Carbon Offsets Daily

The market for Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) or the carbon credits issued by the UN's (CDM), when the Lieberman-Warner bill was amended to make provision for US industries to purchase international carbon offsets. The prices increased throughout May and their as well..

New concerns over supply of the Kyoto CDM carbon credits, bullish signals on demand and the rising world oil price have combined to push up the price of issued CERs on the secondary market by almost 20 per cent since April 30.

The rising CER prices can be attributed primarily to the ever-increasing gas prices, which have led to an increase in demand for coal in Europe. This in turn has rendered EU carbon emissions permits more expensive, affecting the CER secondary market. In addition, the recent earthquake in China -the leading supplier of CERs, has imposed fueling the price hike.

The governments of Ontario and Quebec have to set up an inter-provincial carbon trading market. Initiated by the premiers of Ontario and Quebec - Dalton McGunity and and Jean Charest respectively, the market is slated to go live by 2010.  The carbon trading would be based on the cap-and-trade system and would use the as the baseline, with the aim to reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels.

But the plan has been for not having a proper regulatory mechanism, among other reasons. However, the federal government's plan for bringing about reductions in the greenhouse emissions, that uses a 2006 benchmark, is not only incompatible with what exists in other countries but also inadequate..

...The Quebec-Ontario system opts for "real reductions" in emissions as opposed to the federal government's much criticized "intensity-based" plan, which links reductions to productivity and which environmentalists say does not go far enough toward cutting emissions associated with climate change.

Let's hope that they are able to reach a resolution soon enough and adopt a unified approach to solving the problem of global warming, instead of a fragmented one. Meanwhile, in the United States, continue to shape the future of the carbon market here.

China is the number one supplier of Carbon Credits (CC), , and they show no signs of slowing down. Good news on paper, yet last year alone, Shanghai fell short of its goal of 4% improvement in energy efficiency, and two of the major environmental indicators were pointing in the wrong direction. These indications show that with all China’s economic good intentions, the environmental problems are too deep to simply expect Carbon Credits to function like a magic wand.

But India, the supposed number two with 6% and , has reached a plateau in its overall growth. Still, futures prices reached an all-time high of Rs 1,283 per CER (certified emissions reduction) on May 27, and the 295 Indian companies registered to trade CER are doing so aggressively.  

It remains to be seen whether current technological and economic strategies will be sufficient to combat the massive pollution existing in the world’s two leading traders of carbon credits.

The White House is to the climate change bill that is being debated  by the US Senate this week. The legislation, referred to as the Lieberman-Warner bill after its sponsors, Senators Joseph Liebrman and John Warner, recommends a "cap-and-trade" system. The system would stipulate a cap on industrial carbon emissions and allow industries to trade carbon credits. The United States is the only developed country that is not part of the carbon-capping and the adoption of the climate bill will help reign in its global warming emissions by 66 per cent by the year 2050.

However, President George Bush warned the lawmakers that the bill would cost the American economy six trillion dollars. Speaking against the bill, he said "You know, there's a much better way to address the environment than imposing these costs on the job creators, which will ultimately have to be borne by American consumers."

But what would be the cost of NOT passing the bill, we wonder.

Kudos to the for attempting to make the games a The  objective of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) is to meet twenty per cent of the energy needs through renewable resources. The reports today that sustainable energy firm, Blue-ng, has proposed to power the London Games.

Per the proposal submitted by Blue-ng:

...a new combined heat and power plant (CHP) would be built adjacent to the Olympic Park in east London and would run on sustainably sourced biofuels. If given planning permission, the first implementation of Blue-ng's technology would be at the nearby Beckton pressure-reduction station.

Concerns have been raised about the use of biofuels in Blue-ng's plan, but the firm promises to use only sustainable biofuels like rapeseed which are grown locally in the UK or EU.

Furthermore, Greenpeace had this to say about Blue-ng's plan to use biofuels:

"Greenpeace, in common with many other environmental organizations, is concerned about the unsustainable use of biofuels, especially for road transport," ...... "However, we believe they have a role to play in the UK's electricity generation industry, where they offer the potential for substantial carbon savings. If biofuels are to be used, they should be used ideally in plants which capture heat and produce electricity, rather than as a transport fuel, which is what Blue-NG is proposing to do."

A formal decision on Blue-ng's plan will be taken on June 4th. We at Carbon Offsets Daily will be following this story and will keep you updated.

The Montreal Climate Exchange (MCeX), Canada’s first regulated environmental market was A joint venture between the and the , the MCeX will begin trading futures contracts in carbon dioxide equivalent units. Carbon credits will be given to the exchange members who are able to meet or exceed emission reduction targets, and they will be able to sell the credits through the exchange at market value to those who fall short of the target.

Luc Bertrand, the President and CEO of the Montreal Exchange and the Chairman of the MCeX said "Our goal is to position MCeX as a leading developer of market solutions that help industry reduce greenhouse gas emissions as efficiently as possible." With Canada's energy consumption and thus emissions among the highest in the world, if the MCeX is indeed able to accomplish its goal - the world will surely become a greener place.

Tim Yeo, the Chairman of UK's , is all in favor of establishing a system of personal carbon credits, Under the system, each person would be given a quota of carbon credits to meet their fuel and energy needs; anyone who exceeds the stipulated carbon limit will need to purchase more credits from those who haven’t. However, the proposition has been met with ambivalence. The committee sees it as having "real potential to engage the population in the fight against climate change and to achieve significant emissions reductions in a progressive way". But the environment minister, Hilary Benn has dismissed the plan as being “ahead of its time”. Given the cost factors, public opinion etc. the government has shelved the plan for now.

Ahead of its time? Some might actually see that as a good thing. What do you think?

According to a in the Guardian, controversy and criticism surround the UN’s (CDM). The CDM is a system established under the that gives industrialized nations the opportunity to earn CDM credits or certified emission reductions (CERs), by undertaking investments in emission reduction technologies in the developing world. The CDM is supposed to ensure that the projects meet the “additionality” criterion. That is to say, the emission reduction projects wouldn’t have been possible without the sales of carbon credits.

The article reports the findings of two Stanford University academics, David Victor and Michael Wara who claim that a large number of projects under the CDM are not “additional”. It also cites a study by the U.S. watchdog group, , which states that as many as 75 per cent of the registered CDM projects had been completed by the time they were approved. It seems that the crux of the problem is that a good part of the CDM money is being invested in projects that, as Victor puts it, “would be built anyway”.

Nissan- the Japanese automaker, today introduced a first-of-a-kind in Japan that is linked to the sale of a vehicle. In this eco-friendly endeavor, Nissan has joined hands with Carbon Offset Japan, an environmental non-profit organization adhering to the principals of the Under the carbon offset program, for every March Collet sold, Nissan will pledge one ton of carbon credits (equivalent to carbon-dioxide emissions from 4,971 miles of driving) under Carbon Offset Japan.

With the number of cars on the road ever increasing and the concomitant rise in carbon emissions, such programs are a move in the right direction. The above-mentioned campaign, by allowing customers to offset the carbon footprints of their vehicles will reduce the adverse environmental impact of driving. With this initiative, Nissan has taken in keeping with the

Slow and steady wins the green race seems to be the mantra adopted by the Scandinavian airlines, SAS. One of the pioneer airlines in encouraging customers to , SAS has come up with yet another way to help the environment. According to a recent , the airlines has slowed down the speed of its passenger jets from 534 mph to 485 mph, as the latter is a much more fuel efficient speed.

There are a host of airlines that give customers an opportunity to purchase carbon offsets. Delta was the to offer offset purchases to customers. and more recently, also enable customers to purchase carbon offsets. Other notable examples include , and even the travel website .

By following a two pronged strategy: reduce carbon emissions as much as possible, carbon offset what you can’t, SAS is not only reducing their carbon footprint and impact on global warming, they're also reducing fuel costs.