7 February 2006

Hello Folks,

Here’s the latest Carbon-related news, but first a reminder about the forth-coming Edinburgh Progress Meeting:

Dates: 27 – 28th March 2006

Location: Grant Institute, King’s Buildings, University of Edinburgh. Maps of Edinburgh, the City Centre and King’s Buildings are all at:https://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/contacts/  Look in the left hand menu bar for map names.

Getting there: We have an airport and a train station. From the airport either catch the airport bus into the town centre (£5 return each, frequent) and then a taxi (another £5?) or get a taxi direct (£17 – 25 total depending on your luck). Allow 1 hour by bus or 30 minutes by taxi. From the train station (Edinburgh Waverley) get a taxi (c. £5).

Accommodation: try the Tourist https://www.edinburgh.org/ or Tel: 0845 2255 121 or +44 (0) 1506 832 121 (Outside UK) Fax: 01506 832 222  Email:info@visitscotland.com. Hopefully most people will only require 1 nights accommodation. There are plenty of hotels / B&Bs close to King’s Buildings, be sure to specify that so you don’t end up at the airport.

Outline Schedule (more details will be sent later):

Monday 27

lunch 12.30 to 13.30

start business 13.30

Tuesday 28th

End business at lunchtime.

If you plan to attend, please e-mail me (make sure you don’t reply to the whole mailing list) with your name and any dietary requirements.

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To promote the role of Clean Coal, Mitsui Babcock has produced its own agenda for “Clean Coal in the Energy Review”.

Our view is that Clean Coal should be at the top of the government’s agenda because only Clean Coal can close the energy gap in 2015 and deliver security of supplies and emissions reductions at reasonable cost.  There is an urgent need to initiate investment in new electricity generation capacity to replace plants that are closing between now and 2015 and to meet growth in demand.  Approaching 30 GW (40% of current capacity) of new plant is needed, most of which must be in operation by 2015.

We hope this document will be useful to you when you prepare your input to the Energy Review and would be pleased to discuss its content and our recommendations further.

The document is available on our website at www.mitsuibabcock.com – click on the link under the heading “Agenda”.

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Breaking news, only 1 day to go … at 0001hours on Thursday 9 February 2006  The Science and Technology Committee will publish its First Report of Session 2005-06,

Meeting UK Energy and Climate Needs: The Role of Carbon Capture and Storage (HC 578-I)

The written and oral evidence taken during the inquiry will be published as a separate volume (HC 578-II).

 www.parliament.uk/s&tcom (only after publication time obviously)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE

COMMITTEE OFFICE, HOUSE OF COMMONS

7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA

Tel. Nos. 020 7219 2793-2794 (Fax. No. – 0896) email: scitechcom@parliament.uk

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The National Energy Technology Laboratory (USA) publish a monthly news letter, to provide information on recent activities and publications related to carbon sequestration. It covers domestic, international, public sector, and private sector news in the following areas:

Sequestration in the News

Events and Announcements

Science

Policy

Geology

Technology

Ocean

Terrestrial

Trading

Recent Publications

Legislative Activity

Contact Information

You have to subscribe at https://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/carbon_seq/refshelf.html

This is comprehensive, to say the least, and just the highlights would quadruple the length of this e-mail. It has (understandably) a US-bias.

Here are the highlights of the highlights for February (their definition of February seems a bit lax!), with European interest:

IPPR Press Release, “Two Thirds of European Union Countries Set to Miss Kyoto Commitments,” Ten of 15 European Union countries that are part of the Kyoto Protocol will fall short of their targets, according to a report published December 27, 2005 by the United Kingdom’s think tank Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). The United Kingdom and Sweden are on course to meet their targets. Three countries, France, Greece and Germany, will only meet their targets if new policies are implemented. Ten countries will fail to meet their targets even with planned additional measures, including: Finland, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and Denmark.

December 27, 2005, https://www.ippr.org.uk/pressreleases/?id=1863

Reuters, “European Union Urges States to Simplify Emissions Trading Plans,” The European Commission (Commission) told European Union (EU) member states on January 9 to keep it simple when they formulate their emissions trading plans for 2008-2012 for environmental commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. The twenty-five EU states must submit National Allocation Plans (NAPs) to the EU executive by June 30 stating how much CO₂ their industrial factories will emit. The NAPs are part of the EU emissions trading scheme, which began last year. Drawing from experience with the first trading period from 2005-2007, the Commission feels that these plans need to be “more transparent and easier to implement.” The Commission said it will “look very closely at the overall policy mix” that member states will use to implement their pollution reduction goals, including their planned use of the emissions trading system.

January 10, 2006, https://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/34402/story.htm

February 8-9, 2006, Emissions Trading, Hatton Conference Center, London, GB. This event will provide an update on the progress of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) since its launch in January. It will look at policy and legislation in the UK, the EU and internationally, and will assess the effectiveness and progress of this scheme to date. Sponsored by McGrigors legal firm and coordinated by SMi Group, Ltd.

https://www.smi-online.co.uk/events/overview.asp?is=5&ref=2292

February 28-March 2, 2006, Point Carbon’s Carbon Market Insights 2006, Bella Center, Copenhagen, Denmark. Point Carbon’s annual gathering for players in the global carbon markets takes place February 28 to March 2 at the Bella Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark. More than 750 participants and 40 exhibitors are already confirmed. The first two days contain parallel conference streams on the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading System, Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation (CDM&JI) and Global Market issues, respectively, with more than 120 presenters and panelists confirmed. On the third day numerous optional workshops are held, both on an introductory and advanced level, on EU, Kyoto, CDM & JI issues. Just before the conference starts, February 27 in the evening, a free introduction to the carbon market is offered to those participants who wish to take part. More information:

https://www.pointcarbon.com/category.php?categoryID=940

or contact Point Carbon’s conference department at conference@pointcarbon.com.

May 10-12, 2006, Third Annual CARBON EXPO, Congress Centre East, Cologne, Germany. CARBON EXPO is the global carbon market event that combines the up-to-date content of a high-level conference with the advantages of a trade fair.

For additional information visit: https://www.carbonexpo.com/

June 19-22, 2006, GHGT-8, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway.  The aim of this conference is to provide a forum for the discussion of the latest advances in the field of greenhouse gas control technologies.  Details at: https://www.ghgt-8.no

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Phew, that’s it. You should have seen the full NETL report…

Cheers, Mark

Dr Mark Wilkinson

UKCCSC website administrator

University of Edinburgh