Month: May 2018
UN forest accounting loophole allows CO2 underreporting
The CO2 Forest Accounting Loophole
- Emissions accounting helps determine whether or not nations are on target to achieve their voluntary Paris Agreement reduction goals. Ideally, the global community’s CO2 pledges, adjusted downward over time, would, taken together, help keep the world from heating up by 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100 from a 1900 baseline.
- But scientists are raising the alarm that this goal may already be beyond reach. One reason: a carbon accounting loophole within UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines accepting the burning of wood pellets (biomass) as a carbon neutral replacement for coal — with wood now used in many European Union and United Kingdom power plants.
- Scientists warn, however, that their research shows that replacing coal with wood pellets in power plants is not carbon neutral. That’s partly because burning wood, which is celebrated by governments as a renewable and sustainable energy resource, is less efficient than coal burning, so it actually produces more CO2 emissions than coal.
- Also, while wood burning and tree replanting over hundreds of years will end up carbon neutral, that doesn’t help right now. Over a short timeframe, at a historical moment when we require aggressive greenhouse gas reductions, wood burning is adding to global emissions. Analysts say that this loophole needs to be closed, and soon, to avoid further climate chaos.
UN forest accounting loophole allows CO2 underreporting by EU, UK, US
Where I live they are generating 800MW of power using biomass.
Sea Ice Extent (Global Antarctic and Arctic) – Day 122 – 2018
BC Government Are Hypocrites – 100MT of CO2 Ignored
BC and Carbon Taxes and Wood Pellets And Green Ain’t Necessarily Renewable
The EPA in the USA has followed the EU in declaring wood pellets burning to be carbon neutral.
Even DesmogBlog is throwing a hissy fit.
Me … I’m sad and I’m also laughing. For years the greens have deliberately confused people and tried to make it seem like green = renewable.
They used terms like biomass and biofuel etc etc. And made it seem like it was green and way better than coal.
Burning wood for electric power may be renewable but it isn’t green. It produces 2x the CO2 as natural gas and more than coal in many cirumstances.
I live in British Columbia … a place with lots of trees and a carbon tax. But guess what, our public power utility subsidizes the burning of trees for power.
A couple of miles from me is a pulp mill. They built a 55MW power plant burning wood waste and BC Hydro buys power from them at subsidized rates.
Here’s an article on one of the small projects replacing diesel with wood waste gasification. This is the sad sad paragraph:
That adds up to greenhouse gas reductions of about 400 tonnes a year, and is in-line with BC Hydro’s ongoing efforts to help remote B.C. communities – too far away from the electricity system to be serviced by the 98% clean energy generated by BC Hydro – reduce their fossil fuel emissions.
Its sad because they can only claim GHG reductions if they lie and claim wood is “carbon neutral” and produces no net CO2.
800MW of power from burning wood etc (Ignore the waste heat stations) Here is a list.
Here is a sample:
800MW!!!!
Huge amounts of CO2 and particulate matter.
If BC shut those down, we could skip the carbon tax!
Sea Ice Extent (Global Antarctic and Arctic) – Day 121 – 2018
April was Cold in the USA
April was cold in the USA
3F colder than the 30 year average
Coolest April since 1997 (47.5°F)
Almost 5°F cooler than last year (53.2°F).
BC Carbon Tax – Gasoline Sales
The province of BC is touted as carbon tax success story. If you google “carbon tax success” BC always shows up.
Just ask the NY Times:
And of course that would mean less gasoline used .. right?
Gross sales of gasoline (1,000 liters)
2012 4,682,115 2013 4,504,633 2014 4,687,564 2015 5,481,062 2016 5,770,067
23% more gasoline used in BC from 2012.
And CO2 emitted climbed from 2010 to 2015 (last year available)
Its just a tax grab.
sunshine hours 