news20091201jt1

[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2009
Ichihashi to be charged with Hawker's murder

CHIBA (Kyodo) Police plan to pursue charges against Tatsuya Ichihashi in the 2007 murder of Briton Lindsay Ann Hawker, investigative sources said Monday.

Ichihashi, 30, was arrested Nov. 10 in Osaka following more than 2 1/2 years on the run. He faced an initial charge of abandoning the body of Hawker, a 22-year-old language teacher whose corpse was found on the balcony of his apartment in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, in 2007.

He will be served with an arrest warrant on the murder charge Wednesday, when his current period of detention expires, according to the sources.

Investigators suspect Ichihashi took Hawker to his apartment and he remained there until just before her body was discovered. Police believe a fresh warrant can be issued with this information and the fact that Hawker apparently was murdered.

Ichihashi so far has remained silent.

He managed to flee when officers went to the apartment in March 2007 after getting a tip that he might know something about Hawker's disappearance. They subsequently found her naked body in a sand-filled bathtub on the balcony.

Hawker, who sustained injuries to her face and other parts of her body, had been strangled to death.

Ichihashi's arrest came after a surgeon released a photo showing Ichihashi's face following cosmetic surgery.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2009
Domestic flights limit carry-on size to keep schedules flowing
By KAZUAKI NAGATA
Staff writer

Japanese airlines on Tuesday will start enforcing size restrictions on domestic flight carry-on luggage in an effort to minimize delays caused by trying to stow items that are too big.

The overall dimension for carry-on baggage on aircraft that can seat 100 or more passengers must not exceed 55 cm by 40 cm by 25 cm.

For aircraft that seat 100 or fewer passengers, the dimensions must measure no more than 45 cm by 35 cm by 20 cm.

Carry-on luggage that can be stowed, limited to one item per passenger, will be measured at security checkpoints. Items exceeding the limits will have to be checked in. If passengers want to carry on an oversize item, they will have to pay a fee to secure space for the luggage in the passenger cabin.

In the case of All Nippon Airways, it costs some ¥10,000 to carry on an oversize item that can be placed on a vacant seat.

The Tokyo-based Scheduled Airlines Association of Japan reported there were 4,800 cases in which flights were delayed due to carry-on baggage problems in the 2008 business year.

"Unifying the size will hopefully reduce flight delays and clarify the size limits for customers," association official Toshiya Shimada said.

"Previously, carry-on luggage limits varied by carrier. There were cases in which passengers (using different airlines for a round trip) could carry on items on the outbound trip but could not do so when returning home," he said.

Also depending on the situation, existing rules were not strictly enforced, such as when flights had many empty seats.

Kojiro Waki, a spokesman for Japan Airlines Corp., said the unified limits will benefit both customers and the airlines.

"It will make it easier for customers (to know the limits)," Waki said, adding it will also improve punctuality and flight safety, as airlines will make efforts to enforce the new rules.

The new regulation may have a significant impact on some travelers, particularly musicians.

Takeshi Shinohara, a representative of the Musicians' Unions of Japan, said the new rule will pose a problem for travelers seeking to carry on a violin or viola.

Previous limits weren't strictly enforced, and employees at the gates and cabin crew members were allowed some discretion.

In most cases, violins were allowed to be carried on, Shinohara said.

If the unified rule is strictly applied, violins or violas will have to be checked in or not taken, unless the fee is paid.

"We don't feel comfortable checking instruments into the cargo hold," Shinohara said, noting musicians worry their instruments could be damaged.

Security eased
NARITA , Chiba Pref. (Kyodo) The operator of Narita International Airport plans to remove the security checkpoints at the railway stations located within its premises amid calls for the airport to be more user-friendly.

Part of the first full-scale security system review since the airport opened in 1978, officials of Narita International Airport Corp. said Sunday the company is also considering easing the security checks being conducted at the airport's entry gates for vehicles.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2009
Don't be like U.S.: Michael Moore
By MINORU MATSUTANI
Staff writer

American movie director Michael Moore came to Japan for the first time Monday to plug his new movie "Capitalism: A Love Story" and to urge the country not to follow the path taken by the United States, where he says the gap between rich and poor is extreme.

"As much as I love America, quit being like us," Moore said at a news conference at the Tokyo Stock Exchange. "Be Japan. Be the Japan that has been creative since 1945. Be the Japan that never throws people out of work."

Moore's movie, which opens Saturday in Japan, is a sharply satirical documentary about capitalism, focusing on the wealth gap in the U.S. Its promotion flier says corporate executives get paid 400 times as much as employees while ordinary people suffer a housing foreclosure every 7 1/2 seconds and 14,000 people lose their jobs every day in the U.S.

Moore, whose works include "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "Sicko," first praised Japan for being much more democratic than the U.S. in the sense that Japanese society is structured to save the poor, referring to the medical care system.

The biggest cause of personal bankruptcy in the U.S. is medical bills, but no Japanese lose their homes because they cannot afford medical bills, he said.

While admitting that Japan is much better than his country in establishing a safety net for the poor, he warned that Japan has been becoming more like America.

"(In the) last 20 years, you (Japan) decided to change through a series of conservative prime ministers, including (an) Elvis impersonator (Junichiro Koizumi)," he said. "Now you are starting to get some of the problems we have. More crimes, unemployment.

"Your conservative government started to cut off (the) safety net, cut off money from health care, education, throw people out of work, make it harder for Japanese who don't make as much money, punish them for being poor," he said.

Moore also expressed regret that Japan agreed to deploy the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq and the Persian Gulf.

"You gave him (former U.S. President George W. Bush) legitimacy," he said, explaining that Bush may not have been able to start the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq if Japan, Britain and other countries hadn't supported him.

Nevertheless, Moore voiced admiration for Japan in general. He also expressed hope that the Democratic Party of Japan-led government shifts away from the American way.

"My humble plea is to come off the (American way) road with the new prime minister and get back on the road to the country I admire," he said.

He also expressed gratitude that the TSE let him hold his news conference, something the New York Stock Exchange wouldn't permit.

news20091201jt2

[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[BUSINESS NEWS]
Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2009
ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE
Electric vehicle market charges up
By KAZUAKI NAGATA FOURTH IN A SERIES
Staff writer

Keio University engineering professor Hiroshi Shimizu believes the era of the electric vehicle is near.

Shimizu established the Sim-Drive Corp. venture in August with others who believe in the cars' potential, including Soichiro Fukutake, chairman of publisher Benesse Co.

"I've been developing EVs for 30 years and have always thought they would someday become widespread," said Shimizu, who has created nine electric vehicles in that span.

"It has become a time when we can do something by establishing a company."

By using Shimizu's three decades of research, the venture firm plans to provide electric drive technologies to car manufacturers. Shimizu, for instance, has developed a system in which the motor is mounted to hubs — instead of occupying an engine compartment and requiring a mechanical drivetrain linkage — thus freeing up a lot of space above the frame.

Shimizu's company is part of a surge in ventures looking to tap the potential of the electric vehicle market.

With Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's ambitious pledge to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels, it has become imperative that Japan aggressively pursue green technologies.

Enter the electric vehicle, which emits no carbon dioxide, except when being charged, and looms as an alternative for gasoline-powered cars.

Tokyo-based Auto EV Japan Co., which sells the Girasole electric compact, and Tesla Motors Inc., a Silicon Valley venture founded in 2003, entered the EV market in the early days.

Newcomers face a hard time breaking into the conventional car market because the auto giants and their affiliated parts makers have well-established production infrastructure and distribution systems.

Electric vehicles, however, can offer opportunities to startups and nonautomotive battery makers because there aren't yet any leading players in the field. Also, the component infrastructure is not as demanding because EVs run on battery-powered motors.

But major carmakers are exploring the potential of electric vehicles, and thus ventures may have a tough time competing down the road.

"It is important for carmakers to produce vehicles that are comfortable and user-friendly. Existing carmakers lead in these areas, so new and venture firms are at a disadvantage. They will have to build up their experience," said researcher Masahiro Fukuda of Fourin Inc., which studies the world's car industry. Fukuda is head of the department that studies Japan's automotive market.

Major carmakers are already in the EV game.

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is aggressively marketing its first electric car, the i-MiEV. Nissan Motor Co. is meanwhile upping the ante, preparing to debut its first electric model, the Leaf, in the latter half of fiscal 2010.

"We've positioned electric cars as one of the pillars for our business," MMC President Osamu Masuko said in June.

Toyota Corp., which leads the hybrid car market, plans to sell EVs in the U.S. by 2012.

According to a report compiled in May by Tokyo-based market researcher Fuji-Keizai Group, EV production will amount to 135,000 units in 2020, compared with 3,000 in 2010. It will take until 2025 or later for the market to reach maturity, because infrastructure, including charging stations, and battery technology won't be fully developed until then.

Despite such figures, experts doubt electric vehicles will become the mainstay mode of transportation in the foreseeable future.

"We don't know (how widely consumers will embrace EVs) because the current economy is based on the production of gasoline," said Manabu Takeoka, director of management of Takeoka Auto Craft, based in Toyama Prefecture.

Takeoka's firm began developing electric vehicles in 1995 and currently produces and sells small ones. His firm produces about 80 annually.

To expand the market, he said there needs to be more benefits and incentives to encourage consumers to switch from gasoline-fueled cars.

People will purchase EVs if, for instance, they don't have to pay for parking or are exempt from car-related taxes, Takeoka said. He points to London as a model, where drivers of gasoline-powered cars must pay an extra tax when entering the city while EV users don't.

Technology and vehicle capability still must be improved, said Fukuda of Fourin, adding that EVs generally have less range per charge than gasoline-fueled cars on a full tank.

"Carmakers are researching not only electric vehicles, but also other environmentally friendly cars, including fuel-cell vehicles," Fukuda said. "I think they are still wondering what type of car they should focus on."

Despite this kind of skepticism, Sim-Drive's Shimizu remains a true believer.

He says the key for EVs to expand is whether carmakers, big-name or not, actually start mass production. That has yet to happen.

Once electric vehicles come roaring off assembly lines, they will become price competitive with gasoline-fueled cars, and their operating costs will be less because the price of electricity is about a 10th that of gasoline, Shimizu said

"From inefficient to efficient, clumsy to handy and complex to simple, there is a flow of technology. When thinking about that, the shift will be to electric," said Shimizu. "Looking at transitions of technologies in the past, when the technology improves (in a certain field), the market becomes drastically bigger. So I think both (existing carmakers and new players) can survive, and this is based on the premise that the market will be larger."

news20091201gdn

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environmnt > Ozone layer]
Antarctica may heat up dramatically as ozone hole repairs, warn scientists
As blanket of ozone over southern pole seals up, temperatures on continent could soar by 3C, increasing sea level rise by 1.4m
Alok Jha, green technology correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 1 December 2009 09.06 GMT Article history

The hole in the Earth's ozone layer has shielded Antarctica from the worst effects of global warming until now, according to the most comprehensive review to date of the state of the Antarctic climate. But scientists warned that as the hole closes up in the next few decades, temperatures on the continent could rise by around 3C on average, with melting ice contributing to a global sea-level increases of up to 1.4m.

The western Antarctic peninsula has seen rapid ice loss as the world has warmed, but other parts of the continent have paradoxically been cooling, with a 10% increase in ice in the seas around the region in recent decades. Many climate change sceptics have used the Antarctic cooling as evidence against global warming.

But John Turner of the British Antarctic Survey said scientists are now "very confident" that the anomaly had caused by the ozone hole above Antarctica. "We knew that, when we took away this blanket of ozone, we would have more ultra-violet radiation. But we didn't realise the extent to which it would change the atmospheric circulation of the Antarctic."

These changes in weather have increased winds in the Southern Ocean region and meant that a large part of the continent has remained relatively cool compared with the western peninsula. But because the the CFC gasses that caused the ozone hole now been banned, scientists expect the damage to repair itself within the next 50-60 years. By then the cooling effect will have faded out and Turner said the Antarctic would face the full effects of global warming. This means an increase in average air temperatures of around 3C and a reduction in sea ice by around a third.

The biggest threat to the continent comes from warming seas. Robert Binschadler, a glaciologist at Nasa who monitors Antarctic ice sheets, said: "The heat in the ocean is getting underneath the floating ice shelves, these floating fringes of the ice sheet that are hundreds of metres thick. That warm water is melting the underside of the ice shelf, reducing the buttressing effect." Thinning of the ice shelf at the fringes leads to glaciers moving more quickly.

The retreat of ice from Antarctica has contributed around 10% to global sea-level rise in recent decades. "The danger is that this warmer water will get under these ice shelves and cause the ice streams to get faster and feed ice out into the ocean," said Turner.

Published by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), a coalition of international experts that coordinates international research in the region, the report has been published to give negotiators in Copenhagen the most up-to-date science available. "Everything is connected — Antarctica may be a long way away but it is an important part of the Earth's system," said Colin Summerhayes, executive director of SCAR. "It contains 90% of the world's ice, 70% of the world's fresh water and that is enough, if it melts, to raise sea levels by 63m."

SCAR's review also corroborated recent work by Stefan Rahmstorf, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts Research in Germany, that average sea-level rise will be closer to 1.4m by the end of the century. This is higher than the rise predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007, said Turner, because the IPCC's forecasts did not include the impact of melting ice sheets on sea level rises. Many of the climate models used by the IPCC have also not taken the ozone hole into account in their simulations.


[Environment > Emission trading]
Australian opposition dumps its leader over carbon trading bill
Liberals choose new leader as climate change policy splits party, bringing country closer to early elections
Associated Press, Sydney
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 1 December 2009 10.34 GMT Article history

Australia's plans to become one of the first nations with a carbon trading system to cut greenhouse gas emissions were dealt a blow today when the main opposition party dumped its leader who supported the idea and chose one who vowed to vote it down.

A tumultuous day in politics also means the country could also be one step closer to early elections, with policy differences over global warming placing it as a central issue of the coming campaign.

Debate in the senate on the government's plans for an emissions trading system continued today as the conservative Liberal party ejected one leader from the post and elected another. A final vote could come at almost any time.

The conservatives have split bitterly and publicly in the past week over the bill, culminating in the leadership challenge. Right-leaning Tony Abbott won the vote, ousting Malcolm Turnbull, who had struck a deal with the government to support the bill.

Abbott said his party would now move to defer the bill until after next week's UN global summit on climate change in Copenhagen, and possibly longer. If the bill is not deferred, the opposition would vote against it this week in the senate, he said. The government lacks a majority in the senate, and the bill will almost certainly fail if the Liberals vote against it.

If the bill is defeated, the prime minister, Kevin Rudd, is handed a trigger to call an election at any time under constitutional rules meant to be the ultimate resolution to any deadlock between Australia's two houses of parliament.

Rudd is unlikely to call an election immediately, partly because of the Christmas-New Year holiday season. Elections are, however, due sometime next year, and opinion polls consistently show the prime minister rating highly.

Rudd wants the legislation passed before the Copenhagen summit to help portray him as a world leader on tackling climate change.

Australia is a small greenhouse gas polluter in global terms, but one of the worst per capita because it relies heavily for its electricity on its abundant reserves of coal, which also make it the world's largest exporter of the polluting fuel. As the driest continent after Antarctica, it is also considered one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change.

The European Union has a carbon trading system, as do some US states. Canada and New Zealand are among countries considering them.

Under the government's plan, an annual limit would be placed on the amount of greenhouse gases allowed to be pumped into the atmosphere and permits would be issued to regulate that ceiling. The permits could be bought and sold, setting up a market system that makes reducing emissions potentially profitable for polluting companies.

Rudd wants to slash Australia's emissions by up to 25% below 2000 levels by 2020 if a tough emissions reduction deal is struck in Copenhagen.

Abbott said the proposed system amounts to a massive new tax that would curb economic growth — shrugging off opinion polls that say most Australians want the government to act against climate change.

"I am really not frightened of an election on this issue," Abbott told reporters.

Rudd, speaking in Washington shortly before Abbott was elected his party's leader, said the conservatives were dragging their heels on the issue and that "further delay equals denial on climate change".

news20091201nn

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 30 November 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/462552a
News
Spanish awards rekindle old rivalries
Infrastructure programme steers substantial resources to major cities, upsetting some regional centres.
Lucas Laursen

{{A University of Barcelona project has won the status of ‘Campus of International Excellence’.}
P. Aprahamian/CORBIS}

An ambitious effort to develop Spanish universities into campuses that are among Europe's best has stoked some long-standing regional rivalries.

On 26 November, the government announced which universities would benefit from the inaugural round of an annual programme called the Campus of International Excellence, administered jointly by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the Ministry of Education. The €150-million (US$226-million) scheme is designed to steer resources, in the form of government seed money and loans, to the strategic infrastructure projects with the most potential to aid teaching and research.

But with €73 million of this year's financing going to just five proposals from institutions in Madrid and Barcelona, the awards have already provoked complaints of regional bias in a country that has a long history of wrangling over the way that resources tend to be channelled towards its metropolitan centres.

Following the Ministry of the President's announcement of the competition on 23 July, an initial selection round saw 51 entrants share €53 million in seed funding to develop their proposals. The 18 winners were then divided into three tiers: the five Campuses of International Excellence; four Regional Campuses of Excellence, which share €30.1 million; and nine Promising Projects, mostly awarded between €2 million and €4 million (see graphic).

Regional universities dominate this lowest tier. "We're discouraged," says agricultural engineer Juan Julía Igual, rector of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, which won a total of €8 million for its plan to create a campus based around health and sustainability research. "The goal is positive, but the way it proceeded is unacceptable."

Julía Igual is particularly critical of the labelling system used to rank the proposals. "Classifying institutions as Promising Projects makes us sound almost like the junior football leagues," he says. "Valencia Polytechnic appears ahead of its Madrid and Barcelona equivalents in international rankings, so I find it hard to believe that they were the only Spanish campuses of international excellence."

Call for transparency
Julía Igual says that in the future, the government should use a more transparent competition system that is based on international ranking models, and it should raise the overall budget. "The funding agencies need to recognize the same reality the international rankings do." However, Ministry of Education spokesman Fernando Herranz counters that "the objective of this plan was not to create another ranking". And responding to the charges of regional bias, he adds that "with more than 50 applicants, not everybody can win".

María José Alonso, vice-rector for research at the University of Santiago de Compostela, is involved in the university's €150-million 'Campus of Life' campaign. The project was awarded €7.5 million, she thinks, because it focuses on the institute's strongest disciplines and draws in its neighbours and other agencies. "It was obvious we weren't going to win it all from this ministry call," she says. Despite the modest size of the award, she says, "we understand it is a stimulus and a stamp of approval from the central government. It will help us negotiate with the regional government for even more support," she says.

The goal of creating centres of excellence was partly inspired by Germany's Excellence Initiative, a competition between universities to win elite status that recently had its €2.7-billion budget for the period 2012–17 confirmed (see Nature 462, 24; 2009).

But the programmes have different goals, says Matthias Kleiner, who oversees Germany's excellence initiative and is president of the nation's Research Foundation (DFG). Kleiner, who was a member of the international committee asked to evaluate the Spanish proposals, points out that the German initiative focuses on research, whereas teaching is a very important part of the Spanish one.


[naturenews]
Published online 30 November 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/462553a
News
US bioethics commission promises policy action
Obama launches wide-ranging advisory body.
Vicki Brower

{{Amy Gutmann is to head the US bioethics commission.}
Univ. Pennsylvania}

Five months after abruptly dismantling the bioethics advisory council left by his predecessor, US President Barack Obama last week created a new bioethics commission that will move beyond the issues that consumed previous panels, such as stem cells and cloning. Based within the Department of Health and Human Services, the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues is explicitly charged with recommending legislative and regulatory action and promises to have more influence on policy.

Bioethical, social and legal questions relating to genomics and behavioural research are all on the commission's agenda. So are issues of intellectual property, scientific integrity and conflicts of interest in research.

The contrast with the previous bioethics council established by President George W. Bush is stark. Bioethicist George Annas of Boston University, Massachusetts, has described that council, which existed in two incarnations, as having a "narrow, embryo-centric agenda", focusing largely on the research implications of questions such as the moral status of the embryo and when life begins (see Nature 431, 19–20; 2004).

In another break with the past, Obama has chosen not to appoint bioethicists to lead the commission. Instead, it will be chaired by political theorist Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and its vice-chair will be materials scientist James Wagner, president of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Gutmann's work deals with deliberative democracy, and using reasoned argument to depolarize politics. Wagner served at the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Devices and Radiological Health for a decade, and now, as Emory's president, stresses that ethical engagement is integral to the university's strategic vision.

"The appointments of Gutmann and Wagner reinforce the expectation that this commission will seek to provide practical, actionable guidance to the administration and the country," says Ruth Faden, executive director of the Berman Institute of Bioethics at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. "This is a wise way to structure the leadership of the commission."

The remaining members of the 13-strong commission are expected to include bioethicists specializing in medicine and law, along with experts chosen from the fields of science, engineering, theology and philosophy. Between one and three of those members will be appointed from the government's executive branch. "These appointments, and the council's place in the executive branch of the government, suggests that it will be more than just a talking shop, with perhaps a significant influence over practice," says political theorist Michael Gottsegen of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Annas believes that the commission may not be sufficiently independent of government. "Bioethics advisory commissions should be totally free-standing, and not linked to the government and presidential terms, in order to avoid doing 'Republican' or 'Democratic' bioethics," he says.

The commission's wider scope will also force some tough choices in deciding priorities, says Annas. "Doctors' [involvement in] force-feeding prisoners at Guantanamo, doctors and torture, and international human-research rules are pressing issues of our day which demand our attention," he says. Among the other issues he thinks the commission should juggle are new reproductive technologies, an overhaul of informed-consent procedures and — perhaps most immediate — fairer ways to apportion health care.

news20091201reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Australian climate row highlights Copenhagen rifts
Mon Nov 30, 2009 2:21am EST
By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's major rivers are shrinking and farms are gripped by drought as scientists warn of climate change, but that has not convinced some skeptical politicians to back carbon-trade laws.

In a pointer to the difficulty of striking a pact to curb global greenhouse gas emissions at climate talks in Copenhagen, Australia's parliament is at an impasse over a scheme to slash carbon emissions blamed for global warming.

The main conservative opposition is split over whether to support the laws in an obstructive upper house of parliament, with its third-most senior member and high-profile Senate leader Nick Minchin convinced climate change is all a conspiracy.

"For the extreme left it has provided the opportunity to do what they've always wanted to do, to sort of de-industrialize the Western world," Minchin recently told Australian television.

"The collapse of communism was a disaster for the left. They embraced environmentalism as their new religion," Minchin said, sparking a blizzard of controversy.

Minchin's climate skeptic views are being echoed in other countries, like the United States, as they seek to reach agreement on climate policy ahead of Copenhagen next week.

Australia is already witnessing the effects of climate change, scientists say, with farmlands in the grip of a decades-long drought, drying riverbeds, record heatwaves and warnings of catastrophic bushfires as well as freak flash flooding in the north.

Large icebergs were also sighted recently near shipping lanes close to nearby New Zealand, much further north than usual.

AIMING TOO LOW

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose government holds the rotating European Union presidency, warned in China on Monday that countries were not aiming high enough to reduce carbon emissions at Copenhagen.

Britain's Gordon Brown has put world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, on notice that they "cannot afford to fail" in Denmark, which British climate expert Nicholas Stern has called the "most important international gathering of our time."

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hopes to land in Copenhagen after sealing passage of controversial laws setting up the largest carbon trading platform outside Europe.

But Rudd's carbon trade laws look doomed with climate skeptics like Minchin, who comes from a state where rivers are drying up, likely to reject or delay the laws.

A leading Nielsen opinion poll on Monday showed 66 percent of Australians back the introduction of an emissions trading scheme. Other surveys have shown support as high as 80 percent.

Rudd's problem, as opponents realize, is that many voters are also wary or even outright opposed to an emissions scheme if it comes at a high personal cost. Fresh elections are due late next year and the emissions row could yet yield a snap poll.

"Australia is not going to do anything that changes the course or nature of the temperature of the globe," said rural-based Senator Barnaby Joyce, who has become something of a maverick "pin-up" for climate skeptics.

"It's a gesture that will be reflected in a massive tax delivered to you from every corner of your house, from every power point, by the price of food, it will be in your fridge as it's going through the middle of the night," Joyce said.

Despite Copenhagen looming, climate fears have also failed to dent Australian consumption, with figures on Monday showing Australians are building the world's largest homes on average and filling them with air conditioning and appliances.

That can only add weight to the arguments of emerging giants like India and China in Copenhagen that they should not curtail economic growth ambitions over climate change, while countries like Australia remain on a path of comfortable consumption.

(Editing by Michael Perry)


[Green Business]
India's Tata says plans Nano hybrid cars: report
Mon Nov 30, 2009 2:27am EST

SEOUL (Reuters) - India's Tata Group is planning to produce hybrid versions of its Nano, billed as the world's cheapest car, to join in the environment-friendly trend, its chairman said in an interview with a South Korean newspaper.

The Maeil Business Newspaper on Monday quoted Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, as saying in Mumbai that low-priced goods would create stronger demand than high-end products in India, and the so-called low-price revolution would continue across the world.

Tata Motors, India's biggest vehicle maker, saw the car industry's future lying in economic-friendly models, the daily said.

The chairman did not elaborate on the possible launch of cheap hybrid versions.

The Nano, at about $2,000 per unit, was first delivered in India in July.

The 71-year-old chairman said he was considering exporting Tata Motors' light truck, Ace, to South Korea, and also assembling or manufacturing the model in its South Korean plant.

For new growth businesses, he picked biotechnology and bioengineering, saying Tata was looking for ways to enter the nutrient-enriched food market.

He added the group was interested in Vietnam and evaluating the U.S. market, in which it has yet to make active investments.

The Indian conglomerate is also studying investments in automobiles, software and hotel businesses as well as bio fuel in South American markets such as Brazil and Argentina.

(Reporting by Shin Jieun and Kim Yeon-hee; Editing by Ken Wills)


[Green Business]
Denmark says consulting on variety of climate texts
Mon Nov 30, 2009 7:40am EST

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark said on Monday it was consulting governments on several proposals for a U.N. climate deal in Copenhagen and could not put forward a compromise text until next month's meeting.

India on Monday criticized a draft Danish proposal for the December 7-18 summit as a "dead end." The draft, seen by Reuters, included a goal of halving world emissions by 2050 from 1990 levels.

"The Danish government consults with various countries both bilaterally and multilaterally and different options are being discussed and tested," Danish Minister Connie Hedegaard, who will preside at the meeting, told Reuters in an e-mail.

"Consultations in this final phase ... are being held on a daily basis, but the negotiations do not start until next week," she said. Denmark has said a full new U.N. treaty is out of reach and instead wants a "binding political deal" next month.

Hedegaard said she would only be able to table a possible compromise text at the meeting, as incoming president of the U.N. talks. "Until then, consultations are based on a variety of draft text proposals," she wrote.

(Reporting by David Fogarty, writing by Alister Doyle; editing by Janet Lawrence)

news20091201reut2

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Atlantis to test world's biggest tidal turbine
Mon Nov 30, 2009 8:16am EST
By Nao Nakanishi

LONDON (Reuters) - Atlantis Resources Corp is to test the world's biggest tidal turbine in the rough waters off the Orkney Islands next year in preparation for Scotland's plan to use ocean energy for half a million homes by 2020.

Tim Cornelius, chief executive officer at Atlantis, said the company was investing about 15 million pounds ($25 million) to build and test the turbine, which has rotors that are 18 meters in diameter, the height of five storey building.

The AK-1000 turbine, which has a capacity of 1 megawatt (MW) -- in line with other pioneering marine energy converters -- will be deployed at the European Marine Energy Center (EMEC) test site in Orkney.

"We are finalizing the tender for manufacturers. We are making this in the UK for the first time," Cornelius told Reuters in an interview. Previous smaller versions were made elsewhere.

"We will be committing at least 15 million pounds just for this testing regime in EMEC."

Atlantis is working with Norway's state-owned utility Statkraft to win a bid in Britain's Pentland Firth marine energy project, the world's first industrial scale wave and tidal energy program, which is intended to reach at least 700 MW of capacity by 2020.

The Crown Estate, which owns the seabed within 12 nautical miles off Britain's coast, plans to sign lease agreements for the Pentland Firth program with developers by April.

While there are around 100 companies around the world working on marine energy, including wave power, only a handful have installed their devices at sea. Others are running tests in tanks or on computers.

Last year, Britain's Marine Current Turbines Ltd (MCT) became the world's first company to install a commercial-size turbine, SeaGen, with a capacity of 1.2 MW, at Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland.

In March, Statkraft invested 45 million crowns ($8 million) in Atlantis, joining Morgan Stanley to become a minority shareholder in the company that since 2007 has been testing small tidal turbines -- one for 150 kilowatts and another for 400 KW.

NORTH SEA

"We took everything we learnt over the last 10 years...to create AK-1000, which we believe to be the best for the North Sea," Cornelius said Friday by telephone from Singapore.

"This one is built for the harsh marine environment we will get as we go into the North Sea in Orkney. This is one of the harshest environments in the world," Cornelius said.

Atlantis, which started up in Australia but now has its headquarters in London, has invested more than $50 million over the last 10 years in designing, developing and testing tidal turbines.

Neil Kermode, EMEC's managing director, said the only company currently testing a tidal energy converter at the center was Ireland's OpenHydro, while Britain's Tidal Generation Ltd was installing its device.

The Atlantis turbine would be the third.

Asked about the potential, he said a number of reports suggested Britain could eventually source a fifth of its electricity from marine energy, including wave and tide.

"We are looking forward to playing that part," he said.

The AK-1000 is a horizontal axis turbine, with a twin rotor set and fixed pitch blades and it is more effective in water speeds that are faster than 2.6 meters per second.

(Reporting by Nao Nakanishi, editing by Anthony Barker)


[Green Business]
UPM, Metso and Fortum consider bio-fuel output in 2012
Mon Nov 30, 2009 8:18am EST

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland's UPM-Kymmene, Metso and Fortum said on Monday they could start making wood-based bio-fuel by 2012, seeking to tap growing demand for green energy.

"At the end of next year, if we see that the financial basis is sound, we could make an investment decision, after which building will take a few years, and production would be started at the earliest in 2012," Petri Kukkonen, head of Biofuels at Finnish paper maker UPM, told a news conference.

UPM, engineering group Metso and the Technical Research Center of Finland started a pilot project to produce bio-fuel from forestry sector biproducts this year. Fortum said on Monday it would join the project.

"We see bio-oil as a very promising, CO2 neutral alternative to replace fuel in heat production ... an option which is financially very interesting," Fortum's strategy and research head, Maria Paatero-Kaarnakari, said.

UPM's Kuukkonen said if the firm had production at each of its seven plants in Finland, annual output could reach 400,000 tonnes of bio-fuel, which is seen primarily as a substitute for fossil fuels in energy production but could also eventually be a raw material for biodiesel.

"We also want to investigate the possibility to further refine the product into a fuel product for traffic ... but it will take a few years before that can be done, and there are big challenges ahead," Kukkonen said.

The firms, which declined to quantify investments or speculate on profitability, said costs to set up the pilot plant in the city of Tampere -- with daily production of 7,000 liters -- totaled around five million euros ($7.5 million).

(Reporting by Eva Lamppu; editing by James Jukwey)


[Green Business]
Cloud computing goes green underground in Finland
Mon Nov 30, 2009 9:08am EST
By Tarmo Virki

HELSINKI (Reuters) - In the chill of a massive cave beneath an orthodox Christian cathedral, a city power firm is preparing what it thinks will be the greenest data center on the planet.

Excess heat from hundreds of computer servers to be located in the bedrock beneath Uspenski Cathedral, one of Helsinki's most popular tourist sites, will be captured and channelled into the district heating network, a system of water-heated pipes used to warm homes in the Finnish capital.

"It is perfectly feasible that a quite considerable proportion of the heating in the capital city could be produced from thermal energy generated by computer halls," said Juha Sipila, project manager at Helsingin Energia.

Finland and other north European countries are using their water-powered networks as a conduit for renewable energy sources: capturing waste to heat the water that is pumped through the system.

Due online in January, the new data center for local information technology services firm Academica is one way of addressing environmental concerns around the rise of the internet as a central repository for the world's data and processing -- known as "cloud computing."

Companies seeking large-scale, long-term cuts in information technology spending are concentrating on data centers, which account for up to 30 percent of many corporations' energy bills.

Data centers such as those run by Google already use around 1 percent of the world's energy, and their demand for power is rising fast with the trend to outsource computing.

One major problem is that in a typical data center only 40-45 percent of energy use is for the actual computing -- the rest is used mostly for cooling down the servers.

"It is a pressing issue for IT vendors since the rise in energy costs to power and cool servers is estimated to be outpacing the demand for servers," said Steven Nathasingh, chief executive of research firm Vaxa Inc.

"But IT companies cannot solve the challenge by themselves and must create new partnerships with experts in energy management like the utility companies and others," he said.

Data centers' emissions of carbon dioxide have been running at around one third of those of airlines, but are growing 10 percent a year and now approach levels of entire countries such as Argentina or the Netherlands.

ENERGY SAVINGS

Besides providing heat to homes in the Finnish capital, the new Uspenski computer hall will use half the energy of a typical datacenter, said Sipila.

Its input into the district heating network will be comparable to one large wind turbine, or enough to heat 500 large private houses.

"Green is a great sales point, but equally important are cost savings," said Pietari Paivanen, sales head at Academica: the center, when expanded as planned, will trim 375,000 euros ($561,000) a year from the company's annual power bill. Academica's revenue in 2008 was 15 million euros.

"It's a win-win thing. We are offering the client cheap cooling as we can use the excess heat," Sipila said.

The center's location in the bowels of the cathedral has an added bonus: security. It is taking over a former bomb shelter carved into the rock by the fire brigade in World War Two as a refuge for city officials from Russian air raids.

(Editing by Sara Ledwith)

news20091201reut3

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Sunshine, sewage to power cities of the future
Mon Nov 30, 2009 9:33am EST
By Pete Harrison and Peter Henderson

LILLE, France (Reuters) - "These are the three giant stomachs of Lille."

Amid the hum of machinery and warm odor of putrefying autumn leaves, official Pierre Hirtzberger is explaining how three giant fermenters can convert household food waste, trimmings from parks and gardens and the slops from school and hospital canteens into enough methane gas to power about a third of the buses in the French city.

"The process is exactly the same as in the stomach of a cow," he said, gesturing toward three biodigesters which each hold 20,000 cubic meters of rotting liquefied waste.

"The objective is to fuel 100 of Lille's buses on this biogas, out of a total fleet of 350," Hirtzberger, head of the city's urban waste research and development, told Reuters.

From San Francisco to Malmo, Sweden, cities around the globe are preparing for a new imperative: to accommodate the mass of world population growth and thrive, without further accelerating the release of carbon dioxide that threatens their existence.

With half the world's population already living in cities and the urban population projected to reach almost five billion by 2030, it is not just growth that puts them in the front line of climate change.

Even if populations escaping drought migrate to urban centers, the fact that 60 per cent of the world's 39 largest metropolises are located in coastal areas puts the cities themselves at risk in future centuries, from rising seas.

UNSOLD SANDWICHES, CAVITY INSULATION

Sunshine, tech creativity and a clued-in population help widen the range of options for places like San Francisco -- the first city to make it a crime not to compost food and waste in city bins, in a bid to cut landfill use to zero.

Plenty of money on top of abundant sun are allowing Abu Dhabi to showcase a futuristic eco-city: Masdar City is a vision of solar panels powering pilot less taxis and trams and feeding desalinated water to citizens and its verdant palms.

Such visions make dazzling prospectuses for those eyeing a market which analysts expect to be worth a record $200 billion next year, and sunshine will be a major source of clean power as the cost comes down to make it competitive with fossil fuels.

But for many cities, particularly older centers in gloomier climates, the reality will be more like Lille -- distilling energy from the excrement of citizens, the waste from restaurants and the mountains of unsold sandwiches left in supermarket fridges at the end of each week.

Much of it will just be plain boring -- pumping insulation foam into loft spaces and wall cavities, fitting double or triple glazing -- the stuff that can keep small builders busy even if economic slowdown stalls grand construction projects.

In all, it will require myriad different approaches to whittle down society's impact on the planet.

HERE COMES THE SUN

Cities in France, Sweden, Australia and the United States are looking at an exotic mix of energy sources, and their choices prove that what looks good in architects' promotional literature is not necessarily what works on the ground.

In Australia, the government plans seven pioneering "Solar Cities" and is putting A$1.5 billion into four large power stations driven by the sun.

But a temperate city like Melbourne will have a very different approach from that of sun-bathed Brisbane, 1,700 km north and just 600 km from the Tropic of Capricorn.

"If you're in Brisbane, you'll probably have solar hot water and solar air-conditioning and a bit of electric power as your mix," said Jim Smitham, a renewable energy expert at Australian state research body CSIRO.

"But if you're in Melbourne, you'll be much more interested in heating and power and a little bit of air-conditioning for the summer."

Even within cities, the density of solar generation will vary according the value of land, he added.

In pricey central business districts, solar panels will be stacked on rooftops, but in the suburbs small-scale solar plants will help supplement households' own generation.

Outside the cities, where land is cheapest, solar power stations will find a niche, feeding power into the metropolis.

As solar power costs have fallen due to economies of scale, an initially subsidized power source is becoming viable in some places.

"In countries like Spain, southern Italy and Greece, the cost of energy from solar is already, or will soon be, at parity with the cost of electricity from the grid," said Winfried Hoffmann, president of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association.

"Germany is less sunny so it will take longer, but it will reach parity by 2016 at the latest," he added.

EXCREMENTAL GAINS

But where Brisbane gets about 2,790 hours of sunlight a year, Lille gets about half that, as moist air sweeps in from the North Atlantic. So Lille is focusing hard on waste.

Biogas -- the fuel that will power some Lille buses -- is actually an ancient energy source. It captured the attention of 13th-century adventurer Marco Polo in China, where he noted covered pots of sewage stored to generate energy, and it earned a mention by 17th-century writer Daniel Defoe.

Lille is also looking at that option.

"We're studying the possibility of getting biogas from sewage sludge at one of the city's two sewage treatment plants, and that has the potential to do at least 150 more buses," said Hirtzberger.

"Potentially, one could run the entire bus system with biogas from sewage and rubbish. This would be typical of most cities in Europe."

Other cities, such as Malmo, Sweden, use waste to heat and power buildings. In Malmo, 50 percent of heat is produced from its 550,000 metric tons of waste a year -- a level that could be replicated in most north European cities, said Richard Bengtsson, project manager of E.ON Nordic, which developed Malmo's heat and power system.

"Waste is an interesting fuel due to the fact that you don't have to pay for it," said Bengtsson. "You get paid to take care of it."

Malmo owes much of its success to an existing network of pipes to carry heated water from the Sysav plant direct to homes and businesses -- a highly efficient system most popular in eastern Europe known as "district heating."

The system is also used in the city of Monsteras, 300 km to the northeast, using waste heat from the local pulp mill, Sodra Cell. As an added benefit, the heat from the subterranean pipelines keeps ice from cycle-paths during the winter.

In the Finnish capital Helsinki, a power company is preparing to open an underground data center which will channel excess heat from computers into the district heating network, to warm homes [ID:nGEE5AR06B].

BIOMETHANE IN THE GRID

Biogas, rather than the heated water used in Malmo and Monsteras, may be a way to avoid digging up the streets of bustling and historic capitals like London or Paris to retrofit pipework.

"Biomethane for the grid has such great opportunities, because it uses the existing infrastructure," said Martin Orrill, head of energy technology and innovation at British Gas.

Biogas is already widely used to generate electricity at sewage works, but putting it into the grid and burning it in homes increases makes it three times as efficient, he added.

Biomethane is already being injected into the gas grid in Germany, France and Austria. And in New York, gas is taken from the Staten Island landfill and injected into the grid.

PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY

Most cities will find the answer in a mix.

San Francisco plans to use solar to generate about 5 percent of its power by 2012, mostly from small solar arrays which it is helping to underwrite.

Residents can enter their address into a Web site for an instant estimate on how much money and carbon they could save with solar panels: even new bus stops have solar cells in their red plastic roofs.

The city has just finished a study of small-scale wind turbines, that rev up about the time the sun sets, said Adam Browning, executive director of the Vote Solar Initiative that promotes sun power. "It's kind of like peanut butter and jelly," he said.

Next it plans a study of wave power, and this month announced a small-scale hydro plant fed by the mountains to the east, the first in a system that potentially could meet about a tenth of city needs.

Carbon emissions are already 5 percent below 1990 levels and headed toward net zero, said Mayor Gavin Newsom, adding the city's eco-friendly citizens are more tolerant of trying new things such as mandatory composting.

"It was easy," he said of the carbon cuts so far. "It's just not difficult. We need to disenthrall ourselves about how difficult this stuff is."

(Additional reporting by David Fogarty in Singapore, Gerard Wynn in London, Peter Henderson in San Francisco and Tarmo Virki in Helsinki; Editing by Sara Ledwith)

news20091201reut4

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Primary CER carbon prices near 6 mth low: analysts
Mon Nov 30, 2009 9:44am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - Primary market prices for carbon offsets generated by clean energy projects under the Kyoto Protocol fell to their lowest level since July, analysts IDEAcarbon said late on Friday.

Prices for the U.N.-approved Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) generated by advanced-stage projects, which present the lowest delivery risk, fell to 10.51 euros ($15.80) a tonne, 1.57 euros below market resale rates.

Average prices across all risk scenarios for pre-2012 delivery CERs dropped to 8.99 euros.

CER prices are closely correlated to European Union carbon permit prices. Benchmark EU permits hit a 5-month low of 12.47 euros last Wednesday on increased selling pressure from industrial firms and softer energy prices.

Through the $6.5 billion primary market for carbon offsets under Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism, companies can invest in clean energy projects in emerging nations like China and India, and in return receive CERs which can be used toward greenhouse gas emissions targets or sold for profit.

Primary CERs are now at their lowest levels since July 9 while secondary market prices, finishing last week at 12.08 euros, gained 4.2 percent since last Tuesday.

CER prices were also pressured by investor concerns over upcoming climate talks, IDEAcarbon said.

"The buy-sell ranges for all CER risk scenarios except (post-2012 delivery) widened again this week ... a sign that participants are beginning to look away from commercial negotiations toward the political talks," IDEAcarbon said.

Delegates from over 190 nations will meet at a U.N.-backed climate summit in Copenhagen next week to hash out a successor agreement to the Kyoto climate pact, which expires in 2012.

The talks have run out of time to settle a legally-binding global deal after arguments between rich and poor nations about who should cut emissions, by how much and who should pay.

"The CER market has yet to draw any solace from the statements from the United States and China, outlining the positions they intend to take to Copenhagen," IDEAcarbon added.

Last Thursday, China unveiled its first firm target to curb greenhouse gas emissions, a day after the United States pledged to cut its 2005 emissions by 17 percent by 2020.

China, the top emitter of greenhouse gases from human activity, said it would cut the amount of carbon dioxide produced per unit of GDP by 40 to 45 percent by 2020, compared to 2005 levels.

IDEAcarbon said it expects the primary CER market to quiet ahead of the climate talks and as the holiday season approaches.


[Green Business]
Scan Energy lowers expectations for IPO
Mon Nov 30, 2009 9:46am EST

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Wind and solar park developer Scan Energy cut its expectations for what will likely be the second-largest initial public offering in Germany in 2009, after Hochtief also hit a cautious note on its planned unit IPO.

Danish Scan Energy on Monday said it had set the price range for the IPO at 9-13 euros ($13.43-19.41) per share and that this would generate gross issue proceeds of 158 million to 228 million euros, far less than the 228-280 million euros it had announced earlier this month.

The news came after the chief executive of Hochtief, Germany's largest builder, said the company reserved the right to put the planned IPO of its infrastructure unit on hold, should stock markets take a hit from the Dubai debt crisis.

Hochtief aims to raise as much as 1 billion euros by floating a minority stake its Concessions unit in what would be Germany's biggest IPO in two years.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz)


[Green Business]
German biodiesel firms say U.S. imports escape duty
Mon Nov 30, 2009 11:26am EST
By Michael Hogan

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's biodiesel industry, Europe's largest, is suffering from cheap U.S. imports of the green fuel which evade punitive European Union import duties, industry leaders said on Monday.

The EU in May imposed anti-subsidy duties on imports of biodiesel and fossil diesel/biofuel blends with more than 20 percent biodiesel content claiming they were sold at unfairly low prices because of U.S. biofuel subsidies.

But large imports of U.S. fossil diesel/biodiesel blends are still being made into the EU with a 19 percent biodiesel content which escapes EU anti-dumping duties, said Norbert Heim, chief executive of German oilseeds industry association Ufop.

"Such imports are not being sold directly on the market but are being blended with other fuels to achieve the required biodiesel level," Heim said during a conference on biofuels organized by Ufop and German bioenergy association BBE.

Imports were largely being made via Rotterdam, Heim said.

Tonnages of 19 percent biodiesel content blends being imported were unclear but the trend was being felt by Germany's biodiesel industry, already suffering from falling demand due to high German taxes on green fuels, said Ufop chairman Klaus Kliem.

Germany's biodiesel industry will support plans by European biodiesel association EBB to ask the EU to extend the punitive duties on U.S. imports, Kliem said.

NEW GERMAN GOVERNMENT DISAPPOINTS

Germany's new government elected in September had promised to review the country's controversial green fuel taxes to revive the depressed biofuels industry.

But the industry was disappointed that the new government was only proposing to freeze biodiesel taxes at their current level of 18 euro cents a liter and cancel tax rises planned for 2010, said BBE chairman Helmut Lamp.

The industry needed a tax reduction to 10 cents a liter to revive sales of pure biodiesel at petrol stations, Lamp said. "Commercially-economic production of biodiesel and vegetable oil fuels is not possible at the current 18 cent tax level."

German sales of pure biodiesel at petrol stations were likely to fall to only about 200,000 tons from 1.1 million tons in 2008, he said.

Only about 100 to 150 German petrol stations sell biodiesel, down from a peak of about 1,900 two years ago.

Green fuel producers argue biodiesel needs to be around 10 cents a liter cheaper than fossil diesel as vehicles consume more.

The pro-business FDP party, the junior member of the new government coalition, on Monday called for a biofuels tax cut. FDP agricultural spokeswoman Christel Happach-Kasan said a freeze in taxes was not enough to revive Germany's biofuels market.

(Editing by James Jukwey)

news20091201reut5

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
FACTBOX: NYMEX and ICE's long-standing rivalry
Mon Nov 30, 2009 12:52pm EST

(Reuters) - The world's biggest energy market-place the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and IntercontinentalExchange, have long been fierce competitors.

NYMEX began crude oil futures trade in 1983 and became home to a light crude futures contract that has become the world's most liquid oil futures contract, representing the world's biggest energy consumer.

Brent crude futures began to be traded on London's International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) in 1988.

The IPE was bought by Atlanta-based IntercontinentalExchange in 2001.

Although less liquid than the NYMEX U.S. crude contract, Brent is used more widely as a benchmark on physical oil markets, where it is used for pricing around two thirds of the world's physical crude.

Brent futures volumes still lag those of U.S. crude traded on NYMEX, but they have risen strongly since the ICE became the first fully electronic energy exchange in 2005.

During a period of initial hostility to electronic trading, NYMEX, part of CME Group, launched a trading pit for open outcry Brent trade. The experiment was abandoned after it failed to wrest liquidity from more established ICE Brent futures.

NYMEX still has a Brent contract, just as the ICE has a U.S. crude contract, but Brent is far more liquid on the ICE and U.S. crude is much more heavily traded on NYMEX.

NYMEX also still has an open outcry pit in New York, but far more volume trades through its electronic platform Globex.

U.S. crude traded more than 13 million lots in October, a 13.2 percent rise from a year earlier.

NYMEX's Brent oil futures contract accounted for 1,051 lots in October. The volume marked 96 percent fall year-on-year.

Apart from the main U.S. crude futures contract, NYMEX's leading contracts are U.S. RBOB gasoline and heating oil.

RBOB traded 2.08 million lots in October, up by 43 percent from a year earlier, and heating oil 1.96 million lots, up by 20 percent, CME data showed.

CONTRACTS TRADED ON THE ICE

The ICE has a WTI contract, which traded around 4.36 million lots in October, a fall from 4.52 million lots a year earlier.

By contrast, Brent crude volume on the ICE grew by 7.3 percent to 6.9 million lots in October from 6.43 million lots a year earlier.

Like Brent, gas oil is regarded by many as a widely useful marker, which can be used for benchmarking heating oil and diesel.

Gas oil trade totaled 3.36 million lots in October, up 17 percent from 2.87 million a year earlier.

Brent and U.S. crude's future as the leading marker grades has been challenged by the launch of futures contracts on both NYMEX and ICE based on the Argus Sour Crude Index following a change in the way Saudi Arabia prices its crude.

NYMEX launched ASCI contracts earlier this month and will launch a physically deliverable U.S. Gulf sour crude contract as early as December 7 -- the day ICE plans to launch its ASCI contracts.

(Compiled by Barbara Lewis and Ikuko Kurahone)


[Green Business]
ICE and NYMEX: two oil titans battling to win
Mon Nov 30, 2009 12:53pm EST
By Ikuko Kurahone and Barbara Lewis - Analysis

LONDON (Reuters) - The world's two biggest energy exchanges are fierce competitors, but the likelihood is both will emerge as winners from the latest tussles for liquidity.

By some measures, the Atlanta-based IntercontinentalExchange has narrowed the gap on its bigger competitor the New York Mercantile Exchange, owned by CME Group.

NYMEX is still well ahead in terms of volume, but a chart on open interest, or the number of trading contracts not closed off, which is viewed as an important gauge of the health of an exchange, shows ICE gaining ground.

One factor has been the financial crisis, which triggered an exodus of fund money that had been concentrated on NYMEX and could head back there in the future.

"I think it was the deleveraging of last year which narrowed the gap," said Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix.

He said it was not clear whether uncertainty over limits on the size of trading positions, expected to be put forward in December by U.S. regulator the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, had also boosted the ICE.

Others have referred to a "regulatory arbitrage," meaning different rules would drive trade from one exchange to another to the ICE's benefit.

"Some non-U.S. companies did not want to come under CFTC regulation," said Christopher Bellew of brokerage Bache Financial. "The irony is that the ICE is just as American a company as the CME is."

Even if British regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA), responsible for regulation of European contracts on ICE, does not follow the CFTC's lead, U.S. contracts traded on the platform, such as the U.S. light crude futures contract, would be subject to U.S. rules.

Given so much uncertainty, some players, who asked not to be named, said they would take out positions on both exchanges.

"We already trade Brent on ICE, so it would perhaps have been more natural to have WTI (West Texas Intermediate) on ICE, but we're going to use both the ICE and NYMEX," said one.

ARGUS SOUR CRUDE INDEX

As well as choosing where they trade U.S. crude futures or Brent, from December, dealers will face a new dilemma: where to trade the Argus Sour Crude Index after top exporter Saudi Arabia's decision announced in October to use it for pricing some of its crude.

Until now, Saudi Arabia has been selling crude for delivery into the United States at a differential to assessments by pricing agency Platts, a unit of McGraw Hill Companies Inc, closely linked to U.S. light crude.

Both of the exchanges were swift to respond to the change.

NYMEX introduced ASCI contracts earlier this month and said it will launch a physically-deliverable U.S. Gulf sour crude contract early in December. Around the same time, the ICE will launch cash-settled futures contracts tracking ASCI on December 7.

For some analysts, providing the option of a physical settlement could give NYMEX the edge.

But the ICE has also claimed victory. In an interview with Reuters, its Chairman and Chief Executive Jeffrey Sprecher noted Saudi Arabia had stuck to using a Brent Weighted Average (BWAVE), based on Brent crude futures, for shipments of Saudi crude into Europe and argued the U.S. benchmark was flawed.

The most liquid contract in the world, U.S. light crude futures, is based on West Texas Intermediate (WTI), a land-locked oil delivered into Cushing, Oklahoma.

Critics of the contract argue it tends to reflect inventories at the delivery point, rather than supply and demand in the major oil consumption center, the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Bob Levin of CME Group has not ruled out that ASCI could over time wrest liquidity from the main U.S. contract, but only by relying on its support.

"For now, sour crude contracts will need to lean on WTI for liquidity support. Not only is ACSI structured as a direct differential to the NYMEX WTI settlement price, the three ASCI component crude streams are each priced as a direct differential to the NYMEX WTI settlement price," he told Reuters.

Analysts also say NYMEX heating oil and RBOB gasoline futures reflect domestic fundamentals in the United States.

ICE and many traders laud the greater geographic flexibility, not just of Brent crude, but of ICE's flagship refined products contract gas oil, whose volumes have hit a record.

But ultimately, it can just be a matter of regional preference, which contract on which exchange traders prefer.

"There's not much difference (between ICE and NYMEX)," said Tokyo-based analyst Toshinori Ito of UBS. "It may really depend on individual traders which exchange they would support."

What nearly all agree is both will remain dominant as the smaller exchanges springing up face a huge challenge to compete.

"I'm not dismissive of the others, but for players who want serious liquidity, it has to be NYMEX or ICE," said Mike Wittner of Societe Generale.

(Editing by Sue Thomas)

news20091201reut6

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
CO2 trade "pointless" versus China growth-trader
Mon Nov 30, 2009 1:03pm EST

LONDON (Reuters) - Trade in permits to pollute is "largely pointless" when compared with the scale of growth in greenhouse gases in China and must be scaled up, one of the carbon market's most senior traders said on Monday.

Countries and companies in the developed world can buy emissions rights by investing in carbon cuts in developing nations, under a Kyoto scheme called the clean development mechanism (CDM) meant to cut the cost of fighting climate change.

But those cuts were tiny compared with rises in the world's top emitter, said Garth Edward, head of emissions trading at Citigroup, and formerly head of trading at Shell.

"The CDM in China is largely pointless as far as reducing its emissions trajectory," he said.

China is by far the largest market in carbon offsets, having delivered cumulatively 99 million tonnes of emissions cuts under the CDM in 2007 and 2008, about 46 percent of the global total.

The country's carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels and making cement rose by 15 percent or 947 million tonnes over the same time period, U.S. data show.

Critics say that trade in carbon offsets is opaque and benefits traders at investment banks and industry lobbyists who negotiate opt-outs for polluters.

Supporters say it identifies least-cost emissions cuts and is the only scheme mobilizing private capital to fund emissions cuts in developing nations.

Climate negotiators from more than 190 countries meet next week in Copenhagen to try and agree the outline of a global pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol in 2013.

One topic will be how to scale up the CDM -- and especially move from an individual project approach as now, toward whole sectors for example rewarding the power generation or cement industries once they pass a certain efficiency or carbon emissions standard.

"Let's move forward to proper sectoral targets rather than ad hoc activity," said Edward.

The present CDM business model had become "severely challenged," he added, as a result of greater competition among buyers of carbon offsets and falling carbon prices following recession.

(Reporting by Gerard Wynn; additional reporting by Michael Szabo; editing by Sue Thomas)


[Green Business]
Rich world should pay Africa to preserve forests
Mon Nov 30, 2009 3:37pm EST
By Tansa Musa

YAOUNDE (Reuters) - The developed world should pay African countries to preserve their vast forests to help the fight against climate change, some of the continent's governments will argue at next month's summit in Copenhagen.

The position of the group of equatorial African countries -- home to the world's second-largest rainforest after the Amazon -- underscores rifts between industrialized nations responsible for the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions and the developing world seeking compensation to keep development in check.

"African countries of the Congo Basin are not part of the problem, but they are part of the solution by preserving the rainforest which acts as a defense against global warming," said co-chair of the Congo Basin Forest Fund (CBFF) and former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.

"In so doing, they deprive millions of their people who depend on the forest for their livelihoods. The rest of the world, particularly the industrialized North, must recognize this and understand that somebody has to pay the price for preservation," he said.

The Congo Basin forests cover an estimated 200 million hectares and provide food, shelter and livelihood for more than 50 million people.

CBFF is associated with the Congo Basin Forest Partnership, a U.N. registered group with ten member states -- Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Sao Tome and Principe.

According to the CBFF, the forests have been storing an estimated 500 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, offsetting about 1.7 percent of global emissions of the gas widely blamed for global warming.

But growing populations, expanding subsistence agriculture, road construction, mining and rising Asian demand for hardwood lumber have intensified pressure on the Congo Basin, which has been depleted at a rate of 1 percent per year.

Last month, the group representing the Central African states warned they would not endorse any agreement on climate if the international community does not provide adequate compensation for preserving the forests.

"Developed countries have the moral obligation to ensure proper compensation to countries and populations that are being denied access to their natural resources," said Cameroon's forestry and wildlife minister Elvis Ngolle Ngolle.

Beyond acting as a sink for carbon dioxide emissions, the Congo Basin forests also contain the most diverse grouping of plants and animals in Africa, including rare and endangered species.

Brazil, home to a large chunk of the Amazon rainforest, is also lobbying for a mechanism in the global climate talks that would reward forest preservation.


[Green Business]
Halve world carbon emissions by 2050: Danish text
Mon Nov 30, 2009 4:22pm EST
By Krittivas Mukherjee and John Acher

NEW DELHI/COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - The world should agree to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 from 1990 levels as part of a U.N. climate pact in Copenhagen in mid-December, according to a suggested text by hosts Denmark.

The text, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, said rich countries should account for 80 percent of the global emission cuts by 2050. But it did not spell out shorter-term emission targets for rich countries, a key demand from poorer nations.

India, the world's number four emitter, said it opposed the suggested text. Denmark, meanwhile, insisted it was merely consulting and had made no formal proposals for breaking deadlock between rich and poor nations at the December 7-18 meeting.

"If the Denmark draft is any indication then we are heading to a dead end," Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told reporters in New Delhi.

China and India have opposed agreeing to a goal of halving world emissions unless rich nations, which have burned fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution, take the lead by setting far tougher reductions by 2020.

"The Danish government has not put forward a proposal," Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters in Copenhagen.

Danish Climate Minister Connie Hedegaard, who will preside at Copenhagen, told Reuters earlier that consultations were "based on a variety of draft text proposals." She added that Denmark would not propose any formal compromises until the meeting.

2020 PEAK

The text seen by Reuters also suggests that the world's greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, should peak in 2020. Emissions have been rising fast in recent years but are set to dip by up to 3 percent in 2009 because of recession.

And it suggested efforts to keep the rise in global average temperatures to within 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times to avoid the worst of heatwaves, floods, species extinctions and rising sea levels.

The U.N. talks have run out of time to settle a legally binding deal after arguments between rich and poor nations about who should cut emissions, by how much and who should pay.

But hopes are growing that a substantive political pact can be agreed at the December meeting, including setting a 2010 deadline for tying up a legal text. U.S. President Barack Obama will attend on December 9 with most other leaders at the end.

In Beijing, Premier Wen Jiabao told the European Union that Beijing would deliver on a promise to slow the rise of its carbon dioxide output, the main greenhouse gas emitted by burning fossil fuels.

China plans to cut its "carbon intensity" -- the carbon dioxide released in generating each yuan of output -- by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels. Such a goal would still allow a doubling of emissions, assuming projected economic growth rates, analysts say.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said in Beijing that the world was not ambitious enough in setting cuts. "More needs to be done," Reinfeldt said. Sweden holds the rotating presidency of the 27-member European Union.

Developing countries led by China and India are also expected to table a text in Copenhagen on Tuesday that they would like to be turned into the basis for negotiations. China, the United States, Russia and India are the top emitters.

Denmark's Rasmussen has said he wants a 5-8 page "politically binding" agreement, with annexes outlining each country's obligations.

Developed countries such as Britain and France have put an offer of a $10-billion-a-year Copenhagen Launch Fund on the table, but while developing countries welcomed what they called "interim financing," they said much more, perhaps up to $300 billion, might be needed to make a global climate deal work.

In Canberra, Australia's key policy to fight global warming limped closer to defeat on Monday with parliament set to delay or reject the government's carbon emissions trade scheme, raising the chances of an early election.

In Sydney, Tibet's exiled Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama also urged governments to take climate change seriously. "In some cases in order to protect global issues, some sacrifice of national interest (is needed)," he said.

news20091201reut7

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Australia opposition dumps head, carbon laws in doubt
Mon Nov 30, 2009 6:46pm EST
By James Grubel

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's embattled carbon-trade laws are set for almost certain defeat in a hostile Senate after the country's opposition on Tuesday elected a new leader opposed to the government's emissions trading scheme.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has struggled to have his carbon-trade laws passed by the Senate, expected to vote on the legislation this week.

If the upper house rejects the carbon scheme for a second time, Rudd will have a trigger to call an early 2010 election on climate change, with polls suggesting his government would be returned with an increased majority.

If Rudd wins a special double dissolution election of both house of parliament, he can then push his laws through a special joint sitting of the houses.

The main opposition Liberal Party elected conservative lawmaker Tony Abbott, who has said he opposes the ETS, as its new leader after disgruntled opposition lawmakers forced a challenge to Malcolm Turnbull.

"The party room has voted following Mr Abbott's accession to the leadership," desposed leader Turnbull told reporters.

"The party room has voted to defer the legislation to a Senate committee and if that is not successful then to vote it down this week."

Rudd, who is campaigning for a strong global agreement at next week's Copenhagen climate summit, wants emissions trading to start in Australia in July 2011, covering 75 percent of emissions in the developed world's bigger per capita emitter. The planned carbon-trade scheme would be the biggest outside Europe.

The United States is closely watching Australia's debate and a political agreement on carbon trading in Australia would help garner support for action from other countries.

Debate on the carbon trade laws resumed in the Senate on Tuesday, where the government needs seven opposition Senators to support the laws to secure passage.

The government's only hope of passing its scheme now rests with disaffected opposition lawmakers, who may defy the new leader and vote with the government. However, Abbott's victory in a leadership ballot makes that less likely.

An opposition source told Sky television the opposition had decided to vote against the carbon trade scheme in the Senate if the government puts the laws to a vote.

Defeat of the ETS laws would be a severe blow to Rudd, who met U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington on Monday to discuss climate change.

Rudd has repeatedly said he does not want an early poll and would prefer elections to be held on time in late 2010. But some analysts said Rudd's now has no option but to call an early election if he wants to pass his carbon trade laws.

(Editing by Michael Perry and Ron Popeski)


[Green Business]
U.S. falling behind in clean-energy race: Chu
Mon Nov 30, 2009 8:16pm EST
By Harriet McLeod

GREENVILLE, South Carolina (Reuters) - The United States is falling behind in the race for clean, renewable energy and risks losing its prominence in high-tech manufacturing, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said on Monday.

"America has the opportunity to lead the world in a new industrial revolution," Chu told business leaders, political leaders and engineers at a Clemson University symposium.

But, he said, "The world is passing us by. We are falling behind in the clean energy race. ... China is spending $9 billion a month on clean energy ... China has now passed the United States and Europe in high-tech manufacturing. There is no reason the United States should cede high-tech manufacturing to anyone."

Last week the U.S. Energy Department awarded a $45 million grant to Clemson's Restoration Institute to test the drive trains for the next generation of large-scale wind turbines.

The grant, plus $53 million in matching funds from public and private sources, will be used to build and operate a large-scale wind turbine drive train testing facility at a former Navy base in Charleston, South Carolina.

The facility will perform highly-accelerated testing of advanced drive train systems for wind turbines in the 5 megawatt to 15 megawatt range, the latter of which could power 6,000 homes.

"This is going to be a very competitive business and we want to help the United States get a leadership position in wind generation technology," Chu said.

"This is high-tech manufacturing. This means quality jobs for Americans, this means better exports and balance of trade, it means better consumption at home, it further drives down the price of wind, it betters our exports, it creates jobs in America. We see all good things."

Chu said the nation must decrease its dependence on foreign oil and mitigate against global warming by decreasing carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

Talks at the Copenhagen summit on climate change in December will focus on a framework for moving forward, he said.

"Many people think once you've got an agreement, the work is done. No, the work is just beginning. You've got to deliver the goods," Chu said.

(Editing by Jane Sutton)


[Green Business]
"Mad Monk" Australia opposition head to fight CO2 laws
Mon Nov 30, 2009 8:45pm EST
By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's new conservative opposition leader, Tony Abbott, is nicknamed the "Mad Monk" and once flirted with the priesthood, but his crusade against the government's emissions trade plan has been anything but madcap.

A pugnacious and socially conservative Catholic who has fought everything from attempts to make Australia a republic to embryonic stem cell research and same-sex marriages, Abbott was elected opposition leader on Tuesday in a surprise win.

His election over former investment banker and party moderate Malcolm Turnbull means the conservatives have reversed support for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's emissions scheme and have likely ensured its defeat in an obstructive upper house later this week.

"This is a A$120 billion ($110 billion) tax on the Australian public. We can't just waive that through the parliament. It would be grossly irresponsible of us," Abbott told journalists after his victory on Tuesday. Elections are due in late 2010.

However, Abbott has now changed his position on the carbon trade scheme three times in recent months. He says he is not a climate skeptic and believes humans have contributed to global warming.

The London-born Abbott, 53, has never been shy of a parliamentary battle and once represented Oxford University at boxing while studying there as an Australian Rhodes Scholar.

A keen surfer and fitness fanatic, he appeared this week in swimming trunks while training for beach lifesaving duty, further adding to his reputation as a publicity savvy operator.

Abbott had aspired to joining the Catholic church and studied at a seminary before changing career paths and publicly saying he was too interested in attractive women to become a priest.

But he has made his name in politics, being a leading party intellectual and marshalling opposition to emissions trading among conservative forces.

Abbott has often been criticized for his lack of diplomacy and blunt language, including beliefs that Australia's disadvantaged Aborigines have a history under national government that is "not all bad," despite a 17 year life expectancy gap.

As a former health minister, he also showed up 30 minutes late for a nationally televised debate with his opposition counterpart, calling her complaints "bullshit."

Abbott has been in parliament for 15 years, after serving as a senior adviser to a former opposition Liberal Party leader.

($1=1.089 Australian Dollar)

(Editing by Bill Tarrant )

news20091201reut8

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Australia carbon laws in doubt, election possible
Tue Dec 1, 2009 1:49am EST
By James Grubel

CANBERRA (Reuters) - The Australian government's plans to cut carbon emissions were headed for defeat in a hostile Senate after the elevation of a new opposition leader opposed to carbon trade laws, setting a trigger for an early 2010 election.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who met President Barack Obama on Monday in Washington, wants to take a lead role at next week's Copenhagen climate change summit by enacting a "cap-and-trade" scheme requiring polluters to buy permits for their emissions.

However, new Liberal opposition leader Tony Abbott said after his party-room election on Tuesday conservative senators, many of them climate change skeptics, would reject Rudd's emissions trading laws if they were not deferred until early 2010.

Abbott said he believed in climate change but told reporters he was opposed to the government's emissions trading scheme (ETS) model, the biggest economic policy change in modern Australian history, and was not afraid to fight an election on the issue.

"This is going to be a tough fight. But it will be a fight. You cannot win an election without a fight," said Abbott, a boxer in his university days who once studied for the priesthood.

Assistant Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said the government would still push for its carbon trade laws to be passed this week, and said he hoped some opposition lawmakers would side with the government and defy Abbott.

"The extremists have gained control of the Liberal Party. They are opposed to taking action on climate change, they dispute the science," Combet told reporters.

Rudd has struggled to have his climate change bill passed in the upper house Senate before parliament adjourns until February.

He wants emissions trading to start in Australia in July 2011, covering 75 percent of emissions in the developed world's bigger per capita emitter. The planned carbon trade scheme would be the biggest outside Europe.

The United States is watching Australia's debate closely. A political agreement on carbon trading in Australia would help garner support for action from other countries.

If the Senate ends up rejecting the carbon scheme for a second time, Rudd will have a trigger to call an early 2010 election on climate change, most likely for March or April. Polls suggest his government would win an increased majority.

If Rudd wins a so-called double dissolution election of both houses of parliament, he could then push his climate policy through a special joint sitting of the lower and upper houses.

BUSINESS, ELECTION UNCERTAINTY

Rudd has repeatedly said he does not want an early poll and would prefer elections to be held on time in late 2010.

Whatever the timing, the election would not be fought solely on climate change. Traditional issues such as the economy, unemployment and home loan interest rates would also dominate.

A decision by Australia's central bank to increase official interest rates on Tuesday, and for banks in turn to hike mortgage rates, gave Abbott the chance to pounce on economic management.

"The Australian people need to understand that each and every interest rate rise over the next 12 months is due to the irresponsible spending spree of the Rudd government," he said.

Abbott said while the opposition rejected the ETS, it still backed the government's emissions reduction target of at least 5 percent from 2000 levels by 2020, with a 25 percent target if nations agree on an ambitious climate pact in Copenhagen.

The prolonged debate on the ETS has caused some dismay among companies, coal and power firms in particular, who see some sort of scheme as inevitable and are looking for pricing certainty.

Banks and fund managers see the ETS as a boon for traders, investors and new green technologies, while major polluters generally oppose it as a tax on heavy industry.

International Power Australia, a unit of International Power and Australia's largest private-sector generator, says the uncertainty has impinged on talks with its lenders.

Major miners such as BHP Billiton and oil and gas firms such as Woodside Petroleum have criticized the scheme, although have been mollified somewhat by government pledges last month to raise state compensation.

"Australian industry is now thrown into total uncertainty regarding a price on carbon and therefore cannot make any informed investment decisions," said Tim Hanlin, managing director of Australian Climate Exchange Ltd.

"This is going to put Kevin Rudd under enormous pressure to call an election on this issue," he said.

Monash University analyst Nick Economou disagreed. He said Rudd would now miss his Copenhagen deadline and be in no rush for an election, putting the chances of an early poll at 20 percent.

"They may as well play the long game, the patient game," Economou said, adding Rudd would prefer a normal election later in 2010 to give him time to build an attack against Abbott's Liberals with the carbon laws waiting to be passed.

(Editing by Michael Perry and Paul Tait)

(For a graphic on the Copenhagen climate talks, click on:

here)


[Green Business]
FACTBOX: Sticking points for forest CO2 scheme at Copenhagen
Tue Dec 1, 2009 2:49am EST

(Reuters) - A U.N.-backed scheme that aims to reward developing nations for saving or rehabilitating their forests has made major progress during climate negotiations over the past two years and is likely to advance further at talks in Copenhagen.

But several issues still need to be resolved and will be discussed when negotiators from around the world meet in the Danish capital from next week to try to reach agreement on the outlines of a tougher global climate pact.

Here are some of the sticking points facing the scheme called reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD).

FINANCE

Rich countries, the United Nations and institutions such as the World Bank are putting up money to develop REDD. The problem is who manages the cash and governs how it will be used.

There are fundamental differences between developed and developing countries over whether the World Bank and other big lending agencies should disburse funds, or whether the United Nations should handle the money.

Developing countries have criticized the World Bank for being dominated by the United States and inflexible in its lending.

The United States and Australia tend to favor bilateral funding, to ensure a flow of forest carbon offsets to their future domestic emissions trading schemes.

SAFEGUARDS

One of the thorniest issues. It is widely agreed that for REDD to work, indigenous people or local communities need to be consulted and play a key role in fighting deforestation.

The problem is how to enshrine their rights into legal language all nations can accept. The current REDD draft negotiating text refers to the U.N.'s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, but these references are still in square brackets and therefore still up for negotiation.

Tricky, too, is how to ensure the full engagement of indigenous groups, plus maintaining an area's biodiversity and including all these into an internationally accepted regime that measures, reports and verifies steps to curb deforestation.

Protecting natural forests from being turned into plantations is another problem. The current draft text has two options, namely that any REDD scheme should not provide incentives for the conversion of natural forests and safeguarding the conversion of natural forests. Greens, such as WWF, prefer the first option.

The final choice of words is still to be made. Another problem is that the U.N. hasn't fully nailed down what the definition of "natural forests" is.

SCOPE

Lots more debate likely here. Should REDD just focus on curbing deforestation and build a reward structure on that basis, which is what Brazil wants?

Or should it be "REDD+," which would also recognize efforts to enhance carbon stocks, conservation of forests and sustainable management of forests?

India and others would like this option since they say they have stopped most deforestation and instead want to be rewarded for efforts to protect and expand what's left.

Brazil also objects to REDD becoming a purely market-based scheme with money flowing from the sale of carbon offsets, fearing rich nations would buy the credits and so avoid cutting emissions at home.

Others, such as Indonesia, back a market-based scheme and are working closely with Australia to bring this about.

(Sources: Greenpeace, WWF, The Nature Conservancy, The Prince's Rainforest Project and the Report of the Informal Working Group on Interim Finance for REDD: here

rmal-working-group-on-interim-finance-for-redd )

(Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

news20091201reut9

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Coal concerns lead U.S. climate bill challenges
Tue Dec 1, 2009 1:50am EST
By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For anyone trying to understand why the United States is having such a hard time joining an international effort to combat global warming, a short drive west from Washington to one of the smaller states in the country might explain a lot.

Even though it has a population of only 1.8 million people in a country of 308 million, West Virginia is not to be ignored as Congress struggles over ways to reduce carbon emissions blamed for international climate change problems.

Coal is buried in nearly every nook of its 24,231 square miles (62,758 square km) and any legislation to reduce the role of dirty energy sources such as coal could hit the state hard.

The politics surrounding coal may be among the thorniest in the U.S. effort to craft climate change legislation, and the hurdles show why President Barack Obama will need to keep one eye on Charleston, the West Virginia capital, even as he travels to Copenhagen for international climate negotiations this month.

West Virginia's two U.S. senators, like several of their fellow Democrats from other major coal states, say they want to do something to ease carbon pollution -- with conditions.

"We have leverage and bargaining position for a good reason because our people essentially are going to pay this price," Senator John Rockefeller recently told reporters.

And so a less ambitious timetable for reducing U.S. carbon emissions than currently being debated and more government concentration on developing "clean coal" technologies are essential for the support of Rockefeller and other senators.

"I know my coal miners," Rockefeller said, adding that workers in West Virginia view "cap-and-trade to be a really bad word."

As a result, Rockefeller wants Congress to allow more time to educate voters about how the complicated regime would work allowing companies to trade pollution permits with each other.

Throughout the Midwest and South of the United States, coal and coal-fired power plants are central to local energy production and to jobs.

Paul Sracic, chairman of the political science department at Youngstown State University in Ohio, a coal state that also has suffered significant manufacturing job losses in recent decades, said, "While legislation aimed at combating global -- emphasize global -- warming might garner support in theory, it quickly loses its popularity if it is thought to cost local -- emphasize local -- jobs."

OBAMA IN COPENHAGEN

Obama will arrive in Copenhagen on December 9 at the beginning of a two-week international global warming negotiating summit lacking Congress' backing for specific climate change actions the United States could pledge.

The White House last week said, however, that the U.S. would aim to cut its carbon emissions "in the range of 17 percent" by 2020, a goal set in legislation passed by the House of Representatives last June. Similar legislation is bogged down in the Senate.

In recent months, it became apparent that the 190 or so countries attending the Copenhagen summit would not be able to reach a final deal on new global carbon emission goals.

But the White House Monday said Obama hopes he can help bring participants to the brink of a deal.

His attendance "certainly raises the stakes of the summit," said Frank O'Donnell, president of the U.S.-based Clean Air Watch. "It looked as if it would be pretty flat but Obama's presence puts it front and center, page one, around the world."

A strong performance also could jump-start legislation in the Senate, he added.

Even so, Obama will have to hit just the right chord in Copenhagen, offering enough to encourage other countries to negotiate a strong deal without promising a too-ambitious domestic plan that the U.S. Congress would refuse to ratify.

Obama's carbon-reduction goal would amount to a mere 3 percent cut from its 1990 emissions. The European Union, by contrast, promises to cut emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

Why does the EU have the political will that could be lacking in the United States?

Coal, which is not as ubiquitous in western Europe as it is in much of the United States could be one reason. But there are others.

The U.S. Senate operates in ways that make it difficult for any major initiatives to move quickly. Instead of simple majority rule, at least 60 votes out of 100 are needed for important legislation to pass. And every senator's vote, whether he or she is from the gigantic state of California or the tiny state of Rhode Island, is equally weighted.

Other factors also may have contributed to the United States dragging its feet on climate change: The issue has gotten serious attention from the White House only in the past year with Obama's election; Washington has been fixated on reforming the U.S. healthcare system all year, putting climate change on a slower track; lately there have not been monster storms, like the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, that environmentalists could point to for faster action on climate change.

And with a U.S. economy badly in the doldrums, American lawmakers are not itching to cast votes on a bill that will raise energy prices, even if only marginally.

Meanwhile, the U.S. nuclear power industry is working hard to be included in any climate bill, as are domestic oil firms that want to expand offshore production even though that would do nothing to cut carbon emissions.

The Obama administration and Democratic leaders in Congress will try to cast the climate debate in economic terms, arguing that a move toward renewable energy will create jobs. It's an argument many refuse to buy so far.

Carol Browner, Obama's climate adviser, acknowledged the fight ahead. "It will not be easy," Browner said in a November 20 speech to an environmental group, adding, "There are a lot of people to educate in the towns and cities in this country."

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)


[Green Business]
EU carbon steady; ignores Aussie scheme threat
Tue Dec 1, 2009 5:56am EST
LONDON (Reuters) - The benchmark contract for European Union carbon emissions futures were steady on Tuesday, ignoring the threat of a blocks to an Australian emissions trading scheme, traders said.

The Dec-09 contract for EU Allowances (EUAs) inched up 2 cents to 13.16 euros ($19.79) a tonne at 1003 GMT, after opening strongly at 13.27 euros.

Traders said news of opposition's plans to block an Australian carbon scheme was not a surprise and was not affecting carbon prices on Tuesday.

Australia's plans to cut carbon emissions headed for defeat in a hostile Senate after the elevation of a new opposition leader against carbon trade laws set a trigger for an early 2010 election.

New Liberal opposition leader Tony Abbott said conservative senators, many of them climate change skeptics, would reject Rudd's emissions trading laws if they were not deferred until early 2010.

Meanwhile, OTC contracts are due for expiry on Tuesday, which could mean that traders will take less new positions on the EUA market.

"We expect a range-bound week a bit lower than present levels," Societe Generale/orbeo analyst Emmanuel Fages said in a research note.

The benchmark EUA contract should trade around 13 euros a tonne this week, and certified emissions reductions (CERs) around 12 euros, he said.

Coal prices should stabilize and UK natural gas will stay around 30 pence per therm due to mild temperatures expected over central and Eastern Europe this week.

Carbon prices have shown a strong correlation with German power prices, which is likely to continue in the coming week.

U.S. oil climbed toward $78 a barrel on Tuesday, adding to the previous session's advance, as concern eased that Dubai's debt problems would set back the global economic recovery.

German Calendar 2010 baseload power on the EEX was up 0.59 percent at 43.59 euros per megawatt hour.

CERs were down 2 cents or 0.16 percent at 12.18 euros a tonne.

(Reporting by Nina Chestney)

news20091201reut10

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Forest carbon scheme hopes for green light in Copenhagen
Tue Dec 1, 2009 2:49am EST
By David Fogarty, Climate Change Correspondent, Asia

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - While nations bicker over the size of emissions cuts and climate funds, saving forests has turned out to be among the least contentious issues in U.N. climate talks and has achieved the most progress.

The reason, analysts and the world body say, is that curbing deforestation is an easy win for the climate and most countries support a U.N. scheme that aims to reward developing nations for protecting their remaining forests.

That bodes well for major U.N. climate talks that start next Monday in Copenhagen, where the scheme, called reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD), is likely to make further progress, though a number of issues need to be resolved.

Investors such as banks and some rich nations are pushing for REDD to be a success, potentially ushering in a carbon trading scheme from 2013 that could be worth billions of dollars a year.

"If anything is going to be delivered at Copenhagen it's going to be REDD," said Paul Winn, forest and climate campaigner for Greenpeace Australia.

"That is because we are looking at a huge global emissions source. There is also the recognition that it is a relatively cheap, easy form of emissions reductions," he told Reuters.

Forests soak up huge amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide, such as emissions from burning fossil fuels. But the U.N.'s Food and Agricultural Organization says about 13 million hectares (32.5 million acres), or an area roughly the size of England, are destroyed annually.

That means deforestation contributes about 20 percent of mankind's greenhouse gas emissions annually, according to the U.N. climate panel, although a recent study says new calculations show the figure is about 12 percent.

MOST ADVANCED

"I think it's a foregone conclusion that REDD will be part of the new agreement. Ironically it's actually the most advanced now," said Tony La Vina, chairman of the REDD negotiations within the U.N. climate talks.

La Vina, of the Philippines, says the scheme still faced hurdles and more talks were needed to seal a broad framework.

But he said he had been surprised that, overall, the issue had been far less contentious than other parts of the climate negotiations, such as emissions targets and funding to help poorer nations adapt to global warming.

Financing for REDD was not a problem, he said.

"Developed countries are at the door with the funding and the capacity-building and support and they just want to make sure certain things are met," he said.

Bigger problems were trying to finalize which institutions would manage the cash, how to ensure developing nations had a say in how to use the money and the extent of the market's role in providing some or eventually all of the funds.

The broad idea of REDD is to reward developing countries with valuable carbon offsets for every tonne of CO2 that is saved from being emitted by protecting forests and rehabilitating them through replanting or sustainable management.

The problem is that such carbon measurement and accounting is complex and time-consuming to put in place, requires laws to be enacted, officials to be trained and investors to be assured that the scheme won't be undermined by corruption.

Ensuring the forests aren't simply cut down later, or that deforestation is displaced to another region or country, is another concern, and analysts say REDD's final technical design will have to take account of these issues.

ROLE OF THE MARKET

More immediately, La Vina said there was still debate in the negotiations over the role of the market.

"My reading is that the debate is not really about control. It's really about offsets," La Vina said, with some developing nations fundamentally opposed to REDD using carbon credits.

La Vina said there had been fights over how to enshrine the legal rights of indigenous people in a formal REDD pact and wording to protect the conversion of natural forests into plantations. But he expected further negotiations in Copenhagen and perhaps afterward would iron out differences.

Another issue is how to get nations up to speed for REDD.

The draft text backs a phased-in approach, allowing poorer countries to build up capacity to implement REDD projects on the ground depending on their circumstances before finally moving into actions that are measured according to results.

Winn of Greenpeace said one idea was to focus initially on setting benchmarks for curbing deforestation, so-called proxies, since this was easier.

"With deforestation proxies, you can do it at a national level, it is reasonably easily measured by satellite monitoring and you don't have get into more difficult areas of working how much carbon each hectare of forest (is locked away)," said Winn.

There was likely to be strong political pressure in Copenhagen to champion REDD, said Andrew Deutz director of international government relations at the Nature Conservancy but a formal agreement on REDD might have to wait till all the other pieces of a U.N. climate puzzle fell into place.

(Editing by Clarence Fernandez)


[Green Business]
Europeans could save planet for $3 a day: study
Tue Dec 1, 2009 5:58am EST
By Pete Harrison

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Europeans could help cut climate warming emissions to much safer levels for just 2 euros ($3) each per day, but they would also have to cut back on driving and meat eating, a report said Tuesday.

Other long-term changes would include using the train instead of flying for journeys of under 1,000 km, said the report by the Stockholm Environment Institute, commissioned by Friends of the Earth Europe (FOEE).

The study targets a European cut in climate-warming emissions such as carbon dioxide to 40 percent below 1990 levels over the next decade.

"It's not just about investment, it's also about lifestyle changes," said FOEE campaigner Sonja Meister. "This report shows one pathway that would see air travel in the EU cut by 10 percent by 2020 and travel in private cars by 4 percent."

"Travel by rail would rise by 9 percent, and meat consumption would be reduced by about 60 percent," she added.

The European Union has pledged to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, the main gas blamed for climate change, to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

It also says it will cut by nearly a third if other rich nations agree to follow suit when they meet for global climate talks in Copenhagen in December.

But many scientists say much deeper cuts are needed from rich nations to keep the climate temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius.

Poorer countries preparing for Copenhagen say industrialized nations caused the climate problem in the first place and should cut emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels.

That could be achieved in Europe for a cost of 2 trillion euros, or around 2 percent of cumulative gross domestic product (GDP) over the next decade, said the report.

"Put another way, this cost would be the equivalent of temporarily holding GDP constant for about one year before resuming normal growth," it added.

The cost equates to about 2 euros per European per day, but that does not take account of the positive impact of job creation and reduced spending on hydrocarbon imports.

True to FOEE's politics, the assessment excludes the use of nuclear energy or carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology that would allow European power suppliers to keep on burning coal. It also rules out most carbon offsetting.

Instead, it assumes Europeans will accept higher taxes and make major lifestyle changes -- something politicians have not yet dared demand.

Such lifestyle changes could be continued to 2050, leading to a 90 percent cut in emissions, said the report.

Journeys in private cars would be cut to 43 percent of all journeys by 2050, compared to roughly 75 percent today, while people would switch from air travel to rail for 80 percent of the flights being made today of less than 1,000 km.

Wind power would be scaled up from its current 3.3 percent share of generating capacity to 22 percent in 2020 and 55 percent in 2050.

(Reporting by Pete Harrison)