The Earth in the hell

But with the Kyoto Protocol’s 2012 deadline fast approaching, last year’s United Nations Climate Change Conferences in Copenhagen (COP15) saw world leaders working overtime to finalize a treaty that international parties could legally commit to by December 2010.

Where policy adaptation is concerned, Mr. Helm recommends a careful approach. Beyond this, the ‘wait and see’ option rests largely on the assumption that the damage wrought by climate change is reversible.
But the process of reversing environmental damage is also a slow one: the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) estimates a thousand-year waiting period before the planet can fully recover.

With that in mind, the recent Copenhagen treaty stipulates a 2ºC-degree ceiling on the global temperature rise, which translates to a more aggressive push for alternative fuel development: Of all greenhouse gas-producing activities, energy use is by far the biggest culprit, spewing out roughly 60% of the world’s emissions. An aggregate proviso calls for a boost in funding for efforts to deter deforestation, which accounts for 15%.

A breakdown of the world’s pollution levels shows that carbon dioxide, one of the six ‘Kyoto-gases’, makes up more than three quarters of global emissions, according to an assessment report conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC).

During the conference, a few developed nations began setting their mid-year targets: The European Union has committed to a 20 to 30% reduction based on its 1990 carbon levels, alongside Japan’s 25% and Russia’s 15 to 25%. Likewise, the US will strive to cut down on its 2005 levels by a lesser 14 to 17%.

As it is, nations already find themselves struggling to build a low carbon economy, despite the slew of emissions trading plans that offer incentives for their commercial sectors to go green.

There are notable exceptions. Europe’s green legislation, set in the European Climate Change Programme (ECCP), has produced the EU Emissions Trading System that blazed a trail for pro-conservation countries like New Zealand and Japan to follow. Enforcing binding laws across EU member states has also put it on the forefront of government-led eco-initiatives.

Greasing the wheels of such programs is the newly-established Copenhagen Green Climate Fund, which has been mandated to support developing countries in adapting to the drawbacks of climate change. For this, the summit has pledged some $10 billion annually between 2010 and 2012, after which developed nations agreed to pool their resources to the tune of $100 billion a year by 2020.

Plenty of energy efficiency opportunities lie in the hands of Asian policymakers. China’s 11th Five Year Plan sets its long-term energy efficiency target at an ambitious 20%, based on the National Development and Reform Commission’s (NDRC) mid-term energy conservation scheme.

Should it succeed in sealing its energy cap within the year, then come at par with international levels by 2020, China will have set the world’s most successful carbon mitigation movement, according to the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES).

For its part, Japan’ Ministry of the Environment (MOE) rolled out the successful ‘Cool Biz’ campaign in 2005, encouraged the populace to dress down and set a 28°C limit on their air-conditioning during the summer season. Three years later, it also launched the Asia-Pacific Gateway on Climate and Development, an online platform for nations to exchange information on curbing global warming.

Not to be outdone, the Philippines recently carried out its Renewable Energy Act and Biofuels Act to speed up the cultivation of clean energy in the country. Its own eco-agenda is spearheaded by the Presidential Task Force on Climate Change (PTFCC), a state agency designed to put local adaptation efforts in line with those of the global community.

It was through the country’s Clean Technology Fund that the Department of Energy (DOE) was able to channel some $85 million towards improving electric cooperatives, and by extension, the renewable energy market. Indeed, waste-to-energy and geothermal power innovations will soon come to the fore of climate-friendly resources, as Nicholas Parker, executive chairman of the Cleantech Group predicted.

While there is no magic bullet to combat climate change on all fronts, clean technology may soon become this decade’s space race: Most car manufacturers have already churned out their electric and hybrid models, some with emission rates that have been cut by as much as 20%. Power sector association Eurelectric paints a picture of more efficient technology illuminating roughly half of all electricity consumers in 2030. This includes passive solar energy and newer lighting systems like compact fluorescent lamps and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) which are already making a transition to mainstream usage.

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