Greenhouse accounting under the UN : only if its human connected

Carbon is carbon. Whether it is human induced or not.

"Camel herds emit a very small amount of greenhouse gas," Senator Wong’s spokeswoman said.

The Australian obtained two independent assessments of the mathematics of taking out the one million-strong feral camel herd: from the federal Parliamentary Library and also veterinary scientist George Wilson, an expert in animal greenhouse emissions.

Dr Wilson, who is head of consulting group Australian Wildlife Services, remains sceptical of the proposal to eradicate feral camels due to practical problems.

But he, like the library, maintained that the Coalition had its numbers right.

A spokeswoman for Senator Wong said the "500 cars" carbon analogy was appropriate because only emissions from tourist ride-type camels counted under Kyoto.

"The figures provided relate to anthropogenic emissions that count towards our national emissions target," the spokeswoman said. "This same principle applies elsewhere.

For example, we don’t include the emissions from bushfires or drought, because even though they impact on our emissions, they are not something in our direct control."

The absurdity of the UN carbon accounting systems was also highlighted by Mick Keogh, executive director of research group the Australian Farm Institute.

Mr Keogh noted that while emissions from a deliberately lit bushfire count under Kyoto, they did not if the fire was caused by lightning.

And it also varies depending on whether it razes privately owed land or a national park.

"When it’s burning in the park, none of those emissions officially count, but when it spreads back out of the park to private land on the other side, it starts to again contribute to greenhouse emissions as measured by the UN’s rules," he said.

Emissions will rise under ETS too in Australia

THE Federal Government cannot guarantee that its controversial climate plan will cut Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions at all.

Labor and the Liberals are fiercely arguing over whose climate change plan is the best.

Both plans aim to reduce emissions by 5 per cent by 2020.

The government says the opposition’s plan won’t work and could see emissions rise.

But the same argument could be levelled against the government’s proposed emissions trading scheme (ETS).

Government data appears to show that under the ETS, Australia’s emissions would rise from 553 million tonnes in 2000 to 585 million tonnes by 2020.

The target to cut emissions by 5 per cent is only reached by paying other countries to reduce their emissions.

Source: Herald Sun

Indian per capita income shows the level of inequality in the country

When the property prices in India are tough for people earning Rs 43,749 per month the times of india reports that the annual income on average for Indians is Rs 43,749. This is inequality of the highest level.

From the Times:

An Indian on an average is expected to earn Rs 43,749 in 2009-10, nine per cent more than what he would have received last fiscal if the national income were evenly

http://m.timesofindia.com/PDATOI/articleshow/5548821.cms

India forms new climate change body

Quotes:

India forms new climate change body – Telegraph

  • The Indian government’s move is a significant snub to both the IPCC and Dr
    Pachauri as he battles to defend his reputation following the revelation his
    most recent climate change report included false claims that most of the
    Himalayan glaciers would melt away by 2035. Scientists believe it could take
    more than 300 years for the glaciers to disappear

· He announced the Indian government will established a separate National
Institute of Himalayan Glaciology to monitor the effects of climate change
on the world’s ‘third ice cap’, and an ‘Indian IPCC’ to use ‘climate
science’ to assess the impact of global warming throughout the country.

“There is a fine line between climate science and climate evangelism. I am for
climate science. I think people misused [the] IPCC report, [the] IPCC
doesn’t do the original research which is one of the weaknesses … they just
take published literature and then they derive assessments, so we had
goof-ups on Amazon forest, glaciers, snow peaks.

“I respect the IPCC but India is a very large country and cannot depend only
on [the] IPCC and so we have launched the Indian Network on Comprehensive
Climate Change Assessment (INCCA),” he said.

It will bring together 125 research institutions throughout India, work with
international bodies and operate as a “sort of Indian IPCC,” he added.

Read more »

( http://message.diigo.com/message/india-forms-new-climate-change-body-telegraph-745979 )

Worldisgreen Links 02/03/2010

  • tags: wiglinks

    • The climate change policies of the prime minister and the leader of the opposition have more in common than you might think.

      For a start, both studiously ignore the need for the Australian economy to make any sort of transition, despite the clear global trend. If you are in any doubt about that, check out the Obama budget, overnight.

      Rudd’s policy achieved this omission through a staggering amount of compensation to industry and because his policy was all about creating division in the Coalition. It wasn’t until Turnbull had been condemned to execution that it suddenly dawned on the government that it had skewered an ally. Or maybe it wasn’t in search of one.

      Abbott’s policy avoids transformation by ignoring the subject altogether – plant more trees, bury a bit of charcoal, take care on how you cut the grass and keep the plough in the shed.

  • tags: wiglinks

    • He said: “One of the large power companies has provided us with their advice. Because it’s commercial-in-confidence, they didn’t want it released – but they provided us with their advice that they could convert from coal to gas for $13 per tonne under this system.

      “Now we want to check that, but … the oldest and least efficient of the power providers has said to us that under the government’s ETS we’re just not going to be able to afford the capital to transition because we will be struggling just to survive… Under this they’ve said that if our balance sheets are clear and there’s an incentive to change from coal to gas, this is very attractive and we are more likely rather than less likely to change under this system.”

      Australia’s oldest and least efficient power station is Hazelwood in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, owned by International Power of the UK and the Commonwealth Bank (8.2 per cent). In fact, in 2005 it was nominated the least efficient power station in the world.

      Yallourn, owned by China Light & Power subsidiary, Truenergy, is next. If Hazelwood and Yallourn convert from brown coal to gas, Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions would drop by 5 per cent, as required. Job done.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Worldisgreen Links 02/02/2010

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.