Insight, Conscious, Capture & Trade: No Longer Business as Usual

Perth-based tree planting business Carbon Conscious has struck a deal to supply 10,000 carbon offset units to Perenia and Intelligent Pathways has been chosen by the Victorian Government to deliver an end-to-end Environmental Data Management System (EDMS). Meanwhile, the Australian government has announced the first round of grants from the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute, with two Australian projects to share $4.3 million in funds and Westpac has signed a deal to provide transactional banking services and the financial infrastructure to the newly established Carbon TradeXchange.

From Intelligent Pathways:

 Intelligent Pathways has been chosen by the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) to deliver an end-to-end Environmental Data Management System (EDMS) for the whole of Victorian government operations.

Due to the complexity of collecting and interpreting environmental data from multiple suppliers, the DSE is experiencing challenges in the following areas:

 Data management effort

 Data timeliness

 Data availability

 Level of detail of data

 Data completeness

 Reporting consistency

The EDMS will provide visibility of emissions of all departments and agencies, accuracy of data and standardised reporting. The EDMS will help relieve the burden of data management and reporting and redirect resources to analysis and action.

Intelligent Pathways is delivering an integrated solution for DSE’s EDMS that tailors our existing environmental products:

Carbon Insight – GHG inventory which is used to manage the environmental reporting structures and convert raw emissions data into the various reporting formats.

EDEN (Environmental Data Exchange Network) – Our Exchange Network which is used to capture and validate usage data from the complete network of suppliers.

Carbon Insight is a conversion, planning and reporting platform that draws data from various channels including data entry, scanned images and electronic data feeds. Reports can be generated in various formats as required for regulatory reporting and other stakeholder engagement. For DSE, this will include reporting for NGER, EREP, Watermap and FRD 24.

EDEN is an innovative and efficient way of managing the movement of data between suppliers and consumers. For DSE, this Exchange will manage data in the Energy, Waste, Water & Transport channels. EDEN provides the mechanisms through which the completeness and timeliness of the data is managed, and allows for rapid participation in the network by all participants in the supply chain. Ultimately, it drives the adoption of standards in both the transfer and the definition of environmental data.

Intelligent Pathways is an Australian owned technology company specialising in enterprise systems integration and software engineering in the areas of environmental management, fleet and logistics. We have a successful track record in the delivery of large scale, mission critical systems for government and medium-to-large organisations.

Source: www.carboninsight.com.au

In Climate Spectator (13 October 2010):

The Australian government has announced the first round of grants from the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute, with two Australian projects to share $4.3 million in funds, but the bulk of money to go to projects in the US and Europe. The $100 million institute is almost entirely funded by Australian government money, although it did receive its first $500,000 from the US government earlier this month.

Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson sees CCS as critical for the long-term future of coal, and believes that Australia, with more than 80 per cent of its stationary energy coming from coal and as the world’s largest exporter of the commodity, has a special interest in seeing CCS brought to the market. There is, however, great debate about the ability of CCS to compete with other lower-cost technologies – such as algae and other biosequestration – that could achieve an equal amount of abatement in an international market.

The six winners were chosen from more than 50 applications, with two projects selected from Australia, two in the US and two in Europe (Holland and Romania). The Australian winners included CarbonNet in the Latrobe Valley, which will receive a total of $2.5 million for work on developing a “hub concept” and on a technical framework for the measurement, monitoring and validation of stored CO2.

In Queensland, the Callide Oxyfuel Project may receive $1.83 million in funding to support an injection test of CO2 into a potential storage site in various locations in south east Queensland, although terms have not been finalised. The other overseas projects include research into transport options for CO2, transporting captured CO2 via existing natural gas pipelines and storing it in saline aquifers, a concept study into a new 600MW coal-fired power station in the US with 85-90 per cent capture, and on a US power plant retrofit.

Westpac supports CTX

Westpac has signed a deal to provide transactional banking services and the financial infrastructure to the newly established Carbon TradeXchange, the first carbon trading exchange for companies or individuals looking to participate in the voluntary carbon market. CTX is being launched in Australia by Wayne Sharpe, the Gold Coast-based founder of Bartercard, and is looking to tap into what Sharpe believes will be a multi-billion dollar global voluntary carbon market and bigger than the compliance market.

Sharpe’s team has developed the software for the exchange, which he says will be the first in the world to specialise in voluntary markets, and will rely on Westpac to provide the financial infrastructure to facilitate the trading. Westpac’s head of forex, commodities and carbon and energy trading, Paul Verschuer, says the deal forms a key part of the bank’s suite of offerings in the low-carbon sector, including financing for renewable energy and energy efficiency investments.

Source: www.climatespectator.com.au

Reported in The West Australian (12 October 2010):

Perth-based tree planting business Carbon Conscious has struck a deal to supply 10,000 carbon offset units to international carbon solution provider Perenia.

Carbon Conscious will plant 50,000 to 70,000 mallee eucalypt trees on marginal WA farming land to deliver the units, known as Assigned Amount Units (AAU), to Perenia.

The units will be priced at $16 each, valuing the deal at $160,000

Perenia is owned by Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co, Pacific Hydro and Snowy Mountains Engineering.

Trees planted under the scheme store carbon for a 30 year period.

At 11.35am Carbon Conscious shares were flat at 11.5¢.

Source: www.au.news.yahoo.com