Climate Change as a Security Risk
The German Advisory Council on Global Change (BGU) is hosting a Congressional briefing on Climate Change as a Security Risk that will examine how climate change may overstretch many societies’ adaptive capacities, resulting in destabilization and violence and jeopardizing national and international security. It will also discuss how climate change efforts could unite the international community if it recognizes global warming as a threat to humankind and adopts a dynamic and globally coordinated climate policy. The briefing will be held on Tuesday, April 1, from 3:00-4:30 p.m. in Room 2255 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC. For more information contact Mario-Ingo Soos at wi-2@wash.diplo.de.
Drilling for Answers on Oil and Gas Prices, Profits, and Alternatives
On Tuesday, April 1, 2008, Chairman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) will bring top-level executives from the five largest oil companies to discuss the current state of oil and gas prices, oil company profits, and the need for clean, renewable fuels to ease demand for oil and cut global warming pollution.
ExxonMobil reported record profits of $40.6 billion in 2007, and the other top four oil companies like BP and Shell made billions more. These same companies are fighting to keep $18 billion in tax breaks that Congress is attempting to shift towards renewable energy incentives for wind, solar, biomass and other climate-friendly sources. The House recently passed the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008, but President Bush and the top oil companies are fighting to defeat the measure in the Senate.
Witnesses- Mr. J. Stephen Simon, Senior Vice President, Exxon Mobil Corp.
- Mr. John Hofmeister, President, Shell Oil Company
- Mr. Robert A. Malone, Chairman and President, BP America, Inc.
- Mr. Peter Robertson, Vice Chairman, Chevron
- Mr. John Lowe, Executive Vice President, ConocoPhillips
The Capitol Complex Master Plan and the Capitol Visitors Center, with a focus on transportation, security, greening initiatives, energy, and maintenance
See the full hearing description.
Witnesses- Stephen T. Ayers, AIA, Acting Architect of the Capitol
- Terrie Rouse, CEO for Visitor Services, Capitol Visitor Center
- Daniel P. Beard, Chief Administrative Officer, U.S. House of Representatives
- Philip Morse, U.S. Capitol Police
- Emeka Moneme, District of Columbia Director of Transportation
- James Pew, EarthJustice
- Peter Pantuso, President and CEO, American Bus Association
“Congress has taken an important step in the fight against global warming by dramatically reducing its own greenhouse gas emissions,” said Friends of the Earth President Brent Blackwelder. “Friends of the Earth commends Speaker Pelosi and Administrator Beard for their leadership. The Democratic leadership is practicing what it preaches. It is also setting an example that other government bodies can follow, demonstrating that substantial global warming pollution reductions are attainable in a short period of time.”The House is now reducing its emissions by ensuring that all electricity it purchases is generated by wind, by using natural gas, not coal, to meet heating and cooling needs, and by taking efficiency measures including the installation of tens of thousands of energy efficient light bulbs, consolidating computer servers, and launching a bike-sharing program. These measures are part of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Green the Capitol Initiative.
FY 2009 U.S. Forest Service Budget
- Mark E. Rey, Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment, U.S. Department of Agriculture
- Abigail R. Kimbell, Chief, U.S. Forest Service
Fossil Fools Day
On April 1, 2008 young people from around the world are rising up to show the world that we refuse to fool around with climate change and our future. The Energy Action Coalition is calling on communities across Canada and the US to join this global day of action and show the fossil fuel industry and bad politicians that we mean business. Ideas include, but are by no means limited to: rallies at gas stations or representative offices, Critical Mass bike rides, office occupations, Billionaire’s for Tar Sands/Coal demonstrations, spank the bank visits, high-powered projections of solutions on the side of dirty energy factories, Board of Trustees meeting take-overs, hold a clean energy camp at a dirty energy site, do solar installations, make spoof videos and websites, offer alternative, clean energy bus rides, do some coal mining of your own at a coal company’s headquarters . . .
Groups participating in Fossil Fools Day include the Energy Action Coalition, Canadian Youth Climate Coalition, Rising Tide North America, the Australian Student Environment Network, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, & Rising Tide UK, & Rising Tide Australia.
Find events here.
Making Carbon Capture & Sequestration Work
Recognizing the heightened interest in carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) as a way to enable continued use of fossil fuels in emissions-intensive sectors of the economy, we invite you to a conversation on economic and other issues related to emissions-free energy and carbon mitigation technologies. The discussion, open to the public and press, is organized by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, along with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the British Foreign Office and the U.S. Mission to the European Union. Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) will open the conference, which will feature energy experts from the international community, the private sector and academia. CSIS is a non-partisan, non-profit organization founded in 1962 and headquartered in Washington. It seeks to advance global security and prosperity by providing strategic insights and practical policy solutions to decision makers.
Welcome 1:00 – 1:15 p.m.
- Frank Verrastro, director and senior fellow, CSIS Energy and National Security Program
- Bob Simon, staff director, Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee
- Sen. Jeff Bingaman, chairman, Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee
The Business Case for CCS 1:15 – 2:00 p.m.
- Gardiner Hill, manager for Group Environmental Technology, BP (moderator)
- Bruce Braine, vice president of Strategic Policy Analysis, American Electric Power Service
- Craig Hansen, vice president, Washington Operations, Babcock and Wilcox
- Stephen Kaufman, chair, Integrated CO2 Network (ICO2N) and director for business development, Suncor Energy
Sequencing the Deployment 2:05 – 2:50 p.m.
- David Pumphrey, deputy director and senior fellow, CSIS Energy and National Security Program (moderator)
- Jan Panek, head, Coal & Oil Unit, Directorate-General for Energy & Transport, European Commission
- Jon Gibbins, Energy Technology for Sustainable Development Group, Imperial College, London
- Jim Dooley, senior staff scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Economics, Infrastructure and Scale Issues 2:55 – 3:40 p.m.
- Shirley Neff, president and chief executive officer, Association of Oil Pipelines (moderator)
- Kevin Book, senior analyst, Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc.
- Rachel Crisp, deputy director, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, United Kingdom
- Vince Hahn, principal and vice president, Global Asset Consulting, R.W. Beck, Inc.
Closing and Summary 3:45 – 4:00 p.m.
Bangkok Climate Change Talks
Three months after the landmark agreement on a road map towards strengthened international action on climate change reached in Bali, Indonesia, the next round of negotiations shifts to the neighboring country of Thailand and its capital, Bangkok. The talks are taking place between 31 March to 4 April 2008 at the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC) of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
The climate change talks in Bangkok will convene sessions of both the Ad hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (first session) and the Ad hoc Working Group on further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (first part of the fifth session), during which Parties need to advance the Bali Road Map agreed last December.
Parties agreed at Bali to formally launch negotiations on enabling the full, effective and sustained implementation of the Convention. These negotiations need to conclude in an agreed outcome by the end of 2009.
The challenge is to design a future agreement that will successfully halt the increase in global emissions within the next 10-15 years, dramatically cut back emissions by 2050, and do so in a way that is economically viable and politically equitable worldwide.
The Bangkok meeting of the Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention needs to map out how to tackle this enormous challenge and begin by establishing without delay a clear work programme for the next two years.
Concretely, Parties meeting in Bangkok will identify the areas that need to be further clarified as well as the issues where work needs to be done and in what order that should happen. They will also establish what input is needed from the UN at large, the business sector and others, and how this will be integrated into the overall work plan.
The issues that the new Working Group needs to address were clearly defined at Bali. In addition to the goal of achieving agreement on long-term global action, work on on-going issues such as deforestation and technology needs to be advanced.
The Kyoto Protocol AWG, mandated in 2005 to consider future commitments for Annex I Parties, will initiate the second step of its work programme; in particular, the analysis of possible means available to Annex I Parties to reach their emission reduction targets. It will provide an informal setting for input from experts and for Parties to present their views on the issues related to the different means, as well as on how to enhance their effectiveness and contribution to sustainable development. Issues under consideration include emissions trading and the project based mechanisms, land use, land-use change and forestry, greenhouse gases, sectors and source categories to be covered, and possible approaches targeting sectoral emissions. These themes will be addressed in an in-session thematic workshop.
For both groups, work will continue at the twenty-eighth session of the Subsidiary Bodies to be held in Bonn in June. After that, both groups will reconvene at a week-long intersessional meeting at the end of August before meeting again at the fourteenth session of the Conference of the Parties and the fourth session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in Poland in December.
The challenges associated with rapid deployment of large-scale carbon capture and storage technologies
Bismarck State College located at 1500 Edwards Avenue, Bismarck, North Dakota – Missouri Room
Witnesses
Panel 1- Mr. Tim Spisak , Fluid Managers Division Chief, U.S. Department of the Interior
- Mr. Scott Klara , Director of the Office of Coal and Power R&D, National Energy Technology Laboratory
- Ms. Bonnie Lovelace , Chief of the Water Protection Bureau, Montana Department of Environmental Quality
- Ms. Sandi Tabor, General Counsel, Lignite Energy Council
- Mr. Gordon Criswell , Manager, PPL Montana
- Dr. Lee Spangler , Director, Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership
- Mr. John Harju , Associate Director of Research, Plains Carbon Dioxide Reduction Partnership
- Mr. Gary Loop , Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President, Dakota Gasification Company
Solar Radiation, Cosmic Rays and Greenhouse Gases: What's Driving Global Warming?
What are the relative contributions from the sun, cosmic rays, and greenhouse gases, to the observed warming in the late 20th century and what are their expected contributions during the 21st Century? How does this compare to natural climate variability of past centuries and millennia? What is the principle driver or drivers of global warming in the 20th and 21st centuries? How are cosmic rays different from solar irradiance? Are there direct measurements of solar irradiance changes over the last 30 years or so? If so, what do these measurements show? What are the signals of this solar variability in the Earth’s atmosphere, and how do climate models reproduce these? Are we likely to observe additional changes in solar irradiance in the future and what might such variability have as an effect on climate? How is the ozone layer affected by solar activity changes and how does it influence surface weather and climate?
Public Invited
Buffet Reception Following
Moderator:
- Dr. Anthony Socci, Senior Science Fellow, American Meteorological Society
Speakers:
- Dr. Judith Lean, Senior Scientist for Sun-Earth System Research, Space Science Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC
- Dr. Caspar Ammann, Research Scientist, Climate and Global Dynamics Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO