[sustran] "Climate Technology" - Or how to Drown a Fish

[Eric Britton]

Editor’s note: Though I for one have never greatly loved the Kyoto
Treaty, not least because it always struck me as desperately unstrategic
and hence likely to, forgive the awfulness, generate more heat than
light. And indeed it has. That said, I can hardly great the kind of news
that follows here with joy and anticipation of a better world. Of course
as you can see here that even as they step away from the challenge, they
try as usual, as we say in French, to “drown the fish” by bringing up
all that other stuff on cooperative programs, international
collaboration, and off we go again.


Nothing surprising here though. What canny politicians wish to be held
directly accountable on these tough issues in ways in which their
performance can be objectively judged by the voting public. So gone are
the targets and then dates, and here we are again with good old
technology that is going to come to the rescue. In that infamous “long
term”, etc. We all know about the “long term”.  Sigh!
 
 
Blair Leans Toward Climate Technology, Away From Targets
 
London, UK, November 2, 2005 (ENS) – Source:
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2005/2005-11-02-01.asp
 
British Prime Minister Tony Blair concluded an international conference
on climate change Tuesday in London, saying that technology and science
will provide part of the solution to global warming. He edged away from
reliance on the binding framework and targets of the Kyoto Protocol,
saying these mechanisms made people "very nervous and very worried."
 
At the conference, energy and environment ministers from 20 countries
met as part of the new G8 Gleneagles Dialogue. The gathering is linked
to the Group of Eight because it was started by leaders at Gleneagles,
Scotland in July, and Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi has asked for a
report on the Dialogue for the Japanese G8 Summit in 2008.
 
Blair said the evidence of climate change is getting stronger and even
those who once doubted it now accept there are concerns over energy
security and supply. But he recognized the widespread fear that limiting
greenhouse gas emissions will also limit economic growth.
 
"People fear some external force is going to impose some internal target
on you which is going to restrict your economic growth,” said Blair,
referring to the Kyoto Protocol, under which industrialized countries
must reduced greenhouse gases an average of 5.2 percent by 2012 compared
to 1990 levels.
 
"The blunt truth about the politics of climate change is that no country
will want to sacrifice its economy in order to meet this challenge,"
Blair said. "But all economies know that the only sensible, long-term
way to develop is to do it on a sustainable basis."
 
The UK itself may not achieve its stated target of a 20 percent
reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2010, some analysts say. As gas
prices have gone up, some British electricity producers have switched
back to coal, and the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by motor vehicles
and aircraft increases year by year.
 
Friends of the Earth last night attacked the Prime Minister’s
questioning of clear targets and frameworks for dealing with global
warming.
 
"While we welcome Tony Blair’s efforts to keep climate change on the
international agenda, it is important that the Prime Minister remembers
that leadership is about more than warm words," said Friends of the
Earth Executive Director Tony Juniper. "To show real leadership he must
stick to his guns and keep the pressure on the international community
to agree to real action with clear timetables."
 
"By downplaying clear targets and frameworks," Juniper said, "the Prime
Minister is ignoring calls from UK companies who want a clear framework
to operate within now. There has been a lot of discussion about the
false choice between targets and technologies, but the reality is that
without both we cannot achieve either." 
 
The Gleneagles Dialogue, chaired by Environment Secretary Margaret
Beckett and Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson, focused on energy
and technology, looking at how to move to a low carbon economy and how
soon that goal can be reached.
 
Both British ministers said the Gleneagles Summit had added momentum to
the international climate change process ahead of the UN Climate Change
Conference in Montreal from November 27 through December 10. For the
first time, this meeting will discuss action on climate change beyond
2012, when the Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gas emission limits expire. 
 
Johnson said the Gleneagles Dialogue underlined the broad consensus
needed to tackle climate change, yet maintain economic growth.
 
"We now need to identify priorities for cooperation, in both the short
and long term. And we need to set a clear context for the private sector
to invest in low carbon technologies with signals that are "loud, long
and legal," Johnson said.
 
Beckett said considerable progress had been made since Gleneagles under
the UK's G8 Presidency all this year and EU Presidency since July 1. "It
is imperative that we find new ways to cooperate and develop a shared
understanding of how the world can respond to climate change. There is
no greater challenge facing the world," she said.
 
Beckett pointed to new climate change partnerships agreed in the past
few months with the two most populous developing countries.
 
<IMG SRC="20051102_beckettmargaret.jpg" ALIGN=right HSPACE=2 VSPACE=2
ALT="Beckett" WIDTH=120 HEIGHT=170><H5>British Environment Secretary
Margaret Beckett highlighted new technology agreements with developing
countries. <small>(Photo credit unknown) </small></H5>
 
"We have used our Presidency of the EU to agree new partnerships with
both China and India on climate change," she said. "I am particularly
pleased that we have agreed to work with China to develop and
demonstrate carbon capture and storage technologies to enable power to
be generated from near-zero emissions coal."
 
The proposal for a joint EU-China project on Near Zero Emissions Coal
(nZEC) was announced at the EU-China Summit on September 5. This
agreement was reached in recognition that carbon dioxide emissions from
China's increasing coal use are set to double by 2030.
 
The nZEC project aims to demonstrate coal fired power generation with
carbon capture and storage technology in China by 2020. 
 
Carbon capture and storage involves capturing carbon dioxide from the
combustion process and storing it underground in geological formations
such as aquifiers and depleted oil fields. The technology has the
potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by some 90 percent.
 
The UK is leading the first phase of the nZEC project and supporting it
with £3.5 million for a three year feasibility study of different
technology options for the capture of carbon dioxide emissions from
power generation and the potential for geological storage in China. 
 
The UK and India announced the launch of a joint study on how to
reinforce cooperation on energy technology between developed and
developing countries.
 
The study will identify potential policy, regulatory and financing
barriers to technology cooperation, how to stimulate innovation in both
developed and developing countries, as well as development at the
national and international levels.
 
As developing countries, India and China are not governed by binding
greenhouse gas targets under the Kyoto Protocol, but both countries have
ratified the protocol and are moving towards limiting the emission of
greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide.
 
The 20 countries that participated in the Gleneagles Dialogue Tuesday
are the G8: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United
Kingdom, and the United States plus China, Mexico, India, Brazil, South
Africa, Indonesia, Australia, Spain, Poland, Nigeria and South Korea,
and the European Commission. 
 
Ministers were joined by Claude Mandil, executive director of the
International Energy Agency, as well as Ian Johnson and Kathy Sierra,
the World Bank vice presidents for environment and infrastructure. The
IEA and World Bank are presenting an action plan to meet the challenge
of access to reliable and affordable energy within a stable, sustainable
climate.
 
The World Bank has launched an Energy Investment Framework, which will
be used to pilot large-scale investment in major challenges, such as
power generation and transport systems, in developing countries.
 
The Framework will include the regional development banks, private
sector banks, insurers and technology companies.
 
UK Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson said the International
Energy Agency is already working to reduce the barriers to the
development and deployment of low carbon technologies. 
 
"I am very pleased that the International Energy Agency is so closely
involved, bringing to the table its world-renowned expertise on issues
such as hydrogen storage and cleaner coal technology," Johnson said.
"This work informs national technology programs, including the
Department of Trade and Industry's recently launched £25 million Carbon
Abatement Technology strategy."
 
The multi-stakeholder Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership
(REEEP) launched by the UK and other partners at the Johannesburg World
Summit on Sustainable Development in August 2002 has grown to include 30
partner governments, G8 Dialogue participants learned.
 
All the G8 partners except Russia have now signed up, and the United
States has cited REEEP as an important part of its international work on
sustainable energy. The UK plans to invest a further £5 million pounds
through 2008.
 
The funding will support projects to develop "robust policies,
favorable, transparent and stable regulatory frameworks, and new forms
of financing to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency," the UK
ministers said. 
 
REEEP already is delivering support to a Bangkok based company to
establish a € 50 million fund to finance energy efficiency and renewable
energy projects in China, India and Southeast Asia.
 
At the national level, progress has been made with new energy
legislation in the United States and France that approves stronger
incentives for clean energy, including low-carbon vehicles and more
efficient buildings.
 
Action has been taken in many countries to improve energy efficiency,
including specific measures to tackle energy waste from appliances on
standby.
 
The Gleneagles Dialogue participants recognized that support is growing
for the inclusion of the aviation industry into the EU Emissions Trading
Scheme, there is a new voluntary agreement with industry on aviation
fuel consumption in Canada, and research programs in the United States
aim to achieve major technological breakthroughs.
 
But Friends of the Earth is worried that the urge toward economic
development may overtake the concern about global warming. The campaign
group is calling on the Blair Government to introduce legislation which
would require annual cuts in carbon dioxide emissions of three percent
which they say would bring carbon dioxide emissions back under control. 
 
"Climate change is the most urgent and serious challenge faced by the
global community – and we need leadership to adapt the global economy to
deal with it," Juniper said. "The Prime Minister’s move away from a
target-based approach could have disastrous consequences."
 
 
 
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