Tag Archives: australia
Tony Abbott Branded ‘Climate Denier’ After Carbon Trading Tirade
Last updated on 15 July 2013, 8:11 am A summary of today’s top climate and clean energy stories. Email the team on info@rtcc.org or get in touch via Twitter. Tony Abbott has branded emissions trading as dealing in an “invisible substance”, carbon dioxide. (Source: Liberal Party) Australia: Opposition leader Tony Abbott has branded emissions trading a “so-called market” that deals in an “invisible substance”, carbon dioxide, as the Coalition digs in politically ahead of Labor’s looming overhaul of its clean energy package. ( Guardian ) Poland: Poland’s shale gas business is facing a serious challenge after the EU’s highest court, European Court of Justice, ruled that Warsaw violated European law by allowing licences to be issued for the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons, without fully open tenders. This affects around 100 shale gas exploration licences issued by Warsaw to firms believed to be in breach of the EU’s Hydrocarbon Directive. ( EurActiv ) UK: The government may be promoting the controversial practice of fracking for gas shale because figures from that industry hold senior advisory roles within the government, campaigners have warned. The former BP boss Lord Browne, Centrica chief executive Sam Laidlaw and BG Group director Baroness Hogg have all been accused of the potential for conflicts of interest. ( Independent ) Germany: The European Union is planning an investigation into Germany’s renewable energy law due to concerns that exemptions for some firms from charges levied on power users breaches competition rules. Lawyers in Brussels are rumoured to have been looking at the law which provides a framework for Germany’s push to renewable energy, and that Commissioner Joaquín Almunia had concluded it may breach EU rules. ( EurActiv ) China: China’s electricity consumption, used a barometer of economic activity, rose 6.3% year on year to 438.4 billion kilowatt hours in June, an official statement said Sunday. The National Energy Administration said that the growth rate was 2% higher than a year earlier and 1.3% points higher than in May. ( Xinhuanet ) China/Australia: A new research programme has been announced which will see Chinese and Australian researchers working together to confront the challenges of climate change policy. The $305,000 programme will be run by the Australian National University’s (ANU) and led by Associate Professor Frank Jotzo of the School’s Centre for Climate Economics and Policy. ( PS News ) Pakistan: Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to inaugurate Pakistan’s first private hydropower project in Mirpur, Azad Kashmir, on Monday to be registered with the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate as a clean mechanism development project. The 84MW project is expected to replace 135,000 tons of oil import valued in excess of $100 million per annum. ( News Tribe ) Czech Republic: A new unique station near Bystrice nad Pernstejnem will examine the impact that expected climate changes will have on wheat and barley. The station, built with the EU’s financial support, consists of 24 automatically controlled chambers similar to greenhouses that enable researchers to simulate different climate phenomena which experts expect to develop in the Czech Republic in the next hundred years. ( Prague Monitor ) – See more at: http://www.rtcc.org/…h.aCxubGOy.dpuf Continue reading
Trees Best Left To Generate Carbon Credits
Taxpayers are losing money on native forest logging in NSW. It makes better financial sense for the native forests of southern NSW to remain un-logged and left to generate carbon credits, a new report suggests. NSW taxpayers would be able to generate carbon abatement, conservatively valued at about $222 million over the next 2½ decades, and use some of the money to fully compensate timber companies, according to the analysis by think tank The Australia Institute. The NSW government disagrees, saying the report is based on an unrealistically high carbon price. Cut carbon not trees. Photo: Michele Mossop Taxpayers are presently losing money on native forest logging. ”Stopping harvesting and using the native forests of the Southern Forestry Region to generate carbon credits offers a viable alternative to commercial forestry,” the report said, citing public data about the profitability of all current logging operations, government subsidies, and company tax received from logging corporations. The NSW government has reviewed the report, but said it used incorrect assumptions. “One such error identified is the assumed net financial benefits from carbon sale quoted at $222 million,” a spokeswoman for Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson said. ”This estimate is over-inflated and based on a carbon price of $9 increasing at 2.5 per cent real from 2015, where in reality the carbon price is likely to be around $5 flat.” While most sawmillers turn small profits, the industry overall loses money, and the losses are largely borne by the government-run Forestry Corporation of NSW. The details of their contracts remain commercial-in-confidence, but net losses via subsidies between now and 2033 are estimated to be about $77 million. ”Under current and likely future market conditions, the harvesting and processing of native logs in the Southern Forestry Region is likely to generate substantial losses, and the aggregate net financial benefits are likely to be significantly higher if commercial harvesting is stopped and the native forests … are used to generate carbon credits,” the report said. The main glitch in the proposal is that native forestry logging operations are not yet eligible to generate carbon credits under the federal government’s Carbon Farming Initiative. However, both the government and the federal opposition have said they intend to expand the scheme soon. ”The growth in eucalypt plantations has been massive, and these are now coming online and muscling in on native forest logging,” said the report’s co-author, Andrew MacIntosh, associate director of the Centre for Climate Law and Policy at the Australian National University. Read more: http://www.smh.com.a…l#ixzz2Ye9Nl6LU Continue reading
Profits From Forests? Leave The Trees Standing
Financially, using the NSW Southern Forestry Region for carbon credits is a better option than continued harvesting. Flickr/Tony Rodd In debates about climate change and the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, there is a widely-held belief that market mechanisms, like the Labor government’s carbon pricing scheme, will reduce emissions in the cheapest possible way. As a matter of pure theory, this is correct but, in practice, it depends on what is included and excluded from the scheme and how it is designed. One of the most commonly overlooked sources of carbon abatement is public native forestry, which is currently excluded from the carbon pricing scheme and the government’s offset scheme, the Carbon Farming Initiative . This is despite the fact that stopping the harvesting of public native forests is one of the cheapest ways to reduce Australia’s emissions. A struggling industry For the past two decades, the Australian native forest sector has been in decline, primarily because of increased competition in domestic and international wood product markets. Starting in 2008, an already bad situation took a turn for the worse as the global financial crisis choked-off demand for native woodchips and solid wood product consumption slumped. Since then, the native woodchip sector has struggled to stay afloat, a fact reflected in the financial performance of state forest agencies. For example, over the period 2009 to 2012, the Forests Corporation of NSW (formerly known as Forests NSW) made a total net loss before tax (excluding net fair value adjustment, asset revaluation and impairment of assets) of $85 million, or $21 million per year . In total, the native forest sector, which takes in growing, harvesting, processing and manufacturing wood products, now accounts for a mere 0.1% of Australian Gross Domestic Product — roughly $1.5 billion per year. The emergence of carbon markets offers an alternative use for native forests. Rather than chopping them down for little financial return, the forests could be left standing in order to generate carbon credits. Opportunity for carbon credits The Australia Institute recently conducted a financial analysis on the Southern Forestry Region of New South Wales , which compared the net financial benefits from harvesting and processing native logs to the net financial benefits that could be derived by using the forests to generate carbon credits. For the period 2014-2033, the Forestry Corporation of NSW and relevant hardwood processors were estimated to suffer losses of between A$40 million and A$77 million. In contrast, stopping harvesting could generate 1.7 million carbon credits per year for the NSW Government over the period 2014-2033, and the sale of these credits (accounting for transaction and management costs) is likely to provide net benefits of approximately A$222 million. The simple message is, if the public native forests of this region continue to be used to produce woodchips and sawnwood, the industry and taxpayers will lose money. If the forests are used for carbon credits, they are likely to return a profit for the community. Some uncertainties Leaving our trees standing is a cheap way to reduce carbon emissions. Flickr/Poytr Of course, any analysis of this nature comes with caveats. For starters, conditions in domestic and international wood product markets could improve, or new markets might emerge, reviving the fortunes of native forest operators. This is possible but unlikely. There is also the challenge of accessing carbon credits. After recent changes to international accounting rules, stopping or reducing harvesting in native forests will now provide credits that can be used by the Australian government to meet its international mitigation commitments. However, as noted, projects involving stopping harvesting in public native forests are not currently eligible to generate carbon credits under the Carbon Farming Initiative. The federal government is expected to change this rule in the near future and thereby ensure that state governments are able to benefit from improvements in forest management practices. Finally, even if the Carbon Farming Initiative is expanded to include these projects, there are uncertainties surrounding the calculation of carbon credits and the price they will attract in relevant markets. Despite these uncertainties, the analysis shows that even under adverse circumstances, using the forests for carbon credits is likely to bring greater financial returns than continued harvesting. While debate about cutting greenhouse gas emissions usually focuses on the energy sector, the reality is that some of cheapest ways we can cut emissions is through changes in the way we use our forests and landscapes. Preserving native forests is no longer just for tree huggers. The time has come when leaving forests standing makes sense for purely financial reasons. Continue reading
