Get Involved in Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen

Via Official Google Blog, you can connect with the world leaders on climate debate.

[Starting on December 3, 2009], 192 countries will participate in the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen — the first step in setting new international commitments for carbon reduction.

You can submit and vote on questions to ask world climate leaders during a televised town hall on CNN. With Google Moderator on YouTube for the first time, you can view, add and vote on video or text questions in one spot.

Questions will be translated into numerous languages using the Google Language API. Voting and submissions will be accepted until December 14. You can also track the conversation and vote on new questions.

Climate Savers Computing Initiative

Via Be Specific Blog, Google co-founded the Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI).

Do you leave your fridge door open after grabbing what you need? Do you leave your vacuum cleaner running when you aren't cleaning? Of course not. The idea of doing either of these things sounds silly, yet many people don't think to turn off their computers after using them. By using power management tools on your computer and buying more efficient computers, you can save nearly half a ton of CO2 and more than $60 a year in personal energy costs. Google co-founded the CSCI to promote a smarter, greener computing future. The simple changes above can have a HUGE collective impact; our goal is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 54 million tons per year by 2010 — the equivalent of taking 11 million cars off the road."

Any comments?

Climate Change: Observations on the Potential Role of Carbon Offsets in Climate Change Legislation

This testimony by John Stephenson, Director Natural Resources & Environment before the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives sets forth four challenges to the implementation of Climate Change policies.

The four primary challenges related to the United States voluntary carbon offset market are: First, the concept of a carbon offset is complicated because offsets can involve different activities, definitions, greenhouse gases, and timeframes for measurement. Second, ensuring the credibility of offsets is challenging because there are many ways to determine whether a project is additional to a business-as-usual baseline, and inherent uncertainty exists in measuring emissions reductions relative to such a baseline. Related to this, the use of multiple quality assurance mechanisms with varying requirements may raise questions about whether offsets are fully fungible—interchangeable and of comparable quality. Third, including offsets in regulatory programs to limit greenhouse gas emissions could result in environmental and economic tradeoffs. For example offsets could lower the cost of complying with an emissions reduction policy, but this may delay on-site reductions by regulated entities. Fourth, offsets could compromise the environmental certainty of a regulatory program if offsets used for compliance lack credibility.