A 40% rise global in emissions since Kyoto

A 40% rise global in emissions since Kyoto

Pershing noted that in the past 17 years, global emissions have risen more than 40 percent -- even though many countries that are parties to the treaty have met their Kyoto targets. That's because of the rise in emissions from China and other fast-growing developing countries.

"If you think that was a successful model, you should think again," he said. Meanwhile, in response to a Chinese Embassy official who told Pershing he wants to see the United States take the lead on fighting climate change, "not just pressing other countries like China," the deputy envoy acknowledged that China is taking significant steps to cut its emissions.

But he also pointed out that India and China were clear in Cancun that their countries were not ready to take binding climate commitments. The United States, he said flatly, will not entertain a treaty that does not include all major economies -- making the notion pushed by most developing countries that the United States should "go first" a non-starter.

"As long as this is the basis for movement, there won't be a legal agreement, because that's untenable," Pershing said. If the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change tries to design a Kyoto-like treaty that puts industrialized countries under a different set of legal obligations than emerging economies, "we wouldn't be part of such an agreement."

Meanwhile, Pershing successfully dodged questions about how the United States will keep the promise President Obama made to the world of cutting emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels this decade and more than 80 percent by midcentury. The United States also promised to help mobilize $100 billion annually by 2020, yet the question of where the money will come from remains an open one.

"In my mind, the U.S. will very much be a focus of global attention," Pershing said. "If we are not acting at home, that will be observed and limit the willingness of others to act."

UN agency cuts emissions trading backlog

Climate Wire, 6 Jan 2011, Nathaniel Gronewold

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the Bonn, Germany-based agency that awards greenhouse gas emissions offsets credits to projects in the developing world, has been plagued by complaints of procedural delays that frustrated offset project developers.

Applications by methane capture plants, small hydroelectric power systems and other eligible projects would typically sit on shelves for months before getting reviewed. Projects could take well over a year before any credits were issued.

But the carbon trading industry has been noticing lately that the CDM is making headway in reducing the wait times. The office said yesterday that registered projects no longer have to wait months before they are awarded their periodic allotments of Certified Emission Reductions (CERs), the credits developers can sell into Europe's carbon market.

CDM officials say they have narrowed the waiting time for credit issuance by more than two-thirds, mainly by burning the midnight oil. From a high of more than 90 days, the workload has been drawn down considerably, bringing CER issuance wait times now down to less than 30 days on average, the CDM secretariat reports.

"The work was accomplished through long hours and the shifting of resources within the secretariat," said the CDM's public information office.

The feat was accomplished thanks also to the efforts of 27 offset project review experts brought in to assist over a 12-day period in December. The industry monitoring group Point Carbon predicts that the effort will see CER issuance from Bonn hitting a record this month, with a flood of CERs expected to enter the global carbon markets in the coming weeks.

Wait times shrink from a year to a month

The 15-day goal was set at last year's round of climate change negotiations in Cancun, Mexico, by parties to the Kyoto Protocol agreement. There negotiators praised efforts by the CDM's Executive Board to speed up the agency's work but told it to go even further.

The International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), the carbon market's chief interest lobbying group, says that project developers shouldn't have to wait more than seven days for a completeness check to begin.

Mindful of yearlong delays between submitting a project application to ultimate registration, last year the CDM restructured itself in a big way, organizing multiple layers of bureaucracy into three distinct units with their own clear set of tasks and procedures. The work force has also grown, despite budget constraints on the government-supported agency.

A market focused on eliminating one byproduct

The reforms seem to have paid off. As a result of the restructuring, IETA estimates in its latest "State of the CDM" report, the CDM secretariat can now accommodate double the registration applications it previously did in one week. CER issuance time had only improved by 30 percent at the time of IETA's review, though the CDM now says it has since cut that wait time down even further.

"The backlog was a burden and a great source of frustration for everyone," said CDM Executive Board Chairman Clifford Mahlung in a release. "It's very satisfying that it has now been tamed."

CER issuance by the CDM office will probably hit its highest levels this year, thanks to the expedited work flow and also to the end of a hold on credits generated from hydrofluorocarbon-23 (HFC-23) destruction projects that were under review.

HFC-23 is a potent greenhouse gas that is the byproduct of producing the chemical refrigerant hydrochlorofluorocarbon-22 (HCFC-22). About 60 percent of all CERs issued to date stem from HFC-23 destruction projects, which were under review last year after carbon market watchdogs accused companies of fraudulent practices.

Project developers managing CO2 abatement or avoidance projects are requesting about 47 million CERs this month, according to the CDM website. If all these credits are released, January 2011 will see the highest number of CERs sent out in any given month since the start of the program, beating the previous record of about 25 million credits issued in November, Point Carbon analysts note.

The market monitor predicts a record 253 million CERs will enter the carbon markets this year. CERs were selling for about €11.57 ($15.22) at the European Climate Exchange at press time.

General Environment News
Glimmers of a clean energy consensus in the new Congress

Climate Wire, 6 Jan 2011, Evan Lehmann and Joey Peters

http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2011/01/06/2/
The new conservative class of Congress might not include a climate crusader, but it also seems to lack clean energy skeptics.

New lawmakers picking their way through the crowded Capitol corridors yesterday, bound for swearing-in ceremonies and a festive transfer of power to House Republicans, raised the prospect that legislation encouraging low-carbon power could be passed in the next two years.

The idea that clean energy like wind and nuclear holds bipartisan appeal is a point that advocates have promoted since the midterm elections. Its ability to create manufacturing and other jobs, and perhaps reduce the use of foreign oil through electric cars and natural gas trucks, differentiates it from the poisonous policies around climate change, like cap and trade.

"I'm all about clean energy. My main concern is energy independence," said freshman Rep. Rick Crawford, an Arkansas Republican who served in the Army and announced rodeos. "It's a national security issue."

It's unclear what the definition of clean energy is. But Democrats facing a split-party Congress during the second half of President Obama's term might be willing to accept Republican favorites like nuclear and carbon sequestered coal in a clean energy standard.

"I think there's good support on the Democratic side and the Republican side for a variety of clean energy initiatives," Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said yesterday. "It's just not clear which ones at this point."

Last month, Bingaman told ClimateWire that he's willing to consider a clean energy standard, which would require utilities to derive a certain amount of their power from low-emitting sources. But he noted that adding more sources of power, in addition to renewables, to any standard could overburden the industry and diminish its support.

Directory: cpi -> briefs
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news

Download 374.88 Kb.

Share with your friends: