Archive by category | Carbon Market Insights conference

Carbon conference: The other election

Before signing off for the conference, I figured I would highlight one other bit of news that cropped up yesterday. It involves a major national election and a peaceful power change that could shift a government’s policy on global warming emissions. And no, it has nothing to do with Barack Obama.  Read more

Carbon conference: A self-fulfilling prophecy?

Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the powerful California Air Resources Board, just finished discussing her states efforts to curb global warming pollution in the transportation sector. California passed its own limits on greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles in 2004, but the US Environmental Protection Agency under George W. Bush has declined to issue a waiver allowing the state to proceed. It’s a long story, but suffice it to say that Nichols predicted a speedy resolution once Barack Obama takes office.  Read more

Carbon conference: MIT, Pew on climate regulations

The conference kicked off this morning with a keynote address from New York Times Columnist and green-energy guru Tom Friedman, and then moved on to a plenary panel on the United Nations effort to reach an international climate agreement in Copenhagen in 2010. In short, inspiration followed by a sharp dose of reality. Although nobody is giving up, there’s a growing feeling here in the United States that it could be quite difficult to sign off on anything significant next year.  Read more

Carbon conference: Getting down to business – and politics

Despite the optimism, it doesn’t take long wondering through meeting rooms here to realize that restructuring the global economy won’t be easy. I’m in a room with a few hundred other people listening to a panel of business representatives, analysts and investment bankers talk in mind-numbing detail about the intricacies of cap-and-trade systems. Terms like “additionality,” “fungibility” and “compliance eligibility risk” are bandied about with impunity.  Read more

Carbon conference: Kicking things off on an optimistic note

I arrived at the Carbon Market Insights conference in Washington this morning to find the same sense of wonder that has pervaded the entire country for the past week. Sponsored by Point Carbon and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, this conference caters to the believers, all of whom have been anxiously awaiting some kind of action on global warming from the United States. With the election of Barack Obama as the next president, the expectation is that the time has come.  Read more