Ecobella Blog

In a recent interview, Mr. Bjorn Lomborg, director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, a think tank, and author of “Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming,” correctly states, “For almost 20 years, from Rio to Kyoto to Copenhagen, we’ve been wasting time, pursuing the failed strategy of cutting carbon-dioxide emissions. It’s about time we changed course. Do we really want to be remembered as the generation that wasted another decade? For years, we have been spinning our wheels on what I call the Rio-Kyoto-Copenhagen road to nowhere, slavishly following the notion—first endorsed at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and then extended in Kyoto 13 years later—that the only way to stop global warming is by means of draconian reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. All we have to show for this devotion is a continuing series of unmet targets, along with a startling increase in the number of people who no longer think climate change is worth worrying about.”

China and India recently announced plans to reduce the carbon intensity, or the amount of carbon-dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product, of their economies over the next decade. China, which increased vehicle fuel-efficiency standards in recent years, wants to cut its carbon intensity by as much as 45% from 2005 levels by 2020 while India has targeted a reduction of as much as 25% from 2005 levels over the next decade. The Chinese can promise to do this because they’re modernizing their economy. They’re investing in more efficient energy sources and nuclear power. So this in essence is basically saying, “We’re just going to promise to do what we’re going to do anyway.” The situation is the same for India. Estimates show that India will probably end up, if they do nothing, reducing its carbon intensity by almost 50%.

In order for the world to keep temperatures from rising beyond a ceiling of 1.5 °C to 2 °C above pre-Industrial Revolution levels via solely reducing carbon emissions, it is estimated that the annual cost will be US$40 trillion by the end of the century. Mr. Lomborg estimates that for every dollar spent, the world will avoid only about two cents of climate damage. Furthermore, each dollar spent on traditional cap-and-trade plans only brings about US$0.90 in benefits. However, climate economists predict that if investment in clean energy technology is dramatically increased, for every dollar spent, the world will avoid eleven dollars of climate damage.

“Instead of trying to make fossil fuels more expensive, we should focus on making alternative energy cheaper. The cost of fully implementing the Kyoto Protocol (in terms of lost economic growth) has been estimated at roughly $180 billion a year. For just a little more than half that amount, we could fund a fifty-fold increase in spending on R&D for the kind of game-changing technological breakthroughs—like smart grids, ultra-efficient batteries or even cheap, manageable fusion—we will need to end our addiction to fossil fuels. Such a commitment would resolve many of today’s political challenges. Developing nations would be much more likely to embrace a positive path of innovation than a punitive one that handicaps their ability to grow their economies, ” Mr. Lomborg says. Trying to force drastic carbon emissions cuts in the short-term doesn’t work economically or politically.

Source: Green Car Congress

Fossil fuels, after all, are an early first industrial revolution, 19th century technology. But we are now applying nanotechnology to the design of renewable energy technologies such as solar energy.

As a result, the cost per watt of solar energy is coming down rapidly and the total amount of solar energy is growing exponentially. It has in fact been doubling every two years for the past 20 years and is now only eight doublings away from meeting all of the world’s energy needs.

Source: NYDailyNews

Toyota has announced it will offer a plug-in Prius to the masses in 2011 and it will be an “affordable” car, offering triple-digit fuel economy.

The New York Times says Toyota has “scrambled to gain the upper hand in an increasingly crowded battle over next-generation ‘green’ technology.” It’s a fair assessment, now that everyone’s jumping on the hybrid bandwagon. You know it’s a crowded field when there’s a Porsche Cayenne hybrid and even a Tata Nano hybrid on the horizon.

Clearly Toyota needs to do something if it is to retain its rep for innovation. And when you look at what Toyota is bringing to the showrooms, the plug-in Prius is a fairly nice piece of kit. For starters, it will be the first Toyota with lithium-ion batteries. It will allow the corded car to travel 14.5 miles on electricity alone. Not much, but it’s a start. More impressive is the fuel economy — Toyota’s claiming 134 mpg.

The Times notes Toyota is throwing its considerable weight behind hybrids and won’t be looking at battery electrics or other alt fuels anytime soon.

“We have been working on developing efficient powertrains to be able to use oil as efficiently as possible. Many hurdles remain for alternative fuels,” Takeshi Uchiyamada, Toyota’s executive vice president, told the Times. He went further when he talked to the Wall Street Journal: “Toyota believes that plug-in hybrids are a realistic solution among vehicles using electricity.”

Although we won’t see the plug-in Prius in showrooms until 2011, Toyota is rolling out 500 of them in the coming months. It’s providing 350 of them to municipal fleets in Japan to further refine the technology. Another 150 are slated for fleets in the United States early next year. Toyota will collect info on a variety of topics, including how and when the vehicles are charged, whether the batteries are depleted and how they are performing.

No word on what the plug-in Prius will cost, but Uchiyamada promised it will be “affordable.” The 2010 Prius starts at $22,400.

Source: Wired

Mercedes-Benz, arguably the people who invented the automobile, has been making great strides putting fuel cell technology into street cars.

The boys from Stuttgart say the B-Class F-Cell, as it’s officially called, is the “first electric car fully suited for everyday driving and with the driving dynamics of a two-liter petrol car.”

When it hits the road next year, the hydrogen-hungry B-Class will be the first series-produced fuel cell EV on the road. Yes, with only 200 planned it is a small-scale production run. But it is worth noting the cars will be coming to both Europe and America within a few months.

The fuel cell is 40 percent smaller than the system used in the 2004 A-Class F-Cell, and Mercedes says it develops 30 percent more power, all the while consuming 30 percent less fuel.

Source: Autopia