Hot Topics
'Hot topics' collects news and views on a weekly basis from across Australia and New Zealand and around the world on matters to do with climate change. What are cities and nations saying and doing on reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the environmental, economic and social impacts of climate change? We will bring you a selection of those stories of particular interest to local government.
2009
Each year, scientists at NASA'S Goddard Institute for Space Studies analyze global temperature data. The past year, 2009, tied as the second warmest year since global instrumental temperature records began 130 years ago. Worldwide, the mean temperature was 0.57°C (1.03°F) warmer than the 1951-1980 base period. And January 2000 to December 2009 came out as the warmest decade on record.
The Climate Agenda
The Oct. 1 editorial "The Senate Climate Bill" applauded the legislation's plan to cut our country's greenhouse gas pollution by 20 percent by 2020 (a three-percentage-point improvement over the House bill). But it must be noted that the proposed reduction refers to 2005 emissions and not the standard 1990 baseline used by scientists and policymakers around the world. Arranging the numbers this way may be more politically palatable, but it misleads the public on information key to its welfare.
To have the best shot at averting the worst impacts of global warming, scientists say that the United States and the developed world must cut pollution by at least 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and by 80 to 95 percent by 2050. Using this accepted standard, the Senate bill shoots for only a 7 percent cut in pollution -- less than a third of what is needed -- and reflects a lack of ambition that threatens progress toward a fair and effective international climate treaty in Copenhagen this December.
FT com Asia Pacific
Less than 10 weeks before the nations of the world are due to meet in Copenhagen to thrash out a successor agreement to the Kyoto -protocol, the differences between poor and rich nations are as wide as ever and becoming more entrenched.
Some 1,500 delegates are half way through a two-week meeting in Bangkok in an attempt to break the deadlock and reduce a 180-page discussion document to a more manageable 30 pages.
Delegates had hoped to build on the momentum gained in New York two weeks ago when China, Japan and India all made climate change pledges that seemed to mark a break with the acrimonious debates that had gone before.
But at a stocktaking meeting yesterday, it rapidly became apparent that the talks were still deadlocked on the big points.
The developing world wants the developed world to give commitments to more than 20 per cent cuts in emissions and on financing for strategies that would mitigate the inevitable damage involved in adapting to the new realities of a warmer world. The developed world wants the big emerging economies to give firm undertakings on cutting the growth of their emissions.
However, whilst some progress has been made on smaller problems, such as technology transfer, the big questions are not even being addressed, delegates say.
"We see too little discussion on substantial key political issues, and that is the problem we are facing. We are not tackling the big and difficult issues," Anders Turesson, the chief negotiator for Sweden, which, at present, holds the rotating European Union presidency, said.
The Washington Post
Like most members of President Obama's climate team, David Sandalow was one of President Bill Clinton's negotiators in Kyoto. And he carries an indelible lesson from the experience of signing off on the international climate pact there 12 years ago: "Only agree abroad to what you can implement at home."
He had been elated at the deal by more than 180 nations in December 1997. But within months, a television ad appeared, decrying the agreement for not including developing nations such as China and India. "It's not global and it won't work," said the ad, which was sponsored by business groups including the American Association of Automobile Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute. It captured the growing discontent in the United States over the Clinton administration's signing off on a package that did not force similar cuts by major developing countries.
That political backlash is one of several reasons why any deal struck two months from now in Copenhagen will at best signal the start of a new global approach to tackling climate change, rather than its successful conclusion.
The Wall Street Journal
The flurry of companies quitting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is highlighting how the climate-change issue is straining traditional alliances in Washington, as some businesses seek to profit from overhauling the energy market and others try to cut deals to head off tougher regulation.
Some companies and industry groups that have in the past worked with Republicans to fight efforts to curb the use of fossil fuels -- such as Detroit's auto makers -- are now expressing support for action on climate change. Some support legislation to put a price on the carbon-dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming, while others support preserving the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate such greenhouse gases.
The Chamber of Commerce says it supports efforts to fight climate change through federal investments and incentives for power that can be produced without emitting carbon dioxide. But the group has opposed proposals to require companies to pay for the right to emit carbon.
The Chamber, which says it represents three million businesses, says its positions are "mainstream, common-sense views" approved by a majority of more than 100 business leaders who sit on its board of directors.
Some companies -- such as Peabody Energy and ConocoPhillips -- have spoken out against climate legislation passed by the House of Representatives. Others -- such as General Electric Co. and Duke Energy Corp. -- have expressed support for it.
Over 60 musicians, including Duran Duran, Lily Allen and Bob Geldof, today launched the world's first digital musical petition: a re-recording of the Midnight Oil song, Beds are Burning, aimed at pressuring world leaders to make a hard-hitting deal over climate change at December's Copenhagen summit.
Described by Kofi Annan as "the Band Aid for the internet generation", the song is the first time such a long list of world celebrities has recorded a campaign track in protest of global warming and climate change. It is also the first ever global music petition: the track is available free online and downloading it automatically adds the listener to the campaign petition: "Tck Tck Tck, Time for Climate Justice".
The music and film stars – ranging from Fergie, Mark Ronson and the Scorpions to Youssou n'Dour and the French Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard – see the song as part of a global movement to force world leaders to strike a better deal than that made at Kyoto. Already 1.3 million people have signed the petition for a binding deal at Copenhagen. The song hopes to add millions to that list. Each individual who downloads the track and video, will become a "climate ally" alongside supporters such as the archbishop Desmond Tutu. The song was conceived as a post-Live Aid approach to digitally reach as many listeners as possible in the shortest time.
Nairobi, 23 September 2009—From cities to cooperatives and from railways to postal services, industry and civil society associations have pledged to significantly reduce their carbon footprint and promote greener living by joining the Climate Neutral Network led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The announcement comes on Go Carbon Neutral Day held as part of Global Climate Week (21-25 September) marked by synchronized action in close to 100 cities to urge world leaders to seal a fair and effective climate agreement at the UN Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen this December.
UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said: “The growth of the climate neutral movement around the world is a clear sign that people from all walks of life are committed to solving the climate crisis and bringing about low-carbon economies and societies.”
“This groundswell of public support comes just weeks ahead of the crucial UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, where world leaders will have a unique opportunity to move our economies and societies onto a greener development path,” he added.
Devonport passes wind
Environment Management News
A proposal for an office building with wind turbines has been passed by the Devonport City council at its meeting last night after a similar project at Hobart’s ANZ building had been rejected by Hobart City council recently. Devonport approved plans for new TasPorts offices that can collect rain water and are partially powered by two wind turbines next to the building. The turbines were approved last month by the Sullivans Cove Waterfront Authority. The council, however, is appealing against a similar proposal for the Marine Board building, which the council says are out of character with surrounding buildings.
Environment Management News
Most economic modellers agree, emissions trading schemes have only a modest impact on economic health. But discussion at the Australia-New Zealand Climate Change & Business Conference in Melbourne yesterday still centred on the risks and “derisking” strategies.
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“Most people think there is no consensus between economic modellers on this, but in the last five years one has emerged,” said Monash University’s Philip Adams, director of the Centre of Policy Studies.
Whether it is the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme or any other model around the world, trading schemes “generally have mild aggregate economic impacts. It should be noted though that they are negative, not positive as some argue”.
In GDP terms, if annual growth was 3% then the CPRS with a 5% emissions reduction target would shave off 0.05%. There would be employment losses in the short term, but no long-term difference to business as usual.
Professor Adams’ testimony undercuts the increasingly heated opposition from the National Party, but he concedes there will be structural adjustment, and from that comes winners and losers. Regions such as the Hunter and Latrobe valleys and any industries with high carbon footprint will fall into the latter camp.
Clinton Climate Initiative discounts green technology for cities as 700 mayors sign climate agreement.
Business Scoop
The world’s climate is influenced by a number of factors interacting in very complex and not entirely understood ways. Over the last million years there have been periodic shifts in the temperature of the planet initiated by changes in the orbit of the earth around the sun and in the tilt of the earth’s axis of rotation. These changes have led to periods of global warming and global cooling – the more recent of the latter are termed the Ice Ages. There are also shorter-term fluctuations brought about by a number of factors, including linked atmosphere-ocean changes with an irregular period of several years (El Niño and La Niña events) and sporadic changes brought about by major volcanic eruptions. Global warming does not mean that every part of the globe changes temperature to the same degree or rate.
Measuring global temperatures over time is complex, but there is a general agreement that the world is experiencing an overall warming trend (with year-to-year fluctuations superimposed). The warming trend over the past 50 years is nearly twice as great as that over the previous 100 years. These escalating temperature changes have been reflected in a number of environmental and biological changes. These include rises in globally averaged sea level, shrinking of summer Arctic sea-ice extent, losses from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, retreat of mountain glaciers, poleward and upward shifts in the range of some plant and animal species, and earlier timing for some species of spring events such as leaf-unfolding, bird migration and egg-laying. That this is happening is not contentious.
Environment Management News
World Water Week has concluded in Stockholm, Sweden with a unanimous call by participants for water to be included in climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December. “Water is key to development and the first medium through which climate change will be felt,” said World Water Council head Ger Bergkamp. “The global agreement that will follow the Kyoto Protocol must have clear targets and strategies for prioritising water in the adaptation to climate change.” The Stockholm Statement released at the conclusion of the event states climate change mitigation and adaptation is crucial in order to secure future water resource availability, and negotiations towards a Copenhagen Agreement are therefore of great concern to the global water community.
Peoples Daily On Line
China has taken global financial crisis as an opportunity to consolidate its measures in reducing green house gas emission, readjusting industrial mix and changing the mode of growth as well as promoting China's environmental protection cause, said Dr. Zhou Guomei from China Environmental Protection Research Institute at a forum in Stockholm when China's Trade Promotion Delegation visited Sweden recently. China has set its goal of reducing energy consumption by 20% per GDP unit and pollutant discharge by 10% from 2006 to 2010.
Dr. Zhou said in order to promote clean production and protect environment, China has invested 210 billion yuan (over 30 billion US dollars ) of its 4 trillion yuan of economic stimulus package into emission reduction and ecological construction projects. The central government investment served as a driving force and drove 380 billion yuan (over 53 billion US dollars) investment from local governments. During the fourth quarter last year and the first quarter this year, China increased its investment in emission reduction and ecological construction projects by 23 billion yuan, accounting for 10% of the total stimulus package for the same period. The money is mainly used in pollution treatment and prevention in key reaches of key rivers in China, in non-hazardous disposal of waste, protection of natural forests and construction of protection forests.
SignOnSanDiego.com
When heat turns deadly, the isolated, the elderly, the poor, the infirm and people surrounded by urban asphalt are often hit hardest. How do health officials protect them when a severe hot spell hits?
The first step is knowing where they live.
Colleen Reid, lead author of a paper published in Environmental Health Perspectives in June, has mapped out the country's zones with the most vulnerable populations. She and co-authors from Harvard and the University of Michigan found that of the 13 U.S. census tracts with the highest heat vulnerability, nine are in California – many in regions usually viewed as having a temperate climate.
A region's propensity for triple-digits temperatures was not a component in determining in the most vulnerable areas. None of the highest-risk areas are in the desert.
Even “moderate climate change” will trigger almost certain extinction of native Australian flora and fauna, the country’s first national assessment of climate change and biodiversity has found. The report could also prompt an overhaul in conservation management, after warning climate change will force many species to abandon traditional habitats and appear in unfamiliar environments.
Speaking at yesterday’s International Congress of Ecology in Brisbane, Environment Minister Peter Garrett said the report, Australia’s Biodiversity and Climate Change: a strategic assessment of the vulnerability of Australia’s biodiversity to climate change, provided “compelling evidence” of the need to protect the country’s natural environment for future generations — not only from climate change, but from such other threats including habitat and invasive species.
Garrett described Australia’s biodiversity as “underpinning our quality of life, our economy and much of our national identity”, stressing the government was committed to protecting the natural environment from climate change.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, today announced proposals for a multi-million pound 'London Green Fund' to boost the city's low carbon economy, create jobs and tackle climate change.
The fund will unlock the financial savings that can come from going green by developing an innovative financing framework to 'pump-prime' energy efficiency measures to cut carbon across the city and reduce fuel bills. The resulting guaranteed savings will then pay off the upfront loans to be ploughed back into the green fund.
The fund may also be targeted at decentralised energy and new waste technology initiatives - areas that have experienced difficulties in fulfilling their potential and would benefit from the fund's pump priming function. The fund aims to leverage millions of pounds of private investment to enable the development of carbon-cutting infrastructure at the scale required to meet the Mayor's 60 per cent carbon reduction target by 2025.
The Mayor has committed to provide an initial £4million to develop and kick-start the fund with the intention of attracting co-investment from a range of bodies, such as the EU, philanthropic funds, climate charities and the private sector.
The fund is expected to be of particular interest to the city's public sector organisations such as NHS Trusts, universities and borough councils that would like to retrofit their large building estates. The Mayor and the London Development Agency are currently developing a simple framework for organisations to replicate the energy efficiency programme that is currently taking place in 100 of the Greater London Authority group buildings. Retrofitting work started on Wembley Police Station last week to install energy saving measures such as solar panels, boiler upgrades and new cooling equipment.
The Mayor, Boris Johnson said: 'To tackle energy inefficiency and cut carbon, we need to make the city's buildings and energy supply greener. We want to provide an easy way to tackle the maze of complex red tape that currently acts as a deterrent as well as provide the up front funds needed to take action. An innovative eco-fund will help London become energy efficient in a simplified way.
Over 550 residents are moving into new Eco-Homes officially rated as ‘excellent' (2) thanks to a ground breaking partnership between E.ON and Barratt. Instead of getting gas from the national grid, residents will be supplied by a community heating network which could reduce carbon emissions by up to 25%(3) and cut heating and hot water bills by up to 23%(1).
The development at Dalston Square, Hackney, East London, contains a ‘decentralised energy centre'. This means that rather than receiving gas direct from an energy supplier, residents and businesses will receive heat, fed in the form of hot water, from a local, low carbon energy centre which will also be producing electricity.
Dalston Square's development of residential retail units and a public library is supplied with heat from an onsite energy centre powered by gas-fired Combined Heat and Power (CHP) units(4), along with biomass boilers and gas-fired back up boilers, providing 5Mw of heating and hot water and 185Kw of power.
Climate-change heavyweights U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and Nobel prize winner Al Gore urged more than 500 business leaders on Sunday to lend their corporate muscle to reaching a global deal on reducing greenhouse gases.
The CEOs of PepsiCo, Nestle, BP and other of the world's major businesses began meeting in Copenhagen, where politicians will gather in December to negotiate a new U.N.-brokered climate treaty.
Despite the global financial crisis, both Ban and Gore said there was no time for delay in hashing out the specifics of how to cut greenhouse gases that contribute to warming the planet.
"We have to do it this year. Not next year. This year," Gore said. "The clock is ticking, because Mother Nature does not do bailouts."
A newly released report identifies climate change as the biggest global health threat of the 21st century.
If nothing is done, global warming could affect the health of billions of people throughout the world, with the poor suffering most, according to the report from the University College London and The Lancet.
Deaths from heat waves, malaria, and other vector-borne diseases (diseases transmitted by sources such as mosquitoes or ticks) are projected to rise as global temperatures increase. But the report identifies food and water shortages and increasingly violent weather events as the biggest climate-change-related threats to human health.
Pediatrician Anthony Costello, MD, who chaired the commission that issued the report, says there is new evidence that climate change is occurring faster than many experts had anticipated.
He tells WebMD that recent findings on greenhouse gas emissions, global temperature changes, sea level rise, ocean acidification, and extreme climatic events suggest that climate forecasts made in 2007 by an international panel evaluating climate change may be optimistic.
"The forecasts made by the world climate scientists a few years ago are starting to look too conservative," he says.
Environment Management News
Australia will need to grapple with a forecast oil price of around US$200 a barrel as overseas economies recover from the global financial crisis, according to an international energy expert visiting Adelaide. Professor Paul Stevens warned the spike in oil prices over the next 5-10 years, but “more likely five”, would have serious consequences for Australia’s energy policymakers.
The University College London professor, whose visit has been sponsored by the university’s new Australian campus in Adelaide, said part of the driver for the price hike was inadequate investment over many years by oil companies in exploration, development and infrastructure.
“The reasons for such a price curveball rest partly in the possible emergence of tightness between spare capacity to produce crude and stronger demand as the Australian and other modern economies recover from the global recession,” said Professor Stevens, who has written reports on energy economics, the international petroleum industry and the Arab Gulf’s political economy.
“This increasing supply-demand dynamic will be further frustrated by the wrong and illogical guessing by ‘paper barrel oil markets’ – or money managers including those in charge of super funds – who invest in oil futures but who have no real grasp of the factors governing oil price and supply.”
Environment Management News
The Western Australian Government’s conditional agreement this week to build the first stage of a new 330kV transmission line to the mid-west will benefit not just the mining proponent but could open the door to six new wind farms plus more solar, geothermal and biomass plants.
Despite an EPA recommendationagainst the project, a government review recognised that there were a number of major Mid West mining projects that were well under way and would require access to substantial electricity supply.
The project has also been warmly welcomed by renewable energy enthusiasts, who believe it will could give rise to a new wave of clean, green power. WA Sustainable Energy Association chief executive Ray Wills said the power line had the potential to inject “broadband-like” electricity to the state’s mid-west, adding it would allow a number of renewable energy projects to get off the ground.
Senator Christine Milne's Press Release
New Research shows foreign companies poised to pocket billion-dollar climate payouts
New research shows massive payouts are poised for foreign companies under emissions trading while a new Galaxy poll reveals 3 out 4 Australians want the Senate to insist on amendments to toughen the legislation.
Releasing the information today, Deputy Greens Leader, Senator Christine Milne revealed:
* The research shows companies that are wholly or partially owned overseas will profit from up to $11.7 billion in unprecedented Government handouts under the ETS legislation; while
* a new Galaxy Poll reveals 75% of Australians want the Senate to insist on amendments to toughen the Government Carbon Pollution Reduction scheme.
Senator Milne said the research revealed that billions of dollars was set to flow to overseas companies headquartered in Japan, the UK, and the US.
Meanwhile, an independent poll conducted by Galaxy Research on 24-26 July of 1100 Australians showed that 75% of respondents wanted the Senate to insist on amendments which imposed tougher conditions on polluting industries before agreeing to pass the legislation.
"As we head into a crucial month for the future of Australia's jobs and environment, Australians are saying: make polluters carry a fair share."
"But instead, Kevin Rudd is giving away billions to super-rich companies such as $1.1 billion to International Power, the UK-owners of the Hazlewood Power Station in Victoria."
The Age
Fifteen senior Australian climate scientists have hit back at the resurgence of climate scepticism among the nation’s politicians and the media, warning that the threat from climate change is real, urgent and approaching a series of ‘‘tipping points’’ where it will feed on itself.
‘‘New findings suggest that the situation is, if anything, more serious than the assessment of just a few years ago’’, say the scientists, who include the CSIRO’s Dr Michael Raupach and Dr John Church, along with the Australian National University’s Professor Will Steffen, who recently completed a report on climate change science for the Federal Government.
Writing in today’s Herald, the scientists, many of whom worked with the top United Nations scientific body on climate change, argue ‘‘rapid, sustained and effective’’ cuts in the world’s greenhouse gas emissions are needed to avoid dangerous climate change.
George Monbiot's Blog
Is Professor Ian Plimer a chicken? After I attacked some of the crazy claims he made in his book Heaven and Earth, the good professor challenged me to a face-to-face debate. At first I wasn't interested: judging from his responses to his critics, he appears to be impervious to reason. I can picture him standing up to his neck in water, still telling us not to worry about global warming — it's all been dreamed up by a global conspiracy.
More importantly, it seems to me that he's a grandstander, who wants nothing more than to make as much noise as possible in the hope that it will drown out the precise refutations published by his book's reviewers. As far as I can discover, he has yet to produce any specific response to the very serious allegations they have made, preferring to heap insults on them instead. To resolve these issues, we need to establish the facts and provide references. This is why I want him to answer them in writing; ideally in electronic format, so that people can follow the links. I was concerned that a face-to-face debate, with all its bluster and generalisations, would let him off the hook.
Climate change campaigner Al Gore has entered the Australian carbon trading debate, stressing that passing the emissions trading bill this year could help pave the way for a new treaty to cut greenhouse emissions. Speaking in Melbourne today, Gore said projections of climate change due to climbing emissions had worsened through four reports by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Gore, the former US vice president who put concern about climate change on the global radar with his 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth, compared debates about emissions trading and reduction targets in Australia and the US.
"I say at home that the legislation pending in my country is not what I would have written - I would have written it as a stronger bill - but I am realistic about what can be accomplished within the political system as it is," he said.
The Age
It won't matter if Australia doesn't have its emissions trading scheme finalised by December's Copenhagen climate change talks, the head of the UN's climate change agency says.
Other nations will only care that the federal government has made a commitment to reduce emissions targets ahead of the summit, Yvo de Boer says.
Mr de Boer is to fly to Cairns for next week's Pacific Islands forum, where he'll urge Australia's neighbours to make their voices heard on the climate talks.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has taken a very strong and constructive position on climate change, as has Climate Minister Penny Wong and the federal opposition, he said.
"I think everybody is very happy with what Australia is doing," he told ABC radio.
Environmental Management News
Perth’s Southern Metropolitan Regional Council (SMRC) has seen a dramatic fall in demand, coupled with a 50% drop in price, for the Greenhouse Friendly voluntary carbon offsets it auctioned in June. This will not only dint the plant’s operating budget by some $800,000 compared to last year, but suggests other offset providers are likely to also be damaged by uncertainty surrounding the government’s proposed carbon reduction policies.
Last year SMRC could not meet demand for the accredited carbon offsets created through avoided landfill emissions from processing organic material through its $100 million Regional Resource Recovery Centre. Sale prices then ranged between $16-20 per unit.
But of the 90,000 tCO2e the SMRC offered the market last month, business development manager Tim Youé says “tenders were received for a quarter of the volume in a price range of $8-10 each”.
The UK has upped the ante on climate policy with its Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), which outmuscles the Rudd Government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) by driving the cap-and-trade scheme deeper into the economy. The European Commission has just approved the CRC, which is slated to roll out early next year targeting mid-tier businesses as part of its aim to cut emissions by a third and deliver more than $2 billion in benefits to participants by 2020.
The CRC applies to non-energy intensive sectors not already covered by climate change agreements and the EU Emissions Trading System. The EU gave the policy the nod a day ahead of the UK Government’s release yesterday of an energy white paper and three related strategies for decarbonising the country. The report also detailed how the UK would deliver its share of the EU Renewable Energy Directive.
Vic the least climate-friendly state
Environmental Management News
Victoria is Australia’s least climate-friendly state, an international think-tank has found. The Climate Group found less than 2% of electricity generated in Victoria last year was from clean sources. Brown coal accounted for 94% of electricity, with gas making up the other 4%. Meanwhile, the Loy Yang A, Yallourn W and Hazelwood brown coal power stations were among the four highest greenhouse-emitting plants in Australia. "What's clear is we need to rapidly scale up renewable energy," said Climate Group Australia director Rupert Posner. "It is far too small a part of the energy mix." Some 13% of South Australia's electricity comes from renewable sources, with 6% in NSW and 3% in Queensland. "A large chunk of our renewable energy to date has come from large-scale hydro projects," Posner said. Victoria has approved new power farms that will lead to an almost four-fold increase in wind power production. A large solar plant near Mildura and a new hydro-electric plant at Bogong are under development.
- Climate Change in Australia: Risks to Human Wellbeing and Health, Anthony J McMichael, Nautilus Institute, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, March 2009 [PDF document, 232KB]
Logistics
When the City of Wodonga joined the Cities for Climate Protection in 2003, strict tangible requirements imposed on the department by being a member of this UN-backed initiative prompted the purchase of two new Isuzu CXY 455 Gigas trucks.
Known as the ICLEI (International Council for Local Environment Initiatives), members of this high profile organisation are exposed to world standards in sustainable development, and have access to technical information sharing, training, community education and research.
According to City of Wodonga Asset Management Officer, Jim Maher, the Isuzu trucks were chosen based on their strong environmental credentials.
"Being a member of the UN Cities for Climate Protection program is quite challenging when it comes to the fleet side of the business, as most of the council's emissions come from its vehicles," Mr Maher says.
Environmental Leader
Just a week ago climate legislation was said to be on the fast-track, with it set to come to a House vote within a month. But now even some Democrats appear to be threatening to derail the legislation, with some saying passage won’t come until next year.
Such a delay may also mean that the successor to the Kyoto Agreement may not be negotiated until next year, reports Reuters. The measure is scheduled to be negotiated in December in Copenhagen, Denmark.
In the U.S., farm states are gaining support for their contention that any climate legislation should have special exclusions for the agriculture industry. Farmers seek to protect the preferred status of corn-based ethanol as an alternative fuel and they prefer to have the Department of Agriculture, not the Environmental Protection Agency, oversee their greenhouse gas emissions.
Worldwide Institute
In an effort to broaden support for sweeping climate legislation, environmentalists are forming atypical alliances with other progressive social organizations.
Groups such as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), MoveOn, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) are part of a growing coalition of social welfare, labor, religious, and healthcare organizations joining forces with the traditional environmental lobby.
Major environmental groups say a nationwide grassroots effort is necessary to raise support for binding federal legislation to address climate change, especially during an economic recession when leaders are concerned that such reforms may adversely affect manufacturing industries and energy costs.
Climate legislation took a major step forward late last month when leaders of a House of Representatives energy committee convinced several moderate legislators to support the "American Clean Energy and Security Act." The bill promises to reduce U.S. carbon emissions 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050, compared to 2005 levels, through a national cap-and-trade system.
AFP
BONN, Germany (AFP) — Disasters caused by climate change will inflict the highest losses in poor countries with weak governments that have dashed for growth and failed to shield populations which settle in exposed areas, a UN report said on Thursday.
"Disaster risk is not evenly distributed," said the report, released on the sidelines of the world climate talks in Bonn, as it urged countries to shore up protection for their citizens.
From 1990 to 2007, loss of life and property from weather-related disasters rose significantly, with floods the biggest single cause, it said.
Large developing countries, led by China, India, Bangladesh and Indonesia, suffered the biggest mortality in absolute terms, but in relation to population, the highest tolls were in Dominica, Vanuatu and Myanmar.
Poor small-island states and poor landlocked states, which can suffer years-long economic damage after an extreme weather event, are most in the firing line, according to the report, "Risk and Poverty in a Changing Climate."
Together, these states account for more than two-thirds of countries with "very high" economic vulnerability to such disasters.
Environmental Management News
Reporting of greenhouse emissions and energy consumption under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting System (NGERS) is imminent. NGERS requires corporations whose operations surpass certain emissions or energy thresholds to register and report their data on a yearly basis. With many organisations still unsure of their obligations, what effect will this legislation have and what will be required of those that qualify for registration? By Dan Atkins.
In the first round of reporting, corporations whose yearly operations meet or succeed 125kt (125,000 tonnes) of CO2 equivalent or 500Tj of energy must register to report this information by August 31. This is approximately equivalent to an annual expenditure of between $5-10 million on electricity or $1.5-2.5 million on gas or $11-13 million on diesel (depending on prices). Registered corporations must then provide the government with a comprehensive report of their 2008/09 data by October 31.
When NGERS was released in 2008 it was projected that by the 2010/11 reporting period the legislation would cover around 700 medium to large organisations, but as we approach the start date it is now looking more like 5000.
Environmental Management News
The Victorian Government’s green paper on its climate strategy lacks a clear plan of action, said Environment Victoria. The 14-page green paper that was released for public comment last week talks about acting quickly to meet climate change challenges, and about the state’s “predominant role” in the areas of managing local adaptation measures. No specific actions that will be carried out to meet those goals were outlined.
The state appears hesitant to set concrete policies before Federal action becomes clearer.
“While Victoria has been a leader in setting emissions targets, the introduction of the [Federal Government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme] means that a binding emissions reduction target set by the Victorian Government would distort the operation of the scheme by mandating that a set level of reductions should take place within the state, regardless of the efficient allocation of national emission reductions that should be achieved through the CPRS market,” the paper said.
“Accordingly, the government does not see any benefit in legislating for a state-based emissions reduction target that is inconsistent with a national target.”
Environmental Management News
A chorus of dismay follows a recent realisation that the Federal Government has linked up an assistance package to industry under the Renewable Energy Target with the passage of its emissions trading scheme. The Clean Energy Council, the peak body for the renewables industry accuses the government of playing a “high stakes game of political brinkmanship”, while the Coalition has termed it “grubby politics”.
Industry sectors such as aluminium and steel making that are deemed as trade-exposed qualify for some exemptions under the RET legislation, which sets a mandatory 20% national target of renewably sourced power by 2020. But the legislation appears to have a caveat that says industry help will only go forward when the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme – a separate set of legislation – takes force.
AusAID will for the first time fund new projects in the Pacific that aim to kick-start the uptake of renewables and energy efficiency in emerging markets. The initiative, in collaboration with global NGO the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership will channel funding for four selected projects, with three more projects on a waiting list for more funds.
The scheme to drive innovative sustainable energy projects in the Pacific is similar to another recently completed by REEEP – an implementation of a microfinance project that enabled Solomon Islanders to barter crops for solar panels.
“Projects like this create business opportunities for local industry while significantly reducing the countries’ vulnerability from dependence on imported fossil fuels”, said Eva Oberender, regional director for South East Asia Pacific REEEP.
“REEEP funding provides the opportunity to test new clean energy or energy efficiency models that then can be applied on a larger scale,” said Chris Andrew, CEO Greenlight Technology Group, one Australian company taking part in a project in Fiji that won the funding.
Climate change risks to human health in Australia
Nautilus Institute
The paper discusses the adverse health impacts of climate change on human health, with particular reference to Australia. It addresses the possible overlaps and interactions with Indonesia. The paper argues that while many climate change impacts will be of a local kind, many other impacts will be of a trans-boundary kind.
