Tag Archives: pollution

USAID releases Climate Change and Development Strategy

Posted on 24 Feb 2012 | Leave a comment

Courtesy of MFAN

USAID has released its Climate Change and Development Strategy 2012-16 as part of President Obama’s Global Climate Change Initiative (GCCI). As part of the GCCI, the US Government said it would work with partners to provide “fast start” climate finance approaching $30 billion. Coordinated by Kit Batten, USAID Global Climate Change Coordinator, the strategy aims to support strategies to advance “clean development” in poor countries. Overall, it has been met positively by many in the development community.

To date, the GCCI has used a range of mechanisms – bilateral, multilateral and private – to build resilience to unavoidable climate impacts; reduce emissions from deforestation and land degradation; and support low-carbon development strategies and the transition to a clean energy economy. Two examples of USAID projects are:

Clean energy in India: $9 million leveraged $200 million in private sector investment, to bring online 381 megawatts of new electricity generation capacity using bagasse—a biofuel made from sugar cane waste—reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 26 million tons. This technology was then adopted by six more Indian power plants.

Avoiding deforestation in Indonesia: the US Government is combatting illegal logging, improving forest management and conservation, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

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Indonesia’s Asia Pulp & Paper: are plantation forests beautiful?

Posted on 15 Jul 2011 | 1 Comment

Asia Pulp & Paper has released a new video entitled ‘Reforestation’ as part of its ongoing efforts to win the hearts and minds of the Indonesian and international community. With Indonesia the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, APP is probably the poster child for the conflict around the profound challenges facing the international community in dealing with climate change. This video shows the conflict still has a long way to go.

 APP is part of the Sinar Mas Group which employs more than 150,000 people and has a combined pulp, paper, and packaging capacity of over 7 million tons per year which it sells in 65 countries. It does this from around 700,000 hectares of plantations, sprinkled in and around Indonesia’s national parks, degraded forests and major population centres.

Leading the charge against APP is Greenpeace, which has lambasted the video, describing it as “a lesson in how to make a bad company seem downright satanic.” This latest video is indeed a poor effort to communicate the very complex and controversial issues surrounding forestry, carbon and economic growth. It fails to inspire and appears to describe plantations as reforestation of natural forest.

The most interesting development is APP’s partnership with Carbon Conservation, a carbon trade broker. Carbon Conservation is led by entrepreneur, Dorjee Sun, who produced the acclaimed film, The Burning Season, which follows Sun’s mission to save Indonesia’s forests. Sun just might be able to achieve what many have failed to do – help APP move into this era of a decarbonised economy and make Indonesia’s plantation forests beautiful.

Disclosure: Asia Pulp & Paper is a former client of Nicholas Goodwin.

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Posted in Clients, Goodwin Collaboration, Ideas

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Australia’s new clean energy future

Posted on 11 Jul 2011 | Leave a comment

Yesterday Australia’s Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, announced a plan for the country’s national clean energy future. The central element of this plan is a tax on carbon, designed to provide a disincentive for carbon-intensive industry and raise funds for clean energy alternatives and climate change mitigation. The plan is expected to pass into law, effective 1 July 2012, with the support of the Green Party and independent MPs.


The plan puts a price of A$23 per tonne on carbon and will be offset with compensation to lower income households and affected businesses. The tax will transition to a market-based emissions trading scheme in 2015, when the price on carbon is expected to rise significantly. Reuters reports that by 2020 the plan would reduce emissions by five per cent over 2000 levels, and remove 160 million tons of carbon pollution form the environment every year. In addition to the European Union, only New Zealand has a national carbon scheme.

The Government has embarked on one of Australia’s largest ever campaigns to sell its plan, which is equal parts political lobbying, behaviour change and nation building. If unsuccessful, the clean energy plan will cause significant damage to the Gillard government. If successful, will lead to the most significant ever restructuring of the Australian economy and change in household behaviours. The key to the clean energy plan’s success will be a communications strategy that makes the science and economics easy to understand and engaging for all affected Australians.

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