news20100331reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Environment News]
[Green Business | Italy]
Barry Malone
ADDIS ABABA
Tue Mar 30, 2010 2:04pm EDT
Ethiopia dam will not displace 200,000: builder
｛エチオピアのダム建設企業、20万住民の退去を否定｝

(Reuters) - The Italian firm building Africa's biggest hydropower dam in Ethiopia on Tuesday denied allegations that the dam would deprive 200,000 self-sufficient people of a living and make them dependent on aid.

The ethnic rights group Survival International said last week that the dam would disrupt fishing and farming and displace more than 200,000 people, among them the Kwegu and Hamar tribes.

"The project will not cause drought: the dam will not block the flow of water to the river indefinitely, but merely redistribute it during the course of the year," Salini Costruttori said in a statement.

"Activities connected to the local fishing trade will not be destroyed. Agriculture will be able to benefit from a constant supply of water through the year."

The Gibe 111 dam, costing 1.4 billion euros and expected to generate 1,800 megawatts, is one of five Ethiopia is building in a drive to beat power shortages and export electricity. It will almost double current Ethiopian capacity of just under 2,000 MW.

Survival International director Stephen Corry said last week that no respectable body should fund "this atrocious project.

An SI representative who did not wish to be named said then that the dam would ruin the economy of those living near it.

"It will end the annual flooding some rely on to make the land they farm fertile, and for tribes who rely on fishing, it will deplete stocks. They will need aid."

The Ethiopian government has said that people affected by hydropower dams will be compensated or relocated.

Ethiopia is negotiating funding for Gibe 111, whose construction began in 2006, with the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the European Investment Bank and the Italian government.

Hydropower supplies about 90 percent of Ethiopia's electricity, and the country plans to spend $12 billion over 25 years on generating plant with the aim of exporting to a continent where shortages are common despite abundant potential resources of solar, hydro and other power.


[Environment News]
[Green Business]
Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA
Tue Mar 30, 2010 10:51am EDT
El Nino to influence climate patterns to midyear: WMO
｛エルニーニョ現象、今年中頃、気候形態に影響：ＷＭＯ｝

(Reuters) - The El Nino warming the Pacific Ocean since June has peaked, but is expected to influence climate patterns worldwide up to mid-year before dying out, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday.

However, the United Nations agency said that forecasting uncertainties meant it could not rule out the possibility that El Nino would persist beyond mid-year.

El Nino, driven by an abnormal warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean, can create havoc in weather patterns across the Asia-Pacific region, unleashing droughts in some places and heavy storms in others. It typically lasts from 9 to 12 months.

The most likely scenario is for sea surface temperatures across the tropical Pacific, which rose by 1.5 degrees Celsius at its peak last November-December, to return to normal by mid-2010, WMO said in a statement.

"El Nino is already in a decaying phase. We expect it to fully decay by mid-year and neutral conditions to be established," WMO climate expert Rupa Kumar Kolli told Reuters.

"But this is a period where the predictability of the system is very low. Things could happen very suddenly," he said.

The WMO said that the current El Nino, which can occur every two-seven years, was of a moderate level, "close to or slightly above the typical strength seen in the historical record of El Nino events."

"Even during the decaying phase of the El Nino, expected over the next few months, the conditions associated with a typical El Nino will continue to influence climatic patterns at least through the second quarter of the year," it said.

DRY CONDITIONS

El Nino typically creates dry conditions for western areas along the Pacific Ocean such as South East Asia and Indonesia, and southern parts of western Australia, and wetter than normal conditions in western coastal areas of South America, Kolli told Reuters.

Parts of South Asia experienced drought last year due to a weak summer monsoon season linked to El Nino, and this could happen again if El Nino were to intensify in June, he said.

"That is the typical signature of El Nino," he added.

Warmer sea temperatures along some coastal regions of Latin America had caused higher rainfalls, but these were confined to relatively smaller pockets, and did not wreak havoc, he said.

The last severe El Nino in 1998 killed more than 2,000 people and caused billions of dollars in damages to crops, infrastructure and mines in Australia and Asia.

"Every El Nino is an individual event," Kolli said.

However, the phenomenon, which means "little boy" in Spanish, referring to the Christ child because it is often noticed mostly clearly in Latin America around Christmas, is also linked to a weaker than normal hurricane season in the northern Atlantic, according to the WMO expert.

The opposite cooling phenomenon, known as La Nina, or "little girl," could also start in the middle of this year, but that scenario is deemed less likely.

(To watch a Reuters Insider television's interview with WMO Chief Climate Scientist Rupa Kumar Kolli, click on the link below link.reuters.com/gyt65j )

(Editing by Jonathan Lynn)


[Environment News]
[Green Business | COP15]
Peter Griffiths
LONDON
Tue Mar 30, 2010 7:34pm EDT
Climate unit criticized for stonewalling skeptics
｛クライメイト部門、進行妨害する懐疑派を批判｝

(Reuters) - Scientists at a leading British climate research center had a culture of withholding information from global warming skeptics but did not deliberately manipulate data to support their case, lawmakers said on Wednesday.

In the first official report into the theft of emails from the unit last year, a British parliamentary committee said the messages did not contradict the mainstream scientific view that man-made emissions have contributed to rising temperatures.

Thousands of emails exchanged between scientists were published on the Internet days before world leaders met in Copenhagen for climate change talks last December.

The government has acknowledged that the ensuing row dented public confidence in the evidence underpinning man's role in raising global temperatures.

Campaigners who doubt the science behind man-made global warming said the messages showed researchers hid, exaggerated or fiddled the data to support the consensus view.

Parliament's Science and Technology Committee rejected that assessment of the leaked emails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU), but sharply condemned the unit for withholding information requested by outsiders under Britain's freedom of information laws.

"The culture of non-disclosure at CRU and instances where information may have been deleted to avoid disclosure, particularly to climate change skeptics, we felt was reprehensible," Committee Chairman Phil Willis told a news conference.

Professor Phil Jones, head of the unit, was cleared of dishonestly fiddling the data to strengthen his evidence.

"The scientific reputation of Professor Jones and CRU remains intact," the report said. "We have found no reason in this unfortunate episode to challenge the scientific consensus."

The committee found nothing sinister in Jones' use of the words "hide the decline" and "trick" in two emails about temperature changes that attracted the most public attention.

"Hide the decline" was not an attempt to conceal data but was scientific shorthand for discarding erroneous data, the committee concluded. Similarly, Jones intended "trick" to mean a neat way of handling evidence, rather than anything underhanded.

The university has set up two separate inquiries into the email affair and British police are investigating the hacking.

(Editing by Noah Barkin)

news20100331reut2

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Environment News]
[U.S. | Green Business | COP15]
Steve Holland
WASHINGTON
Wed Mar 31, 2010 5:06am EDT
Obama to permit oil exploration off Virginia coast
｛オバマ大統領、バージニア沖のオイル探査に許可｝

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama is to announce on Wednesday a plan to permit exploration for oil and natural gas off the coast of Virginia as a way to create jobs and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

Obama, who wants Congress to move a stalled climate change bill, has sought to reach out to Republicans by signaling he is open to allowing offshore drilling, providing coastlines are protected.

Joined by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Obama is to detail an updated plan for offshore oil and natural gas drilling in remarks at a military base in nearby Maryland.

For more than 20 years, drilling was banned in most offshore areas of the United States outside the Gulf of Mexico because of concerns that spills could harm the environment.

The administration has been weighing the pros and cons of offshore drilling since it took office and put the brakes on a Bush-era proposal which called for drilling along the East Coast and off the coast of California.

An administration official said, as part of the new plan, Interior will conduct the first new offshore oil and gas sale in the Atlantic Ocean in over two decades as part of a lease sale 50 miles off the coast of Virginia.

Seismic exploration in the south Atlantic and mid-Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf of the United States will determine the quantity and location of potential oil and gas resources to support energy planning.

The Bush plan had called for leases to be offered in November 2011, but it was not immediately clear whether the Obama administration would stick to that schedule.

A senior Interior official said in January that drilling off Virginia's coast would be delayed past the original 2011 leasing date.

The proposed Virginia lease area, located about 50 miles from shore, may hold 130 million barrels of oil and 1.14 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, based on Interior Department estimates.

In addition, the Interior Department will continue lease sales in the Central and Western Gulf of Mexico, which have proved to have sizable reserves.

Much of the Eastern Gulf is currently under a congressional moratorium on oil and gas operations. The Interior Department's plan would open up about two-thirds of the available oil and gas resources in this region in the event that the moratorium is lifted, the official said.

Military training in the Eastern Gulf will be protected and drilling activities will occur more than 125 miles from the Florida coast.

ALASKA LEASE PROPOSALS CANCELED

Proposed oil and gas leasing in Alaska's Bristol Bay will be canceled out of concern for protecting sensitive areas of the Outer Continental Shelf from environmental dangers.

This could affect companies like Royal Dutch Shell which has expressed interest in the region, as well as ConocoPhillips, BP and Statoil.

Four pending lease sales in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas in North Alaska will be canceled and those areas reserved for future scientific research to determine if they are suitable for further leasing. At the same time, a previously scheduled lease sale in Alaska's Cook Inlet will proceed.

Congress allowed a prohibition on offshore drilling to expire in 2008 and former President George W. Bush lifted a drilling moratorium that year. Environmental groups and some lawmakers continue to raise concerns about the impact increased drilling would have on coastal areas.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the U.S. Atlantic coast waters may hold 37 trillion cubic feet of gas and nearly 4 billion barrels of oil, while the Pacific Coast has 10.5 billion barrels of oil and 18 trillion cubic feet of gas.

To put that in context, the United States imports about 2 billion barrels of oil a year from OPEC nations and is expected to import 2.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from all sources this year, according to the Energy Department.

Also to be announced is that the Environmental Protection Agency and Transportation Department will sign a joint final rule on Thursday establishing greenhouse gas emission standards and corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards for light-duty vehicles for model years 2012-2016.

Obama will announce that 5,603 new hybrid cars and trucks have been ordered to convert the federal fleet to one of greater fuel efficiency.

(Additional reporting by Tom Doggett in Washington and Yereth Rosen in Anchorage)

(Editing by Roberta Rampton and Todd Eastham)


[Environment News]
[Green Business | COP15]
Wed Mar 31, 2010 5:32am EDT
Factbox: The Copenhagen Accord and global warming
｛ファクトボックス：コペンハーゲン合意と地球温暖化について｝

(Reuters) - Following are details of the Copenhagen Accord for fighting global warming after the United Nations published on Wednesday a first formal list of more than 110 countries as formal backers.

The non-binding deal, worked out at a 194-nation summit in December, was only "noted" at the time after objections by some developing nations. The United Nations then asked all countries to say if they wanted to be listed as backers of the deal

The list of supporters includes major emitters led by China, the United States, the European Union, Russia and India.

Following are main details of the Accord:

TEMPERATURES - Governments will work to combat climate change "recognizing the scientific view that the increase in global temperature should be below 2 degrees Celsius" (3.6 Fahrenheit). Temperatures have already risen by about 0.7 Celsius since before the Industrial Revolution.

GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS - The Accord does not set greenhouse gas goals for reaching the 2 degrees C target except to urge "deep cuts in global emissions" and to say that a peak in global emissions should be "as soon as possible." Many developing nations had wanted the rich to cut emissions by at least 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 -- rich nations' promised cuts so far average about 14-18 percent.

ADAPTATION - The Accord promises to help countries adapt to the damaging impacts of climate change such as droughts, storms or rising sea levels, "especially least developed countries, small island developing states and Africa." It also says all countries face challenges of adapting to "response measures" -- OPEC nations, for instance, argue they should be compensated if responses mean a shift from oil to wind or solar power.

2020 TARGETS - In an annex, rich nations list national goals for cuts in greenhouse gases and developing nations set out actions to slow the rise of emissions by 2020. In December, a leaked U.N. overview showed that, taken together, they imply a temperature rise of 3 degrees Celsius, not 2.

VERIFICATION - Developed nations will submit emissions goals for U.N. review. Developing nations' actions will be under domestic review if funded by their budgets but "subject to international measurement, reporting and verification" when funded by foreign aid. In Copenhagen, China resisted foreign review while the United States said it was vital.

DEFORESTATION - The text sees a "crucial role" for slowing deforestation -- trees store carbon dioxide as they grow.

MARKETS - The accord says countries will "pursue various approaches, including opportunities to use markets" to curb emissions.

AID - Developed nations promise new and additional funds "approaching $30 billion for 2010-12" to help developing countries. In the longer term, "developed countries commit to a goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion a year by 2020." Last month, the United Nations set up a high level panel, led by Britain and Ethiopia, to study sources of finance.

GREEN FUND - Countries will set up a "Copenhagen Green Climate Fund" to help channel aid. The deal will also set up a "Technology Mechanism" to accelerate use of green technologies.

REVIEW - The accord will be reviewed in 2015, including whether the temperature goal should be toughened to 1.5 degrees Celsius. An alliance of 101 least developed countries and small island states want temperatures to rise less than 1.5 degrees Celsius.

(Compiled by Alister Doyle in Oslo, Editing by Dominic Evans)

news20100331reut3

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent - Analysis
OSLO
Tue Mar 30, 2010 6:48am EDT
"Below" 2C opens new rift in U.N. climate battle
｛摂氏2度以下で、国連クライメイト論で新しい溝が生じる｝

(Reuters) - A goal to limit global warming to "below" 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) is opening a new rift for 2010 talks on a U.N. climate treaty as developing nations say it means the rich must deepen cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

An alliance of 101 developing nations and island states says the temperature target, endorsed by major emitters since the Copenhagen summit in December, is tougher than a previous goal by industrialized nations of 2 degrees as a maximum rise.

"2.0 degrees is unacceptable," said Dessima Williams, Grenada's ambassador to the United Nations who represents the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) which wants to limit temperatures to below 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial times.

But rich nations and some researchers say the Copenhagen Accord's "below" 2 is vague -- it can mean 1.999 degrees and so be indistinguishable for policy purposes from 2. The Accord does not lay down how the temperature goal will be reached.

"It can mean anything until we may agree on what it means concretely," European Union Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said of the temperature target.

"The good thing about saying 'below 2C' is that you then have a ceiling. A number of countries say 1.5 C and this has not been taken off the table," she said.

Senior officials meet in Bonn, Germany, from April 9-11 for the first U.N. talks since Copenhagen, trying to work out a new pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol after the U.N. summit failed.

DEGREES OF DIFFERENCE

"We do not see a redefinition of the '2 degree C limit' through the Copenhagen Accord: in that sense we interpret it as 1.9999 degree C," said Brigitte Knopf, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

The semantic dispute has huge economic implications for guiding a shift from fossil fuels toward renewable energies.

The U.N. panel of climate scientists said in 2007 that a greenhouse gas goal consistent with 2 degrees C would cost about 3 percent of world gross domestic product by 2030. It did not work out the higher costs of 1.5.

Williams said that promises for cuts in emissions outlined by developed nations so far put the world on track for a 3.9 degrees C rise in temperatures that would bring droughts, floods, mudslides, heatwaves and rising sea levels.

"Climate change leadership is certainly not forthcoming from actions and actors committing to such dangerous levels of emissions," she said. Hedegaard also said current targets are insufficient to meet the 2C goal.

Many analysts doubt that the next annual talks of environment ministers in Cancun, Mexico, in late 2010, will end with a treaty. One reason is that U.S. legislation to cut emissions is stalled in the Senate.

Temperatures have already risen by about 0.8 Celsius above pre-industrial times.

"To stay below 1.5 C is probably impossible given the massive inertia of the socio-economic and biophysical systems," said Pep Canadell, head of the Global Carbon Project at Australia's Commonwealth, Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.

"It will be very tough to stay below 2C."

The Copenhagen Accord recognizes the scientific view that the rise in global temperature "should be below 2 degrees C." The Group of Eight and big emerging nations agreed at a mid-2009 summit in Italy that the rise "ought not to exceed 2 degrees."

The Copenhagen Accord also holds out the prospect of $10 billion a year from 2010-12 in climate aid for developing nations, rising to $100 billion a year from 2020.

Knopf noted that the Accord adds a new element by saying that the tougher 1.5 degrees target should be reviewed in 2015.

So far, about 110 nations have endorsed the Copenhagen Accord, including top emitters led by China, the United States, Russia and India. The deal was only "noted" by the Copenhagen summit after objections from a handful of developing states.

Canadell said the world could emit 1,000 billion tons of carbon "starting now and stay at 2 degrees C or below with a 50 percent probability." Limiting emissions to 600 billion would raise the probability to 90 percent, but boost costs.

(Additional reporting by Karin Jensen in Copenhagen; Editing by Louise Ireland)


[Green Business]
TOKYO
Tue Mar 30, 2010 8:21am EDT
Mitsubishi Motors lowers price of electric i-MiEV
｛三菱自動車、電気自動車アイ-ミーブを値下げ｝

(Reuters) - Mitsubishi Motors Corp said it would lower the price on its electric i-MiEV car by 619,000 yen to 3.98 million yen ($43,020), pitting it against rival Nissan Motor's zero-emission Leaf model.

The Japanese automaker will lower the price on April 1, when it begins sales to individuals after selling the i-MiEV mainly to corporate customers since July 2009.

If Japan extends its incentives on electric cars into the business year starting in April, the i-MiEV would be eligible for subsidies of 1.14 million yen, leaving the customer with a price tag of 2.84 million yen, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

($1=92.52 Yen)

(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)


[Green Business]
Tue Mar 30, 2010 9:49am EDT
ISE says auditors raise going concern doubts
｛ＩＳＥ社、監査は継続企業に疑念を提起｝

(Reuters) - Canada's ISE Ltd, a maker of heavy duty hybrid-electric drive systems, said its auditors had expressed substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern, even as it posted a wider quarterly loss.

ISE said the proceeds from its initial public offering (IPO) in February might not meet its cash needs for the next 12 months and is currently in talks with financial institutions for a potential working capital credit facility.

The company, which raised about C$16 million ($15.69 million) from the IPO, said its ability to continue as a going concern would depend on it raising additional capital before the end of its current fiscal year.

ISE also posted a wider fourth-quarter net loss, hurt by increased costs.

The company also said it does not expect sales from the second half of 2010 to match the about $35 million it recorded in the prior period, but sees first half sales increasing over the previous year.

For the quarter ended December 31, the company posted a net loss applicable to common shareholders of $9.4 million, or $2.21 a share, compared with a net loss of $6.5 million, or $1.52 per share, a year ago.

Revenue nearly tripled to $18.4 million, helped primarily by revenue from fuel cell hybrid systems that sell at a higher average selling price compared with gasoline hybrid systems.

Shares of the company, which went public on February 23, closed at C$4.75 Monday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

($1=1.020 Canadian Dollar)

(Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bangalore; Editing by Unnikrishnan Nair)


[Green Business]
Tue Mar 30, 2010 9:50am EDT
LDK Q4 profit lags market; shares down
｛ＬＤＫ社、第4半期の利益で株価下落｝

(Reuters) - Chinese solar wafer maker LDK Solar reported an adjusted fourth-quarter profit below consensus estimates, as lower-than-expected average selling prices hurt gross margins, sending its shares down 7 percent in pre-market trade.

Fourth-quarter gross margins slipped to 9.9 percent, compared with 20.1 percent in the third quarter.

On a conference call with analysts, however, the company said it had seen improvements in year-to-date average selling prices.

Operating margin for the fourth quarter was a negative 1.1 percent, down from 13.2 percent in the third quarter.

For the fourth quarter, LDK reported a net loss of $7.3 million, or 7 cents per American depository share (ADS), compared with a net loss of $133.1 million, or $1.25 per ADS, last year.

Excluding items, the company earned 3 cents per ADS, a quarter of analysts expectations of a profit of 12 cents per ADS, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sales fell 27 percent to $304.6 million, but topped analysts' average estimate of $301.1 million.

The company, the world's largest maker of polysilicon wafers, however, forecast sequentially higher first-quarter shipments.

"During the fourth quarter, we continued to see strengthening wafer demand and improvement in the operating environment for the solar industry," LDK said.

It currently expects first-quarter wafer shipments of between 370 megawatts (MW) to 400 MW, up from the 340.4 MW it shipped in the fourth quarter.

LDK also guided toward first-quarter revenue of between $310 million and $330 million, the mid-point of which is above analysts' consensus estimates of $315.6 million.

The company, which has been moving more into manufacturing polysilicon, said its 1,000 metric ton (MT) plant was producing near capacity.

Shares of the company were down about 7 percent at $6.57 in pre-market trade. They closed at $7.05 Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Adveith Nair in Bangalore; Editing by Savio D'Souza, Unnikrishnan Nair)

news20100331reut4

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
LOS ANGELES
Tue Mar 30, 2010 9:51am EDT
Recurrent Energy, Kaiser partner on solar projects
｛リカレントエナジー社とカイザー社、ソーラープロジェクトで共同出資｝

(Reuters) - Solar power company Recurrent Energy and managed healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente are teaming up to develop 15 megawatts of solar power projects in California, both companies said on Tuesday.

Recurrent Energy will build, own and operate 16 solar power systems across 15 hospitals and offices of Kaiser Permanente, which will buy all the power generated from the project.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, although Citigroup Inc was cited as an equity investor on a portion of the projects and a partner in structuring agreements.

"Making rooftop solar work is a question of finding the right types of clients and the right types of buildings," Recurrent Energy's Chief Executive Arno Harris told Reuters.

"And the key thing is that we have here a number of very large, wide-open roofs that are all under one owner," he said.

Privately-held Recurrent Energy, which is backed by Hudson Clean Energy Partners, focuses on small-scale projects of up to 20 megawatts. It has a pipeline of more than 1 gigawatt of projects planned in the United States, Canada and Europe.

Harris said 9 MW, of the project's 15 MW total, should be on line by the end of this year, while the rest is expected to be operational by the summer of 2011.

One megawatt is enough power to supply some 800 average U.S. homes.

Harris is a big proponent of small, or distributed-scale solar projects, which he says are easier to push through the regulatory process and can come on line faster than large-scale developments, which can require extra transmission lines.

"We've demonstrated there are ways to put together distributed-scale projects that can generate a significant amount of power," he said.

Recurrent Energy announced a similar, but smaller, deal in September with warehouse and distribution facilities developer ProLogis to build 4.8 MW of solar power projects in Spain.

(Reporting by Dana Ford; editing by Andre Grenon)


[Green Business]
[Green Business | Lifestyle | COP15]
Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
OSLO
Tue Mar 30, 2010 10:33am EDT
Pearl Jam guitarist sees business key to climate
｛ギターリスト、パールジャム、クライメイト事業に乗り出す｝

(Reuters) - While many people dream of becoming a rock star, Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard says he is trying to be more of a businessman to help slow climate change.

The U.S. band, which has sold 60 million albums since 1991, said Monday it was investing $210,000 to plant trees in Washington State to soak up an estimated 7,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide linked to a 32-date 2009 tour.

"Pearl Jam is a band but we are also a business," guitarist and co-founder Gossard told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"We're seeing ourselves as a Washington business, a regional business that is acknowledging its carbon footprint and hoping to inspire other businesses."

Many leading musicians have sought to raise awareness about the risks of climate change, often by planting trees, and culminating in "Live Earth" concerts in July 2007 across seven continents.

But Gossard, 43, said celebrity-driven inspiration was often short-lived. "The idea of a celebrity is fantastic in terms of raising awareness for a day or a week, but it needs consistent business policy in the long term," he said.

He said there were good business arguments for investing in climate measures -- even though opinion polls in the United States show dwindling belief that mankind causes global warming. Carbon-capping legislation is stalled in the U.S. Senate.

"It's doable. It's not going to kill your company and if anything it will enhance your company's ability to sell whatever it is selling by being good stewards of the land," he said.

Gossard said that Pearl Jam's investments aimed to offset carbon from the band's use of fossil fuels linked to ships, trucks, planes, hotels as well as estimated emissions by 480,000 fans traveling to and from concerts in 2009.

Pearl Jam, one of the top-selling U.S. bands whose awards include a Grammy for "Spin the Black Circle," would plant thousands of trees and restore 33 acres of urban forests in Seattle, Kent, Kirkland and Redmond.

The scheme will also clear invasive plants such as English ivy choking native trees. Trees soak up carbon as they grow and release it when they rot or burn.

"It will store Pearl Jam's carbon, make cities more livable and show citizens how to be good stewards," said Gene Duvernoy, head of the Cascade Land Conservancy managing the project.

Pearl Jam has previously invested $150,000 since 2003 in climate measures. It was looking into widening carbon offsets to cover its album manufacturing and distribution.

Among other bands, the Rolling Stones added about 27 cents to ticket prices on a 2003 tour to help plant trees and show that "rock and roll is not a gas."

(Editing by Paul Casciato)


[Green Business]
[Green Business | Lifestyle]
Jon Hurdle
NEWARK, Del.
Tue Mar 30, 2010 3:31pm EDT
Electric cars give power back to grid
｛電気自動車、動力源の据え替え可能｝

(Reuters) - At first glance, the Toyota Scion sitting in the University of Delaware parking lot looks like a normal boxy car.

But a second look shows it lacks a tailpipe, and has an electrical outlet set into the grille below the hood. Inside, the Scion's identity as an electric car is revealed by the lack of a fuel gauge, and by a dashboard display showing that it has used 54.3 kilowatt hours to drive 210 miles.

But this is no ordinary electric car because, in addition to recharging its battery when not being driven, it also gives power back to the grid.

Professor Willett Kempton, who is leading the university's Vehicle to Grid (V2G) program, believes electric car batteries will represent a vast, reliable source of energy for the grid in a future when the national power supply will increasingly rely on renewable but fluctuating sources like sun and wind.

"Because in future, electricity will come more and more from sources that fluctuate, we need some form of storage that can reliably supply the grid, and electric car batteries are the most cost-effective form of that," he said.

One typical electric car can put out more than 10 kilowatts, the average draw of 10 houses, according to university researchers, and the power is readily available, since cars are idle on average for 95 percent of each day.

GIVING BACK TO THE GRID

Since 1997 the V2G program has been promoting the idea that electric or hybrid vehicles, if widely adopted, could give back to the grid during the many hours when they are not being driven.

With three converted Scions now in service and using V2G technology, and another four owned by the state of Delaware, the Center for Carbon-free Power Integration is proving not only that the vehicles are contributing energy to the national grid but also that the owner gets paid for his or her contributions.

On a laptop in his office, Kempton points to a display showing real-time data on the charging status of five V2G vehicles, including the power that each has put back into the grid, and the money that contribution has earned.

During March 1 to 25, one of the vehicles had earned $143.53 for the university from PJM, the local grid operator.

A key to the program is a cable that can transmit power to or from the car, and which is connected in a campus parking lot from the radiator grille outlet to a socket that looks like a recreational vehicle hook-up.

In the ideal world of V2G, such hook-ups would be commonplace at highway rest stops or parking lots where electric-vehicle drivers can recharge. Overnight, a fully-charged battery can give back to the grid.

Auto Port Inc. of Wilmington installs the V2G technology in the Scions.

The power needs of both the battery and the grid at any moment are determined via an internet signal carried down the connector, allowing each end to communicate with the other, Kempton said.

To help lay the groundwork for V2G in Delaware, the state passed a 2009 law - the first of its kind in the world -- requiring utilities to compensate electric car owners for power sent back to the grid at the same rate they pay to charge the battery.

At a current cost of about $75,000 per Scion - including V2G conversion and the basic car -- the vehicles are beyond the reach of most drivers. But Kempton argues that costs will fall as production increases. With all costs optimized, a V2G car should eventually sell for $3,000-$5,000 more than an equivalent gasoline model, he said.

Kempton boosts his vision with a prediction that most U.S. cars will be hybrid or pure electric in 30 years' time because of the rising cost of gasoline.

"There's not going to be enough oil, and China is going to buy it all," he said.

news20100331reut5

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
LONDON
Tue Mar 30, 2010 2:05pm EDT
Suspended carbon firms want clarity on U.N. rules
｛浮遊炭素企業、国連ルールの明確化を望む｝

(Reuters) - Carbon emissions auditors suspended by the U.N. late last week called for clarification of the rules of a Kyoto Protocol carbon finance scheme under which they operate, with one mulling fighting the suspension.

The executive board of Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) suspended Germany's TUEV SUED and partially suspended Korea Energy Management Corporation (KEMCO) for procedural breaches and over concerns about personnel qualifications.

"The company officials are now discussing internally how they will dispute," an official at KEMCO said on Tuesday.

He said KEMCO has six months to dispute the suspension, and during this time the board will make spot checks at the firm.

KEMCO was given the green light to continue working with renewable energy projects, energy efficiency projects and projects to cut chemical industry emissions, but was barred from working on any other types.

The CDM's executive board said TUEV SUED can continue working on existing projects but cannot take on new work.

The board has now fully or partially suspended four firms in the past 15 months for breaking rules under the CDM.

"In our view, this increase in the number of temporary suspensions also indicates that the provisions for (firms) are not clear enough," said Sven Kolmetz, head of carbon management services at TUEV SUED, in a statement.

"Companies need unambiguous, clear provisions and framework conditions to enable them to carry out their activities in compliance with the standard."

Under the $33 billion CDM, firms can invest in greenhouse gas cuts in developing countries and in return receive carbon offsets which they can sell for profit.

(Reporting by Michael Szabo and additional reporting by Cho Mee-young in Seoul; editing by James Jukwey)


[Green Business]
LONDON
Tue Mar 30, 2010 11:30am EDT
Global solar power capacity grew 44 pct in 2009
｛全世界の太陽発電能力、2009年で44パーセントの伸び｝

(Reuters) - Global installed solar photovoltaic power grew by 44 percent in 2009 on the back of German subsidies now under threat, the European Photovoltaic Industry Association said on Tuesday.

The global industry added a record 6.4 gigawatts new capacity, bringing total capacity to more than 20 gigawatts (GW), the EPIA said, despite tightened credit which has particularly hit infrastructure and energy project finance.

The increase was thanks to subsidies including a price premium for solar-powered electricity called a feed-in tariff.

"This is particularly impressive in light of the difficult financial and economical circumstances during the past year," said the EPIA industry group, adding it expected growth of at least 40 percent in 2010.

Germany was the largest demand market last year, adding 3 gigawatts (GW), followed by Italy, Japan and the United States. Germany would likely remain the biggest demand market in 2010, the EPIA said.

But Germany has proposed cuts to its feed-in tariffs from July, by 16 percent for rooftop solar power and by 15 percent for ground-mounted panels.

The risk from a cut in subsidies is underscored by Spain, which added just 60 megawatts (MW) in 2009, a fraction of the 2,500 MW or 2.5 GW the country added in 2008. The drop was a result of a cap in subsidies which Madrid applied because of a growing liability from its 25-year guaranteed incentives.

Despite strong growth, solar power still provides only about 0.5 percent of global installed electricity capacity, HSBC data show.

One problem for the emerging technology is cost, even in the aftermath of a sharp fall in solar panel prices, following a global glut of the main raw material, solar-grade silicon.

Solar power is far more expensive than rival forms of power generation, according to an HSBC report published in November.

Under the best case scenario in sunny locations, the cost of solar-powered electricity is about 17 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), compared with about 15 cents for offshore wind, 7 cents for coal and nuclear and 6 cents for gas.


[Green Business]
MADRID
Tue Mar 30, 2010 1:23pm EDT
Spain police arrest nine in CO2 tax probe
｛スペイン警察、炭素税検認で9人逮捕｝

(Reuters) - Spanish police on Tuesday said they had arrested nine people on charges of avoiding 50 million euros ($67.54 million) in tax linked to trading in carbon credits.

The arrests came after Spanish prosecutors announced last week they were launching an investigation into alleged tax fraud.

The investigation is part of a wider EU probe into an estimated 5 billion euros ($6.75 billion) fraud where companies bought carbon emissions permits in one country without paying value added tax, and then sold in another adding tax to the price but pocketing that difference for themselves.

"The operation began due to a report issued by Europol, which had already undertaken similar investigations in countries like France and the United Kingdom," a Civil Guard statement said.

Norwegian police charged five men on Monday as part of a European-wide probe into so-called carousel fraud related to the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme.

Carousel fraud occurs when goods, in this case greenhouse gas emissions credits -- known as EUAs -- are bought and imported tax-free from other EU countries, then sold to domestic buyers, charging them VAT.

The sellers then disappear without paying the tax to governments.

For a graphic on how carbon credit carousel fraud works, see here

In a separate statement on Tuesday, Spanish tax authorities estimated Spanish companies handled more than 350 million euros in EUA carousels between May and October 2009, when tax laws when changed.

"Once this rule was applied, not only did VAT fraud in this sector disappear in Spain, but also, transactions in the Spanish CO2 market fell drastically," the Tax Office said.

"Nonetheless, the fraud may continue to be committed against those countries in the (European) Union which have not modified their laws."

The Tax Office added that the carousel consisted of setting up a chain of international companies, headed by "a straw man, generally impossible to find."

The Tax Office added that it was continuing inquiries into whether the same chains of companies had moved into Spanish gas, electricity or other commodities markets.

(Reporting by Martin Roberts; Editing by Amanda Cooper)

news20100331reut6

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Thierry Leveque
PARIS
Tue Mar 30, 2010 12:06pm EDT

French court upholds oil spill ruling vs Total
｛フランスの裁判所、トータル社に油流出法を適用｝

(Reuters) - A French appeals court on Tuesday upheld key elements of a verdict against oil giant Total over a disastrous 1999 oil spill in a ruling with wide implications for the global oil industry's environmental responsibilities.

Total was found guilty in 2008 for the damage caused when the Erika, an aging oil tanker it had chartered, broke apart and sank in a winter storm off Brittany in 1999, spilling 20,000 tonnes of crude oil.

An oil slick covered 400 km (250 miles) of French coastline, killing thousands of birds and marine animals.

"In failing to apply precautionary rules, Total was at fault for imprudence in relation to the causality of the shipwreck," the appeals court judgment said.

The court confirmed the criminal responsibility of Total, which was fined 375,000 euros in the first case, as well as that of three other defendants, who were also fined.

The ruling also upheld the legal notion that damage to the general environment is on a par with economic harm to individuals or corporations for which companies must pay compensation.

"It means in future we will have the ability to assign a value to living things that have no commercial worth," said Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, president of the League for the Protection of Birds. "It is a considerable advance. They won't be able to behave tomorrow as they behaved before."

Contrary to the earlier ruling, Tuesday's judgment did not assign civil responsibility to Total, meaning it would in theory not be forced to pay damages and interest to victims in the case. But it said that the group could not reclaim payments it had already made.

DAMAGES PAYOUT INCREASED

The 2008 ruling ordered Total to pay 192 million euros ($259.4 million) in damages to environmental groups, local governments and others involved in the clean-up operation, and the bulk of this has already been paid.

On Tuesday, the appeals court raised the sum to 200 million euros but ordered the surplus over the original award to be paid by Rina, the Italian shipping certification body that gave the Erika its certificate of seaworthiness.

Total said it would consider the ruling over the coming days before deciding whether to appeal in the Cour de Cassation, the highest court in the French judiciary.

Despite lodging an appeal against the 2008 ruling, the oil giant made a deal with 37 of the plaintiffs after the first trial and has paid them 170 million euros.

It had already spent more than 200 million euros on pumping the remainder of the crude oil from the wreck of the Erika and on treatment and cleanup operations.

The sums are relatively small for Total, one of France's biggest industrial groups, which made a net profit of 7.8 billion euros last year. The battle was more about legal principles and future liabilities than about money.

The group argued it could not be held responsible for the failings of RINA, which gave the decrepit Erika a clean bill of health. The Italian owners and the certifiers were convicted and fined in 2008.

The first judgment had strongly endorsed the argument that oil companies should be held responsible for the state of the tankers they used to ship their products. It also backed the idea of an "environmental responsibility" in such cases.

That could be used as a precedent by plaintiffs in other cases of environmental damage around the world.

($1=.7403 Euro)

(Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by David Cowell)


[Green Business]
[Green Business | China | COP15]
OSLO
Wed Mar 31, 2010 5:32am EDT
Over 110 nations back Copenhagen climate deal
｛110カ国余り、コペンハーゲンクライメイト取り引きを支援｝

(Reuters) - More than 110 nations including top greenhouse gas emitters led by China and the United States back the non-binding Copenhagen Accord for combating climate change, according to a first formal U.N. list on Wednesday.

The list, of countries from Albania to Zambia, helps end weeks of uncertainty about support for the deal, agreed at an acrimonious summit in the Danish capital in December. The list was compiled by the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat.

The accord, falling short of a binding treaty sought by many nations, sets a goal of limiting global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit). But it does not spell out what each nation has to do.

It also promises almost $10 billion a year in aid for poor nations from 2010-12, rising to at least $100 billion from 2020 to help them slow emissions growth and cope with impacts such as floods, droughts and rising sea levels.

Apart from China and the United States, the list also includes top emitters such as the European Union, Russia, India and Japan. Their names were listed at the top of the 3-page text, following up an agreement in Copenhagen.

The accord was merely "noted" by the 194-nation summit after objections by a handful of developing nations including Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Sudan.

The United Nations then asked all countries to say if they wanted to be listed.

Many big emerging economies were initially reluctant to sign up after the deal failed to gain universal support, even though the original text was worked out by President Barack Obama with leaders of nations including China, India, Brazil and South Africa.

They also want the 1992 U.N. Climate Convention to guide U.N. negotiations on a new treaty, reckoning it more clearly spells out that rich nations have to take the lead.

Nations not on the list include many OPEC nations such as Saudi Arabia, which fear a loss of oil revenues if the world shifts to renewable energies, and some small island states which fear rising sea levels.

(Reporting by Alister Doyle, editing by Dominic Evans)