Climate change news – 7 September 2007

Qantas Airways to offset aircraft emissions

Qantas, Australia’s largest airline, says it plans to launch a carbon credit program at the end of September to offset the pollution emitted by its aircraft. Travellers will be offered the option to purchase carbon credits to offset their trip’s emissions when buying tickets. This is similar to schemes already in place by British Airways and Scandinavian Airlines.

Qantas’s chief risk officer Rob Kella says that Qantas will buy credit for the entire emissions of the airline on the day of the scheme’s launch, and will continue buying credits for staff air travel and the use of ground equipment thereafter.





APEC demands pollution penalties

The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, based in Syndey this week, has asked governments to provide more incentives for companies in invest in new technologies to tackle their carbon footprint.

Mark Johnson, head of the APEC Business Advisory Council made a statement asking government leaders to put in place a market structure which will put a price on pollution and motivate companies to change their behaviour.

2020 emissions goals

At talks at the United Nations last week, 1000 delegates from 158 nations agreed to greenhouse gas emissions cuts of 25% to 40% below 1990 levels as a starting point for industrialised nations toward a pact to extend the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012. Yvo de Boer, head of the UN climate change secretariat, welcomes the compromise, but says more needs to be done.

Energy from paint fumes

Ford will convert paint shop emissions at its Oakville assembly plant, in Ontario, Canada, into electricity, using its patented fumes-to-fuel system, the first of its kind. The system will eventually power a large-scale fuel cell creating 300 kilowatts of green energy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 88%.

Supermarket sells E85 ethanol

Kroger this week became the first US retailer to sell VeraSun’s E85 – a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% petrol – with 20 fuelling stations opening in Ohio and Kentucky.

Partnering with Kroger as their first national retailer, VeraSun now has over 100 stations for flexible fuel vehicles at retail stores in 11 states.

Rubbish to power Johnson plant

SC Johnson has announced that it will use natural gas and waste methane from a public landfill site to produce the 6.4 megawatts of power needed for its Waxdale manufacturing plant – the company’s largest – in the US state of Wisconsin.

The twin cogeneration turbines powering the plant are the company’s latest endeavour into alternative energy sources and will lower its greenhouse gas emissions by 52,000 tons per year.

Trading the future

The Chicago Climate Futures Exchange has introduced tradable futures contracts, marking the first time such a product has been available on a North American exchange and putting them on track to become the international currency in the global emissions reduction market.

The contracts are Kyoto-compliant and may be exchanged for approved greenhouse gas emission and reduction sequestration projects in developing countries, satisfying national and corporate emissions goals.