Japanese govt to push high-tech ways to reduce CO2

March 2, 2008 (Daily Yomiuri) – The government and business groups are set to jointly promote the use of 21 revolutionary new technologies, such as an advanced form of solar-power generation and underground storage of carbon dioxide emissions, as part of a plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions, government sources said Saturday.

Adoption of the plan, which also forms part of a national road map for promoting technological development, by the world’s major polluters could account for as much as 60 percent of the 40 billion ton cut in global emissions by 2050 that Japan has proposed, the sources said.

The government is set to announce the plan at a meeting of ministers from 20 countries on global warming to be held in Chiba starting March 14.

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Thirst for electricity threatens Australian targets

February 26, 2008 (Canberra Times) – Australia’s rapidly escalating electricity consumption remains the biggest risk to meeting its Kyoto treaty targets, a new Federal Government report warns. A Department of Climate Change analysis of national greenhouse emission trends estimates Australia’s emissions from electricity use will increase 59 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020.

Despite use of renewable energy doubling to 20 per cent of the national electricity mix by 2020, carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired electricity are projected to rise from 1990 levels of 129 million tonnes a year to 204 million tonnes.

Carbon Credits for Commercial Forests in New Zealand

February 14, 2008 (New Zealand Herald) – Ministers and officials are grappling with some thorny issues over how to parcel out more than $1 billion worth of free carbon credits to the owners of commercial forests planted before 1990. They ought to have better things to do with their time.

Under the rules of the Kyoto Protocol, if a forest planted before 1990 is harvested and not replanted, the carbon stored in those trees (about 800 tonnes a hectare for a radiata pine forest) is deemed to be emitted then and there, and the country is liable for those emissions.

StatoilHydro and ONGC cooperate (India)

February 9, 2008 (The Norway Post) –

 StatoilHydro and the Indian oil company ONGC have agreed to jointly explore the potential of developing Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), and CDM (clean development mechanism) projects in India.

A memorandum of understanding has been signed by StatoilHydro’s Mrs Alexandra Bech Gjørv, Senior Vice President New Energy, and Mr Michel Myhre-Nielsen, CCS business development manager, and ONGC’s Mr A. K. Hazarika, Director, and Mr N. K. Mitra, Director.

Letter from Shell CEO

From: Jeroen van der Veer, Chief Executive
To: All Shell employees
Date: 22 January 2008 Subject: Shell Energy Scenarios

Dear Colleagues

In this letter, I’d like to share reflections about how we see the energy future, and our preferred route to meeting the world’s energy needs. Industry, governments and energy users – that is, all of us – will face the twin challenge of more energy and less CO2.

This letter is based on a text I’ve written for publication in several newspapers in the coming weeks. You can use it in your communications externally. There will be more information about energy scenarios inthe months ahead.

By the year 2100, the world’s energy system will be radically different from today’s. Renewable energy like solar, wind, hydroelectricity and biofuels will make up a large share of the energy mix, and nuclear energy too will have a place.

Mankind will have found ways of dealing with air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. New technologies will have reduced the amount of energy needed to power buildings and vehicles.

Origin partners with wind generation developers

January 22, 2008 (News.com.au) – Origin Energy has partnered with wind generation developers Epuron to develop 590 MegaWatt wind farm projects in New South Wales.

The fist project will be the construction of the 30 MW Cullerin Range wind farm in NSW, about 30 kilometres west if Gouldburn.Origin expects to start commissioning of the wind farm next year.

Emission Cuts Are `Feel Good,’ Won’t Save World, Lomborg Says

December 24, 2007 (Bloomberg) – The world’s lawmakers should abandon attempts to set “optimistic” targets for greenhouse-gas emissions, said Bjorn Lomborg, the author of the best-selling book “The Skeptical Environmentalist. ”The U.S. and developing nations on Dec. 15 agreed at United Nations-sponsored talks to negotiate a new global-warming treaty by 2009, after the U.S. accepted a compromise agenda to protect the climate after 2012, when the existing emissions-limiting accord runs out.

The 1997 Kyoto Protocol and last week’s talks on the Indonesian island of Bali are expensive and inefficient ways to tackle climate change, said Lomborg, dubbed in 2004 by Time Magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential people. Instead, nations should spend more money on developing renewable energy such as wind and solar power, he said.

Hong Kong Exchange Looks to Trade Smog Rights

December 11, 2007 (NY Times) – As this city struggles under a daily cloud of noxious fumes from local traffic and nearby factories in mainland China, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is considering using its financial muscle as part of a solution.The exchange’s board is scheduled Wednesday to consider setting up system for trading in pollution emissions allowances. Such system could serve as a financial platform for mainland China and other Asian countries entering a burgeoning new business.

A Leading Asian Utility to Cut Carbon Emissions

December 6, 2007 (New York Times) – CLP, one of Asia’s largest power utilities, plans to commit itself on Friday to sharply reducing its emissions of carbon dioxide.

The company plans to cut the amount of carbon dioxide it emits with each kilowatt-hour of electricity generated by 4.8 percent over the next three years, and 76 percent by 2050. To do so, it will step up its investments in nuclear power, natural gas, renewable energy and so-called clean coal technologies.

Japan goes on an air spending spree

November 30, 2007 (Asia Times) – Increasingly feeling the heat over the Kyoto Protocol on curbing global warming, Japan is going on a spending spree to buy rights from around the world to emit carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

With the clock ticking toward the start of the United Nations treaty’s “first commitment period” of 2008-2012, more and more dark clouds are hanging over Japan’s commitment to reach its protocol goal.