Friday, September 28, 2007

Ethiopia: “cap and trade mechanism” is vital- PM Zenawi







Jimma Time staff


Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said the cap and trade mechanism (CAT) is necessary for greener and “clean” development in Africa, during talks on global warming and on African perspectives.


During a panel discussion at the annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York, Meles debated with former British PM Tony Blair, Hank Paulson U.S. Secretary of the treasury and United Nations special envoy on climate change, Brundtland, headed by NBC news correspondent Tom Brokaw.

Full Story

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Opportunities in carbon trade regime

By BRUCE McKAY - The Dominion Post | Wednesday, 26 September 2007

The carbon trading structure announced by the Government last week appears to have meet with widespread support across most of the economy.

Predictably, the Greens are saying it's all too little too late, but the rest of the political spectrum has at least given a tick of endorsement to the plans put forward by the Government.

The phase-in over a few years gives the economy time to adjust to the changes in price relativities that pricing carbon will have.

The basic idea behind the carbon trading scheme is that the Government will allocate a set number of carbon credits to each industry free.

If the industry or a company within the industry expels carbon in excess of this number, credit will have to be purchased on the open market.

This is intended to make the price of carbon transparent to both the creators and users of the carbon credits.

Full Story

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Fran O'Sullivan: Adventures in carbon trade

5:00AM Wednesday September 26, 2007
By Fran O'Sullivan

The Government's short-sighted decision to scuttle the Serious Fraud Office comes at a time when other countries are facing up to the new era of climate change fraud.

Let's put to rest here (quickly) the notion that this column will attack the basic science of global warming as a crock.

There's nothing to be gained from reopening that debate.

But there is good reason to question, based on the experience of the European countries that have already launched their own market, whether the proposed NZ emissions trading regime will perform to heightened expectations.

UK-based investigations into carbon trading have shown the new international market is a valuable hunting ground for new generation white-collar crooks, tax dodge specialists and ruthless companies which buy dubious offsets in Third World countries to assuage their corporate consciences without doing anything significant to reduce their own emissions level.

Energy Minister David Parker and his team have come down in favour of a cap and trade mechanism to curb the exponential growth in greenhouse gas emissions which New Zealand will adopt once legislation is passed.

The documents underlying the Government's announcement are illuminating. Greenhouse emissions are growing (NZ is now producing 25 per cent more than in 1990); per capita comparisons show New Zealanders produce nearly twice as many emissions as British people and five times as many as Chinese .

The energy sector has shown growth of 43 per cent; but, the real issue is the fact that agriculture emissions: methane and nitrous oxide are expected to grow to over 70 per cent above 1990 levels by 2012.

Full Story

Vikash Metal gets U.N. okay for carbon-credit project

Tue Sep 25, 2007 11:15am IST

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Vikash Metal & Power Ltd said on Tuesday it has received approval from a U.N. body for a carbon-credit project.

The company's waste-heat recovery captive power plant would reduce 55,000 tonnes of carbon-di-oxide equivalents a year, it said in a statement.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, developed countries can meet greenhouse gas reduction targets by paying poor and developing countries to make cuts for them, in a trade in carbon offsets worth $5 billion last year.

Each unit of carbon credit represents one tonne reduction in greenhouse gas emission.


Wal-Mart: Measuring Just How Green

The retailing giant launched a potentially groundbreaking initiative to measure suppliers' energy use. How hard will it push for change?


In a move with potentially far-reaching consequences, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) says it will begin to measure the amount of energy used to manufacture and distribute some of its products, and it will launch a pilot project with certain suppliers to look for new ways to cut their energy use. The effort will begin with suppliers in seven product categories: DVDs, toothpaste, soap, milk, beer, vacuum cleaners, and soda.

The retailing giant announced the initiative Sept. 24 in partnership with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a nonprofit group supported by institutional shareholders that focuses on climate change and carbon emissions (BusinessWeek, 3/26/07). Wal-Mart says it plans to use the Carbon Disclosure Project's expertise to help set up the new program with its suppliers. "We are working together to measure our global supply chain footprint and to encourage our suppliers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," said John Fleming, executive vice-president and chief merchandising officer at Wal-Mart.

Full Story

Chips down for a green trade-off

Ben Rooth
25/ 9/2007
IT was a gamble that could be a winner for the planet, as eco-warriors used poker chips to discover how they could potentially sell their greenhouse gas emissions.

Manchester is leading the way with the country's first workshop in 'personal carbon trading'.

It explores how ordinary members of the public can help reduce global warming through buying and selling the amount of greenhouse gases they produce.

The government is considering a personal carbon trading scheme which would see every individual allocated a set amount of greenhouse gas emissions - known as `carbon credits'.

Full Story

Global Warming: The Great Equaliser

Global Warming: The Great Equaliser


By Adam Parsons , Editor ~ Share The World’s Resources (STWR)

As the latest summit to discuss a post-Kyoto treaty continues in New York this week, the single most revealing statement has already been spoken: “We need to climate-proof economic growth”. These few words, told to reporters by the UN’s top climate official, Yvo de Boer, during the recent Vienna round of talks, define the blinded establishment approach to tackling climate change.[1] Only if continued trade liberalisation and corporate profits are kept sacrosanct, remains the assumption, is it possible to consider even a broad agreement on future cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions.

With dire weather events and studies being reported on an almost daily basis, fewer sceptics are able to dismiss the reality of dangerous climate change. In the same week as around 1,000 diplomats, scientists, business leaders and environmental activists from 158 countries attended the U.N.’s Vienna Climate Change Talks, a top security think-tank stated that climate change could have global security implications “on a par with nuclear war unless urgent action is taken”,[2] whilst leading scientists warned of a looming “global food crisis” that will require more food to be produced over the next 50 years than has been produced during the past 10,000 years combined.[3]

The rapidity of these dystopian predictions has grown to Faustian proportions; the year 2007 already has the dubious accolade of witnessing the most extreme weather events on record,[4] as characterised by the millions of Africans just hit by some of the worst floods in a generation in which villagers were “wiped off the map”.[5] This summer, the collapse of the Arctic ice cap (losing a third of its ice since measurements began 30 years ago and “stunning” experts)[6] was topped off by the latest UN study from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) who now believe that the tipping point for widespread catastrophe – involving a two degrees rise in global temperatures - is “very unlikely” to be avoided.[7]

Full Story

Monday, September 24, 2007

A perfect, green world

24 Sep 2007 08:30 am

More broadly, Econospeak's post seems to suffer from a subtle version of a fallacy that Will Wilkinson pithily summarized:


In the real world, the mind works like this, and this can lead to all kinds of problems. And in an extremely unrealistic abstract model of government action, its agents can easily and objectively identify problems and act to effectively solve them. So, let’s have the ideal government solve the problems of nonideal cognition.

It sounds stupid when you put it that way, doesn’t it? The trick is figuring out how to work with real minds, using real governments!

. . . so how are you going to do it? Most real government institutions are at least as kludgey and means-ends inconsistent as real minds are. “Silly, your sock won’t open that can of spinach! So try your pillow instead, because a model exists in which pillows are can-openers.”

In an ideal world, Econospeak says, cap-and-trade and carbon taxes may be functionally identical; the government will simply keep raising the price on the tax until it hits the carbon target. But in this vale of tears, where we have but the crumbly clay of humanity to work with, this doesn't function so well:

The real wonder here is that Mankiw could make such an elementary economics error as to suggest that taxes and cap-and-auction are “effectively” the same. In an uncertain world this is false. From a conventional benefit-cost perspective, Weitzman showed long ago that there were important differences depending on the slope of the marginal benefit and cost functions. Translated into common English, if we are uncertain about the long run relationship between the price of carbon emissions and the amount of emission – and we very much are – and if the risk of allowing too much climate change is greater than the risk of economic indigestion from trying to be too green – which seems pretty clear to me – then permits are the right choice. By controlling the number of permits we control our most important impact on the earth’s carbon budget, but allow prices to wander. By setting a tax we control the price but allow the amount of pollution to wander. That’s a big difference: you might say, given the gravity of what is at stake, that it’s the difference between ecological responsibility and irresponsibility.

See, the government can't be trusted to target the correct emissions level with a tax. That's why we should have the government target the correct emissions level with permits . . .

A more realistic model assumes that any American government will, to a virtual certainty, be more generous with either its tax or its credits than [Me + anyone to the left of Bill Clinton] would like. Under that scenario, a tax develops obvious benefits: it provides some mitigation even if permitting is excessively generous. Witness the recent debacle in Europe's greenhouse market where everyone issued too many permits and the price collapsed.

It's also politically and administratively more difficult to exempt special interest groups from carbon taxes than from cap-and-trade. Carbon taxes are also, obviously, much easier to levy on transportation than a cap and trade system, if for no other reason than that it obviates lengthy wrangling about fuel efficiency and which producer should buy the permits for the end-consumer.

Full Story

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Buy your way to carbon neutrality?

Los Angeles Times

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The Oscar-winning film "An Inconvenient Truth" touted itself as the world's first carbon-neutral documentary.

The producers said that every ounce of carbon emitted during production — from jet travel, electricity for filming and gasoline for cars and trucks — was counterbalanced by reducing emissions somewhere else. It only made sense that a film about the perils of global warming wouldn't contribute to the problem.

Co-producer Lesley Chilcott used an online calculator to estimate that shooting the film used 41.4 tons of carbon dioxide and paid a middleman, a company called Native Energy, $12 a ton, or $496.80, to broker a deal to cut greenhouse gases elsewhere. The film's distributors later made a similar payment to neutralize carbon dioxide from the movie's marketing.

It was a ridiculously good deal with one problem: So far, it has not led to any additional emissions reductions.

Full Story

US carbon trade lifts Climate Exchange results

London, 20 September: A booming US trade in voluntary carbon credits pushed Climate Exchange into profitability in the first six months of this year, the company reported on Wednesday.

The London-listed business, which owns the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) and the European Climate Exchange (ECX), made a pro-forma operating profit of £726,000 ($1.4 million) in the six months to 30 June, compared with a £1.9 million loss in the same period last year.

Chief executive Neil Eckert said: “Both contract volumes and membership on ECX and CCX have increased considerably… Demand across the globe for exchange-traded environmental products continues to grow at a rapid rate and we look forward to growing with that demand.”

ECX is Europe’s leading exchange for trading EU allowance futures. Volumes in the first eight months of the year reached 654,819 contracts, up from 256,852 in the same period last year, while revenues rose to £1.5 million from £0.9 million in the half-year.

However, growth on CCX made a bigger impact on the results. The exchange operates as a voluntary, but legally binding, cap-and-trade scheme for mainly US-based businesses. As in Europe, volumes on CCX have more than doubled since last year, to 11.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in the first six months of 2007.

But CCX revenues soared to £4.2 million from £1.8 million, and the exchange made an operating profit of £1.1 million – unlike ECX which lost £370,000.

“We get €4 ($5.6) for every 1,000 tonnes traded on ECX, but $10 for every 100 tonnes traded on CCX,” Eckert said. CCX also captures revenue from offset registration fees and other administrative fees, whereas ECX only charges for trading and membership and operates in a much more competitive environment, he explained.

The company also runs the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange (CCFE), which takes the lion’s share of exchange trading in US sulphur dioxide permit futures. The CCFE has launched this year futures contracts for an eco-stock index, CCX credits, UN-issued certified emission reductions and it recently announced plans for futures trading in catastrophe events.

Climate Exchange was listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market four years ago, with shares priced at £1.02 each. Today, its shares traded at £15.62.

Full Story

NZ opts to phase-in carbon trade

The New Zealand government has announced an emissions trading scheme will begin in 2008 to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, ending more than two years of delay in its policy response to climate change.

The cap-and-trade scheme will cover all six greenhouse gases but be phased in sector by sector over five years, starting with the next year with the forestry industry. The scheme will provide a boost for foresters, allowing carbon credits to be earned and retained by forest owners – a reverse of the previous, deeply-resented policy under which credits for carbon stored in forests planted since 1990 were nationalised by the government.

The oil industry will be brought into the scheme in 2009 and the power generation sector and high-energy/heavy-emitting industry in 2010. Emissions allowances for these sectors will be allocated at 90 per cent of their 2005 emissions.

The government said petrol prices would rise by 4 cents a litre from 2009. Power company Contact Energy estimates a 4 per cent rise in retail electricity prices at a cost of carbon of $NZ20 a tonne when electricity comes into the scheme.

Full Story

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Getting carbon offsets right: a business brief on engaging offset providers

A guide for organisations through the carbon offset market

Authors: R. Schuchard; E. Stewart
Publisher: Business for Social Responsibility , 2007

This report is a retail guide for businesses interested in exploring partnerships in the rapidly growing carbon offset market. The guide includes an overview of the key business benefits and costs, criteria for assessing providers, a profile of the 50 top players, and suggestions for partnerships. The report argues that offsetting should be part of a three-pronged approach to climate change which also includes internal reductions and investment in renewable energy.

The report argues that there are a number of costs and benefits to participating in the offset market. Benefits include:

  • improved reputation and environmental credibility, particularly for customer-facing companies
  • increased experience in voluntary carbon markets in anticipation of a carbon-constrained economy, particularly for large companies and those in emissions-intensive sectors
  • enhanced credibility, dialogue and networks with industry groups and regulators in order to gain a hand in shaping policy
  • more internal attention on the environmental balance sheet
  • employees who are inspired and prepared to conserve and innovate
  • opportunities to become a net emissions reducer and sell offsets to retail or compliance markets at a profit

Despite these benefits, however, offsetting presents costs and risk including:

  • research into appropriate offset projects and providers, which may take months
  • corporate offset program design and administration, which may require additional staffing
  • unit offset costs, which range from US$5/ton for nonstandard, unregulated verified (VER) offsets to over US$50/ton for high-quality certified (CER) offsets sourced from compliance markets
  • brand risk from being potentially accused of “greenwash
  • Negative environmental publicity may both lead to significant business costs and dissuade further investment in environmental leadership

The report argues that the selection of offsets should be guided by the following principles:

  • additional: reductions are “surplus” offsets that would not have occurred under "business as usual”
  • real: offsets are sourced from tangible, physical projects with evidence that they have or will imminently occur
  • measurable: reductions are objectively quantifiable by peer-reviewed methodologies within acceptable standard margins of error
  • permanent: reduction streams are unlikely to be reversed, with safeguards to ensure that reversals will be immediately replaced or compensated
  • verifiable: performance is monitored by an independent third-party verifier with appropriate local and sector expertise
  • enforceable: offsets are backed by legal instruments that define offsets’ creation, provide for transparency and ensure exclusive ownership
  • synchronous: offset flows are matched to emission flow time periods

The final section of the report provides a listing of major offset providers and guidelines for partnerships.

Full Document

Source


Meridian gets carbon credit windfall
by Fiona Robertson
Meridian Energy has sold three parcels of carbon credits listed on a Trade Me auction at "trophy" prices for almost $25,000.

Meridian had listed two parcels of 10 credits (representing 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, designed as a family offset) which closed this week at $3,000 and $2,000.

A third parcel of 1,000 credits, designed as a small to medium business buy, sold for $19,262.

While the business buyer bought for less than $20 a credit, the family parcels went more expensively at $200 and $300 per credit.

Meridian Energy chief executive Keith Turner said the first sales were always going to be "trophy" sales. The auctions had demonstrated the "real engagement from the public" on the issue.

Full Story

Japan CO2 emissions credits trade at avge $10.6/T

Wed Sep 12, 2007 1:06PM BST

TOKYO, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission credits traded in Japan at an average of 1,212 yen ($10.61) per tonne in the 17 months ended Aug. 31, the Environment Ministry said.

A total of 31 Japanese companies, including Hitachi Ltd (6501.T: Quote, Profile, Research), participate in the voluntary CO2 reduction targets and they buy and sell the credits to attain their goals.

Those companies receive government subsidy when they make energy-saving investments but would have to return the grant if they fail to keep their targets.

This was the first time Japan has announced detailed prices of these trades.

A total of 24 trades worth 82,624 tonnes of credits were conducted during the period. Of these, 13 trades worth 17,987 tonnes of credits were conducted via the ministry's Internet-based trading service.

Full Story

Climate Change's Great Divide

Lawmakers Favor Carbon Caps,
Trading; Economists Prefer a Tax
By DEBORAH SOLOMON
September 12, 2007; Page A4

The biggest political battle in Washington over climate change may not pit Democrats against Republicans. Instead, it could be economists versus politicians.

Many academics, even conservatives, favor a tax on carbon emissions. Many lawmakers, including some liberals, fear a political backlash against new fees. They lean toward a cap-and-trade system, which would set a limit on carbon-dioxide emissions and require companies to obtain permits to release carbon dioxide into the air.

Full Story

Estimation Of Baselines And Leakage In Carbon Mitigation Forestry Projects

Authors:Jayant Sathaye; Ken Andrasko
Formal Report
2006-10-01
LBNL-61454
Abstract:

There is a growing acceptance that the environmental benefits of forests extend beyond traditional ecological benefits and include the mitigation of climate change. Interest in forestry mitigation activities has led to the inclusion of forestry practices at the project level in international agreements. Climate change activities place new demands on participating institutions to set baselines, establish additionality, determine leakage, ensure permanence, and monitor and verify a project’s greenhouse gas benefits. These issues are common to both forestry and other types of mitigation projects. They demand empirical evidence to establish conditions under which such projects can provide sustained long term global benefits. This Special Issue reports on papers that experiment with a range of approaches based on empirical evidence for the setting of baselines and estimation of leakage in projects in developing Asia and Latin America.

Full Paper

Land Use Change and Forestry Climate Project Regional Baselines: A Review

Authors:Jayant Sathaye; Ken Andrasko
Formal Report
2006-10-01
LBNL-61455
Abstract:

Climate change programs have largely used the project-specific approach for estimating baseline emissions of climate mitigation projects. This approach is subjective, lacks transparency, can generate inconsistent baselines for similar projects, and is likely to have high transaction costs. The use of regional baselines, which partially addresses these issues, has been reported in the literature on forestry and agriculture projects, and in greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation program guidance for them (e.g., WRI/WBCSD GHG Project Protocol, USDOE’s 1605(b) registry, UNFCCC’s Clean Development Mechanism). This paper provides an assessment of project-specific and regional baselines approaches for key baseline tasks, using project and program examples. The regional experience to date is then synthesized into generic steps that are referred to as Stratified Regional Baselines (SRB). Regional approaches generally, and SRB in particular explicitly acknowledge the heterogeneity of carbon density, land use change, and other key baseline driver variables across a landscape. SRB focuses on providing guidance on how to stratify lands into parcels with relatively homogeneous characteristics to estimate conservative baselines within a GHG assessment boundary, by applying systematic methods to determine the boundary and time period for input data.

Full Paper

Development of an Agroforestry Sequestration Project in Khammam District of India

Authors:P. Sudha; V. Ramprasad; M.D.V. Nagendra; H.D. Kulkarni; N.H. Ravindranath
2006-10-10
LBNL-61461
Abstract: Large potential for agroforestry as a mitigation option has given rise to scientific and policy questions. This paper addresses methodological issues in estimating carbon sequestration potential, baseline determination, additionality and leakage in Khammam district, Andhra Pradesh, southern part of India. Technical potential for afforestation was determined considering the various land use options. For estimating the technical potential, culturable wastelands, fallow and marginal croplands were considered for Eucalyptus clonal plantations. Field studies for aboveground and below ground biomass, woody litter and soil organic carbon for baseline and project scenario were conducted to estimate the carbon sequestration potential. The baseline carbon stock was estimated to be 45.33 tC/ha. The additional carbon sequestration potential under the project scenario for 30 years is estimated to be 12.82 tC/ha/year inclusive of harvest regimes and carbon emissions due to biomass burning and fertilizer application. The project scenario though has a higher benefit cost ratio compared to baseline scenario, initial investment cost is high. Investment barrier exists for adopting agroforestry in the district.

Full Story

Community and Farm Forestry Climate Mitigation Projects: Case Studies from Uttaranchal, India

Authors:N.A. Hooda; M.B. Gera,; Ken Andrasko; Jayant Sathaye; J.D. Gupta; H.B. Vasistha
2006-10-10
LBNL-61460
Abstract: The methodologies for forest mitigation projects still present challenges to project developers for fulfillment of criteria within the Clean Development Mechanism or other such mechanisms for the purpose of earning carbon credits. This paper systematically approaches the process of establishing carbon stocks for baseline and mitigation scenario for two case studies ie., community and farm forestry projects in Uttranchal, India. The analysis of various interventions shows that both projects present high carbon mitigation potential. However, the carbon reversibility risk is lower in long rotation pine and mixed species plantation on community lands. The project is financially viable though not highly lucrative but the carbon mitigation potential in this ‘restoration of degraded lands’ type of project is immense provided challenges in the initial phase are adequately overcome. Carbon revenue is an essential driver for investors in community projects. The short rotation timber species such as Eucalyptus, Poplar have high internal rates of return (IRR) and high carbon benefit reversibility potential due to fluctuations in market prices of commodities produced. The land holdings are small and bundling is desired for projects to achieve economies of scale. The methodological concerns such as sampling intensities, monitoring methodologies, sharing of benefits with communities and bundling arrangements for projects need further research to make these projects viable.

Full Paper

Methodological Issues in Forestry Mitigation Projects: A Case Study of Kolar District

Authors:N.H. Ravindranath; I.K. Murthy; P. Sudha; V Ramprasad; M.D.V. Nagendra; C.A. Sahana
Formal Report
2006-10-10
LBNL-61459
Abstract: There is a need to assess climate change mitigation opportunities in forest sector in India in the context of methodological issues such as additionality, permanence, leakage, measurement and baseline development in formulating forestry mitigation projects. A case study of forestry mitigation project in semi-arid community grazing lands and farmlands in Kolar district of Karnataka, was undertaken with regard to baseline and project scenario development, estimation of carbon stock change in the project, leakage estimation and assessment of cost-effectiveness of mitigation projects. Further, the transaction costs to develop project, and environmental and socio-economic impact of mitigation project was assessed. The study shows the feasibility of establishing baselines and project C-stock changes. Since the area has low or insignificant biomass, leakage is not an issue. The overall mitigation potential in Kolar for a total area of 14,000 ha under various mitigation options is 278,380 tC at a rate of 20 tC/ha for the period 2005-2035, which is approximately 0.67 tC/ha/yr inclusive of harvest regimes under short rotation and long rotation mitigation options. The transaction cost for baseline establishment is less than a rupee/tC and for project scenario development is about Rs. 1.5-3.75/tC. The project enhances biodiversity and the socio-economic impact is also significant.

Full Paper

Development of Regional Climate Mitigation Baseline for a Dominant Agro-Ecological Zone of Karnataka, India

Authors:P. Sudha; D. Shubhashree; H. Khan; G. Hedge; .K. Murthy; V. Shreedhara
Formal Report
2006-10-10
LBNL-61458
Abstract: Setting a baseline for carbon stock changes in forest and land use sector mitigation projects is an essential step for assessing additionality of the project. There are two approaches for setting baselines namely, project-specific and regional baseline. This paper presents the methodology adopted for estimating the land available for mitigation, for developing a regional baseline, transaction cost involved and a comparison of project-specific and regional baseline. The study showed that it is possible to estimate the potential land and its suitability for afforestation and reforestation mitigation projects, using existing maps and data, in the dry zone of Karnataka, southern India. The study adopted a three-step approach for developing a regional baseline, namely: i) identification of likely baseline options for land use, ii) estimation of baseline rates of land-use change, and iii) quantification of baseline carbon profile over time. The analysis showed that carbon stock estimates made for wastelands and fallow lands for project-specific as well as the regional baseline are comparable. The ratio of wasteland Carbon stocks of a project to regional baseline is 1.02, and that of fallow lands in the project to regional baseline is 0.97. The cost of conducting field studies for determination of regional baseline is about a quarter of the cost of developing a project-specific baseline on a per hectare basis. The study has shown the reliability, feasibility and cost-effectiveness of adopting regional baseline for forestry sector mitigation projects.


Full Paper

Carbon Forestry Economic Mitigation Potential in India, by Land Classification

Authors:N.H. Ravindranath; I.K. Murthy; R.K.Chaturvedi; Ken Andrasko; Jayant Sathaye
Formal Report
2006-10-10
LBNL-61457
Abstract: Carbon forestry mitigation potential estimates at the global level are limited by the absence or simplicity of national level estimates, and similarly national-level estimates are limited by absence of regional-level estimates. The present study aims to estimate the mitigation potential for a large diverse country such as India, based on the GTAP global land classification system of agro-ecological zones (AEZs), as well the Indian AEZ system. The study also estimates the implications of carbon price incentive (US$50 and $100) on mitigation potential in the short-, medium and long-term, since afforestation and reforestation (A&R) is constrained by lack of investment and financial incentives. The mitigation potential for short and long rotation plantations and natural regeneration was estimated using the GCOMAP global forest model for two land area scenarios. One scenario included only wastelands (29 Mha), and the second enhanced area scenario, included wastelands plus long fallow and marginal croplands (54 Mha). Under the $100 carbon price case, significant additional area (3.6 Mha under the waste land scenario and 6.4 Mha under the enhanced area scenario) and carbon mitigation is gained in the short-term (2025) compared to the baseline when using the GTAP land classification system. The area brought under A&R increases by 85 to 100% for the $100 carbon price compared to $50 carbon price in the short-term, indicating the effectiveness of higher carbon price incentives, especially in the short-term. A comparison of estimates of mitigation potential using GTAP and Indian AEZ land classification systems showed that in the short-term, 35% additional C-stock gain is achieved in the $100 carbon price case in the enhanced area scenario of the Indian AEZ system. This difference highlights the role of the land classification system adopted in estimation of aggregate mitigation potential estimates, particularly in the short-term. Uncertainty involved in the estimates of national level mitigation potential needs to be reduced, by generating reliable estimates of carbon stock gain and losses, and cost and benefit data, for land use sector mitigation options at a scale disaggregated enough to be relevant for national mitigation planning.

Full Paper
International Workshop on Evaluating Climate Change and Development
GEF Evaluation Office with IUCN, IDEAS, IDRC, FFEM, IEG, Bibliotheca Alexandrina
May 10-13, 2008 – Alexandria, Egypt, Bibliotheca Alexandrina
Themes: Climate change mitigation (including policy and market interventions in sectors such as energy and transportation); Adaptation to climate change (including land degradation, agricultural development, water management, preparedness for natural disasters, and climate resilience)

Workshop Website


Calls for Papers and Presentations

The Secretariat of the International Workshop invites interested professionals to contribute papers and presentations (iin English) on mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Proposals should be submitted to the Secretariat of the International Workshop at
IntWorkshop@TheGEF.org by 15 November 2007.


Submitting via Email: You may submit your submissions form (in English) via email. To submit via email, complete the submission form and send to IntWorkshop@theGEF.org.

Deadline for submissions is November 15, 2007.

33rd Meeting of the CDM Executive Board
July 25 - 27, Bonn, UNFCCC headquarters

Forestry Methodologies

The Executive Board (EB) approved a new methodology AR-AM0008 “Afforestation or reforestation on degraded land for sustainable wood production” based on the submission ARNM0028-rev: Reforestation on degraded land for sustainable wood production of woodchips in the eastern coast of the Democratic Republic of Madagascar).
A new small-scale methodology for forestry on settlements was approved. Small-scale methodology AR-AMS0001 for forestry implemented on grasslands or croplands was revised (version 04) to improve and simplify procedures for the estimation of biomass stocks in the baseline, and the emissions resulting from fertilizer use and leakage.
The EB decided to reconsider the draft “Procedure to demonstrate the eligibility of lands for afforestation and reforestation project activities under the CDM” following a planned revision of the additionality tool for A/R CDM project activities.
The Board agreed on the three following methodological tools:
• for estimation of GHG emissions related to fossil fuel combustion in A/R CDM project activities;
• for determining when accounting of the soil organic carbon pool may be conservatively neglected;
• for estimation of direct nitrous oxide emission from nitrogen fertilization.

Programme of Activities (PoA)
The EB agreed to the guidance on POA with regard to the application of methodologies and debundling for small-scale and small-scale afforestation and reforestation CPAs.
The EB approved the CDM Programme of Activities Design Document form (PoA-DD), CDM Programme Activity Design Document form (PoA-CPA-DD), Small-Scale CDM PoA Design Document form (SSC-PoA-DD) and Small-Scale CDM Programme Activity Design Document form (PoA-CPA-SSC-DD). It was clarified that the registration fee for a PoA is based on the total expected annual emission reductions of the CPA(s) that will be submitted together with the request for registration of the PoA. For each CPA which is included subsequently, no fee is to be paid.

Report and resulting documents
UN launches CDM Bazaar Web-Portal
September 6
CDM BazaarThe UNFCCC secretariat and UNEP launched the , a web portal designed to facilitate exchange of information among buyers, sellers and service providers engaged in the CDM.

Source : CLIM-FO Climate Change & Forestry (Electronic Journal and Newsletter) No. 5/2007
Management Division, Forest Conservation Service (FOMC) Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Voluntary (Verified Emission Reduction - VER)

Increasing numbers of companies are voluntarily offsetting the emissions associated with their activities as a part of their corporate social responsibility. Greenhouse gases are emitted when fossil-fuelled energy is consumed. Some corporate emissions can be managed - we can use less energy, travel less and use public transport - but some emissions are practically unavoidable. The environmental impact of these emissions can be offset by reducing elsewhere - helping someone else to emit less. This is generally referred to as ‘carbon offsetting’.

The idea behind offsetting is simple. You calculate your emissions and then decide the amount to offset. You then neutralise the impact of the emissions on the environment and climate change by investing in emissions offsets. The purchased offsets are 'retired' and taken out of circulation. When the offsets come from projects, the money you pay goes to a local community or business to help fund more environmentally-friendly (and lower emission) development options which can include new technology. The projects often have direct benefits to the local community.

The offsets used can be Kyoto instruments – EUAs, CERs or ERUs – but often companies buy verified emission reductions (VERs), which essentially are the same as a CER, but omitting the last stage of the certification process. VERs are attractive, because they are lower cost, and often come from small, sustainable projects which cannot afford to go through the UN certification process.

Source : CantorCO2

California Sets Compelling Targets?

California's global warming law and the associated carbon-related opportunities and risks are substantive. This law promises to affect nearly every single business, government entity, and household in California...and other states are following in California's footsteps. The magnitude of the problem, the opportunity, and the risks are huge. Consider that: By 2020 California has committed to reduce CO2 emissions by ~177 million tons while the state's population will have grown by ~42% Experts predict that a carbon tax of between $150 and $200 per ton is needed to forestall disastrous climate change by 2050. Domestic CO2 reductions are transacting for between $4 and $12/ton. Some early actors will do very well....others will end up investing in projects that produce little in the way of tradable CO2e. While Governor Schwarzenegger has vowed to use the power of the market to address California's global warming problem, a powerful democrat has promised that he "..won't let Wall Street traders control our fight against global warming."

Source: CarbonMonitor Vol 12, Issue 8, Sept 2007

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Valuing Ecosystem Services: An Answer for China’s Watersheds?

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Government officials and researchers in China are increasingly trying to solve the economic piece of the nation’s environmental puzzle. Policy suggestions include subsidies for technologies that save both energy and money, taxation schemes that provide financial disincentives for polluters, and funding mechanisms that support ecosystem conservation. The latter approach—financing conservation—is particularly crucial to China’s future stability, says Dr. Liu Guihuan, who has spent her career at the Ecology Institute of the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning searching for economically viable solutions to ecosystem protection.

According to Liu, the primary obstacle to ecosystem protection in China is not the cost of protection itself, but how this cost is allocated. “It is always cheaper to protect ecosystems than to have to rebuild and restore them once they are destroyed. But it is a question of who is paying those costs,” she observes. Liu argues that protecting China’s ecosystems requires putting the burden of payment on the appropriate resource users.

Protecting watersheds—Dr. Liu’s research focus—is a case in point. Liu and her colleagues point to the many benefits intact watersheds provide beyond supplying humans and wildlife with water. These so-called “ecosystem services” include soil and water purification, habitat for biodiversity, and carbon sequestration. “The beauty of healthy watersheds is that these services are provided for free, and indefinitely,” she notes. But as with any free public resource, ecosystem services are prone to overexploitation and degradation by some users, making the services unavailable to others. By the same token, “costly protection and restoration efforts by some are usually enjoyed by others who do not pay for them,” Liu adds.

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Business in the dark on carbon trading: survey

Posted Tue Sep 11, 2007 7:29am AEST
Updated Tue Sep 11, 2007 7:46am AEST

A study says most Australian businesses have little or no understanding of emissions trading schemes. (File photo)

A study says most Australian businesses have little or no understanding of emissions trading schemes. (File photo) (Reuters: Ilya Naymushin)

A new report shows 40 per cent of Australian companies have no understanding of emissions trading schemes.

The survey, by the Australian Industry Group in conjunction with Sustainability Victoria, covers more than 800 manufacturers and commercial constructors.

It found 14 per cent of companies understood emission trading schemes, nearly half had a poor understanding, and 40 per cent had no understanding.

Sixty-nine per cent of the firms surveyed were undecided on their support for an emissions trading scheme in Australia.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Washington needs to join climate effort

Monday, September 10, 2007

The summer heat in Washington, D.C., often drives congressional observers (and policy wonks) to cooler climates. (After all, who wouldn't rather be boating in Maine or camping in the Rockies?) That heat sometimes obscures the development of important policy. Two amendments introduced during this summer's federal energy debate represent some of the most significant steps yet for the development of legislation to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in the United States. Yet there's been little discussion of them outside of Washington.

Alternative proposals by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., call on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish a mandatory national registry of carbon emissions, although neither one has been enacted. Their objective, nevertheless, represents a critical step that the federal government should take to speed comprehensive climate legislation and promote early investments to reduce emissions.

For companies, regulators and ordinary citizens alike, there is as much clarity in carbon emissions policy as in a bowl of tomato soup. That must change.

Clarity in how carbon emissions will be measured and documented is essential. Complete, detailed and reliable data of emissions form the backbone of all types of greenhouse-gas regulations, whether carbon taxes, cap-and-trade or hybrid systems. They help corporate managers and investors determine risk exposure to carbon regulations, as well as identify and price strategies to reduce emissions. They also allow regulators to design effective policies and measure their progress.

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On carbon, it's government first, then the markets

Judith Maxwell is the former head of the Economic Council of Canada and of the Canadian Policy Research Networks

When the Canada-U.S. free-trade agreement was signed 20 years ago, governments did not try to soft-pedal the implementation. There was a phase-in period, but everybody had to take the consequences - good and bad - of increased competition. Why can't we follow the same rules for reducing greenhouse gas emissions? Why are Ottawa and the provinces fudging on targets and delaying on action?

We know that voluntary measures do not bring transformative change. After 17 years of voluntarism (the first targets were set by the Mulroney government in 1990), we have failed utterly to reduce emissions. Now the Arctic ice cap is collapsing and the federal Clean Air bill has died.

What governments have to do is give the right market signals to both producers and consumers so they change the way they produce and use oil, gas and coal. Without a road map from governments, few companies and consumers are going to walk the talk.

Canadian consumers know we have to clean up our act. When representative groups of Ontarians considered the energy challenge in 2004, they made it clear that voluntary measures won't work. One consumer told Canadian Policy Research Networks that "we need a kick in the pants."

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Pacific Rim Nations Adopt Nonbinding Emissions Targets


Published: September 10, 2007

SYDNEY, Australia, Sept. 9 — The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting here limped to a close on Sunday, with a heavily compromised agreement on tackling climate change and few answers on how to advance the global trade agenda.

At the top of the agenda at this year’s meeting of the Pacific Rim group — whose 21 countries include the United States, China, Russia, Australia and Indonesia — were global warming and the stalemate that has paralyzed the trade talks that began in Doha, Qatar, in 2001. On both fronts, there was only limited success.

“The world needs to slow, stop and then reverse the growth of global greenhouse-gas emissions,” the leaders said in a joint statement on the climate.

But the agreement sets no timetable for stemming the increase in carbon dioxide emissions after 2012. That is when the binding terms of the Kyoto Protocol — the treaty adopted by most industrialized countries, but rejected by the United States and Australia — expires.

The APEC leaders hope that by 2030, for every 1 percent of growth in national output, the increase in carbon dioxide emissions will be held to 0.75 percent.

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Sunday, September 9, 2007

Making the Business Case for Ecosystems
Source: WBCSD.org

If anyone understands the business case for ecosystems, it is Madeline Brien, current Assistant to the CEO of Det Norske Veritas (DNV), the independent Norwegian technical inspection foundation whose core business is safeguarding life, property and the environment.

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Ecosystems are a dynamic web of plants, animals and physical elements that interact and support one another. They include all the world's biomes: wetlands, marine environments, deserts, forests, grasslands and tundra. The services they provide -- habitats, freshwater, food, fiber and fuel, natural regulatory mechanisms, cultural resources -- underpin life itself.

They also supply the raw materials upon which many large corporations rely or which support their production processes. Ecological economists have calculated that the Earth provides some US$16-54 trillion worth of "services" to humans every year.

Yet, the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment found that two-thirds of the assessed ecosystems and their services are being degraded or used unsustainably.

Current pressure on ecosystems resulting from demographic growth and the increasing demands of industrial and economic development is negatively impacting them and threatening their ability as providers. If measures are not taken to mitigate this, some ecosystems and their services may disappear altogether.

In light of this, the FLT has been given the task of making the business case for ecosystems. Madeline believes it is a strong one. To date, initiatives aimed at protecting ecosystems and their services have been largely government-led -- through legislation or taxation -- or voluntary -- through self-imposed sectoral certification schemes, for example.

Business-inspired initiatives, while gaining in currency, are still in their infancy and are not as yet widespread across industry sectors. Says, Madeline, "Once businesses are able to comprehend the risks inherent to ecosystem degradation and take measures to mitigate the impacts of their activities, there will be an opportunity to factor them into their operations and make gains. They will also provide an opportunity to develop new ideas. The challenge will be to bring ecosystems to global business."

Some ecosystem-based enterprises, such as the forest products or fisheries industries, have clearly understood the importance of ecosystems. This awareness is reflected, for example, in the Forest Stewardship Council and Marine Stewardship Council initiatives.

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Moving Ecosystems Services from Theory to Reality


Article Photo

Ecosystem Goods and Services Series: World Resources Institute Interview
A collaborative series by Hassan Masum, David Zaks, and Chad Monfreda.

As the ecosystem services meme trickles down from the science and policy worlds to on-the-ground programs, it's informative to peek behind the curtain to observe its evolution.

One group working very hard at mainstreaming ecosystems services is the People & Ecosystems program of the World Resources Institute. WRI has been at the forefront of this type of research for many years. Its Pilot Analysis of Global Ecosystems (PAGE) project was the precursor to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and many of their publications carry weight in both the scientific and policy communities.

Here we interview WRI staff who are all playing a vital role at the interface between academic theory and real-world practice: Karen Bennett, Charles Iceland, Evan Branosky, and Stephen Adam.Keep reading to see their thoughts on how the ecosystem goods and services idea plays out in a policy environment.

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Sydney Declaration on Climate Change and Energy

September 9, 2007 - 1:52PM

Sydney APEC Leaders' Declaration on Climate Change, Energy Security
and Clean Development

Sydney, Australia, 9 September 2007

We, the APEC Economic Leaders, agree that economic growth, energy security and climate change are fundamental and interlinked challenges for the APEC region.

The dynamism of APEC, underpinned by open trade and investment, has reduced poverty, improved living standards and delivered economic and social development.

Our success has relied in part on secure supplies of energy, the use of which has also contributed to air quality problems and greenhouse gas emissions.

A great challenge for APEC, given the aspirations of 41 per cent of the world's population in our region, is to chart new pathways for clean and sustainable development.

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Big polluters back APEC carbon goals

By Cameron Stewart

September 10, 2007 12:15am

AUSTRALIA will try to kickstart global negotiations on a post-Kyoto climate change accord after securing what John Howard hailed as a historic commitment from the world's major polluters, including the US and China, to accept the need for goals to cut carbon emissions.

This means the UN conference on climate change in Bali in December will be the first major test of whether the Sydney Declaration - in which all APEC nations agreed on the need to set aspirational goals for emission reductions - can succeed in fuelling global momentum towards more concrete targets.

The Prime Minister yesterday claimed the outcome of the APEC meeting and the Sydney Declaration, finalised after weekend meetings between the 21 APEC leaders, had exceeded his expectations.

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APEC meeting fizzles to inconclusive end

SYDNEY: The much-anticipated Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Sydney limped to a close Sunday, with a heavily compromised agreement on tackling climate change, few answers on how to push the global trade agenda forward and a huge security operation that ended up a laughing stock.

At the top of the agenda at this year's meeting of the Pacific Rim grouping - whose 21 member countries include the United States, China, Russia, Australia and Indonesia - were global warming and the stalemate that has paralyzed the Doha round of trade negotiations. On both fronts, there was only limited success.

"The world needs to slow, stop and then reverse the growth of global greenhouse gas emissions," the leaders said in a joint statement on the climate. But the agreement is vague, adopting nonbinding targets for slowing the increase in carbon emissions. They hope that by 2030, for every 1 percent of growth in national output, the increase in carbon emissions will be held to 0.75 percent.

Full Story