Views from around the World on
Global Warming:
How to help reduce Global Warming by using Biodiesel
Biodiesel and the Kyoto Protocol
Hi Merv Rees here,
I thought I would chat about some aspects affecting making biodiesel.
The Kyoto Protocol goes by a number of aliases: The Kyoto Treaty, The Kyoto Accord, or Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
It does not stand alone but is actually an amendment to a larger body of work by the United Nations on climate change. The larger body of work is a treaty on managing environmental change by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. It came into being in 1992 at a summit in Rio de Janeiro, but since it is a treaty and does not hold countries accountable to make any changes, an amendment was added to it, called a protocol, to help nations take action in response to the treaty. The goal is to stabilize the amount and concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Since then, the Kyoto Protocol has eclipsed the treaty itself in terms of assumed effectiveness and controversy. Countries who choose to ratify the Kyoto Protocol are committing to the reduction of six greenhouse gas emissions including carbon monoxide, or developing measures to deal with those commitments if they cannot fill them.
There were two conditions for the Kyoto Protocol to enter into force. The first condition was that not fewer than 55 participants in the convention need to ratify the protocol. This was reached on May 23, 2002 when Iceland ratified the protocol. The second condition was that countries who participated in producing a leased 55% of the total carbon dioxide emissions for 1990 needed to ratify the protocol as well. Russia's ratification on November 18, 2004 met the second condition needed to put the Kyoto Protocol into force. 90 days after the conditions were met, on February 16th 2005, the Kyoto Protocol entered into force.
The United States and Australia have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol. In spite of that, 157 nations have ratified the protocol, which represents 61% of global greenhouse gas production.
The legally binding protocol calls for countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5.2%, compared to the emissions produced in 1990. While the average is 5.2% different countries have different targets to aim for: Japan needs to reduce its emissions by 6%, Australia by 8%, the US by 7%, and Iceland by 10%. The reduction needs to affect the following greenhouse gases:
* carbon dioxide
* methane
* nitrous oxide
* sulfur hexafluoride
* HFCs
* PFCs
Countries who exceed these targets earn "credits" that they can sell to other countries that are not yet able to meet those targets. Credits are also earned by countries with large forested regions that turned carbon dioxide into oxygen. So countries who can quickly exceed emissions standards or who can create Kyoto Protocol forest areas have financial incentive to do so.
Cleaner, breathable air, a clearer sky, and a reduction in global warming are noble pursuits. So why has the Kyoto Protocol received so much controversy and attention and has not been ratified by everyone?
Objections and criticisms
There are a number of objections and criticisms to the Kyoto Protocol. Here are some of them:
* By 2050, if the Kyoto Protocol is successful, the global warming trend will be reduced by one third to one half of a degree annually. Unless other changes are made, Kyoto Protocol will be ineffective at reducing global warming in a largely measurable way.
* Both the United States and Australia have not ratified the protocol because of concerns over the economic ramifications resulting from sweeping changes that need to be made by industries. Other countries, like Canada, have ratified the protocol but with a lot of national controversy for the same reason.
* Credits earned from planting a 'Kyoto Protocol Forest' sound like a great idea except that the first 10 years of a new forest tends to produce more carbon dioxide than it reduces, because new forests help to release carbon dioxide that is locked in the ground.
* China, who is the second-largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world is exempt from ratifying the Kyoto protocol or being bound to it because it does not belong to a specific class of countries: ones who were producing excessive greenhouse gases during the growth in industry that the UN feels contributed to current concentrations. In fact, China's usage is on the rise, increasing 40% between 1990 and 2003.
* Because of the variety of credit-selling opportunities as well as responsibilities to share knowledge with non-industrialized countries, some people see the Kyoto Protocol as a global social movement to spread wealth from the "have" countries to the "have-not" countries instead of effectively addressing climate change.
* As well, the law of supply and demand suggests that a reduction in fossil fuel usage by industrialized nations will lead to a reduction in overall price for fossil fuels, allowing non-industrialized nations, who are not bound by the Kyoto Protocol, to burn more fossil fuels at a cheaper price without any restrictions.
* Lastly, critics say that the Kyoto Protocol only addresses the problem with an immediate, short-term solution. Critics suggest that the Kyoto Protocol, or something like it, needs to address greater issues such as population explosion which has a huge effect on global warming.
Who wins?
If the Kyoto Protocol is successful in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we will all win with a reduction in global warming. But there are others who will win in a different way:
* Kyoto Protocol measurements are based on emissions produced in 1990 and ratifying countries are measured against that number as a benchmark. Russia, however, because of its collapse will easily meet its 1990 number, and its benchmark is set at 0%. This means that it should constantly generate credits which can be purchased by other countries. This means that reactionary spending by other countries will push millions of dollars to Russia.
* The Kyoto Protocol also requires industrialized nations to provide information and support to non-industrialized nations attempting to make leaps and bounds in technology and power generation. So countries like the United States will be expected to provide assistance and support to countries like India and China who both have a lot of people and are struggling to become industrialized nations. In both cases, by supporting the Kyoto Protocol, they receive assistance but have no parameters in which to operate once they do achieve industrialization.
Alternative Energy:
Efforts to find affordable replacements to current vehicle fuel choices, biodiesel has quickly become one of the leading alternatives learn The Secrets of Biodiesel by checking out my website whybiodiesel http://www.whybiodiesel.com
Biodiesel is considered a renewable eco-friendly resource derived from vegetable oil or animal fats. Once the vegetable oil or animal fat is processed it becomes a combustible material, like the petroleum-based diesel currently used today in many vehicles. In fact, it is used daily around the world, and is rapidly becoming the main stay of a lot of family budgets already with ever increasing popularity.
Biodiesel can and is being produced from rapeseed, soybeans, algae, palm oil, hemp, lard, and mustard seed, in fact any vegetable oil source, and yes even waste vegetable oil, fish oil and any animal fats. In fact, the August 2005 edition of National Geographic reported one biodiesel user who got his waste vegetable oil free from a local potato chip shop and spent eight dollars a month to turn it into biodiesel, which as we know is common practice now in many places.
Some of the benefits of biodiesel include:
* Biodiesel is an excellent way to use the vegetable oil and animal fats produced today, solving the hugely potential problem of waste used products otherwise disposed of badly and the past problems that caused.
* Biodiesel is biodegradable on the land or in water.
* Biodiesel is nontoxic
* Biodiesel can be safer in accidents because it has a much higher flash point (300° Fahrenheit) than regular diesel or gasoline, and is considered a non-hazardous material.
* Biodiesel is a better solvent, so it cleans engines that have been dirtied and stained, by long-term use of regular petroleum diesel.
* Biodiesel can be used right now in any concentration with current petroleum diesel engines, making the transfer from one to the other very easy. However, older petroleum diesel engines may experience a higher degradation of seals and gaskets which can easily be rectified
.
* Biodiesel usage dramatically reduces carbon monoxide emissions and carbon dioxide emissions.
* Biodiesel reduces sulfur emissions by 100% (because it does not contain sulfur), which will help contribute to the Kyoto protocol mandate of reducing sulfur emissions.
Proponents say it may replace the fossil fuels used today to power vehicles. But it still has a ways to go:
* Biodiesel just like regular diesel tends to gel at temperatures that are very low, but this can also be rectified with additives.
* Biodiesel is more expensive to produce by the Gas Companies right now than other fuels currently in use (although rising costs in fossil fuel production could outstrip this problem shortly).
* Biodiesel will require a lot of vegetable oil and animal fat to meet the demand and critics suggest that land use dedicated to filling the need will be astronomical and largely an inefficient use of land in supporting the demand.
* The EPA reports that American restaurants produce 300,000,000 gallons of waste cooking oil every year and although biodiesel can be produced from it, in the past it went to producing soaps etc, but the cost of collecting it has caused Biodieselers to celebrate because a lot of them are happy to collect it for free.
There is a lot of support in the potential of biodiesel eventually helping to replace fossil fuels. In order to generate an accurate calculation on whether it's a viable alternative or not there are a lot of things that need to be taken into consideration. Check out my new book 'The Secrets of Biodiesel' and really get a handle on this.
Biodiesel is not cost effective today because it is not produced in such a large-scale. If it were produced on a larger scale, it may have a greater effect on price. To use a different example, it costs more-per-car to produce only one or two cars than it costs to produce 10 cars, or a hundred cars, or thousand cars. (This is why Henry Ford is hailed as a genius of the production industry, because he reduced car prices by creating an assembly line). So once the scale of biodiesel is ramped up, the cost will be more effective.
The cost of biodiesel has become very affordable as a way to fuel cars and heat homes of our individual Biodieselers, however replacing the current processing plants that take oil and turn it into fuel may be so high that it is prohibitive and asking drivers to switch vehicles or swap engines may not be an alternative for everyone. So clearly, there will need to be a "phasing in" effect in order to increase biodiesel or other bio-fuels so greatly reducing the stranglehold of petroleum-based fuels.
Another thing to consider is the social cost. While many people do have the best intentions in mind to reduce emissions and waste and improve on their use of fossil fuels, people still make decisions based on their own personal impact: how much money and time will they save? There may be lots of people that they're concerned about the ecology, but there are so many more people concerned about whether they can afford to make the transition. Until biodiesel becomes the cheaper choice, the general public will not make the transition.
I hope you have enjoyed my rambling thoughts,
Perhaps we'll chat again soon,
Thanks for your time, Merv Rees.
www.whybiodiesel.com or check my blog at www.whybiodiesel.com/blog/
Legal Stuff
This article may be distributed freely on your website, as long as
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Copyright 2005 Mervyn Rees All Rights Reserved.
About the Author
Mervyn Rees - The Author of 'The Secrets of Biodiesel' - http://www.whybiodiesel.com - Active young 71 year old with a life time of experience to share, from engineering in the motor & building industry, and then after an accident changed course and retrained as a health professional in rehabilitation and fitness.
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