Global mean of temperature for the month Marz from 1880 to 2010, presented relative to the agent of 1951 to 1980. The information is in hundredth degree Celsius. The reference value is 14 degrees Celsius, in Marz 2010, it was warm all over the globe 14.84 degrees Celsius warm. Graphic: Wolfgang Pomreh, data source: Giss
The Energy and Climate Week Show: In Latin America, resistance to the climate-political blockade of the industrialist, China makes nail with Kopf, BASF tricks around and with Marz was also the third month of the new year record conventionally warm
A new climate protection contract will certainly not come out if the next week in Bolivian Cochabamba 15.000 heads of government, diplomats, scientists, cultural creatures and representatives of non-governmental organizations to the World Conference of the Volker Uber Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. But with some security, the meeting will help to get the topic of international climate protection out of the semi-darkness of the conference saline and diplomatic circle and make it an important topic of social movements.
Invited Boliviens Prasident Evo Morales already in December after he was released on the climate summit in Copenhagen with the US delegation. You come up with Ecuadors Prasident Rafael Correa, his Nicaraguan colleague Daniel Ortega and, of course, the star of Latin American left Hugo Chavez from Venezuela.
Also, in France and Francophone Renermen Popular Farmers Activist Jose Bove, the US Climate Corer Jim Hansen of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the Canadian Publisher Naomi Small as well as their compatriot and Canadian filmmaker James Cameron ("Avatar") Enter the honor. Government delegations are expected mainly from Latin America and the Caribbean. "The world expects from Cochabamba initiatives to rescue humanity, planet and life", So Bolivia’s Prasident Evo Morales.
USA on confrontation course
After the preliminary languages held last weekend in Bonn for the next UN climate conference, which will take place in November in Mexican Cancún (Zank for Climate Agreement goes into the next round) Looks for Bolivia’s UN Ambassador Pablo Solon an opportunity for the alternative congress, obedience to find. In Bonn had been agreed that proposals that before the 26. April will be submitted in the negotiation text. Thus, the meeting in Cochabamba still put points. Solon speaks that 70 governments had filed.
On the Bonn’s results, he was carefully optimistic: the Suden’s Lander had held together and "undemocratic agreements, which threaten the survival many people" backlash.
Despite the continued US attempts to make the completely unacceptable Copenhagen agreement on the basis of the negotiations, I am glad that they have failed. The group of 77 and China did not have to be split and therefore there is no explicit knowledge of the Copenhagen Accord in the amed resolution. The negotiations will continue on the basis of the previously agreed texts.
Pablo Solon
Background is the dispute over the results of Copenhagen. With the support of some industrialized countries, the US tries to tilt the contract texts of the climate framework convention developed in many years and to negotiate a whole new contract. Among other things, you also want to bury the Kyoto Protocol, which runs out in 2012. However, the developing and thresholders insist that the Kyoto Protocol and the many technical papers associated with him are updated and provided with correspondingly new goals and deadlines.
The Copenhagen agreement, on the other hand, is a relatively short and non-binding text, which was negotiated in an action at the last minute in Copenhagen by some state of state excluding the plenary. Bolivia had directly contradicted with Cuba and Venezuela of the plenary agreement and is now apparently punished by the US by refusing to deny this promised helping.
Renewable pick up
Meanwhile, there are mixed news from China: First of all, there are still between one and two new coal-fired power plants per week to the net, but recently the renewable energy carrier at least nominell the fossils. Of the 178 gigawatts (GW, billion watts), which went new to the net in 2009, water, wind and sun 96 GW, reported the trade office service businessgreen. The remainder went to the account of thermal power plants, wherever the most widespread new coal-fired power plants.
In the evaluation of the numbers, however, it must be considered that water, wind and solar power plants can not supply electricity around the clock. Coarse counted saying that over the year is calculated for wind and sun, about the three to four-fold capacity for the same amount of electricity. For hydropower plants, against which there can also be reservations from the point of view of climate protection, the availability depends very much on the weather conditions. The current century turves in Sudchina on the top of the Mekong, for example, also leads to problems of energy supply. On the other hand, a small consolation is that the Chinese coal-fired power plants are much more efficient than those old plants that dominate the energy landscape in the US and Europe. The average efficiency of the Chinese power plant park is now about the US counterpest.
If the nuclear power plants are calculated, like the Chinese statistician and politician, then become "Low Carbon Energy Sources" At the end of the year 250 GW on capacity to provide. The proportion of nuclear power is still small with 10 GW, even if it is to be quadrupled in the next ten years, as reported by the news agency Xinhua. Around 700 GW are currently installed in coal-fired power plants.
Also interesting are some other details of the Chinese statistics: During the economy in the past year, in the light of the financial crisis, there was considerable 8.7 percent, primary energy consumption increased only by 5.8 and electricity consumption by 6.6 percent. The energy intess was thus 2.2 percent back. Last year, after a report by Energy Analysts, the People’s Republic, even worldwide coal producer, has become net importer for the first time. The domestic demand was even slightly broken at the end of the year. Therefore, the authors expect a tightening of carbon prices.
In addition to the hydropower, it is above all the wind energy, which has so far contributed to the success story of renewable in the People’s Republic. Alone in the inner Mongolia, China’s wide-rich region, had already been installed at the end of Marz 7.3 gw on capacities. In 2005 there was only 0.17 GW. In the Autonomous Province are also important coal mines. Nevertheless, 20 percent of the electric current produced there comes from wind turbines. The region, which lies in the neighborhood of the coarse North Chinese metropolises and therefore has the advantage of the consumer to the consumer for Chinese conditions, could even make much more. Zhang Fusheng, Director-General of Inner Mongolia Electric Power Corporation, sees a potential of 150 GW in wind power. The internal Mongolia Konne, for example, deliver the half of the onshore wind stream in the People’s Republic.
Although solar energy is widespread in the People’s Republic as a ministerial supplier, while electricity production is almost unknown – it can be seen that the country plays the first violin on the world market for photovoltaics, but its plant production almost exclusively exported. This is just tremendous to change. Inside Mongolia near the city of Ordos is said to be on 1. June started with the construction of the world-growing solar power plant, writes Solar Energy. In the first construction phase 30 megawatts should be built. Phase 2 and 3 should include 100 and 870 MW and be completed until 2014. In another level, more will be made until 2019 another 1.000 MW (a GW) are added.
The mega project is built by the US company FIRST SOLAR. Overall, around 11.95 GW are to be created on renewable capacitents, including hydropower and biomass power plants, which are supposed to yield each other and, among other things, to supply Beijing (Beijing).
Climate research sometimes differently
In addition to the fossil energy carriers coal, oilol and natural gas is also the cement production an important source of greenhouse gas CO2. The Federal Association of the German Cement Industry is amed that per ton of the building materials are 0.7 tonnes of CO2.
This is not exactly little, especially if you think in the active building in the thresholdlands. In China, 1.45 billion tonnes of cement, such as the half of global production, were established, says the US Geological Service Commodity Guide. This is therefore equal to emissions of around one billion tonnes of CO2. For comparison: One billion tons is pretty precisely the amount that is blown into CO2 and other greenhouse gases in Germany into the air.
The cement industry is therefore not exactly small in the category and therefore the news from Norway is pleasing, after which there was developed a procedure with which emissions can be significantly reduced. CO2 not only falls due to the high energy consumption in cement burning, but also through chemical processes. Cement is obtained from calcium carbonate (CaCo3), where CO2 is released.
"We have introduced a new cement", reports Knut O. Kjellsen, boss engineer of the company NORCEM, "In the 20 percent of the cement clinker is replaced by fly ash, which applies in coal-fired power plants." Clinker is the fired portion of the cement in which calcium carbonate is used and CO2 is emitted. NORCEM is a subsidiary of the German Group Heidelbergement Group, but the development of the new product was supported by the Norwegian Concrete Innovation Center (Coin). In addition to the substitution of calcium carbonate, Coin also pursues approaches with which the use of renewable energy carrier is explored in the cement furnace.
Pocketer tricks
All in all, a lobby initiative. In another news about industrial research, the judgment is less clear. In a flowery press release, BASF describes how a research association of the Ludwigshafen with the local energy company EnBW, the Heidelberger University and the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology from CO2 wants to make climate-friendly fuel with the help of solar energy. Methanol to be accurate. How exactly what to happen is, remains unclear. from "Semiconductor particles in nano-coarse" and "Organic dyes", which optimally absorb the sunlight is the speech. The energy of the solar radiation should provide the energy to make the energy from carbon dioxide and water methanol, which can then be used, for example, as a gasoline replacement.
First hook: Methanol must always be offset with gasoline or diesel. A rest of gasoline remains necessary. Second Hook: Even the consumption of so-called biofuels such as methanol have almost all negative properties of their fossil cousins. Internal combustion engines are one of the most important causes of heart attacks in Germany and certainly many other industrialized countries, they emit nitrogen oxides, pre-bullets of the greenhouse gas ozone, which is also abundantly harmful to health and, if it is Ole, also rubb them.
The project still has a third hook, which could also be spoken by misleading that with the "Sol2fuel" should be operated: in the BASF press release, there is a talk that it will be a climate-neutral fuel. However, this is not the case, because the CO2 used should come from the deposition in coal-fired power plants. So it was won from the coal. So if the methanol is burned, then the released CO2 was very well contributed to the enrichment of this greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. In other words, which, more than one million euros, which in the next two years from the resources of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research to this project are probably spent on a pocket player trick, with which BASF wants to enter the fuel market.
Global mean of temperature for the month Marz from 1880 to 2010, presented relative to the agent of 1951 to 1980. The information is in hundredth degree Celsius. The reference value is 14 degrees Celsius, in Marz 2010, it was warm all over the globe 14.84 degrees Celsius warm. Graphic: Wolfgang Pomreh, data source: Giss
Marz above average warm
And finally a small view of the global climate: With 0.84 degrees Celsius on the agent of the years 1951 to 1980, Marz 2010 was the second warmest ever measured. Only Marz 2002 was still a hundredth degree warm.
This shows the data of the Goddard Institutes for Space Studies of NASA. The last Marz, who has under the reference value, was the coincidency of the 1982. After even January and February in the global resource extremely warm fancy, you may be curious how it goes on.
If the above-average warm conditions in the tropical Pacific are still a few months, so in 2010 has good prospects to set up a new warm creature.