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newsclips -- Newsclips for December 8, 2014
Posted: 09 Dec 2014 10:55:29
This is a service of the California Air Resources Board’s Office of Communications. You may need to sign in or register with individual websites to view some of the following news articles. UN CLIMATE TALKS: LIMA Kerry Plans to Attend Climate Talks In a sign of the importance that the Obama administration has placed on the outcome of United Nations climate change negotiations taking place here this week, Secretary of State John Kerry will arrive on Thursday to strongly urge negotiators to reach a deal, according to sources familiar with Mr. Kerry’s plans but unauthorized to speak to the media. Typically, the secretary of state would not join diplomatic negotiations at this level, but Mr. Kerry has made climate change a priority of his tenure. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/us/politics/kerry-plans-to-attend-climate-talks.html?_r=0 Goal to end fossil fuels by 2050 surfaces in Lima UN climate documents It’s a rare thing when you can point to paragraphs in a United Nations climate negotiating text and feel they more or less match what most of the science says should become a reality. Yet in Lima on Monday, it happened. Our little revolutionary moment comes in a document with the memorable title “ADP 2-7 agenda item 3 Elements for a draft negotiating text” with its climate-busting section D (paragraph 13.2) outlining several possible long-term goals for a new climate change agreement. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2014/dec/08/goal-to-end-fossil-fuels-by-2050-surfaces-in-lima-un-climate-documents Washington takes heat at UN talks over targets Washington is on track to meet its targets for reducing emissions in heat-trapping greenhouse gases despite an uptick last year, U.S. officials insisted at climate talks Monday. Quizzed by rich and poor countries about its efforts against global warming, President Barack Obama's envoys sought to explain how exactly the U.S. plans to cut emissions 17 percent by 2020 based on 2005 levels. http://www.sfgate.com/business/energy/article/Washington-takes-heat-at-UN-talks-over-targets-5943860.php Lima climate talks set for record carbon footprint The current U.N. climate talks will be the first to neutralize all the greenhouse gas pollution they generate, offset by host country Peru's protection of forest at three different reserves, organizers say. Now the bad news: The Lima conference is expected to have the biggest carbon footprint of any U.N. climate meeting measured to date. http://www.sfgate.com/business/energy/article/Lima-climate-talks-set-for-record-carbon-footprint-5945183.php In Lima, Calif. and 3 Canadian provinces call for cooperation Officials from California and three Canadian provinces yesterday called for cooperation on reducing greenhouse gas emissions at international climate change talks taking place this week in Peru. Environmental officials from California, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec attending the U.N. climate negotiations in Lima, Peru, said they were hoping to make progress toward an international climate deal to be signed in Paris in 2015. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2014/12/09/stories/1060010174 Lost in Lima: Why climate finance figures can’t be trusted Sorting out the complicated world of climate finance has long been talked of as a key goal for the UN climate talks currently taking place in Lima, Peru. One problem is that not enough money is flowing to developing countries, making it harder for them to invest in greener forms of energy and prepare for the worst impacts of climate change, such as floods, heatwaves and rising sea levels. http://www.rtcc.org/2014/12/07/lost-in-lima-why-climate-finance-figures-cant-be-trusted/ CAP AND TRADE East valley could get cap-and-trade funds for housing Several low-income communities in the east valley will be eligible for funds generated by California’s cap-and-trade program, giving hope to affordable housing advocates in the region. Thanks to a recent decision by the California Environmental Protection Agency, several areas with high poverty rates and poor air quality or water quality — including Mecca, much of Thermal and parts of Coachella and Indio — will be eligible for funds. http://www.desertsun.com/story/news/environment/2014/12/08/coachella-valley-cap-trade-funds/20125057/ AIR POLLUTION Philippines Pushes Developing Countries to Cut Their Emissions As the torrential rains of Typhoon Hagupit flood the Philippines, driving millions of people from their homes, the Philippine government arrived at a United Nations climate change summit meeting on Monday to push hard for a new international deal requiring all nations, including developing countries, to cut their use of fossil fuels. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/world/americas/philippines-pushes-developing-countries-to-cut-their-emissions-.html?_r=0 China’s Coal Burning Is Main Culprit for Pollution, Daily Says China’s excessive use of unclean energy such as coal is the biggest contributor to its smog, China Youth Daily reported. Vehicle emissions came in second, the newspaper said on its website yesterday, citing Zhang Xiaoye, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-09/china-s-coal-burning-is-main-culprit-for-pollution-daily-says.html As US cleans up, it's exporting more pollution Heat-trapping pollution released into the atmosphere from rising exports of U.S. gasoline and diesel dwarfs the cuts made from fuel efficiency standards and other efforts to reduce global warming in the United States,... http://www.sacbee.com/news/business/article4367399.html Smoke in downtown L.A. awful? No advisory, but some are uncomfortable No air quality advisories have been issued in downtown Los Angeles after Monday morning's massive fire, but some area employers were handing out masks to make breathing more comfortable for workers. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-smoke-air-quality-fire-20141208-story.html CLIMATE CHANGE Climate isn't culprit in drought -- NOAA Rising greenhouse gases causing climate change are not the main driver of California's ongoing drought, scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said today. In a study out today, scientists with NOAA said the dry conditions over the last three years in the Golden State largely were caused by lower ocean temperatures and a high-pressure ridge off the West Coast, which blocked winter storms. http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2014/12/08/stories/1060010145 Global Warming Isn't Causing California Drought? Report Triggers Storm Natural conditions, not human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases, are the driving force behind California's three-year dry spell, scientists on a federal task force concluded Monday. But the report came under fire from some experts who said it downplayed other factors that have humanity's fingerprints on them. http://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/global-warming-isnt-causing-california-drought-report-triggers-storm-n263941 Obama: Keystone XL could contribute to ‘disastrous’ climate change President Obama spoke in dismissive terms of the Keystone XL pipeline Monday during an interview on "The Colbert Report Monday, saying its modest benefits need to be weighed against its contribution to climate change, "which could be disastrous." http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/12/09/obama-criticizes-keystone-xl-on-the-colbert-report/ Looking to Mars to Help Understand Changing Climates. Ever since the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli thought he spied lines that he called “canali” on Mars in 1877, earthlings’ romantic thoughts about our nearest cosmic neighbor have revolved around water and its possible consequence, Life as We Know It. We haven’t found life on Mars, but decades of robotic exploration have indeed strengthened astronomers’ convictions that rivers and perhaps even oceans once flowed on the red planet. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/science/looking-to-mars-to-help-understand-changing-climates.html What universities really can do to fight climate change: A new proposal The movement to force university endowments to divest their holdings in fossil fuel companies -- coal, oil and gas -- has some obvious shortcomings: For one thing, the effort is relatively painless, since it's unlikely that the endowment returns will be materially affected by taking these volatile companies out of their portfolios (or that the companies will care); for another, it's hypocritical, since university communities remain heavy consumers of the very same energy sources. http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-what-can-universities-really-do-20141208-column.html FUELS Japan Promotes Home Fuel Cell on Path to Hydrogen Society Japan is working on doing for the hydrogen fuel cell what it accomplished with computer chips and cars in the last century, slashing costs to make them more appealing to consumers. As fuel-cell technology finds its way into factories and commercial buildings, Japanese manufacturers including Panasonic Corp. (6752) are working to make them small and cheap enough for the home. The country has set a goal of installing them in 5.3 million homes by 2030, about 10 percent of all households. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-09/japan-promotes-home-fuel-cell-on-path-to-hydrogen-society.html GREEN ENERGY Copenhagen Lighting the Way to Greener, More Efficient Cities On a busy road in the center of town here, a string of green lights embedded in the bike path — the “Green Wave” — flashes on, helping cyclists avoid red traffic lights. On a main artery into the city, truck drivers can see on smartphones when the next light will change. And in a nearby suburb, new LED streetlights brighten only as vehicles approach, dimming once they pass. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/business/energy-environment/copenhagen-lighting-the-way-to-greener-more-effecient-cities.html L.A. mayor calls for solar-powered wi-fi, retrofitted buildings in ambitious earthquake plan Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) released an earthquake-preparedness plan Monday, unprecedented in its scope, calling on the city to retrofit thousands of buildings and reinforce its water supply and telecommunications network. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/12/08/l-a-mayor-calls-for-solar-powered-wi-fi-retrofitted-buildings-in-ambitious-earthquake-plan/ BLOGS At Climate Meeting, China Balks at Verifying Cuts in Carbon Emissions Last week, climate change negotiators from around the world converged on Lima, Peru, with a new sense of momentum. One driver of that attitude was the fact that just last month, President Obama and President Xi Jinping of China made a joint announcement in Beijing in which each pledged to try to limit or reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the coming years. http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/?action=click&contentCollection®ion=TopBar&WT.nav=searchWidget&module=SearchSubmit&pgtype=Homepage#/climate+change/since1851/allresults/1/allauthors/newest/ Q&A: What’s Up With the Climate Talks in Lima? What’s up with the climate talks in Lima? Nearly two hundred countries are coming together to talk about what they can do together to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and take other measures to prevent climate change. The Lima gathering kicked off last week, with higher-level talks starting today. The talks are organized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/12/09/qa-whats-up-with-the-climate-talks-in-lima/?KEYWORDS=climate+change Solar Technique Achieves Record-High 40% Efficiency Researchers in Australia have reached a record high in solar conversion efficiency, converting more than 40 percent of the sunlight that hits solar panels into electricity. In outdoor tests in Sydney and the U.S., University of New South Wales researchers achieved the record efficiency partially by splitting sunlight into four different cells. Traditionally, solar power works by using just one solar cell, a method that can convert up to 33 percent of sunlight into electricity. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/12/08/3600599/record-high-solar-conversion-efficiency/ Small Business: The 'Neglected Middle' of Climate Change ...wrong. His response was speaking solely to the financial feasibility of the firm, but it reflects a larger misconception regarding small businesses and climate change. Individually, a small business might use less energy than a 50-story office building. But cumulatively, small businesses... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel_hill/small-business-the-neglec_b_6289210.html?utm_hp_ref=climate-change California is in a drought emergency. Visit www.SaveOurH2O.org for water conservation tips.