The Gradient » Climate Change

Western Climate Initiative

dniemeier — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:31:18 +0000

The Western Climate Initiative (WCI) released its plan for the regional carbon market, of which California is a member. The plan outlines the general framework for partially achieving AB 32 goals. Because the WCI is comprised of six other western states, in addition to California, and four Canadian provinces, the goals have been set a reduced scale relative to AB 32: 15% below 2005 levels by 2020, starting in 2012. AB 32 calls for 1990 levels by 2020 and 80% below 1990 by 2050.

Hobson’s Choice

dniemeier — Mon, 03 May 2010 22:02:26 +0000

For a thoughtful discussion on the Gulf spill, see this blog entry by Tom Beamish (at UC Davis): http://mitpress.typepad.com/mitpresslog/2010/05/the-gulf-spill-and-the-hobsons-choice-of-oil-production.html#more

Graham Walks Away

dniemeier — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 16:13:14 +0000

The Washington Post has announced that the anticipated press conference called for tomorrow (Monday, April 26) to announce the outline of the Kerry-Lieberman-Graham compromise proposal for a climate and energy bill has been canceled. Graham states “…appears to be a decision by the Obama Administration and the Senate Democratic leadership to move immigration instead of energy. Unless their plan substantially changes this weekend, I will be unable to move forward on energy independence legislation at this time…”

Tidy List of What Aliens Are Doing to the Earth

dniemeier — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:09:45 +0000

From the National Wildlife Federation’s Dr. Amanda Staudt (full post),

While opponents want to draw attention to decade-old emails, here is what is happening right now to the planet:

Temperatures this decade have been higher than any other decade on record, and one degree (F) higher than average temperatures in the 20th century.

Ocean temperatures worldwide this summer were hotter than ever previously recorded.

Stable sea ice in the Arctic melted to its lowest recorded levels this summer, declining more than 60% since the 1980s and 1990s.

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere for 2009 (387 parts per million) are the highest they have been in about 15 million years.

Globally, 8.7 billion tons of carbon were emitted in 2008 from burning coal, oil and natural gas, a 41% increase from 1990.

Latest from the UK Met Office

dniemeier — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:40:47 +0000

Today BBC ran this article with this graph,

It’s worth noting that,

The WMO uses three temperature sets – one from the UK Met Office and the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU), and two from the US, maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) and the space agency Nasa.

Asked whether the controversy surrounding e-mails hacked from CRU could have any bearing on the results, Mr Jarraud replied that all three datasets showed the same result.

Vicky Pope from the UK Met Office made the same point: “The datasets are all independent, and they all show warming,” she said.

So much for that coolish year all the skeptics talk about.

2020 Targets in Context

dniemeier — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:52:25 +0000

There is nearly universal agreement that GHG emissions must come down quickly to constrain future temperature increases to the 2 degree C mark. As we go into Copenhagen, with two US bills on the table, the Senate hopefully to pass soon, I thought it might be worth showing some of the targets associated with other countries and how the US bills compare.

So in this figure, the blue columns reflects a few of the current commitments by nations, including Norway’s recently announced commitment to reduce their emissions by 40 percent below 1990 emissions levels. Indonesia has also committed to reduce their emissions by 26 percent below 1990, and they are confident that they “could cut emissions by as much as 41 percent” below 1990 if international aid is available. The UK has pledged a 20 percent commitment (30 percent if there is an international agreement). Russia and Japan have both committed to 25% below 1990.

The green column reflects the IPCC recommendation for how much wealthy nations must reduce their emissions by 2020 to maintain the 2 degree C limit in global temperature rise.

And finally, we have CA and the US. California has a state law committing to reduce GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 (yes, that’s zero below 1990, which at the time was very forward looking). And the US currently has two bills in play (WRI has nice summaries of both bills), but neither really does much more than nudge us below 1990 levels.