[Top News] from [REUTERS]
[Green Business]
Wendell Roelf
CAPE TOWN
Wed Jan 13, 2010 12:26pm EST
S.Africa to introduce new car tax despite concerns
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa's National Treasury will press on with plans to introduce a new tax on vehicles designed to curb carbon dioxide emissions, an official said Wednesday, despite concerns this could hamper the ailing auto sector's recovery.
The motor industry is struggling to get back on its feet after being been hit by the global economic crisis and depressed local demand which saw new vehicle sales fall to 6-year lows in 2009.
The new tax, mooted last February, is part of government efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions as well as increase tax revenues that have declined sharply as Africa's economy grappled with its first recession in 17 years, which it exited in Q3 2009.
"The adjusting of existing ad valorem excise duties on motor vehicles to take CO2 emissions into account will still be implemented on 1 March 2010," said Treasury spokeswoman Thoraya Pandy Wednesday.
The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers (NAAMSA), says it accepts the new tax in principle, but its early timing could hinder recovery prospects for struggling auto makers.
AUTO INDUSTRY COULD LAPSE BACK INTO RECESSION
"The industry is currently emerging from one of the deepest and most severe recessions in its history and the introduction of additional taxes ... could, if they are too punitive, result in the industry lapsing back into recession," said NAAMSA director Nico Vermeulen.
Additional taxes usually meant higher prices, which could knock sales volumes and curb job creation, he added in an emailed response to questions from Reuters.
Car makers BMW, Ford, General Motors, Daimler, Nissan Motor Co. Ltd, Toyota Motor Corp. and Volkswagen all have manufacturing plants in South Africa.
The unavailability of cleaner fuels is also a concern for manufacturers, who cannot bring in new less-polluting engines because the proper fuel for those is not yet sold in South Africa.
South Africa currently only conforms to Euro 2 engine emissions levels, whereas many of the newer vehicles already have Euro 5 compliant engines, Vermeulen said.
"Vehicle producers and importers are presently constrained, as a result of the unavailability of Euro IV/Euro V enabling fuel in South Africa, in offering latest highly fuel efficient products to the domestic market," he said.
Vermeulen said the South African motor industry and oil industry were involved in extensive research and negotiations to fast-track the introduction of the new fuels locally by 2012.
"It is NAAMSA's view that the introduction of CO2 new car taxes and the introduction of Euro IV enabling fuel in South Africa should go hand in hand," he said.
(Editing by Toby Chopra)
[Green Business]
LONDON
Wed Jan 13, 2010 6:07pm EST
Britain confident of climate deal in Mexico: report
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is confident of reaching a legally binding climate agreement by the end of the year in Mexico, British Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said at an event for UK industry on Wednesday evening.
"I am confident we can get an agreement as we have made a lot of progress over the last year," Miliband said, responding to a question from Reuters whether a deal can be reached in Mexico in November this year.
"We are trying to get consensus from 192 countries from very different places to be part of an agreement. That is tough and that's what Copenhagen showed," he added.
A U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen in December merely noted a non-binding accord on broad principles, without commitments to binding greenhouse gas emissions cuts.
Talks ended with a bare-minimum agreement that fell far short of its original goal of forging a replacement for the climate-protecting Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.
"It was definitely a disappointment. We wanted a tract to a legal treaty," Miliband said, referring to the summit.
"But the year itself was a success. I genuinely believe the world moved in the course of the year in a way it wouldn't have done without the coalition that was assembled."
Miliband said the course to a legally binding agreement will be tough, with "bumps" along the way. A January 31 deadline for countries to commit to emissions cuts is fast approaching.
"We have to broaden, strengthen and deepen the agreement. Broaden it because we only have representatives from around 50 countries signing up. It is very important that we broaden the number of countries involved," Miliband said.
"We need not only commitments on the January 31 but we need those commitments ratcheted up during the course of the year."
European Union environment ministers will seek a strategy for reviving global climate talks at a meeting in Spain this week.
Miliband said developing countries have a lot to gain from signing up to a legally binding pact.
"For some developing countries, a legal treaty felt like a bridge too far. Personally, I feel we can convince them they have less to fear but more to gain from the assurance of a legal agreement."
(Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
[Green Business]
Pete Harrison and Martin Roberts
Wed Jan 13, 2010 12:28pm EST
Europe mulls deeper emissions cuts, deadline looms
BRUSSELS/MADRID (Reuters) - European Union environment ministers will seek a strategy for reviving global climate talks at a meeting in Spain this week, after a U.N. meeting in Copenhagen last month ended in failure.
A U.N. deadline is looming for countries to commit to emissions cuts as part of the U.N. process, and EU diplomats expect the bloc to make the lowest bid in its range of options.
The talks in the Danish capital last month ended with a bare-minimum agreement that fell far short of its original goal of forging a replacement for the climate-protecting Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.
"Let's face it, it was not what we wanted," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told a conference in Brussels on Tuesday.
The EU has pledged to cut emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels over the next decade. But it also promised ahead of Copenhagen that the bloc would deepen those cuts to 30 percent if other industrialized countries took similar steps.
Low ambitions all round at Copenhagen mean that the EU is unlikely to take any unilateral step to 30 percent, diplomats say. Singapore has also opted for the lower of its options in the wake of Copenhagen.
MELTING ICE-SHEET
Spain, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, will seek consensus at the meeting of environment ministers in Sevilla on Friday.
"One of the points to be discussed at the Council of Ministers is... whether we stay with 20 percent or of course take a quantitative leap based on comparable efforts," said Spanish environment minister Elena Espinosa.
"In Spain we have always defended it (the 30 percent target), but I would like to say that right now we must be prudent due to the role we play as EU presidency," she told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.
Environmentalists argue that as a result of the economic crisis, European emissions have already fallen to within easy reach of the 20 percent cut.
"The target is actually so low that the EU would have to try very hard not to meet it," said Joris den Blanken of Greenpeace.
Ahead of the meeting in Sevilla, European ambassadors convened in Brussels on Wednesday to contemplate a Copenhagen agreement that will fail to keep climate change from entering dangerous territory.
"The offers known in Copenhagen did not add up to what is required by science in order to stay within the 2 degrees (Celsius) objective," said a document for the Brussels meeting.
The pledges that were on the table at Copenhagen would lead to around 3.5 degrees of climate warming by the year 2100, said climate scientist Stefan Rahmstorf of Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
"If we go to a world of 3.5 degrees, it is very likely we will destabilize the Greenland Ice-sheet in a way that cannot be stopped," he told reporters on Wednesday. "The Greenland Ice-sheet alone could raise sea levels by 7 meters."
(Reporting by Pete Harrison in Brussels and Martin Roberts in Madrid, additional reporting by Paul Taylor)
[Green Business]
Wendell Roelf
CAPE TOWN
Wed Jan 13, 2010 12:26pm EST
S.Africa to introduce new car tax despite concerns
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa's National Treasury will press on with plans to introduce a new tax on vehicles designed to curb carbon dioxide emissions, an official said Wednesday, despite concerns this could hamper the ailing auto sector's recovery.
The motor industry is struggling to get back on its feet after being been hit by the global economic crisis and depressed local demand which saw new vehicle sales fall to 6-year lows in 2009.
The new tax, mooted last February, is part of government efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions as well as increase tax revenues that have declined sharply as Africa's economy grappled with its first recession in 17 years, which it exited in Q3 2009.
"The adjusting of existing ad valorem excise duties on motor vehicles to take CO2 emissions into account will still be implemented on 1 March 2010," said Treasury spokeswoman Thoraya Pandy Wednesday.
The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers (NAAMSA), says it accepts the new tax in principle, but its early timing could hinder recovery prospects for struggling auto makers.
AUTO INDUSTRY COULD LAPSE BACK INTO RECESSION
"The industry is currently emerging from one of the deepest and most severe recessions in its history and the introduction of additional taxes ... could, if they are too punitive, result in the industry lapsing back into recession," said NAAMSA director Nico Vermeulen.
Additional taxes usually meant higher prices, which could knock sales volumes and curb job creation, he added in an emailed response to questions from Reuters.
Car makers BMW, Ford, General Motors, Daimler, Nissan Motor Co. Ltd, Toyota Motor Corp. and Volkswagen all have manufacturing plants in South Africa.
The unavailability of cleaner fuels is also a concern for manufacturers, who cannot bring in new less-polluting engines because the proper fuel for those is not yet sold in South Africa.
South Africa currently only conforms to Euro 2 engine emissions levels, whereas many of the newer vehicles already have Euro 5 compliant engines, Vermeulen said.
"Vehicle producers and importers are presently constrained, as a result of the unavailability of Euro IV/Euro V enabling fuel in South Africa, in offering latest highly fuel efficient products to the domestic market," he said.
Vermeulen said the South African motor industry and oil industry were involved in extensive research and negotiations to fast-track the introduction of the new fuels locally by 2012.
"It is NAAMSA's view that the introduction of CO2 new car taxes and the introduction of Euro IV enabling fuel in South Africa should go hand in hand," he said.
(Editing by Toby Chopra)
[Green Business]
LONDON
Wed Jan 13, 2010 6:07pm EST
Britain confident of climate deal in Mexico: report
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is confident of reaching a legally binding climate agreement by the end of the year in Mexico, British Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said at an event for UK industry on Wednesday evening.
"I am confident we can get an agreement as we have made a lot of progress over the last year," Miliband said, responding to a question from Reuters whether a deal can be reached in Mexico in November this year.
"We are trying to get consensus from 192 countries from very different places to be part of an agreement. That is tough and that's what Copenhagen showed," he added.
A U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen in December merely noted a non-binding accord on broad principles, without commitments to binding greenhouse gas emissions cuts.
Talks ended with a bare-minimum agreement that fell far short of its original goal of forging a replacement for the climate-protecting Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.
"It was definitely a disappointment. We wanted a tract to a legal treaty," Miliband said, referring to the summit.
"But the year itself was a success. I genuinely believe the world moved in the course of the year in a way it wouldn't have done without the coalition that was assembled."
Miliband said the course to a legally binding agreement will be tough, with "bumps" along the way. A January 31 deadline for countries to commit to emissions cuts is fast approaching.
"We have to broaden, strengthen and deepen the agreement. Broaden it because we only have representatives from around 50 countries signing up. It is very important that we broaden the number of countries involved," Miliband said.
"We need not only commitments on the January 31 but we need those commitments ratcheted up during the course of the year."
European Union environment ministers will seek a strategy for reviving global climate talks at a meeting in Spain this week.
Miliband said developing countries have a lot to gain from signing up to a legally binding pact.
"For some developing countries, a legal treaty felt like a bridge too far. Personally, I feel we can convince them they have less to fear but more to gain from the assurance of a legal agreement."
(Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
[Green Business]
Pete Harrison and Martin Roberts
Wed Jan 13, 2010 12:28pm EST
Europe mulls deeper emissions cuts, deadline looms
BRUSSELS/MADRID (Reuters) - European Union environment ministers will seek a strategy for reviving global climate talks at a meeting in Spain this week, after a U.N. meeting in Copenhagen last month ended in failure.
A U.N. deadline is looming for countries to commit to emissions cuts as part of the U.N. process, and EU diplomats expect the bloc to make the lowest bid in its range of options.
The talks in the Danish capital last month ended with a bare-minimum agreement that fell far short of its original goal of forging a replacement for the climate-protecting Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.
"Let's face it, it was not what we wanted," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told a conference in Brussels on Tuesday.
The EU has pledged to cut emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels over the next decade. But it also promised ahead of Copenhagen that the bloc would deepen those cuts to 30 percent if other industrialized countries took similar steps.
Low ambitions all round at Copenhagen mean that the EU is unlikely to take any unilateral step to 30 percent, diplomats say. Singapore has also opted for the lower of its options in the wake of Copenhagen.
MELTING ICE-SHEET
Spain, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, will seek consensus at the meeting of environment ministers in Sevilla on Friday.
"One of the points to be discussed at the Council of Ministers is... whether we stay with 20 percent or of course take a quantitative leap based on comparable efforts," said Spanish environment minister Elena Espinosa.
"In Spain we have always defended it (the 30 percent target), but I would like to say that right now we must be prudent due to the role we play as EU presidency," she told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.
Environmentalists argue that as a result of the economic crisis, European emissions have already fallen to within easy reach of the 20 percent cut.
"The target is actually so low that the EU would have to try very hard not to meet it," said Joris den Blanken of Greenpeace.
Ahead of the meeting in Sevilla, European ambassadors convened in Brussels on Wednesday to contemplate a Copenhagen agreement that will fail to keep climate change from entering dangerous territory.
"The offers known in Copenhagen did not add up to what is required by science in order to stay within the 2 degrees (Celsius) objective," said a document for the Brussels meeting.
The pledges that were on the table at Copenhagen would lead to around 3.5 degrees of climate warming by the year 2100, said climate scientist Stefan Rahmstorf of Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
"If we go to a world of 3.5 degrees, it is very likely we will destabilize the Greenland Ice-sheet in a way that cannot be stopped," he told reporters on Wednesday. "The Greenland Ice-sheet alone could raise sea levels by 7 meters."
(Reporting by Pete Harrison in Brussels and Martin Roberts in Madrid, additional reporting by Paul Taylor)
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