Flashback: World Bank Says Carbon Credit Markets Will Outlast Kyoko Protocol Which Runs Out in 2012; EPA Will Continue Imposing Carbon-permitting Regime

Kyoto 2012 Deadline Tests Carbon Investors

July 14, 2010

Reuters - Uncertainty over what will happen to the carbon market after the current round of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012 may lead some financiers to hold off on green projects in Southeast Asia, investors said on Wednesday.

Such investment is needed to shore up supply of carbon offsets for emissions trading schemes in Europe and other countries which have agreed carbon caps meant to slow climate change.

Singapore's third largest lender United Overseas Bank is adopting a wait-and-see attitude before investing in projects that aim to earn carbon credits under the UN-backed clean development mechanism (CDM), its executive director said at a green investment conference in Jakarta.

"We are keeping our options open. We don't need to rush in," said Mark Yeo Wee Tiong, adding that UOB had not yet backed any CDM projects.

Carbon offsets are meant to ease the cost of meeting such caps, by supplementing domestic carbon cuts with reductions paid for overseas.

But while Europe's trading scheme will continue beyond 2020, the international agreement that sets the framework for the world's carbon credit market, the Kyoto Protocol, runs out in 2012. Global climate talks in Copenhagen last year failed to produce a new deal.

Frederic Crampe, managing director of ReEx Capital Asia -- which arranges financing for green projects -- told Reuters there was huge potential for CDM projects in Southeast Asia.

"But we are so close to 2012 that we are in a very bad period," he said. "By the time you have built your project and got your approvals, 2012 is already here."

China and India have been the biggest source of carbon offsets. Now investors are eyeing projects such as mini-hydro power, waste water and geothermal in Indonesia, but policy uncertainty and a lack of incentives are holding back deals.

However, Moe Moe Oo, managing director for Swedish carbon credit trader Tricorona AB -- which sources financing for greenhouse gas reduction projects and trades the offsets -- said it was business-as-usual for his firm.

"But because there's no post-2012 agreement in place, those investors that might have invested a few years ago are not willing to take the risk," he said, adding the 2012 uncertainty added an extra risk to green investments in countries with unpredictable regulatory regimes, like Indonesia.

Globally, the number of CDM projects entering the pipeline rose by 130 in June, the highest monthly increase since October 2008, according to the United Nations Environment Program.

A recent poll showed that nearly 70 percent of clean energy project developers in India believed there would be a post-2012 successor to the Kyoto protocol and the World Bank has said carbon markets would outlast the Kyoto Protocol.

Rahul Kar, a director at KPMG Singapore, said he thought the carbon credit market was actually quite bullish, adding that some market players may be "spreading rumors to drive down the prices."

"But there is a strong signal of continuation in the market. The world doesn't stop at 2012."

Rep. Barton on Obama’s BP Speech, Cap & Trade

June 16, 2010

LibertyCentral.org -This morning Liberty Central staff caught up with Congressman Joe Barton, the senior Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Barton shared his thoughts on the response to the Gulf oil spill, and the effort to use the spill to promote energy rationing through cap and trade.



Q+A: Obama's speech and U.S. energy legislation

Cap & Trade: Senate Votes ‘Present’

June 12, 2010

LibertyCentral.org - On June 10, the Senate voted by a margin of 53-47 not to block the EPA from imposing a cap-and-trade style energy rationing plan. Without Congress having acted, the EPA will now continue imposing a carbon-permitting regime. As the Examiner points out, this is an intentional abdication of legislative authority:

Fifty three of the Senate’s 59 Democrats gave unelected, overpaid bureaucrats at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a green light yesterday to do pretty much whatever they choose in their quixotic crusade against global warming. All 41 Republicans and six brave Democrats voted for Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s resolution nullifying the EPA’s recent usurpation of authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate the U.S. economy to combat greenhouse gases. Thankfully, this craven surrender of congressional authority isn’t the last word on the issue, assuming that the November elections produce a Senate with enough backbone to reassert the legislature’s rightful power.

The last line is critical. While this Congress will not stop the new regulations from the EPA, future Congresses still can. When you consider the candidates running for Congress in your district, and for the Senate from your state, consider where they stand on energy rationing. Did your Senator support the Murkowski resolution? Has your Representative cosponsored the House resolution to block the EPA move? Find out, and remember when you go to the polls.

Senate Ignores America & Votes “No” on the Murkowski Resolution

June 10, 2010

LibertyCentral.org - “We the People” are watching this administration change our culture – one bill at a time. Despite being a new organization, nearly 300 members of Liberty Central’s online community called Congress and 7,414 sent emails to their Members of Congress, all urging them to vote “yes” on the Murkowski Resolution.

Our voices were loud, clear, and consistent: a “yes” vote was for America, our Founding Principles, and the preservation of our liberty and prosperity. “No” was a covert way to impose cap and trade – by giving the EPA power to do so – which will ultimately drive up our energy costs and take away our liberties.

Yet, despite this, the Senate voted down the Murkowski Resolution 53-47. Mark Levin rightly says that ‘we lost a lot of liberty today.’

Those who voted for this EPA-imposed energy rationing plan should understand one thing — and one thing only — we will remember this in November. There are less than 100 people destroying all that we know in America and there are millions who will do all they can, within the rule of law, to protect it from this corrupt Administration and Congress.

Click here for the final votes by state.

Global Warming Report Jumps the Gun

June 8, 2010

LibertyCentral.org - As the Senate comes up to a vote on SJ Res 26 in an effort to stop cap and trade, scientists with the National Academy of Sciences may have jumped the gun on the scientific data in issuing a report supporting the man-made global warming theory. Their backing of the theory comes as a research project begins which promises to significantly alter our thoughts on the topic.

An excellent piece from Jeffery Folks at The American Thinker notes that even the report acknowledges the surprising timing of the report, for “Buried near the end of the NAS report is the admission that “knowledge about future climate change and possible impacts will evolve.””

The article continues:

This being the case, how can the NAS panel be so confident in its “compelling case that climate change is occurring and is caused in large part by human activities”? Since the NAS panel is well aware of the fact that knowledge about climate change “will evolve,” why is it in such a hurry to insist that Americans switch from fossil fuels to impractical alternatives? Especially when a major research project will soon report results that may alter the science in dramatic ways?

What is this “major research project?”

This project, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide Ice Core Project, is studying the record of climate change over the past hundred thousand years based on ice core samples that preserve greenhouse gases, soot levels, and other indicators. There is speculation that natural cycles of warming that resulted in enormous ancient wildfires may have caused CO2 levels to increase. It may well be that CO2 levels did not cause warming, but the other way around. If confirmed, this theory would refute the notion that CO2 levels cause the earth to warm. The WAIS Divide Project should help to resolve this issue, so why has the NAS published its report at this particular time? By waiting just one year, the NAS panel would have been able to incorporate evidence from the WAIS Divide Project — evidence that would either strengthen their case or rebut it entirely. I am surprised that a scientific panel would not vote to delay its report in light of such ongoing research.

As far as surprises go, that makes many of us.

More Wins Needed in Climate Talks: World Bank

June 22, 2010

Reuters - World climate talks set for November in Mexico could make progress on how poorer states cope with global warming, but more wins are needed at the table to produce a big breakthrough at the long-running talks, a senior World Bank official said.

Broad differences over emission targets and who should pay for poorer nations as they struggle with climate changes have stymies negotiations to forge a new global climate deal.

In an interview, Kathy Sierra, World Bank vice-president for sustainable development, which includes the environment, said small steps in Mexico could go a long way to build the confidence to take on tough issues like binding cuts on emissions.

"I think what we need is some successes. And some successes on some of the things that are ripe and some that are a little tougher, so that you get confidence on both sides," she said.

But Sierra is optimistic the groups could make some progress on important issues, including how to help impoverished countries pay for the battle against climate change, such as funding more green fuel projects.

"Most observers feel that there is room to make a couple of leaps forward," said Sierra. "It may not be the fully fledged negotiation of a treaty but there are pieces that people are hoping will come together."

Those pieces, said Sierra, include making headway on financing to help poor countries reduce deforestation and protect their tropical forests.

Six months after climate negotiators emerged disappointed with the results of talks in Copenhagen, Sierra said momentum was picking up again to reach a new pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

The Copenhagen meeting failed to reach a deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions. But it resulted in an accord that earmarked $30 billion annually over the next three years to help poor states tackle climate change.

"Things were more muted after Copenhagen ... there was a lot of pause in the system ... but my sense from our contacts now is that people have regrouped and while yes, there is a very difficult fiscal environment in (advanced economies), that doesn't mean we should stop," Sierra added, referring to the rising fiscal deficits among Western countries.

She said rich countries were focused on trying to build trust among developing countries by meeting the $30 billion a year funding mark agreed in Copenhagen.

Increasing that to an agreed $100 billion annually by 2020 will, however, be a challenge given budget strains in advanced economies, she added.

"Whether and how the larger sum of money is going to be mobilized in this environment is difficult," she noted.

LOW-CARBON ENVIRONMENT

As Sierra prepares to leave the World Bank after a 32-year career, she said developing nations were increasingly focused on moving toward a low-carbon environment and were looking to the World Bank to help them fund that transition.

She said the World Bank was about to appoint a high-level expert to help the bank make available the best renewable energy technologies on the market.

Sierra said the World Bank was increasing funding available for clean energy projects, such as small and mid-sized hydropower projects and solar power, and over the next several years would easily surpass this year's $3.8 billion investment mark.

The World Bank has been tasked with managing a Clean Technology Fund for donors but has come under fire from environmentalists for also backing coal plants that emit tens of millions of tons of harmful carbon emissions.

In April, it approved a $3.75 billion loan for a coal-fired mega power plant in South Africa to help the country ease its chronic power shortage despite opposition from several large World Bank shareholders, including the United States.

The project highlighted tensions faced by fast-growing developing countries over meeting rising energy needs and moving toward clean energy solutions.

As the world's poverty-fighting institution, the World Bank cannot completely rule out coal projects but should also not increase funding for them, Sierra said.

"As an organization that has its core mandate as development, it is probably inappropriate for us to have a red line on any one technology," she said. "But should we be growing that portfolio? No, I think we should be looking at where we can add the most value, which is on transformational technologies."

RedState: Breaking Down the President’s Speech

June 16, 2010

LibertyCentral.org - If you thought the speech was short on the specifics of stopping the leak, you are right.

Here is how the sections breakdown in words spoken on each:

• 345 words blaming Bush
• 418 words on the impact to Gulf region
• 778 words on the oilspill and cleanup efforts
• 863 words on Obama’s “green energy” agenda

Clearly, the president’s number one priority in making this speech was to make the case for his high tax, command and control, lifestyle changing, carbon regulating energy plan.

It seems that fewer and fewer Americans are allowing themselves to be distracted by such empty rhetoric.