news20100423reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Environment News]
[Green Business | Lifestyle]
Christopher Michaud
NEW YORK
Thu Apr 22, 2010 12:53pm EDT
Green Auction to mark 40th anniversary of Earth Day
｛グリーンオークション、アースデー四十周年を迎える。｝

(Reuters) - Artists, conservationists, business leaders and film and music stars from around the globe are marking the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day with a Green Auction to benefit the environment.

Organizers of the live auction on Thursday at Christie's and a companion silent online sale and related events, known as "A Bid to Save the Earth," expect to raise millions for four nonprofit environmental groups.

Artists Jenny Holzer, Damien Hirst, Alan Sonfist have donated major works for the sale. Jeff Koons will provide a studio visit to the highest bidder and Annie Leibovitz has donated signed copies of her book.

Bidders can also vie for tennis lessons with John McEnroe, an afternoon in Central Park with Canice Bergen, dinner and the theater with actress Sigourney Weaver or a day on the set with Australian star Hugh Jackman.

Jewelry, watches and luxury green travel packages will round out the items up for grabs at Thursday's auction.

"It's an unprecedented collaboration," said Susan Cohn Rockefeller, who is co-chair of the auction with husband David Rockefeller Jr., a philanthropist and environmental activist.

With participation from quarters as far-reaching as Deutsche Bank, NBC Universal and retailers Target and Barneys, officials said the event reflected increasing understanding that business concerns are closely tied to environmental issues, and that two need not be opposing forces.

"We're building bridges with different communities," said Peter Lehner, executive director of the international environmental advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Counsel, which will benefit from the event.

He added that his group has been working closely with such nontraditional environmental allies as manufacturers and labor unions.

Doug Blonsky, president of the Central Park Conservancy, which is another beneficiary, agreed.

"There's a real business model behind environmentalism," he said.

Proceeds from the auction, which will be carried on Christie's live at www.christies.com and continues with a silent auction ending on May 6 (www.abidtosavetheearth.org), will also benefit Oceana and Conservation International.

Christie's is waiving all fees and commissions for the sale, and in nod toward being green is not printing a catalog. Native Energy is providing carbon offsets -- reduced carbon emissions to counter those associated with the event.

Charity auctions have raked in big bucks in recent years, and while the financial crisis has struck hard, experts say the art market is on the verge of a strong recovery.

Organizers say that raising awareness and stimulating even small donations to environmental concerns is a chief goal.

Those on a more modest budget can scoop up one of Barney's specially designed $40 T-shirts, a tie-in with the event.

Text happy tweeters are encouraged to text GOGREEN to phone number 20222 for a $10 donation, while both Twitter (Bid2SaveEarth) and Facebook (ABidToSaveTheEarth)are linked to the auction.


[Environment News]
[Green Business | COP15]
Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent
WASHINGTON
Thu Apr 22, 2010 2:53pm EDT
Ocean chemistry changing at 'unprecedented rate'
｛海洋の化学性質、かつてない割合で変化。｝

(Reuters) - Carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming are also turning the oceans more acidic at the fastest pace in hundreds of thousands of years, the National Research Council reported Thursday.

"The chemistry of the ocean is changing at an unprecedented rate and magnitude due to anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions," the council said. "The rate of change exceeds any known to have occurred for at least the past hundreds of thousands of years."

Ocean acidification eats away at coral reefs, interferes with some fish species' ability to find their homes and can hurt commercial shellfish like mussels and oysters and keep them from forming their protective shells.

Corrosion happens when carbon dioxide is stored in the oceans and reacts with sea water to form carbonic acid. Unless carbon dioxide emissions are curbed, oceans will grow more acidic, the report said.

Oceans absorb about one-third of all human-generated carbon dioxide emissions, including those from burning fossil fuels, cement production and deforestation, the report said.

The increase in acidity is 0.1 points on the 14-point pH scale, which means this indicator has changed more since the start of the Industrial Revolution than at any time in the last 800,000 years, according to the report.

The council's report recommended setting up an observing network to monitor the oceans over the long term.

"A global network of robust and sustained chemical and biological observations will be necessary to establish a baseline and to detect and predict changes attributable to acidification," the report said.

ACID OCEANS AND 'AVATAR'

Scientists have been studying this growing phenomenon for years, but ocean acidification is generally a low priority at international and U.S. discussions of climate change.

A new compromise U.S. Senate bill targeting carbon dioxide emissions is expected to be unveiled on April 26.

Ocean acidification was center stage at a congressional hearing Thursday, the 40th anniversary of Earth Day in the United States.

"This increase in (ocean) acidity threatens to decimate entire species, including those that are at the foundation of the marine food chain," Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey told a Commerce Committee panel. "If that occurs, the consequences are devastating."

Lautenberg said that in New Jersey, Atlantic coast businesses generate $50 billion a year and account for one of every six jobs in the state.

Sigourney Weaver, a star of the environmental-themed film "Avatar" and narrator of the documentary "Acid Test" about ocean acidification, testified about its dangers. She said people seem more aware of the problem now than they did six months ago.

"I think that the science is so indisputable and easy to understand and ... we've already run out of time to discuss this," Weaver said by telephone after her testimony. "Now we have to take action."

(Editing by Sandra Maler)


[Environment News]
[Green Business | Lifestyle | COP15]
Ellen Wulfhorst
NEW YORK
Thu Apr 22, 2010 6:45pm EDT
City dwellers cite climate as top concern: poll
｛世論調査によると、都市住民、気候変動をトップに上げる。｝

(Reuters) - Residents of major world cities cite climate change as the most pressing global issue, except residents of large U.S. cities who list the economy as the bigger problem, according to a survey by HSBC Bank.

Climate change topped the list of concerns by some two-thirds of Hong Kong residents polled as well as majorities of residents of London, Paris, Sao Paolo, Toronto, Vancouver and Sydney, according to the poll of 2,044 urban residents around the world.

Residents of U.S. cities, however, ranked the economy as the biggest global issue, closely followed by terrorism with climate change ranking third.

The survey polled residents of 11 cities -- New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver, London, Hong Kong, Paris, Sao Paolo and Sydney.

"When you look at what the impact of the recent global downturn has been, U.S. individuals had a larger percent of their portfolio or a larger percentage of their wealth negatively affected," said Andy Ireland, head of premier banking for HSBC Bank NA. "I think there may be a correlation between the two."

U.S. respondents were hardest hit by the economic downturn with 56 percent reporting a decrease in their portfolio value.

Fifty five percent of Paris residents said their portfolios dropped in value and 45 percent of Londoners reported a decrease. However, just 19 percent of Hong Kong respondents said their portfolios lost value.

The survey was conducted online from February 17 to March 1 among respondents who had university or post-graduate educations, were ages 25 to 64 and had at least $100,000 of investable assets.

No statistical margin of error was calculated, as the sample was not projectable to a larger population.

(Editing by Michelle Nichols and Chris Wilson)

news20100423reut2

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Environment News]
[Barack Obama | Green Business | COP15]
Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON
Thu Apr 22, 2010 2:55pm EDT
Senators struggling over climate compromise
｛上院議員、グリーン政策の歩み寄りで必死の努力。｝

(Reuters) - U.S. senators writing a massive climate-change bill struggled on Thursday over how to reduce carbon dioxide pollution in the transportation sector, Senator Lindsey Graham said, adding that he did not yet know whether a measure would be ready by Monday.

"The transportation sector is a problem," Graham told reporters. "We're just dealing with that."

Graham, a Republican, has been collaborating with Democratic Senator John Kerry and independent Senator Joseph Lieberman on a bill they hope to sketch out on Monday, but which will face an uphill fight this year.

Asked whether the trio will be able to meet that deadline, Graham responded, "I don't know yet."

The fight over how Congress should reduce pollution that scientists blame for global warming was unfolding as environmentalists celebrated the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

"Earth Day 2010 must be a reflection point that helps make this the year the Senate passes comprehensive climate and energy legislation," Kerry said in a statement.

He called it "our last and best shot" at finding 60 votes needed in the Senate for controversial bills such as this one to clear procedural hurdles.

Kerry, Graham and Lieberman had been looking at a "linked fee" on motor fuels, applied after oil is refined, as a way of handling the transportation part of the climate bill.

That fee would have been linked to the price of carbon pollution permits for electric power utilities that would be traded on a regulated market.

But according to sources, there was strong backlash from other senators to the idea of a "fee," which opponents would label a tax on consumers that they would pay at the gasoline pump.

Some environmental sources have told Reuters that the three senators have been looking at a substitute idea -- one that would have oil refiners buying pollution "allowances" that are based on the carbon content of their fuels.

'LOOKING AT OTHER WAYS'

Senators would not confirm that and Graham refused to discuss any new details.

But he said, "we're looking at other ways," instead of the linked fee.

"It's one thing for oil and gas companies to be OK" with a transportation sector pollution-reduction scheme, "but what if you're actually driving a truck and that's the way you make a living. How does it effect you," he said.

Lawmakers are always gun-shy about any legislation that is perceived to be raising taxes, especially as they face elections in November for one-third of the Senate and the entire House of Representatives.

Carol Browner, President Barack Obama's top energy and climate adviser, said in a discussion on the White House website that Kerry, Graham and Lieberman will "present" their bill on Monday. "We are working with them and are very encouraged by this bipartisan group and the progress they are making," she said.

Whenever the compromise bill is unveiled, it is expected to spark a spirited discussion among senators, corporate lobbyists and environmentalists.

Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer of California, who helped write a climate change bill last year that Kerry, Graham and Lieberman are building upon, was asked whether she could support the new proposal if it does not protect climate-control initiatives already in place in her state.

"We're very optimistic about how the bill will look vis-a-vis my state," Boxer said, but adding she had not yet seen the text of the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman bill.

Sources have told Reuters that the bill will preempt some of the climate-control efforts of states and regions, while giving them latitude to continue their own energy-efficiency efforts.

But Democratic Senator Carl Levin, who represents the automobile manufacturing state of Michigan, told reporters that his support for a compromise climate bill would vanish unless there is a strong federal standard for controlling carbon pollution emissions.

If California gets an exemption, Levin told reporters, "That's the end of it for me ... that's not a national standard" if California wins a waiver, he said.

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


[Environment News]
[Science | Green Business]
WASHINGTON
Thu Apr 22, 2010 6:46pm EDT
Orcas are more than one species, gene study shows
｛遺伝子研究によると、シャチ、遺伝子から数種の存在が判明。｝

(Reuters) - They may all look similar, but killer whales, also known as orcas, include several distinct species, according to genetic evidence published on Thursday.

Tissue samples from 139 killer whales from around the world point to at least three distinct species, the researchers report in the journal Genome Research.

Researchers had suspected this may be the case -- the distinctive black-and-white or gray-and-white mammals have subtle differences in their markings and also in feeding behavior.

Orcas as a group are not considered an endangered species, but some designated populations of the predators are. A new species designation could change this and affect conservation efforts.

One of the newly designated species preys on seals in the Antarctic while another eats fish, said Phillip Morin of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California, who led the research.

His team sequenced the DNA from the whales' mitochondria, a part of the cell that holds just a portion of the DNA. Mitochondrial DNA is passed down with very few changes from mother to offspring.

New sequencing methods finally made it possible to do so, Morin said in a statement.

"The genetic makeup of mitochondria in killer whales, like other cetaceans, changes very little over time, which makes it difficult to detect any differentiation in recently evolved species without looking at the entire genome," he said.

"But by using a relatively new method called highly parallel sequencing to map the entire genome of the cell's mitochondria from a worldwide sample of killer whales, we were able to see clear differences among the species."

The 139 whales whose DNA was sequenced came from the North Pacific, the North Atlantic and Antarctica.

The genetic evidence suggests two different species in Antarctica and also separates out mammal-eating "transient" killer whales in the North Pacific.

Other types of orca may also be separate species or subspecies, but it will take additional analysis to be sure, the researchers said.

NOAA has designated a population of killer whales that lives in the Pacific off the coast of Washington state as endangered.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Julie Steenhuysen and Sandra Maler)


[Environment News]
[Green Business | COP15]
LONDON
Thu Apr 22, 2010 7:02pm EDT
Most UK farmers say not feeling climate change
｛英国の農業従事者のほとんど、気候変動を感じていないと。｝


(Reuters) - An increasing number of British farmers say they are unaffected by climate change, a survey found on Friday.

British public belief in climate change in general has sagged in the aftermath of disclosure of errors made by a U.N. climate panel report.

Some 62 percent of a poll of 414 farmers said they were unaffected by climate change, up from nearly 50 percent who said last year that they had not felt its effects.

"For farming there's been a very tough winter, a lot of snow, that may be part of it, and generally people seem bit more cynical and apathetic," said Madeleine Lewis, strategic adviser to the UK advisory group Forum for the Future.

Overall, farmers were much more likely to disagree than agree that climate change had become more relevant to them in the past year. Some said that the economic crisis had forced climate change down their priorities.

In addition, the number of respondents who expected climate change to impact them in the next 10 years was down, at 57 percent versus 63 percent last year.

Britain may be spared the more extreme consequences of climate change, as a rather cool, wet country where crop yields may benefit from slightly higher temperatures.

Climate change could lead to more droughts and floods, higher temperatures and rising seas, experts say.

About a third of farmers were taking action to prepare, most commonly through better water management for example to prepare for droughts or floods.

Almost half of farmers were doing something to cut carbon emissions. Britain targeted last year a 6 percent cut in farm greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. The government has introduced new incentives for example for anaerobic digestion, where farmers earn support to trap greenhouse gases from manure.

In addition, the government-backed Carbon Trust has offered interest-free loans for farmers to upgrade to more energy efficient equipment. Only about a third of farmers were interested in measuring their carbon footprint, the survey said.

news20100423reut3

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Environment News]
[Entertainment | Film | Green Business | COP15]
Edith Honan
NEW YORK
Thu Apr 22, 2010 7:12pm EDT
Film fetes small steps to address climate change
｛映画祭、気候変動問題でわずかながらも前進。｝

(Reuters) - If "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's Oscar-winning 2006 film on global warming, left audiences depressed about the planet's future, a new film from the same executive producers is designed to lift spirits.

"Climate of Change" premieres at New York's Tribeca Film Festival Thursday -- Earth Day -- and focuses on the efforts by individuals from around the world to reduce their personal carbon footprint while fighting business interests they say threaten the environment.

"I wouldn't exactly call it a feel-good film about climate change, but the idea was not to make a film that was scary," film director Brian Hill told Reuters. "We've got people doing something, people reacting to the kind of messages in films like 'An Inconvenient Truth.'"

The film, produced in part by Participant Media, which produced the Al Gore film, features a group of schoolchildren in Patna, India, explaining how they intend to change the world by protesting the use of plastic.

It also shows a community in Papua, New Guinea, that has banned commercial logging, a group in the U.S. state of West Virginia that is fighting to end mountaintop removal by coal companies, and an organization in Togo that is teaching women to use ovens powered by the sun.

"Climate of Change," narrated by actress Tilda Swinton, argues that average people must work to reduce their own carbon emissions since some industrialized nations and large companies refuse to take significant steps.

"It would be great, and probably more useful in the long run, if governments would get involved," Hill said. "I don't think any government has really decided to tackle it in any forthright and bold manner, which is what you really need."

World leaders are due to meet in Mexico in November for the latest round of climate change talks, but observers say they are skeptical about how far the biggest carbon emitters will agree to go.

The U.S. Congress is also considering legislation to reduce emissions of so-called greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. But the likelihood of passage this year is slim.

Hill said the experience of making the film has changed his behavior: "I'm forever going around the house, turning lights out."

(Reporting by Edith Honan; Editing by Daniel Trotta)


[Environment News]
[U.S. | Green Business | Mexico]
Bruce Nichols and Anna Driver
HOUSTON
Thu Apr 22, 2010 7:30pm EDT
Rig sinks in Gulf of Mexico, oil spill risk looms
｛メキシコ湾で掘削装置が沈没、オイル漏れの危険が大きく迫る。｝

(Reuters) - An oil drilling rig that had burned for 36 hours in the Gulf of Mexico sank on Thursday as hopes dimmed for 11 missing workers and the risk of a major oil spill loomed, officials said.

The fire went out as the Deepwater Horizon, operated by Transocean Ltd, sank below the surface at 10:21 a.m. CDT (1521 GMT), about 42 miles off the Louisiana coast.

The rig was drilling BP Plc's Macondo project with 126 workers on board when it was ripped by an explosion and fire on Tuesday night. Some 115 workers escaped, including 17 helicoptered to New Orleans area hospitals with injuries.

Search and rescue operations turned up two empty lifeboats, and officials cited dim hopes that the 11 workers missing since the blast about 10 p.m. CDT Tuesday night would be rescued.

"We do continue with search and rescue activities," the 8th District Coast Guard Commander Rear Admiral Mary Landry said. "As time passes, however, the probability of success in locating the 11 missing persons decreases."

Transocean, based in Zug, Switzerland and the world's largest offshore drilling contractor, said some of the missing may not have been able to escape the rig.

"Based on reports of crew members, at the time of the incident, they believe they may have been on board and not able to evacuate," said Adrian Rose, a vice president of Transocean.

U.S. lawmakers called for the Coast Guard and Minerals Management Service to investigate the incident.

"It is critical that these agencies examine what went wrong and the environmental impact this incident has created," said Sen. Mary Landrieu, Louisiana Democrat.

The explosion comes almost three weeks after President Barack Obama unveiled plans for a limited expansion of U.S. offshore oil and gas drilling.

It was unclear whether the rig sank to the bottom in about 5,000 feet of water, or how much oil still flowed or had spilled from the well, officials said.

By Thursday afternoon, a five-mile long oil slick extended from the accident site, which has the potential to be a "major" oil spill, the Coast Guard said.

Officials said floating oil spill barriers, skimmers and airplanes to drop dispersant were being prepared to control and clean up the spill.

A remotely operated unmanned submarine, commonly used in the industry, was deployed to determine the exact location and condition of the rig and the situation of the well, which extends 5,000 feet through water and 13,000 feet beneath the seabed.

"We continue to assist Transocean in the effort to halt the flow of oil from the well through the use of a remotely operated vehicle to activate the subsea blowout preventer," said David Rainey, vice president of Gulf of Mexico Exploration for BP, a leading oil and gas operator in the Gulf.

Officials said an investigation was being launched to determine exactly what happened. Sometimes oil and gas well drilling hits pockets of high pressure that were not anticipated and cannot be controlled, experts said.

The well in Tuesday's accident was the first of a series to be drilled and was in the process of being temporarily plugged pending production.

"The well had been cased off. We were actually in process of running the final plug," Rainey said. "At this point, we don't understand what happened."

The rig explosion did not have an effect on crude oil prices because the well was not in production mode.

Shares of Transocean traded on the New York Stock Exchange fell 8 cents to $90.29, while shares of BP traded on the NYSE were off 54 cents at $59.55.

(Editing by Marguerita Choy)


[Environment News]
[Green Business | Japan | COP15]
Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent
WASHINGTON
Thu Apr 22, 2010 8:13pm EDT
Commercial whaling may continue for 10 years: IWC
｛ＩＷＣによると、商業捕鯨は十年は続く可能性がある。｝

(Reuters) - Japan, Norway and Iceland could continue commercial whaling for another decade, despite a global ban, under a proposal released Thursday by the International Whaling Commission.

Between 4,000 and 18,000 whales could be saved over the next 10 years under the compromise proposal, which sets lower catch limits for all three whaling nations than the self-imposed quotas they have now.

"For the first time since the adoption of the commercial whaling moratorium, we will have strict, enforceable limits on all whaling operations," Cristian Maquieira, the Chilean chairman of the commission, said in a statement.

There would be rigorous monitoring of whaling, and no other countries in the 88-nation commission would be allowed to start whaling operations during the 10-year plan.

The environmentally delicate Southern Ocean would be designated as a sanctuary, but whalers from Japan would still be allowed to take a number of the marine mammals from the seas around Antarctica.

The United States said it would consider the plan but said it would oppose any proposal that lifted the international commercial whaling ban, which has been routinely evaded by Japan, Norway and Iceland.

'LOOPHOLES' BLAMED

"When the moratorium on commercial whaling began in 1986, it had an immediate beneficial impact," Monica Medina, a Commerce Department official who represents Washington at the whaling commission, said in a statement.

Medina said that, over time, "loopholes in the rules" allowed more whaling, with 35,000 whales hunted and killed since the ban started.

The proposal is a compromise crafted by Maquieira and the commission's vice chairman, Anthony Liverpool, after two years of acrimony and meetings in Washington last week that ended with no agreement. The 88 member-countries will have 60 days to consider it before discussing it at the commission's annual meeting in Morocco in June.

Environmental groups and many countries, including Australia and New Zealand, favor a total ban on commercial whaling.

"It's quite disappointing," said Susan Lieberman of the Pew Environment Group. "The key issue is, it allows for continued commercial whaling. It allows Japan to whale off the coast of Antarctica, and that's not acceptable."

The impact of climate change is more severe at the poles, and the waters around Antarctica are already under pressure, Lieberman said. She questioned the proposed idea of setting up a sanctuary for whales there, and then letting whaling continue in the area.

Lieberman praised the proposal's provisions for detailed monitoring and DNA tracking of whales.

(Editing by Eric Beech)

news20100423reut4

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Environment News]
[Green Business | COP15]
Peter Henderson
SAN FRANCISCO
Thu Apr 22, 2010 8:35pm EDT
Greenpeace won't fight U.S. climate bill
｛グリーンピース、米国の気候変動対策法案には争いの意思なし。｝

(Reuters) - Greenpeace considers the climate change bill being drafted in the U.S. Senate a "baby step" that will not deliver needed change, but it will not campaign against it, the group's top executive said on Thursday.

U.S. senators led by Democrat John Kerry are expected to unveil next week a compromise bill to fight global warming that tries to bridge divides between industry and environmentalists after a previous effort failed.

Environmentalists are grappling with whether to back a bill they see as a compromise or to risk upsetting the fragile momentum of the U.S. climate change agenda by opposing it.

"This is a baby step in the right direction. It is in terms of what the world needs, it is, you know, too little too late," said Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace International, which is known for confrontational tactics.

Passage of a bill may be difficult this year, with many senators expressing opposition to provisions that might be included. But progress on domestic global warming legislation could bolster international efforts to rein in carbon dioxide pollution.

Greenpeace broke with many well-known environmental groups last year by opposing a climate bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.

Naidoo spoke about respecting allies who are trying to get the best political solution possible. "Our intention is not to wage any kind of huge effort, because strategically it will just be counterproductive," he said in a conversation with Reuters and Earth Island Journal.

'TALKING WAY ABOVE THE PEOPLE'

Greenpeace began decades ago as an anti-nuclear campaigner and gained attention trying to disrupt nuclear tests. It is now a global group focused partly on climate change. It still holds protests but also negotiates changes in policies with companies it criticizes.

Naidoo argued that Greenpeace and other environmental groups concerned with global warming needed to do a better job of mobilizing. He said they needed to make the stakes of climate change more accessible with a rallying cry of safeguarding the future for children instead of saving the planet, he said.

"Right now, I think if we are brutally honest with ourselves, a lot of us talk way above the people," he said, recalling a conversation with his brother who took him to task for talking about temperature degrees, percentages and parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

(Reporting by Peter Henderson; Editing by Peter Cooney)


[Environment News]
[Arts | Green Business]
Christopher Michaud
NEW YORK
Fri Apr 23, 2010 12:19am EDT
Green Auction nets $2 million for environment
｛グリーンオークションで、環境に二百万ドルの純利益上げる。｝

(Reuters) - Art collectors, environmentalists and celebrities packed the salesroom at Christie's on Thursday, the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, and spent nearly $2 million at the Green Auction benefiting the environment.

A round of golf with former President Bill Clinton, a painting by Damien Hirst, a Girard-Perregaux white gold and diamond watch and 18 other lots drew spirited bidding from anonymous buyers as well as stars such as Salma Hayek and Chevy Chase, who served as emcee.

Edward Dolman, chief executive of Christie's International, called the event "a wonderfully appropriate way to celebrate Earth Day," adding that the response had been breathtaking.

"I like to think that we are one of the first to get seriously into recycling," he quipped in reference to the 244-year-old auction house's history of selling and reselling art and other fine collectibles.

Proceeds from the live auction, a companion silent online sale and related fund-raising events collectively known as "A Bid to Save the Earth" will be divided among the non-profit environmental groups Natural Resources Defense Council, the Central Park Conservancy, Oceana and Conservation International.

Other stars on hand included Sam Waterston and Ted Danson, along with newsmen Brian Williams and Matt Lauer, and Candice Bergen, who donated a tour of Central Park with the actress followed by lunch.

A few items, including a trip to Botswana for six guided by National Geographic's editor in chief, went as high as $150,000, while spirited bidding drove the price for golfing with Clinton to $80,000. Bids totaled just over $1.5 million.

The silent auction (www.abidtosavetheearth.org) has drawn bids well in excess of $500,000 and could top $1 million or more by May 6, when it finishes.

Up for grabs are tennis lessons with John McEnroe, dinner and theater with actress Sigourney Weaver and a day on the set with Australian actor Hugh Jackman. A behind-the-scenes tour with Simon Doonen of Manhattan department store Barneys' legendary holiday window displays, along with lunch and a $5,000 gift card, has soared to $37,500.

With participation from quarters as far-reaching as Deutsche Bank, NBC Universal and retailers Target and Barneys, officials said the Green Auction reflected increasing understanding that business concerns are closely tied to environmental issues, and that the two need not be opposing forces.

Christie's waived all fees and commissions for the sale, and in a green nod did not print a catalog. And the event's "red carpet" was not red -- it was green.

"The Green Auction is a call to action," Dolman said before the auction.

Paddle raises, in which bidders made donations ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 to one of the environmental groups, took in another half million dollars, while cellphone users were encouraged to text GOGREEN to phone number 20222 to make a $10 donation.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)


[Environment News]
[Science | Green Business]
Pauline Askin
SYDNEY
Fri Apr 23, 2010 1:55am EDT
Whale feces could help oceans absorb CO2
｛クジラの排せつ物、海洋のＣＯ2の吸収に効果が有りか。｝

(Reuters) - Whale droppings have emerged as a natural ocean fertilizer which could help combat global warming by allowing the Southern Ocean to absorb more carbon dioxide, Australian scientists have found.

New research from the Australian Antarctic Division suggests whales naturally fertilize surface waters with iron-rich whale excrement, allowing the whole eco-system to send more carbon down into deep waters.

"The plants love it and it actually becomes a way of taking carbon out of the atmosphere," Antarctic scientist Steve Nicol told Reuters, adding the droppings appear as a plume of solids and liquids.

A larger population of baleen whales and krill would boost the productivity of the whole Southern Ocean ecosystem and could improve the absorption of carbon dioxide, blamed for global warming.

Iron is a limited micronutrient in the Southern Ocean, but recent experiments have found that adding soluble iron to surface waters helps promote much-needed phytoplankton algal blooms.

Iron is contained in algae in the surface waters where plants grow, but there is a constant rain of iron-rich particles falling into deep waters.

When krill eat the algae, and whales eat the krill, the iron ends up in whale poo, and the iron levels are kept up in surface waters where it is most needed.

"We reckon whale poo is probably 10 million times more concentrated with iron than sea water," Nicol said.

"The system operates at a high level when you have this interaction between the krill, the whales and the algae and they maintain the system at a very high level of production. So it's a self sustaining system."

Nicol said the idea to research whale droppings came from a casual pub chat among Antarctic scientists in Australia's island state of Tasmania.

He said it was not yet known how much poo it would take have a significant impact on the Southern Ocean.

(Reporting by Pauline Askin, editing by Miral Fahmy)

news20100423reut5

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Environment News]
[Green Business | COP15]
Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
OSLO
Fri Apr 23, 2010 6:29am EDT
Like Sept.11, volcano plane ban may hold climate clue
｛2001年の9月11日のテロ事件と同様に、火山噴火による飛行禁止も気候変動対策の手がかりに。｝

(Reuters) - Plane-free skies over Europe during Iceland's volcanic eruption may yield rare clues about how flights stoke climate change, adding to evidence from a closure of U.S. airspace after September 11, 2001, experts say.

The climate effects of jet fuel burned at high altitude are poorly understood, partly because scientists cannot often compare plane-free skies with days when many regions are criss-crossed by white vapor trails.

Scientists will pore over European temperature records, satellite images and other data from days when flights were grounded by ash -- trying to isolate any effect of a lack of planes from the sun-dimming effect of Iceland's volcanic cloud.

"The presence of volcanic ash makes this event much more challenging to analyze," said David Travis, of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, who found that an absence of vapor trails influenced U.S. temperatures after the September 11 attacks.

One possibility was to study areas of Europe where ash was minimal and flights were canceled mainly as a precaution. "But this becomes very challenging to measure," he told Reuters.

Progress in figuring out the impact of planes might make it easier to include aviation in any U.N. climate deal -- international flights are exempt from emissions curbs under the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol for combating climate change until 2012.

CARBON

That might in turn push up ticket prices if flights include a penalty for emissions. Flights in Europe emitted 186 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2007, the European Environment Agency said, more than the total emissions of Belgium.

Many studies estimate that aviation, the fastest growing transport sector, accounts for 2-3 percent of global warming from human activities that could bring more heat waves, species extinctions, mudslides and rising sea levels.

No one wants disasters that close airspace but scientists will seize on European data from days of clear skies, said Gunnar Myhre of the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo.

"There will be initiatives," he said, adding that it was hard to separate ash from industrial pollution.

Travis's 2002 study found that an absence of condensation trails during the September 11-14 closure of U.S. airspace to commercial flights after the suicide hijacker attacks led to bigger swings in daily temperatures.

That was evidence that jets affect temperatures, but did not say if contrails were boosting climate change or not.

The U.N. panel of climate experts reckons that aviation is damaging the climate and that non-carbon factors -- such as nitrogen oxides, soot or contrails -- may have an effect 2 to 4 times as great as carbon dioxide alone.

The current European Union emissions trading scheme only covers carbon dioxide, and wants more studies. "All the impacts of aviation should be addressed to the extent possible," European Commission spokeswoman Maria Kokkonen said.

High clouds -- such as contrails or cirrus clouds -- tend to trap heat, preventing it escaping from the thin atmosphere. By contrast, lower clouds usually dampen climate change since their white tops are better at reflecting sunlight.

(Additional reporting by Pete Harrison in Brussels; Editing by Mark Heinrich)


[Green Business]
LONDON
Wed Apr 21, 2010 2:56pm EDT
EU carbon closes lower, traders take profit

(Reuters) - European carbon emissions futures' recent rise paused on Wednesday, closing lower, as participants to started cash in on profits made in a recent price rally, traders said.

EU Allowances for December delivery closed down 6 cents or 0.41 percent at 14.65 a tonne, with ($22.56) 12,536 lots traded.

The Dec-10 contract opened strongly on Wednesday at 14.81 euros a tonne before traders took profit.

EUAs have fallen only on three trading days since March 30, pushing the 14-day relative strength index (RSI) slightly into overbought territory, around 77.0.

Open interest on the Dec-10 contract has risen 3.1 million tonnes to 164,377 million tonnes.

Traders are taking short-term positions and taking profit on relatively modest gains in price, IDEAcarbon analysts said in a note.

EUAs' upward movement should continue in the coming days, with investors still eyeing a 15 euro target.

"We believe the power hedging season will last well into May, and should help the market into the mid to upper 15 euros before utility demand begins to ebb," IDEAcarbon said.

A German auction of 300,000 EUA futures settled at 14.59 euros a tonne on Wednesday.

German Calendar 2011 baseload power on the EEX was up 1.19 euros or 2.4 percent at 50.70 euros per megawatt hour.

Oil slipped below $83 a barrel after U.S. government data showed an unexpected increase in crude inventories and fuel stocks.

Certified emissions reductions closed 7 cents or 0.54 percent higher at 13.12 euros a tonne, setting the EUA-CER spread at 1.53 euros.


[Green Business]
BEIJING
Wed Apr 21, 2010 11:40pm EDT
Factbox: A glimpse of Chinese green cars

(Reuters) - Chinese carmakers, unscathed by a savage global industry downturn, are revving up their efforts to put cleaner, low-emission vehicles on the roads, counting on the green drive to help them catch up with overseas rivals.

From top Chinese auto group SAIC Motor Corp to rising star Geely Automotive Holding, indigenous players will show a plethora of green shoots at the Beijing autoshow this week.

Here is a list of hybrid, electric and fuel cell models showcased by Chinese automakers.

SAIC Motor Corp

- Roewe 550 plug-in hybrid, Roewe 750 hybrid, E1 electric

concept car

FAW Group

- EV elctric concept car, Besturn 70, Besturn 50 hybrid cars

Changan Automobile Group

- Benben electric car, S469 hybrid minivan, Zhixiang,

Yuexiang hybrid car

Chery Automobile

- S18 electric car, electric version of QQ compact car,

hybrid version of Riich G5 sedan, M11 hybrid car

BYD Co

- E6 electric car, F3DM and F6DM plug-in hybrids

Brilliance Auto

- A0 electric concept car, Junjie hybrid wagon, Jinbei

electric van

Geely Automobile Holdings

- EK-1, EK-2 electric cars, EC7 plug-in hybrid

Lifan Group

- Lifan 320, Lifan 620 electric cars


[Green Business]
Martin Roberts
MADRID
Thu Apr 22, 2010 11:50am EDT
Spain renewables industry fears subsidy cuts

(Reuters) - Spain's renewable energy industry joined forces on Thursday to ask the government to clarify whether it plans to retroactively cut subsidies, as market-moving media reports have suggested.

Shares in renewable energy generators Iberdrola Renovables and Acciona moved sharply lower on Wednesday after website elconfidencial, citing sources close to the government, said the government could reduce existing subsidies which finance most of the renewables plants in Spain.

New energy sector regulation is due in 2010.

"The posible retroactive application...would jeopardize a sector in which Spain is a world leader and is being touted as a driver to overcome the economic crisis," a statement from Foro de Renovables said.

Foro de Renovables is an alliance formed on Thursday from several renewable industry bodies.

An Industry Ministry spokesman on Wednesday declined to comment on market speculation subsidy cuts would be backdated.

"Subsidies will be cut. It's early days, nothing has been decided or drawn up, although the Ministry has to study all options," he said.

In a research note, Citi said it expected a cut in renewable premiums, mainly for solar power, but not on-shore wind and reiterated its positive view on wind developers.

"Although a retroactive application would not make sense, in our view, given the significant legal/regulatory uncertainty this would cause," Citi said.

In a bid to cut its heavy dependence on expensive imported fuels and greenhouse gas emissions, which are high above Kyoto levels, Spain has generously subsidized renewable energy in recent years.

Spain is now the world's fourth-largest producer of wind power and the second of solar. Renewables provided 12.3 percent of all energy in Spain last year, and the government expects this to meet a European Union target of 20 percent by 2020.

Also on Thursday, renewable energy firm Renovalia said it would join a raft of green companies mooting stock market floatations in Spain with an initial public offering set for May 12.

Other Spanish renewables companies seeking listings include Abengoa Solar, a unit of energy firm Abengoa; solar energy firm T-Solar and private equity Dinamia's Eolia.

Renewable firms traded down in line with the Madrid bourse In mid-afternoon deals.

Iberdrola was off 1.81 percent at 2.98 euros, Acciona declined 2.65 percent to 78.88 euros.

Wind turbine maker Gamesa was meanwhile down 5.6 percent at 9.68 euros, outpacing a 2.14-percent drop by Madrid's leading share index. Abengoa sagged 3.96 percent to 19.49 euros.

(Additional reporting by Clara Vilar)

news20100423reut6

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Luis Andres Henao
LIMA
Thu Apr 22, 2010 12:43pm EDT
Peru criticized over Repsol working in tribal area

(Reuters) - A human rights group has criticized Peru's government for granting Spanish oil giant Repsol initial approval to build 279 miles of seismic lines and 152 heliports in a portion of the Amazon basin believed to be inhabited by tribes that shun contact with outsiders.

Peru has the third highest concentration of tribes living in voluntary isolation after Brazil and New Guinea, and human rights groups say big oil and gas projects on lands they use would threaten their survival.

"The presence of this company puts these groups at an enormous risk," said David Hill, of the London-based Survival International.

Rain forest trees would be removed and dynamite would be blasted to build the seismic lines, which are used to explore for petroleum by taking readings of underground deposits after blasts.

The project, located in an area known as Lot 39, was granted initial approval by the environment ministry and the government's indigenous affairs department, INDEPA.

It is now being reviewed by the mining ministry for final approval.

Repsol officials did not return several calls seeking comment.

Peru's government has angered critics by denying the existence of untouched tribes in the past, and has been slower than countries such as Brazil in recognizing protected areas for them.

Iris Cardenas, the Mining Ministry's director of environmental affairs, told Reuters the area had been thoroughly explored by INDEPA, but the state agency has yet to prove that any unknown tribes live there.

She added that the project was only an extension of an existing one, and that only small trees would be axed.

"This is not labeled as an Indian reservation but we're going out of our way to make sure that everyone follows procedure," Cardenas said. "We have no reason not to approve it," she said, adding that ministry would finish reviewing it by the end of the month.

Last year, growing pressure by Amazon tribes -- who protested plans for energy exploration in deadly clashes -- forced the government to throw out a series of laws that would have lured more foreign investment to broad swaths of the Amazon basin.

(Reporting by Luis Andres Henao, Editing by Terry Wade and Lisa Shumaker)


[Green Business]
WASHINGTON
Thu Apr 22, 2010 7:23pm EDT
Derivatives bill calls for U.S. carbon market study

(Reuters) - A tough new proposal to regulate U.S. markets calls for top regulators and government officials to conduct a study on transparency in emerging U.S. carbon markets as part of the financial reform package.

The heads of the Treasury Department, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and other U.S. agencies would be required to study oversight of existing and prospective carbon markets, according to the proposal, part of a bill passed by the Senate Agriculture Committee this week.

The goal of the study is "to ensure an efficient, secure, and transparent carbon market, including oversight of spot markets and derivative markets," the bill said.

Senator Blanche Lincoln's Agriculture Committee voted to advance the bill this week. It will be merged with the Senate Banking Committee's financial reform package, expected to be debated next week, which will likely include a crackdown on the unregulated $450 trillion derivatives market.

Emerging carbon markets are either voluntary or regional because the U.S. government does not limit emissions of gases blamed for warming the planet, considered a requirement before the launch of a national market.

Ten states in the U.S. Northeast operate a carbon market on power plants. In addition, the Chicago Climate Exchange also runs voluntary carbon markets.

Some critics of carbon markets say that not all of the credits that are traded in them represent true emissions reductions.

Senators John Kerry, a Democrat, Lindsey Graham, a Republican and Joe Lieberman, an independent, hope to unveil a climate bill on Monday that is expected to include a carbon market on power plants beginning in 2012, which could be expanded to the manufacturers years later.

Other agency officials required to participate in the study would be the heads of the Agriculture Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Energy Information Administration, the independent statistics arm of the Department of Energy.

The interagency group would be required to submit a report to Congress on their study within six months after the report becomes law.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Roberta Rampton; Editing by Marguerita Choy)


[Green Business]
Eduardo Garcia
TIQUIPAYA, Bolivia
Thu Apr 22, 2010 8:36pm EDT
Grass-roots warming summit calls for greenhouse cuts

(Reuters) - Big polluting countries must aggressively cut greenhouse gases and listen to ideas from small nations to reverse global warming, activists and left-wing leaders concluded on Thursday at a meeting billed as an alternative to the failed Copenhagen summit.

The gathering in Bolivia's Cochabamba region was meant to give voice to countries and environmental groups that said they were excluded from an active role at the Copenhagen summit in December, when world leaders negotiated behind closed doors.

Activists say the big industrial powers sabotaged the Copenhagen summit by not agreeing to major cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and insist the next big climate change meeting in Mexico in December must include other voices.

The Cochabamba summit called for leading industrial nations to cut emissions by 50 percent, a much more ambitious goal than the pledges of cuts from 7 percent to 16 percent in the Copenhagen Accord.

"Developed countries ... in the meeting of heads of state in Mexico in December, they've got to listen to the people, take decisions to better the lives of all," Bolivian President Evo Morales told the summit.

Earlier in the summit, Morales drew controversy when he said eating chicken fed with hormones causes "sexual deviation" in men and that European men lose their hair because they eat genetically modified food.

Capitalism, genetically modified food and global warming were all targets at the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, which drew some 20,000 environmentalists and representatives from 90 governments.

Representatives from indigenous groups from all over the world took part in the meeting in the small village of Tiquipaya, which was free and included concerts, theater, a handicrafts market and artists painting murals.

SMALL COUNTRIES COULD BACK RESOLUTIONS

Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Ecuador, which belong to a leftist group of Latin American countries, as well as Sudan and Saudi Arabia, have been strong critics of the Copenhagen accord.

"Climate change is a crisis that was created in the north and its effects are overwhelmingly lived in the south. If you acknowledge that simple fact of justice and decency, that means that southern countries are no longer begging for aid," said Canadian author Naomi Klein.

Klein, a prominent activist against global warming, said Cochabamba could help cement an alliance among nations that are already suffering the effects of climate change. "That's a much more empowered position" which calls for "a lot more unity between developing countries," she said.

The Cochabamba meeting resolved that an international tribunal should be created to hold those to blame for global warming accountable. It also called for a global referendum on climate change and the creation of a fund to help affected nations cope with global warming.

The resolutions are not binding, but countries and social organizations who took part in the summit have pledged to drum up support for them ahead of December's United Nations summit on climate change in Cancun, Mexico.

Alicia Barcena, the top U.N. representative at the meeting, told reporters on Tuesday it was time for the organization to admit it had excluded grassroots groups from the Copenhagen summit, but she was pessimistic about Cancun.

"Rio+20 should be our goal, because I don't think Cancun will solve the problems," she said.

Late last year, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution agreeing to hold the Rio+20 Earth Summit on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro in 2012.

(Editing by Peter Cooney and Todd Eastham)


[Green Business]
BEIJING
Thu Apr 22, 2010 10:14pm EDT
Volvo to sell c30 electric car in China

(Reuters) - Sweden's Volvo said it will launch more vehicles in China in the future, including its c30 electric car, following its pending acquisition by the parent of Chinese carmaker Geely Automobile.

Alexander Klose, Volvo's China chief executive, made the remarks on Friday, the opening day of the Beijing auto show, China's largest.

China has surpassed the United States to become the world's largest car market. Sales have risen nearly 50 percent, fueled by a raft of economic incentives from Beijing to boost spending during the global downturn.

news20100423reut7

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Ayesha Rascoe
WASHINGTON
Thu Apr 22, 2010 4:22pm EDT
Jackson riles business, lawmakers with carbon rules

(Reuters) - From Texas lawmakers to top coal mining executives, a wide array of business and political interests would like to stop the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ambitious and solo plan to tackle climate change.

But standing in the way is an energetic former chemical engineer who has vowed to press ahead with a raft of changes that only Congress or the courts can block.

The first African-American to head EPA, Lisa Jackson is now the poster woman for 21st century environmentalism and standing firm against critics who say her agenda is too radical for an economy emerging from a steep recession.

"I'm sick of the same old tired arguments," Jackson said in an interview with Reuters at her Washington office. "I don't buy into this idea that we can't have economic progress...and we can't have a strong environment. I believe it's a false choice."

Although the Obama administration has said it would prefer that Congress address global warming through legislation, Jackson's agency could play a sweeping role in transitioning the United States to a low carbon economy if Congress is unable to get its act together.

Just a few months into the new administration, EPA issued a historic finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health, which compels the agency to regulate carbon under the Clean Air Act.

But this doesn't sit well with groups such as the National Mining Association, who argue that the EPA is ill-equipped to handle the enormous task of limiting greenhouse gases.

The agency said it will "tailor" its carbon reduction rules to affect only the largest polluters, but many industry groups believe this narrow rule would not survive court challenges and the damage will be felt more widely.

"Once you start the truck down the hill, it's hard to stop it," said Carol Raulston, a mining association spokeswoman.

Critics warn that if the so-called tailoring rule is struck down by the courts, the EPA will be forced to impose cumbersome and costly rules on virtually every source of greenhouse gases -- from churches to schools and coal plants to farms.

And there is growing concern that Congress will not be able to pass a climate bill, because of the haggling between Republicans and Democrats.

NIGHTMARE SCENARIO?

Jackson, a self-described pragmatist with a master's degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University, disputes these claims. She said the point of the tailoring rule is to avoid the "nightmare scenario" envisioned by opponents where the agency regulates everything in sight.

"When it comes out you'll see that we're making good on our word," Jackson said of the rule to be released by May.

Born in Pennsylvania in 1962, Jackson was adopted and raised in the impoverished lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana. She is no stranger to the energy industry, working summers at a big oil company in her youth.

"I'm an environmentalist who worked three summers in a row for Shell Oil Company in gas plants and oil field work. I don't see those in any way as mutually exclusive," she added.

As an engineer, Jackson said she strongly believes technological innovations can play a major role in helping to solve the clean energy problem.

Jackson worked at the EPA for 16 years before eventually becoming the Commissioner of New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection.

JACKSON'S CHEERING FANS

After years of feeling like outcasts at the EPA, environmentalists say they have found a true champion with Jackson now at the helm of the EPA.

"It's so invigorating to see the Environmental Protection Agency back on its feet and doing it's job again," said David Doniger, a policy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council's climate center.

Since coming to office, Jackson has impressed environmentalists by tightening standards for mountaintop mining, proposing new air quality rules, and approving California's request to crack down on vehicle emissions.

Doniger noted Jackson received a standing ovation last year when she spoke to environmentalists at the Copenhagen climate meeting shortly after finalizing the agency's greenhouse gas decision .

"I hadn't experienced anything quite like that," Doniger said. "She was a rock star at Copenhagen."

Green groups also herald the administration's effectiveness in pushing the nation's ailing auto industry to begin producing more fuel efficient vehicles, striking a deal with automakers last year to impose the first U.S. greenhouse gas emissions rules on vehicles.

EPA administrators have the challenge of following science and the law and keeping politicians happy, said Sierra Club chairman Carl Pope. "It is not easy and nobody has ever done it as well as she is doing it," he added.

(Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Russell Blinch and Alden Bentley)


[Green Business]
Doug Young
BEIJING
Fri Apr 23, 2010 2:52am EDT
Honda, Volvo plan green car launches in China

(Reuters) - Honda and Volvo are both planning to launch clean-energy cars in China, joining a growing crowd of domestic players developing such models to take advantage of expected generous government incentives.

From leading Chinese auto group SAIC Motor Corp to rising star Geely Automotive Holding, indigenous players were showing off a host of new green vehicles at the Beijing autoshow that started on Friday in the Chinese capital.

The companies, domestic and foreign alike, are scrambling to stake out leading positions in hybrid and electric vehicles that meet tougher emission standards.

Honda Motor Co joined the fray when it said it would introduce a hybrid model under its premium Acura brand in China within three years, and its Insight and CR-Z hybrids from 2012.

Ford Motor Co's Volvo unit, which is being acquired by the parent of Geely, said it planned to sell its c30 electric cars in China.

"For investors, the basic picture is clear, the government does want to move away from dependence on oil and doesn't want to repeat what's happened in America: we've become addicted to oil," Michael Dunne, an auto consultant, told Reuters Insider in an interview on the eve of the auto show's opening.

"Where things get sketchy are in the details: is the technology ready to move to electric cars, and who's going to pay the subsidies and the investments in infrastructure that are necessary to get e-vehicles going."

Among domestic players, Dunne mentioned BYD Co, invested by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, and SAIC, as two leaders in the field because of their access to cutting-edge technology.

ELECTRIC MAJORITY BY 2030?

China's fifth largest carmaker, Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co (BAIC) is also getting in on the act, with plans to invest 3.7 billion yuan ($540 million) in the field, developing hybrid, pure-electric, and plug-in hybrid vehicles, said President Wang Dazong.

"There are big opportunities for growing EV market in these five or 10 years," said Shouichi Matsumoto, senior general manager of Dongfeng Motor Co, the 50-50 venture between Nissan Motor and Dongfeng.

"I think China will become one of the most important markets for electric vehicles. If we use clean electric power like wind or solar, electric vehicles will be clean. Not in three or five years but maybe in 10 or 20 years, electric vehicles will be majority in China," he said.

But the road for low emission, alternative fuel vehicles in China is a long one. Sales of Toyota's Prius, the world's best-known green car, numbered just 300 in China last year, when it overtook the U.S. as the world's largest auto market.

The buzz around electric cars came as carmakers boosted their overall sales targets for China this year on turbocharged sales fueled by tax incentives from Beijing.

China's car sales have defied falling sales in the rest of the world and have continued to show strong growth this year, up 76 percent in the first three months, according to government data.

Industry watchers were initially predicting 10-15 percent growth for this year, but many have started revising those expectation upwards to the 20 percent range and higher.

Major carmakers ranging from Germany's Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) to Japan's Mitsubishi Motor and luxury carmaker Lamborghini, part of Volkswagen, were boasting heady China growth targets for this year, as the market continues to boom.

(Additional reporting by Fang Yan, Ran Kim, Michael Wei, Irene Preisinger and Kevin Krolicki; Editing by Chris Lewis and Lincoln Feast)


[Green Business]
BRUSSELS
Thu Apr 22, 2010 12:44pm EDT
EU climate policy must not harm steelmakers: lobby

(Reuters) - The European Union's carbon emissions trading regulations must not have a negative impact on steelmakers who are already facing higher prices for raw materials, the European steel lobby said on Thursday.

"The Commission must ensure that implementation of the EU emissions trading directive does not increase costs for the most CO2 efficient steelmakers," the European steelmakers association Eurofer said in a statement.

It said best performing steelmakers should receive 100 percent free emissions allocations to stay competitive.

(Reporting by Bate Felix, editing by Timothy Heritage)

news20100423reut8

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Markus Wacket
BERLIN
Thu Apr 22, 2010 7:36pm EDT
German coalition agrees on solar power cuts: sources

(Reuters) - Germany's ruling coalition will only make slight changes to planned reductions in solar power incentives, sources told Reuters late Thursday, with the brunt of the cuts to remain unchanged.

The sources said parliamentary experts in Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right administration agreed that so-called feed-in tariffs for new rooftop solar installations will be cut by 16 percent from July as planned.

Most open-field installations will be cut by 15 percent, with support for farmland solar systems to be scrapped completely, the sources said.

They added that cuts of one percentage point in addition to those set out in the German renewable energy act (EEG) would be made by the beginning of 2011, if newly installed capacity exceeded 3.5 gigawatts within a year.

A further percentage point would be added if installed capacity exceeded 4.5 gigawatts, the sources said of the plans, which must still be approved by the parliamentary group leaders of Merkel's conservatives and their coalition partners, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).

The cabinet backed the measure to cut the feed-in tariff in March but it still needs approval from the Bundestag lower house of parliament. The plans do not need approval from the upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, or states' chamber.

Germany is the world's largest market for solar power with about half of all solar power produced there. Critics of the cuts have said they could harm development of the technology.

Oversupply of cells and modules has caused prices for solar products to fall by as much as 50 percent over the past year, which has increased pressure on industry players to have more efficient production and become more competitive.

Feed-in tariffs -- prices utilities are obliged to pay to generators of renewable energy -- are the sector's lifeline as long as grid-parity, the point at which renewables cost the same as fossil fuel-based power, has not been reached.

Utilities currently pay about 39 euro cents in feed-in tariffs per kilowatt for solar power, about eight times as much they pay for conventional power, and industry experts expect the planned cut to speed up the shakeup in the industry.

There has also been criticism of the proposed cuts from some conservative leaders in several eastern German states, where many solar companies have substantial production sites.

Consumer groups and pro-business leaders in the center-right coalition had pressed for deeper cuts to the incentives. Consumers pay an extra three percent for power each month on their bills because of the support for solar power.

Cuts in public support will weigh on companies like Q-Cells, Phoenix Solar and SolarWorld, which depend on demand from Germany.

(Writing by Christoph Steitz and Dave Graham)