Canada, Russia Considered Climate ‘Bad Boys’ Among G8 Nations

Canada and Russia, both northern and oil-rich, are making the least progress in cutting carbon- dioxide emissions among the major economies, a new study shows.

Canada is furthest from its reduction target for the greenhouse gas under a global treaty and has made little progress compared with other Group of Eight members, according to the report commissioned by German insurer Allianz SE. Output of CO2, released by burning fossil fuels such as oil and coal, is the second-highest on a per-capita basis after the U.S., which is writing its first legislation to curb carbon emissions.

The North American nation of 34 million people has the world’s second-largest oil reserves taking into account the tar- like bitumen clumped together with sand and clay in northern Alberta. Extracting and refining oil from tar requires more energy than pumping conventional crude and has contributed to Canada’s 26 percent increase in CO2 emissions since 1990.

“Since the U.S. has moved out of the bad-boy status, Canada and Russia have become the bullies of the climate change process,” said Angela Anderson, program director of the U.S. Climate Action Network. “In Canada, the tar sands is what most people are worried about because this goes against the goal of a low-carbon economic pathway.”

Leaders from the U.S., Canada and other G-8 members meet this month in Italy to discuss ways wealthy nations can support greenhouse-gas cuts in developing countries without harming economic growth.

Russia has “few policies in place” to curb emissions and has no “comprehensive” national plan for combating climate change, the report said. The world’s largest country gets less than 1 percent of its energy from renewable sources.

Insurer Concern

Global CO2 emissions must be cut by between 50 percent and 80 percent by 2050 to avoid an average temperature increase of more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and stop sea levels from rising and droughts worsening, according to the United Nations’ International Panel on Climate Change.

Insurers like Allianz and Munich Re, both based in Munich, are looking for ways to adapt to a possible increase in insurance payouts with more frequent or more severe droughts and storms.

The G-8 scorecard, compiled for Allianz and WWF by the research group Ecofys, ranked Germany as the best among the G-8 nations for reaching climate-change emissions reductions and supporting the development of wind, solar and other renewable energy sources.

France was ranked third, the U.K. was second and the U.S. was seventh in the study. Japan, in the fifth position, has declining energy efficiency, the report said.

U.S. President Barack Obama “has done more to support a clean-energy economy in the last four months than has been done in the last three decades together in the U.S.,” said Richard Moss, managing director of climate change at WWF USA.

Representatives from 182 nations meeting in Bonn last month created more than 200 pages of a draft agreement with proposals on how to slow global warming. Negotiations culminate in Copenhagen in December when delegates will attempt to complete a treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.

Courtesy: Bloomberg

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U.N. climate talks threaten our survival: Saudi Arabia

United Nations climate talks threaten Saudi Arabia's economic survival and the kingdom wants support for any shift from fossil fuels to other energy sources such as solar power, its lead climate negotiator said.

Contrasting interests of different countries are challenging faltering climate talks, meant to forge by December a new global deal in Copenhagen to curb man-made climate change.

Small island states say their survival is threatened by rising seas. But Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, says it could suffer from any pact which curbs oil demand by penalizing carbon emissions.

"It's a matter of survival for us, also. So we are among the most vulnerable countries, economically," Mohammad Al Sabban told Reuters on the fringes of talks which end on Wednesday, after the latest in a series of meetings meant to thrash out a deal to replace or extend the Kyoto Protocol after 2012.

"Saudi Arabia has not done that much yet to diversify."

Other divisions in the talks include rich versus poor, nations which contribute more to climate change than others, and countries more vulnerable to sea level rise, floods and droughts.

Saudi Arabia wants support, for example, to develop alternative energy sources and to earn credits for burying greenhouse gases underground in near-depleted oil wells.

Al Sabban said Saudi Arabia's solar power ambition was "much larger" than Abu Dhabi's $15 billion Masdar project to invest in renewable energy and build a carbon neutral city, but declined to put a dollar number on Saudi plans.

"We have a lot of sun, a lot of land. We can export solar power to our neighbors on a very large scale and that is our strategic objective to diversify our economy, it will be huge."

"We need the industrialized countries to assist us through direct investment, transfer of technologies," to ease the burden of a new climate deal, he added.

CASH

Developing nations want more cash from rich countries to help fund their fight against climate change but may have to wait until the final days and weeks of haggling in December.

Saudi Arabia wants to access an existing adaptation fund which the U.N.'s climate chief Yvo de Boer describes as a "pittance." The country may have to compete with others which want funds to prepare for sea level rise and extreme weather.

"Adaptation is not only to the impact of climate change but also the impact of climate policies," said Al Sabban.

Other Saudi demands from the U.N. talks include a re-vamping of fossil fuel taxes in industrialized countries to focus on carbon rather than energy, which may benefit oil because it emits less of the greenhouse gas compared to coal.

It also wants an elimination of subsidies for rival biofuels which it says harm the environment and hike food prices.

The new U.S. administration of President Barack Obama has called for an increase in the amount of corn-based ethanol to be used in gasoline in the United States.

Al Sabban said Saudi Arabia was "worried" about a "dangerous" threat to its economy but would cooperate.

Environmental groups say the country has obstructed the climate talks for years, filibustering with frequent interventions in debates involving up to 190 countries.

"We get used to these allegations," Al Sabban said. "We are faithfully engaging in these negotiations. Everybody here is coming to protect their interests, we are doing the same, the EU is doing the same, the United States."

Courtesy: Reuters

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Nano….. or No No….

The world’s cheapest car is here. 1.2 lakhs only. It looks good, and is very affordable. So, now all of us can have a car. That is great news.

But Nano also brings with it concern for the already congested roads, parking space and more importantly pollution.

Here is an paragraph from Mr. Ratan Tata’s interview about what prompted him to come up with the idea of Nano:

“So in this particular case, you could not help but notice that there were three or four family members on a scooter, the kid standing in the front, the guy driving the scooter and the wife sitting side saddle holding a little kid. And when you're driving a car, you certainly say, Oh my god, be careful, they may slip. Add to that slippery roads and night time too. Any of these reasons can be dangerous for transport. That does not mean that the scooter should not exist because scooters are an evolution of bicycles and it is all the path of prosperity.”

That is a great thought, but is that the most pressing problem that a country like India is facing and is this the best solution for this problem presented. One of the biggest drawback of us as individuals is that we see things as independent blocks and miss coordinating and associating other related factors.

Isn’t a good public transport system the solution to the family addressed above. I myself am a two wheeler rider and would love to own a four wheeler (have been thinking about it for a long time) but for me this is not the right approach. I don’t think making a car affordable for me will bring the solution. In fact cost is another regulatory instrument which keeps things like traffic, congestion, pollution etc under control.

In my view, a better solution for cities like Delhi and Mumbai is strengthening the public transport system so that people can travel safely and comfortably. This may include bringing in transport systems like Metro rail, the new age busses introduced in Delhi. What we need is an extension and better implementation of these services.

New age busses launched in Delhi: Left a normal bus, right an AC bus by DTC

Delhi Metro

Compared to the options above, affordable cars would increase congestion, accidents, pollution. My main concern at this forum is the increase in carbon emissions that will come with the addition of the cars on roads. Although the car is very fuel efficient (20-25 Km/l) but imagine the number of these cars that will be added every year and thus the resulting emissions.

So, we should be careful in taking new step. What we need to do is to judge various options, look at the bigger picture and come out with the best solution.

Sources:

• Tata Nano website

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Vulnerability: Asia

From top left, clockwise:

North Asia

• Forest production is likely to benefit from carbon fertilisation
• On the other hand, combined effects of Climate Change, extreme weather events and human activities are likely to increase forest fire frequency

Lena Delta

• Retreating at an annual rate of 3.6 to 4.5 m due to thermo-erosion processes
• Likely to be influenced by projected rise in temperature

Grasslands in Colder regions

• Net primary productivity projected to decline and shift northward due to climate change
• Limited herbaceous production, heat stress from higher temperature and poor water intake due to declining rainfall
• These would lead to reduced milk yields and increased incidences of animal diseases

East Asia

• for 1 C rise in temperature expected by 2020, demand for agriculture irrigation would increase by 6-10% or more

Central and Southern Japan

• rice yield is projected to decrease up to 40% under double atmospheric CO2

Huanghe,Changjiang and in the Zhujiang Deltas, China

• projected relative sea level rise, including that due to thermal expansion, tectonic movement, ground subsidence and the trends of rising river water level are 70-90, 50-70 and 40-60 cm in the Huanghe, Changjiang and in the Zhujiang Deltas respectively by the year 2050

East, South and South-East Asia

• expected increases in endemic morbidity and mortality due to diarrhoeal disease primarily associated with floods and droughts

Coral reefs

• Around 30% are likely to be lost in the next 30 years due to multiple stresses and climate change

Mangroves

• With a 1 m rise in sea level, 2,500 km2 are likely to be lost

Bangladesh

• worst affected by the sea level rise in terms of loss of land
• Approximately 1,000 km2 of cultivated land and sea product culturing area is likely to become salt marsh

5,000 km2 of Red River delta, and 15,000 – 20,000 km2 of Mekong River delta are projected to be flooded

Tibetan Plateau

• glaciers of 4 km in length are projected to disappear with 3°C temperature rise and no change in precipitation
• If current warming rates are maintained, glaciers located over Tibetan Plateau are likely to shrink at very rapid rates from 500,000 km2 in 1995 to 100,000 km2 by the 2030s

South Asia

• Increase in coastal water temperatures would exacerbate the abundance and / or toxicity of cholera

India

• gross per capita water availability will decline from ~1820 m 3/yr in 2001 to as low as ~1140m 3/yr in 2050

Cereal yields could decrease up to 30% by 2050 even in South Asia. In West Asia, climate change is likely to cause severe water stress in 21st century

Sources:

• IPCC AR4, WG II, Chapter 10: Cruz, R.V., H. Harasawa, M. Lal, S. Wu, Y. Anokhin, B. Punsalmaa, Y. Honda, M. Jafari, C. Li and N. Huu Ninh, 2007: Asia. Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, M.L. Parry, O.F. Canziani, J.P. Palutikof, P.J. van der Linden and C.E. Hanson, Eds., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 469-506
  

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Team battles Arctic winter to measure melting ice caps

It could be the ultimate test of human endurance: Three British explorers are risking their lives in subzero temperatures to measure the melting Arctic ice cap.

The team is on a three-month, 621-mile (1,000-kilometer) hike to their final destination at the North Pole. Along the way, taking precise measurements to determine exactly how fast the ice cap is disappearing.

"It's extremely difficult to live out here. It's very, very easy to get cold injuries in seconds," said Martin Hartley, team photographer and filmmaker, via satellite phone.

The team has been braving temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit/Celsius spending their nights sleeping in tents and their days trudging across the shifting, barren polar expanse.  See map and dramatic photos of their journey »

"The other day, we had to move the tent first thing in the morning because where we were camped, the sheet of ice was breaking up into dozens of pieces because of a tidal swell or wind in the ocean," Hartley said.

The unique expedition was prompted by this chilling prospect: The Arctic ice cap is melting at an unprecedented rate, which may lead to a dramatic shift in average global temperatures.

"In 2007, sea ice loss was the worst in recorded history," said oceanographer Kate Moran, professor of oceanography and ocean engineering at the University of Rhode Island.

The last time that scientists can say confidently that the Arctic was free of summertime ice was 125,000 years ago, according to the Web site of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.

All that could vanish within our lifetime, warn climate scientists, who predict that the Arctic sea ice in the summer season could be gone between 2013 and 2040.

Battling the daily grind of the brutal Arctic terrain, explorers Pen Hadow, 46; Ann Daniels, 44; and Hartley, 40, are in the second week of their 100-day journey to the top of the world.

"The compasses don't work because we are so close to the north magnetic pole," said Hadow, director and head of surveying for the Catlin Arctic Survey.

"When the sun goes down, we have to use other techniques to keep ourselves orienting north based on wind direction alone and reading snow drifts and using them as a guide," added Hadow.

Current ice cap data are gathered by satellite and submarines, which can show the overall span of the Arctic ice melt, but these projections are not sufficient to provide an accurate estimate of its actual thickness.

"There is no substitute for getting down on your hands and knees with a tape measure and drilling a hole and measuring the snow thickness, ice thickness and the free board where the water comes in up through that surface," Hadow said.

The Arctic sea ice acts as a natural sunlight reflector, protecting the Earth from overheating.

As the ice thins, more sunlight passes through, further warming the ocean and accelerating the effects of climate change.

This feedback loop could have catastrophic consequences for people living in coastal areas and many animal species, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations governing body on climate change.

The privately funded $4.3 million Catlin Arctic Survey is set to end in May.

"We are not here just to make a journey to the North Pole. We've all done that. That's not the motivating force. How much information can we find out and deliver back to the wider world for its use?" Hadow asked.

The scientific findings will be presented at the United Nations Climate Change Conference of Parties in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December. There, an international committee of scientists, heads of state and policymakers will gather to assess the Kyoto Protocol.

The explorers are also tracking their journey on Facebook and keeping the public updated with daily Internet-based feeds on Twitter.

"People ask me how I keep going. I don't know. I just have to, because if I don't keep going, it all falls apart," said Daniels, group navigator.

"You just have to grit your teeth and remember why you are out here and get on with it."

 

Courtesy: CNN

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The New Commodity

2008 has been an year of ups and downs for CDM. While about 600 new project activities were registered, it was also widely believed that CDM EB (Executive Board) has been dealing with the projects in a more stringent manner which meant that many project activities could not go through.

UNFCCC at the end of the last year released a summery of the year called “Clean Development Mechanism", 2008 in brief”. The report truly described emission reduction as a “new commodity”. This report further discusses the aspects of the CDM process in brief talking about how quality of projects is judged and maintained. Efficient and careful vetting takes place by third party validation and verification of the project activities.

Here are the various data and figures for the year 2008 presented in the report.

 

Clearly the major developing countries in Asia control the market. India and China together account for more than 50% of the registered project activities. The matter of concern is that CDM revenues are not reaching the more needy countries like the LDCs or the SIDS.

Energy Industries account for more than 50% of the registered project activities which gives us an indication that people are switching to cleaner fuels and cleaner sources of energy, which is a good sign.

Small scale and PoAs should be promoted more as they involve more of community actions and larger dispersion of clean technologies to common people.

Abbreviations:

• CDM: Clean Development Mechanism
• EB: Executive Board
• UNFCCC: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
• LDCs: Least Developed Countries
• SIDS: Small Island Developing States
• PoA: Programme of Activities

 

Sources:

UNFCCC: www.unfccc.int

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Volunteers Invited to Track Seasonal Signs of Climate Change

Citizen scientists are being recruited to help scientists observe the effects of climate change on the behavior of plant and animal species found across the United States.

Volunteers are asked to study the seasonal cycles of plant and animals - the first leafing, first flowering, and first fruit ripening of plants, and animals reproducing, migrating and hibernating - a science known as phenology.

A consortium of government, academic and citizen scientists known as the USA-National Phenology Network, or USA-NPN, is launching the new national program built on volunteer observations of these seasonal events.

"This program is designed for people interested in participating in climate change science, not just reading about it," said Jake Weltzin, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey who is also executive director of USA-NPN.
Jake Weltzin, U.S. Geological Survey, and Lisa Benton, U. of Arizona graduate student, monitor growth and blooming of an Aleppo pine, a species common in the Tucson area. (Photo by T. Crimmins courtesy UA)

Supported by the U.S. Geological Survey, USA-NPN is built on partnerships among federal and state agencies, other organizations, scientists and the public.

"We encourage everyone to visit the USA National Phenology Network website and then go outside and observe the marvelous cycles of plant and animal life," he said.

The USA-NPN monitoring program will vastly increase the data available to scientists and the public alike, Weltzin said. This year, the program provides easy-to-use methods to track the life cycles of nearly 200 species of plants, and will begin monitoring animals next year.

Scientists and resource managers will use these observations to track effects of climate change on the Earth's living systems. The observations will be analyzed against satellite-generated remote sensing data and weather data, then compared with detailed ecological studies.

Data collected by USA-NPN will help resource managers predict wildfires and pollen production, detect and control invasive species, monitor droughts, and assess the vulnerability of various plant and animal species to climate change.

Today, for the first time, a site in Florida is established where citizens, students and researchers can track the seasonal effects of climate change on Florida's native plants and animals.

Located at the University of South Florida's Ecological Research Area, the site encompasses dry uplands and cypress wetlands. This range of habitats makes it ideal for analyzing the effects of hydrology, a key environmental factor in Florida.
An endangered Florida flower, the purple balduina, Balduina atropurpurea, found in bogs and moist pinelands. (Photo by Coastlander)

The site supports 12 of Florida's plant community types, including 13 plant species that live only in Florida, along with three endangered species, three threatened ones, and three that are commercially exploited.

"Because the timing of natural events is sensitive to weather and climate, they are an important living indicator of environmental change," said George Kish, a USGS scientist and coordinator of the Southeastern Regional Phenology Network.

"Scientists throughout Florida have been looking for ways like this that we can use to forecast how climate change will affect ecosystems and resources throughout Florida," Kish said.

Kish and Gordon Fox, a USF associate professor of plant ecology, worked together to establish the Florida site.

"The observations and data collected here will be valuable to resource managers working in similar ecosystems throughout the state as well as contributing to a larger view of how climate change may affect our natural resources," said Fox.

"Climate change models predict longer, more intense droughts in the southeastern United States," said Kish. "These changes could significantly affect the plant communities the rest of the ecosystem depends on."

Based at the University of Arizona in Tucson, the USA-NPN includes collaborations among the U.S. Geological Survey, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the University of Arizona, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and The Wildlife Society.

Courtesy: Environment News Network

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Vote for ……. Our Earth

A friend working with a global environmental union told me a month ago about Earth Hour. That is when I though that this effort may not create a big impact on the global green house emissions but it will surely create a big impact on minds and lives of people.

Its is a simple effort. Its a click. Its a switch. Its the Earth. A simple click from us can save our dear earth.

Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007 when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message grew into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness.

In 2009 Earth Hour is going one level up, with the goal of 1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global vote. Unlike any election in history, it is not about what country you’re from, but instead, what planet you’re from. VOTE EARTH is a global call to action for every individual, every business, and every community. A call to stand up and take control over the future of our planet. Over 74 countries and territories have pledged their support to VOTE EARTH during Earth Hour 2009, and this number is growing everyday.

It is very important to understand that each click counts. And what’s more important to understand is that these clicks are important in each day and each hour of our life. Clicks like switching off unnecessary lights, electrical equipments etc.

So, lets get together and start clicking.

Earth Hour 2009 by WWF - Sign up for Earth Hour!

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Maldives: climate change threatens right to housing, says UN expert

Rising sea levels and coastal erosion, both wrought by climate change, threaten the viability of Maldives, but overcrowding and other impacts are already felt by the island nation’s 300,000 people, a United Nations independent expert cautioned today.

After an eight-day visit to country, Raquel Rolnik, Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, said that “Maldives and its Atolls, because of their unique geological and topographic aspects and their fragile and delicate environmental system, are already experiencing the impacts of climate change.”

This jeopardizes the survival of the nation, which could be inundated by water, but more immediately, it jeopardizes the right to housing due to the scarcity of land.

Ms. Rolnik stressed the responsibility of the international community to urgently support adaptation strategies, noting that “the post-2004 Indian Ocean tsunami reconstruction process in Maldives can be a source of precious lessons.”

Over the past four years, donors and agencies have mobilized over $400 million in aid, but the Rapporteur voiced concern over the allocation of the resources and their management by Maldivian authorities.

“In the new resettlement sites that I visited, I detected a lack of participation in the decision-making process concerning relocation, the design of new houses and the infrastructure, which resulted in new structures that were not always compatible with the livelihood of the communities,” she said.

Additionally, the expert noted that the tsunami may have been used by authorities as an opportunity to relocate communities, which has provoked serious conflicts. Today, there are still 3,500 people uprooted by the 2004 disaster who are still living in temporary shelters.

The reconstruction process has also resulted in a surge in the price of construction materials, putting upward pressure on rental prices and aggravating overcrowding.

Over 80,000 migrants from Bangladesh and other South Asian countries live in Maldives, with half of them working in the construction sector, and the Rapporteur said she was concerned over their housing and living conditions.

She called for a “human rights-based approach” to address the housing situation in the country, calling for the Government and international organizations to promote public participation in making key decisions.

Ms. Rolnik, who reports to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, took up her post last May and serves in an independent and unpaid capacity, as do all Special Rapporteurs.

Courtesy: UN News Centre

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International Polar Year spurs critical research on global warming – UN agency

25 February 2009 – Research produced during the International Polar Year 2007-2008 shows clearly that the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctic are losing mass, providing a critical boost to knowledge of global warming, the United Nations’ climate agency said today.

“The International Polar Year 2007 – 2008 came at a crossroads for the planet’s future” said Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which today released a study entitled “The State of Polar Research” jointly with the International Council for Science (ICSU).

“The new evidence resulting from polar research will strengthen the scientific basis on which we build future actions,” Mr. Jarraud added.

A joint project of WMO and the ICSU, the International Polar Year (IPY) garnered international funding support of about $1.2 billion over the two-year period aimed at a better understanding of the Arctic and Antarctic regions.

More than 160 multi-disciplinary research projects, developed by scientists of more than 60 countries, have been carried out over the two-year period that will end in March 2009.

The new research shows that the warming of the Antarctic is much more widespread than previously known, and it now appears that the rate of ice loss from Greenland is increasing.

A freshening of the bottom water near Antarctica is consistent with increased ice melt from that continent and could affect ocean circulation, the research finds.

The report also identified large pools of carbon stored as methane in permafrost which, if thawed, threatens to become another massive source of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere.

In addition to lending insight into climate change, the new research has aided our understanding of pollutant transport, species’ evolution, and storm formation, among many other areas, WMO said.

According to the agency, the Year will leave a legacy of enhanced observational capacity, stronger links across disciplines and communities, and an energized new generation of polar researchers.

“The work begun by IPY must continue” said Mr. Jarraud. “Internationally coordinated action related to the polar regions will still be needed in the next decades,” he said, adding that a major IPY science conference will take place in Oslo in June 2010.

Courtesy: UN News Centre

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