THE SOLUTION IS – BUILD NEW ENERGY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Clean Technology May Trump Tough Emissions Controls, Joint U.s.-China Study Says
Annie Jia, August 17, 2009 (NY Times)

"Focusing on the deployment of clean technology could be a more realistic approach to cutting greenhouse gas emissions than setting emissions targets for China and other developing countries, researchers at the Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP) say in [Technology-Based Sectoral NAMAs: A Preliminary Case Study of China’s Cement and Iron & Steel Sectors]…

"The researchers said that hard emissions caps, or even caps on emissions per unit of gross domestic product, are difficult to actualize in developing countries because often, data simply do not exist or are not good enough…The technology-based approach would, for example, set targets for how much of a given sector …would be using pre-selected technologies that are considered relatively energy-efficient…"

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"…[The researchers realized the New Energy-oriented concept] was a more practical way to do [cut emissions], though they had not been looking at it originally …[They] focused on a few energy-intensive industries in China -- namely cement, and iron and steel…[and] collaborated with researchers at Tsinghua University in Beijing…China's equivalent of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology…[The Chinese collaborators] are researchers who commonly advise the Chinese government on its energy and climate policy…and the report was written with the intention of informing Chinese policymakers.

"China would find such an approach more acceptable in part because its national planning already does it…[E]very few years [they] set goals for technology adoption…[In international negotiations, such a technology-based approach would also be easier for developing countries.]…A climate policy would, for example, raise the market penetration goal for an efficient cement plant from 70 percent to 80 or 90 percent…[I]n the cement industry, the technology approach could cut carbon dioxide emissions by more than 200 million tons -- out of total cement industry emissions of 1 billion to 2 billion tons…[Also] the approach would mesh better with how the Chinese think about energy -- focusing more on energy efficiency rather than on carbon dioxide emissions…This approach is not the first that focuses on technology rather than on emissions, however."

India, like China and other emerging economies, have a firm grasp on physical targets and costs. Emissions are harder to quantify and less directly actionable. (click to enlarge)

"The Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol allows countries to gain emissions credits for individual clean-energy projects that are built…But a major problem of the CDM is that there are large administrative costs, because every project must be assessed individually…[And] because emissions allowances are awarded, global emissions are not actually cut…[B]ecause the goal ultimately is to cap emissions, a hard cap is the most efficient way to do so [according to a spokeswoman for the Environmental Defense Fund]…

"…[The CCAP] approach would involve less overhead than the CDM, because it looks at technology in a whole sector, not individual projects. It was unclear whether the approach proposed by the CCAP would involve allowances for technology increases…[because] the idea is still new…Previous papers only discussed a concept. The CCAP study is the first "proof of concept" study to look at the feasibility of the approach…"