In this edition, Bloomberg covers the World Bank’s comments on successful CO2 trade, while Reuters notes leading carbon market players’ call for a tougher EU 2020 climate goal. Scientific American takes on climate change and the impact on electricity markets. The Hill covers the GOP split that leaves $1.5 billion uncut in the U.S. Energy and Water spending bill.
Quote of the Day:
“These countries know there is very little demand for the time being. Some want to fulfill a domestic climate objective. It’s quite an exciting time.”
-Xueman Wang, World Bank team leader of Partnership for Market Readiness Program, in Bloomberg’s “Fourteen Programs Show CO2 Trade Taking Off: World Bank”
Lead Stories
Fourteen Programs Show CO2 Trade Taking Off: World Bank
Bloomberg
New carbon programs in at least 14 emerging nations from China to Costa Rica show emissions trading may take off even as U.S. lawmakers focus on non-market-based regulations for climate protection, a World Bank official said.
http://jlne.ws/KpqHcL
CO2 market wants tougher EU 2020 climate goal
Reuters
The European Union needs to aim for a deeper emissions cut soon, to rescue a record low carbon price and spur long-term investment in low-carbon technology, leading carbon market players said at an industry gathering.
http://jlne.ws/K7lRMH
Australian Law Allows UN CO2 Use Through 2020: Negotiator
Bloomberg
Australia can accept United Nations emission offsets in its planned carbon market through 2020 and potentially beyond because it’s already signed up to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, said one of the nation’s climate negotiators.
http://jlne.ws/JFDmT1
EU aviation carbon spat seen unlikely to reach WTO
Reuters
Countries that oppose the European Union’s move to include airlines in its scheme to control carbon emissions would find it difficult to bring a dispute to the World Trade Organization (WTO), an official with the global trade body said on Friday.
http://jlne.ws/M2w5AU
How Climate Change May Impact Electricity Supplies
Scientific American
Ironic twist alert: most electricity production requires vast amounts of water. Cold water. Which means that is going to be bad for electricity supplies.
http://jlne.ws/Mp6SmH
Clinton in Arctic to see impact of climate change
AFP
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took a first-hand look Saturday at the way a warming climate is changing the Arctic, opening the region to competition for vast oil reserves.
http://jlne.ws/K8pMad
Next round of UN climate talks set for Bangkok
AFP
A new round of climate talks will be held in Bangkok from August 30 to September 5 to prepare for minister-level negotiations at year end, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said on Friday.
http://jlne.ws/LekPwB
Warming gas levels hit ‘troubling milestone’
AP
The world’s air has reached what scientists call a troubling new milestone for carbon dioxide, the main global warming pollutant.
http://jlne.ws/M25f7O
Mayors Join Industry to Complain About EPA Water Standards
Bloomberg
Mayors of America’s cities joined industry and Republican lawmakers to complain about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and urge the agency to back off enforcement of regulations to clean-up drinking water.
http://jlne.ws/Mp8FIa
GOP split leaves $1.5 billion uncut in Energy and Water spending bill
The Hill’s E2 Wire
The House voted Friday to reject a series of amendments to a 2013 Energy and Water spending bill that would have cut $1.5 billion from the bill, revealing an ongoing split in the Republican Party on whether to seek more aggressive cuts.
http://jlne.ws/KDEjis
Soros and Foxx In Talks to Buy Brazil’s Haztec, Estado Says
Bloomberg
George Soros and Sao Paulo-based Foxx Group are in talks to acquire Haztec Tecnologia & Planejamento Ambiental SA, a Brazilian environmental services company, for about 800 million reais ($396 million), O Estado de S. Paulo reported, citing unidentified people involved in the deal.
http://jlne.ws/LegsqY
Exclusive: Greece’s debt woes mutate into energy crisis
Reuters
Greece’s debt crisis threatened to turn into an energy crunch on Friday, with the power regulator calling an emergency meeting next week to avert a collapse of the country’s electricity and natural gas system.
http://jlne.ws/KJ9adJ
NZ economy needs to fit within nature’s limits: Greens
New Zealand Herald
Green Party leader Russel Norman says New Zealand needs to redesign its economy to live within nature’s limits, and get away from its dependence on get-rich-quick schemes.
http://jlne.ws/LeziN5
Events
Responsible Business Summit
Asherleaf
June 27 -28, 2012, New York
http://jlne.ws/I9JaGh
Carbon Forum North America
October 1-2, 2012
Washington, DC
http://jlne.ws/zDe43B
Sustainability Summit – Innovation Challenge
October 9, 2012
New York
http://jlne.ws/wKbX7U
Carbon
$2.84m for carbon farming
Farm Online
MALLEE farmers are set to benefit from a $2.84 million Federal Government grant announced late last week.
http://jlne.ws/K7qDtN
Joining the dots: Linking carbon markets from the bottom up
Climate Spectator
Having spent the opening day of Carbon Expo 2012 in Cologne confronting the reality of an increasingly fragmented carbon market, day two saw participants grapple with the possibilities and practicalities of trying to link these bottom-up markets together – whether bilaterally, regionally or plurilaterally in and outside of a possible second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.
http://jlne.ws/K4j8Z4
Natural Gas/Coal
Hedges Gone Awry Set Back Chesapeake
The Wall Street Journal
Chesapeake Energy Corp. CHK -7.81% blames its current cash crunch on warm winter weather that reduced demand for the natural gas it pumps as the nation’s second-largest producer of the fuel. But the situation is more complicated: The company compounded its troubles by taking a short-term gamble on gas prices that left it exposed to the worst gas market since 2001.
http://jlne.ws/KZOw7R
Unnatural gas pains
Crain’s Chicago Business
Of all the misguided notions clouding the minds of Illinois politicians, few are as mystifying as the fetish some harbor for synthetic heating gas.
http://jlne.ws/JFHGl9
Gaza’s natural gas, the unreachable treasure
Xinhua
Under Gaza’s glittering waters of the Mediterranean, a strategic gas reservoir that is capable of ending the crippling power crisis in this Palestinian enclave has been lying out of commission since it was discovered 12 years ago.
http://jlne.ws/NaY9Uj
Editorial: Embrace the natural-gas solution
Former Pa. Governor Ed Rendell in Philadelphia Inquirer
States, cities, and local municipalities are feeling the burden of high gasoline prices across the nation. Just like you, mayors and city managers feel the pain at the pump each time they refuel one of their fleet or public transportation vehicles on traditional gasoline or diesel fuel. Each time they fill up, valuable taxpayer money that could be used to pay for critical programs or to hire teachers, police officers, and firefighters is instead wastefully poured into a gas tank, often sending U.S. dollars overseas to fund regimes that are hostile toward our values.
http://jlne.ws/MaU28C
Power
When Cleaning Up Power Plants, Time is Money
The New York Times
New rules on pollution from coal plants will cost the American economy $175 billion to $275 billion between now and 2035, according to a new analysis from the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit utility consortium. But the price can be be closer to the lower figure if the government shows flexibility in how the rules are phased in, the researchers said.
http://jlne.ws/LoMflB
THE REPORT:
PRISM 2.0: THE VALUE OF INNOVATION IN ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROLS
EPRI
http://jlne.ws/KJaQnw
China May Resume Nuclear Plant Approvals as Cabinet Passes Plan
Bloomberg
China, planning to build more nuclear reactors than any other country, approved a safety framework that may help end a ban on approving new atomic plants imposed after last year’s Fukushima disaster in Japan.
http://jlne.ws/Kpp5zz
Japan wind power installation falls 70 pct in 2011/12
Reuters
Japan’s newly-installed wind power generation capacity totalled 85.1 megawatts in the last financial year ended on March 31, down 70 percent from a year earlier, the Japan Wind Power Association said.
http://jlne.ws/LeuXp7
AES Brasil seeks growth in wind power
Reuters
Power utility AES Brasil aims to grow its electricity generation over the next three years by buying rivals and bidding in government wind power auctions, the company’s chief executive officer said on Friday.
http://jlne.ws/NxEE63
Investment needed in power-hungry Texas market: study
Reuters
The current design of the wholesale power market in Texas will not encourage needed investment in new power plants, the Brattle Group said in a report commissioned by the state electric grid operator.
http://jlne.ws/M2yzPP
CleanTech
Clean technology: US policy aids second generation biofuel push
Financial Times
In the world of biofuels, all eyes are on the tiny northern Italian town of Crescentino, site of the world’s first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant, which will start production this year.
http://jlne.ws/NaZiv0
Miscellaneous
Paper strikes back: defending books, mail and dollar bills
Reuters
Crumple it, drench it, lock it in a hot attic or a damp cellar but paper can come back to life.
http://jlne.ws/K8vCIK
UN: Transition to green economy would create millions of jobs
Business Green
Shifting to a greener economy could generate up to 60 million additional jobs over the next two decades and lift millions of people out of poverty, UN agencies and trade unions said yesterday, urging governments to use the Rio+20 summit to turn this potential into reality.
http://jlne.ws/JFHoKQ
Reports
PRISM 2.0: THE VALUE OF INNOVATION IN ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROLS
EPRI
http://jlne.ws/KJaQnw
Developing Dimension: State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2012 (Posted May 31, 2012)
Ecosystem Marketplace
http://jlne.ws/JQ18Bv
Tackling exposure: placing disaster risk management at the heart of national economic and fiscal policy (Posted May 22, 2012)
http://jlne.ws/JArFwf
Fossil fuel price shocks and a low carbon economy (Posted May 21, 2012)
Oxford/DECC
http://jlne.ws/JgVKG9
Using the Allowance Value from California’s Carbon Trading System: Legal Risk Factors, Impacts to Ratepayers and the Economy (Posted May 17, 2012)
Next10
http://jlne.ws/KEYcW5.
Inclusive Green Growth: The Pathways to Sustainable Development (Posted May 9, 2012)
World Bank
http://jlne.ws/IJXP8B
Meeting Canada’s 2020 Climate Change Commitments (Posted May 8, 2012)
Office of Auditor General
http://jlne.ws/K9Lxvd
