Scenario 2300: Half the Earth Too Hot to Live in

A worst-case scenario of global warming, in which temperatures would soar some 21 degrees, is that much of the world may simply become too hot for humans to live in, according to new research published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research suggests that without action to cut greenhouse gas emissions, average temperatures could rise as much as 10 to 12% by 2300.

AAP Report in The Age (11 May 2010):

HALF the Earth could become too hot for human habitation in less than 300 years, Australian scientists warn.

New research by the University of NSW has forecast the effect of climate change over the next three centuries, a longer time scale than that considered in many similar studies.

The research suggests that without action to cut greenhouse gas emissions, average temperatures could rise as much as 10 to 12 per cent by 2300.

The research, produced in partnership with Purdue University, in the US, is published today in the American scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

”Much of the climate change debate has been about whether the world will succeed in keeping global warming to the relatively safe level of only 2 degrees Celsius by 2100,” said Professor Tony McMichael, from the Australian National University, in an accompanying paper published in the journal.

”But climate change will not stop in 2100 and, under realistic scenarios out to 2300, we may be faced with temperature increases of 12 degrees or even more.”

Professor McMichael said that if this were to happen, then current worries about sea level rises, occasional heatwaves and bushfires, biodiversity loss and agricultural difficulties would ”pale into insignificance” compared to the global impacts.

Such a temperature rise would pose a ”considerable threat to the survival of our species”, he said, because ”as much as half the currently inhabited globe may simply become too hot for people to live there”.

Professor McMichael and co-author Associate Professor Keith Dear, also from ANU, described the study as ”important and necessary” because there was a need to refocus government attention on the health impacts of global temperature rise.

There was also a real possibility that much of the existing climate modelling had underestimated the rate of global temperature rise, they said.

Dr Dear said scientific authorities on the issue, such as the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), had struck a cautious tone in forecasting future temperature rise and its impact.

”In presenting its warnings about the future, the IPCC is very careful to be conservative, using mild language and low estimates of impacts,” Dr Dear said.

”This is appropriate for a scientific body, but world governments, including our own, should be honest with us about the full range of potential dangers posed by uncontrolled emissions and the extremes of climate change that would inevitably result.”

Source: www.theage.com.au

By Doyle Rice for USA Today (10 May 2010):

Report: Climate change could render much of world uninhabitable

A worst-case scenario of global warming, in which temperatures would soar some 21 degrees, is that much of the world may simply become too hot for humans to live in, according to new research published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“We found that … a 21-degree warming would put half of the world’s population in an uninhabitable environment,”says study co-author Matthew Huber of Purdue University.

While the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that the result of business-as-usual warming would be 7 degrees by 2100, eventual warming over several centuries of 25 degrees is feasible, says Huber.

The new research calculated the highest tolerable “wet-bulb” temperature that humans can withstand.

“The wet-bulb limit is basically the point at which one would overheat even if they were naked in the shade, soaking wet and standing in front of a large fan,” says study lead author Steven Sherwood of the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

The researchers found that humans and most mammals experience a potentially lethal level of heat stress at a “wet-bulb” temperature above 95 degrees sustained for six hours or more.

(The more familiar air temperature is known as the “dry-bulb” temperature; wet bulb temperatures can be used along with the dry bulb temperature to calculate humidity.)

Researchers say that while wet-bulb temperatures of 95 degrees never happen now, they would begin to occur with global-average warming of about 12 degrees, calling the habitability of some regions into question.

“We show that even modest global warming could therefore expose large fractions of the population to unprecedented heat stress, and that with severe warming this would become intolerable,” the authors write.

“If warmings of 10 degrees C (18 degrees F) were really to occur in next three centuries, the area of land likely rendered uninhabitable by heat stress would dwarf that affected by rising sea level. Heat stress thus deserves more attention as a climate-change impact.”

Source: www.content.usatoday.com

Strategic Directions Re-Designs Data Centres; Singapore Recycles Buildings

Leading Australian ICT Master Planner Strategic Directions, which has designed energy efficient data centres powered by alternate energy sources and technologies,  has been invited to join the prestigious International Data Centre Institute of AFCOM, the world’s largest independent data centre industry body. Ecospecifier which has set up an operation and website for Singapore and South East Asia, tells us about a new Singapore Government funded initiative to recycle waste materials from demolition of buildings.

Announcement from Strategic Directions:

Leading Australian ICT Master Planner Strategic Directions – the design authority behind the recently opened $220 Million Polaris Data Centre at Springfield near Brisbane – has been invited to join the prestigious International Data Centre Institute of AFCOM, the world’s largest independent data centre industry body.

Strategic Directions is the first Australian company (and the first organisation outside the USA) to be invited to join the internationally recognised Think Tank.

Strategic Directions has designed a geothermal powered data centre (with zero carbon emissions) for Queensland based ASX Company Geodynamics and is also involved in designing a family of world class, energy efficient data centres powered by alternate energy sources and technologies, including wind, solar, biomass and hydro. 

The Data Center Institute (DCI) was formed in 2001 by AFCOM with a charter is “to provide leadership and direction for the global Data Centre industry.”

Data centres are already acknowledged as one of the heaviest industrial users of power – the design of energy efficient, alternate energy data centres for the future is gaining the attention of Governments and Organisations around the globe.

The invitation to join the DCI followed AFCOM CEO Jill Eckhaus and AFCOM Founder Leonard Eckhaus’ first visit to Australia last year – and Strategic Directions Technical Director Mike Andrea’s presentation at AFCOM’s International Data Centre Forum in Nashville, Tennessee, USA in early March.

Mr. Andrea’s case study highlighted the modular design and operational delivery of the $220 Million Polaris Data Centre, Australia’s only purpose built free standing Data Center – a Joint Venture by the Springfield Land Corporation and Suncorp, located at Greater Springfield near Brisbane. The POLARIS Data Centre is one of only 5 data centres selected recently by the Australian Federal Government, to provide interim Data Centre space to major Government Agencies.

The Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) this month gave Greater Springfield its National Award for the best Planned Community in Australia. The Springfield Land Corporation also took out the UDIA National Presidents Award. Strategic Directions is the ICT Master Planner for the Greater Springfield project which includes the Polaris Data Center. During her tour of the facility last year, Ms Eckhaus commented, “I believe that when it comes to data centre design Australia has a lot to teach the rest of the world.”

DCI Board members, all leading data center industry experts, include AFCOM’s CEO Jill Eckhaus & Founder Leonard Eckhaus; APC’s CTO James Simonelli; Bick Group’s EVP Tad Davies; CA’s Product Management Advisor Sam Somashekar; Connectivity Technologies Inc.’s President Tim Hazzard; Fujifilm’s VP of Marketing Rick Gadomski; Intel’s DC Architect John Musilli; NORTEL’s Global Data Center Manager Paul Greenley; NER Data Products’ SVP Scott Steele; and Siemens’ Head of Commercial Real Estate & Data Center initiatives Maureen Versen.

Founded thirty years ago this year, AFCOM members today include most of the Fortune 500 Companies, plus many Government Agencies and NGOs throughout North America. AFCOM has just announced it is expanding into Australia and Asia Pacific with local chapters in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

The next industry position paper to be released by the Data Centre Institute concerns Cloud Computing and will be issued later this month.

The Strategic Directions Group includes ICT Master Planners and Strategists, providing vendor independent strategic advice to Federal, State, and Local Government Agencies and ASX Companies. The Company maintains a specialist Data Centre design and planning Practice and has been involved in the design, development and operation of some of the most advanced data centres in the country including the Treasury Data Centre in Canberra.

They were the design authority for the POLARIS data centre, one of only 5 data centres selected recently by the Federal Government, to provide interim Data Centre space to major Government Agencies.

Source: www.strategicdirections.com.au

Ecospecifier which has set up an operation and website for Singapore and South East Asia, tells us about a new Singapore Government funded initiative to recycle waste materials from demolition of buildings. Here’s the story:

THE Building and Construction Authority (BCA) announced a new $15 million Sustainable Construction Capability Development Fund during the opening ceremony of Samwoh’s Eco-Green Park.

The fund is part of the effort to encourage industry players to adopt Sustainable Construction (SC) practices and technologies, and eventually steer the industry towards self-sustenance in the demand and supply of SC materials in Singapore.

‘Depletion of natural resources in the long run will very likely lead to higher material prices. We must take pro-active steps now to enhance the resilience in the supply of our construction materials.’ said Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State for National Development (MND) and Education, after announcing the new fund.

Developing capabilities in recycling waste materials from demolition of buildings and in the use of recycled materials for construction will be the focus of the SC fund.

The BCA hopes that the fund, which will support training, promotion and education programmes within the industry, and more extensive test-bedding of SC technologies and materials, will lead to industry players integrating SC into designs, building processes and business operations.

The fund will also be used to support an expected increase in demand for SC materials.

Adoption and upgrading of new technologies among demolition contractors, recyclers and ready-mix concrete suppliers, to adapt to the SC materials, will also be supported by the SC fund.

Ms Fu highlighted MND Research Fund for the Built Environment, used to fund Samwoh’s newly opened Eco-Green Park, as an example of a project that would qualify for the new SC fund.

Samwoh’s Eco-Green Park is hailed as the first building in Singapore to use recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) in its structural concrete elements.

The three-storey building cost $4 million to construct, and the flooring of the top storey is composed entirely of RCA.

Samwoh continues to test and develop new construction materials recycled from waste arising from the demolition of buildings and roads.

When asked if the fund would grow in the future, Ms Fu stated that this was just the beginning and SC was an area that would see long term attention.

Ecospecifier announcement:

Welcome to ecospecifier South East Asia, a new service to South East Asia with a data and knowledge base commencing at over 200 eco-products, eco-materials, technologies and resources, the leading global source of sustainable development & life-cycle assessed green product information.

Linking independent information with a powerful search interface, ecospecifier does your materials research for you, delivering innovative sustainable product solutions with unique difference.

Categorising products according to rating scheme compliance for tools such as Green Mark and Green Building Index, ecospecifier helps you reduce the time and costs of implementing Best Practice Green Buildings & Developments relevant to:  Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam & Thailand.

Source: www.bca.gov.sg and www.ecospecifier.sg

Solar Will Compete with Coal & Nuclear Globally by 2030

This week we learn from International Energy Agency that solar power could produce up to a quarter of global electricity by 2050 and be competitive with coal and nuclear plants by 2030. Prior to the Budget release, the Australian Government announced it had awarded $92 million to two large-scale solar energy demonstration projects, one in Queensland and the other in South Australia.

By Tiffany Hsu in Los Angeles Times (12 May 2010): 
International Energy Agency reports that solar power could produce up to a quarter of global electricity by 2050.

The agency released two “roadmaps” for photovoltaics technology and concentrating solar power – or solar power stations — during the Mediterranean Solar Plan Conference in Valencia, Spain. Together, the two types of solar systems could generate 9,000 terawatt hours of energy in 2050.

Concentrating solar power will be dominated by North America, North Africa and India, some of the world’s sunniest regions, the agency’s Renewable Energy Division said. It will be able to compete with coal and nuclear power plants by 2030.

Solar photovoltaics technology is expected to provide around 11% of global electricity by 2050, avoiding 2.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year – or the equivalent weight of around 340 million male elephants or 77 million whales like the one in Dana Point Harbor.

The technology is currently responsible for just 0.1% of electricity generation around the world.

The study, which was requested by the G8 member nations in a 2008 meeting as part of a series of 19 energy technologies, covers the science, financing and policy necessary to make photovoltaics an integral part of the global power infrastructure.

Solar photovoltaics generate electricity by converting sunlight using arrays of cells.

The agency recommends that governments establish long-term targets and policies around the technology to encourage investments and installations. Incentives and financing schemes, such as funding opportunities for rural projects in developing countries, would also help.

Right now, just four countries can produce more than one gigawatt of electricity from installed photovoltaics systems: Germany, Spain, Japan and the U.S. But countries such as Australia, China, France, Greece and India are catching up.

In many regions by 2020, power from photovoltaics is expected to be about as cheap as electricity from existing sources – a pricing point known as grid parity.

Global photovoltaics capacity has already been ballooning by an average of 40% each year since 2000. And public expenditures around the world for photovoltaic research and development have doubled over the same period, from $250 million in 2000 to $500 million in 2007.

Source: www.latimes.com

Report from the Australian and New Zealand Solar Energy Society (ANZSES):

The Australian Government has awarded $92 million to two large-scale solar energy demonstration projects.

Combined with investment from the successful applicants, the two projects will deliver about $320 million in solar energy investment in Australia and more than 60 megawatts equivalent of solar peak load generation capacity, within the next four years.

These projects will save almost 100,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions a year.

The two projects are:

-  23 megawatt solar boost to coal-fired turbines at Kogan Creek, near Chinchilla in western Queensland ($32 million), using Ausra (now Areva) Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector technology; and

-  a 40 megawatt concentrated solar thermal demonstration plant at Whyalla, South Australia, using Australia’s own “Big Dish” technology ($60 million).

Additional details of the projects follows:

• CS Energy Pty Ltd – $31.8 million

The CS Energy project at Kogan Creek in Queensland will demonstrate the Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) solar array technology developed in Australia by Ausra Pty Ltd. This technology is now being marketed world-wide by the Areva Group. The project will be attached to the existing Kogan Creek A Power Station to provide a 23 megawatt equivalent superheated steam solar boost to the coal-fired turbines. This will allow an increase in energy output as well as saving around 35,600 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. CS Energy is a Queensland Government-owned corporation.

• N.P. Power Pty Ltd (Whyalla Solar Oasis Consortium) – $60.0 million

The Whyalla Solar Oasis Consortium will demonstrate Wizard Power’s ‘Big Dish’ concentrated solar thermal power generation technology developed at the Australian 2 National University in 1994. The 40 megawatt demonstration plant at Whyalla will utilise 300 ‘Big Dish’ solar thermal concentrators that will be built on site using Wizard Power Pty Ltd’s proprietary factory-in-the-field concept.

The technology is easily scalable and a successful demonstration of the ‘Big Dish’ technology will open the way for further deployment of the technology, both within Australia and overseas. The project will generate power for about 9,500 average households and save about 60,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions a year. The Whyalla Solar Oasis Consortium consists of N.P. Power Pty Ltd, Sustainable Power Partners Pty Ltd and Wizard Power Pty Ltd.

ANZSES welcomes this funding announcement, and congratulates the two projects selected.  We look forward to seeing the emergence of large scale solar as a result of this announcement.

Source: www.anzses.org

Keep Sailing Even When the Wind Doesn’t Blow

Imagine this: Wind energy is gathered in the sails and the propeller operates as a turbine. This turbine is connected to an electric generator which charges up electric batteries which can be used to propel the vessel when there is no wind, avoiding using the internal combustion engine. Researchers in Spain are working on it.

Elhuyar Fundazioa reports for Eureka (11 May 2010):

Project for sailing vessels to manoeuvre in ports using electric energy from wind

The car is not the only vehicle that can be propelled electrically.

Lecturers at the Higher Nautical and Naval Engineering Technical School, Basque Country, Spain,  (Mikel Lejarza, Jose Ignacio Uriarte, Miguel Ángel Gómez Solaetxe and Juan Luis Larrabe) are part of a research team working on an innovative project to have a sailing boat that can undertake port manoeuvres (such as mooring and unmooring) using electric energy obtained from the movement of the wind in their sails when sailing, thus reducing the use of fuel and the emission of waste and noise.

All the prototype equipment will be on board the Saltillo, a vessel belonging to the University of the Basque Country itself and with its base in the port of Santurtzi. It is 24m in length and has a displacement of 80 tons.

They began the project in 2008, with funding from the Saiotek programme of the Basque Government Development Agency (SPRI), and which has financed the project in the last months of 2008 and all of 2009.

Having the research skills in this field, they are working against the clock, given that their goal is to have the prototype operational in two years.

As Juan Luis Larrabe explained, the idea is for such vessels to take advantage of the energy from the wind movement in order to generate electricity: “The wind energy is gathered in the sails and the propeller operates as a turbine. This turbine is connected to an electric generator which charges up electric batteries in such a way that, when you want to propel the vessel and there is no wind, you can use this stored energy while avoiding using the internal combustion engine”.

It is a hybrid model and not exclusively electrical (the latter would mean reduced operational range, apart from the fact that the great volume of batteries required today would make it unviable). “You still have to have the traditional engines on board, but the idea is to use them as little as possible”, explained Mr Larrabe.

In this first phase, most of the theoretical work required by the project was undertaken. As Mr Larrabe stated, “in order to characterise the vessel from a mathematical perspective and draw up a preliminary design”. That is to say, they calculated what the various elements taking part in the hybridisation of the boat should be – the hull, the propeller, the hull-propeller interaction, the electrical/electronic machinery and the internal combustion engine.

Then they put all this data together to “carry out simulations with different strategies of hybridisation to find out which of these might be the most efficient, from a theoretical perspective, for this vessel”. They have also designed a navigation course from the port and which will be used in upcoming and more practical stages of the project.

Effectively, the team aims to begin the second stage shortly, to validate in practical terms this work of theory-based design and choice. To this end, an energy audit has to be drawn up first, i.e. seeing what the fuel emissions and consumption are for the Saltillo with the diesel propulsion it currently runs on and studying the navigation course with a standardised operational profile. In this way they can compare this data with that obtained in the future and, in this same scenario, with the hybrid models that they have mathematically designed.

For this second simulation stage, the team will need the help of students from the school. Moreover, both for this phase as for the third – in which the prototype will be finalised -, it is essential to have funding. To this end, they are looking to collaboration with ancillary enterprises in the Basque naval engineering sector, a sector for which the project is a highly interesting one given that, as Mr Larrabe reminds us, “it could well be a new business model for a sector that is none too healthy”.

The hybrid vessel proposed by the team would have various advantages when the project finally gets under way. Apart from the evident ecological and economic benefits – these related to fuel savings -, those referring to safety have to be also considered. Outstanding in this section is the fact that the manoeuvres of the vessel are more reliable, having various available sources of energy, in case of any incident arising. As Mr Larrabe explained, “now we will have energy stored in different ways; in batteries, but also as has been done traditionally, with fossil fuel. In this way we gain in safety”.

Source: www.eurekalert.org

Reef Groundings & Coal Ship Protests in the Greenpeace Spotlight

Greenpeace says coal ship groundings on the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland could become more frequent if planned expansions of coal terminals go ahead. Meanwhile, charges against Greenpeace over a coal port protest last year have been dropped and a photo exhibition, which is about to do the rounds, documents the occupation of two coal export terminals in Queensland. This can be seen in Brisbane, Canberra and Sydney.

Two items by Melissa Maddison for ABC News (10 May 2010):

Charges against the international environmental organisation Greenpeace over a protest at the north Queensland coal port of Hay Point south of Mackay last year have been dropped.

Greenpeace was facing two charges related to one of its ships being in a navigational area without a pilot and the failure of the ship’s captain to notify the harbour master of its movements.

The charges were withdrawn in the Mackay Magistrates court on Monday morning due to insufficient evidence.

Greenpeace chief executive Linda Selvey says she is relieved.

“There would have been potential implications for both our charitable status and our ability to use ships for our important campaigning work,” she said.

The ship’s captain Vladamir Votiacov pleaded guilty to four maritime charges and was fined $8,000.

Greenpeace says coal ship groundings on the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland could become more frequent if planned expansions of coal terminals go ahead.

Work is underway to double capacity at the Abbot Point terminal near Bowen, in the state’s north, to 100 million tonnes, but could be as high as 230 million tonnes based on demand.

Preliminary planning will start later this month on the next round of expansions at the Dalrymple Bay terminal south of Mackay.

Chief executive Linda Selvey says the grounding of the Shen Neng 1 last month should serve as a warning.

“We’ve seen from the Shen Neng that that can happen, that ships can collide in the Great Barrier Reef, with potential for very dramatic and terrible consequences for the reef and therefore also for Australia’s future,” Ms Selvey said.

“Esperanza – taking action” is a Greenpeace Photo Exhibition for Brisbane, Canberra & Sydney

This photo exhibition documents Greenpeace’s occupation of two coal export terminals in Queensland.

Photographer Belinda Pratten, Greenpeace CEO Linda Selvey and some of the activists involved will be on a Q&A panel.

Join us for an inspiring exhibition of photographs taken onboard Greenpeace ship, MV Esperanza.

Peaceful direct action is core to Greenpeace campaigns. But what actually happens as these actions unfold? And how do the activists feel when they’re on the frontline standing up for the environment?

Our photo exhibition, ‘Esperanza – taking action’, documents the occupation of the Hay Point and Abbot Point coal terminals in Queensland. These terminals are used to export polluting coal. While Prime Minister Rudd was leading the 2009 Pacific Island Forum in Cairns, Greenpeace activists called on him to stop expanding Australia’s coal exports and to reduce our emissions.

Political leaders worldwide are failing to provide a safe, renewable energy future. As a result, civil disobedience and peaceful direct actions demanding strong leadership on climate change are on the rise.

Photographer Belinda Pratten and some of the activists involved in Greenpeace’s actions at Hay Point and Abbot Point will join Greenpeace CEO, Linda Selvey, for a Q&A session.

Places are limited so please RSVP. Be sure to include the names of your guests.

Brisbane

Date: Thursday 20 May
Time: 6.30pm to 8.30pm. Speeches commence at 7pm
Location: Bleeding Heart Gallery (Old School of Arts building), 166 Ann Street Brisbane
RSVP: To Manuel Gomez or 02 9263 0333

Canberra

Date: Launches Friday 11 June
Time: 6pm – 8pm. Speeches commence at 6.30pm
Location: Huw Davies Gallery, PhotoAccess, Manuka Arts Centre, Manuka (Google Map)
RSVP: By Tuesday 7 June to Manuel Gomez or 02 9263 0333
The exhibition is free and open to the public from Saturday 12 June until Sunday 27 June. Opening times: Tuesday-Friday: 10 – 4pm. Saturday-Sunday: 12 – 4pm.

Sydney

Dates and venue to be advised.

Source: www.abc.net.au and www.greenpeace.org.au

New UK Government Gets Aldersgate Advice For First 100 Days

The new Conservative-Liberal Democratic Coalition Government in the UK has a big job on its hands to manage a struggling economy and handle big issues like climate change. New Minister Chris Huhne, who takes on energy and climate change, would be wise to read the helpful advice from Peter Young’s Aldersgate Group on what needs to be done in the first 100 days of the new Government.

Chris Huhne joined the Liberal Democratic Party after the City of London career and many posts as a financial journalist – including a time as the Guardian’s economics leader writer. After entering parliament in 2005, he went on to sway leftwards and it nearly secured him the job of party leader but most believe that was expediency and now he is in the centre. He was Lib Dem environment spokesman.

Here’s a few identified issues and opportunities: Nuclear power is a major point of disagreement between the parties, with Lib Dems vehemently opposed; green investment bank – all main parties are agreed, but details are sketchy; coalition has adopted the 10:10 campaign’s commitment to cut central government carbon emissions by 10% in 12 months; increase renewables target and “huge increase” in energy from waste through anaerobic digestion.

Here’s the advice from the Aldersgate Group: Priorities for the first 100 days of government
This report sets out a list of key priorities for the new administration’s first 100 days. Although the three leading parties have taken up the policies of a Green Investment Bank and measures to improve resource efficiency (both covered in the previous Aldersgate reports), none of the manifestos reflect the true depth and rapidity of change that the UK economy must undergo.

No-one expects the Government elected in May 2010 to enjoy an easy ride. It will inherit a financial deficit which will dominate policy thinking for years to come.

Yet this deficit was brought about because the banks were acting unsustainably, beyond the

security of their true assets, just as today we consume resources way beyond the sustainable

asset base of our planet. If reducing our financial deficit is a key priority for the new Government,

addressing our environmental deficit should be too. Indeed the urgency is greater as prevention is

always more palatable than cure.

Over the last year the Aldersgate Group has spent the greater part of its effort addressing the

three biggest obstacles we saw to accelerating the pace of transition to a low carbon and resource

efficient economy, namely finance, skills and efficient use of resources. Since writing our three

individual reports last autumn it has been heartening to see a growing policy coherence on these

issues, such as the announcement of the Green Investment Bank, the consultation on Meeting the

Low Carbon Skills Challenge and the serious consideration given to resource efficiency in Defra’s

recent Climate Change Plan. But these are merely the first tentative building blocks placed on the

sound foundations of the Climate Change Act. The storm is brewing and we are nowhere near

putting a roof over our heads.

For that reason we wanted to update and consolidate our recent thinking into a series of

recommendations to help the new Government understand what we need to do to change pace

at this vital time. If you look at any graph on greenhouse gases, carbon or resource management,

one thing is universal: during the next five years, the likely lifespan of this next parliament,

the lines all need to change direction.

We need to stop the past profligacy and start building a future economy which can bring growth, wealth, jobs and exports without living beyond our asset base, or for the UK, our fair share of the planet’s assets. Our demand is to use the first 100 days to set the course irrevocably towards a low carbon and resource efficient future.

One point I want to highlight is that no-one must use the reduced emissions caused by the

recent recession as evidence of less urgency to act. Quite the contrary, this is an opportunity

to accelerate the transition by building new jobs and consumption habits which are sustained

by realistic demands on our climate and resources.

Low carbon investment is still a good proposition even in financially stringent times, because building low carbon power generation, closing the circuits of our resource flows, investing in economy-wide energy efficiency, decarbonising transport, enhancing our green skills and fairly pricing carbon emissions will all help solve the financial deficit, and build up our resilience and competitiveness. We can and must out-pace our competitors in these new markets. The new Government must be swift and committed, and I hope that this report gives some directions for early actions. We need that

green roof in place, so we can enjoy a vibrant, sustainable and inclusive economy.

Peter Young

Chairman, Aldersgate Group

The priorities for the first 100 days of the new Government should be:

1. Get the price right

Prices must reflect environmental realities. The current carbon price is not sufficiently stable, high or credible to stimulate the required investment in low carbon technologies. The first Budget of the new parliament should include a floor price mechanism to underpin the EU ETS carbon price, reduce perverse subsidies for environmentally damaging activities and issue a long-term commitment and timetable for green fiscal reform.

2. Don’t rely on pricing alone

Although important, pricing remains a blunt instrument. We think government should aim both to reduce the UK’s carbon intensity and to help UK business become a world leader in resource efficient products and services. Well designed and effective regulation is necessary for both these objectives. The new Government should publish an immediate national energy efficiency delivery plan and make a clear commitment to mandatory carbon reporting that would help drive competitiveness through greater transparency and comparability.

3. Simplify the regulatory framework

Too often, environmental policy has been an ad hoc response to an isolated challenge. This is rarely effective and often creates unintended consequences elsewhere. The Government should publish a review on how to rationalise the large number of complex environmental regulations (and regulatory bodies) that are creating unnecessary administrative burdens and ensure public spending reductions include rigorous analysis of potential long-term environmental benefits.

4. Mobilise the finance

A more effective approach to pricing and regulation would still leave significant barriers to a rapid economic transition. For example, the achievement of carbon targets for 2020 and beyond presents a major financing challenge for the UK economy, estimated at over £70 million a day. To help bridge this gap, we welcome the cross-party commitment for the creation of a Green Investment Bank but urgent action is now needed. The new Government should set up a shadow institution without delay, rather than waiting on asset sales to make finance available. The level of capital should be increased using revenue from the sale of EU ETS auction permits, and primary legislation passed within a year of the election.

5. Develop the industrial strategy

Alongside an upgraded Low Carbon Industrial Strategy, the UK should develop its strategic planning for technologies post-2020 and initiate a supply chain strategy with specific targets for job creation, manufacturing capability and export growth in targeted industries. It should also enhance its skills strategy to accelerate ambition and delivery. To help meet these new targets, the first Budget of the new parliament should include enhanced capital allowances, tax breaks and National Insurance reductions for green industry. As resource efficiency and related innovation increasingly become primary benchmarks of a successful economy, the UK will need to expand its industrial strategy to address critical resource constraints and ensure long-term competitive advantage.

6. Improve accountability across government

Wide-ranging environmental challenges cannot be effectively addressed through segmented government. Departmental carbon budgets are welcome and should be monitored by the Climate Change Committee. The Treasury should assume a greater leadership role, expanding the scope of its carbon budgets and making the design of environmental regulation a key objective in the management of the economy. A resource productivity drive must also be supported across all government departments.

7.  Incorporate a lifecycle approach                                                                                              Effective management of resources necessitates a consideration of the whole resource cycle. UK waste policy must move away from a linear model and look towards ‘closing the loop’. More progress would be made by expanding the remit and resources of the Sustainable Consumption and Production Unit in Defra. The UK’s £175 billion public procurement budget is a massively underused lever for progression towards a low carbon, resource efficient economy. The new Government should implement an immediate policy of serious and lasting carbon reductions across the government estate that seeks to outperform carbon budgets.

8. Plan a just transition                                                                                                                        The radical decarbonisation of the economy has the potential to be a major source of wealth and employment. It will also involve massive and complex changes that will create losers as well as winners. The role of the Forum for a Just Transition should be expanded, so that it reviews the social impact of carbon budgets and has a formal advisory role to the Green Investment Bank. The Goverment should also initiate a comprehensive street-bystreet domestic energy efficiency scheme to reduce carbon emissions and fuel poverty.

Source: www.aldersgategroup.org.uk

US Aims to Reduce Emissions: 17% by 2020 & 80% by 2050

President Barack Obama, endorsing the Kerry-Lieberman proposed Climate Change Bill, introduced this week, urged action in Congress. “Now is the time for America to take control of our energy future and jump-start American innovation in clean energy technology that will allow us to create jobs, compete, and win in the global economy.”

By Katie Brandenburg for Houston Chronicle (12 May 2010):

WASHINGTON—Senators Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Kerry, D-Mass., unveiled their long-delayed climate change bill this week and immediately encountered liberal and conservative critics who said the measure was either an energy bailout or a danger to the American economy.

The core of the proposal aimed at global warming would require 7,500 domestic factories and power plants to meet reduced emission targets. The sponsors said their aim was to reduce 2005 levels of carbon pollution by 17 percent in 2020 and by more than 80 percent in 2050.

Kerry hopes it will pass in this congressional session.

“Those who’ve spent years stalling need to understand something: Killing a Senate bill is not the measure of success or victory, because if Congress can’t legislate a solution, the EPA will regulate one,” Kerry said, referring to the Environmental Protection Agency. “And it will come without the help to America’s businesses and consumers that is in this bill.”

President Barack Obama, endorsing the Kerry-Lieberman proposal, urged action in Congress. “Now is the time for America to take control of our energy future and jump-start American innovation in clean energy technology that will allow us to create jobs, compete, and win in the global economy,” he said.

The senators’ bill differs dramatically from House-approved climate-change legislation that would impose an economy-wide “cap-and-trade” program forcing manufacturers, utilities and other polluters to purchase emission allowances in order to comply with tighter limits on carbon dioxide.

The bill would also:

• • Encourage states to allow offshore oil drilling with plans for revenue sharing that would allocate 37.5 percent of revenues from drilling going to states and 12.5 percent going to state and federal programs under the Land and Water Conservation Fund. It would also allow a state to bar drilling within 75 miles of its coastline.

• • Prevent states from implementing or enforcing their own “cap-and-trade” programs.

• • Create a program to help low-income families pay higher energy costs brought on by the bill.

• • Invest more than $6 billion a year to improve transportation and highways on the theory that it will increase the travel efficiency and decrease emissions.

Marvin Fertel, president of the Nuclear Energy Institute said drafting of the bill was a “very collaborative, very open, very involved process.”

Some energy companies, including Shell and ConocoPhillips, issued statements supporting the bill, while representatives from the Environmental Defense Fund and the National Wildlife Federation attended the bill rollout to support the legislation.

But the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association criticized the measure and contended that it would lead to steep increases in energy bills for families and businesses.

Phil Radford, the executive director of Greenpeace, criticized the measure for encouraging offshore drilling and called it “largely a dirty energy bailout bill.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., had originally signed on with Kerry and Lieberman to write a Senate bill but quit the effort last week. He said he was irked that Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, wanted to place immigration reform ahead of climate change on the Senate calendar.

In a statement Wednesday, Graham signaled cautious approval of the measure.

Source: www.chron.com

Go Ahead for Algae/Aviation Fuel Research & New National Carbon Neutral Program

A University of Queensland-led global consortium which aims to produce environmentally friendly aviation fuel from algae is one of four research projects awarded a total A$6.48 million in State Government funding this week. And we clarify the new Federal Government policy with its National Carbon Offset Carbon Neutral Program.

In reference to last week’s article on voluntary offsetting, here’s the latest word from Government:

“It is still the Australian Government’s policy that Greenhouse Friendly will finish on 1 July 2010. The National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS) will come into effect on 1 July 2010.   

“The NCOS Carbon Neutral Program, due to commence on 1 July 2010, will enable organisations or products to be certified as carbon neutral under the conditions set out in the NCOS. Upon certification as carbon neutral, organisations will enter into an agreement with the Program Administrator allowing them to use the NCOS Carbon Neutral logo, similar to the current Greenhouse Friendly logo.

“The NCOS Q&A for business page on our website may also be of assistance:

http://www.climatechange.gov.au/government/initiatives/carbon-offset/for-business.aspx

This from Julian Henschke, Acting Assistant Director | Offsets and Voluntary Action Policy,Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Canberra.

UQ Reports:

UQ wins $6.5 million for groundbreaking research projects

A UNIVERSITY of Queensland-led global consortium that aims to produce environmentally friendly aviation fuel from algae is one of four UQ research projects awarded a total $6.48 million in State Government funding this week.

The grant means UQ’s St Lucia campus will become the base for world-first avgas research, which has Boeing,National and International Research Alliances Program. Funding is going to two of UQ’s algae-sourced biofuel projects, and two medical projects – one on dengue fever, and one on repairing spinal cord damage.

The UQ projects receiving funding are:

• $2 million for Professor Lars Nielsen’s Queensland Sustainable Aviation Fuel Initiative, which aims to create avgas from algae, in work being done at UQ’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology.

• $1.48 million for Associate Professor Ben Hankamer’s research into high-efficiency microalgal biofuel systems that aims to produce a range of biofuels through “photo-bioreactors”.

Premier Anna Bligh said the avgas project offered huge environmental benefits and funding meant the consortium would locate its globally significant research in Brisbane.

“Queensland is set to become the home for cleaner, greener, renewable jet fuel,” she said.

Aviation accounted for two per cent of global greenhouse emissions and this could grow to three per cent without further action.

“We’re leading the way on aviation biofuels research,” Ms Bligh said. “With a growing focus on making our skies greener, this is big business and good for jobs and the environment.”

Professor Nielsen said biofuel that was safe to use and could be produced sustainably in quantities that could feed jets’ enormous appetites was the holy grail of the global aviation industry.

It also needed to be cheap — if not cheaper to produce — than fossil fuels.

Professor Nielsen said 18,000 aircraft were in operation globally, and another 25,000 were due to enter service within 20 years.

Local partners in the avgas project include Mackay Sugar, Brisbane-based IOR Energy, James Cook University and Queensland’s Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries.

Dr Hankamer said the $1.48 million NIRAP funding to the Institute for Molecular Bioscience would help develop biodiesel, methane and hydrogen from low-cost, high productivity microalgal photo-bioreactors.

“A photo-bioreactor is basically a sealed aquaculture system that brings in sunlight to provide the energy that algae need to grow,” he said.

Earlier research by the same team successfully increased green algae’s solar energy conversion efficiency and made production more efficient by refining growth conditions and photo-bioreactor design. It also studied how each strain of algae works best.

Dr Hankamer said the new funding would attract a further $2 million in industry and UQ support, enabling the researchers to launch a $3.5 million project to test the economic feasibility of scaled-up new-generation algal energy systems.

The consortium backing the project includes global engineering and construction company Kellogg Brown & Root Pty Ltd, Neste Oil Corp, Cement Australia Pty Ltd, North Queensland and Pacific Biodiesel Pty Ltd, the University of Karlsruhe, the University of Bielefeld and UQ.

Dr Hankamer said algae captured CO2 as it grew, which offered the potential for offsetting CO2 emissions.

“Algal bioreactors have the potential to assist Queensland in meeting its renewable energy and CO2 emissions reduction targets,” he said.

The deployment of algae-based systems also eliminated competition with agricultural crops.

“One of the big concerns about traditional biofuel crops is that arable land and fresh water are limited and are needed for food crops,” he said.

“In contrast, algal bioreactors can be located on non-arable land, essentially eliminating competition with food production. The fact that many strains of energy-producing algae can be grown in saline or waste water is an added benefit.”

The high capital costs and less-than-optimal yields of current bioreactors was a problem.

“This project will improve bioreactor design and improve the breeding of high-performance algae to minimise system costs and increase yields,” Dr Hankamer said.

“These improvements will assist the rapidly expanding ‘green jobs’ sector and contribute to the production of clean fuels, on a likely five to 10-year timescale.

“With its abundance of sunshine and land, Queensland is an ideal location to develop a biofuel and bio-commodity industry based on algae.”

Source: www.uq.edu.au

Lucky Last: Climate change is the true crisis

Editorial in LA Times (10 May 2010):

West Virginia’s mining disaster and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill were disastrous and investigations are justified, but the real threat is much worse.

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde: One deadly explosion while extracting fossil fuels may be regarded as a misfortune, but two within a month looks like carelessness. That’s the problem lawmakers are wrestling with amid hearings and federal investigations of the Upper Big Branch mine blast in West Virginia and the BP oil rig collapse in the Gulf of Mexico. We’re pleased to see that the reactive machinery is functioning, and confident that it will result in regulations to better protect miners and oil workers. But we can’t help thinking that our representatives are missing the signs of a far more destructive crisis in the making.

Coal and oil have more in common than a tendency to produce explosions when mistakes are made in the extraction process. Together, they account for the main reason the Earth’s climate is gradually changing. The deaths of 29 mine workers and 11 oil workers were tragic, and the economic consequences of the oil spill to the gulf’s fishing and tourism industries could be devastating, but they’re dwarfed by the deaths and financial losses that will come with global warming.

Climate change is a little like weight loss: When you’re on a diet, it’s hard to see the fat melting away day to day, but compare photos of yourself before and after losing 20 pounds and the difference is dramatic. Our political system functions well when it’s reacting to a discrete disaster such as a mine explosion, but a slow-motion catastrophe such as climate change doesn’t spur the same outrage because most people don’t see it happening until long after the damage is done.

Thus, we’re a little bemused by the conversion of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, a former advocate of offshore oil drilling who has now changed his mind. Unmentioned by Crist or other Sunshine State politicians is that, even as Floridians fret about tar balls from the gulf spill showing up on their pristine white-sand beaches, those same beaches are going to vanish within half a century (along with much of Miami) under the worst-case scenarios presented by climate modelers. But voters can see tar balls; erosion is tougher to spot.

Congress and the Obama administration are wasting no time investigating the mining and drilling disasters. Meanwhile, a comprehensive climate bill is hopelessly stalled in the Senate, and its prospects of approval in an election year are dim. It’s no more likely to progress in 2011 either, because the Democratic majority is expected to shrink.

Lawmakers today aren’t seeing the forest for the trees; that will change when the forest has burned or been destroyed by bark beetles, but by then it will be too late.

Source: www.latimes.com

What a disaster!

Man-made disasters or natural “acts of God” strike us earthlings in different ways, but usually result in major disruption to shipping, air transport, industry and business, whether we like it or not. Witness the latest catastrophic oil pollution in the Gulf of Mexico. Has the oil industry learned nothing from Exxon Valdez? Has the world not come up with more effective disaster management than this? More on this, including what WWF thinks we should do about it.

A disaster closer to home and with political ramifications was the Australian Government’s decision to drop its much-heralded Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. Polls and columnists say what they think about this and how it could bring down the Government. And we ask the experts what impact this delay will have on the new National Carbon Offsets Standards. The Green Building Council rightfully adopts ecospecifier’s new Green Tag certification system and CSIRO is working on a massive solar tower to produce the energy we need. At the Clean Energy Conference this week concern was expressed about the Renewable Energy Targets. Are we on track or not?

On a global note, we hear from Sir David King and his call for a 21^st century renaissance to tackle civilisation’s biggest challenge. Germany and Mexico are determined to see a global agreement on climate change action. On home soil, we explore the innovative biosequestration work of Prime Carbon and Ken Bellamy in a Lucky Last article by Graham Readfearn.  – Ken Hickson