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Environmental Defense partners with businesses, governments and citizens to find practical environmental solutions using science and economics. This feed contains all news articles and press releases from our website.
Sustainability Boosts Returns for Private Equity Funds 3 Feb 2012, 7:27 pm
By Guest Author
By Andrew Malk, Founder and Managing Partner of Malk Sustainability Partners (MSP)
Part I: Introduction to Environmentally-Driven Value Creation for General Partners
With the recent presidential campaign attention paid to Bain Capital, it seems likely that 2012 will be the year that Americans become better acquainted with the private equity sector. Despite managing hundreds of billions of dollars of capital, the practices and often the very existence of fund managers such as TPG and the Carlyle Group are largely unknown to the general public. However, as election buzz ramps up in a year where the economy is the primary focus we can expect this to change. As Charles Riley of CNNMoney noted, “…The new hot-button campaign issue is private equity.”
As private equity fund managers or general partners (often referred to as GPs) become better known to the public, now is an opportune time for these investment professionals to consider sustainability initiatives as a driver of value creation. But while private equity sustainability strategies will improve the public image for the sector, more importantly these actions drive returns for GPs and have the potential to accelerate deployment of sustainability practices.
Click here to read the full article on Environmental Leader.
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Source: Main Feed – Environmental Defense |
Brazil’s president and Congress could avoid backslide for Amazon protection 3 Feb 2012, 6:15 pm
Whether Brazil continues to reduce its deforestation could depend on the outcome of a vote on its forest protection law in Brazil's lower house in March and sign-off from the president. Above: the home of Brazil's Congress, Congresso Nacional do Brasil (Photo credit and thanks to Flickr user JorgeBRAZIL)
Brazil has made great strides in reducing Amazon deforestation in recent years, bringing rates down about 80% over the last six years. But President Dilma Rousseff is already showing signs of backsliding on her environmental commitments in just her first year in office.
It’s a trend environmental groups have been following since Rousseff was sworn in last January, and one New York Times reporter Alexei Barrionuevo captures well in his recent story, "In Brazil, Fears of a Slide Back for Amazon Protection."
With global emissions from deforestation contributing about 15% of greenhouse gas emissions – as much as all the world’s cars, trucks, ships and airplanes combined – a lot is at stake in next month’s vote on a forest protection law in Brazil’s House of Representatives.
Whether Brazil, home to about 40% of the world’s remaining tropical forests, continues to reduce deforestation or not could depend on the outcome of the vote, and President Rousseff’s sign-off.
Forest Code enforcement and new protected areas slashed deforestation in 2000s under Marina Silva
Brazil’s law regulating deforestation on private land, the Forest Code, has been around since 1965; until relatively recently, it was hardly enforced and rarely obeyed.
That changed under former Environment Minister Silva. In 2003 she launched a national Plan for the Prevention and Control of Amazon Deforestation that ramped up law enforcement and established 600,000 square kilometers – an area the size of France – of new protected areas. These indigenous lands, parks, and forest-land reserves were located in the areas most affected by the expansion of agriculture.
Coupled with a temporary decline in agriculture commodity prices, the Plan brought deforestation way down, and persuaded policy makers that Brazil could commit not only to a national deforestation target, but to an overall national emissions reduction target as well.
Brazil made just such a commitment at the 2009 Copenhagen climate conference, pledging to reduce its emissions 36–39% below business-as-usual emissions by 2020 — the first emissions reductions target taken by any major developing country. And Brazil is ahead of schedule to meet this 2020 target, having already reduced about 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide below its 1996–2005 baseline – on the order of what the EU has pledged to do by 2020.
However, while the deforestation plan was supposed to have a carrot (positive incentives for conservation) in addition to the stick (cracking down on illegal deforestation), so far it’s pretty much been all stick and no carrot: lots of law enforcement, but no incentives to keep the forests standing.
Farmers lash back
Many large-scale farmers in Brazil historically had railed against the Forest Code as being too restrictive, but were too busy cutting down trees to plant cattle pasture and soybeans to do much about it. Since the Code was rarely enforced, they didn’t much care.
An aerial view of Mato Grosso shows the stark distinctions between protected forests and land that has been cleared for cattle pasture or agriculture.
But they started to take notice when government, under Minister Marina Silva, began enforcing the Code and fining them for violations.
They also noticed when the environmental group Greenpeace mobilized big European soy importers to declare a moratorium on soy imports from land deforested after 2006, and when national supermarket chains, prodded by Brazil’s Attorney General, called for deforestation-free beef in 2009. Most people in urban Brazil agree that Amazon deforestation should stop, and support such measures.
For many of the large-scale farmers in Brazil and their powerful block of congressional representatives – the “ruralistas” – the solution to their not being in compliance with the law when government started enforcing it was to weaken the law.
So for the past two years, the ruralistas have been making a concerted push to radically weaken the Forest Code.
Last June, the ruralistas pushed a revised Forest Code through the lower house of Congress that amounted to a license to deforest. The bill, sponsored by a ruralista-friendly member of the Communist party, would fix the ruralistas’ problem by giving an amnesty for past illegal deforestation, and could open up new land for clearance.
Environmentalists and the Brazilian scientific community strongly contested the House bill. President Rousseff had promised during the presidential campaign to veto a new Forest Code that would increase deforestation or amnesty past illegal deforestation, but her administration was a belated and ineffective participant in the House debate.
In December, the Senate passed somewhat improved amendments to the Code, which, however, still includes an amnesty for some past illegal deforestation.
This bill now returns to the House for a final vote in March.
The amnesty for deforestation that has plagued these bills is unfair to the few farmers who made the effort to comply with the law, and could give all farmers the bad idea that if one new law granting amnesty for illegal deforestation is good, two – or more – are better. If farmers think that an amnesty now means that future illegal deforestation will eventually be amnestied too, they will take the new Code as a license to deforest. Penalties for scofflaws, and a clear pathway to legality with positive incentives, especially for small famers, would be much better.
Environmentalists are calling on Dilma to keep her campaign promise and veto the amnesty.
Deforestation: the price of progress? Not really.
For years, the ruralistas have insisted with increasing vehemence that the current Forest Code is an enormous, unfair obstacle to the growth of Brazilian agriculture. (They also often claim that environmentalists who support the Forest Code are no more than a front for foreign agriculture interests trying to protect themselves against Brazilian competition).
But there is solid evidence that while deforestation rates were falling to the lowest levels on record, Brazil and Amazon states were getting richer and agriculture production was growing to record levels.
A vivid example is Brazil’s biggest agricultural state, Mato Grosso.
Deforestation (red line in Fig. 1 above) in Brazil's state of Mato Grosso plummeted as production of soybeans (green) and cattle (blue) increased substantially from 2001-2010. (PNAS)
The state had the highest deforestation rate in the Amazon from 2000–2005, but over the next five years (2006-2010) saw deforestation fall more than 70% below historic levels. At the same time, agriculture production reached an all-time high, according to a recent article in the leading scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In “Decoupling of deforestation and soy production in the southern Amazon during the late 2000s,” Marcia Macedo, Ruth DeFries and others also show in great detail that in recent years, while soy prices and production picked up substantially, deforestation kept going down.
Ruralista rhetoric to the contrary, Brazil and Amazon states have shown decisively that, so far, they have the wherewithal to reduce deforestation substantially while they grow their economies and their agriculture sectors.
Brazil should encourage – not undercut – global action against climate change
However, as the Times story correctly notes, Forest Code amendments threaten to usher in open season on forests. The government has watered down environmental licensing for big infrastructure projects like dams and roads and has rolled back protected areas in the Amazon by a form of executive fiat. Brazil’s Congress is also considering a bill that would give it a veto over recognizing new indigenous lands.
Brazil is home to about 40% of the world's tropical forests and a pioneer in policies to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+), which could provide the positive economic incentives needed to maintain Brazil's progress in continuing to curb deforestation.
Perhaps most critically, there has been little progress on providing the carrot – positive economic incentives to keep deforestation going down and to restore degraded forests – that Brazil needs in order to sustain the progress it made during the last decade into the future.
One candidate for the carrot is Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) – the concept that reducing deforestation is good for the atmosphere and needs international compensation. Brazil was one of the pioneers of this idea in the international climate talks, and consequently created the Amazon Fund, to which Norway has committed $1 billion if the country continues to meet its 2020 target.
Brazil’s National Climate Change Policy also calls for the creation of a Brazilian emissions reductions market. But the federal government has made little headway on creating its own carbon market and has been reluctant to look at linking up with international carbon markets to pay for reducing deforestation. Both could go a long way to creating the incentives needed to grow the economy and sustainably expand agriculture and forestry, while stopping deforestation and restoring degraded forests.
What all of this means is that Brazil still leads the world in reducing carbon emissions because of its success in reducing Amazon deforestation – but risks reversing the trend if it approves a general amnesty for illegal deforestation. President Rousseff should listen carefully to Brazil’s world-class scientific community on how to balance environmental protection and development priorities, in the Forest Code and more broadly.
As Brazil prepares to host the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development, it will find no lack of major developed countries to criticize for foot-dragging, omission, or outright obstruction on global environmental issues. Ambitious new commitments on environment and development are unlikely under the specter of economic crisis in the EU and anemic growth in the U.S. Blaming richer countries for tepid results is one possible outcome.
But if President Rousseff musters the political will to kill the deforestation amnesty and save the Forest Code, Brazil could do much better in Rio+ 20. It might find ways to use its world-leading achievement in reducing emissions from deforestation to chart the way to both more ambitious commitments and effective actions from other major economies going forward, and for funding for a sustainable low-carbon development strategy.
Source: Main Feed – Environmental Defense |
Thank Obama for Clean Air & Fuel Efficiency Rules 3 Feb 2012, 5:30 pm
President Obama & his administration have stood up for our kids and our communities with stronger clean air and fuel economy rules. C4. Regional.
Source: Main Feed – Environmental Defense |
Mercury and Air Toxics Rule 2 Feb 2012, 10:16 pm
For the first time, EPA has proposed a new Mercury and Air Toxics rule that would limit mercury and other hazardous air emissions from America’s coal-fired power plants. Please take action to support this life-saving rule.
Source: Main Feed – Environmental Defense |
Creating Energy Champions 2 Feb 2012, 9:01 pm
This commentary was originally posted on Duke Energy's Shedding A Light Blog.
In late January, I had the great pleasure of joining a group of Charlotte, N.C. city employees at an "Energy Champions" training hosted by Duke Energy and Charlotte Center City Partners. The city workers were bursting with enthusiasm, inventing creative ideas on the spot about how to motivate people to reduce energy use in the workplace. Many involved "friendly" competitions, around things like turning off monitors and lights: I for one would not want to be the recipient of the “Dim Bulb Award.”
Participants were excited to help Charlotte shine as a leader in innovation and to be part of Envision Charlotte, an initiative to make their city the most sustainable urban core in the country. Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is pleased to be part of this innovative public-private partnership, along with Duke Energy, Charlotte Center City Partners, Bank of America and others.
One goal of Envision Charlotte is to reduce energy use in more than 60 large commercial and government buildings in Uptown Charlotte by 20 percent within a five-year timeframe. Why target buildings? Because buildings account for more than 30 percent of total energy use, and 65 percent of electricity consumption. Reducing energy use in buildings, especially the large buildings participating in Envision Charlotte (more than 10,000 square feet each), can have a huge impact and presents an enormous opportunity to cut costs and greenhouse gas emissions.
One of the ways Envision Charlotte will accomplish this goal is through Duke’s Smart Energy Now program. Duke and its partners Cisco Systems and Verizon Wireless have already installed smart meters and information kiosks in participating buildings. These displays show in real-time how much energy is being used in the city’s center every day, and provide tips on how to reduce that use. Information is also available through a secure portal, accessible to building owners and managers, which shows how much energy each individual building is using. This information will help employees, building owners and facilities managers make smart decisions about how they use energy every day of the week.
As a smart grid expert, I’m particularly interested to see what role smart technologies will play in making these buildings more efficient, and in shifting demand away from times of peak electricity use, when energy is most expensive and most polluting, and (ideally) to times when renewable energy is available on the grid.
Duke and its partners will host more Energy Champions trainings over the next few months, targeted specifically to different segments of building users: executives, workers and facilities managers. There is already palpable excitement in the city with the Democratic National Convention coming in the fall, which will place Charlotte in national, and even international, spotlights. Only these spotlights will be energy efficient. And please turn them off when you’re done.
Source: Main Feed – Environmental Defense |
Where You’ll Find Us in February 2 Feb 2012, 8:01 pm
By Monica Michaan
Punxsutawney Phil called for more winter this morning, and we are calling for more conferences this month. Here is where you can find us in February:
Namrita Kapur is attending a conference at her alma mater, Yale School of Management, titled “Beyond Best Practices: Financing and Implementing Social Change” on February 3.
Lee Coker is attending Columbia Business School’s 18th Annual Private Equity & Venture Capital Conference on February 3.
Then, Lee is headed to Bard College for a Sustainable Business Series on February 13 called “Is Sustainable More Productive?”
Look for us at these conferences – and let us know if you’ll be there so we can watch for you as well!
You can always see where we’re going to be – and what other conferences we know about– on the EDF Biz Calendar
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Source: Main Feed – Environmental Defense |
California Follows Smart Meter Best Practice: Proactively Address Public Concerns 2 Feb 2012, 7:29 pm
This commentary was originally posted on the EDF California Dream 2.0 Blog.
Energy powers our economy. But our outdated energy system is wasteful, expensive and a major source of pollution, leading to the deaths of approximately 60,000 Americans per year. Utilities in California and across the country are now investing billions of dollars to modernize that infrastructure, making use of the information technologies that have revolutionized so many other realms of our lives. The smart grid they're building will improve air quality and the health of millions of Americans affected by air so dirty it is often dangerous to breathe.
Smart meters are a key component of the smart grid. They unlock air quality, climate pollution and public health benefits by enabling two-way, real-time communication that gives households, small businesses, manufacturers and farmers (and the utilities that serve them) the data they need to cut energy use and electricity costs. These devices help ensure that every day energy users reap the many benefits of the smart grid.
Yesterday, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved a proposal by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) that allows customers to keep their analog meters and opt out of using the new wireless smart meters. This decision is designed to address concerns of individuals who describe themselves as having electromagnetic hypersensitivity to radio frequencies (RF), and report getting headaches, fatigue, nausea and insomnia from exposure.
The radio frequencies used by smart meters are now pervasive in our lives, emitted by our cell phones, microwaves, baby monitors, and numerous other devices we use daily. To understand the potential health risks associated with use of these devices, EDF has completed a thorough review of the scientific literature on the potential effects of electromagnetic and radio frequencies (EMF/RF) on human health. We have reviewed reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the California Council of Science and Technology (CCST). We also consulted with outside experts, including Dr. Leeka Kheifets, a Professor in Residence at UCLA who sits on the Standing Committee on Epidemiology for the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection.
The WHO review states that “in the area of biological effects and medical applications of non-ionizing radiation, approximately 25,000 articles have been published over the past 30 years. Scientific knowledge in this area is now more extensive than for most chemicals.” These studies, it concludes, find that “current evidence does not confirm the existence of any health consequences from exposure to low level electromagnetic fields.”
The WHO assessment spotlights the importance of conducting rigorous scientific research to evaluate environmental and health problems, a core principle of EDF. Our policies are based on the best available science and are altered as necessary when new evidence comes to light.
This research helped inform EDF’s position that the limited RF exposure levels associated with smart meters should not result in reduced support for the smart grid, especially in light of the significant health benefits it will deliver by enabling far less use of fossil fuels and far greater reliance on clean, renewable energy, including small, community-based generation like rooftop solar PV.
Today’s ruling strikes the proper balance: sustaining progress toward a smart grid with its multiple public health benefits while addressing individuals’ concerns. It gives consumers the same type of choice about what technologies to use in their everyday life.
We support the PUC's decision and continuing research on the possible health effects of radio frequencies.
For more information on this topic, please see EDF President Fred Krupp’s memo on “Health and the smart grid.”
Source: Main Feed – Environmental Defense |
MD Blue Crab Design Team Exhibits at Recent Watermen Expo, Shares Plans for Pilot Accountability System 2 Feb 2012, 6:41 pm
Every year, the Maryland Watermen’s Association hosts a commercial fishermen and aquaculture trade expo attracting hundreds of fishermen and watermen from along the east coast. This year’s recent 38th annual Expo in Ocean City, MD included an exhibit from the Maryland Blue Crab Design Team. The Design Team, an industry-led task force EDF helped organize, participated in the expo for the opportunity to keep the larger watermen community informed and gain feedback on the collective process to develop long-term solutions for Maryland’s blue crab industry.
Source: Main Feed – Environmental Defense |
Our Newest Clean Air Ally – Actress Julianne Moore 2 Feb 2012, 12:06 am
By Sharyn Stein
Those of us following the debate over clean air regulations are used to hearing frequent comments from key players – power plant executives, politicians, environmentalists, doctors.
But every once in a while, we get a truly original point of view.
Like today – in this animated video from actress Julianne Moore.
Moore taped the video for Moms Clean Air Force (MCAF), a nonpartisan group of moms (and dads, and grandparents, and others) who want cleaner and healthier air for their kids.
Moore is a well-known actress, children’s book author, and activist for a variety of children’s causes. She narrates the new video with the help of the cartoon-character stars of her Freckleface Strawberry books.
In a blog post on the MCAF website, Moore writes:
Sometimes being a good mom means being an active citizen. That’s why I joined Moms Clean Air Force. Moms are banding together. We are making our voices stronger. We are fighting for our children. Together, we are telling politicians to protect our right to clean air.
Moms Clean Air Force was launched last summer and now has almost 50,000 members. (EDF has worked with them from the beginning).
Since the launch, MCAF has gotten other celebrities – including Blythe Danner, Laila Ali, and Jessica Capshaw – to join. Danner and actresses Maya Rudolph and Christina Applegate have also taped video for the group.
Source: Main Feed – Environmental Defense |
Revenge of the Climate Scientists: 38 Experts Set the WSJ Straight 1 Feb 2012, 11:26 pm
Two days ago, I wrote about a flawed global warming analysis in the Wall Street Journal.
The paper published an opinion piece, No Need to Panic About Global Warming, written by a small group of scientists and engineers who are global warming skeptics.
Today, the other side was heard from.
The Wall Street Journal published a sharp rebuttal from 38 experts – all of them respected climatologists — who call the authors of the first piece:
[T]he climate-science equivalent of dentists practicing cardiology.
Today's piece points out that most of the authors of the first analysis have no expertise in climate science, although they are accomplished in their own respective fields.
But, as the large group of climate scientists writes today:
The National Academy of Sciences of the U.S. (set up by President Abraham Lincoln to advise on scientific issues), as well as major national academies of science around the world and every other authoritative body of scientists active in climate research have stated that the science is clear: The world is heating up and humans are primarily responsible … Research shows that more than 97% of scientists actively publishing in the field agree that climate change is real and human caused. It would be an act of recklessness for any political leader to disregard the weight of evidence and ignore the enormous risks that climate change clearly poses.
I couldn’t agree more.
Source: Main Feed – Environmental Defense |
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