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
California forests hold one answer to climate change
May 29, 2009
A new home is built on forest land near McKinleyville, Calif., close to the privately preserved Van Eck forest, which is storing carbon to be counted toward California's global warming reductions.
The state is a leader in setting up a program to offset heat-trapping emissions by investing in woodlands.
This 2,200-acre spread in Humboldt County does well by doing good. For the last four years, Van Eck's foresters restricted logging, allowing trees to do what trees do: absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The conservation foundation that oversees the forest then calculated that carbon bonus and sold it for $2 million to individuals and companies trying to offset some 185,000 metric tons of their greenhouse gas emissions.
"Forests can be managed like a long-term carbon bank," said Laurie Wayburn, president of the Pacific Forest Trust, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that oversees Van Eck. Selling offsets, she said, is like "writing checks on the account."
In the struggle over how to address climate change nationally and globally, forests play a major role. "Cap-and-trade" programs set limits on greenhouse gases and allow industries to trade emissions permits among themselves. And they can include provisions for offsetting heat-trapping pollution by investing in woodlands.
Offsets are poised for explosive growth. In the next two years, California is expected to roll out a statewide carbon market that may be expanded to other Western states. Nationally, climate legislation approved by a key congressional committee last week would allow U.S. industries to use offsets worth up to 2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, part of which could come from forest projects here and abroad.
A new climate treaty scheduled to be signed in Copenhagen in December may allow industrial countries to offset emissions with forest-saving projects in Brazil, Indonesia and other developing nations.
Ripe for fraud?
But the carbon commodity business is controversial. Critics fear that poorly regulated offsets could hand a get-out-of-jail-free card to heavy polluters. Should a coal-fired power plant in Nevada avoid slashing carbon dioxide emissions by paying to preserve trees in Oregon? Is this a complex trading scheme ripe for fraud?
To create trustworthy offsets, California's Air Resources Board two years ago set up the nation's first government-sponsored system to quantify and verify carbon. Those rules are being rewritten for possible use by other states.
"Companies having a hard time meeting their carbon emission limits may want to invest in forestry as a way to cut costs," said Mary D. Nichols, the board's chairwoman. "We have hundreds of thousands of acres of forests that can play a role in helping us to prevent global warming."
Forests are central to Earth's climate because, like oceans, they are a carbon "sink." Through photosynthesis, trees absorb carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas that is heating the planet's atmosphere. Allowing trees to grow larger before logging increases the carbon stored in a forest. So do widening the forested buffers along streams and clearing out underbrush to allow more space for trees. Reforesting areas abandoned to brush or destroyed by wildfire would also greatly boost carbon stock.
"California leads the world with regard to the role of forests in combating climate change," said Chris Kelly, California director for the Conservation Fund, a Virginia-based nonprofit that has sold offsets from Mendocino County preserves. "I just had an inquiry from a Canadian buyer who's expecting Canada to move in the direction set by California."
But so far, big timber operators, including Sierra Pacific Industries and Green Diamond Resource Co., have yet to enroll in California's offsets program. Current standards require owners to agree to a permanent conservation easement, a legal agreement that would guarantee carbon-storage measures in perpetuity. Companies have found that too onerous, and as a result only a handful of woodlands have registered, mainly those managed by conservation groups.
For the last 18 months, members of a task force of environmentalists, timber operators and state officials have been locked in contentious negotiations to revise the rules. The new draft, to go before the Air Resources Board next month, substitutes a 100-year contract for the easement, thus allowing development after a century. It also clarifies rules for companies to quantify and verify carbon.
At least one environmental group is uncomfortable with the changes. "By removing the easement, you leave the system open to gaming," said Brian Nowicki, a forest specialist with the Center for Biological Diversity.
"The timber industry wants 'business as usual' practices, like clear-cutting, to qualify for carbon credit."
But groups represented on the task force, including the Environmental Defense Fund, the Nature Conservancy and Pacific Forest Trust, say that century-long contracts and strict accounting rules will guarantee that offsets will be granted only if additional carbon is stored above and beyond conventional forest practices.
David Bischel, president of the California Forestry Assn., the industry trade group, said he expects more landowners to sign up but cautions, "It is an opportunity in its infancy: When you add up the numbers, it is not a huge source of revenue."
'This is a win-win'
Westernfield Holdings announces a major reforestation project in Indonesia
May 28, 2009
As part of this project, which reinforces Westernfield Holdings commitment to reduce the environmental impact of deforestation, some 193,000 trees will be planted , near the town of Samarinda. Eighty different species will be planted, over an area covering 31,000 acres.
Westernfield Holdings has already signed 10 long-term contracts with the Indonesian government, representing over 2.5 million metric tons of carbon reductions, and has built a robust pipeline of new projects which should double the portfolio by the end of next year. More information on Westernfield Carbon Management Services is also available, at www.western-field.com
“We are pleased to offer Westernfields’ individual and business customers this portfolio of high quality carbon offset projects,” said Christoph Smith, Westernfield Holdings Vice President of Business Development. “Our Carbon Management Services team has made great progress already, and we are excited by the opportunity to supply high-quality carbon credits to the voluntary, pre-compliance, and eventually compliatory markets.”
WesternField Holdings has strong sustainable relationships with its partners. In the field of project development, WesternField Holdings is cooperating with a range of partners, such as industrial companies, local partners, technology providers, financial institutes and VER buyers. Westernfield Holdings continually looks to expand our network with potential partners and investors.
The dedication WesternField Holdings brings to originating high quality credits has earned a Gold Medal in the EDDI Environmental Excellence Award scheme for developing the best Carbon Reduction Project in 2004. This award was established to recognize important work done by environmental consultants which helps to shape the future of our planet.
Carbon Credit Auction Nets $117 Million
May 27, 2009
The ten northeastern states in the USA that comprise the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) raised more than $117 million in its third auction of carbon emission allowances for the 2009-2012 time period. More than 31.5 million allowances were sold (one allowance (credit) permits the holder to emit one ton of carbon annually). The clearing price equaled $3.51/credit. So far, the three auctions have yielded about $263 million.
The RGGI also sold more than 2 million credits for the period beginning in 2012 at a clearing price of $3.05/credit. There were 42 different entities that won 2009-2012 credits, and 12 bidders that won credits for the 2012 offering.
The economic stimulus bill recently enacted by Congress assumes that carbon credits will sell for $40-$50 apiece, and raise billions of dollars to offset taxpayers’ contributions to the economic recovery package. It appears that the price of carbon credits still has some ways to go.
Morgan Stanley Carbon Offset
May 26, 2009
As Greg Galitzine mentions, follow the money if you think the green movement is just a fad. Greg reports Morgan Stanley will be investing up to $3 billion in environmental markets consisting of among other things, carbon offset trading.
According the Morgan Stanley, the system will work as follows:
Under the new service, clients will compile their emissions inventory and calculate their carbon footprint by applying the monitoring standards of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative, which has provided the accounting framework for many mandatory greenhouse gas programs across the world, including the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. DNV will then verify these emissions inventories and calculated carbon footprints.
Carbon quantification, monitoring and verification will be conducted consistent with ISO 14064 standards. Morgan Stanley’s Commodities Group will procure and cancel carbon credits equivalent to a client’s verified carbon footprint. Clients will be able to select their preferred sources of carbon credits, although all carbon credits will be generated according to the standards of the Kyoto Protocol.
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Kyoto Treaty and the Carbon Credits
May 25, 2009
The Kyoto treaty is in the news again as the Obama administration considers implementing a cap and trade system for carbon dioxide. It turns out that a lot of participating countries have fallen short of their Kyoto commitments, and are now required to purchase approximately $46 Billion of carbon credits to make-up for surplus CO2 production. This could mean that the price of carbon credits is about to spike upwards from their current low levels.
So, what exactly is a cap-and-trade system?
Cap and trade is a regulatory framework for controlling the emission of carbon dioxide and other pollutants that affect the climate. It is one of several proposed systems, with the largest alternative being a carbon tax. The cap in cap-and-trade refers to a limit set on the level of emissions. This cap can be company specific, region specific, national, or international. When participants spend more than their allotment, they can trade credit with other participants who haven’t produced as much as their allowed.
What are carbon credits?
Carbon credits are warrants that represent carbon neutralizing behavior (ie; maintaining a forest, sequestering carbon underground, or breaking down greenhouse gases). In some countries, factories and power plants are required to purchase carbon credits that offset their pollution. These vouchers are used to fund the development of clean technology and conservation, and they also make green business practices more competitive by putting a price tag on externalities. A cap and trade system promotes land conservation by placing a value on pristine wilderness areas. In turn, this reduces carbon emissions by deterring development.
Many different companies offer carbon credits and carbon offsets. If you’re interested in purchasing some for your personal use, there are plans that you can use to neutralize the impact of a plane trip, counterbalance your home’s expenditures, or to offset your daily commute. Here’s a price survey of various companies that offer carbon credits.
There are concerns with how carbon credits are computed. Critics argue that carbon credits are often miscalculated, that they’re rewarded for projects that were going to be built anyway, or that the expense is not justified by the results. A recent report by the US General Accounting Office offers some support to these criticisms. Projects that have applied for carbon accreditation under the UN Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) were found to have serious problems. Several of these projects involved displacing Chinese farmers to build hydroelectric dams, and construction on some of the dams had even been underway before the project managers asked for carbon credits.
The end users of carbon credits are increasingly demanding third-party validation. In order for carbon credits to be more than modern-day indulgences, there are some important stipulations that need to be met. The carbon savings must be measurable, unique, and independently verifiable. This prevents unscrupulous carbon dealers from selling non-existent credits or selling the same credits over and over again. In the terminology of the Clean Development Mechanism, only actions that provide “additionality” are eligible for carbon credits:
If I buy carbon offsets, I make the implicit claim that I forgo reducing my own emissions (i.e. I still fly) but in exchange I pay someone to reduce their emission in my stead. If I buy carbon offsets to “neutralize” the emissions I caused during air travel from someone who would have reduced their emissions anyway, regardless of my payment, I, in effect, have not only wasted my money, but I also have not neutralized my emissions.
Currently, the majority of projects applying for CDM accreditation involve hydroelectricity. There are only a finite number of suitable rivers in the world though, so future savings will have to come from new techniques and green technologies. Microturbines fueled by waste are one of the largest areas of potential growth, and US companies are spearheading development in that area.
San Antonio recently became the first city to deploy a power plant that uses methane from sewage to generate power. Burning this renewable resource is a clean solution, because methane has more than 20 times the impact on climate change that carbon dioxide does. There’s no word yet on whether San Antonio is applying for carbon credits on this project, but it’s certainly more useful than methane flare projects that are already cashing in.
Several states are pursuing a different tactic to reduce their carbon footprint; they’re attempting to reduce overall power use. A California law is now in effect that requires all state facilities to reduce their energy use by 20%. There have been some unexpected results. In addition to new systems at government offices and service centers, Corrections facilities around the state have also been forced to go green. California’s not alone; many prison facilities nationwide are adapting energy saving technology. From prison gardens that use compost to water boilers that burn wood waste, cleantech is saving thousands of dollars and introducing prison populations to some innovations that were originally developed for the Hollywood elite. With state budgets feeling a pinch, how long do you think it will be before San Quentin starts selling carbon offsets?
