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[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Climate change]
China announces pledge to curb carbon emissions
President Hu Jintao vows to greatly decrease intensity from country's economy and invest in green energy
Julian Borger and Suzanne Goldenberg in New York
guardian.co.uk, Monday 23 February 2009 01.50 GMT Article history

The world inched closer to an elusive deal to combat climate change yesterday, when China, the world's biggest polluter, made its most substantial commitment yet to curb its carbon emissions and invest in clean energy.

The proposals, delivered by Hu ­Jintao, the Chinese president, on the first day of the UN general assembly meeting, included the promise of a "notable" decrease in the carbon intensity of China's economy, the amount of emissions for each unit of economic output, by 2020.

"At stake in the fight against climate change are the common interests of the entire world," Hu said. "Out of a sense of responsibility to its own people and people across the world, China fully appreciates the importance and urgency of addressing climate change."

Hu's words about a common cause resonated with leaders of the industrialised world who described a new sense of a "grand bargain" on climate change.

Hu's speech fell short of expectations that he would name the target for China's carbon intensity, and observers suggested China was keeping its cards close to its chest until the climate change summit in Copenhagen in December.

But the speech, coming soon after a change of rhetoric by India's government, raised hopes that a meaningful agreement can still be secured in Copenhagen.

Last night, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, said the day-long meeting had rescued the Copenhagen negotiations from near certain disaster.

"One thing I am absolutely sure of, without today's summit the world would not have crossed over the finish line in Copenhagen," he said.

"Finally, we are seeing a fall in some of the frozen positions that have prevented governments from moving forward."

John Sauven, the executive director of Greenpeace, said: "This is the first time China has said publicly that it will intensify efforts to reduce emissions, but without firm targets or a detailed action plan today's announcement is too vague to be the major breakthrough we hoped for."

Hu said yesterday that his country would plant forests across an area the size of Norway, and generate 15% of its energy needs from renewables within a decade.

Ed Miliband, the climate change ­secretary, said China deserved praise for announcing any change, despite the lack of specifics. "I think it's still a tough ­battle, but for a Chinese president to come to the UN to announce a change in domestic policy in terms of targeting ­carbon ­intensity is quite a big deal" he said. The official US reaction was more muted. Todd Stern, Barack Obama's ­special envoy for climate change, said that Hu's pledge was welcome, but added: "It depends on what the number is."

Another potentially important step forward yesterday came from Japan's prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, who pledged more financial and ­technical aid for poor countries to adapt to climate change.

Like Hu, the Japanese leader gave no further details on how much cash his country would provide.

Obama also delivered strong rhetoric at the general assembly yesterday: "No nation … can escape the impact of climate change.

"The security and stability of each nation and all peoples – our prosperity, our health, and our safety – are in jeopardy. And the time we have to reverse this tide is running out."

Gordon Brown will echo Obama's words in his speech to the general assembly today. "This is the moment now to limit and reverse climate change we are inflicting on future generations," he will say. "Not later at another conference, in another decade, after we have lost 10 years to delay and inaction."

Brown will also this week try to persuade other leaders to agree to go to the Copenhagen negotiations. The Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said a number of leaders had signalled they would go to Copenhagen.

"It is obvious this issue is so complex it can't be solved by environment ministers alone or ministers of finance," he said. "In order to come to agreement, we must have heads of government."

Environmental groups criticised Obama for failing to make any new concrete proposals in yesterday's speech. "Obama's speech … was a huge missed opportunity which does nothing to break the logjam in international climate negotiations," said Friends of the Earth's Asad Rehman.


[Environment > Copenhagen climate change summit 2009]
Climate Week kicks off with warning from hoax New York Post
Politicians, activists, academics and celebrities descend on New York to build momentum for Copenhagen negotiations
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 September 2009 11.02 BST Article history

If today's UN conclave on climate change does not push world leaders to act, maybe the banner headline "we're screwed" on fake copies of a New York tabloid will.

A group of pranksters called the Yes Men, who first struck a few years ago with bogus copies of the New York Times proclaiming an end to the Iraq war, yesterday distributed phoney copies of the New York Post, with headlines warning: "Global warming kills" and "World leaders slip on UN summit slope".

The action – part of New York's Climate Week – saw hundreds of volunteers handing out copies near UN headquarters and the main train stations. It was among dozens of events this week meant to keep world leaders focused on reaching an agreement to stop global warming.

On Thursday, even the Empire State building is going to go green – although the special illuminations are actually for the 70th anniversary, or Emerald Gala, of the Wizard of Oz movie.

The official start to Climate Week got under way around midday yesterday, with the UN chief, Yvo de Boer, Tony Blair, and other dignitaries issuing a call for action. "Remember, we cannot press the undo button if the climate gets out of hand," Connie Hedegaard, Denmark's minister for climate and energy, said.

A few hours later, leaders from small island states came together to demand the developed world step up at Copenhagen with a far more ambitious deal than has been on the table: 45% emissions cut by 2020.

"Climate change is already delivering damage not of our making," the Maldives president, Mohamed Nasheed, told leaders. "Should we, leaders of the most vulnerable and exposed countries, be asking our people to sign on to significantly greater degrees of misery and livelihood insecurity, essentially becoming climate change guinea pigs?"

Blair said climate change was the most difficult negotiations he had ever encountered.

Gisele Bundchen, the Brazilian supermodel who has just been named goodwill ambassador for the UN environmental programme, was also in town. She immediately called her home country to account, telling reporters that Brazil needed to do more to preserve its rainforests.

Monday night also saw the world premiere of the Age of Stupid, which was held in a blue-lit tent near the site of the former World Trade Centre. The film was simultaneously broadcast to more than 700 cinemas and private screenings around the world.

Today's UN summit and a two-day meeting of the G20 in Pittsburgh on Thursday and Friday make this week one of the most heavily concentrated on climate change before the Copenhagen negotiations in December. Politicial leaders, environmental activists, academics, and celebrities have descended on New York to try to build momentum for the Copenhagen negotiations.

If not, the fake New York Post warned, the world faces "Flopenhagen".

news20090923gdn2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Climate change]
UN climate summit: Leaders take small steps towards action on climate change
Outpouring of new pledges of action was precisely what UN chief Ban Ki-Moon intended when he called the summit
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 23 September 2009 01.50 BST Article history

For a man known for his diplomatic reserve, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, was unusually upfront about his frustration with the pace of talks for a treaty to stop global warming yesterday. "The world's glaciers are now melting faster than human progress to protect them – or us," he said at the opening session of his climate change summit.

Yesterday, though, the world leaders did begin to move, not as quickly as the UN chief would have liked, not entirely in the same direction or towards a clearly defined goal. But it was movement.

China said it would curb pollution by 2020 – but it did not say by how much. Japan reaffirmed an ambitious new target for cutting emissions and offered cash to developing nations to adopt new green technology and for small-island and low-lying states, to escape the worst ravages of climate change. It did not say how much.

America committed itself to finding a solution – and for the first time accepted its share of the blame for climate change. France threw out an idea for an entirely new leaders' summit in November.

Even the Maldives, which is generally included at such gatherings as a prime casualty of climate change, offered to do its share. It would be carbon neutral by 2020, its president, Mohamed Nasheed, said.

An outpouring of pledges of action from the world leaders was precisely what Ban intended when he said the summit was the first time such a sizeable group of world leaders had gathered to devote a full day to global warming.

Last night he said the gathering had saved the Copenhagen negotiations from outright collapse. "I am convinced that something missing from the last few months has returned," he said. "This ­summit has put wind in our sails."

The Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who will be the official host of the Copenhagen meeting, said the deadlock had been broken. In a ­further sign of confidence, he said he was now inclined to invite heads of state and ­government to the talks, picking up the challenge by Gordon Brown last week.

UN officials said in advance they hoped new commitments from the big industrialised states, such as Japan and China, would prod other countries into action so that they not be seen as the spoilers of a potential deal at Copenhagen.

Last night, they said that the offers from China and Japan, and recent shifts in position, had changed the dynamics of the negotiations. The industrialised and developing world now appeared to share a sense of common cause on climate change – rather than recrimination about who was to blame, they said.

They also agreed it was crucial to keep heads of state and government involved because of the complexity of negotiations. The negotiation documents have on their own become a source of conflict, at 200 pages with hundreds of footnotes.

In his most direct foray into the debate, China's president, Hu Jintao, said climate change would be an essential factor in its economic planning. "We should make our endeavour on climate change a win-win for both developed and developing ­countries," he said, adding that China would cut carbon emissions by a "notable margin", which he did not specify.

Hu also said China would step up use of renewable energy to 15% by 2020, and increase its forests.

Environmentalists saw the pledge – though lacking in specifics – as an important move. "These announcements should sweep away the canard that China is not willing to reduce emissions," said Dan Dudek, the director of the China programme for the Environment Defence Fund. "Is it enough to make Copenhagen a success? That will depend upon whether Hu's new climate initiatives propel Obama and the Senate into action on controlling greenhouse gases." Obama offered no promises on pushing through legislation before Copenhagen. The Senate has been preoccupied with healthcare reform, though Democratic leaders said this week they hope to get to energy in early October. Instead, Obama made an overture to the developing countries, acknowledging the US and other industrialised states had failed for too long to acknowledge their responsibility. "It is true that for too many years, ­mankind has been slow to respond to or even recognise the magnitude of the climate threat. It is true of my own country as well. We recognise that," he said. "But this is a new day."

Though it was largely overlooked, he also showed he was committed to trying to green the US economy, announcing a project to track greenhouse gas emissions. The president promised further small-bore action at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh where he said America will propose phasing out subsidies for fossil fuel.

Environmentalists almost uniformly agreed that the US president had missed an opportunity to commit to working with the Senate on ways to get a bill that caps America's greenhouse gas emissions.

Even so, the emerging focus on climate finance, with the US and Japan yesterday ready to commit funds, could help ease a contentious issue: how to help the developing world prepare for climate change.

There are still details to be ironed out. China is pushing for the developed world to spend 1% of GDP. The state department climate change envoy, Todd Stern, called that sum "untethered to reality". But at least, said UN officials and environmentalists, it looks as if there is a renewed willingness to engage.


[News > Politics > Liberal Democrat conference]
Lib Dems demand 'savage cuts' to UK emissions as they back 10:10 campaign
Party backs amendment promising Lib Dem councils will commit themselves to reduce carbon emissions by 10% by next year
Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 September 2009 17.44 BST Article history

The Liberal Democrats threw their weight behind the 10:10 climate change campaign today as they demanded "savage cuts" in Britain's carbon emissions.

Opening a debate at the party's Bournemouth conference, the Lib Dem energy and climate change spokesman, Simon Hughes, told his party that "we cannot start too soon" in reducing emissions. The Guardian is backing the 10:10 campaign to reduce UK carbon emissions by 10% by next year.

The party backed an amendment promising that any council run or influenced by the Lib Dems would commit itself to the campaign's objectives, and party members would make "similar personal commitments".

Hughes told delegates: "The 10:10 campaign is about action now, not in 10 or 40 years' time. You, me, us, councils, government. I call on Liberal Democrats to support this campaign now and praise all those who have already signed up. We cannot start too soon."

The Lib Dems run 64 councils.

Pointedly adapting Nick Clegg's threat of "savage cuts" to public spending, Hughes, a critic of the leader, told delegates: "Conference, we must not axe our social fabric. But I'll own up. I too am in favour of controversial and, yes, savage cuts. Of emissions. By 10% in 2010."

Clegg, the party leader, personally signed up to the campaign earlier this month. Gordon Brown's cabinet and the entire Conservative frontbench have also added their support.

Backing the amendment, Chris Nicholson, a delegate from Streatham, said many councils had already signed up to the 10:10 campaign, and said it felt a lot more tangible than some of the "remote" targets for 2020, 2030 and beyond. "It is very immediate, it is a challenge to us all, it is very concrete and we can measure what is being achieved," he said.

Sian Reid, a Cambridge city councillor, said her local authority had already signed up, as had her local MP, David Howarth.

The council had put climate change at the "heart" of all its policies, including putting pressure on large planning applications to meet some of their energy requirements through renewable energy target.

Reid said it was important to "lead by example". "For three years now, we have embedded the carbon agenda in our process," she added.

news20090923sa1

[Environment] from [scientificamerican.com]

[News >Space]
September 22, 2009
Glow Away: NASA Lights Up the East Coast Sky with a Noctilucent Cloud
Physicists launch rocket to create the first faux "night-shining" cloud on the cusp of space
By Carina Storrs

Clouds come in countless shapes, from fluffy cotton candy to wispy lines that streak across the sky, but they are all formed from one simple ingredient—water vapor. In an experiment conducted September 19, scientists created the first artificial, high-atmosphere noctilucent cloud. But rather than water, the cloud formed from dust particles spewed out of a rocket.

The project, led by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, D.C., focused on fabricating a noctilucent cloud, or one that floats at an altitude of 80 to 100 kilometers in the mesosphere (a layer of the atmosphere starting at about 50 kilometers above the surface). Because these clouds block sunlight, they play a part in, and may one day offer a solution to, global warming. Scientists have been able to use radar to track the behavior of natural noctilucent clouds, gleaning their speeds and densities. But studying artificial clouds offers "more of a controlled situation," says Paul Bernhardt, head of the NRL's Plasma Physics Division and leader of the project. "People [who] study the natural clouds, they have to sit there and wait" to come across one in Earth's upper atmosphere.

Scientists at the NRL and the U.S. Department of Defense Space Test Program set out to form and follow noctilucent clouds, as part of the Charged Aerosol Release Experiment (CARE). They built their rocket using 80s-era solid motors handed down from NASA. Then, when conditions were right, as they were on Saturday evening—meaning there were few natural clouds to obscure the view—the team launched their dust delivery system from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

Although most rocket engines leave a trail of debris close to where they are ignited, Bernhardt explains that the group timed the rocket's fourth stage motor to dump 100 kilograms of aluminum oxide dust after it had reached its peak altitude of around 280 kilometers. By knowing the rocket's exact point of release, researchers at stations ranging from Virginia to New Jersey as well as in Bermuda could point their lasers and wide-angle lens cameras at the cloud's birthplace, off the east coast, to study its behavior.

The CARE scientists managed to pursue the dust cloud for 20 minutes Saturday before losing its trail. In this time, they collected terabytes of data in the form of images and radio signals bounced off the cloud. Although Bernhardt says it could be months before all the data is processed, his assessment of the first run is that "we met every success criterion we had."

Bernhardt is already thinking of how the group will design future cloud-making launches. For one, because noctilucent clouds are usually found at higher latitudes, he thinks that sending a rocket into the atmosphere above Alaska or Norway would give a better idea of these clouds' natural behavior, and perhaps allow researchers to follow one for a longer period. If so, residents in northern latitudes could be treated to quite a show during the next experiment. When light from the setting sun bounced off the CARE dust particles on Saturday evening, some residents in regions ranging from New Jersey to Massachusetts bore witness to "a series of spooky lights."


[Greenwire > Climatology]
September 22, 2009
U.S. Unveils New Rule Requiring Greenhouse Gas Reporting
The new registry will track emissions from all major industrial sources in the country
By Robin Bravender

U.S. EPA today finalized a nationwide system to require large sources of greenhouse gases to report their emissions.

The new rule will require about 10,000 facilities that emit about 85 percent of the nation's greenhouse gases to begin to collect emissions data under a new reporting system, EPA said. Suppliers of fossil fuels and industrial greenhouse gases, motor vehicle and engine manufacturers and other facilities that emit 25,000 metric tons or more of carbon dioxide equivalent will be subject to the new requirements.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson called the new rule a major step forward in efforts to address the heat-trapping gases.

"For the first time, we begin collecting data from the largest facilities in this country, ones that account for approximately 85 percent of the total U.S. emissions," Jackson said in a statement. "The American public, and industry itself, will finally gain critically important knowledge and with this information we can determine how best to reduce those emissions."

Most small businesses would fall below the 25,000-metric-ton threshold, EPA said, and would not be required to report their emissions. The only agricultural sources that are required to report their emissions are manure management systems at livestock operations where greenhouse gas emissions meet or exceed the 25,000-ton limit. About 100 livestock operations meet that threshold, EPA said.

Facilities are required to begin collecting emissions data on Jan. 1, 2010, and the first emissions reports will be due in March 2011. EPA will verify the data and will not require third-party verification. Prior to EPA verification, the facilities will be required to self-certify their data.

Many industry groups expressed concerns that EPA's draft rule, released in March, would impose significant costs and regulatory burdens. The American Petroleum Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce were among the groups that criticized the agency's draft regulations. Representatives from those groups were not immediately available to comment on the final rule.

Environmentalists applauded the new regulation, which is widely viewed as a major step toward informing future policy decisions on carbon dioxide regulations.

"The public has both a need and a right to know about the country's biggest emitters," said Mark MacLeod, director of special projects at Environmental Defense Fund. "The transparency provided today will inform smart policy that targets the biggest sources of heat-trapping emissions."

Said David Bookbinder, chief climate counsel at the Sierra Club, "I think it shows they're continuing to move along, and they've got a bunch of rules that they've got to get done."

Bookbinder said that the suite of greenhouse gas regulations pending at EPA could give the Obama administration some leverage in upcoming climate change negotiations.

President Obama touted the new reporting rule today at a U.N. climate change summit in New York. "I am proud to say that the United States has done more to promote clean energy and reduce carbon pollution in the last eight months than at any other time in our history," he said, citing the reporting rule as one of the administration's achievements on that front.

White House clears GHG proposals

The White House yesterday finished its review of two draft regulations that are part of the suite of climate regulations expected to soon be proposed by EPA.

The Office of Management and Budget has cleared the agency's greenhouse gas "tailoring" rule, as well as its reconsideration of a George W. Bush administration policy on regulating emissions from coal-fired power plants.

The "tailoring rule" is expected to limit strict permitting requirements to industrial sources of more than 25,000 tons a year of carbon dioxide equivalent.

The White House also cleared a proposal that is expected to detail the Obama administration's reconsideration of the "Johnson memo," a document issued by former EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson asserting that the government should not regulate carbon dioxide emissions from new coal-fired power plants.

EPA has not yet released the text of the proposals.

news20090923sa2

[Environment] from [scientificamerican.com]

[Greenwire > Society & Policy > Climatology]
September 22, 2009
Profile: Who Is Leading International Climate Change Talks?
Yvo de Boer went from parole officer in the Netherlands to international negotiator
By Darren Samuelsohn

The United Nations' climate diplomat has historically worked in the background as presidents, government ministers and celebrities made a public case for action.

But Yvo de Boer has been anything but a wallflower.

In his three years in the U.N. climate post, de Boer, 55, has made himself at home in front of microphones and cameras in the push to craft a new global warming treaty.

At last year's climate summit in Poznan, Poland, for example, college students jockeyed for opportunities to talk with the former Dutch housing official. Reporters regularly seek de Boer for clues about what is happening behind the curtain on the international stage.

And occasionally, de Boer has been chastised by diplomats from countries that pay his U.N. salary -- the United States, Japan and Saudi Arabia, to name a few -- for his blunt assessment of climate negotiations.

"I think the conventional role of a secretariat is to shut up and make sure things work," de Boer said. "I said in my interview to [then-U.N. Secretary-General] Kofi Annan, 'If that's what you want, then don't hire me.'"

De Boer works in the crossfire between developed and developing countries battling over terms of a treaty for curbing greenhouse gases. His job is getting tougher, with a major U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, looming in December and with many top officials openly questioning whether a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol can be completed this year.

"We are deeply concerned that the negotiation is not making much headway," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Guardian newspaper last week.

For de Boer and his U.N. colleagues, efforts to kick-start the stalled talks have meant a major push this month at events in New York and Washington.

Last Friday, the Obama administration ended another round of the Major Economies Forum with environmental ministers from 17 countries that have the world's largest volume of greenhouse gas emissions. Tomorrow, President Obama will address a special climate session in New York. "He will underscore that this is very much a shared challenge, that everybody has to step up if we're going to succeed in making concrete progress," said Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

All of this has de Boer in the spotlight again. These closing weeks of September, he said during an interview with E&ETV's Onpoint last week, "will give us a sense on whether Copenhagen is going to be a success or not."

Bali misunderstanding

In an office in Bonn, Germany -- on a street named for Martin Luther King Jr. -- de Boer manages 350 U.N. staffers and a two-year, $55 million budget. The office covers all aspects of the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and organizes annual conferences aimed at crafting a new treaty.

But de Boer is not known for his day-to-day oversight of the U.N. climate bureaucracy. He is probably best remembered for leaving the 2007 negotiations in Bali, Indonesia, in tears. Like many other diplomats, de Boer had been working without sleep for two days.

The United States, Russia, Canada and Japan had been pushing back against key details on plans for future negotiations. Developing countries, led by Pakistan, were outraged over talk that the U.S. Senate had passed a bill out of committee that would impose border tariffs on their carbon-heavy goods. And Chinese officials went public with complaints that the U.N. staff had scheduled two simultaneous meetings to keep developing countries off-balance.

While the Chinese claim turned out to have been a misunderstanding and ended with apologies all around, it was not before an exhausted de Boer stood up at the podium then left the room. He returned to a standing ovation.

"It kind of broke my heart a bit," said Jennifer Morgan, who was working then for Berlin-based consulting group EG3 and recently moved to Washington to lead the World Resources Institute's climate team. "I felt for him. I think everyone had a little bit of themselves in Yvo when that happened, because almost everyone in that room was working hard to try to get an agreement out of Bali."

Recalling the Bali negotiations, de Boer said another moment stands out as more important.

"It caused a couple of hours of delay," he said of his emotional exit. "It wasn't really the point. The representative of Papua New Guinea made the point."

At issue is another tense moment in Bali, when Kevin Conrad, the representative of the island nation, chastised the United States for blocking a final deal, declaring that George W. Bush's administration should demonstrate leadership or "get out of the way."

"That," de Boer said, "was the important one."

'Global citizen'

De Boer has lived a nomadic life, learning lessons along the way that have proven useful in his U.N. post.

De Boer's diplomat parents raised him on four continents. Among his mailing addresses: Finland, Egypt, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Hong Kong, Ethiopia, Austria and Great Britain, where he went to boarding school.

"It exposes you early on to the fact there are more people in the world than the tribe you happen to come from," he said in a recent interview. "And it exposes you to the fact that life is different in different countries and tougher in some countries than in other countries. I think it's a good way to become a global citizen."

De Boer went to college in The Hague, studying social work. His first job was as a parole officer in Holland. He was frustrated in that job by the difficulty of keeping people from repeating mistakes and returning to jail.

"If you don't understand what motivated the action, then you can't change the parameters that will prevent a future action of a similar kind," he said. "And I don't want to compare countries to criminals, but I do think it's really important to understand properly why somebody is saying something. Not what's their position, but what's the underlying interest they're trying to address."

After his required service as a cavalry platoon commander in the Dutch army, de Boer got his first U.N. job, serving in Canada and Nairobi for the human settlement program. A brief stop in a Dutch ministry on housing led in 1994 to a job working on climate-change negotiations, something he knew little about.

Surrounding himself with atmospheric scientists, economists and political experts, de Boer turned himself by 1997 into his country's lead U.N. negotiator. He became well-known in climate circles.

By 2006, he was a lead candidate for his current U.N. post, following the death of his countryman, Joke Waller-Hunter.

De Boer's position as executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change requires him to use three passports, two of which are constantly in cycle as he gets new visas. Three-quarters of the year, de Boer is on the road.

At past climate conferences, de Boer was often seen slipping out of the climate talks to indulge in hand-rolled cigarettes. While he quit smoking this year, de Boer is still known for his taste for beer, lobsters and the occasional party.

"He's a man who likes to live and has a great spirit of life," said the World Resources Institute's Morgan. "You can see him on the dance floor at the NGO parties in his Bali shirt."

'He walks the line'

De Boer often finds himself in the middle of diplomatic brawls, in part because that is how he has defined his job.

"At the end of the day, I'm not a player, I'm in a support role," he said. "But I do think that you can kick people in the backside and say you need to get serious about defining this long-term response. I think that needs to happen. The flip side is if I do it as a U.N. official, that can have implications for a secretary-general: Why is this idiot acting beyond the traditional role?"

To be sure, de Boer has irritated many.

"He's sometimes bullying," said a climate diplomat close to the 2008 Poland negotiations.

"My gut sense is he sometimes oversteps the role," added Elliot Diringer, vice president for international strategies at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. "I think there's a case to be made that these times call for a more aggressive role for the executive secretary. But there are bounds to it.

"He walks the line," Diringer said. "And sometimes crosses the line."

Many sources who track U.N. negotiations say de Boer's blunt style helps keep the process honest.

"He's very outspoken," said Karsten Sach, a top environmental official for Germany. "I think we need to be outspoken in order to get the support from the public that we need to get."

"He can be very, very straight with people," explained Connie Hedegaard, Denmark's minister for climate and energy. "Personally, I like people who are very direct. And sometimes, in these intense negotiations, it's better that people are clear and straight then not really coming out with what they're thinking."

Environmentalists welcome de Boer because they see him pushing laggards forward on climate change.

"It's a hard job to make everyone happy," World Resources Institute's Morgan said. "And if the executive secretary of the UNFCCC makes everybody happy, then we don't make progress."

CONTINUED ON newssa3

news20090923sa3

[Environment] from [scientificamerican.com]

[Greenwire > Society & Policy > Climatology]
September 22, 2009
Profile: Who Is Leading International Climate Change Talks?
Yvo de Boer went from parole officer in the Netherlands to international negotiator
By Darren Samuelsohn

CONTINUED FROM newssa2

Mohamed El-Ashry, former chairman of the Global Environment Fund, said de Boer has had to make some adjustments in going from being a Dutch negotiator to being someone who is responsible to many more bosses.

"Yvo learned quite a bit on the job, because he came representing one government," El-Ashry said. "He can provide proposals, but he cannot corral them to go with one proposal."

That job, El-Ashry noted, belongs to the president of the annual climate conference -- a rotating gig that this December falls to Denmark's Hedegaard.

De Boer acknowledged that he has brought a little bit of his previous job into the current role.

"I've been a player, and now I'm the servant," de Boer said. "It takes some practice to be a good servant -- to shut up. But at the same time, I think a good servant doesn't always shut up. A good servant can say, 'Do you really want to eat this again? Shouldn't you be having more vitamins in your diet?'"

De Boer's future atop the U.N. climate office is uncertain. He recently got a one-year extension on his term that allows him to serve into 2010. For that reason and many others, he hopes to get most of the work done in December.

"I see my role as sort of pushing this soft-buttocked elephant toward a result," de Boer said. "And I'd really like to see the elephant cross the finish line in Copenhagen."

Eventually, de Boer hopes to move away from the international climate scene to start a bed-and-breakfast with his wife in Eijsden, a small farming town near Belgium and Germany. "As an additional source of income," he said, "beyond Copenhagen."

Watch de Boer discuss U.S. action on climate change, Copenhagen meeting on E&ETV's OnPoint

With President Obama slated to address a special U.N. summit on climate change this week, will he successfully add momentum to the international climate negotiations? During today's OnPoint, Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, discusses his expectations for Obama's speech. He addresses concerns over the momentum of the international negotiations and explains how the Senate's actions on climate this year will affect the Copenhagen negotiations. Click here to watch the episode.

news20090923nn1

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 22 September 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.934
News
Research chief steps down over fake data
Peter Chen's integrity 'undamaged' by incident, says boss.
By Quirin Schiermeier

The head of research at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) will quit the post after an investigation concluded that data in publications from his group had been faked.

Chemist Peter Chen will leave his position as vice-president of research and corporate relations — the job's remit includes quality assurance in research — at the end of September. He says he was not personally involved in handling the data, but acknowledges his responsibility as head of the research group. Chen will, however, remain a full professor of physical-organic chemistry at ETH Zurich.

"We didn't advise Professor Chen to resign from his administrative position," says Ralf Eichler, president of ETH Zurich. "But we accept his decision, even though Chen's integrity as a researcher is in my opinion undamaged." Chen was not available for comment.

Radical results

Chen joined ETH Zurich in 1994 to work in one of Europe's leading chemistry departments. His research involved studying the properties of reactive hydrocarbon free radicals using a technique called zero kinetic-energy photoelectron spectroscopy.

But experiments conducted in 1999 and 2000 by members of Chen's group, who have since left ETH Zurich, were called into question shortly after others failed to reproduce the results.

The application of the spectroscopic technique to radicals was completely new at the time, says Klaus Müller-Dethlefs, director of the Photon Science Institute at the University of Manchester, UK, who first developed the method in 1984. "Results now known to be false could then easily slip through as being plausible," he says.

Earlier this year, Chen corrected¹ one paper containing the disputed work that had been published in 2000 in the Journal of Chemical Physics (JCP).^<>2
At the request of Chen and the executive board of ETH Zurich, a five-strong commission involving in-house and external experts, and chaired by chemist Andreas Pfaltz of the University of Basel, then investigated whether data had been deliberately falsified in that paper, and in a second JCP publication.³

Matching noise

"It is the unequivocal conclusion of the five [investigation committee] members, the two experts [who failed to reproduce the original data] and the three authors of the papers, that some data that were reported must have been fabricated," the investigation committee concluded in its confidential report dated 15 July, which Nature has obtained. The commission found identical background noise in purportedly independent spectra reported in the two papers, but it could not find a key lab notebook that should have held the raw data. They also recommended a partial or full retraction of the second JCP publication.3

All the authors of the papers, including Chen, categorically deny having been responsible for, or involved in, any unethical data manipulations. Eichler says that there is "now no legal way of finding out for sure" who was ultimately responsible for the falsifications.

"For ETH Zurich, the crucial thing is that this case has been made public," Eichler says. "The clear message for potential falsifiers is that there is absolutely nothing to gain from scientific misconduct." The fabricated data, he adds, have not damaged the field as such, and have not been used for any applications.

References
1. Gilbert, T. , Fischer, I. & Chen, P. J. Chem. Phys. 131, 019903 (2009).
2. Gilbert, T. , Fischer, I. & Chen, P. J. Chem. Phys. 113, 561-566 (2000).
3. Gilbert, T. , Pfab, R. , Fischer, I. & Chen, P. J. Chem. Phys. 112, 2575-2579 (2000).


[naturenews]
Published online 22 September 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/461459a
News
The elephant and the neutrino
Conservationists challenge physics observatory in Indian wildlife reserve.
By Killugudi Jayaraman

Big hurdles for India’s neutrino-detection lab.T. & P. LEESON/ARDEA.COMIndia's environment minister Jairam Ramesh will visit the site of a proposed underground neutrino laboratory next month, to try to break the impasse between physicists and environmentalists over its construction.

The US$160-million India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) was to have been completed by 2012 to study the elusive particles known as neutrinos (see Nature 450, 13; 2007). But its construction is mired in controversy over the wisdom of locating the facility in prime elephant and tiger habitat at Singara in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, 250 kilometres south of Bangalore.

The observatory applied for permission to begin construction at the Singara site in 2006; "there has been no reply to date," says project spokesman Naba Mondal, a physicist at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai. "All I know is we have not cleared it," says A. S. Balanathan, principal chief conservator of forest for the state of Tamil Nadu, who declined to comment further.

Last month, 11 leading physicists, including Nobel laureates Sheldon Glashow and Masatoshi Koshiba, wrote to India's prime minister Manmohan Singh urging that the project move forward. "The INO will bring more big science to India and enhance India's role as an important player in front-line science," they wrote. Meanwhile, prominent Indian conservationists are circulating and signing a letter laying out their concerns and asking that the observatory be sited elsewhere.

The Nilgiri reserve includes more than 5,500 square kilometres of continuous forest cover and six protected areas. The proposed location for the INO comes as close as 7 kilometres to the edge of one of the sanctuaries. The project involves digging out a 120-metre-long cavern at the end of a 2-kilometre-long tunnel inside a mountain. The cavern will house a magnetized iron calorimeter to detect the muons that are produced occasionally when neutrinos interact with matter.

The controversy stems from disagreements over the impact of the tunnelling and the increased human population on the fragile ecosystem. "Transporting the estimated 630,000 tonnes of debris and 147,000 tonnes of construction material would require about 156,000 truck trips through 35 kilometres of forest — and two tiger reserves," says the NBR Alliance, a group of Indian organizations concerned about the reserve. This means 468,000 hours of disturbance to animal movement routes, the alliance estimates.

The INO team "could hardly have picked a site in India more likely to damage wildlife," says John Seed, an Australian environmentalist who has researched elephant habitats in India. "As well as being home to the largest single population of Asian elephants in the world," he says, "the Nilgiri is also one of the most important tiger habitats in the country."

Mondal disputes the tally of construction debris and says that the project will limit the number of daily truck trips and restrict them to daytime. But Priya Davidar, an ecologist at Pondicherry University, says that the environmental impact assessment the project submitted to state officials is seriously flawed. Davidar is president of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, based in Washington DC, which passed its own resolution urging the Indian government not to permit construction and to look for an alternative site.

Davidar criticizes the project for limiting its search to only two sites; a better location, she says, would have been the Kolar gold mine in neighbouring Karnataka state, used for neutrino detection in 1965. But the Kolar mine is now closed and filled with water, and is not suitable for lowering heavy materials down, says Mondal. He says that after considering other sites, his team, along with the Geological Survey of India, identified Singara as "the best available site for locating the INO, based on safety, seismicity, as well as year-round accessibility".

The minister will visit on 10 October. If a construction permit is denied, INO may have to start looking for another site.

news20090923nn2

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 22 September 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/461458a
News
Genomics shifts focus to rare diseases
Disappointing genome-wide studies prompt researchers to tackle single-gene defects.
By Erika Check Hayden

COLD SPRING HARBOR, NEW YORK

Genome sequencing may finally be living up to its promise of pinpointing genetic mutations that bear on treatment for individual patients. But the breakthroughs are not coming from the DNA analysis of common diseases with complex genetic origins, which has been the obsession of genomics for nearly the past decade. Instead, many genome scientists are turning back to study rare disorders that are traceable to defects in single genes, and whose causes have remained a mystery.

The change is partly a result of frustration with the disappointing results of genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Rather than sequencing whole genomes, GWAS studies examine a subset of DNA variants in thousands of unrelated people with common diseases. Now, however, sequencing costs are dropping, and whole genome sequences can quickly provide in-depth information about individuals, enabling scientists to locate genetic mutations that underlie rare diseases by sequencing a handful of people.

"Years ago, people were using families and mapping approaches to distil down to a region where they thought a causative gene was," says Elaine Mardis, a director of the Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. "Fast-forward 12 years, and you've got sort of the same thing going on, except with new technology that gives us much higher resolution and speed."

The change was showcased at the second Personal Genomes meeting, held in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, last week. At the same meeting last year, most speakers focused on the genome of scientist James Watson — one of only four fully sequenced individuals available at that time (see Nature 455, 1014; 2008). Now, about 50 individual genomes are published or in production, many of mostly anonymous patients with medical needs, estimates Richard Gibbs, director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

The first genomes of patients came in cancer, but scientists are now quickly moving into less high-profile diseases. For instance, together with Baylor's James Lupski, Gibbs reported that they had sequenced the genomes of patients in one family with a familial neuropathy — a disorder marked by muscle weakness and pain — and found defects in a single gene that could account for the family's condition. Matthew Bainbridge, a student in Gibbs's lab, reported that he had found a genetic glitch that is probably responsible for an inherited form of ataxia, a disorder affecting bodily coordination, by sequencing the exome, or set of all protein-coding genes, of two distant relatives with the disease. And Jay Shendure of the University of Washington in Seattle used a separate exome-sequencing strategy to find the gene that could be responsible for Miller syndrome, marked by head and facial abnormalities.

Meanwhile, Richard Lifton of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, reported a striking example of how genome sequencing can help patients. A doctor asked Lifton to study a sickly infant who appeared to have a kidney disease. But Lifton's group sequenced the exomes of the infant and some family members and found a genetic variant in a gene, called SLC26A3, that causes congenital chloride diarrhoea, a treatable disease. Lifton informed the doctor, who reported that, indeed, the infant had had hourly bouts of diarrhoea.

{“I now think that we’re going to get there by understanding a whole lot of these Mendelian diseases.”}

The meeting also heard from bioentrepreneur Hugh Rienhoff, a California father who has sequenced his daughter's transcriptome — the readout of protein templates expressed in her cells — as well as his wife's and his own to find the cause of her undiagnosed genetic disease (see http://tinyurl.com/mf6oxs). The effort has yielded a list of mutated genes that could cause her unique collection of symptoms, including long hands and feet and a cleft uvula, says Rienhoff, who trained as a clinical geneticist.

He argues that studies like his are promising first steps to understanding more complex diseases. "First, let's figure out the diseases that are 100% genetic and then go after the diseases that aren't 100% genetic," he says, pointing out that there are about 3,000 Mendelian diseases — inherited disorders caused by defects in single genes — of which the genetic causes are not known. "It's the new new thing, which is old: studying the rare stuff because it bears on the common stuff," he says.

"The issue is how we're going to understand the architecture of common disorders," agrees Gibbs. "Three or four years ago I thought it was going to be because of GWAS studies, but I now think that we're going to get there by understanding a whole lot of these Mendelian diseases."

Leslie Biesecker, who heads the ClinSeq study at the National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, is uncovering evidence to support that idea. ClinSeq has enrolled 725 patients and sequenced 251 of their genes, including two genes that, when mutated, cause familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), a disease marked by high cholesterol levels. In seven patients with high cholesterol, Biesecker found mutations in the two FH genes, even though some of the patients had not been diagnosed with the condition. Biesecker estimates that 75–100 family members of these patients probably have undiagnosed FH, and is trying to contact them.

"If we can leverage the finding to diagnose and treat 75–100 people for FH, I can go to bed at night feeling like our sequencing money has been well spent," he says.

Plummeting prices

Cost is still a roadblock to broader sequencing, however, so scientists at the meeting were interested in a report from collaborators of Complete Genomics, of Mountain View, California, which says it will dramatically cut the price of sequencing by offering human-genome sequences for US$5,000 next year. The company sequenced a family of four people for $20,000 apiece, including two children with undiagnosed symptoms, for the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, Washington, whose founder, Lee Hood, is on Complete Genomics' scientific advisory board. Lee Rowen, a researcher at the institute, said that its analysis of Complete Genomics' data has yielded three candidate genes for the children's disorders. "We were happy with what they gave us," Rowen says.

However, she also estimates that there could be roughly 10–20 errors per megabase of DNA, which would translate to tens of thousands of errors per genome. The group is resequencing each error to try to pinpoint the error rate more closely.

That left many in the audience unsatisfied. "What use is a $20,000 genome if you have to spend even more money to figure out if it's right or not?" Mardis said.

Some contenders in the crowded sequencing field hope to ultimately push costs as low as hundreds of dollars per genome. Until then, the ultimate payoff on the promise of genomics — a true understanding of common diseases — remains over the horizon. But for now, a down payment appears to have been made.

news20090923bbc1

[One-Minute World News] from [BBC NEWS]

[Americas]
Page last updated at 07:06 GMT, Wednesday, 23 September 2009 08:06 UK
Obama to give maiden UN address
US President Barack Obama is due to deliver his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

He is expected to say the US is acting to tackle global challenges, but will stress that other nations also need to do their part.

Mr Obama will also stress the change in attitude of the US to the UN compared to that of the Bush administration.

The assembly will also hear from Libyan leader General Muammar Gaddafi for the first time, and the Iranian president.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has previously said he does not believe the Holocaust happened, will address the assembly, but the Germans have said they will walk out if he repeats the claim.

Mr Obama will address leaders from more than 120 countries, a day after he spoke at the UN's climate change summit.

{ UN MEETINGS
WEDNESDAY (TIMINGS GMT)
1300 - General debate begins
1330 - President Obama
1345 - Gen Gaddafi
2130 - President Ahmadinejad}

The president acknowledged that the US had been slow to act, but promised a "new era" of promoting clean energy and reducing carbon pollution.

His maiden general assembly speech will address nuclear non-proliferation, "peace and security, climate change, and global growth and development, and underscore America's fundamental commitment to universal values - and challenge others in the United Nations to do the same," an unnamed senior US official said.

Some countries may not take kindly to his words urging greater responsibility if it sounds too much like a lecture, particularly those who feel his commitments to tackle global warning were disappointing, says the BBC's Mark Mardell in New York.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will tell the assembled leaders: "Amid many crises - food, energy, recession and pandemic flu, hitting all at once - the world looks to us for answers.

"If ever there were a time to act in a spirit of renewed multilateralism, a moment to create a United Nations of genuine collective action, it is now," according to reports of his prepared remarks.


[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 04:49 GMT, Wednesday, 23 September 2009 05:49 UK
Desert dust storm chokes Sydney
Australia's biggest city, Sydney, has been shrouded in red dust blown in by winds from the deserts of the outback.

Visibility is so bad that international flights have been diverted and harbour ferry traffic disrupted.

Emergency services reported a surge in calls from people suffering breathing problems. Children and the elderly have been told to stay indoors.

Sydney's landmarks, including the Opera House, have been obscured, and many residents are wearing masks.

Traffic has been bumper-to-bumper on major roads.

{ I'm 72 years old and I've never seen that in my life before
Sydney resident}

The dust blanketing eastern parts of New South Wales has been carried by powerful winds that snatched up tons of topsoil from the drought-ravaged west of the state.

One Sydney resident told the Associated Press news agency: "The colour was amazing... I'm 72 years old and I've never seen that in my life before."

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology warned of "widespread damaging winds" in Sydney and other areas, as gusts of 65km/h (40mph) hit the city.

Forecasters predicted the winds would weaken later on Wednesday.

The BBC's Phil Mercer in Sydney says it has been a difficult 24 hours for Australia, which has been hit by earthquakes, hail storms and bushfires.

In parts of New South Wales, huge hail stones whipped up by thunderstorms smashed windows and sent residents running for cover.

Further north in Queensland, officials banned open fires in many areas when bushfires sprang up after a spell of hot, dry weather.

Two minor earthquakes hit Victoria state on Tuesday, and heavy rains that followed led officials to issue a warning of flash floods.


[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 06:15 GMT, Wednesday, 23 September 2009 07:15 UK
Philippines 'captures top rebel'
The Philippines army says it has captured a top Muslim rebel, Camarudin Hadji Ali, a claim denied by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The military claim came after days of fighting between the army and another rebel group, Abu Sayyaf, in which more than 30 rebels were killed.

At least eight marines were also killed in the fighting, on Jolo island.

The army has been trying to crush rebels as efforts at peace talks with Muslim separatists have faltered.

"Ali is a leader of the MILF's 105th Base Command under Ameril Umbrakato, who are both wanted for a series of deadly attacks last year in Mindanao," regional army spokesman Colonel Jonathan Ponce said.

He said Camarudin Hadji Ali, also known as Commander Mudi, was picked up at his wife's home in Cotabato City, on Mindanao, which was under surveillance by the police and military.

However MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu has denied that any senior MILF field operative had been arrested.

"The military arrested the wrong person," he told AFP news agency, adding that Muslim civilians had informed the group that a man with a similar name had been arrested.

Mr Umbrakato and another MILF field commander were accused of breaking a five-year-old ceasefire last year.

More than 300 people have been killed and up to 750,000 displaced in fresh fighting.

Ambush

The government and MILF have agreed to create a panel of international brokers to help facilitate a new attempt at peace talks.

But since the weekend, fighting has been heavy in areas of the south where another rebel group, Abu Sayyaf, is based.

Lieutenant-General Ben Dolorfino, commander of military forces in the southern Philippines, told reporters that at least 34 Abu Sayyaf militants have been killed since Sunday, when troops, backed by air strikes, assaulted a fortified rebel base in the hilly interior of the southern island of Jolo.

On Monday, about 100 Abu Sayyaf fighters ambushed a military convoy in Indanan town, on Jolo.

In that deadly encounter, 15 of the 34 Abu Sayyaf were killed while eight soldiers were killed and nine wounded.

Lt Gen Dolorfino described the capture of Indanan town as a major strategic achievement.

Jolo is the stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf rebels, one of the smallest but deadliest Islamist militant groups in the largely Roman Catholic Philippines.

Established in the early 1990s, it has kidnapped dozens of foreign aid workers, missionaries and tourists in the south and was blamed for the country's worst terrorist strike, the bombing of a ferry in 2004 that killed more than 100 people.

Earlier this month, officials claimed the capture of two other high-profile militants - Hajer Sailani, an alleged member of Abu Sayyaf, and Dino-Amor Rosalejos Pareja, the leader of the deadly Rajah Solaiman group of Christian converts to Islam.

The United States keeps about 500 soldiers in the south, assisting Philippine soldiers with intelligence, equipment and training.

news20090923bbc2

[One-Minute World News] from [BBC NEWS]

[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 17:13 GMT, Tuesday, 22 September 2009 18:13 UK
China vows climate change action
China will increase efforts to improve energy efficiency and curb the rise in CO2 emissions, President Hu Jintao has told a UN climate summit in New York.

Mr Hu gave no details about the measures, which should mean emissions grow less quickly than the economy.

The US, the world's other major emitter, said China's proposals were helpful but figures were needed.

About 100 leaders are attending the talks, ahead of the Copenhagen summit which is due to approve a new treaty.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said failure to agree a treaty in December would be "morally inexcusable".

Negotiators for the Copenhagen summit are trying to agree on a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol to limit carbon emissions.

'Momentous consequences'

Mr Ban called the meeting an attempt to inject momentum into the deadlocked climate talks.

{ RICHARD BLACK: EARTH WATCH
No-one seriously expects developing countries to accept numerical cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions
Richard Black
Environment correspondent}

Richard Black: Who's listening?
"Your decisions will have momentous consequences," he told the assembled leaders.

"The fate of future generations, and the hopes and livelihoods of billions today, rest, literally, with you," he added.

The Chinese president said his country would curb its carbon emissions per unit of Gross Domestic Product, a measure also known as carbon intensity, by a "notable margin" by 2020 from the 2005 level.

However, the proposal is unlikely to mean an overall reduction in emissions, as China's economy is expected to continue to grow rapidly.

A US official said that China's proposals were helpful but Beijing needed to provide figures.

"It depends on what the number is," US President Barack Obama's climate change envoy Todd Stern said, quoted by Reuters news agency.

But former US vice-president and environmental activist Al Gore praised China's "impressive leadership".

"We've had ... indications that in the event there is dramatic progress in this negotiation, that China will be prepared to do even more," he said.

{ ANALYSIS
Shirong Chen, BBC China analyst
Change from Beijing is partly a reaction to international criticism as China becomes the world's biggest polluter.
The country's rapid economic growth has created demand for more energy and fuel.
There is a growing need for Beijing to provide clear answers on what is being done to deal with the problem.
Image-conscious Chinese officials want to be seen as co-operative internationally and accept that China must become part of the solution to major global issues such as the financial crisis and climate change. }

BBC environment reporter Matt McGrath says that much of the debate about tackling global warming revolves around the idea of absolute cuts in emissions of carbon dioxide - but developing countries like India and China feel that this emphasis is unfair.

Richer countries, meanwhile, have had the benefits of centuries of fossil fuel use, and are now demanding that growing nations stop using them with no obvious alternatives in place, he says.

Mr Hu also pledged to "vigorously develop" renewable and nuclear energy.

He restated China's position that developed nations needed to do more than developing nations to fight climate change because they were historically responsible for the problem.

"Developed countries should fulfill the task of emission reduction set in the Kyoto Protocol, continue to undertake substantial mid-term quantified emission reduction targets and support developing countries in countering climate change," he said.

In other speeches at the summit:

> US President Obama acknowledged that the US had been slow to act, but promised a "new era" of promoting clean energy and reducing carbon pollution

> The new Japanese Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, pledged to reduce emissions by 25% by 2020 compared to the 1990 level, calling it the Hatoyama Initiative

> French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on leaders to meet again in mid-November ahead of the crucial Copenhagen conference

{ UN MEETINGS
WEDNESDAY
1300 - General debate begins
1330 - Obama's speech
THURSDAY
Nuclear non-proliferation:
1200 - Obama chairs UN Security Council meeting}

According to the BBC's UN correspondent, Barbara Plett, discussions have stalled because rich nations are not pledging to cut enough carbon to take the world out of danger, while poorer countries are refusing to commit to binding caps, saying this would prevent them from developing their economies.

China's role is crucial, because it is both an emerging economy and a big polluter, our correspondent says.

Despite all its advances in green technology, China still gets 70% of its energy from coal - and as its economy increases, this means yet more growth in greenhouse gases, our correspondent says.

Pressure on US

There is also concern about the US.

President Obama has recognised climate change as a pressing issue, unlike the previous administration, our UN correspondent says.

He has already announced a target of returning to 1990 levels of greenhouse emissions by 2020, but critics say Washington is moving too slowly on legislation which does not go far enough.

President Obama is currently dogged by domestic issues such as the economy and healthcare reforms, but his speech to the UN meeting will still be watched for signs he is willing to fulfil his pledge to take the lead in reaching a global carbon deal.

A demonstration of political will by both China and the US will be important in breaking the deadlock in negotiations, correspondents say.

China and the US each account for about 20% of the world's greenhouse gas pollution from coal, natural gas and oil.

The European Union is responsible for 14%, followed by Russia and India with 5% each.

news20090923reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
China makes landmark pledge to curb CO2 emissions
Wed Sep 23, 2009 12:55am EDT
By Paul Eckert and Claudia Parsons

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Chinese President Hu Jintao on Tuesday promised to put a "notable" brake on the country's rapidly rising carbon emissions, but dashed hopes he would unveil a hard target to kickstart stalled climate talks.

The leader of the world's biggest emitter told a U.N. summit that China would pledge to cut "carbon intensity," or the amount of carbon dioxide produced for each dollar of economic output, over the decade to 2020.

His promise is a landmark because China had previously rejected rich nations' demands for measurable curbs on its emissions, arguing that economic development must come first while millions of its citizens still live in poverty.

"It's still a very significant step -- a Chinese leader standing on that platform and saying China will make a mid-term carbon intensity target," said Yang Ailun of Greenpeace China.

"We should think of this as a clear signal that China wants to de-couple carbon emissions from economic growth," she said.

But without a firm figure attached, the offer to reduce emissions intensity may not be enough to rekindle faltering talks on a new global deal to tackle climate change.

Hu said only that carbon intensity would come down "by a notable margin by 2020 from the 2005 levels," which still leaves Beijing and other major powers plenty of room for maneuver before final negotiations in Copenhagen in December.

"I didn't hear new initiatives so much," said Todd Stern, special envoy on climate change in the United States, one of the most vocal critics of China's emissions policy.

"It depends on what the number is and he didn't indicate the extent to which those reductions would be made."

URGENCY IN BEIJING

Hu's choice of a global stage to answer rich nation demands that China take stronger, verifiable steps to control carbon dioxide output is a sign of how rapidly climate change has risen up the agenda in Beijing.

China's geography has made it particularly vulnerable to the effects of a warming world, from droughts to flooding and rising sea levels. Beijing also worries about energy security and severe pollution from burning fossil fuels.

But Xie Zhenhua, China's top environment official, added to the sense that Beijing might weigh other nations' commitments before deciding how strong a target to take on.

"After further study and discussion, we should be able to announce a target soon," he said in New York.

He said the target would be based in part on a long-standing promise, repeated by Hu in his speech, to get 15 percent of China's energy from renewable sources by 2020 and an existing commitment to significantly cut energy use per dollar of GDP.

The government currently aims to cut energy consumption per unit of GDP by about 20 percent by 2010 compared to 2005 levels, a step it says will save more than 1.5 billion metric tons of CO2 from being emitted.

But China's emissions are still expected to keep growing.

Last month, Germany's IWR Institute said China's CO2 emissions in 2008 were the world's highest at 6.8 billion metric tons, about a fifth of all of mankind's emissions.

A Chinese think-tank said this month that even if China adopted aggressive steps to promote carbon-capture and storage, renewable and nuclear energy, CO2 emissions would still reach 8.8 billion metric tons by 2035.

Under current trends, annual emissions could reach 12.1 billion metric tons by 2050, the think-tank's study said.

"IMPRESSIVE LEADERSHIP"

Nobel laureate Al Gore praised China for "impressive leadership" and said Hu's goals pointed to more action.

"They are very important and we've had ... indications that in the event there is dramatic progress in this negotiation, that China will be prepared to do even more," he said.

Hu also made clear, however, that China had high expectations from the rest of the world, repeating a long-standing request for more support in moving away from dirty growth.

Backed by India and other developing nations, China argues that rich nations emit more per person and enjoyed an emissions-intensive industrialization, so they have no right to demand others do differently -- unless they will pay for it.

"Developed countries should take up their responsibility and provide new, additional, adequate and predictable financial support to developing countries," Hu said.

A carbon target should speed up a planned boost in renewables like wind and hydropower, already financed in part by foreign funds channeled through current schemes to tackle warming.

It will also appeal to those in the financial industry who hope to see China set up a carbon trading scheme, because Beijing will be forced to step up its ability to measure output of the gases, which is key to any market in credits to emit.

But while carbon intensity is a financially viable way to contain emissions growth, if economies expand too fast, even massive improvements in efficiency might not be enough to contain dangerously high output of greenhouse gasses.

(Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner and Emma Graham-Harrison in BEIJING; Writing by Emma Graham-Harrison and Paul Eckert; Editing by David Fogarty)


[Green Business]
Estonia, Poland win challenge over EU carbon quotas
Wed Sep 23, 2009 4:35am EDT

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Estonia and Poland won their challenges at the European Union's Court of First Instance on Wednesday against their national quotas of EU carbon emission permits for 2008-2012.

"The Court of First Instance annuls the (European) Commission decisions concerning the National Allocation Plans (NAPs) of Poland and Estonia for greenhouse gas emissions allowances," the court said in a statement.

A spokeswoman said the Commission would not comment until it had fully studied the judgment.

Poland had proposed the European Commission granted it permits for 284.6 million tonnes of carbon emissions a year but received 208.5 million, a 27 percent cut.

Estonia had proposed it receive permits for 24.4 million tonnes a year but received 12.7 million, a 48 percent cut.

"By imposing, in its review of NAPs, a ceiling on emission allowances to be allocated, the Commission exceeded its powers," the court said in a statement.

EU member states alone have the power to take final decisions fixing the quota, which is then distributed among national industries, it reasoned.

The Commission only has restricted powers to review the quotas and it was wrong to dismiss the proposals by Estonia and Poland solely on the grounds that it doubted the reliability of their data.

It also exceeded its powers by replacing the data with its own, the court added.

The European Commission now has two months to appeal at the European Court of Justice.

(Reporting by Michele Sinner and Michael Szabo, writing by Pete Harrison; editing by James Jukwey)

news20090923reut2

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
China and U.S. try to jumpstart U.N. climate talks
Wed Sep 23, 2009 6:44am EDT
By Jeff Mason and Claudia Parsons

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - China laid out a plan to curb carbon emissions by 2020 and U.S. President Barack Obama called on all nations to act now to tackle global warming, as world leaders tried to inject momentum into climate change talks.

With less than three months until a United Nation conference aimed at sealing the world's toughest pact to fight climate change, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Tuesday's leaders' summit to give negotiations an extra shrove.

"While the summit is not the guarantee that we will get the global agreement, we are certainly one step closer to that global goal today," Ban said at the close of the meeting.

The one-day summit drew nearly 100 heads of state and government before official talks among 190 nations in Copenhagen in December to forge a replacement to the Kyoto Protocol, whose first phase runs out at the end of 2012.

Analysts and green groups gave cautious praise to China and Japan but said Obama's speech was long on rhetoric but short on specific pledges of U.S. action.

In his address, Chinese President Hu Jintao said China's new plan included vigorously developing renewable and nuclear energy and promised emissions would grow slower than economic growth in the future.

"We will endeavor to cut carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by a notable margin by 2020 from the 2005 level," Hu said.

The pledge, which marked the first time China has said it will accept measurable curbs on its emissions, was seen as an attempt to counter critics, especially in Washington, who say Beijing is doing too little to fight climate change.

Hu did not include specific figures, however. A Chinese official said those would be ready soon. But the step comes in addition to China's current aim to cut energy consumption per unit of GDP by about 20 percent by 2010 compared with 2005 levels.

CLIMATE AID

New Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama won plaudits for pledging to offer more aid to help developing countries deal with climate change and repeated his goal of reducing Japanese greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.

Hatoyama also proposed setting up a framework to coordinate climate change aid, but did not give details of how much cash or what kind of technological assistance Japan would provide.

Obama outlined his administration's work on climate since he took office in January and said the United States was committed to act.

But he offered no new proposals and did not urge quick U.S. Senate passage of a climate bill, which many observers see as crucial to reaching an international deal.

"Our generation's response to this challenge will be judged by history, for if we fail to meet it -- boldly, swiftly and together -- we risk consigning future generations to an irreversible catastrophe," Obama said.

"The time we have to reverse this tide is running out."

Ban wanted Tuesday's summit to give momentum to a G20 meeting this week at which finance to fight climate change will be a key focus, as well as crucial U.N. climate negotiations in Bangkok from Monday, the last major negotiating round before the December 7-18 Copenhagen climate conference.

"PROGRESS"

"It is slow progress, but progress nevertheless. The standout was President Hu Jintao's announcement that China will take on a 2020 carbon intensity target," said Frank Jotzo, Deputy Director of the Australian National University's Climate Change Institute in Canberra.

"The greatest difficulty for Copenhagen right now is U.S. domestic politics. It may take until well into 2010 for the U.S. to be able to make an international commitment that is credibly backed by domestic policy," he told Reuters.

A climate change bill mandating cuts in U.S. emissions is unlikely to be passed by the U.S. Senate by December while other domestic issues, notably healthcare reform, dominate the agenda.

Talks leading to the Copenhagen negotiations in Denmark have put developed and developing countries at odds over how to distribute emissions curbs. Poorer nations are pressing richer ones to contribute hundreds of billions of dollars a year to help them cope with rising temperatures.

"It was a bit disappointing that China did not give a number for greenhouse gas intensity," said Knut Alfsen, head of research at the Center for International Climate and Energy Research in Oslo. "But this is progress. Five years ago, climate was a non-issue for China."

Environmentalists criticized Obama for not putting more specifics in his first U.N. address.

"It is really more of a step back than a step forward," said Thomas Henningsen, climate coordinator for Greenpeace International.

(Additional reporting by Paul Eckert, Alister Doyle and David Fogarty; Editing Alex Richardson)


[Green Business]
U.S: working on G20 pact to cut fossil fuel subsidies
Wed Sep 23, 2009 6:07am EDT
By Jeff Mason

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States is still working toward an agreement with G20 partners to phase out subsidies for fossil fuels, a top White House adviser said ahead of this week's G20 summit.

Michael Froman, deputy national security adviser and top G20 aide to President Barack Obama, said the United States was hoping to reach an agreement about the issue at the Pittsburgh summit on Thursday and Friday.

"We've put on the table the desirability of reaching an agreement to phase out fossil fuel subsidies," Froman told reporters in remarks embargoed for release on Wednesday.

"We're working with the rest of the G20 to see if we can forge an agreement that would make a significant contribution in that direction."

Froman declined to flesh out the U.S. ideas by including a timeframe or identifying which countries were targeted.

A source familiar with the proposal said earlier this month it would seek to phase out subsidies in five years.

The proposal -- which could rankle G20 states with big fuel subsidies like China, Russia, and India -- argues non-G20 members should end subsidies by 2020, the source said.

Froman laid out the U.S. case in broad terms, saying lower consumption of fossil fuels that results from eliminating subsidies would help combat climate change, heighten energy security, improve health and the environment, boost economic growth, and assist the poor.

Citing estimates by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Energy Agency, Froman said phasing out fossil fuel subsidies worldwide would cut greenhouse gases by up to 12 percent by 2050.

In his speech to a U.N. climate summit on Tuesday, Obama said he planned to work with his G20 counterparts this week to phase out the subsidies.

Indonesia, which was considered a "success story" in phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, had agreed to open the discussion among G20 leaders, a U.S. official said.

Froman said the United States encouraged subsidies and support schemes for renewable energy.

The United States is also seeking G20 support for boosting transparency in oil markets.

"G-20 Leaders should commit to improving energy security by increasing oil market transparency, including by reporting comprehensive data on domestic oil markets," Froman wrote in a letter, obtained by Reuters, to G20 colleagues.

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[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
U.N. climate summit dims hopes for Copenhagen pact
Wed Sep 23, 2009 10:24am EDT
By Alister Doyle and Gerard Wynn - Analysis

OSLO/LONDON (Reuters) - A summit of world leaders has dimmed hopes for a strong new U.N. climate pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol in Copenhagen in December, with details looking ever more likely to be left for 2010.

But climate change experts and observers also refused to focus on the negative, noting that many countries struggling with recession were likely to make concessions only at the last moment.

At the one-day U.N. summit Tuesday, leaders spoke strongly of a need for action to combat climate change but made few new pledges of domestic action. China won praise for outlining curbs on its rising emissions for 2020.

"Leaders want to signal a willingness to act, but everyone is in this game of chicken," said Susanne Droege, of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

"The good news (from Copenhagen) would be to have an international carpet laid out for further steps," she said.

Chinese President Hu Jintao said that China would slow the growth of its emissions by setting an unprecedented goal to curb by a "notable margin" the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per dollar of gross domestic product by 2020 against 2005.

U.S. President Barack Obama, facing a domestic battle over healthcare reform, urged global actions to slow climate change to avoid risks of "irreversible catastrophe." But he stopped short of announcing new domestic measures to tackle the problem.

Nick Mabey, head of the E3G climate think-tank in London, said that the summit indicated that climate change would not go away as a top issue but that action was needed now. "The idea that's terribly dangerous is to delay Copenhagen as a decision point," he said. "The pressure that's building up is the only way to get international action."

Pressure is building for governments to show what they are willing to do, but time is fast running out. The world agreed in Bali, Indonesia, in 2007 to work out a new pact on December 7-18 in Copenhagen and negotiations next resume next week in Bangkok.

The U.N. Climate Secretariat has said Copenhagen needs at a minimum to agree steps including deep 2020 cuts in emissions by developed nations, new actions by developing nations to curb their rising emissions, and ways to raise funds.

But it says that a lot of details, such as exactly how to raise money and how to share it out, can be left for later. It has suggested $10 billion on the table in Copenhagen as a sign of good faith by rich nations.

Governments plan agreement in 2009 to give good time for ratification before the existing Kyoto Protocol's first period runs out at the end of 2012. Kyoto binds developed nations to cutting emissions but does not demand curbs by developing states.

WHO WILL PAY?

The world is split over how to divide up the burden of cuts in greenhouse gases between rich and poor nations and on how to raise billions of dollars to help developing nations fight global warming.

So far, rich nations have offered cuts in emissions that average 11-15 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. Poor nations want cuts of at least 40 percent to avert the worst of climate change.

"The fact that the New York summit didn't bring any signs of significant steps (toward steep cuts in emissions) is a very worrying sign," said Johan Rockstrom, director of the Stockholm Resilience Center. He said China was the main exception.

China has overtaken the United States as top emitter of greenhouse gases projected by a U.N. panel of scientists to stoke ever rising sea levels, droughts, wildfires, a spread of some diseases or more powerful cyclones.

"This is significant and shows China's seriousness about acting on climate change" said Jennifer Morgan, the climate program director of the World Resources Institute in Washington.

"The major missing piece now is action from the United States," she said.

Leaders of the Group of 20 will meet in Pittsburgh on Thursday and Friday, but little progress is expected on finding cash to help developing nations with climate finances.


[Green Business]
Plutonic, GE unit commit to buy Canada wind farm
Wed Sep 23, 2009 10:01am EDT

TORONTO (Reuters) - Plutonic Power Corp and a unit of General Electric Co said on Wednesday that they had committed to buying the Dokie Ridge wind project in western Canada after completing a due diligence investigation.

GE Energy Financial Services and Plutonic, a small Canadian hydro-electric producer, announced on June 1 that they planned to buy the uncompleted 144-megawatt project, whose owner, EarthFirst Canada, filed for creditor protection last year.

Since then the partners have been combing through the project's books, extending the due diligence several times.

GE and Plutonic plan to complete the acquisition in early November, with construction expected to be finished in early 2011 at an estimated cost of C$225 million ($210 million).

A GE affiliate will hold 49 percent and a Plutonic affiliate 51 percent of the Dokie partnership.

The project, which is in northeastern British Columbia and could be expanded to 300 MW of power, is the largest wind farm under construction in the Canadian province.

This is GE and Plutonic's first wind farm venture. They are already partners in hydroelectric projects in British Columbia.

EarthFirst has reported that the Dokie project, once completed, would generate 340 gigawatt-hours of power annually -- enough electricity to meet the annual needs of 34,000 homes and avoid more than 229,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions from a coal plant.

($1 = $1.07 Canadian)

(Reporting by Nicole Mordant; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)





[Green Business]
Ceres Power closer to mass production
Wed Sep 23, 2009 8:11am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - British alternative energy company Ceres Power moved a step closer to bringing its "green" fuel-cell boiler to the mass market on Wednesday by signing an outsourcing deal with a Dutch company.

Heating appliances maker Daalderop will make the boiler assembly, the white box that houses Ceres's fuel cells parts, in volume, thus saving Ceres having to set up its own facility to do so.

Ceres's combined heat and power product, which it is developing in conjunction with British Gas, enables people to use the gas and fuel already coming in to their homes to generate their own electricity, rather than buying it from the grid.

The company plans to bring the wall-mounted product to the mass market in the second half of 2011, Chief Executive Peter Bance told Reuters.

"We're giving ourselves a couple of years of getting it right," Bance said via telephone.

He said British Gas has already committed to forward orders for 37,500 units over four years from 2011, while its second customer Calor Gas had signed up for 20,000 units over five years.

"Within the four years of that initial phase with British Gas, we expect to reach profitability," said Bance, adding that some British Gas customers had already expressed an interest in signing up to the product when it launches.

He expects the UK's planned feed-in tariff to boost interest in the product further, as it means customers would receive incentives for electricity they generate within their homes.

Ceres shares, which have soared 165 percent so far this year, dropped by 5.4 percent, however, after the company announced full-year results showing a widening loss.

Analyst Philip Sparks at Evolution said the results were of secondary interest as the company is at the pre-revenue stage.

"There has been plenty of good news on development, manufacturing and government support over the last six months, and Ceres has added to that today," he wrote in a note. "We now have a clear road map to volume and manufacturing and distribution."

Ceres posted a full-year operating loss of 9.3 million pounds ($15.3 million), compared with a loss of 6.4 million one year previously, reflecting the costs of scaling up its operations.

It ended the year to June 30 with 23 million pounds in net cash and financial assets.

(Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Rupert Winchester)

($1=.6082 Pound)

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[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
German solars face incentive cuts, foreign sales key
Wed Sep 23, 2009 9:59am EDT
By Christoph Steitz - Analysis

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Increased exposure to overseas markets could reduce the pain for some of Germany's solar companies if a new government speeds up the reduction of incentives for the sector.

Makers of solar cells and panels in Germany, expected to become the world's biggest solar market this year, have been propped up through a global credit crisis and recession by incentives paid to household producers of solar energy.

Tariffs are the solar industry's lifeblood as long as "grid parity" -- the point at which renewables cost the same as fossil fuel-based forms of power -- has not been reached, so cutting them could mean another significant setback.

Although no party has clearly announced such a step, the markets expect it once a government emerges from Sunday's general election.

"We believe that the government is likely to cut PV (photovoltaic) subsidies in 2011 because domestic installations are growing so strongly," said Commerzbank analyst Robert Schramm.

"This, in my view, will happen regardless of what shape the next government will take. However, I think that the cut could be significantly bigger under a CDU/FDP coalition."

A poll published on Wednesday showed that Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats had just enough support to form a center-right coalition with the Free Democrats (FDP) [ID:nBAT003163], ending four years of a CDU coalition with Social Democrats.

Analysts suggest that exposure to overseas markets will not fully offset the negative impact solar companies would suffer from a potential cut in feed-in tariffs. Still, it may reduce the pain for some.

Solar equipment suppliers such as Centrotherm and Roth & Rau "should suffer to a lower degree due to their strong Asian exposure" in contrast to Q-Cells, SolarWorld and Solon with high German exposure, DZ Bank analyst Sven Kuerten wrote.

Q-Cells, one of the world's largest makers of solar cells, made 30 percent of 2008 sales in Germany, while SolarWorld and solar module maker Solon generated 46 percent and 24 percent, respectively. Solar-Fabrik made 46 percent of 2008 revenue in Germany.

By contrast Centroterm generated 67 percent of 2008 sales in Asia, with Germany's share at 14 percent. At Roth & Rau, the equivalent numbers came in at 49 percent and 14 percent.

Equipment maker Manz Automation made 61 percent of 2008 sales in Asia, with Germany in second place at 24 percent.

BIG CUT NEXT YEAR?

"The big German solar companies are more flexible in their distribution channels and could therefore shrug off a potential cut in tariffs more effectively," said SES Research analyst Karsten von Blumenthal.

"It (the potential incentive cut) would mean a lower return for installations, but there would still be a profit to make." 　

Q-Cells and SolarWorld have already taken steps to expand sales abroad, albeit for a different reason. Price slumps for cells and modules force players to go abroad to match the much lower production costs of Asian peers.

Germany's renewable energy act already envisages a "degression" in feed-in tariffs -- the incentives that utilities pay producers of renewable electricity -- of 8-10 percent in 2010.

The feed-in tariff drops slightly each year, potentially hitting demand and so forcing solar companies to lower production costs.

DZ Bank's Kuerten wrote that the next government may step up cuts in feed-in tariffs.

And analysts at Morgan Stanley saw a one-off reduction in Germany's feed-in tariff of 25 percent to 30 percent as being most likely in the second half of next year.

However, "the most harsh cut would be the introduction of a (installation) capacity limit, which would be clearly seen as very negative by the market in our view, since a significant capacity limit already impacted the Spanish market very negatively," DZ Bank's Kuerten wrote.

Such a cap caused Spain to shrink from the world's biggest market in 2008 to an expected number five this year, according to industry association EPIA. A similar development could hurt Germany's 9.5 billion euro ($14.1 billion) solar sector.

Morgan Stanley analysts pointed out that a tariff cut "could result in a series of adjustments in many other 'attractive countries'."

The United States and China already have or are in the process of implementing solar subsidy programs, being one of the few rays of light for the battered industry.

For the industry as a whole, however, lower tariffs will be unavoidable in the long term.

"Cutting tariffs is a good sign as it shows that the industry is maturing," said Philippe de Weck, fund manager at Pictet.

"How can you have (only) an 8-10 percent degression when module prices have fallen by 50 percent since last year? If you're not cutting tariffs, it will create hypernormal growth, a bubble."

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz, Editing by Sitaraman Shankar)


[Green Business]
Storing CO2 in soil should be on U.N. agenda: Gore
Wed Sep 23, 2009 9:25am EDT
By Timothy Gardner

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Developing emissions markets to encourage farmers in poor countries to store more carbon dioxide in soil should be a key topic on the U.N. climate talks agenda, global warming activist Al Gore said.

"I think that soil carbon conservation and recarbonizing of soil must be the next stage in this negotiating process," former U.S. Vice President Gore told reporters on the sidelines of a climate conference at the United Nations.

Agriculturists can store more carbon in soil through techniques such as no-till farming that leaves crop residue on the ground instead of plowing it up and releasing the carbon into the atmosphere, or through crop rotations.

Gore said that if a clear signal on carbon storage in soil emerged from the 190-nation U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen in December, it would serve as a "very important measure" to help get developing nations to participate in helping to slow climate change.

Rich and poor countries aim to hammer out a new global deal at the Copenhagen meeting on how to slow global warming and deal with its consequences, but talks have stalled on how to share the burden.

In sub-Saharan Africa, soil carbon has been so depleted that it harms food production and is expected to worsen as a consequence of global warming, Gore said.

Soils can hold carbon for thousands of years when dead leaves, crop residue and other vegetation combine chemically with existing soil particles instead of rotting fully. More carbon is held in this way than in trees and other vegetation.

But agricultural techniques such as heavy plowing, the use of too much fertilizer, and the discarding of the practice of rotating crops have led to the depletion of soils and the carbon in them in many countries.

Gore said polluters and investors in rich countries could potentially help invest in projects promoting new and improved agricultural methods that retain carbon, such as no-till farming, in developing countries through carbon credits.

Similar offsets resulting from storing carbon in forests and soils are already available in voluntary carbon markets, including ones for domestic projects on the Chicago Climate Exchange.

Opponents of such programs say the science is still young on measuring how much carbon is stored in this way. As a result, the price for soil sequestration offsets has traditionally trailed the price of other offsets projects such as solar energy farms.

Others say measurements are improving and that the offsets are a huge potential market that could reward farmers and make the soil yield more and better food.

Gore said improving the soil in many poor countries through such offsets could help fight against hunger and malnutrition.

(Editing by Philip Barbara)

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[Today's News] from [CBS News.com]

[World]
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 23, 2009
Obama: U.S. Can't Fix the World Alone
President to Tell U.N. General Assembly that Others Must Now Pull Their Own Weight, Not Just Wait for America

(CBS/AP) Seizing a chance to challenge the world, President Obama says the global community is failing its people and fixing that is not "solely America's endeavor."

"Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world's problems alone," Obama said in a passage of the speech he was delivering Wednesday to the United Nations General Assembly.

The White House released excerpts in advance that carried a remarkably blunt tone.

It comes in Obama's first speech to this world body, a forum like none other for a leader hoping to wash away any lasting images of U.S. unilateralism under President George W. Bush.

In essence, Obama's message is that he expects plenty in return for reaching out.

"We have sought in word and deed a new era of engagement with the world," Obama said, echoing the cooperative theme he promised as a candidate and has since used as a pillar of his foreign policy. "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility."

He said if the world is honest with itself, it has fallen woefully short.

"Extremists sowing terror in pockets of the world," Obama said. "Protracted conflicts that grind on and on. Genocide and mass atrocities. More and more nations with nuclear weapons. Melting ice caps and ravaged populations. Persistent poverty and pandemic disease."

The president added, "I say this not to sow fear, but to state a fact: the magnitude of our challenges has yet to be met by the measure of our action."

Obama's speech is the centerpiece of a dizzying agenda that will also see him holding pivotal meetings with the new Japanese prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Immersed, Obama foreshadowed his message to world leaders in a speech Tuesday to the Clinton Global Initiative. He spoke of nations interconnected by problems, whether a flu strain or an economic collapse or a drug trade that crosses borders.

"Just as no nation can wall itself off from the world, no one nation - no matter how large, no matter how powerful - can meet these challenges alone," Obama said.

While that point is hardly new, it is sharper because of the political context. Obama follows Bush, who at times questioned the U.N.'s toughness and credibility, particularly in containing Iraq's Saddam Hussein. The U.S.-U.N. relationship wilted.

Obama's team is intent on drawing the contrast.

"The United States has dramatically changed the tone, the substance and the practice of our diplomacy at the United Nations," said Susan Rice, Obama's ambassador to the U.N.

But multilateralism has its limits, particularly as national interests collide.

Obama needs the sway of Russia and China in getting tougher U.N. action against Iran over its potential nuclear weapons program, and neither country is showing interest.

While other world leaders could push for Mideast peace, it was Obama who personally intervened in pulling together the Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Tuesday. He showed some impatience as both sides have been stalled over familiar issues.

The good-will feeling of Obama's fresh government is apparent at the United Nations.

But eight months into his presidency, the problems he inherited are now his own, upping expectations for results. His White House is being pressed to right the war in Afghanistan. And his efforts toward diplomacy with adversaries, chiefly Iran and North Korea, are not meant to be open-ended.

Obama's day starts with his meeting with Hatoyama, who has said he wants to shift Japan's diplomatic stance from one that is less centered on Washington's lead.

Later, Obama was meeting with Medvedev. That session comes just days following Obama's decision to abruptly scrap a Bush-era missile defense plan in Eastern Europe that Russia deeply opposed, swapping it for a proposal the U.S. says better targets any launch by Iran.

Russian leaders rejoiced over Obama's move, but he dismissed any role Russia may have played and called it just a bonus if the country is now less "paranoid" about the U.S.


[U.S.]
AUSTELL, Ga., Sept. 23, 2009
Floods Leave Trail of Victims in Southeast
Thousands Homeless in Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama; At Least Nine Killed

(CBS/ AP) As floodwaters around Atlanta began to recede, residents were packing moving vans with furniture and commiserating about water-logged apartments.

"I'm toast," Penny Freeman, who moved into a first-floor apartment five days ago, said Tuesday. "I don't have a place to stay. I'm losing my mind right now."

Hundreds of millions of dollars in damage is estimated and many affected residents don't have flood insurance, reports CBS Early Show weather anchor Dave Price.

At least nine deaths in Georgia and Alabama were blamed on the torrential downpours in the Southeast. The storms finally relented and relief was in sight with just a slight chance of rain overnight, but the onslaught left many parts of the region in stagnant water.

Washed-out roads and flooded freeways around metro Atlanta caused commuters headaches, though many major arteries had reopened by Tuesday night. Gov. Sonny Perdue asked President Barack Obama to declare a state of emergency in Georgia. Officials estimated $250 million in damage in the state.

Many neighborhoods remained awash in several feet of murky, brown water, even as an emerging sun shed light on the widespread flood damage. Robert Blake, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said people should assume floodwater is contaminated and should be cautious when they return to their homes.

Most deaths were from drowning when cars were swept off roadways. Authorities released a 15-minute 911 call of a storm victim's last moments. Seydi Burciaga, 39, screamed to a dispatcher as water rose to her neck. The dispatcher advised her to try to break a window, but she couldn't.

"I don't want to drown here, please!" Burciaga said.

Rescue crews tried to swim into the water to find her, but the floodwaters were moving too fast and they couldn't spot her, Price reports.

Eddie Stroup, an investigator with the Chattooga County Sheriff's Office, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that 14-year-old Nicholas Osley drowned when he and a friend saw a Jeep in the water and drove it to see if they could help if people were stranded. The current from the nearby Chattooga River swept them away, Stroup said. The friend survived.

After several days of steady rain, the ground was saturated from Alabama through Georgia into eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina. The floods came just months after an epic two-year drought in the region ended with winter rains.

In Tennessee, a man was still missing after jumping into the fast-moving water as part of a bet. Boats and trucks evacuated 120 residents from a retirement center as nearby creeks rose, and several hundred others were ferried from low-lying neighborhoods and motels to dry land.

The devastation surrounding Atlanta was widespread. In Austell, about 17 miles west of downtown Atlanta, Sweetwater Creek overflowed its banks, sending muddy water rushing into a nearby mobile home park where several trailers were almost completely submerged.

"We don't know what to do," said Jenny Roque, 30, who lived there with her husband and four children. "The only thing we have left is our truck."

Just down the road, in the Mulberry Creek subdivision, large houses built just five years ago were partially underwater. Some residents tried to salvage anything.

"There's things that you can't replace, but it's just stuff," said Deborah Golden, whose split-level home was mostly underwater. "But there are four people in our family and we're all safe so we're glad for that."

At one of the largest shelters at the Cobb County Civic Center, Shirley Jones sat with others on green cots, chatting about the fate of their homes. Around them, children played games.

"When I saw the water rising, it brought back bad memories," said Jones, who lived in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. The 72-year-old had moved to the area two months ago.

Jones said rescue efforts this time went much more smoothly. A boat retrieved her from a family member's house.

Before being evacuated, Cordell Albert and her husband Christopher moved their valuables to the second floor of their Powder Springs home. The couple waded through knee-deep water before a raft picked them up.

"I feel lost," she said. "I feel homeless."

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[Today's News] from [CBS News.com]

[U.S.]
NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2009
NYPD May Have Blown Cover in Terror Probe
Criminal Complaint Suggests Cops May Have Tipped-Off Zazi by Questioning New York Imam, Seizing Car

(CBS/AP) Police acting without the FBI's knowledge may have inadvertently helped blow the surveillance of a terrorism suspect and compromised a bomb plot investigation at a sensitive stage by questioning an imam about him, a criminal complaint suggests.

"They came to ask me about your characters," the Muslim religious leader, Ahmad Wais Afzali, told Najibullah Zazi in a secretly recorded Sept. 11 telephone conversation. "They asked me about you guys."

At least one of those New York Police Department detectives, referred to in the recently unsealed criminal complaint, works for a division that operates independently from an FBI-run terrorism task force.

The complaint also suggests investigators may have tipped off Zazi, a 24-year-old Denver airport shuttle driver, by towing and searching a rental car he was using on a New York City trip that heightened fears of an attack.

The maneuver, authorities say, produced evidence of bomb-making instructions retrieved from a hard drive on Zazi's laptop.

But it also apparently didn't get by the suspect: In the phone conversation with Afzali, Zazi said the car's disappearance convinced him he was being watched.

NYPD and FBI officials have denied that the potential missteps forced their hand in a series of high-profile raids last week, prompted Zazi to abort his New York visit and caused friction between the two agencies, which work together through the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly, asked Tuesday if he had any concerns about the handling of Afzali, declined comment on the investigation beyond what was in court papers, saying the probe was classified.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne insisted the NYPD and the FBI "worked closely and successfully in this case and in scores of others." He declined further comment.

Zazi, his father and Afzali were arrested over the weekend on charges they lied to the FBI but weren't charged with terrorism, and the scale and scope of the plot remains unclear. They have denied the charges against them.

While no specific terrorist plot has been identified, the Department of Homeland Security has issued bulletins to transit systems, hotels and sports stadiums over the past few days, urging them to raise their awareness and readiness as investigators search for more suspects in a possible al Qaeda plot to set off hydrogen-peroxide bombs.

Law enforcement officials said Zazi may have been plotting with others to detonate backpack bombs on New York trains in a scheme similar to the attacks on the London subway and Madrid's rail system in the last few years. Backpacks and cell phones were seized in raids on apartments Zazi visited in New York.

America's top law enforcement officer believes that threat was very serious, reported CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian.

CBS News learned Tuesday that a hunt was on to see if suspects had stored a cache of explosives somewhere in New York City. In an exclusive interview with "60 Minutes", Attorney General Eric Holder told correspondent Steve Kroft just how urgent the threat was.

"I think we've disrupted that which they've planned and it's not totally clear to us at this point what it is they had in mind, though I think it is clear that something very serious and something very organized was under way," Holder said.

There were no new arrests Tuesday in the terror probe, but sources tell CBS News that up to a dozen people continue to be closely monitored by the FBI.

In a statement, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security said that while the agencies "have no information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack, we believe it is prudent to raise the security awareness of our local law enforcement partners regarding the targets and tactics of previous terrorist activity."

Afzali's attorney, Ron Kuby, has said his client had a history of giving police information as a community liaison and religious leader in his Queens neighborhood. Kuby claimed Afzali was doing their bidding by talking to Zazi and finding out what he was up to.

"My client is being blamed for an investigation botched by the authorities," Kuby said Tuesday. "It's much easier to blame some obscure Afghan imam."

The complaint, filed in federal court in Brooklyn, says NYPD detectives first visited Afzali at his home on Sept. 10.

Around that time, the public was unaware that federal authorities were tracking a suburban Denver man with possible links to al Qaeda who had driven to New York City - Zazi. The complaint says that unnamed detectives showed Afzali photos of Zazi and that Afzali admitted he recognized him.

Kuby said one of the detectives was his client's usual police contact, an investigator assigned to the police department's Intelligence Division, not the terrorism task force.

The day after police spoke to Afzali, the FBI intercepted his phone call with Zazi discussing the NYPD's inquiry. The next day, Afzali's lawyer said, his client had his first-ever contact with the FBI, when he agreed to answer questions at their Manhattan headquarters.

On Sept. 14, Afzali also agreed to a search of his home, then gave DNA samples and a written statement on Sept. 17, the attorney said.

Afzali was arrested on Sunday on charges he lied in the statement by denying that he had tipped off Zazi.


[AP-Sports]
LONDON, Sep. 23, 2009
Japan's New PM Writes IOC Backing Tokyo 2016 Bid
New Japanese PM Sends Letter To IOC Members Assuring Support For Tokyo's 2016 Olympics Bid

(AP) Japan's new prime minister has sent a letter to IOC members assuring them of his government's total support for Tokyo's bid for the 2016 Olympics.

Yukio Hatoyama took office on Sept. 16 after his Democratic Party defeated the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party in elections at the end of August.

In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, Hatoyama reassures International Olympic Committee members that government support for the bid "remains as strong as ever."

Tokyo is competing against Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro. The IOC will vote on the host city in Copenhagen on Oct. 2.

Japanese organizers have urged Hatoyama to travel to Copenhagen for the vote. However, in his letter, he made no commitment to attend.