New York Times: In Nod to Consumer Tastes, Nissan to Sell Cleaner Cars

New York Times: In Nod to Consumer Tastes, Nissan to Sell Cleaner Cars

Andrew Councill for The New York Times

Carlos Ghosn, center, chief executive of Nissan and Renault, spoke Wednesday at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington about green technology. The industry faces the possibility of stiffer environmental rules.

By JEREMY W. PETERS

Published: April 19, 2007

WASHINGTON, April 18 — Nissan Motor will offer its flagship Maxima sedan with a cleaner-burning diesel engine in the United States by 2010, the company’s chief executive, Carlos Ghosn, said on Wednesday, offering new details of a plan intended to resonate with environmentally conscious consumers and help Nissan meet new emissions rules.

The timing of Nissan’s announcement and a visit here by Mr. Ghosn to meet with lawmakers and lobbyists — coming as the auto industry faces the possibility of stiffer environmental regulations — suggests that the automaker is looking to polish its image as a green company.

Nissan, which would not be the first automaker to offer cleaner diesel technology in the United States, has been slower than other Japanese automakers in developing green technology. While Toyota and Honda have sold gasoline-electric hybrid models for years, Nissan did not begin selling one until January.

But Mr. Ghosn said that consumer tastes and looming federal guidelines gave the company ample reasons to develop more environmentally friendly vehicles.

“The global automotive industry has a responsibility to be part of the solutions that increase fuel efficiency,” he said in a speech here at the Council on Foreign Relations. He noted that the diesel Maxima would have up to 30 percent better fuel economy than the standard gasoline version. “We will be ready to offer our customers what they want.”

Modern diesel technology, already widespread in Europe, is slowly making its way to the United States. The new engines are a far cry from the coughing, stinking diesel engines of the past, and have lower greenhouse gas emissions and better fuel economy than gasoline engines.

DaimlerChrysler offers a new-era diesel engine in the Mercedes E-Class, and has plans to start selling a diesel Grand Cherokee this year.

General Motors, Honda, Audi, Volkswagen and BMW have plans sell diesel engines that meet federal guidelines in the future.

But diesel engines have been less popular in Japan. Mr. Ghosn said on Wednesday that Nissan plans to sell the new diesel vehicles in Japan and China by 2010.

Nissan has not said what percentage of its Maxima fleet in the United States or abroad would have diesel engines.

Daniel F. Becker, director of the Sierra Club’s global warming program, said the new engine would allow Nissan to make up for some of its past environmental missteps.

“There are a number of categories in which Nissan is sort of a laggard among the Japanese leaders,” he said. “It’s good news that Nissan is trying to find ways to improve its environmental performance. If they follow the lead of Honda and Toyota, it can bring much cleaner, more fuel-efficient vehicles to market and make more money doing it.”

With its sales and overall performance in a slump, Nissan is taking a hard look at what does, and does not, sell. “Consumers want environmentally friendly cars,” Mr. Ghosn said. “They want to have the pleasure of driving without the guilt.”

Later, in answer to questions from reporters, Mr. Ghosn made it clear that the company would not buy Chrysler from DaimlerChrysler, which is looking at spinning off the money-losing division. “Some people are a little worried about Nissan,” he said. “So you don’t want to engage in anything like this.”

He declined to address why the merger of Chrysler and Daimler-Benz did not seem to be working. Mr. Ghosn has faced questions himself about whether the alliance of Nissan and the French carmaker Renault is a failure.

“If you want to know the reality, you have to be inside,” he said, adding that even from the inside, it is not always easy to tell why the business is stumbling. “The execution of alliances is something that’s extremely delicate.”

Mr. Ghosn also offered his thoughts on the troubles in the American auto industry, which he said are probably cyclical.

“We are used to hitting bumps and reflecting on them,” he said. “Hitting bumps is normal in our industry.” He added: “The mistake is to say, ‘Don’t worry. There’s no problem.’ ”

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The world's first floating nuclear plant is now under constrction in northern Russia [Rosenergoatom]

Russia has begun building floating nuclear power stations for export to energy-hungry developing countries.

Sergei Ivanov, Russia's deputy prime minister, speaking to mark the start of construction on the first plant earlier this week, said that numerous countries had already expressed interest in the project.

"Many countries are beginning to ask us 'when can we buy these plants?'" Ivanov was quoted as saying by Rosenergoatom, the agency which runs Russia's nuclear power stations, in a press release issued on Thursday.

The first floating power plant - being built at a secretive submarine base inside the Arctic circle in northern Russia - would be completed in 2010, the nuclear agency said.

Russian expertise

Officials from Rosatom, the state nuclear energy agency, said that the plants would be based around nuclear reactors already used to power Russian ice-breaking ships and military submarines.

"If today we are building low-capacity floating N[uclear] P[ower] P[lant]s based on 70 megawatt ice-breaker reactors, tomorrow, we will start building medium-capacity plants based on unique technologies designed for nuclear submarines, i.e. 300-400 MW," Sergey Kiriyenko, the head of Rosatom, said.

"This is a unique potential in both Russian and world power engineering. We have unique competitive advantages: no other country in the world had so many reactor-years and such a unique nuclear fleet as we did.

"Our experience is unique. Today many countries are seeking to build low- and medium-capacity reactors, but they are lagging behind us."

Greenpeace disapproval

The 1986 Chernobyl disaster dealt a massive blow to Russia's nuclear ambitions [AFP]

Greenpeace, the environmental pressure group, voiced its disapproval of Russia's plans.

"This is the most dangerous project that has been launched by the atomic sector in the whole world over the past decade," Ivan Blokov, the campaign director of Greenpeace Russia, said.

"It is scary as this is basically going to be a floating atomic bomb."

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, last year approved the biggest revamp of the Russian nuclear industry since the 1986 Chernobyl accident which spewed radioactive material over much of Europe.

On Sunday, Ivanov unveiled Russia's first new generation nuclear submarine since the fall of the Soviet Union.

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Inter Press Service: Green Investment to Get Boost from New EU Fund
Briana Sapp

BRUSSELS, Apr 19 (IPS) - After years of promising a way to help Africa tackle climate change, the European Union has joined with the World Bank to attract foreign direct investment to the continent and help save the planet at the same time.

The Carbon Fund for Europe (CFE), a new open-ended joint venture between the World Bank and the European Investment Bank (EIB), aims to make it easier for African countries to participate in the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

The CDM allows polluters in a developed country to buy "carbon credits" from projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a developing country. Since global warming is a worldwide phenomenon, the mechanism reasons, it does not matter where the reductions actually occur.

Many of the world's existing CDM projects are direct investments by companies or governments in developed countries, in turn creating economic development in those communities on top of just creating carbon credits.

The CFE will purchase up to 40 percent of the carbon credits created through CDM projects after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires. With a guaranteed buyer for the carbon credits, developing countries can better leverage financing to get environmentally friendly projects off the ground.

The EIB's vice-president Simon Brooks sees the Fund contributing towards sustainable economic development by increasing both public and private sector investment from the developed world's purchases of carbon credits to help the developing world help itself.

CDM projects vary in scope. For example in Kenya, the Green Belt Movement Project is a small-scale CDM project that will reforest about 1,800 hectares of indigenous species within the Mount Kenya and Aberdares regions. The activities included in the project are expected to capture around 375,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2017.

In Asia and Brazil, more than a half dozen CDM projects have been the production of electricity from bagasse, the leftover fibre material from sugarcane. Carbon credits are then issued for the amount of carbon emissions saved from creating "green" electricity rather than from coal or petroleum.

With the increase of sugarcane production in Africa, this kind of electricity production from bagasse can open new doors for technology and the funding to put it into place.

"This partnership with the EIB is one more critical element in helping the world to move towards a low carbon economy...it is essential that we demonstrate the power of the carbon market for greenhouse gas mitigation and continue to involve the developing world which will be hardest hit by the impacts of climate change," says Warren Evans, director of the environment at the World Bank.

As the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, there is a big question mark as to how the agreement, or at least its principles, will continue beyond then.

The European Union has traditionally been a frontrunner in leading progressive global environmental policy but has fallen back in recent years. The CFE is the EU's, through its vehicle the EIB, first real step in that direction.

"The fact that the fund will buy beyond 2012 is sending an important message for the need for a post-2012 stable regulatory regime," Evans said.

Africa is viewed by climate experts as being most at risk of adverse effects from climate change, with extreme weather causing flooding, droughts and desertification that is already apparent. The Washington-based Climate Institute says those climate changes will also impact health and food security, and increase the number of refugees.

The world's poorest countries have been unable to make a significant enough impact to counteract pollution from developed countries, but through the CDM, developing countries in Africa and elsewhere can develop environmentally-friendly projects that may in the future work to battle global emissions.

To make the Fund's impact as global as possible, anyone can submit projects to the CFE as long as projects are credible and financially sound. Projects should be able to offer a minimum 100,000 carbon credits, or the equivalent of 100,000 tonnes of carbon emission reductions.

Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, the Flemish Region of Belgium and Statkraft Carbon Invest AS in Norway are all committed to meeting their Kyoto Protocol commitments and are financially supporting the CFE as a way to do just that.

Though the CFE's 50 million euro budget is minor compared to the World Bank's 2 billion dollars currently invested in nine other carbon funds, the CFE is a first step towards developing an international agreement which looks beyond Kyoto's 2012 endpoint.

"The lessons learned from the activities and successes of the Carbon Fund for Europe should inspire new endeavours in the long battle to protect our future," said Brooks. (END/2007)

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Inter Press Service:Divisions Surface over Nuclear Option
Julio Godoy

BERLIN, Apr 19 (IPS) - Several governments are planning new investment in nuclear energy, ignoring opposition by environmental scientists who say that nuclear power is not a solution to providing carbon- free energy.

Emission of carbon through burning of fossil fuels is believed by leading scientists around the world to lead to global warming, and consequently disruptive climate change.

But environmental scientists say nuclear energy is not an option because it is doomed by insecure technology, diminishing uranium reserves, and greenhouse gas emissions associated with the exploitation of such reserves. The greenhouse gases are principally carbon dioxide and methane.

"Nuclear power cannot be considered an environmentally viable alternative in stopping global warming and climate change," Ottmar Edenhofer, head economist at the German Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research told IPS.

Edenhofer, who co-authored the fourth assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released in February, believes that eventually "nuclear power will play a minor role in the global energy agenda."

As of now, 435 nuclear light water reactors (LWRs) are in operation worldwide, generating 17 percent of the world's electricity, he said. "If we consider that electricity generation in the coming three decades could double, some 400 new LWRs would be needed just to maintain constant this nuclear power share."

But only 28 new LWRs are under construction or planned worldwide, he said.

Edenhofer sys nuclear power could become an energy alternative only if fast breeder reactors (FBRs) are put to massive use.

The theoretical advantage of FBRs is that they generate fuel by producing more fissile material than they consume. This should improve efficiency and avoid the problem of disposal of radioactive waste.

But the actual technology has so far prevented commercial use of FBRs. Practically all FBRs tested around the world have been shut down, or work under constant alerts due to repeated accidents or technical deficiencies.

The French Super Phenix power plant was intended to produce about 20 percent more fuel than it consumes. But the reactor never functioned commercially, and the French government ordered its closure in 1998.

The reactor cost around 12 billion dollars, and never produced a watt of electricity. The Japanese FBR Monju had a similar fate. After numerous accidents, it was closed in 1995.

"There is no consensus in the industrialised world to continue working on FBR technology," Edenhofer said.

Nuclear power can be phased out without losing electricity if enough investment is made in renewable energy resources, such as the sun, water, wind, and geothermal power, Edenhofer said.

"In 2030, such sources could represent up to 30 percent of the world's total electricity output."

At a meeting on climate change and environmental policy organised early March by the German newspaper Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 14 distinguished German environmental experts concluded that "nuclear power reactors are not a help."

Risky technology and disposal of dangerous radioactive waste are only two problems nuclear power brings. What is less known is the greenhouse gas emissions arising from nuclear production.

Jan Willem Storm van Leeuwen and Philip Smith, two physicists from the Netherlands and the United States say carbon dioxide emissions that rise through extraction and processing of uranium, used as combustible material in all nuclear reactors, also lead to global warming.

In a paper 'Nuclear Power: the Energy Balance' published in 2005, and updated since, the scientists say that exploitation of uranium reserves will lead to exhaustion of easily accessible ores, and ultimately cause large carbon dioxide emissions.

"As rich (uranium) ores become exhausted (the) ratio of the emissions brought about by the use of nuclear energy and that of a gas-burning plant of the same net (electrical) capacity increases," they say. That makes use of nuclear energy "unfavourable compared to simply burning the (remaining) fossil fuels directly."

Mines with a rich concentration of uranium and of easy access mean fewer emissions. But inaccessible material demands higher energy input for extraction and preparation.

"In the long term the use of nuclear energy provides us with no solution" to the problem of growing energy demands and the constraints imposed by global warming and climate change, Storm van Leeuwen and Smith say.

But in France and Finland, in former Soviet bloc countries, and in emerging developing countries like India and China, nuclear power continues to be considered an alternative.

The French government authorised a new nuclear reactor Apr. 12, to be built in Flamanville on the Atlantic coast, some 300 km west of Paris. The reactor is expected to go into production by 2012. The estimated cost of putting up the plant is 4.3 billion dollars.

Pierre Gadonneix, chief executive of the French monopoly electricity provider Electricité de France said that the reactor "will make a decisive contribution to France and Europe's energy independence by providing safe, competitive electricity that does not generate greenhouse gas emissions."

But environmentalists say new technology can be faulty. A similar Finnish reactor on Olkiluoto peninsula in the south-east of the country, under construction since 2005, has been dubbed "the French nuclear disaster" by locals, due to numerous problems, which have delayed its completion.

The reactor is being built by the French state-owned nuclear giant AREVA, which is also to build the new Flamanville reactor.

Activists from Greenpeace occupied the Olkiluoto site Apr. 4 to protest against the dangers associated with the reactor.

"Since the beginning of the construction in mid-2005, problems have proliferated, leading to a delay of one and a half years, in as much time of construction work," Greenpeace France said in a statement.

Frédéric Marillier, coordinator on nuclear matters at Greenpeace France, and who took part in the demonstration in Olkiluoto, told IPS that "in 2006 alone, at least 700 violations of quality and safety were documented at the Olkiluoto reactor. This project gives us French people a foretaste of what waits for us with the construction at Flamanville." (END/2007)

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