Apr

25

Green Around The World

Posted by cameron

April 25, 2007 |

Since the U.S.A. and Australia did not ratify the Kyoto Treaty I became curious about activities around the world. It is interesting to look at the actions of governments around the world and compare that to our energy policy. Below is a quick look:

Australia: with elections looming on the horizon, Australian politicians have suddenly tuned in to the electorate. The government has announced the country will switch to high efficiency lighting by 2010. The incandescent light bulb will be history.

Australia is also the land of “the tower of power”. This is a tower designed to capture solar energy and convert it to hot air. Hot air rises, passing through turbine blades and thus generating electricity in very clean fashion. One large tower can provide energy for a small city. The goal is to compete with coal energy, which brings me to the Chinese. China is in a heap of pollution trouble due to its heavy use of coal. The Chinese are actively testing this invention for obvious reasons.

Sidney recently had a “lights out” hour when the city went dark. This was a planned event that demonstrates just how serious the Aussies are. Good things are happening down under, even if they didn’t sign off on the treaty.

Norway: just announced it’s plans to reduce carbon emissions by 10% by 2012, 30% by 2020 and to be the first country to be zero emissions by 2050.Today Norway gets most of its electricity from hydropower. These guys are also serious.

The European Union: plans to cut its emissions by 20% by the year 2020. It’s a start. Europe has a project called the “Sun Cities” project. Various cities are having homes converted to solar power, house by house. Participating countries are the U.K., Germany and Holland. Usually this means government housing since that is all they control. Poor people have trouble meeting their energy bills and this is local governments response. I call this smart and humane.

UK: The U.K. Energy Minister just announced his intent to offer free in-home energy monitoring devices to every home in Britain. The intent here is to make people aware of their personal energy use and how they spend it. For example, the Brits will be able to tell which activities in the home use the most energy. It is hoped that awareness and people’s natural desire to cut costs will combine to create savings.

These are just a few things going on in the world, which brings us to the USA. Not only did we walk away from the Kyoto Treaty but also we have no useful energy plan that I am aware of. There are inventions being made in other parts of the world that will lead to massive future businesses and the U.S. is being left behind. We are going to find ourselves reliant on others as global market forces dismantle our energy industry as has happened to our car industry and manufacturing base. There is a light at the end of this GOP tunnel. The Democrats appear to be serious about enacting renewable energy policy and, despite Washington, there is a growing movement at the states level to enact their own versions of Kyoto. Witness Arnold’s resurgence in California based, it appears, on his new found love of the environment. What California does today other states will do tomorrow. No matter his intentions hopefully good will come of it.

Lastly, if you have ever wondered about your personal impact and cost to the planet then take this simple quiz at myfootprint.org. You may be surprised.


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