United Nations Climate Change Conference 2008
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.
The United State is also modernizing the grid with a technology called “smart grid” so that solar power in the southwest and wind in the midwest can be transmited to other parts of the country with fewer renewable resources. Al Gore, Barrack Obama, T. Boone Pickens, and Vinod Khosla are promoters of a renewable energy resources and smart-grid buildout.
If oil and gas companies can build massive pipelines that pump petroleum from one side of the continent to the other, there’s no reason we can’t get to a stage where the abundant electrons in a nation’s solar, wind, water and geothermal “reserves” can be pumped to markets in need.
