Jose Manuel Barroso: G8 Agrees to Limit Global Warming to 2 degrees Celsius, Cut Emissions by 80%

Posted by Jose Philip in Earth, Environment

Thursday
Jul 9,2009

The summit of the Group of Eight industrial nations – the G8 – being held in Italy has agreed to try limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) and also cut greenhouse-gas emissions in the member-nations by 80%.

Jose Manuel Barroso

The goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius was adopted, for the first time, by the United States, Russia, Japan and Canada. This target had already been agreed on in 1996 by the European Union and its G8 member-countries, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy.

However, the G8 failed to persuade India and China to join in an effort to halve the world’s emissions of greenhouse-gases by 2050. Developing economies of the world demand that rich nations commit themselves to bigger and short-term reductions in emissions.

Organizations concerned about climate change have said that with just five months left till the new United Nations climate agreement deal due to be signed in Copenhagen, the G8 has not only much more work to do but also has avoided key issues.

A statement issued by the G8 failed to identify a base year for the 80% reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions, saying that the base year should be “compared to 1990 or more recent years.” This wording leaves the emissions-cut target open to interpretation.

Source: Yahoo!

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Tags: 2 degrees, Barosso, G8, gloabl warming, Group of Eight, Jose Manuel Barosso

2 Responses to “Jose Manuel Barroso: G8 Agrees to Limit Global Warming to 2 degrees Celsius, Cut Emissions by 80%”

peter dublin July 9th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Well Jose, there is no doubt that emission reduction could be much simpler!

Sufficient first phase 2020/2030 emission reduction is achieved by acting on ELECTRICITY generation (coal, gas) and TRANSPORT (mainly automobiles) alone, since these 2 sectors typically (as in the USA) account for 80% of greenhouse gas emissions.

The focus on electricity and transport gives several advantages – apart from lowering CO2 emissions:

1. Local environmental benefit from less pollution of sulphur and all else that’s in the emissions, regardless of the less certain or immediate global benefit from CO2 reduction.

2. Electricity supply alternatives which together with improved grid distribution gives better competition and keeps down electricity bills for consumers.

3. Transport alternatives (using electricity, hydrogen and other energy sources), which give variety of choice and competition advantages for consumers, additionally reducing the dependency on oil imports.

4. No trade problems: Unlike Cap and Trade, which involves cement, steel and other industries having to face imports from unregulated countries, the here suggested electricity and transport changes are not just more limited, but also largely local. Since there is little competition between say utility companies internationally, “best practice” results can be compared and shared.

Funding and Impact
Equity and long term loan finance can be used: Long term industrial loans from financial institutions, particularly if federal/state guaranteed, give low yearly interest repayments and lessen the effect on electricity bills or transport cost.

Compare with
today’s all-encompassing Cap and Trade (emission trading) suggestions, with unpredictability, expense, and needless disruption from normal business practice on one hand, or unnecessary profiteering from free allowance handouts with little actual emission reduction on the other hand – together with extensive -and unnecessary- regulation on what people can or can’t buy and use.

Understanding why proposed Cap and Trade is bad, in USA and elsewhere
http://www.ceolas.net/#cce5x
Basic Idea — Offsets — Tree Planting — Manufacture Shift — Fair Trade — Surreal Market — Real Market — Allowances: Auctions + Hand-Outs — Allowance Trading — Companies: Business Stability + Business Cost — In Conclusion

The Way Forward
http://www.ceolas.net/#cc10x
Introduction — Funding and Impact —No Energy Efficiency Regulation — A New Electric World
Electricity Generation — Distribution
Transport Power Generation — Regulation — Taxation
Rachid July 10th, 2009 at 5:17 am
Human being is destroying himself by his own hands: http://inspirationwriting.blogspot.com/2009/07/scientific-studies-showed-where-there.html