Point Carbon Pushes Into North America

June 11, 2009

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Point Carbon, a leading energy and environmental market analysis firm, has launched its first power trading analytics tool for the North America market. This Web based platform is part of the company’s Power Market Trader series, specifically targeting the PJM ISO market.

Point Carbon’s Power Market Trader series is currently used by traders in Europe. The company says the PJM product offers the most complete package for PJM traders, providing services such as weather information forecasted from several sources, supply information and proprietary forecasts, demand information and proprietary forecasts, price information and proprietary forecasts, and transmission information.

Aiming to join the ranks of global carbon traders, Canada recently announced its plans for a carbon market that could link up with the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (ETS), and proposed U.S. carbon market to form a global system for carbon pollution trading, reports Google News.

Canada’s Environment Minister Jim Prentice said in a speech to the Economic Club of Canada that it would establish a price for carbon in Canada, and allow anyone from small businesses to individuals to buy credits to offset their emissions.

Rules and requirements for generating offset credits, including registration of projects and issuance of actual credits and an explanation of how CO2 cuts would be verified, will be published after a 60-day public consultation, reports Google News.

Prentice said in the article projects that qualify for offsets will span the economy and the system will target emissions from activities and sectors not covered by planned limits on big industrial polluters.

However, not taking the Canadian carbon market into account, there is some discord among European carbon traders as to whether the U.S. and the European Union will be able to integrate carbon trading markets.

Meanwhile, the U.S. and China, the two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, are in the midst of climate talks to negotiate a global warming policy, reports the NY Times. The U.S. energy bill now before Congress proposes emissions targets that fall short of what China and other nations say they expect of the United States.

The NY Times also reports that the Chinese continue to resist mandatory ceilings on their emissions and are making financial and environmental demands on the United States that are political roadblocks. If one nation doesn’t agree to ceilings on emissions, retaliation could come in the in the form of tariffs or other trade barriers.

Most negotiators say without the full participation of the United States and China, any climate change treaty designed to replace the Kyoto Protocol will fail, reports the NY Times.

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