3p Contributor: Tom Schueneman
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3p on Carbon Trading: Will Markets Solve the Climate Crisis?
Carbon offsets, carbon exchange markets, emissions credits, cap and trade, emissions trading. These assorted terms all describe the various forms of carbon trading, from the individual wishing to offset his or her airline flight, to heavy industry compliance with federally mandated emissions reductions schemes, to the speculator simply plying the market for profit. While the mechanics may differ from one program to the next, the fundamental idea is the same – the commoditization of carbon emissions.
By putting a price on carbon, market forces are brought to bear on the costs of emissions on the environment, sustainability, and human health. Costs that without such a mechanism are simply externalized. But sooner or later these market externalities must be accounted for. When the true costs are assessed through carbon trading, emissions are reduced, and investments in the transition to the coming new energy economy are given priority. Or at least that is the idea. What is the reality?
Follow along with Triple Pundit’s new carbon trading series as we pick the brains of some of the top experts in the field of carbon trading, carbon markets, and emissions reduction programs.
The Copenhagen Accord – Final Thoughts on COP15
Get the full text of the Copenhagen Accord (pdf – advance unedited version).
This will be my last post under the banner “The Road to Copenhagen.” Much punditry, on this site and elsewhere, comes in the wake of the now-ended COP15 climate conference. I will likely not have much to add as I recover from my 28-hour journey home (one missed connection can really spoil your day) and begin to take stock of the last two weeks. There is talk of “heartbreaking disappointment” resulting from the process and the Copenhagen Accord which it bore, and I am forced to question the wisdom of placing this disappointment solely at the feet of COP15.
Schwarzenegger at COP15: Business, Innovators, Entrepreneurs the “Real Solution”
This afternoon (Copenhagen time), California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger praised the efforts of the scientist, entrepreneur, capitalist, innovator, and activist as the fundamental source of change on climate.
As important as they are, Schwarzenegger said, national agreements “will never do enough.” Real progress comes at the sub-national level – the “iconoclast and individual citizen.” Recalling that great movements “begin with people” and not with government. Schwarzenegger recalled the labor movement, women’s suffrage, civil rights, and the Vietnam anti-war movement as examples of how human progress requires individual agents of change, not in the “halls of power.”
As important as the proceedings here in Copenhagen may be, for Schwarzenegger, the real power rests in those who actively work every day for positive change.
Over to you, readers of Triple Pundit.
Following is the governor’s speech:
Copenhagen: A Week Is an Eternity and I’ve Been Here Forever
So you think you’re burned out on COP15…
I’ve got a confession to make. I’m tired. I’m tired of the posturing, of the chanting, of the myriad ways the same issues can be endlessly bandied about. Rich vs. poor, north vs. south, 1.5 degrees vs. 2 degrees, who pays, who’s responsible, talk of “real deals,” evasive answers from Yvo, and the gauntlet of NGOs pushing the same piece of paper in my face they did yesterday (as of several days ago, if an organization doesn’t have information I can read online, they’ve lost me).
We’re all fired up. We’re all full of passion. We all want to change the world (well not everyone). But at the end of the day I wonder what all this will mean when we look back in ten years time, or twenty.
“Leaked Text” Shows Movement in Climate Talks – Heavy Lifting Remains
The talk in the halls of the Bella Center this afternoon revolved around the so-called “leaked text” of papers presented in plenary sessions by the chairs of both working groups (AWG-KP and AWG-LCA) that broadly outline the current “state of play” in COP15 negotiations, as UNFCCC executive secretary Yvo de Boer characterized it at today’s press briefing.
The specific text of the document was, at last check, still not “cleared for the press,” but the “word on the street” is for a 50 percent cut in global emissions by 2050 (no surprise there), and an aggregate emissions reduction of 25 percent from developed countries by 2020 (all targets referenced to 1990 levels). The 2020 mid-term target implies steeper cuts from developed nations than what has thus far been offered. (Update: draft texts are now available for the AWG-LCA andAWG-KP)
News Brief: Is “Legally Binding” Back on the Table?
I am just now at a daily press briefing by Climate Action Network International at the COP15 climate conference in Copenhagen. Tove Ryding of Greenpeace has suggested that, in large part due to the actions this week of small island nations, especially Tuvalu, and other of the more vulnerable states that have demanded action aggressive action from the international community in the coming days in Copenhagen, that “legally binding” is now back on the table.
In a few minutes there will be the daily briefing from Yvo de Boer. It will be interesting to see what the official word from the UNFCCC will be.
Ministers begin arriving tomorrow for informal talks, and heads of state on Wednesday.
UN Climate Chief Comments on EPA Endangerment Finding
In concert with the opening of the COP15 climate talks here in Copenhagen, the EPA finalized their endangerment finding on Monday that specifies carbon emissions as a threat to human health and well being (see Bill DiBenedetto’s detailed post from yesterday).
At yesterday’s press briefing UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer was asked what influence the decision would have on the outcome of the conference:
“If I were a businessman,” de Boer replied, “I would say please, please, please do a deal in Copenhagen – and please, please, make it market-based. Because if we fail to get a market-based agreement here, and if the US Senate fails to agree cap-and-trade, then the regulatory agency will be obliged to regulate. Every business knows that taxes and regulation will be a lot less efficient and a lot more expensive than a market-based approach.”
Copenhagen: Why Bother?
With little more than a week to go before the start of the COP15 climate change conference in Copenhagen, the “Road to Copenhagen” starts to sound a little tired, even as participants prepare for actually heading to Copenhagen.
With the roller-coaster-like ride of pre-COP15 news, reeling from despair to faint glimmers of hope* that something positive and substantial will emerge from Copenhagen in mid-December, the question for many concerned about climate change, or who are considering going to COP15, is:
If Copenhagen is just another step in the long process from Kyoto to Bali to Copenhagen to… why bother?
Obama Announces He Will Attend COP15 Climate Conference
The White House officially announced today that President Barack Obama will go to Copenhagen to attend the COP15 climate conference, a commitment Obama has thus far been reticent to make, saying that he would attend only if his presence would help secure a successful outcome in the climate negotiations.
It now appears as if he feels his attendance will do just that. President Obama plans on giving a speech at the conference on December 9th as he makes his way to Sweden to pick up his Noble Peace Prize on the 10th.
The White House also confirmed that the US will finally agree to put “numbers on the table” in negotiations, with a proposal to cut emissions “in the range” of 17 percent below 2005 levels, in line with the targets mandated in the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill passed in the House of Representative this summer.
The reference year for the target is 2005, instead of the more internationally accepted 1990. The targets are below other developed nations target and are significantly off the 40 percent cut below 1990 levels that developing nations say is necessary to begin effectively dealing with climate change.
Nonetheless, Obama’s commitment to lend his presence to the process, and the firm targets proposed by the US, represent progress and leadership that has heretofore been absent in the negotiating process. It isn’t enough, but it is a start.
Avoiding COP15 Burnout with “Expectation Management”
“Climate change and climate policy in Europe and the U.S. – Opportunities and Challenges in the Run-up to the Copenhagen Summit and beyond”
Thus was billed a recent conference I attended last week at the Aspen Wye River Conference center located in rural Maryland along the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. The two-day conference was yet another step in the Transatlantic Climate Bridge began earlier this year between Germany and the U.S. in hopes of fostering greater understanding and cooperation on energy and climate issues, especially now in the final days before the Copenhagen summit.
The conference brought together journalists from both sides of the pond, along with a select group of advisors, consultants, negotiators, and policy experts on the front line of the issues facing the world next month in Copenhagen. Since the journalists (and blogger) at the conference are subject to the Chatham House rules, I am not able to attribute specific positions to any particular speaker, but the ideas discussed and the perceptions explored in the dialog are worth summarizing – kicking it off with the burning question in the wake of news over the weekend that world leaders have “agreed not to agree” to a fully binding treaty at COP15: Is there any real hope left for “success” in Copenhagen?
In a word, yes. There is not only hope, but a realistic chance for success at Copenhagen. That is, if we can engage in “expectation management” and tailor a definition of success within those expectations – let the qualifications begin.
Barcelona Climate Talks End after a Week of Boycotts- Next Stop: Copenhagen
The final week of climate negotiations in Barcelona have now ended. The last meeting before the main event in Copenhagen next month served to emphasize the lingering stalemate between rich and poor nations, and the equally unmoving impasse between political factions in the United States.
On Tuesday, delegations from 50 African nations boycotted the climate talks in Barcelona, insisting that developed nations must make stronger commitments for short-term emissions reduction targets – specifically in the neighborhood of 40% of 1990 levels by 2020 (in contrast, the Waxman-Markey bill that passed the House last summer, when referenced to 1990 levels, targets only about a 7% reduction in emissions). In Washington, Republicans in the Energy and Public Works Committee (EPW) staged their own boycott, failing to show for a markup session of the Kerry-Boxer climate and energy bill. The reason, they claimed, was because the bill needs more cost analysis from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Democrats countered, saying it was simply a stalling tactic, and that there is already extensive analysis in place. The ranking Republican on the EPW committee is Senator James Inhofe, who is nothing if not a vociferous climate change denier. The ability for the United States to break through their political logjam will directly influence how negotiations play out at the COP15 climate conference next month.
Talks resumed in Barcelona onWednesday, but key issues of mitigation targets and financing remain largely unchanged on Friday from where they started on Monday; the Democrats in the EPW Committee passed the Kerry-Boxer climate bill out of committee on an 11-1 without the Republicans present. Thus the stage is set, for better or worse, and there is but one stop left on the Road to Copenhagen. UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer delivers his closing press briefing in the following video (see also Ben Jervey’s analysis from earlier this week.)
Facing Reality in Copenhagen
The days grow short and with it the time left to lay a foundation that leads to an international climate treaty to which all nations – rich and poor, north and south – can agree.
As Copenhagen braces for an influx of delegates, press, policy experts, and leaders from all corners of the globe this December, many begin to brace for a new definition of what will constitute success at the COP15 climate talks. A definition based less on the “do-or-die” high expectations of a signed treaty by the end of the year and more on the reality of the work left to accomplish a deal and the time available to accomplish it.
It may be too much to hope that delegates negotiate a final resolution to the issues that carve a persistently wide gulf between developed and developing nations. Momentum for real progress has been slow going (though it’s building as a sense of urgency mounts).
Rich nations still squabble amongst themselves and developing nations aren’t too keen on forsaking their expanding fossil-fueled wealth, just when it really gets going–especially when nations already fat and happy on coal and oil seem unwilling to pull their own weight.
The situation isn’t likely to change much, at least not by December. Is COP15 therefore destined to fail? Not necessarily – even with the intractable issues before it.
Highlights From “Unfinished Business” Report on Energy and Climate
At a press briefing this morning, the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs from leading U.S. companies, discussed key points from their just-released report entitled Unfinished Business: The Missing Elements of a Sustainable Energy and Climate Policy (pdf).
Building on the organization’s previous reports, More Diverse, More Domestic, More Efficient (pdf) and The Balancing Act (pdf), John Castellani, Business Roundtable president, and Mike Morris, Business Roundtable’s chairman of the Sustainable Growth Initiative and president and CEO of American Electric Power Company, laid out a broad framework they feel Congress needs to address to pave the way toward a sustainable new energy economy.
100 Places to Remember
There are rising CO2 ppm numbers, warming and increasingly acidic oceans, shifting species populations, shrinking arctic sea-ice cover and volume… all manner of facts, figures, and data-crunching computer models to aid scientists in understanding the nature and consequences of climate disruption.
But there’s a more visceral aspect to global warming.
A feeling summoned even in the most cynical soul by a world still full of beauty and wonder, it is a strained thread that connects each human to the Earth and belies the competing economic models, political affiliations, and tribal xenophobias that have plagued humanity throughout time. But our time is different, and the consequences of our actions so enormous that we must be reminded what binds us together in a common global fate.
It is for that connection to the Earth we each share, for better or worse, that inspired Søren Rud to organize 100 Places to Remember Before They Disappear, a photo exhibition recently opened in Copenhagen. Meant as an inspiration for “the common person,” 100 Places is also a call to action for world leaders as they soon converge on the city to negotiate a climate treaty at the COP15 Climate Conference this December (and what inspires this post on Blog Action Day).
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