Based on the recent emissions report from the U.S., it is clear that renewable energies are urgently needed to reduce the large amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the states. The courageous plan of Al Gore to produce electricity from 100% reneable energies within 10 years and the determination from president-elect Obama to fight the global climate crisis are important first steps towards emissions reductions in the U.S. Now the words just need to be put into action, hopefully more consequently than in Germany (MW).

Reposted from William Brown

The USA Energy Information Administration (EIA) in December 2008 published its annual update, “Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States 2007,” by the EIA Office of Integrated Analysis and Forecasting, U.S. Department of Energy.

This important 54-page document answers a wide variety of questions about fuel and sector roles in emissions of such greenhouse gases (GHG) as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride. (more…)

By Peter Montague from Rachel’s Democracy and Health News

A detailed new report from Stanford University reviews and ranks major energy-related solutions to global warming, air pollution deaths, and energy security. This study examines 10 electric power sources and two liquid fuel options, comparing them by 11 different criteria. The study concludes that ethanol, nuclear, and coal-with- carbon-storage (CCS) are dirty, inefficient, and wasteful compared to wind, direct sunlight, geothermal and ocean energy. These cleaner, inexhaustible sources could eliminate global warming gases, give us energy security and meet the nation’s (and the world’s) energy needs forever, the study concludes. The report is available now online with extensive supplementary materials, and will soon appear in the journal Energy & Environmental Solutions. The author is Mark Z. Jacobson, director of the Atmosphere/Energy Program at Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif.

The report assumes that all U.S. gasoline-powered vehicles will shift entirely to electric power or ethanol fuel, and it then compares 10 ways of generating the necessary electricity and two ways of making ethanol fuel (basically, from corn or cellulose). Each of these 12 options is then evaluated against 11 different criteria and a final ranking is calculated. (more…)

Written by Stuart Scott, member of Al Gore’s The Climate Project, and author of the blog “Climatecorps“.

I am at a loss for how to even begin to express the treasure I’ve found in the past couple of days.  It is something so vital to the effort to save humanity from its own ’success’ that I have decided to attach myself to the effort to promote this amazing documentary.  It is called The Age of Stupid.  I will provide links below to the website for the film, specifically to the page with trailers, and encourage you to whet your appetite in advance of the film’s actual release, which will come as early in 2009 as the people behind the film can negotiate.  (more…)

CleanEnergy Project author Maiken Winter posted this note live from the U.N. conference in Poznan:

Below are the exact words from Al Gore’s speech at Poznan. By the way, press was allowed to this event. A part of Al Gore’s speech can be seen on 350.org

Speech as Delivered at the Conference of Parties - 14, Poznan, Poland, December 12, 2008

Introduction by Yvo de Boer.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. The man that I have the honor of introducing to you today really needs to introduction. He is well known in all corners of the world for his tireless work on bringing climate change to people’s attention. He is known for transforming the complicated calculations, methods and projections of climate changescience into something real, something tangible, something that everybody can comprehend, digest and integrate. And he did so at a time when a large part of the world didn’t think it mattered, when the climate change skeptics still had their heyday but he persevered.

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Those of you who have been following this blog for a while will understand how excited I am. 350 ppm CO2 in the atmosphere is a goal that we urgently need to work towards to avoid a climate catastrophe (see previous 350 articles on this blog). For months many of us have urged Al Gore to include 350 ppm in his message to the world.

Today he did. He did so in front of the entire world, at the UN Climate Confrence in Poznan. In his words “450 ppm is ineadequate. We have to toughen up and reach 350 ppm.” (more…)

The developments in Brussels strongly influence the mood here in Poznan. If Europe is not giving the leadership in climate change policy that we need, we cannot expect other nations to agree to any measures. At an informal meeting with German NGOs, German environmental minister Sigmar Gabriel showed deep concern about the development in Brussels.

At a press conference of the Climate Action Network Europe (CAN), strong words were used about the state of discussions at Brussels:

• It is an embarassment, that Europe even discusses the possibility that 60% of a 20% emissions reduction could be offset with Clean Development Mechanisms (CDMs). Effectively, that would mean emissions reduction of just 4% within the European countries until 2020!

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No matter what will be the outcome of Poznan today, there is still this fact: “If we could leverage local action, then we might not need any official climate negotiations.” (Pavan Sukhder, TEEB, Project leader for Green Economy, UNEP). He based that opinion on an example from housewifes in Bangladesh who installed > 200,000 solar panels on their houses. When the poorest of the poor are taking action, then the rest of the world should be able to do so, too, with or without an agreement by the nations of this world. After all, who is agreeing here? It is not the world’s citizens, but a selected small number of people who not always have the best of the world in mind. (more…)

On Wednsday, we got an update over the European climate negotiations in Brussels by EU Commissioner Stavros Dimas, and by several other members of the European Parliament. Dimas stated that “a failure of the agreement is inconceivable”, and that the EU climate package will be an inspiration to the world. Those were strong words, considering the fact that Germany is currently blocking effective emission reduction measures (see previous article). (more…)

Today, Germany got the “Fossil of the Day Award” at Poznan. That is not really an honor, even though that little green dinosaur is pretty cute. If anybody would have told me just a few weeks ago that Germany would ever outcompete the U.S. in blocking the climate negotiations, I would have believed that person had lost his or her mind. Now suddenly Germany is doing just that.

As I understand it, the major problem is the issue of CO2 emissions by large emitters; Germany wants to give large industry, such as coal and steel industries, free emission rights. (more…)

For months I have waited for this day – to go to the UN Climate meetings in Poznan, and find out for myself how the road towards a sustainable and safe future is built, towards a future that will be decided upon in Copenhagen in December 2009.

My little adventure has not started so great. Hopefully this is just the difficult start to three highly productive days. A defect lock and constructions on the train tracks caused me to miss my train and will finally get me crawling into the hostel way after midnight (after having left at 7:30 am).

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