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Tiempo Climate Newswatch

Week ending October 31st 2004



 

Featured sites

The Blue Carbon Portal brings together the latest knowledge and resources on the role of oceans as carbon sinks.

WalkIt provides walking routes between user-defined points in selected British cities, with an estimate of the carbon savings.

Joto Afrika is a series of printed briefings and online resources about adapting to climate change in sub-Saharan Africa.

And finally,

The CoolClimate Art Contest presents iconic images that address the impact of climate change.

More featured sites...

About the Cyberlibrary

The Tiempo Climate Cyberlibrary was developed by Mick Kelly and Sarah Granich on behalf of the Stockholm Environment Institute and the International Institute for Environment and Development, with sponsorship from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.

While every effort is made to ensure that information on this site, and on other sites that are referenced here, is accurate, no liability for loss or damage resulting from use of this information can be accepted.

The Russian State Duma, the lower house of parliament, has ratified the Kyoto Protocol. Ratification took place on Friday October 22nd. According to Interfax, it was supported by 334 parliamentarians, 73 were against, and two abstained. The minimum number of votes to needed pass is 226.

The Protocol now has to pass through the upper parliament and be signed by President Vladimir Putin, though this is considered a formality. The threshold for implementation will then have been exceeded and the Protocol should come into force some time early in 2005. The United States position remains the same. "We do not believe that the Kyoto Protocol is something that is realistic for the United States and we have no intention of signing or ratifying it," said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli.

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"Decades of progress and development could be wiped out overnight. Climate change is undermining advances in development and preventing countries raising themselves out of poverty," warns the report, Up in Smoke, compiled by a coalition of development and environment organizations. The 17-member coalition included ActionAid, Christian Aid, Oxfam, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace. The coalition argues that climate change could render the international targets laid down in the Millennium Development Goals unachievable.

"Climate change is the mother of all ecological debts owed by the north to the south," said a spokesperson from the new economics foundation (nef), who, with the International Institute for Environment and Development, organized the study. The report calls for a global risk assessment to determine the potential cost of adaptation in poor countries and urges rich countries to provide additional funds to cover climate-related disaster relief. Andrew Simms, nef Policy Director, argued for "a global framework to stop climate change that is based on equity." "Plans for human development must be climate-proof and climate-friendly," he continued.

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A little action now to limit long-term climate change would be cheaper than doing nothing at this time and having to do much more later, according to a recent study. A carbon tax of five cents a gallon of gasoline would be the best way to start. "You can think of the tax as a low-cost insurance policy that protects against climate change," said Michael Schlesinger, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The analysts assumed that tax policies would be enacted from 2005 and identified the optimum strategy, balancing costs and benefits. Gross global product was used as a measure of climate impacts. "The idea is to search for the tax that provides the least cost over the whole period. If the tax is too low, you do too little in the beginning, then after 30 years you have to do a lot. On the other hand, if the tax is too high, you spend too much now, and you may have to do only a little later," explained Schlesinger. The five cents tax on a gallon of gasoline corresponds to a tax of US$10 per ton of carbon. The optimal strategy has this tax increasing to US$33 a ton over a 30-year period.

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Bright Ideas

GE cuts solar costs

General Electric plans to cut solar installation costs by half

Project 90 by 2030

Project 90 by 2030 supports South African school children and managers reduce their carbon footprint through its Club programme

Smart street lighting

Bath & North East Somerset Council in the United Kingdom has installed smart LED carriageway lighting that automatically adjusts to light and traffic levels

Longwood Gardens

The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the American Public Gardens Association are mounting an educational exhibit at Longwood Gardens showing the link between temperature and planting zones

Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers

The energy-efficient Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers hotel is powered by renewable and sustainable sources, including integrated solar photovoltaics and guest-powered bicycles

El Hierro

El Hierro, one of the Canary Islands, plans to generate 80 per cent of its energy from renewable sources

Remarkables Primary School green roof

The green roof on the Remarkables Primary School in New Zealand reduces stormwater runoff, provides insulation and doubles as an outdoor classroom

Weather Info for All

The Weather Info for All project aims to roll out up to five thousand automatic weather observation stations throughout Africa

SolSource

SolSource turns its own waste heat into electricity or stores it in thermal fabrics, harnessing the sun's energy for cooking and electricity for low-income families

Wave House

The Wave House uses vegetation for its architectural and environmental qualities, and especially in terms of thermal insulation

Mbale compost-processing plant

The Mbale compost-processing plant in Uganda produces cheaper fertilizer and reduces greenhouse gas emissions

Frito-Lay Casa Grande

At Casa Grande, Frito-Lay has reduced energy consumption by nearly a fifth since 2006 by, amongst other things, installing a heat recovery system to preheat cooking oil

More Bright Ideas...

Tiempo Climate Newswatch
Updated: April 12th 2013