News brief extra

1. China says it will work toward post-Kyoto agreement
In a visit to Japan last week, Chinese Premier Wen Jianboa announced his country will join in talks about post-Kyoto efforts to attack Global Warming. A joint statement with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said both would “actively participate in setting up an effective framework for after 2013.” During the visit, the two also spoke about energy efficiency, deforestation and waste treatment. China was responsible for 18% of the world’s carbon emissions in 2004 and is expected to pass up the U.S. as the top emitter by 2010, and possibly as soon as next year. (Source: Greenwire)

2. Peek at third IPPC report: Cost to be at least 0.2% of GDP
GHG mitigation will be expensive, says a draft of the third and final IPPC report, due out May 4. How expensive depends on how much we’re willing to let temperatures rise. One scenario shows a cost of 0.2% of global GDP in 2030. In that scenario, atmospheric CO2 would stabilize at 650 ppm, and the temperature would rise 5.8-7.2 degrees F above pre-industrial levels. In a much more stringent scenario, where emissions top out at 445-535 ppm and actually start to drop in 15 years, the cost would be 3% of global GDP. In this case, the temperature increase would likely be kept at between 3.6 to 4.3 degrees F. There would be economic benefits too, including energy savings, better health, less crop damage and greater energy security, the draft says. (Source: Reuters)

3. Big costal cities like New York could be in deep … water
New York, Tokyo and Shanghai are among the cities of more than 5 million people that would be devastated by rising seas. Worldwide, 634 million people live in coastal areas less than 33 feet above sea level, according to a study published recently in the journal Environment and Urbanization. The study recommended stopping or reducing construction in low-lying areas and building protective structures. "Migration away from the zone at risk will be necessary but costly and hard to implement, so coastal settlements will also need to be modified to protect residents," said report co-author Gordon McGranahan of the International Institute for Environment and Development in London. (Source: Greenwire)

4. Forests of the world are still going, going …
Though deforestation has slowed a bit, the world’s forests are disappearing at a rate of 32 million acres a year, a new U.N. report says. And as trees are cut down, mostly for agriculture, they release significant amounts of carbon dioxide into the air. More than half the forest loss from 2000-2005 was in Africa. Areas with more economic development, such as China and India, are beginning to re-forest, which helped create a net gain for Asia-Pacific. In China the new trees were needed for lumber and to protect soil. It Latin America, for the first time, less than half the land is forested. Meanwhile, British economist Nicholas Stern is calling for governments to invest $15 billion in a global fund to cut deforestation in half. (Sources: AP, Reuters, MSNBC, Greenwire)

5. Wait. Stop. Don’t plant those trees there!
Planting trees might actually hurt Global Warming rather than help, as is commonly believed. It depends on where you plant them, says a Department of Energy-funded study. In higher latitudes, dark, dense forests absorb the sun’s heat rather than reflecting it and so could add to Global Warming. It is far more important to preserve and restore tropical forests, says study co-author Ken Caldeira, an atmospheric scientist at Stanford University. Trees at tropical latitudes foil Global Warming in two ways: they absorb CO2 and promote clouds that cool the planet. (Sources: Greenwire, Time)

6. Oil company and insurer jump on bandwagon
Conoco Phillips and AIG have joined the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a group of large companies that is calling for Congress to approve mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Conoco is the first U.S. oil company to join, following Britain’s BP, and AIG is the first insurance company. The Partnership told Congress in January to cut emissions 15-30% in the next 15 years and 80% by 2050. Insurance companies took a huge hit in the 2005 hurricane season, but only AIG, the largest, has come forward to press for GHG cuts. AIG said it hopes to help shape cap-and-trade legislation. Other partners include GE, DuPont, Caterpillar and Alcoa. (Source: Reuters PlanetArk)

7. Global Warming hot topic for Left Coast lawmakers
More than 60 bills on climate change await action in the California legislature. Various bills would make diesel-powered school buses run on biodiesel; make it easier to install solar power on homes; require TVs and computers to be more energy efficient; and add incentives for gas station owners to install pumps for alternative fuels. Polls show wide public support in California for tackling Global Warming, with 70% of likely voters saying state government should do more. Meanwhile, the governor of Washington is expected to sign a bill lowering emissions 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2035 and 50 percent by 2050. And the Oregon senate passed a bill to have 25% of power from renewables by 2025. The two largest electric power companies in Oregon support the bill, which now goes to the house. (Sources: San Francisco Chronicle, Greenwire)

8. Arnold tells enviros: ‘Don’t scold, make topic sexy’
California Gov. Arnold Schwartzenegger told an environmental forum at Georgetown University Wednesday that they should make the fight against Global Warming “sexy” and appealing to get people to participate. He also told politicians who aren’t willing to act to curb GHG emissions that they will see their support melt away like the polar ice cap. “You will become a political penguin on a smaller and smaller ice floe that is drifting out to sea,” he warned. The Terminator was in D.C. to press the EPA to let California enforce it’s tough tailpipe emissions law. (Source: Reuters PlanetArk)