Latest News

• Australia boosts international efforts on climate
• EU can cut CO2 by 30 percent by 2020 at no cost
• New Zealand sets greenhouse gas emissions target
• Nedbank goes carbon neutral
• Carbon trading market expected to remain strong post 2012
• Latest UK carbon auction raises over €56m
• Indonesia issues world's first rules on forestry credit revenue-sharing
• Farm Groups Prevail as House Climate Bill Puts USDA in Charge of Ag Offsets
• Australia's carbon farmers in quiet revolution
• Britain may go back on its promise not to buy ‘permits to pollute’ from poor nations
• New Players, Services to Grow Carbon Trading
• Senate Introduces Bill to Promote Natural Gas in Vehicles
• Asia's carbon trade flourishes in slump
• Australian parliament rejects carbon trade plan
• Climate bill could cause energy revolution If passed, legislation would affect lives in number of ways
• Brazil wants C02 cuts based on historic emissions
• Temporary carbon credits revived in US climate bill
• Kenya: Going Green With Redd
• New Zealand: Carbon credits may pay more than farming
• Democrats, Obama Win Major Victory as House Passes Climate Change Bill
• $93 Million and $100 Million into renewable energy by Secretary Chu and NRE
• Heavy going for cap & trade in US, Australia
• Airline industry targets carbon-free growth by 2020
• A bill before Congress may prove a costly way to reduce greenhouse gases
• Clean energy: America can meet the challenge
• California forests hold one answer to climate change
• Westernfield Holdings announces a major reforestation project in Indonesia
• Carbon Credit Auction Nets $117 Million
• Morgan Stanley Carbon Offset
• Kyoto Treaty and the Carbon Credits
• Energy companies, enviro groups unite on int'l forest offsets
• Industries are Grappling With New Bill on Climate
• Westernfield Holdings Inc. launches new, user friendly webportal
• Global Voluntary Carbon Market Doubled in 2008 to $705M
• BNY Mellon Launches Platform for Carbon Emissions
• Westernfield Holding Inc. Secures Investment from Major Oil Company

Energy companies, enviro groups unite on int'l forest offsets

May 22, 2009

American Electric Power Co. Inc. and Duke Energy Corp. joined other businesses and environmental groups today in announcing their unified support for provisions for protecting tropical forests in cap-and-trade legislation.

The coalition reached an agreement with two major facets. The groups support using 5 percent of valuable greenhouse gas emission allowances under the bill's cap-and-trade system to prevent tropical deforestation and reduce international forest emissions. They also want companies to receive credits for tropical forest protection activities.

The groups' proposal largely is consistent with a draft bill now being considered by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, although some details vary. Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the issue has been debated for many years, and the groups' coming together marks a "very major significant step" in reaching consensus on an approach to avoiding deforestation.

"This investment will pay dividends in the future, and it will help make a sizable dent in reducing these emissions," she said in a conference call among the groups organized by Avoided Deforestation Partners.

Beinecke and Michael Morris, CEO of American Electric Power, emphasized that the projects funded must be measurable and verified. Besides the agreement's environmental benefits, Morris added, "It's a very constructive and customer-friendly way to go about it."

Nigel Purvis, president of Climate Advisers, estimated that the 5 percent set-aside would likely reduce annual emissions equivalent to those of France or Spain. The funding would equal about $3.4 billion annually for tropical forest preservation, with 340 million tons of carbon dioxide eliminated, he said. The business credits would generate by 2015 about $12 billion to $15 billion for international forest conservation, he added.

The groups said the United States should make the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of forests in developing nations a central goal of federal climate legislation, as tropical deforestation and other land-use decisions account for about 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Their agreement outlines 14 principles they want included in cap-and-trade legislation. They want emission reductions from forests in developing nations allowed into U.S. compliance-based carbon markets. Major emitters should be required to adopt national strategies for forest emission reductions before joining, while countries with less emissions should be allowed into the markets immediately.

The groups also called for timelines for all countries to develop those national baselines and for Congress to appropriate a "substantial and meaningful sum" for the next three years in foreign aid to developing countries to create the baselines and take other preparatory actions.

International forest emission reductions should be fully interchangeable with other emission reductions in the cap-and-trade system, they said. And U.S. agencies should adopt standards for measuring, monitoring and verifying international forest activities that prevent double-counting and account for the potential for forest emissions to shift to other areas as a result of climate policy.

Cap-and-trade legislation should also include social protections for indigenous people, forest-dependent communities and the rural poor for projects that receive funding or access to U.S. carbon markets, they said.

The groups also detailed what activities should qualify for money from the 5 percent of allowances. They include programs to assist developing nations in managing forests and lay the groundwork for participation in international forest carbon markets; incentives for emissions reductions from forestry activities; programs to conserve existing forests, including payments to countries that already have low forestry emission rates; programs to improve forest management and land-use policy; up-front financing for emission reduction activities; and credit for early action before the cap-and-trade program is in place.

In the draft climate change bill proposed by House Democrats, credits aimed at gaining emissions cuts by avoiding tropical deforestation would slowly decrease over time. From 2012 through 2025, 5 percent of allowances would pay for efforts to prevent tropical deforestation and establish an international system of deforestation offsets. House Democrats said that by 2020, the program would achieve additional emission reductions equivalent to 10 percent of U.S. emissions in 2005. From 2026 through 2030, 3 percent of allowances would be allocated to the program, and from 2031 to 2050, the amount would be reduced to 2 percent.

The groups supporting the agreement include American Electric Power, Conservation International, Duke Energy, El Paso Corp., Environmental Defense Fund, Disney Corp., Marriott International, Mercy Corps, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, PG&E Corp., Sierra Club, the Nature Conservancy, Union of Concerned Scientists, Wildlife Conservation Society, and Woods Hole Research Center.

Industries are Grappling With New Bill on Climate

May 21, 2009

The "American Clean Energy and Security Act" is one of the most ambitious efforts to re-engineer American social and economic behavior in decades, presenting risks and opportunities for a wide array of businesses from Silicon Valley to the coal fields of the Appalachians.

The legislation, better known as the Waxman-Markey bill, isn't yet law and has big hurdles to clear. A critical vote looms this week in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. But even with its chances of passage uncertain, the measure has become the basis for debate in Washington over how the U.S. should respond to pressure to slash its carbon emissions.

At a White House meeting Wednesday, members of President Barack Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board endorsed the central idea of the 900-plus page measure -- to cap carbon emissions and require businesses to buy tradeable permits to pollute. The measure could create "green" jobs in the U.S. while reducing harmful pollution that might be causing global climate change, executives in the group said. They included General Electric Co. Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt, who sat next to the president.

Mr. Obama said he's "excited about the opportunity" to develop such a system and that "we've seen some great progress this week" in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Climate Bill: Industry Impact

• Farm Industry Wants Credit Where It's Due
• Oil Refiners Predict Higher Gas Prices
• Bill to Benefit Nuclear, Clean-Power Utilities
• Steel Braces for Impact
• Trading May Yet Bloom

The bill has been put forward by U.S. Reps. Henry A. Waxman, (D., Calif.) and Edward J. Markey (D., Mass.). It's prospects look good in the House, but it could face a tougher time in the Senate. Still, the bill is the most viable yet to tackle climate change.

If adopted, it would confront big sectors of the economy with potentially costly challenges. The bill requires that emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other gases linked to climate change be cut by 83% from their 2005 levels by 2050, long after most current members of Congress will have left office. The planned reduction is all the more ambitious considering that U.S. greenhouse gas emissions grew by 17% between 1990 and 2007.

To drive businesses and power generators to use less oil and coal and slash emissions of other gases, the Waxman-Markey bill would make businesses acquire pollution permits, which they could use to cover their emissions and sell any spares. The current draft of the bill would give away up to 85% of those permits over the next 20 years. Still, instituting a cap and trade system would start the process of putting a price on emitting carbon dioxide. The bill's supporters say that is enough to start driving the technological innovation and investment needed to move away from fossil fuels.

"Putting a price on carbon is the most important thing we can do," Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr told reporters after the meeting of the president's advisory board. Mr. Doerr, a partner at, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, is one of a number of tech figures who have invested some of the wealth they earned during the Internet boom in clean-energy ventures that could get a boost from the Waxman-Markey proposal.

Critics of Waxman-Markey, most of them Republicans but also some Democrats, say it is a tax by another name applied in a complex and costly way.

A Congressional Budget Office analysis of climate change policy estimated that price increases associated with a 15% cut in carbon dioxide emissions would cost the average U.S. household $1,600 a year. The CBO analysis said low income households would shoulder a larger burden, as would families in coal dependent regions such as the Ohio Valley.

Harvard University economics professor Martin Feldstein questioned during the meeting with Mr. Obama whether the price might be too high for U.S. consumers, but said giving away too many pollution credits to utilities could undermine the goal of reducing emissions.

"You have to raise the price to consumers to get them to cut back," Mr. Feldstein said. "I have a hard time understanding the give-away strategy."

Lawmakers say they would compensate consumers for the added burden through tax credits and direct government subsidies. The Waxman-Markey bill would use the states to funnel monthly payments to low-income households, defined as those eligible for food stamps or with gross income up to 150% of the poverty line.

But the Waxman-Markey bill is more than just cap and trade. The proposal would establish requirements that utilities buy at least 12% of their electricity from renewable sources such as windmills, solar panels and geothermal technology. Another section promotes "large scale" programs to spur demand for electric vehicles with incentives for buying plug-in cars and building charging stations.

The proposed bill offers auto makers several forms of assistance to make the shift to lower-carbon cars. They include as much as $50 billion in loans under an Energy Department program to spur advanced vehicle development and up to $4 billion for subsidies to consumers who trade in older vehicles for more efficient models. In addition, auto makers would get 3% of the free pollution allowances through 2017 and 1% from 2018 through 2025 -- tied to investments in electric vehicles and other advanced technology.

The proposal would offer rebates to spur demand for appliances that are not only energy efficient, but also come equipped with "smart grid" technology that would allow a dishwasher to know the most economical time of day to run based on variable electric rates. Retailers would get incentives to push highly efficient appliances to consumers.

The act would order the Department of Energy to see to it that building codes are amended to make new buildings 30% more efficient by 2010 and 50% more efficient by 2016. The act would even establish new efficiency standards for "portable light fixtures," also known as lamps.

Westernfield Holdings Inc. launches new, user friendly webportal

May 20, 2009

The new website for Westernfield Holding 2009 has been launched. Visitors can navigate www.western-field.comto experience additional content and features and also to learn about the most recent additions to the Caron Credit program.

We are pleased to announce that the official home of Carbon Credit procurement on the web has found a new home. Visit www.western-field.com to view projects and updated info on the Carbon Market. In coming months www.western-field.com will become an industry hub for Carbon Credit related news and developments. Visit www.western-field.com regularly for all the latest updates that we have posted.

We will have updates on Carbon Credit Market and potential projects from the conference in Barcelona as well. Well also post updates of future conferences and international stance on the overall carbon credit market. We hope that www.western-field.com provides you with the insight that will keep you abreast with the carbon credit market as well as prove to be a valuable resource for your carbon credit needs.

Global Voluntary Carbon Market Doubled in 2008 to $705M

May 19, 2009

With an estimated 123 million tons of carbon credits traded in 2008, the voluntary carbon market across the world nearly doubled from the 65 million tons of credits traded in 2007.

The 2008 credits traded at a combined value of about $705 million, up from the $331 million in 2007, according to a press release from Ecosystem Marketplace and New Carbon Finance.

The average price for voluntary carbon credits traded over the counter increased 20 percent in 2008, to about $7.34 per ton of carbon emission equivalent. The data was assembled from 190 voluntary carbon credit retailers, brokers, exchanges and accounting registries. The data is published in a report called “Fortifying the Foundation.”

The report notes that, for the first time, the Chicago Climate Exchange has overtaken the voluntary over-the-counter market for volume of carbon credits traded. The Chicago Climate Exchange oversaw 69.2 million tons of carbon credit trading, compared to 54 million tons in the over the counter market.

But the overall value of credits traded at the Chicago Climate Exchange, at $307 million, was less than over the counter credits ($397 million).

At $7.34, over the counter credits trade at an average 66 percent premium over those on the Chicago Climate Exchange. Over the counter credits are increasing in value, up from $6.10 in 2007 and $4.10 in 2006. In 2008, Chicago Climate Exchange credits traded at an average $4.43 a ton.

The primary motivators for companies to purchase carbon credits were for purposes of corporate social responsibility and public relations. However, purchases of carbon credits as an investment vehicle or for resale has grown, as well.

The United States is the largest single country to be a source of carbon credits, providing 28 percent of volume on the over the counter market. The U.S. also is the biggest consumer, being the source of 39 percent of demand.

About half of carbon offsets were sourced from renewable energy sources, with another 16 percent coming from landfill gas (methane) projects.

About 96 percent of offset credits were third-­party verified, with the Voluntary Carbon Standard, Gold Standard, Climate Action Reserve, and the American Carbon Registry accounting for 79 percent of verifications.

BNY Mellon Launches Platform for Carbon Emissions

May 18, 2009

Global custodian Bank of New York Mellon has expanded its footprint in the carbon emissions market by launching a custody and settlement platform for carbon emission contracts called Global Environmental Markets (GEM) to help corporate clients process the newfangled credits.

The platform, said BNY Mellon, will address the challenges companies face in administering a variety of regulated and unregulated standards of environmental allowances and credits recorded on different registries. These contracts are typically managed bilaterally through a multitude of internal systems and spreadsheets which can make reporting and tracking complex and time-consuming, according to the bank.

GEM allows corporate buyers and sellers of the carbon credits to manage all of their allowances and credits in a single place by acting as a corporation’s books and records. The platform reconciles trade information between counterparties and provides detailed customized reports based on defined start and end dates.

“We leveraged our cash and custody infrastructure to build the carbon credit custody platform in-house but had to accommodate the unique reporting attributes,” said Antonio Nunes, managing director of strategy and product development for BNY Mellon’s global corporate trust department which developed GEM.

Akin to its business model for the traditional equities and fixed income markets, BNY Mellon charges safekeeping and settlement fees for the carbon emission credits. Nunes said that BNY Mellon can settle the carbon credit emission contracts a day after trade date if the counterparties hold their cash and credit accounts at the bank. If not, settlement could take several depending on the processing cycles of the registry where the carbon credit contracts are located.

The GEM platform is BNY Mellon’s second venture in the carbon emission markets arena. In 2006 it launched a global registry for carbon units which are created when companies reduce their carbon emission footprint. Adopted in 1997, the Kyoto Protocol set the path for the creation of the carbon emissions contract as a de facto new financial instrument by creating a framework for industrialized countries to curb their emissions of the main greenhouse gases.

The European Union’s mandatory requirements for member states to curb their carbon emission footprints has led to rapid growth of the carbon credits market, which is now estimated $116 billion for 2008, a whopping 75 percent increase from 2007. Research firm Celent Communications estimates the market could grow to $2 trillion by 2020 once the U.S., not a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, adopts its own policy.

Within Europe, emission product trading is carried out on exchanges such as ECX, Nord Pool, EEX and Blue Next. Trading conducted by members of the London Energy Brokers Association accounts for about 50- percent of European volume, according to Celent.

Westernfield Holding Inc. Secures Investment from Major Oil Company

March 10, 2009 (from company archive)

A major oil company has taken a minority interest in Westernfield Holding Co., a leading developer of high-quality greenhouse gas emission reduction projects.

Westernfield has been profitable and has financed its growth out of the cash flow generated from carbon asset development and related advisory services for a few years now. Through the investment from this company will accelerate its expansion and consolidate its leading position in the markets for regulated and voluntary emission reductions. Together both companies are in a strong position to seize the many opportunities that present themselves in the carbon markets at a time of market volatility. Success in coming years will require the right combination of technical expertise, financial muscle and global reach.

"We believe that efficiently managing carbon emissions is an increasingly important activity to ensure long-term competitiveness in the global energy industry. In our view, the carbon markets will play a vital and growing role in coming years, which is why we are enthused to partner with a premier carbon asset developer like Westernfield who has a vast knowledge of the markets, experience in a broad range of project types and a presence in key geographic markets."

The collaboration of these two companies in the market for Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to originate and implement high-quality emission reduction projects, develop new partnerships and establish effective routes to market.