news20100114jt

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

[BUSINESS NEWS]
Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010
JAL budget carrier eyed
Kyocera founder to be new boss
Kyodo News

The state-backed body tasked with rehabilitating Japan Airlines is looking to set up a budget carrier in the JAL group that would fly from two domestic airports to popular tourist locales in and outside Japan, sources said Wednesday.

Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. of Japan would aim toward starting the discount flights by March 2013, offering low fares while saving costs, the sources said.

The turnaround body is considering operating discount routes from Kansai International Airport in Osaka and Chubu International Airport near Nagoya to popular tourist spots in Asia and domestic locations, including Hokkaido and Okinawa, the sources said.

ETIC is compiling a court-led rehabilitation plan for JAL that is likely to involve the elimination of 14 international and 12 domestic routes.

Meanwhile, Kazuo Inamori, honorary chairman and founder of Kyocera Corp., accepted Wednesday the government's offer to be JAL's chief executive officer.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama met Inamori, 77, and asked to him to take up the position the same day. Inamori will work unpaid three to four days a week at JAL's office, sources said.

"After listening to what they had to say, I told them that JAL's restructuring is possible if the plan is implemented as it is," Inamori told reporters earlier in the day.

In addition to restructuring, sources said ETIC is also preparing measures to make sure JAL can stay competitive amid the growing popularity of budget airlines worldwide.

Also to help save costs, ETIC is considering relocating JAL's headquarters from Higashi Shinagawa in Tokyo to a site closer to Haneda airport.

Under study is a plan to set up the proposed low-cost carrier with other firms, including some from outside the airline business.

The budget airline might take over some routes linking the Kansai and Chubu airports with popular domestic and overseas tourist destinations, which are now operated by a group firm, JAL Express Co.

The proposed discount airline would reduce costs by trimming the size of flight crews, charging for drinks and offering only economy-class seats on domestic flights.

Also under consideration is selling some of the shares JAL holds in its group firms — Japan Trans Ocean Air Co. and Ryukyu Air Commuter Co., which serve Japan's remote islands — to local authorities. If the plan goes through, the two airlines would no longer be JAL's consolidated subsidiaries.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010
Clinton accepts delay over base
Futenma friction downplayed in Okada talks; cooperation lauded
Compiled from AP, Kyodo

HONOLULU — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday the Obama administration feels assured of Japan's commitment to the bilateral security alliance, even as Tokyo weighs abandoning the 2006 deal on relocating the U.S. Futenma military base.

"The Japanese government has explained the process they are pursuing to reach a resolution" on the air station in Okinawa, "and we respect that," she said after meeting with Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada.

While Okada apparently did not promise Japan would not force Futenma off its territory entirely, he said Tokyo would determine the future of the air station by May, in a way that would have "minimal impact on the U.S.-Japan alliance."

In a nod to Japanese sensitivities, Clinton said it was important for the U.S. to maintain its role in contributing to stability in the Asia-Pacific region while keeping in mind the need to reduce the impact of jet noise and other inconveniences to communities near U.S. bases.

The U.S. military views Futenma as critical to its strategy for defending not only Japan but also reinforcing allied forces in the event of war on the Korean Peninsula.

Upon arrival at the University of Hawaii, Clinton was met by a few dozen protesters lining the street and shouting "End the wars!" and hoisting signs demanding that the U.S. withdraw its forces from Okinawa. None attended the speech.

Clinton stressed that the first U.S. priority in the Asia-Pacific is to maintain the country-to-country alliances it already has, while exploring ways in which the United States can play a role in any new or reconfigured associations.

"The ultimate purpose of our cooperation should be to dispel suspicions that still exist as artifacts of the region's turbulent past," she said.

At her news conference with Okada, Clinton played down the friction over Futenma, stressing the many other areas of long-standing cooperation between the two countries. And she made clear that satisfying U.S. needs for the marine base is equally in Japan's own interest.

"We look to our Japanese allies and friends to follow through on their commitments, including on Futenma," she said. "I know Japan understands and agrees that our security alliance is fundamental to the future of Japan and the region."

Okada said he and Clinton formally agreed to take the opportunity this year, which marks the 50th anniversary of the current bilateral security arrangement, to launch consultations to further deepen the alliance.

He said Japan's foreign and defense ministers and their U.S. counterparts will issue a joint document on Jan. 19, the day the revised security treaty was signed 50 years ago.

Okada also said Japan and the United States agreed to hold a meeting of the four officials in the first half of this year for a midterm review of the alliance consultations.

He said both countries will try to reach a final conclusion by November, when Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and President Barack Obama are expected to meet on the fringes of an annual Pacific Rim summit to be held in Yokohama.

In Tokyo on Wednesday, Hatoyama called the Okada-Clinton talks "extremely meaningful," telling reporters the two seemed to have communicated to each other well their desire to deepen the alliance.

"We should appreciate the Japanese-U.S. alliance and security (treaty) that exists to defend this country," he said in an address to senior Self-Defense Forces officers later in the day.

On the Futenma question, Hatoyama told the reporters he would like the United States to wait and see developments on the Japanese side "because we have said we will reach a final conclusion by May."


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010
Offices of Ozawa, Kajima searched
Kyodo News

Prosecutors searched the private office of Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa and the office of his fund management body in Tokyo Wednesday over accounting irregularities.

They also searched the office at the Diet members' building of Tomohiro Ishikawa, a DPJ Lower House member who previously handled clerical work at Rikuzankai, the fund body, as well as the Tokyo head office and the Sendai branch of general contractor Kajima Corp.

Kajima's local office is located in the Miyagi capital, and Ozawa is elected from neighboring Iwate Prefecture.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office is considering whether it can build a case against Ishikawa, who is believed to have been involved in a dubious land buy in Tokyo, in which an unregistered 400 million was used for the purchase.

Ishikawa has admitted that more than 400 million had not been recorded in Rikuzankai's funds reports and that the money for the purchase came from Ozawa himself. Prosecutors suspect, however, that Kajima and other major construction companies provided the funds.

Rikuzankai has been implicated as well in alleged illegal political donations from Nishimatsu Construction Co., for which another ex-aide of Ozawa is standing trial.

Ishikawa was questioned earlier in the day on a voluntary basis for the second time and was present as prosecutors searched his office.

Ozawa, for his part, referred to the irregularities at a press conference Tuesday, saying, "I believe that staff at my office have not violated the law intentionally, although they and I may have made some miscalculations."

Later Wednesday, Ozawa said in a speech at a party in Aichi Prefecture that he is "sorry for causing trouble again," but stressed that "I believe I have done nothing that violates the law."

Prosecutors have asked Ozawa to appear for questioning on a voluntary basis in connection with their investigation into the land purchase.

Resignation call
A top Liberal Democratic Party figure warned Wednesday that the opposition camp may submit a resolution calling on Ichiro Ozawa, secretary general of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, to quit the Diet, after prosecutors raided his funds management body over a shady land purchase in Tokyo.

"Ozawa has not assumed his responsibility of explaining the case," Tadamori Oshima, LDP secretary general, told reporters. "I hope (prosecutors) will clarify the case through a thorough investigation."

He said that if Ozawa fails to give a full account of the case, "we should certainly consider a motion urging him" to resign as a lawmaker in the ordinary Diet session that convenes next Monday.

Asked how the case would affect the government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Kazuo Shii, leader of the Japanese Communist Party, told reporters, "There is also a scandal involving Hatoyama himself, and the scandal concerning Ozawa has become a considerably big one."

news20100114gdn1

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Climate change]
China, India, Brazil and South Africa prepare for post-Copenhagen meeting
Influential bloc of large developing countries expected to define common position on emissions cuts and climate aid
John Vidal, environment editor
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 13 January 2010 16.53 GMT Article history

One month after the Copenhagen climate summit ended in recriminations and and a weak outline of a global deal, key groups of developing countries will meet to try to explore ways to get to agree a legally binding final agreement.

As the dust settles on the stormy Danish meeting, environment ministers from the so-called Basic countries – Brazil, South Africa, India and China – will meet on January 24 in New Delhi. No formal agenda has been set, but observers expect the emerging geopolitical alliance between the four large developing countries who brokered the final "deal" with the US in Denmark will define a common position on emission reductions and climate aid money, and seek ways to convince other countries to sign up to the Copenhagen accord that emerged last month.

Fewer than 30 countries out of the 192 who are signed up to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which organised Copenhagen, have indicated that they will sign. Many are known to be deeply unhappy with the $100bn pledged for climate aid and the decision not to make deeper cuts in emissions. Under UN laws, consensus is required for a binding agreement to be made.

Countries have until January 31 to sign up to the accord and provide the UN with information on the specific commitments and actions they plan to take to reduce emissions. But there is growing confusion over the legal standing of the agreement reached in Copenhagen and many countries may not be in a position to sign because they have yet to consult their parliaments.

Meanwhile, Bolivia, one of a handful of poor countries which openly opposed the deal in Copenhagen, has invited countries and non-governmental groups which want a much stronger climate deal to the World Conference of the People on Climate Change.

The conference, to be held in Cochabamba in Bolivia from April 20-22, is expected to attract heads of state from the loose alliance of socialist "Alba" countries, including Venezuela and Cuba. ALBA, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America countries, was set up to provide an alternative to the US-led free trade area of the Americas.

Bolivia this week urged leaders of the world's indigenous ethnic groups and scientists to come. "The invitation is to heads of state but chiefly to civil society. We think that social movements and non government groups, people not at decision level, have an important role in climate talks," said Maria Souviron, Bolivian ambassador in London.

The meeting, which is intended to cement ties between the seven Alba countries, is also expected to persue the idea of an international court for environmental crimes, as well as the radical idea of "mother earth rights". This would give all entities, from man to endangered animal species, an equal right to life.

"Our objective is to save humanity and not just half of humanity," said Morales in a speech at Copenhagen. "We are here to save mother earth. Our objective is to reduce climate change to [under] 1C. [Above this] many islands will disappear and Africa will suffer a holocaust … the real cause of climate change is the capitalist system. If we want to save the earth then we must end that economic model."


[Environment > Willdlife]
Badger cull to go ahead in Wales to counter 'dramatic rise' in bovine TB
Minister claims disease is out of control, but animal welfare groups cite evidence that culling does more harm than good
John Vidal
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 13 January 2010 18.04 GMT Article history

Thousands of protected badgers will be culled later this year in an attempt to limit the cattle disease bovine tuberculosis (TB) spreading further in Wales.

The decision to go ahead with a £9m pilot cull, expected to take place mainly in Pembrokeshire, was made today by Welsh rural affairs minister Elin Jones nearly two years after the plan was first put forward.

"Bovine TB is out of control and unsustainable and last year cost the taxpayer nearly £24m in compensating farmers," Jones said. "This is a dramatic rise since 2000 when the compensation bill was just over £1m. In 1997 around 700 cattle were culled because of bovine TB. This increased to 12,000 by 2008. We know that cattle and badgers are the main sources of the disease and that, if we want to achieve our aim of eradicating bovine TB, we have to tackle the disease in both species."

Five culls, along with other attempts to limit the spread of the disease, will take place over a limited period for several years within a 288 sq km pilot area where the Welsh assembly government says 42% of cattle owners have had at least one case of TB in their herd since 2003. The first cull will take place after the badger breeding season ends in May.

The cull was welcomed by vets and farmers but condemned by animal welfare groups. "It's not legal", said Jack Reedy, a director of the Badger Trust. "There is no justification for it because it would not be effective. The Bern Convention requires that [culling can take place only] to eradicate diseases. All the scientific evidence demonstrates that culling does not eradicate disease. The cull is not supported by the the science," he said.

The Trust challenged the Welsh assembly in the courts before Christmas but the application for a judicial review is not expected to be heard for some time.

"We're well aware of the costs of bovine TB but this decision to eliminate badgers from a large area of the Welsh countryside is wrong. The way in which this area has been chosen will mean that any lessons learned, if there are any, will not be applicable to the rest of the country. It will also make it impossible to know which parts of the control strategy may have worked," said RSPCA senior wildlife scientist, Colin Booty.

He added that a 10-year study by the Independent Scientific Group (ISG) on TB in cattle, which cost £50m and killed 11,000 badgers, found that culling them carried the risk of actually increasing the spread of the disease. "The conclusion was that badger culling could make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain. It is important to realise that most badgers are not infected with TB. A study of badgers found dead in Wales conducted by the Welsh assembly government published in January 2007 found that seven out of eight badgers tested negative for the disease."

Nicky Paull, past president of the British veterinary association, welcomed the decision: "We are delighted that the pilot cull and stricter cattle measures have been announced. There is no single solution to tackling this devastating disease. Farmers will also have to understand the huge importance of implementing the stricter cattle measures. The rest of the UK will be watching the pilot cull with interest."

news20100114gdn2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[News > Science]
Futurists predict fewer butchers, more space pilots – and spare legs for top football stars
Scientific advances and onset of climate change will radically change careers, says report commissioned by government
Adam Gabbatt
The Guardian, Thursday 14 January 2010 Article history

Forget the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker: in 20 years some of the most popular jobs could include vertical farmer, space pilot and body part maker, according to a government commissioned report.

Shape of Jobs to Come predicts advances in science and technology, coupled with the expected onset of climate change, could make for career paths that are virtually unrecognisable today.

The research company Fast Future was asked by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to compile a list of jobs as part of the government's Science: [So what? So everything] campaign, launched last year to encourage a better understanding of science.

The company asked a network of "futurists and future thinkers" to consider likely science and technology developments before suggesting specific jobs. The result was a list of 110 roles, whittled down to 20 for the study.

Traditional roles within medicine and farming are expected to rely much more heavily on the use of computers and robots, while careers in social work are predicted to expand, to deal with the continuing increase in popularity of social networking sites.

Some of the most exciting developments are expected to come in medicine, where the study predicts the creation of new limbs and organs will become a reality, meaning body part makers will be in demand. Nano-medics will also be an aspirational career, with possible advances leading to the development of a nano boat, which would navigate through the body destroying cancerous cells.

Rohit Talwar, chief executive of Fast Future, predicted the generation of extra limbs would be invaluable to the military, but could see more use in sport. "If you're spending £80m on a footballer and for £2m you can have a couple of spare legs, then you're going to do it," he said. "The level of medicine will probably tell you very accurately when their legs will fail, or what kind of strains they're likely to suffer from. So you might say as a preventative measure, rather than three months' recovery let's have an artificial limb ready so we can replace their leg and have them back playing again within a few days or weeks."

The team considered factors as diverse as the rise of space tourism, the risk of a deadly virus and the onset of climate change in compiling the list – three events which could lead to people working as space pilots or tour guides, quarantine enforcers and climate change reversal specialists. Palwar said improvements in science could see new jobs created within existing fields, with insurance policies developed to cover the cost of a new leg, while cosmetic surgery could go beyond merely improving parts of a person's body to replacing sections of it.

However, the career for life , would truly become a thing of the past, said the study. "Students coming out of university now could easily have eight to 10 jobs in their lifetime, across five different careers," he said. "Technology is advancing so fast and industries are changing so fast that what looks like a solid job today disappears tomorrow."

Gordon Brown said he hoped it would inspire young people to gain skills and training for these new careers. "A priority for this government is to prepare Britain for the economy of the future and to make sure our young people can seize the opportunities that innovations in science and technology will bring."

Palwar said schools should concentrate on scientific subjects and improving all-round skills to equip children. "If I was a parent today the key thing I would want to make sure is that my kids were well versed in science and technology and were learning things like problem solving and how to make complex decisions."

> This article was amended on 14 January 2010. The chief executive of Fast Future is Rohit Talwar, not Rohit Palwar. This has been corrected.


[Environment > Greenwash]
Qatar to use biofuels? What about the country's energy consumption?
Qatar announce the future use of biofuels on its airline, but its domestic carbon emissions are shockingly free and easy
Fred Pearce
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 14 January 2010 07.00 GMT Article history

Qatar made the news twice this week. First, the Manchester United squad flew out to the Gulf state for a few days to get in some training without the hassle of snow – hoping to revive their fortunes after a draw with Birmingham City . Second, it announced a "major environmental initiative" aimed at curbing the carbon emissions of its national airline through the use of biofuel.

They won't actually be cutting emissions any time soon, of course. Those are soaring, because, bucking the global recession, the airline expects to carry 11% more passengers in the current year.

But the airline is doing an analysis to see if it might one day start burning biofuels. Perhaps the biofuels will be grown on the huge chunk of farmland the state controversially wants to buy in Kenya.

Qataris have the highest carbon footprint on the planet. The country's per-capita emissions from burning fossil fuels are way ahead of any other nation, and almost three times those of everybody's poster bad boy, the US. This is all the more extraordinary since Qatar's electricity is mostly generated from burning natural gas, which has half the emissions of coal.

Those emissions have also risen almost fourfold since 1990. But, thanks to the vagaries of the Kyoto Protocol, the country is not penalised for this. Qatar is by some measures the second richest country in the world, but for the purposes of climate law, it is classified as a developing nation. And so it has no emissions targets.

How come Qatar's emissions are so high? The main reason is its soaring use of energy. By the end of next year Qatar will have six times the electricity-generating capacity it had as recently as 1995. One outlet for all this power is industry, based round its huge natural gas reserves. Just this week, the national gas company announced a deal with ExxonMobil for a new $6bn (£3.69bn) petrochemicals plant.

A lot of Qatar's gas is exported as liquefied natural gas – the country is the world's largest producer of the stuff. It's a fairly clean fuel at our end, but takes a lot of energy to liquefy in Qatar. So to that extent Qatar is taking a hit to allow Europe and North America to cut their emissions – handy for helping us meet the Kyoto Protocol, but not much good for the planet.

The Qatari government recently used this argument to downplay its emissions. In its recent Human Development Report, it called them "relatively modest".

But that is not the real story. Those Qatari emissions are so extraordinarily high for another reason. Qataris just don't seem to care.

Sure, there is the biofuels initiative from the state airline. Sure, a year ago Qatar held a conference to discuss how to cut its emissions without damaging the economy.

But if its rulers were serious about cutting emissions they might charge for their energy supplies. Yes, you read that right. Qatari households get their electricity free. So why would they cut down on how much they burn?

Oh, and they get their water free as well. And in Qatar, even more than most places in the Middle East, water is liquid electricity. Almost every drop coming out of the taps is produced from desalinating seawater. This is extremely expensive in energy – and therefore expensive in carbon emissions.

But because the water is free, Qataris waste it like, well, water. Despite being a desert state with virtually no rainfall, the country has among the highest per-capita water uses in the world. Use averages around 400 litres per head per day. According to Hassan Al-Mohannadi, a geographer at the University of Qatar, people in "big, often palatial houses" consume up to 35,000 litres per day.

Even here, they have a way of blaming foreigners. According to Hassan Al-Mohannadi, one reason water use is so high is that "the large number of foreign domestic servants, who come from water-rich countries, are not educated in water conservation".

Water consumption continues to rise, so Qatar is building more desalination plants. If Qatar was serious about cutting its carbon footprint it would do something about water demand. At the least, it might charge for the stuff.

Will Qatar's emissions carry on up? Looks Likely. Electricity demand is currently rising by about 7% a year. That is not as fast as the national economy, which is growing by 11% annually – the fastest boom on the planet.

But stopping this out-of-control carbon-emitting juggernaut will take more than an Airbus full of biofuels.

news20100114gdn3

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Copenhagen climare change conference 2009]
UN should be sidelined in future climate talks, says Obama official
Suzanne Goldenberg Washington John Vidal
The Guardian, Thursday 14 January 2010 Article history

America sees a diminished role for the United Nations in trying to stop global warming after the "chaotic" Copenhagen climate change summit, an Obama administration official said today.

Jonathan Pershing, who helped lead talks at Copenhagen, instead sketched out a future path for negotiations dominated by the world's largest polluters such as China, the US, India, Brazil and South Africa, who signed up to a deal in the final hours of the summit. That would represent a realignment of the way the international community has dealt with climate change over the last two decades.

"It is impossible to imagine a global agreement in place that doesn't essentially have a global buy-in. There aren't other institutions beside the UN that have that," Pershing said. "But it is also impossible to imagine a negotiation of enormous complexity where you have a table of 192 countries involved in all the detail."

Pershing said the flaws in the UN process, which demands consensus among the international community, were exposed at Copenhagen. "The meeting itself was at best chaotic," he said, in a talk at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "We met mostly overnight. It seemed like we didn't sleep for two weeks. It seemed a funny way to do things, and it showed."

The lack of confidence in the UN extends to the $30bn (£18.5bn) global fund, which will be mobilised over the next three years to help poor countries adapt to climate change.

"The UN didn't manage the conference that well," Pershing said. "I am not sure that any of us are particularly confident that the UN managing the near-term financing is the right way to go."

Pershing did not exclude the UN from future negotiations. But he repeatedly credited the group of leading economies headed by America for moving forward on the talks, including on finance and developing green technology. He suggested the larger forum offered by the UN was instead important for countries such as Cuba or the small islands which risk annihilation by climate change to air their grievances.

"We are going to have a very very difficult time moving forward and it will be a combination of small and larger processes," he said.

The first test of the accord agreed by America, China, India, South Africa and Brazil arrives on 31 January, the deadline for countries to commit officially to actions to halt global warming. Here, too, Pershing indicated the focus would be narrower in scope than the UN's all-inclusive approach. "We expect there will be significant actions recorded by major countries," he said. "We are not really worried what Chad does. We are not really worried about what Haiti says it is going to do about greenhouse gas emissions. We just hope they recover from the earthquake."

Key groups of developing countries are to meet this month to try to explore ways to get to agree a binding agreement.

As the dust settles on the stormy Danish meeting, environment ministers from the so-called Basic countries – Brazil, South Africa, India and China – will meet on 24 January in New Delhi. No formal agenda has been set, but observers expect the emerging geopolitical alliance between the four large developing countries who brokered the final "deal" with the US in Denmark will define a common position on emission reductions and climate aid money, and seek ways to convince other countries to sign up to the Copenhagen accord that emerged last month.

Fewer than 30 countries out of the 192 who are signed up to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which organised Copenhagen, have indicated that they will sign. Many are known to be deeply unhappy with the $100bn pledged for climate aid and the decision not to make deeper cuts in emissions.

Under UN laws, consensus is required. There is confusion over the legal standing of the agreement reached in Copenhagen and many countries may not be in a position to sign up by 31 January because they have yet to consult their parliaments.

Meanwhile, Bolivia, one of a handful of poor countries which openly opposed the deal in Copenhagen, has invited countries and non-governmental groups which want a much stronger climate deal to the World Conference of the People on Climate Change.

Pershing said that he had told some of those leaders that there was no prospect of reaching a stronger deal that would limit warming to 1.5 degrees.

The conference, to be held in Cochabamba in Bolivia from 20-22 April, is expected to attract heads of state from the loose alliance of socialist "Alba" countries, including Venezuela and Cuba. Alba, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America countries, was set up to provide an alternative to the US-led free trade area of the Americas.

Bolivia this week urged leaders of the world's indigenous ethnic groups and scientists to come. "The invitation is to heads of state but chiefly to civil society. We think that social movements and non government groups, people not at decision level, have an important role in climate talks," said Maria Souviron, the Bolivian ambassador in London.

The meeting, which is intended to cement ties between the seven Alba countries, is also expected to pursue the idea of an international court for environmental crimes, as well as the radical idea of "mother earth rights". This would give all entities, from man to endangered animal species, an equal right to life.

"Our objective is to save humanity and not just half of humanity," said Morales in a speech at Copenhagen. "We are here to save mother earth. Our objective is to reduce climate change to [under] 1C. [Above this] many islands will disappear and Africa will suffer a holocaust. The real cause of climate change is the capitalist system. If we want to save the earth then we must end that economic model."

news20100114nn1

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 13 January 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.10
News: Briefing
The Haiti earthquake in depth
Fault produces its biggest quake since 1751.
Daniel Cressey

At 21:53 UTC yesterday, an earthquake of magnitude 7.0 struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The US Geological Survey (USGS) says that it was the most violent earthquake to strike the impoverished country in a century. Nature examines the causes and repercussions of the quake.

What caused this earthquake?

The island of Hispaniola, with Haiti on the western half and the Dominican Republic on the eastern half, lies on the northern edge of the Caribbean tectonic plate. The much larger North American plate moves westward relative to the Caribbean plate. There are two major faults between the plates at this point: the Septentrional fault system, which runs through northern Haiti, and the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault system in the south.

This quake seems to have occurred on the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault system, which accounts for nearly half of the overall movement between the Caribbean and North American plates — around 7 millimetres per year, according to the USGS.

That system has not produced a quake of similar magnitude since 1751, says Richard Luckett, a seismologist at the British Geological Survey, which is headquartered near Nottingham, UK.

What damage did the earthquake cause?

The earthquake's epicentre was just 15 kilometres from Haiti's capital Port-Au-Prince, home to around 1 million people.

A number of deaths have already been reported and although communications networks were severely disrupted by the quake, some reports suggest that there are thousands of casualties. Many buildings have collapsed, including the Presidential Palace in Port-Au-Prince, and it is not clear if planes are able to land at the capital's airport to bring in supplies.

Alain Le Roy, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, told reporters that the headquarters of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti had collapsed. "We don't have any [casualty] figures for the time being," he said. "But we know clearly it is a tragedy for Haiti, and a tragedy for the UN."

Haiti has been heavily deforested so the quake is likely to have triggered landslides. The country's poverty might mean that it is ill-equipped to deal with any disease outbreaks caused by the quake.

How deep was the earthquake, and how does that affect the damage?
The damage caused by an earthquake is related to its magnitude and how close it is to densely populated areas. The USGS estimates the epicentre of the magnitude-7.0 quake at a depth of 10 kilometres. The Global Seismic Monitor system, based at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, puts it at 17 km deep and also slightly stronger at magnitude 7.2.

Either way, the quake is a relatively shallow one, and this makes it more dangerous. "It would do a lot more damage close up. We could easily be looking at 1 centimetre of ground movement," says Luckett.

The geographical proximity of the epicentre to the heavily populated Port-Au-Prince will also have added to the damage caused.

"In cases such as these, the real issue is construction standards," says Chris Rowan, a geologist at the University of Edinburgh, UK. "The reason this has been so devastating is probably it's a very crowded city with many poorly built houses."

A number of aftershocks have also been recorded, ranging from magnitude 5.9 to 4.2. There are concerns that these may cause buildings that are already damaged to collapse.

Did the earthquake trigger a tsunami?

As this earthquake took place on land, it would not be expected to generate a large tsunami. However, an initial tsunami warning was issued for local coasts within 100 kilometres of the epicentre at 22:03 UTC.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, recorded a 12-centimetre wave at Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and decided that there was no threat to coastal areas away from the epicentre. The tsunami warning was subsequently cancelled at 23:45 UTC.

Warnings such as this are currently provided for the Caribbean by the centre because an independent system for the area is still being established. The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said in 2008 that it hoped such a system would be in place by this year.

Should this quake have been expected?

Accurately predicting when an earthquake will occur is still not possible. However, a team led by Paul Mann at the University of Texas at Austin has been monitoring this fault for some years.

In a presentation to the 18th Caribbean Geological Conference in 2008, the team pointed out that their models showed a slip rate of around 8 millimetres per year on the fault. In their abstract they warned that this, combined with the fact that the last known major earthquake near Haiti was in 1751, could add up to yield "~2 meters of accumulated strain deficit, or a Mw=7.2 earthquake if all is released in a single event today".

One of the team members, geophysicist Eric Calais of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, said in an e-mail to Nature: "Unfortunately we were pretty much right on."

Is it linked with other recent earthquakes?

Some media reports have suggested that this earthquake might be linked to other recent events in the Pacific, implying a chain of quakes in the area that 'jumped' across central America to hit Haiti.

There is some evidence that distant earthquakes might increase the risk of subsequent quakes around the world (see 'Past quakes cause future shocks'). At a local level, movement on one part of a fault may cause stress to build up in another part of a fault that does not move. However, in this case, there is currently no evidence that the Haiti event was triggered by a distant earthquake, and the idea that there is a linked chain of earthquakes stretching from Haiti to Indonesia is questionable.

"When it comes to what actually triggered the fault, there's no real way of us knowing," says Rowan.

news20100114nn2

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 13 January 2010 | Nature 463, 149 (2010) | doi:10.1038/463149a
News
The fickle Y chromosome
Chimp genome reveals rapid rate of change.
Lizzie Buchen

The male sex chromosome, long dismissed as the underachieving runt of the genome, has now been fully sequenced in a common chimpanzee. And comparison with its human counterpart — the only other Y chromosome to have been sequenced in such detail — reveals a rate of change that puts the rest of the genome to shame.

The common chimp (Pan troglodytes) and human Y chromosomes are "horrendously different from each other", says David Page of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who led the work. "It looks like there's been a dramatic renovation or reinvention of the Y chromosome in the chimpanzee and human lineages."

Sex chromosomes evolved some 200 million–300 million years ago, but the chimpanzee and human lineages diverged only 6 million–7 million years ago. Comparisons of the chimp and human genomes suggested that not much has changed between the species since¹.

But those analyses excluded the Y chromosome, much of the genetic sequence of which is made up of palindromes and elaborate mirrored sets of bases that elude standard whole-genome sequencing techniques. Portions of the chimp Y chromosome were sequenced a few years ago2,3, but the full landscape is only now available, after Page and his team precisely sequenced large segments of the chromosome, then stitched them together. They report their findings in a paper published online in Nature on 13 January⁴.

As the earlier studies had suggested, many of the stark changes between the chimp and human Y chromosomes are due to gene loss in the chimp and gene gain in the human. Page's team found that the chimp Y chromosome has only two-thirds as many distinct genes or gene families as the human Y chromosome and only 47% as many protein-coding elements as humans. The remainder of the chimp and human genomes are thought to differ in gene number by less than 1%.

Even more striking than the gene loss is the rearrangement of large portions of the chromosome. More than 30% of the chimp Y chromosome lacks an alignable counterpart on the human Y chromosome, and vice versa, whereas this is true for less than 2% of the remainder of the genome.

Even the portions that do line up have undergone erratic relocation. In the only other chromosome to have been sequenced to the same degree of completeness in both species, chromosome 21, the authors found much less rearrangement.

"If you're marching along the human chromosome 21, you might as well be marching along the chimp chromosome 21. It's like an unbroken piece of glass," says Page. "But the relationship between the human and chimp Y chromosomes has been blown to pieces."

The rapid evolution of the Y chromosome is not a total surprise, because the Y chromosome has no partner during cell division and so largely avoids the exchange of DNA that occurs between partnered chromosomes and keeps modifications in check. "It's expected that they are going to be more different than the rest of the genome, but the extent of it is pretty amazing," says geneticist Christine Disteche at the University of Washington in Seattle.

The Y chromosome is also prone to change because most of its characterized genes are involved in producing sperm, which are at the frontline of reproductive fitness, particularly in chimps; receptive females will often mate with many males in one session, so the male with the most virile sperm has the highest likelihood of success.

"The Y is full of surprises," Page says. "When we sequenced the chimp genome people thought we'd understand why we have language and write poetry. But one of the most dramatic differences turns out to be sperm production."

References
1. The Chimpanzee Sequencing and Analysis Consortium. Nature 437, 69-87 (2005). | Article | PubMed | ISI | ChemPort |
2. Hughes, J. F. et al. Nature 437, 100-103 (2005). | Article | PubMed | ChemPort |
3. Kuroki, Y. et al. Nature Genet. 38, 158-167 (2006). | Article
4. Hughes, J. F. et al. Nature doi:10.1038/nature08700 (2010).

news20100114nn3

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 13 January 2010 | Nature 463, 147 (2010) | doi:10.1038/463147a
News
Pulsar watchers race for gravity waves
Radio telescopes vie with laser detectors to hunt for signs of massive cosmic collisions.
Eric Hand

Click for larger imageAided by the Universe's best celestial clocks, radio astronomers are embarking on a search for the almost-imperceptible stretching of the fabric of space by gravitational waves — predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity but not yet detected directly. The approach is competing with more elaborate and expensive approaches to gravitational wave detection.

Since the late 1970s, astronomers have known that gravitational waves affect the arrival time of radio-wave bursts that emanate with clockwork regularity from pulsars, the spinning neutron stars left over from exploded supernovae. Now, the idea has moved from theory to application with the recent discoveries of many millisecond pulsars, which emit radio-wave bursts every thousandth of a second or so, more rapidly and more reliably than 'normal' pulsars.

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is identifying the locations of dozens of these galactic clocks, allowing radio astronomers to follow up and monitor them. Researchers can deduce whether a passing gravitational wave has jostled Earth by watching for slight variations in the arrival time of pulsar radio-wave bursts — just fractions of a second over the course of years. If these efforts succeed, researchers will have a new tool for exploring the cosmic cataclysms — colliding black holes, for example — that are thought to generate gravitational waves (see graphic).

The shoestring effort, involving groups in Australia, Europe and North America, could beat larger and better-funded groups that use laser interferometry to try to detect gravitational waves by their tiny effects on the movements of test masses. "People are finally taking notice," says Scott Ransom, an astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia, who last week announced the discovery of 17 millisecond pulsars at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington DC.

Ransom says that about 100 millisecond pulsars are known in the Milky Way, but only a handful are bright enough and regular enough to be measured to the precision necessary to hunt gravitational waves. Some 20–40 of these pulsars, enough for a full 'pulsar timing array', would have to be monitored for 5–10 years before a gravitational wave signal would stand out. But with new millisecond pulsars now turning up, researchers are confident that they will soon have enough to compete with the ground-based laser efforts in Italy, Germany and the United States, where physicists have been sifting through petabytes of data for years without bagging so much as a gravitational burp.

{“Physicists have been sifting through data for years without bagging so much as a gravitational burp.”}

These ground-based groups could still get lucky and detect the gravitational wave signature of a rare event, such as the final moments of a nearby neutron star merger. But capturing such an event is not assured until the main US detector — the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in Washington state and Louisiana — is upgraded in 2015 to make it sensitive enough to pick up waves from a much larger volume of the Universe. Pulsar astronomers thus have a shot at first detection.

"I think they have a really solid chance of beating the ground-based detectors," says Bruce Allen, director of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Hanover, Germany, who manages shared data analysis among the ground-based detectors. "It's a real race."

The end of the race to detect gravitational waves will mark the beginning of gravitational wave astronomy — yet the different approaches are sensitive to vastly different phenomena. Whereas the interferometers would detect the rapid pulses of merging neutron stars, the pulsar timing arrays seek the lower-frequency but stronger background signal that comes from violent mergers of supermassive black holes at the centres of distant galaxies. The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), a multibillion-dollar space mission being considered by NASA and the European Space Agency, would be sensitive to the gravitational wave frequencies in between, where events such as merging white dwarfs would stand out.

Thomas Prince, an astrophysicist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and LISA mission scientist for NASA, says that the space- and ground-based interferometers will be better at pinpointing gravitational events in the sky. But Ransom says that by comparison, pulsar timing arrays are "dirt cheap" because they use existing radio telescopes instead of requiring a detector such as LIGO, which cost US$300 million to build and is getting another $200 million for its upgrade.

Either way, detecting the Universe's most violent events requires extraordinary sensitivity — temporal in the case of the pulsar timing arrays and spatial in the case of the interferometers. Interferometers already monitor the position of their test masses to better than one part in a million million billion (10–21) — which Prince likens to measuring the distance to a nearby star to within the width of a human hair.

news20100114bbc1

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

[Americas]
Page last updated at 18:40 GMT, Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Haiti earthquake: Thousands feared dead
Haitian President Rene Preval has said thousands of people are feared dead following a huge quake which has devastated the country's capital.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the head of the UN mission in Haiti and his deputy were among more than 100 staff missing.

The 7.0-magnitude quake, Haiti's worst in two centuries, struck south of Port-au-Prince, on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told US network CNN he believed more than 100,000 people had died.

The Red Cross says up to three million people are affected.

The capital's Catholic archbishop, Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot, is among those reported killed.

In his first interview since the earthquake, President Preval told the Miami Herald newspaper in the US he feared thousands of his people had died.

Describing the scene in the capital as "unimaginable", he said: "Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed.

{{Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed}
Haitian President Rene Preval}

"There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them."

The main prison in Port-au-Prince has also collapsed, with a UN humanitarian spokeswoman saying there had been reports of escaped inmates.

A number of nations, including the US, UK and Venezuela, are gearing up to send aid.

Speaking in Washington, US President Barack Obama vowed "unwavering support" for Haiti after what he called a "cruel and incomprehensible" disaster.

He said he had ordered "a swift, co-ordinated and aggressive effort to save lives" and that the first US rescue teams would arrive later on Wednesday.

A US Navy aircraft carrier, USS Vincent, is expected to reach Haiti in a couple of days and a number of smaller vessels are already in the area, US defence officials said.

Rajiv Shah, of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), said US teams were on their way to Haiti with specialised rescue equipment and that some efforts were already under way on the ground.

International effort

The quake, which struck about 15km (10 miles) south-west of Port-au-Prince, was quickly followed by two aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5 magnitude.

The first tremor had hit at 1653 local time (2153 GMT) on Tuesday, the US Geological Survey said. Phone lines to the country failed shortly afterwards.

UN officials said at least five people had died when the UN's five-storey headquarters in Port-au-Prince collapsed and that up to 200 staff were missing, feared to be under the rubble.

"Between 115 and 200 expatriate UN personnel are unaccounted for," Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told AFP.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon confirmed that Hedi Annabi, the Tunisian head of the UN stabilisation mission in Haiti (Minustah) and his deputy were missing, along with many others.

He said aerial reconnaissance showed Port-au-Prince had been "devastated" by the quake, although other areas were largely unaffected.

Stressing a major international relief effort would be needed, Mr Ban said the UN would immediately release $10m (£6.15m) from its emergency response fund.

The airport in Port-au-Prince and a UN logistical base are operational, the UN said, allowing aid to start arriving soon.

The Brazilian army said 11 of its peacekeepers had been killed and a large number were missing.

China has indicated in reports in state media that eight of its peacekeepers are dead, with another 10 unaccounted for, while the Jordanian army is reported as saying three of its peacekeepers have been killed.

{{Objects were falling from shelves, there was debris crashing all around. I clung on to the babies and shielded them as best I could}
Susan Westwood
Nurse, Port-au-Prince orphanage}

A spokesman for medical charity Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) said it was able only to offer basic care to the "massive influx" of survivors seeking help because all its buildings had been destroyed.

"Unfortunately what we are seeing is a large number of patients in critical condition," he said.

There were some reports of looting overnight.

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and has suffered a number of recent disasters, including four hurricanes and storms in 2008 that killed hundreds.

With communications destroyed by the earthquake, it is not yet possible to confirm the extent of the destruction, although there were reports on Wednesday of many bodies piled in the streets.

People in the capital were lifting sheets on bodies to try to identify loved ones.

Damage has also been reported in the towns of Jacmel and Carrefour, near Port-au-Prince.

Guido Cornale, a representative of the UN children's agency Unicef, in Jacmel, said it estimated more than one-in-five buildings had been destroyed.

{{ ANALYSIS}
Gary Duffy, BBC News, Sao Paulo
> Given Brazil's central role in leading the military side of the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti the earthquake has caused a lot of concern and shock here.
>The authorities here say 11 soldiers have died and there have been several injuries, and there are fears this number could rise.
> It has also been confirmed that Zilda Arns, a prominent Brazilian aid worker and paediatrician, has been killed. She was a sister of the retired Cardinal Paulo Arns, a major figure in the Catholic Church here.
> Some soldiers have managed to make contact to reassure relatives, but given the damage to infrastructure at Brazilian bases, communication is proving difficult, even for the government.}

The Red Cross is dispatching a relief team from Geneva and the UN's World Food Programme is flying in two planes with emergency food aid.

The Inter-American Development Bank said it was immediately approving a $200,000 grant for emergency aid.

The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it would co-ordinate with other international agencies to offer help as swiftly as possible.

The World Bank also said it was mobilising a team to assess the damage and plan recovery. It said its offices in Port-au-Prince had been destroyed but that most staff were accounted for.

The UK said it was mobilising help and was "ready to provide whatever humanitarian assistance may be required".

Canada, Australia, France and a number of Latin American nations have also said they are mobilising their aid response.

Pope Benedict XVI has called for a generous response to the "tragic situation" in Haiti.

{{HAITI COUNTRY PROFILE}
> Half of Caribbean island of Hispaniola
> History of violence, instability and dictatorship
> Population of 10 million people
> Most live on less than $2 a day
> Democratic rule restored in 2006
> Economy in ruins and unemployment is chronic
> UN peacekeepers deployed - foreign aid seen as vital
> Massive deforestation has left just 2% forest
> Storms and hurricanes in 2008 left almost 800 dead

Emmet Murphy, who works for a non-governmental organisation in Haiti, told the BBC: "I was driving through the mountains on my way home to Jacmel when the car started to shake. It was like a very strong wind was blowing and I nearly lost control of the car.

"I drove further and found the road totally blocked by a massive landslide on the road. I just knew that if I had reached that spot five minutes earlier, I would have been killed."

Blogger Troy Livesay, in Port-au-Prince, wrote: "Thousands of people are currently trapped. To guess at a number would be like guessing at raindrops in the ocean. Precious lives hang in the balance.

"When pulled from the rubble there is no place to take them for care. I cannot imagine what the next few weeks and months will be like."

news20100114cnn1

[Top stories] from [CNN.com]

[Haiti Earthquake]
January 13, 2010 -- Updated 1835 GMT (0235 HKT)
Hundreds of thousands may have died in Haiti quake, PM says

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> NEW: Death toll may be huge, but hard to calculate right now, PM says
> Quake knocked down penitentiary and inmates escaped, U.N. official says
> Haiti's first lady tells consul most of capital, Port-au-Prince, is destroyed
> Magnitude 7.0 quake struck near Port-au-Prince shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday

Watch live reports from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Anderson Cooper is on scene for firsthand accounts of the horror and devastation from the earthquake.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- The Haitian prime minister said Wednesday several hundred thousand people may have died in Haiti's powerful earthquake.

"I hope that is not true, because I hope the people had the time to get out," Jean-Max Bellerive told CNN.

"Because we have so much people on the streets right now, we don't know exactly where they were living. But so many, so many buildings, so many neighborhoods totally destroyed, and some neighborhoods we don't even see people."

He said the population is calm as authorities try to adjust to the scope of the destruction and reach a better conclusion on how many people were killed or injured.

"With maturity, people are trying to take care of themselves in some quiet places. People are trying to help each other on the streets," he said.

{Hear the prime minister describe the situation}

Earlier, Haiti's first lady, Elisabeth Debrosse Delatour, reported that "most of Port-au-Prince is destroyed," the Haitian ambassador to the United States, Raymond Joseph, said. He called the quake a "major catastrophe."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke of the collapse of "basic services such as water and electricity."

About 3 million people -- one-third of Haiti's population -- were affected by the quake, the Red Cross estimated. About 10 million people felt shaking from the earthquake, including 2 million who felt severe trembling, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated.

President Obama announced a "swift, coordinated and aggressive" U.S. response.

"The reports and images that we've seen of collapsed hospitals, crumbled homes and men and women carrying their injured neighbors through the streets are truly heart-wrenching," Obama said.

He urged Americans trying to locate family members in Haiti to telephone the State Department at 888-407-4747.

{Are you looking for loved ones?}

Aid groups scrambled to help.

None of the three aid centers run by Doctors Without Borders is operable, the group said, and the organization is focusing on re-establishing surgical capacity so it can deal with the crushed limbs and head wounds it is seeing.

Authorities braced for civil disturbances.

Edmond Mulet, the U.N. assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, told CNN that the National Penitentiary collapsed and the inmates escaped, prompting worries about looting by escapees.

Built in 1915, the prison was overcrowded. Enlarged to a total capacity of 1,200, it held 3,908 inmates in December, the U.S. State Department has said.

The powerful 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday, centered about 10 miles (15 kilometers) southwest of Port-au-Prince, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It could be felt strongly in eastern Cuba, more than 200 miles away.

The earthquake sheared huge slabs of concrete off structures and pancaked scores of them, trapping people inside those buildings, and knocking down phone and power lines.

Many buildings that remained standing were left open to the elements, pictures from the scene showed, and citizens were dusty from the concrete and in some cases bloody from their injuries.

"One woman, I could only see her head and the rest of her body was trapped under a block wall," said Jonathan de la Durantaye, who drove through Port-au-Prince after the quake. "I think she was dead. She had blood coming out of her eyes and nose and ears."

{Watch survivors describe what they saw}

CNN's Anderson Cooper, viewing Port-au-Prince from a helicopter, called the sight of the destroyed buildings in the quake-devastated city "incredibly shocking" and "eerie."

He said many people are "just kind of standing around on the streets, not really sure what to do or where to go. And for many, there is nowhere to go."

Ban said the U.N. headquarters at the Christopher Hotel collapsed in the quake, and that people were still trapped inside. He said possibly 100 or 150 people were in the building around the time the quake struck. He said the chief of the U.N. mission in Haiti and a deputy special representative had not been accounted for.

At least 15 peacekeepers were reported to have died. The Brazilian Army said 11 of its soldiers were killed, while state-run media in Jordan reported the deaths of three Jordanian peacekeepers. The Argentine military confirmed the death of one peacekeeper from Argentina.

Joseph Serge Miot, the archbishop of Port-au-Prince, died in the quake, according to the official Vatican newspaper.

{Are you there? Submit an iReport}

A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter evacuated four critically injured U.S. Embassy staff to the Naval Station Guantanamo, Cuba, hospital for further treatment.

Haiti's main airport appeared to be operable, which should enable foreign aid to start flowing into the country, and U.S. Embassy staff at the airport said the tower and the lights were working, State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley said Wednesday.

Rajiv Shah, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, will be the U.S. government's unified disaster coordinator, Obama said. Shah told CNN that teams have been working around the clock "to make sure the U.S. mounts an effective response in supporting saving lives, which is the president's absolute top priority for this first period of 72 hours when we search and save as many lives as we can."

{Impact Your World: How you can help}

Many countries and agencies across the globe geared up to help Haiti. A 50-member Chinese rescue team planned to deploy, Xinhua news agency said, and Ban said the U.N. plans to release $10 million in aid immediately.

The U.S. military is working to get ground and air assessments of the damage.

U.S. officials say the USNS Comfort, a Navy hospital ship in port in Baltimore, has begun to recall its crew and is standing by for orders to head to Haiti. All East-coast based Navy ships have been alerted for standby, the officials said.

Two Coast Guard C-130 airplanes were doing damage assessments and searches, and helicopters were deployed to the scene.

news20100114cnn2

[Top stories] from [CNN.com]

[Haiti Earthquake]
January 13, 2010 -- Updated 1559 GMT (2359 HKT)
U.N. chief calls on world to help crisis-hit Haiti

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> United Nations secretary-general calls on world to "come to Haiti's aid in this hour of need"
> Adds that Haiti mission chief and deputy special representative are unaccounted for
> Pope lamented Haiti's "tragic situation (involving) huge loss of human life"
> U.S. President Barack Obama said that the living in Haiti must be the priority right now

(CNN) -- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued an urgent call Wednesday to the international community to assist Haiti, as the Caribbean island counted the cost of a devastating earthquake the day before.

Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude quake struck shortly before 5 p.m. local time on Tuesday, and was centered about 10 miles (15 kilometers) southwest of the capital Port-au-Prince, the US Geological Survey reported. The International Red Cross estimated that over three million people in the impoverished nation had been affected.

"There is no doubt that we are facing a major humanitarian emergency and that a major relief effort will be required," Ban said in a statement on the U.N. Web site.

Expressing gratitude to nations rushing aid to the earthquake's victims, he called for the world to "come to Haiti's aid in this hour of need."

The U.N., he said, has mobilized an emergency response team to help coordinate humanitarian relief efforts and is expected to be on the ground shortly.

{Read more about the devastation}

He also reported that the U.N. mission chief and deputy special representative in the country were unaccounted for, after much of Port-au-Prince was reduced to rubble.

"Many people are still trapped inside," the secretary-general -- who has been in close consultation with the governments of Haiti, the United States and others -- noted.

The U.S., meanwhile, was the first to offer help, as President Barack Obama said his government would "stand ready to assist the people of Haiti."

The earthquake there seems "cruel and incomprehensible," he told reporters at the White House.

He said it was crucial to assess the condition of the airport at Port-au-Prince, so aid can start coming in. "God has given, God has taken away," he said, urging that the living must be the priority right now.

His French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, expressed his support and solidarity with the Haitian people as France -- which governed Haiti until 1804 -- dispatched two planeloads of rescue personnel to the country from Guadeloupe in the Caribbean and Marseilles.

His foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said the French embassy was in a "very serious state" and that the ambassador was "traumatized." But he said contact with the embassy had been re-established by telephone.

The pope lamented Haiti's "tragic situation (involving) huge loss of human life, a great number of homeless and missing and considerable material damage," according to quotes from Agence France-Presse.

{Photos, texts paint a picture of destruction}

"I appeal to the generosity of all to ensure our concrete solidarity and the effective support of the international community for these brothers and sisters who are living a time of need and suffering," the pontiff said at the end of his weekly general audience.

He added that the Catholic Church's extensive worldwide charity network would be immediately activated to help the victims, Reuters.com reported.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said "the thoughts of the world are with Haiti." Speaking during his weekly question and answer session in Parliament, he added that Britain "will be sending support."

The Canadian government plans to send a reconnaissance team to Haiti to determine how best to assist the devastated country, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said there has been no word on whether Canadians died in the quake, although roughly 6,000 Canadian citizens live in the country. Of these only 700 are registered with the Canadian Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Cannon said.

Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez told CNN his country has 344 doctors and paramedics based in Haiti and will be sending more to help its Caribbean neighbor.

news20100114reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[World > Haiti]
Joseph Guyler Delva and Tom Brown
Wed Jan 13, 2010 2:32pm EST
Thousands feared dead as major quake strikes Haiti
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Thousands were feared dead in a major earthquake that destroyed the presidential palace, schools, hospitals and hillside shanties in Haiti, its leaders said on Wednesday, and the United States and other nations geared up for a big relief operation.

A five-story U.N. headquarters building was demolished by Tuesday's 7.0 magnitude quake, which the U.S. Geological Survey said was the most powerful in Haiti in more than a century. Several bodies were pulled from the wreckage of the U.N. building and more than 100 staff members were missing, a spokesman said.

Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told Reuters that he believed there could be "in the range of thousands of dead." Soon after, Bellerive told CNN he believed well over 100,000 people could have died.

President Rene Preval called the damage "unimaginable" and described stepping over dead bodies and hearing the cries of those trapped in the collapsed Parliament building, where the senate president was among those pinned by debris.

Destruction in the capital was "massive and broad," and tens -- if not hundreds -- of thousands of homes were destroyed, a spokesman for the U.N. mission said.

Sobbing and dazed people wandered the streets of Port-au-Prince, and voices cried out from the rubble.

"Please take me out, I am dying. I have two children with me," a woman told a Reuters journalist from under a collapsed kindergarten in the Canape-Vert area of the capital.

The presidential palace lay in ruins, its domes fallen on top of flattened walls. Preval and his wife were not inside when the quake hit.

GROUND STILL TREMBLING

The quake's epicenter was only 10 miles from Port-au-Prince. About 4 million people live in the city and surrounding area. Many people slept outside on the ground, away from weakened walls, as aftershocks as powerful as 5.9 rattled the city throughout the night and into Wednesday.

The devastation crippled the government and the U.N. security mission that had kept order. There were no signs of organized rescue efforts, and people clawed at concrete chunks with their bare hands to try to free trapped loved ones.

Haitian Red Cross spokesman Pericles Jean-Baptiste said his organization was overwhelmed. "There are too many people who need help ... We lack equipment, we lack body bags," he told Reuters.

Normal communications were cut off, roads were blocked by rubble and trees, electric power was interrupted and water was in short supply.

In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said those unaccounted for at the U.N. mission headquarters included the chief of the mission, Hedi Annabi, but he could not confirm reports Annabi had died.

Brazil's army said at least 11 Brazilian members of the 9,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti were killed.

The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti is ill-equipped to respond to such a disaster, lacking heavy equipment to move debris and sufficient emergency personnel.

FLIMSY HOMES

"I am appealing to the world, especially the United States, to do what they did for us back in 2008 when four hurricanes hit Haiti," Raymond Alcide Joseph, Haiti's ambassador to Washington, said in a CNN interview.

"At that time the U.S. dispatched ... a hospital ship off the coast of Haiti. I hope that will be done again ... and help us in this dire situation that we find ourselves in."

U.S. President Barack Obama called the quake an "especially cruel and incomprehensible" tragedy and pledged swift, coordinated support to help save lives. The Pentagon was sending a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and three amphibious ships, including one that can carry up to 2,000 Marines.

Medical aid group Doctors Without Borders said its three hospitals in Haiti were unusable and it was treating the injured at temporary shelters.

"The reality of what we are seeing is severe traumas, head wounds, crushed limbs, severe problems that cannot be dealt with the level of medical care we currently have available with no infrastructure really to support it," said Paul McPhun, operations manager for the group's Canadian section.

The University of Miami School of Medicine sent a plane full of doctors and nurses to set up a field hospital and planned to fly a group of critically injured people to Miami for treatment on Wednesday.

The United Nations said $10 million would be released immediately from the its central emergency response fund and it would organize a flash appeal to raise more money for Haiti over the next few days.

The United States, China and European states were sending reconnaissance and rescue teams, some with search dogs and heavy equipment, while other governments and aid groups offered tents, water purification units, food and telecoms teams.

NOWHERE TO GO

The quake hit at 5 p.m. (2200 GMT), and witnesses reported people screaming "Jesus, Jesus" running into the streets as offices, hotels, houses and shops collapsed. Experts said the quake's epicenter was very shallow at a depth of only 6.2 miles, which was likely to have magnified the destruction.

Witnesses saw homes and shanties built on hillsides tumble as the earth shook, while cars bounced off the ground. "You have thousands of people sitting in the streets with nowhere to go," said Rachmani Domersant, an operations manager with the Food for the Poor charity.

Haiti's cathedral was destroyed and media reports said the archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot, had been found dead in the wreckage of the archdiocese office. (Additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Adam Entous, Patrick Worsnip, Louis Charbonneau Sophie Hardach, Raymond Colitt, Alister Bull and David Morgan; Writing by Jane Sutton and Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Vicki Allen)


[Green Business]
Charles Abbott
SEATTLE
Tue Jan 12, 2010 6:23pm EST
U.S. farm group: Stop EPA on greenhouse gases
SEATTLE (Reuters) - The largest U.S. farm group called on Congress on Tuesday to prevent the government from regulating greenhouse gases if lawmakers kill climate change legislation.

The 6-million-member American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) also underlined its firm opposition to legislation to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for boosting global temperatures.

In their first item of policy work, delegates at the AFBF annual meeting voted to support "any legislative action" to suspend authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gases under air pollution laws.

The EPA cleared the way for such regulation a month ago by ruling that greenhouse gases endanger human health.

It offered a route to control greenhouse gases, if Congress does not pass a climate law. AFBF staff say the Senate is unlikely to pass a "cap and trade" climate bill this year.

At least one bill is pending in the House to prohibit EPA regulation of greenhouse gases. Senators say they may offer amendments to do the same thing.

Delegates applauded after Phil Nelson, president of the Illinois Farm Bureau, read a 1-1/2-page critique of climate legislation, which included a warning that EPA regulation "would significantly burden all sectors of the economy" as well as drive up food prices.

Nelson's resolution was adopted on a unanimous voice vote.

"I think the delegates wanted to send a strong message by passing it," he said afterward.

"They don't have enough lipstick to put on that pig (climate legislation) to make it look good," said Missouri Farm Bureau president Charles Kruse.

While opposing a mandatory cap-and-trade system and EPA regulation of greenhouse gases, the AFBF backs voluntary carbon credit trading, development of alternative energy sources and incentives to industries trying to reduce emissions.

Four dozen climate scientists asked the AFBF in a letter last week to divorce itself from "climate change deniers."

Farmers are dubious of Obama administration analyses that say higher fuel and fertilizer costs resulting from climate legislation would be outweighed by revenue from contracts to offset greenhouse gases by planting trees and crops that capture carbon.

Higher production costs are certain, but many farmers will not see any income from carbon sequestration, Nelson said.

An Agriculture Department study says that up to 8 percent of crop and pasture land, or 59 million acres, would be converted to woodlands by 2050 because carbon-capturing trees would be more profitable than crops.

The USDA is taking a second look at its analysis because of complaints about the economic models that were used.

In other activity, the delegates:

-- elected Bob Stallman, a Texas beef and rice grower, to his sixth two-year term as AFBF president.

-- voted that the government should "properly compensate farmers when the government issues an inaccurate food safety warning or recall that causes losses."

(Reporting by Charles Abbott; Editing by Ted Kerr)

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[Green Business]
QUITO
Tue Jan 12, 2010 6:15pm EST
Ecuador foreign minister quits over Amazon project
QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Fander Falconi quit on Tuesday after President Rafael Correa criticized the way he was negotiating a project to protect the Amazon rain forest.

"Falconi presented his resignation," a government statement said. He had served as the Andean country's chief diplomat since December 2008.

Under Correa's Yasuni initiative, OPEC-member Ecuador would leave 850 million barrels of oil, worth $6 billion, underground in its Amazon region as a contribution to countering climate change.

In return for not extracting the oil, Ecuador is looking to donor countries to pay it $350 million a year.

Falconi headed Ecuador's effort to get international support for the initiative, but Correa recently said the negotiations with donor nations were being handled "shamefully."

The president said the commission headed by Falconi was not negotiating toughly enough and that potential donors such as Germany and Belgium were attempting to dictate terms.

Not touching the oil would avoid creating 410 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, Ecuador says.

(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia, editing by Anthony Boadle)


[Green Business]
LONDON
Wed Jan 13, 2010 10:04am EST
UK firm signs new trial for energy saving device
LONDON (Reuters) - VPhase has signed a further trial deal for its energy-saving voltage product, highlighting how small energy efficiency firms could come to the fore as Britain enforces stringent emissions targets. VPhase said a social housing group based in the North-West of England will trial VPhase's product, which is attached to a household fuse box and can reduce electricity consumption by 10 percent by regulating the level of voltage coming in.

Shares in the smallcap company, which started making commercial sales in September, rose 6 percent after the news to 4.5 pence.

The deal comes just a week after Drax, which runs the UK's largest coal-fired power station, signed up energy efficiency specialist Eaga to provide services under the Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP).

Government initiatives such as CESP and CERT (The Carbon Emissions Reduction target) force utilities and housing providers to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from homes by offering insulation, renewable technology and energy saving devices.

Drax is one of the first companies to develop CESP plans and said it was new ground for the firm.

"This is the first time that generators have had an obligation which links them directly with end consumers," CEO Dorothy Thompson said.

"Working with Eaga means our obligation can be managed in a very efficient way in what is very unfamiliar territory for us."

FTSE 250-listed Eaga is the UK's second largest installer of central heating systems and already delivers the government Warm front programme which aims to eliminate fuel poverty.

VPhase has already signed trial deals for its product, which it says can save the typical homeowner 50 pounds a year, with utilities Scottish & Southern Energy and British Gas, owned by Centrica.

It said the social housing market was an important sector, covering an estimated 4 million homes in England.

(Reporting by Victoria Bryan)


[Green Business]
DILI
Wed Jan 13, 2010 5:55am EST
Timor may ask Petronas to develop Greater Sunrise
DILI (Reuters) - East Timor's government may invite Malaysia's Petronas, not Australian energy firm Woodside Petroleum and partners, to develop the offshore Greater Sunrise gas field, a ministry official said on Wednesday.

East Timor separately announced on Wednesday that it has rejected Woodside's plan to develop the offshore Greater Sunrise gas field without building an onshore plant to liquefy the gas.

"Our government will not approve their (Woodside's) proposal because they just have two options: one is to bring the pipeline to Darwin and the other is onshore development, and these kind of options do not benefit our country and people," Manuel Mendonca, director of communications in the natural resources ministry, told Reuters.

"From East Timor's side, we just want to bring the pipeline to East Timor, and we have differences in position on the options so we will contract another company to develop Greater Sunrise," if Woodside does not change its position," he added.

Mendonca, who is also a party to the negotiations, said Malaysian company Petronas could develop Greater Sunrise instead.

"The Malaysian company Petronas is qualified to develop the Greater Sunrise field," he told Reuters.

"We have good relations with Petronas and Petronas has helped us do much in the oil sector and they are ready to build LNG plant," said Mendonca.

(Reporting by Tito Belo; Writing by Sunanda Creagh; Editing by Sara Webb)

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[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
LONDON
Wed Jan 13, 2010 10:05am EST
Voluntary carbon market hoping for growth in 2010
LONDON (Reuters) - The market for voluntary carbon offsets is pinning its hopes on growth this year after demand stalled in 2009 as companies cut back spending on reducing their carbon footprints due to the economic slowdown.

"Hopefully we can go back to some growth so people will look at carbon markets more seriously. It's hard for people to put (emissions cuts) at the top of their agenda when countries aren't doing it," Gilles Corre, head of carbon structuring at Tullett Prebon, told Reuters.

The failure of a U.N. summit in Copenhagen last December to clinch a legally binding climate pact disappointed many investors who hoped it would create more certainty about the future of carbon markets.

"Paradoxically, Copenhagen might be good for the voluntary market. While there is no certainty in terms of compliance, there is still the need to do something which means people get involved in the voluntary market," Corre said.

The unregulated voluntary market operates outside mandatory emissions cut schemes such as the United Nations' Clean Development Mechanism or the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme.

While January is traditionally a quiet month, demand is ticking over for so-called exotic, Voluntary Carbon Standard, renewable energy, forestry, and U.S. credits, while prices have not changed much since the end of 2009.

Brokers MF Global saw a significant boost in demand on December 29-30 when offset retailers scrambled to square their books.

"We closed nearly 300 kilotonnes which in our market is very good," said Grattan MacGiffin, MF Global's head of voluntary carbon markets, after fears that last-minute December buying activity would not materialize.

The emergence of a federal emissions trading scheme in the United States could boost demand for offset credits further. But U.S. lawmakers face an uphill battle to enact a climate bill in 2010 after a global pact failed to come out of Copenhagen.

Chicago Climate Exchange chairman Richard Sandor was optimistic last week about the growth of voluntary carbon markets in the United States even if a federal cap-and-trade system fails to materialize.

Regional moves, such as the Western Climate Initiative, were gaining traction, he told Reuters in an interview.


[Green Business]
SINGAPORE
Wed Jan 13, 2010 5:57am EST
Dayen expects to be profitable, win contracts in 2010
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's Dayen Environmental expects to be profitable in 2010, after posting losses for the past four years, and is aiming to win S$300 million of water contracts in Singapore and the region this year.

CEO Alan Yau said in an interview the firm has bid for over S$300 million of contracts and is also studying a S$300-S$500 million project in China, as it sticks to its core business of engineering and servicing water and waste water plants.

"The company has gone through a rough patch over the past two years and what we've done is to refocus our strategy," Yau told Reuters on Wednesday. "For Dayen now, we will only be doing water and nothing else."

The firm posted a loss of S$5.5 million in its financial year ending September 2009. The firm reviewed its business and internal controls last year after being reprimanded by the stock exchange regulator for a lapse in governance and transparency.

(Reporting by Fabian Ng; Editing by Neil Chatterjee)


[Green Business]
Krittivas Mukherjee
NEW DELHI
Wed Jan 13, 2010 9:39am EST
China-led group to meet ahead of climate deadline
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Four of the world's largest and fastest-growing carbon emitters will meet in New Delhi this month ahead of a Jan 31 deadline for countries to submit their actions to fight climate change.

The meeting, to be held either on Jan 24 or 25, would be attended by the environment ministers of Brazil, South Africa, India and China -- the BASIC bloc of nations that helped broker a political accord at last month's Copenhagen climate summit.

The non-binding accord was described by many as a failure because it fell far short of the conference's original goal of a more ambitious commitment to fight global warming by all nations.

The document set a January 31 deadline for rich nations to submit economy-wide emissions targets for 2020 and for developing countries to present voluntary carbon-curbing actions.

The Copenhagen Accord left specifics to be ironed out in 2010, angering many of the poorest nations as well as some Western countries, which had hoped for a more ambitious commitment to fight climate change.

The accord did outline climate cash for poorer nations and backed a goal to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius.

But the document was widely regarded as the bare minimum outcome from the final stages of the Copenhagen summit attended by more than 100 world leaders trying to find a formula to prevent more heat waves, droughts and crop failures.

"The meeting has been called to coordinate the positions of the four countries with respect to the submission of actions and future negotiations," a senior Indian environment ministry official told Reuters.

"Beyond that, the meeting is also going to discuss any problem areas that any member country raises."

The New Delhi meeting is seen as crucial because what the four countries decide could shape a legally binding climate pact the United Nations hopes to seal at the end of the year.

Countries that support the Copenhagen Accord are supposed to add their emission reduction commitments to the schedule at the end of the document. But there is concern some countries might weaken their commitments until a new deal is agreed.

China has pledged to cut the amount of carbon dioxide produced for each unit of economic growth by 40-45 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels. For India, that figure is up to 25 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels.

China is the world's top CO2 emitter, while India is number four.

CRUCIAL MEETING

Refusal by the BASIC nations to add their commitments to the schedule would likely raise questions about the validity of the accord, which was only "noted" by the Copenhagen conference and not formally adopted after several nations objected.

"If any of the BASIC countries do not submit their actions then the blame game will again start and the whole purpose of the accord which was to put a more vigorous political process in place would be defeated," said Shirish Sinha, WWF India's top climate official.

The Copenhagen conference was originally meant to agree the outlines of a broader global pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which binds nearly 40 rich nations to limit carbon emissions. The first phase of the existing protocol expires in 2012.

But developing countries, which want rich nations to be held to their Kyoto obligations and sign up to a second round of tougher commitments from 2013, complain developed nations want a single new accord obliging all nations to fight global warming.

The BASIC countries, while endorsing the Copenhagen Accord, oppose any single legally binding instrument that allows rich nations to dilute their climate commitments.

Poorer nations say developed economies have polluted most since the Industrial Revolution and should therefore shoulder most of the responsibility of fixing emission problems and paying poorer nations to green their economies.

Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told a conference last week that the "main challenge now is to convert an agreement supported by 29 countries into one supported by 194 countries."

Though Indian officials ruled out any revisiting of the BASIC countries' position on the accord, some clarifications could be sought on the issue of monitoring CO2 reduction actions by developing countries. The accord says their actions would be open to "consultation and analysis."

The United States has said regular reporting and analysis of CO2 curbs by poorer nations is crucial to building trust.

"Things like who will analyze and what constitutes consultation need to be sorted out. These are definitions that have to be agreed by all the countries," another negotiator said.

(Editing by David Fogarty)

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[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Paul Taylor - Analysis
BRUSSELS
Wed Jan 13, 2010 10:08am EST
Snubbed in Copenhagen, EU weighs climate options
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Stunned by being sidelined in the endgame of the Copenhagen world climate summit, the European Union is debating how to regain influence over the fight against global warming.

Should the world's largest trading bloc and economic area respond to the policy setback and the diplomatic humiliation of the bare-minimum Copenhagen accord by playing Mr Nice, Mr Nasty, Mr Persistent or Mr Pragmatic?

The first two options -- setting a more ambitious example to others, or threatening climate laggards with carbon tariffs -- are tempting gestures, and each has its supporters.

But when the dust settles, the 27 EU governments are likely to stick to their carbon emissions reduction strategy while becoming more pragmatic about working outside the United Nations framework to achieve progress, experts say.

The EU went to last month's U.N. negotiations seeking a legally binding agreement to cut emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for heating the planet, with precise reductions targets subject to international monitoring and enforcement.

Despite warning signs that their goals were unrealistic, the Europeans hoped to convert the rest of the world to their own model of supranational governance.

"We have to be honest. We did not fulfill our objectives," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told a conference of Brussels think-tanks on Tuesday.

In the end, the chaotic 190-nation conference merely noted a non-binding accord on broad principles, without commitments to numbers, concluded by the United States, China, Brazil, South Africa and India in the absence of the EU.

KYOTO DOOMED

The bloc's environment ministers will conduct a post-mortem on Copenhagen when they hold an informal meeting in the Spanish city of Seville on Saturday.

Officials acknowledge privately that the mandatory system for enforcing emissions curbs created by the 1997 Kyoto protocol is doomed because China won't accept any constraints on its future economic growth, and the United States won't join any agreement that is not binding on Beijing.

EU governments agreed in 2008 to cut their carbon emissions unilaterally by 20 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels and produce 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources. They also pledged to make deeper cuts of 30 percent if other major economies committed to equivalent measures.

The Mr Nice camp, made up largely of climate activists but also British and Dutch government advisers, argues the EU should assert leadership by moving unilaterally to a 30-percent cut.

It's not going to happen. Such a move would require the unanimous agreement of EU states, some of which are already chafing at the 20 percent cut.

EU officials say any reopening of the bloc's climate change package would more likely lead to a weakening of the existing targets under pressure from industries hurting in the recession.

The Mr Nasty camp, led by France and the steel industry, argues that the EU has been naive in its climate diplomacy and would gain more leverage if it decided to levy a carbon tax on imports from countries that apply lower emissions standards.

That too is not going to happen. The European Commission's designated trade czar, Karel de Gucht, warned this week it could trigger a global trade war.

"It's an approach that will run into many practical problems ... The big risk is that there will be slippage into a trade war with people outbidding each other on such measures," he told a European Parliament confirmation hearing.

China might retaliate by imposing its own carbon tariff, calculated by emissions per capita, which are much higher in the industrialized world than in its emerging economy.

NEITHER CARROT NOR STICK

Since the EU looks unlikely to wield either a bigger carrot or a bigger stick, it is left with more mundane options: improving its negotiating methods; working more actively with China and other emerging powers, and with the United States; and meeting its own reductions targets.

"Whatever happens in the global process, we will deliver on our commitments," Barroso told the think-tanks' conference. "It would be a complete mistake, because of the disappointment in Copenhagen, to abandon all our targets now."

The loss of economic output since 2008 will make it easier for the EU to reach its 20-20-20 goals, as they are known.

EU officials are looking to use every avenue to work with Brazil, South Africa, India and China -- the so-called BASIC countries -- on climate mitigation.

Away from the sound-bite diplomacy, those countries are keen to draw on European experience in developing a low-carbon economy, administering emissions quotas and carbon trading.

Insiders say the EU will seek to use informal bodies such as the Major Economies Forum and the G20 to make progress in fighting climate change because the unwieldy U.N. framework can too easily be blocked by a handful of obstructionist states.

"EU officials are pretty upset with the U.N. process and feel pretty frustrated," said Jason Anderson, Head of EU Climate and Energy Policy at the environment campaign group WWF.

"The trick is to find a way to avoid the blockages. If you could just get the major emitters to agree to things, that would take some major problems out of the process."

Europeans are unwilling to accept one possible lesson of Copenhagen: that theirs is a diminishing voice in world affairs.

Yet ironically, the more successful they are at reducing their own carbon emissions, the smaller a part of the global problem they will represent. That is not a promising starting point for trying to shape international climate policy.

(Additional reporting by Pete Harrison; Editing by Jon Boyle)


[Green Business]
LONDON
Wed Jan 13, 2010 11:12am EST
Zenergy says Honeywell deal to cut wind power cost
LONDON (Reuters) - Zenergy Power has approved Honeywell to supply chemicals to be used in making superconductors, paving the way for what it hopes will be lower production costs and cheaper wind power generation.

The maker of renewable energy devices using superconductor technology said Honeywell Speciality Materials would supply on industrial scales the specialist chemicals needed in the mass-production of second generation superconductor wire.

"The qualification of Honeywell is a significant step in Zenergy Power's efforts to dramatically reduce the cost of superconductor wire," Zenergy said in a statement.

"Of particular importance is the application of 2G wire in the future production of superconductor electricity generators that are set to dramatically reduce the cost of producing electricity from offshore wind and run-of-river hydropower projects."

The Carbon Trust, which advises the British government on environmental issues, said earlier this month that new technology and careful choice of sites could slash the projected costs of the next generation of offshore wind farms by as much as 40 percent.

Shares in Zenergy, whose losses in the first half of 2009 doubled to almost 5 million pounds ($8.05 million), have lost nearly two-thirds of their value since hitting a record high at the end of 2007.

($1=.6209 Pound)

(Reporting by Paul Hoskins; editing by Victoria Bryan)


[Green Business]
BEIJING
Thu Jan 14, 2010 7:30am EST
China needs to cut use of chemical fertilizers: research
BEIJING (Reuters) - China, the world's largest grain producer and top consumer of fertilizers, should reduce its reliance on chemical fertilizers by as much as 50 percent because excessive use has resulted in serious pollution, according to a research report.

"Not many people are aware that agriculture is the largest polluter in China, which should be a subject for serious concern," said Wen Tiejun, head of the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Renmin University of China.

Chemical fertilizers had helped China, the world's most populous country, to feed its population despite limited farmland, but excessive application had led to low farmland efficiency and serious pollution, according to a research report issued by the school and Greenpeace on Thursday.

The report said farmers, particularly in northern China, used 40 percent more fertilizers than crops needed, resulting in about 10 million tons of fertilizer every year being discharged into water, polluting China's rivers and lakes.

China produced 24 percent of the world's total grain output, but its use of fertilizer accounted for about 35 percent of total global consumption. China's grain production had increased more than eight-fold from the 1960s, while use of nitrogen fertilizers had surged by about 55 times, the report said.

It also urged the government to reduce subsidies to fertilizer makers and called for more support for farmers who use animal waste.

(Reporting by Niu Shuping and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Chris Lewis and Jerry Norton)

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[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Gwladys Fouche
OSLO
Wed Jan 13, 2010 11:38am EST
Shell hunts for shale gas in Sweden
OSLO (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell is starting to drill for shale gas in Sweden and believes there may be enough to make the Scandinavian country self-sufficient in natural gas for a decade, it said on Wednesday.

The drilling in southern Sweden has attracted opposition from some local residents and green activists, who are worried about the environmental impact if shale gas deposits are exploited on a large scale.

"We are drilling the first well and expect to finish this month," Shell Sweden spokesman Henry Carlsson said, adding that three wells will be drilled by the end of March.

"It's a promising area," said Carlsson. "There could be enough gas to cover Sweden's gas needs for at least 10 years."

Full-scale production could happen within five to 10 years, he said.

Shale gas production is booming in the United States, where it accounted for about two-thirds of the growth in gas production in 2008. Shell said that Sweden and Ukraine are the only countries in Europe where it is drilling for shale gas.

Sweden -- which gets most of its electricity from nuclear generators and hydropower -- consumed about a billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2008, according to data from the Swedish Energy Agency.

A natural gas pipeline designed to bring Norwegian gas to southern Sweden and Denmark was scrapped last year due to weak demand amid the global economic crisis, leaving a potential market niche for Shell if it can develop shale gas resources.

ENVIRONMENT WORRIES

"We are concerned about the impact on the ground water," said Goeran Gustafson, a physics and maths teacher active in a green group which seeks to stop the project.

"When hydraulic drilling breaks off rocks, heavy metals and other dangerous substances may contaminate it," he told Reuters.

The group says it has collected names of about 6,000 people who oppose drilling activities but a legal action to stop the drilling failed last year, paving the way for Shell to conduct its exploratory wells programme.

Shell said it listened to the critics and said that it has changed drilling techniques in Sweden to make less noise.

"It's very important to us that we listen to their concerns," said Carlsson.

(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche; Editing by Keiron Henderson)


[Green Business]
Erik Kirschbaum
BERLIN
Wed Jan 13, 2010 12:43pm EST
Germany moves toward trimming solar power incentives
BERLIN (Reuters) - The government, photovoltaic companies and consumer lobby groups moved closer on Wednesday toward an agreement on trimming state-mandated incentives for solar power to reflect a steeper overall slide in costs.

Although no decision was reached at the meeting, officials at the two rounds of hearings at the Environment Ministry in Berlin said they expected a decision on moderate reductions in the feed-in tariffs to be made soon.

"There's an agreement that the level of the support has to more closely track the speed of the expansion of photovoltaic power," said Holger Krawinkel, an energy expert for the federal consumer protection agency lobby who was at the talks.

"There are still divergent views on the concrete numbers. The Environment Ministry will evidently put forth a proposal early next week."

A spokeswoman for the Environment Ministry said the ministry would likely make a new proposal next week, which would then be discussed by the ruling parties. It was not clear if the next cut in feed-in tariffs would be July 1 or on January 1, 2011.

Any added reduction in the state-mandated fees that utilities pay for photovoltaic power are expected to be moderate to avoid damaging this growing sector and its thousands of jobs.

A senior government source told Reuters last month there would be "no radical changes" in the system that made Germany the world's leader in photovoltaic energy even though there was "over-promotion" of solar in some of the large-scale projects.

Industry analysts and stock markets have nevertheless been nervously watching the moves from Berlin, fearful that any steep cuts could hit the sector and prices.

"Clarity on the outcome of the talks is key and needed quickly as it will impact the companies' share prices. Also, it will be crucial whether the talks will result in a change of the EEG law or a one-off cut, as the former will take substantially longer to implement," said Theo Kitz, analyst at Merck Finck.

Germany is a world leader in green energy with a 15 percent share of all electricity produced and wants to double that to 30 percent by 2020. Germany's photovoltaic industry has boomed since the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) was created in 2000.

More than half the world's solar power is produced there and some 80,000 jobs have been created.

Utilities are obliged to pay 39 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity produced for 20 years for systems installed in 2010, which is down from 43 cents for systems installed in 2009.

The feed-in tariff has been falling by about 8 percent per year before dropping 10 percent in 2010.

The BSW solar industry association has offered a 25 percent cut spread out over a period of 12 months.

Solarworld chief executive Frank Asbeck and First-Solar managing director Stepan Hansen said after the meeting the talks were constructive. Also present were Q-Cells, Bosch Solar and Applied Materials.

(Additional reporting by Markus Wacket in Berlin and Christoph Steitz in Frankfurt; Editing by Mike Nesbit)


[Green Business]
WASHINGTON
Wed Jan 13, 2010 2:49pm EST
U.S. envoy optimistic Senate will pass climate bill
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. climate negotiator said he hopes the U.S. Senate will pass a global warming bill in the first half of the year, but the country will have to work on alternatives if the legislation fails.

"I'm quite optimistic there will be action," Jonathan Pershing, the U.S. Deputy special climate change envoy, told a panel on Wednesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"I don't think its a plausible scenario" that Congress would not pass a bill aiming to lower emissions of heat-trapping gases, but passage would be more likely over the next year than the next month, he said.

Democratic Senator John Kerry is working with independent Senator Joe Lieberman and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on a compromise climate bill that would include more incentives for nuclear energy and offshore drilling than a climate bill passed in the U.S. House of Representatives.

At the recent climate summit in Copenhagen, Kerry left open the possibility of not including an emissions cap and trade market in the climate bill.

But the legislation's future is uncertain amid opposition from lawmakers in coal states and others who say a cap and trade market on emissions would raise energy costs.

"We will have to see how it plays out and we will have to start working on alternatives if it doesn't happen," Pershing said.

He did not say what the alternatives might be.

Pershing said the nonbinding Copenhagen Accord, signed by the United States, China, India, and other countries, put the ball in the court for governments to develop their plans to combat climate change.

The United States was working to get countries to pledge climate actions on two of the accord's appendixes, one for developed country emission targets for 2020 and one for the voluntary pledges of major developing countries, he said. The deadline for the pledges is January 31.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner)