+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Spain Gets 907 Solar Parks to Accept Lower Price (Update1)
2010-10-29 15:20:23.743 GMT
(Adds solar trade group comments from fourth paragraph.)
By Marc Roca
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Spain, seeking to hold down
electricity prices, convinced 907 solar-power installations to
receive lower subsidized rates in return for avoiding
investigations over permit violations.
The solar parks, with a combined 64.6 megawatts in
capacity, will avoid investigation of whether they illegally
earned the highest subsidized rates, or feed-in tariffs, the
Industry Ministry said today in a statement.
Savings to consumers, who pay the subsidies in their power
bills, will total 430 million euros ($595 million) over 25
years, the government estimated. The amnesty group represents
about 10 percent of the more than 9,000 installations the energy
regulator is probing on suspicion of falsely claiming
eligibility for the top rate.
"The 64.6 megawatts that signed up for the amnesty prove
that there was a significant level of fraud," Tomas Diaz,
spokesman for the trade group ASIF said by e-mail. "They
represent about 10 percent of the 600 to 800 megawatts in
suspicious capacity, according to our calculations."
Projects with 955 megawatts in capacity were sent letters
in late September requesting all relevant paperwork be sent
within two months, so more information on fraud levels and any
related savings will be known in late November or early
December, according to the trade group spokesman.
Spain is seeking to reduce the impact of solar energy on
electricity bills as solar plants claimed more than half the 5
billion euros in renewable-power subsidies paid in 2009 while
providing only about 11 percent of zero-emission power consumed.
The 907 generators will earn 32 euro cents a kilowatt-hour
under the 2008 rule, instead of 46 cents under the 2007 law.
The government gave a two-month amnesty period on Aug. 6 to
plants it suspected may have falsely claimed they met all of the
criteria to earn the highest subsidized price available before
it was reduced after September 2008.
Those found guilty in further investigations will lose all
subsidies and could face legal actions, providing further
savings to consumers, the ministry said.
For Related News and Information:
Top renewable energy page: GREEN <GO>
Energy top news: ETOP <GO>
Most-read solar news: MNI SOLAR <GO>
--Editors: Todd White, Jonas Bergman
To contact the reporter on this story:
Marc Roca in London at +44-20-3216-4638 or
mroca6@bloomberg.net
For related news:
Alternative-energy stories: NI ALTNRG <GO>
Solar-energy search: NSE "SOLAR ENERGY" <GO>
Power markets: VOLT <GO>
Renewable-energy markets: RENE <GO>
Top renewable-energy news: GREEN <GO>
--Editors:
2010/10/29
(BN) California Proposes Carbon Permit ‘Price Floor’ of $10 Each
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
California Proposes Carbon Permit 'Price Floor' of $10 Each
2010-10-29 14:27:54.5 GMT
By Simon Lomax
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- A planned cap-and-trade program for
carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in California would
set a "price floor" for pollution permits of $10 each,
according to a state agency.
The price floor will be established by not accepting bids
below a "reserve price" in state-run carbon dioxide permit
auctions, the California Air Resources Board said today on its
website. The reserve price for the cap-and-trade program's first
year in 2012 is $10 a permit. It will be raised each year by the
rate of inflation plus 5 percent, the agency said.
Each permit represents one metric ton of carbon dioxide.
For Related News and Information:
Top Stories:{TOP<GO>}
To contact the reporter on this story:
Simon Lomax in Washington at +1-202-654-4305 or
slomax@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
David Marino at +1-212-617-1894 or
dmarino4@bloomberg.net
California Proposes Carbon Permit 'Price Floor' of $10 Each
2010-10-29 14:27:54.5 GMT
By Simon Lomax
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- A planned cap-and-trade program for
carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in California would
set a "price floor" for pollution permits of $10 each,
according to a state agency.
The price floor will be established by not accepting bids
below a "reserve price" in state-run carbon dioxide permit
auctions, the California Air Resources Board said today on its
website. The reserve price for the cap-and-trade program's first
year in 2012 is $10 a permit. It will be raised each year by the
rate of inflation plus 5 percent, the agency said.
Each permit represents one metric ton of carbon dioxide.
For Related News and Information:
Top Stories:{TOP<GO>}
To contact the reporter on this story:
Simon Lomax in Washington at +1-202-654-4305 or
slomax@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
David Marino at +1-212-617-1894 or
dmarino4@bloomberg.net
(BN) GE Plans Biggest Electric-Vehicle Order in ‘Huge’ Industry Step
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
GE Plans Biggest Electric-Vehicle Order in 'Huge' Industry Step
2010-10-28 23:16:46.32 GMT
By Rachel Layne and Alan Ohnsman
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- General Electric Co. may jump-start
the electric-vehicle industry with an order that Chief Executive
Officer Jeffrey Immelt said will be the largest in history.
GE, whose power-generation equipment provides a third of
the world's electricity, will order "tens of thousands" of the
vehicles in about a week, Immelt said yesterday in a speech in
London, without giving a total or identifying a manufacturer.
"This is a huge step up," said Brett Smith, a vehicle
technology analyst at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann
Arbor, Michigan. "It's the biggest order to date I'm aware of,
by a lot."
Expanding the world's fleet of electric vehicles would
bolster GE as it expands so-called clean-energy technology such
as car chargers, solar panels and wind turbines. For every
dollar of electric-vehicle sales, GE estimates it may get 10
cents in revenue, said Gary Sheffer, a spokesman.
Immelt said half of GE's sales force of about 45,000 will
drive electric vehicles. The Fairfield, Connecticut-based
company also has a vehicle-leasing division through its GE
Capital finance unit. Financial terms and other details about
the order aren't yet being disclosed, GE said.
GE is investing $10 billion over the next five years in
clean energy across its business lines, including power-
transmission software and so-called smart-grid technologies. Its
products include lithium-ion batteries for cars and trucks via a
venture with A123 Systems Inc. and sodium-based batteries for
use in large vehicles such as locomotives.
Creating Jobs
That spending creates jobs, Immelt told executives at an
event sponsored by the University of Cambridge's Programme for
Sustainability Leadership.
"GE has been one of the biggest players in this game and
certainly has a lot to gain from the electric vehicle," Smith
said. "They've really truly tried to push this hard to get
things going, and it seems to be a core corporate value."
An order the size of GE's probably would come from several
vehicle makers, Smith said.
Automakers preparing to sell vehicles powered solely by
batteries over the next 18 months include Nissan Motor Co.,
which starts delivering Leaf hatchbacks late this year; Ford
Motor Co., readying electric versions of its Transit Connect
delivery van and Focus compact car; and Toyota Motor Corp.,
which will sell a rechargeable RAV4 sport-utility vehicle.
General Motors Co. begins delivering plug-in Volt hybrids
this year, and Honda Motor Co., Chrysler LLC, Bayerische Motoren
Werke AG and other large brands are preparing battery vehicles
due by 2012.
Global Outlook
Combined deliveries of hybrids, such as Toyota's Prius, and
battery-powered cars may reach 5.2 million by 2020, according to
an Oct. 27 forecast by J.D. Power & Associates. That would be
about 7.3 percent of the projected global vehicle market.
Immelt used his remarks in London to renew his call for
increased private spending on renewable-energy investments.
"Now is exactly the time, because it's less popular, where
we have to invest more," Immelt said. "We have to do it more
courageously. And we're going to have to go forward for a while
without government at our backs."
GE Energy Infrastructure is the company's biggest
industrial unit, accounting for $37 billion of the parent
company's $157 billion in revenue last year.
GE is the largest shareholder for Watertown, Massachusetts-
based A123, which has signed agreements with Navistar
International Corp. and Fisker Automotive Inc. to supply
advanced batteries for their vehicles.
For Related News and Information:
Top GE stories: GE US <Equity> TCNI TOPWW <GO>
GE earnings matrix: GE US <Equity> EM11 <GO>
GE dividend history: GE US <Equity> DVD <GO>
GE employee data: GE US <Equity> FA 10 <GO>
GE business units: GE US <Equity> PGEO <GO>
--With assistance from Howard Mustoe in London. Editors: Ed
Dufner, Margot Slade
To contact the reporters on this story:
Rachel Layne in Boston at +1-617-210-4634 or
rlayne@bloomberg.net;
Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at +1-323-782-4236 or
aohnsman@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Ed Dufner at +1-214-954-9453 or
edufner@bloomberg.net
GE Plans Biggest Electric-Vehicle Order in 'Huge' Industry Step
2010-10-28 23:16:46.32 GMT
By Rachel Layne and Alan Ohnsman
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- General Electric Co. may jump-start
the electric-vehicle industry with an order that Chief Executive
Officer Jeffrey Immelt said will be the largest in history.
GE, whose power-generation equipment provides a third of
the world's electricity, will order "tens of thousands" of the
vehicles in about a week, Immelt said yesterday in a speech in
London, without giving a total or identifying a manufacturer.
"This is a huge step up," said Brett Smith, a vehicle
technology analyst at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann
Arbor, Michigan. "It's the biggest order to date I'm aware of,
by a lot."
Expanding the world's fleet of electric vehicles would
bolster GE as it expands so-called clean-energy technology such
as car chargers, solar panels and wind turbines. For every
dollar of electric-vehicle sales, GE estimates it may get 10
cents in revenue, said Gary Sheffer, a spokesman.
Immelt said half of GE's sales force of about 45,000 will
drive electric vehicles. The Fairfield, Connecticut-based
company also has a vehicle-leasing division through its GE
Capital finance unit. Financial terms and other details about
the order aren't yet being disclosed, GE said.
GE is investing $10 billion over the next five years in
clean energy across its business lines, including power-
transmission software and so-called smart-grid technologies. Its
products include lithium-ion batteries for cars and trucks via a
venture with A123 Systems Inc. and sodium-based batteries for
use in large vehicles such as locomotives.
Creating Jobs
That spending creates jobs, Immelt told executives at an
event sponsored by the University of Cambridge's Programme for
Sustainability Leadership.
"GE has been one of the biggest players in this game and
certainly has a lot to gain from the electric vehicle," Smith
said. "They've really truly tried to push this hard to get
things going, and it seems to be a core corporate value."
An order the size of GE's probably would come from several
vehicle makers, Smith said.
Automakers preparing to sell vehicles powered solely by
batteries over the next 18 months include Nissan Motor Co.,
which starts delivering Leaf hatchbacks late this year; Ford
Motor Co., readying electric versions of its Transit Connect
delivery van and Focus compact car; and Toyota Motor Corp.,
which will sell a rechargeable RAV4 sport-utility vehicle.
General Motors Co. begins delivering plug-in Volt hybrids
this year, and Honda Motor Co., Chrysler LLC, Bayerische Motoren
Werke AG and other large brands are preparing battery vehicles
due by 2012.
Global Outlook
Combined deliveries of hybrids, such as Toyota's Prius, and
battery-powered cars may reach 5.2 million by 2020, according to
an Oct. 27 forecast by J.D. Power & Associates. That would be
about 7.3 percent of the projected global vehicle market.
Immelt used his remarks in London to renew his call for
increased private spending on renewable-energy investments.
"Now is exactly the time, because it's less popular, where
we have to invest more," Immelt said. "We have to do it more
courageously. And we're going to have to go forward for a while
without government at our backs."
GE Energy Infrastructure is the company's biggest
industrial unit, accounting for $37 billion of the parent
company's $157 billion in revenue last year.
GE is the largest shareholder for Watertown, Massachusetts-
based A123, which has signed agreements with Navistar
International Corp. and Fisker Automotive Inc. to supply
advanced batteries for their vehicles.
For Related News and Information:
Top GE stories: GE US <Equity> TCNI TOPWW <GO>
GE earnings matrix: GE US <Equity> EM11 <GO>
GE dividend history: GE US <Equity> DVD <GO>
GE employee data: GE US <Equity> FA 10 <GO>
GE business units: GE US <Equity> PGEO <GO>
--With assistance from Howard Mustoe in London. Editors: Ed
Dufner, Margot Slade
To contact the reporters on this story:
Rachel Layne in Boston at +1-617-210-4634 or
rlayne@bloomberg.net;
Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at +1-323-782-4236 or
aohnsman@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Ed Dufner at +1-214-954-9453 or
edufner@bloomberg.net
(BN) Enel Said to Get Orders for All Shares in EGP’s IPO (Update2)
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Enel Said to Get Orders for All Shares in EGP's IPO (Update2)
2010-10-29 12:08:03.932 GMT
(Updates with analyst's comment in fourth paragraph.)
By Alexis Xydias, Zijing Wu and Elisa Martinuzzi
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Enel SpA has drawn orders for all
the shares on sale in the initial public offering of its
renewable-energy unit after cutting the price to lure investors,
two people familiar with the offering said.
Investors have agreed to buy all the shares, including
those on offer in the over-allotment option, said the people,
who declined to be identified before an announcement. The Rome-
based utility is selling as many as 1.6 billion shares in Enel
Green Power SpA for 1.60 euros to 2.10 euros apiece. The banks
will stop taking orders for the stock today.
Enel yesterday cut the price of the stock on sale, paring
EGP's valuation to as little as 8 billion euros ($11 billion)
from 9 billion euros, after investors said the unit was too
expensive relative to its competitors. Enel Chief Executive
Officer Fulvio Conti last month said he planned to raise at
least 3 billion euros from the unit's IPO to help cut debt. At
the bottom of the new range, the IPO will raise 2.56 billion
euros, including the over-allotment option.
Enel's price range is "now at a discount to peers," MF
Global analysts including John Karidis and Noel Culhane said in
a note to clients today. The IPO "looks attractive at the
bottom end" of the new range, they said.
Officials at Enel declined to comment. Companies typically
seek to draw orders for more stock than they're selling in an
IPO. Investors that receive less stock than they ordered then
buy shares on the market, helping to pushing the share price up.
At 1.6 euros a share, EGP's enterprise value is about 8.1
times its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and
amortization, or Ebitda, according to the MF Global note. That's
less than Spain's Iberdrola Renovables SA, which trades at 9
times Ebitda, and EDP Renovaveis SA, which trades at 8.3 times,
the analysts wrote.
Iberdrola Renovables has tumbled 54 percent since its IPO
in December 2007, while EDP Renovaveis has dropped 48 percent
since going public in June 2008.
Bank of America Corp., Intesa Sanpaolo SpA's Banca IMI SpA,
Barclays Plc, Credit Suisse Group AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.,
JPMorgan Chase & Co., Mediobanca SpA, Morgan Stanley, UniCredit
SpA and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA are managing Enel
Green Power's IPO.
For Related News and Information:
Renewable energy top page: GREEN <GO>
Top Italy stories: TOP IT <GO>
Top deal stories: TOP DEAL <GO>
--Editors: Edward Evans, James Amott.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Zijing Wu in London at +44-20-7330-7613 or zwu17@bloomberg.net.
Elisa Martinuzzi in Milan at +39-02-8064-4218 or
emartinuzzi@bloomberg.net;
Alexis Xydias in London at +44-20-7073-3372 or
axydias@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Daniel Hauck at +1-212-617-1697 or dhauck1@bloomberg.net;
Edward Evans at +44-20-7073-3190 or eevans3@bloomberg.net.
Enel Said to Get Orders for All Shares in EGP's IPO (Update2)
2010-10-29 12:08:03.932 GMT
(Updates with analyst's comment in fourth paragraph.)
By Alexis Xydias, Zijing Wu and Elisa Martinuzzi
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Enel SpA has drawn orders for all
the shares on sale in the initial public offering of its
renewable-energy unit after cutting the price to lure investors,
two people familiar with the offering said.
Investors have agreed to buy all the shares, including
those on offer in the over-allotment option, said the people,
who declined to be identified before an announcement. The Rome-
based utility is selling as many as 1.6 billion shares in Enel
Green Power SpA for 1.60 euros to 2.10 euros apiece. The banks
will stop taking orders for the stock today.
Enel yesterday cut the price of the stock on sale, paring
EGP's valuation to as little as 8 billion euros ($11 billion)
from 9 billion euros, after investors said the unit was too
expensive relative to its competitors. Enel Chief Executive
Officer Fulvio Conti last month said he planned to raise at
least 3 billion euros from the unit's IPO to help cut debt. At
the bottom of the new range, the IPO will raise 2.56 billion
euros, including the over-allotment option.
Enel's price range is "now at a discount to peers," MF
Global analysts including John Karidis and Noel Culhane said in
a note to clients today. The IPO "looks attractive at the
bottom end" of the new range, they said.
Officials at Enel declined to comment. Companies typically
seek to draw orders for more stock than they're selling in an
IPO. Investors that receive less stock than they ordered then
buy shares on the market, helping to pushing the share price up.
At 1.6 euros a share, EGP's enterprise value is about 8.1
times its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and
amortization, or Ebitda, according to the MF Global note. That's
less than Spain's Iberdrola Renovables SA, which trades at 9
times Ebitda, and EDP Renovaveis SA, which trades at 8.3 times,
the analysts wrote.
Iberdrola Renovables has tumbled 54 percent since its IPO
in December 2007, while EDP Renovaveis has dropped 48 percent
since going public in June 2008.
Bank of America Corp., Intesa Sanpaolo SpA's Banca IMI SpA,
Barclays Plc, Credit Suisse Group AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.,
JPMorgan Chase & Co., Mediobanca SpA, Morgan Stanley, UniCredit
SpA and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA are managing Enel
Green Power's IPO.
For Related News and Information:
Renewable energy top page: GREEN <GO>
Top Italy stories: TOP IT <GO>
Top deal stories: TOP DEAL <GO>
--Editors: Edward Evans, James Amott.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Zijing Wu in London at +44-20-7330-7613 or zwu17@bloomberg.net.
Elisa Martinuzzi in Milan at +39-02-8064-4218 or
emartinuzzi@bloomberg.net;
Alexis Xydias in London at +44-20-7073-3372 or
axydias@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Daniel Hauck at +1-212-617-1697 or dhauck1@bloomberg.net;
Edward Evans at +44-20-7073-3190 or eevans3@bloomberg.net.
(BN) Low-Carbon Transition to Test Drax and RWE, Citigroup Says
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Low-Carbon Transition to Test Drax and RWE, Citigroup Says
2010-10-29 08:14:52.279 GMT
By Kari Lundgren
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Drax Plc, RWE AG and E.ON AG will
struggle the most in 2013 when European utilities need to buy
carbon permits to cover their emissions rather than being
allocated free certificates, according to Citigroup Inc.
"The pricing of carbon emissions under Phase 3 of the
European Union Emissions Trading Scheme will have a profound
impact on power generation companies in particular across
Europe," analysts including Meg Brown and Jennifer Anderson
said in an Oct. 27 note to investors.
Iberdrola SA and EDF Energies Nouvelles SA are among the
best-prepared for the transition to a low-carbon economy,
according to Citigroup's Climate Ranking, the analysts said. The
ranking of 30 energy generators and water utilities is based on
greenhouse gas emissions and a company's ability to deliver low
carbon energy services.
With coal accounting for all of its generation capacity,
Drax is the least aligned to a low-carbon economy, the analysts
said, adding that replacing coal with biomass would "trigger a
rapid rerating of the company within the sector."
For Related News and Information:
Stories on Centrica's earnings: CNA LN <Equity> TCNI ERN <GO>
U.K. power market stories: TNI UK PWRMARKET <GO>
Top energy news: ETOP <GO>
U.K. electricity prices: ELEU <GO>
--Editors: Alex Devine, Todd White.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Kari Lundgren in London at +44-20-7073-3442 or
klundgren2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Will Kennedy at +44-20-7073-3603 or
wkennedy3@bloomberg.net.
Low-Carbon Transition to Test Drax and RWE, Citigroup Says
2010-10-29 08:14:52.279 GMT
By Kari Lundgren
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Drax Plc, RWE AG and E.ON AG will
struggle the most in 2013 when European utilities need to buy
carbon permits to cover their emissions rather than being
allocated free certificates, according to Citigroup Inc.
"The pricing of carbon emissions under Phase 3 of the
European Union Emissions Trading Scheme will have a profound
impact on power generation companies in particular across
Europe," analysts including Meg Brown and Jennifer Anderson
said in an Oct. 27 note to investors.
Iberdrola SA and EDF Energies Nouvelles SA are among the
best-prepared for the transition to a low-carbon economy,
according to Citigroup's Climate Ranking, the analysts said. The
ranking of 30 energy generators and water utilities is based on
greenhouse gas emissions and a company's ability to deliver low
carbon energy services.
With coal accounting for all of its generation capacity,
Drax is the least aligned to a low-carbon economy, the analysts
said, adding that replacing coal with biomass would "trigger a
rapid rerating of the company within the sector."
For Related News and Information:
Stories on Centrica's earnings: CNA LN <Equity> TCNI ERN <GO>
U.K. power market stories: TNI UK PWRMARKET <GO>
Top energy news: ETOP <GO>
U.K. electricity prices: ELEU <GO>
--Editors: Alex Devine, Todd White.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Kari Lundgren in London at +44-20-7073-3442 or
klundgren2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Will Kennedy at +44-20-7073-3603 or
wkennedy3@bloomberg.net.
(BN) California Doubles Offset Use in Cap-And-Trade Plan (Update1)
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
California Doubles Offset Use in Cap-And-Trade Plan (Update1)
2010-10-29 13:33:07.515 GMT
(Updates with offset volumes and projects starting in the
third paragraph.)
By Simon Lomax
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- California environmental regulators
plan to let power plants, oil refineries and factories use more
carbon offsets to meet pollution targets in the state's cap-and-
trade program for greenhouse gases.
Companies in the cap-and-trade program could use the
offsets, which are pollution cuts from unregulated sources such
as farms and forests, to meet up to 8 percent of their
"compliance obligation," the California Air Resources Board
said in a report on its website. The air quality agency had
earlier proposed a 4 percent offset limit.
Between 2012, the first year of the proposed cap-and-trade
program, and 2020, "a maximum of 232 million offset credits may
be used," the agency said in the report. Each offset credit
represents one metric ton of carbon dioxide. Only U.S. offsets
are likely to be accepted at first, although the agency says it
may later accept carbon cuts from developing countries.
The carbon trading proposal is authorized under
California's Global Warming Solutions Act, which requires the
state to cut its greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020. The
agency's 11-member board will meet Dec. 16 to vote on the plan.
Details of the state's cap-and-trade program are being
released four days before California voters decide whether the
global-warming law should be delayed until the economy improves.
Proposition 23 on the Nov. 2 ballot would suspend the carbon-
cutting law until California's unemployment rate falls from its
current level of 12.4 percent to 5.5 percent for at least a
year.
Offset Sources
U.S. forests, farms that capture methane from livestock
manure and projects that destroy ozone-depleting industrial
gases, such as hydrochlorofluorocarbons, would be the approved
sources of carbon offsets at the beginning of the cap-and-trade
program, according to the agency. The offsets must be approved
by the Los Angeles-based Climate Action Reserve, the agency
said.
California may later accept carbon offsets from developing
countries, such as Brazil and Indonesia, after "intensive
review," the agency's report said. Carbon offsets from
preventing the destruction and degradation of tropical rain
forests are "likely to be the first type of sector-based
crediting program brought to the Board for consideration," the
agency said in the report.
For Related News and Information:
Top environment stories: GREEN <GO>
Stories about U.S. and climate: TNI US CLIMATE <GO>
Global emissions data: EMIS <GO>
Northeast U.S. trading: RGGI <GO>
--Editors: David Marino, Joe Link
To contact the reporter on this story:
Simon Lomax in Washington at +1-202-654-4305 or
slomax@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dan Stets at +1-212-617-4403 or
dstets@bloomberg.net
California Doubles Offset Use in Cap-And-Trade Plan (Update1)
2010-10-29 13:33:07.515 GMT
(Updates with offset volumes and projects starting in the
third paragraph.)
By Simon Lomax
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- California environmental regulators
plan to let power plants, oil refineries and factories use more
carbon offsets to meet pollution targets in the state's cap-and-
trade program for greenhouse gases.
Companies in the cap-and-trade program could use the
offsets, which are pollution cuts from unregulated sources such
as farms and forests, to meet up to 8 percent of their
"compliance obligation," the California Air Resources Board
said in a report on its website. The air quality agency had
earlier proposed a 4 percent offset limit.
Between 2012, the first year of the proposed cap-and-trade
program, and 2020, "a maximum of 232 million offset credits may
be used," the agency said in the report. Each offset credit
represents one metric ton of carbon dioxide. Only U.S. offsets
are likely to be accepted at first, although the agency says it
may later accept carbon cuts from developing countries.
The carbon trading proposal is authorized under
California's Global Warming Solutions Act, which requires the
state to cut its greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020. The
agency's 11-member board will meet Dec. 16 to vote on the plan.
Details of the state's cap-and-trade program are being
released four days before California voters decide whether the
global-warming law should be delayed until the economy improves.
Proposition 23 on the Nov. 2 ballot would suspend the carbon-
cutting law until California's unemployment rate falls from its
current level of 12.4 percent to 5.5 percent for at least a
year.
Offset Sources
U.S. forests, farms that capture methane from livestock
manure and projects that destroy ozone-depleting industrial
gases, such as hydrochlorofluorocarbons, would be the approved
sources of carbon offsets at the beginning of the cap-and-trade
program, according to the agency. The offsets must be approved
by the Los Angeles-based Climate Action Reserve, the agency
said.
California may later accept carbon offsets from developing
countries, such as Brazil and Indonesia, after "intensive
review," the agency's report said. Carbon offsets from
preventing the destruction and degradation of tropical rain
forests are "likely to be the first type of sector-based
crediting program brought to the Board for consideration," the
agency said in the report.
For Related News and Information:
Top environment stories: GREEN <GO>
Stories about U.S. and climate: TNI US CLIMATE <GO>
Global emissions data: EMIS <GO>
Northeast U.S. trading: RGGI <GO>
--Editors: David Marino, Joe Link
To contact the reporter on this story:
Simon Lomax in Washington at +1-202-654-4305 or
slomax@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dan Stets at +1-212-617-4403 or
dstets@bloomberg.net
2020?German Next-Year Power Falls to Six-Month Low as Gas
eek "For the Nordic region and for the continental region, we
do not see that demand will tick up fast, so we believe in
relatively soft prices for the future," Vattenfall Chief
Executive Officer Oeystein Loeseth said on a conference call
yesterday. "I'm talking long term, 2015 and even until 2020."
The oversupply in Europe's power market will "worsen"...
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
German Next-Year Power Falls to Six-Month Low as Gas Slides
2010-10-29 10:49:47.604 GMT
By Lars Paulsson
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- German electricity for delivery next
year fell to its lowest level in more than six months as
natural-gas prices declined and Vattenfall AB said prices would
remain "soft" until 2015.
Baseload power for 2011 in Europe's biggest electricity
market slid 15 cents, or 0.3 percent, to 47.55 euros ($65.94) a
megawatt-hour at 12:33 p.m. Berlin time. That's the lowest price
since April 13. Baseload is delivered around the clock.
The benchmark contract has slid as the price of natural gas
declined and as Europe's biggest market became oversupplied.
Vattenfall, the Nordic region's biggest utility, expects prices
to remain low until 2015 in Germany and 2020 in Scandinavia.
"For the Nordic region and for the continental region, we
do not see that demand will tick up fast, so we believe in
relatively soft prices for the future," Vattenfall Chief
Executive Officer Oeystein Loeseth said on a conference call
yesterday. "I'm talking long term, 2015 and even until 2020."
The oversupply in Europe's power market will "worsen"
until at least 2013 as utilities and producers add capacity
based on investment decisions taken at the top of the energy
price rally two and three years ago, UBS AG said on Oct. 14.
German 2011 power has lost 7.9 percent since the start of
the year and 4.6 percent this month.
The contract tracked natural-gas costs, a fuel used for
about 15 percent of power generation in Germany. U.K. gas for
delivery from April through September next year slid 13 percent
since July 5 to trade at 46.75 pence a therm today. The U.K. is
Europe's biggest market for the fuel, and gas prices there
affect those on the continent.
Natural-gas demand in the developed economies, sapped by
the global recession, won't return to 2008 levels for two years,
the International Energy Agency said in June.
Bloomberg tracks power prices from brokers including GFI
Group Inc., ICAP Plc and Spectron Group Ltd.
For Related News and Information:
European gas-market stories TNI EUROPE GASMARKET <GO>
Today's top gas news GTOP <GO> and energy news ETOP <GO>
European Energy Brokers Page NRGB <GO>
--Editors: John Buckley, Jonas Bergman
To contact the reporter on this story:
Lars Paulsson in London at +44-207-673-2759 or
lpaulsson@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net
do not see that demand will tick up fast, so we believe in
relatively soft prices for the future," Vattenfall Chief
Executive Officer Oeystein Loeseth said on a conference call
yesterday. "I'm talking long term, 2015 and even until 2020."
The oversupply in Europe's power market will "worsen"...
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
German Next-Year Power Falls to Six-Month Low as Gas Slides
2010-10-29 10:49:47.604 GMT
By Lars Paulsson
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- German electricity for delivery next
year fell to its lowest level in more than six months as
natural-gas prices declined and Vattenfall AB said prices would
remain "soft" until 2015.
Baseload power for 2011 in Europe's biggest electricity
market slid 15 cents, or 0.3 percent, to 47.55 euros ($65.94) a
megawatt-hour at 12:33 p.m. Berlin time. That's the lowest price
since April 13. Baseload is delivered around the clock.
The benchmark contract has slid as the price of natural gas
declined and as Europe's biggest market became oversupplied.
Vattenfall, the Nordic region's biggest utility, expects prices
to remain low until 2015 in Germany and 2020 in Scandinavia.
"For the Nordic region and for the continental region, we
do not see that demand will tick up fast, so we believe in
relatively soft prices for the future," Vattenfall Chief
Executive Officer Oeystein Loeseth said on a conference call
yesterday. "I'm talking long term, 2015 and even until 2020."
The oversupply in Europe's power market will "worsen"
until at least 2013 as utilities and producers add capacity
based on investment decisions taken at the top of the energy
price rally two and three years ago, UBS AG said on Oct. 14.
German 2011 power has lost 7.9 percent since the start of
the year and 4.6 percent this month.
The contract tracked natural-gas costs, a fuel used for
about 15 percent of power generation in Germany. U.K. gas for
delivery from April through September next year slid 13 percent
since July 5 to trade at 46.75 pence a therm today. The U.K. is
Europe's biggest market for the fuel, and gas prices there
affect those on the continent.
Natural-gas demand in the developed economies, sapped by
the global recession, won't return to 2008 levels for two years,
the International Energy Agency said in June.
Bloomberg tracks power prices from brokers including GFI
Group Inc., ICAP Plc and Spectron Group Ltd.
For Related News and Information:
European gas-market stories TNI EUROPE GASMARKET <GO>
Today's top gas news GTOP <GO> and energy news ETOP <GO>
European Energy Brokers Page NRGB <GO>
--Editors: John Buckley, Jonas Bergman
To contact the reporter on this story:
Lars Paulsson in London at +44-207-673-2759 or
lpaulsson@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net
(BN) German Next-Year Electricity Declines to Lowest in Six Months
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
German Next-Year Electricity Declines to Lowest in Six Months
2010-10-29 07:14:24.718 GMT
By Lars Paulsson
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- German electricity for delivery next
year fell to its lowest level in more than six months.
Baseload power for 2011 in Europe's biggest electricity
market slid as much as 15 cents, or 0.3 percent to 47.55 euros
($65.94) a megawatt-hour, according to broker data compiled by
Bloomberg. That's the lowest price since April 13. It traded at
47.60 euros at 9:08 a.m. Berlin time.
Bloomberg tracks power prices from brokers including GFI
Group Inc., ICAP Plc and Spectron Group Ltd.
For Related News and Information:
European gas-market stories TNI EUROPE GASMARKET <GO>
Today's top gas news GTOP <GO> and energy news ETOP <GO>
European Energy Brokers Page NRGB <GO>
--Editors: Rob Verdonck, Raj Rajendran
To contact the reporter on this story:
Lars Paulsson in London at +44-207-673-2759 or
lpaulsson@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net
German Next-Year Electricity Declines to Lowest in Six Months
2010-10-29 07:14:24.718 GMT
By Lars Paulsson
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- German electricity for delivery next
year fell to its lowest level in more than six months.
Baseload power for 2011 in Europe's biggest electricity
market slid as much as 15 cents, or 0.3 percent to 47.55 euros
($65.94) a megawatt-hour, according to broker data compiled by
Bloomberg. That's the lowest price since April 13. It traded at
47.60 euros at 9:08 a.m. Berlin time.
Bloomberg tracks power prices from brokers including GFI
Group Inc., ICAP Plc and Spectron Group Ltd.
For Related News and Information:
European gas-market stories TNI EUROPE GASMARKET <GO>
Today's top gas news GTOP <GO> and energy news ETOP <GO>
European Energy Brokers Page NRGB <GO>
--Editors: Rob Verdonck, Raj Rajendran
To contact the reporter on this story:
Lars Paulsson in London at +44-207-673-2759 or
lpaulsson@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net
(BN) China Considers Rules on Proposed Domestic Carbon
should have sent yesterday
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
China Considers Rules on Proposed Domestic Carbon Trading Plan
2010-10-28 07:40:03.105 GMT
By Dinakar Sethuraman
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- China, the world's biggest polluter,
is discussing rules to implement a domestic carbon-trading
market to reduce emissions and promote clean-energy industries,
an official said.
"We want to introduce a new system in China to build our
own carbon market," Huan Chen, deputy director general at China
Clean Development Mechanism Fund, said in an interview at the
Carbon Forum Asia 2010 conference in Singapore today. The carbon
trading plan is a part of China's 12th five-year plan.
The government is studying existing carbon market systems
such as the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism, the
European Union cap-and-trade system and voluntary carbon markets
in the U.K., as it examines rules for a domestic plan, Chen said.
The proposed carbon market may be enforced in certain regions or
for some industries, and there has been no decision if emission
caps will be voluntary or mandatory, he said.
China has pledged to cut its output of carbon dioxide per
unit of gross domestic product by 40 to 45 percent in 2020 from
2005 levels. It has reduced energy intensity by 15.6 percent
from 2006 to 2009 and the government has said it may be
difficult to meet the 20 percent reduction five-year target by
the end of this year.
Chen, whose fund can invest or lend as much as 2 billion
yuan a year ($300 million) for clean energy projects in China,
didn't give a timeline for a domestic carbon trading market.
For Related News and Information:
Renewable-energy markets: RENE <GO>
Top renewable-energy news: GREEN <GO>
Most-read alternative energy stories: MNI ALTNRG <GO>
--Editors: Clyde Russell, Alex Kwiatkowski.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Dinakar Sethuraman in Singapore at +65-6212-1590 or
dinakar@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Clyde Russell at +65-6311-2423 or
crussell7@bloomberg.net
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
China Considers Rules on Proposed Domestic Carbon Trading Plan
2010-10-28 07:40:03.105 GMT
By Dinakar Sethuraman
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- China, the world's biggest polluter,
is discussing rules to implement a domestic carbon-trading
market to reduce emissions and promote clean-energy industries,
an official said.
"We want to introduce a new system in China to build our
own carbon market," Huan Chen, deputy director general at China
Clean Development Mechanism Fund, said in an interview at the
Carbon Forum Asia 2010 conference in Singapore today. The carbon
trading plan is a part of China's 12th five-year plan.
The government is studying existing carbon market systems
such as the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism, the
European Union cap-and-trade system and voluntary carbon markets
in the U.K., as it examines rules for a domestic plan, Chen said.
The proposed carbon market may be enforced in certain regions or
for some industries, and there has been no decision if emission
caps will be voluntary or mandatory, he said.
China has pledged to cut its output of carbon dioxide per
unit of gross domestic product by 40 to 45 percent in 2020 from
2005 levels. It has reduced energy intensity by 15.6 percent
from 2006 to 2009 and the government has said it may be
difficult to meet the 20 percent reduction five-year target by
the end of this year.
Chen, whose fund can invest or lend as much as 2 billion
yuan a year ($300 million) for clean energy projects in China,
didn't give a timeline for a domestic carbon trading market.
For Related News and Information:
Renewable-energy markets: RENE <GO>
Top renewable-energy news: GREEN <GO>
Most-read alternative energy stories: MNI ALTNRG <GO>
--Editors: Clyde Russell, Alex Kwiatkowski.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Dinakar Sethuraman in Singapore at +65-6212-1590 or
dinakar@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Clyde Russell at +65-6311-2423 or
crussell7@bloomberg.net
(BN) United Nations Carbon Credit Prices May Rise by 42% by 2012
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
United Nations Carbon Credit Prices May Rise by 42% by 2012
2010-10-29 03:28:15.641 GMT
By Dinakar Sethuraman
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Prices of United Nations Certified
Emission Reduction credits will increase by as much as 42
percent by 2012 as new rules reduce supplies, Barclays Plc said.
CERs under the UN's Clean Development Mechanism program may
rise to about 18 euros a metric ton in two years, and to as much
as 25 euros in the third phase of the European Union's carbon-
trading plan starting 2013, Trevor Sikorski, a London-based
analyst at Barclays Capital, said yesterday. UN CERs for
December fell 1.6 percent to 12.69 euros a ton yesterday on
London's European Climate Exchange.
The issuance of as many as 30 million tons of CERs under
the UN's Clean Development Mechanism may be delayed to next year,
cutting this year's supplies by about 30 percent, Sikorski said
in an interview at the Carbon Asia Forum 2010 conference in
Singapore.
Prices of CERs may average 14.5 euros a ton in the first
half of 2011, and 16 euros in the second half, according to a
Barclays report on Oct. 21. CDM offsets are currently used for
compliance in the European carbon market, the world's biggest.
The UN and the European Union said they may issue new rules
on the methodology of issuance and acceptance of carbon credits
for hydro-fluorocarbon (HFC) combustion plants and other
industrial gases.
The European Commission, regulator of the EU program, plans
to publish an impact assessment on offset restrictions by
November and said in May that projects related to two industrial
gases, HFC-23 and nitrous oxide, create significant windfall
profits and may be banned after 2012. A proposed U.S. energy law
bans HFC credits.
Prices of CERs, which typically track prices of European
Union carbon allowances, will rise as UN restrictions will
reduce supplies of HFC-linked CERs and EU rules will force
utilities and other users to switch to credits from renewable
energy industries, Sikorski said.
For Related News and Information:
Top Stories: TOP <GO>
--Editors: Clyde Russell, John Viljoen.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Dinakar Sethuraman in Singapore at +65-6212-1590 or
dinakar@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Clyde Russell at +65-6311-2423 or
crussell7@bloomberg.net
United Nations Carbon Credit Prices May Rise by 42% by 2012
2010-10-29 03:28:15.641 GMT
By Dinakar Sethuraman
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Prices of United Nations Certified
Emission Reduction credits will increase by as much as 42
percent by 2012 as new rules reduce supplies, Barclays Plc said.
CERs under the UN's Clean Development Mechanism program may
rise to about 18 euros a metric ton in two years, and to as much
as 25 euros in the third phase of the European Union's carbon-
trading plan starting 2013, Trevor Sikorski, a London-based
analyst at Barclays Capital, said yesterday. UN CERs for
December fell 1.6 percent to 12.69 euros a ton yesterday on
London's European Climate Exchange.
The issuance of as many as 30 million tons of CERs under
the UN's Clean Development Mechanism may be delayed to next year,
cutting this year's supplies by about 30 percent, Sikorski said
in an interview at the Carbon Asia Forum 2010 conference in
Singapore.
Prices of CERs may average 14.5 euros a ton in the first
half of 2011, and 16 euros in the second half, according to a
Barclays report on Oct. 21. CDM offsets are currently used for
compliance in the European carbon market, the world's biggest.
The UN and the European Union said they may issue new rules
on the methodology of issuance and acceptance of carbon credits
for hydro-fluorocarbon (HFC) combustion plants and other
industrial gases.
The European Commission, regulator of the EU program, plans
to publish an impact assessment on offset restrictions by
November and said in May that projects related to two industrial
gases, HFC-23 and nitrous oxide, create significant windfall
profits and may be banned after 2012. A proposed U.S. energy law
bans HFC credits.
Prices of CERs, which typically track prices of European
Union carbon allowances, will rise as UN restrictions will
reduce supplies of HFC-linked CERs and EU rules will force
utilities and other users to switch to credits from renewable
energy industries, Sikorski said.
For Related News and Information:
Top Stories: TOP <GO>
--Editors: Clyde Russell, John Viljoen.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Dinakar Sethuraman in Singapore at +65-6212-1590 or
dinakar@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Clyde Russell at +65-6311-2423 or
crussell7@bloomberg.net
2010/10/28
Already split?UN Emission Credits Approach Two-Month Low as EU
Non-industrial-gas credits already command a premium of about 10 cents to 50 cents a ton in the over-the-counter market, according to Gilles Corre, a carbon broker at Tullett Prebon Plc in London. The spread between credits likely to be accepted by the EU and those that won't is not well traded yet, Corre said yesterday by phone.
"There is the potential for this to widen further," according to Aimie Parpia, an analyst in London at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, which provides research and data on the carbon markets.
Exchanges may soon offer futures contracts that differentiate offsets, splitting the market further, Parpia said yesterday by e-mail. CERs valid in phase three of the EU program may rise to 24 euros a ton by 2016, while banned credits may rest at 12 euros, she forecast last week.
---
Sent From Bloomberg Mobile MSG
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
UN Emission Credits Approach Two-Month Low as EU Considers Ban
2010-10-28 16:53:53.766 GMT
By Mathew Carr
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- United Nations emission offsets for
2012 dropped to near the lowest level in two months as European
Union regulators considered a ban on some offsets in 2013.
UN Certified Emission Reduction credits for December 2012
were down 1.4 percent at 12 euros ($16.72) a metric ton as of
5:16 p.m. on London's European Climate Exchange after falling to
11.96 euros a ton, the lowest price since Aug. 18.
EU carbon dioxide allowances for December fell 1.4 percent
to 14.89 euros a ton as Chancellor Angela Merkel's plan to
prolong Germany's use of nuclear power cleared parliament after
a debate lasting more than six hours as the opposition pledged a
court challenge. Nuclear stations require no carbon permits,
unlike coal and natural-gas electricity plants.
UN credits can be used for compliance in the EU system, the
world's biggest carbon market. The European Commission,
regulator of the program, plans to present a proposal next month
on offsets that may include a ban on credits from projects
cutting nitrous oxide and hydrofluorocarbons as soon as 2013.
That year is the first of the program's eight-year third phase.
"The weakening offset market seems to be reacting to the
slow drip-feed of news surrounding the European Commission's
likely action on industrial gas offsets in phase three,"
IDEAcarbon, the London company that rates emission projects,
said today in an e-mailed research note.
The CERs for 2012 have fallen 7.8 percent this month.
"The commission is considering restrictions on certain
types of project related to industrial gases HFC-23 and nitrous
oxide," Yvon Slingenberg, emissions-unit head at the
commission's climate department, said in an interview yesterday
in Brussels. "An outright ban is one of the options."
Already Split
Non-industrial-gas credits already command a premium of
about 10 cents to 50 cents a ton in the over-the-counter market,
according to Gilles Corre, a carbon broker at Tullett Prebon Plc
in London. The spread between credits likely to be accepted by
the EU and those that won't is not well traded yet, Corre said
yesterday by phone.
"There is the potential for this to widen further,"
according to Aimie Parpia, an analyst in London at Bloomberg New
Energy Finance, which provides research and data on the carbon
markets.
Exchanges may soon offer futures contracts that
differentiate offsets, splitting the market further, Parpia said
yesterday by e-mail. CERs valid in phase three of the EU program
may rise to 24 euros a ton by 2016, while banned credits may
rest at 12 euros, she forecast last week.
For Related News and Information:
Emissions-trading stories: NI ENVMARKET BN <GO>
Today's top energy news: ETOP <GO>
European power-markets home page: EPWR <GO>
--With assistance from Ewa Krukowska in Brussels. Editors: John
Buckley, Rob Verdonck
To contact the reporter on this story:
Mathew Carr in London at +44-20-7073-3531 or
m.carr@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net
"There is the potential for this to widen further," according to Aimie Parpia, an analyst in London at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, which provides research and data on the carbon markets.
Exchanges may soon offer futures contracts that differentiate offsets, splitting the market further, Parpia said yesterday by e-mail. CERs valid in phase three of the EU program may rise to 24 euros a ton by 2016, while banned credits may rest at 12 euros, she forecast last week.
---
Sent From Bloomberg Mobile MSG
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
UN Emission Credits Approach Two-Month Low as EU Considers Ban
2010-10-28 16:53:53.766 GMT
By Mathew Carr
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- United Nations emission offsets for
2012 dropped to near the lowest level in two months as European
Union regulators considered a ban on some offsets in 2013.
UN Certified Emission Reduction credits for December 2012
were down 1.4 percent at 12 euros ($16.72) a metric ton as of
5:16 p.m. on London's European Climate Exchange after falling to
11.96 euros a ton, the lowest price since Aug. 18.
EU carbon dioxide allowances for December fell 1.4 percent
to 14.89 euros a ton as Chancellor Angela Merkel's plan to
prolong Germany's use of nuclear power cleared parliament after
a debate lasting more than six hours as the opposition pledged a
court challenge. Nuclear stations require no carbon permits,
unlike coal and natural-gas electricity plants.
UN credits can be used for compliance in the EU system, the
world's biggest carbon market. The European Commission,
regulator of the program, plans to present a proposal next month
on offsets that may include a ban on credits from projects
cutting nitrous oxide and hydrofluorocarbons as soon as 2013.
That year is the first of the program's eight-year third phase.
"The weakening offset market seems to be reacting to the
slow drip-feed of news surrounding the European Commission's
likely action on industrial gas offsets in phase three,"
IDEAcarbon, the London company that rates emission projects,
said today in an e-mailed research note.
The CERs for 2012 have fallen 7.8 percent this month.
"The commission is considering restrictions on certain
types of project related to industrial gases HFC-23 and nitrous
oxide," Yvon Slingenberg, emissions-unit head at the
commission's climate department, said in an interview yesterday
in Brussels. "An outright ban is one of the options."
Already Split
Non-industrial-gas credits already command a premium of
about 10 cents to 50 cents a ton in the over-the-counter market,
according to Gilles Corre, a carbon broker at Tullett Prebon Plc
in London. The spread between credits likely to be accepted by
the EU and those that won't is not well traded yet, Corre said
yesterday by phone.
"There is the potential for this to widen further,"
according to Aimie Parpia, an analyst in London at Bloomberg New
Energy Finance, which provides research and data on the carbon
markets.
Exchanges may soon offer futures contracts that
differentiate offsets, splitting the market further, Parpia said
yesterday by e-mail. CERs valid in phase three of the EU program
may rise to 24 euros a ton by 2016, while banned credits may
rest at 12 euros, she forecast last week.
For Related News and Information:
Emissions-trading stories: NI ENVMARKET BN <GO>
Today's top energy news: ETOP <GO>
European power-markets home page: EPWR <GO>
--With assistance from Ewa Krukowska in Brussels. Editors: John
Buckley, Rob Verdonck
To contact the reporter on this story:
Mathew Carr in London at +44-20-7073-3531 or
m.carr@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net
Fwd: + U.K. Offers Financial Support to Refurbished Hydro (Update1)
---
Sent From Bloomberg Mobile MSG
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
U.K. Offers Financial Support to Refurbished Hydro (Update1)
2010-10-28 15:01:30.593 GMT
(Updates with details from statement from third paragraph.)
By Louise Downing
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. Department of Energy and
Climate Change said former mills and water turbines that are
converted into hydroelectricity plants are now eligible for
financial support under the government's feed-in-tariff system.
Hydropower projects that produce as much as 5 megawatts can
claim feed-in-tariff support and those above 50 kilowatts can
claim Renewable Obligation Certificates, the department said
today on its website.
The smallest projects will receive the highest rate, or
tariff, of 19.9 pence (31.7 U.S. cents) a kilowatt-hour. Larger
installations, between 2 megawatts and 5 megawatts, will receive
4.5 pence a kilowatt-hour.
"This announcement will breathe useful life back into
thousands of schemes all over the U.K.," Gaynor Hartnell, chief
executive of the Renewable Energy Association, an industry lobby
group, said today in an e-mailed statement.
To help move projects forward, the department is also
starting a hydropower help guide. The document, prepared by the
Environment Agency, will offer advice to groups looking to use
the power of local rivers to slash emissions and generate new
income for their areas, the statement said.
Currently, hydropower in the U.K. is generating the
equivalent of 1.4 percent of electricity demand with a potential
to contribute up to a further 1 percent, which is sufficient to
power about 1 million homes, the statement said.
For Related News and Information:
Renewable-energy markets: RENE <GO>
Top renewable-energy news: GREEN <GO>
Top Stories: TOP<GO>
--Editors: Reed Landberg, Todd White
To contact the reporter on this story:
Louise Downing in London at +44-20-3216-4633 or
ldowning4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at +44-20-7330-7862 or
landberg@bloomberg.net
Sent From Bloomberg Mobile MSG
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
U.K. Offers Financial Support to Refurbished Hydro (Update1)
2010-10-28 15:01:30.593 GMT
(Updates with details from statement from third paragraph.)
By Louise Downing
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. Department of Energy and
Climate Change said former mills and water turbines that are
converted into hydroelectricity plants are now eligible for
financial support under the government's feed-in-tariff system.
Hydropower projects that produce as much as 5 megawatts can
claim feed-in-tariff support and those above 50 kilowatts can
claim Renewable Obligation Certificates, the department said
today on its website.
The smallest projects will receive the highest rate, or
tariff, of 19.9 pence (31.7 U.S. cents) a kilowatt-hour. Larger
installations, between 2 megawatts and 5 megawatts, will receive
4.5 pence a kilowatt-hour.
"This announcement will breathe useful life back into
thousands of schemes all over the U.K.," Gaynor Hartnell, chief
executive of the Renewable Energy Association, an industry lobby
group, said today in an e-mailed statement.
To help move projects forward, the department is also
starting a hydropower help guide. The document, prepared by the
Environment Agency, will offer advice to groups looking to use
the power of local rivers to slash emissions and generate new
income for their areas, the statement said.
Currently, hydropower in the U.K. is generating the
equivalent of 1.4 percent of electricity demand with a potential
to contribute up to a further 1 percent, which is sufficient to
power about 1 million homes, the statement said.
For Related News and Information:
Renewable-energy markets: RENE <GO>
Top renewable-energy news: GREEN <GO>
Top Stories: TOP<GO>
--Editors: Reed Landberg, Todd White
To contact the reporter on this story:
Louise Downing in London at +44-20-3216-4633 or
ldowning4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at +44-20-7330-7862 or
landberg@bloomberg.net
?(BN) UN Emission Credits Decline to Two-Month Low as EU
anyone got better reasons for today's falls, folks? comments my way cheers
------------------------------------------------------------
Mathew Carr, emissions markets, energy reporter. London Bloomberg News ph +44 207 073 3531 yahoo ID carr_mathew
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
UN Emission Credits Decline to Two-Month Low as EU Mulls Ban
2010-10-28 15:11:12.103 GMT
By Mathew Carr
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- United Nations emission offsets for
2012 dropped to the lowest in more than two months as European
Union regulators consider a ban on some offsets in 2013.
UN Certified Emission Reduction credits for December 2012
fell as much as 1.7 percent to 11.96 euros ($16.63) a metric ton
and traded at 11.97 euros as of 3:55 p.m. on London's European
Climate Exchange.
European Union carbon dioxide allowances for December fell
1.3 percent to 14.90 euros a ton as Chancellor Angela Merkel's
plan to prolong Germany's use of nuclear power cleared
parliament after a debate lasting more than six hours as the
opposition pledged a court challenge. Nuclear stations require
no carbon permits unlike coal and natural-gas electricity
plants.
UN credits can be used for compliance in the EU system, the
world's biggest carbon market. The European Commission,
regulator of the program, plans to present a proposal next month
on offsets that may include a ban on credits from projects
cutting nitrous oxide and hydrofluorocarbons as soon as 2013.
That year is the first of the program's eight-year third phase.
"The weakening offset market seems to be reacting to the
slow drip-feed of news surrounding the European Commission's
likely action on industrial gas offsets in Phase Three,"
IDEAcarbon, the London company that rates emission projects,
said today in an e-mailed research note.
The CERs for 2012 have fallen 8 percent this month.
"The commission is considering restrictions on certain
types of project related to industrial gases HFC-23 and nitrous
oxide," Yvon Slingenberg, emissions-unit head at the
commission's climate department, said in an interview yesterday
in Brussels. "An outright ban is one of the options."
For Related News and Information:
Emissions-trading stories: NI ENVMARKET BN <GO>
Today's top energy news: ETOP <GO>
European power-markets home page: EPWR <GO>
--With assistance from Ewa Krukowska in Brussels. Editors: Jonas
Bergman, Alex Devine
To contact the reporter on this story:
Mathew Carr in London at +44-20-7073-3531 or
m.carr@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net
------------------------------------------------------------
Mathew Carr, emissions markets, energy reporter. London Bloomberg News ph +44 207 073 3531 yahoo ID carr_mathew
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
UN Emission Credits Decline to Two-Month Low as EU Mulls Ban
2010-10-28 15:11:12.103 GMT
By Mathew Carr
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- United Nations emission offsets for
2012 dropped to the lowest in more than two months as European
Union regulators consider a ban on some offsets in 2013.
UN Certified Emission Reduction credits for December 2012
fell as much as 1.7 percent to 11.96 euros ($16.63) a metric ton
and traded at 11.97 euros as of 3:55 p.m. on London's European
Climate Exchange.
European Union carbon dioxide allowances for December fell
1.3 percent to 14.90 euros a ton as Chancellor Angela Merkel's
plan to prolong Germany's use of nuclear power cleared
parliament after a debate lasting more than six hours as the
opposition pledged a court challenge. Nuclear stations require
no carbon permits unlike coal and natural-gas electricity
plants.
UN credits can be used for compliance in the EU system, the
world's biggest carbon market. The European Commission,
regulator of the program, plans to present a proposal next month
on offsets that may include a ban on credits from projects
cutting nitrous oxide and hydrofluorocarbons as soon as 2013.
That year is the first of the program's eight-year third phase.
"The weakening offset market seems to be reacting to the
slow drip-feed of news surrounding the European Commission's
likely action on industrial gas offsets in Phase Three,"
IDEAcarbon, the London company that rates emission projects,
said today in an e-mailed research note.
The CERs for 2012 have fallen 8 percent this month.
"The commission is considering restrictions on certain
types of project related to industrial gases HFC-23 and nitrous
oxide," Yvon Slingenberg, emissions-unit head at the
commission's climate department, said in an interview yesterday
in Brussels. "An outright ban is one of the options."
For Related News and Information:
Emissions-trading stories: NI ENVMARKET BN <GO>
Today's top energy news: ETOP <GO>
European power-markets home page: EPWR <GO>
--With assistance from Ewa Krukowska in Brussels. Editors: Jonas
Bergman, Alex Devine
To contact the reporter on this story:
Mathew Carr in London at +44-20-7073-3531 or
m.carr@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net
(BN) Shell, ConocoPhillips May Get Free Carbon Permits in California
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Shell, ConocoPhillips May Get Free Carbon Permits in California
2010-10-28 14:51:44.160 GMT
By Simon Lomax
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Oil refiners including Royal Dutch
Shell Plc and ConocoPhillips would be among the companies to get
free pollution rights under California's planned cap-and-trade
program for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
The proposed rules for the cap-and-trade program, in which
electricity companies, factories and refineries would buy and
sell carbon dioxide permits, are to be unveiled tomorrow by the
California Air Resources Board. Most of the permits will be
given away when the program starts in 2012, said Stanley Young,
a spokesman for the agency.
"We have designed the program to definitely begin with a
soft start," Young said in a telephone interview.
The carbon trading proposal is authorized under
California's Global Warming Solutions Act, which requires the
state to cut its greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020. The
agency's 11-member board will meet Dec. 16 to vote on the plan,
Young said.
The plan will be unveiled four days before California
voters decide the fate of the global-warming law. Proposition 23
on the Nov. 2 ballot would suspend it until California's
unemployment rate falls from its current level of 12.4 percent
to 5.5 percent for at least a year.
The political fight over Proposition 23 has spurred more
than $40 million in campaign contributions, with supporters and
opponents of the initiative trying to sway voters with radio,
print and television advertising.
Fundraising Differences
Defenders of the act, who include Microsoft Corp. founder
Bill Gates, Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin and San Francisco
hedge-fund manager Tom Steyer, have raised almost three times
more money than Proposition 23 supporters such as San Antonio-
based refiners Tesoro Corp. and Valero Energy Corp.
A poll released Oct. 25 by the University of Southern
California and the Los Angeles Times showed Proposition 23
trailing among likely voters 32 percent to 48 percent.
The California air quality agency's plan for giving away
carbon dioxide permits rejects the advice of an expert panel,
which favored selling most, if not all, the pollution rights.
Environmental groups had also urged the air resources board to
sell all the permits at auction.
Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, joined by oil
refiners such as BP Plc and Chevron Corp., lobbied the agency to
auction only a "very small" number of permits at the start of
the cap-and-trade program. Forcing companies to buy all their
carbon permits at auction would impose "unnecessary short-term
costs," Schwarzenegger said in a March 24 letter to the board.
Recession Compromise
The agency's decision to give away carbon dioxide permits,
also called allowances, at the start of the program is a
"compromise to the recession," said Stephen Levy, director of
the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy in
Palo Alto and a member of the panel that recommended carbon
permit auctions.
Given the debate on Proposition 23, free permits the right
move "to get the system started on time," Levy said. Still,
the allowances should be phased out before 2020 so more can be
sold, he said.
Shell, ConocoPhillips, BP, Chevron, Tesoro and Valero all
have refineries in California.
Getting Started
Chris Busch, policy director at the Center for Resource
Solutions, a San Francisco environmental advocacy group, said
that while it's disappointing that the refineries and other
companies will get free carbon allowances, it may be necessary
"at this difficult economic time."
"I would take an imperfect program over nothing," Busch
said. After the first few years of the cap-and-trade program,
"it will be easy to ramp up" the number of carbon dioxide
permits sold at auction, he said.
Young, the spokesman for the California air quality agency,
declined to comment on the specifics of the cap-and-trade
proposal before its release tomorrow.
For Related News and Information:
Top environment stories: GREEN <GO>
Stories about U.S. and climate: TNI US CLIMATE <GO>
Global emissions data: EMIS <GO>
Northeast U.S. trading: RGGI <GO>
--Editors: Charlotte Porter, Richard Stubbe
To contact the reporter on this story:
Simon Lomax in Washington at +1-202-654-4305 or
slomax@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dan Stets at +1-212-617-4403 or dstets@bloomberg.net.
Shell, ConocoPhillips May Get Free Carbon Permits in California
2010-10-28 14:51:44.160 GMT
By Simon Lomax
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Oil refiners including Royal Dutch
Shell Plc and ConocoPhillips would be among the companies to get
free pollution rights under California's planned cap-and-trade
program for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
The proposed rules for the cap-and-trade program, in which
electricity companies, factories and refineries would buy and
sell carbon dioxide permits, are to be unveiled tomorrow by the
California Air Resources Board. Most of the permits will be
given away when the program starts in 2012, said Stanley Young,
a spokesman for the agency.
"We have designed the program to definitely begin with a
soft start," Young said in a telephone interview.
The carbon trading proposal is authorized under
California's Global Warming Solutions Act, which requires the
state to cut its greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020. The
agency's 11-member board will meet Dec. 16 to vote on the plan,
Young said.
The plan will be unveiled four days before California
voters decide the fate of the global-warming law. Proposition 23
on the Nov. 2 ballot would suspend it until California's
unemployment rate falls from its current level of 12.4 percent
to 5.5 percent for at least a year.
The political fight over Proposition 23 has spurred more
than $40 million in campaign contributions, with supporters and
opponents of the initiative trying to sway voters with radio,
print and television advertising.
Fundraising Differences
Defenders of the act, who include Microsoft Corp. founder
Bill Gates, Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin and San Francisco
hedge-fund manager Tom Steyer, have raised almost three times
more money than Proposition 23 supporters such as San Antonio-
based refiners Tesoro Corp. and Valero Energy Corp.
A poll released Oct. 25 by the University of Southern
California and the Los Angeles Times showed Proposition 23
trailing among likely voters 32 percent to 48 percent.
The California air quality agency's plan for giving away
carbon dioxide permits rejects the advice of an expert panel,
which favored selling most, if not all, the pollution rights.
Environmental groups had also urged the air resources board to
sell all the permits at auction.
Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, joined by oil
refiners such as BP Plc and Chevron Corp., lobbied the agency to
auction only a "very small" number of permits at the start of
the cap-and-trade program. Forcing companies to buy all their
carbon permits at auction would impose "unnecessary short-term
costs," Schwarzenegger said in a March 24 letter to the board.
Recession Compromise
The agency's decision to give away carbon dioxide permits,
also called allowances, at the start of the program is a
"compromise to the recession," said Stephen Levy, director of
the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy in
Palo Alto and a member of the panel that recommended carbon
permit auctions.
Given the debate on Proposition 23, free permits the right
move "to get the system started on time," Levy said. Still,
the allowances should be phased out before 2020 so more can be
sold, he said.
Shell, ConocoPhillips, BP, Chevron, Tesoro and Valero all
have refineries in California.
Getting Started
Chris Busch, policy director at the Center for Resource
Solutions, a San Francisco environmental advocacy group, said
that while it's disappointing that the refineries and other
companies will get free carbon allowances, it may be necessary
"at this difficult economic time."
"I would take an imperfect program over nothing," Busch
said. After the first few years of the cap-and-trade program,
"it will be easy to ramp up" the number of carbon dioxide
permits sold at auction, he said.
Young, the spokesman for the California air quality agency,
declined to comment on the specifics of the cap-and-trade
proposal before its release tomorrow.
For Related News and Information:
Top environment stories: GREEN <GO>
Stories about U.S. and climate: TNI US CLIMATE <GO>
Global emissions data: EMIS <GO>
Northeast U.S. trading: RGGI <GO>
--Editors: Charlotte Porter, Richard Stubbe
To contact the reporter on this story:
Simon Lomax in Washington at +1-202-654-4305 or
slomax@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dan Stets at +1-212-617-4403 or dstets@bloomberg.net.
(BN) Natural-Gas Swings in U.K. Drop to 11-Year Low: Energy
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Natural-Gas Swings in U.K. Drop to 11-Year Low: Energy Markets
2010-10-28 14:03:37.738 GMT
By Ben Farey
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. natural gas is trading in the
narrowest range in 11 years as increased imports and storage
capacity counters concern that North Sea production is waning.
Gas for delivery next month at the National Balancing
Point, Britain's hub for the fuel, costs between 45.4 pence (72
U.S. cents) and 48.7 pence a therm in October, the smallest
difference for the period since 1999. Prices fluctuated between
29.05 pence and 51.5 pence during the summer months. October is
the first month of the winter season that ends in March.
The U.K. has spent 5.3 billion pounds on pipelines,
liquefied natural gas terminals and storage facilities since
2005 amid falling North Sea output and increased demand for gas-
fired power stations, according to Oxford, England-based Poeyry
Energy Consulting. Global demand fell 2.1 percent last year, the
most since at least 1970, BP Plc data show.
"There isn't the risk" of large price swings at the
moment, John Fahy, managing director of Eras Ltd., an energy-
research firm, said yesterday in an interview from London. "The
market's a lot more flexible than it was before."
U.K. gas's historic volatility, a gauge of price swings
over the previous 30 days, has fallen 58 percent this month to
20.2, dropping below that of Brent crude for the first time
since July 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The
measure is at its lowest level since May 12, 2006. A year ago,
gas's volatility was 73.8, compared with 37.6 for Brent.
LNG Dependence
North Sea production is falling about 10 percent a year,
data from the Department of Energy and Climate Change show.
That's made the country more reliant on LNG imports, which rose
to 25 percent of overseas supplies last year, from 2 percent in
2008, according to the DECC. LNG inventories reached a record on
Oct. 13, figures from London-based National Grid Plc show.
The U.K., Europe's biggest market for gas, ships in almost
2 billion cubic feet a day, making it the world's fourth-largest
LNG importer, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said in an Oct. 25
report. It was the eighth-biggest buyer last year, the bank
said.
Infrastructure investments have boosted Britain's annual
capacity by about 110 billion cubic meters, according to Poeyry.
That's 27 percent more than the country used last year, BP data
show. A further 16 billion cubic meters of storage projects are
"at various stages of development," Poeyry said.
Prices may become more volatile during the summer months
when North Sea and Norwegian fields typically close for
maintenance and stockpiles are replenished, though that may be
offset by imports from Qatar, according to Richard Sarsfield-
Hall, an analyst at Poeyry. Qatar Petroleum is the majority
shareholder in the South Hook LNG terminal in southern Wales,
Europe's biggest.
'Damping Effect'
"Continued supplies of Qatari LNG would have a damping
effect on volatility," he said.
Less than 43,000 gigawatt-hours of gas is in U.K. storage
sites, the lowest amount in five years, following the nation's
coldest winter in more than 30 years.
"Based on all of the available evidence, we expect another
winter with below-normal temperatures across the U.K. and the
western half of the mainland, although not nearly as severe as
last winter," Todd Crawford, chief meteorologist at WSI Corp.
in Billerica, Massachusetts, said Oct. 25.
Supplies are unlikely to tighten in the Atlantic Basin and
Europe before 2015 even as European gas output declines, the
International Energy Agency said in a June report. Surplus
production capacity last year was about 200 billion cubic
meters, it said.
Shale gas production in the U.S. has also curtailed
American LNG imports, making more gas available for Europe.
"Buyers are comfortable," Fahy said. "There's no need to
hedge marginal supplies as there's ample gas out there."
For Related News and Information:
Top Gas Story Page: TGAS <GO>
U.K. Gas Prices: UGAS <GO>
U.K. Power Prices: ELEU <GO>
National Grid Flow Rates: NGRF <GO>
--Editors: Rob Verdonck, Mike Anderson
To contact the reporters on this story:
Ben Farey in London at +44-20-7673-2369 or
bfarey@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss on +44-20-7073-3520 or
sev@bloomberg.net
Natural-Gas Swings in U.K. Drop to 11-Year Low: Energy Markets
2010-10-28 14:03:37.738 GMT
By Ben Farey
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. natural gas is trading in the
narrowest range in 11 years as increased imports and storage
capacity counters concern that North Sea production is waning.
Gas for delivery next month at the National Balancing
Point, Britain's hub for the fuel, costs between 45.4 pence (72
U.S. cents) and 48.7 pence a therm in October, the smallest
difference for the period since 1999. Prices fluctuated between
29.05 pence and 51.5 pence during the summer months. October is
the first month of the winter season that ends in March.
The U.K. has spent 5.3 billion pounds on pipelines,
liquefied natural gas terminals and storage facilities since
2005 amid falling North Sea output and increased demand for gas-
fired power stations, according to Oxford, England-based Poeyry
Energy Consulting. Global demand fell 2.1 percent last year, the
most since at least 1970, BP Plc data show.
"There isn't the risk" of large price swings at the
moment, John Fahy, managing director of Eras Ltd., an energy-
research firm, said yesterday in an interview from London. "The
market's a lot more flexible than it was before."
U.K. gas's historic volatility, a gauge of price swings
over the previous 30 days, has fallen 58 percent this month to
20.2, dropping below that of Brent crude for the first time
since July 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The
measure is at its lowest level since May 12, 2006. A year ago,
gas's volatility was 73.8, compared with 37.6 for Brent.
LNG Dependence
North Sea production is falling about 10 percent a year,
data from the Department of Energy and Climate Change show.
That's made the country more reliant on LNG imports, which rose
to 25 percent of overseas supplies last year, from 2 percent in
2008, according to the DECC. LNG inventories reached a record on
Oct. 13, figures from London-based National Grid Plc show.
The U.K., Europe's biggest market for gas, ships in almost
2 billion cubic feet a day, making it the world's fourth-largest
LNG importer, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said in an Oct. 25
report. It was the eighth-biggest buyer last year, the bank
said.
Infrastructure investments have boosted Britain's annual
capacity by about 110 billion cubic meters, according to Poeyry.
That's 27 percent more than the country used last year, BP data
show. A further 16 billion cubic meters of storage projects are
"at various stages of development," Poeyry said.
Prices may become more volatile during the summer months
when North Sea and Norwegian fields typically close for
maintenance and stockpiles are replenished, though that may be
offset by imports from Qatar, according to Richard Sarsfield-
Hall, an analyst at Poeyry. Qatar Petroleum is the majority
shareholder in the South Hook LNG terminal in southern Wales,
Europe's biggest.
'Damping Effect'
"Continued supplies of Qatari LNG would have a damping
effect on volatility," he said.
Less than 43,000 gigawatt-hours of gas is in U.K. storage
sites, the lowest amount in five years, following the nation's
coldest winter in more than 30 years.
"Based on all of the available evidence, we expect another
winter with below-normal temperatures across the U.K. and the
western half of the mainland, although not nearly as severe as
last winter," Todd Crawford, chief meteorologist at WSI Corp.
in Billerica, Massachusetts, said Oct. 25.
Supplies are unlikely to tighten in the Atlantic Basin and
Europe before 2015 even as European gas output declines, the
International Energy Agency said in a June report. Surplus
production capacity last year was about 200 billion cubic
meters, it said.
Shale gas production in the U.S. has also curtailed
American LNG imports, making more gas available for Europe.
"Buyers are comfortable," Fahy said. "There's no need to
hedge marginal supplies as there's ample gas out there."
For Related News and Information:
Top Gas Story Page: TGAS <GO>
U.K. Gas Prices: UGAS <GO>
U.K. Power Prices: ELEU <GO>
National Grid Flow Rates: NGRF <GO>
--Editors: Rob Verdonck, Mike Anderson
To contact the reporters on this story:
Ben Farey in London at +44-20-7673-2369 or
bfarey@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss on +44-20-7073-3520 or
sev@bloomberg.net
update(BN) EU to Study CO2-Abuse Shields, Mulls HFC-Offsets
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
EU to Study CO2-Abuse Shields, Mulls HFC-Offsets Ban (Update1)
2010-10-28 11:32:10.739 GMT
(Adds CO2 price, EU comments from the 10th paragraph.)
By Ewa Krukowska
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union's carbon program
may stop allowing use of industrial-gas-related credits from the
United Nations as soon as 2013, and the bloc plans to analyze
oversight of its emissions market next year.
"The commission is considering restrictions on certain
types of project related to industrial gases HFC-23 and nitrous
oxide," Yvon Slingenberg, emissions-unit head at the European
Commission's climate department, said in an interview yesterday
in Brussels. "An outright ban is one of the options."
The commission, the EU regulator, has said that UN credits
from reducing hydrofluorocarbons and nitrous oxide create
"significant windfall profits" and may undermine the
environmental integrity of the market. UN offsets can be used
for compliance in the EU's emissions-trading systems as long as
they ensure "real, verifiable, additional and permanent"
emission reductions, Slingenberg said.
"The proposal is in internal consultation," she said.
"We need to come to a final decision within the commission now,
and then the proposal will be presented to member states."
EU emission allowances for December 2012 fell 0.6 percent
to 15.82 euros ($21.90) a ton today and UN credits for that year
also lost 0.6 percent, trading at 12.10 euros. Carbon traders
have said delays by UN regulators in issuing offsets may leave
them with unusable credits for 2012 should the EU curbs come
into force at the beginning of 2013.
One-for-One
Regulators of the UN carbon program, the Clean Development
Mechanism, are also ramping up scrutiny after allegations that
some developers are seeking excessive credits related to HFC-23,
an industrial gas whose warming potential is 11,700 times more
powerful than carbon dioxide. They are assessing whether the
methodology for awarding those offsets should be changed.
UN offsets, or Certified Emission Reductions, are awarded
on projects that lower emissions in developing nations. They can
now be swapped one-for-one with permits in the EU's cap-and-
trade program, the world's largest carbon market.
The earliest possible date for any restrictions on offsets
credits in the EU program is Jan. 1, 2013, according to the
bloc's law. The current trading period in the EU emissions
trading system, or ETS, ends in 2012, and the deadline for
surrendering allowances for that year is the end of April 2013.
"The fact that the compliance deadline for 2012 is in 2013
will be something that we will look at," Slingenberg said. "But
policy makers can also decide that you can no longer use
the credits from January 2013. April is the ultimate surrender
deadline, but operators can hand in the credits earlier, e.g. in
December 2012."
Advance Notice
The date when certain credits "will no longer be usable
will be known in advance," Slingenberg said. "If we make a
proposal now before the end of the year and it's approved within
a couple of months, markets will have two more years to make use
of their credits."
Changes in EU policy wouldn't prevent investors from using
restricted credits elsewhere, and the commission may decide it
isn't responsible for terms of investor contracts.
"If a credit is for delivery in 2012, you should have it
delivered by the end of 2012," Slingenberg said. "If it
doesn't happen, that's a separate contractual issue. Why should
we take the blame for it?"
The planned commission proposal will require EU member
states approval to become binding. Climate Commissioner Connie
Hedegaard, who has also called for international action to phase
out the production of hydrofluorocarbons, said on Oct. 15 the
bloc's nations will likely support curbs on the use of offsets
from industrial gases in the EU emissions program.
'Large Share'
The EU is also planning to study the oversight of its carbon
market to gauge whether further measures are needed to ensure
spot trading is well-protected from abuse, Slingenberg said.
"The financial market rules already apply to a large share
of the carbon market, offering the maximum level of protection
one could think of today," she said. "The gap is spot trading
and over-the-counter markets. We'll do a further analysis next
year to better assess the risk."
The bloc already toughened its emissions-system regulation
in April, after a sale of offset credits already used for
compliance in the European market halted spot trading for three
days in March.
"We need to see if the gap is important enough to put in
place some measures, and if so, what measures should that be to
keep in mind the proportionality between obligations, i.e.
costs, and benefits," Slingenberg said.
The commission will present a communication on the current
level of market protection to the European Parliament and EU
member states by the end of this year, according to Slingenberg.
This will be followed by a stakeholder consultation and a cost-
benefit analysis, she said.
For Related News and Information:
Emission market news: NI ENVMARKET <GO>
Today's top energy stories: ETOP <GO>
European power-markets home page: EPWR <GO>
--Editor: Mike Anderson, Jonas Bergman.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Ewa Krukowska in Brussels at +32-474-620-243 or
ekrukowska@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net
EU to Study CO2-Abuse Shields, Mulls HFC-Offsets Ban (Update1)
2010-10-28 11:32:10.739 GMT
(Adds CO2 price, EU comments from the 10th paragraph.)
By Ewa Krukowska
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union's carbon program
may stop allowing use of industrial-gas-related credits from the
United Nations as soon as 2013, and the bloc plans to analyze
oversight of its emissions market next year.
"The commission is considering restrictions on certain
types of project related to industrial gases HFC-23 and nitrous
oxide," Yvon Slingenberg, emissions-unit head at the European
Commission's climate department, said in an interview yesterday
in Brussels. "An outright ban is one of the options."
The commission, the EU regulator, has said that UN credits
from reducing hydrofluorocarbons and nitrous oxide create
"significant windfall profits" and may undermine the
environmental integrity of the market. UN offsets can be used
for compliance in the EU's emissions-trading systems as long as
they ensure "real, verifiable, additional and permanent"
emission reductions, Slingenberg said.
"The proposal is in internal consultation," she said.
"We need to come to a final decision within the commission now,
and then the proposal will be presented to member states."
EU emission allowances for December 2012 fell 0.6 percent
to 15.82 euros ($21.90) a ton today and UN credits for that year
also lost 0.6 percent, trading at 12.10 euros. Carbon traders
have said delays by UN regulators in issuing offsets may leave
them with unusable credits for 2012 should the EU curbs come
into force at the beginning of 2013.
One-for-One
Regulators of the UN carbon program, the Clean Development
Mechanism, are also ramping up scrutiny after allegations that
some developers are seeking excessive credits related to HFC-23,
an industrial gas whose warming potential is 11,700 times more
powerful than carbon dioxide. They are assessing whether the
methodology for awarding those offsets should be changed.
UN offsets, or Certified Emission Reductions, are awarded
on projects that lower emissions in developing nations. They can
now be swapped one-for-one with permits in the EU's cap-and-
trade program, the world's largest carbon market.
The earliest possible date for any restrictions on offsets
credits in the EU program is Jan. 1, 2013, according to the
bloc's law. The current trading period in the EU emissions
trading system, or ETS, ends in 2012, and the deadline for
surrendering allowances for that year is the end of April 2013.
"The fact that the compliance deadline for 2012 is in 2013
will be something that we will look at," Slingenberg said. "But
policy makers can also decide that you can no longer use
the credits from January 2013. April is the ultimate surrender
deadline, but operators can hand in the credits earlier, e.g. in
December 2012."
Advance Notice
The date when certain credits "will no longer be usable
will be known in advance," Slingenberg said. "If we make a
proposal now before the end of the year and it's approved within
a couple of months, markets will have two more years to make use
of their credits."
Changes in EU policy wouldn't prevent investors from using
restricted credits elsewhere, and the commission may decide it
isn't responsible for terms of investor contracts.
"If a credit is for delivery in 2012, you should have it
delivered by the end of 2012," Slingenberg said. "If it
doesn't happen, that's a separate contractual issue. Why should
we take the blame for it?"
The planned commission proposal will require EU member
states approval to become binding. Climate Commissioner Connie
Hedegaard, who has also called for international action to phase
out the production of hydrofluorocarbons, said on Oct. 15 the
bloc's nations will likely support curbs on the use of offsets
from industrial gases in the EU emissions program.
'Large Share'
The EU is also planning to study the oversight of its carbon
market to gauge whether further measures are needed to ensure
spot trading is well-protected from abuse, Slingenberg said.
"The financial market rules already apply to a large share
of the carbon market, offering the maximum level of protection
one could think of today," she said. "The gap is spot trading
and over-the-counter markets. We'll do a further analysis next
year to better assess the risk."
The bloc already toughened its emissions-system regulation
in April, after a sale of offset credits already used for
compliance in the European market halted spot trading for three
days in March.
"We need to see if the gap is important enough to put in
place some measures, and if so, what measures should that be to
keep in mind the proportionality between obligations, i.e.
costs, and benefits," Slingenberg said.
The commission will present a communication on the current
level of market protection to the European Parliament and EU
member states by the end of this year, according to Slingenberg.
This will be followed by a stakeholder consultation and a cost-
benefit analysis, she said.
For Related News and Information:
Emission market news: NI ENVMARKET <GO>
Today's top energy stories: ETOP <GO>
European power-markets home page: EPWR <GO>
--Editor: Mike Anderson, Jonas Bergman.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Ewa Krukowska in Brussels at +32-474-620-243 or
ekrukowska@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net
(BN) Lithuania’s Top Power Plant Favors Free CO2 Permits After 2012
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Lithuania's Top Power Plant Favors Free CO2 Permits After 2012
2010-10-28 12:35:35.591 GMT
By Milda Seputyte and Ewa Krukowska
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Lithuania's biggest power producer,
Lietuvos Elektrine AB, said the government should use the option
of applying for free permits for utilities in the next phase of
the European Union carbon market from 2013.
Eastern and central European nations led by Poland won an
exemption in 2008 from an EU requirement that utilities purchase
all their carbon dioxide permits in the third phase of the
bloc's cap-and-trade program through 2020. The opt-out limits
the share of allowances that must be auctioned to power plants
to 30 percent in 2013, with the portion gradually rising to 100
percent in 2020.
"A transition period between 2013 and 2020 with gradual
reduction of free carbon permits from 50 percent or more would
suit both the interests of Lietuvos Elektrine and Lithuania as a
whole," said Jurate Kavaliauskaite, spokeswoman for a
production unit of Lietuvos Elektrine.
Lietuvos Elektrine, a thermal power plant majority-owned by
the Lithuanian government, became the Baltic nation's main
electricity producer after the Ignalina nuclear plant was shut
down on Dec. 31. The Soviet-built Ignalina provided more than 70
percent of Lithuania's electricity output and also supplied
Latvia and Estonia.
"The transition period is needed because Lithuania
received too few carbon permits in the 2008-2012 period,"
Kavaliauskaite said. "It wasn't taken into account that
Lietuvos Elektrine became key electricity producer in Lithuania
after the closure of the Ignalina" plant.
Lietuvos Elektrine
Based in Elektrenai, Lithuania, Lietuvos Elektrine supplied
1.2 terawatt hours of electricity in the first half of this
year. The company, which relies on natural gas as the main fuel,
spent around 1 billion litai ($401 million) on modernization in
the last 10 years, according to its 2009 financial report.
In the future it plans to fully use its four 300-megawatt
energy blocks and build a new 400-megawatt turbine block, which
will use one-third less gas to produce the same amount of
electricity than the old blocks, according to the report.
The EU carbon-trading program, started in 2005, covers
about 12,000 facilities, which must have an allowance for each
ton of CO2 they let off. Those emitting more than their cap must
buy more; those that emit less can sell their surplus. Unused
allowances may also be carried over to the next trading period.
Lithuania's annual cap for CO2 discharges in the current
2008-12 EU trading period was set at 8.8 million tons, or 53
percent of what the country had proposed. It accounts for less
than 0.5 percent of the overall emissions limit on energy and
manufacturing companies in the EU program, the world's largest.
Emissions-Trading System
In the next phase of the European emissions-trading system,
running from 2013 through 2020, western utilities will have to
buy their full allocation of permits at auctions.
Some East European governments may waive their option to
allocate free emission permits to power producers, opting
instead for auctions that would generate public money, Jos
Delbeke, director general for climate at the European
Commission, said earlier this month.
The Lithuanian government will decide on whether to apply
for an exemption after it receives guidelines from the European
Commission on investment commitments that companies would have
to make to qualify for free permits, said Stasile Znutiene, head
of the climate change division at the Environment Ministry. The
companies would be expected to invest in upgrades from the funds
they save on free permits, she said.
"No decision has been made yet on whether Lithuania would
seek an exemption for electricity producers," Znutiene said.
"Question remains if this would be beneficial to get the
exemption because of huge bureaucratic burden this would come
with."
Government Revenue
An eastern European decision to auction more permits than
required would bolster government revenue while raising the
threat of an unlevel playing field in the region. At issue is
whether nations want to steer more revenue to finance ministries
rather than increase the supply of free permits for utilities.
The governments have until Sept. 30, 2011, to apply.
The Czech government said this month that electricity
producers including CEZ AS should buy a greater portion of CO2
permits than mandated. Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas said
proceeds from auctions would be used to offset higher power
prices.
For Related News and Information:
Emission market news: NI ENVMARKET <GO>
Today's top energy stories: ETOP <GO>
European power-markets home page: EPWR <GO>
--With assistance from Lars Paulsson in London. Editors: Jones
Hayden, Andrew Clapham
To contact the reporters on this story:
Ewa Krukowska in Brussels at +32-2-237-4331 or
ekrukowska@bloomberg.net;
Milda Seputyte in Vilnius at +370 5 269-0046
mseputyte@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net;
Willy Morris at +44-20-7673-2254 or wmorris@bloomberg.net.
Lithuania's Top Power Plant Favors Free CO2 Permits After 2012
2010-10-28 12:35:35.591 GMT
By Milda Seputyte and Ewa Krukowska
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Lithuania's biggest power producer,
Lietuvos Elektrine AB, said the government should use the option
of applying for free permits for utilities in the next phase of
the European Union carbon market from 2013.
Eastern and central European nations led by Poland won an
exemption in 2008 from an EU requirement that utilities purchase
all their carbon dioxide permits in the third phase of the
bloc's cap-and-trade program through 2020. The opt-out limits
the share of allowances that must be auctioned to power plants
to 30 percent in 2013, with the portion gradually rising to 100
percent in 2020.
"A transition period between 2013 and 2020 with gradual
reduction of free carbon permits from 50 percent or more would
suit both the interests of Lietuvos Elektrine and Lithuania as a
whole," said Jurate Kavaliauskaite, spokeswoman for a
production unit of Lietuvos Elektrine.
Lietuvos Elektrine, a thermal power plant majority-owned by
the Lithuanian government, became the Baltic nation's main
electricity producer after the Ignalina nuclear plant was shut
down on Dec. 31. The Soviet-built Ignalina provided more than 70
percent of Lithuania's electricity output and also supplied
Latvia and Estonia.
"The transition period is needed because Lithuania
received too few carbon permits in the 2008-2012 period,"
Kavaliauskaite said. "It wasn't taken into account that
Lietuvos Elektrine became key electricity producer in Lithuania
after the closure of the Ignalina" plant.
Lietuvos Elektrine
Based in Elektrenai, Lithuania, Lietuvos Elektrine supplied
1.2 terawatt hours of electricity in the first half of this
year. The company, which relies on natural gas as the main fuel,
spent around 1 billion litai ($401 million) on modernization in
the last 10 years, according to its 2009 financial report.
In the future it plans to fully use its four 300-megawatt
energy blocks and build a new 400-megawatt turbine block, which
will use one-third less gas to produce the same amount of
electricity than the old blocks, according to the report.
The EU carbon-trading program, started in 2005, covers
about 12,000 facilities, which must have an allowance for each
ton of CO2 they let off. Those emitting more than their cap must
buy more; those that emit less can sell their surplus. Unused
allowances may also be carried over to the next trading period.
Lithuania's annual cap for CO2 discharges in the current
2008-12 EU trading period was set at 8.8 million tons, or 53
percent of what the country had proposed. It accounts for less
than 0.5 percent of the overall emissions limit on energy and
manufacturing companies in the EU program, the world's largest.
Emissions-Trading System
In the next phase of the European emissions-trading system,
running from 2013 through 2020, western utilities will have to
buy their full allocation of permits at auctions.
Some East European governments may waive their option to
allocate free emission permits to power producers, opting
instead for auctions that would generate public money, Jos
Delbeke, director general for climate at the European
Commission, said earlier this month.
The Lithuanian government will decide on whether to apply
for an exemption after it receives guidelines from the European
Commission on investment commitments that companies would have
to make to qualify for free permits, said Stasile Znutiene, head
of the climate change division at the Environment Ministry. The
companies would be expected to invest in upgrades from the funds
they save on free permits, she said.
"No decision has been made yet on whether Lithuania would
seek an exemption for electricity producers," Znutiene said.
"Question remains if this would be beneficial to get the
exemption because of huge bureaucratic burden this would come
with."
Government Revenue
An eastern European decision to auction more permits than
required would bolster government revenue while raising the
threat of an unlevel playing field in the region. At issue is
whether nations want to steer more revenue to finance ministries
rather than increase the supply of free permits for utilities.
The governments have until Sept. 30, 2011, to apply.
The Czech government said this month that electricity
producers including CEZ AS should buy a greater portion of CO2
permits than mandated. Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas said
proceeds from auctions would be used to offset higher power
prices.
For Related News and Information:
Emission market news: NI ENVMARKET <GO>
Today's top energy stories: ETOP <GO>
European power-markets home page: EPWR <GO>
--With assistance from Lars Paulsson in London. Editors: Jones
Hayden, Andrew Clapham
To contact the reporters on this story:
Ewa Krukowska in Brussels at +32-2-237-4331 or
ekrukowska@bloomberg.net;
Milda Seputyte in Vilnius at +370 5 269-0046
mseputyte@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net;
Willy Morris at +44-20-7673-2254 or wmorris@bloomberg.net.
(BN) Navin’s Value May Fall Amid Carbon Probe, Crisil Says (Update2)
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Navin's Value May Fall Amid Carbon Probe, Crisil Says (Update2)
2010-10-28 12:48:52.746 GMT
(Updates with share price in fifth paragraph.)
By Natalie Obiko Pearson
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Navin Fluorine International Ltd.,
named by Forbes magazine as one of Asia's top-performing small
businesses, may lose 20 percent of its value if a UN probe ends
up slashing carbon credits the company can earn, a report said.
"These developments could pose a threat to Navin's
profitability in the medium term," Crisil Ltd., the Indian unit
of Standard & Poor's, said today in the report.
An unfavorable outcome to the investigation may pull down
Navin Fluorine's "fair value" to 240 rupees ($5.39) a share
from 300 rupees currently, Crisil said. The stock fell as much
as 4.4 percent and closed down 1.7 percent at 285.05 rupees in
Mumbai trading. The benchmark Sensitive Index fell 0.3 percent.
The Indian company makes chemicals and industrial gases
used in pharmaceuticals, agriculture, refrigerators and air-
conditioners. Under a United Nations-administered program, it
has earned sellable credits for a factory in Surat that burns a
byproduct called HFC-23, reducing its potency as a greenhouse
gas, rather than releasing it directly into the air.
The company has been unable to earn any new credits since
May from the UN, which caused a 31 percent drop in revenue in
the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with the previous year,
Crisil said.
The UN Clean Development Mechanism awards credits to
projects that reduce greenhouse gases in developing countries.
Project owners can sell those credits to factories and
refineries in Europe and elsewhere where they are used to offset
excess emissions in order to comply with local pollution rules.
'Bogus' Credits Claim
UN regulators began a probe of HFC-23 projects on July 30
after environmental group CDM Watch said some companies have won
"bogus" credits by exploiting the system. A UN panel on July 1
recommended investigating claims that the system may incentivize
plants to produce more HFCs than necessary to win more credits,
extend the life of old plants, and displace more efficient
entrants, according to the panel's findings on the UN website.
Mumbai-based Navin Fluorine earned 6.1 million UN credits
since 2007, making it India's third-most productive project to
date under the UN program, according to Bloomberg data.
Other companies earning credits from HFC projects include
tire-maker SRF Ltd., Gujarat Fluorochemicals Ltd., and Chemplast
Sanmar Ltd., according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Navin Fluorine was named by Forbes magazine as one of
Asia's 200 top-performing businesses with revenue under $1
billion, one of 39 Indian companies that made the 2010 list
published on Sept. 1.
HFCs gained favor in the 1970s as an alternative to
chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which scientists linked to
depletion of the ozone layer. While HFCs don't interfere as much
with the earth's shield against damaging sunrays, they trap heat
and are believed to contribute to global warming.
HFC-23 can trap 11,700 times more heat per molecule than
carbon dioxide and linger in the atmosphere for as long as 260
years, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
For Related News and Information:
Emission market news: NI ECREDITS <GO>
Top environment stories: GREEN <GO>
Top energy stories: ETOP <GO>
Sustainability, environmental indexes: SEI <GO>
--Editors: Todd White, Mike Anderson
To contact the reporter on this story:
Natalie Obiko Pearson in Mumbai at +91-22-6612-9107 or
npearson7@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Clyde Russell at +65-6311-2423 or crussell7@bloomberg.net.
Navin's Value May Fall Amid Carbon Probe, Crisil Says (Update2)
2010-10-28 12:48:52.746 GMT
(Updates with share price in fifth paragraph.)
By Natalie Obiko Pearson
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Navin Fluorine International Ltd.,
named by Forbes magazine as one of Asia's top-performing small
businesses, may lose 20 percent of its value if a UN probe ends
up slashing carbon credits the company can earn, a report said.
"These developments could pose a threat to Navin's
profitability in the medium term," Crisil Ltd., the Indian unit
of Standard & Poor's, said today in the report.
An unfavorable outcome to the investigation may pull down
Navin Fluorine's "fair value" to 240 rupees ($5.39) a share
from 300 rupees currently, Crisil said. The stock fell as much
as 4.4 percent and closed down 1.7 percent at 285.05 rupees in
Mumbai trading. The benchmark Sensitive Index fell 0.3 percent.
The Indian company makes chemicals and industrial gases
used in pharmaceuticals, agriculture, refrigerators and air-
conditioners. Under a United Nations-administered program, it
has earned sellable credits for a factory in Surat that burns a
byproduct called HFC-23, reducing its potency as a greenhouse
gas, rather than releasing it directly into the air.
The company has been unable to earn any new credits since
May from the UN, which caused a 31 percent drop in revenue in
the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with the previous year,
Crisil said.
The UN Clean Development Mechanism awards credits to
projects that reduce greenhouse gases in developing countries.
Project owners can sell those credits to factories and
refineries in Europe and elsewhere where they are used to offset
excess emissions in order to comply with local pollution rules.
'Bogus' Credits Claim
UN regulators began a probe of HFC-23 projects on July 30
after environmental group CDM Watch said some companies have won
"bogus" credits by exploiting the system. A UN panel on July 1
recommended investigating claims that the system may incentivize
plants to produce more HFCs than necessary to win more credits,
extend the life of old plants, and displace more efficient
entrants, according to the panel's findings on the UN website.
Mumbai-based Navin Fluorine earned 6.1 million UN credits
since 2007, making it India's third-most productive project to
date under the UN program, according to Bloomberg data.
Other companies earning credits from HFC projects include
tire-maker SRF Ltd., Gujarat Fluorochemicals Ltd., and Chemplast
Sanmar Ltd., according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Navin Fluorine was named by Forbes magazine as one of
Asia's 200 top-performing businesses with revenue under $1
billion, one of 39 Indian companies that made the 2010 list
published on Sept. 1.
HFCs gained favor in the 1970s as an alternative to
chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which scientists linked to
depletion of the ozone layer. While HFCs don't interfere as much
with the earth's shield against damaging sunrays, they trap heat
and are believed to contribute to global warming.
HFC-23 can trap 11,700 times more heat per molecule than
carbon dioxide and linger in the atmosphere for as long as 260
years, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
For Related News and Information:
Emission market news: NI ECREDITS <GO>
Top environment stories: GREEN <GO>
Top energy stories: ETOP <GO>
Sustainability, environmental indexes: SEI <GO>
--Editors: Todd White, Mike Anderson
To contact the reporter on this story:
Natalie Obiko Pearson in Mumbai at +91-22-6612-9107 or
npearson7@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Clyde Russell at +65-6311-2423 or crussell7@bloomberg.net.
?(BN) Merkel’s Nuclear-Power Plans Are Passed as Greens Cry
is this pushing carbon down folks?
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Merkel's Nuclear-Power Plans Are Passed as Greens Cry 'Putsch'
2010-10-28 13:50:32.452 GMT
By Tony Czuczka
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel's plan to
prolong Germany's use of nuclear power cleared parliament after
a debate lasting more than six hours as the opposition pledged
to challenge the extension in court.
Greenpeace activists occupied the Berlin party headquarters
of Merkel's Christian Democrat Union in protest as the
government used its majority to steer a bill to let nuclear
plants run for as many as 14 years longer through the lower
house, or Bundestag. The debate overran its scheduled time by
more than four hours, delaying Merkel's departure for a European
Union summit in Brussels.
The deal with utilities E.ON AG and RWE AG, made as part of
the government's energy strategy, fulfills a pledge Merkel made
during last year's re-election campaign. Merkel's political
foes, buoyed by her plunge in opinion polls to historic lows,
say her push to enact the change without a vote in the
opposition-controlled upper house is unconstitutional.
"Chancellor Merkel, you talk of an energy revolution,"
the opposition Greens floor leader, Juergen Trittin, said in a
speech to the Bundestag before the vote today. "It's more like
a putsch."
The government plans amount to a repeal of a 2002 law,
passed by a coalition of Greens and Social Democrats under then
SPD Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, that would shut down all
German nuclear plants by about 2022. Under the extension deal,
seven reactors built before 1980 will run eight years longer
than planned and 10 newer plants will run 14 years longer, for
an average extension of 12 years.
State Challenge
The Greens and Social Democrats today reiterated their
intention to challenge the government's nuclear plans at the
Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe. Germany's 16 states
are represented in the upper chamber, the Bundesrat, and they
must be consulted on the policy change, Alexander Bonde, a
Greens lawmaker, said by phone. Two state governments are
already preparing a challenge, said Stefan Groenebaum, a
spokesman for the North Rhine-Westphalia state Economy Ministry.
Vattenfall AB, whose German unit joins E.ON, RWE and EnBW
Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG in operating Germany's 17 nuclear
plants, "assumes" the government will follow through on the
plan, Chief Executive Officer Oeystein Loeseth said today on a
conference call. He still sees "uncertainty" over whether the
plan will need to be submitted to the Bundesrat, he said.
E.ON AG rose 0.6 percent to 22.35 euros in Frankfurt
trading as of 11:58 a.m. local time, valuing the company at
about 44.7 billion euros. Smaller competitor RWE AG gained 1.4
percent to 51.44 euros. E.ON and RWE, Germany's two biggest
utilities, are still the worst performers this year among the 30
stocks in Germany's benchmark DAX index.
Legal opinion is split on whether Merkel can bypass the
Bundesrat, where she lost her majority after a state election
defeat in May deprived her of the necessary votes to ensure laws
are passed. The Social Democrats will in any case overturn
Merkel's plans if they regain office at elections in 2013, SPD
leader Sigmar Gabriel said.
Renewables Fund
Merkel has said she's acting within the law and aims to
build a "bridge" to renewable energy, helped by provisions
that levy 30 billion euros ($40 billion) on utilities over the
period of the extension.
"This is the most modern, environmentally friendly energy
policy ever to come before this house," Peter Altmaier, the CDU
parliamentary manager, told lawmakers.
As many as 100,000 protesters rallied against nuclear power
in Berlin last month, underscoring public dissatisfaction with
Merkel's policies as her coalition trails the opposition in
polls. Protesters planned to form a human chain past the
Chancellery in Berlin today to coincide with the vote.
The Christian Democrats fell one percentage point to 30
percent and her Free Democratic coalition partners rose one
point to 5 percent in a weekly Forsa poll published yesterday.
The coalition's 35 percent backing is more than 13 points
less than it won at last year's election. The Greens had 24
percent support and the Social Democrats 23 percent in the Forsa
poll, both unchanged. The Oct. 18-22 poll of 2,502 people has a
margin of error of as many as 2.5 percentage points.
For Related News and Information:
RWE peer product comparison: RWE GY <EQUITY> PPC <GO>
German power prices: ELGE <GO>
Top German stories: TOPG <GO>
E.ON debt distributions: EOAN GY <EQUITY> DDIS <GO>
E.ON's historical market cap: EOAN GY <EQUITY> G X 69 <GO>
RWE's profit per employee: RWE GY <EQUITY> FA10 <GO>
--With assistance from Patrick Donahue in Berlin and Nicholas
Comfort in Frankfurt. Editors: Alan Crawford, Eddie Buckle
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Merkel's Nuclear-Power Plans Are Passed as Greens Cry 'Putsch'
2010-10-28 13:50:32.452 GMT
By Tony Czuczka
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel's plan to
prolong Germany's use of nuclear power cleared parliament after
a debate lasting more than six hours as the opposition pledged
to challenge the extension in court.
Greenpeace activists occupied the Berlin party headquarters
of Merkel's Christian Democrat Union in protest as the
government used its majority to steer a bill to let nuclear
plants run for as many as 14 years longer through the lower
house, or Bundestag. The debate overran its scheduled time by
more than four hours, delaying Merkel's departure for a European
Union summit in Brussels.
The deal with utilities E.ON AG and RWE AG, made as part of
the government's energy strategy, fulfills a pledge Merkel made
during last year's re-election campaign. Merkel's political
foes, buoyed by her plunge in opinion polls to historic lows,
say her push to enact the change without a vote in the
opposition-controlled upper house is unconstitutional.
"Chancellor Merkel, you talk of an energy revolution,"
the opposition Greens floor leader, Juergen Trittin, said in a
speech to the Bundestag before the vote today. "It's more like
a putsch."
The government plans amount to a repeal of a 2002 law,
passed by a coalition of Greens and Social Democrats under then
SPD Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, that would shut down all
German nuclear plants by about 2022. Under the extension deal,
seven reactors built before 1980 will run eight years longer
than planned and 10 newer plants will run 14 years longer, for
an average extension of 12 years.
State Challenge
The Greens and Social Democrats today reiterated their
intention to challenge the government's nuclear plans at the
Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe. Germany's 16 states
are represented in the upper chamber, the Bundesrat, and they
must be consulted on the policy change, Alexander Bonde, a
Greens lawmaker, said by phone. Two state governments are
already preparing a challenge, said Stefan Groenebaum, a
spokesman for the North Rhine-Westphalia state Economy Ministry.
Vattenfall AB, whose German unit joins E.ON, RWE and EnBW
Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG in operating Germany's 17 nuclear
plants, "assumes" the government will follow through on the
plan, Chief Executive Officer Oeystein Loeseth said today on a
conference call. He still sees "uncertainty" over whether the
plan will need to be submitted to the Bundesrat, he said.
E.ON AG rose 0.6 percent to 22.35 euros in Frankfurt
trading as of 11:58 a.m. local time, valuing the company at
about 44.7 billion euros. Smaller competitor RWE AG gained 1.4
percent to 51.44 euros. E.ON and RWE, Germany's two biggest
utilities, are still the worst performers this year among the 30
stocks in Germany's benchmark DAX index.
Legal opinion is split on whether Merkel can bypass the
Bundesrat, where she lost her majority after a state election
defeat in May deprived her of the necessary votes to ensure laws
are passed. The Social Democrats will in any case overturn
Merkel's plans if they regain office at elections in 2013, SPD
leader Sigmar Gabriel said.
Renewables Fund
Merkel has said she's acting within the law and aims to
build a "bridge" to renewable energy, helped by provisions
that levy 30 billion euros ($40 billion) on utilities over the
period of the extension.
"This is the most modern, environmentally friendly energy
policy ever to come before this house," Peter Altmaier, the CDU
parliamentary manager, told lawmakers.
As many as 100,000 protesters rallied against nuclear power
in Berlin last month, underscoring public dissatisfaction with
Merkel's policies as her coalition trails the opposition in
polls. Protesters planned to form a human chain past the
Chancellery in Berlin today to coincide with the vote.
The Christian Democrats fell one percentage point to 30
percent and her Free Democratic coalition partners rose one
point to 5 percent in a weekly Forsa poll published yesterday.
The coalition's 35 percent backing is more than 13 points
less than it won at last year's election. The Greens had 24
percent support and the Social Democrats 23 percent in the Forsa
poll, both unchanged. The Oct. 18-22 poll of 2,502 people has a
margin of error of as many as 2.5 percentage points.
For Related News and Information:
RWE peer product comparison: RWE GY <EQUITY> PPC <GO>
German power prices: ELGE <GO>
Top German stories: TOPG <GO>
E.ON debt distributions: EOAN GY <EQUITY> DDIS <GO>
E.ON's historical market cap: EOAN GY <EQUITY> G X 69 <GO>
RWE's profit per employee: RWE GY <EQUITY> FA10 <GO>
--With assistance from Patrick Donahue in Berlin and Nicholas
Comfort in Frankfurt. Editors: Alan Crawford, Eddie Buckle
?``blame''EU May Ban HFC Offsets, Mulls Abuse Rules
"If a credit is for delivery in 2012, you should have it
delivered by the end of 2012," Slingenberg said. "If it
doesn't happen, that's a separate contractual issue. Why should
we take the blame for it?" ...comments our way is it a matter of blame or trust? did the EU say these offsets could be used for compliance in phase II or not?...or just compliance in 93% of phase II?
------------------------------------------------------------
Mathew Carr, emissions markets, energy reporter. London Bloomberg News ph +44 207 073 3531 yahoo ID carr_mathew
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
EU to Analyze CO2 Oversight, May Ban HFC Offsets From 2013
2010-10-28 05:00:01.0 GMT
By Ewa Krukowska
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union may stop allowing
use of industrial-gas-related credits from the United Nations
in its carbon program as soon as 2013, and it plans to analyze
oversight of its emissions market next year.
"The commission is considering restrictions on certain
types of project related to industrial gases HFC-23 and nitrous
oxide," Yvon Slingenberg, emissions-unit head at the
commission's climate department, said in an interview yesterday
in Brussels. "An outright ban is one of the options."
The European Commission, the EU regulator, has said that UN
credits from reducing hydrofluorocarbons and nitrous oxide
create "significant windfall profits" and may undermine the
environmental integrity of the market. The EU law allows the use
of UN offsets for compliance in the bloc's emissions-trading
systems as long as they ensure "real, verifiable, additional
and permanent" emission reductions, Slingenberg said.
"The proposal is in internal consultation," she said.
"We need to come to a final decision within the commission now
and then the proposal will be presented to member states."
Regulators of the UN carbon program, the Clean Development
Mechanism, are also ramping up scrutiny after allegations that
some developers are seeking excessive credits related to HFC-23,
an industrial gas whose warming potential is 11,700 times more
powerful than carbon dioxide. They are assessing whether the
methodology for awarding those offsets should be changed.
UN offsets, or Certified Emission Reductions, are awarded
on projects that lower emissions in developing nations and can
now be swapped one-for-one with permits in the EU's cap-and-
trade program, the world's largest carbon market.
Earliest Date
The earliest possible date for any restrictions on offsets
credits in the EU program is Jan. 1, 2013, according to the
bloc's law. The current trading period in the EU emissions
trading system, or ETS, ends in 2012 and the deadline for
surrendering allowances for that year is the end of April 2013.
"The fact that the compliance deadline for 2012 is in 2013
will be something that we will look at," Slingenberg said.
"But policy makers can also decide that you can no longer use
the credits from January 2013. April is the ultimate surrender
deadline, but operators can hand in the credits earlier, e.g. in
December 2012."
The EU ETS covers more than 12,000 facilities that produce
energy or goods ranging from paper to cement. Emitters including
E.ON AG, Germany's biggest utility, and Royal Dutch Shell Plc,
Europe's largest oil company, need an allowance for each ton of
carbon dioxide they let off when burning fossil fuels. Those
producing more than their allowance must buy more; those that
emit less can sell their surplus.
Advance Notice
"The date from when certain credits will no longer be
usable will be known in advance," Slingenberg said. "If we
make a proposal now before the end of the year and it's approved
within a couple of months, markets will have two more years to
make use of their credits. Also, EU restrictions don't mean that
you can't use those credits elsewhere."
The spread between EU carbon permits and UN credits for
delivery next year widened 6 euro cents to 3.04 euros yesterday.
Carbon traders have said delays by UN regulators in issuing
offsets may leave them with unusable credits for 2012.
"If a credit is for delivery in 2012, you should have it
delivered by the end of 2012," Slingenberg said. "If it
doesn't happen, that's a separate contractual issue. Why should
we take the blame for it?"
The planned commission proposal will require EU member
states approval to become binding. Climate Commissioner Connie
Hedegaard, who has also called for international action to phase
out the production of hydrofluorocarbons, said on Oct. 15 the
bloc's nations will likely support curbs on the use of offsets
from industrial gases in the EU emissions program.
'Large Share'
The EU is also planning to study the oversight of its carbon
market to gauge whether further measures are needed to ensure
spot trading is well-protected from abuse, Slingenberg said.
"The financial market rules already apply to a large share
of the carbon market, offering the maximum level of protection
one could think of today," she said. "The gap is spot trading
and over-the-counter markets. We'll do a further analysis next
year to better assess the risk."
The bloc already toughened its emissions-system regulation
in April, after a sale of offset credits already used for
compliance in the European market halted spot trading for three
days in March.
For Related News and Information:
Emission market news: NI ENVMARKET <GO>
Today's top energy stories: ETOP <GO>
European power-markets home page: EPWR <GO>
--Editor: Mike Anderson
To contact the reporter on this story:
Ewa Krukowska in Brussels at +32-474-620-243 or
ekrukowska@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net
delivered by the end of 2012," Slingenberg said. "If it
doesn't happen, that's a separate contractual issue. Why should
we take the blame for it?" ...comments our way is it a matter of blame or trust? did the EU say these offsets could be used for compliance in phase II or not?...or just compliance in 93% of phase II?
------------------------------------------------------------
Mathew Carr, emissions markets, energy reporter. London Bloomberg News ph +44 207 073 3531 yahoo ID carr_mathew
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
EU to Analyze CO2 Oversight, May Ban HFC Offsets From 2013
2010-10-28 05:00:01.0 GMT
By Ewa Krukowska
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union may stop allowing
use of industrial-gas-related credits from the United Nations
in its carbon program as soon as 2013, and it plans to analyze
oversight of its emissions market next year.
"The commission is considering restrictions on certain
types of project related to industrial gases HFC-23 and nitrous
oxide," Yvon Slingenberg, emissions-unit head at the
commission's climate department, said in an interview yesterday
in Brussels. "An outright ban is one of the options."
The European Commission, the EU regulator, has said that UN
credits from reducing hydrofluorocarbons and nitrous oxide
create "significant windfall profits" and may undermine the
environmental integrity of the market. The EU law allows the use
of UN offsets for compliance in the bloc's emissions-trading
systems as long as they ensure "real, verifiable, additional
and permanent" emission reductions, Slingenberg said.
"The proposal is in internal consultation," she said.
"We need to come to a final decision within the commission now
and then the proposal will be presented to member states."
Regulators of the UN carbon program, the Clean Development
Mechanism, are also ramping up scrutiny after allegations that
some developers are seeking excessive credits related to HFC-23,
an industrial gas whose warming potential is 11,700 times more
powerful than carbon dioxide. They are assessing whether the
methodology for awarding those offsets should be changed.
UN offsets, or Certified Emission Reductions, are awarded
on projects that lower emissions in developing nations and can
now be swapped one-for-one with permits in the EU's cap-and-
trade program, the world's largest carbon market.
Earliest Date
The earliest possible date for any restrictions on offsets
credits in the EU program is Jan. 1, 2013, according to the
bloc's law. The current trading period in the EU emissions
trading system, or ETS, ends in 2012 and the deadline for
surrendering allowances for that year is the end of April 2013.
"The fact that the compliance deadline for 2012 is in 2013
will be something that we will look at," Slingenberg said.
"But policy makers can also decide that you can no longer use
the credits from January 2013. April is the ultimate surrender
deadline, but operators can hand in the credits earlier, e.g. in
December 2012."
The EU ETS covers more than 12,000 facilities that produce
energy or goods ranging from paper to cement. Emitters including
E.ON AG, Germany's biggest utility, and Royal Dutch Shell Plc,
Europe's largest oil company, need an allowance for each ton of
carbon dioxide they let off when burning fossil fuels. Those
producing more than their allowance must buy more; those that
emit less can sell their surplus.
Advance Notice
"The date from when certain credits will no longer be
usable will be known in advance," Slingenberg said. "If we
make a proposal now before the end of the year and it's approved
within a couple of months, markets will have two more years to
make use of their credits. Also, EU restrictions don't mean that
you can't use those credits elsewhere."
The spread between EU carbon permits and UN credits for
delivery next year widened 6 euro cents to 3.04 euros yesterday.
Carbon traders have said delays by UN regulators in issuing
offsets may leave them with unusable credits for 2012.
"If a credit is for delivery in 2012, you should have it
delivered by the end of 2012," Slingenberg said. "If it
doesn't happen, that's a separate contractual issue. Why should
we take the blame for it?"
The planned commission proposal will require EU member
states approval to become binding. Climate Commissioner Connie
Hedegaard, who has also called for international action to phase
out the production of hydrofluorocarbons, said on Oct. 15 the
bloc's nations will likely support curbs on the use of offsets
from industrial gases in the EU emissions program.
'Large Share'
The EU is also planning to study the oversight of its carbon
market to gauge whether further measures are needed to ensure
spot trading is well-protected from abuse, Slingenberg said.
"The financial market rules already apply to a large share
of the carbon market, offering the maximum level of protection
one could think of today," she said. "The gap is spot trading
and over-the-counter markets. We'll do a further analysis next
year to better assess the risk."
The bloc already toughened its emissions-system regulation
in April, after a sale of offset credits already used for
compliance in the European market halted spot trading for three
days in March.
For Related News and Information:
Emission market news: NI ENVMARKET <GO>
Today's top energy stories: ETOP <GO>
European power-markets home page: EPWR <GO>
--Editor: Mike Anderson
To contact the reporter on this story:
Ewa Krukowska in Brussels at +32-474-620-243 or
ekrukowska@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net
2010/10/27
(BN) Sovereign Wealth Funds May Buy Carbon Asset Companies, S&P Says
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Sovereign Wealth Funds May Buy Carbon Asset Companies, S&P Says
2010-10-27 10:22:22.906 GMT
By Dinakar Sethuraman
Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Sovereign wealth funds may join
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Barclays Plc in buying smaller carbon-
asset developers, said Michael Wilkins, managing director of
global carbon markets at Standard & Poor's.
JPMorgan bought EcoSecurities, the carbon-emissions company
for $206 million last year and Barclays Plc acquired Tricorona
AB, a Stockholm-based carbon credit developer, in June.
"Consolidation will continue as the smaller players find
it difficult to be profitable," Wilkins, based in London, said
at the Carbon Asia Forum 2010 in Singapore. "Sovereign funds
are going to be big players."
The market for emission credits may quadruple to as much
$500 billion by 2015 if the offset market is embraced by
emitters including Japan, Australia and the U.S., Wilkins said.
Proposed restrictions on certain types of carbon offsets by
the European Union has thrown the carbon market into a "period
of uncertainty and paralysis," Wilkins said. Investors aren't
willing to take risks beyond 2012 when the Kyoto Protocol ends,
he said.
The European Commission, regulator of the EU market, plans
to publish an "impact assessment" on offset restrictions by
November. The commission is seeking to limit the use of credits
from projects deemed improperly regulated or yielding excessive
profits for developers. It may propose a ban on credits from
hydrofluorocarbon-cutting projects and others that reduce
nitrous oxide gas at industrial plants, according to the
European Commission.
For Related News and Information:
Emissions-trading stories: NI ECREDITS BN <GO>
Emission offset prices: WCER <GO>
--Editors: Jane Lee, Alexander Kwiatkowski
To contact the reporter on this story:
Dinakar Sethuraman in Singapore at +65-6212-1590 or
dinakar@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Clyde Russell at +65-6311-2423 or crussell7@bloomberg.net
Sovereign Wealth Funds May Buy Carbon Asset Companies, S&P Says
2010-10-27 10:22:22.906 GMT
By Dinakar Sethuraman
Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Sovereign wealth funds may join
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Barclays Plc in buying smaller carbon-
asset developers, said Michael Wilkins, managing director of
global carbon markets at Standard & Poor's.
JPMorgan bought EcoSecurities, the carbon-emissions company
for $206 million last year and Barclays Plc acquired Tricorona
AB, a Stockholm-based carbon credit developer, in June.
"Consolidation will continue as the smaller players find
it difficult to be profitable," Wilkins, based in London, said
at the Carbon Asia Forum 2010 in Singapore. "Sovereign funds
are going to be big players."
The market for emission credits may quadruple to as much
$500 billion by 2015 if the offset market is embraced by
emitters including Japan, Australia and the U.S., Wilkins said.
Proposed restrictions on certain types of carbon offsets by
the European Union has thrown the carbon market into a "period
of uncertainty and paralysis," Wilkins said. Investors aren't
willing to take risks beyond 2012 when the Kyoto Protocol ends,
he said.
The European Commission, regulator of the EU market, plans
to publish an "impact assessment" on offset restrictions by
November. The commission is seeking to limit the use of credits
from projects deemed improperly regulated or yielding excessive
profits for developers. It may propose a ban on credits from
hydrofluorocarbon-cutting projects and others that reduce
nitrous oxide gas at industrial plants, according to the
European Commission.
For Related News and Information:
Emissions-trading stories: NI ECREDITS BN <GO>
Emission offset prices: WCER <GO>
--Editors: Jane Lee, Alexander Kwiatkowski
To contact the reporter on this story:
Dinakar Sethuraman in Singapore at +65-6212-1590 or
dinakar@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Clyde Russell at +65-6311-2423 or crussell7@bloomberg.net
(BN) EU Seeks Views on Greenhouse-Gas-Emission Cuts by 2030, 2050
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
EU Seeks Views on Greenhouse-Gas-Emission Cuts by 2030, 2050
2010-10-27 13:21:21.150 GMT
By Mathew Carr
Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union sought views on
how the bloc should best achieve greenhouse gas cuts of at least
80 percent by 2050.
The European Commission, the EU regulator, will publish a
so-called road map for emission reductions in the first half of
next year, according to a statement today on its website.
The road map "will contain an analysis of milestones on
the pathway to 2050, including the necessary scenarios of the
ambition level for 2030 reflecting the contributions from key
emitting sectors," the EU said. "It will assess ways to
maximize benefits in terms of stimulating technological
innovation, economic growth, job creation and strengthening the
energy security within the EU."
For Related News and Information:
Emission market news NI ENVMARKET <GO>
Today's top energy stories ETOP <GO>
European power-markets home page EPWR <GO>
Sustainability, environmental indexes SEI <GO>
--Editors: Raj Rajendran, Alex Devine.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Mathew Carr in London at +44-20-7073-3531 or
m.carr@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net
EU Seeks Views on Greenhouse-Gas-Emission Cuts by 2030, 2050
2010-10-27 13:21:21.150 GMT
By Mathew Carr
Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union sought views on
how the bloc should best achieve greenhouse gas cuts of at least
80 percent by 2050.
The European Commission, the EU regulator, will publish a
so-called road map for emission reductions in the first half of
next year, according to a statement today on its website.
The road map "will contain an analysis of milestones on
the pathway to 2050, including the necessary scenarios of the
ambition level for 2030 reflecting the contributions from key
emitting sectors," the EU said. "It will assess ways to
maximize benefits in terms of stimulating technological
innovation, economic growth, job creation and strengthening the
energy security within the EU."
For Related News and Information:
Emission market news NI ENVMARKET <GO>
Today's top energy stories ETOP <GO>
European power-markets home page EPWR <GO>
Sustainability, environmental indexes SEI <GO>
--Editors: Raj Rajendran, Alex Devine.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Mathew Carr in London at +44-20-7073-3531 or
m.carr@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net
(BN) Wall Street Proprietary Trading Goes Under Cover: Michael Lewis
a follow up
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Wall Street Proprietary Trading Goes Under Cover: Michael Lewis
2010-10-27 01:00:00.0 GMT
Commentary by Michael Lewis
Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- A few weeks ago we asked a simple
question: Why are the same Wall Street banks that lobbied so
hard to dilute the passages in the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul
bill banning proprietary trading now jettisoning their
proprietary trading groups, without so much as a whimper?
The law directs regulators to study the prop trading ban
for another 15 months before deciding how to enforce it: why is
Wall Street caving now?
The many answers offered by Wall Street insiders in
response boil down to a simple sentence: The banks have no
intention of ceasing their prop trading. They are merely
disguising the activity, by giving it some other name.
A former employee of JPMorgan, for instance, wrote to say
that the unit he recently worked for, called the Chief
Investment Office, advertised itself largely as a hedging
operation but was in fact making massive bets with JPMorgan's
capital. And it would of course continue to do so. JPMorgan
didn't respond to a request for comment.
The fullest explanation came from a former Lehman Brothers
corporate bond salesman named Robert Wosnitzer, who is now at
New York University, writing a dissertation on the history of
proprietary trading. He's been interviewing Wall Street bond
traders, he said, and they have been surprisingly open about
their intentions to exploit one obvious loophole in the new law.
The innocent eye might have trouble spotting this loophole.
The Dodd-Frank bill bans proprietary trading (Page 245: "Unless
otherwise provided in this section, a banking entity shall not
engage in proprietary trading") and then appears to make it
clear what that means (Page 565: "The term 'proprietary
trading' means the act of a (big Wall Street bank) investing as
a principal in securities, commodities, derivatives, hedge
funds, private equity firms, or such other financial products or
entities as the comptroller general may determine").
Invitation for Abuse
The big invitation for abuse, Wosnitzer says, lies in the
phrase "as a principal." It falls to the comptroller general -
- or, more specifically, the General Accountability Office,
which is overseen by the comptroller general -- to determine
precisely what the phrase means.
And, at the moment, the GAO pretty clearly hasn't the first
clue. ("We're really too early in the process to speak to how
we might define it," said spokeswoman Orice Williams Brown.)
Never mind: Wall Street is busily defining the term for
itself.
Make an Argument
"One trader I interviewed," Wosnitzer says, "said that
from here on out, if he wants to take a proprietary position in
a credit, he will argue that he bought the position because a
customer wanted to sell the position, and he was providing
liquidity; and in order to keep the trade on, he would merely
offer the bonds 10 basis points higher than the offered side, so
that he will in effect never get lifted out of the position,
while being able to say that he is offering the bonds for sale
to clients, but no one wants 'em. When the trade finally gets to
where he wants it -- i.e., either realizing full profit, or
slaughtered by losses -- he will then sell it on the bid side,
and move on.
Of course, there is all sorts of flawed logic here, but the
point is that...there are a hundred different ways to claim to
be acting as an agent or for a customer.''
This ambiguity is no doubt one reason the financial reform
bill passed in the first place. Even its clearest prohibitions
are couched in language inviting Wall Street to evade them.
But the new game of cat and mouse raises a simple, even
naive question: Why do these giant Wall Street firms want so
badly to make huge bets with their shareholders' capital?
Save Us
After all, the point of the ban on proprietary trading is
as much to save the banks from themselves as to save us from
them. We have just come through a period where putatively shrewd
individual bond traders lost not millions but billions of
dollars for their firms, by making really stupid bets.
Even before the crisis there was never any reason to think
that traders at big Wall Street firms had any special ability to
gamble in the financial markets. Anyone with a talent for
investing is unlikely to waste it on Morgan Stanley or Bank of
America; he'll use it for himself, or for some hedge fund, which
allows him to keep more of his returns.
And if this were true before the financial crisis it is
even more true after it, when trading inside a big Wall Street
bank will be less pleasant and more fraught with politics.
Yet Wall Street's biggest firms apparently still badly want
their traders to be allowed to roll the bones. Why?
What They Do
One answer -- which Wosnitzer points to -- is that this is
what Wall Street firms now mainly do. Beginning in the mid-
1980s, the Wall Street investment bank, seeing less and less
profit in the mere servicing of customers, ceased to organize
itself around its customers' needs, and began to build itself
around its own big and often abstruse gambles.
The outsized gains (and losses), the huge individual
paychecks, the growing ability of traders to bounce from firm to
firm from one year to the next, the tolerance for complexity
that doubles as opacity: all of the signature traits of modern
Wall Street follows from the willingness of the big firms to
allow small groups of traders to make giant bets with
shareholders' capital, which the shareholders themselves don't
and can't understand.
The new way of life began at Salomon Brothers in the early
1980s, right after it turned itself from a partnership into a
publicly traded corporation; but it soon spread to the others.
''That was the particular moment when a new culture of
finance crystallizes," Wosnitzer says. "And it restructures
all of finance. All of a sudden it's 'I made X, pay me X minus Y
or, screw you, I'm leaving.'"
Keep It Simple
There's a simple, straightforward way for the GAO to
construe the Dodd-Frank language, and it would reform Wall
Street in a single stroke: to ban any sort of position-taking at
the giant publicly owned banks. To say, simply: You are no
longer allowed to make bets in the same stocks and bonds that
you are selling to investors.
If that means that Goldman Sachs is no longer allowed to
make markets in corporate bonds, so be it. You can be Charles
Schwab, and advise investors; or you can be Citadel, and run
trading positions. But if you are Citadel you will be privately
owned. And if you blow up your firm, you will blow up yourself
in the bargain.
(Michael Lewis, most recently author of the best-selling
"The Big Short," is a columnist for Bloomberg News. The
opinions expressed are his own.)
For Related News and Information:
For more Lewis column: NI LEWIS <GO>
For more commentary: OPED <GO>
For more top financial news: FTOP <GO>
--Editors: Marty Schenker, James Greiff.
Click on "Send Comment" button in sidebar display to send a
letter to the editor.
To contact the writer of this column:
Michael Lewis at mlewis1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James Greiff at +1-212-617-5801 or jgreiff@bloomberg.net
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Wall Street Proprietary Trading Goes Under Cover: Michael Lewis
2010-10-27 01:00:00.0 GMT
Commentary by Michael Lewis
Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- A few weeks ago we asked a simple
question: Why are the same Wall Street banks that lobbied so
hard to dilute the passages in the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul
bill banning proprietary trading now jettisoning their
proprietary trading groups, without so much as a whimper?
The law directs regulators to study the prop trading ban
for another 15 months before deciding how to enforce it: why is
Wall Street caving now?
The many answers offered by Wall Street insiders in
response boil down to a simple sentence: The banks have no
intention of ceasing their prop trading. They are merely
disguising the activity, by giving it some other name.
A former employee of JPMorgan, for instance, wrote to say
that the unit he recently worked for, called the Chief
Investment Office, advertised itself largely as a hedging
operation but was in fact making massive bets with JPMorgan's
capital. And it would of course continue to do so. JPMorgan
didn't respond to a request for comment.
The fullest explanation came from a former Lehman Brothers
corporate bond salesman named Robert Wosnitzer, who is now at
New York University, writing a dissertation on the history of
proprietary trading. He's been interviewing Wall Street bond
traders, he said, and they have been surprisingly open about
their intentions to exploit one obvious loophole in the new law.
The innocent eye might have trouble spotting this loophole.
The Dodd-Frank bill bans proprietary trading (Page 245: "Unless
otherwise provided in this section, a banking entity shall not
engage in proprietary trading") and then appears to make it
clear what that means (Page 565: "The term 'proprietary
trading' means the act of a (big Wall Street bank) investing as
a principal in securities, commodities, derivatives, hedge
funds, private equity firms, or such other financial products or
entities as the comptroller general may determine").
Invitation for Abuse
The big invitation for abuse, Wosnitzer says, lies in the
phrase "as a principal." It falls to the comptroller general -
- or, more specifically, the General Accountability Office,
which is overseen by the comptroller general -- to determine
precisely what the phrase means.
And, at the moment, the GAO pretty clearly hasn't the first
clue. ("We're really too early in the process to speak to how
we might define it," said spokeswoman Orice Williams Brown.)
Never mind: Wall Street is busily defining the term for
itself.
Make an Argument
"One trader I interviewed," Wosnitzer says, "said that
from here on out, if he wants to take a proprietary position in
a credit, he will argue that he bought the position because a
customer wanted to sell the position, and he was providing
liquidity; and in order to keep the trade on, he would merely
offer the bonds 10 basis points higher than the offered side, so
that he will in effect never get lifted out of the position,
while being able to say that he is offering the bonds for sale
to clients, but no one wants 'em. When the trade finally gets to
where he wants it -- i.e., either realizing full profit, or
slaughtered by losses -- he will then sell it on the bid side,
and move on.
Of course, there is all sorts of flawed logic here, but the
point is that...there are a hundred different ways to claim to
be acting as an agent or for a customer.''
This ambiguity is no doubt one reason the financial reform
bill passed in the first place. Even its clearest prohibitions
are couched in language inviting Wall Street to evade them.
But the new game of cat and mouse raises a simple, even
naive question: Why do these giant Wall Street firms want so
badly to make huge bets with their shareholders' capital?
Save Us
After all, the point of the ban on proprietary trading is
as much to save the banks from themselves as to save us from
them. We have just come through a period where putatively shrewd
individual bond traders lost not millions but billions of
dollars for their firms, by making really stupid bets.
Even before the crisis there was never any reason to think
that traders at big Wall Street firms had any special ability to
gamble in the financial markets. Anyone with a talent for
investing is unlikely to waste it on Morgan Stanley or Bank of
America; he'll use it for himself, or for some hedge fund, which
allows him to keep more of his returns.
And if this were true before the financial crisis it is
even more true after it, when trading inside a big Wall Street
bank will be less pleasant and more fraught with politics.
Yet Wall Street's biggest firms apparently still badly want
their traders to be allowed to roll the bones. Why?
What They Do
One answer -- which Wosnitzer points to -- is that this is
what Wall Street firms now mainly do. Beginning in the mid-
1980s, the Wall Street investment bank, seeing less and less
profit in the mere servicing of customers, ceased to organize
itself around its customers' needs, and began to build itself
around its own big and often abstruse gambles.
The outsized gains (and losses), the huge individual
paychecks, the growing ability of traders to bounce from firm to
firm from one year to the next, the tolerance for complexity
that doubles as opacity: all of the signature traits of modern
Wall Street follows from the willingness of the big firms to
allow small groups of traders to make giant bets with
shareholders' capital, which the shareholders themselves don't
and can't understand.
The new way of life began at Salomon Brothers in the early
1980s, right after it turned itself from a partnership into a
publicly traded corporation; but it soon spread to the others.
''That was the particular moment when a new culture of
finance crystallizes," Wosnitzer says. "And it restructures
all of finance. All of a sudden it's 'I made X, pay me X minus Y
or, screw you, I'm leaving.'"
Keep It Simple
There's a simple, straightforward way for the GAO to
construe the Dodd-Frank language, and it would reform Wall
Street in a single stroke: to ban any sort of position-taking at
the giant publicly owned banks. To say, simply: You are no
longer allowed to make bets in the same stocks and bonds that
you are selling to investors.
If that means that Goldman Sachs is no longer allowed to
make markets in corporate bonds, so be it. You can be Charles
Schwab, and advise investors; or you can be Citadel, and run
trading positions. But if you are Citadel you will be privately
owned. And if you blow up your firm, you will blow up yourself
in the bargain.
(Michael Lewis, most recently author of the best-selling
"The Big Short," is a columnist for Bloomberg News. The
opinions expressed are his own.)
For Related News and Information:
For more Lewis column: NI LEWIS <GO>
For more commentary: OPED <GO>
For more top financial news: FTOP <GO>
--Editors: Marty Schenker, James Greiff.
Click on "Send Comment" button in sidebar display to send a
letter to the editor.
To contact the writer of this column:
Michael Lewis at mlewis1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James Greiff at +1-212-617-5801 or jgreiff@bloomberg.net
(BN) EU Starts Talks With Switzerland on Linking CO2 Trading Systems
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
EU Starts Talks With Switzerland on Linking CO2 Trading Systems
2010-10-27 08:13:12.599 GMT
By Ewa Krukowska
Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union regulator has
started technical talks with Switzerland on linking that
country's emissions-trading system with the 27-nation bloc's
cap-and-trade carbon market, a senior European Commission
official said.
To forward the talks, the European Commission will need to
get a negotiating mandate from the EU member states, Yvon
Slingenberg, emissions-unit head at the commissions' climate
directorate, told a seminar in Brussels today
For Related News and Information:
Top stories: {TOP <GO>}
To contact the reporter on this story:
Ewa Krukowska in Brussels at +32-2-237-4331 or
ekrukowska@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jones Hayden at +32-2-285-4312 or
jhayden1@bloomberg.net
EU Starts Talks With Switzerland on Linking CO2 Trading Systems
2010-10-27 08:13:12.599 GMT
By Ewa Krukowska
Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union regulator has
started technical talks with Switzerland on linking that
country's emissions-trading system with the 27-nation bloc's
cap-and-trade carbon market, a senior European Commission
official said.
To forward the talks, the European Commission will need to
get a negotiating mandate from the EU member states, Yvon
Slingenberg, emissions-unit head at the commissions' climate
directorate, told a seminar in Brussels today
For Related News and Information:
Top stories: {TOP <GO>}
To contact the reporter on this story:
Ewa Krukowska in Brussels at +32-2-237-4331 or
ekrukowska@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jones Hayden at +32-2-285-4312 or
jhayden1@bloomberg.net
(BN) EU Should Wait Before UN Offset Ban, de Jonge Says (Update1)
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
EU Should Wait Before UN Offset Ban, de Jonge Says (Update1)
2010-10-27 12:35:14.194 GMT
(Adds regulator comments starting in second paragraph.)
By Mathew Carr
Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union should await
evidence from a probe of the United Nations emissions market
before deciding whether to ban some industrial-gas credits on
grounds of abuse, said the head of the investigating panel.
A ban based on abuse of credits from projects that cut
emissions of hydrofluorocarbons and other gases would be
premature if the EU didn't first assess evidence from the probe,
said Lex de Jonge, chairman of the Clean Development Mechanism
methodologies panel, speaking today by phone.
"As far as I can see there is no fraud," said de Jonge,
responding to media reports alleging abuse. "I think it is very
unlikely there is fraud. Is there something perverse? That's up
to the board to decide."
The European Commission, regulator of the EU market,
expects by November to publish an "impact assessment"
regarding offset restrictions. The commission seeks to limit the
use of credits from projects deemed to be improperly regulated
or excessively profitable for their developers.
The body may propose a ban on credits from projects that
reduce either hydrofluorocarbons, a waste product from the
manufacture of refrigerants, or nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas
emitted in the production of adipic acid, which is used to make
nylon and other polymers.
The EU decision "should wait until the board has spoken,"
assuming the bloc wants to change its rules at least partly
because of alleged abuse in the emissions market, de Jonge said.
Evidence from his panel is unlikely to be made public
before the CDM Executive Board begins a planned meeting in
Cancun, Mexico, on Nov. 22, de Jonge said. Some information
won't be disclosed because it might harm the competitive
position of emitters, he said.
Rule-Change Timeframe
Regulators may choose to immediately limit the volume of
credits from HFC-cutting projects. Alternatively, they may
impose restrictions only when projects seek credits for a second
crediting period of at least seven years, the chairman said. He
declined to comment on which of these two options is more
likely.
Under the UN system, companies receive credits as a reward
for financing projects designed to curb emissions by polluters
in developing, non-EU countries. Known as offset credits, they
can be sold to utilities and factories that then use them to
comply with emissions limits within the EU.
Enel SpA, Morgan Stanley and RWE AG are among investors in
hydrofluorocarbon credits, according to data compiled by
Bloomberg.
For Related News and Information:
Top Power Stories: PTOP <GO>
Emissions-trading stories: NI ENVMARKET BN <GO>
Today's top energy news: ETOP <GO>
European power-markets home page: EPWR <GO>
--Editors: Bruce Stanley, Rob Verdonck
To contact the reporters on this story:
Mathew Carr in London at +44-20-7073-3531 or
m.carr@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss on +44-20-7073-3520 or
sev@bloomberg.net
EU Should Wait Before UN Offset Ban, de Jonge Says (Update1)
2010-10-27 12:35:14.194 GMT
(Adds regulator comments starting in second paragraph.)
By Mathew Carr
Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union should await
evidence from a probe of the United Nations emissions market
before deciding whether to ban some industrial-gas credits on
grounds of abuse, said the head of the investigating panel.
A ban based on abuse of credits from projects that cut
emissions of hydrofluorocarbons and other gases would be
premature if the EU didn't first assess evidence from the probe,
said Lex de Jonge, chairman of the Clean Development Mechanism
methodologies panel, speaking today by phone.
"As far as I can see there is no fraud," said de Jonge,
responding to media reports alleging abuse. "I think it is very
unlikely there is fraud. Is there something perverse? That's up
to the board to decide."
The European Commission, regulator of the EU market,
expects by November to publish an "impact assessment"
regarding offset restrictions. The commission seeks to limit the
use of credits from projects deemed to be improperly regulated
or excessively profitable for their developers.
The body may propose a ban on credits from projects that
reduce either hydrofluorocarbons, a waste product from the
manufacture of refrigerants, or nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas
emitted in the production of adipic acid, which is used to make
nylon and other polymers.
The EU decision "should wait until the board has spoken,"
assuming the bloc wants to change its rules at least partly
because of alleged abuse in the emissions market, de Jonge said.
Evidence from his panel is unlikely to be made public
before the CDM Executive Board begins a planned meeting in
Cancun, Mexico, on Nov. 22, de Jonge said. Some information
won't be disclosed because it might harm the competitive
position of emitters, he said.
Rule-Change Timeframe
Regulators may choose to immediately limit the volume of
credits from HFC-cutting projects. Alternatively, they may
impose restrictions only when projects seek credits for a second
crediting period of at least seven years, the chairman said. He
declined to comment on which of these two options is more
likely.
Under the UN system, companies receive credits as a reward
for financing projects designed to curb emissions by polluters
in developing, non-EU countries. Known as offset credits, they
can be sold to utilities and factories that then use them to
comply with emissions limits within the EU.
Enel SpA, Morgan Stanley and RWE AG are among investors in
hydrofluorocarbon credits, according to data compiled by
Bloomberg.
For Related News and Information:
Top Power Stories: PTOP <GO>
Emissions-trading stories: NI ENVMARKET BN <GO>
Today's top energy news: ETOP <GO>
European power-markets home page: EPWR <GO>
--Editors: Bruce Stanley, Rob Verdonck
To contact the reporters on this story:
Mathew Carr in London at +44-20-7073-3531 or
m.carr@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss on +44-20-7073-3520 or
sev@bloomberg.net
also from xinhua.China sets emission cuts as "binding
China sets emission cuts as "binding goals" in 2011-15 period
2010-10-27 13:18:37 GMT2010-10-27 21:18:37 (Beijing Time) Xinhua English
BEIJING, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- China is set to make the reduction of energy consumption intensity and carbon dioxide emission "binding goals" in the 2011-15 period, according to a proposal released by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Wednesday.
The move is part of China's endeavor to cope with global climate change and is aimed at "effectively controlling" greenhouse gas emissions in the country, says the CPC Central Committee's Proposal for Formulating the 12th Five-Year Program for China's Economic and Social Development (2011-2015).h The country would devote major efforts to boosting the efficiency of energy use, developing a "recycling economy", promoting the economic use of natural resources and strengthening environmental and ecological protection, it says.
The proposal, widely considered as a blueprint that will play a crucial role in shaping the country's development over the next five years, was adopted at the Fifth Plenum of the 17th CPC Central Committee.
http://english.sina.com/china/2010/1027/345415.html
2010-10-27 13:18:37 GMT2010-10-27 21:18:37 (Beijing Time) Xinhua English
BEIJING, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- China is set to make the reduction of energy consumption intensity and carbon dioxide emission "binding goals" in the 2011-15 period, according to a proposal released by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Wednesday.
The move is part of China's endeavor to cope with global climate change and is aimed at "effectively controlling" greenhouse gas emissions in the country, says the CPC Central Committee's Proposal for Formulating the 12th Five-Year Program for China's Economic and Social Development (2011-2015).h The country would devote major efforts to boosting the efficiency of energy use, developing a "recycling economy", promoting the economic use of natural resources and strengthening environmental and ecological protection, it says.
The proposal, widely considered as a blueprint that will play a crucial role in shaping the country's development over the next five years, was adopted at the Fifth Plenum of the 17th CPC Central Committee.
http://english.sina.com/china/2010/1027/345415.html
(BN) China May Set Up Carbon Market in Next 5 Years, Xinhua
go china
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
China May Set Up Carbon Market in Next 5 Years, Xinhua Says
2010-10-27 12:41:33.284 GMT
By Bloomberg News
Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- China may set up a carbon emissions
trading market by 2015 "on a gradual basis," the official
Xinhua News Agency reported today, citing the Communist Party's
suggestions on the country's 12th five-year plans, without
giving details.
For Related News and Information:
Top Stories:{TOP<GO>}
To contact the reporter on this story:
Ying Wang in Beijing at +86-10-6649-7562 or
ywang30@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Ben Richardson at +852-2977-6467 or
brichardson8@bloomberg.net
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
China May Set Up Carbon Market in Next 5 Years, Xinhua Says
2010-10-27 12:41:33.284 GMT
By Bloomberg News
Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- China may set up a carbon emissions
trading market by 2015 "on a gradual basis," the official
Xinhua News Agency reported today, citing the Communist Party's
suggestions on the country's 12th five-year plans, without
giving details.
For Related News and Information:
Top Stories:{TOP<GO>}
To contact the reporter on this story:
Ying Wang in Beijing at +86-10-6649-7562 or
ywang30@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Ben Richardson at +852-2977-6467 or
brichardson8@bloomberg.net
?(BN) Emerging Markets More Optimistic on Tackling Climate,
misinformed? comments our way
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Emerging Markets More Optimistic on Tackling Climate, HSBC Says
2010-10-27 07:01:56.204 GMT
By Ben Sharples
Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- People in China, India and other
emerging economies in Asia are more optimistic than developed
nations that climate change can be halted, an international
survey by HSBC Holdings Plc shows.
Thirty-three percent of respondents from Vietnam, 32
percent from India and 29 percent from China believe that
climate change can be stopped, according to the 'HSBC Climate
Confidence Monitor,' which surveyed 15,000 people across 15
markets. This compares with 9 percent in the U.S. and 8 percent
in Australia, the bank said in an e-mailed statement today.
Abatement initiatives funded by governments are seen as the
most effective policies to tackle climate change, when compared
with a carbon tax or emissions trading, the survey shows. It
covered France, Germany, Hong Kong, Canada, Singapore, the U.K.,
Australia, Brazil, Mexico, China, the U.S., Japan, Malaysia,
India and Vietnam.
Australia in April shelved climate change laws until after
2012 amid lawmaker opposition and a lack of action by other
countries. Prime Minister Julia Gillard has established a
multiparty committee to study options for introducing a price on
carbon, including a market-based emissions-trading system, a tax
or a "hybrid" of both.
"The climate business sector is growing fast and emerging
markets are leading the way," said Paul Maia, Sydney-based
chief executive officer of HSBC Bank Australia. "Australia also
has a role to play."
One in 10 Australians is confident their leaders are
addressing climate change, compared with a global average of 19
percent, the survey shows. Twenty-seven percent of Australians
surveyed said they are making a personal effort to reduce
climate change, down from 29 percent a year ago, and compared
with 64 percent of Chinese respondents.
For Related News and Information:
Top stories: TOP AU <GO>
Top energy stories: ETOP <GO>
Top environment stories: GREEN <GO>
--Editors: John Viljoen, John Chacko.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Ben Sharples in Melbourne at +61-3-9228-8732 or
bsharples@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Clyde Russell at +65-6311-2423 or
crussell7@bloomberg.net.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Emerging Markets More Optimistic on Tackling Climate, HSBC Says
2010-10-27 07:01:56.204 GMT
By Ben Sharples
Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- People in China, India and other
emerging economies in Asia are more optimistic than developed
nations that climate change can be halted, an international
survey by HSBC Holdings Plc shows.
Thirty-three percent of respondents from Vietnam, 32
percent from India and 29 percent from China believe that
climate change can be stopped, according to the 'HSBC Climate
Confidence Monitor,' which surveyed 15,000 people across 15
markets. This compares with 9 percent in the U.S. and 8 percent
in Australia, the bank said in an e-mailed statement today.
Abatement initiatives funded by governments are seen as the
most effective policies to tackle climate change, when compared
with a carbon tax or emissions trading, the survey shows. It
covered France, Germany, Hong Kong, Canada, Singapore, the U.K.,
Australia, Brazil, Mexico, China, the U.S., Japan, Malaysia,
India and Vietnam.
Australia in April shelved climate change laws until after
2012 amid lawmaker opposition and a lack of action by other
countries. Prime Minister Julia Gillard has established a
multiparty committee to study options for introducing a price on
carbon, including a market-based emissions-trading system, a tax
or a "hybrid" of both.
"The climate business sector is growing fast and emerging
markets are leading the way," said Paul Maia, Sydney-based
chief executive officer of HSBC Bank Australia. "Australia also
has a role to play."
One in 10 Australians is confident their leaders are
addressing climate change, compared with a global average of 19
percent, the survey shows. Twenty-seven percent of Australians
surveyed said they are making a personal effort to reduce
climate change, down from 29 percent a year ago, and compared
with 64 percent of Chinese respondents.
For Related News and Information:
Top stories: TOP AU <GO>
Top energy stories: ETOP <GO>
Top environment stories: GREEN <GO>
--Editors: John Viljoen, John Chacko.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Ben Sharples in Melbourne at +61-3-9228-8732 or
bsharples@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Clyde Russell at +65-6311-2423 or
crussell7@bloomberg.net.
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