Yang Rong, a Chinese automobile tycoon who fled the country after being accused of economic crimes, is preparing to launch an ambitious plan to make clean-tech cars in the United States, said a source.
The former chairman of Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd, ranked by Forbes as China's third-richest man in 2001, will announce a plan later this month to set up a company in the southern U.S. state of Alabama, said the source with direct knowledge of the plan.
Yang could not be immediately reached for comment.
Support for the plan had come from former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, one of the world's most visible environmental activists and now a partner at U.S. venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, said the source, declining to be more specific.
A spokeswoman for Gore said he was not immediately available to comment.
Yang's plans to return to the auto industry after fleeing to the United States in late 2002 first emerged in various Chinese media reports, which did not provide details.
Now living in California, he has hired a former senior executive of top U.S. carmaker General Motors Corp to run the firm's daily operations, said the source.
The firm is also seeking financial support from the U.S. Department of Energy, which is in charge of a mega-sized fund to support environmentally friendly energy projects, the source said.
David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said such a venture could cost billions of dollars and would run headlong into tough competition.
"Until there is more detail, it is really hard to know," Cole said. "But I would still say good luck, because it is a very formidable task, particularly in the competitive market that already exists, and will be very much developing around the so-called clean cars."
SWEET HOME ALABAMA
Yang will cooperate with the Alabama state government on the project, expected to create thousands of jobs in its initial phase, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity as the source was not authorized to speak to the media.
"The Alabama government definitely welcomes the plan as the new firm, which owns big land in the state, will build a plant there and hire local workers," the source said.
Alabama economic development officials had no comment.
Yang was China's most influential carmaker at one time as he helped transform Brilliance from a stagnant state-owned auto factory into a top maker of mini-vans in the country.
Brilliance later became a household brand and a manufacturing partner of German carmaker BMW in China.
Yang's new company will manufacture cars in Alabama, with plans to sell them nationwide, while it also seeks partners in China where the tycoon hopes to produce cars for local consumers, said the source.
"All cars made in the U.S. will be sold in the U.S. and the firm will also make cars in China and sell cars to Chinese consumers, but key technologies will be definitely controlled by people in the U.S.," said the source.
However, the source acknowledged that Yang's politically sensitive background might lead to legal challenges for the firm's China plans because the government has not cleared his case.
Friday, July 10, 2009
One Of The Challenges Of Being The Front Runner Is That Everyone Is Gunning For You.
One of the challenges of being the front runner is that everyone is gunning for you. GM learned this the hard way, and Toyota is seeing it, as well.
Most people have a story about their old GM or Ford vehicle with little quality problems that it seemed like the companies didn't want to fix. Meanwhile, Toyota and Honda were perceived as the gold standard, consistently getting deserved recommended ratings from Consumer Reports as well as glowing reviews from owners.
Those word of mouth recommendations are one of the keys that helped make Toyota's brand bulletproof when it comes to quality. But recently, Toyota has been seeing some problems that are vaguely reminiscent of the perceptions of GM, Ford and Chrysler quality as they fell from dominance.
-- In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Camry and ES300 engines were having much publicized (and criticized) sludge problems which left the vehicles useless.
-- Toyota has started recalling Tacoma pick-ups from the same period, for excessive rust on the frames.--The Yaris (Belta in Europe) and Vitz subcompact are recalled for seatbelt and exhaust system defects, affecting 1.35 million vehicles worldwide-- And now, 2006 and 2007 Prius HID headlights are experiencing enough consumer complaints to draw an NHTSA investigation in April.
This last one should be of real concern for Toyota. Toyota is in the midst of a critical launch of its third generation of the Prius. Honda is gunning for the Prius with its new Insight. So far, the Prius looks safe with very strong sales out of the gate, but these kind of little quality problems that get ignored are just the sort of problems that drove GM's reputation in the wrong direction.
Advertising Age quoted Todd Turner, president of consultant CarConcepts, as saying Toyota should issue a service bulletin on the problem which would bring cars in for inspection before problems arise. This would be a good way to head off the problem and keep customers happy without having to issue an actual recall.
With the new Prius PHEV coming down the line soon and with Honda and GM (with the Volt) breathing down their necks, Toyota's management can't afford take a chance with the Prius image right now. The Prius headlight problem isn't yet big enough to set off alarm bells, but if Toyota wants to remain the green auto leader, ignoring minor problems like this starts to look more like a roll of the dice.
Most people have a story about their old GM or Ford vehicle with little quality problems that it seemed like the companies didn't want to fix. Meanwhile, Toyota and Honda were perceived as the gold standard, consistently getting deserved recommended ratings from Consumer Reports as well as glowing reviews from owners.
Those word of mouth recommendations are one of the keys that helped make Toyota's brand bulletproof when it comes to quality. But recently, Toyota has been seeing some problems that are vaguely reminiscent of the perceptions of GM, Ford and Chrysler quality as they fell from dominance.
-- In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Camry and ES300 engines were having much publicized (and criticized) sludge problems which left the vehicles useless.
-- Toyota has started recalling Tacoma pick-ups from the same period, for excessive rust on the frames.--The Yaris (Belta in Europe) and Vitz subcompact are recalled for seatbelt and exhaust system defects, affecting 1.35 million vehicles worldwide-- And now, 2006 and 2007 Prius HID headlights are experiencing enough consumer complaints to draw an NHTSA investigation in April.
This last one should be of real concern for Toyota. Toyota is in the midst of a critical launch of its third generation of the Prius. Honda is gunning for the Prius with its new Insight. So far, the Prius looks safe with very strong sales out of the gate, but these kind of little quality problems that get ignored are just the sort of problems that drove GM's reputation in the wrong direction.
Advertising Age quoted Todd Turner, president of consultant CarConcepts, as saying Toyota should issue a service bulletin on the problem which would bring cars in for inspection before problems arise. This would be a good way to head off the problem and keep customers happy without having to issue an actual recall.
With the new Prius PHEV coming down the line soon and with Honda and GM (with the Volt) breathing down their necks, Toyota's management can't afford take a chance with the Prius image right now. The Prius headlight problem isn't yet big enough to set off alarm bells, but if Toyota wants to remain the green auto leader, ignoring minor problems like this starts to look more like a roll of the dice.
Poachers Pushing Rhinos To Extinction: Nature Groups
Poachers seeking horn for traditional medicines are driving once thriving populations of rhinos in Africa and Asia toward extinction, global nature protection groups said Thursday.
In a report issued in Geneva, they said illegal slaughter of the already endangered animals is rising fast, with rates hitting a 15-year high amid stepped-up activities by Asian-based criminal gangs feeding the demand for horn.
"Illegal rhino horn trade to destinations in Asia is driving the killing, with growing evidence of involvement of Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai nationals in the illegal procurement and transport of the horn out of Africa," the report declared.
"Rhinos are in a desperate situation," said Susan Lieberman of the Swiss-based environmental body WWF-International, which issued the report together with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The report, presented to a meeting of the United Nations- sponsored CITES agency which works to prevent trade in endangered species, said South Africa and Zimbabwe were seeing a particular surge in poaching.
While between 2000 and 2005 a relatively low total of three rhinos were estimated to have been illegally killed each month in Africa out of a total population of some 18,000, 12 were now being slaughtered monthly in the two countries alone.
In India, 10 of the animals had been slaughtered for horn since January and at least 7 in Nepal, out of a total population for the two countries of just 2,400, the report said.
In many Asian countries, rhino horn has long been regarded as a vital ingredient in folk cures for many illnesses as well as for male sexual impotency, although medical specialists say it has no healing or potency powers.
Trade in any rhino parts is banned under the international CITES treaty, the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
But the WWF's Lieberman said the upsurge marks "the worst rhino poaching for many years" and represents a deadly threat to the animals' survival around the world.
It was time for governments "to crack down on organized criminal elements responsible for this trade, and to vastly increase assistance to (rhino) range countries in their enforcement efforts," she added.
Steve Broad, who heads the TRAFFIC network that works with WWF and IUCN in monitoring wildlife trade, said a lack of law enforcement and a low level of prosecutions of arrested poachers was making the situation worse.
"Increasingly daring attempts by poachers and thieves to obtain the horn is proving to be too much for rhinos, and some populations are seriously declining," he declared.
In a report issued in Geneva, they said illegal slaughter of the already endangered animals is rising fast, with rates hitting a 15-year high amid stepped-up activities by Asian-based criminal gangs feeding the demand for horn.
"Illegal rhino horn trade to destinations in Asia is driving the killing, with growing evidence of involvement of Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai nationals in the illegal procurement and transport of the horn out of Africa," the report declared.
"Rhinos are in a desperate situation," said Susan Lieberman of the Swiss-based environmental body WWF-International, which issued the report together with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The report, presented to a meeting of the United Nations- sponsored CITES agency which works to prevent trade in endangered species, said South Africa and Zimbabwe were seeing a particular surge in poaching.
While between 2000 and 2005 a relatively low total of three rhinos were estimated to have been illegally killed each month in Africa out of a total population of some 18,000, 12 were now being slaughtered monthly in the two countries alone.
In India, 10 of the animals had been slaughtered for horn since January and at least 7 in Nepal, out of a total population for the two countries of just 2,400, the report said.
In many Asian countries, rhino horn has long been regarded as a vital ingredient in folk cures for many illnesses as well as for male sexual impotency, although medical specialists say it has no healing or potency powers.
Trade in any rhino parts is banned under the international CITES treaty, the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
But the WWF's Lieberman said the upsurge marks "the worst rhino poaching for many years" and represents a deadly threat to the animals' survival around the world.
It was time for governments "to crack down on organized criminal elements responsible for this trade, and to vastly increase assistance to (rhino) range countries in their enforcement efforts," she added.
Steve Broad, who heads the TRAFFIC network that works with WWF and IUCN in monitoring wildlife trade, said a lack of law enforcement and a low level of prosecutions of arrested poachers was making the situation worse.
"Increasingly daring attempts by poachers and thieves to obtain the horn is proving to be too much for rhinos, and some populations are seriously declining," he declared.
Nature Can't Take Unrestrained Economic Growth: Prince Charles
The quest for unlimited economic growth is unsustainable and could bankrupt the environment through climate change and depleted natural resources, Britain's Prince Charles said Wednesday.
Charles, next-in-line to succeed Queen Elizabeth, said a new economic model must be found because the Earth can no longer support the demands of a growing "consumerist society" where growth is an end in itself.
People must realize they are not "the masters of creation," rather just one part of a fragile natural world, he added.
"Just as our banking sector is struggling with its debts... so Nature's life-support systems are failing to cope with the debts we have built up there too," Charles said at a BBC lecture at St James's Palace in central London.
"If we don't face up to this, then Nature, the biggest bank of all, could go bust.
"That is the challenge we face, it seems to me -- to see Nature's capital and her processes as the very basis of a new form of economics."
Charles, the former husband of the late Princess Diana, has long campaigned on the environment.
His own farm went organic in the 1980s, he publishes details of his estate's annual carbon emissions and has developed a sustainable village in western England called Poundbury.
"Our ability to adapt to the effects of climate change...depends on us adapting our pursuit of unlimited economic growth to that of sustainable growth," he said.
While conceding that industrialization had brought benefits such as better education, prosperity and higher life expectancy, the future king said that progress had come at a price.
Consumption has grown so much in the last 30 years that demands on natural resources now exceed the planet's capacity for renewal by a quarter each year, he added.
By 2050, the world's population will swell to about 9 billion people, from more than 6 billion currently, and a higher proportion will expect Western levels of consumption.
Modern farming methods that use fertilizers and pesticides that have helped feed a growing population have taken a "huge and unsustainable" toll on ecosystems, he added.
"Our current model of progress was not designed of course to create all this destruction," Charles said. "However, given the overwhelming evidence from so many quarters, we have to ask ourselves if it any longer makes sense or whether it is actually fit for purpose."
Economic growth has failed to end poverty, stress, ill health and social tensions, he added. A reformed economy must give more weight to the environment and local communities.
Charles, next-in-line to succeed Queen Elizabeth, said a new economic model must be found because the Earth can no longer support the demands of a growing "consumerist society" where growth is an end in itself.
People must realize they are not "the masters of creation," rather just one part of a fragile natural world, he added.
"Just as our banking sector is struggling with its debts... so Nature's life-support systems are failing to cope with the debts we have built up there too," Charles said at a BBC lecture at St James's Palace in central London.
"If we don't face up to this, then Nature, the biggest bank of all, could go bust.
"That is the challenge we face, it seems to me -- to see Nature's capital and her processes as the very basis of a new form of economics."
Charles, the former husband of the late Princess Diana, has long campaigned on the environment.
His own farm went organic in the 1980s, he publishes details of his estate's annual carbon emissions and has developed a sustainable village in western England called Poundbury.
"Our ability to adapt to the effects of climate change...depends on us adapting our pursuit of unlimited economic growth to that of sustainable growth," he said.
While conceding that industrialization had brought benefits such as better education, prosperity and higher life expectancy, the future king said that progress had come at a price.
Consumption has grown so much in the last 30 years that demands on natural resources now exceed the planet's capacity for renewal by a quarter each year, he added.
By 2050, the world's population will swell to about 9 billion people, from more than 6 billion currently, and a higher proportion will expect Western levels of consumption.
Modern farming methods that use fertilizers and pesticides that have helped feed a growing population have taken a "huge and unsustainable" toll on ecosystems, he added.
"Our current model of progress was not designed of course to create all this destruction," Charles said. "However, given the overwhelming evidence from so many quarters, we have to ask ourselves if it any longer makes sense or whether it is actually fit for purpose."
Economic growth has failed to end poverty, stress, ill health and social tensions, he added. A reformed economy must give more weight to the environment and local communities.
Obama's Drive For Climate Change Bill Hits Delay
As President Barack Obama encouraged world leaders meeting in Italy to intensify the fight against global warming, legislation to cut U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases suffered a delay in the Senate on Thursday.
The leading Senate committee responsible for developing the climate change legislation has delayed by at least a month its crafting of a bill, leaving less time for Congress to fulfill Obama's desire to enact a law this year.
"We'll do it as soon as we get back" in September from a month-long break, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer announced.
Earlier this week, Boxer, a Democrat, said her committee had planned to complete work on a bill by early August.
A White House spokesman, who asked not to be identified, said, "The administration is continuing to work with the Senate to pass comprehensive energy legislation and believes it's on track." He would not discuss timetables, though.
On June 26, the House of Representatives narrowly passed its version of a bill to cut carbon dioxide emissions from 2005 levels by 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050.
The Senate delay came as Congress was preoccupied with healthcare reform, Obama's top legislative priority, and as senators continued to bicker over how to reduce industrial emissions of carbon dioxide without putting U.S. businesses and consumers at a disadvantage.
At a meeting of the Group of Eight major industrialized nations in L'Aquila, Italy, leaders failed to get China and India to sign onto a goal of cutting emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in half by 2050.
Nonetheless, Obama said "important strides" had been made in agreements to limit global warming. A White House spokesman said the president was confident "there was still time in which they could close the gap" with China and India, two large polluters, before December's talks in Copenhagen on a new U.N. climate change treaty.
LEGISLATION FINISHED BY DECEMBER?
Asked if the delay in her committee hurt chances the Senate will pass a bill this year, Boxer said, "Not a bit ... we'll be in (session) until Christmas, so I'm not worried about it."
But she did not guarantee Congress will be able to finish a bill and deliver it to Obama by December in time for the Copenhagen meeting.
"I want to take this as far as we can take it (before Copenhagen). The more we do the better," Boxer said.
Senator Charles Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which also has a significant role in developing the climate legislation, was more pessimistic. "I don't even expect it to come up this year" in the Senate, he told reporters.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said he wants the full Senate to debate a climate change bill this fall. But since the chamber could be preoccupied at least through October with legislation expanding healthcare to some 46 million uninsured people, the environmental bill may get crowded out.
Even though Democrats control 60 of the 100 seats in the Senate, there are enough moderate Democrats who might not support a climate change bill. So several Republican votes will likely be necessary for passage, according to analysts.
Some senators are trying to use the climate change bill to expand U.S. aid to the nuclear power industry, a move that likely would offend some liberals.
"I've been working with some of my colleagues ... to strengthen the section of the House bill regarding support of nuclear energy as a clean energy source," Senator Joseph Lieberman, an independent, told reporters.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin has said he also wants changes to the House-passed bill, which already contained significant breaks for farmers. Four other committees also will review the climate bill.
Asked if he thought the Senate could pass a bill this year, Harkin, with 33 years serving in Congress, said on Wednesday, "My experience here is that these things take a lot of time."
The leading Senate committee responsible for developing the climate change legislation has delayed by at least a month its crafting of a bill, leaving less time for Congress to fulfill Obama's desire to enact a law this year.
"We'll do it as soon as we get back" in September from a month-long break, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer announced.
Earlier this week, Boxer, a Democrat, said her committee had planned to complete work on a bill by early August.
A White House spokesman, who asked not to be identified, said, "The administration is continuing to work with the Senate to pass comprehensive energy legislation and believes it's on track." He would not discuss timetables, though.
On June 26, the House of Representatives narrowly passed its version of a bill to cut carbon dioxide emissions from 2005 levels by 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050.
The Senate delay came as Congress was preoccupied with healthcare reform, Obama's top legislative priority, and as senators continued to bicker over how to reduce industrial emissions of carbon dioxide without putting U.S. businesses and consumers at a disadvantage.
At a meeting of the Group of Eight major industrialized nations in L'Aquila, Italy, leaders failed to get China and India to sign onto a goal of cutting emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in half by 2050.
Nonetheless, Obama said "important strides" had been made in agreements to limit global warming. A White House spokesman said the president was confident "there was still time in which they could close the gap" with China and India, two large polluters, before December's talks in Copenhagen on a new U.N. climate change treaty.
LEGISLATION FINISHED BY DECEMBER?
Asked if the delay in her committee hurt chances the Senate will pass a bill this year, Boxer said, "Not a bit ... we'll be in (session) until Christmas, so I'm not worried about it."
But she did not guarantee Congress will be able to finish a bill and deliver it to Obama by December in time for the Copenhagen meeting.
"I want to take this as far as we can take it (before Copenhagen). The more we do the better," Boxer said.
Senator Charles Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which also has a significant role in developing the climate legislation, was more pessimistic. "I don't even expect it to come up this year" in the Senate, he told reporters.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said he wants the full Senate to debate a climate change bill this fall. But since the chamber could be preoccupied at least through October with legislation expanding healthcare to some 46 million uninsured people, the environmental bill may get crowded out.
Even though Democrats control 60 of the 100 seats in the Senate, there are enough moderate Democrats who might not support a climate change bill. So several Republican votes will likely be necessary for passage, according to analysts.
Some senators are trying to use the climate change bill to expand U.S. aid to the nuclear power industry, a move that likely would offend some liberals.
"I've been working with some of my colleagues ... to strengthen the section of the House bill regarding support of nuclear energy as a clean energy source," Senator Joseph Lieberman, an independent, told reporters.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin has said he also wants changes to the House-passed bill, which already contained significant breaks for farmers. Four other committees also will review the climate bill.
Asked if he thought the Senate could pass a bill this year, Harkin, with 33 years serving in Congress, said on Wednesday, "My experience here is that these things take a lot of time."
Q+A: How Is Italy G8 Summit Measuring Up Against Aims?
The Group of Eight rich nations and the G5 of emerging economies were among 40 nations and organizations represented at a three-day summit to discuss recession, climate change, trade and food security.
Below is a comparison between aims going in to the meeting and the results achieved.
EMISSIONS CUTS
Leaders wanted to narrow differences over cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and funding for low carbon technology in preparation for a meeting in December to agree a new U.N. climate change pact to replace the Kyoto agreement.
But G8 leaders failed to persuade India and China to join a push to cut greenhouse emissions by 50 percent by 2050.
And a G8 deal to reduce its greenhouse gas emission by 80 percent by 2050 was thrown into doubt within hours of being announced. Canada said the goal was 'aspirational' and Russia said it could not meet the target.
United Nation Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said progress on climate change at the G8 was "not enough.
TRADE
This was another area where progress was expected.
The G8, G5, South Korea, Egypt, Australia agreed to complete the long-stalled Doha trade talks in 2010 and set a ministerial meeting before a September G20 summit in the United States. Diplomats said the fact that leaders had given themselves a clear timeline may make the difference on clinching a package whose rough outlines were already set.
AID, FOOD SECURITY
G8 nations were under pressure to ensure they are meeting commitments to boost aid to the developing world, and members discussed the set up of a taskforce to monitor the possibility of a food security fund.
A final draft communique promised $15 billion over three years with the US and Japan contribution making up around $3 billion each.
Japan and the European Union are championing a code of conduct on foreign agricultural investments in poorer countries.
FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC CRISIS
Anyone looking for a clear sense of how G8 nations would unwind stimulus spending would be left puzzled. The leaders of the eight industrialized powers were cautious and said they had to ensure that stimulus worked before tackling the task for making their public finances sustainable in the medium term.
"The situation remains uncertain and significant risks remain to economic and financial stability," the statement issued at the end of the first day on Wednesday said.
With global recovery not yet guaranteed, governments will worry about the bill for heavy stimulus spending once it has succeeded
OIL
French and British talk of the need to regulate energy markets to reduce volatility remained only talk. Russia and Canada both said it would be impossible to administer markets in such a way.
Below is a comparison between aims going in to the meeting and the results achieved.
EMISSIONS CUTS
Leaders wanted to narrow differences over cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and funding for low carbon technology in preparation for a meeting in December to agree a new U.N. climate change pact to replace the Kyoto agreement.
But G8 leaders failed to persuade India and China to join a push to cut greenhouse emissions by 50 percent by 2050.
And a G8 deal to reduce its greenhouse gas emission by 80 percent by 2050 was thrown into doubt within hours of being announced. Canada said the goal was 'aspirational' and Russia said it could not meet the target.
United Nation Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said progress on climate change at the G8 was "not enough.
TRADE
This was another area where progress was expected.
The G8, G5, South Korea, Egypt, Australia agreed to complete the long-stalled Doha trade talks in 2010 and set a ministerial meeting before a September G20 summit in the United States. Diplomats said the fact that leaders had given themselves a clear timeline may make the difference on clinching a package whose rough outlines were already set.
AID, FOOD SECURITY
G8 nations were under pressure to ensure they are meeting commitments to boost aid to the developing world, and members discussed the set up of a taskforce to monitor the possibility of a food security fund.
A final draft communique promised $15 billion over three years with the US and Japan contribution making up around $3 billion each.
Japan and the European Union are championing a code of conduct on foreign agricultural investments in poorer countries.
FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC CRISIS
Anyone looking for a clear sense of how G8 nations would unwind stimulus spending would be left puzzled. The leaders of the eight industrialized powers were cautious and said they had to ensure that stimulus worked before tackling the task for making their public finances sustainable in the medium term.
"The situation remains uncertain and significant risks remain to economic and financial stability," the statement issued at the end of the first day on Wednesday said.
With global recovery not yet guaranteed, governments will worry about the bill for heavy stimulus spending once it has succeeded
OIL
French and British talk of the need to regulate energy markets to reduce volatility remained only talk. Russia and Canada both said it would be impossible to administer markets in such a way.
Obama, Rudd News Conference On Environment
Following are comments at a news conference with U.S. President Barack Obama and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
OBAMA
"While we don't expect to solve this problem in one meeting or one summit. I believe we made some important strides forward as we move toward Copenhagen.
"Ice sheets are melting, sea levels are rising, our oceans are becoming more acidic and we have already seen its effects on weather patterns our food and water sources and our habitats.
"Every nation on this planet is at risk and just as no one nation is responsible for climate change, no one nation can address it alone.
"Developing nations have real and understandable concerns about the role they will play in these efforts. They want to make sure that they do not have to sacrifice their aspirations for development and higher living standards. Yet with most of the growth in projected emissions coming from these countries, their active participation is a prerequisite for a solution.
"We also agree that developed countries like my own have a historic responsibility to take the lead. We have a much larger carbon footprint per capita. I know that in the past the United States has sometimes fallen short of meeting our responsibilities. Let me be clear: those days are over.
"One of my highest priorities as president is to drive a clean energy transformation of our economy."
"...As I wrestle with these issues politically in my own country, I see that it is going to be absolutely critical that all of us go beyond what is expected if we are going to achieve our goals ... This week the G8 came to a historic consensus on concrete goals for reducing carbon emissions. We all agreed that by 2050 developed nations will reduce their emissions by 80 percent and that we will work with all nations to cut global emissions in half. This ambitious effort is consistent with limiting global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius, which ... is what the mainstream of the scientific community has called for."
"....We recognize that climate change is already happening so we are going to have to help those affected countries adapt, particularly those who are least able to deal with its consequences because of a lack of resources, so we are looking at providing significant financial assistance to help these countries."
"We have made a good start but I am the first person to say that progress on this issue will not be easy. One of the things we are going to have to do is fight the temptation toward cynicism. To feel the problem is so immense we cannot make significant strides.
"It is no small task for 17 leaders to bridge their differences on an issue like climate change ... it is even more difficult in the context of a global recession ... but ultimately we have a choice. Either we can shape our future or we can let events shape it for us ... It is clear from our progress today which path is preferable and which path we have chosen.
RUDD
"The practical challenge we face...is what do we do about the problem, the challenge, of coal...There are practically no large carbon capture and storage projects under construction now.
Australia in the last 12 months has decided to work with other major economies, and all the major energy companies, on the establishment of a Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute. That is what we are here launching today."
OBAMA
"While we don't expect to solve this problem in one meeting or one summit. I believe we made some important strides forward as we move toward Copenhagen.
"Ice sheets are melting, sea levels are rising, our oceans are becoming more acidic and we have already seen its effects on weather patterns our food and water sources and our habitats.
"Every nation on this planet is at risk and just as no one nation is responsible for climate change, no one nation can address it alone.
"Developing nations have real and understandable concerns about the role they will play in these efforts. They want to make sure that they do not have to sacrifice their aspirations for development and higher living standards. Yet with most of the growth in projected emissions coming from these countries, their active participation is a prerequisite for a solution.
"We also agree that developed countries like my own have a historic responsibility to take the lead. We have a much larger carbon footprint per capita. I know that in the past the United States has sometimes fallen short of meeting our responsibilities. Let me be clear: those days are over.
"One of my highest priorities as president is to drive a clean energy transformation of our economy."
"...As I wrestle with these issues politically in my own country, I see that it is going to be absolutely critical that all of us go beyond what is expected if we are going to achieve our goals ... This week the G8 came to a historic consensus on concrete goals for reducing carbon emissions. We all agreed that by 2050 developed nations will reduce their emissions by 80 percent and that we will work with all nations to cut global emissions in half. This ambitious effort is consistent with limiting global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius, which ... is what the mainstream of the scientific community has called for."
"....We recognize that climate change is already happening so we are going to have to help those affected countries adapt, particularly those who are least able to deal with its consequences because of a lack of resources, so we are looking at providing significant financial assistance to help these countries."
"We have made a good start but I am the first person to say that progress on this issue will not be easy. One of the things we are going to have to do is fight the temptation toward cynicism. To feel the problem is so immense we cannot make significant strides.
"It is no small task for 17 leaders to bridge their differences on an issue like climate change ... it is even more difficult in the context of a global recession ... but ultimately we have a choice. Either we can shape our future or we can let events shape it for us ... It is clear from our progress today which path is preferable and which path we have chosen.
RUDD
"The practical challenge we face...is what do we do about the problem, the challenge, of coal...There are practically no large carbon capture and storage projects under construction now.
Australia in the last 12 months has decided to work with other major economies, and all the major energy companies, on the establishment of a Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute. That is what we are here launching today."
G8 Summit To Pledge $15 Billion To Boost Food Supply
Leaders from rich nations at the G8 summit in Italy will commit $15 billion over three years to spur agricultural investment in poorer countries and combat hunger, a final draft statement seen by Reuters said.
The text, to be issued after talks Friday, did not make clear whether it was all new funds, nor did it give details of individual countries' contributions, although the United States, Japan and the European Union (EU) are expected to step in with around $3 billion each.
It also made no mention of a trust fund for the contributions to be managed by the World Bank, a proposal put forward by Washington in previous drafts but opposed by the EU.
"We welcome the commitments made by countries represented at L'Aquila toward a goal of mobilizing at least $15 billion over three years," the statement said.
"We are committed to increase investments in short, medium and long-term agriculture development that directly benefits the poorest and makes best use of international institutions," it added.
It said the combined effect of longstanding underinvestment in agriculture, price volatility and the economic crisis had led to increased poverty and hunger in developing countries.
The United Nations says the number of malnourished people has risen over the past two years and is expected to top 1.02 billion this year, reversing a four-decade trend of declines.
The statement said the G8 summit kept a strong commitment to ensure adequate emergency food assistance, but its focus on agricultural investments reflects a U.S.-led shift toward longer-term strategies to fight hunger.
The United States is the world's largest aid donor of food -- mostly grown domestically and bought from U.S. farmers.
The leaders said their approach would target increased agriculture productivity, stimulus to harvest interventions, emphasis on private sector growth, women and smallholders, preservation of natural resources, job expansion, training and increased trade flows.
The announced $15 billion in funds over three years compares with $13.4 billion which the G8 says it disbursed between January 2008 and July 2009 for global food security.
"The tendency of decreasing ODA (official development assistance) and national financing to agriculture must be reversed," the draft statement said.
G8 summits have a history of making unkept aid promises. In a report last month, anti-poverty group ONE said the world's richest nations collectively were off course in delivering on promises to more than double aid to Africa made at a G8 summit in 2005.
ONE has calculated that sub-Saharan Africa alone needs $25 billion over three years.
"Investment in seeds, fertilizer, roads and other infrastructure is desperately needed," it said Thursday
The text, to be issued after talks Friday, did not make clear whether it was all new funds, nor did it give details of individual countries' contributions, although the United States, Japan and the European Union (EU) are expected to step in with around $3 billion each.
It also made no mention of a trust fund for the contributions to be managed by the World Bank, a proposal put forward by Washington in previous drafts but opposed by the EU.
"We welcome the commitments made by countries represented at L'Aquila toward a goal of mobilizing at least $15 billion over three years," the statement said.
"We are committed to increase investments in short, medium and long-term agriculture development that directly benefits the poorest and makes best use of international institutions," it added.
It said the combined effect of longstanding underinvestment in agriculture, price volatility and the economic crisis had led to increased poverty and hunger in developing countries.
The United Nations says the number of malnourished people has risen over the past two years and is expected to top 1.02 billion this year, reversing a four-decade trend of declines.
The statement said the G8 summit kept a strong commitment to ensure adequate emergency food assistance, but its focus on agricultural investments reflects a U.S.-led shift toward longer-term strategies to fight hunger.
The United States is the world's largest aid donor of food -- mostly grown domestically and bought from U.S. farmers.
The leaders said their approach would target increased agriculture productivity, stimulus to harvest interventions, emphasis on private sector growth, women and smallholders, preservation of natural resources, job expansion, training and increased trade flows.
The announced $15 billion in funds over three years compares with $13.4 billion which the G8 says it disbursed between January 2008 and July 2009 for global food security.
"The tendency of decreasing ODA (official development assistance) and national financing to agriculture must be reversed," the draft statement said.
G8 summits have a history of making unkept aid promises. In a report last month, anti-poverty group ONE said the world's richest nations collectively were off course in delivering on promises to more than double aid to Africa made at a G8 summit in 2005.
ONE has calculated that sub-Saharan Africa alone needs $25 billion over three years.
"Investment in seeds, fertilizer, roads and other infrastructure is desperately needed," it said Thursday
ENVIRONMENT: Around the Globe, Farmers Losing Ground
In 1938, Walter Lowdermilk, a senior official in the Soil Conservation Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, traveled abroad to look at lands that had been cultivated for thousands of years, seeking to learn how these older civilisations had coped with soil erosion.He found that some had managed their land well, maintaining its fertility over long stretches of history, and were thriving. Others had failed to do so and left only remnants of their illustrious pasts. In a section of his report entitled "The Hundred Dead Cities," he described a site in northern Syria, near Aleppo, where ancient buildings were still standing in stark isolated relief, but they were on bare rock. During the seventh century, the thriving region had been invaded, initially by a Persian army and later by nomads out of the Arabian Desert. In the process, soil and water conservation practices used for centuries were abandoned. Lowdermilk noted, "Here erosion had done its worst... if the soils had remained, even though the cities were destroyed and the populations dispersed, the area might be re-peopled again and the cities rebuilt, but now that the soils are gone, all is gone." Now fast forward to a trip in 2002 by a United Nations team to assess the food situation in Lesotho, a small country of 2 million people imbedded within South Africa. Their finding was straightforward: "Agriculture in Lesotho faces a catastrophic future; crop production is declining and could cease altogether over large tracts of the country if steps are not taken to reverse soil erosion, degradation, and the decline in soil fertility." Michael Grunwald reports in the Washington Post that nearly half of the children under five in Lesotho are stunted physically. "Many," he says, "are too weak to walk to school." Whether the land is in northern Syria, Lesotho, or elsewhere, the health of the people living on it cannot be separated from the health of the land itself. A large share of the world's 852 million hungry people live on land with soils worn thin by erosion. The thin layer of topsoil that covers the planet's land surface is the foundation of civilisation. This soil, measured in inches over much of the earth, was formed over long stretches of geological time as new soil formation exceeded the natural rate of erosion. As soil accumulated over the eons, it provided a medium in which plants could grow. In turn, plants protect the soil from erosion. Human activity is disrupting this relationship. Sometime within the last century, soil erosion began to exceed new soil formation in large areas. Perhaps a third or more of all cropland is losing topsoil faster than new soil is forming, thereby reducing the land's inherent productivity. Today the foundation of civilisation is crumbling. The seeds of collapse of some early civilisations, such as the Mayans, may have originated in soil erosion that undermined the food supply. The accelerating soil erosion over the last century can be seen in the dust bowls that form as vegetation is destroyed and wind erosion soars out of control. Among those that stand out are the Dust Bowl in the U.S. Great Plains during the 1930s, the dust bowls in the Soviet Virgin Lands in the 1960s, the huge one that is forming today in northwest China, and the one taking shape in the Sahelian region of Africa. Each of these is associated with a familiar pattern of overgrazing, deforestation, and agricultural expansion onto marginal land, followed by retrenchment as the soil begins to disappear. Twentieth-century population growth pushed agriculture onto highly vulnerable land in many countries. The overplowing of the U.S. Great Plains during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, for example, led to the 1930s Dust Bowl. This was a tragic era in U.S. history, one that forced hundreds of thousands of farm families to leave the Great Plains. Many migrated to California in search of a new life, a move immortalised in John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath". Three decades later, history repeated itself in the Soviet Union. The Virgin Lands Project between 1954 and 1960 centred on plowing an area of grassland for wheat that was larger than the wheatland in Canada and Australia combined. Initially this resulted in an impressive expansion in Soviet grain production, but the success was short-lived as a dust bowl developed there as well. Kazakhstan, at the centre of this Virgin Lands Project, saw its grainland area peak at just over 25 million hectares (44 millions acres) around 1980, then shrink to 14 million hectares today. Even on the remaining land, however, the average wheat yield is scarcely one tonne per hectare, a far cry from the nearly eight tonnes per hectare that farmers get in France, Western Europe's leading wheat producer. A similar situation exists in Mongolia, where over the last 20 years half the wheatland has been abandoned and wheat yields have also fallen by half, shrinking the harvest by three fourths. Mongolia - a country almost three times the size of France with a population of 2.6 million - is now forced to import nearly 60 percent of its wheat. Dust storms originating in the new dust bowls are now faithfully recorded in satellite images. In early January 2005, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released images of a vast dust storm moving westward out of central Africa. This vast cloud of tan-coloured dust stretched over some 5,300 kilometres. NASA noted that if the storm were relocated to the United States, it would cover the country and extend into the oceans on both coasts. Andrew Goudie, professor of geography at Oxford University, reports that Saharan dust storms - once rare - are now commonplace. He estimates they have increased 10-fold during the last half-century. Among the countries in the region most affected by topsoil loss from wind erosion are Niger, Chad, Mauritania, northern Nigeria, and Burkino Faso. In Mauritania, in Africa's far west, the number of dust storms jumped from two a year in the early 1960s to 80 a year today. The Bodélé Depression in Chad is the source of an estimated 1.3 billion tons of wind-borne soil a year, up 10-fold from 1947 when measurements began. The 2 to 3 billion tons of fine soil particles that leave Africa each year in dust storms are slowly draining the continent of its fertility and, hence, its biological productivity. In addition, dust storms leaving Africa travel westward across the Atlantic, depositing so much dust in the Caribbean that they cloud the water and damage coral reefs there. In China, plowing excesses became common in several provinces as agriculture pushed northward and westward into the pastoral zone between 1987 and 1996. In Inner Mongolia (Nei Monggol), for example, the cultivated area increased by 1.1 million hectares, or 22 percent, during this period. Other provinces that expanded their cultivated area by 3 percent or more during this nine-year span include Heilongjiang, Hunan, Tibet (Xizang), Qinghai, and Xinjiang. Severe wind erosion of soil on this newly plowed land made it clear that its only sustainable use was controlled grazing. As a result, Chinese agriculture is now engaged in a strategic withdrawal in these provinces, pulling back to land that can sustain crop production. Water erosion also takes a toll on soils. This can be seen in the silting of reservoirs and in muddy, silt-laden rivers flowing into the sea. Pakistan's two large reservoirs, Mangla and Tarbela, which store Indus River water for the country's vast irrigation network, are losing roughly 1 percent of their storage capacity each year as they fill with silt from deforested watersheds. Ethiopia, a mountainous country with highly erodible soils on steeply sloping land, is losing an estimated 1 billion tons of topsoil a year, washed away by rain. This is one reason Ethiopia always seems to be on the verge of famine, never able to accumulate enough grain reserves to provide a meaningful measure of food security
Round-the-world solar plane debut
Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard has unveiled a prototype of the solar-powered plane he hopes eventually to fly around the world.
The vehicle, spanning 61m but weighing just 1,500kg, will undergo trials to prove it can fly through the night.
Dr Piccard, who made history in 1999 by circling the globe non-stop in a balloon, says he wants to demonstrate the potential of renewable energies.
The final version of the plane will try first to cross the Atlantic in 2012.
It will be a risky endeavour. Only now is solar and battery technology becoming mature enough to sustain flight through the night - and then only in unmanned planes.
But Dr Piccard's Solar Impulse team has invested tremendous energy - and no little money - in trying to find what it believes is a breakthrough design.
"I love this type of vision where you set the goal and then you try to find a way to reach it, because this is challenging," he told BBC News.
The HB-SIA has the look of a glider but is on the scale - in terms of its width - of a modern airliner.
The aeroplane incorporates composite materials to keep it extremely light and uses super-efficient solar cells, batteries, motors and propellers to get it through the dark hours.
Dr Piccard will begin testing with short runway flights in which the plane lifts just a few metres into the air.
As confidence in the machine develops, the team will move to a day-night circle. This has never been done before in a piloted solar-powered plane.
HB-SIA should be succeeded by HB-SIB. It is likely to be bigger, and will incorporate a pressurised capsule and better avionics. It is this vehicle which will attempt to circle the Earth (after first making an Atlantic crossing).
It is probable that Dr Piccard will follow a route similar to the one he took in the record-breaking Breitling Orbiter 3 balloon - travelling at a low latitude in the Northern Hemisphere. The flight could go from the United Arab Emirates, to China, to Hawaii, across the southern US, southern Europe, and back to the UAE.
Measuring success
Although the vehicle is expected to be capable of flying non-stop around the globe, Dr Piccard will in fact make five long hops, sharing flying duties with project partner Andre Borschberg.
"The aeroplane could do it theoretically non-stop - but not the pilot," said Dr Piccard.
"We should fly at roughly 25 knots and that would make it between 20 and 25 days to go around the world, which is too much for a pilot who has to steer the plane.
"In a balloon you can sleep, because it stays in the air even if you sleep. We believe the maximum for one pilot is five days."
The public unveiling on Friday of the HB-SIA took place at Dubendorf airfield near Zurich.
"The real success for Solar Impulse would be to have enough millions of people following the project, being enthusiastic about it, and saying 'if they managed to do it around the world with renewable energies and energy savings, then we should be able to do it in our daily life'."
The vehicle, spanning 61m but weighing just 1,500kg, will undergo trials to prove it can fly through the night.
Dr Piccard, who made history in 1999 by circling the globe non-stop in a balloon, says he wants to demonstrate the potential of renewable energies.
The final version of the plane will try first to cross the Atlantic in 2012.
It will be a risky endeavour. Only now is solar and battery technology becoming mature enough to sustain flight through the night - and then only in unmanned planes.
But Dr Piccard's Solar Impulse team has invested tremendous energy - and no little money - in trying to find what it believes is a breakthrough design.
"I love this type of vision where you set the goal and then you try to find a way to reach it, because this is challenging," he told BBC News.
The HB-SIA has the look of a glider but is on the scale - in terms of its width - of a modern airliner.
The aeroplane incorporates composite materials to keep it extremely light and uses super-efficient solar cells, batteries, motors and propellers to get it through the dark hours.
Dr Piccard will begin testing with short runway flights in which the plane lifts just a few metres into the air.
As confidence in the machine develops, the team will move to a day-night circle. This has never been done before in a piloted solar-powered plane.
HB-SIA should be succeeded by HB-SIB. It is likely to be bigger, and will incorporate a pressurised capsule and better avionics. It is this vehicle which will attempt to circle the Earth (after first making an Atlantic crossing).
It is probable that Dr Piccard will follow a route similar to the one he took in the record-breaking Breitling Orbiter 3 balloon - travelling at a low latitude in the Northern Hemisphere. The flight could go from the United Arab Emirates, to China, to Hawaii, across the southern US, southern Europe, and back to the UAE.
Measuring success
Although the vehicle is expected to be capable of flying non-stop around the globe, Dr Piccard will in fact make five long hops, sharing flying duties with project partner Andre Borschberg.
"The aeroplane could do it theoretically non-stop - but not the pilot," said Dr Piccard.
"We should fly at roughly 25 knots and that would make it between 20 and 25 days to go around the world, which is too much for a pilot who has to steer the plane.
"In a balloon you can sleep, because it stays in the air even if you sleep. We believe the maximum for one pilot is five days."
The public unveiling on Friday of the HB-SIA took place at Dubendorf airfield near Zurich.
"The real success for Solar Impulse would be to have enough millions of people following the project, being enthusiastic about it, and saying 'if they managed to do it around the world with renewable energies and energy savings, then we should be able to do it in our daily life'."
In 150 years, Orissa will be a desert
In just 13 years, severely degraded land in Orissa increased by 136%, barren land by 69% and land converted to non-agricultural use by 34%
Water Initiatives Orissa (WIO), a civil society campaign, offers a stern warning in the latest issue of its bi-monthly newsletter Panira Dagara (Water Messenger). It says that India's poorest state Orissa will turn into a barren desert in just 150 years.
Desertification is a process of loss of land productivity. In most severe cases it can cause permanent damage to the land. Many parts of Orissa, specifically the western and southern uplands, are already displaying symptoms of desertification. They have degraded from drought-prone regions to desert-prone areas, states the report. "We have arrived at this conclusion by analysing various sets of government data, and we have substantiated it through a public perception survey conducted by the Sambalpur-based NGO Manav Adhikar Seva Samiti (MASS)," says Bimal Pandia of WIO.
The report claims that in just 13 years, from 1991-92 to 2004-05, severely degraded land in the state increased by 136%, barren land by 69% and land converted to non-agricultural use by 34%. This constitutes around 7% of Orissa's total geographical area. By 2004-05, as much as 17.5% of Orissa has turned barren, or been deemed unsuitable for agriculture. The report warns that the rate at which mineral and water-guzzling heavy industries are being pushed in the state, forest cover is thinning, climate is changing and soil degradation increasing, Orissa could soon turn into a desert.
In mining and industrial districts like Raygada and Jharsuguda, agricultural land is shrinking. In Raygada district, the percentage of unproductive land is nearly 174 points higher than cultivable land. Such land amounts to as much as two-thirds of Jharsuguda's total cultivable area. "The way land is rapidly becoming barren and degraded, desertification is a (definite) reality now," says WIO.
Desertification will impact the livelihoods of millions of people, as dependence on agriculture in the state is extremely high, the report continues. It is estimated that 29 lakh hectares of land have already become barren. According to state agriculture department statistics, around 4.33 million hectares of Orissa's 6.56 million hectares of agricultural land suffer severe erosion and declining fertility. That's as high as 66% of the state's total agricultural land.
Also extremely worrying is the rate at which Orissa's climate is changing. A study by meteorologist Professor U C Mohanty shows that the number of rainfall days in the state has been dropping by one day, every five years. Rainfall patterns too have altered. Information gathered from government records show that rainfall in the coastal districts of Baleshwar, Puri and Ganjam has increased, while in western and southern parts of Orissa it has decreased drastically. Recent rainfall averages in Balangir and Nuapada districts hover around threatening levels of 1,000 mm.
Weather department statistics indicate that while global mean temperatures rose by 0.5 degree Celsius over the past 50 years, in Orissa it rose by 1 degree Celsius. The weather here is becoming alarmingly extreme. In 10 years, the highest recorded temperature average has increased by 4.4-6.6 degrees Celsius, and the average of lowest recorded temperatures has decreased by 3-5.1 degrees Celsius in various parts of the state.
"The development emphasis of the state government has been narrowed down to industrialisation only, without any attention given to land and agriculture that sustains close to 90% of the rural population," the WIO report concludes. The concentration of polluting and water- and mineral-consuming industries will further aggravate land degradation in the state.
Conservative estimates show that if all the proposed steel plants were to begin functioning they would emit 392 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2010. Further, these industrial units would require at least 527 million litres of clean water, which will later be released as pollutants. The Washington-based Institute of Policy Studies has warned that by 2010 Orissa alone will emit 7-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Two major rivers in the state, the Mahanadi and the Brahmani, are already water-stressed as far as irrigation and riparian use is concerned. Although the government claims to have created irrigation potential for 41% of cultivable land, the fact that agricultural production still fluctuates wildly, in line with rainfall, and that agriculture sector growth in the state has plummeted, are cause for serious concern. Water-guzzling industries will only make the situation worse, the report warns.
According to 'State of Forests Reports', published by the forest and environment department, between 1986 and 2003 actual forest cover shrank by 4,797 sq km, although areas classified as forestland by the state government increased by 2,351 sq km in the same period. Soil erosion due to forest degradation is a serious issue in 52% of the state's total geographical area
Water Initiatives Orissa (WIO), a civil society campaign, offers a stern warning in the latest issue of its bi-monthly newsletter Panira Dagara (Water Messenger). It says that India's poorest state Orissa will turn into a barren desert in just 150 years.
Desertification is a process of loss of land productivity. In most severe cases it can cause permanent damage to the land. Many parts of Orissa, specifically the western and southern uplands, are already displaying symptoms of desertification. They have degraded from drought-prone regions to desert-prone areas, states the report. "We have arrived at this conclusion by analysing various sets of government data, and we have substantiated it through a public perception survey conducted by the Sambalpur-based NGO Manav Adhikar Seva Samiti (MASS)," says Bimal Pandia of WIO.
The report claims that in just 13 years, from 1991-92 to 2004-05, severely degraded land in the state increased by 136%, barren land by 69% and land converted to non-agricultural use by 34%. This constitutes around 7% of Orissa's total geographical area. By 2004-05, as much as 17.5% of Orissa has turned barren, or been deemed unsuitable for agriculture. The report warns that the rate at which mineral and water-guzzling heavy industries are being pushed in the state, forest cover is thinning, climate is changing and soil degradation increasing, Orissa could soon turn into a desert.
In mining and industrial districts like Raygada and Jharsuguda, agricultural land is shrinking. In Raygada district, the percentage of unproductive land is nearly 174 points higher than cultivable land. Such land amounts to as much as two-thirds of Jharsuguda's total cultivable area. "The way land is rapidly becoming barren and degraded, desertification is a (definite) reality now," says WIO.
Desertification will impact the livelihoods of millions of people, as dependence on agriculture in the state is extremely high, the report continues. It is estimated that 29 lakh hectares of land have already become barren. According to state agriculture department statistics, around 4.33 million hectares of Orissa's 6.56 million hectares of agricultural land suffer severe erosion and declining fertility. That's as high as 66% of the state's total agricultural land.
Also extremely worrying is the rate at which Orissa's climate is changing. A study by meteorologist Professor U C Mohanty shows that the number of rainfall days in the state has been dropping by one day, every five years. Rainfall patterns too have altered. Information gathered from government records show that rainfall in the coastal districts of Baleshwar, Puri and Ganjam has increased, while in western and southern parts of Orissa it has decreased drastically. Recent rainfall averages in Balangir and Nuapada districts hover around threatening levels of 1,000 mm.
Weather department statistics indicate that while global mean temperatures rose by 0.5 degree Celsius over the past 50 years, in Orissa it rose by 1 degree Celsius. The weather here is becoming alarmingly extreme. In 10 years, the highest recorded temperature average has increased by 4.4-6.6 degrees Celsius, and the average of lowest recorded temperatures has decreased by 3-5.1 degrees Celsius in various parts of the state.
"The development emphasis of the state government has been narrowed down to industrialisation only, without any attention given to land and agriculture that sustains close to 90% of the rural population," the WIO report concludes. The concentration of polluting and water- and mineral-consuming industries will further aggravate land degradation in the state.
Conservative estimates show that if all the proposed steel plants were to begin functioning they would emit 392 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2010. Further, these industrial units would require at least 527 million litres of clean water, which will later be released as pollutants. The Washington-based Institute of Policy Studies has warned that by 2010 Orissa alone will emit 7-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Two major rivers in the state, the Mahanadi and the Brahmani, are already water-stressed as far as irrigation and riparian use is concerned. Although the government claims to have created irrigation potential for 41% of cultivable land, the fact that agricultural production still fluctuates wildly, in line with rainfall, and that agriculture sector growth in the state has plummeted, are cause for serious concern. Water-guzzling industries will only make the situation worse, the report warns.
According to 'State of Forests Reports', published by the forest and environment department, between 1986 and 2003 actual forest cover shrank by 4,797 sq km, although areas classified as forestland by the state government increased by 2,351 sq km in the same period. Soil erosion due to forest degradation is a serious issue in 52% of the state's total geographical area
Global warming could rain on India's growth parade: Stern report
'The Economics of Climate Change' a landmark report by Sir Nicholas Stern has some dire predictions about the impact global warming will have on India's economic prospects. For instance, an estimated 100 cm rise in sea level could lead to a loss of US$ 1,259 million or the equivalent of 0.36% of India's GNP
Global warming and subsequent changes in climate could severely hamper India's robust growth unless steps are taken to address the effects of increased surface temperature and its effect on monsoon patterns and river flow, according to the recently released Stern review on the economic impact of climate change.
Some of the key predictions for India, over the next 100 years, in the 700-page British government-commissioned report are:
Regional climate models suggest a 2.5-5 degree Celsius rise in mean surface temperature. Within India, northern India will become warmer.
A 20% increase in summer monsoon rainfall. Instances of extreme temperature and precipitation are expected to rise.
All Indian states will experience increased rainfall, except Punjab, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu where rainfall will decrease. Extreme precipitation will increase, particularly along the western coast and west central India.
The country's hydrological cycle will most likely be altered. Drought and flood intensity will increase. The Krishna, Narmada, Cauvery and Tapi river basins will experience severe water stress and drought conditions, and the Mahanadi, Godavari and Brahmani will experience enhanced flooding.
Crop yields will decrease with increases in temperature and precipitation. It is predicted that wheat crop losses will be greater, especially rabi crops. This will threaten the country's food security.
Coastal agriculture will suffer the most -- Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh will face yield reductions; West Bengal, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh will gain marginally.
A 100 cm rise in sea level could lead to a loss of US$ 1,259 million -- the equivalent of 0.36% of India's GNP.
There will be an increase in the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones in the Bay of Bengal, particularly in the post-monsoon period. Flooding will increase in low-lying coastal areas.
Malaria will continue to be endemic in traditionally malaria-prone states (Orissa, West Bengal, southern parts of Assam and north West Bengal). It may also shift from the central Indian region to the southwestern coastal states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala. New regions -- Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram -- will become malaria-prone; the disease's transmission duration window will widen in northern and western states and shorten in southern states.
India's economic losses due to increases in temperature are estimated to be between 9-25%. GDP loss may amount to 0.67% annually.
Global warming and subsequent changes in climate could severely hamper India's robust growth unless steps are taken to address the effects of increased surface temperature and its effect on monsoon patterns and river flow, according to the recently released Stern review on the economic impact of climate change.
Some of the key predictions for India, over the next 100 years, in the 700-page British government-commissioned report are:
Regional climate models suggest a 2.5-5 degree Celsius rise in mean surface temperature. Within India, northern India will become warmer.
A 20% increase in summer monsoon rainfall. Instances of extreme temperature and precipitation are expected to rise.
All Indian states will experience increased rainfall, except Punjab, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu where rainfall will decrease. Extreme precipitation will increase, particularly along the western coast and west central India.
The country's hydrological cycle will most likely be altered. Drought and flood intensity will increase. The Krishna, Narmada, Cauvery and Tapi river basins will experience severe water stress and drought conditions, and the Mahanadi, Godavari and Brahmani will experience enhanced flooding.
Crop yields will decrease with increases in temperature and precipitation. It is predicted that wheat crop losses will be greater, especially rabi crops. This will threaten the country's food security.
Coastal agriculture will suffer the most -- Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh will face yield reductions; West Bengal, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh will gain marginally.
A 100 cm rise in sea level could lead to a loss of US$ 1,259 million -- the equivalent of 0.36% of India's GNP.
There will be an increase in the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones in the Bay of Bengal, particularly in the post-monsoon period. Flooding will increase in low-lying coastal areas.
Malaria will continue to be endemic in traditionally malaria-prone states (Orissa, West Bengal, southern parts of Assam and north West Bengal). It may also shift from the central Indian region to the southwestern coastal states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala. New regions -- Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram -- will become malaria-prone; the disease's transmission duration window will widen in northern and western states and shorten in southern states.
India's economic losses due to increases in temperature are estimated to be between 9-25%. GDP loss may amount to 0.67% annually.
Dockside Green's Heating Plant comes on line *NEW*
Dockside Green’s biomass heat generation plant was officially unveiled this morning. The on site plant will be used to heat all of dockside’s buildings using biomass gasification. Jonathan Rhone, president and CEO of Nexterra, the company that developed the technology says the company is now building biomass plants across North America, but dockside green is unique. "The dockside plant is the first one at a neighbourhood community, so it’s a real milestone for our company." The process generates heat and hot water using biofuels --- a combination of ground-up wood waste like construction debris and pallets. The fuel is converted into a synthetic gas used to provide heat and domestic hot water. A local fuel supplier will provide two or three truckloads of wood waste a week for the housing development.
Nexterra gasifier system at Dockside Green.
In a release, representatives for the housing development say Dockside Green is working toward climate positive certification that will reduce the amount of on site carbon emissions to below zero.
"Nexterra’s gasification system is perfect for an urban environment. It is a proven, simple, ultra-clean technology that sets a new standard for converting biomass into useful heat energy. We looked around the world for the right technology and found Nexterra in our own backyard," said Joe Van Belleghem of Windmill Developments, Co-developer of Dockside Green along with Vancity Capital.
Source: Nexterra Energy .
Nexterra gasifier system at Dockside Green.
In a release, representatives for the housing development say Dockside Green is working toward climate positive certification that will reduce the amount of on site carbon emissions to below zero.
"Nexterra’s gasification system is perfect for an urban environment. It is a proven, simple, ultra-clean technology that sets a new standard for converting biomass into useful heat energy. We looked around the world for the right technology and found Nexterra in our own backyard," said Joe Van Belleghem of Windmill Developments, Co-developer of Dockside Green along with Vancity Capital.
Source: Nexterra Energy .
Breaking Down Water to Make Energy *NEW*
In a process that is as complex as it is elegant, as breathtaking as it is breath-making, sunlight excites electrons in plant cells setting off a chain reaction that rips apart water to release oxygen and then changes carbon dioxide to sugars to produce fuel. Now, a couple of scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have found a simpler, faster and far less costly way to measure manganese — the metal that helps plants split water. It’s a breakthrough that could support the development of photosynthetic systems for producing biofuels.The finding is likely to make a loud noise in alternative energy because the efficiency of biofuels production depends on the efficiency of photosynthesis. New Tool Makes Lab Work Easier
"This is going to make a difficult analysis much more routine," NREL Research Fellow Dr. Michael Seibert said of the new process that quantifies the manganese content in plants that split water to get electrons for biofuels.Up to now it has taken a half day and equipment worth as much as $200,000 to measure manganese in the water-splitting process of photosynthesis.
The NREL process takes a half hour and uses equipment that costs less than $10,000. And that opens up the process to any professional or undergraduate lab in the world.
Striving to Understand Nature BetterA paper on the study, co-authored by Seibert and his Russian colleague Boris Semin was just published in the journal Photosynthesis Research.
Seibert has a doctorate in molecular biology and biophysics from the University of Pennsylvania. He worked at General Telephone Laboratories for six years before joining the Solar Energy Research Institute, the precursor to NREL, in 1977. Semin, a professor at Moscow State University in Russia, has spent four months each fall for the past decade at NREL working with Seibert.Plants and algae convert the energy of sunlight into fuel, a process that has served them well for eons, and, by the way, has kept animals and humans alive by converting water to oxygen. But humans must better understand and improve on that natural process to gain the maximum benefit of biofuels.Seibert and Semin used spinach when they quantified the manganese ions in the water-splitting process, but the assay could be used for algae or any other organism that does plant-type photosynthesis. The procedure counts the number of manganese ions per photosynthetic electron transport chain, the natural process that starts with sunlight and fixes carbon, or releases hydrogen, and oxygen.Making the Complex SimpleThe counting of manganese has been done before, but only via complex assays using Atomic Absorption spectroscopy or Electron Paramagnetic Resonance spectroscopy, processes that take several hours and require extremely expensive equipment.Manganese ions can be depleted when plants are exposed to heat, excess salt, heavy metals, radiation, light, pH extremes and other stresses. That’s why it’s often crucial to know the exact manganese content in photosynthetic membranes.Seibert and Semin used a laboratory-grade, visible light spectrometer and very small amounts of spinach membranes. Their workspace was a countertop.First, they purified the samples. All green plants contain small amounts of manganese that bind on the surface of the membranes but that don’t have a specific function in photosynthesis. If those manganese were included in the count, the information would be useless. So, they used calcium chloride to purify the samples.Next, they used hydrochloric acid to extract the functional manganese from the membranes.Now they had the manganese, but they also had contaminating membrane particles that could absorb or scatter light and affect the accuracy of the assay. To spin away the impurities, they used a small counter-top centrifuge, spinning for several minutes at 12,000 revolutions per minute. So, they had purified manganese but no easy way to quantify it.A Day in the Library
The final "Aha!" came when Semin and Seibert realized that they could use a dye to determine the precise number of manganese ions used when plants split water and make oxygen. "The Eureka moment was learning that the dye was specific for only manganese," Seibert said. How did he and Semin find that out?They went to the library, and found that someone a decade ago had used the dye 3,3,5,5 tetramethylbenzadrine to determine the manganese content of salt water. "Sometimes a day in the library can save months in the laboratory," Seibert said. "From there it was a development process to clean up the sample material so that we could use the dye" to fingerprint the manganese. The dye binds to the manganese in the solution and changes color in proportion to the amount of manganese present.When they applied the dye, sure enough, it revealed that there were four manganese ions per electron transport chain, just as had the far more expensive spectroscopy processes. "If we can easily characterize how much manganese there is in the natural system, we can start replacing the natural manganese with other metals such as iron to learn how the system works biochemically," Seibert said.That in turn could lead to information useful for artificial systems to split water and make, say, hydrogen fuel without having to use an electrolysis system.
That’s in the future. But perfecting the understanding of the water-splitting process of photosynthesis - in a structure called Photosystem II - is a key step in providing renewable, non-polluting fuels that can power the future of transportation without contributing to global warming.
"This is going to make a difficult analysis much more routine," NREL Research Fellow Dr. Michael Seibert said of the new process that quantifies the manganese content in plants that split water to get electrons for biofuels.Up to now it has taken a half day and equipment worth as much as $200,000 to measure manganese in the water-splitting process of photosynthesis.
The NREL process takes a half hour and uses equipment that costs less than $10,000. And that opens up the process to any professional or undergraduate lab in the world.
Striving to Understand Nature BetterA paper on the study, co-authored by Seibert and his Russian colleague Boris Semin was just published in the journal Photosynthesis Research.
Seibert has a doctorate in molecular biology and biophysics from the University of Pennsylvania. He worked at General Telephone Laboratories for six years before joining the Solar Energy Research Institute, the precursor to NREL, in 1977. Semin, a professor at Moscow State University in Russia, has spent four months each fall for the past decade at NREL working with Seibert.Plants and algae convert the energy of sunlight into fuel, a process that has served them well for eons, and, by the way, has kept animals and humans alive by converting water to oxygen. But humans must better understand and improve on that natural process to gain the maximum benefit of biofuels.Seibert and Semin used spinach when they quantified the manganese ions in the water-splitting process, but the assay could be used for algae or any other organism that does plant-type photosynthesis. The procedure counts the number of manganese ions per photosynthetic electron transport chain, the natural process that starts with sunlight and fixes carbon, or releases hydrogen, and oxygen.Making the Complex SimpleThe counting of manganese has been done before, but only via complex assays using Atomic Absorption spectroscopy or Electron Paramagnetic Resonance spectroscopy, processes that take several hours and require extremely expensive equipment.Manganese ions can be depleted when plants are exposed to heat, excess salt, heavy metals, radiation, light, pH extremes and other stresses. That’s why it’s often crucial to know the exact manganese content in photosynthetic membranes.Seibert and Semin used a laboratory-grade, visible light spectrometer and very small amounts of spinach membranes. Their workspace was a countertop.First, they purified the samples. All green plants contain small amounts of manganese that bind on the surface of the membranes but that don’t have a specific function in photosynthesis. If those manganese were included in the count, the information would be useless. So, they used calcium chloride to purify the samples.Next, they used hydrochloric acid to extract the functional manganese from the membranes.Now they had the manganese, but they also had contaminating membrane particles that could absorb or scatter light and affect the accuracy of the assay. To spin away the impurities, they used a small counter-top centrifuge, spinning for several minutes at 12,000 revolutions per minute. So, they had purified manganese but no easy way to quantify it.A Day in the Library
The final "Aha!" came when Semin and Seibert realized that they could use a dye to determine the precise number of manganese ions used when plants split water and make oxygen. "The Eureka moment was learning that the dye was specific for only manganese," Seibert said. How did he and Semin find that out?They went to the library, and found that someone a decade ago had used the dye 3,3,5,5 tetramethylbenzadrine to determine the manganese content of salt water. "Sometimes a day in the library can save months in the laboratory," Seibert said. "From there it was a development process to clean up the sample material so that we could use the dye" to fingerprint the manganese. The dye binds to the manganese in the solution and changes color in proportion to the amount of manganese present.When they applied the dye, sure enough, it revealed that there were four manganese ions per electron transport chain, just as had the far more expensive spectroscopy processes. "If we can easily characterize how much manganese there is in the natural system, we can start replacing the natural manganese with other metals such as iron to learn how the system works biochemically," Seibert said.That in turn could lead to information useful for artificial systems to split water and make, say, hydrogen fuel without having to use an electrolysis system.
That’s in the future. But perfecting the understanding of the water-splitting process of photosynthesis - in a structure called Photosystem II - is a key step in providing renewable, non-polluting fuels that can power the future of transportation without contributing to global warming.
Nexterra completes Biosolids Fuel Testing
Vancouver-based Nexterra has announced the successful completion of testing of biosolids as a potential new fuel source for its proprietary gasification technology. The first phase of testing took place last month at Nexterra’s product development centre in Kamloops B.C., using biosolids from Metro Vancouver.
Nexterra is actively developing a new application of its proprietary gasification technology to convert biosolids into renewable heat for use in sludge dryers at municipal wastewater treatment plants. This new application can displace fossil fuels currently used for drying and will provide a long-term, renewable energy solution for sludge disposal that will lower fuel costs and greenhouse gas emissions for municipalities.
Nexterra’s biosolids gasification solution is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 4,000 - 15,000 tonnes annually per facility, the equivalent of taking over 1,000 - 3,700 cars off the road.
"We are excited to be part of this industry-leading initiative, working with Nexterra to convert biosolids into renewable energy," said Paul Kadota, Program Manager with the Residuals Management Division of Metro Vancouver. "This puts gasification on the radar of opportunities for the management of biosolids. The potential for savings on fuel costs is evident, but there’s also the option of creating biosolids pellets which in itself is an alternative fuel or fertilizer."
Results from this energy recovery demonstration have been highly successful. Nexterra’s gasification technology produced significant high quality thermal energy from the Metro Vancouver biosolids without requiring any major equipment modifications. In addition, third-party commissioned field tests confirmed emission results that were well below the guidelines set by British Columbia’s Ministry of Environment.
"The use of biosolids as a fuel for gasification truly falls within the definition of conservation and innovation for the future. The ability to turn a costly management issue into an on-site valuable resource using gasification technology allows us to develop a renewable energy source which can result in energy independence for the wastewater treatment community" said Jeanette Brown, Vice-President of the Water Environment Federation (WEF).According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there are more than 16,000 wastewater treatment facilities in the United States, with many of these plants owned and operated by municipalities. Biological sludge is a residual product of the wastewater treatment process. Traditional biosolids management methods include trucking to landfills or using as a fertilizer. Many municipalities would like to discontinue this practice due to rising fuel and management costs, greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, and diminishing landfill capacity. "This represents a major advancement for the wastewater treatment industry and Nexterra," said Jonathan Rhone, President and CEO of Nexterra. "And we believe this is just the tip of the iceberg. Leveraging wastewater residuals as a valuable renewable energy resource with our expertise in gasification technology has the potential to provide municipalities with a compelling economic renewable energy solution for drying, heating and even power generation applications." Nexterra plans to commercialize its biosolids gasification solution, with the objective of completing fuel testing and selecting a commercial demonstration site before the end of 2009. Nexterra continues to evaluate and test additional feedstock alternatives for their customers to use to offset fossil fuel consumption.
Nexterra is actively developing a new application of its proprietary gasification technology to convert biosolids into renewable heat for use in sludge dryers at municipal wastewater treatment plants. This new application can displace fossil fuels currently used for drying and will provide a long-term, renewable energy solution for sludge disposal that will lower fuel costs and greenhouse gas emissions for municipalities.
Nexterra’s biosolids gasification solution is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 4,000 - 15,000 tonnes annually per facility, the equivalent of taking over 1,000 - 3,700 cars off the road.
"We are excited to be part of this industry-leading initiative, working with Nexterra to convert biosolids into renewable energy," said Paul Kadota, Program Manager with the Residuals Management Division of Metro Vancouver. "This puts gasification on the radar of opportunities for the management of biosolids. The potential for savings on fuel costs is evident, but there’s also the option of creating biosolids pellets which in itself is an alternative fuel or fertilizer."
Results from this energy recovery demonstration have been highly successful. Nexterra’s gasification technology produced significant high quality thermal energy from the Metro Vancouver biosolids without requiring any major equipment modifications. In addition, third-party commissioned field tests confirmed emission results that were well below the guidelines set by British Columbia’s Ministry of Environment.
"The use of biosolids as a fuel for gasification truly falls within the definition of conservation and innovation for the future. The ability to turn a costly management issue into an on-site valuable resource using gasification technology allows us to develop a renewable energy source which can result in energy independence for the wastewater treatment community" said Jeanette Brown, Vice-President of the Water Environment Federation (WEF).According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there are more than 16,000 wastewater treatment facilities in the United States, with many of these plants owned and operated by municipalities. Biological sludge is a residual product of the wastewater treatment process. Traditional biosolids management methods include trucking to landfills or using as a fertilizer. Many municipalities would like to discontinue this practice due to rising fuel and management costs, greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, and diminishing landfill capacity. "This represents a major advancement for the wastewater treatment industry and Nexterra," said Jonathan Rhone, President and CEO of Nexterra. "And we believe this is just the tip of the iceberg. Leveraging wastewater residuals as a valuable renewable energy resource with our expertise in gasification technology has the potential to provide municipalities with a compelling economic renewable energy solution for drying, heating and even power generation applications." Nexterra plans to commercialize its biosolids gasification solution, with the objective of completing fuel testing and selecting a commercial demonstration site before the end of 2009. Nexterra continues to evaluate and test additional feedstock alternatives for their customers to use to offset fossil fuel consumption.
Building the Smart Grid - The New Energy Frontier
’Smart Grid’ - It’s a term used often these days to describe a range of technologies that can help solve the many problems of our aging electricity distribution system. It has a multitude of dimensions, but collectively it is becoming the hottest investment opportunity in the electrical energy sector.
At the consumer level, smartening the grid means providing technologies such as sophisticated metering devices that allow consumers to monitor and control their energy use. At the distributor level, smartening the grid means applying advanced technologies that help manage power loading and distribution to better match demand patterns; that minimize energy loss or wastage; or the deployment of advanced technologies and strategies that can be used to turn the high voltage transmission system into what some have termed a "smart self-healing grid."
Once looked on indifferently by many utilities, advances in energy management technologies have made smartening the electrical distribution grid the next big play in the energy market.
While four years ago Microsoft had no interest in playing a direct role in smart-grid technology development, things have changed dramatically. After the U.S. Department of Energy set aside $4 billion to fund smart grid development and demonstration projects, Microsoft has launched its own web-based home energy management application dubbed Hohm See GLOBE-Net article Microsoft launches home energy monitoring tool.
In his latest column, Hamilton describes the Microsoft application as "an easy - to-use tool that helps consumers lower their energy bill and reduce their impact on the environment."
Other systems heavyweights are also entering the field. IBM Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., and Google all have signaled their intent to pursue technologies designed to improve the efficiency of various components of the electrical grid.
It’s not just big utilities and software developers that are players in this new market. Smaller entrepreneurs have made some real gains also.
Ottawa-based Lixar SRS for example, quietly made a name for itself as one of the top energy management software providers in North America.
A web technology services company, Lixar developed an extremely user-friendly, web-based interface to allow consumers to map their energy use and to lower their electricity consumption.
In a pilot project in Milton, Ontario, Lixar SRS worked with Milton Hydro, Direct Energy, and Bell Canada on an experiment to test different technologies designed to allow households to monitor energy use through the Internet or through smart-phone devices.
Consumers were able see the energy use of particular appliances, monitor historical trends of their energy consumption, and control their energy use remotely. The project showed that a network-centric power grid allowed consumers to reduce their energy consumption by 16%-18%.
As happens all too frequently investment opportunities in Canada were limited. But Lixar SRS caught the attention of American investors and last week sold its energy business to Arlington, Virginia-based GridPoint Inc.
Through its relationship with GridPoint, Lixar SRS could secure substantial contracts with major U.S. utilitiy companies like XCEL Energy and Progress Energy. Industry sources suggest Duke Energy has also expressed interest in Lixar’s technology.
Smartening the grid will not be an overnight process, and many technologies likely will be put in play to re-invent North America’s electricity transmission system.
For companies like Lixar SRS, a smart grid system presents one of most exciting and potentially profitable business opportunities in North America for the next few decades
At the consumer level, smartening the grid means providing technologies such as sophisticated metering devices that allow consumers to monitor and control their energy use. At the distributor level, smartening the grid means applying advanced technologies that help manage power loading and distribution to better match demand patterns; that minimize energy loss or wastage; or the deployment of advanced technologies and strategies that can be used to turn the high voltage transmission system into what some have termed a "smart self-healing grid."
Once looked on indifferently by many utilities, advances in energy management technologies have made smartening the electrical distribution grid the next big play in the energy market.
While four years ago Microsoft had no interest in playing a direct role in smart-grid technology development, things have changed dramatically. After the U.S. Department of Energy set aside $4 billion to fund smart grid development and demonstration projects, Microsoft has launched its own web-based home energy management application dubbed Hohm See GLOBE-Net article Microsoft launches home energy monitoring tool.
In his latest column, Hamilton describes the Microsoft application as "an easy - to-use tool that helps consumers lower their energy bill and reduce their impact on the environment."
Other systems heavyweights are also entering the field. IBM Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., and Google all have signaled their intent to pursue technologies designed to improve the efficiency of various components of the electrical grid.
It’s not just big utilities and software developers that are players in this new market. Smaller entrepreneurs have made some real gains also.
Ottawa-based Lixar SRS for example, quietly made a name for itself as one of the top energy management software providers in North America.
A web technology services company, Lixar developed an extremely user-friendly, web-based interface to allow consumers to map their energy use and to lower their electricity consumption.
In a pilot project in Milton, Ontario, Lixar SRS worked with Milton Hydro, Direct Energy, and Bell Canada on an experiment to test different technologies designed to allow households to monitor energy use through the Internet or through smart-phone devices.
Consumers were able see the energy use of particular appliances, monitor historical trends of their energy consumption, and control their energy use remotely. The project showed that a network-centric power grid allowed consumers to reduce their energy consumption by 16%-18%.
As happens all too frequently investment opportunities in Canada were limited. But Lixar SRS caught the attention of American investors and last week sold its energy business to Arlington, Virginia-based GridPoint Inc.
Through its relationship with GridPoint, Lixar SRS could secure substantial contracts with major U.S. utilitiy companies like XCEL Energy and Progress Energy. Industry sources suggest Duke Energy has also expressed interest in Lixar’s technology.
Smartening the grid will not be an overnight process, and many technologies likely will be put in play to re-invent North America’s electricity transmission system.
For companies like Lixar SRS, a smart grid system presents one of most exciting and potentially profitable business opportunities in North America for the next few decades
First Fuel Cell Flight
The world's first piloted aircraft capable of taking off using only power from fuel cells, Antares DLR-H2, took off from Hamburg airport at 13.00 on July 7th, 2009. The Antares DLR-H2, developed by the German Aerospace Center, flies with zero CO2 emissions and has a much lower noise footprint than other motor gliders.
The Antares DLR-H2 motor glider has set the bar for new standards in zero-emission energy conversion and demonstrates the progress made in fuel cell technology.
"We have improved the performance capabilities and efficiency of the fuel cell to such an extent that a piloted aircraft is now able to take off using it," explained Professor Johann-Dietrich Wörner, Chairman of the Executive Board at DLR. "This enables us to demonstrate the true potential of this technology, also and perhaps specifically for applications in the aerospace sector."
The Antares DLR-H2 is based on the Antares 20E motor glider with a wingspan of 20 meters (66ft), constructed by Lange Aviation, a company based in the Rhineland-Palatinate region of Germany. With its fuel cell propulsion system, Antares has a cruising range of 750 kilometers (466 miles), achieved in a flying time of five hours. The existing propulsion and aerodynamics limits the top speed to 170kph (106 mph), but future designs may reach 300 kph (186mph).
The fuel cell system uses hydrogen as its fuel, and this is converted into electrical energy in a direct electrochemical reaction with oxygen in the ambient air, without any combustion occurring. The only by-product of the zero-particulate reaction is water.
The Antares DLR-H2 motor glider has set the bar for new standards in zero-emission energy conversion and demonstrates the progress made in fuel cell technology.
"We have improved the performance capabilities and efficiency of the fuel cell to such an extent that a piloted aircraft is now able to take off using it," explained Professor Johann-Dietrich Wörner, Chairman of the Executive Board at DLR. "This enables us to demonstrate the true potential of this technology, also and perhaps specifically for applications in the aerospace sector."
The Antares DLR-H2 is based on the Antares 20E motor glider with a wingspan of 20 meters (66ft), constructed by Lange Aviation, a company based in the Rhineland-Palatinate region of Germany. With its fuel cell propulsion system, Antares has a cruising range of 750 kilometers (466 miles), achieved in a flying time of five hours. The existing propulsion and aerodynamics limits the top speed to 170kph (106 mph), but future designs may reach 300 kph (186mph).
The fuel cell system uses hydrogen as its fuel, and this is converted into electrical energy in a direct electrochemical reaction with oxygen in the ambient air, without any combustion occurring. The only by-product of the zero-particulate reaction is water.
Canada Agrees To 2°C
The Government of Canada, on July 8th 2009, made a statement that "Canada recognizes the broad scientific view that the increase in global average temperature above pre-industrial levels ought not to exceed 2°C".
This is a major step forward for Canada and prompted praise from Clare Demerse, Associate Director of the Pembina Institute, a not-for-profit think tank focused on developing innovative sustainable energy solutions; "This is a welcome statement from Canada. The impacts of climate change beyond the 2°C threshold are projected to be catastrophic, especially for some of the world's poorest people. Until today, Canada had never taken a position on what level of global warming is too dangerous. Thanks to pressure from its G8 peers, Canada has now accepted what scientists and leading countries have been saying for years.”
In a December 2008 study -Deep Reductions, Strong Growth An Economic Analysis Showing Canada can Prosper Economically While Doing its Share to Prevent Dangerous Climate Change by M.K. Jaccard and Associates - demonstrated that governments cannot argue that fighting climate change means job losses and declining standards of living, a position held by many governments including Ottawa.
The study, commissioned by the Pembina Institute and the David Suzuki Foundation, found that the Canada's economy could grow by almost 2% per year over the next decade while the country reduces its greenhouse gas pollution to 25% below the 1990 level. This will help meet the 2020 target that is aligned with a 2°C degree limit (a 25% reduction in net emissions by 2020, relative to the 1990 level) while still adding over a million net new jobs from 2010 to 2020.
Meeting the 25% reduction target requires a significant price on carbon pollution as well as targeted regulations and investments to expand the use of clean technology. By 2020 Canadians will save more than $5.5 billion each year at the gas pump because of more efficient vehicles, more public transit and shorter commutes
This is a major step forward for Canada and prompted praise from Clare Demerse, Associate Director of the Pembina Institute, a not-for-profit think tank focused on developing innovative sustainable energy solutions; "This is a welcome statement from Canada. The impacts of climate change beyond the 2°C threshold are projected to be catastrophic, especially for some of the world's poorest people. Until today, Canada had never taken a position on what level of global warming is too dangerous. Thanks to pressure from its G8 peers, Canada has now accepted what scientists and leading countries have been saying for years.”
In a December 2008 study -Deep Reductions, Strong Growth An Economic Analysis Showing Canada can Prosper Economically While Doing its Share to Prevent Dangerous Climate Change by M.K. Jaccard and Associates - demonstrated that governments cannot argue that fighting climate change means job losses and declining standards of living, a position held by many governments including Ottawa.
The study, commissioned by the Pembina Institute and the David Suzuki Foundation, found that the Canada's economy could grow by almost 2% per year over the next decade while the country reduces its greenhouse gas pollution to 25% below the 1990 level. This will help meet the 2020 target that is aligned with a 2°C degree limit (a 25% reduction in net emissions by 2020, relative to the 1990 level) while still adding over a million net new jobs from 2010 to 2020.
Meeting the 25% reduction target requires a significant price on carbon pollution as well as targeted regulations and investments to expand the use of clean technology. By 2020 Canadians will save more than $5.5 billion each year at the gas pump because of more efficient vehicles, more public transit and shorter commutes
Canada Agrees To 2°C
The Government of Canada, on July 8th 2009, made a statement that "Canada recognizes the broad scientific view that the increase in global average temperature above pre-industrial levels ought not to exceed 2°C".
This is a major step forward for Canada and prompted praise from Clare Demerse, Associate Director of the Pembina Institute, a not-for-profit think tank focused on developing innovative sustainable energy solutions; "This is a welcome statement from Canada. The impacts of climate change beyond the 2°C threshold are projected to be catastrophic, especially for some of the world's poorest people. Until today, Canada had never taken a position on what level of global warming is too dangerous. Thanks to pressure from its G8 peers, Canada has now accepted what scientists and leading countries have been saying for years.”
In a December 2008 study -Deep Reductions, Strong Growth An Economic Analysis Showing Canada can Prosper Economically While Doing its Share to Prevent Dangerous Climate Change by M.K. Jaccard and Associates - demonstrated that governments cannot argue that fighting climate change means job losses and declining standards of living, a position held by many governments including Ottawa.
The study, commissioned by the Pembina Institute and the David Suzuki Foundation, found that the Canada's economy could grow by almost 2% per year over the next decade while the country reduces its greenhouse gas pollution to 25% below the 1990 level. This will help meet the 2020 target that is aligned with a 2°C degree limit (a 25% reduction in net emissions by 2020, relative to the 1990 level) while still adding over a million net new jobs from 2010 to 2020.
Meeting the 25% reduction target requires a significant price on carbon pollution as well as targeted regulations and investments to expand the use of clean technology. By 2020 Canadians will save more than $5.5 billion each year at the gas pump because of more efficient vehicles, more public transit and shorter commutes
This is a major step forward for Canada and prompted praise from Clare Demerse, Associate Director of the Pembina Institute, a not-for-profit think tank focused on developing innovative sustainable energy solutions; "This is a welcome statement from Canada. The impacts of climate change beyond the 2°C threshold are projected to be catastrophic, especially for some of the world's poorest people. Until today, Canada had never taken a position on what level of global warming is too dangerous. Thanks to pressure from its G8 peers, Canada has now accepted what scientists and leading countries have been saying for years.”
In a December 2008 study -Deep Reductions, Strong Growth An Economic Analysis Showing Canada can Prosper Economically While Doing its Share to Prevent Dangerous Climate Change by M.K. Jaccard and Associates - demonstrated that governments cannot argue that fighting climate change means job losses and declining standards of living, a position held by many governments including Ottawa.
The study, commissioned by the Pembina Institute and the David Suzuki Foundation, found that the Canada's economy could grow by almost 2% per year over the next decade while the country reduces its greenhouse gas pollution to 25% below the 1990 level. This will help meet the 2020 target that is aligned with a 2°C degree limit (a 25% reduction in net emissions by 2020, relative to the 1990 level) while still adding over a million net new jobs from 2010 to 2020.
Meeting the 25% reduction target requires a significant price on carbon pollution as well as targeted regulations and investments to expand the use of clean technology. By 2020 Canadians will save more than $5.5 billion each year at the gas pump because of more efficient vehicles, more public transit and shorter commutes
Canada Agrees To 2°C
The Government of Canada, on July 8th 2009, made a statement that "Canada recognizes the broad scientific view that the increase in global average temperature above pre-industrial levels ought not to exceed 2°C".
This is a major step forward for Canada and prompted praise from Clare Demerse, Associate Director of the Pembina Institute, a not-for-profit think tank focused on developing innovative sustainable energy solutions; "This is a welcome statement from Canada. The impacts of climate change beyond the 2°C threshold are projected to be catastrophic, especially for some of the world's poorest people. Until today, Canada had never taken a position on what level of global warming is too dangerous. Thanks to pressure from its G8 peers, Canada has now accepted what scientists and leading countries have been saying for years.”
In a December 2008 study -Deep Reductions, Strong Growth An Economic Analysis Showing Canada can Prosper Economically While Doing its Share to Prevent Dangerous Climate Change by M.K. Jaccard and Associates - demonstrated that governments cannot argue that fighting climate change means job losses and declining standards of living, a position held by many governments including Ottawa.
The study, commissioned by the Pembina Institute and the David Suzuki Foundation, found that the Canada's economy could grow by almost 2% per year over the next decade while the country reduces its greenhouse gas pollution to 25% below the 1990 level. This will help meet the 2020 target that is aligned with a 2°C degree limit (a 25% reduction in net emissions by 2020, relative to the 1990 level) while still adding over a million net new jobs from 2010 to 2020.
Meeting the 25% reduction target requires a significant price on carbon pollution as well as targeted regulations and investments to expand the use of clean technology. By 2020 Canadians will save more than $5.5 billion each year at the gas pump because of more efficient vehicles, more public transit and shorter commutes
This is a major step forward for Canada and prompted praise from Clare Demerse, Associate Director of the Pembina Institute, a not-for-profit think tank focused on developing innovative sustainable energy solutions; "This is a welcome statement from Canada. The impacts of climate change beyond the 2°C threshold are projected to be catastrophic, especially for some of the world's poorest people. Until today, Canada had never taken a position on what level of global warming is too dangerous. Thanks to pressure from its G8 peers, Canada has now accepted what scientists and leading countries have been saying for years.”
In a December 2008 study -Deep Reductions, Strong Growth An Economic Analysis Showing Canada can Prosper Economically While Doing its Share to Prevent Dangerous Climate Change by M.K. Jaccard and Associates - demonstrated that governments cannot argue that fighting climate change means job losses and declining standards of living, a position held by many governments including Ottawa.
The study, commissioned by the Pembina Institute and the David Suzuki Foundation, found that the Canada's economy could grow by almost 2% per year over the next decade while the country reduces its greenhouse gas pollution to 25% below the 1990 level. This will help meet the 2020 target that is aligned with a 2°C degree limit (a 25% reduction in net emissions by 2020, relative to the 1990 level) while still adding over a million net new jobs from 2010 to 2020.
Meeting the 25% reduction target requires a significant price on carbon pollution as well as targeted regulations and investments to expand the use of clean technology. By 2020 Canadians will save more than $5.5 billion each year at the gas pump because of more efficient vehicles, more public transit and shorter commutes
G8 Summit Progress
In a good day for the environment, the G8 countries agreed on new targets for fighting climate change that will be presented to the G5 emerging economy countries on July 9th in L’Aquila, Italy. “Europe and the United States are in favour of cutting carbon dioxide emissions and will adopt a united stance vis-à-vis the emerging economies with a view to arriving at a pledge into which everyone must enter,” said Mr. Berlusconi, Italian Prime Minister and G8 summit chairman.
The G8 major industrial countries agreed to limit global warming to just 2°C (3.6F) above pre-industrial levels by 2050, with new low carbon emission reduction targets of 80% by 2050 for developed nations, to help achieve a 50% global reduction. This target will need the co-operation of the major emerging industrial economies of China and India.
The devil is in the details though, as tough negotiations between all countries on which dates to use as a reference and how to achieve the targets are now urgently required. However, it now looks more likely that progress will now be made at the United Nations conference in Copenhagen this December.
The UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown was quoted in the BBC as saying that, "I hope tomorrow when we meet other countries we'll follow that through and this is a very significant development, the first time it's ever been done."
In a sign of the times, today, July 8th 2009, the Government of Canada made a statement that, "Canada recognizes the broad scientific view that the increase in global average temperature above pre-industrial levels ought not to exceed 2°C".
This is a major step forward for Canada and prompted praise from Clare Demerse, Associate Director of the Pembina Institute, a not-for-profit think tank focused on developing innovative sustainable energy solutions; "This is a welcome statement from Canada. The impacts of climate change beyond the 2°C threshold are projected to be catastrophic, especially for some of the world's poorest people. Until today, Canada had never taken a position on what level of global warming is too dangerous. Thanks to pressure from its G8 peers, Canada has now accepted what scientists and leading countries have been saying for years.”
The G8 major industrial countries agreed to limit global warming to just 2°C (3.6F) above pre-industrial levels by 2050, with new low carbon emission reduction targets of 80% by 2050 for developed nations, to help achieve a 50% global reduction. This target will need the co-operation of the major emerging industrial economies of China and India.
The devil is in the details though, as tough negotiations between all countries on which dates to use as a reference and how to achieve the targets are now urgently required. However, it now looks more likely that progress will now be made at the United Nations conference in Copenhagen this December.
The UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown was quoted in the BBC as saying that, "I hope tomorrow when we meet other countries we'll follow that through and this is a very significant development, the first time it's ever been done."
In a sign of the times, today, July 8th 2009, the Government of Canada made a statement that, "Canada recognizes the broad scientific view that the increase in global average temperature above pre-industrial levels ought not to exceed 2°C".
This is a major step forward for Canada and prompted praise from Clare Demerse, Associate Director of the Pembina Institute, a not-for-profit think tank focused on developing innovative sustainable energy solutions; "This is a welcome statement from Canada. The impacts of climate change beyond the 2°C threshold are projected to be catastrophic, especially for some of the world's poorest people. Until today, Canada had never taken a position on what level of global warming is too dangerous. Thanks to pressure from its G8 peers, Canada has now accepted what scientists and leading countries have been saying for years.”
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