Green Energy Republic

Let the Vatican run Copenhagen

by Chris Welby, Good Energy’s commercial director

That may sound a strange request.  After all, the Vatican is not known for being with it when it comes to the modern world.  However it does have one masterful skill: how to get leaders to meet and agree a solution.

They do this periodically, when they elect a new Pope.  They gather the Cardinals in a conclave and lock them in until they agree on the new Pope.  Given the seriousness of climate change, locking world leaders in a room and not letting them out until an agreement is signed would be the most effective way forward.

World leaders would hand over day-to-day running of their respective countries to their deputies, and enter the Copenhagen conclave.  In the papal conclaves of olden days cardinals were denied food and sanitary arrangements – and in one, several cardinals died, but the bodies were left in to focus minds. I’m not suggesting we need to go quite that far -- but for many leaders, the fear of what their deputies are up to should be incentive enough to reach a hasty solution.

There’ve been several campaigns targeting Copenhagen: the Wave, 100 months etc.  However, as politicians are now setting expectations that they won’t reach an agreement I’d like to start a new campaign.  It is called the great climate change lock-in.

All those in favour of locking the world’s leading politicians in a room until they agree to take strong action on climate change, say so now.

Geo-engineering: Cloud ships

Geo-engineering is not something we’ve covered on this blog before. It’s the idea of using man-made techniques to reduce CO2 emissions, or to reflect heat back out of our atmosphere to keep the planet cool.

Over the years climate scientists have made some pretty wacky suggestions, but there’ve also been some good ones. Recently they’ve started to be taken more seriously, as scientists are recognising that huge engineering projects may be the only way to buy more time.

 One of the most interesting proposals is cloud ships.

The idea is that 2,000 ships could travel the oceans, sucking up sea water and spraying it high into the air to form white clouds (don’t worry, not rain clouds!). These clouds would reflect 1 – 2% of the sun’s rays preventing them from warming the oceans by small amounts, but by enough to have a significant impact on global warming. Enough to neutralise C02 emissions, if you believe the theory.

Sounds a bit silly? But it’s actually being considered as a climate solution and is under investigation by the Royal Society. The Copenhagen Consensus Centre, a think tank investigating geo-engineering ideas, has concluded that the scheme would cost around $9 billion USD, a fraction of the cost associated with more conventional climate solutions. It could also be up and running within 25 years, as opposed to the long drawn out solutions like carbon capture.

Geo-engineering isn’t being seen as the answer to climate change, but as a way to buy time as we move to a low-carbon economy. Reducing the sun’s rays could cool the earth whilst we build networks of renewable energy and work out ways to develop sustainably.

As with US Energy Secretary Stephen Chu’s suggestion to paint all roofs white, this idea has had a hilarious reaction in the comments boxes of newspapers and blogs, where many people seem to think they are better qualified to comment on solutions to climate change than Nobel-prize-winning physicists and feel the need to share their views with the world. What is true is that these ideas need more scrutiny. And what’s changed is that some of them are actually worth scrutinizing.

We’ll keep you updated on other geo-engineering proposals.

Green Energy Republic

Bright ideas - Applying Newtons Law

From: Annonymous

One of Newton's laws of physics is for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. 

It therefore seems logical that if you could capture that reverse action when a train travels to a destination, then the energy for the return journey would be free.  Cut train emissions in half!

Is there a product that you would just love to own but no one has yet had the foresight to manufacture?  If so, why not let us know - you never know where it might lead.  OK you wont get the royalties if it turns out to be a storming hit but you will know that you had a part in helping to come up with a concept that reduced carbon emissions.