Climate Change News Roundup - March 2007

Technology

Taipei based China Solar Energy Holdings, which sells and installs solar power equipment for partners in China, expects record sales in 2007 after improving the light conversion efficiency of its products, using thin-film technology.

A new, more efficient method for manufacturing biofuels could generate enough fuel to supply the entire US transportation sector while sharply reducing the amount of raw material required to make it, according to Purdue University in Indiana. The process involves recycling the carbon dioxide wasted in current manufacturing methods.

Transport

Spyros Polemis, chairman of the International Chamber of Shipping, has warned that switching the world’s merchant fleet from high sulphur residual fuels to cleaner-burning distillate fuels could unwittingly raise carbon dioxide emissions. He says extra CO₂ emissions will be created in the manufacturing process of the cleaner fuel.

US carmakers have said they need help in tackling the global warming challenges faced by the industry. The heads of General Motors, Chrysler and Ford said measures to improve fuel efficiency were not enough and may cost thousands of jobs.

Pressure groups

US environmental group the Sierra Club has said it will drop legal complaints against a new Midwest coal-fired power unit, Kansas City Power & Light, provided it offsets its carbon dioxide output. The plant is expected to open in 2010.

RSPB, WWF, Greenpeace, Oxfam and Friends of the Earth have warned that a proposal by the UK government to promote biofuels, known as the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, could instead encourage business to damage the climate and destroy rainforests.

Carbon markets and investments

Australia’s biggest power firms have launched carbon trading and green-energy investment ventures in advance of possible pollution limits, expected to be imposed as soon as 2010.

A Canadian interprovincial emissions market, seen as part of a wider plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions, could be worth as much as C$12 billion (US$10.3 billion) a year, according to CIBC World Markets.

Climate Change Effects

Pollution from Europe, Russia, North America and Asia has been heading to the Arctic, adding to the potential for more warming around the North Pole. The sooty particles, along with ozone-forming nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons, were first observed in the Arctic in the 1950s.

A draft Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control report has outlined the regional impacts of global warming as projected by the world’s top climate scientists. Forecasted effects include glacier melt in the Himalayas, bringing more floods, rock avalanches, and disrupt water resources. The report will be presented in Brussels on 6 April.

Retailers

British high street chains are failing to inform customers which electrical goods are the greenest, according to new research by the National Consumer Council. Leading firms, including John Lewis, Comet and Currys, were criticised for failing to inform consumers about the energy efficiency of electrical products.

Wal-Mart has said its electronics suppliers will be asked to evaluate their products’ energy efficiency, durability and packaging. From 2008, Wal-Mart buyers will use the evaluation results to make purchasing decisions.

Packets of Walkers crisps have appeared on the shelves carrying the world’s first “carbon labels”, enabling customers to gauge the effect of their buying habits on the climate. The labels will show that 75g of carbon dioxide is emitted to produce and transport 34.5g of Walkers crisps “from seed to store”.

Politics

Big investors have pressed the US Congress to pass laws attempting to tackle global warming. Companies included Merrill Lynch, the Capital Group, and the California Public Employees Retirement System, the largest US pension fund.

The European Union has opened a tender to sell unwanted wine lakes in France, Greece, Italy and Spain, for use in making bioethanol. The tender would offer 653,381 hectolitres of wine alcohol.

Britain has published a climate change bill that guarantees a 60% cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 by law. The bill comes after European Union leaders agreed to reduce carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels for transport and power by 20% by 2020.

India’s demand for coal may exceed two billion tonnes a year by 2032, up from about 460 million tonnes a year now, according to the country’s minister for coal, Dasari Rao.

World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz has criticised the lack of funding to help the poor adapt to climate change. Wolfowitz said that while billions of dollars were pouring into mitigation via emissions trading schemes, the world’s poorest people were being forgotten.