Posted under Express 92

Green Jobs Revolution comes with UK’s Low Carbon Economy

The recession will not deflect the UK Government’s efforts to cut carbon emissions and move to a low carbon economy, Energy and Climate Change Minister Ed Miliband said last week, as the Government formally responded to the Committee on Climate Change’s first annual report on carbon budgets. Britain stood to gain not only from a green jobs revolution, but from measures to help people cut the amount of energy they use.

14 January 2010 – Press Release – Miliband: UK Won’t Let Up On Climate Fight
The recession will not deflect the UK Government’s efforts to cut carbon emissions and move to a low carbon economy, Energy and Climate Change Minister Ed Miliband said today.

Speaking as the Government formally responded to the Committee on Climate Change’s first annual report on carbon budgets under the Climate Change Act, Mr Miliband said Britain stood to gain not only from a green jobs revolution, but from measures to help people cut the amount of energy they use.

The UK is on course to over-achieve on its carbon budgets – the emissions equivalent of fiscal budgets -  with an estimated 36% cut on 1990 levels projected by 2020.

Government will not rely on the reduction in emissions brought about by the economic downturn to meet its climate targets. To reinforce this, any over-achievement in the first carbon budget due to the recession will not be carried forward to allow for higher emissions in the future.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said:

“The recession will not deflect the Government’s efforts to cut emissions and move to a low carbon economy. We will not let up on the fight against climate change, instead we must redouble our efforts at home and internationally so the UK emerges from the global downturn building on the opportunities and benefits a low carbon future will bring.”

Significant progress has already been made since the Low Carbon Transition Plan was published in July 2009, including in the key sectors of power generation, buildings and industry, and transport that the CCC focused on its report. Some of the key measures include -

In the power sector:

• We have set out the world’s most ambitious plans for clean coal. There will be no new coal without carbon capture and storage.
• We published for consultation the draft energy National Policy Statements, a key element of a reformed planning system which will speed up decisions on low carbon energy infrastructure.
• We are working to ensure that access to the electricity grid is not a barrier to low carbon generation. Measures include introducing new grid access arrangements, a new offshore electricity transmission regime and setting out plans for a smart grid in the UK.
• We are acting to address constraints on finance for investment in the renewable energy industry as a result of the credit crunch, including a scheme operated by the European Investment Bank that is facilitating up to £9 billion of investment and establishing Infrastructure UK to support deployment of low-carbon infrastructure.
• We are working to ensure that the energy market framework can deliver the low-carbon investment needed to meet our targets, and will report initial findings at Budget 2010.

In homes and industry:

• Government programmes have supported the installation of insulation in around 2 million homes in the last 18 months, and we are trialling new community-based and whole-house approaches to increase take-up.
• We will shortly be publishing a ‘Household Energy Management Strategy’ that will set out new plans to help reduce emissions from households by 29% from 2008 levels by 2020
• We will shortly be setting out details of our ‘clean energy cash-back’ schemes for people and businesses that generate low carbon heat and electricity.
• We are looking at policy options to realise the significant potential for emissions reductions from small businesses.
• We are developing new ways to encourage and support local authorities to increase their role in the transition to the low carbon economy.

To reduce emissions from transport we are:

• Providing an incentive from 2011 to stimulate early markets in ultra-low carbon cars
• Helping cities and regions put the necessary recharging infrastructure in place
• Continuing to encourage the uptake of sustainable travel initiatives
• Investing significantly in public transport
• Supporting cycling with £140m over three years

Government is also setting an example, it is on course for reducing emissions from central Government offices by over 17% by 2011, exceeding the original target of 12.5%. It aims to save up to £300 million through energy saving measures across the public sector.

We will also shortly publish our ‘2050 Pathways’ work, identifying routes to deliver our 80% reduction target in emissions by 2050, while meeting our energy security goals.

---

Notes to editors:
1. The UK was the first country in the world to set legally binding carbon budgets, with the first three budgets requiring a 34% cut by 2020.

2. The five-year budgets set the trajectory to the long-term target in the Climate Change Act 2008 to reduce emissions by at least 80% by 2050, relative to 1990 levels.

3. The carbon budgets for the first three periods (2008-2012, 2013-2017 and 2018-2022) were set in law in May 2009, and require reductions of 22%, 28% and 34% respectively. The UK Low Carbon Transition Plan, published in July 2009, set out the policies and measures, in all sectors of the economy, through which the budgets will be met.

4. We aim to meet the carbon budgets through domestic action alone outside the EU Emissions Trading System and, consistent with this, have set a zero limit in the non-traded sector on offsetting through international credits for the first budget period.

5. The UK’s carbon budgets will be met through collective action across Government. All departments are involved in delivering the carbon budgets, through formulating policies to reduce emissions and through reducing emissions from the public sector estate and operations.

6. The Department of Energy and Climate Change is central to the UK Government’s leadership on climate change.  We are pushing hard internationally for ambitious effective and fair action to avert the most dangerous impacts.  Through our UK Low Carbon Transition Plan we are giving householders and businesses the incentives and advice they need to cut their emissions, we are enabling the energy sector’s shift to the trinity of renewables, new nuclear and clean coal, and we are stepping up the fight against fuel poverty.
 

Source: www.decc.gov.uk

Posted under Express 92

Biofuels provide a painless route to cut transport emissions

Of all the energy used in the transportation industry, 98% is still derived from fossil fuels. Immediate reductions of emissions can be achieved through the use of alternative fuel sources such as ethanol and biodiesel blends, without impacting on any food products. The CEO of Biofuels Association of Australia Heather Brodie shrugged of recent claims that ethanol prices will skyrocket when regular unleaded is phased out due to the impending Queensland mandate.

Two announcements from the Biofuels Association of Australia (BAA) in the past week suddenly raised the profile of this normally quiet industry body. So Ken Hickson went along to meet BAA CEO Heather Brodie:

Heather Brodie was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Biofuels Association in October, 2009.  She has worked for more than fifteen years in commercial, business development and marketing roles in mines and energy, transport and logistics.

Most recently she was the GM Business Development & Corporate Affairs for ZeroGen, focusing on the world’s first CCS project at commercial scale, and was active in the establishment of the GCCSI in 2008.  Prior to this Heather was the National Marketing & Communications Manager for the VCVA looking after both Mack Trucks and Volvo Trucks during the world-wide changing of diesel emissions legislation and regulations.

Heather has worked in gold, copper and coal mining in Australia, Asia, Africa and the Americas and has worked extensively with numerous government departments, industry associations, scientific bodies, OEMs and international organisations.

Armed with numerous tertiary qualifications, Heather points to her LLB (Hons), majoring in environmental law and sustainable development, as her most significant prize.

Here’s sizeable chunk from her speech to the 2009 BAA’s annual conference:

Biofuels have a terrific potential to efficiently and effectively replace a large percentage of the world’s fuel needs.  We can’t afford to be complacent though.   We need to galvanise investment into the industry and that is going to require a few things.   We must have a clear and well grounded regulatory and legislative environment to allow investment to take place for the long term. 

We must have certainty. We must bring about clear pricing signals and appropriate fiscal initiatives to encourage low carbon solutions.  The choice that companies and consumers make will depend on the convenience and the cost, including the capital costs and operating costs of using biofuels.  For individual consumers this might not be prohibitive, but the cost to the mining, interstate transport and airline sectors may significantly delay their uptake.

The challenge for Australia and for the biofuels industry is to manage the transition between the current environment and higher oil prices under any worldwide advances in emissions trading while at the same time retaining the skills and investment confidence in this sector.  The current support for first generation biofuels is an intermediate step, but an absolutely imperative step, to the establishment of a low carbon economy. 

As oil prices rise, as Australia’s energy security gets worse, as demand exceeds supply, the first generation products will require less support and will be replaced by newer, more advanced technologies and feedstocks. 

But in the meantime, it is absolutely imperative that the first generation market be strongly established in order to build confidence in the industry and to institute a market base from which next generation biofuels can learn and develop. 

And so that greenhouse gas emissions are reduced immediately.

Release from BAA (15 January 2010):

The Biofuels Association of Australia shrugged of recent claims that ethanol prices will skyrocket when regular unleaded is phased out due to the impending Queensland mandate. 

“The issue of pricing of ethanol and the upcoming mandate in Queensland of 5% are simply not going to affect pricing in that way” said Heather Brodie, CEO of the BAA. “Fuels and excise are a Federal Government issue in the main, and are influenced by international pricing, world supply and demand capacities, transport costs, wharfage and the like.”

“The only time that ethanol prices might change will be when the Federal Government’s currently legislated grants scheme changes in July 2011″ said Ms Brodie. “Doing something good for the environment by using biofuels might start to cost more as the Federal excise rate effectively increases over the next five years.”

“At that point in time prices may rise due to the fact that ethanol will cost more for the producer to produce – simple as that. The proof has already been seen in NSW – no price rises have been seen there just by the implementation of their mandate and as an industry we certainly expect the same to occur in Queensland.”

“At the moment transportation is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases and is responsible for more than a quarter of the world’s emissions” Ms Brodie said. “Ninety eight percent of the energy used in the transportation industry still derives from fossil fuels. Immediate reductions of emissions can be achieved through the use of alternative fuel sources such as ethanol and biodiesel blends, without impacting on any food products.”

“Australia has the opportunity to lead the world in the use of biofuels but at the moment we are well behind the mature positions being taken in Europe, America, Asia and Brazil.”

Release from BAA  (13 January 2010):   

The Biofuels Association of Australia today questioned a number of recent articles relating to the pricing of premium and unleaded ethanol blends in the lead up to increasing mandates in NSW and Queensland.

“It seems the general public is still being misled on a number of fronts” said Heather Brodie, CEO of the BAA. “Nearly all Australian-made cars are suitable for E10 fuels, and the vast majority of imported cars are also compatible with E5 or E10 ethanol blended fuels. Cars all over Europe, America, Brazil and Asia have been using blended fuels for decades, so it is a proven product that can go a long way to reducing our carbon emissions.”

Ethanol is an alcohol which is made by fermenting the sugar components of plant materials by using yeast. Ethanol can be used as a fuel for vehicles in its pure form, but it is usually blended with gasoline so as to reduce vehicle emissions of carbon dioxide and particulates.

“We have the states of NSW and Queensland taking a positive step for the environment by introducing mandated ethanol blends at the bowser” Ms Brodie said. “With the price differential between premium unleaded and an ethanol blend we should see more people willing to give it a go. Most cars actually produce more power using an ethanol blend because there is a higher octane rating than petrol.”

“Remember how much we all hated unleaded petrol as compared to super when it first came in? We’re in the same boat now in getting used to a new product. Transportation is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases and is responsible for more than a quarter of the world’s emissions” Ms Brodie said. “Ninety eight percent of the energy used in the transportation industry still derives from fossil fuels. Immediate reductions of emissions can be achieved through the use of alternative fuel sources such as ethanol and biodiesel blends.”

“It’s time we all started recognising that locally produced, environmentally sustainable and economically viable transport fuels will actually be necessary in order to meet petroleum demands in the future. Australia has the opportunity to lead the world in the use of biofuels but at the moment we are well behind the mature positions being taken in Europe, America, Asia and Brazil.”

Source: www.biofuelsassociation.com.au

Posted under Express 92

Aiming for 99.9% Cut in Telecoms Network Power Use by 2015

Bells Labs, where both the laser and the transistor were invented, has launched an international consortium of networking and computing firms called Green Touch, which is committed to developing new power-saving technologies. The initial goal is to cut power use in the global telecoms network by 99.9 per cent by 2015. The University of Melbourne’s Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES) is a member of the Green Touch consortium.

By Paul Marks for New Scientist(12 January 2010):

The internet and other communications networks could use one-ten-thousandth of the energy that they do today if smarter data-coding techniques were used to move information around. That’s the conclusion of Bell Labs, the research centre in Murray Hill, New Jersey, where both the laser and transistor were invented.

The lab has launched a consortium of networking and computing firms called Green Touch that is committed to developing new power-saving technologies. The initial goal is to cut power use in the global telecoms network by 99.9 per cent by 2015.

At issue, says Gee Rittenhouse, head of research at Bell Labs, is the 300 million tonnes of carbon dioxide belched into the atmosphere to power today’s global telephone, internet and cellphone networks.

 ”That’s equivalent to the emissions from 50 million automobiles, or 20 per cent of the cars registered in the US,” he says. The explosion in internet traffic taking place as mobiles go online and video viewing grows, plus future changes such as the arrival of 3D TV, will push those emissions even higher.

Back to basics

One way Bell Labs plans to develop low-power networks is by harnessing the theories of its late alumnus Claude Shannon that underlie all electronic communication, wired or wireless.

Shannon worked out that in a low-power channel, where unwanted “noise” is loud compared with the intended signal, a code can always be devised to extract the messages being transmitted.

Today’s fibre-optic and cellphone networks avoid having to take that approach by using high power levels. “But by using smarter codes we can extract those signals and reconstruct them accurately even in the presence of high noise,” Rittenhouse says.

Other members of the Green Touch consortium include US mobile network AT&T, China Mobile – the world’s largest cellphone operator – European mobile operator Telefonica, hardware manufacturers Samsung and Freescale Semiconductor, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, California, the University of Melbourne, Australia and the French national computing lab INRIA.

Consolidated data

MIT engineer Muriel Médard says she will be looking for ways to bundle together internet data taking similar routes through the network to reduce the traffic on power-hungry trunk routes. “A lot of energy is dissipated in vain,” she says.

At the University of Melbourne, Rod Tucker will focus on the power consumed by broadband modems, phones and cellphones when not in use.

“If you have broadband your modem is probably switched on all the time, consuming a few watts,” he explains. “We’ll be looking at ways to make modems and phones go into a sleep mode when not in use – but from which they can wake up quickly.”

Samsung of South Korea is still firming up its ideas. “But memory and displays in communications systems are areas where we can particularly innovate,” says engineer Young Mo Kim.

It’s not just hardware that will be getting attention – changing user behaviour can also cut power use. For example, by making cellphone battery life indicators more accurate or power-saving settings easier to change, users could be encouraged to use their cellphone batteries more efficiently.

“The user aspects of communications energy-saving will be a clear focus,” says Bell Labs president Jeong Kim.

Source: www.newscientist.com

12 January 2010

The University of Melbourne’s Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES) today announced its membership in a new research consortium – the Green Touch™ Initiative – which brings together leading Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry players and researchers to fundamentally re-invent the network and reduce ICT energy consumption up to a factor of 1000.

 A team of researchers in IBES is investigating ways to reduce the energy consumption of the internet.  Like researchers in a number of other organisations, IBES has made progress in understanding how network energy consumption can be reduced.

Finding a comprehensive solution to the problem of growing energy consumption in the Internet will require strong collaboration and cooperation between researchers from different backgrounds and from different organizations.

“The Green Touch Initiative provides us with the best opportunity to make real and significant progress on this key research challenge,” said Professor Rod Tucker, Director of the Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society. 

“IBES is delighted to be part of the Green Touch Initiative, and stand with other members of the consortium on the threshold of a new era in information technology and telecommunications.   Outcomes from the Green Touch Initiative will be critical to the future of the entire industry.”

About the Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society

The Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES) is a cross-disciplinary research institute at the University of Melbourne dedicated to technologies products, services, and innovations that maximize the benefit of broadband technologies to society. The Institute’s activities cover a wide range of fields including advanced broadband technologies, energy-efficient networking and cloud computing, online engagement, content creation and delivery, delivery of remote health services and education, business and service transformation, social networking, and entertainment.

About the Green Touch Initiative

Green Touch Initiative, a consortium of leading industry players, research institutions and non-governmental organizations to define the challenge, identify solutions and develop solutions with the goal to deliver the architecture, specifications, roadmap, and demonstrations of key components needed to reduce ICT energy consumption per user by a factor of 1,000 from current levels within five years.

Source: www.greentouch.org and www.broadband.unimelb.edu.au

Posted under Express 92

Good Guide to Government Green Grants

Did you know there is more than $3 billion in federal and state government “green” grants and subsidies available in Australia? You’re not alone. Most companies don’t know they are available or how to access them, according to sustainability consultancy Equilibrium OMG. Now there is a Good Guide to Government Grants.

Release from Equilibrium OMG (14 January 2010):

How to tap into $3 billion in “green” government grants

There is more than $3 billion in federal and state government “green” grants and subsidies available that most companies do not know are available or how to access them, according to sustainability consultancy Equilibrium OMG.

To assist business access these grants and subsidies Equilibrium OMG has produced a comprehensive guide on the grants and general assistance available to business and how to access them.

Equilibrium OMG Managing Director Nicholas Harford said the Guide can help business access assistance for environmental improvement projects.

“Knowing what these grants are, who is eligible and how to apply for them often requires considerable time and resources that many businesses simply do not have,” he said.

“To date small and large businesses have not been able to easily access this information despite the fact that they may have legal and environmental obligations to fulfil.”

The Good Guide to Government Grants – Federal and State Government Environment, Sustainability and Climate Change Assistance for Business and Industry, provides information on $3.3 billion of grants and a range of general assistance in the one convenient reference source, giving details about funding programs, amounts and eligibility.

“Government grants enable a business to adopt new and innovative environmental technology such as water and energy saving devices, which not only results in improved productivity but also has real and practical benefits for the environment,” he said.

“Many businesses are also required to comply with more environmental laws and regulations, so government grants should be employed where appropriate to assist compliance, improve environmental performance and support business development.”

 The Guide is designed to help business make the most of government funding and become more sustainable. 

Source: www.eqlomg.com

Posted under Express 92

 

This decade Australia’s wind farm industry expects to increase its employment almost 500% as the national renewable energy target, legislated last year, drives rapid development. Meanwhile Texan oilman and clean energy booster T. Boone Pickens has shelved his massive wind-power project – but he’s still buying 333 wind turbines – as he stepped up his push to increase the use of natural gas for transportation.

Energy Sector feels the wind in its sails

By Keith Orchison in The Australian (16/17 January 2010):

This decade Australia’s wind farm industry expects to increase its employment almost 500 percent as the national renewable energy target, legislated last year, drives rapid development.

The escalation of wind power is one of three “waves of change” in electricity supply predicted by the Australian Energy Market Operator as it seeks to model national high voltage transmission needs.

According to AEMO, the renewable target will drive a 450 percent increase in wind power while the gas generators simultaneously will be entering a golden period that will last longer. The target scheme runs out of puff in 2020 – it has a cap of 45,000 gigawatt hours a year – but gas-fuelled combined cycle plants will become the preferred technology for meeting Australian power demand over the next two decades.  Combined cycle gas turbine baseload generation is predicted to increase nearly ten-fold over two decades.

The AEMO model suggests that it will be around 2024 before the third technology wave makes its mark with large-scale geothermal development and carbon capture and sequestration processes enabling the coal generators to arrest their decline in Australian power supply.

Meanwhile the ball is with the wind developers. Miles George, managing director of Infigen Energy, builders of the first large-scale wind farm in New South Wales, recently told a Senate committee that he expects 800 MW of wind power to be established each year of this decade.

George, whose Capital wind farm near Bungendore is contracted to sell its output to Sydney Water for the desalination plant due to be commissioned this summer, says a “reasonable target” long term for the wind sector would be to meet 15 to 20 percent of national electricity demand.

Meanwhile, the Rudd Government’s RET should drive the wind sector’s employment from 1,600 people today to 7,600 by the end of the decade, according to Clean Energy Council estimates. Overall, the council predicts that the renewable energy industry will increase its employment in Australia from 10,370 people today to more than 24,000 in 2020 on the back of climate change policies.

The CEC says that support for desalination projects – by putting zero-emission power in to the eastern seaboard grid to offset use of fossil fuels – will be an important early factor for the wind industry. Apart from the 141 MW committed by Infigen to support Sydney Water, AGL is developing 524 MW of wind farms at Oaklands Hill and Hallett between now and 2012 for the South Australian water scheme.

Australia now has 49 wind farms carrying 962 turbines with a capacity of 1,668 MW. The CEC says that there are 6,000 MW of wind energy projects proposed across Australia.

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics sees an even more optimistic outlook for wind energy. In its latest review of electricity generation, ABARE records 10,672 MW of wind farms undergoing feasibility studies in addition to 734 MW of developments being built.

ABARE has 71 wind farms in its “less advanced projects” category.  Fourteen are proposed for New South Wales, including the giant Silverton project near Broken Hill with a planned capacity of 1,000 MW, and 30 for Victoria. A further 17 are proposed for SA.

Infigen’s George foresees a technology change further boosting Australia’s wind rush. He told the Senate committee on fuel and energy that a typical wind farm turbine today has a capacity of two megawatts and, while 3 MW units are already being brought in to operation, there are 6MW prototypes being tested.  This will enable another substantial decrease in wind power costs.

Keith Orchison, director of consultancy Coolibah Pty Ltd  –  www.coolibahconsulting.com.au - and editor of Powering Australia yearbook, was chief executive of two national energy associations from 1980 to 2003. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia for services to the energy industry in 2004. His POWERLINE blog is on www.businessspectator.com.au

By Keith Johnson in the Wall Street Journal (14 January 2010):

T. Boone Pickens, the oilman and clean-energy booster, shelved his massive wind-power project in Texas even as he stepped up his push to increase the use of natural gas for transportation.

Cheap natural gas, the lack of electricity-transmission lines and the lingering credit crunch have combined to take the shine off large-scale renewable-energy projects, and those factors led Mr. Pickens to halve his $2 billion wind-turbine order with General Electric Co., said a spokesman for Mr. Pickens’s Mesa Power LP.

Mr. Pickens in May 2008 announced plans for the biggest wind farm in the U.S., by amount of installed megawatts, to be located in the Texas panhandle. But Tuesday he said he would cut his order with GE to 333 turbines from 667 machines and use them for wind farms in Canada and Minnesota.

That means the Pampa Wind Farm slated for north Texas—and postponed last summer until at least 2013—won’t happen under current conditions.

“It’s off the table,” Mr. Pickens said Wednesday in a conference call. If Texas makes more investments in transmission lines to carry power from the remote wind farm to towns and cities, he said, “we’ll be back.”

A GE spokesman said the two parties mutually renegotiated the terms of the 2008 deal.

Natural-gas prices have fallen sharply since the summer of 2008, when Mr. Pickens announced the big wind farm and the “Pickens Plan,” which calls for using natural gas to power big rigs, buses and other large vehicles to lessen U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

Cheaper natural gas hurts wind farms, because cheaper gas makes gas-fired power plants a more attractive option for electricity generation. “You can’t finance wind farms very well when natural gas is under $6″ per million British thermal units, Mr. Pickens said. Natural-gas futures settled at $5.733 Wednesday afternoon on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The effects of the credit crunch and the economic slowdown also slowed growth in the wider U.S. wind-power industry in 2009, after a record year for wind-power installations in 2008.

But less expensive natural gas, due to a boom in U.S. production over the last two years, has given new impetus to Mr. Pickens’s transport plans. Mr. Pickens announced Wednesday a new national television ad calling on America to “wake up” to the cost of importing oil. He also called on Congress to pass pending legislation that would offer new incentives for greater use of natural gas in the heavy-duty transport fleet.

Source: www.online.wsj.com

Posted under Express 92

Agriculture in China Faces Climate & Technology Challenges

The destructive power of climate change has reminded us of the need to view the issue with a multi-dimensional perspective, says Chinese Vice Minister of Agriculture Niu Dun, so we should tackle the challenges by renewing the agricultural system and continuously developing the country’s economy. Chinese government is helping farmers, herdsmen and fishermen create a sustainable mode of production, by applying new technologies with lower costs and lower emissions.

By Han Mo, Liu Xiang in China View (17 January 2010):

As climate change poses a great challenge to China’s agricultural sector, the government and farmers should tackle it in a scientific and systematic way, Chinese Vice Minister of Agriculture Niu Dun said in an interview with Xinhua.

Climate change has posed great threats to the traditional farming sector, and extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods, hailstorm, tropical storms, have ruined harvests far more often than before, Niu said.

He was in Berlin to attend the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture, held during the 75th International Green Week in Berlin, the world’s largest agricultural and food fair.

“The destructive power of climate change has reminded us of the need to view the issue with a multi-dimensional perspective,” he said. “We should tackle the challenges by renewing the agricultural system and continuously developing the country’s economy.”

The Chinese government would help farmers, herdsmen and fishermen create a sustainable mode of production by applying new technologies with lower costs and lower emissions, Niu said.

“The government will intensify investment of agricultural infrastructure and projects and impart more scientific knowledge and climate-friendly concepts to farmers,” the vice-minister said.

“We want to build a comprehensive service system in the rural areas to offer multi-facet assistance to agriculture, such as providing peasants with quality seeds, machinery and advanced technologies,” he said.

All these could help cut down losses caused by climate change and improve rural living standards, Niu said.

Despite unfavorable weather conditions and the international financial crisis, China’s total grain yield was expected to hit a record high of 1,061.6 million tons in 2009, the sixth consecutive year of growth. The per capita annual net income of Chinese farmers has exceeded 5,000 yuan (735 U.S. dollars), up more than 6percent from 2008, according to the latest data.

At the forum, Niu rejected accusations that China blocked a deal last month at the Copenhagen climate change conference. “China has set the new target of cutting carbon dioxide emissions per unit of the GDP by 40-45 percent by 2020 from the 2005 level,”he told 50-plus foreign agriculture ministers.

“Above all, it was not conditional or linked with commitments by any other countries,” he said.

Under the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities in addressing climate change, “China has demonstrated its highly responsible attitude towards the international community and future generations,” the Chinese official said.

Some 1,600 exhibitors from 56 countries were taking part in the10-day annual fair, showcasing their best farm produce, livestock,farm machines, garden tools and newly-developed technologies.

Niu told Xinhua that attending the forum offered a chance to “broaden our vision about new trends of modern agriculture.”

Source: www.chinaview.cn

Posted under Express 92

Heat’s on for Farmers: “The Seed as it’s Emerging gets Sunburnt and Dies.’’ 

Queensland farmer Linton Brimblecombe grows about 4000 tonnes of beetroot a year. But that’s becoming harder to sustain and he says the climate is to blame. “Humans are having an effect on the environment – we have to acknowledge that. We can’t disregard the impact we are having on the earth.’’

Graham Readfearn in the Courier Mail (15 January 2010) and on his Green Blog:

BEETROOT grower Linton Brimblecombe used to sit on his father’s farm in the Lockyer Valley and occasionally gaze questioningly at the smoke coming from the exhaust pipes of tractors.

“I spent a lot of time on tractors, I used to ponder where does that emission go? What effect was that chimney stack having on the rest of the environment?’’ he says.

Move forward about three decades (but remain on the same patch of prime food production land) and this fourth-generation farmer may now be getting the answer to that question.

“For the past eight years it’s become a lot warmer, and it’s a struggle,’’ he says.

Brimblecombe grows about 4000 tonnes of beetroot a year exclusively for Golden Circle and to keep up with the demands of his buyer, grows right up to early February. But that’s becoming harder to sustain and he says the climate is to blame.

“We are noticing an increase in days over 30C and a decrease in days below zero,’’ he says. “The seed as it’s emerging gets sunburnt and dies.’’ 

Adapting to the changing climate is the only option for Brimblecombe, but then fruit and vegetable growers have been adapting to gradual changes in the climate for decades.

“The options? We could move to a different growing district,’’ he says. “We could grin and bear it and work harder. There are options such as mulching the soil so that it’s cooler – and we’re looking into that – but everything comes with a cost.’’

Industry bodies and government scientists say that in the coming years, the problems are only likely to get more challenging for growers like Brimblecombe. 

Acceleration of increasing temperatures coupled with an increasing population demanding more food will test the ingenuity of Queensland’s fruit and vegetable growers more than ever before.

“You’ll often hear people in the industry talk about food security – making sure that we have secure food production under changing climate scenarios,’’ says David Putland, the climate change project officer for Queensland horticulture peak body Growcom. “I think most growers realise that climate change is a serious issue for food production.’’

Two weeks ago Growcom announced two new research projects with backing from state governments in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, looking at the avocado industry and apple and pear growers. Almost all of Queensland’s apples are grown in the Stanthorpe area, the warmest and most northerly apple-growing region in Australia.

But earlier this year, scientists at James Cook University found that since 1979, the tropical belt had been expanding,pushing its boundary, and the warmer weather that goes with it, south by as much as 600km. Recently the Bureau of Meteorology confirmed Australia had just been through its warmest decade on record. Each decade since the 1940s, the bureau said, had been warmer than the previous one.

“Fruit crops like apples and pears require chilling hours to develop the flower and the fruit and to get a good yield,’’ says Putland. “If it gets warmer and you don’t get those necessary chilling hours, we could see yields going down.’’

But Putland says that while this is of concern, it is not a time to panic, although it is a time to prepare.

“Some of this can be fixed, but it costs a lot of money. You can plant new varieties and have more irrigation – perhaps using micro-sprayers to keep the crops cool. There are clay-based reflective particles you can spray on hard fruit like apples and pears. All these things will make food production more expensive. That will only get worse with mitigation strategies to reduce emissions on farms.

“If those costs are too great and farmers go out of business, that’s when food security is threatened and you have bare shelves at certain times of the year and higher prices. That’s one of the challenges for managing and selecting new crops. At what point does the risk become unacceptable for a certain crop?

“You need to plan ahead and work out what the changes will be and identify when some crops might cease to be viable in some regions so you can then plan to grow something else. We have more than 120 different crops just in Queensland. Sometimes we just can’t answer all the farmers’ questions.’’

Queensland’s economy has more than a passing interest in horticulture. According to Growcom, horticulture is Queensland’s “second-largest primary industry, worth more than $1.8 billion per annum’’.

But the peak body says climate change is throwing problems at these farmers that employ about 25,000 people and supply Queenslanders and the rest of the nation with one-third of all the fruit and vegetables on their plates.

Days of continued high temperatures can put heat stress on plants. Crops under stress could be helped with increased irrigation, but would this be sustainable in the long-term as water availability becomes less predictable?

Putland says there are signs that the “winter growing window’’ for crops such as lettuce is narrowing, meaning farmers will need to change planting schedules or risk being beaten to the market by rivals in the south.

In a submission to the Government’s Garnaut Review, national peak body Horticulture Australia Council said horticultural crops were “very temperature-sensitive, and impacts on growing regions (eg stone fruit, pome fruit) and cropping times (eg wine grapes, mangoes, avocados) are already being felt’’.

Gatton-based Peter Deuter, a principal horticulturalist at the Queensland Government’s newly formed Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation, says the most pressing issue for farmers is finding ways to adapt to rising temperatures.

“The change in climate in the past 50, 20 and 10 years shows temperatures have increased in all areas. All the climate-change scenarios say these temperatures will continue to increase. There are no scenarios which suggest that temperatures are going to fall. Here in the Lockyer Valley, we’ve had a 1.1C rise in temperatures since 1967.’’

Deuter says that so far, farmers have adapted well to the changes they’ve already seen and they could continue for the next five or 10 years in the same way. 

“Future scenarios are changing because climate change is happening more rapidly than we thought. We need to be careful and not just think that everything is fine. The rate of change is increasing.’’

Turning research from scientists into practical information for farmers, says Deuter, will be a key component in helping farmers to continue to produce fresh food.

“We don’t want to get caught with our pants down. Climate change wasn’t really an issue in horticulture until five years ago. The temperature is the major factor and there’s not a lot of disagreement about that. We need a good-quality watching brief.’’

Deuter says that overall, the contribution of horticulture to climate change is minuscule. Across Australia, he says the industry contributes about 1 million tonnes of greenhouse gases compared to 90 million for the entire agricultural sector.

Even so, back in Laidley, Linton Brimblecombe is starting to look seriously at ways that he can reduce the carbon footprint of his own property.

“I could easily justify me riding a tractor because compared to a highway full of vehicles it’s nothing. But what I wasn’t thinking about was the fertilisers and electricity and diesel I use to grow my crops. There’s an acknowledgment that humans are having an effect on the environment – we have to acknowledge that. We can’t disregard the impact we are having on the earth.’’ 

Source: www.blogs.news.com.au

Posted under Express 92

Rising Biofuel Demand in Germany; Electric Vehicles Tested in Canada

Quebec’s power utility is teaming up with Mitsubishi Motors to road test the performance of up to 50 all-electric vehicles against the rigors of the Canadian climate and measure their infrastructure needs, while Germany’s biodiesel industry sees rising demand in 2010 from oil companies for blending with fossil fuels, the head of Germany’s bio-ethanol industry association said. From Reuters World Environment News.

Susan Taylor for Reuters World Environment News (18 January 2010):

OTTAWA – Quebec’s power utility is teaming up with Mitsubishi Motors to road test the performance of up to 50 all-electric vehicles against the rigors of the Canadian climate and measure their infrastructure needs.

The C$4.5 million ($4.4 million) project, which organizers say will be Canada’s biggest trial yet of all-electric vehicles, is planned for this autumn near the Boucherville research facility of Hydro-Quebec, the provincial government-owned electricity utility.

“It will allow us to advance our knowledge of the technology and its integration into our grid, which in turn, will help us plan the necessary charging infrastructure for homes, offices and public places,” said Thierry Vandal, Hydro-Quebec’s chief executive.

Organizers said the road test is the first to include a car manufacturer, public utility, municipality and local businesses, which will integrate Mitsubishi i-MiEVs into existing fleets.

Mitsubishi says its Innovative Electric Vehicle, or i-MiEV, is an all-electric, highway-capable, charge-at-home commuter car.

Quebec was Canada’s first province to adopt California’s strict auto emission standards. The new rules came into effect January 14 and impose increasingly stringent limits on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from cars and light trucks.

Source: www.planetark.org
Michael Hogan for Reuters World Environment News (18 January 2010):

BERLIN – Germany’s biodiesel industry sees rising demand in 2010 from oil companies for blending with fossil fuels, the head of Germany’s bioethanol industry association said.

The German government’s plan to raise maximum permitted bioethanol levels in gasoline could boost sales while other European countries were also raising blending levels, said BDBE chief executive Dietrich Klein.

“We are optimistic after a difficult period,” Klein said at the Green Week trade fair. Germany’s new government planned to raise maximum permitted bioethanol levels in gasoline from five percent to ten percent, called E10 blends, to cut pollution.

The new regulation could take force by summer 2010, with major volumes of E10 fuel enter the market by next winter.

Meanwhile, heavy competition from Brazilian bioethanol was substantially reduced in 2009 and was likely to remain at low levels in early 2010, said Lutz Guderjahn, executive board member of German bioethanol producer Cropenergies, a unit of German sugar producer Suedzucker.

Brazilian bioethanol sales to Europe had fallen by about half in 2009. “With global sugar prices so high, Brazil is finding it more attractive to export sugar rather than processing it into bioethanol,” Guderjahn said.

“I expect this trend to continue in 2010 although much will depend on the outcome of the Brazilian and Indian sugar crops this year,” said Guderjahn.

GRAIN ATTRACTIVE FEEDSTOCK

Low prices made grains, especially maize and barley, the most attractive current feedstock for bioethanol production, said Guderjahn.

This was also because comparatively high soybean markets meant bioethanol producers were achieving high prices for animal feed meal by-products, he said.

Large EU sugar crops this winter were also likely to mean large supplies of cheap sugar for bioethanol feedstock, said Suedzucker board member and BDBE vice chairman Markwart Kunz.

Farmers in countries including Germany were expected to produce well over their European Union production quotas in this winter’s crop. Such sugar produced above EU quotas cannot be sold as food and must be marketed for other industrial uses including bioethanol.

“We will see a large volume of non-quota sugar available for bioethanol output this year,” said Kunz.

Despite current high sugar prices, such non-quota sugar would still be attractive as bioethanol feedstock, he said. Non-quota sugar was about 40 percent cheaper than quota sugar eligible for sale as food.

Source: www.planetark.org

Posted under Express 92

In the end (a word or two from the editor)

I cannot resist giving the last word to well-known Brisbane engineer David Hood – a friend and serious climate change action advocate – with his concern over the visit of supreme sceptic Lord Monckton. Here’s what David wrote to the Brisbane Institute, which is jointly sponsored by the Queensland Government and the Brisbane City Council. In fact, Queensland’s Minister of Transport and the City’s CEO are among the Institute’s Board of Directors. Read More

“I am appalled that the once respected Brisbane Institute (BI) is giving credence to thoroughly discredited climate sceptics.  

“Last year BI entertained Jay Lehr, the Science Director of The Heartland Institute, that well known think tank funded by the tobacco industry to lie about smoking being safe, and now funded by Exxon Mobil et al to tell the world that burning fossil fuels is safe for the planet.  

 “As if that wasn’t enough, BI is now supporting and funding that well know crackpot, Lord Monckton, and his mate Professor Ian Plimer at a debate here in Brisbane on 29 January.   This event is bringing significant discredit upon BI which says it is simply allowing both sides to have their say.  

“I would have thought that when 98% of refereed scientific and engineering research papers agree that anthropogenic climate change is happening, and when the largest gathering of world leaders ever in history agreed just last December at COP 15 in Copenhagen that “climate change is happening, is caused by human activity, is serious, and requires immediate solutions” there is no further debate.

“The problem world leaders had, as you well know, was in agreeing what those solutions are, and when to implement them.   In other words, we have moved on a long way on from debating the science. 

“This event is putting the Brisbane Institute, and its supporters, in a very bad light, by giving credence to well known purveyors of false science, cherry picked data, partial or out of context quotes, and simply false information. It is great shame to see BI exposing itself to ridicule from the science and engineering community.”

That’s the word- or two – from David Hood. More from me next week.

Ken Hickson

Posted under Express 91

Profile: Professor Anthony Giddens

“We have to innovate in international relations at this point if we are successfully to come to terms with climate change and hold the global average temperature increase to 2C”. Professor Anthony Giddens proposes that the countries that worked together to reach the Copenhagen Accord should continue to act, even outside the UN framework, “because it recognises core geopolitical realities and works with, rather than against, them”.

Professor Anthony Giddens in The Australian (12 January 2010):

EVEN if they degenerated into squabbling, the climate-change meetings in Copenhagen in December were one of the signal events of 2009. They were supposed to establish a global deal to which all participant countries would sign up. It didn’t happen. The Copenhagen Accord, a brief statement of principles and commitments, produced by a small cluster of states, was the only tangible output of the negotiations.

Two main responses came from commentators in the immediate aftermath. Some argued along the lines of: Well, it falls far short of what we hoped for, but we have to look for the positives and make the best of a bad job. Others – a large majority – declared the outcome a catastrophe.

My reaction, different from both, is that the world might have inadvertently stumbled on the most hopeful way of starting to counter climate change rather than just talking about doing so. It is not a route that will necessarily command general approval, and the UN to some extent is sidelined. Yet it is one that carries promise, because it recognises core geopolitical realities and works with, rather than against, them.

The countries that met to establish the accord were the US, China, India, Brazil and South Africa. Leaving aside South Africa, the others are the three biggest beasts of the developing world in terms of greenhouse-gas emissions, plus the most polluting industrialised country. A diversity of other states has indicated a willingness to come on board.

We have to innovate in international relations at this point if we are successfully to come to terms with climate change and hold the global average temperature increase to 2C. The accord is only a beginning, but it can be built upon, and in principle far more rapidly than would have been possible with the cumbersome scenario envisaged at Copenhagen. If the agreement can be a given a robust form in short order, it could help break the logjam in which each nation or group of nations is waiting for others to take the lead.

Much will depend on how solid and practical are the proposals that, according to the terms of the accord, the industrial countries will present by January 31 for cutting their rates of emissions. The plans must be plausible and robust, not just a wish list.

For all their rhetoric, most have accomplished rather little so far; the rest of the world is right to be unimpressed. At the same date, developing countries wishing to accept the accord will be required to flesh out their plans for cutting emissions. For the first time, some sort of sanctioning mechanism will be established. Proposed action in developing countries funded by money from the richer ones will be internationally monitored.

What kind of framework might emerge from this in the short and medium terms? Will it mean that the smaller and poorer countries will suffer as the larger ones progress? I don’t think it necessarily will, at least if the overall architecture is right, and if they organise to represent their specific concerns.

What happened with the World Trade Organisation can provide useful hints. Anticipating what would happen at Copenhagen, I developed a series of proposals along these lines in my book The Politics of Climate Change, published nine months ago. Failure to conclude a universal set of trading agreements has spawned a variety of measures and organisations. The diversity of groups and regions involved has proved as much a source of strength as of weakness. The same could be true in the case of climate change.

If successfully elaborated over the next few months, the accord can provide an anchoring agreement, but we will also need a diversity of bilateral and regional agreements and coalitions of the willing. The US and China must continue to negotiate bilaterally, whatever more general agreements they commit themselves to.

Let’s suppose that 190 countries had reached a binding consensus in Copenhagen, but that the two left out were the US and China. The agreed-upon framework wouldn’t have been of much value, since these states between them contribute more than 40 per cent of total greenhouse-gas emissions. Much better, as it were, to start with these two nations, together with the other big emitters, and ensure they are prepared to work with one another in a serious and committed way.

There should be a G3 as well. The European Union found itself sidelined at Copenhagen, because it does not speak with one voice and could not deliver the rapid decision-making that had to take place late in the negotiations to get anything from them at all.

Yet with 550 million citizens, it has to have a key, and hopefully vanguard, role. The initiators of the accord bypassed the unhealthy divide that has arisen between the developed and the developing countries, in which each is seen as a homogeneous bloc; this emphasis must continue. The 20 largest polluters (which include several large developing nations) have contributed almost 90 per cent of total emissions; they too should be getting together regularly. Plenty of other new departures could be thought of. There are obvious dangers in an approach that does not focus on getting all nations to sign up to a common template. Yet at this point there is no alternative. Such an emphasis does not signal the demise of multilateralism, since many forms of co-operation will need to be initiated and furthered.

Anthony Giddens is a former director of the London School of Economics and a member of the advisory board of The Centre for the Study of Global Governance, London.

He was educated at the University of Hull and the London School of Economics. At the LSE, he wrote a dissertation on ‘Sport and Society in Contemporary Britain’. He has taught at the University of Leicester and subsequently at Cambridge, where he was Professor of Sociology. From 1997 to 2003 he was Director of the LSE. He is currently a Life Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. He was made a Life Peer in May 2004. He has honorary degrees from 15 universities. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Science and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He was the BBC Reith Lecturer in 1999. His books have been translated into some forty languages. He has sat on the board of various public organisations, including the Institute of Public Policy Research.

Giddens’s impact upon politics has been profound. His advice has been sought by political leaders from Asia, Latin America and Australia, as well as from the US and Europe. He has had a major impact upon the evolution of New Labour in the UK. He took part in the original Blair-Clinton dialogues from 1997 onwards.

Source: www.theaustralian.com.au and www.lse.ac.uk