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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Brought to you by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute
Senators Lieberman and Warner Release Bipartisan Climate Proposal On August 2, Senators Joseph Lieberman (ID-CT) and John Warner (R-VA) released an outline for a comprehensive climate change bill to be introduced in the fall. The proposed legislation includes a Federal Reserve-style board to help contain carbon costs, a 70 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions from current levels by 2050, and the creation of a federal Climate Change Credit Corporation that would auction a large share of emission allowances and use the proceeds to promote new technologies. "The ball is really rolling now," Lieberman said. "We have the bipartisan momentum to ensure that, this fall, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will report a strong, mandatory climate bill to the full Senate for the first time in US history." "In my 28 years in the Senate, I have focused above all on issues of national security, and I see the problem of global climate change as fitting squarely within that focus," Warner said. "In working with Senator Lieberman, my goal has been jointly to produce a draft outline by this week that has enough detail to provide interested parties with an idea of the direction in which we are headed. This bipartisan proposal meets that goal, and we look forward to input from our colleagues and interested parties." Click on the following links for more information:
Senators Boxer and Isakson Lead Bipartisan Fact-Finding Trip to Greenland Glaciers Senator Boxer said, ''It’s one thing to hear about the Greenland ice sheet; it’s another thing to see it. It’s one thing to read about the impacts of global warming on the native people there; it’s another thing to have them look you in the eye and tell you. After this trip, with nine of my colleagues, and scientists, and experts, I know I have a responsibility to move now to lessen the impacts of severe global warming. We can do it in a way that actually makes us stronger as a nation and that is my goal.'' Senator Sanders said, ''The United States Congress must not wait another day to provide the international leadership global warming demands, leadership that the Bush administration has miserably failed to demonstrate. While there will be challenges in changing our behavior to reverse global warming, I strongly believe that the new opportunities for green jobs and a green economy are unlimited if we stand up and take bold action.'' Click on the following links for more information:http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Majority.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=1861b4dd-802a-23ad-4c08-c3cbaa4a7b32&Designation=Majority In an August 2 op-ed in the Washington Post, Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, asked "How do we raise the cost of emitting carbon, promoting conservation and efficiencies, and make alternatives more economically viable, thus addressing the problem of climate change?" Dingell said, "some form of carbon emissions fee or tax (including a gasoline tax) would be the most effective way to curb carbon emissions and make alternatives economically viable. I said, as I have on many occasions, that we would have to go to some kind of cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions." Dingell concluded by saying, "This Congress may be able to enact a cap-and-trade system, and other policies to address climate change, only without a carbon fee. Ultimately, though, we're going to have to be more ambitious." Click on the following link for more information: Scientists and analysts say that recent changes in weather patterns have precipitated a change in the Brazilian government's approach to climate policy. Brazil, the fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has only recently started to consider market-based mechanisms for controlling the carbon emissions associated with deforestation. ''I think things have advanced, certainly, compared to three years ago, when the government simply refused to discuss deforestation in international forums,” said Márcio Santilli, a former government official who helped start the Socio-Environmental Institute, an environmental group in Brasília. ''There has been a change of posture which reflects the worries of the Brazilian public opinion on this issue, which in turn puts pressure on politicians.'' Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has opposed a strong climate policy in the past. ''Everyone knows that the rich countries are responsible for 60 percent of the gas emissions, and therefore need to assume their responsibilities,'' da Silva said during a meeting of the Group of Eight (G8) in June. ''We don’t accept the idea that the emerging nations are the ones who have to make sacrifices, because poverty itself is already a sacrifice.'' Observers say that the potential for climate change to interfere with rainfall is responsible for his change in attitude. ''Once they really register that the Amazon rain machine is very important to the south of Brazil, they are going to be much more interested in avoiding deforestation,'' said Thomas Lovejoy, president of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment. ''You don’t have to be interested in biodiversity to want rain to keep that amazing agricultural system going.'' Click on the following link for more information:
Climate Change Linked to Increase in Hurricanes A study published July 29 in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London blames global warming for an increase in tropical storms. "We're seeing a quite substantial increase in hurricanes over the last century, very closely related to increases in sea-surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic Ocean," said study author Greg Holland of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Colorado. Holland worked with hurricane researcher Peter Webster of the Georgia Institute of Technology to evaluate records from 1855 to 2005. The scientists found that average hurricane numbers jumped sharply during the 20th century, from 3.5 per year in the first 30 years to 8.4 in the earliest years of the 21st century. "Approximately 60 percent, and possibly even 70 percent of what we are seeing in the last decade can be attributed directly to greenhouse warming," Holland said. Not all scientists agree with the researcher's conclusions. Some claim that improvements in tracking technology, not global warming, are responsible for the observed increase. Chris Landsea, science and operations officer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Hurricane Center, said the work is "sloppy science that neglects the fact that better monitoring by satellites allows us to observe storms and hurricanes that were simply missed earlier. The doubling in the number of storms and hurricanes in 100 years that they found in their paper is just an artifact of technology, not climate change." Click on the following links for more information:
Siberian Forests Threatened by Climate Change An international team of scientists has found that Siberian fires are influenced by climate change. The scientists used 18 years of satellite images to estimate the timing of the onset and end of the growing season. ''Last century a typical forest in Siberia had about 100 years after a fire to recover before it burned again,'' said Professor Heiko Balzter of the Department of Geography at the University of Leicester. ''But new observations by Russian scientist Dr. Kharuk have shown that fire now returns more frequently, about every 65 years. At the same time annual temperatures in Siberia have risen by almost 2°C, about twice as fast as the global average. And since 1990 the warming of Siberia has become even faster than before.'' Click on the following link for more information: On July 31, top United Nation (UN) officials joined climate experts and business leaders at the UN headquarters in New York for an informal debate on global warming. The discussion aimed "to consider how to translate the growing scientific consensus on climate change into a broad political consensus for action," a UN statement said. ''We cannot continue with business as usual," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. "I believe this is just the kind of global challenge that the UN is best suited to address.... I am gratified by the universal recognition that the UN climate process is the appropriate forum for negotiating future global action." Ban stressed the need for a global agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, urging all countries to reach an agreement by 2009 on a successor to the Kyoto protocol. Changing precipitation patterns in China are causing severe weather conditions, and experts blame global warming. According to Reuters, the extreme weather has led to more than 700 deaths from flooding and left more than seven million with little access to water. "It should be said that one of the reasons for the weather extremes this year has been unusual atmospheric circulation brought about by global warming," said Song Lianchun, head of the China Meteorological Administration's Department of Forecasting Services and Disaster Mitigation. "These kind of extremes will become more frequent, and more obvious. This has already been borne out by the facts.... I think the impact on our country will definitely be very large." China has taken some steps to limit carbon emissions, but has resisted mandatory caps, insisting that developed countries lead the way. "Global climate change is mostly a result of the long history of emissions and the current high per capita emissions of developed countries," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said. "Therefore, developed countries should continue to lead efforts to lower emissions after 2012, transfer technology to developing countries and promote sustainable development in developing countries. Developing countries' historical greenhouse gas emissions have been low, and they are emissions for survival and development.'' Click on the following links for more information: Ten Northeastern states and California are looking to Europe's experience in carbon trading as they set up their own systems. The European Emissions Trading System, or ETS, has encountered significant obstacles since its January 2005 inception. Most of these difficulties were due to insufficient emissions data. On June 1, the Market Advisory Committee (MAC), a group of 15 scientists, policymakers and emissions traders from Europe and the United States said that "the bedrock foundation of a successful trading program is a rigorous system for collecting accurate data." Peter Zapfel, policy coordinator for Emissions Trading at the European Commission and a member of the MAC, said the "biggest lesson we learned since we launched the EU ETS is that you need the caps to be based on very solid data. We didn't have verified emissions data when we started." US officials are trying to learn from these mistakes. In March, a US Senate committee met with EU officials as well as representatives from Electricité de France SA and Royal Dutch Shell PLC's Shell Oil. In 2006, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an agreement with former British prime minister Tony Blair to share information on emissions trading. Bob Malone, chairman and president of BP PLC's BP America, said ''We believe a credible reporting system of greenhouse-gas emissions is the first step in developing government policy and corporate programs that will change behaviors, spark innovation and deliver reductions of greenhouse-gas emissions." US recording of emissions data is already more advanced than it was in the EU in 2005. In May, 31 US states launched the Climate Registry to create "an accurate, complete, consistent, transparent and verified set of data supported by a robust accounting-and-verification infrastructure." Click on the following links for more information: Top United Nations officials joined leading experts today in urging decisive action on a global scale to combat the challenges posed by climate change. Addressing an informal General Assembly debate on the impact of climate change, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, "All countries must do what they can to reach agreement by 2009, and to have it in force by the expiry of the current Kyoto protocol commitment period in 2012. We need a comprehensive agreement under the UNFCCC process that tackles climate change on all fronts, including adaptation, mitigation, clean technologies, deforestation and resource mobilization." The Secretary-General is convening a high-level meeting on climate change when the new Assembly session starts in September. Click on the following links for more information: On August 3, the finance ministers of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum meeting in Australia said the international community has to do more to address global warming. Australian Finance Minister Peter Costello said, "The economy of the Asia-Pacific region will not grow unless it can be assured of energy, and the demands of energy are going to be enormous. The demands on energy will put at risk environmental outcomes if they are not properly managed, and for the first time at an APEC meeting, we put these issues on the agenda and we linked them." China's Finance Minister Jin Renqing said, "We are willing to shoulder the shared but differentiated responsibilities." In a communiqué APEC ministers said, "We considered the global architecture for addressing climate change and shared the view that it is important to establish an effective framework beyond the Kyoto Protocol." More than 250 delegates from 21 APEC member economies attended this week's five-day forum. Click on the following links for more information: On August 3, President Bush issued invitations to 11 other countries, including the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN), to attend the September 27-28 meeting in Washington intended to work towards setting a long-term goal by 2008 to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Mr. Bush had proposed the conference, which will be hosted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in late May before a summit of the Group of Eight industrial nations in Germany. According to ABC News, in a letter to invitees, Mr. Bush has assured them that "the United States is committed to collaborating with other major economies" to agree on a global framework for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Click on the following link for more information: A study published in the August 2 issue of Nature finds that brown hazy clouds of particulate pollution from wood burning and fossil fuels moving over the Indian Ocean appear to cause as much warming as greenhouse gases released by human activity. The study reports that the particulate pollution increased the solar heating of the lower atmosphere in the region by about 50 percent, and speculates that this warming could be enough to explain the retreat of glaciers in the Himalayas. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), in its latest Snow and Ice Outlook report, said the ice sheets in the region could retreat by up to 81 percent by the end of the century. Click on the following links for more information: On August 1, Credit Suisse announced a new Global Warming index fund. The index fund offers investors the opportunity to invest in renewable energy and carbon controlling stocks. The fund focuses on investment opportunities created by environmental sustainability issues, particularly in companies involved in demand management (e.g., more efficient energy consumption), emissions limitation, renewable electricity and renewable fuels. Andrew Garthwaite, Managing Director and Chief Global Equity Strategist at Credit Suisse, said, "Nearly everyone we speak to believes that global warming is a critical issue that governments are only now beginning to address. The debate is how best to position portfolios for this new issue. One solution is a basket of stocks that plays across the different themes related to reducing carbon emissions." Click on the following links for more information: The UK Department of Transport has launched a website designed to let new car buyers choose the most environmentally-friendly vehicle for their needs. The website lists the top ten new cars which have the lowest CO2 emissions in their class, and allows specification of fuel and gearbox types. Transport Minister Jim Fitzpatrick said, "By choosing the car with the most fuel efficient engine in its class, drivers could reduce their engine CO2 emissions by 24 percent and potentially save a quarter on fuel costs." 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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