December 15, 2009 – Solar lanterns and more efficient appliances are part of a new U.S.-led effort to deploy clean energy across the globe to combat climate change and other ills

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu at the United Nations climate summit would focus on bringing everything from efficient refrigerators to solar lanterns to the developing world.

COPENHAGEN—Since the 1970s, refrigerators in the U.S. have swelled from 18 cubic feet to 22 cubic feet. But, at the same time, the energy consumption of such gargantuan coolers has dropped by 75 percent, down to roughly 40 watts, saving countless tons of coal from being burned. And a five-year global program that reached all the refrigerators in the world with similar efficiency improvements might save 1.1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide over that span, a significant contribution to combating climate change.

And that’s exactly what U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) Secretary Steven Chu unveiled here Monday at the United Nations’ summit on climate change: the Climate Renewables and Efficiency Deployment Initiative (Climate REDI)—a $350-million investment by major economies, including $85 million from the U.S., to bring everything from efficient refrigerators to solar lanterns to the developing world.

“The energy savings from refrigerators is greater than all U.S. renewable energy generation—all the wind, solar thermal and solar photovoltaics—just the refrigerators,” Chu said in a speech announcing the initiative, noting the refrigerators also cost less. “Energy efficiency is truly a case where you can have your cake and eat it too. [But] it was driven by standards; it didn’t happen on its own.”

In addition to coordinating global standards for efficient appliances, Climate REDI will also invest in further developing renewable energy sources—such as wind and solar power—in the developing world. The initiative will fund the deployment of “affordable home systems and LED lanterns to those without access to electricity,” according to a program fact sheet.

“We want to help turn the lights on where people live but also in a way that helps solve climate change,” Chu said, referring to the at least 1 billion people who lack access to electricity globally.

Jairam Ramesh, India’s minister of the environment, welcomed the effort and called for his country to be one of the recipients. But he also noted that “Indian companies have been pioneers in low-cost pharmaceuticals now being widely used in Africa. I see no reason why Indian companies in the next five or six years with the help of American counterparts cannot emerge as world leaders in renewable energy technology.”

The Climate REDI program is an example of the kind of technology transfer developing countries would like more of from the developed world as part of any Copenhagen agreement, along with a specific amount of funding for such measures.

Of course, the bulk of indoor air pollution is produced by cooking fires and there was no program announced here as of late Monday to address that issue. And the LED solar lanterns have a wide range of performance in terms of light actually emitted. “Quality control is not that good,” Chu admitted, but the program will work to address that as well as reducing the cost of the lanterns.

The major economies are also working on their own projects, such as a carbon capture and storage partnership between the U.K., U.S. and Australia. The goal there is to “broaden the range of uses [of the sequestered CO2] so the cost of capturing CO2 is minimized,” Australia’s Department of Climate Change Secretary Martin Parkinson says.

And Chu spoke of some of the “game-changing” technologies the DoE, which he called the “world’s largest [venture capital] firm for clean energy,” hopes will come to fruition in coming years, such as a liquid-metal battery that could be both relatively inexpensive and store megawatts of electricity. “Science and technology has given us game-changers in the past,” Chu noted, pointing particularly to the Green Revolution in agriculture led by Norman Borlaug that helped feed billions in the 1970s. “The prosperity of the U.S. is actually depending on how much we fund this research. We are serious about changing our direction.”

Source – Scientific American

 ScienceDaily (Dec. 10, 2009) — Deforestation in tropical rain forests could have an even greater impact on climate change than has previously been thought. The combined biomass of a large number of small forest fragments left over after habitat fragmentation can be up to 40 per cent less than in a continuous natural forest of the same overall size.

This is the conclusion reached by German and Brazilian researchers who used a simulation model on data from the Atlantic Forest, a coastal rain forest in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, around 88 per cent of which has already been cleared. The remaining forest fragments are smaller, so the ratio between area and edge is less favourable. The reason for the reduction in biomass is the higher mortality rate of trees at the edges of forest fragments, according to the results published by researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research and the University of São Paulo in Ecological Modelling. This reduces the number of big old trees, which contain a disproportionately high amount of biomass. Altered wind conditions and light climate lead to a general change in the microclimate at the forest edges. Big old trees are particularly vulnerable to these factors. With the help of FORMIND, a forest simulation software developed at the UFZ, the researchers modelled different sizes of forest patches left over after landscape fragmentation. The smaller a patch of forest is, the worse is the ratio between edge and area. Simulation results suggest that a natural tropical forest of our study area contained approximately 250 tonnes of aboveground biomass per hectare, a forest fragment measuring 100 hectares has around 228 tonnes of biomass per hectare, while a patch of rain forest measuring one hectare has only 140 tonnes of biomass per hectare.

In other words, the biomass in the forest remnants in this study fell by as much as 40 per cent. “This finding is of great significance for the function of rain forests as a biomass store. It is important to be clear about the fact that we are losing more than just the deforested areas. Even the remaining forest is thinned out as a result. It is a mistake to think only in terms of total area. We have to start thinking in terms of the spatial configuration of the remaining forest fragments as well,” says Dr Jürgen Groeneveld of the UFZ, explaining the significance of the study for climate policy. As well as the biomass yield per hectare, these fragmentation-related spatial (edge) effects also have impacts on climate balance and biodiversity, i.e. on several dimensions of sustainability. The simulation integrated results from other researchers who are conducting unique long-term experiments on fragmentation in Amazonas. However, a large number of questions remain unanswered: Are the edges stable? Can the forest regenerate or does the degradation continue inwards? The researchers therefore view the figures as a preliminary, cautious estimate. “But if it is confirmed, it is a really fundamental finding,” adds Dr Sandro Pütz of the UFZ. “Forest fragments cannot perform in the same way as continuous forests.”

The researchers therefore intend to investigate the long-term effects over the coming years to find out how the rain forest remnants develop in the long term. The results of this study will also have fundamental consequences for forest conservation, at least in terms of the carbon balance: “In any case, in terms of carbon storage, it is better to protect 100 continuous hectares than to protect 100 one-hectare patches,” says Jürgen Groeneveld. The data used in the model come from the tropical coastal rain forest in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The Atlantic Forest was severely deforested in the second half of the 19th century for construction timber, charcoal and grazing and arable land. Although only around an eighth of the original forest area remains, these remnants are still regarded as international biodiversity hot spots, since they are home to an as yet not fully recorded, but impressive number of endangered animal and plant species that are not found anywhere else. Since 2003, Brazilian and German researchers have therefore been investigating the long-term effects of landscape fragmentation on habitats in the Atlantic Forest, which used to stretch along the whole of Brazil’s east coast and is today one of the most endangered rain forests in the world. The new findings from the ecological modelling experts led by Andreas Huth and Klaus Henle are also relevant for negotiations at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen. Under the heading REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation), the conference will be discussing a mechanism for including the forests in climate protection. Forests bind carbon dioxide. Deforestation or degradation of forests leads to a further release or less fixing of carbon dioxide per unit area, thereby increasing the greenhouse effect. Around 20 per cent of total global CO2 emissions comes from the destruction of forests.

Source – Science Daily

Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2010 Jan; 14(1):6-14.

Indoor solid fuel combustion and tuberculosis: is there an association?

Slama K, Chiang CY, Hinderaker SG, Bruce N, Vedal S, Enarson DA. International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Paris, France.

OBJECTIVES:  To assess the strength of evidence in published articles for an association between indoor solid fuel combustion and tuberculosis.

METHODS:  PubMed, a private database and Google Scholar were searched up to May 2008, as was the Cochrane Library (2008, issue 4), to identify articles on the association between indoor air pollution and tuberculous infection, tuberculosis disease and tuberculosis mortality. Each article initially chosen as acceptable for inclusion was reviewed for data extraction by three different reviewers using a standard format. Strength of evidence was determined by pre-determined criteria.

RESULTS: The full texts of 994 articles were examined for a final selection of 10 possible articles, of which six met the inclusion criteria. All articles investigated the association between exposure to solid fuel (coal and biomass) smoke and tuberculosis disease. Three (50%) of the six studies included in the systematic review showed a significant effect of exposure to solid fuel combustion and tuberculosis disease-one high-quality case-control study and two cross-sectional studies.

CONCLUSION:  Despite the plausibility of an association, available original studies looking at this issue do not provide sufficient evidence of an excess risk of tuberculosis due to exposure to indoor coal or biomass combustion. Because the number of studies identified was small, new studies are needed before more definitive conclusions can be reached.

In this 13th episode, Paul Rippey interviews Jacob Moss of the EPA, who has led the effort to create the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air.  Jacob and Paul talk about stoves, including some breakthrough models that might change everything! Check out the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air at www.pciaonline.org.

The Energy Links Podcast is brought to you by the Academy for Educational Development FIELD Project (www.fieldsupportlwa.org/energylinks) and The Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION International (www.accion.org/center) with the generous assistance of the United States Agency for International Development – USAID – and the Wallace Global Foundation.

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With better stoves, UN aims to cut risk of murder, rape for women seeking firewood

16 December 2009 – The United Nations today launched a pilot project to provide fuel-efficient stoves to some 150,000 women in Sudan and Uganda to cut the risks of murder, rape and other violence they face in gathering firewood, while at the same time protecting the environment.

The Safe Access to Firewood and Alternative Energy in Humanitarian Settings (SAFE) stoves initiative organized by the World Food Programme (WFP) and other UN agencies, will be rolled out next year to reach eventually up to 6 million refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and returnees in 36 nations, where they are forced to walk further and further into the bush into unsafe areas to collect firewood.

“Women and girls should not have to risk their lives and dignity, and precious trees should not be lost, in the simple act of trying to cook food for their families,” WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said. “The SAFE stoves launch will help protect them and the environment with practical and urgently needed solutions.”

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also welcomed the project at an event in Copenhagen held on the sidelines of the UN climate change talks.

He described the initiative as showing “a virtuous circle in action, thanks to technology – environmental protection… improved safety for women… access to clean energy for the poor… enhanced climate security.”

The project “is a simple, inexpensive and win-win solution… [that will] provide immediate, tangible benefits to their users,” he added.

WFP researchers have found that some women spend a full day’s wages on firewood alone. Others sell off food rations to purchase fuel. The SAFE project will scale up distribution of fuel-efficient and “improved mud” stoves to assist almost 100,000 women in North Darfur. These stoves consume less firewood and lower health risks associated with smoke.

In Uganda, WFP will focus on refugees and pastoralists in the drought-hit Karamoja region. It will provide more than 35,000 households and 50 schools with fuel-efficient stoves, as well as helping women to find other sources of income.

Project partners include the Women’s Refugee Commission, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the UN Environment programme (UNEP).

Obama Administration, Western Countries to Promote ‘Clean Energy’ for Poor Countries with $350 Million Plan

December 15, 2009 - The Obama administration announced measures to help developing countries make better use of “clean energy technologies,” as part of a plan which will cost Western industrialized countries $350 million over the next five years. The United States will pick up $85 million of that $350 million cost, the largest portion of any country involved, with the balance spread across Australia, Italy, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the initiatives from Copenhagen, Denmark, on Monday where the United Nations’ climate conference is being held. The initiatives are part of the Major Economic Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF) that President Barack Obama started in March as a partnership between wealthy and poor countries. President Obama will arrive in Copenhagen later this week. The administration’s announcement comes after the U.N.’s Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action drafted a proposal last week for Copenhagen that calls for developed Western countries to transfer money and technology to underdeveloped nations.

“Developed country Parties shall provide adequate, predictable and sustainable financial resources, technology and capacity-building to support the implementation of adaptation action in developing country Parties,” the U.N.’s draft proposal says. The four measures in the U.N. plan fall under the heading “Climate REDI,” which stands for Renewable and Efficiency Deployment Initiatives. The most costly program is the $250 million “Scaling up Renewable Energy Program,” or S-REP, which will be run through the World Bank. S-REP will “provide policy support and technical assistance to low-income countries developing national renewable energy strategies, and underwrite additional capital costs associated with renewable energy investments,” the White House statement said.

The United States will contribute $50 million to this initiative, while the balance will be paid for by the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland. The remaining three initiatives are less expensive. The “Solar and LED Energy Access Program” directs “affordable solar home systems and LED lanterns to those without access to electricity,” the White House release says. “The program will yield immediate economic and public health benefits by providing households with low-cost and quality-assured solar alternatives to expensive and polluting kerosene.” The “Super-efficient Equipment and Appliance Deployment Program” will convene the countries participating in the Major Economic Forum to improve efficiency of appliances traded throughout the world.

The “Clean Energy Information Platform” establishes an online communication system between MEF countries to exchange technical resources and share other information, according to the White House. These three programs will cost a combined $100 million over five years, the White House said, $35 million of which the United States will pay. The remainder will be covered by Italy and Australia.

Source – http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/58525

To address the adverse health and environmental outcomes associated with the use of traditional open fire cook stoves, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) convened a Technical Consultation on December 13, 2009 to bring experts from civil society, academia, business, and government to discuss the potential and opportunities for moving forward with improved, cleaner, and healthier cook stoves in India.

Opening the Technical Consultation, U.S. Ambassador Timothy J. Roemer said, “India and the U.S. are working together on initiatives spanning the full range of human endeavor including a Green Partnership to develop clean technologies, which will provide us all with an environmentally-sustainable, healthier future while creating job opportunities for the citizens of both our countries.” Urging everyone present at the consultation to work together to find a way forward for the health of the communities and the planet, Ambassador Roemer said, “today’s conference brings us one step closer to developing safe and affordable cook stoves that honor the cooking traditions so important to families throughout India while protecting the health and safety of these families and our environment.”

Facts about chulha use in India

•  Nearly three-fourths of Indian households use open fires or chulhas (with or without chimneys) and depend on solid fuel (wood, charcoal, coal, dung cakes, etc.) for cooking.
•  Two-thirds of Indian households (including 3 out of 10 urban households and 8 out of 10 rural households) use open fires or chulhas without a chimney. This is not just a rural issue. – 44 percent of households use open fires or chulhas without a chimney inside the house, exposing women and children to high levels of toxic smoke from solid fuels.

Impact of indoor air pollution (IAP) on maternal and child health

• Open fires or chulhas without a chimney, used inside poorly ventilated houses are a major contributor to indoor air pollution (IAP).
• The majority of those exposed to IAP are women, who are normally responsible for food preparation, and their infants and young children, who are usually with their mothers in the cooking area.
• In India every year exposure to smoke from solid fuels may be responsible for nearly 400,000 deaths to children under 5 years of age and 34,000 deaths to women due to chronic respiratory disease.
• Substantial evidence has been generated associating IAP with health hazards such as childhood acute lower respiratory infections, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, perinatal mortality, low birth weight, and cataracts.
• It has been estimated that IAP contributes to 3- 5 percent of the national burden of disease in India.

Impact of open fires/chulhas on the environment

• Chulhas are a source of black carbon, which is being recognized as a significant contributor to global warming. Black carbon has been implicated in accelerating the melting of the Himalayan glaciers.
• Wood is the most commonly used solid fuel. The use of firewood results in significant pressure on local forests and woodlands, contributing to deforestation, soil erosion, and desertification.
• Globally, approximately one-third of net black carbon and carbon monoxide emissions come from household fuels.

Source – Medical News Today

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 13 (Tierramérica) – The residents of the Puna, the dry Andean highlands in northern Argentina, are cut off from everything – except the sun. Living on arid land thousands of metres above sea level, they are on their way to becoming “solar villages.”

In the north and northwest of Jujuy province, people are finding that solar energy, a clean and inexhaustible source, can replace firewood, which is increasingly scarce. The EcoAndina Foundation is showing the way through a series of projects.

The Puna, at altitudes of 2,700 to 4,600 metres above sea level, is part of the vast Andean Altiplano shared by Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru.

EcoAndina’s goal is to improve living conditions for local residents by sustainably harnessing the abundant sunshine and wind, while maintaining the cultural and historic identity of local indigenous communities.

Since it began its efforts two decades ago, some 400 solar energy units – which power family and community kitchens, bread ovens, heaters and hot-water tanks – have been installed in 30 towns in the region.

In addition to cooking in solar stoves and ovens, which have proven as effective as gas stoves, the families now have heat and hot water in their homes. In the schools, solar panels warm the classrooms, and photovoltaic panels produce electricity.

One of the projects involves developing technology to verify reductions of carbon dioxide emissions resulting from using solar ovens. Certification of emissions reductions will help gain access to carbon credits, which can be sold on the market, and the revenue would be invested in new sustainable energy devices in the Puna.

The stoves, which can be used inside or outside the home, depending on the model, are manufactured in the region at low cost. The mostly widely used are the parabolic stoves, which are made with highly polished aluminium to concentrate the sun’s rays.

These techniques allow residents to replace other sources of energy, particularly firewood and fossil fuels, which release carbon dioxide and contribute to climate change.

In the high plains region or arid and semiarid soils and fragile and scant vegetation, replacing firewood also helps fight desertification. The altitude and dry environment mean that plants grow very slowly, and people have to travel farther and farther from home to find firewood.

Studies by EcoAndina show that one solar oven reduces household firewood consumption by 50 to 70 percent.

Silvia Rojo, president of EcoAndina, explained to Tierramérica that the people of the Puna region have traditionally used three types of plants for firewood: the “tola” bush, “queñoa” – a high-altitude tree – and “yareta” – a cushion-shaped shrub. But collecting these sources has led to serious desertification, the loss of species and damage to watersheds.

The other choice besides firewood is propane gas, which is sold in 10-kg cylinders at high prices in this remote area. “The bottled gas costs 13 times more per cubic metre than the methane supplied by public networks in the cities,” said Rojo.

“Our work is focused on offering thermal energy alternatives to firewood and gas to about 30 villages,” she said.

Today the applications of solar energy “enjoy broad acceptance and high demand, which is why we are spreading the word on ’solar villages’,” she said. To achieve that status, the communities receive training with the support of the United Nations Development Programme’s Global Environment Facility.

The first “solar village” is Lagunillas del Farallón. “It is a category that gives the community a higher standing and fills it with pride, because the residents are recognised for using clean technologies,” said Rojo.

The circuit is being completed with other towns, which in the coming years will be meeting their energy demands sustainably: Ciénaga de Paicote, Cabrería, Paicote, Cusi Cusi, San Juan y Oros, La Ciénaga, San Francisco, Casa Colorada and Misa Rumi.

The first location where EcoAndina began its work was Misa Rumi, where a house that is completely powered by solar and wind energy has been operating since 1997 as the headquarters for fieldwork and research.

The Puna is ideal for solar and wind energy. The high plain, part of the Andes mountain range, is very dry, and temperature swings are extreme and abrupt, Christoph Müller, a German expert who works with EcoAndina on technical questions, told Tierramérica.

In a single day in winter, the temperature can range from 20 degrees Celsius during the daytime to 25 below zero at night. The sky above the altiplano is completely clear during most of the winter.

That makes the Puna one of the areas with most sunshine in the world, along with the Bolivian Altiplano and the high plains of Tibet and Afghanistan – and an ideal site for exploring the potential of solar energy.

For now, the initiatives are limited to providing energy and heat to the homes, community centres and schools, but ambitions could go far beyond this.

Rojo said EcoAndina is promoting the idea of a solar generator to supply electricity to all of Jujuy province without producing greenhouse gas emissions or pollution, at nearly zero production cost. If it becomes reality, it would be the first in Latin America, though Brazil and Chile are also pursuing similar projects.

“It would not be able to cover all the tiny towns in the north of the province because they are so dispersed, but they already have community photovoltaic systems in each town,” Rojo said.

Source – http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49665

Thorax 2009;64(Suppl IV):A75–A174, doi:10.1136/thx.2009.127191g

COPD AND CHRONIC BRONCHITIS RISK OF SOLID FUEL SMOKE: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS

1-O Kurmi, 2-S Semple, 2-PP Simkhada, 2-WCS Smith, 1JG Ayres. 1University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK; 2University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK

Introduction and Objectives – Over half the world is exposed daily to the smoke from combustion of solid fuels. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the main contributors to the global burden of disease and can be caused by biomass smoke exposure. However, studies of biomass exposure and COPD show a wide range of effect sizes. The aim of this systematic review was to quantify the impact of biomass smoke on the development of COPD and define reasons for differences in the reported effect sizes.

Methods – A systematic review was conducted of studies with sufficient statistical power to estimate the risk of COPD from exposure to solid fuel smoke which followed standardised criteria for the diagnosis of COPD, adjusted for smoking, were in English and contained original data. The results were pooled by fuel type and country to produce summary estimates using a random effects model. Publication bias was also estimated.

Results – 4164 titles were identified which were reduced to 24 studies (11 relating to COPD, 11 to chronic bronchitis and 2 to both). Pooled estimates for the development of COPD with solid fuel use showed an odds ratio of 2.66 (95% CI 1.81 to 3.92) (fig 1) and an OR of 2.32 (95% CI 1.92 to 2.80) for chronic bronchitis. Pooled estimates by fuel type showed that exposure to wood smoke presents a greater risk of development of COPD (wood: OR 4.3; mixed biomass: OR 2.8). The findings for chronic bronchitis were similar. There was no evidence of publication bias but there was clear variation between studies which might be explained by study design, dealing with confounders, use of selected comparator groups or exposure assessment, although differential toxicity of different fuels is the most likely explanation.

Conclusion – Despite heterogeneity across the selected studies, exposure to solid fuel smoke is consistently associated with COPD and chronic bronchitis. Efforts should be made to reduce exposure to solid fuel either by using cleaner fuel or relatively cleaner technology while performing domestic work.