Category: Carbon Commodities

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Big Picture Burning Money Carbon Commodities Climate Change

Carbon Hunters

“Where there’s muck, there’s brass”, as some people in England say. Waste and pollution can be big moneymakers for some, as local and national government bodies strive to ensure a safe, clean environment for their citizens.

Dealing with Carbon pollution is, however, in a different league of Big Dirt than the municipal waste stream, litter picks and recycling efforts. It’s even in a much larger landscape than Energy supply infrastructure and global fuel distribution systems.

Carbon emissions are in everything we do, practically, from texting to flying; from cooking to holidaying; from home comfort to laundry.

We can have school poster competitions that influence dog walkers to clean up after their pooches and hounds, but it’s not going to be so easy to cut the Carbon from our entire civilisation.

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Carbon Commodities Climate Change Political Nightmare

Don’t Do It, Kevin !

Dear Kevin Rudd, current Prime Minister of all Australia,

Of all the meaningless things to stake your premiership on, it has to be that ridiculous notion of Carbon Trading.

You realise that it won’t raise a single dollar for the de-Carbonisation of your appallingly ginormous national Energy and Transport sectors, don’t you ?

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Big Picture Carbon Capture Carbon Commodities Climate Change Emissions Impossible Energy Revival Pet Peeves Political Nightmare

Cut To The Chase

So this big plan for international Carbon Trading, how long will it take to set up all the national and regional markets ? And how long will it take to get some kind of serious reduction in Carbon Emissions using the market ?

Well, judging by this week’s slalom race on the melting Climate piste, I’d say it will be a good few years yet before a functioning international Carbon market will be viable, and a good few years after that that it will start to deliver any real reductions in emissions.

That could easily take us past 2015, the year that Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre knows we have to peak our emissions or face Climageddon (unless we can produce negative emissions. Yeah. Right.) :-

https://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/4degrees/programme.php
Presentation Slides : https://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/4degrees/ppt/10-1anderson.pdf
Presentation Audio : https://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/4degrees/audio/10-1anderson.mp3

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Carbon Commodities Climate Change

Carbon Trading Isn’t Working (3)

Friends of the Earth have come out with another report on the poor state of Carbon Trading, just in time for the Copenhagen Climate talks where Carbon Trading could become one of the planks on which we will be made to walk :-

https://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/05/friends-of-the-earth-attacks-carbon-trading

“Friends of the Earth attacks carbon trading : An FoE reports says ‘cap and trade’ carbonn markets have done little to reduce emissions but have been plagued by corruption and inefficiency : Ashley Seager : The Guardian, Thursday 5 November 2009 : 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…”

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Big Picture Carbon Commodities Climate Change

Carbon Cannot Be Costed

After our Masters class on the last 600 million years of Earth Climate history, a number of the students all collected together in the student bar.

One of our number pulled out a block of A4 paper on which he had written a number of probing questions.

At the very top of the list : asking how one could justify the “social cost” of Carbon.

I pulled my “remember Montreal” cat out of the bag.

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Behaviour Changeling Big Picture Carbon Commodities Carbon Rationing Climate Change Media Pet Peeves Political Nightmare Social Change

Time To Stop Playing Along

When I was asked to review a chunk of the 2008 Climate Safety report from the Public Interest Research Centre, I was less than positive about the social movement building outlined in the recommendations for “mobilisation” of the public (see below).

Tim Holmes, one of the people involved in the Climate Safety report, has started a new web log critiquing the very same issues :-

https://convenientlies.wordpress.com

https://convenientlies.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/greenwashing-government/

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Behaviour Changeling Big Picture Carbon Army Carbon Commodities Carbon Rationing Climate Change Contraction & Convergence Emissions Impossible Energy Revival Low Carbon Life Pet Peeves Political Nightmare Renewable Resource Social Change Vote Loser

Poor People Gonna Rise Up

Talking About a Revolution : Tracy Chapman

When are the intellectual and political ranks going to stop trying to apply universal guilt ? The real question to ask is not, “how are we going to get average emissions down ?” You can’t treat all the people in the United Kingdom as one blurred lump. Around 20% of consumers are conscious. Another 20% to 30% are going to be hit directly by any measure designed to put an environmental tax on Carbon, and will have no choice about responding.

Climate Change worldwide is affecting the poorest first and hardest – an expression used by everyone from Nicholas Stern through to Christian Aid. But it’s a stratification of impact that isn’t just global. The poorest in the industrialised countries are suffering hardship too : people who cannot get their homes renovated after floods, people who have to apply for Fuel Poverty assistance.

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Big Picture Carbon Army Carbon Commodities Climate Change Emissions Impossible Energy Revival Low Carbon Life Pet Peeves Political Nightmare Renewable Resource Social Change

Camped On Your Doorstep

What would you do if you met a Climate Camper face to face ? And how could you be sure ? Would they have dreadlocks ? A facepainted clown face, raggedy, dirty clothes ? Would they be shouting ?

More to the point, would they be getting in your face ? Or in your way ? Would they be threatening or violent or extremely negative ? Or would they offer you a cup of tea and a nice wholemeal organic flapjack ?

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Bait & Switch Big Picture Burning Money Carbon Capture Carbon Commodities Emissions Impossible Energy Revival Nuclear Nuisance Peak Energy Peak Oil Pet Peeves Technological Sideshow

Big Energy : Fighting for Survival

The Carbon game’s up : within 40 to 70 years the Petroleum empires will be gone. Even with massive new investment, Hydrocarbon production will be peaking. With supplies of Crude Oil, Natural Gas, and yes, even Coal, starting to fall away, a crucial sub-plot will begin to play out.

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Carbon Commodities Climate Change

Carbon Trading isn’t Working

Two signs that Carbon Trading won’t work the way you think it will.

1. It’s going to be so heavily policed to keep the prices stable enough to attempt to have a proper impact, it will end up like a flat Carbon Tax.

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Bait & Switch Carbon Army Carbon Capture Carbon Commodities Climate Change Cost Effective Emissions Impossible Nuclear Nuisance Social Change Technological Sideshow

I’d Like To Thank

At the Oscars and the BAFTAS and so on, the winners, always bleary, always blubbing, always drunk, always start with an “I’d like to thank” speech, offering genuine (or coerced) gratitude very publicly to those who collaborated (or financed) their venture : “you made it all possible”.

In true TV award ceremony style, the British Government, plus “Special Adjunct” Tony Blair, in amongst their good work pursuing Energy Efficiency and True Renewables, appear to be virtually obliged to mention the Energy and Climate “solutions” of their closest lobbyists and corporate allies, or even relatives, in the case of Gordon Brown’s brother Andrew’s company Electricité de France :-

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Carbon Commodities Climate Change Emissions Impossible

Make Poverty Permanent

I strongly agree with one central theme from Nicholas Stern’s analysis of how to tackle Climate Change.

In his book “A Blueprint for a Safer Planet”, he argues in depth that Climate Change Adaptation strategies for countries in the Global South must be combined with those strategies to beat Poverty and encourage Development.

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Big Picture Carbon Capture Carbon Commodities Climate Change Emissions Impossible Growth Paradigm Nuclear Nuisance

Astonishing Admissions

At the Climate Change campaign meeting on Saturday, “Six Months to Copenhagen”, hosted by the Fabian Society in London, Ed Miliband said some things I find astonishing admissions.

The Climate Change Committee, after having looked into the matter of Carbon Budgets on Carbon Emissions Reductions for the United Kingdom, made recommendations for our national targets :-

https://hmccc.s3.amazonaws.com/pdfs/LaunchPressRelease01.12.08.pdf

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Carbon Capture Carbon Commodities Climate Change Emissions Impossible Nuclear Nuisance Technological Sideshow

A Cabal of Campaigners

There’s news from the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) quarter.

A whole bunch of Aid and Development, charity, Third Sector and green groups got together today and were instilled with their responsibility to “hold politicians’ feet to the fire” by Ed Miliband, who just happens to be a politician.

Not just any old politician, no. Only the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change in the United Kingdom.

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Big Picture Carbon Commodities Climate Change

Banking on China

The Circle Line can get a bit stifling in the evening. Not as much as the Central Line, which is often only a few tiers from the fires of Hell itself, but the Circle Line is often clammy in Summer, long after the Rush Hour home. Global Warming ? Global Steamy Clammy Heat !

So, I’m trying to maintain my personal cool and composure on the London Underground by not moving very much and reading a self-styled “pamphlet” I acquired at the 5th June 2009 conference “The politics of climate change : from economic crisis to business revolution”.

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Big Picture Burning Money Carbon Capture Carbon Commodities China Syndrome Climate Change Cost Effective Emissions Impossible Nuclear Nuisance Technological Sideshow

Irony Bryony Worthington

[ UPDATE : Some of you have mentioned that you thought this piece was rather biting. So I put it under Bryony’s nose and offered to change anything that she felt was inaccurate, personally distressing, or that she disagreed with or objected to on professional grounds. Changes are bolded. ]

At the The Guardian Climate Change Summit in London’s Russell Square’s Hotel Russell on Monday 15th June 2009, there was a large banner marked out with the name of the key sponsor of the event, E.On, but nobody at the large table underneath it to schmooze the attendees.

Perhaps they thought that the info pack in bright friendly red, orange and yellow colours would suffice in terms of communications. Perhaps they thought that they had enough of a hold on the event’s messaging by having their Chief Executive Officer Paul Golby speaking at one of the morning sessions.

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Big Picture Burning Money Carbon Capture Carbon Commodities Climate Change Emissions Impossible Nuclear Nuisance

The Promised “Summer Strategy”

David Kennedy, the chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change announced today, almost in passing, at the The Guardian Climate Change Summit, that the “Summer Strategy” regarding all the Government’s choices on Climate Change technologies, as articulated by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) will be published within the week.

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Carbon Army Carbon Commodities Climate Change Emissions Impossible Social Change Technological Sideshow

Adair Turner Fidgets While Coal Burns

Adair Turner must be a bundle of nerves, sitting, as he does on both the Financial Services Authority and the Climate Change Committee.

He’s often asked to speak on behalf of ideas that are shaky, like cracking down on the banks with stronger regulation, whilst avoiding blaming the banks themselves for the financial crisis :-

https://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article4959789.ece

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Carbon Army Carbon Capture Carbon Commodities Climate Change Cost Effective Low Carbon Life Social Change

Climate Change and Social Justice

Britain is not Fair. The division between rich and poor is getting wider, and the number of those at the bottom of the stack is rising. This is going to have a significant impact on the ability of people in Great Britain to adapt to Climate Change policy.

Social measures must surely include public investment in de-Carbonising each home. At costs 100 times less than the announced new Nuclear Power programme, and an order of magnitude cheaper than the Carbon Capture and Storage demonstration projects, I think this shows excellent value for money as well as ethical rectitude.

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Carbon Commodities Climate Change Nuclear Nuisance Technological Sideshow

The Nuclear Begging Bowl

It has become fashionable, since the Financial Crisis was admitted to publicly, for high net worth individiuals to propagate Public Relations campaigns in support of their industry of choice. Normally the industry that makes all their money for them.

In the United States they call this process a “bailout”, making it sound like a worthy rescue of a valued affiliate. In the United Kingdom, it’s called “public support”. It all amounts to the same thing : tax revenue from the public thrown at the private corporations.

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Carbon Capture Carbon Commodities Climate Change Emissions Impossible

Six Heavies and a Kevlar Vest

Tony Blair looked greyer than ever as he lightfooted it into the auditorium. “He still hasn’t had the surgery to pin back his ears”, I noted to the chap I had been talking to on my right, “I don’t meant to be rude, but he’s still got that sticky-outy look. I would have thought that would be the first thing he’d do with all the money.”

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Bait & Switch Big Picture Burning Money Carbon Capture Carbon Commodities Emissions Impossible Technological Sideshow

Carbon Offsets : Dangerous Distraction

Well, Friends of the Earth are not to be found beating around any bushes or mincing any words today. It’s up front and confrontational on the matter of Carbon Offsetting coming out of the Clean Development Mechanism, and how it’s going to fail us. The new report is titled “A Dangerous Distraction : Why Offsetting is Failing the Climate and People : The Evidence” and its language is brutal :-

https://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefing_notes/dangerous_distraction.pdf

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Big Picture Carbon Commodities Cost Effective Emissions Impossible

Carbon Offsetting : Legwarmers and Chiapas

In the field of women’s clothing, fashions spectacularly come and shamefacedly go. As one of the presenters said towards the end of the Carbon Offsetting report launch this evening, she is fearful that perhaps offsetting could be just a trend, a fashion statement that will bow out after a short while, like legwarmers and chiapas :-

https://www.newcarbonfinance.com/?p=services&i=voluntary

https://www.newcarbonfinance.com/download.php?n=State_of_Voluntary_Carbon_Markets_2009_May19.pdf&f=fileName&t=NCF_downloads

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Big Picture Burning Money Carbon Capture Carbon Commodities Cost Effective

Summer of Stupidity

It is from the Business pages of The Times Online that I learn that Ed Miliband possibly cannot read, and does not seem to be able to think clearly.

https://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/utilities/article6401711.ece

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Big Picture Burning Money Carbon Capture Carbon Commodities Climate Change Cost Effective Emissions Impossible Nuclear Nuisance

The Eleven Year Time Horizon

[ UPDATE – part of my argument about Coal got garbled. I have bolded changes.]

McKinsey Carbon Cost Abatement Curve

Over the Late Spring Bank Holiday Weekend, I had the unintentional opportunity to spend some recreational time with someone employed by the Government of the United Kingdom. I am not going to divulge details.

This person had clearly been to Brainwashing School and was on-message consistently, even in the relaxed and non-formal setting. They repeated, almost verbatim, rationales I have been hearing for several years.

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