Explaining the Difference between Carbon Offsets and Renewable Energy Credits
By:James Nash
You think you understand renewable energy credits. You're sure you understand Carbon Offsets. You are fuzzy on the details about how they differ and when the purchase of one or the other might be appropriate. Never fear! This article explains the key differences, and similarities, between the two.
The first difference is the way that offsets and Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) are measured. Carbon offsets are measured in metric tons of C02 or C02 Equivalent. Renewable Energy Credits are measured in kilowatt hours, wh...
Posted : July 28, 2010 | 
Comments : 0 | 
Carbon Trading - What's All That About?
By Davis GreenThere is an emissions trading scheme in operation internationally but many people aren’t aware that this is perceived to be the cornerstone of the climate change policy in the EU and USA.
Firms are set quotas on how much carbon dioxide they can produce per year, if they produce more than this allowance, then they buy an allowance from another firm that has not reached it’s quota on how much it can produce in one year! Get it?
Emissions Trading is particularly suited to the emissions of greenhouse gases, the gases responsible for global warming, which have the same effect wherever they are emitted.
Emissions of carbon dioxide - a greenhouse gas - are widely thought to be a key factor in global warming, and increasing atmospheric temperatures around the world.
The idea of the carbon-trading scheme was to raise the cost to firm...
Posted : June 11, 2010 | Comments : 0 | Gold Fields Limited set to sell Certified Emissions Reductions
London and Johannesburg - Gold Fields Limited is set to become the world's first gold mining company to sell Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs), the financial securities used to trade carbon emissions.Gold Fields will derive the CERs from the capture of methane gas at its Beatrix Gold Mine in South Africa's Free State province. The company will sell 1,700,000 CERs to European energy trading company Mercuria Energy Trading SA under forward contracts which will run until 2016. The transaction was brokered by TFS Green, the carbon credits broker and environmental business of the worldwide Tradition Group and is estimated to be worth $26 million.
Gold Fields will use the funds to finan...
Posted : June 11, 2010 | Comments : 0 | US Government Funding Renewable Energy Facilities
$3 Billion in direct payments in lieu of tax credits for renewable energyThe U.S. Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Department of Energy announced they are accepting applications for a new program that will make direct payments to offset the cost of renewable energy facilities. The two Departments estimate distributing at least $3billion in financial support for solar, wind, and other types of green energy. The funds will be made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. If accepted into the program, applicant must forgo any future income tax credits related to the approved project. The objective of funding the renewable energy projects now is to stimulate the economy and create jobs in the renewable energy field.
Posted : August 15, 2009 | Comments : 0 | New environmental market created: Montreal Climate Exchange
Aims to Address Climate Change and Other Environmental ConcernsMONTREAL and CHICAGO, Dec. 7 /PRNewswire/ - The Montreal Exchange (MX), Canada's financial derivatives exchange, and Chicago Climate Exchange(R) (CCX(R)), the world's first and North America's only voluntary, legally binding rules-based greenhouse gas emissions allowance trading system, announced today the signing of a Letter of Intent to develop a new joint venture to create the Montreal Climate Exchange, a Canadian environmental products market. As part of the Letter of Intent, CCX and MX will develop trading, clearing, and registry services for Canadian environmental products. Th...
Posted : August 12, 2009 | Comments : 0 | The Kyoto Protocol
From December 1 through 11, 1997, more than 160 nations met in Kyoto, Japan, to negotiate binding limitations on greenhouse gases for the developed nations, pursuant to the objectives of the Framework Convention on Climate Change of 1992. The outcome of the meeting was the Kyoto Protocol, in which the developed nations agreed to limit their greenhouse gas emissions, relative to the levels emitted in 1990.The developed countries committed themselves to reducing their collective emissions of six key greenhouse gases by at least 5%. This group target will be achieved through cuts of 8% by Switzerland...
Posted : August 06, 2009 | Comments : 0 | What Are Carbon Credits?
A Carbon Credit is a new financial commodity equivalent to one metric ton of Carbon Dioxide. Credits are awarded to countries, groups or businesses that have reduced their green house gases below their emission quota. Carbon credits can be traded in the international market at their current market price.Carbon credits are a key component of national and international attempts to reduce global warming by mitigating the growth in concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs). There are two distinct types of Carbon credits: Carbon Offset Credits (COC's) and Carbon Reduction Credits (CRC's). Carbon Offset Credits consist of clean forms of energy production (wind, solar, hydro) and bio-fuels. Carbon Reduction Credits consists of the gathe...
Posted : July 09, 2009 | Comments : 0 | Solar Energy Collecting as an Alternative Energy Source
Photovoltaic cells,those black squares an array of which comprises a solar panel, are getting more efficient, and gradually less expensive, all the time, thanks to ever-better designs which all them to focus the gathered sunlight on a more and more concentrated point. The size of the cells is decreasing as their efficiency rises, meaning that each cell becomes cheaper to produce and at once more productive. As far as the aforementioned cost, the price of producing solar-generated energy per watt hour has come down to $4.00 at the time of this writing. Just 17 years ago, it was nearly double that cost.Posted : June 19, 2009 | Comments : 0 | 
Solar Energy Collecting as an Alternative Energy...What Are Carbon Credits?...The Kyoto Protocol...New environmental market created: Montreal Clima...US Government Funding Renewable Energy Facilitie...Carbon Trading - What's All That About?...Gold Fields Limited set to sell Certified Emissi...Explaining the Difference between Carbon Offsets...UN Regulator Seeks Authority to Acquire...
Published:Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:13:29 -0700
The United Nations Clean Development Mechanism Executive Board, regulator of the world’s second largest carbon market, is seeking authority for auditors to acquire and cancel su......
Analyst warns CDM reforms could spark c...
Published:Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:32:51 -0700
BusinessGreen.com Staff, BusinessGreen , Thursday 2 September 2010 at 00:15:00 Point Carbon report suggests attempts to tackle dodgy offset credits could lead to constrained suppl......
Carbon Trading Lurches Off Course...
Published:Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:28:14 -0700
Programs around the world sputter after Copenhagen meeting fails to offer direction or aid.......
CORRECTED - CORRECTED-SRF unlikely to g...
Published:Fri, 03 Sep 2010 04:06:00 -0700
(Corrects fourth para to say 2.76 billion rupees is EBIT not EBITDA)......
Academic: Carbon trading could transfor...
Published:Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:53:21 -0700
With traditional heavy industries that rely on intensive consumption of resources, Jilin province in northeast China could help the move toward sustainability through trading in c......
Carbon credits to be taxed in new tax r...
Published:Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:50:16 -0700
Bringing carbon credits into tax net may be a retrograde step as it will discourage corporates from working towards reduction in carbon emissions, say industry observers.......
