The 17,000 people visiting Denmark for global talks on reducing greenhouse gases will release as much carbon dioxide during the two-week event as about 200,000 U.S. passenger cars do in the period.

Environmental activists, government envoys, business leaders and journalists will emit 40,500 tons of the global- warming gas traveling to and within Copenhagen and for electricity and heat in their hotels and meeting rooms, according to an estimate by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which oversees the talks. Denmark?s government says it intends to offset the gases.

?The fact that all these people are flying into Copenhagen is a wonderful irony,? Adair Turner, chairman of a committee that advises the U.K. government on climate change, said in an interview. He?s taking the ?more carbon-friendly? approach of appearing at the conference via video conference, Turner said.

Envoys from more than 190 nations aim to devise an agreement while in Copenhagen to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases that UN-sponsored scientists have said are causing ?unequivocal? global warming, threatening to increase droughts and raise sea levels, swamping island-nations and coastal towns.

Attendees at the Dec. 7-18 talks include U.S. President Barack Obama, Royal Dutch Shell Plc Chief Executive Officer Peter Voser, and Prince Charles, the heir to the U.K. throne.

The emissions equal those of 203,302 typical passenger cars in 14 days, according to Bloomberg calculations using U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data. The average car travels about 12,500 miles (20,000 kilometers) a year, releasing 11,450 pounds (5,200 kilograms) of carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. agency.

Kiribati, Brick-Making

The output is similar to the CO2 emitted by the Pacific island-nation of Kiribati in a year of burning fossil fuels for power, heat and transportation. Kiribati?s 110,000 inhabitants released about 40,000 tons of CO2 in 2006, according to U.S. Department of Energy data on Bloomberg.

The atolls are some of the most threatened by global warming, and Kiribati President Anote Tong told Bloomberg in February that his Pacific nation may buy land abroad to relocate its people in the face of rising seas caused by climate change.

Denmark has set aside 5 million kroner ($1 million) to help pay for a project in Bangladesh that will reduce emissions in the brick-making industry, compensating for the summit?s greenhouse gases, said Christian van Maarschalkerweerd, chief program coordinator at the Danish Energy Agency.

?There are more than 6,000 brick kilns in Bangladesh, many located around Dhaka,? van Maarschalkerweerd said in a telephone interview from Copenhagen. ?They?re heavily polluting and not very advanced. This project is introducing a more environmentally friendly brick-production technology.?

Energy ?Sea-Change?

Twenty new kilns will be built, reducing emissions by a combined 100,000 tons per year, according to the Danish official. The project will generate tradable carbon credits, each representing a ton of avoided emissions under the UN?s Clean Development Mechanism, he said. Denmark and the World Bank will each buy a portion of the credits, he said.

The UN calculations are based on the assumption delegates will stay for 14 days. The exact emissions of the summit won?t be known until after the Copenhagen meeting, when it?s clear how many delegates have turned up, how they?ve traveled and how far they?ve come, said John Hay, a spokesman for the UNFCCC.

?If the conference manages to bring about a sea-change in how energy is produced and consumed, then the amount of emissions caused by the meeting will be truly microscopic in comparison to what can be achieved in terms of emission reductions,? Hay said in an e-mailed reply to questions.
Source :www.bloomberg.com

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Tags: Bangladesh, GLobal Warming

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