EU Agrees to Pump Billions of Dollars into CCS and Renewables
A committee representing European Union (EU) member states has accepted a European Commission proposal to direct funds raised from the region’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) into projects for carbon capture and storage (CCS), and renewable fuels and chemicals. The committee has agreed that income from...

Key Chemical Sectors Avoid Major EU Emissions Trading Costs
The European Commission has exempted 164 industrial sectors-including a swathe of key chemical sectors-from having to pay for their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions allowances for the next phase of Europe’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) to start in 2013. Sectors not exempted will have to pay significant...

Report: Global CCS Revenue Could Reach $128 Billion by 2030
With a forecast scenario that includes more aggressive assumptions for global climate policy and industry adoption, that figure could be as high as $221 billion, Pike Research says....

Emissions Trading: When Agendas Clash
During the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 15) in Copenhagen this week we have witnessed climate activists criticising carbon trading as the mechanism of choice for achieving emission reductions.   Such views are not uncommon and only last month Sarah Jayne-Clifton of the NGO Friends of the Earth...

Australia Rejects Carbon Trading
Australia’s senate has voted not to adopt legislation featuring an emissions trading scheme (ETS). The government says it will seek to reintroduce the legislation to parliament for a third time in February 2010. The proposal to introduce an ETS in the country was rejected largely due to the efforts of...

Chemical Industry Shortlisted for 'Award' for Sabotage of Climate Action
Chemical companies are featured in six out of the eight groups shortlisted to win the Angry Mermaid Award, which recognizes corporations for doing the most to sabotage effective action on climate change.   The award is being introduced by environmental groups Attac Denmark (Copenhagen), Corporate Europe...

DSM Chairman Calls for Tougher Carbon Trading Regulation
The carbon trading market, which is widely expected to expand after the Copenhagen climate summit meeting next month, should be more tightly regulated, says Feike Sijbesma, DSM’s chairman. “Carbon trading irritates me,” Sijbesma told journalists at a briefing in London yesterday evening...

China Disappoints with Pledge to Cut Carbon Intensity, not Total Emissions
Chinese president Hu Jintao pledged at a United Nations (UN) climate summit, held yesterday in New York, that China would bolster its efforts to increase energy efficiency. However, Hu said only that China would curb its carbon emissions per unit of GDP by a "notable margin" by 2020 compared with...

EU Votes to Exempt 77% of Industrial Emissions from Cost of Trading Scheme
European Union (EU) member states have approved a draft proposal listing 164 industrial sectors and subsectors, including much of the chemicals industry, that it says could be exposed to "carbon leakage" by the next phase of the EU’s emissions trading scheme (ETS). Sectors listed by the...

No Evidence of Carbon Leakage, OECD and MIT Say
The relocation of manufacturing plants from developed countries that cap and charge greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to countries that don’t charge for GHG emissions-a concept known as carbon leakage-does not pose a major threat to industry’s competitiveness, says the Organisation for Economic...