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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 26th, 2010 from: CPA <ipa@wmo.int> The first meeting of the High-Level Taskforce for climate services selected Jan Egeland of Norway and Mahmoud Abu-Zeid of Egypt as co-chairs. The High Level Taskforce of independent advisers, which the Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Michel Jarraud, was requested by a decision of the World Climate Conference-3 to establish a Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS), is meeting on 25-26 February, at the WMO Headquarters in Geneva. Please find attached the press release “High-Level Task Force for Climate Services Starts Work at WMO”. More information: www.wmo.int Best regards, Communications and Public Affairs ——————————- Jan Egeland is an excellent choice – we know him from the UN where he had many past involvements and we know for shure that he was one of those that when in Sudan on efforts regarding Darfur, was ready to look at climate change impact on the evolving atrocities. was the United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator from June 2003 to December 2006 under UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He traveled extensively, drawing attention to humanitarian emergencies. In UN fashion – he was balanced out with a representative of the Arab world who has a background in water engineering – so at least there will be a link of climate change and growing water shortage in arid and semi-arid lands. Abu-Zeid is Egyptian Water Minister active on global water problems and has Saudi Arabian support. http://engineering.ucdavis.edu/pages/about/profiles/abu-zeid.html Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 26th, 2010 UNEP NEWS World Environment Ministers Signal Resolve to Realize Sustainable Development. Bali, 26 February 2010 – In the first landmark Declaration issued by ministers of the environment in a decade, Governments pledged to step up the global response to the major environmental and sustainability challenges of this generation. The statement also highlights the need to improve the overall management of the global environment, accepting that that “governance architecture” has in many ways become too complex and fragmented. An important step forward was made earlier in the week in the areas of chemicals, hazardous wastes and human health. Governments agreed at an Extraordinary Meeting to have more cooperative action by the three relevant treaties–the Basel , Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions — as a first step to boosting their delivery within countries. Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director, said: “The ministers responsible for the environment, meeting just over a month after the climate change conference in Copenhagen , have spoken with a clear, united and unequivocal voice.” “Faced with the continued erosion of the natural environment, the persistent and emerging challenges of chemical pollution and wastes and the overarching challenge of issues such as climate change, the status quo is not an option and change is urgently needed”, he added. “This change starts with recognition that the way we are managing the environmental dimension of sustainable development is currently too complex and fragmented. Change is needed here and the ministers signaled their determination to realize this through a political process”, said Mr. Steiner. “But the ministers also recognized that action towards a Green Economy –one able to meet multiple challenges and seize multiple opportunities– is taking route in economies across the globe. Accelerating this is a key element of the Nusa Dua Declaration and one that can direct future action towards realizing the kinds of transitions needed on a planet of 6 billion people, rising to 9 billion by 2050”, he added. There Governments will begin preparations for a landmark conference in Brazil , known as ” Rio plus 20″. “Rio plus 20″ comes two decades after the first Rio Earth Summit, which gave birth to many of the key treaties, ranging from climate change to biodiversity, which to date have defined the international response to environmental challenges. Uganda The country is also contributing to combating climate change. C02 emissions per hectare are up to 68 per cent less than on conventionally farmed land, with studies indicating that organic fields sequester 3-8 tonnes more carbon per hectare.
The warm water from solar water heaters is also reducing rheumatoid arthritis among women as they now have hot water for laundry and dishwashing done by hand instead of only cold water.
Curitiba ’s fuel usage is also 30 per cent lower than in Brazil ’s other major cities. However, as a result of recent criticism of the IPCC and some key errors in the body’s Fourth Assessment Report, several Governments called for an independent review of the IPCC. Full details of the review and its scope will be announced next week with the report to be presented to the IPCC Plenary taking place in the Republic of Korea in October. Several key decisions were adopted, including ones on oceans put forward by the Government of Indonesia and strengthening the environment via the Environment Management Group which UNEP hosts. Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Governments agreed to a final meeting in June 2010, halfway through the UN’s International Year of Biodiversity, to decide whether to establish such a body. Haiti Gaza – { without Arab world politics there is no meeting at a UN enclave . } ——————————————– For more information, please contact: Jim Sniffen ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 23rd, 2010 WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION A SPECIALIZED AGENCY OF THE UNITED NATIONS ___________________________________________ INVITATION TO THE MEDIA
Subject: First meeting of the High-Level Taskforce for the Global Framework for Climate Services Speakers: Mr Michel Jarraud, WMO Secretary-General, with Members from the High-Level Taskforce Venue: WMO Headquarters, Room B 7 bis, Avenue de la Paix, Geneva, Switzerland For more information, including biographies: http://www.wmo.int/hlt-gfcs/index_en.htm… ———————— MEDIA ACCREDITATION Journalists not accredited to the Palais des Nations, who wish to participate in the press conference, are encouraged to send a request to Gaëlle Sévenier, WMO Press Officer ( gsevenier at wmo.int) prior to 25 February 2010. WMO is the United Nations’ authoritative voice on weather, climate and water For more information please contact: Communications and Public Affairs Office, WMO Internet website: http://www.wmo.int Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 21st, 2010 The Bloom Box: An Energy Breakthrough? 60 Minutes: First Customers Says Energy Machine Works And Saves Money. (CBS) For the past year and a half, several large California corporations have been secretly testing the “Bloom Box,” a potentially revolutionary fuel-cell system. Confirming this for the first time, several of the companies report this system is a more efficient, clean, and cost effective way to get electricity than off the power grid. Lesley Stahl and “60 Minutes” cameras get the first look inside the secretive California company, just days before the Bloom Energy official launch, scheduled for next Wednesday (Feb. 24). Stahl’s report will be broadcast this Sunday, Feb. 21, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. John Donahoe, CEO of E-bay, confirms Bloom Boxes were installed at his corporate campus nine months ago. The company says the boxes already saved them over $100,000 in electricity bills. “It’s been very successful thus far. [The Bloom Boxes] have done what they said they would do,” says Donahoe. The five boxes are able to produce five times as much electricity as the 3,248 solar panels that E-bay installed on its campus roofs, says the CEO. “The footprint for Bloom is much more efficient,” he tells Stahl. Stahl is the first journalist to be allowed into the Bloom Energy lab and factory where currently one box a day is built. The boxes create electricity by a chemical process that utilizes oxygen and fuel, but involves no combustion. Bloom’s founder and CEO, K.R. Sridhar, insists all the materials in the box are cheap and available in abundance. Bloom says each large box – which can power about 100 homes – currently sells for $700-800,000. They hope within five to 10 years to roll out a smaller home version for about $3,000 a unit. Bloom Energy was the first clean energy start-up Kleiner-Perkins, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm, invested in. They currently invest in about 50 clean tech companies. Sridhar confirms the company has received over $400 million, making it one of the most expensive startups in history. The majority of that comes from Kleiner Perkins. John Doerr, the Kleiner Perkins partner who invested in Bloom, has high hopes. “The Bloom Box is intended to replace the [electric power] grid for its customer,” says Doerr. He thinks existing utility companies should not be threatened or have a problem with Bloom Energy. “The utility companies will see this as a solution.All they need to do is buy Bloom Boxes, put them in the substation for the neighborhood and sell that electricity,” he says. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 20th, 2010 Yvo de Boer, the new free man, gives to The Financial Times his first interview as elder statesman – and we gleaned three elements in his statement as his very balanced views after 20 years of experience with the climate international problematics. (1) The Copenhagen non-binding outcome has nevertheless provided us with a good basis for a treaty. It Copenhagen accord has for the first time drown from from both – rich and poor countries pledges to limit their GHG emissions, and promised financial assistance from the developed to the developing world to do so. (we did in effect earlier today post already such an agreement between Japan and Kenya.) (2) There is no practical hope that a binding treaty that has both form and content – can be signed at the meeting of December 2010 in Mexico. (Mr. de Boer has removed the smiley face that the UNSG has imposed on him these last two years) (3) While governments provide the necessary policy framework for addressing climate change, the real solutions must come from business. As such there are two stages in the process: (a) Governments must use Taxes or a Cap & Trade methodology to limit emissions. No corporation can justify the investment required to reduce their carbon intensity without confidence that carbon emissions will become and remain much costlier than today, with few loopholes for those unwilling to pay. Only government can provide that predictability. As we see it today – the EU failed in its effort because of the permit system that allowed for too many permits to float around, and for the US – even the bill that is stalled in Congress is useless as it was emasculated by emission permits giveaways to favored sectors. (what he is saying is what we say all the time – government is there in order to govern – without this nothing logical will evolve from plain empty handed competition.) (b) If governments dared to embark on real efforts to limit emissions – as long as it is more then just a token idea – the private sector would take it in its stride, it would even thrive, especially the low-carbon companies and sectors that would emerge to replace those unable to kick the carbon habit. ——— We knew already that Yvo de Boer will join KPMG consulting. We know that he is not the first to jump the public policy wagon for the private sector. Al Gore, former US Vice President and father of The Inconvenient Truth” has shown the way He is doing very well – thank you – in the corporate world. We know of people that were formerly with Greenpeace that make now a good living supporting renewable energy corporations. What we did not know before this interview is that in the academic world, Mr. de Boer chose Yale University and the University of Utrecht that will benefit from his direct involvement. ——— Strange remarks we saw from some that did very little to help the climate cause earlier, but now look down at Mr. de Boer as if he were a traitor to that lost cause to which they did not put their honest heart earlier. Specifically we found the mention to Paul Bledsoe the policy director at the Washington – US National Commission on Energy Policy and former White House adviser. He said: “This resignation is simply dispiriting – if someone as politically adept, dedicated and charismatic as Yvo de Boer can’t bring the UN process to heel, then the process is broken and has to be reformed.” That is true but disingenuous – why did he not work harder at creating the US government solution that could have been helpful to that UN process? After all, there were times that even the UN was trying to achieve climate goals. On the other hand, the fact that BP and ConocoPhillips walked out from a business pro-climate group this week, came about because they found that the White House will subsidize nuclear power so the price of energy stays low – but oil companies are not electric utilities to be subsidized under this plan – so why should they be part of a program that can only harm them. This was clearly a give-away to the nuclear lobby on the back of the oil lobby – and thus two out of the only three progressive oil companies, that dream of becoming energy companies, found it completely irrational of participating in the backing of an Administration that did not think through all aspects of the issues. Now, just two nights ago, at a meeting at a top University here, I saw people from Academia and Businesses (the AB of the process) trying to spread the word about what they are doing, but did also not understand the basic policy logic on which they were trying to sell – but on this on a different posting. Here it will suffice to say that we will look forward at what Mr. de Boer will do for Yale University with the strong hope that from now on he will be ready to stand up for what he believes, without bowing to UN or business interests that will flock on him like vultures trying to push him in their preferred directions. We had our difficulty with his bowing to the UN bosses, but we expect to see no future problem in his AB role. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 19th, 2010 from: Anna Karklina FIELD’s new briefing note entitled ‘Adaptation under the Copenhagen Accord’ is now available in PDF at http://www.field.org.uk/highlights/adaptation-copenhagen-accord. The note focuses specifically on the treatment of adaptation in the political declaration known as the Copenhagen Accord – the most discussed outcome of the December 2009 Copenhagen climate change conference. ? The FIELD Team The Foundation for International Environmental Law ans Development. ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 19th, 2010 The first wave of reporting was only a rewrite of the UNFCCC Press release. Then came some further wording from an AP interview. Now we see the start of thinking journalism. The bottom line seems to be: “Bickering at Copenhagen convinced many countries that the UN negotiating process must be reformed, and that agreement might be sought in other forums.” So, here goes that proverbial 192 UN Member States list or the 193 figure that appears when the UNFCCC is mentioned. We never understood why that discrepancy and assumed the fault is with us for not knowing where to put the EU, Taiwan, the Vatican, Puerto Rico, Palestine … and some other such preferred UN preoccupations. Fiona Harvey of the Financial Times quotes an official of a developed country: "You have to wonder whether you could get moremovement by working in smaller groups." If you want to get results indeed – you must bring together the World’s biggest GHG emitters. The New York City newspapers – The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal went over to the UN and got hold of Janos Pasztor, the potentially homeless head of the “in-Headquarter-house” climate-change team-head for UNSG Ban Ki-moon. {On “homeless” – As we reported earlier: “The UN’s and Ban’s climate unit under Janos Pasztor, which was told there was no room for it in the UN’s Temporary North Lawn Conference Building where Ban has his office, is now looking at space in the Alcoa Building on 48th Street, Inner City Press is told. For now, they are left behind in the nearly empty UN skyscraper where asbestos removal has already begun.”} According to the WSJ – Janos Pasztor said: “It does not matter what a senior UN civil servant does, ultimately – if governments are not ready to sign off on an agreement, then they will not sign off on an agreement;” Mr. Pasztor said that Mr. de Boer called Mr. Ban “two days ago;” to inform him of the decision. Mr. de Boer’s four-years appointment was going till September and he could have asked Mr. Ban to appoint him for another term, but we never came to that point, he said. Asked whether Mr. Ban would have reappointed Mr. de Boer, Mr. Pasztor said: ‘That we don’t know.” Mr. Pasztor said further that Mr. Ban will begin looking for a successor for Mr. de Boer “extremely quickly;” he does not know who might be considered. Neil MacFarquhar and John M. Broder ot the NYT did some further inquiries outside the UN. Mark Kenber, the policy director for the Climate Group, an international organization involving industry that wants to see a climate agreement, said that it is probably the right time to get a fresh face in. It was a grueling two years of negotiations and a new face would re-spark the process. Michael A. Levi, the climate change expert at the Council on Foreign Relations said that Yvo de Boer has put in a lot of time towards a very well-defined end, and the fact he resigns means that he did not see potential success on the horizon of COP 16, this year. Had he seen the possibility that there might be a positive outcome before the end of the year, he would have stuck with it so he would get credit for his work. Others faulted the UN team for not having moved faster to find areas where agreement among those 190+ participating member states at Copenhagen, such as the preservation of rainforests, could have been agreed upon in smaller fora first. Another such topic could have been the taxing of livestock emissions that is being described in today’s FT that says FAO is ready to help review the meat industry. So, after 48 hours since Yvo de Boer’s resignation, provided that the UN does not rush in with a Ban Ki-moon new appointment, but is ready to listen to possible new opportunities, this might turn out as a blessing in disguise – an opening for change – an actual new opportunity. Some question the UNFCCC process itself – but we think that this is rather too much. It does not remember that the UNFCCC was born in Rio de Janeiro in the 1992 UNCED Conference – just because there was no agreement to have a full convention like it was the case with Biodiversity and in regard to Arid and Semi-Arid lands and Desertification. Decreasing the size of the negotiation table, by bringing the number of participants down to those that are the most serious polluters, with delegations present from groups most seriously affected, could be more fit to help bring about the needed agreements. ————- And From Canada – the host for the 2010 meetings of the G8 and G20: from Shawn McCarthy, Ottawa — From Friday’s Globe and Mail reporting. Mr. de Boer’s successor – to be appointed by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon – will not only have to reinvigorate the effort to achieve a treaty, he will need to revisit the UN process itself. The requirement for consensus may make it impossible to reach an accord in Mexico, even in the unlikely event that an agreement can be achieved among major emitters. Some critics suggest Mr. de Boer was part of the problem – bringing a rigid, bureaucratic approach to the international talks. Mr. Robert Page suggested the new UNFCCC executive director will likely have to come from a major developing country – such as Brazil – and be committed to reforming the UN process. Mexican President Felipe Calderon is urging a reform that would see agreement based on a 75-per-cent majority, rather than unanimity. The Catch-22: The UN requires consensus to change the voting rules. “We need to have very realistic expectations for Mexico. I think it would be a mistake to push for a legally binding comprehensive agreement by Mexico. That’s just not going to happen with the current state of affairs.” Indeed, Mr. Drexhage said Mr. de Boer’s successor faces a convergence of factors that will make it extremely difficult to regain momentum for the international talks. Emerging economies like Brazil, South Africa, India and China – the so-called BASIC group – have made clear they will not subject their emission-reduction policies to international verification. Any commitments they have made are conditional on the developed world – notably the United States – taking strong action, and delivering promised financing to the developing world. Mr. Obama faces major hurdles in getting a climate bill passed in Congress this year, raising questions about his administration’s commitment to reduce emissions by 17 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020. And as the United States goes, so goes Canada. World leaders have a couple of opportunities to advance the broad commitments of the Copenhagen Accord into a more robust agreement, including a May meeting in Bonn, Germany, and the Group of Eight/Group of 20 summits to be hosted by Prime Minister Stephen Harper this summer. The G8 and G20 can deliver progress – especially the G20, which includes China, India, Brazil and Mexico. But it remains unclear whether Mr. Harper, who is hosting the meetings and influences the agendas, will make climate change a priority. ———–
Because De Boer took over from another Dutchman in 2006, there will be strong pressure on the UN to choose his successor from a developing country. “I would like to see someone from a developing country who can negotiate with those countries,” Seb Walhain, the head of environmental markets at Fortis Netherlands, told Reuters. Because so much is at stake and the talks are at such an advanced stage, the appointment is likely to be fiercely contested. Countries will want an early decision, but the UN’s selection process is laborious. A successor is likely to be chosen from within the UN system, though there will be few people considered diplomatically acceptable or authoritative enough to resist world leaders and muscle though an agreement acceptable to all. De Boer’s successor’s first tasks will be to keep the US aboard the negotiations and to clear up the vexed question of the legal status of the Copenhagen accord, the deal struck at Copenhagen by a small group but not endorsed by a majority of countries. Get it right, and the new head of the UNFCCC will be celebrated as the man or woman who steered the whole world to a historic agreement that could save the planet from calamitous climate change. Get it wrong, and negotiations could be set back a decade. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 19th, 2010 « Rencontre Régionale: Adaptation aux changements climatiques au Maghreb: Bilan et Perspectives » from: Prof. Dr. Med-Saïd KARROUK to African Le Comité National IGBP, et l’Université Hassan II, Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines Ben M’Sick, Casablanca (Maroc) – Avec le soutien du programme ACCA du CRDI et du DFID Organisent : La « Rencontre Régionale: Adaptation aux changements climatiques au Maghreb: Le 16 et 17 mars 2010, FLSH Ben M’Sick, Casablanca Préambule : En réponse aux défis environnementaux et socio-économiques majeurs liés aux changements climatiques, placés actuellement au cœur de l’ordre du jour des grandes réunions internationales, et dans la perspective d’une contribution à l’effort mondial de sensibilisation sur les enjeux du changement du climat, que cette rencontre sur l’adaptation aux changements climatiques au Maghreb est organisée, à laquelle seront invitées des personnalités de très haut niveau et d’éminents scientifiques et experts. D’autre part, un plan d’action concret sera proposé pour la mise en place de projets prioritaires d’adaptation pour les gouvernements, les entreprises et la société civile. Ceci permettra en même temps d’imprimer une dynamique nouvelle aux actions jusqu’ici timides des pays maghrébins sur le plan international dans le domaine des changements climatiques. La diffusion de l’information recueillie durant cette conférence sera effectuée par le réseau « ClimDev » qui desserve plus de 10 000 lecteurs francophones à travers le monde. A cela s’ajoutera la publication des actes de la conférence qui seront adressés aux différents acteurs visés par la conférence : les décideurs, les scientifiques, les ONG, …etc. Objectifs de la rencontre : Cette rencontre a trois objectifs : Les axes de cette rencontre sont les suivants : Enjeux : Gravement préoccupés par la vulnérabilité des systèmes socioéconomiques et de production du Maghreb au changement climatique et aux faibles capacités de riposte de la région, les décideurs politiques ont retenu le changement climatique comme l’une des préoccupations prioritaires et ont lancé un appel de coopérations aux partenaires pour appuyer leurs pays et les communautés économiques régionales afin qu’ils puissent intégrer de façon efficace la problématique du changement climatique dans leurs plans de développement. Les négociations actuelles sur le changement climatique recherchent un nouvel élan pour l’après 2012 qui prendrait en compte les leçons du Protocole de Kyoto et la nécessaire convergence des priorités des diverses Parties. Dans cette perspective elles ont identifié quatre domaines-clés pour un dialogue de haut niveau, pour la coopération et l’action de long terme sur le changement climatique. Il s’agit : Le Maghreb se doit d’y inscrire sa spécificité et ses priorités et d’en saisir les opportunités pour son développement. La Rencontre de Casablanca s’intègre dans cet élan et souhaite participer à l’aide à la décision pour une adaptation efficace par la recherche et le renforcement des capacités vis-à-vis de ce crucial problème, celui des Changements Climatiques au Maghreb. Public cible : Comité scientifique : KARROUK Mohammed Saïd, Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines Ben M’Sick, Casablanca Comité d’organisation : KARROUK Mohammed Saïd, Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines Ben M’Sick, Casablanca Date-limite et directives pour soumettre des résumés : Nous voudrions inviter les participants à présenter des communications orales et des affiches basés sur les thèmes de la rencontre, liés à la région du Maghreb. Les résumés doivent être soumis avant le 31 janvier 2010 par courriel, en anglais, français ou arabe. Aide aux participants : La rencontre fournira l’aide de voyage, d’hébergement et de restauration, partielle ou totale, à un nombre limité de participants qui sont dans le besoin d’aide financière. On s’attend à ce que les participants puissent financer leurs propres dépenses et ou recevoir l’appui d’une autre organisation pour couvrir les frais. Conditions : Frais de participation : Conférences invitées : Programme Prévisionnelle : Programme : 09:00 – 09:30 *************** Directeur Exécutif du Comité National IGBP (Global Change) Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 18th, 2010 Based on the same Press Release from Bonn as we did, The Washington Post put on the following: U.N. climate chief resigns: Yvo de Boer to quit in July. We bring here the Washington Post note and our further analysis at the end of it. ———– By Juliet Eilperin Yvo de Boer, the United Nations’ top climate official, announced Thursday that he would step down from his post in July to work in the private sector on environmental sustainability. De Boer has overseen international climate talks for nearly four years, laboring without success to produce a legally binding pact to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. His departure comes amid uncertainty as to whether the 193 member nations of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change can produce a final treaty in Mexico in December. “Working with my colleagues . . . in support of the climate change In recent weeks it has become unclear whether the Copenhagen accord, In his statement, de Boer, a former government official in the “I have always maintained that while governments provide the necessary The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which ———- What is… KPMG? KPMG is a really huge, long established accounting firm. It formed in 1987 following the merger between the accounting firms of Peat Marwick International (PMI) and Klynveld Main Goerdeler (KMG), however, the history of the combined business can be traced back to 1870. What do the letters “KPMG” stand for? The name of the firm, KPMG, is not actually an initialism. However, the roots of the name stem from four partners in the firms that merged to form KPMG. The “K” in “KPMG” stands for “Klynveld”. In 1917, Piet Klynveld founded the accounting firm Klynveld Kraayenhof & Co. in Amsterdam. The final merger formed the firm in 1987, when Peat Marwick International (PMI) and Klynveld Main Goerdeler (KMG) merged as KPMG – and its global network of professional firms providing Audit, Tax, and Advisory services operates operate in 148 countries and has more than 113,000 professionals working in member firms around the world – one could easily say that this is a giant mini-UN multi-national on professional economic auditing issues. http://www.kpmg.com One can say that KPMG in many ways had its roots in the Netherlands. * * * KPMG – Corporate citizenship: “This is an exciting and critical moment in the debate around the role of business in tackling the world’s most pressing problems. Problems such as climate change, food and water scarcity, poverty, security, development and economic growth. “We have a clear vision of the role of KPMG firms. We believe we should use our skills and our resources to become fully involved in finding sustainable solutions to global and local issues, working alongside governments, civil society groups and international agencies. This vision is in line with our values — where we make a commitment to the communities in which we work. “Locally, member firms around the world are using their skills to support local community initiatives and projects. Globally, we are using our capacity and capability as an international network to support the Millennium Development Goals, working strategically with governments, non-governmental organizations and charities to make an impact. To help combat the effects of climate change, we have developed the KPMG Global Green Initiative, which includes an ambitious target to reduce our combined global carbon footprint by 25 percent by 2010. “These are often big and complex challenges, but I see, first hand, truly remarkable examples of KPMG people making a difference in the world. While there is still much to do, we are confident we are making a significant contribution in creating a more sustainable world and we are proud to share some of this with you.” Michael Hastings * * * KPMG International established the Global Development Initiative. This innovative program takes KPMG commitment to corporate citizenship to a new level, bringing together KPMG people from around the world so they can tackle global issues. Jane Smallman To achieve this, KPMG firms have partnered with numerous International Development Agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to pioneer a model of professional collaboration. The aim is that we apply our people’s skills, knowledge and resources to sustainable enterprises in pursuit of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). By working with a number of organizations, KPMG people have already made an impact on some pressing global issues. Some of the organizations include The Millennium Promise, Oxfam, Save the Children, UNICEF and World Vision. KPMG says it is already involved in climate change issues via its 2008 started GREEN INITIATIVE that as they say -” which, amongst other progressive strategies, includes the ambition to reduce our global carbon footprint by 25 percent by 2010.” ? ? ? ———— Yvo de Boer will still be at the helm of the UNFCCC for the coming four months when one expected the UN to rev up its efforts for the December 2010 meeting in Mexico – Mexico City or Cancun – we got as of now different indications. Without prior agreements, it is again unrealistic to expect a clear UN mandate to come out from a UNFCCC COP, but it is important that someone out there manages the travel time-tables of the UN folks for the preparatory meetings. Also, there is the need to discuss where the UN wants to take the UNFCCC institution, and if there is an intent to appoint a new Secretary-General – and if so – who shall he be? It seems that time has come to pass the batton to a South American considering the need to come up with someone from the South, and the clear Asian increase in CO2 emissions. So – what will it be? Will this new debate come instead of the search for an agreement of substance? Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 17th, 2010 Morrison & Foerster Seminar. Thursday, February 25, 2010 At The Palace Hotel Program: 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM ————— Morrison & Foerster is a sponsor of the Cleantech Forum XXVI “Taking Cleantech to Scale” in San Francisco February 24-26th, 2010 at The Palace Hotel. As a sponsor, we will present the following break-out panel discussion on Thursday, February 25 from 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.: China/U.S. Cross-Border Investment in Cleantech. Moderator: Panel: The Cleantech Forum will bring together 1,000 industry leaders ushering in new forms of financing for scale and innovation, for a broader set of global demands and new business models. Attend Cleantech Forum and gain a competitive advantage as large corporate incumbents and governments worldwide play an increasing role in financing and scaling Cleantech. Learn about the new business models and markets that a maturing Cleantech sector is creating. Attendees have access to first-hand accounts from the new companies appearing, the new funds investing, and corporations looking for partners. For more information and to register for the Cleantech Forum XXVI, please visit the Cleantech Forum website. Morrison & Foerster’s global Cleantech Practice is dedicated to representing clients that are bringing innovative, sustainable products, services, and processes to the marketplace. The firm is the largest U.S. law firm in Asia and has over 75 lawyers working on the ground in China across three well-developed offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Morrison & Foerster is pleased to have served as sole international counsel to the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 17th, 2010 March 3, 2010, Innovate in Canada: Bolstering Profitability in Greentech with Cross-Border Opportunities. The Canadian Consulate General, representatives from the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, and the Vale Columbia Center are co-hosting an interactive strategy session on how companies can increase profitability by engaging in cross-border research collaboration. Companies including IBM, GE, Trilliant and Fasken Martineau will discuss cross border greentech projects during the session, including how to harness Canada’s agressive R&D tax incentives. Karl P. Sauvant, Ph.D. Please visit our website - http://www.vcc.columbia.edu Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 11th, 2010 CLIMATE CHANGE: Amidst Global Warming Coldest Winter in 50 Years. BERLIN, Feb 11, 2010 (IPS) – It was probably an irony that Europe’s coldest winter in 50 years coincided with the U.N. climate change summit in Copenhagen last December, which failed to deliver a treaty to reduce global warming emissions. Since Dec. 13 it has been snowing uninterruptedly in Northern Europe. In some places in Germany, average night temperature has been around minus 20 degrees Celsius. The arctic winter, the coldest since 1957, froze rivers and channels, and disrupted transport links to some islands in the Baltic Sea. The winter has also taken a toll on human lives. In Poland alone at least 212 people have died since November. Victims of cold In Germany, 14 people are known to have died during January, and hospitals around the country are reporting thousands of winter-related accidents – from auto crashes to people who simply slip on the frozen sidewalks and suffer fractures. Similar severe weather conditions have been reported in Eastern Europe, in Central Asia and in North America. But the arctic winter – the second this decade – is an exception to the general trend of global warming, according to meteorologists and climate experts. Frank Boettcher, director of the German Institute for Weather and Climate Communication, told IPS that “the present winter does not contradict the global climate change trend at all.” As indicator of the persistence of climate change, Boettcher referred to the present temperatures in Greenland. “Right now, temperatures in Greenland are 15 degrees Celsius above the season’s long-term average,” he said. “This is a good indicator that we cannot rationalise global warming away.” Boettcher said that the present temperatures in Central and Northern Europe are relatively low. ‘’That’s why many consider the winter particularly cold. But, in general, average temperatures have been on the rise since many years.” According to official German weather statistics, present average temperature is at least one Celsius higher than 100 years ago. Even more illustrative is the comparison of the so-called cold sum of the winter, which is the total of all the daily negative average temperatures measured in the period between Nov. 1 and Mar. 31. During the winter of 2009, the cold sum amounted to 131 – in 1946, last century’s coldest winter, the value surpassed 500 points. According to the German weather station of Zwickau, some 200 km south of Berlin, so far the cold sum of this winter has reached 225. Uwe Kirsche, spokesperson of the German weather service, also said that even if the present weather conditions appear very cold, “it is the long-term observations which are important. This winter, even if it appears to be particularly cold and particularly long, it does not contradict the long-term evidence of global warming.” Kirsche referred to a report by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which confirmed that the present decade has been the warmest ever observed in the southern hemisphere. The NASA report released Jan. 21, said that new analysis of global surface temperatures found that 2009 was the second warmest since 1880. “In the southern hemisphere, 2009 was the warmest year on record,” it said. The report explained that 2008 was the coolest year of the decade in the southern hemisphere due to a strong La Nina phenomenon, which cooled the tropical Pacific Ocean below average temperatures. La Niña (the little girl) is a coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon similar to El Niño. During La Niña, sea surface temperature across the equatorial Eastern Central Pacific Ocean is lower than normal by 0.5 degrees Celsius. In the United States, an episode of La Niña is defined as a period of at least five months of La Niña conditions. In its report, the NASA said that “2009 saw a return to near-record [high] global temperatures as the La Nina diminished, according to the new analysis by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.” The document also confirmed the trend seen elsewhere, that this decade has been the warmest ever. In the paper, NASA points out that the 2009 average temperatures were a small fraction of a degree lower than 2005, the warmest on record. That puts 2009 in a tie with a cluster of other recent years – 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006, and 2007 – as the second warmest on record. “There’s always interest in the annual temperature numbers and a given year’s ranking, but the ranking often misses the point,” said James Hansen, GISS director, according to a NASA press release. “There’s substantial year-to-year variability of global temperature caused by the tropical El Nino-La Nina cycle.” “When we average temperature over five or ten years to minimise that variability, we find global warming is continuing unabated,” Hansen concluded. According to GISS data, during the past three decades, there has been an upward trend in world average temperatures of about 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade. In total, average global temperatures have increased by about 0.8 degrees Celsius since 1880. This data is consistent with observations by the U.N. weather agency, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). Just ahead of the Copenhagen conference , the WMO said that the past ten years had been the warmest since records began in 1850. The decade 2000-2009 “is very likely to be the warmest on record, warmer than the 1990s, than the 1980s and so on,” Michel Jarraud, secretary-general of the WMO, told a news conference at the Danish capital on Dec. 8. Other than average temperatures, evidence of global warming is manifold, from the bleaching of coral reefs to the melting of glaciers in several regions of the world, and to the acidification of ocean waters and their continued rise in level. And yet, the present European cold winter will continue until March, according to the German weather forecast service. “The cold air is this time obstinate,” meteorologist Dominik Jung told IPS. “There is a stable thick cold air mass over Northern Europe, which is being constantly driven towards the South. It is going to be cold for the weeks to come.” Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 11th, 2010 http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-vine/what-th… What The Snowpocalypse Tells Us About Global Warming. Washington D.C.’s getting slammed by record snowfall right now, which means that in addition to unplowed roads and Mad Max-style scenes at Safeway, we also have to suffer through a flurry of Al Gore jokes and Republicans snorting about how this proves global warming is all fake. I guess the prim, boring response is that a single weather event, even an extreme one, doesn’t tell us very much about long-term climate trends. But blah, blah, everyone’s heard that line before. A more thoughtful reply comes from meteorologist Jeff Masters, who explains how massive snowstorms in the Northeast are, in fact, quite consistent with a steadily warming world: There are two requirements for a record snow storm: 1) A near-record amount of moisture in the air (or a very slow moving storm). 2) Temperatures cold enough for snow. According to the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, the globe warmed 0.74°C (1.3°F) over the past 100 years. There will still be colder than average winters in a world that is experiencing warming, with plenty of opportunities for snow. The more difficult ingredient for producing a record snowstorm is the requirement of near-record levels of moisture. Global warming theory predicts that global precipitation will increase, and that heavy precipitation events–the ones most likely to cause flash flooding–will also increase. This occurs because as the climate warms, evaporation of moisture from the oceans increases, resulting in more water vapor in the air. According to the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, water vapor in the global atmosphere has increased by about 5% over the 20th century, and 4% since 1970. This extra moisture in the air will tend to produce heavier snowstorms, assuming it is cold enough to snow. Groisman et al. (2004) found a 14% increase in heavy (top 5%) and 20% increase in very heavy (top 1%) precipitation events in the U.S. over the past 100 years, though mainly in spring and summer. However, the authors did find a significant increase in winter heavy precipitation events have occurred in the Northeast U.S. Meanwhile, it’s worth noting the U.S. Global Change Research Program actually predicted stronger winter storms for the Northeast, in its 2009 report on potential climate-change impacts for the United States: Storm tracks have shifted northward over the last 50 years as evidenced by a decrease in the frequency of storms in mid-latitude areas of the Northern Hemisphere, while high-latitude activity has increased. There is also evidence of an increase in the intensity of storms in both the mid- and high-latitude areas of the Northern Hemisphere, with greater confidence in the increases occurring in high latitudes (Kunkel et al., 2008). The northward shift is projected to continue, and strong cold season storms are likely to become stronger and more frequent, with greater wind speeds and more extreme wave heights.” Now, that doesn’t mean we can definitely say that global warming caused this snow monstrosity—again, it’s too hard to attribute any single weather event to long-term climate shifts. (For instance, El Niño may be playing a bigger role right now in feeding these storms.) At most, we can say that a warming climate will create the conditions that make fierce winter storms in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic more likely. Or at least it will for awhile: If the planet keeps heating up, then at some point freezing conditions in the Northeast will become very rare, at which point snowstorms will, too But we’re not at that point—the Earth hasn’t warmed that much yet. On the other hand, climate models do predict that snowstorms in the southernmost parts of the United States should become much rarer in the coming decades: There’s plenty of moisture down south, but freezing temperatures are likely to decrease and the jet stream is expected to shift northward. So if those regions start seeing a sustained uptick in snowfall, then something’s gone awry in climate predictions. But the blizzard in the Northeast, while miserable and incredibly disruptive, doesn’t appear whack with long-term forecasts. (That’s not exactly cheerful news for those of us who have to live here.) ————— Last Updated: 1:02 PM GMT on February 11, 2010. Posted by: JeffMasters on February 08, 2010 A major new winter storm is headed east over the U.S. today, and threatens to dump a foot or more of snow on Philadelphia, New York City, and surrounding regions Tuesday and Wednesday. Philadelphia is still digging out from its second top-ten snowstorm of recorded history to hit the city this winter, and the streets are going to begin looking like canyons if this week’s snowstorm adds a significant amount of snow to the incredible 28.5″ that fell during “Snowmageddon” last Friday and Saturday. Philadelphia has had two snowstorms exceeding 23″ this winter. According to the National Climatic Data Center, the return period for a 22+ inch snow storm is once every 100 years–and we’ve had two 100-year snow storms in Philadelphia this winter. It is true that if the winter pattern of jet stream location, sea surface temperatures, etc, are suitable for a 100-year storm to form, that will increase the chances for a second such storm to occur that same year, and thus the odds have having two 100-year storms the same year are not 1 in 10,000. Still, the two huge snowstorms this winter in the Mid-Atlantic are definitely a very rare event one should see only once every few hundred years, and is something that has not occurred since modern records began in 1870. The situation is similar for Baltimore and Washington D.C. According to the National Climatic Data Center, the expected return period in the Washington D.C./Baltimore region for snowstorms with more than 16 inches of snow is about once every 25 years. This one-two punch of two major Nor’easters in one winter with 16+ inches of snow is unprecedented in the historical record for the region, which goes back to the late 1800s. 1. 30.7″, Jan 7-8, 1996 The top 10 snowstorms on record for Baltimore: 1. 28.2″, Feb 15-18, 2003 The top 10 snowstorms on record for Washington, D.C.: 1. 28.0″, Jan 27-28, 1922 Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 11th, 2010 Post-Copenhagen – ALDE MEPs Corrine Lepage (MoDem, France) and Chris Davies (Liberal Democrat, UK) have called on the EU to be bolder in its strategy to help forge a legally binding global deal on carbon emission cuts in the wake of the failed Copenhagen Climate Change Summit. Speaking after the European Parliament voted today to set a target of cutting EU emissions by more than 20% Lepage, vice-chair of the Environment Committee said: “This resolution should be considered as a first step. Our priority must be to re-establish the trust of our citizens in scientific data. It is vital to convince them that the promotion of a low carbon economy is a response both to the effects of climate change and, in part, to the economic crisis. It is equally crucial that Europe speak with one voice in favor of an agreement with the main emitters of CO2, notably the US and China. Finally, it is essential to stick to our financial commitments with regard to developing countries.” “After the disappointment of Copenhagen the EU has to raise its game and take a lead. By saving energy and improving energy efficiency we will save resources, drive down emissions, and make our economy more competitive.” Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 10th, 2010 Green groups have warned that electric cars could actually increase carbon emissions. Spain pushes for common strategy on electric cars. January 10, 2010, EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS http://euobserver.com/9/29443/?rk=1 EU industry ministers on Tuesday (9 February) discussed plans to establish a common strategy for electric cars, a pet project of the Spanish EU presidency. Following the informal talks in the northern Spanish city of San Sebastian, the country’s industry minister Miguel Sebastian said it was not an exaggeration to say that the electric vehicle “has been born today in Europe,” and that it has done so under the Spanish presidency. “Obviously there are lots of questions …issues of legal security, validation, the safety of the vehicles themselves …and cost,” he admitted, however. Madrid also wants the electric car included in the bloc’s economic strategy for the next ten years, the so-called 2020 Agenda, as it would boost its ailing auto sector, stem soaring unemployment rates and use the renewable energy produced domestically. The EU would compete against already established electric car manufacturers in Japan, China and the United States. “It is good for people’s pockets, good for European income and employment, good for Europe as a whole, and it will be good for the planet from an environmental perspective,” the Spanish minister said. The report, commissioned by Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Transport & Environment, says that existing EU legislation on car emissions is flawed because it allows manufacturers to use sales of electric vehicles to offset the continued production of high gas-consuming cars. Increasing sales of electric cars to 10 percent of the total could lead to a 20 percent increase in both oil consumption and CO2 emissions in the EU car sector, the groups warn. About 400 grams of carbon dioxide are emitted on average for every kilowatt-hour of electricity in the EU, but this can more than double if coal is used, says the report. The answer, in their view, is to integrate electric cars with a “smart” electricity network, which would charge vehicles only when there was an abundance of green power from sources such as wind farms. But smart power networks are still in their early phase, despite EU pledges to develop them further. “Just as every car sold today has to have an odometer to show how far it has driven, every electric car needs a smart meter to show how much electricity has been used and better still, whether or not that electricity came from a renewable source,” Nusa Urbancic from Transport & Environment said in a statement. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 9th, 2010 from: Lorenz Martin Workshop on Climate Change Scenarios 2 March 2010, ETH Zurich, Switzerland ————– A series of national and international speakers will - present the current state of scenario development at regional and Further information including the detailed workshop programme are Everybody is welcome at the workshop, please register at ————– Contact: Dr. Isabelle Bey, <mailto:isabelle.bey@env.ethz.ch> – Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 7th, 2010 Arctic Melt To Cost Up To $24 Trillion By 2050: Report Date: 08-Feb-10 WASHINGTON – Arctic ice melting could cost global agriculture, real estate and insurance anywhere from $2.4 trillion to $24 trillion by 2050 in damage from rising sea levels, floods and heat waves, according to a report released on Friday. “Everybody around the world is going to bear these costs,” said Eban Goodstein, a resource economist at Bard College in New York state who co-authored the report, called “Arctic Treasure, Global Assets Melting Away.” He said the report, reviewed by more than a dozen scientists and economists and funded by the Pew Environment Group, an arm of the Pew Charitable Trusts, provides a first attempt to monetize the cost of the loss of one of the world’s great weather makers. “The Arctic is the planet’s air conditioner and it’s starting to break down,” he said. The loss of Arctic Sea ice and snow cover is already costing the world about $61 billion to $371 billion annually from costs associated with heat waves, flooding and other factors, the report said. Melting of Arctic sea ice is already triggering a feedback of more warming as dark water revealed by the receding ice absorbs more of the sun’s energy, he said. That could lead to more melting of glaciers on land and raise global sea levels. While much of Europe and the United States has suffered heavy snowstorms and unusually low temperatures this winter, evidence has built that the Arctic is at risk from warming. Greenhouse gases generated by tailpipes and smokestacks have pushed Arctic temperatures in the last decade to the highest levels in at least 2,000 years, reversing a natural cooling trend, an international team of researchers reported in the journal Science in September. Arctic emissions of methane have jumped 30 percent in recent years, scientists said last month. Thin ice over the Arctic Sea this winter could mean a powerful ice-melt next summer, a top U.S. climate scientist said this week. And early findings from a major research project in Canada involving more than 370 scientists from 27 countries showed on Friday that climate change is transforming the Arctic environment faster than expected and accelerating the disappearance of sea ice. Goodstein’s study did not look at worst-case scenarios Arctic melting could have, such as warmer temperatures that trigger massive releases of crystallized methane formations in Arctic soils and ocean beds known as methane hydrates. It also did not look at sea ice erosion troubling people in the Arctic. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 6th, 2010 The capital region is not accustomed to this much snow. The average annual snowfall for Washington is 15 inches. But the 2009-10 winter has been far from average. A major storm just before Christmas dumped up to 20 inches in some areas, and the city has seen smaller snow accumulations already twice this week. The record snowfall for D.C. was 28 inches in 1922.This weekend alone will surpass that amount. The snow was expected to become particularly heavy after nightfall and continue through Saturday. The Washington DC district’s director of transportation, Gabe Klein, said the snow could pile up at a rate of four inches an hour during parts of the storm, with winds gusting up to 25 miles an hour. For district officials, the latest blizzard seemed a bit old hat. “We’re pretty much going to handle it in the same way we handled the last storm,” said William Howland Jr., director of D.C.’s Department of Public Works. In the spirit of the season, city press advisories referred to the storm as the “super snow bowl.” Others dubbed it – “Snowmageddon.” We call it a potential tie-breaker in the Congressional Global Warming Wars. They will call it Washington Freezing and find in it an excuse for doing nothing on the Global Issue. The storm also got the attention of the White House, whose current occupant, Barack Obama, famously dissed his adopted city’s response to a minor snowfall shortly after taking office last year. This time around, his tune had changed. As White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters, “Even a transplanted Hawaiian to Chicago has sufficient respect for a forecast of nearly two feet of snow.” ———- Even as city officials were urging residents to stay off the streets, Washingtonians were making plans for mass revelry in the form of giant snowball fights. (A group snow battle during the December storm was marred when a police officer pulled out a gun after snowballs hit his Hummer.) On Friday, a Facebook group promoted the “official DuPont Circle Snowball Fight” for Saturday afternoon and boasted that its membership had soared from 30 people on Thursday to more than 2,000 a day later. Local bars and restaurants were offering Snow Day specials, with at least one establishment, Urbana, promoting a “baby, it’s cold outside beach party” theme. Washington, Maryland and Virginia all declared snow emergencies Friday morning, and hundreds of flights were canceled at the region’s three major airports. The lobbyists will be stuck in town this weekend. With snow soon to be sticking to the runways, a Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority spokesman said she expected the final flights to leave the area by 6 p.m., with the airports likely to be shuttered all day Saturday.
By Nafeesa Syeed The National Weather Service called the storm “extremely dangerous.” Officials urged people to huddle at home and out of the way of emergency crews. Forecasters said the storm could be the biggest for the nation’s capital in modern history. Blizzard warnings were issued for the District of Columbia, Baltimore, parts of New Jersey and Delaware, and some areas west of the Chesapeake Bay. President Barack Obama called the storm “Snowmageddon.” Airlines canceled flights, churches called off weekend services and people wondered if they would be stuck at home for several days in a region ill-equipped to deal with so much snow. “D.C. traditionally panics when it comes to snow. This time, it may be more justifiable than most times,” said Becky Shipp, who was power-walking in Arlington, Va., Friday. “I am trying to get a walk in before I am stuck with just the exercise machine in my condo.” The region’s second snowstorm in less than two months brought heavy, wet snow and strong winds that forecasters warned could gust near 60 mph in some areas along the coast. Hundreds of thousands of customers across the region had lost electricity and more outages were expected to be reported because of all the downed power lines. A hospital fire in D.C. sent about three dozen patients scurrying from their rooms to safety in a basement. The blaze started when a snow plow truck caught fire near the building. Authorities blamed the storm for hundreds of accidents, including a deadly tractor-trailer wreck that killed a father and son who had stopped to help someone in Virginia. Some area hospitals asked people with four-wheel-drive vehicles to volunteer to pick up doctors and nurses to take them to work. The country band Rascal Flatts postponed a concert Saturday in Ohio, but the Atlanta Thrashers-Washington Capitals NHL game went on as planned. In Dover, Del., Shanita Foster lugged three gallons of water out of a Dollar General store. Shoppers jammed aisles and emptied stores of milk, bread, shovels, driveway salt and other supplies. Many scrambling for food and supplies were too late. Metro, the transit system the Washington area is heavily dependent upon, closed all but the underground rail service and suspended bus service. Maryland’s public transportation also shut down Saturday, including Baltimore’s Metro. Maryland Transit Administration spokeswoman Jawauna Greene said the underground portion of the Metro could reopen later Saturday but it depended on the weather conditions. Amtrak also canceled several of its Northeast Corridor trains Saturday, and New Jersey’s transit authority expected to suspend bus service. As much as a foot of snow was reported in parts of that state. Across the region, transportation officials deployed thousands of trucks and crews and had hundreds of thousands of tons of salt at the ready. Several states exhausted or expected to exhaust their snow removal budgets. Maryland budgeted about $60 million, and had already spent about $50 million, Gov. Martin O’Malley said. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who has been in office less than a month, declared his second snow emergency, authorizing state agencies to assist local governments. As of early Saturday, some parts of Virginia had already seen more than 18 inches of snow. The snow comes less than two months after a Dec. 19 storm dumped more than 16 inches on Washington. Snowfalls of this magnitude – let alone two in one season – are rare in the area. According to the National Weather Service, Washington has gotten more than a foot of snow only 13 times since 1870. The heaviest on record was 28 inches in January 1922. The biggest snowfall for the Washington-Baltimore area is believed to have been in 1772, before official records were kept, when as much as 3 feet fell, which George Washington and Thomas Jefferson penned in their diaries. In Washington, tourists made the best of it Friday, spending their days in museums or venturing out to see the monuments before the snow got too heavy. A group of 13 high school students from Cincinnati was stranded in D.C. when a student government conference they planned to attend was canceled – after they had already arrived. So they went sightseeing. At the Smithsonian’s natural history museum, Caitlin Lavon, 18, and Hannah Koch, 17, took pictures of each other with the jaws of a great white shark in the Ocean Hall. Associated Press writers Brett Zongker and Sarah Karush in Washington, Kathleen Miller in Falls Church, Va., David Dishneau in Chantilly, Va., Ben Nuckols in Hanover, Md., Randall Chase in Dover, Del., and Steve Szkotak in Richmond, Va., contributed to this report. ——————— Here in New York, I just came home from jogging on the street – there were more joggers out on a Saturday morning then I ever saw. The streets are clear – the only white is that of salt some eager store owners or building – Supers sprinkled believing there will be snow. Indeed in between parked cars, in some streets, there is a little bit of white – so there was a dusting sometime earlier today. Will New York be spared this time? Was it all destined for Washington or we are still on line to get it later? Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 3rd, 2010 The EU refuses to see the multi headed Hydra it has become and expects President Obama to play along. Reality calls – EU please get serious at becoming some sort of one headed entity! The US President is a busy man now with all that US Jazz. It slowly starts sinking in – we said it a long time ago! February 3, 2010, http://euobserver.com/9/29354/?rk=1, EUOBSERVER / ANALYSIS – “The EU’s post-Copenhagen strategy should be For the last three years, if it hasn’t been the institutional reform With its climate boy-scout badge afixed to its sleeve, Brussels headed But in the end, the EU ended up the goody-two-shoes pupil who’s top of Denmark’s Connie Hedegaard, now incoming EU “It was the strangest conference I have been at in my life, from all “It was a really great failure and we have to learn from that,” he Glass half full! However, after the holidays, a clutch of pollyanna-ish EU officials Ms Hedegaard during the parliamentary hearing to confirm her “I would very much have liked to have seen more progress in But even as the EU begins to view the Copenhagen glass as half full, Last week, realising that only around 20 countries had listed their At the same time, EU member states that have never been comfortable At the same time, the commission itself is in the ‘twenty-percenter’ The US is looking to a 17 percent emissions reduction on 2005 levels, Separately, four of the five architects of the Accord, Brazil, South Last weekend, meeting in New Delhi, the four so-called Basic countries Indian environment minister Jairam Ramesh said: “We support the “The two-track negotiating process …is the only legitimate process But with the surprise election to the US Senate of Massachusetts For all the public talk of Latin American, Chinese and African climate A popular post-Copenhagen analysis from the Brookings Institute, the Nevertheless, despite the dark days and the cynicism of some EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy has already said he hopes to One of the main lessons the European Commission has drawn from the “We are fragmented from a negotiating point of view,” President Ms Hedegaard is of the same mind. In her parliamentary hearing, her “A lot of Europeans in the room is not a problem, but there is only an In a similar vein, the commission president has also suggested that Until now, this sort of bilateral pressure has been left up to the Before last autumn’s federal election in Germany, While this sort of member-state activity is likely to continue, the Related to this, the major task will be to break the remarkable unity The third world has said that it would be happy to develop along a The key advantage of the Copenhagen Accord for rich countries is that In many ways, Copenhagen was a victory for the developing world, in For this reason, the US has called for a junking of the UN process, EU leaders however “are less neurotic about the UN than the Americans At the same time that President Barroso admitted to pulling his hair Although some Spanish presidency officials at one point said that Instead, according to Mr Runge-Metzger: “The next step for the EU is One arena in particular that climate watchers should keep an eye on is Border tariff: Meanwhile, EU officials are briefing heavily against the awkward Elsewhere, the EU is also almost certain to take a fresh look at It’s always easy to dismiss such ambition when expressed by a man But this is what a trade commissioner has to say. Many analysts The EU is still essential here. Washington could not move ahead with a It should also be remembered that many other major powers were
This feature was originially written for the Nordic Council’s Analys { We wonder at the last sentence of the article because we think that unless the EU does in fact unite under one leadership it will not amount to much when the US continues to deal with the BASICs – I mean the countries that are form the basic future. The EU should aim at becoming the G3 to be added to China and the US in future global negotiations that will include also the IBSA and one or two more states. See please next article.} US blames Lisbon Treaty for EU summit fiasco. Mr Obama – the Madrid summit decision is being seen as a diplomatic snub to Spain. February 3, 2010, http://euobserver.com/9/29398/?rk=1 State department spokesman Philip J. Crowley told press in Washington on Tuesday (2 February) that the treaty has made it unclear who the US leader should meet and when. { that sounds very clear to me.} “We are working through this just as Europeans themselves are working The Lisbon Treaty came into force on 1 December, 2009. It created the post It kept the institution of the six-month rotating EU presidency as The Spanish EU presidency is being closely watched to see how the EU The state department’s Mr Crowley said the US and Spain have been in “Obviously, there’s been some disappointment expressed by the Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero and Mr Obama are both The informal event sees some 3,500 celebrities, businessmen, Mr Zapatero, a centre-left secularist, has taken flak for his trip in Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 3rd, 2010 Climate change http://bit.ly/5iZZ41 Green jobs http://bit.ly/5MsDHG Climate change – No hiding place? IT MAY seem implausible at the moment, as northern Europe, Asia and
And on top of El Niño, there is the sun. The sun’s brightness DePreSys is an attempt to work round this “initialisation” problem—to Dr Trenberth was not, he has since been at pains to stress, saying For the first part of the decade this turns out to be possible. From It is after that that the problem comes. Runoff’s role in the rising Nevertheless, while there is a lot of scepticism in, around and about The fact that the books cannot currently be balanced is therefore an Britain may get green jobs, but not the sort ministers promise. BRUISED by the worst recession since the second world war, and staring One popular idea is to turn to greenery: Britain (like the rest of the On the face of it, Britain ought to be attractive for budding green Official support for greenery is not as generous as it seems. When Roger Salomone, an energy adviser at the EEF, says that, although Those reluctant to interfere could well point to Spain, where generous Permalink |
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