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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Brought to you by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute US, European Courts Hearing Climate Cases Courts in the United States and Europe are considering judgments against emitters of greenhouse gases. If a precedent of large judgments is established, businesses may be forced to make significant changes to reduce emissions. William Holmes, a partner with the law firm Stoel Rives in Portland, OR, said damages ''...could reach the same level as in the tobacco and asbestos cases, and if anything they could be even higher.'' There are roughly a dozen cases pending in the United States involving demands for tighter regulation and claims for damages. In one case, property owners in Mississippi are seeking damages against oil and coal companies. The companies are accused of playing a role in Hurricane Katrina. "We can prove how much carbon these companies have pumped into the air with great precision," said Gerald Maples, a lead lawyer in the case. David Hayes, global chair of the environment, land and resources department at the law firm Latham & Watkins in Washington, cautions that proving such cases will not be easy. "It is very difficult to parse out individual defendants' contributions to climate change when carbon dioxide is pumped out around the globe," Hayes said. Click on the following link for more information: US Seeks China's Cooperation on Climate On August 14, White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Chairman James Connaughton said that the United States wants to cooperate with China to address climate change. Connaughton acknowledged China's commitment to the issue and expressed hope for future collaboration. "The Chinese government is taking a series of very aggressive measures in recognition of challenges of reducing air pollution," Connaughton said. ''It is an exciting time in the relations between China and the United States in the areas of environmental quality and economic prosperity. America stands ready to assist on technology, innovation, financing, standards, and practices, so together we can grow our economies... in a more sustainable way." President Bush has invited representatives from the United Nations, European Union member countries, China, and ten other nations to a conference September 27 and 28 to set long-term goals on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. "We hope China would send a strong team for the meeting," Connaughton said. The Chinese government has set targets to reduce energy intensity by 20 percent from 2005 levels by 2010 and increase forest coverage rate from 18.2 percent to 20 percent as part of its most recent Five-Year Program for Economic and Social Development. Click on the following links for more information: Arctic Sea Ice Melting Faster Researchers at the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) have found that the extent of Arctic sea ice on August 8 was almost 30 percent below the long term average. Scientists believe that this summer will see the lowest ice cover ever recorded. "If you look at data for the first week in August, we are way below what we saw in 2005," said Mark Serreze, a senior research scientist at the NSIDC. ''So unless something really changes, for example the Arctic suddenly becomes a lot colder, it is going to be hard not to beat the previous record." Serreze believes that human induced climate change is likely to blame. "We know that natural climate variability can strongly influence the sea ice, but I think we are starting to see a positive feedback now. In other words, we cannot explain everything that we have seen just through natural processes.'' Click on the following links for more information:
Arctic Climate Influenced by Soot Researchers studying ice cores representing the period 1788 to 2002 have found evidence that soot released by industrial activities has contributed to Arctic climate change. Soot influences climate on a local level because dark ground absorbs more solar energy than white snow. "In addition to black carbon, we measured a broad range of other chemicals at very high depth resolution in this same ice core," said Joe McConnell, a scientist at the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Reno, NV who contributed to the work. "When we compare changes in the black carbon to changes in these other indicators, it is clear that most of the increases in black carbon in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly in winter and spring, resulted from industrial emissions - probably from coal burning." DRI researchers found that from 1906 to 1910 when the concentration of soot was highest, the resulting Arctic warming was eight times that during the pre-industrial period. Click on the following links for more information:
UK Calls EU Climate Goals ''Ambitious'' According to the Guardian, ''Government officials have secretly briefed ministers that Britain has no hope of getting remotely near the new European Union renewable energy target that Tony Blair signed up to in the spring - and have suggested that they find ways of wriggling out of it.'' In response to the report, a spokesman for UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown called EU climate targets ''ambitious'' but affirmed that the UK is committed to renewable energy. "It will be a major challenge not just for the UK but for the EU," the spokesman said. "It is now for the EU Commission to propose how EU-wide targets should be met by member states." The EU targets include a 20 to 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared with 1990 levels, a 20 percent increase in energy efficiency, and a requirement that 20 percent of all electricity consumed come from renewable sources. News of the secret briefing has led some to question the UK government's commitment to these goals. Friends of the Earth campaign director Mike Childs said "It's very clear that what they're trying to say is 'we want to introduce maximum flexibility within the targets' ... what they are trying to do is weaken it as far as possible.'' Click on the following links for more information:
In an press conference on August 14, Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Jon Tester (D-MT) said that global warming may be responsible for Montana's increasingly severe wildfire seasons. ''I think it's behind the last 10 fire seasons,'' Tester said. ''We've had much less moisture and much hotter summers.'' Baucus proposed initiatives that would create an $800 million federal trust fund for firefighting costs and a tax credit for people who live near the woods. Baucus said that the credit would encourage homeowners to take responsibility for protecting their homes. Click on the following link for more information: Colorado Considering Climate and Emissions Measures Colorado Governor Bill Ritter is considering a range of approaches to limit Colorado's CO2 emissions and reduce the state's contribution to global warming. Possibilities include raising the renewable portfolio standard above the current goal of 20 percent by 2020, tightening the requirements for automobile fuel economy, and only allowing plants with no or low CO2 emissions to provide power from outside the state. The automobile emissions standards would be modeled after rules recently approved in California. "California has been a trendsetter, whether good or bad,'' said Jim Martin, Executive Director for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. ''They have an ambitious goal and they are working hard to achieve the goal...'' Martin did not discuss the specific recommendations that would be considered. ''Everything is on the table," Martin said. "We're looking at the full range of renewable energy's potential.... Looking at the positive economic benefit for the state, looking at the potential of raising the Renewable Portfolio Standard beyond 20 percent by 2020 and asking does it make sense." Click on the following links for more information:
Dr. Tim Lenton, a professor of earth systems analysis at the Unversity of East Anglia, UK, believes that Greenland's ice sheet will melt much faster than the most recent IPCC report suggests. Speaking at a meeting in Cambridge organized by the British Antarctic Survey, Dr. Lenton said, "We are close to being committed to a collapse of the Greenland ice sheet. But we don't think we have passed the tipping point yet." Complete melting of the ice sheet could cause global sea levels to rise by 22 feet, submerging most of the world's coastal regions. "We know that ice sheets in the last ice age collapsed faster than any current models can capture, so our models are known to be too sluggish," Dr. Lenton said. His study showed that the melting could occur within 300 years. Click on the following links for more information:
According to a recent study, a large scale ocean circulation pattern that influences the world's climate may not have been slowing down over the last few decades as many scientists previously believed. The results of the study, published in the August 17 issue of Science, are based on data taken during a single year of measurements. The scientists found enough variation in the pattern to suggest that previous studies had insufficient data to establish a long term trend. "We can't strictly say they are wrong, but we can have an alternative explanation," said coauthor Torsten O. Kanzow, an oceanographer at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, England. "You could convince yourself that this indicated a trend," said William E. Johns, an oceanographer at the University of Miami and a coauthor of the study. "But it could also be a lot of wiggles that happened on shorter time scales." The researchers' data came from a dozen moorings installed across the Atlantic Ocean between Florida and Africa, which measured temperature and salinity at various depths. During the year starting in March 2004, the flow of water varied from 4.4 to 35.3 megatons per second, which spans the range used in previous studies to identify a downward trend. "This really hammers home the importance of making continuous observations," Johns said. Click on the following link for more information: Wind Farms Threatened by Climate Change Energy company AGL has announced that they are abandoning plans for a 48-turbine wind farm in the South Gippsland community of Dollar. "Even considering the current and any future emissions trading environment, the economics of the project are less compelling as compared with other projects under investment consideration by AGL," the company said in a statement. Dominique La Fontaine, Chief Executive of Auswind, the Australian Wind Energy Association, thinks that Australia's narrow approach to carbon trading limits the economic viability of wind energy projects. "There's research and development assistance that has to be implemented," La Fontaine said. "There has to be deployment measures like increasing mandatory renewable energy targets or putting in place a clean energy target and then there has to be energy efficiency measures, they're very important as well." Australian MP Russell Broadbent responded favorably to the announcement that the wind farm would be dropped. "We should not ever put wind farms in places where communities have had a say about not wanting them in that pristine location in Victoria," he said. "Renewable energy's fine, but it has to be put in places that do not damage the area forever." Click on the following links for more information:
Cotton farmers in Africa are saying that the rainy season is getting shorter, preventing them from growing a full crop. Millions of African peasant farmers make a living growing cotton, and there is increasing consensus among experts that the effects of climate change are already impacting the region. "We will have to adapt to these climatic conditions if they stay like this with time," Messan Ewovor, director general of Togo's cotton company Sotoco, said. An April report to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that "In the Sahelian region of Africa, warmer and drier conditions have led to a reduced length of growing season with detrimental effects on crops. The area suitable for agriculture, the length of growing seasons and yield potential, particularly along the margins of semi-arid and arid areas, are expected to decrease." To address the problem, farmers are considering adopting seeds that can tolerate a shorter growing season, or producing more organic cotton. "We have been thinking about organic cotton for some time, but the technology is expensive and requires training for researchers and farmers," Ewovor said. Click on the following link for more information: UK Climate Bill Almost Complete Environmental groups in the United Kingdom said on August 15 that within three months the UK government is likely to propose legislation to cut carbon emissions by at least 60 percent. The Climate Change Bill would go to parliament in November and could become law by May. "We expect it after the Queen's Speech in November and to go into committee in December," said Mike Childs, a campaign director for Friends of the Earth. "Because it has already been through pre-legislative scrutiny it could go quite quickly through the parliamentary process and even become law in the spring." A draft of the bill says CO2 emissions must be cut by at least 60 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, with five-year rolling carbon budgets during that time period and an independent committee to monitor progress. The Climate Change Act would make Britain the first major country to set binding legal limits on its greenhouse gas output. Click on the following link for more information: Greenhouse Gases to Limit Korea's Economic Growth A report released August 15 by the Hyundai Research Institute, a private economic think tank in South Korea, said that greenhouse gases could limit South Korea’s sustainable economic growth if the country does not secure the right to emit more carbon dioxide. The report, titled Emission Trading Market: Present & Future, warned that South Korea might have to spend tens of billions of dollars in 2020 to address the problem if no action is taken. ''If converted into the amount of carbon dioxide, the total greenhouse gas emission had increased 192 percent from 226.2 million tons in 1990 to 435.8 million tons in 2001,'' the report said. ''In 2020, it is expected to reach 716.9 million tons.'' If South Korea is designated as a country that should reduce emissions to 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, the report said it would take up to $27.71 billion, 3.0 percent of last year’s GDP, to accomplish the needed reduction. ''While the country does not have an emissions trading market that could facilitate voluntary businesses in the field, it also lacks a comprehensive policy roadmap for the reduction of greenhouse gases,'' the report said. Click on the following link for more information: Quick Links * SUBSCRIBE to our newsletters and other products * ARCHIVE: Past issues of the newsletter are posted on our website under "publications" * SUPPORT EESI: This newsletter and EESI's other valuable work in energy, climate change, agriculture, transportation and smart growth are made possible through financial support from people like you. Please donate now. 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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