In this edition: The Guardian says, “Average Chinese person’s carbon footprint now equals European’s.” China’s Xinhua reports, “Coal-rich province launches emission monitoring system.” Bloomberg has, “GE Turbines Help Greenko Drive Wind Power Cost Below Coal.”
Quote of the Day:
“Today we’re able to supply energy below the cost of conventional power. That’s the key development for this year.”
–Mahesh Kolli, president of Greenko, which is building wind projects with GE in India, in Bloomberg’s “GE Turbines Help Greenko Drive Wind Power Cost Below Coal”
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Lead Stories
Record Heat Wave Pushes U.S. Belief in Climate Change to 70%
Bloomberg
A record heat wave, drought and catastrophic wildfires are accomplishing what climate scientists could not: convincing a wide swath of Americans that global temperatures are rising.
http://jlne.ws/MJBdGA
**RKB — Find Brookings survey here.
The Power Grid: From Rickety to Resilient
Time
August 14, 2003 was a brutally hot day in much of the northeastern U.S. The high temperatures prompted people in cities like Pittsburgh and New York to crank up the fans and the air conditioning. The electricity those appliances consumed put unusually high demands on the transmission grid, forcing power plants to work overtime. The summer heat also caused local power lines in northern Ohio to expand and physically sag, which brought them into contact with nearby trees. Sparks ensued, and the resulting short circuit shut down power locally.
http://jlne.ws/NiMLqf
**RKB – Article features author Andrew Zolli who in his new book Resilience, writes about a “swarming grid,” a smart system that’s operated more like the redundant infrastructure of the Internet — initially designed in part by the military, after all, to emphasize robustness and survivability. That means a grid capable of real-time monitoring and reaction that can create a holistic picture of what’s happening throughout the transmission lines.
Why The World Is Coming For America’s Oil
Forbes
Norway’s national oil company is betting $20 billion that the future of the energy business lies under the U.S. They’re not alone.
http://jlne.ws/NA7HoD
Spotlight on Tokyo: world’s first urban cap and trade program yields promising first-year results
National Geographic City Solutions blog
The results of the first fiscal year of operation of Tokyo’s cap and trade program are in – and they go far in validating the city’s groundbreaking initiative to introduce a market-based approach to emissions reductions at the urban scale. Reports on 1,159 building facilities show collective emissions reductions of 13 percent over base-year figures; this was due to the active implementation of more than 5,700 measures by building owners to reduce energy use and corresponding emissions.
http://jlne.ws/MlwaAm
Average Chinese person’s carbon footprint now equals European’s
Guardian
The average Chinese person’s carbon footprint is now almost on a par with the average European’s, figures released on Wednesday reveal.
http://jlne.ws/Mtdo8g
THE REPORT:
Per capita CO2 emissions in China reached European level
http://jlne.ws/NAjBQQ
Coal-rich province launches emission monitoring system
China’s Xinhua
A monitoring system for greenhouse gas concentrations has been launched in north China’s coal-rich Shanxi province as local authorities hope to better deal with climate change by using first-hand emission data.
http://jlne.ws/M9HeOr
GE Turbines Help Greenko Drive Wind Power Cost Below Coal
Bloomberg
The cost of wind power has dropped below the price of coal-fired energy in parts of India for the first time as improved turbine technology and rising fossil-fuel prices boost its competitiveness, Greenko Group Plc (GKO) said.
http://jlne.ws/LXUaM7
U.S. appeals court upholds EPA air quality rule
Reuters
A federal appeals court upheld a new Environmental Protection Agency rule to limit nitrogen dioxide emissions near major roadways, in a defeat for the oil industry, which said the rule went beyond what was necessary to protect public health.
http://jlne.ws/NypTll
Federal court backs Ottawa’s decision to abandon Kyoto
Ctv
The federal court has backed the government’s decision to pull out of the Kyoto Protocol, rejecting an argument Tuesday that Ottawa broke the law by abandoning the climate change pact.
http://jlne.ws/Mtc99c
Forests Are Left Out Of Rio’s Final Outcomes Doc
Ecosystem Marketplace
The Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development pledged a renewed focus on sustainability challenges. By using a holistic framework that addresses economic, social and environment aspects of sustainability, it hoped to rekindle the essence of sustainable development that was a key part of the success of the 1992 Earth Summit.
http://jlne.ws/Ob3Pek
Is REDD+ a risky, uber-complex business?
Clean Biz Asia
Tropical forests cover about 15 percent of the world’s land surface but every year around 13 million hectares of forest are cleared for crop cultivation, cattle, logging and mining (FAO 2010). Forests are both carbon guzzlers (sinks) and emitters (sources) and deforestation and forest degradation accounts for a whopping 15-17 percent of man-made GHG emissions each year.
http://jlne.ws/Mtc4lS
Events
Carbon Forum North America
October 1-2, 2012
Washington, DC
http://jlne.ws/zDe43B
Sustainability Summit – Innovation Challenge
October 9, 2012
New York
http://jlne.ws/wKbX7U
Carbon
Carbon capture would create substantial challenges, witnesses say at energy hearing
Bristol (Va.) Herald Courier
Carbon capture — a key technology component of proposed federal regulations for coal-fired power plants — doesn’t yet exist and, if developed, would create substantial new challenges, energy industry leaders said Monday.
http://jlne.ws/NXvNfi
Shell, SSE Project Wins U.K.’s First Seabed CCS Deal
Bloomberg
Britain for the first time granted an option to store carbon dioxide under the seabed, allowing a project owned by Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) and SSE Plc (SSE) in Scotland to progress.
http://jlne.ws/OHo1T1
Natural Gas/Coal
India to boost coal imports
UPI
India will need to import 185 million tons of coal annually by 2017 to meet increasing shortfalls, the government said.
http://jlne.ws/SIeoIt
Keystone XL pipeline: Nebraska officials get tough on TransCanada
The Christian Science Monitor
The newly proposed northern route for the Keystone XL pipeline that snakes down from Canada through Nebraska – trying to avoid its environmentally fragile Sand Hills region and fresh-water aquifers – is coming in for tough new scrutiny that could ignite a fresh political and environmental fracas.
http://jlne.ws/NXB5rd
U.S. Chamber touts shale’s potential in Ohio
Columbus Dispatch
A big player has arrived in Ohio to promote the benefits of shale energy. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said today that it is launching a media campaign in Ohio to show how oil and gas drilling can transform the economy, and act as a counterpoint to environmental advocates who have raised concerns about the drilling process.
http://jlne.ws/LyP6My
Power
Cape Wind Project: Darrell Issa, John Mica Question FAA About Offshore Wind Regulations
AP
Two powerful congressmen asked the Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday to answer whether it ruled that a Massachusetts offshore wind project wasn’t a danger to airplanes because of political pressure.
http://jlne.ws/Mt7Ri8
Centrica and DONG plan giant 2.2GW Irish Sea wind farm
Business Green
Centrica and DONG Energy have submitted initial proposals for a giant 2.2GW offshore wind farm in the Irish Sea between Anglesey and the Isle of Man.
http://jlne.ws/MJ42Ee
Siemens Wins Texas Power Plant Order With Partner Bechtel
Bloomberg
Siemens AG (SIE), Europe’s largest engineering company, won an order to supply a combined-cycle power plant to a project in Texas.
http://jlne.ws/NGvkQ7
Southern Delivering Energy From Largest U.S. Biomass Power Plant
Bloomberg
Southern Co. (SO), the second-largest U.S. power company by market value, is delivering electricity to the grid from its $500 million biomass-fueled plant in Texas.
http://jlne.ws/MIYqcR
France Will Miss 2020 Offshore Wind Capacity Target, EDF Says
Bloomberg
France will fail to meet a target to develop 6,000 megawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2020, according to Electricite de France SA, the country’s biggest developer of the renewable energy.
http://jlne.ws/NPwoMf
India Plans to Aid Power Distributors
The Wall Street Journal
India’s power ministry has drawn up a plan to improve the finances of the country’s mostly state-run electricity-distribution companies, as their estimated accumulated losses of 2 trillion rupees ($36 billion) are hampering the government’s ambitious programs for the power sector.
http://jlne.ws/NyoYkN
Solar industry acquisitions double over 2011
Bloomberg/Business Green
An influx of banks, equity investors and utilities into the global solar market pushed merger and acquisition activity up to a record $10.8bn (6.9bn sterling) in 2011, analyst Bloomberg New Energy Finance said today.
http://jlne.ws/SIihgL
RECs
Renewable energy tax credits influence greenpreneurs in New Orleans
The Times-Picayune
Solar energy may still seem like a concept from Back to the Future. However, thanks to generous state and federal tax credits, solar power systems may be more attainable than you think — and without having to take your Delorian into the future.
http://jlne.ws/SIoUzy
CleanTech
Rusnano, I2BF Fund Targets Nanotechnology for Water, Agriculture
Bloomberg
Rusnano Capital LLC teamed up with New York-based I2BF Global Ventures to invest $150 million in nanotechnologies for Russia’s agriculture and water industries.
http://jlne.ws/OHpQ2m
Reports
Per capita CO2 emissions in China reached European level (July 18, 2012)
http://jlne.ws/NAjBQQ
The Interim Regulation of Voluntary Greenhouse Gases Emission Trading in China (Posted July 10, 2012)
The Climate Group
http://jlne.ws/Mhv62s
Measure for Management: C40 Cities (July 9, 2012)
Carbon Disclosure Project
http://jlne.ws/L9LC37
Characterizing Pivotal Sources of Methane Emissions from Unconventional Natural Gas Production (Posted June 4, 2012)
API, ANGA
http://jlne.ws/M6RzMQ
Vulnerability of US and European electricity supply to climate change (Posted June 4, 2012)
Nature Climate Change
http://jlne.ws/L3Slcb
Developing Dimension: State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2012 (Posted May 31, 2012)
Ecosystem Marketplace
http://jlne.ws/JQ18Bv
Tackling exposure: placing disaster risk management at the heart of national economic and fiscal policy (Posted May 22, 2012)
http://jlne.ws/JArFwf
Fossil fuel price shocks and a low carbon economy (Posted May 21, 2012)
Oxford/DECC
http://jlne.ws/JgVKG9
Using the Allowance Value from California’s Carbon Trading System: Legal Risk Factors, Impacts to Ratepayers and the Economy (Posted May 17, 2012)
Next10
http://jlne.ws/KEYcW5.
Inclusive Green Growth: The Pathways to Sustainable Development (Posted May 9, 2012)
World Bank
http://jlne.ws/IJXP8B
Meeting Canada’s 2020 Climate Change Commitments (Posted May 8, 2012)
Office of Auditor General
http://jlne.ws/K9Lxvd
