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Poznan Dispatch: Electronics Industry, Dirty Loopholes

Poznań politics are not for the un-caffeinated, as you can see from the live Web casts. That's unfortunate because some of the events may ultimately be jarring to environmentalists, industrialists and the man -- literally -- on the street.

Here is one of the events: a discussion on closing loopholes on something called the Clean Development Mechanism, or CDM, of the Kyoto Protocol. Article 12 of the protocol allows an industrialized country that had agreed to cut greenhouse gases to buy a certified emission reduction (CER) credit from another country, typically one in the developing world that is ostensibly taking steps to reduce emissions. The executive board of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) says the "mechanism stimulates sustainable development and emission reductions, while giving industrialized countries some flexibility in how they meet their emission reduction or limitation targets."

So basically, until the developed nation gets its act together, it can fund clean-energy projects in the Third World. Not perfect, perhaps. But it's something.

That something, say critics, is a perverse incentive for manufacturers -- including many selling components and sub-components to the computer industry -- to manufacture pollutants on one hand and earn money on the other hand by creating a business that cleans up those pollutants.

Since 2006 when the CDM has been in effect, it already has registered more than 1,000 projects and is anticipated to produce CERs amounting to more than 2.7 billion tons of CO₂ equivalent in the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, 2008 to 2012.

One of the pollutants the CDM might affect is HFC23, a potent greenhouse gas produced as a by-product of HCFC22. HCFC22 is used primarily -– 70%, according to one of its manufacturers -- as a refrigerant, such as those in data center coolers. The other 30% is used for the manufacture of industrial goods, particularly in PTFE, used in non-stick cookware and to wrap co-axial cable.

CDMs came up very briefly on the second day of the Poznan summit. This was not the subject's debut appearance. It has come up repeatedly at UNFCCC sessions, including in November 2006, "when the Chinese delegation called for CERs to be allowed from the destruction of HFC23 from new production -- something that is not allowed under" the existing rules, writes Robin Lancaster, of Carbon Finance, in February 2007. The implication is that industries will go out of their way to cash in on CERs. (An article in New Scientist, also in February 2007, also discusses the controversy.)

TOMORROW: How tightening of the CDM could affect the computer industry, the atmosphere, and workers on the margins.

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