Climate change is happening…so what?

Climate change is happening…so what? 
  
Saturday, 18 May 2013 17:24  
Written by Silvia Romanelli / Inter Press Service
As published in BusinessMirror (Philippines) online edition


NEW YORK—Seven in 10 US citizens believe climate change is real and happening now. Yet most have never even contacted a government official about the issue, let alone volunteered with an environmental organization or taken other action.

These findings are part of an exploration of Climate Change in the American Mind, issued by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication.

“They think it’s about polar bears or developing countries, not the United States…not my community, not my friends and family,” Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project, told Inter Press Service (IPS).

Researchers divided the US population into “six Americas” that share similar beliefs about climate change. Seventy percent belong to three major “Americas” that believe, to a more or less strong degree, that climate change is happening, is harmful and is caused by humans.

After falling between 2008 and 2010, public awareness on the topic here has been rising again, probably because of the number and severity of extreme weather events in the last two years. The trend was confirmed by an opinion poll released by the Gallup Institute in April.

The latest dire warning came just this week, when Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, announced that the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere had passed the critical threshold of 400 parts per million.

To put this number in perspective, the last time the Earth had a similar concentration of CO2 was 3 million years ago during the Pliocene era, when sea levels were up to 80 feet higher.

“The main way people know about this issue is through media reporting,” Leiserowitz explained. “And when the media don’t report it, it’s literally out of sight and out of mind.”



Bringing climate change down to earth

TELEVISION weather forecasters seem ideally suited to become climate-change educators: They speak to thousands or even millions of people every day, often three to four times a day, and they are already trusted by their audiences.

The Yale Project is providing them with tools and training to discuss climate change, connecting them with the climate science community and organizing debates with meteorologists who hold varying opinions of climate change to foster dialogue.

The idea of making information more accessible also inspired Climate Commons, an online interactive map of the United States, launched by the organization Internews on April 22 as part of its Earth Journalism Network (EJN).

Data on climate-change indicators—such as temperature, weather events and emissions—and related news stories are visualized on the map, tracking the impact of global warming and the presence—or absence—of media coverage.

“We are hoping that journalists and other communicators, as well as the general public, can all use this visualization and can understand better what’s going on,” James Fahn, global director of EJN, told IPS.

“Eventually we do definitely want this map to become a source for bottom-up news and information and then observations and news from the public,” he said.

Because while a “good understanding of the problem…is necessary, it’s not sufficient,” Fahn said, adding that more spaces are needed for citizen participation in actual policy-making.



Shaping environmental democracy

“ULTIMATELY, how we protect our environment is a fundamental question of how we…exercise our democracy,” Michael Marx, director of the Beyond Oil Campaign at Sierra Club, the largest grassroots environmental organization in the US, told IPS.

David Eisenhauer of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) agreed, telling IPS that “providing an opportunity for citizen input is foundational to our democracy.”

In March the USFWS released its “Climate Adaptation Strategy” outlining nationwide strategies for the next five to 10 years to protect species and resources in a changing climate. It benefited, during its draft stage, from nearly 55,000 comments from individuals and organizations.

The range of actions that can be taken by ordinary citizens to address climate change is broad, and can be as simple as keeping the thermostat in one’s home on a lower setting, as one commenter suggested.

“The combination of personal-behavior choices and civic engagement and activism is a potent tool that has global-scale consequences,” Marx said.

According to Leiserowitz, changing individual lifestyles in the United States could cut emissions by 10 percent.

“The other 90 percent really has to come from a systemic change,” Leiserowitz said.

That means public demands for change in the US need to be more systematic and urgent, he added.

On February 17 the Sierra Club participated in a Forward on Climate Rally that drew an estimated 40,000 people in Washington, D.C.

“We do not see the diversity and occasional conflict within the climate movement as a bad thing,” Marx said. “We accept that a democratic approach—as divisive and chaotic as it can appear—is also the most resilient and strongest [one].”



Fears of ‘big government’

CLIMATE change is not only an environmental issue, Leiserowitz pointed out. It cuts across multiple aspects of society, including the economy, national security, and cultural and religious beliefs.

Some opponents of actions like mandatory emissions cuts fear they could be a pretext to usher in a more intrusive government, as has been seen in other hot-button debates over issues like gun control and health care.

“They’re so afraid of the policy response that they suddenly become very skeptical of the problem itself,” Leiserowitz said.

“This is about something much deeper. It’s about identity, about values, about emotions, and if you don’t know that that’s what you’re dealing with, you will eternally be frustrated when you provide them with more and more facts and they don’t respond the way you think they are going to,” he added.


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MERALCO Power rates seen lower in 2013

Meralco sees lower rates this year 
  
Details  Category: Companies  Published on Tuesday, 22 January 2013 19:19  Written by Lenie Lectura / Reporter
Business Mirror online edition


POWER retailer Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) customers should expect lower power rates and huge savings in their electricity bills this year.

Residential customers, the utility firm in a statement released on Tuesday said, will enjoy the benefit of lower rates arising from a reduction of an average of about 19 centavos per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for the year.  

This, after the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) approved Meralco’s proposed rates under its new power- supply agreement (PSA). 

“Meralco exerted extensive efforts to negotiate for these PSAs that would avert possible price shock in the light of the expiration of the company’s transition supply contract [TSC] with the National Power Corp. [Napocor] on December 26, 2012,” said Alfredo S. Panlilio, Meralco senior vice president for customer retail services and corporate communications, in a statement.

Suppliers which signed PSAs with Meralco include Sem-Calaca Power Corp., South Premiere Power Corp., San Miguel Energy Corp., Masinloc Power Partners Co. Ltd. and Therma Luzon Inc. The new PSAs are in accordance with Meralco’s mandate for least-cost supply. 

The power utility said after extensive negotiations, it was able to forge new supply agreements with these power-generation companies, allowing it to replace its existing TSCs with Napocor.

Meanwhile, the ERC also approved Meralco’s application to implement its peak/off-peak (POP) program, formerly known as “time-of-use” system.

POP is an alternative energy pricing scheme that is based on the time of the day electricity is generated and on the cost of supplying electricity during that time. With this pricing scheme, customers can avail themselves of lower generation costs during pre-defined off-peak hours.

In its decision, the ERC said, “An initial evaluation of the instant application disclosed that Meralco’s proposed revised rates will address its social commitment to its customers, especially, its large industrial and commercial customers, by enticing them to invest in the country by way of just and reasonable costs of electricity. The program will help boost the country’s economic condition which will ultimately redound to the benefit of the consumers.”

Eligible to enroll in Meralco’s POP are non-residential customers with at least 500 kW monthly average use. Customers availing themselves of POP rates are expected to experience savings of up to 10 percent on the average versus regular Meralco rates, depending on peak and off-peak consumption. 

Panlilio said the timely approval of Meralco’s POP program will provide an alternative to a significant number of Meralco’s large corporate customers and the ecozone rate programs, which also expired (on) December 26, 2012. For old and new subscribers alike, implementation of the POP Program is set to begin on February 1, 2013.

“We, in Meralco, appreciate the approval made by ERC and are happy of this development for our customers.

“With the POP program, affordable electricity rate options continue to be available to customers, especially to our large customers who, through said program, can help contain cost of production and remain competitive in their area of business,” said Panlilio.

***

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ADB warns Asia: Rethink energy use or pay the price

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Details

 

Category: Top News
Business Mirror online edition

Published on Wednesday, 01 May 2013 20:39

Written by Bong D. Fabe / Correspondent

Unless Asia overhauls its energy use and detours from the dangerous and unsustainable energy path the continent is treading, it will undermine the so-called Asian century growth scenario as it will effectively put a wedge in energy access between the rich and poor, as well as open up the region to environmental disasters of magnitude never seen before.

This grim picture that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) painted for Asia in Chapter 2 (Asia’s Energy Challenge) of the 317-page report Asian Development Outlook 2013, released last month, urged Asian countries to deliver energy to all its citizens while scaling back its reliance on fossil fuels.

According to the report, Asia must change the way it consumes energy and start using clean-energy sources or suffer the human, economic and environmental consequences of its voracious appetite for fossil fuels by 2035.

By that year, the continent’s oil consumption will double, natural gas consumption will triple and  coal consumption will rise to a whopping 81 percent.

“Asia could be consuming more than half the world’s energy supply by 2035, and without radical changes, carbon- dioxide emissions will double,” ADB chief economist Changyong Rhee said.

“Asia must both contain rising demand and explore cleaner energy options, which will require creativity and resolve, with policy-makers having to grapple with politically difficult issues like fuel subsidies and regional energy market integration,” Rhee added. 

The World Bank reported in 2010 that electricity production in the Philippines from coal sources was 26.61 percent compared to other energy sources in 2009. And projections from various data banks only said Philippine coal consumption will go up, especially with the Department of Energy’s push in an effort to solve the reported Mindanao power crisis.

While the Philippines has its Renewable-Energy Law of 2008, it continues to rely on carbon-emitting, climate-changing fossil fuel-based energy plants despite official pronouncements of institutionalizing a proportional ratio of mixed (fossil-based and renewable) energy sources.

“In the Philippines, the contribution of renewables will shrink from 43 percent in 2010 to 14 percent in 2035, by which time proven indigenous gas and coal reserves will be depleted,” the ADB report said.

Since energy “is one of the most basic human needs,” the ADB urged Asian government officials to find the political will and innovation to scrap outdated policies and recalibrate the region’s energy mix.

“Effective government leadership can mobilize behavior change in firms and households. The lesson for Asian governments is that they must take the lead in changing the mindset and culture of their citizens so that they use energy more efficiently and thus do their part to promote Asia’s energy security,” it said.

The Manila-based lender suggested three ways to do this: One, eliminate consumer subsidies and tax greenhouse gas emissions. Two, support green innovation such as smart cities and clean transportation to improve energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. Three, curtail wasteful energy consumption.

But the ADB report said these three strategies are easier said than done. “Demand management strategies are promising but presents various challenges. Tackling outmoded subsidies requires political will, green innovation takes investment in technology, and changing behavior entails instilling fundamentally new attitudes.”

Since Asia has limited indigenous energy resources, with only about 9 percent of proven global oil reserves, it is on track to almost triple oil imports by 2035, making it more vulnerable to external supply shocks, the report said.

But since Asian countries cannot meet all their power requirements on their own, the bank  also suggested that they have to accelerate “cross-border interconnection of power and gas grids to improve efficiency, cut costs and take advantage of surplus power. With increased cooperation, a pan-Asia energy market is achievable by 2030.”

In their effort to meet energy demand for their people, the ADB also urged Asian governments to ensure energy supply adequacy, environmental sustainability and affordable access.