Fiscal implications of global decarbonization
Internationally coordinated climate mitigation policies can effectively put the world on a path toward achieving the agreed Paris temperature goals. Such coordination could be initiated by large players,
China
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A Growing Cloud Over The Planet
NEARLY half of the world's 1.3 billion smokers live in China, India and Indonesia, the three largest consumers of tobacco products. In China alone, more people smoke than live in the United States. Those countries and others in the developing world represent promising frontiers for the big tobacco companies as they move to win over existing smokers and, according to a new report by the World Health Organization, convince teenagers and women to light up. Smoking has declined slowly in the West. But over the last four decades it has grown steadily in the developing world, in fact, during that time, the respective shares of global cigarette consumption between rich and poor nations flipped:Tobacco products already are responsible for about 5.4 million deaths a year from lung cancer, heart disease and other illnesses, according to the W.H.O., an arm of the United Nations. If trends continue, that number will rise to more than eight million annually by 2030, the agency estimated, with 80 percent of those deaths in the developing world. The eventual toll from tobacco products could be a billion deaths in this centuff, the report said - 10 times the 100 million smoking-related deaths that occurred in the 20th century. The W.H.O. tracked the vigor of tobacco controls worldwide and found them especially weak in poorer nations. One reason is that many governments are in the tobacco business and rely on it for revenue. Case in point: the world's largest cigarette maker is the state-owned China National Tobacco Corporation. BILL MARSH China Has 30 percent of the wodd's smokers. India Has 11 percent of the world's smokers. Indonesia Has 5 percent of the world s smokers Below are percentages of adult smokers in China, India and indonesia - defined by the United Nations as those 15 years and older - and nonsmokers who offer a potentially fucrative market for tobacco products
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CLP To Develop World's Largest Solar Power Station
An Australian subsidiary of CLP Holdings Ltd, the larger of Hong Kong's two power utilities, has agreed with Melbourne-based Solar Systems to develop the world's largest solar power station. TRUenergy will contribute an initial A$7 million ($6.5 million) to develop a 2-megawatt heliostat concentrated photovoltaic pilot plant, subsequently investing up to A$285 million to build the remaining stages of the 154 megawatt project in northern Victoria, Australia, CLP said. The Australian and Victorian governments have also committed to fund development of the HK$2.9 billion ($371 million) project, which will be capable of powering 45,000 homes. Work will begin in 2009. CLP's shares were up 3.8 percent in mid-morning trade, outperforming a flat Hong Kong market. TRUenergy has taken a 20 percent stakeholding in Solar Systems, a private company that has been developing solar technology for 17 years. CLP also entered into a 10-year agreement with Solar Systems to deploy photovoltaic technology in the Asia Pacific region, including China. The Hong Kong-based firm has hit a target of generating 5 percent of its capacity from renewable energy by the end of 2007, three years ahead of schedule, it said. Its latest solar development agreements will make an important contribution to a new target of sourcing 20 percent of its power from non-carbon-emitting generation technologies by 2020, it added. (US$1=A$1.082=HK$7.8) (Reporting by Judy Hua; Editing by Edmund Klamann) REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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A low-carbon, technology-driven strategy for India's energy security
Energy security has to go hand in hand with economic development and environmental protection.
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FM's options for achieving 9% growth
AFTER putting up a rather robust macroeconomic performance over the past five years, the Indian economy is now facing some challenges. One expects that the finance minister will address these challenges in a manner that the economy is able to sustain the 9% plus growth trajectory uninterrupted.
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Bull-bear Street fight spills over to carbon credits
POLITICS and jittery equity indices are making the global carbon credit markets nervous. Carbon credit prices have plunged in the last few weeks. This could be troubling for major supplier India, which sold 20 million carbon credits in 2007, and has a larger number in the pipeline. The bad news is there is little likelihood of things settling down any time soon.
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China taking the wind out of India's sails (Editorial)
India clearly had a head-start over China in the wind energy sector. But given the pace at which things are moving in the two countries, it is just a matter of time before China overtakes India in the total installed capacity and net annual additions. N. Ramakrishnan Advertisement
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India has fifth largest area under GM crops
Total global acreage increases to 114.3 m hectares New Delhi, Feb. 18 India has the fifth largest area cultivated under genetically modified (GM) crops. According to worldwide data compiled by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), the total acreage planted under all GM crops amounted to 114.3 million hectares (mh) in 2007. Of this, over half or 57.7 mh was accounted for by the US, followed by Argentina (19.1 mh), Brazil (15 mh), Canada (seven mh), and India (6.2 mh).
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New fluorescent lights, and new recycling problems
Across the world, consumers are being urged to stop buying dated incandescent light bulbs and switch to new spiral fluorescent bulbs, which use about 25 percent of the energy and last 10 times longer. In Britain, there is a Ban the Bulb movement. China is encouraging the change. And the U.S. Congress has set new energy efficiency standards that will make Edison's magical invention obsolete by the year 2014. Now, the question is how to dispose of these compact fluorescent bulbs once they break or quit working. Unlike traditional light bulbs, each of these spiral bulbs has a tiny bit of a dangerous toxin - around 5 milligrams of mercury. And although one dot of mercury might not seem so bad, almost 300 million compact fluorescents were sold in the United States last year. That is already a lot of mercury to throw in the trash, and the amounts will grow ever larger in coming years. Businesses and government recyclers need to start working on more efficient ways to deal with that added mercury. Ellen Silbergeld, a professor of environmental health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, is raising the cry about the moment when millions of these light bulbs start landing in landfills or incinerators all at once. The pig in the waste pipeline, she calls it. Even when warned, public officials are never great at planning. The Environmental Protection Agency focuses mostly on the disposal of one bulb at a time. If you break a fluorescent bulb, there is no need to call in the hazmat team, the agency says. Just clean it up quickly with paper (no vacuuming or brooms), and open the window for a 15-minute douse of fresh air. Tuck the debris into a plastic sack and, if there is no special recycling nearby, discard it in the regular trash. Interestingly, one of the main reasons to use these bulbs is that when they cut down on energy use, they also cut down on mercury emissions from power plants. And even with their mercury innards, these bulbs are still better for the environment than the old ones
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Yangtze at record low
The water level in China's longest river, the Yangtze, is at a record low. Water levels in some areas have fallen to the lowest in 142 years, officials said. On January 8, the Yangtze water level