Renewable Energy Policy Measures

Adoption of Renewable Energy (RE) is a key component in the fight against climate change. However, some technical limitations prevent full-scale transition from fossil-fuel-based power supply to renewable energy.

The unreliability of RE sources, i.e. solar radiation is not constant throughout the day or the year. Similarly, wind currents are seasonal and conditions are favourable only in certain areas, all year round. As a result, every RE plant must have a conventional fuel-based backup power plant. This increases capital costs.

Governments, Banks and Private financiers have adopted the below as most common mechanisms to promote RE.

Source: REN21 (Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (www.ren21.net )

The detailed method in which these policies and instruments work will be discussed in later posts.

International Institutions & Climate Governance

IPCC:

The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change is established by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). It provides the scientific assessments and socio-economic implications of climate change. It is a review & coordinating organisation that relies on a network of scientists from all over the world. It has 3 Working Groups (WG) and one task force.

• WG I deals with "The Physical Science Basis of Climate Change" 

• WG II with "Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability" 

• WG III with "Mitigation of Climate Change"

• Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories develops and refines a methodology for the calculation and reporting of national GHG emissions and removals.

Working Groups also meet at the Plenary at the level of Representatives of Governments. IPCC provides Assessment Reports (AR) at regular intervals, the Fifth AR is underway. It also produces Special reports, Methodology reports, Technical papers and supporting material.

UNFCCC:

The United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change, established after the 1992 Earth Summit. It is an international convention (i.e. treaty mechanism) of the signatory nations and can in turn formulate any political and technical mechanism to deal with climate change, such as Kyoto protocol.  Annual sessions are called COP (Conference of Parties), most recent of which is COP 17 held at Durban.
The climate action work progresses on two tracks, the Long-term cooperative action LCA track for all UNFCCC parties and the Kyoto Protocol KP track for the signatories of the Kyoto Protocol, which is due to expire in 2015
UNFCCC is consists of a preamble and 26 articles outlining the obligations of the parties such as publishing national GHG inventories etc. The parties are categorised into Annex I, non-Annex I and Annex II countries, which is very important in climate negotiations.
• Annex-I: OECD countries in 1992, plus countries with economies in transition (EIT), including the Russian Federation, the Baltic States, and several Central and Eastern European States (e.g. USA, UK, Latvia, Russia etc.)
• Annex-II: OECD members of Annex I, but not the EIT Parties. They are required to provide financial resources and transfer of technology to enable emissions reduction in developing countries and help them adapt to adverse effects of climate change. (e.g. USA, UK, France, Germany etc.)
• Non-Annex I: Countries especially vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. Include developing countries and others that rely heavily on income from fossil fuel production and commerce. The rationale is oil exporting countries are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change response measures. (e.g. BRICS nations, Saudi Arabia, Honduras, Benin etc.)


OBSERVERS TO UNFCCC:
UN bodies and funds like UNDP, UNEP, UNCTAD, IPCC and the GEF. Inter-governmental organisations like OECD, IEA and NGOs like WWF, OXFAM etc.

Climate Change & Cows

Global climate is warming up due to human induced change (anthropogenic change), in the earth’s atmosphere due to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. The substances in question include Carbon dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide & Sulphur Hexafluoride along with Hydro-fluoro-carbons (HFCs).
These substances remain in the upper atmosphere and have a Global Warming Potential and cause rise in average temperatures on the earth. An average rise of 2°C will have disastrous consequences in the long-run.


GLOBAL-WARMING POTENTIAL (GWP)

It is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere. It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide. GWP is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide (whose GWP is standardized to 1). For example, the 20 year GWP of methane is 72, means if the same weights of methane and carbon dioxide were introduced into the atmosphere, methane will trap 72 times more heat than the carbon dioxide over the next 20 years.

Please see an interesting article where Australian scientists are changing diets of cows to reduce Methane emissions Victoria (Australia) - Cow diet alteration for Methane reduction

Introduction to this blog

Hello,
I am Kalyan, a post-graduate in Public Management from SDA Bocconi. I have a keen interest on the economics and policies concerning Climate action and Green Growth. I intend to use this blog to write about these interests. This blog will contain,

• My own research and findings in this field.
• Articles written by other researchers, institutions and corporations.
• News articles of General Interest and multi-media links found on the web.

I will categorise information based on its target audience and intended use (Primer, Policy Brief etc).

The information in this site may be reproductions in its entirety or I may synthesize them for easier reading. I will reference original sources at all times.

Reader's comments are welcome. No hate-rants and foul language please. Climate sceptics are welcome but please bring along valid arguments !!!