New Global Warming pages @ epa.gov

Copyright ©  Françoise Herrmann

The new epa.org (Environmental Protection Agency) web pages on global warming (minus three pages on Climate change home, Climate Science, and Climate change impacts) are up and running!

The great news is that no major political re-interpretation of scientific data has occurred. Even if activists would probably like to see more details and the mention of agriculture, included in the EPA’s statement of the sources of GHG emissions, the Overview of the sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions clearly states, without the slightest ambiguity:

Greenhouse gases trap heat and make the planet warmer. Human activities are responsible for almost all of the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over the last 150 years.1 The largest source of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities in the United States is from burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat, and transportation.

Data on the share of GHG emissions is provided per economic sector (including industry, farming, transportation, commercial/residential, land use and electricity), as well as an analysis of the GHG warming potential. Indeed, the EPA climate change data has been updated with more recent reports and scientific data from the most authoritative sources of information, the IPCC and the EPA's own US Inventory of GHG emissions and sinks, rather than re-interpreted, as feared, according to stated positions denying the existence of global warming.

The US data on GHG emissions and sinks presented is also clearly stated as reported to the United Nations, per the binding agreement to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). Thus, the EPA clearly mentions its compliance with provisions applicable to the rest of the world.

The Carbon Footprint Calculator tool is still there, with an even nicer interface! 

As for the former chart on Global Carbon emissions from 1900 to 2008, showing the dramatic increase in carbon emissions with the rise of industrial activity in the 1950s, new updated information is provided for US Total GHG emissions from 1990 to 2015. Consequently, the Total US GHG emissions, 1990-2015 chart, now shows an equally impressive halt to the rise in US GHG emissions, beginning in 2007-08 when the world was alerted to the dangers of climate warming, arising from GHG emissions, and a new awareness, coupled with intensive mitigation efforts were deployed.

Indeed, the new chart is fantastic news on the power of a country to change the course of catastrophic trends, even if this is just a small beginning in the reversal of GHG emissions trends, considering how the global picture displays no such planet-saving dip in carbon emissions, estimated to represent 82% of GHG emissions. 

GHG emissions data may now also be explored with a new EPA tool termed the GHG Data Explorer that enables to search for emissions of a specific gas, per sector, and for a given period of time.

Another new tool for calculating GHG emissions equivalencies, termed the GHG Equivalencies Calculator, is also provided to enable users to calculate how much GHG emissions a particular item generates in daily life. For example, 40 gallons of gas generates of 784 pounds of CO2 (carbon dioxide).  Conversely, if users have GHG emissions data, they might also calculate equivalencies to offset emissions using the controversial flexible mechanisms (flex-mex) for International Emissions Trading and the Global Carbon Trading Markets, built into the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol within the context of the UNFCCC. 

When President Trump shocked the world with his forthright denial of climate change on the campaign trail (League of Conservation Voters, 2016), Chomsky (2016) suggested that the most pressing question was whether “he really meant what he said”, a suggestion which shocked even more people.  Nonetheless, this overhaul of the EPA web pages (minus a few links) tends to suggest that no such denial exists and that the EPA will not be dismantled anytime soon. 

Woo hoo!

References

Chomsky, n. (2016) If Trump becomes president (YouTube recording)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVqO3r3ugVo

League of conservation voters (Oct. 2016) – In their own words – 2016 Presidential candidates on climate change

https://www.lcv.org/article/2016-presidential-candidates-on-climate-change/

Environmental protection agency (EPA)

www.epa.gov

EPA - Carbon footprint Calculator

https://www3.epa.gov/carbon-footprint-calculator/

EPA - Greenhouse Gas Data Explorer

https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/inventoryexplorer/ 

EPA - Overview of the sources of GHG emissions

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases

EPA - Sources of greenhouse gas emissions

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions

EPA - Total US Greenhouse gas emissions 1990-2015

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions

EPA - Greenhouse Gas Emissions Calculator

https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator 

EPA - Inventory of Greenhouse Gas emissions and sinks

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks

EPA - Understanding Global Warming Potentials

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/understanding-global-warming-potentials

EPA - Greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator

https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator

IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

http://www.ipcc.ch/

UNFCC - United Nations Framework Convention on Climate change 

http://unfccc.int/2860.php

International Emissions Trading

http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/mechanisms/emissions_trading/items/2731.php

Carbon Trade Exchange

http://www.ctxglobal.com/

EDF - The World's Carbon Markets

https://www.edf.org/worlds-carbon-markets

Herrmann, F, (2014) Emissions trading. Posted at Patents on the soles of your shoes. 

https://patentsonthesolesofyourshoes.blogspot.com/search?q=emissions+trading

Herrmann, F. (2016) Green gone grey post nov. 2016 elections? Posted at Patents on the soles of your shoes. 

https://patentsonthesolesofyourshoes.blogspot.com/2016/12/green-gone-grey-post-nov-2016-us.html

Herrmann, F. (2017) An inconvenient sequel. Posted at Patents on the soles of your shoes

https://patentsonthesolesofyourshoes.blogspot.com/2017/04/an-inconvenient-sequel.html

Oh, patents! Emissions trading

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Here’s an interesting commodities market in the domain of green technology, supported by green patents, in the quest for reducing greenhouse gasses to curb global warming,

Carbon emissions trading, also called the carbon emission allowances and credit market is a system arising out of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 designed to incorporate “flex-mex” (flexible mechanisms) in the binding targets for reducing emissions of greenhouse gasses.

The idea, which remains seen as a very controversial compromise among various civil society groups and advisory committees to the UN, is to offer firms the possibility of selling their unused carbon emission allowances at a carbon emissions marketplace in the form of credits. This becomes possible as governments seek to regulate and cap the emissions of greenhouse gasses with emission permits for a particular pollutant. Thus, the government sets a limit to the amount of pollutant that can be emitted and sells this amount as a permit. If a firm falls below the permitted amount of pollutants they may sell their unused carbon emission allowances on the market as a credit to a company which is producing in excess of their permitted allowances for emissions.  Alternatively, a company may also be engaged in a project elsewhere that “sinks” carbon, providing allowances to offset excess emissions.

At the end of the day, the proponents of this market commodity approach to greenhouse emissions believe they are offering a panacea for meeting regulatory targets, all the while providing incentives to reduce emissions, and penalizing excess production of emissions.

The carbon emission units are quantifiable (1 unit is equal to 1 metric ton of CO2). And within the framework of the UN Convention on Climate change, carbon emission units may take various credit commodity forms such as the following: 

-          CRU - Carbon Removal Unit for land use, land use change or forestry such as reforestation
-          ERU – Emission Reduction Unit in a joint implementation project
-          CER Certified Emission Reduction generated in a clean emission development project

The largest greenhouse market is the European Union Emission Scheme.

The US has a national market for reducing acid rain and several local markets for trading nitrogen oxides, which were founded in 1970 by the former US Environmental Protection Agency, as an incentive for pollution abatement.

A search for “emissions trading” patents at the EPO yielded 75 hits. Below you will find a selection of these patents, supporting the technology of greenhouse gas emission markets:

• JP2013061897 CO2 emissions trading system
• WO2013010160 Process for tracking greenhouse gas emission/carbon reductions and other environmental credit in open and closed trading systems
• US2011144921   Greenhouse gas emission trading system, greenhouse gas emission apparatus, greenhouse gas emission trading method and program
• WO2012176949 System for converting greenhouse gas emission to carbon credit and method for same
• US2012117003 Geo-engineering method of business using Carbon counterbalance Credits.
• WO2011002710 System, method and media for trading energy efficiency (Chicago climate Exchange Inc.)

 UN advisory critics of these flex-mex mechanisms point out that the ultimate goal of climate change policy is for the industrialized North to convert economies to clean ones rather than to find ways to pursue unclean activity using paid credits or developing other activities that will offset the carbon that is produced. They argue that emissions trading, in fact, promotes and supports the trading of allowances rather than curbing emissions (ETC Group, 2011).

Indeed, according to the carbon trading think tank Sandbag, an oversupply of emissions permits due to recession and dubious sink projects worldwide will cancel out carbon emission savings gained with renewable energy and energy efficiency efforts.  A situation in which Sandbag actually calls for the destruction of surplus permits rather than backloading for later use. (Carrington, 2013)

 Bored of tracking NASDAQ?  Try Sandbag…!

References
ETC Group (2011)– EARTH GRAB: Geopiracy, the New BioMassters and Capturing Climate Gene
Carrington, D. (July 25 ,2013) EU emissions trading scheme to cancel out renewable energy gain  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jun/25/eu-emissions-trading-scheme-energ
Sandbag – www.sandbag.org.uk/