Carbon benefits of not using cookstoves overestimated: study
Comment from India
The greenhouse gas-reducing benefit of replacing highly polluting cookstoves has been overestimated by up to 10-fold, researchers reported on January 23.
A peer-reviewed study looked at carbon offset schemes based on getting rid of primitive charcoal- or wood-burning home stoves used by some 2.4 billion people that contribute to global warming and cause millions of pollution-related deaths every year.
Projects to provide cleaner, more efficient alternatives often raise funds by the sales of credits, which are based on estimates of how much carbon the new cookers keep out of Earth’s atmosphere -- one credit should equal one tonne of carbon dioxide.
The problem, according to the study published in the journal Nature Sustainability, is that a lack of methodological “rigour” is causing overestimation.
The scientists evaluated five methodologies used to measure emission reductions of the cookstove projects system, and found them all wanting.
Data covering some 40% of cookstove credits worldwide showed that 26.7 million carbon credits barely avoided a tenth of the carbon dioxide emissions claimed, about 2.9 million tonnes.
In carbon markets, one credit corresponded to one tonne of carbon dioxide.
Extrapolating out across all cookstove projects, the authors estimated credits were overvalued by more than 10-fold.
Carbon credits allow corporations -- or countries under certain conditions -- to offset greenhouse gas emissions by investing in projects that avoid carbon dioxide emissions, or remove carbon dioxide from the air.
Over-crediting damages the credibility of carbon markets, Annelise Gill-Wiehl, a researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, told AFP.
“No one has trust that one carbon credit represents one metric tonne of reduced emissions”, she told AFP.
“Whoever is buying the credits is allowed to emit one more tonne of carbon dioxide under the premise that they’re not actually emitting it.”
The research caused a stir in the so-called voluntary carbon market even before it was published when a review draft was widely circulated.
Investors, project developers and other industry representatives proactively contacted journalists, urging them not to “exaggerate the exaggerations”.
But the researchers insisted their work would help strengthen the trade in carbon offsets.
“A carbon credit market built on exaggerations is destined to fail,” said co-author Barbara Haya, an expert on offset quality and director of the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project.
“Our study offers specific recommendations that could make clean cookstoves a trusted source of quality carbon credits, and carbon credits a stable source of funding for clean cookstoves and all of their benefits for people and forests.”
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Two thirds of elite Americans favour food and energy rationing to combat climate change, poll finds
The profound disconnect between the attitudes shared by the ‘top’ 1% elites in American society and the rest of the population is laid bare by the results of an illuminating new poll.
Nearly six in 10 elite members believe there is too much individual freedom in America, more than two-thirds favour rationing of food and energy to combat climate change, somewhere between a half and two-thirds favour banning things like SUVs, gas stoves, air conditioning and non-essential air travel, while two-thirds believe teachers should decide what children are taught.
Meanwhile, 70% of those polled trust Government to “do the right thing most of the time”, while among these groups, President Biden enjoys an 84% approval rating.
The poll’s authors note that at a time when most Americans have suffered a loss of real take-home pay, 74% of members say they are financially better off than in the past. “The people who run America, or at least think they do, live in a bubble of their own construction. They’ve isolated themselves from everyday America’s realities to such a degree their views about what is and what should be happening in this country differ widely from the average American,” it is observed.
The poll studied American elites but observations suggest these views are widespread within small highly influential groups in many other countries. Populist parties are rising across Europe and elsewhere, in reaction to open borders, the woke attack on traditional values and cohesive societies, and the savage insanity of the collectivist Net Zero project.
In Britain, this last lunacy is demonstrated with the recent news that steel making is to stop in Port Talbot with the horrendous loss of around 3,000 local jobs. Wherever you look, none of this concerns the new elite aristocracy, insulated and isolated by high state salaries and subsidies, or large, outsized remunerations from corporations and financial institutions with an almost monopolistic lock on commerce and ‘virtue’.
Two polls were conducted last September among 1,000 U.S. elite members, defined as having a postgraduate degree, a household annual income of more than $150,000 and living in an area with more than 10,000 people per square mile. About 1% of the U.S. population are said to meet these criteria.
The results were titled ‘Them v U.S’ and published by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity (CUP), a Maryland-based non-profit advocacy group founded by the distinguished economists Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore. The methodology was determined after observing numerous surveys indicating that these elite segments of the population consistently exhibited views that were distinct from the general population.
Many of the views expressed are frankly very scary, but they chime with the agenda promoted by similar elites across the world. Climate change is clearly an obsession of the very rich and highly educated, note the authors, adding: “An astonishing 77% of the elites – including nearly 90% of the elites who graduate from the top universities – favour rationing of energy, gas and meat to combat climate change.” More than two-thirds of graduates from elite colleges would ban SUVs, gas stoves, air-conditioning and most air travel.
The cynical will note of course that current elite lifestyles suggest that the favoured few have little expectation that such restrictions will apply to themselves – rather it is a new way of living for the sheeple, the fly-overs, the deplorables or the gammon, or whatever insult is in vogue at any one time.
Attempting to remove a steak dinner from many Americans and substituting it with a bean salad might be considered an unwise course of action, but elites are three times more likely to say there is too much individual freedom than all Americans. Almost six out of 10 graduates from elite colleges think there is too much freedom in a country that has always considered itself the ‘land of the free’.
The authors note that these elites have extraordinary political and societal powers. They determine what the conversation will be about on campus, in the legacy media and corporate boardrooms. They put their trust in big government/media/business/academia because they run all these institutions. As we have seen in the Daily Sceptic, large amounts of green billionaire money is available to promote their destructive agendas, and in the process censor any views not fully backing the pre-ordained narrative.
Only in mainstream media and over-funded academia can the scientific process of climate science be deemed ‘settled’, only a Harvard professor can think there is ‘context’ in calling for the genocide of Jews, and only the very flexible of mind can believe that a woman has a penis. Only a very odd group can give the barely sentient President Biden an 84% approval rating.
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European People’s Party wants to scrap EU’s 2035 ban on petrol and diesel cars
Conservative forces in the European Parliament are considering calling on the EU to drop its 2035 ban on petrol and diesel engines in an embarrassing blow to Ursula von der Leyen.
The European Commission president has made the green deal a flagship policy in the bloc’s push for net zero but there are growing calls to roll back green rules because of the cost of living crisis.
Mrs von der Leyen’s own party, the centre-Right European People’s Party (EPP), plans to oppose the phased ban on petrol and diesel engines.
In September last year, Rishi Sunak delayed the UK’s ban on internal combustion engines from 2030 by five years to 2035, in line with Europe. The Prime Minister said it would protect hard-pressed families from “unacceptable costs”.
The call to ditch the ban is part of the EPP’s draft manifesto ahead of June’s European Parliament elections.
The so-called burden of green regulations is already a hot button issue after recent mass protests by Dutch and German farmers.
‘We reject a ban’
The manifesto, obtained by the Politico website, said: “We reject a ban policy, such as a ban on combustion engines, and will also revise it as soon as possible.”
It would instead rely on “innovative concepts and market-based instruments” and the “expansion of renewable energies”.
The EPP has already led calls to relax strict EU protections for the wolf, which Mrs von der Leyen supported after Dolly, her beloved horse, was killed by one of the predators.
It also opposed the EU’s nature restoration law, which narrowly passed in watered down form last year, after arguing it damaged farmers and food security.
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Australia: Santos’ LNG project to be delayed and cost more after environmentalist lawfare
Santos’ Barossa LNG project will produce its first gas three months later than initially scheduled and the development will cost as much as US$300m ($456.3m) more, as the oil and gas company reveals the toll of two legal challenges.
The updated timings and cost is much less than some had feared, and the outlook sent Santos shares up nearly 1 per cent.
Santos chief executive Kevin Gallagher praised the work of his staff in keeping the project on track and as much on budget as possible.
“The team has done a great job in keeping Barossa close to the original schedule and managing the costs of delay,” Mr Gallagher said.
Mr Gallagher revealed drilling and pipeline work was now fully underway as the outlook for the company continues to brighten.
First gas from the project is now expected in the third quarter of 2024.
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My other blogs. Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM )
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Jim Hansen and his twin
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