Red, Green, and Blue

Finally, Obama has given up on that dinner date he’d been emailing me about all through the primary, but he still emails me constantly with this and that - as he no doubt does you too. Today’s email is about what green energy legislation ideas I want to see in the stimulus package.

So, Obama; here’s one I want.

It is hard for us credit-poor peasants in today’s shattered Gilded-Age economy to try and find solar financing. I would like to see legislation devised - so that if you want to put up a solar roof, you can, without having to qualifying for financing. It would work like this: Read the rest of this entry »

While reporting a 50 percent increase in the number of projects approved under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the administrators at the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) acknowledged that the carbon trading system requires an overhaul. This is the first time that the UNFCCC has conceded to the fact that the CDM has loopholes which need to be filled in order to make the next climate treaty a success.

CDM is a tool incorporated in the Kyoto Protocol which helps industrialized nations to meet their emissions-reduction targets through investments low-emission projects in the developing world. It has been an instrument to spread clean energy use across the world and providing monetary assistance to the developing countries to reduce their carbon emissions. But the mechanism has had its fair share of criticism.

Critics say that projects which could have been set up without any monetary help have also been incorporated in the CDM. Many other projects which pose potential environmental threat have been approved to sell carbon credits. While approving projects like wind farms for selling carbon credits it must be ensured that the ecology of the area is not going to face any adverse effects, that no trees are cut to make space for the wind mills and that the local population has no objections with the project. These aspects have been ignored so far.

If a project has been established then it should not be considered in the application process. Thorough checks and extensive studies about the ecological, environmental and socio-economic effects must be made mandatory before the any project is approved for selling carbon credits.

For instance, for a hydroelectric project, it must be check if the displaced people have been successfully relocated to new areas, what biodiversity has been lost due to the submergence of land and what are the plans initiated to replenish it and whether the company/government has any plan about managing the methane emissions generated from the project.

Companies in India and China, which sell the lion share of global carbon credits, try to find ways of convincing their respective environmental ministries which further their recommendations to the approval agencies hired by UNFCCC. Therefore, it is important that more transparency brought in the manner in which these agencies go through the procedure of approving projects.

Taking yet another example, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) sells carbon credits under the CDM scheme for using the eco-friendly regenerative braking system in its trains. Now, the DMRC is one of the very few metro projects in the world which manage to generate profit so why does it require money to finance this braking system. More than half of this long-term metro project has been completed and Japan has provided a major portion of the funds but now DMRC is planning to get CDM approval for the whole project itself. The DMRC wants to get approval for selling carbon credits as commuters have shifted from buses/cars thus reducing carbon emissions.

The developed nations are least bothered as they are concerned only with meeting the set emission reduction goals while the developing countries are happy to receive practically free funding for their projects. But if transparency and responsibility is not brought into the system, this whole carbon offsetting scheme would be reduced to a mere eyewash.

Instead of monetary investments technological help should be extended to the developing and poor countries because it is difficult to keep track of the funds. Every entity involved in the process - the project managers, the company involved, the environment ministry and the approving agency - must be made accountable for its actions. We must stop fooling ourselves by selling and earning credits because in reality we have to go a very long way before the rising carbon emissions could be curtailed.

Image source: lamusa at Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Japan and South Korea have announced that their governments will be investing billions of dollars to develop new green projects which would help creating new jobs and hopefully bring their battered economies back on track.

Continuing the global trend, the Asian industrial powers announced ambitious plans to tackle the rising carbon emissions, depleting energy resources and sliding economic growth. South Korea plans to invest $38 billion in the next four years to create almost a million new jobs. The new investments will be made in projects aimed at recycling waste, increasing energy efficiency, forest conservation and developing renewable energy resources.

Japan, too, has unveiled plans to expand its $745 billion green business sector to $1 trillion by 2020 thus creating about 800,000 new jobs. Japan, although, a huge producer of green technologies has been facing economic downturn primarily because of falling exports, now the government wants to create a market for these green technologies at home.

These investment plans are part of a series of measures announced by various global leaders to stimulate economic growth and build basis for low-carbon economies. Although crude prices are low at the moment, world leaders have understood that energy security is a major issue which requires urgent actions. As the world prepares for the next climate change treaty it becomes important to address the problem of rising carbon emissions.

Natural gas was a viable alternative to oil as it was cheaper and relatively less polluting but now it easy availability is in question since Russia announced that it would forming an OPEC-like cartel to control production and prices. In addition, Russia’s use of gas supplies as an instrument of wielding power raises serious questions about the future supplies of fuel to Europe and possibly other nations. Therefore energy security is an issue of prime importance and the world leaders now have an opportunity to present a solution by investing in clean energy projects to ensure almost complete energy independence.

In the United States, where the housing industry has been suffering from falling prices, some experts have suggested that the values of the homes be increased by providing buyers with subsidized solar panels; this project has already been initiated in some parts of California. Japan, too, is looking to relaunch the subsidized solar project for home owners. Australia already has a feed in tariff system in place similar to that practiced in Germany.

Helping people live ‘off the grid’ is important economically as well and may be the simplest solution available at the moment. Firstly, investors for big clean energy projects are hard to find in this time of economic crisis and secondly, even if big projects are established there is a fear that distribution infrastructure would need a massive upgrade to integrate these projects with the existing grids, which would require huge investment.

Establishing clean energy projects is very important at this time but even more important is the way in which they are planned and executed. The world leaders now have a responsibility to solve a whole lot of problems by a single solution. The projects they approve, a) Must reduce the carbon emissions; b) Must help create jobs and stimulate economic growth and c) Must be targeted at achieving energy independence.

Image source: swanksalot at Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Obama was elected as the first anti-war president since Dwight D. Eisenhower promised to end the Korean Conflict. War is big money to the US, and this country is the world’s top military spender!  Obama has given this country hope for change, but the biggest change we need is to stop war mongering. Since Pearl Harbor 67 years ago, the US has been on the nonstop warpath, whether covertly or overtly.

War is bad for the environment, bad for society, bad for culture, bad for our health; however, it is good for the economy. As Deepak Chopra wisely said, “Unless it can make as much money as war, peace doesn’t stand a chance.”

Last year, the US overtook Russia as the leading arms supplier to the developing world. The US made $24.8 billion in global arms agreements selling conventional weapons that included: tanks, self-propelled guns, artillery, armored personnel carriers, armored cars, major surface combatants, minor surface combatants, submarines, guided missile patrol boats, supersonic combat aircraft, subsonic combat aircraft, other aircraft, helicopters, surface to air missiles, surface to surface missiles, and anti-ship missiles.  The US dominated 41.5 percent of the global arms market, with Russia coming in second place with 17.3 percent. 70.5 percent of these arms sales went to developing countries. Read the rest of this entry »

Many of the UK’s organic farmers are asking the government to relax the strict organic standards that govern their meat and vegetable production regimes.

The plea, from organisations including the Soil Association, is the result of a sales drop and fears for the future of 5,000 organic farmers across Britain. Organic food sales fell by 10% in the three months to the end of November 2008 – at a time when overall food sales rose by 6%

As a result, farmers’ groups have asked for approval to relax the ‘organic’ rules so that they can use conventional animal feed which is half the price of instead of organic food concentrate. The holiday wouldn’t be total – farmers would have to stick to the agreed low stocking densities, minimum use of antibiotics, and no use of fertilisers. Read the rest of this entry »

According to the Ernst & Young’s latest Renewable energy country attractiveness indices, Germany has overtaken United States as the most sort after market for investment in renewable energy. The auditing firm blames the economic downturn for what has been a challenging year for renewable energy investment across the world.

The indices - which track and score global investment in renewable energy – also reveal that there has been a record reduction in the attractiveness of all 20 countries included for the first time since its creation five years ago.

Germany has been successful in attracting foreign investment due to its feed-in tariff system under which consumers can sell electricity produced from solar panels or wind turbines installed at their homes to power companies at a price higher than the market price. Although feed-in tariff has its roots in California where it was first used, the US failed to capitalize on this scheme whereas Germany mastered it so well that now other countries are adopting the same model. Read the rest of this entry »

As a part of the national action plan on climate change the Indian government has obligated the power utilities to buy 5 percent of their grid purchase from renewable energy sources from 2009-10 onwards. The power companies are required to achieve this minimum standard by 2009-10 after which it will be increased by one percent every year for ten years.
Read the rest of this entry »

British wildlife hasn’t coped well with another year of unpredictable weather conditions, according to heritage body the National Trust. They say that butterflies, bees and other insects - along with the bird populations that rely on them to feed their young - were all hit by a second summer of “foul and abusive” weather in a row.

Foul and abusive weather

It’s an odd way to describe the effects of climate change. It makes the whole process sound personal, as if the El Nino effect had it in for the UK on a personal basis, or the sea level was rising just to spite the British Channel. Bizarre language indeed, but it matches a bizarre three years of weather perturbation. In 2008, a late and unusually cold spring was followed by a wet summer with very few sunny days and then a long, largely rain-free autumn. Wildlife, which depends on climate, has been thrown into confusion. Read the rest of this entry »

Without much of a fanfare, the British government has launched an enquiry that aims to secure the future of UK food until 2050.  It’s a committee process, led by Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and it will explore how well equipped Britain is to contribute to feeding a global population of 9 billion in forty years.  Read the rest of this entry »

A new report prepared by the National Intelligence Council has projected that the world would be witnessing severe water and food shortages by 2025 and the changing climate would further strain the already fast depleting natural resources. In an attempt to boost the economic growth countries would put immense pressure on highly strategic and essential resources like energy, water and food.

Depletion of Natural Resources

The new report paints a very grim picture of our future. While it states that the world would see “unprecedented economic growth” it also states that it would come at a hefty cost. The demand would outstrip supply and easily available natural resources would be stretched to the limits of their carrying capacities. Read the rest of this entry »