In Balance

This blog is no longer activedanlewer

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:28:44 +0000

I’m not updating this blog any more, but I’ll leave the posts available as an archive. You’re still welcome to contact me using the link to the right. Advertisements

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EUAs vs crude oil updatedanlewercrude oil vs euas may 2010

Fri, 28 May 2010 12:33:33 +0000

I’ve updated the chart of EUAs vs crude oil (see below). I’ve included some comments based on an incomplete understanding of the dynamic between the two, so any comments would be gratefully received. For the past year, EUAs have been rangebound between 12 and 16 euros. Oil, conversely, has trended strongly upward from $63 (EUR45) […]

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Peak Oil primerdanlewerOil production in OECD EuropeGlobal oil production forecasts

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 12:35:06 +0000

I drafted this article a few months ago for Carbon Retirement‘s newsletter, but simliar ‘peak oil primer’ articles were published around the same time by a couple of big publications and I decided not to publish it. In hindsight, I think this article is a bit more factual and have decided to post it here. […]

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Project-based carbon offsetting is like a lottery with no prizesdanlewerCosts in the CDM market, per CER

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:56:43 +0000

At Carbon Retirement, we have just published a short piece of research into the efficiency of carbon offsetting through the Clean Development Mechanism, covered today by the BBC. It shows that for every £1 spent on CERs by voluntary buyers, 28p goes to the project’s capital expenditure and maintenance costs. The chart below, from the report, summarises […]

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Friends of the Earth report on carbon trading – risks burying its good points with garbled pointsdanlewer

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:41:59 +0000

I just read the new report on carbon trading (pdf) from Friends of the Earth. Given the charity’s stance on anything related to carbon trading, the critical approach is unsurprising. The report makes some good points, but also makes some points that don’t seem well thought out. This is a shame because the charity could achieve […]

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Does the government need to provide guidance on the term ‘carbon neutral’?danlewer

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:36:23 +0000

The Department for Energy and Climate Change has been running a consultation on the meaning of the term ‘carbon neutral’. Today they published their report. ‘Carbon neutral’ has been given the definition: Carbon neutral means that – through a transparent process of calculating emissions, reducing those emissions and offsetting residual emissions – net carbon emissions […]

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Carbon trading game – understanding the difference between the three basic types of environmental policydanlewer

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:16:36 +0000

I’ve developed a game that explains the differences between three key policy options for reducing emissions: command and control, tax and cap-and-trade. There are other games like it, but I think this one works really well and we like to use it with clients to explain the rationale behind the current preference that many governments […]

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Is carbon still following oil?danlewercarbon and eua price

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 18:05:44 +0000

In January I looked at European oil and carbon prices to show how they were reacting to the economic recession. Today I had another look at these two markets to see what’s happened over the past six months. The graph below (click to expand) shows the December 2009 EUA contract (from ECX) and the Europe […]

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Why does carbon offsetting struggle with its reputation?danlewer

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:08:39 +0000

Carbon offsetting has a reputation problem. Some parts of the ‘carbon’ industry act dishonestly or are not environmentally motivated, and people outside the industry tend to lump the diverse organisations involved in carbon trading together. When an exposé story appears in the media, we all suffer. This week there was a story about suspected VAT fraud […]

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Do young people care about climate change less than everyone else?danlewerYFHS_results

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:41:22 +0000

I just ran a workshop on climate change with  120 bright and articulate Quakers aged 13 – 20. Some of the results of the discussion were so interesting that I thought they were worth sharing. In one session, I asked the young people whether they agreed or disagreed with various statements. The results looked like […]

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Suspect carbon offsettingdanlewer

Wed, 13 May 2009 15:28:00 +0000

I recently received a press release from a company called My Emissions Exchange. I get lots of press releases – mostly about ethical shampoo and that sort of thing – but this one caught my eye. ‘MyEEX’ (no relation to German energy exchange EEX I assume) sells carbon offsets. The ‘projects’ behind the carbon offsets […]

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EU 2008 Carbon Dioxide Emissions Exceed Permits by 25 Percentdanlewer

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:21:37 +0000

The EC has published verified emissions data. Bloomberg: Power plants and factories in the European Union’s emissions trading program produced 25 percent more carbon dioxide than the amount of permits they received, according to Bloomberg calculations based on European Commission data. The data is 91 percent complete, Stavros Dimas, the environment commissioner, said today in […]

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EU ETS: “No longer as short”danlewerpoint-carbon-survey-chart

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:54:57 +0000

Point Carbon has just published its annual survey of people working in carbon markets. It’s full of useful insights and I can email you a copy if you want one. In particular, I was interested in a chart on the expected trading positions of participants representing companies in the EU ETS (below). The proportion of […]

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Hot air deals should be linked to CDMdanlewercarbon_emission_by_region

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:07:07 +0000

Last week Reuters reported the first ‘hot air’ deal, in which Ukraine sold 30 million AAUs to Japan. The cost was not disclosed. AAUs are the credits created under the Kyoto Protocol – if a country has a target of 1 million tonnes then it will be given 1 million AAUs by the UN. Eastern […]

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Carbon Retirement – vote for us!danlewer

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:57:13 +0000

Carbon Retirement is a company I’m involved with, and it retires EUAs as an alternative to carbon offsetting. We believe that retirement of cap and trade allowances offers a credible alternative to project-based carbon offsets. One exciting piece of news this month is that we’ve reached the final of the Daily Mail and Make Your […]

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Camp for Climate Action has a common sense failuredanlewer

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:37:09 +0000

I strongly support the Camp for Climate Action. I attended the camp at Heathrow in 2007 and saw that the participants were engaged with policy in a relevant and radical way, and that they were exploring new and more sustainable ways of living and organising. So I was dissapointed to see that the camp is […]

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EUA sell-off is a natural reflection of economic recessiondanlewereua-and-crude-prices

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:03:32 +0000

Carbon prices have been falling recently. Since July 2008, EUAs have lost over 60% of their value and are one of the worst performing commodities in 2009. The chart below (click to expand) shows the EUA price indexed to January 2007. I have also included the oil price, which has been converted from dollars to […]

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Non-weigh in to third runwaydanlewer

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:15:15 +0000

Geoff Hoon announced that the government will approve the third runway. We can be pretty sure this is not the end of the argument; the campaigning NGOs (and Boris) are going to have a field day. I thought I’d weigh into the argument (or maybe it’s a non-weigh in). Instinctively I don’t support a new […]

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Cap and trade in the context of shrinking productiondanlewer

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 22:50:45 +0000

Questions are being asked of the two working installation-level cap and trade schemes in light of economic recession. The EU ETS – the world’s largest carbon market – is trading at about 16 Euros per tonne and is volatile because no-one is quite sure of the impact of shrinking production. Analysts believe that all reductions […]

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Lack of CDM progress at Poznan will be the major sticking point for negotiations over the next yeardanlewer

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:05:34 +0000

CDM reform didn’t get anywhere at Poznan. To me, this is the most worrying outcome of the conference. Although technical discussions and low-level negotiation planning were all anyone expected, there is now very little time to do something about the CDM before the Kyoto Protocol runs out. There was a lot of discussion about Forestry […]

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