Last year I was reporting that we were 6.5 million people working in the Renewable Energy Industries. If I have – temporarily – left it, many more have joined as now this figure reaches 7.7 million people.
Indonesia
Conservation goes forward in Indonesia
According to the Guardian a million hectares – 10,000 square kilometers – of rainforests in Indonesia should be conserved thanks to plans by Asian Pulp and Paper, one of the world’s biggest paper companies. While this sounds nice, green groups such as Greenpeace said it won’t stop loggers from deforesting the area. An explanation of this is that the company didn’t … Read more
Major company to stop deforestating Indonesia
To the Agence France Presse : ” The world’s third-largest paper producer Asia Pulp and Paper said Tuesday it had stopped using logs from Indonesia’s natural forests, after fierce campaigning by green groups against the company.”
” The firm has in recent years lost packaging contracts with big brands such as foodmaker Kraft and Barbie’s Mattel after Greenpeace accused APP of clearing carbon-rich forest, home to endangered Sumatran tigers and orangutans. “
These are truly good news. We have seen time and again that deforestation in Brazil is at its lowest levels in decades and keep on decreasing.
14 carbon bombs to defuse before 2020
Greenpeace has released an interesting report on fourteen projects that could increase greenhouse gases emissions by 20 percent by 2020. This would lead to an increase of temperatures by five or six degrees Celcius.
The largest threats are China and Australia as they plan to increase their coal productions. This is particularly ironic as Climate Progress report that these two countries are particularly hit hard by climate change and air pollution.
I hope we will be able to defuse all of these 14 bombs before they blow us all up. In today’s article we will have a look at them and how we can defuse them.
Are our cities just too big to flood ?
This was the question asked on the the Yale Environment 360 blog and I believe the timing is perfect as last year cities such as New York City, Manila and Bangkok got it by record floods. Now it is the turn of Jakarta.
The capital megacity of Indonesia now has water in its streets and people to evacuate because of another flood. Given that rising temperatures mean rising sea levels and more extreme weather, the threat is huge.
First in terms of people – as the majority of people will live in cities in 2050 and as 14 of the world’s 17 largest cities are located along coasts.
The huge global potential of geothermal
Here is another renewable energy we little hear about… According to a new publication from the IEA, geothermal could provide about 3.5% of annual global electricity production, 3.9% of energy for heat by 2050. As the press release notes : ” there is potential to achieve at least a tenfold increase in the global production … Read more
Indonesia to invest massively in volcano power
To the AFP : “Indonesia has launched an ambitious plan to tap the vast power of its volcanoes and become a world leader in geothermal energy, while trimming greenhouse gas emissions.”
“The sprawling archipelago of 17,000 islands stretching from the Indian to the Pacific Oceans contains hundreds of volcanoes, estimated to hold around 40 percent of the world’s geothermal energy potential.“
“The government’s aim to add 4,000 megawatts of geothermal capacity from the existing 1,189 megawatts by 2014 is truly challenging,” Indonesian Geothermal Association chief Surya Darma said.”
A great infographic on biodiversity loss
Biodiversity is a vital issue to us all as to the United Nations the disappearance of both fauna and floral species costs six percent of the world GDP, or more than $3,100 billion (2,000 billion euros) per year.
The Mother Nature Network published recently a splendid infographic with the Top 20 countries with most endangered species. The list is as impressive as it is truly scary.
This is another issue to be tackled fast as even if “only” 900 species disappeared over five centuries, we are currently on the verge of losing 10,000 in a short period of time.
Brazil and Indonesia committed to slow down deforestation
The year is beginning with many good news. After the huge wind energy plan in the UK, another good sign that climate change mitigation slowly but surely surfaces as a key preoccupation at a global scale.
Indeed the Brazilian goverment signed a National Policy on Climate Change bill which is due to help the country cut its emissions by 39 percent by 2020 from a business as usual scenario. (cf. my previous post on that topic)
On the other side of the Planet, Indonesia is also willing to act on deforestation and start reforesting. Both countries need the help of developed nations to reach their ambitious objectives.
Saving rainforests with the UN-REDD program
While in the train going to Paris to attend the Green Job forum I read an interesting article on how banking on trees could enable us to fight off climate change and give money to enable developing nations to protect their forests.
The United Nations REDD program – Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries – may enable us to do just that by financing the protection of existing rainforests.
Time Magazine investigated in Indonesia’s Aceh province as the country is the third greenhouse gases emitter behind China and the United States because of its massive deforestation.
Developing nations to cut emissions
India, the most populated nation and largest democracy announced it would cut its greenhouse gases emissions by 20 to 25 percent by 2020 or 2030. As you can see, the targets are very wide. This happens as China decided to cuts the carbon intensity of its growth by 40 to 45 percent by 2020. CleanTechies … Read more
The Billion Tree Campaign is a huge success
The UNEP Billion Tree Campaign‘s goal was to plant seven billion trees before the Copenhagen meeting in December. To today’s news the goal was reached as China planted 2.6 billion trees to support the campaign.
This shows at least two things : when China starts on something, it is unstoppable. The country’s efforts on climate change mitigation and pollution reduction are each day bigger.
Second message : people around the world are more than willing to mitigate climate change. This is an important message for our representatives meeting this week in New York.