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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Brought to you by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute
Climate Talks ‘On the Brink of Agreement’ in Bali Officials were concerned earlier in the week when delegates were unable to form an agreement for a roadmap for future negotiations to create a follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol, the current climate legislation set to expire in 2012. Disagreement focused on whether or not to include numerical targets for greenhouse gas emissions in the Bali roadmap. Mandatory emission targets were supported by the European Union, while the United States and other nations fought to leave them out. Many officials appeared optimistic, however, following discussions on the last day. The executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Yvo de Boer, said officials were, “On the brink of agreement, I think, absolutely not deadlocked. People are working hard to resolve outstanding issues.” Click on the following links for more information:
Defense Bill Includes First-ever Global Warming Planning Requirement On December 12, the House of Representatives passed the Defense Authorization Bill, including for the first time a provision requiring that the effects of global warming be taken into consideration for future defense planning. The provision, Section 951, was derived from the Markey-Bartlett Global Climate Change Security Oversight Act (H.R. 1961), which was introduced in spring 2007. “I’m very pleased that Congress has acted in this Defense Authorization Conference Report to require the assessment of the impact of climate change in our major defense planning documents,” said Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, Ranking Member of the Seapower and Expeditionary Forces Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee. “Congress responded to the advice from 11-retired Admirals and Generals who concluded in a report this year by the Center for Naval Analyses that climate change is a ‘threat multiplier’ in many regions of the world.” This bill will now require that all global warming impacts be assessed in defense planning, and that guidance for military planners be issued in upcoming versions of three central defense planning documents: the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy, and the Quadrennial Defense Review. Click on the following link for more information:
Utility Halts Plans for Coal Projects On December 10, the power utility company PacifiCorp announced that it will scrap its plans for two coal-fired power plants in southern Wyoming due to concerns about future legislation on greenhouse gases. The utility company, which operates under the name Rocky Mountain Power in Wyoming, had plans for a 527-megawatt, “super-critical” pulverized coal unit, as well as a coal-gasification, carbon capture and sequestration demonstration project in partnership with the state of Wyoming, both located at the Jim Bridger power plant in Sweetwater County. “The situation the company finds itself in now is a significant amount of uncertainty about what climate change regulation might do to the cost of coal plants,” Rocky Mountain Power spokesman Dave Eskelsen said. “Coal projects are no longer viable.” In a filing to the Utah Public Service Commission on November 28, PacifiCorp noted that just recently the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners adopted a resolution acknowledging that climate change legislation is likely to occur, and likely to target carbon dioxide emissions. Because of this, PacifiCorp concluded that the planned coal-fired projects were no longer viable options for future electricity generation. On December 12, a federal judge in Fresno, California, ruled in favor of allowing California to set its own standards for vehicle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The ruling came as a result of a lawsuit filed by automakers in 2004 attempting to overturn the California law. In his decision, US District Judge Anthony Ishii rejected arguments from automakers, who claimed that only the federal government has the power to regulate tailpipe emissions. “Both EPA and California . . . are equally empowered through the Clean Air Act to promulgate regulations that limit the emissions of greenhouse gases, principally carbon dioxide, from motor vehicles,” Judge Ishii wrote. In the spring of 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA had the authority under the Clean Air Act to issue regulations on GHG emissions, but has yet to do so. California must now wait for the EPA to issue a waiver allowing the state to regulate vehicle emissions, a decision that has been pending for nearly two years. “Dragging it out would be a disaster and a gross dereliction in duty,” State Attorney General Jerry Brown said. Despite the EPA promising to issue a decision by the end of this year, California filed a lawsuit in November forcing the EPA to rule. Click on the following links for more information:
States Will Ask EPA to Regulate Airline Emissions California and a group of other states and environmental groups are expected to file a petition to the EPA asking that it regulate CO2, the most prevalent greenhouse gas. Other members of the petition include the states of Connecticut, New Jersey, New Mexico and Pennsylvania, plus New York City and the District of Columbia, Earthjustice, Friends of the Earth, Oceana and the Center for Biological Diversity. “Global warming is such a big challenge that wherever we can reduce greenhouse gases, we must do so. The EPA has abdicated its responsibility in this area for years, and it won't do its job until it's legally required to do so,” California Attorney General Jerry Brown said. A spokesman for the Air Transport Association (ATA), David Castleveter, said US airlines have improved their fuel efficiency by 103 percent since 1978, and ATA members have committed to increase their efficiency another 30 percent by 2025. “The commercial airlines already are driven to be as fuel efficient and environmentally conscious as possible,” Castleveter said. The environmental groups involved in the petition say that airlines can reduce their carbon emissions by changing the way they operate and investing more money in new technology. Click on the following link for more information:
White House Climate Science Manipulation Alleged The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued a report on December 12 that alleges the White House manipulated scientific information regarding climate change to downplay its threats and effects. “The Bush administration has engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policymakers and the public about the dangers of global warming,” the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said. Specifically, the Committee concluded that the White House censored statements and congressional testimony made by federal scientists regarding climate change. Additionally, media requests to speak with scientists on the subject of climate change were sent to the White House Council on Environmental Quality, a different policy compared to other media requests, said Kent Laborde, a career public affairs officer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Congressional Republicans released their own report, calling the findings “a partisan diatribe,” while the White House has denied the allegations. “Claims that this administration interfered with scientists and with the science are false,” said James Connaughton, head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Click on the following links for more information: The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has released a special report titled Climate Change and National Security: An Agenda for Action, looking at the many threats posed by climate change. Click on the following link for more information:
World Bank Launches Forest Carbon Fund Arctic Ice Smallest Ever in 2007; Summers Could Be ‘Ice-Free’ by 2013 Scientists meeting at the American Geophysical Union the week of December 9 reported that the summer ice cap in the Arctic was reduced to 4.13 million square kilometers in the summer of 2007, the smallest amount ever on record. Furthermore, one forecast for the northern polar region indicate that summers may be ice-free in 6-7 years. The research team that produced this model includes scientists from NASA and the Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and is a group well known for producing forecasts with predicted dates much earlier than other models. One of the researchers, Wieslaw Maslowski of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, said other teams seriously underestimate key melting factors such as warm Atlantic and Pacific waters entering the Arctic basin. “My claim is that the global climate models underestimate the amount of heat delivered to the sea ice by oceanic advection,” Professor Maslowski said. Other research teams have predicted ice-free summers in the Arctic anywhere from 2040 to 2100, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) uses an averaged group of models to forecast Arctic ice loss. Click on the following links for more information:
Penguins Now Threatened by Global Warming On December 11, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released a report titled “Antarctic Penguins and Climate Change,” which describes the threats penguins now face as a result of global warming. The report stated that global warming has caused the populations of four species of penguins—Emperor, Gentoo, Chinstrap, and Adélie—to decline by up to 66 percent in the past 25 years. Warmer sea temperatures has meant shrinking ice for penguins to breed and reduced food supplies. “The food web of Antarctica, and thus the survival of penguins and many other species, is bound up in the future of the sea ice,” said James Leape, director general of WWF International. The effects of climate change are more intense in this area of the planet, where temperatures have risen up to five times faster than the world average in the past 50 years. “One of the coldest environments in the world is actually seeing some of the fastest rates of global warming, and unless action is taken to reduce global CO2 emissions, the future of many Antarctic species looks bleak,” said Emily Lewis-Brown, Marine and Climate Change Officer at WWF UK. 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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