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A draft of the unpublished paper co-written by Professor Ross Garnaut says rapid economic growth in China is fuelling the increase and calls for developing countries to commit to binding emissions reduction targets to avoid such a “bleak” outcome.
The 2030 business-as-usual forecast is 11 per cent higher than the worst-case scenario developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Climate change economist Nicholas Stern has urged that the world move to equal per capita emissions by 2050, a move that would require developed countries as a whole to cut their emissions by about 80%. Stern makes the call in a paper co-written with director of the Institute of Sustainable Development and International Relations Laurence Continue Reading →
Critics of programs such as the federal Energy Efficiency Opportunities program and Victoria’s EREP scheme are really just asking to be “left alone” to pursue their “own narrow interests”, says energy efficiency expert Alan Pears. Pears also outlined a strategy to allow the government to act more quickly on energy efficient appliances and criticised energy Continue Reading →
Federal climate change department chief Martin Parkinson yesterday named three areas which he thought would require ‘complementary measures’ in addition to emissions trading. And, as the Wilkins review of existing climate programs calls for public submissions, Parkinson said he hopes state governments will undertake similar assessments of what programs should stay and go. Energy efficiency Continue Reading →
By Volker Mrasek – Der Speigel
Researchers have found alarming evidence that the frozen Arctic floor has started to thaw and release long-stored methane gas. The results could be a catastrophic warming of the earth, since methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. But can the methane also be used as fuel?
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| The Lena River flowing through Russian Siberia and empties into the Arctic Ocean. This satellite image shows the river delta, where methane concentrations are unexpectedly high. |
It’s always been a disturbing what-if scenario for climate researchers: Gas hydrates stored in the Arctic ocean floor — hard clumps of ice and methane, conserved by freezing temperatures and high pressure — could grow unstable and release massive amounts of methane into the atmosphere. Since methane is a potent greenhouse gas, more worrisome than carbon dioxide, the result would be a drastic acceleration of global warming. Until now this idea was mostly academic; scientists had warned that such a thing could happen. Now it seems more likely that it will.
Russian polar scientists have strong evidence that the first stages of melting are underway. They’ve studied largest shelf sea in the world, off the coast of Siberia, where the Asian continental shelf stretches across an underwater area six times the size of Germany, before falling off gently into the Arctic Ocean. The scientists are presenting their data from this remote, thinly-investigated region at the annual conference of the European Geosciences Union this week in Vienna.
CALTEX has warned that it could be forced to scale back production of its Sydney Kurnell and Brisbane refineries later this year if the continuing US economic slowdown leads to a fall in refining margins.
Despite refining margins continuing to hold up in the first three months of this year, Caltex expressed concerns at its annual meeting yesterday that these margins – and its profits – could easily be eroded during the coming US summer holiday season.
“The real test we are all looking for is when their driving season starts, when they start to use a lot more petrol,” said the managing director of Caltex, Des King. He said the US accounted for 20 per cent of world demand for petrol.