Top Stories
"EPA to kill Climate Leaders programme"—reliability
high.
The U.S. EPA will wind down its "Climate Leaders" program that offered
participants tools to improve climate reporting and recognition for
their climate reporting achievements. A letter from the Administrator
said, "EPA has determined that climate programs operated by the
states and NGOs are now robust enough to service our partners and other
entities that wish to continue to advance their climate leadership
through comprehensive reporting (that exceed mandatory reporting
requirements) and/or the establishment of facility or corporate level
GHG reduction goals." Companies can turn to The Climate Registry, The
Carbon Disclosure Project and similar programs. See BusinessGreen.
Access the Administrator's letter at the Climate Leaders site. [Companies may miss
the value of the EPA imprimatur. PDF of current partner list here]
"E-market shows buyers carbon footprint of
goods"—reliability high.
@UKPLC, an on-line b2b marketplace, will officially launch a feature
allowing buyers to see the carbon footprint of listed products in
October. "The carbon footprint of products available on the site is
calculated using e2class, @UKPLC’s ethical and environmental
classification system, which combines data from the Stockholm
Environment Institute and the Centre for Sustainable Accounting with
the e-market’s own GreenInsight artificial intelligence tools, @UKPLC’s
chairman Ronald Duncan told Businessgreen.com." From BusinessGreen.
The marketplace is here.
Companies,
Industries, Markets and Supply Chains
"India firm to bundle solar projects for CO2
offsets"—reliability high.
Emergent Ventures India "has launched a program to link up developers
of costly small-scale solar power projects to help them earn U.N.
carbon credits and boost investment returns. ... EVI has already begun
signing up developers of solar panel projects of size from 1 to 2
MegaWatts and hopes to grow that number to at least 50 in a program it
believes is among the first of its type in India. The projects are part
of an Indian government scheme to dramatically ramp up solar power
generation to 20 GigaWatts by 2021 from about 30 MW now. ... Signing up
50 projects could generate up to 75,000 CERs a year, he said. CERs
traded on the European Climate Exchange settled on Thursday at 13.68
euros each." See Reuters
article.
"Coda To Join Tesla In Building Electric Cars
in California"—reliability high.
EV startup Coda Automotive "appears to be on the verge of finalizing a
deal for a large-scale assembly facility, which it plans to locate in
Benicia, California." The Coda sedan will be introduced for the 2011
model year, along with the Leaf and the Volt. Unlike the Leaf, it will
be assembled in California. See GreenCarReports.
Underlying article in Contra Costa Times here.
"Latest Call for Facebook to Unfriend Coal:
Cartoons"—reliability high.
Greenpeace launches cartoon video to pressure Facebook to rethink its
reliance on coal-derived power. "The timing of the video coincides with
the release of the movie The Social Network, which is a recreation of
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s founding story, and Greenpeace’s video
is a sort of animated spoof on the film." See GigaOM
Network. The video is here on Greenpeace
site. [The
power of cute.]
"Mexico's Push To Install 3,000 MW of Wind by
2014"—reliability high.
"'The projects have taken off and we should have nearly 3,000 MW in
three years,' predicts Fernando Tejeda, president of the Latin American
Wind Energy Association, based in Guadalajara, adding that they are
likely to cost US $5bn." The government is adding incentives. Examples
of projects. From Renewable
Energy World.
"Graft could jeopardize Indonesia's climate
deals"—reliability high.
"'Our emission reduction potential from forestry and peatland is about
1.5 gigatonnes by 2030. So if the price of emissions reductions is
around $10 per ton in 2030, then our potential revenue is $15 billion
per annum by 2030,' Agus Purnomo, head of Indonesia's National Council
on Climate Change, told Reuters." But Indonesia needs to "stamp out
corruption in its forestry sector, long notorious for graft and focus
of an ongoing investigation. ... Anti-graft officials are concerned
that the vast sums on offer under the UN scheme could lead to further
corruption and theft." See Reuters.
Government and
Regulation
"Climate Goes Local; Cities, Local
Governments Confront Global Challenge"—reliability medium.
Michael Coren writes about the role cities and local governments will
play in emission reduction. "Cities have a unique power to drive
immediate change involving issues such as public transportation, but
they also can help influence prosaic long-term land use planning (think
about all those interminable city council meetings) to realize truly
sustainable cities." He's not talking about new planned eco-cities.
"For now, the realty is more mundane: asphalt recycling and better
insulation in buildings, timers for coffee makers and telecommuting,
light sensors, and water conservation." Many examples of what local
governments are doing. Good list of resources. See Yale
Forum on Climate Change and the Media. [Interesting trail
for this item: It appeared in The Guardian, from Grist ("part of The
Guardian environmental network"), where it had been crossposted from
Climate Progress which had reposted it from the Yale site.]
Science and
Economics
"Carbon capturing technology doomed in
Europe: study"—reliability high.
A report "EU Energy Trends to 2030" by the National Technical
University of Athens suggests that carbon capture and storage will not
be economical in Europe if it depends on carbon credits earned from
reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The recession and conservation
measures have reduced energy demand and renewable energy capacity is
rising rapidly, which mean there are plenty of excess credits weighing
down their price on the European carbon market. "The lower carbon price
does not allow a competitive marketing of CCS," it says. Other
highlights and comments on report. Reuters
story. PDF of the report here.
