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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 1st, 2009 we posted about the event at http://www.sustainabilitank.info/2009/06… now we get further details at http://www.economist.com/daily/news/disp… ——– Greenland - Feeling free Celebrating semi-independence with a feast of whale Day one
Over a breakfast of herring and salmon in the town’s main hotel one could bump into a visiting bishop from Copenhagen bedecked in medallions; Iceland’s affable president; or one of a wide array of Danish royals. We outsiders then took turns trooping through the town’s fish market, gawping at mounds of halibut and at the bloody work of a sealmonger who obligingly butchered a carcass. On the streets the mood was restrained and good-natured, only rising to a murmur of excitement when the official distribution of whale-meat began. The local government had claimed special dispensation to harpoon two rare Greenlandic whales. One of the pair, it was widely said, had turned out to be 200 years old, although I do not understand just how one determines such a fact: perhaps it is like counting the rings of a felled tree. Officials then handed out two tonnes of the flesh to the 56,000 or so residents of this massive territory. In Nuuk that was a simple matter: whale munchers crowded a sports hall for lunch, then strolled home with meat in bulging plastic bags. But the rest of Greenland is sparsely populated. There are tiny settlements (the smallest has a single inhabitant, a middle-aged man who refuses to move to the nearest town) and small towns spread far north of the Arctic circle and along Greenland’s remote and icy eastern coast. Delivering whale, on time, to the scattered masses looked like an immense bureaucratic task. Local television news reported it was only possible thanks to the many small, red propeller-planes of Air Greenland. The survival of so many small settlements across the vast country is made possible by the largesse of the Greenland state, which in turn relies on billions of kroner doled out by distant Denmark. That Denmark spends the equivalent of more than $11,000 per Greenlander, each year, might explain why the locals, though delighted to be claiming more powers of self-government, are not yet rushing for complete independence. One afternoon in Nuuk, at a kaffemik, a sort of family party that involves drinking coffee, wine and beer—in this case to celebrate the school graduation of a daughter—guests said that they were thrilled by their new government. But they were also adamant that Greenland could not yet afford full independence. “Not now, it’s good as it is for now,” explained one woman. A visiting Danish journalist said wryly, while sipping a bâja pilluarit (celebration beer), “psychologically, the state is my father, you know?” And yet people feel great pride at Greenland’s taking on more control: over police and the courts, over local government and the schools and dozens more things. Greenlandic is to become an official language, and the nation feels it is making itself noticed on the world stage. “It’s our land, our language. We have to do it ourselves, not rely on others doing it,” explains a woman in national dress wearing white seal boots and trousers. Despite their love of traditions, Greenlanders are under no illusion that they will return to a past of surviving on what they hunt. The celebrations and the food of old will come and go, but nobody will be asked to subsist on seal or whale.
A traditional singer, banging on in the traditional way So Greenland has a singing prime minister. Mr Kleist is not the only musical politician: one could pull together a decent band with Bill Clinton on sax, Tony Blair on guitar, Madagascar’s young DJ-turned-coup-plotter-turned-president mixing the music backstage and Kim Jong Il on the tambourine. But Mr Kleist is distinct in this way: he leads a tiny country obsessed with producing music, in which music and politics are now swirling together in a heady mix. At the weekend I spend a couple of hours at Greenland’s main recording studio, Atlantic Music, with its owner, Ejvind Elsner, a large and jovial man who has been producing local bands for two decades. He believes that young musicians are now changing the politics of his country. Before the recent election, opposition parties helped to fund a controversial new album by a band, Liima Inui, which provoked the ire of the old government. “Republik” helped to express public anger with politicians who had been caught fiddling their expenses, and to whip up calls for self-rule. Mr Elsner claims that he had calls from officials who threatened to close his business, or at least to block access to radio and television, unless the album was scrapped. “You’ll be finished,” warned a leading figure of the old ruling party. Most offensive, apparently, was the idea of promoting “Republik” while the Danish queen visited. Instead the album has become a theme for the celebrations of self-governance Liima Inui, an impressively large group, headlined the main rock concert on the night of the self-governance celebrations. Perhaps because of those long, dark winters, with so little else to do, Greenlanders have developed a wide variety of music, relative to their small population. The Danes introduced oompah bands, much intoning of hymns and a rural Nordic folk habit of singing jolly stories to each other. But Greenlandic customs are more entertaining. Traditions such as throat warbling (when two young women, typically, stand nose-to-nose and produce a disconcerting wail) and singing along as a seal-skin drum is tapped with a stick, are merging with new forms of Greenlandic pop, rock and hip-hop. Mr Elsner sees a distinct a Greenlandic sound growing up, perhaps to rival successful recent Nordic musical exports from Iceland (Bjork, for example) and Norway (Røyksopp). More important, the musicians could play a powerful social role at home. “In future the music will mean a lot more for the people. We used to sing about love; now it is about politics, nature, social problems. People are not great at talking to each other, but they can have a say with music. We have to use the music to overcome our problems.” Local rappers are most explicit in taking on Greenland’s social difficulties, singing about suicide, sexual abuse and corrupt politicians. There are other serious problems to address: alcoholism has long plagued much of northern Europe, so the governments of Nordic countries have used high taxes and restricted sales to limit binge drinking. The indigenous people of Greenland, the Inuit, are particularly vulnerable to alcohol, but many of the local Danes are equally heavy drinkers. In a society where many rely on funds doled out from Denmark, alcohol is one way to pass the time. But this weekend is not a notably drunken affair. Visiting a couple of Nuuk’s smoky bars nothing more rowdy or aggressive is on show than one might find in London on a Friday evening. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 22nd, 2009 GREENLANDERS take another step towards full independence from Denmark on Sunday June 21st, the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere. The 56,000 residents will be granted an expanded version of home rule, after a referendum in 2008 showed more than 75% support for the territory taking over responsibility for police, justice and security. In time Greenland, which has been ruled by Denmark since the 18th century and which continues to receive hefty subsidies, is expected to claim status as an independent country. Its large deposits of minerals, including oil and precious stones, could make the sparsely populated land particularly rich.
For background, see article Fondly, Greenland Loosens Danish Rule
Some of Greenland’s 58,000 people in Nuuk on Sunday at a ceremony giving the country powers of self-governance.
By SARAH LYALL, June 21, 2009
NUUK, Greenland — The thing about being from Greenland, said Susan Gudmundsdottir Johnsen, is that many outsiders seem to have no clue where it actually is. Related Times Topics: Greenland
“They say, ‘Oh, my God, Greenland?’ It’s like they’ve never heard of it,” said Ms. Johnsen, 36, who was born in Iceland but has lived on this huge, largely frozen northern island for 25 years. “I have to explain: ‘Here you have a map. Here’s Europe. The big white thing is Greenland.’ ” But Greenland, with 58,000 people and only two traffic lights, both of them here in the capital, is now securing its place in the world. On Sunday, amid solemn ceremony and giddy celebration, it ushered in a new era of self-governance that sets the stage for eventual independence from Denmark, its ruler since 1721. The move, which allows Greenland to gradually take responsibility over areas like criminal justice and oil exploration, follows a referendum last year in which 76 percent of voters said they wanted self-rule. Many of the changes are deeply symbolic. Kalaallisut, a traditional Inuit dialect, is now the country’s official language, and Greenlanders are now recognized under international law as a separate people from Danes. Thrillingly, the Greenlandic government now gets to call itself by its Inuit name, Naalakkersuisut — the first time in history, officials said, that the word has been used in a Danish government document. “It’s a new relationship based on equality,” said Greenland’s new, charismatic prime minister, Kuupik Kleist, speaking of the balance of power between Greenland and Denmark. He compared the situation to a marriage in which the wife was bossing around her henpecked husband. “From today,” he said, “the man in the house has as much say as the wife.” But this is a delicate time, full of hope and trepidation in equal measure. Few Greenlanders graduate from college. The country is rife with social problems like alcoholism, unemployment and domestic violence. Infrastructure improvements are punishingly expensive and desperately needed in a place where, for instance, people travel by boat or plane because there are no roads connecting towns. Meanwhile, global warming is rapidly melting the mighty icecap that covers some 80 percent of Greenland’s 840,000 square miles. Although that is destroying traditional hunting livelihoods, it also brings new opportunities for exploring and exploiting what could be vast reserves of oil and minerals deep beneath Greenland’s surface and in the waters around it. Under the new self-government agreement, Greenland will get half of any proceeds from oil or minerals. The other half will go to Denmark, to be deducted from the grant of 3.4 billion kroner, or $637 million, that it gives Greenland each year. The hope is that eventually the subsidy can cease altogether and Greenland will be ready for independence. The prospect of Greenland’s benefiting from what may be a lucrative oil and mineral business raises an obvious question: What’s in it for Denmark? “It’s not a question about money,” the Danish prime minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, said in an interview here. “This is a question of respecting Greenlandic people and giving them the right to decide their own destiny.” The right to self-determination, particularly for indigenous people like Greenland’s Inuit, more commonly known as Eskimos, was a recurring theme this weekend. Two exotically dressed visitors from Norway’s Sami Parliament, which represents the country’s reindeer herders, appeared at a trade exposition here on Saturday, marveling at how far the Greenlanders had come. “They’re many steps farther along than we are,” said Marianne Balto, Parliament’s vice president. “It gives hope to the Sami people.” Iceland’s president, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, was there, looking at it from the other side, recalling how his country ended hundreds of years of Danish rule with independence in 1944. Bent Liisberg, a lawyer from Norway, which was owned for hundreds of years by Denmark and then by Sweden, had much the same perspective. On Sunday, he was carrying a backpack from which protruded a little Greenlandic flag, its red-and-white design representing the sea, sky and sun. “This is a great day for small nations,” he said. Nuuk is a curious city, where old, brightly colored wooden houses built by the original Danish settlers coexist with rows of down-on-their-heels apartment buildings that are almost Soviet in their soullessness. Its harbor is impossibly quaint and its views breathtakingly beautiful; its center is indifferently maintained and virtually paralyzed by traffic at 8 o’clock every morning, when the workday begins. It has 15,000 residents, and many seemed to be out and about at 7:30 a.m., when the procession down to the harbor for the self-government celebrations began. It snowed the day before — giving a strange feeling at a time of year when there is virtually no darkness — but on Sunday the sun blazed across the water. Representatives from 17 countries and territories, including the United States and the Faroe Islands (also owned by Denmark), were there. Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, wearing a traditional Inuit costume with shorts made of seal fur and a short, beaded shawl, solemnly handed over the official self-government document to the chairman of Greenland’s Parliament. For Greenlanders, who can feel like second-class citizens in Denmark, the new arrangement bolsters a national pride they almost didn’t know they had. “It is nothing that we will feel on a day-to-day basis, but the symbolic value of this gives people so much more confidence,” said Peter Lovstrom, 28, who works at the national art museum in Nuuk. He said it was impossible to feel rancor toward Denmark, given all of the intermarriage and connections between the countries. “We all get along. We have to get along,” Mr. Lovstrom said. “But I feel a bit more Greenlandic now.” Correction: A previous version of this article contained an incorrect amount in Danish kroner for the grant given by Denmark to Greenland each year. It is 3.4 billion kroner, not million. ———————
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Arctic nations say no Cold War; military stirs.
Reuters, Sun Jun 21, 2009 8:16pm EDT
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent OSLO (Reuters) - Arctic nations are promising to avoid new “Cold War” scrambles linked to climate change, but military activity is stirring in a polar region where a thaw may allow oil and gas exploration or new shipping routes. The six nations around the Arctic Ocean are promising to cooperate on challenges such as overseeing possible new fishing grounds or shipping routes in an area that has been too remote, cold and dark to be of interest throughout recorded history. But global warming is spurring long-irrelevant disputes, such as a Russian-Danish standoff over who owns the seabed under the North Pole or how far Canada controls the Northwest Passage that the United States calls an international waterway. “It will be a new ocean in a critical strategic area,” said Lee Willett, head of the Marine Studies Programme at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies in London, predicting wide competition in the Arctic area. “The main way to project influence and safeguard interests there will be use of naval forces,” he said. Ground forces would have little to defend around remote coastlines backed by hundreds of km (miles) of tundra. Many leading climate experts now say the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free by 2050 in summer, perhaps even earlier, after ice shrank to a record low in September 2007 amid a warming blamed by the U.N. Climate Panel on human burning of fossil fuels. Previous forecasts had been that it would be ice-free in summers toward the end of the century. Among signs of military concern, a Kremlin document on security in mid-May said Russia may face wars on its borders in the near future because of control over energy resources — from the Middle East to the Arctic. Russia, which is reasserting itself after the collapse of the Soviet Union, sent a nuclear submarine in 2008 across the Arctic under the ice to the Pacific.The new class of Russian submarine is called the Borei — “Arctic Wind.” —–
NANOOK Canada runs a military exercise, Nanook, every year to reinforce sovereignty over its northern territories. Russia faces five NATO members — the United States, Canada, Norway, Iceland and Denmark via Greenland — in the Arctic. In February, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper criticized Russia’s “increasingly aggressive” actions after a bomber flew close to Canada before a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama. And last year Norway’s government decided to buy 48 Lockheed Martin F-35 jets at a cost of 18 billion crowns ($2.81 billion), rating them better than rival Swedish Saab’s Gripen at tasks such as surveillance of the vast Arctic north. Much may be at stake. The U.S. Geological Survey estimated last year that the Arctic holds 90 billion barrels of undiscovered oil — enough to supply current world demand for three years. And Arctic shipping routes could be short-cuts between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans in summer even though uncertainties over factors such as icebergs, insurance costs or a need for hardened hulls are likely to put off many companies. Other experts say nations can easily get along in the North. “The Arctic area would be of interest in 50 or 100 years — not now,” said Lars Kullerud, President of the University of the Arctic. “It’s hype to talk of a Cold War.” He said an area in dispute between Russia and Denmark at the North Pole was no bigger than a “grey zone” in the Barents Sea over which Russia and Norway have been at odds for decades and where seismic surveys indicate gas deposits in shallow waters. “The talk of a new Cold War is exaggerated,” said Jakub Godzimirski, of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. “We have seen a lot of shipping traffic going all over the world without tensions,” he said. Governments also insist a thaw does not herald tensions. “We will seek cooperative strategies,” U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg told Reuters during a meeting of Arctic Council foreign ministers in Tromsoe, Norway. “We are not planning any increase in our armed forces in the Arctic,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at the talks in late April, also stressing cooperation. “Everyone can make easy predictions that when there are resources and there is a need for resources there will be conflict and scramble,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Stoere said. “It need not be that way.”
Agreeing with them that Cold War talk is overdone, Niklas Granholm of the Swedish Defense Research Agency nonetheless said: “The indications we have is that there will be an increased militarization of the Arctic.” That would bring security spinoffs. Many may be humdrum — ensuring safety of shipping, or deployment of gear in case of oil spills such as the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident in Alaska. Wider possibilities include a possible race between Russia and the United States for quieter nuclear submarines. Submarines, which can launch long-range nuclear missiles, have long had a hideout under the fringe of the Arctic ice pack where constant waves and grinding of ice masks engine noise. “It might lead to a new generation of ultra-silent submarines or other, new technologies,” said Granholm. Greater access to Arctic resources and shipping is one of few positive spinoffs as climate change undermines the hunting cultures of indigenous peoples and threatens wildlife from caribou to polar bears. The Northwest Passage past Canada, for instance, cuts the distance between Europe and the Far East to 7,900 nautical miles from 12,600 via the Panama Canal. Similar savings can be made on a route north of Russia. A U.N. deadline for coastal states to submit claims to offshore continental shelves passed on May 13 and in 2007 Russia planted a flag on the seabed in 13,980 feet of water under the Pole to back its claim. Russia’s flag-planting stunt might also herald new technologies — the world record for drilling in water depth is 10,011 feet, held by Transocean Inc, the world’s largest offshore drilling contractor. Claims by Norway and Iceland do not extend so far north and Denmark, Canada and the United States were not bound by the deadline. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 12th, 2009 BRASILIA - President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday Brazil was open to adopting targets for greenhouse gas emissions if rich countries did more to curb climate change. “Brazil should not be afraid of the challenge,” Lula told Reuters in an interview at the presidential residence in the capital Brasilia. “That issue is not a taboo for us,” he added, saying that he may attend global climate talks scheduled for the end of this year in Copenhagen. The U.N. talks comprise almost 200 nations, aiming for a deal to rein in warming that the U.N. Climate Panel says will cause more droughts, floods, crop failures, spread disease and raise sea levels. Developing countries, however, should not be expected to make the same sharp emissions cuts as rich countries, Lula said. “Rich countries, which are the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, must do their part,” he said, urging all countries to sign the expiring Kyoto protocol on climate change. “What we can’t accept is people who already have their car, a third television, a third house telling Brazilians to remain poor.” Brazil relies heavily on clean hydroenergy and has begun to reduce Amazon destruction, which emits carbon as trees burn or decompose. Destruction of the world’s largest rain forest is the main contributor to Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions, which are among the world’s largest. Last year, Brazil abandoned years of opposition to deforestation targets and said it would reduce Amazon destruction by 50 percent in a decade. Lula also said he would veto clauses in an Amazon land reform bill that would grant companies and non-residents land titles. The objective of the bill is to legalize land holdings of millions of people who settled in the Amazon in recent decades, but environmentalists have criticized it as a land giveaway that could spur more deforestation. “We want to be an example to the world in taking care of our own things,” Lula said. ——————— U.S. Climate Bill, U.N. Pact Seen More Likely In 2010 Timothy Gardner, 12-Jun-09 Environmentalists, carbon market developers and many politicians have urged passage of a U.S. climate bill before December, when nearly 200 countries will aim to hash out a successor to the Kyoto pact. They have seen it as a way for the United States, the world’s largest greenhouse gas polluter on a per capita basis, to break a deadlock with China, the top overall greenhouse polluter, on taking action on global warming. Combined, the giants emit about 40 percent of the world’s planet-warming pollution. The U.S. bill, which would launch a cap-and-trade market to reduce emissions, has made progress, including passage in the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee. It also has the support of President Barack Obama, but much work remains to be done. “Action in the Senate will be far more difficult than in the House,” Eileen Claussen, president of the Washington-based nonprofit the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, told an Environmental Finance conference on Thursday. She said it’s “nowhere near certain” that the bill would come to a Senate vote this year. Two obstacles stand in the way. First, advocates must convince the public the bill, which might initially raise electricity and other energy prices, will ultimately save money by heading off damage caused by global warming. The UN’s science panel said global warming could bring killer droughts from higher temperatures, stronger storms, and floods from rising seas as glaciers melt. One opponent, the Coalition for Affordable American Energy, whose members include the influential U.S. Chamber of Commerce and about 200 other organizations, has estimated climate legislation could cost U.S. households $1,400 per year by 2020. Claussen said the current U.S. climate bill contains consumer protections that would shield against such price shocks. Second, experts said the bill must include nuclear energy, which is nearly emissions free but comes with other problems such as toxic waste. Claussen said a resolution on nuclear power could help the Senate reach the required 60 votes for the bill’s passage. Overcoming the hurdles and passing the bill, especially during a recession, will take time, probably until next year, for lawmakers to work out. “There is an old saying in politics,” said Steve Corneli, a market and climate policy expert for U.S. power generator NRG Energy, Inc. “When you are explaining, you are losing.”
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 9th, 2009 You are invited to a side event hosted by IISD: A Phased Approach to a Safe Climate: Encouraging Developing Country Participation in a Future Climate Change Regime. Hosted by IISD Side Event Wednesday, 10 June 2009 This side event will include a presentation on the results of IISD’s research, and perspectives on the proposed Phased Approach from respondents from developed and developing countries Opening Remarks and Presentation of Research Respondents Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 9th, 2009 Tiempo Climate Newswatch Week starting June 8th - ending June 14th 2009
The following excerpts are from what went on the previous week!
Delegates from 182 countries met this week at the Bonn Climate Change Talks to discuss, amongst other things, the draft negotiating texts that will form the basis of any agreement reached in Copenhagen later this year. “The political moment is right to reach an agreement,” said Yvo de Boer, who heads the climate treaty secretariat. “There is no doubt in my mind that the Copenhagen climate conference in December is going to lead to a result. If the world has learned anything from the financial crisis, it is that global issues require a global response,” he continued. According to Connie Hedegaard, Danish climate and energy minister, agreement on a treaty rests on the richer countries paying for emission control measures in the developing world. “If we do not provide financing then we will not have a deal in Copenhagen,” she said. Hedegaard, like others, is concerned about the slow progress of the negotiations. In Bonn, the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA) will consider issues related to the goal of a shared vision for long-term cooperative action, enhanced action on adaptation, mitigation and finance, technology and capacity-building. Michael Zammit Cutajar, AWG-LCA chair, noted that the AWG-LCA negotiating text did not prejudge or preclude any particular outcome. “The text is a starting point and now is the time for parties to take position and enrich it,” he said. The Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Countries under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) will focus on a proposal for amendments to the Kyoto Protocol, including emissions reduction commitments of 37 industrialized countries for the protocol post-2012. “It is important that we complete some of the more solvable issues here in Bonn so that we can then focus on the more difficult ones later on in the negotiations,” said AWG-KP chair John Ashe. Other matters to be discussed include how to improve emissions trading, emissions credits, the Kyoto Protocol’s project-based mechanisms and options for land-use, land-use change and forestry. ==================
The United Nations General Assembly has passed a resolution recognizing climate change as a threat to security. “We are of the firm view that the adverse impacts of climate change have very real implications for international peace and security,” said Nauru ambassador Marlene Moses on behalf of the Pacific Small Island Developing States which introduced the non-binding resolution. The resolution may place the climate issue on the agenda of the influential United Nations Security Council. Over thirty African ministers have agreed to mainstream climate change adaptation measures into national and regional development plans. The Nairobi Declaration was adopted at the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN). It calls on the international community to provide support for the implementation of climate change programmes while at the same time ensuring sustainable development, with an emphasis on the most vulnerable such as women and children. “It is clear to me that as a continent Africa has needs that managing climate change and the environment have to speak to. I am heartened by the progress made by the negotiators and the political will shown by the presence of the ministers,” said Buyelwa Sonjica, AMCEN president and minister of water and environmental affairs in South Africa. “Africa’s environment ministers have today signalled their resolve to be part of the solution to the climate change challenge by forging a unified position within their diversity of economies,” commented Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Programme.
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Mick Kelly Tiempo Editorial http://www.tiempocyberclimate.org/portal/index.htm Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 8th, 2009
GWEC launches “Wind Power Works… Pass it on” public awareness campaign
The initiative is part of GWEC’s 2009 Wind Power Works campaign, showing decision makers that wind power can and must play a key role in combating climate change, and urging them to commit to deep cuts in carbon emissions. The “Pass it on” campaign will comprise a short video and a fun virtual wind farm game. The aim is to encourage thousands of wind energy supporters around the world to participate, thereby making their voice heard to decision makers in Copenhagen. Both the video and the wind turbine application can be downloaded from windpowerworks.net from 15 June, so watch this space! U.S.: Leaders Call on Congress to Strengthen Renewable Electricity Standard (RES)
EU: Global Wind Day kicks off with photo contest winners Wind industry welcomes ’Copenhagen call’ from business 27 May 2009. GWEC has expressed its support for the ”Copenhagen Call” issued by the World Business Summit on Climate Change yesterday. In this statement, the business community stresses that a new global climate treaty must set bold targets for emissions reductions by 2020 and 2050, limiting the global average rise in temperature to a maximum of 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels. Germany: Economic report of wind industry 2009 The economic report informs about the capability of this high-tech industry and presents around forty companies: from emerging engineering offices to established plant constructors with several thousand employees. New Study: Green Energy Investment Could Deliver Millions of Jobs U.S.: AWEA, Board Gear Up for ‘Year of Opportunity’ REN21 report: Renewable energy sources dominate new power generation capacity in US and Europe
Australia: Budget cashes in on Australia’s clean energy surplus U.S.: Largest Wind Power Event in the World Closes in Chicago
EU economies to be put on road to recovery “By including offshore wind and electricity grids in the Plan, EU decision-makers have chosen the right areas to make a real difference long-term”, said Christian Kjaer, Chief Executive of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA). “The European Parliament’s approval of the Plan should give a real boost to the burgeoning offshore wind sector.”
Canada: CanWEA applauds new processes to procure wind energy in Quebec and revised pricing for community and First Nations wind energy projects
CanWEA and its membership had argued the original proposed pricing of 9.5 ¢/kWh was not sufficient to attract or sustain long-term investment. U.S.: department of energy again confirms: RES would reduce fuel costs, stabilize electricity rates
This week, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) welcomed a report by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) - the fifth such study in as many years - showing that a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) would reduce fuel prices for all sectors, have minimal cost impact on power prices, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions immediately. U.S.: wind energy industry installs over 2,800 MW in first quarter
EU: Power markets will be further opened by EU liberalisation package
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FURTHER DATED EVENTS:
Global Wind Energy Council
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AEE Wind Energy Convention 09 Spain
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Global Wind Day 15 June, 2009
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China WindPower 2009 Beijing, China See the GWEC calendar for other events Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 5th, 2009 Friday, June 5th, 2009, From Green Chip Review: Blue chip technology companies are tripping over themselves to revolutionize the way we use electricity. They’ve even spent millions touting their plans to the general public. Surely you’ve seen the IBM and GE commercials making wonderful claims about the Smart Grid and all the benefits it will bring to society. But altruism isn’t their motivation: They’re gung-ho over the Smart Grid because it’s about to be worth $100 billion in revenue each and every year… for decades. And they want to get in early to secure their share of those profits. The CEO of GE has called it “the biggest investment of the first half of the century!” Cisco thinks it’ll be “100 to 1,000 times bigger than the Internet.” Bigger than the Internet! Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 5th, 2009
October 23, 2009 The Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School in New York City Bio-sequestration will likely play a crucial role in the United States and internationally in addressing climate change. Speakers will discuss: To receive further information about the conference when available, Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 5th, 2009 Investing in Carbon Capture and Storage Nature’s Way. Time to Give Forests, Mangroves, Peatlands and Climate-Friendly Agriculture MEXICO CITY/NAIROBI, 5 June 2009 – Boosting investments in the Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director, “But, perhaps, the international community is overlooking a tried and “This is also in line with UNEP’s Green Economy initiative as for the same UNEP’s Rapid Assessment report ‘The Natural Fix? The Role of Ecosystems in The report comes just under six months before the crucial UN Climate Change Key Messages from the Report * The adoption of a comprehensive policy framework under the UN Framework * It is vital to manage carbon in biological systems, to safeguard existing * The priority systems are tropical forests, peatlands and agriculture. * Peatland degradation contributes up to 0.8 Gt of carbon a year, much of * The agricultural sector could be broadly carbon neutral by 2030—equal to * Developing policies to achieve these ends is a challenge: it will be * Drylands, in particular, offer opportunities for combining carbon Barney Dickson and Kate Trumper of the UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring “Their large area means that total carbon potential is high and the often According to the report, recent estimates indicate that human activities The research indicates that there may be scope for tackling 15 per cent of Forests – the largest sink Global tropical deforestation rates are currently estimated to be as high Clearing of tropical forests may release an additional 87 to 130 Gt by Reducing deforestation rates by 50 per cent by 2050 and then maintaining Conventional logging techniques damage or kill a substantial part of the Improved logging techniques can further reduce carbon losses by around 30 Forests around the world act as powerful carbon sinks: those in Central and The potential to enhance carbon capture and storage in boreal forests – Temperate forests in Europe and North America have been expanding over Agriculture – climate neutral by 2030 * Up to 6 Gt of CO2 equivalent, or up to 2 Gt of carbon, could be Many of the agricultural practices that store more carbon can be * Fully returning straw to croplands in China could sequester around 5 per Many agricultural areas in the tropics have suffered severe depletion of Agroforestry – where food production is combined with tree planting – has a * Average carbon storage by agroforestry practices is estimated at around Peatlands –chock-full of carbon * On average peatlands store 1,450 tonnes of carbon per hectare. Planting biofuels on drained peatlands can nowhere near compensate for this * Combustion of palm oil produced on drained peatland generates 3 to 9 Re-wetting of peatlands and replanting of forests in areas that have been Oceans * However, the uptake capacity of oceans and coasts – currently at 2 Gt per The opportunities for enhanced carbon capture and storage is likely to be * Inshore waters up to 200 metres in depth, which includes coral and However, current patterns of use, exploitation and impacts will, if * The report estimates that widespread loss of vegetated coastal habitats Cost of ecosystem carbon management * Managing grazing, fertilizers and fire on grasslands to reduce emissions The economic mitigation potential of forestry would double if carbon prices * If carbon emissions were valued at $100 of CO2 equivalent, in 2030 the At this level of carbon pricing, forestry and agriculture combined would be At the moment, however, the international climate regime only partly It is expected that Governments negotiating the new climate agreement in The report argues that a more comprehensive system of payments for “Our planet’s living systems have developed ingenious, efficient and UNEP and partners, with funding from the Global Environment Facility, have The findings, leading to a global standard upon which carbon investment “If the global community can rise to this challenge, the planet’s living A copy of the report is available at www.unep.org or At UNEP-WCMC: Barney Dickson, Head of Climate Change and Biodiversity Or: Anne-France White, UNEP Associate Information Officer, on Tel: Or: Xenya Cherny Scanlon, Information Officer, on Tel: +254-20-762-4387, *********************************** ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 5th, 2009 from: Luis Gutierrez <luisgutierrez@peoplepc.com> Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) INTRODUCTION TO CONSULTATION FORM VERSION 1.5 This consultation on education for sustainable development (ESD) is sponsored by the PelicanWeb Journal of Sustainable Development (formerly the Journal of Solidarity, Sustainability, and Nonviolence). UNESCO has defined eight key areas that should be covered in education for sustainable development: gender equality, health care, environmental stewardship, rural development, cultural diversity, peace & security, sustainable urbanization, and sustainable consumption. The objective of this consultation is to gather requirements for ESD. These requirements must be articulated as issues or problem areas that are to be considered and discussed in ESD programs. It should be made clear that the objective of this consultation is not to arrive at practical solutions (let alone “the” solution) to any of the complex issues related to sustainable development. However, a good inventory and taxonomy of relevant issues might be useful. Needless to say, UNESCO is not responsible for any misconceptions that the questions might contain. Same applies to the answers to be entered, collected, and analyzed. Hopefully, this exercise will lead to some useful insights and perhaps even some recommendations about education for sustainable development, but there is no presumption that such results will be useful to UNESCO or any other institution. The consultation form can be completed in one hour or so. Answer each of the questions to the best of your knowledge. All of your responses will remain anonymous. Complete the survey and press the submit button at the end. When you press submit, your answers are added to the survey spreadsheet. A summary of the findings will be made available to participants who provide contact information. Version 1.5 is a major revision based on feedback received from Version 0 and Version 1. For more information: PelicanWeb Journal of Sustainable Development, Volume 5, Number 6, June 2009 Version 1.5 again includes 5 questions for each UNESCO key area, for a total of 40 questions. In each group of 5, the first question is a “relevance ranking” of the UNESCO key area, where “relevance” means “relevance for sustainable development.” The second question requires selecting one root cause from a list but allows the participant to enter another root cause. The format of the third, fourth, and fifth questions is “select all the options that apply and/or enter an additional option.” Thank you for your patience and participation. Luis T. Gutierrez, Ph.D. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 4th, 2009
Hi Everyone,
Leo here, content producer for the Stupid websites and campaign strategist for Not Stupid. I’ll be pitching in to some of these mailing list messages from now until Copenhagen, to keep you up to speed on the campaigny side of things at Stupid Towers, as well as flagging up major developments in the wider world of climate science and politics. Experience has, sadly, taught us that news from the world of climate science is seldom good - but I’ll try to make up for this by giving you the word on the street about where the climate action is too, so you can get involved, or at the very least be inspired. OK, take a deep breath. Here’s…
The Bad News
And… breathe. It’s time for:
The Good News
Phew. That’s it for now.
Onwards!
Leo
_______________________________________________
Age-of-Stupid mailing list
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on May 30th, 2009 Climate Change Killing 300,000 Per Year
CNN
LONDON (May 29) — The first comprehensive report into the human cost of climate change warns the world is in the throes of a “silent crisis” that is killing 300,000 people each year.
More than 300 million people are already seriously affected by the gradual warming of the earth and that number is set to double by 2030, the report from the Global Humanitarian Forum warns.
A new report examines the human cost of climate change, which it said causes more than 300,000 deaths per year. The report, released Friday, shows the impact of climate change on population displacement, malnutrition and diseases, such as malaria. “Climate change is not something waiting to happen,” said former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. “For the first time we are trying to get the world’s attention to the fact that climate change is not something waiting to happen. It is impacting seriously the lives of many people around the world,” the forum’s president, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, told CNN.
Speaking to CNN’s Becky Anderson in London on Friday, Annan said the migration of people from newly uninhabitable areas presents a security issue that needs to be addressed by the United Nations Security Council.
“This is one of the reasons why I’ve described climate change as all encompassing,” he told CNN. “This threat to our health, this threat to food production, this threat to security. It raises political tensions, it will have people on the move — and they are on the move — and many more which will bring tensions.”
The report, titled “Human Impact Report: Climate Change — The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis” comes just six months before the United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen to forge a post-Kyoto climate agreement for 2012 and beyond.
Annan called on Member States to reach a “global, effective, fair and binding” outcome on climate change, as the report warned that the talks could “well be the last chance for avoiding global catastrophe.”
He told CNN: “The U.S. administration has joined the mainstream about fighting climate change and that is a big step, and I hope that will also put a new momentum into the negotiations.”
The report’s startling numbers are based on calculations by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that the Earth’s atmosphere warmed by 0.74 degrees Celsius (1.33 degrees Fahrenheit) from 1906 to 2005, with much of that increase coming in recent decades. The panel predicts that by 2100 temperatures will have increased a minimum of two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels regardless of what’s agreed in Copenhagen.
“No matter what,” the report concludes, “the suffering documented in this report is only the beginning.” A rise of two degrees, it says, “would be catastrophic.”
Of the 300,000 lives being lost each year due to climate change, the report finds nine out of 10 are related to “gradual environmental degradation,” and that deaths caused by climate-related malnutrition, diarrhea and malaria outnumber direct fatalities from weather-related disasters.
The vast majority of deaths — 99 percent — are in developing countries which are estimated to have contributed less than one percent of the world’s total carbon emissions.
Frightening Forecast for Earth<btn_back.jpg>
What lies ahead for the planet as global warming takes hold? In 2007, a United Nations panel predicted the following drastic changes. Click through the gallery to see what might lie ahead.
The report warns climate change threatens all eight of the Millennium Development Goals — a set of goals agreed on by leading nations in 2000 that aim to reduce extreme poverty by 2015. The goals include eradicating hunger, reducing child mortality, and halting the spread of diseases including HIV/AIDS and malaria.
Around 45 million of the 900 million people estimated to be chronically hungry are suffering due to climate change, the report says. Within 20 years that number is expected to double. At the same time food production is expected to fall, driving food prices up 20 percent.
The countries considered to be most vulnerable are those in the semi-arid dry land belt that runs from the Sahara/Sahel to the Middle East and Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Latin America and parts of the U.S., small island states and the Arctic region.
Australia is singled out as the developed country most vulnerable to the direct impacts of climate change. Over the past 15 years, the combination of rising temperature and lower rainfall has produced the worst drought in the country’s recorded history.
While developed countries — including Australia — have committed funds to counter the impact of climate change, the Global Humanitarian Forum says developing nations need a dramatic injection of funds — up to 100 times more than is currently available to help them adapt to the changes.
The total economic cost of climate change each year is thought to be $125 billion, although the Forum warns that figure may be too conservative and doesn’t take into account the impacts on “health, water supply and other shocks.”
While commissioned by the Global Humanitarian Forum, the report was reviewed by a panel of experts, including Rajendra Pachauri of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Jeffrey Sachs of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Barbara Stocking of Oxfam.
Northeast: A map created by University of Arizona scientists in 2007, based on data from the U.S. Geological Survey, shows areas in the Northeast that would become flooded if the the sea were to rise one meter. —————————
then, see please also the Financial Times of today:
Climate change is claiming 300,000 lives a year and costing the global economy $125bn annually, with the damage set to
May 30 2009, By Fiona Harvey, Environment Correspondent, Financial Times
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The Financial Times of May 30/31 2009 has a full page advertisement by UNDP that besides directing us to www.undp.org/climate change also states:
THE BEST FORM OF INSURANCE WE CAN GIVE OUR CHILDREN IS TO REDUCE GREENHOUSE GASES WITHIN THE NEXT 10 YEARS.
THIS RATHER THEN THE REALITY WE KNOW: “I WILL LEAVE MY GRANDCHILDREN ONE APARTMENT, AN ESTABLISHED BUSINESS AND AN IRREVERSIBLE CLIMATE CATASTROPHE.”
Some may ask if the mandate of the UNDP is to buy this sort of full page advertisements, but then, even the UNDP realizes that actions by the UN, when it comes to climate change, are just so much hot air - so an effort at eduating the West may be in place.
So, let us say immediately that when we tried to look up www.undp.org/climatechange we found that the most recent posting was from May 13. 2009 and it was: [13/05/09] In light of the upcoming Copenhagen conference on climate change, they discussed the need for a new deal for the environment that would be capable of tackling poverty.more…
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on May 27th, 2009 The following is from material we got from Franny Armstrong and it may actually mean that Ed Miliband, the UK Climate Change and Energy Secretary, may indeed envision to become the go-in-between in Copenhagen - that is if the US has not settled the issue with China beforehand - hopefully on the basis of UK Lord Nicholas Stern suggestion that we posted separately. Further, let us also mention that Ed’s brother is David Miliband who happens to be the UK Foreign Minister. If they have also a brother top officer in the military - then this team would be indeed complete.
ED VS FRANNY ROUND 3 - HAY FESTIVAL
DATE 25TH MAY 2009
Team Stupid’s favourite politician*, the UK’s Climate Change and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, stepped into the ring with Franny for a third time on Saturday morning, at the Hay Festival. Ed’s cheerful fortitude in the face of some fairly harsh dressing downs from Franny and Pete Postlethwaite first at the People’s Premiere, and again at the Tricycle Theatre, has earned him a lot of brownie points with Team Stupid, even if we do think he’s barking up totally the wrong tree with some of his policies (see for instance the plans for new coal power stations in the UK, with accompanying unconvincing promises to capture the emissions from them). And true to form, here he was again on Saturday, back to tackle more difficult questions from Franny and an audience who know that his government is still not doing nearly enough to prevent the terrifying future depicted in Stupid from coming to pass. You can listen to some of the discussion by clicking on the mp3 link at the bottom of this page. Ed has the unenviable dual responsibility to both ensure the security of Britain’s energy supply, and also lead international efforts to forge a global deal to drive massive cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. He knows that democracy and populism have an intimate relationship, and that however well politicians might personally understand the scale and urgency of the policy challenge posed by climate change, political progress and public feeling are diffficult to separate. That’s why Ed has called for a popular mobilisation to give him and his counterparts around the world a democratic mandate for progressive climate policy. As Franny put it, “Certain politicians do understand the situation, do want to get the right deal in Copenhagen. But they need the public now to move forward to make a political space.” Or in Ed’s words, “There does need in the second half of this year a real sense of people saying now’s the time to get the most ambitious deal in Copenhagen.” Franny is perfectly clear that it’s obvious that the threat of catastrophic climate change is a product of global consumer culture, and that it is unrealistic to imagine that we can tackle one without addressing the other. Ed’s view however is that India and China won’t buy into an end to consumerism before they’ve even got started with it: “If you say to them look, we’ve had this growth model for 50 years or whatever it is but now we’ve discovered it’s a real problem and you can’t carry on growing, there’s no way to can persuade them to be part of a global agreement. If you look over the next 20 years about 50% of the growth in emissions is going to come in China. So you have got to get China on board with this.” Ed liked Franny’s observations about the climate impact of flying even less. Britons currently fly way more than the people of any other nation - twice as much as Americans - yet the government is still pursuing plans to double or even treble the number of passengers using our airports. If these plans go ahead, aviation alone could consume 100% of the UK’s entire allowable carbon budget by the mid 2030s. But if the levels of overall emissions cuts dictated by the science are applied to air travel, then flying would have to drop back to 1960s levels. Clearly there’s a policy clash going on here. Ed? “People have had opportunities to travel that their parents’ generation would not have dreamed of. I can’t honestly say that taking those opportunities away is necessarily the right thing to do.” Franny had an answer to this, of course: “We have to look at the level of sacrifice. You think the British people wouldn’t agree to sacrifice their right to go on holidays and fly as many times as they want to. But in order for them to do that we are therefore going to ask other people in other countries to sacrifice their lives.” “Maybe I’m just less of a preacher than you are on this,” Ed replied. Team Stupid believe it is plain to see that corporate special interests have been and are at least as much of an obstacle to progress on climate change as any kind of real or imagined resistance from the public at large. Political power in a capitalist democracy doesn’t just come from the people, but from the people + capital; and unfortunately capital has very different needs to the people. Hence the plans for new runways almost nobody wants… *That’s not saying much. But we do like Ed. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on May 27th, 2009 Franny Armstrong writes about the May 22, 2009 screening of “THE AGE OF STUPID” before 200 people watching at the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) in London, plus parallel loads more watching at other 71 venues.
I picked out of her e-mail two specially very interesting comments:
— Lord Nicholas Stern joined by skype from the Hay festival to have a chat with activist George Monbiot. (Believe it or not, this was the first time that Monbiot and Stern had ever spoken.) They skipped the smalltalk and got straight down to the nitty-gritty, as you can hear on the complete video of the event (half way down the page).
Franny writes “George was very excited by one particular thing Stern said, which I shall now attempt to recount (but see George’s blog in the Guardian today for the accurate version): at the moment, a load of our junk (fridges, TVs etc) gets made in China, but the emissions they cause count as China’s rather than ours, which China understandably thinks is unfair, but we (our politicians) think is just dandy. China suggests that the emissions should count as ours (or France’s or America’s or whoever’s), our politicians say ‘no way hose’, but Stern now suggests that perhaps a compromise could be reached. This is very exciting news, I’m sure you all agree. (Here’s George explaining it on video - and our hastily-written press release - if you still haven’t grasped the pure thrillingness.)”
– A further favorite idea of the evening was a Monbiot classic: “Let’s stop calling it climate change, it’s far too mild. It’s like calling a foreign invasion ‘unwanted visitors’”.
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We copy here in full Monbiot’s blog of May 27, 2009, in the Guardian.
Stern breaks the east-west deadlock on who’s responsible for CO2 China says it’s unfair that the west ‘outsources’ emissions. Now that Lord Stern has said responsibility should be split between producers and consumers, other countries may follow suit
Cyclists pass through thick pollution from a factory in Yutian, 100km east of Beijing in China’s northwest Hebei province. Photograph: PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images I think I heard the quiet tinkling sound of an unacknowledged breakthrough last week: a statement that could make the difference between success and failure at December’s crucial climate talks in Copenhagen. One of the issues that could sink the talks is the question of “outsourced emissions”. This refers to greenhouse gases produced in one nation on behalf of another. The UK, for example, is comfortably meeting its commitments under the Kyoto protocol only because much of our manufacturing industry has moved to China. Under Kyoto rules, the pollution produced by Chinese factories making goods for the UK belongs to China. The protocol counts only the production, not the consumption, of greenhouse gases. China says this is unfair. Around half the recent increase in its emissions arises from the manufacture of goods for western markets. The rich nations have been furiously resisting this idea. That’s not surprising: a study by the Stockholm Environment Institute for the British government suggests that carbon dioxide emissions caused by the UK’s consumption increased by 18% between 1992 and 2004, even as our production emissions fell. Had the Kyoto agreement measured consumption, not production, the UK would be missing its targets by a very long way. I’m with China. Greenhouse gas emissions are rising because consumption is rising. Unless we address this, we cannot prevent climate breakdown. It doesn’t matter where production takes place: the problem is that we are consuming too much. During the panel discussion that followed a screening of the eco film Age of Stupid last week, I asked Lord Stern about this. His answer surprised and delighted me: it represents a dramatic departure from the policy of the government with which he has worked so closely. Here’s what he said: It is a point that the Chinese authorities make very clearly and strongly and I think that it’s a very sound one. My own view is that we need a combination of the two things. If you move to a different kind of division of labour where another country, in this case China, starts to make things that we might have made, and therefore has that production process in the emissions occurring there, rather than their own country, then we’re jointly responsible for that and both parties gain from the division of labour. That’s what trade is all about and that’s why trade can help development. So my own view is that we probably need something like an average of the two, or a combination of the two. But the logical point China makes is that there is a definite responsibility with the consumer and not just with the producer is a sound one. When Stern talks about these matters, governments listen. If he is prepared to pursue this proposal - that outsourced emissions should be shared between producers and consumers - there’s a good chance that it could be adopted at Copenhagen. It is surely the most realistic way to break the deadlock. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on May 26th, 2009 We hope that Copenhagen will not forget that its focus is on climate change/global warming.
25 May 2009: The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has released a policy brief providing options for addressing agriculture in a global climate change agreement. The brief provides an overview over the technical mitigation potential in the agricultural sector, noting that most of this potential is in developing countries. It further lays out options for integrating mitigation in the agricultural sector in nationally appropriate mitigation action (NAMA) in developing countries, arguing that many mitigation actions have co-benefits for improved food security, sustainable development and adaptation. The brief suggests tailoring agricultural NAMAs to country conditions and circumstances such as the food security situation, intensity of production systems, dependency of the local population on agriculture and pressures for land conversion. The brief proposes a phased approach, starting with capacity building and national strategy development, followed by scaling up projects and implementing sectoral strategies where appropriate, and complemented by a NAMA carbon trading mechanism in the final stage. The policy brief presents three proposals for anchoring agriculture in a climate regime: including agriculture in NAMAs of developing countries by supporting the adoption of practices that support mitigation; ensuring financing for agricultural mitigation by expanding the scope of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and establishing new financing mechanisms with broader scope and more flexible approaches; and by developing a comprehensive landscape approach covering all land uses. [The Brief] Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on May 26th, 2009 
EcoSeed intends to provide its users with the most comprehensive global, green news, in the areas of technology, commerce, legislation, and political development. The green sector has grown in recent years from the foundations of advocacy into a cornerstone of the world economy. Sustainable development continues to transform from an ideology into a necessity. Business conducted in the green marketplace is expected to continue growing exponentially. —————-
Renewable Energy
Green Topics
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on May 25th, 2009 The first WATEC international Conference was held in Tel Aviv in 2007. WATEC Israel 2009, The Water, Environment and Energy Exhibition and Conference, will take place at the Trade Fairs and Conventions Center, Tel Aviv in November 150 ministerial delegations, company directors and business people are expected to visit the 5th International Water Technologies and Environmental Control Exhibition – WATEC Israel 2009 – on November 17-19 at the Trade Fairs and Conventions Center in Tel Aviv. Simultaneously, an international conference will examine the need for a sustainable economy to reduce environmental damage, for the benefit of future generations. The conference will address the problems and challenges facing different countries – more efficient water consumption, limiting environmental pollution and the increasing use of alternative energy sources. Booky Oren, event Chairperson, says preparations for WATEC 2009 are reflecting the resounding success of WATEC 2007: “That was the first event of such size and scope, attracting thousands of visitors from Israel and overseas, including representatives from some of the world’s leading water companies. Its international success testifies to the substantial interest in Israel’s water and Cleantech industries.” According to Oren, the financial crisis is teaching us a vital lesson in what happens when the economy lives for the moment without thinking of the future: “Manipulating and wasting the Earth’s resources, without considering long-term effects, comes at the expense of our future and that of our children.” “Efficiency is the crucial need and Israel is the world’s innovation center in this field. This message is gradually being internalized all over the planet, so we expect record interest in both the exhibition and the conference.” Some of the conference sessions will be run using a unique model focusing on continents. Guests from the particular countries will present their challenges and commercial and research institute representatives will offer possible technological solutions to these problems. All the sessions – moderated by commercial attachés from the Israeli Ministry of Trade and Industry – will focus on innovative developments over the last two years. WATEC 2009 is being organized by the Israel Trade Fairs and Conventions Center and Kenes Exhibitions. The Exhibition is being held under the auspices of: The ministries of Trade and Industry, Environmental Protection, Foreign Affairs and National Infrastructures, the Government Water Program – Israel NewTech headed by Oded Distel, the Export Institute and the Industrial Research and Development Center. For further details, visit www.watec-israel.com. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on May 25th, 2009 World Business Leaders Hear Catastrophic Climate Warnings. COPENHAGEN, Denmark, May 25, 2009 (ENS) - “We meet at a critical moment in human history. Our planet is warming to dangerous levels,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the opening session of the World Business Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen on Sunday. Encouraging world business leaders to create a global economy that is “cleaner, greener and more sustainable, Ban told 700 delegates from the business community that “climate change is the defining challenge of our time.”
“You and your colleagues have the ingenuity and vision to lead by example where others, including governments, are lagging behind,” he said. “With your support and through your example, we must harness the necessary political will to seal the deal.” In Copenhagen in December, governments are expected to conclude negotiations on a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol, whose first commitment period for reducing greenhouse gas emissions ends in 2012. “This will not be easy,” warned Ban. “Fundamental change never is. But if we get it right, we can reasonably look forward to sustained growth and prosperity. If we get it wrong, we face catastrophic damage to people, to the planet and to the global marketplace.” “Our excessive reliance on a fossil-fuel based economy is destroying our planet’s resources, and impoverishing the poor, weakening the security of nations and it is choking global economic potential,” the secretary-general said. The World Business Summit on Climate Change was organized by six of the most influential business initiatives on climate change: 3C - Combat Climate Change, the Climate Group, the UN Global Compact, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the World Economic Forum and the Copenhagen Climate Council. The Copenhagen Climate Council is a global collaboration between business and science founded by an independent think tank in Scandinavia called Monday Morning, based in Copenhagen.
The opening day was attended by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and Prince Consort Tim Flannery, scientist and author who chairs the Copenhagen Climate Council. The United Nations will be issuing a “Copenhagen Call” on Tuesday at the end of the three-day meeting, Ban said, appealing to the private sector to use its influence to raise awareness of climate change. “As business leaders, you must make it clear that doing the right thing for the climate is also the smart thing for global competitiveness and long-term prosperity,” he said. “We may never get a better opportunity. And if the world’s scientists are right, we may not get a second chance.” Ban urged participants to mobilize their employees, partners and others to demand urgent action on the issue, as well as to continue finding private-sector methods to slash climate risks. “Your customers and your shareholders will reward you,” said the secretary-general, who will be convening a high-level summit on climate change in September. “And your children will thank you one day.” According to some estimates, Ban said, rising greenhouse gas emissions could lead to a five percent drop in global Gross Domestic Product. On the other hand, he cited projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that it could cost as little as 0.1 percent of global GDP annually until 2030 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to safer levels. A new climate pact in December will be a boon to businesses, Ban predicted. “We know that the right kind of deal will provide the regulatory certainty and long-term price signals that businesses are demanding. We know that a deal can unleash investment, stimulate innovation and facilitate the global spread of low-carbon technologies.” Action on climate change should not be put on hold during a global recession, he said, emphasizing that while a global bail-out may seem costly now, “it will pale next to the enormous human and economic costs of delaying action on climate change.”
Former U.S. Vice President and Nobel Peace Laureate Al Gore told the business leaders that the test of what is right where the climate is concerned lies with the next generation. “We hear the voices of the next generation now. They are ready for us to meet this challenge. They will live in the world shaped by the decisions are made in Copenhagen less than seven months from now. And those decisions in turn will be shaped by the advice and deliberations of the world’s business community gathered here in Copenhagen this week,” said Gore. “We have everything we need to do it with the possible exception of political will,” he said, “but we know that political will is a renewable resource.” “But there’s not much time. We have to do it this year, not next year, this year,” Gore warned. “The risk of failure would be a risk that the political cohesion that has brought us this far would begin to fray.” “And of course,” he said, “the clock is ticking because Mother Nature does not do bailouts.” Gore raised the expectation that President Barack Obama would work with other world leaders to conclude a successful agreement limiting greenhouse gas emissions in Copenhagen in December. He cited Obama’s move, within one month of becoming President to pass “a green stimulus bill that constituted the largest renewable energy bill in the history of my nation,” and the announcement last week of “a dramatic change in truck and auto mileage standards.” Gore recounted for the business leaders last week’s passage out of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 that could lead to reduction in global warming pollution below the 1990 baseline. “The bill in my view needs improvement and strengthening,” said Gore, “but it is moving forward and my prediction is that it will pass and will become law.” Gore reminded the business leaders that record droughts, fires, storms, flooding and tropical disease migrations are already occurring and are a taste is what is to come if greenhouse gases are not quickly brought under control. “Every nation and business has a leadership role to play,” Gore said. “The time to act is now. The urgency that I sense in this room is felt all around the world. This is, properly understood, not a political issue but a moral issue.” Today, European Commission President Jose Barroso told the business leaders of the greenhouse gas reduction targets that the European Union has pledged to meet and what Europe expects of other industrialized and developing countries. “When the Commission’s energy and climate change package was recently formally adopted, Europe became the first region in the world to implement such far-reaching, legally binding climate and energy targets,” said Barroso. “The package delivers on EU leaders’ commitments in March 2007 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent of 1990 levels and to raise the share of energy consumption provided by renewable resources to 20 percent, both by 2020,” he said. “It also contributes to the target of improving energy efficiency by 20 percent.” “Critically, the package also lays the basis for increasing the emissions reduction from 20 percent to 30 percent in the context of a satisfactory international climate agreement in which other developed and developing countries contribute their fair share to the limiting global emissions,” Barroso said. The EU has asked developed countries to commit collectively to cut emissions by 30 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. He said the EU has proposed “a balanced combination of criteria to compare developed country targets, and to help ensure equivalence of effort.” “Secondly, and as agreed in Bali, we want to see developing countries do their part by designing and implementing national low carbon development strategies containing a set of mitigation actions for each key emitting sector, so that collectively they reduce their emissions by 15 to 30 percent below Business as Usual by 2020.” These targets are far above the average five percent target set by the Kyoto Protocol for its 37 industrialized countries and the European community to reduce the emissions of a basket of six greenhouse gases. The five percent reduction is against 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008-2012. The results of the World Business Summit on Climate Change will be presented to the Danish government, host of the UN conference on climate change, and to world leaders negotiating the terms of the next international climate treaty. Danish Minister of Climate and Energy Connie Hedegaard said, “We, the politicians of the world, have a responsibility to reach a truly global climate change agreement in Copenhagen in December 2009. But it is the business society that can deliver the tools to turn our vision into reality. Businesses can provide the clever solutions to make it possible to live in a both modern and sustainable society.” SOME REACTIONS TO THE ABOVE ARE ALREADY IN: Some doubted the sincerity of large western companies which say they want to fight climate change. “It’s just lip service that many of them pay,” said Harish Hande, managing director of the Solar Electric Light Company, which has supplied solar power to about 100,000 households in India, where more than half the population have no electricity. Climate bonds, carbon markets and renewable energy subsidies were ideas put forward in Copenhagen by heads of companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and investors Vantage Point Venture Partners as ways of promoting cuts in carbon emissions. PwC Chief Executive Samuel DiPiazza said businesses wanted the “gradual but aggressively challenging” introduction of carbon prices which penalize greenhouse gas emissions. “Oil companies are talking about their renewable energy portfolios but investing in fossil fuels,” said Adam Werbach, chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi S, a marketing and consultancy company.”This is the amazing effectiveness of PR (public relations) in the last decade. A decade ago people actually said what they thought. Now it’s behind the scenes.” “(Subsidy) payments should reduce over time, be focused on carbon savings, need to reward the delivery of low-carbon energy,” said BP’s Hayward.”That’s pretty descriptive, you can take that and translate that into legislation if you choose.” Royal Dutch Shell, said in March that it would scale back investments in solar and wind power because they could not compete with fossil fuels — and announced that it would increase oil output by 2 to 3 percent annually over the next four years. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on May 22nd, 2009
Meet today’s energy challenge with existing technologies We are consuming more and more energy! This fact is probably no surprise in a world with a population that is increasing fast and by standards of living that are steadily rising across the globe.
Niels B. Christiansen, President & CEO, Danfoss Group
22/05/2009 10:30
But as we all well know, the consumption of energy challenges our budgets as well as our climate. In addition to this, it can pose political and national security concerns in that some countries possess a high share of raw materials while others have none.
As it is very difficult and in most cases undesirable to limit either population growth or increased standards of living, we need to focus on other options: renewable energy and energy efficiency.
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Stutters and forward steps for climate talks After a fortnight of significant action on climate change down under, Australia appears ready to properly re-enter the game as a credible voice in global climate negotiations.
John Connor, CEO, The Climate Institute
20/05/2009 16:00
It does however need to pass a few key tests (including our Senate) first. The Australian experience, coupled with potential shifts in investment policy and practice, has lessons for all governments and can help build momentum for an effective climate agreement in Copenhagen.
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Climate Change and Security It is hard to exaggerate the issues posed by climate change. Much rests on the outcome of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen later this year. Within the European Union, we are determined to reach an ambitious global agreement on reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
Javier Solana, High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, European Union
18/05/2009 12:00
Nevertheless, climate change will not be addressed by international agreements alone, important as these will be. The issues run much deeper than that. This is a man-made problem which puts our very way of life in question. Formulating a response requires many actors to come together - not just politicians and diplomats, but scientists, business people, ecologists, and leaders in many other fields.
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2009: Turning environmental crisis into economic opportunity Economists and political leaders the world over continue to grapple with the global economic recession. While trillions of dollars are poured into economic stimulus packages it’s easy to forget there is another, more pressing global challenge to solve – climate change.
James P Leape, Director General, WWF International
15/05/2009 12:15
Yet what if there was a plan which would both help the world out of recession and put us on track to avoid catastrophic global warming? Fortunately such a plan already exists – and 2009 is the year to put it in place. Moving to a low carbon global economy is achievable, affordable and we can start right now.
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Agriculture and Climate Change Agriculture is being questioned and facing challenges for the future. It is questioned because is among the main contributors to global climate change by its GHG emissions -fluctuating between 10 and 12 percent of the world GHG emissions- and by the high deforestation rate, mainly concentrated in tropical regions (The first contributor is the fossil combustion). The main challenges to be faced are: (1) adaptation to the new climate conditions, and (2) ethic obligation to actively participate in a global mitigation strategy.
Sergio P. González, IPCC-Task Force Bureau Member 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
13/05/2009 10:00
Agriculture -as an activity highly dependant on environmental conditions, no matter some highly intensive production systems- shall be very active in defining and implementing adaptation strategies to better face the new climatic conditions, minimizing the detrimental impacts. This planned adaptation is to be assumed by the public sector; farmers’ spontaneous adaptation is also important but need to be supported by government strategies, mainly dealing with: (1) water management (including new dams, distribution channels and irrigation strategies), (2) cultivars adapted to stressing factors (higher t°, less water, higher soil salinity), and (3) new crops map. In general, the inaction costs are always higher than those of the planned adaptation. ——————-
Climate negotiators need new instructions The attempts by governments to manage climate change have been feeble and, with the Copenhagen meeting just seven months away, it is crucial that they radically change their approach.
Professor Sir David King, Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and Environment at the University of Oxford and Director of Research (Chemical Physics) at Cambridge University
12/05/2009 14:00
So far, the international process, overseen by the UN, has been a failure if you measure it by the extent of greenhouse gas cuts. Negotiators have been doing their best but repeatedly they have lost sight of the urgency of the problem and the need for every country to have a negotiating position around the global requirement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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No Solution Without Business The challenge: The use of energy has been the prerequisite for the development of our civilization and is fundamental for our modern way of life. It is our main tool to fight poverty, to ensure good health and to provide a better way of life for increasingly more people.
Finn Bergesen jr., Director General of the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise
11/05/2009 11:50
However, the use of energy is also our greatest environmental challenge. Despite getting steadily more energy efficient, using better combustion techniques and less carbon intensive fuels, demand have risen in parallel and challenge our efforts. According to the International Panel of Climate Change, we have to drastically cut our emissions of greenhouse gases in order to prevent the earth’s temperature to rise further. The task is therefore phenomenal; we need to lower the global emissions as well as increase the global energy use. In short, we need an energy technology revolution.
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Shaping the Post-Carbon Economy At the end of this year, representatives of the 170 nations that are signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will meet in Copenhagen for what they hope will be final negotiations on a new international response to global warming and climate change.
Jeremy Oppenheim, global director of McKinsey & Company’s Climate Change Special Initiative & Eric Beinhocker, senior fellow at the McKinsey Global Institute
04/05/2009 14:00
If successful, the centerpiece of their efforts would be a global deal on how to reduce harmful greenhouse gases, by how much, and when. The agreement would go into effect in 2012, when the current Kyoto accord expires.
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The Truth About Climate Change Many people ask how sure we are about the science of climate change. The most definitive examination of the scientific evidence is to be found in the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and its last major report published in 2007.
John Theodore Houghton, former co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) scientific assessment working group
30/04/2009 14:15
I had the privilege of being chairman or co-chairman of the Panel’s scientific assessments from 1988 to 2002. Many hundreds of scientists from different countries were involved as contributors and reviewers for these reports, which are probably the most comprehensive and thorough international assessments on any scientific subject ever carried out. In June 1995, just before the G-8 summit in Scotland, the Academies of Science of the world’s 11 largest economies (the G-8 plus India, China, and Brazil) issued a statement endorsing the IPCC’s conclusions and urging world governments to take urgent action to address climate change. The world’s top scientists could not have spoken more strongly. ————–
Let’s make peace with the planet we live on! Today we are faced with several major global challenges which no single country can solve alone. Climate change and the economic crisis do not recognise national borders, so the only way the world can tackle them is by working together.
Hans-Gert Pöttering, MEP, President of the European Parliament
28/04/2009 15:00
In the European Union, and particularly in the European Parliament, we are used to dealing with complex cross-border problems. The European Parliament is a place, where a broad political debate between members of different political groups takes place, leading often to broad compromise solutions which are necessary for many different countries to cooperate. Even if it is not always easy, we succeed in bringing forward very advanced solutions and we carry them out. This is why I think the European Parliament serves as a good example of how we can approach these challenges together on a global scale. These challenges are interlinked but they also offer opportunities. Climate change is a major threat to our lives, our health, our economy, our civilisation as such. We need to start now to find alternative ways of maintaining our living standards and even improving them. In addition we also need to diversify our sources of energy. We cannot go on being dependent on foreign, and especially Russian, gas imports and we know that one day we will run out of fossil fuels.
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on May 20th, 2009 Al Gore rallies his grassroots supporters to help pass House climate bill.NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Al Gore on Thursday kicked off a new phase of his campaign against climate change, calling on his volunteers across the country to rally behind the climate and energy bill now moving through the House.In an interview here, Gore offered high praise for the compromise worked out between bill coauthors Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and moderate Democrats. “They’re on the verge of a truly historic accomplishment,” said Gore.
Gore spoke with Grist ahead of the first North American summit of The Climate Project, the international campaign he founded to train citizens to present the climate slideshow he made famous in An Inconvenient Truth. Up to this point, Climate Project presenters have focused on educating the public about the science of global warming. The meeting this weekend will give presenters updated information and a new, more activist mission: helping to pass the House climate bill. Gore wants the network of volunteers to “become citizen activists in support of this legislation.” While some in the environmental community have expressed disappointment in the Waxman-Markey bill, Gore was optimistic. “I think they’ve maintained the integrity of the bill,” he said. “In its current form as I understand it, I have no doubt that it will accomplish the result we need to begin this transition toward renewable energy, conservation, efficiency, and renewed U.S. leadership in global negotiations.” Gore praised Waxman’s and Markey’s efforts to reach compromise, which addressed the concerns of moderate Democrats from the South and Midwest. “One cannot discount the importance of having a broad base of support for this legislation,” he said. “Were it to be perceived as unbalanced regionally, unduly harsh in its impact on important sectors of the economy, then its chances for passage in the House and Senate would be sharply diminished.” Though the near-term emissions target in the current bill is lower than in the original draft, Gore said he believes it’s a good starting point. It calls for a 17 percent cut below 2005 levels by 2020, but Gore predicts that the other provisions in the bill—like requiring 15 to 20 percent of electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020—will lead to much larger emissions reductions. “The key role of the legislation is to begin that shift [to lower emissions],” he said. “Once it begins, it will be unstoppable.” The road to Copenhagen Gore praised President Obama’s leadership on climate and energy thus far. He called Obama’s meeting with Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee last week “very timely and very successful,” coming at a “moment where the negotiations really could have gone either way.” “He’s got as good a team in the White House and the Cabinet as this country has ever seen, and I think he’s going about it in a very skillful way,” said Gore. Gore predicted that the president will continue to be engaged in the process, and will want to go to the international summit in Copenhagen in December where a new global climate treaty will be hashed out. Gore said the Waxman-Markey legislation could be revisited and strengthened over time as the world community comes to recognize the value of emissions reductions. He drew a comparison with the 1997 Montreal Protocol, which sought to limit substances that deplete the ozone layer. The first targets in that treaty were weaker than many wanted, but within three years, world leaders strengthened the pact, after realizing it wasn’t hurting the global economy. “I think this bill is likely to play the same role,” said Gore. “Whatever agreement is reached in Copenhagen, if it mirrors the kind of approach in this bill, it will begin a shift that will pick up momentum as it develops and the world will quickly revisit it.” Lessons learned A veteran of the House, Senate, and White House, Gore says he’s learned a lot over the years about political compromise and what’s needed to pass strong legislation. He lived through the brutal fight over the BTU tax that the Clinton administration backed in 1993, which would have been a first step toward reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The House passed a budget bill with the BTU tax in it without any Republican support, but it was later dropped in order to get the overall budget plan through the Senate. Republicans then bashed Democrats who had voted for the tax, using the issue effectively in the 1994 elections, which resulted in the first GOP House majority in 40 years. Republicans this year are banking on using the climate bill the same way, putting pressure on freshmen Democrats and those in vulnerable seats. Gore said he learned from the BTU fight that there needs to be a strong, grassroots call for action from citizens across the country. “In order to win this struggle, we have to go to the constituents of the Congress,” said Gore. “Just laying the facts on the table and playing an inside-the-Beltway game is not going to do it on this issue. We have to win the feelings and opinions of voters in the country as a whole … We have to go to the grassroots.” As for legislators who are not yet on board, he said, “The only way they’re going to face down the special interests is if they hear from their constituents that this is the right thing to do.” And Gore is making sure they will hear from their constituents. The Climate Project and its partner organization, the Alliance for Climate Protection, are now “multi-hundred-million-dollar” campaigns “aimed at getting the facts before the people,” he said. Gore formed both groups in 2006, but until now their work has been largely separate. The Climate Project and its 1,200 slideshow presenters have focused on educating the public, while the Alliance for Climate Protection has concentrated on major advertising campaigns. The two groups are now entering a new phase with a more coordinated, campaign-like focus of generating nationwide grassroots support for a climate bill. Since the beginning of this year, the Alliance has grown from 20 staffers to 120, working not just in Washington, D.C., but in key congressional districts across the country. Together, the two groups are using slideshow presentations, action alerts to supporters, and radio, print, and television ads to help get a climate bill passed. (We’ll have more on their efforts soon.) “We have a big ally: reality,” said Gore. “But that doesn’t always determine the outcome unless you have a focused message.” Gore’s two groups are also cooperating with other environmental organizations to make sure activists are targeting lawmakers, and they’re working with allies in the labor and religious communities. “We’re coordinating our work effort in a way that I’ve never seen before in the environmental movement,” he said. The eventual goal of the Alliance for Climate Protection, according to Gore, is to put itself out of business by the end of 2009. If the U.S. passes a strong climate bill and Copenhagen produces a strong climate treaty, the group will dissolve and redirect its resources in new ways, Gore said. “We’re a time-limited organization, have been from the start,” said Gore. “Our goal is to get the country and the world past the tipping point beyond which the majority say, ‘OK, we’re going to do this.’” Permalink | ### |
