carbon trading news from mongabay.com

For Earth Day, 17 celebrated scientists on how to make a better world

2012-04-22T01:16:00Z

Seventeen top scientists and four acclaimed conservation organizations have called for radical action to create a better world for this and future generations. Compiled by 21 past winners of the prestigious Blue Planet Prize, a new paper recommends solutions for some of the world's most pressing problems including climate change, poverty, and mass extinction. The paper, entitled Environment and Development Challenges: The Imperative to Act, was recently presented at the UN Environment Program governing council meeting in Nairobi, Kenya.

Brazil's indigenous affairs ministry: $32B carbon deal not valid

2012-03-28T12:47:00Z

An apparent carbon deal between an Irish carbon trading company and an indigenous tribe that sparked outrage in Brazil is "invalid" according to the president of FUNAI, Brazil's indigenous affairs agency.

California cap-and-trade law spurs U.S. forest carbon projects

2012-02-15T20:30:00Z

Now that California's carbon market has arrived, an Australian-based company that specializes in forest carbon offsets has jump started two forest projects with private landowners in the western U.S. The new company, Forest Carbon Partners, will make the projects available as carbon offsets for California polluters.

REDD advances—slowly—in Durban

2011-12-15T23:15:00Z

A program proposed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and degradation made mixed progress during climate talks in Durban. Significant questions remain about financing and safeguards to protect against abuse, say forestry experts. REDD+ aims to reduce deforestation, forest degradation, and peatland destruction in tropical countries. Here, emissions from land use often exceed emissions from transportation and electricity generation. Under the program, industrialized nations would fund conservation projects and improved forest management. While REDD+ offers the potential to simultaneously reduce emissions, conserve biodiversity, maintain other ecosystem services, and help alleviate rural poverty, concerns over potential adverse impacts have plagued the program since its conception.

Carbon Coalitions: Business, Climate Politics, and the Rise of Emissions Trading: Book Review

2011-12-13T21:17:00Z

Jonas Meckling, PhD., writes the first critical analysis demonstrating how various types of not-for-profit, governmental and for-profit coalitions over the past couple of decades have led to the development of the global carbon market, valued in 2010 at US$ 142 billion.

California finalizes cap-and-trade program

2011-10-24T18:37:00Z

Bucking long-stalled efforts in the US to combat global climate change, California has approved final rules for a cap-and-trade program set to go into effect in 2013. The program will require large polluters in California to reduce emissions or to 'trade' emissions on the carbon market with another company or initiative that is sequestering carbon. The rules even allow companies outside the state to participate, creating clean energy incentives across the US.

Forest carbon projects rake in $178 million in 2010

2011-09-29T17:54:00Z

Investors funneled $178 million into forest carbon projects intended to mitigate global climate change last year, according to a new report by Forest Trends' Ecosystem Marketplace. By trading a record 30.1 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtC02e), the market saw a 48 percent rise over 2009—including a rise in private investors over non-profits as well as greater support for the global program Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD)—shows that the burgeoning market may be beginning to make good on its promise to provide funds to save forests for their ecosystem services with an initial focus on carbon.

Australia passes national carbon trading scheme for agriculture, forestry

2011-08-22T22:22:00Z

Australia's parliament passed the world's first national carbon trading scheme for credits generated from farming and forestry, reports Reuters.

U.S. tribes to explore forest carbon opportunities

2011-06-22T04:33:00Z

Tribes in Washington state will participate in a pilot project to test the feasibility of developing forest carbon projects on tribal lands, reports EcoAnalytics, a carbon advisory firm involved in the deal.

Ahead of meeting, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) loses another supporter

2011-06-19T17:59:00Z

The forest organization, FERN, has pulled its support from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), reports FSC-Watch. FERN has quit the increasingly troubled organization due to FSC pursuing carbon credits through forestry. The FSC loses FERN just weeks before its 6th General Assembly, in which FSC partners—including private corporations and some environmental groups—will meet to debate current practices.

Despite setbacks, voluntary carbon markets booming

2011-06-06T01:36:00Z

The voluntary carbon market posted a 34 percent gain in 2010, trading a record 131 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtC02e). While the US accounted for the majority of trading activity, worth $424 million in total, market growth was strongest in developing countries.

PUMA goes carbon neutral by protecting lions in Kenya

2011-03-23T04:17:00Z

PUMA, the sporting goods brand, and its parent company PPR will offset their 2010 carbon dioxide emissions by purchasing carbon credits generated through conservation of wildlife habitat in Kenya.

Open source forest accounting methodology for REDD projects developed

2011-03-17T18:19:00Z

Avoided Deforestation Partners, a forest conservation group, has coordinated the development of an "open source" forest carbon accounting methodology that could help speed projects aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and degradation. The group says the new protocols could substantially reduce the cost of establishing forest carbon conservation projects under the REDD mechanism. Carbon accounting and methodology costs can easily top $100,000, making it difficult for small projects to win certification.

Regulators Learning From Voluntary Carbon Markets

2011-03-14T21:14:00Z

The global carbon markets began quietly in the late 1980s as part of a voluntary effort to save rainforests, but these small, voluntary efforts were quickly eclipsed – and often dismissed – when the Kyoto Protocol ushered in compliance markets a decade later. Now, however, it’s the compliance markets that are turning to the voluntary markets for guidance as regulators and voluntary market players rush to meet halfway.

Can 'water footprinting' help cut the 500 liters of H2O needed to produce a carton of OJ?

2011-02-11T01:11:00Z

Carbon trading promotes good behavior by creating a standardized currency representing a verifiable environmental benefit. Payments for watershed services do the same for cutbacks in water pollution, albeit on a smaller scale. Now, the Nature Conservancy and the Coca-Cola Company are experimenting with a new method of “water footprinting” that could do the same for total water use – a key component in the development of a market-based scheme that would promote responsible water usage.

Zambia building a carbon exchange

2011-02-11T01:08:00Z

Carbon finance can help rural Africans establish more sustainable ways of doing business, and several efforts are underway to build carbon exchanges that can help project developers identify prices and manage risk. These efforts will only generate meaningful change, however, if the rural poor understand carbon markets and how to access them. The African Carbon Credit Exchange aims to build that understanding.

First validated REDD forest carbon credits issued

2011-02-09T00:50:00Z

A conservation project in Kenya has become the first to win validation for REDD credits under the Voluntary Carbon Standard.

Carbon criminals make off with $38 million in carbon credits heist

2011-01-25T06:21:00Z

Cyberthieves who hacked the Czech carbon registry on Tuesday had intimate knowledge of different registries. They acted just days before a key security upgrade would have made the heist impossible, then sold the credits immediately – keeping the cash and letting the credits bounce around the system. Participants are now bracing for a fight over who will bear the loss.

Carbon credits 'stolen'

2011-01-20T01:26:00Z

The European Union temporarily shut down its carbon market after a security breach, reports Point Carbon.

Will Indonesia's big REDD rainforest deal work?

2010-12-28T01:12:00Z

Flying in a plane over the Indonesian half of the island of New Guinea, rainforest stretches like a sea of green, broken only by rugged mountain ranges and winding rivers. The broccoli-like canopy shows little sign of human influence. But as you near Jayapura, the provincial capital of Papua, the tree cover becomes patchier—a sign of logging—and red scars from mining appear before giving way to the monotonous dark green of oil palm plantations and finally grasslands and urban areas. The scene is not unique to Indonesian New Guinea; it has been repeated across the world's largest archipelago for decades, partly a consequence of agricultural expansion by small farmers, but increasingly a product of extractive industries, especially the logging, plantation, and mining sectors. Papua, in fact, is Indonesia's last frontier and therefore represents two diverging options for the country's development path: continued deforestation and degradation of forests under a business-as-usual approach or a shift toward a fundamentally different and unproven model based on greater transparency and careful stewardship of its forest resources.

California approves cap-and-trade under global warming law

2010-12-17T05:04:00Z

The California Air Resources Board voted 9-1 to adopt cap and trade regulations for AB32, California's 2006 climate law. The move, which establishes the first compliance carbon trading system in the United States, opens the door for carbon offsets generated via forest conservation projects.

Stymied by lack of global climate deal, states develop own low carbon accord

2010-11-17T06:20:00Z

California and other states launched an international initiative that will work toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions and transitioning toward a low carbon economy in the absence of a global climate deal.

Foreign corporations devastating Papua New Guinea rainforests

2010-10-21T22:00:00Z

A letter in Nature from seven top scientists warns that Papua New Guinea's accessible forest will be lost or heavily logged in just ten to twenty years if swift action isn't taken. A potent mix of poor governance, corruption, and corporate disregard is leading to the rapid loss of Papua New Guinea's much-heralded rainforests, home to a vast array of species found no-where else in the world. "Papua New Guinea has some of the world's most biologically and culturally rich forests, and they’re vanishing before our eyes," author William Laurance of James Cook University in Cairns, Australia, said in a statement.

Oil palm plantations on peatlands won't get carbon credits under CDM

2010-09-19T18:50:00Z

Plantations on peatlands will no longer be supported by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a framework for industrialized countries to reduce their emissions via projects in developing countries, reports Wetlands International.

Gazprom, Shell and Clinton Foundation back rainforest carbon deal in Borneo

2010-08-24T20:29:00Z

A forest conservation project backed by Shell, Gazprom Market and Trading and the Clinton Foundation on the island of Borneo has won approval under a carbon accounting standard, reports Reuters.

Reforestation of rainforests sequesters more carbon than plantations

2010-08-03T19:58:00Z

A new study in Ecological Management & Restoration has found that reforesting rainforest captures more carbon than monoculture plantation and even mixed species plantations. The research tested three projects in north-eastern Australia: a rainforest reforesting project using a variety of native trees, a mixed species plantation, and a monoculture plantation of conifers.

Scientists sound warning on forest carbon payment scheme

2010-07-22T09:39:00Z

Scientists convening in Bali expressed a range of concerns over a proposed mechanism for mitigating climate change through forest conservation, but some remained hopeful the idea could deliver long-term protection to forests, ease the transition to a low-carbon economy, and generate benefits to forest-dependent people.

U.S. farms and forests report draws ire in Brazil; cutting down the Amazon does not mean lower food prices

2010-06-24T01:08:00Z

Not surprisingly, a US report released last week which argued that saving forests abroad will help US agricultural producers by reducing international competition has raised hackles in tropical forest counties. The report, commissioned by Avoided Deforestation Partners, a US group pushing for including tropical forest conservation in US climate policy, and the National Farmers Union, a lobbying firm, has threatened to erode support for stopping deforestation in places like Brazil. However, two rebuttals have been issued, one from international environmental organizations and the other from Brazilian NGOs, that counter findings in the US report and urge unity in stopping deforestation, not for the economic betterment of US producers, but for everyone.

Saving tropical forests helps protects U.S. agriculture, argues campaign

2010-06-18T20:33:00Z

Reducing deforestation abroad helps protect the U.S. agricultural sector by ensuring higher prices for commodities and reducing the cost of compliance with expected climate regulations, argues a new report issued by Avoided Deforestation Partners, a group pushing for the inclusion of tropical forests in domestic climate policy, and the National Farmers Union, a farming lobby group.

Voluntary carbon markets plunge in 2009

2010-06-14T23:59:00Z

Battered by a faltering world economy and lack of progress on U.S. climate legislation, voluntary carbon markets declined by nearly every measure in 2009, according to the fourth annual State of the Voluntary Carbon Market Report issued today by Ecosystem Marketplace and Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Massive forest carbon scam alleged in Liberia

2010-06-10T18:18:00Z

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf established a commission investigate a proposed forest carbon credit deal between the West African nation's Forest Development Authority (FDA) and UK-based Carbon Harvesting Corporation, reports Global Witness, an NGO that originally raised concerns about the scheme, which aimed to secure around a fifth of Liberia's total forest area — 400,000 hectares — in a forest carbon concession.

A total ban on primary forest logging needed to save the world, an interview with activist Glen Barry

2010-06-02T19:18:00Z

Radical, controversial, ahead-of-his-time, brilliant, or extremist: call Dr. Glen Barry, the head of Ecological Internet, what you will, but there is no question that his environmental advocacy group has achieved major successes in the past years, even if many of these are below the radar of big conservation groups and mainstream media. "We tend to be a little different than many organizations in that we do take a deep ecology, or biocentric approach," Barry says of the organization he heads. "[Ecological Internet] is very, very concerned about the state of the planet. It is my analysis that we have passed the carrying capacity of the Earth, that in several matters we have crossed different ecosystem tipping points or are near doing so. And we really act with more urgency, and more ecological science, than I think the average campaign organization."

Can markets protect nature?

2010-05-03T03:06:00Z

Over the past 30 years billions of dollars has been committed to global conservation efforts, yet forests continue to fall, largely a consequence of economic drivers, including surging global demand for food and fuel. With consumption expected to far outstrip population growth due to rising affluence in developing countries, there would seem to be little hope of slowing tropical forest loss. But some observers see new reason for optimism—chiefly a new push to make forests more valuable as living entities than chopped down for the production of timber, animal feed, biofuels, and meat. While are innumerable reasons for protecting forests—including aesthetic, cultural, spiritual, and moral—most land use decisions boil down to economics. Therefore creating economic incentives to maintaining forests is key to saving them. Leading the effort to develop markets ecosystem services is Forest Trends, a Washington D.C.-based NGO that also organizes the Katoomba group, a forum that brings together a wide variety of forest stakeholders, including the private sector, local communities, indigenous people, policymakers, international development institutions, funders, conservationists, and activists.

Where do forest carbon markets go from here?

2010-04-20T09:38:00Z

For thousands of years, we have been planting and growing trees without difficulty. It's simple, and forest carbon business strategy can be, too. In fact, it's core to what I'm trying to teach the MBA/MS students in my course at the Erb Institute this semester: If the world's best available technology for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is employing the natural photosynthetic capacity of natural forest management, we can too.

Consumption habits cause rich countries to outsource emissions

2010-03-08T19:50:00Z

Over a third of the greenhouse gas emissions related to the consumption of goods in wealthy nations actually occur in developing countries, according to a new analysis by researchers with the Carnegie Institution. Annually, each person if the United States outsources 2.5 tons of carbon due to consumption habits, most frequently in China. In Europe the figure of 'outsourced' emissions rises to 4 tons per person.

Guyana bans gold mining in the 'Land of the Giants'

2010-03-01T02:57:00Z

Guyana has banned gold dredging in the Rewa Head region of the South American country after pressure from Amerindian communities in the area. A recent expedition to Rewa Head turned up unspoiled wilderness and mind-boggling biodiversity. The researchers, in just six weeks, stumbled on the world's largest snake (anaconda), spider (the aptly named goliath bird-eating spider), armadillo (the giant armadillo), anteater (the giant anteater), and otter (the giant otter), leading them to dub the area 'the Land of the Giants'. "During our brief survey we had encounters with wildlife that tropical biologists can spend years in the field waiting for. On a single day we had two tapirs paddle alongside our boat, we were swooped on by a crested eagle and then later charged by a group of giant otters."

Forest carbon conservation projects top $100 million

2010-01-14T06:05:00Z

The market for carbon credits generated through forest conservation topped $100 million from 2007 through the first half of 2009, despite a global recession and plunging carbon prices in regulated markets, reports a new assessment by Ecosystem Marketplace.

Indonesia to plant and restore vast area of forest to reach emissions target

2010-01-07T15:45:00Z

Indonesia will rehabilitate degraded forests and plant millions of hectares of new forests to meet its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 26 percent from projected levels by 2020, reports Reuters.

James Hansen says Copenhagen approach "fundamentally wrong" would be better to "reassess"

2009-12-03T22:59:00Z

James Hansen, one of the world's foremost climatologists, told the Guardian today that he believes the Copenhagen talks are flawed to the point where failure of the talks may be the best way forward. "The approach that is being talked about is so fundamentally wrong that it would be better to reassess," Hansen said.

Deforestation emissions should be shared between producer and consumer, argues study

2009-11-19T23:49:00Z

Under the Kyoto Protocol the nation that produces carbon emission takes responsibility for them, but what about when the country is producing carbon-intensive goods for consumer demand beyond its borders? For example while China is now the world's highest carbon emitter, 50 percent of its growth over the last year was due to producing goods for wealthy countries like the EU and the United States which have, in a sense, outsourced their manufacturing emissions to China. A new study in Environmental Research Letters presents a possible model for making certain that both producer and consumer share responsibility for emissions in an area so far neglected by studies of this kind: deforestation and land-use change.

Will Ecuador's plan to raise money for not drilling oil in the Amazon succeed?

2009-10-27T19:18:00Z

Ecuador's Yasuni National Park is full of wealth: it is one of the richest places on earth in terms of biodiversity; it is home to the indigenous Waorani people, as well as several uncontacted tribes; and the park's forest and soil provides a massive carbon sink. However, Yasuni National Park also sits on wealth of a different kind: one billion barrels of oil remain locked under the pristine rainforest.

Logged forests support biodiversity after 15 years of rehabilitation, but not if turned into plantations

2009-10-21T21:46:00Z

With the world facing global warming and a biodiversity crisis, a new study shows that within 15 years logged forests—considered by many to be 'degraded'—can be managed in order to successfully fight both climate change and extinction.

Business and conservation groups team up to conserve and better manage US's southern forests

2009-10-15T17:07:00Z

A new project entitled Carbon Canopy brings together multiple stakeholders—from big business to conservation organizations to private landowners—in order to protect and better manage the United State's southern forests. The program intends to employ the emerging US forest carbon market to pay private forest owners for conservation and restoration efforts while making certain that all forest-use practices subscribes to the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

Curtailing tropical deforestation vital to U.S. interests

2009-10-08T15:10:00Z

Curtailing tropical deforestation is vital to U.S. national interests as a cost-effective means to slow climate change, argues a new report issued by the bipartisan Commission on Climate and Tropical Forests. Deforestation accounts for roughly one-sixth of global carbon dioxide emissions, more than the entire transportation sector.

Prince Charles making progress in effort to save rainforests, says leading British environmentalist

2009-09-22T14:05:00Z

Prince Charles of Great Britain has emerged as one of the world’s highest-profile promoters of a scheme that could finally put an end to destruction of tropical rainforests. The Prince’s Rainforest Project, launched in 2007, is promoting awareness of the role deforestation plays in climate change—it accounts for nearly a fifth of greenhouse gas emissions. The project also publicizes the multitude of benefits tropical forests provide, including maintenance of rainfall, biodiversity, and sustainable livelihoods for millions of people. But the initiative goes beyond merely raising awareness. Prince Charles is using his considerable influence to bring political and business leaders together to devise and support a plan to provide emergency funding to save rainforests. Tony Juniper, one of Britain’s best-known environmentalists and Special Adviser to the project, spoke about Prince Charles' efforts in an interview with mongabay.com.

Voluntary Carbon Standard tops assessment of forestry carbon standards

2009-09-20T10:56:00Z

The Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) tops the rankings of a recent assessment gauging various standards for forestry carbon credits.

France announces carbon tax

2009-09-10T18:43:00Z

The President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, has announced that he will implement a carbon tax to help "save the human race" from global warming.

Concerns over deforestation may drive new approach to cattle ranching in the Amazon

2009-09-08T20:50:00Z

While you're browsing the mall for running shoes, the Amazon rainforest is probably the farthest thing from your mind. Perhaps it shouldn't be. The globalization of commodity supply chains has created links between consumer products and distant ecosystems like the Amazon. Shoes sold in downtown Manhattan may have been assembled in Vietnam using leather supplied from a Brazilian processor that subcontracted to a rancher in the Amazon. But while demand for these products is currently driving environmental degradation, this connection may also hold the key to slowing the destruction of Earth's largest rainforest.

Germany to pay Ecuador $650 million to forgo oil drilling, protect rainforest reserve

2009-09-03T03:05:00Z

Germany has apparently agreed to fund a significant portion of Ecuador's scheme to leave Amazon rainforest oil reserves in the ground, according to Business Green.

Guyana uses aggressive deforestation baseline in its plan to seek carbon payments

2009-08-17T22:20:00Z

Guyana's deforestation projections under its proposal for seeking carbon payments for conserving its forests are raising questions, according to commentary published in Stabroek News.