[Top News] from [REUTERS]
[Green Business]
Leslie Josephs
ABANGARES, Costa Rica
Thu Dec 24, 2009 12:32pm EST
Costa Rica assails big risks taken by small miners
ABANGARES, Costa Rica (Reuters) - Costa Rica is pushing to legalize hundreds of small-scale miners who scrape out tiny amounts of gold from abandoned mine shafts using dangerous and polluting techniques.
Lured by record prices for gold, which topped $1,200 an ounce this year, some 600 informal miners around the town of Abangares in hilly northern Costa Rica use toxic mercury to extract gold from rocks chipped out of narrow tunnels.
The environment ministry estimates the miners produce around 500 ounces of 14 carat gold a month and sell it to local dealers at cut rates below the market, around $476 an ounce.
Informal mining is practiced in many parts of the world but Costa Rica is as the forefront of a trend to regulate the miners by urging them to form cooperatives, apply for official mining concessions with environmental permits and pay taxes.
The government of the lushly forested Central American nation, which touts its strict environmental rules, is worried unchecked informal miners are dumping dangerous chemicals into water supplies.
"This is a social problem caused by unemployment in the tourism sector," said Jose Castro, head of mining at the Environment Ministry. The economic downturn has hit the tourism industry at beaches and nature reserves in the region.
"What we're trying to do is organize (the miners) and monitor their activities," Castro said.
Top mining officials toured the area around Abangares this month and want to push through the tougher regulations before President Oscar Arias' term ends in May 2010.
The government campaign has made headway, with about half of the miners already organized into officially recognized cooperatives and one in the process of applying for a formal concession.
PROFIT OUTWEIGHS RISK
Better known for its exports of bananas and high-quality coffee, Costa Rica's does not have the mineral resources of other Latin American countries. Metallic mining comprises less than 1 percent of the gross domestic product.
There are no major operational gold mines and the only big project, Las Crucitas, which is being built by Canada's Infinito Gold Ltd, has been suspended pending a supreme court ruling on whether it is environmentally safe.
But with gold prices soaring, informal miners are willing to take big risks to scrape a living out of deep caves, some a century old, abandoned by international mining companies.
Miners have died when weakly supported tunnels collapsed during rainy season. And they regularly handle mercury with their bare hands, even though the liquid metal can cause birth defects, miscarriages, nerve damage and renal failure.
"There is no other work. You can earn more here than in any kind of company," Jose Campos, a 29-year-old miner said.
(Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
[Green Business]
LONDON
Thu Dec 24, 2009 8:19am EST
EU carbon falls on lower German power
LONDON (Reuters) - European carbon prices fell on Thursday, pressured by lower German power prices.
EU Allowances for December 2010 delivery lost 22 cents or 1.7 percent at 12.78 euros a tonne on around 160 lots traded by 0935 GMT.
The benchmark futures opened unchanged at 13.00 euros, but then lost ground in thin pre-holiday business.
"There's no real activity or sentiment ... There are no buyers so there's no support out there," one trader said.
German calendar 2010 baseload power shed 15 cents to 44.55 euros per megawatt hour.
U.S. crude oil futures rose above $77 after surging more than 3 percent the previous day, lifted by a deeper-than-forecast drop in crude and fuel stocks in the world's top energy consumer and as the dollar paused.
Dec-10 EUAs are down 5.9 percent for the week after the market plummeted on Monday following a disappointing outcome to U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen.
The European Climate Exchange will close at 1200 GMT on Thursday, and will reopen on Tuesday, December 29.
Benchmark CER prices also fell in light volume, with the Dec-10 contract losing 6 cents or 0.5 percent at 11.30 euros a tonne on volume of 10 lots.
The EUA-CER spread now stands at 1.43 euros.
[Green Business]
Michael Szabo
LONDON
Thu Dec 24, 2009 6:47am EST
Copenhagen blame game not helpful: U.N. climate chief
LONDON (Reuters) - Countries should stop blaming each other for the weak outcome of the Copenhagen climate talks and sit down together to move the process forward, the U.N.'s top climate change official said on Wednesday.
It is still possible to reach a legally binding global treaty, and bickering among countries like China and Britain is unproductive, Yvo de Boer, the head of the UN's climate change secretariat, told Reuters.
Britain accused a handful of states including China on Monday of hijacking efforts to agree deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. China replied that the allegations were an attempt to sow discord among emerging countries.
"These countries have to sit down together next year, so blaming each other for what happened will not help," de Boer said.
The Copenhagen summit ended with a non-binding accord between the U.S., China and other emerging powers that sets a target of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius and offers funding to help poor nations adapt to climate change, but the details are scant.
"It can be an important guiding light or foundation for moving the process forward, and criticizing it or blaming each other for how it came about is not helpful," de Boer said.
A legally binding treaty is still possible and next year should be used to decide its content, which in turn should determine its legal nature.
"It's the classical 'form follows function'," he added.
Some 28 nations signed the final Copenhagen Accord, but de Boer expects more to step forward and officially support it.
"A letter will be going out from the Danish government to all countries informing them of the accord, telling them they have the opportunity to subscribe to it and reminding them of the agreed deadlines."
The accord sets a January 31, 2010 deadline for rich nations to submit economy-wide emissions targets for 2020 and for developing countries to present mitigation actions.
De Boer said subscribing to the accord does not oblige countries to make pledges nor are there penalties for late submissions. "Commitments are always warmly received," he said.
U.N. climate talks will resume in Bonn, Germany in May 2010.
LACK OF UNDERSTANDING
Responding to claims that a few countries had "hijacked" negotiations in Copenhagen, de Boer said it was a lack of understanding rather than pure objection that prevented delegates from agreeing a robust climate pact.
"For developing countries it wasn't clear what a legally binding treaty would mean for them, how it would impact their ability to grow their economies or eradicate poverty," he said.
"To commit to a legally binding treaty when you don't know what it means for your country is quite a leap of faith."
De Boer said the countries that denounced the U.S. and China-led plan, including Sudan, Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia, felt they had not been included in the decision-making process and that they did not have enough time to evaluate the offer.
"(The accord) enjoyed very broad support but it didn't enjoy consensus," he said.
De Boer identified four steps which would advance the negotiating process to ensure a comprehensive deal is agreed at next year's UN talks in Mexico:
"Taking good stock of Copenhagen, seeing if the accord receives broad support, discussing if a more intensified meeting schedule is needed ... and getting ready for the meetings in May in a solid way."
(Reporting by Michael Szabo; editing by Tim Pearce)
[Green Business]
Leslie Josephs
ABANGARES, Costa Rica
Thu Dec 24, 2009 12:32pm EST
Costa Rica assails big risks taken by small miners
ABANGARES, Costa Rica (Reuters) - Costa Rica is pushing to legalize hundreds of small-scale miners who scrape out tiny amounts of gold from abandoned mine shafts using dangerous and polluting techniques.
Lured by record prices for gold, which topped $1,200 an ounce this year, some 600 informal miners around the town of Abangares in hilly northern Costa Rica use toxic mercury to extract gold from rocks chipped out of narrow tunnels.
The environment ministry estimates the miners produce around 500 ounces of 14 carat gold a month and sell it to local dealers at cut rates below the market, around $476 an ounce.
Informal mining is practiced in many parts of the world but Costa Rica is as the forefront of a trend to regulate the miners by urging them to form cooperatives, apply for official mining concessions with environmental permits and pay taxes.
The government of the lushly forested Central American nation, which touts its strict environmental rules, is worried unchecked informal miners are dumping dangerous chemicals into water supplies.
"This is a social problem caused by unemployment in the tourism sector," said Jose Castro, head of mining at the Environment Ministry. The economic downturn has hit the tourism industry at beaches and nature reserves in the region.
"What we're trying to do is organize (the miners) and monitor their activities," Castro said.
Top mining officials toured the area around Abangares this month and want to push through the tougher regulations before President Oscar Arias' term ends in May 2010.
The government campaign has made headway, with about half of the miners already organized into officially recognized cooperatives and one in the process of applying for a formal concession.
PROFIT OUTWEIGHS RISK
Better known for its exports of bananas and high-quality coffee, Costa Rica's does not have the mineral resources of other Latin American countries. Metallic mining comprises less than 1 percent of the gross domestic product.
There are no major operational gold mines and the only big project, Las Crucitas, which is being built by Canada's Infinito Gold Ltd, has been suspended pending a supreme court ruling on whether it is environmentally safe.
But with gold prices soaring, informal miners are willing to take big risks to scrape a living out of deep caves, some a century old, abandoned by international mining companies.
Miners have died when weakly supported tunnels collapsed during rainy season. And they regularly handle mercury with their bare hands, even though the liquid metal can cause birth defects, miscarriages, nerve damage and renal failure.
"There is no other work. You can earn more here than in any kind of company," Jose Campos, a 29-year-old miner said.
(Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
[Green Business]
LONDON
Thu Dec 24, 2009 8:19am EST
EU carbon falls on lower German power
LONDON (Reuters) - European carbon prices fell on Thursday, pressured by lower German power prices.
EU Allowances for December 2010 delivery lost 22 cents or 1.7 percent at 12.78 euros a tonne on around 160 lots traded by 0935 GMT.
The benchmark futures opened unchanged at 13.00 euros, but then lost ground in thin pre-holiday business.
"There's no real activity or sentiment ... There are no buyers so there's no support out there," one trader said.
German calendar 2010 baseload power shed 15 cents to 44.55 euros per megawatt hour.
U.S. crude oil futures rose above $77 after surging more than 3 percent the previous day, lifted by a deeper-than-forecast drop in crude and fuel stocks in the world's top energy consumer and as the dollar paused.
Dec-10 EUAs are down 5.9 percent for the week after the market plummeted on Monday following a disappointing outcome to U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen.
The European Climate Exchange will close at 1200 GMT on Thursday, and will reopen on Tuesday, December 29.
Benchmark CER prices also fell in light volume, with the Dec-10 contract losing 6 cents or 0.5 percent at 11.30 euros a tonne on volume of 10 lots.
The EUA-CER spread now stands at 1.43 euros.
[Green Business]
Michael Szabo
LONDON
Thu Dec 24, 2009 6:47am EST
Copenhagen blame game not helpful: U.N. climate chief
LONDON (Reuters) - Countries should stop blaming each other for the weak outcome of the Copenhagen climate talks and sit down together to move the process forward, the U.N.'s top climate change official said on Wednesday.
It is still possible to reach a legally binding global treaty, and bickering among countries like China and Britain is unproductive, Yvo de Boer, the head of the UN's climate change secretariat, told Reuters.
Britain accused a handful of states including China on Monday of hijacking efforts to agree deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. China replied that the allegations were an attempt to sow discord among emerging countries.
"These countries have to sit down together next year, so blaming each other for what happened will not help," de Boer said.
The Copenhagen summit ended with a non-binding accord between the U.S., China and other emerging powers that sets a target of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius and offers funding to help poor nations adapt to climate change, but the details are scant.
"It can be an important guiding light or foundation for moving the process forward, and criticizing it or blaming each other for how it came about is not helpful," de Boer said.
A legally binding treaty is still possible and next year should be used to decide its content, which in turn should determine its legal nature.
"It's the classical 'form follows function'," he added.
Some 28 nations signed the final Copenhagen Accord, but de Boer expects more to step forward and officially support it.
"A letter will be going out from the Danish government to all countries informing them of the accord, telling them they have the opportunity to subscribe to it and reminding them of the agreed deadlines."
The accord sets a January 31, 2010 deadline for rich nations to submit economy-wide emissions targets for 2020 and for developing countries to present mitigation actions.
De Boer said subscribing to the accord does not oblige countries to make pledges nor are there penalties for late submissions. "Commitments are always warmly received," he said.
U.N. climate talks will resume in Bonn, Germany in May 2010.
LACK OF UNDERSTANDING
Responding to claims that a few countries had "hijacked" negotiations in Copenhagen, de Boer said it was a lack of understanding rather than pure objection that prevented delegates from agreeing a robust climate pact.
"For developing countries it wasn't clear what a legally binding treaty would mean for them, how it would impact their ability to grow their economies or eradicate poverty," he said.
"To commit to a legally binding treaty when you don't know what it means for your country is quite a leap of faith."
De Boer said the countries that denounced the U.S. and China-led plan, including Sudan, Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia, felt they had not been included in the decision-making process and that they did not have enough time to evaluate the offer.
"(The accord) enjoyed very broad support but it didn't enjoy consensus," he said.
De Boer identified four steps which would advance the negotiating process to ensure a comprehensive deal is agreed at next year's UN talks in Mexico:
"Taking good stock of Copenhagen, seeing if the accord receives broad support, discussing if a more intensified meeting schedule is needed ... and getting ready for the meetings in May in a solid way."
(Reporting by Michael Szabo; editing by Tim Pearce)
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