Interesting news: developers of greenhouse gas emission
reduction projects around the world are forming a new alliance. The reason for
this new development? They hope to gain better bargaining power with U.N. and
European bureaucrats, along with better lobbying clout, and to perhaps help one
another manage the current issues as their industry waits for the new activity
from expected U.S. cap-and-trade legislation .
The Project
Developers Forum, a coalition of nine prominent firms that are engaged in
emission reduction projects, is the name of the new group. All of them are
involved in earning credits in both the voluntary carbon markets and under the
United Nations' Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
The nine founding firms -- AES Climate Solutions, Camco,
Climate Change Capital, EcoSecurities, First Climate, Icecap, Natsource,
Sindicatum Carbon Capital and Tricorona -- are also forming their alliance in
the face of tighter requirements by the executive board of the U.N. Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that are putting a crimp on CDM project
development. The global credit crunch is also threatening to freeze financing
for emission reduction projects, further underscoring the need for industry
peers to cooperate in navigating today's more turbulent environment.
The Project Developers Forum is also reaching out to other
industry peers to join.
For the time being, it appears that the coalition will
primarily focus its energies on talks with the UNFCCC, keeping CDM credits
flowing and further fueling an economic opportunity that has aided them in the
past. But future activities could include lobbying with E.U. regulators as the
political bloc designs the future of its Emission Trading Scheme legislation.
It's also feasible that the Project Developers Forum could
dive into Washington politics, as the new Congress and the incoming
administration of President-elect Barack Obama are expected to start
formulating a new climate change bill sometime next year.
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