Officials from the Environment Investigation Agency (EIA) recently took part in an undercover investigation that revealed the illegal big cat skin and bone trade is still taking place in China despite the fact it is against the law.  The investigation  took place from July 25th and August 19, 2009.  Other rare animal skins, including snow leopards and other big cats, were also being sold. 

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Renewable sources of energy are beginning to replace coal power in the U.S.:

Every year the percentage of U.S. electricity generated from renewables has been increasing, according to the latest figures released by the Energy Information Administration in its Electric Power Monthly report.

As a result, by April of 2009, the total was 12.97 percent, with hydropower accounting for 8.73 percent and other renewables like solar and wind 4.24 percent of all U.S. electricity on average among all the states.  Higher wind generation totals in just 4 states accounted for 62.2 percent of the national increase in wind powered generation: Texas, Iowa, New York, and Indiana.

By contrast the percentage of electricity from fossil power is now actually decreasing.

Comparing April 2008 to April 2009, coal-fired generation fell by 20,551 thousand megawatt-hours, or 13.9 percent. Declines in 7 states accounted for 52.3 percent of the national decrease in coal-fired generation: they were Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, North Carolina, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Texas.

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“Apologists for the nuclear and fossil fuel industries persist in trying to mislead the public by repeatedly spreading the myth that renewables account for only a tiny fraction of U.S. electricity production,” said Ken Bossong, Executive Director of the SUN DAY Campaign in a press release. “However, the hard numbers document the continuing dramatic growth in renewable energy’s already-significant contribution to the nation’s electricity supply – a contribution that will eventually leave coal and nuclear behind in the dust.”

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A proposed oil refinery project north of Hong Kong has ran into trouble after acquisitions that the government kept the administration in Hong Kong out of the discussion about the potential negative environmental impacts of the project. The episode highlights the weak EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) regulations in China.

The proposed $5 billion refinery-cum-storage facility, which is to be build in the Nansha district of the Guangdong province, would be one of the largest in Asia and is a collaborative project of Sinopec and the Kuwait Oil Company. According to media reports, the EIA report has not been made public and there has been no public discussion and scrutiny of the project (and the proposed alternatives) and its environmental impacts.

It is understood that the authorities have also directed website managers across China to block any attempts to discuss the environmental impacts of the project on the Internet. Following is the translation of the message sent to various Chinese news websites. 

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Under a settlement agreement in a lawsuit brought by Greenpeace and Friends of Earth, the U.S. Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corp. have agreed to ask for environmental statements from countries seeking US financial aid to set up projects. Both the financing groups have also agreed to invest $250 million each in renewable energy and ensure that the projects they have invested in reduce carbon emissions by 20 percent.

Greenpeace and Friends of Earth, along with three cities from California and one from Colorado, filed the lawsuit against the financing groups in 2002 arguing that the projects they help fund could affect earth’s climate which, in turn, could effect the sea levels around America’s coasts. From 1995 to 2006, the Ex-Im Bank and OPIC provided more than $21 billion in financial aids to countries around the world for projects like oil & gas pipelines, electric power plants and oil refineries.

It is astonishing to know that these groups never asked for environmental statements from the companies managing the projects, even the international investments agencies like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank ask for environmental statements. The credit for the delay in this procedural change is partially shared by the Bush administration.

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HFCs – hydrofluorocarbons – are the usual replacement for CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) as a refrigerant. CFCs were phased out because of their damage to the ozone layer – but the fact remains that HFCs may not hit the ozone, but their global warming contribution is many thousands of times greater than CO2 itself.

The problem is that refrigerants leak. And EIA research indicates that supermarkets are the biggest source of HFC released in Britain. In 2005, HFC emissions from refrigeration and aircon systems in supermarkets amounted to the equivalent of two million tonnes of CO2. EIA says that this is “equivalent to flying a plane from London to New York over 2.5 million times”.

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According to the annual report, International Energy Outlook, the robust growth in demand among the non-OECD nations is largely the result of strong projected economic growth.

In all the non-OECD regions combined, economic activity is predicted to increase by 5.2 percent per year, as compared with an average of 2.3 percent per year for the OECD countries.

I’ve gleaned some of the notable highlights from the report and digested/paraphrased so you wouldn’t have to. The full report will be out in July.

Carbon dioxide emissions

World carbon dioxide emissions will continue to increase steadily in the IEO2008 reference case, from 28.1 billion metric tons in 2005 to 34.3 billion metric tons in 2015 and 42.3 billion metric tons in 2030—an increase of 51 percent over the projection period. With strong economic growth and continued heavy reliance on fossil fuels expected for most of the non-OECD economies, much of the increase in carbon dioxide emissions is projected to occur among the developing, non-OECD nations. In 2005, non-OECD emissions exceeded OECD emissions by 7 percent. In 2030, however, non-OECD emissions are projected to exceed OECD emissions by 72 percent.

Coal and carbon

In the absence of national policies and/or binding international agreements that would limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions, world coal consumption is projected to increase from 123 quadrillion Btu in 2005 to 202 quadrillion Btu in 2030, at an average annual rate of 2.0 percent. Coal’s share of world energy use has increased sharply over the past few years, largely because of strong increases in coal use in China, which has nearly doubled since 2000 and is poised to increase strongly in the future. China alone accounts for 71 percent of the increase in world coal consumption in the IEO2008 reference case. The United States and India—both of which also have extensive domestic coal resources—each account for 9 percent of the world increase.

The outlook for fossil-fuel-fired generation could be altered substantially by international agreements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The electric power sector offers some of the most cost-effective opportunities for reducing carbon dioxide emissions in many countries. Coal—the world’s most widely used source of energy for power generation—is also the most carbon-intensive. If a cost, either implicit or explicit, were applied to emitters of carbon dioxide, there are several alternative no- or low-emission technologies that currently are commercially proven or under development, which could be used to replace some coal-fired generation. Implementing the technologies would not require expensive, large-scale changes in the power distribution infrastructure or in electricity-using equipment. It could be more difficult, however, to achieve similar results in end-use sectors like transportation.

Renewable energy

Worldwide, the consumption of hydroelectricity and other renewable energy sources will increase by 2.1 percent per year in the IEO2008 reference case, from 35 quadrillion Btu in 2005 to 59 quadrillion Btu in 2030. In the non-OECD nations, much of the growth in renewable energy consumption is projected to come from mid- to large-scale hydroelectric facilities in Asia and in Central and South America, where several countries have hydropower facilities either planned or under construction. Among the OECD nations, hydroelectricity is fairly well established, and with the exception of Canada and Turkey there are few plans to undertake major hydroelectric power projects in the future.

Increases in OECD renewable energy consumption are expected to be in the form of non-hydroelectric renewables, especially wind and biomass. Many individual OECD countries have incentives in place to increase the penetration of non-hydroelectric renewable electricity sources, both to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to promote energy security, and in the IEO2008 projections OECD renewable generation grows by 1.6 percent per year from 2005 to 2030, faster than all the other sources of electricity of generation except natural gas.

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Natural gas

Worldwide natural gas consumption in the IEO2008 reference case increases from 104 trillion cubic feet in 2005 to 158 trillion cubic feet in 2030. Natural gas is expected to replace oil wherever possible. Moreover, because natural gas combustion produces less carbon dioxide than coal or petroleum products, governments may encourage its use to displace the other fossil fuels as national or regional plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions begin to be implemented. Natural gas is expected to remain a key energy source for industrial sector uses and electricity generation throughout the projection period. The industrial sector, which is the world’s largest consumer of natural gas, accounts for 43 percent of projected natural gas use in 2030. In the electric power sector, natural gas is an attractive choice for new generating plants because of its relative fuel efficiency. Electricity generation accounts for 35 percent of the world’s total natural gas consumption in 2030.

Non-OECD countries will account for more than 90 percent of the world’s total growth in production from 2005 to 2030.

Nuclear

Electricity generation from nuclear power is projected to increase from about 2.6 trillion kilowatthours in 2005 to 3.8 trillion kilowatthours in 2030. Higher capacity utilization rates have been reported for many existing nuclear facilities, and it is anticipated that most of the older nuclear power plants in the OECD countries and non-OECD Eurasia will be granted extensions to their operating lives. Still, there is considerable uncertainty associated with nuclear power.

Issues that could slow the expansion of nuclear power in the future include plant safety, radioactive waste disposal, and the proliferation of nuclear weapons, which continue to raise public concerns in many countries and may hinder the development of new nuclear power reactors.

The take home:

• It is no surprise that world energy use consumption will continue to grow, but the bulk of the growth will be from less economically developed countries. The key here will to be encourage the development of appropriate technologies and infrastructure.
• Liquid fuels will move almost exclusively into the transportation sector and natural gas will replace oil in most of those cases. Natural gas is much cleaner than coal and can be used to throttle systems for peak demands and to smooth the spikes caused by wind-generated electricity.
• Coal consumption will continue to grow assuming their is no new major policy action on carbon - though the report does seem to hint that such action is likely…eventually.
• The full report will be out in July.

Other posts on global energy consumption

“Popping the Oil Price Bubble”
“Price of Oil Has Dept. of Defense Looking to Save Fuel”
“British Fuel Prices. Situation: Red”

All figures from EIA; Image is CC licensed by flickr user dobrych