CleanTechnica

Reporter Roxana Tiron of The Hill picked this up over the weekend: the U.S. Department of Defense (aka the Pentagon) will include an analysis of climate change in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), a comprehensive strategic analysis which is set for release today. The branches of the U.S. armed forces have been busy acting on climate change for years, most notably the U.S. Army (and within that, the Army Corps of Engineers), the U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Air Force.  Tiron reports that today’s QDR will mark the first time that the Pentagon itself recognizes climate change as a factor in global instability and U.S. national security.  The QDR was delivered to Congress last Friday and a draft is posted on InsideDefense.com, a subscriber website. Read the rest of this entry »

Using coal for electricity produces CO2, and climate policy aims to prevent greenhouse gases from hurting our habitat. But it also produces SOx and NOx and particulate matter that have immediate health dangers.

A University of Wisconsin study was able to put an economic value on just the immediate health benefits of enacting climate policy.  Implications of incorporating air-quality co-benefits into climate change policymaking found coal is really costing us about $40 per each ton of CO2.

In climate policy discourse, the cost/benefit analysis of the health benefits has not till now been a consideration, but there are air quality co-benefits of climate policy. Read the rest of this entry »

That’s right, the US government is “the single largest energy consumer in the U.S. economy.” In 2008 alone, it spent $24.5 billion on electricity and fuel.

This 28% reduction target Obama is ordering is equivalent to $8-11 billion in avoided energy costs. Additionally, it is far beyond the 17% reduction Obama has pledged to the international community for the US as whole, making the US government a leader by example on this issue.

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Hollywood, as a whole, is one of the most powerful entities (can I call it that?) in the world. Some of its biggest stars are getting involved in the politics of climate and clean energy now.

A great new video on the web featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Felicity Huffman, Forest Whitaker, Ed Norton, Justin Long, and others nails the key points of climate and energy legislation with the most popular language.

One of the stars even decides to drop his pants because of the heat (climate change).

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Probably the biggest news piece this week was Obama’s State of the Union address. David Roberts of grist seemed to hate it. Whereas often like-minded and equally critical Joe Romm of Climate Progress actually seemed to love it.

Dan Harding of CalFinder had mixed reactions, first “feeling passion stir deep within [him] and tingles of inspiration buzz beneath [his] skin,” then thinking that “[Obama's] speeches have grown more and more centrist.”

Immediately after reading those first two reviews (David and Joe’s), the idea for this article came to my mind. Who’s more powerful than the President of the United States of America?

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Certain politicians may be having a hard time wrapping their heads around the reality of climate change, but that hasn’t stopped the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  The USACE is rolling right along with sustainability programs that range from an award-winning oyster habitat restoration project to the installation of 1,200 solar powered street lights in Fallujah and a solar parking lot in New Jersey.

The Commanding General of the USACE, Lt. Gen. Robert Van Atwerp, pulled it all together just a couple of weeks ago with a blog post about the USACE and climate change, and he didn’t mince words on the USACE’s attitude about the whole issue: “It’s a very real concern that could have very real consequences all over the world, and we’re on it.”  That can-do spirit has lead to some interesting new partnerships for the USACE with civilian organizations like The Conservation Fund.  Maybe it’s time for the climate change deniers to come out of their shells and join the party — you know, support the U.S. Army, right?  Hello?

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The deadline for agreeing to the Copenhagen Accord may have been dropped, but the pressure to agree to the Accord and to announce commitments to create cleaner energy sources and reduce pollution is still on.

The US Climate Action Network (USCAN) is making it easier for all of us to follow all of the countries’ commitments through a useful chart of their pledges, how their 2020 targets compare to their 1990 pollution levels, their per capita CO₂ emissions, and other information.

The chart also lists those countries which reject the Copenhagen Accord.

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Responding to the ‘Glaciergate’ incident at The Energy and Resources Institue in New Delhi, IPCC Chief Dr. R K Pachauri said that the error in predicting the disappearance of the Himalayan glaciers was a result of lack of adequate knowledge about the glacial dynamics. He also reiterated that even though there was an error in the estimation of complete melting of the glaciers the fact that they are actually melting must not be overlooked.

Refusing to accept that the error has raised credibility issues about the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr. Pachauri said that there is only one error in the 3000 pages long report which has been prepared by scores of eminent researchers under the aegis of the IPCC which has been trusted and supported by countries around the world for over 21 years. Read the rest of this entry »

Business leaders from a diverse range of sectors and interests have called on Obama and Congress to make clean energy legislation a reality this year. Together, they have written a letter to Obama and Congress urging them to realize that we are very quickly being left behind by Asia, Europe and others on the technologies and jobs of the future.

The “We Can Lead” companies include eBay, Starbucks, Nike, Timberland, Hewlett-Packard, Gap Inc., Virgin America, Exelon, PG&E, and dozens of others.

Why are they behind climate and energy legislation? Among other reasons (i.e. we need it to address human-induced, super fast, catastrophic climate change), these businesses make the point that it would create 1.7 million new jobs in the US.

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31st January was the deadline for countries to submit their proposals for reducing carbon emissions, however, only a handful of countries have submit proposals and officially agreed to the terms of the Copenhagen Accord which has led the United Nations to drop the deadline.

The major players in the climate change fray like India, China and the United States, are yet to come up with proposals and national mechanisms for reducing their carbon emissions. Only Brazil, Japan and the European Union have announced their plans to go ahead with emission reduction measures irrespective of the outcome of future climate treaty negotiations. Read the rest of this entry »