Weak consumption in the People’s Republic of China will partly offset robust domestic demand in South Asia. Disinflation is expected to continue, driven by lower food and energy prices, along with the lagged effects of previous monetary policy tightening. The region’s high-income technology exporters remain a bright spot, benefiting from …
In October 2007 the UN Chief Executives Board approved the UN Climate Neutral Strategy, which committed all UN agencies, funds and programmes to move towards climate neutrality within the wider context of greening the UN. This report provides a progress update on implementation of the strategy. It includes details of …
Emissions trading is the European Union’s flagship measure for tackling climate change, and it is failing badly. In theory it provides a cheap and efficient means to limit greenhouse gas reductions within an ever-tightening cap, but in practice it has rewarded major polluters with windfall profits, while undermining efforts to …
This paper assesses the practical contribution of the Gold Standard (GS) and Climate Community and Biodiversity (CCB) Standards to local development through the identification of high quality carbon offset projects and ensuring high standards of consultation with local communities during project development and implementation. It is based on desk research, …
The federal government is investing $60 million in three major studies on the effects of climate change on crops and forests to help ensure farmers and foresters can continue producing food and timber while trying to limit the impact of a changing environment. The three studies take a new approach …
International greenhouse gas offset credits from developing countries could play a major role in fulfilling developed countries’ emission reduction pledges under the Cancún Agreements, but there is great uncertainty about the future role of such offsets. This paper focuses on a key question: whether both the developing countries generating the …
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), established under the Kyoto Protocol, is the primary international offset program in existence today. It generates offsets through investments in GHG reduction, avoidance, and sequestration projects in developing countries. These offset credits, called Certified Emission Reduction credits (CERs), represent a reduction in one metric ton …
Why doesn’t carbon trading work? The basic argument for carbon trade is that since global warming is a worldwide phenomenon it does not matter where the emissions are reduced. But it creates pollution hotspots. If the larger energy crisis underlying the problem is to be addressed, the entire energy system—how …
In a development that could impact Indian companies trading in carbon credits, the European Commission (EU) has said it would ban the most common type of offsets, for use in the EU emissions
Anyone coming to offsetting for the first time could be forgiven for thinking they'd fallen into an alphabet soup. So here's a (very simple) guide to the essentials.
Meena Menon MUMBAI: Sharp divisions have emerged over the forestry agreement at Cancun which faces opposition from various indigenous people's networks around the world and forest rights campaigners in India. Ironically, projects on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation plus (REDD-plus) face opposition in Mexico itself. Some groups of …
The European Union's executive Commission has proposed banning from 2013 the most common types of carbon offsets, mostly from India and China, to help restore credibility to the disputed system. The move introduces a new note of controversy into climate talks in Cancun, Mexico next week, but may help by …
Investors in "green" assets hope that upcoming U.N. climate talks in Mexico will salvage a deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions in 2011, and in the meantime widen and simplify existing carbon markets. The U.N. process could boost the private sector if it builds trust in global climate action and …
This paper presents methodologies for using social cost of carbon estimates to address the value of temporarily stored carbon and the implications of that value in the context of biological offsets and life-cycle analyses of the GHG content of biofuels. The paper is designed to advance the dialogue in these …
A Tanzanian reforestation project has become the first forestry investment to be issued carbon offsets under an industry-backed standard that assures investors the emission reductions are credible and long-term. The Voluntary Carbon Standard said on Thursday the first batch of credits had been issued this week and placed in the …
Nearly 270 companies responsible for more than half of Taiwan's greenhouse gas pollution have agreed to supply emissions data to the government to help it launch a carbon offset scheme, officials said on Tuesday. Taiwan's Environmental Protection Administration passed rules on September 10 in which companies were requested to supply …
Nuclear and renewables both have a part to play in meeting Britain's future energy needs, Energy Secretary Chris Huhne said on Tuesday, adding it was not a choice between one or the other. Huhne's statement is in line with Britain's coalition agreement but he made it to delegates at the …
Efforts to mitigate climate change through the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) depend on mapping and monitoring of tropical forest carbon stocks and emissions over large geographic areas. With a new integrated use of satellite imaging, airborne light detection and ranging, and field plots, we mapped aboveground carbon …
