 |
Showing posts with label energy problems. Show all posts
Showing posts with label energy problems. Show all posts
Thursday, December 3, 2015
20151204_China Daily_China to become global nuclear energy player with 110 reactors
Monday, September 28, 2015
20150928 BBC_Shell stops Arctic activity after 'disappointing' tests
AP
Royal Dutch Shell has stopped Arctic oil and gas exploration off the coast of Alaska after "disappointing" results from a key well in the Chukchi Sea.
In a surprise announcement, the company said it would end exploration off Alaska "for the foreseeable future".
Shell said it did not find sufficient amounts of oil and gas in the Burger J well to warrant further exploration.
The company has spent about $7bn (£4.5bn) on Arctic offshore development in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.
"Shell continues to see important exploration potential in the basin, and the area is likely to ultimately be of strategic importance to Alaska and the US," said Marvin Odum, president of Shell USA.
"However, this is a clearly disappointing exploration outcome for this part of the basin."
Environmental groups oppose Arctic offshore drilling and say industrial activity and more greenhouse gases will harm polar bears, walrus and ice seals.
Over the summer, protesters in kayaks unsuccessfully tried to block Arctic-bound Shell vessels in Seattle and Portland, Oregon.
Shell said it would take financial charges as a result of halting exploration, which it would disclose during its third quarter results. The company has existing contracts for rigs, ships and other assets.
The US Geological Survey estimates that the Arctic holds about 30% of the world's undiscovered natural gas, as well as 13% of its oil.
According to Shell, this amounts to around 400 billion barrels of oil equivalent, 10 times the total oil and gas produced in the North Sea to date.
PAAnalysis: Roger Harrabin, BBC environment analyst
Environmentalists are jubilant at Shell's withdrawal from the Arctic.
Greenpeace ran a campaign protesting that firms have already found three times more fossil fuels than scientists say can be safely burned without risk of destabilising the climate.
They also warned that an accident was likely in the brutal Arctic weather. And they said if a spill happened, it would impossible to clear up oil spreading under sea ice.
Shell maintained that it had the technology to cope with a spill, and that the world still needed oil and gas.
But some other leading figures in the oil industry said they were staying out of the Arctic because of the huge exploration costs and reputational risk - especially at a time of low oil prices.
And Hillary Clinton, a Democratic hopeful for the US Presidency, has said she would block new permits for Alaskan offshore drilling because it's too risky.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
20150318 China Daily_Shanghai prepares for clean air
Authorities say PM2.5 remains a big problem as it outlines 100 billion yuan action plan
 |
Woman wear face masks on the Bund in front of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower during a hazy day in downtown Shanghai January 26, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]
|
Shanghai plans to invest 100 billion yuan ($16 billion) in its environmental protection drive for the coming three years, while reducing the concentration of PM2.5 by at least 20 percent from the level in 2013.
Those are part of the targets the municipal government outlined in an action plan for the period between 2015 and 2017.
One of the highlights of the plan, released on Tuesday, is the increase of capital invested to improve the environment from the average of 21.3 billion yuan in the past 15 years to an average of 33.3 billion yuan committed for the upcoming three years.
Improvements in air quality, water and the ecology will be the focus of the plan.
Measures to fight smog, for example, include shifting the coal-burning boilers and industrial furnaces to clean fuels, transforming power generators to reduce their emissions, phasing out high-polluting vehicles and putting in place further control on dust at construction sites.
Those efforts are expected to help reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide by 20,000 metric tons nitrogen oxide by 40,000 tons and volatile organic compounds by 100,000 tons.
Yang Xin, a professor at Fudan University's department of environmental science and engineering, called the action plan practical, saying that the government is moving in the right direction to address the biggest concerns of the public regarding the environment.
"In 2014, we saw a big drop in the concentration level of PM2.5 from the previous year," he said. "That makes the goal of a 20 percent reduction by 2017 not that difficult."
 |
A man wears a face mask while walking on the Bund in front of the financial district of Pudong, during a hazy day in downtown Shanghai January 25, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]
|
But the government needs to do more to make the public clearly see the improvement in the environment, he said.
"Lowering PM2.5 levels by 20 percent means a huge reduction of its harm on people's health. But it won't bring along great improvement in the visibility of the air, and visibility actually is the main benchmark for the public to judge air quality," he added.
Public perception
Most Shanghai residents questioned on Tuesday said air pollution worsened in 2014, though monitoring data suggested there was an improvement of air quality compared with 2013.
"I didn't feel an improvement at all. We often saw a gray sky caused by the smog," said 24-year-old Yu Canglong.
In the action plan, authorities admitted that PM2.5 and air pollution remain prominent problems, despite the overall improving environment in the city.
For the upcoming three years, the government also vowed to reduce the number of highly polluted water bodies, raise forestation coverage from 13.5 percent to 15.5 percent, and build a sewage disposal system for 90 percent of waste water in urban areas.
On the national level, the country is set to focus efforts this year on fully implementing the revised Environmental Protection Law, which took effect on Jan 1.
No one must use his power to meddle with law enforcement, Premier Li Keqiang said on Sunday at a news conference following the closing of the annual session of the nation's top legislature.
"All acts of illegal production and emissions will be brought to account. We will make the cost for doing so too high to bear," he said.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
20141112 BBC_Fossil fuels should be phased out by 2100 says IPCC
The IPCC says fossil fuels without carbon capture should be "phased out" by 2100
The unrestricted use of fossil fuels should be phased out by 2100 if the world is to avoid dangerous climate change, a UN-backed expert panel says.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says in a stark report that most of the world's electricity can - and must - be produced from low-carbon sources by 2050.
If not, the world faces "severe, pervasive and irreversible" damage.
The UN said inaction would cost "much more" than taking the necessary action.
The IPCC's Synthesis Report was published on Sunday in Copenhagen, after a week of intense debate between scientists and government officials.
It is intended to inform politicians engaged in attempts to deliver a new global treaty on climate by the end of 2015.
The report says that reducing emissions is crucial if global warming is to be limited to 2C - a target acknowledged in 2009 as the threshold of dangerous climate change.
The report suggests renewables will have to grow from their current 30% share to 80% of the power sector by 2050.
In the longer term, the report states that fossil fuel power generation without carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology would need to be "phased out almost entirely by 2100".
'Science has spoken'
The Synthesis Report summarises three previous reports from the IPCC, which outlined the causes, the impacts and the potential solutions to climate change.
It re-states many familiar positions:
- Warming is "unequivocal" and the human influence on climate is clear
- The period from 1983 to 2012, it says, was likely the warmest 30 year period of the last 1,400 years
- Warming impacts are already being seen around the globe, in the acidification of the oceans, the melting of arctic ice and poorer crop yields in many parts
- Without concerted action on carbon, temperatures will increase over the coming decades and could be almost 5C above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century
"Science has spoken," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. "There is no ambiguity in their message. Leaders must act. Time is not on our side."
Ban Ki-moon: Inaction on climate change "will cost heavily"
"There is a myth that climate action will cost heavily," said Mr Ban, "but inaction will cost much more."
The US Secretary of State, John Kerry, described the report as "another canary in the coal mine".
"Those who choose to ignore or dispute the science so clearly laid out in this report do so at great risk for all of us and for our kids and grandkids," Mr Kerry said in a statement.
The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Davey described the report as the "most comprehensive, thorough and robust assessment of climate change ever produced".
"It sends a clear message that should be heard across the world - we must act on climate change now. It's now up to the politicians - we must safeguard the world for future generations by striking a new climate deal in Paris next year," he said.
"The UK has been leading the world and bringing the world with us. The historic agreement to cut carbon emissions in Europe by at least 40 per cent by 2030 effectively means our Climate Change Act is being replicated across Europe, just as it's being copied in countries across the world as they seek to cap and cut their own emissions."
Blunt language
Prof Myles Allen from Oxford University, a member of the IPCC core writing team, said: "We can't afford to burn all the fossil fuels we have without dealing with the waste product which is CO2 and without dumping it in the atmosphere."
"If we can't develop carbon capture we will have to stop using fossil fuels if we want to stop dangerous climate change."
Analysis: David Shukman, BBC science editor
The language in the UN's climate reports has been steadily ratcheted up over the years, but this publication lays out the options more bluntly than before.
The conclusion that fossil fuels cannot continue to be burned in the usual way - and must be phased out by the end of the century - presents governments with an unusually stark choice.
The IPCC has tried to make it more palatable by saying that fossil fuel use can continue if the carbon emissions are captured and stored.
But so far the world only has one commercially-operating plant of that type, in Canada, and progress developing the technology is far slower than many had hoped.
So this raises the difficult question of how key governments are likely to respond.
Events in Copenhagen back in 2009, when a disastrous and dysfunctional summit failed to agree anything substantial, showed how easily rhetoric crumbles in the face of economic pressures or domestic realities.
The report's clarity of language over the future of coal, oil, and gas was welcomed by campaigners.
"What they have said is that we must get to zero emissions, and that's new," said Samantha Smith from World Wildlife Fund.
"The second thing is they said that it is affordable, it is not going to cripple economies."
Fierce standoff
In the IPCC's discussions on fossil fuels, there was a fierce battle over a chart that showed how much the electricity sector needed to curb its carbon, the BBC's environment correspondent Matt McGrath reports from Copenhagen.
According to one observer, "the Saudis went ballistic" over the chart's inclusion.
While arctic sea ice is melting at an alarming rate, Antarctic sea ice at record levels, Dr Helen Czerski reports
Another significant fight was over the inclusion of text about Article 2 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
It quickly became a standoff between those who want the focus to be on cutting emissions against those who think the right to develop economies must come first.
An unlikely alliance between Bolivia and Saudi Arabia ultimately saw the section dropped entirely from the underlying report.
Some of those attending the talks said that tackling climate change and sustainable development went hand in hand.
"Different countries come to different perspectives" said Prof Jim Skea from Imperial College and a review editor of the report.
"But from the science perspective, we need them both. We need to walk and chew gum at the same time."
Why have oil prices been falling recently? In 60 seconds
Monday, October 20, 2014
20141020 BBC_Beijing marathon runners don masks to cope with smog
Half marathon runner Chas Pope describes conditions in Beijing
Thousands of runners have taken part in the 34th Beijing International Marathon, many wearing face masks amid concerns about pollution.
The organisers warned runners to expect slight or moderate smog, but the US embassy in Beijing said air quality early on Sunday was "hazardous".
One resident in the city told the BBC that the air smelt like burnt coal.
Estimates said that pollution soared above the maximum recommended World Health Organization levels.
China has for years been hit by severe air pollution
Runner Chas Pope has posted pictures on the internet of his mask before and after the marathon
The WHO says daily pollution levels should not exceed an average of 25 micrograms per cubic metre of fine particulate matter.
Yet the US embassy's monitor at one point reported peaks of up to 400 micrograms per cubic metre, which it said would be hazardous if a human was exposed to it over a 24-hour period.
Fine particulate matter, the kind of pollution in smoke, damages the body as it moves deep into the lungs and can even enter the bloodstream.
'Should have been cancelled'
Some athletes gave up the race because of the pollution.
British runner Chas Pope tweeted that he was only able to do 10km (6 miles) of the race in a mask before he was forced to pull out.
He said that race should have been cancelled because the air quality was "not suitable for outdoor activities".
Ethiopia's Girmay Birhanu Gebru won the marathon in just over two hours and 10 minutes
Organisers rejected calls to postpone the race despite the haze
Most runners defied the smog to enjoy the race
China's Gong Lihua, who came third in the women's race, said the smog had caused some difficulties.
"Running in this kind of smog, I felt I couldn't sweat well and my body has been very sticky and moist," she said.
Beijing resident Neil Holt told the BBC that although the air quality was better than last year, "it was still very polluted".
"You can hardly see [the stadium] through the smog. It's really hard to breathe when it is like this," he said.
The men's race was won by Ethiopian runner Girmay Birhanu Gebru and another Ethiopian, Fatuma Sado Dergo, won the women's race.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)