news20100824gdn1

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[guardian.co.uk > Environment > Climate Camp]

Police arrest 12 Climate Camp protesters
Lothian and Borders police have arrested 12 campaigners during protests against the Royal Bank of Scotland's tar sands funding

> Climate Camp day of action – as it happened

Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 24 August 2010 11.44 BST
Article history

{Police prevent Climate Camp protesters from entering the grounds of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) with their 'siege' tower. Photograph: Graham Stuart/EPA}

Police arrested 12 climate campaigners during yesterday's protests in Edinburgh against the Royal Bank of Scotland's funding of the oil and mining industries. One man was charged with assault.

Lothian and Borders police said the 12 were arrested at five protests during the day, including incidents at the RBS headquarters on the outskirts of Edinburgh and at four RBS and energy industry sites in the city.

The protests culminated in a physical confrontation between scores of activists and riot police inside the landscaped grounds of the RBS headquarter yesterday evening.

Protesters attempted to wheel a mock "siege engine" made from corrugated steel and timber down from the camp site across a bridge in the grounds. Others fired four "bombs" filled with molasses at the RBS building, while riot police grappled with protesters trying to reach the building.

There were no arrests at the site, but police said one man, 58, was arrested for assault during an incident at Gogarburn Bridge flyover nearby.

The force confirmed there were five arrests earlier in the day for breach of the peace at the headquarters of Forth Energy in Leith docks, where activists occupied the roof and building in protest at the firm's plans for biomass plants at Scottish ports.

On Nicolson Street, where an RBS branch was twice occupied by protesters smeared in molasses, to signify oil, a 25-year-old man and two women aged 38 and 34 were arrested and later charged with breach of the peace.

The force said a 24-year-old woman was charged with vandalism at a bank branch at Hunter Square while two men aged 31 and 33 were charged with breach of the peace after an incident on the A8 Glasgow Road.

The police later said they had seized what they describes as "weapons" – including hammers, a coal chisel and other tools. The force also accused the activists of "recklessness" for allegedly pouring an oil-like substance on two major roads, the A8 and A720 Edinburgh bypass, causing difficult driving conditions for several hours and a short delay to bus services.

At least 18 people have been arrested since Wednesday evening, when the Climate Campers first occupied the site.

Harry Reynolds, one of the activists, said: "We've done a lot to disrupt RBS dirty energy operations today, but we are committed to keeping up the pressure until we manage to cut off the flow of capital from the banks to the fossil fuel industry."


[guardian.co.uk > Business > Vedanta Resources]

Vedanta mine plan halted by Indian government
> Vedanta's controversial bauxite mine on tribal land stopped
> Authorities say firm violated forestry and environment rules

Richard Wray
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 24 August 2010 09.52 BST
Article history

{Members of the Dongria Kondh tribe gather on top of the sacred Niyamgiri Hills. Plans by Vedanta to mine bauxite from the area have now been rejected by India's environment ministry Photograph: Reinhard Krause/Reuters}

Controversial plans to develop a bauxite mine on sacred tribal land in India have been scuppered as India's environment ministry has rejected a proposal by Vedanta Resources to mine the aluminium ore in the eastern state of Orissa.

Campaigners, who have been backed in their fight against the mining giant's plans by Joanna Lumley and Michael Palin, described the move as a "stunning victory". Monty Python star turned professional traveller Palin expressed "absolute delight" in the news adding: "I hope it will send a signal to the big corporations that they can never assume that might is right. It's a big victory for the little people."

The project had been thrown into doubt last week when a government inquiry said that mining would destroy the way of life of the area's "endangered" and "primitive" people, the Kutia and Dongria Kondh tribes. The four-person committee also accused a local subsidiary of Vedanta of violating forest conservation and environment protection regulations.

Jairam Ramesh, the minister for environment and forests, said today that the government will issue what is termed a show-cause notice and take action against Vedanta. The news sent shares in the company down almost 6% in early trading, making it the biggest loser in the FTSE 100 index and wiping almost £300m off the value of the business.

"There are very serious violations of environment act and forest right act," Ramesh told Bloomberg. "There is no emotion, no politics, no prejudice in the decision. It is purely based on a legal approach."

Campaigners, whose supporters also include the activist Bianca Jagger, have fought long and hard to prevent the mining of bauxite in the Niyamgiri Hills. Vedanta, which can appeal against the decision, had wanted to expand its existing refinery in the area, generating a sixfold increase in capacity, and had gained approval from the local state government.

Amnesty International published a report last year claiming that a Vedanta refinery in the same area had polluted local rivers, damaged crops and disrupted the lives of the local tribe.

The project has been delayed by four years because of intense opposition from environmental and tribal rights group. At Vedanta's annual meeting in London last month its board of directors faced criticism from shareholders, celebrity activists and charities all protesting about the company's human rights and environmental record.

Meredith Alexander, head of trade and corporates at ActionAid, said: "Today the Kondh people are celebrating a massive victory in the campaign to safeguard their very existence.

"The mine would destroy the mountain they worship as a god and end their way of life forever. Vedanta could appeal this decision, but the Kondh are asking the company to respect the government's decision and their clearly expressed opposition to the mine."

Survival International, whose supporters sent more than 10,000 protest letters to the Indian government, described the decision as a "stunning victory" and "a crushing defeat for billionaire Anil Agarwal, Vedanta's majority owner and founder".

Survival campaigner Dr Jo Woodman said: "This is a victory nobody would have believed possible. The Dongria's campaign became a litmus test of whether a small, marginalised tribe could stand up to a massive multinational company with an army of lobbyists and PR firms and the ear of government.

"Incredibly, the Dongria's courage and tenacity, allied with the support of many people in India, and Survival's supporters around the world, have triumphed."

Survival's director, Stephen Corry, added: "The era when mining companies could get away with destroying those in their path with impunity is thankfully drawing to a close.

"The concerned public must remain vigilant about these so-called development projects – companies simply cannot be trusted voluntarily to abide by human rights standards, particularly when dealing with tribal peoples who can't know what they're up against."

news20100824gdn2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[guardian.co.uk > Business > Cairn Energy]

Greenland happy to be the new oil frontier
Cairn Energy's gas find sparks hopes that Greenland can ditch its reliance on fishing and tourism

Terry Macalister
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 24 August 2010 18.26 BST
Article history

{A fire ship hoses down an iceberg to make it melt near the Stena Fourth drilling ship. Photograph: Will Rose/EPA}

The rain was tipping down today on the cluster of multicoloured buildings in the heart of the capital of Greenland but there was no dampening the spirits of Nuuk's residents following news that hydrocarbons had been found.

"We have always believed there was oil and gas off this island. We been waiting for something like this to happen for decades," said Kenni Rende, a 44-year-old shop assistant at the town's only electronics shop. "I hope it will provide income for Greenland so that we can finance our way to becoming a more independent nation," he added.

The mood of elation was shared at the Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum, one block away, where Henrik Stendal was preparing for a presentation in a small room packed with maps and rocks.

"It is exciting. This amounts to an appetiser for all oil companies to come here and do more exploration, seismic and data," said Stendal, who is the head of the bureau's geology department.

Greenland's government had been hopeful that Cairn Energy had found signs of hydrocarbons but the ultra-secretive nature of the business – and its extraordinary importance – meant the British oil company had told no one in advance.

Bill Gammell, Cairn's chief executive, said there were signs of oil and gas bearing sands, but the hole still needed to be drilled to its target depth. Stendal said it was highly encouraging given the six wells drilled over the last 40 years had been completely "dry". A one-in-seven hit rate would mark this area out as exceptional; the North Sea equivalent is around one in 30.

It reinforces the views of the US Geological Survey which said last year that it believed there could be 90bn barrels of oil and 50tn cubic metres of gas in the wider Arctic region.

Enormously positive then for a Greenland desperate to move away from dependence on fishing, tourism and handouts from the Danish state which has sovereignty over the world's largest island. But nervous moments for Greenpeace and other environmentalists keen to keep one of the Earth's last wilderness areas away from the oil industry.

Whatever the eco-warriors want, Big Oil is coming and the Cairn discovery could not be better timed.

In around two weeks time the Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum will announce the winners of a new licensing round.

Stendal would not say who they were but he admitted that most of the leading lights – that means the likes of ExxonMobil and Shell – are queuing up to drill in Baffin Bay off the west of Greenland.

And the find will heat up interest in two new licensing rounds in other parts of the country that are already being lined up to take place in 2011 and 2012.

It is not just Greenland that it keen to explore in an Arctic region whose natural environment is already being eroded by global warming.

Iceland, Norway and Russia are also looking at handing out exploration rights, although BP's blowout in the Gulf of Mexico has sent a ripple of anxiety through the west's safety authorities.

Cairn and the Greenland authorities claim the water depths being drilled by the Stena Don and Stena Forth floating rig and drillship are less than one-third of the 1,500 metres of the Gulf.

They also point out that there are 16 vessels working on standby around the Cairn well, T8-1, and six of them are specifically given over to guiding icebergs out of the way.

Stendal says Greenland drilling regulations are tougher than those enforced in the North Sea, and far stricter than the lax rules of the Gulf.

He is confident that all is being done to ensure that there can be no recurrence of the Deepwater Horizon blowout in freezing waters where oil would break down much more slowly than in the warm currents off Louisiana.

But this will not reassure Greenpeace, which has taken its ship Esperanza into the region to highlight its concerns.

The environmental group said the move was wrong, not least because Cairn was a relatively small company with no experience of drilling in harsh conditions and had made its name discovering onshore oil in India.

"We think it is completely irresponsible for Cairn to proceed with these operations when the US, Canada and Norway have imposed tough new restrictions on deepwater drilling until lessons can be learned about what exactly went wrong in the Gulf," said Mads Flarup Christensen, secretary general of Greenpeace Nordic. "Drilling in these kinds of waters is very sad. It shows the way the oil industry is being forced into the last frontiers by trying to exploit tar sands and deep water."

Cairn management recently visited the Greenland capital to reassure the public that it would stick to the highest possible safety standards in line with an agreement signed with the government. "Security has always been the most important in everything we do and so we want it to continue," commercial director Simon Thomson said.

He does not need to convince Stendal who says that Greenpeace is "not welcome" by the people of Greenland, who see the organisation as a threat to their future economic wellbeing. "You cant live on fish alone," he says drily.

But at the Nota Bene electronics shop, Rende is not quite so equivocal: "We had heard of the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico but I hope the [Cairn] security makes us safe."

news20100824nn1

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[nature.com > Nature News]

Published online 24 August 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.430
News

'Grandmother hypothesis' takes a hit
Pinning longevity to benefits women bestow on their grandchildren may not be plausible.

Ewen Callaway

{While vital socially, grandmothering may have had little effect on helping us live longer.
iStockphoto}

Grandma may not be as important as we thought — at least when it comes to evolution. A model published this week¹ questions a popular theory dubbed the 'grandmother hypothesis', which says that human females, unlike those of the other great apes, survive well past their reproductive prime because of the benefits that post-menopausal women offer to their grandchildren.

The evolutionary biologist William Hamilton initially proposed the idea in a 1966 paper² that built on the theoretical work of George Williams and Peter Medawar. But the grandmother hypothesis really took off during the 1980s and 90s on the basis of field data collected by Kristen Hawkes, an anthropologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, and her colleagues.

These researchers found that among Tanzanian hunter-gatherers, the Hadza, mothers faced a trade-off between foraging for food for themselves and any weaned offspring, and caring for new infants. But if grandmothers helped with foraging, they were rewarded with healthier, heavier grandchildren who weaned at a younger age. Over evolutionary time, this fitness boost could have selected for women who survived long past menopause, an anomaly among humans' evolutionary kin.

"Chimps almost never live into their forties in the wild, but most humans, if they're lucky enough to make it to adulthood, live beyond the childbearing years," says Hawkes.

Further support for the grandmother hypothesis came from studies of other subsistence cultures, as well as from historical records, although not all studies back up the hypothesis.

"It has been very influential and very important, and sparked a lot of research," says Friederike Kachel, an evolutionary biologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

Doing the maths

Despite its anecdotal support and intuitive appeal, the grandmother hypothesis lacked much quantitative proof showing that it was possible for longevity to evolve from grandmothering, says Kachel, whose team ran a mathematical simulation to test the theory's plausibility¹.

Their agent-based model, which simulates the actions and interactions of individuals, begins with a population of 1,000 people whose lifespans and reproductive windows are an inherited trait that mutates over time. Half are female. Initially, the females die when they stop reproducing, at 50. In some simulations, when females are not nursing their own children, they provide fitness benefits to their grandchildren by reducing the age at which they're weaned.

After about 500 generations, the model demonstrated that the assistance of a grandmother during infancy shortened the interval between the times their daughters give birth, and led to shorter reproductive windows. However, compared with simulations in which grandmothers did not help out, the benefits never result in a change in longevity.

In hindsight, Kachel says, the result isn't as surprising at it might seem. Natural selection is strongest early in life, and its influence on a trait wanes as an organism ages. Therefore, the benefits of grandmothering would have to be enormous to extend human lifespan.

Significant doubts

Hawkes is taking the new paper in her stride. She thinks the model includes all the right life history and evolutionary factors, and can't wait to sink her teeth into the software code. But she has doubts about some of the assumptions Kachel's team made about the rates of mortality and fertility. "I bet a lot that if we modify some of those assumptions, we'll get a different result."

Frank Marlowe, an anthropologist at Florida State University in Tallahassee, thinks that the grandmother hypothesis is still the best in town, even if it isn't perfect. However, any successful theory of longevity must also account for males, he says, "even if males are only dragged along with females who were the target of selection".

Kachel is agnostic on the matter of what other forces might have lengthened humans' lives, but our longevity could be a cultural artefact due to the disappearance of traditional causes of mortality, such as predation.

"Grandmothers are important in many societies and they do have an important social role, but that doesn't prove they are the cause of longevity," she says.

References
1. Kachel, A. F., Premo, L. S. & Hublin, J.-J. Proc. R. Soc. B doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.1247 (2010).
2. Hamilton, W. D. J. Theor. Biol. 12, 12-45 (1966). | Article | PubMed | ISI | ChemPort |

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[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[nature.com > Nature News]

Published online 24 August 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.428
Updated online: 25 August 2010
News

US court suspends research on human embryonic stem cells
Effects of injunction against Obama administration's stem-cell policy still unclear.

Alla Katsnelson

{Millions in US federal funds have been granted for ESC research, but a new injunction could leave it all in limbo.
PROFESSOR MIODRAG STOJKOVIC / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY}

US stem-cell researchers are reeling from a court order handed down yesterday that puts a temporary hold on the current policy for federal funding of human embryonic stem-cell (ESC) research. Now, many are calling for legislation that would make such research unambiguously legal once and for all.

The court order is the outcome of a lawsuit originally filed last August against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, which contends that federal funding for research on human embryonic stem cells is illegal because it requires the destruction of embryos.

"It's the worst outcome we could imagine," says George Daley, a stem-cell researcher at the Children's Hospital Boston in Massachusetts. "It's going to be enormously disruptive to anyone holding NIH money [to conduct work on human ESCs], which has been a big deal since the Obama policy."

According to figures posted on the NIH website, the agency granted a total of US$143 million in funding for human embryonic stem-cell research in 2009, with funding estimates for 2010 and 2011 being $137 million and $126 million, respectively.

Under the previous administration of George W. Bush, scientists could not use federal funds for research on human embryonic stem-cell lines derived after 9 August 2001. In March 2009, US President Barack Obama overturned those restrictions by executive order, mandating the NIH to develop a policy for the ethical approval of newly derived lines.

Contention and appeal

The lawsuit against the HHS and NIH contends that the new policy violates the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, a law that prohibits the destruction of human embryos. The suit was dismissed last October because the original plaintiffs — listed in court documents as two Christian organizations, four individuals, and "embryos" — were deemed to have no legal standing in the case, that is, they had no tangible interest in its outcome.

However, two researchers — James Sherley, a researcher in adult stem cells at the Boston Biomedical Research Institute, and Theresa Deisher, research and development director of the firm AVM Biotechnology in Seattle, Washington — appealed, and in June the case was granted standing on the grounds that human embryonic stem-cell research increases funding competition for scientists working on adult stem cells¹.

The Dickey-Wicker Amendment had been interpreted to mean that, although researchers could not use federal funds to derive an embryonic stem-cell line (a process that involves destroying an embryo), they could study such lines derived by others, because the research itself doesn't involve destroying an embryo. The current NIH policy, established in July 2009, continues to prohibit deriving new lines with federal funds.

In a ruling filed yesterday, however, Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the US District Court for the District of Columbia argues that this distinction is spurious.

"The Dickey-Wicker Amendment unambiguously prohibits the use of federal funds for all research in which a human embryo is destroyed," he writes in the opinion. "It is not limited to prohibit federal funding of only the 'piece of research' in which an embryo is destroyed. Thus, if ESC research is research in which an embryo is destroyed, the Guidelines, by funding ESC research, violate the Dickey-Wicker Amendment."

Hank Greely, director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford University in California, calls the decision "bizarre" from a legal standpoint. "This just looks wrong," Greely says. "This looks to me like a very surprising and questionable legal decision.

"Basically, they are saying that all ESC research is a part of a broader system of research that includes the initial destruction of embryos. Which would be kind of like saying that all research into nuclear power stems from the Manhattan Project," he says.

"It sounds like it would imply that if you're researching gravity, everything from Sir Isaac Newton forward counts as part of your research programme." This doesn't make sense, he explains, because a given NIH grant proposal requests funds for a particular research project.

The decision also goes against a long-standing interpretation of the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, Greely notes, not made only by the NIH, but also by the administrations of Bush and Bill Clinton. What's more, he says, the Dickey-Wicker Amendment is part of the annual Appropriations Act, which lays out the budget for government agencies, and thus is re-approved by Congress each year. "Every year when Congress re-passes the Appropriations Act, it could have changed the language if it thought the interpretations were wrong," he explains.

But Samuel Casey, of Advocates International of Fairfax, Virginia, one of three legal organizations representing Sherley and Deisher, says that the Bush administration was already treading on thin ice with Dickey–Wicker. "At that time, our organization had a lawsuit against the Bush administration over the same question," he says. "We were before this very same judge that just ruled."

Ultimately, the case was withdrawn. Because the Bush policy set a cut-off date for deriving new cells, Casey says, it could be argued — albeit weakly, he and his colleagues believe — that it complied with the statute, which the Obama policy does not.

Judge Lamberth's court order, also filed yesterday, prohibits the HHS and NIH from "implementing, applying, or taking any action whatsoever pursuant to the National Institutes of Health Guidelines for Human Stem Cell Research ... or otherwise funding research involving human embryonic stem cells as contemplated in the Guidelines".

Unclear implications

So far, it's not clear what the injunction will mean for researchers. The NIH has deferred comment on the case to the Department of Justice, which says it is currently reviewing the judge's ruling. "My firm hope is that either Lamberth or the DC [court] will stay the injunction pending appeal" and that such a stay will be expedited to take effect quickly, Greely adds.

Daley says he is not waiting for clarification. When he learned of the ruling yesterday, he told members of his lab to "go back to the old ways" of making sure all human embryonic stem-cell work is done without using materials purchased with federal dollars.

Others are more circumspect. "We don't want to do anything too drastic until we understand the legal speak," says Clive Svendsen, director of the Regenerative Medicine Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. "We're just hanging on and waiting."

Regardless of the immediate outcome, researchers say, the situation has brought home the acutely precarious nature of the legal standing of embryonic stem-cell research. "It highlights that this is a political football and that there should be some legislation that just removes this uncertainty," says Daley.

If the case mobilizes lawmakers to push for such legislation, adds Svendsen, "it could be a good thing".

"We have to solve this problem," says Daley. "It can't be that one judge can stop millions of dollars in stem-cell research."

Updated:The US Department of Justice has said it will quickly appeal the district court injunction temporarily freezing federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research. NIH director Francis Collins has said that grantees who have already received funds this fiscal year for projects involving human embryonic stem cell research will be allowed to spend those monies on those projects. But new grant applications, and annual renewals of existing awards will "stop in their tracks". See http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2010/08/us_department_of_justice_will_1.html for more.

References
1. Editorial Nature 466, 159 (2010).

news20100824bg1

[News] from [businessgreen.com]

[BusinessGreen.com > News > Transport]

US motorists warm to electric car invasion
Research from Consumer Electronics Association finds 40 per cent of US adults want to test-drive an electric vehicle

BusinessGreen.com staff, BusinessGreen, 24 Aug 2010

Four out of 10 US adults are keen to test-drive an electric vehicle (EV), a new study has found, suggesting manufacturers in the emerging sector could be pushing against an open door.

The online study by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) found 40 per cent of American adults were likely to test-drive an electric vehicle, lured by promises of improved environmental quality and potential cost savings.

More than three quarters of those surveyed were impressed by the vehicle's ability to run without petrol, with 67 per cent also attracted by reduced levels of pollution and 60 per cent stating that they were keen to avoid oil changes and major services.

The findings will provide encouragement to the fleet of auto manufacturers, including Nissan, Toyota, GM, Tesla and Fisker Automotive, who are preparing to launch new electric vehicles and plug-in electric hybrids over the next two years.

However, while the findings suggest consumers are increasingly interested in trialling new methods of transport in a bid to reduce their carbon footprint, it also found manufacturers have some way to go to convince people to part with the money required to buy electric cars.

The study found drivers have a number of concerns about using battery-powered vehicles, with half of respondents worried about how far EVs can travel before needing to recharge, and 34 per cent voicing fears about the overall battery life.

The high cost of EVs, reliability and availability of charging stations were also cited as key barriers to adoption.

Chris Ely, CEA's manager of industry analysis, urged EV manufacturers and dealers to emphasise the mileage and battery-related specifications to drivers when trying to make a sale.

"Environmental benefits, coupled with potential cost savings in fuel and tune-ups, will lead to increased interest for electric vehicles and potential floor traffic at dealerships," he said. "But concerns regarding battery life, charging stations and limited mileage may keep some consumers away until a comprehensive infrastructure is in place."

The news comes as CEA gears up to host electric vehicles at the high-profile International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas for the first time.

The consumer technology tradeshow early next year will feature a full range of high and low-speed vehicles, energy storage devices and charging equipment.


[BusinessGreen.com > News > Offsets]

Carbon traders demand EU action to restore ebbing market confidence
International Emissions Trading Association writes to Brussels warning that failure to clarify proposed emission trading reforms is undermining Clean Development Mechanism

BusinessGreen.com Staff, BusinessGreen, 24 Aug 2010

The sense of drift that has dogged the European carbon market since the turn of the year has finally got too much for traders, who have today called on the EU to act now to inject some much needed confidence into the market.

The International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) lobby group has issued an open letter to EU climate change commissioner Connie Hedegaard demanding that Brussels acts urgently to clarify how the cap-and-trade scheme will operate during the next phase of its operation, which runs from 2013 to 2020.

In particular, the letter calls on the EU to confirm how many UN-approved carbon offsets can be used during the next phase of the scheme to help European businesses meet the carbon caps imposed through the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS).

Describing confidence in the UN offset market as being at a "very low ebb", IETA president and chief executive Henry Derwent warned that uncertainty over the rules governing the ETS post-2013 was undermining confidence across the carbon market and impacting planned investment in emission reduction projects.

"A vital principle of private financing appears to have been lost: the need to guarantee regulatory certainty and business continuity for investors," he said.

The EU is currently considering major reforms to the third phase of the ETS, including proposals to increase the bloc's 2020 emission reduction target from 20 per cent to 30 per cent.

Officials are also looking at restricting the number of carbon offsets from the UN-backed Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), known as Certified Emission Reductions, which can be used by EU firms.

Green groups have repeatedly criticised the CDM, warning that many of the projects approved under the scheme fail to deliver the deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions that are promised.

However, experts are now warning that a failure to clarify the level of future demand for CERs is undermining investment in legitimate emission reduction projects in developing countries.

"The only existing mechanism to incentivise private sector low-carbon investment in developing countries is the CDM," Derwent said in the letter to Hedegaard. "The EU has been key for the development of the CDM. Yet largely as a result of decisions taken or expected by the EU, market confidence in the CDM is at very low ebb."


[BusinessGreen.com > News > Renewables]

Exclusive: Will wind farms pick up the tab for new nuclear?
Wind farm developers fear National Grid proposals designed to accommodate nuclear power plants will lead to a huge increase in backup costs

James Murray, BusinessGreen, 24 Aug 2010

Wind farm operators could see their overheads increase by millions of pounds a year as a direct result of plans to upgrade and reinforce the grid to cope with a new fleet of nuclear reactors.

A number of renewable energy developers are angry at National Grid's decision to retain the current charging regime it operates for providing backup power, despite the fact costs are expected to soar when new nuclear power plants come online towards the end of the decade.

National Grid released a consultation document in June detailing how the proposed development of six nuclear power stations would require the grid operator to increase the amount of backup power, known as "spinning reserve", that it has available to call on in the event of a large power plant failing, from 1,320MW to 1,800MW.

The company estimated that as a result, the annual cost of providing so-called Large Loss Response will rise from £160m a year to £319m.

The consultation looked at a number of approaches to charging energy firms to cover the increased cost, but in a letter to Ofgem National Grid commercial director for transmission Alison Kay said the company had decided to retain the current regime, whereby generators are charged an equal amount per megawatt they provide to the grid.

Wind farm operators are known to be furious at the decision, which they claim will see them face an unfair doubling in charges from National Grid, despite the fact the company concluded in its consultation that generators with less than 350MW of capacity, including all operational wind farms in the UK, "pose no additional loss risk to the system".

In contrast, nuclear developers, who argued that targeting the increased charges at larger power plants would jeopardise plans for a new fleet of reactors, are delighted at a decision that will see the increased cost of backup spread right across the energy industry.

Writing in her letter to Ofgem, Kay revealed that the decision to retain the current charging regime was driven in part by fears that changes would delay the new nuclear build programme.

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[News] from [businessgreen.com]

[BusinessGreen.com > News > Education]

UK green energy college breaks ground following government grant
Delayed construction work starts on Merseyside's Green Energy Training Centre for microgeneration technologies

Jessica Shankleman, BusinessGreen, 24 Aug 2010

Construction work is finally beginning on the UK's first Green Energy Training Centre on Merseyside, which is aiming to boost the number of skilled contractors qualified to install microgeneration technologies.

Builders will this week start converting a warehouse owned by renewable technology manufacturer Stiebel Eltron into the new £280,000 Green Energy Training Centre (GETC). Government and industry-accredited training courses are expected to start in November.

GETC originally planned to start training students from July, but construction on the building was delayed because the new government had to reapprove a £122,275 grant through the Regional Skills Capital Development Fund from the Skills Funding Agency (SFA).

A spokesman for the project told BusinessGreen.com that the centre will initially offer training for installing ground source heat pumps and solar panels panels, although not micro wind turbines.

"The centre has a clear focus," he said. "It will be the first training centre to offer nationally accredited courses that are also endorsed by a manufacturer."

Although specific details of the syllabus have yet to be released, training provider Scientiam and Stiebel Eltron are urging interested building and installation firms to sign up staff to the courses now.

"By 2016 all new homes built must be carbon-neutral," said Stiebel Eltron's managing director Mark McManus. "So there is massive pressure on the construction industry to ramp up its knowledge of, and expertise in, green energy."

Courses will be targeted at engineers, electrical and plumbing contractors as well as heating and ventilation specialists wanting to boost their green energy skills, the company said.

All the courses will be accredited under the government's Microgeneration Certification Scheme, with which companies have to comply if they are to install renewable energy technologies that qualify for the UK's feed-in tariff incentive.


[BusinessGreen.com > News > Renewables]

Mitsubishi and GE face off over anti-trust accusations
Both sides attempt to declare victory as judge stays court case into alleged wind turbine monopoly

BusinessGreen.com Staff, BusinessGreen, 24 Aug 2010

The legal battle between Mitsubishi and General Electric over the US engineering giant's alleged attempts to monopolise the US market for wind turbines escalated yesterday after both companies attempted to declare victory following the latest court ruling in the long-running case.

US District Judge J. Leon Holmes in Fayetteville, Arkansas, rejected GE's request that he dismiss an antitrust lawsuit launched earlier this year by Mitsubishi. However, he did agree to stay the case until a separate GE suit accusing Mitsubishi of infringing on the company's patents has been resolved.

Holmes said in his ruling that if GE wins its patent infringement case then Mitsubishi's accusations that the company has been guilty of monopolistic behaviour will be moot and as a result the case should be formally put on hold.

Sonia Williams, a spokeswoman for Mitsubishi Power Systems America, said in a statement that the company was happy with a ruling that keeps its antitrust action alive.

"The judge's denial of GE's motion will ensure that a judge will hear the facts of a case that describes how GE seeks to monopolize the market for variable speed wind turbines in the United States," she said. "The judge did decide to stay discovery for the present. Nevertheless, we are heartened by his suggestion that he may terminate the stay if he finds appropriate circumstances. "

However, a spokesman for GE told news agency Reuters that the company disagreed with its rival's assessment of the court order, hinting that Mitsubishi had downplayed the fact that the case had been halted on the grounds it was inappropriate to proceed with the legal action until the patent spat is resolved.

The row dates back to 2008 when GE filed two patent infringement claims against Mitsubishi relating to grid connection and turbine frame technologies.

In January this year, the US International Trade Commission concluded that Mitsubishi had not violated the patents, but GE responded a month later by filing a suit in a federal court in Dallas again accusing Mitsubishi of breaching its patents.

Mitsubishi then upped the stakes, filing a counter suit in May accusing GE of making "baseless" claims of patent infringement against its rival and using the court case to monopolise parts of the burgeoning wind turbine market.

The company has said it could seek over $1bn in damages if GE is found guilty of monopolistic behaviour, although any legal battle will now have to wait on the decision from the on-going patent infringement case.


[BusinessGreen.com > News > Renewables]

Offshore wind farms reject "seal-killer" tag
Wind farm developers refute allegations their vessels caused seal mutilations

Jessica Shankleman, BusinessGreen, 24 Aug 2010

Offshore wind farm developers implicated in a mysterious spate of seal deaths have vigorously denied allegations their construction vessels could be to blame.

Scientists investigating the killings believe the deaths were caused by a vessel with a ducted propeller that has caused "corkscrew-style" mutilations on the seals' bodies.

Callan Duck, a senior research scientist at St Andrews University Seal Mammal Research Unit, told BusinessGreen.com that vessels operating between Statoil's Sheringham Shoal wind farm and Wells Harbour in North Norfolk might be the cause.

"Wind farms per se are not to blame," he said. "It's possible that some of the vessels involved in wind farm construction might be responsible, but we do not know that for sure."

At least 33 mutilated seals have been found washed ashore recently in Norfolk, St Andrews Bay and the Firth of Forth in Scotland. Similar unsolved seal deaths have also been reported off the Atlantic coast of Canada in the past decade.

However, engineering firm Scira, Sheringham Shoal's main contractor, denied the allegations.

"Both Scira and the police have checked all equipment on vessels operating at the site and found no connection," said Scira in a statement yesterday.

Meanwhile, harbour operator Wells Harbour Commissioners (WHC) issued a statement arguing that the boats accused of causing the injuries could not have been responsible.

"These seals began to be found in December 2009 but the fast supply boats using Wells to service the wind farm did not start operating from Wells until April 2010," the company said. "It is therefore entirely wrong to assume that the works to create the new Outer Harbour in Wells are coincident with these seal deaths."

WHC went on to explain that the vessel carrying out dredging work for the wind farm is operating seven miles away from the seal colony at Blakeney where the animals seem to have been killed.

Finally, the harbour said it had been operating boats with ducted propellers "for many years with no such problems reported".

A spokesman for Scottish Environment secretary Richard Lochhead, who commissioned the investigation into the seal deaths, refused to comment on specific theories of death until the studies are concluded.

"I'm hopeful the team at St Andrews can get to the root cause of these disturbing seal mortalities," said Lochhead in a statement. "A number of possible explanations are being considered and I look forward to the investigation being successfully concluded."

Wind farm operators are increasingly frustrated that the industry has been repeatedly linked to incidents of widllife mortalities with turbines having been accused of killing birds and bats as well as seals.

Advocates of the industry maintain there is little eveidence to suggest wind farms are responsible for high wildlife death rates, while insiders are also quick to point out that traffic and household pets pose a far greater threat to British wildlife.

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[BusinessGreen.com > News > Risk]

Gulf fix edges forward as UK warns of rising oil leak risk
BP scheduled to remove failed blowout preventer on Thursday

BusinessGreen.com Staff, BusinessGreen, 24 Aug 2010

US officials confirmed yesterday that BP is planning to recover the failed blowout preventer from the ruptured Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday as the operation to conclusively cap the well edges towards its finish.

Thad Allen, the retired coastguard admiral in charge of the US government's response to the crisis, said BP was currently working to remove a broken drill pipe from the device and would then aim remove it on Thursday and replace it with a new blowout preventer.

However, he added that the operation could yet be delayed by an extra day or so if it takes longer than expected to remove the pipe.

BP said that the addition of a new blowout preventer would mean that the well is in a better position to cope with any increase in pressure that results when the company completes the drilling of a relief well and begins the "bottom kill " operation that will see heavy mud and cement pumped into well.

The procedure is expected to be completed a few days after the 6 September Labor Day holiday.

The news came as officials in Europe warned that safety standards at drilling operations in the North Sea appear to have slipped in the past year, raising fresh questions about the long-term risks associated with deepwater oil and gas drilling.

The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) today released figures showing that the number of offshore oil and gas leaks recorded during the last financial year rose 39 per cent to 85 incidents.

None of the leaks grabbed the headlines, but they were all classified as significant hydrocarbon releases that could potentially act as precursors to a major leak.

The HSE also reported that there were 50 major injuries reported last year, an increase on the average over the past five years of 42 serious accidents a year. As a result, the combined fatal and major injury rate almost doubled to 192 per 100,000 workers in 2009/10 compared with 106 in 2008/09 and 156 in 2007/08.

Steve Walker, head of HSE's offshore division, expressed disappointment at the industry's safety record and warned that the agency would continue to take a tough line against firms that fail to follow safety best practices.

"I am particularly disappointed, and concerned, that major and significant hydrocarbon releases are up by more than a third on last year," he said. "This is a key indicator of how well the offshore industry is managing its major accident potential and it really must up its game to identify and rectify the root causes of such events."

The report comes just a week after officials in Norway voiced similar concern over the risk of offshore oil spills from deepwater wells.

Magne Ognedal, director general of the Petroleum Safety Authority told news agency Reuters, that the watchdog would force firms planning to drill in deepwater to adhere to stricter safety standards.

"We asked the OLF (Norway's oil industry lobby) to look into the possibility of developing equipment that could handle sub-sea blowouts regardless of water depths," he said. "They will need to look for better technologies to help detect a leak on sub-sea installations. We are looking for improvements in that area."


[BusinessGreen.com > News > Legislation]

Can tar sands ever be sustainable?
The Canadian government would like to think so, but environmentalists are not about to be convinced

Danny Bradbury, BusinessGreen, 24 Aug 2010

The Canadian government could be set to try to "green" the country's tar sands, as it prepares for a wide-ranging consultation exercise designed to curb the environmental impact of Alberta's controversial tar sand developments.

According to comments made last week by Alberta's sustainable resource development minister Mel Knight, at least a fifth of tar sands land could be set aside for conservation under recommendations that are due to feature in the consultation.

He added that the state government could approve a legally binding plan based on the consultation early next year.

Local environmental groups are already positioning themselves to demand an increase in the amount of land that is protected, with some campaigners suggesting that up to 40 per cent of the boreal forest that could be developed for tar sands extraction should be conserved.

As the government gears up to try to improve its battered environmental reputation, energy firm Suncor is similarly trying to present itself as a responsible tar sands developer with the release of its latest sustainability report, which is the first since it merged with Petro Canada last year.

Rick George, chief executive at the company, said the report demonstrated that "the new Suncor, like the old Suncor, is strategically focused on responsibly developing Canada's oil sands".

The report features various environmental goals for the next year, including the implementation of water usage principles that it said it could not implement last year because of the merger process.

Other goals include a commitment to introduce a tailings reduction process that will see more tar sands tailings turned to solids that can be removed from the land.

The company also pledged to reduce its air emissions by 10 per cent by 2015, and double the amount of reclaimed land it has delivered by the same date. The company has disturbed 17,161 hectares of land since it started mining the oil sands in 1967, and has so far reclaimed just 6.9 per cent of the total. Meeting its 2015 goal would therefore see it reclaim a little over an eighth of the land that it has disturbed.

The public and private sector commitments to reduce the environmental impact of the tar sands follow years of campaigning from green groups which argue that the development of the region represents one of the most environmentally damaging and carbon-intensive projects anywhere on Earth.

Campaigners have repeatedly demonstrated that the process of extracting oil from tar-soaked sands has a carbon footprint that is up to eight times larger than conventional oil production, while developers have been consistently accused of polluting water courses and failing to adequately clean up depleted tar sands sites.


[BusinessGreen.com > News > Politics]

Australian kingmakers consider climate change position
Independent MPs who hold the balance of power in Australia's hung parliament meet to discuss demands

Tom Young in Sydney, BusinessGreen, 24 Aug 2010

Independent MPs are today meeting to discuss whether action on climate change should be a condition of any king-making deal with Labor or the Liberal-led coalition as horse-trading begins in the wake of Saturday's inconclusive Australian election.

Rob Oakeshott, Bob Katter and Tony Windsor are aiming to decide what demands should be presented to the two parties in the likely event of a hung parliament. Climate change policy is reportedly a key part of their agenda.

At the latest count Labor was hopeful of holding 73 seats in the 150-seat parliament, while the coalition holds 70, both short of the 76 seats needed in the lower house to form a government.

Greens MP Adam Bandt and independent Andrew Wilkie are not taking part in the meeting, but are also said to be weighing up their options. Bandt is widely expected to align himself with the Labor party, but Wilkie has said that he could support either of the two main parties.

Oakeshott, who has emerged as a key negotiator in the group of three independents, yesterday called for action on climate change to form part of any deal. "That is one example of what we may be able to deliver for this country, which the last parliament couldn't do,” he told ABC news.

Meanwhile, both parties are also looking to woo those Greens elected to the upper house, known as the senate, to ensure that legislation can be approved without opposition.

As a result, the Greens have some leverage with which to persuade a potential Labor or coalition administration to adopt more ambitious climate change policies, including a strong price on carbon and binding national emission and energy efficiency targets.

Prime minister Julia Gillard has signalled that she would like to introduce some form of carbon price if she forms the next government and is likely to set out ambitious proposals if she is required to call on support for her plans from the Greens.

However, Liberal leader Tony Abbott has consistently opposed any form of emissions trading or carbon tax legislation, instead setting out plans for an AU$2.5bn (US$2.2bn) emissions reduction fund.

Despite the fact that if elected as prime minister he may be forced to do a deal with the Greens in order to pass any legislation, Abbott today warned any continuing Labor government would effectively be a Labor-Green alliance. "I think that would be very bad for regional Australia,'' he told the Australian newspaper, adding it would "almost certainly'' result in a carbon tax.