As International Pressure Mounts, Obama Sets U.S. Emissions Reduction Target for 2020

Graphic courtesy of webwombat.com.

Possibly resulting from ongoing criticisms from the international community, most notably from members of the European Union, the United States has finally set an emissions reduction target for 2020.

The White House has both confirmed that President Barack Obama will be attending United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen on Dec. 9, and that the U.S. will work to reduce emissions to “17 percent below 2005 levels in 2020.”

While hopes for a large-scale binding climate change agreement in Copenhagen seen to be fading with the U.S. Congress having yet to pass a climate bill, and other major industrialized countries refusing to make firm commitments of their own, there is a bright spot in that attention is being drawn to the issue, and smaller scale partnerships are beginning to take shape.

Last week, Obama and India’s Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh agreed to launch a Clean Energy and Climate Initiative. It will include cooperation between the two countries in the areas of “wind and solar energy, second generation bio-fuels, unconventional gas, energy efficiency, and clean coal technologies, including carbon capture and storage.”

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Major Industrial Nations Criticized for Setting Weak Emissions Reductions Goals

Image courtesy of GreenRoofOffsets.co.uk.

As the world approaches the much anticipated Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen next month, European environmental leaders are expressing disappointment with countries such as the United States, Canada, Ukraine, and Russia.

“If industrialized countries are unwilling to do their bit, we can’t expect others to do theirs. We are calling upon developing countries to follow the European example in reducing emissions by pledging to cut them by 30 percent by 2020,” said Environmental Commissioner Stavros Dimas to the members of the European Parliament in an address earlier this week, discussing anticipated challenges in Copenhagen.

Mr. Dimas highlighted the following three major challenges that he expects will arise during the conference.

• How to lower emissions in industrialized economies.
• How to guarantee that developing countries accept ambitious goals for emissions reductions.
• Where to find the necessary funding to help developing countries meet the targets.

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Beantown Going Green One Peddle at a Time

Photo courtesy of inhabitat.com.

Lately when we think about ‘green’ initiatives to reduce global warming, thoughts such as world leaders meeting in Copenhagen come to mind, as well as thoughts of energy from renewable resources. Things that are complicated, expensive, and far removed from the average person’s ability to independently affect change.

The truth is that everyone can do their small part to reduce global warming, and in the case of Boston’s new employee bike pool service, it won’t cost city workers anything except maybe a few extra pounds.

The new service, supported through the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program grant, allows city employees to reserve bikes. The service makes about 60 bikes and helmets available for reservation at eight city buildings, housing over 5,000 employees. The bikes were donated by Giant Bicycle Inc.

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United Nations Going Public With Industry Pollution Info. From Around the World

Graphic courtesy if TheTripFlare.com.

In order to solve a problem, the first thing you have to know is how big it is! Companies across the planet massively pollute the environment, but to what extent we haven’t known because no one has ever made an organized effort to calculate it until recently.

As of now, 36 governments have signed the United Nations The Protocol on Pollutants Release and Transfer Register, which will enter into force on October 8, 2009.

The Protocol’s goal is to provide a “mechanism to increase corporate accountability, reduce pollution, and promote sustainable development.” This is expected to be done, in part, by enhancing public access to information through the creation of registers in accordance with the Protocol.

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Easier Said Than Done: Sharing Low-Carbon Technologies with Developing Countries

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While everyone seems to agree that climate change is a real and pressing issue that needs solutions, little agreement seems to be coming in terms of how to go about it.

Among the key weapons against climate change is the implementation of large-scale low-carbon technologies around the world, though several significant obstacles impede this progression, according to a report released this month by the Center for American Progress, a member of the Global Climate Network, which also collaborated on the report.

The report, Breaking Through on Technology: Overcoming the Barriers to the Development of Low-Carbon Technology, contains interviews of over 100 people (officials of companies in the private sector and government policymakers) in eight different countries (Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, India, Nigeria, South Africa, and the United States) done between January and March 2009.

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