India’s emission trading scheme (ETS), dubbed the Carbon Credit and Trading Scheme (CCTS), passed into legislation last year. CCTS will be an extremely important policy instrument in the path to reach
Meteorologist and biosphere scientist Carlos Nobre of Brazil's National Institute for Space Research in S
With the right infrastructure, the forces threatening to destroy the world's trees could be their salvation. (Editorial) March 13, 2008
Scientists and policy-makers will meet in Bonn this June to discuss one of the most pressing concerns to come out of December's United Nations climate meeting
It now delivers electricity, hot water to Japanese homes A prototype of a fuel cell battery for mobile phones, a file picture. Hiratsuka: Masanori Naruse jogs every day, collects miniature cars and feeds birds in his backyard, but he is proudest of the way his home and 2,200 others in Japan get electricity and heat water
By Wg Cdr N K Pant (Retd) Scientists estimate that the effect of aviation emissions on the climate is up to five times the impact of emissions occurring on the ground. The primary gas emitted by jet aircraft engines is carbon dioxide, which, scientists believe, can survive in the atmosphere up to 100 years. It means denying the coming generations from living in a world where they can breathe clean air, enjoy diverse ecosystems and eat healthy food. Some of the major airlines of the world seem to be lately realising the adverse role of their big passenger jets on climate changes on account of emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the engine-exhausts into the earth's atmosphere. In this context Virgin Atlantic's first flight of a commercial aircraft powered with bio-fuel from London to Amsterdam on February 24, 2008 to show it can produce less carbon dioxide than normal jet fuels was an appreciable endeavour. This particular flight was partially fueled with a bio-fuel mixture of coconut and babassu oil in one of its four main fuel tanks and is expected to produce much less CO2 than regular jet fuel. Since aircraft engines emit gases and particulates that reduce air quality, spearheading the test flight was indeed a potentially useful experiment aimed at cutting down emission of greenhouse gases. A few weeks prior to this, an airbus A 380 too had taken off on a similar test sortie, powered on a blend of regular fuel and liquid fuel processed from natural gas with the hope that the super jumbo will become a centerpiece of efforts to develop the next generation of cleaner fuel. Several airlines have also pledged to clean up their fleets as fears about global warming and fuel costs have mounted. The petrol and diesel driven vehicles leave harmful trails of smoke on the roads. Thousands of air turbine fuel (ATF) guzzling aeroplanes release tonnes of hazardous fumes into our biosphere daily. The increasing size of aircraft, the emission of black smoke during take-off, and the density of air traffic at major airports, have drawn environmentalists' attention to pollution by aircraft. A loaded jumbo 747, for instance, uses tens of thousands of litres of fuel on merely take-off. Pollution by aircraft arises from the jettisoning of spare fuel after being airborne. It must be released at a height sufficient to allow it to vaporise so that it does not reach the ground in liquid form. Commercial jet planes make a significant contribution to the problem of global warming. According to a UN report, aviation is responsible for over half of the pollution caused by transportation on the surface. In India the number of passenger and freight aircraft flown by private airlines is fast multiplying. The Indian Air Force is likely to increase its flying operations in the coming years. Its increasing use of supersonic combat aircraft flying at high altitudes may lead to increasing pollution of the upper air, where pollutants may accumulate since natural dispersion at such heights is not very effective. It is estimated that one multi-engine passenger aircraft is being added every fortnight to the fleets of India's domestic carriers that are engaged in cutthroat competition to fly to the remotest corners of the country. As a result, the number of aircraft flying the Indian skies has gone up considerably. Air Force, Army, Navy and the coast guard has more than 1,000 fighter jets, transport planes and helicopters kept aloft in routinely scheduled day and night flying.
Japan will consider a scheme for trading greenhouse gas emissions, the government said on Friday, a week after a powerful business lobby and the trade ministry softened their strong opposition. In a report of new steps aimed at slashing its greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Kyoto protocol, the government also proposed deeper but voluntary cuts for industry, adding to existing measures such as preserving forests and purchasing emissions rights from abroad. The plan, revealed as Japan prepares to host a climate-focussed G8 summit of industrialised nations in July, will be opened for public comment before it is officially adopted by the end of March. A cap-and-trade system with mandatory emissions limits, long opposed by the Japan Business Federation, was mentioned in the plan as a topic for consideration in the near future, as were environmental taxes and the introduction of daylight saving time. Environment Minister Ichiro Kamoshita warned other cabinet ministers that they might later be asked to cooperate with further cuts, an official said. As the host of the conference that produced the Kyoto Protocol, Japan is anxious to improve its own emissions record, at present well adrift of its goal of an average 6 percent cut on 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. That means slashing emissions to 1.186 billion tonnes a year of carbon dioxide equivalent, although Japan actually emitted an estimated 1.359 billion tonnes in the year that ended in March 2006. As it prepares to host G8 on the northern island of Hokkaido in July, Japan has been attempting to take a leading role in climate change, including by planning a major environmental conference ahead of the main summit, media reports have said. The top UN climate change official said earlier this month it would be a disadvantage if Japan were to stay out of an otherwise universal cap-and-trade system in the future. The business lobby's chairman, Fujio Mitarai, was reported this month as softening his opposition to cap-and-trade, while the trade ministry said it was seriously studying such an approach. (Reporting by Isabel Reynolds and Chisa Fujioka; Editing by Mike Miller) REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
Nippon Oil Corp said Friday it has received a carbon credit of around 4.49 million tons from the United Nations for its oil development project in Vietnam. The certified emission reduction credit, granted for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions in the Rang Dong oil field in southern Vietnam, is the largest one-time CER credit to be approved by the Clean Development Mechanism Executive Board, Japan's largest oil distributor said.
It Is not immediately obvious what role financial markets can play in addressing climate change. Climate change happens slowly and has a global impact on the physical environment, whereas financial markets react to news in fractions of a second and are almost liberated from specific physical locations. the low energy intensity of the financial sector means that reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions would have little impact on the physical operations of financial markets and institutions. March 2008
Climate science tells that the earth is warming as a result of human activities. But considerable uncertainty regarding the precise nature and extent of the risks remains. Economists are needed to develop sensible policies to address these risks, which account for the uncertainties.
Regulation of polluting emissions from international shipping lags far behind land-based sources, despite widely available cleaner fuels and exhaust after-treatment technologies. March 2008
