The U.S is Driving Other National Positions Leading into Copenhagen

Karla Bell — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:30:30 +0000

The U.S position on Climate Change is overshadowing all other discussions in the lead up to Copenhagen, even at a conference I recently attended in Melbourne Australia - the 5th Australia-New Zealand Climate Change & Business Conference, August 24-26th. The Australian position requires global consensus for a greenhouse gas emissions target by 25% with a successful Post 2012 Agreement in place, but only 5% if that is not concluded. It all depends on what the U.S does in Copenhagen according to their minister Penny Wong.

The European Union is the only group that will continue with strong commitments independent of the U.S position with a 20% reduction of greenhouse gases on 1990 levels by 2020 and 30% if a global agreement is concluded.

Environmental Protest Round-up: 22 May 2009

Kay Sexton — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:01:08 +0000

Sometimes it’s impossible to extract the thread of environmental protest from the complex strands of civil disaffection, or to analyse the motives or protestors and give them a single label. The G20 protests in London were a case in point, combining liberals, anarchists, nationalists, environmentalists and many others in a seething blend of international concern.

Worst Heatwave in 100 Years Scorches Australia, Haults Australian Open

Bryan Nelson — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 08:33:56 +0000

Australian climate officials are blaming global warming for another summer of record heatwaves, as baked Southern Australians ready for six days in a row of 100-120 degree Fahrenheit temperatures.

In Melbourne, rail lines buckled in the heat as trains were canceled citywide, while in Adelaide free water bottles were being handed out to help keep parched travelers hydrated while they waited out major transportation delays. Over 140,000 homes were left without electricity as the electric grid strained to keep air conditioners running.

Even the Australian Open tennis tournament had to suspend its outdoor games due to the sweltering conditions. Novak Djokovic, the Open’s defending champion, dramatically pulled out of his quarter-final match against Andy Roddick because of the heat.

Australia to Develop Electric Vehicle Recharging Network by 2012

Amiel Blajchman — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 01:00:53 +0000

US Firm Better Place is working with Australian power company AGL and investors Macquarie Capital Group to develop a $667 million Australian electric car charging network.

Under the plan being developed, Better Place will use its scalable model (currently adopted in Denmark and Israel) to build the electric vehicle network, AGL will deliver electricity from renewable resources and Macquarie will help raise the investment dollars needed.

Electric vehicle networks would be developed in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, each with between 200 000 and 250 000 charging stations. As well, switching stations will be built in each city and on the highways in order to allow drivers to have their batteries automatically replaced.

While this project is being developed solely by private companies, it has received some high-level attention and support in Australia, with the State of Victoria’s Premier John Brumby noting:

The Victorian Government supports any initiative that will have positive outcomes in reducing emissions in the transport sector and welcomes this innovative approach to help make broad adoption of [electric vehicles] in Australia possible
Read more of this story »

Green Building Tour: CH2 Melbourne

Philip Proefrock — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 15:39:52 +0000

Image credit: City of MelbourneThe 10 story Council House 2 (CH2) building in Melbourne is very likely Australia's Greenest Building. It is the first building in the country to receive six stars in the Green Building Council of Australia rating system.

The building is wrapped with photocell-controlled louvers made of recycled wood which help to temper the interior environment by controlling solar gain. Prominent shower towers are used as part of the cooling system for the building, and a set of large wind turbines on top of the building help to exhaust stale air out of the building. In addition to the visually striking aspects of the building, it also contains a host of features inside that contribute to the building serving as an exemplar of sustainable design.

The building is 12,500 square meters (134,500 square feet) and serves as an office building for 540 City of Melbourne staff, plus ground floor retail space. However, the underground parking includes only 20 parking spaces, but 80 bike spaces are provided (and 9 showers for cyclists are also part of the building's amenitites).

A diagram of the building schematically shows the many sustainable features incorporated in the building. CH2 uses agressive water recycling and reclamation. A multi-water treatment plant in the building draws in 100,000 liters (26,000 gallons) from the municipal sewer, as well as any site-generated waste, and filters the water to create A-grade clean water suitable for all non-drinking uses, including water cooling, plant watering, and toilet flushing needs. In this way, the building goes beyond its own needs and actually helps improve water quality in the city by treating other waste and using it for building needs.

South Elevation: Image credit: City of MelbourneChilled ceilings help to absorb excess heat from the building and keep it cool and comfortable in much the same manner as radiant heating. The building's power systems include photovoltaic cells, solar hot-water panels, and a gas-fired co-generation plant. The "shower towers" on the shaded side of the building use evaporative cooling effect to cool air and water for building cooling. Even the ducts on the north and south side of the building are colored differently in order to utilize natural heating and cooling in ventilating the building.

The building also incorporates light shelves to reflect natural light into the building and enhance the use of natural rather than artificial light. Glare is also controlled with louvers and other shading devices. The north facade (which, in Australia, is toward the sun) is covered with a vegetated facade to filter sunlight and reduce glare. Artificial lighting is controlled by sensors to turn off when adequate natural light is available.

Image credit: City of MelbourneThe website for the building includes breakdowns on the cost, including base building cost and cost of sustainable features (which is broken out as 22.1 percent of the building's total 51 million Australian dollars). Being a public building, it is much easier to get these figures than it is for most private building projects.

via: Inhabitat

The developing world response

Alex Wyatt from Climate Bridge, articulated the fundamental approach of the developing world. China and India believe that historical emissions are the way to allocate the burden of responsibility, as they did not create the problem. “ It is a human rights issue - they have the right to lift their people out of poverty,” said Wyatt. He indicated that the developed nations are asking countries to take on responsibilities for greenhouse gas reduction, in nations where 40% of the population live on less than $1.25 per day and 50% on less than $2 per day.

China is not doing nothing, it is quite proactive and recognises the problem of growing greenhouse emissions. It has adopted renewable energy targets of 20% by 2020 and of the $586 billion stimulus package to be spent in the next 2 years, $260 billion is going to the Clean Tech sector according to Wyatt.

A compromise position is one whereby, ‘emerging’ developing countries would ‘graduate’ in terms of their greenhouse gas reduction responsibility. Some least developed countries (LDCs) like Bangladesh concur. LDCs like Africa should not be treated on the same basis as the emerging nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC nations). They should be assessed in the post-2012 period on the basis of their level of economic development; capacity to act; contribution to global GHG emissions per capita; GDP per capita; current OECD membership and mitigation potential.
Advanced developing countries measures could include national emission caps; intensity targets; energy efficiency commitments; and sectoral intensity targets. India, Saudi Arabia, and China are firmly against reclassification, rejecting the idea of differentiation based on contemporary levels of development, rather seeing differentiation based on historic responsibility.

National caps are unlikely, but the compromise could be that sector caps will be applied to the BRIC nations. If this occurred the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) would remain outside the capped sectors in the BRIC nations but remain intact in the least developed countries like Africa, Bangladesh and the Pacific. ACES provisions allow for the purchase of international offsets (CDM) from developing countries in order for the U.S to reach its targets at the least cost of abatement.

A new program called REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) will assist the advanced developing countries move into the Post 2012 Agreement as well as adaptation measures, technology transfer, and finance. A REDD mechanism means developed countries pay developing countries to reduce deforestation, as de-forestation in the tropics represents about 50% of forest-related greenhouse gas emissions. Brazil and Indonesia will be major beneficiaries of REDD credits. Brazil has also developed a large-scale hydro and bio-fuels industry such that sector caps are not taboo. It is moving towards the developed world position as a result.

The need for continued improvement in the offset market

The Conference also dealt with an evaluation of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and a number of speakers like Michael Wiener of Perennia and Martijn Wilder of Baker and McKenzie in Sydney recommended changes to the management of the CDM and advice for creating new mechanisms like NAMAs and REDD going forward under Copenhagen.

Martijn indicated that there had been a lot of criticism of the CDM but reminded everyone that it is the only instrument that drives private sector development and is the global carbon currency. The CDM rulebook has established the global benchmark for offset projects and has become the de-facto standard for all offset projects in the compliance and voluntary markets.

The criticism is that the system is too complex with rules from the United Nations CDM Executive Board and in some cases additional host country rules as in China. Michael Wiener noted the lack of sustainability outcomes also. Complaints about the length of time the process takes from project origination to registration through validation and verification, including host country approvals were made by Mina Guli of Peony Capital, who finances CDM projects in China. “Two hundred days for a completeness check is too long - and that is just one part of the chain of getting a project through and a certified emission reduction (CER) sold into the market’ she said. Additionally, in the first phase China dominated the CDM market with industrial gas projects such as HFC 23 and N20. On the plus side there are 1700 carbon project entrepreneurs in India.

The criticism of CDM by Wiener and Wilder can be summarised as too few countries participated; not a broad enough range of project types were represented; a backlog of projects to be assessed in the CDM pipe-line; a lack of auditors and consistency of decision-making; lack of sustainability outcomes and Post 2012 uncertainty.

Michael Wiener stated that all these criticisms are process issues that need to be solved as the Post 2012 agreement will be relying heavily on the international revised CDM and REDD offset market to reach global greenhouse gas reduction targets. As a founder of Carbonflow Corp, I think technology can assist these markets evolve and adapt, become more reliable faster and efficient, more transparent and user-friendly.

Images Courtesy AdamSelwood and jimg944 via Flickr under Creative Commons License.

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