Japan’s greenhouse gas emissions hit a record high making Japan the world’s fifth-largest CO2 producer and putting them at risk of an embarrassing failure to meet its Kyoto target over the next four years. The increase of 2.3 percent last year was largely due to the closure of Japan’s biggest nuclear power plant after an earthquake.

Emissions rose to 1.371 billion metric tons of CO2 equivalent in the Japanese fiscal year through March. The year before Japan finally saw a decline of 1.3 percent decline. Japan needs to cut emissions by an estimated 13.5 percent to hit its 2008-2012 target under Kyoto of down 6 percent from 1990 levels.

The task of cutting emissions may be its worst since the onset of a global recession, a diversion of governments’ focus away from climate change the investment needed.

Japan is not going to make their goal.

Source: Yahoo!

Seven Eleven Japan, the convenience store plans to equip all its new stores with LED-based signboards and outdoor lighting. The effort is to reduce emissions of global warming gases. LEDs will likely be able to allow 7-11 to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 3%, or 1.8 tons per store per year times 1000 new stores each year.

The Seven & i Holdings Co. estimates that it will spend more than 1 billion yen a year on LED lighting. An initial investment per new store will cost 1-2 million yen. Down the road, Seven-Eleven Japan is expected to use roughly 75% less power than fluorescent lights, thus getting back their investment. LED lights also last four to five years, compared with a year or so for fluorescent lights.

Rival convenience store operators, Lawson Inc., FamilyMart Co. and Circle K Sunkus Co. have been testing LED-based signboards, however, 7-11 is the first to take the plunge on a large scale.

Convenience store operators are also turning to more power-efficient air conditioning to reduce their CO2 emissions.

Shall we call this a convenient truth?

Source: Nikkei
Image courtesy of chishikilauren

The latest data about Japan’s greenhouse-gas emissions cast a serious doubt over the Japan’s commitment to its Kyoto Protocol efforts.

The Environment Ministry reported Japan’s emissions hit a record high of carbon dioxide, 8.7% more than what Japan spewed in 1990. The 1997 Kyoto treaty calls for Japan to reduce its emissions to 6% BELOW the 1990 level. Japan is going the wrong way.

Emissions grew 2.3% since last year, largely in part to the closing of Japan’s largest nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture because of an earthquake in the region. Consequently, Japan has had to rely on electrical output from thermal power plants, which are heavy CO2 dischargers. Japanese households have produced 8.4% more greenhouse gases than last year. The unusually hot summer led to increased use of air conditioners.

In the next five years they needs to cut its emissions by 13.5% to meet its commitment and Japan’s best bet is either to plant more trees or increase the capacity utilization ratio of its nuclear power plant, up from 60.7%. A ratio 84.2% (1998), and Japan would have coughed up 5% less greenhouse gas in 2007.

The economy, however, is slowing. As production falls, so too will emissions. Japan needs to cut 50 million metric tons, per year. The steel industry lowered its emissions last year to 1% below its 1990 level despite an 8% increase in crude steel output. The chemical sector is 7% higher than its 1990 figure.

Japan is not going to make it. So, now what?

Source: Nikkei (sub req)
Image courtesy of hubbbadyabutters

A team of Italian scientists have discovered a device crafted by G. D. Botto in 1833 that could help change the way we produce hydrogen and usher us into a tomorrow with clean hydrogen energy that is available cheaply.

Uncovered by a team of scientists the Botto device, uses thermocoupling of two metals to produce electricity that can electrolyze water and produce hydrogen at low costs. But what is thermocoupling? A technique in which two different metals are welded together and the two ends placed in different temperatures.

The Botto device used water at one end and wooden flame at the other to create the temperature difference between wires of Platinum and iron. Modern scientists replaced the wooden flame with concentrated sunlight using mirrors, the costly platinum with copper and used water in the middle to create further temperature difference and hence producing more current.

The small scale device produces 20 mW of energy and this can be further expanded to create more energy that is required for electrolysis and production of large amounts of Hydrogen. It seems the Italians have indeed uncovered a gem from the past, let’s hope they get it working.

Source: Gas 2.0
Image : De Luca, R.; Ganci, S.; and Zozzaro, P. “Revisiting an idea of G D Botto: a solar thermoelectric generator.” Eur. J. Phys. 29 (2008) 1295-1300.

The US government laboratory in Los Altos is saying they will have nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed that will be able to power 20,000 homes within five years. The mini reactors will

1. be factory-sealed
2. contain no weapons-grade material
3. have no moving parts
4. be nearly impossible to steal
5. be encased in concrete and buried underground.

The technology is licensed to Hyperion, a New Mexico-based company which will start working on the first firm orders within five years. Hyperion says, “Our goal is to generate electricity for 10 cents a watt anywhere in the world for a community with 10,000 households, that is a very affordable $2,500 per home.”

The first 100 firm orders have come from the oil and electricity industries for which they will set up three factories to produce 4,000 plants between 2013 and 2023. The first confirmed order is from TES, a Czech infrastructure company specializing in water plants and power plants. ‘

The reactors, only a few meters in diameter, will be delivered by truck and buried underground. They need refueling every 7 to 10 years. The 50-year-old design has proved safe even for students to use. No countries are expected to object to plants on their territory.

“You could never have a Chernobyl-type event – there are no moving parts.” Never! Wrong word.

Meanwhile, Toshiba has been testing 200KW reactors measuring roughly six metres by two meters to fuel smaller numbers of homes for longer or that could power a single building for up to 40 years.

Source: Guardian (Image courtesy of philippe leroyer)

The “Energy (R)evolution: A Sustainable World Energy Outlook” says that two-thirds of Asia’s electricity needs can be met by renewable energy sources by 2050. If so, the aggressive investment could create an annual $360 billion industry worldwide and save $18 trillion in future fuel costs.

I wonder if the men and women punched their calculators to determine how many people depending on the fossil fuel industry will LOSE their jobs.

“With renewable energy growing four-fold not only in the electricity sector, but also in the heating and transport sectors, we can still cut the average carbon emissions per person from today’s four tons to around one ton by 2050,” said Philippines Campaign Manager for Greenpeace Southeast Asia.

“The global market for renewable energy can grow at double digit rates until 2050, and overtake the size of today’s fossil fuel industry. Currently, the renewable energy market is worth 70 billion dollars and doubling in size every three years,” said the Policy Director of the European Renewable Energy Council.

Well, for all I know, if Greenpeace said it, there’s got to be something wrong with the figuring. Still, we can dream, can’t we?

Source: Xinhuanet Image: myuiibe

Drax, a major energy companies in the UK has revealed that it plans to build three biomass stations in the UK, at a cost of £2 billion. All of the biomass stations will run on biological waste from forestry or industries such as woodchips, straw, sunflower seeds, peanut husks and agricultural products such as sugarcane, hemp or willow.

Drax power station at midnight

As the prices of fossil fuels are continuously on the rise, this effective step will provide an enormous boost to UK’s target of producing 20% of its energy from renewable resources by 2020.

When ready, the three biomass stations will produce 15% of Britain’s total energy, to suffice 2million homes. They will be built in collaboration with the engineering giant – Siemens, with two of the plants going at Hull near Yorkshire while the third venue still remains undecided.

However there is slight concern over the sustainability of these stations because it is being felt that we might “sacrifice” plants for fuel, rather than eating them. With food, soon to be major problem, that’s a tough decision, don’t you think? – via Telegraph

Image courtesy of yorkshiregeek

Honda knows that fuel-saving cars and low inventory are the keys to staying competitive.

The company also knows that saving fuel is saving our environment and producing cars on demand doesn’t tax other global resources as well.

Honda’s President was interviewed – excerpts:

“Compact cars like the Jazz (known as the Fit in Japan) remain stable in the region, but we are having a hard time selling larger vehicles.” Duh?!

“…the rise in crude oil prices will have long-term implications for us. Accordingly, what we should do now is develop more inexpensive, fuel-efficient vehicles.” Why wait till the economy is a mess?

“It is equally important to improve the lineup of energy-saving vehicles. We will go into an offensive mode highlighting hybrid vehicles.”

Honda knows that making cars friendlier to our environment and less taxing on our resources is a long term solution. America’s Big Three! Are you reading?

Image courtesy of Clint M Chilcott

Here’s a novel way to reduce our exploitation of the planet’s resources, that is, no iron or steel use and no need for fossil fuels.

A Chinese chemistry teacher built a boat out of paper, took it on an 800-meter voyage propelled by nothing but ping-pong paddles. He made the boat from everyday paper and used cooked flour soup for glue. Ah, no pollution….

Now, if he can just figure out where to haul the 1,000 cruisers and 1,000 staff that might want to take a voyage with him, we are in business. Don’t forget the gallery, the entertainment area, and the library and the whole bunch of them. How do people come up with these kinds of ideas, I wonder.

“Whatcha gonna do today, Wang?”
“Well, I think I’ll make a boat out of paper, get my ping-pong paddles and go for a mini-cruise.”

An Exxon Mobil green ad was banned in the UK because it was said to be misleading, an ad-industry watch dog reported.

“We concluded that the ad misleadingly implied that natural gas was one of the cleanest sources of energy and that liquefied natural gas was environmentally friendly,” ASA said in a statement.

Exxon on the other hand said “they accurately stated that natural gas is one of the world’s cleanest fuels and that liquefied natural gas will play an important role in delivering new energy supplies.” Just to make up your opinion here is the advertisement.

What do you say?

A friend and I were discussing a couple of days an incident that happened at the Rose Bowl parade. One of the floats ran out of gas. The whole parade was held up because the float sponsor didn’t think to put enough gas in the car that carried the float. The sponsor, one of America’s huge oil company.

Perhaps oil companies should take care of the simple things, get their house in order before they make claims about the ‘other things’ they do, like go green or just put on a pretty face at a parade for example.

What do you think?