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SYDNEY (AFP) - A top Australian politician said on Tuesday the country should introduce "meaningless" carbon trading if big polluters in the developing world do not agree to reduce emissions. Opposition leader Brendan Nelson said he was committed to introducing emissions trading by 2012, but if big polluters like China and India do not make commitments to reduce emissions it should be deliberately toothless. "Our policy has not changed, and that policy is we would implement an emissions trading scheme, cap-and-trade, no later than 2012," he told Sky News. "And obviously what you would do, if for example we haven't...

The price of European emission permits is rising so rapidly that German companies are threatening to leave the country.... And the environment may, in the end, be no better off. They sat silently through two lectures, but then they couldn't control their anger any longer. The civil servants from the Environment Ministry, the Environment Agency and the German Emissions Trading Authority made it sound easy for industry to take up carbon trading. It was just too much for the managers to tolerate. "If that's the shape the trading will take, we will simply move our cement operation to Ukraine," a...

The climate change debate is often portrayed as a stark choice between two extremes. Do we try to save the economy or do we try to save the environment? Many in established industries argue vociferously that you need to protect the former to save the latter, or that if we act to protect our environment then we might end up killing the economy. Ross Garnaut, in his much awaited draft report, seeks to turn that argument on its head: Australia has much to lose from even the mildest impacts of climate change. If we want to save our economy, then...

CNN “American Morning” took the global warming agenda to a new level in a May 29 segment. Rather than just warning of the bad things that could happen from this so-called phenomenon, the morning show had a segment featuring a carbon credit salesman who makes money from global warming alarmism. "American Morning" co-host Kyra Phillips introduced Howard Gould as a "conservationist," "green entrepreneur" and the co-founder of Equator Environmental, LLC. She interviewed him as an expert on proposals to establish a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions like what is found in the Lieberman-Warner bill (S.2191). But Phillips didn’t reveal what...

A scheme recently proposed by British MP Tim Yeo shows what would happen to individual freedom if the environmentalist agenda on CO2 ever got enacted into law. This bill establishes a state-run British Carbon Cartel via the mechanism described below.Every adult in the UK would be given an annual carbon dioxide allowance in kgs and a special carbon card. The scheme would cover road fuel, flights and energy bills. Every time someone paid for road fuel, flights or energy, their carbon account would be docked. A litre of petrol would use up 2.3kg in carbon, while every 1.3 miles of...

Billions of pounds are being wasted in paying industries in developing countries to reduce climate change emissions, according to two analyses of the UN's carbon offsetting programme. Leading academics and watchdog groups allege that the UN's main offset fund is being routinely abused by chemical, wind, gas and hydro companies who are claiming emission reduction credits for projects that should not qualify. The result is that no genuine pollution cuts are being made, undermining assurances by the UK government and others that carbon markets are dramatically reducing greenhouse gases, the researchers say.

Britain pumped out more greenhouse gases last year under the EU carbon trading scheme designed to cut emissions, according to figures released in Brussels. The British increase was 2.2 per cent. There was an overall increase across Europe of 0.68 per cent, or 16million tonnes of CO2. Emissions rose in ten of the EU's 27 countries, including Germany and Spain, despite the scheme's target to cut CO2 by a fifth by 2020. Ministers argued that the extra 5.4 million tonnes of CO2 produced in Britain could be more than explained by 59 organisations joining the trading scheme, in which polluters...

According to my esteemed colleague Rick Bell, the United Nations is making Premier Ed Stelmach grumpy. And who can blame him? The UN is threatening Canada and, by extension, Alberta. The threat is they won't let us trade carbon internationally because we apparently missed a reporting deadline. Taking crap from the UN is hard at the best of times, given it's the most monumentally corrupt and ineffective political body since the court of Louis XVI. It elects representatives from some of the world's most vicious, totalitarian governments to its human rights council, where they issue proclamations so anti-Semitic Joseph Goebbels...

As President Bush finally caved in to international pressure last week and committed the US to spending untold billions of dollars on "the fight against global warming", I happened to be in Washington at the same time, talking on the same subject to more than a dozen very lively and opinionated radio shows. I was there with my co-author Richard North, at the invitation of an enterprising Washington think-tank, the Independent Women's Forum, to launch our book Scared to Death: From BSE to Global Warming, Why Scares are Costing Us the Earth. (snip) But the highlight of our visit was...

OXFORD, England -- Marc Stuart and Pedro Moura Costa have become multimillionaires in a booming new market designed to fight global warming. Now, their empire is under attack. Their firm, United Kingdom-based EcoSecurities Ltd., helps companies in the industrialized world meet their obligations to pollute less by selling them "credits" that fund clean-air projects in poorer nations. Last year, some $9.4 billion in these credits were traded, up from almost none four years earlier. The market's anything-goes early days now appear to be ending. United Nations officials who regulate the trade have started questioning scores of proposed projects, from hydroelectric...

Presidential race could decide fate of carbon trading in US Eugene Grygo 14 Mar 2008 The outcome of the US presidential race is likely to play a key role in the future of carbon emissions trading in the US because a federal mandate is needed to kick start the trading of carbon credits, according to an analyst at market researcher TowerGroup. If a president is elected who favors the Kyoto Protocol process, then a push from the federal government will hasten the acceptance of carbon trading in the US, said Stephen Bruel, who works in the securities and capital markets...

The United Nation’s agency responsible for relieving hunger is drawing up plans to ration food aid in response to the spiralling cost of agricultural commodities. The World Food Programme is holding crisis talks to decide what aid to halt if new donations do not arrive in the short term. Josette Sheeran, WFP executive director, told the Financial Times that the agency would look at “cutting the food rations or even the number or people reached” if donors did not provide more money. “Our ability to reach people is going down just as the needs go up,” she said. WFP officials...

Hedge fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones has partnered with several big Wall Street firms and The New York Mercantile Exchange to form a new electronic venue for trading carbon greenhouse gases and other emissions, The Post has learned. According to people familiar with the deal, the new venture, to be called The Green Exchange, will compete with the Chicago Climate Exchange, which was established last year for carbon trading. In addition to Jones' firm, Tudor Investment Corp., and the Nymex, the new exchange is backed by Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan and Merrill Lynch. Evolution Markets, a leading broker in...

LISBON, PORTUGAL - A coalition of European countries, U.S. states, Canadian provinces, New Zealand and Norway today announced the formation of the International Carbon Action Partnership (www.ICAPCarbonAction.com) to fight global warming. ICAP will provide an international forum in which governments and public authorities adopting mandatory greenhouse gas emissions cap and trade systems will share experiences and best practices on the design of emissions trading schemes. This cooperation will ensure that the programs are more compatible and are able to work together as the foundation of a global carbon market. Such a market will boost demand for low-carbon products and services,...

LISBON, Portugal (AP) -- Senior officials from the European Union, three U.S. states, Canada, Norway and New Zealand launched an international effort Monday to fight climate change by building a global carbon trading market. The International Carbon Action Partnership aims to add momentum toward low-carbon economies by grouping countries and regions that cap and trade environmentally damaging carbon dioxide emissions. Under the scheme, local authorities place an annual ceiling on carbon dioxide emissions and issue "pollution permits" to companies, which can then buy and sell them. ICAP intends to push for a worldwide marketplace that will allow cross-border trading in...

Al Gore’s campaign against global warming is shifting into high gear. Reporters and commentators follow his every move and bombard the public with notice of his activities and opinions. But while the mainstream media promote his ideas about the state of planet Earth, they are mostly silent about the dramatic impact his economic proposals would have on America. And journalists routinely ignore evidence that he may personally benefit from his programs. Would the romance fizzle if Gore’s followers realized how much their man stands to gain? Earlier this year Gore experienced a notable public relations debacle. The Tennessee Center for...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama on Monday said that if elected he would establish an economy-wide cap-and-trade program that would sharply cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050. In a speech prepared for delivery in Portsmouth, N.H., the Illinois senator said the cap-and-trade plan would be the centerpiece of a wide-ranging set of measures designed to cut emissions of gases tied to global warming and weaning the United States off of dependence on oil. Under a cap-and-trade plan, companies that produce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases receive or buy credits that give them the right to emit a...

WASHINGTON - From the famous podium in the United Nations General Assembly hall, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday lands just the sort of global role he relishes - speaking to about 75 world leaders on the urgency of fighting global warming. Kicking off a week of high-profile events on climate change, the speech will highlight a glaring contrast: that several big-state governors, including Republicans like Schwarzenegger, are pushing aggressive efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions that go well beyond what President Bush supports. "This is a big win for the UN - they get a little Hollywood popularity, a lot...

Carbon trading, the increasingly accepted answer to global warming, will cost far more than we’re being told. In a short time, global warming has graduated from niche cause to accepted fact. Though skeptics may still grumble (or shout) that the science isn’t settled, they’ve lost the battle when President Bush agrees to “seriously consider” an international climate-change treaty; when media mogul Rupert Murdoch writes that “climate change poses clear, catastrophic threats”; when conservative standard-bearer National Review runs a cover article saying that “it’s no longer possible, scientifically or politically, to deny that human activities have very likely increased global temperatures”;...

Feeling guilty about the amount of deadly greenhouse gases you emit by driving that big SUV or using your air conditioner during the summer? Well, don't count on an easy fix. While celebrities like Al Gore and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger burnish their green credentials by buying so-called carbon offsets that fund projects like wind farms to make up for their energy excesses, environmental advocates nationwide criticize the effectiveness of the programs. Their concern: The carbon offset market, which is largely unregulated, lacks the standards or the oversight needed to make sure that the projects consumers send money to are actually...

PHOENIX - Six western states and two Canadian provinces announced a regional goal Wednesday to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. The Western Climate Initiative includes Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington and the provinces of British Columbia and Manitoba. The group wants emissions cut by 15 percent over 2005 levels within 13 years. Governors of the most of the states created the WCI in February, pledging to work together to significantly reduce emissions, partly by designing a market-based system such as a cap-and-trade program planned by California. "The regional goal reflects the combined impact of the individual...

Farmers Union’s Carbon Credit Program allows ag producers and landowners to earn income by storing carbon in their soil through no-till crop production and longterm grass seeding practices. http://www.google.com/search?q=carbon+credits&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/19/AR2007071902553.html http://www.e-bluehorizons.com/?gclid=CKC1oqnD_o0CFQPrYgod7T8bLg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_credits http://newsbusters.org/node/10989

WASHINGTON, DC, August 3, 2007 (ENS) - Senators Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut Independent, and John Warner, a Virginia Republican, Thursday unveiled a detailed proposal for the climate bill that they will introduce this fall, America's Climate Security Act. Lieberman and Warner, who are the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Subcommittee on Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection, requested comment on the proposal from Senate colleagues and all interested stakeholders. "The ball is really rolling now," said Lieberman. "We have the bipartisan momentum to ensure that, this fall, the Senate Environment and Public...

SACRAMENTO As California begins mapping out its strategy to cut greenhouse gas emissions, how industries will be forced to comply is emerging as one of the most complex aspects of the debate. A key component of the state's plan to implement last year's far-reaching global warming law was submitted Friday to California air regulators. The state Air Resources Board received a 107-page report commissioned last year by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that endorses a market-trading program. Under such a program, power plants, refineries, cement plants and other industries that produce greenhouse gases can buy and sell credits for their emissions. That...

About six weeks ago, I published a column ["Arnold can't give us 'green' cement," also at FR] in a number of newspapers warning that the governor’s dueling promises to radically reduce carbon dioxide emissions while delivering a new era of public works comprised a public policy charade of breathtaking mendacity. Highways, dams and aqueducts require heavy construction equipment and prodigious amounts of concrete that in turn produce enormous amounts of carbon dioxide. I wrote: “The governor is now on the horns of a dilemma of his own making. He must either confront the fact that AB 32 was an intellectually...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has boosted his environmental profile by signing global warming agreements with states and foreign governments, most recently one this month with the Australian state of Victoria. Schwarzenegger officials say the agreements are intended to force the federal government to take a more stringent approach to tackling global warming. But some critics note the signings have given Schwarzenegger opportunities for photo-ops with foreign leaders, and Democrats have raised concerns that the Republican governor is using the deals to predispose California to a market-based system in which companies can buy their way out of emissions reductions. Each of the...

COLOGNE, Germany - Windfall profits that power generators are making from Europe's carbon market are damaging the integrity of the scheme, a senior European Commission official said on Thursday. "It's undermining the credibility of the scheme. It would be helpful if participants think very hard about it," said Jos Delbeke, director at the EC's climate change directorate, speaking at a World Bank-sponsored carbon conference. Europe wants to show the world its flagship climate policy is working, ahead of global climate change talks in December in Bali, Indonesia, on a deal to extend the Kyoto Protocol. "A working European emissions trading...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is continuing his foreign policy campaign, bypassing the federal government to help set international agreements on global warming, while a longtime friend and environmental advisor, Terry Tamminen, is consulting with the Canadian government about their carbon dioxide regulations. In anticipation of Schwarzenegger's trip to Canada next month, British Columbia announced yesterday it would participate a five-state Western carbon market where polluters can trade credits with greener companies. The idea is to have four or five Canadian provinces, and perhaps Mexico as well, joining the pact with California, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and Arizona. Schwarzenegger also has signed...

The “third wave” of the environmental movement has arrived in response to global warming, says Sean Hecht, executive director of UCLA’s Environmental Law Center, and lawyers, as in the past, are critical actors in whatever form that response takes. The first wave came with enactment in the early ‘70s of the Clean Water, Clean Air and Endangered Species acts. The second wave began in 1980 with passage of the Superfund law, which imposed a tax on the chemical and petroleum industries and gave the federal government more authority in citing companies for releasing hazardous substances into the environment. Now, says...

Thanks to AB 32, the new powerbrokers in California are not Hollywood studio chiefs or Silicon Valley venture capitalists, but rather the officials in an obscure state bureaucracy called the California Air Resources Board (CARB). These bureaucrats now have a broad mandate to develop the regulatory framework to force compliance with the new emissions restrictions. California's population was 29.7 million people in 1990, and is expected to grow to 42.2 million by 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. These new residents will create a staggering 41% gap between projected emissions and the limits set by AB 32. How can...

Not one single day goes by in New Zealand now without a reference somewhere to global warming, and New Zealand’s requirement to comply with the Kyoto protocol. But few people realise that Kyoto was the brainchild of a corrupt multinational energy company, looking to make a buck out of the green movement. KEN RING explains Amidst the talk about the benefits that Kyoto Protocol is sup-posed to promote, it is perhaps forgotten especially amongst the greenies how Kyoto was born in the corridors of very big business. The name Enron has all but faded from our news pages since the...

Enron, the once powerful energy trading corporation, is mired in financial ruin and scandal. Thousands of employees lost not only their jobs, but also their retirement accounts which were invested almost entirely in now worthless Enron stock. Others whose retirement accounts held stock in the once robust Fortune 10 company are also among those hit hard by the collapse. On Capitol Hill, it seems that just about everyone is scheduling hearings. Much of the nation and all of Washington, D.C. are agog that as much as $6 billion were lost. All of this sounds pretty serious, but the reality is...

LONDON: Man Group, the world's largest publicly listed hedge fund manager, will introduce funds seeking to profit from so-called green investments like carbon-emissions credits, said Stanley Fink, the outgoing chief executive of the company. < snip > "While the science of global warming is quite scary, there are opportunities there." Man, which oversees more than $60 billion in hedge fund assets worldwide, joins hedge fund managers like GLG Partners in offering clients the possibility of making money while helping the environment at the same time. "You should expect a stream of funds from us in the next three of four...

SANTA BARBARA, California (Reuters) - Hoping to get a head start for the day when accounting for carbon and other greenhouse gases becomes mandatory, companies, cities and other organizations flocked to the California Climate Action Registry in overflow numbers this week. The annual event used to be a cozy gathering of a few pioneers, but that was before landmark legislation, signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year, mandated a cut to 1990 emission levels by 2020 -- a cut of 25 percent. Part of the new law requires greenhouse gas rules and may create a market for trading carbon and...

The idea of a cap-and-trade system for limiting carbon-dioxide emissions in the U.S. has become all the rage. Earlier this year, 10 big American companies formed the Climate Action Partnership to lobby for government action on climate change. And this week the private-equity consortium that is bidding to take over Texas utility TXU announced that, as part of the buyout, it would join the forces lobbying for a cap on carbon emissions. But this is not, as Lenin once said, a case of capitalists selling the rope to hang themselves with. In most cases, it is good old-fashioned rent-seeking with...

Al Gore buys carbon offsets as forgiveness for his sin of producing too much carbon dioxide, or something like that. BUT who does he buy these offsets from? According to a story published at Ecotality by Bill Hobbs, he buys them from Generation Investment Management, a company he co-founded, and serves as chairman. Gore helped found Generation Investment Management, through which he and others pay for offsets. The firm invests the money in solar, wind and other projects that reduce energy consumption around the globe… As co-founder and chairman of the firm … he “buys” his “carbon offsets” from himself,...

WASHINGTON – One of the world's top scientists on global warming called for the United States to stop building coal-fired power plants and eventually bulldoze older generators that don't capture and bury greenhouse gases. But 159 coal-fired power plants are scheduled to be built in the next decade or so, generating enough power for about 96 million homes, according to a study last month by the U.S. Department of Energy. Burning coal is one of the major sources of carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas causing global warming. In prepared remarks to be delivered at the National Press Club Monday...

SINGAPORE (MarketWatch) -- Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER) has secured a foothold in the carbon trading and emissions reductions market in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Financial Times reported on its Web site. .... RCF invests in projects such as mending leaking gas distribution pipelines, to reduce emissions, the FT said. Such projects are awarded a credit for each ton of carbon dioxide saved under the Kyoto treaty. These credits, known as emission reduction units, can be sold to other Kyoto signatories that need to reduce their emissions under the agreement.

But if you have carbon markets, why do you need subsidies? Living in a carbon constrained world looks inevitable. Congress will be voting on a number of proposals to set limits on the emission of greenhouse gases later this year. So industrialists see the policy handwriting on the wall and are now rushing to help shape the emerging greenhouse gas (GHG)emissions regulatory scheme. In January the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, consisting of 10 big companies including DuPont, Alcoa, General Electric and Duke Energy, issued a "blueprint for a mandatory economy-wide, market-driven approach to climate protection." Also in January, the Electric...

A leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination declared the debate on global warming "over" yesterday and said that the US would act to save the environment. Senator John McCain's speech at a summit on green policies indicated a crucial change in US political opinion towards climate change. "I am convinced that we have reached the tipping point and that the Congress of the United States will act with the agreement of the administration," said Mr McCain, who is a favoured candidate in next year's presidential primaries. "The debate is over, my friends. Now the question is: what do we...

SYDNEY (AFP) - A worldwide system to put a price on harmful gas emissions should be a key part of any plan to combat global warming, but should not come at Australia's expense, Prime Minister John Howard has said. "Market mechanisms, including carbon pricing, will be integral to any long-term response to climate change," Howard said during his weekly radio address on Sunday. But the prime minister, whose government has refused to adopt the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide which are believed responsible for global warming, said Australian industry had to be protected. "All of...

Hollywood actors such as Orlando Bloom and bands such as Coldplay and Scissor Sisters are helping to front an audacious plan to step up the fight against global warming by kick-starting the market for carbon trading. The scheme aims to buy and retire "carbon credits" to push up the price of CO2. Reducing supply by refusing to re-sell carbon credits should increase the price and financially penalise companies which fail to meet their targets. It will be launched simultaneously in London and Los Angeles tomorrow by the Global Cool Foundation, the brainchild of music promoter-turned green campaigner Dan Morrell and...

NEW YORK - Maybe it's the weird winter weather, or the newly Democratic Congress. Maybe it's the news reports about starving polar bears, or the Oscar nomination for Al Gore's global warming cri de coeur, "An Inconvenient Truth." Whatever the reason, years of resistance to the reality of climate change are suddenly melting away like the soon-to-be-history snows of Kilimanjaro. Now even George W. Bush says it's a problem. For years, the president and his supporters argued that not enough was known about global warming to do anything about it. But during last week's State of the Union address Bush...

WASHINGTON - Chief executives of 10 major corporations urged Congress on Monday to require limits on greenhouse gases this year, contending voluntary efforts to combat climate change are inadequate. The call for immediate action came on the eve of President Bush's State of the Union address in which he is expected to reiterate that the industry on its own is making progress in curtailing the growth of heat-trapping emissions without the need of government intervention. But the executives and leaders of four major environmental organizations said in a letter to Bush that mandatory emissions caps are needed to reduce the...

China is turning its environmental problems into a shrewdly managed financial asset, capitalizing on corporate and governmental efforts to curb global warming. How much China's actions will do for the atmosphere remains an open question. Concerns about the world's rising temperature have prompted many industrialized countries to cap the amount of carbon dioxide and other global-warming gases companies can emit. One way companies can comply is by bankrolling emission-cutting projects in the developing world, where such projects often are cheaper than back home. In return, the Western companies receive "carbon credits" that essentially allow them to continue to emit greenhouse...

Outgoing Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s (R) administration is recommending in a draft “white paper” that the state begin implementing carbon constraints in the near future, setting the stage for major policy battles over climate change emissions in a key regional and presidential-election battleground state. Observers say action by Florida to address carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions could eventually help advance the issue throughout the country because of the state’s profile in national politics, its large congressional delegation, and its growing Republican majority. It is becoming even more of a “red” state, which would “buck the traditional wisdom” that red states spurn...

California and Manitoba on Thursday pledged to work cooperatively to advance greenhouse gas emission reductions, particularly in the areas of clean energy, sustainable transportation and sustainable agriculture. “This agreement with Manitoba, along with California's other agreements with the United Kingdom, Northeast states and others will address an issue that our federal government has yet to tackle," says Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger As part of the five-year agreement signed by Mr. Schwarzenegger and Manitoba Premier Gary Doer, Manitoba intends take steps to continue to support greenhouse gas reduction goals and to enable credit-trading opportunities, particularly for sustainable on-farm practices. Initial work will...

SACRAMENTO – Like gold and pork bellies, California's carbon dioxide emissions credits may someday emerge as the big thing on commodity markets. Brokers who specialize in the art of the deal are closely following developments here as California steers toward a controversial, yet common, market-based course to reduce pollution many scientists link to global warming. Under the proposal, California would reward low-polluting companies with emissions credits that they can then sell on an open market to industries that cannot readily curb greenhouse gas discharges. Companies are already forming a line, said Josh Margolis, a manager with Cantor Fitzgerald Brokerage. “We...

America's greenest governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, announced on Oct. 16 that he was planning to set up an emissions-trading scheme between California and other states to try to curb the output of greenhouse gases. Given the complexity of designing and operating such schemes, it is fortunate for Schwarzenegger that Europe already has one up and running; for it offers valuable lessons in what not to do. Europe's Emissions-Trading Scheme (ETS) was one of the few substantial developments to emerge from the wreckage of the Kyoto Protocol. Its purpose was threefold: to cut emissions; to get polluters to pay for the damage...

SACRAMENTO Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will announce an executive order Monday in New York that joins California's landmark global warming law with the Northeast's program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The executive order is the first step in creating a system that helps California's biggest manufacturers to comply with stricter environmental regulations, a Schwarzenegger administration official said. Industrial corporations and utility companies must cut their greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 25 percent by 2020. "Gov. Schwarzenegger wants to build a large, robust carbon trading market that will dramatically reduce emissions," said Schwarzenegger communications director Adam Mendelson. "The more robust the market,...