Word: establishing
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
When the House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act on June 26, it was a landmark moment for environmental politics. If the bill passes the Senate to become law - no sure thing, given the 60 votes needed in the upper chamber - it would establish the first national caps on carbon emissions. It would also create what would almost certainly be the world's biggest greenhouse-gas market, since companies would have the option to buy and sell carbon credits and offsets. Every smart, efficient enterprise that can rapidly bring down its emissions will be able...
...website, which is currently undergoing an early launch, will analyze your household utility bills for a year. (You need at least 12 months of data, to set a reliable baseline for your carbon emissions before you try to reduce them.) Using that data, the site can establish a very rough carbon footprint for your household - the U.S. average is approximately 30 tons of CO2 per year per family. If you can then reduce your emissions, whether by simply using less electricity or by installing energy-efficient technology, like better boilers and compact fluorescent lightbulbs, the site will calculate how much...
Reilly and Herrgesell acknowledge that the site is still in its early stages and will need refinement. Over the next two years, they're hoping to get at least 1 million members and establish the site as a clearinghouse for information on energy efficiency. The future of cap and trade will be decided in Congress, not on the Internet - but My Emissions Exchange does give a little power to the people, and that's not a bad thing. "We're realistic about the challenges ahead of us," says Herrgesell. "But I think we can make this market work...
Those numbers could be used by governments to establish a pathway for future emissions reductions. Suppose, for example, we wanted to hit a global emissions target of 30 billion metric tons of CO2 in 2030, or about a 30% cut from the business-as-usual forecast of 42 billion metric tons. That would translate to a global individual emissions cap of 10.8 metric tons of CO2, which 1.13 billion people - less than 15% of the global population in 2030 - would exceed. Emissions-reduction efforts would focus on the well-off people above the cap, whatever country they live in. That...
...Within days of her burial, the government of then-President Pervez Musharraf had fingered Baitullah Mehsud, the notorious Taliban commander. It enlisted the police expertise of London's Scotland Yard to establish the exact circumstance of Bhutto's death (there was much uncertainty over whether she died by gunshot or by hitting the sunroof of the vehicle, for instance.) Pakistan's Interior Ministry, meanwhile, furnished telephone intercepts that pointed to Mehsud's involvement. The CIA agreed that the Taliban commander was the principal suspect. Although he has since denied involvement in the killing, Mehsud was reported to have issued threats...