[Top News] from [REUTERS]
[Green Business]
Pete Harrison
BRUSSELS
Thu Mar 4, 2010 6:28pm EST
EU climate funding threatened
(Reuters) - The European Union's development chief may be forced to name and shame France, Germany and Italy for not living up to their aid commitments, contributing to a roughly $17 billion funding gap this year.
Andris Piebalgs warned in January he would clearly identify EU countries that failed to meet their aid commitments.
"In 2010, the EU aid disbursements are likely to further grow to approximately 54-55 billion euros ($74-75 billion)," a leaked EU document seen by Reuters shows. "Many member states will most probably not reach their... aid targets. A gap of 12-13 billion euros remains."
The paper did not name France, Germany or Italy, but an OECD report last month said they were among the EU's worst performers.
The paper also warned the shortfall threatens the EU's standing in climate talks, which this year aim to build on the weak accord reached in Copenhagen in December.
"There is a risk of conflict with new financial commitments the EU has taken in the framework of the Copenhagen accord," warns the paper.
The EU has pledged to urgently channel 7.3 billion euros in "climate aid" to poor countries over three years to help them cut emissions from industry and tackle climate impacts on crops.
That would plug a gap until a global climate deal is struck for the years after 2013.
The paper on overseas aid praises five countries -- Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands -- for overachieving, while Britain and Spain are named as key players to help make up the shortfall.
Anti-poverty group Oxfam said the EU needed a radical new plan that made aid pledges legally binding and set timetables.
"These targets are not just numbers," said Oxfam's Elise Ford. "This money is about mothers and babies in poor countries getting health care, about children going to school."
Under the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, the European Union has committed to handing over 0.7 percent of gross national income (GNI) for development assistance.
A U.N. conference in New York in September will assess progress in 2010, by which time EU countries are supposed to have reached an interim target of 0.56 percent of GNI. But they are falling short at around 0.46 percent.
(Reporting by Pete Harrison; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
[Green Business]
Jeffrey Jones
CALGARY, Alberta
Thu Mar 4, 2010 8:10pm EST
Environmentalists see "Avatar" in oil sands
(Reuters) - Environmentalists aim to hitch their stars to James Cameron's "Avatar" by trying to draw parallels between the sci-fi blockbuster and Canada's oil sands industry ahead of Sunday's Academy Awards.
In a full-page ad in the show business trade publication "Variety," a coalition of green groups endorsed the film, which is nominated for nine Oscars, saying the predatory grab for resources it portrays on the fictional planet Pandora is similar to methods used in northern Alberta.
The oil industry panned the ad, calling it irresponsible.
"Canada's Avatar Sands," it read before a backdrop featuring a massive dump truck, which is used in oil sands extraction, and an open pit mine.
Like the film, it said, indigenous peoples are endangered by pollution and future oil spills, Shell, BP, Exxon and other "Sky People" are destroying ancient forests and huge trucks are used to mine an expensive energy source to feed America's "addiction."
"Part of it is to reach out to a new audience that have seen the movie," said Mike Hudema, a campaigner for Greenpeace, one of the groups behind the ad. "A lot of the themes that were dealt with in "Avatar" do parallel a lot with what we're seeing in the tar sands."
Environmentalists have escalated a campaign to spread their message that developing Canada's oil sands, the largest deposits of crude outside the Middle East, is damaging the land, air, water and local communities.
Meanwhile, the industry has intensified efforts to counter that, saying it is doing all it can to minimize environmental impacts, clean up operations and support aboriginal communities with consultation and employment opportunities. The two sides have become more polarized.
"The campaign is bizarre at minimum and at maximum it's irresponsible," said Janet Annesley, spokeswoman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the industry's main lobby group.
"We've seen in the past that anti-oil activists like to blur the line between fact and fiction, but in this instance the cognitive dissonance is just too great to go unaddressed."
Canada is the largest foreign oil supplier to the United States, and about half the country's crude oil supplies are derived from the oil sands.
(Editing by Frank McGurty)
[Green Business]
Chisa Fujioka
TOKYO
Fri Mar 5, 2010 5:29am EST
Japan rift risks watering down climate bill
(Reuters) - A rift within Japan's government over legislation to fight climate change has raised the risk of it watering down plans for an emissions trading system that is at the core of its drive for greener policies.
In its latest draft for a climate bill expected to be submitted to parliament next Friday, the environment ministry is vague on details of how the scheme would set emission limits and when trading would start.
The environment ministry has favored setting volume caps on emissions. But the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has called for caps per unit of production, which would allow emissions to rise when businesses increase output.
METI is under pressure from companies worried about limits on greenhouse gas emissions restricting growth.
"We are not ruling out volume caps, but considering the need for economic growth, carbon intensity targets should also be included in the scheme," METI minister Masayuki Naoshima told a news conference on Friday.
A national scheme that sets tough targets on greenhouse gas emissions could be a major boost for the carbon market, depending on the design.
Greenhouse gas emissions in Japan, the world's fifth biggest emitter, totaled 1.29 billion metric tons in the fiscal year to March 2009.
Since the Democratic Party won power in an election last August, Japan has pushed for tougher climate policies including a "cap-and-trade" scheme setting mandatory caps on emissions.
But companies, worried about volume caps, have called for the bill to drop the phrase cap-and-trade when referring to the trading scheme.
The government is also likely to be mindful of the failure of the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama to win support in the Senate for a sweeping climate bill that would also include a national cap-and-trade market.
LACKING DETAILS
The idea of cap-and-trade is to set a limit on emissions that becomes tougher over time. This forces companies to invest in steps to cut their carbon pollution or face having to buy permits for every metric ton of emissions that they are over their target.
The latest draft makes no mention of cap-and-trade, merely citing the government would implement separate legislation to introduce a domestic emissions trading system.
A deadline for legal steps was still under discussion, according to the draft. Environment Minister Sakihito Ozawa has hoped to launch the trading system next year, but has said more time may be needed to design the scheme.
The draft also includes Japan's goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels on condition a global climate deal is reached, along with its plan to consider imposing an environment tax from 2011.
The ruling Democratic Party, its ratings slipping ahead of an election for parliament's upper house likely in July, is under pressure to look proactive on tackling climate change while allaying fears of new policies that would hurt the economy.
The climate bill is set to clear parliament by the time the current session ends on June 16 given the ruling coalition's majority in both houses of parliament, but a carbon market expert worried about the lack of details.
"If details are omitted, as media reports have suggested, then there are worries and questions about how the absolute volume will be regulated," said Tsuneo Takahashi, representative director at Natsource Japan Co, a joint venture of a New York-based carbon trader, Mitsubishi Corp. and Tokyo Tanshi Co.
"Carbon intensity cannot be measured until a year later, meaning trading will not take off until then. So that raises questions about how active actual trading will be."
Others said the bill was merely meant to set a direction for policy while leaving details for later, but the wording on emissions trading risked creating a system that would not lead to a significant drop in emissions.
"There is no reason for the government to avoid referring to the trading scheme as being cap-and-trade," said Naoyuki Yamagishi, climate change program leader for WWF Japan.
"So leaving that wording vague could clear the way for a system using carbon intensity targets, and that would be a problem."
(Additional reporting by Chikako Mogi; Editing by David Fogarty)
[Green Business]
Pete Harrison
BRUSSELS
Thu Mar 4, 2010 6:28pm EST
EU climate funding threatened
(Reuters) - The European Union's development chief may be forced to name and shame France, Germany and Italy for not living up to their aid commitments, contributing to a roughly $17 billion funding gap this year.
Andris Piebalgs warned in January he would clearly identify EU countries that failed to meet their aid commitments.
"In 2010, the EU aid disbursements are likely to further grow to approximately 54-55 billion euros ($74-75 billion)," a leaked EU document seen by Reuters shows. "Many member states will most probably not reach their... aid targets. A gap of 12-13 billion euros remains."
The paper did not name France, Germany or Italy, but an OECD report last month said they were among the EU's worst performers.
The paper also warned the shortfall threatens the EU's standing in climate talks, which this year aim to build on the weak accord reached in Copenhagen in December.
"There is a risk of conflict with new financial commitments the EU has taken in the framework of the Copenhagen accord," warns the paper.
The EU has pledged to urgently channel 7.3 billion euros in "climate aid" to poor countries over three years to help them cut emissions from industry and tackle climate impacts on crops.
That would plug a gap until a global climate deal is struck for the years after 2013.
The paper on overseas aid praises five countries -- Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands -- for overachieving, while Britain and Spain are named as key players to help make up the shortfall.
Anti-poverty group Oxfam said the EU needed a radical new plan that made aid pledges legally binding and set timetables.
"These targets are not just numbers," said Oxfam's Elise Ford. "This money is about mothers and babies in poor countries getting health care, about children going to school."
Under the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, the European Union has committed to handing over 0.7 percent of gross national income (GNI) for development assistance.
A U.N. conference in New York in September will assess progress in 2010, by which time EU countries are supposed to have reached an interim target of 0.56 percent of GNI. But they are falling short at around 0.46 percent.
(Reporting by Pete Harrison; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
[Green Business]
Jeffrey Jones
CALGARY, Alberta
Thu Mar 4, 2010 8:10pm EST
Environmentalists see "Avatar" in oil sands
(Reuters) - Environmentalists aim to hitch their stars to James Cameron's "Avatar" by trying to draw parallels between the sci-fi blockbuster and Canada's oil sands industry ahead of Sunday's Academy Awards.
In a full-page ad in the show business trade publication "Variety," a coalition of green groups endorsed the film, which is nominated for nine Oscars, saying the predatory grab for resources it portrays on the fictional planet Pandora is similar to methods used in northern Alberta.
The oil industry panned the ad, calling it irresponsible.
"Canada's Avatar Sands," it read before a backdrop featuring a massive dump truck, which is used in oil sands extraction, and an open pit mine.
Like the film, it said, indigenous peoples are endangered by pollution and future oil spills, Shell, BP, Exxon and other "Sky People" are destroying ancient forests and huge trucks are used to mine an expensive energy source to feed America's "addiction."
"Part of it is to reach out to a new audience that have seen the movie," said Mike Hudema, a campaigner for Greenpeace, one of the groups behind the ad. "A lot of the themes that were dealt with in "Avatar" do parallel a lot with what we're seeing in the tar sands."
Environmentalists have escalated a campaign to spread their message that developing Canada's oil sands, the largest deposits of crude outside the Middle East, is damaging the land, air, water and local communities.
Meanwhile, the industry has intensified efforts to counter that, saying it is doing all it can to minimize environmental impacts, clean up operations and support aboriginal communities with consultation and employment opportunities. The two sides have become more polarized.
"The campaign is bizarre at minimum and at maximum it's irresponsible," said Janet Annesley, spokeswoman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the industry's main lobby group.
"We've seen in the past that anti-oil activists like to blur the line between fact and fiction, but in this instance the cognitive dissonance is just too great to go unaddressed."
Canada is the largest foreign oil supplier to the United States, and about half the country's crude oil supplies are derived from the oil sands.
(Editing by Frank McGurty)
[Green Business]
Chisa Fujioka
TOKYO
Fri Mar 5, 2010 5:29am EST
Japan rift risks watering down climate bill
(Reuters) - A rift within Japan's government over legislation to fight climate change has raised the risk of it watering down plans for an emissions trading system that is at the core of its drive for greener policies.
In its latest draft for a climate bill expected to be submitted to parliament next Friday, the environment ministry is vague on details of how the scheme would set emission limits and when trading would start.
The environment ministry has favored setting volume caps on emissions. But the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has called for caps per unit of production, which would allow emissions to rise when businesses increase output.
METI is under pressure from companies worried about limits on greenhouse gas emissions restricting growth.
"We are not ruling out volume caps, but considering the need for economic growth, carbon intensity targets should also be included in the scheme," METI minister Masayuki Naoshima told a news conference on Friday.
A national scheme that sets tough targets on greenhouse gas emissions could be a major boost for the carbon market, depending on the design.
Greenhouse gas emissions in Japan, the world's fifth biggest emitter, totaled 1.29 billion metric tons in the fiscal year to March 2009.
Since the Democratic Party won power in an election last August, Japan has pushed for tougher climate policies including a "cap-and-trade" scheme setting mandatory caps on emissions.
But companies, worried about volume caps, have called for the bill to drop the phrase cap-and-trade when referring to the trading scheme.
The government is also likely to be mindful of the failure of the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama to win support in the Senate for a sweeping climate bill that would also include a national cap-and-trade market.
LACKING DETAILS
The idea of cap-and-trade is to set a limit on emissions that becomes tougher over time. This forces companies to invest in steps to cut their carbon pollution or face having to buy permits for every metric ton of emissions that they are over their target.
The latest draft makes no mention of cap-and-trade, merely citing the government would implement separate legislation to introduce a domestic emissions trading system.
A deadline for legal steps was still under discussion, according to the draft. Environment Minister Sakihito Ozawa has hoped to launch the trading system next year, but has said more time may be needed to design the scheme.
The draft also includes Japan's goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels on condition a global climate deal is reached, along with its plan to consider imposing an environment tax from 2011.
The ruling Democratic Party, its ratings slipping ahead of an election for parliament's upper house likely in July, is under pressure to look proactive on tackling climate change while allaying fears of new policies that would hurt the economy.
The climate bill is set to clear parliament by the time the current session ends on June 16 given the ruling coalition's majority in both houses of parliament, but a carbon market expert worried about the lack of details.
"If details are omitted, as media reports have suggested, then there are worries and questions about how the absolute volume will be regulated," said Tsuneo Takahashi, representative director at Natsource Japan Co, a joint venture of a New York-based carbon trader, Mitsubishi Corp. and Tokyo Tanshi Co.
"Carbon intensity cannot be measured until a year later, meaning trading will not take off until then. So that raises questions about how active actual trading will be."
Others said the bill was merely meant to set a direction for policy while leaving details for later, but the wording on emissions trading risked creating a system that would not lead to a significant drop in emissions.
"There is no reason for the government to avoid referring to the trading scheme as being cap-and-trade," said Naoyuki Yamagishi, climate change program leader for WWF Japan.
"So leaving that wording vague could clear the way for a system using carbon intensity targets, and that would be a problem."
(Additional reporting by Chikako Mogi; Editing by David Fogarty)