Time for change

Climate change pushing bird species 'towards extinction:' US

Agence France-Presse: Climate change is pushing some bird species "towards extinction," US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar warned Thursday as a new report on the threats facing North American birds was released. "For well over a century, migratory birds have faced stresses," Salazar said. "Now they are facing a new threat -- climate change -- that could dramatically alter their habitat and food supply and push many species towards extinction." Birds that depend upon the ocean for survival "are among ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Central American shrimp, lobster fast disappearing

Agence France-Presse: Illegal fishing and climate change are decimating shrimp and lobster populations in Central America, threatening a two-billion-dollar industry and 136,000 jobs, regional experts said Thursday. "Pollution and warmer waters are impacting our species," especially shrimp and lobster, said Central American Organization of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sectors (OSPESCA) regional director Mario Gonzalez. "The Pacific shrimp population, Panama excluded, has fallen dramatically" because ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Industry welcomes climate policy draft

The government's consultation on its new climate change planning policy has met with widespread approval from leading members of the sector.
Read more [EarthWire]

White House finalizing rules to cut car emissions

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House is finalizing rules on the first U.S. greenhouse gas emission standard for automobiles, which would raise average fuel economy 42 percent by 2016 in a bid to slash oil imports and fight climate change.
Read more [Reuters]

More Americans say global warming exaggerated: poll

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A growing number of Americans, nearly half the country, think global warming worries are exaggerated and more people doubt that scientific warnings of severe environmental fallout will ever occur, according to a new Gallup poll.
Read more [Reuters]

Japan weakens climate bill after industry pressure

Reuters: Japan watered down legislation to fight climate change Thursday after weeks of wrangling within the government over plans for an emissions trading system that has met stiff resistance from industry. The proposed climate bill, set to be enacted in parliament by mid-June, left room for the trading scheme to set caps on emissions per unit of production, which would allow rises in emissions when output grows. The government had earlier pledged a "cap-and-trade" scheme setting ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Climate change is a fact, says China

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A deputy director of China's most powerful economic ministry has come out swinging against climate change denial. Senior Chinese government figures have described the view that climate change is not man-made as an "extreme" stance which is out of step with mainstream thought. The comments were made during China's annual sitting of the National People's Congress. During the congress, a series of press conferences are held which, in many cases, are the only chance to put ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Time for next stage of sustainable business

Reuters: Corporate America needs to track its use of energy and resources as closely as it does its hiring and cash flow if it wants to keep pace with social concern about climate change and other sustainability issues, an activist U.S. investor group argues in a new report. Population growth and a rising standard of living across the world will bring opportunities -- but also risks of higher energy costs, scarcer water and other possible consequences of climate change, the Ceres coalition of ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

China calls on US to make stronger pledges on climate change

Business Day: CHINA yesterday told the US to make stronger commitments on climate change and provide environmental expertise and financing to developing nations. At the same time, China said its own efforts to reduce energy intensity had been hampered by its economic recovery in the latter part of last year, which brought growth in heavy energy-consuming industries. Climate change negotiator Xie Zhenhua acknowledged the Obama administration's greater stress on greenhouse gas reductions, but ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

France: Sarkozy calls for UN reform, blasts Copenhagen summit

Agence France-Presse: French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday demanded reforms of the United Nations and urged negotiations under a small group of countries to accelerate efforts to fight climate change. Sarkozy, opening a one-day conference on deforestation, stood by the UN, saying there was "no alternative strategy" to a forum that gave all nations, rich and poor, a voice in a global arena. But he said changes to the UN were way overdue. "The UN is absolutely indispensable and yet at ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

France: Sarkozy to press G20 on climate funding

Reuters: France will push the Group of 20 countries to impose a tax on financial transactions to raise billions of dollars to help developing nations fight climate change, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday. Speaking at a conference on forests, Sarkozy repeated his call for a renewed effort on climate change after the "frustrating" Copenhagen conference in December, aiming his fire at "all those who, behind their fine words, want to do nothing." "Those who don't want to do anything ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

White House finalizing rules to cut car emissions

Reuters: The White House is finalizing rules on the first U.S. greenhouse gas emission standard for automobiles, which would raise average fuel economy 42 percent by 2016 in a bid to slash oil imports and fight climate change. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department sent the final rules this week to the White House's Office of Management and Budget, according to a notice posted on the OMB website. The higher mileage requirements will reduce U.S. greenhouse ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Climate change threatens US migratory bird populations, Interior Department report says

Associated Press: Global climate change poses a significant threat to migratory bird populations, which are already stressed by the loss of habitat and environmental pollution, according to a report released Thursday. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar joined scientists and conservation organizers at an Austin news conference to release the study, "The State of the Birds: 2010 Report on Climate Change." The report says oceanic birds, such as petrels and albatrosses, are at particular risk from ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Sarkozy: more funds needed to fight deforestation

Associated Press: Rich nations must contribute more to a climate change fund and help fight deforestation, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in opening a conference Thursday on saving the world's forests -- a key defense against global warming. Ministers from some 40 nations were attending the one-day Paris meeting, including Indonesia and other heavily wooded countries in the Amazon and Congo river basins. Efforts to halt deforestation, one of the culprits in climate change, have been ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Group Will Review Climate Panel Work

New York Times: A group of top scientists from around the world will review the research and management practices of the United Nations climate change panel so that it can try to avoid the kinds of errors that have brought its work into question in recent months, officials said Wednesday. Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, said that the InterAcademy Council, a consortium of the world's most prestigious scientific societies, would name scientists to take a thorough look at the ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Feds: US birds declining due to changing climate

USA Today: Nearly one-third of U.S. bird species "are endangered, threatened or in significant decline," due to climate change, Department of the Interior chief Ken Salazar said Thursday. Salazar issued a report, "The State of the Birds: 2010 Report on Climate Change", created by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in collaboration with conservation groups. In it, researchers looked at five factors affecting bird species and weighed them against climate change effects. The factors were ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Guyana: Indigenous leaders' objections to LCDS, REDD+ 'malicious distortion'

Stabroek News: The Office of Climate Change (OCC) last night described the objections by some indigenous leaders to the LCDS and REDD+ policies as "malicious misrepresentations and distortions" and a deliberate attempt to mislead the public on the two policies. The OCC referred to articles published in this newspaper and the Kaieteur News following a statement issued after a workshop on 'Indigenous Peoples Rights, Extractive Industries and National Development Policies in Guyana.' The statement had, ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Americans Less Concerned About Climate Change, Gallup Poll Says

Bloomberg: Americans are less concerned about the threat of climate change than they were two years ago and almost half say the seriousness of global warming is overblown, a Gallup Organization Inc. poll shows. Thirty-two percent of people questioned said they believe climate change will affect them or their way of life, down from a high of 40 percent in 2008, according to the survey by Gallup, a Washington-based polling company. Two-thirds say global warming won't affect them in their ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Australia: Now taxpayers face $100m bill to fix insulation mess

Sydney Morning Herald: TAXPAYERS will pay up to $100 million to remove foil insulation or install electrical safety switches in 50,000 homes in a bid to fix the government's suspended insulation scheme. The Assistant Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet, said yesterday removing insulation or installing the switches were now the only ways to ensure safety in homes fitted with foil insulation under the rebate scheme. The government had promised safety checks for the 50,000 homes to test for ceilings ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Japan weakens climate bill, pressured by industry

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan watered down legislation to fight climate change Thursday after weeks of wrangling within the government over plans for an emissions trading system that has met stiff resistance from industry.
Read more [Reuters]

Sarkozy to press G20 on climate funding

PARIS (Reuters) - France will push the Group of 20 countries to impose a tax on financial transactions to raise billions of dollars to help developing nations fight climate change, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday.
Read more [Reuters]

Former Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson Joins WRI Board

Also available in Swedish.

Former Prime Minister of Sweden Göran Persson has been elected to the Board of Directors of the World Resources Institute (WRI).

“Prime Minister Persson’s record of building long-term and ambitious environmental policies is exceptional,” said Jonathan Lash, WRI president. “Facing the most important challenge of our time – climate change – he has led by example and helped Sweden go further than required by the Kyoto Protocol.”

Persson served as prime minister from 1996 to 2006. He led the reduction in Sweden’s greenhouse gas emissions by 13.5 percent between 1996 and 2005, and set a national target to reduce emissions to 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. In 2007, he was awarded the Sophie Prize for his leadership on climate policy. Prior to serving as Prime Minister, he served as finance and education minister, as a member of parliament, and was a local politician.

Persson serves as chairman of three other boards: Scandinavian Air Ambulance Holding, Scandinavian Biogas, and Sveaskog, which is Sweden’s largest forest owner and leading supplier of timber, pulpwood, and biofuel. The company is government-owned and uses sustainable management methods in which forest lands are grown faster than they are felled. It is also one of the largest forest owners in all of Europe. Further, he is a member of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation and, in 2007, released his memoirs, Min Väg, Mina Val (My Path, My Choices).

Persson joins WRI’s current board members: Chairman James A. Harmon, Vice Chair Harriet (Hattie) Babbitt, Chairman Emeritus William D. Ruckelshaus, Vice-Chair Emeritus Alice (Tish) F. Emerson, Roberto Artavia, Frances Beinecke, Afsaneh Beschloss, Antony Burgmans, Fernando Henrique Carsdoso, Robin Chase, Leslie Dach, Daniel L. Doctoroff, Jamshyd N. Godrej, Al Gore, Chen Jining, Jonathan Lash, Kathleen McGinty, Douglas R. Oberhelman, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Michael Polsky, C.K. Prahalad, Theodore Roosevelt IV, Stephen M. Ross, Alison Sander, James Gustave Speth, Lee M. Thomas, Todd S. Thomson, Dr. Susan Tierney, Diana H. Wall, and Daniel Weiss.

WASHINGTON DC, 9 mars, 2010 – Förre statsministern Göran Persson har i dag blivit invald i styrelsen för World Resources Institute (WRI), en miljöpolitisk tankesmedja i Washington DC.

“Göran Perssons arbete för att skapa en långsiktig och ambitiös miljöpolitik är exeptionellt”, säger Jonathan Lash, WRIs generalsekreterare. “Under hans ledning har Sverige svarat på vår tids största miljöpolitiska utmaning – klimatfrågan – genom att gå före och överträffa Kyotoprotokollets krav.”

Sverige hade år 2005 minskat sina utsläpp av växthusgaser med 13,5 procent jämfört med 1996 och lagt fast ett nationellt mål om en utsläppsminskning på åtminstone 25 procent från 1990 till 2020. Göran Persson, som var statsminister från 1996 till 2006, tilldelades år 2007 Sofie-priset för sitt klimatpolitiska ledarskap.

I styrelsen blir Göran Persson kollega med bland andra USAs förre vicepresident Al Gore, Unilevers förre ordförande Antony Burgmans och Brasiliens förre president Fernando Henrique Cardoso. WRI har 200 medarbetare i Washington DC och samarbetar aktivt med myndigheter, företag och miljöorganisationer över hela världen för att omsätta kunskap i handling. WRI har nyligen utnämnts till en av världens bästa miljöpolitiska tankesmedjor av University of Pennsylvania. Bland välkända företagspartners märks IKEA, General Electric, General Motors och Apple.

Former Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson Joins WRI Board

Also available in Swedish.

Former Prime Minister of Sweden Göran Persson has been elected to the Board of Directors of the World Resources Institute (WRI).

“Prime Minister Persson’s record of building long-term and ambitious environmental policies is exceptional,” said Jonathan Lash, WRI president. “Facing the most important challenge of our time – climate change – he has led by example and helped Sweden go further than required by the Kyoto Protocol.”

Persson served as prime minister from 1996 to 2006. He led the reduction in Sweden’s greenhouse gas emissions by 13.5 percent between 1996 and 2005, and set a national target to reduce emissions to 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. In 2007, he was awarded the Sophie Prize for his leadership on climate policy. Prior to serving as Prime Minister, he served as finance and education minister, as a member of parliament, and was a local politician.

Persson serves as chairman of three other boards: Scandinavian Air Ambulance Holding, Scandinavian Biogas, and Sveaskog, which is Sweden’s largest forest owner and leading supplier of timber, pulpwood, and biofuel. The company is government-owned and uses sustainable management methods in which forest lands are grown faster than they are felled. It is also one of the largest forest owners in all of Europe. Further, he is a member of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation and, in 2007, released his memoirs, Min Väg, Mina Val (My Path, My Choices).

Persson joins WRI’s current board members: Chairman James A. Harmon, Vice Chair Harriet (Hattie) Babbitt, Chairman Emeritus William D. Ruckelshaus, Vice-Chair Emeritus Alice (Tish) F. Emerson, Roberto Artavia, Frances Beinecke, Afsaneh Beschloss, Antony Burgmans, Fernando Henrique Carsdoso, Robin Chase, Leslie Dach, Daniel L. Doctoroff, Jamshyd N. Godrej, Al Gore, Chen Jining, Jonathan Lash, Kathleen McGinty, Douglas R. Oberhelman, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Michael Polsky, C.K. Prahalad, Theodore Roosevelt IV, Stephen M. Ross, Alison Sander, James Gustave Speth, Lee M. Thomas, Todd S. Thomson, Dr. Susan Tierney, Diana H. Wall, and Daniel Weiss.

WASHINGTON DC, 9 mars, 2010 – Förre statsministern Göran Persson har i dag blivit invald i styrelsen för World Resources Institute (WRI), en miljöpolitisk tankesmedja i Washington DC.

“Göran Perssons arbete för att skapa en långsiktig och ambitiös miljöpolitik är exeptionellt”, säger Jonathan Lash, WRIs generalsekreterare. “Under hans ledning har Sverige svarat på vår tids största miljöpolitiska utmaning – klimatfrågan – genom att gå före och överträffa Kyotoprotokollets krav.”

Sverige hade år 2005 minskat sina utsläpp av växthusgaser med 13,5 procent jämfört med 1996 och lagt fast ett nationellt mål om en utsläppsminskning på åtminstone 25 procent från 1990 till 2020. Göran Persson, som var statsminister från 1996 till 2006, tilldelades år 2007 Sofie-priset för sitt klimatpolitiska ledarskap.

I styrelsen blir Göran Persson kollega med bland andra USAs förre vicepresident Al Gore, Unilevers förre ordförande Antony Burgmans och Brasiliens förre president Fernando Henrique Cardoso. WRI har 200 medarbetare i Washington DC och samarbetar aktivt med myndigheter, företag och miljöorganisationer över hela världen för att omsätta kunskap i handling. WRI har nyligen utnämnts till en av världens bästa miljöpolitiska tankesmedjor av University of Pennsylvania. Bland välkända företagspartners märks IKEA, General Electric, General Motors och Apple.

High-speed rail link announced

A new high speed rail link could play a significant role in tackling climate change - but government plans announced today may not cut emissions, Friends of the Earth said today.
Read more [EarthWire]

Forest and donor countries stump up to reduce emissions

Paris, France: Forest and donor countries have kicked off an important joint process which could speed up action to reduce the 20 per cent of global carbon emissions linked to deforestation and forest degradation.

Despite no formal agreement to achieve Reduced Emissions from forest Degradation and Deforestation (REDD) being reached at the United Nations conference on climate change last December, key nations met yesterday in Paris in a process being called the REDD+ Partnership Process.

The initiative, which brings together major forest countries and donor nations, is hosted by Norway and France. Broad agreement has already been reached on principles and safeguards of REDD+ and according to WWF, the initiative represents a critical opportunity to mobilise early action and financing for national REDD+ programmes.

“Slowing deforestation would help the world significantly cut global emissions,” said WWF Forest Carbon Initiative Leader Chris Elliott.

“That’s an opportunity we simply cannot ignore as any delay in reducing emissions only makes it more difficult to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees C.”

“The REDD+ Partnership process must build real momentum for countries to move ahead with REDD+,” said Elliott, “It is important this remains an open and inclusive process.”

Countries have signalled their commitment to REDD+, with many developing countries, including Brazil and Indonesia, announcing targets for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. In Copenhagen, $3.5 billion was pledged for REDD+ by Australia, France, Japan, Norway, the UK and the US.

“With funding already flowing for REDD+, it is vital that benefits for people and biodiversity are a fundamental part of this effort to integrate forests into the climate change solution,” said Elliott. “REDD+ is not only about the carbon stored in forests and so we must ensure there are positive social and environmental impacts as REDD+ becomes a reality.”

For futher information:
Melissa Tupper, WWF Forest Carbon Initiative Communications, Washington DC
+1 202 495 4182, Melissa.Tupper@wwfus.org


Read more [WWF]

China and India Join Climate Agreement

New York Times: China and India formally agreed Tuesday to join the international climate change agreemen reached last December in Copenhagen, the last two major economies to sign up. The two countries, among the largest and fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, submitted letters to the United Nations agreeing to be included on a list of countries covered by the so-called Copenhagen Accord, a three-page nonbinding statement reached at the end of the contentious and chaotic ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

UN to review errors made by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Times (UK): The United Nations is to announce an independent review of errors made by its climate change advisory body in an attempt to restore its credibility. A team of the world's leading scientists will investigate the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and ask why its supposedly rigorous procedures failed to detect at least three serious overstatements of the risk from global warming. The review will be overseen by the InterAcademy Council, whose members are drawn from ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Global warming skepticism rising in the GOP

LA Times: It wasn't long ago that Marco Rubio and Tim Pawlenty -- two rising Republican stars -- supported legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions. But in recent weeks, both have begun to express doubts about whether cars, factories and power plants have anything to do with global warming. The shift by Rubio and Pawlenty -- as well as other prominent Republicans -- reflects the rising power of climate change skeptics in the GOP, where global warming is becoming a litmus test for ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Deforestation conference to turn plans to action

Associated Press: French President Nicolas Sarkozy will open a daylong conference Thursday of some 40 nations to start turning plans into action to save the world's forests and help rein in the noxious gases blamed for climate change. Ministers from countries of the Amazon and Congo river basins and Indonesia -- whose massive forests, most at risk, are at the heart of efforts to end deforestation -- were among those attending the one-day conference. A follow-up meeting is scheduled for May in Oslo, ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

China to stick to climate change stand, expects India to follow suit

Times of India: China said it will not deviate from its stand on climate change even after it gave qualified approval to the Copenhagen climate accord on Tuesday. It expects India to stick to its stand as well, a senior Chinese official said on Wednesday. "In future negotiations and cooperation on climate change, we will continue to be good partners. The government of India and China have signed an MOU enhancing our climate partnership," Xie Zhenhua, vice minister of the National Development and ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

China unsure on warming cause, to stick with CO2 cuts

Reuters: China's top climate negotiator said on Wednesday that the cause of global warming was still not clear but the problems it was creating were so serious that the world must anyway act to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Xie Zhenhua, vice-chairman of the powerful National Development and Reform Commission, also warned the United States it should not use domestic divisions over climate change as an excuse to pass its responsibilities off onto other countries. "There are still two ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Are new biofuels the ethical answer?

SciDev.Net: New biofuels offer a sustainable source of energy but we must consider the ethical and social implications, say Joyce Tait and Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka. Biofuels were first pioneered in the early days of car manufacturing. Cheap fossil fuels soon overtook them as our fuel of choice, but concerns about climate change have revived interest in them -- global biofuel production doubled between 2000 and 2007, and is expected to double again by 2011. 'First generation' biofuels, ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Scientists to review climate body

BBC: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has asked the world's science academies to review work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Work will be co-ordinated by the Inter-Academy Council, which brings together bodies such as the UK's Royal Society. The IPCC has been under pressure over small errors in its last major assessment of climate science in 2007. Mr Ban said the overall concept of man-made climate change was robust, and action to curb emissions badly ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

'Famine marriages' just one byproduct of climate change

Inter Press Service: The negative fallout from climate change is having a devastatingly lopsided impact on women compared to men, from higher death rates during natural disasters to heavier household and care burdens. In the 1991 cyclone disasters that killed 140,000 in Bangladesh, 90 percent of victims were reportedly women; in the 2004 Asian Tsunami, an estimated 70 to 80 percent of overall deaths were women. And following the 2005 Hurricane Katrina in the United States, African-American women, ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Q&A on China's Carbon Intensity Target

This post originally appeared on ChinaFAQs.org.

China recently confirmed an ambitious goal to reduce its economy’s carbon intensity by 40-45% from 2005 levels by 2020. WRI’s China Director Zou Ji, a former Chinese climate negotiator, discusses the significance of this step by the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, and what it means for China’s relations with the United States and the world.

China has done so because it is in the country’s own interests. First, China has a huge population that will suffer very much from the negative impacts of climate change. Second, China faces a big energy security problem, and energy savings programs can help to address that problem. Third, actions to reduce greenhouse gases will also reduce emissions of health-threatening pollutants common in China such as sulfur dioxide (SO2) nitrous oxides (NOX) and particulates.

If U.S. Senators visited China and witnessed the progress being made in the deployment of renewables and more efficient technologies, they would understand how real and important this agenda is to China.

The fundamental significance is that China’s action will encourage other key countries in the negotiations – the United States, the European Union and the other so-called BASIC countries (India, Brazil and South Africa) to take more constructive steps toward a new global agreement. The Copenhagen Accord is a political agreement. My impression is that China wants to reflect the spirit of the Accord in further negotiations within the two track UNFCCC (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) process which they hope will result in some kind of legally binding document at the next Conference of the Parties in Mexico in November. However, China’s intensity target also sends a signal that, no matter how the international process plays out, China will be taking domestic action to transition to a low carbon economy.

China-U.S. cooperation in these areas will be very important for two reasons. First, because these countries are the two biggest greenhouse gas emitters and the largest developed and developing countries, the effectiveness of their actions will be critically important to the world’s efforts to address climate change. Second, because the United States has the most advanced clean technologies and China has a huge market. We need to make the two complementary through bilateral and international cooperation. The United States can help China do more, faster, in a way that will benefit China, the United States, and the world.

Verifying commitments made by all parties is a matter of trust between countries. There is general agreement that the targets set by developed countries, the nationally appropriate mitigation actions committed to by developing countries, together with assistance in financing, technology and capacity building, must all be subject to monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV).

But for China, I think U.S. questions about verification have good answers. China is already going down this path – of low carbon development – and will continue to do so, because it is in China’s best interests. Moreover, China is preparing to develop a domestic system for greenhouse gas accounting and statistics. This will be a key step in enhancing the basis of the agreed international process for MRV.

If U.S. Senators visited China and witnessed the progress being made in the deployment of renewables and more efficient technologies, they would understand how real and important this agenda is to China. Energy efficiency measures are being applied in many areas of Chinese life – heating and cooling systems, construction, household appliance codes. Much more money is also being allocated to clean technology development, for example for photovoltaic solar power, electric vehicles, smart grid deployment and carbon capture and storage. The government has shut down many smaller polluting power plants and factories in recent years, and is now considering how to allocate public finance to support the carbon intensity targets, including looking at the feasibility of a carbon tax.

Q&A on China's Carbon Intensity Target

This post originally appeared on ChinaFAQs.org.

China recently confirmed an ambitious goal to reduce its economy’s carbon intensity by 40-45% from 2005 levels by 2020. WRI’s China Director Zou Ji, a former Chinese climate negotiator, discusses the significance of this step by the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, and what it means for China’s relations with the United States and the world.

China has done so because it is in the country’s own interests. First, China has a huge population that will suffer very much from the negative impacts of climate change. Second, China faces a big energy security problem, and energy savings programs can help to address that problem. Third, actions to reduce greenhouse gases will also reduce emissions of health-threatening pollutants common in China such as sulfur dioxide (SO2) nitrous oxides (NOX) and particulates.

If U.S. Senators visited China and witnessed the progress being made in the deployment of renewables and more efficient technologies, they would understand how real and important this agenda is to China.

The fundamental significance is that China’s action will encourage other key countries in the negotiations – the United States, the European Union and the other so-called BASIC countries (India, Brazil and South Africa) to take more constructive steps toward a new global agreement. The Copenhagen Accord is a political agreement. My impression is that China wants to reflect the spirit of the Accord in further negotiations within the two track UNFCCC (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) process which they hope will result in some kind of legally binding document at the next Conference of the Parties in Mexico in November. However, China’s intensity target also sends a signal that, no matter how the international process plays out, China will be taking domestic action to transition to a low carbon economy.

China-U.S. cooperation in these areas will be very important for two reasons. First, because these countries are the two biggest greenhouse gas emitters and the largest developed and developing countries, the effectiveness of their actions will be critically important to the world’s efforts to address climate change. Second, because the United States has the most advanced clean technologies and China has a huge market. We need to make the two complementary through bilateral and international cooperation. The United States can help China do more, faster, in a way that will benefit China, the United States, and the world.

Verifying commitments made by all parties is a matter of trust between countries. There is general agreement that the targets set by developed countries, the nationally appropriate mitigation actions committed to by developing countries, together with assistance in financing, technology and capacity building, must all be subject to monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV).

But for China, I think U.S. questions about verification have good answers. China is already going down this path – of low carbon development – and will continue to do so, because it is in China’s best interests. Moreover, China is preparing to develop a domestic system for greenhouse gas accounting and statistics. This will be a key step in enhancing the basis of the agreed international process for MRV.

If U.S. Senators visited China and witnessed the progress being made in the deployment of renewables and more efficient technologies, they would understand how real and important this agenda is to China. Energy efficiency measures are being applied in many areas of Chinese life – heating and cooling systems, construction, household appliance codes. Much more money is also being allocated to clean technology development, for example for photovoltaic solar power, electric vehicles, smart grid deployment and carbon capture and storage. The government has shut down many smaller polluting power plants and factories in recent years, and is now considering how to allocate public finance to support the carbon intensity targets, including looking at the feasibility of a carbon tax.

Sun won't stop global warming if dims as in 1600s

OSLO (Reuters) - A dimming of the sun to match conditions in the "Little Ice Age" of the 17th century would only slightly slow global warming, a study indicated on Wednesday.
Read more [Reuters]

Obama pushes climate change in White House meeting

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, weighing in on the Senate's efforts to pass a climate change bill, gathered Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday to try to jumpstart an overhaul of U.S. energy policy.
Read more [Reuters]

RTPI upbeat on new green PPSs

The RTPI has welcomed yesterday's government announcements on new environment, climate change and coastal planning policy statements (PPSs).
Read more [EarthWire]

Prehistoric response to global warming informs human planning today

Since 2004, University at Buffalo anthropologist Ezra Zubrow has worked intensively with teams of scientists in the Arctic regions of St. James Bay, Quebec, northern Finland and Kamchatka to understand how humans living 4,000 to 6,000 years ago reacted to climate changes.
Read more [EarthWire]

Carbon cap and trade at risk as Japan considers climate bill

Tokyo, Japan: Japan is at risk of undermining its own recent commitments on carbon emissions reductions during a confused – and confusing – debate on forthcoming climate legislation, WWF said today.

WWF is calling on a high-level Cabinet Member Committee meeting regarding climate change on Thursday to stick with the already outlined absolute emissions reductions of 25 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 agreed under the Copenhagen Accord framework, and with the ‘cap and trade’ scheme outlined as a key mechanism for achieving the target.

The climate bill, to be presented to the full cabinet including Prime Minister Hatoyama on Friday, is being criticized by heavy industry labour unions for possible job loss while some government ministries are promoting a carbon intensity framework for emissions reductions.

Intensity-based emissions trading schemes however seriously undermines the environmental integrity of the bill - absolute emissions would increase with production even if intensity-based targets are achieved.

“If the bill includes "intensity-based" emissions trading schemes then it does not consider the emissions cap that the Japanese government has promised to the Japanese people during the elections and to the world following the Copenhagen Accord,” said Naoyuki Yamagishi, WWF-Japan's Head of Climate Change.

“It should have “absolute-based" emissions trading, which is crucial for the scheme to be called “cap and trade” scheme.”

Japanese civil groups are also calling on the government to drop the conditionality clauses in the new bill that threaten to tie Japanese action on climate change to a successful international agreement which includes all the major economies.

“Japan should not send wrong signals by making its action absolutely conditional to an international agreement,” said Yamagishi. “It will not only jeopardize the credibility of the Japanese target internationally but will also slow down domestic actions.”

“The current language in the bill could be interpreted as Japan doing nothing to reduce emissions if there is no comprehensive international agreement.”

Japan's pledge to cut greenhouse-gas emissions to 25 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 is one of the most ambitious in the world.

Japanese civil society groups are also not wishing to see the climate bill being used as a vehicle for an expansion of nuclear power plants.

They would also like to see feed-tariffs for renewable energy that require power companies to buy all the energy produced from all kinds of sustainable renewable energies and not, as proposed, just surplus power from domestic solar installations.



www.panda.org/media for latest news and media resources

www.wwf.or.jp/activity/climate



Read more [WWF]

Obama to push climate change in White House meeting

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama inserted himself into Senate efforts to pass a climate change bill on Tuesday, gathering Republican and Democratic lawmakers at the White House to jumpstart efforts to overhaul U.S. energy policy.
Read more [Reuters]

'No reason for US to wait for India, China on climate change'

Press Trust of India: The US should not wait for India and China to act on climate change and should go ahead with its environmental protection activities in terms of legislation besides research and development, a top official of the Obama Administration has said. Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), also decried lawmakers of the opposition Republican Party who have been opposing the Climate Change legislation and asking the Obama Administration not to take any ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Climate Change: Who Pays for Emissions in Global Trade?

Time Magazine: Popularly, China is a villain in climate change. Many people who attended last year's chaotic U.N. climate-change talks in Copenhagen -- especially those who belonged to the U.S. delegation -- singled out China as the main reason the summit nearly collapsed. Chinese diplomats fought hard against any form of emissions regulation, even though their country is now the world's No. 1 national carbon emitter, and will emit far more carbon in the future than any other. In Washington, opponents of ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Chanel does climate change, with real icebergs

Associated Press: Models in head-to-toe yeti suits picked their way around towering but quickly melting icebergs, sloshing through a deep puddle of Arctic melt in their shaggy fake fur. Call it climate change chic, Chanel style. Designer Karl Lagerfeld looked Tuesday to global warming, turning the melting of the polar ice caps into fodder for Chanel's fall-winter 2010-11 ready-to-wear look. Because, after all, what use is the threat of a catastrophe of global proportions if not to fuel fashion ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

United Kingdom: Hedegaard sets out strategy for global climate talks

European Voice: Connie Hedegaard, the European commissioner for climate action, set out a strategy to restore momentum to international talks on climate change today, even though she admitted the chances of getting a global deal agreed by the end of this year were slim. International talks on a new global agreement to tackle climate change re-start next month in Bonn and build up to a major United Nations conference in Cancún, Mexico at the end of the year. Speaking to the European Parliament ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

United Kingdom: Guardian Media Group launches sustainability vision

Guardian: Guardian Media Group, the multimedia business whose diverse portfolio includes the Guardian and Observer, today launches an integrated sustainability vision and strategy to address issues ranging from climate change to ethical procurement. The 'Power of 10' vision is based on the belief that the group, which also includes radio stations, magazines and business to business media, can have a multiplier effect by educating and influencing its millions of readers, web users, and listeners ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

China supports nuclear power development in orderly way

Xinhua: Nuclear power should be developed with due regulations and in an orderly way thanks to its strict requirement for human resources, technology, security and quality, a Chinese official said Monday here at the international conference on civilian use of nuclear energy. Nuclear power, a clean, safe and economic energy, "plays an important role in energy conservation, environment protection and the strive to cope with climate change," Deputy Director of China' s National Energy ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

EU climate chief: global deal unlikely before 2011

Associated Press: The European Union's climate change chief says a global deal on reducing greenhouse gas emissions may not be possible before 2011. EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard says it would be risky to expect a legally binding deal to emerge from the planned December U.N. climate summit in Cancun, Mexico. Hedegaard told the European Parliament on Tuesday that "remaining differences between parties may delay agreement on this until next year."
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

S Africa, India in race for UN climate chief job

Times of India: South Africa will pit its tourism minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk against Indian environment secretary Vijay Sharma for the key post of UN's climate change chief. Sharma will face competition from van Schalkwyk as the UN seeks a replacement for Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Van Schalkwyk's nomination was approved by the South African government after President Jacob Zuma met with him at the weekend to emphasise ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]