EU Parliament opens door for forestry credits to CO2 market
Posted by Jos Cozijnsen in TradingThe European Parliament voted for an amendment to open the door for forestry credits, including Reductions of Emissions through Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) to the EU CO2 Market. This could happen as part of forestry projects in developing countries, under a new treaty (Copenhagen, 2009) of under a bilateral agreement, when there is no treaty. It contains of course conditions for sustainability etc. and the EU Commission wants to set criteria the projects would need to meet.
It sets the cap at max 5% of emission reductions needed by installations under ETS. That is of course a vague factor now, when we do not not know what post 2012 targets will be. Also, it is expected that when the EU goes after 2012 for 30% or more this number can increase.
Though a limit of 5% may mean a total of 40 Mton for 2013-2020, REDD can be banked for after 2020 of course.
The 5% includes also afforestation and reforestation credits, but because the amendment talks about permanence and these credits are temporary by regulation (tCERs/lCERs), the socalled REDD credits can easily compete with them.
The EU Parliament will now negotiate the amendments with the EU Council of Ministers and adopt them a plenary session in December the Amendments. The Council seems cautious on forestry credits but the Parliament seems persistent it should be part of the options.
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This article is misleading. The European Parliament does not have the power to 'open the door to forestry credits', though it can express a view on this which may or may not be taken into account by the European Commission and Council of Ministers.
The vote taken on Tuesday 7th October in favour of including forest credits in the ETS was only by the Parliament's Environment Committee - and will be considered by the full parliament later in the year.
The European Commission is opposed to inclusion of forests in the ETS, with good reason: this could undermine or flood the market, depress carbon prices, reduce the incentives for pollution abatement within the EU itself, and probably not serve to tackle the underlying causes of deforestation.
I am glad you got he message: the door to the EU CO2 market is - limited - opening for credits for protecting tropical forests, finally. Flooding will not happen because the long term targets will stimulate banking. Further, you are missing the point here that the EU Parliament is THE legislator. So they have do have more than a say I would say.
PS I am talking about a so called REDD system that will only generate CO2 value after ex-post verification of the national deforestation Countries that join this system will have to take a target too. So it is not a zero-sum game.
First, I congratulate the EU nations for realising that the effects of green house gasses(GHG) were almost ravaging our globe. Further, am grateful for them for being the first to respond to the Kyoto protocol on climate change.
I'm so impresssed with the manner which you are handling its effects whereby the developing countries being the worst hit are the primary beneficiaries of the clean mechanism develpopment projects. The phase with which you are ratifying the Kyoto protocol is going to see earth get into a better position in the near future.
Despite the concerted efforts, a few changes and amendments have to be done for effective establishment and operation of more environment friendly CDM projects. One, the procedures followed during certification of CDM projects is taking quite along time to an extent that variations in political structures and socio-ecomnomic activities of the mother country of the company undertaking the project may stall such projects hence fewer CDM projects.
Two, the approval for all CDM projects is carried out in New York city, at the United Nations Headquarters which make the process very slow altogether.
To ease this backlog, the certification should be allowed to be carried out in every country so long as the country in question has ratified the Kyoto Priotocol.
Thanks alot