The International Institute for Sustainable Development ()
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CLIMATE-L NEWS
ISSUE
9
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Contents
1) NUCLEAR ENERGY'S PLACE
USURPED BY WIND AND WAVES, The Observer, February 16, 2003
2) RABO INDIA UNVEILS CARBON
ADVISORY SERVICES, Business Standard, February 15, 2003
3) EU AND US IDENTIFY JOINT
RESEARCH INITIATIVES TO COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE, Cordis, February 14, 2003
4) ELSAM BEHIND POLAND'S
BIGGEST WIND FARM, The Copenhagen Post, February 14, 2003
5) INDO-US MOVE ON CLIMATE,
Business Standard, February 14, 2003
6) INDIA EVINCES INTEREST IN
RANET TECHNOLOGY, The Hindu, February 14, 2003
7) DUTCH BANK, GOETZE IN
PACT FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECTS, Times of India, February 14, 2003
8) MANKIND IN DANGER OF
DESTROYING ITSELF, SAYS MEACHER, Oldham Evening Chronicle, February 14,
2003
9) ENERGY SUMMIT FOR CAPITAL
PLANNED, The Copenhagen Post, February 14, 2003
10) TROPICAL DEFORESTATION
AND GLOBAL WARMING: SMITHSONIAN SCIENTIST CHALLENGES RESULTS OF RECENT
STUDY, Smithsonian Institution via Science Daily, February 14, 2003
11) US FIRMS SET GREENHOUSE
GAS TARGETS IN BUSH PLAN, Planet Ark, February 14, 2003
12) FOREST PRODUCTS
INDUSTRY TO REDUCE GREENHOUSE GASES 12%, GreenBiz.com, February 14, 2003
13) EU MUST CLAMP DOWN ON
CAR AIR CONDITIONING, Edie weekly summaries, February 14, 2003
14) WILD COAL FIRES ARE A
'GLOBAL CATASTROPHE', New Scientist, February 14, 2003
15) GOV'T TO LAUNCH
ENVIRONMENTAL FUEL TAX IN 2005, Mainichi Shimbun, February 14, 2003
16) AIR TRAVEL TO KNOCK UK
CO2 EMISSIONS OFF TARGET, Planet Ark, February 14, 2003
17) U.S. INDUSTRY PLEDGES
VOLUNTARY GREENHOUSE GAS CUTS , ENS, February 13, 2003
18) GLOBAL TEMPERATURES
STAY HIGH IN 2002 UK, Planet Ark, February 13, 2003
19) STATES TARGET
GREENHOUSE GASES, Stateline.org, February 13, 2003
20) EXXON CEO BACKS
MANDATORY EMISSIONS REPORTS, Planet Ark, February 13, 2003
21) ENERGY IN THE
SPOTLIGHT, The Guardian, February 13, 2003
22) CLIMATE LINKED TO RURAL
POVERTY, ENS, February 13, 2003
23) EU ENVIRONMENT
COMMISSIONER MARGOT WALLSTRÖM COMMENTS ON VOLUNTARY COMMITMENTS BY US
INDUSTRY TO REDUCE GREENHOUSE GASES, EU, February 13, 2003
24) HAGEL SEEKING A LARGE
INCREASE IN RENEWABLE FUELS, The Independent, February 13, 2003
25) CONOCO CHAIRMAN
ADVOCATES N. AMERICAN ENERGY PACT, Planet Ark, February 13, 2003
26) 'CLEAN' PROJECTS LIKELY
TO BYPASS INDIA, Economic Times, February 12, 2003
27) SWISS CEMENT INDUSTRY
AGREES TO CO2 CUTS, Pressetext, February 12, 2003
28) UK 'MAY FAIL ON CLIMATE
CUTS', BBC, February 12, 2003
29) TEMPERATURE RISE
ANOTHER CORAL ENEMY, The Courier Mail (Queensland,Australia), February 12,
2003
30) BRITAIN FACES DROUGHT
AND FLOODS BY THE 22ND CENTURY, Independent, February 12, 2003
31) RED SQUIRRELS EVOLVING
WITH GLOBAL WARMING, New Scientist, February 12, 2003
32) A DEEP-SIX FIX; COULD
BURYING FOSSIL-FUEL EMISSIONS SAVE THE CLIMATE? US News, February 10, 2003
33) A FADING GREEN HOPE FOR
CLIMATE, US News, February 10, 2003
34) ASIAN POLLUTION CLOUD
CHANGING CLIMATE, STUDY SAYS, National Geographic, February 10, 2003
35) ARAB STATES CLAIM CO2
TARGETS COULD CAUSE SLUMP, Independent, February 9, 2003
36) MCCREEVY URGED TO
HONOUR PLEDGE ON CARBON TAX, Examiner (Ireland), February 8, 2003
37) RUSSIA: WILD CARD IN
KYOTO PACT, Wired, February 8, 2003
38) GERMAN NUCLEAR POWER
EXIT JARS WITH CO2 GOALS DATF, Planet Ark, February 7, 2003
39) RUSSIA URGED TO RATIFY
KYOTO PROTOCOL: WWF AND GREENPEACE CALL ON EU HEADS OF STATE FOR SWIFT
ACTION, WWF, February 7, 2003
40) PREMATURE DASH FOR
HYDROGEN WOULD NOT BE BENEFICIAL FOR ENVIRONMENT, Edie weekly summaries,
February 7, 2003
41) GREENHOUSE GAS WATCHDOG
IS TOO GREEN, SAYS REVIEW, Sydney Morning Herald, February 6, 2003
42) HAZY VISION,
INEXPLICABLE INDIAN TACTICS AT ENVIRONMENT MEET, Financial Express,
February 6, 2003
43) MINISTERS FIGHT OVER
POSSIBLE $1B KYOTO FUND, The Ottawa Citizen, February 6, 2003
44) FOREST FOR THE FUTURE
Daily Post, February 6, 2003
45) WIND POWERS WORLD
WILDLIFE FUND HEADQUARTERS, ENS, February 5, 2003
46) COMMISSION ACTS TO
IMPROVE MONITORING OF GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS, EU, February 5, 2003
47) WINNIPEG COMMODITY
EXCHANGE EYES EMISSIONS TRADING, Reuters, February 5, 2003
48) GLOBAL WARMING MAY
WORSEN MERCURY POLLUTION UN, Planet Ark, February 4, 2003
49) INDUSTRY MAY SOFTEN TO
AUSTRALIAN KYOTO STANCE, ABC, February 4, 2003
50) NEW TECHNOLOGY COULD
CUT GREENHOUSE GASES, Number 10, February 4, 2003
51) EARTH A SOLUTION TO AIR
POLLUTION? SCIENTISTS CONSIDER INJECTING GREENHOUSE GASES INTO GROUND,
Chicago Tribune, February 3, 2003
52) COTTON TESTS GREENHOUSE
CREDENTIALS, Cotton World, February 2
53) POWER STATIONS THREATEN
PEOPLE AND WILDLIFE WITH MERCURY POISONING GLOBAL STUDY OF THIS HAZARDOUS
HEAVY METAL RELEASED, UNEP, February 3, 2003
54) WEST FLAYED FOR BIASED
ECO POLICIES, Gulf News, February 2, 2003
55) STUDY: WARMING WORSENED
DROUGHT, USA Today, January 31, 2003
56) CLIMATE PARTNERSHIP
WITH ROMANIA MOOTED, The Copenhagen Post, January 31, 2003
57) AIR POLLUTION AND
CLIMATE CHANGE TACKLING BOTH PROBLEMS IN TANDEM, United Nations Economic
Commission for Europe, January 31, 2003
58) U.S. TO JOIN
INTERNATIONAL FUSION RESEARCH PROJECT, Reuters, January 30, 2003
59) BP SHOWCASES EMISSION
REDUCTION TECHNOLOGY IN ABU DHABI, Mena Report, January 30, 2003
60) ICE CAP 'SENSITIVE' TO
GREENHOUSE GAS, Stuff, January 29, 2003
61) SHRINKING ARCTIC ICE TO
OPEN SHIPPING SHORT-CUTS, Reuters, January 29, 2003
62) CHEAP COAL A HURDLE TO
CHINA NATGAS GROWTH-EXPERT, Reuters, January 28, 2003
63) AIR QUALITY, CLIMATE
CHANGE AND PROTECTION OF THE OZONE LAYER: COMMISSION PURSUES LEGAL ACTION
AGAINST SIX MEMBER STATES, EU, January 27, 2003
64) CLIMATE RIGHT FOR
BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF WEATHER by Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr, Los Angeles
Times, February 15, 2003
65) END OF THE WORLD NIGH -
IT'S OFFICIAL by Michael Meacher, The Guardian, February 14, 2003
66) A BACK DOOR TO KYOTO?
by H. Sterling Burnett, Washington Post, February 13, 2003
67) A GREENER BUSH, The
Economist, February 13, 2003
68) STATEMENT BY THE
PRESIDENT (US), Office of the Press Secretary, February 12, 2003
69) WHO'S GOING TO PAY FOR
CLIMATE CHANGE? Time, February 7, 2003
70) A MATTER OF CHOICE, NOT
DESTINY by Md. Asadullah Khan, Daily Star, February 7, 2003
71) UNITED STATES AND
EUROPEAN UNION JOINT MEETING ON CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
RESEARCH, US State Department, February 7, 2003
72) OUTSIDE VIEW: THE ROAD
FROM KYOTO by Michael Renner, UPI, February 6, 2003
73) WITH 2002 BEHIND US,
IT'S TIME FOR OUR ANNUAL ASSESSMENT OF THE TOP CLIMATE CHANGE STORIES OF
THE YEAR by Leonie Haimson, Grist, January 31, 2003
74) CLIMATE CHANGE AND
WATER RESOURCES by John Onu Odihi, Brunei Online, January 31, 2003
75) U.S.-RUSSIAN JOINT
STATEMENT ON CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY DIALOGUE, US State Department, January
17, 2003
GENERAL NEWS
1) NUCLEAR ENERGY'S
PLACE USURPED BY WIND AND WAVES
The Observer
February 16, 2003
Internet:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,9061,896762,00.html
No more nuclear power
stations will be built in the foreseeable future as the Government turns to
wind and wave energy to provide Britain's future electricity needs. In a
seismic shift in policy, Ministers have agreed to back renewable energy as
the best way of meeting the UK's targets to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
The long-awaited energy white paper will plunge the nuclear industry into
fresh crisis by rejecting demands to build new plants. Until now, government
support for renewables has been patchy due to concern that Britain would not
meet its carbon emissions targets.
The white paper, which sets
out the UK's future energy strategy, will be unveiled by Patricia Hewitt,
the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, later this month. Sources who
have seen its final draft - agreed by cabinet Ministers last week -
confirmed that nuclear power had been superseded by renewables as the
Government's preferred way of providing power in the future. 'What is clear
is that the Government does not want to build a new generation of nuclear
power stations if renewables and energy efficiency can deliver,' said one.
However, plans to produce a
fifth of the UK's electricity from renewable sources by 2020 have been
controversially abandoned. The nuclear industry had wanted to build another
10 stations; however, Ministers are increasingly concerned about their
potential as a terrorist target and safety concerns persist on the
reprocessing of nuclear waste. Confidence in the nuclear industry has failed
to recover since the £650 million bail-out of British Energy, the privatised
nuclear power generator, underlined concerns over its long-term viability.
The future of the nuclear industry will be reviewed in 2005 alongside plans
for a major increase in funding to the renewable sector.
However, sources said the
next two years would be spent examining improvements in 'green' technology
in order to create a watertight case against expanding nuclear power plants.
Bryony Worthington, energy expert for Friends of the Earth, said: 'We are
delighted that the white paper has rejected the nuclear industry's calls for
more assistance.' In addition to pledging support for wind and wave energy,
the white paper will also place heavy emphasis on reducing carbon dioxide
emissions through energy efficiency. The preferred option is to reduce heat
lost in homes through boilers and heating systems with a campaign to
encourage homeowners to install better insulation.
A European-wide cap on
carbon emissions from coal-fired power stations will be brought in during
2005. Environmentalists also welcomed the fact that demands by the nuclear
industry to help build a new generation of nuclear plants by streamlining
planning policy had been ignored. The white paper also represents a major
snub to the national academy of sciences, which has urged the government to
end its self-imposed moratorium on building nuclear power stations. Defence
analysts have warned that nuclear power stations remain a key - and
vulnerable - terrorist target. A report by the influential thinktank close
to New Labour, the IPPR, suggested a plane flown into the intermediate level
waste stores at Sellafield could lead to 30,000 deaths within two days.
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2) RABO INDIA UNVEILS CARBON ADVISORY SERVICES
Business Standard
February 15, 2003
Internet:
http://www.business-standard.com/today/story.asp?Menu=2&story=8134
Rabo India, the 100 per
cent of the Netherlands-based, $300 million Rabo Bank, has launched carbon
advisory services in India. The bank will arrange sale of certified
emissions reductions (CERs) under the clean development mechanism from
projects in India to the Dutch government. It has also tied up with Winrock
International India to offer comprehensive advisory services to clients. It
will offer financial and technical resources to projects which take up
reduction of the harmful greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the environment. Rabo
Bank International had recently signed an agreement with the Dutch
government to contract 10 million tonne of GHG emission reductions from
sustainable energy projects in developing countries over a 2-year period.
The credits are to be
delivered over a 10-year period. India is one of the major potential
sources of CERs identified by Rabo Bank. However, countries like Brazil,
Argentina and Philippines also offer comparable advantages, said Rana
Kapoor, chief executive officer and managing director of Rabo India Finance.
In the first sale of its kind in the country, it is currently arranging for
sale of CERs from the Goetze India (GI) Group to the Netherlands. The GI
group is selling credits for its 30.6 mw wind energy installations in
Maharashtra and Karnataka. It is expected to deliver half a million tonne of
CERs over a 10-year period. The tentative price for the sale is $4.50 per
tonne. Sale of CERS will enhance the financial viability of the project,
said Kapoor, since cost of technology, especially in the non-conventional
energy sector in a country like in India, is fairly high.
Supporting him, T C Prabhu,
executive director, GI Power Corporation, said that in case of biomass, the
carbon credits are 7 times those in wind energy installations. At $4.50 a
tonne, a third of the cost of the project comes in by way of payments for
carbon credits, he added. Developed countries are buying carbon credits in
anticipation of the Kyoto Protocol becoming effective. The Protocol aims at
reducing GHG emissions from developed countries (annex I countries) by 5.2
per cent compared with the level of emissions in 1990. Developed countries
have to reduce emissions by 515 million tonne and have the freedom to reduce
their own emissions or to buy carbon credits from emission abatement in
non-annex I countries. The Protocol, which was recently ratified by Canada,
will become effective once Russia ratifies it. Once ratified, the demand for
emission reduction credits will push up the price from the current range of
$3-5 per tonne. India ratified the Protocol in October 2002 and is generally
viewed as a major potential source of carbon credits.
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3) EU AND US IDENTIFY JOINT RESEARCH INITIATIVES TO
COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE
Cordis
February 14, 2003
Internet:
http://www.eubusiness.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=103384&d=1&h=240&f=56&dateformat=%25o%20%25B%20%25Y
Following the conclusion of
the first bilateral 'US-EU joint meeting on climate change science and
technology research', the two sides have announced plans to initiate
collaborative projects in six areas of climate research. The joint meeting
took place in Washington from 5 to 6 February, following an invitation from
Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky to European
Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin.
The delegations identified
suitable cooperative research activities in the following areas: carbon
cycle research, aerosol-climate interactions, feedbacks and climate
sensitivity, integrated observation systems and data, carbon capture and
storage, and hydrogen technology and infrastructure. Within these areas,
specific initiatives will include studies on the influence of aerosols on
clouds, climate and the water cycle in sensitive regions such as the
Mediterranean, and the joint development of integrated observation systems
to provide the data needed for climate change research.
Other non-greenhouse gas
emitting energy sources, for example nuclear and renewable energies,
although not discussed in detail, were mentioned as worthy for cooperation
in future discussions. Both the US and the EU agreed to designate points of
contact to coordinate the development of the projects, and to monitor
progress once activities are underway. The two sides also agreed to review
the progress of their cooperation at the next joint meeting, which could
take place in Italy later this year.
4) ELSAM BEHIND POLAND'S
BIGGEST WIND FARM
The Copenhagen Post
February 14, 2003
Internet:
http://cphpost.periskop.dk/default.asp?id=28157
A Danish-Polish Joint
Implementation project under the Kyoto Agreement brings Poland its largest
windmill park ever, thanks to Elsam's expertise. Danish energy supplier
Elsam has constructed Poland's largest windmill park ever, and is now
producing energy for Polish consumers. The turbines, located in the
Northwestern corner of Poland, have doubled the country's wind power
capacity, and produce enough power to supply 25,000 Polish households.
Poland's power production
is primarily based on coal and lignite-fuelled plants. But under recent
Polish legislation, an increasing portion of the nation's power consumption
will have to be covered under renewable energy forms. The windmill park is
the first project in the so-called Joint Implementation directive under
the Kyoto Agreement. Under the terms of the directive, two countries can
implement joint projects to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, and each
record a share of the reduction on their own CO2 reports. The Danish and
Polish governments are expected to enter a formal framework agreement for
Joint Implementation.
With yearly production of
approximately 65 million kilowatt-hours, the 15 Elsam windmills will reduce
Polish emissions by 45,000 tons of carbon dioxide, 300 tons of sulphur
dioxide, and 100 tons of nitrogen. Elsam has built up considerable know-how
from the erection of our Danish windmill parks, and we've been able to
transfer that expertise to Poland. I hope it will contribute to supporting
the development of environmentally sustainable energy forms in the country,
said Bjarne Henning Jensen, director of Elsam's Project and Facility
department.
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5) INDO-US MOVE ON
CLIMATE
Business Standard
February 14, 2003
Internet:
http://www.business-standard.com/today/story.asp?Menu=19&story=8077
The US will help India in
dealing with the effects of climate change. The two countries will cooperate
with each other in assessing the potential consequences of climate
variability. And the US will assist India in a project to devise adaptive
strategies to such change. Both countries will work on methods to improve
resource management in climate-affected sectors thus increasing their
resilience to such natural phenomenon. Further, the countries will jointly
work on dissemination of climate-related information in rural areas. The
scope of work will also include hydrogen technology, renewable energy and
energy efficiency improvement.
back to contents
6) INDIA EVINCES
INTEREST IN RANET TECHNOLOGY
The Hindu
February 14, 2003
Internet:
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/06141403.htm
New Delhi, Feb. 14. (PTI):
India today evinced interest in a US- proposed pilot project of modern
communication technologies to disseminate climate-related information in
rural areas. The proposal was put up at a meeting here between the
Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests, K C Mihsra and a visiting
delegation from US Department of State, led by Susan Gordon, when they
identified certain areas for bilateral cooperation, an official release said
here.
The US proposal centred on
a pilot project to foster dissemination of agro-meterological information on
monsoon in rural areas through development of RANET (Radi and Internet
Technologies for Communication of Climate-related Information for Rural
Development). This bilateal cooperation is proposed in view of the growing
importance of adpative technologies after the Delhi Declaration on Climate
Change and Sustainable Development accorded high priority to such
technologies.
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7) DUTCH BANK, GOETZE IN
PACT FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECTS
Times of India
February 14, 2003
Internet:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?artid=37411735
NEW DELHI: Rabobank
International has entered into an agreement with the Dutch government to
contract 10 millions tonnes of greenhouse gas emission reductions from
sustainable energy projects in developing countries. Its first move is a
tie-up with the Goetze India Group for renewable energy projects in Punjab
and Karnataka. Under the international framework on checking global warming,
developed countries are supposed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases
such as carbon dioxide by an average of 5 per cent over the 1990 levels. One
of the ways they can do this is by investing money and technology in clean
projects in developing countries, thus winning emission reduction credits in
a complicated formula. It's called the clean development mechanism (CDM).
This is yet to come into force but governments and companies which have
spotted the potential have begun to move bilaterally. The Netherlands, for
instance, wants to achieve half its reductions away from its shores - it's
cheaper and less trouble. The only thing stopping sections of Indian
industry from joining the bandwagon is the price on offer per tonne of
carbon.
But on Thursday, Rabo India
launched its carbon advisory business in India, tying up with an NGO,
Winrock International, to cover the financial and technical aspects of the
business. Rabo India's Somak Ghosh says they are interested in wind, hydel
and biomass in the renewable energy sector. Prices in this nascent,
politically uncertain market are yet to firm up, but Goetze Group's T C
Prabhu thinks it's worth it. He says they went into windpower in 1998 to
capitalise on the fiscal incentives and recovered their capital cost in two
years. At about $4 a tonne of carbon now, they spot huge business
opportunities for windpower in Karnataka and biomass in Punjab, particularly
the latter.
The aim is to cash in on
whatever is on offer, beating back competition from developing countries
such as Brazil, Argentina and the Philippines and be in position when the
CDM market opens up with the ratification of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. This
would bring the trade mechanisms into full play and perhaps push up prices.
But when this will happen is still an open question. On the same day as
business showed interest, an American delegation met an inter-ministerial
government team to discuss areas of cooperation on climate change. These
include ways of adapting to it, renewable energy and energy efficiency
improvement. Both the ministries of power and non-conventional energy
sources are keen to use CDM to get their projects up and going.
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8) MANKIND IN DANGER OF DESTROYING ITSELF, SAYS MEACHER
Oldham Evening Chronicle
February 14, 2003
Internet:
http://www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/NEWSF05.html
The human race is in real
danger of wiping itself out, Environment Minister Michael Meacher said
today. Making the change needed to avoid that fate is perhaps the greatest
challenge we have ever faced, he said. There is a lot wrong with our
world, but it is not as bad as many people think it is actually worse.
The Oldham West and Royton MP detailed the major problems facing the world
as global warming leads to storms and flooding, lack of fresh water, the
destruction of forests and farming land, the overuse of natural resources
and a rising population. The ultimate concern is that if runaway global
warming occurred, temperatures could spiral out of control and make our
planet uninhabitable, he said. Temperatures are set to rise by 5.8C this
century, compared with 0.6 per cent in the last, he said.
The number of people
affected by flooding increased from seven million in the 1960s to 150
million now, while the number of people hit by cyclones and hurricanes has
risen eightfold to 25 million a year in the past 30 years. He said that mass
extinctions had taken place on Earth five times in the last 540 million
years, one of them involving the destruction of 96 per cent of the species
then living. But while that was previously the result of asteroid strikes
or intense glaciation, this is the first time in the history of the Earth
that species themselves by their own activities are at risk of generating
their own demise, Mr Meacher said.
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9) ENERGY SUMMIT FOR
CAPITAL PLANNED
The Copenhagen Post
February 14, 2003
Internet:
http://cphpost.periskop.dk/default.asp?id=28136
Denmark is tapped to host a
major conference on sustainable energy later this year. In September or
October of this year, Denmark will play host to a major international
conference on sustainable energy. The meeting, a follow-up to last autumn's
UN Summit in Johannesburg, is designed to expand international cooperation
on renewable, CO2-free energy initiatives. Environment Minister Hans
Christian Schmidt reported the news last Friday from Nairobi, Kenya, where
he had spent the past several days participating in supervisory meetings
under UNEP, the UN Environmental Programme. Schmidt offered to host the
upcoming conference, tapped as a preparatory meeting to an even larger world
conference on renewable energy in Germany in 2004. Many countries actually
support expanding renewable energy efforts, but we have various approaches
to how this technology can be developed further. We need to exchange
information and share our experience in this area, Schmidt said.
During last autumn's
Johannesburg summit, the EU countries raised a proposal to increase the
percentage of renewable energy used worldwide from 14 to 15 percent by 2010,
but the proposal failed due to opposition from the US and the oil-producing
countries. As a result, the summit failed to produce a binding agreement for
sustainable energy forms. Instead, the EU forged a coalition with
like-minded nations, all of which have pledged to promote the development of
renewable energy and take their own programmes a step further than
Johannesburg's non-binding recommendations. Besides the EU and its
candidate-nations, signatories to the pledge include Brazil, Argentina,
Chile, New Zealand, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Uganda, and several island
states acutely threatened by global warming. Another dozen countries are
expected to join the partnership in the near future.
back to contents
10) TROPICAL DEFORESTATION AND GLOBAL WARMING:
SMITHSONIAN SCIENTIST CHALLENGES RESULTS OF RECENT STUDY
Smithsonian Institution via Science Daily
February 14, 2003
Internet:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/02/030214074147.htm
Late last year, Frédéric
Achard and colleagues published a controversial article in which they
contended that earlier estimates of worldwide tropical deforestation and
atmospheric carbon emissions were too high. In the February 14 issue of
Science, Philip Fearnside from the National Institute for Amazonian Research
in Brazil, and William Laurance from the Smithsonian Tropical Research
Institute in Panama argue that the Achard study contains serious flaws
rendering its conclusions about greenhouse gases unreliable. The article in
question ("Determination of deforestation rates of the world's humid
tropical forests", Science, vol. 297, pages 999-1002), which received
extensive press coverage, asserted that only about 0.6 to 1.0 billion tons
of greenhouse gases (most carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide) were being
produced by the razing and felling of tropical forests each year. This
estimate is considerably lower than those of earlier studies, which
estimated up to 2.4 billion tons annually.
Fearnside and Laurance list
seven serious errors or limitations of the Achard study, which, they say,
collectively lead to a major underestimate of greenhouse gas emissions.
Among the errors they identify is that the Achard team failed to include
drier tropical forests--which are also being rapidly cleared and burned--in
their estimate. Other concerns include underestimating the amount of
biomass--and hence the amount of carbon--contained in tropical forests. The
study assumes that regenerating forests on abandoned lands will re-absorb
large amounts of atmospheric carbon. In fact, such forests are often
re-cleared after a few years. The study also fails to consider the effects
of important greenhouse gases like methane and nitrous oxide, which are also
produced by deforestation.
Fearnside and Laurance
further assert that the effects on global warming of selective logging,
habitat fragmentation, and other types of forest degradation are not
included in the Achard study. Selective logging, for example, does not cause
deforestation per se but produces hundreds of millions of tons of greenhouse
gas emissions each year. "When you look at all these factors, you can't help
but conclude that their numbers are too small," said Laurance. "They're
suggesting that tropical deforestation and degradation accounts for only
about a tenth of the global production of greenhouse gases. Personally, I'd
argue that their estimate is two to three times too low." Each year, humans
produce seven to eight billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions, which are
considered the major cause of global warming. Most emissions are produced by
the burning of fossil fuels and tropical deforestation, but the relative
importance of these two sources remains controversial.
back to contents
11) US FIRMS SET GREENHOUSE GAS TARGETS IN BUSH PLAN
Planet Ark
February 14, 2003
Internet:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/19831/story.htm
WASHINGTON - U.S.
utilities, automakers, oil refiners and other industries said this week they
will voluntarily trim carbon dioxide emissions, drawing praise from the Bush
administration and sighs from environmentalists who say it is not enough to
reduce heat-trapping gases. Representatives of a dozen industries told a
news conference they would participate in the new Climate Vision Program
being overseen by the Department of Energy and other federal agencies.
"These initiatives are a first step in what we expect to be an ongoing
engagement with these and other sectors of our economy in the years ahead,"
President George W. Bush said in a statement.
The United States is the
world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, blamed
by scientists for raising the Earth's temperature. The White House refused
to participate in the international Kyoto Treaty to reduce emissions, saying
it would be too costly. Instead, the government opted for a program that
encourages U.S. firms to set their own targets for carbon dioxide and decide
if they meet them. The Sierra Club, Environmental Defense and other green
groups say a voluntary effort will do little to curb emissions. They back a
Senate bill that would require steep cuts in carbon dioxide.
Energy Secretary Spencer
Abraham said the voluntary program aims to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas
"intensity" by 18 percent over the next decade. Intensity refers to the
output of emissions compared to U.S. economic output. Christine Whitman,
head of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), said there would
be no immediate reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. "It's not going to
get any smaller immediately, but we know that the overall impact is going to
be over time and will get smaller," Whitman told reporters.
UTILITIES PLAN 3-5 PCT
CUTS
Utilities including
American Electric Power Co. Inc. (AEP.N), which runs the largest U.S. fleet
of coal-fired plants, pledged to collectively cut their carbon output
intensity by 3 to 5 percent by the end of 2010. Utilities account for 40
percent of all carbon dioxide emissions, more than any other industry
sector. But a cut in intensity could actually mean that carbon dioxide
emissions from utilities would increase by 16 percent over the period, said
Jeremy Symons, an analyst with the National Wildlife Federation. That is
because while utilities seek to reduce carbon dioxide output per unit of
power generated, overall emissions would likely increase, Symons said.
On the electric front, the
effort is headed by the Edison Electric Institute, whose 40 members include
the largest U.S. utilities. The reduction targets are an aggregate for all
members, and some utilities may come in above or below them. A spokesman for
Edison Electric Institute defended the targets as "fairly ambitious," and
said the plan would slow carbon dioxide growth with the aim of eventually
reversing it. Oil refiners, another major source of carbon dioxide, set a
goal of a 10 percent reduction in emission intensity by 2012. Linn Draper,
president of America Electric Power (AEP) and head of the Business
Roundtable of the nation's largest 150 companies, said banks and other
industries could also help reduce greenhouse gases. Semiconductor
manufacturers and mining, cement and aluminum makers are also taking part in
the voluntary plan.
GIFT TO UTILITIES?
Environmental groups
criticized the voluntary program as a gift to utilities from the Bush
administration, which last year relaxed pollution limits on old,
coal-burning power plants. Carl Pope, director of the Sierra Club, said the
program's focus on greenhouse gas intensity was a "shady accounting scheme"
and that emissions would continue to rise. Green groups and Senate Democrats
back legislation reintroduced this week that would cut carbon dioxide
emissions by 21 percent by 2009. The bill, offered by Sen. Jim Jeffords, a
Vermont Independent, Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman and others, would
impose the first limits on carbon dioxide. The Bush administration has also
proposed a plan to reduce emissions of other pollutants by 2018.
back to contents
12) FOREST PRODUCTS
INDUSTRY TO REDUCE GREENHOUSE GASES 12%
GreenBiz.com
February 14, 2003
Internet:
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=23894
WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 13,
2003 - The American Forest & Paper Association, representing the U.S.
forest, paper and wood products industry, has pledged to reduce its
greenhouse gas intensity as part of the presidents voluntary plan to
address climate change. The association applauds the Presidents initiative
to address climate change through enhanced research in technology and
science, incentives and voluntary efforts, said AF&PA president and CEO W.
Henson Moore in a letter to the Administration committing his group to the
plan. The plan recognizes that only a strong economy will allow us to make
the investments we need to reduce our emissions, Moore wrote.
AF&PA members have under
way a number of programs to try to meet the presidents climate objectives,
and have collectively pledged to pursue them. Among them are inventorying
and reporting on greenhouse gases, enhancing sequestration in managed
forests and products, improving technologies and energy efficiency, using
co-generation, and increasing use of renewable energy and recycling. Based
on preliminary calculations, we expect that these programs will reduce our
greenhouse gas intensity by 12% by 2012 relative to 2000, Moore said in the
letter. He also promised to refine AF&PAs estimates in a year, and in two
years to evaluate members progress and determine if additional reductions
or changes to their greenhouse gas programs are appropriate.
The industry has already
taken significant steps to reduce its greenhouse emissions, Moore said. It
will continue to derive more than half of its energy needs from renewable
energy, or biofuels, Moore told the Administration. The industry leads all
other manufacturing sectors in onsite electricity generation, meeting more
than half of its own energy needs through highly-efficient co-generation
processes, he said. The letter described several industry programs that
AF&PA will use to achieve its goals. A critical program is sequestration --
storage -- of carbon in forestlands and manufactured products. More than 114
million acres of forests are enrolled in AF&PAs Sustainable Forestry
Initiative program, the worlds largest sustainable forestry program. Under
the SFI program, forests are managed under rigorous standards for protecting
soil and water resources, contributing to biological diversity, conserving
unique features and aesthetic values, and enhancing forest productivity.
Additionally, the industry produces products that store carbon for decades
or longer.
Research and development is
also part of AF&PAs solution. One technology under development would allow
for increased burning of renewable biofuels with lower emissions and greater
efficiency. Another project, in partnership with the Department of Energy,
is biomass gasification. This technique potentially could make the U.S.
forest products industry totally energy self-sufficient and a generator of
net surplus power, according to Moore. Another program is recycling, which
avoids greenhouse gas emissions from products prematurely disposed of in
landfills. The industry has achieved 48% recovery rates for all paper
products, and has a current goal of 50%. Moore cautioned that his industrys
success will depend partially on the administrations efforts to manage the
activities of all government agencies, especially the promulgation of
regulatory requirements that may cause increases in greenhouse gas
emissions. We strongly encourage the Administration to address regulatory
requirements where the negative climate impacts outweigh any environmental
benefit, he said.
back to contents
13) EU MUST CLAMP DOWN ON CAR AIR CONDITIONING
Edie weekly summaries
February 14, 2003
Internet:
http://www.edie.net/gf.cfm?L=left_frame.html&R=
http://www.edie.net/news/Archive/6641.cfm
Air conditioning in cars
will be subject to tighter EU legislation currently in preparation, to curb
the rise in emissions from vehicles that now require more energy to keep
their interiors cool and more fluorinated gases to pump their air
conditioning units. Without tighter control, mobile air conditioning is
expected to account for 10% of total greenhouse gas emissions from cars. At
a European conference on reducing greenhouse gases, EU Environment
Commissioner Margot Wallström said that proposals were currently being
drafted for legislation to curb fluorinated gas emissions, including those
from air conditioning systems.
Given that air conditioning
is rapidly becoming a standard feature of new cars and is predicted to add
another 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions by 2010, another 50
million tonnes by 2020, Wallström said that the EU must also act to curb the
trend in more energy-intensive cars. Consumers might be surprised to learn
that even the most fuel efficient and low emission cars were churning out
more gases than they were tested for, because fuel consumption measurements
on new cars do not include the weight and operation of the air conditioning
unit, said Wallström.
The EU is considering
phasing out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) currently used in air conditioning,
which would entail a transition period to enable manufacturers to switch to
alternative cooling technology. Wallström said that while the legislation
was being prepared, the EU would remain open to suggestions from industry on
the feasibility of and alternatives to eliminating HFCs, while staying on
target to reduce greenhouse gases under the Kyoto agreement. Commissioner
Wallström also announced that she would join a delegation to Russia in March
to encourage the country to ratify the Kyoto protocol (see related story),
whose implementation was now technically and economically feasible, she
added.
back to contents
14) WILD COAL FIRES ARE
A 'GLOBAL CATASTROPHE'
New Scientist
February 14, 2003
Internet:
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993390
Wild coal fires are a
global catastrophe, scientists are warning, burning hundreds of millions of
tonnes of coal every year and contributing to climate change and damaging
human health. These fires can rage both above and below ground and may
contribute more than three per cent of the world's annual carbon dioxide
emissions, which are thought to be causing global warming. Scientists note
that if coal-producing countries could tackle the infernos, it might be a
cost-effective way to meet their targets under the Kyoto protocol, drawn up
to cut the emission of greenhouse gases.
"I don't think it's an
exaggeration at all to say it's a global catastrophe," says Glenn Stracher,
a US geologist at East Georgia College, Swainsboro. As well as releasing
carbon dioxide, "the fires cause human suffering - respiratory, skin
diseases, increases in heart problems and asthmatic conditions. They are
responsible for a lot of illnesses". "Estimates for the carbon dioxide put
into the atmosphere from underground fires in China are equivalent to the
emissions from all motor vehicles in the US," Stracher told delegates at the
American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Denver.
The fires also release noxious chemicals into the air which condense to
contaminate soil and water with substances like mercury, selenium and
sulphides, according to research by Stracher, to be published in the
International Journal of Coal Geology.
FOREST FIRES
Coal fires occur wherever
there is coal, but major fires blaze in Indonesia, China, India and the US.
Alfred Whitehouse, of the Office of Surface Mining in Jakarta, Indonesia,
says there may be up to 1000 fires blazing underground in that country
alone. Underground fires can be particularly dangerous as they can burn for
decades and ignite forest fires in times of drought. Surface fires tend to
be doused eventually by rains, but underground fires burn until they exhaust
the coal or hit the water table, he said. Indonesia has been plagued with
coal fires for two decades, ever since a drought induced by the weather
phenomenon El Niño in 1982. Whitehouse said his office had managed to quell
106 of the 263 fires they had identified by digging the fires out.
Although coal seam fires
have occurred spontaneously far back into geological history, they are much
more common now. Mining activities like welding, using explosives, or miners
simply discarding cigarette butts can ignite them. "It's almost always
someone's hand," said Whitehouse, adding that 63 fires are currently being
monitored in the US.
SMOTHERING GROUT
Stracher's research
suggests coal wildfires in China burn 200 million tonnes a year, equivalent
to about 20 per cent of the total used by the US for power generation. Paul
van Dijk, of the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and
Earth Observation (ITC) in the Netherlands says the ITC is currently working
with the Chinese government to use satellite remote sensing technology to
detect and monitor underground coal fires in China. Mining engineer Gary
Colaizzi told the conference his company, Goodson and Associates, has
invented a heat-resistant grout that smothers the coal fires. It is made of
sand, fly ash, cement, water and foam and has the consistency of shaving
foam.
See Also:
UNDERGROUND FIRES WREAK HAVOC, BLAZING COAL
SEAMS THREATEN WILDLIFE AND STOKE GLOBAL WARMING, The Guardian, February 15,
2003, Internet:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,895906,00.html
HIDDEN COAL FIRES CREATE VISIBLE PROBLEMS,
ENS, February 14, 2003, Internet:
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2003/2003-02-14-06.asp
back to contents
15) GOV'T TO LAUNCH ENVIRONMENTAL FUEL TAX IN 2005
Mainichi Shimbun
February 14, 2003
Internet:
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20030214p2a00m0dm017000c.html
Japan plans to launch an
"environmental tax" on vehicle fuel in 2005 to achieve target levels of
greenhouse gas emission reductions set in the Kyoto Protocol, officials said
Friday. Under the protocol, Japan has to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 6
percent from the 1990 level during the period between 2008 and 2012.
Although the government has been calling on businesses and individuals to
voluntarily work towards this goal, emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) - a
major contributor to the greenhouse effect - have been on the increase.
The government is now
discussing the possibility of introducing an environmental tax on vehicle
fuel and other products in fiscal 2005 in a desperate effort to cut CO2
emission and achieve the Kyoto Protocol target, said Environment Minister
Shunichi Suzuki. Officials tried to justify the tax, which is unpopular with
businesses, by saying that without its introduction Japan will not be able
to achieve protocol targets. At the request of the Environment Ministry, a
panel of environment experts will soon begin discussing methods of taxation,
tax rates and usage of tax income, and then present the results of their
study in the summer of this year, the officials said.
back to contents
16) AIR TRAVEL TO KNOCK
UK CO2 EMISSIONS OFF TARGET
Planet Ark
February 14, 2003
Internet:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/19821/story.htm
LONDON - Britain is
unlikely to deliver on its pledges to curb emissions of carbon dioxide, with
pollution from air travel threatening to undo progress by industry and other
sectors, said a team of government advisors this week. The independent
Sustainable Development Commission said existing measures to cut emissions
of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) were unlikely to achieve even two
thirds of the government's targets, and maybe less than half.
The government's goal is to
cut CO2 emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2010. "Our analysis
shows that the UK will fall well short of the government's goal for reducing
emissions of carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas, unless further
measures are taken," said commission chairman Jonathon Porritt. Particularly
worrying were emissions from air travel, which had been excluded from
government calculations and were putting at risk targets set out in the
government's 10-year transport plan, said the commission.
Porritt urged ministers to
use a white paper on future energy policy, due shortly, to put in place
extra measures. The government is banking on renewable energy sources such
as wind turbines, as well as increased energy efficiency, to bring big
reductions in emissions. Britain was on track to meet targets on total
greenhouse gas emissions set out in the Kyoto Protocol, the commission said.
Under Kyoto, the UK is committed to cutting total greenhouse gas emissions
by 12.5 percent from 1990 levels over the period 2008-2012.
back to contents
17) U.S. INDUSTRY
PLEDGES VOLUNTARY GREENHOUSE GAS CUTS
ENS
February 13, 2003
Internet:
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2003/2003-02-13-10.asp
WASHINGTON, DC, February
13, 2003 (ENS) - Top officials from the Bush administration are showcasing a
list of voluntary industry commitments to reduce the emission of greenhouse
gases as evidence that the President's plan to combat global climate change
is working. Critics belittled the administration's claims and its voluntary
plan, calling it reckless, and warning that it is likely to increase, rather
than reduce, greenhouse gas emissions.
"Voluntary goals for
reducing global warming pollution make no more sense than voluntary
standards for drinking water or toxic cleanup," said Katherine Silverthorne,
director of World Wildlife Fund's U.S. climate change program. "With public
health and safety and our environment at risk, failure to establish legally
binding reduction targets is simply irresponsible." Unveiled Wednesday by
Department of Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Climate VISION - which
stands for Voluntary Innovative Sector Initiatives: Opportunities Now - is a
voluntary, public-private partnership aimed at encouraging reductions in the
projected growth of America's greenhouse gas emissions. "It is important to
remember that government itself will not appreciably reduce greenhouse gas
emissions," Abraham said. "Industry, and commercial businesses and ordinary
Americans living their daily lives, will."
The program is the
cornerstone of the President's commitment to reducing the nation's
greenhouse gas intensity by 18 percent. Greenhouse gas intensity is the
ratio of emissions to economic output. In February 2002, President George W.
Bush made this commitment and urged American businesses and industries to
make efforts to move toward that 18 percent goal. The United States is
responsible for more than 25 percent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions,
which are widely believed to be the major cause of global warming. At
Wednesday's event, Abraham said the administration has received voluntary
commitments from American industries that will enable the nation to reach
the President's goal. He praised voluntary efforts from a wide array of
industry organizations representing automakers, chemical companies, mining
operations, nuclear energy, oil and gas companies as well as the iron and
steel industry.
As an example, Abraham
pointed to the American Petroleum Institute, which says it will increase the
aggregate energy efficiency of its U.S. refinery operations by 10 percent
from 2002 to 2012. The American Chemistry Council, representing 90 percent
of the chemical industry, has agreed to an 18 percent overall greenhouse gas
intensity reduction target by 2012, the energy secretary said. Yet critics
fear that relying on industry to act voluntarily will do little to curb
emissions. Some believe the administration is using greenhouse gas intensity
in order to cloak a policy of inaction. "Wasting crucial time with these
intensity reduction targets does more harm than good," Silverthorne said.
Reducing greenhouse gas intensity is not the same as reducing greenhouse gas
emissions.
Intensity is a relative
indicator, expressed in kilograms of emissions per dollar of economic
output, explained Bill Prindle, policy director of the American Council for
an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE). "Their approach is clever in that it
shows apparent progress by reducing intensity," Prindle said, "but we would
have to double our current rate of intensity reduction to see meaningful
drops in emissions." ACEEE research shows that the Bush policy will result
in a 13 percent increase in emissions, only two percent less than emissions
levels without these new voluntary commitments.
Critics point to a host of
other policies, including the Clear Skies initiative and the failure to push
for meaningful increases to fuel efficiency standards, as further evidence
the administration has no desire to cut greenhouse gas emissions. In 2001,
soon after taking office, President Bush withdrew Clinton era support for
the Kyoto Protocol, an international accord to reduce global greenhouse
emissions through a system of legally binding limits on 37 industrialized
countries. The President has been adamant in his opposition to any policy
that mandates reductions in emissions. The science behind global warming is
uncertain, the administration argues, and mandating reductions could harm
economic growth.
Supporters of the
President's policy believe that voluntary agreements by industry are the
best way for the nation to achieve reductions in greenhouse gas emissions
without serious economic turmoil. "I am not aware of voluntary programs that
have failed," said Dr. Linn Draper, chairman, president and chief executive
officer of the American Electric Power Company and the chairman of the
Business Roundtable's Environment, Technology and the Economy Task Force. "I
think that we ought to try a voluntary program and see how well it works,"
Draper added. "I think it would be a big mistake to say it's not going to
work before we even try it."
But environmentalists and
many Congressional Democrats, as well as some Republicans, are convinced
that the President's faith in voluntary, industry led initiatives is
misguided. "Though they may make for good P.R., voluntary programs like this
just don't produce results," said Senator Joseph Lieberman, a Democrat from
Connecticut. "At the 1992 summit in Rio the U.S. agreed to the Convention on
Climate Change and signed up to a 'voluntary' goal of reducing emissions to
1990 levels by the year 2000. Our greenhouse gas emissions proceeded to
increase by 14 percent between 1990 and 2000. We cannot afford to fall again
for the false promise of promises alone," Senator Lieberman said. Last
month, Lieberman, and fellow Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican,
introduced a bill that would establish a market based emissions credit
trading system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
On Wednesday, Lieberman,
along with Senators Jim Jeffords, a Vermont Independent, and Susan Collins,
a Maine Republican, reintroduced the Clean Power Act, which would use an
emissions trading program to mandate industry cuts to emissions of carbon
dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury. This contrasts with
the Bush administration's Clear Skies initiative, which does not address
carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. Working with the administration
and its Congressional allies will not be easy, Jeffords said. "Their actions
so far on air quality matters have not fostered an atmosphere of trust and
cooperation."
But the administration
appears unfazed by the steady stream of criticism. The voluntary commitments
the administration has lined up, Abraham said, are "impressive testimony to
the ability of the private sector to get the job done." As the
administration praised industry efforts, industry representatives commended
the President for focusing on voluntary efforts, rather than mandates, to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions. "The President's climate initiative is a
critical first step towards reversing the growth in U.S. greenhouse gas
emissions," said Edison Electric Institute president Thomas Kuhn. "By
encouraging voluntary, cost effective solutions, it will curb emissions
without undermining our energy supply or putting the brakes on economic
growth." Environmentalists could not disagree more, said Sierra Club's
executive director Carl Pope. "This irresponsible policy simply provides
cover for polluters to spew more heat trapping pollution into the air. If
you really want to help your friend quit smoking, you don't make it easier
for him to buy cigarettes."
See Also:
EMISSIONS REDUCTION PLAN TOUTED, Washington
Post, February 13, 2003;
Internet:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64898-2003Feb12.html
U.S. LAUNCHES NEW PLAN TO CUT GREENHOUSE
GAS EMISSIONS, Japan Today, February 13, 2003,
Internet:
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=8&id=249336
WEAK RESPONSE ON GLOBAL WARMING, New York
Times February 14, 2003, Internet:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/14/opinion/14FRI3.html?ex=1045803600&en=62412402aacd2d99&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
WHITE HOUSE TOUTS VOLUNTARY POLLUTION CUTS;
ENVIRONMENTALISTS DIFFER, The Washington Post, February 12, 2003,
Internet:
http://www.nrdc.org/news/newsDetails.asp?nID=889
PRESIDENT BUSH'S CLIMATE CHANGE PLAN VIOLATES KEY PRINCIPLES OF JUST CLIMATE
CHANGE POLICY, Redefining Progress, February 13 2003, Internet:
http://www.enn.com/direct/display-release.asp?objid=D1D1364E000000F35ACA1441AE0DC6EC
back to contents
18) GLOBAL TEMPERATURES STAY HIGH IN 2002 - UK
Planet Ark
February 13, 2003
Internet:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/19813/story.htm
LONDON - Global
temperatures have kept rising and 2002 was one of the warmest years on
record while many greenhouse gases reached their highest ever levels in
2001, a British government report said this week. Data analysed by the UK
Meteorological Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research
found that last year joined 2001 and 1998 as the top three warmest since
records began in 1860. "This report does show that the UK is making good
progress to tackle its greenhouse gas emissions, but much more needs to be
done if we are to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere
at a safe level," Environment Minister Michael Meacher said in a statement.
Scientists say greenhouse
gases such as carbon dioxide, from vehicle and industry emissions, cause
temperature increases by trapping the sun's heat in the atmosphere. Meacher
said in a statement that Britain was on track to exceed its target under the
United Nations Kyoto Protocol of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 12.5
percent below 1990 levels by 2008-2012. The report said the UK could still
achieve its own higher target of a 23 percent cut. A government paper on the
future of the energy sector is due in the next couple of months. A report
last year advocated increasing energy from renewable sources to 20 percent
by 2020 as a way of meeting climate goals. Climate change scenarios for the
UK by the Hadley Centre suggest a future of hotter, drier summers and
warmer, wetter winters.
back to contents
19) STATES TARGET
GREENHOUSE GASES
Stateline.org
February 13, 2003
Internet:
http://www.stateline.org/story.do?storyId=287775
States are taking steps to
reduce Americas contributions to global warming in the face of federal
inaction. The Bush administration favors voluntary programs encouraging
companies to track and reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases-- like
carbon dioxide and methane-- that scientists believe are contributing to a
rise in global temperatures. With the United States producing a quarter of
the worlds greenhouse gases, many states have taken matters into their own
hands by regulating utility emissions or carbon dioxide from vehicles.
Eileen Claussen, president
of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, said, States are perceiving a
vacuum in federal leadership and are moving forward on their own, sometimes
in cautious ways, and with the notion they theyre going to experiment with
some different approaches. States are perceiving a vacuum in federal
leadership and are moving forward on their own.
Californias innovative law
on curbing greenhouse gases requires state air regulators to start a program
by 2009 to cut emissions from automotive vehicles. New York Gov. George
Pataki promoted a similar plan in his State of the State address, and the
U.S. Congress is considering a national limit on the release of carbon
dioxide. State action is building momentum for dealing with carbon dioxide
on the national level, Claussen said. (Stateline is funded by the same
philanthropy that supports the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.)
In his State of the Union
address, President Bush called for action on a Clear Skies initiative that
promises reductions in three power-plant pollutants: mercury, sulfur
dioxide, and nitrogen oxide. But the plan doesnt cover carbon dioxide, a
gas emitted from transportation-related sources, such as cars and buses,
that accounts for 32 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
Three statesMassachusetts,
Maine and Connecticut--- sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in
January, arguing that the Bush administration is jeopardizing the health of
its residents and violating clean-air laws by failing to regulate carbon
dioxide emissions. Thus far, no other states have plans to follow their
lead.
In the absence of a
mandatory national policy, many states have forged ahead to try to lower
emissions. In May 2002, New Hampshire became the first state to
legislatively require fossil fuel plants to reduce emissions of four
pollutants, including carbon dioxide. Other states are undertaking
educational campaigns to reduce greenhouse gases, turning methane gas from
landfills into energy, promoting carpooling and natural gas vehicles. Oregon
became the first state to use its Capitol to generate solar power last year.
Theres a growing expectation that a lot of the leadership on environmental
energy is going to come at the state level. Barry Rabe, University of
Michigan professor . Whether or not the federal government acts, state
actions historically have influenced greenhouse gases, said Barry Rabe, a
professor of environmental policy at the University of Michigan and chief
author of a study conducted by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.
Theres a growing expectation that a lot of the leadership on environmental
energy is going to come at the state level.
State approaches to
greenhouse gases are varied:
* In December, New Jersey
partnered with churches to promote the use of renewable energy.
* Massachusetts was the
first state to establish a multi-pollutant cap that includes carbon monoxide
for six power plants in April 2001.
* A Nebraska program uses
crop rotation to increase the amount of farmland that absorbs carbon from
the atmosphere.
* Wisconsin established
mandatory reporting for large carbon dioxide generators.
Regional cooperation is
proving increasingly possible. New England governors and the premiers of
five eastern provinces of Canada reaffirmed goals in August 2002 to develop
a common framework for reducing greenhouse gases. Many states ramped up
their green programs after President Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol, a
1997 climate treaty that has been ratified by most of the worlds industrial
countries. Bush said the treaty, in which nations agreed to limit greenhouse
gas emissions, would hurt the U.S. economy.
back to contents
20) EXXON CEO BACKS
MANDATORY EMISSIONS REPORTS
Planet Ark
February 13, 2003
Internet:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/19808/story.htm
HOUSTON - Exxon Mobil Corp.
(XOM.N) Chief Executive Lee Raymond said this week companies should be
required to report carbon emissions before any rules are created to target
cuts in gases blamed for global warming. "We voluntarily report our
emissions and back mandatory reporting based on effective and reliable
procedures as essential preconditions to policies that target emission
reductions," Raymond told a Cambridge Energy Research Associates conference.
Exxon Mobil has long been the focus of environmentalists' anger for its
perceived reluctance to acknowledge the growing scientific data showing the
role fossil fuels play in climate change.
Carbon dioxide emissions
from smokestacks and tailpipes are widely believed to contribute to global
warming, which scientists say could lift sea levels and submerge island
states and sharply alter weather patterns, increasing the frequency of
severe storms. Raymond said Exxon Mobil was researching cleaner energy
sources, including hydrogen-based technologies, but said tremendous advances
were needed for economically viable alternatives. "To make a real reduction
in emissions without impairing prosperity, we will need technology
comparable to that deployed in the effort to explore space, to engineer new
types of drugs based on recombinant technology or to develop personal
computing," he said.
Last year, Exxon Mobil said
it would donate $100 million to Stanford University to research viable
energy technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. General Electric Co.
(GE.N), Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB.N) and Germany's E.ON AG (EONG.DE) have also
sponsored the project. Measuring emissions from companies that burn fossil
fuels is seen as a precursor to developing an emissions exchange or "cap and
trade" system under which polluters who exceed their pollution allotment can
buy other companies' excess emission rights. Supporters, including many
industries, have said such a trading system is the most economical method to
reduce greenhouse gas output.
The European Union issued a
proposal earlier this month to improve its monitoring of greenhouse gas
emissions, and is expected to launch an emissions trading system in coming
years. The Chicago Climate Exchange said last month it would launch an
Internet-based market this spring for carbon dioxide and methane, another
greenhouse gas. The Bush administration, which pulled the United States out
of the global warming Kyoto Protocol pact in 2000, has been collecting
written pledges from industries to curb greenhouse gas emissions in a drive
to stave off mandatory controls, The New York Times reported in January.
back to contents
21) ENERGY IN THE
SPOTLIGHT
The Guardian
February 13, 2003
Internet:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,9115,894399,00.html
The government's
much-anticipated and much-delayed energy policy white paper - discussed at
cabinet yesterday - may confuse more than it will convince. Early
indications were that government policy would be decisively tipped in favour
of the environment. This would mean that Britain would see more energy
produced from renewable sources like wind and help the country cut the
amount of carbon dioxide produced. Then came the £650m bail-out of British
Energy, the privatised nuclear power generator, and now a proposed £60m
hand-out for deep coal pits, which will save 2,000 jobs but make reducing
greenhouse gas emissions harder. What these in fact show is that the
government's previous adherence to a market approach has failed.
Britain's energy policy is
now very much in the visible hands of the state. This is a good thing. A new
pattern of energy consumption and power production will only come into being
with the connivance of ministers. This is required because Britain's
traditional energy sources are either too dirty (coal), running out (North
sea gas) or past their expiry date (nuclear). Ministers need to take
political decisions that may not advance their political prospects, but
which help the country's long-term needs. What this translates to is
committing large amounts of cash for renewable energy sources and improving
energy efficiency. The forthcoming white paper will need targets on reducing
carbon dioxide emissions and getting green technologies from the drawing
board to the wind farm. Such goals will have to be more ambitious than the
ones the government is struggling to meet already.
The question, though, is
not the government's intent but whether it is committed to delivery. For
example, leaks suggest that the government will want renewables to generate
a fifth of the total energy produced in Britain by 2020. At first glance,
this should help considerably to alleviate climate change. In fact it will
not, as even at this level renewables will only replace the contribution now
made by nuclear power, which produces a lot of waste but none of the
atmosphere-altering kind. This is not a green light for more nuclear power
stations. As the Institute of Public Policy Research recently pointed out,
the new nuclear reactor designs are unproven, the problem of long-term
storage of nuclear waste remains unsolved and the heightened terrorist
threat makes nuclear more likely to be part of the past rather than the
future.
The real gains to be made
in reducing carbon dioxide will come from energy efficiency. This means a
radical plan to alter the amount of heat lost in homes through boilers and
heating systems. There are some simple gains to be made - tighten the
building regulations which allow twice as much energy use in a new home than
in Germany. Again money is needed - to convince people to spend £300 to
install cavity wall insulation that will save them £100 a year. The real
problem is that unless radical new ways of generating cash are found, the
Treasury will be reluctant to hand out billions of pounds. Some cash might
be found from business - a recent paper by energy consultants Oxera
suggested that if the social cost of carbon was taken into account on
corporate balance sheets, many large companies would be in the red.
Ultimately the taxpayer will pay - possibly through higher taxes. But a
better solution would be higher electricity prices. Higher prices mean more
money for investment and a dampening of society's insatiable demand for
energy. It may sound unappealing - but it is better than the lights going
out.
back to contents
22) CLIMATE LINKED TO RURAL POVERTY
ENS
February 13, 2003
Internet:
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2003/2003-02-13-09.asp#anchor3
LONG BEACH, California,
February 13, 2003 (ENS) - A team of scientists has examined the relationship
between climate and income, and has concluded that the climate plays an
important role in determining the distribution of rural poverty. The
scientists, led by Alan Basist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration's (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center, analyzed upper level
soil wetness data along with population densities and economic data from the
most recent U.S. Census. They also used climate data provided by NOAA to
identify relationships between climatic and agricultural production, per
capita income, and land value in rural districts across the United States
and Brazil.
The climate data, including
surface temperature and wetness, were derived from the Special Sensor
Microwave Imager, flown by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program.
Another climatic variable, the vegetation halth index, was derived from
NOAA's polar orbiting environmental satellites. Three separate analyses were
conducted for rural counties in Brazil and the United States. The first
analysis established that climate is correlated with income. Higher
temperatures are associated with reduced income in both Brazil and the
United States. Over the United States, higher incomes correspond with higher
amounts of upper level soil moisture. In Brazil, lower incomes correspond
with lower amounts of soil moisture.
The second analysis showed
that the predicted value of land, or net revenue, has a strong direct
relationship with income. Areas with more valuable land have higher incomes.
The third analysis separated the impact of the climate from other factors
that affect farm productivity. Findings reveal that climate explains most of
the variation in agricultural production. The evidence from the United
States and Brazil reveals that climate influences income, and plays a role
in determining rural poverty. It is more difficult to generate income in
places with lower productivity. This is evident even in the United States,
which has plenty of access to capital and modern technology. The results of
the study, which was funded by the World Bank, were presented February 11 at
the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society in Long Beach.
back to contents
23) EU ENVIRONMENT
COMMISSIONER MARGOT WALLSTRÖM COMMENTS ON VOLUNTARY COMMITMENTS BY US
INDUSTRY TO REDUCE GREENHOUSE GASES
EU
February 13, 2003
Internet:
http://www.eurunion.org/News/press/2003/2003011.htm
Business must be part of
the solution to climate change. I therefore welcome any measures by business
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over and above business-as-usual. It is
difficult to see to what extent this is the case with the commitments
announced now by the Business Roundtable in the US and endorsed by President
Bush. Most of the sectoral commitments do not include an objective to cut
greenhouse gas emissions in absolute terms, and some do not even contain
quantified objectives at all.
President Bush's goal
announced a year ago is only to reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of the
US economy but not absolute emissions. Under this goal US emissions are
likely to increase by over 30% between 1990 and 2012 as efficiency gains
will be outweighed by economic and population growth. The European Union by
contrast is now legally bound under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce its
emissions by 8% over the same period, and we are putting into place the
policies to achieve this target, for example an internal EU emissions
trading system. I am convinced that many in the US understand that a policy
based solely on voluntary commitments and with unambitious targets is not
enough to tackle climate change.
back to contents
24) HAGEL SEEKING A LARGE INCREASE IN RENEWABLE FUELS
The Independent
February 13, 2003
Internet:
http://www.theindependent.com/stories/021303/new_hagel13.shtml
Legislation that would
dramatically increase the amount of renewable fuels used in the United
States will be introduced today by Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. The bill Hagel
and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., are sponsoring would expand
the use of renewable fuels, such as ethanol from corn and sorghum, as well
as biodiesel from soybeans. The centerpiece of the Daschle-Hagel bill will
be a Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which would gradually increase the
nation's use of renewable fuel from around 1.7 billion gallons annually to 5
billion gallons a year by 2012. The RFS in this bill is modeled after
Hagel's Renewable Fuels for Energy Security Act of 2001. "The new
legislation is not a gallon-by-gallon mandate, and would not force the use
of ethanol or biodiesel in places where compliance may be difficult," Hagel
said. He said the bill be a boost to Nebraska's producers and growing
ethanol industry.
Nationally, the bill is
estimated to replace 66 billion gallons of foreign crude oil; save $34
billion on foreign oil purchases; create more than 200,000 jobs nationwide;
and boost U.S. farm income by more than $6 billion a year. Hagel also said
demand for grain (mainly corn, but also sorghum) would grow an average of
1.4 billion bushels. Soybean demand would increase by 144 million bushels.
According to Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, the
Hagel-Daschle bill would help set the stage for an additional 5 billion
gallons of ethanol production annually.
Increasing the volume of
renewable fuels as a result of the Hagel-Daschle bill would also have a
positive environmental impact. According to the Renewable Fuels Association,
ethanol-blended fuels reduce vehicular emissions of carbon dioxide, methane
and other gases that contribute to global warming. The Argonne National
Laboratory has determined that for every gallon of gasoline replaced by
ethanol, greenhouse gases are reduced by 30 percent. Last year, the
laboratory reported that ethanol-blended fuels reduced CO2-equivalent
greenhouse gas emission by approximately 4.3 million tons in the United
States. That reduction is equivalent to removing the annual greenhouse gas
emissions of more than 636,000 cars from the road. This reduction is due, in
part, to the "carbon cycle," whereby much of the carbon dioxide released
when ethanol-blended fuels are used is reabsorbed by biomass plants, like
corn, during growth. These biomass plants provide the feedstocks for ethanol
production.
The Hagel-Daschle bill
would have a huge impact on Nebraska's already growing ethanol industry,
said Todd Sneller, administrator of the Nebraska Ethanol Board. He said
Nebraska has six ethanol plants in operation, with two more under
construction and another one that could be reactivated. Sneller said the
potential of those plants could push the state's ethanol production to 425
million to 450 million gallons by the end of the year. That would equate to
using 220 million to 240 million bushels. Based on last year's state corn
crop, that represents one-quarter of all the corn grown in Nebraska.
Developing more renewable fuel production facilities, such as ethanol
plants, would create more of a geographical dispersal across the county and
make them less of a potential terrorist target, Sneller said.
Also, having ethanol plants
located across the country would save millions of gallons of fuel each year
that would be required to ship corn and other renewable fuels crops to other
parts of the country for further processing. "We do not have a lot of oil
refineries in the United States and a terrorist attack on one of those
refineries could have a catastrophic impact, disrupting not only the
transportation sector, but the entire economy of this country," Sneller
said. Also, he said targeting more corn to domestic energy production will
help offset lower corn exports. According to a recent report by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, corn used by ethanol producers offset a
25-million-bushel reduction in exports last month. With world corn
production expected to be on the rise, especially with bigger corn crops in
Argentina and Ukraine, that could mean larger exports from those countries
and reduced U.S. exports. "To cushion the economic impact from massive
reduction in exports, we can help offset that by developing more domestic
industrial uses for corn, such as ethanol production," Sneller said.
back to contents
25) CONOCO CHAIRMAN
ADVOCATES N. AMERICAN ENERGY PACT
Planet Ark
February 13, 2003
Internet:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/19810/story.htm
HOUSTON - ConocoPhillips (COP.N)
Chairman Archie Dunham advocated a North American energy pact similar to the
North American Free Trade Agreement during a speech at a Houston energy
conference this week. Mexico would benefit most by opening its market to
American investment, Dunham said. Unlike Canada, Mexico reserved its
sovereignty over energy resources under NAFTA. "The result is that
U.S.-Mexico energy trade has not prospered to the same degree as that
between the U.S. and Canada," he said.
U.S. and Canadian companies
would able to invest directly in Mexican natural resources, Dunham said. And
any return could be reinvested in the company, as opposed to passing it on
to the Mexican government, which is currently required by Mexican law.
Environmental policies, such as emissions trading, could be adopted on a
continental basis, he said.
back to contents
26) 'CLEAN' PROJECTS
LIKELY TO BYPASS INDIA
Economic Times
February 12, 2003
Internet:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?artid=37205032
NEW DELHI: When it comes to
environment, one step forward, two steps back is fast becoming the rule.
While China and central American countries like Brazil and Costa Rica have
made their way up on the list of preferred destinations for Clean
Development Mechanism (CDM) projects, India is lagging behind thanks to
lack of policy, investment climate and techno-economic potential, in
precisely that order. This comes at a time when the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is expecting more than 200 CDM
projects to take off in 03. The executive board of the CDM has simplified
the documentation, issued an indicative baseline and spelt out monitoring
procedures for small-scale projects recently.
This should be good news
for countries like India where there is no dearth of proposals related to
renewable energy plants of less than 50 MW capacity, and in areas of fuel
switching and methane capture. However, an expert poll reveals that the host
country approvals required for CDM to take off may themselves act as
barriers. Agreeing with the findings of the poll conducted by Point Carbon,
a Norwegian agency, director general of TERI and chairman of
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, RK Pachauri, says, Despite
potential, the much-touted CDM may prove to be a damp squib in India. This
is because the international perception is that it is very difficult to do
business here.
According to the expert
poll, host government approval is crucial to minimise transaction costs
(like time, effort, resources to locate, negotiate and complete a deal),
which in turn reduces total project cost. However, the experience of the
World Banks Prototype Carbon Fund so far is not very promising it has had
a hard time getting government approvals, it says. This is true of China
too, which is otherwise an investors favourite due to its huge potential,
favourable investment climate and fast growth.
According to the poll, by
the time the Asian giants (India and China) put their CDM apparatus in
place, others in Central America, including Mexico, would have gained CDM
experience. With methane gas capture from mines, landfills and pipelines
(flaring) being most attractive, South Korea and Chile may also score over
the others because they also have a policy in place. Under the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change, the developed countries can invest in
environment-friendly projects in developing countries. The polluting
greenhouse gases reduced through these projects will be deemed reduced by
the investing country. CDM, under the Kyoto Protocol, allows developed
country investors to earn carbon credits from non-GHG emitting projects in
developing countries to be settled against their own emission reduction
targets.
In order to make this
market-based mechanism work, operational entities consultants of sorts
have to be appointed in developing countries. The executive board has
received 11 such applications from Asia Pacific, Western Europe and other
regions. A couple of accreditations should come through in two months. While
India submitted six such proposals earlier, Preety M Bhandari, director,
policy analysis division, TERI, points out that they are for CDM-like
projects and India does not as yet have a CDM policy in place. According to
Mr Pachauri, even if it takes off, CDM may not be large in terms of size of
transactions around $40-50bn by 12.
back to contents
27) SWISS CEMENT
INDUSTRY AGREES TO CO2 CUTS
Pressetext
February 12, 2003
Internet:
http://www.pressetext.com/pte.mc?pte=030212033
Bern (pte, Feb 12, 2003
14:04) - Switzerlands cement industry has become the first sector to join
forces with the government in setting targets to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2)
emissions. In a signed agreement, the sector has pledged to reduce emissions
between now and 2010. The agreement was made under the government's Energy
Switzerland programme, which aims to achieve a ten per cent reduction in CO2
emissions compared with 1990 levels. The target is required by national law.
Under the agreement, the cement industry is prepared to reduce the amount of
CO2 produced by fossil fuel combustion processes by 44 per cent. This should
largely be achieved through the replacement of fossil carbon-based fuels
with renewables. A second binding target is to reduce the amount of CO2
resulting from manufacturing processes by 30 per cent.
Switzerland's federal
agency for the environment, forests and landscape (Buwal) expects to
conclude around 30 similar agreements with various financial sectors under
the Energy Switzerland programme this year. Despite expected progress, Buwal
says the government has not ruled out the introduction of a special CO2 tax
to help it meet the ten per cent target.
back to contents
28) UK 'MAY FAIL ON
CLIMATE CUTS'
BBC
February 12, 2003
Internet:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2748977.stm
The UK Government is
unlikely to meet its pledge to cut a key greenhouse gas, a respected
advisory group says. The advisers, the Sustainable Development Commission,
say measures for significantly reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are
lacking. They praise ministers for working to achieve a more modest
international commitment to cut greenhouse gases. And they say there is a
need for political leadership to boost climate change policies.
The commission has
published a report, UK Climate Change Programme: A policy audit, which it
says is a contribution to the government's review of the programme, promised
for later in 2003. The UK is committed under the Kyoto Protocol, the
international agreement on tackling climate change, to cut emissions of six
greenhouse gases to 12.5% below their 1990 levels by between 2008 and 2012.
HEADING FOR FAILURE
The commission says: "We
believe the UK is likely to achieve its Kyoto target... Few other countries
can claim that. It is a positive point, which we must build on in
encouraging greater efforts internationally." But the government has also
promised to cut emissions of CO2, the main greenhouse gas produced by human
activities, to 20% below their 1990 levels by 2010. The commission says its
analysis shows the UK "will fall well short" of this goal "unless further
measures are taken".
It says measures to achieve
the goal "are simply not in place. The UK is unlikely to achieve even
two-thirds of that reduction, and maybe less than half." The commission
adds: "This is not a reason to abandon the goal, but to redouble efforts to
achieve it. There is still time to do so. "And there are great benefits, not
only for the long term by helping to slow global climate change, but
immediately through business opportunities for low-carbon technologies and
by giving ourselves a better quality of life all round.
NO NEW THINKING
"The emissions reductions
from the 10-year transport plan are particularly at risk. And international
air travel, not even included in the calculations or the goal, threatens to
blow away all the good work in industry and other sectors." In one key
finding, it says: "Looking beyond 2010, the UK projections do not yet show
the radical shift needed towards a low carbon path, nor are the policies in
place to achieve more sustainable patterns of energy generation and
consumption." Jonathon Porritt, chairman of the commission, said: "These are
disturbing findings. The Government must now seize the opportunity of using
the energy White Paper to bring us back on track for 2010, and set us on a
low-carbon path into the longer term." Publication of the White Paper,
spelling out the government's policy proposals on energy, is expected in
March. Walter Menzies, a member of the Sustainable Development Commission,
told BBC News Online: "It's not all bad by any means - it's more a question
of 'could do better'.
LIVING IN HOPE
"I think the big litmus
test is the White Paper. If ever there were a test of government policy on
sustainable development, it'll be that. "It's a hugely difficult question,
but we've been quite encouraged by our discussions with ministers and
officials. "Internationally, the government has driven things forwards on
climate change, but domestically I'm not so sure. "We're looking forward to
the Prime Minister making his first substantial speech on sustainable
development. Watch this space." Other measures the report calls for include
progress on energy efficiency, transport, combined heat and power schemes,
and renewable energy sources.
See Also:
GREENHOUSE GAS WARNING, Sky News, February
12, 2003,
Internet:
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,31500-12244748,00.html
back to contents
29) TEMPERATURE RISE ANOTHER CORAL ENEMY
The Courier Mail (Queensland,Australia)
February 12, 2003
Internet:
http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,5969964%255E3102,00.html
CLIMATE change will be so
dramatic by the end of this century the ocean in the southern Great Barrier
Reef will have reached temperatures now only seen in the tropics, new CSIRO
research predicts. Separate experiments have shown the warming, predicted to
be between 1-4deg, would theoretically be enough to kill many corals by a
process called coral bleaching. The report has reopened the long-running
debate about whether the Reef really is in trouble or if it scientists and
conservationists are crying wolf. In the past two decades there have been
warnings the Reef was at dire risk of succumbing to crown of thorns
starfish, pesticides, mud, fertilisers, overfishing, climate change, rising
sea levels and a newly discovered problem known as white disease.
A small but increasingly
vocal group of scientists, including James Cook University marine geologist
Bob Carter, is convinced there is no credible threat to the marine park.
Professor Carter, an expert on sediment, said there had been no increase in
muddiness in the Great Barrier Reef lagoon since European settlement and nor
would there be for another 100,000 years at current rates of development. He
pointed to a Productivity Commission report last year which said the Reef
was still in good condition, with the exception of some inshore reefs, and
an international study late last year which found the Reef was in excellent
condition compared with reefs in other countries.
However, Roger Jones, from
CSIRO Atmospheric Research, said his work showed that although sea
temperatures would climb more slowly than land temperatures, the waters of
the southern sector of the Reef may reach up to 31deg in an average summer
by 2070. Even by 2030 temperatures could rise half to 1deg above 1990
levels, enough to cause bleaching seven to nine times every decade in
sensitive inshore areas. By 2070 bleaching could occur nine times a decade,
the events would be more intense and recovery times longer.
"There is still uncertainty
because of the state of scientific knowledge on global warming and possible
future variables such as economic growth rates and the impact of programs to
limit greenhouse gas emissions," he conceded. "Recovery has been good in the
four bleaching events since 1991, but whether that will continue we just
don't know yet." A scientist said yesterday he believed the dreaded crown of
thorns starfish could be helping the Reef rather than eating it into
extinction. "It's still only a theory that we are not too sure about yet,"
said Australian Institute of Marine Science researcher Ian Miller. The first
plague of the black spiky starfish was discovered around Green Island off
Cairns in 1962 and has since moved unrelentingly along the Reef. But some
scientists think the starfish aids coral diversity by controlling dominant
species.
back to contents
30) BRITAIN FACES DROUGHT AND FLOODS BY THE 22nd CENTURY
Independent
February 12, 2003
Internet:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=377588
Britain's climate will heat
faster in the next 100 years than at any time since the end of the Ice Age,
with droughts in summer and floods in winter becoming more common in the
south and east, the Government warned yesterday. The changes are inevitable,
said the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, using data from
the Hadley Centre, Britain's premier climate-study facility. The Environment
Agency, responsible for monitoring recent river flooding and protecting the
British environment, said tackling the effects of climate change was already
proving costly, and added: "Our emergency workforce is the 'thin green
frontline' when it comes to flood events."
The gloomy picture of a
climate out of control, and of defences being overwhelmed, brought renewed
calls for faster and more radical government action, especially by the
United States, the largest generator of the carbon dioxide that is a key
greenhouse gas leading to warming. The analysis found that on average
Britain would warm by between two and five degrees centigrade in the coming
century, though the rise would be greater over land, reaching up to eight
degrees centigrade in the south and east. To stabilise the levels of carbon
dioxide would become harder, the Defra report said. "We're already seeing
the some change created by the greenhouse emissions of the Seventies," said
Geoff Jenkins, head of the climate prediction group at the Hadley Centre.
"We expect the trend to continue."
In the south and east,
which are most affected by the continental land mass, summer sunshine will
increase by 20 per cent, but winter rainfall will increase by 25 per cent,
and summer rainfall could halve. "The United Kingdom is facing a future of
unprecedented change," Defra said. "Cutting emissions now and in the future
will go some way to prevent the worst effects, but our past emissions mean
some degree of change is inevitable." A spokesman for the environment group
Greenpeace said: "Things need to be done now. Global warming is happening
and it will affect people in the developing world more than anywhere else.
Many lives are going to be lost to global warming unless action is taken
now. One would hope that this report is a spur for White House action."
America has been reluctant
to make firm commitments to reducing carbon dioxide emissions, having
snubbed the Kyoto Treaty, which was intended to reduce emissions from
industrialised countries below their 1990 levels by 2010. Britain has
committed itself to meeting those targets. But measurements taken by the
Hadley Centre show "carbon feedback" from forests and natural vegetation
as rain forests are cut down and burnt is rising and could accelerate
global warming even further. The atmospheric concentration of many
greenhouse gases reached their highest levels in 2001; global temperatures
continued to rise with 2002, 2001 and 1998 being the hottest years on
record. Defra said it had strategies in place to cope with flooding.
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31) RED SQUIRRELS EVOLVING WITH GLOBAL WARMING
New Scientist
February 12, 2003
Internet:
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993382
Red squirrels are rapidly
evolving in response to global warming - they are the first mammals in which
such genetic changes have been seen. The discovery could bode well for other
species struggling to adapt to new conditions, say researchers. Andrew
McAdam, at the University of Alberta, Canada, and colleagues monitored four
generations of squirrels in the Yukon, Canada, over 10 years. They found
that female squirrels now give birth on average 18 days earlier in the year
than their great-grandmothers. They then used a statistical technique to
separate changes in behaviour resulting from an individual's flexibility
from those resulting from genetic changes, where the frequency of certain
genes increases from one generation to the next.
The technique is called
quantitative genetics, and has long been used in agriculture. It attributes
about 15 per cent of the observed shift in birth date to genetic factors.
"Because climate change is happening so fast, the perceived wisdom is that
mammals won't be able to undergo evolution to keep up with that," says
Lesley Hughes, who researches the effects of climate change on species at
Macquarie University in Australia. "But this work offers a little glimmer of
hope, at least for some species."
LIVE LONG AND PROSPER
The driving force behind
the evolutionary changes is that the warmer climate means that females with
a genetic propensity to give birth earlier are more likely to have offspring
that prosper. These early-borns have a head start on their younger peers.
They are bigger and more independent when autumn comes and it is time to
store food, says Stan Boutin, another member of the team. The work joins a
growing body of evidence that many living things are changing their
abundance, distribution and behaviour in response to increasing global
temperatures. Genetic changes have been shown in American mosquitoes but
this is the first study that demonstrates a genetic shift in a mammal.
However it is unlikely that humans have started to evolve in response to
climate change. "We have been able to overcome so many of the selective
pressures that would normally be important because of medical
breakthroughs," says Boutin.
See Also:
GLOBAL WARMING CAUSING GENETIC CHANGES;
UPI, February 12, 2003,
Internet:
www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030212-030811-3739r
back to contents
32) A DEEP-SIX FIX;
COULD BURYING FOSSIL-FUEL EMISSIONS SAVE THE CLIMATE?
US News
February 10, 2003
Internet:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/030210/misc/10carbon.htm
`These guys are wacko!" was
earth scientist Sally Benson's initial reaction several years back when two
prominent scientists gave a talk about an answer to global warming that
sounded too good to be true. Carbon dioxide from fossil fuels traps heat as
it builds up in the atmosphere, and most scientists think the trend, if
unchecked, bodes a scorching future. So why not catch the stuff before it
goes up smokestacks, the speakers proposed? Why not simply bury it
underground or in the ocean depths?
Today Benson heads a U.S.
Department of Energy effort to explore just that idea, which is seeming less
wacky every day. Last November, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced
that the Bush administration would invest as much as $90 million in research
on burying carbon dioxide. BP and ChevronTexaco are studying the strategy,
called carbon sequestration. Test projects in Canada and the North Sea are
yielding encouraging results. Even many environmentalists support
sequestration research. Says David Hawkins, director of the Natural
Resources Defense Council's climate center: "The challenge of climate change
is too large and looming too close in time for us to ignore the contribution
that carbon storage could make."
Not in my ocean. Carbon
sequestration schemes target emissions only from factory and power plant
smokestacks, not from the tailpipes of cars and SUVs. And stripping carbon
dioxide from the stew of chemicals emitted by these big polluters could be
costly. Further, while carbon dioxide is hardly nuclear waste, there's a
heated controversy about the safest place to put it. Just last August,
Greenpeace helped scupper a test project that would have injected carbon
dioxide into the North Sea, asserting that marine burial could damage ocean
ecosystems. Underground repositories, for their part, might leak.
But if sequestration
worked, the payoff could be huge. Most scientists concur that to prevent
drastic global changes--which could include shifts in ocean currents,
inundated coastlines, and expanded deserts--the atmosphere's carbon dioxide
concentration will have to be capped at about twice its levels before the
Industrial Revolution 200 years ago, when large-scale fossil fuel use began.
That would mean limiting global emissions of the gas to current levels
within two decades, even as the world's population increases and energy
consumption jumps in the Third World as poor nations grow richer. We can't
bury all the excess, says Benson, but carbon storage could "make a huge
dent," buying precious time in which to shift from coal, oil, and gas to
new, greener energy sources.
The world's first
commercial-scale sequestration effort is already underway on a natural-gas
rig off the coast of Norway. Each week, workers pipe 20,000 tons of carbon
dioxide--an amount equivalent to the output of a 150-megawatt coal-fired
power plant--into the porous rock of a saltwater aquifer more than half a
mile below the seafloor. The source of the carbon dioxide isn't a power
plant but the natural gas itself. It comes out of the well containing a high
percentage of carbon dioxide, which must be stripped out before the fuel can
be sold. After Norway levied a tax on offshore carbon dioxide emissions in
1996, the rig's owners decided to bury the waste gas instead of venting it.
Good seal. So far, the
aquifer seems to be gas-tight. Scientists monitoring it had a scare recently
when seismic images seemed to show that carbon dioxide had seeped into the
clay-and-shale cap sealing the aquifer. But it turned out they had been
fooled by an upward curve in the cap. Late last year, the Energy Department
announced that it, too, would investigate whether the gas could be stored in
deep saltwater aquifers (freshwater reservoirs are too precious to
contaminate). The project is slated for the Ohio River Valley, in part
because of the many power plants in the region. To forestall climate change,
such formations would have to store the carbon dioxide for centuries. It
will be at least a decade before geologists will be able to say with any
certainty whether aquifers can contain the gas over the long term. But if
they can, the search for storage space would be over. It's been estimated
that deep saline aquifers in the United States alone could hold 500 billion
tons of carbon dioxide, room enough to store centuries' worth of U.S.
emissions, at current levels.
An ongoing experiment in a
declining Saskatchewan oil field is exploring another type of
repository--one that many say is a surer bet than aquifers. Two hundred
miles to the south, the Great Plains Synfuels Plant near Beulah, N.D., turns
coal into clean-burning natural gas, producing carbon dioxide as a
byproduct. Two years ago the plant began piping carbon dioxide north to the
Weyburn oil field. There it's pumped deep underground to help squeeze extra
output from the well--a common practice in fields that have begun to run
dry. Depleted oil and gas fields have less than a tenth of the total storage
capacity of the world's saline aquifers, but they've successfully stored oil
and gas for tens of millions of years--a "bulletproof indication" that these
formations don't leak, says Steven Pacala, codirector of the Carbon
Mitigation Initiative at Princeton University. Engineers will be monitoring
the Weyburn field to see whether it can still trap gas after being tapped
for oil.
Far more controversial are
plans for disposing of carbon in the deep sea. The oceans naturally soak up
about one third of industrial carbon dioxide emissions; in principle, they
could mop up a lot more. In fact, if the entire amount of carbon dioxide
needed to double atmospheric concentrations were stashed in the oceans,
their carbon content would rise by only 2 percent. Lured by these kinds of
figures, scientists have investigated two strategies for sequestering carbon
in the seas. The ill-fated North Sea experiment would have tested one
approach: simply pumping liquefied carbon dioxide to depths of thousands of
feet. Researchers originally planned to inject several tons of it into the
waters off the Kona coast of Hawaii to see how the gas would disperse and
dissolve, but environmental activists blocked the test. The team then sought
to move it to Norway, but green groups fought it there, too. "Instead of
trying to put the smokestack underwater, we should be investing massively in
energy efficiency and renewables [like solar and wind power]," argues Kert
Davies, research director for the U.S. office of Greenpeace. Even scientists
who think the scheme is worth studying have doubts about large-scale
efforts, fearing that dumping billions of tons in the oceans could smother
deep-living organisms and have unintended--and dire--effects on climate.
Field tests of a second
approach have given critics fresh ammunition.
Scientists have long
speculated that they could encourage the growth of single-celled marine
algae by fertilizing the ocean with iron, a scarce nutrient. In theory, the
plants would gobble carbon as they grew and store it away in the depths as
they died and sank. But when scientists spread iron fertilizer in waters
south of New Zealand recently, they found that although the algae did
flourish and absorb extra carbon dioxide from the water, it took fully 1 ton
of iron to sequester 1,000 tons of carbon. Moreover, the iron-gorged algae
cranked up their production of two harmful gases--isoprene, itself a
greenhouse gas, and methyl bromide, which is known to damage the Earth's
protective ozone layer.
Wherever the gas is buried,
engineers also face the challenge of capturing it in the first place. One
idea is to retrofit big emitters like coal-fired power plants with
"scrubbers," which would chemically strip the gas from the exhaust. A
second, more radical strategy would extract carbon dioxide from coal or oil
without burning it. Experts have high hopes for the technology, much of
which is already in use in synfuels plants. Not only does it yield a stream
of carbon dioxide, but it also produces the cleanest fuel of all--pure
hydrogen gas, needed for the fuel-cell cars that the Bush administration is
encouraging. Many energy gurus talk about a future in which power stations
would generate both electricity and hydrogen for cars, all without producing
any climate-warming emissions.
For now, either approach is
far too expensive: as much as $100 per ton of carbon emissions avoided. The
Energy Department's research program aims to slash costs to $10 per ton or
less by 2015. Private R&D is vital, too. But mobilizing the private sector
may mean giving companies financial incentives to trim their emissions.
Hawkins of the Natural Resources Defense Council advocates a system of
tradable emissions credits--like the one that prompted utilities to scrub
acid-rain-causing sulfur from their exhaust streams. Another approach is
levying a tax on carbon emissions.
The Bush administration has
opposed such measures and this month will announce plans for a voluntary
reduction program. Last month, however, 13 major corporations--including
DuPont, Ford, and Motorola--and the city of Chicago pledged to create their
own pilot credit-trading system, called the Chicago Climate Exchange. The
participants agreed to reduce their emissions by 1 percent a year for four
years. Any member that achieved deeper cuts would be granted credits, which
could be traded to companies having trouble meeting their goal. It's too
soon to say whether carbon sequestration is the answer to the greenhouse gas
problem, a stopgap, or a dead end. But like many other advocates,
Princeton's Pacala says he no longer feels depressed about global warming.
"Envision the solution," he says, "and you lose the despair."
back to contents
33) A FADING GREEN HOPE
FOR CLIMATE
US News
February 10, 2003
Internet:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/030210/misc/10carbon.b.htm
It was a comforting dream
while it lasted: Carbon dioxide spewed into the air from tailpipes and
smokestacks would speed up the growth of forests. The forests in turn would
store the carbon in wood and soil, staving off climate change. The theory
even undergirded the Kyoto Protocol, which allows countries to meet
greenhouse gas targets by planting trees as well as by trimming industrial
emissions. But the latest research has delivered an unpleasant wake-up call.
Plants need carbon dioxide
for photosynthesis and growth, so it wasn't unreasonable to imagine that
rising carbon dioxide levels would act as a planetary fertilizer. In 1996, a
team of researchers led by biogeochemist William Schlesinger of Duke
University began testing the theory. They pumped tons of carbon dioxide
daily from towers rising over an experimental forest of loblolly pines
outside Chapel Hill, N.C. Meters measured gases entering and leaving the
pine needles; bands on the tree trunks assessed their month-to-month growth.
The initial results were reassuring: When the researchers increased ambient
levels of the gas by about 50 percent, to levels expected by midcentury,
tree growth jumped by up to 25 percent.
But the longer they studied
the forest, the more complicated the picture looked. For starters, the
growth spurt lasted just four years. Later, the trees settled back to
growing only about 6 percent faster than their neighbors. "The trees quickly
run down key nutrients in the soil," explains Schlesinger. Trees grown in
carbon-dioxide-enriched air also compensated by pumping more of the carbon
down through their roots to microbes in the soil. Instead of storing the
carbon in the soil as humus, these organisms released much of it back into
the air as carbon dioxide.
After seven years amid the
loblolly pines, Schlesinger has concluded that we can't rely on the forests
of the future to store our excess carbon dioxide. "I would count on
nothing," he says flatly. To some scientists, that's an argument for taking
matters into our own hands and looking for ways to bury the gas. To
Schlesinger, though, it underscores the hazards of tinkering with natural
systems. He thinks that the best solution to global warming is to burn less
coal, oil, and natural gas. "Rather than trying to gather up marbles that
have spilled, let's not spill 'em in the first place." -B.C.
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34) ASIAN POLLUTION CLOUD CHANGING CLIMATE, STUDY SAYS
National Geographic
February 10, 2003
Internet:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/02/0210_030210_TVdust.html
When factories, power
plants or automobiles spew pollutants into the air, these emissions take to
the wind and travel wherever it blows. A toxic blend of soot, ash, acids and
other airborne particles crosses borders and oceanspolluting faraway places
and affecting climate, rainfall and causing acid rain. An international
consortium of researchers from three different projects are investigating
one of the world's most potent sources of air pollution: the so-called
"Asian Express," created over the last decade by rapid Asian
industrialization, which is driving changes in the Earth's atmosphere. A
series of recent studies tracked the brown pollution cloud along its annual
transpacific migration. Each spring, strong winds blow east from Central
China, gathering dust which acts like a sponge, soaking up pollution from
East Asia's thick blanket of smog.
This dirty particulate stew
most directly threatens Japan, Korea and Taiwan. But this brown cloud can
blow eastward across 6,000 miles of ocean to the United States in only four
to 10 daystoo little time for the air to be cleansed over the sea. Given
the pass-along nature of pollution, however, researchers point out that
every region of the world makes its contribution. "The amount of pollution
we get from Asia is probably not dramatically different from what we send to
Europe, and Europe sends to Asia," says Barry Joe Huebert, an atmospheric
chemist at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. "We have to think of
atmosphere chemistry and its impact on air quality and climate as global
issues."
Huebert and other
authorities on wind borne pollution presented their findings in December at
the annual meeting of American Geophysical Union. Their research identified
the major sources of pollution and quantified how much reaches North
America. "The ultimate use of this data will be for setting policy for the
use of fossil fuels and other pollutants we put into the atmosphere," said
Huebert. During spring 2001 and 2002, hundreds of scientists from 13
countries joined forces to study air pollution from Asia. The international
team tracked and sampled dust plumes from ground stations, aircraft, ships
and by satellite.
ATMOSPHERIC AEROSOLS
Huebert headed the research
team for the Aerosol Characterization Experiments, or ACE-Asia, which
concentrated on aerosolstiny solid or liquid particles suspended in the
atmosphere. Some aerosols come from natural sources like dust from volcanoes
and deserts. But most come from human activities like burning wood and coal.
Asia is one of the largest sources of aerosols on the Earth. Aerosols can
harm human health by causing asthma and through exposure to the carcinogens
they harbor, including arsenic, lead, chromium, selenium and other toxic
materials. Aerosols powerfully affect the environment and climate. They
absorb the acids that create acid rain. They reflect sunlight and influence
rainfall patterns, affecting weather and global climate change.
Understanding the way they affect climate is one of the more perplexing
problems for atmospheric scientists. Atmospheric scientists are puzzling
over the interaction of aerosols and other factors like greenhouse
gasescarbon dioxide and other gases that trap the sun's heat and warm the
Earth's atmosphere.
ALTERING CLIMATE
"While many parts of Earth
are warming up because of greenhouse gases, in places where there are huge
concentrations of aerosols, there is actually cooling," said Huebert. In
April, for example, the surface cooling effect of aerosols downwind of Asia
is 10 percent higher than warming caused by greenhouse gases, Huebert notes.
When you increase temperature differences between places, it may increase
the severity of storms, like hurricanes," Huebert says. "One possibility is
that this could cause more severe storms, more droughts and more floods."
Although the climatic impact of this cooling is still being assessed,
scientists do know that these temperature disparities have great impact on
the water cycle. "When air is warmer than the Earth below it, you reduce
evaporation and the formation of cloudswhich reduces rainfall," explained
Huebert.
GOOD AND BAD NEWS
Researchers presented good
news as well as bad. One study, Transport and Chemical Evolution over the
Pacific (TRACE-P), "sniffed air coming out of China to learn what was being
emitted," says project leader Daniel J. Jacob, an atmospheric chemist from
Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. Jacob's team tested for about 100
different "species" of pollutants, including greenhouse gases, aerosols and
ozone. Although nothing on the list had significantly improved since 1994,
"there hasn't been the kind of explosive growth that was predicted," Jacob
says. An exception was soot and carbon, caused by low-tech polluters like
wood- and dung-burning stoves and cooking fires, as well as dirty
industries. "There was also a lot of biomass burning from forest fires in
Cambodia and Thailand," Jacob says.
ASIAN OZONE COMES TO CALIFORNIA
Another study examined
ozone levels reaching California from across the Pacific and discovered that
they are 30 percent higher than levels detected in 1985. "The increase in
ozone is surprising," says David P. Parrish, an atmospheric chemist with the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Aeronomy Lab in Boulder,
Colo., and head of the Intercontinental Transport and Chemical
Transformation study. "It was larger than we expected. It reduces the room
we have to mess up our own air." "To address the problem, we will need an
international consortium of governments willing to make policy based on the
best available scientific consensus," Huebert says. In a world where
prevailing winds can push pollution clouds like the Asian Express halfway
around the world in a week's time, these new findings underscore how no
nation is an island.
back to contents
35) ARAB STATES CLAIM CO2 TARGETS COULD CAUSE SLUMP
Independent
February 9, 2003
Internet:
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=376612
Powerful Arab oil producers
have hardened their stance on climate change in a defiant statement
dismissing claims that oil consumption is the main cause of global warming.
In a deliberate challenge to the United Nations-led consensus on climate
change, ministers of 13 Arab oil producers claimed they had an inalienable
right to continue producing oil and to continue increasing the region's
wealth from oil sales. But at the same time the bloc, which includes leading
producers such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates,
claimed they deserved substantial compensation and new technology subsidies
if the world pressed ahead with cuts in oil use.
Their lengthy and at times
contradictory declaration, signed during a regional conference on energy and
the environment in Abu Dhabi last week, claimed environmental protection and
climate change were pretexts to damage the region's economic interests.
"Such unfounded allegations and doubts would make victims of the oil and gas
sector, and may result in a recession in world demand, thus harming the
interests of producers," it read. In another passage, the signatories of the
so-called Abu Dhabi Declaration said they "re-affirmed the necessity of a
continuous and unobstructed supply of oil and gas to international markets".
Their blunt dismissal of the climate change case will be read with dismay by
climatologists, the UN and environmentalists, as it appears to strengthen
the anti-Kyoto Protocol camp led, ironically, by the United States.
Speaking in Abu Dhabi a day
after the declaration was signed, Claude Martin, the director-general of the
wildlife charity WWF International, accused the signatories of "living in
denial". The Arab world, he said, had only three or four decades before
their oil reserves ran out and new sources of energy emerged. "That is the
bottom line: diversify your economies," he said. "Denial will not lead
anywhere and just leads to delays. It's bad politics and does not serve the
interests of their countries." The declaration was signed by states
accounting for roughly 40 per cent of global oil and gas production.
Worryingly for the UN, it makes clear that the Arab world plans to exact a
heavy price for accepting future cuts in its oil revenues, which is expected
to involve substantial help in developing new technologies and industries.
Continued oil production,
the signatories insisted, was central to tackling poverty in the region and
to ensuring the "sustainable development" of their economies code for
guaranteeing the long-term protection of their oil exports. However, the
statement repeatedly stressed the need for oil producers to make their
industry as environmentally friendly as possible, for example by focusing on
clean production techniques, by developing new techniques to dispose of CO2
safely, by completely cutting waste gas "flaring", and by supporting
lead-free and low-sulphur fuels. Although the statement fails to set any
regional targets for CO2 reduction, seasoned observers believe its numerous
concessions on the environment suggest Arab states will eventually accept
climate change is a reality. Many younger Arab ministers are thought
privately to accept that the scientific case has been made, but are
determined to ensure their economic wealth and political survival are not
harmed in the process.
back to contents
36) MCCREEVY URGED TO HONOUR PLEDGE ON CARBON TAX
Examiner (Ireland)
February 8, 2003
Internet:
http://www.examiner.ie/pport/web/ireland/Full_Story/did-sgqasYGg3lkYY.asp
FINANCE Minister Charlie
McCreevy was urged yesterday to follow through on his promise to introduce a
carbon tax as soon as possible. The Green Party have called for the measure
in each of Mr McCreevys budgets over the past six years. Environment
Minister Martin Cullen has also backed the move as a means of reaching
Irelands commitments under the Kyoto protocol. The tax will apply to coal,
gas, petrol, diesel and other fuels.
At the publication of the
Finance Bill this week, Mr McCreevy said the public must start to be aware
that the introduction of the carbon tax next year will increase the cost of
fuel and electricity. But the rate at which the tax will be introduced has
yet to be confirmed by Mr McCreevy. The Government was afraid to introduce
the tax as it would have inflationary implications and harm the
competitiveness of the economy, Mr McCreevy said.
Mr McCreevy set up an
inter-departmental working group to examine the options available to him in
introducing the tax. The report of the group is being considered by him.
Last night Green Party finance spokesman Dan Boyle said the carbon tax
should be introduced as a substitute for other taxes, although he felt this
was unlikely.The minister is looking for sources of additional funding
rather than reforming the system, he said.
back to contents
37) RUSSIA: WILD CARD IN KYOTO PACT
Wired
February 8, 2003
Internet:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,57499,00.html
Fears are mounting among
environmentalists that the Bush administration has embarked on a fresh
effort to kill an international treaty on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions
by pressuring Russia to bow out, too. Late last year, Canada joined Europe
in ratifying the controversial Kyoto Protocol, which President Bush had
famously declared "dead." That left Russia as the last variable in the tense
worldwide wrangling over the protocol's fate. If it gets ratified -- as
President Vladimir Putin announced last year it would -- enough countries
would be on board to trigger worldwide implementation.
That would be a political
setback for the United States, which has recently been trumpeting its own
program to reduce pollution by encouraging large corporations to make
voluntary efforts. A lineup of 14 prominent U.S. corporations, including
DuPont, Ford Motor Company and Motorola, announced in January that they were
forming the Chicago Climate Exchange for trading greenhouse-gas emissions.
To many observers, Russia seemed to change its public stance on Kyoto
following a recent visit to Moscow by Harlan Watson, the State Department's
senior climate negotiator and special representative. Whether Watson was
working behind the scenes to encourage the Russians not to ratify the
treaty, or it's merely a matter of timing, speculation has been rampant that
the United States has been flexing its diplomatic muscle.
"Many, many people think
that they are trying to push Russia out of Kyoto," said Alexey Kokorin, who
handles climate-change issues for the Russian branch of the World Wildlife
Fund, adding that given the expected secrecy behind any U.S. efforts, he had
no hard facts to go on. The Bush administration rejected the Kyoto Protocol
in March 2001, leaving many to conclude that the treaty was doomed. But that
July in Bonn, Germany, a compromise version of the treaty was agreed upon.
It sets targets for reductions in emissions of heat-trapping gases below
1990 levels.
Watson could not be reached
at the State Department for comment, but U.S. officials have denied lobbying
Russia on Kyoto. However, the two countries now plan to work together to
formulate policy on climate change -- and will hold a conference this fall
in Russia on the topic. The central issue is economics. Many experts believe
that the protocol would have a positive economic impact in Russia, since the
new system would feature buying and selling of so-called emissions credits.
Russia, with its vast geography, would be in a position to sell credits.
But in January, Russia
began emphasizing potential economic disadvantages of the protocol. "Concern
about the economic impact on the United States is one of the key
considerations that led President Bush to reject the Kyoto Protocol," Watson
reminded his hosts during his visit to Russia. Alexey Kuraev of the Russian
Regional Ecological Center said that while behind-the-scenes pressures would
be difficult to detect, the U.S. government's public opposition to the
protocol has forced Russia to change its own thinking. "Naturally the U.S.
government does not officially pressure Russia not to ratify the Kyoto
Protocol," Kuraev said. "But after the United States withdrew from Kyoto,
some of the influential Russian politicians started to say that Kyoto lost
economic value for Russia."
But the creation of the
Chicago Climate Exchange indicates that, even with no U.S. participation in
Kyoto, it will be closely involved in emissions trading. Some speculate that
the United States is trying to provide political cover to establish its own
approach to mitigating global warming. "We hear the United States is going
to propose to Russia to develop a new international agreement on greenhouse
gases that would be an alternative to Kyoto," said Kuraev. "This fact slowed
down ratification of Kyoto by Russia also."
back to contents
38) GERMAN NUCLEAR POWER EXIT JARS WITH CO2 GOALS - DATF
Planet Ark
February 7, 2003
Internet:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/19732/story.htm
FRANKFURT - Germany's plans
to give up nuclear power and fill the supply gap from coal, gas and
renewable sources conflicts with its greenhouse gas reduction targets, the
country's nuclear industry lobby said. "Depending on the share of each
energy resource (other than nuclear) that will mean between 80 and 130
million tons of additional CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions," the president of
the Berlin-based Deutsche Atomforum (DAtF) said in a statement.
Gert Maichel, who also
heads German utility RWE's (RWEG.DE) energy plant division RWE Power, said
this total dwarfed the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions that Germany
still had to make under the Kyoto pact on global warming. "Compared to that
(amount of CO2 emissions), the 24 million tons of CO2 which we still need to
cut, to fulfil German Kyoto commitments, seem small," Maichel said. The
German government aims to entirely ditch nuclear power, which accounts for
almost a third of German power generation of 550 terawatt hours (TWh), by
the early 2020s.
Germany is also pressing on
with political targets to slash emissions of greenhouse gases, which largely
rule out the promotion of "dirty" coal-based technology. The Kyoto Protocol,
agreed by the United Nations in 1997, aims to reduce the developed world's
output of the gases which trap heat in the atmosphere with potentially grave
long-term consequences for the global environment. Maichel said a EU
proposal to make power firms manage their decommissioning funds - money kept
to pay for the dismantling of old nuclear plants - separately from the rest
of their balance sheet was legally unfounded. "As long as there is no
harmonisation in (nuclear) waste disposal within the EU, firms in Germany
will be disadvantaged, as they have taken high precautionary measures due to
sophisticated (German) laws," he added.
The European Parliament has
called for a change in legislation to stop power companies with large
decommissioning funds from using the money to buy up competitors. Nuclear
power aside, coal makes up 52 percent of Germany's annual power production
and gas nine percent while renewables and minor sources provide the rest.
back to contents
39) RUSSIA URGED TO
RATIFY KYOTO PROTOCOL: WWF AND GREENPEACE CALL ON EU HEADS OF STATE FOR
SWIFT ACTION
WWF
February 7, 2003
Internet:
http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/other_news/news.cfm?uNewsID=5781
Brussels, Belgium - In a
joint letter, WWF and Greenpeace have today called upon EU Heads of State
and governments to put further pressure on the Russian government for timely
ratification of the Kyoto Climate Treaty by the Russian Federation. The
letter, jointly signed by Claude Martin, Director General of WWF
International, and Gerd Leipold, Executive Director of Greenpeace
International, appeals to EU Heads of State to send President Putin a letter
urging ratification of the Kyoto Protocol this spring.
WWF and Greenpeace are
concerned that the extraordinary leadership shown by EU governments will all
have been for naught unless the EU and its partners act quickly and
decisively in this matter. Without external pressure the process will be
further delayed, which will contradict Russian statements made at the World
Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg last September, where
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov promised swift ratification of the
Kyoto Climate Treaty.
WWF and Greenpeace suggest
that EU Heads of State's requests to Russia should indicate interest and
willingness to assist in the implementation of the treaty through joint
implementation and inventory projects, and state that the ratification of
the Kyoto Protocol will give Russia additional advantages in the development
of gas exports to European markets. Timing is critical, in that if
ratification is not considered and endorsed by the Spring session of the
Duma, then it will likely be put off by at least one year, due to upcoming
Duma elections this autumn and presidential elections in March 2004.
Russia's ratification is
the last step for the Kyoto Climate Treaty to enter into force. Currently
104 countries have ratified the treaty, accounting for a total of 44.07 per
cent of the industrialized countries' emissions in 1990. The treaty
requires, however, that the ratifying countries represent 55 per cent of the
emissions - which can only be achieved if Russia ratifies.
back to contents
40) PREMATURE DASH FOR
HYDROGEN WOULD NOT BE BENEFICIAL FOR ENVIRONMENT
Edie weekly summaries
February 7, 2003
Internet:
http://www.edie.net/gf.cfm?L=left_frame.html&R=http://www.edie.net/news/Archive/6625.cfm
A premature dash for
hydrogen to fuel vehicles, using up the worlds renewable energy resources
to produce the gas would not be environmentally beneficial, according to a
new study by researchers in the UK. At the end of last month, US President
George W Bush announced that he would be pushing for an additional US$1.2
billion for research into hydrogen fuel (see related story). But at the same
time, UK researchers are warning that the development of the hydrogen
economy in particular how hydrogen is produced needs to be carefully
thought out if there are to be environmental benefits.
According to the report by
researchers from the Energy Saving Trust, the Institute for European
Environmental Policy and the National Society for Clean Air, the best medium
term strategy for cutting greenhouse gas emissions would be to focus on more
efficient use of fossil fuels, and to introduce fuel cell vehicles using
hydrogen produced from biofuels. This would mean that mass market fuel cells
should only be introduced at a rate consistent with the ability of biofuels
to supply the gas. Focusing on developing hydrogen power as the replacement
for the current unique fossil fuel dependence of vehicles could preclude
the development of other, comparatively beneficial technologies. Rather than
using renewable energy to generate hydrogen until a time when there is a
surplus of renewable energy higher carbon savings would be achieved by
displacing electricity from fossil fuel power stations.
There is no doubt that,
long-term, the transport sector could use substantial amounts of hydrogen
from renewables, said co-author Richard Mills of the National Society for
Clean Air. In the medium term, however, hydrogen will come from natural gas,
he added. The cheapest route to producing hydrogen is from gas, according to
the study, and there would be some potential carbon benefits if high
efficiency fuel cell vehicles were used. However, according to Mills, it
would make more sense to burn the gas directly in vehicles. There would also
be benefits though not as great if fuel cells were used in petrol or
diesel hybrid vehicles.
However, there would be
significant carbon benefits if woody biomass was used to produce fuel for
cars. This could take the form of hydrogen, methanol, or ethanol. Woody
biomass would offer a cheaper and faster route to hydrogen than using
renewable energy. If 25% of the UKs agricultural land were planted with
indigenous wood crops subsequently being converted to methanol, ethanol or
hydrogen, most or even all of UK road transport demand could be satisfied,
according to the study. There are reasons other than shorter term
environmental benefits and costs for developing fuel cell vehicles, admits
the report. This includes helping to build competitive advantage for a
countrys car industries, which can be done by encouraging niche markets,
developing expertise and experience.
back to contents
41) GREENHOUSE GAS
WATCHDOG IS TOO GREEN, SAYS REVIEW
Sydney Morning Herald
February 6, 2003
Internet:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/05/1044318669396.html
The agency that oversees the reduction of Australia's greenhouse gas
emissions has been accused of ignoring industry concerns to pursue a
pro-environment agenda. An independent review, by the former Howard
Government minister Warwick Smith, also recommended that the Australian
Greenhouse Office (AGO) be merged with the federal environment department,
and that negotiations on the global Kyoto protocol be left to the Department
of Foreign Affairs and Trade. "There remain perceptions in some areas that
the AGO is still not pursuing a whole-of-government agenda and, in
particular, has a bias towards environment at the expense of industry
interests," wrote Mr Smith, who is now a director with Macquarie Bank.
He has made seven
recommendations about the future of the agency, created by the Federal
Government in 1998. Since then the agency has had to deal with the often
divergent claims of industry and environmental groups, but has been without
a permanent head since the middle of last year. Mr Smith recommended that
the office lose its independent status and be merged with the federal
environment department after industry representatives complained to him that
the agency was ignoring their concerns for the sake of environmental
outcomes.
While the agency should
still continue to play a role in domestic policy formulation, Mr Smith
recommended that it should "take a subordinate role on international
greenhouse issues to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade". A further
review should also be undertaken to see if other agencies would be more
effective managers of the AGO's almost $1billion in programs to cut
greenhouse gas emissions. The federal Environment Minister, David Kemp,
yesterday accepted five of the review's seven recommendations but said the
office would retain its executive agency status.
Other recommendations,
including the direction the office should allow the Department of Foreign
Affairs to take a lead role in international negotiations, were accepted,
though the department said this formalised an existing arrangement. A
spokeswoman for Dr Kemp said that industry needed to be consulted on
greenhouse issues because it was responsible for most of Australia's
emissions. "Even if all the households in Australia cut their energy
consumption by half it wouldn't produce the kind of big cuts industry can
provide," she said.
The Prime Minister, John
Howard, last year ruled out Australia ratifying the Kyoto protocol because
it was not in the country's best interests. But the Federal Government
remains committed to meeting its Kyoto-negotiated target of reducing
greenhouse gas emissions to 108 per cent above 1990 levels by 2010. Last
year's audit of emissions found Australia would miss that target, with
emissions predicted to be 111 per cent above the 1990 levels by 2010. The
Opposition spokesman on the environment, Kelvin Thomson, said the Smith
review had been a "flop", producing nothing more than a "collection of
shallow insights". "There is no leadership or sense of direction on climate
change while all the evidence of drought and bushfires suggests the
situation requires urgent attention," he said.
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42) HAZY VISION,
INEXPLICABLE INDIAN TACTICS AT ENVIRONMENT MEET
Financial Express
February 6, 2003
Internet:
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=27475
The Asian Brown Cloud is
back in the news, this time clouding the Global Ministerial Environment
Forum underway in Nairobi. The Indian delegation arrived at the meet not
just insecure in the knowledge that the cloud was on the official agenda,
but also armed with a healthy dose of churlishness, evident in the refuge it
took in scientific ambiguity and global politics while attempting,
unsuccessfully, to evade any discussion over it. To be sure, we accept that
the preliminary United Nations Assessment Report released last year fails to
satisfactorily answer questions on the nature and impact of the cloud.
Moreover, environmental
waters have indeed been muddied by politics: In so far as it establishes a
(premature) link between the cloud and global warming, the report can be
used by the developed world to pressurise developing countries (DCs) to
reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, an obligation which the Kyoto
Protocol exempts them from, much to the First Worlds consternation. This is
especially probable, given that past such attempts made regularly at
multilateral environment fora have all failed. We also endorse Indias
demand that similar studies be undertaken around the globe. After all, there
is little reason to believe that industrial development-related pollution is
limited to the Asian continent.
Nevertheless, the Indian
attempt to sweep the cloud under the carpet is regrettable. For, the
following facts are rather unambiguous. The haze/cloud (parties have begun
bickering over semantics!) does exist. Indias overwhelming reliance on
fossil fuels, the widespread practice of clearing land for agriculture by
burning trees, and use of bio-fuels do contribute to air pollution. And,
indoor air pollution has led to close to 500,000 premature deaths in the
country, with millions others suffering from related maladies. Now, contrast
the above with the signals that have emanated from Nairobi. By failing to
acknowledge the existence of a development-oriented environmental problem,
has the government effectively diluted its oft-articulated commitment to
sustainable development?
Worse still, does this mean
that concrete action to tackle air pollution will be on hold till a more
damning report arrives on the scene? It would have been far more desirable
for the government to have taken a positive, albeit aggressive, stance of
admitting to the existence of the haze, and of highlighting measures taken
to promote green fuels, to make available clean technology et al, without
mincing words on the need to further refine the study. Publicising voluntary
remedial strategies adopted would have served a dual purpose: One, it would
have reassured its people that India takes air pollution seriously, and two,
it would have worked to counter global pressure to clean up our act. Alas,
too often have Indian policymakers substituted tactics for strategy.
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43) MINISTERS FIGHT OVER POSSIBLE $1B KYOTO FUND
The Ottawa Citizen
February 6, 2003
Internet:
http://canada.com/national/story.asp?id=CA3E76F2-2600-4C78-96E6-B150F164B0B0
Federal cabinet ministers
are scrapping over how to spend up to $1 billion that Finance Minister John
Manley is expected to allocate to Kyoto initiatives in next week's budget.
Although the amount set aside for Kyoto will remain a secret until the
budget is tabled, estimates range from $500 million to $1.2 billion. But
instead of being allocated to specific programs in the budget, that money
will be put in a pot and divvied up later, when the government can agree on
how to spend it, sources said.
The four ministers heading
the departments of Natural Resources, Environment, Transport and Agriculture
were supposed to send a joint memorandum to cabinet in January, asking for
funding for climate change programs in the upcoming budget. But the four
ministers couldn't agree on which programs to fund. Environment Minister
David Anderson has said publicly that his top priorities are a tax incentive
for consumers who purchase environmentally friendly cars and a rebate
program for people who upgrade energy efficiency in their homes. But Natural
Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal said earlier this week that his top
priorities for climate change would be investments in new technology and
partnership funds with the provinces and industry. The department also wants
funding to renew energy efficiency programs that are ending this year.
Transport Minister David
Collenette has long boosted increased train travel as a way to reduce
greenhouse gases. Meanwhile, the Agriculture Department under minister Lyle
Vanclief wants programs that would allow farmers to sell the carbon dioxide
absorbed in their fields for greenhouse gas credits. An incentive program
for ethanol -- a grain-based fuel with fewer greenhouse gas emissions than
gasoline -- has support from half a dozen cabinet ministers and 95 Liberal
backbenchers. The ethanol industry alone is asking for a $400-million
subsidy.
Canadian Alliance
environment critic Bob Mills said this week that the disagreement is
evidence that the government has no coherent plan to meet the Kyoto target
of reducing Canada's annual greenhouse gas emissions by 240 tonnes by the
year 2010. The government came out with a Kyoto plan before Prime Minister
Jean Chrétien ratified the protocol in December 2002, but the plan contained
no specific cost estimates or timelines. "You have to be specific. If it
just gets thrown into a pot, it gets frittered away," Mr. Mills said. "They
don't have a plan. They don't have a plan at all."
One of the reasons the
ministers and officials were unable to reach consensus is that they did not
know how much money would be allocated to climate change. The prime
minister's top priority for this budget was health care, and no other budget
figures had been completed until the federal-provincial health accord was
reached last week. As a result of last week's first ministers' meeting, the
budget will contain a commitment to spend an additional $17.3 billion over
the next three years in "federal investments" for health care. Of that
amount, $3.9 billion was previously promised by the federal government in
its 2000 health accord and $3.4 billion will be spent on federal programs --
leaving only $10 billion in "new" money to be transferred to the provinces
for health care. The military is expected to reap an additional $800 million
for each of the next three years.
The budget is also expected
to provide $30 million in the coming year to fight homelessness and $500
million to increase the national child tax benefit for poorer families. The
current disagreement over Kyoto is a continuation of years of infighting
between officials in the Environment Department, who wanted to move
aggressively to curb greenhouse gases, and those in Natural Resources, who
were concerned about the economic impacts on the oil and gas industry.
back to contents
44) FOREST FOR THE FUTURE
Daily Post
February 6, 2003
Internet:
http://icnorthwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/regionalnews/page.cfm?objectid=12612783&method=full
SCIENTISTS in North Wales
are creating mini time machines to study which trees will thrive in the
changed climate of 2083. And the research being carried out by the
University of Wales, Bangor, could point the way to planting the right trees
now to soak up increased levels of carbon dioxide, 80 years ahead. Working
at the Henfaes field station on the outskirts of the village of Aber, near
Llanfairfechan, the experts are developing the Free Air Carbon Exchange
(Face) - the first of its kind in the UK - which will mimic future
atmospheric conditions.
The team, led by Douglas
Godbold, professor of forest sciences, will use Face to measure how trees
will react to climate change conditions in Wales. Key to the project will be
a unique system of pipes, with minute holes, to feed young trees, mostly
pine, birch, oak and birch, with constant meas-ured and regulated releases
of carbon dioxide (CO2). Instead of being inside greenhouses, the project is
carried out in the open air. "The trees will be encircled by the pipes,"
said a university spokeswoman. "Initially the first cycle of controlled
experiments will take between three to four years and there will be no
harmful consequences to the local atmosphere, flora or fauna."
Professor Godbold, who has
experience of working on a similar facility in Italy, said: "The single
factor common to all predictions of climate change is that atmospheric
carbon dioxide levels will increase. "While governments can set targets to
reduce activities such as the burning of fossil fuels, that contribute
carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, one of the measures that can be taken to
balance the situation is to plant more trees, which absorb it as a form of
fertiliser."
At Bangor scientists are
interested in two areas of research - at what point increased planting will
help balance things out, and what species of trees will thrive in 50 to 80
years. Prof Godbold said the National Assembly's new afforestation strat-egy
recognised the need for new areas of woodland in Wales. "It also includes a
move towards continuous cover forestry involving growing a rotation of mixed
broadleaved and evergreen trees of varying ages which are individually
felled on maturity. "We need to find out now what trees are going to thrive
best in 80 years' time and that is why the Face facility is so important. It
will enable us to identify the optimum mix of trees which will thrive, not
only in today's climate but also in the future."
* Traditional means of
study of CO2's effects have been confined to pot-grown plants and greenhouse
facilities such as the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology's at Henfaes.
back to contents
45) WIND POWERS WORLD WILDLIFE FUND HEADQUARTERS
ENS
February 5, 2003
Internet:
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2003/2003-02-05-09.asp#anchor7
WASHINGTON, DC, February 5,
2003 (ENS) - The World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) Washington DC headquarters will
soon derive 10 percent of its annual power needs from wind energy. The
environmental group's headquarters is in a 235,759 square foot facility with
eight floors plus a two level parking garage, housing several businesses in
addition to WWF's U.S. operations. "Wind energy is an important part of the
solution to global warming," said David Sandalow, executive vice president
of WWF. "Like us, millions of Americans are eager to buy clean energy and be
part of the solution."
The use of clean renewable
energy resources helps reduce carbon dioxide and other heat trapping gas
emissions that cause global warming and release other toxic pollutants. The
WWF's commitment to renewable energy is in keeping with its efforts to
combat global warming through its Climate Change Program. The wind energy
used by WWF will be produced by The Mountaineer Wind Energy Center, the
largest wind power project east of the Mississippi River. The output from
Mountaineer, located on Backbone Mountain in West Virginia, is marketed by
Community Energy, Inc. and delivered in the DC metro area through Washington
Gas Energy Services.
back to contents
46) COMMISSION ACTS TO
IMPROVE MONITORING OF GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
EU
February 5, 2003
Internet:
http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=IP/03/187|0|RAPID&lg=EN&display
The European Commission today proposed the strengthening of the existing EU
system for monitoring greenhouse gas emissions to bring it in line with
obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. This proposal will help the EU and the
Member States to comply with their international commitments in the area of
Climate change. It will improve the completeness and transparency of EC
greenhouse gas data and EU climate change policies. Notably, the new system
will introduce further harmonisation of emission forecasts in addition to
reinforcing the EU rules applying to monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions.
The new monitoring system will also cover the Kyoto Protocol's so-called
'flexible mechanisms' (emission trading, the Clean Development Mechanism and
Joint Implementation) and registries. Thereby, not only emissions, but also
emission rights will be monitored through the new system.
Environment Commissioner
Wallström said : "To ensure that the EU is on track to meet its Kyoto target
and deliver the agreed reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, we need a more
effective system to check emissions trends. Current emissions forecasts
carry a lot of uncertainty and need to be improved. We are therefore
proposing some additional common rules in this area." The proposal for a
European Parliament and Council Decision would replace the existing Council
Decision 93/389/EC on the monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU
and includes the following improvements:
* It reflects the reporting
obligations and guidelines for the implementation of the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change ("UNFCCC") and the Kyoto Protocol, as set out
in the political agreement and legal decisions taken at major Climate change
conferences held in Bonn and Marrakech in 2001(COP6 and COP7). As a result,
more information on the methods used to collect the emission data will be
available, as agreed in the rules on the inventory system of the Kyoto
Protocol.
* It provides for further
harmonisation of emission forecasts at Member State and EU-level, for
example, the methodologies and models used, as well as underlying
assumptions and key input and output parameters will have to be reported .
* It widens the scope of
Greenhouse Gas Monitoring in the EU which, in future, will cover areas such
as the flexible mechanisms and registries established under the Kyoto
Protocol. As a result, the emissions of the six greenhouse gases will be
monitored and Emission rights will also come under surveillance.
Currently Member States
have to report on their climate change programmes and emission projections
annually. In future they would have to do so only every two years, but the
latter data will be substantiallly refined through the new monitoring
system. The Commission proposes to strengthen the surveillance of emissions
forecasting as there is a need for more comprehensive and detailed data in
this area. These emission forecasts are a central aspect of ensuring the
EU's compliance with the commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.
In order to improve
comparability between Member States, projection information needs to
include:
* Projected emissions "with
measures" and "with additional measures", as mentioned in the guidelines of
the UNFCCC
* clear identification of
the policies and measures included in the projections
* results of 'sensitivity
analysis' performed for the projections
* descriptions of
methodologies, models, underlying assumptions and key input and output
parameters
back to contents
47) WINNIPEG
COMMODITY EXCHANGE EYES EMISSIONS TRADING
Reuters
February 5, 2003
Internet:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030206/wl_canada_nm/canada_energy_kyoto_credits_col_1
WINNIPEG, Manitoba
(Reuters) - The Winnipeg Commodity Exchange is proposing to trade credits in
carbon dioxide emissions to help Canadian companies reach targets under the
Kyoto accord, the WCE said on Wednesday. "As Canada's only commodity
exchange, we think we have a lot to offer in this area," said Bruce Love,
the exchange's marketing director. "It's really a business opportunity for
us."
Canada on Dec. 17, formally
ratified the Kyoto accord on global warming despite fierce opposition from
major energy producers in the country. The accord requires Canada to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Emissions
are now roughly one-fifth above 1990 levels. "There really aren't a lot of
details on what the implementation of Kyoto in Canada is going to look like,
that's a matter before the federal government right now," Love said. The
116-year-old exchange, which has open outcry markets for canola, barley,
feed wheat and flax futures and options, has set up a separate company to
explore electronic trading of carbon credits, called Canadian Climate
Exchange Inc.
It would enable companies
that reduce emissions below government-set targets to trade their credits
with those that emit large amounts of greenhouse gases, Love said, adding
potential users include petrochemical companies. The new company has not yet
begun discussions with federal government players, Love said. Last year, the
World Bank estimated $500 million of carbon emissions, or roughly 200
million tonnes, have changed hands since trading began in 1996. A voluntary
carbon emissions market launched in the United Kingdom last April had
attracted about 800 companies to open trading accounts by Jan. 31, far short
of the 6,000 expected. European Union environment ministers agreed in
December to create the world's first mandatory international carbon trading
system in the EU by 2005 -- a market some analysts have said could be worth
$8 billion by 2007. ($1=$1.52 Canadian) .
back to contents
48) GLOBAL WARMING MAY
WORSEN MERCURY POLLUTION - UN
Planet Ark
February 4, 2003
Internet:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/19693/story.htm
NAIROBI - Mercury pollution
must be tackled before global warming exacerbates its noxious effects, the
United Nations warned yesterday it its first report into the worldwide
dangers posed by the heavy metal. The U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) said
activities from gold mining to burning coal in power stations had tripled
mercury levels in the air since pre-industrial times. Mercury works its way
into the food chain, with women and children most at risk from poisoning,
which can cause brain and nerve damage resulting in impaired coordination,
blurred vision, tremors, irritability and memory loss. "Mercury levels have
to be reduced and we want governments to start to take steps to do this
immediately," UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer told reporters at a
conference of environment ministers in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. "Things
could get worse in the coming years, as increases in temperature also appear
to help the spread of the mercury."
UNEP's first report into
the global impact of mercury pollution said more than 1,500 tonnes of the
hazardous substance is pumped into the skies every year by power stations,
with Asia and then Africa the worst culprits. Small-scale mining, where
mercury is used to help extract gold and silver from ores, is another main
source of the pollution, releasing about 400-500 tonnes of mercury each
year. UNEP said a U.S. study found about one in 12 women there had mercury
levels in their bodies above those deemed safe by national authorities.
Scientists predict that as a result, up to 300,000 babies in the United
States could be at risk of brain damage with possible impacts from learning
difficulties to impaired nervous systems.
Mercury poisoning also
threatens animals such as otters, minx, osprey, eagles and some whales which
feed on fish, which scientists say are readily contaminated by mercury
pollution. UNEP hopes up to 100 environment ministers will attend the
five-day conference at its Nairobi headquarters, which opened yesterday, to
discuss how to implement resolutions from the Johannesburg World Summit on
Sustainable Development in September.
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49) INDUSTRY MAY SOFTEN TO AUSTRALIAN KYOTO STANCE
ABC
February 4, 2003
Internet:
http://abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s776680.htm
There are indications
Australian industry could soften its stance against Australia becoming a
signatory to the Kyoto protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The
Australian Industry Group (AIG) has been engaged in a consultation process
with its members to look again at the benefits versus the disadvantages of
signing up to the treaty. The Business Council of Australia has been doing
the same thing.
AIG deputy chief executive
Heather Ridout says businesses and industry need more information about the
full effects of ratification. "I don't think at the moment businesses would
feel confident enough to sign on to a protocol or to support the signing on
to a protocol that's going to push up the costs of their doing business and
make them less competitive in terms of trade," she said. "The options to
redress that need to be put in place much more squarely in the minds of
business and that's a dialogue we're having with government and others in
the community who are interested in the issue."
back to contents
50) NEW TECHNOLOGY COULD CUT GREENHOUSE GASES
Number 10
February 4, 2003
Internet:
http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page7135.asp
New technology could help to achieve big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions
over the next 50 years, a report has concluded. The ICCEPT (Imperial College
Centre for Energy Policy and Technology) report was commissioned to analyse
the potential of low carbon technologies. It highlighted the most promising
options for reducing carbon emission reductions as:
* Renewable energy - Solar
energy alone could meet world energy demand using less than 1% of land
currently used for agriculture.
* Energy efficiency - It is
estimated that one half of future emissions could be eliminated through
improved energy efficiency.
* Hydrogen - As a fuel
carrier and store rather than an energy resource, hydrogen has the ability
to provide energy with no local emissions other than water vapour.
The main conclusion is that
it would be technologically and economically feasible to move to a low
carbon emissions path, and achieve a virtually zero carbon energy system in
the long term, if we used energy more efficiently and developed and used low
carbon technologies. Prime Minister Tony Blair has expressed his support for
technological solutions, particularly to reduce green house gas emissions.
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51) EARTH A SOLUTION TO
AIR POLLUTION? SCIENTISTS CONSIDER INJECTING GREENHOUSE GASES INTO GROUND
Chicago Tribune
February 3, 2003
Internet:
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/nation/5093869.htm
CHICAGO - (KRT) - The plan to landfill air pollution might seem laughable.
As a stopgap solution to global warming, scientists have proposed capturing
several billion tons of carbon dioxide from the air and injecting it deep
into the earth for long-term storage.No one knows whether vast amounts of
the greenhouse gas would stay put 2 miles below ground. Nevertheless, an
increasing number of experts - including some environmentalists - believe
the idea isn't as harebrained as it might sound.
With carbon dioxide
emissions rising steadily in the U.S. and around the world, countries are
casting about for ways to reduce the heat-trapping pollution. In the
meantime, scientists say it can be unloaded into dark reaches of the earth,
including saline aquifers, depleted oil wells, coal seams and the ocean. The
sprawling Illinois Basin, which extends into Indiana and western Kentucky,
offers an ideal location to study three of the methods, say Illinois State
Geological Survey officials. They are leading a multistate effort to bring
up to $10 million in federal funding to the region to study and, perhaps,
begin testing the technique.
Last month, the U.S.
Department of Energy expanded funding to inspire state agencies, industries
and universities to research and test the technique - known as carbon
sequestration - on an unprecedented scale. The government wants to create
four to 10 regional partnerships to study whether it is possible to capture
emissions from coal-fired power plants and unload them into deep saline
formations below 35 states, including Illinois. Theoretically, the briny
aquifers - below those used for drinking water - could hold all the carbon
dioxide from coal burning power plants for the next 100 years, according to
Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham. Others say storage could last for
hundreds of thousands of years. The technology exists, and though
prohibitively expensive, the costs should decrease over the next decade with
more research, experts say.
Environmental groups call
storage "one viable option," as long as the captured carbon would not be
dumped into the ocean, where it has unknown effects on marine life. Others
believe carbon storage could not only boost the domestic coal industry, but
also could help the world gradually transition from fossil fuels to
renewable fuels. Still, by most accounts, it would at least double the cost
of energy, and there is little incentive for power plants to install
expensive capture technology. Questions remain over the possible health
hazards if the carbon escaped: In a bizarre catastrophe, Cameroon's Lake
Nyos emitted a cloud of carbon dioxide in 1986, asphyxiating about 1,700
villagers. And environmental groups such as the Union of Concerned
Scientists and the Natural Resources Defense Council, though supportive,
warn against developing the technology at the expense of other solutions.
"It's promising, but
there's more that needs to be done to make sure (carbon dioxide) stays where
you put it," said David G. Hawkins, director of the NRDC's Climate Center.
"It fits very well with an issue before Congress: whether to start
regulating carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants." In some regions of
the country, depleted oil and natural gas reservoirs or coal deposits could
be used to hold carbon dioxide. For the last two decades, carbon dioxide has
been injected into mature oil fields in west Texas to produce additional
oil, a process known as enhanced oil recovery. Coal seams, meanwhile, are
more experimental and may absorb carbon dioxide and release methane as a
recoverable product to increase natural gas supplies. Both methods have
advantages that could help offset costs.
"If we're successful with
sequestration, we could continue to use coal resources as a major bridge to
these new fuels over a period of decades," said Robert Finley, director of
the Center for Energy and Earth Resources at the State Geological Survey,
who is working with state geological surveys of Indiana and Kentucky as well
as Argonne National Laboratory, near Lemont, Ill., and several gas and
electric companies. "At the same time, we could avoid the release of carbon
into the atmosphere." In a report, Finley added, "In fact, with certain
innovative combustion technologies now under study, emissions of nitrogen
oxide and sulfur oxide also might be economically sequestered along with a
carbon dioxide-rich flue-gas stream."
Carbon dioxide, produced
from burning carbon-containing fuels, including oil, coal, natural gas and
wood, is largely blamed for trapping heat and causing climate change. Since
the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the amount of carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere has increased by 33 percent. Scientists are worried about it
doubling by the end of the century, said Howard Herzog, of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, who has been studying carbon disposal for more than
a decade. Mounting evidence links that increase to the burning of fossil
fuels. Fossil fuels provide 85 percent of the world's primary energy,
however, and electricity use is expected to grow by 2 percent annually in
the U.S. and by 3 percent internationally over the next two decades,
according to Scott Klara of the National Energy Technology Laboratory.
"In the last four years,
carbon sequestration has really come into its own," said Ed Rubin, professor
of environmental engineering and science at Carnegie Mellon University.
Carbon dioxide can be captured from a power plant's flue-gas stream - the
volume of gas after coal has been burned - by scrubbing it with a chemical
solvent that absorbs the carbon dioxide. Once it's regenerated into a
concentrated stream, it can be pressurized until it becomes a liquid. Then
it can be pipelined to a storage site. The process works best in sandstone
formations with a thick cap rock over them, said Sally Benson, deputy
director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, who is developing
technology to monitor carbon once it's underground. "Carbon dioxide has to
flow through pore spaces in the rock, and the rock underground is like
brick, some is even like sand. It takes a lot of energy to wiggle through
pore spaces, so a catastrophic failure is difficult to imagine."
Still, the prospect of
leaks will likely always haunt sequestration. "Hopefully if it comes out, it
will be so slowly that no one notices," Herzog said. "But you also have to
look at whether it's out in the atmosphere and causing trouble. You want it
down there until we're no longer worried about climate change. In reality,
the bulk of it can stay down there thousands of years." As part of the
federal program, American Electric Power, one of the largest power plant
operators and polluters in the nation, is collaborating on a $4.2 million
carbon sequestration project in the Ohio River Valley, which has the largest
concentration of power plants in the nation. Over the next two years,
researchers will conduct seismic surveys of the massive Mt. Simon Sandstone
in West Virginia, which extends as far west as Illinois and Wisconsin. The
project also involves drilling a 10,000-foot exploratory well. "If we can't
prove this could be a permanent repository, it will be a hard sell as a
policy option for mitigating greenhouse gas," said Dale Heydlauff, AEP's
senior vice president of government and environmental affairs.
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52) COTTON TESTS GREENHOUSE CREDENTIALS
Cotton World
February 2, 2003
Internet:
http://www.cottonworld.com.au/articles.php3?rc=280
GREENHOUSE gas emissions from cotton production in Australia will soon be
assessed for the first time. The Australian Cotton CRC and Greenhouse CRC
(co-operative research centre) will hold their first planning meeting next
Thursday, to map out future directions for greenhouse gas research in
cotton. Dr Gary Fitt, CEO of the Cotton CRC, and Dr Chris Mitchell, CEO of
the Greenhouse CRC, will host the meeting at the Australian Cotton Research
Institute, Narrabri. The cotton industry hopes to clarify its part in the
greenhouse story and ensure the sustainability of production practices, Dr
Fitt says.
Greenhouse gas emissions
remains one of the few areas of potential impact on the environment that has
not been studied extensively. Preliminary research on nitrous oxide (an
important greenhouse gas), supported by the Cotton CRC and the CRDC, will
form the basis of future research. This research is led by Dr Peter Grace of
the Greenhouse CRC and Dr Ian Rochester of the Cotton CRC. The program is a
joint venture between the centres, supported by the Cotton and Grains
Research and Development Corporations, the Australian Greenhouse Office and
government. The Australian Greenhouse Office is the first government agency
dedicated to monitoring and managing greenhouse gases. Thursday's agenda
includes an outline of current research; identification of research gaps and
opportunities; an overview of desirable structures, funding and
participants, including opportunities for co-ordination of funding and
resources; and establishment of research priorities. Agriculture is a
relatively minor contributor of greenhouse gas, but it is the main source of
methane and nitrous oxide emissions. Within agriculture the chief culprits
are animals (mainly cattle, sheep and feedlots), cultivation, cropping
(particularly from fertiliser use), fires and management practices.
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53) POWER STATIONS
THREATEN PEOPLE AND WILDLIFE WITH MERCURY POISONING GLOBAL STUDY OF THIS
HAZARDOUS HEAVY METAL RELEASED
UNEP
February 3, 2003
Internet:
http://www.unep.org/Documents/Default.asp?DocumentID=277&ArticleID=3204
Nairobi, 3 February 2003 - Mercury poisoning of the planet could be
significantly reduced by curbing pollution from power stations, a new report
released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) suggests. The
report, compiled by an international team of experts, says that coal-fired
power stations and waste incinerators now account for around 1,500 tons or
70 percent of new, quantified man-made mercury emissions to the atmosphere.
The lion's share is now coming from developing countries with emissions from
Asia, at 860 tons, the highest. "As combustion of fossil fuels is increasing
in order to meet the growing energy demands of both developing and developed
nations, mercury emissions can be expected to increase accordingly in the
absence of the deployment of control technologies or the use of alternative
energy sources," says the report.
Artisinal mining of gold
and silver, which is happening in an increasing number of less developed
nations, is another significant source of mercury pollution, releasing an
estimated 400-500 tons of mercury annually to the air, soils, and waterways.
Mercury is used to extract these precious metals from ores, resulting in
elevated exposures and risks for the miners and their families, as well as
contamination of the local and regional environment. Once in the atmosphere,
this hazardous heavy metal can travel hundreds and thousands of miles,
contaminating places far away from the world's sites where the pollution was
originally discharged. Reducing other pollution from power stations may also
reduce the threats from mercury to humans and wildlife in indirect but
equally important ways.
Temperature can also
influence releases of mercury from contaminated sediments and soils into
rivers, lakes and other freshwaters, the report suggests. Here it can
convert to methylmercury, one of it's most poisonous and hazardous forms,
and build up in fish and other aquatic life forms with potentially harmful
impacts on adults and infants. Numerous studies have linked brain damage in
babies to mercury poisoning of their mothers as a result of eating
contaminated fish. Fish is still a beneficial food, and low to moderate
consumption is considered safe and a healthy dietary practice. However,
people who eat higher amounts of contaminated fish or marine mammals such as
seals, may be at risk of mercury poisoning. Most people are primarily
exposed to methylmercury through eating contaminated fish. However,
additional mercury exposures can occur through dental amalgams and certain
occupational activities. Also, personal use of skin lightening creams and
soaps, mercury use for religious, cultural and ritualistic purposes, use in
some traditional medicines, use of vaccines and some other pharmaceuticals
containing mercury preservatives (such as Thimerosal/Thiomersal) and mercury
in the home and working environment can contribute to elevated exposures.
A study of women in the
United States, also cited in the new report, has found that about 1 in 12,
or just under five million have mercury levels in their bodies above the
level considered safe by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Just three years ago, the United States Research Council estimated that
about 60,000 babies born each year in the U.S. could be at risk of brain
damage with possible impacts ranging from learning difficulties to impaired
nervous systems. However, based on more recent exposure data published by
the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some scientists think the
number of at risk babies could be as high as 300,000. Globally the number
could run into the millions.
Klaus Toepfer, UNEP's
Executive Director, said: "Mercury is a substance that can be transported in
the atmosphere and in the oceans around the globe, travelling hundreds and
thousands of miles from where it is emitted. It has long been recognised as
a health hazardous substance". For example the Mad Hatter, of Alice in
Wonderland fame, was so called because hatters used mercury to strengthen
hats and were once exposed to high levels of mercury vapours. "This new
report, requested from UNEP by governments two years ago, shows that the
global environmental threat to humans and wildlife has not receded despite
reductions in mercury discharges, particularly in developed countries.
Indeed it shows that the problems remain and appear, in some situations to
be worsening as demand for energy, the largest source of human-made mercury
emissions, climbs," he said. "There are many compelling scientific,
environmental and health arguments for curbing pollution linked with energy
production. The mercury report gives us another compelling reason to reduce
society's dependence on carbon intensive energy supplies," added Mr Toepfer.
Acid rain, again often the
result of power station pollution, may be aggravating the problem. High
levels of acidity in rivers, lakes and streams, also appears to trigger
releases of mercury from soils and sediments and its conversion into
methylmercury. The findings may explain why so many fish in parts of the
world where acid rain has been an issue are contaminated. For example in
southern and central Finland, an estimated 85 per cent of pike weighing a
kilo or more, have methylmercury concentrations that exceed international
health limits. Other important sources of mercury releases include cement
production, chlor-alkali production, crematories, manufacture of electrical
switches, thermometers, fluorescent lamps, dental amalgams and rubbish tips
containing wastes such as old batteries and other mercury-containing
products. Slash and burn agriculture and the clearing of forests may be
increasing releases of mercury to rivers. Meanwhile, mercury contamination
in parts of Europe may be affecting the tiny organisms that regulate the
fertility of soils, says the study. This may also be having an indirect
effect on climate change as soil microorganisms play a key role in the
storage of carbon from the atmosphere.
These are some of the
findings to emerge from the global study of mercury carried out by experts
for UNEP. The report is being presented to environment ministers from across
the world who are attending UNEP's Governing Council, and will form the
basis for political decisions that will set the course for global action on
mercury for years to come. The Council is meeting at the organization's
headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, from 3 to 7 February 2003. The findings also
come in advance of World Water Day, which happens on 22 March and is being
organized by UNEP. It will be celebrated at the World Water Forum taking
place in Kyoto, Japan. Here the findings will have special significance.
Several thousand people were made ill or died in Japan in the 1950 and 60s
as a result of eating seafood heavily contaminated by mercury in Minamata
Bay.
The experts who have
compiled the report are asking governments attending the GC to consider a
list of options for addressing the dangers of mercury. These include
reducing risks by reducing or eliminating the production, use and release of
mercury; substituting other non-mercury based products and processes;
launching talks for a legally-binding treaty; establishing a non-binding
global programme of action; and strengthening cooperation amongst
governments on information-sharing, risk communication, assessment and
related activities. They also recommend around a dozen "immediate actions"
including public awareness programmes targeted at sensitive populations such
as pregnant women; waste disposal facilities for the safe destruction of
obsolete, mercury-containing pesticides and pollution control technologies
for power stations .
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54) WEST FLAYED FOR BIASED ECO POLICIES
Gulf News
February 2, 2003
Internet:
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=76201
Arab Energy and Environment Ministers, in a joint declaration adopted here
yesterday, lambasted the industrialised world for enforcing limitations on
oil usage and production on the pretext of environmental protection. The
voice was raised in the joint 'Abu Dhabi Declaration on Environment and
Energy', which was adopted on the sidelines of the Environment and Energy
2003 Conference and Exhibition. The twin event is being organised by General
Exhibitions Corporation (GEC) and Environmental Research and Wildlife
Development Authority (ERWDA).
The declaration was adopted
at a meeting of the ministers yesterday . The meeting was opened by Obeid
bin Saif Al Nasiri, the UAE Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, who
said the meeting brought together the Arab ministers in charge of energy and
environmental affairs for the first time to discuss two major elements of
life, energy and environment. The minister said: "We are here to try and
formulate a common Arab position towards two elements of modern life, namely
environment and energy, and this move will underline the Arab contribution
towards the global endeavours." Saying the Arab countries are the leading
oil and gas producers, Al Nasiri called for finding balanced policies which
preserve "our rights in achieving sustainable development without damaging
the environment." He also thanked the Arab ministers for adopting the Abu
Dhabi Declaration on Environment and Energy which, he said, will soon be
implemented by the member countries.
The declaration, which was
approved by the Arab ministers, observed that trends to enforce biased
limitations on oil usage on the pretext of environmental protection, can
have a negative effect upon revenues arising from oil exports by the
producing countries and, therefore, affect adversely local and related
regional development opportunities. Discussing various issues pertaining to
the environment, the declaration called upon the industrialised countries to
pay their contribution to achieve global sustainable development.
The joint declaration of
the ministers also criticised the industrialised world for its biased
policies towards oil producing countries, particularly the Arab states. The
ministers also rejected the industrialised world's claims that climate
change and its negative results are merely caused by consumption of
hydrocarbons. The declaration said: "There is still scientific uncertainty
related to the phenomenon of climate change and its results. There is no
scientific confirmation that this phenomenon is primarily a result of
emissions resulting from the consumption of hydrocarbons." It said that such
unfounded allegations and doubts will make the oil and gas sector a victim,
and may result in a recession in world demand, thus harming the interests of
the producers. The ministers also called upon the industrialised countries
to fulfil their obligations towards developing countries to support and
facilitate transfer of environmentally safe and sound technology for energy
production in line with international treaties.
The declaration also called
upon the industrialised countries to live up to their commitments such as
the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, which
they signed in the various environmental agreements and treaties. They also
asked them to compensate the Arab countries whose economies are mainly based
on the production and sale of oil and gas, for all the economic and social
damages those countries may suffer at their hands. The declaration, which
reiterated that the energy sector is facing a real challenge in achieving
sustainable development at the Arab level, urged for the integration of Arab
energy markets and for intensified investment in this area. It urged the
developed countries to adopt policies leading to reduction of differences in
energy markets, in particular policies, to avoid any discriminatory
treatment by consumer countries on oil and gas, through the imposition of
taxation or the introduction of any unfair support for other sources and
types of energy.They said this would lead to a reduction in demand for oil
and gas and harm the revenues of producing countries and their development.
The industrial countries
were also urged to restructure their tax systems to reflect the carbon
content of the fossil energy sources, and the damages resulting from atomic
energy, and abolishing all aspects of subsidies provided to coal and atomic
energy. It expressed great concern over the expansion of nuclear programmes
of some countries in the region, which are refusing to let in the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect their military and
peaceful nuclear and hydropower generation programmes. "These activities,
resulting from the use of radioactive material, are harmful for the region's
population, the wildlife and the marine life due to its leakage to
groundwater. Other possible trans-border effects might affect the coming
generations, with negative impact on the use of atomic energy for power
generation."
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55) STUDY: WARMING
WORSENED DROUGHT
USA Today
January 31, 2003
Internet:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=676&ncid=716&e=19&u=/usatoday/20030131/ts_usatoday/4828112
Global warming probably made the recent drought in the USA worse than it
otherwise would have been, say the authors of a study published today in the
journal Science. It also could increase the risk for future severe droughts.
The study is the latest in a number of reports linking severe weather
problems -- drought, monsoons and melting polar ice -- to global warming,
the gradual heating of Earth's atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels.
Federal climate scientists Martin Hoerling and Arun Kumar wrote the study.
The report comes as the White House is due next week to unveil budget plans
for next year on global warming research. Thursday, the administration is
expected to unveil a list of voluntary pledges from American industries to
cut the emission of gases said to cause the phenomenon.
President Bush has called
for an 18% drop in such pollution by 2012 as an alternative to the stricter
limits of the Kyoto Protocol, the international climate treaty that the
administration rejected in 2001. Global warming, although accepted by many,
provokes controversy among government, science and industry about what
effect it has on the planet. The study compared drought in the USA, southern
Europe and southwest Asia from 1998 through 2002 with unprecedented warming
of seawater in the western Pacific and Indian oceans. An existing ''warm
pool'' in those oceans grew warmer during that period. The study attributes
that rise to global warming.
The warming, an increase of
2 degrees Fahrenheit, combined with the drying effects of a La Niña weather
pattern in the eastern Pacific during the same time, Hoerling said. The
combination shifted tropical rainfall and caused the jet stream to move
north of its usual location, the study said. This meant many major winter
storms missed most of North America. As a result, many parts of the country
grew drier, including much of the West, parts of the South and the Eastern
Seaboard. Some areas received as little as 50% of normal rainfall. ''Absent
this warm-pool warming, the likelihood is that the drought would not have
been as severe and prolonged,'' says Hoerling, a meteorologist in the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Diagnostics Center
in Boulder, Colo. Kumar is with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center in Camp
Springs, Md.
Drought, which persists in
several Western states, could have occurred without global warming or La Niña,
a climate phenomenon in which cooler eastern Pacific waters produces drier
conditions. But it would not have been as bad or as persistent, Hoerling
says. The study ''should make a number of people sit up and take note,''
says Kevin Trenberth, the head of climate analysis for the National Center
for Atmospheric Research.
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56) CLIMATE PARTNERSHIP WITH ROMANIA MOOTED
The Copenhagen Post
January 31, 2003
Internet:
http://cphpost.periskop.dk/default.asp?id=27499
Denmark formalized a climate agreement with Romania under the Joint
Implementation projects of the Kyoto Protocol yesterday. Denmark has entered
a framework agreement with Romania on joint future climate projects. The
agreement will transfer dearly needed new technology to Romania to conserve
energy and limit air pollution. In return, Denmark can write off the carbon
dioxide reduction on its national climate report.
The so-called Joint
Implementation projects under the Kyoto Protocol open the possibility for
industrialized countries to launch energy projects in other countries-
notably in Eastern Europe- where cutbacks in CO2 emissions from disabled
power plants or disused factories can be implemented more cheaply.
Environment Minister Hans Christian Schmidt, who signed yesterday's
agreement with Romanian Ambassador Vlad-Andrei Moga, predicts that the
partnership will help Denmark reach its ambitious climate objectives under
the Kyoto Protocol. The last phase of an initial project in Romania is
currently under negotiation. Denmark has also entered a general climate
partnership with Slovakia, and is in talks for similar national programmes
with Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Estonia and Bulgaria.
Meanwhile, Danish power
plants and environmental organizations are anxiously awaiting the
government's promised climate strategy, which has been repeatedly postponed.
According to daily newspaper Politiken, the nation's taxpayers will foot a
hefty bill if Denmark has any realistic chance of reducing its carbon
dioxide emissions by 21 percent between 2008 and 2012.
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57) AIR POLLUTION AND
CLIMATE CHANGE TACKLING BOTH PROBLEMS IN TANDEM
United Nations Economic Commission for
Europe
January 31, 2003
Internet:
http://www.unece.org/env/emep/pr03_env02e_h.pdf
Scientists and policy
makers should no longer treat air pollution and climate change as distinct
problems, because the two are very closely related. The recent Workshop on
Linkages and Synergies of Regional and Global Emission Control, organized
under the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution by the
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), looked at the
numerous links between these two policy areas. It concluded that these links
are so important that they merit close cooperation.
Air pollution affects the
regional and global climate both directly and indirectly. Ozone in the lower
layers of the atmosphere contributes to global warming even more than some
greenhouse gases included in the Kyoto Protocol, and particulate matter in
the atmosphere also has important climate impacts. However, although black
carbon, or soot particles, has a warming effect, other particles, for
instance sulphates and nitrates, may cool the climate. The current high
levels of sulphates and nitrates mask the effects of climate change to some
degree. Through cuts in sulphur and nitrogen emissions necessary to protect
human health and the environment the climate impacts of the greenhouse gases
may actually show more quickly. On the other hand, measures to cut black
carbon emissions, for instance from diesel combustion, will have double
benefits, protecting both human health locally and also the climate
regionally and worldwide.
Methane has a direct
negative impact on climate (it is one of the Kyoto Protocol greenhouse
gases) and it contributes to ground-level ozone levels. Methane emissions
(mainly from agriculture, energy and waste management) have grown very
rapidly since pre-industrial times. Cutting these emissions will reduce
health- and ecosystem-damaging ozone levels and reduce the extent of climate
change. While indications of the climate impacts of increasing greenhouse
gas concentrations can already be seen in the rise of mean temperatures and
the increase in the numbers of extreme climate events (floods and droughts),
most impacts are likely to happen over the next 50-100 years. Some gases,
like carbon dioxide, stay in the atmosphere for a very long time, so
measures to reduce emissions only start to show an effect after a few
decades. In contrast, ozone, black carbon and methane can be controlled to
show effects much sooner (10-20 years). Cutting these pollutants could help
reduce some climate impacts while waiting for longer-term measures to pay
off.
Besides such links between
atmospheric effects, there is also a strong link between the sources of
emissions. Energy production and transport are responsible for most CO2
emissions and much of the air pollution. Cutting energy consumption and car
use will therefore have double benefits. Synergies can also be found in
agriculture: cutting ammonia emissions could lead to an increase of some
greenhouse gas emissions, but the same reduction levels can also be achieved
by an integrated strategy that will even cut some of the greenhouse gases.
The UNECE Conventions Centre for Integrated Assessment Modelling, run by
IIASA, estimates that the cost of reaching the 2010 air pollution objectives
in the Conventions Gothenburg Protocol could be reduced by at least 5
billion if European countries cut CO2 emissions in line with the Kyoto
Protocol (without CO2 trading). Similar results have been found for China or
Mexico.
While closely related, air
pollution and climate change have mostly been treated as separate problems.
At the international level, efforts under the UNECE Convention on Long-range
Transboundary Air Pollution have helped cut air pollution levels in Europe.
Sulphur emissions are 60% lower than in 1980, nitrogen oxides are down by
25% compared to 1990 and other pollutants are also starting to decline. At
the global scale the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
has brought together more than 180 countries to agree on measures to combat
climate change. More needs to be done, both to bring air pollution down to
safe levels and to cut greenhouse gas emissions to halt climate change.
Taking certain climate
change measures will yield additional benefits through improved local and
regional air quality. Certain air pollution abatement measures will also
help protect the regional and global climate. Much, though not all, is known
about such links, but systematic studies are lacking. The UNECE Conventions
Cooperative Programme for Monitoring and Evaluation of the Long-range
Transmission of Air Pollutants in Europe (EMEP) has begun to integrate these
links into its assessment so that measures to further cut air pollution will
lead to win-win situations. It is also seeking cooperation with scientists
of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to move this work forward.
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58) U.S. TO JOIN
INTERNATIONAL FUSION RESEARCH PROJECT
Reuters
January 30, 2003
Internet:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030130/sc_nm/bush_fusion_dc_1
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
United States will join an international research project aimed at
harnessing the power of fusion and turning it into a clean and safe source
for energy, President Bush said on Thursday. ITER, the International
Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, is a fusion research project that is
already a joint operation of Britain, other European Union nations, Russia,
China, Japan and Canada. Bush said he would like to see fusion energy turned
into a source for clean, safe, renewable and commercially available energy
by the middle of the century.
"Commercialization of
fusion has the potential to dramatically improve America's energy security
while significantly reducing air pollution and emissions of greenhouse
gases," Bush said. Bush drew fire from Europeans for withdrawing the United
States from the Kyoto treaty aimed at taking steps to reduce greenhouse
emissions blamed for global warming. At home, environmentalists have
questioned his commitment to the environment because he wants to open
Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.
Fusion is the energy source
that powers the sun. It occurs in the sun when the intense heat and pressure
within the sun's core cause light atoms to collide and fuse together. This
creates heavier atoms and releases energy. But fusion energy has been hard
to make on a commercial scale. ITER plans to build a demonstration fusion
power plant. Bush directed Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to represent the
United States at ITER meetings in February in St. Petersburg, Russia.
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59) BP SHOWCASES
EMISSION REDUCTION TECHNOLOGY IN ABU DHABI
Mena Report
January 30, 2003
Internet:
http://www.menareport.com/story/TheNews.php3?action=story&sid=240811&lang=e&dir=mena
Oil major BP will be showcasing for the first time in Abu Dhabi its
methodology that helped reduce the companys greenhouse gas emissions by 10
percent, eight years ahead of schedule, at the same time as saving the
company $600 million. The companys technologically advanced applications
and research in capturing and treating harmful emissions will be the focus
of its attendance at the Environment and Energy (E&E) 2003 exhibition at the
Abu Dhabi International Exhibition Center from February 2-5.
In 1998, shortly
after the Kyoto accords, BP set itself the ambitious target of reducing its
emissions of greenhouse gases by 10 percent by the year 2010, relative to a
1990 base line. By the spring of 2002 its emissions of carbon dioxide had
been cut to 80 million tons, 10 million tons below the level in 1990 and 14
million tons below the level they had reached by 1998.
At BPs chemicals
plant in Korea the project resulted in savings of $4.5 million a year and
cut carbon dioxide emission by 49,000 tons. At its Texas City refinery it
saved five million dollars and 300,000 tons of emissions. At its operation
in Sharjah, BP Sharjah Oil Company surpassed its target by achieving a
reduction of 30 percent in greenhouse gases, declining 971,000 tons in 1998
to 640,000 tons by the end of 2002. In Abu Dhabi, ADCO reduced its methane
emissions by 85 percent by replacing pumps that were driven by methane gas
with solar powered electric motors. (menareport.com).
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60) ICE CAP 'SENSITIVE'
TO GREENHOUSE GAS
Stuff
January 29, 2003
Internet:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2224232a7693,00.html
"Ominous" new research on global warming has indicated that even the Kyoto
Protocol will not go far enough to avoid a climate disaster. New Zealand and
most other nations have signed the protocol, a 1997 scheme designed to limit
greenhouse gases, but the United States and Australia have refused. The two
countries produce a major share of the world's greenhouse gases between them
but claim the protocol is unnecessarily harsh on industrialised countries.
Their opposition will be
challenged by the latest research from Antarctica that shows the most
serious greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, played a far bigger role in the
origin of the Antarctic icecap than previously thought. Victoria
University's Professor Peter Barrett, speaking from Scott Base, said the
latest study published in a prestigious science journal, Nature, confirms
the sensitivity of the icecap, home to 90 per cent of the globe's fresh
water, to rising greenhouse gas emissions.
If emissions are not
checked, by the end of this century they will probably lead to a climate
like the Earth's before the icecap was formed, he said. "This new research
on the past Antarctic climate has an ominous warning for the future,
indicating that more extreme measures than currently proposed under the
Kyoto Protocol will be needed to forestall climate disaster in the decades
ahead," he said. "It is clear that land-surface and ocean temperatures are
rising in response to human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and
remarkably fast on a geological timescale. "The effects of this will be
difficult to predict, but they will plainly be profound. (This new research)
brings new understanding of the effects of carbon dioxide emissions on
climate, and adds force to the arguments for reducing greenhouse-gas
emissions beyond those agreed in the Kyoto Protocol. It indicates that world
leaders will have to go beyond the Kyoto Protocol to avoid a climate
disaster."
The campaign to get the
United States to change its attitude to the Kyoto Protocol has been boosted
by a congressional inspection tour of the American bases in Antarctica this
month. The head of the powerful US science committee, Republican Congressman
Sherwood Boehlert, said they had seen first-hand the research being done in
Antarctica on controversial issues such as global warming. He described it
as vital. "Congress is prone to say ad nauseam that we want to operate on
science-based fact rather than speculation and theory, but sometimes when
the science leads us to politically inconvenient conclusions then there's a
tendency on the part of some to go in another direction," he said. "But it's
hard to argue with a fact that's been methodically and meticulously
developed over years of in-depth study."
The research that prompted
the warning that global warming is worse than previously thought is based on
computer modelling of the Earth's climate during the formation of the first
Antarctic ice sheet 34 million years ago. At the time, the Earth's climate
was cooling the reverse of the situation now, where there has been a
dramatic onset of global warming since the advent of widespread
industrialisation. The nub of the new US-based research from Antarctica is
that carbon dioxide had a much bigger role to play in temperatures over the
southern continent. Previously it was thought changing ocean currents,
caused by the drifting continents, were primarily responsible for the
cooling of the region. Professor Barrett said it was worrying that the
research emphasis has shifted away from understanding climate behaviour and
towards mitigating the effects of greenhouse emissions. Both areas needed
further research funding, "along with an international commitment to an
effective solution, if we are to survive the worst consequences of this
grandest of all human experiments". Antarctica New Zealand chief executive
Lou Sanson said New Zealand had established a world-beating reputation for
climate research projects on the Ice.
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61) SHRINKING ARCTIC
ICE TO OPEN SHIPPING SHORT-CUTS
Reuters
January 29, 2003
Internet:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030129/sc_nm/environment_arctic_dc_2
KIRKENES, Norway (Reuters)
- The shrinking Arctic ice cap may open a fabled passage for ships between
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans within a decade, transforming an icy
graveyard into a short-cut trade route. Ship owners may be among the few to
benefit from global warming in the extreme North, where the giant thaw is
threatening traditional habitats for indigenous peoples and wildlife ranging
from polar bears to caribou.
U.N. studies project that
the Arctic may be free of ice in summertime by 2080. The polar passage,
clogged by ice throughout seafaring history, may come to challenge the
Panama and Suez canals. "In the next 10 years I believe we will solve the
problems of round-the-year goods transport through the Northern Sea route,"
said Alexander Medvedev, general director of Russia's Murmansk Shipping
Company. "You can save at least 10-15 days on the voyage from Japan to
Europe, especially in summertime," he told Reuters during a visit to
Kirkenes on the Arctic tip of Norway.
The company now runs two or
three ice-breaker-led voyages a year from Europe to Japan and back, hugging
the Russian coast, and reckons the route can be opened year-round if Moscow
makes big new investments. On the other side of the Arctic, the Northwest
Passage past Alaska and through a maze of islands off Canada is likely to
take longer to be ice-free because it is further north. It also passes
through straits that get blocked more easily by ice. "For the Northwest
Passage it will take another 20 years after conditions for the Northern Sea
route are favorable," said Peter Wadhams, professor of ocean physics at
Cambridge University in England. "I'm sure it's going to happen -- the ice
is retreating."
INSURERS WARY
Yet insurance companies are
likely to stay wary of both polar routes. High premiums plus a need for
ice-resistant hulls for ships and ice-breaker escorts may well wipe out the
advantages of lower costs due to the shorter distance. Mariners searched in
vain for centuries for a short-cut from Europe to the Far East. The search
for passages cost the lives of explorers including Dutchman Wilhelm Barents
and Englishman Henry Hudson -- after whom the Barents Sea and Hudson Bay are
named. Barents' ship ran aground in 1596 and Hudson died after a 1611
mutiny.
Other explorers were
victims of cold or scurvy before a Finnish-Swedish expedition navigated the
Northern Sea route in 1878. The Norwegian Roald Amundsen was first to get
through the Northwest Passage in 1906. Even as the ice shrinks, it may take
billions of dollars to open sea routes. Ports in northern Russia have
deteriorated since the end of the Cold War when nuclear powered ice-breakers
led warships between the Atlantic and Pacific. "The obstacles are more
economic and political. You have to have a lot of infrastructure:
navigational aids search and rescue teams, the ability to clean up
pollution," Wadhams said.
And environmentalists want
safeguards to protect indigenous peoples in some of the world's largest
wildernesses and to prevent a get-rich-quick rush for resources ranging from
oil and gas to timber and minerals. "Melting of the ice will make access far
easier to northern Siberia and other wildernesses," said Svein Tveitdal,
managing director of the U.N. Environment Program's polar center. "There has
to be a strategy for sustainable development of the Arctic. It mustn't
become a sort of new Africa, where colonialists exploited the resources."
About 4 million people live around the Arctic.
U.N. studies show that the
Arctic ice has shrunk by about 3 percent a decade since the 1970s and that
air temperatures have risen by about 5 degrees Celsius (about 8 degrees
Fahrenheit) in the past century. The exploration of oil and gas fields will
increase the risk of pollution such as the Exxon Valdez tanker spill off
Alaska in 1989. Norway plans to open its first gas field in the Barents Sea
in 2006. The polar regions are most vulnerable to global warming, caused by
burning fossil fuels like oil. Scientists say the emissions are blanketing
the planet and pushing up temperatures. In the Arctic, melting ice and snow
exposes darker soil and rocks that trap heat. The sun's heat bounces back
into space more readily at the equator than near the poles, where low
slanting rays have to pass through thicker layers of atmosphere.
ICE RECEDES
New polar routes will save
about 4,000 nautical miles on some routes from Europe to the Far East
compared to southerly routes through Panama or Suez. Shipments could include
cargoes like grains, frozen fish, oil and gas or cars. And a route north of
Canada, for instance, might save 6,000 to 8,000 nautical miles for a super
tanker from Venezuela to Japan. Vessels too big to pass through the Panama
Canal have to go around all of South America. Japan has also expressed
interest in transporting nuclear waste to Europe through the Arctic, a plan
denounced by environmentalists who say it could get trapped in ice. Rob
Huebert, associate director for the Center for Military and Strategic
Studies at the University of Calgary in Canada, said one odd spin-off of
global warming is that some regions are getting colder, complicating any
shipping plans. "In some areas the ice is getting thicker as it breaks up
elsewhere," he said.
Willy Oestreng, a Norwegian
professor of international affairs who led a global study of the Northern
Sea route in the 1990s, said Russia was ahead of Canada because of factors
including more ports, albeit dilapidated, and ice-breakers. "The differences
are striking. The Northern Sea route is more developed," he said. He noted
that nickel had been shipped from northwest Russia year-round since the
1970s.
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62) CHEAP COAL A HURDLE
TO CHINA NATGAS GROWTH-EXPERT
Reuters
January 28, 2003
Internet:
http://www.forbes.com/markets/commodities/newswire/2003/01/28/rtr861633.html
NEW YORK, Jan 28 (Reuters)
- Development of natural gas in China could improve the environment and the
economy but faces a hurdle from the nation's heaping supplies of cheap coal,
an expert on Chinese energy said. To leap the hurdle, China must define a
national natural gas policy that reforms gas prices, defines gas quality
standards, and provides incentives for development and construction of
infrastructure, said Xavier Chen, the China Program Director at the
Paris-based International Energy Agency at a conference in New York.
Natural gas provides China
with just 3 percent of its energy, compared with oil at 25 percent. Coal
provides nearly 70 percent. "There is strong competition from coal, it is
cheap and abundant, and China has a lack of gas technology," said Chen.
There are also natural gas infrastructure problems, from transporting gas to
burning it for power. "China cannot manufacture small gas turbines," Chen
said. China's leadership has set a goal for natural gas growth to 6 percent
of total energy supply by 2010. Chinese oil major PetroChina has set a goal
of 12 percent by 202O.
China has only 1 percent of
global proven natural gas reserves, mostly located in the central and
western parts of the country, away from the high demand eastern parts.
Still, the reserves could provide China with its natural gas needs for the
next 50 years, said Chen. China broke ground last summer on the West-East
gas pipeline which is expected to span 2,500 miles (4,000 km) from the Tarim
basin to Shanghai. Exxon Mobil Corp, Royal Dutch Shell, and Russia's Gazprom
have also invested in the line which is expected to run gas by 2005.
Some analysts believe China
could eventually connect the West-East pipeline to tap into Russian gas
reserves. The price of heavy coal dependence in China could prod China to
faster natural gas development, said Chen. Coal burning in China, the second
largest economy in the world, combined with the explosive growth of car
demand of about three million vehicles per year, makes the nation a leading
emitter of pollutants. China is the second largest emitter of amount of
global CO2, but is the world's largest emitter of both soot and sulphur
dioxide (SO2), a cause of acid rain, which damages 40 percent of Chinese
land, according to IEA.
A 1998 World Health
Organization report said seven of the 10 most polluted cities in the world.
Water and air pollution cost China $24 billion in 1995, or about 3.5 percent
of Chinese gross domestic product in that year, according to the World Bank.
China last September ratified the Kyoto protocol meant to rein in emissions
of greenhouse gases blamed for warming the planet. But as a developing
nation it is not bound by any targets for restraining carbon dioxide
emissions. "Kyoto is just one step, there will be certainly new commitments
coming," said Chen, "without Chinese participation it will be hard to arrest
the global warming process." China has already banned the use of coal in
certain areas where SO2 emissions and acid rain is a problem.
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63) AIR QUALITY, CLIMATE CHANGE AND PROTECTION OF THE
OZONE LAYER: COMMISSION PURSUES LEGAL ACTION AGAINST SIX MEMBER STATES
EU
January 27, 2003
Internet:
http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=IP/03/124|0|RAPID&lg=EN&display=
The European Commission has
taken legal action to improve air quality in Europe, address climate change
and protect the ozone layer by pursuing infringement proceedings against
Greece, Ireland, Austria, Belgium, Finland and Germany. The Commission is
concerned that these Member States have not correctly implemented certain EU
laws governing emissions to the air. Greece is to be referred to the
European Court of Justice for failing to apply correctly an EU law on
combating air pollution from industrial plants to a power station at
Linoperamata in Crete. Ireland is to be referred to the Court for failing to
provide monitoring data on emissions of carbon dioxide from cars. Austria is
to be referred to the Court for failing to bring its national legislation on
large combustion plants into line with the Large Combustion Plants
Directive. Ireland and Germany are also to receive Reasoned Opinions (final
written warnings) for failing to fulfil reporting requirements on the use of
ozone-depleting substances, which is required by the Ozone Regulation.
Greece, Belgium and Finland are to receive Reasoned Opinions for failing to
communicate complete transposition measures for amendments to the Directive
on internal combustion engines for non-road mobile machinery (in Finland
this relates only to the Province of Åland).
Reasoned Opinions represent
the second stage of infringement proceedings under Article 226 of the EC
Treaty. In the absence of a satisfactory response within two months, the
Commission may decide to refer these cases to the Court of Justice.
Commenting on the decisions, Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström said:
"Air pollution is a serious local, regional, national and global problem.
The Commission is committed to improving the quality of Europe's air,
addressing climate change and safeguarding the ozone layer. If Member States
agree to abide by environmental legislation they must transpose that
legislation into their national legislation and adapt their governmental
practices accordingly."
EU laws on Air Quality, Climate Change and
Ozone Layer
EU legislation in this area seeks to
achieve the following goals:
* to combat air pollution from industrial
plants;
* to require the setting up of schemes to
monitor average specific emissions of carbon dioxide from new passenger
cars;
* to limit air pollutant emissions from
large combustion plants;
* to adapt the restrictions on the emission
of gaseous and particulate pollutants from internal combustion engines in
non-road mobile machinery;
* to require the submission of reports
containing information on the measures taken to handle substances that
damage the ozone layer.
Inadequate implementation
means that citizens do not get the guarantees of higher protection that
these EU laws promise or contribute to internationally. Consequently,
citizens run a greater risk of suffering health problems associated with
poor air quality.
COMBATING AIR POLLUTION FROM INDUSTRIAL
PLANTS
In 1984, the EU adopted a
Directive on air pollution from industrial plants(1). The Directive aims to
curb industrial air pollution by establishing a system of prior
authorisation and by upgrading existing plants according to the principle of
the "best available technology not entailing excessive cost "(BATNEEC). The
decision to refer Greece to the Court of Justice follows the investigation
of a complaint into a power station at Linoperamata, Crete. For 15 years,
Greece has failed to take adequate measures to gradually adapt the plant
according to the principles of BATNEEC. It has also failed to make the plant
less environmentally damaging. As a result, its polluting emissions are
higher than they otherwise might be.
LARGE COMBUSTION PLANTS
The Large Combustion Plants
Directive(2) aims to reduce air pollution from larger power plants by, among
other things, setting up pollution reduction programmes and by enforcing
stricter emission limits. Austrian legislation is inadequate in this
respect. It includes, for example, exemptions to the definition of a
"multi-firing unit" for conventional fuels, which were not provided for in
the Directive. In addition the important distinction between "new plant" and
"existing plant" has not been drawn, as required by the Directive. Finally,
the definition of emission limit values with regard to sulphur dioxide,
oxides of nitrogen and dust is too vague, and emission values for
distillation residues have not been fixed.
EMISSIONS FROM NON-ROAD MOBILE MACHINERY
The Directive governing
emissions of gaseous and particulate pollutants from internal combustion
engines in non-road mobile machinery should have been implemented by 30 June
2002.(3) It adapts emissions restrictions to take account of the technical
progress that has been made. Greece, Belgium and Finland (the Province of
Åland) have not yet informed the Commission of the transposition measures
that they have implemented.
MONITORING AVERAGE CO2 EMISSIONS FROM
NEW PASSENGER CARS
In 2000, the EU agreed a
scheme for monitoring CO2 emissions from new passenger cars(4). This
requires Member States to send monitoring information to the Commission
every year as part of the Community strategy to reduce CO2 emissions from
passenger cars,thereby combatting climate change. The deadline for producing
the information report was 1 July 2001. While other Member States have
provided monitoring data, Ireland has not, hence the decision to refer it to
the Court of Justice.
PROTECTING THE OZONE LAYER
The Regulation on
Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer(5) aims to curb and eventually
eliminate the use of substances that deplete stratospheric ozone, which is
the global shield that protects the earth from harmful solar rays. The
Regulation requires Member States to supply information on measures taken to
promote the recovery, recycling, reclamation and destruction of controlled
substances such as CFCs, HCFCs, halons and methyl bromide. Member States
must also provide data on what has been done to make organisations and users
responsible for carrying out these activities. They must show what steps
have been taken to prevent leakages of controlled substances, and there are
other specific requirements to minimise methyl bromide leakages. In
addition, the Regulation obliges Member States to respect other reporting
requirements, including providing information on annual leak checks (for
equipment containing more than 3 kg of ozone depleting substances),
submitting data on the minimum qualification requirements for all personnel
involved and communicating details on the quantities of controlled
substances that have been recovered, recycled, reclaimed or destroyed.
Ireland and Germany have yet to fulfil this reporting requirement, and the
Commission therefore decided to send the two Member States a Reasoned
Opinion.
LEGAL PROCESS
Article 226 of the Treaty
gives the Commission powers to take legal action against a Member State that
is not respecting its obligations. If the Commission considers that there
may be an infringement of Community law that warrants the opening of an
infringement procedure, it addresses a "Letter of Formal Notice" to the
Member State concerned, requesting it to submit its observations by a
specified date, usually two months.
In the light of the reply
or absence of a reply from the Member State concerned, the Commission may
decide to address a "Reasoned Opinion" (or final written warning) to the
Member State. This clearly and definitively sets out the reasons why it
considers there to have been an infringement of Community law and calls upon
the Member State to comply within a specified period, normally two months.
If the Member State fails to comply with the Reasoned Opinion, the
Commission may decide to bring the case before the European Court of
Justice. Article 228 of the Treaty gives the Commission power to act against
a Member State that does not comply with a previous judgement of the
European Court of Justice. The article also allows the Commission to ask the
Court to impose a financial penalty on the Member State concerned.
For current statistics on
infringements in general, please visit the following web-site:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/secretariat_general/sgb/droit_com/index_en.htm#infractions
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64) CLIMATE RIGHT FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF WEATHER by
Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr.
Los Angeles Times
February 15, 2003
Internet:
http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?Category=14&ID=85095&r=0
Lautenbacher Jr. is U.S.
undersecretary of Commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator.
El Nino the climate event
caused by the periodic warming of tropical Pacific Ocean waters has had
heavy effects on lives, property and the economy. In 1997-98, storm losses
due to El Nino reached $1.1 billion in California; the U.S. total was put at
$25 billion. Understanding the natural processes that lead to an El Nino and
other climate events is a central concern to scientists, policymakers and
economists. Knowing more about how and why these events occur will have
far-reaching implications, leading to improved safety measures, longer lead
times, more efficient energy, agricultural and transportation practices and
a growing knowledge base to address looming global climate change issues.
Behind each newscast
featuring local, regional and national weather is a seamless yet complex
research effort. With the five-day forecast commonplace, long-range climate
services are needed. Climate services extend beyond near-term weather
forecasts and provide less-defined but no less important information on
longer-range weather trends. Though weather is what were experiencing
today, climate affects weather patterns over a season or longer.
There are compelling
reasons to better understand these patterns, and everyone is a stakeholder.
The air we breathe and the sea washing our shores know no boundaries. Global
pollution shows up in Antarcticas snow and ice. Africas dust and traces of
its sandstorms show up in Floridas coral reefs. Not knowing how to
effectively mitigate these concerns can have far-reaching economic,
environmental and security consequences. For these reasons, climate services
must become as critical in this century as weather services were in the
last. We need an international system of climate information that links
every region of the globe. Without the participation of every nation, we
will continue to have gaps in scientific knowledge and understanding. No
matter how outstanding the technology, climate cannot be effectively
investigated on a piecemeal basis.
More is known about the
dark side of the moon than about the oceans that cover 70 percent of the
Earth. The existing ocean monitoring system offers an exciting array of
technological marvels, including sea-level gauges, ocean robots and weather
balloons. An important addition to these tools are 5-foot-long yellow ARGO
floats that are being deployed by the United States and its international
partners around the world. These floats, which ride ocean currents taking
temperature and salinity measurements up to 6,000 feet below the surface,
are helping to fill in missing data on our oceans and offer glimpses into
longer-range global climate trends. But there are still substantial gaps in
coverage. As scientific eyes and ears in the worlds oceans, these
technologies can, over time, tell us a good deal about what our future may
look like and what steps we can take to prepare for it.
At the direction of
President Bush, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA,
is moving forward with a plan to broaden and intensify climate science
research efforts and is making headway toward gaining international support
for an expanded global climate observation system. By monitoring winds out
of the Indian Ocean, for example, then tracking the oceans response to them
over the Pacific, the agency was able to provide an unprecedented six
months heads-up that another El Nino was brewing. This demonstrates that we
have the capability to save lives and millions of U.S. and global dollars
through the use of El Nino data. The forecast, for example, could be used to
adjust the release of water from reservoirs or prepare for possible
mudslides.
We must seriously consider
a global observing system to do for global climate what we have been able to
do in detecting El Nino. With a firm commitment by the United States and its
international partners to implement a global observing system, we can take
the pulse of Mother Earth and provide benefits to California, the nation and
the world.
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65) END OF THE WORLD
NIGH - IT'S OFFICIAL by Michael Meacher
The Guardian
February 14, 2003
Internet:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,895217,00.html
Michael Meacher is
environment minister. This article is based on a lecture he will deliver
today at Newcastle University
There is a lot wrong with
our world. But it is not as bad as many people think. It is worse. Global
warming is slowly but relentlessly changing the face of the planet. We are
only in the early stages of this process, but already carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere has reached 375 parts per million, the highest level for at least
half a million years. Temperatures are projected to rise by up to 5.8 C this
century, 10 times the increase of 0.6 C in the last century, and by 40% more
than this in some northern land surface areas. This means temperatures could
rise by up to 8.1 C in some parts of the world.
Does this matter? The
evidence suggests that it does. In China severe floods used to occur once
every 20 years; now they occur in nine out of every 10. The number of people
affected by floods globally has risen from 7 million in the 1960s to 150
million now. In 1998 two-thirds of Bangladesh was under water for months,
affecting 30 million people. In the UK, 5 million people and 185,000
businesses are at risk. Flooding is only the beginning. The number of people
worldwide devastated by hurricanes or cyclones has increased eightfold to 25
million a year over the past 30 years. The oceans are steadily warming, and
since they currently absorb 50 times more CO2 than is contained in the
atmosphere, even a tiny reduction in CO2 absorption by the sea could cause
global temperatures to rise significantly.
Even more seriously, 10,000
billion tonnes of methane (a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than CO2)
are stored, according to the US Geological Survey, on the shallow floor of
the Arctic, in sediments below the seabed. If the temperature surrounding
the methane warms, it becomes unstable and methane gas is released, causing
temperatures to increase further. Warming oceans also cause the waters to
expand and the sea level to rise. Sea level is predicted to rise by 3ft over
the next century, leading to huge areas of Bangladesh, Egypt and China being
inundated.
We don't know the limits of
nature - how much rain could fall for how long a period, how much more
powerful and frequent hurricanes could become, for how long droughts could
endure. The ultimate concern is that if runaway global warming occurred,
temperatures could spiral out of control and make our planet uninhabitable.
Five times in the past 540 million years there have been mass extinctions,
in one case involving the destruction of 96% of species then living. But
while these were the result of asteroid strikes or intense glaciation, this
is the first time that a species has been at risk of generating its own
demise. James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis conceives of the planet as an
active control system. It posits the existence of feedbacks at the global
level which, so far, have served to keep the earth's surface habitable
within a tolerable range, despite significant external changes, including
changes in the radiation from the sun. However, with severe human-induced
activity, that is now beginning to change.
We have almost become our
own geophysical cycle. There are many examples of this trend. On a global
scale our biological carbon productivity is now only outpaced by the krill
in the oceans. Our civil engineering works shift more soil than all the
world's rivers bring to the seas. Our industrial emissions eclipse the total
emissions from all the world's volcanoes. We are bringing about species loss
on the scale of some of the natural extinctions of palaeohistory.
We face a transformation of
our world and its ecosystems at an exponential rate, and unprecedentedly
brought about, not by natural forces, but by the activities of the dominant
species. Climate change is only the most dramatic example. At a time when
scientists say the world should be reducing its CO2 emissions by 60% to
stabilise and then reverse global warming, they are projected to increase by
around 75% on 1990 levels by 2020. The dinosaurs dominated the earth for 160
million years. We are in danger of putting our future at risk after a mere
quarter of a million years. The force of the Gaia thesis has never been more
apparent. When an alien infection invades the body, the body develops a
fever in order to concentrate all its energies to eliminate the alien
organism. In most cases it succeeds, and the body recovers. But where it
does not, the body dies. The lesson is that if we continue with activities
which destroy our environment and undermine the conditions for our own
survival, we are the virus. Making the change needed to avoid that fate is
perhaps the greatest challenge we have ever faced.
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66) A BACK DOOR TO
KYOTO? by H. Sterling Burnett
Washington Post
February 13, 2003
Internet:
http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20030213-75808846.htm
H. Sterling Burnett is senior fellow at National Center for Policy Analysis
Why do bad ideas linger
with such persistence in the halls of Congress? This question came to mind
when Sens. John McCain, Arizona Republican, and Joseph Lieberman,
Connecticut Democrat, recently introduced legislation to reduce U.S.
greenhouse gas emissions to prevent global warming. President George W. Bush
rejected the Kyoto Protocol for the control of greenhouse gas emissions
arguing that the treaty was "fundamentally flawed," and not in the United
States' interests. It appeared the Senate agreed with him, since in 1997 it
had unanimously passed a resolution requiring the Clinton administration to
not participate in any global warming agreement that would either (1) harm
the U.S. economy or (2) fail to require meaningful participation by
developing countries. Kyoto met neither of these conditions.
Perhaps in an effort to
solidify the votes of the environmental community and kick-start their
campaigns for the presidency in 2004, Messrs. Lieberman and McCain have
co-sponsored an anti-air pollution bill that is, in effect, an attempt to
implement a modestly less onerous version of Kyoto let's call it "Kyoto
lite" without Senate ratification. Kyoto lite is similar to a bill Mr.
Lieberman introduced in 2002 that would have lumped carbon dioxide in with
mercury, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide air pollutants regulated by the
Environmental Protection Agency and demand that power plants reduce the
emissions of these gasses via a "cap-and-trade" mechanism.
However, McCain/Lieberman
would go further than the earlier bill by establishing greenhouse gas
reduction targets for every major sector of the economy energy,
manufacturing, transportation, etc. not just power plants. Cap-and-trade
would work by setting a cap on total emissions, auction allowances to emit
carbon dioxide to energy producers, and then permit them to trade these
allowances between themselves.
Supporters of cap-and-trade
approaches to reducing air pollution argue that emissions trading is a more
cost-effective way of reducing total emissions than either specifying a
particular technological fix or taxing fuels based upon their relative
emissions. They may be right. But there is no good reason for implementing a
bad public policy, even if it is done in the least costly way.
Whatever the merits of
using a cap-and-trade approach for reducing the emissions of mercury and
sulfur dioxide, their argument is flawed when applied to CO2. Unlike the
others, CO2 is neither a pollutant nor is toxic at any foreseeable
atmospheric levels. Indeed, CO2 is critical for plant life and thus
necessary for life on Earth. Since CO2 is not a pollutant, the only
justification for forcing radical emission reductions on the economy is to
slow or prevent global warming. But neither unilateral U.S. emissions
reductions, as the McCain/Lieberman bill would demand, nor the international
emissions reductions required by the Kyoto Protocol, would have any effect
on future global warming.
According to the National
Center for Atmospheric Research, if all of the signatories meet their
greenhouse gas reduction targets, the temperature difference would be so
small it couldn't be measured by ground-based temperature gauges. Indeed,
since as much as 85 percent of the projected increase in CO2 emissions will
come from developing countries exempted from the Protocol, including China,
India, South Korea and Brazil, even if developed countries unilaterally
stopped all their greenhouse gas emissions (something no one seriously
proposes), total greenhouse gas concentrations would continue to rise.
In addition, America is in
the midst of a serious economic slowdown. By forcing industry to cut CO2
emissions which means reducing energy use the McCain/Lieberman bill will
only exacerbate our country's economic woes. In June 2002, the nonpartisan
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) published a study analyzing various
cap-and-trade proposals. The CBO's conclusion was clear. "[T]he economic
impacts of cap-and-trade programs would be similar to those of a carbon tax:
Both would raise the cost of using carbon-based fossil fuels, lead to higher
energy prices, and impose costs on users and some suppliers of energy."
Raising energy taxes may never be a good idea, but during a recession it's
just plain dumb.
How bad would it be? The
numbers aren't in yet on Kyoto lite, but when examining the less
comprehensive bill offered by Mr. Lieberman in 2002, the Environmental
Protection Agency forecast that the bill would raise electricity prices in
2015 by between 32 percent and 50 percent, while the Energy Information
Administration concluded it would reduce GDP by eight-tenths of 1 percent in
2007, or about $100 billion with a loss of about 1 million jobs. Whatever
the cause of the Earth's current warming trend, the McCain/Lieberman bill
will not reduce the threat of global warming. It will, however, make a bad
economic situation worse.
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67) A GREENER BUSH
The Economist
February 13, 2003
Internet:
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1576767
George Bush deserves praise for his recent environmental movesbut he could
be bolder still.
THE American way of life
is not up for negotiation. That was the stance struck by the elder George
Bush at the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. He was responding
to the thousands of green, anti-capitalist and other activists who were
claiming that the United States, then as now the world's biggest energy
consumer, was also its biggest polluter. That makes it all the more striking
that his son has just proposed environmental policies that, he says, will
fundamentally alter the American way of life in a positive way.
In recent days, Mr Bush has
unveiled a vision of a clean-energy future based on two ideas: promoting
hydrogen and constraining carbon. His administration has declared its
unqualified support for a shift from the internal combustion engine to fuel
cells, which use hydrogen to produce energy without harmful emissions. And
this week it gathered a group of industrialists in Washington to declare
their support for Mr Bush's policy of pursuing voluntary cuts in emissions
of greenhouse gases as a way of responding to climate change.
Mistrustful environmental
groups immediately denounced both policies as chicanery. By talking up a
hydrogen future that may be many years away, they argued, the president was
seeking to distract attention from short-term measures, such as the
corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) law that dictates car fuel-efficiency
standards. They point accusingly at the fact that Mr Bush's vision of
hydrogen energy allows the continued use of fossil fuels such as coalalbeit
in a cleaner way, by sequestering the carbon emissionsand at the support
he has received from the oil and car industries. As for climate change, they
insist that Mr Bush, who summarily rejected the Kyoto Protocol two years
ago, cannot be trusted to push his industrial friends into accepting enough
voluntary cuts to make much difference to America's rising emissions of
greenhouse gases.
OUTFLANKING THE GREENS
The environmentalists are
wrong to be so sceptical. Mr Bush is unlikely ever to be a born-again
greenor so we must hopebut there is no reason to dismiss his ideas for a
shift to clean hydrogen just because car and oil companies may benefit.
Their support is necessary if hydrogen is ever to take off. The shift from
internal combustion engines to hydrogen fuel cells envisaged by Mr Bush
could eventually lead, in the words of a senior administration official, to
a low-carbon energy system in America. Moving away from CAFE would be
welcome in itself: it is an overly bureaucratic, inefficient law whose
objectives would be better achieved through the tax system. So far as
climate change is concerned, economical cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions are
surely to be welcomed, notwithstanding the continuing controversy over the
urgency of tackling the problem.
Even so, if Mr Bush is to
burnish his green credentials, he needs to do more to turn fine visions into
practical actions. He has given a glimpse of the right strategy by declaring
that we have a chance to move beyond the...command and control era of
environmental policy, where all wisdom seemed to emanate out of Washington,
DC...we can move beyond that through technology. He is spot on in
denouncing an overly centralised approach to greenery, and in pushing
instead for market-based solutions. The success of pollution taxes in Europe
and of emissions-trading systems for sulphur dioxide in America show that
these are a far better way of encouraging innovation than technology
mandates or direct subsidies.
On hydrogen, Mr Bush has
offered much talk and $1.2 billion in public money. That is unlikely to be
enough to spur industries with hundreds of billions of dollars in sunk
assets to think of shifting to hydrogenespecially when petrol is so cheap.
On climate change, his insistence on a voluntary approach alone runs counter
to the experience of the past decade, when greenhouse-gas emissions have
continued to rise despite a string of voluntary initiatives to reduce them.
The best way forward, on fuel cells as on climate, would be through the use
of taxes. A higher petrol tax, or better still a tax on all carbon
emissions, would mean that the full cost to the environment and human health
from the use of petrol (and other fossil fuels) was reflected in the price.
Unlike the CAFE law or any other central target, taxes of this kind would
encourage the development of cleaner energy without biasing energy users in
favour of any specific technologies or energy sources. Best of all, Mr Bush
could use the extra revenues to finance tax cuts elsewhere, or to trim
looming budget deficits. An intelligent green policy that improves America's
fiscal positionnow that really would be visionary.
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68) STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT (US)
Office of the Press Secretary
February 12, 2003
Internet:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030212.html
The United States
is taking prudent steps to address the long-term challenge of global climate
change. We are reducing projected greenhouse gas emissions in the near term,
while devoting greater resources to improving climate change science and
developing advanced energy technologies. America has already made great
progress in this effort: Between 1990 and 2001, industrial sector emissions
were held constant, while our economy grew by almost 40 percent. Sustaining
and accelerating this progress will help us meet our goal of reducing the
greenhouse gas intensity of the American economy by 18 percent by 2012. A
year ago, I challenged American businesses to develop new, voluntary
initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I am pleased to announce
today that 12 major industrial sectors, and the membership of the Business
Roundtable, have responded with ambitious commitments to reduce their
greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decade.
America's
electric utilities; petroleum refiners and natural gas producers; chemical,
automotive, magnesium, iron and steel manufacturers; forest and paper
producers; railroads; the mining, cement, aluminum and semiconductor
industries; and many of America's leading corporations have committed to
actions that will prevent millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions in
the coming decade. I commend these initiatives which will help these
businesses and industries continue to improve their energy efficiency and
overall productivity, while contributing toward achieving our goal to reduce
the greenhouse gas intensity of the American economy.
As I said last
year, every sector of the economy will need to contribute to our efforts to
achieve our ambitious national goal. These initiatives are a first step in
what we expect to be an ongoing engagement with these and other sectors of
our economy in the years ahead. Underpinning our approach to climate change
is an understanding that meeting this long-term challenge requires policies
that recognize that sustained economic growth is an essential part of the
solution. Policies that undermine the health of our economy would only
hamper America's ability to develop and deploy new energy technologies and
invest in energy efficiency and productivity improvements. The United States
is the world's leader in technological development, industrial productivity,
and environmental quality. These strengths make possible the initiatives
that have been announced today to reduce or capture and store greenhouse gas
emissions.
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69) WHO'S GOING TO PAY FOR CLIMATE CHANGE?
Time
February 7, 2003
Internet:
http://www.time.com/time/columnist/linden/article/0,9565,420539,00.html
The Bush administration, so warlike in response to terrorism, has revealed a
pacifist streak in its approach to the threat of climate change. At meetings
on the Kyoto Treaty last fall in New Delhi, U.S. delegates argued that we
ought to be thinking about adapting to changing climate. The
administration's position seems to have gone from doubt about the science of
climate change to suggesting it is inevitable without ever acknowledging
that the nation might take steps to avert the threat. The new position is a
clever one: By leaving moot the question of cause, and by implying that no
one could have done anything about it, the administration also implies that
no one is responsible. The administration underscored its genial "no fault"
approach when it recently asked industry to voluntarily reduce emissions.
Nice try, but don't be
surprised if there are few takers for this line of reasoning. As the costs
of climate change become more obvious in everything from lost crops to
wrecked real estate, victims will begin pointing fingers and businesses will
begin diving for cover. John Dutton, dean emeritus of the Penn State's
College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, estimates that $2.7 trillion of the
$10 trillion U.S. economy is susceptible to weather-related loss of revenue,
meaning that an enormous number of companies have "off balance sheet" risks
related to climate. This could wound corporate America in a lot of ways,
particularly as insurance companies discover this new area of risk.
Most policies covering
natural disasters are renewable on a yearly basis. When risks become too
expensive, insurers can simply walk away. Something like this happened after
the Sept. 11 attacks. Insurers suddenly realized that they had vastly
underpriced the risk of terrorist attacks and stopped writing new policies.
This brought many big construction projects to a standstill until President
Bush signed a bill in Nov. that shifted responsibility for $100 billion of
future terrorism-related losses from insurers to the taxpayers. If climate
change starts inflicting losses, insurers will again head for the exits.
Just such insurer flight has already caused problems in North Carolina's
Outer Banks and in parts of New York's fabled Hamptons, where coastal storms
are eating up homes and businesses. When insurance companies quit these
high-risk places, the burden shifts to banks. But they don't have the same
freedom simply to cancel mortgages and loans. What will happen to the
markets if banks start demanding insurance for weather-related events that
is either prohibitively expensive or completely unavailable?
The climate change threat
that will really get the attention of executives and boardmembers, however,
is the possibility that they might be liable for damages. This could happen
if insurers like financial giant SwissRe start changing the insurance
policies that insulate directors and officers (called D&O insurance) from
the costs of lawsuits resulting from the actions of their corporations.
Businesses open themselves to lawsuits when they take a position contrary to
others in their industry, and in recent cases such as asbestos litigation,
courts have assessed damages proportionate to a company's contribution to a
problem. Chris Walker of Swiss Re describes how this might come about with
regard to climate change. He notes that energy giant Exxon/Mobil accounts
for roughly 1% of global emissions, and has aggressively lobbied against any
efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses. "So," says Walker, "we might then go to
them and say, 'Since you don't think climate change is a problem, we're sure
you won't mind if we exclude climate related lawsuits and penalties from
your D&O insurance.'" Swiss Re recently set the stage for such action by
sending a questionnaire to its D&O customers inquiring about their company's
strategy to deal with climate change regulations.
Some climate change
regulation seems to be coming, whether the federal government acts or not.
States such as New Jersey, Massachusetts and New York are following the lead
of California, imposing their own limits on greenhouse gases and presenting
businesses with the prospect of a crazy quilt of regulations. Various state
attorneys general are going further, exploring ways they might sue companies
for climate change-related damages. And if the Kyoto Treaty comes into
force, as now seems likely this spring, countries might similarly seek trade
sanctions against the U.S. for its unwillingness to abide by its terms.
Faced with the prospect of class-action lawsuits, states that take a "roll
your own" approach, and trade sanctions, many of those executives who are
opposed to the Kyoto Treaty might begin to rethink their position, and the
Bush administration might find itself abandoned by its ostensible allies.
For corporate executives pondering climate change, threats to the wallet may
prove far more persuasive than science.
back to contents
70) A MATTER OF CHOICE, NOT DESTINY by Md. Asadullah
Khan
Daily Star
February 7, 2003
Internet:
http://www.dailystarnews.com/200302/07/n3020709.htm#BODY10
Md. Asadullah Khan taught physics and is now controller of examinations at
the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).
DANGERS that seemed
exaggerated and distant even a decade ago -- global warming, ozone
depletion, desertification, and extreme weather conditions -- are now at our
doorsteps. Water vapour and carbon dioxide trap infrared radiation in the
atmosphere, warming the world. Water vapour accounts for nearly 98 per cent
of the warming, without which the Earth would have been 61 degrees
Fahrenheit colder. Carbon dioxide, emanating mainly from combustion of
fossil fuels, accounts for the rest more or less. However, fiddling with
that two per cent is like pushing a long lever: a tiny push can bring about
enormous changes.
Concentration of carbon
dioxide has risen about 280 parts per million before the Industrial
Revolution to 360PPM today. The world has warmed about one degree Fahrenheit
over the last century and oceans have risen four to 10 inches.
Century-to-century variability has seldom been this high over the last ten
millennia. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC],
sea levels will rise six to 37 inches more by 2100, which means low-lying
areas such as Bangladesh coastal region, Maldives, Mumbai and Gujarat
coastlines in India, and even parts of the United States will go under
water. With drastic changes in global weather patterns, vector-borne
diseases will increase, affecting agriculture, livestock and fisheries.
Carbon dioxide stays in the
atmosphere for a century on average: gas from the coal that warmed the
Americans some 100 years back could be still up there. Even if we stop
burning coal, oil and natural gas right now, the world would still continue
to get warmer. Stabilising emissions does not stabilise climate, as long as
the gases keep rising, even at current rates. So, to stay on "an
environmentally benign course we need to reduce emissions 1 to 2 per cent
per year for the next century. If we don't start now, we will have to cut 3
to 4 per cent per year", which would be even more daunting, says atmospheric
physicist Michael Oppenheimer of the Environmental Defence Fund [EDF]. So,
how do we strike the balance? Just look closely at the nature. There is no
waste in the natural system: the same materials have been recycled for
billions of years. All we have to do is to relearn the lessons.
BASF Corp's carpet fibre
unit has developed a recyclable nylon that makes it possible to reconstitute
old carpets into new. Swiss semiconductor maker ST Microelectronics has
saved more than $60 million by cutting its energy usage and $20 million by
reducing water consumption below baselines set in 1994. The company issued
some environmental goals and empowered its divisions to become creative: the
responses include using solar power and finding ways to recycle water.
Cargill Dow, a joint venture by agricultural giant Cargill and chemical
company Dow, is manufacturing biodegradable and recyclable plastics from
corn sugars. The company already makes environmentally friendly packaging
for Sony products and pillow stuffing for Pacific Coast Feather. McDonalds,
it is learnt, has stopped buying chicken treated with "Cipro-like
antibiotics" and Nike has begun stripping toxins from its shoes.
The key to sustainability
is to make the market work for, and not against, the environment. For too
long capitalism has not put a proper value on the services nature provides,
such as water supply and climate control, nor has it accurately assessed the
costs of the damage industry can do to the environment. But putting a larger
price tag on pollution can alter the behaviour. Anticipating the global
movement to combat climate change, British Oil giant BP decided in 1997 to
reduce its carbon emissions to 10 per cent below 1990 levels by the year
2010. In the year 2001 report by Baxter International, a Deer field,
Illinois, medical products maker detailed how reductions in energy, water
use, improved wastes disposal and recycling over the past seven years cut
costs by $53 million. The savings amounted to nearly 10 per cent of its 2001
net income.
Since fossil fuels are
heating up the earth, the race is to develop cool alternatives. Experts say
wind could provide up to 12 per cent of the Earth's electricity within two
decades. Reports have it that wind farms in Texas, Oregon and Kansas have
helped the US wind-energy output to 66 per cent last year and an additional
$3 billion in American projects are in the pipeline. BP is building a $100
million solar plant in Spain. How soon we reach an era of clean,
inexhaustible energy depends on technology. Solar and wind energies are
intermittent: when the sky is cloudy or the breeze dies down, fossil fuel or
nuclear plants must kick in to compensate. But scientists are working on
better ways to store electricity from renewable sources.
Current from wind, solar or
geothermal energy can be used to extract hydrogen from water molecules. In
the future, hydrogen could be stored in tanks, and when energy is needed,
the gas could be run through a fuel cell, a device that combines hydrogen
with oxygen. The result: pollution-free electricity, with water as the only
by-product. Already fuel-cell buses, cars and small generators are being
tested. Eventually, some visionaries say, fuel cells placed in individual
buildings could replace many of today's giant electric plants. But that will
not happen unless the technology is refined and the cost drops.
While the developed nations
debate how to fuel their power plants, however, some 1.6 billion people -- a
quarter of the globe's population -- have no access to electricity or
gasoline. They cannot refrigerate food or medicine, pump well water, power a
tractor, make a phone call or turn on an electric light to do homework. Many
spend their days collecting firewood and cow dung, burning it in primitive
stoves that belch smoke into their lungs. To emerge from poverty, they need
modern energy. And renewables can help, from village-scale hydropower to
household photovoltaic system to bio-gas stoves that convert dung into fuel.
More than a million rural homes in developing countries get electricity from
solar cells. Ultimately, the earth can meet its energy needs without fouling
the environment. "But it won't happen," asserts Thomas Johansson, an energy
advisor to the United Nations Development Programme [UNDP], "without the
political will". To begin with widespread government subsidies for fossil
fuels and nuclear energy -- estimated at some $150 billion per year -- must
be dismantled to level the playing field for renewables. Policymakers must
factor in the price of pollution: coal plants are more expensive than
renewable power when one includes the cost of scrubbers on smokestacks and
the expense of healthcare for coal-related illnesses. Environmentalists are
calling for taxes on carbon to slow the growth of fossil-fuel use.
Another way to increase
renewables' share of the energy mix is to reduce the use of conventional
fuel through efficiency incentives. Experts believe that efficiency could
slash the globe's projected energy consumption by a third. Strict standards
can cut energy use in everything from air conditioners to cars. Compact
fluorescent lamps use a quarter of the electricity of incandescent bulbs to
provide the same amount of light. The European Union, for instance, requires
its members to boost electricity from renewables to 22 per cent of
production within the next eight years. On the road to enlightened energy
policy, a few countries offer models of reform.
More than a decade ago,
Denmark required utilities to purchase any available renewable energy and
pay a premium price; today the country gets 18 per cent of its electricity
from wind. Thanks largely to Germany and Spain, which have enacted vigorous
incentives for renewables, Europe today accounts for 70 per cent of the
world's wind power. In Japan 80,000 households have installed solar roof
panels since the government offered generous subsidies in 1994;
consequently. Japan has displaced the US as the world's leading manufacturer
of photovoltaics. India established a fund that has lent $1.1 billion to
alternative-energy projects; the country is now the globe's fifth largest
generator of wind and solar power. Iceland, which lies on a hotbed of
underground volcanic activity, uses that geothermal energy to heat 90 per
cent of its buildings. The island nation is planning to use geothermal and
hydroelectric power to produce large amounts of hydrogen, creating the
world's first hydrogen economy.
Global energy demand is
expected to triple by mid-century. The earth is unlikely to run out of
fossil fuels by then, given its vast reserves, of coal, but it seems
unthinkable that we will continue to use them as we do now, for nearly 80
per cent of our energy. The world has gradually moved toward cleaner fuels
-- from wood to coal, from coal to oil and from oil to natural gas.
Renewables are the next step. Royal Dutch/Shell has pledged to spend up to
$1 billion on renewables through the next five years. Japanese
manufacturers, led by Sharp and Kyocera, have moved aggressively into
photovoltaic cells, which turn sunlight into electricity. Such examples show
that the future "is more a matter of choice than destiny", says Brazilian
physicist José Goldemberg, chairman of a recent United Nations energy study.
back to contents
71) UNITED STATES AND
EUROPEAN UNION JOINT MEETING ON CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
RESEARCH
US State Department
February 7, 2003
Internet:
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2003/17493.htm
The United
States and European Union convened the first bilateral U.S.-EU Joint
Meeting on Climate Change Science and Technology Research in Washington on
February 5-6, 2003, following an invitation from Under Secretary of State
for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky to European Commission Research
Commissioner Philippe Busquin. The meeting was conducted under the April 23,
2002 agreement of representatives to the U.S.-EU High Level Dialogue on
Climate Change to enhance cooperation on climate-related science and
research.
The respective
delegations were led by Dr. Harlan Watson, Senior Climate Negotiator and
Special Representative of the Department of State for the U.S. side, and by
Dr. Anver Ghazi, Head, Global Change Unit of the European Commission
Research Directorate-General for the European side.
The U.S.
delegation included representatives from the White House Office of Science
and Technology Policy, U.S. Climate Change Science Program Office, U.S.
Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S.
Department of Energy, U.S. Department of State, National Aeronautics and
Space Administration, National Science Foundation, and U.S. Agency for
International Development. The European Union delegation included
representatives from the European Commission Research Directorate-General,
selected research experts from European Union Member States, and the
Delegation of the European Commission to the United States.
The two sides
identified cooperative research activities in six areas: (1) carbon cycle
research; (2) aerosol-climate interactions; (3) feedbacks, water vapor and
thermohaline circulation; (4) integrated observation systems and data; (5)
carbon capture and storage; and (6) hydrogen technology and infrastructure.
Specific topics of potential cooperation in each area are identified in an
annex to this statement available at: www.state.gov/g/oes/climate/.
The two sides
agreed to designate points of contact to coordinate the development of
specific research activities and modalities of cooperation and to monitor
the progress of these activities, building on existing cooperative
arrangements wherever possible.
The two sides
further agreed to review the progress of their cooperation at the next Joint
Meeting, which could take place in Italy later this year. Additional topics
to be considered then are abrupt climate change including critical
thresholds, integrated assessment of mitigation and adaptation options,
linkages between climate change management and energy systems
transformations, and capacity building for strengthening the involvement of
developing countries and young scientists in climate change research and
monitoring.
End Text.
ANNEXUnited States and
European Union Joint Meeting on Climate Change Science and Technology
Research: Specific Topics of Potential Cooperation
The United States and
European Union identified cooperative research activities in the six areas
at the first bilateral U.S.-EU Joint Meeting on Climate Change Science and
Technology Research held in Washington on February 5-6, 2003: (1) carbon
cycle research; (2) aerosol-climate interactions; (3) feedbacks, water vapor
and thermohaline circulation; (4) integrated observation systems and data;
(5) carbon capture and storage; and (6) hydrogen technology and
infrastructure. Other non-greenhouse gas emitting energy sources (e.g.,
nuclear energy, renewable energies), although not discussed in detail, were
mentioned as worthy for cooperation in future discussions. Specific topics
of potential cooperation in each area include the following:
CARBON CYCLE RESEARCH
1. Define and
implement an integrated and optimized carbon observing system over the
atmosphere, land, and oceans, with special emphasis on the carbon budget of
North America, Europe, and the North Atlantic region;
2. Coordinate
efforts in modeling (future projections, assimilation methods, and analysis
of past changes) integration, interpretation, and future data acquisition
strategies;
3. Enhance
georeferenced carbon cycle data availability and quality; and
4. Develop common
assessment methods and state-of-the-art reports.
AEROSOL-CLIMATE INTERACTIONS
1. Perform studies
of aerosols, their influence on clouds, climate, and links to the water
cycle in sensitive regions (hot spots) that are strongly affected by
anthropogenic emissions (South and East Asia, and the Mediterranean);
2. Improve emission
data sets of reactive gases and aerosols from anthropogenic and biomass
burning sources;
3. Perform studies
on intercontinental transport and chemical transformation of anthropogenic
emissions that affect climate and air quality;
4. Advance
integrated global/regional earth system modeling to study feedback
mechanisms and develop mitigation and adaptation strategies; and
5. Further satellite
observations of reactive gases and aerosols and down-scaling through in situ
and remote sensing measurements in anchor stations.
FEEDBACKS AND CLIMATE SENSITIVITY
1. Improve representations of cloud
feedbacks in coupled climate models through participation in the Cloud
Feedbacks Model Intercomparison Project (CFMIP);
2. Begin to quantify and reduce
uncertainty in model predictions through joint work on ensemble approaches
to integrated climate change scenarios; and
3. Maintain and enhance
participation in joint research on thermohaline circulation
INTEGRATED OBSERVATION SYSTEMS AND DATA
1. Cooperate, within existing
international frameworks, to plan and develop the integrated observation
systems required to provide the data needed for climate change research;
2. Continue with efforts to combine
satellite and in situ global observations that are essential to detect
climate change and improve evolving climate models, especially to encourage
expanded involvement of developing countries to fill gaps in existing
databases;
3. Encourage and further improve the
sharing and archiving of climate data and the design of common standards and
formats; and
4. Encourage the widest possible
participation in the Earth Observation Summit in July 2003 and prepare for
appropriate follow-up.
CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE
1. Identify potential areas of
collaboration on carbon capture and storage;
2. Foster collaborative research and
development projects;
3. Identify opportunities to discuss
the perspectives of governments and other key stakeholders; and 4. Discuss
planning, including research and development, for large integrated
sequestration and energy plant projects.
HYDROGEN TECHNOLOGY AND INFRASTRUCTURE
1. Development of international
codes and standards including testing and certification; 2. Pre-competitive
research and development on critical enabling technologies including:
polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells, non-precious metal catalysts,
high temperature membranes, solid oxide fuel cells, hydrogen storage
concepts (e.g., carbon nanostructures and complex metal hydrides), refueling
technologies and procedures, and hydrogen production;
3. Data exchange on hydrogen energy
technology and fuel cells; and
4. Benchmarking of development and
deployment strategies for hydrogen energy technologies and fuel cells.
back to contents
72) OUTSIDE VIEW: THE
ROAD FROM KYOTO by Michael Renner
UPI
February 6, 2003
Internet:
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030204-075041-1592r
WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- As discussion about the looming war in Iraq
intensifies in the wake of George Bush's State of the Union address, one
item conspicuously absent from news bulletins and pundits' pontifications is
the Kyoto protocol. Kyoto, you say? What do halting efforts to address the
growing threat of climate change have to do with the high-stakes
confrontation between presidents George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein?
The common element, of
course, is oil. Bush and other U.S. officials may insist that their concern
lies with weapons of mass destruction, human rights, democratic governance,
and the like. Energy questions and Iraq were addressed as though utterly
unrelated in the State of the Union speech. But, surprise, Iraq sits atop an
ocean of cheap oil. The current administration has staked out an energy
policy that is predicated on a huge increase -- at least one-third over the
next two decades -- in U.S. oil consumption. Where will that oil come from?
While strenuous efforts are under way to unlock deposits of black gold in
the far corners of the earth, the Middle East remains key.
Iraq has the largest
unexplored reserves in the region, possibly even topping Saudi Arabia in
total recoverable oil. Needless to say, a policy that aims at a major
expansion of oil and fossil fuels is fundamentally at odds with the spirit
of Kyoto. The protocol, named after the Japanese city where negotiations
took place in 1997, was cobbled together with the expectation that it was
going to be a first step toward a climate-responsible energy policy.
Industrial countries are supposed to cut their carbon emissions by 5 percent
from 1990 levels no later than 2012. Even more substantial reductions,
including action by developing nations are needed if, some predict, a
disastrous heating of the planet is to be avoided.
Bush denounced the Kyoto
protocol, refusing to commit the United States to its terms. Voluntary
measures, announced by the administration with great fanfare in February
2002, may be more effective in staving off mandatory action by Congress and
state governments than in preventing continued emissions growth. Already,
U.S. carbon emissions have climbed 18 percent above 1990 levels. And the
Energy Information Administration's International Energy Outlook 2002
projects emissions to grow by 33-46 percent over the next two decades. The
struggle over climate policy, pitting the United States primarily against
Europe, is in large measure one over the nature of the economy of the
future.
Will it rely on the same
old energy sources that pollute the air we breathe, and, according to some
analyses, generate acid rain calamitous to lakes and forests, and commit
humanity to a game of atmospheric Russian roulette? Will it condemn the
world to repeated wars and human rights violations over oil? Or will it be
characterized by far more efficient and intelligent ways of using energy?
Will it unleash innovative technologies that not only harness the power of
the sun and the wind, but generate large numbers of new jobs? It is a
question of life and death, not just for ordinary Iraqis who may find
themselves on the frontlines of a shooting war, but ultimately for the
entire planet. The battle over Iraq's oil, if it comes, is only one episode
in a figurative war -- the ongoing broader assault on the Earth's ecological
balance.To an extent unrivaled by any other nation on earth, the United
States is addicted to oil. More than a mere toxicant, oil is like oxygen to
the United States. Americans drive SUVs in the name of individual freedom
and regard unlimited consumption as their birthright. Public policy actively
nurtures and subsidizes these guzzling habits. Representing a mere 5 percent
of global population, the United States claims 26 percent of the world's oil
use.
Predicated on massive flows
of cheap oil, the U.S. economy remains far less energy efficient than those
of competitors in Europe and Japan. The country has gone to great lengths to
maintain its domination over world oil -- by propping up its clients in
oil-exporting nations with arms and credits, overthrowing or marginalizing
those that stand in the way, influencing the routing of oil export
pipelines, and exercising undisputed control over the sea-lanes through
which much of the world's oil is shipped. An Iraq that is in desperate need
to rebuild a starved and shattered country, and favorably disposed toward
U.S. interests, can be expected to open the oil spigot wide as soon as its
facilities are repaired. A U.S. government task force has reportedly been
consulting with industry representatives and Iraqi opposition figures on
ways to achieve just that outcome. It may take some years, a rehabilitated
Iraq is capable of flooding world oil markets, driving prices lower than
they have been in many years.
Sustained low prices would
critically undermine the fledgling efforts to build wind, solar, and
hydrogen industries, kick away the economic incentive to use energy more
prudently, and effectively destroy the Kyoto protocol. Wind power in
particular has come a long way, growing by more than 30 percent annually in
recent years and now cost-competitive with most conventional sources of
energy. Such advances could fall victim to artificially cheap oil -- a fuel
whose considerable ecological and security costs are not properly accounted
for. This is by no means an inevitable scenario. Just as it is possible that
weapons inspections and determined global opposition to warmongering, can
yet avert an invasion of Iraq, there is no reason why the United States
cannot face up to its oil addiction. Neither is likely to happen in the
absence of an informed, vocal public that demands an alternative approach to
matters of war and peace and the environment.
back to contents
73) WITH 2002 BEHIND
US, IT'S TIME FOR OUR ANNUAL ASSESSMENT OF THE TOP CLIMATE CHANGE STORIES OF
THE YEAR by Leonie Haimson
Grist
January 31, 2003
Internet:
http://www.gristmagazine.com/heatbeat/thisjustin013103.asp
Leonie Haimson has penned a chapter for the book Climate Change Policy,
edited Common Questions on Climate Change for the U.N. Environment Programme,
and coauthored The Way Things Really Are: Debunking Rush Limbaugh on the
Environment for Environmental Defense. She lives with her husband and two
children in New York City, where she also works as a public school advocate.
1. KYOTO GOES (ALMOST) GLOBAL
The biggest
climate story of last year was undoubtedly the ratification of the Kyoto
Protocol by nearly every industrial nation in the world. The process started
slowly with Iceland, Norway, and the E.U. nations in May, followed by Japan
in June, and thereafter most of Eastern Europe. The end of the year saw a
rush of new signatories, including Canada, Poland, and New Zealand, leaving
the United States and Australia isolated as the only two nations in the
world still opposing the treaty. Barring a major change in government, both
nations appear unlikely to change their positions.
Meanwhile, more
than 70 countries of the developing world have also ratified, including
China, India, and Brazil. However, developing nations presently have no
quantitative commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. Before the treaty can
take effect, two major conditions must be met. First, a minimum of 55
countries have to endorse the agreement. This condition has already been
fulfilled: According to Climate Action Network Europe's invaluable website,
a total of 102 countries had ratified or acceded to the treaty by the
beginning of this year. (Download this list for the complete info.)
The second major
condition is that the treaty must be ratified by countries responsible for
55 percent of 1990 carbon dioxide emissions from the industrialized world.
So far, the industrialized nations that have signed account for 43.9 percent
of 1990 levels. With Russia (which is responsible for 17.4 percent of 1990
emissions) having recently reaffirmed its intention to ratify in the near
future, expect this final, crucial step to happen this year. That the rest
of the world went ahead with Kyoto despite the non-participation of the
United States came as a surprise to many commentators -- some of whom had
even argued that Europeans were eager to ditch the agreement and would use
U.S. opposition as an excuse to do so. Prominent journalist Gregg
Easterbrook even claimed in the New York Times that the odds against the
Europeans signing were "a million-to-one." But in fact, the world did what
was both right and necessary -- and to our shame, they did it without us.
The political leadership in Europe and Japan, along with environmental
organizations in these countries, deserve the lion's share of the credit.
Let's hope they now put as much effort into devising incentives, both
positive and negative, to bring the U.S. back to the negotiating table.
2. WACKY WEATHER CONTINUES
As political momentum to
combat climate change grows, weird weather continues: The year 2002 turned
out to be the second-warmest year after 1998, with global temperatures
averaging 0.56 degrees Celsius (1.01degrees Fahrenheit) above the long-term
mean from 1880 to 2001. Last year was the 25th consecutive year of
above-average temperatures. Surface temperatures have risen nearly 0.6
degrees Celsius (1.1 degrees Fahrenheit) over the past century, and the
speed of the warming has increased dramatically over the last 25 years,
approaching 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) per century.
Notable weather events
during 2002 included a severe heat wave during May and June across
southwestern Asia, with temperatures reaching as high as 50 degrees Celsius
(122 degrees Fahrenheit), resulting in more than 1,000 deaths across India
and Pakistan. Other extreme events included torrential rains and flooding in
Asia and Central Europe, some of the worst smog ever to hit China and Hong
Kong, and scores of forest fires in Russia, the western U.S., and Australia,
which came close to igniting the cities of Moscow, Denver, and Sydney,
respectively. Most recently, the worst drought to afflict Australia in
nearly a century has been linked to the warming trend (CNN.com, Reuters, 14
Jan 2003).
Some experts predict that
2003 will be another record-breaking year, with temperatures equaling or
surpassing those in 1998, when there was an El Nino similar to the current
one. Scientists at Britain's Hadley Center for Climate Prediction and
Research have reckoned this at even odds, while James Hansen, the director
of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has put the likelihood even
higher, according to the New York Times.
3. GLACIERS AND ICE MELT AT ALARMING
RATES
The global
temperature data masks even more significant warming in specific areas, such
as in the polar regions and high latitudes. In 2002, extremely warm
temperatures contributed to the greatest surface melt of the Greenland Ice
Sheet in the 24-year satellite record. There was also a record low of
observed sea ice in the Arctic, where temperatures during the summer of 2002
were unusually warm, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. In
Antarctica, where average temperatures have risen about 4.5 degrees
Fahrenheit over the last 50 years, a Rhode Island-sized chunk of ice
weighing approximately 500 billion tons fell off the Larsen B ice shelf into
the sea.
Nor have the
tropics gone unaffected. Scientific studies show an unprecedented rate of
ice melt atop Mount Kilimanjaro, whose glaciers are expected to disappear
entirely by 2020. (See a related Grist story.) In the Himalayas, the Alps,
and Alaska, thousands of glaciers are rapidly disappearing. If present
trends continue, Glacier National Park in Montana is expected to be entirely
glacier-free within 50 years. More recently, it was noted that the world is
actually changing shape and becoming more "oblate" due to all the melting.
The loss of ice sheets and glaciers is expected to have deleterious effects
in terms of global sea level rise, flooding, and the loss of freshwater
supplies in many parts of the world.
4. CALIFORNIA SAVES THE DAY
The only really encouraging
U.S. political development this year happened over the summer in California,
where the state legislature passed a measure that would limit carbon dioxide
emissions from automobiles. Gov. Gray Davis (D) signed the bill shortly
thereafter. The auto companies, which put up a fierce battle to defeat the
bill, are expected to go challenge it in court, claiming it conflicts with
laws giving the federal government the right to regulate auto efficiency.
The legislation, if
enacted, would direct the California Air Resources Board to develop a plan
by 2005 requiring all vehicles sold in the state to exhibit "maximum
feasible reduction" in greenhouse emissions. The regulations would not take
effect until 2009; still, they would force the U.S. auto industry to market
improved models, because about 10 percent of all cars purchased in this
country are sold in California. This exciting development contrasts with the
gridlock on the federal level, where the overall efficiency of the U.S.
fleet remains at a 20-year low. In December, the Bush administration
approved a meager 1.5 mile-per-gallon increase in fuel economy standards for
SUVs, trucks, and minivans by 2005, after having worked to defeat a much
tougher congressional measure in March that would have increased overall
auto efficiency by 50 percent.
5. HYBRID CARS GET A GLAMOUR BOOST
Meanwhile, fuel efficiency
has become something of a cause celebre among the glitterati. From the
Rolling Stones/Natural Resources Defense Council global warming concert
scheduled for Feb. 6 in Los Angeles, to the anti-SUV ad campaign sponsored
by Arianna Huffington and Laurie David (wife of writer-comedian Larry David)
to the growing popularity of the hybrid Toyota Prius among movie stars,
Hollywood and the music industry now appear to be leading the charge for
U.S. action on climate change and energy efficiency.
In particular, the
incendiary anti-SUV ads, which link the gas-guzzling vehicles to terrorism
in the Middle East, have garnered a huge amount of media attention even
though they have not yet been broadcast. (You can see them or contribute
funds towards their media buy on Huffington's website.) Perhaps the most
encouraging aspect of this trend is the number of Toyoto Prius owners among
the movie crowd, who talk up their love for the efficient if slightly
awkward-looking cars, and by association, even make them seem glamorous.
Larry David bought three, including one for his character to drive on his
HBO series, "Curb Your Enthusiasm." "It works on every level," says David.
"I'm doing something good, and my wife has sex with me more often"
(Washington Post, 6 Jun 2002).
According to Toyota, the
car has been purchased by a dazzling list of stars, including Cameron Diaz,
Donny Osmond, Ted Danson, Jeff Goldblum, and Leonardo DiCaprio, who has
bought four for himself and other members of his family. (For a longer list,
including some prominent politicians and environmentalists, see Toyota's
website.) Still, the hybrid's sales are dwarfed by the massive popularity of
SUVs. Toyota has sold only about 40,000 Priuses in the U.S. since their
introduction in July 2000, although sales last year rose 33 percent over the
year before. Honda has its own, less glamorous hybrid version of the Civic,
and a company spokesperson says the company's selling about 2,000 of the
hybrid cars per month: "The Prius may be more for the Hollywood crowd. We're
drawing more the typical Honda customer" (AutoWeek online, 22 Jan 2003).
Signs of an anti-celebrity
backlash have already appeared, including an opinion piece by David Brooks
in the Wall Street Journal, who said all the criticism of the SUV may lead
him to purchase one for the first time, and dubiously claimed that getting
one is "a way to connect imaginatively with a more inspiring life than the
one you actually lead" (Wall Street Journal, 21 Jan 2003). Soon, American
consumers may have the opportunity to combine their love for the hulking SUV
with the rising popularity of the more environmentally-correct hybrid.
Toyota will have a hybrid SUV for sale within two years; Toyota's ambitious
plans also include fuel-cell and hydrogen-powered vehicles (New York Times,
26 Jan 2003). General Motors has announced plans to offer a full line of
hybrids, from sedans to SUVs, starting in 2004, and says that it intends to
sell up to a million of these models by 2007 (San Jose Mercury News, 4 Jan
2003). Ford will introduce a hybrid version of its Escape SUV later this
year that is expected to get 40 to 50 miles per gallon. Let's hope that the
U.S. auto companies are really interested in selling these vehicles in
substantial numbers, and are not just making the gesture of offering a few
for the sake of good PR. Given their previous record, a healthy dose of
skepticism might be in order.
back to contents
74) CLIMATE CHANGE AND WATER RESOURCES by John Onu Odihi
Brunei Online
January 31, 2003
Internet:
http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/fri/jan31h30.htm
The author of this article
is from the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, Universiti Brunei Darussalam.
A woman in burqa and a boy
on donkey advance through on a riverbed without water for last seven years.
Vast areas of the world receive too little rainfall and are therefore arid
or semi-arid. In these areas water is always in short supply and costs of
providing good quality water may be too high for the state in such
places.Climate change and water resources are two of the important issues
occupying the centre stage of global environmental and policy agenda over
the past decades. Concerns over them looks certain to continue well into the
new millennium with many experts warning that the problems could not be
arrested easily even if we practice all the restraints proposed for their
mitigation. A change to a warmer climate would result in the melting of ice
and glaciers that would cause a rise in sea levels globally.
Also, fresh water pollution
caused by intrusion of seawater would jeopardise supplies of fresh water for
human consumption, industrial and agricultural production in coastal areas.
Furthermore, climate change would be capable of causing drastic changes and
redefining agricultural belts globally. If and when that happens, today's
breadbaskets (important food producing areas of the world) could be turned
into "agricultural deserts" as a result of several factors, which include
the inability of crops to cope with climate change-induced temperature
regimes. As more data becomes available, the fears surrounding climate
change particularly the implications for water resources take on a renewed
urgency. Not withstanding its abundance (about two-thirds of the earth's
surface), water remains an elusive resource because of its nature and
distribution in both space and time. Only a small quantity of water
available at any time on earth is of fresh nature.
The bulk of water exists as
seawater, which cannot be directly used by humans or in agricultural
production. Also, water is not well distributed around the world. Its
occurrence in time and space does not correspond well to demand. The bulk of
fresh water occurs as glaciers, snow or ice in areas too far or too cold for
humans to reach. Vast areas of the world receive too little rainfall and are
therefore arid or semi-arid. In these areas, water is always in short supply
and costs of providing good quality water may be too high for the state in
such places. Centuries of exploitation of underground sources have resulted
in their complete exhaustion or near-exhaustion in many parts of the world.
Water supply has been a
thorny issue in many parts of the world. A potpourri of factors has been
responsible for water supply even before the scientific community discovered
the problem of climate change. Rising human populations is a key factor of
global concern. The fundamental nature of the human population problem stems
from the multifarious nature of human dependency on water. Each baby born
exerts a demand pressure on water supplies through its needs for food
(production and preparation), shelter, sanitation and recreation among
others. Additionally, modernisation or "the good life", wrongly or rightly
defined in materialistic terms as abundance of one's material acquisition,
places much pressure on water resources. Unfortunately, water resources
remain finite in many places even with today's technology because of
political, technological and economic feasibility problems.
Not withstanding these
problems, demand for water keeps growing almost everywhere in the world. In
poorer areas, high demands and low supply lead to high mortality rates. The
inadequacy of supply in terms of quantity, quality or both cause the poor
segments of societies in poor countries to use polluted water. This has led
to very high incidences of enteric or killer diseases such as diarrhoea,
dysentery and typhoid among others with their high tolls on the population
of such countries. Water, which is easily one of the most abundant resources
of nature, has created the phenomenon called "hydropolitics" (politics over
water), and it is frequently a cause of friction between people divided by a
political boundary. This happens when a water resource such as a river has a
transboundary existence.
The cause of such friction
is usually a development policy or programme that skews benefits and costs
across such a political boundary. One side gets the carrot (benefits) and
another gets the stick or sting of the development. In many cases more than
two countries have a stake in an international river. Major basins of the
world such as the Amazon, Mekong, Congo, Nile, Niger and Rhine are
international basins. The problem comes when countries that have a stake in
an international river have different agenda for its development. Parochial
development such as damming or diverting the waters of international rivers
for the benefits of one country is capable of, and has at one time or
another, strained relationships between countries. Some examples of
unresolved international river issues as recent as the mid-1990s included
those over Rio Grande and Colorado (USA and Mexico), Eurprates and Tigris
(Iraq, Syria and Turkey) and Nile (Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia). Close to
home, the Mekong is a source of friction between Thailand, Vietnam,
Kampuchea and Laos.
The unequivocal importance
of water to humans, the widely accepted idea of climate change and its dire
implications for water resources the world over sum up to the need for good
planning and management of water resources. We cannot plan well without
correct understanding of the situation. While Brunei Darussalam has yet to
experience major problems with water resources, the impacts of climate
change are of global proportions. It may only be a matter of time, given the
country's coastal location, for Brunei Darussalam to experience some of the
adverse impacts of climate change such as sea level rise.
back to contents
75) U.S.-RUSSIAN JOINT STATEMENT ON CLIMATE CHANGE
POLICY DIALOGUE
US State Department
January 17, 2003
Internet:
http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/global/climate/03012101.htm
Joint Statement of ohe
U.S.-Russian Inter-Ministerial Climate Change Policy Dialogue, Moscow,
Russia
"The United States and the
Russian Federation agree to broaden their global climate change cooperation
by promoting a Climate Change Policy Dialogue to intensify and strengthen
their efforts, including through a Climate Change Working Group to
facilitate the Dialogue process. This Dialogue will involve various
ministries and agencies of the two Parties that are already actively engaged
in the issue.
Through this Dialogue the
United States and the Russian Federation seek to:
* Discuss and exchange
information related to climate change policy and related scientific,
technological, socioeconomic, and legal issues of mutual concern and
interest.
* Explore possible common
approaches to addressing climate change issues before the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, and other relevant international fora.
* Identify and encourage
needed climate change science and technology research that is or could be
performed individually or jointly by United States and Russian departments,
agencies, ministries, and scientific institutions.
* Benefit from and
complement other established bilateral activities between the two countries.
The United States and the
Russian Federation also agree to cooperate closely in preparing for the
World Conference on Climate Change to be held in Moscow in 2003. The initial
meeting of the Climate Change Working Group will be coordinated by Dr.
Harlan Watson, U.S. Department of State Senior Climate Negotiator and
Special Representative, and by Dr. A.I. Bedritsky, Head of the Federal
Service of Russia for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring." |