Carbon Alert - April 2011
A monthly resource round-up of recently released reports and upcoming events and training opportunities.
- Climate Change Policy and Legislation
- Carbon Management and Accounting
- International Climate Change News
- Energy, Technology and Renewables
- Climate Change Science and Adaptation
- Carbon Events
- Workshops and Training Courses
Climate Change Policy and Legislation
Emission Reduction Policies and Carbon Policies in Key Economies: Methodology Working Paper. This working paper, released by the Productivity Commission, outlines the Commission’s approach to a range of methodological issues associated with the study of emissions-reduction policies in key economies (March 2011)
Carbon Farming Initiative. The Australian Government has introduced a bill to establish its carbon farming offsets regime. It has also introduced a separate bill to provide a legislative basis for the national registry that tracks carbon trades and which will also serve as the Carbon Farming Initiative registry (March 2011)
The Carbon Farming Initiative: Policy Brief. This policy brief, released by the Climate Institute, provides an analysis of the Carbon Farming Initiative with recommendations for implementation (March 2011)
Garnaut Climate Change Review – Update 2011. These papers, released by Professor Ross Garnaut, are the last four of eight update papers which include new developments and consider whether the conclusions drawn in the 2008 review have changed (March 2011)
Carbon Pricing that Builds Consensus and Reduces Australia’s Emissions: Managing Uncertainties Using a Rising Fixed Price Evolving to Emissions Trading. This paper, released by the Centre for Climate Economics and Policy, identifies principles for carbon pricing that could attract a broad based and durable societal consensus in Australia. It applies these principles to a phased carbon pricing architecture (March 2011)
Establishing the Eligibility of Emissions-Intensive Trade-Exposed Activities. This paper, released by the Australian Government, elaborates on the arrangements surrounding the process of determining the eligibility of emissions -intensive trade-exposed (EITE) activities under the Government’s Renewable Energy Target and outlines the eligibility assessments that have been made. It addresses the issues considered when defining EITE activities and conducting the eligibility assessments of these activities (March 2011)
Corporate Plan 2010-2011. This corporate plan outlines the priorities of the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency in delivering the Australian Government’s climate change response in the three broad areas of domestic mitigation, adaptation and international engagement (March 2011)
Carbon Pricing: The Role of a Carbon Price as a Climate Change Policy Instrument. This publication, released by the The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, outlines how a carbon price works, the different approaches to carbon pricing and what a carbon price can deliver (March 2011)
Price Uncertainty in the Government’s Fixed Carbon Price Framework. This briefing, released by the Minerals Council, illustrates why the proposed ‘hybrid’ carbon price policy does not contain any mechanisms for generating a long term carbon price, and the implications for business certainty (March 2011)
Carbon Management and Accounting
Modalities and Procedures for Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage in Geological Formations as Clean Development Mechanism Project Activities. This submission to the United Nations contains the views of the Australian Government on carbon capture and storage as project activities under the Clean Development Mechanism (February 2011)
Energy Efficiency Data Framework: Interim Report. This report, released by the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism, outlines a conceptual framework and draft set of ‘currently feasible’ energy efficiency indicators for an Energy Efficiency Data Framework as a ‘working proposal’ for testing and discussion (February 2011)
Draft Australian Energy Efficiency Data Framework. This is the Energy Supply Association of Australia’s response to the Energy Efficiency Data Framework: Interim Report (March 2011)
The Clean Development Mechanism: A Review of the First International Offset Program. This report, released by the Pew Centre on Global Climate Change, outlines a set of principles for ensuring high-quality offsets and examines the CDM against these criteria. It also reviews lessons learnt, institutional changes that have been made, and the ongoing challenges (March 2011)
International Climate Change News
Emissions Trading Scheme Review 2011. This discussion paper, released by New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme Review Panel, sets out the actual and expected impacts of New Zealand’s current Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). It also sets out the issues on which the Panel wishes to focus consultation with stakeholders (March 2011)
Compilation of Economy-Wide Emission Reduction Targets to be Implemented by Parties Included in Annex I to the Convention. This report, released by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, provides an updated outline of emissions reduction commitments by Parties included in Annex 1 to the Convention (March 2011)
India’s Clean Revolution. This report, released by the Climate Group, analyses the low carbon development path India must take for a share of the global clean technology market. The report argues that by prioritising bold low carbon policies and investing in clean energy now, India is creating a better, more secure, and more prosperous future for its more than one billion people (March 2011)
Delivering Low Carbon Growth: A Guide to China’s 12th Five Year Plan. This report, released by the Climate Group, is a guide to the implications of China’s 12th Five Year Plan for the country’s efforts to develop a lower carbon economy (March 2011)
UNFCCC COP16 and CMP6 Official Reports. Follow this link for the official reports on the results of last year’s UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun (March 2011)
Getting Ready with Forest Governance: A Review of the World Bank Forest Carbon Partnership Facility Readiness Preparation Proposals and the UN-REDD National Programme Documents. This working paper, by the World Resources Institute, provides regular updates of the Readiness Preparation Proposals (R-PPs) and National Programme Documents (NPDs) submitted by REDD+ Country Participants to the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) and to the United Nations’ Collaborative Programme in Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD)
Energy, Technology and Renewables
Economic Assessment of Carbon Capture and Storage Technologies: 2011 Update. This report, released by The Global CCS Institute, presents an update of the economics of Carbon Capture and Storage prepared in 2009. It presents a transparent methodology that uses updated and refined costs to reflect changes in the market since 2009 (March 2011)
Energy in Australia 2011. This report, released by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES), provides an analysis of Australia’s energy production, generation and consumption (March 2011)
Interactions of Policies for Renewable Energy and Climate. This working paper, release by the International Energy Agency, critically reviews the arguments about the interactions between renewable energy and carbon policy instruments (March 2011)
Impact of Renewable Energy Policies on Retail Electricity Prices. This report, commissioned by the Clean Energy Council, provides a quantitative estimate of future retail electricity prices. It highlights the proportion of a residential consumer’s electricity bill that is likely to be due to renewable schemes such as the Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET), Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) and state-based Feed-in Tariffs (FiTs). It also considers the range of other components that have contributed to retail electricity price increases, including the wholesale price of electricity, network charges and retailer margins (March 2011)
Emissions Trading – Cap and Trade v Alternatives. This briefing, released by AGL, looks at the implications of different emissions trading alternatives on the power sector (February 2011)
Climate Change Science and Adaptation
Warming World: Impacts by Degree. This booklet, released by the National Research Council in the United States, is based on the Council’s report Climate Stabilzation Targets: Emissions, Concentrations and Impacts over Decades to Millennia. It outlines the specific information that makes it clear that emissions reductions today matter in determining impacts that will be experienced over the next few decades and into coming centuries and millennia. The booklet also explains how policy choices can be informed by recent advances in climate science and identifies and quantifies expected impacts where possible
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