Green Counsel

Australia to Ban Incandescent Bulbs

The BBC reported today that Australia would become the first country to ban incandescent bulbs with a complete phase out by 2010.

Since compact flourescents use only 20% of the electricity of traditional bulbs, the move could cut the Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million tons by 2012. According to Australia's environmental minister, if the whole world switched to compact flourescent bulbs today, we could reduce worldwide consumption of electricity by an amount equal to five times Australia's annual consumption.

There sure is elegance in mandatory actions.

Do Carbon Emissions Have Significant Environmental Impacts?

What kind of question is that? Isn't the public finally convinced that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are causing global warming and coal is one of the biggest culprits? Unfortunately, the legal system has still not resolved this issue -- proving Dickens' point that the "law's an ass," and a particularly stubborn one at that.

One of our most venerable environmental statutes, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), requires that the federal government assess and publicly disclose the environmental impact of its actions. If the impact might be significant, the government must investigate, respond to public comments and compare alternatives. Many states, and other countries, have similar laws.

U.S courts have been mixed on whether, and to what extent, greenhouse gas emissions must be considered in the assessment. (For some cases involving the question of whether NEPA applies to greenhouse gas emissions, see "Global Warming and the Courts" (PDF)(p. 11-14)). A court in Austrialia, however, recently ruled that the impact that large projects have on global warming -- such as the coal mine planned for Anvil Hill (viewed above) -- must be considered.

The decision involved the Anvil Hill open-cut coal mine -- the last significant area of bush land on the floor of the Hunter Valley north of Sydney, home many endangered species, including the koala and 14 varieties of birds. If approved, Anvil Hill will be another huge mine in Australia, already the world's largest coal exporter. (Like the U.S., Australia has failed to join Kyoto.)

A group of citizens challenged the mine, arguing that government had to consider both the direct consequences of the mining, as well as the "downstream" impacts -- particularly the burning of the coal, even though much of it would be burned overseas.

Although the judge refused to interfere with the approval process for the mine, she ruled that the downstream impacts must be considered. The decision may not stop the Anvil mine itself, but climate activists believe it will have significant consequence on future developments.

As Nikki Williams, Chief Executive of the New South Wales Minerals Council, stated, New South Wales has "300 thousand business owners and each one of those is going to be dramatically affected potentially, if this decision is taken to its logical conclusions because all of our activities, all of our business, produce greenhouse gases. So where do you draw the line? Is it just coal exports or are we going right down the chain to the building of your suburban home?"

We can only hope.

For more information, go to Anvil Hill Alliance, hear the Living On Earth podcast or watch the following video:

Bush's "Go to China" Moment on the Environment?

There's been buzz recently that the Bush Administration might be planning a turnaround on climate change issues which, after years of denial, has been compared to Nixon's trip China after years of communist bashing.

Well maybe Bush should do more than metaphorically "go to China" and actually follow some of China's recent action on the environment. China recently announced the following major steps:

1) China now mandates energy efficiency standards in urban construction and requires construction contractors to use energy efficient building materials and adopt energy saving technology in heating, air conditioning, ventilation and lighting systems in public buildings. Full Story.

2) China expects to cut water consumption 30 percent by 2010, as part of efforts to propel a sustainable development, by increasing the efficiency of agricultural irrigation, and cutting industrial water consumption. Full Story.

3) China plans to invest 1.4 trillion yuan (US$175 billion) in environmental protection between 2006 and 2010 - more than 1.5 percent of the national GDP. Full Story.

Also, even though China has for many years has been seen as a threat to the environment, green business opportunites are now growing. Full Story.

Regarding Bush's conversion, some of stories floating state that Bush plans a goal of stabilizing carbon dioxide levels in the global atmosphere at 450 parts per million by the year 2106. Yes, you read right, in one hundred years (phew, I feel better now). And let us not forget Bush's prior statement on the subject. :-)

If Winter Comes...

What could be better to celebrate the beginning of Spring than the Province of Ontario's March 21 announcement that it would be implementing feed-in tariffs -- otherwise known as standard offer contracts -- that guarantee connection to the grid and payments to electricity producers, including homeowners with small PV systems, for twenty years.  Projects are capped at 10 MW (approximately sufficient to supply 10,000 homes), and contracts are available to anyone, including homeowners, businesses and commercial energy producers.

Feed-in tariffs are largely credited for the boom in renewable energy in places like Germany and Spain, but have not been implemented in the U.S. except for a small pilot project in California.  In Germany, feed-in tariffs have led to the development of 110,000 solar PV systems, 2,000 biomass plants, 6,000 small hydro plants, 16,500 wind turbines, and 45,000 jobs in the wind industry.

Meanwhile, it's still chilly in New York.

Source:  http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=44408