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16 win UN ClimateSolutions Award

December 11, 2015 Webmaster

A solar panel on a thatch roof in Sub-saharan Africa is part of the Azuri PayGo Energy project, which provides eight hours of emission-free lighting each day and enough power to charge cellphones. Users pay a one-time installation fee and top-up as their needs demand.

PARIS, France (UNFCCC) – Sixteen game-changing initiatives from around the world were honoured as winners of a prestigious United Nations climate change award at a special ceremony at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, on yesterday evening.

“These ‘Lighthouse Activities’ shine a light on the groundswell of climate action around the world,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a keynote address. “As the world moves toward a future built on low-emissions sustainable development, these bold ideas can inspire leaders to be more ambitious in their own policies and actions.”

The Momentum for Change initiative is spearheaded by the UN Climate Change Secretariat to shine a light on some of the most innovative, scalable and replicable examples of what people are doing to address climate change. This year’s winning activities range from a seriously cool smartphone that puts social values first, to an initiative that is enabling 40 Latin American cities to take concrete climate action.

“I am honoured to celebrate the leadership shown by the people, organisations, companies, and governments recognised as winners of the 2015 Momentum for Change Awards tonight,” UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres said.

“By showcasing these remarkable solutions and the people behind them we can strengthen efforts that must not only start with an agreement here in Paris, but must continue to build, as we accelerate the global transition to a low-carbon, highly resilient development path,” she said.

To help celebrate and recognise the achievements of the 2015 Lighthouse Activities, attendees at the gala event were treated to powerful photos, inspirational videos and a lively musical performance by Sean Paul.

M Sanjayan, a conservation scientist, writer and Emmy-nominated television news contributor, introduced Conservation International’s newest video in its critically acclaimed Nature for Speaking series, titled Home. Bertrand Piccard, Solar Impulse CEO and UNEP Goodwill Ambassador, served as the evening’s master of ceremonies.

“Modern clean technologies have transformed the expensive problem of climate change into a profitable opportunity,” said Dr Piccard. “A global economy that is powered by renewable energy, implements energy efficient and minimises waste will not only tackle climate change, but will also generate health, job creation and profit in the communities where they take place.”

Each of the 16 winning activities touches on one of Momentum for Change’s four focus areas: Urban Poor, Women for Results, Financing for Climate Friendly Investment, and ICT Solutions. All 16 were showcased at a series of special events during the UN Climate Change Conference.

They are:

Urban Poor

•E-waste: From Toxic to Green, India: Creating jobs to keep e-waste out of landfills

•Solvatten Solar Safe Water Heater — Kenya: Reducing emissions while securing access to safe drinking water

•Emerging and Sustainable Cities Initiative | Latin America & the Caribbean: Supporting sustainable growth in emerging cities

Women for Results

•Fostering Cleaner Production — Colombia: Reducing emissions in manufacturing

•Harvesting Geothermal Energy — El Salvador: Generating income with geothermal waste-heat

•Planting Trees to Save the Mangrove — Guinea: Establishing women-led groups that protect forests and generate income

•SELF’s Solar Market Gardens — Benin: Empowering women farmers through solar drip irrigation

Financing for Climate Friendly Investment

•Azuri PayGo Energy — Africa: Innovating pay-as-you-go energy systems for rural homes

•Deforestation-free Cocoa — Peru: Using a carbon-asset-backed loan to protect forests and produce cocoa

•Microsoft Global Carbon Fee — Global: Transforming corporate culture by putting a price on carbon

ICT Solutions

•ChargePoint Electric Vehicle Charging Corridors — United States of America: Building a network of electric vehicle express charging stations

•Enabling Farmers to Adapt to Climate Change — Uganda: Using ICT solutions to build resilience

•Fairphone — The Netherlands: Producing a phone that improves lives and the environment

•Lifelink Water Solutions — Kenya and Uganda: Using ICT tools to provide safe, sustainable and affordable water

•Mapping Exposure to Sea Level Rise — Tonga, Samoa, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea: Preparing for risk with online spatial tools

•Mobisol Smart Solar Homes — Rwanda and Tanzania: Powering homes with solar energy

The 2015 Lighthouse Activities were selected by an international advisory panel as part of the secretariat’s Momentum for Change initiative, which is implemented with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation, and operates in partnership with the World Economic Forum and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative.

Jamaica Observer

Climate Change Government

Caribbean Negotiators Dig In As Paris Talks Near Close

December 10, 2015 Webmaster

WITH ONLY two days to go before the official end to the climate talks here, Caribbean negotiators are working feverishly to safeguard the region’s interest in the final outcome document.

That document – referred to as ‘the text’ throughout the negotiating process – is widely expected to inform the global response to climate change.

“All of the Caribbean issues are still alive, which is a good thing … . We haven’t lost anything in the text,” said head of the CARICOM Task Force on Climate Change Dr James Fletcher.

But, he cautioned: “We haven’t sealed the deal on too many things. What has happened is that the COP [Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change] president (Laurent Fabius) has put out the latest version of the text.”

“It is a shortened version … but we are still not anywhere near a final text because there are so many options still on the table,” explained Fletcher, who is also St Lucia’s minister of sustainable development, energy, science, and technology.

He was speaking to The Gleaner following the 3 p.m. release of the latest text yesterday, which reflects the current state of play of the negotiations on issues such as adaptation, loss and damage, finance, technology, and mitigation.

The options the minister referred to are the so-called ‘bracketed text’, on which no consensus has been reached among countries. Until they are agreed, the brackets cannot be removed and there can be no final document.

Areas Of Interest

Among the Caribbean’s particular areas of interest are loss and damage; 1.5 degrees Celsius as the target for a cap on greenhouse gas emission increases; and additional, predictable, and adequate financing.

“What has been happening since that draft text was distributed is that the various groups have been meeting to review the text to identify where there are possible areas of compromise, where there are significant red lines [points of no return] and issues that they cannot live with,” he said.

Once those groups – including the Alliance of Small Island States of which CARICOM countries form a part – come back, the process will move forward with a meeting of all countries, as they attempt to reach consensus on a final document.

A Mountain To Climb

In commenting on the work it would take to get there, one of Jamaica’s senior negotiators, Jeffrey Spooner, said: “It is not a hill but a mountain that we have to climb.

“And we all have to climb it, in the interest of the planet for the next generation,” he added.

Meanwhile, Spooner said there was no question of the Caribbean pressing home what it needs in order to ensure its survival in the face of climate impacts, including sea-level rise, coastal erosion, droughts, stronger hurricanes, among other things.

“By tomorrow [today], we will know exactly where we stand and, of course, we will still press for our concerns. ‘1.5 to Stay Alive’ and loss and damage – these are two important items for us,” he said.

Fletcher agreed.

“By and large, all of our issues are on the table, and that is a good thing. What has to happen now is that we have to fight to ensure that not only do they remain on the table, but that they are reflected in the final text … “.

The Gleaner

Climate Change Government News

Jamaica Eyes Debt Swap For Climate-Change Adaptation

December 10, 2015 Webmaster

A group of youths protest along a walkway of the Paris climate talks venue yesterday.

Jamaica is looking to take a page from Seychelles’ book, following that country’s recent debt restructuring for climate-change adaptation with a number of its creditors, announced here on Monday.

“We have expressed our interest in pursuing another debt-swap arrangement with our funders, and this time, we are looking at it in relation to climate-change adaptation and mitigation,” revealed Col Oral Khan, chief technical director in the Ministry of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change.

“We have had experience with debt swaps in the past, where we were able to use funds that would have gone to debt repayment to invest in our forests and also to help community groups and NGOs which had projects that could advance the environment,” he added.

That previous arrangement financed the work of the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica, through an agreement between the governments of Jamaica and the United States. It was designed to foster natural resources conservation and child development locally.

So far, Khan said, the signs are encouraging for the island, which has grappled with a heavy debt burden, while counted among those most vulnerable to climate-change impacts.

These impacts include increased temperatures, sea-level rise and extreme weather events, notably droughts and intense storms.

“Now we are hoping we can apply some of our debt-service payments to our adaptation and mitigation, and we find that some of the lenders are warming to the idea,” he told The Gleaner.

“Yesterday (Monday), the Republic of the Seychelles launched the first debt-swap arrangement in relation to climate-change adaptation and mitigation, and we were there to endorse and to express our own interest in similar types of debt swaps,” Khan added.

DISCUSSIONS UNDER WAY

Already, he said, discussions involving his ministry and the Ministry of Finance and Planning were under way on the matter.

“We are going to push ahead now that we know there is a warm response to this. We need to be able to put more funds into adaptation, but because we have to spend so much money on debt repayment, then the funds left for development and for adaptation are curtailed,” Khan remarked.

The size of Jamaica’s debt stands at some J$2 trillion, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 130 per cent.

Meanwhile, the chief technical director, who is a member of the Jamaica delegation to the Paris talks, indicated that he anticipated very little difficulty in making the debt swap a reality for the country.

“We have a framework in place already. That would make it fairly easy for us. We know what we want and what would go into this type of arrangement. It would just be to engage the financiers now,” he said.

The Seychelles arrangement – undertaken with creditors from The Paris Club and the South African government – makes “the cash flow from the restructured debt … payable to, and managed by, an independent, nationally based, public-private trust fund called the Seychelles Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust (SeyCCAT),”according to an article from blueandgreentomorrow.com.

“Debt-service payments fund three distinct streams: one for work on the ground that will help reduce risk through improved management of coasts, coral reefs, and mangroves, another to repay impact investors, and a third to capitalise SeyCCAT’s endowment,” it added.

The Gleaner

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Coalition urges action to phase out fossil fuel subsidies

December 7, 2015 Webmaster

Members of the Jamaican delegation to COP21 at the Wider Caribbean Pavilion (from left) Ambassador Sheila Sealy Monteith, under secretary for the Multilateral Affairs Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade; Vilma McNeish, ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium and the European Union; Senator Arnold J Nicholson, minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade; Dr Orville Grey, senior technical officer in the Ministry of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change; and Jeffrey Spooner, head of the Meteorological Service of Jamaica.

PARIS, France — An unprecedented coalition of close to 40 governments, hundreds of businesses and influential international organisations have called for accelerated action to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, a move that would help bridge the gap to keep global temperature rise below 2°C and perhaps close to the 1.5°C for which Caricom and other Small Island Developing States are advocating.

On the opening day of the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP21) last week, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key formally presented the Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform Communiqué to Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), on behalf of the Friends of Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform, The Prince of Wales Corporate Leaders Group and other supporters of the communiqué.

The communiqué calls on the international community to increase efforts to phase out perverse subsidies to fossil fuels by promoting policy transparency, ambitious reform and targeted support for the poorest.

Governments spend over $500 billion of public resources a year to keep domestic prices for oil, gas and coal artificially low. Removing fossil fuel subsidies would reduce greenhouse gas emission by 10 per cent by 2050. It would also free up resources to invest in social and physical capital like education, healthcare and infrastructure, while levelling the playing field for renewable energy.

“Fossil fuel subsidy reform is the missing piece of the climate change puzzle,” Prime Minister Key said. “It’s estimated that more than a third of global carbon emissions, between 1980 and 2010, were driven by fossil fuel subsidies. Their elimination would represent one-seventh of the effort needed to achieve our target of ensuring global temperatures do not rise by more than 2°C. As with any subsidy reform, change will take courage and strong political will, but with oil prices at record lows and the global focus on a low carbon future, the timing for this reform has never been better.”

In accepting the communiqué, Figueres said: “These subsidies contribute to the inefficient use of fossil fuels, undermine the development of energy efficient technologies, act as a drag on clean, green energy deployment and in many developing countries do little to assist the poorest of the poor in the first place.

“The huge sums involved globally could be better spent on schools, health care, renewable energies and building resilient societies. The current, very low oil prices are a good opportunity to really get going on this issue.”

Chair of The Prince of Wales Corporate Leaders Group (CLG) and former president of Alstom Power, Philippe Joubert, also spoke last Monday.

“The CLG’s long-standing efforts to put a price on carbon, including most recently working with the World Bank through the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, will soon deliver results. It doesn’t make sense that, at the same time, governments artificially deflate the cost of coal, oil and gas, the primary cause of GHG emissions. Fossil fuel subsidies must be ended to stop this contradiction and enhance a real transition to low carbon energy,” he said.

For the OECD’s part, Secretary-General Angel Gurría commented that countries need to demonstrate their seriousness about combating climate change with concrete actions and policies.

“Reforming harmful fossil-fuel support is a good place to start,” Gurría stressed.

Close to 40 countries have endorsed the Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform Communiqué, including Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, The Netherlands, The Philippines, Samoa, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uganda, and Uruguay.

The communiqué is supported by The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group (23 global companies employing two million people worldwide with combined revenues exceeding US$170 billion) and other business organisations working with thousands of corporations and investors, including The B Team, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the We Mean Business coalition.

The communiqué has also been endorsed by influential international organisations, including the International Energy Agency, the OECD and the World Bank.

Eliminating fossil fuel subsidies can accelerate the economic shift needed to tackle climate change and remove one of the obstacles to delivering the low-carbon future for which COP21 is aiming.

“History will prove fossil fuel to be a dead end,” Stefan Löfven, prime minister of Sweden, said. “Sweden will be amongst the first fossil-free welfare nations of the world. And eliminating fossil fuel subsidies is an important step on this path.”

Hakima El Haite, Morocco’s environment minister and candidate for the presidency of COP22, added: “Not only do fossil fuel subsidies put a strain on government coffers but they also don’t help the poorest of society.”

COP21 began on November 30 and will run until Friday, December 11.

Jamaica Observer

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1.5 Degrees Celsius Remains In Play At Paris Climate Talks

December 7, 2015 Webmaster

After a week of deliberations at the United Nations climate talks in Paris, 1.5 degrees Celsius as a possible target for holding the increase in global temperatures – crucial for islands like Jamaica and others of the Caribbean – remains in play.

“Parties hereby establish the global goal of enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience, and reducing vulnerability to climate change, [in accordance with the objective, principles and provisions of the Convention, including common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities,] with a view to [contributing to sustainable development] [and] [ensuring adaptation in the context of the goal of holding the increase in the global average temperature [below 2 degC][below [2 or] 1.5 degC] referred to in Article 2],” reads a section of the draft text on outcomes from the deliberations.

However, as evidenced by the brackets, nothing is settled as country heads and ministers come in this week to take over the negotiations from their technical experts.

Still, Caribbean islands, as others forming the Alliance of Small Island States, would have been pleased with the retention of the 1.5 target as an option – one that will necessitate significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions if it is to be realised.

Only two weeks ago, head of the CARICOM Task Force on Climate Change Dr James Fletcher reinforced how critical the target is.

“The conversation has been about 28 Celsius, and we have said that two degrees cannot work for us.

“With 28 Celsius, we will have major ecosystem collapse in many of our countries,” said Fletcher, who is also St Lucia’s minister of sustainable development, energy, science, and technology.

“You will have extinction of some of the biodiversity that is so rich – both marine and terrestrial biodiversity – that makes us who we are. Two degrees Celsius will unleash major diseases on us, will cause our coastal defences to be majorly challenged,” he added.

He was speaking on November 26 at the announcement of the winner of that island’s ‘Media Climate Change Challenge’, which was won by journalist Alison Kentish of Helen Television System.

Challenges Negotiations

Meanwhile, the past week of negotiations has not been without challenges.

“OPEC countries Saudi Arabia and Venezuela stood out for their extensive efforts to derail the process in the first week, including blocking the vital symbol of human rights and ambition in the agreement, the 1.5 degree goal, as well as throwing up roadblocks around the definition of terms such as decarbonisation, carbon neutrality, and zero carbon,” read a release from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, a United Kingdom-based non-profit, which has been following the progress of the talks.

“Also, despite a week of big announcements on renewables from Bill Gates, India’s Solar Alliance, Google, and more, Saudi Arabia have also questioned 100 per cent renewables as being a ‘slogan’ rather than as means to achieving the objectives of the conference,” it added.

Alongside the negotiations has been the ongoing “1.5 To Stay Alive” campaign launched in October in the Caribbean. It is the collaborative efforts of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, Panos Caribbean, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, the Caribbean Development Bank, and the Regional Council of Martinique.

The goal of the campaign is to bolster the Caribbean negotiating positions, including its effort towards securing the 1.58 Celsius target, given current climate impacts being experienced in the region.

These include sea-level rise, coastal erosion, and warmer days and nights.

The campaign, which has been gaining momentum, has so far seen ‘the launch of its Facebook page (www.1point5. info) and Twitter account (@1point5OK)

The Gleaner

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Financially Speaking | Jamaica’s Spectacular LNG Record

December 7, 2015 Webmaster

Lest we forget, Jamaica has been trying to strike deals to migrate to liquefied natural gas (LNG), and failing at it spectacularly, for well over a decade.

It all began four prime ministers ago, when Percival James Patterson was in charge and sought to broker a deal with his counterpart, Patrick Manning, in Trinidad in 2001. And we knew Patterson was serious about the issue, because that time he did not form a committee around it.

Still, it didn’t end well. Trinidad began to waffle – after all, it could get better prices for its fossil elsewhere. Jamaica wanted concessionary pricing for a yearly 1.1 million tonnes of natural gas as a family member in Caricom, but Trinidad was in favour of the hub. Business, after all, is business.

Patterson even put a dedicated man in charge of the LNG programme. That didn’t help. And since then, almost every effort at adding gas to the energy mix has coagulated. You know you have a problem when international headlines pop up asking, ‘Is Jamaica’s Energy Cursed?’

To recap, the actors in Jamaica’s LNG serialised melodrama have included Anthony Hylton, James Robertson, Clive Mullings, Christopher Zacca, Phillip Paulwell, Kelly Tomblin, Exmar, Caribbean LNG, Azurest, Energy World International, Jamaica Public Service Company and now Abengoa SA. Perhaps the only clairvoyant in the mix was Mullings, who, back in 2008, began touting coal as a more practical choice for diluting the viscosity of oil on Jamaica’s balance of payments, given the vagaries of supply in the LNG market.

Not everyone loved the idea. The thought of coal was a bit dirty, and risky, but it wasn’t entirely dismissed. Fracking has now changed that dynamic somewhat.

In 2014, some 13 years since the Patterson-Manning bro-pact and a decade after the more formalised LNG heads of agreement, ESET emerged as the latest reset when current Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller reached out to an old and trusted ally of Patterson’s – Dr Vincent ‘Head of Kitchen Cabinet’ Lawrence – to bring an end to the confusion that had become Jamaica’s energy policy.

Being a glutton for punishment, Jamaica held on to its LNG ambitions, but also opened up to proposals for coal, compressed gas, and natural liquid gases such as ethane and propane.

Blame it on the cosmos

But even the doc, despite the heavenly moniker that had been bestowed on him in the past, has been no match for the supremacy of Murphy’s law, or whatever it is in the cosmos that appears to want Jamaica to stay wedded to crude. First, the American Ethane/UC Rusal arrangement fell apart – which Lawrence insisted would not derail the 2018 schedule to begin cutting electricity prices – and now there is Abengoa.

Right about now, JPS boss Kelly Tomblin likely has fingers crossed, hoping that New Fortress Energy won’t throw up any surprises; that the arrangement with the American company to supply gas to JPS’ Montego Bay plant will – please, oh please – go right.

General Electric is currently retrofitting Bogue for LNG – a US$22.54-million project that seems to escaped the curse – and Fortress Energy is to start delivering gas by mid-2016. The final terms of the Fortress engagement are now being negotiated.

Before the LNG project was revised from a 360MW single project and split into bite-size pieces under ESET, JPS itself had tried to take on the task under a US$600-million plan that went nowhere. The power utility was said to have a financing revolver lined up but could not secure the gas supplies at the right price.

Under the reset, JPS has two projects to execute – the 120MW Bogue project in Montego Bay for which it has contracted New Fortress, and the 190MW project in Old Harbour Bay. For the latter, JPS reportedly got several bids but chose Abengoa SA, which just days later filed for bankruptcy protection to restructure billions of debt.

Somebody hadn’t done their homework. One would have thought that JPS’s foreign parents Korea East West Power Company and Marubeni – both of which operate in the energy field – would have the temperature of another big energy player. But it appears that they, and the JPS consultants, did not.

Still, Tomblin and team appear to have other options were Abengoa to falter. The Spanish company has four months to right the ship, a timetable that collides with JPS’, which wants to start site prep for the Old Harbour plant by March in order to keep its 2018 commitment. Right about now, JPS is probably reinvestigating the other bidders, hopefully using a different set of consultants than the ones who delivered up the embarrassment of Abengoa.

Old Harbour is an important project for Tomblin, who wants her legacy at the Jamaican utility to be one of transformation. She got a Jamaican power generator and distributor to run, but she wants to leave it as a ‘gas and electric utility’ with a role in developing a regional gas supply hub for the Caribbean market. Old Harbour would be the fulcrum, assuming it gets built.

With Bogue and Old Harbour in play, around a third of base load capacity would be fired by gas, a cleaner and, as important, cheaper fuel source that will allow JPS to produce and supply electricity to the grid at a price below 13 US cents per kilowatt-hour, and knock 1.2 million barrels of oil off the country’s annual orders of crude.

Still, Murphy’s law is tenacious, which means that all Jamaica can do is pray that the stars will finally align in its favour and that the energy gods are in affinity with Vin.

The Gleaner

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OPEC Keeps Oil Production At Current High Level

December 7, 2015 Webmaster

Nigeria’s Minister of State for petroleum resources and President of the OPEC conference Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu (left), and OPEC’s secretary general Abdalla Salem El-Badri of Libya attend a news conference after a meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, at their headquarters in Vienna, Austria, Friday, December 4, 2015.

OPEC nations decided on Friday to keep producing oil at their current high levels, effectively acknowledging their inability to push up crude prices.

An attempt to nudge the cost of oil higher would have involved lowering output. Instead, the organisation’s endorsement of present output, which is more than 1.5 million barrels a day above the formal ceiling of 30 million barrels, is likely to push the price of oil down further.

The ministers of the Organis-ation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries appeared to have little choice. Major producing nations in the cartel were opposed to reducing output. Instead, OPEC is poised to produce more oil.

Iran, which once pumped around four million barrels a day and is now down to about half that, is preparing to come back fully on line once it sheds nuclear-related sanctions in a few months.

Senior oil official Amir Hossein Zamaninia said last week Iran hopes to bring an extra 500,000 barrels on the market by early next year. He said he hopes the extra output will be accommodated within OPEC’s formal ceiling of 30 million barrels a day.

Arriving for Friday’s meeting, Iranian oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Iran is ready to discuss a ceiling for its production but only after his country makes a “full return to the market.”

Iraq is also resurgent. The country has seen the fastest rise in crude production in the world this year. It was pumping more than 4 million barrels a day last month and was responsible for last month’s biggest monthly rise in output among all OPEC countries.

And the ministers agreed to readmit past member Indonesia, to expand their ranks to 13. While that country’s production goes mostly for domestic consumption, that move could also add some to the total amount of OPEC barrels on sale.

A final statement on the meeting was unusual in not mentioning any decision on production ceilings. But conference president Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu told reporters that there was agreement to maintain “current actual production”, which is well above the formal ceiling set at 30 million barrels a day.

Friday’s news pushed oil prices down, with the US benchmark rate sliding 2.7 per cent on the day to US$39.99.

The decision effectively leaves it up to individual members how much crude to pump and was a strong signal of OPEC’s eroding ability to act as a group in efforts to influence supply, demand and prices.

Kachikwu acknowledged as much, telling reporters asking about Iran’s return: “At the end of the day every country has a sovereign right to bring to the marketplace its resources.”

“The logic is simple,” he said, of OPEC’s present clout in a market where non-members such as Russia and U.S. shale producers play an increasingly large role. “We are only 35 per cent of the producers and there are still 65 per cent out there.”

Some OPEC members are producing at their limit and like at previous meetings, the pressure was on swing-producer Saudi Arabia, which accounts for about a third of OPEC’s output, to cut back. But the desert kingdom remained opposed.

The Saudis already resisted cutbacks a year ago, a strategy calculated to put higher-cost outside competitors like United States shale oil producers out of business. The hope was that would eventually lead to a drop in supply and a rebound in prices.

That plan clearly hasn’t worked, with benchmark US crude’s value falling by more than 40 per cent over the past year and now hovering around the US$40 mark per barrel.

Cushioned by past profits on oil, the Saudis can hold out, even if production costs exceed sale revenues. Not so much some others.

Kachikwu, the conference president who also represented Nigeria at the meeting, acknowledged that continued low prices will hurt his country.

“There will be pain,” he said.

The Gleaner

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Bill Gates joins with Mark Zuckerberg and other top investors for urgent global action on climate change

December 4, 2015 Webmaster

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Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft [Image source: On Innovation.com, via Flickr]

On the opening day of the COP21 global climate change meeting in Paris, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have announced they have joined together with other private investors to help fight climate change by investing in renewable energy. The Breakthrough Energy Coalition will provide financial support to companies that take clean energy innovations out of the laboratory and commercialize them, the main idea being to accelerate progress on clean energy development.

“The world is going to be using 50 percent more energy by mid-century than it does today” said Mr Gates on his gatesnotes blog. “That should be good news, especially for the world’s poorest, because right now more than 1 billion people live without access to basic energy services. Affordable and reliable energy makes it easier for them to grow more food, run schools and hospitals and businesses, have refrigerators at home, and take advantage of all the things that make up modern life. Low- and middle-income countries need energy to develop their economies and help more people escape poverty. But the world’s growing demand for energy is also a big problem, because most of that energy comes from hydrocarbons, which emit greenhouse gases and drive climate change. So we need to move to sources of energy that are affordable and reliable, and don’t produce any carbon.”

Mr Gates added that although current renewable energy technologies, like wind and solar, have made a lot of progress and could be one path to a zero-carbon energy future, given the scale of the challenge, the world needs to be exploring many different paths, and that means it also needs to invent new approaches. These energy breakthroughs will be made by private companies, but their work will rely on the kind of basic research that only governments can fund.

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Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook [Image source: Jason McELweenie, Flickr]

Ways in which to promote clean energy innovation

Earlier in the year, Mr Gates set out on his blog three important ways in which to promote clean energy innovation – incentives, markets and treating poorer countries fairly.

The first of these involves governments drastically increasing their funding for research on clean energy solutions. At present, only a few billion dollars are spent per year on researching early-stage ideas for zero-carbon energy, when really, the world should be spending two to three times as much. Gates said that governments should be doing this for the public good and that the benefits of doing so are “far greater than the amount that the inventor can capture.” Expanded government support for energy research will also lead to more private investment. Gates has invested in companies developing new batteries and other energy storage solutions and also companies developing advances in solar power technology. However, governments need to act quickly on this because these energy transitions are time-intensive.

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Windmill Sunset [Image source: Max and Dee Bernt, Flickr]

The second important step is to ensure that energy prices reflect the full impact of emitting carbon. At present, the market does not factor in ‘negative externalities’ – the costs to health and the damage to the environment caused by greenhouse gas emissions. If these costs are reflected in the price, renewable energy will become more competitive with fossil fuels and that in turn will attract more investors to the market. Governments should support this process by creating incentives to develop new solutions while also ensuring certainty in the market so that energy companies can plan ahead and enact the transition to zero-carbon energy.

The third step is to recognize that, at this late stage when climate change is already starting to have disastrous effects on the world, it will continue to hit the poorest people in the world hardest. This means that those countries that have done most to create this problem should spend the most to invest in mitigation and help poorer countries to adapt. The Gates Foundation is now doing this by helping small farmers in poorer countries to adjust to hotter and more unpredictable weather by increasing productivity.

The Breakthrough Coalition

The Breakthrough Coalition consists of some of the world’s top investors who have joined together in the understanding that technology will help to solve the world’s current energy issues, particularly the urgent issue of climate change. This requires an aggressive and urgent global program of zero-emission energy innovation based on a model of public-private partnership between governments, research institutions, and investors. It will involve large funding commitments with a key role being played by governments, with aggressive increases in funding for basic and applied energy research. Current levels of government funding are insufficient.

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The coalition is focused on the creation of a network of private capital intended to drive forward the transition to an advanced energy future. It is doing this by concentrating on providing investment for early stage companies, involving early investment through seed, angel and Series A investments, with commercial capital expected to take over in the later stages once the investments are de-risked. It will invest in a number of sectors, including electricity generation and storage, transportation, industry, agriculture and energy efficiency. The aim is to boost the development of novel technologies and innovations that make existing technologies more efficient, scalable or help to reduce costs. Given that most of these innovations will come through government research pipelines, the coalition has decided to focus its investments on countries participating in the Mission Innovation international initiative.

Mission Innovation

Mission Innovation was also launched on the opening day of COP21. It consists of a commitment by20 countries to invest in clean energy research and its aim is to “reinvigorate and accelerate global clean energy innovation with the objective to make clean energy widely affordable.” The initiative will seek to double government funding for clean energy innovation in each of its member states

The Breakthrough Coalition consists of:

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft; Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook, and Dr Priscilla Chan; Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries (India); John Arnold, co-chair of the Laura and John Arnold Foundation; Marc Benioff, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com; Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO, Amazon; HRH Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Alwaleed Philanthropies, Saudi Arabia; Richard Branson, Founder of the Virgin Group; Ray Dalio, Founder, Bridgewater Associates; Aliko Dangote, Founder and Chief Executive, Dangote Group, Nigeria; John Doerr, General Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, United States; Reid Hoffman, Founder, LinkedIn and Partner, Greylock, United States; Chris Hohn, Founder, The Children’s Investment Fund, UK; Vinod Khosla, Founder, Khosla Ventures, United States; Jack Ma, Executive Chairman, Alibaba Group, China; Patrice Motsepe, Founder and Executive Chairman, African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), South Africa; Xavier Niel, Founder, Iliad Group, France; Hasso Plattner, Co-founder and Chairman, SAP, Germany; Julian Robertson, Founder and Chairman, Tiger Management, United States; Neil Shen, Founding Managing Partner, Sequoia Capital China, China; Nat Simons and Laura Baxter-Simons, Co-founders, Prelude Ventures, United States; Masayoshi Son, Founder, Chairman and CEO, SoftBank Group Corp., Japan; George Soros, Chairman, Soros Fund Management LLC, United States; Tom Steyr, Businessman, Philanthropist, and President, NextGen Climate, United States, Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus, Tata Sons, India; Meg Whitman, CEO, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, United States; Zhang Xin and Pan Shiyi Co-founder and CEO, SOHO China, Chairman, SOHO China; and finally, the University of California (UCLA).

The Mission Innovation initiative consists of:

Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the United States.

Interesting Engineering

Climate Change Confrence Government News

Patterson calls for political awareness of climate change issues

December 4, 2015 Webmaster

PATTERSON… we have great cause to be concerned about the effects of climate change

NASSAU, Bahamas (CMC) — Former Jamaican Prime Minister P J Patterson says there is need for strong political awareness of the relevant issues related climate change and disaster risk considerations.

Patterson, who spoke at the opening of the 9th Caribbean Conference on Comprehensive Disaster Management earlier this week, encouraged politicians to foster close collaboration with regional agencies with mandates regarding climate change.

“Political awareness and support are key in order to ensure full support at the highest level of Governments for appropriate allocation of national funds to address these issues.

According to Patterson, the region is fully aware of the challenges linked to climate change, as faced by small island developing states .

“Our regional Heads of Government and our people are well-acquainted, many of us through adverse experiences, with the challenges our countries face as small island developing states in a highly hazard prone region of the world. At times, it seems that the rich natural endowments with which we have been blessed are borne by curses that serve to impede our advancement.”

The former prime minister stressed the importance of a “consolidated approach and collective action to protect our environment to avert disasters where we can, or at least, to mitigate their effects, and at the same time, to spur sustainable development”.

He added that the region’s approach to the achievement of sustainable development globally, regionally and nationally must be through integrated efforts to achieve resilience.

“The building of a resilient nation has to begin and proceed on the base of community resilience. We can learn a great deal from the Cuban model, which has been tested and proven.”

Concerning national policies, Patterson said climate change measures must be integrated.

“This must resonate with us in the Caribbean. We have great cause to be concerned about the effects of climate change; rising sea levels which threaten our coastal developments, and devastate our agricultural production; more severe tropical storms which can eradicate years of hard work in a few short hours; and proliferation of tropical diseases.”

He added that the disasters constitute a “clear and present danger to our lives and well being. It could wipe out the tourism product entirely and destroy all our prospects for economic growth”.

In making reference to the Paris conference, Patterson said the outcome is very important to the region “as we are disproportionately vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The countries represented here are in the main small island states. While we fall within the same category of landlocked and developed countries which are also most disadvantaged, I believe the Caribbean and the small Pacific Islands should be singled out for very special and urgent attention by the Developed World and the International Institutions as is now the accepted case for Africa.”

Patterson, at the same time, said officials need to broaden their outreach for the next conference to include, possibly as associates in the first instance, all nations which are part of the geographic space — Guadeloupe, Martinique, Curacao, St Maarten, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

“Natural disasters, when they come, do not seem to respect national borders. They spread their fury, regardless of flags. In avoiding, moderating and responding to disasters, we need a more inclusive approach to secure the best deployment of personnel, technology and equipment,” he said.

The Observer

Alternative Energy Climate Change Government News

US to fund climate risk insurance coverage

December 4, 2015 Webmaster

United States Flag

THE US yesterday announced that it will be contributing $30 million to climate risk insurance initiatives in the Pacific, Central America, and Africa to help small island nations respond to severe climate-related impacts.

At a meeting with leaders of small island nations in the three regions, President Barack Obama said the move was part of a broader set of actions to help vulnerable populations strengthen their climate resilience, from providing climate data, tools and services, to incorporating climate resilience considerations into development assistance.

“The announcement is an important step toward the goal G-7 leaders set this summer to increase by up to 400 million the number of people in the most vulnerable developing countries who will have access to insurance against the negative impact of climate change hazards by 2020,” the WHite House said in a statement to the press yesterday.

The funds will support insurance initiatives under the Pacific Catastrophic Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative, expand the Caribbean Catastrophic Risk Insurance Facility to include Central American countries, and support the African Risk Capacity programme.

The Observer

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