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CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions through
renewable energy use and emission credits should be a condition of expanded
energy trade between the United States, Canada and Mexico, a task force chaired
by Canada's former foreign minister said Monday.
In a report, the Manitoba Task Force on Climate Change, led by former foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy, called for climate change issues to be a key part of any continental energy policy, and said Canadian lawmakers should ratify the Kyoto protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Before Tuesday's terror attacks on U.S. landmarks, boosting energy supplies both domestically and with its closest neighbors had been a priority initiative for the administration of President George W. Bush.
Canada's energy industry was viewing the U.S. moves as a major expansion opportunity, although Natural Resources Minister Ralph Goodale has often said that there was no "North American energy policy."
"All we're saying is let's make sure we balance the supply issue with the emissions issue. Furthermore, it's a way -- an opportunity, actually -- to engage, especially the United States, in this question of how we live in a North American community or environmental footprint," Axworthy told Reuters.
"If there's anything that comes through strikingly with the the terrorist attacks is that we are all in this together and we all have to respond together."
Canada is the biggest exporter of energy to the United States and much emphasis in industry and political circles has been placed on development of new oil and natural gas supplies, especially from Arctic regions.
The report was to be given to Gary Doer, premier of the prairie province of Manitoba, Monday, and its authors were hoping other Canadian provinces would adopt its recommendations. Other task force members include Manitoba political, business, labor, agricultural and academic leaders.
It said Manitoba's huge agriculture industry would be most affected by the affects of climate change, including more frequent droughts.
"Greater heat stress on animals and crops over the summer is also likely to be a problem. Many pests and diseases could survive over milder winters or spread into Manitoba from warmer regions," the report said.
It said demand for the province's hydroelectric power would likely jump if a market-based emission trading system was developed in conjunction with the United States, which does not intend to ratify the Kyoto agreement.
"(Emissions trading), from the research that we saw, has a disciple itself. It puts the participants, the companies, the actors in this thing into a mindset that says, 'Look, we've not got to become more energy efficient. We can't be wasteful'," Axworthy said.
The task force's other recommendations include a Manitoba provincial policy encouraging renewable and alternative energy sources, expanded grants and interest rate incentives by government-owned Manitoba Hydro to encourage energy efficiency, and an initiative to address northern issues such as how climate change will affect the grain shipping season at the port of Churchill on Hudson Bay.
©2001 At Home Corporation
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ANALYSIS
- Promising future for fuel cell technology
related stories below:
GM says will mass produce fuel cells cars by 2010
Fuel cells may find military application
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LONDON - The development of fuel cell technology to produce electricity may
be clouded by poor short-term financial performance but investors still see
a promising future for the nascent industry.
"We believe there's a huge growth potential for the technology. The fuel
cell car will progressively replace the internal combustion engine," Robin
Bachelor, senior fund manager at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers in London,
said at a fuel cell conference held in London this week.
The fuel cell technology, which converts hydrogen into electricity through an electro-chemical process, has wide-ranging applications from electric car engine to stationary power generation units. In contrast to combustion, it has zero greenhouse gases emissions.
Strong environmental pressures to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, liberalisation of energy markets and recent technological advances from companies are said to be the main factors behind the industry's growth potential.
"There is not one market and one fuel cell technology," said John Dean, global coordinator for energy technology research at UBS Warburg. "There are many different markets and product applications that can benefit if the technology delivers its promises."
Many observers believe stationary power generation, whereby a fuel cell power generator can be installed on-site, will be the first sector to take off commercially.
German utility, RWE, has plans to launch small-scale Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems for residential and commercial use by the end of 2004. Such system would use natural gas as primary fuel, converted into hydrogen through a reformer.
Other fuel cell manufacturers, such as Canadian fuel cell maker Ballard Power Systems, are working on stationary and portable power generation units.
LONG-TERM FINANCIAL PROSPECTS
The investment community has started to get involved in the sector in the past year and although stock market confidence is poor at the moment, the confidence in the technology is still there, investors say.
"It's no longer a question of if the technology will work, it's a question of when it will work, because of what it has to offer, " said UBS Warburg's Dean.
In the short term however, the market has not reacted favourably to the energy technology sector.
Since its October launch, the Merrill Lynch New Energy Technology Fund has seen its net asset value drop by 46.9 percent, and its share price decline by 45.5 percent (as measured on August 31).
The fund, which has $200 million invested mainly in listed company and companies planning a public offering, is made up 46 percent of renewables, 26 percent of so-called auto and on-site generation which include fuel cell companies, 20 percent of other energy technologies and six percent of energy storage.
"We want to be a long-term investor," said Merrill Lynch's
Bachelor.
TECHNOLOGIES STILL MAKING ADVANCES
In spite of the market gloom, companies continue to make progress in new fuel cell technologies.
Car manufacturer, General Motors announced on Thursday the launch of a new fuel cell stack for electric car engines, claiming that it packs 60 percent more power than any of its competitors.
GM said it expected to start mass-producing a fuel cell car by the end of the decade.
Its competitor Ballard, one of the first companies to have developed fuel cell systems, is working on its third generation fuel cell system for cars, the Mk 900, which is used in the NeCar 5 fuel cell car developed by Daimler Chrysler.
UK privately-owned fuel cell company, Zetek, which has developed a different type of fuel cell system, has already built a prototype London taxi and a prototype fuel cell van for the City of Westminster municipal council.
Unlike other fuel cell cars, they run directly on hydrogen and do not need a reformer on-board. But no wider commercialisation is seen yet.
At EU level, the European Commission has also launched it own programme to support fuel cell projects with a 90 million euros budget in the 1998-2002 programme.
Story by Dominique Magada
Story Date: 17/9/2001
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GM
expect to mass produce fuel cell cars by 2010
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LONDON - U.S. car manufacturer General Motors expects to mass produce fuel
cell cars by the end of the decade, said Matthew Fronk, a senior executive at
the company yesterday.
"We see a path to volume production within this decade, probably around
2008-2010," Matthew Fronk, chief engineer of fuel cell systems at General
Motors, the world's largest carmaker, told a fuel cell conference in London.
Other car manufacturers have said they expect to have a fuel cell vehicles commercially available by 2005.
Fuel cells, seen as a likely successor to the gas-guzzling internal combustion engine, produce electrical power from hydrogen and oxygen without combustion.
The car developed by GM will use gasoline as primary fuel which will be transformed into hydrogen through a reformer.
The hydrogen feeds into the fuel cell stack to produce electricity which powers the car's engine.
The technology used by GM is the so-called PEM (Proton Membrane Exchange) fuel cell.
The stack will generate 1.75 kilowatts of power per litre of gasoline and have a continous power output of 102 kilowatts which is equivalent to 134 horsepower.
"We believe gasoline is the bridging strategy to a hydrogen vehicle," Fronk told the conference.
He added GM believed in the long-term a hydrogen powered vehicle was the "most elegant" solution as the technology has zero carbon dioxide emissions.
In contrast fuel cell systems using gasoline as primary fuel would cut CO2 emissions by half only.
But he said gasoline had the main advantage of being readily available through the existing petrol station infrastructure.
Distributing hydrogen would require new supply infrastructure estimated to cost $1 million per filling station.
"The hydrogen economy is a way off," he said.
Other techniques being considered by other car maunfacturers include the transformation of liquid methanol into hydrogen through a reformer.
Fuel cell company Zetek is developing an alternative alkaline fuel cell system for motor vehicles as opposed to PEM technology which uses hydrogen directly as the main fuel.
Story Date: 14/9/2001
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Edie weekly summaries 14/09/2001
Military has keen interest in fuel cell technology
Hydrogen fuel cell technology may be ideal for military use, with the armed forces of countries such as the UK, US and France, taking a keen interest, a major fuel cell conference has been told.
The Seventh Grove Fuel Cell Symposium, held in London, from 11 to 13 September, examined the prospects for commercialisation of fuel cells, with papers presented on a variety of new materials technology, such as hydrogen storage and protection against corrosion of the electrodes. At present, one of the greatest drawbacks of fuel cells is their cost. However, as far as the military is concerned this is not such a critical factor, being more concerned with the advantages of fuel cells, such as quiet operation, low infrared signature, high power density, and environmental considerations, said Clive Seymour of Intensys Ltd, a company that carries out military research into fuel cells. Hydrogen fuel cells are being considered for use as emergency power backup for nuclear submarines, and auxiliary power for warships, where fuel cells capable of producing up to two megawatts of power would be used, down to individual power packs for infantry soldiers.
The military have specific requirements that fuel cells need to be able to achieve, such as the ability to use a range of logistic fuels, to operate in a wide range of climatic conditions and under battlefield conditions, to be able to withstand physical abuse, and have high availability, reliability and maintainability, said Seymour. One example of the flexibility that is required of fuel cells is that those on board warships should be able to use F76 Dieso, the diesel fuel used to power the ships, as well as Avcat, which is commonly used to power the helicopters on board, but is also used to power vessels if required, and marine gas oil, which the navy uses from around the world if the other two fuels have run out. "The system design must recognise the specific nature of each fuel and must have the flexibility to cope with each of them," said Seymour.
With regard to infantry use of hydrogen fuel cell technology the military requirements are just as stringent. "The dismounted soldier of the near future is considered to be a weapons platform in his own right," said John Moore of Power Sources Ltd. Each has to carry a considerable weight, including high tech electronic weaponry requiring a lightweight power source. "No battery either in service today or due to enter in the near future, can provide for the energy demand envisaged for the future dismounted soldier at an acceptable weight," said Moore. However, despite the advantages that fuel cells can provide, they alone are not the answer, he said. Air breathing fuel cells, as opposed to the pressurised cells used in vehicles, are considered to be the most suitable for a number of reasons, including the dangers of carrying a pressurised container into battle. But this means that they need constant good air conditions in which to operate - rendering them unsuitable for the decrease in air quality which may be likely in a battle, and for immersion in water or mud. The UK, French and US military are currently considering their use for recharging battery packs during battle situations, where their intermittent use will be less vulnerable to changes in air quality.
Non military uses of fuel cells that were discussed included the state of current research into the storage of hydrogen for fuel cells, including the use of carbon nanotubes - much like carbon graphite, but, instead, formed into tubes - which, unfortunately, is currently considered to have low hydrogen absorption, despite early over-optimistic predictions, said Dr John Speight of Birmingham University in the UK. Storage of hydrogen as a liquid is thought to be promising, although there is a 40% penalty in terms of energy due to the liquefying process, said Speight.
Use of diesel or direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) was also discussed, including one paper presented by Professor Ray Gorte of the University of Pennsylvania describing a system using copper anodes (see related story), although this appears to have the potential for problems with coking from sulphur when diesel with realistic levels of sulphur, such as 1000ppm, is used.
Internet links:
Grove Fuel Cell Symposium
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Japan-U.S.
climate talks postponed
Thursday, September 13, 2001 at 18:30 JST
TOKYO - Working-level talks on climate change between Japan and the United States
scheduled for Friday in Tokyo have been postponed, as Tuesday's terrorist attacks
in the U.S. have grounded air traffic over the northern Pacific, the Environment
Ministry said Thursday.
Vice Environment Minister Yoshitake Ota told a press conference that it remains uncertain whether another working-level meeting slated for Monday in Washington and a ministerial-level meeting on climate change planned for later this month in the U.S. capital will go ahead as scheduled.
The working-level talks are intended to address bilateral cooperation in three areas to curb global warming - market-based mechanisms, support for developing countries and technological development and research.
The issues were chosen for discussion during high-level bilateral talks in July, in which Japan tried in vain to persuade Washington to rejoin the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. U.S. President George W Bush ditched the accord, aimed at fighting global warming, in March.
Ota declined to speculate on possible adverse effects on international global warming negotiations that may stem from cancellation of Friday's talks. Japan has been urging the U.S. to submit an alternative to the Kyoto pact before the next round of U.N. climate talks scheduled to open in late October. (Kyodo News)
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Scientific American - 13.09.2001
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Planting Trees Won't Save
the Climate
If you thought planting trees would take care of global warming, think again.
The results of a new study, which looked at how increased carbon dioxide concentrations
influence forest growth, are not as promising as some had expected. In the past,
some people have argued that the increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air
would be partially offset by an increase in plant growth, caused by that additional
(CO2): increased CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere should work like extra
fertilizer and lead to increased plant growth. This growth in turn should bind
to much of the CO2. In other words, the plant growth should act like a sink,
absorbing the gas released into the air by burning fossil fuel.
But the new analysis, published in last week's issue of Science, found that
although there has been an increase in biomass, most of it must be attributed
to land use history. The authors, a team of scientists from Princeton University
and the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, uncovered plant growth rates of only 2 to 4.4
percent. These numbers stand in sharp contrast to some earlier studies, which
suggested that rising CO2 concentrations would bring a 25 to 75 percent growth
increase. The researchers used data from the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA)
database, taking samples from more than 20,000 acre-size plots in Minnesota,
Michigan, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida. To examine historical changes
in growth and mortality rates of the vegetation there, the scientists looked
at forest biomass, the cumulative result of past growth. "The U.S. has
a fairly unique history in that a hundred years ago, a large fraction of the
landscape was deforested," explains John Caspersen, who led the study.
"Subsequently, there has been a reforestation of much of the eastern U.S."
It is this reforestation to which Caspersen and his colleagues attribute most
of the increase in biomass--a finding with far-reaching implications: "If
the reason that forests are taking up CO2 right now is due to land use history,
then that sink will not last indefinitely," Caspersen says. Trees only
absorb large quantities of carbon during their growth, so once they are fully
grown--in other words, when the reforestation is complete--they will not be
able to serve as CO2 sinks. "It's important to realize that when the forests
have recovered," Caspersen adds, "we have only gotten back to ground
zero in terms of the carbon balance in the atmosphere." -- Harald Franzen
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Large
Majority of Public Now Believes in Global Warming and Supports International
Agreements to Limit Greenhouse Gases
9/12/01
Harris Interactive Data Show, However, Reactions to U.S. Opposition to International
Agreements Polarized by Party
ROCHESTER, N.Y., Sep 12, 2001 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- While most people
believe the theory of global warming, and most people who have heard of the
international agreements in Kyoto and Bonn to limit emissions of greenhouse
gases approve of them, only a modest 46% to 42% plurality thinks the U.S. government
was wrong not to accept them. The reason for this apparent paradox: most Republicans,
by 64% to 22% believe the administration is right -- that the agreements are
not based on sound research and would damage the U.S. economy. At the same time
-- compounding the paradox -- a modest 54% to 40% majority of Republicans say
they approve of these international agreements.
These are the results of The Harris Poll, a nationwide telephone survey of 1,017
adults between August 15 and August 22, 2001. The main findings of this survey
are:
-- The great majority of the public (88%) says they have heard about the
theory of global warming and (by 75% to 19%) most of these people
believe it. However, the 61% majority of Republicans who believe it
is well below the 88% of Democrats and 74% of Independents who
believe it.
-- Almost three out of five adults (58%) who have heard of global warming
have seen, read or heard about the international agreements at Kyoto
and Bonn to limit the emissions of greenhouse gases. The more
educated people are, the more likely they are to have heard about
these agreements.
-- Of those who have heard about the Kyoto and Bonn agreements, a better
than 3-to-1 majority (70% to 22%) approve of them. However, among
Republicans only a much more modest 54% to 40% approve of them,
compared to the great majorities of Democrats (86% to 6%) and
Independents (74% to 19%) who do so.
-- Attitudes toward the administration's non-acceptance of the Kyoto and
Bonn agreements, among those who have heard about them, are heavily
polarized by party. Most Democrats (by 66% to 25%) and Independents
(by 52% to 39%) think the administration is wrong. Most Republicans
(by 64% to 22%) think the president was right.
Humphrey Taylor is the Chairman of The Harris Poll, Harris Interactive.
TO VIEW FIGURES TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS, PLEASE VISIT SOURCE WEBPAGE
TABLE 1
SEEN, HEARD OR READ ABOUT THEORY ON GLOBAL WARMING "Have you ever seen,
heard or read about the theory of global warming -- that average temperatures
are rising slowly and will continue to mainly because of coal, oil and other
fuels?"
TABLE 2-A
BELIEF IN GLOBAL WARMING - TREND
"Do you believe the theory that increased carbon dioxide and other gases released into the atmosphere will, if unchecked, lead to global warming and an increase in average temperatures?"
TABLE 2-B
BELIEF IN GLOBAL WARMING - BY PARTY
TABLE 3
SEE, HEARD READ ABOUT KYOTO/BONN INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS "Have you seen,
heard or read of recent international agreements in Kyoto and Bonn to limit
emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to reduce global warming?"
TABLE 4
APPROVE/DISAPPROVE INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS
"Do you approve or disapprove of the international agreements in Kyoto and Bonn which would require countries to limit their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases?"
TABLE 5
U.S. GOVERNMENT RIGHT/WRONG NOT TO ACCEPT INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS
"The United States government says that it cannot accept the Kyoto and
Bonn
agreements to limit emissions of greenhouse gases because they are not based
on sound research and would damage the American economy. Do you think the
American position is right or wrong?"
Methodology
This issue of The Harris Poll was conducted by telephone within the United States
between August 15-22, 2001, among a nationwide cross section of 1,017 adults.
Figures for age, sex, race, education, number of adults and number of voice/telephone
lines in the household were weighted where necessary to align them with their
actual proportions in the population.
In theory, with a probability sample of this size, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the results have a statistical precision of plus or minus 3 percentage points of what they would be if the entire adult population had been polled with complete accuracy. Unfortunately, there are several other possible sources of error in all polls or surveys that are probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. They include refusals to be interviewed (non-response), question wording and question order, interviewer bias, weighting by demographic control data and screening (e.g., for likely voters). It is difficult or impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors.
These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.
SOURCE Harris Interactive
(C) 2001 PR Newswire. All rights reserved.
News provided by Comtex
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Coral
reefs are shrinking fast - UN report
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UK: September 12, 2001
LONDON - The world's coral reefs are far smaller than scientists thought and
are shrinking fast under a deadly combination of pollution, climate change and
dynamite fishing, according to a U.N. study released yesterday.
The most comprehensive mapping yet of the "rainforests of the oceans",
prepared by the United Nations Environment Programme, showed the world's reefs
covered between a half and one-tenth of the area of previous studies.
The study showed coral reefs covered just 284,300 square km (110,000 square
miles), or less than one-tenth of a percent of the world's seabed.
UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer said UNEP's "Coral Atlas" showed that the fragile beauty and precious ecosystems of the reefs were in retreat right across the planet.
"They are rapidly being degraded by human activities. They are over-fished, bombed and poisoned," he said in a statement accompanying publication of the atlas.
"They are damaged by irresponsible tourism and are being severely stressed by the warming of the world's oceans. Each of these pressures is bad enough in itself, but together, the cocktail is proving lethal."
Scattered under the waters of 101 countries and territories, corals are vital for fisheries, coastal protection, tourism and wildlife, hosting up to two million marine plants and animals.
Often compared to the equally endangered tropical rainforests as a source of biodiversity, some of their compounds are used in drugs such as AZT, a treatment for the HIV virus.
WORLDWIDE DAMAGE
Damage was being inflicted on coral around the world, but some regions were suffering disproportionately.
In Indonesia, the world's largest coral nation, it found that 82 percent of corals were "at risk" from illegal blast fishing in which explosives are thrown at the reef.
Some parts of the Indian Ocean had lost 90 percent of their coral reefs - or five percent of the total world reef area - as a result of the 1998 El Nino weather phenomenon, an unusual warming in the waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean.
In the Caribbean, entire coral reefs had been decimated by disease, the report said.
Many of the world's 660 marine protected areas failed to defend corals from the ravages of pollution, it added.
"Often remote from reefs, deforestation, urban development and intensive agriculture are now producing vast quantities of sediments and pollutants which are pouring into the sea and rapidly degrading coral reefs in close proximity to many shores," Toepfer said.
The report said there was a powerful economic as well environmental case for saving the coral. Hundreds of millions of people had no other source of animal protein, and well-managed diving programmes could provide major tourism revenue.
"One of the saddest facts about the demise of reefs is that it is utterly nonsensical," said Mark Spalding, lead author of the study.
"Protecting and managing reefs is not just for the good of the fishes, in every case it also leads to economic and social benefits for local communities."
Story by Dominic Evans
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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Energy Consumption
in the U.S. Leveling Off, As Economy Slows
by J. W. Anderson, Resources for the Future
In response to sharply higher prices and a slowing economy, energy consumption in the United States seems to be leveling off. But there is still no sign of a reduction in energy use nationwide.
If the present pattern continues to the year's end, American emissions of carbon dioxide -- by far the most important of the greenhouse gases generated by human activity -- will be very close to last year's record level.
Total energy consumption in this country rose 2.4 per cent in 2000 over 1999, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the source of the figures used in this article. That rise was driven by growth of 4.1 per cent in the output of the national economy. The difference between the two numbers reflects a 1.7 per cent improvement in the energy efficiency of the economy, measured by the drop in the energy-to-output ratio.
In the first five months of this year, consumption was almost exactly the same
level as in the same period last year. Whether the progress in efficiency will
continue as rapidly this year, in the absence of strong economic growth or further
price increases, is questionable.
Not all energy sources have been affected equally. Consumption of gasoline and
natural gas, and retail sales of electricity, rose through the first half of
this year much faster than total use of energy. The explanation lies in consumers'
behavior. Over the past year consumers' spending has increased significantly
faster than their incomes. The trend toward buying large cars and large houses
appears, so far, to have continued unabated.
Industry's use of energy has been growing very slowly for some years, and over
the past year has actually fallen. The recent increases have been in the residential,
commercial and transportation sectors. .
After the power shortages and blackouts in California, consumers there responded
with a dramatic demonstration of conservation. But it's hard to find similar
examples of conservation anywhere else in the country.
Gasoline sales this year, through mid-August, were up 1.5 per cent over the
same months last year. That represents a return to the 10-year trend, after
a much smaller rise of only 0.5 per cent in 2000. From a historic low point
of $0.955 a gallon in February 1999, the nationwide average price of unleaded
regular grade gasoline rose to $1.617 in June 2000. By early September this
year that price was $1.55 a gallon, about the same as a year earlier. But sudden
jumps in price in several Midwestern cities, just before the Labor Day weekend,
demonstrated again the fragility of the supply network.
Sales of petroleum distillate, which includes both diesel highway fuel and home
heating oil, were up 7.5 per cent this year over last year after similar swings
in price.
Natural gas markets have followed a similar pattern. Gas consumption jumped by a huge 4.9 per cent in 2000. As a result the wellhead price moved from a monthly average of $1.68 per thousand cubic feet in early 1999 to $8.04 in January 2001. Now it has sunk below $3. Despite the volatility and the spectacularly high prices last winter, consumption in the first seven months of this year was running 2.1 per cent ahead of the same period last year.
Coal has been the exception to the rule. Coal consumption increased by 3.5 per cent in 2000 to feed the country's voracious appetite for electricity, and kept rising at a slower 1.3 per cent in the first four months of this year. But recent prices of coal, unlike those of the other fossil fuels, have remained stable. Coal prices have been declining for over two decades - in inflation-adjusted terms, dropping by 60 per cent - reflecting the introduction of more efficient mining techniques and a shift of production from underground mines east of the Mississippi River to western strip mines with much higher productivity.
The energy industry, encouraged by the higher prices, has been making rapid progress in eliminating the shortages and supply bottlenecks that have appeared over the past year and a half. So far, despite the costs, people are still buying as much energy as ever. One consequence, as long as that continues, will be great difficulty in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
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Diesel-Powered
Fuel Cell Developed
EarthVision Environmental News
PHILADELPHIA, September 11, 2001 - University of Pennsylvania researchers have
made an engineering breakthrough by developing a prototype fuel cell that is
powered by ordinary liquid diesel fuel, making the idea of widespread fuel cell
use for a variety of purposes closer to reality. Until now, fuel cells have
largely been restricted to using hydrogen fuel, either in its pure form or hydrogen
extracted or "reformed" from another fuel source. However, this latest
development uses diesel fuel without the need for a hydrogen reformer say the
chemical engineers behind the research.
"There used to be a saying that you could run a fuel cell on any fuel as long as it's hydrogen," said Raymond J. Gorte, professor of chemical engineering at Penn. Gorte is also the lead author of an article in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society that describes the research.
"In our earlier work, we were unable to feed liquid diesel to the fuel cell because we did not have a means for vaporizing fuels that have a low vapor pressure at room temperature," Gorte said. "This paper demonstrated that we could feed these liquids to a fuel cell using a method analogous to a fuel injector in an internal combustion engine and still get stable operation of the fuel cell."
The prototype fuel cell is tiny - less than three quarters of an inch in diameter - and operates in a furnace set at 700 degrees Celsius. A commercial, self-contained fuel cell would ideally generate that heat itself using the fuel placed in it.
Fuel cells running on readily available fuels have been eyed as a way to generate power for a variety of uses - from laptops to cars. In addition, the Penn researchers are looking at the development of a small fuel cell running on natural gas, which could be used in homes to generate both electricity and heat.
Besides the private sector uses, the US military, which funded this latest research, is looking into fuel cells for portable power sources, reducing the need for soldiers to carry heavy battery-powered equipment. Towards this end, Honeywell and Penn researchers recently accepted $1.8 million in funding from the US Army and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration to develop a coffee-can-sized fuel cell capable of generating power equivalent to 50 D-cell batteries.
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Sunday, 9th September 2001 - Japan Times
Kawaguchi asks U.S. to provide Kyoto alternative
WASHINGTON (Kyodo) Environment Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Friday that she
has asked the United States to present an alternative to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol
to curb global warming by the time of the next U.N. climate conference in late
October.
She told reporters in Washington that she made the request in a meeting with
Paula Dobriansky, undersecretary of state for global affairs. Kawaguchi is on
a six-day trip to the U.S. that began Tuesday.
"If an international consensus is reached at the COP7, there will be little room to discuss U.S. proposals," Kawaguchi said.
She was referring to the seventh session of the Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, scheduled to open Oct. 29 in Marrakesh, Morocco.
The U.S. side only repeated that it is considering the issue at the Cabinet level.
The Kyoto Protocol requires industrialized states to cut emissions of greenhouse gases between 2008 and 2012 by an average of 5.2 percent from 1990 levels.
The administration of President George W. Bush rejected the protocol as "fatally flawed" and said it would pursue an alternate plan to fight global warming.
The resumed COP6 in late July in Bonn struck a deal on the core elements of rules to implement the Kyoto Protocol, but the U.S. remained on the sidelines.
The Japan Times: Sept. 9, 2001
(C) All rights reserved
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BBC News Online: Sci/Tech
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 6 September, 2001, 18:17 GMT 19:17 UK
Rapid
Antarctic warming puzzle
It is not clear whether humans are responsible
By BBC News Online's environment correspondent Alex Kirby
UK scientists say parts of Antarctica have recently been warming much faster
than most of the rest of the Earth.
They believe the warming is probably without parallel for nearly two thousand years.
They suggest three possible mechanisms that may account for what is happening.
But they say they cannot identify a cause with certainty, nor can they predict whether the warming will continue.
Concealed complexity
The scientists, from the British Antarctic Survey, based in Cambridge, report their findings in the magazine Science.
Noting the confirmation this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) of a global average warming of about 0.6 degrees Celsius during
the 20th Century, they say this mean value "conceals the complexity of
observed climate change".
"If the recent past is a guide to the future, regional climate changes
will have more profound effects than the mean global warming suggests."
Trends in mean annual air temperature for 1950-98 show three areas of especially rapid regional warming: northwestern North America and the Beaufort Sea; an area around the Siberian plateau; and the Antarctic peninsula and the adjoining Bellingshausen Sea.
Upward trend
For all Antarctic stations, the mean temperature trend for 1959-96 is +1.2 degrees C per century, but there are marked regional variations.
At Amundsen-Scott base at the South Pole, annual air temperatures have actually
cooled since 1958. On the Antarctic peninsula, though, they have warmed since
reliable records began in the 1950s.
The BAS scientists say the longest records show a warming in the northwest of the peninsula "considerably larger than the mean Antarctic trend", with shorter records suggesting that the warming extends further south and east.
They say the importance of what has been happening is shown by its impact, with flowering plants extending their ranges, glaciers retreating and seasonal snow cover shrinking.
Penguins on the move
Penguin distribution is also changing. Adelie penguins, which need access to winter pack ice, are declining around Faraday. But chinstrap penguins, which usually need open water, are increasing.
The authors say three of the four ice cores from the peninsula show a rise in temperature over the last half-century.
And rapid regional warming has led to the loss of seven ice shelves during the last 50 years.
One, the Prince Gustav Channel shelf, disappeared in 1995, having come into existence 1900 years ago, when sedimentary cores show the climate was as warm as it has been recently.
'Exceptional' warming
The scientists say: "The recent rapid regional warming in the Antarctic peninsula is thus exceptional over several centuries, and probably unmatched for 1900 years.
"It may be tempting to cite anthropogenic greenhouse gases as the culprit, but to do so without offering a mechanism is superficial."
They suggest three possible mechanisms: changing ocean currents may have brought warmer deep water on to the continental shelf, reducing sea-ice; warmer air may have come into the region; or a unique sea-ice-atmosphere feedback may be at work.
Not knowing the cause of the changes so far, the authors say they cannot predict the future.
No predictions
But they describe what has happened as "a profound climatic change, an order of magnitude greater than global mean warming".
One of the authors, Dr David Vaughan, told BBC News Online: "The important thing is predicting whether this change will continue.
"What's stopping us is that we can't say which of these mechanisms is responsible.
"The climate modellers have done an astounding job in the last 10 years. But we now need to develop more sophisticated tools to enable us to predict regional climate changes."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related to this story:
Climate
row touches blue whales (19 Jul 01 | Sci/Tech) 'Heatwave'
stresses penguins (10 May 01 | Sci/Tech)
Climate change outstrips forecasts (22 Jan 01 | Sci/Tech)
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Kawaguchi has made the visit to the United States in a bid to persuade the U.S. to return to the international pact which it withdrew from in the face of much international criticism in March.
Kawaguchi also held talks with other U.S. government officials and lawmakers and called for the U.S. to submit its alternative plan by the seventh session of the Conference of the Parties (COP7) to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change scheduled to open in late October in Marrakech, Morocco.
The resumed COP6 in late July in Bonn managed to strike a deal on implementing the Kyoto pact, but failed to put the agreement into a legal form needed for ratification.
The Kyoto Protocol requires industrialized nations to cut their emissions of
greenhouse gases between 2008 and 2012 by an average 5.2% from 1990 levels.
2001 Kyodo News (c) Established 1945.
All Rights Reserved
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World coral reefs to die by 2050, scientist warns
Thursday, September 06, 2001
By Ed Cropley, Reuters
GLASGOW, Scotland — The world's coral reefs will be dead within 50 years
because of global warming, and there is nothing we can do to save them, a scientist
warned Wednesday.
"It is hard to avoid the conclusion that most coral in most areas will
be lost," Rupert Ormond, a marine biologist from Glasgow University, told
a science conference. "We are looking at a loss which is equivalent to
the tropical rain forests."
Only the coral reefs in nontropical regions such as Egypt stand any chance of lasting beyond 2050, Ormond said, but even the days of the stunning marine parks of the Red Sea are numbered as sea temperatures continue to creep up.
In the past, reefs have suffered from sediment buildup and the coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish, whose numbers have exploded due to the over-fishing of their predators.
Now the main threat to the delicate structures that harbor some of nature's most stunning creations comes from warmer seas, which cause coral bleaching.
Microscopic algae that support the coral polyps cannot live in the warmer water, and the polyps, the tiny creatures who actually create the reefs, die off within weeks.
Scientists agree the world's oceans are now warming at a rate of between one and two degrees Celsius every 100 years due to the increased amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere which trap the sun's rays.
But even if humans stopped pumping out greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide tomorrow in a bid to halt the process, it would still be too late to save the reefs, Ormond said. "I don't know what can be done, given that there's a 50-year time lag between trying to limit carbon dioxide levels and any effect on ocean temperature," he told the conference, held by the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
The implications stretch far beyond the death of the colorful coral structures themselves. The weird and wonderful eels and fish which inhabit the nooks and crannies will become homeless, and many species will die out. "We are looking at a gradual running down of the whole system. Over time, the diversity of coral fish will die," Ormond said.
Humankind will also suffer directly as the dead reefs are eroded and shorelines that have been protected for the last 10,000 years face the wrath of the oceans without their natural defenses.
In an age of relatively cheap scuba-diving holidays, this also means many developing countries in the tropics, such as Kenya or those in the Caribbean, face losing a major source of revenue.
The only cause for optimism was that new coral reefs could start to emerge in colder waters such as the north Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea.
Copyright 2001, Reuters
All Rights Reserved
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Satellites
see a greener northern hemisphere
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
USA: September 6, 2001
WASHINGTON - Earth's northern hemisphere is a greener place than it was 20
years ago, with denser vegetation and a longer growing season in some places,
scientists reported this week.
In the area above 40 degrees north latitude - which includes New York City,
Madrid, Ankara and Beijing - satellite data show plants have been growing more
vigorously since 1981.
One suspected cause is rising temperatures, possibly linked to the buildup of
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, according to a statement released by the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the American Geophysical Union
and Boston University.
Eurasia seemed to be greening more than North America, with more lush vegetation
for longer periods of time, the statement said.
The growing season is now nearly 18 days longer in Eurasia than it was two decades ago, with spring arriving a week early and autumn delayed by 10 days. In North America, the growing season appears to be as much as 12 days longer.
The Eurasian greening was especially persistent over a broad swath from central Europe through Siberia to far-east Russia, where most of the vegetation is forests and woodlands. North America shows a fragmented pattern of change notable only in the forests of the east and grasslands of the upper Midwest.
These results will appear in the September 16 issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres.
More information and images can be seen online at http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/20010904greenhouse.html.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
Copyright © 2001 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com
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Is Bush's America to Be Absent
in World Affairs?
Jim Hoagland The Washington Post Thursday, September 6, 2001
WASHINGTON There must be a better way to win friends and influence nations than
walking out of conferences, denouncing treaties or sitting on your hands while
the Middle East burns. The Bush administration seems unable or unwilling to
demonstrate to the world that it can find that way.
Withdrawal is rapidly becoming the leitmotiv of the Bush diplomatic agenda - a theme that surfaces periodically to bind disparate actions and invest them with a meaning larger than any of them possesses alone. Images of American delegates saying "my way or the highway" on global warming, nuclear strategy and racism now overshadow President George W. Bush's early promising efforts to engage America's European allies, revive a moribund U.S. strategy on Russia and rebalance American alliances in Asia. It is the habit of saying "no" that defines to others Mr. Bush's worldview at the moment. Other powers scurry to fill or exploit vacuums left by a string of high-visibility U.S. rejections.
The Bush White House returns to work full-time this week seeming to fall behind the curve of world events that it promised to dominate.
The foreign ministers of France and Germany and the European Union's top foreign policy spokesman were content a few months ago to describe their Middle East policies as supportive of American leadership. Today they are trying to broker cease-fires and get Israelis and Palestinians talking again. They do so in desperation over Washington's inaction, not in any false sense of being able to replace America. President Vladimir Putin of Russia has switched from a conciliatory tone toward Mr. Bush on the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to a low-key effort to place blame on him for undermining the "framework of strategic stability."
"Putin has been on the road, selling his views on foreign policy. Being a clever operator, he pays attention to where opinion is going," Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, told me last week after he returned from a fact-gathering visit to Ukraine, Georgia and other parts of the former Soviet Union. Mr. Hagel, a leading internationalist Republican voice in the Senate and a strong supporter of missile defense, is concerned that "we have pushed so far so fast and so hard without clearly defining what we actually intend to do on missile defense that we are losing a lot of the important points of the debate, and allowing the opponents to gain the high ground" at home and abroad.
His idea of congressional travel is to climb into the Georgian air force's rickety ex-Soviet helicopters and fly to remote frontier posts on the border with Chechnya. He gathers information on Russia's war there - and also demonstrates corporally one American senator's commitment to Georgia's survival in the face of Russian destabilization efforts.
"Putin understands that the threats to Russia do not come from the West, and have nothing to do with missile defense," Mr. Hagel told me. "We should not allow this to be only a national security matter on which we make all the decisions alone, rather than a foreign policy matter in which we find ways to include the political concerns of our allies and friends."
Like Mr. Hagel, I accept that the Bush team has a strong underlying argument about the ABM Treaty's obsolescent features - as it did on the Kyoto treaty, the germ warfare treaty and the Durban anti-racism conference's treatment of Israel. But in each of these cases and many others, the administration has worked itself into a position of having to choose between just saying "no" - breaking diplomatic china and leaving it to others to pick up the pieces - or having to accept the obviously unacceptable.
It does not work hard enough to bring forward alternatives that would head off a splashy walkout at Durban, coerce Israelis and Palestinians into lessening their mutual bloodshed or avoid the United States being mousetrapped by the Europeans in the Kyoto Protocol follow-up meetings. There are exceptions - the Balkans, Mexico policy and trade negotiations stand out - where enlightened U.S. engagement still carries the day. But whether by design or by failing to anticipate the cumulative impact of their actions, Mr. Bush and his foreign policy aides have created the theme of America the Absent in world affairs. They seem to ignore the old adage that those who are absent lose the argument.
Copyright © 2001 The International Herald Tribune
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Greenhouse gas emissions news from tomorrow-web.com
5-September-2001
United States-A diverse group of 20 US businesses and other entities have agreed to purchase at least 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources, saving 200,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases from release annually.
The companies-including Fetzer Vineyards, Ford Motor Co. and Johnson & Johnson-have all joined the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) new Green Power Promotion program. In return for making a commitment within 12 months to purchase at least 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources, the companies, universities and other entities, such as cities, will receive assistance and recognition from the EPA.
The program will prevent at least 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere in its first year. Altogether, the 20 entities that have joined the program will buy a minimum of 280,000 megawatts of green power. Some companies, such as Fetzer Vineyards and Xantrex, a manufacturer of electronics for the power industry, pledged to purchase more than the requisite 10 percent-Fetzer already buys 100 percent green power for its electricity needs, and Xantrex will purchase 100 percent green power for one of its four facilities.
Contact: Kurt Johnson, EPA Office of Atmospheric Programs, tel: +1 202 564 3481
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WIRE: 09/04/2001 5:36 pm ET
Global
Warming May Further Disease Spread: Report
By Karla Gale
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Climate change associated with global warming is
already increasing the spread of infectious diseases, researchers at the New
York University School of Medicine maintain. They predict that worldwide climate
shifts will create growing threats to public health if not reversed.
"Warming will change the distribution of [disease-carrying agents], which will in turn bring the specter of diseases wiped out decades ago to possible prominence," Dr. William N. Rom told Reuters Health.
Rom and Dr. Dushana Yoganathan, writing in the August issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, note that extreme weather events lead to increases in populations of microbes such as bacteria, while atmospheric ozone depletion has been linked to an increased susceptibility among hosts to these microbes.
They point to increases in mosquito-borne infections like malaria and dengue fever, as well as certain rodent-borne viruses, as possible risks the world faces.
"Warming will increase the tropical zones around the equator to higher latitudes, bringing with it changes in vegetation and distribution of disease vectors," Rom noted. "This is early in the medical debate because these vectors and disease distributions are always oscillatory as it is, but we're looking at long-term trends, and this is a hypothetical that has a good chance of happening."
SOURCE: American Journal of Industrial Medicine 2001;40:199-210.
Copyright 2001 Reuters News Service.
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Global
warming could disturb Ocean's ecosystem - ABC
Mon, Sep 3 2001 7:38 PM AEST
A Japanese researcher says global warming may be to blame for a sharp fall in the volume of carbon dioxide absorbed by the northern Pacific Ocean over the past 15 years.
Yutaka Watanabe, an assistant professor of environmental studies at Hokkaido University, says the absorbed volume of carbon dioxide in the ocean had dropped by 10 per cent.
"We are surprised by our finding. The rate of CO2 absorption fell faster than we expected," Mr Watanabe said.
Oceans absorb carbon dioxide but if sea temperatures rise, less carbon dioxide is dissolved.
"The sharp fall in carbon dioxide absorption may have been caused by high sea temperatures from either global warming or natural climate change," Mr Watanabe said.
He says the drop in absorption could affect the level of plankton, a major source of nutrition at the bottom of the food chain, in the Pacific Ocean.
"We are currently studying what this fall means to the environment," Mr Watanabe said.
"It is certainly a bad sign."
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Activists highlight firms'
rifts on Kyoto global-warming treaty
Big multinational corporations' policies come under fire
By Jeffrey Ball
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Aug. 27 - The trans-Atlantic standoff over the Kyoto Protocol, the international
treaty to curb global warming, is producing tense family squabbles inside some
of the world's big multinational corporations.
AT FORD MOTOR Co., Coca-Cola Co. and other global giants, European and U.S.
executives are struggling over what position to take with consumers in the debate
over climate change. At least two environmental groups are highlighting the
rifts, and at least one is urging boycotts. Their hope: to embarrass big companies
into pledging support for the treaty, in turn exerting pressure on the Bush
administration to reverse its opposition to the pact.
The intracorporate disagreements mirror the divide between European governments
and the White House over the Kyoto treaty, which calls for industrial nations
to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Hatched at an international conference in
1997, the treaty got a boost last month when a United Nations convention on
climate change approved rules for implementing it, without the support of the
U.S.
President Bush's decision to reject the Kyoto accord has the support of a group
called the U.S. Council for International Business, whose more than 300 members
include multinationals like Ford and Coke. Some of those companies now are targets
of a guerrilla public-relations assault waged by Greenpeace and a tiny London
upstart called Families Against Bush.
At Ford, the groups have seized on a debate between executives at the auto maker's
U.S. headquarters and its Volvo Car unit in Sweden. Volvo Car, which prides
itself on Scandinavian values of environmental stewardship and attention to
safety, had publicly supported the Kyoto document before being acquired by Ford
in 1999. Ford, on the other hand, has publicly expressed opposition to the treaty
partly on the grounds that it has different standards for cutting emissions
for developing and industrialized nations.
Greenpeace put Volvo Car on the spot. Earlier this summer, it contacted the
car maker to ask whether it supports Kyoto. A Volvo Car spokesman said the company's
stance hadn't changed. Greenpeace quickly noted the apparent disagreement between
Volvo Car and its U.S. parent on its Web site.
Kirsty Hamilton, Greenpeace's coordinator in the U.S. for corporate affairs
on climate change, says Volvo Car's position undercuts Ford's argument that
the treaty's demands on U.S. companies are too severe. "If it's a bottom-line
issue for Ford, how come it's not a bottom-line issue for Volvo?" she says.
The Volvo Car spokesman was worried about the incident and telephoned his boss,
Olle Axelson, who was on vacation. Mr. Axelson, in turn, phoned the chief executive
of Volvo Car, who also was vacationing. "You see the complexity here,"
Mr. Axelson says. "We are coming out of a completely Scandinavian environment
with AB Volvo, our former parent, and now moving into a different one, maybe,
with Ford."
Mr. Axelson says Volvo Car and Ford executives are trying to figure out how
to resolve this difference. "We need to see what we have done and which
position we are supposed to take," Mr. Axelson says. "We need to have
a dialogue on this internally."
A Ford official who asked to remain anonymous says executives are working at
reconciling different attitudes toward the Kyoto treaty at Volvo Car, at Ford's
Dearborn, Mich., headquarters and at Ford's European subsidiary, based in Germany.
The Greenpeace campaign is one factor intensifying those talks. The official
says the company sees the campaign as a "canary in the mineshaft,"
possibly signaling that consumers themselves are starting to care more about
the issue.
A similar situation played out at Coke, whose position is that it supports the
"general objectives" of Kyoto despite belonging to the council that
shares President Bush's opposition to the treaty. The company doesn't take a
position on whether governments should ratify the treaty, but in April, when
it came time to respond to a Greenpeace inquiry, Coke's subsidiary in Spain
did just that in a letter to the environmental group.
"We are in line with the general idea of the Kyoto Protocol," says
Pedro Antonio Garcia, the Spanish unit's strategic planning director. "You
cannot operate if you are against the Kyoto Protocol in a European context,"
he adds. "It's the price of entry."
Families Against Bush, founded several months ago in London, trumpets the internal
tensions at Ford and Coke on its Web site. Volvo Car is on the site's green
"buy" list of companies supporting Kyoto. Ford is on the red "don't
buy" list of companies that oppose it. Coke is on the red list, but with
a little green mark noting that its Spanish subsidiary "supports the Kyoto
Protocol."
Chris Rose, a founder of Families Against Bush and former Greenpeace official,
recalls that when he heard President Bush's statement of opposition to Kyoto,
he took his family to march with placards outside the U.S. embassy in London.
But soon, he decided to set his sights on multinationals. "They've got
so much influence in society," he says. "They can't just stand back
and say, 'We don't have an opinion on this.' "
And so the divide-and-conquer strategy was born. It reflects a growing tendency
among environmentalists to pursue political goals indirectly, by pressuring
companies, rather than lobbying governments directly. "What you're seeing
is a certain level of sophistication in the targeting," says John Elkington,
chairman of SustainAbility Ltd., a London environmental-issues consulting firm,
whose clients include Ford. Environmentalists see that the most effective way
to force governments to change their policies is "through the most sensitive
bits of the system, which are major corporations that have brands and images
to protect."
Many multinationals are feeling the heat, says Eileen Claussen, president of
the nonpartisan Pew Center on Global Climate Change, a group of companies concerned
about global warming. "That is pushing [them] into this funny position.
Many of them would like to be supportive, but they're a little reluctant ...
because of where the administration is."
Copyright © 2001 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
---------------------------
US and Canadian leaders
commit to Kyoto obligations
related: Canada's Minister Anderson welcomes the announcement
The governors of the six US New England states, which include two Republicans,
have committed alongside the premiers of five eastern Canadian provinces to
achieve 1990 levels of greenhouse gases within 10 years, in effect shunning
President Bush's rejection of the global treaty.
Under the Climate Change Action Plan 2001, approved on 27 August at the Annual
Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers in Westbrook,
New Brunswick, the leaders signed the unique bilateral agreement and committed
the region to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2010 and by at
least 10% below 1990 levels by 2020.
The governors of Maine, Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and
Rhode Island also aligned with the premiers of Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador,
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island to set a long-term goal
of reducing emissions "sufficiently to eliminate any dangerous threat to
the climate" - meaning cuts of 75-85% below current levels - according
to the agreement.
In a thinly veiled attack on President Bush's attitude to the Kyoto Protocol
the leaders justified the agreement "due to the uncertainty of corresponding
actions on a worldwide basis and the lengthy response time necessary for climate
actions to have an impact". The actions proposed, the document says, provide
"a set of concrete, achievable, near-term opportunities", which will
"demonstrate leadership and build a foundation from which more dramatic
progress can be realised".
Among the precedents contained in the agreement are an encouragement of the
growth of energy efficient and greenhouse gas reducing technologies in the region
and a promise to undertake a planning process every five years from 2005, ensuring
that targets are as "aggressive" as possible, taking into account
new scientific developments and resources. The plans could involve credit trading,
using more energy efficient vehicles, promoting lower-carbon fuels and energy
conservation, and a special task force of state and provincial energy and environmental
officials will develop specific strategies for cutting emissions. The agreement
also commits to a public education effort and adapting to current effects of
climate change including shifts in agriculture and forestry, building codes
and coastal infrastructure changes.
Without the agreement, the leaders say, the forecast for emissions is pessimistic.
Eastern Canada's emissions are forecast to increase by 20% from 1990 to 2020
under the 'business as usual' scenario, while New England's CO2 emissions will
increase by 30% between 2000 and 2020.
The leaders also committed to cutting emissions of mercury from power plants
and incinerators by 75% by 2010 and New Hampshire and Quebec signed a joint
agreement to improve the environment across their shared border. As part of
the agreement, the two administrations will establish a joint task force to
collaborate on common environmental issues, including air quality, improving
regional supplies of cleaner energy and combating regional haze in the White
Mountains, Great North Woods and the St. Lawrence River Valley of Quebec.
"Improving New Hampshire's air and reducing greenhouse gas emissions has
been a top priority for my administration," commented the state's governor,
Jeanne Shaheen. "Pollution, however, does not respect state borders. That
is why it is so important for other states and regions to follow New Hampshire's
lead." The governor also said that the Climate Change Plan "sends
a powerful message to the rest of the nation about the importance of working
cooperatively to cut pollution and clean up our air".
STATEMENT
- Minister Anderson Welcomes Eastern Premiers and New England Governors Agreement
on Climate Change
OTTAWA, Aug. 31 /CNW/ - Minister of the Environment, David Anderson,
today issued the following statement regarding the agreement reached by the
Eastern Canadian Premiers and the New England Governors on climate change:
"Climate change is a global problem, and solving it transcends
boundaries. I commend the Premiers and Governors for their efforts to work
together in their region of the continent.
I am particularly impressed with their long-term vision of a 75-85%
reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The Kyoto Protocol is only the first
step on a long road towards implementing an effective solution to climate
change. The Eastern Premiers and New England Governors have understood this
and designed their approach accordingly.
I look forward to cooperating with the Eastern Premiers in addressing
climate change and trust that this agreement will further assist Canada and
the United States in achieving stated goals of reducing greenhouse gas
emissions."
---------------------------
Green power
is aim of new plan - China Daily
(WANG YING)
08/27/2001
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has launched a new project
to assist China draw up a long-term energy strategy.
UNDP will help the Chinese Government promote the demonstration of new approaches
and technologies in the field of renewable energies and energy- saving appliances
and technologies.
With support from the State Development Planning Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation, the project will call on international experience to enhance the skills of Chinese policy makers in developing sustainable energy, according to UNDP representative Kerstin Leitner .
The two-year project will include training on strategic planning methodologies and tools for energy policy makers to enhance information exchange and co-ordination among government agencies in the energy sector.
UNDP will inject US$300,000 into the project while the Chinese Government will provide energy specialists, office equipment and information materials.
Energy supply in China can now basically meet development requirements but the energy sector has been faced with a series of challenges including energy security and energy-induced environmental pollution , said Wang Chunzheng, vice-minister of the State Development Planning Commission.
"The formulation of a long-term energy development strategy is important
in guiding the future development of the energy sector," Wang said.
---------------------------
Ministry wants Y5.9 bil to curb global warming
Friday, August 24, 2001 at 09:30 JST
TOKYO - The Environment Ministry will likely include a plan to spend 5.9 billion
yen on measures to curb global warming in its budgetary request for fiscal 2002
beginning next April, which is double the figure requested last year, ministry
sources said Thursday.
The move is apparently part of Japan's aim to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on global warming to bring the treaty into effect by 2002, although Tokyo has yet to formally announce such an intention.
Under the new budgetary plan, the ministry intends to create a scheme to provide subsidies to local governments to encourage them to promote anti-global warming programs, the sources said.
For example, the central government would be able to finance half the cost of projects by municipal governments to help build wind and solar power plants in their regions.
The ministry also plans to set aside funds to promote a provision of the Kyoto Protocol called the clean development mechanism (CDM).
The premise of the CDM is that reductions of greenhouse gas emissions achieved in developing countries can be counted against greenhouse gas reductions targets of developed countries. The provision is aimed at encouraging developed countries to help developing countries cut their greenhouse gas emissions.
The ministry's budget plan also aims to increase the amount of funds for measures to help alleviate the so-called heat island phenomenon which causes high localized temperatures in urban areas.
The Kyoto Protocol, concluded in Japan's ancient capital in 1997, requires industrialized countries to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases by an average 5.2% from 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.
In its budgetary request for fiscal 2002, the environment ministry plans to call for a total of 286.5 billion yen, up 3.4% from the previous year, the sources said.
Of that, 177.2 billion yen will be for projects to help cut waste materials, a program being pushed forward by the government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, the sources added. (Kyodo News)
---------------------------
More
wind power projects under way
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
USA: August 23, 2001
NEW YORK - As further proof that windpower is set for a U.S. renaissance, customers
in four Midwestern states will soon be able to buy electricity supplied by wind
generators.
Minnesota Power, the utility operation of Duluth, Minnesota-based Allete Inc.
, said this week that it has received approval from the Minnesota Public Utilities
Commission for a new wind power program for its residential and small commercial
customers in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Currently, Minnesota Power, which serves 144,000 customers, plans to buy half
the output of three new wind generators at the Chandler Hills Wind Farm in southwestern
Minnesota owned by utility Great River Energy, based in Elk River, Minnesota.
Also this week, power company UtiliCorp United Inc. , based in Kansas City, Missouri, said that it activated the first wind turbines near Montezuma, Kansas, at a wind farm owned and operated by FPL Energy, a unit of Juno Beach, Florida-based FPL Group Inc. and one of the biggest U.S. players in the nascent U.S. windpower market.
UtiliCorp will buy all the power produced at the farm, which is capable of generating 110 megawatts of electricity when construction is completed at the end of the year, for customers of its WestPlains Energy utility in Kansas, as well as customers of its Missouri Public Service and St. Joseph Light & Power utilities in Missouri.
These projects have been a long time coming. Damaged by failures that hurt early U.S. backers and by critics who saw windmills as an eyesore and as a danger to birds, windpower still only provides the United States with less than 1 percent of its energy.
But worldwide, it is the fastest-growing area of energy generation, with year-on-year growth of 25 percent, and it is projected that the U.S. market will see 1,500 MW of new capacity installed this year.
Wind turbine technology is ideal for flatlands like those found in the Dakotas, Kansas and Texas, as well as where wind is drawn off bodies of water such as the Great Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean off California's coast.
In July, oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell Group announced an agreement to buy its first commercial wind farm, a 50-megawatt project in Wyoming.
Also, on Monday, two Canadian companies, oil sands miner and synthetic oil producer Suncor Energy Inc. and pipeline company Enbridge Inc. , said they had begun generating power from three turbines as part of a C$20 million ($13 million) wind power project they announced in April.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
---------------------------
Ford
develops hydrogen-powered engine
Thursday, August 23, 2001
By United Press International
DEARBORN, Mich. - Ford Motor Co. has unveiled a retrofitted gasoline engine
that can run on cheaper, clean-burning hydrogen gas.
The P2000 H21CE concept vehicle is a Ford Focus compact equipped with a version
of the 2.0-liter Zetec gasoline-engine that has been modified to use hydrogen.
Ford said hydrogen improves the internal-combustion engine's efficiency by 25
percent to 30 percent.
Engineers said they hoped using hydrogen instead of gasoline can be a near-term,
"greener" technology until hydrogen-powered fuel cells become practical.
The prototype engine develops about half the power of a regular Zetec engine
and can travel 62 miles on a tank of fuel. It emits only a fraction of the carbon
dioxide produced by a gasoline-powered engine. Ford plans an upgraded fuel system
to boost the vehicle's range to 160 miles.
"Hydrogen-fueled internal-combustion engines could be the bridge from today's
gasoline engines to tomorrow's hydrogen fuel technology," said Richard
Parry-Jones, Ford's vice president of global production development.
Ford said the hydrogen-fueled engine could be in cars by 2006 if fuel stations
that extract hydrogen from water are constructed across the country.
"Our H2ICE technology could be used to take the chicken out of the chicken-and-egg
debate about which comes first: the hydrogen-fueled vehicle or the hydrogen-fuel
infrastructure," said Vance Zanardelli, manager of transmission and engine
research.
Copyright 2001, United Press International
All Rights Reserved
------------------------------
August 23, 2001
Nasa Ending Mission That Measured Ozone Hole
From Associated Press
NASA is pulling the plug on a $1 billion mission that has measured the ozone
hole in the atmosphere for the past decade because of the $10 million it costs
to operate the Earth-orbiting satellite each year.
The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite mission is being cut at a time when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration faces budget overruns on a number of projects, including its stake in the international space station.
"We don't have the funding to continue the work of the satellite, so we are going to decommission it," said David Steitz, a NASA spokesman.
The UARS satellite will cease scientific operations by Sept. 30, 10 years to the month after it was deployed in orbit by the space shuttle Discovery. Seven of its 10 instruments still work.
Scientists who work on the ozone project are angry they were not consulted on the decision. They have proposed temporarily suspending operations, restoring them in a year or so when the satellite could work in tandem with a European satellite now being prepared for launch.
"It's a $1 billion asset we're throwing down the drain because we can't come up with a couple of million to keep it running," said Mark Schoeberl, the mission's former project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
But NASA administration officials said the 6.5-ton, 35-foot satellite will either be plucked from orbit by the space shuttle or allowed to return uncontrolled through Earth's atmosphere. A crash landing could leave as much as 2.6 tons of the satellite intact and would occur sometime between 2016 and 2027.
"Scientists are screaming, 'How can NASA turn off a satellite?' We have planned this for years," Steitz said. "Sorry guys, but it's over. We can't afford to continue to feed it and we have other priorities with new technologies."
Over the course of its mission, the UARS satellite has measured ozone and chemical compounds found in the ozone layer that affect the chemistry of the upper atmosphere. It is best known for its monitoring of the ozone hole over Antarctica.
The mission was originally designed to last for just three years. A replacement mission, AURA, is scheduled to be launched in 2003.
If NASA allows UARS to re-enter the atmosphere on its own, anywhere from 10 percent to 40 percent of the hulking satellite could be expected to survive, said Bill Ailor, director of the El Segundo-based Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies.
There would be no way of controlling where the satellite debris would hit the Earth. However, the odds are it would land in the ocean, as did chunks of both the Mir space station and Compton Gamma Ray Observatory.
"It's not really cause for alarm," Ailor said.
------
On the Net:
http://umpgal.gsfc.nasa.gov/uars-science.html
http://www.aero.org/cords/
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Kyoto begins at home
Family values could help cut greenhouse gases.
22 August 2001
JOHN WHITFIELD
Although the US government refuses to endorse the Kyoto protocol, people could sign up to the treaty at an individual level, a UK environmental scientist suggests1.
David Reay of the University of Edinburgh has calculated that simple lifestyle changes and home improvements could go a long way towards achieving one's "own private Kyoto". The time is ripe for a bottom-up approach to climate change, he says: "Since the Bonn summit, there have been more and more questions from the public - people want to know how they can do their bit."
The United States currently produces 6.6 tons (6.7 metric tonnes) of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide per citizen per year. To meet the Kyoto protocol's 1997 targets, the country would need to cut these emissions by 16% by 2010. Reay has worked out how a hypothetical US family of four with a four-wheel-drive 'sports utility vehicle' might achieve this.
Most room for improvement is in transport. Swapping the gas-guzzler for a mid-sized family car that produces less than half as much carbon dioxide would go almost halfway to meeting this family's Kyoto commitment.
Better insulation, solar panels, and energy-efficient fridges and washing machines would release less greenhouse gas. Planting trees in the garden could soak up carbon dioxide.
Households could also exploit the protocol's 'clean development' clause. This allows signatory nations to trade emissions with developing countries or to fund clean technology overseas. At a local level, this could mean helping your neighbours to plant trees or to insulate their loft. Even "going round with a loudhailer" (presumably on foot) to encourage energy efficiency would make a difference, says Reay.
Together, Reay's suggestions add up to roughly a 13% reduction in emissions per person.
"People think they're not going to make a difference," he says. "If they knew that walking to the shops instead of driving might save half a kilogram of greenhouse gas, they might stop and think." Those without big cars, houses and families can help out in other ways, such as by catching fewer planes, he adds.
Drop in the ocean?
Expressing energy efficiency in Kyoto-like terms might motivate consumers, agrees David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC), a New York-based environmental campaigning and research organization. The NRDC is helping to design mortgages that reward energy-efficient houses and people who live near their work.
But consumer responsibility, Doniger adds, doesn't get government off the hook: "Individual action is not going to add up to enough without societal action." The US Environmental Protection Agency calculates that only about one-third of the country's greenhouse-gas emissions comes from houses and transport, the rest being from industry and agriculture.
Even meeting the Kyoto targets might do little to reverse climate change -
the UK government estimates that emissions cut may eventually need to be as
much as 60 per cent on 1990 levels. But you've got to start somewhere, says
Reay: "It's about encouraging a state of mind, rather than saying 'job
done'."
References
Reay, D.New directions: my own private Kyoto. Atmospheric Environment, 35, 4887
- 4888, (2001).
© Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2001
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Environmental
Groups Mount Unprecedented Campaign to Draw Attention to Arctic and Energy Votes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 /U.S. Newswire/ --
In the single largest paid media campaign ever undertaken by a coalition of
the nation's major environmental groups, Americans in 23 states will learn the
stakes -- and the casualties -- of the congressional battle to stop drilling
in the Arctic and enact a responsible energy policy. Friends of the Earth, the
League of Conservation Voters (LCV), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
and the Sierra Club are telling voters in 35 congressional districts, from New
Hampshire to New Mexico, whether their representative stood up for their environmental
values or sold out to special interests. The ads, which run from August 4 to
September 3, also call voters' attention to their Senators, who will consider
the same issues beginning next month.
The environmental groups took this unprecedented step with an eye toward prospective
Senate action on a national energy policy. Their coordinated effort reflects
a growing concern among average Americans that the country cannot afford a repeat
performance of the House's failure to close the loophole that allows SUVs and
light trucks to waste more gas and produce more pollution compared to other
passenger vehicles, protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and enact an
energy policy that encourages efficient energy use over increased domestic oil,
gas, and coal production. The House bill also included $33.5 billion in tax
breaks and other subsidies to oil, gas, and coal companies that are, according
to the Wall Street Journal, enjoying record profits through the first six months
of the Bush administration.
"Citizens need to know if their representative sold out to special oil, coal and gas interests; caved in to pressure from the Teamsters; or had the courage to stand up for the public's interest in a clean environment and support a responsible, balanced energy policy," said Betsy Loyless, LCV political director. "Americans should learn whether their representative did the wrong thing by giving away billions of tax dollars to Big Oil, so they can make sure their Senators do the right thing by protecting our natural heritage and our pocketbooks."
"Voters should be aware that their representatives voted against the environment by supporting an energy bill that benefits wealthy corporate polluters at the expense of public health and the environment," said Alyssondra Campaigne, NRDC's legislative director. "Americans overwhelmingly support measures to protect our environment, and they expect their elected officials to fight for their interests, not for special interests."
"The House just gave the wealthiest polluters a $33 billion thank you for putting oil executives in the White House," said Dr. Brent Blackwelder, Friends of the Earth President. "They spent millions in campaign contributions in return for billions in handouts -- that's a 100-fold return on their investment."
"We are profoundly disappointed that the House turned its back on the pristine Arctic Refuge, but we are optimistic as the fight heads to the Senate," said Carl Pope, executive director for the Sierra Club. "The oil industry promotes 'environmentally friendly oil drilling' but that's like selling finger-friendly blenders. Drilling in the Arctic Refuge will ruin this national treasure, but it won't make a dent in gas prices. Instead of destroying this fragile tundra, Americans want a balanced approach that gives us quicker, cleaner, cheaper and safer solutions, such as energy-efficient technologies, renewable power, and responsible production."
Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of ads, several of which are already in rotation, will run throughout August in congressional districts in:
-- Arkansas -- California (3) -- Connecticut -- Delaware -- Florida (2) -- Georgia (3) -- Illinois (3) -- Indiana -- Iowa -- Minnesota -- Missouri -- Montana -- Nebraska -- New Hampshire (2) -- New Mexico -- North Carolina -- Oregon -- Pennsylvania (5) -- South Dakota -- Tennessee (2) -- Texas -- West Virginia
For copies of compact disks with recorded versions of several sample radio ads, call 202-454-4573.
--- Sample Copy A (Radio :60) "Clear Choice" In Congress, this year's energy bill presented a clear choice: protect consumers and the environment...or help put out the oil companies and big polluters. And which did we get from our congressman, (representative)?
(Representative) voted to send oil drillers into the Arctic Wildlife Refuge.
He voted against cleaner, more efficient cars that would save people money and cut global warming pollution...and for the weak standards backed by industry lobbyists.
(Representative) even voted for $ 30 billion in taxpayer handouts to oil, coal and nuclear power companies. That's money out of our pockets.
Instead of lower energy bills and a healthier environment, (Representative) voted time and time again for more pollution, and more global warming.
Fortunately, Senators (names) can do better, by supporting working families and the environment, not the polluters.
This message sponsored by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
--- Sample Copy B (Radio :60) "Talk" They say money talks. If that's so, then the big oil companies are doing a lot of talking. And our Congressman, X seems to have listened.
You see, X voted for President Bush's energy plan that's a real giveaway for the big oil companies but a complete bust for Georgia families.
The Bush energy plan shells-out billions in tax breaks to the big oil companies but sells-out families and our environment.
X's vote opens up Alaska's National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, causes more air pollution but fails to lower gas prices.
So the big oil companies make out like bandits, our environment gets robbed and we're held hostage at the gas pump.
Big oil money talked. And Congressman X seems to have listened. We need Senator Y and Senator Z to listen to our families instead -- and support cleaner, cheaper energy.
Paid for by Save Our Environment.
--- Sample Copy C (Radio :60) "New Priorities" In A, we've got a reputation for being down to earth and to the point.
So we're real disappointed with X right now, the man we sent to Congress to listen to as, not a bunch of lobbyists in Washington.
First, the Teamsters told X to support drilling in the fragile Alaskan Arctic Wildlife Refuge, and he handed over his vote.
Then Big Oil and Big Coal got a hold of X -- told him to support old, dirty, dangerous power instead of the newer, cleaner, smarter energy we need.
Congressman X let us down. But we know Senator Y will make us proud.
Call Senator Y today. At (phone number).
Tell him that you're with him...no drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge...no dirty Bush energy plan.
Paid for by the League of Conservation Voters. Helping you protect the environment,
one vote at a time. Find out more at http://www.lcv.org.
---------------------------
NZ sets
September 2002 target to ratify Kyoto pact
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW ZEALAND: August 10, 2001
WELLINGTON - New Zealand aims to ratify the Kyoto pact on fighting climate change
by September next year, the government said yesterday.
Agreement reached at a meeting of around 180 nations at a U.N conference in
Bonn last month made it possible for New Zealand to proceed with ratification,
the convenor of a ministerial group on climate change, Pete Hodgson, said in
a statement.
The Bonn deal on how to cut greenhouse gases by an average of 5.2 percent below
1990 levels by 2012, was a last-minute compromise to rescue the 1997 Kyoto treaty
which has been rejected by US President George W. Bush.
The treaty will be the subject of further talks at a world meeting in Morocco in late October before it is ready for ratification by individual nations.
However, Hodgson said the key elements were finalised in Bonn and his government was ready to take steps to ratify it.
"Our intention therefore is to work towards having legislation passed by parliament later next year that enables New Zealand to ratify the protocol in September 2002," he said.
The target date matches up with a scheduled World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa that will mark 10 years since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.
For the Kyoto protocol to take effect, it must be ratified by countries accounting for 55 percent of the 30-odd wealthy industrial nations' carbon dioxide emissions, which are blamed for global warming.
The United States, which produces nearly one third of the carbon dioxide gas output of wealthy nations, has rejected the Kyoto protocol saying it threatened its economy and because the pact did not include big developing nations, such as China and India.
The compromise struck in Bonn maintains the pressure to limit industrial pollution but, in allowing trading in emissions output levels, has introduced more flexible ways for countries to meet their target cuts.
New Zealand has been falling short of its Kyoto target of cutting emissions to 1990 levels, with emissions from the energy and industrial process sectors rising 22 percent between 1990 and 2000 - to 31.1 million tonnes a year from 25.5 million tonnes.
The centre-left government of Prime Minister Helen Clark is considering negotiated greenhouse pacts for energy-intensive industries and those with high emission levels but also faces a particular problem in its rural sector.
The country of just under four million people has 50 million sheep and cattle. The belching and flatulent livestock produce 44 percent of New Zealand's greenhouse gases, compared to less than 10 percent in most developed countries.
Hodgson said last month New Zealand hoped to come up with some solution for its livestock emissions to give it more room to tackle the harder task of cutting carbon dioxide emitted from cars, power stations and factories.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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Kyoto
pact to be ratified despite U.S. rejection
-Reuters News in Japan Today-
Kazunori Takada
Thursday, August 9, 2001 at 18:30 JST
TOKYO - Government officials say they are preparing to ratify the Kyoto agreement
on global warming even without U.S. participation and despite Tokyo's official
indecision as yet over whether to endorse the pact.
Tokyo has been in a quandary after the United States - its most important ally and the world's biggest polluter - backed out of the protocol in March.
Europe has been pressuring Tokyo to proceed with the pact without the United States, but Japan - the host of the Kyoto convention in 1997 - has been stalling, saying it wanted to try bringing Washington back on board.
"The United States' return to the protocol isn't a prerequisite for Japan's ratification," an Environment Ministry official said.
"It would be best to have the United States but there are other methods,"
he said, adding that a final decision would be made at a political level.
Last month, about 180 countries reached an agreement in Bonn that should allow the pact to come into force, but delegates failed to agree on details of the implementation, leaving the specifics to be drawn up in October at the next round in Morocco.
To come into force, the pact must be ratified by 55 countries, or by countries accounting for 55% of 1990 greenhouse gas emissions. Participation by Japan, the world's second-largest economy, is therefore crucial in the absence of the United States.
While the United States' refusal to join was seen as the main obstacle to Japan's ratification, a Foreign Ministry source said it was the lack of details in the protocol itself that posed the biggest problems.
"It isn't the United States we are concerned about. (The problem) is the details of the treaty, which have not been decided."
Japanese officials said that although the Bonn meeting gave the treaty momentum, the details it outlined were not enough for Tokyo to make a decision on whether it would agree to the pact.
"We have to know what we will be ratifying and we were unable to draw out such details at Bonn. We will do our best to make COP7 (Conference of the Parties) in Morocco a success," another Foreign Ministry official said.
She added, however, that reaching a consensus even then would not be easy. "It will be extremely difficult," she said.
Nevertheless, officials said Japan would waste no time now in moving the ratification process forward in case the decision to do so is made.
"It will be too late to start if we wait until the COP7 so we have started preparations such as outlining laws to meet the domestic emission reduction," the Environment Ministry official said.
The ministry has also decided to make budget requests for related expenses in the event of a ratification, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported on Thursday.
The United States produces 36.1% of the developed world's emissions of man-made carbon dioxide, while the EU accounts for 24.2%. Japan is responsible for 8.5%.
Under the current deal, industrialised nations agreed to cut carbon dioxide
emissions by an average 5.2% from 1990 levels by 2012. Greenhouse gases, which
come mainly from burning fossil fuels, are thought to cause rising temperatures.
(Reuters News)
---------------------------
GM unveils
hydrogen fuel cell
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
USA: August 8, 2001
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - General Motors Corp. on Tuesday unveiled a hydrogen fuel
cell that it said could hold the answer to burgeoning demand for electricity
in homes and businesses worldwide.
GM, the world's largest automaker, said the cell was a clean, quiet, ultra-efficient
power generator that could serve as a reliable backup for housing developments,
businesses and hospitals at risk of losing power because of blackouts.
Larry Burns, GM's vice president for research and development and planning,
said the fuel cell, which runs on natural gas, could also be used to make many
U.S. homes or small businesses virtually independent of the electric-power grid.
Fuel cells, already seen as the most likely successor to the gas-guzzling internal
combustion engine, produce electric power from hydrogen and oxygen without combustion.
GM said it had not yet made any business decisions based on the development of its stationary fuel cell. But Burns said it had been approached by several companies offering to cooperate in commercial applications of the technology.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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Norway
says will not use Kyoto "sink" loophole
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NORWAY: August 7, 2001
OSLO - Norway said yesterday it would not use existing "carbon sink"
loopholes in the Kyoto climate pact to bump up its current allowance of carbon
dioxide (CO2) emissions.
"I can confirm that we will not consider using the planting of trees to
reach our Kyoto target until we have gained more knowledge either before or
after the next step of the agreement is in place," a spokeswoman for the
Ministry of the Environment told Reuters.
"We are concerned with real qualitative emissions reductions, not fictitious
ones that are just on paper," she said.
Under today's United Nations Kyoto Treaty framework, which was hammered out in July in Bonn, Norway has promised to limit a rise in emissions of "greenhouse gases" to one percent by 2008-12 from 1990 levels.
But a loophole to the treaty - where countries can earn credits to offset against their emission targets by planting trees that soak up CO2, so-called "carbon sinks" - could help Norway reach its target without actually cutting emissions at home.
The announcement met with a guarded welcome from environmentalists.
"The move from the government is positive, but I don't think it is something we should be beating ourselves on the chest over," Frederic Hauge, head of Norwegian environmental group Bellona, told Reuters.
"After the Kyoto talks, this is the least we should expect."
SEEING THE WOOD FOR THE TREES
Another environmentalist greeted the ministry's statement more positively, reckoning it would dampen the building of planned gas-fired power plants in Norway.
"This will make it much harder for the state to build polluting gas-fired plants, because it will not be able to use trees as window dressing for its climate balance sheet," Lars Haltbrekken, leader of the joint campaign against gas-fired power plants told Reuters.
He said the building of just one gas-fired plant in Norway would up the country's CO2 emissions by between 5-6 percent from 1990-levels, making it difficult to reach its Kyoto target.
But the ministry said it had no intention of scrapping plans to build gas-fired plants, which have long been a source of political tension in the country.
"If building a gas-fired power plant increases CO2 emissions, than we will have to reduce emissions somewhere else, so that we comply with the Kyoto agreement," the spokeswoman for the ministry said.
Norway produces most of its energy from hydropower, but burgeoning electricity demand and shrinking supply have prompted plans to build polluting gas-fired plants in the country.
Norway also said in June that it aimed to seek new technology to eliminate CO2 emissions from gas-fired power plants.
Story by Bunny Nooryani
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
---------------------------
Kyoto pact on
climate change can be ratified without the United States, developing nations
say
The Associated Press - WIRE: 08/02/2001 5:29 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (AP) A 133-nation bloc of developing nations said Thursday there
are enough key countries to ratify the Kyoto treaty on global warming without
the United States, but the pact would be stronger with Washington.
"The caravan is marching forward," said Iranian Ambassador Bagher
Asadi, speaking for the so-called Group of 77, which has expanded since its
formation in 1964. "It would have marched in a more robust manner if the
Americans had joined."
When the United States the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases announced in March that it was withdrawing from the 1997 protocol claiming it would harm its economy, there were fears the accord was dead.
To take force, the accord needs ratification by 55 countries responsible for 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, which are blamed for heating up the atmosphere. With the United States opting out, that meant all other industrial nations had to sign on, and Japan, Canada, Australia and Russia were wavering.
But at last month's conference in Bonn, the holdout countries joined and now the process can continue, Asadi said. In all 178 nations approved the climate change accord in Bonn. The U.S. did not participate in the talks.
"The entire international community resolved to save a decade-old hard won multilateral process despite the withdrawal of the United States," Asadi said.
"This agreement and this process would be further strengthened, should they rejoin the process. That is a fact, but now they have decided to stand aside. That is their decision," he said.
The next step toward ratifying the treaty will be at a meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco in October when the final legal language is worked out. Then countries can begin ratifying the protocol, which is targeted to take effect in September, 2002.
Asadi said the group still hopes that the United States will join.
"Let us hope that the Bonn achievement would be found conducive for the early re-engagement of all the members of the process," he said.
On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators urged the Bush administration to return to the bargaining table, and have a plan to address climate change by the October international negotiations.
"The United States should demonstrate international leadership and responsibility" by taking steps "to ensure significant and meaningful reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases from all sectors," the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said in the resolution it unanimously passed.
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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