Tufts Energy Conference Blog

The world’s most studied cap-and-trade system for carbon dioxide, the European Union’s Emissions Trading System, may be facing a collapse in the price of CO2 emissions, according to this article by Reuters.  Analysts at both UBS and Deutschebank have indicated a prediction that, starting next month additional permits will push prices lower on an already oversupplied market for CO2 permits, and have indicated that further price cuts may occur in connection with the specter of a full-blown double-dip recession in the EU, precipitated by debt crises in Italy and Spain.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/18/us-carbon-deutschebank-idUSTRE7AH19S20111118

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Has the EU ETS proven to be effective in reducing CO2 emissions? Do low carbon prices burden the economy without incentivizing a transition to cleaner forms of energy?  Should the EU alter/abandon its approach to regulating emissions?

Last week, Professor William Moomaw of the Fletcher School, a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), presented the IPCC’s newest report on renewable energy, for which he was a Convening Lead Author. Speaking to a packed Mugar 200, Prof. Moomaw addressed a spectrum of topics, including whether renewables can meet our energy needs, inadequacies in the current approach toward evaluating primary energy, and the distinction between “clean,” “renewable,” and “sustainable” energy production, among others. A full writeup of the event can be found here, on the Center for International Environmental and Resource Policy’s website.