How to Gain a Climate Consensus

Washington Post op-ed columnist and former Secretary of State George Schultz writes today on what is needed to obtain a global agreement on climate change post-Kyoto. He specifically points to WRI and WBCSD's GHG Protocol as an example of a multi-stakeholder collaboration that should serve as a foundation for international cap and trade systems.

"The product of collaboration between the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, these standards for accounting and reporting greenhouse gases should be duly understood and adopted."

To read the full editorial, click here.

The Freakonomics of Climate Change

In a Reuters article 'China says one-child policy helps protect climate' eerily reminiscent of some of the controversial arguments propounded by Chicago economist and 'Freakonomics' author Stephen Levitt, China asserts that its one-child policy has contributed to the fight against global warming.

As the article states:
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"Population is clearly an important factor," said Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, at U.N. talks trying to plan a new deal to combat climate change after 2012.
China, which rejects criticism that it is doing too little to confront climate change, says that its population is now 1.3 billion against 1.6 billion if it had not imposed tough birth control measures in the late 1970s.
The number of births avoided equals the entire population of the United States. Beijing says that fewer people means less demand for energy and lower emissions of heat-trapping gases from burning fossil fuels.
"This is only an illustration of the actions we have taken," said Su Wei, a senior Foreign Ministry official heading China's delegation to the 158-nation talks from Aug 27-31.
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Levitt in Freakonomics makes a similar argument with regards to a nationwide depression of violent crime in the early 1990s, asserting that abortion could have been a primary factor preventing thousands of unwanted births to predominantly poor, black, single mothers who may have become violent criminals later in life due to these circumstances. Of course, it may seem that Levitt jumps a few causal barriers in making this argument, relying on a lot of assumptions (e.g. most criminals come from single-mother, impoverished, black households); however, he does put forth some interesting statistics to support his contentious theory.

It is interesting logic that underlies the Chinese argument regarding the correlation between the country's one-child policy, which was enacted in the 1970s and has resulted in a substantial stabilization of China's policy, particularly after a turbulent era in which Mao proclaimed that China would succeed with a large popluation (“With Many People, Strength is Great” [Ren Duo, Liliang Da]). In a sense, China may have some morsel of legitimacy in this argument: population clearly has some impact when considering numbers alone. More people equals more people consuming fossil fuels and emitting more greenhouse gases; the converse should be true as well:

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... avoiding 300 million births "means we averted 1.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2005" based on average world per capital emissions of 4.2 tonnes, he said.
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A report produced for Pew reported that China had mitigated 150 million tons of C per year during the 1980s and 1990s from "slowing population growth." However, the following statement made by Harlan Watson was probably the most ludicrous out of the entire article:

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Harlan Watson, the chief U.S. negotiator, said that high immigration to the United States makes it harder to slow its rising emissions.
"It's simple arithmetic," he said. "If you look at mid-century, Europe will be at 1990 levels of population while ours will be nearing 60 percent above 1990 levels. So population does matter," he said.
>>

However, Watson is clearly distorting the "simple arithmetic" by blaming the U.S.' level of GHGs on high immigration. Looking at per capita emissions by country, it is clear that population alone can't account for the U.S.' 19.92 metric tons CO2/person versus China's measely 2.93 (given, these are 2002 numbers, according to WRI's Earthtrends). At any rate, it's an interesting question of Freakonomics, and I'm looking more into this question. Feel free to share your thoughts.

Oops

Wow, I just realized I've been doing a terrible job of updating this blog.

Beijing temporarily bans cars to reduce air pollution

Found on today's Earthtrends, featuring an interesting map from the World Bank that compares air particulate matter in some of the world's major cities.

Verdict: the ban greatly reduced traffic, but air pollution effects are so far negligible.

WRI ranked 3rd in private-sector relationships

The Financial Times ranked WRI third out of 34 global organizations in terms of its relationships with private-sector organizations. The rankings were based on four criteria, including accountability, adaptability, communication, and execution. The full article is entitled, "Trend to Partnerships is Positive."

Mexico announces climate change strategy based on GHG Program

Today saw a HUGE outcome for the WRI's GHG Protocol Initiative Team (aka yours truly).

The Chicago Tribune reported today,"Mexico taking lead in global warming fight" , citing President Felipe Calderon stating that Mexico's aggressive new climate change strategy will be based on a step-by-step approach to mitigation, using the Mexico GHG Program as the foundation.

Calculate your footprint

http://www.myfootprint.org

Congrats, Al!

An Inconvenient Truth takes home 2 Oscars, for Best Documentary Feature and Achievement in Music.

Also, for the first time, the Oscars went green.

Happy 25th, WRI!

Watch a video on WRI's work, produced by NBC for WRI's 25th Anniversary Dinner, which was sponsored by Citigroup and featured Thomas Friedman, Al Gore, Jeff Immelt, amongst others.

GORE NOMINATED FOR NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

Check it.

This is a huge accolade for one of the pioneers of global climate change. Former vice president Al Gore has really become the global spokesman for urging citizens and governments to take action regarding climate change.

Is America really waking up?

Waking up and catching up in The Economist.

This is a well-written article that reflects the slowly but surely changing green tide of environmentalism in the U.S. Although the shift in partisan control over both the House and the Senate is primarily responsible, it's still too early to say whether the transfer of power will actually result in the 'dramatic change' implied in the article.

However, there certainly are indications that environmental currents really are moving in the U.S. In addition to the launch of U.S. CAP (see previous entry), Exxon Mobil- who was notorious for paying scientists to argue against anthropogenic climate change - even admitted that climate change is real, thereby warranting action.

Apocalypse now: early warning signs of climate

WRI contributed to the data reflected in this map, which is available for purchase from Environmental Defense for $5.

I don't get paid enough

As a "technical advisor," I get questions from consultants, businesses, etc. who are attempting to calculate emissions to develop their greenhouse gas inventories. I don't know why I found this e-mail so hilarious. Maybe it's the fact that 1) the subject is completely nonsensical; 2) the body of the e-mail is blank.

I'm sorry, sir ... but I don't even know where to begin to help you.

Wake Forest gets a 'D' for sustainability

The Endowment Institute gives Wake Forest University a big fat overall 'D' for sustainability. The report scores universities based on administration, climate change and energy, food and recycling, green building, investment priorities.

Interestingly enough, the report cites the Student Environmental Action Coalition as the "strongest force for sustainability on campus." If this is true, the university's sustainable outlook is bleak. When I was a student, SEAC had weak influence and minimal presence on campus. I wouldn't exactly count holding an annual 'Earth Day' fest on Davis Field with free, university-purchased beer a "strong force" for sustainability.

Keeping Austin weirder ... and greener

This year's South by Southwest will be 'cleaner'.

The annual music and film conference will be carbon neutral. The article in the Austin Business Journal gives a shout out to WRI, and specifically, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative, the project I work on.

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Una Johnston, SXSW's UK and Ireland manager and the company's environmental consultant, says she used the standards, guidelines and tools contained in the World Resources Institute's GHG Protocol to calculate the carbon emissions for the year Sept. 1, 2005 to Aug. 31, 2006.

Call on Gore

If you thought climate science wasn't sexy already, Ministry of Sound created a dance video version (to Eric Prydz) of "An Inconvenient Truth", which received two nods from the Academy yesterday.

Tuning into climate ... finally

WRI President Jonathan Lash and GE Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt featured in the NY Times for the U.S. Climate Action Partnership.

On the eve of President Bush's State of the Union Address, the CEOs of 10 major companies and heads of four environmental groups will convene in Washington, D.C. to deliver a mandate to Congress - it's time for a firm nationwide cap on carbon dioxide emissions.

Perhaps representation from industry heavyweights such as Alcoa, DuPont, BP, Duke Energy, Lehman Brothers, and, of course, GE ,will hammer home the point that coordinated, immediate action is necessary to combat climate change, and, most importantly, industry isn't opposed to regulation. As economic losses are oft-cited as reasons for failing to enact policies to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the partnership will hopefully provide the much needed impetus for Congress to gather enough momentum to pass legislation that will finally regulate the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Watch C-SPAN's coverage of the press conference held this morning at 11:30 am regarding the partnership's policy recommendations, which can also be downloaded at US CAP'S home page. Also, read CNN's recap of the event.

Also, these editorials shed further light on the current political climate:
Climate Policy's Odd Man Out by Sebastian Mallaby

Senators Bingaman and Boxer in the Dallas Morning News

A warning from the garden by Thomas Friedman

Forbidden lattes?

Online campaign aims to rid Forbidden City of Starbucks