Countries have agreed that in Copenhagen, an ambitious climate change deal will be clinched to follow the first phase of the UN’s Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. At Pozna?, Parties to the UNFCCC will take stock of progress made in 2008 and map out in detail what needs to happen in 2009 to get to that agreement. Delegates – including Ministers – will discuss their vision for long-term cooperative action on climate change, including a long-term emission reduction goal.

Discussions included a meeting to discuasuper-grid that would connect renewable-rich regions to areas of higher energy demand via high-voltage, direct-current (HVDC) cables. That means if Iceland has all the geothermal, North Africa has the solar, Scotland has the offshore wind, and the coasts have wave power, we should build a grid that can carry that power to population centers that rely on more traditional power sources.

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“A global energy network makes enormous sense if we are to meet global energy needs with a minimal impact on the world’s environment. Such advances (in long distance transmission) may even make possible the visionary suggestion … that the Eastern and Western hemispheres be linked by underwater cable to assist each other in managing peak energy demand, since the high daytime use in one hemisphere occurs at precisely the low night time consumption by the other.”

– Nobel Laureate, Vice President Al Gore

“One of, I think, the most important infrastructure projects that we need is a whole new electricity grid. Because if we’re going to be serious about renewable energy, I want to be able to get wind power from North Dakota to population centers, like Chicago. And we’re going to have to have a smart grid if we want to use plug-in hybrids then we want to be able to have ordinary consumers sell back the electricity that’s generated from those car batteries, back into the grid. That can create 5 million new jobs, just in new energy.”

– President-Elect Barack Obama on MSNBC.com

Barack Obama, our President-elect, can’t win. Since his energy plan proposes carbon cuts before the technology is in place to achieve the goal, the coal associations are not convinced. Environmentalists are cautious as well and argue that his “clean coal” plan does not add up.

Coal will always be an important energy source. Development and improvement of the tools that are required to make it cleaner is not a contradiction to alternate energy production methods. In reality, long-term energy demands will continually grow, making a diversified fuel mix necessary. All resources must be developed fully. This includes coal, which will be subject to increased pressure now that Washington is under Democratic control.

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Building upon his allegiance to bringing down greenhouse emission and expanding the state’s renewable energy capacity, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Executive Order S-14-08 (EO) to streamline California’s renewable energy project approval process and increase the state’s Renewable Energy Standard to 33 percent renewable power by 2020.

The Governor also will nominate legislative language that will codify the new higher criteria and call for all utilities, public and private, to meet the 33 percent target and spread implementation costs across all ratepayers with safeguards for low-income customers.

To enforce and track the progress of the EO, the California Energy Commission and the Department of Fish and Game signed a Memorandum of Understanding formalizing a Renewable Energy Action Team (REAT).

To streamline the application process for renewable energy development, the CEC and DFG will produce a “one-stop” permitting process with the goal of reducing the application time for specific projects in half. This will be accomplished through the creation of a special joint streamlining unit that will concurrently review permit applications filed at the state level.

To jump start Natural Communities Conservation Plans under the EO, the REAT will initiate the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan in the priority Mojave and Colorado Desert regions and identify other preferred areas that will benefit from a streamlined permitting and environmental review process.

Also, the CEC, DFG, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a coordinated approach with federal partners in the accelerated permitting process. This aligned approach will significantly reduce the time and expense for developing renewable energy on federally-owned California land.

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Finland set targets recently to harness power intake and elevate the share of renewable energy to meet European Union goals for 2020, and flagged the possible need for more nuclear power. “The starting point for us is that Finland will on average produce enough electricity for domestic use,” Minister of Economic Affairs Mauri Pekkarinen said in a statement.

Finland said the priority in coming years would be on constructing zero-emission or low-emission plants, plus wind and hydro power. The focusing would also be on effective energy consumption in housing, construction and transport.

Without new measures, it said greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 would top those of 1990 by some 20 percent, mainly owed to emissions from energy production and industry.

European Union countries agreed last year to cut down emissions contributory to global warming by 2020 and raise the share of wind, solar, hydro and wave power in electricity output by the same date.

Aside from cutting emissions by at least one-fifth by 2020 from 1990 levels, EU states have harmonized to use 20 percent of renewable energy sources in power production and 10 percent of biofuels from crops in transport by the same date.

The Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK) welcomed the goal of energy self-sufficiency but said the government’s capacity estimate to meet future demand was “noticeably modest”. New electricity production capacity is needed fast in Finland for three reasons, EK said in a statement.

According to the Confederation, the prominent amount of imported electricity should be substituted by domestic production, demand for electricity is growing, and old capacity being decommissioned — especially coal power — should be replaced by new low-emission production.

The energy strategy will go to parliament next week and could take a long time to be embraced.

Finland said it aimed to increase the share of renewable energy to 38 percent of output in 2020 from 29 percent now, but admitted this was “highly challenging” and could only be done if growth in energy consumption could be reversed.

To meet the goal, Finland demanded much more use of wood-based energy, waste fuels, heat pumps, biogas and wind energy. The government also said a decision must be taken during the next few years on building more nuclear power.

France’s Areva is already building Finland’s fifth nuclear reactor, but the 1,600 MW project has been plagued by delays and is now expected to come online only in 2012 versus an original target of 2009.

Environmental group Greenpeace criticized the strategy saying parliament, not ministers, should decide on extra nuclear power.
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