Global Climate Change

Reducing carbon emissions and increasing trade in emissions rights

CARBON EXPO 2005, the world's only trade fair and conference for emissions trading and the carbon market, will open its doors on 11th May in Cologne.  The three-day event will be a platform for boosting efforts of mitigating climate change impacts around the world through the use of market based mechanisms.

As the Kyoto Protocol for global climate protection came into force, the event is attracting more interest than ever from private sector representatives, including energy-intensive industries. The Kyoto Protocol is aimed at reducing greenhouse gases by at least five per cent by 2012 in comparison to 1990 levels.

�More than 111 exhibitors, some 1,000 trade visitors and conference participants from more than 50 countries are expected to come to Cologne�, said Koelnmesse Executive Vice President Wolfgang Kranz. This equals an increase of more than 100 per cent compared to last year (50 exhibitors).

Koelnmesse's Partners for the event are the World Bank and the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), a non-profit industrial association. According to Ken Newcombe, Manager of the Carbon Finance Business Unit at The World Bank, �the most important issue right now is ensuring supply from the developing countries of emission reductions, because the demand has suddenly increased enormously as companies in Europe received their targets for emissions reductions and European Governments like Spain, Italy and Denmark have entered the market on a large scale. If as expected Canada and Japan also ramp-up there demand for developing country emissions reductions there will be a supply crunch that will need special efforts in market development to overcome�.

The industrialised countries committed themselves at the UN Climate Protection Conference in Kyoto in 1997 to a programme for reducing  emissions  of greenhouse gases (GHG). After Russia formally ratified the agreement on 18th November 2004, the Kyoto Protocol came into force on 16th February 2005.. A total of 141 countries have ratified the agreement to date. Together, they account for 61.6 per cent of the CO2 emissions produced by the industrialised countries in 1990.  Both the Kyoto Protocol and the European Union�s Emissions Trading Scheme make use of flexible mechanisms by which rich countries can buy emission reductions through climate-friendly projects in developing countries and count those reductions as part of the Protocol�s established targets.

The conference of the event will focus on an examination of emissions trading throughout the EU. The issues to be addressed include questions such as: How will long-term positions in the EU system be handled? Which factors have an impact on CO2 prices, and how can this impact be foretold? What are the special characteristics of the implementation of the EU guideline in each specific country, and how do they influence the trading process? What is the attitude of industry toward the first trading period, and what recommendations is it making to the European Commission? The speakers will include experienced market experts and analysts from the industrial sector, investment bankers and representatives of brokerage firms.

For information about participating in the trade fair and conference, as well as travel arrangements, accommodation, presentation kits for exhibitors and trade fair services available in Cologne, call the hotline on +49 (0)221/821 3097, or fax +49 (0)221/821 3098, or e-mail [email protected]. Alternatively, visit the website at www.carbonexpo.com.

You can obtain more CARBON EXPO information and photo material at www.carbonexpo.com. Additional information on the World Bank�s Carbon Finance Business is available online at www.carbonfinance.org, or at www.prototypecarbonfund.org. You will find further information on IETA at www.ieta.org.