The 31 of January Deadline

Event 1: The BASIC countries met in India
The BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China), functioning as a cohesive group, made important and constructive contributions at the recently concluded 15th Conference of the Parties (COP-15) in Copenhagen. The second meeting of Ministers of the four BASIC group countries  took place in New Delhi on the 24th of January. 

The Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the other four Ministers re-emphasised their commitment to working together with all other countries to ensure an agreed outcome at COP-16 in Mexico later this year.

1. The Ministers expressed their intention to communicate information on their voluntary mitigation actions to the UNFCCC by 31 January 2010. In doing so, they put pressure on the developed countries to communicate their mitigation actions by the 31 January deadline as well.   
2. The Ministers called for the early flow of the pledged $10 billion in 2010 with focus on the least developed countries, small island developing states and countries of Africa, as proof of their commitment to urgently address the global challenge of climate change.

Joint statement by the BASIC group countries, New Delhi 25.1. 2010
 
Comment 1:

It is an interesting observation that the leaders in this process seems to be the BASIC group countries and USA - while the European Union is waiting outside in the hallway with the rest of world (even if the EU countries are the most agressive in fighting dramatic climate changes).       
Event 2: Home retrofit program in USA
Secretary Steven Chu of the Department of Energy list three major energy initiatives for 2010:

1. Home retrofit program: "will save energy costs for millions of americans" (an of course reduce the record high CO2 footprint of the average american family.
2. New ways of funding new energy projects: will increase the amount of renewable energy in USA
3. Restart the nuclear energy program  

Link to the White House 2010 Cabinet Reports

Comment 2: 
For followers of this blog it comes as no surprise that the new home retrofit program in USA is good news for us. Why? We have argued that the most effective CO2/energy reduction efforts ("low hanging fruit") is to fix all the draughty and energy wasting houses. These "JAHUS" projects will result in higher tonnes of CO2 (or TWh) per dollar than all fancy renewable energy projects.

I do not mean that all renewable energy projects should be stopped, we do of course need both projects that reduce energy demand (and hence CO2/GHG emissions) - AND projects that ultimately will provide us with more non-fossil fuel energy. It is, however, a mismatch between dollars allocated to renewables (which, might, some time in the future, result in a commercial production of renewable energy) - and government dollars allocated to kick-start the implementation of energy saving efforts in private homes (which are based on known and available technology and will give immediate effect).

Norway's leading financial newspaper, DN, recently said "the most climate-friendly energy - is the the energy not being used". (Gets thumbs up from me :-)

JAHUS progress:
On Monday it was-9.6C outside and the fan was on all day (ading heated air to the ventilation system) and the ventilation aggregate (w/heat exchanger) was running on "normal" effect. When I came home from work, I checked the attic and found that the temperature was 5.5 C !

The temperature in the attic should of course be much closer to the outside temperature. A temperature difference of above 15C is way too much (energy is wasted and it is causing a major icicles problem). I am looking forward to the day the ventilation team fixes this problem (and the other tasks in the backlog).