Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

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Broken Trust, Broken Carbon Trading, Broken Kyoto?

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Emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are thought to be responsible for the elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide that are thought to be driving global warming. The Kyoto Protocol has been considered an important first step in reducing emissions with European nations agreeing to cap emissions under a trading scheme.

Here’s how it was explained before the market was launched:

“The Kyoto Protocol established clear targets for reducing the greenhouse gases that are to blame for global warming, and flexible and market-based instruments with which to achieve these objectives.

An effective emissions trading system can be a key tool for dealing with climate change. From January 2005, the European Union hopes to have in place the world’s biggest and most effective emissions trading scheme, covering over 12,000 energy-producing and energy-intensive plants across the EU. The scheme will offer businesses a cost-effective way of both reducing their emissions and covering the bill for action to help prevent climate change.

How does emissions trading work? Basically, each Member State agrees a national allocation plan (NAP) setting out the total amount of CO2 its operators can produce. Each plan should be based on a national commitment to reduce emissions in line with the Kyoto agreement. Companies then have the right to trade their allowances either directly with each other or via a broker, bank or other intermediary. Over time, emissions trading exchanges are expected to develop.

… Of course, the scheme’s effectiveness in cutting greenhouse gas emissions depends on the level of trust participants place in it. “

It seems the British were one of the few honest nations, at least they are not now being accused of underestimating their emissions.

The price of carbon was in free fall some weeks ago when it became apparent that many European nations had overestimated their emissions. At least an initial overestimation, rather than a big saving, is the reason now claimed for the surplus of carbon credits which has resulted in a halving of the price of carbon on the new market in just over two weeks, click here for my previous blog post.

Today was the day the European Union was expected to announce the overall difference between emissions and “emissions” and according to Reuters:

“EU emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in 2005 were 44 million tonnes below a quota of 1.829 billion tonnes under the European Union’s carbon trading scheme …

The figures confirmed a Reuters report on Friday that most EU members undershot their limits for greenhouse gas emissions, suggesting the bloc had been far too generous in handing out permits to pollute.

Top polluter Germany moved swiftly to say it would make retroactive cuts to its 2005 allocation of allowances to emit carbon dioxide after European Union figures showed a 21 million tonne — or four percent — German undershoot.”

British companies say they will sue.

According to The Guardian:

“While CO2 emissions in Germany, the EU’s biggest polluter, fell 25.5m tonnes short of levels allowed under the ETS, Britain’s were 31.3m tonnes above its allowances in 2005, the first full year of its operation. Overall EU emissions were 59.2m tonnes short.

[And I thought someone might consider this good news.]

The five UK companies suing the commission at Europe’s second highest court, the court of first instance (CFI), the Guardian has learned, are RWE npower, Scottish Power, Scottish & Southern Energy, International Power and Drax, owner and operator of Europe’s biggest coal-fired plant in north Yorkshire. They are demanding the reinstatement of 20m tonnes of extra emissions rejected by Brussels. Their action, which has come after the government dropped its own legal proceedings against the commission, is expected to be followed later this year by renewed court action between Britain and Brussels because Whitehall is refusing to meet the June 30 deadline imposed by the ETS for submitting its national allocation plan (NAP) for CO2 permits for the period 2008-2012 and has offered the end of the year instead.

… It is understood that the five want the court to uphold the principle of “the accurate baseline” – or allowing governments that submit provisional estimates of emissions to revise these in the light of fresh evidence. Their group also argues that the commission’s reasons for rejecting the UK’s amended NAP had already been rejected by the court.”

So it seems the success of an artificial trading system is dependent on everyone being more British?

Sunspotting & Climate

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Some (not all) global warming skeptics complain that the IPCC doesn’t adequately acknowledge the influence of the sun, including sunspot cycles, on climate.

There is new information at the NASA website about recent past and future solar activity including the prediction that “Solar Cycle 25, peaking around the year 2022, could be one of the weakest in centuries.”

solarcycle nasa.jpg

I can’t say that the graph tracks Australian temperatures or troposphere temperatures very well at all, but then I am not sure atmospheric C02 does either.

The NASA website explains sunspot activity but makes no link to global warming:

“The Sun’s Great Conveyor Belt has slowed to a record-low crawl, according to research by NASA solar physicist David Hathaway. “It’s off the bottom of the charts,” he says. “This has important repercussions for future solar activity.”

The Great Conveyor Belt is a massive circulating current of fire (hot plasma) within the Sun. It has two branches, north and south, each taking about 40 years to perform one complete circuit. Researchers believe the turning of the belt controls the sunspot cycle, and that’s why the slowdown is important.

… On the other hand, they will have to worry more about cosmic rays. Cosmic rays are high-energy particles from deep space; they penetrate metal, plastic, flesh and bone. Astronauts exposed to cosmic rays develop an increased risk of cancer, cataracts and other maladies. Ironically, solar explosions, which produce their own deadly radiation, sweep away the even deadlier cosmic rays. As flares subside, cosmic rays intensify—yin, yang.

Hathaway’s prediction should not be confused with another recent forecast: A team led by physicist Mausumi Dikpata of NCAR has predicted that Cycle 24, peaking in 2011 or 2012, will be intense. Hathaway agrees: “Cycle 24 will be strong. Cycle 25 will be weak. Both of these predictions are based on the observed behavior of the conveyor belt.”

How do you observe a belt that plunges 200,000 km below the surface of the sun?

“We do it using sunspots,” Hathaway explains. Sunspots are magnetic knots that bubble up from the base of the conveyor belt, eventually popping through the surface of the sun. Astronomers have long known that sunspots have a tendency to drift—from mid solar latitudes toward the sun’s equator. According to current thinking, this drift is caused by the motion of the conveyor belt. “By measuring the drift of sunspot groups,” says Hathaway, “we indirectly measure the speed of the belt.”

Climate Change Not So “Black & White”

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I was back at the Future Summit today listening to more speakers lament climate change and how it is going to be drier and warmer in the future. Tom Hatten from CSIRO could have spoken about the science, but he also deferred to perceptions commenting that “climate change scenarios are now widely accepted” – as though this makes them right.

Then I came home to an email from a reader of this blog with a link to a report published by the New South Wales Parliamentary Library in February that does make reference to the science and that does acknowledge that the evidence is not straight forward concluding with the following text (pg 75):

“In October 2005 the Federal Minister for the Environment stated that the debate on climate change is over: “There is a very small handful of what we call skeptics who, in the face of seeing all of the evidence about carbon increases and all of the evidence about impacts on the climate, would still say that it’s only natural variability that is causing it. … I think the Australian Government owes it to the public to tell it like it is – it is a very serious threat to
Australia.”

In NSW, Premier Iemma, in a November 2005 speech announcing a new environmental agenda, stated:
2005 is the year that climate change hit home. Australia had its warmest year on record. Brazil had its first ever hurricane. Siberia’s permafrost showed signs of melting. America had a record hurricane season that devastated an entire city. For NSW, global warming means longer and more destructive bushfire seasons, prolonged
drought and harsher storm seasons. These trends threaten not only our environment but also our tourism and farming industries. While John Howard continues to hold out against Kyoto, NSW is getting on with the task of cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

In fact, we [New South Wales] were the first government in Australia to set greenhouse targets. We’ve pledged to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 60 percent by 2050. And to cut emissions to year 2000 levels within the next two decades.

This paper has presented the ‘consensus’ science about climate change, as well as the evidence and comments of those who are more skeptical, or cautious. It is apparent that whilst those who believe in the ‘consensus’ science reject the ideas of the skeptics, the science is not as ‘black and white’ as they would have us believe. Some argue that while the greenhouse effect cannot be ignored, the impact is not as apocalyptic as has been claimed.

The difficulty for governments of course, is to use this conflicting science to develop public policy.”

Of course the governments, and some scientists, have mostly choosen to ignore the evidence and just focus on “the consensus”. But as Aldous Huxley has written, just because facts are ignored it doesn’t make them go away.

You can read the full report here:

http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/publications.nsf/0/fb07f849fcba7b76ca2571150023166e/$FILE/climate%20change%20and%20index.pdf .

Against Wearing & Eating Animal Products

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The Weekly Times, a rural Victorian newspaper, had a feature this week on animal rights. It reports on a group called Voiceless that plans to work with school children against the eating and wearing of animal products.

Interestingly Voiceless already have a program with Griffith University for the development of a school curriculum.

While the Weekly Times article suggests Voiceless are also against the harvesting of kangaroos, their website focuses on intensive farming of animals, particularly pigs.

Not so long ago I spoke with farmers at Cowra about what groups like Voiceless and PETA represent. Here’s an extract:

“There has been much written about how Australia’s national character emerged from a bush ethos: the idea that a specifically Australian outlook emerged first amongst workers in the Australian pastoral industry. The recent, big environmental and animal liberation campaigns, however, challenge key assumptions from this history. They portray Australian agriculture as harmful to the environment, and the animal liberationists suggest that our farmers are inhumane.

Banjo Paterson, perhaps more than any other writer, created and defined our cultural heritage. His story about the shearer and his jumbuck in outback Queensland remains our most popular national song.

Renditions of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ dominate when Australians gather at major international sporting events, including the Olympic Games and Rugby Union matches.

But People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are campaigning against the wool industry. They are against live export and they are against mulesing. As part of the campaign against wool products focused on US consumers, PETA campaigners have also suggested that the Australian climate is too hot for sheep.

‘The Man from Snowy River’, also by Paterson, is about bushmen and their horses in the High Country. The man from Snowy River chased the brumbies ‘down the mountain like a torrent down its bed’ through open country and mountain scrub before ‘turning their heads for home’ with his pony covered in ‘blood from hip to shoulder from the spur’.

Now the NSW and Victorian Governments are intent on banning grazing and brumbies from the High Country on the basis that they have an adverse impact on the natural heritage of the Alpine region.

The Victorian mountain cattlemen sought an emergency cultural and historic heritage listing with the Federal Environment Minister to counter the Victorian Government’s proposed ban on grazing. But lost.

No-one has a monopoly on the future. Perhaps it is time that Australians moved beyond ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and ‘The Man from Snowy River’? The PETA Website explains that there are alternatives to wool, including:
“polyester fleece, synthetic shearling, and other cruelty-free fibres. Tencel — breathable, durable, and biodegradable — is one of the newest cruelty free wool substitutes…. Choosing to buy these non-wool products not only helps the animals, but can also reduce or eliminate many of the consumer problems and inconveniences that go along with wearing or using wool. “

But what about a replacement for lamb chops? While the animal liberationists are against the farming of exotic animals, like sheep, they are also intent on preventing the development of any industry based on the farming of Australian native animals, including kangaroos. PETA is even against the drinking of milk.”

Perhaps we will one day all eat tofu and wear polyester fleece jumpers?

Worrying About Dragons in the Age of Asia

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I spent yesterday at a conference in Brisbane hearing about “the future” and Australia’s place in “The Age of Asia”.

I enjoyed the talk at lunch by P.P.Shukla, the Indian High Commissioner to Australia, titled ‘The Emergence of Asia from India’s Perspective’. He commented that India only used to consider Australia in the context of cricket, but now people discuss Australia as a potential supplier of uranium.

Michele Levine from Roy Morgan Research Pty Ltd presented a paper titled ‘The Value of Listening to People’ (its almost a 1MB download) earlier in the morning based on polling which indicated 55 percent of Australians believe uranium should be exported for peaceful purposes.

I was fascinated that Roy Morgan Research was the “knowledge partner” for the conference. While i’ts certainly useful to understand what people think, I am not sure that polling people’s perceptions can be a substitute for facts and figures on how things really are.

The polling is interesting and indicates that most Australians consider global warming to be the most significant environmental issue facing Australia and the world. Furthermore, only 23% of Australians consider that “threats to the environment are exaggerated”, only 12% believe global warming concerns are exaggerated and 71% of Australians believe that “if we don’t act now [on global warming] it will be too late”.

Given the various comments at the conference about the extent of the problem of air pollution in China including Hong Kong, it seemed strange to me that there was no reference to the potential problem of global dimming?

The overwhelming concern about global warming was continued in the speech by Acting Queensland Premier Anna Bligh at the dinner. She made three points with respect to global warming:
1. The Queensland government is going to use money from the sale of its energy providers (Energex and Ergon) to fund future research into clean coal,
2. Climate change is the reason we have water restrictions in Brisbane, salinity and drought on farms and also land degradation… all of this under opening comment that the world is getting both “hotter and drier” as a consequence of global warming.
3. As a consequence of the worst drought in Queensland’s history, the Queensland government has no choice but to build a new dam for the south east of the state.

I wonder how the drought is going to fill the dam?

The best speech was the keynote address at the dinner by Rui Chenggang (Director and Anchor, China Central Television, People’s Republic of China). He questioned the perceptions of Australians about China. He made the point that while we in the West (with reference to Britian, the US and us, I think) may have rose to power through aggression and suppression, the same should not be assume of China. He said while you can’t find two leaves the same in the world, so history can not exactly repeat itself. He said that while we in the West associate China with the symbol of a dragon that is aggressive and breathes fire, for the Chinese the dragon breathes water and symbolizes peace and development. He concluded with the comment that “China might be different, if you see if differently”.