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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Brought to you by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute
Climate Change May Lead to Security Concerns A report by the London-based Oxford Research Group says that climate change will have a long-term impact on Britain’s security as wars break out over food and water supplies around the world. According to the report, An Uncertain Future: Law Enforcement, National Security and Climate Change, it is “almost certain” that, by 2050, droughts, food shortages and flooding caused by climate change would lead to the mass movement of up to 200 million environmental refugees, with many of them heading for Britain. Chris Abbott, a fellow of Bristol University’s Center for Governance and International Affairs, said “If governments simply respond with traditional attempts to maintain the status quo and control insecurity they will ultimately fail. The security consequences of climate change will not just manifest themselves ‘over there’; there will be domestic security concerns for both developed and developing nations alike.” Click on the following links for more information:
American Geophysical Union Revises Position on Climate Change On January 24, the American Geophysical Union (AGU)--the world's largest scientific organization dedicated to Earth, atmospheric, and space sciences--released an updated position on climate change. The statement, Human Impacts on Climate, said "The Earth's climate is now clearly out of balance and is warming. Warming greater than 2°C above 19th century levels is projected to be disruptive, reducing global agricultural productivity, causing widespread loss of biodiversity, and—if sustained over centuries—melting much of the Greenland ice sheet with ensuing rise in sea level of several meters. If this 2°C warming is to be avoided, then our net annual emissions of CO2 must be reduced by more than 50 percent within this century." Click on the following links for more information:
UK: 'Action Needed' on Residential GHG Emissions On January 29, the European Energy Network (ENR), which includes energy advisory bodies across the EU, released a report urging European governments and the European Commission to hasten the development of housing that produces no greenhouse gases and to provide better enforcement of green building codes. The report says some countries are making considerable progress on improving energy efficiency, which many experts agree is the simplest way to reduce fossil fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. However, less than a quarter of EU states have introduced certification schemes for houses, as required under EU law. "One implication of our findings is that the European Commission needs to take some leadership and set a timetable for all new buildings around Europe to be zero-carbon," said Philip Sellwood, chief executive of Britain's Energy Saving Trust, an ENR member. Selwood said, In the UK, the average home has the potential to save £300 ($590) per year by just installing the most effective measures such as loft insulation and modern heating controls." Click on the following links for more information:
Higher Costs Cited as US Shuts Down Advanced Coal Project On January 30, the US Department of Energy (DOE) restructured its main program for demonstrating how to use coal without adding to global warming. The FutureGen project in Mattoon, Illinois was cancelled because the estimated cost has risen to about $1.8 billion from $1 billion, and officials feared it would increase. The project called for DOE to pay 74 percent, and the partners, including some from China, Germany, Britain and Australia, to pay the remaining 26 percent. About $50 million has been spent, with about $40 million of that being taxpayer money. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman said he now favors "a restructured approach to its FutureGen project that aims to demonstrate cutting-edge carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology at multiple commercial-scale Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) clean coal power plants." Bodman said, "Under this strategy, DOE will join industry in its efforts to build IGCC plants by providing funding for the addition of CCS technology to multiple plants that will be operational by 2015. Each of these plants will sequester at least one million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually and help meet our nation’s rapidly growing energy demand.” The announcement raised protest from the Illinois congressional delegation. Half the delegation sent a letter to President Bush saying, "We feel that the Secretary misled us and the people of Illinois, creating false hope in a FutureGen project which he had no intention of funding or supporting." Click on the following links for more information:
House Energy Committee Releases Second Climate Change White Paper The House Committee on Energy and Commerce and its Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality are issuing a series of Climate Change Legislation Design White Papers as the next step toward enactment of a mandatory, economy-wide climate change program. On January 31, the second white paper, Competitiveness Concerns/Engaging Developing Countries, was released for public comment. The white paper discusses potential legislative provisions that could limit US carbon emissions while encouraging developing countries to curb their emissions of greenhouse gases. A memorandum from the Committee and Subcommittee Chairs states their intention of producing a bill that will be presented to the President for signature before the Congress adjourns this year. Click on the following link for more information: California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown, Jr. is petitioning EPA to set emissions standards for equipment in the construction, mining and agricultural industries. The petition says the EPA has the authority and duty to adopt national emissions standards for non-road engines and vehicles. It asks the agency to adopt regulations to carry out emissions limits for such machines. The engines and vehicles cited in the petition emitted 220 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2007, California said -- about equivalent to the emissions from 40 million cars. There are nearly 18 million such machines in California. Connecticut, Oregon, New Jersey, Massachusetts and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection are joining California in the petition. Click on the following links for more information:
Effects of the Transport Sector on Global Warming A first ever study conducted by five researchers at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research (CICERO) illustrates the contribution that the transport sector has had on the climate. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), analyzed the effects of four subsectors of transportation—road, aviation, rail, and shipping—on global warming. Through the calculation of each subsector’s contribution to global warming, the radiative forcing (RF) showed road traffic to be the largest contributor to warming, with aviation coming in second. The study reports that since preindustrial times 15 percent of the RF caused by man-made CO2-emissions and 30 percent of the forcing caused by man-made ozone (O3) emissions has come from the transport sector. Additionally, it’s reported that road transport can be blamed for two-thirds of the CO2 emissions from the transport industry, and that the road sector emissions of today will account for three-fourths of the total transportation emissions over the next hundred years. The study also shows that until this point, shipping has had a net cooling effect on global climate. This is due to the fact that ships emit a high volume of SO2 and NOx, which create cooling effects. However, the study points out that after a few decades, the shipping industry will have a warming effect, because CO2 lasts longer in the atmosphere than both the other gases. Click on the following links for more information:
NASA Study Indicates an Increase in Antarctic Melting A recent US study led by Eric Rignot, from UC Irvine and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, demonstrates a 75 percent increase in Antarctic ice loss over the past 10 years, resulting in a loss rate that nearly matches the loss found in Greenland. The study, performed by Rignot’s team from Chile, England and the Netherlands, showed an increase in net loss of ice mass from 112 to 196 billion metric tons from 1996 to 2006—enough to raise sea levels from 0.3 millimeters in 1996 to 0.5 millimeters in 2006. Rignot’s study, performed with the use of satellites from Europe, Canada and Japan, found the acceleration of glaciers breaking off into the sea to be primarily occurring in West Antarctica’s Pine Island and the Antarctic Peninsula’s northern tip. The scientists said, “This is mostly a result of warmer ocean waters, which bathe the buttressing floating sections of glaciers, causing them to thin or collapse.” This study, to be published in the journal Nature Geoscience next month, notes that the negative impact of climate change on the ice sheets is occurring faster than previously projected. However, Rignot said, “large uncertainties remain in predicting Antarctica’s future contribution to sea level rise.” Click on the following links for more information:
Canada’s Ice Formations Shrink by 50 Percent Since 1950s A study performed by Gifford Miller and students at the University of Colorado at Boulder show that ice formations on the northern plateau of Baffin Island, an area in the Canadian Arctic measuring 196,000 square meters, have shrunk more than 50 percent in the past 50 years and are expected to disappear before 2050. They discovered the accelerating thinning is correlated to the warming climate. They reported a 7°F rise in temperatures on the ice sheets since 1991. The researchers used radiocarbon dating of dead plant material in the ice, carbon 14 in the Baffin Island rocks, and satellite data and aerial photos to conduct their experiment. They found that there had been a greater quantity of ice coverage on the island for several thousand years prior to the last century. Miller said, “Even with no additional warming, our study indicated these ice caps will be gone in 50 years or less.” Click on the following links for more information: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says the investment in clean energy sources to combat global warming could cost between $15-20 trillion over the next 20–25 years. In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that there would be an increase in the severity of sea-level rises, droughts, severe weather and other disastrous consequences, unless there are drastic reductions in industrial, transportation and agricultural gas emissions. They said by 2020 these emissions should be 25–40 percent lower than the values they were at in 1990. Ban’s 52-page report provides a summary of UN climate efforts. Details of the report will be debated when the General Assembly meets Feb. 11 and 12 to discuss climate change. Srgjan Kerim, president of the UN General Assembly and a Macedonian diplomat, said “cutting emissions is a very important dimension, but that’s not enough for this equation. Inventing new technologies, renewable energies, investing more in research and development, is also a very viable way and remedy for resolving the problem.” Furthermore, Ban warns, “the challenge of climate change is unlikely to be gender-neutral, as it increases the risk to the most vulnerable and less empowered social groups.” Click on the following link for more information: In a study published in the journal Science, the dramatic decrease of the snowpack in the western mountains is not due to natural variability in temperatures and precipitation or volcanic activity, but to human-induced climate change. The snowpack springtime melt provides the West and Southwest with irrigation and drinking water. The study shows that with a decline in the snowpack, the snow melts earlier and with dams unable to hold the excess water, there is an increase in the threats of floods. In a report from a group of researchers led by Tim P. Barnett, Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, the human-induced climate changes for 50 years have been altering the West’s river flows, the water temperatures and the snowpacks. Barnett said, “....things will be getting worse....We’re headed for a train wreck.” Click on the following links for more information: President George W. Bush, in his January 28 State of the Union speech, said the United States would commit $2 billion over a three year period towards fighting climate change and promoting clean energy technologies. In his address, he noted that the United States, in working with the other major economies and the United Nations, “has the potential to slow, stop and eventually reverse the growth of greenhouse gases.” However, many environmental groups doubt Bush’s voluntary efforts to change global warming. The National Wildlife Federation said, “in the fight against global warming, the science is clear: the path to avoid catastrophic climate change starts with mandatory limits on global warming pollution.” While Bush said he wants the United States to cut its dependence on oil through the creation of more electricity from clean coal, solar and wind energy and nuclear power, he does not plan to stop the usage and search of oil. The White House wants Congress to approve doubling the size of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which currently can hold 727 million barrels of emergency oil supplies, and to pass legislation that would allow more offshore US drilling and energy exploration in Alaska. Click on the following link for more information:
Japan Combats Climate Change with $10 Billion Fund Click on the following links 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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