Sensis goes carbon neutral

The arrival of the yellow pages can be quite an annoyance, expecially for a greenie like me. For days the books lie piled up next to the front door of our building, soaking in the rain or bleaching in the sun, until someone takes pity and chucks the moulding pile into the recycling bin. Mostly I end up doing that.

To be fair, I live in a young neighbourhood. The couple on top of us has just had a baby, and the guy two doors down drives a shiny ute and keeps snakes as pets, as I recently found out. It is an Internet community. But the traditional hardcopy yellow pages seem to be surviving the Internet age. The have proven to be quite stubborn, and thus I feel they deserve a chance. More so now that Sensis, the publisher of the white and yellow pages in Australia, has gone carbon neutral and is making an effort to reduce its carbon footprint despite the fact that his paper-guzzling, tree-chomping publications are here to stay, and despite the fact that most of the time, they seem to wander straight into recycling rather than people's living rooms or offices.

Telstra-owned Sensis has just received greenhouse friendly certification from the government and plans to reduce its carbon footprint by 5 per cent. This will be done through offsetting 170,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions rather than reducing the number of yellow pages printed, even though they account for the largest percentage of the company's carbon footprint. Other measures the company intends to take include more recycling, more four cylinder diesel cars in the Sensis fleet and a greater use of video conferencing to cut back on emission-causing travel. There are no plans to make the publication a special order, but an opting-out option exists in the form of a 1-800 number on the front page of the books.

Sensis describes its move as a world-first, saying that even though their publication may have a significant imact on our environment, there are no plans to cut back on production as people still seem to be using the yellow pages hardcopy extensively. The company has committet to making sure its carbon footprint is as low as it can get while continuing to put out millions of printed telephone books annually.

Why the Prius remains a flagship

The Toyota Prius, the flagship of the Toyota concern, has added to the company's recent troubles as Toyota is preparing to recall its new Prius hybrid in Japan and markets all over the world today. More than 300,000 Prius cars have been sold worldwide. There have been dozens of complaints from drivers in Japan and the US who say they have problems with the braking system.

The Prius was Japan's top-selling car in 2009 and arguably the world's most important model of the year, seeing that we are moving towards an era of low-emission vehicles. Would Toyota's recall now keep you from buying a low-emissions car?

The problem, after all, is said to result from an interference with the accelerator pedal with the floor mat, which has nothing to do with the car's fuel performance. It can't be ignored, though, that this adds to a longer list of troubles within Toyota. As credibility shrinks, so might the desire to drive around in a Prius, environmentally friendly as it may be, especially as other car makers are moving quickly to fill the widening gap in the market.

It seems easy to condemn a car manufacturer for making decision we shy away from, even though really we should be asking ourselves whether it is so condemnable to take on leadership in a new field and get things wrong during the learning process.

And don't forget that not only the type of car but also the kind of driving you do influences the amount of greenhouse gas emissions you put into the atmosphere while behind the wheel. If you want to stay away from the Prius for a while, at least drive your own car slowly and thoughtfully, and leave it at home whenever you can. Make a habit of walking to the supermarket as a type of exercise. And take the train instead of the car more often.

I am personally a big fan of Toyota. Mine has never caused me trouble and I know it will be with me for many years to come. Most of all because of its fuel efficiency. And I am happy to see Toyota showing the guts to keep coming up with newer, environmentally friendly Prius models to help save our planet, even though at this stage they might still need some polishing.

Joshua Green: The Elusive Green Economy - The Atlantic

It feels like 1977 all over again: economy in the doldrums, crisis in the Middle East, and a charismatic new Democrat in the White House preaching the gospel of clean energy. Can Obama succeed where Carter did not? Yes—but only if we’ve learned the lessons of three decades of failure.

Read the whole article

Abbott's climate change policy

Australian opposition leader Tony Abbott released his climate change policy earlier this week, after having come under attack in December last year for claiming that "climate change is crap" to a small Victorian newspaper. Abbott's climate change policy does not include an emissions trading scheme, but consists of a 'soil and sun' package that is meant to boost the amount of carbon stored in farming land, offer incentives for some businesses to cut emissions and bring solar energy to a million homes over a decade.

Abbott's policy is favoured by the Australian coal industry, which is fearing heavy losses under Rudd's proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS). The opposition proposes that heavy polluters should be allowed to continue to emit at current levels without penalties to protect the Australian economy.

The proposal comes in the wake of the failure of the Copenhagen climate summit, and as the Rudd government re-introduces its emissions trading plan into Parliament. It is another step towards the failure to arrive at a global consensus on climate change.

Hackers steal emissions trading certificates

Deutsche Welle reported on Wednesday that hackers have launched a massive phishing attack on the German Emissions Trading Authority. Hackers have reportedly reaped millions of euros in fraudulent emissions trading certificates. This had brought the Europen trade in CO2 emissions permits to a virutal standstill after it became public that computer hackers have cracked security codes to gain access to company accounts. In the attack, companies involved were asked to re-register with the German Emissions Trading Authority (DEHSt). Companies which did so suffered huge losses as the hackers stole and then sold their carbon permits on the European emissions market.

To read the full article on the Deutsche Welle website, click here.

Copenhagen Accord dismissed as political farce

The deadline for signatories of the 'Copenhagen Accord' to announce their emissions reduction goals expired on the weekend. Somehow it didn't come as a surprise that none of the participating countries made considerable efforts to commit to noteworthy reductions of their greenhouse gas emissions. Copenhagen clearly failed to achieve what it set out to do: to come up with a real global solution for tackling climate change as a sucsessor to the Kyoto Protocol. The Copenhagen Accord, hastily drafted on the last day of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in December 2009, is not legally binding and has, against any last hopes, seen no further commitments by any of the supporting countries to reduce their greenhouse gases beyond what was initially announced. And with the deadline passed we're all of the hook, aren't we?

The supporting nations of the Accord include the big emitters like the US, China and India, among others. To contain the damage of global warming and effect temperature increases of no more than 2 degrees, industrialised countries must reduce their total emissions output by an average of 40% until 2020. Developing nations like China and India must lower emissions by 15%-30% relative to their growth.

However, current reduction claims are far behind what's necessary and as the trend goes, a warming of at least 3 degrees can be expected - the results of which will be devastating. In this sense, the Copenhagen Accord can be dismissed as a PR-Instrument rather than a real effort to counter dangerous climate change.

Click here for more information.

Copenhagen Climate Change Summit 2009

Between December 7 and December 18, 2009, world leaders met in Copenhagen, Denmark, for the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change and the 5th Meeting of the Parties (COP/MOP 5) to the Kyoto Protocol. A framework for international climate change mitigation as a successor to the Kyoto Protocol after 2012 was to be agreed upon there.

As officials had warned, the conference did not bring about a binding agreement as a roadmap for climate change action following the years after the Kyoto Protocol. It was rather marked by non-legal, half-hearted commitments and characterised by the stand-off of the participating parties rather than a combined effort to tackle the issue at hand.

The Copenhagen Accord was drafted by the US, China, India, Brazil and South Africa on December 18, and judged a "meaningful agreement" by the United States government. It was "taken note of", but not "adopted", in a debate of all the participating countries the next day, and it was not passed unanimously. The document recognised that climate change is one of the greatest challenges of the present and that actions should be taken to keep any temperature increases to below 2°C. Among other commitments, the Copenhagen Accord endorses the succession of the Kyoto protocol. However, as it is neither legally binding nor will it bring about any true results, many countries and non-governmental organisations were opposed to this agreement.

The conference was accompanied by protests across the world, with a big march of up to 100,000 protesters being held in Copenhagen on December 12th calling for a global agreement on climate change. Activism reached a stage that required heavy involvement of the police, calling it the 'biggest police action ever seen in Danish history'. A number of marches and countermovements were also seen across Europe, Australia and other parts of the world.

On December 16, two days before the conclusion of the summit, it was reported that no meaningful progress had been made. Therefore it came as a suprise that Copenhagen Accord was drafted and agreed upon on the 18th by the leading countries United States, India, China, South Africa and Brazil. And while the agreement is viewed as a milestone in history, no serious action is thought to result from it. The deal will certainly not be enough to mitigate dangreous climate change. However, it is a beginning, and we can only hope that further action will be taken soon - very soon.