Countries pledge to Copenhagen Accord

After the result of the Copenhagen Accord on December 2009, countries were given a time frame of January 31, 2010 to agree to the accord and the deadline has passed with US renewing vows to reduce CO2 emissions.

Basically the Accord summarized that global temperatures should not exceed more than 2 degrees and that countries affected by climate change were to be compensated by giving them financial support to combat climate change.

UN will announce the list of signatories soon but so far here are some of the pledges made by countries.

China - to reduce "carbon intensity" by 40-45% from 2005 by 2020.

India - to reduce carbon intensity by 20-25% from 2005 by 2020.

US - aim to cut emissions by about 17% by 2020, from 2005 levels.

EU - 20% emissions cut by 2020 from 1990 levels, and 30% if other nations deepen their reductions.

Brazil - to aim for 36-39% below projected levels by 2020.

Japan - 25% below 1990 levels by 2020

China is on the run for clean energy development

So far China has shown the the world what they are capable off but it does not get over there. For the past two years they have shown great development in the field of renewable energy surpassing countries like Denmark, Germany, Spain and the US. They are now the world's largest wind turbine maker followed by the world's largest solar panel maker. This will just boom China's economy further but it will benefit their economy more than it will do to the environment.

The Davos World Summit ended will talks ending with the slight ray of hope of countries to come up with deals to sustain climate change. There has been some big issues over the last few days with governments still not showing any interest to the Copenhagen Accord, I think the most disappointing document whether created where the world waited for a REAL DEAL! Well we cannot dwell on the past but have to look ahead.

China to invest $5bn on solar power farms

China, the world's largest greenhouse emitter has signed a deal with eSolar Inc. to invest in solar power plants. China has overtaken US as the largest emitter in CO2 and China has pledged that they intend to reduce their emissions.

Solar thermal power farms will generate a capacity of 2000MW. This is a great effort by China as they are still considered as a developing economy so they do not have to agree with global bindings to reduce CO2 emissions. But since they have surpassed US, this project will be many more of green projects to come from China.

Food security at high alert: Climate change

Now with Copenhagen over and emission targets set high, melting glaciers in the Himalayas have given people all over that region to worry. Now with every one degree rise in temperature farmers can expect a 10% decrease in wheat, rice and corn yields. An interview of Lester R. Brown, an environmentalist and President of Earth Policy Institure and DNA states why we have to worry.

Copenhagen: Failure or A Start

Its been more than a week since one of the most anticipating summit of all time, a crucial moment in human history, the decision that was supposed to change the way we live. But the outcome of the Copenhagen had mixed reactions.

Failure:

With the inception of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCC) on 1992, almost twenty years down the line, a strong protocol still could not be established. Copenhagen was the moment, the turning point but politicians failed to come up with a strong protocol where all developed countries where to participate especially the major countries US and China.

I have to say, 20 years and yet we still cannot come up with a decision on a strong climate framework. The science is clear. In the ending moments of the summit, politicians scrambled to show the world they could do sometime and salvage the most important climate convention. They came up with the "The Copenhagen Accord." I read the accord and really there is nothing specific mentioned in the accord. No numbers, no figures nothing. No specific commitment only a figure they will pay the LDCs (Least developing countries) an amount of $30bn over the next three years till 2012 when after that, it is expected that the figure will be increased. Even this figure of $30bn is not sufficient for LDCs to sustain. My country, Bangladesh are one of the major victims and our Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina made it clear that we require more money to sustain. Remember total cost for combating climate change is $100bn per year.

Since no solid decision has been made, next year in COP16 at Mexico, it is expected a final decision to be settled. I was watching a debate on BBC on the last day of Copenhagen and I remember Maldives President Mr. Nasheed, that we have a window of 7 years to come up with a protocol and we cannot delay this any further. Yet we have to wait for COP16.


A Start:

Ever since Nasa top climatologist, Dr. James Hansen on 2008 said that 350ppm(parts per million) was the target to be set by countries to maintain a healthy environment, worldwide campaigns were going driven by youths all over the world, which we all know as 350.org. But 350.org were not the only group, organizations like tcktcktck.org, Avaaz, Greenpeace and countless organizations campaigned for a better future. They formed one of the largest movements for climate justice in human history. Honestly as I went through the net and saw how many people were involved for a "Real Deal" is really surprising. In the middle of the summit, 350 Virgils, a campaign by 350 was organized on the weekend of December 11th-13th globally, hoping that world leaders pay attention. A mail I received from 350 that an elephant is moving and an elephant is an under statement. This is A START from the people and their hard work will pay one day, the day a "Real Deal" is made but until that the elephant should become more bigger.

I think the Copenhagen Accord is a start for the politicians but they are very behind and if they not catch up real fast, lets just say we will not have a home to stay. Also China has suggested that it will move into renewable energies and will cut their carbon emissions but no exact figure was mentioned. India has also said that it will shift into renewable energies over the next couple of years and by 2020 it plans to complete some projects on renewable sources of energy.

A friend of mine, Muntasir Muzahid Chowdhury came up with a song for the summit and since I was caught up with other things, I am posting it now. The name of the song is E.A.R.T.H (Elegies, Accusations, Redemption, Truths, Hereafter)

http://www.mediafire.com/?idtgmz0mqnd

You can get the lyrics here.


I salute all the people who participated in this global movement. The people who waited in line at Copenhagen to make their points heard, all campaigners WELL DONE! but its not over. But for now, lets just enjoy the holidays!

Himalayan Glaciers: Running away

The Himalayan Glaciers, the largest water source compared to the polar ice caps, and the seven great Asian rivers, is melting fast. What makes it different from the polar ice caps, its a major source of drinking water within the regions surrounding the Himalayan. As a result, lack of fresh drinking water will pose a major health risk in the near future, and not only that, with the glaciers melting fast, raising sea levels will be some of the issues that will be faced in the near future.

As the water level declines (of course after decades), chances of drought happening is for sure, which will have a large affect to the agricultural sectors. Countries surrounding the Himalayan, China, India, Nepal as well as the people far away from this region depend on agricultural, so you get the picture as too why this is serious.

Beijing wants cleaner air to breathe

With the Beijing Olympics over, all the restrictions provided by the government to maintain a clean air quality of Beijing's atmosphere are going to be lifted however citizens have complained and want the restrictions applied. The people realizing that they require clean breathing air and since they are rules why not keep it.

In order to maintain the restrictions, the government would have to still enforce laws such as keeping drivers off the street, closing polluting factories and shutting down rubbish dumps. In a report by the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, the air quality of Beijing improved by 50% during the Olympics that means that there was less air pollution. Finally people are becoming vocal enough to do something about the environment and they are willing to fight for cleaner air.

Cheers to all who are fighting!!!

No Car Day in China

With the Olympics being held in China next year, China has declared No Car Day in over 100 cities hoping to reduce the smog produced by cars. China is now considered as the first country in the list of highest greenhouse gases emitted with the United States holding the second place. To know more visit the article here at BBC website.

Leaders unit on Climate deal

The Apec meeting held in Sydney, Australia under tight security turned out to be a good one in a very long time. Countries like US and China , both of them are the largest creators of greenhouse gases, they too have signed the statement. To know more visit the BBC article.

Some News

Its been quite a while something like 15 days. Well actually last week, I sat down to write a post and boom by connection goes dead. Since my university started I get time only during the weekend. So I could not post last week and finally my connection seems ok, so I will give some news.

Actually this is something I wanted to post last week, its old news but anyways a lot has been going on. Firstly, ice caps in Tibet are melting and it is predicted to be completely dissipated by 2030. For us South-Asia countries it is not good cause this will first increase the water level through the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean. So countries like China, India, Bangladesh will be affected mos with cities flooded.

Also some glaciers in Chile have suddenly disappeared. Witnesses have mentioned that glaciers where present but do not know how it vanished. All that was present were cracks on the floor. Quite mysterious.

As most of you are seeing the recent weather patterns in South Asia with strong storms and cyclones across Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. So far from what I know 200 people were killed in Pakistan during these storms and my condelences to the people who were killed and their families. Other than these people thousands of refugees are moved to temporary make-up tents where they are supplied with reliefs. People living in villages are most affected as most of their houses are flooded with water. These refugees can be considered as climate change refugees, a term which will be commonly used in the near future. Even China and UK had some serious flooding.

You can view this bbcnews video from youtube and this one

Taj Mahal needs a clean up

Taj Mahal might get its own special clean-up. It is India's most prided monument but in recent years its outlook has been tarnished due to pollution. Acid rain caused by chemicals present in the atmosphere eats up the marble on the structure, slowly degrading it. TO know more about the clean up visit the source.

China plans to counter climate change. To know vist source.

It seems finally the George Bush is taking action against global climate change but it may still require the insistence of the G8 summit that will be held this month. Read it here.

Asia play big role in global warming

Although some of you consider it an old news but I have been busy for some time so I could not post the news on time but its kind of important.

There has been speculation that Asia is playing a great role in global warming. The air pollution created by countries such as China, India, Bangladesh, and other Asian countries are transferred to the other side of the hemisphere. How is that possible?
The polluted air are passed over the Pacific Ocean via air currents. So all the air pollution is been shifted all around the world. In that case the pollution created by the USA can come to China or vice versa.

At the present moment Africa is facing major problems and signs of global warming is remarkable present. The current drought situation, increase in temperatures are signs of global warming. Even in Bangladesh the weather is different and there are variations in weather patterns.

India's Hi-tech waste mirrors its booming economy

India's big leap in economy has caused a greater increase in hi-tech waste. What is hi-tech waste? Toxic electronic waste like computers, televisions, and many more are hi-tech waste and it is claimed by an environmental group that such wastes are been thrown without check and the reason would be that there are no laws present to regulate these wastes.

Toxic Link said while the Asian giant's economy has been growing 8 percent annually over the last three years has also resulted in the production of 150,000 tonnes of electronic waste each year.

After an eight month study by the group shows that India's great source of e-waste is the busy financial hub Mumbai producing 19,000 tonnes every year.

Director of Toxic Link said that since there are no laws for its safe management that this could create serious health and environmental impacts.

In the early 1990s India's liberal economic provided people to create more banks, financial institutions, electronics industries, information technology firms and call centres setting up operations across the country.

This surge in economy has also led middle class people estimated 300 million people an increase in spending as more people get better salary. More spending would lead to a craving for electronic products which will eventually create a massive increase in electronic disposal.

Most people buy electronics such as mobile phones, use it for 2-3 months chuck the old one and buy another one. India is not the only one, China is not far behind. I found a site e-waste Guide which deals with e-waste and how to recycle it. They have done case studies in various countries such as India, China, South Africa.

So if e-waste increases however there are disadvantages to it such as it has one of largest Let me now talk why electronic waste is toxic. Chemicals such as lead and cadmium in circuit boards lead oxide and cadmium in monitor cathode ray tubes (CRT); mercury in switches and flat screen monitors; cadmium in computer batteries; polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in older capacitors and transformers and brominated flame retardants on printed circuit boards, plastic casings, cables and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) cable insulation that release highly poisonous gases when heated.

In order to contain these wastes expensive recycle plants or machines are required to keep these wastes under control. Although currently in India the present recyclers do not have such expensive technology to handle such waste. Alternate methods such as product reuse, conventional disposal in landfills and incinerators. However we know that when such products burn they produce extremely poisonous gases which a small percentage could kill people.

China to invest in $175bn in enviornment clean-up

China plans to invest 1.4 trillion yuan ($175 billion) in enviornment protection for the next 5 years.The money which is nearly equivalent to 1.5% of its GDP. Its prime targets are controlling water pollution, improving air quality in smogged areas of cities and putting a stop to soil erosion. It also aims to build sewerage facilities along 10 river valleys to dispose of polluted water released from populated areas; part of the fund is also going to be used toreduce sulfur dioxide and dust.

China's Yangtze is in peril

One of the biggest river in the world and the largest in China, the Yangtze river is in serious peril. The river was told is was too big for pollution to occur due to its sheer capacity of 900 billions of water. However the incident which took few months back ago have showed signs of pollution. It was said the river was too big to poison although that assumption was wrong. Hydrologists are saying that the water is cancerous and could cause a major imbalance in marine life and enviornment. The 3,964 mile long river supports some 400 million people which means one in every 15 people in the planet.

China Clean up

China had to dump more chemicals to clean up the toxic river. The cadmium containing slick forced people to cut off tap water. The slick was then flushed into the North River, running to the Guangdong province north to south. The sludge was then enclosed by a dam, where chemicals were dumped to neutralize it.
The chemical benzene was tested to check if the concentration of it were within safety regulations. Luckily it was. Although do we really know for sure that whether it was safe. Only the fishes would be able to tell us.

China's Enviornmental disaster

The explosion at a chemical plant in China. Eventhough this is old news, i need to say it cause i think this explosion may lead to a great ecosystem imbalance. During the explosion the chemical, benzene leaked into the river Songhua polluting the river and eventually made it impossible to drink water from the river.

It not only affected China, the toxic chemicals also entered Russia. According to reports a chemical cadmium a potentially cancer-creating chemical also flowed to a tributary of Yangtze River.

So you can imagine when toxicating a river the lives of fishes and aquatic animals are in great risk. Pollution not only affects animals but it also affects us. Although the explosion is an accident we have to learn to be must more careful and cautious or else things could get worse...