Next100 - A Dialogue on the Next Century of Energy

Oct 03 2008

Climate Changes

This week brought more doom-and-gloom warnings about climate change, as well as some belated action from Congress to promote renewable energy:

Scientists assembled at a three-day summit, sponsored by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, warned that global warming could kill up to a third of the planet's species by the end of the century if dramatic steps aren't taken to protect fragile ecosystems.
The British government's top climate change expert, Vicky Pope, warned that if the world takes no action to slash greenhouse gas emissions, "temperatures could rise as high as 7C above pre-industrial values by the end of the century. This would lead to significant risks of severe and irreversible impacts." Even in the most optimistic scenario, where emissions fall 3 percent a year instead of increasing (as today) by 1 percent a year, temperatures are likely to grow about 2C by the end of the century.
Taking strong measures to reduce GHG emissions by cutting the use of fossil fuels could produce tens of billions of dollars in ancillary benefits to the European Union (not to mention other parts of the world) by curbing other harmful emissions (such as particulates) that are known to increase mortality, according to a new study by three environmental organizations.
The first U.S. cap-and-trade auction designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, sponsored by a group of Northeastern states known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, raised $40 million last week. The auction set the price of carbon at just over $3 a ton. Ned Raynolds, a spokesman for the Union of Concerned Scientists, said, "This shows it's possible to put a price on polluting and the sky won't fall. What was a concept now is a reality."
The U.S. Congress this week passed a $700 billion bank rescue bill that included billions of dollars in tax incentives for the renewable energy industry, plug-in electric vehicles, and energy efficiency improvements. The extension of these credits should spur new investment and potentially hundreds of thousands of jobs in wind, solar, geothermal and other relatively clean energy technologies.