Top Stories
China faces uphill battle in achieving
energy conservation target.—reliability high.
View from the provincial level of the challenge of meeting China's
goal of cutting energy use per unit of GDP by 20% over the five years
ending this year. "Saving energy is a huge task testing most parts of
the country. As statistics from the Ministry of Industry and
Information Technology show, energy consumption has risen per unit of
GDP in 12 provinces and autonomous regions. ... Analysts have
attributed the rise to the strong rebound of the Chinese economy.
Because of stimulus measures and confidence in the economy, capital has
poured into the economy -- creating and expanding businesses. 'Many of
those (business) projects are the high-energy consuming ones, which are
the chief culprit for the increased energy consumption,' said Cheng
Huifang, professor with Zhejiang University of Technology. ... Cheng
Huifang warned that there was no way back for officials and
entrepreneurs at any level. They must push for energy conservation as
there are less than five months left. 'It is quite a long-term
obligation for China to restructure its economy. The country must
replace energy-intensive industries with low-energy-consuming and
high-value-added ones,' said Professor Cheng." From Xinhua.
[If China doesn't
want energy-intensive businesses like smelters, steel plants and the
like, where will they locate? And just by moving such energy-intensive
industries out of the country, will China have truly reduced overall
emissions? Won't those emissions just be embodied in steel, for
instance, imported from wherever it is produced? The emissions
themselves will still affect China even if they are generated
elsewhere. Of course there are two ways to reduce energy use per unit
of GDP: one is to cut energy use, and the other is to boost the value
of products and services produced. So you can keep the carbon-emitting
steel plant, for instance, if you can boost the tourism industry
enough, or sell more high-value-added products. Right now China is
racing the clock to meet its 20% intensity reduction commitment, but in
the long run upgrading the economy holds equal promise. It just has to
avoid following the West in urban planning, transportation policy, and
other trends that have made the U.S. and some others such
high-emissions economies.]
How to reduce UK transport carbon emissions
by 76 per cent by 2050.—reliability high.
"A new report entitled Towards a Zero Carbon Vision for UK Transport
has shown how a phased programme of technological, financial and
behavioural changes could secure the following potential cuts in (CO2 )
emissions compared to business-as-usual approach:
- 100 per cent in road transport (cars and lorries)
- 100 per cent in rail transport
- 56 per cent in aviation
- 49 per cent in shipping
The resulting overall reduction for transport in the UK by 2050 is 76%.
The reductions in the study were only included if there was
already-available experience showing that reductions could be
achieved." See Stockholm
Environment Institute site. Related article with quotes in Yorkshire
Post. [I
am sure the Chinese will read this with interest--see above.]
Companies,
Industries, Markets and Supply Chains
Cosan: biofuels JV deal with Shell to close
soon.—reliability high.
"Brazil's Cosan, the world's biggest cane sugar and ethanol producer,
should soon finalize a deal with oil giant Royal Dutch Shell over a $12
billion joint venture in biofuels, Cosan's chief executive said on
Friday. ... Once the deal with Cosan is completed, it will mark the
biggest-ever foray into biofuels by an oil major. The venture, which
would create the No. 3 fuel distributor in Latin America's largest
country, underscores cane ethanol's lure as an alternative to
gasoline." See Reuters
article. [Shell
goes long on
biofuels.]
Survey shows many are still clueless on how
to save energy.—reliability high.
"When asked for the most effective strategy they could implement to
conserve energy, most participants mentioned curtailment (e.g., turning
off lights, driving less) rather than efficiency improvements (e.g.,
installing more efficient light bulbs and appliances), in contrast to
experts’ recommendations. For a sample of 15 activities, participants
underestimated energy use and savings by a factor of 2.8 on average".
See EurekAlert.
Abstract and access to paper here.
[Thanks to authors
for making the paper "open access". Many authors would rather save a
few bucks of grant money than make their research widely electronically
available to those who don't subscribe to, for example, PNAS (a class
which includes essentially everyone in the world). From the abstract:
"When asked for the most effective strategy they could implement to
conserve energy, most participants mentioned curtailment (e.g., turning
off lights, driving less) rather than efficiency improvements (e.g.,
installing more efficient light bulbs and appliances), in contrast to
experts’ recommendations. For a sample of 15 activities, participants
underestimated energy use and savings by a factor of 2.8 on average".]
Timberland Expands Green Index Label,
Partners on New Eco-Index.—reliability high.
"Timberland plans to expand the company’s Green Index label from
14 percent to 100 percent of its Timberland branded footwear by the end
of 2012. The outdoor footwear and apparel company also is collaborating
with more than 200 outdoor businesses on an industry-wide eco-indexing
standard that was announced during last week’s Outdoor Retailer Show.
... Timberland is working through the Outdoor Industry
Association (OIA) on the development of an industry standard for
product footprinting called the Eco Index. While the Eco Index is not a
consumer-facing label at this time, it will become the industry’s first
standardized environmental assessment tool, according to the company."
From Environmental
Leader. Press release here.
[From press
release: "Timberland is currently applying a Green Index rating to 14
percent of its footwear; the company plans to apply the rating to 100
percent of its footwear by the end of 2012."]
Government and
Regulation
Indonesia may cancel permits to save forest.—reliability
high.
"Indonesia's planned moratorium on the clearing of natural forest from
2011 may lead to the revocation of some firms' existing permits and
will slash the size of a giant food estate, said the official in charge
of the scheme. ... "Climate change is a real problem for the world and
for a developing country like Indonesia. Well this is a new agenda and
I believe we have to change the way we think about development," said
Mangkusubroto in an interview. ... For now, he could not be specific on
how much of Indonesia's roughly 120 million hectares of forest would be
included under the moratorium. He admitted that enforcing the scheme --
given illegal logging is rife -- was another problem." From Reuters.
[This indicates
that the Government of Indonesia may be more serious about slowing
forest destruction, more concerned about climate change, and less
beholden to big agroindustrial conglomerates than supposed.]
E-Waste Becomes a Top Priority for EPA
Action.—reliability high.
"In a memo from the meeting of the Commission for Environmental
Cooperation in Guanajuato, Mexico, Jackson spelled out why e-waste has
become a top-level concern for the administration. ... 'EPA recognizes
this urgent concern and will work with international partners to
address the issues of e-waste. In the near-term, EPA will focus on ways
to improve the design, production, handling, reuse, recycling,
exporting and disposal of electronics.' ... Lisa Jackson's list of
priorities comes a week after the U.S. Government Accountability Office
(GAO) released a report analyzing options of e-waste recycling that
also called for the ratification of the Basel Convention as a way of
addressing the impacts of e-waste on the environment and human health."
See Greener
World Media.
