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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Brought to you by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute
Governor of Washington to Launch Greenhouse Gas Bill On January 14, Washington Governor Christine Gregoire announced plans to introduce climate change initiatives in the state’s upcoming legislative session. The proposed legislation would include tracking greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from major emitters, as well as developing a cap-and-trade system for these emissions. Washington is currently negotiating with six other Western states and two Canadian provinces to create a regional system that caps these emissions at a common level and then allows businesses to buy and sell pollution credits to meet individual targets. The effort is called the Western Climate Initiative. “It's no longer just about goals,” Gov. Gregoire said. “It's about really making things happen.” The state passed a law last year pledging to reduce the state’s GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 (Executive Order 07-02). Several environmental groups and businesses such as BP, Alcoa, and Weyerhauser have endorsed the plan, but caution that more work still needs to be done to reach the goals set by the state’s legislature. Click on the following links for more information:
EPA and EIA Issue Analysis of Low Carbon Economy Act of 2007 On January 15, the Senate Energy and Commerce Committee announced two recently published analyses by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Energy Information Administration (EIA) for the Bingaman-Specter “Low Carbon Economy Act of 2007” (S.1766). Among the findings, the reports conclude that the Bingaman-Specter Act would reduce greenhouse gas emissions 24-26 percent from the “business-as-usual” model by 2030. Additionally, the impact on economic growth and prices would be modest, with cumulative GDP losses by 2030 ranging between 0.02-0.07 percent. “While we are still reviewing the reports’ details, the conclusions show that the tough choices we made in the legislation are effective in both reducing greenhouse gases and protecting the U.S. economy,” Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) said. “Both studies conclude that our climate change legislation would dramatically transform technologies to spur carbon capture and sequestration, greatly lowering emissions from coal-fired power plants,” Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) said. “I hope these analyses inform the debate on global warming in a positive manner and I look forward to working closely with Sens. Boxer, Lieberman, Warner and others to resolve differences between the major bills and pass climate legislation this year.” Click on the following links for more information:
Antarctic Ice Sheet Shrinking Rapidly A study published online January 13 in Nature Geoscience has found that the Antarctic ice sheet is melting faster than previously thought. The result could be faster sea level rise than predicted, scientists say. “Without doubt, Antarctica as a whole is now losing ice yearly, and each year it's losing more,” said Eric Rignot, the lead author and senior scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Despite temperatures remaining relatively stable through most of the continent, scientists believe that warming ocean temperatures may have changed the flow of water in the polar region. “Something must be changing the ocean to trigger such changes,” Dr. Rignot said. “We believe it is related to global climate forcing.” The new study is based on data from European, Japanese, and Canadian satellite images over the past decade. The findings from this study come days after the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Rajendra Pachauri, said future reports from the IPCC should look at the “frightening” possibility that ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica could both begin melting rapidly. “Both Greenland and the West Antarctic ice sheet are huge bodies of ice and snow, which are sitting on land,” said Dr. Pachauri. “If, through a process of melting, they collapse and are submerged in the sea, then we really are talking about sea-level rises of several meters.” Click on the following links for more information:
2007 Among Warmest Years on Record Reports from two teams of scientists indicate that 2007 was one of the warmest years on record, continuing the trend of a warming planet. NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies concluded 2007 was the second-warmest year behind 2005, while the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported last year as the fifth-warmest year on record. NOAA’s team also concluded that seven of the eight warmest years on record have taken place since 2001. According to the NASA analysis, the global average land-ocean temperature last year was 58.2°F, slightly more than 1°F above the average temperature between 1951 and 1980, which scientists use as a baseline. “We've got a sustained warming of the planet, which is unequivocal, and the best we can work out is that it's because we've been increasing the greenhouse gas emissions, primarily,” said Gavin Schmidt, a climate scientist at Goddard. “That means it's going to continue. The long-term trends are up, and they're up in the same way our models have been predicting for the last 20 years.” The team at NASA compiled their data from readings at weather stations from all over the world and included all of the readings from 2007. NOAA used the same readings, but did not include December data in their preliminary report and analyzed the readings slightly differently to account for phenomena such as the urban heat island effect. Click on the following links for more information:
Banks Begin to Address Global Warming On January 10, Ceres—a national network of investors, environmental organizations and other public interest groups—released a report looking at the world’s 40 largest banks and their efforts to deal with climate change. The Ceres study gave each bank a rating out of 100. Those with the highest ratings had established greenhouse gas reduction targets within their company, increased lending and financing for clean energy projects and supported climate-related equity research. HBSC Holdings received the highest score overall of 70, followed by ABN AMRO Holding with 56. Among US banks, Citigroup received the highest score, while the bank to receive the lowest score was Bear Stearns Co., which received a score of 0 out of 100. “If you're not addressing the issue, you'll have more risks and you may not be taking advantage of opportunities,” said Pam Flaherty, director of corporate citizenship for Citigroup. “They've gotten more involved because the debate has changed," Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, said of the banking industry. “This is a capital market issue and a government issue.” The report, titled “Corporate Governance and Climate Change: The Banking Sector,” recommended that climate change become a governance priority for boards and CEOs, and that there be better disclosure about the financial and material risks the institutions face. Click on the following links for more information: On January 10, the Swiss bank UBS announced that it will launch a new derivatives index designed to track the greenhouse effect on January 23. The UBS Greenhouse Index (UBS-GHI) will allow investors to bet on the combined impact of rising global temperatures and carbon emissions, rising as both the price of carbon emissions credits and global temperatures rise. The new index is based half on a global warming index, which uses weather derivative contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and half on exposure to emissions futures from the EU Climate Exchange and the Kyoto Clean Development Mechanism. “UBS's clients have shown an increasing interest in environmental investments which are innovative and alternative, yet simple to access,” said Andy Felce, managing director and co-head of structured products at UBS. Click on the following links for more information: On January 13, a report was released identifying the World Bank as one of the key financial backers for the cattle industry in the Amazon basin, a central threat to the rainforest’s survival. Brazil has become the world’s leading cattle exporter, and land throughout the Amazon rainforest has been cleared to construct new slaughterhouses to keep up with the demand. The World Bank has provided millions of dollars to help fund the expansion of this industry. However, a recent pledge was made by the World Bank to fund efforts to decrease deforestation, the second-leading cause of global carbon emissions, through its Forest Carbon Partnership Facility. Nine industrialized countries have already pledged $155 million to kick-start the 10-year initiative. “On the one hand you try and save the forest, on the other you give incentives for its conversion,” said Roberto Smeraldi, head of Friends of the Earth Brazil and lead author for the report, “The Cattle Realm.” The report estimates that the expanding cattle industry in Brazil was responsible for over 12 billion tons of CO2 in the past decade, which is equivalent to two years of carbon emissions from the United States. Click on the following link for more information: The December 14 issue of Science published a letter linking the subsidies given to the US corn industry to an increase in Amazon deforestation. The United States leads the world in soy production, but the author asserts that an increased interest in corn ethanol has led many soy farmers to switch to growing corn in order to receive government subsidies. While this has caused a 19 percent rise in corn production in the United States since 2006, soy production has declined by 15 percent in the same time period. William Laurance, a staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, commented in his letter that this shift in US farming has raised the worldwide prices for soy, driving an increase in soy farming in other parts of the world such as the forests of the Amazon. “Amazon fires and forest destruction have spiked over the last several months, especially in the main soy-producing states in Brazil,” said Laurance. “Just about everyone there attributes this to rising soy and beef prices.” Forest land is being converted or cleared—often by fire—to be used for soy farming, Laurance said, leading to an increase in Amazon deforestation. Click on the following link for more information: A team of USDA researchers published a study in the January 15 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences demonstrating the benefits of switchgrass-based ethanol in both carbon emissions and energy production. The study found that the production and consumption of switchgrass-based ethanol cut CO2 emissions 94 percent compared to an equivalent volume of gasoline. Additionally, the biofuel produced 540 percent more energy than was required to manufacture it. The five-year study involved ten farms that ranged in size from 3 to 9 hectares and was the largest study of its kind. “We had on-farm trials, so we had all the data from the farmers on all the inputs needed to produce the crops,” said co-author Ken Vogel of the USDA Agriculture Research Service. “We were able to take this information and put it into this model and [were] able to come up with a very real-world estimate.” Click on the following link for more information:
Japan Pledges to Help Developing Countries Combat Global Warming The Japanese government has announced plans to pledge aid to help developing countries address climate change. The official announcement is expected to come in late January from Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda either in Parliament or at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. A total of $10 billion will be given to developing countries in the form of grants or low-interest loans to focus on reducing carbon emissions, increase the use of solar power, and mitigate the effects of climate change. The money would also be used to help these countries gather meteorological data to help prevent natural disasters. China is among the countries to receive the aid, with money dedicated to help boost the efficiency of the nation’s aging coal-fired power plants. Click on the following link for more information: A team of researchers from Nagoya University in Japan conducted a field study from October to December 2007 to examine the melting of glaciers in the Himalayan Mountains. The aerial photographs that were taken show that over the past 30 years, the more than 3,000 glaciers that exist in the region have become thinner while the lakes that hold the melted glacier water have expanded rapidly. This has created potential sites for lake bursts—areas where fragile banks could give way and create rapid flooding. Yutaka Ageta, professor emeritus of glaciology at Nagoya University, said, "Compared to about 30 years ago, the entire surface size of the glacier has decreased by about 30 percent. The amount of ice lost during the period is huge." According to Koji Fujita, associate professor of glaciology at Nagoya University and leader of the current field study, many of the Himalayan glaciers are receding due to a combination of factors: higher temperatures, rainfall instead of snow, and a decrease in overall precipitation. While glaciers in other regions of the world grow from winter snowfall, the glaciers in the Himalayas rely on snow during the summer monsoon season to rebuild. This snow could turn to rain if temperatures continue rising, which increases the rate of glacial melting. “The glaciers in the Himalayas are a sensitive sensor to measure global warming,” Fujita said. Click on the following link for more information: On January 14, the Home Builders Association of Northern California announced that it plans to cut in half the amount of energy consumed in the houses it builds by 2020. The plan was announced by builders group President, Joseph Perkins, at the Advancing the New Energy Economy green jobs summit in San Francisco. “We wanted to be a part of this emerging green economy. We didn't want to wait,” Perkins said. “We want to give the residents of this region what they want, and they want green homes.” The association also announced plans to reduce CO2 emissions associated with home use to 30 percent below 1990 levels in the same time period. Perkins said the measures taken to achieve these goals will likely include using more efficient home appliances and materials, and potentially solar panels. Click on the following links for more information: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that sales for Energy Star® compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) have nearly doubled in 2007 compared to 2006. Sales of CFLs reached approximately 290 million bulbs last year, and now account for 20 percent of the light bulb market in the United States. “More and more Americans are seeing the light—that protecting the environment, while saving money, is as easy as changing a bulb,” said EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson. “Together, we are brightening our country's future, one Energy Star® CFL at a time.” Energy Star® qualified CFLs use 75 percent less energy than incandescent light bulbs and last up to about ten times longer. Over its lifetime, a CFL can save about $30 or more in energy costs. The program that certifies qualified CFLs as Energy Star® bulbs is a joint program of the EPA and the Department of Energy (DOE) designed to save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices. Click on the following link for more information:
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Fredric Beck This EESI publication is a free, weekly electronic newsletter intended to inform interested parties, particularly the policymaker community, of the latest climate change-related news. Permission for reproduction of this newsletter is granted provided that EESI is properly acknowledged as the source. The Environmental and Energy Study Institute is a non-profit organization established in 1984 by a bipartisan, bicameral group of members of Congress to provide timely information on energy and environmental policy issues to policymakers and stakeholders and develop innovative policy solutions that set us on a cleaner, more secure and sustainable energy path. |
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