News
Publish date: February 23, 2009
Written by: Charles Digges
News
Gibbs was responding to a recent post on the White House website indicating that Obama plans to implement an "economy-wide cap-and-trade programme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.”
"That’s true," Gibbs told reporters during a White House briefing earlier today when asked whether a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases would be in place in time for revenues to be generated by 2012.
The Democratic president has already made bold moves he promised toward fighting global climate change. Six days into his presidency, he gave states carte blanche to set their own automobile emissions standards and has ordered more fuel efficient vehicles getting at least 35 miles to the gallon be the industry standard by 2012.
He further cut loose $50 billion in his $787 billion stimulus package singed last week to inject into green energy programmes throughout the country, from propping up renewable energy supply manufacturers and producers to revamping the United States electrical grid to bring wind and solar power from areas where it is in abundance to areas where it is needed.
His stimulus package also includes $8 million for CCS demonstation plants in various US states that have been craving such programmes.
He has also given the Environmental Protection Agency the nod to issue a finding on whether carbon dioxide constitutes a pollutant, something the EPA was ordered to do under the Bush administration, but which Bush dragged his feet in ordering.
During his presidential campaign Obama laid out plans for a trading system that would set limits on greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and allow that would allow factories and industries that pollute less to trade permits with those that pollute more.
The European Union is anxious for the United States to develop a trading system to couple with its own established scheme.
Obama has not released any details about his plans for such a system since taking office, and how much of the budget will be accounted for by an emissions cap-and-trade system will not go public until Obama sends his budget to Congress on Thursday.
Obama has made clear, however, that investments in renewable energy would be part of the economic recovery process.
Recent attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant "mark the beginning of a new and gravely dangerous front of the war," the UN atomic agency's director general said last week.
After years of inaction, Germany is working on its Carbon Management Strategy to resolve how CCS can play a role in climate action in industry. At the end of February, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action published first key points and a proposal to amend the law Kohlenstoffdioxid Speicherungsgesetz (KSpG). Bellona Deutschland, who was actively involved in the previous stakeholder dialogue submitted a statement in the association hearing.
In the midst of a global discussion on whether natural gas should be used as a transitional fuel and whether emissions from its extraction, production, transport and use are significantly less than those from other fossil fuels, Russia has developed ambitious plans to increase its own production of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the Arctic – a region with 75% of proven gas reserves in Russia – to raise its share in the international gas trade.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.