Category Events

Started the 26th of November and ending the 7th of December, COP18, the 18th conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is being held this year in DOHA, Qatar.

Back in 1992, countries joined an international treaty, the UNFCCC, to cooperatively consider what they could do to limit average global temperature increases and the resulting climate change, and to cope with whatever impacts were, by then, inevitable.

The Kyoto Protocol, defined during COP3 in Kyoto, and entered into force in 2005, legally binds developed countries to emission reduction targets. The Protocol’s first commitment period started in 2008 and ends in 2012.

At COP17 in Durban, governments of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol decided for a second commitment period, from 2013 onwards, which could last 5 or 8 years.

In the last years, emissions of developing economies have doubled, becoming higher than those of developed countries. The urgency of coming to a new global agreement has been repeated many times this year by IEA, World Bank, PWC and many others, waiting for the publication of the fifth IPCC’s report. In fact, if we want to limit global warming to +2°C, we need to act now.

DOHA’s delegates need to work very hard during these two weeks, in order to sort out the three folowing main items:

• Kyoto Protocol: define the continuation until 2020 and probably its phase out, shifting the carbon market into a new agreement
• Long-term Cooperation Agreements, LCA: probably end the work, keeping what is good (Green Climate Fund and Technology Executive Committee) shifting it into the new agreement
• Ad-hoc Working Group on Durban Platform for Enhanced Action, ADP: main discussion item, set-up a strong path and working program until 2015, conveying issues like GCF, TEC, global carbon market, adaptation fund, etc.

The future agreement, based on ADP, needs to overcome distinctions between developing and developed economies (Annex I and non Annex I), if we really want to have some hope to meet the 2°C target (many think that we already missed this target).

Two weeks of very important work for the +10.000 delegates.

Sources: unfccc.int “DOHA Climate Change Conference”, David Hone “Expectations for COP18 in DOHA”, Carlo Carraro “AAA cercasi nuova architettura politica per il clima”.

MR Energy Systems will be present at Ecomondo, Rimini, Wed 7-Fri 9 November 2012,inside the VEGA area (Science and Tech pole of Venezia), STAND A4, Hall B7 D7 “sustainable city”, close to gate ‘EST’.

The agenda of events where MR Energy will take part:

November 7 – Green Economy States General of the Green Economy (as GBC Italia delegate)

November 8 – Green Economy States General of the Green Economy (as GBC Italia delegate)

November 7 – h 17.00: “THE INNOVATION SOFA”,Mauro Roglieri, CEO MR Energy, “The Green R-Evolution”

Download the hall map with indication of Stand A4 to find us.

Visit the exibition web-site

For more info write to: info@mrenergy.it

MR Energy Systems, as a member of GBC Italia, is particularly glad to announce this event which will take place in Venice this coming Friday 22nd of June 2012. The important international event with the participation of international institutions as UNESCO and World GBC, and an exceptional speaker as Rick Fedrizzi, president of U.S. GBC and  chair of World GBC.

The event intends to present the ambitious development of a protocol for the sustainability of Historic Building, where Italy (GBC Italia) will play a leadership role in the international context. The protocol has the aim of merging two very important concepts: the LEED® sustainability criteria on one side, and the enormous Italian knowledge of restoration and conservation of historic heritage. An innovative standard, with the aim of facilitating the culture of sustainability in the built environment, and the conservation and protection of values and culture. A tool which will make the dialogue between operators and public authorities easier and more measurable.

The registration to the event is free of charge until the end of available places.

Click here to register to the event

A wonderful initiative of the Municipalities of the North-East who have decided to give space, with a big party, to the Green Economy! At 17.00 the conference on the GREEN future of Porto Marghera (@ Mestre, Via Poerio). From 17.00 to 22.00 (@ Ca ‘Badoer, IUAV, Venice) our friends of the Master in’  Sustainable Construction Processes with GBC Italia promoting sustainable buildings and exhibiting innovative projects and solutions, accompanied by the notes of the Jazz Quintet of the Unisono Jazz Club of Feltre (BL). Another beautiful combination of art and passion. A round of applause to all the organizers and protagonists of the Green Night!

For more information and the complete program of the event:

Per maggiori informazioni e il programma completo dell’evento:

• www.notteverdevenezia.eu
• www.notteverdenordest.it
• Evento Badoer Venezia
• www.unisonojazz.it

Si inaugura VEGAIncube: nasce a Marghera una nuova generazione di imprese, VEGA 2 maggio 2012.

VEGAinCUBE will be launched the 2nd of May 2012 @ 12 a.m. at VEGA PARK. VEGAin CUBe is a ‘incubator’ of start-up, among which MR Energy Systems s.r.l. hosted for the coming three years thanks to a public competition and a selection of the best 21 business plans.

For more information (IT):

• Comunicato stampa di Vega Park e programma dell’evento 
• Articolo Corriere dell’Innovazione del 24 Aprile 2012
• Articolo La Nuova di Venezia del 24 aprile 2012
• Pagina Facebook di VegaInCUBE

GBC Italia took part to the meeting organized by UNECE on the 4th of April 2012;  The delegation of GBC Italia was composed by Mauro Roglieri and Francesco Bedeschi, both members of the Executive Board of GBC Italia.

The participation to this prestigious meeting matches very well with GBC Italia’s mission of diffusing the knowledge of Green Building Rating Systems in the relevant National and International authorities, to support the promotion and diffusion of usage of protocols as a tool to drive building market transformation towards sustainability.

The objective of this seminar was to discuss cost-efficient and “green” solutions, which can make the housing sector more sustainable. These include improvements to energy efficiency, environmental performance (water and waste management), and resilience to climate change. Greening homes is a part of the green economy concept, which is in turn at the heart of renewed efforts to integrate environmental and social considerations within the mainstream of economic decision-making in the run-up to Rio+20 and beyond.

The seminar has being organized back to back with a meeting of the UNECE Working Group to discuss a possible framework convention on sustainable housing. More than 70 UNECE member state representatives attended the working group meeting. More than 30 participated to the seminar, which facilitated the identification of priorities for the preparation of the September 2013 Ministerial Conference on Housing and Land Management.

GBC Italia presented the ‘bottom-up’ role that Green Rating Systems such as GBC Home or LEED® can have as an accelerator of change.

Access to the UNECE event page: UNECE – Greening Homes

Download presentation: GBC Italia: how rating systems can drive the change

[Sources: UNECE, GBC Italia, MR Energy]

Last days for EU-ETS plants to surrender 2011 emissions to their national registries. Final deadline is April 30th 2012.

The Carbon market situation remains very uncertain, with EUA 08-12 Spot trading at around 7,19 €/t (EUA-08-12, Bluenext, 18/04/2012), as economic crisis has reduced significantly the emissions of EU plants (together with an increase of production of renewable energy). The attached graph shows verified emissions of the last four years: total EU-27 ETS emissions have decreased in 2011 by 12,5% compared to 2008 levels (14,4% for Italy), clearly showing an average reduction in the need to cover short positions, and therefore reducing the demand on the trading platforms.

The news introduced by EC from 2013, like the absence of free allocations for power production plants for instance, have not yet sorted the effects of maintaining a reasonable price level which can justify and really enforce investments in energy efficiency.

Is the pricing really reflecting already the new 2013 regime? Will the third period bring an improvement to the mechanism? Please send us your comments, or do contact us for more information.

EU ETS verified_emissions_2011_en

Tomorrow, 20th April 2012, at Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore (Venezia) an important event to know more about one of the consequences of greenhouse gas effect, with the participation of Sergio Castellari, National Focal Point of IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and Jaroslav Mysiak, distinguished and experienced researcher in water economics and governance, climate risk and adaptation. Start at h.4. p.m.

A great success for the presentation of GBC Home in Trento, with more than 200 people attending the conference and the presentation of the pilot cases, seven front-running projects which are adopting the new protocol as a ‘sustainability quality certification’.

The launch of GBC Home captured the attention of the important media Radio24 and the program ‘Smart City’, which dedicated an issue to GBC Home™ and LEED®, which can be played by clicking here (in Italian).

With the formal approval of the Steering Committee during its meeting of March 2nd 2012, MR Energy has become an official member of GBC Italia, in the category “Utilities, ESCOs, and energy companies”.

Becoming part of the National Association confirms a strategy which started already one year ago:

“The efforts are surely paid back by the great results we are obtaining, and that will be confirmed next week with the launch of the new certification scheme GBC Home, in Trento. We can really obtain even more important results for our Nation, contributing to the recovery of a sector which is now suffering very hardly the economic crisis. For this reason the President, the Executive Board and all GBC members are working hard to convince Public Administrations about the importance of using tools such as GBC Home to put in place sustainable development programs for the cities and the territories of their competence. This is, by the way, required by the existing and upcoming European Directives”.

The declaration of Mauro Roglieri, Administrator of MR Energy Systems, member of the Executive Board of GBC Italia, in charge for international affairs. He coordinates the activities of the Policy Task Force of GBC Italia and he is a member of the Policy Task Force of the European Network of WGBC (World Green Building Council).