Top Stories
Shell CEO Calls for Global Carbon Market to
'Level' the Field.—reliability high.
"Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s chief executive officer called on lawmakers
and investors to move toward a global carbon market and a 'level
playing field' in the fight against climate change. Investors have yet
to get the signals they need to set long-term strategies for cutting
emissions and participating in an integrated global market, CEO Peter
Voser said in an interview today at the European Business Summit in
Brussels. 'In Europe, we have the emissions-trading system, which is a
viable way forward, but ultimately we need a global mechanism,' he
said. 'I think it will take longer than a couple of years, but the
important thing is that we start, and we can adjust during the time.'"
From Bloomberg
Businessweek.
IEA demands halt to business-as-usual
approach to curbing carbon emissions.—reliability high.
"Governments must take immediate action to facilitate the development
of low-carbon technologies or face much higher bills in the long run,
according to a major new report from the International Energy Agency
(IEA). Released yesterday, the Energy Technology Perspectives 2010
report warns that if greenhouse gas emissions do not peak by around
2020 and decline steadily towards the 50 per cent cut in carbon
emissions by 2050 recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC), tackling climate change will become much more costly and
even impossible." Other highlights. Story at BusinessGreen.
Access report here
(expensive). [The
IEA, an intergovernmental organization which operates within the
financial framework of the OECD with a 2010 budget of EUR 26 mln from
contributions from its member nations, wants you to pay EUR 80 to
download a PDF of this report. Their work is so important that
they don't want anyone but bureaucrats and big companies to read it.]
Climate Scientist Cleared of Altering Data.—reliability
high.
"An investigative panel at Pennsylvania State University, weighing the
question of whether the scientist, Michael E. Mann, had 'seriously
deviated from accepted practices within the academic community for
proposing, conducting or reporting research or other scholarly
activities,' declared that he had not. Dr. Mann said he was gratified
by the findings, the second report from Penn State to clear him. An
earlier report had exonerated him of related charges that he suppressed
or falsified data, destroyed e-mail and misused confidential
information." Story in The
New York Times. [Deniers certainly
got a lot of mileage out of the "climategate" emails, but all inquiries
so far have found the scientists whose emails were purloined did
nothing wrong. "A lie will fly around the whole world while the truth
is getting its boots on."--attributed to Mark Twain (and others).]
Companies,
Industries, Markets and Supply Chains
Clean tech VC investment bounces back to
record levels.—reliability high.
"According to new preliminary figures from analyst Cleantech Group and
consultancy Deloitte, venture capital clean tech investment across
North America, Europe, China and India narrowly beat the previous
record of $4.02bn set in the first half of 2008, reaching $4.04bn."
More highlights of analysis. See BusinessGreen.
Press release on study here.
Asia's alarming cities.—reliability
high.
"the world’s hopes of putting carbon emissions on a manageable path
depend upon on how developing Asia urbanises in the coming decades. The
scale is staggering. According to the Asian Development Bank, 44m
people join city populations each year. Every day sees the construction
of 20,000 new dwellings and 250km (160 miles) of new roads. ...
Developers are ill-versed in thinking about energy, water and sewage as
a seamless whole. Utilities think like central planners. Government
agencies struggle to operate beyond their traditional remits. What is
more, the costs are up to a fifth higher for such developments, though
they more than pay for themselves in the long run." See column in The Economist. [Excellent
overview of the challenges of urbanizing without increasing emissions
more than absolutely necessary.]
Looking Behind the Scenes at Ecolabels'
Green Claims.—reliability medium.
"in the self-regulated ecocertification industry, how can consumers
and institutional buyers really know what these stamps of approval
mean? Enter the 2010 Global Ecolabel Monitor, a collaboration between
the World Resources Institute and ecolabelling.org founders Big Room
Inc. that gives a behind-the-scenes look at how different ecolabels
certify their products. ... The results are housed at
ecolabelindex.com, a web resource that gathers ecolabels onto a common
platform to make it easier for consumers and institutional buyers alike
to interpret and compare them." See GreenBiz
blog. Access the database here.
PG&E Claims Industry First with Supply
Chain Footprint Project.—reliability high.
"The company is joining forces with the University of California,
Berkeley and San Francisco-based Climate Earth to measure the full
carbon footprint of products and services in its supply chain. The move
makes the Northern California utility the first in its sector to
measure these so-called Scope 3 emissions, PG&E said Tuesday in a
presentation announcing the research project to its employees." From Greener
World Media. [Suppliers take
note. Note "and services". Scope 3 is important.]
Government and
Regulation
Britain Curbing Airport Growth to Aid
Climate.—reliability high.
"In a bold if lonely environmental stand, Britain’s coalition
government has set out to curb the growth of what has been called
'binge flying' by refusing to build new runways around London to
accommodate more planes. ... The government decided that enabling more
flying was incompatible with Britain’s oft-stated goal of curbing
emissions." See The
New York Times.
Science and
Economics
Per-Capita Emissions Rising in China.—reliability
high.
"Carbon dioxide emissions per person in China reached the same level
as those in France last year, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment
Agency said Thursday. ... the hefty increase in emissions from
fast-developing parts of the world like China and India had the effect
of canceling out the sharp decline in emissions elsewhere. Emissions
from China and India 'completely nullified CO2 emission reductions in
the industrialized world,' the report said. ... India surpassed Russia
last year as the fourth largest emitter after China, the United States
and the EU-15, Mr. Olivier said." More highlights of report. See New
York Times Green blog. Access the report here.
[Western economies
caused the problem so far, but booming Asian nations are the major
source of emissions from here on out. See "cities" item above.]
