CARBON IN THE NEWS
WEEK 29 2012
Average Chinese person's carbon footprint
now equals European's
The average Chinese person's carbon
footprint is now almost on a par with the average European's, figures released
on Wednesday reveal. China became the largest national emitter of CO2 in 2006,
though its emissions per person have always been lower than those in developed
countries such as Europe. But today's report, which only covers emissions from
energy, by the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency and the European
commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) show that per capita emissions in
China increased by 9% in 2011 to reach 7.2 tonnes per person, only a fraction
lower than the EU average of 7.5 tonnes. The figure for the US is still much
higher – at 17.3 tonnes – though total Chinese CO2 emissions are now around 80%
higher than those of America. This widening gap reflects a 9% increase in total
emissions in China in 2011, driven mainly by rising coal use, compared with a
2% decline in the US. To read this article in full click
here
What is a carbon price and why do we need
one?
A carbon price is a cost applied to carbon
pollution to encourage polluters to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas they
emit into the atmosphere. Economists widely agree that introducing a carbon
price is the single most effective way for countries to reduce their emissions.
Climate change is considered a market failure by economists, because it imposes
huge costs and risks on future generations who will suffer the consequences of
climate change, without these costs and risks normally being reflected in
market prices. To overcome this market failure, they argue, we need to
internalise the costs of future environmental damage by putting a price on the
thing that causes it – namely carbon emissions. A carbon price not only has the
effect of encouraging lower-carbon behaviour (eg using a bike rather than
driving a car), but also raises money that can be used in part to finance a
clean-up of "dirty" activities (eg investment in research into fuel
cells to help cars pollute less). To read this article in full click
here
BP
boosts image with Olympics, Target Neutral carbon offsetting program
If
you're beleaguered oil giant BP
and you need to refurbish your image, what better platform than the Olympic Games? The latest press
release concerning their involvement in the games concerns a carbon-offsetting scheme. On Friday,
BP said in a statement that 200,000
ticket holders have signed up for what it calls its Target Neutral London 2012 Programme. According
to the company, Target Neutral
has corralled Olympic visitors and athletes to support offsetting his or her
carbon footprint. BP Target Neutral is
offering to offset the carbon footprint
of all ticketed spectators attending both the Olympic and Paralympic
Games for free. Carbon offsetting means reducing emissions of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases in order to allow for
or to offset an emission made elsewhere. To read this article in full click
here
Sainsbury’s
renewable energy plans
Sainsbury’s
announced today it will power 100 of its stores with underground renewable heat
as part of its efforts to cut carbon emissions by 2020. The supermarket chain
signed agreements with E.ON and Geothermal International, in which both
companies will install geothermal heat pump technology at the stores to provide
energy efficient heating, hot water and cooling. It claims this will reduce
each stores’ carbon emissions and energy consumption by up to 30% each. The
scheme is part of Sainsbury’s 20 by 20 Sustainability Plan renewables
commitment, which includes reducing its carbon emissions by 30% and delivering
a fully renewable heat strategy for its supermarkets within the next two
decades. The company also aims to deliver up to 100MW of renewable energy
sources in its stores by 2016. Neil Sachdev, Sainsbury’s Property Director
said: “The roll out of this technology with our partners is an important
milestone in our renewables commitment. It supports job creation in the renewable
energy sector and our goal to reduce our absolute operational carbon emissions
by 2020, as well as delivering energy cost savings for our business. To read
this article in full click
here
Global CO2 emissions continue to go up, up,
up
Global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2)
– the main cause of global warming – increased by 3% last year, reaching an
all-time high of 34 billion tonnes in 2011. In China, the world’s most populous
country, average emissions of CO2 increased by 9% to 7.2 tonnes per
capita. China is now within the range of 6 to 19 tonnes per capita emissions of
the major industrialised countries. In the European
Union, CO2 emissions dropped by 3% to 7.5 tonnes per capita. The
United States remain one of the largest emitters of CO2, with 17.3
tones per capita, despite a decline due to the recession in 2008-2009, high oil
prices and an increased share of natural gas. These are the main findings of the
annual report ‘Trends in global CO2 emissions’, released today by
the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the Netherlands
Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL). To read this article in full click
here
Mandatory greenhouse gas reporting
proposed for quoted companies
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs (Defra) is to introduce mandatory green house gas (GHG) reporting for
quoted companies from April 2013. It will be part of
directors’ reports, which in turn form part of companies’ annual reports. The announcement came as Defra
published a summary of responses to its consultation on the mandatory reporting
of companies’ GHG emissions. Although voluntary reporting has been adopted by
many companies for some time, the Impact Assessment accompanying the proposal
stated that ‘government intervention can provide for a level of transparency
and consistency, as is already the case for company financial information,
which is not being achieved by individual private initiatives’. It was also
considered that a company’s exposure to climate change related risks ‘is
essential information for investors who wish to assess medium to long-term risks’.
Defra proposes further consultation on draft regulations in due course. In
addition, consideration will be given in 2016 to mandatory GHG reporting being
extended to all large companies. To read this article in full click here
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