Climate Change News
– September
22,
2006
Brought to you by the
Environmental and Energy Study Institute
Carol Werner, Executive Director
Virgin Business Group
CEO Pledges $3 Billion to Fight Climate Change
On September 21, Sir Richard
Branson—owner of the multi-platform Virgin
brand—announced he would invest $3 billion over the next
decade to combat global warming and promote alternative
energy, a promise he said was inspired after a meeting with
former vice president Al Gore. The announcement was made at
the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) conference in New York.
By September 21, conference organizers said they had 114
commitments amounting to $5.7 billion to address poverty,
health care, global warming and religious and ethnic
conflict. In 2005, the conference garnered $2.5 billion in
pledges.
Branson said, "Our
generation has inherited an incredibly beautiful world from
our parents and they from their parents.... We must not be
the generation responsible for irreversibly damaging the
environment. We must hand it over to our children in as near
pristine a condition as we were lent it from our
parents." As reported by Associated Press,
Branson said all the profits generated by Virgin Group's
transportation sectors—including train companies and five
airlines—will be invested in research and business efforts
to develop and promote renewable, sustainable energy
sources, in particular bio-fuel initiatives, to wean the
world off fossil fuels.
AES Announces Greenhouse Gas Offset Commitment
Also on September 21, AES—one
of the world's largest global power companies with 2005
revenues of $11 billion—announced it has committed to
produce 10 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emission (GHG)
offsets by 2012 and said it will pursue offset development
projects under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto
Protocol. The announcement was made at the Clinton Global
Initiative (CGI) conference in New York.
William Luraschi, AES Executive
Vice President of Business Development, said "AES is
proud to help meet the challenge of global warming through
projects and technologies that reduce or offset greenhouse
gas emissions.... AES first began investing in greenhouse
gas emission reduction projects in the late 1980's. With
this experience and our global platform, we are well
positioned to play a leading role in this burgeoning sector,
which is a key component of our broader alternative energy
strategy."
Click on the following link for
the full news story: AES
States Continue to Take Lead on US Climate Action
On September 21, California Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and New York City Mayor Michael
Bloomberg, both Republicans, met and discussed climate
change and environment, stressing the need for bipartisan
cooperation and action on these issues at a news conference
in Sunnyvale, Calif. . In reference to the bill to be
signed next week, Gov. Schwarzenegger said, "Democrats
and Republicans have worked together to make AB 32 happen
... in an election year when normally everybody tries to
derail each other." AB 32 will roll back California's
greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. "This
is not about the Democrats versus me," Schwarzenegger
said. "What is important is that California is the
greenest."
As reported by the San
Francisco Chronicle, when asked if the two Republicans
were squeezing the White House for more action on climate
change, Schwarzenegger said, "what you see here today
is that we don't wait for the federal government to take the
leadership position on this; we take the leadership position
on this. You can't do it alone, so we reach out to other
states." Mayor Bloomberg said, "We have to deal
with real world problems ... we can't wait for Washington to
do something."
At the press event Mayor
Bloomberg announced a five-point plan to make New York City
an environmental leader, including the creation of the
Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability within the
Mayor’s Office of Operations. The Mayor said,
"Sustainability is all about ensuring that economic
growth and development today is compatible with the ability
of our children and grandchildren to meet their needs in the
future.... The intent is to make New York City a national
leader on the environment ... a sustainable city."
California Files Suit Against Car Manufacturers Over
GHGs
On September 20, California
filed suit against six major automobile manufacturers,
charging that greenhouse gases (GHGs) from their vehicles'
tailpipe emissions have caused and will cause billions of
dollars in environmental damages to the state's water
supplies, coastline, forests, wildlife and public health.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Oakland, names
the Chrysler Group, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Nissan and
Toyota as defendants.
As reported by the Los
Angeles Times, the federal lawsuit contends that the
GHGs, mostly carbon dioxide, emitted from cars are a public
nuisance and that automakers should pay for damages to the
state's environment and public works. Atty. Gen. Bill
Lockyer, who filed the suit on behalf of the state, said
"Basically, what we are saying is it's old-fashioned
economics. You should pay for the damage you cause.... the
automobile industry manufactures products that are the
largest growing source of carbon emission[s] in the state
and country."
According to BBC, the
Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (AAM) called it a
"nuisance" suit and suggested it may be dismissed.
Sean Hecht, a UCLA environmental law expert, called the
approach "not unreasonable" under precedents that
go back to English common law. Hecht said, "It's novel,
but based on standard nuisance law, they certainly have a
shot at convincing a judge that the burdens this industry
imposes on society are too great."
CBO Finds Climate Solution Needs GHG Price Signal as
Well as R&D
A report released September 19
by the US Congressional Budget Office (CBO) entitled
"Evaluating the Role of Prices and R&D in Reducing
Carbon Dioxide Emissions" concludes that relying
exclusively on research and development (R&D) funding is
not the most effective strategy for reducing greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions. CBO found that combining R&D subsidies
with a gradually increasing price on emissions is a more
cost-effective approach. Sens. James Jeffords (I-VT) and
Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Ranking Members of the Environment and
Public Works committee and Energy and Natural Resources
committee, respectively, requested the report.
Sen. Jeffords said, "This
report confirms that technology approaches and research and
development solutions cannot solve the climate change
problem by themselves. Perhaps more importantly, to those
that advocate such approaches alone, this report by the
Congressional Budget Office confirms that using a cap or a
tax is far more cost effective approach than an R&D
approach alone.... initiatives like the Asia Pacific
Partnership and the Climate Change Technology Program [are]
helpful but nowhere near enough."
Sen. Bingaman, who has been
proposing a cap-and-trade approach to establish price signal
for GHG emissions, said "Our current policy of
exclusive reliance on voluntary measures to reduce
greenhouse gases has not really led to changes in the
technologies we use.... We will be wasting taxpayer dollars,
if we continue to rely exclusively on government supported
R&D to solve the problem of global warming."
US Releases Climate Change Technology Program
Strategic Plan
On September 20, The US
Department of Energy (DOE) Climate Change Technology Program
(CCTP) Strategic Plan was released at a House Science Energy
Subcommittee hearing. The plan details measures to develop
and lower the cost of new and advanced technologies that
avoid, reduce, or capture and store greenhouse gas emissions
(GHGs). Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said the plan
"breaks new ground with its visionary 100-year planning
horizon, global perspective, multilateral research
collaborations, and public-private partnerships."
As reported by the House Science
Committee, experts from academia and the business community
told the Energy Subcommittee that the plan provides a useful
overview of carbon-reducing technologies, but fails to
adequately address the mechanisms that would force the
deployment of those technologies. Witnesses also
testified that the aim of the Administration’s plan, to
reduce carbon intensity by 18 percent by 2012, would still
result in a significant increase in carbon emissions.
House Science Committee Chairman
Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) said, "It's good as far as it
goes, but it needs to go a lot further.... It's good to look
ahead, but people expect something immediate, as well as
futuristic." Chairman Boehlert also said the
administration’s plan “is silent on the deployment of
technologies already out or near the end of the pipeline”
of research efforts. Ken Caldeira, a senior scientist at the
Carnegie Institution at Stanford University, said "A
major energy R&D program only makes sense in the context
of a price on carbon emissions."
Busy Week in Washington for Climate
The week of September 18 was an
active one for climate change issues in Washington DC. Three
climate hearings were held on Capitol Hill—two in the
House and one in the Senate—and a four-day climate summit
was held to honor the 20th anniversary of the Climate
Institute.
On September 20, the
Administration's Climate Change Technology Program (CCTP)
Strategic Plan was released at a House Committee on Science
Energy Subcommittee hearing. Also on September 20, the
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing
to examine approaches embodied in the Administration's Asia
Pacific Partnership. On September 21, the House Government
Reform Committee held a hearing entitled "Climate
Change Technology Research: Do We Need a 'Manhattan Project'
for the Environment?"
The House Committee on Government Reform is holding an
additional climate hearing on September 27. See
"Events" below for details.
In addition, from September
18-21 the Washington DC-based Climate Institute celebrated
its 20th anniversary by hosting a gathering of experts to
assess the likelihood that the Earth is tipping toward
abrupt and highly disruptive climate change. The conference
was aimed at identifying practical methods of achieving the
stabilization of global greenhouse concentrations within the
lifetime of the Summit’s attendees. The summit featured
over 50 speakers, including the President of Iceland, Dr. Ólafur
Grímsson.
UK Royal Society: Exxon Should Stop Funding Climate
Skeptics
On September 4, the Royal
Society, Britain's top scientific academy, sent a letter to
US oil company ExxonMobile demanding that the company
withdraw support for dozens of groups that have
"misrepresented the science of climate change by
outright denial of the evidence." In the letter to Esso,
the UK arm of ExxonMobil, the Royal Society cites its own
survey which found that ExxonMobil last year distributed
$2.9m to 39 groups that the society says misrepresent the
science of climate change.
As reported by the Guardian,
the letter from Bob Ward, Senior Manager for Policy
Communication at the Royal Society adds, "I would be
grateful if you could let me know which organisations in the
UK and other European countries have been receiving funding
so that I can work out which of these have been similarly
providing inaccurate and misleading information to the
public."
Mr. Ward said, "It is now
more crucial than ever that we have a debate which is
properly informed by the science. For people to be still
producing information that misleads people about climate
change is unhelpful. The next IPCC report should give people
the final push that they need to take action and we can't
have people trying to undermine it." Groups named by
the Guardian include the George C Marshall
Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, both
based in Washington DC.
Click the following link for the
full news story: Guardian
EESI Briefings
