Emily Rabin

It is very tempting to just answer "Yes" to this question, as it would seem to be a simple matter of fact. However, the reality is that the issue is rather complicated (and often political). For excellent coverage of climate science, I continue to recommend RealClimate.org. But to really answer the question being posed, you have to get into what I call the "sciensocioeconomic" aspects of the issue; looking at climate change in as simple a way as the question above suggests doesn't provide a lot of insight into today's Gordian policy knot. To do that, you have to add some additional questions.

1. Will increasing...

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The easiest way to answer this question is to break it into its three parts:

• Where's the GHG market headed generally?
• What’s the demand for forestry-based offsets?
• Will forestry offsets be competitive in the market?

Each of these questions poses challenging issues. Let’s take a look at each in turn.

First, there are multiple GHG markets, particularly when it comes to forestry. There are mandatory markets, such as Europe has initiated, and there are voluntary markets, which dominate in the U.S. Nobody really knows where either of these markets is headed. The biggest single variable is U.S. politics -- will the U.S. rejoin the international...

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When David Cameron stuck a micro wind turbine on the roof of his west London pad, he struck an overdue blow for the "show me" world.

Needless to say, his breezy little number has inevitably been dismissed as gesture politics. And as both gestures and generation technologies go, a pretty micro one at that.

But for anyone desperate to see change taking shape, rather than being stuck on the screen, it was a gesture worth making. Why? Because you can actually see the damn thing. Unlike a policy or a promise or a grant form, it's there doing something. (In this case, spinning around prettily, if not quite as effectually as ardent fans of micro-generation, myself included, would like...

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By most measures, Europe's carbon emissions trading scheme has had a successful start. In its first year -- 2005 -- the scheme transacted a total of 230 million metric tons of CO2, worth about €4 billion. And since January this year, volumes and prices, which reached about €27 a metric ton in March, have been rising steadily. A whole new industry -- of exchanges, brokers, research firms, consultants and publishers -- has been created, seduced by the promise of what is expected to be a multi-billion-euro industry.

Under the scheme, the European Union's 25 national governments agree CO2 emissions targets with the European Commission, before apportioning...

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On March 21, 2006, the investor coalition Ceres published its new Climate Change and Corporate Governance Report (PDF). The report looks at how 100 global companies in ten carbon-intensive industries are approaching climate change. It scores companies on a 100-point scale, with the scoring broken down as follows:

• Up to 12 points for establishing explicit Board oversight over climate strategies;
• Up to 18 points for management's clear articulation of the company's position on climate change and for having management incentives in place;
• Up to 14 points for clear disclosure of GHG emissions and risks;
• Up to 24 points...

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The reader posing this question was curious that the LEED building rating system (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a voluntary program for certifying green buildings) gives credit toward certification for a building purchasing RECs, but not carbon offsets. The reader asked whether RECs and offsets reflect two distinct markets, and if so, what is likely to happen as the markets mature?

One can make the case that RECs and offsets should be exchanged in different markets. RECs basically are simply megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity produced from a qualifying renewable energy technology of a qualifying vintage....

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Goldman Sachs became the first global investment bank to adopt a comprehensive environmental policy that acknowledges the value of "ecosystem services" this December. This firm is just one among many financial institutions pushing brave new forms of corporate social responsibility in response to global climate change. JP Morgan, for example, is already evaluating the impact of carbon risks on its loans to industries that are big polluters.

With this ground-breaking initiative, nonetheless, Goldman Sachs is explicitly acknowledging the fact that we cannot achieve climate stabilization without government regulations to complement individual corporate...

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The ongoing brouhaha over the misuse of science in the political process - especially around controversial issues such as stem cells, evolution, and climate change - results from a conflict between facts and values, and persists because of a fundamental misunderstanding of science. Science is a process, not an end point. For those looking for absolute truths, we are more likely to find them in faith, religious teachings, or political ideology.

What does this mean for the difficult issue of climate change? While the vast majority of scientists seek knowledge to expand understanding, the few climate change "skeptics" seek only evidence that supports their...

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