FIFA has announced the countries awarded the 2018 and 2022 bids to be Russia in 2018 and Qatar 2010.
Why is this on the ODS Destruction of Carbon Credits? Well... One of the reasons that Qatar won the bid was because they are introducing a CARBON-NEUTRAL cooling system in a new state of the art stadium. This will reduce the risk of players collapsing from heat exhaustion and even keep the fans comfortable. That time of the year in Qatar, the temperatures are around 110 degree.
Qatar 2022 Chairman His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani said: "Today's unveiling of our state-of-the-art football stadia and innovative cooling technology is the latest step in our quest to bring the FIFA World Cup to the Middle East for the very first time in 2022. A FIFA World Cup in Qatar will leave a powerful and lasting legacy, bringing together nations and cultures through our shared passion for football.
"These plans show just how serious, innovative and focussed we are about hosting a FIFA World Cup that will deliver a fantastic experience for players, fans and the media.
Our stadiums will have zero carbon cooling equipment utilising solar technology to ensure the temperature is no higher than 27 degrees Celsius, ensuring optimum playing conditions and a comfortable environment for fans. This same environmentally friendly, carbon-neutral technology will ensure training sites, fan fest and fan zones are also cool and comfortable. What we have unveiled today is a world first, and as part of Qatar's commitment to delivering an historic legacy we will share this groundbreaking technology with the rest of the world."
Maybe this will encourage other people around the world to Go Green!
Friday, December 3, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving!
RemTec International would like to wish you and your entire staff a Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Happy Veteran's Day
RemTec International honors those who are serving and who have served our country to maintain our freedom! Thank you!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
RemTec International Announces the Expansion of their Halon and Refrigerant Reclamation Services to the Middle East Region
BOWLING GREEN, OH, USA – (Business Wire) - In conjunction with Pan Gulf Industrial Systems, RemTec International has announced it will commence Halon reclamation and banking operations in the Middle East as of November 2010. This halocarbon reclamation facility will be the first of its kind in the region. Located on the second Dammam industrial city, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it will also provide services throughout the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe.
The newly constructed 30,000 square foot facility is part of a three-phase program to contain and manage Class I and II Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) and other halocarbons. The initial phase will provide Halon reclamation and banking capabilities on a regional basis to petrochemical companies and other end users. The second phase will expand these services to include reclamation and banking of all ODS including Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) refrigerants, and in addition Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) that are high in Global Warming Potential (GWP). The third phase will install advanced systems that safely destroy all of these substances and other environmentally-hazardous wastes using patented Plasma Arc Destruction Technology.
The facility will be equipped with a full laboratory that will be capable of testing to a number of standards including ASTM-D5632-08, ISO 7201-2:1991 or Military Specification B-8741 (USAF). Refrigerant testing to the AHRI Standard 700-2006 will also be developed as later project phases are added. Ultimately, the laboratory will provide convenient and accurate testing of Halons and refrigerants throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe
Finally, as ODS are phased out, it will be important that these materials are handled properly, particularly at the end of their useful lives. This is a concern to many countries in the region as well as to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the World Bank. For this reason, this project was selected to be part of a case study by the World Bank, to examine methods to manage and destroy ODS as they are phased out. Using Plascon Plasma Arc Destruction Technology, ODS will be destroyed with an extremely high Destruction Removal Efficiency (DRE) of 99.9999%. Mr. Marcus concluded his remarks by stating, “A high DRE is achieved with de minimis emissions to the atmosphere and a safe, salt water solution as the only effluent. In conjunction with our alliance partner, DoloMatrix in Australia, RemTec is able to provide these environmental solutions in a safe and environmentally-friendly manner, in areas of the world that normally lack this advanced technology. In addition, Plascon also has the potential to destroy chlorophenols, chlorinated phenoxywaste, concentrated PCB, Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and chlorinated solvents, which are present in the Middle East and surrounding regions.”
ABOUT REMTEC INTERNATIONAL
Established in 1986, RemTec International is a world leader in the recovery, reclamation and destruction of Halons and Refrigerants. RemTec’s Halocarbon Management Program uses patented technologies which avoid emissions that either destroy the ozone layer or add to global warming potential. RemTec's unique approach facilitates safe disposal of unwanted Halons, CFCs, HCFCs and HFCs on a worldwide basis. These hazardous substances are recovered, reclaimed and in some cases destroyed, in accordance with all domestic and international regulatory standards. For more information, please visit www.remtec.net or e-mail info@remtec.net.
The newly constructed 30,000 square foot facility is part of a three-phase program to contain and manage Class I and II Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) and other halocarbons. The initial phase will provide Halon reclamation and banking capabilities on a regional basis to petrochemical companies and other end users. The second phase will expand these services to include reclamation and banking of all ODS including Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) refrigerants, and in addition Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) that are high in Global Warming Potential (GWP). The third phase will install advanced systems that safely destroy all of these substances and other environmentally-hazardous wastes using patented Plasma Arc Destruction Technology.
The facility will be equipped with a full laboratory that will be capable of testing to a number of standards including ASTM-D5632-08, ISO 7201-2:1991 or Military Specification B-8741 (USAF). Refrigerant testing to the AHRI Standard 700-2006 will also be developed as later project phases are added. Ultimately, the laboratory will provide convenient and accurate testing of Halons and refrigerants throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe
Finally, as ODS are phased out, it will be important that these materials are handled properly, particularly at the end of their useful lives. This is a concern to many countries in the region as well as to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the World Bank. For this reason, this project was selected to be part of a case study by the World Bank, to examine methods to manage and destroy ODS as they are phased out. Using Plascon Plasma Arc Destruction Technology, ODS will be destroyed with an extremely high Destruction Removal Efficiency (DRE) of 99.9999%. Mr. Marcus concluded his remarks by stating, “A high DRE is achieved with de minimis emissions to the atmosphere and a safe, salt water solution as the only effluent. In conjunction with our alliance partner, DoloMatrix in Australia, RemTec is able to provide these environmental solutions in a safe and environmentally-friendly manner, in areas of the world that normally lack this advanced technology. In addition, Plascon also has the potential to destroy chlorophenols, chlorinated phenoxywaste, concentrated PCB, Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and chlorinated solvents, which are present in the Middle East and surrounding regions.”
ABOUT REMTEC INTERNATIONAL
Established in 1986, RemTec International is a world leader in the recovery, reclamation and destruction of Halons and Refrigerants. RemTec’s Halocarbon Management Program uses patented technologies which avoid emissions that either destroy the ozone layer or add to global warming potential. RemTec's unique approach facilitates safe disposal of unwanted Halons, CFCs, HCFCs and HFCs on a worldwide basis. These hazardous substances are recovered, reclaimed and in some cases destroyed, in accordance with all domestic and international regulatory standards. For more information, please visit www.remtec.net or e-mail info@remtec.net.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
ODS Projects Enter the Carbon Market: A Near-Term Solution to Climate Change
Article provided by: http://www.triplepundit.com/2010/08/ods-ozone-depleting-substances-carbon-market/
By Jill Abelson & Joe Madden
Last October, on the eve of the Copenhagen talks, Richard Levangie pointed out that climate change isn’t only about carbon dioxide. Doing more to reduce non-CO2 climate change contributors, Levangie reported, “might head global warming off at the pass,” citing Nobel Laureate Dr. Mario Molina and co-authors of a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Calls for near-term action on non-CO2 greenhouse pollutants as a way to slow down climate change have steadily increased since then.
Non CO2 gases typically refer to hydroflurocarbons (HFCs), methane, tropospheric ozone – which are in the Kyoto “basket” of gases, and black carbon. All of these gases are extremely good at absorbing infrared radiation, but can be reduced with readily available technologies or substitutes.
Overlooked until now in the climate change policy discussion is another entire class of non-CO2 greenhouse gases — chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other ozone depleting substances, collectively called ODS. ODS not only destroy the earth’s ozone later, as their name suggests, they are also extremely powerful greenhouse gases — some up to 10,000 times more potent than CO2 pound-for-pound.
Government, industry and environmental groups considered these gases fully controlled under the Montreal Protocol, but that is only partially true as I’ll discuss below. A global effort is now underway to create market-based incentives to prevent large scale emissions of these chemicals.
Background on ODS
Ozone depleting substances (ODS) — including CFC11, CFC12, Halon 1211 and HCFC 22 — have been used in a variety of important applications, including aerosols, refrigeration, air conditioning, insulation foam, solvent cleaning, and fire suppression. The Montreal Protocol, ratified by 195 countries, established legally binding controls on national production of ODS. The Protocol is widely considered an environmental success story: it has succeeded in cutting back production of ODS by 97% from historic baseline levels. Concentrations of CFCs and halons in the stratosphere are showing signs of stabilization, and the ozone layer is expected to recover sometime around 2065.
A New Crossroads: ODS and Climate Change
Despite this success, large quantities of CFCs produced prior to phase-out deadlines remain in use in older equipment and infrastructure, e.g., refrigerators, air conditioners, building chillers, supermarket systems, food warehouses and food processing plants, refineries, building insulation, and fire suppression systems. As a result there is continued demand for reclaimed ODS to replenish old, and often leaky, equipment. A 2005 report by the IPCC and Montreal Protocol Technology and Economic Assessment (TEAP) Panel estimated that global ODS banks, not yet emitted into the atmosphere, represented the equivalent of 21.1 billion tons of CO2 in 2002, approximately 18 billion tons of CO2eq today. This unreleased gas is equivalent to 3 times the total annual GHG emissions of the U.S. Taken together, these emissions would effectively cancel out all of the GHG reductions achieved under Kyoto’s first commitment period.
A large portion of these ODS banks are being rapidly released. According to the IPCC/TEAP Report, left unaddressed, by 2015 more than 6 billion tons of CO2eq will be emitted as CFC and HCFC refrigerants leak or are vented from older equipment.
Neither Montreal nor the Kyoto Protocol control ODS emissions. In most countries, there are no requirements or incentives for recovery and destruction of these materials under domestic regulations, including the U.S. In those countries that have attempted to mandate destruction of ODS, much of the gases have gone unaccounted for – the suspicion has been that equipment owners simply vented rather than comply (which would be a cost to them), and policing the thousands or even millions of diffuse sources is impossible.
Market Potential for ODS Projects
These regulatory gaps leave room for market-based solutions that provide incentives to capture and permanently deal with these materials. There is growing recognition that carbon markets represent an ideal solution. The Chicago Climate Exchange, Voluntary Carbon Standard and the Climate Action Reserve have all established programs to create GHG reduction credits from verified destruction of ODS. Beginning in 2009, Parties to the Montreal Protocol funded pilot ODS projects to examine how voluntary carbon markets could help address remaining ODS banks.
ODS destruction credits are now being issued to projects that intervene in the business-as-usual cycle of recycling CFC refrigerants back into older equipment. Energy used to collect, transport, and destroy the chemicals are factored into net GHG credits. ODS destruction projects meet, and in some ways exceed the criteria for GHG offsets: they are “additional” (i.e., beyond current requirements), predictable, transparent, readily verifiable, and offer immediate and permanent emission reductions. These are important distinctions in an increasingly selective carbon credit market.
Projects Developed and Listed
The Climate Action Reserve has already listed four ODS projects since their adoption of new standards in February 2010, with more expected. Earlier smaller volume projects have been registered under the Chicago Climate Exchange. It is fair to say that absent sufficient incentives from the voluntary and emerging compliance markets, these projects – and those from other project developers – would not be economically viable and those gases would be lost forever.
Policy Leadership Vital
While voluntary carbon markets have been essential in the development of standards and to spur early action, the scope of the problem in the U.S. and globally – requires that ODS destruction be recognized as a compliance credit under emerging compliance markets. As has been the case in many environmental issues, California is once again taking a leadership position by proposing that ODS destruction be included as a regulatory offset under the AB 32 program. This would immediately mobilize more projects in the near term, and needed investment in new technologies and a market transformation in the longer-term.
Recent Congressional bills – Waxman/Markey and Kerry/Lieberman – have also classified ODS destruction as a compliance offset. As of this writing, it remains uncertain whether any federal legislation to address greenhouse gases will emerge, making the action under AB 32 that much more critical.
California’s leadership will not only have important and short-term impacts in the U.S., but will also demonstrate for international policymakers that it is possible to leverage carbon financing to manage ODS banks, preventing hundreds of millions of tons of greenhouse gases, and preserve the legacy of the Montreal Protocol.
***
Joe Madden is a Co-founder and CEO of EOS Climate. He has pioneered several voluntary climate programs including LiveNeutral and TransNeutral and is also an Advisor to ATDynamics. Joe has an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School and resides in Santa Cruz, CA.
Jill Abelson, an environmental consultant/writer based in San Francisco, has worked on climate change issues since 1996. She supported pioneering advocacy campaigns at the Environmental Information Center (now the National Environmental Trust) and at Greenpeace). For ten years, she was marketing/ communications director for U.S. EPA’s prestigious Energy Star program. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College.
By Jill Abelson & Joe Madden
Last October, on the eve of the Copenhagen talks, Richard Levangie pointed out that climate change isn’t only about carbon dioxide. Doing more to reduce non-CO2 climate change contributors, Levangie reported, “might head global warming off at the pass,” citing Nobel Laureate Dr. Mario Molina and co-authors of a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Calls for near-term action on non-CO2 greenhouse pollutants as a way to slow down climate change have steadily increased since then.
Non CO2 gases typically refer to hydroflurocarbons (HFCs), methane, tropospheric ozone – which are in the Kyoto “basket” of gases, and black carbon. All of these gases are extremely good at absorbing infrared radiation, but can be reduced with readily available technologies or substitutes.
Overlooked until now in the climate change policy discussion is another entire class of non-CO2 greenhouse gases — chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other ozone depleting substances, collectively called ODS. ODS not only destroy the earth’s ozone later, as their name suggests, they are also extremely powerful greenhouse gases — some up to 10,000 times more potent than CO2 pound-for-pound.
Government, industry and environmental groups considered these gases fully controlled under the Montreal Protocol, but that is only partially true as I’ll discuss below. A global effort is now underway to create market-based incentives to prevent large scale emissions of these chemicals.
Background on ODS
Ozone depleting substances (ODS) — including CFC11, CFC12, Halon 1211 and HCFC 22 — have been used in a variety of important applications, including aerosols, refrigeration, air conditioning, insulation foam, solvent cleaning, and fire suppression. The Montreal Protocol, ratified by 195 countries, established legally binding controls on national production of ODS. The Protocol is widely considered an environmental success story: it has succeeded in cutting back production of ODS by 97% from historic baseline levels. Concentrations of CFCs and halons in the stratosphere are showing signs of stabilization, and the ozone layer is expected to recover sometime around 2065.
A New Crossroads: ODS and Climate Change
Despite this success, large quantities of CFCs produced prior to phase-out deadlines remain in use in older equipment and infrastructure, e.g., refrigerators, air conditioners, building chillers, supermarket systems, food warehouses and food processing plants, refineries, building insulation, and fire suppression systems. As a result there is continued demand for reclaimed ODS to replenish old, and often leaky, equipment. A 2005 report by the IPCC and Montreal Protocol Technology and Economic Assessment (TEAP) Panel estimated that global ODS banks, not yet emitted into the atmosphere, represented the equivalent of 21.1 billion tons of CO2 in 2002, approximately 18 billion tons of CO2eq today. This unreleased gas is equivalent to 3 times the total annual GHG emissions of the U.S. Taken together, these emissions would effectively cancel out all of the GHG reductions achieved under Kyoto’s first commitment period.
A large portion of these ODS banks are being rapidly released. According to the IPCC/TEAP Report, left unaddressed, by 2015 more than 6 billion tons of CO2eq will be emitted as CFC and HCFC refrigerants leak or are vented from older equipment.
Neither Montreal nor the Kyoto Protocol control ODS emissions. In most countries, there are no requirements or incentives for recovery and destruction of these materials under domestic regulations, including the U.S. In those countries that have attempted to mandate destruction of ODS, much of the gases have gone unaccounted for – the suspicion has been that equipment owners simply vented rather than comply (which would be a cost to them), and policing the thousands or even millions of diffuse sources is impossible.
Market Potential for ODS Projects
These regulatory gaps leave room for market-based solutions that provide incentives to capture and permanently deal with these materials. There is growing recognition that carbon markets represent an ideal solution. The Chicago Climate Exchange, Voluntary Carbon Standard and the Climate Action Reserve have all established programs to create GHG reduction credits from verified destruction of ODS. Beginning in 2009, Parties to the Montreal Protocol funded pilot ODS projects to examine how voluntary carbon markets could help address remaining ODS banks.
ODS destruction credits are now being issued to projects that intervene in the business-as-usual cycle of recycling CFC refrigerants back into older equipment. Energy used to collect, transport, and destroy the chemicals are factored into net GHG credits. ODS destruction projects meet, and in some ways exceed the criteria for GHG offsets: they are “additional” (i.e., beyond current requirements), predictable, transparent, readily verifiable, and offer immediate and permanent emission reductions. These are important distinctions in an increasingly selective carbon credit market.
Projects Developed and Listed
The Climate Action Reserve has already listed four ODS projects since their adoption of new standards in February 2010, with more expected. Earlier smaller volume projects have been registered under the Chicago Climate Exchange. It is fair to say that absent sufficient incentives from the voluntary and emerging compliance markets, these projects – and those from other project developers – would not be economically viable and those gases would be lost forever.
Policy Leadership Vital
While voluntary carbon markets have been essential in the development of standards and to spur early action, the scope of the problem in the U.S. and globally – requires that ODS destruction be recognized as a compliance credit under emerging compliance markets. As has been the case in many environmental issues, California is once again taking a leadership position by proposing that ODS destruction be included as a regulatory offset under the AB 32 program. This would immediately mobilize more projects in the near term, and needed investment in new technologies and a market transformation in the longer-term.
Recent Congressional bills – Waxman/Markey and Kerry/Lieberman – have also classified ODS destruction as a compliance offset. As of this writing, it remains uncertain whether any federal legislation to address greenhouse gases will emerge, making the action under AB 32 that much more critical.
California’s leadership will not only have important and short-term impacts in the U.S., but will also demonstrate for international policymakers that it is possible to leverage carbon financing to manage ODS banks, preventing hundreds of millions of tons of greenhouse gases, and preserve the legacy of the Montreal Protocol.
***
Joe Madden is a Co-founder and CEO of EOS Climate. He has pioneered several voluntary climate programs including LiveNeutral and TransNeutral and is also an Advisor to ATDynamics. Joe has an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School and resides in Santa Cruz, CA.
Jill Abelson, an environmental consultant/writer based in San Francisco, has worked on climate change issues since 1996. She supported pioneering advocacy campaigns at the Environmental Information Center (now the National Environmental Trust) and at Greenpeace). For ten years, she was marketing/ communications director for U.S. EPA’s prestigious Energy Star program. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College.
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