At the fourth – and penultimate – round of talks, negotiators did not agree to continue formal discussions on how to cut plastic production before a final session in the Korean city of Busan set for November, making it less likely that curbs will be included in the pact.

Peru’s negotiator said his country was “disappointed”, while the nonprofit Center for International Environmental Law said governments had sacrificed “ambition for compromise”.

“The pathway to reaching a successful outcome in Busan looks increasingly perilous,” said Christina Dixon, ocean campaign leader at the Environmental Investigation Agency.

Big Oil’s plan B

While some governments led by a self-described “High-Ambition Coalition” have pushed for measures to reduce plastic production – which is expected to nearly double in G20 countries by mid-century – major oil and gas-producing states like the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran have favoured an emphasis on recycling over producing less.

The members of the self-described “High-Ambition Coalition” are in light blue (Photo credit: CREDIT)

Plastics are made from oil and gas, and their production accounts for 3% of greenhouse gas emissions. Fossil fuel companies are betting that as demand for oil and gas for energy use falls, they can compensate by selling more of their products to plastic manufacturers.

The Ottawa talks were marred by complaints from scientists and campaigners that plastics industry delegates were harassing and intimidating them, while secretively-funded, pro-plastics adverts were placed around the venue by a right-wing Canadian lobby group.

‘Unsustainable’ plastic use

The governments of Rwanda and Peru have been leading the push for a strong global deal to rein in plastic pollution, winning international approval for the talks to craft a treaty at the United Nations Environment Assembly in 2022.

In Ottawa last month, they asked governments to give their backing to formal negotiations on how to reduce the production and use of plastics, with support from the 65 member states of the High-Ambition Coalition.

While recognising that “this is an issue characterised by divergent views”, Rwanda’s negotiator told delegates “there is at least a convergence on the desire to develop an instrument that is fit for purpose guided by science – and to do so, the question we must ask is what are sustainable levels of production and consumption?”

“Science tells us that current and projected levels of plastic consumption and production are unsustainable and far exceed our waste management and recycling capacities. Moreover, these levels of production are also inconsistent with the goal of ending plastic pollution and limiting global warming to 1.5C,” she added.

‘More than a number’: Global plastic talks need community experts

But governments including Russia, Saudi Arabia and India are opposed to focusing on production curbs. The Ecuadorian chair of the talks, Ambassador Luis Vayas Valdivieso, did not include production in the list of topics to be officially discussed further before the final negotiations in South Korea.

Instead, he proposed expert groups on how to fund efforts to tackle plastic pollution and on criteria for identifying types of plastic product “of concern”. Governments accepted this, finishing their discussions at 3am on Tuesday.

Compromise welcomed

Peru expressed disappointment at the decision not to focus on production – but Russia’s negotiator welcomed it, saying that issues like the design of plastics and recycling are the “cornerstone of the future agreement” and so the talks should focus on them.

India’s delegate said the negotiations should be conducted in “a realistic manner and with consensus”, adding that “plastics have played an important role in development of our societies”.

Saudi Arabia’s negotiator praised the talks’ chair for “looking into those topics that bring convergence”, while many countries including China, the US and the European Union said the Ottawa outcome was a good compromise.

Southern Africa drought flags dilemma for loss and damage fund

Late on the last night of the talks, the EU had proposed holding another full session of negotiations before Busan, but that was blocked by Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

David Azoulay, an observer for the Center for International Environmental Law, accused developed countries that style themselves as leaders on plastics of giving up the fight “as soon as the biggest polluters look sideways at them”.

In response to the lack of progress on production curbs, a group of countries led by the Pacific island nation of Micronesia put out a statement promising to continue talking informally about the issue and to keep it on the agenda. Thirty-two countries signed the “Bridge to Busan” initiative, including Nigeria, France and Australia, and more are expected to join later.

Micronesian negotiator Dennis Clare told Climate Home that its signatories “recognise that we cannot achieve our climate goals, or our goal of ending plastic pollution, without limiting plastic production to sustainable levels”.

Delays, intimidation and harassment

The four rounds of talks held since 2022 have been marked by delays, which some observers say are deliberate tactics by countries like Saudi Arabia and Russia.

At the second session in Paris last May, negotiators spent two days discussing voting rules, an issue which many thought had already been resolved.

And the third round in Nairobi in November failed to agree on intersessional work leading to Ottawa, after opposition from Russia and Saudi Arabia.

In Ottawa, the meeting was marred by complaints of intimidation and harassment from campaigners and scientists against some of the 196 lobbyists from the plastic and fossil fuel industry present in the halls.

Tensions rise over who will contribute to new climate finance goal

Bethanie Carney Almroth, a ecotoxicology professor at the University of Gothenburg who co-chairs the Scientists’ Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty, wrote a formal complaint to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the body that organises the talks.

She said she had been “verbally harassed, yelled at and subjected to unfounded accusations” by a male delegate from a plastics company, who interrupted her remarks to criticise an aspect of scientific research on plastics which he falsely said she was involved in.

In a separate complaint to UNEP, Almroth said plastics industry delegates had eavesdropped on scientists’ conversations, aggressively surrounded them and criticised their work, and “harassed and badgered several of our younger scientists”.

Marcos Orellana, the UN special rapporteur on toxics and human rights, said on X that it was “extremely worrying to hear about intimidation and harassment of scientists by industry”, adding “there should be zero tolerance for industry misconduct”.

Pro-plastic ads

Almroth told Climate Home that delegates were also faced with pro-plastic adverts at Ottawa airport, as well as on buses and taxis. “The entire city of Ottawa has been completely blanket-wallpapered in propaganda and pro-plastic and anti-UN campaigns,” she said.

Photos of these adverts seen by Climate Home show that some do not declare who paid for them, while others say they are sponsored by a right-wing lobby group called the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses of Canada (CCMBC).

I’m at #INC4 in Ottawa, reporting on the #PlasticsTreaty. The conference itself is plastic-free (food sold at the venue is wrapped in paper), but these ads are plastered in the hotel next door where events are being held pic.twitter.com/Bu8b6jawqG

— Lisa Song is @lisalsong.bsky.social (@lisalsong) April 24, 2024

The CCMBC’s president, political activist Catherine Swift, drove a van around the conference centre with pro-plastics adverts on it. In an interview next to the van with Rebel News, she claimed that plastics are “almost infinitely recyclable” and that recycling is the solution to plastic pollution. Passers-by tell Swift and Rebel News in the online clip that the adverts are “kind of weird” and that “plastic is killing the planet”.

The CCMBC does not systematically declare its donors. But videos from its 2023 gala dinner reveal that its sponsors include oil and gas companies like NuVista, TC Energy and plastics company Husky, whose CEO John Galt has appeared on the CCMBC’s Youtube channel.

“This is big money. This is high stakes,” said Almroth. “Plastics is the fossil fuel and the petro-chemical industry’s plan B. As we shift away from fossil fuels as an energy source, they’re putting their bets on plastics and we’re a threat to them.”

(Reporting by Joe Lo; editing by Megan Rowling)

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“We were swimming in the rivers, played football and other games on buffers,” reminisced Takele Getachew, a 58-year-old man.

But for the past few decades that has not been possible, as the water became more and more polluted due to urban development.

“I witnessed closely how the Ginfile and Kebena have gradually been polluted and become waste disposal sites and sewerage spillways,” Getachew lamented.

After decades of neglect, there is now some hope for the waterways. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s controversial Addis Ababa River Side Project, also known as the ‘Beautifying Sheger Project’, aims to clean up the rivers, making the city a model of green development in the process.

“I think the new riverside development project will save the rivers,” Getachew said, adding that they are a living memory of “past good times” and of the city’s “identity”.

The three-year project, expected to cost 29 billion birr ($900 million), aims to enhance the well-being of city dwellers by mitigating flooding and pollution through the creation of public spaces and parks, bicycle paths and walkways along the riverside.

But cleaning up Addis Ababa’s rivers comes with a human cost.

“The river was polluted and we were suffering floods during rainy season, but it is being cleaned now,’ said Asnakech Mesfin, 55, a mother of two who lives in an area known as the Sheraton expansion, an area affected by the development.

The project also runs through the densely populated villages known as Basha Wolde Chilot, Siga Mededa and Arogew Kera or generally Arat Killo.

The government “started demolishing our shelters without any warning’’, Asnakech said. “They send police here and demolished our shelters during holidays which led us to live on the streets for 4 months.’’

“The question is where shall we shelter? Any development should give priority for people first.”

The project starts from Mount Entoto to Akaki, covering 56km of green areas along the rivers, passing through the former Basha Wolde Chilot, in front of the national Parliament at Arat Kilo and the heavily populated Piassa in Addis Ababa’s centre.

The first phase of the project, running from Entoto to Bambis Bridge, is under construction with financial support the state-owned China Construction Company (CCCC), and is scheduled to be finished by May 2020. It is estimated to currently be about 55% complete.

It runs down to the Grand Menelik II Palace, through an area with villages like Asnakech’s. Now, there are just the place names remaining, but no residents.

Addis Ababa riverside development plan (Source: Mayor Office of Addis Ababa)

Not far from the project site, there are mud and plastic homes where poor residents still dwell. The few people left along the river are experiencing tough conditions, with huge lorries passing through villages and construction taking place around them.

Thousands fear displacement during the second phase of the project.

The development has been criticised for not respecting two of the 15 principles of sustainable development, agreed in 2012 at the Stakeholder Forum of the Rio 20+ meeting.

Principle 9 states that, “all citizens should have access to information concerning the environment, as well as the opportunity to participate in decision-making processes.”

And principle 5 says developments should ensure “individuals and societies are empowered to achieve positive social and environmental outcomes”.

Neither of these principles appears to have been followed.

Most of Asnakech’s village was demolished long ago. The residents were relocated to the outskirts of the city, paying for new government accommodation through a loan scheme.

“They told us immediately to leave the place. We would be happy if they informed us before’’, she said.

“There is no value just constructing buildings and developing green areas without due attention to livelihoods,” she said. “They are treating us like enemies.”

“The government has not visited us and discussed with us to find a solution. I have been suffering to support my son who is a grade 6 student here on the street,” Asnakech said.

The city government and prime minister’s office declined to comment.

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Addis isn’t the only one of Ethiopia’s cities to have faced critical waste management challenges and difficulties implementing and sustaining urban green infrastructure. But the problem is more complex in the capital.

Dr. Manaye Ewenetu, Associate Engineer at Symmetrys Structural and Civil Engineers, criticised the sustainability of the city’s green strategy but approved of the prime minister’s vision.

Ewenetu is concerned about two things – access to water and pollution. “There is already water stress in the city and will continue to get worse unless a proper demand and supply assessment is undertaken by the relevant authorities,” he said.

“As it is observed on the ground, most of the Addis Rivers are non-perennial rivers which mean they do not have flows for most of the year except during the winter period.’’

A detailed hydrological assessment should have been undertaken to establish the flow regime of the rivers in the city to ensure the flow of water in summer season, he said.

He also worries about pollution in the rivers. “At the moment dirty water from all residential and commercial properties including factories, schools, and hospitals is discharged into the rivers,’’ he said.

So while Addis Ababa’s River Side project is a genuine attempt to green a developing city, critics say it is still a long way from being a model of sustainable development.

This article was produced as part of an African reporting programme supported by Future Climate for Africa. See our editorial guidelines for what this means.

The post Addis Ababa riverside project gives priority to development over residents appeared first on Climate Home News.

Choking air pollution levels are forcing Chinese authorities to take tougher action against heavy industry (Pic: Mad House Photography)

By Gerard Wynn

Growth in China’s carbon emissions is slowing sharply, under pressure from climate and pollution targets and slower economic expansion, data on coal consumption show.

In China, coal consumption and carbon emissions are very closely correlated because coal is such a dominant part of the country’s energy mix.

As a result, analysis of coal trends provides an insight into the outlook for carbon emissions by the world’s biggest polluter.

The latest data suggest growth in coal consumption has already started to slow dramatically.

China’s coal consumption grew just 2.6% last year, to 3.61 billion tonnes, according to the China National Coal Association in January.

That compared with coal consumption growth of 6.4% in 2012, according to BP data, and a compound average annual growth rate in coal consumption of 8.8% from 2000-2012.

A halving of growth in coal consumption implies a halving in carbon emissions growth.

As the world largest carbon emitter, that is good news for a global response to climate change.

There are two pauses for optimism.

First, while it is good news that carbon emissions growth is slowing, it is another matter for China to halt growth and start to cut emissions. Second, even as China does pull back, other emerging economies and notably India are likely to take its place.

Trend

China’s coal consumption has surged in the last decade, in step with the country’s economic growth (see Figure 1).

The mutual dependence with GDP growth helps explain why it has been for China to wean off coal, even as the damage from air pollution on human health has been documented.

Coal is important as a cheap, indigenous energy resource. While coal consumption growth is now slowing, it will remain the bedrock of the country’s energy economy.

There are twin pressures on China’s coal consumption: the threat of global climate change, and increasingly public criticism of the nation’s air quality.

Regarding climate change, China five years ago set an intensity target to cut carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 40-45% by 2020 compared with 2005.

In 2005, China’s carbon intensity was just over 1 kilogramme of CO2 per $ of GDP, according to World Bank GDP data.

Of course, China sets lots of targets under successive five-year plans, and misses lots of them. But the carbon intensity may be different, as an international pledge made by previous Premier Wen Jiabao, at a United Nations climate conference in 2009.

Most recently, the country has drifted off the target (see Figure 2). To get back on track, China will have to cut carbon emissions more urgently.

Regarding air quality, cutting pollution is now an urgent policy priority tied to maintaining social order.

Indicating how seriously authorities are taking the issue, this January China announced a new plan to cut coal’s share of energy use to 65% in 2014, down from 65.7% in 2013 and 67% in 2012, in a bid to improve air quality in major cities.

That represents an acceleration of previous plans, which envisioned coal coming down to 65% of total energy consumption by 2015.

What it means for coal consumption depends on economic growth.

“With total energy consumption growth targeted at 3.2%, coal consumption would rise by just 1.6% this year (2014),” said Bank of America Merrill Lynch in a research note last Thursday.

“But if GDP growth holds up above 7% (which is our assumption), coal demand growth of about 3% is more likely.”

That would still be more than a halving of annual growth compared with 2012.

Outlook

Both emerging data for coal consumption and the emissions and pollution targets suggest that China’s coal consumption has turned a corner and is on a long-term, downward trajectory.

The question is how fast it might fall, and what that means for the country’s carbon emissions.

In its latest World Energy Outlook, published last November, the International Energy Agency pointed out that a slowdown in 2012 was partly due to heavy rains and a resulting surge in hydropower, but it also saw the beginnings of a systemic shift, as the country invested in efficiency and shifted from coal to gas, nuclear and renewables.

“In 2012, the rate of coal demand growth in China was one of the lowest over the past decade: the drivers of change may already be at work,” it said.

The IEA forecast that China’s coal consumption growth would slow for the rest of this decade and peak in 2025.

Coal use will remain central to China’s economy, not only in power generation but industry including steel and chemicals, however, meaning achieving coal consumption and carbon emissions may not start falling until 2030.

And where China pulls back India and emerging south-east Asian countries such as Vietnam will step in.

“In India, coal use continues to grow briskly throughout the projection period (2012-2035), in line with the country’s strong electricity demand growth,” the IEA projected.

“India displaces the United States as the world’s second-largest coal market before 2025. Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries see a tripling of coal use; their collective consumption is nearly double that of the European Union in 2035.”

The post Growth in China’s carbon emissions has halved appeared first on Climate Home News.

Source: Kevin Dooley

1 – Chinese officials put faith in green technology
Officials in China say they are confident green technology will help overcome the country’s notoriously polluted air. In a rare interview, the head of air quality at Beijing’s Environmental Protection Bureau, Wang Bin, told the BBC he was “optimistic” that the problems would be overcome. Apocalyptic scenes of dense smog have recently forced major cities including Shanghai and Harbin to virtually shut down.

2 – Companies to avoid punishment under Direct Action Plan
Tony Abbott’s government will not punish companies if they fail to meet their carbon emissions targets under the Coalition’s Direct Action plan, reports the Australian. Instead, the government will introduce “flexible compliance arrangements”, some of which are more generous than those argued for by industry.

3 – Renewable Energy Village built on Japan’s damaged land
A Renewable Energy Village is being built in the farmland contaminated by the radiation from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster. The project aims to combine solar panels with growing crops, says the IEEE Spectrum website, and already has 120 solar panels generating 30 kilowatts of power.

4 – Toyota announces new clean car
Toyota has announced a hydrogen-powered vehicle that emits only water vapour as exhaust will go on sale in the US in 2015, a year earlier than it promised just two months ago, says the phys.org website.They made the announcement at the International CES, the technology industry’s annual gadget show.

5 – Suburbs cancel out city energy savings
An extensive web of suburbs surrounding cities could cancel out the carbon savings made in the cities themselves, according to a new study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. World Nature News reports that, despite accounting for less than half of the nation’s population, suburbs are responsible for about 50 percent of all household emissions, which are largely comprised of carbon dioxide.

The post China places faith in ‘green technology’ to cut air pollution appeared first on Climate Home News.

(Pic: Red Dot Award)

Imagine a bike that’s fast, looks great and cleans the air as you fly by?

It all sounds a bit improbable, but Bangkok designers Lightfog propose to create an electric bike that includes an air filter mounted on the handlebars.

In the same way plants generate oxygen through photosynthesis, this would release clean air from a reaction with water and electricity.

“We want to design products which can reduce the air pollution in the city,” Creative director Silawat Virakul told the Fastcoexist website. “So we decided to design a bike because we thought that bicycles are environmentally friendly vehicles for transportation.

“Riding a bicycle can reduce traffic jam[s] in a city. Moreover, we wanted to add more value to a bicycle by adding its ability to reduce the pollution.”

Over 500 cities across the globe now have cycle-hire schemes, aimed at increasing the uptake of cycling as an effective way to reduce carbon emissions from cars and ensure populations stay fit.

Riding a bike to work rather than driving could cut household emissions by as much as 6%.

The design won an award at last year’s Red Dot international design awards.

Plans to build a prototype are in the pipeline, but specific details about how often the filter and battery would need to be changed, how much air the tool could filter and at which speeds, have not yet been determined.

The post Pollution guzzling bike promises cleaner and greener cities appeared first on Climate Home News.

Source: Flickr/Zhou Mingjia

By Sophie Yeo

Levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a record high in 2012, according to a report from the World Meteorological Organization.

It backs up readings taken at the Mauna Loa observatory on Hawaii in May this year, which reported levels of the main greenhouse gas were now at 400 parts per million (ppm), its highest level for 3 million years.

The speed at which mankind has continued to emit these gases has increased over time, says the WMO in its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin. The growth rate from 2011 to 2012 in atmospheric concentrations outstripped the average over the past ten years.

In this period, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere – the main offender when it comes to global warming – increased by 2.2 parts per million (ppm). This is an accelerating trend: over the previous decade, the growth each year averaged at 2.02 ppm.

The volume of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere has increased dramatically since the start of the industrial era, when humans first started emitting large quantities of the gases into the atmosphere.

The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is now 141% of what it was in pre-industrial times, although this only accounts for about half the CO2 emitted by humans. The other half has been absorbed by the biosphere and oceans, which acidify in response, causing damage to marine animals such as shellfish.

The concentrations of methane and nitrous oxide, two other gases with a known warming effect on the planet, have similarly increased. Levels of methane are now 260% and nitrous oxide 120% of what they were before humans started burning fossil fuels.

Science warning

The IPCC’s fifth assessment report, released in September, pointed out that the volume of these gases in the atmosphere is unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years.

“As a result of this, our climate is changing, our weather is more extreme, ice sheets and glaciers are melting and sea levels are rising,” said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.

“According to the IPCC, if we continue with ‘business as usual,’ global average temperatures may be 4.6 degrees higher by the end of the century than pre-industrial levels – and even higher in some parts of the world. This would have devastating consequences.”

He added: “Limiting climate change will require large and sustained reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. We need to act now, otherwise we will jeopardize the future of our children, grandchildren and many future generations.

“Time is not on our side.”

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(Pic: Simpson/UC-Irvine)

By Nilima Choudhury

A new report says the air downwind of Canada’s largest oil, gas and tar sands processing zone has higher levels of contaminants than in some of the world’s most polluted cities.

The findings by UC Irvine and University of Michigan scientists reveal high levels of the carcinogens and other airborne pollutants in Alberta’s ‘industrial heartland’.

“We’re seeing elevated levels of carcinogens and other gases in the same area where we’re seeing excess cancers known to be caused by these chemicals,” said UC Irvine chemist Isobel Simpson, lead author of the paper in Atmospheric Environment.

The researchers captured emissions in the rural Fort Saskatchewan area downwind of major refineries, chemical manufacturers and tar sands processors owned by BP, Dow, Shell and other companies in the so-called “Industrial Heartland” of Alberta.

In the US, Shell has a programme in conjunction with the University of Texas which offers employees and their dependents cancer screening sessions.

The team compared the Alberta plumes to heavily polluted megacities. To their surprise, the scientists saw that levels of some chemicals were higher than in Mexico City during the 1990s or in the still polluted Houston-Galveston area.

A report last month showed that by 2100, up to three million people could be at risk of dying if leaders do not take action against greenhouse gas emissions.

Health impacts

The researchers obtained health records spanning more than a decade that showed the number of men with leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma was greater in communities closest to the pollution plumes than in neighboring counties.

While the scientists stopped short of saying that the pollutants they documented were definitely causing the male cancers, they strongly recommended that the industrial emissions be decreased to protect both workers and nearby residents.

“For decades, we’ve known that exposure to outdoor air pollutants can cause respiratory and cardiovascular disease,” Co-author Stuart Batterman, a University of Michigan professor of environmental health sciences, said. “The World Health Organization has now also formally recognised that outdoor air pollution is a leading environmental cause of cancer deaths.”

Longtime residents near industrial Alberta have struggled to bring attention to bad odours, health threats and related concerns.

Ottawa MP David McGuinty told RTCC earlier this year that stopping the exploitation of the tar sands in Alberta would be impossible.

He also pointed out that a large proportion of the electorate were unconcerned by the risks posed by the region’s energy activities.

He said: “The government are not going to try and win the sustainability popularity contest because they have proven they don’t need to.”

The peer-reviewed study is one of few in the region and more investigation of the large and complex facilities is needed, say the researchers.

For example, Simpson said, it appeared in some cases that the companies were not reporting all of the tons of chemicals they release. She and her colleagues documented high levels of 1,3-butadiene that could only have come from one facility, but she said the company had not reported any such emissions.

Simpson said: “Our main point is that it would be good to proactively lower these emissions of known carcinogens. You can study it and study it, but at some point you just have to say, ‘Let’s reduce it.’ ”

BP, Shell and Dow did not reply to requests for a comment.

The post Cancer warning over Canada’s tar sand heartland appeared first on Climate Home News.

(Pic: Renault)

By Nilima Choudhury 

The UK’s first all-electric car club launched today in East London, promising  to offer a green and cheap transport solution for inner-city residents.

The E-Car Club will start off with four Renault Zoe models in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. They hope to increase this to 20 by the end of the year.

Initially it will be open to residents of local landlord Poplar HARCA, which owns around 8,490 homes in the area. Drivers at the E-Car Club will need to pay a £50 lifetime joining fee then £5.50 per hour.

Development director Christopher Morris told RTCC their target market is residents priced out of the car market.

“It’s very much trying to provide a low cost transport solution to individuals in an area who might not otherwise have access to a car, it’s certainly not targeting the corporate world from the city,” he said.

“We want to improve mobility on a local level whilst simultaneously reducing both emission levels and transport cost.”

Businesses and community members have 24 hour access to the EVs without having to pay for tax, insurance, congestion charge, maintenance or fuel.

In terms of pricing, E-Car Club appears competitive. The top four car clubs in the country charge between £50-59.50 for joining then between £4-5 per hour.

The Guardian reviewed the Zoe last week claiming it to be “the best – and most practical – electric vehicle to date.”

Car revolution

Car sharing schemes are becoming increasingly popular around the world, appealing particularly to city residents who don’t want the burden of owning a vehicle outright.

In 2012 UK research company Par Hill found that after joining a car club, 55% of car owners gave up at least one car on joining and overall 24% of car clubs members have given up a car entirely.

Another study by the next greencar website suggests that each car club car typically replaces at least six private cars.

Rising pollution levels in cities are another factor in growing support for electric vehicles and sharing initiatives.

In July London’s air quality plummeted, with one analyst telling RTCC the city had the highest levels of nitrogen dioxide, a toxic gas, of any capital in Europe.

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Pollution in Hong Kong. (Pic: Mr Wabu)

By Tim Radford

Millions of lives could be saved by the end of the century if greenhouse gas emissions were reduced, say US researchers.

If the world does take concerted action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, then by 2100 between 1.4 million and three million people a year will be conspicuously better off: they won’t be dead.

Jason West of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in the US, and colleagues took a long, cool look at the health consequences of climate mitigation, and report that as carbon dioxide emissions fall, so do levels of fine particulate matter and ozone.

These incidental by-products of fossil fuel combustion are notorious health hazards, and can impose huge health costs on society.

But some air pollution would be a direct result of climate change, and slowing this, too, would have a global health payoff.

The authors report in Nature Climate Change that in US dollar terms, for every tonne of carbon dioxide emissions saved, the world would be somewhere between $50 and $380 richer.

Calculations like these are bewildering, hard to resolve with plausible accuracy and of course cannot be checked for another eight decades.

Most of the notional sufferers are not yet born, and some would suffer and die from respiratory problems anyway.

The potential deaths remain just that: potential but also potentially avoidable deaths of unidentifiable future citizens.

But such calculations are important for government planning – every decision both imposes costs and delivers benefits, and politicians need to have some sense of which are likely to be greater.

There have been arguments that attempts at climate mitigation would be expensive and, ultimately, more trouble than they are worth.

Dr West and colleagues confined their study to just the immediate incidental benefits of reduced emissions. They thought about the rise in international transport, the effect of methane on global ozone levels, and future population projections.

They did not try to calculate the value of limiting sea level rise, or containing the spread of tropical and subtropical diseases into the temperate zones, or the extra deaths through increased hazards of flood and drought and heat wave in a warmer world.

Action

They just looked at the incidental pollutants that accompany fossil fuel combustion, and started doing the sums.

They considered those regions where there were already high pollution levels and low governmental controls; they considered the age groups likely to cough and choke in an atmosphere of low level ozone, aerosols and fine soot particles.

Dr West also considered a series of climate projections in which emissions were reduced, or not reduced very much, or not at all; and then arrived at a set of likely deaths per year for the decades to come.

They also took into account political possibilities: the likelihood, for instance, that legislation in both East Asia and South Asia would start to limit air pollution, as governments began to do decades ago in Europe and the US.

And they concluded that there was clear value in action now: a global reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would save lives and save money around the planet.

By 2030, somewhere between 300,000 and 700,000 premature deaths a year could be avoided: two thirds of them in China alone.

By 2100, real action could prevent 2.2 million premature deaths a year – it could be 800,000 more, it could be 800,000 fewer.

But the money saved in the first decades for health services alone by reducing emissions would be greater than the overall economic price of mitigation.

The authors conclude that there is a clear need to coordinate action on air quality and climate change: “By addressing both problems simultaneously, they may be managed more effectively, at less cost, and with greater overall benefits.”

This article was produced by the Climate News Network.

The post Research highlights health benefits of cutting air pollution appeared first on Climate Home News.

Pollution in Shanghai (Pic: flickr / Sean Barnard)

By Sophie Yeo

Emissions in China could peak as soon as 2023 if a carbon pricing mechanism is introduced, according to new research by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Assuming a best case scenario, where barriers to the adoption of clean technologies are eliminated by policy makers and an emissions trading scheme is adopted in 2017, economists have concluded that China’s carbon emissions could start to decline as early as 2023.

China is currently experimenting with a cap-and-trade carbon pricing mechanism, and has set up emissions trading schemes across seven of its largest cities.

Last week, the price of carbon in Shenzhen, the first of the pilot schemes to start trading, rose to a price exceeding that of the EU market – a result which analysts said demonstrated that the companies involved were serious about carbon trading.

The trial run will inform the government’s decision about whether to set up a nationwide carbon market in 2015.

Even under a “New Normal” scenario – the model considered the most likely under current economic, policy and technological conditions – the economists project that emissions in China will begin to decrease by 2027.

This is despite the fact that China, currently the world’s largest power market and the greatest emitter of CO2, is on track to more than double its power generation between now and 2030.

Increasing power generation

The overall power generation of China is estimated to reach 2,707GW per year by 2030. This means installing an additional 88GW every year – equivalent to the total installed capacity of the UK.

But thanks to the falling technological costs of wind and solar and the increasing costs of coal fired generation due to environmental controls, along with a general increase in environmental awareness, renewable energy is set to make up half of this growth.

Michael Liebreich, chief executive of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said, “It is hard to underestimate the significance of China’s energy consumption growth and its evolving generation mix.

“The impacts will reach far beyond China and have major implications for the rest of the world, ranging from coal and gas prices to the cost and market size for renewable energy technologies – not to mention the health of the planet’s environment.”

Coal

While coal is projected to decrease from 67% of the total energy mix in 2012 to 44% in 2030, in absolute terms it will continue to grow by 25GW per year, making up a third of overall construction.

This means that the pollution problems faced by China will only worsen over the next 10 to 15 years, even while China switches to more renewable sources of energy.

“China has started to change course towards a cleaner future,” says Jun Ying, country manager and head of research for China at Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

“But despite significant progress in renewable energy deployment, coal looks set to remain dominant to 2030. More support for renewable energy, natural gas and energy efficiency will be needed if China wants to reduce its reliance on coal more quickly.”

If China is to see its energy mix become cleaner, a process which will require around US$77 billion investment per year in renewables, then stronger support will be needed for renewable energy, natural gas, energy efficiency and clean coal technologies.

Stable financing will be required for the renewable sector, and the report recommends that power companies with coal-heavy portfolios look into expanding into renewable generation – a strategy that will also reduce the financial risks of continued investment in the declining fossil fuel industry.

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China plans to invest $277 billion to combat air pollution. (Source: eutrophicationh&hypoxia)

China: China plans to invest 1.7 trillion yuan ($277 billion) to combat air pollution over the next five years, state media said on Thursday, underscoring the new government’s concerns about addressing a key source of social discontent. (Reuters)

UK: Government data confirms green goods and services market grew nearly five per cent to £122bn in 2011 to 2012. (Business Green)

US: US Vice President Joe Biden said in India on Wednesday that fighting climate change should not be at odds with economic development efforts in the world’s second-most-populous nation. (The Hill)

US: The US Environmental Protection Agency has updated its quarterly rankings of organisations that supply their electricity needs with renewable energy. (Renewable Energy World)

Canada: Climate change caused by human activities was behind the flooding in Calgary and the recent storms in central Ontario according to 53% of Canadians polled on 23 July by Forum Research. (The Star)

Researchers: Methane emitted from Arctic sea ice thaw could have catastrophic effects on global economy say UK researchers. (RTCC)

Finance: New regulations rule out new coal or lignite power plants from EIB investments, following similar move from World Bank last week. (RTCC)

Research: Ice loss has been “even faster than usual” according to records from the USA’s National Snow and Ice Data Center. (RTCC)

UK: 3D Holographic Radar can separate wind turbines from planes, making air traffic controllers’ jobs easier and reducing safety fears. (RTCC)

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Loss of biodiversity could impact ecosystems as much as climate change, pollution and other environmental stresses, according to new research.

The study, published in Nature, aims to directly compare the impacts of biological diversity loss, with those of other human-caused environmental changes including climate change.

And the results, according to the researchers, highlight the need for stronger local, national and international efforts to protect biodiversity.

Analysis: How can the biodiversity and climate crises be tackled together?

The researchers say the biggest challenge will be predicting the impacts of multiple environmental challenges (© Axel-D/Creative Commons)

The research – which combined data from 192 peer-reviewed studies to compare how environment factors affect plant growth and decomposition of dead plants – found that where local species falls within a lower range of projections (1 to 20% loss of species) there will be little impact on plant growth.

In this case changes in species will rank low compared to other impacts such as climate change.

Where species fall within intermediate projections (21-40%) however, species loss could reduce plant growth by 5-10%.

This change, according to the researchers, will be comparable to those witnessed with increasing ultraviolet radiation and a warming climate.

And where higher levels of extinction (41-60%) were predicted, the impacts of species loss ranked alongside other changes including ozone pollution, acid deposition on forests and nutrient pollution.

The researchers warned this loss of biodiversity could reduce nature’s ability to provide goods and services, including food, clean water and a stable climate.

They said the biggest challenge for researchers now would be to predict the impacts of these combined challenges of biodiversity loss, climate change and pollution on our natural environments.

See the full report here.

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In 2009 it was estimated by an Air Quality Management Project (AQMP) that poor air quality in Dhaka was contributing to 15,000 premature deaths, as well as millions of cases of pulmonary, respiratory and neurological illnesses.

Another report in the same year labelled the Buriganga River, running through the Capital city Dhaka, as the most polluted river in the country.

While Bangladesh has a number of environmental law and regulations in place – headed up by the Department of Environment – recent news reports coming from the country show little improvement since 2009.

Local journalist Probir Kumar Sarker has sent us the following report looking at what can be done on the ground by those most affected by pollution to help drive a clean environmental movement in the country.

In 2009, the Buriganga River was labelled the most polluted river in the country (© John Pavelka/Creative Commons)

When the government is not capable enough or unable to monitor and stop the ongoing violations of environmental laws, it is the people who can contribute.

They can assist the regulator by informing the officials of any shocking environmental degradation that is posing severe threat to their surroundings, attending monthly public hearings arranged by the government and also by following the rules properly as sensible citizens and raising awareness among others to stand against pollution.

The current scenario is at a grave stage in the fields of air pollution, caused by emissions of smoke mainly from vehicles, brick kilns and industries, and dust; contamination of flowing waters (river, canal etc) and open water (non-flowing) reservoirs (ponds, haors, baors etc.) because of industries discharging untreated waste water and filling up of waterbodies; dumping of solid waste at open places; soil pollution due to excessive use of pesticides, deforestation and brick kilns; and noise pollution.

The claims over the presence of a poor status of the country’s environment can easily be established by the recent-day news reports about violation of the existing environmental laws — no matter how effective the monitoring and enforcement operations are — in almost every social and industrial atmosphere across the country.

Calls for action

The special reports being published on the newspapers and television channels and calls from green groups to take stern action against the culprits are in someway heeded and sometimes immediate action is taken — given that the DoE suffers manpower shortage both in the fields of monitoring and enforcement of rules while the offenders try to avoid taking the precautionary measures “merely to save money”.

But in many cases, those calls are just gone by as the constraint to the environmental governance of the government is the lack of its capacity in terms of physical facilities, technical expertise and financial resources.

In a global survey report published last month, Bangladesh ranked second from last among 132 countries in terms of the air pollution situation, portraying that the air quality in the country is much below standard.

The situation has not turned so bad in a day or two. It is the result of the reluctance of the government to recruit adequate numbers of workforce in the highly sensitive regulatory body — Department of Environment (DoE) — to curb environmental offences.

Moreover, it also gives an impression of poor monitoring and command by the officials concerned since awareness among the majority of people is still to be created.

Old and dirty vehicles are a major problem in urban areas in Bangladesh (© Ahron-de-Leeuw/Creative Commons)

Despite the failure to ensure clean air, there have been several programmes carried out by the authorities to check it. We hail the authorities for their relentless efforts and hard work in this end.

The country’s biggest concern

Apparently, air pollution is seemed to have been the most concerning issue for the country now.

When the extent of air pollution is rising in the urban areas due to dense population, dust in the streets and construction sites, higher number of fuel oil-run and unfit motor vehicles, industries and brickfields, it is slowly approaching towards the suburban and rural areas too with the establishments of brickfields and other industries.

A policy support has to be there from the government side to decide how many approvals to industries would be issued, in what manner and where — considering the ability of the regulator in overseeing those after coming into operation.

Polluted air containing excessive carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and particulate matter has recently raised much concern because of its short- and long-term impact on the people’s health and mortality, as well as the environment and global warming–precisely on the crops and trees.

Contaminated air irritates eyes, throats and lungs, and thus leads to different breathing problems — coughing, asthma, headaches, and nausea; visibility problems; and heart complications.

Some chronic health effects include decreased lung capacity and lung cancer resulting from long-term exposure to toxic air pollutants.

In addition, it is to be noted that people, mainly those who are poor, living in or near industrial areas and highways are the most vulnerable to air pollution. Among them, the infants and the pregnant women are exposed to such pollution.

The waste problem

Meanwhile, dumping of waste is still a major issue in Dhaka as well as other parts of the country since the matter is yet to be fully-settled.

Industries and Brick Kilns are slowly moving into more rural parts of the country (© Abeeeer/Creative Commons)

A major portion of the everyday rubbish is still thrown away at open places other than at the designated dustbins, whereas the garbage, which the authorities takes away for dumping at a far place from localities, is not regularly been cleaned.

Thus, the discharging places become threats to the people living around and passing by since these result in low weight births and triggers health hazards.

Open waste often becomes a major breeding ground for the mosquitoes and other insects that carry germs and transmits them to humans and other living beings.

Decomposition of waste produces huge carbon dioxide that triggers global warming.

Besides raising people’s awareness over not disposing garbage here and there, recycling business can here play a vital role by reusing the valuable components including polythene, plastic goods, glass, iron, hospital, medical and organic waste.

But, when the mega city and many others are developing and population is increasing, the lack of a good number of recycling businesses has put the waste management issue still unaddressed at a large level.

According to the minister concerned, the authorities concerned are able to manage only half of the waste produced. Other than the city corporation cars, the street urchins collect recyclable objects from these places and sell those to recyclers.

Industry is a huge source of water pollution, as it produces pollutants that are extremely harmful to people and the environment.

Across the country, dying and washing plants, pulp and paper, fertiliser and petroleum refineries/industries, and others are diluting the waters unabated, even though they are supposed to use water treatment plants as per environment laws and special directives of the High Court.

Water pollution

Moreover, people at many parts of the country these days dump garbage on the banks of water bodies or flowing rivers or canal waters and also in drains resulting in contamination of the waters and clogging of the drains.

These types of treatments gradually harm the water quality and leave the poor people, dependent on the flowing water, in threats of waterborne diseases.

While some recycling takes place in the country, such businesses are still small in number (© Marufish/Creative Commons)

Moreover, polluted water stops natural living of fishes and other water creatures and helps create perfect breeding ground for the mosquitoes.

Many industrial facilities use freshwater to carry away waste from the plant and into rivers, lakes and oceans.

Pollutants from industrial sources include asbestos fibres, which can be inhaled and cause illnesses such as asbestosis, mesothelioma, lung cancer, intestinal cancer and liver cancer; lead, a metallic element and a non-biodegradable substance which is so hard to clean up once the environment is contaminated; mercury, another metallic element and a poison.

Nitrates and phosphates come from increased use of fertilisers and are behind a dense growth of plant life; the decomposition of the plants depletes the supply of oxygen, leading to the death of animal life.

Sulphur is another non-metallic substance that is harmful for marine life. Oils do not dissolve in water and instead form a thick layer on the water surface.

This can stop marine plants receiving enough light for photosynthesis. It is also harmful for fish and marine birds.

Petrochemicals are formed from gas or petrol and can be toxic to marine life.

Most recently, the ship breaking and shipbuilding sectors have become an emerging industry in Bangladesh and have also got the government’s helpful assistance to grow up more.

But here lies the concern about the upcoming future of this industry — whether it would be possible to regulate the yards so that they check pollution of the rivers and the Bay while working.

Noise Pollution

Noise pollution is another disturbing thing that only harms people and living beings not the environment.

Although the noise pollution level in the major urban centres of Bangladesh exceeds the legal standards, the issue hardly gets attention of the authorities concerned and in pollution discussions.

This is seen mainly in the urban areas due to vehicle congestion, generators, and construction sites crushing stones and bricks, and noise in industries.

People on the streets, poor people mainly children, the elderly and women living in industrial and dense areas are the most affected by such pollution.

Studies show that there are direct links between noise and health. Problems related to noise include stress related illnesses, high blood pressure, speech interference, hearing loss, sleep disruption, and lost productivity.

Probir Kumar Sarker believes community action could play a huge role in driving a clean environment moving in the country (© Marufish/Creative Commons)

Noise Induced Hearing Loss is the most common and often discussed health effect, but research has shown that exposure to constant or high levels of noise can cause countless adverse health affects.

Community action

Most of the businesses operating in the country take the chance of dodging environmental rules eyeing larger profits.

And since the authorities’ efforts to eliminate or refrain these dishonest businesses and industries from polluting further are meagre, given their manpower and other shortcomings, the people should come forward now individually –only if they want to solve the issues in the shortest possible time with the view to make the environment, our living place, the Earth livable for us and for the next generation.

Mass people should use the available tools to expedite the anti-pollution movements to press home in taking stern action against the major polluters.

Regardless of urban or rural areas, the people, in cooperation with the government’s officials concerned, may constitute forums comprising citizens from different spectra.

These organisations may play a key role in making others aware through door-to-door campaigns to check different forms of pollution caused by individuals, especially use of polythene, disposing waste at open places and water bodies, checking dust at construction sites, maintenance of private cars and other fuel oil-driven vehicles, and use of hydraulic horns.

They may also arrange street campaigns, discussions and seminars to bring the critical issues afore the society and media as well as the government. The existing social forums can also emphasise on the environmental issues.

The DoE, only responsible for the environmental management in the country, organises a public hearing chaired by its director general on the second Thursday of every month at its Agargaon office.

It is arranged to hear and note the complaints from the people who are directly or indirectly affected or those who want to bring an issue into light for an immediate solution.

Meanwhile, the people may also submit their comments or enquiry on the DoE’s website. The DoE officials can also be reached through phone or could be written about any environmental issues.

Through such a concerted move by the people and the government in parallel, a cleaner and better country could be built in the near future.

The government in this regard can play the leading role by being proactive in launching awareness campaigns among people across the country and increasing its manpower to be strong-hand against the culprits who are influential and cares a little about the environment.

The post Could people power drive Bangladeshi clean environment movement? appeared first on Climate Home News.

Plastics often get washed ashore after storms (source: kevin krejci/flickr)

The micro-plastic ‘soup’ forming in the world’s oceans will have long term affects on the plants and animals living in them, warn experts.

While many people will now be familiar with the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ – one of the world’s largest landfills – floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, in reality similar patches are being discovered and monitored across the oceans.

“The focus has always been the Pacific Garbage Patch but in reality we see similar garbage patches in the Atlantic, in the South Pacific, the South Atlantic and so one,” Dr Simon Boxall, from the National Oceanography Centre at University of Southampton told RTCC. “The ‘Garbage Patch’ is not unique to the Pacific.

2006 estimates from the United Nations Environment Program suggest that every square mile of ocean hosts 46,000 pieces of floating plastic.

Discovered in 1997 by Captain Charles Moore, the Pacific Garbage Patch is made up of the Western Patch forming east of Japan and west of Hawaii and Eastern Patch floating between Hawaii and California.

The patches contain everything from fishing nets and plastic bottles and caps to toothbrushes, containers and boxes. But Dr Boxall warns against getting swept up in the image of a mass of rubbish you can see and touch.

“There has been a popular press for this mass of plastic bags and bottles and cans and things which pile up in the middle of the Pacific. The reality is that if you went out there you would be hard pushed to see much with the naked eye,” he explained.

“Most of the plastic in the ocean is actually very small, microscopic – we are talking about stuff that is maybe a centimetre, maybe a millimetre, maybe even a few microns across.”

Formation of the garbage patches

In the US, 2 million plastic bottles are used every 5 minutes (source: superdumpa/flickr)

According to UNESCO global production of plastics increased at an average of 9% per year rising from 1.5 million tonnes in 1950 to 245 million tonnes by 2008. Following a drop in 2009 the rate of plastic is once again picking up.

When plastic is thrown away – not including that which is thrown directly into the ocean from the beach or boats – it has traditionally ended up in landfill, where much of it is buried. However, large quantities of it end up in the water-table and slowly make their way to the oceans.

Across the world’s oceans, gyres (large systems of rotating currents), pull the waste into the middle of the currents creating floating rubbish dumps.

Impacts and solutions

While larger discarded waste can cause entanglement, asphyxiation or blockage of organs in a variety of marine species including whales, seals, seabirds and fish, micro-plastics present a more insidious threat.

Dr Boxall said increasing research suggests that microscopic particles of plastic mimic materials including oestrogen and can have long term effects of the reproductive cycles and health of plants and animals in the ocean.

Plastics are also well known to accumulate persistent toxic chemicals.

As these smaller micro-chemicals are ingested more frequently than some of the larger waste, scientists worry that contamination could be transferred to marine life following digestion.

Research is yet to suggest, however, that mirco-plastic content in the oceans could have a direct effect on humans.

Dr Boxall said: “It is not questions of saying oh gosh we can never go in the sea again because of the amount of plastic. We do need to monitor it. We do need to keep an eye on it. The main problems are that we can’t do much about it.”

Once in the sea, these plastics can be near impossible to remove. Writing in UNESCO’s International Oceanography Commission 2011 annual report, Dr Tim Bowmer, chair of Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection wrote:

Plastic in the oceans and along the coastline has long term affects on marine animals and plants (source: tomorrow never knows/flickr)

“Better waste management which includes far improved plastics recovery and recycling is obviously a major factor in preventing waste plastic reaching the sea.

“If Germany, Switzerland and Scandinavia can achieve really high levels of over 80% plastic recovery, then why not the rest of Europe, the USA and Japan as a starting point?”

Current trends do point towards equilibrium between the amount of plastic being put into the ocean and is found in the ocean gyres, and that which is going into the wider ocean or into sediments in the sea. While we have not stopped putting plastic into the ocean , we are no longer increasing it.

Boxall believes that as the price of oil rises, it becomes more economically viable to recycle and keep plastics in the system.

“So many more components of the plastics industry are actively supporting recycling and that is a good thing because it is keeping plastics in use rather than sitting in landfill or in the ocean,” he said.

Contact the author ts@rtcc.org or @rtcc_tierney.

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