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  Yahoo News 28 Aug 07
Massive investment needed to combat climate change: UN
by Sim Sim Wissgott

PlanetArk 29 Aug 07
Energy Efficiency Seen Easiest Path to Aid Climate
Story by Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

VIENNA - Energy efficiency for power plants, cars or homes is the easiest way to slow global warming in a long-term investment shift that will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

A UN report about climate investments, outlined to a meeting in Vienna of 1,000 delegates from 158 nations, also said emissions of greenhouse gases could be curbed more cheaply in developing nations than in rich states in coming decades.

The cash needed to return rising emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, to current levels by 2030 would amount to 0.3 to 0.5 percent of projected gross domestic product (GDP), or 1.1 to 1.7 percent of global investment flows, in 2030, it said.

"Energy efficiency is the most promising means to reduce greenhouse gases in the short term," said Yvo de Boer, the head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, presenting the report to the Aug. 27-31 meeting.

That could mean tougher standards for cars, factories, coal-fired power plants or buildings in using fossil fuels.

And government policies could encourage people to pick energy efficient lightbulbs, for instance, or discourage them from wasting energy by heating empty outdoor terraces.

The 216-page report was published online last week. De Boer said the study could help guide governments, meeting in Austria to discuss a longer-term strategy against global warming beyond the UN's Kyoto Protocol. The protocol binds 35 rich nations to cap emissions of greenhouse gases by 2008-12.

The report estimates that "global additional investment and financial flows of US$200 billion-$210 billion will be necessary in 2030 to return greenhouse gas emissions to current levels", including measures for energy supply, forestry and transport.

The study foresees a shift to renewable energies such as solar and hydropower, and some nuclear power. Environmentalists say that the report lacks ambition and that emissions need to be below current levels by 2030.

CARBON MARKETS EXPANDED

The report also estimates that investments in helping nations adapt to the impact of climate change would run to tens of billions of dollars in 2030, such as treating more cases of malaria or building dykes to protect beaches from rising seas.

It said carbon markets would have to be "significantly expanded to address needs for additional investments and financial flows." Companies are now responsible for about 60 percent of global investments.

Harlan Watson, the chief US climate negotiator, said it was unclear how governments could mobilise such vast investments by the private sector.

"That's a key question," he said.

The report fills in some gaps in a wider picture given by previous studies such as one by former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern saying it would be cheaper to confront climate change now than wait to combat the consequences.

UN reports this year have also projected that warming will bring more heatwaves, droughts, disease and rising seas. De Boer said investments to developing nations should rise.

"The bulk of cost-effective opportunities are in developing countries," he said, adding that did not mean that rich nations should seek only to invest abroad rather than at home.

"More than half the energy investment needed is in developing countries," he said.

China is opening coal-fired power plants at a rate of two per week to feed its growing economy and cleaner technology would help the climate.

Yahoo News 28 Aug 07
Massive investment needed to combat climate change: UN
by Sim Sim Wissgott

Investment of more than 200 billion dollars will be needed by 2030 just to keep greenhouse gas emissions at today's levels, according to a UN climate change report presented Tuesday in Vienna.

"Global additional investment and financial flows of 200-210 billion dollars (146.3-153.7 billion euros) will be necessary in 2030 to return global greenhouse gas emission to current levels," according to the report by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Presenting the report, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer told reporters that finding "an economic answer" was key to dealing with the peril of climate change.

The UNFCCC is holding talks in Vienna this week with government, industry and research representatives ahead of a conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December to discuss climate commitments after 2012, when the UN's Kyoto Protocol expires.

Between 0.3 and 0.5 percent of global gross domestic product and between 1.1 and 1.7 percent of global investment will have to be spent on addressing climate change, the report estimated.

Although additional funding is necessary, "a substantial part of the additional investment and financial flows needed could be covered by the currently available sources," the report also suggested.

The aim will be to "direct the financial and investment flows into new facilities that are more climate-friendly and resilient."

This will include investing in technology research, renewable energy and energy efficiency for transport, industry and construction, as well as supporting agroforestry and implementing sustainable forest management.

"Energy efficiency is in fact the most promising means to reduce emissions in the short term," De Boer told journalists.

Funding should also be provided to certain sectors in developing countries to encourage them to reduce activities that can lead to further climate change.

One way to generate additional funding is the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the report said. Under this device, industrialised countries can invest in projects that reduce emissions in developing countries in order to offset emissions at home, where making reductions would be more costly.

An international air traffic levy -- an idea that is running into fierce opposition from the aviation industry -- could also raise between 10 and 15 billion dollars, De Boer pointed out.

The report was drawn up in cooperation with UN agencies, international financial institutions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and private-sector representatives.

It called on all countries to adopt common policies on technology research and development and set global efficiency standards for electrical appliances.

De Boer said the report sends "signals ... to the people out there, the governments that are going to be designing the architecture of the future climate change regime, in terms of the areas that they need to address."

More than a thousand representatives are gathering in Vienna this week as part of the UNFCCC talks. Atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal greenhouse gas, have so far risen by around a third since the start of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century.

Over the past hundred years, the global mean air temperature has risen by around 0.75 degrees Celsius (1.33 degrees Fahrenheit), causing glacial retreat, shrinkage of the Arctic ice cap and loss of permafrost, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said earlier this year.

Its experts forecast further warming this century of between 1.1 and 6.4 C (2.0-11.5 F) depending on how much more CO2 is emitted.

Water stress and drought, impacting on agriculture, and a greater risk of more powerful storms, affecting coastal dwellers, are among the feared outcomes.

The big source of CO2 is pollution from the burning of oil, gas and coal, the mainstay energy in today's society. Reducing this pollution entails efficiency or a switch to cleaner fuels, which carries a cost.
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