The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Management Institute, a not-for-profit corporation focused on carbon market education and training, and Greenhouse Gas Services, LLC, a venture of GE and the AES Corporation, announced this week that they have formed the Institute's first corporate partnership. The Institute will develop and provide online courses to train professionals on accounting techniques for verifying the scientific and environmental integrity of greenhouse gas (GHG) credits generated by projects that reduce GHG emissions.

Greenhouse Gas Services has granted the Institute a license to use its methodologies for the courses, including methodologies for projects that capture and destroy methane at coal mines and landfills.

The courses also will incorporate leading practices from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism and the World Resources Institute/World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WRI/WBCSD) GHG Protocol. Sector experts Raven Ridge Resources and SCS Engineers, which consulted on the development of Greenhouse Gas Services' methodologies, will lead in developing course content. The Institute will begin offering the online courses in September. Additional courses covering other sectors will follow in late 2008 and early 2009.

"A sustainable market for greenhouse gas credits requires many more trained and qualified experts to ensure the scientific and environmental integrity of GHG credits," said Karl R. R·bago, director of standards and policies at Greenhouse Gas Services. "Greenhouse Gas Services is proud to support the GHG Management Institute and to put our methodologies to work to advance the U.S. carbon market."

"The GHG Management Institute was created to promote the professionalization of practitioners in the climate change marketplace," said Tom Baumann, director of professional programs at the Institute. "We are pleased to partner with Greenhouse Gas Services to further that goal.  Greenhouse Gas Services is the first major company to collaborate with the Institute and a leader in the development of high-quality standards necessary for an efficient and effective GHG market."

Greenhouse gas credits are generated by projects that reduce or prevent GHG emissions through various activities. For example, some projects involve the capture and destruction of methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Individuals or companies can reduce their impact on climate change by offsetting their emissions with GHG credits.

The GHG Management Institute is a not-for-profit corporation. Its founding sponsors are the Greenhouse Gas Experts Network and Ottawa-based ClimateCHECK. The Institute is partners with the World Resources Institute and the Carbon Disclosure Project. Its mission is to train and develop a community of experts with the highest standards of professional practice in accounting, auditing and managing GHG emissions. The Institute provides entry and professional-level training worldwide via instructed e-learning.
More information visit www.ghginstitute.org.

Greenhouse Gas Services, LLC is a venture of GE Energy Financial Services and the AES Corporation. The business invests in and develops projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sells greenhouse gas credits to companies that want to meet internal emissions reduction targets or to offset greenhouse gases from products and services. Each credit is verified by an independent third party and certified by Greenhouse Gas Services to a rigorous Standard of Practice.  More information visit www.ghgs.com.

Officials from the Government of Canada, EnCana Corporation an Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) were at Globe 2008 to announce they are committing $5.5 million in financing to a NxtGen Emission Controls project which will demonstrate an innovative diesel emission reduction system.

NxtGen’s syngas technology will assist diesel trucks in complying with stringent global emission reduction regulations and has the potential to enable manufacturers to increase fuel economy. When retrofitted onto existing trucks, NxtGen’s system is expected to reduce particulate emissions by 85 per cent and nitrogen oxide emissions by 65 per cent.

The project involves field trials of NxtGen’s technology on medium and heavy duty trucks - 12 trucks in all, in three fleets across Canada.

The system is being developed during a two-year, $12.4 million program. EnCana is contributing to the project through its Environmental Innovation Fund; heavy duty trucks owned by one of EnCana’s key transportation providers in Alberta are involved in the field tests.

Sustainable Development Technology Canada is contributing $2.5 million to the project through its SD Tech Fund. This $550 million fund supports the development and demonstration of innovative technological solutions that address climate change, air quality, clean water and clean soil.

On Monday, March 10th, Ottawa released its new regulatory framework for greenhouse gas emissions, setting stricter emission limits on coal-fired electricity and oil sands projects. The plan, entitled Turning the Corner, sets out a schedule of requirements that large emitters must adhere to. Emissions limits vary, depending on when a facility was commissioned.

Although nothing like the goals set out by the Kyoto Protocol, the new rules at least create the basis for regulatory certainty, which all heavy industry players want to see sooner rather than later.

 

The 2008 federal budget was lean on spending, and a disappointment overall for industry. However, it did include forward looking investment in carbon capture and storage technology — a crucial tool in climate change management. It also offered some relief through incentives for renewable generation and capital cost allowance treatments.
 
Specifically, the federal government is placing $240 million in trust for Saskatchewan to develop a full-scale commercial demonstration of carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the coal-fired electricity sector. This money will be matched by the province.
 
An additional $5 million is being invested in Nova Scotia to research the potential for carbon storage in that province. Meanwhile, $10 million is being invested over two years for research and analysis on biofuels emissions.
 
The government is also expanding the accelerated capital cost allowance for clean-energy generation equipment to additional applications involving ground-source heat pump and waste-to-energy systems.
 
It will extend GST/HST relief to land leased to situate wind- or solar-power equipment for the production of electricity.
 
The government is also providing further assistance for Canada’s manufacturing and processing sector by extending accelerated capital cost allowance (CCA) treatment for investment in machinery and equipment for three years. Specifically, the 50-per-cent straight-line accelerated CCA treatment will apply for one additional year, and the accelerated treatment will then be provided on a declining basis over a two-year period.
 

In late January, the European Commission released its integrated proposal for climate action, which sets a goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the European Union by at least 20 per cent by 2020, and increase to 20 per cent the share of renewable energies used by the same year. The emissions reduction goal will be increased to 30 per cent by 2020 when a new global climate change agreement is reached.

The Honourable Gary Lunn, Minister of Natural Resources, and the Honourable Mel Knight, Alberta Minister of Energy, released the final report of the Canada-Alberta ecoEnergy Carbon Capture and Storage Task Force in late January, signaling an interest by both parties to see more investment in carbon capture technology.

Canada can achieve deep greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions by 2050, but only by putting a price on carbon emissions throughout the entire Canadian economy beginning as soon as possible, concludes the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE) in a new climate change report released Monday, January 7, entitled Getting to 2050: Canada’s Transition to a Low-emission Future.

There is no doubt that businesses the world over are more aware of climate risk than they were even a couple of years ago. The Carbon Disclosure Project 2007, released in early October by the Conference Board of Canada, bears this out. It shows that Canada’s largest companies have greater awareness of the business risks and opportunities of climate change, and are more responsive to investor requests for information about their carbon risk strategies compared to one year ago. However, the study also notes that the information being disclosed is still insufficient to meet investor requirements.