Carbon Offsets Daily's story links

Have you ever wondered which driving path you should take to minimize your environmental impact? Or do you know how much exposed you are to GHG emissions when you jog in the local park? A couple of eco-conscious researchers are now going to let you learn that by downloading software on your GPS mobile.UCLA Professor Deborah Estrin [...]

While you must have seen companies that are making good cash from CDM and offset sales, the South Koreans have moved one step forward to encompass the ordinary public in the quest for a cleaner future.October 2008 will probably be the month that will bring with itself the nation’s “carbon cashbag” scheme, which will let the common people earn carbon points that will bring benefits in multiple ways. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy revealed [...]

Energy-Intensive Firms to Discuss Carbon Leakage in Light of EU Climate Change PlanCarbon Fund Assets Go Up By $5 B over Last YearSouth Africa: Farmers Estimate Footprint as UK Supermarkets and Importers Try Greening Supply ChainsCanada: Nova Scotia Premier Speaks Up Against Carbon TaxUniversity Campaign to Give Out 5,000 CFL Bulbs as Move towards Carbon Neutrality

PetroChina gets green signal from the UN CDM Board to trade its carbon indicators equaling a little less than 1 million tons. The credits, acquired though a nitrous oxide (N2O) CDM project by Liaoyang Petrochemical, are a part of China’s biggest carbon deal.The environmental impact of nitrous oxide is around 310 times more than that of CO2. A representative of Liaoyang said [...]

A United States Appeals Court on Tuesday rejected an EPA rule that prevented states from establishing stricter emissions monitoring systems for high polluting industries such as oil refineries, chemical manufacturers and the like.

KPMG has warned that UK businesses participating in the upcoming Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) may experience a major cash flow impact because of the scheme. The consultancy firm advised its clientele to begin appraising their CO2 emissions soon, so that they will be knowledgeable of their emissions and can prepare to go through [...]

Trading Emissions- a UK based company that undertakes investments in environmental and emissions assets has revised its estimates pertaining to the size of its portfolio of Certified Emissions Reductions (CER) to be received by 2012. At the end of 2007, they had expected 57.04 mn CERs, but now it has cut down its portfolio to [...]

Two separate studies conducted by American, Canadian and German Researchers show that soils have a limited capacity when it comes to sequestering carbon. It has been known for quite some time that plants absorb CO2 from the surroundings as they grow and process that carbon into their tissues. Upon a plant’s death, the carbon gets amalgamated into the soil and remains stored there [...]

Al Gore Makes Over $98 from Carbon Carbon Buzz After Leaving Office

IndianOil Considering CDM Projects With Earning Potential of Indian Rs. 240 M

Japan Wants Developing Nations to Commit to Emissions Reductions After 2012

O’Reilly’s Energy Group to Study Irish Sea for Carbon Sequestration Feasibility

Naperville (IL) Residents Willingly Pay Extra Bills to Reduce Emissions

While all the fuss about carbon tax continues in the Canadian media, we also now have Ontario testing some carbon-cutting pilot projects in the agricultural sector. Ontario signed the Western Climate Initiative not long ago, and the province will probably have a cap-and-trade system by 2012, as all members in the Initiative agree on that.

Ontario’s plan now is to initiate three pilot projects to offset emissions. The first one will have farmers utilize nitrogen fertilizers in a more eco-friendly way.

New Zealand will host a conference of climate specialists this week where talks will be held if Aussies and Kiwis can have their emissions schemes linked with each other to have a wider range of abatement options. Critics like KPMG climate change analyst Antony Cohen believe this can shoot carbon permits prices to $40 per tonne in Australia and can also increase electricity rates by ...

It pays to cut greenhouse gas emissions, literally and members of the National Farmers Union Carbon Credit Program will vouch for that. The program gives agricultural producers the opportunity to earn carbon credits through carbon sequestration, that is, by adopting practices such as no-till farming, growing grass and reforestation that store carbon dioxide [...]

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper denounced Liberal Party’s Green Shift plan as a ‘green shaft’ that will put brakes on the nation’s economic development because of the proposed carbon tax.“It will drive up the price of everything - transportation, groceries, electricity, heating, even propane for our barbecues,” claimed Harper.

With the prices of fuel hitting the roof and the threat of global warming looming large, the French territory of Reunion Island has embarked on a mission to become completely carbon neutral. Their target is to generate 100 per cent of the island’s electricity through renewable sources by the year 2025 and by 2050 run its transportation completely on renewables [...]

While many of us may think of cutting our carbon footprint during the course of our lives, Colorado Springs officials are thinking way beyond that. The Colorado Spring Gazette reports officials are considering ways to make our funeral and graveyard-life eco-friendly. The idea came while the local government was reviewing city-wide ...

The City of Sydney has become the first government in Australia to attain carbon neutrality, announced the council’s CEO, Monica Barone on Tuesday. This was accomplished by increasing energy efficiency, switching to renewables and using carbon offsets. The government will shell out about USD 2.2 million annually to purchase wind power in order to offset its fuel and electricity usage.

The Environmental Board of New York on Monday approved the regulations to bring into force the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which was started in 2005 by ten states in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic to institute emission-reducing regulations for power plants.

Collaborating with UK-based Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Las Vegas and New York will be amongst 21 US cities that will have their carbon footprints measured.

More and more companies are offering carbon neutral products. What’s the coolest one?

Answer and get a chance to win $50.

The recent update by the Carbon Offset Guide shows nearly 40% increase in the number of carbon offset providers between March and June 2008. According to Victorian Environment and Climate Change Minister Gavin Jennings, the website currently has 50 offset providers in its directory and 84% of these offer certified offsets, which refers to third-party verification of the product.

Researches and MPs are pressing the British government to do more for commercialization of carbon capture and storage (CCS) as the country heads towards a major display of CCS technology in 2014. It is expected that the winning bidder to receive funding for this CCS demo would be chosen within the next 12 months; the bidder will have to demonstrate burial of 2 million tonnes of CO2 per annum generated by a 400 MW coal-fired plant.

The world of computers is sure getting greener by the day. Yesterday Dell announced that its operations were now completely carbon neutral and now PC World is all set to release what’s being touted as the world’s first carbon neutral PC. A little behind schedule - the green PCs were supposed to hit the market a year ago, but now the product “..is currently going through the final stages of testing and we expect to be announcing its arrival shortly”, according to a company spokeswoman.

Dell Goes 100% Carbon Neutral - video w/Dell's Dane Parker

Before the Japanese government can decide on a carbon trading scheme, it has to figure out ‘who’s got it right’ on emissions calculations.

Barack Obama released his energy plan on Monday wherein he greatly emphasized the need to wean the United States off foreign oil. The plan was slammed by some who ridiculed Obama for changing his stance as he proposed selling 70 mn barrels from the strategic oil reserves and “limited amount of new offshore drilling”. However the Democratic presidential candidate clarified that he had relaxed his position on offshore drilling as a compromise and didn’t view drilling as the panacea to the country’s energy issues, unlike the Republicans.

Decrease in Oil Price Pulls down Carbon Prices in Europe to 5-Month Low

Australian Securities Exchange to Bring in Various Alternate Energy Futures Contracts before Launching Carbon Futures in 2009

UK: Coal-Fired Power Operator Drax Experiences Nearly 50% Cut in Profits Due to Purchase of Carbon Credits

Chinese Government Will Have to Spend US$3.25 Billion Next Year to Execute Emissions-Reduction Plan

Australia: Leading Economist Says Government’s Carbon Trading Scheme Will Fail

Zion and Zion - a leading marketing/advertising firm based in Phoenix and Atlanta has decided to undertake a comprehensive carbon offsetting initiative in a bid to completely wipe out its carbon footprint. While other firms in the industry have also taken steps towards reducing their emissions, what sets Zion and Zion apart is that it will be the first in the marketing industry to fully offset its carbon emissions.

Working on the computer might seem like a harmless enough activity, but the fact is that computers have a fairly enormous carbon footprint. In fact, a while back it was reported that the global IT industry’s carbon emissions of two per cent of the total, puts it at par with the aviation industry as far as emissions go. Steps such as turning off your PCs , recycling etc. certainly go a long way in conserving energy but new and innovative solutions are also on the way.

Researchers from Australian National University (ANU) reveal untouched natural forests have the potential to stock up 3 times more CO2 than formerly thought, which makes their storage capacity around 60% more than that of plantation forests.