Archive for the ‘carbon dioxide’ Category

Climate Biz reports on the Waxman-Markey bill being debated on the floor of the House today.  The cornerstone of the bill would be to put a cap and a price on emitting carbon. If passed, the bill would be a giant step toward low-carbon electric power, but unfortunately it would not solve the grave problem of U.S. oil dependence.

The Wall Street Journal’s Environmental Capital blog reports that in February, First Solar tooted its horn about breaking the $1-per-watt barrier for making solar modules in the last months of 2008. This week, the company said costs had fallen again to 93 cents per watt, down 5% in three months and down 28% in a year.  The Walton family of Wal-Mart fame owns about 39% of First Solar stock – and the retailer’s legendary penchant for driving down costs is rubbing off on the renewable-energy company.

The New York Times’ Green Inc blog questions whether making trade more free could lead to a rise in carbon dioxide emissions as a result of greater economic activity. But more trade could also help to staunch climate change by increasing the availability of climate-friendly technologies and products.  Those are the conclusions in report issued on Friday by the World Trade Organization and the United Nations Environment Program.

Treehugger reports that on the passing of Michael Jackson last night, an important contribution of his to the environmental movement may have been overlooked.  “Earth Song,” his big, bold environmental call-to-arms, is indisputably the most popular green-themed tune ever. It remains Jackson’s best-selling single in the U.K., and beat out the Beatles’ first single in 25 years for the top spot on the British charts. But if you live in the U.S., you probably haven’t heard it, until now…

Tim Woodall at FD Element

Addressing climate change is going to take more than simply managing what is measured, purchasing carbon offsets, or making sure that your company’s sustainability reports are printed on recycled paper.  It will require a systematic approach that reduces the total amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.

Sunil Paul’s Gigaton Throwdown project released a report today that outlines how currently-available technology, if scaled appropriately, could each reduce the carbon emissions by a gigaton (1 billion tons) annually.  The report asks: What would it take to aggressively scale up clean energy to have a major impact on job growth, energy independence and climate change over the next 10 years?

To attain gigaton scale, a single technology must reduce annual emissions of carbon dioxide and equivalent greenhouse gases (CO2e) by at least 1 billion metric tons — a gigaton — by 2020. For an electricity generation technology, this is equivalent to an installed capacity of 205 gigawatts of carbon-free energy by 2020.

The notion of gigatons, says Paul, “made a lot of sense because one gigaton per year is enough to make a major difference by 2020. We chose an amount that matters and we chose a time frame that’s relevant to entrepreneurs and investors.”

Of the technologies reviewed, there are seven — building efficiency, concentrated solar power, construction materials, nuclear, biofuels, solar photovoltaics and wind — that are ready to scale up aggressively today. One, geothermal, can scale up fully after an intense period of research, development, and deployment of pilot plants. Combined, these eight technologies can meet over 50 percent of new global energy demand while avoiding over 8 gigatons of CO2e reductions globally.

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Green Biz reports on how companies are identifying and mitigating greenhouse gas “hot spots” in their own operations and energy purchases.  The article goes on to note that there are a few reasons for this, such as their desire to communicate with customers, investors, and others about the environmental impacts of their products and relationships.

Environmental Leader reports that federal police will be forced to become “carbon cops” under the Australian Government’s climate laws to cut greenhouse emissions. Federal police agents, who are involved in law enforcement in Australia and overseas, now will be expected to prosecute a new range of climate offenses including under reporting of carbon emissions by firms and bogus carbon offset schemes.

The New York Times’ Green Inc. blog reports that despite the controversy surrounding carbon sequestration, Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced a major public-private project to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions that was abandoned by the Bush administration is being restarted.  The Illinois-based coal plant project known as FutureGen will store nearly all of its emissions underground, where they cannot contribute to global warming.

Grist reports that carbon entrepreneurship is alive and well, and living in Silicon Valley.  At Microsoft’s Silicon Valley headquarters a crowd of entrepreneurs showed up to elevator-pitch their startups to a panel of VCs and win $40,000 in services. Competition to just get in the door was fierce, with 400 companies vying for 30 slots at Launch: Silicon Valley, the annual competition put on by the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs.

Tim Woodall at FD Element

The New York Times’ Green Inc. reports that with the new digital era being ushered in this year, consumers will now be able to distinguish between new television sets based on their environmental impact.  Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Panasonic, Sony, Environmental Protection Agency, Natural Resources Defense Council and 70 other large enterprises has agreed to create a voluntary labeling system that will let consumers know, for example, how much lead, mercury and toxic flame retardants their televisions contain.  The labeling system goes far beyond the now-familiar EnergyStar sticker, which simply designates the energy efficiency of electronic products.

Environmental Leader reports that organizations are increasingly putting more effort into their recycling programs for all types of materials such as aluminum cans, fluorescent lamps, wood waste and scrap metal.  Novelis Inc., a producer of flat-rolled aluminum and a recycler of used beverage cans, has recycled an estimated 39 billion aluminum beverage cans in the past year, a new record for the company.

The WSJ’s Environmental Capital reports on new thinking with regards to China’s ballooning carbon dioxide emissions.  The Chinese say much of the stuff they make is for the West, so rich countries should shoulder those emissions as well.  Climate-change guru and advisor to HSBC, Lord Nicholas Stern, figures the Chinese might be right: “The logical point China makes is that there is a definite responsibility with the consumer and not just with the producer is a sound one.”

GreenBiz reports that a group of faith-based investors will withdraw its shareholder resolution it filed to get Chevron to track its products’ carbon contents after the oil company agreed to comply.  After agreeing to comply with the resolution filed by the Sisters of St. Dominic, Chevron consented to voluntarily track product carbon content, and pointed out another oil giant — ExxonMobil — is still resisting similar proposals.

Tim Woodall at FD Element

Empire of Carbon

Obama’s 2010 Budget to Increase EPA Funding by 34 Percent

How National Grid Ties Executive Pay to Carbon Reduction

Proposed Clean Energy Deployment Administration