news20091207gdn1

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Heathrow third runway]
MPs back third runway at Heathrow airport
Support for Heathrow expansion comes ahead of a report on aviation industry's progress in meeting climate target
Dan Milmo
The Guardian, Monday 7 December 2009 Article history

The government's approval of a third runway at Heathrow has been endorsed by MPs, ahead of the publication tomorrow of an independent report on aviation's contribution to climate change.

The House of Commons transport committee backs the expansion of Britain's largest airport in a report published today, adding that airline passengers would be better served by a second runway at Gatwick rather than Stansted. "In view of the economic benefits to the UK, we endorse the government's January 2009 decision to support a third runway at Heathrow and an additional terminal," says the report.

It states that a second runway at Stansted is unlikely to be completed before 2019 due to planning wrangles and priority should be given instead to Gatwick, where an embargo against expanding Britain's second largest airport expires in 2019.

The endorsement of the Heathrow policy comes as the Committee on Climate Change prepares to publish its own aviation report. Alongside approving a third runway, the government introduced a target of limiting aviation's carbon dioxide emissions to 2005 levels by 2050. The committee, set up to advise ministers how to reduce carbon emissions, will report on aviation's progress towards the target tomorrow, including comments on whether a third runway will hinder the industry's ability to meet the 2050 benchmark.

A leading campaigner against Heathrow expansion said the transport committee had "failed to move with the times". John Stewart, who chairs Hacan (Heathrow Association for the Control of Airport Noise), added: "It trots out the tired, old discredited arguments in favour of Heathrow expansion. The economic case for Heathrow expansion is just no longer accepted by the majority of decision-makers."

Ministers argue that congestion-choked Heathrow needs to expand, otherwise leading businesses including financial services firms will locate their bases in countries with larger, less crowded airports. With a third runway, Heathrow would go from handling 67 million people a year to 135 million. If there is no expansion those passengers will simply go elsewhere, travelling through rival hubs in Paris or Amsterdam at considerable cost to British jobs, the government believes.

The Liberal Democrats warn today that an expanded Heathrow will cost the government billions in terms of the price of carbon dioxide generated by 220,000 extra flights a year. "In light of the new government guidance on the cost of CO2 emissions, Heathrow expansion will actually cost us billions," said Susan Kramer, the party's Heathrow spokeswoman. "Only this government could dress up a loss of billions of pounds as a reason to have a third runway. We don't need a bigger Heathrow to keep London competitive."

The Conservatives are also opposed to a third runway.

The transport committee also backed high-speed rail as a key feature of Britain's future transport infrastructure, arguing that it is "imperative" that the new network is linked to airports such as Heathrow.


[Environment > Carbon emissions]
China's carbon emissions will peak between 2030 and 2040, says minister
Beijing official gives strong indicator for when China's output of greenhouse gases will start to fall
Jonathan Watts, Asia environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 6 December 2009 23.57 GMT Article history

China's carbon emissions will peak between 2030 and 2040, the country's science and technology minister told the Guardian as the global climate change summit began in Copenhagen. In an exclusive interview, Wan Gang said he hoped the maximum output of Chinese greenhouse gases would come as soon as possible within that range, and spelled out the steps that needed to be taken to achieve this.

His comment, while not official policy, is the closest the world's biggest emitter has come to setting a target for when its output of greenhouse gases will start to fall.

Setting a peak date for developing countries, whose emissions are rising rapidly, will be a key issue for negotiators in Copenhagen trying to map out a global strategy to avoid a rise of more than 2C in the planet's temperature. Scientists agree a greater rise would have dangerous consequences.

Thinktanks, research groups and academics in China have variously estimated that the emissions peak could come between 2020 or 2050, but the government has yet to announce a target.

Wan narrowed the range considerably by predicting that the peak would definitely come between 2030 and 2040.

"There are some uncertainties here, so it is difficult to say whether it will be in the beginning, the end or the middle, but I can say for sure it will be within that range," he said. "As the minister of science and technology I would say the sooner the better."

The precise timing, he said, would depend on uncertain factors such as the pace of China's economic growth, rate of urbanisation and level of scientific development. But he added that the earlier date in the range would be possible if China continued to invest in renewable energy, improved energy efficiency, commercialised carbon capture technology and changed consumer behaviour.

Wan, a non-Communist member of the state council, said China has proved its ability to meet and often exceed its targets in the current five-year plan to improve energy efficiency by about 20%. His ministry has already exceeded by 30% its goal during this period of investing 10bn yuan to reduce emissions and deal with the consequences of climate change.

Jim Watson, of the Tyndall Centre at the University of Sussex, said: "I think this range makes it difficult for China to make a full contribution to keeping the rise in global temperatures below two degrees. That would be more compatible with a peak within 2020 to 2030. But it is very significant that the minister is willing to talk of a peak, even a range, at this stage."

Environmental groups gave a cautious welcome to the figure, but said China could be more ambitious if rich nations provide technology and finance. "This is a good thing. This is the first time that a ministerial-level official has confirmed the peak range," said Yang Ailun of Greenpeace. "If China really makes climate change a priority, they could peak by 2030. And if they get support from developed countries, they could do it even faster."

An agreement to transfer technology and money from rich to poor nations is one of China's main goals at the Copenhagen conference. China is keen to get international help to reduce the price of silicon processing for solar panels and to develop ultra-efficient coal gasification plants.It is already collaborating with the UK on a project to capture carbon dioxide. In future, Wan said the country will explore the potential for storage or conversion to algae biofuels.

"Seventy per cent of our electricity comes from coal," the minister said. "If we can capture all the CO2 from this, imagine how much emissions we could save. But it is not something we can do in the short term."

But most of China's future emissions savings will come from improved efficiency of power plants, buildings and transport and from nuclear, solar and other forms of renewable energy.

Last week, the government in Beijing announced its first carbon intensity target, which would slow the increase of emissions relative to economic growth by 40%-45% between 2005 and 2020. Even with this measure, the country's output of carbon dioxide is expect to increase by about 90% if the economy grows by 8%.

Although the carbon intensity target is lower than China achieved over the previous 15 years, Wan said it posed an "arduous task" because the government has already picked most of the low-hanging fruit when it came to upgrading inefficient power stations.

Wan said the priority at Copenhagen would be to establish a framework for transferring funds and money, rather than getting hung up on figures.

"If we can achieve this goal, that is good enough," he said. "Copenhagen is very important to all governments and politicians. It's an important turning point, but it is also just the start of human efforts to tackle climate change. It is not the end."

news20091207gdn2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[News > Politics > Gordon Brown]
Gordon Brown says climate change deal must be legally binding in six months
> PM urges world to make historic agreement
> Obama acts to cut US emissions
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 6 December 2009 22.26 GMT Article history

Gordon Brown raises the bar for climate change negotiations , urging world leaders to give their promises at Copenhagen the full weight of international law within six months.

In an article in the Guardian, the prime minister underlines the historic nature of the summit, which has been described as the most important international gathering since the end of the second world war. "Sometimes history comes to turning points," he writes. "For all our sakes the turning point of 2009 must be real."

He calls on the 100 heads of government and state expected in Copenhagen on the final day of the talks to move quickly to reinforce an anticipated political deal with a full-fledged, legally binding treaty. "Our aim is a comprehensive and global agreement which is then converted to an internationally legally binding treaty in no more than six months," he writes.

The appeal comes amid fresh signs of momentum – in Copenhagen and Washington – in advance of the two-week meeting. In Washington, the Obama administration is poised to declare carbon dioxide a public danger, sending a powerful signal that America will act on global warming – with or without a law in Congress – by 2010.

The official declaration would allow Obama to use the powers of the Environmental Protection Agency to begin cutting greenhouse gas emissions. That would avoid waiting for action from Congress, where a proposed climate change law has stalled in the Senate.

The announcement of EPA action could also push Democrats from coal and manufacturing states to swing behind a proposed climate change law to avoid ceding such sweeping authority to the regulating agency. Administration officials and environmentalists said the announcement could come as early as today.

The reports bolstered a surge of last-minute optimism that the Copenhagen summit could deliver clear outlines for a climate change deal.

"Negotiators now have the clearest signal ever from world leaders to craft solid proposals to implement rapid action," Yvo de Boer, the UN's top climate change official told reporters in Copenhagen. "So whilst there will be more steps on the road to a safe climate future, Copenhagen is already a turning point in the international response to climate change."

A report by the United Nations environment programme suggested the action pledged by industrialised countries would fall just short of what is required to keep warming below the extremely dangerous 2C level. The report said commitments offered so far would put global emissions at 46bn tonnes a year by 2020. Scientists say emissions should be below 44bn tonnes to avoid the most severe sea level rises and temperature extremes of climate change.

"For those who claim a deal in Copenhagen is impossible, they are simply wrong," said Unep director Achim Steiner, releasing the report compiled by Lord Stern. Even so, there are fears that the controversy over hacked emails from the East Anglia climate research centre could throw Copenhagen off track.

"I think a lot of people are sceptical about this issue in any case," de Boer told the Associated Press. "And then when they have the feeling … that scientists are manipulating information in a certain direction then of course it causes concern in a number of people to say, 'you see I told you so, this is not a real issue'."

Brown, in his article, said leaders must deliver bigger cuts in emissions as well as funds to help poor countries adapt to climate change. "All countries need to reach for high level ambition in their commitments to reduce their emissions and their emissions growth," he writes. "So in Copenhagen we need to ensure that all countries move to the top of the range of their ambition, thereby enabling others to do so in a process of mutual reinforcement."

With stragglers Obama and India's Manmohan Singh confirming their attendance over the weekend, some 100 world leaders are now expected to be in Copenhagen, bolstering chances of emerging with an agreement by 18 December.

"They will only show up in Copenhagen because they think it is going to be a political success," Friis Petersen, the Danish ambassador to Washington, said. "They don't want to come to Copenhagen to be part of a failure."

news20091207reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
How to invest in water
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A global water crisis is looming, but the path to profits is a muddy mess of regulated industries, giant companies with small water operations, and start-up technologies.
Peter Henderson
SAN FRANCISCO
Sun Dec 6, 2009 3:20pm EST

For Alex Miles, who once ran a water hedge fund and now manages $350 million at Kingfisher Capital, successful investing in water means going beyond it -- commodities, power and efficiency technology are all ways to make a portfolio splash.

Water scarcity has become a global issue as climate change alters water availability, population growth raises demand, and contamination threatens clean supplies. But what seems to be an obvious investment opportunity has challenges -- in particular, the belief that water is a public good, not a profit source.

"If water were not viewed as a human right, it would be a great investment," said Miles, who compares water shortages to gravity -- inescapable.

Miles ran Aqueduct, one of the first hedge funds in water from 2006 to 2009. His Kingfisher's Value Opportunity flagship fund, which has water as one focus, has outperformed the Standard & Poor's 500 index by 3.65 percentage points annually between its inception at the end of 2004 and the end of June 2009, he said.

In an interview at a recent Green Power conference in San Francisco, he explained how to invest in ways that could help alleviate crisis as well as profit from its effects, such as higher grain prices.

"The fault of the investment community is that they have looked at water too narrowly," he said.

PLUG INTO THE SMART GRID

Water investment can be made in primary industries, like utilities that produce, treat and transport water. But it should also include related industries, such as smart grid and pollution management that could increase efficiency of water use, and products tied to water -- like food.

Heavy regulation limits returns at publicly traded water utilities, while the biggest players in water technology, such as General Electric Co and Siemens AG, are even bigger in other areas, diluting their value for someone wanting a targeted water investment.

One pure play would be small-cap Energy Recovery Inc, which makes equipment that cuts energy use at desalination plants and other enterprises that clean water.

Secondary industries that are closely related to water offer other opportunities. Moving and heating water is a major energy draw, while water is crucial to producing energy, from mining to natural gas extraction to cooling power plants.

Bets on water include meter companies focused on water and building an electricity smart grid, Miles said. He cited companies such as Badger Meter, Itron Inc, and EnerNOC, a demand response company that sells 'negawatts' -- contracts to cut demand when needed by power companies.

Miles declined to recommend any specific investment, but argued that many of the water companies had been chewed up by credit fears that had nothing to do with the underlying demand for their wares and services.

"Investors in water have to take a long-term view," he said. "A lot of these stocks have struggled because of the global credit crisis rather than because of their business models."

FOLLOW THE CARBON FOOTPRINT

Water use is often energy-intensive, and thus carbon-intensive, while much industry endangers water. So increased focus on carbon and water go hand in hand, he said.

"Carbon prices should go up, reflective of (the) water crisis," he said.

Investing in the Climate Exchange Plc, the publicly traded company which itself runs exchanges for greenhouse gases, could be seen as water investment, he said.

Miles expects the crisis to intensify, despite technology improvements, and the best strategy for "water crisis" investors is grain and other soft commodities, he said.

Water prices will rise because needs will be so dire and governments such as the United States will have more pressing priorities. But regulation and fragment markets mean the water price rise will lag price increases in products that use water -- like food -- which trade in global markets.

"I want to be long agricultural commodities," he said.

The market already expects higher prices of grains from economic recovery, but it does not price in additional impacts of water crisis, he said. Wheat could get a risk premium related to water in the same way that gold currently enjoys a premium because of currency risk in an unstable world economy.

Aside from trading directly in agricultural futures, investors could get exposure with exchange-traded funds such as the PowerShares DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund or the PowerShares DB Agriculture Fund.

(Reporting by Peter Henderson; Editing by Richard Chang and Jan Paschal)


[Green Business]
U.N. summit should pave way for global CO2 market
LONDON (Reuters) - A United Nations climate summit should lay the foundations for a global carbon market or UK business will suffer as firms move to countries with lower emissions targets, business lobby group CBI said on Monday. A 190-nation U.N. conference in Copenhagen starts on Monday and runs to December 18. World leaders will try to work out a new pact to combat climate change though a legally binding treaty seems unlikely.
LONDON
Sun Dec 6, 2009 7:10pm EST

British businesses have a strong interest in a successful outcome at Copenhagen as they will be delivering the new infrastructure needed to shift to a low-carbon economy, the CBI said.

"With the right deal at Copenhagen, there could be huge opportunities for the UK. Sectors where we could build a real advantage and create jobs include offshore wind, low-carbon vehicles, carbon finance and clean coal," said John Cridland, deputy director general of the CBI. A level playing field needs to be created or UK companies could be at a disadvantage as manufacturers of commodities such as steel or cement shift production to countries where emissions targets are not as tough as in Britain, he added.

The EU's Emissions Trading Scheme should form the basis for a global carbon market as it guarantees emissions cuts in a cost-effective way, the CBI said.

"By forcing polluters to pay more for a decreasing number of permits, that in turn encourages investment in green technology and energy efficiency," Cridland said.

The EU's flagship scheme started in 2005. It caps emissions and forces participants to buy permits to cover their carbon dioxide emissions.

(Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Sue Thomas)


[Green Business]
Renewables to supply one-third of China's energy by 2050
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's renewable energy strategy through 2050 envisions renewable energy making up one-third of its energy consumption by then, the China Daily said, as the upcoming Copenhagen conference on climate change highlights the world's dependence on fossil fuels.
BEIJING
Sat Dec 5, 2009 11:19pm EST

Coal-dependent China, the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, last month said it would cut the amount of carbon dioxide produced for each yuan of national income by 40-45 percent by 2020, compared to 2005 levels.

Depending on economic growth projections, total emissions will still rise.

By 2020, renewable energy should account for 15 percent of national primary energy consumption, supplying the equivalent of 600 million metric tons of coal, the China Daily said this weekend.

It cited a renewable energy blueprint laid out by Han Wenke, director-general of the Energy Research Institute under top planning body, the National Development and Reform Commission.

By 2030, renewable energy's share should rise to 20 percent of the national energy mix, displacing 1 billion metric tons of coal, Han said, and by 2050, it would supply one-third of China's energy, displacing two billion metric tons of coal, the paper said.

China's drive for renewable energy to mitigate the health and environmental costs of coal has brought its own challenges.

Wind power generating capacity has surged so fast that policy planners now warn of severe overcapacity in the sector, and dam after dam piled on Chinese rivers distorts water flow, endangers fish and poses a potential earthquake hazard.

China's installed wind power capacity is now 12.17 million kilowatts, up from 350,000 kw in 2000, and large-scale solar energy facilities are planned, the paper said.

China is focusing on non-grain bioethanol and biodiesel, to avoid diverting grains from food and feed supply.

(Reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Jerry Norton)

news20091207reut2

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Climate change in Brazil: Follow the meat
PORTO VELHO, Brazil (Reuters) - At an experimental government farm in the western Amazon's Rondonia state, researchers analyze grass seeds under microscopes, shake soil samples in test tubes, and measure the milk production of a new breed of cows.
Raymond Colitt
PORTO VELHO, Brazil
Sun Dec 6, 2009 6:31pm EST

While high-profile police raids targeting illegal ranchers and loggers in the Amazon grab more headlines, these scientists may produce a more important solution in the long fight to save the greatest rainforest.

Their aim is to reduce the pressure for forest destruction by raising the productivity of pastures through fertilization, better choice of grass, and planting trees.

Brazil's ability to meet its ambitious 2020 target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent from 2005 levels depends largely on the ability of its agriculture sector, and particularly its huge cattle industry, to meet growing world demand without destroying more forest.

The cattle industry is the main culprit of deforestation, which accounts for around 75 percent of carbon emissions in Brazil, one of the top global emitters.

"Brazil's emissions targets hinge significantly on its cattle industry," said Paulo Barreto, senior researcher with Imazon, an environmental institute in the Amazon city Belem.

At stake is not only Brazil's role in climate change but also the competitiveness of its agriculture in a global market increasingly demanding eco-friendly products. Its beef exports account for $5.3 billion each year. Major importers of Brazilian beef products include Russia, China, Iran and the United States, as well as Britain and Italy.

Environment group Greenpeace said in a June report that consumers around the world were unwittingly fueling destruction of the Amazon by buying hamburgers and shoes linked to illegal deforestation. That spurred a wave of pledges by big meat processors aimed at reducing deforestation by farmers who supply them.

"Our producers know if they try to expand their land, they won't have a market anymore. They'll have to use the area they have better," Agriculture Minister Reinhold Stephanes told Reuters.

Near the town of Ji-Parana in southern Rondonia, farmers on their own initiative have planted trees on pasture land, giving cattle and pasture shade from the scorching sun and introducing nitrogen into the ground through the trees' roots.

The richer pasture and healthier cattle will allow the cooperative to raise 5.2 animals per hectare, nearly triple its previous rate.

Brazil's 200 million head of cattle, more than a third of which is in the Amazon, occupy an area nearly three times the size of Texas, or on average 1 per hectare (2.47 acres).

"We have the land and technology today that allows us to expand cattle ranching without chopping down a single tree," said Luiz Carlos Balbino, senior Embrapa researcher.

He says Brazil can double or triple beef production without deforesting by boosting the productivity of existing pastures, recovering degraded grass lands, and developing as much as 50 million hectares (123.5 million acres) of unforested savanna.

FROM FOREST DEFENDERS TO CRIMINALS

But many ranchers are set in their ways and continue to slash and burn. Most were invited by the military government in the 1970s to populate the region to help defend the Amazon against alleged foreign designs on its natural resources. Back then they were told to deforest; now they're told to reforest, complains one of their leaders.

"We came as human shields and now they turn us into criminals. If a settler is caught chopping down trees to survive, he goes to prison without bail," said Francisco Ferreira Cabral, head of the Rondonia Agriculture Federation.

For decades ranchers and farmers have slashed and burned, consuming one-fifth of the world's largest rain forest.

Poor soil quality means ranchers and farmers often abandon the land after a few years to push deeper into the forest.

From above, Rondonia state looks more like the Irish countryside than the western Amazon. Green pasture land has replaced most of the jungle, and cows have taken the place of jaguars, giant anteaters and hundreds of other species once roaming the area. The number of cattle -- 11 million -- is nearly triple the human population.

"There is hardly any forest left in the state, only in parks and Indian reserves, and even that is threatened," said Cesar Luiz da Silva Guimaraes, head of the local office of the government environmental agency Ibama.

In June, police had to abandon attempts to pull 30,000 cows out of Bom Futuro national forest in Rondonia. Ranchers had made death threats, burned police cars and succeeded in pressuring the federal government to back off.

Some ranchers believe in conservation but don't have the know-how or financial resources to buy fertilizer, equipment or proper seeds to improve their business.

"It's not enough to give them technology, we need to give them the resources to apply it," said Ibama's Guimaraes. "If they don't have access to credit, it's cheaper to slash and burn. It costs you a box of matches."

Many farmers lack proper land titles, meaning they have no collateral to put up for a loan.

While technology is available to increase output on existing land, it requires investments, infrastructure and a change in producer mentality.

That could take decades to apply -- time that the Amazon does not have. Although the deforestation rate has fallen to a 20-year low, helped by stepped-up police raids on illegal loggers and lower global demand for soy and beef, the 7,000 sq km (2,700 square miles) lost in the year to July still represents a major source of emissions. Scientists say it could lead to higher temperatures and less rain, risking a desertification process.

The government has set a goal to regenerate 8-9 million hectares (19.8-22.2 million acres) of degraded land in 10 years an area larger than Scotland. But a 2 billion reais ($1.16 billion) line of credit it made available this year for that purpose -- the first ever -- has gone virtually untapped.

"We haven't found the way to make this attractive yet," Stephanes said, blaming red tape and high interest rates.

DOUBTS ON 10-YEAR TARGET

Coinciding with the U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen this month, leading meat packers will launch a satellite tracking system that uses implanted microchips to identify cows, helping them to avoid buying cattle from illegally cleared land.

Most conservationists applaud the measure but say the deal requires independent monitoring and worry that it excludes slaughterhouses that account for as much 40 percent of the beef market.

Like attempts to control drug-trafficking, experts say, measures to reduce illegally-produced beef will only work when the underlying economics change. As long as it remains cheaper to chop down trees than boost output on existing pastures, ranchers will do so, they say.

"The cattle industry goes to wherever land is cheapest and that's the Amazon," said Egon Krakhecke, secretary for rural sustainable development in the Environment Ministry.

Brazil's agriculture minister remains confident that the cattle industry will do its part to help Brazil meet its 2020 carbon emissions target, as more ranchers see that environmental awareness makes good business sense as well.

"The long-term productivity gains far outweigh the initial investment -- we need to spread that message," said Stephanes.

"Brazil has shown before it can successfully apply technology -- 10 years is more than enough time for this," he said.

Yet scientists on the ground are less optimistic.

"Technology helps but isn't an aspirin you take to fix the problem. You need investments, logistics, a change in attitude -- we're talking a generation to change things," said Embrapa's Balbino.

(Editing by Stuart Grudgings and Claudia Parsons)

news20091207reut3

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
EU aims to raid aid budgets for climate deal: Oxfam
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Anti-poverty campaign group Oxfam accused European politicians on Sunday of planning to "cannibalize" existing development aid budgets and repackage them as part of a deal to fight climate change.
Pete Harrison
BRUSSELS
Sun Dec 6, 2009 9:24am EST
Green Business

Oxfam said it had found evidence that exposed "undercover accounting" in some rich nations' pledges to help poor nations to tackle the climate threat.

But Sweden, holder of the rotating European Union presidency, denied the charges made the day before a U.N. summit starts in Copenhagen on negotiating a new global deal to combat climate-warming emissions.

"What is new and additional money is not always clear cut, but many countries, my own included, have foreseen and planned for Copenhagen, and the money is already in state budgets," Sweden's chief climate negotiator Anders Turesson told Reuters.

Finance has emerged as one of the key obstacles in the talks to replace the Kyoto Protocol, the U.N.'s main tool for dealing with global warming which expires in 2012.

Developing nations want billions of dollars a year to help them adapt to a problem they say was initially caused by industrialized countries. The EU says poor countries will need around 100 billion euros ($150 billion) a year by 2020, of which as much as half would come from the public purse globally.

FAST START FUNDING

But it has also proposed up to $10 billion a year of "fast start" funding in the three years before any Copenhagen deal kicks in. The United States has embraced the idea of early funding, but has been less forthcoming on long-term aid.

"The financial support -- short or long term -- is probably the most important bargaining chip that developed countries have at their disposal when seeking a comprehensive global agreement," said an informal paper by the Swedish EU presidency.

"For fast-start actions, existing funds should be used," added the document, seen by Reuters.

Oxfam said the mention of using existing funds showed politicians were considering taking funds that have already been earmarked for schools and hospitals, and presenting them as new money to tackle climate change.

Such funds might be used to develop drought-resistant crops, build dams to control dwindling water supplies, or be spent on flood protection.

"We have been watching global negotiations over climate finance for months, and it now seems clear that pledges of fast-start money will involve cannibalizing existing promises of overseas aid," said Oxfam campaigner Tim Gore.

"This undercover accounting is an attempt to win the support of developing countries for a deal in Copenhagen, which distracts attention from the big long-term commitments of real money that poor countries need," he added.

But Turesson said the text referred to funds that have been built up in anticipation of Copenhagen and the channels that will be used to deliver it, such as the World Bank.

"If the money is to be on the table on January 1, 2010, it must already be in state budgets," he said. "And the very nature of fast-start financing requires existing institutions."

Oxfam estimates that poor countries need to be given $200 billion a year of new public finance by 2020 -- on top of existing aid pledges -- a figure which is far higher than the EU's estimate of 22-50 billion euros.

The document, called "Structure and Elements of a Copenhagen Outcome," was circulated among EU climate experts on Thursday.

(Editing by David Brunnstrom and David Stamp)


[Environment News]
Copenhagen hopes sail towards Antarctic icebergs
ON BOARD L'ASTROLABE, Southern Ocean (Reuters) - As Captain Benoit Hebert steers the icebreaker l'Astrolabe on Monday through a stormy Southern Ocean heading for Antarctica his thoughts will soon turn to the dangers of icebergs.
Pauline Askin
Sun Dec 6, 2009 10:23pm EST
Green Business

Large icebergs have recently been spotted floating hundreds of kilometers (miles) north of Antarctica -- a sign of the accelerating melt of East Antarctica due to climate change.

But Hebert's thoughts will also be on a gathering on the other side of the earth in Copenhagen, where he hopes world leaders will agree to dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.

"Like everyone else, I would like to see the big industrial countries like the U.S. reduce their C02 carbon emissions," Hebert told Reuters from the bridge as he sailed his research ship toward Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica.

Hebert has been sailing the icy seas around Antarctica and the Arctic for more than 15 years and has seen first hand the effects of global warming.

"Climate change is a lot more visible in the north in the Arctic rather than in the Antarctic. The Arctic is made up of pack ice which is melting.," he said.

Total summer ice cover in the Arctic Ocean was only about half the level it was in 1950, according to the International Panel on Climate Change.

The Arctic is warming at about three times the global rate and global warming will leave the Arctic Ocean ice-free during the summer within 20 years, says one British polar scientist.

CLIMATE OPTIMISTS

East Antarctica has been losing ice at an average rate of 5 to 109 gigatonnes a year from April 2002 to January 2009, but the rate accelerated from 2006, says University of Texas scientists.

Fifteen years ago Hebert sailed the Southern Ocean to Antarctica and has been back on the sea route from Australia to the French base of Dumont D'Urville for the past two years.

While scientists document an increase in Antarctic melt, Herbet is optimistic the southern ice continent will survive.

"I haven't noticed any increase in melting ice during my time sailing this route," he said. "All the scientists know that the pack ice in the Arctic will disappear very soon."

"Whereas Antarctica is fresh water ice, it's a very large continent. I don't think Antarctica is a threat."

Alexandre Trouvilliez, an engineer in environmental hydrology, is traveling to Antarctica to measure and quantify blowing and drifting snow to estimate surface ice mass.

Trouvilliez is optimistic that Copenhagen will see the world act to stop global warming as it includes many nations not party to the Kyoto Protocol, like the United States and China.

"I think one of the biggest advances will be the emergent countries like China joining and making great advances. China is the largest emitter of C02 gases," he said. "I hope the outcome will be the reduction of the number of C02 and methane gases."

Benoit Vanniere, a volunteer PHD student traveling to Antarctica to measure the temperature, is also optimistic.

"People say the Kyoto protocol didn't achieve anything, but there are results to prove it did. We have great expectations for the Copenhagen summit, we expect a fruitful result," he said.

(Editing by Michael Perry)


[Environment News]
World's press urges action on climate change
LONDON (Reuters) - Humanity faces a profound emergency and unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, a joint editorial published in newspapers in 45 countries said on Monday.
Janet Lawrence
LONDON
Sun Dec 6, 2009 9:00pm EST
Green Business

The 56 newspapers said they were taking the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice to implore world leaders to "make the right choice" at U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen.

"The politicians in Copenhagen have the power to shape history's judgment on this generation: one that saw a challenge and rose to it, or one so stupid that we saw a calamity coming but did not avert it," the editorial read.

Two-weeks of talks open on Monday seeking to agree curbs on greenhouse gas emissions and raise billions of dollars for the poor in aid and clean technology.

The talks end with a summit of 105 world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, on December 18 and must overcome deep distrust between rich and poor nations about sharing the burden of costly cuts in carbon emissions.

"Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time and our prospects of taming it will be determined in the next 14 days," read the front-page editorial.

It was published in 20 languages, including Chinese, Arabic and Russian, in newspapers including the Guardian in London, Le Monde in France, the Toronto Star, Gulf Times, Botswana Guardian and Miami Herald.

"This should not be a fight between the rich world and the poor world, between east and west. Climate change affects everyone, and must be solved by everyone.

"The science is complex, but the facts are clear. The world needs to take steps to limit temperature rises to 2C, an aim that will require global emissions to peak and begin falling within the next 5-10 years.

"A bigger rise of 3-4C -- the smallest increase we can prudently expect to follow inaction -- would parch continents, turning farmland into desert. Half of all species could become extinct, untold millions would be displaced, whole nations drowned by the sea," it read.

"The question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage."

It urged politicians in Copenhagen to agree the essential elements of a fair and effective deal and a firm timetable for turning it into a treaty, saying next June's U.N. climate meeting in Bonn should be their deadline.

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

news20091207reut4

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Environment News]
Coal throbs at the heart of India growth engine
KORBA, India (Reuters) - A thin coat of coal dust covers everything from trees to houses in Korba, a coal mining town in central India which lies at the heart of the country's struggle to balance economic growth with climate change concerns.
Krittivas Mukherjee
KORBA, India
Sun Dec 6, 2009 7:15pm EST
Green Business

The air is heavy with smoke and dust spewing out of numerous mines and power plants in a region that powers hundreds of factories in the country's industrial west and lights up millions of homes.

Although India has announced a new climate plan which identifies renewable energy such as solar power as key elements, coal remains the backbone of energy supply in a country where almost half the 1.1 billion population still has no electricity.

"Coal-fired power will stay for the next 20-25 years at least," said R.D. Sonkar, chief engineer at one of Korba's many thermal power stations.

"Look at the high cost of solar and wind energy. Can we afford? Power from renewable energy will have to wait, I think."

As the world meets in Copenhagen for crucial negotiations on a global pact to fight climate change, part of the debate will be on how developing countries such as India tackle the use of fossil fuel without hampering their growth.

India, the world's fourth largest greenhouse gas emitter though still low on per-capita emissions, is under pressure to cut pollution to battle climate change while demand for power increases as its middle class clamors for more cars, TVs and housing.

India set a goal on Thursday for slowing the growth of its greenhouse gas emissions, saying it was willing to rein in its "carbon intensity" -- the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted per unit of economic output -- by between 20 and 25 percent by 2020, from 2005 levels.

ECONOMIC ENGINE

The big emerging economies have often insisted that rich nations have caused global warming by spewing out greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution, and want to see deep cuts by these rich nations before joining the effort.

Current global pacts do not require developing nations to cut emissions, but rich countries are obliged to do so.

The December 7-18 U.N. talks in the Danish capital are aimed at settling a legally binding deal after arguments between rich and poor nations about who should cut emissions, by how much and who should pay.

As the world discusses the implications of climate change and plans to cut emissions, experts say it is coal towns such as Korba that will shape India's efforts to eradicate poverty.

"There is a lot of focus on clean coal and super critical technology to increase efficiency, but coal will remain central," said Sunita Narain, member of the prime minister's council on climate change.

"There are two aspects -- affordability of coal in a country where there is a lot of poverty and large-scale generation that is required to reach power to a huge portion of the population."

Coal is seen as the solution to India's power shortage, a daunting barrier to development in a country where massive rural poverty means people cannot afford costly electricity produced from renewable sources.

Last year, the country faced a 16.6 percent shortfall during hours of peak consumption and a 9.9 percent gap for energy generation, World Bank figures show.

The country has 10 percent of the world's coal reserves, the biggest after the United States, Russia and China, but it also imported about 70 million metric tons of high grade coal this fiscal year, mostly for making steel.

The country plans to add 78.7 gigawatts of power generation during the five years ending March 2012, most of it from coal, which now accounts for about 60 percent of India's energy mix.

RENEWABLES

In comparison, renewables such as wind, solar and bio-mass contribute only 8.8 percent to generation and, though there are plans to scale up solar power generation to 20 gigawatts by 2022, it depends on international finance and technology.

A landmark nuclear deal with the United States may herald a new chapter in clean energy in India, but long gestation periods for nuclear reactors and high cost are a deterrent.

Even if the country is on track with its renewable energy plans, coal will still account for about 55 percent of its power supply by 2030, according to Indian government figures.

"Clearly, it's not a question of choice for India. Coal will remain at the core but what will change is there will be more thrust on clean coal technology," said Ashok Sharma, climate change expert at Halcrow Consulting India.

India issued a national climate change policy last year, identifying renewable energy like solar power, and energy efficiency as key elements.

Already, its carbon and energy use per unit of GDP are both below that of the United States and China. And India had only about 12 vehicles per 1,000 people in 2007 compared to over 800 in the United States.

India's industrial electricity tariffs are, on average, the highest in the world, a measure aimed at deterring wastage.

"India's focus is a combination of improved coal, enhanced efficiency, some use of gas, solar and wind power ... eventually it's about positioning yourself for the future technology," said Nitin Desai, one of the architects of India's climate policy.

"You can't immediately say I won't use coal -- you have to look at the balance of energy security."

(Additional reporting by Sujeet Kumar; Editing by Sugita Katyal)


[Environment News]
Japan to stick CO2 goal, mull domestic steps: official
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will stick to its 2020 target at upcoming talks to fight global warming while considering to reduce a cost burden on local CO2 emitting industries, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Tetsuro Fukuyama, said on Sunday.
TOKYO
Sun Dec 6, 2009 4:02am EST
Green Business | Japan

The comments came in the face of growing concerns among companies here that if Japan, the world's No.5 greenhouse gas emitter, promises a tough 2020 target in a deal to which other major emitting countries are not bound, that would hurt profits, in particular those of energy-intensive industries.

CO2 emissions usually increase in line with the usage of energy generated by fossil fuels.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has made it clear that Japan's 2020 target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels would be applied if all major emitters, such as China and the United States, agree with ambitious targets.

In October, the environment minister, Sakihito Ozawa, said in an interview with Reuters that Japan could lower the target if the conditions are not met.

Fukuyama, who will attend the December 7-18 meeting in Copenhagen along with Ozawa, reiterated that Japan would not agree with a post 2012 deal which binds only the Annex 1 parties under the Kyoto Protocol.

The United States never ratified Kyoto, which binds industrialized nations to emissions targets during its first commitment period from 2008 to 2012.

"We cannot accept an idea to simply extend the Kyoto Protocol. It is absolutely not," Fukuyama said in an Asahi TV broadcasting program.

Fukuyama also said a minus 25 percent 2020 target could make Japan well prepared for a low carbon economy and "would not be irrational" when considering Japan's 2050 target to cut emissions by 80 percent, the same goal the United States shared at a summit meeting of the two leaders in November.

The 80 percent cut by 2050 is in line with the G8's aim of cutting its emissions by 80 percent by 2050 after a meeting of the eight rich countries in Italy in July.

But Fukuyama also said that the discussions over such stringent 2020 goals would not include China's.

Hatoyama's government has failed to wipe off concerns among companies and households over extra costs to cut emissions and struggled to decide a policy mix to reduce beyond the current Kyoto commitments over 2008-2012.

"I don't want to talk about the impact (of the 2020 target) on industries in general," Fukuyama said.

"We've never ruled out the possibility that we take measures in favor of energy-intensive industries, or large CO2 emitters, because so do the EU and the U.S. (on these industries)," Fukuyama said, adding among possible steps are tax benefits on companies spending more on energy conservation.

(Reporting by Risa Maeda; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

news20091207reut5

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Environment News]
U.N. climate summit in close range of a deal: report
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - The world is within striking distance of a U.N. deal to curb greenhouse gas emissions enough to avoid the worst effects of global warming, a U.N. report said on Sunday as delegates gathered for climate talks in Copenhagen.
COPENHAGEN
Sun Dec 6, 2009 12:40pm EST
Green Business

"For those who claim that a deal in Copenhagen is impossible: they are simply wrong," Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), said as delegates gathered for December 7-18 talks on a new deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.

"We are in closing range of a deal." he told a news conference ahead of the 190-nation talks.

UNEP and British climate change expert Nicholas Stern said in a report adding up commitments to date that the gap between countries' strongest proposed greenhouse gas cuts and what is needed may be only a few billion metric tones.

The report said the world should aim for maximum emissions of 44 billion metric tones a year in 2020 to have a chance of limiting a rise in world temperatures to a widely accepted benchmark of no more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times.

Current promised curbs on emissions proposed by developed and developing nations would be enough to limit emissions to 46 billion metric tones by 2020, if fully implemented.

In recent days and weeks, countries including the United States, China, India, Brazil and Indonesia have laid out new targets mean to slow climate change that may bring more droughts, floods, heat waves and rising sea levels.

The report said that current world emissions are about 47 billion metric tones a year. Without any curbs, emissions would rise to the mid-50s or higher by 2020, the study said.

By contrast, many experts say pledges made so far are not enough to reach the benchmarks that have been set for averting the worst of climate change, such as ensuring that global emissions fall after 2020.

Steiner said that further use of emissions cuts on aviation and shipping or wider use of forests to soak up emissions could help close the gap.

Steiner said the gap between scientists' views on what must be done and what is on the table in Copenhagen had narrowed significantly. "There is still a significant gap but people overestimate the impossibility of actually closing that gap."

"You could say that we are within a few gigatonnes of actually having a deal in Copenhagen in terms of the target for 44 gigatonnes by 2020," he said.

He said a realistic figure for the current gap between the 190 nations' pledges and where they needed to be at the of the conference was probably around 2 gigatonnes, with a range in the report of between 1 and 5 gigatonnes.

"This signals ... that if leaders want to negotiate a deal, they have the means to do so, and to do so in a way that would allow an agreement at the end of Copenhagen."

(Reporting by Alister Doyle and Anna Ringstrom)


[Environment News]
World concerns about climate change dwindle: survey
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - World concern about climate change has fallen in the past two years, according to an opinion poll on Sunday, the eve of 190-nation talks in Copenhagen meant to agree a U.N. deal to fight global warming.
COPENHAGEN
Sun Dec 6, 2009 3:02am EST
Green Business

The Nielsen/Oxford University survey showed that 37 percent of more than 27,000 Internet users in 54 countries said they were "very concerned" about climate change, down from 41 percent in a similar poll two years ago.

"Global concern for climate change cools off," the Nielsen Co. said of the poll, taken in October. It linked the decline to the world economic slowdown.

In the United States, the number two emitter after China and the only industrialized nation outside the U.N.'s existing Kyoto Protocol for curbing emissions, the number of those very concerned fell to 25 percent from 34.

President Barack Obama wants to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, and plans to join more than 100 world leaders in Copenhagen at the end of the December 7-18 meeting to try to reach a new U.N. deal.

China, the top emitter of greenhouse gases, was among few nations surveyed where the number of people very concerned rose, to 36 from 30 percent.

The survey indicated the highest levels of concern were in Latin America and Asian-Pacific countries, topped by the Philippines on 78 percent which was struck by Typhoon Ketsana in September. The poll did not cover most of Africa.

Those least concerned by global warming, blamed on human emissions of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, were mainly in eastern Europe. Estonia was bottom with just 10 percent saying they were very concerned.

Jonathan Banks, Business Insights Director Europe of the Nielsen Co., said that worries about climate change may now be picking up with the focus on Copenhagen.

"Economic woes temporarily knocked the climate change issue off the top line agenda, but as the recession is now beginning to recede, we expect the Copenhagen summit to push this important issue to the front again," he said.

Worldwide, air and water pollution followed by climate change were the top three environmental concerns for the world population, the survey found.

(Editing by Matthew Jones)


[Environment News]
FACTBOX: China's climate stance at Copenhagen
(Reuters) - Negotiators meet in Copenhagen from Monday for a U.N. conference seeking to create a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the U.N.-backed pact governing countries' actions against climate change up to end of 2012.
Sun Dec 6, 2009 11:50pm EST
Green Business

Here are some details about China's stance at the talks, what the country has already promised to do to cut emissions and what it would like to see offered by developed nations:

* China says it is threatened by global warming and the shrinking glaciers, expanding deserts, prolonged droughts and more intense storms predicted to come with a warming world.

* China is the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases from human activity. In 2008, its output of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas from burning fossil fuels, reached 6.8 billion metric tons, a rise of 178 percent over levels in 1990, according to the IWR, a German renewable energy institute. U.S. emissions rose 17 percent over that time to 6.4 billion metric tons.

* But China's average greenhouse gas emissions per person are much lower than those of rich nations. The average American is responsible for greenhouse gas emissions equal to 25.0 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, compared to 5.8 metric tons for the average Chinese, according to the World Resources Institute.

* China says global warming has been overwhelmingly caused by the accumulated greenhouse gas emissions of rich economies, and they should lead in dramatically cutting emissions, giving poor countries room to develop and expand emissions in coming decades.

China has previously said that those emissions cuts should be 25 to 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2020, but more recently it has been coy about specific numbers.

* China says industrialized nations should also transfer much more green technology to poorer nations, and has demanded that they commit up to one percent of their economic worth to helping poor nations fight global warming. Here, too, Chinese officials have recently been vaguer on specific numbers.

* Last month, China said it would cut its carbon intensity -- the amount of carbon dioxide emitted for each unit of GDP -- by 40 to 45 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels. This target will still allow emissions to grow substantially over the next decade as the economy continues expanding. This goal was the first measurable curb on national emissions in China.

* China has ratified the Kyoto Protocol. As a developing country, China is not required by the protocol to set binding targets to control greenhouse gas emissions.

The United States and other countries have said China and other big developing nations should accept more specific goals and oversight in the successor to Kyoto. But China has said that, as a developing country, its emissions goals should not be binding under any international treaty.

(Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Chris Buckley)