[Peakoil] Fwd: Earth Policy News - Cutting Carbon Emissions

[Antony Barry]

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Tony


Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Elizabeth Mygatt" <emygatt at earthpolicy.org>
> Date: 25 January 2006 4:44:06 AM
> To: <tony at tony-barry.emu.id.au>
> Subject: Earth Policy News - Cutting Carbon Emissions
> Reply-To: "earth-policy.org public list" <public at lists.earth- 
> policy.org>
>
> PLAN B 2.0 Excerpt 2006-1
> For Immediate Release
> January 24, 2006
>
>
> CUTTING CARBON EMISSIONS
> http://www.earthpolicy.org/Books/PB2/PB2ch10_intro.htm
>
> Lester R. Brown
>
> Some time ago, I had a call from my son Brian, who had come across  
> a huge
> new wind farm as he was driving on one of the interstate highways  
> in west
> Texas. He described the rows of wind turbines receding toward the  
> horizon.
> Interspersed among them were oil wells. The wind turbines were  
> turning and
> the oil wells were pumping. My son was fascinated by the  
> juxtaposition of
> the old and the new, the past and the future. I said, “If you  
> return 30
> years from now, the wind turbines will still be turning, but it is
> unlikely that the oil wells will be pumping.” What he was looking  
> at in a
> nutshell was the energy transition, the shift from the age of  
> fossil fuels
> to renewables.
>
> The energy transition is gaining momentum. When the Kyoto Protocol was
> negotiated in 1997, the proposed 5-percent reduction in carbon  
> emissions
> from 1990 levels in industrial countries by 2012 seemed like an  
> ambitious
> goal. Now it is widely seen as an outmoded, grossly inadequate goal.
> National governments, local governments, corporations, and  
> environmental
> groups are coming up with plans to cut carbon emissions much  
> further than
> was agreed to in Kyoto by turning to renewables and raising energy
> efficiency. Some individuals and groups are even beginning to think  
> about
> how to cut carbon emissions by 70 percent, the amount that  
> scientists say
> will be needed to stabilize climate.
>
> In July 2005, the European Commission proposed a new plan to cut  
> energy
> use 20 percent by 2020 and to increase the renewable share of Europe’s
> energy supply to 12 percent by 2010. Together, these two  
> initiatives will
> reduce Europe’s carbon emissions by nearly one third. Among the  
> long list
> of measures to boost energy efficiency in these countries are  
> replacing
> old, inefficient refrigerators, switching to high-efficiency light  
> bulbs,
> and insulating roofs. Reaching the renewables goal requires a rather
> conservative addition of 15,000 megawatts of wind power, a fivefold
> expansion of ethanol production, and a threefold increase in biodiesel
> production. The Europeans’ proposed 20-percent cut in energy use by  
> 2020
> contrasts sharply with the projected growth of 10 percent under a
> business-as-usual scenario.
>
> The proposed plan, which is scheduled for final approval in 2006, is
> designed to save 60 billion euros by 2020. It is also designed to
> stimulate economic growth, create new jobs, and, by reducing energy
> outlays, enhance European competitiveness in world markets. The 25- 
> member
> European Union is second only to the United States in energy  
> consumption.
>
> In 2005 the Japanese government also announced a national campaign to
> dramatically boost energy efficiency in its economy, already one of  
> the
> world’s most efficient. It urged its people to replace older,  
> inefficient
> appliances and to buy hybrid cars. The New York Times described  
> this as
> “all part of a patriotic effort to save energy and fight global  
> warming.”
> It noted that the large manufacturing firms were jumping on the energy
> efficiency bandwagon as a way of increasing sales of their latest
> high-efficiency models.
>
> Beyond this initial effort, Japan has set goals for boosting appliance
> efficiency even further, cutting energy use of television sets by 17
> percent, of personal computers by 30 percent, of air conditioners  
> by 36
> percent, and of refrigerators by a staggering 72 percent.  
> Scientists are
> working on a vacuum-insulated refrigerator that will use only one  
> eighth
> as much electricity as those marketed a decade ago.
>
> At the nongovernmental level, a plan developed for Canada by the David
> Suzuki Foundation and the Climate Action Network would halve carbon
> emissions by 2030 and would do it only with investments in energy
> efficiency that are profitable. And in early April 2003, the World
> Wildlife Fund released a peer-reviewed analysis by a team of  
> scientists
> that proposed reducing carbon emissions from U.S. electric power
> generation 60 percent by 2020. This proposal centers on a shift to  
> more
> energy-efficient power generation equipment, the use of more-efficient
> household appliances and industrial motors and other equipment, and in
> some situations a shift from coal to natural gas as an energy  
> source. If
> implemented, it would result in national savings averaging $20  
> billion a
> year from now until 2020.
>
> In Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, the ministry of energy  
> plans
> to phase out the province’s five large coal-fired power plants by  
> 2009.
> The first, Lakeview Generating Station, was closed in April 2005;  
> three
> more will close by the end of 2007, and the last will be shut down in
> early 2009. All three major political parties support the plan to  
> replace
> coal with wind, natural gas, and efficiency gains. Jack Gibbons,  
> director
> of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance, which endorses the ministry’s plan,
> says of coal burning, “It’s a nineteenth century fuel that has no  
> place in
> twenty-first century Ontario.”
>
> Corporations are also getting involved. U.S.-based Interface, the  
> world’s
> largest manufacturer of industrial carpeting, cut carbon emissions  
> by two
> thirds in its Canadian affiliate during the 1990s. It did so by  
> examining
> every facet of its business—from electricity consumption to trucking
> procedures. Founder and chairman Ray Anderson says, “Interface  
> Canada has
> reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 64 percent from the peak, and made
> money in the process, in no small measure because our customers  
> support
> environmental responsibility.” The Suzuki plan to cut Canadian carbon
> emissions in half by 2030 was inspired by the profitability of the
> Interface initiative.
>
> Although stabilizing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels is a staggering
> challenge, it is entirely doable. With advances in wind turbine  
> design,
> the evolution of gas-electric hybrid cars, advances in solar cell
> manufacturing, and gains in the efficiency of household appliances,  
> we now
> have the basic technologies needed to shift quickly from a
> fossil-fuel-based to a renewable-energy-based economy. Cutting world
> carbon emissions in half by 2015 is entirely within range. Ambitious
> though this goal might seem, it is not incommensurate with the  
> threat that
> climate change poses.
>
>
> #    #   #
>
> Excerpted from Chapter 10, “Stabilizing Climate,” in Lester R.  
> Brown, Plan
> B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble  
> (New
> York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006), available on-line at
> www.earthpolicy.org/Books/PB2/index.htm
>
> “A great book which should wake up humankind!” – Klaus Schwab, World
> Economic Forum
>
> For more information from the Earth Policy Institute related to  
> “Cutting
> Carbon Emissions,” see www.earth-policy.org/Indicators/CO2/index.htm
>
> Additional data and information sources at www.earthpolicy.org or  
> contact
> jlarsen(at)earthpolicy.org
>
> For reprint permission contact rjkauffman(at)earthpolicy.org
> ---
>

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