LONDON (Reuters) – London’s once high-flying carbon emissions permit brokers have been grounded by the recession and dwindling client volumes, with layoffs and business lost to exchanges clouding the horizon of a once sunny future.

The London-based desk at CantorCO2e, one of the many players in the now over-crowded European emissions trading space, was the latest casualty as the firm laid off its last three carbon brokers in the UK earlier this month, sources told Reuters.

LONDON (Reuters) – Greenhouse gas emissions from heavy industry currently regulated under the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme will be capped at 1,926,876,368 tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2013, the EU Commission said on Friday.

In the scheme’s third phase, which runs from 2013-2020, the emissions cap will then be tightened at an annual rate of 1.74 percent of the average Phase 2 (2008-2012) cap of 2,032,998,912 tonnes, or by 35,374,181 tonnes per year, the Commission said on its website.

LONDON (Reuters) – The European Union is under pressure to finalize details on its emissions cap for industry from 2013, how carbon permits will be auctioned and the amount to be given to airlines when they join the EU’s scheme in 2012.

Businesses say they urgently need clarity on these still undecided elements surrounding the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme, the bloc’s main weapon to fight climate change, in order to minimize compliance costs in its third phase (2013-2020).

LONDON (Reuters) – A Kyoto Protocol scheme may be encouraging projects to emit more greenhouse gases because of incentives to earn carbon offsets from subsequently destroying these, a U.N. report said.

The projects under investigation are the most lucrative under Kyoto’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and account for more than half carbon offsets sold under the scheme. Limiting their output could impact carbon prices.

LONDON (Reuters) – June has been the worst month in over a year for the issuance of UN-backed carbon offsets, data compiled by Reuters showed, as auditor suspensions, bottlenecks and possible rule changes hinder requests from projects.

Only 3.4 million offsets have been issued by the U.N.’s climate change secretariat this month, the lowest level since May 2009, when 2.3 million were handed to clean energy projects registered under the Clean Development Mechanism. In the 12 months before June, the monthly average was 10.8 million.

LONDON (Reuters) – Firms that audit greenhouse gas-cutting projects approved under a Kyoto Protocol carbon offset scheme received poor grades from green groups for a second year, a report said on Monday.

Unqualified and insufficiently trained personnel was cited by WWF and Germany’s Oeko-Institute as a problem plaguing emissions auditors, accompanied by ambiguous scheme rules and a general failure to show that the clean energy projects they approved would not be feasible without getting carbon offsets.

LONDON, June 22 (Reuters) – Developing countries may thwart
a North American effort to reduce the global use of
hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a potent greenhouse gas, a UN
official said on Tuesday.

HFCs, which are a byproduct of refrigerant chemicals, trap
over 12,000 times more heat than carbon dioxide.

LONDON (Reuters) – Firms participating in a Kyoto Protocol carbon scheme are abusing it by artificially inflating their greenhouse gas emissions, thereby allowing rich nations’ emissions to rise significantly, a watchdog said on Saturday.

Under Kyoto’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), worth $2.7 billion in 2009, companies can invest in carbon-cutting projects in emerging economies, and in return get carbon offsets that can be used against their own emissions.

LONDON (Reuters) – China could face increasing pressure in U.N. climate talks after data released on Wednesday showed the country’s carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel rose by 9 percent in 2009, bucking a global downtrend.

China’s greenhouse gases from fuels like oil and coal grew to 7.5 billion tonnes, even though global emissions fell for the first time since 1998 as industrial output and fuel consumption dropped amid a global recession, BP data showed.

LONDON (Reuters) – Barclays Plc agreed a 98 million pound ($142.4 million) cash offer for Swedish carbon credits trader Tricorona AB, giving a vote of confidence in the carbon market ahead of the expiry of the Kyoto climate pact.

Barclays said on Wednesday it was offering 8 Swedish crowns ($1.01) a share for Stockholm-based Tricorona, which specializes in sourcing, developing and trading offsets from greenhouse gas reduction projects in developing countries.