Kyoto News

UN climate chief spurs talks on new global warming pact.

Alexandra Heeney — Fri, 4 Jul 2008 17:32:30 -0400

UN climate chief Yvo de Boer called on industrialised countries Friday to start showing some of their cards in a poker game whose prize will be a new pact to tackle global warming. De Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said talks unfolding among senior officials here marked 'the first time that people are getting down to serious negotiations' for a historic deal in Copenhagen in December 2009. But, he warned, many positions had so far been 'incredibly generic' and this problem of vagueness was especially worrying among industrialised countries. The June 3-13 Bonn talks should issue 'a very clear call on governments to start submitting their ideas on what should be the key elements of a Copenhagen outcome,' said de Boer. He warned: 'Politically, if Copenhagen fails we would be in huge trouble. I think that people would then begin to question the utility of this process.' Last December, parties to the UNFCCC set down a 'Bali Roadmap' of talks designed to climax in the most ambitious and complex environmental treaty ever attempted. [

See the Forbes story]

The island in the wind.

Alexandra Heeney — Fri, 4 Jul 2008 17:25:52 -0400

For the past decade or so, Sams� has been the site of an unlikely social movement. When it began, in the late nineteen-nineties, the island’s forty-three hundred inhabitants had what might be described as a conventional attitude toward energy: as long as it continued to arrive, they weren’t much interested in it. Most Samsingers heated their houses with oil, which was brought in on tankers. They used electricity imported from the mainland via cable, much of which was generated by burning coal. As a result, each Samsinger put into the atmosphere, on average, nearly eleven tons of carbon dioxide annually. Then, quite deliberately, the residents of the island set about changing this. They formed energy co�peratives and organized seminars on wind power. They removed their furnaces and replaced them with heat pumps. By 2001, fossil-fuel use on Sams� had been cut in half. By 2003, instead of importing electricity, the island was exporting it, and by 2005 it was producing from renewable sources more energy than it was using. [

See the New Yorker story]

Canada lands second-last in climate-change ranking.

Alexandra Heeney — Thu, 3 Jul 2008 14:36:59 -0400

Canada and the U.S. are the worst countries in the G8 when it comes to taking effective measures to forestall the risk of rapid and uncontrolled climate change, according to an assessment of the major industrialized countries compiled by a European-based environmental consulting firm. The assessment, issued today by World Wide Fund for Nature and German insurance giant Allianz SE, ranked the U.S. last among the G8 and Canada second to last because they've done so little to curb emissions of greenhouse gases. Britain was ranked best, followed by France. Canada performed poorly because of the huge emissions from Alberta's energy-intensive tar sands, the country's reluctance to comply with greenhouse-gas reduction targets in the Kyoto Protocol and the lack of federal regulations to cut overall emissions. [

See the Globe and Mail story]

"Tough" talks ahead on EU climate plan, warns France.

Alexandra Heeney — Thu, 3 Jul 2008 14:35:31 -0400

French Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo on Thursday warned an arduous road lay before the European Union as he kicked off talks on realising the EU's vision of slashing carbon pollution by 2020. "I find the mood is good, there's no posturing, no-one's playing games, but at the same time we are dealing with a question that's tough, there are very tough things here," Borloo told reporters. "To put things in perspective, the economies of 27 countries, with a variety of backgrounds in energy and industry, are being asked to make a somewhat radical shift using everyday budgets," he said. "At the moment, no other region in the world is attempting something on this scale." The talks, taking place in the Saint-Cloud park on the western rim of Paris, aim at clearing some of the many obstacles besetting the EU's goal of setting the world standard for tackling climate-change emissions. Last year, the EU set the goal of reducing the 27-nation bloc's greenhouse-gas pollution by 20 percent by 2020 compared with a benchmark year of 1990. Hoping to spur the United States, Japan and Canada, the EU promised to deepen this to 30 percent if other rich economies followed suit [

See the AFP story]

Fund aims to help Japanese firms cut emissions.

Alexandra Heeney — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:40:02 -0400

A new fund aims to help small Japanese companies gain access to technologies to reduce emissions of gases blamed for global warming, its supporters said Monday. The fund, which will be set up in July, seeks to facilitate the transfer of low-carbon technologies from big Japanese firms to smaller companies which normally cannot afford them. "Under the current system, small companies don't have financial and technological resources to implement CO2 emission (reduction) programmes," said Yasuhiro Sakakibara, one of the fund's supporters. "We believe this will lead to further emission cuts in Japan," said Sakakibara, a board member of the Switzerland-based ZERI Foundation and the head of the new sister foundation in Japan. The fund, which hopes to attract donations from companies and individuals, aims to enable big companies to earn carbon credits by offering low-carbon emission technologies to smaller companies. [

See the AFP story]

China calls for help on climate change.

Alexandra Heeney — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 16:24:48 -0400

Addressing climate change head-on is in China's best interests, but it needs developed countries to do their fair share, president Hu Jintao said in a speech reported by the Xinhua news agency on Saturday. Hu called on developed countries to "step up efforts" on emission reduction and provide financial and technical support for developing countries. China will participate in next month's Group of Eight meeting in Hokkaido, Japan, where climate change is top on the agenda. Countries are trying to set new targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that will take effect after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. Although China is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, on a per person basis it produces far less than many developing countries. Chinese negotiators also point out that the country is only just catching up after two centuries of industrialization in the West. But Chinese policy makers are increasingly worried about the impact of global warming, which could dry up rivers that water the arid north and intensify flooding in the south. China also suffers from intensely polluted water and air. [

See the Reuters, UK story]

No ice at the North Pole.

David Heeney — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:14:18 -0400

It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year. The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer. [

See the Independent's story]

Climate breakthrough unlikely at G8 summit - UK envoy.

Alexandra Heeney — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:08:06 -0400

G8 rich nations and major emerging economies probably won't achieve a big breakthrough in talks on global warming in Japan next month, Britain's climate envoy said on Thursday, echoing other forecasts for modest progress at best. Climate change is a key topic for the July 8 Group of Eight leaders' summit as well as an expanded meeting the next day with heads of eight other major economies including China and India. But doubts persist as to whether and how far the leaders will be able to go beyond an agreement reached at last year's summit in Germany, where they said they would seriously consider a global goal of halving the world's greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. "The very fact that that conversation is taking place is helpful because we need to build a sense of common purpose among the people who are leading our economies," said Britain's special representative for climate change, John Ashton., [

See the Reuters story]

Tokyo approves Japan's first greenhouse gas curbs.

Alexandra Heeney — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:43:55 -0400

Tokyo's local government on Wednesday ordered Japan's first mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and set up a carbon market, moving faster than the national government. Tokyo's metropolitan assembly approved plans to force 1,300 major businesses to cut emissions blamed for global warming by 25 percent by 2020 compared with 2000 levels. The requirements will take effect in 2010 followed the next year by a carbon market -- which gives businesses an incentive to go green by letting them buy and trade emission credits. The action by Tokyo -- which is the world's largest city when including the metropolitan area -- comes as Japan struggles to meet its commitments to cut emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. "This carries meaning not just for Tokyo but for all of Japan," Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara told reporters after the assembly passed his plan. "I hope this will be a trigger for broader action," he said. [

See the AFP story.]

Africa power sector should tap carbon credit funds.

Alexandra Heeney — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:38:55 -0400

Africa's electricity producers can raise additional funds for much-needed investment by developing clean energy that allows them to sell emission credits, a continental electricity official said on Wednesday. Eddie Njoroge, head of the Union of Producers, Transporters and Distributors of Electric Power in Africa, told Reuters this was one of the options open to utilities who have to make the necessary investments to meet rising demand. "There is a realisation that clean energy is the way forward and if you have got clean projects, there is no reason why you cannot claim some credits," he said at a union meeting in Kenya. "We need to have innovative ways of financing the projects. I think we need to look at listing infrastructure bonds, export credit agencies and leveraging on our balance sheets." In the carbon credit market under the Kyoto Protocol, worth $13.4 billion last year according to the World Bank, companies and governments from rich nations invest in clean energy projects in developing countries and in return receive offset credits. These credits, each equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2), can then be sold for profit or used to meet greenhouse gas emissions targets under Kyoto. Africa needs to spend an estimated $560 billion by 2030 to generate an additional 260,000 megawatts (MW) of power, experts say. [

See the Reuters story]