BREAKING: Germany Sets Solar Power Record (Again) — 23.9 GW

ORIGINAL: Clean Technica
Zachary Shahan
July 7, 2013

It has been a very sunny day here in western Poland, so I knew it was basically the same in Germany (it always is) and that there was a good chance Germany would break its previous solar power output record. So, I’ve been keeping an eye on SMA Solar Technology’s live solar power output tool for the country.

Screenshot of SMA Solar Technology live solar power output webpage.

Sure enough, a few hours ago, solar output climbed above the 22.68 GW solar power output record Germany set in April. Not long after, it climbed above the 23.4 GW solar power output record set in June. At its peak at about 1:45pm local time (one hour ago), the output got up to 23.9 GW. (Actually, I thought I saw it reach 24 GW at that time, but the replay isn’t showing it go above 23.9 GW.)

I’m sure an official number still needs to be confirmed, but a full 0.5 GW increase according to SMA’s site makes for a very safe conclusion that we have a new record. It is an estimate based on the output of thousands of SMA solar power systems spread across the country.

Germany’s peak electricity demand at midday is about 60 GW, so at 1:45pm or so, solar power was providing about 40% of the country’s electricity demand. Impressive. Approximately 1.3–1.4 million solar power systems were involved in creating that massive electricity output, our German solar expert Thomas tells me. And about 8.5 million people live in buildings where solar power systems are used to produce electricity or heat.

As we’ve reported many times before, Germany is the clear solar power world leader at the moment. (Though, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic actually beat it on solar power per GDP). Despite what Fox News or Fox & Friends might want to tell you, it’s not because of Germany’s “excellent” solar resources — its solar resources are comparable to Alaska’s. Rather, it’s because the country has had a simple, strong policy in place (solar feed-in tariffs) to stimulate solar power installations on homes and businesses.

–> For more on Germany’s solar power leadership, check out: 10 Solar Lessons From Germany.

After Rio+20, developing countries must take the lead

ORIGINAL: SciDev

David Dickson

29 June 2012

Shutterstock

Leadership from developing countries will be key to global sustainable development

Last week's summit has confirmed that sustainable development will only be achieved through the political leadership of developing countries.

Two and a half years ago, the Copenhagen climate change conference (COP15) ended in rancorous and highly public disagreement between developed and developing nations on what was needed to prevent further global warming .

The outcome proved an intense embarrassment to the host nation, Denmark.

From the beginning of negotiations over the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (dubbed Rio+20 ), which took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, last week, it was widely reported that the Brazilian government was desperate to avoid the same fate.

SCIENCE AT RIO+20

This article is part of our coverage of Rio+20 — the UN Conference on Sustainable Development — which took place on 20-22 June 2012. For other articles, go to Science at Rio+20

Although Brazil's determination was only one contributory factor, the result was the agreement, by all 188 participating nations, on an outcome document that was filled with aspirations and exhortations about the need for the world to move to a more sustainable path of economic and social development, but lacking any firm commitment to the more painful steps needed to achieve this goal.

Inevitably, this outcome has satisfied virtually no-one engaged in the process (apart from the host country).

But the increased focus that it provided on the political realities on which the Copenhagen meeting foundered — and which Rio+20 ducked — has itself been a significant step forward.

Taking the lead

What became clearer than ever at Rio was that the key to global sustainable development does not lie in the logical arguments coming from proponents in the developed world, including its scientific communities, however passionately they are delivered.

Rather, it now lies in the combination of political muscle and imaginative thinking in the developing world, particularly the so-called "emerging economies" of countries such as Brazil, China and India.

In Rio, these countries insisted, quite legitimately, that a global commitment to making the transition to "green economies" is only valid if it includes atransfer of significant financial and technical resources from the North to the South.

Their argument was that such a transfer would compensate for the fact that this transition is necessary because of the consumption patterns of the North.

Furthermore, the emerging economies — and China in particular — are coming to realise that sustainable development is in their own interest.

Their own internal environmental problems, from air pollution to an increase in flooding related to climate change , need to be addressed urgently as the unacceptable by-products of economic growth.

At the same time, a combination of technical ingenuity and low labour costs makes them well placed to become the leading producers of sustainable technologies for the rest of the world­ — as China has already shown in exporting solar energy technologies to Africa, for example.

Galvanising the grassroots

The organisers of Rio+20 were keen to emphasise that even as the formal proceedings turned out to be disappointing, this had been partially compensated for by the enormous networking opportunities the meeting provided for sustainable development stakeholders .

In particular, by the end of the meeting, more than 700 pledges — valued at over US$500 billion — had been registered for concrete actions through, for example, individual institutional commitments or partnership agreements.

Each of these was required to commit to quantifiable outcomes within a fixed timeframe. Together they show that a massive global commitment to sustainable development already exists, even without promises of resource transfers from political leaders.

Indeed, this outcome appears to confirm what many have been arguing: that truly sustainable economies can only be built from the grassroots, and with the full inclusion of community groups and other interested stakeholders.

Reigning in corporate power

But even if grassroots or voluntary initiatives are a necessary condition for sustainable development, they are not sufficient.

In particular, it ignores the extent to which the key directions and components of economic growth — such as a continued reliance on non-renewable energy sources supported by generous subsidies — are inevitably set at the top, rather than the bottom, of the political pyramid.

Furthermore, without an all-embracing political framework to ensure coherence between individual actions, each stakeholder remains — equally inevitably — motivated primarily by their own self-interest (or that of their stakeholders or shareholders), rather than a commitment to a common good. 

For example, many of the 700 individual pledges registered at Rio involved individual commitments from corporations keen to be seen to be "going green".

Ironically, however, former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundlandt, head of the Brundlandt Commission, which first coined the phrase "sustainable development" in the 1980s, accused corporate lobbyists of being partly responsible for the disappointing outcome of the formal negotiations. [1]

Paving the future

The scientific meetings held in the run-up to Rio+20 — including both the Planet Under Pressure meeting in London in April, and the International Council for Science and UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Development , held two weeks ago in Rio itself — both underlined the urgency of taking action on many fronts.

Rio+20 opened the door for action on some of these, such as protecting the marine environment or mountain ecosystems . It also endorsed closer interaction between scientific communities and policymakers — another essential element of any future strategy.

But the meeting also highlighted the political challenge of changing the course of a global economy still wedded largely to fossil fuels and non-sustainable patterns of consumption.

It also showed that the developed world lacks the commitment to make the necessary changes and accept the painful consequences, pursuing the familiar maxim that "turkeys don't vote for Christmas".

It is now up to the developing world and its emerging economies to show that they can do better — for example, by taking on a key role in defining the forthcoming Sustainable Development Goals — and providing the political muscle to make this happen.

Concerns about embarrassment over possible failure should not stop them from taking the necessary political risks.

David Dickson 

Editor, SciDev.Net

This article is part of our coverage on Science at Rio+20 . Read more in our blog .

REFERENCES

[1] Rio summit ends with warning on corporate power (BBC News, 2012)

Rio+20 politicians deliver 'new definition of hypocrisy' claim NGOs

ORIGINAL:  The Guardian

Liz Ford  in Rio de Janeiro

guardian.co.uk , Thursday 21 June 2012 17.54 BST

Greenpeace, WWF and Oxfam criticise world leaders for shirking responsibilities and say civil society must act in their place

Heads of state at Rio+20 have been criticised for showing a lack of courage on sustainable development.  Photograph: Buda Mendes/STF/LatinContent/Getty Images

World leaders at the Rio+20 Earth summit in Brazil delivered a "new definition of hypocrisy" for standing in the way of progress and failing so far to challenge the text of the draft outcome document , NGO leaders said on Thursday.

Daniel Mittler, political director of Greenpeace , said: "The epic failure of Rio+20 was a reminder [that] short-term corporate profit rules over the interests of people." He said the outcome of the conference was "nothing short of disastrous", as governments came offering no money or commitments to action.

"They say they can't put money on the table because of the economic crisis, but they spend money on greedy banks and on saving those who caused the crisis. They spend $1 trillion a year on subsidies for fossil fuels and then tell us they don't have any money to give to sustainable development ."

Lasse Gustavsson, executive director for conservation at WWF , said two years of "sophisticated UN diplomacy has given us nothing more than more poverty, more conflict and more environmental destruction". He said WWF had participated in numerous preparatory committee meetings in the runup to Rio, but there was very little to show from its efforts.

Sharan Burrow, general secretary at the International Trade Union Confederation , who flew to Rio on Wednesday after attending the G20 meeting in Mexico, criticised leaders for their lack of courage in not challenging the document text, written by a team of negotiators, and for doing nothing to adopt a new model of development .

She told the meeting that people should show politicians how they felt by not voting for them if they did not take decisive action. "The world we want will not be delivered by world leaders, who lack courage to come here and sit at the table to negotiate," said Burrow. "They take no responsibility. The reality is we are living beyond our planetary means."

A recent poll of 175 million members of the trade union movement around the world found that the majority were disillusioned and had no hope that the next generation would fare better, she said. Leaders, she said, needed to seriously invest in green job creation.

But although politicians have failed to impress at Rio, the NGOs agreed the conference provided an opportunity to mobilise people to act.

Gustavsson said the 3,000 side events had shown the commitment and "strong leadership" of civil society groups, city mayors and the private sector. "Sustainable development will have to happen without the blessing of world leaders. Governments will need to play catch-up," he said.

Barbara Stocking, chief executive of Oxfam GB , said it was time to "pick up and move on. Civil society has to take action. They must do what they do." She added that a meeting in Rome on Friday among four European leaders could put in motion a financial transaction tax (FTT), which could generate millions that could support efforts to alleviate poverty.

The tax is opposed by the UK prime minister David Cameron, but has found support, at least in theory, among other European leaders. Friday's talk will primarily be about the Eurozone crisis, but the FTT will also be under discussion. "The key thing will be to get an agreement and get this under way," Stocking said. The money made on the tax should be spent on climate change adaption and development, she added.

Peter Lehner, executive director of the National Resources Defence Council, said his organisation had launched a website, cloud of commitments , that would track the promises made by countries and the private sector at Rio

He said it was "critical that we don't equate Rio with a document. It's not what it should be about. We don't save the world with a document." He added that Rio+20 could be a catalyst for action: "People are armed for real action. The document could do a lot more but the important thing is to see Rio as a catalyst for people around the world. Now it's our turn to take the energy of people and convert that into action."

Actuar para detener la "beneficencia" a las compañías petroleras contaminantes

ORIGINAL: Act.credoaction.com/

Cada día se le entregan más de 30 millones de dolares, obtenidos de los impuestos de los habitantes de los Estados Unidos, a las compañías de combustibles fósiles. La población mundial ya comienza a sentir las consecuencias de acelerar un cambio climatico y hay que detener los subsidios que se le entregan a los contaminantes para que sigan contaminando y cada vez a mayor escala.

Se dice que miembros del congreso han recibido más de 100 millones de dólares en contribuciones para sus campañas de los miembros de las industrias contaminantes, en los últimos diez años. Así que muchos harán lo que puedan para ignorar la petición de dejar de subsidiar a los contaminantes]

Información tomada de The CREDO Action Team