Practical Information about LPG and the like

PRACTICAL INFORMATIONS

LPG and LPG Safe Usage

Description

LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) is a term which is used to define gases including 3 and 4 carbon (C3 and C4) hydrocarbons and being able to liquefy under low pressures. Naturally LPG is colorless, scentless, has not toxic properties. It is denser than air and stored as liquid under low pressure. For safety usage, to perceive any leak, smell is added to the gas. Besides the usage of home, commercial, and industrial fuel, it is also used in automobiles under the name of auto gas. In addition to that, it is used with in the spray boxes as a driving gas.

Chemical Component

LPG includes propane (C3H8), butane (C4H10) and sulfur based compound for smelling. In our country (as home, industry and auto gas) LPG includes as volume %30 propane and %70 butane. Marketed as "Dökmegaz" for home and industry, it includes commercial pure propane.

LPG Usage Safety

LPG is a highly flammable material and in atmospheric conditions it rapidly becomes explosive air-hydrocarbon mixture. LPG vapor is heavier than air. With density difference and air motion, it can be pill up far away from source at outdoor lower places and in home at basement levels. In LPG systems liquid leaks at great volume can be explosive and flammable mixture existence (approximately 1 unit volume LPG (liquid) makes 250 unit volume gas). In contact with eye or skin, cold burns could become. At high concentration, even shortly breath can cause faint and/or die. Breathing LPG vapor can cause irritation at noise and throat, headache and nausea, throw up, dizziness and unconscious. In closed or bad ventilated areas, LPG vapor can cause faint or smother.

First Aid

If eye contact: Eyes must be cleaned with water at least 15 minutes. During the cleaning eye must be opened with two finger and water should be touched with eyeball and eye closer. After the cleaning, it must go to a closer hospital for a treatment.

If skin contact: If skin burn happened because of cold, put it into lukewarm water and stay. During this period, go to closer hospital for a first aid.

If contact by breath: A high concentration breath may cause heart rhythm disorder. In this situation, person must be carried outside and than closer hospital.

Precautions at LPG leaks

Since LPG has a lower flammable point, probable leaks can cause severe fires and/or explosion. If LPG leak comes from tube or thank, rapidly close valves and stop the leak. During this time as flammable mixture is formed in the area, abstain from actions which may cause fire. Take away the things that may cause spark, from the area. Do not use switches. Provide air ventilation and take away persons from the dangerous area carefully and not cause any action causing spark. Call fire brigade and if it is possible also call related company.

In any liquid leak from tube you must be careful and know that there may become huge amount gas and it will be heavier than air. You must avoid from any action could cause spark which would start fire.
Existed gas, since it would collected near the surface it would be taken away distant regions with air, and if suitable conditions may happened it could cause a fire and/or explosion. If there is a suitable system, try to distribute LPG vapor with water spray. Since LPG vapor could be collected in closed areas, close over washbasin, waste water installation, and sewerage system. If leak is occurred closed areas like room or kitchen, open the doors and windows, and provide air ventilation and ventilate the area for a long time. You must not enter areas consist high ratio LPG vapor, except the aims of rescue or stop the leak. In necessary situations, educated persons must do the rescue operation with special clothes and equipment.

Suggestions about using tube gas:

For home and office use-LPG in our country is presented for consumption with tubes which obtain with welding two or three part. 2kg (camp type), 12 kg (home type), 24kg (commercial), 45kg (industrial) tubes are produced according to TS 55 rules.
The produced tubes according to TS 55 rules must have min. 80 bar explosion pressure (normally full tube has 4-5 bar pressure). For explosion of tube's steel body, it must be in contact with high degree heat for a long time.
In general speaking language, "tube exploding" is occurred as explosion of leaking gas from tube in closed area by park or fire.
The "Tube gas poisoned" term has 2 different means: 1) Haven't got any oxygen by the accumulating of heavier gas in closed area. 2) Haven't got any oxygen in closed areas during fire which consume almost all oxygen, and breathing exhaust gas (for example carbon dioxide) causing death. The best example for this is geyser-based poisons.
Buying LPG tube especially be careful to the TS 55 sign. There must be TSE brand on all tubes produced after 1981.
The place where you put LPG tube is very important. Tubes mustn't be placed under direct sun light. Tubes mustn't be placed near warm producer device like stove and radiator. Do not put any easily ignited-materials near the devices using LPG. Tubes must be placed vertically and mustn't be placed horizontal during the usage. Tubes must be placed lower than devices like oven or geyser.
If tubes will be stored in closed areas, there must be ventilation halls at the base. Tube mustn't be placed which can't be ventilated like basement.
If there is a LPG usage in rooms or closed areas (LPG stove, oven etc.), continuously fresh air ventilation must be provided.
Pipe connection between LPG tube and device must be done with clamp. Pipe must be massive, less than 125 cm, and undamaged. Connection pipe must be check regularly. Soft, damaged, old, chink, or hard pipes must be changed with the new ones immediately. Pipe production date is written on the connection pipe. This date must be checked, if it is older than 3 years, it must be changed with the new one.
Regulators, which are decreasing the tube pressure to the usage pressure, are important devices for the usage safety. In order to avoid the high ratio leak, there must be used the regulators which can automatically stop the gas flow in necessity.
During the tube change and usage, gas leak check must be done with soap suds, not with direct flame materials like match, or lighter.
Geysers must be absolutely connected to the chimney. The used areas must have good ventilation conditions and have at least 6 m3 volumes.
Areas must be ventilated regularly if warming with LPG stove. Do not use LPG stoves while sleeping and in the areas less than 30 m3.
Do not put wide base dishes over camp tube. Check the gasket base of the armature assembled to tube regularly which obtaining leak proof, if necessary change with the new one.
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

As a result of known or unknown CO poisoning, is the most frequent death-cause in developed/developing countries. In our country every year especially in the winter months, poisoning from CO increases and reaching the top level. EPA and WHO is suggested the value for CO at 8 hour 9 ppm, at 1 hour maximum dosage as 25 ppm indicated.

Air pollution is a serious problem of all people and especially of big towns, as we can define it mixture of harmful gas for live. The big part of the air pollution is caused by "combustion reactions". When the materials, consist of hydrogen and carbon molecules, fired, water and CO2 are occurred. However, if the incomplete combustion occurred, gases which are harmful and some times lethal are produced. For example cars' engines produce CO. Air pollution occurred with at that ratio: CO 52%, SO2 18%, Hydrocarbons 12%, NO 6% and other particles 12%.

If there is not enough oxygen for carbon, carbon monoxide is the product gas.

C(k) + 1/2 O2(g) ---- CO(g)

If there is enough oxygen for combustion, CO2 is occurred instead of CO.

C(k) + O2(g) ---- CO2(g)

Carbon monoxide is very lethal gas. If an adult person stays half an hour in a room consist of %1 CO, he will die in short time. CO is colorless, scentless and tasteless gas, and also occurred with the combustion of fossil fuel including carbon. As a stable gas CO stays in atmosphere more than 2 months. If we think that, the world CO emission is 232 million ton in total/per year, we can clearly see that what a dangerous for world atmosphere. More than %70 of this emission comes from transportation sector. In addition, it is calculated that if CO stays down under atmosphere, it may increase 0.03 ppm every year. Existing CO in the town weather effects people's health importantly. The most important of these is the CO decreases oxygen carrying ability of hemoglobin cells at the blood. CO is lethal because of special interest to hemoglobin. CO connects to hemoglobin more than 250 times than oxygen, and occurred carbon monoxide hemoglobin. It can be found low level of carbon monoxide hemoglobin in every people. CO's toxic effects are sly. Because of the red color of carbon monoxide hemoglobin, it could be seen red color on the skin. Lips are red look like painted with lipstick. Chest ache, head ache, vomiting, tachycardia, irritability, weak respiration, consciousness seem an important signs. Poisoned person must be taken away from the area, if there is a fresh air than pure oxygen must be given, and must be carried immediately to nearest the hospital.

Carbon Monoxide Sources

Carbon monoxide is a combustion product/emission, resulted from incomplete hydrocarbons' combustion. In atmosphere CO concentration is generally less than 0.001. The levels are higher in towns than villages.

1. Automobile exhaust gas: Carbon monoxide is both inner air and outer air polluter. Automobile exhausts are the most important air pollution sources. When the carbon monoxide is breathed especially in crowded crossroads, park areas, and closed areas like automobile repair shops, bad ventilation may cause harmful effects to employees. Outer CO comes from automobile exhausts, bad working warming systems, and breathing smoke. Headache of warehouse- and storehouse-employees comes from winches working with propane. CO-based, caused from automobiles, death ratio in cold regions are higher and makes the top level in the winter months. Some of the deaths depend on the bad ventilation of generators working with petrol. "Clearer fuels" like methane and propane, combusted even fully may cause CO poisoning.

Abstain suggestions from CO poisoning:

Decreasing transportation and induce the collective transportation. Not breathing exhaust gases. Using exhausts with catalytic converter. There are inside of these aluminum oxide, platinum and radium. These catalyst materials convert carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons to water vapor and CO2. Good ventilation of storehouses and generator places.

Gas leaking from stove: In our country many people are poisoning and die because of the leaking gas from stove and brazier which are using for warming. As the CO is colorless and scentless gas, the poisoning becomes without perceiving. CO poisoning has serious results, starting with headache and lasts with death. For this reason, it mustn't make a fire in the no ventilation places, it must be careful in the pipe and chimney cleanness while using stove. The most important precaution is not to open the stove while sleeping. Carbon monoxide poisoning signs are; daze, dizziness, headache, nausea, throw up, breath gloom, seeing as apparent. The person who has these signs must be carried to outside. If necessary the artificial respiration should be done, if there is than oxygen should be given. It is known that, stove firing from down side, bad warm stoves, or electrical warmers increase fire and carbon monoxide poisoning risk.

Abstain suggestions from CO poisoning: Firing stove from the upper side, not closing stove's air/smoke covers, chimney cleaning, not putting coal to the stove firing in the night, not firing stove during the southwester.

3. Poisoning from Geyser/Combi boiler working with Natural gas/Tube gas (LPG):
The cause of poisoning from gas or geyser is not providing fresh air entry to bathroom during combustion or the consumption of all present oxygen caused from unconnection of geyser to chimney. Decreasing oxygen at bathroom and continuing firing is occurred lethal CO gas throughout the bathroom. If there is no/not good chimney connection, CO would get around the area and may cause poisoning.

Abstain suggestions from CO poisoning: There must be pilot safety system. Must be used chimney connected geysers. Geysers/Combi Boilers must be placed the areas which have good ventilation. From ventilation culvert or door down side (there must be at least 1.5) space, enough fresh air entry should be provided. The most correct action is not to placed geyser in the bathroom. Geyser mustn't be placed the areas smaller than 8 m3. Geysers which has chimney smoke sensor must be preferred.

4-Cigarette smoke: There are some placatory/dazed materials at the cigarette smoke. These chemical materials at the short time press stress, anger and other strong senses. Cigarette smoke is an important CO source. While at smokers' carbon dioxide hemoglobin rate reach 10% level, even it may over 15%, this ratio at non-smokers is 1-3%.

Abstain suggestions from CO poisoning: Not smoking, abstaining from smoky areas.

5.A type heaters (haven't got chimney): Fuels, especially like kerosene, LPG (propane) and natural gas, are used in the A type heaters. Japan stoves working with gas, assembled camp tube heaters are like these stoves. As a result of fully firing of these fuels, carbon dioxide and water vapor is occurred. At A type heater usage areas, fresh air change ratio must be 0.35/hr, if area is fully isolated these devices mustn't be used. There must be a sensor measuring oxygen ratio in the area and when it decreased burning must be stopped. Heaters warm efficiency must be %99. Flame's blue color must be checked. Orange color flame means incomplete combustion and sign of CO constitution. Yellow color means that the device must not be used and be repaired.

Abstain suggestions from CO poisoning: A type heaters must be used places where high ratio air flow and have many people traffic. It must not be used in the bathrooms/bedrooms. Heater must be shut down before sleeping. Fuel storage mustn't exactly be filled because of expansion. Higher than 1350 m, flame might be deflated because of the low pressure; therefore these devices mustn't be used. Auto gas cutting sensor and less than 25 ppm/1hr CO emission A type devices must be used.

Clean’ car exhausts that emit toxic gases.

Catalytic converters, which are fitted to all cars to reduce harmful emissions, are increasing levels of other toxic gases that can be hazardous to human health, according to scientists.

They say that the benefits of the devices, which clean poisonous gases such as carbon monoxide from exhaust fumes, are being offset by the production of two other potentially dangerous compounds, hydrogen sulphide and carbon disulphide.

Since 1993 EU legislation has made it compulsory for all new vehicles to be fitted with three-way catalytic converters in an attempt to reduce carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide emissions.

While the converters have achieved this goal, they have also changed the forms in which sulphur in petrol is released into the atmosphere: hydrogen sulphide and carbon disulphide are being generated instead of sulphur dioxide.

Levels of hydrogen sulphide measured in British cities are now up to 100 times higher than they were in preindustrial times, according to research by Simon Watts and Stephen Samuel, of Oxford Brookes University, who believe that catalytic converters are partly responsible.

“The amount of sulphur coming out of individual exhausts is lower than previously. However, it is no longer coming out as sulphur dioxide but these other sulphur compounds,” Dr Watts said. “Add to this the fact that there are now so many more exhaust pipes out there, and you see the problem.”

Hydrogen sulphide, a colourless gas that is responsible for the characteristic foul odour of rotten eggs and stink bombs can shut down several critical systems in the body. Carbon disulphide is a neurotoxin and a carcinogen. It can be dangerous to human health at high doses.

“The increasing levels of hydrogen sulphide in the air potentially pose a serious health concern,” Dr Watts said. According to his research, a typical reading in the 1500s would have been 70-100 parts-per-trillion. Recent measurements in Elephant & Castle, South London, found up to 7,000 parts-per-trillion.

Professor Ken Reid, head of the immunochemistry unit at the University of Oxford, said that long-term exposure to hydrogen sulphide could raise the risk of respiratory diseases and lung cancer.

“Hydrogen sulphide can modify antibodies in the lung, which compromises immunity and increases the likelihood of infection,” he said. “It’s now well recognised that this kind of repeated insult can set up a cancerous state.”

The gas may also be responsible for increases in asthma among city-dwellers as it can disrupt the way the lungs regulate the respiratory cycle.

Dr Watts added that lean-burn engines might have been a better solution to the problem. “Our alternative in the early Nineties was lean-burn engines, which produce much less hydrogen sulphide,” he said. “But catalytic converters were the easier option for car manufacturers. I think the EU was swayed by economic considerations.”

HAVE YOUR SAY
I purchased a new vehicle in jan 2008. I have been sick since february. By process of elimination I have concluded that the cause must be the emissions from the vehicle which has a catalyic converter. The smell of rotten eggs is overwhelming. I have been twice on antibiotics my son had pneumonia
Shaheed Mahomed, Cape Town, South Africa
I say we should tax volcanoes. After all, each year they emit 1000 (yes 1000) times more CO2 than the entire human race.
JAmes, Ewell, Surrey
7000 parts per trillion of hydrogne sulphide is already above the detection threshold and therefore likely to have some chronic effects, yet still some way away from acute effects.

While nobody is going to be poisoned soon, it's good that someone keeps an eye on the downside of new technologies.
Niel Malan, Bronkhorstspruit, South Africa

How to Spend Like a Frugal Millionaire

I find this article worth sharing... you may ask - What in the world is this type of article have to do with saving the planet. Well, most Millionaires are actually practicing being Green in the process of working hard to be rich. Please read on up to the last word below.

This comes from Jeff Lehman, author of The Frugal Millionaires.

Saving thousands while still spending.

Millionaires make up just 2 percent of the population. They get a bad rap during recessions for being wasteful with their money and are frequently used as examples of excess. It's the millionaires that you don't see that you can learn from in times like these. I call them the frugal millionaires and interviewed 70 of them to uncover ways we can all be smarter with money.

Nearly 70 percent of the economy is based on consumer spending. To keep the economy going we need to keep spending but not waste money in the process. This is where the frugal millionaires come in. They've been smart with their money all along and haven't lost it all and had to remake it. These are the kind of people you want to learn from when it comes to spending your money.

Spending philosophy.

Frugal millionaires are unique thinkers when it comes to spending money: 1) they can easily delay their need for gratification when purchasing; 2) they are resourceful in getting what they want by carefully timing their consumer purchases; 3) they make living below their means painless; 4) they don't like wasting anything (especially money); 5) their sense of "self-entitlement" is highly minimized: and 6) spending is OK with them...depending on what they are buying (think: appreciating vs. depreciating assets).

[For more, see, "10 Secrets of Millionaires' Money Management."]

Buying tips.

These millionaires keep more money than they spend, that's why they are rich. Their tactics work for them so they'll work even better for you. Key Point: They don't view shopping as a sport. They shop efficiently and spend their time doing more important things with their lives. Here are their tips that will help you save while spending:

Cars: Buy used (or off lease) fuel-efficient cars, often with "certified pre-owned" warranties. This warranty can be better than a new car, plus the initial depreciation hit is avoided. Drive the car for a long time and never lease it.

Eating Out: Bring half of a meal home to eat later (this also saves the waistline). Eat at happy hours. Bring wine from home and skip dessert. Value food quality over expensive ambience.

Eating In: Eat better and less expensively by cooking at home. Make it a friends and family event. Get your kids involved. Bonus: You can have that extra drink without worrying about getting busted for driving under the influence. Also: buy day-old bread at the best bakery in town and freeze it. Eat oatmeal, because it's the most cost-effective breakfast food. Get a supermarket "club card" and buy food on special. Play the game of trying to see how much of a discount can be saved off the total food bill.

Clothes: When you buy something new donate something used to charity. Buy traditional clothes, but wait for the off-season to acquire them. Go for high quality - not high price. Buy vintage clothing and avoid logo clothing and keep people guessing who the designer might be. Hint: There shouldn't be one!

[For more, read: "Juggling Your Money in the Recession."]

Consumer Electronics: Buy low-end gear that has the basic functionality of the more expensive stuff. Don't be the first to buy new technology. Wait at least one lifecycle so the bugs are worked out. Buy refurbished electronics whenever possible.

Computers: Buy more mainstream computers with proven technology. Select higher capacity hard drives, a decent amount of RAM (the memory that the program runs in) and a cost effective processor. Super fast doesn't always equal super good...unless you are building airplanes or bridges. Laptops are a good compromise between desktops and netbooks. Don't go through the pain of upgrading operating systems on existing computers, it's not time efficient and you will probably go insane trying.

Going green: Being green and frugal go hand-in-hand. Yet frugal millionaires don't readily fall for the trendy green hype machine. They typically buy green if it helps the environment and lowers their costs. They look at the timeframe when a product can pay for itself. They do use compact fluorescent lighting, turn off lights and equipment that isn't being used, monitor AC and heat usage (with programmable thermostats), drive efficiently, live in "right-sized" homes and turn off the water when they aren't brushing their teeth or washing dishes. Because they have trained themselves to not waste money they won't waste anything else either. They get into good habits and keep them going. You can, too.

Greenland ice could fuel severe U.S. sea level rise

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent – Wed May 27, 3:01 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New York, Boston and other cities on North America's northeast coast could face a rise in sea level this century that would exceed forecasts for the rest of the planet if Greenland's ice sheet keeps melting as fast as it is now, researchers said on Wednesday.
Sea levels off the northeast coast of North America could rise by 12 to 20 inches more than other coastal areas if the Greenland glacier-melt continues to accelerate at its present pace, the researchers reported.
This is because the current rate of ice-melting in Greenland could send so much fresh water into the salty north Atlantic Ocean that it could change the vast ocean circulation pattern sometimes called the conveyor belt. Scientists call this pattern the meridional overturning circulation.
"If the Greenland melt continues to accelerate, we could see significant impacts this century on the northeast U.S. coast from the resulting sea level rise," said Aixie Hu, lead author of an article on the subject in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
"Major northeastern cities are directly in the path of the greatest rise," said Hu, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.
This is an even bleaker assessment than an earlier study indicated. A March article in the journal Nature Geoscience said warmer water temperatures could shift ocean currents so as to raise sea levels off the U.S. northeast coast by about 8 inches more than the average global sea level rise.
NOT LIKELY BUT POSSIBLE
However, this earlier research did not include the impact of melting Greenland ice, which would speed changes in ocean circulation and send 4 to 12 more inches of water toward northeastern North America, on top of the average global sea level rise.
That could put residents of New York, Boston and Halifax, Nova Scotia, at risk since these cities and others lie close to sea level now, Hu said in answer to e-mailed questions.
Not only would coastal residents be at direct risk from flooding but drainage systems would suffer as salty ocean water would move back into river deltas, changing the biological environment, Hu wrote in an e-mail.
"In a flooding zone, because the higher sea level may impede the function of the drainage system, the future flood may become more severe," he wrote. If cities are prone to subsidence -- where the ground sinks -- higher sea levels would also make that problem worse, according to Hu.
The ice that covers much of Greenland is melting faster now due to global climate change, raising world sea levels. But sea level does not rise evenly around the globe. Sea level in the North Atlantic is now 28 inches lower than in the North Pacific, because the Atlantic has a dense, compact layer of deep, cold water that the Pacific lacks.
Greenland's ice-melt rate has increased by 7 percent a year since 1996 but Hu said it is unlikely to continue. Still, he and his co-authors ran computer simulations that included this fast-paced melting, along with more moderate scenarios with ice-melt increasing by 3 percent or 1 percent annually.
Hu said it was hard to say whether the 7 percent annual increase could go on for the next 50 years but said it was possible since the current rate of increase in climate-warming carbon dioxide is higher than the high end of projections by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
(Editing by Bill Trott)

Ontario moving ahead with cap-and-trade because Ottawa, Obama too slow: McGuinty

TORONTO - Impatience for a North American cap-and-trade system to curb greenhouse gas emissions has driven Ontario and Quebec to move ahead with their own plan to fight climate change, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said Wednesday.

His Liberal government is introducing legislation that will pave the way for a cap-and-trade regime in the province, which aims to lower greenhouse gas emissions by putting a price on carbon.

"The reason that we are going to move ahead together with Quebec is because we can't wait for Washington or Ottawa to move ahead," McGuinty said.

"And we want to make sure we have in place a framework at least - before we can talk about putting a price on carbon ... that allows Ontario businesses to know where the future is going to be."

The two provinces reached their own agreement on cap and trade last June, which was scheduled to be in place by 2010.

Quebec introduced legislation May 12 that would allow the government to institute a cap-and-trade system with co-operating states and provinces as early as 2012.

While Ontario's legislation was to be introduced Wednesday, it was still unclear what its system could look like.

McGuinty couldn't provide specifics about how the system will work, such as whether the province will set hard caps on emissions levels or penalize polluters who don't comply with the rules.

He also dodged questions about whether the province's worst polluters - its coal-fired generation plants - will be forced to bear additional costs under the system, which could be passed on to taxpayers.

Details of the plan are expected to be laid out in regulations that have yet to be drafted, but could be addressed in a discussion paper that will be released for public consultation.

A cap-and-trade system places a ceiling on greenhouse gases and lets participants buy and sell emissions permits within that cap. Those who don't meet the emissions targets can buy credits from others with a surplus instead of lowering their emissions.

Ontario is the third province to move towards a cap-and-trade system after British Columbia and Quebec. Manitoba is expected to soon follow suit.

All four provinces, along with seven American states, are part of the Western Climate Initiative, which is trying to set up a regional cap-and-trade system by 2012.

Meanwhile, Ontario's coal-fired plants are not expected to be shut down until 2014.

The federal Conservative government has expressed interest in working with U.S. President Barack Obama to create a North American cap-and-trade system, but hasn't yet put a regulatory framework to reduce emissions into legislation which is expected in the coming year.

MAY 27, 2009 | MARIA BABBAGE, THE CANADIAN PRESS

CEOs Across Globe Back Carbon Cuts

Global business leaders added momentum to prospects for a new U.N. climate treaty by agreeing Tuesday that the world must cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by mid-century by setting specific limits on carbon.

Government officials reported little progress in setting such limits, however, showing how distant a new treaty remains.

Some 500 CEOs and other top business experts said at the conclusion of the three-day World Business Summit on Climate Change in Denmark that "immediate and substantial" emissions cuts were needed by 2020, followed by cuts of at least 50 percent of 1990 levels by 2050. They said governments should use the marketplace to set a global price on carbon instead of taxing it, according to a statement from conference organizers.

Under cap-and-trade, the government establishes a market for carbon dioxide by distributing credits to companies that emit greenhouse gases. The companies can then invest in technologies to reduce emissions to reach a certain target or buy credits from other companies that already have met their emission reduction goals.

But there is widespread dispute over the details of how cap-and-trade would work, with critics saying it would lead to higher costs for some consumers and could hurt bruised economies.

The business leaders said governments' overriding aim at a December U.N. meeting in Copenhagen on replacing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol should be limiting the global average rise in temperature to a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius.

Global temperatures have risen 0.22 degrees (0.12 degrees Celsius) since 1990, according to one U.S. government estimate. The U.N.'s chief panel on climate change estimates that the risk of increased severe weather will rise if the global average temperature increases between 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) and 3.6 degrees (2 degrees Celsius) above 1990 levels.

"There is nothing to be gained through delay," the statement said, and the richest countries should be the first to make the biggest emissions cuts.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen told participants "your words are sweet music in my ears," and called for developed countries to lead the way and enact emissions cuts of 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050.

But doing that will be difficult. At a separate meeting in Paris, French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo, playing host to talks among the world's biggest polluters, said the United States had backpedaled on promises to slash carbon emissions but China appeared "absolutely determined" to make deep cuts.

Borloo suggested President Barack Obama wasn't following through on an earlier call for requiring deep cuts in U.S. carbon emissions.

"We want to tell them, 'Yes, you can,' you can do a lot more," Borloo told Europe-1 radio in a report card on the Major Economies Forum, which brought together the 17 countries that produce four-fifths of global carbon emissions.

The top U.S. negotiator on climate change, Todd Stern, defended the Obama administration's commitment to what he called a "seismic change" in the country's carbon emissions and attitude toward fighting global warming.

Stern said the overall U.S. targets were on a par with what Europe is proposing though are calculated differently.

"I don't think they are going to match. I don't think they need to match," he said. "We advanced the ball, though we have a long way to go to get to Copenhagen."

Obama has called for an 83 percent reduction in greenhouse gases from 2005 levels by the year 2050 using cap-and-trade. His budget plan had banked on raising $646 billion in revenues from 2012 to 2019 from auctioning emission credits to companies, but it appears unlikely to gain Congress' approval.

If governments agree in Copenhagen in December to set new limits to make carbon dioxide a scarcer commodity, CEOs said, their companies can lead the way to a greener economy.

"We're going to have to fundamentally redefine our business models in a low-carbon world," said James Rogers, chairman of U.S.-based electricity provider Duke Energy Corp.

The 1997 Kyoto Protocol's mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases, which have produced mixed results, expire in 2012.

The United States never signed on to Kyoto, citing the costs to the economy and lack of participation by China, India and other fast-developing countries. But some of those countries have said rich countries are not aggressive enough in cutting their own emissions.

The hosts of the Paris meeting said they made progress on finding $100 billion a year to help poor countries limit pollution and adapt to climate change.

The next major round of U.N. climate talks toward a new treaty will begin in days in Bonn, Germany.

Obama accelerates car efficiency and emission standards

President Obama has performed a bit of miracle work: Getting California and the nation's automakers to agree on a set of fairly aggressive new pollution and fuel efficiency rules that ratchet up the U.S. commitment to addressing global warming.

The new rules will boost fuel economy standards ahead of the schedule set by Congress in 2007, resulting in the average car in 2016 getting 35.5 mpg. The new rules also adopt California's carbon dioxide emission limits, which had been disputed by the auto industry and the Bush Administration.

The only difference is that automakers will be given more time to adopt the standards, which will apply nationwide instead of just in California and the dozen states that would have followed its lead had the Environmental Protection Agency granted it the permission it needed to adopt the rules, first set in 2004.

The move by the Obama Administration follows the EPA finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and the environment, and so can be regulated under the Clean Air Act. (See how carbon regulation may affect your next car.) But today's rulemaking does not use the Clean Air Act to achieve an estimated 40% reduction in pollution.

It does, however, represent another example of the Obama Administration's strong hand on the wheel of the U.S. auto industry. It would not be surprising to find that car makers had little choice but to accept this deal, given that both General Motors and Chrysler have relied on taxpayer loans to stay afloat.

In any case, it shows that Obama is being much more progressive than Congress when looking at the future of the auto industry. The cash for clunkers bill Congress is working on rewards people for buying trucks that get as little as 15 mpg.

In 2009, there were only 14 cars and SUVs that get 30 mpg or better. By 2016, the options on car lots will be much different.

More from The Daily Green

Four Ways to Use Old Car Dealerships
22 Cars That Could Get 100 mpg
The Eight Clean Car Technologies Likely to Replace Gas
Five New Fuel-Efficient Cars That Dazzle the Critics
How to Pay 50 Cents or Less for Gas

Reprinted without the permission of Hearst Communications, Inc