NOAA based its findings on work done by 300 scientists in 48 countries and its report confirmed that “the Earth has been growing warmer over the last 50 years.” It highlighted 10 measurable gauges of global temperature change and explained, “The relative movement of each of these indicators proves consistent with a warming world. Seven indicators are rising: air temperature over land, sea-surface temperature, air temperature over oceans, sea level, ocean heat, humidity and tropospheric temperature in the ‘active-weather’ layer of the atmosphere closest to the Earth’s surface. Three indicators are declining: Arctic sea ice, glaciers and spring snow cover in the Northern hemisphere.”

It warned that the planet, having a recent history of “thousands of years under one climatic state,” is at a far greater risk of “more extreme events like severe drought, torrential rain and violent storms.”

The report backs the findings of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which was subject to much criticism as part of the “Climategate” controversy that blew up early this year as findings published in its 2007 Climate Change Assessment Report were scrutinised.

The NOAA’s annual “State of the Climate” report for 2009 was released yesterday as a supplement to the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. NOAA is a US agency that works to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment. The report is published annually.

Links:
NOAA website
NOAA’s 2009 State of the Climate Report

See Ari’s article here.
Find out more about Airshed Energy.

Each tree is 26 metres tall and has 37,000 lights that create 16 million different colour combinations. Children can call Santa Claus from special phone boxes located at the base of the trees, to make their Christmas wishes.

At the Auckland location, Telecom is also running a mobile phone recycling appeal, where Starship, New Zealand’s national children’s hospital, will benefit. In Wellington, gifts can be left for Women’s Refuge.

AIRSHED will measure the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the electricity used to power the tree light displays and provide Telecom with Gold Standard carbon offset products to cover these.

Maia Ririnui from AIRSHED said this morning, “We estimate that his flight will add just over 6 tonnes of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gases to the atmosphere – 6.31 tonnes according to the AIRSHED carbon calculator. People are already knocking him about the impact so we’re going to retire 7 Gold Standard offsets to cover this on his behalf. He may well be the first world leader to have offsets retired against his name on the Markit Register.”

John Key should be applauded for his decision to go to Copenhagen. A new global agreement to reduce emissions is crucial for the atmosphere – and New Zealand needs to be a part of it. It needs to be a responsible member of the international community. New Zealand also needs to live up to its clean and green image given the nation’s heavy economic reliance on income from exports and tourism.

The proposed changes are to be implemented from 1 April 2010 and relate to approved carbon offset products.

In short they would mean that the granting of compliance units under an ETS, and the subsequent trading of these units, would be zero-rated for GST purposes.

There are also implications for voluntary market participants that trade voluntary units such as those that comply with internationally recognised standards such at the Gold Standard or the Voluntary Carbon Standard. Trading in these units will also be zero-rated for GST purposes.

See the IRD notice for further details.

AIRSHED is pleased to announce the launch of two new sustainable energy products on Powershop, New Zealand’s online energy store.

AIRSHED Energy is electricity that comes with Gold Standard carbon offset products.

AIRSHED Energy For Business also comes with Gold Standard carbon offset products but has the added benefit that customers can use the offsets in carbon certification programmes, such as the carboNZero^{Cert TM} programme.

AIRSHED Director Maia Ririnui said this week, “AIRSHED Energy is essentially an electricity product where the emissions involved in generating, transmitting and distributing the electricity, have been offset using high-quality carbon offset products.”

He added, “There are a few other products in this space but there isn’t anything that matches our business offering in terms of quality. We’ve worked to ensure the AIRSHED Energy For Business product is backed with high-quality offsets and that the processes we have in place for the registration and retirement of these offsets will meet the strict requirements of the carboNZero programme.”

The carboNZero programme was established by Landcare Research in 2001. It is New Zealand’s dominant carbon certifier and a leading player in the global carbon market. carboNZero programme Business Manager Mike Tournier was involved in the development of the AIRSHED Energy For Business product. He said, “We’ve approved the offset process being used to back this product. So, for anyone signed up to the carboNZero programme, the offsets can be deducted at the mitigation step.”

AIRSHED’s energy products are available in New Zealand at Powershop, the world’s first online energy provider. Powershop Business Development Manager Tim Fraser said AIRSHED is a welcome addition to the company’s list of providers. “We’re happy to have AIRSHED on board. They improve our sustainability credentials and increase the attractiveness of our service and product offering to business users,” he said.

AIRSHED calculates the greenhouse gas emissions associated with its energy products using the latest emission factors published by New Zealand’s Ministry for the Environment.

The offset component of the AIRSHED Energy price goes to help fund international carbon offset projects managed by Swiss offset provider, myclimate. The offset component of the AIRSHED Energy For Business price goes to fund the purchase of Gold Standard carbon offsets from projects that have delivered emissions reductions, such as the Manawatu-based Te Apiti Wind Farm.

Notes:

AIRSHED is a New Zealand-based sustainability company that helps people take action against Climate Change.

AIRSHED was founded by Todd Spencer and Maia Ririnui in 2007. Todd is an energy lawyer with extensive experience of working in Europe, Asia and New Zealand, most recently being involved in the development of geothermal and wind power projects. Maia has worked in investment banking and accountancy roles for over 20 years, last as an Executive Director of a derivatives trading group at UBS in London.

AIRSHED is the exclusive partner of myclimate in Australasia. myclimate is a Swiss climate protection foundation and leading international offset provider.

Relevant Links:

AIRSHED Energy
About AIRSHED
The Gold Standard
Powershop
carboNZero programme
myclimate

New Zealand Climate Change Minister Nick Smith announced Monday that the government intends to set a Greenhouse Gas emissions reduction target of between 10 and 20% below 1990 levels by 2020.

The target will be offered as part of negotiations at the Copenhagen climate change conference in December. An offer to cut by 10% will be contingent upon developed nations signing up to a comprehensive treaty. This would be increased to 20% if developing nations also signed the treaty.

Prime Minister John Key described the target as credible and responsible. He said, “It seeks to balance our economic opportunities with our environmental responsibility.” He added that, “The target is going to be a big ask for New Zealand because our gross emissions are already 24% above our 1990 levels.”

Business New Zealand agreed, saying the target “is a significant challenge, but strikes a sensible balance given New Zealand’s circumstances.” It added that the government’s target is “is broadly in line with the average developed nation target of 15% and reasonably well aligned with Australia’s target.” Some business groups have argued for a target even lower than 10%.

Predictably, The Green Party and Greenpeace NZ are less than happy with the target.

Green Party MP Jeanette Fitzsimons said the 10-20% target showed that Prime Minister Key “is running from responsibility with a weak 2020 emissions target, softening our negotiating position and further undermining our clean, green brand.” The Greens recently published a plan titled, “Getting There,” which outlined an emissions reduction plan to help the nation towards a 40% reduction target.

Greenpeace NZ have been running the high profile “Sign On” campaign, where actors such as Lucy Lawless and Keisha Castle-Hughes have been urging New Zealanders to push the government to commit to a 40% target at Copenhagen.

Predictably, Greenpeace has been scathing of the target. However it has also outlined an apparent contradiction in the government’s approach to climate change policy. In a press release issued Wednesday it said, “Overnight, New Zealand told delegates from 190 countries in Bonn that the Government’s emissions reduction target of 10-20% below 1990 levels is dependent on developed countries as a whole cutting their emissions to 30-40% below 1990 levels … New Zealand has effectively told the rest of the developed world that if they work really hard to reduce their emissions by up to 40% below 1990 levels by 2020, we’ll do half of that.”

Most of the arguments made for keeping the target low have been based on cost. Indeed, as part of the Q&A section attached to its official announcement the government said, “Taking on a 40% reduction target would place a much greater cost on our economy than the costs that other countries will take on for their targets, and for that reason it would be unrealistic to expect New Zealand to commit to such a target.” This assessment is based in part on NZIER/Infometrics models designed to determine the costs associated with different emissions targets.

However no mention has been made of the cost associated with New Zealand losing its international reputation, deserved or otherwise, as being clean and green. This is an image that the export and tourism sectors have benefited greatly from in the past. These sectors are therefore exposed to any weakening in this perception now.

There is certainly a risk that, by adopting anything but an ambitious emissions reduction target, New Zealand’s clean and green credentials are called into question on the international stage. If foreign consumers look less favourably on New Zealand-sourced products as a result, there would certainly be a cost, in terms of lost revenues, for NZ Inc.

Those with most to lose would be the producers of export products and the providers of tourism services to foreigners with a reasonable understanding of, and sensitivity to, Climate Change issues. The dairy, meat and wine industries are exposed. Regional economies in tourism-rich areas such as the Bay of Plenty, Hawkes Bay and Otago are exposed. The nation’s home grown brands, such as Steinlager and Icebreaker are exposed.

Yes, it would be cheaper in the short-term to adopt a lower emissions target. But there is a longer-term cost associated with that decision. The government must factor this cost into its calculations because New Zealand’s clean and green image is worth something. Isn’t it?

Hot Stuff – Chill Out is an online project for young people around the world to network and exchange information on climate change issues.

Students from schools in Tibet, Peru, the USA, Switzerland, Tanzania, Peru and India (amongst others) are taking part.

The goal of Hot Stuff – Chill Out is to help implement projects around the world which raise awareness of climate change and encourage the effective and economical use of energy and resources.

International partnerships like this let students rethink their own climate habits and work together for a better future. Interested classes from various countries are brought together to swap stories about the impact of climate change in each other’s countries and share thoughts and ideas on sustainability.

Congratulations to the Green Group at Onslow College for all their hard work in participating in this project!

With the price of Assigned Amount Units (AAUs) now down in the €5-10 per tonne range, and below the price of Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs), some of these buyers may be considering buying “Greened AAUs.”

The NZ ETS currently allows for the import of AAUs but there are significant risks associated with these units for ETS participants. In this piece we will explain what AAUs are and outline a number of risks associated with them.

What are Greened AAUs?

Greened AAUs arise out of the Green Investment Schemes (GIS) being set up by East European countries (Hungary, Latvia, Czech Republic, Ukraine and Romania) to give environmental credibility to so-called “hot air” AAUs.

A number of East European countries inherited very large quantities[1] of AAUs due to the collapse in industrial production levels in the region from 1990. These countries are now able to on-sell these surplus AAUs.

The main problem with these so-called “hot air” AAUs is they have no environmental integrity. They were created by an over-allocation of units rather than emissions reductions through investment in low carbon technologies.

A GIS uses the revenue generated from the sale of surplus AAUs to invest in projects to reduce emissions (“hard greening”) or in other projects that benefit the environment (“soft greening”). These greening activities are intended to give the AAUs some environment integrity and to increase their saleability.

NZ ETS – Uncertainty Risk

There is considerable uncertainty as to whether or not Greened AAUs will be tradeable in the New Zealand  Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

Importing “hot air” AAUs into the NZ ETS has always been viewed as reputationally risky for the NZ ETS because the European ETS prohibits trading in these units.

Presumably, as a response to this risk, imported AAUs must now meet the requirements to be laid out in regulations under the Climate Change Response Act.

Unfortunately, there’s been no word on these regulations to date, and their content is, according to officials, linked closely to the findings of the Dunne Select Committee.

There is talk in the market however, of NZ introducing a price cap on NZUs, in line with the Australian Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS). Prohibiting the import of AAUs into the ETS would be consistent with the introduction of a price cap, as the free import of AAUs would have provided a de facto price cap on NZUs, limiting the upper price to the price payable for AAUs.

Prohibiting the import of AAUs into the NZ ETS would also be in line with Australia’s prohibition on the import of AAUs into the CPRS.

Delivery Risk

Greened AAUs, by their nature, carry a high degree of delivery risk.

There is a significant time delay between the delivery of a unit at the completion of an AAU transaction and the delivery of the associated greening effect. This means that, in many cases, the greening effect will occur many months or years after an AAU is surrendered for compliance purposes. This carries reputational risks for ETS participants.

Currently, the NZ ETS does not penalise participants whose Greened AAUs fail to deliver the promised greening effect. This could, however, be a requirement of the new regulations, referred to above.

Additionality Risk

Ensuring that GIS revenues do not simply replace already budgeted spending, is a challenge. Including additionality guarantees in the sale agreement could go some way to addressing this risk.

Enforcement Risk

Buyers should be aware that enforcing private contracts against East European State sellers will be extremely difficult, costly and time consuming.

Risk Management

A “Greening Plan” can be agreed between the parties that sets out certain “Greening Milestones”, and linking these to milestone payments. Achieving a fixed “Greening Ratio” could be one of these milestones, linking payment of part of the purchase price to achieving a fixed ratio of emissions reduction per unit.

On large sales, it may also be possible for a representative of the buyer to sit on the committee that makes decisions on the selection of greening activities. Buyers may also have an ongoing supervisory, monitoring and verification role, once the projects are selected.

Taking delivery of AAUs following verification that the Greening Plan has been complied with, reduces these risks. ETS participants can likewise manage their reputational risk by only using pre-Greened AAUs for compliance purposes.

Our advice to NZ ETS participants is to steer clear of Greened AAUs, at least until the regulations relating to the import of AAUs are passed and the Dunne Committee has reported its ETS review findings.

The New Zealand-based partners jointly developed the tool with a view to helping exporters in Australasia better understand the impact their shipping activities have on Climate Change.

AIRSHED Director Maia Ririnui said today, “Exporters need to measure the carbon footprint associated with the transport of their goods, in addition to the production process. International consumers, in Europe and the US particularly, are becoming increasingly sensitive to this information as we’ve seen with the food miles debate in recent years.”

Malcolm Garnham from Catalyst R&D added, “Measuring transport emissions is a key step in the life cycle analysis work we’ve been doing for some of our larger clients in the export sector. This tool will help small and mid-sized exporters take that step too.”

Ririnui also suggested, “Exporters need to monitor these emission levels closely and do what they can to reduce them. In some cases it will also be in their interest to offset these emissions with high quality carbon offsets. If done properly, this can add to the marketability of their product.”

The online tool is available for use free of charge on the AIRSHED and Catalyst websites.

Link

Sea Freight Emissions Calculator on the AIRSHED website.

About AIRSHED

AIRSHED is a New Zealand company that helps people take action against Climate Change. It is the exclusive Australasian partner of myclimate, the Swiss climate protection foundation. Click here for more about AIRSHED.

About Catalyst R&D

Catalyst R&D offers a range of research and development services to help activate, enable and evolve businesses. Click here for more about Catalyst.

AIRSHED and Catalyst have been working together on Climate Change projects since May 2008.