[Top News] from [REUTERS]
[Green Business]
Stanley Carvalho
ABU DHABI
Wed Jan 20, 2010 9:54am EST
London Array near 1 billion sterling financing: shareholder
ABU DHABI (Reuters) - London Array, the world's largest offshore wind farm project, is close to securing 1 billion British pounds in financing from the European Investment Bank, the head of the farm's top shareholder said.
London Array is being developed by Denmark's DONG Energy, Germany's E.ON and Abu Dhabi green energy firm Masdar in the Thames Estuary near London.
"Financing will be only debt and we are discussing with the European Investment Bank. They are very supportive, we are hopeful of finalizing it shortly," Dong Chief Executive Anders Eldrup told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.
"Financial markets have changed. Two years ago, they were not interested in wind energy," he said on the sidelines of a renewable energy conference.
The first phase of the project is expected to be commissioned in 2012 and will generate 630 megawatt (MW) of electricity.
"Phase one is progressing with all the big issues solved and several contracts awarded," Eldrup said.
Phase two is expected to generate 370 MW of power, he said, adding that details of the timeline and cost are yet to be finalized.
DONG expects its 2009 revenue to be impacted by the fall in power and gas prices last year, he said.
"2009 is not as good as 2008 because prices in power and gas was low in our area, that will impact our results," he said without elaborating.
DONG owns 50 percent of the project, E.ON 30 percent and Masdar the remaining 20 percent.
(Reporting by Stanley Carvalho; editing by Karen Foster)
[Green Business]
WASHINGTON
Wed Jan 20, 2010 11:09am EST
Climate bill could split in two, Hoyer says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cap-and-trade legislation pending in Congress may be split in two to ensure that parts that encourage the use of more alternative energy sources can pass the Senate now that Democrats control one less seat, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Wednesday.
Elements that limit carbon emissions may be handled separately now that Republican Scott Brown won the Massachusetts Senate seat that was formerly held by a Democrat, Hoyer said.
"We ought not to let one be the victim to the other, if you will," he said. "I think we can move ahead on energy independence, I'm hopeful we can move ahead on the CO2 issue as well but I don't want to have one be the victim of saying we can't do one without the other."
(Reporting by Andy Sullivan, editing by Bill Trott)
[Green Business]
Alister Doyle and Gerard Wynn
Wed Jan 20, 2010 12:26pm EST
U.N. insists to guide climate talks, despite setback
OSLO/LONDON (Reuters) - The United Nations insisted Wednesday that it should keep guiding talks on a new climate pact despite near-failure at a summit last month when a few countries agreed a low-ambition "Copenhagen Accord."
Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N.'s Climate Change Secretariat, said negotiations in 2010 would be based on U.N. talks launched in 2007 about how to extend the existing Kyoto Protocol and on involving all nations in action.
The three-page Copenhagen Accord, championed by big emitters including the United States and China, could however be a valuable spur toward agreement at the next U.N. meeting in Mexico in November, de Boer said.
"I suppose in theory you could have a parallel structure but that strikes me as an incredibly inefficient exercise," he told a news conference webcast from Bonn of the prospects of also negotiating on the Copenhagen Accord.
The Copenhagen Accord seeks to limit global warming to less than 2 Celsius above pre-industrial times and holds out the prospect of an annual $100 billion in aid from 2020 for developing nations.
But it omits setting cuts in greenhouse gas emissions needed by 2020 or 2050 to achieve the temperature goal.
De Boer left open, however, whether Mexico would result in a legally binding treaty as urged by many nations.
He spoke of "Mexico or later" for final texts meant to step up a drive to slow more heatwaves, floods, species extinctions, powerful storms and rising ocean levels.
MISSED DEADLINE
The failure of the U.N. negotiations to achieve a deal despite a deadline set for the end of 2009 after two years of talks launched in Bali, Indonesia, in 2007 has cast doubt on the U.N.'s future role.
Big emitters such as China, the United States, Russia or India may simply prefer to negotiate in smaller groups such as the G20 or a "Major Economies Forum" of nations accounting for about 80 percent of world emissions.
Under U.N. rules a deal has to be adopted by unanimity. In Copenhagen, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Sudan blocked the conference from adopting the Copenhagen Accord.
"Copenhagen didn't produce the final cake but it left the countries with all the right ingredients to bake a new one in Mexico," de Boer said.
He said he had written to all nations asking them to say if they backed the Copenhagen Accord, and to give details of their plans for curbs on greenhouse emissions by 2020, by a January 31 deadline set in the accord. But he said that was flexible.
"I don't expect everyone to meet the deadline," he said. "You could describe it as a soft deadline, there's nothing deadly about it." Officials say few nations have so far submitted plans.
He also urged developed countries to start disbursing aid to developing nations under a plan to raise close to $30 billion from 2010-12, even though new mechanisms for guiding funds were not yet in place.
De Boer also played down worries that U.S. President Barack Obama would find it hard to persuade the Senate to pass climate capping laws after the Democrats lost a Senate seat to the Republicans, and with it a 60-40 majority that helps streamline decision-making.
"The change of one state from one party to another is not going to cause a landslide in the United States on the question of climate change," he said, saying that momentum for action had been building for years in the world's No. 2 emitter.
Analysts say failure by the United States to pass a climate bill this year may scupper U.N. negotiations to agree a new treaty to replace Kyoto from 2013.
(Editing by Louise Ireland)
[Green Business]
PARIS
Wed Jan 20, 2010 12:27pm EST
France to tax big polluters under revised scheme
PARIS (Reuters) - France plans to tax big polluters on their carbon dioxide emissions until 2013, when a separate EU-wide scheme will make such firms pay for emissions permits, Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said on Wednesday.
In a shock move, France's Constitutional Court rejected an original version of the government's carbon tax late last year on the grounds that it exempted too many big firms and ran counter to the spirit of equality in the French tax system.
Borloo told reporters the planned compromise would be to tax companies temporarily in an attempt to avoid double-charging them or worsening their position in the global marketplace.
The government also said in a statement it would introduce measures to protect the competitiveness of certain sectors, and consult companies and environmental groups on the implementation of the tax before its introduction.
The Constitutional Court ruling represented a blow to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who had billed the new tax as an important weapon in the fight against climate change.
The ruling will also hit state coffers, with the economy ministry saying it will lose up to 1.5 billion euros ($2.13 billion) in projected tax revenues in 2010, putting pressure on Borloo to come up with a new version rapidly.
A bill is expected to be presented to parliament in the next few weeks, after the round of consultations. The government has said it wants the revised law to come into force on July 1.
"The principle is to include these companies in a system of reward and punishment," said government spokesman Luc Chatel. "The reward could be compensation through tax credits."
Carbon emissions permits for factories and power plants are free for now. However, under the EU's emissions trading scheme, power plants will pay for all carbon permits from 2013, and factories will also pay for some.
France is the first major economy to try to introduce a carbon tax, but the Constitutional Court said 93 percent of industrial carbon dioxide emissions would have been exempt under the old version of the law.
The proposed levy on oil, gas and coal use amounted to 17 euros per ton of carbon dioxide emissions, and this charge is expected to remain unchanged when the new law is unveiled.
[Green Business]
Stanley Carvalho
ABU DHABI
Wed Jan 20, 2010 9:54am EST
London Array near 1 billion sterling financing: shareholder
ABU DHABI (Reuters) - London Array, the world's largest offshore wind farm project, is close to securing 1 billion British pounds in financing from the European Investment Bank, the head of the farm's top shareholder said.
London Array is being developed by Denmark's DONG Energy, Germany's E.ON and Abu Dhabi green energy firm Masdar in the Thames Estuary near London.
"Financing will be only debt and we are discussing with the European Investment Bank. They are very supportive, we are hopeful of finalizing it shortly," Dong Chief Executive Anders Eldrup told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.
"Financial markets have changed. Two years ago, they were not interested in wind energy," he said on the sidelines of a renewable energy conference.
The first phase of the project is expected to be commissioned in 2012 and will generate 630 megawatt (MW) of electricity.
"Phase one is progressing with all the big issues solved and several contracts awarded," Eldrup said.
Phase two is expected to generate 370 MW of power, he said, adding that details of the timeline and cost are yet to be finalized.
DONG expects its 2009 revenue to be impacted by the fall in power and gas prices last year, he said.
"2009 is not as good as 2008 because prices in power and gas was low in our area, that will impact our results," he said without elaborating.
DONG owns 50 percent of the project, E.ON 30 percent and Masdar the remaining 20 percent.
(Reporting by Stanley Carvalho; editing by Karen Foster)
[Green Business]
WASHINGTON
Wed Jan 20, 2010 11:09am EST
Climate bill could split in two, Hoyer says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cap-and-trade legislation pending in Congress may be split in two to ensure that parts that encourage the use of more alternative energy sources can pass the Senate now that Democrats control one less seat, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Wednesday.
Elements that limit carbon emissions may be handled separately now that Republican Scott Brown won the Massachusetts Senate seat that was formerly held by a Democrat, Hoyer said.
"We ought not to let one be the victim to the other, if you will," he said. "I think we can move ahead on energy independence, I'm hopeful we can move ahead on the CO2 issue as well but I don't want to have one be the victim of saying we can't do one without the other."
(Reporting by Andy Sullivan, editing by Bill Trott)
[Green Business]
Alister Doyle and Gerard Wynn
Wed Jan 20, 2010 12:26pm EST
U.N. insists to guide climate talks, despite setback
OSLO/LONDON (Reuters) - The United Nations insisted Wednesday that it should keep guiding talks on a new climate pact despite near-failure at a summit last month when a few countries agreed a low-ambition "Copenhagen Accord."
Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N.'s Climate Change Secretariat, said negotiations in 2010 would be based on U.N. talks launched in 2007 about how to extend the existing Kyoto Protocol and on involving all nations in action.
The three-page Copenhagen Accord, championed by big emitters including the United States and China, could however be a valuable spur toward agreement at the next U.N. meeting in Mexico in November, de Boer said.
"I suppose in theory you could have a parallel structure but that strikes me as an incredibly inefficient exercise," he told a news conference webcast from Bonn of the prospects of also negotiating on the Copenhagen Accord.
The Copenhagen Accord seeks to limit global warming to less than 2 Celsius above pre-industrial times and holds out the prospect of an annual $100 billion in aid from 2020 for developing nations.
But it omits setting cuts in greenhouse gas emissions needed by 2020 or 2050 to achieve the temperature goal.
De Boer left open, however, whether Mexico would result in a legally binding treaty as urged by many nations.
He spoke of "Mexico or later" for final texts meant to step up a drive to slow more heatwaves, floods, species extinctions, powerful storms and rising ocean levels.
MISSED DEADLINE
The failure of the U.N. negotiations to achieve a deal despite a deadline set for the end of 2009 after two years of talks launched in Bali, Indonesia, in 2007 has cast doubt on the U.N.'s future role.
Big emitters such as China, the United States, Russia or India may simply prefer to negotiate in smaller groups such as the G20 or a "Major Economies Forum" of nations accounting for about 80 percent of world emissions.
Under U.N. rules a deal has to be adopted by unanimity. In Copenhagen, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Sudan blocked the conference from adopting the Copenhagen Accord.
"Copenhagen didn't produce the final cake but it left the countries with all the right ingredients to bake a new one in Mexico," de Boer said.
He said he had written to all nations asking them to say if they backed the Copenhagen Accord, and to give details of their plans for curbs on greenhouse emissions by 2020, by a January 31 deadline set in the accord. But he said that was flexible.
"I don't expect everyone to meet the deadline," he said. "You could describe it as a soft deadline, there's nothing deadly about it." Officials say few nations have so far submitted plans.
He also urged developed countries to start disbursing aid to developing nations under a plan to raise close to $30 billion from 2010-12, even though new mechanisms for guiding funds were not yet in place.
De Boer also played down worries that U.S. President Barack Obama would find it hard to persuade the Senate to pass climate capping laws after the Democrats lost a Senate seat to the Republicans, and with it a 60-40 majority that helps streamline decision-making.
"The change of one state from one party to another is not going to cause a landslide in the United States on the question of climate change," he said, saying that momentum for action had been building for years in the world's No. 2 emitter.
Analysts say failure by the United States to pass a climate bill this year may scupper U.N. negotiations to agree a new treaty to replace Kyoto from 2013.
(Editing by Louise Ireland)
[Green Business]
PARIS
Wed Jan 20, 2010 12:27pm EST
France to tax big polluters under revised scheme
PARIS (Reuters) - France plans to tax big polluters on their carbon dioxide emissions until 2013, when a separate EU-wide scheme will make such firms pay for emissions permits, Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said on Wednesday.
In a shock move, France's Constitutional Court rejected an original version of the government's carbon tax late last year on the grounds that it exempted too many big firms and ran counter to the spirit of equality in the French tax system.
Borloo told reporters the planned compromise would be to tax companies temporarily in an attempt to avoid double-charging them or worsening their position in the global marketplace.
The government also said in a statement it would introduce measures to protect the competitiveness of certain sectors, and consult companies and environmental groups on the implementation of the tax before its introduction.
The Constitutional Court ruling represented a blow to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who had billed the new tax as an important weapon in the fight against climate change.
The ruling will also hit state coffers, with the economy ministry saying it will lose up to 1.5 billion euros ($2.13 billion) in projected tax revenues in 2010, putting pressure on Borloo to come up with a new version rapidly.
A bill is expected to be presented to parliament in the next few weeks, after the round of consultations. The government has said it wants the revised law to come into force on July 1.
"The principle is to include these companies in a system of reward and punishment," said government spokesman Luc Chatel. "The reward could be compensation through tax credits."
Carbon emissions permits for factories and power plants are free for now. However, under the EU's emissions trading scheme, power plants will pay for all carbon permits from 2013, and factories will also pay for some.
France is the first major economy to try to introduce a carbon tax, but the Constitutional Court said 93 percent of industrial carbon dioxide emissions would have been exempt under the old version of the law.
The proposed levy on oil, gas and coal use amounted to 17 euros per ton of carbon dioxide emissions, and this charge is expected to remain unchanged when the new law is unveiled.
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