Amplified Green

Equity analysts divide into three distinct groups based on their climate change perspective, according to a new report from independent research firm Verdantix.

The survey, entitled Equity Analysts Link Climate Change And Company Valuation shows that there are virtually equally sized groups of climate change believers, sceptics and cynics. Believers represent 30% of analysts. These guys already include climate change factors like regulations and risks in their financial models. Sceptics, comprising 28% of the research participants, think that climate change will have a material impact on profitability within 2 to 5 years. Cynics, comprising 30% of analysts, doubt climate change will ever impact valuations.

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A recent annual survey into the carbon reduction efforts by suppliers has revealed that business leaders dread the potential impact of emissions legislation on their activities.

The survey, carried out by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a transatlantic not for profit organization, covered responses of 144 supply companies to multinational corporations.

Only 26% of the suppliers have actual plans in place to achieve greenhouse gas reductions. But more than double that number (58%) was tracking their emissions. Around 33% of all the surveyed suppliers has a dedicated board member in place dealing with climate change issues.
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Solar energy is child’s play. Just use a magnifying glass in the sun and you’re generating energy in a jiffy. It’s what scientists at IBM are doing. They’ve launched what they claim to be breakthrough solar energy which is among the cheapest solar solutions around.

The scientists say they create five times more energy by concentrating the sun’s power through a lens. One square centimeter of solar cell produces as much as 230 watts of energy, the most ever in solar techology.

Having only just pioneered the technology, IBM says it will now focus on commercializing it at an installation cost of less than two dollars per watt. The company believes that it should be possible to produce systems even cheaper than that. The reason that IBM is so confident about this is pure maths; by using a much lower number of photovoltaic cells and concentrating more light onto each cell, they’ll ultimately need less total materials than your average solar farm.

One major hurdle that IBM scientists have yet to tackle is temperature control. Due to the high sunlight concentration - light of the equivalent of 2,000 suns are concentrated- temperatures are also going to be extremely high. The scientists say they will borrow innovations from other IBM R&D staffers specializing in cooling computer chips.

This post also appeared on Triple Pundit, the new blog by Treehugger, to which I contribute freelance articles about the environment and business.

An organization called the European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research (COST) invites scientists from around the globe to submit proposals for projects contributing to the scientific, technological, economic, cultural or societal development of Europe. Proposals playing a precursor role for other European programmes and plans initiated by early-stage researchers are especially welcome.

The deadline for preliminary proposals is 26 September 2008 and reviewing the material takes around six months, the organizers say. COST aims to bring together researchers and experts in different countries by setting up networks of nationally funded research projects. COST financially supports the networking activities (not the research itself). For more information, visit the organization’s website.

The European car industry is going to be heavily impacted by regulations on pollution limitations and tensions are rising between German manufacturers on one side and the French and Italian car industry on the other. Reason? German cars are much heavier than those made by the French and the Italians and the Germans fear that they will be penalized by new pollution regulations.

New cars by 2012 can only emit 120 grams of CO2 per kilometer at max. Most European cars average 160 grams per kilometer at the moment. The new rules are expected to transform the look and feel of all European cars. Even the smallest and most energy efficient cars are required to undergo design changes so the sector as a whole can reach the new goals.
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Scientists at UK’s Newcastle University developed an energy efficient way to create a chemical reaction between epoxy and CO2. Big deal, you might think, but the resulting cyclic carbonates are estimated to cut Britain’s greenhouse gas by 4%!

The way it works is that cyclic carbonates are in high demand in the paints, petrol refining and biodegradable packaging industry, but until now the chemical component has been too expensive to create to consider it as a CO2 cutting agent. The process to create the chemical reaction required high temperatures and was therefore highly costly.

But in recent months, the Newcastle scientists found that using aluminum would create the chemical reaction at room temperature. They are now busy devising the most optimal ways to create the commercially very viable cyclic carbonate and the plan is to open a production plant that will manufacture the component for industrial supplies.

As much as 4% of the entire UK’s carbon dioxide can be ‘recyled’ this way, the Newcastle team claims. Professor Michael North who heads up the team says the technology has the potential to use up to 48 million tonnes of waste CO2 per year.

Companies involved in offsetting their carbon footprint have access to over twenty tools to calculate their emissions, most of which have been launched in the last year. So far, the voluntary carbon offsetting market is dominated by European players. Reviews of their efforts have not been all too positive, so US companies following in their footsteps do best to avoid the pitfalls.

The main criticism centers on what´s left out of the equasion. Companies embarking on greening up their business practices are faced with a daunting task and most go about it the `easy way´ at first. There´s the option to simply offset carbons on the Chicago Climate Exchange, the European Climate Exchange or on the newly established NYMEX venture, the Green Exchange. Businesses have access to these exchanges if they wish to reduce their overall greenhouse gas emissions by as little as 1%.

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The European Union’s heavy industry carbon dioxide emissions during 2007 reached around 1.914 billion metric tons according to data released Wednesday. The numbers were 93% complete, because some of the 10,500 companies registered on the Europe’s carbon trading platform had failed to meet the March 31 submission deadline. Prices on the secondary carbon market rallied on the news Wednesday. The price of benchmark European Union Allowances (EUAs) futures increased 88 cents, a 3.9% rise.

The numbers are important for traders on the European Climate Exchange, who take guidance from the level of actual carbon emissions to gauge what demand for offsets is likely to be.
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The British capital markets watchdog, the Financial Services Authority, has released a report warning that many emissions trading companies make false claims about their green credentials.

The FSA says that the integrity of the carbon trading market is under threat. The information that carbon emissions traders relay to clients often has a truth content that’s lower than you’d expect. In many cases there’s also no clarity over the regulations involved, a lack of credible data. Investors are also frequently offered climate change related products that are totally unsuitable for their goals. (more…)

European carbon traders are eagerly awaiting benchmark numbers on European greenhouse gas emissions during 2007. European countries ought to have submitted the data in a central system yesterday but many failed to meet the deadline.

That is why the Brussels authorities in charge of the central system have not yet released the information on the Community Independent Transaction Log (CITL), the central system. The numbers are key because they allow market traders to know the right level of demand for the instruments they trade.

EU regulations mandate that energy-intensive companies involved in carbon offsets submit one emissions permit for every ton of carbon dioxide emissions they create. The permits are called EU Allowances (EUAs) and since 2005 there’s been a healthy trade in them. Traders have created futures and options derived from the EUAs. Volumes as well as the prices on the European Climate Exchange have been going through the roof in the past year. During March 2008, almost 120 million tonnes EUAs were traded, an increase of 61% compared to March 2007.

Reuters interviewed a Deutsche Bank analyst, Mark Lewis, about his expectations for the 2007 emissions levels. Lewis expects 2007 carbon dioxide emissions to be between 2,180-2,220 million tons. 2007 levels were between 2,100-2,140 million tons.

The 2008 permit supply is 2,083 million tons, which means there’s a shortage of supply. EUA prices will likely rock once the data is released. Lewis estimates the price is likely to go up to 35 euros per ton during 2008-12. Last Friday, EUA futures contracts were trading down 14 cents at 22.12 euros ($34.87).

During the first phase of the carbon market (2005-2007) trading was characterized by an oversupply of permits which caused the carbon price to fall.

The UK has independently already released its estimates for 2007 emissions levels. Government officials published provisional figures showing UK emission levels reached 639.4 million tonnes, which was 2 percent lower than the 2006.

The authorities in charge of CITL reported that not enough data had been submitted for them to release it. At least 80% of the data entered for the 2006 emissions needs to have been reported before the numbers will be released. This is so the markets don’t trade on false information.

CITL announced that it won’t ‘give public access to installation-level verified emissions data today [April 1]‘. Instead, the data will be released as soon as enough submissions have been registered to make the 80% grade.
The officials in charge will release the numbers until at least 80% of the data that was submitted in 2006 has been entered.

Angelique van Engelen writes http://Amplifiedgreen.wordpress.com, a blog about micro green options, macro perspectives.