Mixed Greens: France refloats CO2 tax plan

Judging by his recent choice of presidential transport, Francois Hollande looks like he’s going to be putting climate change and the low-carbon economy back at the top of France’s political agenda.  BusinessGreen reports today that the newly elected administration is already looking to revive the idea of putting a carbon tax on all goods imported from outside Europe – a move that was first proposed by Hollande’s predecessor Nicolas Sarkzoy, but dismissed by critics as overly protectionist. In an interview on FranceTV, the newly appointed French minister for “industrial revival,” Arnaud Montebourg, outlined the planned scheme, which would require importers of goods manufactured outside Europe to buy carbon permits from the EU ETS.

Tiles May Help Shrink Carbon Footprint by Harnessing Pedestrian Power

This summer at the largest urban mall in Europe, visitors may notice something different at their feet. Twenty bright green rubber tiles will adorn one of the outdoor walkways at the Westfield Stratford City Mall, which abuts the new Olympic stadium in east London.The squares aren't just ornamental. They are designed to collect the kinetic energy created by the estimated 40 million pedestrians who will use that walkway in a year, generating several hundred kilowatt-hours of electricity from their footsteps. That's enough to power half the mall's outdoor lighting.

Nuclear reactor reprieve puts UK energy plans in doubt

Britain's ageing nuclear reactors, which were due to close in the next decade, are set to be kept open under a plan approved by the industry's regulator.  In a move that could have far-reaching implications for the government's energy policy, the Office for Nuclear Regulation has told the Guardian it is working with the country's dominant nuclear operator, the French-owned company EDF, to extend the life of its eight nuclear power stations in the UK, and that it is "content for the plants to continue to operate", as long as they pass regular safety tests.  The two organisations are also discussing other improvements to EDF's plants, including monitoring systems and dealing with the reactors' ageing.  Just a few weeks ago ministers were still referring to the need to "keep the lights on" in Britain when a number of existing nuclear and coal power stations closed over the next few years, by building new nuclear and gas power and subsidising renewable energy technologies and carbon capture and storage.

South Africa shows Australia how to do green energy

South Africa is pushing forward with its ambitious renewable energy rollout, announcing overnight it has awarded contracts for another $3.4 billion of renewable energy developments, with 19 wind, solar and hydropower projects totaling 1,043MW getting the nod.  South Africa has much in common with Australia. It relies heavily on coal for its electricity (85 per cent) and has a similar sized grid (41GW). But it has chosen to kick-start its target of sourcing at least 30 per cent of its electricity requirement from renewables by 2030 with a series of competitive tenders that will allocate contracts for a total of 3,725MW of capacity. It reasons that once this is built, the rest of the 17,000MW of renewable energy required to meet the target will flow.

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21 May 2012 19:51

State-aid guidelines threaten CO2 price support plan

LONDON, May 21 (Reuters Point Carbon) - A proposal to let EU nations compensate their manufacturing…

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International policy

21 May 2012 19:17

Emissions cut hiatus slows work to limit warming

BONN, Germany, May 21 (Reuters) - Reluctance to raise ambitions to cut greenhouse gas emissions due…

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CDM/JI/AAU

21 May 2012 18:43

Sweden to buy up to 6 mln post-2012 "quality" offsets

LONDON, May 21 (Reuters Point Carbon) - Sweden will buy around 4-6 million "high quality" U.N.-backe…

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21 May 2012 12:47

UPDATE 1: Oil, power lead EUAs 4.5 pct higher

LONDON, May 21 (Reuters Point Carbon) – Carbon prices gained 4.5 percent on Monday against the backd…

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21 May 2012 09:36

Parliamentary opposition mounts against Australia ETS

BEIJING, May 21 (Reuters Point Carbon) - Two key independent Australian MPs have said they would bac…

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Corporate

18 May 2012 16:47

“Difficult” CO2 markets deliver just 1 pct of EBRD’s clean energy investment

LONDON, May 18 (Reuters Point Carbon) - Carbon finance has received a tiny fraction of the 8.8 billi…

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Policy

18 May 2012 23:02

Registry starts accepting California CO2 offsets

WASHINGTON, May 18 (Reuters Point Carbon) – Offset registry the Climate Action Reserve (CAR) announc…

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Europe’s largest renewables fund plays safe with onshore wind, hydro

Europe’s largest renewable energy infrastructure fund is only investing in projects that are closest to being viable without government support, according to the fund’s manager.  “People still want clean and renewable energy. But there’s a change in what they are willing to pay for it,” said Tom Murley, London-based director and head of the renewable energy team at HgCapital.

China’s carbon market challenge

China’s three main carbon markets – the Beijing Environment Exchange, Shanghai Environment Energy Exchange and Tianjin Climate Exchange – were all formed within two months of each other, towards the end of 2008. At that point, the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (EU-ETS) was still struggling to recover from a crash a year previously, which had seen the price of carbon allowance plummet from 30 euros to just a few cents.  The World Bank estimates that carbon trading globally could be worth US$3.5 trillion by 2020, meaning it would overtake oil to become the world’s largest market. Spurred by this rosy outlook, China had 100 carbon exchanges in operation or under preparation by late 2011.

Financial tool used climate change uncertainty to select land

A tool commonly used by financial strategists to determine what shares to purchase to create a diversified stock portfolio was used to develop a diversified portfolio of another kind -- land to be set aside for conservation purposes given the uncertainty about climate change.  Instead of plugging into the formula the data for the history of a stock, University of Illinois environmental economist Amy Ando and agricultural economist Mindy Mallory used the historical climate data of the Prairie Pothole Region of the northern Great Plains to develop a new application of the financial tool called the Modern Portfolio Theory.  "It's a very well-known tool in finance," said agricultural economist Mindy Mallory. "There are many tools that are widely available to solve a portfolio problem. So it was really just a new marriage of the tool with a different kind of portfolio problem."

Green drive: Business leads shift to cleaner, cheaper cars

Around a quarter of the world’s businesses are taking a serious look at green vehicles as a way of cutting costs, new research has revealed. The major survey of 3,000 executives, conducted by business advisers Grant Thornton and released last week, has found that Asian and G7 countries are leading the shift to greener cars, where respectively 31 per cent and 28 per cent of companies have examined the possibilities presented by alternatively-fuelled car fleets, powered by electricity, biofuels, or liquefied natural gas.

Parliamentary opposition mounts against Australia ETS

Two key independent Australian MPs have said they would back opposition leader Tony Abbott’s plan to dismantle Australia’s carbon trading scheme if he wins next year’s election, fuelling investor fears that the market might not happen and holding back demand for U.N.-issued offsets.

Egan-Jones Urges Chesapeake Holders to Withhold Board Vote

Chesapeake Energy Inc. shareholders should withhold votes against two board members and refuse to endorse Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Aubrey McClendon’s pay at next month’s meeting, Egan-Jones Proxy Services said.  The board of Chesapeake has conducted “egregiously weak” oversight and executive pay is disconnected from financial performance, the advisory service said in a statement released today to clients. The company’s annual meeting is scheduled for June 8 at its headquarters in Oklahoma City.  Chesapeake, the second-largest U.S. natural-gas producer, is borrowing $4 billion to ease a cash-flow shortfall that Fitch Ratings estimates will reach $10 billion this year.

Carbon floor price warning

A leading carbon pricing advocate has warned Australia will face a continuing investment strike in building base load power generation capacity if it scraps the floor price in the carbon pricing scheme after 2015, which could push up electricity costs.  Erwin Jackson, the deputy chief executive of the Climate Institute, argues maintaining a floor price in the carbon scheme is an economically efficient way to manage the risks associated with international trading while ensuring domestic investment in low-emissions technologies.