[Top News] from [REUTERS]
[Green Business]
California unveils draft cap-and-trade rules
Tue Nov 24, 2009 7:09pm EST
By Peter Henderson
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California on Tuesday released draft rules for its landmark greenhouse gas cap-and-trade plan that will be the most ambitious U.S. effort to use the market to address global warming.
State law requires California to cut its carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Measures will range from clean vehicle and building rules to the cap-and-trade system that lets factories and power companies trade credits to emit gases that heat up the earth.
Federal rules under debate by Congress could eclipse and preempt regional plans, but California and other local governments see themselves as the vanguard of addressing climate change, especially in light of slow national action and setbacks for international talks scheduled in Copenhagen next month.
The draft released on Tuesday shows California, seen as an environmental trend-setter, may take on even more than expected in its first round of cap-and-trade, which will start in 2012.
Gasoline and residential heating fuel suppliers could be included in the first cap-and-trade phase, which had been expected to focus on big pollution sources like power plants and refineries.
"California is the first out of the box," state Air Resources Board Chair Mary Nichols told reporters on a conference call. The draft rules kick off a comment period that will lead to final regulation next fall.
A less comprehensive northeastern U.S. regional trading system is already under way, focusing on carbon dioxide emissions by big emitters. California by contrast plans to include nearly every source of emissions to reach its goal.
California businesses regularly criticize the plan as going too far too fast -- and costing too much. Whether the net effect of the plan will be a new green economy or disaster for overburdened businesses is still hotly debated.
OUTSIZE ATTENTION
New estimates of plan costs, including suggestions on how much support to give industry, won't be available until an independent advisory group issues a report next year.
The draft avoids what may be the toughest issue -- how much to rely on auctions of credits, which would require power companies and the like to buy permission to pollute. The emitters want allowances given to them, especially early on.
But Nichols said California had shown a strong preference for moving to auction as quickly as possible and that its 2006 global warming law provided clear guidance while politicians in the U.S. Congress were still raising support for a bill.
"Congress started this, you know, as a political exercise to see how many allowances you had to give out to which groups to get them to buy into the program. They didn't have a climate bill," she said.
"We know how many emissions we have to reduce. The question is how do we do it in a way that costs less," added Nichols, whose Air Resources Board was appointed by state law as the main regulator deciding on how to cut greenhouse gases.
The cost of a ton of carbon dioxide initially could be around $10, based on how other programs operated, she said. That is about half the current European price. The average American has carbon production of about 20 tons per year, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The cap-and-trade system will account for only about a fifth of California reductions but it draws outsize attention, in part because the state, with the largest U.S. economy and population, is part of the 11 member Western Climate Initiative, which includes U.S. states and Canadian provinces.
China, too, will watch California's action, partly by virtue of the state's partnerships with Chinese provinces, said Environmental Defense Fund California Climate Change Director Derek Walker.
"In many ways this is similar to what you are hearing from international circles now. Everybody is coming to the table with their opening bets," he said. But unlike most, California has committed to cuts and now is working out the details.
(Reporting by Peter Henderson; editing by Cynthia Osterman)
[Green Business]
China doesn't want "empty" Copenhagen deal: report
Tue Nov 24, 2009 10:26pm EST
BEIJING (Reuters) - China will demand next month's Copenhagen climate summit culminates in a real deal, Xinhua news agency quoted a Chinese negotiator as saying, but appears to have accepted that a legally binding agreement must wait until 2010.
"We will try to make the summit successful and we will not accept that it ends with an empty and so-called political declaration," Li Gao, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said at a forum on Wednesday.
"The Copenhagen conference will be a milestone and written into history, therefore, too much expectation has been put on it," Li was quoted saying, adding that talks so far had made some progress, but not enough.
December's Copenhagen summit was slated to settle a new framework to tackle global warming, but talks have been hobbled by a rift between developed and developing nations over who should cut emissions, by how much, and who should pay for it.
The Danish government, host of the talks, has proposed that the world delay a legally binding agreement until 2010 and instead aim to reach a comprehensive political deal.
U.S. President Barack Obama has backed the proposal but said he wants to see an agreement with "immediate operational effect."
In a boost to the Copenhagen meeting, the United States said this week it will propose an emissions reduction target with an eye toward winning support from U.S. lawmakers who must agree to put it into law.
The Obama administration had previously been reluctant to put an emissions reduction target on the table because the Senate has yet to pass a sweeping climate bill, hampering the U.S. position in the U.N. climate negotiations.
China has said only that it is "studying" the Danish plan, but Li appeared to tacitly accept it, saying that offers from rich nations on financing technology transfer and the cost of adaptation to a warmer world had paved the way for an agreement.
"It would be called a successful summit and possibly produce a framework," Xinhua quoted him saying in its English-language report. Li added that more detailed discussions would be completed in next year's meetings.
Beijing has invested large amounts of diplomatic capital in reaching a new deal. President Hu Jintao earlier this year unveiled the country's first pledge to curb carbon emissions -- by cutting so-called carbon intensity -- at a United Nations summit.
(Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Emma Graham-Harrison and David Fogarty)
[Green Business]
California unveils draft cap-and-trade rules
Tue Nov 24, 2009 7:09pm EST
By Peter Henderson
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California on Tuesday released draft rules for its landmark greenhouse gas cap-and-trade plan that will be the most ambitious U.S. effort to use the market to address global warming.
State law requires California to cut its carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Measures will range from clean vehicle and building rules to the cap-and-trade system that lets factories and power companies trade credits to emit gases that heat up the earth.
Federal rules under debate by Congress could eclipse and preempt regional plans, but California and other local governments see themselves as the vanguard of addressing climate change, especially in light of slow national action and setbacks for international talks scheduled in Copenhagen next month.
The draft released on Tuesday shows California, seen as an environmental trend-setter, may take on even more than expected in its first round of cap-and-trade, which will start in 2012.
Gasoline and residential heating fuel suppliers could be included in the first cap-and-trade phase, which had been expected to focus on big pollution sources like power plants and refineries.
"California is the first out of the box," state Air Resources Board Chair Mary Nichols told reporters on a conference call. The draft rules kick off a comment period that will lead to final regulation next fall.
A less comprehensive northeastern U.S. regional trading system is already under way, focusing on carbon dioxide emissions by big emitters. California by contrast plans to include nearly every source of emissions to reach its goal.
California businesses regularly criticize the plan as going too far too fast -- and costing too much. Whether the net effect of the plan will be a new green economy or disaster for overburdened businesses is still hotly debated.
OUTSIZE ATTENTION
New estimates of plan costs, including suggestions on how much support to give industry, won't be available until an independent advisory group issues a report next year.
The draft avoids what may be the toughest issue -- how much to rely on auctions of credits, which would require power companies and the like to buy permission to pollute. The emitters want allowances given to them, especially early on.
But Nichols said California had shown a strong preference for moving to auction as quickly as possible and that its 2006 global warming law provided clear guidance while politicians in the U.S. Congress were still raising support for a bill.
"Congress started this, you know, as a political exercise to see how many allowances you had to give out to which groups to get them to buy into the program. They didn't have a climate bill," she said.
"We know how many emissions we have to reduce. The question is how do we do it in a way that costs less," added Nichols, whose Air Resources Board was appointed by state law as the main regulator deciding on how to cut greenhouse gases.
The cost of a ton of carbon dioxide initially could be around $10, based on how other programs operated, she said. That is about half the current European price. The average American has carbon production of about 20 tons per year, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The cap-and-trade system will account for only about a fifth of California reductions but it draws outsize attention, in part because the state, with the largest U.S. economy and population, is part of the 11 member Western Climate Initiative, which includes U.S. states and Canadian provinces.
China, too, will watch California's action, partly by virtue of the state's partnerships with Chinese provinces, said Environmental Defense Fund California Climate Change Director Derek Walker.
"In many ways this is similar to what you are hearing from international circles now. Everybody is coming to the table with their opening bets," he said. But unlike most, California has committed to cuts and now is working out the details.
(Reporting by Peter Henderson; editing by Cynthia Osterman)
[Green Business]
China doesn't want "empty" Copenhagen deal: report
Tue Nov 24, 2009 10:26pm EST
BEIJING (Reuters) - China will demand next month's Copenhagen climate summit culminates in a real deal, Xinhua news agency quoted a Chinese negotiator as saying, but appears to have accepted that a legally binding agreement must wait until 2010.
"We will try to make the summit successful and we will not accept that it ends with an empty and so-called political declaration," Li Gao, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said at a forum on Wednesday.
"The Copenhagen conference will be a milestone and written into history, therefore, too much expectation has been put on it," Li was quoted saying, adding that talks so far had made some progress, but not enough.
December's Copenhagen summit was slated to settle a new framework to tackle global warming, but talks have been hobbled by a rift between developed and developing nations over who should cut emissions, by how much, and who should pay for it.
The Danish government, host of the talks, has proposed that the world delay a legally binding agreement until 2010 and instead aim to reach a comprehensive political deal.
U.S. President Barack Obama has backed the proposal but said he wants to see an agreement with "immediate operational effect."
In a boost to the Copenhagen meeting, the United States said this week it will propose an emissions reduction target with an eye toward winning support from U.S. lawmakers who must agree to put it into law.
The Obama administration had previously been reluctant to put an emissions reduction target on the table because the Senate has yet to pass a sweeping climate bill, hampering the U.S. position in the U.N. climate negotiations.
China has said only that it is "studying" the Danish plan, but Li appeared to tacitly accept it, saying that offers from rich nations on financing technology transfer and the cost of adaptation to a warmer world had paved the way for an agreement.
"It would be called a successful summit and possibly produce a framework," Xinhua quoted him saying in its English-language report. Li added that more detailed discussions would be completed in next year's meetings.
Beijing has invested large amounts of diplomatic capital in reaching a new deal. President Hu Jintao earlier this year unveiled the country's first pledge to curb carbon emissions -- by cutting so-called carbon intensity -- at a United Nations summit.
(Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Emma Graham-Harrison and David Fogarty)
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