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China Exports Nearly a Quarter of Its Emissions; U.S. Imports More Than 10%By Dave Levitan,Mar 11, 2010The Environmental Protection Agency estimated recently that the United States emitted about 6,946 million tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent greenhouse gases in 2008. Or did it?
According to a study published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, taking a look at what Americans consume as well as what they produce could add more than 10 percent to the total.
Review Will Examine Data Quality and Entire Management Structure of IPCCBy Stacy Feldman,Mar 10, 2010UN climate science chief Rajendra Pachauri welcomed today's announcement of an outside audit that could help scientists win back public and political support for the battered consensus on human-caused climate change.
"It is critically important that the science we bring into our reports — and that we disseminate on a wide scale — is accepted by communities across the globe, by governments, by businesses, by civil society," Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said at UN headquarters.
The remark followed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's formal announcement that an independent review of the IPCC would be carried out by the Amsterdam-based InterAcademy Council (ICA), a multinational organization of the world's science and engineering academies.
Government Sites Provide Public with Data to Counter Disinformation CampaignsMar 10, 2010With opponents of U.S. climate action sowing doubt about science and climate scientists, federal agencies are putting the data online and explaining it in simple language to help the public understand.
NASA recently launched its latest site, “A Warming World,” with a series of videos, images and articles looking at the bigger picture of Earth’s warming trend. It’s part of NASA’s larger "Global Climate Change: NASA's Eyes on the Earth" site, which opens with a glance at the planet’s vital signs, clearly highlighting the reason for global concern:
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UN's Trade and Environment Review Proposes Shift to Sustainable AgricultureBy Max Ajl,Mar 10, 2010Discussions of climate change keep running head-long into a barrier: China, India, Brazil and the other countries of the global South need to develop.
No leader of an underdeveloped country will ever agree to a climate change proposal that will take away that country’s right to develop. This isn’t so odd. Try explaining to the Chinese government that because the United States and Western Europe flooded the atmosphere with CO2 by burning readily accessible cheap fossil fuel for 150 years, their citizens will have to live without a decent standard of living, while we imperiously assert that we won’t divert more than a smidgen of our government budget to clean energy development and will keep occupying the country’s freeways and streets with gas-guzzlers.
By Dave Levitan,Mar 9, 2010Colorado’s legislature approved one of the toughest renewable energy standards in the country on Monday.
Once the governor signs that legislation, utilities will be required to get 30 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020. That follows an agreement Gov. Bill Ritter signed last week with Colorado’s largest utility, Xcel, and a coalition of energy companies and lawmakers to reduce pollution and shift several coal-fired power plants to natural gas by 2017.
The state’s clear move toward renewable energy — and away from coal — stands in stark contrast to some of its neighbors in the West, where the best and some of the worst of clean energy policies are on display.
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U.S. and Canadian corporate giants will face a record number of resolutions demanding greater disclosure of climate risks at their annual meetings this spring.
Investors have filed 95 global warming resolutions with 82 firms in every industry — a 40 percent leap over last year's 68 climate resolutions — according to data from Ceres, a Boston-based coalition of investors and environmentalists.
Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, said the boost signifies "a very clear knowledge" that climate risk is "not only an environmental or social or natural resource concern, but a major financial risk and opportunity."
If Hawaii's largest utility gets its way, the islands' abundant sunshine may be wasted.
In February, the Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) proposed a ban on a booming industry of rooftop solar installations, claiming that too much distributed power generation could destabilize the islands’ isolated power grids. It was forced to back off by the public backlash, but environmental groups and the solar industry say the utility is trying other tactics that will stifle the growth of renewable energy in the state.
“Although HECO is backing away from doomsday for the local renewable industry at this point, all they did was defer the problem,” said Isaac Moriwake, an attorney for Earthjustice who is representing the Hawaii Solar Energy Association.
NanoH20, a four-year-old startup that spun out of nanotech research at UCLA, could be deploying thousands of its membranes in desalination projects all over the world in the near future. The company was tapped late last year by giant French environmental services provider Veolia to participate in a five-year pilot test of its membrane under various seawater conditions. If the membranes deliver the cost savings they are expected to, Veolia will be looking to install them on its future water projects.
It sounds like a great deal for any startup, but at last week’s Cleantech Forum in San Francisco, Veolia Senior Vice President of Research and Innovation Philippe Martin called it simply “opportunistic.”
“We need to do more,” he said in a keynote address at the forum. "We need [to do] much more. We need to team up and partner. We can provide them with scale-up opportunities.”
That's when the venture capitalists and startup CEOs in the crowd sat up and took notice.
Philippe went on to announce the launch of his company’s Veolia Innovation Accelerator (VIA) program, through which it will be actively looking for companies with products and technologies it can use it is water, waste, energy and transportation management businesses.
Today's Climate
March 11, 2010
U.S. Governors Ask Congress To Stop EPA Rules (Wall Street Journal)
Governors of 18 U.S. states on Wednesday urged Congress to stop "harmful" EPA regulation of greenhouse-gas emissions, saying the agency isn't equipped to deal with "the very real potential for economic harm."
Sen. Levin: Climate Bill Must Take Go-Slow Approach with Factories (The Hill)
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) has provided Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) a wish list of items for climate change legislation that includes a minimum 10-year delay before greenhouse gas limits are imposed on industrial facilities.
Virginia Passes Offshore Drilling Bills (Washington Business Journal)
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell signed legislation that would apportion any state revenue from offshore drilling toward transportation and energy research, but fiscal experts said it's highly uncertain when the state could realize any revenue from such activity.
Obama's Trade Goal Fights His Clean-Energy Plan at Export Bank (Bloomberg)
Pres. Obama's goals of boosting U.S. exports and combating climate change are colliding as the U.S. Export-Import Bank expands financing for oil, gas, mining and power-plant projects.
Senate Bill Expands Offshore Wind Incentives to 2020 (Sustainable Business)
U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) introduced legislation that would extend production and investment tax credits for offshore wind power until 2020.
RI Business Group Opposes Wind Power Agreement (AP)
An organization that represents some of Rhode Island's largest electricity users has come out against a proposed power-purchase agreement between National Grid and the developer of a wind farm in state waters.
China Climate Chief Criticizes U.S. (Wall Street Journal)
China's chief climate official called for the U.S to do more in providing financing and technology in the global fight against climate change, as international negotiators struggle to find a mutually acceptable way of tackling the problem.
China Unsure on Warming Cause, To Stick with CO2 Cuts (Reuters)
China's top climate negotiator said that the cause of global warming was still not clear but the problems it was creating were so serious that the world must anyway act to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Deforestation Conference to Turn Plans to Action (AP)
French President Nicolas Sarkozy will open a daylong conference Thursday of some 40 nations to start turning efforts to end deforestation into action.
Developers Lament Loss of Federal Wind Subsidies in Canada (Green Inc.)
The Canadian Wind Energy Association is expressing disappointment with the federal government’s recent decision not to expand the ecoEnergy program — which delivered subsidies to renewable energy developers — in its new budget.
Solar Prospectors Chase ’Gold Mine’ Deals in China, Israel (Bloomberg)
Solar developers across the globe are rushing to Italy, Israel and China to lock in the world’s highest subsidized electricity rates before they’re cut back.
Shale Gas Could Supply 100 Years of Consumption: Study (Reuters)
The natural gas shale boom in North America has more than doubled discovered gas resources and can supply more than a century of consumption at current rates, an IHS CERA study released Wednesday said.
Utility to Install Solar on Warehouse Roofs (AP)
Southern California Edison is leasing space on roofs of about 50 warehouses in the Inland Empire region east of Los Angeles to generate 250 MW of electricity from solar power.
Czech Renewable Energy Exceeds Grid Safety Limit (Reuters)
The installed capacity of wind and solar energy projects approved in the Czech Republic is nearly four times what can be safely fed into the country's electricity grid, energy distributors said.
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