20 Nov 2009:
Emergency Rainforest Fund
Created by Prince Charles and 35 Nations
Britain’s Prince Charles has struck an agreement with 35 nations to contribute $22 billion to $36 billion
to reduce the destruction of tropical forests by 25 percent by 2015. The Prince of Wales said the U.S. has agreed to contribute $275 million to the rainforest protection fund, which will pay countries such as Indonesia and Brazil to preserve forests rather than felling them for timber or agricultural use. Ed Miliband, the U.K.’s energy and climate change secretary, said a global mechanism for paying countries to protect tropical forests is on the agenda at next month’s Copenhagen climate summit and is “closer than it’s ever been” to being codified in an international treaty. Deforestation is responsible for nearly 20 percent of global carbon emissions, and various nations and conservation groups are
working to develop programs known as REDD 
Prince Charles
— Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation. Conservationists said that the Prince of Wales’ effort must ensure the funds are not squandered through local corruption or questionable forest protection schemes. The conservationists cited the example of Norway’s pledging $250 million to slow deforestation in Guyana. Since the Guyanese government claimed an artificially high rate of previous deforestation, it can receive payments while actually doing little or nothing to slow current forest loss.
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16 Nov 2009:
Dutch Cabinet Okays Tax
Based on Miles Driven by Motorists
In an effort to reduce automobile usage and greenhouse gas emissions, the Dutch cabinet has approved
a driving tax that would charge motorists seven cents a mile. The plan, which must still be approved by parliament, would use GPS systems installed in each car to keep track of mileage and automatically bill drivers. The mileage charges would be higher at rush hour, for large cars, and for commercial vehicles. Dutch officials said the driving tax, which would replace existing road taxes and duties on new car purchases, is designed to cut traffic by 15 percent and reduce emissions from transport by 10 percent. Other European nations are considering similar driving taxes, and a driving tax experiment was recently tried in Oregon in the United States. The chances of a tax comparable to the Dutch tax being levied in the U.S. are slim, however, as that would more than triple the $260 a year that the average U.S. driver now pays in state and federal gasoline taxes.
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13 Nov 2009:
U.S. May Endorse Scaled-Back
Agreement at Copenhagen, Report Says
The Obama administration, faced with the failure of Congress to pass climate legislation before global talks in Copenhagen next month, may endorse a more limited interim agreement and
defer stronger U.S. commitments until next year, according to the
Washington Post. While the scaled-back agreement would fall short of what European leaders wanted from the U.S., administration and congressional leaders say it will at least prevent the global talks from being seen as a failure. “An interim, operational deal is not meant to be seen as a substitute for a real agreement,” Todd Stern, the U.S. special envoy on climate change, told the
Post. “It’s meant to be seen as substantive building blocks to a full, legal agreement, and perhaps the best chance of getting such an agreement.” The interim pact, outlined last month by Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, would include “political commitments” from key nations on
carbon emissions targets and agreements on how much money richer nations would be willing to spend to help developing nations adapt to the impacts of climate change.
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12 Nov 2009:
Colombian Farmers Sue Oil Firm
Over Long-Term Effects of Pipeline
A group of Colombian farmers
has filed a lawsuit against the oil company BP, claiming that construction of a 450-mile pipeline in the mid-1990s has caused landslides, permanently damaging soil and crops and harming livestock. In the suit filed in a London court, 95 farmers claim that BP Exploration Company ignored evidence that the pipeline would damage the land, and never informed the property owners, many of them illiterate, of the risks. The pipeline, which delivers as much as 620,000 barrels of crude oil to an export terminal daily, crosses 192 rural villages. Farmers say that during construction, natural vegetation that protected their soil from the elements was removed, leading to significant erosion. Additionally, they say BP never paid them for the damage, which made their farms unsustainable. “The region has been profoundly and adversely affected causing many farms to close or drastically reduce production and causing some farmers to leave the land,” according to the suit. BP denies negligence, claiming the soil failed because the farmers removed forests for cattle grazing.
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10 Nov 2009:
UK Approves Construction
of 10 New Nuclear Power Stations
The British government
has approved 10 new sites for nuclear power stations in England and Wales, calling nuclear power a “proven and reliable” energy source that will help the UK reduce its carbon emissions and become more energy-independent. Just a year after the government lifted a moratorium on new nuclear power generation, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband called nuclear — along with renewables and clean coal — one of the “trinity” of future fuel options. “We need all of them in the long term because of the challenge of the low-carbon future is so significant,” he said. The government sees the new stations as an essential replacement for what is an aging nuclear infrastructure; some existing stations will have to be decommissioned as early as 2030, creating concerns that the nation could confront energy shortages. Government ministers hope some of the new stations, most of which would be built at the locations of existing plants, could be running as soon as 2018. A planning commission will make a final decision within a year.
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Despite growing pessimism that a global climate treaty will be signed in Copenhagen next month, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, believes a flurry of
Rajendra Pachauri
last-minute negotiations may lead to an agreement, although the U.S. may not initially be a part of it. In an interview with
Yale Environment 360, Pachauri expresses disappointment that the U.S. has not yet committed itself to firm greenhouse gas reduction targets. During the Bush administration there was a “complete absence of responsibility” in tackling global warming, Pachauri says, and while the Obama administration is moving swiftly to make up lost ground, climate legislation remains bogged down in Congress. As a result, Pachauri contends, the world community may move ahead with a treaty without the U.S., creating a “small window of opportunity for the U.S. to take a little more time and come back and make its own commitments.”
Read the interview with Pachauri here
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03 Nov 2009:
U.S. Comes Under Pressure
in Final Session Before Copenhagen Summit
With just a month remaining before the Copenhagen climate summit, delegates from 192 countries are meeting in Barcelona to attempt to lay the groundwork for a climate treaty, with some influential figures saying the U.S. must be prepared to make firm greenhouse gas reduction commitments if Copenhagen is to be a success. Connie Hedegaard, the Danish minister for climate and energy, who is hosting the Copenhagen meeting, said the U.S. had risen to global challenges throughout the 20th century, adding, “I believe they have to deliver on this challenge.” The Obama administration has declined to commit to a firm greenhouse gas reduction target, saying it cannot make a commitment until Congress — which is now considering major climate legislation — passes a bill. That stance does not sit well with many in the European Union, which has committed to reducing emissions 30 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and 85 to 95 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Yvo de Boer, the UN’s chief climate negotiator, said an enormous amount of work remained to be done before Copenhagen. “Do any of you believe it will be easier next year or the year after?” he asked the delegates.
Read a full e360 report.
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29 Oct 2009:
Electronic Fisheries Monitoring
Proves A Success in Danish Experiment
By outfitting six Danish fishing boats with
GPS systems, closed circuit television cameras, and sensors that can gauge the weight of catches, scientists in Denmark have discovered that they can accurately track which fish were caught, the size and location of the catch, and what species were thrown back in the sea as by-catch. In a year-long experiment that ended last month, Danish fisheries scientists said the new system gives “100 percent documentation of fishing activities.” The Danish system would be of little help in halting illegal fishing carried out by unregistered boats on the high seas. But Danish scientists said their electronic monitoring system could be extremely useful in tracking and regulating legal fisheries for such species as cod, sand eel, sprat, blue whiting, and Norway pout in territorial waters. A Danish fisheries manager said that “determination of where an when a fishing event takes place can be made with a high degree of accuracy.”
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28 Oct 2009:
Swiss Zinc-Air Batteries Store
Three Times the Energy of Lithium Ions
A Swiss company
has introduced a rechargeable zinc-air battery that has three times the storage of lithium ion batteries and costs only half as much. ReVolt plans to commercialize a small version of the battery for use in hearing aids by next year, and then continue introducing larger versions, including batteries for cellphones and electric bicycles — and, perhaps eventually, electric cars. The technology is based on a battery designed by the Norwegian research institute SINTEF. While the typical battery contains the reactants needed to generate electricity, zinc-air batteries utilize oxygen from the atmosphere, which makes them less volatile and allows for a larger storage capacity. Company officials say the new battery overcomes one of the critical drawbacks of typical zinc-air batteries — they tend to stop working after a few charges. ReVolt has developed techniques to reduce the damage to the electrodes that convert oxygen into the hydroxyl ions that oxidize the zinc. The prototype lasts for more than 100 recharge cycles, according to James McDougal, ReVolt’s CEO. He hopes to increase that to 300 to 500 cycles before the technology is ready to be used in cellphones and electric bicycles.
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28 Oct 2009:
Surplus of Carbon Credits
Threatens EU Emissions Trading Plan
The European Union’s emissions trading scheme — which puts a price on carbon dioxide emissions with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas pollution — is threatened by a
vast number of emissions credits earned by major industries and power plants in Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe. Peter Zapfel, deputy director of the environment department at the European Commission, said that because of the Eastern European economic collapse of the 1990s and loopholes in the EU emissions trading scheme that began in 2005, Russian and Eastern European enterprises have racked up 10 billion emissions credits because they released fewer greenhouse gases than originally allocated under the Kyoto Protocol. As these enterprises begin selling these credits on the EU carbon market, the price of emissions allowances could plummet, thereby defeating the goal of slashing CO2 emissions by establishing a high price on carbon pollution. Zapfel called the surplus credits the “gorilla sitting in the background and nobody dares to touch it.” The price of EU carbon allowances has fallen from a peak of 30 Euros ($44) in 2006 to roughly 10 Euros ($15) this year. The EU’s emissions trading scheme, which covers more than 10,000 major carbon emitting power plants and factories, is designed to cut CO2 emissions by 21 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.
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16 Oct 2009:
Kew Gardens Seed Bank
Has Collected 10 Percent of Plant Species
A repository created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, has
collected nearly 10 percent of the seeds from the world’s estimated 300,000 seed-bearing plants, completing the first phase of an ambitious plan to preserve the seeds of all the species threatened by human development and climate change. The
The Guardian
Musa itinerans
final seeds added in the project’s opening phase came from an endangered pink banana — Musa itinerans — favored by Asian elephants. To date, the Kew seed bank has collected 1.6 billion seeds from a total of 24,200 plant species. The next phase of the project aims to preserve seeds from 75,000 species by 2020. The seed bank has already been used to revive threatened species, including replanting a shrub, the shiny nematolepis, whose only known remaining plants were destroyed in massive Australian wildfires earlier this year. Scientists estimate that as many as 200,000 of
the world’s seed-bearing species could eventually be at risk from rising temperatures and human encroachment on the natural world. The seed bank, which opened in 2000, stores the seeds in super-cooled, underground vaults in Sussex.
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13 Oct 2009:
First Passenger Flight Flown
Using Kerosene Made from Natural Gas
A Qatar Airways flight from London to Qatar has
become the first passenger plane to be powered by cleaner-burning natural gas that was converted to kerosene. “Today’s flight opens the door to an alternative to oil-based aviation fuel,” said Malcom Brinded, international executive director of Royal Dutch Shell, which is partnering with Qatar Petroleum to produce so-called gas-to-liquid (GTL) kerosene from Qatar’s abundant natural gas reserves. During the five-hour flight, the Qatar Airways Airbus A340-800 jet was powered by a 50-50 blend of GTL kerosene and conventional oil-based kerosene jet fuel. An Airbus spokesman called the flight “a major breakthrough which brings us closer to a world where fuels made from feedstocks such as wood-chip waste and other biomass is available for commercial aviation.” The spokesman predicted that by 2030, 30 percent of jet fuel would be derived from GTL or biofuels. Shell and Qatar Petroleum are building a plant in Qatar capable of producing one million tons of GTL kerosene annually.
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12 Oct 2009:
Fight Over Wind Turbines
Splits French Environmentalists
A battle over whether to place wind turbines within sight of France’s famous abbey, Mont-Saint-Michel, has touched off a dispute within the country’s environmental community
over the visual impact of the alternative energy source. A coalition of local and national conservationists has opposed locating the wind turbines within view of the abbey on the Normandy coast, even though the windmills would be roughly 10 miles from Mont-Saint-Michel. The groups say that the three, 300-foot windmills would be the beginning of an arc of 80 wind turbines rising along a ridgeline in the surrounding countryside, some of which could be seen from the abbey.
The Washington Post reports that one Paris-based group, the Durable Environmental Federation, is opposing on aesthetic grounds a proposal by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to expand the number of wind turbines in the country from 2,500 to 8,500 by 2020. Some local environmentalists and many local farmers, on whose property the wind turbines would be located, back the construction of wind turbines. More than 90 percent of France’s electricity comes from nuclear and hydroelectric power, and Sarkozy wants wind and solar to replace coal and oil as the source of the remaining 10 percent.
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05 Oct 2009:
European Union Recommends
$73 Billion in Non-Carbon Energy Research
The European Union will unveil a proposal this week calling for
$73 billion (50 billion euros) in research over the next decade into improving wind, solar, and nuclear power technologies, as well as the development of carbon capture and sequestration projects and energy-efficient “Smart Cities.” The report, prepared by the EU’s executive body, the European Commission, says the surge in investment is necessary if Europe hopes to meet its goal of slashing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. The plan, which calls for coordinated research on a continental level, proposes $23.4 billion in solar power research, $8.8 billion in wind power research, $10.2 billion in nuclear power research, $13 billion for developing energy from biomass and waste, and $19 billion in carbon sequestration technology. EU officials said the proposed research program will enable Europe to remain competitive with the U.S., China, and Japan in the race to develop alternative sources of energy.
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29 Sep 2009:
Stockholm’s Congestion Pricing
Reduces Traffic and Boosts Alternative Cars
Stockholm’s congestion pricing plan — which charges motorists for driving in the city center during rush hour — has cut CO2 emissions in the congestion zone by 14 percent, reduced traffic in the inner city by 18 percent, increased ridership on public transport, and
spurred the use of alternative fuel vehicles, according to a new study. Instituted on a permanent basis in 2007 in a 24-square-kilometer (9 square-mile) area, the congestion pricing program exempted alternative fuel vehicles from the $1.50 to $3 per-trip surcharge. As a result, the number of registered alternative fuel vehicles in the city jumped from five percent of the vehicle fleet in 2006 to 14 percent in 2008, according to a study by the Stockholm Traffic Association. The association said that the reduction in traffic and emissions is not related to the recession, as sales in Stockholm’s retail core have actually increased. Stockholm’s congestion pricing plan is managed by I.B.M., which has set up a series of 18 gateways into the city center that read transponders on cars and levy the congestion toll.
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17 Sep 2009:
Germany Creates Zones for
Construction of Offshore Wind Farms
Germany
has endorsed zoning changes that promote construction of offshore wind farms in the North Sea, opening up the potential for 25,000 megawatts of new energy capacity by 2030. As it looks to offshore wind as a major part of its goal of meeting 30 percent of its energy needs with renewable sources by 2020, Germany is designating offshore zones where wind farms can be built without threatening the environment or shipping. The contribution of wind energy alone could double from six percent to 12 percent by 2020, German officials say. The Nature and Biodiversity and Conservation Union, one of Germany’s major environmental groups, said more than 20 offshore wind projects are already under review in Germany. “This initiative comes at the right time as the big energy utilities prefer to bank on a lengthening of old nuclear plants rather than building new wind parks in the sea,” the organization said in a statement.
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16 Sep 2009:
Rift Between U.S. and Europe
Could Jeopardize Climate Negotiations
Policy divisions between the Obama Administration and European leaders on how carbon reductions would be measured
could jeopardize the chances of success during climate talks in Copenhagen, according to
The Guardian. European leaders want to retain the way carbon reduction targets are counted according to a provision in the Kyoto Protocol, in which CO2 reductions are subject to an international system, but the U.S. wants each country to set its own rules. While the U.S. has not introduced specific details, a draft agreement suggested emissions cuts should be subject to “conformity with domestic law.” According to sources quoted in the London newspaper, European leaders are reluctant to challenge the Obama administration, which has shown more willingness to confront climate change than the Bush administration. But there is mounting concern that the divisions could jeopardize the chances of a meaningful agreement at the Copenhagen talks in December. Ban Ki-moon, the UN general secretary, said he is troubled by the lack of progress in climate negotiations. “We are deeply concerned that the negotiation is not making much headway,” he said.
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15 Sep 2009:
U.S. Energy Secretary Urges Realistic Goals at Copenhagen Climate Talks
The climate talks in Copenhagen
will not be the final chance for the world to confront climate change, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said. And while the historic negotiations should produce meaningful results on greenhouse gas reductions, he said, negotiators should avoid unrealistic goals. “You have to bring more people along,” he told reporters during a briefing in Vienna, “So don’t tee it up as now or never.” World leaders will gather in December in hopes of crafting the successor to the Kyoto Protocol.
Steven Chu
While some developing nations want richer countries to cut CO2 emissions by 25 to 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, Chu said targets that are too aggressive would not likely be approved by U.S. lawmakers. The U.S., the world’s second-biggest CO2 emitter, has proposed cutting emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, a reduction of about 14 percent from 2007 levels. By setting achievable goals — and improving efficiency — developed nations can prove that green policies won’t hamper the economy, Chu said. “If you could get all those gains in the first 20, 30 percent reduction in carbon (emissions), just by using energy efficiently," he said, "you can teach people that there is a path.”
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01 Sep 2009:
Influential U.K. Panel
Outlines Possible Geo-engineering Ideas
The U.K.’s highly respected Royal Society has released a study outlining two major potential methods of cooling the earth if mankind fails to slow global warming by reducing CO2 emissions:
removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and employing technologies to deflect solar radiation back into space. Stressing that emissions reductions were vital, the Royal Society nevertheless said that scientists must start investigating geo-engineering schemes to cool the planet. It said that CO2 could possibly be pulled from the air using various technologies, such as artificial trees and carbon sequestration, or by accelerating the reaction of rocks and minerals with CO2, which stores carbon dioxide. Land use changes and planting forests also could potentially play a smaller role, the group said. Methods to deflect solar energy back into space could include releasing stratospheric aerosols, pumping seawater into the atmosphere to produce more clouds, and launching mirrors or other devices into space to reflect the sun’s energy away from earth. The Royal Society dismissed a number of ideas as too risky, including a plan to seed the oceans with iron to stimulate the growth of CO2-absorbing algae. Last week, a group of British engineers suggested
more modest and immediate ways to cool the planet.
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01 Sep 2009:
Europe Cuts Emissions,
Imposes Ban on Incandescent Bulbs
For the fourth year in a row,
Europe has reduced its carbon dioxide emissions, with CO2 output falling by 1.3 percent in 2008. The recession appears to be the main factor in the emissions reduction, as factories were idled across the continent. But European Union Environmental Commissioner
Stavros Dimas said the EU’s emissions trading scheme and development of renewable energy sources also is playing a part in the reduction. “This is a timely message to the rest of the world in the run-up to the Copenhagen climate conference,” said Dimas. The EU has now cut emissions 6.2 percent over 1990 levels and is on track to meet a target under the Kyoto Protocol for reducing emissions 8 percent below 1990 levels during the period 2008 to 2012. Meanwhile, the EU began
restricting the sale of incandescent light bulbs, requiring that stores no longer be allowed to buy or import most incandescent bulbs. Once current stocks are exhausted, merchants will only sell more energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs.
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