Climate Change News – October 27,
2006
Brought to you by the
Environmental and Energy Study Institute
Carol Werner, Executive Director
Britain Foreign Secretary
Urges Climate Action by EU, Germany
On October 24, British Foreign
Secretary Margaret Beckett gave a major address at the British
Embassy in Berlin on foreign policy and climate change,
laying down a challenge to three groups in
particular--the foreign policy community, the EU, and to
Germany. The German Government takes over the EU
Presidency in 2007
and the Presidency of the G8, and has stated that addressing
climate change will be a major priority.
Beckett said, "First...
Climate change is a serious threat to international security.
So achieving climate security must be at the core of foreign
policy... Second, it is a challenge for the European Union. We
[the EU] are the world's biggest single market... we have the
intellectual capacity, the technological capability and the
resources not just to steer the global debate on climate
change but also to drive global action... We must make climate
security one of Europe's greatest priorities... Third... Of
all the countries in the world it is Germany which at this
moment matters most. What you do right here, right now during
your dual presidencies in the next six and 12 months is
pivotal... It will be up to you whether the G8 can galvanize
broader global action.
Addressing the need to take urgent
action on climate change, Beckett said, "Taking action on
climate change is not just an imperative. It is an
opportunity. And yet, in fact, we are dangerously behind the
curve. We are on a direct path to climate chaos... The
greatest security threat we face as a global community won't
be met by guns and tanks. It will be solved by investment in
the emerging techniques of soft power – building avenues of
trust and opportunity that will lead to a low-carbon
economy... There is no backstop: politics and diplomacy have
to work."
Report Says Act
on Climate Change Now or Face Dire Economic Consequences
The Guardian
reported this week that the Stern report (see Climate
Change News 10.20.06), to be published on
October 30, will warn against delaying action on climate
change. Sir Nicholas Stern, a former chief economist at the
World Bank, will argue that tackling climate change may not be
as economically expensive, and investments in less energy
intensive technologies will stimulate the global economy. Sir
David King, UK's chief scientific advisor, said,
"(Stern's) analysis, I think, will also surprise many
people in terms of the relatively small cost of action."
Sir David
called the Stern review "the most detailed
economic analysis that I think has yet been conducted."
He said, "All of (Stern's) detailed modelling out to the
year 2100 is going to indicate first of all that if we don't
take global action we are going to see a massive downturn in
global economies. If no action is taken we will be faced with
the kind of downturn that has not been seen since the Great Depression
and the two world wars....The investment process (in new
energy sources) is going to act quite possibly in the opposite
direction to an economic downturn." The review also
stresses the problems arising out of potential sea level rise.
"If you look at sea level rises alone and the impact that
will have on global economies where cities are becoming
inundated by flooding ... this will cause the displacement of
... hundreds of millions of people," said Sir David,
echoing the words of British foreign secretary Margaret
Beckett (see article on
Beckett's speech this issue).
Climate
Impact on Water Cycle Threatens Millions with Extreme Drought
The
British-based Christian development agency Tearfund issued a
report on October 20 entitled "Feeling the Heat" which
suggests that by 2050, five times as much land is likely to be
under "extreme" drought as now. The report calls for
governments attending November’s UN Climate Change conference
in Nairobi November 6-17 to plan a global framework for cutting
CO2 emissions. This new plan would represent phase two of the
Kyoto Protocol: the first commitment phase expires in 2012. The
report also calls on governments to commit billions more pounds
to help communities in developing countries adapt to climate
change.
One
of Britain's leading climate scientists, Sir John Houghton, who
contributed to the report, said water shortages would be the
biggest climate threat to developing countries. Sir John said,
"It's the extremes of water which are going to provide the
biggest threat to the developing world from climate change.....
Without being able to be too specific about exactly where,
droughts will tend to be longer, and that's very bad news.
Extreme droughts currently cover about two percent of the
world's land area, and that is going to spread to about ten
percent by 2050."
The
report finds that simple measures to "climate-proof"
water problems, both drought and flood, have proven to be very
effective in some areas. In Niger, the charity says that
building low, stone dikes across contours has helped prevent
runoff and get more water into the soil; while in Bihar,
northern India, embankments have been built to connect villages
during floods, with culverts allowing drainage.
Click
on the following links for the full news stories: BBC and
Tearfund
Third World Stoves Emit
More GHGs Than Expected
In a field test in Honduras,
researchers from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
found that cook stoves there, which are similar to those used
in other developing nations, produce two times more smoke
particles than expected, based on previous laboratory studies.
These dark, sooty particles have a climate warming effect
because they absorb solar energy and heat the atmosphere.
In earlier work, lead author Tami
Bond estimated that burning firewood, the principal fuel for
cook stoves in the developing world, produces nearly as much
soot as all diesel cars and trucks worldwide—800,000 and
890,000 metric tons of soot, respectively. According to Bond,
firewood and diesel soot each account for about 10 percent of
the soot emitted into the world's atmosphere each year.
"Designing and distributing
improved cook stoves may be an effective method of mitigating
global climate change, and can improve the health of the
users," co-author Chris Roden said. Perhaps as many as
400 million of these stoves, fueled by wood or crop residue,
are used daily by more than 2 billion people worldwide.
Investor
Concern on Climate Deepens
On October 14, the AIG Global
Investment Group (AIGGIG) joined the Investor Network on
Climate Risk (INCR), a network of institutional investors and
financial institutions focused on the financial risks and
investment opportunities posed by climate change. AIGGIG, with
more than $500 billion in assets under management, is ranked
the sixth largest institutional asset manager by Pensions
& Investments. AIGGIG is the first asset management
division of an insurance company to join INCR, which now
includes more than 50 investment organizations that
collectively manage nearly $4 trillion in assets.
Mindy S. Lubber, president of
Ceres and director of INCR, said “AIG Global Investment
Group’s decision to join INCR is a telling sign of growing
investor concern about climate change and its far-reaching
consequences for businesses and investors.... Whether from
extreme weather events, regulatory changes or growing demand
for renewable energy, climate change is a serious business
issue that all investors should be focusing on. Today’s
announcement is a big step forward for INCR, which will
benefit enormously from AIGGIG’s investment expertise,
resources and prominence in the asset management industry.”
AIGGIG's policy commits the
company to actively seek ways “to incorporate environmental
and climate change considerations across its businesses,
focusing on the development of products and services to help
AIG and its clients respond to the worldwide drive to cut
greenhouse gas emissions."
EPA Efficiency and Climate Programs Cut GHG Emissions
and Save Consumers Billions
A US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) report released October 25 finds that in 2005,
EPA's 12 voluntary climate protection programs prevented 63
million metric tons of carbon equivalent (MMTCE) emissions -
up from 57 million metric tons in 2004.
The EPA Energy Star program alone
helped Americans avoid greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of 35
MMTCE emissions, equivalent to those from 23 million
automobiles in 2005—up from 20 million automobiles in
2004—while saving about $12 billion on their energy bills.
Americans also saved a significant amount of electricity in
2005 – 150 billion kilowatt hours (kWh)—or about 4 percent
of total 2005 electricity demand.
In addition, some 600 partners in
the Green Power Partnership purchased more than 4 billion
kilowatt-hours (kWh) of renewable energy as part of a strategy
for demonstrating environmental leadership.
Click on the following link for
the full news story: EPA
Australia Invests in Clean Energy Technology to Stem
Climate Change
On October 23, Australian Prime
Minister John Howard announced that the government would be
investing A$500m (US$379m) in clean technology to address
climate change. One of the first projects is a solar electric
project known as a power tower, where a number of mirrors will
focus the sun's energy on a central receiver. Australian
Treasurer Peter Costello said “The government will
contribute A$57 million to the A$319 million project to build
the 154 megawatt solar power plant in Victoria state.” The
government also announced A$38 million in funding toward a
A$274 million project to reduce carbon emissions from an
existing coal-fired power plant in Victoria through carbon
capture and storage (CCS).
Some feel the technology
initiative is insufficient. Don Henry, executive director of
the Australian Conservation Foundation, said "If we
really want to get serious about cutting our greenhouse
emissions in Australia, the most effective way is to ensure
that we're setting national targets that require greenhouse
pollution to be cut and that we put a price on that greenhouse
pollution, that is, make the polluters pay."
The announcement comes as
Australia's leading science organization, CSIRO, said wine
growers needed to rethink plans to cope with climate change or
face possible ruin. "With earlier harvest in a warmer
climate, the temperature of the ripening period in some
regions will become too warm to produce balanced wines from
some or maybe all grape varieties growing there now,"
lead CSIRO researcher Leanne Webb told Reuters on October 23.
Cities Taking Local Action
on Climate Change
A number of US cities are taking
local action to address climate change. As reported by Christian
Science Monitor, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley says he
wants to make his city the greenest in America by planting
trees, creating more rooftop gardens, and fast-tracking green
buildings. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently announced
intentions to make New York City the leader in reducing
greenhouse gases (GHGs). City councils across the country are
changing building codes, beginning to encourage non-automobile
transport, and setting targets for carbon dioxide (CO2)
reduction.
In all, 320 mayors in 46
states representing more than 51.6 million Americans signed
onto the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement pledging they
will attain the goals of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol in their
cities even though the United States has not ratified the
protocol. (See Climate
Change News 9.29.06)
Many cities wishing to reduce
their GHG emissions have joined the International Council for
Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI). Last year, half of
the 212 ICLEI member cities reported reducing GHG emissions by
a total of 23 million tons. This resulted in a savings of $550
million, due largely to increased energy efficiency.
British Animals Migrating to Adapt to Changing Climate
As reported by Agengé France
Presse (AFP), biologists have discerned a mass migration
of fauna in Britain over the past 25 years as animals try to
outrun temperature increases associated with climate change by
heading for cooler climates in the north. Studies by the
University of York have shown that 80 percent of some 300
monitored species are on the move, abandoning areas they have
inhabited for millennia and heading 70-100 kilometers (40-60
miles) north.
Chris Thomas, lead author and
professor of conservation biology at the university, said
"Our sample is large enough to be sure about the pattern
of change. Eighty percent is a surprisingly large percentage
... It's amazing how strong and already visible is the
signature of climate change."
Animals studied by the university included insects,
mammals, vertebrates and invertebrates. Seventy percent of the
species found to be on the move were heading to higher ground,
up to 150 meters (495 feet) above their normal habitats.
Rising Seas and Reduced
Silt Cause Flooding and Expansion of Gulf Bay
According to findings presented at
the Geological Society of America's 118th annual meeting in
Philadelphia (Oct 22-25), every US Gulf Coast bay in Texas and
Louisiana is vulnerable to significant flooding and expansion
in the coming century. The new research points out that
"these flooding events can be triggered by either a rapid
increase in sea level or a rapid decrease in the amount of
silt flowing into the bay, and there's ample evidence to
suggest that both of those will occur in each of these bays
during the coming century."
Dr. John Anderson, the W. Maurice
Ewing Chair in Oceanography and professor of earth science at
Rice University, Houston, who was part of the research team,
said that rapid flooding events have occurred over the past
10,000 years in these bays, causing landward shifts in bay
environments of tens of kilometers and increases in bay area
of up to 30 percent within a century or two. The driving
factor behind the flooding events during the past 10,000 years
was a decrease in the river-borne sediment flowing into the
bay. "Bay-head deltas....have to be renewed with
river-borne sediments in order to maintain themselves in the
face of steadily rising seas," he said. Geological record
shows that sediment flowing into the five bays has tended to
just keep pace with rising sea level over the past 10,000
years. The flooding events occurred when the delicate balance
was upset. In the past century, multiple dams were constructed
on each of the rivers flowing into these bays which has
reduced the sediment quantity flowing into the bay. Moreover,
there is evidence that owing to climate change, sea level is
increasing more rapidly in the 21st century than it has in
several thousand years, thus creating conditions conducive to
flooding.
The research, which is supported
by the National Science Foundation, involved analysis of
dozens of sediment core samples drilled during the past decade
from three bays in Texas—Galveston,
Corpus Christi and Matagorda bays, Calcasieu Lake in
Louisiana and Sabine Lake which
straddles the Texas-Louisiana border.
Climate Change Linked with Infectious Amphibian
Disease
A new study, reported in the
journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, links
decline in amphibian species due to a fungal disease with
increasing temperatures and climate change. The authors note
in the abstract, "Our analysis shows a significant
association between change in local climatic variables and the
occurrence of chytridiomycosis within this region.
Specifically, we show that rising temperature is linked to the
occurrence of chytrid-related disease."
Dr. Matthew Fisher of Imperial College in London, one
of the researchers, said "This is the clearest and best
example of climate change being linked to an infectious
disease." The research team compared changes in the
number of midwife toads (Alytes obstetricans) in the Penalara
Natural Park, Spain, during the period 1976-2002 with
meteorological data for the mountains in the same period, and
found a strong correlation between rising temperatures and
increased impact of the fungus.
The disease caused by the
chytridiomycete fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (BD),
infects the skin of amphibians and affects their ability to
absorb water. According to the study, climate change may
either be diminishing the ability of amphibians to counter the
fungus with a successful immune response, or it could be
increasing the fungus' ability to grow faster on the
amphibian. Amphibians are cold-blooded organisms and their
responses to a pathogen are susceptible to changes in ambient
temperature. Dr. James Hanken, a herpetologist from Harvard
University, Massachusetts, says, "Warmer and drier
environments might induce physiological stress in amphibians
that would make these animals more susceptible to fungal
infection or exacerbate the negative effects of
infection."
More than 100 species of
amphibians are known to be affected by the fungal disease, and
while some are very susceptible and die quickly, others are
more resistant and become carriers of the pathogen. Earlier
this year, another team of researchers had found a similar
correlation between the disease and rising temperatures in
South American mountains, where the fungus has caused
extinction of 74 out of 110 species of the harlequin frog in
Central and South America in the 1980s and 1990s.
Bush Administration Questions Legal Standing in Surpreme
Court Case on
Regulating Vehicle GHG Emissions
On October 24, the Bush
administration filed a 49-page legal brief in the Supreme
Court global warming case (Massachusetts, et al. v. EPA, et
al., No. 05-1120) on whether vehicular emissions should be
regulated under the Clean Air Act (see Climate
Change News 9.1.06). The administration urged
the Court to reject the lawsuit over legal standing. According
to the brief, "....the case presents more modest issues
concerning the standing of petitioners to seek relief in
federal court and the legality of EPA’s decision not to
initiate a rulemaking with respect to greenhouse gas emissions
from new motor vehicles at this time. Under established
principles of federal jurisdiction, statutory interpretation,
and administrative law, petitioners’ challenge to that
agency decision fails, both because petitioners lack Article
III standing and, alternatively, because EPA’s denial of the
rulemaking petition was lawful" (p 10).
Massachusetts maintains that it
has standing because the state will suffer permanent loss of
coastline and more frequent and severe floods from storm
surges. The administration's
legal brief, however, insisted there was no way to
prove that a new nation-wide rule to limit carbon dioxide
emissions from automobiles would stem the impacts of climate
change. It said, "The requested EPA rulemaking would
therefore result in, at most, a tiny percentage reduction in
worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Nothing in the record
suggests that so small a fraction of worldwide greenhouse gas
emissions could materially affect the overall extent of global
climate change. Petitioners’ declarations therefore do not
establish that the regulatory action they seek, standing
alone, would have any material impact on climatic or
environmental conditions within Massachusetts."
Oral arguments in the lawsuit are
scheduled for November 29.
EESI Briefings
November 1, 2006 Small
Business Takes Active Role in Supporting California's Global Warming
Legislation, AB 32:
The Environmental and Energy
Study Institute (EESI) invites you to a Congressional briefing
on the active role small business has taken in supporting
California’s recently enacted first-of-a-kind greenhouse gas
legislation, AB 32, and why this can have significant
implications for climate legislation nationally. The briefing
will be held from 2:00 - 3:30 p.m. in Room 428-A, Russell
Senate Office Building, Washington DC. Click the following
link for more information: EESI
DVD’s
Available: Copies of DVD's
are available of EESI's recent climate
briefings: "Agriculture
and Climate Change: Threats and Opportunities," May
24, 2005; "What
Does Climate Change Mean for the Arctic? How is Alaska Being
Affected?,"
March 15, 2005; "Perspectives
on Climate Change: Business Initiatives to Reduce Greenhouse
Gas Emissions," November
18, 2004; “State
and Local Government Climate Change Efforts,” September
28, 2004; “Climate
Change Post 2100,” September 21, 2004; “Abrupt
Climate Change,” September 15, 2004; and
“Discussing Climate Change: A Multi-faceted View
of the Climate Stewardship Act,” June 3, 2004.
The discs are $20
ea. (incl. shipping/handling) plus tax 5.75%
(DC residents only). Click on the following link to
order a DVD: EESI
Climate Change DVD's
Events
November 15, 2006
Carbon Disclosure, Socially
Responsible Investing, and Renewable Energy
The American Council On Renewable
Energy in collaboration with the American Bar Association's
(ABA) Renewable Energy Resources Committee will host a
teleconference with a panel of experts who will discuss carbon
disclosure laws, private and public equity flow into
renewables, the role that organized shareholders and sources
of investment capital for renewables. The event takes place on
Wednesday, November 15 from 12:00-1:30 pm EDT. There is
a $20 charge for this event. Click on the following link
for more information: ABA
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