$500m for clean energy in South Africa
A media statement from the Department of the Environment:
$500 MILLION INFUSION GIVES SOUTH AFRICA CRITICAL BOOST TO MEET AMBITIOUS CLEAN ENERGY GOALS
Clean Technology Fund endorses South African plan to scale up grid-connected renewable energy, solar water heaters for a half million South African households, energy efficiency
WASHINGTON, D.C., November 05, 2009 – On Tuesday, October 27, developed and developing countries endorsed a Clean Technology Fund (CTF) funding envelope of $500 million for South Africa’s CTF Investment Plan (IP). This paves the way for South Africa to move closer to its vision of generating four percent of its electricity from renewable energy by 2013, improving energy efficiency by 12 percent by 2015, and providing 1 million households with solar water heating over the next five years.
South Africa’s Long Term Mitigation Scenarios (LTMS) have allowed for the development of a national climate policy based on what is required by science to limit temperature increase to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. In response to the LTMS, the Government has adopted mitigation strategies that focus on accelerated energy efficiency across all sectors, ambitious low carbon technology research and development, new clean energy sources and behavioral change, as well as regulatory mechanisms and economic instruments. As a result of these strategies, South Africa’s emissions would grow at a reduced rate in the short term, plateau by 2030, and decline thereafter. In support of the Government’s strategies, Read the rest of this entry »
Creating new habits
We’re not going to create a more sustainable civilisation, unless we change our habits. And changing habits is not the easiest thing to do.
Here then, some links and thoughts from those who consider these matters. A New York Times article entitled Can You Become A Creature of New Habits discusses a Japanese technique…
… called kaizen, which calls for tiny, continuous improvements.
“Whenever we initiate change, even a positive one, we activate fear in our emotional brain,” Ms. Ryan notes in her book. “If the fear is big enough, the fight-or-flight response will go off and we’ll run from what we’re trying to do. The small steps in kaizen don’t set off fight or flight, but rather keep us in the thinking brain, where we have access to our creativity and playfulness.”
Kaizen seems interesting to me because of the scorn that that, for example, more energetic environmentalists often direct at some of the more trivial lifestyle changes recommended in popular articles on ‘How to go green’, which may (for example) talk about unplugging cellphone chargers but neglect getting a smaller car, or just consuming less. Perhaps there is indeed a place for these seemingly trivial adjustments in a bigger continuum of change.
Personally, I find the deluge of news about climate change and other planetary disasters, to which I expose myself, often overwhelming and depressing. One of my antidotes to this despair is keeping a list of websites that make me happy, and visiting them quite often. And one of those sites is Zen Habits.
Which covers some very useful ideas about habits, and how to change them:
How to Establish New Habits the No-Sweat Way
13 Things to Avoid When Changing Habits
“Solar power from Sahara a step closer” – The Guardian
A $400bn (£240bn) plan to provide Europe with solar power from the Sahara moved a step closer to reality today with the formation of a consortium of 12 companies to carry out the work.
The Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII) aims to provide 15% of Europe’s electricity by 2050 or earlier via power lines stretching across the desert and Mediterranean sea.
The German-led consortium was brought together by Munich Re, the world’s biggest reinsurer, and consists of some of country’s biggest engineering and power companies, including Siemens, E.ON, ABB and Deutsche Bank.
It now believes the DII can deliver solar power to Europe as early as 2015.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/nov/01/solar-power-sahara-europe-desertec
“Hurricane Katrina Victims Have Standing To Sue Over Global Warming” – Law Blog – WSJ
Big carbon on its way to becoming big tobacco?
Hope for the planet as energy producers start fighting amongst themselves
From the The New York Times:
As the Senate prepares to tackle global warming, the nation’s energy producers, once united, are battling one another over policy decisions worth hundreds of billions of dollars in coming decades.
Producers of natural gas are battling their erstwhile allies, the oil companies. Electrical utilities are fighting among themselves over the use of coal versus wind power or other renewable energy. Coal companies are battling natural gas firms over which should be used to produce electricity. And the renewable power industry is elbowing for advantage against all of them.
“Trends in Carbon Dioxide”
If you want to see the latest figures for the state of our atmosphere, the Global Monitoring Division of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth System Research Laboratory is a good place to start. They consolidate data from a huge global network of monitoring stations.
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/
Select your greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide – CO2, methane – CH4, nitrous oxide – N2O) and watch the graphs climb. We’re perhaps used to seeing graphs for carbon dioxide, so for the sake of a little variety in your gloomy global warming news, here’s a graph for increases in nitrous oxide.
Otherwise known as “laughing gas” or “happy gas”, nitrous oxide is somewhat less amusing in increasing concentrations in large swaths of atmosphere. Over a hundred year period, it is 298 times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2. At the moment, it apparently accounts for 6% of the human-related warming effect. It’s released by industrial activity, burning coal for example. Also released by tropical soils and from the oceans, human activity has till recently been thought to account for 30% of what’s now in the atmosphere. But it appears releases from nitrogen-based fertilisers may have been greatly underestimated. Overall, atmospheric levels have increased 15% since 1750. It’s also an ozone-depleting gas – in fact, it’s now the key ozone depleting gas.
Paul Gilding thinks there’s hope. Do you?
In his most recent blog post, Australian sustainability notable Paul Gilding writes optimistically that:
I think we have recently seen a number of developments that, taken together, indicate a profound shift is under way. When such a shift takes hold, it will rapidly accelerate – with significant implications for campaign and business strategy in this area over the years ahead.
And:
The goal posts are also shifting in the science. An increasing number of scientists are coming to the view that the global CO2 target should be closer to 350ppm rather than 450ppm.
And:
At a deeper level, [Sir Nicholas] Stern also lent his considerable intellectual weight to the debate on economic growth, stating what was previously heresy – that economic growth itself must now be questioned.
Gilding’s older post on how Australia is likely becoming the poster child for the unpleasant effects of climate change is also well worth a read: “It is, sadly, probably too late to save much of Australia”. Apparently, Australians are in steadfast denial about what’s happening to them. (Hey, we can do that denial thing too, we’re South African! We’ve got form.) In fact – I suggest you read the Australia post first, then come back to today’s. You’ll enjoy the rest of your day more that way. Particularly if you’re Australian. (So much for the chicken run.)
SAICA calls on SA business to “grasp the nettle”
Some excerpts from a press release from the SA Institute of Chartered Accountants:
“The time for delays and half-measures is over. The personal leadership of every Head of State or Government needs to seize this moment to protect people and the planet from one of the most serious challenges ever to confront humanity.” These were the words of UN Secretary-General, Ban-Ki Moon, in response to the recent efforts of world leaders to combat climate change.
“Ban-Ki Moon’s strong words perfectly sum up the situation,” says Graham Terry, Head of the Office of the Executive President at the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA).
“The importance of combating climate change amongst other equally important challenges cannot be ignored any longer. We need look to our leaders for guidance on how to achieve this. Reducing carbon emissions is a task that falls equally on parastatals and the business sector. In order for them to start making a difference without compromising their own sustainability, they need to be pressured. And this is where Read the rest of this entry »
“Southern Africa in for 10°C temperature rise” – The Weekender
WITHOUT global cuts in carbon emissions, average temperatures in southern Africa could increase
as much as 10°C as early as 2060, according to a study released by the UK’s Meteorological Office last week. The study is based on a range of models, and predicts an average global temperature increase of 4°C by 2060.
But 4°C is just the global average increase — and while some areas will warm by less than 4°C, others will warm by more. For southern Africa, a 10 °C rise is likely in inland areas.
http://www.theweekender.co.za/Articles/Content.aspx?id=83015
Will California become America’s first failed state? | World news | The Observer
… the state that was once held up as the epitome of the boundless opportunities of America has collapsed. From its politics to its economy to its environment and way of life, California is like a patient on life support. At the start of summer the state government was so deeply in debt that it began to issue IOUs instead of wages. Its unemployment rate has soared to more than 12%, the highest figure in 70 years. Desperate to pay off a crippling budget deficit, California is slashing spending in education and healthcare, laying off vast numbers of workers and forcing others to take unpaid leave. In a state made up of sprawling suburbs the collapse of the housing bubble has impoverished millions and kicked tens of thousands of families out of their homes.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/04/california-failing-state-debt
It’s not actually a great article, no clear account of exactly how and when things started to go wrong, other than the broad suggestion that the state that pioneered the modern autmotive-suburban lifestyle is, naturally enough, the first to witness its collapse. But, it seems, many are hopeful that it will be a transformative crisis, not a destructive one:
Even those, like Kotkin, who are sceptical about the end of suburbia, think California will develop a new model for modern living: comfortable, yes, but more modest and eco-friendly. Kotkin, who is writing an eagerly anticipated book about what America will look like in 2050, thinks much of it will still resemble the bedrock of the Californian dream: sturdy, wholesome suburbs for all – just done more responsibly. “We will still live in suburbs. You work with the society you have got. The question is how we make them more sustainable,” he says.
