Carbon fund closed in June at $200M suspended operations in November after CERs plummeted

World Bank Says Carbon Fund May Shrink Following Price Slump - Bloomberg

The International Finance Corp. said its Carbon Facility Fund, which had raised 150 million euros ($198 million) when it closed in June, was suspended by November after plummeting UN offset prices triggered a measure to protect projects supplying the credits. Investors will probably scale back their commitments to the fund, according to the corporation.

Open Interest in European Carbon for 2011 Rises 0.7% to 120 Million Tons

Carbon Overtakes Gasoil as Open Interest Surged 55% in Past Year - Bloomberg

Open interest in European Union carbon allowances for delivery in December rose 0.7 percent to a record 120 million metrics tons yesterday, according to data from the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mathew Carr in London at m.carr@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mike Anderson at manderson34@bloomberg.net

Retrofits could yield $1T Energy Savings Here in the US Alone

Retrofits could yield $1T in US energy savings | GreenBiz.com

 Savvy investments in energy efficiency retrofits for buildings could yield more than three times their value, mounting to about $1 trillion in energy savings in a decade, says new research from Deutsche Bank and The Rockefeller Foundation.  The study released today said that yield would be just one of the returns if $279 billion were spent for retrofits of residential, commercial and institutional buildings in the United States.

GreenBiz Salary Survey 2011

GreenBiz Salary Survey 2011 - Google Docs

From demographics to pay rates, this survey -- conducted by GreenBiz.com's John Davies among 536 members of the GreenBiz Intelligence Panel -- looks at the latest trends among sustainability professionals in 2011.  Among the findings of the report:

Dedication. More executives than ever have a job that is 100 percent dedicated to sustainability. Eighty-six percent of large companies now have at least one full-time person spending all of their time on sustainability, compared to 81 percent last year.

Strategy Is Job 1, but Energy Rises. Strategy development -- helping senior management develop a sustainability strategy that syncs with their company's overall strategy -- is the primary task for all sustainability executives. But not surprisingly in this economy, "energy efficiency and facilities management" jumped into the top three tasks for those at the vice president level. This year we also asked if companies have a full-time dedicated corporate energy manager and 48 percent of large companies have this role at their company.

Staffs and Budgets Are Getting (Somewhat) Bigger. This year we see both budgets and, to a lesser extent, teams grow when compared to 2010. While those with no budget or one under $100,000 dropped a combined 10 points in 2011 when compared to 2010, companies with budgets ranging from $100,000 to under $10 million saw a combined increase of 11 points compared to last year.

Little to No Headway on Shipping Emissions

ICTSD • London Meeting Struggles to Make Headway on Shipping Emissions

 he International Maritime Organization (IMO) could soon find itself butting heads with Brussels over how best to tackle emissions from international shipping, analysts say, after the UN shipping body was unable to make “tangible progress” in this area at last week’s major meeting.
The London-based IMO has been struggling for years to agree upon market-based measures for curbing emissions, such as a levy on carbon emissions or a cap-and-trade scheme. With the organisation’s 170 members unable to make much progress on this issue last week - and with the next meeting of the organisation’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) not scheduled until October - it is unclear when such measures will ultimately be agreed upon.

Natural gas won't halt climate change

Switching to natural gas won't halt climate change | GreenBiz.com

Nathan Myhrvold, the former Microsoft Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Intellectual Ventures, an invention capital firm with more than $5 billion under management, was criticized by many environmentalists when he suggested in 2009 that limiting carbon emissions is an insufficient strategy for reversing climate change.
"I think that you have to be an incredible optimist, or you have to believe that it's not a severe problem, to think that that's the only solution we should investigate right now," Myhrvold said.

Sustainable Forest Conservation

Renewable Forests and Energy Independence

Perspective is something one gains from understanding a diverse range of views. Unfortunately, forests and their potential for energy is something most people, particularly Americans, have a very narrow perspective of. Fully 75% of the U.S. population lives in major urban areas which are generally void of all forests. Yes, there are trees, but the role of forests in the survival and advancement of humans, as well as their potential for future advancements goes largely unmentioned in this nation.  In general, a forest is an area with a high density of trees. These collections of trees serve a variety of purposes for the environment. While most people understand the role of trees in cleaning the air, what is less recognized is the role of trees in cleaning water, improving soil, and capturing solar energy. Over their lifetimes, trees collect solar energy on a daily basis and convert this energy into their mass through photosynthesis. This process occurs with all plants but with forests, this energy conversion is occurring on a massive scale.

Christians Give Up Carbon For Lent

Carbon Fast 2012: Christians Give Up Carbon For Lent



With the second week of Lent coming to an end, there's one thing Christians are giving up this year that's a bit different from typical comforts like chocolate, alcohol or meat. Instead, in a move that just might benefit the earth as well as their health, thousands of Christians are giving up carbon this year, according to TreeHugger. Dubbed "Carbon Fast," the idea began with a small following started back in 2007 by James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool. Now a full blown movement operating under the non-profit Christian aid organization TearFund, it has spread to communities in the U.S., Canada, the Netherlands, India, Hong Kong, Australia, and Brazil, American Progress reports.

EU ministers draft plan to spur low carbon investments

EU ministers want to spur low-carbon energy: draft | Reuters


(Reuters) - Environment ministers meeting in Brussels on Friday are likely to urge the EU's executive to look at practical ways to drive green investment, but to stop short of calling for intervention to prop up carbon permits that have lost much of their value.  European Union politicians last month voted in favor of withholding permits from the bloc's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), to try to support a market that is too weak to fulfill the goal of encouraging low carbon investment.

Microalgae Street Lamp Absorbs 200X A Tree!

Microalgae Lamp Absorbs 150-200 Times More CO2 than a Tree! - CleanTechnica



OK, first of all, this CO2-absorbing street lamp looks super cool! Secondly, it absorbs CO2! Thirdly, 150-200 times more than a tree! OK, I’m calming down, and I realize it has a ways to go to get to actual widespread use in the real, physical, CO2-filled world.

Latest Carbon News Headlines

News - Point Carbon - Providing critical insights into energy and environmental markets

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Point Carbon's OTC price assessments

		Close	+/-
EUA	Dec 2012	8.62	0.15
sCER	Dec 2012	4.51	0.08

Policy

07 Mar 2012 15:03

Poland to veto EU climate decisions Friday: govt sources

Poland is set to veto on Friday the European Union's 2050 road-map laying out emission reduction goa…

CDM/JI/AAU

07 Mar 2012 14:58

Carbon capture under CDM may never happen: auditor

A lack of demand for carbon credits and geographical restrictions on the use of offsets in the EU’s…

Markets

07 Mar 2012 10:27

EC awaits Council signal on set-aside, ministers mull options

The European Commission could propose withholding permits from the EU’s CO2 market within weeks if i…

Markets

07 Mar 2012 12:04

UK sets three more 2012 EUA auction dates

The UK government will hold three more auctions for EU carbon permits between May and July, putting…

Markets

07 Mar 2012 17:49

UPDATE 1: EUAs ease on German power, Polish veto threat

European carbon prices fell from earlier highs late on Wednesday amid a slump in German power prices…

Policy

06 Mar 2012 16:05

CO2 floor price has long-term merit: EC advisor

Setting a minimum price for CO2 permits would appeal to investors and could improve the EU cap-and-t…

Policy

07 Mar 2012 00:01

Alberta offset supply tightens as new rules kick in

Changes to Alberta’s offset program that will take force in April will curtail supply in the provinc…

Latest news

• 07 Mar 12 17:49 EUAs ease on German power, Polish veto threat
• 07 Mar 12 15:03 Poland to veto EU climate decisions Friday: govt sources
• 07 Mar 12 14:58 Carbon capture under CDM may never happen: auditor
• 07 Mar 12 12:14 EnBW’s emissions rise 4.3 pct in 2011 as plants close
• 07 Mar 12 12:04 UK sets three more 2012 EUA auction dates
• 07 Mar 12 11:11 Analysts predict delays to China pilot CO2 scheme
• 07 Mar 12 10:27 EC awaits Council signal on set-aside, mulling the options
• 07 Mar 12 00:01 Alberta offset supply tightens as new rules kick in
• 06 Mar 12 22:06 CDM rules deny carbon finance to Brazil sugarcane electricity
• 06 Mar 12 18:45 CO2 permit set-aside may not produce price spike: analyst
• 06 Mar 12 18:25 EU-Australia carbon market link unlikely before 2020
• 06 Mar 12 17:42 EUAs hit 3-wk low on weaker energy, UK auction
• 06 Mar 12 16:40 Dublin-based REDD investor to create 30 jobs
• 06 Mar 12 16:37 U.N. seeks role as ‘glue’ for global carbon markets
• 06 Mar 12 16:05 CO2 floor price has long-term merit: EC advisor
• 06 Mar 12 14:13 EU to launch tender for CO2 auction platform by H1
• 06 Mar 12 13:36 Climex seeks 40,000 VERs for unnamed buyer
• 06 Mar 12 12:10 EU to use 252 mln U.N. carbon credits in 2012: analysts
• 06 Mar 12 10:51 South Korea eyes 100 million Indonesian forestry credits
• 06 Mar 12 09:49 RWE's CO2 permit demand falls 9 pct in 2011
• 05 Mar 12 22:33 RGGI officials to weigh lower CO2 caps
• 05 Mar 12 20:28 Germany fully backs EU law on airline carbon cost
• 05 Mar 12 19:16 Norway’s emitters call for CO2 tax break for green fund
• 05 Mar 12 18:47 CER price needs to rise above 10 euros for market recovery
• 05 Mar 12 18:08 Ukraine, Japan mull bilateral scheme

All news

Car sharing revs up backed by Ford

Car sharing revs up with backing from Detroit heavyweights | GreenBiz.com

Who would have thought that Bill Ford, the executive chairman of the Ford Motor Co., and GM Ventures, the venture capital arm of General Motors, would invest in peer-to-peer car sharing companies? The big automakers historically craved market share, which means selling as many new cars as they can. If Americans decide that they don't need a car -- or maybe that they only need one, instead of two or three -- the car companies could be hurt.

Reducing Carbon Emissions One Click At A Time

Climate Friendly: Reducing Carbon Emissions, One Website Visit at a Time - MarketWatch

SYDNEY, March 7, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- While over 70 percent of Australians believe that human activity is contributing to climate change, few know how to take action to prevent it. That's where a new Ektron-powered website - http://www.climatefriendly.com - comes in. ClimateFriendly.com is designed to help people around the world take action by reducing emissions and purchasing carbon offsets.

Commitment to sustainability demonstrated by stunning budget vote

Stunning budget vote shows a commitment to sustainability | Richard Davis - The News Tribune

Politics, a derivation of the word policy, took a particularly active turn in the state Senate on Friday evening. Three centrist Democrats joined with 22 Republicans to take control of the budget process. Following a long, raucous and emotional debate, they passed a bipartisan budget crafted largely by Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield.

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/03/07/2056226/stunning-budget-vote-shows-a-commitment.html#storylink=cpy