Top Stories
Tear down mental walls on climate, German
chancellor says.—reliability high.
"German Chancellor Angela Merkel made an impassioned plea Tuesday to a
joint session of Congress to work together on efforts to curb global
warming and to help forge a binding climate-change deal at an
international meeting next month. 'We need an agreement on one
objective: Global warming must not exceed 2 degrees Celsius,' Merkel
said, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. 'To achieve this, we need the
readiness of all countries to accept internationally binding
obligations. We cannot afford missing the objectives in climate
protection that science tells us have to be met.' Merkel said that
people must tear down mental walls that blocked them from seeing the
plight of future generations if warming continued unchecked." From
Miami Herald. Complete text of climate change part of speech in our
blog.
Role of deforestation in the global CO2
budget.—reliability high.
Details on the content and implications of the new calculations of the
contribution of deforestation to global human-caused CO2 emissions.
Researchers found that if emissions from peat degradation are included
the actual emissions from deforestation have not declined, but since
other emissions have risen the percentage
due to deforestation has dropped. See Guido van der Werf's site.
The Guardian misinterpreted these results slightly in this
article.
Companies,
Industries, Markets and Supply Chains
SMA Solar to open new plant in Colorado.—reliability
high.
SMA Solar Technology AG will open a factory in Colorado to make solar
inverters, putting about 15 million euros ($22 million) into the
company's first production site outside Germany. Plant will employ 700
and open mid-2010. See
Reuters story.
Gucci drops APP in pledge to save
rainforests.—reliability high.
Gucci "has stated it will stop sourcing paper from Indonesian forests
and will drop Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) as a supplier, which has become
notorious for tropical deforestation." "By December 2010 it will use
only recycled products or paper that is certified by the Forest
Stewardship Council." From
Mongabay.
Heathrow Airport Gets Fleet of Electric
Shuttle Cars.—reliability medium.
"Upon arriving at the airport, up to four weary travellers and their
luggage will board a bubble type vehicle which will then whizz them to
Terminal 5 with the assistance of a computer guidance system -
apparently in 'style, and in comfort.' The £25 million ($41 million)
project has been lauded as an attempt at making transportation at the
airport greener." See
Green Options Media Gas 2.0. [Very futuristic.
Made by Advanced Transportation Systems Ltd., more here.]
Harvard To Buy Power From Maine Wind Farm.—reliability
high.
"Harvard University has entered into a 15-year agreement to buy power
and renewable energy certificates from a wind energy farm to be built
in Maine. Harvard officials announced Monday that Stetson Wind II
facility near Danforth, Maine, expected to go online in the middle of
next year, will eventually provide more than 10 percent of the
university's electricity needs." "Harvard used more than 247 million
kilowatt hours of electricity last year." At
WCSH from AP.
CII to launch green rating system for
companies.—reliability high.
"The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is forming a high-level
group comprising 70-80 industry experts and environment experts to
develop a green rating system. Under this, companies will be eligible
for rating after being 'green certified' by the Central Pollution
Control Board and State Pollution Control Board." "Initially, 20-30
companies will take part in the index on a voluntary basis for a pilot
study. The index, to be launched by mid-2010, will rank the companies’
manufacturing processes on the basis of 10 criteria — natural resources
consumption, energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emission, water
consumption and rain water harvesting, carbon emissions, toxicity,
green supply chain, product stewardship, lifecycle analysis and green
procurement." From
Business Standard.
Government and
Regulation
Spanish Basque Country gets EV recharging
network alongside some gas pumps.—reliability high.
"The Basque Government in Spain has announced an agreement with Repsol
to install recharging points for EVs at gasoline refueling stations."
Mercedes has a van manufacturing plant in Vitoria that will be making
EVs. From
Autoblog Green.
Govt warns producers to stop producing
non-recyclable packaging.—reliability high.
The Indonesian government has warned producers to stop producing
packaging that cannot be recycled due to a law that is expected to be
effective as of next year. "The communication director of PT Tetra Pak
Indonesia, Mignonne Maramis Akiyama, said the company used renewable
resources such as wood fiber for certain food carton packaging. 'But no
wood from Indonesian forests has been used in packaging,' she said.
Tetra Pak Indonesia, which has set up three recycling centers in East
Java, Jakarta and West Java, supplied about 1.5 billion packages last
year." See
The Jakarta Post.
UK expands fuel economy label to include
used cars.—reliability high.
The UK Department for Transport is introducing new color-coded
carbon/fuel efficiency labels for new and used cars (database goes back
to 2001 models). The label is still voluntary at this time, and will
"include information about the car's CO2 emissions, estimated fuel
costs over 12,000 miles and MPG. . . . 94 percent of British car
dealers have signed up to display it on new and new-ish cars. See
Autoblog Green.
From the Top of
the Bottom of the Pyramid
The barefoot solar engineers.—reliability
high.
Photo gallery: "The barefoot solar engineers, Talsa Miniaka, Pulka
Wadeka, Minakshi Diwan, and Bundei Hidreka, live in Tinginapu, in the
Eastern Ghats of Orissa. They now have a contract to build 3000
solar-powered lanterns for schools and other institutions and they are
training other people in the community." From
The Guardian.
[Crossposted from HaraBara.com courtesy of HaraBara, Inc. Copyright © 2009 HaraBara, Inc.]
