REDD-PLUS

Version 3.2 of the Climate Action Reserve’s Forest Project Protocol continues to ensure integrity of forest offset projects

LOMPICO - PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric's) is handing over tens of thousands of dollars to the nonprofit Sempervirens Fund to protect a 425-acre stand of redwoods once slated for logging deep in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

The deal, expected to be completed next month, is part of the utility's efforts to combat greenhouse gas emissions, in this case safeguarding trees for carbon absorption, and is helping to drive a new marketplace where people and business are offered an incentive to offset pollution.

In the drive to tackle climate change, carbon trading has become the policy instrument of choice among governments. It is also a central element of the UNFCCC’s Kyoto Protocol. National or regional carbon trading schemes are now operational in Europe, the USA, New Zealand and elsewhere.

(Reuters) - Aid promises from rich nations to help poor countries slow global warming are reaching the $30 billion goal agreed in Copenhagen but analysts say much of that is old funding dressed up as new pledges.

Officially, the promises total $29.8 billion, Reuters calculations show, apparently meeting a pledge of "new and additional" funds "approaching $30 billion" for 2010-12 made at the U.N. summit in Copenhagen in December.

(Reuters) - An Australian carbon services firm has signed a deal aimed at protecting tropical forests in the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as boosting renewable energy there, a senior company official said on Wednesday.

Shift2Neutral and its partners would help value the carbon storage from forest and land protection, certify carbon related services to communities in the DRC and help sell certified carbon offsets.

For individuals and business, air travel is a fact of life. The world is our playground and we are not going to stop exploring new places and opportunities. Still, we have become increasingly concerned about carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from jet transportation and what we can do to reduce our carbon footprint. In 2005, the World Resources Institute (WRI) reported that transportation made up 13.5 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) worldwide. Of that, air transportation (commercial and general aviation) composed 1.6%. (Click for a world greenhouse gas chart.

PCF

At the close of calendar year 2009, the Prototype Carbon Fund has 23 of 24 projects generating emission reductions and eight of the PCF’s CDM projects have issued Certified Emission Reductions. In early 2010, the PCF successfully completed its first transfer of Kyoto assets from its projects in Annex I countries.

Fund Capital ($ million) 219.8
Date Operational April 2000
Participants 22
Private % (by capital invested) 57.6

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Community Development Carbon Fund

Gazprom Marketing & Trading, a unit of the world’s largest natural-gas producer, said its method for generating carbon credits from forestry projects was approved by the Voluntary Carbon Standard.

The International Emissions Trading Association and the World Economic Forum helped develop the voluntary carbon standard in 2005 to verify which credits companies can use to comply with carbon-reduction programs. The European Union, which runs the world’s biggest emissions market, may accept a limited number of forestry credits through 2020.

The Nigerian government should actively engage forest community dwellers and civil society groups in the ongoing Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, (REDD), negotiation process; and adopt community forest management practices as one of the concrete solutions to climate change.

Just a few weeks of actual negotiating time remain before the year-end summit in Cancun, and climate talks are a mess. Sure, most parties agree it’s a good idea to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by saving trees, but that’s about all they agree on. This all highlights the amount of risk that investors take when paying for something today that won’t be delivered for decades – and the role that insurers could play in spreading the risk.
 

POLITICIANS of all persuasions have had a hard time being nice to farmers in ways that don’t upset larger, more vociferous and vindictive sections of the voting public.

In this campaign, they seem to have discovered the key: carbon!

The hype from both major parties is that they - and only they - are pulling the levers that will release rivers of black gold toward farmers’ bank accounts.

But between the hype and the reality of meaningful farm returns from carbon credits is a whole sea of “ifs”.