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CARBON & EMISSION MARKET NEWS - 13 Apr 2011
Subjects: Tricor / EU Emissions / US EPA / EU & California / Japan / China / Carbon Sinks / London Cabs Tricor RSS Feed Tricor - Tricor Team - 11 Apr 2011 Tricor have introduced an RSS Feed function to the Tricor website. This allows users to subscribe to the latest updates in the Carbon and Emissions markets in real-time. The Carbon Market News Bulletin service will continue on a fortnightly basis, providing an overview of events of previous two weeks. The Tricor RSS Feed will give users an additional service by keeping readers abreast on a live news service, as it happens. The news is drawn from a wide variety of pertinent sources aimed to portray a holistic and present-day representation of the Carbon and Emissions Market. You can subscribe by clicking on ‘RSS’ at the bottom of Tricor’s homepage. EU Carbon Emissions Increase 3.5% in 2010, First Advance in Three Years Bloomberg - Matthew Carr - 01 Apr 2011 Emissions from factories and power stations in the European Union carbon market rose 3.5 percent last year as freezing weather boosted energy consumption, according to preliminary data. Emissions increased to 1.754 billion metric tons in 2010, the first gain in three years, from 1.695 billion tons for the same installations in 2009, according to data published today on the EU website. While the advance exceeded the 2.7 percent median estimate of nine analysts surveyed last month by Bloomberg, EU carbon prices were little changed today. “The numbers give us no cause to revise our price forecast for the coming years,” Trevor Sikorski, a London-based analyst at Barclays Plc, said today in a note to investors. The EU market has surplus allowances of about 455 million tons for the five years ending in 2012, he estimates, so slightly higher- than-forecast 2010 emissions are “neither here nor there.” The latest figures show that the EU allocated more permits than emitters needed for 2010. The program had an oversupply amounting to 1.9 percent of the total in 2010, down from 4.8 percent in 2009. About 13,000 participants in the six-year-old EU program, the world’s biggest greenhouse gas market, are required to turn in permits to match the carbon figures published today, or face a fine of 100 euros ($142) a ton. Carbon permits for December fell 0.3 percent to 17.23 euros a ton on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange as of 5:30 p.m. They have jumped 21 percent this year, helped by speculation that demand for fossil fuels and emission allowances will increase as Europe reduce its reliance on reactors in the wake of this month’s nuclear disaster in Japan. EU emissions from the power industry rose 0.4 percent in 2010, excluding facilities that distribute heat, according to an estimate from Bloomberg New Energy Finance in London based on today’s data. That compares with its forecast of 0.3 percent. The economic recession curbed EU emissions by 11 percent in 2009. The recovering economy and cold weather helped boost output last year. December was the coldest on record in the U.K., according to the Met Office. France temperatures were 3.1 degrees Celsius (5.6 Fahrenheit) below average in January last year, according to the nation’s electricity grid operator. The preliminary EU emissions figures, which are 90 percent complete, follow yesterday’s report from the U.K. showing its emissions, including those not under the EU program, rose 2.8 percent in 2010, the biggest gain in at least two decades. German factories and power stations in the carbon market boosted emissions by 6 percent, while those in Poland rose 4.4 percent. Installations in Portugal and Spain had the biggest declines, 15 percent and 12 percent respectively. EU emissions may rise at 3.6 percent this year, according to the Bloomberg survey of analysts. Germany closed seven reactors following radiation leaks at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant. That will probably increase burning of fossil fuels in the bloc. Verified emissions were below the cap in the European trading system, known as the ETS, for the fifth year out of the six, Sandbag, a London-based climate lobby group, said in an e- mailed statement. “Europe’s flagship climate policy has great potential, but it currently risks becoming an environmental hindrance,” Damien Morris, senior policy adviser, said in the e-mail. “If politicians have the courage to tighten the cap, then the ETS could help pave the way for a low-carbon Europe.” The iron and steel sector has accrued a 212 million-ton surplus of allowances so far because the bloc’s governments gave away too many permits, Sandbag estimated. Those allowances are worth about 3.4 billion euros at current prices, equivalent to Europe’s annual financial support for renewable power, according to the statement. Sikorski of Barclays said the ETS is succeeding in reducing emissions. The EU report for 2010 shows power-sector emissions rose at 2.1 percent, while consumption of electricity increased 2.6 percent, he said. “The EU emissions trading system is greening the EU.” Tricor aggregates several news sources to compile this bulletin. Each article is reprinted in full without corrections to spelling or grammar. A source reference and the published date are given for each article.
The copyright belongs at all times to the original title holder or author. The content, views, opinions or facts contained within this bulletin and within each article do not necessarily represent the views of
Tricor plc and nor do they necessarily represent Tricor plc policy or strategy. This News Bulletin is provided solely as a service by Tricor plc to keep interested parties informed of certain developments within
the carbon, biodiversity and emissions markets and this bulletin is not intended as a complete picture of those markets. This bulletin is not intended as investment advice and nor should it be relied on to form
an investment decision. Any person considering an investment in any such market should seek the advice of a financial advisor. The Tricor Team 2011
CARBON & EMISSION MARKET NEWS - 13 Apr 2011
Subjects: Tricor / EU Emissions / US EPA / EU & California / Japan / China / Carbon Sinks / London Cabs White House Promises Veto of Anti-E.P.A. Bill New York Times - John M. Broder - 05 Apr 2011 In case there was any doubt, the White House on Tuesday issued a formal statement opposing a bill now before the House that would bar the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases for the purpose of combating climate change. The bill, known as the Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011, could come up for a vote as early as Wednesday and is almost certain to pass when it does. It has virtually unanimous support among the Republican majority and will probably draw votes from a few Democrats from coal and oil producing states. The measure, sponsored by Representatives Fred Upton, Republican of Michigan, and Ed Whitfield, Republican of Kentucky, would overturn the E.P.A.’s finding that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases pose a danger to human health and the environment. That finding, based on a broad scientific consensus, is the basis for pending regulation of carbon emissions from vehicles and large stationary sources like power plants, factories and refineries. Republicans assert the new rules are a hidden energy tax that will significantly raise production costs and drive jobs offshore. Administration officials have spoken out against the bill in speeches and congressional testimony, but President Obama had not formally threatened to veto it. On Tuesday, the White House issued a strongly worded statement that erases any doubt. “The administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R. 910, which would halt the Environmental Protection Agency’s common-sense steps under the Clean Air Act to protect Americans from harmful pollution,” the statement says. “H.R. 910 would also increase the nation’s dependence on oil and other fossil fuels as well as contradict the scientific consensus on climate change.” Senator James Inhofe, the most outspoken climate change skeptic in Congress, has introduced identical legislation in the Senate. The Senate is also considering a number of amendments that would eliminate or delay any federal regulation of greenhouse gases. The timing of votes on those measures remains up in the air. The White House statement says that over its 40-year history, the Clean Air Act has markedly cleaned the nation’s air and saved hundreds of thousands of lives, while electricity production and prices have remained stable. It also says that the bill would undercut efforts to make cars and trucks more fuel-efficient and would worsen the threat of global warming. “Finally, H.R. 910 would contradict public health experts and scientists and strip E.P.A. of its authority to develop sensible standards for currently unchecked carbon pollution and thus prevent E.P.A. from following its statutory obligations as interpreted by the Supreme Court,” the statement concludes. “If the president is presented with this legislation, which would seriously roll back the Clean Air Act authority, harm Americans’ health by taking away our ability to decrease carbon pollution and undercut fuel efficiency standards that will save Americans money at the pump while decreasing our dependence on oil,” the statement says, “his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill.” EU envoy, California governor discuss carbon plans Reuters - Peter Henderson - 06 Apr 2011 European Union Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard and California Governor Jerry Brown discussed making their carbon markets compatible at a meeting on Tuesday, Hedegaard said. The European Union began the world's largest cap-and-trade market for greenhouse gases in 2005 and California aims to open the second-largest next year. "How can we take care that we are not building isolated systems, but linkable systems?" Hedegaard said, describing a theme of the meeting with Brown. Countries and regions around the world including South Korea and New Zealand are trading carbon or in planning stages, and China has said it plans trial efforts, she said. "Each country might want some special ways of doing it, but of course it's also practical that whatever we do in each different region can be linked, so that in the end we sort of have this vision of having a global price on carbon," Hedegaard said. European and California experts would discuss more specific plans, she said. Governor Brown's office did not comment immediately on the meeting. Japan insists it is not planning to ditch Kyoto carbon target Business Green - Staff - 05 Apr 2011 Mixed messages about the future of Japan's greenhouse gas emissions targets have continued to circulate today, after a senior government official dismissed as "groundless" reports that the country could seek an exemption from targets imposed through the Kyoto Protocol. Tricor aggregates several news sources to compile this bulletin. Each article is reprinted in full without corrections to spelling or grammar. A source reference and the published date are given for each article.
The copyright belongs at all times to the original title holder or author. The content, views, opinions or facts contained within this bulletin and within each article do not necessarily represent the views of
Tricor plc and nor do they necessarily represent Tricor plc policy or strategy. This News Bulletin is provided solely as a service by Tricor plc to keep interested parties informed of certain developments within
the carbon, biodiversity and emissions markets and this bulletin is not intended as a complete picture of those markets. This bulletin is not intended as investment advice and nor should it be relied on to form
an investment decision. Any person considering an investment in any such market should seek the advice of a financial advisor. The Tricor Team 2011
CARBON & EMISSION MARKET NEWS - 13 Apr 2011
Subjects: Tricor / EU Emissions / US EPA / EU & California / Japan / China / Carbon Sinks / London Cabs The Nikkei financial newspaper had reported that Japan was seeking an agreement from other governments that would allow it to ditch the Kyoto target requiring it to reduce emissions by six per cent against 1990 levels of the 2008 to 2012 period as a result of the earthquake, tsunami and resulting nuclear crisis. However, according to Reuters reports, Takehiro Kano, director of the Climate Change Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has dismissed the suggestion as "groundless", insisting that Japan remained on track to meet its 2012 Kyoto target. "We have neither made such a decision nor started negotiations with overseas participants," Kano told the news agency, adding that "we, Japan as a whole or both private and public sectors, maintain our efforts to achieve the goal". However, it remains unclear whether Japan will now look to scale back its ambitious target of reducing emissions 25 per cent against 1990 levels by 2020. Over the past few days senior ministers have given conflicting signals about the future of the target. Hideki Minamikawa, vice minister for global environmental affairs, told reporters that the government would have to reconsider the target, while chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano said that the government was yet to decide on whether to review the 25 per cent goal. The latest developments came as nuclear operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) reported that the radioactivity in seawater near the Fukushima nuclear plant peaked at 7.5 million times the legal limit last week, before declining to five million times on Monday. Tepco has insisted that the radiation will have "no immediate impact" on the environment and will be diluted to safe levels in the Pacific. However, Japan has reportedly requested assistance from the Russian authorities as it seeks to tackle the radiation, while the South Korean government is said to have expressed concern about the possible impact on its waters. China industry ordered to cut CO2 intensity by 18 percent by '15 Reuters - David Stanway - 28 Mar 2011 China's industrial firms will be forced to cut their carbon and energy intensity levels by as much as 18 percent over the next five years, according to mandatory targets announced on Monday. The target was higher than first planned, with industries originally expected to cut CO2 and energy intensity -- the amount per unit of industrial added value -- by 16 percent over 2011-2015, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. For this year alone, Chinese industry will have to cut carbon and energy intensity levels by more than 4 percent, Xinhua said. Industrial sectors will also be forced to slash water use by 30 percent by the end of 2015, and must also raise solid waste recycling rates to around 72 percent over the period. China, the world's biggest producer of climate-changing greenhouse gases, has pledged to cut carbon produced per unit of GDP by 17 percent by the end of 2015, with energy intensity also slated to fall 16 percent. Much of the burden will be placed on energy-guzzling industrial enterprises like power plants, steel mills, aluminum smelters and cement factories. The country has made a commitment to explore the use of "market mechanisms" in its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions, and experts have suggested that mandatory targets for big industrial firms could be the first step in the establishment of pilot sector cap-and-trade schemes. China's beleaguered steel sector, the world's biggest, is expected to bear the brunt of the new targets, with smaller industry players complaining that environmental compliance costs have severely eroded their already thin margins. Hundreds of small mills were forced to shut down in the second half of last year after their power supplies were cut in order to meet 2006-2010 energy efficiency targets. National Development and Reform Commission chairman Zhang Ping said earlier this month that the enforced blackouts were a mistake and would not be repeated. Two of Earth’s Ocean Carbon Sinks Shrinking, Studies Show SolveClimate News - Katherine Bagley - 07 Apr 2011 New research reveals that mangroves and kelp forests, crucial for carbon storage and cycling, are under threat from development and climate change. It is well known that deforestation is shrinking the carbon storage capacity of tropical forests, one of the world's great land-based carbon sinks. Now a pair of studies confirms that two key marine CO2 stores — mangroves and kelp forests — are also in peril from human activity. The findings, scientists say, highlight the need to protect carbon- and biodiversity-rich ocean forests from development and global warming by including them in existing forest-conservation programs. Tricor aggregates several news sources to compile this bulletin. Each article is reprinted in full without corrections to spelling or grammar. A source reference and the published date are given for each article.
The copyright belongs at all times to the original title holder or author. The content, views, opinions or facts contained within this bulletin and within each article do not necessarily represent the views of
Tricor plc and nor do they necessarily represent Tricor plc policy or strategy. This News Bulletin is provided solely as a service by Tricor plc to keep interested parties informed of certain developments within
the carbon, biodiversity and emissions markets and this bulletin is not intended as a complete picture of those markets. This bulletin is not intended as investment advice and nor should it be relied on to form
an investment decision. Any person considering an investment in any such market should seek the advice of a financial advisor. The Tricor Team 2011
CARBON & EMISSION MARKET NEWS - 13 Apr 2011
Subjects: Tricor / EU Emissions / US EPA / EU & California / Japan / China / Carbon Sinks / London Cabs Mangrove forests — trees and shrubs that thrive in brackish waters — have declined 30 to 50 percent in the past 50 years, according to one study out this week in the journal Nature Geoscience. The seaside carbon sinks are generally being razed for coastal development such as houses, roads, railways, as well as to turn wetlands into farmland and expand fishing. Towns built on coasts nearby can also leech toxins into the forests and poison sediment, harming life-giving root systems. Mangroves suck up carbon through the atmosphere during photosynthesis and store it in their leaves, branches and above-ground roots. Because their thick, mucky soils have fairly low oxygen levels, the natural decay of the biomass is slow, resulting in a steady but heavy buildup of carbon over time. For the first time, scientists have crunched the numbers on the carbon sequestered in these trees, dead organic matter and soil in 25 sites across Micronesia, Indonesia and Bangladesh — which house a large portion of Earth's mangroves — and gleaned insight into salty forests worldwide. The international team, led by Daniel Donato, an ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station in Hilo, Hawaii, said soils account for a massive 45 to 98 percent of carbon storage in mangrove ecosystems. Because of this, "coastal mangrove forests store more carbon than almost any other forest on Earth," the research station said via release. Earlier research by Steven Bouillon, a mangrove ecologist with Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, estimated that the world's mangroves take in more than 200 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, with some of it being stored and the rest getting cycled through to nourish other ecosystems. Uproot the trees and degrade the soil, and the carbon gets spewed back into the atmosphere, the new study affirms. In total, mangrove destruction releases as many as 120 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, it finds — an amount nearly equivalent to the yearly emissions of Norway, Finland and Sweden combined. The emissions footprint of clearing mangroves is disproportionate to their presence. While mangroves encompass only 0.7 percent of the world's tropical rainforests, their discharge of stored carbon accounts for roughly 10 percent of all deforestation-related emissions, Donato said in an interview. In total, forest loss is responsible for nearly a fifth of the greenhouse gases blamed for climate change. Kelp plants, known as the "underwater forest," are another vital ecosystem at risk, though for different reasons, according to a report published online on Mar. 24 in the journal Global Change Biology. The large beds of seaweed, which can grow up to 50 feet high, are scattered across the globe in temperate and polar regions, including the entire west coast of North America. They are widely considered one of the most productive ecosystems on Earth because of a high rate of carbon cycling, the process by which carbon travels through the ecological community. In giant kelp plants, most cycling of carbon works this way: the seaweed takes in carbon through photosynthesis; marine life such as sea urchins graze on the kelp to provide them life, inhaling the carbon. It then moves through the food web relatively quickly as one organism consumes another. London Makes Plans to Turn Black Cabs Green Justmeans - Jimmy Barret - 06 Apr 2011 Converting forms of public transportation over to green technology is a great way of reducing the carbon emissions in a particular metropolitan area. To this effect, many cities around the world have invested in buses that utilize either hybrid systems or fully renewable fuel sources. London in particular has been working on hybridizing their buses, but now has turned their attention to their famous black cabs. Last week, Intelligent Energy, a global clean power systems company, announced that several of their Fuel Cell Black Cab prototypes had begun operation on London streets. The prototypes are designed to operate with a combination of fuel cell and electric motor technology to ensure that they give off virtually zero emissions during operation. According to Intelligent Energy, the prototypes have logged nearly 8000 hours in both test track and real world conditions and performed admirably in London traffic. Intelligent Energy has also said that thanks to the specifications, the Fuel Cell Black Cabs have a range of about 250 miles and can reach a top speed of 81 miles per hour. Considering the fact that these cabs are going to be operating in a busy metropolitan area it seems unlikely that their top speed will ever need to be fully put to the test. The Fuel Cell Black Cabs are a part of the overall plan put into place by Boris Johnson, London's mayor, to have an entire fleet of green black cabs by 2012. It is also a part of his plan to increase the support of fuel cell technology throughout the city by installing more hydrogen refueling stations. With London proving friendlier for hydrogen fuel cells it will be interesting to see how far the city can go in their drive to support the technology. It is possible that as long as the support infrastructure is in place to support the public transportation that private citizens will begin to adopt fuel cell vehicles as well. Tricor aggregates several news sources to compile this bulletin. Each article is reprinted in full without corrections to spelling or grammar. A source reference and the published date are given for each article.
The copyright belongs at all times to the original title holder or author. The content, views, opinions or facts contained within this bulletin and within each article do not necessarily represent the views of
Tricor plc and nor do they necessarily represent Tricor plc policy or strategy. This News Bulletin is provided solely as a service by Tricor plc to keep interested parties informed of certain developments within
the carbon, biodiversity and emissions markets and this bulletin is not intended as a complete picture of those markets. This bulletin is not intended as investment advice and nor should it be relied on to form
an investment decision. Any person considering an investment in any such market should seek the advice of a financial advisor. The Tricor Team 2011

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