Developing nations join West in deforestation fight
Six developing countries will join five western nations, including the United States and Britain, to combat climate change by better managing forestry resources, the World Bank said Tuesday.
The Forest Investment Program (FIP) will meet for the first time on October 29 in Washington to kickstart the program and discuss the criteria for selecting countries or regions of the world that could benefit most from the effort. Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Morocco, Nepal, and Romania will join donor nations Australia, Denmark, Norway, Britain and the United States, who have jointly pledged some 350 million dollars to fund the project.
The FIP is among the first of a new generation of partnerships between developing and developed countries working to combat the threat of climate change through forest management, the World Bank said.
“This new program will provide much-needed upfront investment to developing countries and forest-dependent communities to help them prepare for and benefit from financial flows for the sustainable management of forests,” said Eduardo Saboia, who represented Brazil in earlier meetings aimed at designing the FIP.
Global deforestation, which is advancing at a rate of five percent per decade, is responsible for 20 percent of all the annual carbon dioxide emissions. The 20 percent figure is roughly equivalent to the total annual emissions of either the United States or China, and surpasses the total yearly emissions from every car, truck, plane, ship and train on Earth, according to estimates provided by the United Nations.
Cheaper hybrid buses filling city fleets
In the past decade, transit systems across the country have begun using hybrid-electric buses that emit less pollution and get far better mileage than models that run solely on diesel.
Though they are more expensive than their diesel counterparts, the hybrid buses cut costs elsewhere, such as a 45 percent improvement in fuel economy that saves about 50,000 gallons of fuel per bus.
In New York, which boasts the nation’s largest hybrid bus fleet at just under 1,000, transit officials were pressed in the mid-1990s to find cleaner-burning buses to improve the city’s air quality.
“We were looking at what to do to reduce bus emissions as quickly as possible that didn’t have a major cost,” said Joseph J. Smith, senior vice president for the department of buses for the MTA New York Transit Authority.
One option was to switch to a fleet that could run on compressed natural gas, but the capital investments needed for such a transition were prohibitive. The city decided to test its first 10 hybrid-electric buses in 1998 at a cost of $1 million each. Early signs of success — including a significant drop in soot and nitrogen oxide levels — prompted the purchase of many more.
“People say that it’s expensive to switch from diesel to hybrids or natural gas,” said Daniel Becker, director of the safe climate campaign of the Center for Auto Safety in Washington. “The question is, ‘how much are your kids’ lungs worth?’”
GE, Whirlpool and Others Launch Smart Green Grid Initiative
GE, Whirlpool Corporation and a number of other companies today announced the creation of a new collaborative effort aimed at demonstrating the role of smart grid technologies and practices in the achievement of climate change goals. Called the Smart Green Grid Initiative (SGGI), the effort will include educational events at the upcoming climate change meetings in Copenhagen. SGGI has been approved by the United Nations to be an official smart grid delegation to the Copenhagen meetings. SGGI will also be sponsoring educational events in the U.S. in the weeks preceding the meetings in Copenhagen.
One of the groups that SGGI will work with in Copenhagen is the Pew Center Global Climate Change. “It is important that we look at all of the options that can help address and mitigate climate change,” said Eileen Claussen, President of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change “and smart grid’s role in enabling energy efficiency and other climate-friendly technologies deserves greater attention. We look forward to participating in an SGGI side event in Copenhagen that will help carry this message to the broader climate change community.”
“We need to help the world understand the real potential for Smart Grid technologies to help slow climate change,” said Bob Gilligan, vice president of GE Energy’s Transmission and Distribution business. “Smart Grid solutions are often viewed primarily for their efficiency and cost savings, but every kilowatt saved is also a carbon savings. Add the potential carbon benefits we get through easier integration of more renewable energy, like wind and solar, and the Smart Grid can have a major effect on the carbon impact of our energy infrastructure.”
“We launch this effort today to try to illustrate the relationship between a smart grid with smart products and technologies, and the global effort to mitigate climate change,” said Jeff Noel, corporate vice president, Communications and Public Affairs, Whirlpool Corporation. “Complementary policies in these areas benefit consumers, create jobs, and reduce environmental impact. Today, these two areas are for the most part in different silos, and there is not enough awareness or understanding of how important development of the smart grid can be to meeting climate change goals.”
India, China ink pact to fight climate change together
India and China Wednesday signed an agreement to cooperate on ways to fight climate change. They will also continue to work together in international climate deal negotiations.
There is virtually no difference between Indian and Chinese “negotiating positions” on international climate treaties, India’s Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said here shortly before the agreement was signed.
Xie Zhenhua, China’s environment minister, nodded from the dais as Ramesh made the statement. The agreement is significant in the run-up to the Copenhagen climate summit, with developed and developing countries at odds over who should reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that are causing climate change.
Ramesh said he would hold more discussions with Xie to see “what India and China should do to ensure a successful outcome at Copenhagen that not only protects the environment but promotes the interests of developing countries”.
Restore American cities with renewable energy tax credits (Rep. Brian Higgins)
Our cities form the backbone of our economy and the foundation of our international strength and competitiveness. Yet older, historically-manufacturing-based cities across America are suffering. Not only should we be reinvesting in and rehabilitating these cities, but we should give them the tools they need to leverage their greatest assets – a ready infrastructure and a workforce trained in manufacturing – into attracting investment in the 21st century version of the steel mill – the manufacture of green energy equipment such as solar panels and windmills.
America is falling far behind Europe and Asia in attracting alternative energy manufacturing. This is in large part because other countries have adopted more aggressive policies to encourage their own domestic demand for these energy technologies. We need to adopt smarter incentives too, to create the demand that will encourage manufacturers to locate in the U.S. But we should also be telling these manufacturers that when you do locate in America, you should put your factory in one of our cities that most need the investment and are also best equipped to get the job done.
In 2006 the Brookings Institution produced a study entitled “Revitalizing Weak Market Cities in the U.S.” which identified a number of cities that are suffering from stagnant economies. Taking cue from that study, we have an opportunity to utilize and restore our country’s historic cities like my own hometown of Buffalo that have the built-in infrastructure and workforce to accommodate today’s new green manufacturing companies that would make this enterprise a success.
U.S. must tackle emissions first: Chu
The United States should get its own carbon-emitting house in order before looking to slap tariffs on energy-intensive goods from developing countries like China and India, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said on Tuesday.
Lawmakers have debated adding border fees on carbon intensive goods imported from developing nations should those nations not take action to reduce their own carbon emissions.
But the fees could be a headache for the U.S. government to administer and it’s uncertain that they would be allowed by global trade rules.
“You don’t have to talk about tariffs yet,”, Chu told the Reuters Washington Summit. “Let’s figure out what the U.S. can and must do,” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Carbon tariffs have been supported by several U.S. senators, especially ones from manufacturing states that are hit hard by high unemployment. A plan for how the fees would work was included in the climate bill narrowly passed by the House of Representatives in June.
Under the House bill, tariffs on imports of energy-intensive goods like steel, glass, cement, and chemicals from China, India and other countries would be triggered late in the next decade if the developing countries did not live up to promises of taking action on climate.
CO2 emissions of developed nations rose in 2007 — U.N.
The carbon dioxide emissions of industrialized nations rose 1 percent in 2007, a “worrying rise” ahead of the climate summit in Copenhagen this December, the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat reported today.
Emissions in 2007 by 40 developed countries with reporting requirements to the United Nations were around 4 percent below 1990 levels, the secretariat said. However, from 2000 to 2007, emissions rose 3 percent.
“The continuing growth of emissions from industrialized countries remains worrying, despite the expectation of a momentary dip brought by the global recession,” said U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer.
Much of the decrease in CO2 emissions from 1990 levels is due to the economic decline of countries in Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of communism. Since 2000, emissions from these countries have risen 3 percent, the agency said.
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