BP’s Top Kill Operation Fails

BP announced on Saturday May 29 that its complicated “top kill” operation failed. According to BP’s website, the manoeuvre ”did not overcome the flow from the well“,  ending hopes for an end to the oil spill which is already in its 40th day.

BP will now move forward with the deployment of a so-called Lower Marine Riser Package (LMRP) Cap Containment System. Similar to the “top kill” procudure, the operation has not been previously carried out at a depth of 5,000 feet. According to BP, the “successful deployment of the containment system cannot be assured“.

Success of BP’s Top Kill Effort Still Unclear; Active Hurricane Season Forecasted

With all eyes on the progress of BP’s top kill operation, it remains unclear whether BP’s top kill effort was successful in stopping the oil and gas leak from the deep-sea well. In the meantime,  concerns have emerged about the possibility of an above normal hurricane season and impacts on the Gulf of Mexico.

Although news releases by the LA Times and the Guardian suggested that progress had been made towards plugging the leak, there has been no official confirmation about the progress of the “top kill” operation until this point. BP’s website states that “‘[t]op kill’ operations continued over the night and are ongoing. There are no significant events to report at this time. BP will provide updates on progress as appropriate.”

However, there might be even more bad news for the region. After the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its 2010 Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook on May 27, concerns emerged about the potential for even greater damage than that already caused by the spill. The Outlook calls for an 85% chance of an above normal season. While it is impossible to forecast where and when a hurricane will strike, the 2010 hurricane season could see a hurricane activity that is comparable to a number of extremely active seasons since 1995.

NOAA’s 2010 Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook states that

Historically, all above normal seasons have produced at least one named storm in the Gulf of Mexico, and 95% of those seasons have at least two named storms in the Gulf. Most of this activity (80%) occurs during August-October. However, 50% of above normal seasons have had at least one named storm in the region during June-July.

It remains unclear how an active hurricane season could affect the oil spill and clean-up efforts in the Gulf of Mexico.

Business Students See Barriers to Queensland’s Climate Adaptation

Queensland’s key industries may face significant barriers in adapting to climate change but it is essential they undertake early action, UQ student research has concluded.

Twenty-one postgraduate students worked in teams using different climate change scenarios to evaluate the vulnerabilities of Queensland’s coal, transportation, tourism, clean energy and insurance sectors, as well as policy developments.

Business School lecturer and corporate sustainability expert Martina Linnenluecke said the research identified that each sector faced significant vulnerabilities to climate change, especially if emissions were not mitigated.

“The students found that adverse impacts of climate change are expected for infrastructures such as energy and transportation or natural attractions such as coral reefs,” Ms Linnenluecke said.

“At the same time, Queensland is challenged to cope with other, non-climatic trends, such as population growth and movement into coastal areas. “This places additional stresses on infrastructure development, and increases vulnerabilities to climate change related impacts such as storm surges, floods or sea level rise.”

The students investigated the potential affects on the state’s productivity for their Business Strategies for Sustainability and Innovation subject. They also identified appropriate adaptation, mitigation and resilience measures, as well as possible critical events and legislative frameworks and changes that might need to be considered, and how to respond to these.

“The students have recommended that long-term adaptation and policy approaches are needed to build institutional, organisational and social capacities to respond to climate change impacts,” Ms Linnenluecke said.

“However, their findings also suggested there are significant barriers to the implementation of adaptation measures.”

Ms Linnenluecke said one barrier was that adaptation required significant investment, particularly where infrastructure was involved. Students concluded that policy developments also had a significant influence on how much effort sectors committed to addressing climate change.

“Mandatory reporting requirements and the proposed, but now shelved ETS, for example, send signals to companies about how critical it is for them to be considering greenhouse gas emission reductions; policy needs to provide guidance,” she said.

“The findings of this project are yet another indicator that is essential for governments, industry sectors and individual businesses to act now on preparing for climate change.”

The course Business Strategies for Sustainability and Innovation examines the strategies that businesses introduce to deal with issues associated with sustainability and climate change. It is offered as part of the Master of Business program at UQ Business School.

BP Oil Spill: Roles and Responsibilities

The quest for finding the ones responsible for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues. Representatives of BP, and Swiss offshore drilling company Transocean, the main actors involved in the accident blamed each other in recent  Senate hearings in Washington. Besides BP and Transocean, there is also American oilfield services company Halliburton and whose role in the incident has come under scrutiny. So, who is responsible?

Introducing the ‘players’:

• BP leased the Deepwater Horizon rig,
• Transocean owned the rig and operated it on behalf of BP, and
• Halliburton laid cement for the rig.

Who said what:

• Lamar McKay, CEO of BP America, blames Transocean for a failed blowout preventer, a 450 tonne set of valves now lying on the ocean floor “We have a blowout preventer that didn’t work“.
• Transocean’s Steven Newman did not agree: “Offshore oil and gas production projects begin and end with the operator, in this case BP“. He blamed Halliburton for poor quality cement works undertaken one day before the accident.
• Halliburton’s HS&E officer Tim Probert claimed that the “problem” had existed before his company commenced work, and that Halliburton had carried out its work according to BP’s specifications. It is noteworthy that a number of accident and incident reports on offshore wells implicate the cementing process, or a “poor cement job” as the cause. What’s more, Halliburton’s cement works are the main suspect in an oil rig explosion in Australia last year.

Does this matter? Does this discharge BP and Transocean from any liability? BP announced that it would pay damages for “legitimate” claims… so far 9,000 out of 23,000 filed claims have been paid. And while BP is trying to get money from Transocean, Transocean’s insurer claims the company cannot be held responsible because the contract with BP only makes it liable for environmental damage caused by any spills from its rig, not the well below. Semantics aside, the question remains: who is ultimately responsible?

Will (or even should) BP take responsibility? Grist’s Daniel Weiss and Susan Lyon make an interesting comment. Maybe they should. After all, on page 5 of their 2009 Sustainability Report, BP claims that:

Our systems of governance and management are designed to help us conduct our business responsibly, particularly with regard to environmental, social and financial issues. These systems reflect our support for globally recognized standards on safety, human rights and security.

I recommend having a look at BP’s Regional Oil Spill Response Plan… they had it figured out. Walruses as sensitive biological Gulf of Mexico resources  and a Japanese 24/7 home shopping website as one of its “primary equipment providers for rapid deployment of spill response resources on a 24 hour, 7 days a week basis.”

If this is the way government and management systems are designed…

And let’s not forget the role of government… have they finally realised that it might be time for more stringent regulation and oversight?

“Spillcam”: Live Feed of Oil Spill and BP’s Top Kill Efforts

On Wednesday May 26 at 1800 GMT BP began with its “top kill” operation – a risky attempt to plug the oil leak in its ruptured well some 5,000 feet (1.6km) down on the ocean floor in the Gulf of Mexico. The procedure has never been attempted at such depths and outcomes are unclear – the worst case scenario could involve a worsening of the leak.

The “top kill” operation involves putting mud into the well so that it reduces the pressure and then the flow of oil and gas from the well. Once the well is shut down by the mud, BP then wants to pump cement into the well to plug the leak permanently.

A world-wide audience can follow the top kill operation via a live feed from a remotely operated vehicle - the so-called “Spillcam”.

Here is the link to BP’s Spillcam - Live Streaming

The likelihood of the success of the top kill procedure is still uncertain. BP chief executive Tony Hayward has estimated the success of the operation to be at around 60-70 percent.  If the procedure fails, BP intends to move forward to deploy an engineered containment device. However, a similar effort has been unsuccessful in the previous weeks when a build-up of hydrates prevented the successful placement of the device over the spill area.

Roadmap to Cancun

The next Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC is to be held at the end of this year in Cancun, Mexico (COP16). It is expected that this year’s Conference will address and resolve at least some of the shortcomings of the outcome in Copenhagen.

The last Conference of the Parties in Copenhagen (COP15) was supposed to conclude negotiations on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol and ratify a legally-binding long-term agreement to take effect at the end of 2012, following on from current commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. It didn’t.

What was achieved was the Copenhagen Accord, essentially an update of the Bali Roadmap developed in 2007 (COP13). The Bali Roadmap set out a guiding framework for international negotiations on a Kyoto Protocol successor treaty. Already then it was acknowledged that a “delay in reducing emissions significantly constrains opportunities to achieve lower stabilization levels and increases the risk of more severe climate change impacts”. While the Copenhagen Conference did not produce the highly anticipated post-2012 agreement, the Accord does recognise the urgency to achieve ambitious cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions. However, there still is debate about the emission reduction pledges put forward so far, and about the monitoring, verification and reporting of emissions and reduction claims.

The Accord also addresses adaptation efforts to reduce the vulnerability of natural and human systems against actual or expected climate change effects, as well as technology transfer, and deforestation and forest degradation. Ideally, Cancun would provide clear signals on how adaptation will be financed, and where and how investments will be made. Some mechanisms are already in place, such as the Kyoto Protocol Adaptation Fund, the World Bank Program on Climate Resilience, and the Global Environment Facility. Each of these will bring experiences and findings to the negotiations and help to determine what works and what does not. The first commitment on finance is the “fast track” investment of $30 billion over three years and a long-term commitment of $100 billion per year by 2020.

A strengthening of technology transfer efforts which focus on the exchange and diffusion of technologies and technological cooperation across countries is key to a successful outcome in Cancun. The Copenhagen Accord establishes a Technology Mechanism for transferring emissions reduction and adaptation technologies to the developing world. There are still questions which remain to be resolved. For example, how can research capacities and governance structures in developing countries be enhanced to ensure a functioning transfer of technology and finances? Or how can equal attention to adaptation technologies and emission reduction technologies be ensured? And of course, there will need to be clear guidelines on roles, responsibilities and IP protection.

In terms of reducing emissions from forest loss and degradation (REDD), the challenge for Cancun is to develop ambitious goals for reducing emissions from deforestation, the conservation of forests and the sustainable management of forest stocks. Issues to address here include the identification and understanding drivers of deforestation and how to appropriately monitor, verify and report REDD efforts.

While the Copenhagen Accord did not deliver the expected breakthrough, it provides signals for progress towards a post-2012 agreement. It can be expected that critical decisions on the structure, content and design of the Kyoto Protocol successor will be made in the lead up to the Conference of Parties in Cancun. There will be numerous UNFCCC meetings before Cancun, which should provide the necessary foundation for a positive outcome in Cancun. The very least thing Cancun should achieve is ensuring sufficient support for least-developed countries and countries most affected by climate change, as well as clear and transparent commitment from all Parties to the UNFCCC to tackle climate change.

Pictures of Oil Reaching Louisiana Shores

Over one month after the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, crude oil continues to flow into the Gulf of Mexico. NASA’s Terra satellite captured a satellite image of the Gulf oil spill on May 17.

Oil slicks have slowly reached as far as 12 miles into Louisiana’s marshes. News website boston.com has uploaded 39 pictures of the oil spill, showing the extent of the disaster and impacts on the natural environment.

Despite Attacks from Critics, Climate Science Will Prevail

The chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change acknowledges it has been a rough few months for his organization. But, he argues, no amount of obfuscation and attacks by conspiracy theorists will alter the basic facts — global warming is real and intensifying.

See Yale Environment 360 for the full story.

Christiana Figueres Appointed New UNFCCC Executive Secretary

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Christiana Figueres as the new Executive Secretary of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat. Ms Figueres has been a member of the Costa Rican negotiating team since 1995. She represented Latin America and the Caribbean on the Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism in 2007 and was elected Vice President of the Bureau 2008-2009.

U.S. Reports Urge a Price on Climate Emissions*

(Reuters) – The best way to curb global warming is to put a price on climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions, according to a trio of reports from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences released on Wednesday.

* Reuters probably meant to say “carbon emissions”.

You can find the reports here, or click on the links to the report briefs below:

• Advancing the Science of Climate Change;
• Limiting the Magnitude of Climate Change;
• Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change.

Scientists suggest the United States should set an “emissions budget” that would limit emissions to a total of between 170 and 200 gigatons of CO2-e between 2012 and 2050, or a reduction of emissions from 1990 levels by 50-80%. Currently, the US produces about 7Gt CO2-e per year. The suggested budget would bring this figure down to 3.5-4.2Gt CO2-e per year.   This, however, would require “a major departure from business-as-usual emission trends“.