks, said ministers are likely to consider building a market for carbon dioxide emissions credits later this year………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Investing in climate change used to mean financing the fight against global warming. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and other firms took stakes in wind farms and tidal-energy projects, and set up carbon-trading desks.
Then, as efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions faltered, the appeal of clean tech dimmed: Venture capital and private- equity investments fell 34 percent last year, to $5.8 billion, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Australia’s top industry lobby group has called for the immediate removal of the country’s fixed carbon tax and to replace it with an internationally linked emissions trading scheme.
The Australian Industry Group, which represents more than 60,000 businesses, said electricity prices in the country would drop 1.5 cents per kilowatt as a result of the switch. Australia’s carbon tax went into effect last July………………………………………..Full Article: Source

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Investing in climate change used to mean putting money into efforts to stop global warming. Morgan Stanley (MS), Goldman Sachs (GS), and other firms took stakes in wind farms and tidal-energy projects, and set up carbon-trading desks.
The appeal of cleantech has dimmed as efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions have faltered: Venture capital and private equity investments fell 34 percent last year, to $5.8 billion, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance………………………………………..Full Article: Source

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China will wait until after this year to introduce a tax on carbon, deferring to concern that economic growth might suffer, a government researcher said.
The nation eventually expects to introduce a levy of 5 yuan to 10 yuan (80 cents to $1.61) per ton of carbon, Jia Kang, head of research at the Ministry of Finance, said in Beijing yesterday. The tax, proposed in China’s latest five-year plan, was intended to apply to carbon emissions from fossil fuels, KPMG International said in a May 2011 report………………………………………..Full Article: Source

China will introduce a new environmental protection tax that will include a levy on carbon dioxide emissions, according to a report from Xinhua News Agency, China’s official press agency.
The Xinhua report is based on an article published on the website of the Chinese Ministry of Finance. The article quotes the head of the ministry’s tax division policy, Jia Chen, as saying, “the government will collect the environmental protection tax instead of pollutant discharge fees, as well as levy a tax on carbon dioxide emissions.”……………………………………….Full Article: Source

RWE AG (RWE), Germany’s second-biggest utility, boosted carbon trading by 65 percent in 2012 before the European Union halted free allocations of emission allowances this year.
RWE traded 1.06 billion metric tons of carbon permits in 2012, compared with 644 million tons the previous year, company spokesman Michael Murphy on Essen said in an e-mail today. Starting this year, west European power generators must buy all of their emission permits until at least 2020, after getting most of their allowances for free over the past five years………………………………………..Full Article: Source

South Korea’s government plans to meet in May with the nation’s biggest emitters to provide information about the start of cap and trade in 2015.
The government plans to select an exchange for greenhouse- gas emissions in the second half of this year and decide how to allocate free allowances to an estimated 480 emitters by June 2014, Lee Hyung Sup, a deputy-director at the Ministry of Environment, said in a phone interview yesterday in Seoul. Trials for carbon trading are set to start in June 2014, he said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

China will step up efforts to cut its emissions and improve energy efficiency this year after record air pollution in Beijing, where the national legislature opens its annual meeting.
The government plans to reduce the nation’s carbon emissions and energy use per unit of gross domestic product by at least 3.7 percent in 2013 and carry out carbon-trading trials, the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planner, said in a report today. Carbon releases fell 5.02 percent and energy use per unit of GDP slid 3.6 percent last year, beating targets of 3.5 percent, the NDRC said in Beijing………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Recently there has been a lot of attention paid to an essay on tax reform by the head of the tax department at the Ministry of Finance in Beijing, which mentions two hot-button words: carbon, and tax.
But does this mean that China, the world’s biggest emitter of carbon, will adopt a serious carbon tax? According to Su Wei, director general of climate change at the powerful economic planning ministry, the answer is: probably not anytime soon………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The European Union is being urged to scrap its landmark emissions trading scheme (ETS) by an international coalition of environmental, development and other civil society organisations. “The ETS is in trouble – big time,” the coalition said, adding that this assessment was shared by most analysts, policymakers, politicians, carbon traders, industrial polluters and non-governmental organisations.
“The EU maintains a scheme which allows polluters and financial ‘market makers’ and speculators to move around pollution permits and cash in on windfall profits without making any significant contribution to halting runaway climate change,” it claimed………………………………………..Full Article: Source

President Obama gave his second-term global warming agenda a lot more definition Monday with a new Environmental Protection Agency chief to replace Lisa Jackson. Picking Gina McCarthy, one of her top lieutenants and the architect of some of the agency’s most destructive carbon rules, is a sign he intends to make good on his vow of “executive actions” if Congress doesn’t pass cap and tax.
Over the last four years running the EPA’s air office, Ms. McCarthy has been a notably willful regulator, even for this Administration………………………………………..Full Article: Source

China’s potential carbon tax may spur U.S. lawmakers to consider climate protection more seriously, according to a trader representative.
“China’s announcement that it’s considering a carbon tax may, over time, chill superficial resistance by some to the issue and spur U.S. lawmakers to more seriously consider what the appropriate U.S. actions should be on market-based climate policies,” Cameron Prell, Washington-based counsel at McGuireWoods LLP in Washington, said……………………………………….Full Article: Source

When California held its first-ever auction of greenhouse gas emission allowances last fall, allowances sold for $10.09, just pennies above the $10 floor price set by state regulators. Some observers warned that the low price meant the state’s new cap-and-trade program wouldn’t work and was a sign that companies were not participating.
But in the second auction last week, the allowances sold for $13.62 each, higher than many analysts had expected………………………………………..Full Article: Source

United Nations carbon credits for March jumped the most ever and trading rose to the highest in more than two months ahead of a deadline to surrender permits and offsets in the European Union’s carbon market.
March Certified Emission Reduction futures gained as much as 94 percent to 33 euro cents ($0.43) a metric ton on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange. That’s the highest price since Dec. 11. ICE Futures handled 5.2 million tons of March offsets, the busiest day since Dec. 11. The contract closed 82 percent higher at 31 cents………………………………………..Full Article: Source

In the knowledge that green is apparently the new black, it was highly appropriate that South Korea’s Kexim last week tapped hungry SRI funds with its first “green bond”. The acronym stands for Socially Responsible Investment, and Kexim will be investing the proceeds from the US$500m foray in the eco-friendly projects it sponsors around the world.
In the process the canny Korean policy bank managed to shave five basis points off its implied funding cost in conventional format at five years, which isn’t too shabby a result on a benchmark-sized trade………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The risk of carbon prices tumbling to zero is not scaring off investors in the European Union’s trading scheme, where fraught efforts to draw up a rescue plan have seen daily trade volumes soar.
Those rescue efforts are eclipsing energy prices, economic data and currency fluctuations as the market’s main driver in a trend likely to continue for months, even years. “The carbon market is broken in that it is driven by regulation, and not by fundamentals,” Paolo Coghe, analyst at Societe Generale, said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

More than 75 environmental organizations on Monday urged the European Parliament to end the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme, launched seven years ago as a market-oriented way of reducing pollution and greenhouse gases.
The parliament is due to vote Tuesday on a plan by the European Commission to overhaul the ETS with the aim of reversing the trend that has seen the price of carbon permits plummet 75 percent in the last five years. Instead of reducing discharges of CO2, the ETS has “diverted attention from the need to transform the system’s dependency on fossil fuels and growing consumption, resulting in increased emissions,” according to Joanna Cabello of Carbon Trade Watch………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Dismal prices in the European Union Emissions Trading System are causing interest in the world’s largest emissions market to wither away. While the European Commission has come up with a plan to put it on life support, analysts say there is a 50:50 chance it could be blocked – a decision that would ultimately lead to the scheme’s demise.
To many observers, the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is a shining example of bold collective action by national governments aimed at achieving a noble common cause – the reduction of harmful greenhouse gas emissions and the slowing of climate change. To others, the EU ETS serves as a cautionary tale of the various pitfalls and banana skins that crafting a traded emissions market can bring………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Ecuador will introduce plans for a small carbon tax on oil at the May meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The initiative would see a 3-5% tax levied on every barrel of oil exported to rich countries. Funds would be transferred directly to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), and Ecuador believes it could raise up to US$80bn a year.
Speaking to RTCC on a visit to London, Ecuador Ministerial Advisor Daniel Ortega said hopes were high it would be accepted by the world’s larger oil producers in May………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Germany’s carbon dioxide emissions from industry and power stations in 2012 stood at 450 million tonnes, unchanged from the previous year, the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) said on Monday.
UBA president Jochen Flasbarth told Reuters the volume was virtually the same because a higher rate of coal-burning in power generation plants was offset by lower industrial CO2 emissions due to an economic slowdown in the euro zone………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Businesses in California paid slightly more than expected during the state’s second carbon auction, with emissions permits for this year selling at $13.62 (£8.99) per metric tonne.
California’s Air Resources Board on Friday confirmed that all of the nearly 13 million 2013 carbon permits sold at $2.91 above the $10.71 reserve price. Analysts said the results suggested the world’s second-largest carbon market is in rude health………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Go through any household in a western industrialized nation and chances are good you’ll find at least one product that reads: “Designed in the USA. Assembled in China.” But how does this impact global CO2 emissions and climate negotiations?
When measuring the CO2 emissions of countries, a lot of attention is focused on the CO2 directly emitted by each country. However, the emissions associated with consuming products that are manufactured elsewhere is rarely taken into consideration. This concept is referred to as “carbon leakage” as carbon dioxide is not accounted for in the country of consumption, but leaked to the country of production………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Carbon traders bought the rumour and sold the fact this week and those who got their timing right could have gained up to 86%. On Tuesday, the much anticipated crunch vote by the European Parliament’s environment committee attempted to eradicate some of the chronic oversupply in the market which had sent carbon prices plummeting to historic lows last month.
The committee agreed to allow the so-called backloading of 900 million carbon contracts. Average daily volumes for the most highly traded contract is 20 million on the largest exchange………………………………………..Full Article: Source

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The European Parliament has thrown its support behind the bloc’s faltering emissions trading scheme. But is it enough to save the shattered carbon market?
Brussels is starting to fix the problems of one of its most important mechanisms in the fight against climate change. The environment committee of the European Parliament in Brussels has now voted yes to amending the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)…………………………………….Full Article: Source

Just as President Barack Obama is trying to persuade Americans that a cap and trade system is the way to curb carbon emissions, the world’s flagship program in Europe is in danger of failing. The price of carbon traded in Europe has collapsed to around 5 euros per metric ton compared with 30 euros a few years ago, as I discuss in my Green column.
The EU Emissions Trading System is intended to set a price on greenhouse gas emissions in order to force polluters like steel mills and power stations to clean up their acts……………………………………Full Article: Source

Europe’s emissions-trading system, the world’s largest carbon cap-and-trade scheme, survived a near-death experience on February 19th. The environment committee of the European Parliament voted to support a plan proposed by the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, to take 900m tonnes of carbon allowances off the market for up to five years. Had it rejected the plan, the market might have collapsed.
The proposal would reduce some of the massive overcapacity in the ETS, which has driven the price of carbon down from almost €30 a tonne in 2008 to about €5 this year……………………………………Full Article: Source

Lawmakers in Brussels moved on Tuesday to shore up the sagging market for carbon emissions permits, a central component of the European Union’s efforts to reduce air pollution.
Prices of carbon allowances, which let companies emit greenhouse gases, fell last month to as low as 2.80 euros, or about $3.75, a metric ton, compared with 9 euros a ton a year ago and 30 euros a ton in 2008. To reduce the supply of permits and drive up the price, the environmental committee of the European Parliament voted to allow the European Commission to reduce the number of allowances to be auctioned over the next three years……………………………………Full Article: Source

Associate Professor Euan Mason of Canterbury University is surprised more hill country farmers are not showing an interest in carbon credit trading as they stand to boost their incomes while at the same time helping the environment.
Professor Mason said he is perplexed that some farmers have a negative attitude towards carbon trading and the climate change issue. He said hill country farmers with land that is eroding and, because of that, is relatively unproductive, have the potential to create wealth by sequestering carbon through forestry as part of the response to climate change…………………………………….Full Article: Source

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More than 75 environmental organizations on Monday urged the European Parliament to end the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme, launched seven years ago as a market-oriented way of reducing pollution and greenhouse gases.
The parliament is due to vote Tuesday on a plan by the European Commission to overhaul the ETS with the aim of reversing the trend that has seen the price of carbon permits plummet 75 percent in the last five years…………………………………….Full Article: Source

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Fu Chengyu has global ambitions. In 2005 he led CNOOC, a state-run Chinese energy giant, to make an audacious takeover bid for Unocal, an American oil-and-gas firm. That provoked a protectionist backlash, and CNOOC retreated. (It has since won approval to buy Nexen, a Canadian energy firm.)
In 2011 Mr Fu took over as boss of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec), another state-run outfit. He has tried to transform the domestically focused firm into an international oil giant………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Norway’s central bank governor warned that the country, one of the richest in the world, needs to prepare more for its post-oil future.
Øystein Olsen, head of Norges Bank, used his annual speech to underline that the two factors affecting the country’s growth potential – hours worked and productivity growth – were both falling………………………………………..Full Article: Source

On Frbruary 19th Europe’s emissions-trading system (ETS) faces a potentially fatal vote. It could not only determine whether the world’s biggest carbon-trading market survives but delay the emergence of a worldwide market, damage Europe’s environmental policies across the board and affect the prospects for a future treaty to limit greenhouse-gas emissions. Quite a lot for a decision which—as is the way of things European—sounds numbingly technical.
The vote is due to take place in the environment committee of the European Parliament. If the committee approves the proposal before it (and the parliament in full session as well as a majority of national governments agree with the decision), this would give the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, the power to rearrange the ETS’s schedule of auctions………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Europe’s carbon trading scheme should be the biggest action on climate change on the continent, but lobbying threatens to kill much-needed reform. What is the most important climate change policy issue in Europe right now? By a wide margin it is the broken emissions trading scheme, because it should the biggest and best way of cutting carbon emissions.
The idea of a cap-and-trade scheme is that the cap shrinks, requiring a progressive reduction in carbon emissions. Meanwhile the trade means that the cuts in emissions take place where they are cheapest, meaning the maximum benefit for the least cost………………………………………..Full Article: Source