International News

World carbon emissions by country data is out. See how the US has gone down in CO2 production - and who has gone up.

World carbon dioxide emissions are one way of measuring a country's economic growth too.

And the latest figures - published by the respected Energy Information Administration - show CO2 emissions from energy consumption - the vast majority of Carbon Dioxide produced.

A reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions is not only the goal of environmentalists but also of pretty much every government in the world. Currently 192 countries have adopted the Kyoto protocol with the aim of collectively reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 5% of the 1990 levels by 2012.

Unlike last year's two page Copenhagen Accord, the Cancun Accord, or to be more precise Cancun Accords, run to tens of pages and provide a good deal more detail on how the international community plans to cut emissions than previous deals.

Overall 26 agreements were reached in Cancun, ranging from the crucial outcomes from the working groups on Kyoto and Long-term Co-operative Action (LCA), to somewhat arcane reforms such as Kazakhstan's proposal to amend annex B to the Kyoto Protocol, to housekeeping measures such as the resolution thanking the people of Cancun for their hospitality.

BusinessGreen runs down the main areas of progress, the on-going road-blocks, and the business implications:

Ministers from around the world will begin to gather in Cancun today for the UN's crucial climate change summit with opinion largely divided on the extent to which the negotiations progressed last week.

Observers said progress had been made on a number of issues, including proposals for improved forestry protection, the formation of a global green fund, and the independent verification of countries' emission pledges.

However, experts also warned the talks remained on a knife edge over the future of the Kyoto Protocol following Japan's surprise declaration that it will not support any extension of the controversial treaty.

It was so much simpler this time last year. The only measure of success or failure for the Copenhagen summit was whether or not an international deal could be finalised. In the end things were not quite so clear cut, with the meeting ending in an international deal in the form of the Copenhagen Accord that fudged so many of the main issues it was still largely deemed a failure. But at least in the run-up to the summit we knew where we stood.

This year the build-up to the UN's annual climate change jamboree is very different. With everyone agreed that a binding international deal will not be reached, it remains unclear what constitutes a success for the fortnight of talks. We all know what failure looks like – the collapse of the talks following another two weeks of intransigence from the key players – but what would represent a good result for green businesses and the planet as a whole? We run down the 10 questions the Cancun climate summit must answer if it is to deliver meaningful progress towards a deal next year.

Global carbon emissions are set to return to record levels this year after the global recession resulted in a smaller than expected drop in emissions during 2009.

That is the conclusion of a paper published today in the journal Nature Geoscience which reveals that emissions fell just 1.3 per cent in 2009, less than half the 2.8 per cent drop most experts were expecting.

It also predicts that emissions will rise by three per cent in 2010 as world GDP rebounds. The three per cent figure contrasts sharply with the one per cent annual rises typical of the 1990s and is also ahead of the average 2.5 per cent annual rise recorded over the past decade.

The report will further fuel concerns that concentrations of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere are increasing in line with the worst case scenarios mapped out by climate change scientists and is sure to heap further pressure on negotiators at the Cancun climate change summit, which starts next week.

Majority of firms will spend more on climate change

(Reuters) - Seventy percent of firms with revenue of $1 billion or more say they plan to increase spending on climate change initiatives in the next two years, a global survey reported on Tuesday.

Nearly half of the 300 corporate executives who responded to a survey conducted for the accounting and consulting giant Ernst & Young said their climate change investments will range from 0.5 percent to more than 5 percent of revenues by 2012.

David Cameron and Nick Clegg today vowed to make the formation of a low-carbon economy one of the centrepieces of their coalition government, pledging to deliver a "full programme of measures" designed to deliver deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

Speaking this afternoon in their first joint press conference, Lib Dem leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said the formation of the coalition marked the moment when "fine words on the environment are finally translated into real action".

India, China resist calls to back climate pact

By Krittivas Mukherjee

NEW DELHI, Feb 12 (Reuters) - India and China are resisting requests to sign up for the Copenhagen Accord for fighting global warming that risks unravelling without clear support from major emitters.

The two have not publicly spelt out if they want to be listed among "associates" of the Accord, announced after a meeting of leaders of emerging economies and the United States during a U.N. summit in Copenhagen in December.

"This point is still under consideration," an Indian official said on Friday. Indian officials said the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat wrote a letter to New Delhi asking for a clarification of its views, "preferably" by Feb. 10.

Green Dollars pour into Africa on back of pioneering carbon offset deal

Nedbank announced today that its partnership with Wildlife Works Inc. to make available to the international market African carbon credits has proved extremely successful.    The demand for carbon credits from the international business community is extremely strong.

In November 2009, Wildlife Works Inc. and Nedbank entered into a business arrangement whereby Nedbank acquired carbon credits from Wildlife Works Inc. for on-sale to the international and South African business community.  More than 2,5 million tonnes of carbon was made available through the avoided deforestation of the Kasigau Corridor guaranteed until 2026.   

Where things stand on the Copenhagen Accord and international climate politics

After the Copenhagen Accord was “noted” by the UN in December, there was a great deal of insta-analysis. In truth, there was no real way to evaluate the Accord because the meat of it—the emission-reduction commitments from participating countries—was blank. Literally:
The deadline for participating countries to submit their commitments was Jan. 31—yesterday. So, how do things look now that the cards are on the table? Where do we stand on international efforts to address climate change?

'Basic' country bloc agrees to 2010 climate timetable

The environmental Ministers of the so-called Basic group of countries, comprising Brazil, South Africa, India and China, have reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring an agreed outcome at the global climate change conference scheduled for Mexico toward the end of 2010.

The Basic countries also agreed to coordinate their positions closely as part of climate change discussions in other forums, and emphasised the importance of working with other members of Group of 77 and China, in order to ensure an ambitious and equitable outcome in Mexico through a transparent process.

Sustainability as a Profit Center

A new Aberdeen report serves as a roadmap for those attempting to match environmental and social stewardship to clear, actionable, and measurable improvements to their bottom lines – thus ensuring the sustainability of their business ecosystem.

In the face of increasing public eco awareness and widespread media coverage businesses can no longer ignore the opportunities, concerns and risks posed by not having a sustainable business strategy. Business sustainability is now both a top-line and bottom-line company focus.  Companies are implementing business sustainability plans that target revenue as well as cost reduction.

Obama awards $2.3 billion in clean energy tax credits

UPDATE 3- WASHINGTON, Jan 8 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama unveiled a $2.3 billion tax credit on Friday to boost jobs by promoting clean energy, as new data showed the country's unemployment rate remained stuck in the double digits.

Obama said the credit, from funds earmarked under a $787 billion stimulus package he signed last February, would create 17,000 U.S. jobs and be matched by an additional $5 billion in private capital.

"Building a robust clean energy sector is how we will create the jobs of the future, jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced," Obama said.

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Billionaire financier George Soros told Reuters on Thursday he had found a $100 billion route to unlock climate talks in Copenhagen, while one business group complained the talks were "tone deaf" to the private sector.

U.N. talks in the Danish capital meant to agree the outline of a new climate treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol are stuck on splitting the bill to cut carbon emissions and prepare for more droughts, floods and rising seas.

2UPDATE 4- BEIJING, Nov 26 (Reuters) - China unveiled its first firm target to curb greenhouse gas emissions on Thursday, a carbon intensity goal that Premier Wen Jiabao will take to a summit in Copenhagen next month hoping to aid a global climate deal.

The announcement came a day after the United States, the second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China, unveiled a plan to cut emissions by 2020 and said President Barack Obama would attend the U.N.-led talks in Copenhagen.

CAPE TOWN, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Carbon emissions from next year's soccer World Cup are expected to soar from the 2006 benchmark set by Germany, but host South Africa said on Monday it would invest in carbon credits to mitigate the impact.

Emissions accelerate global warming and major sports events, including the Olympics and World Cup, have since the early 1990s been designed to minimise the impact on the environment.

CAPE TOWN, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Petrochemicals group Sasol SOLJ and electricity firm Eskom [ESCJ.UL] topped the list of South Africa's largest polluters, according to the country's 2009 Carbon Disclosure Project report.

The report, which targeted South Africa's 100 largest listed companies, said a few carbon-intensive companies dominated the country's carbon footprint. State-owned Eskom is not listed, but gave information voluntarily.

LONDON, Oct 13 (Reuters) - The world's first commercial passenger flight powered by a fuel made from natural gas completed late on Monday a six-hour journey from London to Qatar, one of the biggest producers of natural gas.

"Today's flight opens the door to an alternative to oil-based aviation fuel," Malcolm Brinded, Royal Dutch Shell's <RDSa.L> executive director upstream international, said in a statement late on Monday.

BEIJING, Aug 17 (Reuters) - China should set firm targets to limit greenhouse gas emissions so they peak around 2030, a study by some of the nation's top climate change policy advisers has proposed ahead of contentious talks on a new global warming pact.

The call for "quantified targets" to cap greenhouse gas pollution marks a high-level public departure from China's reluctance to spell out a proposed peak and date for it.

"By 2008 China had become the world's biggest national emitter of greenhouse gases and faces unprecedented challenges," says the preface of the 900-page report, setting aside China's reluctance to say it has passed the United States as the top emitter of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas from burning coal, gas and oil.

CANBERRA, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Australia's parliament rejected a plan for the world's most ambitious emissions trade regime as expected on Thursday, bringing the nation closer to a snap election and prolonging financial uncertainty for major emitters.

Conservative lawmakers holding the largest block of votes in the Senate joined with Greens and independents to defeat the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme set to start in July, 2011 and aimed at reducing emissions in the biggest per-capita emitter in the developed world.

But the government renewed its pledge to push through the scheme before a December U.N. meeting in Copenhagen, where world nations will try to hammer out a broad global climate pact and where Canberra is eager to take a leading role.

"This bill may be going down today, but this is not the end," Climate Change Minister Penny Wong told the Senate. "We will bring this bill back before the end of the year because if we don't this nation goes to Copenhagen with no means to deliver our targets," Wong said before the vote.

Greens wanted tougher emissions targets, while conservative opponents are divided on the need for a scheme and want it delayed until after Copenhagen, fearing Australia will be disadvantaged if other nations fail to act on climate change.

In a sign some major industrial emitters are fearful of months more uncertainty over the scheme's A$12 billion ($10 billion) estimated cost, the second-largest power retailer warned of a possible energy supply crisis without a speedy resolution.

"The ongoing uncertainty surrounding the (carbon-reduction) legislation is delaying both the investment necessary to meet Australia's long-term baseload electricity needs and the investment in lower-carbon technology required to gradually reduce Australia's emissions," Origin Energy <ORG.AX> said.

"We remain convinced the CPRS legislation provides the framework for a good, workable scheme," it said.

ELECTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE?

Surveys show Prime Minister Kevin Rudd well ahead in opinion polls and that most Australians favour action to combat climate warming. Elections are due in late 2010.

Rudd has promised emissions cuts of 5-25 percent on 2000 levels by 2020, with the higher end dependent on a global agreement to replace the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol.

But if the Senate blocks or rejects the legislation a second time, after an interval of three months, it will hand Rudd a trigger for an early poll likely to be dominated by climate change.

Some analysts said the legislation had become a victim of political point scoring that undermined efforts to fight climate change or reform the economy.

"Of more concern to future negotiations, the range of reasons for opposition to the scheme (within the Senate) is so wide as to make meaningful responses to all objections almost impossible," said Julie Toth, a senior economist with ANZ bank.

Rudd told parliament the defeat of his emissions trading plan had "put Australia's future on climate change in grave jeopardy". Scientists say Australia, the world's driest continent and prone to drought, faces a rapid rate of climate warming.

Australia's scheme is similar, but wider in scope, to one introduced in Europe four years ago that requires big industrial emitters to buy permits for producing carbon dioxide, or sell them if they invest in clean technology reducing emissions.

About 1,000 of Australia's top polluting companies will have to buy CO2 permits, covering 75 percent of national emissions.

For related factbox, click here.

Australia is the world's biggest coal exporter, and relies on coal for about 80 percent of electricity generation, prompting industry warnings some coal mines and coal-fired power stations will be forced to close under the carbon-trade regime.

But rich nations such as Australia are under pressure to firm up their emissions reductions targets to help seal a post-Kyoto pact. Big developing nations, such as India and China, which are not bound by emissions curbs under Kyoto, are already taking steps to tackle their growing CO2 pollution.

GREENS OFFER CARBON DEAL

The Australia Greens, who control five crucial Senate swing votes, wrote to Rudd and Wong after the rejection to promise future support for the 11 CPRS bills if the government hardened its reduction targets and backed renewable energy.

"We invite the government to immediately engage in constructive discussions with the Greens on this proposal, so we can together create meaningful action on the climate crisis," Greens leader Bob Brown said.

Conservative opponents offered no such olive branch, but called on the government to delink the scheme from widely supported laws pushing a 20 percent renewable energy target. A vote on those laws is likely within days.

If that vote succeeds, it would unlock a potential $22 billion in planned renewable investment.

Business leaders, academics and carbon market experts all called on the government and its political opponents to end the domestic political squabbling and agree on a emissions scheme.

"It is now time to forge an agreement on climate change policy. An agreement is needed in the interests of business certainty," said Australian Industry Group chief executive Heather Ridout.

The Department of Energy (DoE) was developing financial instruments to ensure that renewable energy becomes a reality in South Africa, said clean energy division chief director David Mahuma on Monday.

Speaking at a conference in Pretoria, hosted by the Institute for Global Dialogue, he said that the government recognised the barriers faced by renewable energy project developers, and accepted that the uptake of these renewable energies did not "come cheaply".

 Bonn - Cutting greenhouse gas emissions to slow global warming and adapting to impacts such as droughts and rising sea levels are likely to cost about $300bn a year, the top UN climate change official said.

Yvo de Boer also told Reuters on Tuesday, on the sidelines of August 10-14 UN climate talks in Bonn, that cuts in emissions by 2020 so far promised by rich nations were "miles away" from long-term goals set by a Group of Eight (G8) summit last month.

"Over time, according to my own analysis, we are going to need $200bn a year for mitigation and probably in the order of $100bn a year for adaptation ... from 2020 onwards," he said.

Japanese vehicle manufacturer Nissan on Sunday unveiled its first mass-produced electric vehicle, due for launch in Japan and the US next year.

The five-door hatchback, named the Leaf, will have a range of 160 km before it will need recharging, says Nissan South Africa product engineering division vehicle test group manager Paul Gurney.

Consumer research demonstrates that this range satisfies the daily driving requirements of more than 70% of the world's car users.

The zero-emission Leaf is scheduled for its European debut in 2011, with suitable global markets to follow in 2012.

 July 27 (Reuters) - Combating global warming is one of several topics being discussed at high-level meetings this week between U.S. and Chinese government officials.

Progress between the world's two largest emitters of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases would boost an international summit set for December in Copenhagen that aims to craft new global goals on controlling climate change.

Some in the United States argue Washington should not commit itself to specific reductions in industrial emissions, which could boost energy prices, until China does so as well. But an argument can be made that China already has taken more concrete steps than the United States.

WRAPUP 3- LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) - Britain will double the share of its electricity generated from low carbon sources by 2020 as part of plans to cut emissions and counter global warming, the government said on Wednesday.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said 40 percent of Britain's electricity will come from nuclear, wind, solar, marine and cleaner coal, compared with a fifth today.

By 2020, renewable energy sources will provide 31 percent of Britain's electricity, up from 6 percent today, while nuclear's share will fall to 8 percent from current levels of between 15 percent and nearly a quarter, depending on the variable output of nuclear plants.

Global electrical engineering group Siemens would next week throw its weight behind an ambitious project to harvest solar and wind energy from the deserts of North Africa to supply the growing electricity needs of both the region and Europe, managing board member Dr Siegfried Russwurm confirmed on Thursday.

The project, dubbed 'Desertec', could emerge as the biggest development project in Africa's history and involve a total investment of €400-billion. Its proponents believe that it could supply from 15% to 20% of Europe's electricity requirements by 2050.

A number of international corporations were calling on the Group of Eight (G8) leaders meeting in Italy this week, to agree on a global climate deal by the end of 2009 and to set ambitious targets to cut carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions.

The companies, which included Johnson & Johnson, Nike, Lafarge, Tetra Pak, Nokia, Hewlett Packard, and the Coca-Cola Company, partnered with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), to announce a new campaign encouraging governments and policy-makers to “let the clean economy begin”.

WASHINGTON, June 17 (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday approved a comprehensive energy package that would require utilities to generate 15 percent of electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind power by 2021.

Utilities could meet about a quarter of their renewable requirements through energy efficiency gains.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted 15 to 8 in favor of the wide-ranging legislation that would also require the Energy Department to create an emergency reserve of 30 million barrels of petroleum product supplies, including gasoline and diesel fuel.

A promise that the Maldives will go carbon-neutral in 10 years is not just good for PR, says the country's president Mohamed Nasheed. In this week's Green Room, he argues that the goal sets an example for the developed world proving that a green country is not only practical, it is profitable.   

One thing a small nation can do... is show the world that rapid reductions in emissions are possible, practical and profitable.

The power sector’s contribution to global carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions would surge over the next three decades, if no precautionary measures were taken, Alstom director of CO2 Phillippe Paelinck said on Wednesday.

Global CO2 emissions were currently at around 30 gigaton a year, with fossil fuel electricity generation accounting for about 40% of those emissions.

NEW YORK — If the United States and every wealthy country in the world were to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to zero tomorrow and there were no change in the developing world, “the crisis would still overtake us,” said Al Gore, the former vice president of the United States, at a forum in New York City last week.

Whether or not that is precisely true, the implication almost certainly is.

Little progress can be made in addressing the global climate crisis, after all, unless common cause is found between rich countries, who created the problem in becoming so, and poorer countries, which understandably resent the idea that they ought not pursue a similar, CO2-belching path to vitality.

BARCELONA, May 28 (Reuters) - The global economic downturn and a growing trade in sovereign emissions rights are combining to create a "perfect storm" that threatens to derail already sluggish efforts to cut greenhouse gases in poor countries.

Severe recession clouding most of the developed world carries a silver lining in the form of lower industrial emissions, but also means governments are buying fewer offsets from U.N.-approved clean energy projects in developing nations.

WASHINGTON, May 21 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's fight against global warming got a huge boost on Thursday when a key congressional panel embraced his plan to create a new, market-driven system for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, with a mostly partisan vote of 33-25, embraced Obama's "cap and trade" climate change initiative -- one of the president's top legislative priorities this year along with healthcare reform.

Globally, during construction and life-cycle, buildings consumed between 40% and 50% of the world’s energy produced, about 30% of resources, 20% of available water, and emitted about 23% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions – more than any other single sector.

Buildings also produced about 30% of the world’s waste.

This was why the impact of implementing green building practices, could make a significant positive difference on resource consumption and combating global warming.

Good leaders, as a general rule, don’t do fear. So it is refreshing to find business chiefs willing to admit that the financial crisis has them spooked. Rather than spreading panic, it shows they are in touch with the rest of us.

Jeff Swartz, president and chief executive of Timberland, is one leader who speaks openly about the harm the financial crisis could do to brands. Reflecting on the anti-capitalist G20 summit protests in London, in April, he says: “It scares the daylights out of people within Timberland.”

But although Swartz admits that he is worried by public anger at the financial crisis, he sees the global downturn as a huge opportunity for the company he has been at or near the top of for almost 20 years. He feels the crisis gives brands with a social message the chance to reconnect with disillusioned consumers.

The deepening European recession prompted Deutsche Bank to cut its 2009 carbon emissions estimates on Tuesday, but emissions permit prices should rise over the next year, the German bank said in a note.

Deutsche Bank analyst Mark C. Lewis revised his 2009 European Union industrial emissions forecast to 1.97 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, down 50 million from a previous estimate of 2.02 billion and 150 million below 2008 estimates of 2.12 billion. "We think that the steel and cement sectors will suffer an especially difficult year in 2009, and their emissions ... will fall significantly," Lewis said.

"With all other sectors also likely to suffer varying degrees of declining output, an overall reduction of 150 million tonnes is more consistent with the 3-4 percent decline in EU and UK GDP now widely forecast."

April 27 - The United States gathered China, India and the world's other top greenhouse gas polluters in Washington on Monday to "make up for lost time" and lay the groundwork for a U.N. deal to fight climate change.

The meeting, which U.S. President Barack Obama called last month, groups countries that produce about 75 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions to find ways to help seal a global warming pact this year.

"The United States is fully engaged and ready to lead and determined to make up for lost time both at home and abroad," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told delegates

EurActiv.com, 18 February 2009 - Governments need to communicate more clearly their objectives on improving the energy consumption of buildings, to give construction companies more certainty about future demand, according to a survey to be published later today. EuroACE, the federation of companies producing energy-saving goods and services, will publish the results of its new survey on very low-energy buildings today (18 February). The study argues that the EU could reduce CO2 emissions by at least 36 Mt per year in 2020 while saving 568 PJ of energy if all new buildings were to be constructed as very low-energy buildings from 2012