Hill Heat

Biodiversity in a Rapidly Changing World

Since the biodiversity issue burst on the scene with the 1986 National Forum on Biodiversity, there has been a burgeoning of conservation efforts, organizations, research, education and related activities. Despite many successes, the overall situation is much more precarious today. The driving forces of increased human population, consumption, habitat destruction and degradation, contaminants, and invasive species have been joined by dangerous global climate disruption, globalization, poverty, political instability and other rapid environmental and social changes. Paradoxically, the biodiversity issue has largely fallen off the public agenda, pushed in part by the increased attention to climate change.

There is an urgent need for scientists, conservationists and policymakers to re-examine the biodiversity issue. We must both look retrospectively at a quarter-century of “modern” conservation efforts – what has worked well and what hasn’t, but also prospectively at the greater challenges of the next quarter-century. We need to look broadly at the many scientific discoveries and the many issues involving the use, abuse and conservation of biodiversity including cultivated as well as wild species and ecosystems.

The NCSE conference will bring together some 1000 scientists, conservationists and policymakers to develop a strategy to guide a new US Administration and others working to conserve biodiversity around the world. It will develop an approach for biodiversity management and conservation in a 21st century context, including

• Strategies for Biodiversity, Conservation and Sustainable Utilization
• Scientific Needs for Understanding Biodiversity Values, Losses and Consequences
• Expanding Understanding: Information, Education and Communication

Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC Metro: Federal Triangle (orange/blue line)

A report from the Government Accountability Office finds that Europe’s initial cap-and-trade system for limiting greenhouse gases set overly high limits and gave redistributed significant wealth to covered entities. The report (GAO-09-151), requested by Republican members of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, was completed November 18 but publicly released today.

The summary notes that the cap was set too high:

By limiting the total number of emission allowances provided to covered entities under the program and enabling these entities to sell or buy allowances, the ETS set a price on carbon emissions. However, in 2006, a release of emissions data revealed that the supply of allowances-the cap-exceeded the demand, and the allowance price collapsed. Overall, the cumulative effect of phase I on emissions is uncertain because of a lack of baseline emissions data.

The report also notes that polluting entities passed on the price of emissions permits to consumers, despite receiving them for free, resulting in windfall profits:

Studies have found that in the EU’s deregulated energy markets, power producers passed on the market value of allowances to consumers by adding the value of the allowances to energy rates.

The GAO also describes Europe’s international offset system, the Clean Development Mechanism, and notes the extreme difficulty in accurately calculating the worth of such investments in terms of emissions reduction. CDM investments are intended to prevent or lessen future emissions or factors such as deforestation which reduce the sequestration of greenhouse gases. Thus, the reductions are based against a hypothetical business-as-usual scenario, which cannot be precisely determined.

At a time of fiscal belt tightening, when some would put environmental priorities on the back burner, there are many who believe that investing in a green economy now is the best way to achieve both short and long term economic solutions. A recent paper by the Center for American Progress and the University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research Institute, “Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low Carbon Economy,” finds that to promote economic mobility, growth, job creation, and regain technological leadership in the global innovation marketplace, we must fundamentally change how we produce and consume energy in this country and transform our economy to a low-carbon model. Investing in clean energy and efficiency will enable the United States to regain technological leadership in the global innovation marketplace, grow our economy, reduce global warming emissions, and invest in national security.

Please join the Center for American Progress and three of the country’s leading advocates for investments in a green economy for a discussion on how each step of an economic recovery package (stabilization, stimulus, recovery, and growth) can be greened, and explore both national and state perspectives on policy solutions towards transforming our economy to a low-carbon model.

Copies of Hot, Flat, and Crowded will be available for purchase at the event.

Introduction by:

• Joseph Romm, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

Featured Speakers:

• Governor Ed Rendell (D – PA)
• Thomas Friedman, columnist, New York Times; author, Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America
• Carol Browner, Principal, The Albright Group LLC

Moderated by:

• Bracken Hendricks, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

Live webcast.

From the Wonk Room.

The Bush administration, though in the shadows of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition effort, continues to subvert the rule of law and impede action on global warming. Last week, the White House emailed mayors asking them to oppose the Environmental Protection Agency’s draft proposal for greenhouse gas regulations. According to the Washington Post, the email by Jeremy J. Broggi, associate director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs reminded mayors to formally submit complaints to the EPA:

At the time, President Bush warned that this was the wrong way to regulate emissions. Chairman John D. Dingell called it “a glorious mess.” And many of you contacted us to let us know how harmful this rule would be to the economies of the cities and counties you serve.

Broggi, a young Dick Cheney protegé, also linked to a November 20 U.S. Chamber of Commerce blog post by Bill Kovacs that makes the absurd claim regulation of carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act “will operate as a de facto moratorium on major construction and infrastructure projects.” Broggi’s lobbying against his own government is nothing new—last year the Department of Transportation lobbied Congress to oppose global warming regulations.

To avoid action on global warming despite a direct order from the Supreme Court, Bush’s people have brazenly flouted their Constitutional obligation to faithfully execute the law, ignoring science, ignoring Congressional subpoenas, even ignoring emails from the EPA. Just as former attorney general Alberto Gonzales claimed the Geneva Convention’s ban on torture was “quaint,” EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson called the Clean Air Act “outdated” and “ill-suited” to the task of regulating greenhouse gas emissions.

However, it is the approach of the likes of George Bush, Stephen Johnson, Bill Kovacs, and John Dingell to the climate crisis that is “outdated,” “ill-suited,” and “a glorious mess”—not laws like the Clean Air Act. Robert Sussman, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund and co-chairman of Obama’s EPA transition team, explained last month:

In fact, a new administration could enforce new global warming regulations with common sense, focusing on large emitters of greenhouse gases to achieve reasonable reductions while spurring trillions of dollars worth of economic growth and green-collar jobs.

Come January, Dingell will have been replaced as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), and the Bush administration by Obama’s team. Sadly, Kovacs will continue plugging his dangerous message of inaction, although major companies are starting to abandon the Chamber’s reactionary rhetoric.

Broggi’s email reminded Bush’s allies in “bold, underlined text” that the public comment period for these proposed regulations closes this Friday, November 28. You can join the We Campaign in sending the message that the EPA can and should take immediate action to control global warming and to help repower America.

The text of the email follows.

From the Wonk Room.

Last Thursday, Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy, the fourth largest United States coal company, described his critics as “communists,” “atheists,” and “greeniacs.” In an address before the Tug Valley Mining Institute in Williamson, WV, Blankenship said those who criticize him are “our enemies” like Osama bin Laden:

It is as great a pleasure for me to be criticized by the communists and the atheists of the Charleston Gazette as to be applauded by my best friends. Because I know they are wrong. People are cowering away from being criticized by people that are our enemies. Would we be upset if Osama bin Laden was critical of us?

These are actually mild words for Don Blankenship. This spring, Blankenship was caught on tape threatening to shoot an ABC reporter and then assaulting him: The Charleston Gazette’s coverage of Don Blankenship has included these controversial stories:

• The Fatal Aracoma Mine Fire. In the months before the fatal 2006 fire at the Aracoma mine, which had 25 violations of health and safety laws, Blankenship personally waived company policy and told mine managers to ignore rules and “run coal.”
• Political Corruption. Blankenship has spent millions of dollars to influence West Virginia judgeships and state legislative races, and palled around in Monte Carlo with state Supreme Court Chief Justice Elliott “Spike” Maynard and their “female friends” in July 2006. The state court reversed a $77 million verdict against Massey in 2008.
• Mountaintop Removal. Massey Energy is the king of the incredibly destructive practice of mountaintop removal mining. The Bush Administration (which includes former Massey officials) overturned Clinton-era rules limiting the practice. Massey now plans to destroy Coal River Mountain despite lacking necessary permits.

Blankenship sits on the boards of the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Mining Association, who are running multimillion-dollar campaigns to block global warming regulations and fight the Employee Free Choice Act. Blankenship claimed that global warming skeptics like himself are being silenced by “greeniacs,” and called Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore, and Harry Reid “totally wrong” and “absolutely crazy”:

How many times have the people in this room heard, at the US Chamber of Commerce or at the National Mining Association, “I don’t believe in climate change, but I’m afraid to say that because it is a political reality”? The greeniacs are taking over the world.

Day 1: Cooler Heads Prevailing

Background Briefings on Facts, Trends, Policy and Politics

9:40-10:00: U.S. Transportation Policy – Survey of ISTEA-SAFETEA-LU

• Michael Replogle: Environmental Defense

10:00-10:10: Break

10:10-11:00 Where Are We Going? – Demographic, market and policy trends changing the context for transportation * Chris Leinberger: Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Center; University of Michigan; and

• Rob Puentes: Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Center

11:00-12:15: Tools for Shaping a Low Carbon Transportation Future Panel Discussion and Q & A

Growing Cooler – smart growth and transit

• Geoff Anderson: Smart Growth America; Transportation for America

Enhancing walking and biking

• Kevin Mills: Rails to Trails Conservancy

Intelligent transportation systems and pricing

• Leslie Barras: ITS America

Blueprint Plans

• Mike McKeever: Sacramento Area Council of Governments

12:15-1:30: Lunch

Lunch speaker – New Vision for American Transportation (12:45-1:30)

• Jannette Sadik-Kahn: New York City Department of Transportation

1:30-3:00: Politics and Policy: Transportation and Climate

1:30-1:50: Policy in Brief: A summary of action to date at the state and federal level

• Marty Spitzer: Center for Clean Air Policy

1:50-2:30: Perspectives from the Hill

• Amy Scarton, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
• Susan Binder: Committee on Environment and Public Works

2:30-3:30: Perspectives from Off-the-Hill

• Don Ross: Transportation for America
• Art Guzzetti: American Public Transportation Association
• Polly Trottenberg: Building America’s Future
• Joshua Shank: Bipartisan Policy Center
• Bill Ankner: American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials

3:30-3:45: Break

3:45-5:30: What’s the Vision: A Proposal for the Green Groups and CLEAN

3:45-4:45: Proposal for Platform, with Group Discussion

• Colin Peppard: Friends of the Earth

4:45–5:00: Fundraising

• David Burwell

5:00-5:30: Designing a Winning Green Campaign: Discussion of Goals and Overview of Next Meeting

• Deron Lovaas: Natural Resources Defense Council

5:30-???: Happy Hour

The Pew Environment Group
1025 F Street NW, 9th Floor
Washington, DC 20004

Telephone: (202) 552-2000

RSVP

Today, President-elect Barack Obama set a marker on climate and environmental policy with the release of two videos. The first was broadcast for the Governors’ Global Climate Summit in California:

Saying “denial is no longer an acceptable response,” Obama indicated he will press forward with cap-and-trade legislation and that members of Congress will act as his representatives at the Poznan climate negotiations.

The second video is from a meeting of Obama’s Energy & Environment Policy Transition Team and an interview with team member Heather Zichal:

Carbon Market Insights Americas 2008 Day 3

8:00am Registration Open

9:00am – 12:00pm Modeling & Forecasting Carbon Prices (Advanced)

This workshop will present various approaches used to forecast carbon prices, in Europe and North America.

• Advantages and disadvantages of macro- and micro-economic models
• The role of time in forecasting carbon prices
• Integrating sectors in multi-sector models
• Modeling the supply of offsets

9:00am – 12:00pm Valuation of CDM Projects & Portfolios (Intermediate)

The Price is Right: Assessing Risk and Value in the Clean Development Mechanism

• Understanding political and country risks
• Price and volume risk in CDM offset contracts
• Valuation of carbon assets – state of the art tools and methodologies

Description

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects present many opportunities for investors and project developers who understand the risks and opportunities embedded in the project cycle. Point Carbon presents its unique expertise on CDM projects around the world and its award-winning Carbon Valuation Tool, a web-based tool for valuation and benchmarking of CDM and JI projects and portfolios.

9:00am – 12:00pm Carbon Finance 2.0 (Advanced)

Trading in options on European Union *Allowances: liquidity, prices and pitfalls

• Structured offset products: how to tailor offset products to customer’s risk appetite?
• Bidding strategies in carbon auctions

Description

Back by popular demand, Carbon Finance 2.0 will be presented by Point Carbon jointly with key carbon market experts. The workshop will provide cutting edge analysis on the latest financial structures developed to manage the risks in these markets.

9:00am – 12:00pm The New Offset Landscape: North American Demand, Agriculture & Forestry (Introductory)

Greenhouse gas reduction projects in North America

• Offsets from agriculture and forestry
• The role of offsets under a future cap-and-trade program

Description

This workshop will get into the details of greenhouse gas emissions reduction projects in North America. We will discuss emerging trends in offset types and protocols, especially in forestry and agriculture. Participants will learn what types of emission credits are generated, as well as how they are verified and marketed. We will hear from some of the key players in the North American offset market on preparing for the role of offsets under a future cap-and-trade system.

Marriott Wardman Park Hotel

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) and the Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP) invite you to a briefing to discuss one of the most important challenges facing President-elect Obama when he takes office – addressing the interrelated problems of climate change and energy and economic security. In September, the Global Carbon Project reported that CO2 emissions – mainly from burning fossil fuels – have grown three percent from 2006 to 2007, a rate faster than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted last year in its worst-case scenario. The world’s leaders are looking to the new U.S. President for an indication of the kind of leadership and actions he will take to help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, especially in preparation for the UN climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009. In addition, societal economic impacts have been an important piece of the climate debate. The PCAP report seeks to offer concrete, achievable options for both the 44th President and the 111th Congress as a new legislative agenda is set for 2009.

Speakers for this event include:

• Gary Hart (U.S. Senate, ret.), Scholar in Residence and Wirth Chair Professor at the University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs
• William Becker, Executive Director, Presidential Climate Action Project
• Martha Coven, Senior Legislative Associate for Government Affairs, Center for Budget Policy and Priorities
• Bill Parsons, Legislative Director, office of Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)

The Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP), a two-year initiative of the University of Colorado School of Public Affairs, has gathered leaders from the nation’s science, policy, business and civic sectors to provide the 44th President with background information and educational materials on global warming, as well as a broad portfolio of tools and policy options to address this global challenge. The project does not advocate on behalf of specific climate policies, programs, spending or other actions by the President or the federal government; instead, members of PCAP have developed a bold, comprehensive and non-partisan plan for presidential leadership rooted in climate science and designed to ignite innovation at every level of the American economy.

This briefing is free and open to the public. No RSVP required.

For more information, please contact Amy Sauer at asauer@eesi.org or (202) 662-1892.

Carbon Market Insights Americas 2008

7:00am Registration & Exhibit Hall Open

8:00am Optional Session – Carbon Markets 101

• Optional and free introduction to the carbon markets for all conference delegates.

10:00am Welcome

• Per-Otto Wold CEO, Point Carbon
• Eileen Claussen President, Pew Center on Global Climate Change

10:15am Keynote Address – The Path Forward

• Janos Pasztor, Director, Environment Management Group, United Nations
• President-elect’s Environmental Advisor

Topics:

• Statement of behalf of the Secretary-General
• The new administration’s climate plan
• The impact on ongoing negotiations for a new international agreement
• Timeline and targets for climate policy developments

Description: What will the new administration do about climate change? Will a cap-and-trade bill be passed in the first 100 days of the new presidency? Will the US agree to a new international climate treaty? We’ll hear the latest on this from a key advisor to the president-elect and from a top UN official, who will discuss how the US elections change the landscape of international negotiations on climate change and where the world will head after 2012, when the first compliance period of the Kyoto Protocol ends.

11:00am Plenary – US Climate Policy: What’s Ahead?

• Moderator: Eileen Claussen, President, Pew Center on Global Climate Change

Topics:

• Steps taken and lessons learned on climate change policy in the 110th Congress
• Expectations for a new Congress and Administration on enacting climate policy in 2009
• Major challenges, including cost-containment and allowance value distribution to enacting cap-and-trade in the US, especially in light of the current financial crisis

Speakers:

• Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee
• Larry J. Schweiger, President & CEO, National Wildlife Federation
• Brian Storms, CEO, APX

Description: With a new Administration and a new Congress, what can we expect to see with regard to US climate policy in 2009? What concrete steps, if any, have the Bush Administration and the 110th Congress taken to advance climate policy and what can we learn from this? If cap and trade is the preferred policy approach, what are the major roadblocks (e.g., target-setting, distribution of allowance value) on the path to successfully enacting the policy? Panelists will discuss these and other important questions policymakers will have to address if the US is to successfully address the issue of climate change.

12.00pm Lunch

1:30pm Managing Costs in a Carbon Market

• Moderator: Janet Peace, Vice President, Markets and Business Strategy, Pew Center on Global Climate Change

• Concerns about carbon markets leading to unmanageable costs for participants and the economy
• Discussion of proposed options for containing high costs: offsets, safety-valve, allowance allocation, oversight board, etc.
• How would these options affect the efficiency and performance of the market?

Panel Speakers:

• Mort Webster, Visiting Professor, MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change
• Jason Patrick, Vice President, Merrill Lynch
• Steve Corneli, Vice President, Market and Climate Policy, NRG Energy
• Ben Feldman, Executive Director, Environmental Markets Strategy, JP Morgan

1:30pm Evolving Regional & Global Markets

• Moderator: Denny Ellerman, Executive Director, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, Sloan School of Management, MIT

• Panel of experts will discuss emissions trading systems around the world
• Comparing carbon market approaches
• Exploring possible linkages

Panel Speakers:

• Margret Kim, Senior Advisor, International Climate Change and China Program Director, California Air Resources Board
• Jill Duggan, Head of International Emissions Trading, United Kingdom
• Peter Zapfel, Directorate General for Environment, European Commission
• Tim Denne, Director, Covec Limited & New Zealand ICAP Representative

3:30pm Carbon Risk Management

• Moderator: Veronique Bugnion, Managing Director, Point Carbon

• The role played by financial institutions in managing carbon risks
• RGGI auctions: who participated and who stayed on the sidelines?
• Canadian carbon intensity based financial instruments: how does it work?

Panel Speakers:

• Annmarie Reynolds, Director, Carbon Exchange, AES
• Patrick Birley, CEO, ECX
• Olivia Hartridge, Vice President, Morgan Stanley Commodities
• Jean-Philippe Brisson, Vice President, Goldman Sachs

3:30pm The Changing Roles of States

• Moderator: Judi Greenwald, Vice President, Innovative Solutions, Pew Center on Global Climate Change

• What are the appropriate respective roles for state and federal government in climate policy?
• Are some complementary policies more effectively implemented at the state level?
• How can federal policy best support and complement these state efforts?

Panel Speakers:

• Michael Murray, Regional Vice President, Sempra Energy
• Janice Adair, Chair, Western Climate Initiative
• Michael Sole, Secretary, Florida Department of Environmental Protection
• Ray Hammarlund, Director, Energy Programs Division, Kansas Corporation Commission
• Peter Iwanowicz, Director, Climate Change Office, New York State DEC

Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington D.C.