Articulos sobre Huella de Carbono

IN RICH countries, where people worry about air quality

and debate ways of pricing carbon emissions, coal is
deeply unfashionable. Elsewhere demand for the dirty
rocks has never been stronger. The International
Energy Agency (IEA) reckons world consumption will
increase by a fifth over the next 25 years, assuming
governments stick to their current climate-change
policies. A new age of coal is upon us.

The IEA estimates that China, which generates more

than 70% of its electricity with coal, will build 600
gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired power capacity in the next
quarter-century—as much as is currently generated
with coal in America, Japan and the European Union put
together. Nomura, a Japanese bank, thinks that may be
an underestimate. It reckons China will add some
500GW of coal-fired power by as early as 2015, and will
more than double its current generating capacity by
2020. It expects Indian coal-fired power generation to
grow too—though more slowly.

Even developing countries with vast quantities of coal

under home soil will find themselves unable to dig it out
quickly enough to meet demand. China, the world’s
biggest coal producer by some distance, has turned to
foreign suppliers over the past couple of years and is
likely to rely on them even more in future. Its voracious
appetite for energy and steel means it will need at least
5-7% more coal each year. Citigroup reckons China will
import 233m tonnes in 2011. As Daniel Brebner of
Deutsche Bank points out, that is considerably more
than the annual capacity of Richards Bay in South
Africa or Newcastle in Australia, the world’s biggest coal
ports.

Domestic supply has failed to keep up with demand for

several reasons. China’s coal is located in the north and
west of the country, far from the coastal cities where
energy demand is growing strongly. And China’s mines
are old. The coal is deep underground and expensive to
extract. Congested railways and roads mean domestic
deliveries can be less reliable and pricier than the
imported sort. Production has also been hit by
government attempts to close inefficient (and
dangerous) smaller mines and encourage consolidation.

China’s efforts to improve coal supplies include the

building of a new east-west passenger railway line, set
to open in 2013, which should free existing tracks for
coal transport. New high-speed and light railways
across the country may alleviate bottlenecks further.
But for the foreseeable future the country will depend
on ships laden with foreign coal.

India is even less capable of increasing coal production.

Much of its impressive reserves sit under protected
forests or land set aside for ethnic minorities. The
country’s creaking railways make it hard to move the
stuff, as does the absence of a mechanism to negotiate
bulk rail contracts. And Indian coal is generally of poor
quality, which makes it unsuited to newer, more
efficient, coal–fired power stations. India could become
the world’s biggest thermal coal importer by 2015. It is
already largely dependent on imports of coking coal,
used to make steel.

All this is good news for the mining industry. Nomura

reckons that thermal coal will hit a peak price of $170 a
tonne in 2012 compared with $110 now. Asian firms
will benefit most. Indonesia is now the biggest source
of imports to China because of its proximity to the
country and the high quality of its coal (see article).
Indonesia has few proven reserves, but high prices may
well spur further exploration. Mongolia, which is also
handily close to China, and Mozambique could join
Australia, South Africa and Colombia as big exporters.

The coal boom has spurred a sackful of deals. The

industry produced a record number of mergers and
acquisitions last year, with a value of $52 billion,
according to Dealogic, a financial-information firm. Rio
Tinto, a global mining giant, has offered A$3.9 billion
for Riversdale, which has mines in Mozambique.
Chinese state-backed firms are also investing abroad.
Yanzhou’s $3.5 billion purchase of Australia’s Felix
Resources in 2009 is the biggest such deal so far.

Two potential giants may yet weigh in. America, the

world’s second-biggest coal producer after China, has
mammoth reserves and a power industry that is turning
against coal (currently responsible for almost half of
domestic electricity generation). Environmental
regulations and cheap shale gas will leave miners
looking for new markets overseas. Russia, with vast
coal reserves thousands of miles from the nearest port,
might yet build the infrastructure needed to send its
coal to the world market.

This boon for miners bodes ill for the environment. The
power stations frantically being built in China to feed
the country’s new electricity grid will be relatively
efficient and thus less polluting than older coal plants
around the world. But that is a rather low bar. Coal is
the filthiest fossil fuel and is cheap only because its
dirtiness isn’t included in the bill.
Indeed, the coal boom blows yet another hole in the
effort to restrain greenhouse-gas emissions. The Kyoto
protocol makes countries responsible only for their own
direct emissions. As environmentalists point out, rich
countries that spurn coal-fired power while exporting
the rocks to countries with less ambitious emissions
targets are merely shifting the problem around the
globe. Even China’s modest hopes of bringing its share
of coal-fired power down to 63% by 2015 sit ill with its
growing dependence on coal. Alongside coal-fired
power stations and coal exports, a coal conundrum is
growing. Jan 27th 2011 The economist

MARM afirma que la huella de carbono

será muy importante en la trazabilidad de
la acuicultura
El director general de Recursos Pesqueros y Acuicultura del
Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Medio Rural y Marino
(MARM), Alejandro Polanco, ha asegurado hoy que la huella de
carbono será "muy importante" en la trazabilidad de los
productos acuícolas.
Madrid / EFEAGRO / 17.12.10 / 17:46 h

comentar

En la imagen, jaulas de crianza de peces en la costa de Gran Canaria. EFE

fotos
Así lo ha señalado Polanco durante la inauguración de una jornada
organizada por la Fundación Observatorio Español de la Acuicultura
(OESA), en la que han intervenido varios expertos en la emisión de
gases de efecto invernadero.
El director general de Recursos Pesquero y Acuicultura ha precisado
que dicha trazabilidad determinará la calidad de los productos
acuícolas, uno de los factores imprescindibles para incrementar su
valor añadido.
El otro factor determinante para potenciar este valor añadido será,
en su opinión, el de la creación de nuevas vías de investigación para
la pesca de crianza.
Polanco ha destacado, además, que la huella de carbono -una vez
que los criterios para su medición estén unificados- va a convertirse
en un elemento clave para trasladar a la sociedad que el sector
acuícola es una actividad concienciada con el medio ambiente.
A su juicio, el sector podrá apoyarse en herramientas como el
etiquetado para resaltar su compromiso con aspectos
medioambientales, como el de las emisiones de dióxido de
carbono.Por su parte, el director de la Fundación OESA, Javier
Remiro, ha subrayado que reducción de la huella de carbono en la
acuicultura no sólo será importante para su trazabilidad, sino para
transmitir al consumidor que se trata de una actividad que está
haciendo un esfuerzo por logra una mayor sostenibilidad.
Para Remiro, existen aspectos generales del sistema de producción
en los que se puede intervenir para reducir las emisiones de dióxido
de carbono, como el consumo energético -especialmente en la
acuicultura continental-y la elección de sistemas de transporte y de
comercialización que realicen un seguimiento de su "huella".Desde
la Asociación Española de Normalización y Certificación (Aenor), el
técnico de Normalización Iván Moya, ha señalado que el sector
podrá contar, a partir de 2012, con la norma ISO 14607 "Huella de
Carbono de los Productos", que fijará los criterios para cuantificar
las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero y la forma en la que
dichos resultados podrán comunicarse.
En relación a las iniciativas de la Administración en este sentido, la
jefe del Servicio de Energía y Sectores Industriales de la
Subdirección General de Mitigación y Tecnologías de la Oficina del
Cambio Climático, Rosario Paradiñas, ha indicado que el Gobierno
se plantea que la huella de carbono sea un requisito para optar a las
licitaciones públicas o a un "premio" en dichos procesos.
En declaraciones a Efeagro, el Food Manager de Det Norske Veritas
Iberia, Javier Soria, ha indicado que la huella de carbono tiene un
impacto "muy fuerte" en la economía de las empresas y puede llegar
a convertirse en una "exigencia" para estar en el mercado, igual que
ocurre con indicadores como las ventas o la productividad.
El catedrático de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela
Gumersindo Feijoo ha destacado que el análisis de la huella de
carbono en las empresas acuícolas tendrá un impacto "económico" y
otro de "eficiencia", y que la difusión de ambas ideas repercutirá de
forma positiva en los consumidores.
Desde la compañía Inclam CO2, Elena Gómez ha recomendado a las
empresas acuícolas que trabajen en aspectos como la innovación, la
eficiencia energética y los procesos de elaboración de piensos para
reducir sus emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero.El responsable
de Calidad y Medio Ambiente de Skretting España, Raúl Andrés,
también ha resaltado la fabricación de piensos como uno de los
elementos que más influye en la huella de carbono de la acuicultura,
aunque ha indicado que dicha actividad tiene unas emisiones "muy
bajas", en comparación con la cría de otras especies ganaderas,
como el vacuno o el porcino.