Ad astra per aspera
One of the nagging issues in the run-up to the Copenhagen climate summit are demands that the US and Europe provide massive aid so poorer countries can buy expensive emissions-free technologies. Activist David E. Martin claims many of the patents for today's low-carbon technologies -- including some used in wind power and hybrid cars -- are already in the public domain. When the host of a party predicts a flop, it rarely inspires much confidence in a good bash. With just over a month to go before international climate talks start in Copenhagen the Danish government has done exactly that: Don't hold your breath, it said, it's unlikely there will be a binding global deal. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso had even stronger words earlier this week: "Of course we are not going to have a full-fledged binding treaty, Kyoto-type, by Copenhagen. There is not time for that." Money is threatening the fight against climate change. Climate experts have priced emissions-cutting technologies needed by developing countries at €100 billion ($149 billion) a year starting in 2020, and they want to see about half of that investment burden shouldered by public funding from the United States, the European Union and Japan. The world's poorest countries warn that without a solid promise of funds, they will walk out of the Copenhagen summit. But €50 billion is more than the loose change European states, Washington and Tokyo are willing to dole out -- particularly after bailing out their banks. European leaders meeting in Brussels last week shirked concrete commitments, saying only they would contribute their "fair share" to upfront climate financing.
One of the nagging issues in the run-up to the Copenhagen climate summit are demands that the US and Europe provide massive aid so poorer countries can buy expensive emissions-free technologies. Activist David E. Martin claims many of the patents for today's low-carbon technologies -- including some used in wind power and hybrid cars -- are already in the public domain.
When the host of a party predicts a flop, it rarely inspires much confidence in a good bash. With just over a month to go before international climate talks start in Copenhagen the Danish government has done exactly that: Don't hold your breath, it said, it's unlikely there will be a binding global deal. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso had even stronger words earlier this week: "Of course we are not going to have a full-fledged binding treaty, Kyoto-type, by Copenhagen. There is not time for that."
Money is threatening the fight against climate change. Climate experts have priced emissions-cutting technologies needed by developing countries at €100 billion ($149 billion) a year starting in 2020, and they want to see about half of that investment burden shouldered by public funding from the United States, the European Union and Japan. The world's poorest countries warn that without a solid promise of funds, they will walk out of the Copenhagen summit. But €50 billion is more than the loose change European states, Washington and Tokyo are willing to dole out -- particularly after bailing out their banks. European leaders meeting in Brussels last week shirked concrete commitments, saying only they would contribute their "fair share" to upfront climate financing.
Using 'unitisation', most renewable projects - if the energy price and costs are right - are self funding, because you are receiving value now for something that costs nothing to create, other than maintenance costs (where people like Enercon already operate on a prodcution/revenue -sharing partnership basis) and decommissioning costs.
Energy savings (Nega Watts) are even cheaper, because there are typically no operating and decommissioning costs. An interest-free (in fiat money terms) 'energy loan' funds the project (if it stacks up), and then the project repays the loan at the market price of energy, funded from energy savings.
It's not Rocket Science: it's just a combination of monetising energy and energy accounting
It doesn't work quite so well for nuclear, because firstly the cost of fuel will go up over time in energy terms, and secondly there are uncertainties in relation to decommissioning and operating costs. "Any economic unit can emit money. The serious problem is to get it accepted" Hyman Minsky
English farmers have been given a last chance to adopt greener practices that benefit wildlife and help to combat climate change or face deductions from their state hand-outs of cash. The Government has set a tough new target which requires that the area of arable fields covered by environmental schemes should double within three years. Every farmer has also been told that he or she should fund some environmental improvements on their land without any financial support from payments made under the Common Agriculture Policy. In addition, Hilary Benn, the Rural Affairs Secretary, has made clear that he expects farmers to keep some land fallow to help to provide habitats for birds and small mammals such as voles and field mice.
English farmers have been given a last chance to adopt greener practices that benefit wildlife and help to combat climate change or face deductions from their state hand-outs of cash.
The Government has set a tough new target which requires that the area of arable fields covered by environmental schemes should double within three years.
Every farmer has also been told that he or she should fund some environmental improvements on their land without any financial support from payments made under the Common Agriculture Policy.
In addition, Hilary Benn, the Rural Affairs Secretary, has made clear that he expects farmers to keep some land fallow to help to provide habitats for birds and small mammals such as voles and field mice.
If they want to promote biodiversity then they should encourage organic farming, reduce weedkillers, reduce fertilizer. But that'd piss off Monsanto, so they're just being two-faced instead. keep to the Fen Causeway
Or, more precisely with the South American exmple: a few of them would continue to work for a pittrance, while the rest would end up without land and job and move to urban slums. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
From 1921, Prebisch began to use the metaphor of core and periphery to describe the geography of international trade, with the core being Europe and the U.S. and the periphery being the rest of the planet (what Marx called the "peasant nations"). A brief stay in London, negotiating with the English over a new trade treaty, showed Prebisch real power: Montagu Norman, the Governor of the Bank of England, who answered neither to the political parties nor to the monarch. Prebisch wanted such a post in Argentina, one that would allow him to put his insights over monetary policy and international trade to work without the vacillation of electoral politics. He did get a sinecure at the Central Bank of Argentina after his plan (the Economy Recovery Plan of 1933) allowed his country to tread a middle ground between protectionism and "free trade". As Dosman puts it, "Prebisch certainly cared less about textbooks than evolving a new balance between industry and agriculture in the uncharted waters of the Great Depression." From his perch as the Director of the Central Bank, Prebisch spent the next decade developing a monetary policy for the periphery, which was largely based on pragmatism rather than on any established theory. For this he earned few friends and many enemies, notably among the permanent bureaucracy in the U.S. Prebisch's ferocious nationalism prevented him from allowing Argentina's economy to bend its knee before either London or Washington, and this bothered the latter so greatly that Prebisch was barred from attending the Bretton Woods conference to set up the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
A brief stay in London, negotiating with the English over a new trade treaty, showed Prebisch real power: Montagu Norman, the Governor of the Bank of England, who answered neither to the political parties nor to the monarch. Prebisch wanted such a post in Argentina, one that would allow him to put his insights over monetary policy and international trade to work without the vacillation of electoral politics. He did get a sinecure at the Central Bank of Argentina after his plan (the Economy Recovery Plan of 1933) allowed his country to tread a middle ground between protectionism and "free trade". As Dosman puts it, "Prebisch certainly cared less about textbooks than evolving a new balance between industry and agriculture in the uncharted waters of the Great Depression."
From his perch as the Director of the Central Bank, Prebisch spent the next decade developing a monetary policy for the periphery, which was largely based on pragmatism rather than on any established theory. For this he earned few friends and many enemies, notably among the permanent bureaucracy in the U.S. Prebisch's ferocious nationalism prevented him from allowing Argentina's economy to bend its knee before either London or Washington, and this bothered the latter so greatly that Prebisch was barred from attending the Bretton Woods conference to set up the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
re: The Life and Times of Raul Prebisch, 1901-1986 by Edgar Dosman Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
That said, lakes of milk and wine and mountains of butter are not strategic. En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
And, in Scandinavia, heating yourself.
The rest of out way of life is negotiable :) En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
A global deal to fight climate change will take at least six months and possibly another year to finalise, according to negotiators at the heart of the UN talks.In a series of briefings, senior British and EU diplomats said they had abandoned any hope of reaching a legally binding treaty at the Copenhagen summit next month and had now started to plan only for a meeting of world leaders. This final acknowledgement follows weeks of growing pessimism and represents a significant downgrading of the summit's original goal.
A global deal to fight climate change will take at least six months and possibly another year to finalise, according to negotiators at the heart of the UN talks.
In a series of briefings, senior British and EU diplomats said they had abandoned any hope of reaching a legally binding treaty at the Copenhagen summit next month and had now started to plan only for a meeting of world leaders. This final acknowledgement follows weeks of growing pessimism and represents a significant downgrading of the summit's original goal.
The world's carbon trading markets growing complexity threatens another "sub-prime" style financial crisis that could again destabilise the global economy, campaigners warn today.In a new report, Friends of the Earth says that to date "cap and trade" carbon markets have done almost nothing to reduce emissions but have been plagued by inefficiency and corruption that render them unfit for purpose.As the world heads towards the Copenhagen climate summit, Britain and other developed countries want to see carbon trading expanded worldwide. The carbon market, mainly based in Europe, was worth $126bn in 2008 and is predicted to mushroom to $3.1tn by 2020 if a global carbon market takes off.
The world's carbon trading markets growing complexity threatens another "sub-prime" style financial crisis that could again destabilise the global economy, campaigners warn today.
In a new report, Friends of the Earth says that to date "cap and trade" carbon markets have done almost nothing to reduce emissions but have been plagued by inefficiency and corruption that render them unfit for purpose.
As the world heads towards the Copenhagen climate summit, Britain and other developed countries want to see carbon trading expanded worldwide. The carbon market, mainly based in Europe, was worth $126bn in 2008 and is predicted to mushroom to $3.1tn by 2020 if a global carbon market takes off.
AMY GOODMAN: Mark Schapiro, you mentioned the Green Police, and I wanted to turn to one of the video clips on the Green Police and how they harass local communities living near the GM, the General Motors, forest. MARK SCHAPIRO: We went on patrol with a Força Verde crew, taking off across the Bay of Paranaguá. Though the term "Green Police" may sound benign to us, it was clear that the locals feared them. They have the power to fine, confiscate and even arrest fishermen, hunters and others who violate the rules. Lieutenant Albano told us that enforcement has intensified since the carbon sequestration efforts began. They carry the guns. SPVS provides the intelligence. And ultimately, the US corporations provide the funds.
MARK SCHAPIRO: We went on patrol with a Força Verde crew, taking off across the Bay of Paranaguá. Though the term "Green Police" may sound benign to us, it was clear that the locals feared them. They have the power to fine, confiscate and even arrest fishermen, hunters and others who violate the rules.
Lieutenant Albano told us that enforcement has intensified since the carbon sequestration efforts began. They carry the guns. SPVS provides the intelligence. And ultimately, the US corporations provide the funds.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A controversial climate change bill cleared its first hurdle in the U.S. Senate on Thursday, allowing President Barack Obama to tout progress in the run-up to next month's global warming talks in Copenhagen. Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee ignored a Republican boycott and used their majority to approve the legislation that would require U.S. industry to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases 20 percent by 2020, from 2005 levels.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A controversial climate change bill cleared its first hurdle in the U.S. Senate on Thursday, allowing President Barack Obama to tout progress in the run-up to next month's global warming talks in Copenhagen.
Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee ignored a Republican boycott and used their majority to approve the legislation that would require U.S. industry to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases 20 percent by 2020, from 2005 levels.
The rehabilitation of the beleaguered Large Hadron Collider was on hold tonight after the failure of one of its powerful cooling units caused by an errant chunk of baguette.
The N.C. Utilities Commission on Wednesday denied environmentalists' move to stop the expansion of Duke Energy's Cliffside coal-fired power plant west of Charlotte. The N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network had asked the commission to revoke its approval of the 800-megawatt expansion that was granted in 2007. With the ruling, the only remaining challenges to Cliffside are before a state administrative court. A federal lawsuit filed by environmental groups to stop or modify the expansion was dismissed earlier this year. Before the utilities commission, WARN claimed that completing the project was no longer in the public interest. The need for the expansion, it said, is based on Duke's potential sales of wholesale power, not the electricity demands of its Carolinas retail customers. (N.C. = North Carolina)
The N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network had asked the commission to revoke its approval of the 800-megawatt expansion that was granted in 2007.
With the ruling, the only remaining challenges to Cliffside are before a state administrative court. A federal lawsuit filed by environmental groups to stop or modify the expansion was dismissed earlier this year. Before the utilities commission, WARN claimed that completing the project was no longer in the public interest. The need for the expansion, it said, is based on Duke's potential sales of wholesale power, not the electricity demands of its Carolinas retail customers. (N.C. = North Carolina)
