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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 4, NUMBER 5, MAY 1991

NEWS...
NEWS NOTES

Item #d91may92

World clean energy coalition: The Cercle Mondial du Consensus (CMDC or World Circle of the Consensus) is a coalition working toward greater use of clean energy options and reduction of CO₂ emissions. A World Clean Energy Conference is planned in November 1991 in preparation for the 1992 UNCED Earth Summit in Brazil. CMDC publishes a newsletter as well as reports of its previous meetings. Contact CMDC, Kellerweg 38, CH-8055 Zurich, Switz. (tel: 411-463-9252; fax: -463-0252).

Item #d91may93

Japan pushes environmental technologies: Over the last two years Japanese industry and government have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in an attempt to establish world dominance in the development of environmental technologies. The government's Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth (RITE), to open next year in Kansai Science City, will develop biological and chemical techniques for absorbing CO₂ and for developing CFC substitutes (Nature, pp. 266-267, Mar. 28, 1991). Two microbiologists at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology have developed a prototype "biosolar reactor," in which genetically engineered bacteria remove CO₂ from air with the assistance of sunlight distributed by optical fiber cables (ibid., p. 267). See also "Japan's Climate Policy: An Overview" (Global Environ. Change Rep., pp. 1-3, Apr. 19, 1991) for more on research and development programs.

Item #d91may94

India joins protocol: The Indian cabinet has approved the Environment Ministry's proposal for India to join the Montreal Protocol (Intl. Environ. Rptr., pp. 188-189, Apr. 10, 1991). The action was taken after industrialized countries agreed to revise sections of the protocol concerning developing countries last June. India will now be eligible for direct funds and loans to assist CFC phase-out.

Item #d91may95

Urban CO₂ Project: About a dozen cities around the world are cooperating in a ten-year program to develop approaches for offsetting CO₂ emissions in urban areas, managed by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. In the two-year first phase, participating cities will prepare comprehensive plans and adopt policies. Later, plans will be implemented, and the policy and technical framework shared with other cities. See Global Environ. Change Rep., pp. 3-4, Apr. 19, 1991, or contact the Council at 736 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge MA 02139 (617-491-6124). See Reports, this Global Climate Change Digest issue--May 1991, for plans developed by one participant, the city of Toronto.

Item #d91may96

"Economic Considerations Enter Fray over Global Climate Change Policies," P.S. Zurer, Chem. Eng. News, pp. 7-13. Based on discussion at a conference on the economic costs of climate change (Washington, D.C., Dec. 1990), this survey explains the basic concepts involved (top-down vs. bottom-up analyses, cost-benefit analyses, demand-side vs. end-use measures for reducing greenhouse emissions) and recent major studies on the topic. The conference suggested that cost-benefit analysis alone is inadequate to address global climate change policies. The scientific uncertainty of the extent and impacts of change further complicate economic and technological analyses.