Jennifer Marohasy » On a Tortuous Political Problem: Bob Carter

LAST Wednesday, I had the privilege of appearing in front of the Australian Senate Select Committee on Climate Policy.

My main advice to the committee was that making a decision regarding an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) must be considered as a cost:benefit matter.

According to the only estimates that I could find, after ramp-up the cost of the Rudd ETS scheme is going to be about an additional $3,500 tax per year per Australian family. On the other side, the benefit will be a theoretical (i.e. modelled) reduction in temperature of less than 1/1000 deg. C.

I asked the committee if they had such figures in front of them (they didn’t), and expressed willingness to drop my estimates in favour of better-founded ones if the committee could provide them. Not a finger, or tongue, stirred!

Coalition sends 'wrong signal' on climate | theage.com.au

- Oxfam International will today release a report warning that the number of climate-related disasters is likely to surge by more than 50 per cent by 2015, affecting more than 375 million people each year.

We're saved!: Parsons Brinckerhoff blows a few thousand? dollars on the carbon scam; issues self-congratulatory press release

(Source: Datamonitor) Parsons Brinckerhoff has purchased renewable energy credits for wind power equivalent to the electricity it uses annually at its corporate headquarters in New York City.

The purchase of renewable energy credits (RECs) for 3.1 million kWh of electricity is made through developer and marketer of wind energy Community Energy.

Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) has said that its purchase of the RECs guarantees that carbon-free energy generated by wind farms is produced and fed into the national grid to offset the conventional power PB receives at its offices at One Penn Plaza and 333 Seventh Avenue in midtown Manhattan. PB will continue to draw electricity from the local power grid.

PB has said that its purchase of RECs for wind power will offset the release of roughly 1,870 metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. It is the estimated equivalent of planting 1,600 acres of trees or taking 359 cars off the road for one year.

2008: More from Parsons Brinckerhoff

Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) has been appointed to provide green ICT expertise for the development of the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MIST), the world’s first graduate university focused on future energy. MIST is at the heart of Masdar City, Abu Dhabi’s zero carbon, zero waste, car-free city.