Aside from promoting the use of renewable energy, the company invests heavily in the research and development of technologies for energy-saving products and recycling. It is good to see that some companies are still prioritizing the fight against climate change.

Technorati Tags: Sony, green energy, CO2, renewable, energy, recycling, climate change

What this means is that airlines will no longer have to zig-zag through national airspaces to reach their destinations, reducing the distance they travel significantly. For one example: a flight from Lyon to Frankfurt is currently 40.7% longer than necessary.

This will save millions of tonnes worth of fuel (and CO2 emissions) and billions of euros to the airlines that are struggling in the recession.

“These proposals lead to a modernisation of air traffic management which will render air transport more feasible, more sustainable and safer,” European Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani said.

…

But Dudley Curtis of environment campaign group T&E said the climate benefits were exaggerated as reduced fuel costs would lead to lower ticket prices, in turn boosting demand for flights.
“It shouldn’t be seen as an excuse to prolong aviation’s special treatment — exclusion from the Kyoto agreement (on climate change) along with VAT and fuel tax exemptions,” he added.

…

The plan would increase airport capacity, upgrade radar technology and expand the European Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA) power so it would also cover airports and air traffic management.
EASA will aim to improve safety by harmonising rules on air traffic management and air navigation.

The UK Debt Management office, which oversaw the auction, said it was 5.76 times over-subscribed.

After auctioning an initial 4 million permits last November and a further 4 million in its second auction on Tuesday, the Department of Energy and Climate Change plans to auction another 27 million carbon permits through March 2010 [ID:nLO932657]

Richard Gledhill, PwC’s global climate change leader, said that volatility and low carbon prices were undermining the business case for long-term investment in emissions reductions.

He added that a mixture of cap-and-trade schemes such as the ETS plus a –carbon tax could be the way forward. “Business needs clear, long-term price signals if major shifts in private sector investment are to be made,” he said.

Understandably.

They are proposing that a ‘hybrid system’ consisting of carbon tax and emissions trading, would benefit the fight against global warming more effectively in current times, and in the future.

PwC points to estimates that the world needs to spend about $500bn a year over the next 20 years on renewable energies and energy efficiency alone, many times the current level. That level is already dropping back because of the seizing-up of capital markets.

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“A hybrid trading scheme with price ceilings and floors offers a potentially attractive balance of price flexibility and predictability that we think merits serious consideration by governments as a potential alternative to either pure trading or pure tax solutions.”

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The consultancy says its hybrid system could be merged into the ETS with relatively few modifications and then linked into similar schemes in the US and other major developed economies. It could also be used for developing countries such as China and India in the medium term.

For years they have been promoting their work on renewable energy, however most of those investments have now been effectively frozen, and Shell will have hardly any involvement in technologies such as wind, solar and hydro power. From now on they will focus on biofuels as this fits in better with the company profile (fuel production and distribution), according to executive director Linda Cook, as reported in this article from Environmental Finance.

Other than biofuels, they will also continue to invest in carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology.

“Wind and solar are interesting, but they continue to struggle to compete with other investment opportunities in our portfolio, even with substantial subsidies in many markets … The outlook is we don’t expect a material amount of investment in this area going forward,” added Cook.

The company has done a great deal of work in developing renewable energy, that is true, but they are a business, not philanthropists. Any work they do will only ever be justified by the profits they generate, and right now renewable energy isn’t making the cut.

Shell are not alone in their decision to put the future of new technologies at risk. BP is withdrawing its UK investments in renewables and taking them to the US. Consensus Business Group has sold off a third of its clean-tech investments. Many other multinationals are putting their much valued capital in other places, and smaller companies can’t find the investments to develop their green initiatives, according to the Telegraph:

Smaller companies and start ups are finding it challenging to get investments off the ground and are frustrated by, amongst other things, policy uncertainty, an insufficiently high carbon price, and planning problems. This Government’s failure to create a favourable investment environment for decarbonisation is remarkable given the UK’s legally binding 80% emissions reduction target by 2050.

The investment needed to transition the UK to a low carbon future is simply not being delivered. This is a major problem and requires new thinking. Issuing climate change bonds, as described by James Cameron in The Times is a great idea. We also need to lower the costs of financing and lengthen periods of finance for low carbon investments. This should be pursued with great urgency.

They are ‘calling for EU policy-makers to create a regime conducive to attaining the objective.’
Namely; a €1.8 trillion investment by 2030 to pay for modern plants and grids, access to new technologies in clean fossil fuels, renewable energy and importantly, nuclear power. For investments of this magnitude, they urge for a market-oriented framework that enables them to access capital markets.

“Members of Brussels-based trade association Eurelectric, who represent some 70% of Europe’s total power generation capacity, delivered the message to EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs this week, calling for EU policy-makers to create a regime conducive to attaining the objective.

Eurelectric president Lars Josefsson, who is also CEO of Swedish utility Vattenfall, had previously declared his aim for the sector to become carbon neutral by 2050. But this was the first time that 61 CEOs from major generators, including E.ON, EDF and RWE, have publicly agreed to the plan, a Eurelectric spokesman said.”

This article in Bloomberg news reports, discloses the split among environmentalists, the Democrats and businesses that will be affected by a European-style cap-and-trade system.

Despite overall support for reducing climate change, energy companies feel that Obama’s stance on introducing the system by throwing them in the deep-end by auctioning emission permits from the outset (rather than giving them away for free) will quickly trickle down as a tax on those who receive their energy from the high emitting coal power plants.

Obama is hoping for a $650bn return from auctioning the permits from 2012-2019, 80% of which would be used to pay for a tax cut as part of his plan to provide economic relieve to the nation. Though, he ‘indicated he may budge from his 100 percent auction stance’, understanding that he cannot move without the support from the business community.

White House energy and climate “czar” Carol Browner has suggested there are no plans for Obama to send a cap-and-trade bill to Congress and that the administration will work with Congress “to develop legislation.”

Everyone said a compromise won’t be easy.

“There will be a big battle over just about everything with this,” said Dan Weiss, climate strategy director at the Center for American Progress, a policy group in Washington that advises Democrats. “The companies that shoot their pollution into the sky for free don’t want to have to start to pay for it.”

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“This is a huge, huge issue, even for companies that are supportive of cap-and-trade,” said Jeff Holmstead, a former assistant administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency, in an interview. Holmstead is now a partner at Bracewell & Giuliani LLP in Washington.

The prospects for climate legislation are complicated by the slumping U.S. economy, which Republicans cite in opposing policies that would raise consumer energy prices.

“Let’s just be honest and call it a carbon tax that will increase taxes on all Americans who drive a car, who have a job, who turn on a light switch, pure and simple,” House Republican Leader John Boehner said in February.

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, Kyoto Treaty, greenhouse gas emissions

China Mobile is start-ownd, so presumably their participation could not have occurred without official Government permission.

Technorati Tags: China, greenhouse gas emissions

“Earlier, five national registries had already joined the ITL along with the CDM registry.

‘This event finalizes the infrastructure required for successful operation of all flexibility mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol,’ the UN’s top climate change official said.’ In terms of carbon market, ETS go live with the ITL expands the market size of carbon allowances in industrialized countries from about 24 billion tonnes CO2 equivalent to almost 50 billion, in addition, the CDM is expected to add soon another 100 million credits to the market.’

The UNFCCC secretariat plans to link the registries of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and the Ukraine later in October–November this year.
At that time almost all industrialized countries with emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol will have full access to the implementation of market-based mechanisms.

‘The complete architecture of the Kyoto Protocol becomes fully operational this year. We have explicit emission reduction targets in place for most industrialized countries; we have established a credible, comprehensive system for reporting and verifying GHG emissions; and now we are completing the infrastructure for using the carbon market as a cost-effective means for meeting the targets,’ emphasized Mr. de Boer.

The ITL will re-start processing transactions at 8:00 AM (CEST), on Thursday, 16 October 2008.”

Technorati Tags: European Union, Emissions Trading System, ETS, EU, Community Independent Transaction Log, CITL, UNFCCC, International Transaction Log, ITL, Kyoto, emissions, Clean Development Mechanism, CDM, Kyoto Protocol