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Geothermal Project in Guatemala Receives United Nations' Clean Development Mechanism Registration

The Project is Expected to Offset 83,000 Tons of Carbon Dioxide Emissions Per Year Reno, Nevada December 23, 2008 — Ormat Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: ORA) announced today that the Executive Board of the United Nations Framework Convention on ... read more

The Project is Expected to Offset 83,000 Tons of Carbon Dioxide Emissions Per Year

Reno, Nevada December 23, 2008 — Ormat Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: ORA) announced today that the Executive Board of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ("UNFCCC") officially registered Ormat's Amatitlan Geothermal Project in Guatemala as a Clean Development Mechanism ("CDM") on December 12, 2008.

The Mechanism was designed to provide business from developed countries with an economic incentive to help reduce carbon emissions and increase sustainable development in countries that do not have emission reduction targets. The Project is expected to offset emissions of approximately 83,000 tones of CO2 per year.

With Amatitlan registered under the CDM, the project will be eligible to receive certified emission reduction ("CER") credits, each equivalent to one tone of carbon dioxide, which can be traded or sold. The Project has a long term contract to sell all Amatitlan's CERs to a buyer domiciled in Europe.

Ormat's generating portfolio includes13 projects totaling 414 MW in the United States, Central America, Kenya and New Zealand. The Amatitlan project is Ormat's first registered CDM project and one of the few CDM registered geothermal projects worldwide and the only project in Guatemala that is CDM registered. Amatitlan was developed on a ‘build-own-operate basis and comprises a 20 MW geothermal power plant based on Ormat Energy Converters. The Project has a long-term power purchase agreement with the Instituto Nacional de Electrificatio.

Mr. Lucien Y. Bronicki, Chairman of ORMAT said: "This registration is a major encouragement for Ormat to continue developing additional geothermal CDM eligible projects worldwide. Even looking beyond the benefit it provides for Ormat, it is an arrangement with far-reaching advantages that will allow for developing host countries to gain access to cost effective, clean and reliable base-load power, that will help reduce their dependency on imported fuels and on rainfall required to sustain their Hydro reservoirs."

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Source: Ormat - Tue, 30 Dec 2008
Category: business

CCX begins talks on emissions market collaboration with HKEx

Tianjin Climate Exchange (TCX) and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) have begun discussions on possible collaboration avenues in the emissions market. Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), which is owned by Climate Exchange plc (LSE: CLE.L), ... read more

Source: Carbonyatra - Tue, 30 Dec 2008
Category: business

The Role of Forest Carbon in Emerging Ecomarkets Will be Significant

Morgantown, W.Va. - Forest carbon will play a significant role in emerging environmental markets designed to address climate change, despite the reluctance of some countries to accept forest carbon offsets, predicted environmental economics expert ... read more

“Forest carbon has been ostracized by the world’s largest carbon markets — those in the European Union,” said Bayon, co-founder and partner of merchant bank EKO Asset Management Partners, which invests in new and emerging markets for such environmental commodities as carbon, water and biodiversity. “But that will change.”

U.S. carbon markets, which have been slower to emerge than those in the EU, have, however, embraced forestry, he said, noting that several states already have developed emissions cap-and-trade systems that rely on land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF) projects to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

“California is a bellwether,” said Bayon, speaking at ImageTree Corporation’s headquarters and live via the Web at the third and last event of this year’s ImageTree Idea Leadership Series. “Not only is forestry not the ugly duckling in California; but, in fact, it also is currently the preferred carbon-offset mechanism, largely because other offsetting methodologies are still being approved, and I expect other states to follow California’s lead in developing forestry carbon projects,” he said.

“Carbon markets have gained popularity around the globe as natural resources have become less plentiful and, therefore, more valuable,” continued Bayon. “Because we don’t pay for natural resources, we use too much and there’s no money to invest in maintenance; but this will change and world markets will decide the value of ecosystem services.”

Bayon added that the markets are also likely to compensate countries for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD), as the Kyoto Protocol, which sets binding targets for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases in industrialized countries, draws to a close in three years. “REDD is firming up as part of the international compliance carbon market agenda,” he said.

The major sticking points with REDD, Bayon said, are additionality (where planned carbon reductions would not have occurred without the additional incentive provided by emission reduction credits) and leakage (where there’s an increase in emissions in one area as another area introduces a strict emissions policy).

Countries can address the latter “by measuring forests at the national level, thereby minimizing intracountry leakage, and/or by using technology, such as remote sensing,” he said. “The future of REDD is tricky and politically risky, but it’s hopeful.”

In addition to such regional markets as those in California, and the U.S. Northeast, Bayon said he believes that the United States will approve a national cap-and-trade system. Early Senate legislation has been vetoed, he explained, but the House is considering the Dingell-Boucher climate change bill, designed to cap greenhouse gases and reduce emissions by some 80 percent by 2050.

A founder and former managing director of Ecosystem Marketplace, Bayon said that inherent in any cap-and-trade system that includes forestry is the need for independent mechanisms to measure and monitor carbon.

Bayon has co-authored a number of publications on environmental economics, including The State of Voluntary Carbon Markets 2007: Picking up Steam,” “Voluntary Carbon Markets: An International Business Guide to What They Are and How They Work,” and, most recently, “Conservation and Biodiversity Banking: A Guide to Setting Up and Running Biodiversity Credit Trading Systems.” He also is a member of ImageTree’s advisory board.

For those who were not able to participate in the event, Bayon’s presentation is available in its entirety at http://www.imagetreecorp.com/ricardobayon/index.html. Certified foresters are eligible for 2.5 hours of continuing education credits.

Part of the company’s commitment to leadership within the forestry community, the ImageTree Idea Leadership Series is designed to promote innovative ideas for the preservation and management of forested environments.

About ImageTree Corporation: ImageTree is a forestry technology solutions company that improves financial performance, enables monetization and enhances sustainability of forest assets. As “the precision forestry company,” ImageTree combines remote-sensing technologies with advanced mathematics and patented automated forest feature-extraction algorithms to create its patented ForestSense process — a robust and detailed forest-management inventory system.

ImageTree uses its precise baseline assessments of forest assets, including biodiversity and carbon-stock assessments, to create valuable forest-management information, then reformats the data to create management tools and analyzes the data to make recommendations for more profitable forest management.

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Source: Image Tree Corp. - Tue, 30 Dec 2008
Category: business