..and then takes a U-Turn the very next day!

In a reported letter to the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Jairam Ramesh, the Indian Environment Minister proposed a radical shift in India’s stand on climate change–away from its national position on climate negotiations–which India has backed since 1990 and which was defended robustly even in UN talks in Bangkok earlier this month.

Minutes after the news spread, political parties sitting in the opposition were quick to respond. Within the next few hours, the Environment Minister issued a clarifying statement for national media and the entire Nation!

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About ten weeks from now leaders from nearly 200 countries will meet in Copenhagen to discuss the next climate treaty. During the last two to three years governments around the world moved to and fro over contentious issues like funding, technology transfer, intellectual property rights and emission reduction targets. As the world started to look for a replacement of the Kyoto Protocol, the start was slow with no sign of urgency even as the UNFCCC recommended a 25 to 40 percent reduction in global carbon emissions by 2020.

But the change at Washington brought a colossal change in the pace of global climate negotiations. The United States had played a vital role in formalization of the Kyoto Protocol but never ratified the same which created a gapping hole in global efforts to reduce carbon emissions. With the failure of Kyoto Protocol acknowledged by almost all it is clear that the we cannot afford to repeat the mistake committed in the past. United States’ commitment to act boldly and swiftly has become the make or break issue for the next climate treaty.

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US-based car-share giant Zipcar Inc. has launched its first ever Electric Vehicle Pod, featuring an all-electric Citroen C1 and a Plug-In Toyota Prius. The vehicles, among the most efficient and technologically advanced on the road today, can be hired by the hour for a fraction of the cost of owning one.

The company figures that EVs are ideally suited for early, large-scale use in Zipcar’s car sharing platform since the average Zipcar trip lasts just under four hours and less than 25 miles, well within the range of a typical EV.

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In April 2005, the World Food Programme and the Chinese government jointly announced that food aid shipments to China would stop at the end of the year. For a country where a generation ago hundreds of millions of people were chronically hungry, this was a landmark achievement. Not only has China ended its dependence on food aid, but almost overnight it has become the world’s third largest food aid donor.

As noted in Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, the key to China’s success was the economic reforms in 1978 that dismantled its system of agricultural collectives, known as production teams, and replaced them with family farms. In each village, the land was allocated among families, giving them long-term leases on their piece of land. The move harnessed the energy and ingenuity of China’s rural population, raising the grain harvest by half from 1977 to 1986. With its fast-expanding economy raising incomes, with population growth slowing, and with the grain harvest climbing, China eradicated most of its hunger in less than a decade—in fact, it eradicated more hunger in a shorter period of time than any country in history.

While hunger has been disappearing in China, it has been spreading throughout much of the developing world, notably sub-Saharan Africa and parts of the Indian subcontinent. As a result, the number of people in developing countries who are hungry has increased from a recent historical low of 800 million in 1996 to over 1 billion today. Part of this recent rise can be attributed to higher food prices and the global economic crisis. In the absence of strong leadership, the number of hungry people in the world will rise even further, with children suffering the most.

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What is a smart grid?  According to the US Department of Energy:

Grid 2030 vision (PDF 1.1 MB) calls for the construction of a 21st century electric system that connects everyone to abundant, affordable, clean, efficient, and reliable electric power anytime, anywhere. We can achieve this through a smart grid, which would integrate advanced functions into the nation’s electric grid to enhance reliability, efficiency, and security, and would also contribute to the climate change strategic goal of reducing carbon emissions. These advancements will be achieved by modernizing the electric grid with information-age technologies, such as microprocessors, communications, advanced computing, and information technologies.

President Obama has funded smart grid technologies in the Economic Stimulus Package, and there is no doubt that a large amount of power is wasted with our current grid system; however, would it be better to invest in renewable energy now?  Off-Grid explains:

The greedy and slothful companies are in fact motivated by billions of economic stimulus dollars being handed out. The stimulus money could be used more effectively installing renewable power and microgrids in local communities. Harvesting extra efficiency from the national grid could postpone the next power plant, but so could introducing widespread household-level renewables.  Installing micro-grids everywhere  would cut down on the losses made in transmission.

The current national grid system is inefficient. Large amounts of power is lost in transmission and generating stations.  Off-Grid reports:

Transmission and distribution lines are imperfect conductors, with over 10% of power lost as heat. If these so-called line losses were reduced by a tenth on the distribution system alone, the power saved would equal all the wind generation installed in the U.S. in 2006, according to the industry’s Electric Power Research Institute, or EPRI. That’s 2,454 megawatts, or approximately the equivalent of three typical coal-fired power plants.

Why haven’t the utility companies already implemented smart grid technologies using their own profits?  The answer is because they are motivated by money, and there has been no incentive to do so until Obama’s stimulus package came along. The European Union faces another problem from its aging grid system.  According to a report from Europe’s leading science academies, the EU will not be able to distribute the renewable energy (20% of all energy) they have committed to build by 2020.  In fact, problems with the EU grid could appear as soon as 2011.  A solution is to create off-grid and micro-grid supplies for small communities rather than overhaul the entire grid system.  Off-Grid explains:

Scandinavian countries potentially have excess capacity in hydroelectric plants that could, ideally, be sold to places such as Germany. If agreements can be made with north African countries, solar power collected in the Sahara desert could be transported up into southern Europe. “In order to do that, you need to design the transmission system so it can cope with the large power flows through existing countries’ networks [but] Italy’s transmission system is not designed for that, nor is Spain’s.”

Distributing energy efficiently is important no matter the source, but we need to invest in alternative energy now.  Creating micro grids that use renewable energy seems like the logical first step while the larger grid infrastructure system is improved.

Image:  US Department of Energy

As we evolve towards a new global climate change policy regime at Copenhagen later this year via the negotiations currently going on in Bonn, a willingness to step in each other’s shoes gets more and more critical and primary.

On one hand are the developing countries like India, where emphasis has been on highlighting how its measures conform to the needs of the hour and of the globe. Its adaptation initiative on Himalayas and other, mitigation initiatives (solar, water, sustainability, energy efficiency, etc.) all aim at moving India and the world one step closer to a better environmental situation.  It is a more practical way of doing things to plan on both environment and development together – rather than on viewing them in traditional typecast of development versus environment. So, the rural employment scheme under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) that generates bulk of (70%) employment in environment-improving schemes is particularly heartening.  NREGA’s green jobs in afforestation, sustainable agriculture, water harvesting, etc. will not only provide employment to one person in a family but will also do so in areas that will alleviate emission-problems. 

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China is building four to six coal reserves each with capacity exceeding 20 million tonnes in order to address the problem of shortage of the fuel. Meanwhile, Chinese officials also called upon the leaders of developed nations to set ambitious carbon emission reduction goals.

China is the world’s largest coal producer and consumer but lately the demand has outpaced supply, a trend likely to continue into the next year. To address this gap in demand-supply China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has planned to build coal reserves in the the eastern province of Shandong which will be ready within three to five years. According to the officials of the NDRC, the stockpiles are meant for use with the province only and China has substantial coal supply on the national level.

Coal remains China’s primary source of energy and it is also exported to many neighboring countries as well. Easy and plentiful availability of coal is one of the major reasons behind China’s strong resistance to any kind of emission reduction targets. Instead, officials from the NDRC itself called upon the developed nations to commit to more ambitious emission targets closer to 25 to 40 percent by the year 2020 from 1990 levels.

Reports about shortage of coal reserves have been doing the rounds lately with some of them predicting a peak in coal supplies by 2025. India, too, has been facing shortage of coal.

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Over the past several months the Canadian federal government has been operating under the assumption that they would be joining forces with the US government in the development of a joint carbon trading system between the two countries. Because of this, progress in dealing with greenhouse gas emissions has basically been on hold at the federal level in Canada until the details of a US-led plan were revealed.

This inaction by the Government of Canada has taken the spotlight off of their much-maligned Turning the Corner greenhouse gas action plan, which was originally introduced in early 2007. This plan was widely criticized for its use of intensity-based emission reductions and targets that were not nearly as strong as those defined in the Kyoto Accord, of which Canada is a signatory.

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The OPEC Secretary General has said that oil is not responsible for climate change and that the developed nations should be held responsible for the global predicament we all face today.

Oil is not responsible. It is the industrialised countries which are making all this pollution in the world.

These were the words of Abdullah al-Badri at the International Oil Summit held at Paris. He went on to criticize ’some’ developed nations levying excessive taxes on oil companies and petroleum products while extending tax breaks to renewable energy firms. He also spoke against the subsidies that the renewable energy projects recieve in the developed countries.

It is highly unfortunate to see OPEC’s single-minded and illogical stance regarding climate change and renewable energy.

The developed nations have started to move their power generation systems from being fossil fuel based to renewable energy centred systems. However, hybrids and electric cars are still expensive and with the car industry going through catastrophic period of sales, it is unlikely that they would be able to mass-produce an affordable low emission vehicle. Thus gasoline burning cars and trucks remain a major source of world’s carbon emissions. 

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The Copenhagen round of talks aimed at building a consensus about the features of the next climate treaty is scheduled to take place this December however, there seem to be no signs of consensus over how the world should proceed to reduce its carbon emissions. Which tool would be most effective? Clean Development Mechanism, a global carbon tax or maybe a global carbon labelling law?

Clean Development Mechanism has been tried, tested and, well, has been branded somewhat ineffective by not only the people outside the system but the people who are actually a part of it, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Bureaucratic delays, procedural wrongdoings in approval of projects and failure to make any difference at the grass-root level are some of the well known problems with this scheme.

The European Union has proposed that the CDM be replaced by a global carbon tax. United States saw a national carbon tax bill introduced in the Congress. The bill calls for levying an ‘carbon equivalency fee’ on imported products, in addition to the nationwide carbon tax in order to neutralize the losses incurred by domestic manufacturers. China has opposed this move saying that the developed countries are in part responsible for the emissions as they are the end users. 

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After committing to the formation of a climate change fund for the poor countries at the 2007 Bali conference, the European Union is finding itself in a fix over how to raise the billions needed to assist the poor countries acquire the new cleaner technology from the developed nations.

In a meeting held at Brussels, the EU nations failed to build consensus over the amount of funds they were willing to commit for the promised climate change fund. Questions like which nations contributes how much, how would this affect the already recession-hit economies and will the United States and advanced developing countries respond in kind, remained unanswered meaning that there was no agreement reached.

The issues which form the core of this problem are: No indication from advanced developing countries to commit to mandatory emissions reduction and thus unwillingness from the developed nations (and their citizens) to unilaterally commit to stricter emission reductions; secondly, during this phase of economic recession there is huge shortage of credit around the world and governments are reluctant to invest in other countries or international projects and lastly, differences over the principle of ‘polluter pays’.

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Italian car company Tazzari has announced plans to launch its Tazzari Zero all-electric vehicle in the North American market next year.

The all-electric 2 door super mini (video) weighs in at a tiny 542 kilograms (around 1,200 lbs), leaving it capable of achieving 100 km/h (62 mph) in a nimble 5 seconds, with a top speed of 80 km/h (50mph) (more pics after the jump).

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With fears of being pressurized to agree to mandatory emissions cuts under the new climate treaty, China has up the ante and is looking to hit back at the developed countries by holding them accountable for a size-able portion of its carbon emissions. According to a recent study, 15 to 25 percent of China’s carbon emissions originate from manufacturing of goods exported to developed countries.

The Director of China’s Climate Change department, Gao Li,  has said that since the western countries are these final users of the carbon intensive products they should share the responsibility for the same with the Chinese government. Mr. Li also said that sharing equal responsibility was essential to reach any fair agreement over reducing the carbon emissions.

These statements came almost a week after a carbon tax bill was introduced in the US Congress which called for levying an ‘carbon equivalency fee’ on imported products, in addition to the nationwide carbon tax in order to neutralize the losses incurred by domestic manufacturers. The bill, if passed, would also allow the US government to withhold revenue generated from the equivalence fee till the time the producer nation agrees to a domestic carbon tax of its own. 

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A week ago, Rep. John B. Larson introduced the America’s Energy Security Trust Fund Act of 2009 in the US Congress. The bill which has evolved from its previous version has advocated a nationwide carbon tax in addition to an ‘equivalent’ tax on the imported carbon intensive goods. The bill also proposes to neutralize the impact on the working class by giving out carbon tax rebate.

Calls for a carbon tax have been increasing ever since President Obama took office. In order to achieve energy independence and reducing carbon emissions due to the country’s ‘historical responsivbility’, President Obama proposed the implementation of cap and trade scheme. The administration feels that such a scheme would not only check the nation’s carbon emissions but would also generate much needed income.

The European Union also proposed that the Clean Developments Mechanism be replaced by a global carbon tax. Citing the drawbacks of CDM, like lack of transparency and beaurcratic delays, the EU proposed that a carbon tax seems to be the simplest and most effective method to meet emission targets and help getting developing countries access to the clean technologies.

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Environment Protection Agency has announced that the US government would maintain a registry of all carbon emissions produced from some 13,000 high polluting industries. Companies emitting more than 25,000 metric tonnes of carbon emissions yearly will be required to report to this registry.

The plan to have a climate registry has been doing the rounds since 2007 and although a Climate Registry exists covering various American, Canadian and Mexican states, this would be much broader and mandatory in nature. Terming the decision as ‘critical step towards protection of health and environment’, the EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said that emissions data is essential in order to tackle the problem of climate change. The registry would require the companies to report their methane emissions also, another major greenhouse gas. 

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Two Harvard researchers say they have successfully constructed a ribosome.

Harvard Medical School Professor Greg Church and Research Fellow Michael Jewett extracted ribosomes from E. coli bacteria, processed them, and then made new ones from the molecules.

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The Environment Protection Agency ordered that about 9 billion gallons of ethanol be blended with fuels in 2008, a major portion of this came from corn and maize - both being edible crops. Farmers were given billions in subsidies to grow biofuel yielding crops, seeing great demand for biofuels on the back of record breaking oil prices farmers opted to sell these food crops to biofuel companies which in turn led to the food crisis witnessed last year. 

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The European Union wants President Obama to act on his promise of introducing a new climate change policy and work out the modalities of a cap-and-trade policy before the Copenhagen Talks in December. Doing so, EU ministers say, would send a clear signal to the world and especially the developing countries about the change in America’s environment policy.

The European Union already has clear renewable energy and carbon emissions reduction policy in place but that has yet to make any difference in the stance of the developing countries like India and China. The Asian neighbors continue to resist any demands to reduce their carbon emissions claiming that their contribution to the overall global carbon emissions is very less as compared to that of the developed nations especially the United States which has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol.

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NASA and Cisco, Inc. have joined together to implement and manage an online global environmental monitoring platform, which is named Planetary Skin.

The platform will be used for data collection and analysis utilizing sensors in space, the air, the oceans, and on land.

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In a new study, conducted by the Rock Mountain Institute, it has been found that electricity consumption can be reduced by 30 percent through energy efficiency and coal powered power generation can be reduced by 60 percent.

The study, which spanned across 50 states, identified five states with highest electric productivity rates - New York, Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware and California - and stated that if all other states were to adopt similar efficiency parameters are implemented in other states the whole country can save up to 1.2 million gigawatt-hours annually. The study also brought out the long-term benefits of improving the electric productivity

In 2020, if the United States can, on average, achieve the electric productivity of the top performing states today, we can anticipate a 34 percent reduction in projected electricity demand, while maintaining 2.5 percent annual economic growth.

The conclusions of this study exemplifies the importance of energy efficiency. Making investments to achieve energy efficiency is as important as investing in developing new renewable energy projects. The transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources is essential not only for the environment but for the economy as well but before we could lay the foundations for a renewable energy centered power grid we must optimize the use of the resources at hand.

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