Domestic Offsets in the American Power Act: Preserving the Integrity?
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Land grabs meet climate policyVery interested to see the news today that City of London police have “arrested the director of a Merseyside-based business in connection with an alleged plan to pay Liberian officials $2.5m (£1.7m) in connection
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Carbon sink plans sunk by stalling of emission plan TREE-planting schemes and other carbon-offset projects could be abandoned by organisations at the end of the month, another casualty of the federal government's delayed emissions trading scheme.
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What a difference: Land use change from Farmland to ForestsA dairy farmer planning on growing manuka scrub says Federated Farmers lobbyists are mounting a vocal campaign against the farmer accountability for greenhouse gases, but failing to back landowners who want to "farm" carbon credits.
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U.S. the second biggest buyer of forests based voluntary carbon credits in 2009
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Kenia to be Africas ETS Hub[NAIROBI] Kenya has announced plans to establish a regional carbon emissions trading scheme to steer Africa's carbon market.
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Carbon farming will alter land use NEW Zealand’s emissions trading scheme gives this region opportunities to make money, and will change the way marginal land is used.
Carbon sequestering will change the way forests are managed and will make the establishment of unharvestable forests economically viable, two carbon farming experts told landowners, farmers and foresters at a carbon forestry workshop presented yesterday by the University of Canterbury and Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
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Emissions scheme could cost NZ up to $5b
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All is not sheepshape on the farmThe sheep industry is fighting for its life as farmers turn to dairying and forestry for better returns. How has it got to this and what can be done?
As much as anyone, John Gregan has worked hard to engineer a revival of sheep farming.
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The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is complex, confusing and difficult to get agreement on, but as New Zealand prepares for its impact from July 1 Climate Change Minister Nick Smith is confident the right balance has been struck. CHRIS ORMOND of NZPA reports.
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Minister promises farmers conditions on ETS
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Carbon rules make sequestration hard to trackFARMERS are managing an enormous amount of carbon in their landscapes, but get very little credit for the fact under the current Kyoto greenhouse gas accounting rules.
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NZ: Big ETS pluses for farmersTHE Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) presents unique opportunities for many rural landowners in New Zealand; carbon forestry will allow landowners to use the scheme to their advantage and gain a new income stream.
Marginal farmland throughout the country can be converted into forestry and as long as any conversions are undertaken in an informed manner, landowners potentially have a lot to gain.
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Coal exports to China labelled 'Kyoto hypocrisy'New Zealand's coal exports to China were labelled 'hypocritical' by audience members at a public meeting on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)in Blenheim last night.
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Moving Forestry to the Forefront of the Carbon MarketAn estimated 16% of the total global GHG emissions are directly attributed to the destruction of tropical forests.
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Evidence base for Measuring and Assessing Terrestrial CarbonThe UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), as part of the UN Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD Programme), is developing a project to systematically analyze literature on methods used to measure and assess terrestrial carbon stocks, using an evidence-based approach.
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CarbonSmart goes up in smokeA PIONEERING attempt to provide landholders with a new income stream through forestry offsets, Landcare CarbonSmart, has fallen foul of the Canberra stalemate over emissions regulation.
Set up by Landcare Australia Limited, in part to help landholders put in smaller biodiverse plantings that could provide a carbon credits income stream, CarbonSmart has been killed off because the forestry offsets market and regulatory environment failed to mature as expected.
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Delivering biochar's triple winLast year, there seemed to be an unwritten rule in enviro-circles: whenever two or more enviro-folks were gathered together in a place of meeting, talk must turn to biochar.
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Worry over foreign "carbon foresters" Foreign-owned "carbon foresters" have ambitions to turn a fifth of New Zealand sheep and beef farmland into forests and that will devastate many rural towns, the national farmers' lobby says.
Federated Farmers president Don Nicolson said the organisation strongly believed that farm forestry was integral to farms where suited. This made the government's axing of the Afforestation Grants Scheme (AGS) in preference to the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) "incredibly perplexing".
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Liberia's inquiry into a carbon offsetting deal is a vital step forwardYou report that "a British company's proposal to rent out one-fifth of Liberia's forests for carbon offsetting could have bankrupted the impoverished west African state" (UK firm's carbon offset deal 'could have bankrupted Liberia', 24 July). While this was certainly accurate reporting, it also missed a vital point – that this marks a vital step forward for Liberia.
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Australia mulls foreign-linked carbon offset schemeThe Australian government is proposing to allow foresters and farmers to create carbon offset credits for international sale into foreign emissions trading markets. Prime Minister Julia Gillard launched the policy on the weekend, part of campaigning ahead of a federal election on August 21.
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Could biochar save the world?Biochar—the agricultural application of charcoal produced from burning biomass—may be one of this century's most important social and environmental revolutions. This seemingly humble practice—a technology that goes back thousands of years—has the potential to help mitigate a number of entrenched global problems: desperate hunger, lack of soil fertility in the tropics, rainforest destruction due to slash-and-burn agriculture, and even climate change.
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Let's get serious about soil carbonPOLITICIANS of all persuasions have had a hard time being nice to farmers in ways that don’t upset larger, more vociferous and vindictive sections of the voting public.
In this campaign, they seem to have discovered the key: carbon!
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Carbon Profit Grows on Trees as Kiwi Farmers Ditch SheepNew Zealand’s sheep farmers are flocking to a government carbon trading program that pays more to plant trees than sell wool and mutton.
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New Zealand's sheep farmers are flocking to a government carbon trading program that pays more to plant trees than sell wool and mutton.
The system, begun in 2008 and the only one of its kind outside Europe, awards farmers credits that are sold to offset greenhouse gas emissions. The project may earn them about $NZ600 a hectare ($193 per acre) a year on land unprofitable for grazing animals, said David Evison, a senior lecturer at the University of Canterbury's New Zealand School of Forestry.
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Gazprom Wins Approval From Voluntary Standards Group for Forestry CreditsGazprom Marketing & Trading, a unit of the world’s largest natural-gas producer, said its method for generating carbon credits from forestry projects was approved by the Voluntary Carbon Standard.
The International Emissions Trading Association and the World Economic Forum helped develop the voluntary carbon standard in 2005 to verify which credits companies can use to comply with carbon-reduction programs. The European Union, which runs the world’s biggest emissions market, may accept a limited number of forestry credits through 2020.
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So what: could Africa be the next big Carbon Project Market?
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Chance to see the good for the treesThe much maligned Emissions Trading Scheme can provide even the owners of small forest blocks with a bonus return, if they make the effort to find out, as Peter Watson reports.
Owners of hundreds of small forestry blocks planted in Nelson before 1990 have been warned they risk either being surprised by some large bills or missing out on a one-off windfall if they don't get up to speed soon with the Emissions Trading Scheme.
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Poorer nations hit with 'exorbitant' consultancy fees for carbon offset projectsNepalese government has paid a Norwegian consultancy €150,000 (£123,000) to get UN certification for biogas projects.
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Australia firm signs Congo carbon offsets deal(Reuters) - An Australian carbon services firm has signed a deal aimed at protecting tropical forests in the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as boosting renewable energy there, a senior company official said on Wednesday.
Shift2Neutral and its partners would help value the carbon storage from forest and land protection, certify carbon related services to communities in the DRC and help sell certified carbon offsets.
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Indonesia project boosts global forest CO2 market(Reuters) - Likely to be first fully validated REDD project under VCS; Approval of methodology boost for REDD projects
SINGAPORE/JAKARTA, Aug 24 (Reuters) - An Indonesian project aimed at saving a vast tract of rainforest has past a milestone seen as a boost in the development of a global market in forest carbon credits.
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The US way of rescuing our climate...For individuals and business, air travel is a fact of life. The world is our playground and we are not going to stop exploring new places and opportunities.
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The charcoal carbon pool in boreal forest soilsForest fires release significant amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere1, but also convert a fraction of the burning vegetation to charred black carbon.
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New Zealand Farmers Harvest Carbon CreditsIn New Zealand, where the sheep outnumber humans 9 to 1 and National Lamb Day is celebrated every Feb. 15, a carbon emission trading system that kicked off in July is upending the economics of sheep farming, a once crucial sector of the economy. Sheep farmers are walking away from the business of selling wool and lamb chops and are converting their grazing lands into tree farms that could prove valuable when the country's agricultural sector is forced to pay for greenhouse gas emissions starting in 2015.
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PCF
At the close of calendar year 2009, the Prototype Carbon Fund has 23 of 24 projects generating emission reductions and eight of the PCF’s CDM projects have issued Certified Emission Reductions. In early 2010, the PCF successfully completed its first transfer of Kyoto assets from its projects in Annex I countries.
Fund Capital ($ million) 219.8
Date Operational April 2000
Participants 22
Private % (by capital invested) 57.6
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Community Development Carbon Fund
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Insuring the Rain Forest with Green Bonds - Part II
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GM&T AND INFINITEEARTH ANNOUNCE THE APPROVAL OF WORLD’S FIRST REDD METHODOLOGY UNDER THE VOLUNTARY CARBON STANDARD PROGRAMMEGM&T AND INFINITEEARTH ANNOUNCE THE APPROVAL OF WORLD’S FIRST REDD METHODOLOGY UNDER THE VOLUNTARY CARBON STANDARD PROGRAMME
Highlights
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VCS Unveils its First Methodology for Generating Carbon Credits by Saving Trees
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Santa Cruz Mountains redwoods lure cash for trapping carbon
LOMPICO - PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric's) is handing over tens of thousands of dollars to the nonprofit Sempervirens Fund to protect a 425-acre stand of redwoods once slated for logging deep in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
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The Missionary Position: The export of carbon guilt to the developing worldThe advocates of renewable energy have long chanted a mantra of “green jobs, energy security and lower emissions”, but in country after country we continue to see a fork in the road emerging whereby individual nations are forced to make choices between lowering (global) emissions or developin
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In the drive to tackle climate change, carbon trading has become the policy instrument of choice among governments. It is also a central element of the UNFCCC’s Kyoto Protocol. National or regional carbon trading schemes are now operational in Europe, the USA, New Zealand and elsewhere.
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Carbon project market leads with REDD methodologyThe landmark approval of a carbon accounting methodology to underpin REDD projects in Asia shows the project-based voluntary carbon market leading the way in the development of mechanisms to halt the destruction of climate-critical tropical forests.
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New Zealand: Region a net ETS winnerGISBORNE will be a net winner from the emissions trading scheme, promises Climate Change Minister Nick Smith.
At a well-attended meeting last night, Dr Smith managed to tame a potentially hostile audience through judicious use of the expressions:
“Good question”, “You’re absolutely right” and “That deserves a thorough answer — I’ll answer each point in turn”.
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Portugal's Forests Losing Ability to Capture CarbonGERÊS, Portugal, Aug 31, 2010 (IPS) - Environmentalists are alarmed: fires have destroyed close to 100,000 hectares of forest in Portugal this summer, releasing one million tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Worst of all, the forests are losing their ability to absorb carbon.
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Updated standard provides new guidance for using forests to address climate changeVersion 3.2 of the Climate Action Reserve’s Forest Project Protocol continues to ensure integrity of forest offset projects
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World Bank Caught in Controversy Over Suspect Carbon Credits A storm has been brewing for months in an obscure corner of the carbon-trading world, and it's now raging into full public view.
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Carbon Traders Speculating on 50 Euros a Ton in 2012, CarbonDesk SaysOptions to buy European Union carbon permits for 2012 traded in London yesterday at a strike price of as much as 50 euros a metric ton, according to CarbonDesk Ltd.
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Forest carbon stores may be massively overestimated Rainforests may store much less carbon than we thought. It could be time to dramatically revise our estimates following the discovery that apparently similar forests hold vastly different amounts of the stuff.
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From outer space, a new dilemma for old-growth forests
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World Bank sells 500,000 U.N. carbon offsets
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Is EU changing mind in terms of forest carbon?New rumbling emerged from Europe this week that the potential for emissions-reducing activities involving land use, land-use change, and forestry may be finally getting a d
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Environment Waikato is considering using its $60 millon investment fund for a massive tree planting scheme to cash in on the Government's Emissions Trading Scheme.
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Promote carbon trading - of forest carbon creditsThe Centre should promote a carbon credit trading mechanism on lines of the Kyoto Protocol in the country to enable the plantation industry to earn carbon credits.
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S&P forecasts increased Russian carbon deals
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EU Trying to Link Up With Federal Rather Than Local U.S. Emissions Trading
The European Union will keep trying to link its carbon market, the world’s biggest, with any U.S. program at the federal level rather than regional systems.
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Big new tax only option, Abbott told
TREASURY has repudiated Tony Abbott's direct action approach to climate change.
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Minister Makes Case for Carbon Credit MarketLagos — The Minster of Environment, John Odey said since Nigeria now controls over 40 percent of the certified emission reduction in Africa, it can leverage on it to generate ingestible funds.
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China Bets on Panda to Take a Bite Out of Land-Use Emissions (and Reduce Poverty)China generates the lion’s share of global offsets under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), but it doesn't cap its own emissions. It does, however, have its own voluntary carbon standard – the “Panda Standard” – which was unveiled at last year's Climate-Change Conference in Copenhagen and is designed to drive domestic demand for forestry and poverty alleviation with a vehicle that is uniquely Chinese.
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ERA Executes Term Sheet with the Forest Carbon Group AG for the Sale of 1,800,000 Tonnes of VERs over 3 YearsSept 24, 2010, Vancouver, British Columbia: ERA Carbon Offsets Ltd. (TSX-V: ESR) through its 100% owned subsidiary ERA Ecosystem Restoration Associates Inc, (ERA) is pleased to announce that it has executed a term sheet for the sale of 1,800,000 tonnes of Verified Emission Reductions (VER) to the German based Forest Carbon Group AG.
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On 1 July this year NCOS came into effect. [1] It is designed to give Australian businesses, particularly farm businesses, opportunities to develop offset credits for voluntary carbon markets.
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George Soros delivers harsh words for climate change movement
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Forestry Sector Gains Momentum in Voluntary Carbon MarketLast week the first forestry investment was issued credits and in return, voluntary carbon market players could increase demand for carbon credits from the forestry sector.
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Forestry gains momentum in voluntary carbon market
(Reuters) - Voluntary carbon market players could increase demand for carbon credits from the forestry sector after the first forestry investment was issued credits under an industry-backed standard last week.
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Shift2Neutral partners with the Solomon Islands Carbon ProjectShift2Neutral will work closely with the Founder of the Solomon Islands Carbon Project, Mr Charles Stennett Kereau, to begin the key initiatives and drivers of the memorandum of agreement, in the protection of natural land and forest
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Government to boost voluntary dealsForestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said he saw no promising future for any deal regarding REDD ahead of the upcoming climate talks in Mexico, prompting his office to aim to forge voluntary pacts with rich nations.
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First forestry credits issued under Voluntary Carbon Standard
An "historic milestone" in the forestry carbon market was reached this week as the first carbon credits from a land-use project were verified and issued under the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS).
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Special report: Money could grow on trees, depending on carbon price
Giving trees a value is one solution for halting deforestation, but deciding how much a forest is worth is proving challenging, reports Sara Schonhardt
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Carbon Conservation and APP Introduce the World’s First Pulpwood Plantation to Carbon Reserve REDD-Plus InitiativeAKARTA, Indonesia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Indonesia will become home of the world’s first privately funded project turning pulpwood plantation concessions into a carbon reserve.
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REDD forest offset demand 3-7 years away
(Reuters) - A global market in forest carbon offsets under a U.N.-backed scheme will take three to seven years to develop in part because of the stalled U.S. climate bill, a top Indonesian forest investor said.
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CDM forestry rules need reformThe CDM’s forest carbon rules surrounding eligibility of both land and activity type need to be reformed if the forest sector is going to make its contribution to the climate change mitigation effort, argues Dr Promode Kant of India’s Institute of Green Economy:
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VER market flat, with forestry bright spotsThe voluntary carbon market remains sluggish, hit hard by the global financial crisis and ongoing worldwide recession, but life is flickering in the forest carbon segment.
Voluntary carbon buyers are in the market but taking much longer to carry out their buying programmes knowing they are in a good position to hold out and squeeze prices down, says David Pontis, an emissions broker at Tullet Prebon. Organisations are still offsetting but the market appears to be 70 per cent sellers and 30 per cent buyers currently, Pontis said.
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EU set to overshoot its Kyoto emission targetsA large fall in greenhouse gas emissions brought about by a reduction of industrial activity led by the economic crisis has put the EU on a fast track to meet its Kyoto commitments, but Austria, Denmark and Italy are falling behind, according to new figures.
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Study supports carbon price to protect forestsA modelling study on the effects of differing land use policies on forests has found that placing a carbon price on emissions are needed to protect forest cover. The lack of a carbon price on land-use emissions is likely to lead to significant deforestation for the purpose of bio-energy crop production this century, it says.
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Forests soak up carbon, but for how long?MISSOULA, Mont. - U.S. forests offset roughly 11 percent of the nation's industrial greenhouse gas emissions, storing "significant amounts" of carbon that would otherwise pollute the atmosphere, according to new government data.
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World Bank pays $4 for forest CERsAfrica’s first significant CDM forest carbon project has attracted a price of $US4 per tonne in temporary CER (tCER) carbon credits, according to a media report. The World Bank will buy the credits for half the carbon stored up to 2017 from an Ethiopian forestry project, the Humbo Assisted Natural Regeneration Project.
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Danish embassy starts carbon projectTHE Danish Embassy has signed a five-year agreement with the Uganda Carbon Bureau (UCB) to purchase carbon credits from various projects in Uganda.
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NZ Forestry credits off to JapanA major Japanese bank has come back for a second helping of New Zealand forestry credits. The deal, finalised last week, is being seen as a positive step in the developing international market for New Zealand’s forestry credits.
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Interior West Forests on Verge of Becoming Net Carbon EmitterForests in the Interior West could soon flip from carbon sink to carbon source, forest experts say.
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Debunking the Myths of a REDD+ MarketA binding deal on the REDD+ scheme to conserve the world’s forests has never been so close. How to finance REDD+ is still under debate, but experts in Cancun have reiterated that a combination of financing mechanisms will be needed to ensure adequate REDD+ funding.
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Trade-offs and synergies between carbon storage and livelihood benefits from forest commonsForests provide multiple benefits at local to global scales. These include the global public good of carbon sequestration and local and national level contributions to livelihoods for more than half a billion users.
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Forest carbon payments – payments for restoring or planting forest, or for preventing forest degradation or deforestation – can help to prevent and reverse forest loss.
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Trees planted in China to neutralize carbon emissions of UN conference
Shanxi, Dec. 28, 2010 (Xinhua News Agency) -- A newly planted forest will neutralize carbon dioxide emissions from a UN climate change conference as China ups its efforts to combat climate change, an official said here Tuesday.
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Carbon lab project in Suriname(De Ware Tijd) – In January, construction will start of a so-called ‘carbon lab’ at the premises of Berg en Dal on the Suriname River.
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Lakes a big source of climate-warming gas: study
(Reuters) - Lakes and rivers emit far more of a powerful greenhouse gas than previously thought, counteracting the overall role of nature in soaking up climate-warming gases, a study showed on Thursday.
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Global forest carbon offset market is projected to grow ~ 10% per year
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World Bank puts up €68m to avert post-Kyoto carbon market crashThe World Bank has launched a €68m (£57m) pot of funding aimed at enabling carbon-cutting projects to keep selling UN-backed offsets after the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
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The role of the World Bank in carbon markets
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CDM is a work in progress: UN climate chief
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Event to unveil business opportunities in carbon forestry
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Voluntary Carbon Fills Compliance Void
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Japan offers emission reduction exchange mechanism with RI
Jakarta, Feb 15 (ANTARA) - Japanese entrepreneurs grouped in Keidanren offer to establish a mechanism for emission reduction exchange with Indonesia, Vice President Boediono`s spokesman said here Monday.
"Keidanren offers a carbon emission exhange system with Indonesia, and Japan will provide sophisticated and inexpensive technology," said Yopie Hidayat at the Vice President`s office after accompanying Boediono at the meeting with the head of Keidanren, Hiromasa Yonekura, here Monday.
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Study Compares Carbon Benefits of Forest Management Practices in Oregon
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ETS 'big opportunity' for farmers
Wanganui hill country farmers have a massive opportunity to use the Emissions Trading Scheme to get a return from their marginal land, Pat Hawinkels says.
"Internationally, the market for carbon is huge and it will just get bigger."
People registering their forests in the Emissions Trading Scheme get money for growing trees, which store carbon.
Registering for the scheme was only complex the first time, he said, and for some the money would keep a marginal farm viable.
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UK to devise standalone carbon permit system
London – The UK said it will opt out of a common European Union platform for auctioning carbon permits in the next phase of the bloc's emissions-trading programme, which starts in 2013, and will develop a national system instead.
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More Than 20 Years of Forest Carbon Yield Plenty of Lessons for Investors
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Australia can meet carbon targets by land offsets: report
A new report on Thursday said Australia can meet its carbon emissions target by doing nothing more than claiming offsets from re-vegetation of cleared land, regional forest agreements and ending logging of native forests.
Australia has set its target of a 5 percent cut in carbon emissions by 2020, and the study said the federal government has deliberately underestimated these land offsets to justify a weak target in international negotiations.
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Farmers scratch surface on carbon
'This could really take off,'' said Ross Garnaut this week, releasing his latest update paper on Transforming Rural Land Use. ''This could be seriously big.''
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LULUCF in 2011 - Guest Commentary in Point Carbon
--the following appeared as a guest commentary in Carbon Market Europe, Thomson Reuters Point Carbon on February 25, 2011--
Closing the deal on forest accounting
By Chris Henschel, national manager of boreal conservation, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society
Mark it on your calendar: the UN climate change conference in South Africa this December will deliver an agreement on the accountability of industrialised countries for their emissions from forest management and other land uses (LULUCF).
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