GOP Rep. Mica to Senate: Pass airline emissions trading ban before 'recess'

   Photo:  public-domain-image.com

GOP Rep. Mica to Senate: Pass airline emissions trading ban before 'recess' - The Hill's Transportation Report

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) said Friday that the Senate should pass a bill banning European countries from requiring U.S. airlines to trade carbon emissions.  Despite protests from both Congress and the U.S. airline industry, the requirement took effect on Jan. 1. Airlines say they will have to begin making payments to countries within the European Union for over-emissions on international flights in April 2013.   A bill to block that from happening, however, was approved this week by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.  Mica said Friday that the legislation, S. 1956, should be taken up by the entire Senate before lawmakers leave Washington for almost a full month.

Europe's Carbon Market Trips on a New Proposal

   Photo:  geograph.ie

Europe's Carbon Market Trips on a New Proposal - WSJ.com

A recent proposal by the European Union to buttress its program to curb greenhouse gases has raised new questions about the long-term path to clean air.The proposal, which aims to slow the pace at which permits to emit CO2 are sold on the Emissions Trading System between 2013 and 2020, risks having only limited effect if it isn't followed by permanent measures, analysts say.  The ETS, as the EU carbon market is known, was designed to encourage companies to invest in technologies that reduce their emissions in the long term, rather than to simply buy more permits to emit more carbon-dioxide.  The higher the price of the contract, the stronger the incentive to curtail emissions. But prices have dropped to record lows this year, depressed by an underlying oversupply and exacerbated by the economic downturn.  This dilemma has challenged the long-term viability of a system that's important to Europe's much talked-about target of cutting CO2 emissions 20% from 1990 levels by 2020.

Latest Carbon News Headlines

Thomson Reuters Point Carbon's OTC price assessments

		Close	+/-
EUA	Dec 2012	7.33	0.16
sCER	Dec 2012	3.02	0.09

 

 

Latest Carbon Market News

EU ETS

07 Aug 2012 16:46

CORRECTED: Riva’s EUA surplus to rise on closure of steelmaking giant

LONDON, August 7 (Reuters Point Carbon) – The forced closure of Europe’s biggest steel plant, Italy’…

Buy/Free trial

Policy

07 Aug 2012 17:22

INTERVIEW - Global climate deal cannot be taken for granted: UK minister

LONDON, Aug 7 (Reuters Point Carbon) - Negotiators at year-end climate talks in Doha, Qatar must wor…

Buy/Free trial

 

07 Aug 2012 11:00

ADB to help Shanghai design CO2 market

BEIJING, Aug 7 (Reuters Point Carbon) - The Asian Development Bank is this month expected to approve…

Read more...

International policy

07 Aug 2012 15:41

EU reaffirms 2C climate goal after U.S. says unworkable

BRUSSELS, Aug 7 (Reuters) - The European Commission urged the world on Tuesday to stick with a goal…

Buy/Free trial

Domestic policy

07 Aug 2012 10:00

China to ramp up CO2 storage at pilot plant: report

BEIJING, Aug 7 (Reuters Point Carbon) - China has so far stored 40,000 tonnes of CO2 underground in…

Buy/Free trial

EU ETS

06 Aug 2012 17:31

EU ETS fix needed to boost CO2 capture technology: report

LONDON, Aug 6 (Reuters Point Carbon) – The EU must fix its flagship Emissions Trading Scheme to ensu…

Buy/Free trial

EU ETS

06 Aug 2012 16:39

France, Austria’s CO2-emitting power output down in H1

LONDON, Aug 6 (Reuters Point Carbon) - Carbon dioxide emitting thermal power plants in France and Au…

Buy/Free trial

Recent Heat Waves Caused by Global Warming, Hansen Says

   Photo:  public-domain-image.com

Recent Heat Waves Caused by Global Warming, Hansen Says - Bloomberg

The record heat wave and drought tormenting much of the U.S. is part of a “new extreme category” of weather that is most likely the result of global warming, a top U.S. government climate scientist said.  Abnormal weather episodes were so rare from 1951 to 1980 that events such as the drought in Texas last year and heat wave in Russia in 2010 can only be explained as the effects of the increasing accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to research published today. If carbon emissions continue unchecked, such events will become routine, with more extremes common within 50 years.  “You would not have these extremes without global warming,” James Hansen, the top climate-change scientist at the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the main author of the paper, said today in an interview.