Decoding 2° CO2penhagen Reasons 4 Optimism

Analysis by Dean Adams Curtis, editor of LuvGreen.com

Observers were disappointed by the lack of binding and verifiable limits on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the early December talks in Denmark. But what successes came out of the U.N. Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen?

First, the talks revealed that the United States, China, India, and Brazil, are in the process of building a transformational framework that will result in sustainable emissions everywhere.

Nary a naysayer noted that these hugely important actors on the climate change stage were not significantly engaged in the process during the past decade. Now they are deeply involved, which should give everyone on the planet reason for optimism.

Certainly China's "point-blank refusal" to accept binding targets can be seen as a negative, unless you note their leadership's extraordinary engagement in the talks and China's commitment to not only reach, but exceed targets for emission reductions.

Some analysts see light from the tunnel's end based upon the tough stance President Obama took with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. The two leaders met privately for an hour at the climax of the talks, then directed their negotiating teams to continue the discussions.

Tree on a U.S. lane

President Obama was aggressive at striving for a deal until midnight on the conference's final Friday. Obama even invited Wen to another last minute meeting. Even though the Chinese leader did not attend, the U.S. and Chinese teams did meet again.


Small trees in land of giants

So much interaction took place between the two nations in Copenhagen that some have taken to calling them the "Gang of Two."

This analyst was glad to see taht in the first week of the climate change talks in Copenhagen, negotiators made progress promoting use of forests to soak up carbon dioxide...and not much else.

Talks broke down, a walkout ensued, over a thousand protestors were arrested, and tensions elevated around whether to carry on the Kyoto Protocols.

Fortunately, the second week of the talks were more productive. They did not end up exceeding targets, but

China and India made major concessions on the final day of COP15 and Brazil also ended up taking steps with the United States toward measurable, reportable, and verifiable (MRV) new framework. Obama noted that an agreement must "insure credibility" and stressed the need for "accountability."

Prior to the start of the Denmark disussions, the Maxman-Markey energy and climate change bill includes cap and trade provisions was moving through Congress.

Unfortunately, after the Denmark discussions have finished, this bill is still moving through Congress.

Because the Maxman-Markey bill was not available, as had been hoped by its two sponsors, who were in attendence at COP15, to show exactly what the U.S. was going to enact. If the U.S. had a law already on the books by the time the Copenhagen conference started, the outcome in Denmark might have been decidedly different.

Indiana trees

At the start of the U.N. Climate Change Conference we heard quotes like "This is our chance. If we miss it, it could take years before we get a new and better one, if we ever do," spoken by conference president Connie Hedegaard.

We are thankful that everyone's hard negotiating work and active thinking has led us to the doorway of a fundamentally new reality. Even though there were rifts at COP15 between rich & poor, developed & undeveloped nations the conference resulted in what Yvo de Boer, the Executive Director of the UNFCC called "an impressive accord, but without binding limits."

Darjeeling trees, India

This istoreco2.com website offers a variety of new services. Among these are guidance for individuals and organizations on carbon offset trading that leads to validated sequestration and in many cases which help life individuals out of poverty. "The evidence is now overwhelming" that the world needs early action to combat global warming," said Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change at the start of the conference.

Europe and the United States, along with other industrialized countries, pledged $100 billion to pay mightily for programs to reduce carbon emissions in developing countries, as well as to reduce deforestation and degradatation (REDD). It may help lift many from poverty.

While the success at COP15 was not spectacular, we can afford to be optimistic about the "first step" toward monitoring by the United States, India, China and Brazil. Now that India, China, Brazil and the United States have come into a global framework with reductions and verification, early action will likely take place.

We support an early international conference this July in Mexico City, as Al Gore has proposed, to agree on details like the greenhouse gas reduction targets each nation will be undertaking.

We're in California, where our Assembly passed a bill (AB 32) this year that began our state's journey toward a cap and trade program.

And we've been at parties in Los Angeles where various people have asked "What's cap and trade?"

Trees. What's not to like?

We offer this definition. Each nation needs to agree to limit, or cap, the total amount of greenhouse gas emitted by their country. Now each of them will have to decide the best way to meet these emission limits. They will then cap the amount various population centers and industries can put into the atmosphere.

Some people and industries will be innovators and will limit their emissions more than they are required to do. By doing this they will earn credits, which will be worth money. Their worth will be based upon the number of people and industries that are not able to reduce their emissions enough to meet caps and need to buy credits to offset their excess greenhouse gas emissions.

There are many global warming denyers. They will buck and snort that all the facts are a vast conspiracy. But they are wrong. We are now on a planet that is facing up to the limits imposed by the nature of our fragile, lovely, and so far unique planet, which has been appropriately described ...Spaceship Earth.

Grow a tree, make money

In early 2010, the software development team of this web site will launch an application to help you find verified projects and upcoming opportunities that will sequester greenhouse gases.

This site's use of the Internet is aimed at bringing together people who have land on which to grow trees with people who are interested in supporting their efforts. We are dedicated to
connecting innovators.

With this simple application you can explore customized ways to offset your carbon footprints.

You will be able to trade carbon credits for Amazonian rainforest replenishment efforts, work with your local utility company to promote sequestration of the greenhouse gas emissions from local power stations, and much more.

Perhaps you are a farmer or owner of land that you would like to dedicate to the global effort to sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. istoreco2.com provides you with ways to grow trees and get cash for doing so.

We at istoreco2 are striving to provide paths from poverty for thousands of people who will be employed as validators, park rangers, and botanical inspectors to provide verifiable carbon sequestration projects.

In this way, the U.N. millenium goal to eradicate poverty by 2020 fits nicely with the post COP15 resolutions.

Click above for fun information about an evolving environmental ethic from ancient sources.

A degree (+.5) or two

For some, the need now is to create the architecture and establish the mechanisms to keep us below a 2 degree temperature rise. However for many small island nations represented at the Copenhagen conference, the goal was to keep temperature rise below 1.5 degrees.

380 parts per million must
go down to under 350ppm

istoreCO2.com supports helping nature do carbon sequestration in forests and farms that will bring down the level of CO2 in the atmosphere from over 380 parts per million to under the 350 parts per million. Please have a look at 350.org for more about why the 350 ppm figure is important.

Cambodian charcoal

Did you know that rural poor in Cambodia and in many other equatorial countries are burning the forests to produce charcoal. They make their livelyhood selling this charcoal as a cooking fuel.

What can folks in Europe, the United States and elsewhere, who cook on natural gas (methane) or electric ranges, say to the Cambodian forest-burning, charcoal-harvester?

Certainly we must provide this person with a path to prosperity that comes as a result of abandoning old ways. We must look to advancing U.N. Millenium Development goals like the elimination of poverty on the planet as we search for answers that will help us all.

A question this website always strives to answer is, how can we make forest protection more valuable to the rural poor of Brazil, Cambodia, Indonesia, and everywhere else?

SO2 Reduction Successes CO2 Roadmap to Success

We would like to work with a utility company such as DTE, owners of Michigan's largest coal-fired plant.

The utility is investing six hundred million dollars to almost eliminate sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain and respiratory problems.

While this is very good news, and points to United States success getting sulfur-dioxide (SO2) scrubbed from smoke-stakes since Congress passed Amendments to the Clean Air Act, what about the CO2?

The DTE plant will still be one of the largest carbon dioxide emitters in the U.S. We are hoping to work together with DTE to promote tree planting campaigns within their service area that will offset a perentage of their CO2 emissions while they are phasing in source CO2 capture technologies.

Once advanced capture technologies are in place for both the SO2 and the CO2, we hope to continue our work with the DTE customers to capture CO2 from the atmosphere to offset all emissions since Earth Day.

If you are new to all this, we recommend you have a look at a carbon calculator, such as the one provided by The Nature Conservancy, or one accessed at our partner site luvgreen.com

Articles by Dean Adams Curtis, an instructor in the new UCLA Extension Global Sustainability Program, editor of LuvGreen.com, GreenInterstate.com, GreenFamilyCar.com, and a U.S. Green Building Council LEED accredited professional. Send email to Dean here

The Green Patriarch

Greek Orthodox Church Patriarch Bartholomew, talks of our need to "increase the vegetative cover" of our planet, to create crucial "carbon sink areas." He seems like a very nice guy with great ideas, and we're fans of his. However, as "60 Minutes" recently reported, the Turkish government where the patriarch and his church has been based for 1700 years is not a fan.

Real Christmas Trees Sequester Carbon Dioxide

Since this is the holiday season, we'll now present a few notes from around the planet about what's being done to stop climate change. First, real Christmas trees around you sequestered carbon as they grew up. The web site Live Science reminds us that plastic trees are made from fossil fuels. After use of real Christmas trees, make sure to check how your community disposes of them after collection. Does it incinerate them in a system that includes carbon capture and sequestration?

EU's got it just right

The European Union (EU) already has an architecture in place for reducing emissions from the Euro Zone.

Take for example the domain of sustainable buildings in Europe. An energy efficiency directives of the EU require almost all new buildings constructed after 2020 to perform to "near zero" energy efficiency standards.

And Germany has a CO2-based road tax in the works. It will probably be a mix, including a fixed tax for all cars, plus a couple euros (€2) for each gram of CO2 that a vehicle emits above a set limit. The limits are: 120 grams per kilometer for cars purchased between July of this year and 2012.