[Top News] from [REUTERS]
[Green Business]
Australia carbon laws fail, election possible
Wed Dec 2, 2009 1:35am EST
By Rob Taylor
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's parliament rejected laws to set up a carbon trading scheme on Wednesday, scuttling a key climate change policy of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and providing a potential trigger for an early 2010 election.
Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the government would re-introduce the carbon trade bills in February to give the opposition Liberal Party one more chance to support the scheme, adding the government was not looking at an early election.
"Today the climate change extremists and deniers ... have stopped this nation taking action on climate change," Gillard told reporters.
"This nation is one of the hottest and driest continents on Earth. We are going to be hit particularly hard and early by climate change," she said. "We are determined to deliver the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, we are determined to deliver real action on climate change."
The second rejection of the carbon-trade legislation by a hostile Senate on Wednesday gave Rudd a legal trigger to call an election that could come as early as March or April 2010, and to then ram his laws through a special joint sitting of both houses of parliament if he was returned to power.
But Gillard played down early election speculation.
"The prime minister has made it very clear that it is his intention to have the parliament go full term," she said.
The prime minister, who is overseas, had hoped to take his carbon-trade scheme to next week's global talks in Copenhagen, where world leaders will seek a new agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
The emissions trading scheme (ETS) would have been the biggest outside Europe, covering 75 percent of Australian emissions and starting in July 2011.
The Senate rebuff throws the future of carbon trading in Australia into confusion, creating new uncertainty for business, which had sought clarity from the political debate.
"From the point of view of a lot of businesses in Australia they're now back in the dark. No one knows what is coming next," said Tim Hanlin, chief executive of the Australian Climate Exchange.
"For a lot of companies that are going to make investment decisions as we come out of recession, it will be more difficult with no certainty about the carbon price."
Australian electricity prices fell after the Senate rejected the legislation, with the 2011 contract falling 3.7 percent to A$44 per megawatt hour in thin trade.
The "cap and trade" carbon scheme would have forced big polluters, particularly in the coal and electricity sectors, to buy carbon emission permits. Rising permits prices would act as an incentive to reduce greenhouse gases.
The scheme was defeated in the Senate, by 41 votes to 33, by opposition climate skeptics and Greens who wanted tougher emission reduction targets. Two Liberals voted for the laws. The government only needed seven opposition votes to pass the laws.
The Liberal Party last week agreed to back the carbon laws, but climate change skeptics forced a leadership and policy change on Tuesday. "We won't have an ETS as part of our policy going to the next election...," Liberal leader Tony Abbott said Wednesday.
MARCH ELECTION?
Senior opposition lawmaker Christopher Pyne said he expected a dissolution of both houses of parliament and an election early in the new year, ahead of polls due around late November.
"I think the election will be on March 6," Pyne said.
Political scientist Dr Rick Kuhn, of the Australian National University, said reintroduction of the bills would maintain pressure on the Liberal Party while keeping open the option of calling an early election.
"It's more likely that they are keeping the pressure up on the Liberals, driving a wedge further inside the Liberals," he said. "I don't think the government's bluff has been called. I think they are in a very, very strong position."
Bookmakers Centrebet said the odds of a Rudd victory at the next election lengthened for the first time in several months after the carbon laws were defeated, to A$1.22 from A$1.15 -- meaning a A$1 stake would win A$1.22 -- while odds of an opposition win shortened to A$4.10 from A$5.00.
Market analysts believe defeat of Australia's emissions trading plans could temporarily dent political momentum ahead of next week's U.N. climate talks, but the impact is unlikely to affect global carbon prices until at least 2013. [nSYD445124]
European emissions traders told Reuters that regardless of whether some opposition rebels backed the government's bill or it failed completely, an Australian scheme in its proposed form would have little immediate impact on carbon prices.
Australia's population of 21 million has the rich world's highest per capita carbon emissions. It is heavily reliant on coal, shipping and motor transport, so its environmental policies and carbon-cutting potential are closely watched.
(Additional reporting by James Grubel in CANBERRA and Jonathan Lynn in GENEVA; Editing by Michael Perry and Alex Richardson)
[Green Business]
Global warming threatens China harvests: forecaster
Wed Dec 2, 2009 3:46am EST
By Chris Buckley
BEIJING (Reuters) - Droughts and floods stoked by global warming threaten to destabilize China's grain production, the nation's top meteorologist has warned, urging bigger grain reserves and strict protection of farmland and water supplies.
Extreme weather damage can now cause annual grain output in China, the world's biggest grain producer, to fluctuate by about 10 to 20 percent from longer-term averages.
But with global warming intensifying droughts, floods and pests, the band of fluctuation in annual production could widen to between 30 and 50 percent, Zheng Guoguang, head of the China Meteorological Administration, wrote in a new essay. He did not say how long it might be before that could happen.
A stretch of especially bad weather for farming conditions could be disastrous for the world's most populous nation, Zheng wrote in the latest issue of Seeking Truth (Qiushi), the ruling Communist Party's main magazine, which was published on Tuesday and reached subscribers on Wednesday.
"If extreme climatic disasters occur twice or more within five years -- for example, major drought over two or three years -- then the impact on our country's economic and social development would be incalculable," wrote Zheng, who plays a role in developing China's climate change policies.
Zheng's warning appeared days before governments gather in Copenhagen seeking to forge the framework of a new agreement on fighting global warming.
As the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, China will be a crucial player in those talks. Last week the government announced emissions goals for the next decade.
Zheng's blunt words underscored the hard choices facing Beijing, as both a big polluter and a vulnerable victim of global warming. He is a member of a "leading small group" charged with developing the government's policies on climate change.
FARMING POPULATION
A vast developing country with a farming population of some 750 million, China is also one of the nations most vulnerable to global warming, wrote Zheng. He urged greater attention to adapting to unstoppable shifts in temperatures, rainfall and extreme weather.
China should make a priority of "reducing the impact of global warming on the country's food security, and strengthening the capacity of agriculture to withstand climatic risks," wrote Zheng.
China's grain production has recently reached record levels, despite damage from droughts, floods and frost. In 2008, China enjoyed a fifth straight year of bumper harvests, with grain output at a record 525 million tonnes. U.S. output over the 2007-08 growing year was 412 million tonnes.
Citing previously published research, Zheng wrote that by 2030, China's crop productivity could be 5 to 10 percent lower than it would be without global warming.
While rising temperatures may extend potential growing times and areas for some crops, especially in northeast China, the accompanying rise in evaporation rates is likely to reduce water supplies, undercutting any increases in crop yields, wrote Zheng.
Without adequate adaptive measures, in the second half of the century wheat, rice and corn production could fall by as much as 37 percent of recent averages, he wrote, citing earlier research.
But China "cannot depend on the international marketplace" to make up for these potential shortfalls, because global warming would also erode farming productivity in many parts of the globe, Zheng wrote.
Instead, the government should focus on expanding domestic grain reserves, protecting farmland, developing water-saving technology for farms, and boosting farmers' productivity, he wrote.
(Editing by Ken Wills and Alex Richardson)
[Green Business]
Australia carbon laws fail, election possible
Wed Dec 2, 2009 1:35am EST
By Rob Taylor
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's parliament rejected laws to set up a carbon trading scheme on Wednesday, scuttling a key climate change policy of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and providing a potential trigger for an early 2010 election.
Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the government would re-introduce the carbon trade bills in February to give the opposition Liberal Party one more chance to support the scheme, adding the government was not looking at an early election.
"Today the climate change extremists and deniers ... have stopped this nation taking action on climate change," Gillard told reporters.
"This nation is one of the hottest and driest continents on Earth. We are going to be hit particularly hard and early by climate change," she said. "We are determined to deliver the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, we are determined to deliver real action on climate change."
The second rejection of the carbon-trade legislation by a hostile Senate on Wednesday gave Rudd a legal trigger to call an election that could come as early as March or April 2010, and to then ram his laws through a special joint sitting of both houses of parliament if he was returned to power.
But Gillard played down early election speculation.
"The prime minister has made it very clear that it is his intention to have the parliament go full term," she said.
The prime minister, who is overseas, had hoped to take his carbon-trade scheme to next week's global talks in Copenhagen, where world leaders will seek a new agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
The emissions trading scheme (ETS) would have been the biggest outside Europe, covering 75 percent of Australian emissions and starting in July 2011.
The Senate rebuff throws the future of carbon trading in Australia into confusion, creating new uncertainty for business, which had sought clarity from the political debate.
"From the point of view of a lot of businesses in Australia they're now back in the dark. No one knows what is coming next," said Tim Hanlin, chief executive of the Australian Climate Exchange.
"For a lot of companies that are going to make investment decisions as we come out of recession, it will be more difficult with no certainty about the carbon price."
Australian electricity prices fell after the Senate rejected the legislation, with the 2011 contract falling 3.7 percent to A$44 per megawatt hour in thin trade.
The "cap and trade" carbon scheme would have forced big polluters, particularly in the coal and electricity sectors, to buy carbon emission permits. Rising permits prices would act as an incentive to reduce greenhouse gases.
The scheme was defeated in the Senate, by 41 votes to 33, by opposition climate skeptics and Greens who wanted tougher emission reduction targets. Two Liberals voted for the laws. The government only needed seven opposition votes to pass the laws.
The Liberal Party last week agreed to back the carbon laws, but climate change skeptics forced a leadership and policy change on Tuesday. "We won't have an ETS as part of our policy going to the next election...," Liberal leader Tony Abbott said Wednesday.
MARCH ELECTION?
Senior opposition lawmaker Christopher Pyne said he expected a dissolution of both houses of parliament and an election early in the new year, ahead of polls due around late November.
"I think the election will be on March 6," Pyne said.
Political scientist Dr Rick Kuhn, of the Australian National University, said reintroduction of the bills would maintain pressure on the Liberal Party while keeping open the option of calling an early election.
"It's more likely that they are keeping the pressure up on the Liberals, driving a wedge further inside the Liberals," he said. "I don't think the government's bluff has been called. I think they are in a very, very strong position."
Bookmakers Centrebet said the odds of a Rudd victory at the next election lengthened for the first time in several months after the carbon laws were defeated, to A$1.22 from A$1.15 -- meaning a A$1 stake would win A$1.22 -- while odds of an opposition win shortened to A$4.10 from A$5.00.
Market analysts believe defeat of Australia's emissions trading plans could temporarily dent political momentum ahead of next week's U.N. climate talks, but the impact is unlikely to affect global carbon prices until at least 2013. [nSYD445124]
European emissions traders told Reuters that regardless of whether some opposition rebels backed the government's bill or it failed completely, an Australian scheme in its proposed form would have little immediate impact on carbon prices.
Australia's population of 21 million has the rich world's highest per capita carbon emissions. It is heavily reliant on coal, shipping and motor transport, so its environmental policies and carbon-cutting potential are closely watched.
(Additional reporting by James Grubel in CANBERRA and Jonathan Lynn in GENEVA; Editing by Michael Perry and Alex Richardson)
[Green Business]
Global warming threatens China harvests: forecaster
Wed Dec 2, 2009 3:46am EST
By Chris Buckley
BEIJING (Reuters) - Droughts and floods stoked by global warming threaten to destabilize China's grain production, the nation's top meteorologist has warned, urging bigger grain reserves and strict protection of farmland and water supplies.
Extreme weather damage can now cause annual grain output in China, the world's biggest grain producer, to fluctuate by about 10 to 20 percent from longer-term averages.
But with global warming intensifying droughts, floods and pests, the band of fluctuation in annual production could widen to between 30 and 50 percent, Zheng Guoguang, head of the China Meteorological Administration, wrote in a new essay. He did not say how long it might be before that could happen.
A stretch of especially bad weather for farming conditions could be disastrous for the world's most populous nation, Zheng wrote in the latest issue of Seeking Truth (Qiushi), the ruling Communist Party's main magazine, which was published on Tuesday and reached subscribers on Wednesday.
"If extreme climatic disasters occur twice or more within five years -- for example, major drought over two or three years -- then the impact on our country's economic and social development would be incalculable," wrote Zheng, who plays a role in developing China's climate change policies.
Zheng's warning appeared days before governments gather in Copenhagen seeking to forge the framework of a new agreement on fighting global warming.
As the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, China will be a crucial player in those talks. Last week the government announced emissions goals for the next decade.
Zheng's blunt words underscored the hard choices facing Beijing, as both a big polluter and a vulnerable victim of global warming. He is a member of a "leading small group" charged with developing the government's policies on climate change.
FARMING POPULATION
A vast developing country with a farming population of some 750 million, China is also one of the nations most vulnerable to global warming, wrote Zheng. He urged greater attention to adapting to unstoppable shifts in temperatures, rainfall and extreme weather.
China should make a priority of "reducing the impact of global warming on the country's food security, and strengthening the capacity of agriculture to withstand climatic risks," wrote Zheng.
China's grain production has recently reached record levels, despite damage from droughts, floods and frost. In 2008, China enjoyed a fifth straight year of bumper harvests, with grain output at a record 525 million tonnes. U.S. output over the 2007-08 growing year was 412 million tonnes.
Citing previously published research, Zheng wrote that by 2030, China's crop productivity could be 5 to 10 percent lower than it would be without global warming.
While rising temperatures may extend potential growing times and areas for some crops, especially in northeast China, the accompanying rise in evaporation rates is likely to reduce water supplies, undercutting any increases in crop yields, wrote Zheng.
Without adequate adaptive measures, in the second half of the century wheat, rice and corn production could fall by as much as 37 percent of recent averages, he wrote, citing earlier research.
But China "cannot depend on the international marketplace" to make up for these potential shortfalls, because global warming would also erode farming productivity in many parts of the globe, Zheng wrote.
Instead, the government should focus on expanding domestic grain reserves, protecting farmland, developing water-saving technology for farms, and boosting farmers' productivity, he wrote.
(Editing by Ken Wills and Alex Richardson)
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