Sunday, August 16, 2009

India is now a major carbon sink: Govt report

India is rapidly transforming itself into a major carbon sink igniting hopes of big funds for maintaining natural green cover, a new report has said.

The report titled "India's Forest and Tree Cover" prepared by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests said that from 1995 to 2005, the carbon stocks stored in the country's forests and trees have increased from 6,245 million tonnes to 6,662 million tonnes registering an annual increment of 38 million tonnes of carbon or 138 million ton of Carbon dioxide. The report, which was released by Union Minister of state for Forests and Environment Jairam Ramesh recently here, also said that India can get Rs 6,000 crore every year for its carbon sink assuming the value of $7 per ton of Carbon dioxide. Noting that the forest cover accounts for 2.8% of India's total geographical area, the report said, the forest and tree cover is enough to neutralise 11.23% of the country's total green house emissions at 1994 level. This is equivalent to offsetting 100% emissions from all energy in residential and transport sectors or 40 per cent of the total emissions from agriculture sector.

US probe captures Saturn equinox

Raw images of the moment Saturn reached its equinox have been beamed to Earth by the US Cassini spacecraft.
Scientists are studying the unprocessed pictures to uncover new discoveries in the gas giant's ring system.
Equinox is the moment when the Sun crosses a planet's equator, making day and night the same length.
During this time, the Sun's angle over Saturn is lowered, showing new objects and irregular structures as shadows on the otherwise flat plane of the rings.
Saturn's orbit is so vast that Equinox happens only once every 15 Earth years.
At the moment of equinox, the rings turn edge-on to the Sun and reflect almost no sunlight.
This is the first equinox since 1994 and the first time there has been an observer, in the shape of the joint US and European spacecraft, Cassini.



In an email, Dr Carolyn Porco, leader of Cassini's imaging team, said the long-awaited images did not disappoint: "Even a cursory examination of them reveals strange new phenomena we hadn't fully anticipated.
"Over the next week or two, the [Cassini] imaging team will be poring over these precious gems to see what other surprises await us, and, as usual, we will announce what we have found as soon as we can."
Cassini was launched in October 1997 from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It arrived at Saturn in July 2004 to embark on a four-year mission of exploration around the planet and its moons.
The spacecraft is still operating well and has been re-programmed to carry out new tasks. Its current mission is to answer some of the questions raised by its earlier observations.

Energy policy 'too wind focused'

The UK must invest more in nuclear and clean coal energy and put less emphasis on wind power if it wants a secure low-carbon future, business leaders say.
The CBI says government energy policy is "disjointed" and it is urging a "more balanced" energy mix.
The current approach means the UK might miss climate change targets, it added.
The government said putting in place a balanced mix of renewables, new nuclear and cleaner fossil fuels was at the heart of its energy policy.
It is due to set out its Energy White Paper on Wednesday.
But the CBI is calling for more action in its report "Decision Time".
"The government's disjointed approach is deterring the private sector investment needed to get our energy system up to scratch, bolster security and cut emissions," said CBI deputy director general John Cridland.
"While we have generous subsidies for wind power, we urgently need the national planning statements needed to build new nuclear plants.
"If we carry on like this we will end up putting too many of our energy eggs in one basket."
Energy war
The CBI's comments are based on computer modelling of current power sector investment by consultants McKinsey.
The CBI wants the government to:
• reduce the percentage of wind power expected by 2020 under the Renewables Strategy later this week, to encourage investment in other low-carbon energy sources


• speed up the planning process for energy supplies
• produce rules and funding arrangements for for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) demonstration plants
• accelerate investment in the grid
• improve energy efficiency in the electricity, heating and transport sectors, including offering financial sweeteners for consumers choosing more efficient products.
'No surprise'
A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said: "We know that big investments need certainty, and we're on track with our promise to remove costly unnecessary barriers to new nuclear, such as the planning reforms already in train."
Andrew Warren, director of the Association for the Conservation of Energy and formerly a member of the CBI's energy policy committee, told the BBC's environment analyst Roger Harrabin that the increase in wind power was threatening to the big power generators who he said dominated the committee.
"This document is no surprise. EDF have been lobbying very hard for less obligations on renewables, saying it will distract from nuclear," he said.
"This is precisely what Patricia Hewitt [the former trade and industry secretary] warned would happen when she published the 'no-new-nukes' 2003 energy white paper."


Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said that by calling for wind power's contribution to the UK's renewable energy targets to be reduced the CBI is actually doing its members a great disservice.
"Nuclear power is less effective than wind power at tackling climate change, while investment in renewables would create much needed British jobs in one of the few growth sectors in the global economy," he said.
"Here in the UK we have one of the best renewable energy resources anywhere in the world and a manufacturing sector champing at the bit to capture the lead in marine technologies like offshore wind and tidal power."
Meanwhile a DECC spokesman told Roger Harrabin the government was "fully behind" the 15% renewables target.
"We're not setting fixed sub-targets [for electricity, heat, transport], but our projections are about finding the most practicable and cost effective mix.
"Our analysis supports the approach we're taking. We don't believe it inhibits new nuclear - there are a myriad of other considerations to factor in."

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Vilsack calls for renewed emphasis on forests

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Friday outlined a vision for managing the nation's forests that placed a high priority on restoration to protect water resources and combat climate change.
"Conserving our forests is not a luxury," but a necessity, the former Iowa governor said at Seward Park in Seattle in his first major address on the Forest Service.
Vilsack stressed the importance of forests and rural lands in supplying much of America's clean drinking water, sheltering wildlife and helping to mitigate the effects of climate change.
He said his vision for the agency begins with restoration, such as improving or decommissioning unnecessary roads and rehabilitating wetlands and streams.
"Restoration means managing forest lands first and foremost to protect our water resources, while making our forest more resilient to climate change," Vilsack said.
The administration's plan calls for the Forest Service to help develop "green jobs" that help restore forests while using them as "carbon sinks" to help offset global warming, Vilsack said. He noted emerging opportunities in woody biomass and carbon markets that could provide private landowners economic incentives to maintain forests.
Vilsack also announced Friday that the Forest Service would not appeal a June federal court ruling that struck down President Bush's 2008 forest planning rule. Environmentalists had fought the rule, saying it rolled back key forest protections.
Vilsack said the agency will develop a new forest planning rule to protect water, climate and wildlife.
He also reiterated the Obama administration's support for protecting roadless areas and said the agency will seek to lift a Wyoming federal court injunction that's blocked a 2001 rule that halted road construction and other development on about 58 million acres of remote national forests.
On Thursday, the Obama administration joined environmentalists to defend the so-called Roadless Rule, which was imposed by President Bill Clinton.
"The secretary's support for a national roadless policy, along with the administration's move to join conservationists in defending the roadless rule in court, marks an important step toward resolving the conflicts and patchwork approach that have hindered forest management for decades," said Jane Danowitz, director of the Pew Environment Group's U.S. public lands program.
U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., said Vilsack's speech was right on target, particularly in emphasizing better management of forests. Without forest thinning, fires will be more intense, Dicks said.
The Forest Service manages national forests and grasslands encompassing about 193 million acres — an area equivalent to the size of Texas. Still, more than 80 percent of forests in the United States are outside the National Forest System.
Some conservation work has already begun, Vilsack said. The Forest Service has allocated about $1.5 billion through the economic stimulus law for conservation and forest health. More than 500 projects are aimed at creating jobs and promoting forest rehabilitation through projects such as removal of small trees and underbrush that serve as fuel for wildfires.
At least 30 projects will promote development of biofuels from trees, Vilsack said

Climate-change protests split oil industry

Key players in the U.S. oil industry disagree over a plan to send workers to rallies to protest proposed climate-change legislation, industry groups said.
The American Petroleum Institute wrote to member companies asking them to stage up to 22 rallies protesting legislation that the API said would increase taxes on the oil industry and create a carbon-trading scheme, the Financial Times reported.
The API represents the entire oil industry. But some of its members, which also are part of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, favor many of President Obama's environmental policies and oppose the plan to send workers to rallies.
Shell, General Electric, Siemens, BP America and ConocoPhillips also belong to the partnership, and Shell calls responding to climate change "the pro-growth strategy."
Exxon is a leader of the faction of API supporting the rallies and claims the legislation would put oil companies at a disadvantage against global competitors.

Climate change is a spiritual and moral issue

During South Sound’s recent period of more than 90-degree weather, I sought relief in my favorite air-conditioned coffee shop, enjoying the cool air as I read and sipped a tall iced Americano. One fellow refugee from the heat turned to me and said, “This really makes me a believer in global warming!”
July’s heat wave may or may not be a result of global warming, but it is a dramatic reminder that this community, and this planet, are experiencing shifts in weather patterns – shifts that affect the lives of our neighbors in the Boisfort Valley and along the Chehalis or Skokomish rivers, as well as the lives of our more distant neighbors in New Orleans and, paradoxically, the drought-ravaged Sudan.
The effect of human-caused climate change, especially from carbon emissions, is not only reported in anecdotal accounts, but documented in numerous scientific studies.
Increasingly, politicians as well as environmentalists are uniting to bring awareness to the climate crisis, rallying people to call on world governments to respond to the environmental and human effect of global warming.
Religious leaders also are speaking out, addressing the moral and spiritual implications of human-induced climate change. They decry the suffering of victims of drought, flooding, devastating fires, and famine. All religions follow the moral imperative: love your neighbor.
That perspective is shared by many activists working on environmental issues. Roger Gottlieb, professor of philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, put it this way: “Bringing our prophetic voices to the environmental crisis is part of what we do as religious communities. The way we treat the Earth is the way we treat each other.”
Here in South Sound, members of faith communities will come together to urge decision makers to act with urgency on the climate crisis. They will gather Saturday, Oct. 24, for the International Day of Climate Action. Inspired by the work of environmentalist Bill McKibben, the mission of this event is create and build on a sense of urgency.
The Oct. 24 events focus on the number 350, which is the carbon dioxide parts per million that scientists have identified as the upper limit for Earth’s atmosphere.
When world leaders meet in Copenhagen in December to draft a new global treaty on emission, faith traditions want their perspectives brought to the conference as well.
Many activities will focus on encouraging people to speak out on the climate crisis, and to urge adoption of the 350 parts per million carbon dioxide limit.
In Thurston County, faith activists are planning to Bike and Walk for Climate Change Awareness on Oct. 24. Organizers anticipate that at least 350 families and individuals will bike or walk a short route on the Chehalis Western Trail from Lacey’s Bush Park to the Chambers Lake trailhead, where an information fair and celebration will occur. Participating groups are: Washington State Unitarian Universalist Voices for Justice, Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation, and Earth Care Catholics.
Adults and children from all faith communities and community groups are invited to bike and walk, as well as to participate in planning. For more information, contact Carol McKinley, 360 786-8074, coordinator@uuvoiceswa.org.
The Reverend Carol McKinley serves as coordinator of Washington State Unitarian Universalist Voices for Justice, a statewide legislative advocacy organization, and is an affiliated community minister of Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation.
Perspective is coordinated by Interfaith Works in cooperation with The Olympian. The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by Interfaith Works or The Olympian

Senate climate bill to include free permits

A climate control bill that Democratic leaders hope to move through the U.S. Senate will seek to give companies a substantial number of pollution permits, potentially worth billions of dollars, rather than sell them, an aide to a key Democratic senator said on Friday.
There will be a "significant role" for allocations -- or free permits -- in the Senate bill, similar to the approach taken by the global warming legislation recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, the aide said.
The free permits are designed to help companies during a transition period. Besides helping build business support for the legislation in Congress, it also is seen as a way of helping shield consumers from bigger price increases for energy and other goods over the next few decades.
Under the House-passed bill, about 85 percent of pollution permits that companies would be required to obtain to emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases initially would be given to companies.
Shortly after Congress returns from a month-long break on September 8, Senate Democrats are expected to introduce their version of a sweeping bill to control carbon emissions from utilities and manufacturers. Those emissions have been linked to global warming.
The aide, who asked not to be identified, said that when the bill is introduced, it will not lay out the specific formula for dispensing the pollution permits, which would diminish over time as companies are allowed to emit fewer and fewer greenhouse gases.
The formula will be worked out when the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee meets in September to put finishing touches on the bill, the aide added.
The pollution permits, which companies will be allowed to trade to each other, could be worth billions of dollars.
The committee, along with other Senate panels, also have to work out many other thorny issues, including possible trade protections for some domestic energy-intensive industries, such as steel, cement and paper.
Senators also might push changes to the House's overall targets for cutting carbon emissions. The House bill calls for emissions cuts from 2005 levels of 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050. There are pressures to both reduce or increase those targets in the Senate.
President Barack Obama, who has made a high priority of enacting climate control legislation, initially proposed the government sale of all of the permits. But the House did not follow that path and Obama has shown flexibility, praising the House-passed bill but leaving the door open to change.
It is not clear whether the full Senate will pass a bill this year, although Democratic leaders say they will try in October.
Obama wants as much progress on climate change legislation as possible by December, when a United Nations meeting in Copenhagen will discuss new global efforts to tackle the environmental problem.