COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Prime Minister Stephen Harper brushed off criticism on Friday that Canada would act on climate change only in parallel with the United States, saying this was crucial because of North America’s economic integration.

“If the Americans don’t act, it will severely limit our ability to act, but if the Americans do act, it is absolutely essential that we act in concert with them,” he said.

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – As President Barack Obama labored behind closed doors to break a deadlock over efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, Republicans from the U.S. Congress were outside those meetings urging him not to bother.

“We’re not going to let jobs be destroyed in America for some esoteric environmental benefit 100 years from now,” U.S. House of Representatives member Joe Barton told Reuters on the sidelines of the U.N. conference on climate change.

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Brazil is blocking calls to expand carbon finance for emerging nations at U.N. talks, and a spat with Saudi Arabia over forestry and carbon-burying projects could impede a new climate deal, a source close to the talks said.

Several reforms to the $6.5 billion carbon offset market under the Kyoto Protocol, called the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), have been proposed at climate talks this week in Copenhagen, but few have been agreed so far.

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Trade in controversial carbon rights under the Kyoto Protocol after 2012 could undermine emissions targets agreed under a new global climate pact, the European Union environment commissioner said on Tuesday.

Under the Kyoto treaty, which expires in 2012, nations that are comfortably below their greenhouse gas emissions targets can sell the difference in the form of rights called Assigned Amount Units (AAUs) to countries struggling to meet their own targets.

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Demand for new wind power could far outstrip supply under a new global climate deal, the founder of Asia’s largest wind turbine maker said this week, calling for new manufacturers to help industry to fill orders. Tulsi Tanti, also chairman of India’s Suzlon Energy, said due to the size of the 36.5 billion euro ($53.5 billion) wind turbine market, he does not consider existing manufacturers as competition.

“The market is so large. With a deal agreed here it will grow even bigger, so there’s a lot of room for the new players,” Tanti said on the sidelines of U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen. “The industry hopes to grow more aggressively. The 10 (leading manufacturers) are not able to satisfy these targets, so we need more players.”

LONDON (Reuters) – A steel plant in northeast England due to close in January will likely get its 2010 quota of free European carbon permits, worth around 100 million euros ($147 million), the UK government said on Friday.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) had said on Wednesday the 7 million European Union carbon permits, equal to one percent of Britain’s annual greenhouse gas emissions, could be auctioned with proceeds going to government coffers.

LONDON (Reuters) – A sustained rise in European carbon prices in 2010 needs renewed buying from utilities rather than a positive outcome from U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen, Barclays Capital’s head of environmental markets said.

“The idea that Copenhagen causes a structural shift in price is not impossible but pretty unlikely. Unless utilities get behind the market it’s not going anywhere,” Louis Redshaw said.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s climate efforts were questioned on Wednesday after it said it would auction off rather than cancel millions of carbon permits to come from a closed steel plant, equal to one percent of UK greenhouse gas emissions.

The government said cancelling the European Union permits, allocated to a plant owned by Europe’s second largest steelmaker Corus in northeast England, would be a “lengthy process” so it would instead sell the annual rights to emit nearly 7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide back to industry.

LONDON (Reuters) – Project developers are baffled by a U.N. climate panel’s decision to block 10 Chinese wind farms from receiving carbon financing, saying the move could slash investment in Chinese wind and other forms of clean energy.

After noting a drop in financial support from Beijing in the form of tariffs, the panel on Friday rejected the projects, saying they were profitable and capable of cutting greenhouse gas emissions without receiving carbon offsets under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) – A United Nations climate panel on
Friday blocked carbon financing for around 10 Chinese wind
farms over concerns about whether they are financially viable
without receiving carbon offsets, the panel said.

The panel also lifted a suspension on emissions verifier
SGS UK, one of the biggest players in the $6.5 billion carbon
offset market, the panel’s chairman Lex de Jonge told Reuters.