Tag Archives: green
Woodland Carbon Code Celebrates Second Year Of Achievement
6 AUGUST 2013NEWS RELEASE No: 16028 Woodland Carbon Code celebrates second year of achievement The Woodland Carbon Code, a voluntary UK standard which ensures that ‘carbon forestry’ projects really do achieve the carbon benefits they claim, has passed its second anniversary with an impressive number of achievements. Increasing numbers of people and organisations are seeking opportunities to invest in tree and woodland planting to help tackle climate change and compensate for their unavoidable carbon emissions to the atmosphere. Validation of such tree-planting projects under the Code ensures that they meet stringent requirements for sustainable woodland management and carbon accounting, and provides an assurance to investors. Achievements during the Code’s first two year of operation include: a total of 133 projects covering 14,200 hectares (35,000 acres) have been registered under the Code. (Registration is a notice of intention to seek validation); the amount of carbon dioxide predicted to be removed from the atmosphere by registered projects has passed 5 million tonnes; 42 of the 133 registered projects have completed audits and been independently validated as conforming to the standards of the Code, meaning that the carbon sequestration claims and other aspects of the project have been checked and confirmed; a scheme to allow groups of woodland projects to come together for validation has been successfully piloted and is now open to applicants, making the process more cost effective for smaller projects; the Code was recently launched on the Markit Environmental Registry, bringing enhanced accountability and transparency to the developing forest carbon market in the UK; and, an updated version of the Code has been published, addressing lessons learned from practical experience since the Code was launched in 2011. Dr Pat Snowdon, Head of the Economics and Climate Change Unit at the Forestry Commission, which administers the Code, said “It’s been another strong year of growth and achievement for the Woodland Carbon Code. It continues to offer credible assurance to investors that the woodlands they invest in will deliver the carbon dioxide emissions abatement ascribed to them, while also providing other environmental and social benefits. “Investing in woodland creation provides companies and individuals with a tangible means of demonstrating how they are reducing their carbon footprint. From October this year UK-quoted companies will be required to report their gross carbon dioxide emissions. The Government’s Environmental Reporting Guidelines also enable any company to report the benefits of its investment in carbon sequestration through Woodland Carbon Code-validated projects.” Further information is available at www.forestry.gov.uk/carboncode . NOTES TO EDITOR: Carbon dioxide (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. Projects can only be validated under the Code if they meet its rigorous requirements for sound forest management, sustainability and carbon ‘accounting’. It was launched in 2011, and uses independent auditing companies approved by the UK Accreditation Service to audit project proposals. ‘Registration’ of a proposed planting project under the Code is the first step towards ‘validation’. Once registered, the proposal is audited against the standards set down by the Code, and if it satisfies the requirements it is ‘validated’. Projects must subsequently be ‘verified’ at least every 10 years to check that targets are being met. 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 supporting guideline on Climate Change. 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. See www.forestry.gov.uk/ukfs . The 5 million tonnes of CO 2 registered will be removed from the atmosphere over the next 100 years. The woodlands should actually sequester significantly more than this over their lifetime, but a proportion is set aside as a ‘buffer’ in case of future losses of woodland (and carbon) caused by wind, fire, pests or disease. CO 2 sequestered, or absorbed, by WCC-validated woodlands in the UK can be traded, and entry on the Markit Environment Registry enables changes of ownership of each tonne to be tracked. The registry also records when projects are registered and credits are listed, and when carbon units have been “used” by a company in its carbon account. See www.markit.com . 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. The European Union average is 37 per cent. MEDIA CONTACT: Charlton Clark, 0131 314 6500 Continue reading
Turning Waste Into Energy
Aug. 8, 2013, 1:32 p.m. A new direction in fuel? Image source: www.gizmodo.com.au New Forests and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (“CEFC”) have announced they have jointly executed a collaboration agreement to finance new bioenergy and biofuel developments. The new investments could include combined heat and power projects or renewable fuels projects featuring biodiesel or syngas associated with forestry investments in regional Australia. New Forests has invested in extensive forestry plantations in Australia, and the agreement may support establishment of new domestic markets for hardwood and softwood timber as well as traditional forestry and sawmill waste products. Under the collaboration agreement, New Forests will seek to develop commercially-oriented investment opportunities in renewable energy that complement regional forest sectors. New Forests’ managing director, David Brand, said, “This is an opportunity to diversify Australian markets for timber, turn waste material into energy, and create new jobs and investment in rural Australia. We see biomass based energy and liquid fuels as an area of substantial potential for growth, and an opportunity that could rival the size of traditional timber markets in the next ten or 20 years.” CEFC CEO, Oliver Yates, said “This is an excellent demonstration of how the CEFC can work with the forestry industry to enable bioenergy projects that will fulfil the potential for the industry to convert its waste products into a valuable renewable energy source. Investment in bioenergy can help reduce carbon emissions, lessen the reliance on traditional electricity and has the potential to boost productivity through reduced energy and operating costs.” Bioenergy presently provides 0.9 per cent of Australia’s electricity generation, but the Clean Energy Council estimates that this has the potential to increase six-fold by 2020 with the right support in place. “Linking Australia’s very significant forestry resources and skills and enhancing these through new clean energy technologies utilising cellulosic biomass will build a new industry of national value”, Mr Yates added. New Forests’ investments already include 375,000 hectares of land and timber plantation assets in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and Western Australia and Timberlink Australia, with two softwood sawmills located in Tasmania and South Australia. Many of these plantations were established under managed investment schemes and now need concerted effort to develop markets and infrastructure. “Market development is a key part of the work that needs to be done to reposition Australia’s plantation forestry sector for the future,” Mr Brand said. “As an Australian business we seek to achieve excellent returns for investors, and innovation is a key part of that work,” he said. The collaboration agreement is open to any projects brought forward by New Forests that meet the CEFC investment criteria. New Forests has identified a bioenergy plant in the Green Triangle alongside the Tarpeena sawmill as an immediate priority, as well as an assessment of the potential to use hardwood plantations for bioenergy and biofuel production at other locations. www.cleanenergyfinancecorp.com.au Continue reading
Abu Dhabi Fund Involved In $1bn Tokyo Build Deal
on Aug 7, 2013 A group including an Abu Dhabi sovereign fund and former US insurance magnate Maurice “Hank” Greenberg have agreed to buy a prominent Tokyo office building for $1bn, the biggest property deal in Japan since February, people with direct knowledge of the transaction said. The decision by the foreign and Japanese investors to acquire the ageing but distinctive structure in central Tokyo highlights expectations that real estate values will revive as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s pro-growth economic policies boost investor sentiment and risk appetite. It will be Japan’s biggest property investment including foreign investors since the 2008-09 global financial crisis. The group, led by property investor by Asia Pacific Land, includes Abu Dhabi Investment Council, Japan’s Secured Capital Investment Management Co and C.V. Starr & Co Inc, which is run by Greenberg, the billionaire former chief executive of American International Group Inc, the sources told Reuters. For the purchase for more than 100 billion yen ($1.01 billion) of the 14-storey Shiba Park Building, the investors will inject about 10 billion yen in cash, said the sources, who asked not to be named because the deal is not public yet. Lenders including Mizuho Bank, Shinsei Bank and Commerz Japan Real Estate Finance Corp, a real estate lending unit of Commerzbank, will extend a combined 90 billion yen in loans, the sources said. The investors and banks declined to comment or could not immediately be reached. Japan’s real estate market, which fell sharply after the late 1980s asset price bubble, crashed again in the global financial crisis and rents in Tokyo have fallen steadily ever since. But there are growing signs of an upturn: vacancy rates in Tokyo’s quality buildings started falling last year, according to real estate services company CBRE. Monthly rents in central Tokyo, which had dropped since 2008, have been flat since last year. The Shiba Park Building deal is a sign of confidence that the 31-year-old building will keep attracting tenants and maintain steady rental income as Japan’s economy is expected to grow. Investors generally prefer newer buildings whose rental income is higher. Property values are expected to rise under “Abenomics”, a programme of heavy government spending and massive monetary easing meant to end 15 years of deflation. The Bank of Japan has been pumping money into the financial system to keep interest rates low, enabling investors to borrow money cheaply. Anticipating rising property values, US-based Westbrook Partners led the acquisition in April of a majority stake in a Tokyo office tower for about 30 billion yen. Tokyo’s Tiffany Building has been put up for sale as the owner Asia Pacific Land, leader of the Shiba Park Building group, bets on a recovery in property prices. The long, imposing Shiba Park Building – nicknamed the “Gunkan”, or “Warship”, building – has more than 83,510 square metres available for rent, much more than other buildings in its neighbourhood near Tokyo Tower. Its total floor space of 102,300 square metres puts it in the same class as the iconic Marunouchi Building, a prime commercial property in the capital’s hottest business district near Tokyo Station, at 159,720 square metres. One benefit of a big building is that it can host the headquarters of a large company. Daiei Inc, which once was Japan’s largest supermarket chain, is a former tenant of Shiba Park Building. The structure was bought by a fund managed by K.K. daVinci Holdings, once an aggressive property investor, in 2006 – near the height of the pre-crisis boom. It paid 143 billion yen in a deal with a fund managed by Morgan Stanley. The building went under lender control when the daVinci fund defaulted on the loans as the global crisis depressed property values worldwide. Continue reading
