SOIL CARBON AND CLIMATE CHANGE
NEWS
From
Consortium for Agricultural
Soils Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases(CASMGS)
http://soilcarboncenter.k-state.edu
Charles W. Rice, K-State
Department of Agronomy, National CASMGS Director
(785) 532-7217 cwrice@ksu.edu
Scott Staggenborg, K-State Department
of Agronomy (785) 532-7214 sstaggen@ksu.edu
Steve Watson, CASMGS
Communications (785) 532-7105 swatson@ksu.edu
August 15, 2006
No. 50
* Update On Carbon
Credit Project In
National:
* DOE Announces $2 Billion In Loans For “Novel Technologies”
* Supreme Court To Rule on Regulating Carbon Dioxide
International:
* Global Carbon Market Volumes Reach New High
**********
UPDATE ON CARBON CREDIT
PROJECT IN
There are 17 new contracts from
In the previous sign-up, termed
Pool 2, a total of 73 contracts were signed in 24
The average net payment per ton
of CO2 is $1.87, which is equivalent to $6.86 per ton of carbon sequestered.
No-till is contracted at the rate of 0.5 tons of CO2 per acre, so payments for
no-till have averaged $0.935 per acre. New grass plantings are contracted at
the rate of 0.75 tons of CO2 per acre.
Eligibility requirements for the program are established by
the CCX. In the eastern half of
The carbon credit program basically consists of four main players:
* The producers/landowners, who have the carbon credits;
* The Iowa Farm Bureau, which aggregates the credits from individual producers into a large pool of credits and sells the credits on a commodity exchange;
* The Chicago Climate Exchange, which offers the commodity exchange on which buyers and sellers can agree on a price; and
* The buyers, who offer a bid price for carbon credits, in
terms of dollars per ton of carbon. So far, buyers have consisted of some of
the companies and municipalities that are members of the CCX. Examples of CCX
members include The Ford Motor Company, DuPont, International Paper, the
When the aggregator (Iowa Farm Bureau) who has the credits under contract believes the bid price in high enough, the credits are sold. The buyers pay the aggregator, and the money is then dispersed to the producers who enrolled in the project by signing a contract. The aggregator keeps 10 percent of the proceeds for administrative costs.
-- Steve Watson swatson@ksu.edu
**********
DOE
announces $2 billion in loans
for
“novel technologies”
The Energy Department (DOE) unveiled $2 billion in
loan guarantees today for energy projects aimed at reducing or avoiding
greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. The loan guarantees are a product
of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
“We hope to spur investment in new renewable energy projects like solar and wind, as well as clean coal technologies and efforts that can convert cellulosic biomass into ethanol,” said Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman.
DOE spokesman Craig Stevens said the loans are meant to bring “novel concepts, novel technologies to market.” For instance, he said DOE would seek to fund “cellulosic” ethanol projects, as opposed to traditional corn-based ethanol projects.
Bodman said the goal of the loan guarantees is having the government share financial risks for “early stage” projects so innovative technologies will eventually achieve greater market penetration. Bodman said DOE wanted to fund a diversity of projects and said 10 projects is a ballpark estimate for the number under the initial $2 billion round.
-- Greenwire, August 7, 2006
**********
Supreme
Court To Rule on
Regulating
Carbon Dioxide
The Supreme Court agreed on June 26 to hear arguments on
whether the US Government should regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) as a
pollutant. The Supreme Court will hear the case Massachusetts v.
Environmental Protection Agency, filed by 12 states, 13 environmental
groups, two cities and
The plaintiffs' argument is that
the President has the legal authority to regulate CO2 under the Clean Air Act,
since it is linked to climate change and poses a threat to the environment. The
--
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003087868_scotus27.html
**********
Global
Carbon Market volumes
reach
new high
The
global carbon market saw record high volumes traded in the first half of 2006
according to Point Carbon, Oslo-based carbon analysts.
In total, the equivalent of 684 million tonnes (Mt) of carbon dioxide (CO2e) was transacted globally during the first six months of this year, more than five times the volume traded during the same period last year, and 85 percent of the total volume traded in 2005 as a whole.
Worth an estimated $15 billion, the financial value of carbon trades in the first half of 2006 exceeded the entire value traded in 2005.
The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) remains the dominant carbon market segment, with 440Mt traded during the first half of 2006; close to 65 percent of the total traded volume worldwide.
Point Carbon's figures show that other markets are also heating up. The Chicago Climate Exchange and the New South Wales emissions trading scheme in Australia both show four times higher volumes and values than in 2005.
-- Environmental Finance, August 10, 2006
**********
MEETINGS OF INTEREST (All dates
are 2006 unless otherwise noted.)
Sept. 18-19
2006 Global CO2 Cap-and-Trade Forum
For details, contact Jim Turner (646) 546-5230 jturner@srinstitute.com
http://www.srinstitute.com/conf_page.cfm?instance_id=25&web_id=863&pid=470
December 5-6
PointCarbon
For details, see http://www.pointcarbon.com
**********
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