Dairy Industry under New Zealand's Emissions Trading Scheme: Analysis of Farmers' Attitudes towards Climate Change: The Expense Created by the NZETS and the Point that Farmers will Begin to Reduce Emissions

<p>Adaptation to actual climate change and contingency planning to reduce vulnerability from likely climate change effects is crucial for the New Zealand dairy industry. Thus in alignment with international treaties and growing international pressure and speculation, the New Zealand Government in October 2007 announced an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) adaptable specifically to the New Zealand scene. This ETS passed into law in September 2008 through the enactment of the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading) Amendment Act 2008. This thesis specifically looks at agriculture related emissions and calculates the liability faced by the dairy industry come 2013 when the industry is completely involved in the ETS. The purpose of this is to further aid the industry so that it can best align itself with the ETS in order to minimise this liability. This is not simply an aid to help the industry save money, as the minimisation of liability should come as a benefit to the environment through reduced emissions. There is also a second issue associated with this - as to whether the liability faced by the industry will be material enough in order for the farmers to actually mitigate their environmental impacts or will they simply bear the expense and ignore the opportunities to reduce their emissions against a baseline (and potentially generate carbon credits for sale) and/or offset any residual emissions through purchasing carbon credits? This therefore analysed the threshold of farmer's incomes whereby they will choose to abate their emissions rather than simply paying for their carbon emissions liability. This threshold obviously varied greatly through the dairying industry with differing factors - this was taken into account and discussed in detail. Other aspects influence this threshold also, factors such as the opportunity for the industry to market a niche product if they do achieve a low carbon or carbon neutral status for their products, cost competitiveness of available abatement technologies, geographical issues pertaining to each abatement method and so on. In order to gain an insight into farmers' perceptions 23 Taranaki dairy farmers were interviewed. This 23 was selected randomly from a list of farmers who reside in the geographical area of Taranaki. This randomisation allowed for an analysis of a variety of size of farmers which eliminated a bias of perceptions from dominating farming sizes within this region. Utilising the theoretical framework surrounding stabilisation triangles, riparian management and nitrification inhibitors were the basis of this examination for emissions reduction management due to their major co-benefit of improved water quality alongside the ultimate goal of emissions reductions. The extent of potential mitigation through the implementation of riparian management and nitrification inhibitors equates to two of the wedges required for the overall reduction in emissions under the ETS. Also, as explained earlier, the co-benefit of improved water quality associated with riparian management and nitrification inhibitors make their implementation even more attractive. The theory behind riparian management and nitrification inhibitors has mostly been done, therefore for the purpose of this thesis, farmers' perceptions of the abatement options were examined. These perceptions included the associated opportunities as well as the challenges that will be faced by those participating farmers.</p>

Dairy Industry under New Zealand's Emissions Trading Scheme: Analysis of Farmers' Attitudes towards Climate Change: The Expense Created by the NZETS and the Point that Farmers will Begin to Reduce Emissions

<p>Adaptation to actual climate change and contingency planning to reduce vulnerability from likely climate change effects is crucial for the New Zealand dairy industry. Thus in alignment with international treaties and growing international pressure and speculation, the New Zealand Government in October 2007 announced an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) adaptable specifically to the New Zealand scene. This ETS passed into law in September 2008 through the enactment of the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading) Amendment Act 2008. This thesis specifically looks at agriculture related emissions and calculates the liability faced by the dairy industry come 2013 when the industry is completely involved in the ETS. The purpose of this is to further aid the industry so that it can best align itself with the ETS in order to minimise this liability. This is not simply an aid to help the industry save money, as the minimisation of liability should come as a benefit to the environment through reduced emissions. There is also a second issue associated with this - as to whether the liability faced by the industry will be material enough in order for the farmers to actually mitigate their environmental impacts or will they simply bear the expense and ignore the opportunities to reduce their emissions against a baseline (and potentially generate carbon credits for sale) and/or offset any residual emissions through purchasing carbon credits? This therefore analysed the threshold of farmer's incomes whereby they will choose to abate their emissions rather than simply paying for their carbon emissions liability. This threshold obviously varied greatly through the dairying industry with differing factors - this was taken into account and discussed in detail. Other aspects influence this threshold also, factors such as the opportunity for the industry to market a niche product if they do achieve a low carbon or carbon neutral status for their products, cost competitiveness of available abatement technologies, geographical issues pertaining to each abatement method and so on. In order to gain an insight into farmers' perceptions 23 Taranaki dairy farmers were interviewed. This 23 was selected randomly from a list of farmers who reside in the geographical area of Taranaki. This randomisation allowed for an analysis of a variety of size of farmers which eliminated a bias of perceptions from dominating farming sizes within this region. Utilising the theoretical framework surrounding stabilisation triangles, riparian management and nitrification inhibitors were the basis of this examination for emissions reduction management due to their major co-benefit of improved water quality alongside the ultimate goal of emissions reductions. The extent of potential mitigation through the implementation of riparian management and nitrification inhibitors equates to two of the wedges required for the overall reduction in emissions under the ETS. Also, as explained earlier, the co-benefit of improved water quality associated with riparian management and nitrification inhibitors make their implementation even more attractive. The theory behind riparian management and nitrification inhibitors has mostly been done, therefore for the purpose of this thesis, farmers' perceptions of the abatement options were examined. These perceptions included the associated opportunities as well as the challenges that will be faced by those participating farmers.</p>

Reflections on the Mechanisms to Protect Against Formation of Price Bubble in the EU ETS Market

The rapid increases of European Union Allowance (EUA) prices and very high market volatility, resulting mainly from the growing role of speculative entities, can contribute to forming a price bubble. This may cause the market instability and could have a implications on planning future reduction investments by European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) participants. That is why they need some kind of ‘safety valve’, an effective EU ETS instrument, which can be triggered when the situation requires it. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the current legislative rules of the EU ETS protect against sudden EUA price fluctuation and the risk of formation of a price bubble. This paper tries to assess the potential EUA price bubble and to review of existing instruments within the EU ETS, analysing their efficiency using different assumptions and identify channels of possible other market instruments to efficiently prevent the carbon market instability caused by rising EUA prices and market speculation. We argue that the European Commission (EC) does not currently have an appropriate market instrument to respond to the EUA price fluctuation. Moreover, there are some legislative loopholes in the system, which may encourage market speculators to influence EUA prices, and there is need to introduce better market safeguards.

Initial Long-Term Scenarios for COVID-19’s Impact on Aviation and Implications for Climate Policy

The COVID-19 pandemic had a dramatic impact on aviation in 2020, and the industry’s future is uncertain. In this paper, we consider scenarios for recovery and ongoing demand, and discuss the implications of these scenarios for aviation emissions-related policy, including the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Using the Aviation Integrated Model (AIM2015), a global aviation systems model, we project how long-term demand, fleet, and emissions projections might change. Depending on recovery scenario, we project cumulative aviation fuel use to 2050 might be up to 9% below that in scenarios not including the pandemic. The majority of this difference arises from reductions in relative global income levels. Around 40% of modeled scenarios project no offset requirement in either the CORSIA pilot or first phases; however, because of its more stringent emissions baseline (based on reductions from year 2004–2006 CO2, rather than constant year-2019 CO2), the EU ETS is likely to be less affected. However, if no new policies are applied and technology developments follow historical trends, year-2050 global net aviation CO2 is still likely to be well above industry goals, including the goal of carbon-neutral growth from 2019, even when the demand effects of the pandemic are accounted for.

Russian companies uneven on environmental adaptation

Significance The global shift towards decarbonisation threatens Russian exports and public revenue, and the more aware mining and other companies are paying greater attention to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. A warming climate and increasingly frequent natural disasters raise costs and liabilities for companies and the state, while pollution will undermine public health and life expectancy. Impacts Government ministries must submit plans to adapt to climate change by December for inclusion in the 2022-24 budget. Climate change offers an area for political collaboration with the United States. Russia will push for recognition of its forest absorption capacity and of nuclear energy as 'green'. Moscow will promote its plentiful natural gas reserves as the optimum transition-period fuel source. Several green projects will undergo pilot testing next year, including hydrogen production and an emissions trading scheme in Sakhalin.