[Top News] from [REUTERS]
[Green Business]
JORF LASFAR, Morocco
Wed Jan 6, 2010 3:03pm EST
Morocco to invite bids for solar station in Feb
JORF LASFAR, Morocco (Reuters) - Morocco will invite bids for construction of its first solar power station at the end of next month as part of a $9 billion solar energy project, its energy minister said on Wednesday.
The 500-megawatt plant will be in the southern town of Ouarzazate, the site where Morocco's ruler, King Mohammed, announced the launch of the nationwide solar project last year.
"We are advancing smoothly in our plan to implement this grand project. We will tender for the Ourzazate station at the end of February," Energy Minister Amina Benkhadra told Reuters at the inauguration of a gas storage facility at the port of Jorf Lasfar, outside Casablanca.
Morocco's solar plan involves building five stations which will account for 38 percent of its installed power generation by 2020, Rabat government officials.
"We will start first with the tender for Ourzazate power station and the tenders for the others will follow successively," Benkhadra added. But she gave no more details.
Morocco, which is the only North African state with no oil of its own, wants to play a leading role in an European plan to draw solar power from the Sahara.
The European solar scheme, which is worth up to 400 billion euros ($564 billion), could allow Europe to source 15 percent of its power from mirrors that gather sunlight in the vast southern desert by 2050.
The mirrors would concentrate the sun's rays to boil water and power turbines, generating electricity without emitting the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
Morocco is the poorest of the European Union's southern neighbors but one of its closest allies in the region. It has a history of political stability and reforms to improve its business environment have led to steady rises of foreign investment flow in the past 10 years.
Benkhadra said Morocco is open for cooperation with various foreign governments and firms.
"We had received expressions of interest from several foreign states and from big foreign companies which want to take part in our solar project," she added.
Asked whether Morocco is looking for firms from its main trade partners in Europe, Benkhadra said:
"Morocco is open for all forms of partnership as long as the foreign firms have the capabilities to bring expertise, technology and know-how. We are looking for public-private partnerships as well as national-and-foreign partnerships."
(Reporting by Lamine Ghanmi, editing by Marguerita Choy)
[Green Business]
WASHINGTON
Wed Jan 6, 2010 2:19pm EST
Half of money managers ignore climate risks: survey
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly half of global money managers are making investment decisions without factoring in risks or opportunities associated with climate change, according to a survey released on Wednesday by a coalition of environmentalists and investors.
A related report recommended that money managers and institutional investors do climate risk assessments on all investments and encourage the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to encourage full disclosure of climate risks.
"This is about significant business issues that affect our portfolios," Jack Ehnes, chief executive of the California State Teachers' Retirement System told reporters in a teleconference about the survey. "Certainly leaving the most recent economic crisis with a deeper understanding of risk, I would think it would be incumbent on everyone to embrace (climate) issues."
The survey of the world's 500 largest asset managers by Ceres, a Boston-based coalition of environmentalists and investors, found 44 percent of the respondents did not consider climate risks in their investment decisions. They did not see risks as financially material.
Industries that face the most financial risk from climate change and current and future limits on greenhouse gas emissions include electricity generators, automobile manufacturers and insurance companies, it found.
Asset owners, such as pension funds and other institutional investors, were not asking their asset managers to analyze the risks, or were only just beginning to raise the subject, the survey found.
Alexis Krajeski, a sustainable investment expert in London at global asset management company F&C Management Ltd, said money managers could stand to lose if they do not analyze opportunities and risks linked to climate change.
Opportunities could include investments in companies that are responding to greenhouse gas regulations by helping heavy industry to reduce emissions.
"In order to capitalize on climate-related opportunities and avoid losses linked to climate risk, we need to identify the winners and losers," she said.
Pension funds and other investors led by Ceres and holding more than $1 trillion in assets, have been pressing the SEC to require companies to disclose climate-related risks.
SEC Commissioner Elisse Walter, one of five members who makes decisions on federal securities rules, has said she believes it is time for the regulators to issue so-called interpretive guidance on climate risks.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by David Gregorio)
[Green Business]
Rob Taylor
CANBERRA
Wed Jan 6, 2010 5:24pm EST
Japan whaler "spy flights" rile Australia
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's government came under pressure from lawmakers on Wednesday to block "spy flights" launched by Japanese whalers from Australian airports to foil hardline anti-whaling activists in the Southern Ocean.
Green Business | Japan
As activists near Antarctica unveiled a third "secret" boat to help them pursue and block the Japanese fleet, influential Australian lawmakers said regular reconnaissance flights were helping Tokyo breach international anti-whaling conventions.
"What we have here is spy flights, which are helping to breach international law, being conducted from Australian airports under the guise and under the nose of the Australian government," conservative opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt told state radio.
Japan's government-backed whaling fleet aims to harpoon up to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales, classified as endangered, in the Southern Ocean during the current Southern Hemisphere summer.
Commercial whaling was banned under a 1986 treaty. But the Japanese have continued to cull whales on grounds that this is for research purposes and to monitor their impact on fish stocks, deflecting criticism from anti-whaling nations like Australia, Britain and New Zealand.
Activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society have promised to disrupt the hunt and on Wednesday revealed a 1,200-tonne former Norwegian harpoon ship refitted in secret in Mauritius to harass the Japanese.
NEW ACTIVIST BOAT TAKES WHALERS BY SURPRISE
The ice-strengthened ship - the third in the Sea Shepherd fleet - surprised the whalers near Antarctica's Commonwealth Bay.
A public relations company based in New Zealand and linked to Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research chartered aircraft in Hobart and in Western Australia state last month to track the Sea Shepherd flagship Steve Irwin, The Age newspaper said.
"Instead of Australia sending a surveillance vessel to watch the whalers, the Japanese are using Australian soil to watch the whale defenders," said Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown, whose party wields five key swing votes needed by the government.
Environmentalists accuse center-left Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of backpedalling on threats of an International Court of Justice whaling challenge to avoid damaging Australia's trade ties with Japan and slow-moving talks on a free trade pact.
Some legal experts believe the Japanese cull is in breach of several international laws and treaties, including the Antarctic Treaty System and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
A court challenge would lead to so-called provisional orders for Japan to immediately halt whaling ahead of a full hearing.
Sea ShepherdCaptain and founder Paul Watson said the surveillance flights were aiding whaling in Antarctic waters claimed by Australia, but not recognized by Japan.
"There's no difference between these Japanese whalers and elephant poachers in east Africa, except in east Africa they shoot the poachers," Watson said.
Japan was Australia's top export destination in 2008, with two-way trade worth $58 billion. Canberra also maintained a $25 billion trade surplus on the back of coal and iron ore exports.
Japan maintains whaling is a cultural tradition and while most Japanese do not eat whale meat on a regular basis, many are indifferent to accusations that hunting the creatures is cruel.
(Editing by Ron Popeski)
[Green Business]
JORF LASFAR, Morocco
Wed Jan 6, 2010 3:03pm EST
Morocco to invite bids for solar station in Feb
JORF LASFAR, Morocco (Reuters) - Morocco will invite bids for construction of its first solar power station at the end of next month as part of a $9 billion solar energy project, its energy minister said on Wednesday.
The 500-megawatt plant will be in the southern town of Ouarzazate, the site where Morocco's ruler, King Mohammed, announced the launch of the nationwide solar project last year.
"We are advancing smoothly in our plan to implement this grand project. We will tender for the Ourzazate station at the end of February," Energy Minister Amina Benkhadra told Reuters at the inauguration of a gas storage facility at the port of Jorf Lasfar, outside Casablanca.
Morocco's solar plan involves building five stations which will account for 38 percent of its installed power generation by 2020, Rabat government officials.
"We will start first with the tender for Ourzazate power station and the tenders for the others will follow successively," Benkhadra added. But she gave no more details.
Morocco, which is the only North African state with no oil of its own, wants to play a leading role in an European plan to draw solar power from the Sahara.
The European solar scheme, which is worth up to 400 billion euros ($564 billion), could allow Europe to source 15 percent of its power from mirrors that gather sunlight in the vast southern desert by 2050.
The mirrors would concentrate the sun's rays to boil water and power turbines, generating electricity without emitting the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
Morocco is the poorest of the European Union's southern neighbors but one of its closest allies in the region. It has a history of political stability and reforms to improve its business environment have led to steady rises of foreign investment flow in the past 10 years.
Benkhadra said Morocco is open for cooperation with various foreign governments and firms.
"We had received expressions of interest from several foreign states and from big foreign companies which want to take part in our solar project," she added.
Asked whether Morocco is looking for firms from its main trade partners in Europe, Benkhadra said:
"Morocco is open for all forms of partnership as long as the foreign firms have the capabilities to bring expertise, technology and know-how. We are looking for public-private partnerships as well as national-and-foreign partnerships."
(Reporting by Lamine Ghanmi, editing by Marguerita Choy)
[Green Business]
WASHINGTON
Wed Jan 6, 2010 2:19pm EST
Half of money managers ignore climate risks: survey
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly half of global money managers are making investment decisions without factoring in risks or opportunities associated with climate change, according to a survey released on Wednesday by a coalition of environmentalists and investors.
A related report recommended that money managers and institutional investors do climate risk assessments on all investments and encourage the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to encourage full disclosure of climate risks.
"This is about significant business issues that affect our portfolios," Jack Ehnes, chief executive of the California State Teachers' Retirement System told reporters in a teleconference about the survey. "Certainly leaving the most recent economic crisis with a deeper understanding of risk, I would think it would be incumbent on everyone to embrace (climate) issues."
The survey of the world's 500 largest asset managers by Ceres, a Boston-based coalition of environmentalists and investors, found 44 percent of the respondents did not consider climate risks in their investment decisions. They did not see risks as financially material.
Industries that face the most financial risk from climate change and current and future limits on greenhouse gas emissions include electricity generators, automobile manufacturers and insurance companies, it found.
Asset owners, such as pension funds and other institutional investors, were not asking their asset managers to analyze the risks, or were only just beginning to raise the subject, the survey found.
Alexis Krajeski, a sustainable investment expert in London at global asset management company F&C Management Ltd, said money managers could stand to lose if they do not analyze opportunities and risks linked to climate change.
Opportunities could include investments in companies that are responding to greenhouse gas regulations by helping heavy industry to reduce emissions.
"In order to capitalize on climate-related opportunities and avoid losses linked to climate risk, we need to identify the winners and losers," she said.
Pension funds and other investors led by Ceres and holding more than $1 trillion in assets, have been pressing the SEC to require companies to disclose climate-related risks.
SEC Commissioner Elisse Walter, one of five members who makes decisions on federal securities rules, has said she believes it is time for the regulators to issue so-called interpretive guidance on climate risks.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by David Gregorio)
[Green Business]
Rob Taylor
CANBERRA
Wed Jan 6, 2010 5:24pm EST
Japan whaler "spy flights" rile Australia
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's government came under pressure from lawmakers on Wednesday to block "spy flights" launched by Japanese whalers from Australian airports to foil hardline anti-whaling activists in the Southern Ocean.
Green Business | Japan
As activists near Antarctica unveiled a third "secret" boat to help them pursue and block the Japanese fleet, influential Australian lawmakers said regular reconnaissance flights were helping Tokyo breach international anti-whaling conventions.
"What we have here is spy flights, which are helping to breach international law, being conducted from Australian airports under the guise and under the nose of the Australian government," conservative opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt told state radio.
Japan's government-backed whaling fleet aims to harpoon up to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales, classified as endangered, in the Southern Ocean during the current Southern Hemisphere summer.
Commercial whaling was banned under a 1986 treaty. But the Japanese have continued to cull whales on grounds that this is for research purposes and to monitor their impact on fish stocks, deflecting criticism from anti-whaling nations like Australia, Britain and New Zealand.
Activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society have promised to disrupt the hunt and on Wednesday revealed a 1,200-tonne former Norwegian harpoon ship refitted in secret in Mauritius to harass the Japanese.
NEW ACTIVIST BOAT TAKES WHALERS BY SURPRISE
The ice-strengthened ship - the third in the Sea Shepherd fleet - surprised the whalers near Antarctica's Commonwealth Bay.
A public relations company based in New Zealand and linked to Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research chartered aircraft in Hobart and in Western Australia state last month to track the Sea Shepherd flagship Steve Irwin, The Age newspaper said.
"Instead of Australia sending a surveillance vessel to watch the whalers, the Japanese are using Australian soil to watch the whale defenders," said Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown, whose party wields five key swing votes needed by the government.
Environmentalists accuse center-left Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of backpedalling on threats of an International Court of Justice whaling challenge to avoid damaging Australia's trade ties with Japan and slow-moving talks on a free trade pact.
Some legal experts believe the Japanese cull is in breach of several international laws and treaties, including the Antarctic Treaty System and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
A court challenge would lead to so-called provisional orders for Japan to immediately halt whaling ahead of a full hearing.
Sea ShepherdCaptain and founder Paul Watson said the surveillance flights were aiding whaling in Antarctic waters claimed by Australia, but not recognized by Japan.
"There's no difference between these Japanese whalers and elephant poachers in east Africa, except in east Africa they shoot the poachers," Watson said.
Japan was Australia's top export destination in 2008, with two-way trade worth $58 billion. Canberra also maintained a $25 billion trade surplus on the back of coal and iron ore exports.
Japan maintains whaling is a cultural tradition and while most Japanese do not eat whale meat on a regular basis, many are indifferent to accusations that hunting the creatures is cruel.
(Editing by Ron Popeski)
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