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Reuters, 20 April 2009 – China will have 100 gigawatts of wind-power capacity by 2020, a senior energy official said on Monday, more than three times the 30 GW target the government laid down in an energy strategy drawn up just 18 months ago.
“Installed wind-power capacity is expected to reach 100 million kilowatts in 2020. That will be eight times more than in 2008,” Fang Junshi, head of the coal department of the National Energy Administration, told a Coaltrans conference in Beijing. “The annual growth rate will be about 20 percent.”
Fang’s remarks confirm what industry experts have long maintained — wind power has the potential to take a much bigger share of China’s power mix than the government had planned.
Read the whole article: http://www.wbcsd.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?type=DocDet&ObjectId=MzQxNDk
The Global Carbon Project (GPC) released its Climate Trends 2007 update, and there’s some sobering news within the latest update.
- The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere was 383 parts per million (ppm) in 2007, 37% over pre-industrial revolution concentrations (280 ppm), higher than any concentration over the last 650,000 years, and “probably” higher than any concentration in the last 20 million years.
- Actual emissions of CO2 over the period of 2000-2007 are higher than the highest (worst-case) IPCC emissions scenario.
- Growth in emissions from cement and coal power plants in developing nations (mostly India and China) now account for more than 50% of all CO2 emissions and a related stagnation in carbon intensity (amount of GDP per unit of carbon).
- The amount of CO2 extracted from the air by natural carbon sinks is rising, but slower than CO2 emissions. In addition, natural carbon sinks have lost efficiency over the last 50 years.
- The GPC concludes that all of the above combine to produce stronger CO2-driven climate forcing, and sooner than the IPCC estimates.
Outlook darkens for Canadian exports
Globe and Mail, July 24, 2008 by DAKSHANA BASCARAMURTY
A brief lift in Canadian exports that’s forecast for the rest of the year is just an energy price-fuelled mirage and will be followed by a decline in 2009, predicts Export Development Canada.
The strong energy sector is expected to boost export earnings by 4.2 per cent throughout the rest of the year, but this brief deviation will likely be followed by a 1 per cent slump next year.
“I’m not one who wants to paint a rosy picture at all,” said Peter Hall, vice-president and chief economist of EDC. “It’s still very dark times for Canadian exporters.”
The EDC predicts the consumer goods, automotive, forestry and advanced technology sectors will be hit particularly hard in the second half of 2008 by rising commodity prices, the spread of U.S. economic woes, and a strong Canadian dollar.
The EDC forecasts a dreary decline of 18 per cent for consumer goods throughout 2008 and a further slump of 4 per cent in 2009, based largely on the continued fallout from the U.S. subprime crisis.
“Clearly, there will be fewer homes to furnish in the U.S. for some time and demand for these products will be soft over the forecast,” the EDC report said.
Energy prices, boosted by exports of natural gas, are expected to skyrocket by almost 40 per cent before tumbling 7 per cent next year when price corrections are expected to set in, the EDC predicts.
“If there is a speculative premium, we expect it to melt away pretty quickly,” Mr. Hall said. He added he still expects prices to remain high enough to justify continuing oil sands and offshore oil projects.
In its bleak summer forecast, EDC sees a glimmer of hope in the agrifood sector.
Global demand for grain may have been met with panic by consumers, but was welcomed by exporters of food, which EDC expects will do well for the rest of the year.
Mr. Hall credited the rise of the middle class in emerging markets, especially China and India, for stimulating the health of this sector.
“As those consumers get richer, one of the first things they do is buy and consume food,” he said. “It’s the reason why food commodity prices are not in for the same correction [as other sectors].”
EDC forecasts that agrifood exporters will also cash in on the surge of biofuel development through oilseed sales, which it expects will rise 38 per cent in 2009.
Echoing its spring forecast, EDC predicts developing markets such as China, India, Brazil and Russia will provide Canadian exporters with healthier business than floundering developed markets such as the U.S., the European Union and Japan. But the EDC warns Canadian exporters to cash in on the robust developing markets while they can, as the economic turmoil developed markets have been wading through for months is expected to spread across the globe by 2009.
“If you see demand shrinking in 60 per cent of the world, you would expect to see a fairly rapid transporting of that into emerging markets that are feeding the machine,” said Mr. Hall, who forecasts China in particular may experience “Olympic hangover.”
The outlook for the Canadian dollar may spell a bit of relief for some Canadian exporters.
The EDC predicts the loonie will hover close to the U.S. dollar, but then drop to between 94 cents (U.S.) to 97 cents in the first half of 2009 with the expectation of energy price corrections. Mr. Hall said 86 per cent of surveyed exporters believe the value of the loonie will hold steady or decline through the end of 2008.
“The top strategy that we could identify in terms of them dealing with it was to hang in there and absorb the loss,” he said.
Coal Can’t Fill World’s Burning Appetite
By Steven Mufson and Blaine Harden
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 20, 2008; A01
<snip> “Long considered an abundant, reliable and relatively cheap source of energy, coal is suddenly in short supply and high demand worldwide.
An untimely confluence of bad weather, flawed energy policies, low stockpiles and voracious growth in Asia’s appetite has driven international spot prices of coal up by 50 percent or more in the past five months, surpassing the escalation in oil prices.”
<snip> “We’re at a point where we’re running through the capacity,” said David Khani, a coal analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group. He compares the coal market to the oil market. For coal, he added, “it is unprecedented.”
If high prices last, that would raise the cost of U.S. electricity, half of which is generated by coal-fired powered plants.
Expensive or not, coal is almost always dirtier to burn than are other fossil fuels. Although its use accounts for a quarter of world energy consumption, it generates 39 percent of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. Climate change concerns could lead to legislation in many countries imposing higher costs on those who burn coal, forcing utilities and factories to become more efficient and curtail its use. Climatologists warn that without technology to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions, burning more coal would be disastrous.”
<snip> “Khani, the FBR analyst, said that “coal use has expanded beyond steam and steel into coal-to-liquids in China and coal-to-chemicals,” which he said would link coal prices to oil as well as natural gas. Given recent oil price levels, that could mean higher prices for coal too.
That could slow U.S. and worldwide economic growth and contribute to a renewed bout of stagflation. Rising commodity prices are “producing real limits on the future of economic growth in the U.K. and overseas,” said Shaun Chamberlin, a specialist in energy and climate change at the Lean Economy Connection, an research institute in London. “In terms of industry, we’re running out of ways of generating energy. We’ve jumped around from one energy source to another, and now we’re running out.”
All this is especially bad news for those worried about climate change. Germany, for example, is caught between its pledge to eliminate nuclear power and its pledge to slash carbon emissions. Because nuclear energy accounts for a quarter of the country’s electricity needs, utilities have filed applications for permits to build two dozen coal-fired plants over the next few years.
“You reach a point where people say you have to stop burning coal,” said Per Nicolai Martens, director of the Institute of Mining Engineering at the Aachen Technical University in Germany. “But when you reach that point, you are forced to ask the question of what happens when you shut it off?”
In the developing world, where growth is paramount, there is no thought of shutting off coal, especially when, on average, a person in China emits about one-sixth and an Indian less than one-tenth as many greenhouse gases as an American “Coal will continue to be king in India. There is no way out,” said Kumar, of the Confederation of Indian Industries. “The other choice is asking the country to stay poor. . . . The question is, are we going to allow poverty or allow a little bit of pollution?” Read the entire article
Intellectual Property Protection: Promoting Innovation in a Global Information Economy
Source: Center for Strategic & International Studies
Deep changes in the ways that people create ideas, goods, and wealth are reshaping the global economy. These changes make innovation—the creation of new goods and services—the center of economic activity. This new report explores the critical role of intellectual property protection (IPR) in a global information economy and argues that the extent to which countries protect intellectual property will determine how well they perform in the new economic environment.
The report examines the status of international IPR in general and the relation of IPR to innovation in such developing economies as China, India, and Brazil, among others. The author concludes that a well-constructed IP system accelerates innovation and that the damage from weak IP protections to developing nations’ abilities to innovate and grow outweighs any temporary benefit they might offer. Although IP protection is not sufficient in itself for innovation and growth, countries with strong IPR are better economic performers. Moreover, enforcement of IPR is a good measure of a country’s business environment. Countries with weak IPR have not performed as well as others and will perform even less well in the future knowledge economy if they do not improve their IP rules and the enforcement of rights.
+ Executive Summary (PDF; 51 KB)
Via: Docuticker
Biofuels: Ready to Roar
Biofuels do not need to drive up the price of food or cropland. In fact, bio-ethanol can be made from just about any organic material–including municipal waste.
A biofuel startup in Illinois can make ethanol from just about anything organic for less than $1 per gallon, and it wouldn’t interfere with food supplies, company officials said….Coskata, which is backed by General Motors and other investors, uses bacteria to convert almost any organic material, from corn husks (but not the corn itself) to municipal trash, into ethanol.
“It’s not five years away, it’s not 10 years away. It’s affordable, and it’s now,” said Wes Bolsen, the company’s vice president of business development.
The discovery underscores the rapid innovation under way in the race to make cellulosic ethanol cheaply. With the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 requiring an almost five-fold increase in ethanol production to 36 billion gallons annually by 2022, scientists are working quickly to reach that breakthrough.___Wired
Cellulosic ethanol can produce 5-10 units of energy for every unit consumed. It is an economical approach to biofuels. And even though ethanol is not as energy-dense as gasoline, there are ways to compensate for that deficit:
Ethanol turbocharging—Ethanol has less energy density than gasoline, lowering vehicle miles-per-gallon. However, MIT researchers are studying small turbocharged engines that run on gasoline but have a separate fuel injection system for ethanol. This approach can boost engine efficiency and enable fuel savings of up to 20–30%.____Source
Another approach to biofuels is algal biodiesel. Algae can grow on wastewater effluent. It also thrives on agricultural runoff.
Imagine if you could scoop algae out of your fish tank and put it in your gas tank. It’s not quite that easy, but it is possible to extract usable fuel from algae. Sommerfeld and Hu are working on a way to produce algae-based biodiesel for cars and trucks.
Biodiesel is a cleaner alternative to regular diesel fuel. Diesel is produced from nonrenewable petroleum. Biodiesel comes from renewable sources such as vegetable oils or animal fats. Biodiesel also burns cleaner than diesel, and it is biodegradable. Pure biodiesel can only be used in modified engines, but a diesel-biodiesel mixture can be used in existing diesel engines.
Scientists around the world are working to produce alternative fuels from a wide variety of plant materials. Ethanol derived from corn is already widely used. Unlike corn, however, algae aren’t food crops. And algae doesn’t have to be grown on arable soil—soil that could be used for growing food.____Physorg
China’s ongoing energy crisis is forcing it to look into alternatives to coal. Given China’s indifference to environmental quality, we can expect environmental devastation to follow wherever China’s biofuel investments go:
Sinopec, China’s top oil company, reportedly will cooperate with an Indonesian enterprise to set up biofuel plants and to grow energy crops in Indonesia, with a major investment of US$5 billion. Indonesia’s national news agency Antara reported about the project, which would become Sinopec’s second large overseas biofuel investment.
The plants and plantations are set to be located in Indonesia’s Papua and East Kalimantan regions, and will be used for extracting biodiesel from crude palm oil and jatropha curcas oil…..In January 2007, another oil major, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indonesian government under which it intends to invest $5.5 billion in the development of the biofuel sector in Indonesia, announcing the establishment of 3 biodiesel processing plants in Kalimantan (earlier post).
Besides Sinopec and CNOOC, several other Chinese state-owned and private enterprises have announced large biofuels investments in, amongst other countries, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Mozambique and Congo. Most of these investments have gone unnoticed because China is quite discreet about them.____Source
Given China’s emphasis on profits above all else, we can expect to see the decline of the environment in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and various African countries–wherever China invests.
From: Corporate Social Responsibility News, WBCSD
China’s first corporate responsibility index focused on the environment, called the Taida Environmental Index, has been formally released at the point of 3856.80.
Experts quoted in local media who have participated in the compiling of the index say that as the first social responsibility index for China’s capital market, the Taida Environmental Index is mainly aimed at evaluating listed companies’ social responsibilities, which usually means that companies need to give up some short-term benefits and see slow increase of their performance and stock price. However, in the long run, companies with strong social responsibility focuses will be heralded by government and consumers and are likely to gain more opportunities for sustainable development.
Check out China CSR for more …
About 67% of Chinese consumers prefer to purchase products and services from a company with a strong environmental reputation, while only 42% of U.S. consumers concurred, according to a new survey released by Tandberg.
Other countries that ranked high include Australia with 52%, Sweden at 46% and Japan with 40%. Spain trailed behind with only 18% of its consumers preferring to purchase from environmentally friendly organizations.
The global survey, sponsored by Tandberg and conducted by Ipsos MORI, is reportedly one of the largest research projects undertaken to assess the importance of corporate environmental reputations to consumers. The Tandberg survey interviewed 16,823 consumers in 15 countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden and the United States.
The study is called “Corporate Environmental Behavior and Brand Values” and also includes responses to the question “I would prefer to work for a company that has a good reputation for environmental responsibility”. Across all countries, over 80% of respondents said they would prefer working for an environmentally responsible company.
Lists & Rankings: Top 100 Companies in China
A rush of listings on the Hong Kong and Shanghai exchanges added a dozen newcomers to Fortune’s annual list of China’s 100 largest publicly traded companies. One of them had the largest share offering in the world: Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, which raised $21.9 billion last October. As China’s biggest bank by revenue and Asia’s most profitable bank, with profits of $6.2 billion last year, it grabbed the No. 4 spot on this year’s list.
Users can sort using the following criteria:
2007 Rank
2006 Rank
Company
Revenues ($ millions)
Profits ($ millions)
Market value as of 12/31/2006 ($ millions)
Industry
Top 3
1) China Petroleum & Chemical
2) Petro China
3) China Mobile
Source: Fortune
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