Summary
In today’s edition, a big scandal: around 600m tonnes of carbon were wrongly emitted when a UN carbon trading scheme was allegedly used by organized crime in Russia and Ukraine. Also, the Obama administration announced a slate of executive actions on Monday to encourage investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, including more than $1 billion in new loan guarantees.
Quote of the day
“I would say that many of them were fake.”
Vladyslav Zhezherin, one of the report’s authors, in the Guardian’s story Kyoto protocol’s carbon credit scheme ‘increased emissions by 600m tonnes’
Lead stories
Kyoto protocol’s carbon credit scheme ‘increased emissions by 600m tonnes’
By Arthur Neslen – The Guardian
UN officials confirm the findings by the Stockholm Environment Institute that around 600m tonnes of carbon were wrongly emitted as a result, under the UNFCCC’s Joint Implementation (JI) scheme.
http://jlne.ws/1PNbeR7
***LB: Also in this story “Major UNFCCC carbon trading scheme hit by serious corruption allegations involving organised crime in Russia and Ukraine.”
Hurricane Katrina proved that if black lives matter, so must climate justice
By Elizabeth C Yeampierre – The Guardian
Those of us from low-income communities of color are on the frontlines of the climate crisis.
http://jlne.ws/1KI4GPe
Obama orders boost to clean energy programs
By Devin Henry – The Hill
The Obama administration announced a slate of executive actions on Monday to encourage investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, including more than $1 billion in new loan guarantees.
http://jlne.ws/1Js7wqy
Why wind and solar are already better value than fossil fuels
By Giles Parkinson – REneweconomy
When radio shock jock Alan Jones got the cost of wind energy so horribly wrong in front of a million or so viewers on ABC TV last month, he did more than misplace a decimal point.
http://jlne.ws/1MP65cY
Heatwaves are on the rise in Algeria due to climate change, says specialist
By Mohamed Benzerga for El Watan of Algeria (part of the Climate Publishers Network)
It’s unusual if you live in the northern, coastal Algerian cities, where maximum temperatures never drop below 36C; that’s our average body temperature, so it’s all related.
http://jlne.ws/1JPG1xN
Events
EMA Annual Meeting
October 28-30, 2015
Omni Parker House Hotel
Boston, MA
http://bit.ly/192w3CR
2015 Rising Seas Summit
Association of Climate Change Officers
November 12-13, 2015, Cambridge, MA
http://jlne.ws/1Uxkext
Carbon
Can California meet its ambitious greenhouse gas goals?
Los Angeles Times (Editorial)
When President Obama announced his controversial and ambitious Clean Power Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, Californians gave a collective yawn.
http://jlne.ws/1LwgHwT
Dawn timber-laundering raids cast doubt on ‘sustainable’ Brazilian wood
By Jonathan Watts
The raids began at dawn as the sun rose over the Tapajós river and more than 100 police swooped on a dozen locations in the most sophisticated operation yet against suspected timber laundering in Brazil – a practice that allows consumers in the US and Europe to buy flooring and furniture with what they think is a clear conscience.
http://jlne.ws/1KfVrKp
Beef’s impact on emissions scrutinized
By Fermín Koop – Buenos Aires Herald
The country’s famous steak, so popular among tourists and residents alike, could soon become a politically incorrect meal as it is one of Argentina’s main sources of greenhouse gas emissions — higher than the entire industrial sector combined.
http://jlne.ws/1NFgyXt
Indigenous fire methods could slash global emissions: UN report
By Nicole Hasham – The Sydney Morning Post
Ancient Indigenous Australian bush-burning could be used around the world to radically cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to United Nations research, which also challenges Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s refusal to embrace the purchase of international carbon credits.
http://jlne.ws/1I9ooSd
Natural gas / coal
Kiribati president says Australia’s loyalty to coalmines ‘selfish and unjust’
By Joshua Roberts – The Guardian
The president of Kiribati has criticised Australia’s commitment to new coalmines on economic grounds as a “very selfish perspective” that illustrates the “fundamentally unjust” dynamics of climate change.
http://jlne.ws/1V5gZfK
Southern Co. to Buy AGL Resources for $8 Billion in Cash
By Jim Polson – Bloomberg News
Southern Co., the third-largest U.S. utility owner, agreed to buy natural-gas distributor AGL Resources Inc. for $8 billion in cash to capitalize on growing demand for the heating and power-plant fuel.
http://jlne.ws/1fBKMN4
Power
U.S. Unveils Measures to Encourage Solar Power Use
By Gardiner Harris – The New York Times
The Obama administration on Monday announced a slew of small measures designed to encourage the use of solar power hours before President Obama was scheduled to fly to Nevada to speak at the National Clean Energy Summit there.
http://jlne.ws/1Jgzed0
Power Plants on Indian Reservations Get No Break on Emissions Rules
By Naveena Sadasivam – InsideClimate News
Four Western power plants that emit more carbon dioxide than the 20 fossil-fuel-fired plants in Massachusetts thought they would be getting a break under the Obama administration’s new carbon regulations––until the final rule ended up treating them just like all the other plants in the country.
http://jlne.ws/1KI8wrE
European industrial groups hit by push to renewable energy
By Chris Bryant – Financial Times
After years of painstaking development, Siemens was triumphant in 2011 when its new H-class gas turbine, the world’s largest and most efficient, went into regular operation at an Eon power plant in Irsching, Bavaria.
http://jlne.ws/1WOCrrt
SWM Services GmbH adjusts non-usabilities for their power plants
EEX Transparency News
On 25 August 2015, 9 to 12 am SWM Services GmbH puts a modification in operation. With this modification the reporting of power generating units can be more granular.
http://jlne.ws/1KI2pnj
Clean tech
Intelligent Energy reveals hydrogen battery that can charge your iPhone for up to a week
By James Phillips – BusinessGreen
Loughborough-based Intelligent Energy has made a major breakthrough with a pioneering hydrogen fuel cell battery for iPhones, it was announced late last week.
http://jlne.ws/1NwPlqM
South African team may have solved solar puzzle even Google couldn’t crack
By Jeffrey Barbee – The Guardian
It is a problem that has so far stumped even Google’s brainy engineers – how to generate cheap solar electricity using a small-scale array of mirrors to concentrate the sun’s energy.
http://jlne.ws/1MPa7lm
Water
Puerto Rico Sends Mixed Messages as Water Bond Sale Flounders
By Michelle Kaske – Bloomberg News
Puerto Rico is trying to assure municipal-bond buyers that the island’s water authority doesn’t need to restructure its debt. Investors aren’t convinced.
http://jlne.ws/1JvGdQC
Miscellaneous
When the Next Hurricane Katrina Hits, Is the U.S. Ready?
By Larry Greenemeier – Scientific American
A decade ago Hurricane Katrina terrorized the Gulf Coast.
http://jlne.ws/1WOzIy4