News brief extra

1. Chinese production could help take solar power mainstream
Just as China’s cheap products have helped build Wal-Mart into a behemoth, its plans to produce solar cells could drive down the price enough to push solar energy into the mainstream as an energy source within a few years, says Worldwatch Institute. "To say that Chinese PV [photovoltaics] producers plan to expand production rapidly in the year ahead would be an understatement," said Travis Bradford, president of the Prometheus Institute, a U.S. group that promotes renewables. China has raised billions from IPOs and has another, LDK, coming to the NYSE June 1. Cost is the main factor holding solar back, Jesse Pichel of Piper Jaffray told the Wall Street Journal. “This industry will ultimately be based in China for the same reason cell phones and computers are made there.” (Sources: Greenwire, Wall Street Journal)

2. City resident vs. suburbanite: Who emits more GHG?
City-dwellers have a smaller carbon footprint than suburbanites. In fact, New York City residents are the ‘greenest’ in the country, according to Time magazine. Relatively few New Yorkers own cars. Instead they walk, bike or take public transportation. City dwellers tend to live in smaller spaces, too, and shop close to home. (Source: Time)

3. CO2 emissions from fossil fuels dropped in U.S. in 2006
U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from burning of fossil fuels were down 1.3% in 2006, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said last week. Causes were a cool summer, warm winter, higher gas and electricity prices and more use of natural gas and low- or no-carbon fuels. Since 1990, CO2 emissions from fossil fuels have trended upward, rising nearly 18% here, EIA said. Burning fossil fuels cause about 80% of CO2 emissions, while the rest comes from agriculture and land use. Under the new Bush system of measuring “intensity” – use of energy relative to economic growth – the emissions would be down 4.5%. (Source: E&E News PM)

4. World energy demand projected to grow 57% by 2030
Developing countries will drive the demand for more energy in the next 25 years, says a new report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. While industrialized countries are expected to use 24% more energy in 2030, those still developing will use a projected 95% more. Coal consumption is predicted to increase 74% worldwide from 2004 to 2030, while natural gas use will grow 63%. A number of factors will cause the increased demand in developing countries, including population growth. (Source: E&E News PM)

5. U.S. says: Not so fast to measuring deforestation rate
Rainforest countries like Brazil, Costa Rica and Papua New Guinea, with an assist from the E.U., want to start measuring the rate of deforestation, as a forerunner to a payment scheme to reduce destruction of CO2-storing trees. But U.S. officials say the idea needs more study. Deforestation causes about 20% of the world’s GHG emissions. At issue is whether stopping deforestation should be a legitimate way to meet goals for cutting GHG and should be part of a post-Kyoto accord. If deforestation were taken into account, Indonesia and Brazil would follow the U.S. and China as the third and fourth biggest GHG emitters. Indonesia plans to put the topic at the top of the agenda for the U.N. climate change summit in Bali in December. (Source: Greenwire)

6. Japanese PM advances plan for post-Kyoto agreement
Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, recommended last week that all countries agree to cut global greenhouse gas emissions 50% by 2050. The treaty would be non-binding and the cut would be from “current levels,” with a few years’ leeway. The plan is purposely vague, Japanese officials said, because the important thing now is to break “gridlock,” with the United States, China and Australia balking at other suggestions. “"We must create a new framework … in which the entire world will participate in emissions reduction," Abe said, according to the New York Times. "Japan will vigorously call on countries around the world to reach an international consensus on the long-term goal of halving emissions by 2050 and the steps for achieving it." (Greenwire, New York Times)

7. LiveEarth concerts add two more venues for July 7
The 7 concerts for 7/7/07 have become 9, as Istanbul, Turkey, and Hamburg, Germany, have signed on. Other venues are New York, London, Johannesburg, Rio de Janiero, Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo. Now that the magic number 7 has been broken, we may see more, as enthusiasm builds for the worldwide music fest. LiveEarth will call attention to Global Warming and raise money for the Alliance for Climate Protection, the worldwide organization co-founded and chaired by Al Gore. More than 100 top artists and bands have been signed up. A Live Earth Green Team will make sure all the concerts follow new green-event guidelines. These include recycling, composting, transportation, food, packaging, water use and power generation. Check out the Web site at http://liveearth.org. (Source: LiveEarth.org)

8. U.S. leads Europe in venture capital for clean energy
Start-up investment for clean-energy technology dropped by a third last year in Europe, while in North America it increased 44%, says New Energy Finance in London. Asia cut in half its gap with Europe in getting venture capital to start clean-tech companies. In the U.S., Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is touting California as the clean-tech state, and said VC is helping create 140,000 clean-tech jobs a year there. In Europe, where politicians and the public are far ahead in touting energy efficiency and renewable sources, investors are more likely to fund companies once they are off the ground, and start-ups are hurting for cash. (PlanetArk.com)