In his second inaugural address, President Obama promised to take on climate change as a priority in his second term. “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that failure to do so would betray our children and future generations,” he said at the start of one of the longest passages devoted to a single subject in the speech.
But the president did not detail exactly how he intended to act, given the hostility in Congress and industry to taxes on carbon dioxide emissions or any broad-gauged legislative effort to address the problem. Officials said that he would put some flesh on the bones of his promise in his State of the Union address next week and in his budget proposal.
Mr. Obama has a limited number of administrative options for cutting climate-altering gases and meeting his public pledge of reducing United States greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.
On Wednesday, the World Resources Institute offered a helpful guide to how the administration might keep the president’s promise. The report, “Can the U.S. Get There from Here?” lays out a series of policy steps the administration can take without Congressional action or approval. Read more…
Reducing carbon dioxide emissions by enough to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) is “still within reach,’’ the International Energy Agency reported on Monday, but at the moment, trends in energy use are running in the wrong direction.
International Energy Agency
In the latest version of Energy Technology Perspectives, a report issued biennially by the agency, it said the technology to achieve that goal is available. But as Maria van der Hoeven, executive director of the agency, put it, “we’re not using it.’’ Since the agency published its first Energy Technology Perspectives in 2006, the evidence of climate change has only grown stronger, she said, but “if anything, it has fallen further down the political agenda.’’
Coal consumption, for example, is still rising around the world, and that is “the single most problematic trend in the relationship between energy and climate change,” the report said. Building more efficient coal-fired plants operating at higher temperatures could cut emissions by 30 percent per kilowatt-hour. But to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, coal use would have to fall by 45 percent from 2009 levels, the report said.
Natural gas is not the answer to this problem, the report points out. Gas-fired plants may emit only half as much carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour generated than coal-fired plants, but by 2025 the amount emitted will be higher than the average for the entire electric system, it said.
The United States and some other countries are feverishly building new natural-gas-fired generating equipment, the report adds, but the level of emissions from gas raises “questions around the long-term viability of some gas infrastructure investment if climate objectives are to be met.” Such plants may eventually have to install carbon capture equipment if the world is to meet carbon goals, the report said. Read more…
NASA presents a time-lapse animation that tracks the earth’s ocean and sea surface currents over a two-year period. [CNET]
The Environmental Protection Agency again delays issuing final rules on air pollution from natural gas wells drilled through hydraulic fracturing. Under a consent degree, it had faced a Tuesday deadline on rules for emissions from gas wells, compressors, oil storage tanks and other oil-and-gas sector equipment, but the parties agreed on an extension. [The Hill]
Texas ranchers are worried about the expiration of an exemption that allowed them to hunt and trade the scimitar-horned oryx, the addax and the dama gazelle. Without that ability, the ranchers say, they will lose the economic incentive to breed and maintain the herds, efforts which have helped contribute to population rebounds for these species. [The San Antonio Express-News]
The European Commission acknowledged on Wednesday that reductions in greenhouse gas emissions linked to the use of some forms of bioenergy — burning wood for electricity, for example — could be overestimated because of a “serious accounting error.”
The draft opinion, described here in an earlier post, could have wide repercussions. It suggests that a far narrower variety of crops for biofuels and bioenergy should be grown and that organizations like the International Energy Agency and the United Nations probably need to lower their emissions forecasts related to the use of biofuels and bioenergy. Read more…
The Associated PressPresident Nicolas Sarkozy of France would like to see a tariff placed on goods coming into Europe from countries that don’t have carbon dioxide reduction policies.
Is the time approaching when the European Union will impose greenhouse gas controls on products and services imported from parts of the world that lack such regulations?
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France seems to hope so.
Addressing reporters at a European Union meeting in Brussels, Mr. Sarkozy reiterated his view on Friday that imports from countries with looser environmental rules should be penalized.
Europe put in place an emissions-trading system in 2005 that forces businesses to pay more to release more greenhouse gases. The so-called border adjustment tax favored by Mr. Sarkozy could help steel, chemical and other major polluters in Europe cope with cheaper imports from overseas.
Mr. Sarkozy said he could garner the support of other European Union nations, but that remains to be seen. Such a tax would most likely face stiff resistance among several leaders of the union, who would need convincing that a new form of tariff barrier was more important than furthering the cause of free trade.
As it happens, Europe already is on track to put in place another form of extraterritorial carbon tax beginning in 2012. That is when all airlines arriving at, or leaving from, European airports will need to buy some pollution credits, including carriers like American Airlines.
Governments in European Union countries with busy airports like Germany and Britain will mostly oversee the system. Those governments will at first issue airlines with a majority of free permits. They also will sell airlines the remaining permits they need in auctions, representing a huge boost for European treasuries.
The law sets mandatory caps on emissions beginning in 2012.
The trucks, which cost $255,000 each, have a potential range of up to 400 miles, according to Vision. They will be put through a series of tests to determine their ability to function in a variety of capacities, including short- and medium-distance hauling, hauling different size loads and seeing how they operate in a variety of situations, including different road conditions, according to Chris Cannon, the manager of the port’s clean truck program.
A coalition of conservation groups is urging climate negotiators to protect the the northern boreal forests and peatlands.
A coalition of conservation groups are calling on international climate negotiators in Copenhagen next month to develop land-use policy incentives intended to encourage governments to protect natural carbon storehouses — especially those in northern boreal forests and peatlands found in Canada, Scandinavia and Russia.
“The 208.1 billion tonnes of carbon estimated to be stored by forest and peatland ecosystems within Canada’s Boreal Forest region is equivalent to 26 years worth of the world’s carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning, as measured in 2006,” noted a report released Wednesday by the Canadian Boreal Initiative.
Undisturbed northern boreal forests, the report says, account for almost 60 percent of the world’s forest-based carbon sinks. By contrast to rain forests, much of the boreal carbon is stored in underground root and soil systems, and will accumulate for thousands of years.
Its extent has been underestimated, the authors say.
The Initiative’s executive director, Larry Innes, said the Kyoto Protocol either failed to encourage forest conservation measures or created “perverse incentives” that prompted countries in southeastern Asia to clear cut rain forests to make way for palm plantations, which generate oil for biodiesel production mandated by European Union fuel additive rules.
Deforestation and other land-use disturbances, the coalition’s scientists estimate, accounted for a fifth of global anthropengic carbon emissions during the 1990s.
The bank estimates that Mexico could flatline its emissions growth, using a variety of measures, for about $64 billion over the next 20 years — or $3 billion annually.
That amounts to just 0.4 percent of the country’s gross domestic product each year, according to the study, to keep emissions levels from rising significantly over the 659 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent released in 2008.
Without the measures, emissions in the country are expected to grow by 73 percent, to 1,137 million tons in 2030.
“The study shows in different proportions in different countries things that can be done today with existing technologies,” Todd M. Johnson, one of the report’s authors, said in an interview.
The report is one of six studies on low-carbon growth in emerging economies that the bank has been carrying out — though it is the only one likely to be ready before the United Nations climate change conference next month in Copenhagen. The other analyses — for China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia – have been stalled by bureaucracy or by governments’ reluctance to provide data ahead of the global negotiations, according to the bank.
The Mexican government, meanwhile, published its Special Program on Climate Change [pdf], which proposes to reduce carbon emissions by 11 percent over 2000 levels by 2030. The bank has granted Mexico $2.7 billion in loans during 2008 to 2009 to support environmental sustainability.
“They’re not just preaching temperance from the bar stool,” Mr. Johnson said.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York is expected to make a show of support next week at a meeting of the Covenant of Mayors in Brussels. (Photo: The Associated Press)
Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York plans to issue a declaration on Tuesday offering his support for a European Union initiative binding participating cities to a 20 percent reduction in emissions by 2020 — though he won’t be committing his city to the target.
The goal grows out of the Covenant of Mayors — a European initiative with a core mission of pushing cities around the globe toward enhanced energy efficiency and cleaner energy production.
But like mayors and officials from several other non-European cities like Buenos Aires in Argentina and Christchurch in New Zealand, who are participating in the event, Mr. Bloomberg is not expected to commit his city to the binding elements of the agreement.
Mr. Bloomberg is expected to give his support in a video message that will be shown at European Union headquarters in Brussels where the Covenant of Mayors will expand the number of member cities to about 400 from the current number of 340.
Smoke stacks seen at dusk near Bergheim, Germany. The price for carbon emissions permits on the European trading market is falling precipitously. (Photo: Bloomberg)
On Wednesday, the price of a ton of carbon dioxide in Europe fell below 10 euros, or a little less than $13 and a record low for the current trading period – before closing the trading day at 10.45 euros.
At its low, the price of carbon was down about 70 percent from its peak last summer.
The explanation is fairly straightforward. Recession and a troubled economic outlook mean less consumption. That in turn means companies are producing less, requiring them to use less power. And so demand for permits to emit CO2 drops off.
Companies and traders are selling excess permits for cash, driving prices south.
The price volatility coincides with an increasingly lively debate about whether to expand the system to other parts of the world. In the United States, positions are hardening on whether to adopt trading or a tax as part of a new climate change bill, which could come before the end of the year.
Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer of California said Tuesday that a cap-and-trade bill was a top priority. (Photo: The Associated Press)
Senator Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat, promised today to draft cap-and-trade legislation for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in as a little as a few weeks — and definitely “before the end of the year.”
Speaking at a press conference, Ms. Boxer, the chairwoman of the Senate environment and public works committee, said, “I want to get a bill out of committee that every member has a stake in.”
Ms. Boxer laid out the following six broad principles, but did not provide specific details concerning future legislation:
• A commitment to reducing emissions to levels guided by science to avoid global warming.
• Setting enforceable short- and long-term emissions targets.
More consumers are turning to gardening again. (Photo: Mia Aigotti for The New York Times)
Emissions created by food are a major source of concern for climate-conscious consumers.
One cause for that concern is the environmental cost of air freighting produce like Kenyan green beans to supermarkets in wealthier countries like Britain. Foods with high carbon footprints also are grown closer to home, inside heated greenhouses, for instance, or because the produce required large amounts of fertilizers derived from fossil fuels.
The credit crisis may actually spur more greenhouse emissions in the long term, one analyst suggests. (Photo: Bloomberg News)
The ongoing economic turmoil will slow carbon dioxide emissions as factories produce fewer goods and plants and cars burn fewer fossil fuels. That sounds like a good thing at a time when the industrialized world is trying to stabilize emissions.
But there is a big a sting in the tail.
The credit crunch also is expected to interrupt the cycle of investment that had been underway in lower carbon forms of energy, including projects for renewable energy and new nuclear reactors. Analysts now are warning that the lack of new, lower carbon generation capacities now will trigger higher CO2 emissions in the future — certainly higher than would have been the case without the current turmoil.
“Security of supply and CO2 emissions curbing issues will be exacerbated after the crisis,” Colette Lewiner, head of energy practice at the French consulting firm Capgemini, wrote in a new report published on Monday.
Ms. Lewiner warned that some governments like Spain anticipating a reduction in tax revenues already are limiting their spending on renewable energies by curbing incentives for solar development. Because renewable energies need subsidies to be financially competitive, such decisions could jeopardize their growth.
Both biofuels and carbon capture technologies could have an “unfavorable effect” on air quality, a Dutch report found.
Earlier this month we noted that scientists had begun calling for cool heads in the pursuit of alternative energies and climate change measures — so as to avoid unintended consequences.
Following that trend, a preliminary study released Thursday (PDF) by a consortium led by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency looked at the potential ramifications of a Dutch plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — dubbed “Clean and Efficient.”
The study found that saving energy and increasing the use of wind energy could lead to a reduction in the emission of air-polluting compounds as well as greenhouse gases.
But it also found “uncertainties” about the effect of using biofuels. It warned that blending biofuels in diesel or gasoline could create increased emissions of air pollutants and that using blends with high amounts of biofuels required specially adapted vehicles, to avoid increased air pollution. The study also warned that large-scale capture and storage of carbon dioxide would decrease sulphur dioxide emissions, but might lead to increased nitrogen oxide emissions
New emissions rules will make this a more expensive prospect in Europe. (Photo: Reuters)
Feeling guilty about air travel? Soon you could be flying frequently to Europe with fewer qualms — but you’ll probably pay more for the privilege.
By early next decade most of the jets that take off or land from busy airports in cities like London, Paris and Frankfurt will have to comply with European rules on greenhouse gases. The system will include non-European carriers like American Airlines and Singapore Airlines.
United States-based carriers and officials in Washington say that including airlines in regional greenhouse gas initiatives will do little to reduce emissions. They also argue the Europeans should wait for a global deal covering flights in all countries. But the Europeans say there has been too little progress at the International Civil Aviation Organization, a U.N. body, so they are proceeding with their own system.