Press Release: UN Issues Millions of Carbon Credits despite finding that Emission Reductions could be Overestimated

by Miriam Vicente MarcosEU carbon market, Global markets, Sustainable developmentPosted on Comments are Disabled

Cancun, Mexico. Climate Campaigners welcomed yesterday’s decision by the United Nations’ CDM Executive Board to suspend the crediting methodology for HFC-23 projects because it could lead to over-issuance of carbon credits. Revised rules will be presented in June 2011 but retro-active changes were not ruled out. CDM Watch called a separate decision to issue almost 20 million carbon credits to HFC-23 projects incoherent.

Press Release: Climate Campaigners applaud Commission for proposal on offset restrictions

by Miriam Vicente MarcosEU carbon market, Global marketsPosted on Comments are Disabled

Cancún, Mexico/London, United Kingdom. The European Commission today published its much-anticipated proposal on quality restrictions on the use of offsetting credits from industrial gas projects in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. The proposal comes in the wake of a series of scandals surrounding fake CDM offset credits. Climate campaigners have welcomed it as a first step towards ensuring that the EU ETS does not turn into a refuse dump for poor quality offset credits which lead to an increase in global greenhouse gas emissions.

Mistaken issuance of HFC-23 credits: Human Error should be Corrected (Newsletter #11)

by Miriam Vicente MarcosEU carbon market, Global marketsPosted on Comments are Disabled

Despite the current ban on HFC credit issuance, more than 800,000 CERs were issued to an HFC-23 abatement project in India on 12 November. The EB suspended issuance of HFC-23 credits in August 2010 and made public assurances that the suspension would remain in place until the Board had discussed the Methodology Panel’s conclusions (see …

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EU Action on CDM (Newsletter #11)

by Miriam Vicente MarcosEU carbon market, Global marketsPosted on Comments are Disabled

Alarm about the environmental integrity of industrial gas abatement projects under the CDM has reached the highest political level in Europe. In response to mounting concern about HFC-23 and N2O projects, EU Commissioner for Climate Action, Connie Hedegaard, announced in August 2010 that the European Commission would draft a proposal on quality restrictions on the …

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CDM Watch submission to the European Commission on design aspects of quality restrictions on the use of credits from industrial gas projects

by Miriam Vicente MarcosEU carbon market, Global marketsPosted on No Comments

Brussels. The European Commission is working on a proposal to introduce quality restrictions on industrial gas offsets in the EU ETS. On 25 of October, CDM Watch made a submission to the Commission comprising the following documents: CDM Watch Submission to the European Commission – October 2010 AM0001 Revision Request: Revision to AM0001 to address methodological …

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Press Release: UN Delays Action on Carbon Market Scandal

by Miriam Vicente MarcosEU carbon market, Global marketsPosted on No Comments

A coalition of environmental NGOs warned today that the UN CDM Executive Board is avoiding immediate and necessary action to address scandalous gaming of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism because of conflicts of interest in the Board. A report due for release this evening regarding the controversial HFC-23 projects will reflect the insistence by Japanese, Chinese and Indian Board members to allow the continuation of the flawed methodology.

Who has a conflict of interest in the HFC-23 case? (Newsletter #9)

by Miriam Vicente MarcosEU carbon market, Global marketsPosted on Comments are Disabled

In cases where substantial economist interest is at stake, such as in the upcoming discussions on the HFC-23 revision request, Board members face pressure under the current CDM rules. The 19 registered HFC-23 destruction projects are expected to generate about 478 million CERs by 2012 and more than one billion CERs by 2020. These projects …

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