UPDATE: China's large state-owned power firms have taken the lead in the country's nascent carbon offset market, leveraging preferential procedures to cut the cost of complying with new rules capping greenhouse gas emissions. The central government will issue offsets, known as Chinese Certified Emissions Reductions (CCERs), under a new programme to reward projects that can prove they cut carbon emissions. Companies covered by China's five recently launched emissions trading schemes can use CCERs to cover 5 percent to 10 percent of their emissions, making for an attractive low-cost compliance option. But China's state-owned enterprises get preferential treatment as they can apply directly to the central government for eligibility, while private firms face a time-consuming process to get approval from regional authorities before they can turn to Beijing. "This will cut compliance costs for the state-owned companies, and since they are first in line to take on targets in the envisaged national (carbon) market, the earlier they move, the less costly it will be for them," said Chen Bo, a researcher at the Central University of Finance and Economics. State enterprises own six of the first seven projects up for consideration later this week by a technical panel under the offset programme. China General Nuclear runs four of them, all wind farms. The advantage held by the state-owned enterprises may prove especially important in the first year of the scheme. Companies covered by carbon markets in Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Tianjin must hand permits to regulators to cover for their 2013 emissions by the end of June, and getting low-cost credits issued by then will be a race against time, especially for private firms.

China's state utilities move on preferential rules in carbon offset market | Reuters: "Traders say it will take 6 to 8 months from the design phase until a project can receive its first CCERs.

The budding market has yet to establish a clear and transparent price for the carbon credits."



'via Blog this'

FYI: Women suffer more disabling strokes than men and need to become better aware of their unique risk factors, including pregnancy complications and the use of oral contraceptives, according to recommendations released Thursday by the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association. The stroke prevention guidelines — the first to be released specifically for women — also point to risk factors more common in women, such as migraines with aura, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. Such differences could point to why strokes are the third leading cause of death in women but only the fifth leading cause of death in men. “These new guidelines are a call to action that doctors really need to be focusing more on women when it comes to stroke prevention,” said Dr. Shazam Hussain, head of the Stroke Section at the Cleveland Clinic, who was not involved with developing the guidelines. About 3 percent of Americans have lived through strokes, with many suffering permanent health problems such as impaired speech, memory loss, or paralysis. Women who develop dangerous hypertension during pregnancy, known as preeclampsia, have twice the risk of having a stroke later in life compared with those who had healthy pregnancies.

Stroke prevention guidelines highlight special risks for women - Health & wellness - The Boston Globe: "The guidelines, published in the journal Stroke, advise doctors to consider preeclampsia to be a stroke risk factor akin to smoking, high cholesterol, and obesity because it’s likely to lead to hypertension years after the pregnancy."



'via Blog this'

UPDATE: Abu Dhabi -- Nineteen countries have pledged to create an Africa Clean Energy Corridor to exploit the continent’s vast renewable potential. Energy ministers and delegates from the countries endorsed an action agenda drawn up by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in Abu Dhabi. The corridor is designed to boost the deployment of renewable energy and help meet Africa’s rising energy demand with clean power from renewable sources such as hydro, geothermal, biomass, wind and solar. IRENA’s director-general Adnan Z. Amin said the corridor would “provide the continent with the opportunity to leapfrog into a sustainable energy future.” “The dynamic development that Africa will see in the next decades needs to extend to the energy sector, and Africa’s abundant renewable energy resources are a perfect match to meet rising demand in a sustainable and cost-effective way, from Cairo to Cape Town.”

Countries Vow to Form Africa Clean Energy Corridor: "Electricity demand is expected to triple in southern Africa and quadruple in east Africa over the next 25 years and there is a desire among many nations to meet this demand with renewables.

Ethiopia’s energy minister Alemayehu Tegenu said the clean energy corridor would help “leverage the tremendous opportunity that renewable energy presents, for the best of the African states and the entire continent.”"



'via Blog this'

UPDATE: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's critical assessment of the proposed northern leg of the Keystone pipeline could have outsized influence on the final decision of whether to approve the project, experts familiar with the process said. Friday's State Department report contained the EPA's evaluation that crude produced from Canada's oil sands, which the pipeline would carry, are 17 percent more greenhouse gas intensive than average oil used in the United States. The EPA also said oil sands imports would be 2-10 percent more greenhouse-gas intensive than imported oil from Mexico or Venezuela that would probably replace it.

EPA scrutiny could be linchpin to Keystone review process - Yahoo News: "The Departments of Defense, Commerce, Commerce, Energy, Justice, Transportation and Homeland Security are also evaluating the State Department's environmental assessment of the Keystone proposal. Of the eight agencies that have 90 days to weigh in, the EPA's evaluation is expected to be the most influential because of its expertise on the environment."



'via Blog this'

UPDATE: "Geoengineering is a controversial approach to dealing with climate change. Gaia Vince explores the process of putting chemicals in the stratosphere to stop solar energy reaching the earth. When volcanoes erupt they put sulphur in the stratosphere. The particles reflect solar rays back into space and the planet cools down. Scientists are suggesting that it could be possible to put sulphur into the stratosphere using specialised aircraft or a very long pipe. But if this was implemented there could be impacts on rainfall and the ozone layer. Another idea is to spray seawater to whiten clouds that would reflect more energy away from the earth. Gaia Vince talks to the researchers who are considering solar radiation management. She also hears from social scientists who are finding out what the public think about the idea and who are asking who should make decisions about implementing this way of cooling the planet. "BBC World Service - Discovery, Geoengineering

CLICK LINK TO LISTEN: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01p2pf4?ocid=socialflow_twitter_worldservice



'via Blog this'