BRASIL: Brazilian biofuel beckons Europe [video]

Brussels sees Brazil as a key player in the fight against global warming. With the tenth largest economy in the world, Brazil is home to most of the Amazon rainforest. It is a major producer of biofuels. President Lula da Silva is due at a conference in Brussels this Thursday where the main goal will be to foster consumption and production of fuel made from crops. EU leaders agreed in March to boost the role of biofuels, with a clear deadline.

Christian Bergsmuller is a member of the EU delegation in Brazil: "If the EU (has) that ambitious agenda of moving to about 20% of renewable energy by 2020 - which is very ambitious - we know that we have to import from other parts of the world, and Brazil will certainly have a stake in our energy mix in the future."

In the future, if trade and investment end up predominantly bilateral, this risks complicating business dealings further afield. Brazil is the EU's main trading partner in Latin America but broader interests cannot be ignored.

Analyst Mario Telo in Brussels says Europe is learning from previous experience with other major South American players: "The probable result will be to reinforce Europe-Latin America ties following on from the continent's number one country. The risk is that an individual partnership with Brazil might create difficulties in relations with other Latin American partners. The one-on-one approach proposes a bilateral model such as exists with Chile and Mexico. The Portuguese EU presidency wants to avoid this danger."

With 188 million people, Brazil is a land of huge contrasts - the better-off playing while the slum-dwellers stagnate. Newly-stable Brazil is looking towards Europe to reinforce its international prospects to help bring benefits to the poorest places.

Euronews

Blogalaxia Tags: Energia,
Sostenibilidad y
Tecnologia

EFICIENCIA: Greenpeace propone un cambio masivo de bombillas incandescentes por otras de bajo consumo

Greenpeace propone por el Día mundial del Medio Ambiente una iniciativa para cambiar masivamente las bombillas incandescentes por bombillas de bajo consumo, un gesto “sencillo” para combatir el cambio climático. Las lámpara fluorescentes compactas son un tipo de bombillas que, para dar la misma luz, gastan un 80 por ciento menos de energía que las incandescentes, duran hasta 12 veces más y ahorran la emisión anual de 20 kg de CO2 a la atmósfera.

La iniciativa consta de las siguientes partes: por un lado, cada ciudadano que desee participar realizaría directamente un cambio de bombillas incandescentes (las de siempre) por otras eficientes de bajo consumo; por otro lado, puede enviar un mensaje a los europarlamentarios para que voten a favor de la prohibición de las derrochadoras bombillas incandescentes; y por último, se trata de informar y animar a que hagan lo mismo amigos, compañeros, vecinos...

La propuesta se enmarca dentro de la campaña [R]evolución Renovable: el cambio empieza aquí, con la que Greenpeace pretende movilizar a la sociedad para lograr que mediante la eficiencia energética y las energías renovables se sustituyan las energías sucias, como forma de evitar un cambio climático peligroso.

Un ciudadano puede cambiar sus bombillas incandescentes por otras más eficientes, pero el Gobierno puede directamente hacer que todas sean eficientes ,- ha declarado Raquel Montón, responsable de la campaña de cambio climático de Greenpeace. - En el día del Medio Ambiente debemos exigir a los responsables políticos que actúen ya para luchar contra el cambio climático/ .

Greenpeace pide al Gobierno una ley que prohíba que salgan al mercado de iluminación doméstica bombillas menos eficientes que 25 lumen por vatio en el 2009 y 50 lumen por vatio en el 2012, hasta que se adopte para este producto una prohibición de ámbito europeo. Dicha medida debería incluirse en el Plan de Acción sobre Eficiencia que España tiene que presentar a finales de junio, según la Directiva Europea sobre la Eficiencia en el Uso Final de la Energía y los Servicios Energéticos.

La sustitución de bombillas incandescentes por eficientes de bajo consumo en la Unión Europea ahorraría al menos 20 millones de toneladas de CO_2 al año_, lo que equivale a cerrar 25 centrales térmicas de tamaño medio. Por este motivo, miembros del Parlamento Europeo han redactado una Declaración por Escrito pidiendo a la Comisión Europea y a los estados miembros que en la UE se prohíban las bombillas que derrochan energía.

Ambientum

BIOCOMBUSTIBLES: Un proyecto de la UE transformará refinerías en biorrefinerías

El proyecto BIOCOUP, que recién se inicia, tiene como objetivo adaptar refinerías existentes de petróleo mineral para que sirvan como biorrefinerías.

Una de las principales metas de la política energética de la UE es acelerar el uso de biocombustibles, es decir, cualquier combustible derivado de biomasa (organismos recientemente vivos o sus desechos metabólicos, como el estiércol de las vacas).

Otros candidatos idóneos para producir biocombustibles son el azúcar, el trigo y el maíz. También se puede producir biocombustible a partir de la madera empleando tecnología de gasificación (biocombustible de segunda generación). A diferencia de otros recursos naturales como el petróleo, el carbón y los combustibles nucleares, los biocombustibles son fuentes de energía renovables que no dañan el medio ambiente.

No obstante, para producir biocombustibles es necesario desarrollar biorrefinerías que sean capaces de procesar la biomasa. El consorcio del proyecto BIOCOUP, que está financiado a través del área temática «Desarrollo sostenible, cambio climático y ecosistemas» del Sexto Programa Marco (6PM), pretende desarrollar una cadena de etapas que permitan procesar diversas materias de biomasa en las refinerías petroleras convencionales a fin de producir energía y sustancias químicas oxigenadas. Este proyecto se centrará en industrias que ya tengan refinerías, como las industrias de la energía, la alimentación y el papel y la celulosa.

Se espera que la labor de este proyecto conduzca a una mayor variedad de productos, como combustibles para transporte y sustancias químicas para el consumidor, y también a la aceptación de la biomasa como fuente de energía sostenible. Los socios del proyecto confían, además, en que su trabajo logre un mayor desarrollo tecnológico de los procesos de producción de biomasa.

«Creemos que hay buenas oportunidades tanto para empresas nuevas, gracias a las nuevas tecnologías que se están desarrollando, como para empresas que ya existen, ya que en última instancia las biorrefinerías se integrarán en las industrias existentes», afirmó Yrjö Solantausta, coordinador del proyecto.

Para obtener más información, visite:
http://www.biocoup.eu

Categoría: Proyectos
Fuente: Consorcio del proyecto BIOCOUP
Documento de Referencia: Basado en información del consorcio del proyecto BIOCOUP
Acrónimo del Programa: FP6-INTEGRATING, FP6-SUSTDEV, FRAMEWORK 6C
Códigos de Clasificación por Materias: Protección del medio ambiente; Producción industrial; Otros temas relacionados con la energía

CORDIS

Blogalaxia Tags: Energia, Sostenibilidad y Tecnologia

CLIMATE CHANGE: Bangkok, We have Just 8 Years Left to Save Earth (UN)

Climate experts and representatives from 105 countries on Friday released a 24-page report on means of mitigating the worse impacts of global warming after five days of heated debates to reach a consensus on the document.

The report, which focused on the economic implications and technological options for tackling global warming, stated that emissions must start declining by 2015 to prevent the world's temperature from rising more than two degrees Celsius over pre-industrialised temperatures.

The report also states that the low costs of buying insurance, through the use of technologies currently available, to avoid a climatic catastrophe in the coming decades is less than 0.1 per cent of world GDP per annum.

"The nay sayers have always said that this will wreck our economies," said Hans Verolme, director of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature's (WWF's) Global Climate Change Programme.

Verolme added that the cost of doing nothing is 20 times worse than paying for technologies on Friday.

"It's a great report and the conclusions are quite strong," said Greenpeace's Bill Hare, one of the lead authors of the report.

The panel's first report, released in February in Paris, confirmed that global warming was happening while the second, issued in April in Brussels, focused on the impact of the phenomenon on the world's populations and species.

China played a lead role in the third report by sending the largest delegation to Bangkok.

The Bangkok meeting of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) attracted 30 of the world's leading climate experts and more than 217 government representatives from 105 countries whose task it is to fine-tune the report, which seeks international consensus on how to reduce greenhouse gases and, perhaps more importantly, how much it would cost.

Many climate experts claim that the costs of saving the planet are miniscule compared with global warming's potential damages, but it is important that politicians also acknowledge this in the IPCC's third report of 2007.

Daijiworld

Blogalaxia Tags: Energia,
Sostenibilidad y
Tecnologia

CLIMATE CHANGE: Expertos buscarán soluciones para combatir el cambio climático

Un informe del Grupo Intergubernamental de Expertos sobre la Evolución del Clima (GIEC), revela que el tiempo apremia para enfrentar los efectos del calentamiento del planeta, pues, entre otras cosas, las emisiones de gas con efecto de invernadero aumentaron de 1970 a 2004 entre un 70 y 80 por ciento.

Un grupo de expertos se reunirán a partir del lunes en Bangkok, capital de Tailandia, para estudiar los mecanismos de lucha contra el cambio climático en el planeta.

Agrupados en el Grupo Intergubernamental de Expertos sobre la Evolución del Clima (GIEC), los especialistas sostendrán un encuentro de cinco días, tras los que publicarán su "resumen destinado a los responsables", tercer informe sobre las consecuencias del calentamiento global.

El informe asegura que los esfuerzos que se realicen en los próximos 20 años serán "determinantes" para la temperatura media del planeta a largo plazo.

Para los expertos, existe un "potencial importante de reducción de las emisiones" de aquí a 2030, en todos los sectores del planeta "suficiente para compensar el crecimiento global de las emisiones o para reducirlas por debajo de los niveles actuales".

Para ello, propondrán un alto precio del carbono (referencia al CO2 o dióxido de carbono y otros gases de efecto invernadero) para reducir la emisión de gases causantes del efecto invernadero.

Cuanto más alto sea ese precio, más les interesará a los usuarios de energías fósiles recurrir a tecnologías y modos de consumo alternativos, y más rápida e importante será la reducción de las emisiones.

El GIEC, creado por la ONU, asegura que estabilizar las concentraciones de dióxido de carbono (C02) en la atmósfera en 650 partes por millones (ppm) de aquí a 2030 contra 379 ppm que había 2005, sólo costaría un 0,2 por ciento del productor interior bruto mundial, según ese documento.

Para el director del Centro Internacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (Cired), que contribuye al informe, luchar contra el cambio climático "no es muy caro pero requiere esfuerzos", por lo que espera que las negociaciones de Bangkok conduzcan a un acuerdo a pesar de los riesgos de fricción entre Europa, Estados Unidos o China, que son los mayores contaminantes.

Este informe, que será publicado oficialmente el próximo 4 de mayo, vendrá a completar los dos primeros de este cuarto texto: uno publicado el 2 de febrero en París sobre la magnitud del cambio climático y otro del 6 de abril en Bruselas sobre las consecuencias de este fenómeno, y pretende crear conciencia en la comunidad internacional.

El GIEC tiene publicados tres informes, en 1990, 1995 y 2001, que confirman el papel del hombre en el calentamiento comprobado en el siglo XX.

TELESUR

Blogalaxia Tags: Energia,
Sostenibilidad y
Tecnologia

RENEWABLES: Searching for alternative sources of energy

by Yury Zaitsev*
The development of unconventional and renewable energy sources is a major challenge facing humankind in the twenty-first century. Technologies such as nuclear fusion and biofuels will prove vital if humankind is to find an alternative to hydrocarbons.

Under a bill that was recently signed by U.S. President George W. Bush, so-called "corn fuel" will account for 7.5 billion gallons of total national fuel consumption by 2015. President Bush probably decided to follow the Brazilian example because that country has been obtaining ethanol from sugar cane and using it as a motor fuel for a long time.

The European Union, which initially planned to increase the share of alternative power-generation sources in its energy mix to 10% by 2012, will probably achieve this goal by as soon as 2010. French nuclear power plants now generate 80% of all domestic power.

Russian scientists are also working hard to develop unconventional and renewable energy sources, which may soon be included in the national power-generation network. For example, small gas-turbine thermal power plants burning wood splinters and coal have an impressive potential and are expected to generate 5% of all electricity nationwide by 2020. They will mostly be used in Arctic regions, which now utilize small diesel generators and low-capacity furnaces burning huge amounts of expensive hydrocarbons. It costs, for example, $1,000 to deliver one metric ton of diesel fuel and $150 for one ton of heating oil to the Russian Arctic.

Environmentally friendly alternative sources of energy are an attractive power-generation option. "Dirty" organic fuels, such as coal, heating oil and firewood, now account for 70% of the energy balance in northern Russia.

Russia can also harness solar and wind energy from along its 12,000 km Arctic coast. Windmills are considered cost-effective when average annual wind speeds exceed 4-5 meters per second. Arctic winds blowing at over 5-7 meters per second can generate 45 billion kWh.

Likewise, solar panels can be located in the south of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, in north-east Russia. The weekly amount of solar energy falling on the Earth exceeds the total energy potential of global oil, coal and gas deposits. Alexander Asseyev, director of the Semiconductor Physics Institute at the Siberian department of the Russian Academy of Sciences, estimated the country's total solar-energy potential as equivalent to over two trillion tons of fuel. By placing solar batteries with an average efficiency of 12% over 4,000 square kilometers, it would be possible to completely meet the national electric power demand.

The Earth's crust contains tremendous amounts of silica, exceeding deposits of uranium ore 100,000 times over. Obtaining this highly expensive element cost-effectively is the key to mass-producing solar batteries. Moreover, Russian scientists have mastered the production of multi-crystalline silicon for solar power engineering. Work is also proceeding apace to produce highly efficient gallium arsenide solar cells.

The first Russian tidal power plant, which was built on the Kola Peninsula, made it possible to design similar power plants capable of generating tens of millions of kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity.

In the mid-20th century, Russian scientists suggested using hot volcanic vapors to generate cheap geothermal electric power. In 1966, the 11,000 kWh Pauzhetskaya geothermal power plant was built on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The recently commissioned Verkhne-Mutnovskaya geothermal power plant generates 25% of all electricity in the Kamchatka Region. There are plans to expand its capacity by 20 kWh by installing additional power units running on recycled hot thermal water. Though geothermal plants are quite expensive, future operating costs are reduced because they harness "free" natural energy.

Russian coal deposits contain an estimated 260 trillion cubic meters of methane, which can be used as a separate fuel. Gennady Gritsko, director of the Coal and Coal Chemistry Institute at the Siberian department of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said methane can be extracted from small deposits, domes and traps. This cost-effective method does not require any expensive mining operations. Gritsko said ventilation flows contain an unlimited amount of methane and can trap more gas than coal mines.

Coal can also be used to obtain synthetic gasolene and hydrogen for fuel. Hydrogen, the ideal environmentally friendly fuel of the future, produces nothing but water when it is burned. The hydrogen power industry would therefore help reduce toxic emissions and solve the global warming problem.

Another promising technology is thermonuclear reactors. Unlike conventional nuclear power plants that use heavy-element fission, they fuse the nuclei of two light atoms into heavy elements. Scientists set the task to simulate the fusion that takes place in the Sun in laboratory conditions and to harness it for commercial power-generation purposes. Deuterium and tritium isotopes, which fuse together inside the Sun, create chemically inert helium and emit tremendous amounts of energy, hundreds of times more than is emitted during uranium fission at conventional NPPs.

Research by Soviet and Russian scientists made it possible to solve the problem of thermonuclear fusion. Russia is now a full participant in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project. Vladimir Fortov, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said thermonuclear power plants may start generating household electricity by 2040. However, Nobel Prize winner Zhores Alfyorov, also a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said this would take much longer to happen.

*Yury Zaitsev is an academic adviser at the Russian Academy of Engineering Sciences.

EUROPEAN CO2 EMISSIONS

The EU-15 has a Kyoto target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 8% on 1990 levels by 2012, the EU-10 (post 2004 members) do not have a common target. This chart shows the EU-nations and their individual targets.

Notes:
- Amounts are in megaton(Mt). One megaton is a billion kilograms.
- Data available until 6 June 2006 is included. No reporting requirement over 2005.






*) Growth in emissions is expected due to rapid growth of Eastern EU-economies.
Source: European Environment Agency(EEA).

CLIMATE CHANGE: EU Says Report Underscores Need to Limit Global Warming

A major UN report on the potentially devastating effects of global warming provides new evidence for the need to limit climate change. But the US, China and Russia stand accused of seeking to water down some sections.

EU leaders agreed tough targets last month for reducing emissions of the gases that cause global warming, with the aim of limiting the rise in temperature to below two degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN's top expert authority on global warming, said in its report Friday that up to 30 percent of animal and plant species will be vulnerable to extinction if global temperatures rise by 1.5-2.5 C (2.7 F to 4.5 F).

"The report shows many of the serious impacts that would occur if global warming exceeded the EU's target of not more than two degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level," European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said.

"The temperature today is already almost 0.8 degrees Celcius above that level, so the world needs to act fast if we are to succeed in stabilizing climate change and thereby prevent its worst impacts," he said in a statement.

Global warming to hit Europe unevenly

The report predicted greenhouse gases would change rainfall patterns, intensify tropical storms, accelerate the melting of Arctic ice and mountain glaciers, and amplify the risk of drought, flooding and water stress.

Global warming will hit Europe hard but unevenly this century, cursing the south but giving a mixed blessing to the north, the report said. Mediterranean countries can brace for a higher risk of severe droughts, reduced harvests and deadly heat waves, while high-latitude nations will face flooding and severe weather balanced by longer growing seasons and expanded areas for agriculture and forestry.

"Today's IPCC report spells out very clearly the severe effects that climate change will have on all of us," Dimas said. "This further underlines both how urgent it is to reach global agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and how important it is for us all to adapt to the climate change that is already under way," he said.

US, China try to dilute damning sections of report

However, the report -- the UN's most toughly-worded warning on climate change as yet -- was the subject of fierce disputes in Brussels between scientists and governments. Gary Yohe, one of the report's lead authors, told Reuters that the mood at the conference in Brussels was tense.

He said China, Russia and Saudi Arabia had raised most objections during the night to a 21-page summary which has to be approved unanimously and will guide policy in coming years on issues such as extending the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012.

The United States was also reported to be among countries seeking to water down sections about damaging impacts from a warming widely blamed on human use of fossil fuels.

Some scientists objected, for instance, after China tried to eliminate a note saying that there was "very high confidence" that climate change was already affecting "many natural systems, on all continents and in some oceans."

China, the second largest source of greenhouse gases after the United States and ahead of Russia, wanted no mention of the level of confidence.

Poor countries most at risk

The report underlined that poor tropical countries will be hit worst. Worsening water shortages in thirsty countries, malnutrition caused by desiccated fields, property damage from extreme weather events and the spread of disease by mosquitoes and other vectors will amount to a punishing bill that is beyond the ability of vulnerable countries, especially in Africa, to pay.

"Poor people are the most vulnerable and will be the worst hit by the impacts of climate change. This becomes a global responsibility," IPCC's chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, said.

German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul repeated the warning in Brussels as she reminded western countries that they are responsible for most of the world’s climate change. She said they must do more to help poor countries who are the least responsible yet are most affected by it.

“Our production processes, the way we treat the environment and use our energy: these are a direct, ongoing attack on the basic foundations needed to sustain life," Wieczorek-Zeul said.

The German minister said industrial nations must do everything possible to protect such regions by lowering emissions. The minister suggested that since 20 to 25 percent of global warming can be traced back to the destruction of tropical rainforests, countries who maintain forests should receive financial assistance.

"I suggest, that we set up international financial mechanisms to compensate developing countries who maintain their forests because countries who do that, do something for the world climate, and they ought to be rewarded for their efforts."

Leading conservation groups on Friday urged an immediate global response to the damning UN report.

"The urgency of this report, presented by the world's top scientists, should be matched with an equally urgent response by governments," said Hans Verolme, director of the World Wildlife Fund's global climate change program.

UE : Europe Union´s Environmental Policy Flounders

EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas focused his ire on Australia at the start of a meeting of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) this week. He called on the world's second-biggest producer of carbon dioxide (CO2) to finally ratify the Kyoto protocol, which aims to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases that scientists say are primarily responsible for global warming.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard's response was brusque: "You've got the spokesman for a group of countries lecturing us about not having signed Kyoto, yet the great bulk of the countries on whose behalf he speaks are falling well behind their Kyoto targets and are doing less well than Australia in meeting them," he told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.

"Our answer to the spokesman for the European Union is look to your own affairs, get your countries complying with the targets you've proclaimed," he said.

Dimas' spokeswoman, Barbara Helfferich, was keen to rebuff the criticism. "We said what needed to be said. And the EU will in any case comply with its Kyoto targets," she told DW-WORLD.DE.

But Howard had a point.

The EU is far from attaining the targets it agreed to by ratifying the Kyoto protocol. The 15 older EU states are obliged to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions by eight percent by 2012 in comparison to 1990 levels, while the newer members of the bloc agreed to different targets. But it was recently revealed that the EU had only achieved 1.6 percent by 2005. In 2006, the countries carbon dioxide emissions actually increased by 1.5 percent above the previous year's level.

Flawed emissions trade

Critics lay some of the blame on the EU's emissions trade, which allows companies to pollute as long as they have the necessary certificates, which can be traded. The idea was that businesses would invest in environmentally friendly technologies to cut emissions if their only other option was to pay for a limited number of expensive licenses to pollute.

But the emissions trade has so far failed to bring about a decrease in CO2 pollution.

The EU issued too many certificates, according to Hans-Jürgen Nantke, head of the emissions trade office at Germany's Federal Environmental Agency.

"That's why the prices hit rock bottom," he said.

A ton of CO2 cost nearly 30 euros ($40) in spring 2006 at the European Energy Exchange in Leipzig. Today the price stands at less than one euro. Buying the right to pollute has become so cheap because the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, made mistakes when it estimated CO2 emissions. In 2006, Europe's industries were able to emit 50 million tons more CO2 than they ought to have. Since the prices for certificates were so cheap, businesses didn't necessarily see the need to invest in new technologies that would produce fewer emissions.

"When prices were higher, that happened," said Verena Graichen, an expert on environmental protection at the Institute for Applied Ecology, a German think tank.

German power companies, for example, had shut down old lignite coal power plants in favor of more environmentally friendly anthracite coal plants although the latter were more expensive to run, she said.

Better the second time around?

"Unfortunately the emissions trade doesn't work very well, but we can't change anything anymore," conceded Dimas' spokeswoman Helfferich.

Instead, she suggested looking to the future. In 2008, the second phase of the emissions trade, which continues until 2012, is set to begin. In order to meet the Kyoto targets, the European Commission has mandated a much lower number of emission certificates be issued.

"From 2008 to 2012, we will fulfill four Kyoto percent," Helfferich predicted and referred to dozens of EU projects concerning climate protection as well as the emissions trade, which she said would then work "significantly better."

Current prices for emissions certificates won't have an effect on their cost in the future, since the price will be recalculated in 2008. However, their greatly reduced number has already had an influence on today's market: "futures," that is, options on certificates that will be traded in the future, already cost between 16 and 17 euros per ton. But critics say the EU should alter the plans for the second phase of the emissions trade. Instead of issuing the licenses to pollute largely for free in 2008, industry should have to buy them from the start.

"Companies don't receive machines for free," pointed out Nantke of Germany's Environmental Agency.

DW-News