Eco Business: Lighting the Dark Continent, by Achim Steiner, Adnan Amin, and Kandeh K. Yumkella
EE News:Cap and trade curbed acid rain and can do the same for CO2 -- report
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EE News:Cap and trade curbed acid rain and can do the same for CO2 -- report15 February 2012. A cap-and-trade program curbed acid rain by limiting sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions, and a similar model could do the same for carbon dioxide, according to a recent report from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program. The Acid Rain Program was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, and by 2004 it had successfully cut SO2 emissions from the power sector by 36 percent. All the while, output from coal-fired power plants -- the main source of SO2 pollution -- increased by 25 percent. The study's authors say this is a clear indicator that cap and trade works. In nearly all ways, the Acid Rain Program was a successful cap-and-trade system that experts say is worth emulating. The health benefits of reducing fine particulate pollution from SO2 were estimated at $50 billion annually by 2010, while the overall costs were billions less than legislators had anticipated. The cap also encouraged emitters to innovate. The study's authors write, "Giving the private sector the flexibility to pursue a range of abatement options can simultaneously protect the environment, stimulate innovation and diffusion, and reduce aggregate costs." Experts say cap and trade would probably be even more effective at reducing CO2 emissions, and expect that legislation could be passed under the right leadership CANADAMontreal Gazette: Environment Canada cuts criticized14 February 2012. U.S. scientists are raising the alarm about Environment Canada saying cuts in the department could go far beyond ozone monitoring. Programs tracking pollution wafting into Canada from Asia, Europe and the U.S. are also being hit, they say. And it's an "open question" if Canada will be able to fulfil its obligations under several international agreements if more cut go ahead, five leading atmospheric scientists write in the newsletter of the American Geophysical Union, which has 61,000 members in 148 countries. The scientists say ozone measurements have been cut back at several Canadian stations since August. And Canada's CORALNet program, part of an international effort tracking air pollution from Asia and Europe, has vanished. "Canada is a bellwether for environmental change, not only for Arctic ozone depletion but for pollutants that stream to North America from other continents,'' says co-author Anne Thompson, a meteorologist at Penn State and president of AGU's atmospheric sciences section. "It is unthinkable that data collection is beginning to shut down in this vast country, in some cases at stations that started decades ago,'' Thompson said in a release issued with the newsletter. Environment Minister Peter Kent has been on the hot seat for months over the fate of his department's ozone monitoring program, but the department has yet to clarify how deep the staff and program cuts will be. The scientists say it is "ironic that the threatened cuts to the Canadian ozone program should arise now, because Canadian observations were essential to the quantification of last year's Arctic ozone hole." The hole, which formed last March, was the first time ozone depletion in the Arctic was comparable to the holes commonly seen over Antarctica. The scientists also note Environment Canada has long tracked "pollution from growing Asian sources" and crossing back and forth between Canada and the United States. As part of an international program it has run the Canadian Operational Aerosol Lidar Network (CORALNet), which the scientists describe as an "early warning system" of long-range transport of atmospheric pollution into Canada. In October 2011, and "because of the Environment Canada budget cuts," the CORALNet website was "discontinued." "Now it is gone, and the lidar data are no longer being taken," the scientists say. They also suggest programs to monitor toxic chemicals as part of the Great Lakes Water Quality agreement could be threatened by the budget cuts. And they say "the international community may no longer be able to rely on the exceptional efforts and past leadership role provided by Canada for Arctic research." Co-author Jennifer Logan, an atmospheric chemist at Harvard University, says the loss won't be just international. "Canada stands to lose an entire community of highly respected scientists who are experts on ozone and climate if further proposed budget cuts go through," she says.
_________________________________________________________________ CBC News: Environment group testifies on charities' tax status14 February 2012. A prominent Canadian environmentalist defended the charitable status of organizations such as his before the federal Finance Committee on Tuesday. Peter Robinson, CEO of the David Suzuki Foundation, spoke about advocacy and its importance in a functioning democracy, transparency in charities and corporations and the international funding of charities in Canada. "All charities are working towards the civic good of this country," he told the committee. Many in the Canadian environmental movement believe the committee's hearings on tax incentives are the first step of a government campaign to cut off some sources of their funding. In particular, money received from rich American foundations that may not be in favour of Canadian industrial projects like oil sands development. "It's been portrayed that the money comes with strings attached," Robinson answered in a response to a question about how they apply for American funds for specific projects. "Not all projects are approved. If they are, they have very tight strings attached but the strings that say that this is what you must do. It is: here is the reorting we would like. Here is when we'd like it. We make sure that you don't spend the money on something you didn't apply for." Early last month, Natural Resouces Minister Joe Oliver branded some environmental groups as "radicals," although he refused to give any names. The accusation came in an open letter to the media the day before hearings were to begin into the Northern Gateway pipeline. "There are some radical groups and they're being financed by other radical groups in the United States who are trying to impose their particular agenda on what is a very important project," Oliver told the CBC at the time. That sentiment was echoed last week at the natural resources committee's hearings on pipelines and refineries. "I do believe … that these radical foreign-interest groups that you speak of threaten our economy and our sovereignty," argued Conservative MP Brian Jean in a preamble to a question about how Canadian anti-pipeline groups get money from the U.S. "I would like to look at legislation to stop these people bringing the money in by doing so either through disclosure or otherwise stopping them from interfering in Canadian interests," he added. Jean is also a member of the finance committee. In an interview with CBC, Robinson said statements like those of Oliver and Jean should worry environmentalists. "One way to try to limit or shut down debate is really to have a strong concerted attack back, and in particular to threaten on issues such as charitable status," he said. Today's hearing focused mainly on how to get Canadians to donate more to charities rather than on where environmental groups with charitable status get their mone Back to Menu _________________________________________________________________
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