International Adaptation Assistance - the Dark Side of the Climate Debate
We have shared views in an earlier blog on climate adaptation, but recent discussion of responsibility for the overall global impacts of climate change leads us to return to the subject. For some time it has been clear that great care needs to be taken in how greenhouse gas reduction responsibilities are assigned to developing nations. They do not want to be denied the blessings of development in order to counter global warming created by the economies of the developed world over the past decades.
Now, a second major issue has surfaced. The developing world is going to need adaptation assistance – upwards of an initial $100 billion – as it experiences actual injuries from the changing climate. The issue is kicking up a lot of sand recently.
Continue Reading...Coal: The Energy Source of the Future?
Gas, oil, nuclear energy, biofuels, other alternative energy, energy conservation – are they enough to cause plentiful, Btu-rich, relatively inexpensive coal to take a back seat to post-Kyoto climate concerns in the developed and developing economies of the world?
With high prices for oil and gas and other promising sources of energy, precisely the opposite appears to be happening, with uncertain implications for carbon dioxide emissions levels and the success of technological fixes for Old King Coal’s dark side.
Continue Reading...The US's Existing Climate Protection Laws: Will They Work?
Summary of the UNFCCC and Plans for Moving Forward
The 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) sought to launch a global climate change regime. In 2005 the well-known Kyoto Protocol, to which a large group of developed and emerging countries became signatories, laid the groundwork for a detailed system of incentives and targets for carbon emissions reductions, but the Protocol will remain in effect only through 2012. The December 2007 meeting in Bali of the Kyoto Conference of the Parties (COP) began to address a new international climate change treaty to take effect in 2013 upon the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol. Their “Bali Road Map” identified the core issues a new treaty must address: adaptation, mitigation, technology, finance, and cooperative action. [summary]
Continue Reading...Food vs. Fuel and Impacts on Climate Change: Biofuels Under Siege
Concern about world food prices and shortages is causing law makers in both the EU and the US to consider either a moratorium or a cutback in biofuels production. In particular, ethanol produced from corn is being blamed as a significant contributor to the world food crisis. [summary]
Continue Reading...International Wind Power
Wind energy experienced a record year of international growth in 2007. According to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), installations of new wind energy facilities increased by thirty percent in 2007, with twenty gigawatts (GW) of new installations brought into service worldwide. According to a US Department of Energy May 2007 report, this follows seven years of growth in wind capacity at the rate of twenty-four percent per year in the US and twenty-seven percent per year worldwide. This growth has been driven in part by multinational utilities such as Iberdrola and Acciona, which joined FPL Energy and Babcock and Brown in 2007 as leaders in wind power plant ownership with new facilities installations in North America and worldwide.
The annual 2007 survey by GWEC and Emerging Energy Research (EER) reflect that wind power ownership and installations continue to increase in North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia. EER reports that while the United States in 2007 remained the largest market with 5.2 GW of new installations, it was closely followed by Spain and China, which added 3.5 GW and 3.4 GW, respectively, to their total capacity of wind power. The other leading international markets include Germany, Canada, India, Denmark, Italy, the UK, Portugal, and France.
The development of wind power is now a global opportunity. For many companies, establishing operations in new international markets may be a sound and profitable part of their strategic growth, particularly markets in which sponsors can achieve greater cost efficiencies and profitability.
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