41 Scientists Warn Obama Admin Against Burning Trees to Produce Electricity

This week 41 leading scientists sent a letter the the Environmental Protection Agency calling on the agency to use caution when determining what biomass — wood or plant materials — to use for power plants.  The letter states that burning trees to produce electricity increases carbon emissions and contributes to air pollution.  Burning other biomass, such as perennial grasses or harvest residues that can either regrow quickly or are not needed for other purposes, is quite different from burning forests.

While the biomass industry argues that since trees grow back they offer a carbon neutral form of energy, recent research shows that burning trees for electricity is highly inefficient. An analysis from the National Resources Defense Council states that, “By substituting trees for coal, power plants avoid fossil-fuel carbon emissions”:

“But trees are approximately half water by weight, which means they contain less potential energy per unit of carbon emissions than coal and other fossil fuels do.  In other words, to get the same amount of energy from trees as from fossil fuels, many more trees have to be burned, resulting in 40 percent more carbon emissions at the smokestack per unit of energy generated.  And even if trees are replanted immediately, it takes many decades for a tree to grow and absorb all the carbon released from the burning of just one tree.”

41 Scientists Warn Obama Admin Against Burning Trees to Produce Electricity

Climate Change Will Pose Rising Burden on U.S. Taxpayer

Such losses, says Ceres, a U.S.-based non-profit organization which promotes environmentally sustainable business practices, are set to rise considerably in the years ahead as a result of climate change, imposing an ever bigger burden on the U.S. taxpayer.

Federal and state disaster relief payouts last year alone are estimated to have cost every person in the U.S. more than $300.

Yet according to a new report by Ceres, Inaction on climate change: the cost to taxpayers, the U.S. administration, its agencies and state bodies are still not facing up to the grave financial implications of a warming world.

Climate Change Will Pose Rising Burden on U.S. Taxpayer

Is Every Day Black Friday? How Climate Inaction and Hypermaterialism Betray Our Children - By Joe Romm

Black Friday is a sort of reverse “Hunger Games,” an annual ritualized competition, but one built around overabundance, rather than scarcity.  It is perhaps the inevitable outcome of a country whose citizens are commonly referred to as “consumers.”

So what better time to think about how the global economic system is a Ponzi scheme, an utterly unsustainable system that effectively takes wealth from our children and future generations — wealth in the form of ground water, arable land, fisheries, a livable climate — to prop up our carbon-intensive lifestyles.

Now it’s true, as I’ve said, that if we ever get really serious about avoiding catastrophic climate change, we could dramatically cut national and global emissions for decades under the auspices of our basic economic system.  You could use a high and rising price for CO2 plus smart regulations to encourage efficiency at a state and national level.

Is Every Day Black Friday?  How Climate Inaction and Hypermaterialism Betray Our Children - By Joe Romm

Climate Change Disproportionately Hurting Pakistan’s Women, Report Finds

If Pakistan’s coastal region of Sindh is any indication, the adverse effects of climate change in developing countries will not be gender neutral.

The women in Sindh — a province of Pakistan with a population of approximately 42 million – have been socializing less, walking further, and encountering health issues due to shortages in fuel wood and fresh water, according to a report released Thursday by the women’s resource center Shirkat Gah. The shortages, the report said, are undoubtedly due to climate change.

“The changes in weather patterns and intensity of heat and cold have changed working patterns of people, especially female farmers,” Khawar Mumtaz, the chairperson of the National Commission on the Status of Women, told The Express Tribune.  “Substantive cropping was replaced with cash crops.  [The] second shift was from natural fertilizers to chemicals, pesticides and hybrid seeds.  Forests were replaced with banana cultivation, and dams resulted in decrease of fish.”

Climate Change Disproportionately Hurting Pakistan’s Women, Report Finds

Friday, Nov. 29, 2013

World Bank Says No to Nuclear as It Lays Out Universal Energy Plan

The leaders of the United Nations and World Bank have hatched a plan to make sure everybody in the world has access to electricity by 2030.  It would involve a huge ramp-up in electricity generation, including continued growth in renewables, and vast improvements in energy efficiency.  It would also require hundreds of billions a year in investments.

But not all energy sources are welcome.  “We don’t do nuclear energy,” World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said in announcing a push for financing for the plan.  (The World Bank doesn’t do much coal anymore either.)

The Sustainable Energy for All initiative is a joint effort by the U.N. and World Bank.

World Bank Says No to Nuclear as It Lays Out Universal Energy Plan

Attacks on Scientific Consensus on Climate Change Mirror Tactics of Tobacco Industry

The importance of public perception of scientific consensus has been established in a number of studies (e.g., here, here and here).  Perhaps nothing underscores its importance more than the strenuous efforts that opponents of climate action have exerted in attacking consensus.  For over two decades, fossil fuel interests and right-wing ideologues have sought to cast doubt on the consensus.

The most entertaining conspiracy theories are Christopher Monckton's suggestion that the high-impact journal Environmental Research Letters was created for the purpose of publishing our paper and Anthony Watts' accusation that Dana Nuccitelli has vested interests in oil.

Attacks on Scientific Consensus on Climate Change Mirror Tactics of Tobacco Industry

Thursday, Nov. 28, 2013

Banks Reluctant to Lend in Shale Plays as Evidence Mounts on Harm to Property Values Near Fracking

Over the past several years, the fossil-fuel industry has been highly adept at publicizing the economic upshots of fracking: royalty checks, decreased prices for oil and gas, profits for investors. 

But the industry is far less eager to discuss the hidden costs of the current drilling boom -- the longterm price of air and water pollution, the consequences of undermining a nascent renewable energy industry, the harms from accidents when moving and storing all the hazardous waste fracking produces. 

Add to that list of hidden costs one that is starting to grab more attention from bankers and the real estate industry: property values and mortgage problems.  New research, for example, demonstrates that the vast majority of prospective buyers say they would decline to buy a home near oil and gas drilling.

As millions of Americans sign oil and gas leases granting the right to companies to extract fossil fuels from their land, they are realizing that these documents often conflict with their mortgages, which is leading to all manner of legal and financial headaches, and make it harder to sell homes on land whose oil and gas rights are leased.

Banks Reluctant to Lend in Shale Plays as Evidence Mounts on Harm to Property Values Near Fracking

Complex Disasters in a Globalized World: A Look at the 2008 Food Crisis

Globalization means that we are all connected—for good or for bad.  Systems are connected across countries and sectors.  For instance, food production is intimately connected to energy, water, and finance, and drought in the United States can raise food prices for people all around the world.  Changes in one or a few factors in interlinked systems may trigger crises that cascade across time and space in unpredictable ways.

A new WRI issue brief, Weaving the Net [pdf], explores how complex, global crises can have profound impacts on low-income, vulnerable households. In many cases, climate change can exacerbate these impacts.  The world experienced this fact—to dramatic effect—when the food crisis unexpectedly erupted in 2008.

After being almost stable for 20 years, the FAO food price index more than doubled between 2007 and 2008, a spike unpredicted by any of the early warning systems.  This dramatic rise was due to a confluence of factors including: high oil prices due to increased demand that could not be met by increased production, a resulting demand and use of land for biofuel ethanol as a substitute for oil, low food reserves, and countries implementing food export bans to protect their domestic economies and citizens.

Complex Disasters in a Globalized World:  A Look at the 2008 Food Crisis

Financial Innovation in the Bond Market Could Pour Hundreds of Billions of Dollars into Renewable Energy Projects and Other Climate Solutions

New waves of financial innovation in renewable energy, efficiency, rail, and other energy transition solutions are finally bridging the gap between the natural lenders for such projects and those who build them.

But if those innovations are waves, then there is a veritable tsunami of capital swelling beneath them: billions of dollars worth of green bonds (also known as climate bonds) and structured finance that can deliver energy solutions for entire cities.

Financial Innovation in the Bond Market Could Pour Hundreds of Billions of Dollars into Renewable Energy Projects and Other Climate Solutions

China's Guangdong Carbon Market, World's Second Biggest, to Start in December

Guangdong, China's most populous province with more than 100 million people, is to launch a carbon permits market next month that will be the world's second biggest after the European Union.

China's Guangdong Carbon Market, World's Second Biggest, to Start in December

Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013

99 Percent of New Electric Capacity Installed in October Comes from Renewable Energy

The U.S. added 699 megawatts of new capacity to produce electricity in October and 99 percent, or 694 MW, came from renewable sources, according to a study from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).  The other five megawatts came from oil.

Solar made up the bulk of the new capacity, with 504 megawatts, followed by biomass at 124, and wind at 66.  So far in 2013, renewables have accounted for one third of new capacity in the U.S.  Solar more than doubled its capacity from 2012, contributing 20.5 percent of new capacity, beating coal, which only contributed 12.5 percent.

99 Percent of New Electric Capacity Installed in October Comes from Renewable Energy

High-Power Self-Cleaning Solar Panels via Nanoscopic Relief Patterns

Self-cleaning solar cells capable of generating high quantities of electricity may soon be a reality thanks to new findings made by researchers from the Changchun University of Science and Technology, Xi’an Technological University, and Cardiff University.

Two of the great limiters of solar cell conversion efficiency — as experienced in real-world settings — are the inherent reflectivity of the silicon surfaces of the solar modules, and their potential to get dirty.  The utilization of new nanoscopic relief patterns addresses both of these issues — applied to the surface of a solar cell, the nanoscopic relief patterns create a non-reflective surface that significantly boosts conversion efficiency, as well as making the solar cells “highly non-sticking” and self-cleaning.

High-Power Self-Cleaning Solar Panels via Nanoscopic Relief Patterns

Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2013

Belgium Claims World's Largest Offshore Wind Turbine

The largest offshore wind turbine on the planet is now spinning off of the coast of Belgium at the Belwind site.  Alstom produced the six-megawatt Haliade turbine and installed it off of the Ostend harbor last weekend.

The blades stretch out more than 73 meters and the turbine towers more than 100 meters above sea level.  The turbine does not have a gearbox but instead uses a permanent-magnet generator.  Fewer mechanical parts means less maintenance and higher reliability, according to Alstom.

The size and mechanical configuration will allow the turbine to produce about 15 percent more power than existing offshore turbines and can supply electricity to about 5000 households.

Belgium Claims World's Largest Offshore Wind Turbine

Study: U.S. Spewing 50% More Methane than EPA Says

A new study says the United States is spewing 50 percent more methane than the federal government estimates.  Much of it is coming from just three states:  Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

Scientists say that means methane may be a bigger global warming issue than they thought.  Methane is 21 times more potent at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the most abundant global warming gas, although it doesn’t stay in the air as long.

Much of that extra methane seems to be coming from the belches, flatulence and manure of livestock, and leaks from refining and drilling for oil and gas.  EPA estimates that the oil and gas sector is the largest emitter of methane in the United States.  The study was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.  The study figures that in 2008 the U.S. gave off 49 million tons of methane.

Study:  U.S. Spewing 50% More Methane than EPA Says

Sleepless in Warsaw: How a Climate Deal Was Done

The Warsaw conference saw a huddle over Durban language and yet another over compensation for poor countries.  Both in the end produced a document that did not save the planet but offered vulnerable nations a new path for addressing the irrevocable losses associated with climate disasters and keeping countries on a track to the 2015 deal.

"There are many ways to Paris that would be more beautiful and faster," Hedegaard said as the Warsaw talks finally drew to a close.  But, she said, "If you look at what we in the E.U. came here to achieve, all these elements, we have them in the text.  There is no backtracking from Durban."

How did nearly 200 countries spend two weeks and 38 hours to arrive essentially where they began?  The story begins the final Friday of the talks, which was, after the speechifying and posturing and arrival of ministers and more speechifying, when the real work really began.

Sleepless in Warsaw: How a Climate Deal Was Done

Monday, Nov. 25, 2013

Political Turbulence Threatens Long-Term Investment in Renewable Energy -- Ernst & Young

Times are tough for a number of nations that, only a short while ago, led the charge toward renewable energy.  Political wrangling over these programs has soured the investment landscape in mature markets, according to a recently released index by Ernst & Young, potentially driving away capital that governments sorely need to modernize their energy infrastructure.

Political Turbulence Threatens Long-Term Investment in Renewable Energy -- Ernst & Young

A Norwegian Oil Company Will Build Largest Floating Wind Farm Off the Coast of Scotland

Statoil, the Norwegian-based oil and gas company, received approval from the United Kingdom’s Crown Estate to build five floating wind turbines in 100 meters of water 8-12 miles off the coast of Aberdeenshire, Scotland.  Combined, they will generate 30 megawatts of energy, and the planned hub will be the largest in Europe.

Offshore wind is big in Europe, but turbines are limited to shallow waters (around 60 meters) because the pylons that support them have to be blasted into the seabed. Floating turbines, however, just require a few cables to keep the floating shaft in one spot, and they can be installed in water as deep at 700 meters (0.4 miles).

The United States’ first floating wind turbine works off the coast of Castine, Maine.  With Statoil’s decision to pull its $120 million dollar project from consideration in Maine in late October 2013, the future of offshore wind production in the state now lies primarily in the hands of the University of Maine.

A Norwegian Oil Company Will Build Largest Floating Wind Farm Off the Coast of Scotland

USA Today Lets Go Top Climate Reporter, Embraces Confusionist Bjorn Lomborg

The sub-hed in Lomborg’s latest USA Today op-ed asserts, “The recent storm in Philippines was not a result of global warming, but about poverty.”

[No, I'm not going to link to the piece because the only possible reason USA Today keeps running op-eds from someone as widely debunked as Lomborg is to get page views.  Worse, while the paper is embracing Lomborg, they have let go one of the top climate reporters in the country, Dan Vergano.  That's the worst trade since the Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees for $100,000.]

For Lomborg, climate change doesn’t actually cause the climate to change or raise sea levels or anything that might make extreme weather events more and more devastating the longer we ignore the problem.  For a good response from actual scientists, see the UK Guardian piece on super typhoon Haiyan by Dana Nuccitelli and John Abraham, which explains, “The strongest hurricanes are becoming stronger, fueled by warmer oceans caused by climate change.”

USA Today Lets Go Top Climate Reporter, Embraces Confusionist Bjorn Lomborg

Historic CO2 Emissions Require Immediate Cuts

Two scientists urge the world to start reducing greenhouse emissions right now.  There’s no time to be lost, they argue in Nature Climate Change.  Future global temperatures depend on how much carbon dioxide has accumulated in the atmosphere, so as emissions increase, so does the rate of warming.

Historic CO2 Emissions Require Immediate Cuts

Even If Emissions Stop, Carbon Dioxide Could Warm Earth for Centuries

Research suggests that even if carbon-dioxide emissions came to a sudden halt, the carbon dioxide already in Earth's atmosphere could continue to warm our planet for hundreds of years.   Thus, it might take a lot less carbon than previously thought to reach the global temperature scientists deem unsafe.

Even If Emissions Stop, Carbon Dioxide Could Warm Earth for Centuries

Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013

Some States Ignore Climate Change in Disaster Plans, but Coastal States Are on Alert

When it comes to planning for climate change disasters, some states are far ahead of others.  That conclusion came last week in a study from Columbia Law School finding that many states -- particularly in landlocked areas of the country -- are not incorporating climate change into their state hazard mitigation plans.  That lapse makes them more vulnerable to extreme events such as heat waves, hurricanes, floods and drought, the analysis says.

Some States Ignore Climate Change in Disaster Plans, but Coastal States Are on Alert

Folding Wings Will Make Boeing’s Next Airplane More Efficient

In 2020, Boeing says it will start deliveries of a new airplane, which is called 777x for now, that will be 12 percent more fuel efficient than its competition.  That would bring huge savings to airlines in reduced fuel costs.

The plane is based, as the name suggests, on Boeing’s large 777 airliner.  To get the fuel savings, Boeing is using the new GE9X engine from GE Aviation.  It will also have composite wings that are longer than the ones on the current 777.  Longer wings are known to improve efficiency, but pose a problem for negotiating airports.  One solution is to add vertical winglets, which has much the same effect.  With the 777x, Boeing has opted for longer wings that fold up when the plane is on the ground, shortening the wingspan by just over 6 meters.

Folding Wings Will Make Boeing’s Next Airplane More Efficient

Former Climate Czar: 2015 Is Make-Or-Break Year for U.N. Process

It's been a while since Yvo de Boer has been in the thick of annual climate change negotiations drama. But the former U.N. global warming chief says it's a bit like watching the old soap opera "As the World Turns."

"Each episode is very exciting, but if you don't watch for two years, you haven't missed anything," he said.

Former Climate Czar: 2015 Is Make-Or-Break Year for U.N. Process

Saturday, Nov. 23, 2013

U.N. Climate Talks Blocked Over Aid, Steps to 2015 Deal

The Warsaw meeting, which had been due to end on Friday but extended into Saturday morning, had little to show after two weeks except for a deal on new rules to protect tropical forests, which soak up carbon dioxide as they grow.

"On finance there has been no progress," Claudia Salerno of Venezuela, who represents a group of developing nations including China and Indonesia, said late on Friday.

In one step forward, governments agreed to a set of rules for safeguarding tropical forests in a deal aimed at unlocking big investments.  The new plan is backed by $280 million from the United States, Britain and Norway.

Deforestation accounts for perhaps a fifth of greenhouse gas emissions from human sources. Trees release carbon when they rot or burn.

Many delegates also said they wanted a clearer understanding of when nations will publish their plans for long-term cuts in greenhouse gases in the run-up to a summit in Paris in 2015.  That meeting is meant to agree on a global climate pact to enter into force in 2020.

A text on Saturday said that all nations should submit "intended nationally determined commitments" by the end of the first quarter of 2015, if they could.  That would give time to compare and review pledges before the Paris summit.

The United States is among those advocating pledges be made by the end of the first quarter of 2015. "It's something to build on," said European Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard, who wants pledges in 2014.

U.N. Climate Talks Blocked Over Aid, Steps to 2015 Deal

Can the 3-D Printer Help 'Green' the Auto Industry?

Henry Ford's vision was to build a motor car for the multitudes.  His answer came in 1908 with the debut of the Model T at $850.

But to make the car even cheaper and more accessible, Ford launched another innovation about five years later: the moving assembly line.  Piecing the car together in multiple stages along a conveyor belt meant the average assembly time dropped, productivity increased, Model T sales shot up and their cost came down below $300.

Today, in the quest to make transportation greener, a couple of innovative companies are turning Ford's model on its head.  For these companies, getting cleaner vehicles on the road isn't just about the ability to make cars that run on alternative fuels; it's about how and where these vehicles are made.

Can the 3-D Printer Help 'Green' the Auto Industry?

Sea Level Experts Concerned About ‘High-End’ Scenarios

A survey of nearly 100 experts on sea level rise reveals that scientists think there is a good chance the global average sea level rise can be limited to less than 3.3 feet by 2100 if stringent reductions in planet-warming greenhouse gases are rapidly instituted.  However, the survey, which is the largest such study of the views of the most active sea level researchers ever conducted, found that if manmade global warming were to be on the high end of the scale — 8°F by 2100 — the global average sea level is likely to jump by between 2.3 and 3.9 feet by the end of this century.

Worse yet, such a temperature increase could boost sea levels by up to 9.9 feet by 2300, the study found.  Such a drastic increase in sea level would not just put heavily populated coastal cities at risk of flooding, but could also jeopardize the existence of low-lying island nations.

Sea Level Experts Concerned About ‘High-End’ Scenarios

The Arctic Is Melting, So the U.S. Military Has Another Place to Defend

For the first time, the Pentagon has a comprehensive strategy for the Arctic.  This move is prompted mainly because climate change is causing the sea ice to steadily melt and allow ships to access more of the Arctic Ocean.

On Friday in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel helped to open the 5th Halifax International Security Forum by speaking about the Department of Defense’s Arctic Strategy.  The Strategy opens by saying the Arctic is at a “strategic inflection point” because “its ice cap is diminishing more rapidly than projected.”  This brings increasing “human activity, driven by economic opportunity” that ranges from shipping and fishing to fossil fuel extraction and tourism.  Most experts believe there will be no Arctic sea ice in the summer by 2030.

Secretary Hagel said in his speech that the U.S. “will remain prepared to detect, deter, prevent and defeat threats to our homeland and we will continue to exercise U.S. sovereignty in and around Alaska.”

The focus for the Pentagon in the region, according to this document, is to prepare the United States to “work collaboratively with allies and partners to promote a balanced approach to improving human and environmental security in the region.”  Arctic nations like the U.S. must focus on cooperative security at the top of the globe because there has already been conflict over how this new access to the region should be managed.  The more ice melts, the more governments and oil companies will be tempted by the oil underneath the ice.

The Arctic Is Melting, So the U.S. Military Has Another Place to Defend

Friday, Nov. 22, 2013

Baucus Proposes Axing Key Oil and Gas Tax Breaks

Oil and natural gas companies would lose some of their most lucrative tax breaks under a reform proposal unveiled Thursday.

Proposals to eliminate the industry's incentives in the tax code are nothing new from congressional Democrats, but Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus' inclusion of them in a draft of his broader tax reform proposal heightens the risk they could be swept away as part of a tax code overhaul lawmakers in both parties have said they want to enact next year.  The Montana Democrat -- a critic of some environmental regulations and proponent of the Keystone XL pipeline -- is no one's idea of Public Enemy No. 1 to the oil industry on Capitol Hill.

Baucus Proposes Axing Key Oil and Gas Tax Breaks

Shell Oil Self-Imposes Carbon Pollution Tax High Enough to Crash Coal, Erase Natural Gas’s Value-Added

Royal Dutch Shell includes a high price for carbon dioxide when evaluating new projects. The $40 a metric ton price that Shell uses would — if widely adopted — reshape domestic and international energy consumption and investment trends.

Shell discussed this policy in its 2012 Sustainability Report, but it hasn’t received much attention. CDP (aka the Carbon Disclosure Project) is putting out a report next month detailing the efforts of many companies to price carbon internally, which may help spur coverage of this important topic.

That carbon pollution price, if it were a national carbon tax, would add about $0.35 a gallon to the price of gasoline.  More importantly, it would add $0.04 a kilowatt hour to the price of coal power, which would have a huge impact.  Overall, that price level might cut U.S. CO2 emissions more than 20% below current levels, which are already more than 10% below 2005 levels. The vast majority of that CO2 reduction would come from a drop in coal use.

It’s worth noting that $40 a tonne price for carbon pollution also means that the harm natural gas does exceeds its value added to the economy by more than a factor of 4! With a serious (and rising) carbon price, natural gas would truly be a bridge fuel, since it would displace coal but not carbon-free sources like renewables.

Shell Oil Self-Imposes Carbon Pollution Tax High Enough to Crash Coal, Erase Natural Gas’s Value-Added

Halving EU Emissions by 2030 Is Affordable, Says Britain

Cutting the European Union's greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent from 1990 levels by 2030 would reduce economic growth by a fraction of a percent, Britain's minister for energy and climate change said on Thursday.

The European Commission, the EU's executive, is expected to unveil proposed 2030 green energy goals around the year end, and Britain wants the bloc to take on an ambitious target to help limit global temperature rises to below 2 degrees Celsius.

"Meeting a 50 percent target is affordable ... equivalent to a reduction in the EU annual growth rate of 0.04 percent between now and 2030," said Ed Davey, speaking at U.N. climate talks in Warsaw and citing the findings of a study done by the country.

The EU's Low Carbon Roadmap, which aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95 percent by 2050, says the 28-nation bloc can inexpensively achieve reductions of 40-44 percent by 2030.

Britain thinks the EU can attain a further 5-10 percent in cuts through buying international carbon offsets, effectively outsourcing the reductions to developing countries, where abatement is cheaper.

Halving EU Emissions by 2030 Is Affordable, Says Britain

Dispatches From Warsaw: New Partnership Between Governments and Industry to Reduce Methane

As the U.N. climate talks struggle forward in Warsaw, Todd Stern, the U.S. special envoy on climate change, announced that the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) will launch a partnership with oil and gas companies to reduce the potent greenhouse gas methane.

It is “really gratifying to get into a context where the order of the day is action,” Stern said.

The announcement is important for addressing a huge source of climate change, given that methane emissions account for approximately 15 percent of greenhouse gas emissions globally.  In the U.S., oil and gas systems represent the single largest source of methane emissions — worldwide, they represent the largest source of methane emissions after agriculture.

Reductions in methane emissions are both economically and technically possible.  Many of the emissions reduction options identified by the Natural Gas STAR program, for example, are low-cost and have a payback period of within three years.

Dispatches From Warsaw: New Partnership Between Governments and Industry to Reduce Methane

Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013

U.N.'s Ban Seeks Bold Climate Pledges at 2014 Summit; Not a Deadline

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged world leaders on Thursday to make "bold pledges" for cuts in greenhouse gases by next September to guide a deal to fight climate change but acknowledged that many nations would be late.

Ban also told Reuters that rich nations' promises at U.N. climate talks in Warsaw for new funds to help the poor tackle more heatwaves, floods and rising sea levels caused by global warming were "insufficient".

Ban will host a one-day summit in New York on September 23, 2014.  Many developing nations want it to be a deadline for rich countries to outline planned cuts in greenhouse gases beyond 2020 as a key step towards a global climate deal in 2015.

U.N.'s Ban Seeks Bold Climate Pledges at 2014 Summit; Not a Deadline

Nitrous Oxide Emissions Could Double by 2050 -UNEP

Nitrous oxide (N20) emissions could almost double by 2050 if more aggressive action is not taken, undermining global efforts to curb climate change, the United Nations' Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Thursday.

Commonly known as the "laughing gas", nitrous oxide exists naturally in the atmosphere in trace amounts. However, it is the third most potent greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide and methane due to human activities such as agriculture, fossil fuel combustion, waste water management and industrial processes.

N2O emissions into the atmosphere are currently around 5.3 million tones a year but this could almost double by 2050 if efforts to cut the gas are not increased, the UNEP report said.  More efficient use of fertilizers, less meat consumption, and improved waste water treatment are some ways to cut N20.

Emissions could be cut by 1.8 million tones a year from 2020 and the benefits could be worth over $160 billion annually across sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, transportation and electricity production, UNEP said.

Nitrous Oxide Emissions Could Double by 2050 -UNEP

Ministers Arrive in Warsaw to Break Deadlock at UN Climate Conference

Environment ministers from all over the world began arriving here Wednesday for the UN’s 19th climate change conference, as a new report predicted global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions will reach a record 36 billion tonnes this year.


Ministers Arrive in Warsaw to Break Deadlock at UN Climate Conference

Just 90 Companies Are Responsible for Two-Thirds of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The climate crisis of the 21st century has been caused largely by just 90 companies, which between them produced nearly two-thirds of the greenhouse gas emissions generated since the dawning of the industrial age, new research suggests.

The companies range from investor-owned firms — household names such as Chevron, Exxon, and BP — to state-owned and government-run firms.

The analysis, which was welcomed by the former Vice President Al Gore as a “crucial step forward,” found that the vast majority of the firms were in the business of producing oil, gas, or coal.  The findings have been accepted for publication in the journal Climatic Change.

Just 90 Companies Are Responsible for Two-Thirds of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

NOAA: Zooplankton Decline Reported in North Atlantic; Ocean Temperatures Remain Warm

The microscopic creatures that make up a critical link in the ocean food chain declined dramatically the first half of this year in the North Atlantic as ocean temperatures remained among the warmest on record, federal scientists say.

Springtime plankton blooms off the coast of northern New England were well below average this year, leading to the lowest levels ever seen for the tiny organisms that are essential to maintaining balance in the ocean food chain, said Kevin Friedland, a marine scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The absence of the normal surge of plankton in the spring is a concern because that’s when cod and haddock and many other species produce offspring, Friedland said.

The spring surge also provides the foundation for normally abundant zooplankton levels that have made waters from the Middle Atlantic to New England productive for centuries.

NOAA: Zooplankton Decline Reported in North Atlantic; Ocean Temperatures Remain Warm

Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2013

Dirty Energy Subsidies Still 5x More Than Pledged Climate Aid, Activists Ask #WTF?

Oil Change International released a briefing paper today at COP19 in Warsaw revealing that subsidies lavished on the fossil fuel industry by wealthy industrialized nations add up to more than five times the amount of climate finance aid the same countries have so far pledged to deliver to poorer nations to reduce their global warming emissions and adapt to manmade climate change.

Despite the fact that industrialized countries have pledged to scale up to $100 billion in annual climate aid by 2020, they are still pumping more money in the opposite direction, subsidizing fossil fuels production and consumption instead of helping the developing countries adapt and mitigate against climate change impacts. 

The G-20 has unanimously supported phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies since 2009, and re-affirmed its commitment to doing so this fall, so there is no reason for this disconnect to persist, other than the powerful grip that the oil and coal industries have over many of these governments currently.

In an unrelated but congruous event yesterday at the national stadium where COP19 is taking place, activists staged a protest they dubbed #WTF – Where's the Finance – to demand accountability from countries that have failed to deliver on pledged climate finance.

Dirty Energy Subsidies Still 5x More Than Pledged Climate Aid, Activists Ask #WTF?

Norway, UK, U.S. Allocate $280 mln to Stop Deforestation

The governments of Norway, Britain and the United States on Wednesday said they will allocate $280 million of their multi-billion dollar climate change finances to a new initiative aimed at halting deforestation.

Norway, UK, U.S. Allocate $280 mln to Stop Deforestation

Invest, Divest: Renewable Investment to Hit $630 Billion a Year in 2030, Fossil Fuel Stocks at Risk Today

Bloomberg New Energy Finance has a piece for investors on how the smart money is beginning to notice the quicksand on which fossil fuel stock prices are built.

BNEF founder Michael Liebreich posed a good news, bad news story last April:

“By 2030 the growth in fossil fuel use will almost have stopped,” Liebreich told renewable-energy investors…. “We’re told that it needs to happen by 2020” in order to prevent irreversible climate damage.  “That won’t happen.  But by 2030, it pretty much will.”

Yes, homo “sapiens” will miss by just 10 years or so the window to avert catastrophic climate change — resulting in possibly hundreds of years of misery for billions and billions of people.  The tragic irony is the fossil fuel industry is essentially doomed no matter what — but humanity wouldn’t be, if we were just a tad more “sapiens.”

Invest, Divest: Renewable Investment to Hit $630 Billion a Year in 2030, Fossil Fuel Stocks at Risk Today

Dispatches from Warsaw: U.N. Leadership Issues Firm Call to Action on Climate Change

As the second week of the United Nations climate negotiations slogged on, high-level leaders from the United Nations gave an impassioned call to action today, strongly urging countries to seize the opportunity this week to chart a course toward an international agreement in 2015.

“The time is now … We have been talking and planning and analyzing, and talking and planning and analyzing.  But we need to act now … We’re running out of time,” declared Christiana Figueres, the Executive Director of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change during a high-level panel discussion in Warsaw.  The event included top leadership from the UNFCCC, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme, and World Meteorological Organization, among others.

Dispatches from Warsaw: U.N. Leadership Issues Firm Call to Action on Climate Change

Global Carbon Emissions Set to Reach Record 36 Billion Tons in 2013

Global emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels are set to rise again in 2013, reaching a record high of 36 billion tons - according to new figures from the Global Carbon Project.  The biggest contributors to fossil fuel emissions in 2012 were China (27 per cent), the United States (14 per cent), the European Union (10 per cent), and India (6 per cent).  The projected rise for 2013 comes after a similar rise of 2.2 per cent in 2012.

Global Carbon Emissions Set to Reach Record 36 Billion Tons in 2013

Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013

Gettysburg Address Redux: In Four Score and Seven Years, Will Government of the People Perish from Earth? - by Joe Romm

Tuesday marks the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg address, which Churchill termed, “the ultimate expression of the majesty of Shakespeare’s language.”  Coincidentally, four score and seven years from now is the year 2100, a time frame for global warming impacts that climatologists have analyzed in detail.

But the speech is more than a master class in rhetoric.  It is about whether a nation “conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal … can long endure.”  It is about ensuring that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Gettysburg Address Redux: In Four Score and Seven Years, Will Government of the People Perish from Earth?

Colorado Governor Proposes Strict Limits on Greenhouse Gas Leaks from Drilling

Gov. John W. Hickenlooper of Colorado proposed on Monday tough new limits on leaks of methane and other gases from well sites and storage tanks.  Supporters called the limits, which would exceed existing federal rules, the most sweeping in the nation.

Although the rules would also cover traditional petroleum and gas exploration and production, pollution from fracking — hydraulic fracturing, used to extract gas and oil from rock formations — is the driving force behind the proposal.

The proposal, which would directly regulate emissions of methane, an especially potent greenhouse gas, for the first time, came just after Colorado voters indicated their unease with the state’s booming oil and gas industry in elections this month.

Mr. Hickenlooper developed the proposal in negotiations with three of the state’s largest oil and gas developers — Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Encana Corporation and Noble Energy — and the Environmental Defense Fund, a national advocacy group.

Colorado Governor Proposes Strict Limits on Greenhouse Gas Leaks from Drilling  

Yearly Losses from Disasters Quadruple as World Bank Links Typhoon to Climate Change

Annual economic losses from natural disasters have almost quadrupled in the past three decades, the World Bank said in a report that recommends investments ranging from early-warning systems to safer roads and buildings.

The average reported losses rose from around $US50 billion ($53 billion) a year in the 1980s to almost $US200 billion a year in the past decade, totaling $US3.8 trillion from 1980 to 2012, according to the report, which used data by Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurer.  Three-quarters of the total was due to extreme weather, it said.

Typhoon Haiyan “brought into sharp focus how climate change is intensifying the severity of extreme weather events, which hurts the poor the most,” World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said in an e-mailed statement.  “The world can no longer afford to put off action to slow greenhouse emissions, and help countries prepare for a world of greater climate and disaster risks.”

Yearly Losses from Disasters Quadruple as World Bank Links Typhoon to Climate Change