July 26th, 2010 Posted by Admin in Renewable Energy
Following the start of the industrial revolution, in 1824 Jean-Baptiste Fourier discovered a global warming “greenhouse” effect and in 1896 Swedish and American scientists independently concluded that CO2 was the likely cause of global warming. Nearly 90 years later in 1987 the WMO and UNEP established a scientific advisory body called the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which issued its First Assessment Report in 1990, finding that the planet had warmed by 0.5°C in the past century and would rise further by 0.3°C per decade in the 21st century, accompanied by global mean sea level rises of 6 cm per decade. In 2007 the IPCC released its Fourth Assessment Report, concluding with 90% confidence that human activity is causing climate change and that “Global GHG emissions due to human activities have grown since pre-industrial times with an increase of 70% between 1970 and 2004.”
In 2008 our planet was estimated to contain 385 ppm (parts per million) of CO2 in its atmosphere, the highest concentration of CO2 for more than 630,000 years. This is widely agreed to be due to human industrial advancement, specifically the production and consumption of power from the burning of fossil fuels that are estimated to have caused around 85% of CO2 emissions. It is known that global temperature increase must be kept within 2°C to prevent an irreversible chain reaction of greenhouse gas release from forests, peat bogs, Siberian permafrost and oceans, which would change the planet’s ecosystems irrevocably. To ensure this temperature rise does not occur concentration of CO2 must not pass 450 ppm, which means reducing CO2 emissions to 60% below 1990 levels before 2030.
June 2nd, 2010 Posted by Admin in Economies
Global populations are growing faster than ever before and due to urbanisation and degradation, the amount of available arable land in the world has actually been diminishing since 2005!! Combined with the effects of climate change, with wilder weather patterns causing floods hurricanes and droughts, these phenomena will have an enormous impact on the global economy in the years to come. With food being one of our staple requirements, global crop demand is destined to surge throughout the century, making agriculture a safe haven for any mid/long-term investor.
UK farmland has increased by 18% in the past 6 months according to property consultants Strutt & Parker and strong growth rates are expected to continue into this decade. As demand increases faster and faster worldwide, expect crop prices to increase driving investor yields and pushing capital appreciation for farmland owners. Also of course watch food prices rise ….
April 26th, 2010 Posted by Admin in Carbon
Capturing CO2 and trapping it under ground in order to keep our own atmosphere habitable sounds like a concept out of an Isaac Asimov science fiction novel. However many groups of experts around the world have been working for years on developing carbon capture & storage (CCS) technology as a genuine real solution to save the planet. Certain areas in the US have large underground gaps in the rock where the depositing of CO2 at high pressure has been seriously under consideration from some time now, whilst the Scottish government has been planning to use the emptied north-sea oil fields for the very same activity. But how real is the science behind this, and how secure is it?
With global CO2 levels rising faster than ever, drastically affecting our ecosystems possibly beyond repair, global governments are dedicated to exploring every possible option for improving energy efficiency, developing sustainable renewable energy, reducing CO2 emissions in to the atmosphere and even removing CO2 from the atmosphere. Reducing energy consumption is a crucial exercise for the most immediate effect, whilst minimising CO2 production levels from ongoing energy production is the long-term goal, and CCS seems like the most adventurous concept. Nature itself has many natural devices it has developed to remove CO2 from the ecosystem, such as the world’s oceans and forests. We all know that planting trillions of trees would solve the problem, but implementing this globally is just proving completely impossible, and so now scientists have been working on other ways to remove or absorb the CO2 and keep our atmosphere liveable.
Concepts range from the wilder and wackier such as ”fake trees” to sequester much higher rates of CO2, through to simply trapping the CO2 generated (from standard coal-fired power plants) and rather than releasing in to the atmosphere, simply collecting, treating and hiding away. This has never seemed like a real solution, but more like a stop-gap, or a last-chance attempt by the fossil-fuel power plant owners to justify their continuing activity. Your domestic equivalent would be storing your household rubbish under the bed. The house will look tidy, but after a few days, weeks, months, years, at some point things will start to turn bad.
Storing harmful gases under high pressure under the ground on which we walk is not the most confidence-filling concept, however the scientists promoting the idea have always firmly stated that this was technologically feasible. However now some independent studies from un-biased scientists from Houston University have highlighted that there really are large flaws and look likely to blow a hole in the theory supporting the concept. Hopefully the world’s governments will not be so short-sighted as to continue with such a potentially dangerous activity without the highest level of independent scientific research for this particular experiment. For further details click here.
April 23rd, 2010 Posted by Admin in Electric Vehicles
Both the UK and Spain government’s are in a low-carbon emission race to see who can implement a stable and complete electric vehicle infrastructure in their major cities first. Whilst the British government have suggested a figure of US$150m to put London on the EV map, the Spanish government have recently announced a budget of €590m for the rollout of their Sustainable Economy Strategy “Action Plan”.
On the 6th April 2010 the Spanish government announced the extension to their current “Movele” plan that outlines the integration of 2000 electric vehicles and 500 charge points as a test bed by 2010. The new announcement outlines the government’s goal to reach 250,000 EVs by 2014 across all major Spanish cities. Not an easy task, to reach this goal will involve infrastructure, general public and private demand, R&D, marketing and legal strategy development. With the “Movele” test strategy having a budget of just €10m, the Government has outlined a total of €590m over the next 5 years to make this implementation successful. For further details visit www.economiasostenible.gob.es/.
Meanwhile in the UK the strategy is slightly different, focussing on delivering 1000 vehicles to Greater London by 2015. Two separate tenders have been proposed, firstly of US$100m for the EVs themselves, with current bidders Smith Vehicles and Nissan vying for the opportunity to start what could become the World’s first major EV network. A second tender of US$45m for the infrastructure, parking and recharging stations, has also been outlined. London is close behind the heels of Spain in their own attempt to slash carbon emissions by 60% by 2025. For further details visit Transport for London http://www.tfl.gov.uk/
December 16th, 2009 Posted by Admin in Carbon
Last week the US’ Environmental Protection Agency officially confirmed that global warming from manmade greenhouse gases does have a negative effect on the American citizen’s health and welfare, something that the previous Bush administration refused to accept. They also stated that the pollutants – mainly carbon dioxide from fossil fuels – should be reduced, if not by Congress then by the agency responsible for enforcing air pollution. Existing power plants could now be forced to clean their emissions and also a more fuel-efficient vehicle policy across the US could be enforced, via the EPA’s “US Clean Air Act”. Either way, whether the EPA or Congress control the emissions reduction programs, the American people will feel the economic squeeze but can look forward to a healthier future.
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December 14th, 2009 Posted by Admin in Carbon
A cruel twist of fate may have let the world’s major polluters off again. Unfortunately following the African nations’ walkout earlier in the 15th Conference of Parties in Copenhagen, the US and developed nations have been able to divert attention away from the serious issue of their own pollution levels, to the less important issue of controlling growth over developing countries’ emissions. Courtesy of Recharge News a new sculpture in Copenhagen captures the reality of the situation, poor nations carrying the rich, in “The Survival of the Fattest”.
December 10th, 2009 Posted by Admin in Carbon
Although China recently exceeded the US as the largest annual polluter, the US became the largest global polluter ever by overtaking the UK in 1910 with around 21bn tonnes cumulatively each at the time. US industrial growth has since given the US a cumulative carbon footprint of 334bn tonnes, as estimated in 2006 since 1751. When compared with China at 100bn tonnes, the UK at 72bn tonnes, Japan at 46bn tonnes and Germany at 41bn tonnes, it is easy to see who should take the most responsibility for global warming.
Take in to account that the US carbon footprint has tripled (from 110bn tonnes) in the past 50 years alone, during which time the exact same country has become by far the strongest economy in the World. It takes decades for carbon dioxide to have full effect on our eco-systems and these results of global warming (such as Hurricane Katrina which is recognised as a global warming influenced invent) are only now being noticed more and more in the last decade. Let’s hope that the US takes responsibility for their emissions at the Copenhagen Conference of Parties next week and make a financial commitment proportional to their impact on global warming.
Keep up to date with the COP15 progress as the US and other developed countries hopefully acknowledge their responsibilities to not only the developing World but our own children’s futures, here: http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=2942
December 1st, 2009 Posted by Admin in Carbon
As the Conference of Parties in Copenhagen approaches next week, 192 nations of the World prepare to meet to solve the global pollution problem and find a workable replacement to the Kyoto Protocol. Being something that the US has still not signed up to, what was desperately needed to add weight to this gathering was an official emissions-reduction target from the United States. However the US and China, the 2 largest polluters in the World responsible for 50% of global pollution, have given us little more than a publicity stunt.
Following an historic meeting in mid November 2009, both President Hu Jintao of the People’s Republic of China and President Obama of the United States of America, outlined their “Action Plan”. In this the US and Chinese administration agreed to invest US$150m (yes million, not billion) over 5 years in “research & development” toward mitigating climate change. Breaking it down, they will be investing $75m each over 5 years, so $15m each, each year. It doesn’t take much to see through these glossy magazine-selling statistics and realise that this is little more than a get-out-of-Copenhagen-free card.
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November 16th, 2009 Posted by Admin in Carbon
Although you may not be aware, all the World’s largest corporations are rapidly purchasing as much-endangered rainforest as possible. Why would they do this you ask? To which the simple answer is that they are all highly undervalued and so a very good investment!
All multi-national corporations have enormous global carbon footprints, and only in the coming years will this officially become a financial burden to them as global governments slowly enforce various methods of what is effectively an emissions tax. As the underlying unit of CO2 emissions is the carbon credit, and rainforests are the largest organic owner of carbon credits, the investment decision is an easy one.
With deforestation the root cause of around 20% of global carbon dioxide pollution, “reduction of emissions from deforestation and degradation” (REDD) projects should be accepted by the UNFCCC this December in Copenhagen. Once this occurs, implemented REDD projects will have carbon credit values within the Kyoto Treaty’s “Clean Development Mechanism” giving them enormous inherent financial value. Rather than wait for this decision most MNC’s have made their minds up, taken the bull by the horns, and are buying their stock at “pre-launch prices”. The Rainforest Rush is on!
As scientists worldwide perfect their analysis techniques including using satellite technologies, the carbon stock already stored and the sequestration rates of forests are being calculated and rainforests evaluated. It isn’t every forest of course. Only those that are officially endangered by a high risk of deforestation, in countries such as Brazil, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, will pass the rigorous REDD standards.
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October 23rd, 2009 Posted by Admin in Carbon
With the climate change conference in Copenhagen just 6 weeks away, these may unknowingly be the most important time of all our lives. Officials from over 190 countries are charged with the simple task of agreeing how to continue the global fight against climate change, and take over from the Kyoto Protocol. With many of the most fundamental issues still in dispute, we await with baited breath.
As a recent report from the WWF outlined that we have less than 5 years to stop uncontrollable climate change, hopefully by now the climate change scheptics would have been educated long ago. It seems however they remain steadfast in their own self-denial, be it adamant, ignorant or just stupid. With Nasa, UN and independent scientists and scholars all around the World pointing out that drastic and immediate measures need to be taken to prevent a 2˚C temperature rise, hopefully there will be no doubters in Copenhagen! And why the concern over a 2 degree increase? Only that a catastrophic breakdown of ecosystems, leading to mass migration, poverty, hunger and drought, with half of all animals and plants going extinct and a large sea level rise, and massive change in weather patterns. This has been forecast to occur at current rates WITHIN THE NEXT 35 YEARS.
Droughts, acidic oceans and melting glaciers are the most simple signs of accelerated global warming, a United Nations report said recently. Mountain glaciers in Asia are melting at such advanced rates that they could threaten water supplies far sooner than expected, including irrigation and hydropower, affecting up to 25% of the World’s population.
So with regards to Copenhagen, what is really making this all so difficult? Our complete dependence on fossil fuels and an inability to realise an affordable and scaleable replacement is the main problem. Of course this is not helped by the fact that developed nations like China and the US have such high levels of pollution, and yet dont seem willing to even announce let alone stick to emission reduction targets. A fundamental change in developed society, how we live, how we travel, how we eat, will all need to occur if society is to have any chance of preventing climate change. Our lives will change drastically in the coming years, of that there is no doubt. Are we ready and willing for this? Perhaps also the largest single issue with the Kyoto Protocol was that the developed nations need the less-developed nations to help them reach their emission reduction targets, but dont seem willing to pay for it! With just over 6 weeks to go, these are nervous times indeed.
