Tag Archives: chat
UK Woodland Carbon Code launched on Markit Registry
18 JULY 2013NEWS RELEASE No: 16000 UK Woodland Carbon Code launched on Markit Registry The United Kingdom’s Woodland Carbon Code (WCC) has been launched on the Markit Environmental Registry, enhancing transparency and accountability in the trade in British Woodland Carbon Units. Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) sequestered, or absorbed, by WCC-validated woodlands in the UK can be traded, and the development enables changes of ownership of each tonne to be tracked. The registry will also record when projects are registered and credits are listed, and when carbon units have been “used” by a company in its carbon account. Forestry Minister David Heath, who spoke at the launch event in London, said, “The Woodland Carbon Code provides an authoritative means of assurance to those who wish to invest in new woodland planting to compensate for some of their unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions. By investing in new woodlands validated as meeting the code’s standards, they receive assurance that their investment will be wisely spent on well managed, sustainable woodlands which really will deliver the carbon benefits claimed.” Units of carbon sequestered by Code-validated woodlands are accurately measured and recorded by a robust carbon-accounting system, and Mr Heath added, “The Code’s launch on the Markit Environmental Registry takes that process an important step further by allowing anyone to see who owns individual units of carbon. It also tracks changes in ownership and, importantly, use of carbon units. “It also adds assurance to carbon buyers by tracking forwards sales of carbon units in long-term woodland carbon projects. This brings welcome clarity, transparency and accountability to the developing woodland carbon market in the UK. “By enhancing the attractiveness of private investment in woodland establishment, this initiative has the potential to make a valuable contribution to our priority goals of growing the rural economy and improving the environment for everyone.” Kathy Benini, managing director of the Markit Environmental Registry, said: “It is an honour to work with the Forestry Commission and provide the infrastructure for this important initiative. “Our registry is a centrepiece of environmental programmes worldwide, and we look forward to providing the tools needed to create a transparent and efficient market for credits in the innovative Woodland Carbon Code programme.” The Markit Environmental Registry also provides an introductory mechanism for bringing together buyers and sellers of woodland carbon units, although it is not a trading platform. The WCC is administered by the Forestry Commission, and further information is available from www.forestry.gov.uk/carboncode . The Markit Environmental Registry provides infrastructure to the global carbon, water and biodiversity markets, enabling participants to track environmental projects, and issue, transact and retire serialised environmental credits. It lists 150 million environmental credits across 20 market-based standards and programmes for users in nearly 80 countries. Further information is available from www.markit.com . NOTES TO EDITOR: CO 2 is the most common of the greenhouse gases causing the atmospheric warming which is changing Earth’s climate. Growing trees sequester, or absorb, CO 2 from the atmosphere, and use carbon atoms to form wood while emitting oxygen back to the atmosphere. From April 2013, UK-quoted companies have been required to report their gross CO 2 emissions. Under the Government’s Environmental Reporting Guidelines (including greenhouse gas emissions), all companies have an opportunity to report verified carbon units created through carbon sequestration in WCC-verified woodland creation projects. (Validated projects must be ‘verified’ after five years, and then at least every 10 years to check that sequestration targets are being met.) Companies can invest directly in woodland establishment projects on their own land, or by buying the rights to the carbon sequestered in woodlands established by others. They can buy units before they are created and verified, but they cannot report them until after they have been verified. Traders of woodland carbon must be registered with the Financial Conduct Authority. A total of 133 projects were registered (notified intention to seek validation) under the code at 30 June 2013, covering an area of 14,200 hectares and projected to sequester 5.2 million tonnes of CO 2 . Of these, 42 had been validated, covering 2100 hectares and projected to sequester 1.0 million tonnes of CO 2 , comprising 256,000 tonnes in England, 662,000 tonnes in Scotland and 33,000 tonnes in Wales. No projects have yet been validated in Northern Ireland. When companies ‘use’ verified units of CO 2 , for example, in an annual environmental report or in claims of carbon neutrality, this is demonstrated in the registry by moving units to their ‘retired’ (or used) account. Projects can only be validated under the Code if they meet its rigorous requirements for sound forest management, sustainability and carbon ‘accounting’. Project proposals are audited by independent certification companies approved by the UK Accreditation Service. Once registered, a proposal is audited against the standards required by the Code, and if it satisfies the requirements it is ‘validated’. Validation provides evidence of the quality of the proposal, not only in carbon terms, but also in sustainable forest management terms, and is critical for attracting investors. Woodland established under the Code must attain high standards of forest management in line with the UK Forestry Standard (UKFS) and its associated Climate Change Guidelines for Forestry. The UKFS sets out the government vision of sustainable forest management, and is the ‘yardstick’ used by all four governments in the UK when assessing applications for forestry grants, tree felling licences and approvals of forest design plans. About 13 per cent of the UK’s land area is covered by woodland, which is more than double the woodland cover of 100 years ago. MEDIA CONTACT: Charlton Clark, 0131 314 6500 e-mail: charlton.clark@forestry.gsi.gov.uk Continue reading
Voluntary Carbon Credits Are Healthier Than Compliance: Jonathan Shopley
Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013, 12:07 IST | Agency: DNA R N Bhaskar Jonathan Shopley, MD at The CarbonNeutral Company, a global provider of carbon reduction solutions to more than 350 companies, was the founding co-chair of The International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance, an industry body committed to defining and meeting the best practice in the carbon market, and is a board director of the Climate Markets and Investors Association. Jonathan Shopley He has authored publications across a range of topics including climate change, environmental management and sustainable development. In this interview with R N Bhaskar, Shopley speaks about his work and what he expects from the markets. Excerpts: How big is the volume of business you do? Last year, we traded in around 11 million units of carbon, of which 2.2 million – approximately 20% – came from India. We see the markets changing. With the fall in carbon credit prices, thanks to the global economic slowdown, we see credits purchased and retired for corporates a better option than the compliance market driven by the Kyoto Convention. We see the non-regulatory action on climate, the voluntary market, growing at around 4% annually, even where the compliance market has crashed. This is to be expected, because as political will weakens, leading corporates – like Microsoft with whom we work worldwide – invariably step in. We see the private sector playing a critical role both in policy and market development, and even influencing regulation. What about global markets? As a survey by Ecosystems Marketplace, a Forest Trends Initiative, points out, voluntary demand for carbon offsetting grew 4% in 2012, when buyers committed more than $523 million to offset 101 million metric tonne of greenhouse gas emissions. The European private sector, including regulated energy utilities, was the market’s biggest voluntary buyer – seeing demand grow 34% to 43.4 million tonne of offsets even in the face of significant challenges to Europe’s mandatory carbon market. US-based corporations offset more emissions than buyers in any other single country, at 28.7 million tonne. A little over a third of offsets purchased by US buyers (9.7 million tonne) were obtained for future use in California’s emerging cap-and-trade programme. The survey also reveals that last year, voluntary buyers paid a volume-weighted average price of $5.9/tonne – slightly down from 2011’s $6.2/tonne. But it was significantly higher than the United Nations’s regulatory carbon offset price at less than a $1/tonne. How big is your organisation? Our headline numbers are that we have 35 people, 340 clients located in 34 countries. All our clients are carbon-neutral, but want to do more. We have 200 projects that are supported. As mentioned earlier, we have done around 11 million tonne of carbon last year. And we are likely to get more active in India. Recently, we purchased a lookalike company in New York. Continue reading
Free Market Is Best Way to Combat Climate Change, Study Suggests
July 15, 2013 — The best way to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change is through the use of market forces, according to a new study. Researchers who monitored the effectiveness of the European Climate Exchange (ECX) — the world’s biggest carbon trading platform — found it to be as efficient as Europe’s two biggest exchanges, the London Stock Exchange and the Euronext Paris. Using free market platforms like the ECX to combat climate change could provide the basis for the introduction of a mandatory emissions cap and trade scheme worldwide. The report found that the value of the trades on the ECX were higher after the market closed, a sign of growing sophistication within platforms. It means that trades were made with greater confidence based upon increasingly detailed information. Researchers said there are also signs of maturity based on increased liquidity — the immediate availability of a party to trade with — and price efficiency, which means all available information is incorporated into prices so they are traded in a relatively transparent manner. The ECX was created by the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) in 2005 to help the European Union (EU) achieve its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce carbon emissions. The EU set limits and issued permits for how much carbon firms could emit into the atmosphere. If companies exceed their limit, they incur regulatory penalties. To avoid this, the EU-ETS allows firms with high emissions to buy the permits of other companies on platforms such as the ECX. By creating a market, it gave firms a financial incentive to reduce their carbon emissions. Researchers said that changes are needed to ensure the EU-ETS survives Europe’s economic downturn. Since the study appears to confirm the ECX’s effectiveness, researchers say the EU-ETS should be allowed to self-adjust emission caps in reaction to changes in the Eurozone’s fortunes and industrial production. Gbenga Ibikunle, from the University of Edinburgh Business School, said: “While individual responsibility for combating climate change is important, much needs to be done to incentivise companies — especially those who emit most of the world’s carbon — to cut back too. This study shows that free market mechanisms such as the EU-ETS can be effective in doing that. Several other schemes around the world are already learning from this and adopting it as a model.” The paper is published in the International Journal of the Economics of Business . Continue reading
