2006 warmest in The Netherlands ever recorded

The Dutch Meteorological Institute (KNMI) reported that 2006 has been the warmest ever since temperature was recorded in The Netherlands in 1700. The average temperature was 11.2 Degrees Celsius. Not unexpectedly, more records have been slammed this year. During the winter, the North Pole ice cover was never so small. The Summer of 2006 was the hottest since temperatures were collected. It was also the wettest in 100 years. The Statistics Bureau reported 1000 deaths more in Summer than usual (0,01% of the population). There are cases of blue tongue desease with sheep we never had. And butterflies came later, as the mussels and famous Dutch herring did.
When I worked for the Dutch Environment ministry in the early ninetees, these were elements of climate change scenario's to come. Whether this is proof or early warning of climate change. We better take at least precautionary measures and cut overall emissions. Having the carbon market now keeps our cost to do so limited.

First Dutch Weather station (Buys Ballot) in Utrecht, 1850 (small tower left)

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Delay in Kyoto Trading approval for Germany plus 7 more EU States

The delay in the submission of the 'eligibility reports' under the Kyoto Protocol may cause a delay in the use of the Kyoto Mechanims by Germany, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia. The dead line was December 31st. Belgium, Finland, France, Liechtenstein, Lithuania the Netherlands and the European Commission did submit theirs. Countries that don’t comply with the deadline run the risk of delayed access to the transaction of Kyoto credits (CERs/ERUs). That means that those nations' companies under the EU ETS will not be able to have CERs and ERUs on their account for compliance under the Linking Directive. The UN body has 16 months to make a decision on whether or not to approve the initial reports, though they will try to do that faster. So countries that were on-time will get their official approval April 2008 ultimo, just in time for compliance for the first EU ETS Phase. Of course it also depends on the link of the national registries with the ITL. This can be too late for the other member states. As a solution brokers can swop CERs for EUAs for a German company for example. But it limits the total overall use in the EU of CERs for the first ETS phase.

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"German Industry Can Cut CO2"

(Reuters) Andreas Troge, president of the federal environment office, said Germany, Europe's biggest polluter, had made pledges to cut CO2 emissions in 2000 and should not now be fighting new allocation cuts assigned by the European Commission. "Industry in Germany can do more," Troge told the Handelsblatt business newspaper in an advance of an article to appear on Wednesday. He added he could not understand why industry was challenging the Commission's tougher CO2 quotas. "The BDI German industry association pledged in 2000 to lower CO2 emissions in the industrial sector by 45 million tonnes by 2010," Troge said. He said he hoped the German protests would not damage the EU's carbon trading scheme.

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CDM toothing problems

A critical look by the New York Times at the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) reveals "some hidden problems." To be sure, from an American perspective CDM is still "an obscure United Nations-backed program" (sic) and not an integral part of the Kyoto Protocol. But the article's findings are interesting, especially concerning some of the unintended side-effects.

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Are the EU and Germany too strict with their emission reduction targets?

German energy suppliers criticise Germany’s politics regarding Climate Change. Recently 18 top managers from the energy sector signed a letter addressed to the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, stating that the emission reduction targets claimed by the EU in NAP II for the 2008-2012 phase cause essential problems to the German energy supplying industry. The planning reliability concerning the construction of new power plants is in danger. Some companies even threatened the German Government with a switch of investment to Latin America and Asia. The absence of further major investments would lead to an increase of electricity prices, was the message by top managers in their letter.

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Germany not to Court over Allocation but changing method

Due to the upcoming Germany EU G8 and Presidency (Jan-June 2007) it appears that the Germany has dropped going to the EU Court over the Commission cut of it's draft allocation for 2008-2012 with 12 Mton. This is what was said on behalf of Chancler Merkel: „The initiatives on behalf of the Kanzlerin can only be successfull when Germany has a reliable national climate policy. That is why mrs Merkel has to put of her fight with the Commission over the Allocation for 2008-2012 as fast as possible“. Germany will rather try to change the method of allocation to power companiers from merely based on historic emissions into the direction of benchmarking per kilowatthour and per type of fuel burnt. Than Germany would have a tool to reduce the overall allocations for NAP-2.

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EU Trade chief rejects Kyoto Border Tariff for Non-Kyoto Parties

[By Andrew Bounds in Brussels] The European Union’s trade commissioner Mandelson will today dismiss French proposals for a “green” tax on goods from countries that have not ratified the Kyoto treaty as not only a probable breach of trade rules but also “not good politics”. Peter Mandelson says that the levy, aiming to cancel the competitive advantage of countries that are not cutting carbon emissions to fight global warming, would be “highly problematic under World Trade Organisation rules and almost impossible to implement in practice”. The proposals are gathering support after Günter Verheugen, industry commissioner, backed the idea after it was separately proposed by an advisory group of EU government officials and industry leaders (high-level group on competitiveness, energy and environment) he co-chairs.

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2007 hottest on record & sea-level rise underestimated

Britain is on course for the warmest year since records began, according to figures from the Met Office and the University of East Anglia . Temperatures logged by weather stations across England reveal 2006 to have been unusually mild, with a mean temperature of 10.84C.
Current sea level rise projections could be under-estimating the impact of human-induced climate change on the world's oceans, scientists at the University of East Anglia suggest. By plotting global mean surface temperatures against sea level rise, the team found that levels could rise by 59% more than current forecasts. When applied to the possible scenarios outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the researchers found that in 2100 sea levels would be 0.5-1.4m above 1990 levels. This projection is much greater than the 9-88cm forecast made by the IPCC itself in its Third Assessment Report, published in 2001.

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EC plans allocation per kWh and mandatory CCS

The European Commission is to present January 10 plans to reduce emissions by fossil fuels in the energy sector. Two proposals are very important: 1. The Commission wants to allocate allowances to power plants on the basis of kilowatthours generated: a maximum CO2 emission per kWh. 2. The Commission will propose that new coal fired power plants should make us of carbon capture and storage. These propoposals will be part of the Evaluation of the EU ETS that is currenty in preparation, due to be published beginning 2007 and Emissions Trading Directive Proposals the Commission will do later in 2007.

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Commission to propose ETS for aviation Dec 20

The European Commission will publish a proposal on 20 December to bring all aviation companies flying to and from the EU into the ETS for CO2 as of 2011.
A spokeswoman for Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said according to European Voice that the proposal was the best way to tackle growing concerns about the impact of aviation on climate change. “Our plans are not too ambitious,” she said. “We have done our homework and concluded that the price that needs to be paid is reasonable, as far as it is transferred to the customer, and can be borne by industry.”Commission impact assessments estimate that including all flights in the ETS will add €0-€9 to the price of a ticket. British Airways is in particular unhappy with the Commission proposal to make governments auction 40% of annual aviation emission permits by 2022

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Press Release

11 December 2006

Vertis Environmental Finance, euets.com and New Values announce
1.197 million EUAs from the Hungarian Government sold today for € 7.42 per tonne

Budapest and Amsterdam – 11 December 2006 - Vertis Environmental Finance coordinated an auction of EUAs for the Hungarian Government on the euets.com CO2 exchange, using the Climex auction platform. Buyers have been bidding a total volume of 3.42 million EUAs. A total of 1.197 million EUAs have been sold to optimize revenues, for a price of € 7.42 per tonne.

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Fortis: during Summer emissions trading led to less CO2 emissions

At the Sparks & Flames Conference in Amsterdam Walhain from Fortis showed that during Summer the emissions trading system has led to less CO2 emissions. He showed that during the Summer gas prices tend to be lower and that made it beneficial - for CO2 cost reasons - to use more gas for power generation, than without that system.
For such a fuel switch in Winter he believed a CO2 price of 100€ would be needed. He said weather in general is a dominant factor: if the temperature in Germany is 2 degrees higher, 70.000 ton CO2 less is traded.

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UK firms fined for breaking EU carbon rules

Guardian Unlimited; For the first time today British companies were penalised for noncompliance with a European scheme to control carbon emissions. The Environment Agency fined four companies £750,000 out of 535 after they failed to account for their greenhouse gases under the European Union's emissions trading scheme. The companies must either reduce their emissions or buy permits from other companies to allow them to pollute above their agreed limits. They also have to submit details of the emissions and allowances to the Environment Agency.

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Auctions for the Hungarian Government

On Monday 11 December and if necessary also on 18 December we will be executing auctions for the sales of European Allowances (EUAs) from the Hungarian Government. The Climex Alliance partner euets.com has been coordinating the selling.

We would like to inform you about some crucial preparations and proceedings for these auctions.

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Mixed reactions on Commission's 7% Allocation Plans cut

Reuters: European Commission sharpened its main weapon for fighting climate change on Wednesday, drawing fire from EU governments after demanding cuts in their carbon dioxide emissions plans for 2008-2012. The move set up a fight with some EU member states, while the rest of the world watched what is a possible model for a future worldwide carbon market to tackle global warming.German Economy Minister Michael Glos said the decision was "totally unacceptable" and would push up electricity prices. Germany is Europe's biggest polluter. France withdrew its plan at the last minute after indications it too faced rejection."I think that with today's decisions the European Union will affirm its leadership role in fighting climate change and also our strong commitment to achieving the Kyoto Protocol targets," Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas told a news conference.

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