Archive for the ‘Emissions’ Category

Allegro Tackle Emissions Markets

Yesterday I received a press release from Allegro regarding its “go live” at Repower (formerly Räetia Energie), an international energy company based in Switzerland that has implemented Allegro 8 to manage its emissions trading activities, and is extending the implementation to handle its power and natural gas trading. Repower will utilize allegro 8 as a single platform to manage the company’s complex trading operations across multiple commodities, locations, and trading floors throughout Europe. The announcement can be found here.

Late last year, CommodityPoint and Global Change Associates released a report titled Emissions Monitoring & Trading Software sponsored by IHS, Locus Technologies, Navita, Nirvanasoft, SunGard Energy and VisionMonitor. That study found that only 18% of the respondents utilized a commercially provided CTRM solution to handle their emissions trading requirements but that 30% said that they planned to procure emissions trading software in the next 24-months.

Greenhouse Gases: What Now? What Next? By Mark Burlingame Senior Director

The U.S. power industry is all too familiar with trendy policies and ideas, oftentimes thrust upon it by outsiders with an agenda. However, there are trends that energy companies and their vendors would do well to follow closely over the course of the next year. One such trend in the United States is the regulation of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs). Climate change and energy are now intertwined as demonstrated by the following major legislation proposed in Congress in 2009:

• The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (passed by the House Representatives and stalled in the Senate) and
• The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act of 2009 (proposed and stalled in the Senate)

Emissions Software-Are We Ready?

Greenhouse gas emissions have been receiving a lot of attention recently. Last week, President Barack Obama traveled to the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen and pledged a 17 percent reduction in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Meanwhile, other initiatives have taken place both within the US and in other regions of the world. At this time, despite continued uncertainties, we may well stand on the precipice of an era in which carbon becomes a globally traded commodity and in which companies, particularly energy companies, are forced to monitor, track, report and reduce their GHG and other emissions.

Against this regulatory and legislative background, two software categories stand to benefit as companies seek to capture their carbon footprint, report on their emissions and trade various instruments to manage their emissions profile and allowances or simply profit from speculative trading in those instruments. Those two software categories are CTRM software for emissions and emissions monitoring software.

COP15—To Be or Not to Be? That is the Question

As many of the world’s leaders arrive in Copenhagen to try to seal a climate deal, the signals emerging regarding progress from COP15 are mixed. Yesterday, the negotiating process was subject to an “unexpected stop,” according to Yvo de Boer, the United Nation’s top climate official and it has indeed been a week of stops and starts as even on Monday, informal talks between the COP15 presidency and developing countries ended a daylong boycott of negotiations, which was apparently caused by controversy over the Kyoto Protocol. There has also been much public talk by those involved of “posturing” and “placing blame on others.” On the other hand, the Danish hosts are said to be preparing a new compromise draft and many of the countries involved have already brought forward substantive voluntary commitments to the table including, for example, Japan’s offer of a total of 15 billion U.S. dollars for climate aid for developing countries through 2012.

The Issues

COP15—Is it Based on Science or Politics?

“Climategate”

One thing that the recent “Climategate” episode may have done is to rightly focus more attention on the science that is really the driving force behind the COP15 meeting currently taking place in Copenhagen. Reading through the hacked e-mails published on various blog sites, it becomes obvious very quickly that the rigor and pure approach of science has been totally overwhelmed and compromised by politics and money.

Science should work on the basis of an open, free debate and a fair peer review process. If that is stifled then what we have is neither science nor reliable. What these e-mails show can be summarized as follows:

Live from “Hopenhagen”

Arriving in Copenhagen the first thing you notice is how clean, modern and well-organized the city is. Well-served by an efficient public transport system, the bicycle is a favored means of transport and almost all main roads have wide bicycle lanes. Climate Change Conference delegates are offered bicycle rentals for free and have been quick on the uptake.

A City on a Mission

Exactly What is COP15?

For the next two weeks, the global media will undoubtedly spotlight the United Nations Climate Change Conference being held here in Copenhagen, Denmark. Without a doubt, the eventual outcome of COP15 is likely to have a significant impact on both you as an individual and your company. Indeed, if the kind of agreement envisaged by, for example, the European Union (EU) is reached, it is likely to have huge global economic, political and social ramifications and it will dramatically change our world and the way we live. However, while some form of agreement is virtually certain to emerge from Copenhagen, the actual shape and nature of the agreement has yet to be determined. So what exactly is at stake this next two weeks in Copenhagen and how did we arrive at this point?

Understanding COP15—The Kyoto Protocol