This Climate Change Business is No Storm in a
Teacup

New Zealand’s approach to climate change
adaptation and Australia’s clean energy package will come into focus at the 7^th
Climate Change and Business Conference in Wellington, commencing 1 August.
Meanwhile disastrous floods, heat-waves, storms and droughts are becoming more
frequent because of climate change, and will continue to do so. This from New
Zealander Kevin Trenberth, who heads the climate-analysis section at the
National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado.

The Clean Energy Package contains a range of
measures including the proposal to close around 2000 megawatts of coal
generation by 2020. It proposes deploying a wide range of renewable energy
projects supported by a new Clean Energy Finance Corporation with $10 billion
to invest. And around $1 billion will be invested in initiatives in the farming
sector.

The proposed carbon tax set initially at $23
per tonne will target 500 of the biggest emitters all of which will be looking
at how to mitigate that cost. The intention is to transition to an ETS by 2015.

So the conference is an extremely timely
opportunity for Australian and New Zealand businesses to understand the
implications of this comprehensive reform package and explore the fresh
opportunities that it creates.

And this is all happening as New Zealand
prepares to release its review of its Emissions Trading Scheme which we
anticipate will also be profiled and discussed at the conference.

Given the interest in comparable effort
between New Zealand and Australia, just what impact might the Australian
announcements have on that review outcome? Might we eventually see linked
Emissions Trading Schemes in both countries?

Source: www.climateandbusiness.com

Kiran Chug
In The Dominion Post (15 July 2011):

Disastrous floods, heatwaves, storms and
droughts are becoming more frequent because of climate change, and will
continue to do so.

Scientists say the world can no longer ignore
the link between climate change and extreme weather events, and they are urging
countries to face up to the growing risks ahead.

New Zealander Kevin Trenberth, who heads the
climate-analysis section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in
Colorado, said events of the past 18 months had been extraordinary. “It’s
as clear a warning as we’re going to get about prospects for the future.”

Last year was the warmest on record and that
warming was directly related to increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,
he said. It brought with it devastating floods in Pakistan and a heatwave in
Russia, which resulted in riots around the world because of increased food
prices.

Subsequent floods in Sri Lanka, Brazil and
Queensland also brought deaths on a huge scale, and Dr Trenberth said scientists
were now considering how such extreme events were linked.

Although some aspects of extreme weather were
due to natural variation, global warming was now contributing too, with
disastrous consequences. “There’s this 5-10 per cent contribution that may
be thought of as the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”

The world would experience less snow and more
rain, more floods, more heatwaves and consequent wildfires, and more storms
featuring hurricanes and tornadoes.

Professor Lionel Carter, of Victoria
University’s Antarctic Research Centre, said the effects were being seen on New
Zealand’s doorstep, with the Tasman Sea getting warmer, and that warming
shifting south.

Antarctica was losing mass, and the West
Antarctic ice sheet in particular was causing concern as much of it was below
sea level. A change to its mass could see the ice sheet lift off and raise the
sea level by three to five metres.

This year was likely to be significant for
extreme events such as floods, tornadoes and droughts, he said.

Dr Trenberth said increased temperatures had
led to more water staying in the atmosphere. “What we are seeing
throughout the world is when it rains, it pours.”

Over the oceans there was now 4 per cent more
water vapour than in the 1970s, and sea surface temperatures had increased by
about 0.55 degrees Celsius.

“The environment in which all storms
form now is different to 30 or 40 years ago because of climate change.”

Professor Martin Manning, of Victoria’s
Climate Change Research Institute, said humans were a primary driver for
climate change, and the question now was how we dealt with the problem.

Insurance companies were beginning to
recognise the trends in extreme weather and pay attention. “They’re
getting extraordinarily concerned. They don’t really think what we’re doing at
the moment is risk management.”

The world had “pushed way past” the
point where local adaptations to climate change were going to be enough, as
patterns of extreme events were too widespread. “We’re starting to see
global risks being dealt with. It’s a global problem.”

ACT candidate and agriculture spokesman Don
Nicolson said communities needed to make themselves resilient against the
variety of problems natural variations in climate could bring. “No-one can
give me conclusive proof that mankind is actually having an effect on the
weather.”

Source: www.stuff.co.nz