Should the World Bank Go to the Brew Pub?
by gmoke, Daily Kos, November 17, 2010
On the afternoon of November 16, 2010, Andrew Steer, special envoy on climate change for the World Bank, spoke at Harvard about "Why Developing Countries Urgently Need a Global Climate Deal ... and Why They Shouldn't Wait for One.”
There was a small reception afterwards with wine and cheese. At six, Dr Steer was escorted to dinner. That happened on Oxford Street, northwest of Harvard Square.
At 7, on the other side of Harvard Yard, at John Harvard's Brew Pub on Dunster Street, an Intercollegiate Energy Social for the local Energy Clubs began. Invited clubs included the Babson Energy and Environment Club, Boston University Energy Club, Fletcher Energy Consortium, Harvard Business School Energy and Environment Club, Harvard Energy Journal Club, Harvard Kennedy School Energy and Environment Professional Interest Council, MIT Energy Club, MIT Sloan Energy & Environment Club, and Tufts Energy Forum. The social was organized by the Collegiate Energy Association http://collegeenergy.org
What would have happened if Dr Steer had attended the Energy Social? Should the World Bank have gone to the brew pub?
- gmoke's diary :: ::
Steer became special envoy for climate change at the World Bank in July 2010. He is responsible for guiding the bank group's work on climate change and further advancing its internal capabilities in this area where he oversees the multibillion dollar Climate Investment Funds and helps mobilize climate financing.Prior to his appointment, Steer served for three years as director general, policy and research at the UK Department of International Development in London. Steer has three decades of experience working on development issues at the country level in Africa and Asia, and on global development issues. He has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, has written widely on development issues, and has taught economics at several universities.
He said that 90% of all the countries that came to the World Bank last year asked for help on climate change. 131 out of the 160 countries the World Bank works with have climate change projects. (160 countries are using World Bank financing and aid out of 192 to 194 countries in all.)
A world held to only a 2 degree Centigrade rise in atmospheric temperature by 2050 would be limited to about 2 tons of CO2 (CO2 alone or equivalent?) per person. (That 2º temperature rise is the measure that came out of Copenhagen. It's a little too abstract for my taste. 350 parts per million of carbon in the atmosphere as popularized by 350.org is clearer. We are currently at 387.18 ppm and were 260 – 280 ppm before the Age of Steam, a level that had not varied much during the preceding 10,000 years. Counting the other various greenhous gases like methane, nitrous oxide, etc we are around 430 parts per million of CO2-equivalent or 430 ppm CO2e.)
The stimulative effects of carbon pricing start kicking in at over $20 per ton and cap and trade is already happening regionally, even in the USA. (The Northeast's RGGI cap and trade latest auction was at $1.86 per ton and the EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS) is at $16.30 to $19.74 per ton. Before the financial collapse of 2008, RGGI was over $3 per ton and EU ETS over $30 per ton.)
Cap and trade is already happening in many markets around the world. Even China is beginning to do cap and trade carbon pricing, starting with the area around Shanghai with plans for Beijing. (China is also ramping up carbon capture and sequestration with a series of larger and larger scale installations.)
Steer's main point is the title of his talk, developing (and all other) countries need a global plan on climate change but shouldn't wait and aren't waiting for the rest of the globe to act.
Dr Steer's talk was this year's first Green Conversation.
Green Conversations are sponsored by the Harvard University Center for the Environment with generous support from Bank of America. This lecture is co-sponsored with the Harvard University Center for International Development Sustainability Science Program. Free and open to the public.
There were at least two other events of related interest that afternoon and evening:
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Growing Green Technology Out of the Lab and into the Marketplace
Speaker: Dr. Riccardo Signorelli - President and CEO of FastCAP Systems
Time: 5:30p–6:30p
Location: 66-110
MIT Energy Club Lecture SeriesThe ultracapacitor technology that is currently being developed at FastCap Systems began as an idea seven years ago in the LEES lab at MIT. Now, fueled by private investment and government funding, FastCAP is pushing forward to develop and take to market its novel energy storage technology, with the goal of revolutionizing the electric vehicle and grid storage markets. But the jump from promising laboratory results to the marketplace isn't an obvious one, and Dr. Signorelli will share his experiences in launching a venture aimed at commercializing material innovation in the energy space.Open to: the general publicSponsor(s): MIT Energy ClubFor more information, contact:
Jared Silvia
jssilvia@mit.edu
The MIT Energy Club has over a thousand members. The MIT Sustainability Club has over a thousand members too.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Pahoehoe: 8 people, 8 projects
Speaker: 8 students with innovative service projects
Time: 7:00p–9:00p
Location: 32, Stata Center, R&D Commons 4th Floor
Pahoehoe: 8 People x 8 Projects
Where Invention & Entrepreneurship Meet Public ServiceThe IDEAS Competition and MIT Global Challenge with the MIT Public Service Center and D-Lab will launch the first Pahoehoe (Pa-hoy-hoy). Join us to hear from eight people working on innovative service projects around the world. You?ll hear from people working on innovations in banking, employment, health, and much, much more. Come hear the possibilities. Get inspired Find team members for your IDEAS project. And find opportunities for collaboration.8 people present 8 service projects in 10 slides x 30 seconds/slide. No bullet points. All photos.
More information: http://globalchallenge.mit.edu/...Web site: http://globalchallenge.mit.edu/...
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT IDEAS Competition
For more information, contact:
Kate Mytty
617-255-5474
mytty@mit.edu
D-Lab is the Design Lab which designs for people who live on a dollar a day. The IDEAS Competition and MIT Global Challenge are directed at public service innovation.
Maybe the Energy Social should have happened with the Pahoehoe and Dr Steer could have attended that.
A weekly listing of Energy (and Other) Events in the greater Boston area as well as links to over 60 local college and university events available at: http://hubevents.blogspot.com
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