Climate Change

It is a brutal reality of life that in the past one or two years energy prices have increased, and heating up our houses in the winter looks to be getting more dear every year. If you’re like most people you depend on either oil, natural gas or electricity in order to heat your house during those cold winter months.

With world crude oil prices up from $40 a barrel in 2009 to their current cost of $97 per barrel, and natural gas cost having risen to the same extent from 2009 to the present time, with the decline in purchasing power of the US Greenback (the currency which all of these commodities are traded in), the tightening up of world supplies and also , the unrest in the world’s biggest oil-producing area, the Middle East, it seems that we’re not going to see any easing in the price we pay to heat our homes soon .

So we need make each penny that we spend on energy go as far as is possible . This is best done by insulating our homes to make it hold in that precious heat for as long as we possibly can .

Some older houses are not built to have the inside or the wall cavities retrofitted with insulation materials, so external wall insulation is the only option. External insulation may also be fitted to homes and other buildings which have good internal insulation, as an additional method of conserving energy.

External insulation is generally constructed of a rigid layered composite board which is fitted neat to the existing exterior wall and has a pleasant exterior layer finish to match your chosen look. The energy savings can be expected to range from 20% to 50% reductions in heating bills . While not inexpensive, the up-front cost of fitting external wall insulation to your house can frequently be offset with green govt. motivations in the shape of grants, which are aimed at cutting carbon emissions and reducing our dependence on importing foreign oil, coal and natural gas.

Liam Keenan writes about home improvements, external insulation and internal insulation methods, passive homes and eco living.

How to offset carbon emissions and become carbon neutral

The new era of Emissions Awareness
The world’s leading scientists continue to stress the evidence supporting climate change grows stronger with new research.

Everyday, more people and businesses are becoming aware of the impact of the carbon emissions caused by their everyday activities on the environment. Some people are aware and doing something about it. But a lot of people think doing a little bit is enough. The truth is if you do a little you achieve a little. We need to make deep cuts in carbon emissions and help drive investment in low-carbon solutions.

But what can you do? An increasingly popular option is to offset carbon and become carbon neutral.

Offset Carbon and be Carbon Neutral
To carbon offset is to reduce or stop carbon emissions somewhere else in the world for some of the carbon emissions you are responsible in your daily life. If you offset carbon emissions equivalent to the carbon emissions of all your activities in one year, then you are carbon neutral.

You use a carbon credit to offset carbon emissions. A carbon credit generally represents one tonne of carbon emissions reduced in a carbon project somewhere else in the world.

However, there has been some concerns about the calibre of carbon credits available to offset carbon emissions.

Most carbon offset projects use carbon credits created from trees or renewable projects. While these sound attractive there are concerns about using them as carbon offsets. A third type of carbon credit, a carbon emissions credit from a compliance regulated scheme, overcomes these concerns and empowers you to proactively reduce global carbon emission credits. These alternatives are investigated in the article “What are the alternatives to carbon offset / become carbon neutral”.

A More Meaningful Solution – Carbon Emission Credits
Carbon emission credits work like this. Through a simple and powerful initiative, you access a compliance regulated market to buy and cancel carbon emission credits. Cancelling carbon emissions credits from the limited pool of credits in the European Emissions Trading Scheme means there are fewer credits available to be used by industry to emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. You are taking away the rights of industry to emit carbon dioxide.

Fewer carbon emission credits helps drive investment in low-carbon solutions such as energy efficiencies and renewable energy, as emitters can use the money from the carbon credits they sell to fund their investments in low-carbon solutions. They are rewarded for emitting less carbon dioxide.

Carbon emission credits have been referred to as the ‘most pure’ form of carbon emission reduction. We call it the Climakind alternative to offset carbon emissions because it helps ensure your carbon emissions reduction efforts are proactive, high quality and secure.

You help speed up the transition to a low-carbon future.

Making it Simple
To make it simple, Climakind provides affordable and easily recognisable levels of participation. You can choose to cancel carbon emission credits equal to one year of your annual carbon emissions and instantly become a Gold member, or start with one month’s carbon emissions as a Bronze member. You can add to your membership anytime through the member lounge at www.climakind.com. You can even compare your purchases to the global average over different time periods.

All this makes being Climakind (ClimateKind – to be climate kind is to be kind to the climate) more than just a simple carbon offset or carbon neutral solution.

You can make a difference
Whether you are a business or an individual Climakind can help you reduce carbon emissions.

Visit www.climakind.com and register to cancel carbon emission credits today.

Help make a difference. Act now to reduce global carbon emissions and encourage investment in low carbon-solutions.

You can have a meaningful impact in the transition to a sustainable future. You can make a difference.

Carbon Credit Business
988 Manual that teaches individuals how to profit from the carbon credit and global warming craze. Product has little competition and is in high demand. Lots of satisfied customers.
Carbon Credit Business

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www.howdini.com How to reduce your carbon footprint (carbon emissions) at home You might think only factories emit pollution, but your home is guilty too. Patty Kim, from National Geographic’s The Green Guide, shows you how to reduce your carbon footprint at home, and save money while you’re helping to save the planet. Keywords: carbon emissions carbon dioxide emissions reduce carbon footprint how to decrease the carbon footprint
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Modular buildings are a lot more convenient options than getting them constructed from scratch, but why not go for an even better option, with a much less carbon footprint and adverse effect on the environment, by choosing sustainable modular building. These buildings use as many natural means as possible to provide the facilities and living comfort for which people spend hundreds and thousands of dollars in regular buildings for using artificial means which are hazardous to the environment.

Read the rest of this entry »

Calculating carbon emissions is a complex process. The different types of emissions need to be identified and collected company wide. From this information, the amount of each type of gas released into the environment needs to be calculated. In addition, tracking methods need to show the daily use of refrigerant gas. The end result will show the global warming potential for each facility with a refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) system or heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system. Refrigerant systems use high levels of greenhouse gases, so the EPA established the Climate Registry Protocol for calculating carbon emissions on a regular basis. The international equivalent of this requirement is outlined in the Montreal Protocol and Kyoto Protocol. The main purpose for calculating carbon emissions is to begin reducing the damaging effects that refrigerant gas has on the environment. Commercial refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) systems or heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems operate on refrigerant gas, which is made up of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and perfluorocarbons (PFCs). When broken down, these substances contain carbon, chlorine, fluorine and hydrogen. These gases are major ozone depleting substances. By calculating carbon emissions, government environmental agencies will be able to better understand the situation. Companies who fail to report their carbon emissions will be issued a substantial fine. Various carbon emissions reporting protocols have emerged from the EPA, ISO, World Resource Institute, and Climate Registry protocols. All of these documents define in great detail how organizations must collect data, calculate carbon emissions, and report the results. In short, the monitoring, tracking, and reporting requirements mandate that all locations where refrigerants are being used or serviced must collect, organize, and calculate as part of an enterprise’s carbon emissions. Some volume of carbon is released into the environment by any company with a refrigerant system. Trying to determine how much carbon is emitted is an intricate process. Calculating carbon emissions begins by collecting data across the entire company and all its locations and identifying the gases. From there, a determination on how much of each gas is released must be made. Then various reports that include tracking methods need to be completed and submitted. Refrigerant management programs can best handle the tedious process of calculating carbon emissions. With so many components involved, a computerized refrigerant management program is much more effective than manually handling and reviewing paper reports. A refrigerant management program that includes a solution for refrigerant gas tracking and an automated way to calculate carbon emissions is important. Solutions like this make is easier to handle calculating carbon emissions for all AC/HVAC systems operated by a company. There are several reasons that led to the EPA and international environmental agencies to require companies to include calculating carbon emissions in their reports. It is an important step to define your organizational boundaries, where you do business, and to identify the refrigerants you own or other sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Equally important is to establish a tracking mechanism for determining how much harmful gases are released at any given time. The information and data collected for the emerging refrigerant management programs will enhance and improve atmospheric conditions with specific requirements for reducing carbon (CO2) emissions. By calculating carbon emissions, companies will be able to recognize the extent of their carbon footprint. For companies with multiple locations using refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) systems or heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, the task becomes even more critical. But there is help to address this challenging issue. Emerging software provided by clean-tech development firms track carbon dioxide gas emissions across all sites so companies can do their part to ensure a healthy environment for years to come.

Incoming search terms:

• the effects of refrigeration on the environment

Great strides are being made in the biofuel industry with a very exciting development in Australia in the search for a viable second generation solution with a biocrude that has been produced from green waste and paper.

The development of an extremely stable biocrude by the CSIRO and Monash University in Australia by using green waste such as forest thinnings, household waste and crop residues has made the prospect of biofuel production that significantly reduces carbon emissions possible. Dr Steven Loffler of CSIRO Forest Biosciences says, the oil that we’ve made is both stable and also PH neutral, so the advantage of that is that it can be held in storage for as long as it needs to before further processing.

The plant wastes being targeted for conversion into biofuels contain chemicals known as lignocellulose, which is increasingly favoured around the world as a raw material for the next generation of bio-ethanol as they are renewable and potentially greenhouse gas neutral. Materials such as lawn clippings, tree trimmings and other materials that households already put in their green bins for removal by local councils. When you consider that these wastes are already being collected on a weekly or fortnightly basis, then the fact that they will not end up as landfill is an immediate bonus. Currently there is between 1 and 2 million tonnes going into landfill in Australia alone.

The first generation biofuels come with so many negatives with destructive rainforest clearing and long distance haulage threaten to prove more harmful than the fuel theyre replacing. Biocrude production addresses many of these problems.

The plan is to operate from small regional facilities close to the source of the bio-material converting it into the crude oil and then shipping the crude which would be much more efficient and would produce much less greenhouse gas emissions than moving the bulkier solid material to a large central facility.

Its still very early days in this process and one of the unanswered questions that will be a huge factor towards the success or failure of the project is how much the biocrude will cost to produce. At this stage no cost analysis has been performed although Dr Loffler believes that it will at least be as competitive as current crude production.

The prospects look very promising for the creation of a greenhouse gas friendly biofuel as long as the creation of local refining facilities acutally become reality.

Often we have no choice but to drive, even though we know it causes greenhouse gas emissions. Despite this there are certain simple steps you can take to reduce your impact on climate change. Below youll find 10 top tips for reducing your emissions while driving.

1. Turn the engine off when you are stuck in traffic for long periods. If you’re stuck in traffic for more than a minute or so it’s better to turn your engine off in order to reduce your carbon emissions.

2. Rather than leaving your engine running when waiting to pick up or drop off passengers turn your engine off instead.

3. Reducing your speed can radically reduce the amount of green house gases you produce. Traveling at 56 mph rather than 70 mph reduces your fuel use by around 10% and if you dropped your speed from 70mph to 50mph you would reduce the carbon emitted by your car by a whopping 25%.

4. If you drive more smoothly, instead of accelerating and braking all the time, you can significantly reduce your carbon emissions. It has been estimated that those who drive smoothly and intelligently can save a staggering 30% of fuel consumption compared with those with a heavy right foot. By keeping your distance from the car in front and monitoring the traffic ahead you can slow down efficiently and avoid constant use of the break.

5. Ensure that your tyres are inflated to the correct pressure, you can find the required pressure in your owner’s manual. According to figures provided by the RAC under inflated tyres increase resistance and can increase fuel consumption by up to 2%.

6. Sharing car journeys reduces the number of cars on the road but nearly 40% of car journeys only have one occupant in the car. Check out Liftshare.org to find travel companies and share travel costs.

7. Avoid carrying unnecessary heavy items, such as tool kits or golf clubs. The more weight you’re carrying in the car, the more fuel is used per mile and the greater the carbon emissions per journey.

8. If you are not using them remove roof racks and/or bull bars. Not only do they add to the weight of the car but these items also increase air resistance, adding up to 5% to your fuel consumption.

9. If you have air conditioning fitted try and minimise its use. At slower speeds open your car windows and ventilate the car naturally instead. Be aware that at higher speeds open windows can create significant drag, so it is better to use the car’s conventional air ventilation system or air con if really necessary. Air conditioning can add around 10% to your fuel consumption.

10. Regularly servicing, in accordance with the manufactures mileage recommendations, ensures that you car runs as efficiently as possible, thus maximising its performance and fuel efficiency and minimising emissions. A regular service will save you money in the long run, as the car should last longer as well as running far more economically.

The article is available at http://probebusiness.blogspot.com/2009/12/india-on-reducing-carbon-emissions.html

In the run up for Copenhagen Climate Conference to be scheduled from 7-Dec-09, India has become the center stage for the key negotiations between developed and developing nations for its stance on reducing Carbon emissions. India has expressed concerns over sacrificing its development and objectives of eradicating poverty at the expense of costs for reducing greenhouse emissions’. The main obstacle India sees is its spending costs on reducing Carbon emissions that would have a significant negative impact on its objectives of development and poverty eradication.

In this article I have tried to analyze the concerns of India by evaluating the costs of reducing Carbon emissions and the costs of not reducing Carbon emissions, and base my conclusions on the differential costs between the two. To reiterate I am considering the following costs:
1. Costs incurred for Not reducing Carbon emissions – CN
2. Costs incurred for Reducing Carbon emissions till 350 ppm – CR
Comparing the above two costs If CN > CR Then reducing Carbon emissions would have a negative impact on Indias Objectives of development and eradicating poverty
Else If CN < CR Then reducing Carbon emissions will have a positive impact on Indias objectives and India should aim at reducing Carbon emissions.

1.Costs incurred for not reducing Carbon emissions – CN

According to a study released by the group Economics of Climate Adaptation – ECA [Swiss Re, Mckinsey & Company, ClimateWorks, the European Commission, Rockefeller Foundation and Standard Chartered Bank make up the ECA working group] under climate change scenarios, the climate related disasters can result in 9-13 percent of loss of Indias GDP by 2010 and 19% loss of Indias GDP by 2030. Accordingly the Costs for not reducing Carbon emissions till 2030 i.e, CN is 19%. However there is a potential for this loss to be increased as the long term effects of climate related disasters are serious on the economy.

To examine how much loss a natural disaster may cause, lets take a case study of the floods that recently hit North Karnataka in October 2009, and examine the losses incurred as a result of the disaster. This would give us an idea of the approximate losses that would incur if a natural disaster of similar severity happens due to the climate changes resulting from not reducing Carbon emissions, which could have been avoided otherwise.
Following are some of the significant losses caused by the floods: >> 194 people died
>> 10 million homeless.This means that the Govt had created 10 millionpoverty people at an instant by letting the disaster happen.
>> Losses totaled to 18,000 crore, according to the State governmentestimates
>> State govt sought 9,000 crore flood relief from the Central govt.
>> State demanded for the release of 1.5 lakh metric tonne food grains underBPL rates for the affected people
>> 25 lakh hectares of crop area affected.This amount of land would not beproductive for a few months which is a Loss.The investments in terms oflabor, resources,subsidy provided by the govt onfertilizers from citizen’staxes are totally wasted, A very big loss again.
>> Supply chain disruption. Industries, Businesses, Prices, Markets in otherareaswhichwere reliant on the flood hit area are affected. The standstillregionwouldn’tbe ableto supply any goods or services which it wassupposed to, toother businesses.
>> Inflation figures during this period.
Vegetable prices up 50%, potatoes up 81%, sugar up 44% and rice up 19%. Food priceswere more broadly up by 16% compared to the previousyear. Although floods werentthe only reason, they were significant in contributing for rising Inflation.This is a serious impact. Higher inflation would reduce the buyingpower of peopleand would create more poverty
>> The state’s machinery and resources are dedicated for flood reliefworkswhich wouldhave otherwise been dedicated for other Productiveworks
>> Chances of spreading of epidemics are very high. More spending onhealth.
>> Affects both the physical and mental health of the people in the floodaffected region. The implications of this are very serious.
>> Job losses
>> The list runs

All the above effects which would be caused because of ignoring the climate change disasters have eventually resulted in hampering development and creating more poverty which would have been avoided otherwise.

2. Costs incurred with spending on Reducing Carbon emissions – CR

There will be some significant costs associated with spending (or rather investing) on reducing Carbon emissions. The following are the areas where the government has to chiefly spend if it makes a commitment for Carbon emission reduction.

1. Spending on newer energy resources
India should start spending (investing) in newer energy resources which are more energy efficient so as to reduce its over dependence on burning of fossil fuels like coal which is less energy efficient and results in more Carbon emission.

2. Spending on building more energy efficient products
This would apply to a wide range of products from almost every sector.India needs to build Energy efficient engines, Energy efficient commercial and residential buildings,Energy efficient transportation of all forms, Machines and Technologies that enable energy efficiency.

3. Therewould be costs incurred due to reduced economic development taking into consideration the reduced economic development taking into consideration the factors such as unemployment, Industries spending on equipments, technologies for reducing Carbon emissions, policies, administrative and legislative costs and more

So what would be the likely total cost for accomplishing all the above stated spendingat reducing Carbon emission?
Unfortunately as of now [5-Dec-09] I have not been able to find any data released by Indian govt about the costs estimates for reducing its Carbon emissions. I urge the Govt of India to release its estimates for costs associated with reducing Carbon emission at a particular target.Had this been released our work would have been easier. But that shouldnt stop us from continuing further as the cost estimates on reducing Carbon emissions are available from many other sources. Variousacademic and research groups like Economics for Equity and Environment network (E3), groups from European universities have tried to estimate the costs for attaining emission reduction till 350ppm. One group starts from the (realistic) assumption of high unemployment, and finds that long-run employment and economic growth would be increased by a program of public investment in green technology and emissions reduction that leads to 350 ppm. The other three groups adopt the common assumption that short-run unemployment can be ignored in long-run models. They generally find that the needed emissions reductions will cost an average of 1 to 3 percent of world economic output, for some years to come.Studies from other groups such as Greenpeace, Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) have arrived at more optimistic estimates where the savings from fuels would be more compared to the spending. They assume high oil prices at 140$ per barrel (Greenpeace). Now considering Mckinseys estimates (Non conservative and pessimistic compared to the estimates of Greenpeace and UCS), it would cost 2.3% of Indias GDP to halve the Carbon emission growth by 2030. Hence the Costs for Reducing the Carbon Emission – CR would be 2.3% of Indias GDP.

Comparison of the Costs between reducing and not reducing Carbon emissions

As already reasoned before, the value of CN is 19% of GDP and the value of CR is 2.3% GDP.The Difference Costs of CN and CR = 19 – 2.3 = 16.7 % of GDP
India would actually save 16.7 % of GDP subjected to the reasons presented above if it aims at reducing Carbon emissions. These savings can eventually be used for economic development and reducing poverty. The earlier reasons from Indian govt that reducing Carbon emissions would reduce economic development and increase poverty would hence needs to be strongly suspected.

According to the 2006 military data released by Central Intelligence Agency [CIA, US], Indias military expenditures cost 2.5 % GDP annually. These military expenditures are effectively the safety needs of the country to protect the citizens from deaths and losses.If the climate changes are allowed by not reducing the Carbon emissions, the resulting climate change disasters would eventually lead to more deaths and homeless people. This is indeed a basic safety and physiological need for the country. The costs for mitigating this is spending on reduction of Carbon emission [ CR ] which is 2.3 % of GDP. Comparing the Annual 2.5 % GDP costs on military expenditures with 2.3 % GDP costs till 2030 for the safety needs of similar importance, the spending on Carbon emissions looks very meager. Again India need not bear all the costs [ 2.3% of GDP ] for reducing Carbon emissions alone. India can actually make a case for contributions from other developed nations. India has now started pressing the developed nations for contributing 0.5 % of GDP to fund its costs.

Based on the reasons presented in the article, I conclude that India should target for reducing Carbon emissions so as to pursue with its objectives of economic development and eradication of poverty.India should focus on building newer energy sources and energy efficient products towards its pursuit for greener world. I hope to see a positive move from India towards this end in the Copenhagen Climate Conference.

Global warming Skepticism
With the leaking of emails and the documents from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the university of East Anglia, UK the skeptics of Global warming who are arguing that climate change is not man-made have found new reason to support their claim. What if the skeptics were right? Should India be not bothered at all about reducing carbon emissions? Watch out in the next post.

Appendix
For the Case study of Floods in Karnataka
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8289975.stm ]
[http://www.hindu.com/2009/10/24/stories/2009102450360100.htm ]
[http://sify.com/news/Karnataka-demands-Rs-9-000-crore-flood-relief-package-from-Centre-news-jkuv4ecfabd.html ]
[http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/10/08/stories/2009100851841700.htm ]
All the links presented in the argument were accessed by latest on 5-Dec-09