Calls for central carbon bank revived after EUAs plummet

Calls to set up a “central carbon bank” to regulate the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) are being repeated in the wake of the recent rout on the world’s largest carbon market.

The idea of an independent panel that would have the power to withhold European Emissions Allowances (EUAs) when prices threaten to crash, and raise volumes when they overheat, was promoted by Gordon Brown in 2008 when he was UK prime minister. However, it was dismissed by the European Commission (EC).

THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: Paper shows climate models underestimate cooling effect from clouds by a factor of 4

A paper published in the technical newsletter of the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment finds that climate models suppress the negative feedback from low clouds, which serve to cool the Earth by reflection of incoming sunlight. The paper notes that cloud feedbacks in computer models are not only uncertain in magnitude, but even in sign (positive or negative). As climate scientist Dr. Roy Spencer has pointed out, a mere 1 to 2% natural variation in cloud cover can alone account for whether there is global warming or global cooling, despite any alleged effects of CO2.