As Climate Change negotiations get underway in Bonn, a coalition of green groups has released a report sharply criticizing the United States for its projected use of biomass for electricity generation.
Policy
American Power Act to fund biochar R & D as part of “fast CC mitigation” strategy.
Even though there are still a few skeptics out there, we were excited to learn that the current draft of the American Power Act acknowledges the potential role biochar can play in capturing CO2 during the biomass combustion process. Whether or not this language will end up in the final draft of the APA that will land on Bo’s desk for approval remains to be seen. By the way, the last we heard the legislation would be submitted for debate in the fall. Below is the excerpt provided by Victoria Kamsler, Chair of the Biochar Offset Group out of Toronto, Continue reading
Yo, IPCC & CC movement! (cough, cough) Here’s an easy win: Black Carbon (wheeze, wheeze)
The IPCC and the climate change movement are missing the boat on a crucial fix.
Why black carbon abatement is not one of the central topics of discussion by the climate change movement is a mystery to me given the findings in this report.
Hey, sub-Saharan Africa, feeling energy poor? Take a mobile phone and call me in the morning.
Suddenly everyone’s looking at the story of mobile phones in Africa as the silver bullet to just about anything.
Is someone selling you counterfeit malaria pills? Let a mobile phone check on that for you. (1)
Too poor to have a bank account? Try mobile banking.(2)
Are you a herder in Kenya or Tanzania and have a sick goat? Track it on a mobile phone. (3)
Someone trying to pull a real estate scam on you in Lagos? Let Google’s Android handle that for you.(4)
Now, the World Bank is wondering if the mobile phone story may be the ticket out of energy poverty for rural sub-Saharan Africa.
Can The Hartwell Paper bring biomass & energy efficiency out of the development wilderness?
OPINION I almost cut myself shaving this morning while listening to a BBC News story about The Hartwell Paper, which I’d only heard about en passant. The Hartwell Paper was drafted by a group of academics in an attempt to offer a radically different way of framing the issues raised by climate change, and hence a different set of approaches for tackling them. I’m writing about this now because, if the ideas put forward gain traction, they have the potential to place energy poverty and unsustainable biomass dependence where it belongs: out of the sustainable development wilderness and into the Continue reading