Ecobella Blog

Davos, Switzerland – Iceland leads the world in addressing pollution control and natural resource management challenges, according to the 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) produced by a team of environmental experts at Yale University and Columbia University. This is the third edition of the EPI, which has been revisited biannually since 2006.

Released today at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010, the EPI ranks 163 countries on their performance across 25 metrics aggregated into ten categories including: environmental health, air quality, water resource management, biodiversity and habitat, forestry, fisheries, agriculture, and climate change.

Iceland’s top-notch performance derives from its high scores on environmental public health, controlling greenhouse gas emissions, and reforestation. Other top performers include Switzerland, Costa Rica, Sweden, and Norway – all of which have made substantial investments in environmental infrastructure, pollution control, and policies designed to move toward long-term sustainability.

The United States places 61^st in the 2010 EPI, with strong results on some issues, such as provision of safe drinking water and forest sustainability, and weak performance on other issues including greenhouse gas emissions and several aspects of local air pollution.

Of the newly industrialized nations, China and India rank 121^st and 123^rd respectively – reflecting the strain rapid economic growth imposes on the environment. However, Brazil and Russia rank 62^nd and 69^th, suggesting that the level of development is just one of many factors affecting placement in the rankings.

Source: YALE

China is aggressively protecting the economic growth that is transforming the lives of its citizens, instead of spending a fortune battling a problem that is unlikely to affect it negatively until next century. Little wonder, then, that Ed Miliband, Britain’s Secretary for Energy and Climate Change, found “impossible resistance” from China to a global carbon mitigation deal.

A global deal in which countries committed to spending 0.2% of GDP to develop non-carbon-emitting energy technologies would increase current spending 50-fold, and it would still be many times cheaper than a global carbon deal. It would also ensure that richer nations pay more, taking much of the political heat out of the debate.

Most importantly, such an approach would bring about the transformational technological breakthroughs that are required to make green energy sources cheap and effective enough to fuel a carbon-free future.

By: Bjorn Lomborg

To read full article: Project Syndicate

Faced with a faltering economy, fatigue over the health care fight, and the prospect of congressional elections this November, proponents of a carbon cap-and-trade bill in the U.S. Senate face high hurdles when Congress returns from its winter recess next week. The Obama administration and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the lead author on the climate bill, insist that they are proceeding with plans to pass climate and energy legislation this year. The House of Representatives passed a bill last fall that would put a price and a cap on carbon. But some political analysts say that with the political environment shifting against the Democrats, the most that Congress may accomplish is to pass an energy bill that stimulates development of renewable sources of energy, nuclear power, and offshore drilling, while shelving plans for a cap-and-trade plan. With prospects for a climate bill in doubt, environmental and industry groups are stepping up political pressure on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has said that it will begin regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Meanwhile, Tom Donohue, the head of the U.S. chamber of Commerce, has said that his organization might launch a legal challenge to the EPA’s effort to regulate CO2 emissions. Prospects for such a maneuver succeeding, however, are slim, as the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the EPA has the right to regulate greenhouse gases as a threat to human health.

Source: Yale Environment

The number of cars on U.S. roads dropped by 4 million in 2009, the only large decline in the nation’s car fleet since the government began keeping records in 1960. While consumers bought 10 million cars during the year, another 14 million vehicles were scrapped, dropping the total to 246 million vehicles, despite the government’s “cash for clunkers” program that gave individuals as much as $4,500 to exchange older cars for more fuel-efficient models.

Analysts cited numerous factors for the decline, including high gasoline prices, improved public transportation, and the popularity of online social networking, which for many teens has replaced the automobile as a way to socialize.

Other people attribute the decline on the economic downturn and the tight credit.  Americans leased automobiles more than anywhere else.  But leasing requires credit – and the credit crunch has changed the landscape for consumer credit. Leasing is not as popular now.

Currently, there are 117 vehicles for every 100 licensed Americans, but high debt and other costs of car ownership will make consumers less likely to keep more cars than they use, said Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute. Many families with three cars will likely cut back to two, he predicts, and those with two may cut back to one or none.

Source:  The Globe and Mail

LONDON (Reuters) – Spain had to shut down some of its wind turbines on Wednesday as wet and windy weather caused a surge in green electricity generation at a time of low demand, grid operator Red Electrica said.

The country’s thousands of wind turbines supplied a new record of 54.1 percent of demand early on Wednesday, forcing gas- and coal-fired power plants to run at minimum output to avoid system overload as hydropower companies drained brimming reservoirs.

“High wind output in the early hours of this morning, together with the high level of hydropower generation, due to reservoirs opening up after recent rains, forced the control center to cut thermal power to a technical minimum,” Red Electrica said in a statement.

“Due to low demand at the moment this was not enough … So the control center had to order wind power production to be cut between 4 am and 7 am this morning by 600 megawatts.”

Spain has invested heavily in wind power generation over the last decade to cut carbon emissions and reduce its reliance on imported fuel.

It now has over 18,000 MW of turbines installed, out of a total power generation capacity of about 93,000 MW, and first produced over half of its electricity with them early on November 9.

Wind turbines are seen as a key technology for producing electricity without emitting climate-warming carbon. But the Spanish experience highlights the difficulties for grid and other plant operators in balancing the system when the wind blows hard and there is little demand, especially early in the morning.

Greater numbers of electric cars charging up overnight could help absorb some of the extra output in future but there are still too few to make a difference.

Wind power output hit 54.1 percent of demand at around 0350 local time (0250 GMT) on Wednesday, or over 10,000 megawatts.

Even after the order to cut output the remaining turbines were still producing around 40 percent of Spain’s power at around 7 am, reducing the contribution of coal and gas plants to under 5 percent in the hours in between, according to Red Electrica data.

Source: REUTERS