ICAO has convened a group of countries to continue negotiating the details of its proposed market-based measure, called the Carbon Offsetting Scheme for International Aviation (COSIA) in the most recent draft proposals. This high level group meeting, from the 14th-15th of April, aims to find common ground on contentious political decisions for the proposal that will be agreed (or not…?) by all at October’s ICAO Assembly.
From 30 November to 12 December 2015, Parties to the UNFCCC met in Paris to negotiate a new global climate treaty.
The Paris Agreement was a remarkable outcome, especially after the failures of Copenhagen. Almost all involved, including Carbon Market Watch, seemed surprised at how positive the outcome was. However, expectations had been carefully managed in the preceding years, so that aspirations of environmentalists to have a treaty that reflected the scientific reality by dividing up the remaining global carbon budget, had been downplayed into unreality.
Despite spirited support by numerous countries including the EU, Switzerland, Mexico and South Korea, as well as industry, the new Paris climate Agreement does not give a new mandate for deeper reductions to the international aviation and shipping. This keeps the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in charge to address emission reductions in both sectors in 2016.
Last December in Paris, a global climate deal was adopted in which all countries have agreed to take action on climate change. Ahead of the climate summit, almost 190 countries representing over 90% of global greenhouse gas emissions registered their climate commitments. Europe, which long thought of itself as the lone wolf in tackling climate change, is therefore no longer going it alone.
Paris, 12 December 2015 – Today, at the UN climate talks in Paris a global deal where all countries have agreed to take action on climate change was adopted. Carbon Market Watch comments on the long-term goal, the ambition ratcheting mechanism, provisions for the use of markets, the establishment of a new mechanism, human rights provisions, bunker emissions, pre-2020 action and the impact of the Paris treaty on EU’s climate policies.
Paris, 10 December. With less than 48 hours of negotiation time left, countries continue arguing about a new proposed carbon offsetting mechanism. Key concerns relate to doubts about the need for carbon offsets in the future, the inclusion of land use carbon offsets that are likely to open a new gigatonne loophole, and allowing developed …
Read more “Rich countries set to benefit from proposed carbon offsetting mechanism in Paris”
The new draft negotiation text still features brackets around all provisions related to carbon markets, showing that Parties have still not found agreement on whether there will be an explicit role for carbon markets in the new Paris agreement. Options under discussions in the next 48+ hours include inter alia the role of carbon trading …
Read more “Carbon market provisions in Paris climate treaty: all cards on the table”
A key consideration for the Paris treaty is how to incentivize real additional climate action while avoiding the laundering of bogus hot air credits. Under the Kyoto Protocol the lack of environmental integrity in market mechanisms has resulted in an 11 gigatonne hot air loophole. These hot air units are called AAUs which will not pose a problem for the Paris climate treaty since they cannot be used after 2020. However, the fate of the hot air units of existing domestic emissions trading systems still hangs in the balance.
Since carbon markets make it cheaper to reduce emissions, some countries argue that they can take on higher targets if they use carbon markets. But to date this hope has been in vain: carbon markets have not led to higher commitments. On the contrary, mitigation commitments have been woefully inadequate, cap-and-trade systems have been severely oversupplied and offsetting mechanisms have been tarnished by insufficient environmental quality.
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