News Monitoring | March 27 – April 1, 2009
Disclaimer: The focus of our news monitoring service is to keep our stakeholders and members abreast of current events, research and policy developments, emerging technologies and best practices concerning climate change and related environmental issues. While we strive to monitor a wide range of quality sources and present a variety of issues and perspectives, we cannot provide a truly comprehensive examination of all issues, and the authors’ opinions do not necessarily represent those of the Climate Change Hub or its staff.
March 27, 2010 UK Telegraph | March 27, 2010
Climate change chief, Rajendra Pachauri, pledges neutrality The controversial head of the UN's climate change body has rejected calls to resign over errors in an official report but has pledged to adopt a neutral tone on global warming. [more]
March 28, 2010 Times Online | Steven Swinford and Chris Gourlay | March 28, 2010
CO2 ruling may halt new airport runways CAMPAIGNERS will seek to block airport expansion across Britain following a High Court judgment which criticised the government’s decision to build a third runway at Heathrow. [more] MONDAQ | Gordon Nettleton, Matthew Keen and Ryan Rodier | March 28, 2010
Canada: NEB Approves Keystone XL Pipeline Project: Market Forces Prevail As Key Public Interest Considerations The National Energy Board has approved the Keystone XL Pipeline despite opposition from Enbridge and Enbridge shippers concerned about the negative impacts from potential offloading of the Enbridge system. The decision is consistent with, and reinforces, past Board reliance on commercial support for a pipeline project as an indicator of the public interest. [more]
March 29, 2010 Newswire | March 29, 2010
Retire Your Ride proves to be a breath of fresh air - Canada's National Vehicle Recycling Program encourages Canadians to choose more sustainable forms of transportation TORONTO, March 29 /CNW/ - According to new research, one in five participants of Canada's Retire Your Ride program will not replace their retired car with another vehicle. [more] ABC News Net | March 29, 2010
Climate change protest targets coal ships Rising Tide, a group fighting the causes of climate change, says it plans to block Newcastle Harbour again next year after staging what it describes as a successful protest at the weekend. A convoy of 60 kayaks, rafts and boats formed a blockade across the entrance to the harbour yesterday to stop coal ships entering or leaving. [more] EPA Website | March 29, 2010
EPA Formally Announces Phase-in of Clean Air Act Permitting for Greenhouse Gases Agency reiterates no stationary source requirements until 2011
WASHINGTON – Under a final decision issued today by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) no stationary sources will be required to get Clean Air Act permits that cover greenhouse gases (GHGs) before January 2011. [more]
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PlanetArk.org | Jonathan Saul | March 29, 2010
U.N. Ship Agency Adopts North America Pollution Cut Plan UK - The United Nations shipping agency on Friday adopted a proposal to create a lowemissions buffer zone around the United States and Canada, a spokesman for the body said. Delegates from member states have met this week in London for a session of the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) marine environment protection committee. [more] PlanetArk.org | Kylie Maclennan and Adrian Croft | March 29, 2010
UK Critics Say Ruling A Blow Against Heathrow Plan UK - Environmentalists opposed to a third runway at London's Heathrow airport claimed victory on Friday after a British judge ruled the government must review the project's climate change and economic impact. [more] PlanetArk.org | Barbara Lewis | March 29, 2010
Green Energy Can Spur Ireland's Return To Growth IRELAND - Renewable energy should play a major role in spurring Ireland back to growth now the government and economy are both showing signs of stability, Ireland's energy minister said in an interview. [more] PlanetArk.org | David Fogarty, Climate Change Correspondent, Asia | March 29, 2010
Firm Accused Of Carbon Scam May Face Legal Claims SINGAPORE - A firm accused of defrauding Australian investors of A$3.5 million ($3.2 million) in a carbon investment scam and blacklisted by the nation's securities regulator is still operating and may face legal claims. [more]
March 30, 2010 Climate List Serve | March 30, 2010
UNFCCC Publishes Copenhagen Reports 30 March 2010: The UNFCCC has published the reports of the 15th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) (FCCC/CP/2009/11 and FCCC/CP/2009/11/Add.1) and the reports of the fifth session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties (COP/MOP 5)(FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/21 and FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/21/Add.1), which were held in Copenhagen, Denmark, from 7-19 December 2009. [more] Sydney Morning Herald | Rajendra Pachauri | March 30, 2010
A mistake about glaciers does not negate climate change Scientists are demonised because of one error in 3000 pages of evidence. To dismiss the implications of climate change based on an error about the rate at which Himalayan glaciers are melting is an act of astonishing intellectual legerdemain. Yet this is what some doubters of climate change are claiming. [more] New York Times | Evan Lehmann | March 30, 2010
Sudden Revolt by Insurance Regulators Scales Back Climate Rule on Industry A surprise rebellion by a majority of insurance regulators Sunday reversed key elements of a landmark regulation requiring the nation's largest industry to publicly disclose its efforts to address climate change. Companies can now submit their answers confidentially in most states. [more]
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Associated French Press | March 30, 2010
Sarkozy seeks US-French action on climate: Kerry WASHINGTON — French President Nicolas Sarkozy told US Senators Tuesday that he hopes for US-French action to "put some pressure" on countries reluctant to battle climate change, one of the lawmakers said. [more] Globe and Mail | Eric Tucker | March 30, 2010
Records falls as rainstorm pounds U.S. East Coast The second major rainstorm of the month pounded the Northeast on Tuesday, pushing rivers over their banks, closing roads and schools, prompting evacuations, and shattering at least one rainfall record. [more] PlanetArk.org | Laurie Goering | March 30, 2010
Science Alone Not Enough To Boost World Farm Output FRANCE - Feeding a fast-growing global population in the face of climate change and stagnant funding for food aid and farm research will require a fundamental revamp of agriculture, agricultural experts said. [more] PlanetArk.org | Tom Doggett | March 30, 2010
EPA Phases In Permits For Greenhouse Pollution US - U.S. power plants, industrial facilities and other stationary sources of greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming will not be required to have Clean Air Act permits until January 2011, giving industry more time to prepare for the regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency said on Monday. [more] PlanetArk.org | Gerard Wynn | March 30, 2010
Carbon Trade Sector Drops From HSBC Climate Index UK - The carbon trading sector has dropped out of an HSBC index of 385 listed companies making money from tackling climate change, after lower expectation of global cap and trade expansion saw sharp share price falls. [more] PlanetArk.org | Reuters | March 30, 2010
Why Subsidize The Surfeit Of Wind Turbines? With an oversupply of wind turbines, why are governments subsidizing new manufacturing plants? In recent years, China has ramped up its efforts to become a world leader in manufacturing and installation of wind turbines. [more] PlanetArk.org | John Acher | March 30, 2010
China Became Top Wind Power Market In 2009: Consultant CHINA - China became the No. 1 wind turbine market in 2009, installing a record 13.75 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity, and three Chinese suppliers ranked among the Top-10 turbine manufacturers, Danish consultants BTM said. [more] PlanetArk.org | Barbara Lewis | March 30, 2010
Ireland's Green Dreams Need Work, Can Be Reality IRELAND - Ireland's ambition to shift from being 90 percent dependent on imported fossil fuel to a major user of renewables should be achievable as its urgent need for jobs helps focus politicians on overcoming planning hurdles. [more] PlanetArk.org | Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent | March 30, 2010
Offshore Wind Turbines May Be 10 MW Giants: Veritas NORWAY - A surge in sea-based wind farms is likely to mean bigger turbines than on land, reaching 10 megawatts by 2020 with blades 85 meters (280 ft) long, the head of Norway's Det Norske Veritas said on Monday. [more] 4
PlanetArk.org | Nina Chestney | March 30, 2010
European Carbon Scheme Is A Success, Research Says UK - The European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is a success and its flaws have not harmed its basic aim of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, multi-national research showed on Friday. [more]
March 31, 2010 The Independent | Steve Connor | March 31, 2010
Climate change scandal: MPs exonerate professor Committee defends scientist who sent emails admitting flaws in data Professor Phil Jones, the climate scientist at the centre of the scandal over the leak of sensitive emails from a university computer, has been largely exonerated by a powerful cross-party committee of MPs who said his scientific reputation remains intact. [more] Globe and Mail | Doug Saunders | March 31, 2010
Ontario foot-dragging imperils Canada-EU trade pact, officials say Province’s reluctance to open up its government procurement procedures to European bidding has become a sticking point [more] Associated Press | March 31, 2010
UN official expects no climate deal until 2011 AMSTERDAM — A new legal agreement committing nations around the world to curb greenhouse gas emissions is unlikely to be completed before the end of 2011, two years later than originally envisioned, the top U.N. climate official said Wednesday. [more] Tribune Newspaper | March 31, 2010
Obama's Off Shore Drilling Plan Aims to Win Climate Votes WASHINGTON -- President Obama, after delaying and deliberating for a year, unveiled a controversial new offshore drilling plan Wednesday that was driven largely by the politics of his agenda on energy and climate change – not getting a lot more oil and natural gas anytime soon. [more] PlanetArk.org | Jon Hurdle | March 31, 2010
Electric Cars Give Power Back To Grid US - At first glance, the Toyota Scion sitting in the University of Delaware parking lot looks like a normal boxy car. But a second look shows it lacks a tailpipe, and has an electrical outlet set into the grille below the hood. [more] PlanetArk.org | Stephanie Nebehay | March 31, 2010
El Nino To Influence Climate Patterns To Midyear: WMO SWITZERLAND - The El Nino warming the Pacific Ocean since June has peaked, but is expected to influence climate patterns worldwide up to mid-year before dying out, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday. [more] PlanetArk.org | Alister Doyle | March 31, 2010
Pearl Jam Guitarist Sees Business Key To Climate NORWAY - While many people dream of becoming a rock star, Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard says he is trying to be more of a businessman to help slow climate change. [more]
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PlanetArk.org | Peter Henderson | March 31, 2010
Coal Fuels Much Of Internet "Cloud", Says Greenpeace US - The 'cloud' of data which is becoming the heart of the Internet is creating an all too real cloud of pollution as Facebook, Apple and others build data centers powered by coal, according to a new Greenpeace report. [more] PlanetArk.org | Reuters | March 31, 2010
Global Solar Power Capacity Grew 44 PCT In 2009 UK - Global installed solar photovoltaic power grew by 44 percent in 2009 on the back of German subsidies now under threat, the European Photovoltaic Industry Association said on Tuesday. [more] PlanetArk.org | Tom Doggett | March 31, 2010
Government Set To Unveil Offshore Drilling Plan US - The Obama administration is expected to announce by Wednesday its updated plan for oil and natural gas drilling in U.S. waters, including whether to allow exploration for the first time along the U.S. East Coast. [more] PlanetArk.org | Alister Doyle | March 31, 2010
Below" 2C Opens New Rift In U.N. Climate Battle NORWAY - A goal to limit global warming to "below" 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) is opening a new rift for 2010 talks on a U.N. climate treaty as developing nations say it means the rich must deepen cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. [more]
April 1, 2010 CBC News | April 1, 2010
Canada, U.S. to announce emission standards Canada and the U.S. are expected to announce new harmonized emissions standards for cars and trucks Thursday in an effort to push automakers to build more fuel-efficient vehicles. [more]
Last week MARCH 24 Climate List-Serve | March 24, 2010
WMO Publishes Statement on the Status of the Global Climate 24 March 2010: The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has published the Statement on the Status of the Global Climate in 2009, an annual survey by the agency about the weather and climate change. In the Statement, the WMO highlights that the first decade of the new millennium was the warmest on record. [more] MARCH 25 Climate List Serve | March 25, 2010
UNEP Collaborates on Report on Copenhagen Accord Targets 25 March 2010: The Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, in collaboration with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), has released a report titled “What do the Appendices to the Copenhagen Accord tell us about global greenhouse gas emissions and the prospects for avoiding a rise in global average temperature of more than 2°C?” [more] 6
MONDAQ | Madeline M. Chiampou, Gregory K. Lawrence, Philip Tingle and Martha Groves Pugh | March 25, 2010
United States: Another Push Offshore: Proposed Legislation Introduced To Incentivize Offshore Wind Projects The proposed bills would specifically apply the production tax credit and the investment tax credit to offshore wind facilities and would provide for a January 1, 2020, expiration date of these tax credits. MONDAQ | Jeffrey Lynne, P.A. | March 25, 2010
United States: Energy Finance Districts To Accelerate Retrofits And Green Job Growth On February 3, 2010, Energy & Utilities Policy Committee Chairman Steve Precourt (ROrlando) and House Majority Leader Adam Hasner (R-Delray Beach) announced that they are exploring the adoption of legislation which was named by the Harvard Business Review as one of the "Breakthrough Ideas for 2010." [more] MARCH 26 Climate List Serve | March 26, 2010
European Council Endorses Post-Copenhagen Strategy 26 March 2010: The European Council, gathering Heads of State and government of the EU, met in Brussels, Belgium, on 25-26 March 2010, to discuss the EU’s strategy on the international climate change negotiations, among other things. [more] Canadian News Wire | March 26, 2010
Horizon Energy Solutions launches "Ontario's Solar Sunbelt" from region's rooftops Green Power initiative will lead to cleaner air, greater reliability
HAMILTON, ON, March 26 /CNW/ - On the eve of Earth Hour, Horizon Energy Solutions Inc. (HESI) is launching "Ontario's Solar Sunbelt" with a strategic energy alliance and a commercial solar energy generating business. [more] Landline Magazine | March 26, 2010
Congress ready for another round of climate change talks Shortly after passing health care legislation, several Congressional leaders are shifting their focus to climate change proposals. With health care work finished for the time being, OOIDA’s Mike Joyce said Congress is preparing to address financial services reform and intends to combine energy, environment and climate change. [more] EuroAlert | March 26, 2010
European leaders focus on climate change in their meeting in Brussels The heads of state and government of the 27 member states of the EU will look at ways of reactivating the process of climate change talks, after the failure of negotiations in Copenhagen summit last December. [more] Scientific American | David Biello | March 26, 2010
Climate Change Imperils the State of the Planet--Will the World Act? Efforts to combat climate change continue to grow. But are they big enough? Or fast enough? NEW YORK CITY—More than 100 countries have signed on to the Copenhagen Accord—the nonbinding agreement to combat climate change hastily agreed to this past December at a summit of world leaders. [more]
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UK Guardian | Jonathan Watts | March 26, 2010
Earth Hour - climate change campaigners urge global switch-off The fourth annual lights-out event expects 1 billion participants, and will include international landmarks including the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State building and the Burj Khalifa [more]
Older, but interesting! Guardian UK | Stephen Leahy | March 18, 2010
Canadian government 'hiding truth about climate change', report claims Canada's climate researchers are being muzzled, their funding slashed, research stations closed, findings ignored and advice on the critical issue of the century unsought by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, according to a 40-page report by a coalition of 60 nongovernmental organisations. [more] MONDAQ | Peter Burn | January, 2010
SPECIAL EDITION: From Copenhagen to Mexico: The First Step At the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in December, nations “took note” of the Copenhagen Accord; and were asked to submit their 2020 greenhouse gas reduction target by January 31, 2010 as the first step in a year-long process to transform the Accord into a comprehensive and legally binding agreement. As of February 3rd, over 80 countries responsible for over 80% of all man-made GHG emissions have reported. [more] MONDAQ | Peter Burn | January, 2010
Quebec: Going it alone on Vehicle Efficiency Standards Federal Environment Minister Prentice has called the new Quebec vehicle efficiency standards an example of the folly of attempting to “go it alone” in the integrated North American market. His criticism has not been well-received in Quebec, with the media accepting at face value the response of the Quebec government that Quebec is not acting alone, but is merely replicating the standard deployed in California and a number of other states. Someone is mistaken. [more] MONDAQ | January 22, 2010
FERC Seeks Industry Comments on Ways to Improve Wind and Solar Access to Grid FERC’s objective is to eliminate unnecessary barriers to transmission service and access to wholesale power markets for variable energy sources. On January 21, 2010, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a Notice of Inquiry to examine the integration of variable energy sources (VERs) into the wholesale power grid. [more]
March 27, 2010 UK Telegraph | March 27, 2010
Climate change chief, Rajendra Pachauri, pledges neutrality The controversial head of the UN's climate change body has rejected calls to resign over errors in an official report but has pledged to adopt a neutral tone on global warming.
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Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has pedged to adopt a more neutral stance on global warming. Photo: AP Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, apologised for the way his organisation handled complaints about mistakes in its report, and for criticising an opposing piece of research as "voodoo science". But he also accused politicians and prominent critics of "a new form of persecution" against scientists who support the conept of global warming. It had been incorrect to give the impression, in media interviews, that he was advocating specific actions such as green taxes to combat climate change. "I will try to clarify that I'm not prescribing anything as a solution," he said. "Maybe I should be more careful (in media interviews) in laying down certain riders. One learns from that and I'm learning." The IPCC has been accused of moving too slowly to correct errors in its reports on climate change, which played a significant role in last year's Copenhagen summit. For example, it wrongly claimed that all Himalayan glaciers would disappear before 2035 even though its mistake had been pointed out before the summit began. Dr Pachauri said: "Our response has been much too late and much too inadequate." A report by the Indian government which undermined the IPCC's glacier statement was attacked as "voodoo science" by Dr Pachauri, but he has now conceded that it was an "intemperate statement" and that he "should not have used such words". Dr Pachauri, 70, dismissed calls fro his resignation and insisted he woudl remain IPCC chairman until after the publication of its next report in 2014. In February The Sunday Telegraph disclosed a series of factual errors and poor sources of evidence in the IPCC's influential report to government leaders. Dr Pachauri said in an article for The Guardian: "I sincerely hope the world is not witnessing a new form of persecution of those who defy conventional ignorance and pay a terrible price for their scientifically valid beliefs." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7529770/Climate-change-chief-Rajendra-Pachauripledges-neutrality.html
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Times Online | Steven Swinford and Chris Gourlay | March 28, 2010
CO2 ruling may halt new airport runways
Stop airport expansion protesters at Heathrow CAMPAIGNERS will seek to block airport expansion across Britain following a High Court judgment which criticised the government’s decision to build a third runway at Heathrow. Environmental groups linked to Stansted, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and a string of other airports hope to use the ruling to launch fresh challenges against plans for mass growth in flights and passenger numbers. The judgment on Friday found that ministers had failed to take account of new, legally binding targets to reduce carbon dioxide emissions when they approved the expansion of Heathrow. It comes after a two-year campaign by The Sunday Times revealed how BAA, the owner of Heathrow, colluded with the government to build the case for passenger growth. Justine Greening, a Tory frontbencher who has led opposition to the third runway, said: “This ruling has profound consequences for airport expansion, not just at Heathrow but across the country. The law is there to protect people from overpowerful and vested interests and Friday’s ruling was a victory for the people.” The government’s case for expanding Heathrow hinged on a seven-year-old aviation white paper. A coalition of local councils, residents and green groups argued that it failed to take into account statutory limits on CO2 emissions that were introduced in 2008. Lord Justice Carnwath agreed, saying the government’s position was “untenable” and should be reviewed. The judge said: “Common sense demanded that a policy established in 2003, before important developments in climate change policy, should be subject to review in light of these developments.” Carnwath declined to rule that Heathrow’s third runway should be abandoned, but the verdict could still have repercussions across the country. At Stansted, BAA has announced plans for a second runway which would see passenger numbers rise from 24m to 68m by 2030. Carol Barbone, the director of Stop Stansted Expansion, said: “Without the security blanket of government policy to rely on, BAA knows its chances of securing a favourable result from a public inquiry are extremely doubtful.” Activists believe that plans for a second runway at Birmingham international airport, outlined in the 2003 aviation white paper, are now dead in the water. Proposals to increase the number of passengers at Bristol international airport from 6.2m to 10m by 2020, currently being considered by the local council, could now be challenged. Carnwath’s ruling could also scupper the introduction of more flights at Manchester airport, Southend airport in Essex and Biggin Hill in Kent. 10
It means that proposals by this newspaper and backed by Boris Johnson, the London mayor, for a four-runway island airport in the Thames estuary are now highly unlikely to proceed. However, Manchester city council has already approved plans for its airport to expand to handle up to 50m passengers a year by 2030. Robbie Gillett, spokesman for the Stop Expansion At Manchester Airport coalition, said: “The expansion plans are based on outdated thinking. This ruling gives us strong grounds to challenge further growth.” Under the climate change act, Britain is committed to reducing its CO2 emissions by an average of 80% from 1990 levels. Ministers denied that Carnwath’s decision represented a setback but said that aviation policy will be re-examined in 2011 when the new climate targets will be taken into account. Gordon Brown insisted that a new runway at Heathrow was vital to “help secure jobs and underpin economic growth”. The prime minister said the government backed it “after a detailed assessment showing that strict environmental limits for expansion could be met”. Campaigners claimed that the government will now have to conduct a new public consultation. Kate Harrison, a lawyer for the coalition against a third runway, said: “Any expansion approved under the policy framework of the 2003 [white] paper will now be open to legal challenge. What the judge said last week was ‘Forget that framework, it’s out of date’. “The ambitions for expanding aviation will have to be dramatically scaled back.” Theresa Villiers, the shadow transport secretary, said: “High-speed rail could provide an attractive alternative to domestic and European flights. “We remain opposed to a third runway on economic and environmental grounds — if we are the next government, it won’t happen.” The judgment also vindicates criticism from campaigners that ministers underplayed the environmental impact of a third runway when weighed up against its economic benefits. The ruling marked the culmination of a campaign using freedom of information laws to reveal how BAA and the Department for Transport “fixed” data to force through expansion plans. In March 2008, internal documents showed BAA executives prevented the use of data in a consultation document that showed Heathrow’s expansion would cause unlawful levels of pollution and extra noise. BAA used the low emissions figures of a non-existent plane to help clinch its case. The 450-seat “virtual” jumbo was invented for environmental modelling after BAA realised it would otherwise exceed noise and pollution limits. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7078774.ece
MONDAQ | Gordon Nettleton, Matthew Keen and Ryan Rodier | March 28, 2010
Canada: NEB Approves Keystone XL Pipeline Project: Market Forces Prevail As Key Public Interest Considerations The National Energy Board has approved the Keystone XL Pipeline despite opposition from Enbridge and Enbridge shippers concerned about the negative impacts from potential offloading of the Enbridge system. The decision is consistent with, and reinforces, past Board reliance on commercial support for a pipeline project as an indicator of the public interest. Introduction On March 11, 2009, in its OH-1-2009 decision the National Energy Board (Board) approved construction of a new pipeline project proposed by TransCanada Keystone GP (TransCanada), 11
known as the Keystone XL Pipeline Project or "KXL". This decision is significant as it will allow Canadian crude supply to directly access the US Gulf Coast (USGC) market. This is the largest refining market in North America and one which is readily capable of processing heavier crude types that are associated with oil sands developments and without the need for additional refinery investment. New market access and increased market diversification are two key outcomes for Canadian crude producers. The approach taken by the Board in its OH-1-2009 decision is important as it reaffirms longstanding policy that new pipeline projects may be approved when adequate commercial support is demonstrated and notwithstanding the fact that negative economic impacts may result to an incumbent pipeline system due to increased competition and market choice. Background The KXL Project is a 36-inch "bullet line" providing direct pipeline access of 500,000 bpd to the USGC from one of the main crude storage "hubs" situated in Hardisty, Alberta. TransCanada secured long term firm commitments for approximately 55% of the KXL capacity via signed Transportation Service Agreements (TSAs), for an average contract length of 15 years, and submitted these contracts as evidence that the pipeline facilities were needed and would be used and useful over the economic life of the pipeline. Industry was divided in its response to the KXL project. Eight KXL shippers (KXL Shippers) who had signed TSAs actively supported KXL, given its ability to access the USGC market. This access was viewed as mitigating against unfavourable pricing that would occur if incremental Alberta crude supply continued to be sold in the Chicago and mid-west US refining market. Limited refining market alternatives have existed for Alberta crude producers. This, coupled with the fact that the midwest market has pipeline access to other competing crude supply alternatives has caused Alberta producers to be "price takers." Access to an additional market should improve the prices that Canadian producers receive for their crude. Conversely, several shippers on the Enbridge Pipeline Inc. (Enbridge) system either opposed or expressed reservations about the project. The Enbridge Mainline System presently transports much of Canadian crude production from western Canada to Chicago markets and ultimately Sarnia, Ontario. In anticipation of increased oilsand production volumes (an increase which may not occur at the same rate as initially forecasted), the Enbridge Mainline System is currently being expanded pursuant to the Board's approval of Enbridge's "Alberta Clipper" project (OH-42007). If the Mainline System were to be offloaded by KXL, under the toll structure in place the per barrel cost of shipping on the Mainline System would rise – an industry impact that was characterized as contrary to the Canadian public interest. In response to this concern, and supported by some producers, Enbridge played a significant role during the oral portion of the public hearing advocating the "Gretna Option" as being an alternative to the KXL Project. The Gretna Option consisted of a proposed Transportation by Others (TBO) arrangement between Enbridge and TransCanada on the Enbridge system between Hardisty and Gretna, Manitoba. In other words, TransCanada would contract for use of part of Enbridge's Canadian system, thus mitigating the offloading impact. From Gretna, Manitoba, Enbridge proposed that the KXL Project should then continue due south to the USGC. Enbridge's position was that constructing the KXL Project in this manner would better utilize existing (and soon to be constructed) capacity and reduce the amount of offloading that would occur to the Enbridge system. Enbridge, however, had not progressed development of the Gretna 12
Option. No consideration had been given to the engineering, routing or environmental implications of this alternative. Despite this, Enbridge and other producers argued that even at the conceptual stage, the Gretna Option was in the public interest and that the only way for it to progress forward was through the denial of the KXL application. The Decision The Board approved the KXL Project as filed. In doing so, the merits of the Gretna Option received very little attention. The Board was critical of the lack of definition to the Gretna Option and indicated that, if it was a serious option and sufficiently commercially attractive, parties could continue to pursue it outside of the Board hearing process. Specifically, the Board stated that its interference with competitive forces in this regard would be contrary to the public interest. The Board also indicated that it had not been presented with "cogent evidence" that sophisticated industry parties would be unable to manage offloading costs and, taking into account the projected growth profile of Canadian crude production, accepted that increases in pipeline capacity could be "lumpy" with temporary periods of excess capacity. The Board also accepted that, despite the fact that only 55% of KXL capacity was under contract, the applied-for capacity (including the ability of the pipeline design to easily expand) was justified in light of anticipated market requirements in the future. However, despite this potential for expansion, to satisfy TransCanada's common carrier obligation under the National Energy Board Act the Board rejected TransCanada's proposal that only 6% of KXL capacity be set aside for spot shipments, and imposed a condition that the Tariff explicitly reflect that 12% of the capacity be available for non-firm service. Implications •
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Pipeline proponents will have to continue to be able to demonstrate that projects have adequate commercial support before proceeding given the Board's reliance on market forces. Consistent with its past decisions approving the Alliance pipeline (GH-3-97) and the Express pipeline (OH-1-95) and in clear language, the Board relied on contractual support to establish the need for pipeline facilities. Any party advocating that the Board adopt an alternative instead of the applied-for project must be able to make the case for the alternative with substantial context and detail. The Board's approval of the expandability of the pipeline should encourage pipeline proponents to take some risk by integrating the potential for future expandability into the engineering design.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
http://www.mondaq.com/canada/article.asp?articleid=96278&email_access=on
March 29, 2010
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Newswire | March 29, 2010
Retire Your Ride proves to be a breath of fresh air - Canada's National Vehicle Recycling Program encourages Canadians to choose more sustainable forms of transportation TORONTO, March 29 /CNW/ - According to new research, one in five participants of Canada's Retire Your Ride program will not replace their retired car with another vehicle. Instead, they plan to use more sustainable transportation alternatives, such as taking public transit, carpooling or riding a bicycle. "The goal of Retire Your Ride is to improve air quality by rewarding Canadians for retiring their older, higher polluting vehicles," said Carla Kearns, national program director at Summerhill Impact (formerly Clean Air Foundation), who is the national delivery agent for Retire Your Ride. "We are extremely proud that the program is also encouraging Canadians to change their transportation behaviour and choose more sustainable options." The study of 1,000 Retire Your Ride participants, which was conducted in January, revealed that more than half of participants said the program encouraged them to get rid of their vehicle earlier than planned. Additionally, of the one in five participants that decided not to replace their vehicles: -
46 per cent will take public transit 35 per cent will use another household vehicle 24 per cent will bicycle 11 per cent will carpool 11 per cent will walk more often
Of the participants who will replace their vehicle with another car, 70 per cent said they will purchase a vehicle of model year 2004 or newer. As vehicles 1995 and older emit 19 times more smog-forming emissions than 2004 and newer vehicles, this will significantly reduce smogforming emissions. "Retire Your Ride is encouraging people to take action and help improve the air quality in Canada," said Kearns. "The program appeals not only to Canadians' environmental conscience, but provides economic benefit as well." According to the same study, 73 per cent of participants retired their car due to economic or environmental reasons. Regardless of the reason for participation, in the first year, Retire Your Ride has exceeded the objectives set out by Summerhill Impact and the Government of Canada. Retire Your Ride is successfully engaging Canadians to participate and is rewarding them for their environmentally conscious efforts. As of March 2010, more than 56,000 vehicles have been responsibly recycled through the program, with 11,200 applications pending, reducing smog-forming emissions by 2,500 tonnes. The Government of Canada has committed up to $92 million to the Retire Your Ride program to help Canadians recycle their older, higher polluting vehicles and to encourage them to shift to sustainable transportation choices, leading to reduced air pollution. The program, which runs until March 31, 2011, offers participants incentives such as transit passes, car sharing program discounts, $300 cash, or a manufacturer supported rebate on the purchase of a new vehicle.
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The Retire Your Ride network of delivery partners includes the following: Scrap-it in British Columbia; Climate Change Central in Alberta; Saskatchewan Environmental Society in Saskatchewan; Manitoba Lung Association in Manitoba; Summerhill Impact in Ontario, Association Québécoise de lutte contre la pollution atmosphérique (AQLPA) in Quebec; the New Brunswick Lung Association in New Brunswick; the Prince Edward Island Lung Association (in collaboration with New Brunswick Lung Association) in Prince Edward Island; Clean Nova Scotia in Nova Scotia; Newfoundland and Labrador Lung Association in Newfoundland and Labrador. About Retire Your Ride - retireyourride.ca Retire Your Ride is a national program designed to effectively and efficiently retire 1995 model year or older vehicles in an environmentally responsible manner, in an effort to improve air quality and encourage the use of sustainable transportation. The Retire Your Ride program is delivered nationally by Summerhill Impact, funded by the Government of Canada and supported by a network of experienced regional delivery agents across the country, as well as a national network of automotive recyclers. http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2010/29/c5701.html ABC News Net | March 29, 2010
Climate change protest targets coal ships Rising Tide, a group fighting the causes of climate change, says it plans to block Newcastle Harbour again next year after staging what it describes as a successful protest at the weekend. A convoy of 60 kayaks, rafts and boats formed a blockade across the entrance to the harbour yesterday to stop coal ships entering or leaving. Newcastle Port Corporation says the six hour protest did not interrupt ship movements, with several ships loaded during the day. But Rising Tide spokeswoman Naomi Hodgson insists the protest did have an impact. "Usually the shipping movements are publicly available online and the only time they ever take it down is when we're holding one of these protests and sure enough five days ago they took the schedule down," she said. "This is ... [one of the busiest ports] on the entire planet. Usually there's ships going in and out at maximum capacity and there was not a single movement in this port." No-one was arrested and police described the protest as a peaceful event. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/29/2858583.htm
EPA Website | March 29, 2010
EPA Formally Announces Phase-in of Clean Air Act Permitting for Greenhouse Gases Agency reiterates no stationary source requirements until 2011
WASHINGTON – Under a final decision issued today by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) no stationary sources will be required to get Clean Air Act permits that cover greenhouse gases (GHGs) before January 2011. EPA has pledged to take sensible steps to address the billions of tons of greenhouse gas pollution that threaten Americans’ health and welfare, and is providing time for large industrial facilities and state governments to put in place cost-effective, innovative technologies to control and reduce carbon pollution. Today’s announcement is the first step in EPA’s phased in approach to addressing GHG emissions laid out by Administrator Lisa P. Jackson earlier this month. 15
“This is a common sense plan for phasing in the protections of the Clean Air Act. It gives large facilities the time they need to innovate, governments the time to prepare to cut greenhouse gases and it ensures that we don’t push this problem off to our children and grandchildren,” said EPA Administrator Jackson. “With a clear process in place, it’s now time for American innovators and entrepreneurs to go to work and lead us into the clean energy economy of the future.” Today’s action determines that Clean Air Act construction and operating permit requirements for the largest emitting facilities will begin when the first national rule controlling GHGs takes effect. If finalized as proposed, the rule limiting GHG emissions for cars and light trucks would trigger these requirements in January 2011 – the earliest model year 2012 vehicles meeting the standards can be sold in the United States. The agency expects to issue final vehicle GHG standards shortly. EPA has committed to focusing its GHG permitting requirements on the largest sources. The agency will make a decision later this spring on the amount of GHGs facilities can emit before having to include limits for these emissions in their permits. Today’s action is the final step in EPA’s reconsideration of the December 18, 2008 memorandum entitled “EPA’s Interpretation of Regulations that Determine Pollutants Covered by Federal Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) Permit Program.” The final action clarifies when GHGs and other pollutants are covered under Clean Air Act permitting programs. More information and the letter Administrator Jackson sent last month outlining this approach and timeline: http://www.epa.gov/nsr/guidance.html Sound bites available: http://www.epa.gov/adminweb/multimedia/newscontent/2010-3-25oa/index2.html
PlanetArk.org | Jonathan Saul | March 29, 2010
U.N. Ship Agency Adopts North America Pollution Cut Plan UK - The United Nations shipping agency on Friday adopted a proposal to create a lowemissions buffer zone around the United States and Canada, a spokesman for the body said. Delegates from member states have met this week in London for a session of the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) marine environment protection committee. They adopted a plan on Friday to create an Emissions Control Area which would extend 200 nautical miles, which is 230 statute miles, around the coast of the two nations and aimed at the control of nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, and particulate matter from ships. Once an IMO plan is adopted there needs to be 16 months for it to enter into force, meaning the Emissions Control Area would become mandatory around July 2011. "For too long, ships have spewed enormous amounts of pollution along our coasts and in our ports," David Marshall, with environmental group the Clean Air Task Force (CATF), said. "We applaud the expeditious action by the IMO in adopting this proposal to clean up shipping fuels and emissions." Cruise companies have said the plan sets arbitrary boundaries based on faulty science that overstates the health benefits, adding it would force them to switch to low-sulphur fuels that would dramatically drive up costs. Separately, the IMO will consider proposals on Friday aimed at combating carbon emissions from ships. 16
"The IMO has commissioned several studies and held plenty of debate on the climate issue -including the debate at this week's meeting -- but has not yet adopted a single measure requiring reductions of greenhouse gas emissions," CATF said. (Editing by Sue Thomas) © Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/57336
PlanetArk.org | Kylie Maclennan and Adrian Croft | March 29, 2010
UK Critics Say Ruling A Blow Against Heathrow Plan UK - Environmentalists opposed to a third runway at London's Heathrow airport claimed victory on Friday after a British judge ruled the government must review the project's climate change and economic impact. The Labour government gave the go-ahead in January last year for a third runway and another terminal at Europe's busiest airport as part of a 9 billion pound ($13.4 billion) expansion. But the project has run into fierce opposition and a legal challenge from local residents and environmentalists concerned about noise and increased carbon emissions. The opposition Conservatives, ahead in the polls before a national election widely expected on May 6, oppose plans for a third runway at Heathrow, whose operator BAA is majority owned by Spain's Grupo Ferrovial. High Court judge Robert Carnwath said the government's argument that the policy of support for the third runway had been set in 2003, subject to the fulfillment of three environmental conditions, was "untenable." The government must prepare a national policy statement, required to establish the case for major infrastructure projects, before the expansion can go ahead. Carnwath said the preparation of the statement "will necessarily involve a review of all the relevant policy issues including the impact of climate change policy." He said the national policy statement would also have to consider the economic impact of a third runway as increases in carbon costs would have a "significant effect on the economic picture." "It makes no sense to treat the economic case as settled in 2003," he said. Opponents of the plan, including local councils and environmentalists, said the ruling meant that the government would have to "go back to square one and reconsider the entire case for the runway" if it wanted to pursue its plans for Heathrow expansion. (Editing by David Holmes) © Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/57339
PlanetArk.org | Barbara Lewis | March 29, 2010
Green Energy Can Spur Ireland's Return To Growth IRELAND - Renewable energy should play a major role in spurring Ireland back to growth now the government and economy are both showing signs of stability, Ireland's energy minister said in an interview. Eamon Ryan kept his post as minister for communications, energy and natural resources in a cabinet reshuffle last week after intense media speculation of tensions between the governing parties, Fianna Fail and junior coalition partner the Green Party, to which Ryan belongs. Ryan said he felt the government and the economy were on a more stable footing. "We went through so many difficult decisions last year with regard to banking and the Lisbon Treaty (on streamlining EU institutions). That gives a certain stability and the feeling we have 17
the ability to get over difficult issues," he told Reuters on the sidelines of the Green Party conference in Waterford, southeastern Ireland, at the weekend. "I'd be reasonably confident that we would start to see the economy turning slightly and that we will start to see the government get a reasonable amount of stability." Economists have shared the government view that growth would resume in the second half of this year, although figures last week showed the economy had shrunk more than expected late last year. Renewable energy and the kind of innovative approach labeled the "smart economy" have a huge part to play in stimulating Ireland's economy, Ryan said. So far, around 12,000 new jobs in renewables and the smart economy have been created of the 120,000 targeted by the government for 2020. The country has also set itself a goal of sourcing 40 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2020, and Ryan said this could be exceeded, allowing Ireland to switch from being 90 percent dependent on imported fossil fuel to an energy exporter. "We can get 40 percent of renewable electricity on the system in the next 10 years," he said. "We think we can beat that target. No problem at all. We should become a renewable energy exporter." Ireland's deep financial problems should not hinder funding, he said, as the private sector had proved willing to finance "bankable" projects, especially as costs had begun to fall. COMPETITIVE WIND "It's becoming competitive. It's what's getting funding. It's what's getting built," he said of wind farms. "The advantage we have is that we have very competitive power. The support required is substantially lower than in, say, Britain. The wind is significantly stronger. We have some of the best wind resources in the world." Ryan consistently emphasized the pragmatic as well as the ideological and said the experience of Greens in government elsewhere -- in Finland and previously in Germany -- proved "there is certainly realpolitik in the Green Party." Ryan, who used to run a green tourism cycling business, said he wanted to see green moneymaking at the heart of Dublin's business district and cited the government initiative to set up a green International Financial Services Center (IFSC) for carbon trading and green fund management, for instance. "There is a whole plethora of green financial activities," he said. "It is being pursued as a government initiative under the auspices of the existing IFSC." (Editing by Will Waterman) © Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/57341
PlanetArk.org | David Fogarty, Climate Change Correspondent, Asia | March 29, 2010
Firm Accused Of Carbon Scam May Face Legal Claims SINGAPORE - A firm accused of defrauding Australian investors of A$3.5 million ($3.2 million) in a carbon investment scam and blacklisted by the nation's securities regulator is still operating and may face legal claims. The case risks denting the reputation of the unregulated voluntary carbon offset market, which has been damaged in the past by allegations of fraud and double-counting, although market players said its small size meant it wouldn't have a big impact.
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Since mid-2009 more than 100 people have told the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) they have lost money after being duped by an aggressive telemarketing scheme run by WesternField Holdings Inc. The state-backed ACCC has labeled the firm's carbon investment offerings a scam that preys on investors' desire to do something good for the environment. WesternField's website (www.western-field.com) lists a Tokyo business address, a string of emission reduction projects in Asia since 2001, an impressive line-up of managers and consultants, and a prestigious environment award in 2004. However, the organization that gives out the annual award didn't start doing so until 2006. A check of WesternField's weblink shows the domain name was created in May 2009 and internet searches show no record of the company prior to 2009. The management office of the Tokyo tower listed as the firm's address has no record of them. WesternField describes itself as a leading developer of high quality greenhouse gas reduction projects. "It is increasingly clear this is a well-constructed scam using a fake website and claiming fake links to legitimate organizations or environmental standards and where the ultimate location is very difficult to determine," ACCC deputy chairman Peter Kell told Reuters by telephone. "If you're an investor who's heart is in the right place, who wants to make an environmentally friendly investment, then these sorts of offerings can look very tempting," he added. The ACCC said potential investors are cold-called by people with North American, British or New Zealand accents and promised large returns for short-term investments in carbon credits. Investors could view their carbon "investment certificates" through an independent website registered to CTR Limited (carbontrustregistry.com), purported to be in Hong Kong. Calls to the number listed on the website were unanswered. Kell said some investors have complained that they have been unable to obtain their certificates and that requests to sell their investments or get their money back were ignored. Investors were asked to send money to a Taiwan bank account. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has blacklisted WesternField, accusing it of investment fraud. MARKETING FIRMS During a series of calls to WesternField's Japanese telephone number this week, a man named Jay Cutler told Reuters that founder and CEO Stephen Westernfield was either in the United States, in meetings or had left for the day. None of the other members of the team were available. Cutler, who said his role was just to answer the telephone, refused to comment on the blacklisting or accusations of WesternField running a telephone scam. "I've assured people just like I'll assure yourself, we've never cold-called a potential investor yet. We've engaged on a number of occasions independent marketing firms who have, canvassed I guess is the right word, potential investors," said Cutler. He said investors are told that they are not issued with certificates. "The holdings are held electronically with an independent body the Carbon Trust Registry." Carbon Trust says on its website that it is a registry for credits issued by the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) Association, an industry-respected offset verifier. But Jerry Seager, program manager for the association, told Reuters that Carbon Trust was not an authorized VCS registry. "We are aware of this website and are taking legal advice," he said in an emailed response to questions. He added that he had not heard of WesternField and that they were not listed as project proponents for any VCS projects. WesternField Holdings says it has completed a variety of clean-energy and forestry projects in Asia since 2001 that have been approved under VCS as well as the Gold Standard Foundation. 19
Gold Standard said it had not heard of WesternField either. It said the firm would face action from the foundation for any misuse of its brand. Cutler declined comment on the allegation. Grattan MacGiffin of MF Global, one of the largest brokers for voluntary offsets, said the case would not hurt the market, worth about $700 million in 2008. "The market has a good reputation now for transparency and integrity. There will always be potential for bad actions on the fringes but typically it's very uncommon now," he said. (Additional reporting by Chisa Fujioka in Tokyo; Editing by Michael Szabo and Michael Urquhart) © Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/57342
March 30, 2010 Climate List Serve | March 30, 2010
UNFCCC Publishes Copenhagen Reports 30 March 2010: The UNFCCC has published the reports of the 15th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) (FCCC/CP/2009/11 and FCCC/CP/2009/11/Add.1) and the reports of the fifth session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties (COP/MOP 5)(FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/21 and FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/21/Add.1), which were held in Copenhagen, Denmark, from 7-19 December 2009. The reports detail the outcomes of the meetings, and consist of two parts: Part One comprises procedural matters and Part Two consists of action and decisions taken by the relevant body. The COP 15 report contains. inter alia, the text of the Copenhagen Accord, which parties took note of, and lists 112 parties (111 countries and the EU) that have indicated their support for the Accord. A UNFCCC press release indicates that 75 submissions of national pledges to cut or limit emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) by 2020 have been received from parties. These parties account for more than 80% of global emissions from energy use. Forty-one industrialized countries have formally communicated their economy-wide targets to the UNFCCC. Thirty-five developing countries have communicated information on the nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) they are planning to take, provided they receive the appropriate support in terms of finance and technology. In the press release, Yvo de Boer, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, states that, while the pledges constitute an important step towards the objective of limiting growth of emissions, they will not suffice to limit warming to below two degrees Celsius. He adds that COP 16, to be held in Mexico at the end of the year, needs to put in place effective cooperative mechanisms capable of bringing about significant acceleration of national, regional and international actions both to limit the growth of emissions and to prepare for the inevitable impacts of climate change. De Boer also underlines that the Accord can be used to help advance the formal negotiations towards a successful outcome in Mexico. [COP 15 and COP/MOP 5 Meeting Reports] [UNFCCC Press Release] http://climate-l.org/2010/04/01/unfccc-publishes-copenhagen-reports/?referrer=climate-l.orgdaily-feed
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Sydney Morning Herald | Rajendra Pachauri | March 30, 2010
A mistake about glaciers does not negate climate change Scientists are demonised because of one error in 3000 pages of evidence. To dismiss the implications of climate change based on an error about the rate at which Himalayan glaciers are melting is an act of astonishing intellectual legerdemain. Yet this is what some doubters of climate change are claiming. The reality is that our understanding of climate change is based on a vast and remarkably sound body of science - and is something we distort and trivialise at our peril. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has published four comprehensive assessments of climate change and several important special reports since its founding in 1988. The last such document, the fourth assessment report from 2007, mobilised 450 scientists from all over the world. An additional 800 contributing authors gave specialised inputs and about 2500 expert reviewers provided 90,000 comments. In this mammoth task, which yielded a finished product of nearly 3000 pages, there was a regrettable error indicating the Himalayan glaciers were likely to melt by the year 2035. This mistake has been acknowledged by the IPCC. Learning from this error, the panel has requested, in tandem with the United Nations Secretary-General, an independent review of its procedures and practices by the InterAcademy Council (formed by the world's science academies to advise international bodies, such as the United Nations and the World Bank). The review was requested in part so that the possibility of similar errors can be eliminated as much as is humanly possible. It is important, however, to understand that irrespective of the error on Himalayan glaciers and a few other questions about some specific wording in the fourth report, the major thrust of its findings provides overwhelming evidence that warming of the climate system is unequivocal. To quote the report: ''Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.'' As inhabitants of planet Earth, our lives depend on a stable climate, and it is our responsibility to ensure that future generations do not suffer the consequences of climate change. We cannot ignore the fact that the impacts of climate change - which are based on actual observations - are, as the fourth report makes clear, leading to ''increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising global sea levels''. An increasing number of researchers, and some official investigations by intelligence agencies, now point to the security implications of climate change. If we do not carry out adequate mitigation and adopt sustainable development practices, global emissions of greenhouse gases will continue to increase, and their continuation at or above current rates will cause further warming and changes in the global climate system during the 21st century that will very likely be larger than those observed during the 20th century. Altered frequencies and intensities of extreme weather, together with sea level rise, are expected to have mostly adverse effects on natural and human systems. Even more serious is the finding that human-induced warming could lead to some impacts that are abrupt or irreversible. For instance, partial loss of ice sheets on polar land could imply metres of sea level rise, major changes in coastlines and inundation of low-lying areas, with the greatest effects in river deltas and on low-lying islands. Human society has some critical choices. It is to be expected that some of these would pose challenges for some stakeholders and sectors of the economy. But to ignore the IPCC's scientific findings would lead to impacts that impose larger costs than those required today to stabilise the Earth's climate. 21
Thousands of scientists from across the world have worked diligently to provide scientific evidence for action to meet the growing challenge of climate change. To obscure this reality through misplaced emphasis on an error in a nearly 3000-page, rigorous document would be unfortunate. Even more unfortunate is the effort of some in positions of power and responsibility to indict dedicated scientists as ''climate criminals'' (as called for by US senator and long-standing climate sceptic James Inhofe). I sincerely hope the world is not witnessing a new form of persecution of those who defy conventional ignorance and pay a terrible price for their scientifically valid beliefs. The IPCC will continue to learn from experience, including criticism of its work. Thankfully, with inputs from thousands of respected scientists, world governments and now the InterAcademy Council, the panel is in a better position than ever to provide a robust and reliable scientific basis for tackling climate change. Dr Rajendra Pachauri is chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/a-mistake-about-glaciers-does-not-negate-climatechange-20100329-r854.html
New York Times | Evan Lehmann | March 30, 2010
Sudden Revolt by Insurance Regulators Scales Back Climate Rule on Industry A surprise rebellion by a majority of insurance regulators Sunday reversed key elements of a landmark regulation requiring the nation's largest industry to publicly disclose its efforts to address climate change. Companies can now submit their answers confidentially in most states. The upheaval rolls back the nation's maiden climate rule on corporations, casting environmentalists and investor advocates into confusion weeks before the 12-question survey was supposed to be enacted. The change, passed by a vote of 27-22 among state insurance commissioners, promises to make it more difficult for activists to pressure the sprawling industry to act more aggressively on global warming. It also underscores the depth of concern that commissioners around the country have with a survey that asks about insurers' actions to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and safeguard billions in investments from climatic impacts, and about efforts to spark activism among their customers. A survey with public answers could thrust companies into a public relations battle on climate change, said Scott Richardson, the insurance commissioner of South Carolina, who offered a motion at the final meeting of a five-day conference for regulators that led to the change. "It was becoming a litmus test of whether you're a green state or not a green state, or a green commissioner or not a green commissioner," he said. "To me, that was very dangerous. If somebody wants to know whether an individual insurance company has environmental issues that they're doing, then why don't you call them up and ask them? You don't need this survey to do it." The vote came one year after the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) unanimously adopted the "climate risk disclosure survey," following more than a year of open meetings and sometimes bitter clashes between industry representatives, advocates and 22
regulators. Compromises were hatched and concessions were given in order to keep the responses public. Shadow operation is 'unfortunate' That delicate balance has now been disrupted, some supporters say. And it happened largely behind closed doors as regulators diluted the hard-won survey. "It's not the ideal process for the NAIC here, in that this was the first time there was a public discussion indicating that people wanted to go to a different model," said Joel Ario, the insurance commissioner of Pennsylvania and chairman of the NAIC task force that developed the survey. "I think it's unfortunate that there wasn't more public discussion about that." The new model asks the same questions. But it allows states to keep insurers' responses private, a departure from the original measure that promised to post all answers on a central database. It also suggests that that survey could now be a voluntary exercise for companies, rather than mandatory. Another change involves new wording making it clear that regulators are not expressing an opinion about the "existence or absence of climate change." Ario and other survey supporters were expecting Richardson of South Carolina to offer his motion to scale back the survey, according to one source. But they were stunned by the strong support it received. "To me personally it was very disappointing," said Mike Kreidler, the insurance commissioner of Washington state and vice chairman of the task force that developed the survey. "The dynamics started to change after Copenhagen," he added, saying that political unrest among regulators grew as the controversy around national climate legislation and the controversy over hacked e-mails from climate scientists expanded. "Probably more so, I think, was the conservative backlash that's been somewhat evidenced in the tea bag party movement, somewhat being in denial that there's any problem with climate." 'Not our job' It was that certainty with which some regulators spoke of inevitable impacts from climate change that grated on some industry officials and regulators from states with conservative governors and a heavy reliance on fossil fuels. The survey, they say, was a tool pursued by groups like Ceres, an environmentally minded group of institutional investors pressing for more action by insurers. Mandatory disclosure would essentially force insurers to get more involved, or face a public relations nightmare, opponents say. The rebellion among regulators appears to underscore the hesitancy of some states to play a part in environmental advocacy. "We don't do stockholder reports. That's not our job," said Richardson. "That ain't our job, either, to be environmental or not environmental." Yet climate change is clearly within the jurisdiction of regulators, supporters say, pointing to the solvency issues that climatic impacts could have on a company's investment return, exposure to loss and ability to bend with national legislation.
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The changes this weekend aren't all bad, says Ario. Allowing insurers to answer privately could increase participation by states that otherwise would not have issued the survey. "I think this may well prove to get us more responses to the survey," he added. It's unclear how many states will distribute the document. It's also unknown how many states will break away from the revised NAIC survey format and post their answers publicly. Commissioners can be as aggressive, or passive, as they wish to be on the issue because insurance is regulated at the state level. Move could spur tougher action by big states That could cut both ways. The survey adopted a year ago was significantly diluted to attract the support of wary trade groups and regulators. Now those concessions have lost their value to supporters of disclosure, because opponents have abandoned the process. So a heavier hand could be used to get the information. One option could involve a smaller group of states where many insurers do business. Those states could require a large section of the country's industry to comply with a survey that might be more aggressive than the measure adopted by the NAIC last year. That threat is already being tossed around. "The current proposal is not something that will generate substantive useful information, so we certainly will be seeking ways to get the information we think is needed," said Andrew Logan, who heads the insurance section of Ceres and who helped develop the original survey. "I think it's natural for some of the states to want to expand the scope of the survey. They also might choose, frankly, to alter the nature of the questions, as well." That's not what the American Insurance Association wants to hear. The industry group supported the disclosure compromises reached in the first survey. With that plan unraveled, it does not want to see independent states break from the passive replacement offered by Richardson and others to develop tougher standards. "We would not want to see whatever happens at the NAIC turn the clock back on the hard work that was done by regulators, environmental activists and ourselves to come up with questions that are both meaningful and reasonable," said David Snyder, a vice president of the AIA. http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/03/30/30climatewire-sudden-revolt-by-insuranceregulators-scales-8154.html?pagewanted=2
Associated French Press | March 30, 2010
Sarkozy seeks US-French action on climate: Kerry WASHINGTON — French President Nicolas Sarkozy told US Senators Tuesday that he hopes for US-French action to "put some pressure" on countries reluctant to battle climate change, one of the lawmakers said. "He was very, very clear -- first topic he brought up was the need to have the United States lead and be engaged with France on the climate change, energy issue," Democratic Senator John Kerry told reporters after the talks.
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"He's going to make a proposal about how we can jointly put some pressure on countries that are not prepared to measure up to the same efforts, people who try to take advantage of the selling of products that are very high, carbon-intensive," Kerry said. Sarkozy's office did not confirm or deny Kerry's account, but the French leader has on several occasions floated the idea of a European Union import tax on goods from countries that resist steps to fight climate change. Kerry and Democratic Senator Ben Cardin met at the US Capitol with Sarkozy, who was due at the White House later for talks with President Barack Obama on issues like climate change, Iran's nuclear program and the war in Afghanistan. Asked whether Sarkozy had complained that the Obama administration was not listening enough to France or Europe, Kerry replied: "No, he didn't. He didn't complain about anything." "He said that he's very happy to be here and he looks forward to good discussion and he wants to get moving on certain issues. We all know President Sarkozy is a man of great energy and focus and we look forward to working with him," said the lawmaker from Massachusetts. Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5joctnvJV6zR6dW011tPnyNsmw5nQ
Globe and Mail | Eric Tucker | March 30, 2010
Records falls as rainstorm pounds U.S. East Coast
"Worst is still ahead of us," says Rhode Island Governor as second major storm pounds the Northeast with worst floods in more than 100 years
The second major rainstorm of the month pounded the Northeast on Tuesday, pushing rivers over their banks, closing roads and schools, prompting evacuations, and shattering at least one rainfall record. Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri asked residents Tuesday afternoon to get home by dinnertime to avoid traveling in what officials expect to be the worst flooding to hit the state in more than 100 years.
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“The worst is still ahead of us,” he said during a broadcast carried live on the state's major TV stations. “We're in a serious, serious situation.” National Guard troops were activated in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, where neighborhoods still recovering from earlier flooding were again swamped after two days of unrelenting rain. Troops in Connecticut were put on alert. A storm two weeks ago dropped as much as much as 10 inches of rain on the same region. The National Weather Service said nearly 13 inches of rain had fallen during March in Boston, breaking the previous record of 11 inches for the month set in 1953. New York City could also break its March record. Providence had about 7.2 inches of rain from the current storm as of 10 a.m., pushing the monthly rainfall total to 37 centimetres and within an inch of the city's all-time monthly record, set in October 2005, the weather service said. Scattered home evacuations were reported in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts. No injuries had been reported in those states because of the storm as of midday Tuesday. In one water-weary neighborhood along the Pawtuxet River in Cranston, basements were flooded and water at the end of one street was waist deep. One resident hung a sign: “FEMA + State + City of Cranston. Buy our houses.” Brian Dupont, a real estate broker who owns two homes on the street, said Tuesday morning that he worried the water would rise to the first floors. “Right now it's bad and getting worse,” said Dupont, who with his son put down 30 sandbags around the properties but was not sure how effective they would be. “We've got a saying, ‘Its like trying to shovel against the tide.’ It's terrible, terrible,” said Dupont, who was afraid the home might now be unsellable. Standing water pooled on or rushed across roads in the region, making driving treacherous and forcing closures. Steve Kass, spokesman for the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency, said officials feared Interstate 95, a major East Coast thoroughfare, could end up under water in some sections. In Maine, a dam in Porter let loose Tuesday morning, sending a torrent of water down country roads. One road ended up covered with 30 centimetres of water, but no evacuations or injuries were reported. North of New York City, a man in his 70s drove past a barricade onto a flooded section of the Bronx River Parkway and had to be rescued from the roof of his truck, Westchester County police said. On Long Island, rain coupled with tides inundated a 32-kilometre stretch of oceanfront road in Southampton. Water Row, a scenic road running along the Sudbury River in Wayland, Mass., lived up to its name Tuesday as water from the swollen river covered the street.
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Bob Irving, the town's police chief and emergency management director, said Water Row and two other low-lying streets along the river had been closed, but no mandatory evacuations had been ordered yet. During the three-day storm earlier in the month, amphibious Duck Boats like the ones used to ferry tourists around downtown Boston were deployed to take stranded residents to and from their homes. The boats could be used again if conditions deteriorate, Mr. Irving said. In Connecticut, Norwich officials declared a state of emergency as the Yantic River continued to rise. Officials in Stonington ordered an evacuation of some areas as a precaution against rising flood waters. Weather-related delays averaged three hours at Newark Liberty International Airport, and two hours at New York's La Guardia Airport, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. In New York City, a mudslide caused some interruptions on a commuter rail line in the Bronx. The rain also caused a run on basement sump pumps at hardware and home improvement stores. Jim Tatarczuk, manager of Amesbury Industrial Supply Co. Inc., told The Daily News of Newburyport, Mass., his store would normally stock about 130 pumps for the spring, but he has sold nearly double that already. “There are people who are still pumping out from the old storm, and now we have more on its way,” he said. U.S. President Barack Obama issued disaster declarations for many areas of New England to free up federal aid to residents and households for damages caused by late winter and early spring storms. Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, and low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/records-falls-as-rainstorm-pounds-us-eastcoast/article1517343/
PlanetArk.org | Laurie Goering | March 30, 2010
Science Alone Not Enough To Boost World Farm Output
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The sun sets behind the Canadian Rocky Mountains as wheat farmer Glenn Sawyer harvests his crop of wheat near Acme, Alberta, September 23, 2009. Photo: Todd Korol FRANCE - Feeding a fast-growing global population in the face of climate change and stagnant funding for food aid and farm research will require a fundamental revamp of agriculture, agricultural experts said. But unlike the "Green Revolution" that dramatically hiked agricultural output in Latin America and Asia from the 1950s, a new agricultural restructuring will need to focus as much on new seed varieties as on good governance, women's empowerment and things like curbing commodities speculation, they added. "We cannot address world food security risks effectively only through a science and technology agenda," Joachim von Braun, former director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), told a conference Sunday. "We need to get appropriate market regulations to prevent excessive speculation," he added on the opening day of the conference held in southern France to discuss a roadmap to reform agricultural research to meet development goals. Speculation in food markets contributes to fuelling price swings that can undercut the ability of farmers to plan, often leading them to over or under-produce. The lack of political support and financial resources for agricultural research are also among the biggest problems holding back efforts to boost farm output and feed more than a billion hungry people in the world, said Jacques Diouf, director general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "We have the programs, we have the projects, we have the knowledge... We have everything we need but political will," he said, adding there were signs things were changing. "We have realized the problem of food security is not only a technical, economic, ethical problem. It's a problem of peace and security in the world." HUNGER RISK By 2050, the world's population is expected to surge to more than 9 million from of 6.3 billion now, so agricultural output will need to grow by 70 percent to feed those people, according to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). But the world will face dramatic challenges in achieving this target, warned experts at the conference. 28
Investment in agricultural research has stagnated or fallen around most of the globe for decades, and growth in crucial crops like rice has leveled off, experts said, adding high national debt, in part as a result of the global financial crisis, made boosts in donor aid for research unlikely. Climate change also is bringing more unpredictable weather, including worsening droughts, floods and storms. Those stresses could slash agricultural production in the world's hungriest regions in Africa and South Asia, and exacerbate existing problems like overuse of aquifers, desertification and erosion. "Climate change will make an already deteriorating situation worse," said IFAD spokesman Kevin Cleaver. Reversing the problems, he and others said, will require a diverse host of changes, such as curbing rich-world agricultural subsidies, ensuring small farmers have rights to their land, building databases to help coordinate research efforts, and finding new sources of funding for agricultural research. (Laurie Goering is an editor at AlertNet, a service of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, which aims at alerting humanitarians to emergencies) (Editing by James Jukwey) © Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/57355
PlanetArk.org | Tom Doggett | March 30, 2010
EPA Phases In Permits For Greenhouse Pollution US - U.S. power plants, industrial facilities and other stationary sources of greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming will not be required to have Clean Air Act permits until January 2011, giving industry more time to prepare for the regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency said on Monday. Agency head Lisa Jackson had signaled to Congress in February that the EPA would delay the permit requirements for this year, following concerns from U.S. lawmakers and state officials that more time was needed to ease burdens on industry and state environmental departments that would help enforce the regulations. The EPA has said it will require big sources of greenhouse gas emissions, like power plants that run on coal or natural gas, and plants that make cement, steel and glass, to get permits proving they are using the best available technology to cut pollution. "This is a common sense plan for phasing in the protections of the Clean Air Act. It gives large facilities the time they need to innovate, governments the time to prepare to cut greenhouse gases," Jackson said in a statement. The EPA has not yet determined the amount of emissions that could be emitted by facilities before permits would be required. That so-called "tailoring" decision will come later this spring, the EPA said. The EPA is also expected to issue final greenhouse gas standards for cars and trucks this week. The rules cutting emissions for stationary sources will not take effect until next January, which is the earliest that model year 2012 vehicles meeting the standards can be sold. "This gives EPA a legal argument for why it's not immediately regulating stationary source emissions of greenhouse gases," said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch. The government must notify automakers by April 1 of the higher fuel efficiency for the 2012 model year vehicles that would be needed to cut emissions. State environmental agencies welcomed the EPA decision to phase in the permits. "Providing nine additional months for states to revise their clean air laws and regulations will enable these agencies to closely align their programs with the federal permitting rules," said William Becker, executive director, National Association of Clean Air Agencies. 29
Even with the delay, the American Petroleum Institute, the trade group for big oil and gas companies, said it remained strongly opposed to regulating the emissions under the Clean Air Act. "New regulations could prove to be intrusive, inefficient and excessively costly," said API spokeswoman Cathy Landry. "They could slow or stop permits needed to operate or expand businesses, which could chill job growth and delay expansion." Lawmakers have criticized the EPA for trying to circumvent stalled Congressional deliberations over how to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Senator Lisa Murkowski, who has backed legislation to block EPA from moving ahead, said on Monday the agency continues to fail to provide information on the impact of its plans. "The agency has refused to answer even the most basic questions about how many stationary sources will be regulated, when those sources will be regulated, what technologies will be mandated for compliance, and how much the regulations will cost," Murkowski said in a statement. (Editing by Marguerita Choy and Jim Marshall) © Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/57356
PlanetArk.org | Gerard Wynn | March 30, 2010
Carbon Trade Sector Drops From HSBC Climate Index UK - The carbon trading sector has dropped out of an HSBC index of 385 listed companies making money from tackling climate change, after lower expectation of global cap and trade expansion saw sharp share price falls. Previously, two carbon trading companies were listed in the index, Trading Emissions and Climate Exchange, but neither now met the $400 million index threshold market capitalization after big drops in their share prices. The HSBC index tracking the share price of those two firms fell 37 percent between September 1 2009 and March 19 2010. A U.N. climate conference in December failed to agree binding caps on carbon emissions, needed to drive demand for emissions permits traded in carbon markets in industrialized nations. In addition, Senate agreement this year on a U.S. cap and trade scheme is considered less likely after prolonged stalling on the cost of imposing carbon emissions caps on industry. "You've seen a deterioration in carbon markets globally," said HSBC analyst Vijay Sumon. "Comprehensive climate legislation at the (U.S.) federal level may have to wait for a number of years," said the HSBC report. "We believe that ... the momentum (to fight climate change) will still continue, with a shift in focus from building carbon markets to delivering low carbon growth." The overall HSBC climate index is down 2 percent in 2010 to date, compared with a 2 percent rise in the MSCI index of global stocks. That wider fall reflected disappointment in the December summit in Copenhagen, which failed to muster sufficient voluntary carbon pledges to avoid more dangerous temperature rises, according to climate scientists' estimates. The HSBC climate index follows companies which make at least 10 percent of their total revenues from selling goods and services related to tackling climate change. The four main sectors are in low carbon energy production, energy efficiency, water and waste and climate finance. The index companies are selected from the world's 2,000 biggest companies selling such climate change services. (Editing by James Jukwey) © Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved 30
http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/57357
PlanetArk.org | Reuters | March 30, 2010
Why Subsidize The Surfeit Of Wind Turbines?
Photo: Lucy Nicholson With an oversupply of wind turbines, why are governments subsidizing new manufacturing plants? In recent years, China has ramped up its efforts to become a world leader in manufacturing and installation of wind turbines. But the other side of the story is that China has also idled 40 percent of its industrial wind turbine manufacturing capacity as a result of oversupply and plummeting prices. In Europe, the world's largest turbine manufacturer, Vestas, announced a bond issue of 600 million euros ($807 million). This is the first bond issue in the company's history and it was due to slow growth. Even with an oversupply of manufacturing capacity, and falling prices for wind turbines, taxpayer-funded investment in wind turbine manufacturing by foreign companies in North America has been moving ahead with great fanfare. In Canada, Ontario signed a $7 billion dollar deal with South Korea's Samsung to manufacture industrial wind turbines and develop wind energy projects in the province - creating 4,000 jobs. A Chinese and American business consortium announced plans to develop 1,000 jobs with the support of $450 million in taxpayer stimulus funds as part of recovery spending. Vestas took the unusual step of announcing that it would consider building a manufacturing facility to build turbines for Ontario Trillium Power - a wind farm proponent without the necessary approvals to install turbines, or sell power into the grid. Last year Vestas cited an oversupply of industrial wind turbines as justification for laying off 1,900 European wind turbine-manufacturing workers. China idling 40 percent of their wind turbine manufacturing capacity demonstrates the oversupply is severely impacting even the most competitive manufacturing market in the world. 31
Under normal circumstances, China's competitive advantage should allow Chinese-manufactured turbines to meet the demands of the global market at the expense of less competitive jurisdictions. But these procurement decisions are based on politics, not economics. North American jurisdictions seeking "green" manufacturing jobs are selling the idea to voters as a means of developing a green manufacturing sector as part of an economic recovery. The reality, as evidenced around the world, is that these jobs aren't permanent and could not exist without extensive ongoing government subsidization and therefore involvement in the business decisions of this industry. Until the industry addresses the oversupply and governments address ever growing subsidization rates, real turbine prices will continue to fall, oversupply will continue to grow and subsidization rates will move this industry even further from market principles other sectors follow. The impact will be felt by jurisdictions that have embraced and financially supported the technology. They will surely feel the pressure higher electricity prices place on traditional manufacturing sectors, and the eventual loss of these temporary jobs when the wind turbine manufacturer pulls out. Photo shows the sun rising over a windmill farm in Palm Springs, California November 26, 2005. © Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/57359
PlanetArk.org | John Acher | March 30, 2010
China Became Top Wind Power Market In 2009: Consultant
Wind mills are seen at the Tazigou wind power station in Fuxin, Liaoning province November 21, 2009.
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CHINA - China became the No. 1 wind turbine market in 2009, installing a record 13.75 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity, and three Chinese suppliers ranked among the Top-10 turbine manufacturers, Danish consultants BTM said. "The most significant trend in the market was the booming Chinese wind industry," BTM Consult said in a summary of its annual wind power market review for paying subscribers. China's new capacity accounted for more than a third of the world's total new wind energy capacity of 38 GW last year, which was a record despite the financial crisis, BTM Consult said. "China emerged as by far and away the most successful market, installing ... the highest volume ever by one country in a single year," BTM said. The global market for wind power capacity is expected to nearly triple in the next five years to 447 gigawatts (GW) and could expand to almost 1,000 GW within 10 years, BTM said. "Wind power will deliver 1.6 percent of the world's electricity in 2010," BTM said. "By 2019, ten years away, wind power could meet 8.4 percent of the world's consumption of electricity." The most significant change in the supply market in 2009 was the strong growth of Chinese wind turbine manufacturers, three of which were among the Top-10 suppliers. China's Sinovel grabbed the No. 3 spot among wind turbine makers, rival Chinese manufacturer Goldwind ranked No. 5, and Dongfang was No. 7, BTM said. It did not give their previous ranking, but Sinovel and Goldwind joined the Top-10 in 2008, while Dongfang had been among the Top-15 that year. Denmark's Vestas Wind Systems retained its position as the world's leading wind turbine manufacturer with a 12.5 percent market share, but U.S. conglomerate GE was virtually tied with Vestas with a 12.4 percent share, BTM said. Germany's Enercon was fourth, Spain's Gamesa sixth, India's Suzlon eighth, Germany's Siemens ninth and German REpower No. 10, BTM said. TOP-10 WIND TURBINE SUPPLIERS IN 2009 (ACCORDING TO BTM): Rank Company Country Percentage of global market 1) Vestas Denmark 12.5 2) GE U.S. 12.4 3) Sinovel China 9.2 4) Enercon Germany 8.5 5) Goldwind China 7.2 6) Gamesa Spain 6.7 7) Dongfang China 6.5 8) Suzlon India 6.4 9) Siemens Germany 5.9 10) RePower Germany 3.4 Others 18.5 BTM Consult's market report followed a similar ranking list earlier this month from rival Danish consultancy MAKE, which also put Vestas first, Sinovel third and Goldwind fifth. (Editing by Sharon Lindores) © Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/57361
PlanetArk.org | Barbara Lewis | March 30, 2010
Ireland's Green Dreams Need Work, Can Be Reality 33
A man and his sheep dog check on sheep grazing on the common land on Clare Island, County Mayo, Ireland September 23, 2009. Photo: Cathal McNaughton IRELAND - Ireland's ambition to shift from being 90 percent dependent on imported fossil fuel to a major user of renewables should be achievable as its urgent need for jobs helps focus politicians on overcoming planning hurdles. Its location on the western edge of Europe, at the end of the energy supply chain, gives Ireland further incentive to go green. The government, which includes the Green Party as a junior coalition partner, says it can meet an EU deadline for 16 percent of all its energy to come from renewables by 2020, and could even exceed it. It has also set itself a goal to draw some 40 percent of electricity from renewables by then. "We have doubled our renewable energy. We can double it and double it again," Eamon Ryan, Ireland's minister for communications, energy and natural resources, told the Green Party conference in Waterford, southern Ireland, at the weekend. "It is the perfect answer to the recessionary blues." The goals require adding roughly 6,000 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy, mostly from wind power, to the approximately 6,000 MW currently derived from conventional sources, according to industry estimates. Siemens Ireland, a unit of German industrial conglomerate Siemens, which has been involved in renewables in Ireland since the construction of the hydroelectric power station in Shannon, western Ireland, in 1926, sees "a fair chance" of delivering on schedule. "I am convinced we will get there. The only question mark is will we be fast enough to make the targets? I always go for speed, speed, speed," Werner Kruckow, CEO of Siemens Ireland, told Reuters. "Unfortunately I see hurdles, especially in the public sector, which should not be there." Those hurdles include sluggish planning processes and a weak grid, connected to Britain only via Northern Ireland, although an interconnector directly from Ireland to Britain is being built. "Putting this much wind in Ireland is not going to be easy. It's going to need an enormous amount of change to the electricity network," said Aidan Forde, director of Saorgus Energy Limited, which specializes in developing large wind energy sites in Ireland.
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"In rough terms, we're trying to double generation capacity and we already have a very weak grid. Ireland's an extreme example of what's going on in Europe. It would have a very, very high penetration of renewables. These are the aims." In favor of their being achieved, he cited an energy minister who was "a strategic thinker" in that he appreciated fossil fuels were only cheaper in the short term. SO FAR, SO GOOD The green optimists say there already has been far more progress than doubters expected and so far Ireland is on course, with 15 percent of its electricity generated by renewables. Even the country's overwhelming financial problems should not distract the government from a strong commitment to renewable energy, they say. On the contrary, they highlight the need to redeploy the thousands of unemployed, for instance from the construction industry, in green jobs, as well as to establish a hedge against volatile oil and gas prices and to play to Ireland's established strength as a smart economy. "It's strategic rather than ideological," said Brian Motherway, chief operations officer at the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, which reports to the Department of Energy. "It's also about developing an enterprise center. We want to export expertise," he said. "I think there's very strong government commitment to that and the smart economy. It's about leading in what Ireland is good at." Asked about planning, he said enough projects would be approved, arguing: "What's in the queue for approval is way above what is required." Ireland has huge natural potential to export renewable power as well as to generate it for its own needs and has around 10 times as much ocean space as land to accommodate offshore wind plants and eventually marine energy. For now, onshore and increasingly offshore wind, with five offshore projects in the pipeline, are the most obvious providers, but advocates of marine energy say technology will eventually harness Ireland's huge wave potential. Peter Coyle, chairman of the Marine Renewables Industry Association, said Ireland could be at the vanguard of marine energy and provide some 500 MW of power by 2020. That 500 MW would cost around a billion euros ($1.33 billion), but as with wind, the initial investment is the major one. After that the energy cost would be predictable. "The financing is of course of great importance, but it is not the most immediate issue. The most important issues are technology," said Coyle, who was confident utilities and banks would back investment once the technology were proven, as they have with wind. "There is a lot of work to be done, but there is a lot of impetus behind it." © Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/57362
PlanetArk.org | Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent | March 30, 2010
Offshore Wind Turbines May Be 10 MW Giants: Veritas NORWAY - A surge in sea-based wind farms is likely to mean bigger turbines than on land, reaching 10 megawatts by 2020 with blades 85 meters (280 ft) long, the head of Norway's Det Norske Veritas said on Monday. Veritas, which tests wind turbines until they snap as part of certification, reckons the industry will need subsidies for years since costs are about 40 to 60 percent above those for land-based wind, Chief Executive Henrik Madsen told Reuters. A private foundation, Veritas certifies about 75 percent of offshore wind turbines, except Chinese, he said. Veritas says it and Germany's Germanischer Lloyd are the main groups setting industry standards. 35
A planned boom so far centered on Britain and the North Sea, part of efforts to slow climate change, was likely to mean bigger turbines offshore than on land. "They can be larger. It's easier to transport (turbines) on ships and install them," he said. On land, heavy cranes and blades often have to be driven along narrow lanes to a remote hilltop, complicating transport. "We believe you will see larger turbines up to 10 megawatts" offshore, he said. A 10 megawatt turbine would be enough to provide electricity to between 2,250 and 3,000 U.S. households, according to the American Wind Energy Association. "There's huge potential," Madsen said about offshore wind. Big turbines now have about a 5 MW capacity. 100 METRES A 10 MW turbine would have blades perhaps 85 meters (280 ft) long, giving a 170-meter diameter for a three-blade turbine, he said. The longest blades tested by Veritas at a center with partners in Denmark so far has been 71 meters long. "We thought of building (the test center) to 100 meters but we decided 85 would do it for the next 15 years," he said. Among makers of big turbines, Germany's Enercon says its E-126, rated at 6 MW and with a 127-meter rotor diameter, can operate at 7.5 MW. Clipper Windpower is working on a 10 MW turbine and Norway's Sway a 10 MW floating prototype. Turbine designs and sizes vary widely -- carbon fiber is stronger than glass fiber, for instance, but more vulnerable to lightning. Blades are tested to breaking point. "These blades are extremely flexible, so we need a lot of space. There can be a 10-12 meters deflection until they snap," he said. Offshore costs are higher than on land because of problems such as salt corrosion, complex maintenance and linking to the grid. But winds blow more offshore, fewer people complain that turbines are eyesores and larger turbines earn more money. The price gap between land and offshore was likely to narrow but "I'm not sure it will come all the way down," he said. "We believe you will need subsidies, but we also believe that there is a significant potential to drive costs down, in particular related to offshore installations and foundations," he said. And companies can learn from decades of experience from the offshore oil and gas industry. Top turbine makers in terms of 2009 market share were Denmark's Vestas, ahead of U.S. General Electric, China's Sinovel, Enercon, China's Goldwind, Germany's Siemens, Spain's Gamesa and India's Suzlon, according to Denmark's MAKE consultancy. At the end of 2009, the World Wind Energy Association said wind farms were installed in the sea off 10 European nations and off China and Japan. Installed capacity offshore amounted to almost 2 gigawatts, or 1.2 percent of world wind capacity. Britain has granted licenses for 32 gigawatts of offshore wind, part of a European Union drive to get 20 percent of energy from renewables. For Reuters latest environment blogs, click on: blogs.reuters.com/environment/ (Editing by Sue Thomas) © Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/57363
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PlanetArk.org | Nina Chestney | March 30, 2010
European Carbon Scheme Is A Success, Research Says
A child looks at an art installation featuring a visual display of carbon dioxide (CO2) levels at an environmental exhibit in Copenhagen December 8, 2009. Copenhagen is the host city for the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009, which lasts from Photo: Bob Strong UK - The European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is a success and its flaws have not harmed its basic aim of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, multi-national research showed on Friday. Experts at French state bank Caisse des Depots, the Paris-Dauphine University, the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research in the United States and University College Dublin collaborated to evaluate the scheme's trial period, which has widely been viewed as a failure. The EU's flagship carbon trading scheme requires companies to buy permits for each tonne of carbon they emit. Carbon output is capped and the level is lowered year by year. The scheme's first trading phase ran from 2005 to 2007. Installations in the 27-nation bloc were over-allocated with carbon permits and the carbon price fell to zero. The research concluded that although there were many problems in the first phase, they were overcome and did not hamper the scheme's ultimate objective of reducing emissions. "The sometimes voiced argument that the EU ETS has been a failure cannot be sustained on the basis of the evidence," the research authors said. Emission cuts were achieved in a cost-effective way, without losing competitiveness, they said. The cost of carbon is also now a firmly established factor in European power market's investment decisions, the research said. The main accomplishment of the trial period was the successful creation of a regulatory mechanism, which will serve to deliver more ambitious emissions cuts and will be the cornerstone of a potential global carbon market. "The EU ETS is a path-breaking policy experiment whose implications will extend far beyond the EU," the authors said. A UK Parliamentary committee criticized the scheme on Monday, saying the carbon price was too low to deliver low-carbon investment. It urged the UK government to press the EU for tighter carbon caps and other measures. (Editing by Keiron Henderson) 37
© Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/57364
March 31, 2010 The Independent | Steve Connor | March 31, 2010
Climate change scandal: MPs exonerate professor Committee defends scientist who sent emails admitting flaws in data
PA Professor Phil Jones, director of the Climatic Research Unit, appearing before the Science and Technology Committee earlier this month
Professor Phil Jones, the climate scientist at the centre of the scandal over the leak of sensitive emails from a university computer, has been largely exonerated by a powerful cross-party committee of MPs who said his scientific reputation remains intact. There was no evidence that Professor Jones, head of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia (UEA), deliberately withheld or manipulated data in order to support the idea that global warming was real and that it was influenced by human activities, according to a report by the Commons Science and Technology Committee. However, the MPs criticised Professor Jones and climate scientists in general for being too possessive and secretive about the raw scientific data and computer codes they use to establish the link between global warming and human activities. They also criticised the UEA for fostering a culture of non-disclosure of scientific information to climate sceptics. The committee's inquiry into the leak of private emails from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) last November found no evidence to suggest that the hallowed peer review process had been subverted by Professor Jones, and no reason to question the scientific consensus that global warming is happening and that it is influenced by human activities.
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However, the chairman of the committee, Phil Willis, said it was "reprehensible" that the UEA had refused to disclose information from within the CRU, a small unit of just three full-time scientists who had been inundated with dozens of Freedom of Information requests from climate sceptics. "The focus on Professor Jones was misplaced. His actions were in line with common practices and those practices need to be changed," Mr Willis said yesterday. "There is no evidence that Jones's work has been undermined in any way... Jones has in many ways been scapegoated... people were asking him for information purely to undermine his research, but that was no excuse [not to release it]." The select committee's report says that the media focus on Professor Jones and the CRU has been largely misplaced because his refusal to share raw data and computer codes was an approach adopted by most people in the climate science community across the world. "We have suggested that the community consider becoming more transparent by publishing raw data and detailed methodologies. On the accusations relating to Freedom of Information, we consider that much of the responsibility should lie with UEA, not CRU," the report says. Some of the leaked emails written by Professor Jones talked of using a "trick" to "hide the decline", which some climate sceptics have taken as proof of an attempt to hide data contradicting the idea that global warming was real. But the select committee said these phrases were references to established scientific procedures and there was no case to answer in terms of accusations of dishonesty on behalf of Professor Jones and his unit. The MPs concluded that there is prima facie evidence that the CRU has breached the Freedom of Information Act by withholding data, but criticised the Information Commissioner's Office for making similar statements to the press without investigating the matter fully. The MPs recommend that the issue should now be investigated to clarify whether the law was breached or not. One member of the select committee, Graham Stringer, dissented from the majority view of his colleagues, saying that their report had gone slightly further than it should have done in relation to Professor Jones and the UEA. http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/climate-change-scandal-mpsexonerate-professor-1931631.html
Globe and Mail | Doug Saunders | March 31, 2010
Ontario foot-dragging imperils Canada-EU trade pact, officials say Province’s reluctance to open up its government procurement procedures to European bidding has become a sticking point As a proposed large-scale free-trade and economic-integration pact between Canada and the 27 European Union countries enters a crucial stage of negotiations, Canadian and European officials say the deal’s biggest obstacle is the province of Ontario. After officials from the EU Trade Commission flew to Ottawa last week to meet with their Canadian counterparts in advance of an important round of negotiations starting on April 19, officials close to the
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talks said in briefings that Ontario’s reluctance to open up its government procurement procedures to European bidding has become a sticking point. “The biggest challenge right now is Ontario,” said a Canadian connected with the talks. “They are slow in terms of getting it together, and they haven’t come to the table with an offer on procurement yet. They’re not at the level that the other provinces are at. We’re concerned about them.” Officials from Premier Dalton McGuinty’s government say their work is taking longer than other provinces because of the complexity of Ontario’s government programs, but that they remain committed to a deal in principle. Nevertheless, Canadian negotiators fear a repeat of a 2005 attempt at a Canada-EU pact, when the lack of a unified position among 11 Canadian governments led to the Europeans walking away. The proposed Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) would be a free-trade pact with a much wider scope than existing deals like NAFTA. It would allow more open labour mobility between Canada and Europe – a key goal of the Canadian negotiators – and open up government contracts with the private sector to bidding from European companies. Access to government procurement, according EU officials taking part in the talks, is Europe’s most important goal. Opening the negotiations, the European Trade Commission demanded that all federal, provincial, municipal, regional and local governments, as well as Crown corporations and utilities, allow foreign companies to bid on contracts for goods and services in the same way that EU countries are required to do. Ottawa promised last year that it could deliver unanimous agreement from the provincial governments to liberalize procurement, but those involved with the talks say Ontario has proven unresponsive. Europeans say that a particularly contentious point is Ontario’s new Green Energy Act. This energyefficiency bill is also a job-creation program that specifies projects that hire Ontario residents and use Ontario companies, offering subsidies to local suppliers of energy-efficient products and services. The EU negotiators said in a position paper they tabled in the negotiations this year that the Ontario legislation is a perfect example of the sort of protectionist legislation that would prevent European access to markets and make CETA unworkable. They have also expressed concern about provincial liquor-sales monopolies in Ontario and Quebec. “When we entered into the CETA negotiations, we made a strong case for our side that a first priority should be given to areas under provincial jurisdiction, since these cover so much ground in Canada – so it will be crucial to see how the Canadian provinces intend to bring this to the table,” said a member of the European Commission team. This places Premier McGuinty’s government in a paradoxical position: A year after he played a key role the Canadian fight against in the U.S. Buy American program, which limited procurement by state governments to local suppliers and barred Canadian providers, Mr. McGuinty now finds himself accused of holding a similar position. His staff say that this accusation is unfair and that the complexity of Ontario’s economy is preventing the province from meeting deadlines. They acknowledge, however, that the province was less engaged than other governments in the early months of the talks, which began in October. “We did start off a little slow, but only because we have so much work to do, because we have such a big economy and so many sectors to consider,” said a Queen’s Park official. “B.C. is concerned about wood, Newfoundland is concerned about seals, but we’ve got a lot of work to do. … We want a deal, and we want to do what it takes to get a deal.”
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While European negotiators say the talks are advancing surprisingly well given the unprecedented scope of the deal, those on the Canadian side worry that provincial issues could lead to a repeat of the earlier failed deal. “As you know, there’s a lot of people in the European Commission in particular who were hesitant to enter a deal because they didn’t know if the federal government could deliver the provinces, and this seems to confirm their worst fears,” a Canadian close to the talks said. European governments have begun to lobby provinces directly in favour of the deal.
On Monday, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle used a visit to Toronto for a G8 ministerial conference to press Mr. McGuinty on the subject. “Canada is not only a major economic power but also and most importantly a country with which we share fundamental values,” Mr. Westerwelle said in a speech at the University of Toronto after meeting with the Premier. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/ontario-foot-dragging-imperils-canada-eu-tradepact-officialssay/article1518147/?cmpid=rss1&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign =Feed%3A+TheGlobeAndMail-National+%28The+Globe+and+Mail+-+National+News%29
Associated Press | March 31, 2010
UN official expects no climate deal until 2011 AMSTERDAM — A new legal agreement committing nations around the world to curb greenhouse gas emissions is unlikely to be completed before the end of 2011, two years later than originally envisioned, the top U.N. climate official said Wednesday. Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. climate change secretariat, said countries need to restore confidence in U.N. negotiations following the dismal results of the Copenhagen summit in December, which ended in a vague agreement of principles and a pledge of finances for poor countries most threatened by climate change. "There was a great deal of frustration at the end of the Copenhagen conference in terms of process," de Boer said in a conference call with reporters from his office in Bonn, Germany. The next annual conference in Cancun, Mexico, beginning in November should get negotiations "back on track" among the 194 participating nations, with the aim of agreeing on the main elements that could be enshrined in a binding agreement a year later in South Africa, de Boer said. "My hope is that Cancun will deliver what I had hoped Copenhagen would deliver," said de Boer, who is resigning July 1 after nearly three years in office. Negotiators will convene in Bonn next week for the first time since 120 heads of state and government met in the Danish capital. The weekend conference was expected to do little more than set a timetable for several more preparatory conferences leading up to the Cancun conference. In talks in London, Britain proposed a possible two-track process for a new global emissions pact, in hopes of reviving the stalled talks. 41
The country's Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband suggested that if nations continue to founder in negotiations on a single binding pact there could be two treaties, rather than one. Miliband suggested the 1997 Kyoto Protocol — an emissions reduction pact which is due to expire in 2012 — could be extended to set binding targets for the countries signed up to the process. A second treaty would cover countries who have never signed up to Kyoto, including the United States and China, he said. "We are interested in trying to break the deadlock and find ways through some of the issues raised in Copenhagen," Miliband said Wednesday, as representatives including White House economic adviser Larry Summers met. "We do not want to let a technical argument about whether we have one treaty or two derail the process. We are determined to show flexibility as long as there is no undermining of environmental principles," Miliband said. De Boer urged the negotiators at next week's Bonn meeting to stop discussing key issues in isolation and to take a holistic approach toward adapting to climate change, deforestation, transferring technology to poor countries and curbing carbon emissions. Formal U.N. negotiations were set in motion in 2007 to reach a deal within two years that would succeed Kyoto, which set targets for 37 industrial countries to cut carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions blamed for raising the Earth's average temperature. Scientists warn that global warming will cause disruptions in agriculture, increase water shortages and could lead to a dramatic rise in sea levels and coastal flooding if the arctic ice sheets melt. The Copenhagen Accord, a three-page deal salvaged in the closing hours of the summit, set a goal of limiting global temperatures to less than a 2 degree Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) increase above preindustrial levels, but didn't say how that should be achieved. It pledged $3 billion over the next three years for poor countries to adapt to climate change and asked countries to submit pledges for curbing their carbon emissions. On Wednesday, the U.N. climate secretariat released its official report on the Copenhagen conference and listed voluntary commitments from 75 industrial and developing countries to reduce or limit the growth of their emissions by 2020. The report said those countries represented 80 percent of global emissions from energy use. De Boer said the commitments fell short of the cuts needed to keep the Earth's temperature from rising more than 2 degrees. Negotiators had originally set 2009 as the target date for a new climate treaty to allow time for ratification and ensure a seamless transition when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. Failure to replace Kyoto in time could lead to a legal gap when no binding rules are in place. But De Boer said he expected countries to continue their climate change policies with or without a new accord. If a deal can be reached in South Africa, "we will have made it in time." Associated Press Writer David Stringer in London contributed to this report 42
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gPQpDONfH7_E2Yv41FZDdlo_pxEAD 9EPRTLO2
Tribune Newspaper | March 31, 2010
Obama's Off Shore Drilling Plan Aims to Win Climate Votes WASHINGTON -- President Obama, after delaying and deliberating for a year, unveiled a controversial new offshore drilling plan Wednesday that was driven largely by the politics of his agenda on energy and climate change – not getting a lot more oil and natural gas anytime soon. As a presidential candidate, Obama was attacked by Republicans for not supporting all-out expansion of offshore drilling. And one of his administration's first acts after taking office last year was to cancel the long-term offshore plans President Bush had released at the end of his tenure. But now, the White House seems its new drilling plan as a way to curry favor with Republicans and moderate Democrats whose support will be critical for comprehensive energy and climate change legislation. Under the new plan, Obama proposed to begin moving toward drilling off parts of the Atlantic and Alaskan coastlines - along with the Eastern Gulf of Mexico – in areas that have been off-limits to oil and gas exploration for up to three decades. The proposal includes no drilling off California, Oregon or Washington state, or in Alaska's Bristol Bay, which environmentalists consider especially sensitive. The President pitched the decision in national security terms and called it "part of a broader strategy that will move us from an economy that runs on fossil fuels and foreign oil to one that relies more on homegrown fuels and clean energy." Analysts cautioned that, under the most favorable circumstances, the plan would take years to begin producing new oil and suggested it would not reduce oil imports or gasoline prices substantially. Increased jobs and other economic benefits also are at year several years away. But making a commitment to develop new domestic supplies of oil and natural gas – especially off shore – is seen as an important overture to Republicans and other conservatives, who attacked Obama relentlessly on the issue in 2008. A small bipartisan group of Senators is trying to piece together 60 votes to pass some version of the President's long-sought bill to limit greenhouse emissions and boost clean-energy production. The new off-shore plan is aimed especially at potential Republican votes for the bill. They were also a primary target for Obama's earlier proposal for loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants. "The president's view is that what he did today is an important part of moving (a climate bill) forward," deputy press secretary Bill Burton said after the drilling announcement. "The president's view is that this is the best policy, and that working with members of the Senate on both sides, the Republicans and the Democrats, this is policy that people of both political persuasions can agree to and we can move forward on." The outreach drew warm, but not overwhelming, reviews from its target audience.
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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of the senators drafting the climate bill and a major proponent of using the legislation to expand drilling, called Obama's plan "a good first step" but said "there is more that must be done to make this proposal meaningful and the game-changer we all want it to become." The spokesman for another drilling proponent and potential GOP climate bill supporter, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, also praised Obama's drilling plan but said Murkowski will judge a climate bill "by its own merits." Perhaps bolstering his case to moderates, Obama's announcement drew harsh criticism from the poles of both parties. Conservatives complained it would "lock up" more swaths of ocean than it would open to drilling. "If the president is trying to offer an olive branch in order to pass climate change, this hardly qualifies as any major step," said Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), the top Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee. Environmental groups accused the President of exposing marine ecosystems to damage and exacerbating global warming. "It makes no sense to threaten the East Coast of America with spills and other drilling disasters when we're about to unleash the real solutions to oil dependence -- cleaner cars and cleaner fuels," said Anna Aurilio, who directs the Washington office of the non-profit Environment America. Industry groups offered modest support, though some questioned whether the administration will follow through and lease all the areas included in the proposal. Analysts project little immediate impact from the plan – which still faces a public comment period and other administrative hurdles – on oil supplies or gas prices. A 2009 analysis by the federal Energy Information Administration suggested that a new drilling plan substantially larger than the one Obama proposed Wednesday would only serve to cut gasoline prices 3 cents a gallon by 2030. Daniel Yergin, chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, said in an interview that the economic boost from Obama's plan could be three to five years away. "If this gets going, it would create a lot of onshore jobs," particularly in hard-hit East Coast shipping communities, he said, "but not overnight, by any means." Even as they touted the drilling plan as proof of Obama's commitment to all types of domestic energy production, administration officials cautioned drilling alone would not produce anything close to energy independence. "It's still a relatively minor amount relative to the oil and natural gas that we import," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told reporters after the announcement. "This is not the panacea, and it's not the answer to the issues that we face in this country."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sc-dc-obama-drilling3120100331,0,3426174.story
PlanetArk.org | Jon Hurdle | March 31, 2010
Electric Cars Give Power Back To Grid
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US - At first glance, the Toyota Scion sitting in the University of Delaware parking lot looks like a normal boxy car. But a second look shows it lacks a tailpipe, and has an electrical outlet set into the grille below the hood. Inside, the Scion's identity as an electric car is revealed by the lack of a fuel gauge, and by a dashboard display showing that it has used 54.3 kilowatt hours to drive 210 miles. But this is no ordinary electric car because, in addition to recharging its battery when not being driven, it also gives power back to the grid. Professor Willett Kempton, who is leading the university's Vehicle to Grid (V2G) program, believes electric car batteries will represent a vast, reliable source of energy for the grid in a future when the national power supply will increasingly rely on renewable but fluctuating sources like sun and wind. "Because in future, electricity will come more and more from sources that fluctuate, we need some form of storage that can reliably supply the grid, and electric car batteries are the most cost-effective form of that," he said. One typical electric car can put out more than 10 kilowatts, the average draw of 10 houses, according to university researchers, and the power is readily available, since cars are idle on average for 95 percent of each day. GIVING BACK TO THE GRID Since 1997 the V2G program has been promoting the idea that electric or hybrid vehicles, if widely adopted, could give back to the grid during the many hours when they are not being driven. With three converted Scions now in service and using V2G technology, and another four owned by the state of Delaware, the Center for Carbon-free Power Integration is proving not only that the vehicles are contributing energy to the national grid but also that the owner gets paid for his or her contributions. On a laptop in his office, Kempton points to a display showing real-time data on the charging status of five V2G vehicles, including the power that each has put back into the grid, and the money that contribution has earned. During March 1 to 25, one of the vehicles had earned $143.53 for the university from PJM, the local grid operator.
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A key to the program is a cable that can transmit power to or from the car, and which is connected in a campus parking lot from the radiator grille outlet to a socket that looks like a recreational vehicle hook-up. In the ideal world of V2G, such hook-ups would be commonplace at highway rest stops or parking lots where electric-vehicle drivers can recharge. Overnight, a fully-charged battery can give back to the grid. Auto Port Inc. of Wilmington installs the V2G technology in the Scions. The power needs of both the battery and the grid at any moment are determined via an internet signal carried down the connector, allowing each end to communicate with the other, Kempton said. To help lay the groundwork for V2G in Delaware, the state passed a 2009 law - the first of its kind in the world -- requiring utilities to compensate electric car owners for power sent back to the grid at the same rate they pay to charge the battery. At a current cost of about $75,000 per Scion - including V2G conversion and the basic car -- the vehicles are beyond the reach of most drivers. But Kempton argues that costs will fall as production increases. With all costs optimized, a V2G car should eventually sell for $3,000$5,000 more than an equivalent gasoline model, he said. Kempton boosts his vision with a prediction that most U.S. cars will be hybrid or pure electric in 30 years' time because of the rising cost of gasoline. "There's not going to be enough oil, and China is going to buy it all," he said. © Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/57368
PlanetArk.org | Stephanie Nebehay | March 31, 2010
El Nino To Influence Climate Patterns To Midyear: WMO
The almost completely dried up soil bed of the Magat dam is seen in Ramon, Isabela province, the province most affected by El Nino, north of Manila March 3, 2010. Photo: Cheryl Ravelo
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SWITZERLAND - The El Nino warming the Pacific Ocean since June has peaked, but is expected to influence climate patterns worldwide up to mid-year before dying out, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday. However, the United Nations agency said that forecasting uncertainties meant it could not rule out the possibility that El Nino would persist beyond mid-year. El Nino, driven by an abnormal warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean, can create havoc in weather patterns across the Asia-Pacific region, unleashing droughts in some places and heavy storms in others. It typically lasts from 9 to 12 months. The most likely scenario is for sea surface temperatures across the tropical Pacific, which rose by 1.5 degrees Celsius at its peak last November-December, to return to normal by mid-2010, WMO said in a statement. "El Nino is already in a decaying phase. We expect it to fully decay by mid-year and neutral conditions to be established," WMO climate expert Rupa Kumar Kolli told Reuters. "But this is a period where the predictability of the system is very low. Things could happen very suddenly," he said. The WMO said that the current El Nino, which can occur every two-seven years, was of a moderate level, "close to or slightly above the typical strength seen in the historical record of El Nino events." "Even during the decaying phase of the El Nino, expected over the next few months, the conditions associated with a typical El Nino will continue to influence climatic patterns at least through the second quarter of the year," it said. DRY CONDITIONS El Nino typically creates dry conditions for western areas along the Pacific Ocean such as South East Asia and Indonesia, and southern parts of western Australia, and wetter than normal conditions in western coastal areas of South America, Kolli told Reuters. Parts of South Asia experienced drought last year due to a weak summer monsoon season linked to El Nino, and this could happen again if El Nino were to intensify in June, he said. "That is the typical signature of El Nino," he added. Warmer sea temperatures along some coastal regions of Latin America had caused higher rainfalls, but these were confined to relatively smaller pockets, and did not wreak havoc, he said. The last severe El Nino in 1998 killed more than 2,000 people and caused billions of dollars in damages to crops, infrastructure and mines in Australia and Asia. "Every El Nino is an individual event," Kolli said. However, the phenomenon, which means "little boy" in Spanish, referring to the Christ child because it is often noticed mostly clearly in Latin America around Christmas, is also linked to a weaker than normal hurricane season in the northern Atlantic, according to the WMO expert. The opposite cooling phenomenon, known as La Nina, or "little girl," could also start in the middle of this year, but that scenario is deemed less likely. (To watch a Reuters Insider television's interview with WMO Chief Climate Scientist Rupa Kumar Kolli, click on the link below link.reuters.com/gyt65j ) (Editing by Jonathan Lynn) © Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/57369
PlanetArk.org | Alister Doyle | March 31, 2010
Pearl Jam Guitarist Sees Business Key To Climate 47
Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard performs during a sold-out show at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, June 6, 2003. Photo: Ethan Miller NORWAY - While many people dream of becoming a rock star, Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard says he is trying to be more of a businessman to help slow climate change. The U.S. band, which has sold 60 million albums since 1991, said Monday it was investing $210,000 to plant trees in Washington State to soak up an estimated 7,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide linked to a 32-date 2009 tour. "Pearl Jam is a band but we are also a business," guitarist and co-founder Gossard told Reuters in a telephone interview. "We're seeing ourselves as a Washington business, a regional business that is acknowledging its carbon footprint and hoping to inspire other businesses." Many leading musicians have sought to raise awareness about the risks of climate change, often by planting trees, and culminating in "Live Earth" concerts in July 2007 across seven continents. But Gossard, 43, said celebrity-driven inspiration was often short-lived. "The idea of a celebrity is fantastic in terms of raising awareness for a day or a week, but it needs consistent business policy in the long term," he said. He said there were good business arguments for investing in climate measures -- even though opinion polls in the United States show dwindling belief that mankind causes global warming. Carbon-capping legislation is stalled in the U.S. Senate. "It's doable. It's not going to kill your company and if anything it will enhance your company's ability to sell whatever it is selling by being good stewards of the land," he said. Gossard said that Pearl Jam's investments aimed to offset carbon from the band's use of fossil fuels linked to ships, trucks, planes, hotels as well as estimated emissions by 480,000 fans traveling to and from concerts in 2009. 48
Pearl Jam, one of the top-selling U.S. bands whose awards include a Grammy for "Spin the Black Circle," would plant thousands of trees and restore 33 acres of urban forests in Seattle, Kent, Kirkland and Redmond. The scheme will also clear invasive plants such as English ivy choking native trees. Trees soak up carbon as they grow and release it when they rot or burn. "It will store Pearl Jam's carbon, make cities more livable and show citizens how to be good stewards," said Gene Duvernoy, head of the Cascade Land Conservancy managing the project. Pearl Jam has previously invested $150,000 since 2003 in climate measures. It was looking into widening carbon offsets to cover its album manufacturing and distribution. Among other bands, the Rolling Stones added about 27 cents to ticket prices on a 2003 tour to help plant trees and show that "rock and roll is not a gas." (Editing by Paul Casciato) © Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/57371
PlanetArk.org | Peter Henderson | March 31, 2010
Coal Fuels Much Of Internet "Cloud", Says Greenpeace US - The 'cloud' of data which is becoming the heart of the Internet is creating an all too real cloud of pollution as Facebook, Apple and others build data centers powered by coal, according to a new Greenpeace report. A Facebook facility will rely on a utility whose main fuel is coal, while Apple Inc, expecting its Web-browser iPad launch on April 3, is building a data warehouse in a North Carolina region powered by coal, the environmental organization said in the study to be released on Tuesday. "The last thing we need is for more cloud infrastructure to be built in places where it increases demand for dirty coal-fired power," concluded Greenpeace, which argues that Web companies should be more careful about where they build and should lobby more in Washington, DC for clean energy. The growing pile of home movies, pictures and business data has ballooned beyond the capabilities of personal computers and even average corporate data centers, spurring the creation of massive server farms with tens of thousands of specialized machines that make up the "cloud". The report comes in the middle of a new federal debate whether to create caps or other measures to cut use of carbon-heavy fuels like coal and curb climate change. Apple, Facebook, Microsoft Corp, Yahoo Inc and Google Inc all have at least some centers with heavy use of coal power, said Greenpeace. The companies declined to give details of their data centers, but all said they considered the environment in business decisions, and most said they were aggressively pursuing efficiency. Cheap and plentiful, coal is the top fuel for U.S. power plants, and its low cost versus alternative fuels makes it attractive, even in highly efficient data centers. Technology companies say they support the environment. Apple releases its carbon footprint, or how much greenhouse gases it produces, and Facebook said it chose the location for its center in order to use natural means to cool its machines. Microsoft said it aimed to maximize efficiency, and Google said it purchased carbon offsets -funding for projects which suck up carbon -- for emissions, including at data centers. Yahoo, which is building a center near Buffalo, New York that Greenpeace saw as a model, will get energy from hydroelectric facilities, but the company said efficiency was the top goal, with a long narrow and tall building that looks like a "chicken coop" and promotes air circulation. Data center energy use already is huge, Greenpeace said. 49
If considered as a country, global telecommunications and data centers behind the cloud would have ranked fifth in the world for energy use in 2007, behind the United States, China, Russia and Japan, it concluded. And the cloud may be the fastest growing portion of technology growth between now and 2020, said Greenpeace. The group based its findings on a mix of data including a federal review of fuels in U.S. zip codes in 2005 and a 2008 study by the Climate Group and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative, which Greenpeace updated in part with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data. © Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/57374
PlanetArk.org | Reuters | March 31, 2010
Global Solar Power Capacity Grew 44 PCT In 2009
Solar panels sit on the roof of SunPower Corporation in Richmond, California March 18, 2010. Photo: Kim White UK - Global installed solar photovoltaic power grew by 44 percent in 2009 on the back of German subsidies now under threat, the European Photovoltaic Industry Association said on Tuesday. The global industry added a record 6.4 gigawatts new capacity, bringing total capacity to more than 20 gigawatts (GW), the EPIA said, despite tightened credit which has particularly hit infrastructure and energy project finance. The increase was thanks to subsidies including a price premium for solar-powered electricity called a feed-in tariff. "This is particularly impressive in light of the difficult financial and economical circumstances during the past year," said the EPIA industry group, adding it expected growth of at least 40 percent in 2010. Germany was the largest demand market last year, adding 3 gigawatts (GW), followed by Italy, Japan and the United States. Germany would likely remain the biggest demand market in 2010, the EPIA said. But Germany has proposed cuts to its feed-in tariffs from July, by 16 percent for rooftop solar power and by 15 percent for ground-mounted panels. 50
The risk from a cut in subsidies is underscored by Spain, which added just 60 megawatts (MW) in 2009, a fraction of the 2,500 MW or 2.5 GW the country added in 2008. The drop was a result of a cap in subsidies which Madrid applied because of a growing liability from its 25-year guaranteed incentives. Despite strong growth, solar power still provides only about 0.5 percent of global installed electricity capacity, HSBC data show. One problem for the emerging technology is cost, even in the aftermath of a sharp fall in solar panel prices, following a global glut of the main raw material, solar-grade silicon. Solar power is far more expensive than rival forms of power generation, according to an HSBC report published in November. Under the best case scenario in sunny locations, the cost of solar-powered electricity is about 17 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), compared with about 15 cents for offshore wind, 7 cents for coal and nuclear and 6 cents for gas. © Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/57375
PlanetArk.org | Tom Doggett | March 31, 2010
Government Set To Unveil Offshore Drilling Plan
Workers drill for oil at an oil derrick in Los Angeles October 24, 2006. Photo: Lucy Nicholson US - The Obama administration is expected to announce by Wednesday its updated plan for oil and natural gas drilling in U.S. waters, including whether to allow exploration for the first time along the U.S. East Coast. The plan could pave the way for a significant new domestic source of energy, helping to reduce U.S. dependence on oil imports and boost supplies of natural gas used to displace coal in power plants as the country works to reduce emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases. Last month, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he wanted to release the updated drilling plan by the end of March. 51
Two industry sources said on Monday President Barack Obama was expected to give a speech about energy security on Wednesday, which could include his views on expansion of offshore drilling. The Interior Department and White House declined comment on Monday on whether Obama would speak to the issue in a speech slated for mid-morning on Wednesday at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. The administration has been weighing the pros and cons of offshore drilling since it took office and put the brakes on a Bush-era proposal that called for drilling along the East Coast and off the coast of California. For more than 20 years, drilling was banned in most offshore areas of the United States outside the Gulf of Mexico because of concerns spills could harm the environment. Congress allowed the prohibition to expire in 2008 and former President George W. Bush lifted a drilling moratorium that year. Environmental groups and some lawmakers continue to raise concerns about the impact increased drilling would have on coastal areas. But Obama, who wants Congress to move a stalled climate change bill, has sought to reach out to Republicans by signaling he is open to allowing offshore drilling, providing coastlines are protected. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the U.S. Atlantic coast waters may hold 37 trillion cubic feet of gas and nearly 4 billion barrels of oil, while the Pacific Coast has 10.5 billion barrels of oil and 18 trillion cubic feet of gas. To put that in context, the United States imports about 2 billion barrels of oil a year from OPEC nations and is expected to import 2.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from all sources this year, according to the Energy Department. The administration's plan is expected to spell out whether and when drilling will be allowed in 3 million acres off the Virginia coast. The Bush administration had proposed leasing the Virginia tracts to energy companies and said the government would receive bids for the leases in November 2011. However, a senior Interior official told an oil industry conference in January that drilling off Virginia's coast would definitely be delayed past the original 2011 leasing date. The proposed Virginia lease area, located about 50 miles from shore, may hold 130 million barrels of oil and 1.14 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The possible delay in drilling off Virginia's coast has been criticized by the state's new governor, Republican Bob McDonnell, and two U.S. senators eager for the state to tap into the jobs and royalties that come with exploration. A spokeswoman for McDonnell said his office has not been told the updated drilling plan would be announced on Wednesday. (Editing by Bernard Orr) © Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/57376
PlanetArk.org | Alister Doyle | March 31, 2010
Below" 2C Opens New Rift In U.N. Climate Battle NORWAY - A goal to limit global warming to "below" 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) is opening a new rift for 2010 talks on a U.N. climate treaty as developing nations say it means the rich must deepen cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. An alliance of 101 developing nations and island states says the temperature target, endorsed by major emitters since the Copenhagen summit in December, is tougher than a previous goal by industrialized nations of 2 degrees as a maximum rise. 52
"2.0 degrees is unacceptable," said Dessima Williams, Grenada's ambassador to the United Nations who represents the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) which wants to limit temperatures to below 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial times. But rich nations and some researchers say the Copenhagen Accord's "below" 2 is vague -- it can mean 1.999 degrees and so be indistinguishable for policy purposes from 2. The Accord does not lay down how the temperature goal will be reached. "It can mean anything until we may agree on what it means concretely," European Union Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said of the temperature target. "The good thing about saying 'below 2C' is that you then have a ceiling. A number of countries say 1.5 C and this has not been taken off the table," she said. Senior officials meet in Bonn, Germany, from April 9-11 for the first U.N. talks since Copenhagen, trying to work out a new pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol after the U.N. summit failed. DEGREES OF DIFFERENCE "We do not see a redefinition of the '2 degree C limit' through the Copenhagen Accord: in that sense we interpret it as 1.9999 degree C," said Brigitte Knopf, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. The semantic dispute has huge economic implications for guiding a shift from fossil fuels toward renewable energies. The U.N. panel of climate scientists said in 2007 that a greenhouse gas goal consistent with 2 degrees C would cost about 3 percent of world gross domestic product by 2030. It did not work out the higher costs of 1.5. Williams said that promises for cuts in emissions outlined by developed nations so far put the world on track for a 3.9 degrees C rise in temperatures that would bring droughts, floods, mudslides, heatwaves and rising sea levels. "Climate change leadership is certainly not forthcoming from actions and actors committing to such dangerous levels of emissions," she said. Hedegaard also said current targets are insufficient to meet the 2C goal. Many analysts doubt that the next annual talks of environment ministers in Cancun, Mexico, in late 2010, will end with a treaty. One reason is that U.S. legislation to cut emissions is stalled in the Senate. Temperatures have already risen by about 0.8 Celsius above pre-industrial times. "To stay below 1.5 C is probably impossible given the massive inertia of the socio-economic and biophysical systems," said Pep Canadell, head of the Global Carbon Project at Australia's Commonwealth, Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. "It will be very tough to stay below 2C." The Copenhagen Accord recognizes the scientific view that the rise in global temperature "should be below 2 degrees C." The Group of Eight and big emerging nations agreed at a mid2009 summit in Italy that the rise "ought not to exceed 2 degrees." The Copenhagen Accord also holds out the prospect of $10 billion a year from 2010-12 in climate aid for developing nations, rising to $100 billion a year from 2020. Knopf noted that the Accord adds a new element by saying that the tougher 1.5 degrees target should be reviewed in 2015. So far, about 110 nations have endorsed the Copenhagen Accord, including top emitters led by China, the United States, Russia and India. The deal was only "noted" by the Copenhagen summit after objections from a handful of developing states. Canadell said the world could emit 1,000 billion tons of carbon "starting now and stay at 2 degrees C or below with a 50 percent probability." Limiting emissions to 600 billion would raise the probability to 90 percent, but boost costs. (Additional reporting by Karin Jensen in Copenhagen; Editing by Louise Ireland) 53
© Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/57380
April 1, 2010 CBC News | April 1, 2010
Canada, U.S. to merge emission standards Canada and the U.S. are set to a plan to harmonize vehicle emissions standards across the two countries on Thursday. (Canadian Press)
Canada and the U.S. are expected to announce new harmonized emissions standards for cars and trucks Thursday in an effort to push automakers to build more fuel-efficient vehicles. In the U.S., the new standards will require 2016 model-year vehicles to meet a fuel efficiency target of 35.5 miles per gallon — or six litres per 100 kilometres — combined for cars and trucks, an increase of nearly 10 miles per gallon over current standards. In Canada, Environment Minister Jim Prentice is scheduled to outline the new standards during a news conference at a car dealership in Ottawa around 12:30 p.m. ET. U.S. President Barack Obama, previewing the plan Wednesday, said it marked a reversal "after decades in which we have done little to increase auto efficiency." Obama said the standards would "reduce our dependence on oil while helping folks spend a little less at the pump." The new standards could increase the cost of new vehicles, but supporters argue consumers will save hundreds of dollars in fuel economy. Obama's attempt to toughen emission standards comes on the heels of his move to allow offshore drilling along the Eastern seaboard and formerly protect parts of Alaska and in the Gulf of Mexico. That rankled environmentalists, who immediately compared the president to his allegedly oil industry friendly predecessors. Obama countered those criticisms by noting the new emissions rules will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the life of the program. "None of this should have been a surprise to anybody. We've been talking about all these different elements for a very long time and the president is following through on promises," White House spokesman Bill Burton said in defence of the plan. To underline the middle ground Obama is committed to taking on energy issues, when unveiling details of the new drilling and emission rules, he stood in front of a Navy F-18 fighter scheduled to fly on Earth Day with a half-biomass fuel mix. "This issue is just too important to allow our progress to languish while we fight the same old battles," the president said. With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/04/01/vehicle-emissions-ottawawashington.html#ixzz0jrR7o8Rq
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MARCH 24 Climate List-Serve | March 24, 2010
WMO Publishes Statement on the Status of the Global Climate
24 March 2010: The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has published the Statement on the Status of the Global Climate in 2009, an annual survey by the agency about the weather and climate change. In the Statement, the WMO highlights that the first decade of the new millennium was the warmest on record. The decade between 2000 and 2009 also included one of the warmest years on record – 2009, which was the fifth hottest year since records began. “The decade of the 2000s was warmer than the decade of the 1990s, which in turn was warmer than the 1980s,” said Omar Baddour, Chief of the Data Management Application Divisions at the WMO. “The current nominal ranking of 2009 places it as the fifth-warmest year since the beginning of instrumental climate records [in 1850],” Baddour noted. The information is based on climate data collected from some 10,000 land stations, 3,000 aircraft, 1,000 upper-air stations and 1,000 ships as well as nearly 70 satellites. The Statement’s release coincided with the 60th anniversary of the WMO on 23 March 2010. [UN News Press Release] [WMO Statement]
http://climate-l.org/2010/03/31/wmo-publishes-statement-on-the-status-of-the-globalclimate/?referrer=climate-l.org-daily-feed
MARCH 25 Climate List Serve | March 25, 2010
UNEP Collaborates on Report on Copenhagen Accord Targets 25 March 2010: The Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, in collaboration with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), has released a report titled “What do the Appendices to the Copenhagen Accord tell us about global greenhouse gas emissions and the prospects for avoiding a rise in global average temperature of more than 2°C?” Authored by Nicholas Stern and Christopher Taylor, the analysis outlined in the report suggests that, although the targets and intended actions included in the Copenhagen Accord are substantial, they would not be enough to limit annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 44 billion tons in 2020, which they label the “climate responsible target.” The pledges would collectively imply global annual emissions of about 48.2 to 49.2 billion tons, representing a reduction of 6.7 to 7.7 billion tons compared with the associated ‘business as usual’ forecast for emissions in 2020 of 55.9 billion tons. However, the report notes that the two degrees Celsius goal could potentially still be achieved if greater and costly annual reductions of at least 4% per year were achieved for the decades after 2020. 55
Commenting on the conclusions of the report, Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director, said that “two stark and sobering facts” were underlined: “nations need to raise their ambition in terms of emission reductions, but also to make good on their pledges of financial support.” [UNEP Press Release] [The Report] http://climate-l.org/2010/03/29/unep-collaborates-on-report-on-copenhagen-accordtargets/?referrer=climate-l.org-daily-feed
MONDAQ | Madeline M. Chiampou, Gregory K. Lawrence, Philip Tingle and Martha Groves Pugh | March 25, 2010
United States: Another Push Offshore: Proposed Legislation Introduced To Incentivize Offshore Wind Projects The proposed bills would specifically apply the production tax credit and the investment tax credit to offshore wind facilities and would provide for a January 1, 2020, expiration date of these tax credits. On March 3, 2010, Senators Tom Carper (D-DE), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Sherrod Brown (DOH) and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced legislation to provide tax incentives for the production of offshore wind energy. The proposed bill, S. 3062, would specifically apply the production tax credit (PTC) pursuant to Code Section 45 to offshore wind facilities and would provide for a January 1, 2020, expiration date of this PTC. The investment tax credit pursuant to Section 48 would also be amended to apply to offshore facilities placed in service after 2008 and before 2020. The bill defines an "offshore facility" as any facility located in the inland navigable waters of the United States, including the Great Lakes, or in the coastal waters of the United States, including the territorial seas of the United States, the exclusive economic zone of United States and the outer Continental Shelf of the United States. In addition to S. 3062, a second Senate bill sponsored by Senators Snowe, Carper and Collins would provide a credit for the production of energy from deep water offshore wind. The new credit would be equal to 3.04 cents for each kilowatt hour of electricity produced by the taxpayer at a deep water offshore wind facility during the 10-year period beginning on the date the facility is placed in service and sold by the taxpayer to an unrelated person during the taxable year. The U.S. Treasury Department would be responsible for allocating the credits, and the allocations would be capped at 6,000 megawatts. A deep water offshore facility would be defined as a facility using wind to produce electricity that operates in 60 meters or more of water, is located within the internal or territorial waters of the United States, and is placed in service after the date the credit is enacted and before January 1, 2030. http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/article.asp?articleid=96750&email_access=on
MONDAQ | Jeffrey Lynne, P.A. | March 25, 2010
United States: Energy Finance Districts To Accelerate Retrofits And Green Job Growth On February 3, 2010, Energy & Utilities Policy Committee Chairman Steve Precourt (ROrlando) and House Majority Leader Adam Hasner (R-Delray Beach) announced that they are exploring the adoption of legislation which was named by the Harvard Business Review as one of the "Breakthrough Ideas for 2010." "PACE" or "Property Assessed Clean Energy", is a 56
concept utilizing local government bonding capacity to lend funds to commercial and residential property owners to finance energy retrofits (efficiency measures and small renewable energy systems) who then repay their loans over 20 years via an annual assessment on their property tax bill. Popularly referred to as "Energy Finance Districts" or "Clean Energy Assessment Districts", these municipal taxing districts have gained national attention for the advantages they provide over more traditional loans for financing energy efficiency retrofits to the extent the costs are tied to the property, not the original investor, thereby overcoming some of the most intractable market barriers to energy efficiency such as the landlord-tenant problem. "PACE is a no-subsidy, no-mandate, no-cost to taxpayers, consumer opt-in approach that can bring clean energy technology to homeowners and businesses while creating jobs for Floridians," said Hasner. "By helping consumers finance the upfront costs for energy improvements, we'll be taking away the biggest burden for homeowners who want to make their homes more energy efficient and save money." How it Works PACE bonds are issued by a municipality or special district and backed by property tax liens on the buildings of owners who voluntarily take PACE loans from the bond pool. The property owner repays the loan over a 20-year period through an increase on their annual property taxes equal to one-twentieth of the loan plus interest. For many, the annual energy cost savings realized from retrofitting exceed the cost of the annual repayment costs, thereby resulting in no net out-of-pocket expense. If the property is sold before the end of the repayment period, the new owner inherits both the repayment obligation and the financed improvements. Who Likes the Concept Local governments across the country have been rapidly exploring the PACE concept idea since it accelerates movement toward energy independence & reduces greenhouse gas emissions, it does not provide any financial risk to the municipality, and the projects generated by these private sector clean energy improvements may provide job creation for local economies. Investors have been warming to the idea since, like other taxes, PACE bonds are paid before other claims against the property in the case of foreclosure. Both commercial and residential property owners have been embracing the idea, as Energy Financing Districts offer many additional advantages to traditional retrofit financing including a long repayment period, potentially lower interest rates, tax-deductible interest payments, and an easier access to capital otherwise not available in the second mortgage or home equity market. PACE has also been credited with accelerating the timing of energy retrofits for landlords and tenants who would otherwise not explore a present energy investment in their property in the current economic climate. Where it all Began The Energy Finance District concept began in 2008 with the passage of enabling legislation in California. Since then, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin have passed enabling legislation to authorize the creation of Energy Finance Districts. Legislation is currently pending in Arizona and New York, as well. Florida's Ability to Keep the Pace If a successful model can be implemented, House Leaders are also looking at the option to expand the PACE approach to property owners looking to harden their homes through hurricane 57
mitigation improvements. Property owners could offset the costs of their improvements through potential reductions in property insurance costs. Jeffrey Lynne, P.A., offers experienced and knowledgeable guidance for public and private clients to maximize the value and minimize the cost of the design, permitting and construction of green projects and mandated/incentivized sustainability issues impacting real estate and infrastructure projects throughout the United States, including financing and economic development, government affairs and public policy, land use and environmental law, construction, infrastructure development, and procurement law and government contracts. The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/article.asp?articleid=96852&email_access=on
MARCH 26 Climate List Serve | March 26, 2010
European Council Endorses Post-Copenhagen Strategy 26 March 2010: The European Council, gathering Heads of State and government of the EU, met in Brussels, Belgium, on 25-26 March 2010, to discuss the EU’s strategy on the international climate change negotiations, among other things. In its conclusions, the European Council called for introducing a new dynamic to the international negotiation process, and proposed following a stepwise approach building on the Copenhagen Accord and its swift implementation. It recommends that: the next negotiating session in Bonn, Germany, in April 2010, should set the roadmap for taking the negotiations forward, integrating the political guidance of the Copenhagen Accord into the negotiating texts; and the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 16) to the UNFCCC, to be held in Cancun, Mexico, at the end of the year, shoul provide concrete decisions and address remaining gaps, including adaptation, forestry, technology, and monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV). According to the conclusions, the EU commits to initiate consultations on practical ways to implement fast-start funding in specific areas. The European Council also notes that while remaining firmly committed to the UNFCCC process and supporting ongoing efforts to make it more effective, this process could be complemented and supported by discussions in other settings and on specific issues. To this end, the EU commits to address climate change at all regional and bilateral meetings, including at summit level, as well as other fora, such as the G20. Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action, stated that the European Council conclusions constitute a strong signal to carry on with an analysis of practical policies to implement a 30% emission reduction, and on its co-benefits for growth and job creation. [European Council Conclusions] [Spanish Presidency Press Release] [Hedegaard’s Statement] http://climate-l.org/2010/03/29/european-council-endorses-post-copenhagenstrategy/?referrer=climate-l.org-daily-feed
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Canadian News Wire | March 26, 2010
Horizon Energy Solutions launches "Ontario's Solar Sunbelt" from region's rooftops Green Power initiative will lead to cleaner air, greater reliability
HAMILTON, ON, March 26 /CNW/ - On the eve of Earth Hour, Horizon Energy Solutions Inc. (HESI) is launching "Ontario's Solar Sunbelt" with a strategic energy alliance and a commercial solar energy generating business. Horizon Energy Solutions is one of Ontario's first commercial solar energy generating enterprises, helping to create sustainable communities in Ontario's new green economy. The new initiative takes advantage of the opportunities to generate a clean and reliable local energy supply through the Ontario Government's Green Energy Act. Horizon is also joining forces with two cities and two institutes of higher learning, as founding members of the Golden Horseshoe Strategic Energy Alliance. The cities of Hamilton and St. Catharines, McMaster University, and Mohawk College will collaborate to position the Golden Horseshoe as a leader in the green economy. "This strategic powerhouse will combine the capabilities of these research and training institutions and the economic development resources of the cities to help create and attract the energy technologies and businesses of the future. Our alliance can provide the skilled workforce that this new sector will need, locally, for the benefit of all residents," says Horizon CEO, Max Cananzi. Agreements are in the works for solar installations on dozens of commercial, institutional and industrial buildings in the region, and beyond. A residential solar offering will follow, likely later this year. Every 10,000 kilowatts of solar energy generated - about the size of forty commercial-size installations - avoids or reduces emissions equal to taking more than 500 typical cars off the road for an entire year. 10,000 kilowatts of solar power, delivered over the year, is enough power to supply approximately 1,200 homes. The solar power generated will be made available to the provincial power grid under the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) program. This program was established by the Ontario Government as part of the Green Energy and Green Economy Act of May 2009. "Ontario is becoming one of the world leaders in green energy and we aim to make the Golden Horseshoe the first choice for manufacturers and green technology businesses," noted Horizon CEO Max Cananzi. "We have a proven track record in the energy sector, and excellent strategic partnerships for research, training, and location." "Our government's Green Energy Act has catapulted Ontario into the forefront and is attracting new business from around the globe," says Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, Brad Duguid. "We anticipate 50,000 jobs will be generated from this new sector." "We need new and expanded local sources of power," said Sophia Aggelonitis, Minister of Consumer Services, and MPP Hamilton Mountain. "This is a great time to go green to ensure that we have sustainable and renewable sources of power to provide a more reliable power supply for years to come, and to lower emissions to make our air cleaner and healthier for generations to come." 59
"This solar offer is a great opportunity for businesses and eventually residential users to contribute to cleaner air with renewable power, while at the same time earning green revenue over a long-term contract with a reliable, trusted organization," Mr. Cananzi noted. Betacam SP and DVD copies of video and b-roll are available by contacting
[email protected] The Horizon Energy Solutions video can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUKDP0wUFYQ http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2010/26/c5451.html
Landline Magazine | March 26, 2010
Congress ready for another round of climate change talks Shortly after passing health care legislation, several Congressional leaders are shifting their focus to climate change proposals. With health care work finished for the time being, OOIDA’s Mike Joyce said Congress is preparing to address financial services reform and intends to combine energy, environment and climate change. Sens. John Kerry, D-MA, Lindsey Graham, R-SC, and Joe Lieberman, D-CT, are pursuing a climate change proposal that will cap greenhouse gas emissions but won’t create a cap-and-trade formula. Joyce said the new legislation appears to be more focused on regulating trucking, which will likely drive the price of diesel up – possibly through a fee at the pump. “Cap-and-trade proposals are done; they’re dead,” said Joyce, OOIDA director of legislative affairs. “But what we’re seeing are these hybrids of the original proposals – little changes here and there in the terminology. They’re trying to make it more bipartisan, but the reality remains the same. Any type of legislation going down this route will end up being a tax on truckers with little to no benefit.” Cap-and-trade systems create a stock market-like trading market by which companies are allotted a specific number of allowances based on emissions created by each business. Unused allowances could be stored as credit and traded or purchased on a market by companies needing allowances. Kerry, Graham and Lieberman have indicated they want to unveil a climate change proposal the week of Earth Day, which is April 22. Last year, the U.S. House approved a cap-and-trade legislation, but momentum for companion legislation in the Senate slowed last fall. The Environmental Protection Agency has hinted that it might regulate greenhouse gases as a pollutant. “We would prefer to have legislation compared to regulation because we have a better chance of influencing legislation probably more so than regulation,” said Joyce. “However, the Kerry, Graham, Lieberman proposal has really shined a spotlight on the transportation sector of our economy more – more so than cap and trade and EPA regulatory threats. Truckers are probably going to bear a heavy burden when it comes to environmental policy.” Graham is reportedly trying to allow for increased offshore drilling, Congress Daily reported this week. The publication also quoted Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu as saying it would be impossible to garner Republican support of climate change legislation without expanding offshore drilling. – By Charlie Morasch, staff writer
[email protected] http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_news/Daily/2010/Mar10/032210/032610-05.htm 60
EuroAlert | March 26, 2010
European leaders focus on climate change in their meeting in Brussels The heads of state and government of the 27 member states of the EU will look at ways of reactivating the process of climate change talks, after the failure of negotiations in Copenhagen summit last December. After having discussed the general areas of a plan aimed at relaunching the European economy yesterday, along with other issues such as economic governance, coordination of national policies, and discrepancies between levels of competitiveness, both within and outside the EU, EU leaders are now dealing with climate change in their meeting in Brussels. Led by the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, the leaders of the EU-27 will analyse strategies for ensuring greater efficiency in international negotiations and achieving greater visibility within the UN, particularly with a view to the climate change summit to be held in Cancún (Mexico) from 29 November to 10 December. One of the major areas of concern for the EU is to ensure that commitments on CO2 emissions announced by various countries become a reality, through the kind of legally-binding agreements that could not be reached at the summit in Copenhagen last year. The EU has pledged to reduced its emissions by 20% by 2020, which could be increased to 30% if other countries follow its lead. The conclusions document that the European leaders will approve at the end of the second working session will also make reference to the Europe 2020 Strategy, which the EU intends to use to launch the European economy back onto a path of sustainable growth and job creation over the next decade. A limited number of quantitative objectives at an EU level could be approved, which will subsequently be translated into different national targets. These are the five objectives proposed by the EU executive body in relation to investment in R&D, employment, energy, the battle against climate change, and training. The aim is for the Europe 2020 Strategy to be definitively approved during the June meeting of the European Council, at which Spain's Presidency of the EU will come to an end. http://euroalert.net/en/news.aspx?idn=9707
Scientific American | David Biello | March 26, 2010
Climate Change Imperils the State of the Planet--Will the World Act? Efforts to combat climate change continue to grow. But are they big enough? Or fast enough?
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CLEAN POWER: The key to linking combating climate change and poverty alleviation will be expanding renewable energy, like India's program to build 20,000 megawatts worth of solar power by 2022. NEW YORK CITY—More than 100 countries have signed on to the Copenhagen Accord—the nonbinding agreement to combat climate change hastily agreed to this past December at a summit of world leaders. As signatories, the countries agree to cut greenhouse gas emissions to keep global average temperatures from warming more than 2 degrees Celsius. The countries that have signed up to date represent more than 80 percent of the global emissions of such heattrapping gases. "Climate change is one of the most important challenges humanity faces today," said Mexico President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa via videoconference from Mexico City at the State of the Planet gathering at Columbia University hosted by its Earth Institute on March 25. "This is urgent, we need to act now as countries and as governments." As part of signing on, countries also listed their national goals for emission reductions. Mexico, for its part, pledged to cut 50 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually by 2012. The U.S. pledged to reduce emissions by 4 percent below 1990 levels, pending legislation, whereas China promised cuts of 40 to 45 percent of the total CO2 per unit of economic production, so-called carbon intensity. And it will fall to Calderón and his colleagues in the Mexican government as hosts of the next climate change negotiation meetings in Cancún this November to continue progress toward an international, binding agreement. After all, without a legally binding treaty there will be no accountability on greenhouse gas emissions, warned United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the conference. "The U.N. is important because it's the only place where we can get a truly comprehensive agreement," Nitin Desai, a former U.N. undersecretary general, told attendees via videoconference from New Delhi. However, "the U.N. is important, but not the only game in town." Government action is key 62
Citing the various national action plans announced since Copenhagen, and in some cases listed therein, Desai argued that "what really matters is the degree of legal force behind national action," such as India's commitment to at least a 25 percent reduction in its carbon intensity. That means U.S. governmental action will be vitally important; details of legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are currently being worked on in the Senate while the House of Representatives has passed a bill that would match the Obama administration's pledge under the Copenhagen Accord. "It's up to the U.S. now to cut our carbon emissions if the rest of the world can reasonably be expected to do anything," said climate modeler Mark Cane of Columbia University's Earth Institute. At the same time, the U.S. is pushing for international monitoring and verification of emission reductions in emerging countries, such as China. But political scientist Zha Daojiong of Peking University noted via videoconference from Beijing that "in the West, if something is not put into law then that won't work. In China when the government comes out and says, 'We have a target,' we are going to do this, because the culture and [political] institutions are different. They are going to do it—look at the past 30 years." The key to doing it, according to Calderón, is "to find out a new model of development that will allow us to grow in harmony with the environment, which will imply a new Industrial Revolution based on low carbon growth." In essence, the challenge is "how to link fighting poverty, which is a main concern of developing countries, with fighting climate change," he added. Mexico has begun to address that by providing direct cash payments to impoverished residents to purchase energy-efficient goods or preserve local forests. "The day that a tree standing is worth more than a tree cut down" is the day economics align with sustainability, Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environmental Programme, said via videoconference from Nairobi, Kenya. "The myth of the 20th century made the services the environment provides invisible." In fact, countries ranging from the U.S. to China treat the continent of Africa as "a large mine. You extract what you need for the world economy," Steiner charged. Some environmental economists have estimated that the entire continent has lost as much as 50 percent of its profusion of flora and fauna in just the last decade as a result of such exploitation. "We have to become more efficient in the way we use resources. The only other option is to run out of them," he added. The role of economic development A big part of any linkage between fighting climate change and poverty alleviation will be building a more comprehensive energy infrastructure. "When hundreds of millions [of Indians] don't have access to electricity, it's unrealistic to expect India to cut growth," noted Jyoti Parikh, executive director of Integrated Research and Action for Development, a think tank, via videoconference from New Delhi. "People got a free ride because of delay [in combating climate change], and those who delayed did not have anything to pay later in any way.... Whatever has happened has affected our [global] carbon budget." But economic growth can be paired with climate change solutions. For example, the Indian government has instituted a goal of 20,000 megawatts of new solar power installations by 2022. "With the solar energy program, the strongest pressure is not from green groups," Desai noted. 63
"The corporate sector in India is showing huge interest in getting into this area." At the same time, locally appropriate technologies must play a role, such as using cattle to drive a generator or using livestock waste to produce biogas, Devin Narang, chairman of the Freeplay Group, a maker of consumer electronics for the poor, argued via videoconference from New Delhi. Using clean technologies to promote economic growth is already a reality. China has surpassed the U.S. and other nations in total clean energy investment—securing $34.6 billion in investments and finance for wind, solar and hydropower, among other renewable energy technologies in 2009 alone, according to a new report from The Pew Charitable Trusts. The key will be further speed and scale in efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy, agriculture, buildings and other sectors. "All the science shows that technology is not a silver bullet. We'll have to see lifestyle changes, as well," said Johan Rockström, executive director of the Stockholm Environment Institute. "This is the most decisive decade, when we have to start bending the curve on greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity. What if we push this too far?" After all, scientists generally agree that to hold average temperature rise to 2 degrees C, atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases must be stabilized at 450 parts per million—and they are already nearing 390 ppm. Holding to the 450-ppm level is "ludicrous, unless we were to gear up like we were fighting World War II again," argued geochemist Wallace Broecker of Columbia's Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, and one of the first scientists to identify modern global warming in the 1970s. "We could do it but the chances of the world taking it that seriously are very small." http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=climate-change-imperils-state-of-the-planet
UK Guardian | Jonathan Watts | March 26, 2010
Earth Hour - climate change campaigners urge global switch-off The fourth annual lights-out event expects 1 billion participants, and will include international landmarks including the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State building and the Burj Khalifa
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The Houses of Parliament during Earth Hour 2009 Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images
The biggest turn-off in human history will start at 8.30pm tomorrow in Chatham, a tiny South Pacific island with only 12 street lamps. Almost 25 hours later, but at 9.30pm the same day, it will finish on the other side of the international dateline in the Galapagos Islands, where scientists will share a candle-lit dinner with several hundred residents and environmental activists. In between, Earth Hour , the annual worldwide call for action against climate change, will spread darkness across all seven continents, drawing in 120 nations, 1,700 municipalities and hundreds of millions of people. In the UK, many hotels and restaurants will be offering special candle-lit dinners where guests will be able to see well-known sites plunge into blackness, including Big Ben, Edinburgh castle, the Millennium stadium in Cardiff, Belfast city hall, Durham cathedral, St Paul's cathedral and the London Eye. Now in its fourth year, the event organised by WWF, has spread an ever widening expanse of hour-long darkness. Two million people took part at the first switch-off in Sydney in 2007. Last year, hundreds of millions participated in 88 countries. This year, organisers expect the figure to be close to a billion. Beijing's Forbidden City and London's Houses of Parliament, the Eiffel Tower, the Hiroshima peace memorial, the Empire State Building, Rio de Janeiro's Christ the Redeemer statue, and the world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa. will all plunge into darkness. Nations that have signed up for the first time this year include Saudi Arabia, long seen as resistant to climate change action, Mongolia, Nepal and the Czech Republic. Another debutant is a first group of participants from Antarctica: the Davis Research Station, which is home to several dozen scientists who presumably will not be also switching off their heaters in -10 degrees Celsius.James Leape, international director general of WWF, said the worldwide event was particularly important after the disappointment of the climate conference in Copenhagen last year. "There was a sense after Copenhagen that we, as a world, had lost momentum," he said. "One of the important things about this year is that it is a chance for people to say 'Hey, we are still concerned about climate change.' A lot of people are looking for an opportunity. If they speak out by themselves, it may not make much of an impact, but through this shared action of Earth Hour, they have a platform to speak." Leape is in Beijing to attend a darkening ceremony at the Forbidden City, the 600-year-old symbol of Chinese power. Last year, China's support for Earth Hour clashed, time-wise, with the anniversary of the Tibetan unrest in 2008, prompting some organisations, including Peking university, to warn students not to get involved. This year, with no such complications, participation is enthusiastic. Fifteen Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Dalian, have signed up. Pandas in Sichuan will be involved, along with cartoon characters in Hong Kong, and rock bands in Xiamen. Chinese organisers are using the event to kick-off a "low-carbon lifestyle week" aimed at persuading consumers in the world's most populous country not to follow the wasteful example of developed nations. The message is catching on at the grassroots. Among the events in the former Chinese capital of Xian, will be a free unplugged music concert. Across the world, people are expected to mark the event in ways that reflect the diversity, creativity and inequality of the human population. In cities like Tokyo, Seoul and New York, netizens are being asked to record landmark buildings' switch-off on their mobile phones and upload them online. In Zimbabwe, hundreds of children will join a candle-lit picnic at Victoria Falls. In Canada, an Earth Hour Blackberry application has proved a hit. Elsewhere, the world's highest paid 65
supermodel, Gisele Bündchen, and World Cup-winning footballer Francesco Totti will act as spokespeople for the event, along with South Africa's archbishop Desmond Tutu. Not everywhere is going dark. Tanzania initially did not sign up because few would notice a switch off in Dar es Salaam and other cities where only 10% of people have electricity. Instead, WWF organised a "switch on" of solar energy for a local school last year. It will scale this up to 20 schools this year.In Madagascar, 99% of the country has no electricity and people are frightened to be on the streets after dark because of the instability that has followed the political crisis. But WWF says residents have asked to participate. "There are only 12 street lights on the Chatham Islands and for safety reasons these will remain on," said Pickles. Organisers said locals would enjoy making the news, but the event would have to compete with a 21st birthday party at the one hotel in town. "A lot of people will be there," said Lee Barry, Earth Hour Project Manager in New Zealand. "Hopefully someone will remember to turn the lights off." http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/26/energy-climate-change
Older, but interesting! Guardian UK | Stephen Leahy | March 18, 2010
Canadian government 'hiding truth about climate change', report claims Canada's climate researchers are being muzzled, their funding slashed, research stations closed, findings ignored and advice on the critical issue of the century unsought by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, according to a 40-page report by a coalition of 60 nongovernmental organisations. "This government says they take climate change seriously but they do nothing and try to hide the truth about climate change," said Graham Saul, representing Climate Action Network Canada (CAN), which produced the report "Troubling Evidence". "We want Canadians to understand what's going on with this government," Saul told IPS. Climate change is not an abstract concept. It already results in the deaths of 300,000 people a year, virtually all in the world's poorest countries. Some 325 million people are being seriously affected, with economic losses averaging 125 billion dollars a year, according to "The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis", the first detailed look at climate change and the human impacts. Released last fall by the Geneva-based Global Humanitarian Forum, the report notes that these deaths and losses are not just from the rise in severe weather events but mainly from the gradual environmental degradation due to climate change. "People everywhere deserve to have leaders who find the courage to achieve a solution to this crisis," writes Kofi Annan, former U.N. secretary-general and president of the Forum, in the report. Canadians are unlikely to know any of this. "Media coverage of climate change science, our most high-profile issue, has been reduced by over 80 percent," says internal government documents obtained by Climate Action Network. 66
The dramatic decline results from a 2007 Harper government-imposed prohibition on government scientists speaking to reporters. Canadian scientists have told IPS they required permission from the prime minister's communications office to comment on their own studies made public in scientific journals and reports. If permission is granted, it requires written questions submitted in advance and often replies by scientists have to go through a vetting process. Within six months, reporters stopped calling and media coverage declined, the leaked report noted. While climate experts were being muzzled, known climate change deniers were put in key positions on scientific funding bodies says Saul. The report documents three appointments and their public statements that climate change is a myth or exaggerated. "The climate-change issue is somewhat sensational and definitely exaggerated," said economist Mark Mullins, former executive director of a free-market think tank called the Fraser Institute in 2007, according to the report. The Fraser Institute has often cast doubt on seriousness of climate change. In 2009, Mullins was appointed to the board of the major government funder the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). Mullins is in good company. In late February, Maxime Bernier, a senior member of the Harper government and a former Foreign Affairs cabinet minister, published a letter in a major newspaper saying there was no scientific consensus on climate change and that the world's national academies of science were exaggerating. "The alarmism that has often characterised this issue is no longer valid. Canada is right to be prudent," he wrote. Bernier is considered a possible successor to Stephen Harper. Last week, scientists who study climate change from a remote polar science research base on Ellesmere Island said they have run out of funding and will shut down this year. Earlier this month, the new federal budget failed to provide any funding for Canada's main climate science initiative, the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmosphere Sciences. Funding everything from global climate models, to the melting of polar ice and frequency of Arctic storms, to droughts and water supply, the foundation will run out of cash early next year. "Their (federal government) actions make it clear they don't care about climate change," said Andrew Weaver, a climate scientist at the University of Victoria. "This administration is a very different form of government. It is top-down, and run by a small group who are anti-science," Weaver told IPS. Previous governments have always consulted with scientists prior to funding and policy decisions related to science, but the current government does not even consult its own scientists, he said. "They are only interested in issues on their agenda: oil and related industries," he said. Last October, Prime Minister Harper announced a 1.6-billion-dollar, multi-year partnership with the oil industry to reduce emissions from Canada's tar sands oil projects, saying: "We are taking 67
real action at home and on the world stage to produce real, tangible reductions in greenhouse gas emissions." The tar sands, located mainly in the province of Alberta, produce 1.3 million barrels of oil a day, almost all for the U.S. market. The massive project is the single biggest source of greenhouse gases in Canada, has the biggest toxic tailing ponds covering 50 square kilometres, and a much longer list of staggering environmental impacts. This "real action" promised by Harper is to invest in an unproven, risky and expensive long shot called "carbon capture and sequestration" that is at least a decade away. Even if this new technology can be developed and works as planned, Canada's carbon emissions would be reduced far faster, easier and more reliably by improving energy efficiency, experts say. Spending 1.6 billion dollars to replace old refrigerators with high-efficiency ones in the average Canadian home brings higher emissions reductions than carbon capture and sequestration in the tar sands ever will, according to information provided by the Pembina Institute, an Alberta NGO. "Almost all of the money this government claims is climate change work is about getting more oil out of the ground," said John Bennett, executive director of the Sierra Club Canada. "Canadian climate science is falling behind and the world is not getting information about what is happening in the Canadian Arctic," Bennett said in an interview. The Harper government sees climate change as a communications problem and is eliminating government-funded climate research so there won't be any "bad news" about what is happening, he said. "This government is doing nothing on climate but they always make sure to sound like they're doing something to fool Canadians," Bennett said. Report: Troubling Evidence: The Harper Government's Approach to Climate Science Research in Canada www.guardian.co.uk
MONDAQ | Peter Burn | January, 2010
SPECIAL EDITION: From Copenhagen to Mexico: The First Step At the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in December, nations “took note” of the Copenhagen Accord; and were asked to submit their 2020 greenhouse gas reduction target by January 31, 2010 as the first step in a year-long process to transform the Accord into a comprehensive and legally binding agreement. As of February 3rd, over 80 countries responsible for over 80% of all man-made GHG emissions have reported. (note: this 80% coverage compares to the 30% of total emissions generated by those nations with Kyoto Accord obligations). Most importantly, all of the 39 countries (the 27 members of the EU and 12 other large nations, including Canada) that have been participating directly or indirectly in the parallel Major Economies Forum have now registered their 2020 GHG targets, with the developed MEF nations seeking absolute reductions and the developing MEF nations seeking reduced carbon intensity per economic unit. (note: if one treats the EU as one jurisdiction, the 20 largest emitters are responsible for 80% of all man-made GHG emissions.)
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To date, one nation (Cuba) has informed the United Nations that it will not be a party to the Copenhagen Accord. Cuba was one of the five nations that openly dissented and therefore prevented the adoption of the Copenhagen Accord by consensus, (the other vocal dissenters being Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Sudan). The US has committed to make an economy-wide greenhouse gas reduction from 2005 levels “in the range of 17% in conformity with anticipated US energy and climate legislation, recognizing that the final target will be reported in light of enacted legislation”. The US also noted that the pathway set forth in current legislation envisaged “a 30% reduction in 2025 and a 42% reduction in 2030, in line with the goal to reduce emissions by 83% by 2050”. (note: the initial target proposed by Congressmen Waxman and Markey of “20% less than 2005” was reduced to 17% during the House legislative process; this figure then becoming the starting point in the ongoing US Senate deliberations.) The Government of Canada has stated its policy will be to match American efforts going forward in order to avoid arbitrary distortions in the integrated North American economy. Accordingly, Canada has changed its target from “20% less than 2006 levels” to “17% less than 2005 levels”, with the caveat that the target “would be aligned with the final economy-wide emissions target of the United States in enacted legislation”. If one assumes that enacted US climate change legislation will continue to include targets for the period beyond 2020, and that the Canadian principle of comparable efforts with the US will apply to the entire 2010-2050 period, the new Canadian target constitutes a reduction in Canada’s effort for the period until 2020, but an increase in the stringency of the Canadian target into the longer term. As a practical matter, the actions that must be taken in the near term to achieve the 2020 target are identical to the old - it is merely the odds of success that have (slightly) changed. This shift is also consistent with the practical reality that the development and commercialization of new clean technologies and the installation of new clean energy infrastructure is more likely to produce reductions during the 2020’s, rather than by 2020. Other targets of greatest relevance and interest to Canada include those of China, (which has already surpassed the US as the world’s largest emitter), NAFTA partner Mexico, Australia (like Canada, a major resource exporter and carbon-intensive economy) and the EU, where Canada is engaged in comprehensive trade and investment negotiations. China has indicated it will “endeavour” to reduce the carbon intensity of its economy in 2020 by 40-45% from 2005 levels; and that this target will be binding under domestic legislation and is not conditional on the commitments of other nations. Mexico’s 2020 target is to reduce its 2005 level of carbon intensity by 50%. Australia has set an unconditional 2020 target of 5% less than 2000 levels, with escalating conditional targets of 15% and 25% relative to 2000 levels. (note: an Australian target of 15% less than 2000 levels is roughly equivalent to Canada’s Copenhagen pledge). The EU-27 nations have now signed on to the Copenhagen Accord with a stated 2020 target of 20% less than 1990 levels. The combined emissions of the EU-27, which totalled 5748 Mt in 1990, fell nearly 6% in the period 1990-1997 to 5434 Mt. due primarily to the shutdown of the old communist era facilities. Annual emissions have remained essentially flat in the years since the signing of the Kyoto Accord, totalling 5446 Mt. In 2005. As a result, the EU-27’s 2020 target of “20% less than 1990” levels translates into “15% less than 2005 levels”, or approximately 90% of the North American effort going forward. 69
It is not widely recognized that the respective commitments of the major developed and developing nations bear a striking resemblance to the positions recommended in the late 2009 report of the International Energy Agency entitled, “How the Energy Sector Can Deliver on a Climate Agreement in Copenhagen”. (Formed in 1974, the Paris-based IEA provides policy advice to 28 of the 39 MEF nations, including Canada) The 2009 IEA report was based on three key concepts. First, that all nations (both developed and developing) need to participate in the GHG reduction process in a meaningful way, while respecting their “common but differentiated responsibilities”. Second, that creating a market price for carbon is important, but insufficient. Immediate and substantial investment in energy technology is also critical to optimize the chance of timely innovations. Third, stabilizing the level of emissions in the atmosphere is a long-term objective, with 2030 as important as 2020, and both less important than 2050. The IEA projects that developed nations can achieve by 2030 the outcome that environmental activists desire in 2020, without compromising the long-term 2050 objective. Through the implementation of mitigation measures, the IEA believes developed nations can generate a reduction from pre-recession (2007) emission levels by 2020 in the range of 17% (effectively the current North American target). And by commencing immediately a substantial investment program in clean technologies and clean energy supply, more reductions can occur during the 2020’s, so that 2030 GHG levels will be 40% less than 2007 levels (comparable to the pathway in the proposed US climate change legislation). The IEA also calls on the major emitters in the developing world – China, India, Brazil etc– to commence immediately a complementary set of policies. Given their different circumstances, the IEA envisaged they will initially adopt carbon intensity - not absolute reduction - targets until 2020, when they would then join the nations of the developed world in a cap and trade system driving absolute reductions. The result would be emissions growth in these countries that would peak in 2020, with annual emissions declining throughout the 2020’s. It can be seen that the January commitments of the major developed and developing countries essentially follow the IEA pathway. It remains to be seen whether the “voluntary” actions planned by China to reduce the carbon intensity of the Chinese economy will be sufficient to satisfy a majority in the US Senate, without resort to controversial carbon border adjustment mechanisms that could seriously damage “G-2” relations. http://www.gowlings.com/resources/enewsletters/govbrief/Htmfiles/20100204_11635.en.html
MONDAQ | Peter Burn | January, 2010
Quebec: Going it alone on Vehicle Efficiency Standards Federal Environment Minister Prentice has called the new Quebec vehicle efficiency standards an example of the folly of attempting to “go it alone” in the integrated North American market. His criticism has not been well-received in Quebec, with the media accepting at face value the response of the Quebec government that Quebec is not acting alone, but is merely replicating the standard deployed in California and a number of other states. Someone is mistaken. In 2007, Canada and the US commenced a collaborative effort to develop more stringent vehicle efficiency standards for cars and light trucks. Concurrent with this bilateral dialogue, the Bush 70
administration and California were engaged in a political and legal dispute concerning the ability of California to regulate carbon dioxide as a tailpipe emission. California applied for a waiver in 2005. The EPA denied the waiver in 2008. California was supported by 12 American states that wished to adopt the proposed California standard (the so-called “CAA 177 states”, section 177 of the Clean Air Act allowing other American states to adopt rules that are identical to the Californian standard). Quebec, BC and Manitoba all indicated they too would adopt the more stringent California standard if and when California received the necessary waiver from the EPA to bring the regulations into effect. In January, 2009, President Obama ordered a review of the waiver denial, and commenced a negotiation with California. In April of 2009, Minister Prentice announced a Canadian process that would lead to the regulation of vehicle efficiency pursuant to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, with vehicle efficiency to be calibrated not in terms of the traditional distance per unit of fuel (eg miles per gallon or kilometre per litre) but CO2 emissions per unit of distance (ie grams per km.). In May of 2009, President Obama announced a landmark compromise agreement between the US Federal Government, California, auto manufacturers and the UAW to create one national US standard by essentially creating a pathway that would take California’s standards “national”. California would receive its EPA waiver , on the understanding California rules would be modified to create a compliance pathway that would accommodate the new national standard. California is currently amending its rules so that compliance with the EPA standard will be deemed compliance with California regulations. On September 15, 2009, the EPA and Dept. of Transportation proposed a coordinated national program and rule-making process that would result in the former regulating vehicles in terms of CO2 grams per mile and the latter regulating on an analogous basis in terms of miles per gallon. The American process will result in new federal rules by the end of Q1 2010 for application for the 2012 model year commencing Oct 1, 2011. (This timeline is consistent with the longstanding practice to give auto manufacturers 18 months notice for changes affecting a particular model year) On December 7, 2009, Minister Prentice released draft Canadian regulations in “Canadian” terms (ie grams per km) that will match the new American standard – in effect, taking the California standard “continental”. It is expected the Canadian regulations will come into effect by mid-2010 following the required consultation process. (Minister Prentice has also indicated that Canada and the US are working together to prepare a common North American standard for other transportation emissions, including heavy trucks and aircraft). Notwithstanding the 2009 developments as described above, the Government of Quebec published its own standard on Dec. 30, 2009, to take effect January 14, 2010 on a retroactive basis for the 2010 model year (that had commenced October 1, 2009). The Quebec standards are different from the California rules in a number of significant ways. First, Quebec has decided to deny credit for (i) reduced GHG emissions generated by improved air conditioning, and (ii) investment in advanced technology vehicles. Second, Quebec has reclassified a variety of crossover vehicles and SUVs (representing approximately 20% of the current vehicle market) from the “light truck” to “passenger car” category, thereby substantially increasing the improved annual efficiency required of these vehicles (over and above the rising stringency for all vehicles in both categories). Third, section 17 of the Quebec regulation 71
proposes a “fee” of $5,000 per non-complying vehicle-equivalent that will be triggered once a manufacturer exceeds the required fleet average standard. The effect of the changes, particularly the reclassification of vehicles, is to make compliance more difficult and non-compliance more costly in Quebec than in any other North American jurisdiction. Left unchanged, auto manufacturers will be left with some very unattractive options: (i) to withhold certain models from the Quebec marketplace (not selling larger vehicles being the only way to ensure that small cars will represent a higher percentage of total sales); or (ii) to try to transfer the financial risk to Quebec-based dealers through their wholesale pricing; or (iii) to encourage the sale of crossovers etc to Quebec consumers via their Quebec dealers in full knowledge that success will trigger some big fines in the future. Some industry observers believe the ability of many Quebecers to simply “cross the Ottawa River” and purchase vehicles in Ontario means the principal victim of the regulations will be Quebec-based car dealers, rather than the auto manufacturers themselves. Others predict that the Quebec rules will encourage the longer use of existing vehicles and discourage the purchase of new (more efficient) vehicles, so that actual Quebec emissions will be higher in the future than if the province had merely moved forward under the new and increasingly stringent Canadian (ie Californian) standard. (This perverse impact occurred in California when it imposed higher standards that raised new car prices and diminished engine performance). To Minister Prentice, such unintended consequences exemplify “the folly of going it alone.” Quebec has also decided that the regulation will kick in at different times for different auto manufacturers based on their historic market share, to the detriment of more popular manufacturers. It remains to be seen whether such arbitrary discrimination will prompt a trade complaint. Ironically, the exporting jurisdiction with the most to complain about is likely Ontario, given the number of “reclassified” vehicles that are assembled in Oakville, Alliston, Cambridge, Ingersoll and Windsor. It appears that the Premier and Environment Minister of Quebec have been led to believe that Quebec is not acting alone in North America, but is merely replicating the California and “CAA 177” standard ahead of the rest of Canada. The facts do not support this position. In fact, Quebec is indeed going it alone, with a unique and more stringent standard than the other 59 states and provinces in the US and Canada. http://www.gowlings.com/resources/enewsletters/govbrief/Htmfiles/20100208_11647.en.html MONDAQ | January 22, 2010
FERC Seeks Industry Comments on Ways to Improve Wind and Solar Access to Grid FERC’s objective is to eliminate unnecessary barriers to transmission service and access to wholesale power markets for variable energy sources. On January 21, 2010, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a Notice of Inquiry to examine the integration of variable energy sources (VERs) into the wholesale power grid. Specifically, FERC is soliciting comments on existing barriers that may impede the reliable and efficient integration of VERs (e.g., wind and solar) into the grid, as well as market and operational reforms to reduce such barriers. Comments are due 60 days after publication of the notice in the Federal Register. 72
Challenges Facing Variable Energy Resources
Citing the proliferation of wind and solar generating capacity, FERC recognizes that the unique characteristics of these generation resources may hinder their integration into the wholesale power grid that FERC regulates. Specifically, FERC notes the inability of VERs to store their fuel, which hampers their ability to control electrical output. Further, the weather factors that drive VERs are often difficult to forecast. Output from VERs also is often negatively correlated to energy demand. Finally, FERC points out that VERs can experience substantial changes in output, known as ramp. FERC’s Call for Input
FERC explains in its Notice of Inquiry that it is taking a “fresh look” at its policies and practices in light of the increased share of VERs in the United States’ generation portfolio. FERC’s objective is to eliminate unnecessary barriers to transmission service and access to wholesale power markets for VERs. The agency also aims to reduce the ultimate costs to electricity consumers by promoting greater efficiencies relating to VERs. However, FERC cautions that its goal is not to favor one form of generation over another. FERC is receptive to comments on a wide range of topics relating to VERs, except transmission planning and cost allocation. Topics on which FERC expressly seeks comment include the following: Data and Forecasting – FERC seeks comments on enhanced forecasting techniques in order to address the challenges related to predicting the exact output of VERs. Scheduling Flexibility – Recognizing that today’s scheduling practices reflect a period when virtually all generation was based on technologies that allowed precise scheduling, FERC seeks suggestions on improved scheduling protocols that better accommodate VERs. For instance, FERC questions whether shorter scheduling intervals or intra-hour scheduling would improve VERs’ access to the grid. Scheduling Incentives – FERC asks whether it should examine the impacts of an existing exemption from imbalance penalties for intermittent resources. Day-Ahead Market Participation – FERC notes the relative lack of involvement by VERs in the Day-ahead markets administered by ISOs/RTOs. FERC seeks input on the reasons behind such low participation, as well as whether the lack of Day-ahead market participation by VERs may ultimately increase the costs of electricity to consumers. Reliability Commitments – ISO/RTO system operators enter into reliability unit commitments following the close of the Day-ahead market if the results of the market show a shortfall in generation to meet forecast demand. FERC questions whether the creation of a formalized and transparent intra-day assessment and commitment process would result in more efficient reliability commitment decisions by operators, thus reducing unnecessary uplift costs. Balancing Authority Coordination – FERC is seeking comments on whether increased coordination among balancing coordinators might reduce costs and improve their ability to manage the variability of VERs, since the resources will be spread across a larger base of generation and demand. Specifically, FERC is interested in the industry’s views on the use of pseudo-ties, dynamic scheduling, and other such tools and agreements. 73
Reserve Products and Ancillary Services – FERC asks for comments on the nature and degree to which expensive reserves, such as regulation reserves, are used by system operators to cope with the variability associated with increased VER deployment. Capacity Markets – FERC seeks comments on whether the existing rules for capacity markets administered by ISOs/RTOs result in unjust and unreasonable rates, and whether the rules unnecessarily restrict the ability of VERs to supply capacity services. Real-Time Adjustments – FERC calls for comments on whether VERs are too frequently curtailed as a result of congestion, minimum generation events and ramping events. FERC explains that it seeks to explore whether the curtailment and redispatch practices applied to VERs are transparent, non-discriminatory and efficient. The January 21, 2010, notice by FERC comes nine months after a special report by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, in which the reliability authority proposed measures for addressing the challenges to grid reliability posed by the increased contribution of renewable generation. For more information, please see McDermott’s On the Subject “U.S. Reliability Authority Issues Recommendations for Integrating Renewable Generation into Interstate Power Grid.” http://mwe.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/publications.nldetail/object_id/69231d4c-d710-43af-886efa77b3d2dd5d.cfm
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