EU-ETS design seems to have satisfied interests of energy producers at the cost of energy consumers: GHG allowances at no cost

The Euro­pean Commission has not been able to align the interests of all affected industries and the design of the EU-ETS particularly seemed to have satisfied the inter­ests of energy producers at the cost of energy con­sumers, wrote J Pinkse and A Kolk in European Management Journal (27/9/2007).

Fed Govt leases five-star green tower in North Sydney for ASIO, as its funding rises to $447m/yr

The Federal Government has leased a major slice of Mirvac’s 101 Miller Street tower in North Sydney, space understood to be earmarked for the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, wrote Robert Harley in The Australian Financial Review (27/9/2007, p.61).

Spotting “logarithmic” or “exponential” growth patterns is one way of being among first to capitalise on new ideas and trends; futurist predicts “next big thing” is technology worn as jewellery

“If you think about history, we know clearly what happened quite recently, but the further back you go, it tends to get a bit fuzzy,” said Australian futurist Craig Rispin. “We are like a reverse historian,” he said, reported The Courier Mail (11/9/2007, p.57).

If we must: most big corporations believe emissions trading merely for compliance and not for speculation

Compliance is the most often-cited motive for dealing with the EU-ETS, which the following quote of Swiss cement company Holcim illustrated: “Our priorities for the EU-ETS for 2005-07 are compliance management — i.e. internal and external balancing of emis­sions and allowances — and learning to use the system as it is conceptually intended to be used. We do not engage in speculative trading,” according to an article in European Management Journal (2007).

Many large corporations able to escape need to trade emissions due to limited number of installations and over-allocation of allowances

The empirical analysis of 331 Global 500 firms sug­gests that the EU-ETS forms the most prominent scheme and, as a consequence, most firms have their emissions trading activities linked to this scheme, according to Pinkse, J. and Kolk, A., in ‘Multinational Corporations and Emissions Trading’ in European Management Journal (2007).

CCX merely involves a few US firms; participants of “political” trading scheme aim to influence development of a federal US emissions trading scheme

Large corporations engage in alternative trading schemes to indirectly prepare for larger schemes expected to emerge in coming years, according to Pinkse, J. and Kolk, A., in ‘Multinational Corporations and Emissions Trading’ in European Management Journal (2007).

Participation in NSW’s Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme “marginal”, global emissions trading study says

While the EU-ETS makes up most of the currently existing emission market, there are some alternatives, according to Pinkse, J. and Kolk, A. in ‘Multinational Corporations and Emissions Trading’ in European Management Journal (2007). Early action route: Firstly, some companies have taken early action by participating in the UK-ETS; the main pre­cursor of the EU-ETS. Yet, only eight firms raise their participation in the UK-ETS and it is remarkable that this merely includes four UK firms, while the remainder consists of subsidiaries from US and Japanese large corporationss. Most of these firms are compliance-ori­ented, have exceeded their target, and have been able to sell excess emissions. What explains low participa­tion in the UK-ETS is the fact that it ended at the end of 2006, as it was superseded by the EU-ETS.

Only minor participation in NSW scheme: Partic­ipation in Australia’s New South Wales Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme is even more marginal as only one firm mentions to have explored the possibil­ities of this scheme and one bank has facilitated transactions.

Reference: Pinkse, J. and Kolk, A., Multinational Corporations and Emissions Trading; European Management Journal (2007) doi:10.1016/j.emj.2007.07.03

Erisk Net

Kyoto mechanisms attractive for global firms because they enable them to exploit cross-boarder activities

Another way of using agency in dealing with the EU-­ETS was by creating and trading emission credits from the Clean Development Mechanism or Joint Imple­mentation, according to Pinkse, J. and Kolk, A., in ‘Multinational Corporations and Emissions Trading’ in European Management Journal (2007).

Hydro Tasmania: 1205GWh of inputs at an average price of $26 over the period since last April, and 422 GWh at an average price of $102/MW on export

Dr David Crean, Chair, Hydro Tasmania, and Vince Hawkesworth chief executive officer, Hydro Tasmania explained n March “we did 205 gigawatt hours of inputs at an average price of $26 over the period since last April, and 422 gigawatt hours at an average price of $102 per megawatt on export.

Carbon-exposure survey of Aus companies: BHP, Rio, BlueScope, Qantas account for half top-200 emissions

A survey of the carbon exposures of Australia’s top 200 listed companies conducted for institutional investor VicSuper found three out of four did not disclose comparable emissions data, wrote Peter Hannam in The Age (26/9/2007, p.2).