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Politicians must be more aware of climate change impact, says UWI professor

November 23, 2016 Webmaster

Professor Emeritus Anthony Chen, advocate in renewable energy mitigation and founder of the Climate Studies Group at The University of the West Indies, explains the environmental and health hazards that the proposed coal fire plant in St Elizabeth would create. (Photos: Naphtali Junior)

FOUNDER of the Climate Studies Group at the University of the West Indies (The UWI), Professor Anthony Chen, says the unawareness among politicians about the impact of climate change on small island states such as Jamaica is contributing to a lack of sustainability of mitigation efforts.

“We are not going to solve the problem until we get the political directorate involved (and) committed, and that requires awareness. Most of us are not really aware of the full implications of climate change… I think we need to make the politicians much more aware,” Chen said, pointing to the two per cent growth in the economy over the last quarter.

He was among a team of climate change experts from the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation who were guests at the Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange.

He noted that it was the agricultural sector which accounted for this jump, and that this was directly attributable to a significant increase in rainfall following two years of drought. Professor Chen said politicians must take note of developments such as these so that the country can prepare itself for what will certainly come next — another period of harsh drought.

“If politicians understood full understanding of climate change they would know that the next drought may very well be much worse (than the last) and it will continue to get worse,” he said.

“We have to convince the politicians,” Professor Chen insisted, noting his disappointment that the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change team that will visit Jamaica from November 28 to December 1 will not have the opportunity to meet with parliamentarians because of local government election activities.

Professor Chen also argued that Jamaicans, politicians included, are not paying nearly enough attention to the country’s level of greenhouse emissions and the increasing negative consequences.

“In Jamaica we don’t realise this. We concentrate a lot on adaptation, so people believe that taking care of the environment will solve climate change, and it will not. We have to get major developed countries to cut back on greenhouse gases,” he said.

In fact, Professor Chen argued that there needs to be much greater pressure and advocacy at international meetings for developed countries with the highest emissions, such as China and the United States to help fix the damage they cause, such as assisting small island developing states with storage for renewable energy.

Meanwhile, chief technical director at the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Lieutenant Colonel Oral Khan, emphasised that climate change policy does feed into the Government’s wider economic development. He explained that Cabinet is usually briefed, through the portfolio minister, on any important findings that is expected to have an impact on the economic planning process.

“When plans or projects are put forward, if they are going to have an impact on the environment, or if they have a large footprint, NEPA would usually require that an Environmental Impact Assessment be conducted to see the feasibility of the project to determine the impact on the environment and what mitigating factors or actions would have to be put in place,” he outlined. Khan also noted the recent appointment of a Climate Change Advisory Board to advise the minister and the division on critical climate change matters.

Professor Chen suggested that an economic unit should be incorporated into the Climate Change Department, to determine the economic cost of climate change in various areas.

Project administrator and senior climate change negotiator, Clifford Mahlung, noted that the Climate Change Division is seeking to streamline and synergise the climate change activities that are already being carried out across all ministries, agencies and departments, to develop sector strategies.

Jamaica Observer

Alternative Energy Climate Climate Change Environment Government News Renewable Energy

Clean Power Is Too Hot for Even Trump to Cool “Fears of a negative impact of Trump … are really overblown.”

November 19, 2016 Webmaster

On Nov. 4, Walmart announced an aggressive plan to increase its investments in renewable energy, pledging to power half its operations from wind, solar, and other renewables by 2025 and to cut the carbon footprint of its operations by 18 percent over the same period. Ten days later, Microsoft made its largest wind-power purchase agreement ever, with a deal to buy 237 megawatts of electricity from turbines in Kansas and Wyoming to run data centers in Cheyenne.

In between those announcements, Donald Trump was elected president, in part by calling climate change a hoax and vowing to gut most of Obama’s clean-energy policies and revive coal mining. If the actions of Walmart and Microsoft are any indication, a Trump administration will do little to dissuade companies from continuing to invest in renewables. “I think fears of a negative impact of Trump on renewable energy are really overblown,” says Thomas Emmons, a partner at Pegasus Capital Advisors, a private asset management firm focused on sustainable and alternative investments.

One reason is timing. The biggest economic incentives for clean energy are federal tax credits for solar and wind projects. Both were set to expire at the end of last year, prompting a surge in investments as companies raced to get in under the deadline. In December, Congress unexpectedly extended both credits (for solar until 2021 and for wind until 2019) as part of a deal to lift the 40-year-old ban on U.S. oil exports. It’s not clear that Trump will try to persuade Congress to repeal the extensions. Wind power is especially popular across the Midwest, a Republican stronghold; in many cases it’s become cheaper than other sources of grid power.

screen-shot-2016-11-19-at-13-14-26

Sixty percent of Fortune 100 companies have renewable-electricity or climate change policies, and 81 companies globally have committed to get 100 percent of their energy from renewable sources, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Companies tend to invest in renewable energy in one of three ways: sourcing clean power from wind and solar projects through long-term agreements; purchasing a stake in green power projects; or using renewable-energy credits to offset the dirtier power they consume.

Since 2008, U.S. companies have signed agreements to purchase more than $10 billion worth of wind and solar power— about 10Gw, enough to run almost 2 million U.S. households for a year. BNEF expects that pace to increase over the next decade, with at least 50 U.S. companies signing long-term agreements to buy an additional 22Gw of clean energy. “A Trump presidency does not lower our expectations for the growth of the corporate renewable-energy market,” says Nathan Serota, a clean-energy analyst at BNEF. “If anything, a less ambitious stance on renewables at the federal level could encourage corporations to pick up the slack even further.” With the government providing less support, more businesses may decide the best way to ensure clean-power projects get built is to sign long-term purchase agreements. That way, renewable developers have a guaranteed customer, ensuring they can finance new projects.

These agreements are emerging as the preferred way to invest in clean energy. Locking in electricity prices for up to 15 years, the deals let companies hedge exposure to volatile natural gas and coal prices, which have historically determined wholesale power prices in the U.S. As wind and solar get cheaper, companies are able to lock in renewable power for less than the average wholesale power price, says Swami Venkataraman, senior vice president at Moody’s Investors Service.

“Companies are investing in sustainability, not because they’re making a political statement, but because they have a fiduciary duty to protect shareholders and make money,” says Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, a nonprofit sustainability advocate. Even if Trump rolls back Obama’s commitment to the Paris climate accord and his signature clean-energy initiative, the Clean Power Plan (CPP), which directs states to lower carbon emissions from power plants, it’s unlikely to influence investment decisions. “Renewable developers weren’t building a business model premised on the CPP,” Serota says.

On Nov. 16, 300 U.S. businesses, including General Mills, EBay, and Intel, called on Trump to support the Paris accord. “The sustainable investing trend has global momentum and big players such as Goldman Sachs and Bill Gates,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director for energy and sustainability at the University of California at Davis, in an e-mail. “Corporate America has lots of millennial customers, and they want to buy from companies with sustainable supply chains and a commitment to renewable energy. I don’t see that changing.”

Bloomberg

Alternative Energy Climate Change Crude Oil Electricity Energy Saving Government News Oil Solar Energy

Jamaica To Do Its Share Of Climate-Change Mitigation

January 28, 2016 Webmaster

Jamaica is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of 1.1 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year by 2030, as part of its global commitment to take climate-change mitigation action.

To bring this about, the island – as reflected in its nine-page Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) document to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – has undertaken to implement energy policies that ensure the island:

– uses energy wisely and aggressively to pursue opportunities for conservation and efficiency;

– has a modernised and expanded energy infrastructure that enhances energy generation capacity and ensures that energy supplies are safely, reliably and affordably transported to homes, communities and the productive sectors on a sustainable basis; and

– achieves its energy resource potential through the development of renewable energy sources by increasing their share in its primary energy mix of 20 per cent by 2030.

Such policies are also to ensure that government agencies and ministries are a model/leader in energy conservation and environmental stewardship, and that the island has a well-defined and established governance, institutional, legal, and regulatory framework.

Fully implemented energy polices need, too, to ensure that private industry embraces “efficiency and ecological stewardship to advance international competitiveness and to move towards a green economy”, the document said.

The Gleaner

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New Climate Deal A Signal To Private Sector

December 16, 2015 Webmaster

Khan … I would say to the private sector, look at investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

The new global climate deal, reached after two weeks of intense negotiations, is a signal to the private sector, local and international, of the need to reassess current investment flows.

Jamaican negotiator Dr Orville Grey said the private sector will be critical, given the stated goal of the new deal of “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 28C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.58C above pre-industrial levels, recognising that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change”.

“The private sector will at some point have to take the lead because the technologies that are likely to take us to carbon neutrality will likely come from the private sector and not the public sector, at least as it relates to technology,” Grey, coordinator for adaptation for the Alliance of Small Island States during the negotiations, told The Gleaner.

If the world is to meet the ‘well-below-two’ target, it will require a significant shift in the current high levels of consumption of fossil fuels, including coal and oil, towards renewables such as solar and wind.

Colonel Oral Khan, chief technical director in the Ministry of Water, Land, Environment, and Climate Change and himself a member of the Jamaica delegation to the talks, was in full agreement.

“The private sector is encouraged under this agreement to support the mobilisation of finance to support adaptation and mitigation,” he said.

On Jamaica’s private sector, Khan said: “The State has submitted its intended nationally determined contribution commitment to [reducing greenhouse gas emissions] to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) Secretariat. Our commitment is consistent with the goal of our National Energy Policy. I would say to the private sector, look at investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency. In time, I hope that we will see more entities entering into public-private partnerships.”

A Historic Turning Point

Neither Grey nor Khan is alone in their thinking; international leaders in business have echoed their sentiments.

“The business case for eliminating greenhouse gases by 2050 is irrefutable. Indeed, solving climate change presents the greatest economic and social development opportunity of our time,” said Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, in a release to the media on Saturday.

“The new climate agreement is a historic turning point. Now business can and must innovate to lead the transition to a clean economy. Together, it is our duty as human beings, responsible citizens and business leaders to protect the environment. A transition to a clean and green economy will lift millions out of poverty, and ensure the planet’s health for generations to come,” he added.

Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post, mirrored his comments.

“This is truly a turning point in human history. We now have the chance to advance the well-being of people everywhere, while creating millions of new jobs and ending our reliance on fossil fuels,” she said in the same release.

“This will help us build a safer, more peaceful world for all. This is exactly what business needs in order to thrive in the long run,” added Huffington.

The Gleaner

News

Hanna is still wrong on coal

October 4, 2010 jrobinson

: Image via Wikipedia

Allow me space in your publication to respond to a letter in which Member of Parliament Lisa Hanna defends her thesis on ‘clean coal‘ as a possible energy source on which to build our economic future.

I’m quite in agreement on the points made in her first two paragraphs, but must violently disagree on her postulation about Jamaica’s economic future being built on cheap energy source, and that source being clean coal. Her view about the stability of coal price is myopic.

May I remind her about our cheap bauxite in the 1970s, how it became expensive when we thought that all and sundry were benefiting – except us, the primary producer. All commodities are subject to market manipulation, politically or otherwise.

Here is my solution for building our economy, by marrying two renewable resources, our people and renewable energy, we will create a symbiosis which has perpetuity. Consider the vehicle you love, the great value lies in the head of those who manufactured it, so will the solution to solve our energy needs. For it is the value that is added to any resource that gives value, by developing our human resource to harness the abundant energy which bathe our beloved island daily we will have a dependable source of energy, and can even be net exporters of energy-harvesting equipment.

No good foundation

MP Hanna points to the competitiveness of economies having cheaper energy source, but here are the calculations. For solar energy, the most expensive at present price using a life of about 40 years, the cost is US 13 cents per kilowatt-hour and set to go down as the industry matures.

She said coal-based power supplies 40 per cent of the world’s electricity and this is set to go up with China’s ever increasing wealth and its desire to improve the lot of its citizens. Coal, whether clean or not, is set to see greater demand and, hence, price movement. That’s not a good foundation on which to base a country’s future, when we have a source of energy that is in our hands, for a better way to build one’s future.

Global warming

We are all concerned about the global state of the world environment; research indicates that global warming is due, in part, to the use of fossil fuel. A shift to renewable energy will lead to a reduction of our carbon footprint. Over time, this could be brought near to zero.

This approach will render the development of resources in the constituency she now represents feasible, but further arguments can be made about the country as a whole. The natural scientists, business persons, civil engineers, manufacturers, artisans and even casual labourers will be beneficiaries of this policy approach. This is development.

In the final paragraphs of the letter, the issue of liquefied natural gas (LNG) was discussed. Again, as with her discussion on coal, the decision to embrace LNG as the fuel of choice is wrong. Proponents of both fuel miss the key issue. It is the human resource that should be at the centre of policy.

Both sets of proponents see the Jamaican people as objects to be exploited while a bone is thrown their way. I can show a policy path that can lead us into wealth, creativity and, finally, a proud people which have the capacity to solve our problems. My friends say there is a dinosaurian tendency among the young politicians, by association, and they are about to redo the failure of the last 48 years. We can point them the way to a better future.

I am, etc.,

AUBREY MURRAY

Atlantic Solar Corporation

10 Chisholm Avenue

Kingston 10

Jamaiaca Gleaner

see Lisa Hanna article below

Coal can supply north coast with power, says Hanna

Member of Parliament (MP) for South East St Ann, Lisa Hanna, is suggesting that, using the clean coal technology to safeguard the environment, a coal power plant located in St Ann could generate enough power to satisfy demands on Jamaica’s north coast.

“Right now Jamaica is producing energy at US$0.30 per kilowatt hour whereas countries which are competitive are producing at five cents,” Hanna told The Gleaner. “And you are not going to have persons running to do business in Jamaica if the energy costs are eating up their profit, which is also what is happening.”

The St Ann MP said she wanted efforts to be made to export limestone and bring in coal.

“If you look at a constituency like South East St Ann or South West St Ann, if you put a clean coal power plant up there you can power the entire north coast with it,” she argued. “That is something that I would like to realise.”

Hanna argued that the Government’s pursuit of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a solution to Jamaica’s energy problems would be an expensive venture when compared to using coal.

Energy and Mining Minister James Robertson has stated that Government’s LNG project was expected to save Jamaica US$1.2 billion in energy cost.

Expensive venture

However, according to Hanna, the cost would still be high as Jamaica would have to import the LNG.

“That is going to be an expensive venture and clean coal technology is technology that is being used in different places of the world quite successfully,” Hanna said. “And there are places that have the coal and need limestone and the ships could export (limestone) and import the coal at the same time.”

In the United States, the cost of a megawatt of electricity produced by coal runs between $20 and $30, while a megawatt of energy produced from natural gas ranges between $45 and $60.

Hanna’s comments reflect a concern expressed by Jamaicans who over the years have been calling for alternate sources of energy in order to reduce Jamaica’s dependency on oil. Solar, wind and hydropower sources have been suggested as viable alternatives.

Loan programme

The National Housing Trust (NHT) has taken a step in this direction by introducing a loan programme to assist home owners install solar powered water heaters in their homes.

Research shows that approximately 40 per cent of the world’s energy was derived from oil, while 23 per cent was derived from coal.

Experts estimate that, by 2025, 80 per cent of the world’s oil reserves would have been used. Coal reserves, on the contrary, are capable of lasting 1,000 years.

One drawback of the use of coal however, is that its negative impact on the environment is greater than oil and natural gas