Obama's $645 billion Cap and Trade -significant revenue for ICT and cyber-infrastrucure

[Almost daily there is more alarming new evidence of the significant growth in CO2 emissions and increased warming raising the probability of global climatic disruption. The latest in depth study from MIT paints a very grim picture where they are project a “median” temperature increase of 5.1C. As many of Obama’s science team point out we are long overdue for some major climatic disruptions that will make the current financial crisis seem like a walk in the park.

So it is indeed welcome news to see real leadership from Washington as details of Obama’s proposed cap and trade start to emerge. The program anticipates $645 billion of permits being issued based at $13 mT CO2e through the period from 2012-2019. Some of this revenue will be used to reduce taxes for low-middle income families and support research into alternate energy initiatives. But the bulk of the revenue will in the trading of permits and purchasing offsets. As yet no details of the workings of the cap and trade system have emerged.

But as has been pointed out many times, the biggest reduction in CO2 emissions can be made not through developing alternate clean energy sources, but in reducing energy consumption (and concomitant CO2 emissions) in variety of industry sectors through the use of ICT and cyber-infrastructure by building smart buildings, smart communities, smart grids, zero carbon computing etc. This has thoroughly documented in the SMART 2020 report – www.smart2020.org.
For that reason alone the bulk of the $625 billion for permits to reduce CO2 should theoretically end up in the pockets of ICT companies rather than alternative energy suppliers. Yet surprisingly few companies in the ICT sector are pursuing such a strategy.

The biggest challenge in capitalizing on the use of ICT to reduce CO2 emissions is the lack of a rigourous documented process for the ICT industry to validate and prove these claims on energy reduction and CO2 abatement. There are many hand waving arguments of energy efficiency and so forth, but most of these claims will not survive rigourous analysis because of lack of understanding all the input and output factors that affect overall contribution of CO2 abatement from ICT such as Jevons paradox etc.

To that end CANARIE, in partnership with the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) is hosting workshop to help develop the necessary carbon inventory and auditing process so that the Canadian ICT industry and research community can understand the processes and procedures to validate claims of reduced energy consumption and CO2 emissions and potentially earn offset dollars for themselves or their clients from cap and trade systems like Obama’s initiative.

Tom Baumann, Chair of the IEEE Climate Change Technology Subcommittee and Lead Author of ISO 14064-2 GHG Project Standard will be giving the opening talk on how ICT Industry and research community can utilize GHG Programs, Accounting Protocols and Rules for Generating GHG Revenues. Tom Bauman is also president of the GHG Institute that provides eLearning courses to ICT professionals and others on GHG standards and offset (www.ghginstitute.orh). His presentation is also available at

http://www.slideshare.net/bstarn/climate-check-canarie-workshop-march4


--BSA]

New MIT study on most recent climate forecast data
Probabilistic Forecast for 21st Century Climate Based on Uncertainties in Emissions (without Policy) and Climate Parameters
http://globalchange.mit.edu/pubs/abstract.php?publication_id=990

See also Hadley Center: “Catastrophic” 5-7°C warming by 2100 on current emissions path

http://climateprogress.org/2008/12/21/hadley-study-warns-of-catastrophic-5%C2%B0c-warming-by-2100-on-current-emissions-path/



Details of Obama’s cap and trade are starting to emerge
http://climateprogress.org/2009/02/26/obama-first-sustainable-budget-us-history-clean-energy-cap-and-trade-repeal-fossil-subsidies/


Towards a common carbon currency: Exploring the prospects for integrated global carbon markets
http://www.google.com/urlsa=U&start=1&q=http://www.bnymellon.com/news/commentaries/issuerservices/carbonmarkets.pdf&ei=LQeoSYuVOJaitgfchIXjDw&usg=AFQjCNFKqoZLEL-N6rUbShxYS3WtJm9Xmg


The Bank of New York Mellon’s Office of Innovation has partnered with Point Carbon, a leading worldwide consulting and research firm, to look at and assess today’s rapidly growing carbon markets. Together we explore the future evolution of carbon trading as a means of achieving global environmental goals.

Investing in carbon offsets: Guidelines for universities

For more information on this item please visit my blog at
http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/ or http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com
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[The ACUPCC has put together an excellent set of guidelines on the issues surrounidng carbon offsest. For those universities and ICT departments lookimg to buy/sell offsets I recommend that they get their IT staff trained in the basics at the non-for-profit GHG Institute which offers eleaning courses on GHG management and certification . Thanks to Tom Baumann for this pointer—BSA]


The GHG institute
www.ghginstitute.org

ACUPCC Guidelines
http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/documents/CarbonOffsetsGuidelines_v1.0.pdf

Advantges of cloud computing at zero carbon data centers

[Here is an excellent article on cloud computing and SaaS. It clearly demonstrates that locating cloud infrastructure at remote renewable energy sites has a huge cost advantage because you don’t have to pay the huge markup for transmission of power. With advent of cap and trade, the demand for renewable power is going to increase significantly so those organizations that deploy or use cloud services that have their own source of renewable power independent of the electrical grid will benefit significantly. The challenge then is to how to make the service reliable – but since cloud computing is geographically distributed reliability is ensured through geographical replication.

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/13/1852241

http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2009/EECS-2009-28.pdf

"UC Berkeley researchers have outlined their view of cloud computing, which they say has great opportunity to exploit unprecedented IT resources if vendors can overcome a litany of obstacles. 'We argue that the construction and operation of extremely large-scale, commodity-computer data centers at low-cost locations was the key necessary enabler of Cloud Computing,'

Price of kilowatt-hours of electricity by region
Price per KWH and reasons for price differences:

3.6¢ Idaho Hydroelectric power; not sent long distance
10.0¢ California Electricity transmitted long distance over the grid;
limited transmission lines in Bay Area; no coal
fired electricity allowed in California.

18.0¢ Hawaii Must ship fuel to generate electricity

CANARIE Inc. announces initiative to lay foundation for zero carbon economy

CANARIE Inc. announces initiative to lay foundation for zero carbon economy

February 3, 2009 (OTTAWA, Ontario) – CANARIE, Canada’s advanced network organization, is pleased to announce its intention to invest $3 million in a Green IT pilot program to demonstrate the technological feasibility and business advantages of an internationally distributed zero carbon cyber-infrastructure facility to be located in Canada. The main objective of the pilot program is to develop and test possible business models that would measure and trade the carbon credits generated by reduced use of Green House Gas (GHG) producing non-renewable energy for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) activity. This pilot project will be a collaborative research project undertaken by academia and industry.

“Companies and countries that are the first movers to adopt a zero carbon strategy will be the big winners in the future economy,” says Guy Bujold, CANARIE president and CEO. “The CANARIE Board of Directors believe that the ICT industry sector, as the fastest growing industry sector, and the most adaptable, may well be in a good position to move to this new reality.”

The Green Information Technology (Green IT) Pilot is CANARIE’s response to the growing number of experts coming to the view that a fossil fuel driven economy of today is not sustainable as energy sources dwindle and as the planet heats up due to greenhouse gas emission.

The overall goal of the pilot is to make more extensive use of network services by laying the foundation of a potentially significant cyber-infrastructure architecture that will provide the first steps in supporting the building of a zero carbon economy. As cleaner sources of energy, including wind, solar and tidal power, become available and displace GHG producing means of generating electricity, the challenge will be to design an ICT infrastructure that is capable of using these more unreliable sources to power ICT activities. The pilot will lay a foundation for new business opportunities for industry participants as suppliers of the components required for the facility, and identify revenue opportunities for network operators in testing and validating how to use primarily wind and solar power for a reliable ICT infrastructure that can support identified mission critical applications.

To kick off its pilot project CANARIE will bring together experts from within Canada and around the world to participate in a workshop on March 4th in Ottawa that will define objectives, provide details, and determine a process to identify partners and contributions to the project. Interested parties who may have applicable technologies or business solutions are encouraged to contact CANARIE’s Chief Research Officer, Bill St. Arnaud (bill.starnaud@canarie.ca) and 613-944-5603) who will lead the workshop on March 4th to arrange for an invitation to the workshop. As space at the workshop is limited, invitations will only be extended to those who demonstrate a serious interest in this initiative.

CANARIE’s Board of Directors gave conditional approval to allocate $3 million to the project and clearly indicated its intention of CANARIE becoming a leader in this field. Final approval of a pilot is subject to the outcome of the workshop.

The Green IT pilot program and the workshop support CANARIE’s objectives to develop, demonstrate and implement next generation technologies to advance the CANARIE network as a leading-edge research network and to increase national and international research partnerships, and enhancing Canada’s recognition as a world leader in research networking.

CANARIE Inc., based in Ottawa, is Canada's advanced network organization. It facilitates the development and use of its network as well as the advanced products, applications and services that run on it. The CANARIE Network serves universities, colleges, schools, government labs, research institutes, hospitals and other organizations in a wide variety of fields in both the public and private sectors. By promoting and participating in strategic collaborations among key sectors, and by partnering with peer networks and organizations around the world, CANARIE Inc. stimulates and supports research, innovation and growth, bringing economic, social, and cultural benefits to Canadians. The national organization was created in 1993 by the private sector and academia under the leadership of the Government of Canada. CANARIE Inc. is supported by membership fees, with major funding of its programs and activities provided by the Government of Canada.

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For more information, please contact:
Kim Dingwall
Manager, Communications and Performance Measurement
613-943-5377 or kim.dingwall@canarie.ca