Cologne, Germany, May 16, 2005—More than 100 deals for purchasing greenhouse gas emission reductions from poor and middle income countries were reached or advanced during CARBON EXPO 2005, organized by the World Bank, the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), and trade fair organizer Koelnmesse. The EXPO attracted 134 exhibiting companies and more than 1500 participants from 87 countries, including more than 150 journalists. For three days, suppliers presented their work modalities, methods and technologies for reducing carbon emissions and promoting trading in emissions rights and certificates. Over 20 carbon funds were looking to buy emissions reductions for at least US$3 billion at the EXPO. “Several billion dollars were represented here at CARBON EXPO by the companies that want to buy carbon assets in developing countries,” said Ken Newcombe, the World Bank’s Senior Manager for Sustainable Development. “Now is the time to create the public-private partnerships that can provide the bridge between the era of Kyoto and the European Trading Scheme – which both expire after 2012 – and the future.” Under the flexible modalities of the Kyoto Protocol, industrialized countries can fulfill some of their greenhouse gas emission-reductions commitments through carbon friendly projects in the developing world taking advantage of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The same principle applies for economies in transition through the Joint Implementation (JI) mechanism.
New opportunities for developing countries Representatives of low and middle income countries from Africa, Asia, North and South America and Central and Eastern Europe said that they were encouraged by the results.  |  | Kenya booth: Emily Ojoo-Massawa, the Coordinator of Climate Change Enabling Activities |
“The response was overwhelming. People kept coming to our booth to discuss projects in Kenya, right up until the closing. There was so much interest in doing carbon finance projects in Kenya that we even heard about interest in projects that hadn’t yet come to the attention of our designated national authority for CDM projects,” said Emily Ojoo-Massawa, the Coordinator of Climate Change Enabling Activities, of the National Environment Management Authority of Kenya. First Carbon Fund in a developing country Argentinaannounced at the EXPO the creation of the Argentinean Carbon Fund (ACF). The Secretary of Environment and Sustainable Development of Argentina, Atilio Savino said “this is the first Carbon Fund of a developing country. The fund will operate with both public and private capital," Savino said. "The initial target is $US25 million.” The new Carbon Fund will promote the introduction of new technologies, additional flow of investments, employment opportunities and environmentally sustainable economic growth. |  | Godfrey Ssemakula, Senior Investment Executive, Uganda Investment Authority |
Godfrey Ssemakula, Senior Investment Executive, UgandaInvestment Authority, said: “We came with 15 projects in forestry, mini-hydro, cogeneration, landfill, solar, and waste management. There was serious discussion and high interest in 13 of those projects. CARBON EXPO has been great exposure for us.” For his part, Eduardo Reyes, Sub-Administrator General, National Cimate Authority of Panama, emphasized: “We‘re close to a deal with a Canadian company on the management of sanitary waste from a number of municipalities. The deal would be worth about US$82 million, about 60,000 to 80,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalents a year. A lot of investors were interested in landfill projects in Panama. The EXPO turned out to be a great venue to attract buyers for projects. ” The goals of developing country representatives —making initial business contacts, gaining an overview of the market, swapping experiences, offering carbon assets and starting deals—were achieved according to other representatives.  | | Peruvian Booth at Carbon Expo |
Julia Justo Soto, Executive Director, National Environment Fund-Peru, FONAM, added: “Buyers here were looking for projects already approved by the National Authority. Peru sold 10 projects for a total of 600,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions of carbon dioxide equivalent. CARBON EXPO wasn‘t just a show - this was a real commercial forum.” A multitude of activities for traders of EU emission allowances The European Unions Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) received much attention from the more than 100 participating emissions traders. According to one feature of the scheme, European governments allocate greenhouse gas emission allowances to companies and industries. If a company does not emit its total allowance, it can trade the balance. “This was one of the more successful events with regards to the potential of meeting with sellers and buyers in a short amount of time. We managed to advance negotiations on several deals,” emphasized Jack Cogen, President of Natsource. The conference featured many of the markets most eminent practitioners in both the EU ETS and the Kyoto Mechanisms. Twelve workshop sessions and six plenaries provided an in depth analysis of the available trading schemes. The next CARBON EXPO will be held from May 10th to 12th, 2006 in Cologne, Germany. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Further press information is available at www.carbonexpo.com/pressinformation. You can obtain more CARBON EXPO information and photo material at www.carbonexpo.com. Additional information on the World Bank’s Carbon Finance Business is available online at http://www.carbonfinance.org, or at http://www.prototypecarbonfund.org. You will find further information on IETA at www.ieta.org. For a complete copy of the Carbon Market Report 2005 , visit www.carbonfinance.org |
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