news20091114reut2

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Investment in ecosystems will reap rewards: UNEP
Fri Nov 13, 2009 1:01pm EST
By Nina Chestney

LONDON (Reuters) - Nations that take into account natural resources in their investment strategies will have higher rates of return and stronger economies, a report backed by the United Nations' Environment Programme said on Friday.

With less than one month until a U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen, the report urges policymakers to reform their economic policies to stop the destruction of natural resources such as forests and oceans.

"Repairing the ecosystem by replanting forests, restoring mangroves along coastlines or rebuilding coral reefs are very smart ways of doing adaptation. People going into Copenhagen are not necessarily aware of these things," Pavan Sukhdev, the leader of the study prepared by UNEP's Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity Initiative, told Reuters.

For example, planting and protecting nearly 12,000 hectares of mangroves in Vietnam costs over $1 million but it saves over $7 million in dyke maintenance expenditure.

The report estimates that investment in mangrove and woodland restoration could achieve rates of return up to 40 percent, tropical forest investment up to 50 percent and grassland investment 79 percent.

"We studied the economics of using nature better -- through adaptation and restoration. In each case we found the benefits exceed the cost, typically between 3 and 75 times," Sukhdev said.

Brazil, India and Indonesia emerged as leaders in leveraging natural capital, while Korea has also got good plans, Sukhdev added.

"Governments need to pay attention to this report and start looking at nature in a more holistic way," WWF director Gordon Shepherd said. "With smarter approaches to economics this can change but right now we are paying for their ignorance."

SUBSIDIES

The report also calls for reform to subsidies which harm the environment. The worst subsidies are for fossil fuels, which total between $240 billion and $300 billion a year globally.

Global fishery subsidies, which amount to $34 billion out of a $90 billion market, should also be reformed to prevent the collapse of fisheries around the world.

Measures to combat deforestation, which accounts for almost 20 percent of current greenhouse gas emissions, should also be given priority.

Under a U.N.-market based forestry scheme called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD), rich countries reward developing nations for preserving forests to prevent emissions through the use of an expanded carbon market.

REDD+ expands the idea to protection, restoration and sustainable management of forests.

Several nations want to see REDD incorporated into a new global climate agreement.

"REDD+, as well as ecological restoration, need to be given a bit of a fillet through the Copenhagen process. These are the first two steps on the ladder. When these get going then a lot else will fall in place," Sukhdev said.

(Editing by Sue Thomas)


[Green Business]
EU nears deal on buildings eco-standards from 2018
Fri Nov 13, 2009 1:02pm EST
By Pete Harrison

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - New energy economy standards could kick in for all new public buildings in the European Union from 2018, and for all new homes and offices from 2020, according to a draft negotiating document.

The new policy is expected to have a significant long-term impact on the EU's bill for gas imports, worth tens of billions of euros each year.

"This is a hugely important piece of legislation because 40 percent of final energy use in Europe is in buildings," said environment campaigner Arianna Vitali Roscini of WWF.

"We would have preferred that all new buildings have net zero energy use from 2015, but at least we have a date," she added.

Final changes to the European Union's "Energy Performance of Buildings Directive" will be worked out at negotiations on November 17 between representatives of the EU's 27 member states and the European Parliament.

But several key compromises have emerged already in the document, seen by Reuters on Friday.

The Parliament originally proposed that from the end of 2018, all new buildings would have to reduce their carbon footprint to zero. But member states said the goal was over-ambitious and impractical.

"Instead, all public buildings built after 2018 must be low-energy, and after 2020 that will apply to all new buildings -- homes, restaurants, offices, schools, everywhere," said a source close to the negotiations.

"We're still fine-tuning the exact definition of low-energy, but it's clear it can't be the same for Finland as it is for Cyprus. There will be guidance on how member states calculate low-energy to take account of heating, cooling and hot water."

People selling or renting a house will also have to include the property's energy efficiency rating in advertisements so potential occupants can make informed choices, but no date has yet been set for that.

The policy has received little attention as it has weaved its way through the EU's complex political process, but it has the potential to make deep cuts into the level of European gas imports.

A similar EU plan to renovate about 15 million European buildings over the next decade is expected to slash back oil and gas imports by about 20 billion euros [ID:nL9513781].

The European Union's executive arm is also thinking of proposing binding energy saving goals for EU countries in the next few months.

That prospect was supported on Friday by Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the International Energy Agency.

"Binding efficiency targets are one of our important recommendations to the European Commission," he told reporters during a visit to the Commission. "The cheap energy age is over."

(Reporting by Pete Harrison, editing by Timothy Heritage)