[Top News] from [REUTERS]
[Green Business]
CO2 trade "pointless" versus China growth-trader
Mon Nov 30, 2009 1:03pm EST
LONDON (Reuters) - Trade in permits to pollute is "largely pointless" when compared with the scale of growth in greenhouse gases in China and must be scaled up, one of the carbon market's most senior traders said on Monday.
Countries and companies in the developed world can buy emissions rights by investing in carbon cuts in developing nations, under a Kyoto scheme called the clean development mechanism (CDM) meant to cut the cost of fighting climate change.
But those cuts were tiny compared with rises in the world's top emitter, said Garth Edward, head of emissions trading at Citigroup, and formerly head of trading at Shell.
"The CDM in China is largely pointless as far as reducing its emissions trajectory," he said.
China is by far the largest market in carbon offsets, having delivered cumulatively 99 million tonnes of emissions cuts under the CDM in 2007 and 2008, about 46 percent of the global total.
The country's carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels and making cement rose by 15 percent or 947 million tonnes over the same time period, U.S. data show.
Critics say that trade in carbon offsets is opaque and benefits traders at investment banks and industry lobbyists who negotiate opt-outs for polluters.
Supporters say it identifies least-cost emissions cuts and is the only scheme mobilizing private capital to fund emissions cuts in developing nations.
Climate negotiators from more than 190 countries meet next week in Copenhagen to try and agree the outline of a global pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol in 2013.
One topic will be how to scale up the CDM -- and especially move from an individual project approach as now, toward whole sectors for example rewarding the power generation or cement industries once they pass a certain efficiency or carbon emissions standard.
"Let's move forward to proper sectoral targets rather than ad hoc activity," said Edward.
The present CDM business model had become "severely challenged," he added, as a result of greater competition among buyers of carbon offsets and falling carbon prices following recession.
(Reporting by Gerard Wynn; additional reporting by Michael Szabo; editing by Sue Thomas)
[Green Business]
Rich world should pay Africa to preserve forests
Mon Nov 30, 2009 3:37pm EST
By Tansa Musa
YAOUNDE (Reuters) - The developed world should pay African countries to preserve their vast forests to help the fight against climate change, some of the continent's governments will argue at next month's summit in Copenhagen.
The position of the group of equatorial African countries -- home to the world's second-largest rainforest after the Amazon -- underscores rifts between industrialized nations responsible for the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions and the developing world seeking compensation to keep development in check.
"African countries of the Congo Basin are not part of the problem, but they are part of the solution by preserving the rainforest which acts as a defense against global warming," said co-chair of the Congo Basin Forest Fund (CBFF) and former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.
"In so doing, they deprive millions of their people who depend on the forest for their livelihoods. The rest of the world, particularly the industrialized North, must recognize this and understand that somebody has to pay the price for preservation," he said.
The Congo Basin forests cover an estimated 200 million hectares and provide food, shelter and livelihood for more than 50 million people.
CBFF is associated with the Congo Basin Forest Partnership, a U.N. registered group with ten member states -- Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Sao Tome and Principe.
According to the CBFF, the forests have been storing an estimated 500 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, offsetting about 1.7 percent of global emissions of the gas widely blamed for global warming.
But growing populations, expanding subsistence agriculture, road construction, mining and rising Asian demand for hardwood lumber have intensified pressure on the Congo Basin, which has been depleted at a rate of 1 percent per year.
Last month, the group representing the Central African states warned they would not endorse any agreement on climate if the international community does not provide adequate compensation for preserving the forests.
"Developed countries have the moral obligation to ensure proper compensation to countries and populations that are being denied access to their natural resources," said Cameroon's forestry and wildlife minister Elvis Ngolle Ngolle.
Beyond acting as a sink for carbon dioxide emissions, the Congo Basin forests also contain the most diverse grouping of plants and animals in Africa, including rare and endangered species.
Brazil, home to a large chunk of the Amazon rainforest, is also lobbying for a mechanism in the global climate talks that would reward forest preservation.
[Green Business]
Halve world carbon emissions by 2050: Danish text
Mon Nov 30, 2009 4:22pm EST
By Krittivas Mukherjee and John Acher
NEW DELHI/COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - The world should agree to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 from 1990 levels as part of a U.N. climate pact in Copenhagen in mid-December, according to a suggested text by hosts Denmark.
The text, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, said rich countries should account for 80 percent of the global emission cuts by 2050. But it did not spell out shorter-term emission targets for rich countries, a key demand from poorer nations.
India, the world's number four emitter, said it opposed the suggested text. Denmark, meanwhile, insisted it was merely consulting and had made no formal proposals for breaking deadlock between rich and poor nations at the December 7-18 meeting.
"If the Denmark draft is any indication then we are heading to a dead end," Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told reporters in New Delhi.
China and India have opposed agreeing to a goal of halving world emissions unless rich nations, which have burned fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution, take the lead by setting far tougher reductions by 2020.
"The Danish government has not put forward a proposal," Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters in Copenhagen.
Danish Climate Minister Connie Hedegaard, who will preside at Copenhagen, told Reuters earlier that consultations were "based on a variety of draft text proposals." She added that Denmark would not propose any formal compromises until the meeting.
2020 PEAK
The text seen by Reuters also suggests that the world's greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, should peak in 2020. Emissions have been rising fast in recent years but are set to dip by up to 3 percent in 2009 because of recession.
And it suggested efforts to keep the rise in global average temperatures to within 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times to avoid the worst of heatwaves, floods, species extinctions and rising sea levels.
The U.N. talks have run out of time to settle a legally binding deal after arguments between rich and poor nations about who should cut emissions, by how much and who should pay.
But hopes are growing that a substantive political pact can be agreed at the December meeting, including setting a 2010 deadline for tying up a legal text. U.S. President Barack Obama will attend on December 9 with most other leaders at the end.
In Beijing, Premier Wen Jiabao told the European Union that Beijing would deliver on a promise to slow the rise of its carbon dioxide output, the main greenhouse gas emitted by burning fossil fuels.
China plans to cut its "carbon intensity" -- the carbon dioxide released in generating each yuan of output -- by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels. Such a goal would still allow a doubling of emissions, assuming projected economic growth rates, analysts say.
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said in Beijing that the world was not ambitious enough in setting cuts. "More needs to be done," Reinfeldt said. Sweden holds the rotating presidency of the 27-member European Union.
Developing countries led by China and India are also expected to table a text in Copenhagen on Tuesday that they would like to be turned into the basis for negotiations. China, the United States, Russia and India are the top emitters.
Denmark's Rasmussen has said he wants a 5-8 page "politically binding" agreement, with annexes outlining each country's obligations.
Developed countries such as Britain and France have put an offer of a $10-billion-a-year Copenhagen Launch Fund on the table, but while developing countries welcomed what they called "interim financing," they said much more, perhaps up to $300 billion, might be needed to make a global climate deal work.
In Canberra, Australia's key policy to fight global warming limped closer to defeat on Monday with parliament set to delay or reject the government's carbon emissions trade scheme, raising the chances of an early election.
In Sydney, Tibet's exiled Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama also urged governments to take climate change seriously. "In some cases in order to protect global issues, some sacrifice of national interest (is needed)," he said.
[Green Business]
CO2 trade "pointless" versus China growth-trader
Mon Nov 30, 2009 1:03pm EST
LONDON (Reuters) - Trade in permits to pollute is "largely pointless" when compared with the scale of growth in greenhouse gases in China and must be scaled up, one of the carbon market's most senior traders said on Monday.
Countries and companies in the developed world can buy emissions rights by investing in carbon cuts in developing nations, under a Kyoto scheme called the clean development mechanism (CDM) meant to cut the cost of fighting climate change.
But those cuts were tiny compared with rises in the world's top emitter, said Garth Edward, head of emissions trading at Citigroup, and formerly head of trading at Shell.
"The CDM in China is largely pointless as far as reducing its emissions trajectory," he said.
China is by far the largest market in carbon offsets, having delivered cumulatively 99 million tonnes of emissions cuts under the CDM in 2007 and 2008, about 46 percent of the global total.
The country's carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels and making cement rose by 15 percent or 947 million tonnes over the same time period, U.S. data show.
Critics say that trade in carbon offsets is opaque and benefits traders at investment banks and industry lobbyists who negotiate opt-outs for polluters.
Supporters say it identifies least-cost emissions cuts and is the only scheme mobilizing private capital to fund emissions cuts in developing nations.
Climate negotiators from more than 190 countries meet next week in Copenhagen to try and agree the outline of a global pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol in 2013.
One topic will be how to scale up the CDM -- and especially move from an individual project approach as now, toward whole sectors for example rewarding the power generation or cement industries once they pass a certain efficiency or carbon emissions standard.
"Let's move forward to proper sectoral targets rather than ad hoc activity," said Edward.
The present CDM business model had become "severely challenged," he added, as a result of greater competition among buyers of carbon offsets and falling carbon prices following recession.
(Reporting by Gerard Wynn; additional reporting by Michael Szabo; editing by Sue Thomas)
[Green Business]
Rich world should pay Africa to preserve forests
Mon Nov 30, 2009 3:37pm EST
By Tansa Musa
YAOUNDE (Reuters) - The developed world should pay African countries to preserve their vast forests to help the fight against climate change, some of the continent's governments will argue at next month's summit in Copenhagen.
The position of the group of equatorial African countries -- home to the world's second-largest rainforest after the Amazon -- underscores rifts between industrialized nations responsible for the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions and the developing world seeking compensation to keep development in check.
"African countries of the Congo Basin are not part of the problem, but they are part of the solution by preserving the rainforest which acts as a defense against global warming," said co-chair of the Congo Basin Forest Fund (CBFF) and former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.
"In so doing, they deprive millions of their people who depend on the forest for their livelihoods. The rest of the world, particularly the industrialized North, must recognize this and understand that somebody has to pay the price for preservation," he said.
The Congo Basin forests cover an estimated 200 million hectares and provide food, shelter and livelihood for more than 50 million people.
CBFF is associated with the Congo Basin Forest Partnership, a U.N. registered group with ten member states -- Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Sao Tome and Principe.
According to the CBFF, the forests have been storing an estimated 500 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, offsetting about 1.7 percent of global emissions of the gas widely blamed for global warming.
But growing populations, expanding subsistence agriculture, road construction, mining and rising Asian demand for hardwood lumber have intensified pressure on the Congo Basin, which has been depleted at a rate of 1 percent per year.
Last month, the group representing the Central African states warned they would not endorse any agreement on climate if the international community does not provide adequate compensation for preserving the forests.
"Developed countries have the moral obligation to ensure proper compensation to countries and populations that are being denied access to their natural resources," said Cameroon's forestry and wildlife minister Elvis Ngolle Ngolle.
Beyond acting as a sink for carbon dioxide emissions, the Congo Basin forests also contain the most diverse grouping of plants and animals in Africa, including rare and endangered species.
Brazil, home to a large chunk of the Amazon rainforest, is also lobbying for a mechanism in the global climate talks that would reward forest preservation.
[Green Business]
Halve world carbon emissions by 2050: Danish text
Mon Nov 30, 2009 4:22pm EST
By Krittivas Mukherjee and John Acher
NEW DELHI/COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - The world should agree to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 from 1990 levels as part of a U.N. climate pact in Copenhagen in mid-December, according to a suggested text by hosts Denmark.
The text, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, said rich countries should account for 80 percent of the global emission cuts by 2050. But it did not spell out shorter-term emission targets for rich countries, a key demand from poorer nations.
India, the world's number four emitter, said it opposed the suggested text. Denmark, meanwhile, insisted it was merely consulting and had made no formal proposals for breaking deadlock between rich and poor nations at the December 7-18 meeting.
"If the Denmark draft is any indication then we are heading to a dead end," Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told reporters in New Delhi.
China and India have opposed agreeing to a goal of halving world emissions unless rich nations, which have burned fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution, take the lead by setting far tougher reductions by 2020.
"The Danish government has not put forward a proposal," Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters in Copenhagen.
Danish Climate Minister Connie Hedegaard, who will preside at Copenhagen, told Reuters earlier that consultations were "based on a variety of draft text proposals." She added that Denmark would not propose any formal compromises until the meeting.
2020 PEAK
The text seen by Reuters also suggests that the world's greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, should peak in 2020. Emissions have been rising fast in recent years but are set to dip by up to 3 percent in 2009 because of recession.
And it suggested efforts to keep the rise in global average temperatures to within 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times to avoid the worst of heatwaves, floods, species extinctions and rising sea levels.
The U.N. talks have run out of time to settle a legally binding deal after arguments between rich and poor nations about who should cut emissions, by how much and who should pay.
But hopes are growing that a substantive political pact can be agreed at the December meeting, including setting a 2010 deadline for tying up a legal text. U.S. President Barack Obama will attend on December 9 with most other leaders at the end.
In Beijing, Premier Wen Jiabao told the European Union that Beijing would deliver on a promise to slow the rise of its carbon dioxide output, the main greenhouse gas emitted by burning fossil fuels.
China plans to cut its "carbon intensity" -- the carbon dioxide released in generating each yuan of output -- by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels. Such a goal would still allow a doubling of emissions, assuming projected economic growth rates, analysts say.
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said in Beijing that the world was not ambitious enough in setting cuts. "More needs to be done," Reinfeldt said. Sweden holds the rotating presidency of the 27-member European Union.
Developing countries led by China and India are also expected to table a text in Copenhagen on Tuesday that they would like to be turned into the basis for negotiations. China, the United States, Russia and India are the top emitters.
Denmark's Rasmussen has said he wants a 5-8 page "politically binding" agreement, with annexes outlining each country's obligations.
Developed countries such as Britain and France have put an offer of a $10-billion-a-year Copenhagen Launch Fund on the table, but while developing countries welcomed what they called "interim financing," they said much more, perhaps up to $300 billion, might be needed to make a global climate deal work.
In Canberra, Australia's key policy to fight global warming limped closer to defeat on Monday with parliament set to delay or reject the government's carbon emissions trade scheme, raising the chances of an early election.
In Sydney, Tibet's exiled Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama also urged governments to take climate change seriously. "In some cases in order to protect global issues, some sacrifice of national interest (is needed)," he said.
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