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Global Climate Plan May Emerge From Regional Responses (Update1)
2010-10-13 03:21:15.516 GMT
(Updates with OMFinancial comment in fifth paragraph.)
By Ben Sharples
Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Climate change policy is likely to
be driven by regional responses before an international
agreement is put in place, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said.
"Instead of the top-down Kyoto coming down, we're going to
see it come up," Odin Knudsen, the managing director of
environmental markets at the New York-based bank and a former
head of the World Bank Carbon Fund, said at a conference in
Melbourne today. "We'll break down to regional, and at some
point later on, we may see an international, legally binding
agreement. In the interim, we'll have something like the
Copenhagen accord, which will be the political commitment."
At the Copenhagen climate conference in December, delegates
were planning to finish a two-year effort to replace the 1997
Kyoto Protocol, which limits emissions through 2012. Instead,
they clashed over aid to developing countries, pollution-
reduction goals and how to verify individual pledges. No binding
treaty was adopted. The next round of international talks is
scheduled to start at the end of November in Cancun, Mexico.
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. New Zealand started an emissions trading system in July.
"We really want to see Australia come into the game
because we think there's some interesting regional dynamics that
can take place," Nigel Brunel, head of futures and equities at
Auckland-based OMFinancial Ltd., said at the conference.
Domino Affect
A climate change accord with three to four countries should
be the focus, rather than trying to get 140 countries to agree
on a binding treaty, Aldersgate Group Chairman Peter Young said
in an address yesterday. The London-based company is a coalition
of businesses, organizations and individuals including United
Utilities Group Plc and the Renewable Energy Association.
"There are only four countries, or regions that matter in
the developed world," Guy Turner, director of carbon markets
for Bloomberg New Energy Finance in London, said today. "Europe,
U.S., Australia and Japan. If Australia follows after Europe, I
guarantee that Japan will take it a lot more seriously and then
you only have one domino left, and that's the U.S."
Australia's multi-party climate change committee has all
options on the table about pricing carbon, Gillard told the
Queensland Media Club in Brisbane yesterday. The committee will
meet until the end of 2011, and will then consider how much
progress has been made before making policy proposals, she said.
For Related News and Information:
Top stories: TOP AU <GO>
Top energy stories: ETOP <GO>
Top environment stories: GREEN <GO>
--Editors: Clyde Russell, Jane Lee.
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
