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Energy efficiency: the foundation of the climate transition

 REneweconomy, By Andrew McCallister on 10 November 2017

I’m preparing for a trip to your fine nation later this month to speak at the National Energy Efficiency Conference in Melbourne, so I’ve been reading up on Australian energy policy debate. It’s been fascinating.

I still have a lot to learn about your energy system, but so far one thing stands out: the discussion in Australia seems overly focused on the transition underway on the supply side of the market.

Don’t get me wrong – the decarbonisation of the world’s energy supply is crucial, and you won’t find a stronger advocate for renewables than me. Way back in the 1990s, I installed many small, remote PV and wind systems with my own two hands, and trained others to do the same.

More recently I ran two of California’s signature renewables programs – the California Solar Initiative and Self-Generation Incentive Program.

However, focusing solely on the move to low carbon generation without pursuing demand side opportunities in an ambitious, systematic way actually makes the transition harder.

Energy efficiency and demand response are just as important to the energy transition as renewables are, as we’ve learnt in California. Today’s technology helps us utilise energy smartly; and indeed the least expensive and cleanest unit of energy is the one not needed at all.

Energy efficiency has been a central contributor to California’s energy mix since the 1970s.∗Efficiency is responsible for an annual reduction in statewide electric consumption of 90 TWh (Figure 1), the equivalent of 30 percent of the state’s current electricity consumption and enough to power around eight million households.

California’s per capita electricity use has remained flat since the mid-1970s, despite a fourfold increase in real economic output, larger homes and the proliferation of consumer appliances and electronics.

Since 2000, the state’s overall carbon emissions are down 8 percent while its economy has grown by 28 percent. California’s deliberate, consistent focus on energy efficiency has played an important role in these successes.

Going forward, the California legislature and Governor Brown have established a goal to double the flow of efficiency savings by 2030. The estimated impacts of this doubling effort are shown in Figure 2. Achieving the goal will see per capita consumption decline around 25 percent by 2030. California’s suite of energy efficiency activities includes:

  • Building energy efficiency standards. The 2019 Standards update will require residential new construction to have advanced building shells, high-performing water heating and mechanical systems, all-LED lighting and, for the first time, sufficient self-generation (typically PV) to offset all electric load. Incremental costs are shown to be cost-effective.
  • Appliance efficiency standards. California has explicit authority to develop efficiency standards where national standards do not exist. Recent standards adopted include general service LEDs, computers, and battery chargers. Many appliance standards are currently in development (e.g. industrial fans and blowers, certain compressors and pumps, and room air conditioners)……

Modern energy management complements renewable energy supply

Highly efficient products and practices increasingly bundle with digital communication and control features to support demand-side responsiveness to the momentary needs of the grid. Good design of buildings and industrial processes, together with advanced energy management systems, can provide both beautifully tailored performance for customers and valuable and much-needed grid services that aid seamless incorporation of renewable energy into the supply mix.

Energy efficiency optimises the distribution grid

Energy efficiency frees capacity in the distribution grid, allowing new electric loads to be served with only moderate added investment. That ‘headroom’ will be essential, since California’s clean energy path will include widespread electrification: pervasive adoption of electric vehicles, heat pumps, induction cooking and other electric end use technologies. Electrification brings additional benefits, such as avoiding both investment in new retail gas distribution infrastructure and the risks to health and safety from indoor combustion.

Energy efficiency creates jobs and builds economic resilience…… Andrew McCallister is a Commissioner at the California Energy Commission, the state’s primary energy policy and planning agency. He will be the international keynote speaker at the National Energy Efficiency Conference in Melbourne on 20th and 21st November 2017.    http://reneweconomy.com.au/energy-efficiency-foundation-climate-transition-48098/

November 9, 2017 Posted by | climate change, ENERGY, USA | Leave a comment

Climate change will ravage rich and poor alike – a call to the British Commonwealth

Don’t be complacent: climate change will ravage rich and poor alike, Guardian , Patricia Scotland, 9 Nov 17  Lady Scotland is secretary general of the Commonwealth

My trip to islands that bore the brunt of Hurricanes Irma and Maria proved one thing: we must think again about how to help those most at risk

“…….My worry is that change will not happen quickly enough to meet the mammoth challenges facing the Caribbean and other regions that have been so grievously damaged by a season of climatic upheaval.

All those involved in making these rules, such as the World Bank and the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee, have to consider seriously our present reality and to create eligibility criteria that adequately respond to what countries, particularly those more prone to natural disasters, are actually experiencing.

This is a concern for all of us; because just before the Caribbean hurricanes, hundreds died in mudslides in Sierra Leone and in floods in Asia, and thousands were displaced.

This is not just about a woman, thousands of miles away, sitting amid the wreckage of her home. This is about a rapid, drastic change in climate that is wreaking havoc on our planet. Even in Ireland, Storm Ophelia claimed three liveslast month.

We need to accept the new reality of fast and furious natural disasters and have a plan to deal with it. We need a targeted global response that enables us to implement the Paris agreement on climate change and better coordinate a rapid reaction, with everything taken into account: search and rescue, regional coordination and legal impediments, such as the revision of aid rules.

But it also needs to recognise that the human spirit demonstrated by the Commonwealth during this traumatic period is something upon which we can build. We need all hands on deck. If not us, who – and if not now, when?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/09/climate-change-ravage-rich-poor-alike-hurricane-irma-maria

November 9, 2017 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment

Around World’s Largest Climate Change Summit

The World’s Largest Climate Change Summit Starts Today. Here’s What’s Happening. Huffington Post 6 Nov 17 It is the first annual meeting of the United Nations group since President Donald Trump announced the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris climate deal. Representatives from nearly 200 countries gather at the United Nations’ 23rd climate change conference beginning Monday, an annual effort to tackle global warming and its impacts already inflicting havoc on the planet.

 This year, however, the U.N. faces a new challenge: Addressing the phenomenon after U.S. President Donald Trump, leader of the planet’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter, pledged to do nothing to curb emissions.
The U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change will deal with that question in Bonn, Germany, from Nov. 6 to Nov. 17 as countries work to firm up their commitments to adapt to a warmer world in line with 2015′s landmark Paris Climate Agreement. Scientists say the world should prevent the planet from warming more than 2 degrees Celsius beyond pre-industrial levels to avoid the worst effects of climate change, a benchmark set by the Paris accord. Meeting the target means dramatic reduction in global emissions, and the Paris pact urges signatories to craft voluntary pledges to do that.

However, the agreement is not legally binding, and Trump followed through on a campaign pledge to withdraw America from what he calls the “draconian” pact in June. It is a multi-year process to do so, and the U.S. cannot leave until Nov. 4, 2020 ― the day after the next presidential election.

The Trump administration announced last week it would actively promote fossil fuelsduring a presentation at the climate conference, also known as the Conference of the Parties, or COP. Delegates sent by the White House will host a talk titled “The Role of Cleaner and More Efficient Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Power in Climate Mitigation,” which will tout the supposed benefits of coal, natural gas and nuclear power.

A delegation of U.S. negotiators are expected to work in Bonn to help write the rulebook for the Paris agreement, but their presence will be awkward. It’s unclear if negotiators from other countries will be willing to listen to a White House, which, under Trump, would not abide by any rules that emerge.

The summit will feature some U.S. star power, however. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and billionaire activist Tom Steyer are funding a pavilion to showcase climate action by U.S. cities and businesses. The federal government usually pays the $200,000 or so cost of the showcase, but declined to do so this year.

“The American people and American industry are pretty much all behind doing what the Paris agreement is designed to do, and that is to cut the amount of greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere so we will slow down and maybe even stop climate change, which has the potential to destroy the world,” Bloomberg told The New York Times last month.

Environmental groups and local governments around the U.S. reacted with fury following Trump’s decision to quit the Paris deal, but pledged to do their part to combat his agenda with or without federal support. Other world leaders have vowed to move forward regardless, and in July, every member of the G20, aside from the U.S., unveiled a detailed policy to abide by the Paris pact in a clear rebuke of the White House. …..

China and India, are on track to meet their emissions-reduction targets years earlier than expected, and both have invested heavily in renewable energy.

The talks in Bonn will be relatively low key compared with prior summits, as countries work to refine guidelines and review procedures to ensure signatories are meeting their commitments. The U.N. has agreed that negotiators will need to have such a framework in place by a 2018 deadline to make sure nations are doing enough to combat climate change. http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/bonn-climate-change-conference-united-nations_us_59fff9ece4b0c96530006e05

November 8, 2017 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment

USA now the only country opposed to Paris climate accord, as Syria now joins

Paris accord: Syria plans to join climate agreement, leaving US only country opposed ABC News 8 Nov 17 Syria has announced it intends to join the 2015 Paris agreement for slowing climate change, leaving the United States as the only country in the world opposed to the pact.

Key points:

  • Nicaragua signed up to Paris deal last month
  • Unclear how US will withdraw from agreement
  • Countries continue to urge US to reconsider opposition

Syria, racked by civil war, and Nicaragua were the only two nations outside the 195-nation pact when it was agreed in 2015.

Nicaragua’s left-wing Government, which originally denounced the plan as too weak, signed up last month.

“I would like to affirm the Syrian Arab Republic’s commitment to the Paris climate change accord,” deputy Environment Minister Wadah Katmawi told a meeting of almost 200 countries at the November 6-17 climate talks in Bonn, Germany.

Membership for Syria under President Bashar al-Assad would isolate the United States, the world’s biggest economy and second largest greenhouse gas emitter behind China, as the only nation opposed to the accord.

US President Donald Trump, who has expressed doubts that man-made greenhouse gas emissions are the prime cause of global warming, announced in June the intended to pull out and instead promote US coal and oil industries……. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-08/syria-plans-to-join-paris-climate-agreement-isolating-us/9128586

November 8, 2017 Posted by | climate change, Syria | Leave a comment

Jordan’s water crisis – a sign of climate change troubles to come

Climate change: Jordan water crisis ‘to get worse’  http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/climate-change-jordan-water-crisis-worse-171107093731580.html  Water shortages in Jordan are likely to get far worse over the coming years, according to a recent study by Stanford University.

The researchers said that, in the absence of international climate policy action, the country could receive 30 percent less rainfall by 2100 and annual temperatures could increase by 4.5 Celsius.

This would double the number and duration of droughts when compared with the 1981-2010 period, raising concerns in a country already dealing with water shortages.

The study reinforces a warning issued by the World Bank in August when it named Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco and Syria as the countries in the Middle East and North Africa that will experience significantly increased water stress driven by climate change.

In its report, the World Bank described the region as the global hotspot of unsustainable water use.

Currently, the reservoirs in Jordan are at a record low – only one-fifth full – and the vital winter rains are becoming increasingly erratic.

There seems little respite for the country, which draws 160 percent more water from the ground than is replenished by nature.

But despite its importance, there is little incentive to conserve the precious resource. The use of water irrigation remains heavily subsidised, and wastage is a major issue. More than half of Jordan’s water is used for agriculture, which produces only a small share of the local food supply. It is estimated that almost 50 percent of the water supply is lost due to misuse or theft.

The subsidy also means that some farmers grow water-intensive crops such as bananas and tomatoes.

The government is cracking down on illegal water use and has announced a slight increase in price, but Ali Subah, assistant secretary-general in the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, says the country views desalination as the answer to its water issues.

The trouble is that solutions often depend on cross-border cooperation. Jordan’s flagship Red Sea desalination project, for example, has faced repeated delays, most recently because of a regional diplomatic crisis that led to a scaling back of cross-border contacts since the summer.

Until a solution is found, the fear is that the water crisis in Jordan will only get worse.

November 8, 2017 Posted by | climate change, Jordan, water | Leave a comment

India -the frontline state in the climate change battle

How India’s battle with climate change could determine all of our fates, Guardian, Damian Carrington and Michael Safi , 6 Nov 17  India’s population and emissions are rising fast, and its ability to tackle poverty without massive fossil fuel use will decide the fate of the planet “It’s a lucky charm,” says Rajesh, pointing to the solar-powered battery in his window that he has smeared with turmeric as a blessing. “It has changed our life.”

He lives in Rajghat, a village on the border of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh states, and until very recently was one of the 240 million Indians who live without electricity. In the poverty that results, Rajghat has become a village of bachelors, with just two weddings in 20 years.

“No one wants to give their daughter to me,” says Sudama, another young man. “People come, they visit, but they see the conditions here and they leave.”

For now, the technology is proving most useful to Rajesh as a way to charge his mobile phone, saving a lengthy journey to the nearest city, but he also hopes for future benefits: “I’ll use this to let my children study.”

According to an ambitious pledge by India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, every Indian will have electricity, and the education, health and business benefits that follow, by the end of 2018. But how Modi achieves that, and the development of what will soon become the world’s most populous nation, matters to the entire world.

 Of all the most polluting nations – US, China, Russia, Japan and the EU bloc – only India’s carbon emissions are rising: they rose almost 5% in 2016. No one questions India’s right to develop, or the fact that its current emissions per person are tiny. But when building the new India for its 1.3 billion people, whether it relies on coal and oil or clean, green energy will be a major factor in whether global warming can be tamed.

“India is the frontline state,” says Samir Saran, at the Observer Research Foundation in Delhi. “Two-thirds of India is yet to be built. So please understand, 16% of mankind is going to seek the American dream. If we can give it to them on a frugal climate budget, we will save the planet. If we don’t, we will either destroy India or destroy the planet.”

This view is shared internationally: Christiana Figueres, the UN’s former climate chief who delivered the landmark Paris climate change agreement says India is “very, very important” for everybody, and the nation will play a key role at the UN summit that starts in Bonn, Germany next week………

There are signs of hope, however, driven by astonishing drops in the price of renewable energy in the last few years. Costs are falling faster than anyone predicted, with new record-low prices set this year for solar and wind. State governments can now pay less for clean energy than they pay for new coal power.

Mathur, who was the Indian delegation’s spokesman at the 2015 Paris climate summit, says that once batteries become powerful enough to store renewable energy for night time or when winds are weak, India’s energy emissions are likely to plateau and then fall. “I personally saw this happening around 2035, but in the past three years, that has shifted to 2025, driven by the news in the solar prices and the sharper than expected fall in the price of batteries.”

India’s government has now forecast that no new coal-fired power stations will need to be built for at least 10 years. By that time, Mathur argues, it will be cheaper to supply new demand using renewable power. “As [existing] coal plants retire they will be replaced by renewables, because that’s what makes economic sense.”……..

The whole world would benefit from a clean, green India and can help make it happen, says Stern, by bringing down the interest rates on the loans used to fund the low carbon transition: “The best thing the world could do is help bring down the cost of capital.” That means long term finance and help to cut project risks.

The path India’s chooses will affect the whole world and, despite the uncertainties and risks, the mood is optimistic, for a variety of reasons. “India has all the institutions of democracy and a very smart entrepreneurial class which will respond, and that gives me optimism,” says Saran……. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/06/how-indias-battle-with-climate-change-could-determine-all-of-our-fates

November 8, 2017 Posted by | climate change, India | Leave a comment

European energy companies accuse EU of slacking in the fight against climate change

FT 5th Nov 2017, Some of Europe’s largest energy companies have accused the EU of lacking
ambition in the fight against climate change and urged more aggressive
targets for growth in renewable power. The declaration, by companies
including Iberdrola of Spain, Enel of Italy and SSE of the UK, came as
negotiators gathered in Bonn for the latest round of international talks on
tackling global warming. A proposed target for renewables to meet 27 per
cent of EU energy consumption by 2030, up from 16.7 per cent in 2015,
“lacks ambition and would slow down the current rate of renewables
deployment” in Europe, the companies said.
https://www.ft.com/content/4d39bd72-c20c-11e7-a1d2-6786f39ef675

November 8, 2017 Posted by | climate change, EUROPE | Leave a comment

Economic losses to be a focus in UN climate talks

Nations may focus on human and economic losses at climate talks, Economic Times By Urmi Goswami, ET Bureau, Nov 06, 2017, BONN: As officials from 196 countries gather in Bonn to work on a collective plan to slow down global warming at the 23rd round of UN-sponsored climate talks, developing countries are highlighting the urgent need to step up efforts to address the serious human and economic losses already taking place due to climate change. Developing countries are calling for the urgent need to secure long-term finance flows to help poor countries take the measures required to tackle climate change and deal with .

Developing countries are suggesting that a quantified goal for long-term finances, beyond the $100 billion by 2020, be agreed on to help poor countries.

The G-77 and China, the negotiating group comprising 132 developing countries, is planning to focus on the need to proactively address the clear impact that climate change is already having. Their focus will be on ensuring the flow of finance, technology, and building capacities in developing countries to deal with climate change. The group will also push for increased discussions of adaptation that will help countries to adjust to changes that are already underway. The G-77 will focus on the extreme weather events in the past year to make its case at the opening assembly on Monday.

Sources indicated that in its address to the opening assembly, the G-77 and China will focus on extreme weather events in the past year to make its case at the opening assembly on Monday. The developing countries group, represented by Ecuador, is expected to draw attention to the “serious human and economic losses” to urge greater focus on efforts by countries, particularly industrialised ones, in the period before 2020. Climate change impact, the G-77 stressed, will not wait until 2020, when the Paris Agreement with its national climate action plans come into effect. This year’s meeting is taking place in the shadow of extreme weather events— hurricanes, floods, droughts, and forest fires— across the globe. These drive home the message that the impact of climate change is no longer in the future and instead are a clear and present danger.

The other clear learning is that while climate change impact does not discriminate between rich developed and poor developing nations, the latter are more vulnerable. The rich industrialised countries have the resources and resilience to recover and rebuild. For poor, developing countries these extreme events present major setbacks. ……..https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/nations-may-focus-on-human-and-economic-losses-at-climate-talks/articleshow/61523222.cms

November 6, 2017 Posted by | 2 WORLD, business and costs, climate change | Leave a comment

U.N. Climate Conference now in in Bonn, Germany – theme for this week

Bonn: UN climate conference to maintain ambition one year after Paris accord’s entry into force 3 November 2017 http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=58026#.Wf9xXY-CzGh– One year after the entry into force of the Paris Agreement on climate change, the Bonn Conference, opening on 6 November in Germany, is an opportunity for nations around the world to show their ambition for climate action and their determination to keep their promises.

“While Paris represented one of those moments where the best of humanity achieved an agreement so important to our collective futures, Bonn represents how we will move forward to fulfill its promise”, said the Executive Secretary of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Patricia Espinosa, on the margins of a ministerial meeting in Fiji on 17 October 2017 to prepare for the Bonn Conference of the Convention’s States Parties.

“We are running out of time to turn things around. To do so, we must significantly increase our efforts to reduce emissions and our carbon footprints,” she added.

The Paris Agreement, which was adopted by the 196 Parties to the UNFCCC in December 2015 in the French capital after which it is named, calls on countries to combat climate change by limiting the rise of global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius and strive not to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius.

A year ago, the Marrakech Climate Conference concluded with the Marrakech Action Proclamation, for our climate and sustainable development, in which the UNFCCC States Parties affirmed their “commitment” to the “full implementation” of the Paris Agreement. Today, 169 Parties have ratified the Agreement.

At the Bonn Conference, informally known as COP 23, countries seek to move forward in completing the rule book for operationalizing the Paris Agreement. The Conference, which runs until 17 November, is chaired by Fiji, an island State particularly affected by the impacts of climate change.

“Never has our work been more necessary. We see this with respect to the extreme weather events affecting almost every continent throughout the world,” said Ms. Espinosa.

COP 23 President and Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama agrees. “We can no longer ignore this crisis. Whether it is fires in California, Portugal and Spain. Flooding in Nigeria, India and Bangladesh. The dramatic Arctic melt. Ice breaking off the continent of Antarctica. The recent hurricanes that devastated the Caribbean and the southern United States […] It’s hard to find any part of the world that is unaffected by these events”, he said at the ministerial meeting in Fiji.

Bonn Conference an opportunity to boost climate risk management efforts n an op-ed published in October 2017, Ms. Espinosa, alongside the Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Achim Steiner, and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Robert Glasser, said the Bonn Conference “provides an opportunity to not only accelerate emission reductions but also boost the serious work of ensuring that the management of climate risk is integrated into disaster risk management as a whole.”

A week before the opening of the Bonn Conference, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that the levels of carbon dioxide (C02) surged at “record-breaking speed” to new highs in 2016.

The Bonn Conference will feature a series of meetings and events, including the high-level segment, on 15 November and 16 November, attended by Heads of State and Government, Ministers, and UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

Mr. Guterres has invited leaders to consider championing six high-impact areas at a special Climate Summit in 2019. These areas are investment in clean technology, maturing carbon pricing, enabling the energy transition, risk mitigation and building resilience, augmenting the contribution of sub-national actors and business and mobilizing climate finance.

“Increasing ambition is the only way to keep the global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius this century, and as close to 1.5 degree as possible. By focusing on these sectors, we can substantially reduce the gap between where we are and where we need to be,” said UN Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, at the pre-COP meeting in Fiji.

Among the side events scheduled at COP 23, several will be organized under the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action to show how cities, regions, private sector companies and investors are trying to implement the Paris Agreement in the areas of energy, water, agriculture, oceans and coastal areas, human settlements, transportation, industry, and forests.

November 6, 2017 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment

China to take the lead at international climate talks, as Trump’s USA has opted out

China to take centre stage at Bonn climate talks amid vacuum left by Trump  https://www.ft.com/content/f6015c21-2ed8-3154-a0b5-3f255c048d3e   OCTOBER 31, 2017 by Emily Feng China is positioning itself to take a lead role at next week’s climate talks as it moves to fill the leadership vacuum left by the US, said the country’s top climate negotiator Tuesday. “To deal with differences in the negotiation process, China will propose its ‘bridge building plan’ at the upcoming summit,” said Xie Zhenhua, China’s climate policy representative, told reporters at a state press conference. Despite previous contributions from the US in combating climate change, “after the establishment of the new government, the announcement to withdraw from the Paris Agreement definitely impacted the international community’s confidence to deal with climate change,” said Mr Xie.

“All other countries have approached the [Paris] process with great confidence and determination. We see this trend as irreversible.” His comments are the latest in China’s move to cast itself as the new leader in the push to slow down the pace of global warming as numerous countries prepare to attend the World Climate Conference in the western German city of Bonn. Once known as one of the most polluted countries in the world, China has stepped up its commitments to combating climate change this year after US president Donald Trump decided to withdraw from the Paris climate accords in June. President Xi Jinping referred to China as a “torchbearer” in environmental protection during a landmark three-hour speech a crucial Communist Party congress in October. “Now the tone from the top has been set straight,” said Greenpeace senior advisor Li Shuo. “China is transforming its domestic energy system and embarking on an ambitious diplomatic mission to drive the global climate agenda.”
China is expected to unveil a national carbon trading scheme next year modeled after the European Union’s carbon marketplace. However, Lin Gao, a climate policymaker at China’s top state planning body, admitted on Tuesday that there were still “problems” that needed to be fixed before the “very complex” scheme could be implemented nationwide. The climate talks in Bonn are set to overlap with President Trump’s visit to Beijing, which begins November 8. Asked whether President Trump and Xi would discuss climate change at Trump’s trip to China next week, Mr Xie told the Financial Times: “That is up to them to decide.”

November 6, 2017 Posted by | China, climate change | Leave a comment

European Union hopes that media will not allow USA to distract attention from UB climate talks

US may cause ‘distraction’ at Bonn climate talks, EU Observer  By PETER TEFFER 

The world should manage its expectations for the 23rd annual United Nations summit on climate change that starts in Bonn, Germany, on Monday (6 November), said Claire Healy, a former adviser to the US department of energy.

She told EUobserver in an interview that she expected a lot of attention will be on the United States, since this will be the first global climate summit following the American president Donald Trump’s announcement that the US is pulling out of the Paris agreement…….

Trump announced on 1 June of this year that the US will leave the Paris agreement, which was agreed at 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) in Paris in 2015.

“If that hadn’t happened, the media perhaps wouldn’t be as interested in this,” said Healy, adding that she hoped the US will not be too much of a “distraction” from “the real work.”

The COP is the forum where UN members meet to discuss how they will limit climate change. This year’s edition, COP23, is more about preparing procedural decisions than reaching agreements like in Paris.

“It’s very process-heavy, even though there is a political spotlight on it,” said Healy, noting that COPs “are not all like COP21”.  “We should manage your expectations,” she added.

While countries agreed in Paris that they should slow down the Earth’s temperature rise to prevent catastrophic climate change, they did not specify all the details yet.

An open question is how each country’s climate commitments will be verified, and what happens if a country fails to do what it promised.

Next year’s COP, which will be held in Katowice in Poland, will be about agreeing a “rulebook”. This year’s COP is about preparing for that rulebook.

“We’re not literally discussing the rules at this COP, but discussing the process by which we are going to decide the rules.”

EU wants ‘tangible progress’

The European Commission hopes that COP23 will deliver “tangible progress on the Paris work programme, which is to be agreed next year in COP24 in Poland,” according to spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen.

“For us this is clearly a COP that is important to prepare for the 2018 COP,” said Itkonen at a press briefing in Brussels on Friday (3 November).

She acknowledged that ‘tangible progress’ can mean different things to different countries and regions. Itkonen said that to the EU it would mean “clear language on how the parties are implementing their national contributions”.

Think tank director Healy said it will be difficult to “give you technical milestones” which would make the difference between success and failure.

“It’s all very procedural,” she said.

EU ministers for environment said in a statement last month that they expect COP23 to deliver “sufficient clarity on how the 2018 facilitative dialogue will be conducted” – the term ‘facilitative dialogue’ refers to the moment when the treaty’s signatories take stock of their progress.

To the ministers, substantial progress should take “the form of draft decisions or textual elements.” COP23 will last two weeks. Traditionally, politicians will show up in the second week. On behalf of the EU, climate commissioner Miguel Arias Canete is expected to attend, in addition to national ministers from the EU member states.

The chair of the meetings this year is the island nation Fiji, but the actual talks are held in Bonn, the location of the headquarters of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. https://euobserver.com/environment/139746

November 6, 2017 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment

Plummeting costs of solar power are disrupting energy technology: greenhouse gas emissions reduced

Climate change and the great disruption, Press Republican 5 Nov 17  RAY JOHNSON Climate Science “…… The pie chart from the Environmental Protection Agency website titled “Total U.S. Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions by Economic Sector in 2015” indicates that “Electricity” generation accounts for 29 percent of the total while “Transportation” is not far behind at 27 percent.

Let’s concentrate on one portion of the U.S. GHG emissions: “Electricity.”

A reduction in GHG emissions here will greatly help in addressing climate change. Technology disruption can be observed in the graph “Swanson’s Law.” It’s based on an observation by Richard Swanson, “that the price of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules tends to drop 20 percent for every doubling of cumulative shipped volume” (Wikipedia). The log-log graph shows the cost reduction for the price of crystalline silicon PV cells in $/watt. In 1977 the cost was $76.67/watt, and by 2014 the price had dropped to $0.36/watt.

Thus the cost is more than 200 times lower than in 1977 (based on 2014 data). This graph is also called “the learning rate.”

Module costs have dropped in half since 2008. The implication is that if one made a business decision in 2008 to proceed with a nuclear or fossil-fuel-burning generating plant based on the cost of PV modules at that time, that business plan may have to be scrapped today due to the rapidly falling PV costs. It would not be economical.

And, this is exactly what is happening around the world. Hundreds of coal-burning plants are being retired, mothballed and/or construction stopped, with China taking the major initiative.

The bar chart “Global Solar Energy Capacity (GW)” details this extraordinary PV growth. It highlights the gigawatts of PV capacity and its near exponential growth in the last 15 years. Separately, for the U.S. alone, this trend indicates that solar could contribute 20 percent of total electricity consumption by 2030.

 This growth in solar will reduce coal mining, number of coal-burning plants, nuclear power facilities and even oil sand extraction and drilling in locations that are expensive (deep water, difficult locations — Arctic) and so on.

And we have not even discussed the impact of wind turbine technology yet. Next time.

Meanwhile, our planet continues to warm. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration bar chart shows that warming trend with the first nine months of 2017 among the top three warmest in the 137-year climate record.

And so it goes. http://www.pressrepublican.com/opinion/columns/climate-change-and-the-great-disruption/article_9c3ba8e4-0ab8-545d-b747-b5c2b2525880.html

November 6, 2017 Posted by | climate change, renewable, USA | Leave a comment

Donald Trump deliberately obstructing satellite research on global warming?

Donald Trump accused of obstructing satellite research into climate change https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/nov/05/donald-trump-accused-blocking-satellite-climate-change-research    Republican-controlled Congress ordered destruction of vital sea-ice probe, Guardian, Robin McKie, 6 Nov 17, President Trump has been accused of deliberately obstructing research on global warming after it emerged that a critically important technique for investigating sea-ice cover at the poles faces being blocked.

The row has erupted after a key polar satellite broke down a few days ago, leaving the US with only three ageing ones, each operating long past their shelf lives, to measure the Arctic’s dwindling ice cap. Scientists say there is no chance a new one can now be launched until 2023 or later. None of the current satellites will still be in operation then.

The crisis has been worsened because the US Congress this year insisted that a backup sea-ice probe had to be dismantled because it did not want to provide funds to keep it in storage. Congress is currently under the control of Republicans, who are antagonistic to climate science and the study of global warming.

“This is like throwing away the medical records of a sick patient,” said David Gallaher of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. “Our world is ailing and we have apparently decided to undermine, quite deliberately, the effectiveness of the records on which its recovery might be based. It is criminal.”

The threat to the US sea-ice monitoring programme – which supplies data to scientists around the world – will trigger further accusations at this week’s international climate talks in Bonn that the Trump administration is trying to block studies of global warming for ideological reasons.

Earth’s sea ice has shrunk dramatically – particularly in the Arctic – in recent years as rising emissions of greenhouse gases have warmed the planet. Satellites have been vital in assessing this loss, thanks mainly to America’s Defence Meteorological Satellite Programme (DMSP), which has overseen the construction of eight F-series satellites that use microwaves sensors to monitor sea-ice coverage. These probes, which have lifespans of three to five years, have shown that millions of square kilometres of sea ice have disappeared from the Arctic over the past 20 years, allowing less solar energy to be reflected back into space – and so further increasing global temperatures – while also disrupting Inuit life and wildlife in the region.

At present three ageing satellites – DMSP F16, F17 and F18 – remain in operation, though they are all beginning to drift out of their orbits over the poles. The latest satellite in the series, F19, began to suffer sensor malfunctions last year and finally broke down a few weeks ago. It should have been replaced with the F20 probe, which had already been built and was being kept in storage by the US Air Force. However it had to be destroyed, on the orders of the US Congress, on the grounds that its storage was too costly.

Many scientists say this decision was made for purely ideological reasons. They also warn that many other projects for monitoring climate change, including several satellite missions, face similar threats from the Trump administration and Congress.

Such losses have serious consequences, say researchers. “Sea-ice data provided by satellites is essential for initiating climate models and validating them,” said Andrew Fleming of the British Antarctic Survey. “We will be very much the poorer without that information.”

November 6, 2017 Posted by | climate change, politics, USA | Leave a comment

United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) rejects sponsorship from the nuclear industry

Forbes 30th Oct 2017, The UN Environmental Program (UNEP) has rejected the World Nuclear Association’s (WNA) offer to provide financial support to the 8th Annual Sustainable Innovation Forum (SIF).

Described by its chairman as the “largest business-focused side event during the annual Conference Of
Parties” the event is scheduled to take place alongside COP23 in Bonn, Germany. Originally accepted as a gold sponsor and ready to pay the £40,000 ($68,338) fee, the World Nuclear Association  was recently notified that its sponsorship had been rescinded upon intervention by the UN Environment Program (UNEP).

November 4, 2017 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | 1 Comment

Success with Paris climate goals is within our grasp

New data gives hope for meeting the Paris climate targets https://www.skepticalscience.com/new-data-hope-meeting-paris-targets.html 30 October 2017 by dana1981

Over the past half-century, growth in the global economy and carbon pollution have been tied together. When the global economy has been strong, we’ve consumed more energy, which has translated into burning more fossil fuels and releasing more carbon pollution. But over the past four years, economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions have been decoupled. The global economy has continued to grow, while data from the EU Joint Research Centre shows carbon pollution has held fairly steady

China is becoming a global climate leader

China’s shift away from coal to clean energy has been largely responsible for this decoupling. Due to its large population (1.4 billion) – more than four times that of the USA (323 million) and nearly triple the EU (510 million) – and rapid growth in its economy and coal power supply, China has become the world’s largest net carbon polluter (though still less than half America’s per-person carbon emissions, and on par with those of Europeans). But as with the global total, China’s carbon pollution has flattened out since 2013.

That’s especially remarkable because it puts China about 15 years ahead of schedule. In an agreement with President Obama ahead of the Paris international climate negotiations, Chinese President Xi Jingping pledged that China’s carbon emissions would peak by 2030. Republican Party leaders grossly distorted this agreement at the time, with Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell claiming:

As I read the agreement it requires the Chinese to do nothing at all for 16 years while these carbon emissions regulations are creating havoc in my state and around the country

As the chart above [on original] shows, Chinese carbon emissions tripled between 1999 and 2013. To slow that rate of growth to zero as the Chinese economy continues to grow would require a dramatic shift in the country’s energy supply. But that’s exactly what’s happened, with the Chinese government cancelling over 100 planned new coal power plants earlier this year. Chinese coal consumption has in fact fallen since 2013. And China and the EU have pledged to strengthen their efforts to cut carbon pollution.

America isn’t a lost cause

In 2016, American carbon pollution fell to below 1993 levels. The emissions decline began around 2008, which is also when natural gas, solar, and wind energy began rapidly replacing coal in the power grid.

The Trump administration has done everything in its power to reverse that trend. It began the withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement and the process to repeal the Clean Power Plan, has begun censoring EPA climate scientists and deleting climate change information from government websites, and proposed to prop up the dirty, failing coal industry with taxpayer-funded subsidies.

And yet, while these steps can slow the decline in American carbon pollution, the transition from coal to clean energy will nevertheless persist. Coal simply can no longer compete with cheaper, cleaner sources of energy, and the next American president can quickly reverse many of the Trump administration’s anti-climate orders.

Click here to read the rest

November 4, 2017 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment

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