Sustainablog

The G20 Global Summit, which will take place in the UK in April, stands to be an important factor in determining China’s stance on climate change commitments as Copenhagen draws near.

First, this meeting will provide the US and China a chance to meet behind the scenes, for the first time since Hillary Clinton visited China last month to initiate a discussion on robust bilateral coordination on energy and climate issues. Both Clinton and her Chinese counterparts suggested in February that the G20 meeting would give the two nations’ leaders a chance to move ahead with the compact. The next step may well be a US-China leader summit, which a recent policy think tank “roadmap” for collaboration, given to Clinton in advance of her trip, identified as a crucial building block in the process.

Secondly, this meeting will give other countries some signposts as to what they can expect from China in December. G20 participants have already expressed their expectation that China will ante up in this time of global economic need. Gauging the tone of China’s reaction to G20 participants’ financial demands will provide participating OECD countries – particularly those expecting China to make serious commitments on emissions reductions in the “Green New Deal” – some hint as to what a distressed China can be expected to deliver in environmental negotiation terms. The last two weeks’ NPC legislative session in Beijing definitively demonstrated that China’s first priority is repairing the economy, not the environment. Thus, China’s reaction to the key role G20 participants expect her to play in the summit may serve as an accurate litmus test for anticipated outcomes in Copenhagen.

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I am obsessed with farms and farmers markets. People that read my work probably know that by now. Did I mention that I sometimes go to three different farmers markets in a single week? One of the things I love is that in addition to fruits and veggies, my local farmers markets have vendors selling milk and cheese, whole chickens, eggs of various types and sizes, pork and beef. I don’t eat most of that stuff, but I love that it is there and that it comes from local farms.

Soon, however, there may not be meat at farmers markets, or meat raised by small farmers, at all. That’s because of the roll out of the National Animal ID System (NAIS), requiring farmers to attach radio frequency identification ear tags on cattle, dairy cows, pigs and chickens.

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In a rare admission of China’s strategic petroleum reserve capacity, a senior industry executive acknowledged that all four state-owned emergency oil reserve tanks – holding a total 100 million barrels – are filled to the brim.

Revealing that China’s current stockpiles have already exceeded the capacity of the first phase of facilities, which the government built over the last two years, China Shipping Group President Li Shaode urged the government to use foreign exchange reserves to finance floating storage capacity in the short term.

Li’s comments come after a string of recent oil- and gas-related events in China. Within the last few months, China has entered into natural gas supply agreements with Myanmar, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, and has already begun construction on needed pipelines. Just yesterday, China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) signed a 25 year gas supply agreement with Qatar.

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A “green economy” can be built in China in less than 20 years, argues a new McKinsey report. The new study, “China’s Green Revolution“, offers the most comprehensive quantitative analysis to date of China’s abatement cost curve.

Previous studies of a similar ilk, like the Stern Review, have incorporated social benefits to partially offset the cost of scaling up energy efficient and clean technologies. In contrast, the latest McKinsey report considers only technology-related costs and attaches a figure to the cost of green initiatives in China.

So what is the final damage? While costs are negative for upgrades in some industries, like buildings, due to the savings generated from energy efficiency improvements, a total 1.5-2 trillion yuan (USD 220-295 billion) would have to be spent every year until 2030 in order to reach McKinsey’s alternative scenario. Read the rest of this entry »

The theme of China’s annual National People’s Congress taking place this week – the proceedings of which remain highly secretive beforehand – has been largely an economic one.

Although the environment is hardly the priority issue du jour, China has not entirely changed its course with regard to the environment, despite the economic turmoil, as a “worst case scenario” might have suggested. Legislation on the management of electronic waste, signed into effect this week by China’s cabinet, the State Council, is a key example of China’s continued commitment to making progress on environmental protection.

The new law mandates the establishment of centralized funding for enlargement and improvement of safe electronic recycling facilities in China. It also places responsibility on manufacturers, retailers, repair and customer service providers and recycling companies to collect and responsibly handle electronic waste; though the wording of the scope of their responsibility as well as punitive measures for noncompliance is vague.

These regulations aim to reduce a stream of pollution that builds each year. The problem of industrialized countries’ illegal exportation of e-waste on China and other developing countries has generated significant attention and debate in recent years, both inside and outside China. While advocacy groups like Greenpeace point fingers at the corporations for not taking efforts to control the disposal of their products or designing them with fewer toxic components, insufficient legislation and monitoring by both sending and receiving countries has exacerbated the problem.

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Yesterday I posted here about plastic bag fees and bans being frozen in — or before reaching — legislatures. Supposedly that’s due to economics, though reality seems to be more connected to politics. That, coupled with a post here by Low Impact Living about the green benefits of the stimulus plan signed by President Obama recently, got me thinking about a potential solution to our financial woes.

Maybe we don’t need to argue along partisan lines about small versus big government, or about a trillion-dollar stimulus plan versus whatever it is the Republicans think President Obama should be doing. Maybe instead of tax credits and billionaire bailouts, we need to impose a fresh idea of corporate social responsbility: cost-of-living increases + merit salary increases.

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The New York Times reports that various plastic bag-reduction initiatives around the country are stalling – or flatlining – due to economics. The plans in the works in places like Seattle, San Francisco and New York have included charges of 5 to 20 cents per plastic bag – and in some cases, paper bags – at, for example, grocery stores.

The intent is – was – to foster a reusable bag culture and wean consumers off their plastic bag dependency. Now, critics are saying the rough economic road we’re on these days is cause enough to halt progress of those initiatives – and related legislative proposals.

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If the streets of your town suddenly seem to have less young people than normal next weekend, that’s because more than 10,000 of them are expected to converge on Washington, D.C. February 27th – March 2nd for Powershift 09.  While there, these young people will be carrying a message for Congress: we want bold, comprehensive and immediate federal climate action.

They will also receive training to become the future leaders of the climate action movement, with workshops on a variety of topics like lobbying members of Congress, corporate accountability, environmental justice, organizing 101 and more. They will also be connecting with other participants from their states and will be invited to a career fair hosted by Idealist and a graduate school opportunities fair.

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During the eight environmentally dismal years of the Bush administration, environmental advocates learned how to effectively use the U.S. court system to aid their cause.  We saw this with a number of lawsuits including the Supreme Court’s ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are pollutants that can be regulated under the Clean Air Act.

Now Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and 4 cities, including my very own hometown of Santa Monica, California, have settled a suit of almost 7 years (Friends of the Earth, Inc., et al. v. Spinelli, et al.) that will force two U.S. government run financing agencies, Export-Import Bank of the United States and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, to take into account the effects of their overseas projects on climate change.

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It’s nice when people put their money where their mouths are. For some time now, labor has been on the green jobs bandwagon. At this week’s Good Jobs Green Jobs conference, the AFL-CIO announced a $1 million investment from the Working for America Institute to create a Center for Green Jobs, showing just how committed they are to the symbiosis between green jobs and union jobs.

At a press conference announcing the center, United Steelworkers Union President Leo Gerard said:

We need to send the economy in the direction where the primary emphasis is on good jobs and green jobs. Don’t let anybody tell us that can’t be done.

We reject the notion that we have to choose between good jobs and a clean environment. It’s not one or the other. It’s both or neither. – AFL-CIO

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