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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Brought to you by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute New Australian Prime Minister Plans to Ratify Kyoto Protocol Howard, the former prime minister, had refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol since its creation in 1997. Instead, he remained with close ally President George Bush, and together they called for developing countries to be held more accountable for GHG emissions. With Australia signing the treaty, the United States will now remain the only developed nation to not agree to mandatory cuts of GHG emissions. “It's great news for the Kyoto Protocol,” said Shane Rattenburg, Greenpeace's political director. “It's a very important event in the international climate debate, and for Bali. It will leave Bush and the United States more isolated.” Click on the following links for more information:
Members of the group Confederation of British Industry (CBI) pledged on November 26 to make tackling global climate change its top priority at a conference in London. The business lobby group is comprised of eighteen chairmen and top executives from many well-known industries in the United Kingdom, including BP, Royal-Dutch Shell, Rolls-Royce and supermarket giant Tesco. Together, the group pledged to save one million extra tons of CO2 in the next three years, as well as to “develop new products and services that will empower households to halve their emissions by 2020.” To combat climate change, CBI says firms will need to “fundamentally” change business models. “Business needs to be green to grow,” said Richard Lambert, CBI’s director general. “To manage their costs and to maintain the trust of their customers, they will need to build carbon management into their corporate DNA.” Additionally, CBI commissioned a report by consultants McKinsey and Co. to look at whether or not the government would be able to meet its emission reduction targets of between 26 percent and 32 percent by 2020, and 60 percent by 2050. The report concluded, “The UK's carbon reduction targets for 2020 are likely to be missed but that 2050 goal, whilst stretching, can be achieved at a manageable cost—provided a greater sense of urgency is now adopted.” If such action to cut emissions is taken in the United Kingdom, the cost could be limited to £100 ($205) a year per household by 2030, the report found. Click on the following links for more information:
At a conference in Hyderabad, India, scientists warned that climate change could jeopardize global food supplies and increase the risk of hunger for the world’s poor. The hardest-hit areas include South Asia and Africa, where efforts will have to shift from maximizing food output to dealing with warmer and drier conditions. “Where crops are grown near their maximum temperature tolerance and where dry land, non-irrigated agriculture predominates, the challenge of climate change could be overwhelming, especially on subsistence farmers,” said Martin Parry, co-chair of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Among the most vulnerable crops is rice, a staple for billions of people and whose yield could drop significantly unless scientists find a way to shift rice flowering times or switch to new varieties. “It is the world's most consumed crop and it makes everything else pale in comparison,” the deputy director general of research at the institute, Dyno Keatinge, said. The conference took place the week of November 18 and was hosted by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics in order to look at the effects of climate change on farming. The conference was attended by experts from 15 international agricultural research institutions as a lead-up to the UN climate change conference in Bali. Click on the following link for more information:
China and France released a joint statement following talks on November 26, announcing their partnership in addressing climate change and emphasizing their commitments to the aims, principles and provisions of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol. French president Nicholas Sarkozy told his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao that China needs to do more to reduce its carbon emissions and said France is willing to transfer technology to help China in this regard. “We hope China's growth can continue, but we also hope China's growth is carbon-free and environmentally friendly,” Sarkozy said. “We believe this is in China's interests and the interests of the entire world.” Among the many agreements made in the talks was a contract with French nuclear firm Areva valued at $11.9 billion to build two pressurized-water reactors in the southern province of Guangdong. The two countries also pledged to promote world attention to climate change and devote to a series of projects on the research on climate change, and increase the possibility of common cooperation with other countries in an effort to aid developing countries, especially in Africa. Click on the following links for more information:
Populations located in the Andes Mountains could face decreasing water supplies in the coming years as glaciers begin disappearing due to the effects of climate change. Scientists predict that rising global temperatures will cause all of the glaciers on the Andes Mountains to disappear by midcentury. Those most affected include the 11 million people situated among the mountains in Bolivia, Columbia, and Ecuador, who rely on the glaciers for water for drinking, crops, and hydroelectric plants. Efforts to alleviate this problem would have to include building reservoirs, sealing leaky distribution networks, and constructing gas or oil-fired plants—tasks that could require hundreds of millions of dollars for developing countries already under financial strain. In an effort to help developing countries such as these, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging that a new global treaty on climate change provide funding to help poor countries adapt to its damaging effects. Click on the following link for more information:
UN May Change Emission Rules to Lure United States The United Nations may change its rules beginning in 2013 regarding eligible technologies for emissions trading in an effort to convince the United States to join international efforts to address climate change. Halldor Thorgeirsson, the head of emissions trading at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said he is unsure which technologies would be backed by the United Nations, but one potential candidate could be carbon capture and sequestration, which could “allow for significant scaling up” of emission trading. US lawmakers have remained skeptical of foreign emissions credits because of the potential for credits to not represent true emissions reductions. In some cases, US companies could invest in credits from foreign manufacturers who cut emissions but would have done it anyway. Because of these concerns, proposed legislation in the Senate (S. 2191) that would create a national emissions trading system, introduced by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and John Warner (R-VA), does not allow credits for projects that are approved by the United Nations. Click on the following link for more information:
The report calls for a “twin track” approach that combines stringent mitigation to limit warming this century to less than 2°C with strengthened international cooperation on adaptation. At the core of mitigation efforts should be an effort by developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 percent of 1990 levels by 2050, according to the authors. Additionally, industrialized nations need to put climate change adaptation at the center of international poverty reduction programs. “Nobody wants to understate the very real long-term ecological challenges that climate change will bring to rich countries,” the lead author of the report Kevin Watkins explained. “But the near-term vulnerabilities are not concentrated in lower Manhattan and London, but in flood-prone areas of Bangladesh and drought-prone parts of sub-Saharan Africa.” Google's Goal: Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal On November 27 Google announced its plans to develop a new strategic initiative to develop electricity from renewable energy sources that will reduce greenhouse gases and be cheaper than electricity produced from coal. The initiative, titled RE<C, will create a research and development team to initially focus on solar thermal, wind power, and enhanced geothermal technologies. Additionally, Google plans to invest in breakthrough projects that will generate positive returns. “We have gained expertise in designing and building large-scale, energy-intensive facilities by building efficient data centers,” said Larry Page, Google co-founder and president of products. “We want to apply the same creativity and innovation to the challenge of generating renewable electricity at globally significant scale, and produce it cheaper than from coal.” Google has stated its goal is to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal, which they say can be done in years rather than decades. Click on the following link for more information:
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced November 28 that the US’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions declined overall in 2006 by 1.5 percent. This is the first drop in emissions since 2001 and only the third since 1990, the EIA reported. The decline is due to several factors, including higher energy costs, a warmer winter that cut heating demand and a shift to natural gas instead of coal by electric utilities. Although overall emissions dropped to 7.08 billion metric tons, the amount produced by cars and trucks increased by 0.3 percent, due to the rise in distances traveled by drivers increases. So far, this has overwhelmed reductions made by more efficient vehicles. Click on the following links for more information: Worldwide Greenhouse Gas Emissions Rose 0.5 Percent in 2006 The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) published its 2006 Greenhouse Gas Bulletin on November 23, which showed a 0.53 percent rise in GHG emissions worldwide in the year 2006. Total emissions reached the highest levels recorded, rising to 381.2 parts per million (ppm) from 379.2 ppm in 2005. The information is based on observations from the WMO Global CO2 and CH4 Monitoring Network, a comprehensive climate network recognized by the United Nations and compiled from 44 WMO members throughout the world. Scientists from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated this year that the world would have to cut GHG emissions by 50 to 85 percent by midcentury to keep GHG levels below 500 ppm and prevent catastrophic effects from climate change. Click on the following links for more information:
Power Plant Plan in Washington State Rejected on GHG Emissions A plan proposed by Energy Northwest to build a new power plant fueled by coal or oil-refinery waste was rejected in the state of Washington, in accordance with a new state law that limits the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) future power plants can emit. The law, which was passed this spring, requires new power plants to limit emissions of GHGs to the same levels of a high-efficiency, natural-gas power plant, with provisions to capture and store any emissions that surpass that limit. Energy Northwest stated that it lacked the technology to meet these demands, so it proposed that if it were able to build the new power plant, it would come up with a more detailed plan in the future. The Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, which oversees permits given to new power plants, dismissed this approach because it “misses the mark by a wide margin.” Several environmental groups and state agencies had challenged the proposal, saying it was an attempt by Energy Northwest to skirt the new state law. “Burning coal for energy is a 19th-century answer to the problems that we have in front of us,” said attorney Jan Hasselman of Earthjustice, which represented the environmental groups. “We think that it is time to move on.” Click on the following links for more information: 150 Global Firms Seek Mandatory Cuts in GHG Emissions On November 30, business leaders of 150 global companies published a communiqué to world leaders calling for a comprehensive, legally binding United Nations framework to tackle climate change. Signatories include Coca-Cola, General Electric, Shell, Nestlé, Nike, DuPont, Johnson & Johnson, British Airways and Shanghai Electric. The communiqué was issued in advance of the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2007, taking place from December 3 to 14 in Bali, Indonesia. The business leaders said, "It is our belief that the benefits of strong, early action on climate change outweigh the costs of not acting. The economic and geopolitical costs of unabated climate change could be very severe and globally disruptive. The shift to a low-carbon economy will create significant business opportunities. New markets for low carbon technologies and products, worth billions of dollars, will be created if the world acts on the scale required." The Bali Communiqué calls for: a comprehensive, legally binding United Nations framework to tackle climate change; emission reduction targets to be guided primarily by science; those countries that have already industrialized to make the greatest effort; and world leaders to seize the window of opportunity and agree a work plan of negotiations to ensure an agreement can come into force post 2012 (when the existing Kyoto Protocol expires). Click on the following links for more information: New Mexico Adopts Vehicle GHG Regulations On November 27, New Mexico became the 12th state to adopt California's regulations aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles. Under the federal Clean Air Act, California has the authority to set its own vehicle pollution standards. Other states can use either federally mandated standards or California's rules. The New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board and the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board adopted the standards to meet a deadline for the regulations to take effect next year. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said, "New Mexico is taking deliberate steps to protect the environment from the effects of global warming for future generations because the EPA has failed to do so." The regulations are being challenged by a lawsuit which contends that a state law prevents the board from adopting air quality regulations more stringent than federal air quality requirements. State Environment Secretary Ron Curry took issue with the lawsuit and maintained that New Mexico had authority to adopt the California emission standards under provisions of state and federal air quality laws. In related news, Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) Director Steve Owens announced November 26 that ADEQ has begun its formal rule-making process to adopt a clean car program with new standards to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from passenger vehicles. Click on the following links for more information:
On November 28, the House Climate Change Caucus held a Congressional briefing on America's Climate Security Act (S. 2191) and discussed changes that have been made to the bill under the Chair's markup of the bill. The Chair's mark was released by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. Senators on the Environment Committee will likely vote on the bill when it is marked up in committee on December 5-6. According to E&E News, one of the biggest changes involves an "upstream" cap placed on the heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions that come from natural gas processors. With the new bill's natural gas section, more than 80 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions that come from the US economy will be covered under the legislation. Another change in the legislation speeds up by five years the end date for the free emission credits given out to power plants, manufacturers and other industrial sources. Free credits will now be phased out at the start of 2031, rather than the start of 2036. The legislation also creates a separate cap for one of the most potent types of greenhouse gases: hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs. Other changes are included in the mark as well. Click on the following link for more information:
A report released November 29 finds that the United States could shave as much as 28 percent off the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) it emits at fairly modest cost and with only small technology innovations. The report, "Reducing U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions: How Much at What Cost?" says GHG emissions in 2030 could be reduced by 3.0 to 4.5 gigatons of CO2-equivalent per year using tested approaches and high-potential emerging technologies. "The sooner we get started, the more we will capture at low-cost means," said Ken Ostrowski, a McKinsey official who has consulted with utilities and energy companies. "Efficiency is a perishable opportunity - every year of delay means less efficient buildings and vehicles." McKinsey director Jack Stephenson said, "If you want to keep the costs as low as possible, you're going to need strong, coordinated economy wide action." These reductions would involve pursuing a wide array of abatement options with marginal costs less than $50 per ton, with the average net cost to the economy being far lower if the nation can capture sizable gains from energy efficiency. The study was conducted by McKinsey & Company for DTE Energy, Environmental Defense, Honeywell, National Grid, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Pacific Gas & Electric and Shell. Click on the following links for more information:
On November 28, the New York City Council passed a greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction bill that puts into law carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions goals that were laid out in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s sustainability plan last April. The Climate Protection Act requires that CO2 from city government buildings and vehicles be cut 30 percent from current levels by 2017. Moreover, it requires that carbon emissions from the entire city, including privately owned buildings, be reduced by 30 percent by the year 2030. City Environmental Protection Committee Chair James Gennaro said, "The landmark New York City Climate Protection Act will not only reduce carbon dioxide emissions in our city, it will also foster awareness of climate-change issues and encourage people to become part of this movement to protect our environment. It is essential that we teach our children and other members of our population how to guard the environment in which they live, as well as to protect their health." Click on the following links for more information:
CO2 emissions from UK homes could be cut 80% by 2050 According to the November 27 "Home Truths" report, commissioned by Friends of the Earth and the Co-operative Bank, carbon emissions from UK homes could be cut by 80 percent by 2050. Financial incentives for home owners and tighter energy efficiency standards are among the study's recommendations. The measures would enable households to reduce their energy bills by an estimated £425 ($875) each year. The report's blueprint for future low carbon homes includes: legally binding emission targets; increased dwellings density, cuts in car use and encouragement of micro generation systems; a "robust program" of tax incentives; and targeted funding to those in greatest need of support. One technology that could deliver sizeable saving is micro combined heat and power (CHP). A separate study by the Carbon Trust found that larger homes and small commercial enterprises could cut carbon emissions by up to 20% with CHP. "This report is in support of the [UK] Climate Change Bill," explained report author Brenda Boardman, a senior research fellow at Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute. "The bill calls for at least a 60 percent reduction, which is great, but this report shows that you can get an 80 percent cut in the domestic sector by 2050." Click on the following links for more information: Climate Book For more information see: Events December 5, 2007 Senate EPW Climate Bill Markup December 5-6, 2007 Carbon Management Conference The Carbon Management Council hosts a conference entitled "Business in the Wilderness, Shaping Your Carbon Choices," on December 5-6 at the Omni Shoreham in Washington DC. The conference is a dialog around the challenges that will very likely change businesses: "Whether we create, use, or buy products and services, carbon will be a driver, not just an impact. Waiting for government to define our responsibilities and create a coherent framework may be a high cost strategy. Investment planning will require a new degree of discipline and detail as we consider energy consumption and pricing, future shareholder value, and capital deployment." For more information see: http://www.carbonmanagementconference.org 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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