The value of the market remained roughly unchanged after carbon prices fell by nearly 50 percent last year, according to PointCarbon. But the market itself rose to 8.2 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, mainly because of an increase in trading activity in Europe.

The global carbon market reached $136 billion in 2009, up from $133 billion in 2008 and only $58 million in 2007.

The European Union’s emissions trading scheme accounted for the largest share of carbon trading, with nearly 70 percent of the global market. It was followed by the Kyoto-set up Clean Development Mechanism and the Regional Greenhouse Gas initiative, the first mandatory cap-and-trade system in the United States.

The Swedish environment minister said the EU is close to making such a pledge, but not quite ready yet. The EU is seeing as waiting for a commitment from the United States or China.

The EU’s current target is to curb emissions by 20 percent by the end of the next decade. But Dimas said this week that the EU should move unilaterally to cut emissions by 30 percent by 2020 because it was the best way to secure a deal that would help limit the rise in global temperatures to a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius, the internationally accepted goal.

“In my opinion, the 30 percent commitment by the European Union would be better in our negotiations,” Dimas told the press. “The moral pressure would be much stronger on the developed countries and developing countries alike.”

The Senate Environment Committee approved a version of the cap and trade bill last week. But the legislation still faces strong revisions from moderate Democrats, particularly from senators on the Finance and Agriculture committees.

“It’s common understanding that climate-change legislation will not be brought up on the Senate floor and pass the Senate this year,” Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus was quoted as saying in the Wall Street Journal.

Even climate bill champion Senator John Kerry, who last week said committees should have climate legislation processed by the end of the year, has since backed off such expectations. “I don’t want to create artificial deadlines which get in the way of our being methodical about this,” he told the press.

Coal demand in Japan, Australia’s biggest export market, could plunge by more than half over the next two decades, according to projections from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

In its annual World Energy Outlook the agency modelled the impact of cutting world carbon emissions to 450 parts per million, a level needed to avoid “catastrophic’ climate change. It found that in Japan, the cuts would cause total coal demand to fall by 60 percent to about 44 million tonnes in 2030.

By comparison, China’s demand for coal would continue to increase, however, it would still be 43 percent lower than if emissions were allowed to keep climbing.

The figures show the massive changes to the world’s energy mix required to meet emissions cuts, which the IEA said would be “achievable but very challenging.” Making the cuts would cost an extra $10.5 trillion in global investment by 2030, but the IEA said failure to act would lift global temperatures by up to 6 degrees.

The House and Senate bills both include a long-term target of an 83 percent reduction by 2050.

Proposed by California Democrat Barbara Boxer, who heads the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the legislation will be debated in the Senate starting the end of October.

Differences in the Senate and House bills, aside from the Senate’s high ambition:

-  Unlike the House bill, the Senate proposal does not spell out how the government plans to allocate billions of dollars worth of permits to emit greenhouse gases.

- Unlike the House bill, the Senate’s draft bill would preserve the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to use the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases. Because that law generally gives the EPA limited flexibility to consider costs when setting regulations, some business groups and many lawmakers fear the agency’s regulation of greenhouse gases could lead to onerous, new rules on business.

- The Senate bill  includes provisions to fund training of workers in the nuclear industry and development of technology that could reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants.

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a UK-based nonprofit that presses businesses to calculate and make public their carbon footprints, says 332 of the Standard & Poor’s 500 firms in the US responded to this year’s study, a 66 percent return, up from 64 percent last year.

Companies “are becoming increasingly aware of the value of carbon management,” Bob Moritz, U.S. chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers, was quoted as saying. For the first time this year, the project is ranking companies by their willingness to publicise their emissions and to what extent top management is working to combat climate change.

The Australian version of the CDP is expected to launch in mid-October.

Such a pledge by developed counties “will allow developing countries to begin preparing national plans to limit their own emissions, and to adapt to climate change,” De Boer told the BBC World Service’s One Planet programme.

He was less keen to put an exact figure on the levels of emission cuts the biggest economies should commit to. Some scientists have called for a 25-40 percent reduction by 2020 – a proposal he describes as “a good beacon to be working towards,” according to the BBC.

“If on that piece of paper, China, India, Brazil and other major developing countries have offered national actions that will significantly take their emissions below business as usual… that for me will be a success,” De Boer is quoted as saying.

“India’s position is clear and categorical that we are simply not in a position to take any legally binding emissions reductions,” Jairam Ramesh said during a press conference with visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  

“It is not true that India is running away from mitigation,” Ramesh said. “India’s position, let me be clear, is that we are simply not in the position to take legally binding emissions targets.”

Getting committments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from large and growing developing countries such as India, China and Brazil is seen as key for reaching a post-Kyoto agreement on climate change at the Copenhagen conference in December.

So far India, which has lower per capita emissions than countries like Australia and the US, has only promised that it will not allow its emissions to rise above the developed-country average.

Australia has promised to cut its emissions by 60 percent within the time frame and is now under pressure to commit to further cuts.  The Climate Group’s Australian director, Rupert Posner, is quoted in Friday press as saying the G8 declaration had “absolutely”‘ made it more likely that Australia would lift its 2050 target.

Cutting emissions by 80 percent is meant to stop gl;obal warming at 2 degrees Celsium. Science shows that any further increases in temperature will have a catastophic impact on much of the world’s infrastructure. 

G8 leaders including US President Barack Obama are at L’Aquila summit that they are prepared to offer new financial incentives for other nations to join in the effort. 

But many of the less developed but quickly growing economics are likely to resist committing to the 80 percent emissions cut. A Russian advisor rejected the idea calling it “unacceptable and unattainable.” China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt and South Africa are likely to also think the target unrealistic. 

The topic will come up for discussion again in the December climate change negotiations in Copenhagen.  

News of the G8 plans came as ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair urged rich nations to reach short-term climate targets by ramping up existing clean technologies. Blair said that acting on climate change was “urgent” and that progress was being made in engaging governments of some of the world’s largest economies.

There was “a general acceptance on the part of most sensible people that we have to deal with it,” he said.

“We have an American administration committed to tackling climate change. We have a Chinese administration that’s no longer saying you guys have created the problem – you solve it, but has immersed itself in this challenge.”

What is needed now is “practical policy making,” Blair added.

The bill, passed by a narrow margin of 219 to 212, would introduce a cap-and-trade scheme and impose renewable energy and energy efficiency targets on power utilities. It would slash emissions of greenhouse gases by 17 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2020 and 83 percent by 2050, from 2005 levels. It also aims to spur creation of green jobs for the clean energy industry, including wind, solar, geothermal power, safe nuclear energy and cleaner coal.

The ACES bill will now go o the U.S. Senate for consideration.  The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee passed an American Clean Energy Leadership Act on June 17.  This bill addresses several energy issues, including many addressed under the ACES Act.  The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has initial plans to act on a cap-and-trade measure in early August.  These measures, as well as measures passed by some other Senate committees, will likely be combined to create the Senate counterpart to the ACES Act.  If the Senate passes this combined bill, differences between the Senate and House bills would have to be reconciled, with the final bill passed by both houses. After a successful reconciliation the bill could be sent to President Obama and signed into law.

The House vote came a day after a new Washington Post-ABC News survey found that Americans give wide support to regulation of atmospheric release of greenhouse gases from power plants, cars and factories. The poll puts the figure of support of regulation at three-fourths of those surveyed, with 52 percent supporting cap and trade.

However there are already several industry associations opposing the bill, including the American Petroleum Institute (API), which said the bill was being rushed without full consideration of other approaches and would result in US job losses and higher prices for US consumers.

API members include BHP Billiton, ExxonMobil, Schlumberger Ltd, Shell, BP America and ConocoPhillips – even though the latter three also lobbied for the introduction of an emissions trading scheme as members of the US Climate Action Partnership before. Another industry opposing the bill is the National Mining Association. They are worried about the nation’s economic and energy security through timelines and policies that supposedly move far ahead of the technology to meet emissions reduction mandates and needlessly displace coal and other sources of fossil fuels.

Others, like the Aluminium Association President Steve Larkin took a more diplomatic approach, approving the bill but pointing at the need to better protect energy-intensive industries. They bank on the senate bill to at least watering down the initial bill to a broader compromise – if not bring it down by not finding the necessary votes or a compromise that can be put into law.

It warns climate change is happening much faster than predicted and many aspects of the Earth’s climate including rising temperatures and frequency of extreme weather events. It calls for ”aggressive mitigation portfolios” to be adapted to help cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The report was published by the University of Copenhagen and contains contributions from some 1,600 scientists, including British economist Sir Nicholas Stern. It warns that if governments set weak emission reduction targets for 2020, it will increase the risk of impacts ”including the crossing of tipping points, and make the task of meeting 2050 targets more difficult.”

Green transport systems, smart energy grids, sustainable farming systems, and a massive investment for renewable energy technologies are among the recommendations the report makes for world governments.

The ACF estimates that Australia’s six heaviest polluting industries will gain at least $1.1 billion in government compensation under recently proposed changes to the planned emissions trading scheme.

”Some of Australia’s biggest corporate polluters appear to be presenting the worst case to government and the public in an effort to gain excessive free permits, while presenting the best case to investors, in order to keep their share prices up,” ACF Executive Director Don Henry said on Monday in a statement.

Among the companies accused of misleading statements are Rio Tinto, oil refiner Caltex Australia and the nation’s top building products maker Boral.

De Boer said that his confidence is buoyed by developments since the start of the year, including the fact that almost all developed countries have tabled emissions cuts, according to an article on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) website.

“The challenge now is to get that list complete and to raise the ambition level though negotiation on international co-operation,” de Boer is quoted as saying.

The head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Ivo de Boer, said this week that there have been encouraging developments recent climate change negotiations. His comments come as the first “negotiating text” for the UN’s December climate change conference to be held in Copenhagen is published on the UNFCCC website.

He said the 53-page document marked “an important point on our road” and could “serve as a basis for governments to start drafting… an agreed outcome” to the Copenhagen conference, which is in less than 200 days.

Media reports on April 15 quoted Pan Jiahua from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences as saying that the Chinese government would not push for an approach based on per capita emissions at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen this December, but might argue it be included in post-Copenhagen negotiations.

Delegates from 200 countries will meet to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol in Copenhagen. A shrinking global economy had experts worrying that an agreement could not be reached. But recent news from the United States that it may establish a carbon scheme has improved the chances of an agreement being reached.

China’s engagement on the discussion is promising, experts told the press, as the involvement of large middle income nations like China and India is critical. China is the world’s top greenhouse gas emitter after the United States. India is ranked fourth. Australia is the highest per capital emitter.

Pan told the press that Australia’s target of 5 to 15 percent emissions reduction on 2000 levels by 2020 was “certainly insufficient,” when compared with targets set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“This would set a very bad example for the developing countries,” he said.

Pan also said that Beijing might agree to a voluntary cut in emissions at Copenhagen.

Energy company Total has upgraded an existing gas-fired boiler at a power plant in Lacq.

Philippe Paelinck of Alstom, the engineeering company that designed and built the carbon capture and storage equipment, told the newspaper: “We first proved the feasibility of retrofitting an installation to carbon capture and storage, but also this will be the first demonstration in Europe of [carbon capture and storage] with [existing] integrated CO2 pipeline transportation and storage,” Paelinck is quoted as saying.

Total reportedly chose to test oxyfuel because of potential future cost savings, but it is still looking into other emissions reducing technologies.

The Guardian reports that plans for government-funded carbon capture and storage demonstration plants across Europe have been moving slowly. The EU wants 12 demonstration plants in operation next decade and has reserved 300 million carbon credits from the next stage of the European emissions trading scheme to help fund the technology, the paper said.

The submission is being reviewed by negotiators meeting in Bonn, Germany, to discuss a new climate treaty that is meant to be agreed upon in Copenhagen in December 2009.

“We think a post-2012 agreement will need to include forests in some way,” Climate Change Minister Penny Wong was quoted as telling Reuters. “Currently too many developing nations have an economic imperative to cut down forests. What we need to put in place is a mechanism that means instead of an economic imperative to cut down forests, we have an economic imperative to protect them.”

Wong said deforestation and forest degradation account for around 18 to 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

“What Australia is putting forward is a proposal for a forest carbon market mechanism that essentially will try to provide this economic incentive,” she said.

The United States will host a meeting of major economies in late April to pave the way for an international agreement on climate change and energy later in the year, the White House has announced.

The leaders of 17 major economies – including China and the UK – will gather April 27-28  in Washington, DC to discuss issues such as emission targets, technology funding, deforestation, trade tariffs and other issues related to curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

“The Major Economies Forum will facilitate a candid dialogue among key developed and developing countries, help generate the political leadership necessary to achieve a successful outcome at the UN climate change negotiations,” the White House said in a statement released on March 28.

The meeting is seen as a way to create political momentum for an agreement to be reached at the United Nations climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in December. It will “advance the exploration of concrete initiatives and joint ventures that increase the supply of clean energy while cutting greenhouse gas emissions,” the White House said.

The  Moldova Soil Conservation Project  is run by Moldova’s State Forest Agency, Moldsilva, which aims to reforest 20,290 hectares of degraded land belonging to it and local councils. The 20-year project aims to deliver 2.5 million tonnes of CO2 emission reductions by 2017 through carbon bio-sequestration in trees and soil. Up to 40 different native and naturalised tree species will be used. It was officially registered as a CDM project in early March.

“This project will contribute to reduce the impacts of climate change, not only at a national but global level by sequestering about three millions tonnes of carbon dioxide between 2002 and 2022,” Anatolie Popusoi, director general of Moldsilva, was quoted as saying in a World Bank press release.

Last week another CDM project was announced: the first small scale afforestation/reforestation project. It is a scheme to plant trees on the fringe of the Thar Desert in Rajasthan in India, which aims to help stabilise sand dunes, increase soil quality, improve water holding capacity in the land, sequester carbon and generate credit revenues for local communities. Tree species such as acacia and eucalyptus for timber and Ber for fruit harvest will be planted on 370 hectares of degraded cropland in cooperative venture with 227 local farmers and the Haryana Forest Department. The project is expected to generate some 380,000 temporary Certified Emission Reductions (CERs), or carbon credits, over its 20-year lifespan.