The BYD F3DM Sedan

The Toyota Prius Hybrid

Plug-in hybrids (and electric cars) are an essential climate strategy. The U.S. has just enacted the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008 as part of the bailout of the U.S. financial system. The law provides tax credits for purchases of plug-in hybrid vehicles until less than a year after the first 250,000 are sold, worth $2,500 plus $417 for each kilowatt-hour of battery capacity over 4 kilowatt-hours, up to $7,500 for cars under 10,000 pounds (4536 kg), or more for larger vehicles.

BYD Auto is the Chinese company that last fall launched the very first mass-production plug-in hybrid in the world. It will display both its F3DM plug-in hybrid sedan, and a new E6 electric crossover vehicle. Executives will describe its lithium iron phosphate cells, and the Dual Mode plug-in hybrid system. BYD might be dismissed as just another Chinese car company (there are several dozen), except that famed investor Warren Buffet acquired a 10-percent stake in its parent company last September. The car company is a subsidiary of BYD Company Ltd., the world's second largest producer of rechargeable batteries—unlike GM, which has to buy its cells from other companies.

1. Do states have the right to sue the EPA to challenge its decision?
2. Does the Clean Air Act give EPA the authority to regulate tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases?
3. Does EPA have the discretion not to regulate those emissions?

California's Breakthrough on Global Warming Could Have a Major Impact on Policy in Washington

August 30, 2006

Governor Schwarzenegger has embraced a cap on vehicle and industry emissions as a way to make California a trendsetter in fighting global warming.   California's Global Warming Solutions Act aims to cut emissions to 1990 levels, or around 25 percent, by 2020 with an enforceable cap and mandatory reporting for top polluters.

California's breakthrough on global warming could have a major impact on policy in Washington.  The nation's most populous state is the world's 12th-largest emitter of greenhouse gases and could suffer dire consequences if global temperatures increase only a few degrees.   California is the world's 6th-largest economy.

Governor Schwarzenegger in the breakthrough pushed for a market-based system that will eventually give companies tools to meet emissions targets, like carbon credit trading.

(Source: GWIC)

National Submissions to the U.N. Climate Secretariat in Bonn 2005

Most of the rise in greenhouse gases was caused by a 1.7 percent gain in emissions in the United States, the world's biggest source of greenhouse gases, to a record 7.07 billion metric tons. Emissions in the European Union and Canada also rose while Japan's dipped.

Most Industrialized nations except the United States and Australia have ratified Kyoto, which obliges an overall cut in emissions of at least 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12 with a shift to cleaner energies such as wind and solar power.

Kyoto is meant as a tiny first step by rich nations to slow global warming that many scientists say could spur more heatwaves, droughts, floods, more powerful storms and swamp coastal areas by melting ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland.

(Source: GWIC)

The 17th Global Warming International Conference and Expo (GW17) April 20-21, 2006 Miami USA

Download the GWXVII Abstract Book

In Miami we will talk about the important Climate Change time constants.  This year we have discovered that today's atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are the highest in 650,000 years.  Antarctic climate and concentrations of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄) were tightly coupled.  In particular, CO₂ seemed to be confined between bounds of about 180 ppmv (parts per million by volume) in glacial periods and 280 ppmv in interglacials; both gases rose and fell with climate as the Earth passed through four glacial/ interglacial cycles.  The greenhouse gas record also provides indirect evidence for abrupt climate change in the past. This suggests that abrupt climatic events on time scales relevant to societies may be common features of the last climatic cycles. Read More...

Ocean Panel
GWIC, NCAR and NOAA

Extreme Events in North America
Sinyan Shen, Global Warming International Center, USA
S. N. Kulshreshtha, University of Saskatchewan, CANADA

Extreme Meteorological Events and Their Economic Consequences
Ernest Rudel, Elisabeth Koch, Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, AUSTRIA

Towards an Effective Implementation of Clean Development Mechanism Projects in China
ZhongXiang Zhang, East-West Center, USA

Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Agricultural Landscapes
S. N. Kulshreshtha and D. Sobool, University of Saskatchewan, CANADA

Climate-Driven Sea Level Rise
Bhawan Singh, Université de Montréal, CANADA

Near-surface permafrost: Potential feedbacks on climate
David M. Lawrence, National Center for Atmospheric Research, USA

American Yellow-Cedar: Climate Warming and Extreme Events
Paul Hennon, D.D'Amore, P. Schaberg, G. Hawley, C. Beier, S. Sink, G. Juday
USDA Forest Service, USA
University of Alaska, USA

Reforestation: Sequestering Carbon And Avoiding Methane Production
Gary D. Kronrad, Stephen F. Austin State University, USA

Understanding El Niño: A Review
Chunzai Wang and Joel Picaut
NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, USA
Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, LEGOS, Toulouse, France

Hydrogen Production and Clean Energy Technology
Chenlin Li and Herbert H. P. Fang, The University of Hong Kong, CHINA

Fission Energy Underground
Robert F. Bourque, Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA

Requirements to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Mexico
Flory Dieck-Assad, Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, MEXICO

The Shadow Price of Water - A Transition to a Sustainable Future
Holger Schlör, Research Centre Jülich, GERMANY

Forestry: The Clean Development Mechanism
Rusyan Jill Mamiit, NOAA Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, USA

* Sustainable Environment And Health For The 21st Century * Remote Sensing And Global Surveillance * Water Resources Management * Carbon & GHG Management * Extreme Events And Impacts Assessment * Nao And El Niño * Global Warming And The Oceans * Greenhouse Gas & Ecosytems * Human Health In A Changing Climate * Agricultural And Forestry Resources Management * Clean Energy Technology * Low GHG Transportation * Education: Global Change & Sustainable Development *

Read more about session topics...

17^th Global Warming International Conference & Exposition: Extreme Ocean Events

Miami, FL (April 14, 2006) - Global Warming International Center is proud to kickoff its 17^th Annual Conference with a roundtable panel discussion on extreme ocean events and climate change at the Sheraton Miami Mart Hotel on April 20^th – 21st. Distinguished scientists and policy makers from around the world will assemble in Miami, FL to discuss the far-reaching impact of climate change – from rising water levels threatening coastal communities, the link between warming oceans and increasing extreme weather events, and initiatives to mitigate climate impact.

The conference, which attracts an international community of scientists, will include sessions on:

• Strong evidence linking the strength of ocean waters near Central America influencing El-Nino events in the North Atlantic.
• How recent warming has affected large sections of permafrost across central Alaska, which will raise ocean water levels and threaten coastal communities worldwide
• Devastation to East Florida coral reefs from the combination of warming ocean temperatures and canal flow from the Everglades.
• Innovative efforts by the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, developed by 11 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, to address carbon dioxide emissions from power plants in the region.

GWIC will feature speakers from organizations like the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (Austria), NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, and the University of Florida. GWIC is one of the leading conferences on climate change, and is unique in its interdisciplinary approach. The conference will begin with the roundtable discussion on extreme ocean events and climate change and will include poster sessions, breakout sessions on the following topics: 

SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
REMOTE SENSING AND GLOBAL SURVEILLANCE
WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
GREENHOUSE GAS & ECOSYTEMS
CLEAN ENERGY TECHNOLOGY
EDUCATION: GLOBAL CHANGE & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

About Global Warming International Center (GWIC):

Global Warming International Center (GWIC) is a non-profit organization of scientists, policy makers, and scholars committed to driving scientific research and innovative policy development on climate change science. With members in more than 145 countries, the GWIC sponsors unbiased research supporting the understanding and mitigation of global warming.

Founded in 1989 in Chicago, GWIC takes an interdisciplinary approach to evaluating climate impacts across a range of areas:

• Economics of Global Warming Mitigation
• Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Air Pollution
• International Law and Global Warming
• Extreme Events Index
• El Niño and North Atlantic Oscillation
• Human Health and Global Warming
• Strengthening Improvements in Energy Efficiency
• Strengthening Improvements in Transportation Efficiency
• Strengthening Border Crossing Efficiency and Security
• Water Resource Management
• The Future in Agricultural and Forestry Resources
• Ecosystems and Biodiversity

GWIC sponsors the annual Global Warming International Conference and the Executive Workshop on Industry Technology and Greenhouse Gas Emission. GWIC also publishes the World Resource Review, a journal providing critical reviews of scientific and policy activities in environment and development.

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“The oceans of the world have gotten warmer since the 1940s. Furthermore, it has done so from the surface down towards the bottom of the three oceans, introducing the dimension of depth, something that was not previously actively considered when measuring ocean temperatures. Now the larger driver of the new climate oscillation is the heat we put into the oceans of the world.  The world's increasing ocean temperatures have spawned ever-stronger ocean waves over the past 40 years.  This energy increases as the ocean’s temperature rises, so the energy content of the tsunamis, hurricanes and typhoons also rises,” said Sinyan Shen, Director of the GWIC in the U.S.

Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama were hit by Hurricane Katrina in late August, causing heavy human and economic losses.

Reuters Photo: G8 leaders pose for a family photo at the end of the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, July 8, 2005. (L-R) U.S. President George W. Bush, French President Jacques Chirac, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. REUTERS/Richard Lewis/H.M. Photo by Reuters (Handout)

The Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations and developing countries authorize plan to implement the Global Earth Observation System of Systems to thwart pollution and global warming: G8 gives nod to U.S.-led project

World leaders have endorsed the Global Earth Observation System of Systems in a plan to thwart pollution and global warming. See World Resource Review (WRR) for U.S. final proposals.

The Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations and developing countries authorize the endorsement to implement GEOSS, according to the G8's "Plan of Action: Climate Change, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development.”

“In particular, [the G8 will] work to strengthen the existing climate institutions in Africa, through the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), with a view to developing fully operational regional climate centres in Africa,” the plan states.