World Energy Solutions will be participating in the upcoming Carbon Expo Conference hosted by the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA). Taking place May 7-9, 2008 in Cologne, Germany, leaders in today’s global CO² market will gather to discuss the latest innovations in carbon emissions mitigation and climate development.

To schedule a meeting with World Energy at Carbon Expo, Booth F-26 in Hall 11.1, please contact:

Ken Bertino
Senior Vice President, Environmental Markets
World Energy
kbertino@worldenergy.com
+1.215.221.4684

The Wall Street Journal takes a look at the U.N. recently rejecting an increasing number of carbon offset projects as the regulations to allow for these projects to sell carbon credit continues to tighten. The discussion is centered on whether sugar plants, wind farms and other projects that would have been built without financing from the selling credits would actually allow credit buyers to fulfill their obligation to reduce emissions.

ClimateBiz reports that Merrill Lynch is launching Merrill Lynch Green and Gold, a carbon offset service that will enable companies to develop and manage climate related strategies. Supported by ICF International, the service is aimed at companies in the Americas, Asia and Europe who wish to reduce emissions with voluntary offsets.

AIG has announced that it completed $4 million in funding for carbon sequestering or reduction projects in the United States and China. Once complete, the projects will produce 620,000 metric tons of carbon offsets, which equal the amount of carbon attributed to AIG’s global operations in 2006.

World Energy will host a webinar, “Maximizing the Value of Green Credits: Using Auctions as a Price Discovery Tool,” on Wednesday, April 2, 2008 at 1:00 p.m. EDT. The complimentary webinar will feature a case study with Verdant Energy founder and former president Hal Hamilton, who recently sold 80,000 tonnes of carbon offsets through an auction on World Energy’s World Green Exchange online auction platform.

To learn the best practices on selling green credits that Hal gained from his experience, you can register for the webinar here.

Today’s Globe and Mail discusses how the Canadian carbon market is taking off, with Alberta and now British Columbia having carbon legislation in place. The World Green Exchange’s auction with Verdant Energy was featured as a successful example of this growing market:

In Calgary, Blue Source Canada, formerly Baseline Emissions Management Inc., last year started marketing offsets in Alberta and has a supply of more than 10 million credits, from areas such as biomass and renewable energy. In January, it worked with World Energy Solutions Inc., which has an auction system, to help Calgary’s biomass power company Verdant Energy Ltd. sell 80,000 credits for roughly $1-million.

Also discussed is the fluctuating price of carbon due to uncertainty in the market; however, even with this uncertainty, the international market continues to expand rapidly.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the future of the Canadian carbon market.

Reuters reports that Japan is looking into a compulsory cap and trade scheme instead of allowing companies to set their own targets and self-monitor for compliance. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has set up an informal panel to research a mandatory program.

The International Herald Tribune posts the AP’s interview with executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention for Climate Change, Yvo de Boer, discussing the role private investors play in cutting the production of greenhouse gases. De Boer predicts that private investment will soon surpass government investments to combat global warming.

We also wanted to share some additional coverage from the launch of the World Green Exchange:
Denver Post
Earthtimes
Energy Current
Restructuring Today

As promised last week in our post announcing Verdant’s auction with World Energy, we wanted to share with you some industry commentary, as it was the first auction of its kind in North America. Some articles posted that discussed the Alberta regulations and trading market, and the actual auction:

Point Carbon (registration needed, free trial available) looks at Alberta’s regulations and how the Verdant auction was facilitated under that legislation. Hal Hamilton, founder of Verdant Energy had been previously “underwhelmed” with the price of carbon credits – most were under C$10 per tonne, well under the C$15 per tonne option emitters have to pay directly into the government. Utilizing World Energy, Verdant was able to receive prices between the C$10 – 15 range.

Air Daily (registration needed, free trial available) discusses the Alberta trading scheme and the success of the auction, by looking at the price range of the credits. With companies still trying to understand Alberta’s new GHG trading program and prices in the bilateral market running fairly low, the auction exceeded Verdant’s expectations.

Restructuring Today (registration needed, free trial available) looks at the auction, focusing on how the auction worked within this immature market. They also describe how Verdant gained the credits by burning biomass at one of the company’s Alberta plants.

We’d love to hear your comments on the articles as well as where you think the Alberta market, and other trading schemes, are headed.

With post-Kyoto discussions taking place in Bali, here are just a few thoughts on what they mean and what they don’t:

Bali is really several steps ahead of the meetings that we should pay close attention to, as Bali will lead to another meeting, which leads to another, and so on before we arrive at a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. However, with the US Presidential election heating up and Congressional action on greenhouse gas emissions drawing near, we will see increased political posturing surrounding the Bali meetings.

Here’s what Bali will do – these meetings will provide the first official venue for examining the likelihood of a post-Kyoto framework that involves the world’s largest emitters. As such, there are three basic achievements that would make this initial meeting relatively successful:

1) some sort of long-term commitment by Kyoto’s signatories to address the post-2012 vacuum, probably using atmospheric concentration levels, temperature goals, or emissions reductions as an organizing framework,

2) further commitments to binding targets by the industrialized world (EU, Japan, now Australia) with the notable exception of the U.S., and

3) some sort of movement toward a commitment from the developing world, although this will probably be modest in nature.

After the meetings, it will be interesting to see if movement on the US front aligns with discussions in Bali. Although it is certainly early in the process, over the coming months it will be important to watch and see if legislation introduced, such as the Lieberman/Warner (just out of Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee) or the Bingaman/Specter bills, will match with what the future treaty will require. The risk, of course, is that any legislative action taken in the U.S. could conflict with Kyoto’s eventual successor.

-Rick

Roadblocks Remain to Energy Bill

From the Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON — Despite a historic agreement to raise automobile fuel-efficiency standards, House and Senate leaders remain divided over other elements of a comprehensive energy bill that could stall or kill the effort.

Kyoto’s Caps on Emissions Hit Snag in Marketplace

From the Wall Street Journal:

The Kyoto Protocol was supposed to harness market forces to solve global warming. It slapped caps on greenhouse-gas emissions and set up a complex market for companies to trade permits to pollute.

Kyoto’s Failure haunts New U.N. Talks

From the Los Angeles Times:

In the Kyoto Protocol’s accounting of greenhouse gases, the former Easter bloc is a smashing success.

Russia: Down 29% in carbon dioxide emissions since 1990.

Romania: A 43% reduction.

Latvia: A resounding 60% drop.

Can Climate Progress Succeed Without U.S.?

From ABC News:

The United States stands alone as the last major industrialized country not to have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, after Australia’s announcement Monday that it would now sign the pact.

US Wants to Negotiate New Climate Pact

From the AP:

American delegates at the U.N. climate conference insisted Monday they would not be a “roadblock” to new international agreement aimed at reducing potentially catastrophic greenhouse gases.