Copenhagen & Kyoto News

Expert focus on fish and climate change.

Alexandra Heeney — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:34:19 -0400

The effect of climate change on the world's fish is becoming a global issue. Overfishing may still get the blame for shortages but there is increasing evidence that many species are increasingly affected by climate change, specifically warmer water. And that has a knock-on effect on the fishing industry. Marine scientists and fish experts from around the world are in conference at Queen's University, Belfast to discuss the latest situation and share their research. [

See the BBC News story]

Obama must take a lead on climate change – and soon.

Alexandra Heeney — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:31:33 -0400

All signs suggest that the planet is still hurtling headlong toward climatic disaster. The US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration has issued its "State of the Climate Report" covering January-May. The first five months of this year were the warmest since records began in 1880. May was the warmest month ever. Intense heat waves are currently hitting many parts of the world, yet still we fail to act. There are several reasons for this, and we should understand them in order to break today's deadlock. First, the economic challenge of controlling human-induced climate change is truly complex. Anthropogenic climate change is caused by two principal sources of emissions of mainly carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide: fossil-fuel use for energy and agriculture (including deforestation to create new farmland and pastureland). [

See the Guardian UK story]

Monitor urges utilities to go slow on smart grid renovations.

Alexandra Heeney — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:30:09 -0400

A report by the operations monitor of the North American electricity grid, issued today, raises a large yellow caution flag over climate policy initiatives that would require a massive change in the nation's power and transmission infrastructure. A task force on climate change formed by North American Electric Reliability Corp. urges that policymakers not count on large amounts of renewable energy, demand reduction from smart grid systems or new storage technologies before they prove they can be worked onto the grid without endangering the system's reliability. Deep cuts in generators' greenhouse gas emissions require an unprecedented transformation from current generation, says Mark Lauby, NERC's director of reliability assessment and performance analysis. "One of our main concerns is looking at the technology and realizing this is a 1-million-megawatt system. What kind of time is required to integrate new technologies?" Lauby said in an interview. [

See the New York Times story]

Obama says will keep pushing for climate bill.

Alexandra Heeney — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:29:01 -0400

President Barack Obama pledged on Tuesday to keep pushing for legislation to fight climate change despite a move in the U.S. Senate to focus energy reform more narrowly on offshore drilling. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid is expected to unveil a bill later on Tuesday that does not include setting caps on carbon emissions -- the key element of a more comprehensive energy and climate bill that did not find sufficient support in the Senate. Obama said the revised bill was "an important step in the right direction" but he said it would not be enough. "I want to emphasize it's only the first step and I intend to keep pushing for broader reform, including climate legislation," he told reporters in the White House Rose Garden after meeting with congressional leaders. [

See the Reuters story]

Climate change linked to possible mass Mexican migration to U.S.

Alexandra Heeney — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:26:58 -0400

Climbing temperatures are expected to raise sea levels and increase droughts, floods, heat waves and wildfires. Now, scientists are predicting another consequence of climate change: mass migration to the United States. Between 1.4 million and 6.7 million Mexicans could migrate to the U.S. by 2080 as climate change reduces crop yields and agricultural production in Mexico, according to a study published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The number could amount to 10% of the current population of Mexicans ages 15 to 65. [

See the Los Angeles Times]

Damselflies in distress forced back to UK by climate change.

Alexandra Heeney — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:25:07 -0400

Damselflies don't sound like they'd do anything as dramatic as invading anywhere, and the dainty damselfly sounds like it would do so least of all. But that's what's happening in southern England, as several species of these delicate, smaller relatives of the dragonflies cross over from the continent and start establishing populations here. The dainty damselfly, a flying matchstick of bright blue and black, is the latest of a number of new arrivals from Europe which are thought to have been brought to Britain by rising temperatures caused by climate change. [

See the Independent story]

New tool takes a deeper dive Into assessing water impacts.

Alexandra Heeney — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:23:15 -0400

Companies are increasingly tracking their water consumption and developing action plans to curb use. Yet they often lack the ability to take a closer look at how their water consumption is impacting local resources. A new tool from Veolia Water North America aims to help organizations take a deeper dive into water assessments in order to help them maker better business decisions. "Looking at the water content of a product doesn't give information on water stress," said Laurent Auguste, Veolia Water Americas' CEO and president, said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "We wanted to push it one step further for clients and people who manage water to evaluate the impact on resources, water stress and quality." [

See the GreenBiz story]

Australia PM again delays emissions trading.

Alexandra Heeney — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:21:52 -0400

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard reaffirmed on Friday a delay in introducing a price for carbon pollution, angering environmentalists, scientists and business ahead of her bid to secure re-election. The delay, until 2012 at least, is certain to test the ruling Labor Party's ties with the small Greens party ahead of the August 21 contest. The Greens are set to be kingmakers in the next parliament, controlling the balance of power in the Senate upper house. Voters deserted Labor in favour of the Greens in April when the government first postponed a carbon trading scheme after twice failing to win passage of its climate policy in parliament. "This is a complete failure of leadership by the prime minister," said Greens Senator Christine Milne. [

See the Reuters story]

Government's energy policies 'a huge disappointment'.

Alexandra Heeney — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0400

The coalition is going "backwards not forwards" in its pledge to be the "greenest government ever", shadow energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband has said. Mr Miliband accused the Tories and Lib Dems of employing the same "rhetoric without substance" in office that they used in opposition. He was responding to a statement by Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne, who said the government was taking "three big steps forward" by creating a market for energy savings through the "green deal", ensuring the electricity market worked "properly", and "strengthening" the carbon price. Mr Huhne told MPs that "the cheapest way of closing the gap between energy demand and supply is to cut energy use", setting out the government's aims to improve household energy efficiency by installing "smart meters" in more homes. He announced that ministers would implement a "transitional regime for offshore wind farms", re-affirming the government's commitment to harnessing renewable energy sources. [

See the BBC News story]

Beijing fund warns on Kyoto CO2 offset rule changes.

Alexandra Heeney — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:18:32 -0400

A Chinese government fund has told a U.N. panel it supports project developers which earn carbon offsets under a lucrative Kyoto Protocol scheme, and which rejects the idea that they are over-compensated. Chinese project developers rejected key grounds for a review of Kyoto's clean development mechanism (CDM), and the China CDM Fund supported them, confidential papers showed a week before a U.N. panel decides whether to launch a formal review of the scheme. The projects are the most lucrative under the CDM, which allows rich countries to buy offsets from carbon-cutting projects in the developing world as a way to ease the cost of reducing emissions. [

See the Reuters story]