news20100316gdn1

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Insects]
10% of Europe's butterflies in danger of extinction, report warns

Insects hit by loss of grassland habitats due to intensification of agriculture and abandonment of farming land
Press Association
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 16 March 2010 11.08 GMT Article history

{{The large blue butterfly, which was reintroduced to England in the 1980s after becoming extinct, is now in danger throughout Europe.}
{Photograph}: Martin Warren/Butterfly Conserva/PA}

Almost one-third of Europe's butterflies are in decline and nearly one in 10 species is threatened with extinction in the region, conservationists warned today.

The large blue butterfly – which was successfully reintroduced to the UK after dying out here – is endangered throughout Europe, according to the European red list assessment of species at risk.

And the Duke of Burgundy and Lulworth skipper, which both suffered their worst year in the UK last year, are in decline in many countries across the continent.

The release of the red list, commissioned by the European commission, also revealed that 14% of dragonflies and 11% of a group of beetles which rely on decaying wood were at risk of extinction.

Some 22 species of butterfly, 29 types of the "saproxylic" beetles and five different dragonflies are also at risk of becoming extinct globally, according to the assessment led by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Conservationists said a loss of habitats, including traditionally farmed grasslands, woodlands and wetlands, was the major factor affecting insect species.

Dr Martin Warren, author of the report on Europe's butterflies and chief executive of Butterfly Conservation in the UK, said insects were being hit by loss of grassland habitats due to both intensification of agriculture and abandonment of farming land.

Nearly one-third (31%) of Europe's 435 butterfly species have declining populations, the report found.

While the large blue butterfly's reintroduction in England has proved a success, it is "very much the exception" as it is declining in every country where it occurs, Warren said.

But, he added, conservation efforts to re-establish populations in the UK after the butterfly vanished in 1979 showed what can be achieved if the right steps are taken.

Most butterflies at risk are in southern Europe, said Annabelle Cuttelod, IUCN coordinator of the red list.

Along with changes to agriculture, species are threatened by climate change, forest fires and the expansion of tourism, she said.

The Madeiran large white butterfly is critically endangered (possibly extinct), having not been seen on Madeira for 20 years, and the Macedonian grayling butterfly is critically endangered because quarrying activities are reducing its habitat.

Warren said most of the butterflies listed occurred on grassland or habitats which had been managed by humans and had benefited from traditional agricultural processes.

But now, he said, "traditional systems are disappearing in a big way".

"In the 1950s and 60s we had massive losses of habitat in the UK, and it is still going on to a lesser extent, but in Europe big changes have been going on in the last five to 10 years."

He added: "We lost a lot of our flower-rich meadows in the 50s and 60s, while they are losing theirs at a rate of knots now."

Intensification of agriculture is destroying habitat in some areas, while grasslands in many mountain regions in the Alps and Pyrenees are being abandoned and falling into a poor condition because livestock farming is not financially viable.

Warren called for more support for traditional farming systems to help insects such as butterflies, which he said were very good indicators of changes to the environment.

Jane Smart, director of the IUCN biodiversity action group, said: "When talking about threatened species, people tend to think of larger, more charismatic creatures such as pandas or tigers, but we mustn't forget that the small species on our planet are just as important and are also in need of conservation action.

"Butterflies for instance, play a hugely pivotal role as pollinators in the ecosystems in which they live."


[Environment > Wave, tidal and hydropower]
UK's first major wave and tidal power schemes in Scotland to be unveiled

E.ON among energy companies competing with local firms for scheme predicted to create 'Saudi Arabia of marine energy'
Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 16 March 2010 11.19 GMT Article history

{{An aerial view of the world’s first wave-power plant, Portugal, similar to plans being considered in Scotland.}
{Photograph}: Joao Abreu Miranda}

The first fully fledged schemes to harness the UK's immense potential for wave and tidal power will be unveiled by the Crown Estates and Scottish government this morning.

About 20 firms have been in the running to install what are touted by the Crown Estates to be the world's first commercial wave and tidal schemes, in the Pentland Firth off northern Scotland and around the Orkney islands.

Alex Salmond, the first minister of Scotland, has predicted the area – where the Atlantic meets the North Sea – will become the "Saudi Arabia" of marine energy because of the region's powerful currents and tidal surges.

It is thought the first devices will be operational by 2020, producing power for as many as 700,000 homes, but will require a multibillion pound investment programme.

There is already speculation that major power companies such as E.ON, Scottish and Southern Energy, which already operates the UK's largest hydro schemes, and Scottish Power, a heavy investor in wind farms, will be among the winning firms and joint ventures.

The small Edinburgh-based wave power company Pelamis Wave Power, which has pioneered marine energy with its "snake" device being tested off the coast of Portugal, is also said to have been chosen.

Niall Stuart, chief executive of Scottish Renewables, told The Scotsman that today's announcement was the "dawn of a new era in a new industry that will be grown and based in Scotland, but that has potential new markets all over the world."

Today's announcement follows last month's confirmation that £75bn will be spent on developing at least 25GW in offshore wind power at nine sites around the British Isles, including two off Scotland.

Last year, Scottish Renewables estimated that offshore wind, combined with predicted wave and tidal schemes in Scottish waters, could deliver a 30% cut in Scotland's total CO2 emissions. That would be the equivalent of taking 4.5m cars off the road and would account for 89% of Scotland's total electricity demand.

However, power companies and renewables campaigners believe far greater investment is needed to properly exploit this renewable energy resource. They believe the UK has failed to properly invest in the electricity grid network to connect Scottish green power projects to southern markets, and attack the National Grid for using a geographical system which charges power firms in Scotland more than schemes nearer London to transmit electricity.

news20100316gdn2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Recycling]
Recycling still the most effective waste disposal method, report finds

Report for UK government refutes persistent claims that recycling is a waste of time, calls for better facilities and an increase in incineration
Juliette Jowit
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 16 March 2010 06.00 GMT Article history

Recycling is almost always the best way to get rid of waste, even when it is exported abroad, according to the biggest ever report on the industry for the UK government.

The report, which addresses persistent claims that householders are often wasting their time recycling, calls for better recycling facilities but also an increase in incineration of waste, an option that is opposed by many environment groups.

It also backed up last week's controversial report published by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs warning that biopolymer plastics made from crops should be recycled rather than put into compost, despite being widely marketed as "biodegradable".

Wrap, the government's waste and packaging agency, said it had analysed 200 reports covering seven different materials: paper and cardboard, plastics, biopolymers, food, garden cuttings, wood and textiles. The experts then looked at the evidence for seven methods of disposal, including recycling, composting, incineration and landfill, measured by four different criteria: energy use, water use, other resource use, and greenhouse gas emissions.

In more than four out of five cases, recycling was the clear winner, said Keith James, Wrap's environmental policy manager.

But there were "different messages" for different materials, said James.

"For biopolymers, I think the preferable option is recycling, which isn't what people have commonly thought," he said.

"For textiles, there's not very many statistics, but what there is shows reuse is clearly optimal, followed by recycling and then energy recovery [incineration].

"For food and garden waste, anaerobic digestion looks preferable; then composting and incineration with energy recovery come out very similar.

"For plastics, we have got strong evidence this time that recycling is the better option, because recycling has improved.

"For wood, recycling looks preferable.

"For paper and cardboard, what the statistics throw out is the importance of quality: the higher the quality [paper and cardboard], the better it is to recycle, but as you go down to the lower end, energy recovery [incineration] may be preferable."

The good showing for incineration – preferred for a small number of items and often the next best option after recycling – will be controversial with some environmental campaigners who worry about the pollution from recycling plants, and that incineration becomes an easy option that deters investment in proper recycling.

However, the option of incineration was only preferred when it was using the best technology and generating energy, preferably energy that was directly replacing fossil fuel use, which is blamed for the greenhouse gas emissions that help cause global warming, said James.

"Energy recovery has a role to play, and if we're trying to divert more waste from landfill, we need to increase recycling and increase some energy recovery. But we need to make sure we get the right technologies," he said.

As well as analysing recycling in the UK, the study also considered the impact of transporting waste to other countries – often China – for recycling. It found that overseas transport was still better than sending it to landfill.

"The important thing is, because we're in an international economy ... [that if] we're sending metal back to China for recycling, it's coming back around the circle again," said James.

According to Defra, in 2008-9 the total waste collected from the UK's 25m households dropped slightly to 24.3m tonnes, or 473kg per person. Of this, 9.1m tonnes – 178kg per person – was recycled, a bit more than a third. Almost all of the remainder went to landfill.

Defra has a policy of encouraging more incineration, but no formal targets, said a spokesman.

"We can't keep on sending waste to landfill," said the spokesman. "People are already reducing the amount of waste they produce, and are reusing and recycling more, and we are working hard to increase this. Some waste will always be produced, but it can be valuable in generating renewable energy through anaerobic digestion or incineration."

In 2006, Wrap published a preliminary analysis of a different set of materials. But it used a much smaller collection of evidence. And it did not examine the newer energy-from-waste options of gasification and pyrolysis, both of which involve not burning but heating materials until a chemical reaction changes them into gases and residue.


[News > World news > Russia]
UN criticises Russia over Sochi Winter Olympics construction

Moscow ignoring ecological impact of several planned buildings for 2014 games, says UN Environment Programme
Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Monday 15 March 2010 19.46 GMT Article history

{{A Winter Olympics construction site in Sochi, Russia's Black Sea resort.}
{Photograph}: Sergey Ponomarev/AP}

The UN's top environmental watchdog has criticised Russia for ignoring the effects of several construction projects for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi on the region's wildlife.

The UN Environment Programme says in a report to be released tomorrow that impact assessments by Moscow "did not take into account the cumulative ... effects of the various projects on the ecosystems of the Sochi region and its population".

The Black Sea resort of Sochi is under the spotlight as it takes the torch from Vancouver as the next Winter Olympic host. As constructors begin building facilities from scratch, environmental activists say the ecosystems have already suffered irreversible damage, and bird and bear habitats have been destroyed.

The Russian government says it has taken the concerns on board and accuses the activists of trying to sabotage the games as a public relations stunt.

The UNEP report was based on the body's trip to Sochi in January, which involved visits to sites considered sensitive along the construction path of a road and rail link that connects coastal facilities with ones in the mountains.

The WWF and Greenpeace Russia say the chief environmental threat is to the Mzymta river, which the communications link is set to follow. Thousands of beech trees have been felled to clear the path for the link.

UNEP also said Sochi organisers were procrastinating on political decisions that would mitigate and compensate for the unwanted environmental fallout of the games. "The mission observed that decisions taken at the political level ... are taking too long," the report said. It cited such projects as the enlargement of Sochi National Park, better protection of the Mzymta valley, and the creation of new protected areas along the Black Sea coast that would host migratory birds.

The WWF and Greenpeace recently suspended their co-operation as consultants for Olympstroi, the state-run constructor, in protest that their concerns were being ignored.

The UNEP report urged activists and the government to continue co-operating, saying there was a "reluctance to engage with or even listen to each other's calls for actions from both sides".

In its recommendations, UNEP said a "comprehensive assessment of the overall impact of the Olympic and tourism projects on the ecosystem" should be conducted.

It said the activists' concerns sparked the decision to visit Sochi and produce a report.

The Sochi games is adopting a unique "cluster" strategy. A coastal cluster of arenas will cater for ice skating sports, and a mountain cluster will accommodate ski, snowboard and other events.

news20100316gdn3

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Carbon capture and storagre (CCS)]
Climate activists predict direct action against Scotland's 'Kingsnorth'

Ayrshire Power starts planning process for power station which would be UK's first to use carbon capture and storage
Severin Carrell and Tim Webb
guardian.co.uk, Monday 15 March 2010 16.13 GMT Article history

{{Abandoning nuclear ... the proposed new coal-fired plant is near Hunterston B power station (seen here in front of the isle of Arran), which is due to close in 2016.}
{Photograph}: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images}

Climate activists are predicting a campaign of direct action against a new coal-fired power station that could be the UK's first to fit carbon-capture technology.

Campaigners say that if the proposed 1.6GW station in Ayrshire is approved, it will be the "new Kingsnorth", a reference to E.ON's controversial coal-fired plant in Kent that sparked battles between protesters and police before E.ON finally shelved it.

The warnings from Friends of the Earth (FoE) Scotland, WWF Scotland and the World Development Movement came as Ayrshire Power today took the first formal step towards applying for planning permission for the new station, at Hunterston on the Firth of Clyde.

The proposal has intensified the conflicts between green campaigners, power companies and the government over "decarbonising" energy supply and lessening the UK's heavy reliance on coal and gas for its electricity needs.

Juliet Swann, of FoE Scotland, said many local residents and a "large coalition" of environment groups would resist the scheme. It would increase the UK's use of coal, and, at first, use untested carbon capture and storage technology to tackle only a quarter of its CO2 emissions.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) involves trapping a percentage of the carbon dioxide emissions from power stations by collecting, transporting and then burying the CO2 so that it does not escape into the atmosphere and contribute to climate change.

Carbon capture should first be used on existing power stations, such as Longannet, which is one of two coal-fired stations in the running for a new carbon-capture demonstration project, Swann said.

"Carbon capture and storage is potentially a way to reach a low-carbon future," she said. "But it should be demonstrated on existing plants first, not least so we can share the technology with the rest of the world, and in doing so repay our debt to them for supplying us with so much of our dirty energy."

The dispute also focuses attention on the Scottish government's determination to abandon nuclear power, which generates at least 26% of Scotland's electricity, by increasing coal-fired production. The proposed station is near to Hunterston B nuclear station, which is due to close down in 2016; Scotland's other nuclear station, at Torness, will shut down in 2023.

Energy planning in Scotland is controlled by ministers in Edinburgh, while ministers in London control funding for carbon capture and energy taxation across the UK. The first minister, Alex Salmond, has championed carbon capture and the coal industry while at the same time insisting Scotland can become a "green powerhouse" from renewable energy.

To the fury of campaigners and local residents, Salmond's government aims to fast track the Hunterston proposal by using a new streamlined planning process, bypassing the often lengthy and expensive public-consultation rules that normally apply.

Residents are already challenging this move in court, claiming ministers illegally added Hunterston to the list of fast-track projects on the "national planning framework" without consulting them properly.

With the UK pledging to cut CO2 emissions by up to 42% by 2020, Ayrshire Power plans to make Hunterston the first newly built coal-fired plant in the UK to "capture" CO2 emissions and store them under the seabed.

New legislation requires power companies to fit carbon-capture technology for at least 300MW of its output. Ayrshire Power says 400MW (25% of its emissions) will be captured first, and, eventually, 90% of its CO2 emissions.

But Ayrshire Power admits it will need another £1bn – mostly from the UK government's carbon-capture funding programme – to pay for the CCS technology on top of the £2bn cost of building the power station.

The project has already suffered a serious blow after one of its original developers, the giant Danish power company Dong, withdrew from the proposal only days after E.ON suspended its plans for Kingsnorth.

Like E.ON, Dong also cited the recession and the heavy cost of investing in "clean coal". Ayrshire Power's sole owner, the Manchester-based airports and property firm Peel Holdings, admits it now needs significant new investors in the Hunterston project, feeding doubts that it will go ahead.

Ayrshire Power began the first stage in the fast-track process today under a new "gate check" procedure, where the government and statutory bodies check the company has the right documentation for the planning process. It has not confirmed when it will formally submit its full application.

Muir Miller, Hunterston's project director, said the plant would use up to 25% less coal than power stations now in use, by using biofuels and "supercritical" technology to burn coal at higher temperatures. The station would power 3 million homes.

"We believe our proposal supports the UK and Scottish governments' commitment to leading the way in developing CCS to assist in decarbonising the UK's electricity sector by 2030," he said. "We remain determined to deploy this technology at full scale on a modern supercritical power station, supported by appropriate regulatory and fiscal measures."


[Business > Manufacturing sector]
Government rediscovers industry by funding nuclear firm Sheffield Forgemasters

Mandelson to announce £170m funding for nuclear manufacturer that could lead low-carbon industrial strategy
Tim Webb
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 16 March 2010 Article history

{{Sizewell B nuclear power station in Suffolk. Sheffield Forgemaster is one of only a few firms capable of manufacturing the components for reactors.}
{Photograph}: Graham Turner}

The government's much-vaunted "low-carbon industrial strategy" is set to receive a boost on Wednesday with the announcement of a long-awaited £170m funding package for the British nuclear manufacturer, Sheffield Forgemasters.

The company, which has been in funding negotiations for more than six months, has secured the last remaining £20m from bank loans, the Guardian has learnt.

It means Sheffield Forgemasters will be able to build a 15,000-tonne press to make large forgings used in modern reactors being built in the UK and overseas.

The business secretary, Lord Mandelson, and the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, will travel to Sheffield, along with the business minister, Pat McFadden, to make the announcement on Wednesday.

Boosting the hi-tech industrial economy in the UK will become a key political battleground in the run-up to the general election after the credit crunch exposed the dangers of becoming over-reliant on financial services. Official data recently showed that in its first decade in power Labour had allowed the manufacturing sector to shrink at a quicker rate than under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.

In response, Mandelson, who has been heavily involved in the complex negotiations, has been championing a new policy of "industrial activism". Ministers say that without more government support for industry, the tens of billions of pounds of new reactors and wind turbines planned to reduce carbon emissions would have to be imported. British manufacturers and workers would miss out.

To secure the funding, the government has pledged £65m in soft loans, with £35m from the European Investment Bank. The nuclear reactor firm Westinghouse is paying £50m upfront for its orders.

The deal also provides a much-needed boost to the north-east, where traditional manufacturers such as Corus have been hammered by the recession and which has one of the highest UK jobless rates. Mandelson wants to create a hub of low-carbon manufacturers in the region with ties to Sheffield University. He recently opened a new £25m research facility in Rotherham for Britain's civil nuclear industry where Sheffield Forgemasters can work with other UK firms in the supply chain.

Dougie Rooney, of the Unite union, said: "The only hope for the nation in terms of being able to pay off its debts is for the UK's engineering industry to become a global supply-chain player supplying components and equipment for new energy projects."

The Sheffield firm is one of only a few around the world that can make the special forgings for reactors. There is increasing political pressure on nuclear companies to source as many components as possible from the UK. The deal will create 150 jobs directly, but thousands more could be created in the wider nuclear supply chain as a result, according to Unite.

Sheffield Forgemasters, whose origins go back to the 1750s, became notorious in the 1990s after becoming embroiled in the "Supergun affair" over arms sales to Iraq.

news20100316nn1

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 16 March 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.125 News
Italian molecular cookery 'ban' condemned

Decree to rein in additives could put more processed foods on restaurant tables.
By Emiliano Feresin

An Italian decree that bans additives from restaurant kitchens could backfire.Willie B. Thomas / iStockphotoAn Italian decree that bans a plethora of food additives from restaurant kitchens has been dismissed as unscientific and irrational by food scientists contacted by Nature.

The decree has even failed to garner the support of the international 'Slow Food' movement, which promotes the use of traditional ingredients. Some believe that the ban could backfire spectacularly by forcing restaurants to serve processed foods, which are not subject to the restrictions.

The decree, tabled by Italian undersecretary for health Francesca Martini, came into effect on 18 February. One of its two articles bans the use — or even storage — of all additives (except sweeteners) for which current European Union (EU) legislation sets a maximum acceptable daily intake (ADI). The second article states that restaurants must reveal to customers any additives they use in their recipes. Unless it is renewed, the decree is valid until the end of the year.

Additives are used to improve the flavour, texture, colour, appearance and consistency of food, and include nitrates and nitrites — used, for example, as preservatives in salami — phosphates, which are present in most baking powders, and monosodium glutamate, a flavour enhancer used widely in Asian dishes. Many of the additives have been shown to be harmless to humans at doses much higher than the EU's ADIs.

"These additives have been extensively tested and it's completely irrational to forbid them," says physical chemist Hervé This of the National Institute for Agricultural Research in Paris who coined the term 'molecular gastronomy' to describe the study of the physical and chemical processes that occur during cooking.

TV dinner

Martini's decision seems to have been spurred by Striscia la Notizia, a popular satirical television show in Italy that has campaigned for restaurants to provide more information about the food they serve and has called for them to preserve Italy's traditional cuisine in the face of the growing popularity of molecular cookery — the use of new tools or chemical additives by chefs such as Britain's Heston Blumenthal and Spaniard Ferran Adrià to create new recipes. The programme has been particularly critical of the 'Texturas' product line by Adrià and his brother Albert. During a television interview with Striscia la Notizia on 22 December 2009, Martini promised to ban all chemicals used in molecular cooking — including liquid nitrogen, which is widely used to 'flash freeze' foods such as ice cream.

{“It seems ridiculous to try to legislate against progress, for that is what this Italian ban seems to me to do.”}

"But almost none of the molecular gastronomy ingredients are touched by the final version of the decree," says physicist Davide Cassi, an advocate of molecular cookery at the University of Parma in Italy. The decree will probably damage Chinese cuisine more than molecular cuisine, he says.

Peter Barham, a physicist at the University of Bristol, UK, who collaborates with Blumenthal, says the ban "is more likely to damage than improve the reputation of Italian cuisine". "It seems ridiculous to try to legislate against progress, for that is what this Italian ban seems to me to do," he adds. "I can see no sensible scientific or health arguments to support it."

Pie in the sky

Dario Bressanini, a chemist and cookery enthusiast at the University of Insubria in Como, who runs a blog on using scientific tricks in the kitchen, says that the ban "doesn't make sense or stand up to scientific scrutiny". He adds that "monosodium glutamate occurs naturally and in high concentrations in Parmesan cheese and tomatoes, so why don't we forbid their use altogether too?"

According to Bressanini, the new law will probably affect pastry products made in restaurants, such as apple pies made with baking powder. The decree, however, doesn't ban the industrial use of additives and doesn't seem to affect Adrià's product lines either, although Adrià's Italian distributor told Nature that they will nevertheless appeal to the local administrative tribunal in Rome to protect its client.

Meanwhile, Roberto Burdese, president of Slow Food Italy, says that although regulations and limitations should be set on the additives used by the food industry, "since they arrive on our tables in vast quantities", the organization does not support the ban. The mission of Slow Food International includes preserving traditional cuisine and spreading taste education, but, says Burdese, "We don't oppose the use of additives in restaurants, if chefs handle them wisely, respecting the limits, and innovation is welcome when it brings quality."

The second article of the law — which would have restaurants list all their additives — is less divisive. But This warns that too much information on the menu could spoil the mystery of great food. "Should we have 20 lines with all the codes and names for each dish? Where goes poetry and art then?"

But This has no concerns about the future relationship between science and cooking. "Forget vegetables and meat," he says. "I'm looking for a dish made with pure compounds. You cannot stop innovation!"

news20100316nn2

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 15 March 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.123 News
Saving forests, cultures and carbon dioxide

'Win-win' conservation should start with indigenous lands and other protected areas.
By Anjali Nayar

{Conserving trees in indigenous lands could have many benefits.}
J. Sweeney / Lonely Planet Images}

Creating and strengthening protected areas and indigenous lands is one of the most effective ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation, according to a new paper.

The study, a collaboration between forest scientists from 13 universities and research institutions, concludes that bolstering support for indigenous lands and other protected areas (ILPAs) is a "win-win" situation: it could slow forest loss, conserve biodiversity and preserve local cultures.

Support for forest protection programmes was one of the few successes during last December's climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, which failed to bring about a legally binding treaty to rein in carbon dioxide emissions.

During the meetings, countries agreed that developed countries would financially support poor nations in protecting their forests through an initiative called REDD-plus — Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, with added benefits for local communities and indigenous people.

{“This old school conservation strategy is finding new purpose in one of our newest global challenges.”}

But although the Copenhagen meetings called for the "immediate" establishment of a REDD-plus mechanism, no clear targets, strategies or timelines were adopted.

The new article, published online today in PLoS Biology1, suggests that creating new protected areas and strengthening the management of existing protected areas might be the best place to start.

"This old school conservation strategy is finding new purpose in one of our newest global challenges," says Taylor Ricketts, the director of the World Wildlife Fund's science programme and lead author of the paper.

Reality check

The study points out that, globally, ILPAs contain more than 312 billion tonnes of carbon². Using case studies in the Brazilian Amazon, the researchers show that deforestation in protected areas and indigenous lands is 7–11 times less than in the surrounding areas.

Previous models have shown that protected areas established in the region between 2003 and 2007 could by 2050 prevent around 227,000 square kilometres of deforestation, more than one-third the world's annual greenhouse gas emissions in carbon dioxide equivalent³.

{“Our focus is going to move from how we design the REDD-plus framework to how we implement it, and these observations will be key.”}

In Brazil, indigenous lands are particularly important, says Ricketts. "They are about four times the area of national and state protected areas and are often sitting right in the path of deforestation."

The cost of establishing and managing a protected areas network in developing countries is around US$4 billion per year, four times more than the sum that is spent now⁴. However, per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent, the study points out, this amounts to roughly 9–13 percent of the capital that could be generated by REDD-plus at a conservative price of US$5 per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent.

ILPAs are so effective in part because they are "ready to go", says Ricketts. Whereas some REDD-plus proposals require the development of substantial infrastructure — which can be costly and time consuming — protected areas "are legally set up, ready to spend money, have clarified tenure issues, have staff and have infrastructure", he says.

"These points are very important to get into the policy discussion right now," says Celia Harvey, the vice president of Global Change & Ecosystem Services at Conservation International, an Arlington, Virginia—based international not-for-profit organization that runs pilot REDD projects in Africa and South America. "Our focus is going to move very quickly from how we design the REDD-plus framework to how we implement it on the ground, and these observations from the field will be key."

Harvey suggests, however, that such programmes shouldn't just focus just on the protected areas but also on the communities at their margins. "For indigenous lands and protected areas to be effective in the long term, it's critical that we work with the communities living around those protected areas and make sure they have sustainable livelihood alternatives," she says.

John Niles, the director of the Tropical Forest Group, a non-governmental organization based in San Diego, California, that focuses on forest policy, warns that funnelling support into existing protected areas through REDD may be tricky because of the ongoing debates about what constitutes a carbon saving.

Countries are generally rewarded not for the amount of forest they have, but rather the amount of forest carbon they prevent from being deforested and released to the atmosphere — a concept called additionality. So because protected areas are already protected under law, they may not qualify, says Niles. "The legal additionality issue has been a problem in the past," he says. "Why would wealthy governments pay for what the developing countries have already committed to?"

But Niles adds that because REDD-plus does not yet have a governing body or mechanism, there is an opportunity change the rules. "We've learned a lot about additionality and this would be a great time to make additionality tests more relevant to reality," he says.

References
1. Ricketts, T. H. et al. PLoS Biol. published online, doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000331 (2010).
2. Campbell, A., Miles, L., Lysenko, I., Hughes, A. & Gibbs, H. Carbon storage in protected areas: technical report. (UNEP-WCMC, 2008).
3. Soares-Filho, B. et al. Redução das emissõ es de carbono do desmatamento no Brasil: o papel do Programa Á reas Protegidas da Amazônia (ARPA) (Brasilia, Brazil: UFMG, IPAM, WHRC, WWF, 2009).
4. Bruner, A., Gullison, R. E. & Balmford, A. BioScience 54, 1119-1126 (2004). | Article

news20100316nn3

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 15 March 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.126 News
Japan prepares for Venus countdown

Akatsuki probe could help to explain why Venus is so different from Earth.
By David Cyranoski

{{Akatsuki will be Japan's first probe to Venus.}
A. Ikeshita / Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)}

This week, Japan is shipping its Venus Climate Orbiter to the southwestern island of Tanegashima, where the satellite's launch is scheduled for 18 May. Project directors at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) say they hope that the orbiter, Akatsuki (dawn), will resolve mysteries including how the atmosphere of Earth's scorching hot neighbour is able to 'super rotate' at speeds of up to 60 times that of its host planet.

After a decade of neglect, scientists are returning their attention to the question of why a planet with so much in common with Earth is so inhospitable. The two planets are of a similar size and density, and are thought to have a similar iron core and rocky mantle. In addition, evidence from the European Space Agency's Venus Express, which has been orbiting the planet since April 2006, suggests that Venus might once have had water oceans.

But unlike Earth, Venus is enveloped in sulphuric acid clouds and its surface temperature hovers at around 460 °C, thanks to a heat-trapping atmosphere of 95% carbon dioxide. It also lacks a strong magnetic field, which would protect nascent life from solar winds.

In a spin

However, the main target of the Akatsuki mission, which is scheduled to reach Venus in December, will be to solve the riddle of the super-rotation of Venus's atmosphere, which spins at 400 kilometres per hour. Venus itself rotates at a mere 6.5 kilometers per hour. Scientists have tried to understand the mechanism behind this phenomenon using data from the Venus Express, and various proposals have been put forward, but the answer remains inconclusive^1,2.

“Most of these mechanisms could also be true of Earth, and then you'd have to explain why there is no super-rotation on Earth.”

"Most of these mechanisms could also be true of Earth, and then you'd have to explain why there is no super-rotation on Earth," says Takeshi Imamura, a member of the Planet-C project team at JAXA that is overseeing the mission. "It's very possible all of them are wrong. That's what we want to find out."

Akatsuki will measure characteristics of different layers of the atmosphere at infrared, ultraviolet, infrared and radio frequencies. "In a simple way, one can view Akatsuki as a weather satellite for Venus, even if it can do a bit more," says Håkan Svedhem, project scientist for the Venus Express probe who is based at the European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

It is Akatsuki's orbit that will make it special, says Svedhem. In contrast to the polar orbit of Venus Express, Akatsuki will trace an elliptical orbit around the equator. This will allow the satellite to track the same part of the super-rotating atmosphere for up to 20 hours. "By tracking cloud features at different wavelengths it is possible to build a very good database of how the weather patterns and the super-rotation behave, at different depths, over this time," says Svedhem.

Sail away

With a camera dedicated to the purpose, Akatsuki could also become the first spacecraft to photograph lightning on Venus. So far, the strikes have been evidenced only by measurements from a magnetometer aboard Venus Express.

On the planet's surface, which is pock-marked with volcanic structures, both missions are looking for evidence of current volcanic activity. Akatsuki's broad-scope infrared camera can map much wider swathes of the surface in one go than can the equipment aboard the Venus Express. Any signs of volcanic activity could then be verified by Venus Express, which has powerful spectrometers capable analysing the chemistry in the identified regions.

JAXA is hoping that the mission will also help to auger in a technical revolution. IKAROS, a 14-square-metre polyimide 'sail' will be launched at the same time as Akatsuki. An initial spin will spread the sail, which will then continue to rotate as it is propelled by the constant bombardment of photons from the Sun. The mass of photons hitting the sail at any one time will be just 0.1 grams. If all goes well, JAXA hopes to use a hybrid system consisting of a similar sail 50–100 metres wide and an ion-propulsion engine powered by solar cells to sail to Jupiter later this decade.
References
1. Markiewicz, W. J. Nature 450, 633-636 (2007). | Article | PubMed | ChemPort |
2. Svedhem, H., Titov, D. V., Taylor, F. W. & Witasse, O. Nature 450, 629-632 (2007). | Article | PubMed | ChemPort |

news20100316nn4

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 15 March 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.124 News
Carbon-capture scheme could cause toxic blooms

Findings raise more concerns over proposals to boost plankton growth in the oceans.
By Brian Vastag

{Fertilizing the oceans with iron could spark the growth of toxic Pseudonitzschia.}
B Bill / NOAA}

The controversial idea of adding iron to the oceans to help suck up atmospheric carbon dioxide faces yet another hurdle, with the finding that the extra iron may spark blooms of toxic plankton.

The finding, from a team led by ecologist Charles Trick of the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada, further dampens the prospects for schemes to boost the growth of CO2-consuming organisms in surface waters.

"This is a real reminder that while we think we understand what's going on in the environment, we really don't," says Trick. "There's uncertainty with every large-scale experiment we do."

Trick and his colleagues found the neurotoxin domoic acid in samples of seawater from a site in the North Pacific, where iron-fertilization experiments have been conducted¹. Shipboard experiments by the team confirmed that adding iron increased production of the toxin by plankton of the genus Pseudonitzschia, they report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA¹.

Domoic acid accumulates in shellfish and is a neurotoxin in birds and mammals, causing a condition called amnesic shellfish poisoning in humans. Blooms of Pseudonitzschia off the US west coast frequently prompt government agencies to shut down shellfish fisheries in the spring and summer. Scientists who study the blooms have blamed domoic acid for sea lion deaths, and they also speculate that the toxin may have caused an incident of frenzied bird behaviour in northern California in 1961. Local resident Alfred Hitchcock later used the event as research material for his classic 1963 film The Birds.

Blooming fears

In 2006 and 2007, Trick and his colleagues collected seawater at various depths from a research site south of Alaska. They found domoic acid in the seawater, from which they also isolated two species of Pseudonitzschia. The team grew the plankton in on-board incubators, spiking some of the tanks with iron. The abundance of the plankton and concentrations of domoic acid increased relative to tanks that had no iron added to them. Adding trace amounts of copper further pushed up the production of domoic acid. From these results, Trick and his team estimate that proposed large-scale ocean iron enrichment could produce domoic acid in concentrations that might be high enough to shut down coastal fisheries.

"It doesn't surprise me," says David Caron, a marine biologist at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study. "In the majority of iron-enrichment experiments, Pseudonitzschia has come up in abundance. It's not unreasonable that sooner or later you're going to find domoic acid."

Two previous studies reported no domoic acid in seawater collected from open ocean iron-fertilization sites^2,3, but Trick says that both studies had methodological problems. "They never had much of a chance to get a positive hit because the [plankton] cells were compromised," he says.

Toxic crockpot

Oceanographer John Martin first proposed iron fertilization as a carbon sequestration strategy in the 1980s⁴. Since then, several large experiments have tested the theory that iron can induce blooms of plankton that soak up atmospheric CO2. However, recent reports demonstrate that such schemes would sequester far less carbon than their proponents suggest⁵.

Still, several companies have sprung up to sell carbon credits in exchange for large-scale open-ocean iron dumping. One of the firms, Planktos, postponed their iron-fertilization plans indefinitely in 2008. However, Climos, another carbon-sequestration company based in San Francisco, California, is still pushing forward with the idea. Climos founder and chief executive Dan Whaley declined to discuss the company's plans, but says: "We need to study the spectrum of blooms, both natural and artificial, to see in what cases and scenarios domoic acid is produced."

Although all of the proposed iron-dumping sites are far away from active fisheries, Trick warns that "we might just be making this crockpot of toxic algae ready to move into new zones" — for example, by moving it in the ballast water used in cargo ships.

References
1. Trick, C. G. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA advance online publication doi:10.1073/pnas.0910579107 (2010).
2. Assmy, P., Henjes, J., Klaas, C. & Smetacek, V. Deep-Sea Res. 54, 340-362 (2007). | Article
3. Marchetti, A. et al. J. Phycol. 44, 650-661 (2008). | Article | ChemPort |
4. Martin, J. H., & Fitzwater, S. E. Nature 331, 341-343 (1988). | Article
5. Pollard, R. T. et al. Nature 457, 577-580 (2009). | Article | ChemPort |

news20100316bbc1

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

[Science & Environment]
Page last updated at 03:04 GMT, Tuesday, 16 March 2010
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News
Climate 'fix' could poison sea life

{The scientific team deployed their instruments in open water}

Fertilising the oceans with iron to absorb carbon dioxide could increase concentrations of a chemical that can kill marine mammals, a study has found.

Iron stimulates growth of marine algae that absorb CO2 from the air, and has been touted as a "climate fix".

Now researchers have shown that the algae increase production of a nerve poison that can kill mammals and birds.

Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they say this raises "serious concern" over the idea.

The toxin - domoic acid - first came to notice in the late 1980s as the cause of amnesiac shellfish poisoning.

{{If the end goal is to use it to fight climate warming, then we have to understand the consequences for marine life}
Dr William Cochlan
San Francisco State University}

It is produced by algae of the genus Pseudonitzschia, with concentrations rising rapidly when the algae "bloom".

Now, its presence in seawater often requires the suspension of shellfishing operations, and is regularly implicated in deaths of animals such as sealions.

Domoic acid poisoning may also lie behind a 1961 incident in which flocks of seabirds appeared to attack the Californian town of Capitola - an event believed to have shaped Alfred Hitchcock's interpretation of Daphne du Maurier's The Birds in his 1963 thriller.

Carbon focus

Over the last decade, about 10 research projects have investigated iron fertilisation, with mixed results.

But only two of them measured domoic acid production, and only then as an afterthought, explained William Cochlan from San Francisco State University, a scientist on the new project.

"We had a number of major aims in this work; but one of them was to ask 'do you normally find the species of algae that produce domoic acid, are they producing domoic acid, and will production be enhanced by iron?'," he said.

In studies conducted around Ocean Station Papa, a research platform moored in the north-eastern Pacific Ocean, the answers to all three questions turned out to be "yes".

{Satellites can spot phytoplankton blooms in the process of formation}

Pseudonitzschia algae were present naturally; they were producing domoic acid, and experiments showed that production increased during fertilisation with iron and copper.

Also, under iron-rich conditions, the Pseudonitzschia algae bloomed at a rate faster than other types.

The levels of domoic acid in iron-enriched water samples were of the same order as those known to cause poisoning in mammals in coastal waters.

Ailsa Hall, deputy director of the Sea Mammal Research Institute at St Andrews University in Scotland, said that domoic acid poisoning was already becoming a regular occurrence in some parts of the world.

"Ever since 1998 we've seen regular episodes of mass mortality and seizures in sea lions on the US west coast," she said.

The toxin accumulates in animals such as fish that are themselves immune.

"We've seen it in seals, pelicans and harbour porpoises; it does depend on how much they eat, but if a sea lion or a pelican eats its way through a school of contaminated anchovies, then that would be enough," Dr Hall told BBC News.

Domoic acid's effect on other species was unknown, she said, but it would be reasonable to think it would also affect marine mammals such as whales.

Whether iron fertilisation ever will be deployed as a "climate fix" is unclear.

The last major investigation - last year's Lohafex expedition - found that despite depositing six tonnes of iron in the Southern Ocean, little extra CO2 was drawn from the atmosphere.

Nevertheless, one company - Climos - aims eventually to deploy the technique on a commercial basis.

A Climos spokesman agreed that further research on domoic acid production was needed.

"Moving forward, we need to understand exactly how deep-ocean phytoplankton respond to iron, be it naturally or artificially supplied; whether and in what situations domoic acid is produced, and how the ecosystem is or is not already adapted to this," he said.

For William Cochlan's team, the potential impact on sea life is something that regulators and scientists must take into account when deciding whether to allow further studies or deployment.

"We saw some literature going around with claims like 'there is no indication of toxicity to sea life' - well, if you don't measure it, of course there's no indication, and we have to keep that kind of legalese out of science," he said.

"If the end goal is to use it to fight climate warming, then we have to understand the consequences for marine life."


[Science & Environment]
Page last updated at 11:59 GMT, Tuesday, 16 March 2010
Forensic role for hand bacteria

{Bacteria live on the hands of even the most scrupulously clean people}

The bacteria on our hands could be used in forensic identification, in the same way as DNA, say scientists.

Researchers in the US discovered that the "communities" of bacteria living on a person's skin are different for each individual.

The team took swabs from keyboards and were able to match the bacteria they found to the computer owners.

They describe their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Even on the hands of the most scrupulously clean people, about 150 different species of bacteria can be found.

And these numbers are not significantly affected by regular hand-washing.

Each person leaves behind a unique trail of bugs as they go about their daily lives. And this trail, scientists say, could be the basis of a new forensic tool.

The team of scientists led by Professor Noah Fierer from the University of Colorado in Boulder, US, was able to match samples of bacteria from three computer keyboards to each computer's owner.

They also saw very clear differences between those samples and samples taken from random volunteers.

Hand bacteria, they found, can survive at room temperatures for up to two weeks and the bugs could be identified even when fingerprints were smudged, or there was not enough DNA to obtain a profile.

Germ profile

The scientists say that this emerging technology is 70-90% accurate, and that this will increase as it is refined over time.

It could soon provide an additional forensic tool that could be used to corroborate other evidence.

The scientists wrote in their PNAS paper that even identical twins who share the same DNA profile have "substantially" different bacteria living and growing on their hands.

"This suggests that the collective genomes of [these microbes] may be more personally identifying than our own human genomes."

news20100316bbc2

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

[Science & Environment]
Page last updated at 12:00 GMT, Tuesday, 16 March 2010
'Milestone' for wave energy plans

{Edinburgh-based Pelamis has been developing wave devices}

Ten sites on the seabed off the north coast of Scotland have been leased out to power companies in an effort to generate wave and tidal energy.

In the first project of its kind in the world, areas in the Pentland Firth and around Orkney have been leased to seven companies by the Crown Estate.

The companies are to push forward plans to generate enough electricity to supply 750,000 homes by 2020.

Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond said it was a "major milestone".

He said the waters had been described as the "Saudi Arabia of marine power" due to their "rich natural resources".

The Crown Estate, which owns the seabed around the UK, has awarded the leases after inviting bids from developers.

{{Wave and tidal power represent an energy and jobs bonanza for Scotland}
Dr Richard Dixon}

The aim is to generate 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of electricity from the sites off Orkney and the Caithness and Sutherland coasts.

Six sites have been allocated for wave energy developments potentially generating 600 megawatts (MW) of power and four for tidal projects, also generating 600 MW.

Wave schemes will be developed by SSE Renewables Developments off Costa Head and also jointly with Aquamarine Power off Brough Head, both on Orkney.

ScottishPower Renewables have the lease for Marwick Head, Orkney.

Leases for wave projects have also been awarded to E.ON for sites designated West Orkney South and West Orkney Middle South and to Pelamis Wave Power for the Armadale site in the Pentland Firth off Sutherland.

{{THE WINNERS}
*Aquamarine Power
*E.ON
*Marine Current Turbines
*OpenHydro Site Development
*Pelamis Wave Power
*ScottishPower Renewables
*SSE Renewables Developments}

Tidal schemes will be developed by SSE Renewables Developments off Westray South and jointly with OpenHydro Site Developments off Cantick Head, both Orkney.

Marine Current Turbines have been leased the Brough Ness site on Orkney and ScottishPower Renewables will install devices in the Pentland Firth off Ness of Duncansby in Caithness.

The Crown Estate has been working with the Scottish Government, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), Orkney Islands Council and Highland Council on the project.

The names of the successful bidders were announced at a ceremony in Edinburgh.

{{THE SITES}
> Six sites have been identified for wave devices and four for tidal
> Wave: Costa Head, Brough Head, Marwick Head, West Orkney South and West Orkney Middle South and Armadale in Sutherland
> Tidal: Westray South, Cantick Head and Brough Ness, Orkney, and Ness of Duncansby in Caithness}

First Minister Alex Salmond said it marked a "major milestone" in efforts to create a low carbon future.

He said: "These waters have been described as the Saudi Arabia of marine power and the wave and tidal projects unveiled today - exceeding the initial 700MW target capacity - underline the rich natural resources of the waters off Scotland."

Secretary of State for Scotland Jim Murphy said it was an exciting time for the renewables industry.

He said: "Scotland is naturally placed to make the most of this green revolution and we will continue to work with others to ensure the potential of Scottish waters, alongside wind power, is fully met."

Wildlife conservation organisation, WWF Scotland, said that with careful planning wave and tidal energy could be harnessed without harming the marine environment.

Director Dr Richard Dixon said: "Wave and tidal power represent an energy and jobs bonanza for Scotland.

"There is a massive amount of power in the seas around Scotland and we are currently the world leaders in developing the technologies to turn that potential into clean, green electricity."


[Science & Environment]
Page last updated at 17:00 GMT, Monday, 15 March 2010
Mars moon Phobos seen in detail by European probe

{{The pictures} will assist Russian efforts to land on Phobos}

New pictures have been released of the Martian moon Phobos, acquired by the European Mars Express (Mex) probe during its recent flybys.

The images reveal details down to a resolution of just 4.4m per pixel.

Mex began a series of 12 close passes in mid-February. The observation schedule continues until 26 March.

One flyby skimmed past the surface at just 67km, the nearest any manmade object has ever got to the little Martian moon.

The new images of Phobos come from 7 March approach when the spacecraft achieved an altitude just above 100km.

The pictures will help the Russians as they prepare to launch their Phobos-Grunt mission next year. The spacecraft will attempt to land on the 27km-by-22km-by-19km moon, collect a soil sample and return it to Earth for analysis.

The excellent resolution shows the Phobos-Grunt mission planners the precise conditions at their potential landing sites.

Planetary scientists are trying to explain the origin of the moon, one of two natural satellites at Mars (the other being Deimos).

Previous study had indicated that Phobos has an extremely low density, suggesting that its surface probably hides many large interior voids.

Researchers suspect the moon is simply a collection of planetary rubble that coalesced around the Red Planet sometime after its formation. Another explanation is that it is a captured asteroid.

Phobos is very slowly falling in towards Mars and tidal forces are expected to tear it apart one day.

The European Space Agency's Mars Express satellite has been in orbit since 25 December 2003.

It has made many discoveries including measurements of previously unrecognised methane in the planet's atmosphere.


[Science & Environment]
Page last updated at 18:08 GMT, Monday, 15 March 2010
By Roger Harrabin
Environment analyst, BBC News
UK responds to EU noise directive

{Councils will be able to insist on lower speed limits}

The UK government has responded to the EU Noise Directive by publishing a long-delayed noise policy statement.

Councils in the 23 noisiest cities will be able insist authorities operating roads or railways install quieter road surfaces or noise barriers.

They can also insist on lower speed limits, especially at night.

The plan was welcomed by campaigners who complain they've waited too long to have noise identified as a serious environmental issue.

Excessive noise affects millions of people in the UK. People living near busy roads suffer increased problems from mental and physical health, with sleep deprivation and raised blood pressure among the symptoms.

A recent study in London blamed traffic noise on busy roads for hastening heart attacks in some cases, too.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has drawn up noise maps of the UK.

A Defra spokesman told BBC News that the transport providers would pay the bill for any noise abatement.

The process of establishing quiet areas in the noisy cities will begin in July this year.

Philip Mulligan, the chief executive of Environmental Protection UK, said: "The Noise Policy Statement for England marks official recognition at last of noise as a pervasive national problem. Many of us hear road traffic noise most of the time.

"We welcome this recognition by government that noise must be considered in all decision-making in order to work towards a quieter, healthier country.

"It should no longer just be the realm of the noise specialist, who too often is only called in when unbearable noise levels are reached. We look forward to finally seeing the consideration of noise, our most pervasive environmental pollutant, integrated into all government policy."

news20100316reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
SOFIA
Fri Mar 12, 2010 3:21pm EST
Bulgaria drops CO2 claim, hopes for plan approval

(Reuters) - Bulgaria has dropped its claim for extra pollution allowances for 2007 in a bid to persuade Brussels to speed up the approval of its long-delayed 2008-12 national plan for carbon credits, officials said on Friday.

Bulgaria is the only European Union member without an approved national plan, needed to allow industrial producers to join the EU's carbon trading scheme, the 27-nation bloc's main strategy to fight climate change.

Analysts say Bulgarian industries and utilities, hard hit by the economic slowdown, are likely to become net sellers of permits and joining the EU's trade scheme could help them raise cash in times of slowing demand and exports.

The new center-right government, which took office last July, had hoped the plan would be approved by early March, after revisions in December.

Brussels has twice rejected the plan because of a lack of transparency over the way the permits were allocated among other criticisms.

"In informal talks, we have been assured that the new plan is transparent and that there will be no revisions of the planned allowances," Milia Dimitrova in charge of the climate change department at the Environment Ministry told Reuters.

"By dropping the legal action against the Commission for 2007 we are sending a signal that we want better cooperation."

An official at the Bulgarian representation at the EU in Brussels said the delay in the plan approval was mainly due to technical issues and that a green light was expected in April.

In 2007, Bulgaria, along other seven eastern European countries, launched lawsuits against the EU's executive for cutting it pollution permits for 2007 and for 2008-2012.

Sofia has withdrawn the claim for 2007 and is considering dropping its legal action for the 2008-12 plan, Dimitrova said.

"Maybe it is best to give up that claim too, as it will delay by at least a year Bulgaria's entry into the EU's trading scheme," she said.

Officials said Bulgaria would decide whether to cancel the claim once Brussels approves its amended 2008-12 plan.

Under it, 132 Bulgarian utilities and industrial companies will receive 38.3 million tonnes of CO2 allowances for 2008, equivalent to the country's total emissions that year. They will also receive 40.3 million tonnes for 2009, and 34.7 million for 2010.

(Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova; Editing by Jon Boyle)


[Green Business]
Scott Malone
BOSTON
Fri Mar 12, 2010 4:12pm EST
Time for next stage of sustainable business

(Reuters) - Corporate America needs to track its use of energy and resources as closely as it does its hiring and cash flow if it wants to keep pace with social concern about climate change and other sustainability issues, an activist U.S. investor group argues in a new report.

Population growth and a rising standard of living across the world will bring opportunities -- but also risks of higher energy costs, scarcer water and other possible consequences of climate change, the Ceres coalition of socially concerned investors, companies and public interest groups said.

Over the next decade, investors and consumers will expect more comprehensive disclosure from businesses about what climate-related risks they face and what they are doing about them, the Boston-based group, whose members oversee some $400 billion in assets, said.

"It's time for a new generation of best practices, new expectations of what sustainability is," said Mindy Lubber, president of the group.

Leading U.S. businesses ranging from top U.S. conglomerate General Electric Co to No. 3 railroad CSX Corp to the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc, have already gone public about their efforts to make their products and operations more environmentally friendly.

"The next step is moving into a comprehensive set of practices, from the board room to the copy room," Lubber said. "Companies need to take sustainability into account, just as they would other major risks and opportunities in the marketplace."

"Environmental and social issues are core to business performance in the 21st century," Anne Stausboll, chief executive officer of the California Public Employees Retirement System, the biggest U.S. public pension fund and a Ceres member, said in a statement. "We are looking for companies that are managing these risks and developing opportunities."

ROADMAP

In an 84-page report, the group spells out 20 practices it believes investors and consumers will come to expect from companies by 2020. The report is called "The 21st Century Corporation: The Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability" and is set for release on Thursday.

The practices it urges range from tying executive pay to progress on sustainability, to providing greater detail on the environmental impact of products, to setting firm targets on improving energy efficiency, such as cutting greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.

The credit crunch and financial scandals of the past two years have shown investors that businesses can make choices that are far riskier than their executives may consider them to be. That has made some more attuned to the dangers that climate change may pose to business, Lubber said.

Ceres' report also cites some examples of what it considers the new decade's standards in corporate sustainability. Among them are a McDonald's Corp drive to install energy efficiency control systems at its restaurants and Wal-Mart's adoption of a sustainability index intended to help shoppers pick environmentally sensitive products.

Further evidence of corporate America's changing thinking on climate change came last year, when companies including Apple Inc and utility PG&E Corp broke ranks with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, one of the nation's top business lobbying groups, over its opposition to pending U.S. legislation intended to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and limit climate change.

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Gary Hill)


[Green Business]
Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
OSLO
Mon Mar 15, 2010 12:17pm EDT
CO2 at new highs despite economic slowdown

(Reuters) - Levels of the main greenhouse gas in the atmosphere have risen to new highs in 2010 despite an economic slowdown in many nations that braked industrial output, data showed on Monday.

Carbon dioxide, measured at Norway's Zeppelin station on the Arctic Svalbard archipelago, rose to a median 393.71 parts per million of the atmosphere in the first two weeks of March from 393.17 in the same period of 2009, extending years of gains.

"Looking back at the data we have from Zeppelin since the end of the 1980s it seems like the increase is accelerating" Johan Stroem, of the Norwegian Polar Institute, said of the data compiled with Stockholm University.

The rise in concentrations, close to an annual peak before carbon-absorbing plants start to grow in the northern hemisphere spring, was below the average gain over the year of around 2 parts per million.

"It still confirms the rise," Stroem said of the data from the first two weeks of March supplied to Reuters. Concentrations vary from week to week depending on the source of Arctic winds.

Carbon concentrations have risen by more than a third since the Industrial Revolution ushered in wider use of fossil fuels. A 2009 study of the ocean off Africa indicated carbon levels in the atmosphere were at their highest in 2.1 million years.

Recession in 2009 in many nations has not apparently affected gains. The International Energy Agency estimated in September that emissions of carbon dioxide would fall about 2.6 percent in 2009 because of a decline in industrial activity.

Concentrations can keep rising since each carbon molecule emitted typically lingers in the atmosphere for many years. The U.N. panel of climate scientists says the rise will cause more floods, mudslides, heatwaves, sandstorms and rising sea levels.

CLIMATE SCIENCE

The data "seem to show that we continue to emit as if there was no tomorrow," Kim Holmen, director of research at the Norwegian Polar Institute, said of the carbon readings.

The build-up of carbon dioxide, also recorded since the late 1950s in measurements from a Hawaiian mountaintop, is one of the strongest elements of climate scientists' case that mankind is to blame for global warming.

Skeptics have cast doubt on the science since leaks of e-mails from a British university last year appeared to show that some climate researchers are intolerant of alternative views.

The U.N. panel of climate scientists, itself under fire for errors including an exaggeration of the pace at which Himalayan glaciers are melting, says it is more than 90 percent sure that human activities are causing global warming.

Carbon concentrations at Svalbard peak in April after rotting plants release the gas through the winter -- land areas in the northern hemisphere are far bigger than in the south. Levels decline when plant growth resumes in the northern spring.

Stroem said there were signs that the rise in concentrations in late winter was becoming bigger than in late summer. He speculated that could be a side-effect of global warming.

A gradual shrinking of ice and snow cover in the Arctic summer, he said, might mean more plants were able to grow and so absorb carbon, masking the rise in atmospheric carbon. The death of some of the extra vegetation in winter added to emissions.

news20100316reut2

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Claire Milhench
LONDON
Mon Mar 15, 2010 9:27am EDT
Fund firms tap ethical emerging market stock drive

(Reuters) - Fund firms are creating sustainable investment emerging market equity strategies to meet pension fund demand for diversified portfolios with higher corporate governance standards.

Recent launches of products by F&C Asset Management, Bank Sarasin and BNP Paribas/Fortis have shown asset management companies are more confident they can find the companies to deliver on a notoriously difficult goal, even if obtaining the necessary data remains tough.

"Trying to find stocks that meet the corporate governance standards and get hold of the social and governance data is the biggest issue," said Francois Perrin, a senior portfolio manager in the sustainable investment team at Fortis.

Demand for sustainable investing and ESG (environment, social, governance) strategies has risen as more institutional investors have signed up to the UN's Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI), which now has 199 asset-owners on board.

"Pension funds have to show they are becoming more active owners, promoting higher standards of disclosure from companies and trying to integrate ESG across the management of their assets," said Danyelle Guyatt, a principal with the responsible investment team at consultants Mercer.

Growing membership of the UN PRI has coincided with a thirst for emerging markets as institutions hunt the diversification -- and sometimes more attractive returns -- that such exposure can bring, making a solution to the ESG data bugbear essential.

DUE DILIGENCE

Managers often rely on third-party ESG data providers in developed markets, but their coverage of emerging markets is still quite light, meaning managers have to do their homework.

"There is no substitute for rigorous due diligence like you would apply with any emerging market stock," said Perrin.

Guyatt said Mercer had led a search a few years ago for an ESG-friendly emerging markets manager for Dutch pension fund PGGM, but it was hard to find a good one at that time.

"In the end they didn't appoint anyone, they just decided to do it in-house. But standards have improved a lot in the last two years," she said.

Fidelity's Anthony Bolton has given an upbeat assessment of governance in China as he prepares for the launch of a new fund, but with a caveat attached: "The good companies are as good as anything you get in the UK and Europe," he has said, "and the bad companies are probably quite a bit worse."

F&C has just launched a new ESG emerging markets strategy and Alexis Krajeski, F&C associate director for governance and sustainable investment, said there is now more transparency and consistency in emerging markets, and a greater understanding about the importance of sustainability to business strategy.

"Without that information it would have been quite difficult for us to credibly launch this strategy," she said,

F&C sets minimum ESG standards for a company to qualify for the fund, but it doesn't have to tick every box. "Once it is in the portfolio, we consider it an ongoing relationship and will work with them to help them improve," said Krajeski.

Mercer's Guyatt said funds which focus on engaging with companies rather than avoiding them, are getting popular with pension funds. "If you're avoiding a lot of companies there's a risk it could have a detrimental impact on performance."

Fortis takes a best-in-context approach, to identify companies that are doing something as opposed to nothing. But Perrin said the team does turn down a number of names that are interesting from a financial point of view because they don't meet its responsible investing data requirements.

Lead manager Urban Larson said that of 160 stocks proposed at the outset, 100 were approved, a universe he believes is now big enough to support a sufficiently diversified portfolio.

(Editing by Simon Jessop)


[Green Business]
Bruce Hextall
SYDNEY
Mon Mar 15, 2010 9:29am EDT
Australia's pension funds lag on carbon risk: survey

(Reuters) - Australia's pension funds industry, the fifth largest in the world with A$1.2 trillion ($1.1 trillion) under management, is dragging its feet on climate change risk when making investment decisions, a survey has found.

Distracted by the global financial crisis, the failure to agree on a new climate pact in Copenhagen and a delayed emissions trading scheme have contributed to reduced interest in climate change risks, said the survey released on Tuesday.

The second annual survey by the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) and the independent Climate Institute think tank had a low response with just over 30 percent of the invited funds responding.

Those that did had A$302 billion under management, 28 percent of the entire pension fund industry in Australia.

"After last year's world first survey of superfunds, this year's survey results indicate that superfunds are generally aware of the potential impacts of climate change risks on their portfolio but are still ill-equipped to measure or manage them," the report says.

The risks include regulatory, legal, trade and credit.

Australia's proposed carbon pollution reduction scheme (CPRS) has slipped off the radar screen for many funds because of the failure of the Senate to pass the carbon trading laws.

The Climate Institute's business director Julian Poulter told reporters during a teleconference that many superfunds were putting their investment portfolios at risk because of short-term problems in reaching agreements on fighting climate change.

"They're in the long-term investment business and frankly I don't think if you are in a long-term business that hiccups around Copenhagen or CPRS are part of fundamental investment strategy," Poulter said.

"In 20 years' time, we will have a high carbon price regulatory regime -- the drive to the low-carbon world will be unstoppable so that's the kind of world in which the funds need to envisage themselves in."

ACT FAST

He said Australian industry needed to act fast as internationally there was a trend toward better management of climate change risks and a move toward global regulation, despite slow policy progress at Copenhagen in December.

Many in government and green circles regard the non-binding agreement reached in Copenhagen to curb the growth of greenhouse gas emissions as a bare-minimum outcome that increased uncertainty on carbon pricing in the near-term.

"With no clear, global, price on carbon having yet materialized it is understandable that superfunds (and other investors) might be having difficulty accurately valuing the financial costs/benefits of climate change risks/opportunities," said the report.

Nonetheless, companies were facing growing pressure to assess the cost of carbon and other climate change policy risks.

In January, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ordered corporations to disclose climate change risk in their annual reports.

As well, in response to the sub-prime meltdown the G20 Financial Stability Board is recommending regulations to prevent long-term systemic risks of which climate change is one.

"The need is for funds to get back to their knitting, back to their long-term returns and take a proper and sensible approach to climate change risk and carbon pricing has to be part of that," said Andrew Barr, policy and research manager at the AIST.

As examples, the report pointed to India's intention to charge a levy on coal, including coal imports, carbon costs imposed by Europe's emissions trading scheme and the threat of carbon tariffs on goods from nations with weak climate policies.

Barr said there had been some degree of disengagement from the management of climate risk because of the financial crisis.

The survey found the main funds responding to climate change were industry funds but a key area where all funds were falling behind was at the portfolio level where they did not have systems in place to manage climate change risks.

Climate change risk disclosure was another problem facing Australian funds at a time when stock exchanges around the world were in the process of increasing such disclosure requirements.

"The last thing we want is some kind of regulatory arbitrage appearing or else investors will put their money where the regulatory disclosure is best and where they can assess the risk more accurately," said Poulter.

($1 = A$1.09)

(Editing by David Fogarty)

news20100316reut3

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
LOS ANGELES
Mon Mar 15, 2010 1:22pm EDT
First Solar lands 30 MW project in New Mexico

(Reuters) - Thin-film solar maker First Solar Inc has struck a deal to sell a 30 megawatt power project to utility owner Southern Co and Ted Turner's Turner Renewable Energy, the panel maker said on Monday.

Construction is set to start this month on the project, which is expected to supply power to roughly 9,000 homes, or 18,000 residents. The plant, to be located in northern New Mexico, is scheduled to be operational by the end of 2010.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

First Solar, like other makers of photovoltaic solar panels that turn sunlight into electricity, is working to build its U.S. business through utility-scale and commercial projects. It is providing the engineering, procurement and construction services for the project, and will operate it under a 25-year contract.

The U.S. utility market is expected to grow this year as the sector rebounds from tight credit and as the government encourages new development.

The New Mexico project is forecast to employ some 500,000 photovoltaic modules made by First Solar, which uses cadmium telluride rather than polysilicon to make its thin film cells.

First Solar has the lowest production cost in the industry, though its cells are not as efficient as those made by rivals such as Suntech Power Holdings and SunPower Corp.

Shares of the Arizona-based company were down 0.37 percent at $115.10 in early morning trade.

(Reporting by Dana Ford, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)


[Green Business]
ZURICH
Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:09pm EDT
Solar supplier Meyer Burger gets record order

(Reuters) - Swiss solar industry supplier Meyer Burger received a record order from Asia in a sign that customers are gaining confidence in a global economic recovery, the company said on Monday.

Meyer Burger won additional orders for wire saws, cropping saws and wafer inspection systems worth more than 250 million Swiss francs million with a customer in Asia, the group said, adding that deliveries were expected throughout 2010 and 2011.

Company spokesman Werner Buchholz said the order was the largest the group has ever received and compared with new orders of 99 million francs in the first half of 2009 and total sales of 455.4 million francs in 2008.

"There is a trend showing that the confidence in the world economy is back," Buchholz said. "Now customers are launching projects they have been thinking about but held back due to the uncertainty from the crisis."

Last week, the group with a total market cap of around $1.1 billion said it received an 20 million-franc order from China.

Meyer Burger will publish its 2009 results next Monday.

The group's shares have lost over 4 percent so far this year, though the share price more than doubled last year.

Global solar demand has surged on brisk buying from Germany, helping the industry to recover from a slump in 2009, but some analysts fear the market will drop once incentives in Germany, the world's largest solar market, are pared back.

(Reporting by Sven Egenter)


[Green Business]
ZURICH
Tue Mar 16, 2010 5:13am EDT
Solar group Meyer Burger up 7 pct on record order

(Reuters) - Shares in Meyer Burger rose 7 percent on Tuesday after the solar industry supplier received a record order from Asia that it said was a sign customers were gaining confidence in economic recovery.

Meyer Burger said late Monday the order worth more than 250 million Swiss francs ($235.4 million) was the largest ever and it expected to make deliveries of wire saws, cropping saws and wafer inspection systems throughout 2010 and 2011.

"It is clearly positive because the orders are testament to Meyer Burger's ability to maintain high market share and prove that the acquisition of wafer inspection equipment supplier Hennecke Systems has been a success," Kepler analyst Ingo Queiser said in a note.

Shares in the company were up 7 percent at 26.90 francs at 0855 GMT, outperforming a 0.3 percent rise in SolwarWorld, Germany's top solar company, as well as a slightly firmer Swiss stock market.

Global solar demand has surged on brisk buying from Germany, helping the industry to recover from a slump in 2009, but some analysts fear the market will drop once incentives in Germany, the world's largest solar market, are pared back.

Meyer Burger will publish 2009 earnings next Monday.

(Reporting by Catherine Bosley; Editing by David Holmes)


[Green Business]
BERLIN
Mon Mar 15, 2010 4:15pm EDT
Blackstone North Sea wind project clears legal hurdle

(Reuters) - Blackstone Group LP will be able to move forward with its 1-billion euro ($1.38 billion) project to build and manage a German offshore wind farm after a legal dispute was resolved, a company executive said on Monday.

Jens Assheuer, managing director of the Blackstone private equity subsidiary WindMW, told Reuters a lawsuit against the project that was drawn up in the summer of 2008 had been withdrawn, clearing the way for the project called "Meerwind" that will produce enough power for half a million homes.

"The lawsuit has been withdrawn," Assheuer said of a legal challenge that caused a half-year delay. "Based on the current plans, it's possible that all 80 systems will be on the grid by 2013."

According to its design, it will have an installed capacity of 400 megawatts of electricity.

The wind farm will be the latest in a growing number aiming to cash in on European renewable energy subsidies.

It will be built over an area of 40 square kilometers about 80 kilometers north of Germany in the North Sea.

The German government has a goal of reducing emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases by 40 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels. It currently gets about 16 percent of its electricity from renewables and aims to sharply increase that.

(Reporting by Markus Wacket; writing by Erik Kirschbaum; editing by David Cowell)


[Green Business]
YOKOHAMA, Japan
Tue Mar 16, 2010 3:57am EDT
Honda gets 8,000 orders for CR-Z sports hybrid

(Reuters) - Honda Motor Co said on Tuesday it had received about 8,000 orders for the CR-Z sporty hybrid car in Japan after less than three weeks on the market, or eight times the monthly sales target of 1,000 units.

The two-door compact, which went on sale in Japan on February 26, is the second in a line of low-cost hybrid cars from Japan's No.2 automaker and is scheduled for launch in North America and Europe this summer.

Honda has said it expects to sell 40,000-50,000 of the CR-Z a year worldwide.

Of the orders received in Japan, 40 percent of customers chose the six-speed manual transmission version in what Honda officials said indicated a popularity among sports car enthusiasts. Nearly 100 percent of cars sold in Japan are automatic.

Honda trails Toyota Motor Corp by a wide margin in hybrid sales, with the low-cost Insight selling just 3,500 units last month, compared with 27,000 for its rival's flagship Prius.

(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Nathan Layne)

news20100316reut4

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Pete Harrison
BRUSSELS
Mon Mar 15, 2010 4:12pm EDT
EU backs U.N. climate report despite skepticism

(Reuters) - U.N. climate scientists attacked by skeptics after they published an erroneous global warming forecast won support Monday from European Union environment ministers.

Climate skepticism has gathered pace since the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) admitted in January that its latest report in 2007 had exaggerated the pace at which Himalayan glaciers were melting.

Last month, it also said it had overstated how much of the Netherlands was prone to sea flooding.

The EU ministers said they considered the IPCC's science "solid and robust" despite the errors, and were convinced it offered the most authoritative assessment of climate change.

In their conclusions, the ministers also called for the rapid mobilization of the $10 billion a year that rich countries have promised to give poor nations to help them tackle climate effects in 2010-2012.

The pledge was one of the few elements agreed on during a global climate summit in Copenhagen last December. Many EU countries are scaling back their hopes of a legally binding deal at ministerial climate talks in Cancun, Mexico, in November.

Mexican Environment Minister Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada told reporters at the EU meeting that many milestones were still achievable at Cancun, including the urgent funding.

"Funds need to be operational," he said. "It's not only about the amount of money, but also about demonstrating to the developing world that it's possible."

"Developing countries are telling me they need clear signals and to move toward Cancun with something in their hands."

The ministers asked the EU executive to report to them on what it would take for the 27 EU members to deepen their planned cuts in greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade to 30 percent below 1990 levels. They currently plan a 20 percent cut.

The impact of the economic slowdown, combined with the large opportunity to buy carbon offsets, means the current EU goal will result in domestic emissions cuts of only around 4 percent below business-as-usual levels, said a report Monday by the CE Delft consultancy for Green politicians.

"We do not need more research -- there is a wealth of evidence that underlines why the EU needs to increase its target now," said Bas Eickhout, a Dutch GreenLeft member of the European Parliament.

(Editing by Kevin Liffey)


[Green Business]
Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON
Mon Mar 15, 2010 7:16pm EDT
Cap-trade plan in compromise climate bill

(Reuters) - A compromise climate control bill that could be sketched out next week in the Senate will be anchored by a "cap and trade" plan for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from utilities such as power plants, a key senator said on Monday.

"That's not to say there are not some details left to be resolved with utilities but the overall approach is that," the senator said during an interview with Reuters.

Under cap and trade, companies would have to obtain permits for every ton of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases they emit. The number of permits would steadily decline during the next 40 years and companies could trade those permits on a regulated financial market.

In a bid to rally support for passing a climate change bill, former President Bill Clinton will address Senate Democrats on Tuesday at their weekly luncheon, according to a leadership aide.

Even if legislation to tackle global warming by mandating carbon pollution reductions for the first time is unveiled, it is unclear whether such a bill will pass during this election year.

After a compromise Senate bill is crafted, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to take several weeks to analyze the economic impact of the proposals. If that goes well, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could try to schedule a debate and vote on the bill by mid-year.

The EPA says it will move to regulate carbon pollution on its own if Congress fails to pass legislation.

Democratic Senator John Kerry has been working with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and independent Senator Joseph Lieberman on a climate bill that they hope will attract the support of at least 60 of the Senate's 100 members.

They have been working behind closed doors for months now, meeting with corporate lobbyists, environmental groups and undecided senators from states where coal, a major source of emissions when burned, is important in the local economy.

But any climate control bill likely would raise energy prices as the country is forced to move to using more expensive alternative power sources, such as solar and wind. And that could make for a difficult vote for senators facing re-election during the current tough economic times.

SECTOR BY SECTOR

In an interview with Reuters, the senator said: "There's more certainty about cap and trade for utilities" than how the government would mandate carbon pollution reductions from other sectors, such as transportation and manufacturing.

A bill passed last June by the House of Representatives would set an economy-wide cap and trade program, including power companies, oil refineries and factories. Emissions would decline by 17 percent by 2020, from 2005 levels under the House bill. Senators are looking at a similar target, which the Obama administration has embraced.

But an economy-wide cap and trade program did not appear to have enough votes to pass the Senate.

Instead, senators have been looking at a possible oil industry tax to help control carbon emissions in the transportation sector. Some senators from heavy manufacturing states have been pushing for a delay in carbon emission requirements for factories before moving to a cap and trade program or other mechanism.

The Senate compromise bill, which the senator said could be outlined sometime next week, will "be different ways to deal with different sectors. It's a step-by-step sectoral approach," the senator said.

Many Republicans, who oppose government mandating emissions reductions, have called cap and trade nothing more than "cap and tax." As a result, and because cap and trade is difficult to describe, senators have been looking for different names for the program.

"We probably won't use the word 'cap and trade'" in the legislation, the senator told Reuters.

If the United States manages to enact a domestic carbon-control law this year, it could boost the outlook for international talks set for late November in Mexico on a global warming pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012.

(Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Eric Walsh)


[Green Business]
LOS ANGELES
Tue Mar 16, 2010 6:04am EDT
First Solar says joins solar project Desertec

(Reuters) - U.S. solar power company First Solar said on Tuesday it had joined the Desertec solar power project, which hopes to supply 15 percent of Europe's power by 2050 via a network of renewable energy sources.

First Solar said it was the first pure photovoltaic company to join Desertec, the world's most ambitious 400 billion euro ($549.9 billion) solar power project that proposes sending energy created in the Sahara to local markets and to Europe.

The Arizona-based company said it had joined Desertec for an initial period of three years and that it would contribute utility-scale PV expertise in project working groups.

Additional details on the agreement were not disclosed.

Twelve member companies -- mostly German ones including Siemens, E.ON, RWE and Deutsche Bank -- support the Desertec Industrial Initiative, launched at Munich Re headquarters in July last year.

Leaders of the project, which would advance in stages with the first phase operational within a decade, have made a push in recent months to diversify the countries involved in it.

They have said more energy falls on the world's deserts in six hours than the world consumes in a year.

First Solar, which uses cadmium telluride rather than polysilicon to make its thin film cells, has the lowest production cost on the industry, though its cells are not as efficient as those made by rivals such as Suntech Power Holdings and SunPower Corp.

The company has built utility-scale solar power plants in desert conditions in the United States and United Arab Emirates.

(Reporting by Dana Ford)

news20100316reut5

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON
Tue Mar 16, 2010 8:46am EDT
U.S. groups want to expand climate bill forestry aid

(Reuters) - U.S. environmental groups are trying to expand a climate change bill being written in the Senate to help foreign countries pay for enforcing laws they already have in place for protecting forests as one way of reducing carbon pollution.

Global warming legislation passed in the U.S. House of Representatives last year would set up financial incentives encouraging new steps in the United States and abroad for reducing greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.

But there are doubts it would let those financial incentives flow to foreign countries, such as Brazil and Indonesia, with forest protection laws on the books but few resources to enforce them.

"We have been talking to a lot of people about this issue," said Sarene Marshall, deputy director of the Nature Conservancy's climate change program.

She added that the "vast majority of deforestation in the Amazon is technically illegal because Brazil has one of most far-reaching protection laws on the books. We're talking about programs that actually help move landowners into compliance."

The clearing of large swaths of forests for farming, ranching, and other uses is estimated to contribute 20 percent of world greenhouse gas output. Trees soak up carbon dioxide when growing and release it when they rot or are burned.

But for some countries that already have forest-protection plans in place it is the enforcement of domestic laws, including on the local level, that will make the difference in pollution reduction efforts.

Democratic Senator John Kerry is leading the fight in the Senate for a compromise climate change bill that could be voted on this year. But talks have been difficult and so far there have been no guarantees of a bill being enacted soon.

Environmentalists are hoping Kerry includes in any compromise an expanded credit provision, in the form of "offsets," that companies are allowed to undertake in their overall carbon-reduction efforts.

For example, a U.S. company could meet some of its federally mandated carbon emissions goals by helping protect forests and other environmentally sensitive lands abroad from being developed.

INDONESIA SEEKS MORE U.S. COOPERATION

Indonesian forestry officials were in Washington last week trying to enhance cooperative efforts between the two countries. Indonesia is the world's third largest carbon polluter when taking into account deforestation and land use and not just smokestack pollution.

Wandojo Siswanto, chairman of Indonesia's Forestry Ministry, told Reuters that he hoped President Barack Obama's visit to his country next week might result in a bilateral agreement to enhance U.S.-Indonesian forest management collaboration.

Wandojo and Basah Hernowo, Indonesia's director for forestry and water resources conservation, also said that a quick injection of international aid funds, separate from the "offsets," were needed to help developing countries like Indonesia tackle global warming.

But they did not detail how much money was being sought or what it would be used for if granted.

In December, a United Nations-sponsored conference meeting in Copenhagen called on rich countries to create a $30 billion fund over three years to help poorer countries combat climate change. That "fast-start" fund would grow to $100 billion a year by 2020.

The next annual U.N. climate meeting -- beginning in November in Mexico -- may not be able to conclude with a binding, international deal on how to battle global warming after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. But there are hopes that a worldwide accord on managing forests at least can be struck there.

"We need international support" with forest protection, Wandojo said, adding, "We believe that the (U.N.-led) negotiations couldn't be moving forward without the leadership of the U.S."

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)


[Green Business]
BERLIN
Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:10pm EDT
Germany may delay some solar incentive cuts

(Reuters) - Germany may delay some proposed cuts in solar incentives, granting a longer-than-expected grace period to players in the world's biggest solar market, according to a draft law obtained by Reuters on Monday.

Cuts in so called feed-in tariffs -- prices utilities are obliged to pay to generators of renewable energy -- for open-field sites are to be delayed by three months to October 1, the draft states.

However, coalition sources told Reuters that the new proposal was still subject to debate and that further discussions were needed.

After passing the cabinet this month, the measure will head to the Bundestag, or lower house of parliament, where Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right coalition has a comfortable majority.

The change would not mean a massive deviation from earlier plans as open-field installations only account for about a fifth of all solar power systems. The major part is installed on rooftops, where cuts are still to take effect from July 1.

Under the plans, support for converted farmland is to be entirely eliminated.

Plans to curb support to the solar sector -- which the Berlin government sees as overly subsidized -- have dealt a massive blow to companies such as Q-Cells, SolarWorld and Phoenix Solar, which have lost up to 40 percent in value since the plans first surfaced.

The move has also led to criticism from within the ruling government. Bavaria state Premier Horst Seehofer warned on Friday that the government's plans were excessive.

Seehofer's Christian Social Union (CSU) is the Bavarian sister party to Merkel's Christian Democrats and one of three parties in her coalition.

(Reporting by Markus Wacket and Erik Kirschbaum, writing by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Hans Peters)


[Green Business]
WASHINGTON
Mon Mar 15, 2010 7:03pm EDT
Senate climate bill to set utility cap-trade

(Reuters) - Compromise climate control legislation being developed in the U.S. Senate will use a cap-and-trade approach to reduce carbon emissions from utilities such as power plants, a key senator said on Monday.

The senator, who asked not to be identified, added, "That's not to say there are not some details left to be resolved with utilities but the overall approach is that."

In an interview with Reuters, the senator said: "There's more certainty about cap and trade for utilities" than how the government would mandate carbon pollution reductions from other sectors, such as transportation and manufacturing.

Under cap and trade, companies would have to obtain permits for every ton of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases they emit. The number of permits would steadily decline during the next 40 years and companies could trade those permits on a regulated financial market.

A bill passed last June by the House of Representatives would set an economy-wide cap-and-trade program, including power companies, oil refineries and factories. Emissions would decline by 17 percent by 2020, from 2005 levels under the House bill. Senators are looking at a similar target, which the Obama administration has embraced.

But an economy-wide cap-and-trade program does not appear to have enough votes to pass the Senate.

Instead, senators have been looking at a possible oil industry tax to help control carbon emissions in the transportation sector. Some senators from heavy manufacturing states have been pushing for a delay in carbon emission requirements for factories before moving to a cap-and-trade program or other mechanism.

The Senate compromise bill, which the senator said could be sketched out sometime next week, will "be different ways to deal with different sectors. It's a step-by-step sectoral approach," the senator said.

Many Republicans, who oppose government mandating emissions reductions, have called cap and trade nothing more than "cap and tax." As a result, and because cap and trade is difficult to describe, senators have been looking for different names for the program.

"We probably won't use the word 'cap and trade'" in the legislation, the senator told Reuters.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Jackie Frank and Bill Trott)

news20100316reut6

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
WASHINGTON
Mon Mar 15, 2010 9:46am EDT
Poll charts rising U.S. environmental satisfaction

(Reuters) - Americans have grown more content about current environmental quality over the past year, though 53 percent still rate conditions as only fair to poor, according to a Gallup poll released on Monday.

Forty-six percent of the 1,014 adults surveyed March 4 to 7 described current U.S. environmental conditions as excellent or good. That was up from 39 percent in March 2009 and was the highest positive environmental rating measured by Gallup since 2002.

The percentage of Americans who say the environment is only fair to poor was down from 61 percent last year.

The year-on-year changes were within the polling data's 4 percentage point margin of error.

Only 2 percent viewed the environment as the most important problem facing the United States today, while the number who expect it to become the main priority in 25 years slipped slightly to 11 percent.

Gallup said American contentedness about the environment is up across the political spectrum of Democrats, Republicans and independents.

Most Democrats and independents continue to register concerns about environmental problems, with only Republicans registering a majority of those who view the environment as excellent or good.

Gallup said the public's environmental outlook improved sharply last year after President Barack Obama's inauguration. But the data has remained largely unchanged since then, with 41 percent anticipating improvement and 48 percent expecting conditions to worsen

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Walter Bagley)


[Green Business]
Rod Nickel
WINNIPEG, Manitoba
Mon Mar 15, 2010 8:10pm EDT
North Dakota braces for floods

(Reuters) - Melting snow will cause major flooding along the Red River in North Dakota by Tuesday with water levels just below the record set in 2009 during one of the worst floods in the state's history, the National Weather Service said on Monday.

The floodwaters will not only endanger homes but could also delay the planting of spring wheat and sugar beets in an important U.S. farming region.

Some 1,500 miles to the east, days of torrential rain from a nor'easter parked off the coast caused extensive flooding in the Northeastern United States and New England.

Massachusetts' governor declared a state of emergency for the entire state, and authorities in Boston dumped raw sewage into the harbor.

The region's heaviest rain and strongest winds will continue to target southern Maine through southern New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Around Fargo, North Dakota, the early melt has hastened flood-fighting preparations. The city has filled 740,000 sandbags in about two weeks, said Fargo's city's communications manager, Karena Carlson. Volunteers will start piling the sandbags into dikes on Tuesday with the help of 300 to 400 National Guard troops.

"Things are happening a little earlier than we anticipated, but with enough volunteers, I think we'll be able to get things done," she said.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has started building dikes of dirt and clay to protect public infrastructure like roads and water plants in parts of North Dakota and Minnesota, said spokesman Mark Davidson.

A year ago, flooding caused the evacuation of hundreds of homes in North Dakota, including some by helicopter. A lower forecasted crest means that is not likely this year, said Lieutenant Colonel Rick Smith of the North Dakota National Guard.

"We are prepared to do that if called upon ... but I don't foresee that."

Farmers could not plant crops last year on 464,000 acres in the Red River Valley's 12 counties in North Dakota and Minnesota, according to the USDA's Risk Management Agency. That included 215,000 unplanted acres that were insured for corn, 97,000 wheat acres and 68,000 soybean acres.

This year's flood is occurring 10 to 12 days earlier, which could help farmers' chances of getting crops planted, said Jay Hochhalter, a conservation program specialist with the United States Department of Agriculture in North Dakota.

"It definitely is a plus," he said. "(Fields) are black. They're going to draw more heat to warm the soils up and dry them out."

Spring wheat planting normally starts between April 15 and April 20, with seeding of corn and sugar beets later in the month, Hochhalter said.

Spring wheat futures at the Minneapolis Board of Trade shrugged off news of the flood and were pressured by a stronger U.S. dollar and plentiful global supplies of wheat.

The spot May contract finished down 6-1/4 cents at $5.07-1/4 per bushel. Wheat futures rose above $8 during last year's floods.

SNOWMELT NOT YET BEGUN IN EARNEST

The Red River had risen to 25.21 feet by late afternoon on Monday in Fargo, the state's biggest city in the Red River Valley, just over the moderate flood stage, said Greg Gust, warning co-ordination meteorologist for the Weather Service.

It should reach the major flood stage of 30 feet by late Tuesday night and crest at 38 feet by the weekend. Temperatures will remain above-freezing until Thursday, Gust said.

"You throw mild temperatures and rain into the snow pack and that combination has sped things up tremendously," Gust said.

Last year at Fargo, the Red River reached a record 40.84 feet, damaging hundreds of homes in the state and forcing hundreds more to evacuate.

Last week was the earliest on record that the minimum temperature averaged above freezing at Fargo, Gust said. Parts of the state also received 1.5 inches (38 mm) of rain last week.

The river flows north into the Canadian province of Manitoba, which has also had an earlier-than-normal melt.

In the U.S. Midwest, where rain and snowmelt have combined with saturated soils to heighten concerns about planting delays, flooding is already happening on several Iowa rivers, including the Des Moines River and Cedar River, said Pat Slattery, public affairs specialist for the Weather Service in Kansas City, Kansas. The Mississippi and Missouri rivers are also flooding, Slattery said.

"We're getting the early flooding now and really the snowmelt hasn't started in real earnest," he said.

More rains forecast across much of the Midwest this week threaten to delay corn and soybean plantings, said forecaster Mike Palmerino of Telvent-DTN Weather on Monday.

Rain has persisted in parts of the Northeast U.S. as long as four days. In eastern Massachusetts, flooding closed roads and shut down schools and businesses in some communities.

"The sheer volume of water is the number one problem right now," Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick said on Monday.

Heavy rains forced the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority to empty untreated sewage into Quincy Bay for the first time since 2005.

In Rhode Island, the Pawtuxet River overflowed its banks, flooding some major roads and causing evacuations. The river is at a record high level and has yet to crest, authorities said.

Crews in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut were cleaning up after rain and high winds on Saturday left many roads under water and downed thousands of trees. At one point, more than 500,000 homes had lost power in the region.

(Reporting by Rod Nickel; Additional reporting by Ros Krasny in Boston; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Peter Cooney)