Green Week

Go to the Green Week website to view presentations.

World's climate could cool first, warm later

NewScientist published a report on the conclusions of the UN's World Climate Conference held in Geneva.

According to some experts we could be about to enter one or even two decades during which temperatures cool.

The short-term predictions are more uncertain that everyone expected, even IPCC.

Portuguese readers go to Mitos Climáticos.

Key Enablers of a Shift to Clean Energy

"1. Energy Efficiency. It has been frequently said that the cheapest source of energy is the energy never used. There are enormous opportunities for improving the efficiency of the world’s energy infrastructure, both on the supply side and the demand side – and many of them could even produce returns above the cost of capital of major businesses. In a recent report, the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that there are US$ 170 billion of energy efficient investment opportunities that would produce an IRR of 17% or more.

2. Smart Grid. The world’s electricity grids were designed to distribute power cheaply and reliably from large, centralized, predictable power stations. The grid
of the future will have to cope with decentralized, fluctuating supply. It will also be expected to deliver a far more sophisticated range of services to help with
demand-side energy management. Only a new and fully digitally-enabled grid architecture will be able to meet these needs, and the investment requirement is
estimated by New Energy Finance at US$ 8.6 trillion (including US$ 6.8 trillion to repair and replace the existing transmission and distribution network).

3. Energy Storage. The need for energy storage is increasing – whether to power hybrid electric vehicles, to smooth out fluctuations in supply and demand, or to
extend appliance functionality. The cost of storing 1MWh of electricity ranges from US$ 50 to US$ 180, depending on the technology used. As power storage prices come down, it can increasingly be used to smooth the supply of power or to bridge the gap
between peak and night-time electricity rates.
Improved power storage is also required by ever more advanced mobile appliances and ubiquitous communications.

4.Carbon Capture and Sequestration. No discussion of the future energy infrastructure can be complete without considering Carbon Capture and Storage
(CCS). Although there are no installations at scale yet, there are almost 200 projects at varying degrees of completion around the globe. With so many countries
– including China and the US – overwhelmingly dependent on coal for their electricity, CCS needs to form part of the solution if we are to restrict CO2e
concentrations to 450ppm."

Source: Green Investing - Towards a Clean Energy Infrastructure

Assessing the costs of adaptation to climate change

The International Institute for Environment and Development (UK) and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change, Imperial College London (UK) have released a report to assess the costs of adaptation to climate change compared with estimates from different studies, particularly UNFCCC estimates.

The timing couldn't be better: UNFCCC is preparing a pos-Kyoto agreement in December, in Copenhagen and Ban Ki-Moon has stated that tackling climate change should be a worldwide commitment.

How expensive it is to adapt to climate change? Is it cheaper to start mitigating climate change now when consequences are not yet fully known and felt? What are the cost uncertanties?

Several studies have estimated the cost of adaptation to climate change (Figure 1. and Figure 2.)
Figure 1. Costs in developing countries, for 2010-2015
Figure 2. UNFCCC estimates of addtional annual investment needed by 2030

This study concludes that UNFCCC may be underestimating, because of assumptions. For example for Human Health...

"Human health
The UNFCCC estimates of costs of adaptation are the costs of the intervention set to prevent the additional burden of disease due to climate change for three health outcomes in low- and middleincome countries: diarrhoeal diseases, malaria and malnutrition. The estimates are in the range of $4–12 billion per year in 2030.
These three outcomes are not the total projected burden on human health from climate change.
That total has yet to be assessed accurately, but authors of the WHO study of the global disease burden estimate that these outcomes amount to 30–50% of the probable future total burden in 2030 in low- and middle-income countries (McMichael and Bertollini, 2009, personal communication).
A potential source of under-estimation is that the UNFCCC considers a narrow range of
development futures. It takes a single median population projection in which population numbers increase and cases of diarrhoea/malaria/malnutrition remain constant, i.e. there is steep relative decline in incidence. The present study considers this to be an optimistic assumption."

Climate change is our top priority - Ban Ki-Moon

This month, Ban Ki-Moon called for urgent action on climate change

"Unless we fight climate change, unless we stop this trend, we'll have devastating consequences for humanity."

In March 2007, in a UN conference in New York he said that climate change was a top priority to the United Nations...

"Climate change poses at least as big a threat to the world as war."

"Today, war continues to threaten countless men, women and children across the globe. It is the source of untold suffering and loss. And the majority of the UN's work still focuses on preventing and ending conflict.
But, the danger posed by war to all of humanity - and to our planet - is at least matched by the climate crisis and global warming," he said. "I believe that the world has reached a critical stage in its efforts to exercise responsible environmental stewardship.
The world needs a more coherent system of international environmental governance. We need to invest more in green technologies and smarter policies. And we need to do far more to adapt to global warming and its effects.
But, our efforts should focus particularly on the needs of the poor, who already suffer disproportionately from pollution, disasters and the degradation of resources and land."

Energy efficient project in the Instituto Politécnico of Castelo Branco

6 buildings of the Instituto Politécnico of Castelo Branco will have solar pannels, air conditioning running with natural gas and structural changes in order to save energy consumption.

This investment is financed partly by the government through Iniciativa para o Investimento e Emprego (Jobs and investment initiative). This initiative aims to promote renewable energy consumption, energy efficient projects and more efficient energy nets.

Emissions of air pollutants in EU-27

The European Community's air pollutant emission inventory report released by the European Environment Agency finds that in 2007, sulphur oxides (SOx) emissions were down by 72 % from 1990 levels. The downward emission trend of three main pollutants which cause ground-level ozone continued in 2007: carbon monoxide (CO) fell by 57 %, non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) were down by 47 % and nitrogen oxides (NOx) have dropped 36 %. EU-27 emissions of all four pollutants were lower in 2007 than in 2006.

Source: EEA

Promoting Development, Saving the Planet

Promoting Development, Saving the Planet is a new report from the United Nations that alerts to the inevitability of economic growth of developing countries with measures to tackle climate change.
According to the study it will be necessary 500 thousand million dolares, about 1% of the world GDP to tackle climate change in a world in which the energy demand has been increasing. Proposed measures include a clean energy fund, electricity production from renewables, research and development and specially transferring knowledge from developed to developing countries.

Solar electric car

Ecologist magazine presents a short video about a solar electric car that explains how it works and the main challenges in construction and operation.

Most of car manufacturers have a solar prototype. For example, Fiat has Phylla , Venturi has the AstroLab car.

Will this be a possibility in the future?