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November 5, 2009
Climate-friendly policies not only reduce greenhouse emissions and bring environmental benefits; they also boost and diversify the economy, a recent report scoring some 100 climate policies from G20 countries reveals.
The report carried out by Ecofys and Germanwatch for WWF and E3G evaluates climate policies of countries accounting for around three-quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions, identifying best and worst examples and lessons learned. As G20 Finance Ministers prepare to meet in St. Andrews, UK, on 6-7 November, WWF urges this group to take the steps required now to ensure that the next major wave of infrastructure investment is green. That includes concrete proposals on climate finance to help developing countries build low carbon economies and adapt to climate change, as mandated by the Pittsburgh Summit of G20 Leaders in September.
The top places in the report were given to an “Efficiency in buildings” programme implemented by the German government and a “Feed-in tariff for renewable electricity” initiative, also in Germany. The latter guarantees a producer of renewable energy a fixed feed-in tariff for 20 years. Germany’s buildings programme reduces emissions, creates jobs in the construction sector, and offers broad scope for replication in others countries.
A Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system in Mexico has shown that green solutions have strong potential to increase comfort and quality of life – important considerations for fast-growing, emerging economies.
China’s programme of targets for the 1000 most energy-intensive enterprises led to permanent improvements in energy management and efficiency in these companies. “This report shows that governments which implement green and climate friendly solutions will win and take a leadership position in the world,” Kim Carstensen, the leader of WWF’s Global Climate Initiative said. “Governments which don’t invest in low carbon solutions will lose in the end and their voters will turn away from them,” he said. “We call on the G20 to come up with a strategy to drive investment in the green economy. Not investing in low carbon solutions nowadays is simply short-sighted.”
The report also exposes a number of bad policies, very often in the same countries where the good policies were implemented, which both fail to deliver economic benefits and block the way to a low carbon future. These include measures such as subsidizing of local mining, preferential treatment of energy-intensive industries and lack of comprehensive water management.
Nick Mabey, CEO of E3G, said: “G20 leaders agreed at Pittsburgh to a framework for strong, sustainable and balanced growth. That commitment will be in vain unless it is backed by concrete investments in a low carbon recovery. One-off green stimulus packages aren’t enough. What investors are looking for is long-term, legal and loud policy signals that governments are serious about the low carbon transition. Copenhagen is the place to start.”
WWF estimates that industrialized governments will need to provide financing in the order of US$160 billion for adaptation and mitigation in developing countries, especially to those most vulnerable to climate change.
To download the full report: http://assets.panda.org/downloads/scorecards_2009_11_02_online_version_final.pdf
To download a briefing note: http://assets.panda.org/downloads/e3g_wwf_scorecards_ii_briefing_note_nov_2009.pdf
Source: National Research Council (US)
Plumes of harmful air pollutants can be transported across oceans and continents — from Asia to the United States and from the United States to Europe — and have a negative impact on air quality far from their original sources, says a new report by the National Research Council. Although degraded air quality is nearly always dominated by local emissions, the influence of non-domestic pollution sources may grow as emissions from developing countries increase and become relatively more important as a result of tightening environmental protection standards in industrialized countries.
“Air pollution does not recognize national borders; the atmosphere connects distant regions of our planet,” said Charles Kolb, chair of the committee that wrote the report and president and chief executive officer of Aerodyne Research Inc. “Emissions within any one country can affect human and ecosystem health in countries far downwind. While it is difficult to quantify these influences, in some cases the impacts are significant from regulatory and public health perspectives.”
The report examines four types of air pollutants: ozone; particulate matter such as dust, sulfates, or soot; mercury; and persistent organic pollutants such as DDT. The committee found evidence, including satellite observations, that these four types of pollutants can be transported aloft across the Northern Hemisphere, delivering significant concentrations to downwind continents. Ultimately, most pollutants’ impacts depend on how they filter down to the surface.
Current limitations in modeling and observational capabilities make it difficult to determine how global sources of pollution affect air quality and ecosystems in downwind locations and distinguish the domestic and foreign components of observed pollutants. Yet, some pollutant plumes observed in the U.S. can be attributed unambiguously to sources in Asia based on meteorological and chemical analyses, the committee said. For example, one study found that a polluted airmass detected at Mt. Bachelor Observatory in central Oregon took approximately eight days to travel from East Asia.
Read full report for free online. (National Academies Press)
Reuters, 11 September 2009 – The time it takes for clean technologies to spread globally must be halved by 2025 to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets by 2050, a report by London-based think tank Chatham House said on Friday.
The report found that innovations in wind and solar power, biomass to electricity, cleaner coal technologies and carbon capture have taken 20-30 years to reach the mass market.
Intellectual property rights can influence the speed at which a particular technology might spread, the report found.
For example, the lag in the spread of clean technology is mirrored by the time it takes for a patent to become widely used in inventions — an average 24 years across the sectors.
“Markets will deliver the technology we need, but it takes too long,” said Bernice Lee, research director for energy, environment and resource governance at Chatham House.
“A patent portfolio is a form of currency that can be used to attract venture capital, facilitate entry into strategic alliances, provide protection against litigation and create opportunities for mergers and acquisitions,” Chatham House said.
International cooperation is needed to double technology diffusion rates. Currently, cooperation on innovation is mainly on a national, not international, basis.
When world leaders meet in Copenhagen this December to set a new global climate pact, they should focus on stepping up joint venture companies, cross-licensing agreements and joint manufacturing programmes, the think tank recommended.
Removing bottlenecks from patent registration, introducing incentives for open innovation and improving technology standards bodies could all accelerate diffusion.
The report also recommended greater collaboration between countries on research and development, more public funding for high-risk technologies such as carbon capture and a global licensing database to speed up patent registration.
Countering climate change will require a far higher technology deployment rate than the greatest ever annual rate of any given clean energy technology, the think tank found.
“In all cases, the proposed (climate) targets far exceed the current rate of deployment,” the think tank said.
The report is entitled “Who Owns Our Low Carbon Future? Intellectual Property and Energy Technologies” and is part of a project on ‘Trade, Finance and Climate Change: Building a Positive Agenda for Developing Countries’, funded by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) and managed by the Energy, Environment and Resource Governance research team at Chatham House.
NEW YORK, Aug. 4 /PRNewswire/ — As U.S. stimulus spending shines a spotlight on the country’s inadequate infrastructure, private sector infrastructure providers say that government effectiveness and economic conditions are the primary challenges to providing needed infrastructure, according to the second infrastructure survey by KPMG International, the global network of audit, tax and advisory firms.
The KPMG global survey, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), surveyed 455 infrastructure executives, including 118 from the U.S. Among U.S. respondents, 76 percent cited governmental effectiveness as a barrier to delivering infrastructure, followed closely by 74 percent who cited economic conditions. This compares to 69 percent and 63 percent, respectively, of global respondents. Interestingly, both of these issues were of higher concern than availability of financing both in the U.S. (68 percent) and globally (60 percent).
Infrastructure providers are those in the private sector directly involved with the development, delivery, operation, providing of advice or finance in the transportation, energy, water or social services sectors.
“The survey results signal the need for fundamental changes in how we approach the planning, delivery and management of infrastructure. We need long-term thinking that allows for the transparent delivery of projects that are aligned with our national priorities,” said Richard Lee, partner, KPMG LLP (U.S.), and head of KPMG’s U.S. Infrastructure Advisory group. “While current economic challenges may make infrastructure development particularly difficult, it’s imperative that the public and private sectors work together to tackle the issues, so that critical projects can move forward.”
The survey revealed concerns about an overly politicized process, frequently changing public policy and excessive government bureaucracy. Almost half (47 percent) of the U.S. respondents said the perceived shortcomings in government effectiveness stemmed from excessive bureaucracy, while about one-third cited both a short-term planning horizon (34 percent) and neglecting long-term maintenance (33 percent).
U.S. and global respondents shared similar views on most of the survey topics. However, infrastructure executives in the Asia-Pacific, Western Europe and Latin American regions expressed the least concern about the impact of economic conditions on infrastructure, with 60 percent or less of respondents in these regions citing this as an impediment.
Concerns over government effectiveness, the economy and availability of financing were also consistent with the results of KPMG’s January 2009 EIU survey of C-level business executives, in which business leaders cited these three issues as the largest impediment to infrastructure projects in the U.S.
Improving the Process
When asked how government effectiveness in infrastructure could most likely be improved, almost half (48 percent) of the U.S. infrastructure providers highlighted the need to make infrastructure delivery less influenced by political considerations. This was followed by 40 percent of U.S. respondents who pointed to more transparency in infrastructure spending, and 34 percent who cited greater use of public-private partnerships. This was consistent with the global results, in which less politicization (45 percent), increased transparency (44 percent) and greater use of public-private partnerships (40 percent) were named as the top solutions.
“The good news is that the Obama administration is pushing aggressively for greater transparency and accountability, and some states have begun to successfully implement more disciplined processes to help ensure that public interest is at the forefront,” noted Lee.
Current Investment Won’t Support Economic Growth
Despite the boost from the Federal government’s stimulus bill early this year, a whopping 91 percent of U.S. infrastructure providers expressed concern that the current level of infrastructure investment can not support the long-term growth of their nation’s economy. This tracks with KPMG’s January 2009 survey, in which 74 percent of U.S. business executives surveyed said the current level of infrastructure investment is insufficient to help sustain the long-term growth of their organizations.
“Both infrastructure providers and business leaders agree that delivering needed infrastructure projects is more than just a nice to have — it’s a fundamental building block supporting our global economy,” said Stephen Beatty, head of infrastructure advisory for KPMG’s Global Infrastructure practice in the Americas and a partner in KPMG in Canada. “National competitiveness is at stake, both in developed and non-developed countries.”
The KPMG survey also found in other key areas:
Financing — Only 7 percent of U.S. infrastructure providers believe that financing constraints will resolve themselves. Many of those surveyed in the U.S. believe that government intervention is necessary, with 39 percent calling for more favorable risk allocation, 30 percent citing the need for government loan guarantees, and 29 percent calling for direct government contributions or co-lending.
Funding — U.S. respondents said the best sources of infrastructure funding was an increase in user fees and charges (41 percent) and an increase in budget allocations as part of an increase in general taxes (37 percent).
“State and local governments should explore alternative delivery models, such as public-private partnerships, which can make funding a ‘win-win’ situation if structured intelligently,” said Lee.
Private Sector Skills Shortage Looms
In addition, respondents identified another potential challenge facing the industry — a lack of qualified people to deliver the infrastructure. In the U.S., 58 percent of those surveyed said availability of relevant skills/people would inhibit the industry’s ability to provide needed infrastructure. To combat this shortage, most cited the need for more steady spending on infrastructure to maintain existing employment and skill base (70 percent), followed by increasing relevant training and education (69 percent).
The survey was fielded in late June and early July. For a copy of the full report, “Frontline Views from Private Sector Infrastructure Providers,” please visit www.kpmg.com.
About KPMG’s Global Infrastructure PracticeKPMG’s Global Infrastructure practice has extensive local and global experience advising government organizations, contractors, operators, and investors in planning, structuring and management of new infrastructure investments; procurement and financing support; improvement and monitoring of construction and operations; restructuring of distressed projects; investment due diligence assistance; and infrastructure related audit, tax, accounting and compliance issues.
About KPMG International
KPMG is a global network of professional firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. We operate in 144 countries and have 137,000 people working in member firms around the world. The independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated with KPMG International, a Swiss cooperative. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such.
CONTACT: Jennifer Hurson
KPMG LLP
201-307-8187
Jhurson@kpmg.com
The State of Climate Change Science & Policy: Copenhagen Climate Congress Releases Synthesis Report
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 06.18.09
Back in March the University of Copenhagen and the International Alliance of Research Universities hosted the Copenhagen Climate Congress, whose goal was to sort of fill in the gaps and update everyone on the science of climate change, since the last IPCC report. At the end of the conference an interim summary was produced, but now the final synthesis report has been released. It has six key messages:
1. Climate Changes We’re Observing Go Beyond Natural Variability
Recent observations show that greenhouse gas emissions and many aspects of the climate are changing near the upper boundary of the IPCC range of projections. Many key climate indicators are already moving beyond the patterns of natural variability within which contemporary society and economy have developed and thrived. These indicators include global mean surface temperature, sea-level rise, global ocean temperature, Arctic sea ice extent, ocean acidification, and extreme climatic events. With unabated emissions, many trends in climate will likely accelerate, leading to an increasing risk of abrupt or irreversible climatic shifts.
2. Temperature Increase Beyond 2°C Will Be Very Difficult to Cope With
The research community provides much information to support discussions on “dangerous climate change”. Recent observations show that societies and ecosystems are highly vulnerable to even modest levels of climate change, with poor nations and communities, ecosystem services and biodiversity particularly at risk. Temperature rises above 2°C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with, and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond.
3. Weak Initial Emission Reduction Increases Risk of Catastrophe
Rapid, sustained, and effective mitigation based on coordinated global and regional action is required to avoid “dangerous climate change” regardless of how it is defined. Weaker targets for 2020 increase the risk of serious impacts, including the crossing of tipping points, and make the task of meeting 2050 targets more difficult and costly. Setting a credible long-term price for carbon and the adoption of policies that promote energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies are central to effective mitigation.
4. Preventing Climate Change Must Be Linked With Improving Social Equity
Climate change is having, and will have, strongly differential effects on people within and between countries and regions, on this generation and future generations, and on human societies and the natural world. An effective, well-funded adaptation safety net is required for those people least capable of coping with climate change impacts, and equitable mitigation strategies are needed to protect the poor and most vulnerable. Tackling climate change should be seen as integral to the broader goals of enhancing socioeconomic development and equity throughout the world.
5. Inaction is Inexcusable
Society already has many tools and approaches – economic, technological, behavioural, and managerial – to deal effectively with the climate change challenge. If these tools are not vigorously and widely implemented, adaptation to the unavoidable climate change and the societal transformation required to decarbonise economies will not be achieved. A wide range of benefits will flow from a concerted effort to achieve effective and rapid adaptation and mitigation. These include job growth in the sustainable energy sector; reductions in the health, social, economic and environmental costs of climate change; and the repair of ecosystems and revitalisation of ecosystem services.
6. How to Meet the Challenge
If the societal transformation required to meet the climate change challenge is to be achieved, then a number of significant constraints must be overcome and critical opportunities seized. These include reducing inertia in social and economic systems; building on a growing public desire for governments to act on climate change; reducing activities that increase greenhouse gas emissions and reduce resilience (e.g. subsidies); and enabling the shifts from ineffective governance and weak institutions to innovative leadership in government, the private sector and civil society. Linking climate change with broader sustainable consumption and production concerns, human rights issues and democratic values is crucial for shifting societies
towards more sustainable development pathways.
Those wanting to dig into some more specifics on each of these key messages should download the report: Synthesis Report — Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges & Decisions [PDF]
June 18, 2009
Two new reports on the impacts of moving to a low-carbon economy show putting money toward energy efficiency, building retrofits and renewable energy projects can create 1.7 million new jobs, significantly more than the same investment in fossil fuel industries.
The reports were released today in tandem by four groups: Green for All, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) worked together on the “Green Prosperity” study, while PERI also worked with the Center for American Progress on the “Economic Benefits” report.
Together, the reports show the economic, environmental and social impacts of investing about $150 billion per year in energy efficiency and clean energy technologies; that number includes funding from the federal stimulus package signed into law in February as well as the proposals in the Waxman-Markey climate bill that is currently making its way through Congress.
Importantly, Ellis-Lampkin and Peter Lehner, the executive director of the NRDC, both highlighted the fact that these job-growth estimates are net gains, factoring in jobs displaced in the fossil fuel industries as the economy shifts to renewables. The loss of existing jobs is a regular criticism of green-collar jobs proposals.
Retrofits, Public Transit, and the Smart Grid
There are three prongs to where these investments should occur. The biggest and most immediately beneficial is energy efficiency retrofits for existing buildings: Those projects make up 40 percent of the funding in the $150 billion annual project.
“Retrofits right now is a known technology,” Pollin said, one that “creates fast returns with low risk, creates a lot of jobs in a construction industry that is flat on its back.”
Making homes, schools and workplaces more energy efficient offers a significant boon to residents and business owners: Ellis-Lampkin estimates that boosting energy efficiency will decrease the cost of living for low-income households by 3 to 4 percent per year as energy bills shrink. From the “Economic Benefits” report:
An average-sized single-family home in the United States would require an investment of as little as $2,500 in energy-efficiency retrofits to produce a cost savings in the range of 30 percent per year. This would involve caulking to plug air leaks in the house and adding insulation to attics and basement ceilings. For an additional $2,500, further energy savings are available through replacing windows with air leaks and installing energy efficient appliances.
Similarly, public transportation investments will allow municipalities to get more for their dollar: Pollin said that every mile traveled on public transit produces half the greenhouse gases than in a private vehicle, and costs about half the amount to travel the same distance in a private vehicle.
The final leg of the investment project is smart grid technology, which the reports’ authors suggest investments of about $44 billion per year to meet the growing demand for energy across the country.
“In the immediate term, energy efficiency is going to be the best investment,” Pollin said. “Then, for the next decade we’re going to see the creation of the clean energy economy.”
“This is not a question of whether the private sector spends the money, it’s a question of if we spend it smart or stupid,” said Peter Lehner, executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “If we spend it well it will have tremendous impacts throughout the economy.”
GLOBE-Net (June 16, 2009) (MARKETWIRE )
TransAlta Corporation has been named to the Jantzi list of the 50 most responsible corporations in Canada for 2009. The list is compiled by Jantzi Research Inc., an independent investment research firm that evaluates and monitors the social and environmental performance of companies. Inclusion in the Jantzi list is granted to companies that lead their industries toward sustainability by setting standards for best practice, and demonstrating superior environmental, social and economic performance.
TransAlta recently released its 12th Annual Report on Sustainability, providing an overview of its social and environmental performance. Highlights in the report include: Announcement of Project Pioneer, the world’s largest integrated carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, aimed at reducing one megatonne of carbon emissions, scheduled for commercial operation in 2013.
Expansion of TransAlta’s renewables to account for 16 percent of its portfolio. A 66 percent reduction of sulphur dioxide and a 13 percent reduction of nitrogen oxides across TransAlta’s operations. -
Via: Docuticker
Key Figures on Europe 2009 / Eurostat
Data are generally provided for the European Union total (EU-27), the euro area and the Member States, and – when available – for the candidate countries, the EFTA countries, Japan and the United States. The presentation largely follows the nine statistical themes of Eurostat’s free dissemination database: economy and finance; population and social conditions; industry, trade and services; agriculture, forestry and fisheries; international trade; transport; environment and energy; science and technology; and regional statistics.
CanWEA Releases Wind Vision 2025 Plus Results of Important Wind Power Survey
30 October 2008
Via: RenewableEnergyWorld.com
The Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) released its strategic vision for wind energy development during its 24th Annual Conference and Trade Show taking place this week in Vancouver. The plan, Wind Vision 2025 – Powering Canada’s Future, cites rapidly rising energy costs, reducing the country’s environmental impacts caused by current electricity generation, the need to quickly build more electricity generation to keep up with rising demand and the need to build a more robust transmission system a key drivers for the adoption of wind technology.
Through the plan, CanWEA argues that Canada can and must ensure that wind energy supplies 20 percent of the country’s demand by 2025, bringing total Canadian wind energy capacity to 55,000 MW.
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.
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