Sachiyo Yasunaga's Public Library

08 Dec 09

The World Bank - Climate Change - Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change Study

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06 Dec 09

Public Opinion In China « DemocraticPeace Blog

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China and U.S. Seek a Truce on Greenhouse Gases - NYTimes.com

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China says the United States should reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. The bill before Congress, which could be further weakened, now calls for less than a 4 percent reduction over that period.

Budgets Falling in Race to Fight Global Warming - New York Times

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the most promising technologies for limiting global warming: solar power, wind, ethanol and other farmed fuels, energy-efficient buildings and fuel-sipping cars.
the challenge of limiting emissions of carbon dioxide, which traps heat, will be immense in a world likely to add 2.5 billion people by midcentury
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- most of those people will live in countries like China and India, which are just beginning to enjoy an electrified, air-conditioned mobile society.
- research into energy technologies by both government and industry has not been rising, but rather falling.
- federal spending for all energy research and development — not just the research aimed at climate-friendly technologies — is less than half what it was a quarter-century ago. It has sunk to $3 billion a year in the current budget from an inflation-adjusted peak of $7.7 billion in 1979,
- President Bush has sought an increase to $4.2 billion for 2007, but that would still be a small fraction of what most climate and energy experts say would be needed.
- Federal spending on medical research, by contrast, has nearly quadrupled, to $28 billion annually, since 1979. Military research has increased 260 percent, and at more than $75 billion a year is 20 times the amount spent on energy research.
- Most of these experts also say existing energy alternatives and improvements in energy efficiency are simply not enough.
  “We cannot come close to stabilizing temperatures” unless humans, by the end of the century, stop adding more CO2 to the atmosphere than it can absorb,
- To make any resulting “alternative” energy options the new norm will require attaching a significant cost to the carbon emissions from coal, oil and gas.

05 Dec 09

Kyoto Protocol - What is the Kyoto Protocol?

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Arguments against the Kyoto Protocol generally fall into three categories: it demands too much; it achieves too little; or it is unnecessary.
President Bush claimed that the treaty requirements would harm the U.S. economy, leading to economic losses of $400 billion and costing 4.9 million jobs.
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- Bush also objected to the exemption for developing nations. The president’s decision brought heavy criticism from U.S. allies and environmental groups in the U.S. and around the world.
- there is no real evidence that Earth’s surface temperature is rising due to human activity
- Russia’s Academy of Sciences called the Russian government's decision to approve the Kyoto Protocol "purely political," and said that it had "no scientific justification."

04 Dec 09

Kyoto Protocol

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The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on
16 February 2005.

03 Dec 09

China and U.S. Seek a Truce on Greenhouse Gases - NYTimes.com

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They are, as President Obama’s chief climate negotiator puts it, “the two gorillas in the room,” and if they do not reach some sort of truce, there is no chance of forging a meaningful international treaty in Copenhagen later this year to restrict emissions.
Without the full participation of the United States and China, most negotiators believe that any agreement is doomed to fail.
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- The Chinese have begun to consider a series of unilateral actions to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, stepping up production of renewable electricity and increasing the efficiency of their manufacturing, buildings and vehicles. But Beijing insists it will not sacrifice China’s economy to meet the demands of outsiders, particularly those in the developed world that are responsible for the vast majority of human-caused carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere.
- They want to preserve their right to develop.”
- China will not accept absolute limits on its emissions, officials have begun to consider putting in place domestic targets to significantly reduce the carbon intensity of the country’s heaviest-emitting industries.
- China is trying to reduce the amount of energy emitted per unit of gross domestic product by approximately 20 percent by 2010, a goal it may or may not meet. Some experts question the accuracy of China’s official reports, and say it will be impossible to monitor the nation’s progress without a better system for tracking greenhouse gas pollution.
- “China and other developing countries do not need to take the same actions that developed countries are taking,” Mr. Stern said, “but they do need to take significant national actions that they commit to — internationally — that they quantify, and that are ambitious enough to be broadly consistent with the levels of science.”

Home - COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009

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United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

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Statement by Ambassador ZHANG Yesui at the UN General Assembly Informal Meeting on Climate Change

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hina will as always take an active part in international negotiations on climate change, and make its share of contributions to tackling climate change.
- developed countries should continue to shoulder the duty of adopting mid-term, quantified goals for large-scale emission cut;
- developing countries should, according to their specific national conditions and with the support of the developed countries in capital and technological transfer, try their best to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and strive to adapt to climate change;
- an effective funding mechanism should be established to facilitate the financial support of developed countries to developing countries;
- an effective mechanism should be installed to promote transfer of environment-and-climate-friendly technologies to developing countries and enhance their capacity for addressing climate change.

Budgets Falling in Race to Fight Global Warming - New York Times

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harvesting solar power
California, following models set in Japan and Germany, is trying to help solar energy with various incentives.
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- This administration has developed the most sophisticated and carefully considered strategic plan for advancing the technologies that are a necessary part of the climate solution,”
- too little is known about specific dangers of global warming to justify hard targets or mandatory curbs for the gas.
- a big increase in government spending on basic energy research will happen only if scientists can persuade the public and politicians that it is an essential hedge against potential calamity.
- We’re good at rushing in with white hats

Budgets Falling in Race to Fight Global Warming - New York Times

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The most immediate gains could come simply by increasing energy efficiency
Another area requiring immediate intensified work, Dr. Holdren and other experts say, is large-scale demonstration of systems for capturing carbon dioxide from coal burning before too many old-style plants are built.
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- We just need to build the damn things on a billion-dollar scale.”
- In the United States, the biggest effort along these lines is the 285-megawatt Futuregen power plant planned by the Energy Department,
- Europe is pursuing a suite of such plants, including one in China, but also well behind the necessary pace, several experts said.

02 Dec 09

Trade Concerns Raised in U.S. Climate Debate | Worldwatch Institute

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"If a U.S.
company, say a steel mill in Ohio,
if their cost goes up dramatically for cutting carbon, it's one more reason to
think they're not going to be competitive.... They lose jobs.

気候変動枠組条約 - Wikipedia

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(2) 開発途上締約国等の国別事情の勘案
(1) 締約国の共通だが、差異のある責任
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- (3) 速やかかつ有効な予防措置の実施

Problems with the Protocol | Harvard Magazine Nov-Dec 2002

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the protocol fails to include the largest future sources of CO₂ emissions. China,
the choice of 1990 immediately introduced inequities into the ensuing political process to determine who should cut how much,
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- the Europeans a massive advantage relative to other countries
- y selecting a timescale that was almost immediate—a completion date of 2008—the Kyoto Protocol mandated economically inefficient measures to achieve its targets.
- 30 years
- it gives credit for planting forests to sequester carbon, but in a way that provides economic incentives to destroy wetlands, with concomitant releases of CO₂ in excess of what a forest might sequester.
- he protocol doesn’t address the true problem
- atmospheric concentrations of CO
- Kyoto Protocol doesn’t even set a long-term goal for atmospheric concentrations of CO₂
- "The scientific and economic consensus," he says, "points to the need for a credible mitigation strategy."

01 Dec 09

Kyoto Protocol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The most notable non-member of the Protocol is the United States, which is a signatory of UNFCCC and was responsible for 36.1% of the 1990 emission levels.
Under the Protocol, 37 industrialized countries (called "Annex I countries") commit themselves to a reduction of four greenhouse gases (GHG) (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulphur hexafluoride) and two groups of gases (hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons) produced by them, and all member countries give general commitments. Annex I countries agreed to reduce their collective greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2% from the 1990 level. Emission limits do not include emissions by international aviation and shipping, but are in addition to the industrial gases, chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which are dealt with under the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.
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- Each Annex I country is required to submit an annual report of inventories of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from sources and removals from sinks under UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol. These countries nominate a person (called a "designated national authority") to create and manage its greenhouse gas inventory. Countries including Japan, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain and others are actively promoting government carbon funds, supporting multilateral carbon funds intent on purchasing carbon credits from non-Annex I countries,^[3] and are working closely with their major utility, energy, oil and gas and chemicals conglomerates to acquire greenhouse gas certificates as cheaply as possible.^{[citation needed]} Virtually all of the non-Annex I countries have also established a designated national authority to manage its Kyoto obligations, specifically the "CDM process" that determines which GHG projects they wish to propose for accreditation by the CDM Executive Board.
- The most notable non-party to the Protocol is the United States, which is a party to UNFCCC and was responsible for 36.1% of the 1990 emission levels of Annex I countries.
  
  The Protocol can be signed and ratified only by parties to UNFCCC, (Article 24) and a country can withdraw by giving 12 months notice. (Article 27)
- whereby all the participating nations commit themselves to tackling the issue of global warming and greenhouse gas emissions. The target agreed upon was an average reduction of 5.2% from 1990 levels by the year 2012.
- The five principal concepts of the Kyoto Protocol are:^{[citation needed]}
  
  commitments to reduce greenhouse gases that are legally binding for annex I countries, as well as general commitments for all member countries;
  implementation to meet the Protocol objectives, to prepare policies and measures which reduce greenhouse gases; increasing absorption of these gases (for example through geosequestration and biosequestration) and use all mechanisms available, such as joint implementation, clean development mechanism and emissions trading; being rewarded with credits which allow more greenhouse gas emissions at home;
  minimizing impacts on developing countries by establishing an adaptation fund for climate change;
  accounting, reporting and review to ensure the integrity of the Protocol;
  compliance by establishing a compliance committee to enforce commitment to the Protocol.
- Under the Protocol, Annex I countries have committed themselves to national or joint reduction targets, (formally called "quantified emission limitation and reduction objectives"- Article 4.1) that range from a joint reduction of 8% for the European Union and others, to 7% for the United States (non-binding as the US is not a signatory), 6% for Japan and 0% for Russia. The treaty permits emission increases of 8% for Australia and 10% for Iceland.^[9] Emission limits do not include emissions by international aviation and shipping.
- The Protocol provides for several "flexible mechanisms" which enable Annex I countries to meet their GHG emission targets by acquiring GHG emission reductions credits. The credits are acquired by an Annex I country financing projects that reduce emissions in non-Annex I countries or other Annex I countries, or by purchasing credits from Annex I countries with excess credits. The flexible mechanisms are emissions trading, the clean development mechanism (CDM) and joint implementation.
- the largest share of historical and current global emissions of greenhouse gases originated in developed countries;
  per capita emissions in developing countries are still relatively low;
  the share of global emissions originating in developing countries will grow to meet social and development needs.^[11]
- The Protocol also reaffirms the principle that developed countries have to pay billions of dollars, and supply technology to other countries for climate-related studies and projects. The principle was originally agreed in UNFCCC.

China Approves Kyoto Protocol -- china.org.cn

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less than the required 55 percent of the total global greenhouse gas emissions.

Emissions trading - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Emissions trading (also known as emission trading or cap and trade) is an administrative approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants.

A central authority (usually a governmental body) sets a limit or cap on the amount of a pollutant that can be emitted. Companies or other groups are issued emission permits and are required to hold an equivalent number of allowances (or credits) which represent the right to emit a specific amount. The total amount of allowances and credits cannot exceed the cap, limiting total emissions to that level. Companies that need to increase their emission allowance must buy credits from those who pollute less. The transfer of allowances is referred to as a trade. In effect, the buyer is paying a charge for polluting, while the seller is being rewarded for having reduced emissions by more than was needed. Thus, in theory, those who can reduce emissions most cheaply will do so, achieving the pollution reduction at the lowest cost to society.^[1]
There are active trading programs in several air pollutants. For greenhouse gases the largest is the European Union Emission Trading Scheme.^[2] In the United States there is a national market to reduce acid rain and several regional markets in nitrogen oxides.^[3] Markets for other pollutants tend to be smaller and more localized.
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- Critics include environmental justice nongovernmental organizations,^[80] economists, labor organizations and those concerned about energy supply and excessive taxation
- trading pollution allowances should be avoided because they result in failures in accounting, dubious science and the destructive impacts of projects upon local peoples and environments.
- Most of the criticisms have focused on the carbon market created through investment in Kyoto Mechanisms. Criticism of cap-and-trade emissions trading has generally been more limited to lack of credibility in the first phase of the EU ETS.^[85]
- t emissions trading does little to solve pollution problems overall, since groups that do not pollute sell their conservation to the highest bidder.
- Critics of carbon trading, such as Carbon Trade Watch, argue that it places disproportionate emphasis on individual lifestyles and carbon footprints, distracting attention from the wider, systemic changes and collective political action that needs to be taken to tackle climate change

Joint Implementation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Joint implementation (JI) is one of three flexibility mechanisms set forth in the Kyoto Protocol to help countries with binding greenhouse gas emissions targets (so-called Annex I countries) meet their obligations. JI is set forth in Article 6 of the Kyoto Protocol.^[1] Under Article 6, any Annex I country can invest in emission reduction projects (referred to as "Joint Implementation Projects") in any other Annex I country as an alternative to reducing emissions domestically. In this way countries can lower the costs of complying with their Kyoto targets by investing in greenhouse gas reductions in an Annex I country where reductions are cheaper, and then applying the credit for those reductions towards their commitment goal.

Clean Development Mechanism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol allowing industrialised countries with a greenhouse gas reduction commitment (called Annex 1 countries) to invest in ventures that reduce emissions in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries. A crucial feature of an approved CDM carbon project is that it has established that the planned reductions would not occur without the additional incentive provided by emission reductions credits, a concept known as "additionality".
The CDM allows net global greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced at a much lower global cost by financing emissions reduction projects in developing countries where costs are lower than in industrialized countries
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- However, in recent years, criticism against the mechanism has increased.
- Establishing additionality
- To avoid giving credits to projects that would have happened anyway ("freeriders"),
- What is often labelled ‘environmental additionality’ has that a project is additional if the emissions from the project are lower than the baseline. It generally looks at what would have happened without the project.
- In the other interpretation, sometimes termed ‘project additionality’, the project must not have happened without the CDM.
- Concerns
  
  [edit] Exclusion of forest conservation/avoided deforestation from the CDM
  
  The first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol excluded forest conservation/avoided deforestation from the CDM for a variety of political, practical and ethical reasons^[3].
- However, carbon emissions from deforestation represent 18-25% of all emissions^[4], and will account for more carbon emissions in the next five years than all emissions from all aircraft since the Wright Brothers until at least 2025^[5].
- There is so far no international agreement about whether projects avoiding deforestation or conserving forests
- There is also local opposition. For example, May 2 2008, at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), Indigenous leaders from around the world protested against the Clean Energy Mechanisms, especially against Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
- Reduced Emissions from Avoided Deforestation and Degradation (REDD),
- would allow rain forest preservation to qualify for CDM project status. REDD has gained support through recent meetings of the COP, and will be examined at Copenhagen.

Sachiyo Yasunaga's Public Library

The World Bank - Climate Change - Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change Study

Public Opinion In China « DemocraticPeace Blog

China and U.S. Seek a Truce on Greenhouse Gases - NYTimes.com

Budgets Falling in Race to Fight Global Warming - New York Times

Kyoto Protocol - What is the Kyoto Protocol?

Kyoto Protocol

China and U.S. Seek a Truce on Greenhouse Gases - NYTimes.com

Home - COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Statement by Ambassador ZHANG Yesui at the UN General Assembly Informal Meeting on Climate Change

Budgets Falling in Race to Fight Global Warming - New York Times

Budgets Falling in Race to Fight Global Warming - New York Times

Trade Concerns Raised in U.S. Climate Debate | Worldwatch Institute

気候変動枠組条約 - Wikipedia

Problems with the Protocol | Harvard Magazine Nov-Dec 2002

Kyoto Protocol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

China Approves Kyoto Protocol -- china.org.cn

Emissions trading - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joint Implementation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Clean Development Mechanism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Concerns

[edit] Exclusion of forest conservation/avoided deforestation from the CDM

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