Posted by Brad Johnson on 09/13/2007 at 03:57PM
The Committee on Strategic Advice for the U.S. Climate Change Science
Program today released the report Evaluating Progress of the U.S.
Climate Change Science
Program. Their
conclusions:
- A major hurdle to CCSP progress is the
program director’s lack of authority to allocate or prioritize funding
across participating agencies.
- Discovery science and understanding of the climate system are
proceeding well, but use of that knowledge to support decision making
and to manage risks and opportunities of climate change is proceeding
slowly.
- Progress in understanding and predicting climate change has improved
more at global, continental, and ocean basin scales than at regional
and local scales.
- Our understanding of the impact of climate changes on human well-being
and vulnerabilities is much less developed than our understanding of
the natural climate system.
- Science quality observation systems have fueled advances in climate
change science and applications, but many existing and planned
observing systems (satellite missions) have been cancelled, delayed,
or degraded, presenting perhaps the single greatest threat to the
future success of CCSP.
- Progress in communicating CCSP results and
engaging stakeholders is inadequate.
The Committee on Strategic Advice was established by the National
Research Council of the
National Academies at the request
of the director of the CCSP.
The U.S. Climate Change Science
Program is the umbrella organization
for the interagency U.S. Global Climate Research
Group established by the Global Change
Research Act of 1990, and Bush’s
2001 Climate Change Research
Initiative to study
uncertainty in climate research.
See also Andrew Revkin’s piece for the New York
Times.
The committee is holding a workshop in Washington, D.C., Oct. 15-17, to
discuss future priorities for CCSP research,
which will be the focus of its follow-up report.
Posted by Brad Johnson on 09/12/2007 at 05:21PM
Judge William Sessions III issued his ruling
in 2:05-CV-302 Green Mountain Chrysler-Plymouth-Dodge et al v. Crombie
et al, a case in which the American Automobile
Manufacturers sued the state of Vermont
to block regulations adopted by Vermont in the fall of 2005 that
follow’s California’s Pavley
Law greenhouse
gas emissions standards for new automobiles. Following the Supreme
Court’s Massachusetts vs
EPA
decision that made it clear EPA has authority
to regulate greenhouse gases, Sessions ruled in full for Vermont,
stating:
History suggests that the ingenuity of the industry, once put in gear,
responds admirably to most technological challenges. In light of the
public statements of industry representatives, history of compliance
with previous technological challenges, and the state of the record,
the Court remains unconvinced automakers cannot meet the challenges of
Vermont and California’s GHG regulations.
The legality of Vermont’s regulations is pending the
EPA’s decision to grant the California waiver
petition under the Clean Air Act to
allow California to implement the Pavley Law. (S.
1785, passed
out of
committee,
would force the EPA to make a decision by
September 30.)
Vermont was supported by the Conservation Law
Foundation, Sierra
Club,
Natural Resources Defense
Council, Environmental
Defense,
Vermont PIRG, and the
state of New York.
The AAM has suits pending in California and
Rhode Island as well.
Read the full opinion and order
(PDF)
Posted by Brad Johnson on 09/11/2007 at 03:05PM
Yesterday the Club of
Madrid, the organization of 66 democratic
former heads of stated, unveiled a proposal for the international
climate change framework to be developed at the Conferences of the
Parties to the UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali this
December. Glenn Hurwitz covers the
proposal at
Grist.
The brief summary: An international framework with a global target of
60% below 1990 levels by 2050; developed countries should be at 30%
below by 2020 and rapidly developing countries should lower their energy
intensity by 30% by 2020 and follow emissions targets thenceforth. A
carbon price should be set by a globally linked cap-and-trade system
with auctioned credits or preferably by universal carbon taxes. $20
billion should be spent annually on energy R&D and an annual fund of $50
billion should go to developing countries for adaptation, avoided
deforestation, and clean energy development and deployment—the latter
including renewable energy and energy efficiency. IP barriers to clean
energy technologies should be dropped.
The full
recommendations
are past the break.
Posted by Brad Johnson on 09/07/2007 at 07:03PM
According to the Associated
Press, the Asia
Pacific Economic Cooperation summit set a voluntary target of reducing
energy intensity (the ratio of energy consumption per unit of
GDP) 25 percent by 2030. In addition,
Australia and Russia announced an
agreement
on a “long-term global aspirational goal for stabilising and then
reducing greenhouse gas emissions” and to “allow the supply of
Australian uranium for use in Russia’s civil nuclear power industry.”
As the BBC
explains, the
reductions in energy intensity would not lead to any reduction in
GHG emissions. In fact, a 49% reduction in
energy intensity by 2050, given projected economic growth, translates to
a rise in greenhouse gas emissions of about 15%.
Andrew Dessler has more at Gristmill on what he calls the “intensity
scam.”
Posted by Brad Johnson on 09/07/2007 at 01:15PM
Grist’s Brian Beutler
covers
yesterday’s Global Warming Committee hearing on The Future of Coal
Under Cap and
Trade:
Here are two takes on the issue, from two sources that couldn’t be
more deeply at odds with each other. Both suggest coal may yet see its
heyday.
The first comes from Michael Morris, CEO of
American Electric Power, who testified at the hearing. He supports, in
the same tepid way that many energy companies now do, an economy-wide
cap-and-trade program with carbon credits allocated freely. (His
justification for this might just represent one of the great moments
in the history of inadvertent honesty: “We believe that credits ought
to be allocated to those who will invest the capital to make a
difference in the environment, rather than an auction so that those
who buy them can make money by the positions they have taken.” In
other words, give energy companies the allocations because we’re
already rich and don’t award the innovators for beating us to the
punch.) One of Moore’s other main points was that coal companies won’t
begin installing CCS equipment until
CCS “has been demonstrated to be effective,
and the costs have significantly dropped so that it becomes
commercially available on a widespread basis.”
He’s certainly not the only person who thinks it’s politically
infeasible to impose drastic, costly policies on the coal industry—and
that therefore carbon-based energy companies have the world by the
political balls. Robert Sussman, an environmental expert testifying on
behalf of the Center for American Progress, said, “unfortunately, our
analysis indicates that the initial stages of cap-and-trade programs
[do not] not make carbon prices high enough to eliminate cost
differentials” between clean and dirty coal plants.
That points toward two possibilities: We could ratchet up the
regulatory impact of climate-change legislation, or we could subsidize
the hell out of CCS.
At the end of the hearing, Sussman suggested that the Congress set a
date (specifically the year 2016) by which
CCS technology be standardized, saying the
cost of such a hasty transition would require $35 billion to $40
billion in research subsidies.
As a consolation prize, David Hawkins, director of the Climate Center
at NRDC, proposed that the marginal costs of
outfitting coal plants with CCS technology
should be paid directly by consumers (a green incentive) and not by
direct tax subsidies. Woot?
Posted by Brad Johnson on 09/07/2007 at 10:12AM
Architecture 2030 is an initiative
started by architect Edward Mazria (The Passive Solar Energy Book)
with two components: the 2030
Challenge, which calls
for all new buildings and development to be carbon-neutral by 2030,
starting at 50% of the regional energy consumption; and the 2010
Imperative, which
calls on all design schools to be carbon neutral by 2010 and achieve
complete ecological literacy in design education.
Architecture 2030 is also running ads with the message of no more
coal, stating:
Without coal, all the positive efforts underway can make a difference.
Over an 11-year period (1973-1983), the US built approx. 30 billion
square feet of new buildings, added approx. 35 million new vehicles
and increased real GDP by one trillion
dollars while decreasing its energy consumption and
CO2 emissions. We don’t need coal, we have
what we need: efficient design and proven technologies.
Today, buildings use 76% of all the energy produced at coal plants.
By implementing The 2030 Challenge to reduce building energy use by a
minimum of 50%, we negate the need for new coal plants.
Posted by Brad Johnson on 09/06/2007 at 08:02AM
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit is this weekend in Sydney,
Australia, and President Bush will be there.
APEC includes 21 countries surrounding the
Pacific Ocean, including the US, Australia, China, Mexico, and Japan. A
primary topic of discussion will be climate change, which the
administration is highlighting.
On September 4, Bush and Prime Minister Howard released a joint
announcement
on climate change that “agreed today on the importance of confronting
the interlinked challenges of climate change, energy security and clean
development” and the goal of achieving an international agreement in
Bali that “provides for effective action from all the major emitting
nations toward the UNFCCC objective of
stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level
that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate
system”. The upcoming APEC statement on
climate change and the outcome of the Major Economies Meeting on Energy
Security and Climate Change in Washington DC on Spetember 27-28 will
indicate the US negotiating position for the UN conference.
What specifics are in the agreement?
On the White House website EPA Administrator
Stephen L. Johnson will be taking
questions on Friday,
September 7 at 12:45 pm EDT.
AVAAZ has a international petition calling
for action on global warming at
the APEC summit with over 400,000 co-signers.
Posted by Brad Johnson on 08/26/2007 at 12:26PM
Hill Heat will be on vaction until after the Labor Day weekend.
Restore the balance!
Posted by Brad Johnson on 08/25/2007 at 10:43AM
Who’s spending money on Google global warming keywords?
Organizations that are advertising on Hill Heat include:
- Heartland
Institute,
which has moved from denying the effects of smoking to denying the
effects of global warming
- Carbon Planet carbonplanet.com carbon credits
- Energy Race energyrace.com
- BP
- carbonaided.com
- healthpolitics.com
- commengineering.com
- RealTruth.org/GlobalWarming
Solar/renewable/energy efficiency
- Home Depot professional solar power system
- Vista-Films.com
- infor.com Green Maintenance
- thesolarcenter.com
Carbon market
Peak oil/Global energy crisis