News Around World: Green on top

Green on top, or face $100,000 fine, city propose

Toronto is poised to become the first city in North America to make green roofs mandatory on most new buildings and set standards for their construction.

A city committee yesterday considered a proposed bylaw that would require roofs on new buildings with an area of 5,000 square metres or greater to be 30% to 60% covered by vegetation. The bigger the building, the more planted space it would have to have--otherwise fines of up to $100,000 could be levied.

As drafted, the bylaw would cover mid-to high-rise condos, retail space and office towers, but exempt low-rise, large-scale industrial, nonprofit housing and public buildings such as schools.

But even as Toronto's powerful development industry was urging the city to slow down and keep green roofs strictly voluntary, local politicians were complaining the draft bylaw was too cautious for a metropolis vying to be the most environmentally minded on the continent.

Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone, who helped bring the city's first power-generating windmill to the Exhibition grounds, said he was "disappointed" the first draft of the bylaw was so "tepid."

Mr. Pantalone asked city staff to come back in a month with a proposal that would include schools, low-rise buildings on "Main Street" and even private residences.

"Either we are the leading city in the world or we're the ones who looked in the mirror and got scared," he said.

BILD -- the Toronto and GTA Building Industry and Land Development Association -- was quick to urge city politicians to reconsider.

The association sent a letter to the city's chief planner expressing reservations and proposing a pilot project first instead of a full-scale bylaw.

"We have significant concerns with the city's proposal to require and govern the construction of green roofs. We continue to advocate that green roofs be implemented on a voluntary basis," it stated.

"If the home-building and development industry are provided with various incentives, this approach would assist the city with its objectives, while not forcing green roofs on those who may choose to use other forms of sustainable development for their projects."

Since his election in 2003, Toronto's hybrid-driving Mayor David Miller has put the environment front-and-centre on the municipal agenda, setting up a LiveGreen office to promote eco-friendly living, offering rebates for low-flush toilets, banning bottled water sales at city hall, taking on the coffee industry over the disposable cup and studying climate change within civic boundaries.

A new city report touts the environmental benefits of rooftops covered largely in plants and organic material as opposed to asphalt or metal.

These include "reducing the urban heat island effect and energy consumption, improving air quality and storm water management and creating opportunities for biodiversity and habitat creation and beautification of the city."

Steve Daniels, who sat on a green roof technical advisory committee representing BILD, said developers are interested in working with the city to create more green roofs. But he said they can add "hundreds of thousands of dollars ... if not more" to the cost of a project.

"The range can be anywhere on the lower end from $18 a square foot to around $28 a square foot. It's somewhere in that range that we're looking at for an added cost," Mr. Daniels said.

"It's always a concern. Compounded with development charges, compounded with application fees that go up, it's a cumulative effect. So this is just another added cost that has to be factored in at the end of the day."

On top of that, he said there is trepidation about how the new bylaw, which derives its authority from the City of Toronto Act, would mesh with the Ontario Building Code and other city zoning requirements, such as those that call for outdoor amenities for high-rise condos. Those amenities often end up on the rooftop.

Stephen Upton, vice-president development planning at building giant Tridel, pointed out that once installed, the rooftop shrubbery has to be left untouched for two years to allow it to take root.

More information is also required about the longevity of green roofs and how much should be budgeted in a condo corporation's building fund for future replacement.

"I think there's still quite a bit left to be understood, digested and refined," Mr. Upton said. "Toronto green standards, those are things that shouldn't be mandated but should be encouraged."

But while the developers were balking at the bylaw, environmental groups were urging Toronto to move further and faster.

Steven Peck, president of the 10-year-old Torontobased group Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, said the city's efforts could create jobs and be on the "leading edge" of the technology.

"We're very concerned that there's been a watering down of the requirements and we're concerned it will set a negative precedent for cities elsewhere in North America," Mr. Peck said, adding Toronto is "perched on the edge of really starting to get serious about implementing green roofs."

The issue will return to the planning and growth committee for further debate on May 6.

News Around World: Green on top

0 comments RSS Posted by Alluri Girish at 11:07 PM

California unveils draft cap-and-trade rules

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 25 (Reuters) - California released on Tuesday draft rules for its landmark greenhouse gas cap-and-trade plan that will be the most ambitious United States effort to use the market to address global warming.

State law requires California to cut its carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Measures will range from clean vehicle and building rules to the cap-and-trade system that lets factories and power companies trade credits to emit gases that heat up the earth.

Federal rules under debate by Congress could eclipse and pre-empt regional plans, but California and other local governments see themselves as the vanguard of addressing climate change, especially in light of slow national action and setbacks for international talks scheduled in Copenhagen next month.

The draft released on Tuesday shows California, seen as an environmental trend-setter, may take on even more than expected in its first round of cap-and-trade, which will start in 2012.

Gasoline and residential heating fuel suppliers could be included in the first cap-and-trade phase, which had been expected to focus on big pollution sources like power plants and refineries.

"California is the first out of the box," Mary Nichols, state Air Resources Board chair, told reporters on a conference call. The draft rules kick off a comment period that will lead to final regulation next fall.

A less comprehensive Northeastern United States regional trading system is already under way, focusing on carbon dioxide emissions by big emitters. California by contrast plans to include nearly every source of emissions to reach its goal.

California businesses regularly criticize the plan as going too far too fast – and costing too much. Whether the net effect of the plan will be a new green economy or disaster for overburdened businesses is still hotly debated.

Outsize attention
New estimates of plan costs, including suggestions on how much support to give industry, won't be available until an independent advisory group issues a report next year.

The draft avoids what may be the toughest issue – how much to rely on auctions of credits, which would require power companies and the like to buy permission to pollute. The emitters want allowances given to them, especially early on.

But Ms. Nichols said California had shown a strong preference for moving to auction as quickly as possible and that its 2006 global warming law provided clear guidance while politicians in the United States Congress were still raising support for a bill.

"Congress started this, you know, as a political exercise to see how many allowances you had to give out to which groups to get them to buy into the program. They didn't have a climate bill," she said.

"We know how many emissions we have to reduce. The question is how do we do it in a way that costs less," added Ms. Nichols, whose Air Resources Board was appointed by state law as the main regulator deciding on how to cut greenhouse gases.

The cost of a ton of carbon dioxide initially could be around $10, based on how other programs operated, she said. That is about half the current European price. The average American has carbon production of about 20 tons per year, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The cap-and-trade system will account for only about a fifth of California reductions but it draws outside attention, in part because the state, with the largest United States economy and population, is part of the 11-member Western Climate Initiative, which includes American states and Canadian provinces.

China, too, will watch California's action, partly by virtue of the state's partnerships with Chinese provinces, said Derek Walker, climate change director of the Environmental Defense Fund California.

"In many ways this is similar to what you are hearing from international circles now. Everybody is coming to the table with their opening bets," he said. But unlike most, California has committed to cuts and now is working out the details.
California unveils draft cap-and-trade rules

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 3:21 AM

Quebec sets 2020 greenhouse gas emission targets

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 24 (Reuters) - The Canadian province of Quebec said on Monday it aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, the same target as that set by the European Union.

"It is a very ambitious target for the government, given that 48 percent of Quebec's total energy currently comes from renewable energy sources," Quebec Premier Jean Charest said in a statement.

Much of Quebec's power comes from massive hydroelectric projects.

Quebecers emit approximately 11 tons per capita of greenhouse gases, which are blamed for climate change. That is half the Canadian average, Mr. Charest said.

The mostly French-speaking province is a member of the Western Climate Initiative, a group of four Canadian provinces and seven western American states, which is working on implementing a carbon cap and trade system in North America by 2012.

Canada's federal government has pledged to cut carbon emissions by 20 percent from 2006 levels by 2020. However, Ottawa is waiting for the United States to finalize its cap-and-trade program before proceeding with its own.

British Columbia pledged in 2007 to cut its emissions of greenhouse gases by 33 percent by 2020, which would put them 10 percent under 1990 levels.

Quebec sets 2020 greenhouse gas emission targets

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 3:20 AM

Solutia prices $ 400 million senior unsecured notes

Specialty chemicals producer Solutia has priced a public offering of $400 million aggregate principal amount of senior unsecured notes, or $100 million more than previously announced.

In the new offering, the notes due on 2017 will bear an interest rate of 8.75 percent per annum. Solutia expects to close the offering on October 15.

Solutia anticipates net proceeds of approximately $391 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions. The company intends to use the funds raised from the offering mainly to prepay $300 million aggregate principal amount of its senior secured term loan.

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Kefferies & Company, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. are the joint book-running managers of the offering.

Solutia has also received lender approval for amendments to its asset-based lending and term loan credit agreements, which would become effective once a portion of the net proceeds from the offering is used to prepay the term loan. The amendments will provide the company with greater operational and strategic flexibility and increase its liquidity and covenant cushion.

Based in St. Louis, Missouri, Solutia is a leading provider of specialty chemicals. The company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, has already signed numerous contracts to supply Therminol heat transfer fluid to solar power plants globally, including power plants in Morroco and Algeria.
Solutia prices $ 400 million senior unsecured notes

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 6:21 AM

Australia: AU$ 21.5M to Asia for carbon capture and storage

A grant of AU$21.5 million will be supplied by Australia for the Carbon Capture and Storage Fund, as stated by a trust fund agreement to support the capture and storage of rising carbon emission levels in Asia. The signatories of the agreement, which was announced last Monday (July 27), are the Australian government (through its Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Among the efforts to be supported by the fund are geological investigations and environmental studies on potential carbon dioxide storage sites, capacity building, and community awareness programs which can help accelerate the deployment of carbon capture and storage demonstration projects around Asia.

ADB’s developing member countries (DMCs), with initial priority given to China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam, will also be supported by the fund. ADB assistance will also be given to central and local government projects, the private sector, and other eligible entities. The projects will be selected based on criteria set by Australia and the ADB.

The Fund will form part of the Clean Energy Financing Partnership Facility (CEFPF), which will help facilitate more investments in clean energy projects in ADB's DMCs by helping DMCs improve energy security and transition to lower carbon economies. The CEFPF has committed a total of $60.2 million to the facility since it was established in April 2007. Its five donor countries are Australia, Japan, Norway, Spain, and Sweden.

The ADB will also increase its clean energy investment target to $2 billion a year starting 2013. Its previous target was at $1 billion.

"Asia’s share of worldwide energy-related carbon dioxide emissions is now three times bigger than it was 30 years ago, and under current trends it will soon be the globe’s biggest emitter. This growing rise in greenhouse gas emissions, combined with other pollutants, threatens the sustainability of Asia’s future growth, as well as its efforts to reduce poverty and to meet other Millennium Development Goals," said Bob Pegler, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute.

“ADB is committed to, and currently promoting, greater use of clean energy in our DMCs. The CEFPF and funds like the Carbon Capture and Storage Fund provide quick access to much needed support for ADB's clean energy agenda and high priority clean energy investments in the region," said Werner Liepach, Principal Director of ADB's Office of Cofinancing Operations.
Australia: AU$ 21.5M to Asia for carbon capture and storage

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 6:18 AM

U.N. seeks $ 10 billion aid as good start to climate pact

OSLO (Reuters) - Aid of $10 billion from rich nations would be a "good beginning" to launch a U.N. climate treaty due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December, the United Nations' top climate official said on Thursday.

Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, also told the BBC World Service in an interview that rich countries needed to pledge deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and the poor had to slow the rise in their emissions.

But cash was needed to kick-start a deal.

"If we can get in Copenhagen something like 10 billion euros or dollars on the table that will allow developing countries to begin preparing national plans to limit their emissions and adapt to climate change, then that would be a good beginning," he said.

"But even more importantly, Copenhagen has to agree an architecture, a burden-sharing formula, that will allow us to share out the costs of climate action among countries as the needs increase over time," he added.

Costs of fighting climate change in the longer term could be up to $200 billion a year, according to U.N. projections.

Developing nations say the rich have to show willingness to give cash to launch a new U.N pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012.

Many developing nations are likely to be hardest hit by climate change such as more droughts, disease, floods, heat waves and rising sea levels.

PITTSBURGH

Environmental group Greenpeace said that far higher figures of about $140 billion annually should be on the table when leaders of the Group of 20 discuss climate finance at a meeting in the U.S. city of Pittsburgh in September.

"De Boer is absolutely right to highlight that this finance question must be resolved to break the deadlock in the international climate talks but $10 billion could only be regarded as a down payment," Greenpeace campaigner Joss Garman said.

De Boer said that rich nations were finding it harder to come up with cash because of the recession. "It's become more difficult to raise financial resources," he said.

He also said developed countries should be guided in planning emissions cuts by what he has often called a "good beacon" of reductions of 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

In a 2007 report, a U.N. panel of scientists said cuts of 25-40 percent were needed to avert the worst of global warming. So far, promises by developed nations amount to cuts of only about 10 to 14 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

And de Boer said that developing nations had to sign up to slow the rise of their emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels in factories, power plants and vehicles, as part of a Copenhagen deal.
"If on that piece of paper, China, India, Brazil and other major developing countries have offered national actions that will significantly take their emissions below business as usual ... that for me will be a success," he said.
U.N. seeks $ 10 billion aid as good start to climate pact

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 6:11 AM

CO2 caps central to climate fight: UK

LONDON (Reuters) - A dual system of both national emissions caps and carbon trading schemes should play a central role in cutting global greenhouse gas emissions, a report commissioned by the British government said on Monday.

At the government level, national caps on emissions should ensure countries take responsibility for limiting their own greenhouse gases. At the individual emitter level, trading schemes should cap emissions and allow trade in carbon permits, the report said.

"The current framework for international carbon trading needs reform," said Mark Lazarowicz, the Prime Minister's representative for global carbon trading.

A single global emissions trading scheme would reduce governments' autonomy over their domestic policies and be difficult to put into place, the report said.

A dual system, however, would cover all emissions sectors, respect governments' wish to choose their own tools for reducing domestic emissions and maximize cost effectiveness.
"If well-designed, a dual-level system of global carbon trading could reduce the costs of emissions by up to 70 percent," Lazarowicz said.

REFORM

Market experts say linking the EU's emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) with the United States is a crucial first step toward a global carbon market, which will help achieve real emissions cuts in planet warming greenhouse gases.

The United States plans to introduce a domestic cap-and-trade scheme but the Senate still has to approve it.

Linking the EU ETS with a federal U.S. system by 2015 was "ambitious" but should be a priority, the report said.

A linked system would increase the liquidity and stability of both schemes, cover between 13-27 percent of global emissions and reduce costs across both schemes by 30-50 percent.

It would also provide momentum for an eventual OECD-wide trading scheme, the report said.
To achieve real emissions cuts, the United Nation's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) needs to be "reformed and streamlined," the report said.

The CDM allows industrialized countries to meet mandatory carbon dioxide cuts by buying offsets generated from clean energy projects in countries such as India and China.

Instead, the report favors a sectoral trading approach, whereby a government would be responsible for meeting an emissions target specific to a particular sector of the economy using an emissions trading scheme, taxation, regulation and/or subsidies.

Under the Kyoto Protocol climate change pact, nations below their emissions targets can sell excess rights, called Assigned Amount Units (AAUs), to other governments that emit above their targets.

The system is expected to result in an AAU surplus of 7-10 gigatonnes tonnes in the period 2008-12. To deal with this problem, developed countries should cancel a substantial proportion of their excess AAUs, the report proposed.

The UK government has decided to cancel surplus AAUs equivalent to the difference between its Kyoto and domestic emissions cut targets, the report said.
CO2 caps central to climate fight: UK

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 6:05 AM

US urged to join IRENA

American officials go to Europe and countries like Brazil and India to learn about renewable energy, not the other way around. This is cited as one but not the only reason why the US should join the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

According to the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE), an IRENA supporter, the US also stands to benefit from joining the international organization, apart from the group’s necessity to the global climate change goals.

IRENA, the first international body of its kind whose signatories are national governments, was activated on Jan. 26, 2009. At its founding, US officials took part in the talks, but did not sign for their country to be a member.

IRENA is envisioned to be an advisory body for governments in deploying renewable energy in their countries. It aims to educate government officials on well-founded renewable energy policy decisions.

ACORE said that governments, with every proposal towards renewable energy they make, face lobbying from different vested interests which become a bane to policy-making.

IRENA, according to ACORE, is where governments can turn to for “an accepted set of answers” for reaching decisions that are applicable to local country conditions. The US, ACORE said, stands to reap considerable benefits in joining IRENA. This includes the chance to work with other national leaders--particularly on technology—and learn how to attract global manufacturers and make policy education to the US’s own officials more efficient.

ACORE said that joining IRENA will also result in more economic development and business growth in the US.

IRENA was founded by German Parliament member Hermann Scheer, among others. Scheer, also chairman of the World Council for Renewable Energy, has been known for pushing the aggressive adoption of renewable energy in every country.

In January, Scheer said IRENA will act as an “institutional counterbalance” to the International Atomic Energy Agency and the International Energy Agency.

IRENA currently has 96 members. The new organization has not yet decided on the location of its headquarters. It is expected to elect its interim director-general this June, 2009.

US urged to join IRENA

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 6:04 AM

World Bank grants new $ 500M loan to Indonesia as continued support of the country’s geothermal sector

The World Bank will be granting a $500 million loan to Indonesian oil and gas company PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PGE) for the development of nine geothermal power projects in the country, the Antara News reported last Monday (June 8).

The loan would be released in the first quarter of 2010, according to PGE president Abadi Poernomo. The amount of $3 billion would be needed by PGE to complete all its geothermal power projects.

Other companies are being sought by PGE for additional funding, such as the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and KfW Bankengruppe. JICA is one of the world’s largest bilateral development organizations that provide grants and loans. The German bank KfW is another leading international supporter of renewable energy projects that invested €340 million last year on such projects in developing countries.

In June last year, the World Bank also approved for Indonesia a $4 million Global Environment Facility (GEF) loan to boost its geothermal energy sector. The fund was administered through the Geothermal Power Generation Development Project under the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, through the Directorate General for Mineral, Coal and Geothermal.

World Bank grants new $ 500M loan to Indonesia as continued support of the country’s geothermal sector

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 6:03 AM

European Commission issues call for proposals for energy-based stimulus program

The European Commission yesterday announced a call for proposals for energy infrastructure projects, for which it will invest up to almost €4 billion, with €565 million of this to go to offshore wind energy.

The investment is part of the EU’s European Energy Programme for Recovery, which is designed to reinforce the bloc’s energy supply as a response to the financial crisis. The recovery program was proposed in November, 2008.

Of the €4 billion commitment, nearly €2.4 billion will go to gas and fossil-based electricity infrastructure projects, while carbon capture and storage projects will get €1.05 billion in investments.

The commission called on project promoters to submit proposals by July 15, 2009, and said it expects to sign the first grant agreements before the year ends.

"The financing that has been made available will act as a role to secure and speed up investments in the energy sector. In addition, the funds allocated to projects will have a direct impact on the EU economy and on employment,” Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said.

Investments in offshore wind will go to two kinds of projects: grid integration of offshore wind energy and new turbines, structures, and components. It will also fund projects for the “optimization” of manufacturing capacities.

Grid interconnection projects are planned for the Baltic-Kriegers Flak I, II, and III serving Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and Poland.

For CCS, 12 coal-fired power plants are planned to be applied with capture techniques.
European Commission issues call for proposals for energy-based stimulus program

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 6:02 AM

International renewables agency chooses headquarters

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will house the secretariat of the recently-formed International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the only international organization of governments dedicated to promoting renewable energy in their member countries.

Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City, which was designed to be the world’s first carbon-neutral, zero-waste city powered entirely by renewable energy, will house IRENA after a strong bid from the UAE.

IRENA was officially founded on January 26, 2009 to act as an “institutional counterbalance” to the International Atomic Energy Agency and the International Energy Agency.

Initiated by the German government and parliament member and advocate Hermann Shceer, IRENA’s founding members include Germany, France, India, Egypt, and the UAE itself, among 70 other countries. IRENA’s current membership is 136, with the newest members including African nations, Japan, and the US.

It is the first time an international organization has chosen a Middle East city for its headquarters. For its bid, the UAE committed a grant of $136 million for the organization over a six-year period. UAE will also cover IRENA’s operational costs in perpetuity. In addition, the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development created an endowment of up to $50 million annually to be used for loans in support of renewable energy projects in the developing world.

IRENA’s location is also seen as bridging developing and developed countries.

IRENA was created mainly to give practical and educational advice to governments in renewable energy deployment programs free of vested interests. The organization is where governments are expected to turn to for “an accepted set of answers” on renewable energy promotion.

"This has been a tremendous educational experience, and has strengthened bonds with our IRENA co-members that will allow us to collectively advance the benefits of renewable energy on all continents," said Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of Masdar and a key architect of the UAE's bid.
International renewables agency chooses headquarters

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 6:01 AM

U.S. officials to prod China on climate change

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke visit their ancestral homeland this week to press China to join with the United States in stepped-up efforts to fight global warming.

The two Chinese-American cabinet officials arrive in Beijing on Tuesday to talk with senior Chinese leaders and highlight how working together to cut greenhouse gas emissions would benefit both countries and the entire planet.

The trip also sets the stage for a visit by President Barack Obama to China later this year that many environmental experts hope will focus on the need for joint U.S.-China action before a meeting in Copenhagen in December to try to forge a global deal on reducing the emissions.

They believe cooperation, perhaps even a bilateral deal, between the world's largest developed country and the world's largest developing country is vital if efforts to forge a new global climate treaty are to succeed.

"The potential is very large and the need is very serious," said Kenneth Lieberthal, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institute, a U.S. think tank. "It's not one of those things where one side benefits and the other side pays."

In recent years, China has surpassed the United States to become the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming, although its per capita emissions are still far lower.

Chu, a Nobel physicist who has devoted years to climate change issues, is expected to make the case for U.S. and Chinese action to rein in rising global temperatures in a speech on Wednesday at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

"We face an unprecedented threat to our very way of life from climate change," Chu told U.S. senators last week, warning the world could experience a climatic shift as profound as the last Ice Age but in the opposite direction.

Locke, a former governor from the export-oriented state of Washington, is eager to showcase opportunities for China to reduce carbon dioxide emissions using U.S. solar, wind, water and other renewable technology.

"There's a huge need in China which creates huge market opportunities for our companies. At the same time, there are big challenges," a Commerce Department official said.

PUSH BEIJING

China relies on coal, the most carbon-intensive fuel, for over two-thirds of its energy needs and that dependence is expected to continue for decades to come.

The United States has the world's largest coal reserves and relies on coal for about 22 percent of its energy needs, creating a big incentive for the two countries to collaborate on technologies to capture carbon dioxide emissions and inject them far underground instead of into the air.

"That's at the top of the list," David Sandalow, assistant energy secretary for policy and international affairs, told Reuters in a pre-trip interview. "We believe we can do more working together than separately."

China's drive to build new nuclear power plants also has caught the attention of U.S. companies.
As Obama pushes Congress to complete work on a bill to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, he is under tremendous pressure to get China to agree to a quantitative emissions cap at December's meeting in Copenhagen.

Without such a commitment, a new climate change treaty is unlikely to pass the U.S. Senate, said Stuart Eizenstat, who was lead U.S. negotiator for the December 1997 Kyoto climate treaty, which was never ratified by the United States.

Although Chu and Locke are not going to Beijing for talks on a bilateral climate deal, the United States hopes closer cooperation with China will contribute to a favorable outcome in Copenhagen, Sandalow said.

China joined with 16 other major world economies last week in setting a goal of holding the global temperature rise to no more than 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels. But it has refused to set a short-term target for cutting emissions.

Beijing argues it has been industrializing for only a short time and that strict caps now would hamper growth and urbanization efforts in a country where most people live in much poorer conditions than in the West.

Still, the country's latest five-year plan set a goal of reducing energy intensity by 20 percent by the end of 2010. China has also set a target of using renewable energy to meet 15 percent of total demand by 2020.

The Obama administration should push Beijing to translate such goals into binding international commitments as "a first step," Eizenstat said.

Eventually, China will have to agree to emission caps but that is unlikely this December in Copenhagen, he said.

U.S. officials to prod China on climate change

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 6:00 AM

EU imposes duties on US biodiesel

The European Union (EU) will be imposing anti-dumping duties on US biodiesel imports starting July 12, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported last Wednesday (July 8). The European Commission made the proposal, which was adopted by the EU’s finance ministers in Brussels, Belgium, reportedly on conditions of anonymity.

The duties, ranging from €23 ($32) to €41 per 100 kilograms (160 pounds), will be imposed within the next five years, said the AFP.

Complaints lodged by the European Biodiesel Board (EBB) about heavily subsidized US biodiesel reportedly prompted the imposition of the duties. The EBB claims that huge US subsidies have allowed US biodiesel to be sold below US producers’ costs. In the AFP report, the group cited the case of the US biodiesel blend B99 which had surged in sales by up to 40% last year compared to 2007. The said trend apparently threatens the competitiveness of European biodiesel producers.

Biodiesel represents 80% of total biofuel production in Europe, with US biodiesel comprising most of the imports. Biodiesel is considered as a crucial solution in the European goal of increasing the region’s renewable energy use by 20% come 2020 compared to 1990 levels, AFP reports.
EU imposes duties on US biodiesel

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EU president Sweden says U.N. climate talks too slow

BEIJING (Reuters) - Global climate talks are progressing too slowly and too many countries are demanding action from others rather than acting by themselves, Sweden's Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren said on Monday in Beijing.

Sweden holds the rotating presidency of the European Union for the rest of the year, during which time global climate talks, culminating in a conference in Copenhagen in December, are supposed to agree on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

"The negotiations are too slow because too many are pointing at others and requesting them to do more," Carlgren told a briefing in Beijing on Monday.

The EU had no "plan B" beyond Copenhagen, he said.

"That's why the EU has said we'll reduce emissions by 20 percent regardless.

"So if other parties would start in this way, moving forward, we would achieve great things in Copenhagen," said Carlgren, adding that he had had a frank exchange with Chinese officials.

China has overtaken the United States as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases because of its rapidly expanding economy and dependence on coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel.

Developing nations led by China and India say rich countries should aim for cuts in emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, of at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

Last week, leaders at the 17-member Major Economies Forum in Italy agreed that global temperature rises should be limited to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, but also said developing nations such as China and India should commit to meaningful carbon reduction targets of their own after 2012.

Carlgren said the E.U. agreed that developing countries "should present mid-term targets that would lead to meaningful deviation from business as usual."

That would mean a reduction in CO2 emissions in India and China of 15-30 percent compared to current "business as usual" projections, he said.

CHINA VISIT

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke are visiting China this week to press Chinese leaders to join stepped-up efforts to fight global warming.

The trip also sets the stage for a visit by President Barack Obama to China later this year that many environmental experts hope will focus on the need for joint U.S.-China action before the Copenhagen meeting.

The United States signed but never ratified the Kyoto Protocol, becoming the only major developed nation to remain outside the treaty.

Many in Washington opposed a pact that did not set a ceiling for future emissions growth by China and other big developing powers.

Since winning last year's election, Obama has made fighting climate change a major policy focus and wants to introduce a cap-and-trade system to curb carbon emissions.

Kyoto held developed countries to a higher standard than developing countries, since the former were committed to caps on emissions, while the latter had no such obligation.

But tensions have continued to simmer over the Kyoto principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" between industrialized nations and the developing world, with critics in the West saying China and India have effectively been given a free ride.

Carlgren said everybody needed to make sacrifices.

"Even if developed countries reduced their emissions to zero, it would still not be enough," Carlgren said, adding that China shared that view.

"We still expect more from China, just as we know China expects more from developed countries."

(Reporting by David Stanway; Writing by Tom Miles; Editing by David Fogarty)
EU president Sweden says U.N. climate talks too slow

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Global climate deal still possible: Brazil's Lula

cabinet meeting at Granja do Torto official residence in
Brasilia, July 13, 2009. REUTERS/Jamil Bittar
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday that a global climate deal could still be ready by a December summit in Copenhagen despite differences that resurfaced last week between rich and poor countries.

The Group of Eight leading industrial countries agreed on Wednesday at its annual summit to support a goal of cutting global emissions by 50 percent by 2050 and of reducing emissions in wealthy countries by 80 percent.

Developing countries like China, India and Brazil said more short-term targets were needed to make the pledge credible and called for rich country emissions cuts of 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

Even though the G8 could not agree with the G5 group of key developing nations on the issue at last week's summit in L'Aquila, Italy, "the issue advanced substantially", Lula said in his weekly radio address.

"I think we'll reach an accord for the Copenhagen meeting in December," he added.

The United States signed but never ratified the Kyoto Protocol, a climate treaty to be renewed in global talks culminating in the Copenhagen conference in December.

"The United States is assuming the responsibility to discuss this issue, something they haven't done since the Kyoto Protocol was signed," Lula said.

Still, Lula said more aggressive reduction targets for emissions by rich countries are a prerequisite for the establishment of a fund to finance carbon sequestration -- by planting or preserving forests.
"Otherwise what will happen? The rich countries, which have money, will pay the poor to plant more forests to absorb carbon, while they go on polluting," Lula said.

He said highly industrialized countries who have been emitting greenhouse gases for more than a century have a responsibility to adopt tougher targets.

"The United States has more responsibility than China; Europe has more responsibility than South America or Africa," Lula said.

China has replaced the United States as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases because of its fast-growing economy and dependence on coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel.

Brazil also has large emissions due to extensive, albeit falling, destruction of the Amazon rain forest. Burning or decomposing trees emit carbon dioxide.

Last year the Lula government announced a target to reduce the rate of deforestation by 50 percent over the next decade. The government is recalculating its emissions as a basis for possibly adopting targets later this year.

In an interview with Reuters last month, Lula said Brazil "should not be afraid" of adopting emissions targets.

(Editing by Todd Benson and Mohammad Zargham)
Global climate deal still possible: Brazil's Lula

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EU approves state aid for British CO2 scheme

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission approved on Tuesday state aid involved in a British scheme for trading carbon dioxide emissions, part of the country's effort to fight global warming.

Under the Carbon Reduction Commitment scheme, which applies to non-energy intensive sectors, emission allowances would be sold by auction while participants' environmental performance would be ranked in a league table.

The auction revenue would be paid back to participants as a subsidy, with companies topping the performance list benefiting most. The scheme includes entities not covered by the existing European Union trading system.

The Commission, which monitors whether government subsidies are compatible with EU rules, said the program involved permissible state aid.

"The aid has been declared compatible with the (EU) treaty ... because it pursues an objective of common interest in a necessary and proportionate way," it said in a statement.

(Reporting by Marcin Grajewski; Editing by Dale Hudson)

EU approves state aid for British CO2 scheme

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EU biodiesel output up 35 percent, capacity growing

PARIS (Reuters) - Production of biodiesel in the European Union rose by more than 35 percent in 2008 and capacity will grow again this year although half the plants are idle due to poor demand, the EU producers group said on Wednesday.

The Brussels-based European Biodiesel Board (EBB) said the European production of biodiesel, by far the main biofuel made in the bloc, had reached 7.76 million tonnes last year putting the EU's global market share close to 65 percent.

However, the EBB qualified the 2008 rise as "moderate" compared to the jump of 65 percent in 2005 and 54 percent in 2006 but the rise was only at 17 percent in 2007.

"In line with the trend initiated in 2007, the year 2008 saw a relatively small increase in EU biodiesel production, and even a reduction in two major producing Member States, Germany and Austria," the EBB said in a statement.

For detailed statistics of biodiesel output per country and estimates for the 2009 capacity, please click on

"This situation has to be understood primarily against the background of unfair international trade competition which has severely affected the profitability of EU biodiesel producers since early 2007," it added.

The EU last week endorsed a proposal by the Commission, the 27-member bloc's executive arm, to extend for five years its anti-dumping tariffs against cheap U.S. biodiesel imports. The move was welcomed by the EBB, which had complained that EU producers were being hammered by U.S. subsidies.

"This decision will help re-establishing EU producer's legitimate right to operate in a level-playing field," it said.

HALF EU PLANTS IDLE

In addition to a fall in demand mainly linked to strong U.S. competition, EU producers have also suffered from slumping margins as the fall in crude oil prices over the past year was not compensated by a similar drop in vegetable oils prices.

Even if the EU will have total biodiesel production capacity of close to 21 million tonnes this year -- a rise of 31 percent on the year -- the EBB said 2008 and 2009 statistics showed that at least 50 percent of existing plants remain idle.

"Unfair international competition has been the main driver of this trend, while the political discussions in 2008 on adoption of the Renewable Energy Directive have added to market uncertainty," it said.

In an interview with Reuters late May, the EU's largest biodiesel maker, France's Diester Industrie, said it was pausing in its investments until it knew the details, expected next year, of the implementation of the EU's target of 10 percent renewable energies in transport by 2020.

The share that will be allocated to biofuels to reach this target is still unclear.

(Editing by Peter Blackburn)
EU biodiesel output up 35 percent, capacity growing

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Clouds, seas to be targeted by U.N. climate report

backdrop of monsoon clouds in Singur, about 50 km (31 miles) northwest of the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, July 15, 2009. REUTERS/Parth Sanyal
OSLO (Reuters) - Cloud formation, sea level rises and extreme weather events are among areas set to get more attention in the next U.N. report on global warming due in 2014, the head of the Nobel Peace Prize winning panel said on Friday.

Rajendra Pachauri also said the panel did not plan to issue more frequent reports as suggested by some governments, reckoning that several years were needed to come up with robust findings. The last series of reports was in 2007.

"We would certainly have much more greater detail," in the next reports, Pachauri told Reuters in a telephone interview from Venice, where leading scientists have been meeting from July 13-17 to work on an outline to be approved later this year.

"In the case of clouds we will certainly provide much greater emphasis in this report -- clouds, aerosols, black carbon. These are issues that we will certainly cover in much greater detail," he said.

The 2007 report pointed to cloud formation as a big uncertainty in climate change. Warmer air can absorb more moisture and so lead to more clouds in some regions -- the white tops can reflect heat back into space and offset any warming.

In an opposite effect, black carbon -- or soot from sources such as factories or forest fires -- can blanket ice and snow with a heat-absorbent dark layer and so accelerate a thaw.

"Sea level rise is another issue that...will get much greater in-depth attention," he said.
Scenarios for sea level rise this century in the 2007 report ranged from 18 to 59 cm (7-24 inches). But it said that 59 cm should not be considered an upper limit because of uncertainties about a possible melt of Greenland and Antarctica.

HEATWAVES, MUDSLIDES

And the panel, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is also planning an extra report on extreme events such as droughts, floods, heatwaves or mudslides projected because of global warming.

Pachauri said the next report by the IPCC, which shared the 2007 Nobel Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, was intended to guide nations after the planned agreement of a new U.N. climate treaty in Copenhagen in December.

He welcomed an agreement by major economies at a Group of Eight summit in Italy last week to recognize a broad scientific view that world temperature rises should not exceed 2 Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.

But he said too little was being done to achieve the limit.

"It's a step forwards. I wish they would have made some commitments on what would ensure limiting the temperature increase to 2 degrees," he said.

"In the (2007 report) we said if you want to limit temperatures to that range all we have is up to 2015 as the year when global emissions must peak and they must decline thereafter," he said.

Greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, have risen fast in recent years although recession is now curbing industrial activity in many nations. China has overtaken the
United States as top emitter.

Of 177 scientific scenarios in the 2007 report, only 6 looked at tough emissions curbs needed to keep temperature rises below 2 Celsius.

Governments have put more funding into scientific research into higher emissions limits that they judge to be more likely.

"We're certainly going to look at much more stringent mitigation," Pachauri said, when asked if governments were still reluctant to put money into looking at curbs needed to achieve the 2 Celsius limit.

(Editing by Philippa Fletcher) Clouds, seas to be targeted by U.N. climate report

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