News: ‘Climate & Energy’ Archive
‘The Chinese government is putting the finishing touches to a $440bn (£272bn) incentive package designed to boost use of solar and wind power in the country.
According to various reports, new incentives for solar farms and rooftop panels are to be introduced, possibly as early as next month, while government funding will also be made available for large-scale wind farm projects.’
via China ready to roll with $440bn green energy plan – 29 May 2009 – BusinessGreen.com.
‘BONN, Germany, June 2 Reuters – China promised on Tuesday to step up actions to fight climate change and cautioned that “unfair” new demands by rich nations could sabotage a new U.N. treaty due to be agreed in December.’
via INTERVIEW-China to act on climate, warns of “unfair” demands | Reuters.
The Global Humanitarian Forum of Geneva has issued a new Human Impact Report, “Climate Change: The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis”, available as a 135 page download, which discusses existing impacts of climate change on human populations.
Time magazine reports on this report:
‘1. The scale of the problem: “Climate change is already seriously affecting hundreds of millions of people today and in the next twenty years those affected will likely more than double — making it the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time…. The number of those severely affected by climate change is more than ten times greater than for instance those injured in traffic accidents each year, and more than the global annual number of new malaria cases. Within the next 20 years, one in ten of the world’s present population could be directly and seriously affected.’
‘On July 7-8, 2009, China Entrepreneurs will present, “The China Cleantech Business Forum” at the world’s famous Shangri-La Kerry Centre in Beijing, China. This forum will gather executives, entrepreneurs, investors, and international business professionals from various sectors of the cleantech industry to listen to cleantech experts discuss key topics for succeeding, investing, and understanding the cleantech industry.’
‘BONN, Germany — The United States may miss a December deadline for committing to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, but that should not block an international agreement on global warming, the chief U.S. negotiator said Wednesday.’
However…
‘Other countries have said they will make no firm commitments until they know what the U.S. will do. The European Union has pledged to cut its emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, but said it could increase that figure to 30 percent depending on U.S. plans.’
‘COLUMBUS, Ohio — Federal regulators have not done enough to ensure that shareholders are aware of material risks to companies from greenhouse gas emissions, according to a pair of studies released Wednesday by environmental and investor groups.’
‘A promise that the Maldives will go carbon-neutral in 10 years is not just good for PR, says the country’s president Mohamed Nasheed. In this week’s Green Room, he argues that the goal sets an example for the developed world proving that a green country is not only practical, it is profitable.’
via BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Leading by an achievable example.
WASHINGTON — The climate change proposal developed by congressional Democrats and endorsed by President Barrack Obama does little to reduce global warming and saddles Americans with high energy costs, Republicans said Saturday.
Serious allegations. Quite possibly on a par with the big cigarette companies denials about the cancer risk of smoking, considering the potential devastating impacts of climate change on the health and well being of the world’s populations:
‘Finally. After years of denying its role in the campaign of climate denial, Exxon has revealed a dirty secret, that it has and likely still is directly funding junk scientists.’
via Kert Davies: Revealed: Exxon Secret Funding of Global Warming Junk Scientists.
‘The most comprehensive modeling yet carried out on the likelihood of how much hotter the Earth's climate will get in this century shows that without rapid and massive action, the problem will be about twice as severe as previously estimated six years ago – and could be even worse than that.’
It is worth noting that this study advances the argument, also mentioned at the Copenhagen Climate Conference by Lord Stern, that the most cost effective approach toward climate risk mitigation is to act quickly as there are increasing mitigation costs and risks with delay. The article goes on to quote study co-author Ronald Prinn:
‘Because vehicles last for years, and buildings and power plants last for decades, it is essential to start making major changes through adoption of significant national and international policies as soon as possible, Prinn says. “The least-cost option to lower the risk is to start now and steadily transform the global energy system over the coming decades to low or zero greenhouse gas-emitting technologies.”‘
via Climate change odds much worse than thought – MIT News Office.