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U.S. Ranks Second to Last in Global Climate Rankings; European Countries Domi...

For the third year in a row, the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) has ranked 56 countries--collectively responsible for over 90% of energy-related CO2 emissions--based on their emissions trends and efforts to combat global warming. The 2008 rankings depict a story similar to that of the 2007 edition: the world's top two emitters, the United States and China, place troublingly low, while European countries occupy six of the top ten spots. Interestingly, China moved up in the rankings since last year due to improvements in domestic and international climate policy, whereas the United States fell two places to rank second to last, only ahead of Saudi Arabia.

Part IV: The Role of Deforestation in Climate Change

This is the fourth article in the five-part series Beyond Kyoto: A Broader Policy on Climate Change, which examines the history of the Kyoto Protocol and the challenges it has yet to address, in conjunction with the UN climate conference this week.

Deforestation is the second leading contributor of carbon emissions worldwide after the burning of fossil fuels, accounting for one-fifth of annual emissions. However, the Kyoto Protocol lacks measures to protect forest or to reward nations for its conservation, an oversight that was contentious even when the pact was first drafted. With the UN conference now working on an agreement to succeed Kyoto, deforestation is once again a hot topic at this year's negotiations.

Part III: Climate Change Vulnerability and Adaptation

This is the third article in the five-part series
Beyond Kyoto: A Broader Policy on Climate Change

It is difficult, and remains contentious, to single out the contribution of climate change to contemporary crop failures, droughts, and severe weather events. However, there's little disagreement that global greenhouse gas emissions are increasing and that carbon dioxide and other gases will persist in the atmosphere decades after their release. In light of this, adaptation to climate change has moved from a tangential concern for a few countries to a practical necessity in national planning across the globe. The implications of adaptation even transcend national boundaries, affecting international relations and development aid flows worldwide.

Part II: Increasing Corporate Support of Climate Action

This is the second article in the five-part series
Beyond Kyoto: A Broader Policy on Climate Change

Among the opinions of heads of state, environment ministers, and NGOs, next week's climate conference will have to accommodate a relatively new force in such discussions: business leaders. Corporations, aware of the environmental and economic risks of a delayed response to climate change, and aware also of the potential opportunities for investment that mitigation technologies represent, have been increasingly vocal in urging U.S. and international greenhouse gas emissions limits.

Part I: The Future of the Kyoto Protocol

This is the first article in the five-part series
Beyond Kyoto: A Broader Policy on Climate Change

Representatives from 180 nations will meet in Bali, Indonesia next week to discuss plans for a greenhouse gas emissions agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. That agreement, the first global pact containing binding commitments by most developed nations to stabilize GHG emissions, will expire in 2012.

Missed Opportunity to Protect Declining Tuna Populations

Populations of bluefin tuna, already on the decline worldwide due to overfishing, are likely to continue to plummet after international management body ICCAT failed to adopt stricter fishing quotas for the upcoming year. The results of last weekend's meeting brought condemnation from conservation groups, and scientists warn that limits twice the species' ability to repopulate may lead to a collapse of commercial tuna fishing and a population level that will never rebound.

Web Site Maps CO2 Emissions from Power Plants Worldwide

Do you know where your power comes from? You can find out in a few clicks, thanks to new website CARMA.org, a database which includes 50,000 power plants worldwide--and the CO2 pollution each of them produces.

CARMA, which stands for Carbon Monitoring for Action, is the latest in a growing trend of environmental mashups--that is, applications that combine data from multiple sources to create a new tool, intuitively presenting large amounts of data. In the case of CARMA, carbon emissions data from power plants across the globe are overlaid on Google Maps, which allows immediate geographic visualization of the biggest polluters and comparison between locales.

Climate Change Could Accelerate as Oceans Absorb Less CO2

Recent studies report that the ocean may be absorbing only half of the carbon dioxide that it was a decade ago. Climate scientists had already predicted that the ocean, which is a major carbon sink, could become "saturated" with our emissions, but few expected it could happen this soon. If it continues, this trend could accelerate global warming, since more of the CO2 emitted by humans will remain in the atmosphere.

Groundbreaking of a Sustainable Future for U.S. Biofuels

Move over, corn--last week saw the groundbreaking of the U.S.'s first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant, which will use wood scraps to produce the fossil fuel alternative. Range Fuels' plant, located in Georgia, is expected to produce 20 million gallons of ethanol per year by 2009, every drop of which will be made from leftover wood waste.

Wood is a feedstock there should be no shortage of, since the area's surrounding timber industry disposes of about a quarter of each tree processed. The conversion to fuel involves mixing waste products--not only wood but leaves, bark, and pine cones--with steam, chemically transforming them into a gas known as "syngas." Syngas can then be refined into a liquid and made into ethanol and methanol. The complexity and expense of this refinement process are great in comparison to other biofuels (see figure), and until now these factors have limited cellulosic ethanol to the laboratory. Therefore, many are closely watching Range Fuels as a test of whether such plants can be commercially successful in the U.S.

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