climate change Archives - Page 2 of 4

The world is getting warmer. 2008 was the 9th warmest year on record. 2009, barring a sudden, severe, global cold snap, will end up being the 4th or 5th warmest year on record and with El Niño coming on in the Pacific, 2010 looks likely to set a new temperature record for the hottest year in recorded history.

Climate change is real and it is here, now. So what you say, what does that have to do with me? Or more to the point, what does that have to do with my work?

Well, if you are based in the UK, there is a strong chance that next April, it will have a very direct impact on your job, company, or business. This is because the UK has passed legislation called the Carbon Reduction Committment (CRC).

The CRC is a groundbreaking piece of legislation designed to help the UK meet its carbon reduction targets by 2020. Basically, the CRC scheme will apply to organisations that had a half-hourly metered electricity consumption greater than 6,000 MWh per year in 2008. Organisations qualifying for CRC would have all their energy use covered by the scheme, this includes emissions from direct energy use as well as electricity purchased. Initially, it is estimated, around 5,000 organisations will qualify, including supermarkets, water companies, banks, local authorities and all central Government Departments. Qualifying organisations mostly fall below the threshold for the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, but account for around 10% of the UK carbon emissions.

The organisations involved will need to register or make an information disclosure by 30 September 2010. A financial penalty (£5,000 plus a per diem charge for each subsequent working day an organisation fails to submit a report) will be imposed on organisations who fail to meet the deadline.

The first year of the scheme (April 2010-2011) is called the footprint year. Companies are required to submit an audited report of their emissions during the footprint year by 29 July 2011. Again financial penalties will be imposed for failing to meet the deadline.

In the second year, (2011-2012) participants will have to purchase emissions allowances to cover their forecast emissions for 2011/12. And in 2013 auctioning of carbon allowances begins, with all the income from the auctions recycled back to participants by the means of an annual payment based on participants’ average annual emissions since the start of the scheme.

There will be a bonus or penalty according to the organisation’s position in a CRC league table. The league table will be made public thereby enhancing the transparency of companies carbon reporting and hopefully shaming any egregious emitters into reducing their carbon footprint.

I have gone in to a bit of detail about the CRC here because it is difficult enough to find out information about the scheme and most UK business appear to be wholly unprepared for its implementation. The UK Department of Climate Change (I think it is interesting that the UK has a government department of climate change in the first place – how many other governments do?) has an easy to follow guide to the CRC [PDF] available for download which will help.

The CRC is going to be closely watched by other countries and you can be sure it will be used as a model by many to reduce their carbon emissions.

As I mentioned at the outset of this piece, climate change is here, it is real. Increasingly we are going to see bills like the CRC enacted so we can try to mitigate its effects.

(Lack of) Sustainability in the Mobile industry

November 8, 2009 by Tom Raftery

(Lack of) Sustainability in the mobile phone industry

View more documents from Tom Raftery.

I realised recently that although I have referred to the talk I gave in Barcelona on Mobile Sustainability (for the Mobile 2.0 conference) in a couple of posts I never talked about the talk directly here, so now it is time to redress that.

I have posted the slide deck above so you can follow along with the slides above and my explanation below.

Slides 1-3 are simply my introducing the topic and myself (along with my contact details).

I started off with a bit of a background:

Slides 4-6 I start to talk about some of the reasons why sustainability is important. Climate change, for example, is real and is recognised as real. Even that last hold-out, the US government, has now admitted it is real and have set up the United States Global Change Research program to study the effects of Climate Change on the US.

Slide 7 – New studies show that the impacts of climate change are likely to be worse than we anticipated

Slide 8 – The polar ice caps are shrinking far faster than anyone predicted

Slide 9 – Climate change is affecting animal populations today

Slide 10 – Climate change is affecting the world’s river systems, and thus access to water for many people globally today

Slide 11-13 – This is having devastating effects on people in South America, the Middle East, and Asia (and agriculture in Australia and California)

Slide 14 – NGO’s are warning that the humanitarian systems, already stretched thin, will be overwhelmed

Then I went on to discuss the business case for sustainability today:

Slide 15 – I referred to the 2001 white paper The Business Case for Sustainability [PDF warning] – produced by KPMG

Slide 16 – I mentioned the McKinsey Quarterly publication How IT Can Cut Carbon Emissions

Slide 17 – I brought up the MIT Sloane Management Review piece Using Corporate Social Responsibility to Win the War for Talent

Slide 18 – Then there’s the Goldman Sachs GS Sustain focus list

Slide 19 – Not to mention the AT Kearney “Green Winners” [PDF warning] research which showed that “during the current economic slowdown, companies that show a “true” commitment to sustainability appear to outperform their industry peers”

Slides 20-22 – Examples of large companies (GE, DuPont, 3M) who cut costs, reduced carbon emissions and increased revenue by focussing on sustainability

Having set the stage (we need to be more sustainable, and look, there is a strong consensus that there is a business case for it too), I started to bring the talk around to the subject of the Mobile industry:

Slide 24 – Quote from Smart 2020 report saying ICTs could deliver emissions reductions of at least 15% by 2020

Slide 25 – While there are 1 billion PCs in the world today, and 1.4 billion Internet users, there are 4 billion mobile phone subscriptions

Slides 26-29 – Examples of Green handsets from Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. I made the point here that in many cases the ‘Green handsets’ being produced by manufacturers are simply so they can ‘tick that box’ in the annual report. Sony had 57 handsets on their website. 1 was green. Green handsets should be the rule, not the exception.

Slides 30-33 – I checked out the websites some of the main mobile operators. 3 have no mention whatsoever (that I could find) of sustainability on their corporate website; the websites of Telefonica and O2 had Sustainability sites but they could both stand a lot of work, while Vodafone’s Sustainability site was the best of the mobile operators which I examined (that’s not to say it couldn’t stand some improvement too!)

Slides 34-36 A quick look at some of the Sustainability apps which have been developed for the mobile platform – slim pickings, tbh!

So having shown how poorly this industry is doing in terms of sustainability, I posited a few what-if’s:

Slide 38
What if manufacturers made phones which lasted 6 yrs not 6 months? Rent, not buy?
What if manufacturers made non-toxic handsets?
What if manufacturers standardised to usb chargers?
What if mobile operators switched to e-billing?

Slide 39
What if carriers avoided unnecessary duplication in mobile networks, (would lead to a savings of 300gWh pa in UK alone)
What if everyone pushed sustainability down supply chain?
What if developers used mobile platform to build apps which ‘made a difference’?
What if grid computing client apps were created for mobiles?
Other?

Under the “Other” heading go ideas like creating Augmented Reality applications for handsets with sustainability related information, or what if the phone makers included pollution sensors (for example) in handsets. With the ubiquity of handsets and with most handsets having inbuilt Internet access, it wouldn’t be long before realtime information on air quality worldwide would be available. Combine that with an Augmented Reality app so people can visualize live their air quality and you would very quickly see changes in people’s behaviour.

Finally, I concluded with two quotes to show why this is critical:

Slide 40 – From the 2007 IPCC Climate Change Synthesis Report [PDF Warning]
As global average temperature increase exceeds about 3.5 degrees C, model projections suggest significant extinctions (40-70% of species assessed) around the globe.

Slide 41 – From the Chair of the IPCC, Rajendra Pachauri
If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment.

The thing to remember here is that Rajendra Pachauri is a George Bush appointee. He was appointed Chair of the IPCC because his predecessor, Dr. Robert Watson was deemed by the American fossil fuel industry (and in particular ExxonMobil) to be too outspoken.

Rajendra Pachauri and the IPCC’s quotes are the conservative point of view.

Mobile phones are ubiquitous. There are in excess of 4 billion of them. They are now for all intents and purposes hand-held computers, increasingly with an Internet connection. Shame on us all if we don’t leverage this incredible resource in the battle to mitigate the effects of climate change.

UPDATE: After I gave this talk, Vodafone, in conjunction with Accenture, issued a report called Carbon connections: quantifying mobile’s role in tackling climate change [PDF Warning]. In this report Vodafone claim that:

mobile technology could cut Europe’s annual energy bill by at least €43 billion and effect a reduction in annual greenhouse gas emissions by at least 113Mt CO2e by 2020. This represents 18% of the UK’s annual CO2e output in 2008 and approximately 2.4% of expected EU emissions in 2020.

The report goes on to say that the opportunities for carbon savings come from two main areas – Smart machine-to-machine (M2M) services (Smart Grids, Smart Logistics, Smart Manufacturing and Smart Cities) and Dematerialisation (i.e. video-conferencing, online shopping, etc.).

Monday Nov 2nd Energy and Sustainability show

November 2, 2009 by Tom Raftery

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:30 Tom Raftery : Kicking off now

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:30 MikeTheBee : Sound and Vid ok

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:30 Daithi : Grand

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:32 MikeTheBee : Ah I missed the tab, looked for link in the side menu

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:32 Tom Raftery : http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/01/climate-change-world-leaders-accused?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:34 MikeTheBee : Yep, we have been “passing ships” I caught the recordings later.

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:36 Tom Raftery : http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33579529/ns/world_news-world_environment

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:36 MikeTheBee : Tom, your scrolling ‘bottom third’ is obscured by the LS one.
There is a gas leak as well in a nearby well.no probs, just FYI

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:38 Tom Raftery : http://www.wbcsd.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?type=DocDet&ObjectId=MzYyNzU

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:38 cgarvey : That’s quite a disaster .. wonder why it hasn’t made the mainstream media before now. Pity Oil slick

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:40 MikeTheBee : Tom is the new ‘mainstream’

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:40 Tom Raftery : http://english.aljazeera.net/business/2009/10/20091030213018384562.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/6470183/Britons-least-concerned-about-climate-change.html

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:42 MikeTheBee : I do not believe that

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:44 Tom Raftery :http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/nov/02/flooding-scotland-wales-weather
http://www.theclimategroup.org/news_and_events/hsbc_climate_confidence_monitor_2009

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:47 MikeTheBee :I would want to look at the questions asked.

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:47 Tom Raftery : http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2009/nov/02/palm-oil-sustainable

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:49 MikeTheBee : Maybe Britons trust what the gov are doing, or says it is doing, to address climate change.

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:49 Joe Garde : oh dear… Indonesia, unbelievable

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:50 Tom Raftery : http://www.triplepundit.com/2009/11/chocolate-goes-green-kraft-rolls-out-sustainable-sweet-treats/

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:52 Joe Garde : always – it tastes better too

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:53 Tom Raftery : http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/oct/29/spanish-winemaker-torres-environmental-change

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:53 Joe Garde :

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:54 MikeTheBee : The first Scottish wine will be ready soon

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:55 Tom Raftery : http://greenpeaceblong.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/accion-greenpeace-en-la-sagrada-familia-barcelona/

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:57 Tom Raftery : http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/google-ibm-and-microsoft271009
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/10/an-open-letter-to-steve-levitt/

Mon, 2 Nov, 16:59 MikeTheBee : There are Irish vineyards already. http://www.wineintro.com/regions/ireland

Mon, 2 Nov, 17:01 Tom Raftery : http://www.bathingwater.ie/epa/current.htm

Mon, 2 Nov, 17:03 cgarvey : Nice resource.

Mon, 2 Nov, 17:03 Tom Raftery : http://www.greenm3.com/2009/10/new-nsa-15-bil-data-center-has-green-requirements.html

Mon, 2 Nov, 17:04 Daithi : I’m a data centre electrical and mech installer Vg

Mon, 2 Nov, 17:05 Tom Raftery : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/6484379/European-satellite-launched-to-explore-climate-change.html

Mon, 2 Nov, 17:05 Daithi : I havent ..I know gtrat great

Mon, 2 Nov, 17:06 Tom Raftery : http://www.lowcarboneconomy.com/community_content/_low_carbon_news/7731/rss

Mon, 2 Nov, 17:06 Joe Garde : trinity are also involved – solar flares

Mon, 2 Nov, 17:07 Tom Raftery : http://www.energy.gov/news2009/8216.htm

Mon, 2 Nov, 17:10 Joe Garde : btw “The melting of the glaciers in the Himalayas is a serious concern for us” in case you missed it I arrived late http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/1102/nepal.html

Mon, 2 Nov, 17:12 MikeTheBee : they are base on Statewide utility monopolies

Mon, 2 Nov, 17:12 cgarvey : All good, thanks Tom

Mon, 2 Nov, 17:12 Daithi : Thanks Tom…good show again and thanks for the riveting saga with Air Berlin on twitter.

Mon, 2 Nov, 17:13 MikeTheBee : Could you consider moving the Google Calendar link to below the chat-box. This would get the chat-box closer to the video window and use the screen-estate better.Good stuff well done on the show.

Mon, 2 Nov, 17:13 Joe Garde : cheers Tom have a good one

Mon, 2 Nov, 17:13 CraigS : thanks

Mon, 2 Nov, 17:14 Tom Raftery :Thanks everyone for the interest and contributions

To protect and serve who again?

October 22, 2009 by Tom Raftery

British riot police confront 'dangerous' protestor

I don’t get it. Really, I don’t.

Climate change is destroying the planet. Oceans are becoming warmer and more acidic, the glaciers and polar ice caps are shrinking faster then even the most pessimistic projections, South Sea islands like the Maldives are becoming inundated by sea level rise and we are in the middle of a man-made mass extinction event where scientists predict that one-half of all species of life will be extinct by 2100.

This is all pretty horrific to contemplate, right?

And yet, when people try to protest peacefully against the polluters who are damaging the planet beyond all recognition, when people try to highlight and bring a halt to this madness so we can save some shred of our decency, as well as some of the lifeforms on the planet, what happens? They are confronted by lines of police in riot gear, at best, or battered and thrown in jail on trumped up charges, or worse.

Look up civil disobedience in Wikipedia and you see a photo of Gandhi! Other famous proponents of civil disobedience are Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Henry David Thoreau.

Why then, when people are looking to better our planet and by extension our lives, are they attacked and frequently imprisoned by the police, the very force who are supposed to protect and serve us? Obviously it is not us whom the police are protecting and serving. Shame on them.

Then today, I see a report that the provincial government in Alberta, Canada is threatening to unleash its counterterrorism plan if activists continue using civil disobedience to protest the tar sands. No really.

From the report:

Canada’s tar sands will singlehandedly produce more greenhouse gas emissions than Denmark, Ireland, Austria or Portugal by 2020 if the development continues expanding at its current rate, according to a recent report written by award-winning business reporter Andrew Nikiforuk

However,

“We’re going to be working very closely with industry and our solicitor general will be reviewing all of the guidelines we have in place,” said a visibly irritated Premier Stelmach in early October.

Fred Lindsay, the solicitor general, went a step further, suggesting the province might use its counterterrorism plan against future protests.

Now people trying to protect life on this Earth are terrorists? Seriously, it should be the people extracting oil from the tar sands who are subject to counterterrorism plans, if anyone.

When will we see the forces of law and order arresting executives of mining companies for their lack of concern for human rights, or lack of concern for the planet?

Photo credit clearbrian

Rich Lechner Sept ’09 on “Global Electric Utilities – the adaptation challenge” report

September 22, 2009 by Tom Raftery

Rich Lechner is IBM’s VP Energy and Environment and comes on GreenMonk TV every month.

This month we discussed a report IBM sponsored and which was written by Acclimatise called Global Electric Utilities – the adaptation challenge

Some points to note from the report:

87% of businesses in the FTSE 350 acknowledge that their business is at risk from climate change
Less than 33% have any plans in place to address that risk
Over 90% of utilities acknowledge that their business will be impacted by climate change
Less than 30% of the utilities reported having documented plans to manage or avoid that risk
Only 6% identified opportunities associated with climate change

September 7th GreenMonk Energy and Sustainability show

September 7, 2009 by Tom Raftery

This is the video from today’s GreenMonk Energy and Sustainability show – see below for the chatstream:

03:30 Tom Raftery: Do we have audio/video?
03:31 MikeTheBee: I weren’t
03:31 MikeTheBee: Video and Audio
03:31 iangb: i can see and hear
03:31 MikeTheBee: Yep
03:32 MikeTheBee: Bank Hol Last week in UK
03:33 Tom Raftery: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/sep/03/arctic-temperatures-climate-change
03:33 MikeTheBee: The more the merrier
03:35 Tom Raftery: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/bigphotos/15234166.html
03:36 Tom Raftery: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6821896.ece
03:36 MikeTheBee: increasing from the 1900’s by the look. the start of coal usage
03:38 Tom Raftery: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8240406.stm
03:39 Tom Raftery: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/04/drax-protesters-sentenced
03:41 Tom Raftery: http://www.youtube.com/talkingenergy
03:44 Tom Raftery: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/BP-announces-giant-oil-find-apf-2273328778.html?x=0&.v=1
03:45 Tom Raftery: http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2009/09/03/bps-tiber-find-fodder-for-oil-optimists-or-pessimists/
03:46 Tom Raftery: http://www.mnn.com/technology/research-innovations/blogs/uranium-the-new-foreign-oil
03:47 Tom Raftery: http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=1983
03:48 Tom Raftery: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8241016.stm
03:49 Tom Raftery: http://tcktcktck.org/stories/campaign-stories/when-it-comes-climate-change-londons-dropping-10-10
03:50 dahowlett: Was that Tara Aso or Tara Asshole?
03:50 Tom Raftery: http://www.1010uk.org/
03:51 Tom Raftery: http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/690868
03:52 liveireland: getting solar heating this week myself!! 🙂
03:53 Tom Raftery: http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/09/03/duke-leaves-coal-trade-group-over-anti-climate-bill-stance
03:55 Tom Raftery: http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/eco-tech-metal-reflector-to-make-concentrated-solar-power-affordable
03:57 Tom Raftery: http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/eco-gadgets-uganda-telecom-debuts-their-first-solar-powered-cellphone
03:58 Tom Raftery: http://www.idc.com/EI/research/UtiliQ.jsp
03:58 dahowlett: Screw solar heating, I want solar air con
03:59 Tom Raftery: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/defense-contractors-pursue-the-smart-grid
03:59 monkchips: bah missed the start of the show
03:59 Tom Raftery: Coolerado
04:00 dahowlett: Got it: http://www.coolerado.com/
04:00 monkchips: low energy aircon? talk about a global necessity!
04:01 Tom Raftery: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/09/gps-systems-real-time-traffic-data-save-drivers-carbon-emissions-four-days-per-year.php
04:02 monkchips: that is BOLLOCKS
04:02 monkchips: if everyone use it the bottleneck moves. this model wont scale
04:02 monkchips: this from GPS marketing board?
04:02 liveireland: ntl acting up here will have to watch repeat
04:02 cminion: @monkchips yeah i was just wondering if it would scale
04:03 monkchips: wanna cut carbon – cycle instead.
04:03 Tish Shute: Tom what do u think about the Plug Alliance in the US pushing Zigbee
04:03 MikeTheBee: from TomTom or GarmIn?
04:03 cminion: or move closer to your work
04:03 monkchips: we spoke to ford
04:03 monkchips: the other day though and they are all over zigbee right?
04:04 MikeTheBee: Did you discusss the Aussie Oil Slick
04:04 monkchips: ******* GREAT call.
04:04 dahowlett: I sue Google Maps on my Nokia N96 for GPS data
04:04 Tish Shute: Google Power Meter were making a case against the Zigbee and Plig Alliance approach
04:04 liveireland: I’ll plug you into the liveireland next week Tom..missed u this week
04:04 monkchips: “eevees”
04:04 dahowlett: use…not sue…doh!
04:04 Tish Shute: not Plig Plug hehe
04:05 dahowlett: I”ve doubled my distance for working…10 yards instead of 5 yards
04:05 monkchips: hey tish- interesting. the car people, part of the smart grid, atre definielt talking zigbee
04:06 monkchips: not a bad audience for the show this week, considering its a public holday in the US. well done tom.
04:06 cminion: Cheers for the show, time for home i think
04:06 Tish Shute: Google P M were making “you own your own data ” argument hehe!
04:06 dahowlett: TTFN
04:06 liveireland: slan
04:06 Tish Shute: bye thanks Tom!
04:06 MikeTheBee: Cheers Tom, and all
04:06 Tom Raftery: Thanks evertonre for interest, contributions & time

Green Numbers round-up 09/04/2009

September 4, 2009 by Tom Raftery

When it comes to climate change London’s dropping 10 by 10 | TckTckTck

A new campaign called 10:10 UK was launched today with the aim of signing up people, companies and organizations who will commit to reducing their carbon footprint 10% by 2010. The founder of this ambitious project is Franny Armstrong who also happens to be the Director of the new climate change film, The Age of Stupid.

tags: 1010, 2010, greenhouse gas emissions, co2 emissions, co2, GreenNumbers
Indonesia is ready for a 40 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 – COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009

The conditional promise from the largest economy of Southeast Asia is a far more ambitious target than other developing countries have considered and on a par with the most ambitious rich nations.

tags: indonesia, greenhouse gas emissions, copenhagen, GreenNumbers
Eco Tech: Japan Plans $21bn Space-based Solar Farm For 1GW Of Power – Ecofriend

Space-based solar plants are slowly gathering momentum with a Japanese project to develop a space solar plant that is capable of generating 1GW of power being announced. The project will be developed by Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and IHI Corp. and will make use of a four square kilometer array of solar panels stationed 36,000km above the surface of earth.

tags: Space-based solar, solar power, space, GreenNumbers
Copenhagenize.com – The Copenhagen Bike Culture Blog: 200 Lousy Bicycles For UN Climate Conference

The world is coming to Copenhagen in December for the UN COP15 Climate Conference. The media focus is intensifying the closer we get.

About a year ago I wrote a letter to various parties suggesting some good ideas about how Copenhagen and Denmark could profile themselves when the world comes to town. One of the ideas was to provide bicycles for the delegates who will be arriving from all over the planet. Making bicycles available to them, free to use, in order to show them how the bicycle is the ultimate symbol of sustainability and quick and easy transport in the Danish capital. My idea also included recruiting iconic Danish cycling girls to lead pelatons of delegates to and from the conference centre Bellacenter.

tags: copenhagen, cycling, bicycles, GreenNumbers
Boris Johnson announces London’s 10 ‘low-carbon zones’ | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Ten London boroughs have won funding to develop “low-carbon zones” with schemes ranging from “energy doctors” to solar panels for schools and electric car charging points, London Mayor Boris Johnson said today.

tags: london, 1010, low carbon zones, boris johnson, GreenNumbers
Arctic summers are hottest for 2,000 years, say scientists | Science | guardian.co.uk

The Arctic has warmed as a result of climate change, despite the Earth being farther from the sun during summer months

tags: climate change, arctic, global warming, GreenNumbers
New Battery for HP Notebook PCs Lives Up to Three Times Longer Than Conventional Batteries – Boston-Power

HP today announced the HP Long Life Battery for its commercial notebook PCs, providing customers with an increased battery lifespan and reduced cost of ownership versus standard batteries. HP is offering the industry’s only three-year limited warranty on the long-life battery, when used with selected commercial notebook PCs, enabling customers to maximise their PC investment and reduce the costs associated with replacing batteries.

tags: hp, boston power, lithium ion, battery, laptop, GreenNumbers
GPS Systems with Real-Time Traffic Data Can Save Drivers Four Days Per Year (and Lots of Carbon Emissions, too) : TreeHugger

Getting stuck in traffic sucks. While traffic jams have an uncomplicated cause — too many dang cars — the solution isn’t quite so simple; there’s no getting away from them completely in the foreseeable future. While we wait for high-speed rail to come to the U.S., there’s some good news that can help cut back on time wasted in traffic jams and carbon emissions. According to a new study, cars equipped with GPS navigation systems with real-time traffic info can save American drivers a hefty four days — and 21 percent of their cars’ carbon emissions — a year.

tags: greennumbers, gps, traffic, congestion, traffic congestion

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

What price carbon emissions?

September 4, 2009 by Tom Raftery

Photo credit Pinot & Dita

One of the reasons we are facing a climate crisis is because people have not been paying the full economic price for their carbon consumption. Had they been, we’d be living in a very different world today. A quick comparison of average car fuel efficiency in the US versus the EU (where fuel has typically been priced at 2-3x the US price) bears this out.

When people have to pay a higher price for their emissions, they are less likely to pollute (if only to save themselves money!).

This brings us onto the trickier question though of what is a realistic price for carbon. The recent price of carbon emissions in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) has varied from €30 to €10 while today as I write this, it has a spot settlement price of €15.31. That may be current, but is it realistic?

What is a realistic price for carbon emissions?

Well, the reason we are charging for carbon emissions in the first place is to counter the damage being done to the environment by those very emissions – the polluter pays principle. In other words, the price to emit one tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere should be equal to the price of extracting one tonne of CO2 from the upper atmosphere.

And how much is that?

I have no idea to be honest! I have asked several people in this space and no-one has been able to tell me – principally because the technologies to extract CO2 from the upper atmosphere don’t yet exist! You can be sure that it is significantly more than €30 per tonne though.

As global CO2 emissions continue to rise and the effects of climate change become even more pronounced, the price being charged for CO2 emissions globally will need to trend closer to the price of extraction and away from the current €15.

If nothing else, this will encourage us to move to a less carbon intensive lifestyle – manufacturers of carbon intensive products beware!

Bad News for Cap and Trade Foes: Europe’s Emissions Trading System WORKS (treehugger.com)
A global climate deal must be simpler, fairer, and more flexible than Kyoto (guardian.co.uk)
How much CO2 do computers emit? As much as airline industry… (allanjenkins.typepad.com)
EU carbon market seizes on signs of economic recovery (euractiv.com)
Robert Stavins: The New Auto Fuel-Efficiency Standards — Going Beyond the Headlines (huffingtonpost.com)
We’re pumping out CO2 to the point of no return. It’s time to alter course (guardian.co.uk)

July 20th GreenMonk Energy and Sustainability show

July 20, 2009 by Tom Raftery

Here is the chatstream from today’s GreenMonk Energy & Sustainability show:
03:31 Tom Raftery: Audio & video check – can you see/hear me?
03:31 MikeTheBee: Wainting to compare Tom’s resolution 🙂
03:32 SukiFuller: Howdy All.
03:33 CosmoCat: Hi
03:33 SukiFuller: Packing break for you Tom!
03:33 MikeTheBee: Hi Suki, U got a pic of yet?
03:33 Joe Garde: Hi Tom
03:33 Tom Raftery: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/tiny-nation-at-war-with-rising-tide-51207557.html
03:34 Joe Garde: .tv
03:34 liveireland: ok u have our audience
03:34 MikeTheBee: Ah found TOm back on Ustream
03:35 SukiFuller: @mikethebee pic?
03:35 Tom Raftery: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/weather/07/20/pakistan.rainfall/index.html?iref=topnews
03:35 MikeTheBee: I was on the Livestream Player form 10mins ago Hah
03:36 MikeTheBee: It didn’t change automaticalyy
03:36 Tom Raftery: http://www.physorg.com/news167278462.html
03:39 SukiFuller: I lost the stream.
03:39 MikeTheBee: I’, OK
03:39 Joe Garde: nah its grand
03:40 Tom Raftery: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/unclimatewarmingintellectualrights
03:40 MikeTheBee: Fan is quiet now as well. Less carbon 🙂
03:41 Tom Raftery: http://greenbiz.com/blog/2009/07/16/walmart-sustainability-index
03:41 SukiFuller: Hehe – packed box was affecting my router
03:43 Tom Raftery: http://www.katescomment.com/carbon-cost-download-vs-cd/
03:44 MikeTheBee: @sukifuller Those Chinese again 🙂
03:45 SukiFuller: @mikethebee and I haven’t even gotten there yet!
03:45 Tom Raftery: http://www.upi.com/Energy_Resources/2009/07/17/Desertec-African-solar-power-for-Europe/UPI-18021247870250
03:49 MikeTheBee: Did you get your invite to visit them yet
03:49 Tom Raftery: http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2009/07/17/bp-gives-up-on-jatropha-for-biofuel/
03:49 SukiFuller: So would the money made from this be pumped back to African nations?
03:50 Tom Raftery: http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2009/07/14/biofuels-bonanza-exxon-venter-to-team-up-on-algae/
03:52 Tom Raftery: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/jimmy-carters-next-urgent_b_240624.html
03:52 SukiFuller: Nice to know
03:54 Tom Raftery: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/jimmy-carters-next-urgent_b_240624.html
03:55 Joe Garde: and in a cork accent too lol
03:55 Tom Raftery: http://sandbag.org.uk/new_map
03:58 Tom Raftery: http://environment.uk.msn.com/news/headlines/article.aspx?cp-documentid=148623002
03:58 Tom Raftery: http://realtimecarbon.org/
04:00 Joe Garde: not the leafblower tho…
04:01 Joe Garde: wind up job?
04:01 SukiFuller: For you yanks that would be flashlight.
04:02 Joe Garde: there’s another device out there you can charge your phones too along with torch etc
04:02 Tom Raftery: http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/07/16/gri-touts-46-increase-use-of-gri-guidelines-in-sustainability-reporting/
04:02 Tom Raftery: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/seaicedata
04:03 SukiFuller: @joegarde hmmm, would be a great workout if garden tools worked like that
04:03 Tom Raftery: http://www.energy.gov/news2009/7640.htm
04:03 Joe Garde: ah yes!
04:04 Tom Raftery: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/20/ipcc-pachauri-climate-change-cost
04:06 Joe Garde: SukiFuller I’m @onlinemeetings on twitter just followed you
04:06 MikeTheBee: Thx, Tom, I kept loosing you.
04:06 SukiFuller: Excellent stuff as always!
04:06 Joe Garde: thanks again tom… gotta go
04:07 Tom Raftery: Thanks guys for all the contributions, great stuff!
04:07 SukiFuller: @mikiethebee then it might not have been my boxes and router then
04:07 MikeTheBee: Ah, I caught the end that time.
04:08 MikeTheBee: @sukifuller, I think you were just a little ahead of me.
04:08 SukiFuller: @mikethebee well can always listen to the recording…I need to follow you on TV

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