carbon

U.S. voluntary carbon market does not reward complexity

I had a lively discussion with Susan Wood, CEO of SCC Americas, at the Carbon Finance North America Conference last week. SCC Americas is the U.S. arm of Syndicatum Carbon Capital, one of the largest developers of Kyoto-based CDM carbon credit projects in the world. Susan herself has been doing emissions trading for more than a decade, after starting out as an environmental engineer.

The punchline in our chat was quite fascinating--the U.S. voluntary carbon market does not reward complexity in projects, Susan says. Basically, U.S. carbon credit developers are only doing a few limited types of … Read more

'Carbon Belch Day' promotes un-green actions

Smoke cigars, do a partial load of laundry, drink bottled water, and feel no shame. That's what a campaign against a carbon trading bill is urging.

The latest parody of the proliferation of "green" social-networking sites and eco-friendly events comes via "Carbon Belch Day," a campaign from the conservative Grassfire.org alliance that encourages people to pollute as much as possible on June 12.

So far, more than 140,000 people have signed a petition against "climate alarmism," according to Ron De Jong, spokesman for Grassfire.org. If the effort attracts half a … Read more

News.com Daily Podcast: Online route to cheaper gas

Cheaper gas could be just a few clicks away, and IBM comes out with software to help corporations get more green. Listen now: Download today's podcast

With the price of crude oil once again reaching all-time highs, drivers may be looking at how that will affect prices at the pump this holiday weekend. CNET News.com's Michelle Meyers tells News.com's Leslie Katz how a few minutes online can pay off.

IBM is out with new software to help corporations make their supply chains more environmentally friendly. Carbon Tradeoff Modeler lets companies look at different packaging or … Read more

EcoSecurities founder says carbon markets work

As arguably the largest single market segment in the clean-tech sector, carbon markets are an area of keen interest for me personally and professionally, so it is always frustrating that the mainstream media largely refuses to learn the details.

In general, layman and media who don't understand the details of the carbon markets attack carbon offsets in two areas: first, questioning whether the credits are for a project that would have occurred anyway (a concept known in carbon as "additionality"); and second, questioning whether there are checks and balances to ensure the environmental standards are adhered to … Read more

Reycling CO2 waste into paper

On paper, it sounds pretty good. You take the carbon dioxide pollution from paper production and transform it into a paper additive.

Carbon Sciences on Monday announced that it intends to target its carbon recycling technology toward paper manufacturers.

The company has developed a process that treats carbon dioxide gas with heat and pressure, then mixes it with other chemicals to produce calcium carbonate. For a video of the equipment in a solar-panel equipped van, click here.

Calcium carbonate, or chaulk, is used in many many industrial processes. Precipitated Calcium Carbonate, or PCC, is used to add gloss or brighten … Read more

Is carbon storage just a pipe dream?

Researchers are committing billions of dollars to technologies that take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and store it underground, as more scientists and environmentalists question the wisdom of these plans.

Researcher Anders Hansson's at Linkoping University's Department of Technology and Social Change in Sweden this week published a study that concluded that the risks and complications of carbon capture and storage are grossly underestimated, according to a report in ScienceDaily.

"In full scale, this technology only exists in the imaginations of the people developing it," Hansson said. "It's overly optimistic to place such … Read more

Canadians tap algae to clean Alberta oil sands

Canadian researchers hope algae offers them "la grande solution" to greenhouse gas emissions and the environmental havoc caused by oil extraction in the Alberta tar sands.

The project is called CARS, Carbon Algae Recycling System, and it's backed by a consortium of researchers.

The idea is to grow algae next to a source of carbon dioxide, like a power plant. A number of algae start-ups plan to or are already doing exactly that to "feed" their algae the CO2 they need to grow.

Algae can be used for toxic cleanup as well, researchers tell clean-tech reporter Tyler Hamilton. … Read more

Apple a laggard in climate-change plans, report says

Correction at 8:10 a.m. PDT: Nike's score has been fixed.

IBM, Google, and Microsoft apparently are model citizens when it comes to reducing their carbon footprint, while Apple has a long way to go.

Climate Counts, a nonprofit funded by yogurt maker Stonyfield Farm, released on Wednesday its annual assessment of corporations' actions related to addressing climate change and whether they live up to their "green" marketing claims.

Climate Counts uses public information to rank companies in all industries.

The electronics and IT industry had the best industry ranking with a score of 56 on … Read more

DOE goes cave hunting to pump carbon underground

The U.S. Department of Energy awarded $126.6 million in grants on Tuesday to test carbon capture and storage in underground caverns.

Two sites in Ohio and California will try to verify that carbon dioxide gas can be pumped in geological formations and stored safely. The CO2 will be delivered from an ethanol plant in Ohio and a power plant in California.

The grants are subject to approval from Congress. When private money is included, the amount spent on the projects will be about $180 million over 10 years, the DOE said.

The Bush Administration and many other energy … Read more