Seminar on Low Carbon Growth
November 13, 2009 by Editor
Filed under Energy & Climate, Operations & Management
Green Business Times was invited to the seminar on Low Carbon Growth yesterday. The seminar was organised by the British High Commission to discuss about high growth through low carbon means, with a focus on energy efficiency. The keynote address was presented by Dr Amy Khor, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, which describes Singapore’s challenges, strategies and opportunities for climate change.
At the seminar, there were also the launch of a new website and a new film. Eco-Business.com is a new website by Jessica Cheam, offering news on the environment and climate change issues for Asia Pacific’s business community, and supported by the British High Commission and Singapore Environment Council.
The new film, High Stakes, was based on the Asian Development Bank’s recent report and presents the economics of climate change in Southeast Asia and highlights the actions needed for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Speakers presented on the following topics:
- High Growth Potential Using Low Carbon Means by Mr Suphachol Suphachalasai, Economist, Asian Development Bank
- Energy Efficiency – Business Opportunities Across Asia Pacific by Mr Frederick Crampe, Managing Director, ReEx Capital Asia
- CARE for Energy Efficiency – a programmatic CDM project by Mr William Pazos, Managing Director of Standard Bank and Mr Kes Shotam, Senior Managing Director, Climate Resources Exchange
- Developing Energy Efficiency in Singapore by Mr Lee Eng Lock, General Manager, Energy Division, Trane Singapore
- Scaling UP Ultra-Efficient Systems and Buildings by Mr Thomas Hartman, Founder, The Hartman Company, USA
Mr Suphachalasai emphasised that Southeast Asia should play an important part in working towards global action on climate change, given the high stakes involved and the vulnerabilities in this region. There is also a need for strengthening policy and planning coordination among the different ministries and levels of government.
Mr Crampe discussed about a report on the business guide to energy efficiency in Asia Pacific. The report studied 12 Asia Pacific countries and ranked them by which country provided the most conducive environments for energy efficiency projects and with the most business opportunities. China ranked first in being the most conducive, followed by India, Philippines and Singapore. He also highlighted the barriers to financing energy efficiency, including: low priority for end-users; small ESCO (energy service companies) industry; and the lack of commercial interest from financial institutions.
Mr Pazos and Mr Shotam shared the new programme of activities (POA) being developed under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which allows building owners and facility owners to participate together in a single programme of activities to improve the energy efficiency of their chiller plants and produce carbon credits.
Mr Lee is at his usual controversial best (in the good sense) to point out that green buildings are not necessarily energy efficient, and shared some mistakes of buildings in terms of how they locate cooling towers, not having enough measurements and monitoring, oversizing chiller units, using an inefficient technology, etc. He emphasised the need for governments to ask for energy specifications better than the current standards when awarding tenders, and to put in place specific targets and punishments if the targets are not met.
Mr Hartman discussed about the impediments to achieving ultra-efficient buildings, which includes: energy costs are not a major factor in the economics of most buildings; utilities continue to focus on increased energy sales to meet financial goals; and there is little accountability for achieving and maintaining efficient energy performance in buildings. He concluded with suggestions to upscale building efficiency: develop standards for building energy use that can be verified monthly for utility bill info; provide preferential rates to those who meet the standards and provide excess use charges to those whose use is well above the standards; and to create a fund from the excess use charges to assist in improving inefficient buildings.
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Use charcoal to fight global warming
In an issue of Environmental Science and Technology, scientists of the College Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, say that charcoal produced by heating wood, grass, cornstalks or other organic matter in the absence of Oxygen produce “biochar” which was used by Amazonian Indians ,centuries ago, to enhance soil fertility and cause depletion in the strength of global warming. Mass production of biochar could capture carbon that otherwise would wind up in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas leading to global warming.
The heat drives off gases that can be collected and burned to produce energy. It leaves behind charcoal rich in carbon.
Amazonian Indians mixed a combination of charcoal and organic matter into the soil to improve fertility, a fact that got the scientists interested in studying biochar’s modern potential.
The study involved a “life-cycle analysis” of biochar production, a comprehensive cradle-to-grave look at its potential in fighting global climate change and all the possible consequences of using the material, said the scientists.
Several biochar production systems have the potential for being an economically viable way of sequestering carbon – permanently storing it – while producing renewable energy and enhancing soil fertility.
In India, the Coconut shell steam based activated Carbon does the same. Coconut shells which are often discarded are collected and heated which gives Charcoal. This process is adopted extensively in the peripherals of Pollachi, Kangayam, Dharavaram, This charcoal through a steaming process is made into activated Carbon. Activated Carbon has large users in United States of America, Europe and other countries for gold refining, water purification through water purifiers, automobile industry. There are around 14 factories which are making activated Carbon in India; one unit is in Kerala and the rest in Tamilnadu, 1 in Karnataka. The Coir Pith made from the dust of coir fibre is excellent manure which can increase the fertility of the soil as coir fibre has the natural property to absorb and retain water. Coir Pith is exported to as many as 82 countries, around 90,000 m tones fetching foreign exchange to the tune of Rs 90 Cr during 2008-9 while Coconut charcoal was exported to the order of 17279 tonnes fetching Rs 24.49Cr while activated Carbon accounted for export of 26,000 tonnes in volume and Rs 150 Cr in value. Though these demands have immense intrinsic value due to the fact that they are natural agricultural products do not get any sops while exporting. The Environment Ministry should take absolute steps to promote these products which have natural properties, can be used to produce power, and can act as a catalyst to reduce global warming.
These sectors have a huge working population whose livelihood depends upon the sale of these highly priced products which are available for a pittance.
(The author is Consultant, Coconut Development Board, an Export Promotion Council to develop Coconut exports in Kochi-India)
Thanks for sharing