The European Union has had an emissions trading scheme since 2003, has set targets for 2020 and has taken other steps to significantly reduce emissions. New Zealand has legislated for a trading scheme. US states are setting up markets and the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates are promising to end the Bush administration’s recalcitrance on climate change.

Action by developed countries is a necessary first step if there is to be any hope of getting binding commitments from developing countries, which argue that, since it was the industrialised nations that created the problem, they should take the lead in resolving it.

China has announced that it will reduce the energy intensity of its output by 4 per cent a year, a significant step if it is delivered. It has imposed special taxes on industries such as steel, aluminium and cement to reduce their high use of energy. China has by far the biggest nuclear energy building program in the world and has set renewable energy targets.

Reducing emissions need not mean lowering economic growth. The challenge is to break the link between emissions and economic growth. Schwarzenegger has pointed to one way of doing so.

Garnaut suggests that all the money raised from selling permits for an emissions trading scheme be returned to the community. But the compensation has to be indirect if it is not to be self-defeating. Putting a carbon price on petrol, then cutting the excise by an equivalent amount, may be politically appealing. But it reverses the price signal designed to encourage reduced consumption and a shift to other forms of energy. Petrol prices are high enough now to encourage changed behaviour but they may not be in a few years, particularly if the world economy tanks.

That does not mean households, particularly those on lower incomes, should not receive compensation for higher petrol prices but that it should be given in other forms, such as through the social security and tax systems. As much as possible should be channeled into incentives for greater energy efficiency, measures that people on low incomes would not otherwise take.

Technorati Tags: European Union, Australia, Australia is starting well behind, climate change, climate, reduce energy, educed energy, energy, global warming, climate change, ISO 9001

If you’re a renter living in a small apartment, the chances are you’re not allowed to hang your clothes on the balcony - most bodies corporate forbid it. Instead, you’re probably forced to use a clothes dryer. It’s bad for the environment and bad for your bank balance.
And it is not only low income rental accommodation that has these rules! It is the same case where I live. I do air dry my washing on racks indoors but the whole clothes dryer thing is so unnecessary.
We do need to include renters, especially low-income renters, in the solution to climate change.

Adapting to climate change can be as cheap as allowing people to hang out their washing, but it can also involve considerable expense.

Low-income families can’t afford to install solar panels or buy hybrid cars. But enormous reductions in emissions are possible through much simpler and easier means. These include installing gas heating, insulation and compact fluorescent light globes, buying energy efficient refrigerators and other appliances, sealing gaps, and giving people better access to public transport.

We need solutions and we need them fast. In 2010, the new emissions trading system will be introduced, which will push up the price of energy. And because basic energy costs make up a higher proportion of low-income earners’ weekly income, they’re going to be hit the hardest.

Technorati Tags: low income earners combat climate change, climate change, ISO 9001, go green, green, global warming, climate change

Some endangered species may face an extinction risk that is up to a hundred times greater than previously thought, according to a study by University of Colorado in the journal Nature, Professor Brett Melbourne, said “By overlooking random differences between individuals in a given population, researchers may have badly underestimated the perils confronting threatened wildlife,” “Many larger populations previously considered relatively safe would actually be at risk,”

There are more than 16,000 species worldwide threatened with extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). One in four mammals, one in eight birds and one in three amphibians are on the IUCN’s endangered species “Red List”.

In a study released on Wednesday by Melbourne said the current models used draw up such lists typically look only at two risk factors.

• One is the individual deaths within a small population, such as Indian tigers or rare whales. When a species dwindles beyond a certain point, even the loss of a handful of individuals can have devastating long-term consequences, Melbourne explained. There are less than 400 specimens of several species of whale, for example, and probably no more than 4,000 tigers roaming in the wild.
• The second commonly-used factor is environmental conditions that can influence birth and death rates, such as habitat destruction, or fluctuations in temperature or rainfall, both of which can be linked to climate change.

These factors must be widened in order to give a fuller picture of extinction risk. They say that two other determinants must be taken into account: male-to-female ratios in a species, and a wider definition of randomness in individual births and deaths.

“This seems subtle and technical, but it turns out to be important,” Melbourne said in an email. “Population sizes might need to be much larger for species to be relatively safe from extinction.”

The new mathematical tool will be most useful for biologists who want to assess the survival prospects of species such as marine fish whose numbers can suddenly fluctuate and for which data is limited, the authors say.

Technorati Tags: extinction risks, extinction, extinction risks are vastly underestimated, International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN

This has been an issue for years with people wanting sunlight to grow vegetables and having ‘discussions” between neighbours and planners for the right to sunlight. This has taken on a new twist with the right to collect sunlight on solar panels.

One recent example from Hunter’s Hill in Sydney has left the home owners both out of pocket because of loss of the $8,000 solar rebate and also because the local planners has just approved a development next door that will shade the panels they have just spent $40,00 0 to install.

The home owner said “The whole idea was to reduce our carbon footprint - we knew it would never pay for itself - but that will now be pretty much worthless. We weren’t going to make any money out of doing this. We were basically just trying to do the right thing.”

The 20 panels cover half their roof, and generate about 4.2 kilowatts of electricity when in full sun - enough to meet the energy needs of an average house. The property next door is being renovated, with an extra storey and a parapet to be added.

Should the right to sunlight be a planning consideration? I would have thought so!

Technorati Tags: our right to sunlight, sunlight, growing vegetables, growing veggies, Hunters Hill, Sydney, global warming

Associate Professor Richard Denniss of the Crawford School at The Australian National University has been studying the likely effectiveness of the New Zealand Government’s Emissions Trading Scheme for his paper The NZ Emissions Trading Scheme – why is it so bad and can Australia’s be any better?

“Given the recent consternation in Australia over very small reductions in the price of petrol, it is difficult to see how we are going to have a sensible debate about an effective Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in Australia,” he said.

“The worst thing Australia could do would be to follow New Zealand down the path of incurring all the costs of an ETS, while missing out on all the economic and environmental benefits. He stated that New Zealand has gone for the worst of both worlds, but hopefully Australia can do better.”

He says that Australian policy makers need to look across the Tasman to learn a number of valuable lessons before the introduction of any national Emissions Trading Scheme, to ensure the New Zealand experience is not repeated here. It is to be hoped that powerful industry groups are not allowed to insulated themselves from the emissions trading.

Technorati Tags: emissions trading, lobby groups, emissions trading scheme, ETS, Australia, New Zealand

$2.8 Million has been allocated by the Federal Government for this planning. This included mapping coastal urban areas for inundation risks from climate change in as Perth, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.

The project will be implemented in collaboration with key national organisations such as the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information, the Australia and New Zealand Land Information Council, Geosciences Australia, CSIRO, and relevant state government agencies and commercial terrestrial mapping and monitoring companies.

They are also looking at how climate change affects variations in offshore wave characteristics will be developed by combining climate modeling and spectral wave modeling.

Technorati Tags:   Projects to help Australia’s vulnerable coastal communities plan for the effects of climate change, Australia’s vulnerable coastal communities plan, Australia, climate change, Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information, Australia and New Zealand Land Information Council, CSIRO

The South Australian Government and the Property Council of Australia (SA Division) have teamed up to undertake a $2 million project to improve the energy efficiency of commercial buildings in Adelaide’s CBD.

The State Government is to provide $2 million over four years to extend the operation of an existing program to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions produced by existing commercial buildings in Adelaide.

The Building Tune Ups-2012 project aims to improve the energy performance of all eligible commercial office buildings in the Adelaide CBD and has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions produced by Adelaide’s existing commercial building stock by about 70,000 tonnes annually.

Technorati Tags: energy efficiency, commercial buildings, Adelaide, South Australian Government, Property Council of Australia

The Hon Peter Garrett MP Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts has announced that Australia’s first engine emissions test facility for heavy duty vehicles will be built in Western Australia with $2.76 million in Australian Government funding, announced today by Environment Minister Peter Garrett. ‘This project will assist with funding the development of the first facility in Australia capable of testing heavy duty vehicle engines to international certification level testing for both regulated and greenhouse gas emissions,’ Mr Garrett said.

Technorati Tags: Hon Peter Garrett, MP minister for the environment, MP, Peter Garrett, Peter Garrett MP, Australia, engine emissions test, emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, global warming

Hi Jean

In response to your posting about green cars - are you aware of these? As I understand this engine was designed by someone in Meolbourne. Now - here’s a local industry worth getting behind.

Regards
Laurence

This is the same company who, a few months back,
came out with a car that costs only $2,500.00 new

(but it’s not available in the US, why does that not surprise me?).

A non polluting vehicle that eliminates the reason to buy gasoline from off shore companies.
How bad is that?

AMAZING AIR CAR!

The Compressed Air Car developed by Motor Development International (MDI) Founder Guy Negre might be the best thing to have happened to the motor engine in years.

The $12,700 CityCAT, one of the planned Air Car models, can hit 68 mph and has a range of 125 miles. It will take only a few minutes for the CityCAT to refuel at gas stations equipped with custom air compressor units. MDI says it should cost only around $2 to fill the car up with 340 liters of air!

The Air Car will be starting production relatively soon, thanks to India’s TATA Motors. Forget corn! There’s fuel, there’s renewable fuel, and then there’s user-renewable fuel! What can be better than air?

Check it out yourself and see - What A Cool Car! Enjoy!

This six-seater taxi should be available in India this year -2008!

Now If We Can Just Get It In The USA and Australia and England and Europe!

Technorati Tags:   CityCAT, Air Car models, Air Car, TATA Motors, new car with no gasoline

EU health experts warn that Europe could face an increase in outbreaks of diseases carried by insects and rodents as the climate on the continent becomes hotter and wetter.

Climate and environmental changes being predicted by experts will alter the risk to Europe from vector-(mosquito, ticks, rats etc) borne diseases,” ECDC head Zsuzsanna Jakab said in a statement.  “We are likely to see the spread of diseases such as tick-borne encephalitis, or even chikungunya fever, to places where they have not been seen before,” she added.

In addition to climate change, the European Union agency also said the risk of such vector-borne diseases, which affect millions of people worldwide each year, was growing due to “globalisation and the increased travel and trade that it brings.”

An example of the increased threat was seen last year, when a traveller who had been infected in India with chikungunya fever was bitten in northern Italy by a type of mosquito that can carry the disease and that recently arrived in Europe.

Nearly 250 people subsequently came down with the illness in what some experts said could be the first such outbreak outside the tropics.

“Authoritative climate scenarios for the future predict that many parts of Europe will become hotter and wetter,” and  these changes are likely to impact on disease vectors, such as mosquitoes  The agency cautioned that tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), which is considered one of the most dangerous infections of the central nervous system.