Friday, December 25

Saving the rainforests

The U.N.'s forest carbon scheme which has formed part of the negotiations at the climate talks in Copenhagen has been one of the few areas where countries are broadly in agreement.

The U.N.'s REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) program is a collaboration between the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Environmental (UNEP) and Development (UNDP) programs.

Yemi Katerere, head of the U.N.-REDD program explained to CNN how the REDD program proposals would work.

"In theory REDD is a system to provide incentives for countries not to cut their forests," Katerere said.

"The incentive system is essentially that your trees are worth more standing than they are cut. You get a reward for not cutting your forests."

The idea is straightforward; If the function of rainforests -- capturing carbon, water catchment, weather regulators and biodiversity -- is recognized their value will rise.

The destruction of the world's rainforests is estimated to contribute to as much as 20 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions.

REDD envisages a situation whereby "different services can be marketed and paid for, boosting the incomes of other wise marginalized communities". Many pilot schemes are already underway.

Back in 1997 when the Kyoto Protocol was adopted, the part rainforests play in carbon storage wasn't recognized. Proposals to reduce emissions from deforestation were first introduced by the governments of Papua New Guinea in December 2005 at the COP11 talks in Canada. Talks at Copenhagen are hoping to build on the progress made since.

REDD say that more than 30 models of how the program should work have been put forward by countries, groups of countries and NGOs. Katerere wouldn't be drawn on the outcome of negotiations at Copenhagen when CNN spoke to him on Thursday.

Critics of the REDD program argue that it allows richer countries to meet -- to buy essentially -- some of their emissions obligations without cutting them at all. Others argue trying to measure what is being preserved and how much carbon is being stored will prove incredibly hard to quantify.

But Katerere said an imperfect program which can be improved is better than none at all.

"We should stop focusing on the negatives issues of REDD and start looking at the positives. In the short term, REDD offers use the greatest mitigation potential at an affordable price and is the most cost effective."

Monday, December 21

World Future Energy Summit 2010

World Future Energy Summit, the world’s platform for sustainable future energy solutions, provides an ideal networking event for industry leaders, investors, scientists, specialists, policymakers and researchers to discuss the challenges of rising energy demand and actions to achieve a cleaner and more sustainable future for the world

In April 2006, Abu Dhabi took a bold and historic decision to embrace renewable and sustainable energy solutions. As the first major hydrocarbon-producing nation to take such a step, it established its leadership position by launching Masdar, a global cooperative platform dedicated to finding and deploying solutions to some of the mankind’s most pressing issues: energy security, climate change and truly sustainable human development.

Under the patronage of H.H. General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, Masdar hosted the inaugural World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi from January 21 to 23, 2008. The highly successful debut edition paved the way for an even larger and better attended World Future Energy Summit 2009, also held in Abu Dhabi

The World Future Energy and Environment exhibitions, along with the Summit, covered an area of nearly 40,000 sqm, housing more than 600 exhibitors from 44 countries. Together, the Summit and Exhibitions have created one of the world’s must-attend events in future energy, an unmissable networking and business opportunity for the energy and environment communities.


Reed Exhibitions and Elsevier, the world’s largest exhibitions company and the leading publishers of science information, are proud to announce the World Future Energy Summit 2010, in AbuDhabi from January 18 to 21. The four-day summit will build on the successes of its predecessors, with more than 30 individual conference sessions and more than 200 international influencers addressing future energy strategies, policies and technologies.

Sunday, December 20

Copenhagen climate deal meets qualified UN welcome

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed a US-backed climate deal in Copenhagen as an "essential beginning".

But he said the accord, reached with key nations including China and Brazil, must be made legally binding next year.

After intense wrangling, delegates passed a motion simply taking note of the deal, without formally adopting it.

The pact did not win unanimous support, amid outrage from some developing nations who said it lacked specific targets for reducing carbon emissions।

US-LED COPENHAGEN DEAL

  • No reference to legally binding agreement
  • Recognises the need to limit global temperatures rising no more than 2C above pre-industrial levels
  • Developed countries to "set a goal of mobilising jointly $100bn a year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries"
  • On transparency: Emerging nations monitor own efforts and report to UN every two years. Some international checks
  • No detailed framework on carbon markets - "various approaches" will be pursued

Friday, December 18

Clearing the road for eco-cars in Moscow

As Moscow's streets almost literally crack under the pressure of the moving masses, local government says that new, environmentally-friendly public transport is almost ready to hit the roads.

Moscow's roads are full to the bursting point with cars, busses, and trucks all pumping out fumes harmful to both the environment and people.

Read more

As representatives from all over the world gather in Copenhagen to discuss climate change and debate its origins, the scientific and industrial department of the Moscow government seems ready to recognize man's hand in the warming of the Earth and is trying to find a way to tackle it.

“It has been established that global warming is a direct consequence of pollution, and automobile transport or car fuel emissions are the main pollutants in big Russian cities – about 80 percent,” said Evgeny Balashov, Deputy Director of the city’s Department of Industrial Policy. “The only remedy to this problem, as I see it, is a transition to alternative, ecologically clean fuels.”

The plans are ambitious. The city’s government is hoping to make 25% of public transport emission free by 2012. The first vehicles to hit Moscow streets powered by clean fuel will be mini-busses – “marshrutkas,” as they are called in Russia. Some will be solely electric but others will be testing out a new hydrogen fuel cell, which could revolutionize the way people travel round the city.

Balashov outlined the plan: “First of all we are planning to start off this program in Moscow, and hope to spread it to the rest of Russia by the years 2013-2015.”

The revolutionary new engine that is going to be powering the emission free vehicles was created by the Kompomash Corporation in Russia.

“We’ve developed an engine of a new generation which consists of a motor wheel and impulse condensers which first consume the braking energy and then set the engine in motion. That makes the whole cycle much cheaper,”
explained the company’s General Manager, Anatoly Dolgolaptev.

As good as the plan sounds to have zero emission vehicles on Moscow's roads, the reality is that recycling and green policies aren't popular among Russians. But while Muscovites might soon be able to breathe more easily, may they also end up paying more. Balashov believes that better education is needed if Russia is to cut its emissions.

“The people, their leaders and the country should have the will to change this approach,” he said. “Society hasn’t yet woken up to this problem. It hasn’t yet realized that we can drive nature to a state when some ecological processes will become irreversible. There is such a will in Moscow. Of course that is not enough in proportion to the rest of Russia. But at least we have a chance to model green technologies in a big city such as Moscow.”

Nina Korobova from the Russian Academy of Sciences notes that the project will require investment into new cars and special stations to recharge the engines. However, the end result may well be worth the price.

“This problem must be tackled,” she said, “because Moscow is one of the most polluted cities.”

With the Russian capital choking under car emissions at the moment, it seems hard to believe that in under just two of years its citizens might see a massive drop in the amount of fuel being put into the air. But if this project goes as planned, this might become a reality.

Finland’s First Solar Energy Plant to Start Producing in 2011

Construction is expected to begin on Finland’s first solar energy plant next year. According to Juha Attenberg, CEO of Sunvoima Oy (Sun Power Ltd), energy production will begin in the spring of 2011.

Energy output from the plant has been set at a modest one megawatt, but capacity can be expanded to meet demand.

The company is currently surveying different coastal areas to determine which has the best exposure to the sun – Kotka is one location that seems to have catching enough rays to attract the plant owners.

Sunvoima officials have begun to sell shares in the plant's output to businesses and households, which can then either be used by the purchasers or sold onwards.

Tuesday, December 15

New technology cleans up coal with CO2

The world has taken a step closer to "clean coal," thanks to new technology that actually uses CO2 to make power generation more efficient.

The research by scientists at Columbia University means that millions of tons of CO2 could be prevented from entering the atmosphere and instead used to turn coal, biomass and municipal waste into cleaner fuel.

This remarkable double hit is based on a well-established process called "gasification" that is already used to clean "dirty" fuels by heating them with steam and turning them into a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, known as syngas. In turn, that is then burned in power stations or used to create transport fuels.

But until now this process has demanded very large amounts of energy and water, and produced substantial CO2 emissions.

However, the Columbia researchers have shown that by actually adding CO2 into the mix and replacing some of the steam, the reaction becomes dramatically more efficient and much cleaner.

"We can make efficiency savings of 25 to 30 percent," assistant professor Marco Castaldi, who led the research, told CNN.

"The process is operated in a very similar way to a conventional gasifier, in that we take the biomass and mix it with some steam... But that's where the similarities end, because instead of just using steam, we also used CO2, which serves two major purposes.

"Firstly it reacts with the biomass a little better than steam. Secondly, because it does a good job, it reduces the amount of steam needed, which saves energy and water. It's a two-fold hit."

After the hydrogen is removed from the syngas, the remaining carbon monoxide can be safely burned underground.

This is what engineering does best, developing processes that can extract value from unwanted materials to help make the world a better place
--Marco Castaldi

In an article published in Journal of Environmental Science & Technology in November, Castaldi and his team show that if their gasification techniques was applied to a biomass such as beechgrass, and this was being used to fuel a fifth of the world's transport, 437 million tons of CO2 would be used, the equivalent of taking 308 million vehicles off the road.

Castaldi has led experiments on over 50 different kinds of biomass and achieved broadly similar results and the new gasification process is applicable to almost any high carbon solid fuel -- from bark and pine needles to grass and coal.

"All of these fuels are a high carbon base, and the CO2 is taking that carbon and working on it," he said.

Castaldi is convinced his technique can offer cleaner and more efficient power generation, even when applied in "real world" scenarios.

"The study that was published was based on lab work," he said.

"But we've tested it on a much larger scale, and as we scale it up, we see the same results in terms of better efficiencies and processing...

World Signs Onto Kyoto Protocol

After years of global negotiations and more than a week of round-the-clock meetings in Kyoto, Japan, representatives agreed to a sketch of a climate treaty that came to be known as the Kyoto Protocol. The draft assigned different countries varying responsibilities. Most rich, industrialized nations were supposed to cut their emissions by at least 5 percent by 2012, relative to their 1990 levels.

Many of the problems plaguing this month’s Copenhagen climate meeting, itself an outgrowth of the process that brought us Kyoto, were already in play. Relatively poor countries like China wanted to continue building their carbon-intensive manufacturing industries, and were thus reluctant to commit to emissions reductions. Developed countries’ negotiators were bent on protecting their own established industries, so would only agree to small cuts.

To make the deal work, each developed country got its own specific target, while developing countries signed a general pledge to cut pollution. Further provisions were added to make the deal palatable to other interest groups. The United States insisted on an emissions-trading scheme, and the Clean Development Mechanism was introduced to stimulate carbon-light economic activities in poor countries.

No one claims that the compromise treaty was perfect. Rich countries could buy their way out of emissions cuts, and poor countries didn’t have to do much of anything at all, even as their contributions to global warming continued to grow. The solution didn’t match the scale of the problem.

Even with the deal’s modest goals, the U.S. Senate refused to ratify it, kneecapping what was supposed to have been a global framework. Perhaps with American participation, the Kyoto mechanisms would have worked well in containing the world’s emissions; perhaps they wouldn’t have. The way things went down, we’ll never know.

And that’s too bad, because Kyoto and other global environmental treaties express one of humanity’s strangest and arguably finest qualities: long-term thinking extended beyond narrow national self-interest.

“Rarely, if ever, has humanity made an attempt like this one: to exercise deliberate, collective foresight on a risk whose full impact is unclear and will not be felt for decades,” wrote William Stevens in a 1997 New York Times report to mark the beginning of the Kyoto meeting.

Psychologically, climate change is a tough sell. The dominant metric for measuring the problem is the amount of carbon dioxide, an invisible molecule that is generally good, not bad, for life. While the case for global warming is not dependent just on complex climate models, we are reliant on very long-term projections of the energy and Earth systems to understand how much the big picture problem might affect our small-scale lives.

The global scale, the diffuse bases of responsibility, and the long timescales on which the problem will manifest make it tailor-made for humanity to ignore. Behavioral psychologist Dan Ariel of Duke University put the conundrum like this: “If you said, I want to create a problem that people don’t care about, you would probably come up with global warming.”

Then, as now, the costs of taking action on climate change are as uncertain as the costs of doing nothing.

It just doesn’t seem like there are any good options, so not much at all happens. Right now, the world is not on a path to make the radical cuts to emissions that would be required to keep CO2 concentrations at levels that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says are necessary to avert dangerous derangement of the atmosphere. Until the financial crisis, the world’s emissions had outstripped even the worst IPCC scenarios.

And yet, despite it all, the world’s diplomats are now plugging away in Copenhagen, hoping to use the combined power of Earth science and political acumen to bring the world’s nations together with the common purpose of keeping the climate within the range that humanity has known — and depended on — over the last 100,000 years.

कोपनहेगन पिकनिक

जलवायु परिवर्तनसम्बन्धी कोपनहेगन महाभेलाको सफलता कामना गर्दै काठमाडौं दरबार स्क्वायरमा 'क्लिन इनर्जी नेपाल' नामक संस्थाले पूजा लगाएको पृष्ठभूमिमा हिमालको सुन्दर चित्र अगाडि ब्राह्मण पढाएर 'स्वाहा' गरिँदै खुला ठाउँमा दाउरा बालिएको भुइँभरि अबिरको धूलो छरिएको धूवाँको मुस्लो आकाशतिर उडिरहेको खरानी वायुमण्डलमा मिसिएको पानी पार्ने, मौसम नियन्त्रण गर्ने, वातावरण सफा राख्ने प्राणीलाई अक्सिजन दिएर बचाउने रूख मासेर ल्याएको काठ ह्वारह्वारी बलिरहेको

गत वर्ष विश्व हात धुने दिवस नेपालमा पनि धुमधाम मनाइयो धेरैतिर कार्यक्रम भए तीमध्ये सरकारी स्तरबाट भएको मुख्य कार्यक्रमका अतिथि आयोजकले हातै नधोई पोका फुकाएर खाजा खाएका थिए जलवायु परिवर्तन महाभेलाको सफलता चाहने यो पूजा पनि यस्तै उदाहरण हो वातावरण सन्तुलनको मुद्दामा लगाइएको यज्ञले नै वातावरण दूषित बनाएको

जलवायु गडबडीको सम्बन्ध वातावरणसँग बढी नेपालमा वन विनाश बढ्दो सहरहरू दुर्गन्धित छन् फोहोर उठाउन सकिएको छैन सडक धुलाम्मे छन् पर्यटकहरू नाक थुनेर हिँडरहेका हुन्छन् हिमाली देशको स्वच्छ हावा खान आएका पाहुना अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय विमानस्थलमा उत्रेपछि मास्क रुमालको सहारा लिन बाध्य छन् हामी भने सरसफाइ वातावरण बचाउमा लाग्नुभन्दा फोहोर पारेर 'जलवायु' को पूजा गरिरहेका छौं विषयको संवेदनशीलताभन्दा नयाँ-नयाँ नाटक सिर्जना गरी आफ्नै प्रशंसा खोज्न पल्केका छौं के गर्दा 'जलवायुको डलर' बढ्ता र्झछ भन्नेमा यतिबेला धेरैको ध्याउन्न

जलवायु परिवर्तनको असरलाई नै ध्यानाकर्षण गर्न प्रधानमन्त्रीले अमेरिका भ्रमणका बेला सगरमाथाको ढुंगा उपहार लगेका थिए कोपेनहेगनमा पनि त्यहींका ढुंगा पुर्याइएको उपहारका लागि पटक-पटक चट्टान फुटाउँदा सगरमाथामा पहिरो गई हाम्रो देशको कीर्तिमान भत्कन सक्छ ! त्यसैले बाराक ओबामा बान कि-मुनहरूलाई सगरमाथाका ढुंगा होइन, वागमतीको पानी उपहार देऊ त्यसो गर्दा 'जलवायु परिवर्तन' कति भएछ, उनीहरूले पनि थाहा पाउनेछन् किनकि, बिग्रेको 'जल वायु' वागमतीमा पो ! त्यो देखाए पो सहयोगका लागि दुई हात जोड्नुपर्ने थिएन

हाम्रो देशमा मौसमीय वातावरणीय संकट सगरमाथाका कारण होइन, हामी राजधानीवासीको बौद्धिक दरिद्रताले भइरहेको हामी दूषित छौं, त्यसैले डराइरहेका छौं हामी असभ्य छौं, त्यसैले लजाइरहेका छौं हाम्रो तापक्रम घटबढ भइरहेको , त्यसैले सगरमाथामा थर्मामिटर लगाइरहेका छौं हामी वातावरण दूषित बनाएर हावापानी बिगारिरहेका छौं हिमाल खस्छ भन्दै 'डलरको खेती' गरिरहेका छौं घरको छतबाट फ्यात्त फोहोर फाल्छौं गाडीको सिसा बन्द गरेर गेटबाट बाहिरिन्छौं खनेर खानेपानीका पाइप फुटाउँछौं ढलसँग मिसाइदिन्छौं दैनिक विष पिएर दूधका गुणबारे भाषण ठोक्छौं आफ्नो आँगन सफा राख्न नसक्नेहरू हिमालको झोलले बगाउने चिन्ता गर्दै ठूल्ठूला मञ्च ताक्छौं

जति बेला सरकार सगरमाथा फेदीमा दलबलसहित पुगेर बैठक गरिरहेको थियो, त्यही समय कैलालीमा 'सुकुम्बासी' ले वन कब्जा गरेका थिए सरकारले उनीहरूलाई बलपूर्वक लखेट्यो तर उनीहरूका समस्यामा बोल्न चाहेन बरु जम्बो जन्ती कोपनहेगनतिर पठायो प्रधानमन्त्रीज्यू, देशको माया भने कोपनहेगनमा पिकनिक खान होइन, वागमतीको फोहोर उठाउन सयजना जुटाएर देखाउनुस् आफूले राज्य गरेको देशको राजधानीमा गाडीको सिसा खोलेर हिँड्ने आँट गर्नुस् तब पो तपाईंको नाम जताततै लेखिनेछ कोपनहेगन जानु भने एक्लै जानुस्, राज्यकोषबाट किन लावालस्कर लानुहुन्छ ? तपाईंलाई यो देश गरिब हो भन्ने थाहा छैन ?

हुन पनि यति बेला डेनमार्कको कोपनहेगनमा ठूलो मेला लागेको गतिलो भोजभतेर चलिरहेको ठूला, शक्तिशाली धनी राष्ट्रहरू छरिता टोली लिएर त्यहाँ पुगेका छन् नेपालबाट भने करिब सयजनाको भिसा लागेको प्रधानमन्त्री, आधा दर्जनभन्दा बढी मन्त्रीसहित धेरै सरकारी अधिकारी राज्यकोष खर्चेर उडेका छन् अति धेरै प्रतिनिधित्व गैरसरकारी संस्थाबाट , जसले नेपालीको हितमा खर्चने प्रतिबद्धता जनाएको रकम उता खन्याएका छन् प्रधानमन्त्रीले गर्ने जम्माजम्मी मिनेट सम्बोधनमा ताली पड्काउन ठूलो लस्कर लागेको

मौसम परिवर्तनका कारण खडेरी परेर किसान फत्र्याकफत्र्याक हुँदा सबै एक कानले सुनेर अर्काले उडाइदिन्छन् जनता पानी पार्न भ्यागुताको बिहे गराउँछन् सरकार टीभी हेरेर हाँस्दै बस्छ गरिबका घरबार बाढीले डुबाउँदा वा दुर्गमवासी झाडापखालाको महामारीमा पर्दा सरकारलाई पुग्न हप्तौं लाग्छ प्रधानमन्त्रीको ध्यान अन्यत्रै हुन्छ यो फलानो विभागीय मन्त्रीको जिम्मेवारी भनेर एकले अर्कालाई पन्छाउँछ कोपनहेगन भने 'मेरो विभागको' भन्ने मन्त्रीबीच हारालुछ चलेको त्यहाँ मन्त्रीकै पल्टन लागेको

एउटा भिखारीलाई चाउचाउ खाँदा कार उपहार परेछ रेडियो, टीभी पत्रिकाका पत्रकारले उसलाई घेरेर सोधेछन्- 'तपाईं अब यो कार के गर्नुहुन्छ ?' 'यस्तो पनि प्रश्न हुन्छ ?' झोंक्किँदै उसले जवाफ दिएछ- 'यसैमा चढेर माग्न जान्छु नि !' हाम्रो देशलाई पनि 'जलवायु परिवर्तन' को चिठ्ठा परेको कोपनहेगनमा त्यसैको भोज चलिरहेको कि कसो ?
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