news20091116gdn1

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Conservation]
Tories reveal plans for 'conservation banks'
The Conservative party plans, which would fund nature protection through the sale of conservation credits to developers, have been met with caution by wildlife groups
John Vidal, environment editor
guardian.co.uk, Monday 16 November 2009 00.05 GMT Article history

Developers would be forced to buy credits from "conservation banks" as a condition of building permission under new Conservative party plans to revolutionise nature protection revealed exclusively to the Guardian.

The hundreds of millions of pounds which could be generated each year will lead to the creation of major new woodlands, wetlands and wildlife corridors, and would also earn money for farmers and charities, they say.

The plans, which have been sent for comment to Britain's major conservation groups by the shadow environment secretary, Nick Herbert, and seen by the Guardian, received a mixed welcome from green groups such as RSPB and Wildlife Trusts.

Many conservationists like the idea in principle if it leads to new funds, but fear that the entry of the free market into nature protection could be a licence to destroy habitats on the promise of compensatory ecological benefits elsewhere. In addition, there are fears that a market-based scheme, if successful, could encourage the government to withdraw public money from nature protection and rely on developers to protect Britain's most valuable wildlife sites.

"We do need a change in attitude to conservation. But there is a danger that it could be used to destroy something on a vague promise that it would be compensated for elsewhere. The devil is in the detail," said Tony Whitbread, chief executive of Sussex Wildlife Trust.

The "banks", which could be run by local communities, voluntary groups or companies, would issue credits to create or manage wildlife reserves or other conservation initiatives. An open market would be set up by the government, and developers would have to buy credits at the going market rate.

"The existing bureaucratic, regulatory approach has failed to halt biodiversity loss. We need radical new thinking to reverse the decline. Our natural ecosystems and the services they provide like carbon storage, water storage, habitat for wildlife are worth billions of pounds. We have to find a way to unlock this value", said Herbert, in an exclusive interview with the Guardian. "With a market approach we can look forward to new ways of supporting wildlife, habitats and landscape."

He denied that the money raised would be a new tax on developers or would lead to companies owning nature reserves. "This is not the privatisation of nature. This will not affect the value of land. It's about opening up a new revenue stream. The market system is a new, additional way to achieve protection of wildlife, not a substitute. I believe there will be a flourishing of schemes across the country," Herbert said.

"We will rule out any proposals that would weaken the existing protection of endangered sites or species and ensure that any measures are in addition to existing safeguards regarding development on green spaces", said Herbert. "My goal is that the schemes would be managed by minimal bureaucracy. Protected land must remain off-limits to development. It is also essential that any new mechanism does not impose additional costs on businesses," he said.

But he declined to say whether the new banks would be run to make a profit or what it could cost to set up and maintain them.

"It's a new idea, and it needs more thinking through, but its definitely an idea worth thinking about," said Mark Avery, conservation director at the RSPB. "But we are perplexed how it would work in practice. The conundrum yet to be worked out is how does it produce lots of money without it being an unpopular tax on development? Also, how do you give local people a big say in how the money is spent whilst making sure that it delivers the greatest conservation benefit?"

"Government could generate a significant market mechanism for getting greater funding into the natural environment by implementing a policy for habitat banking in the UK. In the US wetland mitigation banking alone was worth $3bn in 2008 and there is no reason why we could not stimulate a similar system in the UK", said David Hill, a board member of Natural England and co-founder of the Environment Bank.

The idea was first floated in a speech in February by the Conservative leader, David Cameron. "Conservation credits are about placing a value on biodiversity for the first time, because only if you place a value on something can you truly compensate for loss. This is potentially an incredibly exciting idea to enhance biodiversity, but the practicalities need careful consideration," he said.


[Environment > Guardian Environment Network]
Britain urges European neighbours to adopt UK-style climate law
Germany considering introduction of legally binding climate change act. From BusinessGreen.com, part of the Guardian Environment Network
James Murray, from BusinessGreen.com, part of the Guardian Environment Network
guardian.co.uk, Monday 16 November 2009 12.13 GMT Article history

The British government has teamed up with a number of green groups to promote the UK's Climate Change Act across Europe as part of a campaign to get other countries to introduce similar legislation.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is working closely with Friends of the Earth, which masterminded the original campaign for a UK climate change act, to stage a series of workshops at Embassies across Europe to provide civil servants and business execs with an introduction to the legislation.

Events have already taken place in Budapest, Madrid and last week Berlin, while a workshop is also scheduled for Dublin later this week, with further meetings planned for Poland, The Hague and several other European capitals (full disclosure: BusinessGreen.com presented at the Berlin event).

Officials said that the workshops have been well received, and growing numbers of countries are continuing to emulate the UK's approach and passing carbon emission targets and budgets into law.

The UK Climate Change Act was passed in 2008 and binds successive governments to delivering against the target of cutting emissions 80 per cent by 2050. It also enabled the formation of the independent Committee on Climate Change, and requires governments to set five-year carbon budgets, which they are required to comply with.

Speaking at the Berlin event, Mike Childs, head of climate campaigns at Friends of the Earth, said that versions of the successful Big Ask campaign that preceded the UK Climate Change Act were now up and running in 16 EU countries and Japan. He added that the campaigns were being well received and that support for the wider rollout of climate change bills was building.

"It is very difficult for reasonable people to oppose the introduction of a climate bill," he said. "We know climate change is happening, the bill is structured in a way so that it is not draconian, and it gives businesses the certainty they need to invest in low carbon."

Germany in particular is seriously considering developing a climate change bill, with WWF leading a campaign to see the country's voluntary target of cutting emissions by 40 per cent by 2020 placed on the statute book.

Dr Patrick Graichen, an official at the Federal Environment Ministry, the BMU, revealed that a climate bill was being considered and could be proposed as early as next year. "Our priority at the moment is preparing for Copenhagen, but moving into 2010 there are lots of options on the table and a climate change act could be one," he said.

Childs said that the introduction of a Climate Change Act in the UK had " completely changed the machinery of government in relation to climate change" – a view echoed by James Hughes, head of carbon budgets policy and offsetting at the UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), who said that the need for the government to report annually on its progress was driving "continuous improvement" across government. "The reporting dates are very important," he said. "They leave no scope for inertia."

news20091116gdn2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Copenhagen climate change congerence 2009]
Copenhagen climate talks: No deal, we're out of time, Obama warns
Brown still hopes to salvage climate talks as US rules out binding targets
David Adam, Jonathan Watts and Patrick Wintour
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 15 November 2009 21.36 GMT Article history

Barack Obama acknowledged today that time had run out to secure a legally binding climate deal at the Copenhagen summit in December and threw his support behind plans to delay a formal pact until next year at the earliest.

During a hastily convened meeting in Singapore, the US president supported a Danish plan to salvage something from next month's meeting by aiming to make it a first-stage series of commitments rather than an all-encompassing protocol.

Postponing many contentious decisions on emissions targets, financing and technology transfer until the second-stage, leaders will instead try to reach a political agreement in Copenhagen that sends a strong message of intent.

While this falls short of hopes that the meeting would lock in place a global action plan to replace the Kyoto protocol, it recognises the lack of progress in recent preparatory talks and the hold-ups of climate legislation in the US Senate.

Michael Froman, US deputy national security adviser for economic affairs, said: "There was a realistic assessment ... by the leaders that it was unrealistic to expect a full internationally legally binding agreement to be negotiated between now and when Copenhagen starts in 22 days."

Britain's climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, tried to put a brave face on Obama's move, insisting it is still possible to reach a broad political agreement on carbon emissions targets, but senior Labour MPs admitted they feared the necessary momentum for a detailed agreement would be sucked from the Copenhagen event if politicians know a deal has been postponed to the next scheduled meeting in Mexico City next year.

Gordon Brown had pledged to go to Copenhagen to help broker a deal, insisting there could be no plan B. Miliband again todayurged Obama to attend.

There will now be intense discussions on whether the political agreement at Copenhagen contains any detailed meaningful commitments.

Denmark's prime minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the host and chairman of the climate talks, flew overnight to Singapore to pitch the deferral plan to 19 leaders, including Obama and China's president, Hu Jintao, at an unscheduled event during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. He insisted that the Copenhagen talks could still set political targets and outline commitments.

"Given the time factor and the situation of individual countries we must, in the coming weeks, focus on what is possible and not let ourselves be distracted by what is not," Rasmussen told the leaders. "The Copenhagen agreement should finally mandate continued legal negotiations and set a deadline for their conclusion."

Obama spoke in support of the proposal, cautioning the group not to let the "perfect be the enemy of the good", Froman said.

The proposal by Denmark would buy time for the US Senate to pass carbon-capping legislation, allowing the Obama administration to bring a 2020 target and financing pledges to the table at a UN climate meeting in mid-2010.

But there are many other divisions between developed and developing nations that could prolong talks. It was unclear if China, the world's biggest emitter, and other developing countries supported the two-stage plan.

The level of international support may be clearer at a meeting on Monday of about 40 environment ministers in Copenhagen. Other governments said there was little choice. "Leaders were clear in their view that the current officials-led process is running into all sorts of difficulties, and therefore it is time for leaders, politically, to step in," Australia's prime minister, Kevin Rudd, told reporters after the meeting with Rasmussen. "It's going to be tough as all hell, but let me tell you I believe everyone is seeking, right now, to put their best foot forward."

The development casts new significance on the summit in Beijing tomorrowbetween Obama and Hu.

According to the UK government's former chief scientist Sir David King, these talks are the best chance for the world to agree a new deal. "Once Hu Jintao and Obama agree, I think the rest of the world could fall into place," he told the Guardian. "It's a head of state issue. Obama, through an agreement with Hu Jintao, could be able to deal with some of the concerns of the American population."

Sources close to the US-China talks are playing down the chances of a public breakthrough, saying only modest progress may be announced, in the area of clean technology cooperation. But signs of collaboration could unblock the logjam in the Senate and in international talks.

"Copenhagen has come a year too early. There was no way Obama could get this together for December this year," said King. Chinese negotiators have been saying much the same thing in private.

US officials are anxious about the timing of a likely announcement from China on its first carbon intensity target, thought to be around 40% to 45%reductions relative to economic growth by 2020. Although not internationally binding, a Chinese move could see the Obama administration blamed for a lack of progress.

The extension is not unexpected given the downbeat statements by world leaders in recent weeks. But the delay has frustrated those who feel time is running out. "Heads of states must go beyond simply discussing the problems. They have to start solving them," said Diane McFadzien of the Worldwide Fund for Nature."

• For news and analysis of the UN climate talks in Copenhagen sign up for the Guardian's environment email newsletter Greenlight

news20091116nn1

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 15 November 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.1086
News
Keeping the young Earth cosy
Fluctuating nitrogen levels may help to keep Earth habitable across eons.
Quirin Schiermeier

{{Changes in atmospheric pressure may help to keep Earth habitable.}NASA}

Nitrogen now stored in the planetary crust and mantle may have prevented the early Earth from freezing, scientists suggest. The study lends weight to the idea that on geological timescales atmospheric pressure helps to regulate climate and habitability of Earth-like planets.

When the Earth was born around 4.5 billion years ago, the Sun was a great deal weaker than today. Two billion years on, the budding planet still received only some 80% of today's solar heat.

This has been sufficient to support the evolution of life; but if the young Earth's overall heat balance was roughly similar to what it is now, heat loss would have put much of the planet into deep freeze. Why this didn't happen is a long-standing mystery known as the 'faint young Sun paradox'.

None of the previously proposed solutions, including high ammonia and carbon dioxide abundance, are sufficient to resolve the paradox. Now Colin Goldblatt, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, and colleagues, suggest that nitrogen may have been responsible.

The team examined the isotopes of nitrogen in sediment and rock. Nitrogen that was formerly in the atmosphere has a different isotopic signature than nitrogen that has always been buried. They found that since the Archaean era, 2.5 billion to 3.8 billion years ago, substantial amounts of nitrogen of atmospheric origin have been biologically sequestered in sediments and rocks. Using their data, they estimate that the Earth's crust and mantle store almost twice as much nitrogen as is now in the air. The extra pressure of all that extra gas may have kept the early Earth warm enough to escape extreme glaciation, the team report in Nature Geoscience¹.

"Our inspiration was Venus," says Goldblatt. Earth's sunward neighbour planet, which has an extreme greenhouse climate, has much more nitrogen in its atmosphere than Earth.

Contents under pressure

Nitrogen, which makes up around 75% of the air we breathe, is not a greenhouse gas itself. But larger amounts of nitrogen in the air also gives rise to higher atmospheric pressure. This increases the amount of heat that the lower atmosphere absorbs after the Sun's rays are reflected from the Earth's surface. This mechanism, known as 'pressure broadening', amplifies the natural greenhouse effects of carbon dioxide, water vapour and other gases.

"This is a terrific thought experiment tied to rigorous analysis of the nitrogen cycle," says Timothy Lyons, a biogeochemist at the University of California, Riverside, who was not involved in the study.

"The basic idea — that nitrogen is fixed biologically and buried with organic matter and, through subduction, transferred to the mantle — is clever and clean. The question then becomes one of constraining when and why this sink turned on, and how the world responded."

The team used a special climate model to calculate the effect of increased nitrogen in the young Earth's atmosphere. Under present-day greenhouse gas concentrations, doubling the amount of nitrogen in the atmosphere would increase surface temperatures by 4.4 °C. Around 2.5 billion years ago, when there was 25 times more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than there is now, twice as much nitrogen in the atmosphere would have caused a warming of 12–15 °C — enough to account for the faint young Sun paradox, the scientists found.

The study sheds light on the "fascinating problem" of why Earth has been continuously habitable throughout its lifetime, says Euan Nisbet, a geologist at Royal Holloway, University of London. "There is no final evidence, but increased nitrogen is a very plausible explanation of that rather odd fact," he says.

Natural thermostat?

A group of researchers at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena have recently suggested that a gradual drop in atmospheric pressure, which weakens the greenhouse effect, may help to cool the atmosphere as the Sun gets hotter with age². The two groups, however, worked independently. "We discussed it with Joe [Kirschvink, a co-author of that paper] and had a tacit agreement that we would stick to the past and they would stick to the future," says Goldblatt.

Together, the studies suggest that atmospheric pressure is a subtle planetary tuning mechanism capable of keeping worlds such as ours first warm and then cool enough to support life for billions of years.

Being the result of oxygen-producing photosynthesis, Earth's atmosphere is, ultimately, a biological construction. The studies' "unspoken implication", says Nisbet, is that the 'Gaia hypothesis', which holds that living things have a regulatory effect on the complex Earth system that in turn promotes life overall, has got it right.

References
1. Goldblatt, C. et al. Nat. Geosci. advance online publication doi:10.1038/ngeo692 (2009).
2. Li, K-F., Pahlevan, K., Kirschvink, J.L. & Yung, Y.L. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 9576-9579 doi:10.1073/pnas.0809436106 (2009).

news20091116nn2

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 15 November 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.1084
News
Why pain sometimes lingers
Animals have nerves that can make a soft caress painful.
Lizzie Buchen

A once-mysterious neural pathway may have a crucial role in making injured areas overly sensitive to touch, a study in mice suggests.

When a person has any kind of injury — a broken shin, for example, or a sunburn — the pain system becomes hypersensitized, firing up in response to normally painless sensations induced by, for instance, walking or a gentle massage. Normally, this tenderness protects the vulnerable tissue as it heals. But occasionally the pain can overstay its usefulness, becoming chronic in conditions such as arthritis.

Now, neuroscientists Robert Edwards and Allan Basbaum from the University of California, San Francisco, and their colleagues have found that a small subset of nerve fibres, the function of which remained a puzzle since their discovery decades ago¹, could be routing innocuous touch sensations to the pain pathway when there's an injury.

"Surprise would be an understatement," says Basbaum, referring to the findings. "No one knew anything about what these fibres were doing."

The team's findings are published by Nature².

Getting touchy

The researchers found that the fibres, called unmyelinated low-threshold mechanoreceptors (C-LTMRs), are easily stimulated, unlike classic pain fibres, which respond only when the sensation is intense. But C-LTMRs aren't usually used to detect light touch — this falls to another another major group of sensory neurons — so their role was unclear. The small population of cells have remained enigmatic because they have been difficult to target specifically.

The authors cleared that hurdle when they discovered that these fibres express VGLUT3, a protein necessary for the cells to send signals to other neurons. Because all of the other sensory neurons going to the spinal cord use a different protein — VGLUT1 or VGLUT2 — the authors could engineer mice lacking VGLUT3 to render all the C-LTMRs silent.


{{“Surprise would be an understatement. No one knew anything about what these fibres were doing.”}
Allan Basbaum
UCSF}

Mice without functional C-LTMRs responded in exactly the same way as normal mice when exposed to light touch and to most painful stimuli, including extreme cold or heat or being poked in the paw with thin wires. But then the authors tested how the mice responded after being injured in three other ways: by a chemical that causes inflammation, which occurs in situations ranging from muscle injuries to a misaligned back; an incision, mimicking pain after surgery; and nerve damage.

In all three types of injury, normal mice became much more sensitive to wires poking their paws, quickly flicking the wires away. But mice with silent C-LTMRs showed much the same responses as before they were injured. All mice, however, became more sensitive to heat, suggesting that the C-LTMRs were hypersensitizing the animals to touch rather than to temperature.

There was one type of pain that, without injury, the engineered mice were less sensitive to than normal mice: intense, persistent pain, such as that caused by a clip pinching the tail. The finding seems contradictory, because C-LTMRs are easily stimulated. One possibility is that a small minority of neurons with VGLUT3 respond to pain, Basbaum says.

Paths to pain

Before this study, researchers had demonstrated two ways for animals to become hypersensitive after injury. First, sensory fibres can become more sensitive to stimulation; this is thought to lead to temperature hypersensitization, as happens when sunburn makes a warm shower feel excruciatingly hot. Second, another set of fibres that, like C-LTMRs, have a low threshold and are important for detecting light touch, are believed to be recruited into the spinal cord's pain circuit — any sensation they transmit is then perceived as painful.

"This paper says hold on, there's a whole other population. It's another circuit, a potential target from a clinical perspective," says Basbaum. Basbaum thinks that injury also leads to these fibres' recruitment into the pain circuitry; they may work with the other low-threshold touch fibres or be important for hypersensitivity to different stimuli.

"We knew these fibres existed, but their function was not at all clear until now," says neuroscientist Clifford Woolf at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. "The data show that recruitment of these fibres is a new way of producing mechanical hypersensitivity. It's an exciting example of the specific functions of different sets of sensory neurons."

References
1. Bessou, P. & Perl, E. R. J. Neurophysiology 32, 1025-1043 (1969). | ChemPort |
2. Seal, R. P. et al. Nature advance online publication doi:10.1038/nature08505 (2009).

news20091116reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Spain to install 8.8 GW of renewable energy to 2012
Sun Nov 15, 2009 2:06pm EST

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain plans to bring 8.8 gigawatts of renewable energy generating capacity onstream in 2010-2012, 5.3 GW of which will be wind power and 1.5 GW will be from solar mirrors, the government said on Friday.

Spain's industry ministry has completed the approval of a flood of renewable energy projects it received over the summer, and approved projects will qualify for lucrative subsidies set in 2007, an Industry Ministry spokesman said.

"There could be a few appeals from developers who were not approved, but basically the process is finished and covers installations for the next three years," the spokesman said.

In the case of mirror plants, the government has also approved a further 540 megawatts of power to be brought on stream in 2013, which will give Spain 2.4 GW of generating capacity and make it a world leader in this technology.

(Reporting by Jonathan Gleave; Editing by Keiron Henderson)


[Green Business]
Solar panel supply glut past peak: research
Sun Nov 15, 2009 2:08pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The global glut of solar panels that has overwhelmed the industry for much of 2009 is past its peak as strong demand from Germany, the world's largest solar market, eats up extra supply, according to a report issued on Friday by industry research firm iSuppli.

Solar panels have piled up and prices have tumbled this year since the financial crisis and pullbacks in government incentives in Spain triggered a drop in demand.

The research group previously forecast the oversupply of panels to last through 2010, but said it estimates the glut could be resolved next year.

"Solar-panel installations in Germany began surging to record levels in July as prices for photovoltaic systems plunged," said Henning Wicht, senior director of photovoltaics research for iSuppli, in a statement.

"This phenomenon has boosted the global solar panel business and mitigated the severe oversupply situation that has stung the industry throughout this year."

The global supply of solar panels is expected to exceed demand by nearly 66 percent in 2009, down from the previous forecast in August of about 92 percent overage, iSuppli said.

The report echoes some positive forecasts given by solar power companies that have reported financial results recently.

Chinese solar panel maker Yingli Green Energy Holding Co Ltd posted better-than-expected quarterly profit on Friday and said that demand in Europe is outstripping supply.

European renewable energy companies -- such as Germany's Q-Cells AG, one of the world's largest solar cell makers -- sounded upbeat for 2010 as cost cuts and an expected pickup in demand helped lift profits after a difficult year.

(Reporting by Laura Isensee)


[Green Business]
Australia excludes farms from carbon scheme
Sun Nov 15, 2009 2:16pm EST

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's government has agreed to exclude agriculture from its emissions trading scheme in a major concession to the opposition to try to get carbon trading laws through parliament, a minister said on Sunday.

The scheme has been delayed in the Senate and the move triggered speculation of an impending deal a day before parliament reopens and in the run-up to major U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen next month.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's Labor Party does not have a majority in the Senate and needs the votes of seven other lawmakers to pass the carbon trade bills. A vote is expected during the week of November 23.

His government leads opinion polls, but ministers are seeking passage of the legislation to guard against an early election.

Both sides on Sunday said talks were proceeding.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong announced the concession and called for quick approval by parliament.

"We've got the opportunity to pass for the first time legislation that actually reduces Australia's contribution to climate change," Wong told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"That is why we will continue to move forward in those negotiations because this is in Australia's national interest. We need to get this reform through."

The government had planned to include agriculture in the scheme from 2015. Under the revision, agriculture will be excluded, but farmers will still be able to claim carbon credits.

Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull welcomed the concession, which will please rural voters, a key support base for his conservatives.

"It's certainly a key part of our set of amendments that we've put to the government," Turnbull told Channel Nine television.

The carbon-trade laws were defeated a first time in August in the Senate, but Rudd wants the plan passed before the Copenhagen talks that aim to yield a broader agreement on how to expand the global fight against climate change.

Rudd has been given a key role by Denmark to try to guide the talks and passing the carbon trade laws this month would boost his climate credentials, analysts say.

NEW VOTE EXPECTED

A new vote is expected in the lower house in coming days, after which the bill goes to the Senate. A second defeat in the upper house would give the prime minister the right to call an early election, although he has discounted that option.

Passing the laws would give industry, such as power generators, more certainly on investment plans and financing.

The opposition, however, is deeply split over emissions trading. Many conservatives deny that there is even proof that human activity is causing climate change.

The opposition has also demanded more compensation for emissions-intensive export industries, such as aluminum smelting, cement making and coal mining. Some climate change experts have suggested such concessions could seriously undermine the scheme's effectiveness.

Under the proposed scheme, trading at a fixed price of A$10 a tonne of carbon dioxide would start in July 2011, requiring businesses to secure a permit for every tonne of CO2 they emit, providing an incentive to curb carbon pollution.

The scheme aims to cut emissions by 5 percent from 2000 levels by 2020, or up to 25 percent if a tough international climate agreement is reached. Full market trading would begin from July 2012.

Australian Greens leader Bob Brown, whose party holds several key Senate seats, said the concession would mean the scheme presented at Copenhagen would be a "prescription for failure."

The government on Saturday presented a report saying that nearly a quarter of a million homes along Australia's coastline could be submerged by 2100 unless action were taken to stop sea levels rising.

Australia, the world's biggest coal exporter, produces about 1.5 percent of global emissions and is one of the world's highest per-capita emitters of greenhouse gases.

Rudd came to power in 2007 on a pledge to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and introduce a sweeping carbon-trade system to help curb carbon emissions.

(Sydney Newsroom +612 6273 2730; Editing by Ron Popeski and David Fogarty)

news20091116reut2

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Investment in ecosystems will reap rewards: UNEP
Sun Nov 15, 2009 2:46pm EST
By Nina Chestney

LONDON (Reuters) - Nations that take into account natural resources in their investment strategies will have higher rates of return and stronger economies, a report backed by the United Nations' Environment Programme said on Friday.

With less than one month until a U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen, the report urges policymakers to reform their economic policies to stop the destruction of natural resources such as forests and oceans.

"Repairing the ecosystem by replanting forests, restoring mangroves along coastlines or rebuilding coral reefs are very smart ways of doing adaptation. People going into Copenhagen are not necessarily aware of these things," Pavan Sukhdev, the leader of the study prepared by UNEP's Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity Initiative, told Reuters.

For example, planting and protecting nearly 12,000 hectares of mangroves in Vietnam costs over $1 million but it saves over $7 million in dyke maintenance expenditure.

The report estimates that investment in mangrove and woodland restoration could achieve rates of return up to 40 percent, tropical forest investment up to 50 percent and grassland investment 79 percent.

"We studied the economics of using nature better -- through adaptation and restoration. In each case we found the benefits exceed the cost, typically between 3 and 75 times," Sukhdev said.

Brazil, India and Indonesia emerged as leaders in leveraging natural capital, while Korea has also got good plans, Sukhdev added.

"Governments need to pay attention to this report and start looking at nature in a more holistic way," WWF director Gordon Shepherd said. "With smarter approaches to economics this can change but right now we are paying for their ignorance."

SUBSIDIES

The report also calls for reform to subsidies which harm the environment. The worst subsidies are for fossil fuels, which total between $240 billion and $300 billion a year globally.

Global fishery subsidies, which amount to $34 billion out of a $90 billion market, should also be reformed to prevent the collapse of fisheries around the world.

Measures to combat deforestation, which accounts for almost 20 percent of current greenhouse gas emissions, should also be given priority.

Under a U.N.-market based forestry scheme called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD), rich countries reward developing nations for preserving forests to prevent emissions through the use of an expanded carbon market.

REDD+ expands the idea to protection, restoration and sustainable management of forests.

Several nations want to see REDD incorporated into a new global climate agreement.

"REDD+, as well as ecological restoration, need to be given a bit of a fillet through the Copenhagen process. These are the first two steps on the ladder. When these get going then a lot else will fall in place," Sukhdev said.

(Editing by Sue Thomas)


[Green Business]
World leaders back delay to final climate deal
Sun Nov 15, 2009 5:04pm EST
By Caren Bohan

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders on Sunday supported delaying a legally binding climate pact until 2010 or even later, but European negotiators said the move did not imply weaker action.

Some argued that legal technicalities might otherwise distract the talks in Copenhagen and it was better to focus on the core issue of cutting climate-warming emissions.

"Given the time factor and the situation of individual countries we must, in the coming weeks, focus on what is possible and not let ourselves be distracted by what is not possible," Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told the leaders.

"The Copenhagen Agreement should finally mandate continued legal negotiations and set a deadline for their conclusion," said the Copenhagen talks host, who flew into Singapore to lay out his proposal over breakfast at an Asia-Pacific summit.

Rasmussen said the December 7-18 talks should still agree key elements such as cuts in greenhouse gases for industrialized nations and funds to help developing nations. Copenhagen would also set a deadline for writing them into a legal text.

"We are not aiming to let anyone off the hook," Rasmussen said after the meeting, which was attended by leaders of the United States, China, Japan, Russia, Mexico, Australia and Indonesia.

WAITING FOR UNITED STATES

French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said it was clear the main obstacle was the United States' slow progress in defining its own potential emissions cuts.

"The problem is the United States, there's no doubt about that," Borloo, who has coordinated France's Copenhagen negotiating effort, told Reuters in an interview.

"It's the world's number one power, the biggest emitter (of greenhouse gases), the biggest per capita emitter and it's saying 'I'd like to but I can't'. That's the issue," he said.

Danish and Swedish officials said they wanted all developed countries including the United States to promise numbers for cuts in emissions in Copenhagen. The U.S. Senate has not yet agreed carbon-capping legislation.

"There was an assessment by the leaders that it was unrealistic to expect a full, internationally legally binding agreement to be negotiated between now and when Copenhagen starts in 22 days," said U.S. negotiator Michael Froman.

"We believe it is better to have something good than to have nothing at all," said Chilean Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez. The next major U.N. climate meeting is in Bonn in mid-2010.

"Copenhagen can and must deliver clarity on emission reductions and the finance to kickstart action. I have seen nothing to change my view on that," said Yvo de Boer, the U.N.'s top climate change official. Ministers from 40 nations will meet in Copenhagen on Monday and Tuesday for preparatory talks.

Copenhagen was seen as the last chance for countries to agree on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, aiming to fight a rise in temperatures that many scientists predict will bring rising sea levels and more floods and droughts.

The aim of the summit is to set ambitious targets for cutting greenhouse gases in industrialized nations, but also to raise funds to help poor countries slow their own emissions growth and tackle the worst impacts on crops and water supplies.

But negotiations have been bogged down, with developing nations accusing the rich world of failing to set themselves deep enough 2020 goals for curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

FINANCING FIRST

It was not clear if China, now the world's biggest carbon emitter, had backed the two-stage proposal in Singapore.

Chinese President Hu Jintao instead focused his remarks at the breakfast meeting on the need to establish a funding mechanism for rich nations to provide financial support to developing countries to fight climate change.

Britain's Energy and Climate Secretary Ed Miliband told the BBC the issue was tough but he was "quite optimistic".

"It is about saving the world ... If we can get a very clear set of commitments from the world's leaders in Copenhagen on how they're going to cut their emissions -- not just Europe, not just the United States but India and China and other countries -- then that will be a very major step forward," he said.

Despite the talk in Singapore of urgent action on climate change, a statement issued after the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit dropped an earlier draft's reference to halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Environmental lobby group WWF was disappointed.

"At APEC, there was far too much talk about delay," spokesperson Diane McFadzien said in a statement.

"In Copenhagen, governments need to create a legally binding framework with an amended Kyoto Protocol and a new Copenhagen Protocol. Legally binding is the only thing that will do if we want to see real action to save the planet."

(Additional reporting by David Fogarty, Oleg Shchedrov, Yoo Choonsik and Lucy Hornby, Stefano Ambrogi in London, Emmanuel Jarry and James Mckenzie in Paris, Alister Doyle in Oslo and Pete Harrison in Brussels; Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Jon Hemming)

news20091116reut3

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
China selects 294 solar power plants for subsidy
Sun Nov 15, 2009 10:44pm EST

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has identified 294 solar power projects with total generating capacity of 642 megawatts (MW) in its first pilot program.

Beijing has said it will subsidies at least half of the investment cost.

The capacity will be nearly 30 percent more than the minimum target Beijing set in July when it launched the unprecedented "golden sun" plan, which was part of China's drive to catch up in a global race to find alternatives to fossil fuels.

These projects were expected to cost around 20 billion yuan ($2.93 billion) and be ready for use in two or three years, the Ministry of Finance said in a release on its website (www.mof.gov.cn).

Of the projects, 232 with total generating capacity of 290 MW will be constructed by major industrial and commercial firms and the power output would be consumed by themselves.

Twenty-seven independent photovoltaic power generating projects, with total capacity of 46 MW, will be built in remote regions that have no power supply. The projects were expected to generate enough power to meet demand for more than 300,000 residents in the regions.

The remaining 35 projects, with total capacity of 306 MW, would be utility-scale plants, whose power output would be fed into grid networks.

The finance ministry also laid out specific price and quality requirements for parts and components in the qualified solar power projects, but it did not provide project names or where they are located.

The Ministry of Finance had said the government would subsidies 50 percent of investment for solar power projects as well as relevant power transmission and distribution systems that connect to grid networks, 70 percent of cost for independent solar projects in powerless regions.

In March, the ministry said it would provide 20 yuan per watt peak (Wp) of subsidy for solar projects attached to buildings that have capacity of more than 50 kilowatt peak, which could cut the power generating cost by around half to about 1 yuan per kilowatt-hour.

China is expected to raise its 2020 solar power generation target more than fivefold to at least 10 gigawatts (GW). With incentives, analysts expect over 2 GW in new solar capacity will be installed as early as 2011, up from just over 100 MW in 2008.

China has more than 800 GW of power generating capacity, and around three quarters of them are fired by coal.

(Reporting by Jim Bai and Chen Aizhu, Editing by Jacqueline Wong)


[Green Business]
India's Suzlon gets 21 MW wind turbine order
Sun Nov 15, 2009 11:37pm EST

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy Ltd said on Monday its north American unit got an order to supply wind turbines with a capacity to produce 21 megawatts of electricity.

(Reporting by Narayanan Somasundaram; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)


[Green Business]
Copenhagen deal to help boost climate fund flows
Mon Nov 16, 2009 5:19am EST
By Natsuko Waki - Analysis

LONDON (Reuters) - Agreement in Copenhagen next month on a new pact to fight climate change will encourage long-term investors to move into firms better placed to cope with a likely and eventual rise in the cost of carbon emissions.

A strong political deal including targets for emission cuts at the Dec 7-18 summit might be just enough to accelerate moves by investors such as pension funds or sovereign wealth funds to adjust portfolios to better reflect long-term risks from climate change, asset managers reckon.

It is also likely to boost growth rates of firms which are either energy self-sufficient or engage in alternative energy such as wind or solar, while pressuring emission-intensive industries such as utilities, aluminum or car makers.

And a more concrete deal -- such as a legally binding target to cut emissions -- would likely to prompt funds to start to change their asset allocation now to protect portfolios from the impact on companies hit by a rising cost of emissions.

"It's effectively a global treaty to control pollutants. You are intervening in the economy to control and internalize the cost of carbon," said Bruce Jenkyn-Jones, managing director of listed equities at Impax Asset Management.

"The idea that... people will pay for carbon right across the economy will have an impact on products and services. Big energy producers, utilities and industrials will be affected."

Impax manages a total of 50 million pounds in global equities for the UK Environmental Agency's Active Pension Fund.

The strength of a Copenhagen deal is still very uncertain. At a preparatory UN meeting in Barcelona last week, developed countries played down expectations of agreement on a legally binding text, saying that would take an additional 6-12 months.

But developing countries are suspicious of backtracking on commitments from rich nations which have promised to lead in the fight against climate change. They insisted on a legally binding deal in December.

"Politicians have done a good job of lowering expectations. That's exactly why there's real opportunity here. Decisions made in Copenhagen will dramatically influence growth rates of companies you are investing in," said Simon Webber, fund manager at Schroders.

He reckons immediately affected industries from a concrete deal included power generation, utilities and transport, citing that some utilities -- such as Germany's RWE -- could face higher carbon costs that are equal to almost a third of operating profits in the next few years.

He added the $26 billion deal in November by Warren Buffett to buy railway firm Burlington Northern Santa Fe highlighted the long-term viability of rails.

"(An aggressive deal) will mean nuclear power and solar growth rates will take off in these industries. There will be a major shift from combustion engine cars to electric vehicles. There's no other way of meeting tough initial targets," he said.

Malcolm Gray, portfolio manager at Investec Asset Management, says energy self-sufficient industries such as sugar can better cope with emission reductions and will attract flows. Some utilities in the traditional thermal space and aluminum producers that are not diversified will be exposed.

As the cost of goods will be adjusted to take into account the increased cost of production as a result of high carbon prices, consumers with less disposable income and some high-volume low-margin retail business might also be losers.

"We are faced with a world which has a lot more embedded inflation than people currently realize. You could be caught up with a slightly more aggressive inflation cycle globally compared with the deflating world we're currently in," he said.

RISK MITIGATION AND OPPORTUNITIES

The outcome of Copenhagen talks would enable investors to mitigate portfolio risks by better forecasting the likely pace of the rise in the cost of carbon emissions, and seek new investment in industries which benefit from alternative energy.

Long-term investors, such as sovereign funds, are already getting increasingly active in environmental investing, at a time when private sector involvement has been somewhat slow.

Norway's $400 billion-plus oil fund, the biggest owner of European stocks, is investing more than $3 billion over five years into firms engaged in environmental technologies. It is also pushing companies it holds to tackle climate change harder.

"We're best served by promoting good standards of corporate behavior. This is something very consistent with pursuing long-term investment objectives," Martin Skancke, director general of Norway's Ministry of Finance Asset Management Department, told Reuters last month.

Rabobank says the Copenhagen outcome will clarify the framework for the unlisted Dutch bank which is already taking into account the cost of carbon emissions as a risk factor in granting credit facilities.

"We will deal with risk mitigation and business opportunities will come in time," said Ruud Nijs, head of corporate social responsibility at Rabobank.

"If the costs of climate change were taxed -- suddenly we will look at the credit portfolio in a different way. If one of our customers now has to pay for the price for climate, then the risk factor to that customer will change dramatically."

The bank has been investing in renewables in deals worth over 4 billion euros, with its investments in its credit investment portfolio in the past 18 months all in clean technology.

It is a sole debt provider to the Belfuture solar project, worth a couple of hundreds of million euros. It has given project financing of senior debt and equity financing worth 620 million euros for the Belwind offshore wind farm project.

"Copenhagen brings us a better framework to do business with. The positive outcome will automatically generate big cleantech deals, investment in solar, wind and biomass technologies. The pipeline will also increase," Nijs said.

(Editing by Toby Chopra)

news20091116reut4

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Suntech to construct solar plant in Arizona
Sun Nov 15, 2009 11:25pm EST

(Reuters) - Chinese solar panel maker Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd said on Sunday it would construct its first U.S. manufacturing plant in the state of Arizona, in a move to tap increasing demand for solar power in the United States.

The plant, which will be built in the greater Phoenix area, will have an initial production capacity of 30 megawatts (MW) and is likely to start production in the third quarter of 2010, the company said in a statement.

Suntech said the plant would employ over 75 full-time employees at launch and the number may double within the year.

The plant is "configured for growth to respond to the expected expansion of the U.S. solar market in the coming years," Suntech said in a statement.

Solar companies have struggled over the past 12 months as a glut of supplies on the global market has depressed prices, but Suntech's rival Yingli Green Energy Holding Co Ltd's better-than-expected third-quarter results last week indicated the sector may be rebounding.

(Reporting by Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore; Editing by Lincoln Feast)


[Green Business]
EU carbon rises, ignores climate pact delay
Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:39am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - European carbon emissions futures rose slightly on Monday, unaffected by confirmation from world leaders that a legally binding climate pact will be delayed until 2010 or later.

EU Allowances (EUAs) for December delivery rose by 10 cents or 0.75 percent to 13.51 euros ($20.23) a tonne at 1322 GMT.

"Prices have not reacted to news that 2010 is the new deadline. The market has widely expected this for the past six months," an emissions trader said.

Denmark, the host of the Copenhagen U.N. climate change talks, on Monday proposed the end of 2010 as a new deadline for the conclusion of a binding treaty on cutting greenhouse emissions. [ID:nLG376751]

U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders on Sunday supported delaying a legally binding climate pact until 2010 or even later. [ID:nSP284703]

Traders said the delay was widely expected. Climate talks in Barcelona at the start of November alluded to delay but lack of progress well before that dampened expectations.

Carbon prices took support from firmer oil and German power prices on Monday, traders said.

U.S. oil rose above $77 a barrel on Monday, taking back most of last week's 1.4 percent losses as the dollar drifted lower.

German Calendar 2010 baseload power on the EEX was up 21 cents or 0.45 percent at 46.45 euros per megawatt hour.

U.N.-backed certified emissions reductions (CERs) rose by 6 cents or 0.49 percent to 12.35 euros a tonne. The EUA-CER spread was at 1.16 euros.

EDF Trading has signed a deal with renewable energy company Bionersis to buy carbon credits from four landfill gas projects in Latin America for an undisclosed amount, the EDF subsidiary said on Monday. [ID:nLG384248]

(Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by xxx)