news20100331reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Environment News]
[Green Business | Italy]
Barry Malone
ADDIS ABABA
Tue Mar 30, 2010 2:04pm EDT
Ethiopia dam will not displace 200,000: builder
｛エチオピアのダム建設企業、20万住民の退去を否定｝

(Reuters) - The Italian firm building Africa's biggest hydropower dam in Ethiopia on Tuesday denied allegations that the dam would deprive 200,000 self-sufficient people of a living and make them dependent on aid.

The ethnic rights group Survival International said last week that the dam would disrupt fishing and farming and displace more than 200,000 people, among them the Kwegu and Hamar tribes.

"The project will not cause drought: the dam will not block the flow of water to the river indefinitely, but merely redistribute it during the course of the year," Salini Costruttori said in a statement.

"Activities connected to the local fishing trade will not be destroyed. Agriculture will be able to benefit from a constant supply of water through the year."

The Gibe 111 dam, costing 1.4 billion euros and expected to generate 1,800 megawatts, is one of five Ethiopia is building in a drive to beat power shortages and export electricity. It will almost double current Ethiopian capacity of just under 2,000 MW.

Survival International director Stephen Corry said last week that no respectable body should fund "this atrocious project.

An SI representative who did not wish to be named said then that the dam would ruin the economy of those living near it.

"It will end the annual flooding some rely on to make the land they farm fertile, and for tribes who rely on fishing, it will deplete stocks. They will need aid."

The Ethiopian government has said that people affected by hydropower dams will be compensated or relocated.

Ethiopia is negotiating funding for Gibe 111, whose construction began in 2006, with the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the European Investment Bank and the Italian government.

Hydropower supplies about 90 percent of Ethiopia's electricity, and the country plans to spend $12 billion over 25 years on generating plant with the aim of exporting to a continent where shortages are common despite abundant potential resources of solar, hydro and other power.


[Environment News]
[Green Business]
Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA
Tue Mar 30, 2010 10:51am EDT
El Nino to influence climate patterns to midyear: WMO
｛エルニーニョ現象、今年中頃、気候形態に影響：ＷＭＯ｝

(Reuters) - The El Nino warming the Pacific Ocean since June has peaked, but is expected to influence climate patterns worldwide up to mid-year before dying out, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday.

However, the United Nations agency said that forecasting uncertainties meant it could not rule out the possibility that El Nino would persist beyond mid-year.

El Nino, driven by an abnormal warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean, can create havoc in weather patterns across the Asia-Pacific region, unleashing droughts in some places and heavy storms in others. It typically lasts from 9 to 12 months.

The most likely scenario is for sea surface temperatures across the tropical Pacific, which rose by 1.5 degrees Celsius at its peak last November-December, to return to normal by mid-2010, WMO said in a statement.

"El Nino is already in a decaying phase. We expect it to fully decay by mid-year and neutral conditions to be established," WMO climate expert Rupa Kumar Kolli told Reuters.

"But this is a period where the predictability of the system is very low. Things could happen very suddenly," he said.

The WMO said that the current El Nino, which can occur every two-seven years, was of a moderate level, "close to or slightly above the typical strength seen in the historical record of El Nino events."

"Even during the decaying phase of the El Nino, expected over the next few months, the conditions associated with a typical El Nino will continue to influence climatic patterns at least through the second quarter of the year," it said.

DRY CONDITIONS

El Nino typically creates dry conditions for western areas along the Pacific Ocean such as South East Asia and Indonesia, and southern parts of western Australia, and wetter than normal conditions in western coastal areas of South America, Kolli told Reuters.

Parts of South Asia experienced drought last year due to a weak summer monsoon season linked to El Nino, and this could happen again if El Nino were to intensify in June, he said.

"That is the typical signature of El Nino," he added.

Warmer sea temperatures along some coastal regions of Latin America had caused higher rainfalls, but these were confined to relatively smaller pockets, and did not wreak havoc, he said.

The last severe El Nino in 1998 killed more than 2,000 people and caused billions of dollars in damages to crops, infrastructure and mines in Australia and Asia.

"Every El Nino is an individual event," Kolli said.

However, the phenomenon, which means "little boy" in Spanish, referring to the Christ child because it is often noticed mostly clearly in Latin America around Christmas, is also linked to a weaker than normal hurricane season in the northern Atlantic, according to the WMO expert.

The opposite cooling phenomenon, known as La Nina, or "little girl," could also start in the middle of this year, but that scenario is deemed less likely.

(To watch a Reuters Insider television's interview with WMO Chief Climate Scientist Rupa Kumar Kolli, click on the link below link.reuters.com/gyt65j )

(Editing by Jonathan Lynn)


[Environment News]
[Green Business | COP15]
Peter Griffiths
LONDON
Tue Mar 30, 2010 7:34pm EDT
Climate unit criticized for stonewalling skeptics
｛クライメイト部門、進行妨害する懐疑派を批判｝

(Reuters) - Scientists at a leading British climate research center had a culture of withholding information from global warming skeptics but did not deliberately manipulate data to support their case, lawmakers said on Wednesday.

In the first official report into the theft of emails from the unit last year, a British parliamentary committee said the messages did not contradict the mainstream scientific view that man-made emissions have contributed to rising temperatures.

Thousands of emails exchanged between scientists were published on the Internet days before world leaders met in Copenhagen for climate change talks last December.

The government has acknowledged that the ensuing row dented public confidence in the evidence underpinning man's role in raising global temperatures.

Campaigners who doubt the science behind man-made global warming said the messages showed researchers hid, exaggerated or fiddled the data to support the consensus view.

Parliament's Science and Technology Committee rejected that assessment of the leaked emails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU), but sharply condemned the unit for withholding information requested by outsiders under Britain's freedom of information laws.

"The culture of non-disclosure at CRU and instances where information may have been deleted to avoid disclosure, particularly to climate change skeptics, we felt was reprehensible," Committee Chairman Phil Willis told a news conference.

Professor Phil Jones, head of the unit, was cleared of dishonestly fiddling the data to strengthen his evidence.

"The scientific reputation of Professor Jones and CRU remains intact," the report said. "We have found no reason in this unfortunate episode to challenge the scientific consensus."

The committee found nothing sinister in Jones' use of the words "hide the decline" and "trick" in two emails about temperature changes that attracted the most public attention.

"Hide the decline" was not an attempt to conceal data but was scientific shorthand for discarding erroneous data, the committee concluded. Similarly, Jones intended "trick" to mean a neat way of handling evidence, rather than anything underhanded.

The university has set up two separate inquiries into the email affair and British police are investigating the hacking.

(Editing by Noah Barkin)

news20100331reut2

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Environment News]
[U.S. | Green Business | COP15]
Steve Holland
WASHINGTON
Wed Mar 31, 2010 5:06am EDT
Obama to permit oil exploration off Virginia coast
｛オバマ大統領、バージニア沖のオイル探査に許可｝

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama is to announce on Wednesday a plan to permit exploration for oil and natural gas off the coast of Virginia as a way to create jobs and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

Obama, who wants Congress to move a stalled climate change bill, has sought to reach out to Republicans by signaling he is open to allowing offshore drilling, providing coastlines are protected.

Joined by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Obama is to detail an updated plan for offshore oil and natural gas drilling in remarks at a military base in nearby Maryland.

For more than 20 years, drilling was banned in most offshore areas of the United States outside the Gulf of Mexico because of concerns that spills could harm the environment.

The administration has been weighing the pros and cons of offshore drilling since it took office and put the brakes on a Bush-era proposal which called for drilling along the East Coast and off the coast of California.

An administration official said, as part of the new plan, Interior will conduct the first new offshore oil and gas sale in the Atlantic Ocean in over two decades as part of a lease sale 50 miles off the coast of Virginia.

Seismic exploration in the south Atlantic and mid-Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf of the United States will determine the quantity and location of potential oil and gas resources to support energy planning.

The Bush plan had called for leases to be offered in November 2011, but it was not immediately clear whether the Obama administration would stick to that schedule.

A senior Interior official said in January that drilling off Virginia's coast would be delayed past the original 2011 leasing date.

The proposed Virginia lease area, located about 50 miles from shore, may hold 130 million barrels of oil and 1.14 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, based on Interior Department estimates.

In addition, the Interior Department will continue lease sales in the Central and Western Gulf of Mexico, which have proved to have sizable reserves.

Much of the Eastern Gulf is currently under a congressional moratorium on oil and gas operations. The Interior Department's plan would open up about two-thirds of the available oil and gas resources in this region in the event that the moratorium is lifted, the official said.

Military training in the Eastern Gulf will be protected and drilling activities will occur more than 125 miles from the Florida coast.

ALASKA LEASE PROPOSALS CANCELED

Proposed oil and gas leasing in Alaska's Bristol Bay will be canceled out of concern for protecting sensitive areas of the Outer Continental Shelf from environmental dangers.

This could affect companies like Royal Dutch Shell which has expressed interest in the region, as well as ConocoPhillips, BP and Statoil.

Four pending lease sales in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas in North Alaska will be canceled and those areas reserved for future scientific research to determine if they are suitable for further leasing. At the same time, a previously scheduled lease sale in Alaska's Cook Inlet will proceed.

Congress allowed a prohibition on offshore drilling to expire in 2008 and former President George W. Bush lifted a drilling moratorium that year. Environmental groups and some lawmakers continue to raise concerns about the impact increased drilling would have on coastal areas.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the U.S. Atlantic coast waters may hold 37 trillion cubic feet of gas and nearly 4 billion barrels of oil, while the Pacific Coast has 10.5 billion barrels of oil and 18 trillion cubic feet of gas.

To put that in context, the United States imports about 2 billion barrels of oil a year from OPEC nations and is expected to import 2.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from all sources this year, according to the Energy Department.

Also to be announced is that the Environmental Protection Agency and Transportation Department will sign a joint final rule on Thursday establishing greenhouse gas emission standards and corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards for light-duty vehicles for model years 2012-2016.

Obama will announce that 5,603 new hybrid cars and trucks have been ordered to convert the federal fleet to one of greater fuel efficiency.

(Additional reporting by Tom Doggett in Washington and Yereth Rosen in Anchorage)

(Editing by Roberta Rampton and Todd Eastham)


[Environment News]
[Green Business | COP15]
Wed Mar 31, 2010 5:32am EDT
Factbox: The Copenhagen Accord and global warming
｛ファクトボックス：コペンハーゲン合意と地球温暖化について｝

(Reuters) - Following are details of the Copenhagen Accord for fighting global warming after the United Nations published on Wednesday a first formal list of more than 110 countries as formal backers.

The non-binding deal, worked out at a 194-nation summit in December, was only "noted" at the time after objections by some developing nations. The United Nations then asked all countries to say if they wanted to be listed as backers of the deal

The list of supporters includes major emitters led by China, the United States, the European Union, Russia and India.

Following are main details of the Accord:

TEMPERATURES - Governments will work to combat climate change "recognizing the scientific view that the increase in global temperature should be below 2 degrees Celsius" (3.6 Fahrenheit). Temperatures have already risen by about 0.7 Celsius since before the Industrial Revolution.

GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS - The Accord does not set greenhouse gas goals for reaching the 2 degrees C target except to urge "deep cuts in global emissions" and to say that a peak in global emissions should be "as soon as possible." Many developing nations had wanted the rich to cut emissions by at least 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 -- rich nations' promised cuts so far average about 14-18 percent.

ADAPTATION - The Accord promises to help countries adapt to the damaging impacts of climate change such as droughts, storms or rising sea levels, "especially least developed countries, small island developing states and Africa." It also says all countries face challenges of adapting to "response measures" -- OPEC nations, for instance, argue they should be compensated if responses mean a shift from oil to wind or solar power.

2020 TARGETS - In an annex, rich nations list national goals for cuts in greenhouse gases and developing nations set out actions to slow the rise of emissions by 2020. In December, a leaked U.N. overview showed that, taken together, they imply a temperature rise of 3 degrees Celsius, not 2.

VERIFICATION - Developed nations will submit emissions goals for U.N. review. Developing nations' actions will be under domestic review if funded by their budgets but "subject to international measurement, reporting and verification" when funded by foreign aid. In Copenhagen, China resisted foreign review while the United States said it was vital.

DEFORESTATION - The text sees a "crucial role" for slowing deforestation -- trees store carbon dioxide as they grow.

MARKETS - The accord says countries will "pursue various approaches, including opportunities to use markets" to curb emissions.

AID - Developed nations promise new and additional funds "approaching $30 billion for 2010-12" to help developing countries. In the longer term, "developed countries commit to a goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion a year by 2020." Last month, the United Nations set up a high level panel, led by Britain and Ethiopia, to study sources of finance.

GREEN FUND - Countries will set up a "Copenhagen Green Climate Fund" to help channel aid. The deal will also set up a "Technology Mechanism" to accelerate use of green technologies.

REVIEW - The accord will be reviewed in 2015, including whether the temperature goal should be toughened to 1.5 degrees Celsius. An alliance of 101 least developed countries and small island states want temperatures to rise less than 1.5 degrees Celsius.

(Compiled by Alister Doyle in Oslo, Editing by Dominic Evans)

news20100331reut3

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent - Analysis
OSLO
Tue Mar 30, 2010 6:48am EDT
"Below" 2C opens new rift in U.N. climate battle
｛摂氏2度以下で、国連クライメイト論で新しい溝が生じる｝

(Reuters) - A goal to limit global warming to "below" 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) is opening a new rift for 2010 talks on a U.N. climate treaty as developing nations say it means the rich must deepen cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

An alliance of 101 developing nations and island states says the temperature target, endorsed by major emitters since the Copenhagen summit in December, is tougher than a previous goal by industrialized nations of 2 degrees as a maximum rise.

"2.0 degrees is unacceptable," said Dessima Williams, Grenada's ambassador to the United Nations who represents the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) which wants to limit temperatures to below 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial times.

But rich nations and some researchers say the Copenhagen Accord's "below" 2 is vague -- it can mean 1.999 degrees and so be indistinguishable for policy purposes from 2. The Accord does not lay down how the temperature goal will be reached.

"It can mean anything until we may agree on what it means concretely," European Union Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said of the temperature target.

"The good thing about saying 'below 2C' is that you then have a ceiling. A number of countries say 1.5 C and this has not been taken off the table," she said.

Senior officials meet in Bonn, Germany, from April 9-11 for the first U.N. talks since Copenhagen, trying to work out a new pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol after the U.N. summit failed.

DEGREES OF DIFFERENCE

"We do not see a redefinition of the '2 degree C limit' through the Copenhagen Accord: in that sense we interpret it as 1.9999 degree C," said Brigitte Knopf, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

The semantic dispute has huge economic implications for guiding a shift from fossil fuels toward renewable energies.

The U.N. panel of climate scientists said in 2007 that a greenhouse gas goal consistent with 2 degrees C would cost about 3 percent of world gross domestic product by 2030. It did not work out the higher costs of 1.5.

Williams said that promises for cuts in emissions outlined by developed nations so far put the world on track for a 3.9 degrees C rise in temperatures that would bring droughts, floods, mudslides, heatwaves and rising sea levels.

"Climate change leadership is certainly not forthcoming from actions and actors committing to such dangerous levels of emissions," she said. Hedegaard also said current targets are insufficient to meet the 2C goal.

Many analysts doubt that the next annual talks of environment ministers in Cancun, Mexico, in late 2010, will end with a treaty. One reason is that U.S. legislation to cut emissions is stalled in the Senate.

Temperatures have already risen by about 0.8 Celsius above pre-industrial times.

"To stay below 1.5 C is probably impossible given the massive inertia of the socio-economic and biophysical systems," said Pep Canadell, head of the Global Carbon Project at Australia's Commonwealth, Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.

"It will be very tough to stay below 2C."

The Copenhagen Accord recognizes the scientific view that the rise in global temperature "should be below 2 degrees C." The Group of Eight and big emerging nations agreed at a mid-2009 summit in Italy that the rise "ought not to exceed 2 degrees."

The Copenhagen Accord also holds out the prospect of $10 billion a year from 2010-12 in climate aid for developing nations, rising to $100 billion a year from 2020.

Knopf noted that the Accord adds a new element by saying that the tougher 1.5 degrees target should be reviewed in 2015.

So far, about 110 nations have endorsed the Copenhagen Accord, including top emitters led by China, the United States, Russia and India. The deal was only "noted" by the Copenhagen summit after objections from a handful of developing states.

Canadell said the world could emit 1,000 billion tons of carbon "starting now and stay at 2 degrees C or below with a 50 percent probability." Limiting emissions to 600 billion would raise the probability to 90 percent, but boost costs.

(Additional reporting by Karin Jensen in Copenhagen; Editing by Louise Ireland)


[Green Business]
TOKYO
Tue Mar 30, 2010 8:21am EDT
Mitsubishi Motors lowers price of electric i-MiEV
｛三菱自動車、電気自動車アイ-ミーブを値下げ｝

(Reuters) - Mitsubishi Motors Corp said it would lower the price on its electric i-MiEV car by 619,000 yen to 3.98 million yen ($43,020), pitting it against rival Nissan Motor's zero-emission Leaf model.

The Japanese automaker will lower the price on April 1, when it begins sales to individuals after selling the i-MiEV mainly to corporate customers since July 2009.

If Japan extends its incentives on electric cars into the business year starting in April, the i-MiEV would be eligible for subsidies of 1.14 million yen, leaving the customer with a price tag of 2.84 million yen, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

($1=92.52 Yen)

(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)


[Green Business]
Tue Mar 30, 2010 9:49am EDT
ISE says auditors raise going concern doubts
｛ＩＳＥ社、監査は継続企業に疑念を提起｝

(Reuters) - Canada's ISE Ltd, a maker of heavy duty hybrid-electric drive systems, said its auditors had expressed substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern, even as it posted a wider quarterly loss.

ISE said the proceeds from its initial public offering (IPO) in February might not meet its cash needs for the next 12 months and is currently in talks with financial institutions for a potential working capital credit facility.

The company, which raised about C$16 million ($15.69 million) from the IPO, said its ability to continue as a going concern would depend on it raising additional capital before the end of its current fiscal year.

ISE also posted a wider fourth-quarter net loss, hurt by increased costs.

The company also said it does not expect sales from the second half of 2010 to match the about $35 million it recorded in the prior period, but sees first half sales increasing over the previous year.

For the quarter ended December 31, the company posted a net loss applicable to common shareholders of $9.4 million, or $2.21 a share, compared with a net loss of $6.5 million, or $1.52 per share, a year ago.

Revenue nearly tripled to $18.4 million, helped primarily by revenue from fuel cell hybrid systems that sell at a higher average selling price compared with gasoline hybrid systems.

Shares of the company, which went public on February 23, closed at C$4.75 Monday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

($1=1.020 Canadian Dollar)

(Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bangalore; Editing by Unnikrishnan Nair)


[Green Business]
Tue Mar 30, 2010 9:50am EDT
LDK Q4 profit lags market; shares down
｛ＬＤＫ社、第4半期の利益で株価下落｝

(Reuters) - Chinese solar wafer maker LDK Solar reported an adjusted fourth-quarter profit below consensus estimates, as lower-than-expected average selling prices hurt gross margins, sending its shares down 7 percent in pre-market trade.

Fourth-quarter gross margins slipped to 9.9 percent, compared with 20.1 percent in the third quarter.

On a conference call with analysts, however, the company said it had seen improvements in year-to-date average selling prices.

Operating margin for the fourth quarter was a negative 1.1 percent, down from 13.2 percent in the third quarter.

For the fourth quarter, LDK reported a net loss of $7.3 million, or 7 cents per American depository share (ADS), compared with a net loss of $133.1 million, or $1.25 per ADS, last year.

Excluding items, the company earned 3 cents per ADS, a quarter of analysts expectations of a profit of 12 cents per ADS, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sales fell 27 percent to $304.6 million, but topped analysts' average estimate of $301.1 million.

The company, the world's largest maker of polysilicon wafers, however, forecast sequentially higher first-quarter shipments.

"During the fourth quarter, we continued to see strengthening wafer demand and improvement in the operating environment for the solar industry," LDK said.

It currently expects first-quarter wafer shipments of between 370 megawatts (MW) to 400 MW, up from the 340.4 MW it shipped in the fourth quarter.

LDK also guided toward first-quarter revenue of between $310 million and $330 million, the mid-point of which is above analysts' consensus estimates of $315.6 million.

The company, which has been moving more into manufacturing polysilicon, said its 1,000 metric ton (MT) plant was producing near capacity.

Shares of the company were down about 7 percent at $6.57 in pre-market trade. They closed at $7.05 Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Adveith Nair in Bangalore; Editing by Savio D'Souza, Unnikrishnan Nair)

news20100331reut4

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
LOS ANGELES
Tue Mar 30, 2010 9:51am EDT
Recurrent Energy, Kaiser partner on solar projects
｛リカレントエナジー社とカイザー社、ソーラープロジェクトで共同出資｝

(Reuters) - Solar power company Recurrent Energy and managed healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente are teaming up to develop 15 megawatts of solar power projects in California, both companies said on Tuesday.

Recurrent Energy will build, own and operate 16 solar power systems across 15 hospitals and offices of Kaiser Permanente, which will buy all the power generated from the project.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, although Citigroup Inc was cited as an equity investor on a portion of the projects and a partner in structuring agreements.

"Making rooftop solar work is a question of finding the right types of clients and the right types of buildings," Recurrent Energy's Chief Executive Arno Harris told Reuters.

"And the key thing is that we have here a number of very large, wide-open roofs that are all under one owner," he said.

Privately-held Recurrent Energy, which is backed by Hudson Clean Energy Partners, focuses on small-scale projects of up to 20 megawatts. It has a pipeline of more than 1 gigawatt of projects planned in the United States, Canada and Europe.

Harris said 9 MW, of the project's 15 MW total, should be on line by the end of this year, while the rest is expected to be operational by the summer of 2011.

One megawatt is enough power to supply some 800 average U.S. homes.

Harris is a big proponent of small, or distributed-scale solar projects, which he says are easier to push through the regulatory process and can come on line faster than large-scale developments, which can require extra transmission lines.

"We've demonstrated there are ways to put together distributed-scale projects that can generate a significant amount of power," he said.

Recurrent Energy announced a similar, but smaller, deal in September with warehouse and distribution facilities developer ProLogis to build 4.8 MW of solar power projects in Spain.

(Reporting by Dana Ford; editing by Andre Grenon)


[Green Business]
[Green Business | Lifestyle | COP15]
Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
OSLO
Tue Mar 30, 2010 10:33am EDT
Pearl Jam guitarist sees business key to climate
｛ギターリスト、パールジャム、クライメイト事業に乗り出す｝

(Reuters) - While many people dream of becoming a rock star, Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard says he is trying to be more of a businessman to help slow climate change.

The U.S. band, which has sold 60 million albums since 1991, said Monday it was investing $210,000 to plant trees in Washington State to soak up an estimated 7,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide linked to a 32-date 2009 tour.

"Pearl Jam is a band but we are also a business," guitarist and co-founder Gossard told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"We're seeing ourselves as a Washington business, a regional business that is acknowledging its carbon footprint and hoping to inspire other businesses."

Many leading musicians have sought to raise awareness about the risks of climate change, often by planting trees, and culminating in "Live Earth" concerts in July 2007 across seven continents.

But Gossard, 43, said celebrity-driven inspiration was often short-lived. "The idea of a celebrity is fantastic in terms of raising awareness for a day or a week, but it needs consistent business policy in the long term," he said.

He said there were good business arguments for investing in climate measures -- even though opinion polls in the United States show dwindling belief that mankind causes global warming. Carbon-capping legislation is stalled in the U.S. Senate.

"It's doable. It's not going to kill your company and if anything it will enhance your company's ability to sell whatever it is selling by being good stewards of the land," he said.

Gossard said that Pearl Jam's investments aimed to offset carbon from the band's use of fossil fuels linked to ships, trucks, planes, hotels as well as estimated emissions by 480,000 fans traveling to and from concerts in 2009.

Pearl Jam, one of the top-selling U.S. bands whose awards include a Grammy for "Spin the Black Circle," would plant thousands of trees and restore 33 acres of urban forests in Seattle, Kent, Kirkland and Redmond.

The scheme will also clear invasive plants such as English ivy choking native trees. Trees soak up carbon as they grow and release it when they rot or burn.

"It will store Pearl Jam's carbon, make cities more livable and show citizens how to be good stewards," said Gene Duvernoy, head of the Cascade Land Conservancy managing the project.

Pearl Jam has previously invested $150,000 since 2003 in climate measures. It was looking into widening carbon offsets to cover its album manufacturing and distribution.

Among other bands, the Rolling Stones added about 27 cents to ticket prices on a 2003 tour to help plant trees and show that "rock and roll is not a gas."

(Editing by Paul Casciato)


[Green Business]
[Green Business | Lifestyle]
Jon Hurdle
NEWARK, Del.
Tue Mar 30, 2010 3:31pm EDT
Electric cars give power back to grid
｛電気自動車、動力源の据え替え可能｝

(Reuters) - At first glance, the Toyota Scion sitting in the University of Delaware parking lot looks like a normal boxy car.

But a second look shows it lacks a tailpipe, and has an electrical outlet set into the grille below the hood. Inside, the Scion's identity as an electric car is revealed by the lack of a fuel gauge, and by a dashboard display showing that it has used 54.3 kilowatt hours to drive 210 miles.

But this is no ordinary electric car because, in addition to recharging its battery when not being driven, it also gives power back to the grid.

Professor Willett Kempton, who is leading the university's Vehicle to Grid (V2G) program, believes electric car batteries will represent a vast, reliable source of energy for the grid in a future when the national power supply will increasingly rely on renewable but fluctuating sources like sun and wind.

"Because in future, electricity will come more and more from sources that fluctuate, we need some form of storage that can reliably supply the grid, and electric car batteries are the most cost-effective form of that," he said.

One typical electric car can put out more than 10 kilowatts, the average draw of 10 houses, according to university researchers, and the power is readily available, since cars are idle on average for 95 percent of each day.

GIVING BACK TO THE GRID

Since 1997 the V2G program has been promoting the idea that electric or hybrid vehicles, if widely adopted, could give back to the grid during the many hours when they are not being driven.

With three converted Scions now in service and using V2G technology, and another four owned by the state of Delaware, the Center for Carbon-free Power Integration is proving not only that the vehicles are contributing energy to the national grid but also that the owner gets paid for his or her contributions.

On a laptop in his office, Kempton points to a display showing real-time data on the charging status of five V2G vehicles, including the power that each has put back into the grid, and the money that contribution has earned.

During March 1 to 25, one of the vehicles had earned $143.53 for the university from PJM, the local grid operator.

A key to the program is a cable that can transmit power to or from the car, and which is connected in a campus parking lot from the radiator grille outlet to a socket that looks like a recreational vehicle hook-up.

In the ideal world of V2G, such hook-ups would be commonplace at highway rest stops or parking lots where electric-vehicle drivers can recharge. Overnight, a fully-charged battery can give back to the grid.

Auto Port Inc. of Wilmington installs the V2G technology in the Scions.

The power needs of both the battery and the grid at any moment are determined via an internet signal carried down the connector, allowing each end to communicate with the other, Kempton said.

To help lay the groundwork for V2G in Delaware, the state passed a 2009 law - the first of its kind in the world -- requiring utilities to compensate electric car owners for power sent back to the grid at the same rate they pay to charge the battery.

At a current cost of about $75,000 per Scion - including V2G conversion and the basic car -- the vehicles are beyond the reach of most drivers. But Kempton argues that costs will fall as production increases. With all costs optimized, a V2G car should eventually sell for $3,000-$5,000 more than an equivalent gasoline model, he said.

Kempton boosts his vision with a prediction that most U.S. cars will be hybrid or pure electric in 30 years' time because of the rising cost of gasoline.

"There's not going to be enough oil, and China is going to buy it all," he said.

news20100331reut5

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
LONDON
Tue Mar 30, 2010 2:05pm EDT
Suspended carbon firms want clarity on U.N. rules
｛浮遊炭素企業、国連ルールの明確化を望む｝

(Reuters) - Carbon emissions auditors suspended by the U.N. late last week called for clarification of the rules of a Kyoto Protocol carbon finance scheme under which they operate, with one mulling fighting the suspension.

The executive board of Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) suspended Germany's TUEV SUED and partially suspended Korea Energy Management Corporation (KEMCO) for procedural breaches and over concerns about personnel qualifications.

"The company officials are now discussing internally how they will dispute," an official at KEMCO said on Tuesday.

He said KEMCO has six months to dispute the suspension, and during this time the board will make spot checks at the firm.

KEMCO was given the green light to continue working with renewable energy projects, energy efficiency projects and projects to cut chemical industry emissions, but was barred from working on any other types.

The CDM's executive board said TUEV SUED can continue working on existing projects but cannot take on new work.

The board has now fully or partially suspended four firms in the past 15 months for breaking rules under the CDM.

"In our view, this increase in the number of temporary suspensions also indicates that the provisions for (firms) are not clear enough," said Sven Kolmetz, head of carbon management services at TUEV SUED, in a statement.

"Companies need unambiguous, clear provisions and framework conditions to enable them to carry out their activities in compliance with the standard."

Under the $33 billion CDM, firms can invest in greenhouse gas cuts in developing countries and in return receive carbon offsets which they can sell for profit.

(Reporting by Michael Szabo and additional reporting by Cho Mee-young in Seoul; editing by James Jukwey)


[Green Business]
LONDON
Tue Mar 30, 2010 11:30am EDT
Global solar power capacity grew 44 pct in 2009
｛全世界の太陽発電能力、2009年で44パーセントの伸び｝

(Reuters) - Global installed solar photovoltaic power grew by 44 percent in 2009 on the back of German subsidies now under threat, the European Photovoltaic Industry Association said on Tuesday.

The global industry added a record 6.4 gigawatts new capacity, bringing total capacity to more than 20 gigawatts (GW), the EPIA said, despite tightened credit which has particularly hit infrastructure and energy project finance.

The increase was thanks to subsidies including a price premium for solar-powered electricity called a feed-in tariff.

"This is particularly impressive in light of the difficult financial and economical circumstances during the past year," said the EPIA industry group, adding it expected growth of at least 40 percent in 2010.

Germany was the largest demand market last year, adding 3 gigawatts (GW), followed by Italy, Japan and the United States. Germany would likely remain the biggest demand market in 2010, the EPIA said.

But Germany has proposed cuts to its feed-in tariffs from July, by 16 percent for rooftop solar power and by 15 percent for ground-mounted panels.

The risk from a cut in subsidies is underscored by Spain, which added just 60 megawatts (MW) in 2009, a fraction of the 2,500 MW or 2.5 GW the country added in 2008. The drop was a result of a cap in subsidies which Madrid applied because of a growing liability from its 25-year guaranteed incentives.

Despite strong growth, solar power still provides only about 0.5 percent of global installed electricity capacity, HSBC data show.

One problem for the emerging technology is cost, even in the aftermath of a sharp fall in solar panel prices, following a global glut of the main raw material, solar-grade silicon.

Solar power is far more expensive than rival forms of power generation, according to an HSBC report published in November.

Under the best case scenario in sunny locations, the cost of solar-powered electricity is about 17 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), compared with about 15 cents for offshore wind, 7 cents for coal and nuclear and 6 cents for gas.


[Green Business]
MADRID
Tue Mar 30, 2010 1:23pm EDT
Spain police arrest nine in CO2 tax probe
｛スペイン警察、炭素税検認で9人逮捕｝

(Reuters) - Spanish police on Tuesday said they had arrested nine people on charges of avoiding 50 million euros ($67.54 million) in tax linked to trading in carbon credits.

The arrests came after Spanish prosecutors announced last week they were launching an investigation into alleged tax fraud.

The investigation is part of a wider EU probe into an estimated 5 billion euros ($6.75 billion) fraud where companies bought carbon emissions permits in one country without paying value added tax, and then sold in another adding tax to the price but pocketing that difference for themselves.

"The operation began due to a report issued by Europol, which had already undertaken similar investigations in countries like France and the United Kingdom," a Civil Guard statement said.

Norwegian police charged five men on Monday as part of a European-wide probe into so-called carousel fraud related to the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme.

Carousel fraud occurs when goods, in this case greenhouse gas emissions credits -- known as EUAs -- are bought and imported tax-free from other EU countries, then sold to domestic buyers, charging them VAT.

The sellers then disappear without paying the tax to governments.

For a graphic on how carbon credit carousel fraud works, see here

In a separate statement on Tuesday, Spanish tax authorities estimated Spanish companies handled more than 350 million euros in EUA carousels between May and October 2009, when tax laws when changed.

"Once this rule was applied, not only did VAT fraud in this sector disappear in Spain, but also, transactions in the Spanish CO2 market fell drastically," the Tax Office said.

"Nonetheless, the fraud may continue to be committed against those countries in the (European) Union which have not modified their laws."

The Tax Office added that the carousel consisted of setting up a chain of international companies, headed by "a straw man, generally impossible to find."

The Tax Office added that it was continuing inquiries into whether the same chains of companies had moved into Spanish gas, electricity or other commodities markets.

(Reporting by Martin Roberts; Editing by Amanda Cooper)

news20100331reut6

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Thierry Leveque
PARIS
Tue Mar 30, 2010 12:06pm EDT

French court upholds oil spill ruling vs Total
｛フランスの裁判所、トータル社に油流出法を適用｝

(Reuters) - A French appeals court on Tuesday upheld key elements of a verdict against oil giant Total over a disastrous 1999 oil spill in a ruling with wide implications for the global oil industry's environmental responsibilities.

Total was found guilty in 2008 for the damage caused when the Erika, an aging oil tanker it had chartered, broke apart and sank in a winter storm off Brittany in 1999, spilling 20,000 tonnes of crude oil.

An oil slick covered 400 km (250 miles) of French coastline, killing thousands of birds and marine animals.

"In failing to apply precautionary rules, Total was at fault for imprudence in relation to the causality of the shipwreck," the appeals court judgment said.

The court confirmed the criminal responsibility of Total, which was fined 375,000 euros in the first case, as well as that of three other defendants, who were also fined.

The ruling also upheld the legal notion that damage to the general environment is on a par with economic harm to individuals or corporations for which companies must pay compensation.

"It means in future we will have the ability to assign a value to living things that have no commercial worth," said Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, president of the League for the Protection of Birds. "It is a considerable advance. They won't be able to behave tomorrow as they behaved before."

Contrary to the earlier ruling, Tuesday's judgment did not assign civil responsibility to Total, meaning it would in theory not be forced to pay damages and interest to victims in the case. But it said that the group could not reclaim payments it had already made.

DAMAGES PAYOUT INCREASED

The 2008 ruling ordered Total to pay 192 million euros ($259.4 million) in damages to environmental groups, local governments and others involved in the clean-up operation, and the bulk of this has already been paid.

On Tuesday, the appeals court raised the sum to 200 million euros but ordered the surplus over the original award to be paid by Rina, the Italian shipping certification body that gave the Erika its certificate of seaworthiness.

Total said it would consider the ruling over the coming days before deciding whether to appeal in the Cour de Cassation, the highest court in the French judiciary.

Despite lodging an appeal against the 2008 ruling, the oil giant made a deal with 37 of the plaintiffs after the first trial and has paid them 170 million euros.

It had already spent more than 200 million euros on pumping the remainder of the crude oil from the wreck of the Erika and on treatment and cleanup operations.

The sums are relatively small for Total, one of France's biggest industrial groups, which made a net profit of 7.8 billion euros last year. The battle was more about legal principles and future liabilities than about money.

The group argued it could not be held responsible for the failings of RINA, which gave the decrepit Erika a clean bill of health. The Italian owners and the certifiers were convicted and fined in 2008.

The first judgment had strongly endorsed the argument that oil companies should be held responsible for the state of the tankers they used to ship their products. It also backed the idea of an "environmental responsibility" in such cases.

That could be used as a precedent by plaintiffs in other cases of environmental damage around the world.

($1=.7403 Euro)

(Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by David Cowell)


[Green Business]
[Green Business | China | COP15]
OSLO
Wed Mar 31, 2010 5:32am EDT
Over 110 nations back Copenhagen climate deal
｛110カ国余り、コペンハーゲンクライメイト取り引きを支援｝

(Reuters) - More than 110 nations including top greenhouse gas emitters led by China and the United States back the non-binding Copenhagen Accord for combating climate change, according to a first formal U.N. list on Wednesday.

The list, of countries from Albania to Zambia, helps end weeks of uncertainty about support for the deal, agreed at an acrimonious summit in the Danish capital in December. The list was compiled by the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat.

The accord, falling short of a binding treaty sought by many nations, sets a goal of limiting global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit). But it does not spell out what each nation has to do.

It also promises almost $10 billion a year in aid for poor nations from 2010-12, rising to at least $100 billion from 2020 to help them slow emissions growth and cope with impacts such as floods, droughts and rising sea levels.

Apart from China and the United States, the list also includes top emitters such as the European Union, Russia, India and Japan. Their names were listed at the top of the 3-page text, following up an agreement in Copenhagen.

The accord was merely "noted" by the 194-nation summit after objections by a handful of developing nations including Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Sudan.

The United Nations then asked all countries to say if they wanted to be listed.

Many big emerging economies were initially reluctant to sign up after the deal failed to gain universal support, even though the original text was worked out by President Barack Obama with leaders of nations including China, India, Brazil and South Africa.

They also want the 1992 U.N. Climate Convention to guide U.N. negotiations on a new treaty, reckoning it more clearly spells out that rich nations have to take the lead.

Nations not on the list include many OPEC nations such as Saudi Arabia, which fear a loss of oil revenues if the world shifts to renewable energies, and some small island states which fear rising sea levels.

(Reporting by Alister Doyle, editing by Dominic Evans)

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[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Environment News]
[Green Business | COP15]
Laurie Goering
MONTPELLIER, France
Mon Mar 29, 2010 4:10pm EDT
Science alone not enough to boost world farm output
｛科学だけで世界の農業生産高の増加は見込めず｝

(Reuters) - Feeding a fast-growing global population in the face of climate change and stagnant funding for food aid and farm research will require a fundamental revamp of agriculture, agricultural experts said.

But unlike the "Green Revolution" that dramatically hiked agricultural output in Latin America and Asia from the 1950s, a new agricultural restructuring will need to focus as much on new seed varieties as on good governance, women's empowerment and things like curbing commodities speculation, they added.

"We cannot address world food security risks effectively only through a science and technology agenda," Joachim von Braun, former director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), told a conference Sunday.

"We need to get appropriate market regulations to prevent excessive speculation," he added on the opening day of the conference held in southern France to discuss a roadmap to reform agricultural research to meet development goals.

Speculation in food markets contributes to fuelling price swings that can undercut the ability of farmers to plan, often leading them to over or under-produce.

The lack of political support and financial resources for agricultural research are also among the biggest problems holding back efforts to boost farm output and feed more than a billion hungry people in the world, said Jacques Diouf, director general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

"We have the programs, we have the projects, we have the knowledge... We have everything we need but political will," he said, adding there were signs things were changing.

"We have realized the problem of food security is not only a technical, economic, ethical problem. It's a problem of peace and security in the world."

HUNGER RISK

By 2050, the world's population is expected to surge to more than 9 million from of 6.3 billion now, so agricultural output will need to grow by 70 percent to feed those people, according to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

But the world will face dramatic challenges in achieving this target, warned experts at the conference.

Investment in agricultural research has stagnated or fallen around most of the globe for decades, and growth in crucial crops like rice has leveled off, experts said, adding high national debt, in part as a result of the global financial crisis, made boosts in donor aid for research unlikely.

Climate change also is bringing more unpredictable weather, including worsening droughts, floods and storms. Those stresses could slash agricultural production in the world's hungriest regions in Africa and South Asia, and exacerbate existing problems like overuse of aquifers, desertification and erosion.

"Climate change will make an already deteriorating situation worse," said IFAD spokesman Kevin Cleaver.

Reversing the problems, he and others said, will require a diverse host of changes, such as curbing rich-world agricultural subsidies, ensuring small farmers have rights to their land, building databases to help coordinate research efforts, and finding new sources of funding for agricultural research.

(Laurie Goering is an editor at AlertNet, a service of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, which aims at alerting humanitarians to emergencies)

(Editing by James Jukwey)


[Green Business]
Mon Mar 29, 2010 8:41am EDT
Factbox: Ireland's progress on renewables
｛ファクトボックス：アイルランド、再生可能エネルギー進展｝

(Reuters) - The Irish government wants to get 40 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020 and has an EU target for 16 percent of its energy to come from renewable sources in 10 years' time.

Currently, Ireland relies on imported fossil fuels for around 90 percent of its energy. Only Luxembourg, Cyprus and Malta in Europe are more dependent and, situated on the western extreme of Europe, Ireland is at the end of the supply chain.

Its economic need to shelter itself from the volatility of oil and gas prices and to create green jobs have further served to focus its attention on the drive for renewables.

When asked to explain its 16 percent EU energy target, the Irish department of energy broke it down as follows:

40 percent renewable energy in electricity by 2020; 20 percent energy efficiency improvement by 2020, including 33 percent in the public sector; 10 percent renewable energy in transport and 10 percent electrification of transport by 2020 and 12 percent renewable energy in heating by 2020.

By 2008, it said the renewables share of overall energy supply was around 4 percent and had since risen to about 6.4 percent.

Renewable electricity had increased from around 5 percent in 2004 to roughly 15 percent now.

Below are figures from the Paris-based International Energy Agency showing its assessment of Ireland's various sources of electricity generation in terawatt hours (TWh) in 2008 and its forecast for 2020.

The IEA noted the EU 16 percent target was more complicated to calculate than a matter of simple percentages of the whole.

2008 2020 Coal 5.228 1.966 Peat 2.79 0.061 Oil 1.731 1.367 Natural gas 16.065 19.448 Hydro 0.969 1.053 Wind 2.41 7.448 Geothermal 0 0 Solar, tide, wave 0 0 Biofuels and waste 0.161 0.238 Total 29.354 31.581

(reporting by Barbara Lewis)


[Green Business]
Mon Mar 29, 2010 4:58pm EDT
Sojitz to set up online carbon credits market: Nikkei
｛双日社、炭素クレジット市場オンラインで開設：日経）｝

(Reuters) - Trading house Sojitz Corp will create an online marketplace for carbon credits to quickly match up buyers and sellers, the Nikkei business daily reported.

Various frameworks exist in Japan for trading carbon credits, but with no common marketplace, buyers and sellers often have difficulty finding each other and getting a handle on market prices, causing the domestic market to stagnate, the paper said.

Sojitz subsidiary CoalinQ Corp, which operates an e-commerce site for coal transactions, will set up a joint venture with carbon credit seller Smart Energy Co on Thursday and the firm will start operating a carbon trading site in May, the daily said.

The marketplace will handle five or so kinds of carbon credits, including those issued by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Environment Ministry and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Nikkei said.

About 4 percent to 5 percent of transaction prices will be charged as commissions and trading of the equivalent of at least 800,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions a year is targeted by 2014, the paper said.

Demand for carbon credit trading is expected to increase as a Tokyo ordinance on limiting CO2 emissions takes effect next month, the daily said.

(Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)


[Green Business]
LONDON
Mon Mar 29, 2010 3:46pm EDT
Carbon trade sector drops from HSBC climate index
｛炭素排出量取引セクター、ＨＳＢＣのリストから洩れる｝

(Reuters) - The carbon trading sector has dropped out of an HSBC index of 385 listed companies making money from tackling climate change, after lower expectation of global cap and trade expansion saw sharp share price falls.

Previously, two carbon trading companies were listed in the index, Trading Emissions and Climate Exchange, but neither now met the $400 million index threshold market capitalization after big drops in their share prices.

The HSBC index tracking the share price of those two firms fell 37 percent between September 1 2009 and March 19 2010.

A U.N. climate conference in December failed to agree binding caps on carbon emissions, needed to drive demand for emissions permits traded in carbon markets in industrialized nations.

In addition, Senate agreement this year on a U.S. cap and trade scheme is considered less likely after prolonged stalling on the cost of imposing carbon emissions caps on industry.

"You've seen a deterioration in carbon markets globally," said HSBC analyst Vijay Sumon.

"Comprehensive climate legislation at the (U.S.) federal level may have to wait for a number of years," said the HSBC report.

"We believe that ... the momentum (to fight climate change) will still continue, with a shift in focus from building carbon markets to delivering low carbon growth."

The overall HSBC climate index is down 2 percent in 2010 to date, compared with a 2 percent rise in the MSCI index of global stocks.

That wider fall reflected disappointment in the December summit in Copenhagen, which failed to muster sufficient voluntary carbon pledges to avoid more dangerous temperature rises, according to climate scientists' estimates.

The HSBC climate index follows companies which make at least 10 percent of their total revenues from selling goods and services related to tackling climate change.

The four main sectors are in low carbon energy production, energy efficiency, water and waste and climate finance. The index companies are selected from the world's 2,000 biggest companies selling such climate change services.

(Reporting by Gerard Wynn; editing by James Jukwey)

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[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Krishna N. Das - Analysis
BANGALORE
Mon Mar 29, 2010 2:30pm EDT
Bloom buzz unlikely to fire up fuel cell companies
｛ブルーム社、燃料電池会社の活性化見込み薄｝

(Reuters) - Bloom Energy's recent high-profile unveiling of a new fuel cell technology has raised the sector's profile, but its perennially loss-making companies need more than visibility to register any short-term gains.

Bloom, a Silicon Valley start-up, last month launched its solid oxide fuel cell that can power buildings and potentially offer an alternative to the electricity grid.

A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity and heat -- a clean source of energy that can be used in buildings, schools, telecoms towers and hospitals. However, they have so far failed to receive universal acceptance.

Analysts believe spillover gains from Bloom are unlikely for companies like FuelCell Energy, Plug Power and Canada's Hydrogenics Corp.

"If anything, it's more likely to be a negative, considering that Bloom is positioned to become a very well-funded competitor," Raymond James' analyst Pavel Molchanov said.

Bloom has managed to raise more than $400 million from investors and has attracted some high-profile early adopters like Google Inc, eBay Inc, Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart Stores Inc, FedEx Corp.

FuelCell Energy has its major clients in South Korea and Japan. Twenty four megawatt of its power plants are already operating in South Korea.

Plug power counts Coca-Cola Bottling Co Consolidated, FedEx and Wireless TT Info Services as its customers while Hydrogenics has contracts from United Nations Industrial Development Organization and India's Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd.

Despite some big-ticket clients, the dollar value of the deals leave much to be desired. And the fanfare surrounding the announcement of the Bloom Box was required to renew interest in fuel cell technology, which has had few instances to cheer.

SHOW ME THE MONEY

"I think this is a good thing that gets people excited about fuel cells, because prior to this, especially after the market crash, investors were not that interested in fuel cells," Ardour Capital Investments' Meghan Moreland said.

But there are fears that eventually Bloom could face the same fate as the other companies in the sector.

"Some investors, after several years of generating very significant losses and cash burn, put their hands up in the air," she said. "It will be the same with Bloom. They are going to have high sales, but when they are going to reach profitability is really questionable."

Questions on the viability of the technology and the lack of a mass market adoption have bogged down the sector, which has been posting losses for more than 5 years now. Faced with a cash crunch, their lobby for more government support grows stronger.

"The industry does need ongoing support, including legislation and favorable regulations," said Katrina Fritz Intwala, a vice president at Plug Power.

"Even with increased attention, ongoing effort is needed to encourage government to maintain subsidies for clean energy products and funding for fuel cell R&D, keeping us competitive with incumbent technologies and fuels."

As of now California has a policy in place that is conducive to the fuel cell firms, but the industry is looking for more support at federal level.

Support for the industry has been few and far in between. The Obama administration has earmarked $174 million for hydrogen and fuel cells out of the $33.5 billion spending bill to fund government energy and water programs for the fiscal year that began on October 1.

Plug's Intwala said the visibility raised by Bloom is good for all fuel cell companies, as long as Bloom maintains a realistic perspective about its products.

"The bad thing would be if this high profile company fails two years from now or three years from now," Janney Montgomery Scott analyst John Roy said.

(Reporting by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Jarshad Kakkrakandy and Savio D'Souza)


[Green Business]
[Barack Obama | Green Business | COP15]
Tom Doggett
WASHINGTON
Mon Mar 29, 2010 9:37pm EDT
Government set to unveil offshore drilling plan
｛米政府、オフショアドリリング（沖合での掘削）プラン」の詳細発表へ｝

(Reuters) - The Obama administration is expected to announce by Wednesday its updated plan for oil and natural gas drilling in U.S. waters, including whether to allow exploration for the first time along the U.S. East Coast.

The plan could pave the way for a significant new domestic source of energy, helping to reduce U.S. dependence on oil imports and boost supplies of natural gas used to displace coal in power plants as the country works to reduce emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases.

Last month, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he wanted to release the updated drilling plan by the end of March.

Two industry sources said on Monday President Barack Obama was expected to give a speech about energy security on Wednesday, which could include his views on expansion of offshore drilling.

The Interior Department and White House declined comment on Monday on whether Obama would speak to the issue in a speech slated for mid-morning on Wednesday at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

The administration has been weighing the pros and cons of offshore drilling since it took office and put the brakes on a Bush-era proposal that called for drilling along the East Coast and off the coast of California.

For more than 20 years, drilling was banned in most offshore areas of the United States outside the Gulf of Mexico because of concerns spills could harm the environment.

Congress allowed the prohibition to expire in 2008 and former President George W. Bush lifted a drilling moratorium that year.

Environmental groups and some lawmakers continue to raise concerns about the impact increased drilling would have on coastal areas.

But Obama, who wants Congress to move a stalled climate change bill, has sought to reach out to Republicans by signaling he is open to allowing offshore drilling, providing coastlines are protected.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the U.S. Atlantic coast waters may hold 37 trillion cubic feet of gas and nearly 4 billion barrels of oil, while the Pacific Coast has 10.5 billion barrels of oil and 18 trillion cubic feet of gas.

To put that in context, the United States imports about 2 billion barrels of oil a year from OPEC nations and is expected to import 2.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from all sources this year, according to the Energy Department.

The administration's plan is expected to spell out whether and when drilling will be allowed in 3 million acres off the Virginia coast.

The Bush administration had proposed leasing the Virginia tracts to energy companies and said the government would receive bids for the leases in November 2011.

However, a senior Interior official told an oil industry conference in January that drilling off Virginia's coast would definitely be delayed past the original 2011 leasing date.

The proposed Virginia lease area, located about 50 miles from shore, may hold 130 million barrels of oil and 1.14 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

The possible delay in drilling off Virginia's coast has been criticized by the state's new governor, Republican Bob McDonnell, and two U.S. senators eager for the state to tap into the jobs and royalties that come with exploration.

A spokeswoman for McDonnell said his office has not been told the updated drilling plan would be announced on Wednesday.

(Editing by Bernard Orr)

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[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
[Barack Obama | Green Business]
Tom Doggett
WASHINGTON
Mon Mar 29, 2010 5:11pm EDT
EPA phases in permits for greenhouse pollution
｛ＥＰＡ、大気汚染物質を段階的に許可｝

(Reuters) - U.S. power plants, industrial facilities and other stationary sources of greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming will not be required to have Clean Air Act permits until January 2011, giving industry more time to prepare for the regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency said on Monday.

Agency head Lisa Jackson had signaled to Congress in February that the EPA would delay the permit requirements for this year, following concerns from U.S. lawmakers and state officials that more time was needed to ease burdens on industry and state environmental departments that would help enforce the regulations.

The EPA has said it will require big sources of greenhouse gas emissions, like power plants that run on coal or natural gas, and plants that make cement, steel and glass, to get permits proving they are using the best available technology to cut pollution.

"This is a common sense plan for phasing in the protections of the Clean Air Act. It gives large facilities the time they need to innovate, governments the time to prepare to cut greenhouse gases," Jackson said in a statement.

The EPA has not yet determined the amount of emissions that could be emitted by facilities before permits would be required. That so-called "tailoring" decision will come later this spring, the EPA said.

The EPA is also expected to issue final greenhouse gas standards for cars and trucks this week.

The rules cutting emissions for stationary sources will not take effect until next January, which is the earliest that model year 2012 vehicles meeting the standards can be sold.

"This gives EPA a legal argument for why it's not immediately regulating stationary source emissions of greenhouse gases," said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch.

The government must notify automakers by April 1 of the higher fuel efficiency for the 2012 model year vehicles that would be needed to cut emissions.

State environmental agencies welcomed the EPA decision to phase in the permits.

"Providing nine additional months for states to revise their clean air laws and regulations will enable these agencies to closely align their programs with the federal permitting rules," said William Becker, executive director, National Association of Clean Air Agencies.

Even with the delay, the American Petroleum Institute, the trade group for big oil and gas companies, said it remained strongly opposed to regulating the emissions under the Clean Air Act.

"New regulations could prove to be intrusive, inefficient and excessively costly," said API spokeswoman Cathy Landry. "They could slow or stop permits needed to operate or expand businesses, which could chill job growth and delay expansion."

Lawmakers have criticized the EPA for trying to circumvent stalled Congressional deliberations over how to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, who has backed legislation to block EPA from moving ahead, said on Monday the agency continues to fail to provide information on the impact of its plans.

"The agency has refused to answer even the most basic questions about how many stationary sources will be regulated, when those sources will be regulated, what technologies will be mandated for compliance, and how much the regulations will cost," Murkowski said in a statement.

(Reporting by Tom Doggett; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Jim Marshall)


[Green Business]
Chang-Ran Kim, Asia autos correspondent
TOKYO
Mon Mar 29, 2010 6:15am EDT
Toyota to supply hybrid technology to Mazda
｛トヨタ、マツダにハイブリッド技術を供与提携｝

(Reuters) - Toyota Motor and Mazda Motor announced a deal under which Japan's top automaker will supply its hybrid technology under license to Mazda, in the latest link-up within the fast-changing auto industry.

Japan's No.1 and No.5 carmakers have been discussing the possibility behind the scenes since last spring as the popularity of gasoline-electric cars surged in Japan with the help of generous government subsidies.

Hybrid cars, which improve fuel efficiency by twinning internal combustion engines with electric motors, are seen as crucial for automakers to boost sales in the coming years as governments introduce stricter environmental regulations.

Gasoline-electric cars have enjoyed a burst of demand especially in Japan over the past year as the government introduced an exemption from certain taxes for gasoline-electric and other next-generation vehicles for a three-year period.

"Hybrids are spreading fast in Japan, and launching a model in the domestic market has become an urgent task," Mazda Executive Vice President Masaharu Yamaki told a joint news conference in Tokyo.

"That is one of the reasons why we decided to seek this agreement with Toyota," he said.

Mazda said it aimed to begin selling a vehicle that combines Toyota's hybrid system with its own next-generation gasoline engine in Japan by 2013. Key components such as battery packs, controls units, inverters and regenerative braking units will be procured from Toyota suppliers.

The agreement underscores a growing need for smaller carmakers to find partners to fill the technology gap without draining their limited resources. Among others, archrivals Daimler AG and BMW AG are also working together on hybrid development.

DISTANCING FORD

A Toyota-Mazda pairing also highlights a distancing of Mazda from top shareholder Ford Motor Co, which is among the few automakers today with a proprietary hybrid system after it initially licensed technology from Toyota.

Ford and Mazda continue to share some vehicle platforms and operate joint factories, but insiders say relations have cooled to match the U.S. automaker's diminished stake in the Hiroshima-based automaker, from a controlling 33.4 percent.

In late 2008, Ford sold all but 13 percent of its Mazda stake, which was further diluted to 11 percent when the latter issued $1 billion in new shares to raise money to invest in hybrid and other technologies.

"Our relationship with Ford remains solid," Yamaki said, adding that Mazda had judged that procuring hybrid parts from Toyota's suppliers in Japan was more efficient than working with Ford.

Toyota, a pioneer in hybrid technology with at least a 12-year lead on most rivals, currently supplies its hybrid system to Nissan Motor Co, which uses it in its Altima sedan for the U.S. market to clear regulations there. Nissan plans to switch to its own hybrid system with a new model later this year.

Toyota Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada said the deal with Mazda could indirectly help to lower procurement costs as more hybrid vehicles enter the market.

The deal will likely be a boon for Toyota's key hybrid suppliers such as affiliates Denso Corp and Aisin Seiki Co, as well as Panasonic Corp, which operates a battery joint venture with Toyota.

Mazda, the maker of the Mazda6/Atenza and other sporty cars, has a goal of raising its fleet's fuel economy by 30 percent mainly by improving its internal combustion engines by 2015 compared with 2008 levels. It has said it would gradually add electric components such as hybrid systems mainly beyond 2015.

Yamaki declined to disclose Mazda's plans for hybrid launches outside Japan.

(Editing by Chris Gallagher and Michael Watson)


[Green Business]
SAN FRANCISCO
Tue Mar 30, 2010 1:01am EDT
Electric carmaker Coda's battery JV raises capital
｛電気自動車メーカー、コーダ電池共同事業、資本強化｝

(Reuters) - California electric start-up Coda Automotive said on Tuesday that its battery joint venture has secured $394 million in equity capital and loan commitments, and is looking at setting up a U.S. battery facility.

Coda said that it, together with its Chinese joint venture partner Lishen Power Battery, has added $100 million in equity capital and has secured a line of credit for $294 million from Bank of Tianjin Joint-Stock Co, a Chinese bank.

The privately held company is planning to sell a fully electric car with a range of up to 120 miles, priced in the low $30,000s, Coda Automotive President and CEO Kevin Czinger told Reuters in an interview.

The company plans to deliver 14,000 of the electric cars in the California market by the end of 2011.

For U.S. production, Coda's battery joint venture is considering sites in California, Ohio and North Carolina, Czinger said.

"We are looking at sites and DOE funding as well."

The U.S. department of Energy has various funding programs aimed at encouraging the development and commercialization of fuel-efficient vehicles.

(Reporting by Poornima Gupta; Editing by Richard Chang)

news20100330reut4

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
[Technology | Media]
Peter Henderson
SAN FRANCISCO
Tue Mar 30, 2010 1:41am EDT
Coal fuels much of Internet "cloud," Greenpeace says
｛石炭燃料、インターネットで不透明化：グリーンピース｝

(Reuters) - The 'cloud' of data that is becoming the heart of the Internet is creating an all-too-real cloud of pollution as Facebook, Apple and others build data centers powered by coal, Greenpeace said in a new report to be released on Tuesday.

A Facebook facility being built in Oregon will rely on a utility whose main fuel is coal, while Apple Inc is building a data warehouse in a North Carolina region that relies mostly on coal, the environmental organization said in the study.

"The last thing we need is for more cloud infrastructure to be built in places where it increases demand for dirty coal-fired power," said Greenpeace, which argues that Web companies should be more careful about where they build and should lobby more in Washington for clean energy.

The growing mass of business data, home movies and pictures has ballooned beyond the capabilities of many corporate data centers and personal computers, spurring the creation of massive server farms that make up a "cloud," an emerging phenomenon known as cloud computing.

The Greenpeace report comes during a global debate whether to create caps or other measures to cut use of carbon-heavy fuels like coal and curb climate change.

Cheap and plentiful, coal is the top fuel for U.S. power plants, and its low cost versus alternative fuels makes it attractive, even in highly energy-efficient data centers.

Apple, Facebook, Microsoft Corp, Yahoo Inc and Google Inc have at least some centers that rely heavily on coal power, said Greenpeace.

PURSUING ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Most of the companies declined to give details of their data centers to Reuters. All said, however, they considered the environment in business decisions, and most said they were aggressively pursuing energy efficiency.

High technology companies say they support the environment. Apple has released its carbon footprint, or how much greenhouse gases it produces, and Facebook said it chose the location for its center to use natural means to cool its machines.

Microsoft said it aimed to maximize efficiency, and Google said it purchased carbon offsets -- funding for projects which suck up carbon -- for emissions, including at data centers.

Yahoo, which is building a center near Buffalo, New York, that Greenpeace saw as a model, will get energy from hydroelectric facilities. The company said energy-efficiency was the top goal, with a building design that promotes air circulation.

Data center energy use already is huge, Greenpeace said.

If considered as a country, global telecommunications and data centers behind cloud computing would have ranked fifth in the world for energy use in 2007, behind the United States, China, Russia and Japan, it concluded.

The cloud may be the fastest-growing facet of technology infrastructure between now and 2020, said Greenpeace.

The group based its findings on a mix of data, including a federal review of fuels in U.S. zip codes in 2005 and a 2008 study by the Climate Group and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative, which Greenpeace updated in part with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data.

(Editing by Philip Barbara)


[Green Business]
Nobuhiro Kubo
YOKOHAMA, Japan
Tue Mar 30, 2010 5:45am EDT
Nissan prices electric Leaf at premium to Prius
｛日産電気自動車"リーフ"の価格、"プリウス"に割増価格｝

(Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co priced its battery-powered Leaf hatchback at more than twice the cost of a similarly sized gasoline car, counting on government subsidies to drive demand for the emissions-free vehicles.

Nissan is banking on electric cars to help it close the gap on rivals such as Toyota Motor Co, which has won over fuel-conscious customers with its gasoline-electric hybrid Prius.

But with a starting price of 3.76 million yen ($40,640), the Leaf will be still be out of reach for many drivers in Japan.

The five-passenger Leaf is designed to provide a range of 160 km (100 miles). Nissan has developed the battery pack for the Leaf with NEC Corp so that it can be plugged in at home and recharged overnight on a 220-volt connection.

"I'm interested (in the Leaf), but the initial cost is still high, even with subsidies," said Kiyotaka Shimizu, a 43 year-old cram school teacher.

"I'm afraid the technology is not mature. I would choose hybrid cars at this stage," Shimizu said as he looked around a Nissan showroom at its headquarters in Yokohama, south of Tokyo.

While skeptics abound, almost all major automakers are working on developing battery-run cars for use mainly in urban areas, to meet stricter emissions and mileage regulations being introduced around the world.

Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive of Nissan and French partner Renault, has said he expects 10 percent of the world's auto market will be electric vehicles by 2020, a ratio at the top of industry projections.

While well above the price of Toyota's top selling Prius gasoline-electric hybrid, the Leaf will be about 1 million yen ($10,800) cheaper than Mitsubishi Motors Corp's i-MiEV electric car.

"The most important point for our cars is zero emissions," Toshiyuki Shiga, chief operating officer of Nissan, said at a news conference. "Hybrid vehicles still consume gasoline. I want to fully push this sales point."

Nissan, Japan's third-biggest automaker, said it aims to sell 6,000 Leaf cars, its first mass-volume all-electric model, in Japan for the year ending in March 2011. The company will start taking orders for the model in April in Japan, with the first delivery expected in December.

After accounting for Japanese government subsidies, Nissan said the net cost to consumers to buy a new Leaf would be near 2.99 million yen ($32,320).

Japanese government subsidies on low emission vehicles, introduced to encourage sales during the financial crisis, are scheduled to run through to the year ending March 2011.

HYBRIDS CHEAPER

By contrast, Toyota's Prius hybrid, now in its third generation, has a base model starting price at just over 2 million yen ($22,195) in Japan, before government subsidies.

The Leaf's price also marks a premium over established, combustion engine-powered small sedans like the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla. Analysts said that reflects the cost of developing and producing the Leaf's lithium-ion battery pack.

"Everyone would think it is expensive. Of course there are some people who are willing to buy, but generally speaking, it needs to be below 2 million yen for consumers in general to buy," said Koji Endo, auto analyst at Advanced Research Japan.

Although Nissan once considered leasing the expensive batteries to lower the initial cost for consumers in Japan, it has given up on the idea due to the regulations related with car inspections.

Despite the initial price tag, Nissan said drivers would be able to save some money over the long run. It estimates that owners would pay 86,000 yen ($930) in electricity costs over six years, compared with 670,000 yen ($7,200) at the pump for a traditional gasoline-powered car.

Nissan was set to announce U.S. pricing for the Leaf later on Tuesday, with analysts expecting a U.S. price of somewhere between $25,000 and $30,000.

A $7,500 tax credit is available for U.S. consumers who buy electric vehicles like the Leaf and the upcoming Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid from General Motors Co.

After trailing rivals Toyota Motor and Honda Motor in the hybrid field, Japan's No.3 automaker has bet heavily on pure electric vehicles.

The automaker has also announced a series of partnerships with utilities and government agencies in the United States and Europe, where it believes it has a chance of seizing market leadership.

Shares of Nissan gained 2.3 percent to 801 yen, while the benchmark Nikkei average rose 1 percent.

($1=92.52 Yen)

(Editing by Chris Gallagher and Lincoln Feast)

news20100329gdn

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Business > Energy industry]
European energy agency could form super-regulator
｛欧州エネルギー機関、超監督機関の設置を企図｝

> Slovenia-based energy agency to start with 50 staff
｛スロベニヤに本拠を置くエネルギー機関、50人体制で立ち上げ｝
> European regulator seen as essential to push green energy
｛欧州の監督機関、グリーンエネルギーの推進に不可欠と判断｝
Terry Macalister
The Guardian, Monday 29 March 2010
Article history

{{A European authority is seen as essential to push a green energy agenda and possibly the creation of a European 'super grid'.}
{Photograph}: Christopher Thomond}

Brussels is pressing ahead with plans to establish an energy agency which is seen as a prototype European regulator. The body could eventually restrict national policymaking but could also give important impetus to North Sea wind power and developing a European "supergrid".

The European commission says it expects the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators to open for business by March next year.

"There is a degree of hope that the work of the agency, while not being a European regulator as such, will get the commitment of national regulators such as Ofgem in the UK … [and] if it is successful then it will become the European regulator," said Philip Lowe, the EC's new director general for energy, in an exclusive interview.

The agency is to be based initially in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, and will have a staff of about 50, he said. The choice of location has raised eyebrows but Lowe said the agency should be judged on its work, not its whereabouts.

The idea of energy being regulated by Brussels remains a highly charged political issue but members of the European Union are increasingly accepting the need for more international cooperation and integration to achieve energy security and combat climate change.

Britain and other countries are keen to develop a huge network of offshore wind farms but realise they may need to deal with the problem of intermittent power by importing electricity generated from hydro or other power sources through an international supergrid of interconnected networks.

Lowe says European Union member states have so far balked at giving up national sovereignty in energy regulation and their future acceptance of such an idea would be vital before a fully fledged European regulator was put in place.

Under the direction of his boss, European energy commissioner Günther Oettinger, he is convinced countries must work more closely together. New bilateral arrangements between countries and regulators are in place to allow power to move through international pipelines.

"Although in energy as much as any other area of European life, people talk about sovereignty a lot the reality is that all this (putting together of energy grids and other integration) does not work unless there is an acceptance that there are some things best done at European level, some best done at national level and some at local level."

The British-born bureaucrat says it's a matter of who is best placed to review any particular aspect of work.

"It is no use asking the European commission to investigate whether Tesco or Morrisons are competing in a certain area. National authorities know far more about land use and planning … but then if you are to deal with a company of the clout of Microsoft then it is something best dealt with here."

Lowe is happy to make comparisons with competition issues because he has just switched from the competition to the energy directorate.

Some UK groups, such as British Gas, could be suspicious of the new energy director given their criticism of the way Continental markets have been allowed to be dominated by very large, often partly-state-run groups, such as EDF of France.

Lowe dismisses the criticism, pointing out that he and his former competition commissioner boss, Neelie Kroes, investigated these market failures and laid out the steps that needed to be taken. "The accusation we did not do anything is totally wrong," he said, pointing out that anti-trust legal action continues against various large Continental utilities today.


[Business > Energy industry]
Siemens to build UK wind turbine plant
｛シーメンス社、英国で風力タービンプラントを建造計画発表｝

> £75m wind turbine plant will create hundreds of jobs
｛7,500万ポンドの風力タービンプラントにより数百人の仕事が創出｝
> Wind power boost to government's green hopes
｛風力発電は政府のグリーン政策を後押し｝
Terry Macalister
The Guardian, Monday 29 March 2010
Article history

{{The Siemens wind turbine plant will boost Britain's green energy plans.}
{Photograph}: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images}

The government will receive another boost to its green manufacturing momentum this week when Siemens of Germany announces plans to create hundreds of jobs in Britain and invest more than £75m in a new wind turbine plant.

The move comes despite claims made today by the EEF, the manufacturers' organisation, that the UK tax system is still stacked against manufacturing and needs a shake-up if the economy is to become less geared towards financial services.

The Siemens factory has particular significance because it shows Britain can beat off competition from Denmark and Germany to house a plant capable of making a new generation of extra-large blades.

The facility will demonstrate, too, that Britain can be at the centre of the German manufacturer's worldwide wind ambitions, because Siemens already has a wind power training centre in Newcastle upon Tyne and a global centre for offshore grid connections in Manchester. It is also sponsoring significant research work into renewables at Sheffield and Keele universities.

Siemens declined to comment ahead of an announcement but well placed sources said that a deal had been struck at the highest possible level of government for the company to locate a facility in Britain, probably on the east coast of England.

The decision comes after months of talks – including meetings at 10 Downing Street with the Siemens president, Peter Löscher – and is believed to have been finalised as a result of an important change in the budget last week, which brought public grants for ports to build green manufacturing hubs around them.

The Siemens facility is expected to create 700 direct jobs and perhaps as many as 1,500 more in the supply chain. The plans will be announced only days after GE, the American conglomerate, announced a similar initiative in Britain, with investment of £100m, creating 2,000 jobs.

Mitsubishi of Japan and Clipper Windpower of the US have also announced schemes to make bigger and better blades that could bring down the cost of producing wind offshore.

Big utilities such as E.ON and RWE have won acreage under the Round Three (R3) licensing scheme to develop wind farms many miles off the coast of Britain. But some have warned that the economics remain fragile, given the deep water levels and other factors involved, unless development costs can be driven down.

Alistair Darling announced £60m worth of grants in the budget to develop onshore manufacturing around dock areas, as well as a plan to create a green investment bank that would be capable of taking equity stakes in R3 schemes.

Some of these financial incentives seem to have been enough to persuade Siemens to build in Britain, going some way towards repairing the damage done by Vestas' decision to close the UK's only functioning wind turbine factory last summer in the Isle of Wight. There has also been dismay that 90% of the supply contracts for Britain's biggest offshore wind farm, the London Array, went abroad, many of them to Siemens in Germany and Denmark.

The British wind power industry has estimated that eventually 70,000 green-collar jobs could be created on the back of more than £100bn of private sector investment needed under R3 proposals.

But the report out today from the EEF, entitled "Tax reform for a balanced economy", says that for UK manufacturing to succeed in the future, a range of reforms to the system of investment allowances will be needed. The engineering sector also wants a cut in corporation tax, an increase in VAT and a return of the top rate of income tax to 40p.

The EEF warns that failure to tackle the tax system will stop the economy from being rebalanced away from the City and encourage companies to move overseas.

"While there have been some helpful changes to the tax regime in recent years, we still lack a coherent tax system that encourages manufacturers to invest and sends the signal that they should be doing it here," the EEF's director of policy, Steve Radley, said.

"The next government must think and act differently. In particular, it can achieve much larger benefits from any new measures if its approach is more predictable and transparent."

news20100329reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Environment News]
[Green Business]
Tyra Dempster
BEIJING
Sun Mar 28, 2010 5:02pm EDT
Mongolia winter kills herds, devastating the poorest
｛モンゴルの厳冬で多数の家畜が凍死、最貧者に大打撃｝

(Reuters) - A severe winter has left 4.5 million dead animals in stockyards across the Mongolian steppes, and many poor herders face the loss of all their property just before the important breeding season.

About a tenth of Mongolia's livestock may have perished, as deep snows cut off access to grazing and fodder.

The damage to the rural economy could increase demands on Mongolia's already-stretched national budget, which relies on mining revenues to meet spending commitments.

The Red Cross launched an emergency appeal for 1 million Swiss francs to assist Mongolian herders, after it estimated that 4.5 million livestock have died in the country since December.

"The numbers of livestock that have perished have gone up very, very quickly and dramatically now to about 4 million which is roughly a tenth of the whole livestock population," Francis Markus, communications director for the Red Cross' East Asia delegation, said in Beijing after returning from Mongolia.

"This means that thousands of families, mostly coming from the poorest and most vulnerable layers of the herder population, have lost their entire flocks of animals and have been left in a very, very distraught and very, very desperate state."

Roughly one-quarter of Mongolia's 3 million people are nomads, while others also raise livestock in fixed settlements. Many go deeply in debt to buy and raise their herds, in hopes of making the money back by selling wool, meat and skins.

A similar combination of a summer drought, followed by heavy snow and low winter temperatures, which is known in Mongolian as a 'zud', caused widespread hardship in Mongolia a decade ago.

As a result, impoverished herder families flocked to the slums outside the capital, Ulan Bator, straining the city's ability to provide basic services.

"The herding community's situation is very hard now. The best off are those who still have around 40 percent of their livestock left and in the worst 50 cases are those who have lost absolutely everything," said Zevgee, speaker of the county parliament in Bayangol, southwest of the capital.

This zud was the worst for several years, with temperatures dropping to 40 degrees Celsius below zero or colder in 19 of Mongolia's 21 provinces, according to a World Bank report.

Around 63 percent of Mongolia's rural residents' assets are their livestock, it said, and at least 35 percent of the population earn a living from their animals.

Herder Tsendjav said that she had no option but to rely on the government and aid to survive the weather.

"I have seen many zuds that have caused the loss of numerous animals but I have never seen a zud as bad as this one," she said at a Red Cross aid dispensary.

(Writing by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Sugita Katyal)


[Green Business]
[Green Business]
LONDON
Sun Mar 28, 2010 9:57pm EDT
Siemens to build wind plant off British coast: report
{シーメンス社、イギリスでオフコースト風力発電プラントを計画：報道｝

(Reuters) - Siemens is set to unveil plans to invest more than 75 million pounds ($111.3 million) in a wind turbine plant off the coast of Britain, the Guardian reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources.

The German conglomerate said last year it would invest tens of millions of euros building an offshore wind turbine assembly plant in the North Sea region and had considered sites in Germany and Denmark, as well as Britain.

The paper said the firm had agreed a deal with senior government officials to locate a plant off the east coast of Britain, creating about 700 jobs.

No one at Siemens UK could immediately be reached for comment.

Last week, the British government laid out plans for a one billion pound green investment bank, to help finance investment in low carbon power, including wind farms.

(Reporting by Caroline Copley; Editing by Marguerita Choy)


[Green Business]
Chang-Ran Kim, Asia autos correspondent
TOKYO
Mon Mar 29, 2010 4:11am EDT
Toyota, Mazda to hold joint briefing on green tech
｛トヨタとマツダ、グリーンテクで共同会見｝

(Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp and Mazda Motor Corp said they would hold a joint news conference in Tokyo on Monday to announce what many expect to be a supply deal for Toyota's industry-leading hybrid system.

Japan's No.1 and No.5 carmakers have been discussing the possibility behind the scenes since at least mid-2009 as the popularity of gasoline-electric cars surged in Japan with the help of generous government subsidies.

Toyota Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada and Mazda Executive Vice President Masaharu Yamaki will brief the media at the 5:40 p.m. (0840 GMT) news conference, the two companies said.

Hybrid cars, which improve fuel efficiency by twinning internal combustion engines with electric motors, are seen as crucial for automakers to boost sales in coming years as governments introduce stricter environmental regulations.

Gasoline-electric cars have enjoyed a burst of demand especially in Japan over the last year as the government introduced an exemption on certain taxes on gasoline-electric and other next-generation vehicles for a three-year period.

An agreement between Toyota and Mazda would underscore the growing need for smaller carmakers to find partners to fill the technology gap without draining their limited resources. Among others, archrivals Daimler AG and BMW AG are also working together on hybrid development.

DISTANCING FORD

A Toyota-Mazda pairing would also highlight a distancing of Mazda from top shareholder Ford Motor Co, which is among the few automakers today with a proprietary hybrid system after it initially licensed some technology from Toyota.

Ford and Mazda continue to share some vehicle platforms and operate joint factories, but insiders have said relations have cooled to match the U.S. automaker's diminished stake in the Hiroshima-based automaker, from a controlling 33.4 percent.

Ford sold in late 2008 all but 13 percent of its Mazda stake, which was further diluted to 11 percent when the latter issued $1 billion in new shares to raise money to invest in hybrid and other technologies.

Toyota, a pioneer in hybrid technology with at least a 12-year lead on most rivals, currently supplies its hybrid system to Nissan Motor Co, which uses it in its Altima sedan for the U.S. market to clear regulations there. Nissan plans to switch to its own hybrid system with a new model later this year.

A fresh deal to supply Mazda would also be a boon for Toyota affiliates Denso Corp and Aisin Seiki Co, which are among Toyota's key hybrid suppliers.

Mazda, the maker of the Mazda6/Atenza and other sporty cars, has a goal of raising its fleet's fuel economy by 30 percent mainly by improving its internal combustion engines by 2015.

It had planned to gradually add electric components such as hybrid systems beyond 2015 to meet tightening regulations.

news20100329reut2

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
COPENHAGEN
Mon Mar 29, 2010 4:09am EDT
China became top wind power market in 2009: consultant
｛中国、2009年度風力発電市場で世界Ｎｏ．1 ： コンサルタント｝

(Reuters) - China became the No. 1 wind turbine market in 2009, installing a record 13.75 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity, and three Chinese suppliers ranked among the Top-10 turbine manufacturers, Danish consultants BTM said.

"The most significant trend in the market was the booming Chinese wind industry," BTM Consult said in a summary of its annual wind power market review for paying subscribers.

China's new capacity accounted for more than a third of the world's total new wind energy capacity of 38 GW last year, which was a record despite the financial crisis, BTM Consult said.

"China emerged as by far and away the most successful market, installing ... the highest volume ever by one country in a single year," BTM said.

The global market for wind power capacity is expected to nearly triple in the next five years to 447 gigawatts (GW) and could expand to almost 1,000 GW within 10 years, BTM said.

"Wind power will deliver 1.6 percent of the world's electricity in 2010," BTM said. "By 2019, ten years away, wind power could meet 8.4 percent of the world's consumption of electricity."

The most significant change in the supply market in 2009 was the strong growth of Chinese wind turbine manufacturers, three of which were among the Top-10 suppliers.

China's Sinovel grabbed the No. 3 spot among wind turbine makers, rival Chinese manufacturer Goldwind ranked No. 5, and Dongfang was No. 7, BTM said.

It did not give their previous ranking, but Sinovel and Goldwind joined the Top-10 in 2008, while Dongfang had been among the Top-15 that year.

Denmark's Vestas Wind Systems retained its position as the world's leading wind turbine manufacturer with a 12.5 percent market share, but U.S. conglomerate GE was virtually tied with Vestas with a 12.4 percent share, BTM said.

Germany's Enercon was fourth, Spain's Gamesa sixth, India's Suzlon eighth, Germany's Siemens ninth and German REpower No. 10, BTM said.

TOP-10 WIND TURBINE SUPPLIERS IN 2009 (ACCORDING TO BTM):

Rank Company Country Percentage of global market
1) Vestas Denmark 12.5
2) GE U.S. 12.4
3) Sinovel China 9.2
4) Enercon Germany 8.5
5) Goldwind China 7.2
6) Gamesa Spain 6.7
7) Dongfang China 6.5
8) Suzlon India 6.4
9) Siemens Germany 5.9
10) RePower Germany 3.4
Others 18.5

BTM Consult's market report followed a similar ranking list earlier this month from rival Danish consultancy MAKE, which also put Vestas first, Sinovel third and Goldwind fifth.

(Reporting by John Acher; Editing by Sharon Lindores)


[Green Business]
Risa Maeda
TOKYO
Mon Mar 29, 2010 9:57am EDT
Japan buys 41.5 mln tonnes Kyoto credits in 2009-10
｛日本、京都議定書2009-10年度分の炭素排出量4150万トンを買い付け｝

(Reuters) - The Japanese government bought 41.5 million tonnes of Kyoto carbon credits in the fiscal year ending this month, a government source said, putting it in sight of its goal for the 2008-2012 Kyoto Protocol period.

The purchase during fiscal 2009/2010, which ends on Wednesday, included 40 million tonnes of sovereign emissions rights called Assigned Amount Units (AAUs) from the Czech Republic and 1.5 million tonnes from Latvia, and no other types of Kyoto credits, the source said.

Japan has now purchased a total 96.6 million tonnes of carbon credits for delivery over the five-year term, near its target of 100 million tonnes.

But in a slight setback, it will not receive 1.2 million tonnes of that 96.6 million tonnes due to lack of delivery from three emissions-cutting projects abroad, the government source said.

As a result, Japan will still have to buy some 4.6 million tonnes of carbon credits from abroad to meet its goal for the five-year period.

Japan's government and companies have been the biggest buyers of Kyoto carbon credits outside Europe to supplement their domestic emissions-cutting efforts.

In the three years to fiscal 2008/2009, Japan had bought a total 25.1 million tonnes of project-based Kyoto carbon credits, or certified emissions reductions (CERs), as well as 30 million tonnes of AAUs from Ukraine.

Of the 25.1 million tonnes, Japan failed to receive delivery of a total 1.2 million tonnes from the three clean energy projects, including a wind power project in China.

Early investment in emissions-cutting projects in developing countries often yield carbon credits that are cheaper than buying them from the market.

But risks include project cancellation, a rejection of projects by a U.N climate panel or lower than expected emissions reduction.

(Editing by Michael Urquhart)


[Green Business]
[Deals]
LONDON
Mon Mar 29, 2010 9:54am EDT
Tricorona's board rejects Opcon takeover offer
｛トリコロナ社、オプコン社の買収の申し入れを拒絶｝

(Reuters) - Clean energy project developer Tricorona's board of directors on Monday recommended its shareholders reject a takeover offer from Swedish energy and environmental company Opcon AB.

Opcon last month offered to buy Tricorona in an all-share deal valuing the Stockholm-based firm at just over 1 billion Swedish crowns ($138 million).

Opcon is offering one Opcon share for every 6.5 Tricorona shares.

Tricorona shares were up 1.4 percent at 7.2 crowns at 1330 GMT while Opcon shares fell by 1.20 percent to 46.6 crowns.

Tricorona's board said in a statement it strongly believes the firm can continue to generate value for shareholders as an independent entity and has not identified any synergies between the companies that cannot be found in an increased partnership with Opcon.

"(The board) does not believe that the offer reflects the underlying value of Tricorona," it added.

The offer is conditional on shareholders representing at least 30 percent of Tricorona's shares accepting the bid.

The acceptance period runs from March 23 to April 13.

($1=7.235 Swedish crowns)

(Reporting by Michael Szabo; Editing by Greg Mahlich)


[Green Business]
David Fogarty
SINGAPORE
Mon Mar 29, 2010 8:52am EDT
Gazprom ramps up Asian energy trade presence
｛ガスプロム社、アジアのエネルギー取り引き参列に意欲｝

(Reuters) - Russia's Gazprom is ramping up its presence in Asia to trade liquefied natural gas, oil and source carbon offsets, as one of the world's biggest energy players seeks to tap the fastest-growing region.

Gazprom formally launched its first commercial office in the Asia-Pacific on Monday.

The Singapore office plans to have more than 30 staff by year end, up to 8 of them developing carbon offset projects and sourcing carbon credits, Arthur Tait, managing director of Gazprom's marketing and trading office in Singapore, said in an interview.

Tait also said the firm was not looking to sign additional long-term LNG supply contracts for the moment and that there was enough flexibility in production at Gazprom's Sakhalin-2 plant to be able to sell about three spot LNG cargoes per month.

"At the moment we have enough of a proportion on long-term deals," he said, adding it was easy to sell any excess production on the spot market in Asia. "We've started to sell a few cargoes into India and China," he said.

The plant operated by Sakhalin Energy is on the southern tip of the Pacific island of Sakhalin, a two-day voyage from Tokyo. Its two processing trains combined have capacity to produce 9.6 million tonnes per year of LNG.

Sakhalin Energy is majority owned by Gazprom. Shell retains a minority stake, along with Japan's Mitsui and Co and Mitsubishi Corp.

The company sells much of the output to Japan and South Korea on long-term contracts. It also has a supply contract with Mexico that contains flexible options, meaning the company can decide when it wants to sell cargoes to that country, Tait said.

CHINA HOPES

While India was potentially a big buyer given the burgeoning demand for electricity there, Tait thought China was a better option as a spot cargo customer given the global slump in gas prices.

"I would see a lot of demand coming from China," he said, adding he thought it was realistic for Chinese power generators to switch to gas from dirtier coal at current prices.

For the moment he saw no point in trying to sell LNG cargoes to the United States.

"We've got the facility to put them into the U.S. but it's a little while off before that's viable."

He said Singapore was a good regional base for LNG trading and sourcing carbon offsets from U.N.-backed clean-energy projects. The offsets could be sold to big polluting firms in Europe or Japan to help meet mandatory emissions reductions targets.

"Singapore is becoming a bit of center for LNG trading. Quite a few of our competitors and customers are based here," he said.

"By the end of the year we should have around 30 to 34 staff across all the products -- LNG trading, carbon, oil trading, FX trading and back-office functions," he said.

(Editing by James Jukwey)

news20100329reut3

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
OSLO
Mon Mar 29, 2010 9:56am EDT
Offshore wind turbines may be 10 MW giants: Veritas
｛オフショア風力タービン、10ＭＷに巨大化可能 ：ベリタス社｝

(Reuters) - A surge in sea-based wind farms is likely to mean bigger turbines than on land, reaching 10 megawatts by 2020 with blades 85 meters (280 ft) long, the head of Norway's Det Norske Veritas said on Monday.

Veritas, which tests wind turbines until they snap as part of certification, reckons the industry will need subsidies for years since costs are about 40 to 60 percent above those for land-based wind, Chief Executive Henrik Madsen told Reuters.

A private foundation, Veritas certifies about 75 percent of offshore wind turbines, except Chinese, he said. Veritas says it and Germany's Germanischer Lloyd are the main groups setting industry standards.

A planned boom so far centered on Britain and the North Sea, part of efforts to slow climate change, was likely to mean bigger turbines offshore than on land.

"They can be larger. It's easier to transport (turbines) on ships and install them," he said. On land, heavy cranes and blades often have to be driven along narrow lanes to a remote hilltop, complicating transport.

"We believe you will see larger turbines up to 10 megawatts" offshore, he said. A 10 megawatt turbine would be enough to provide electricity to between 2,250 and 3,000 U.S. households, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

"There's huge potential," Madsen said about offshore wind. Big turbines now have about a 5 MW capacity.

100 METRES

A 10 MW turbine would have blades perhaps 85 meters (280 ft) long, giving a 170-meter diameter for a three-blade turbine, he said. The longest blades tested by Veritas at a center with partners in Denmark so far has been 71 meters long.

"We thought of building (the test center) to 100 meters but we decided 85 would do it for the next 15 years," he said.

Among makers of big turbines, Germany's Enercon says its E-126, rated at 6 MW and with a 127-meter rotor diameter, can operate at 7.5 MW. Clipper Windpower is working on a 10 MW turbine and Norway's Sway a 10 MW floating prototype.

Turbine designs and sizes vary widely -- carbon fiber is stronger than glass fiber, for instance, but more vulnerable to lightning. Blades are tested to breaking point.

"These blades are extremely flexible, so we need a lot of space. There can be a 10-12 meters deflection until they snap," he said.

Offshore costs are higher than on land because of problems such as salt corrosion, complex maintenance and linking to the grid. But winds blow more offshore, fewer people complain that turbines are eyesores and larger turbines earn more money.

The price gap between land and offshore was likely to narrow but "I'm not sure it will come all the way down," he said.

"We believe you will need subsidies, but we also believe that there is a significant potential to drive costs down, in particular related to offshore installations and foundations," he said. And companies can learn from decades of experience from the offshore oil and gas industry.

Top turbine makers in terms of 2009 market share were Denmark's Vestas, ahead of U.S. General Electric, China's Sinovel, Enercon, China's Goldwind, Germany's Siemens, Spain's Gamesa and India's Suzlon, according to Denmark's MAKE consultancy.

At the end of 2009, the World Wind Energy Association said wind farms were installed in the sea off 10 European nations and off China and Japan.

Installed capacity offshore amounted to almost 2 gigawatts, or 1.2 percent of world wind capacity. Britain has granted licenses for 32 gigawatts of offshore wind, part of a European Union drive to get 20 percent of energy from renewables.

For Reuters latest environment blogs, click on: blogs.reuters.com/environment/

(Editing by Sue Thomas)


[Green Business]
Barbara Lewis - Analysis
DUBLIN
Mon Mar 29, 2010 8:41am EDT
Ireland's green dreams need work, can be reality
｛アイルランドのグリーン化構想、現段階では仕事が必要｝

(Reuters) - Ireland's ambition to shift from being 90 percent dependent on imported fossil fuel to a major user of renewables should be achievable as its urgent need for jobs helps focus politicians on overcoming planning hurdles.

Its location on the western edge of Europe, at the end of the energy supply chain, gives Ireland further incentive to go green.

The government, which includes the Green Party as a junior coalition partner, says it can meet an EU deadline for 16 percent of all its energy to come from renewables by 2020, and could even exceed it.

It has also set itself a goal to draw some 40 percent of electricity from renewables by then.

"We have doubled our renewable energy. We can double it and double it again," Eamon Ryan, Ireland's minister for communications, energy and natural resources, told the Green Party conference in Waterford, southern Ireland, at the weekend.

"It is the perfect answer to the recessionary blues."

The goals require adding roughly 6,000 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy, mostly from wind power, to the approximately 6,000 MW currently derived from conventional sources, according to industry estimates.

Siemens Ireland, a unit of German industrial conglomerate Siemens, which has been involved in renewables in Ireland since the construction of the hydroelectric power station in Shannon, western Ireland, in 1926, sees "a fair chance" of delivering on schedule.

"I am convinced we will get there. The only question mark is will we be fast enough to make the targets? I always go for speed, speed, speed," Werner Kruckow, CEO of Siemens Ireland, told Reuters.

"Unfortunately I see hurdles, especially in the public sector, which should not be there."

Those hurdles include sluggish planning processes and a weak grid, connected to Britain only via Northern Ireland, although an interconnector directly from Ireland to Britain is being built.

"Putting this much wind in Ireland is not going to be easy. It's going to need an enormous amount of change to the electricity network," said Aidan Forde, director of Saorgus Energy Limited, which specializes in developing large wind energy sites in Ireland.

"In rough terms, we're trying to double generation capacity and we already have a very weak grid. Ireland's an extreme example of what's going on in Europe. It would have a very, very high penetration of renewables. These are the aims."

In favor of their being achieved, he cited an energy minister who was "a strategic thinker" in that he appreciated fossil fuels were only cheaper in the short term.

SO FAR, SO GOOD

The green optimists say there already has been far more progress than doubters expected and so far Ireland is on course, with 15 percent of its electricity generated by renewables.

Even the country's overwhelming financial problems should not distract the government from a strong commitment to renewable energy, they say.

On the contrary, they highlight the need to redeploy the thousands of unemployed, for instance from the construction industry, in green jobs, as well as to establish a hedge against volatile oil and gas prices and to play to Ireland's established strength as a smart economy.

"It's strategic rather than ideological," said Brian Motherway, chief operations officer at the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, which reports to the Department of Energy.

"It's also about developing an enterprise center. We want to export expertise," he said. "I think there's very strong government commitment to that and the smart economy. It's about leading in what Ireland is good at."

Asked about planning, he said enough projects would be approved, arguing: "What's in the queue for approval is way above what is required."

Ireland has huge natural potential to export renewable power as well as to generate it for its own needs and has around 10 times as much ocean space as land to accommodate offshore wind plants and eventually marine energy.

For now, onshore and increasingly offshore wind, with five offshore projects in the pipeline, are the most obvious providers, but advocates of marine energy say technology will eventually harness Ireland's huge wave potential.

Peter Coyle, chairman of the Marine Renewables Industry Association, said Ireland could be at the vanguard of marine energy and provide some 500 MW of power by 2020.

That 500 MW would cost around a billion euros ($1.33 billion), but as with wind, the initial investment is the major one. After that the energy cost would be predictable.

"The financing is of course of great importance, but it is not the most immediate issue. The most important issues are technology," said Coyle, who was confident utilities and banks would back investment once the technology were proven, as they have with wind.

"There is a lot of work to be done, but there is a lot of impetus behind it."

news20100328reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Environment News]
[Green Business | Russia]
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia
Sat Mar 27, 2010 10:22am EDT
Protesters rally against Lake Baikal's mill operations
｛バイカル湖の工場、操業再開で抗議集会｝

(Reuters) - Small protests took place across Russia Saturday against the reopening of a Lake Baikal paper mill over concerns it was polluting the world's largest freshwater lake.

Around 200 people gathered in St. Petersburg, thousands of kilometers away from the lake, demanding to revoke the government's January decision to restart Baikal Paper Mill.

Another 500 rallied closer to Baikal, which holds a fifth of the world's total surface fresh water, in the city of Ulan-Ude in the Buryat Republic, according to the organizers.

The loss-making Soviet-era factory was shut in October 2008 after the government ordered it to install a system for drainage away from the lake.

Environmentalists and politicians have staged several protests in recent months, saying the waste from the plant contains harmful substances that destroy the lake's rich wildlife of 1,500 species of animals and plants.

"Putin - hands off Baikal" read a banner displayed at the St. Petersburg rally.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signaled in August his willingness to lift the restrictions that prevented the plant from dumping waste into the lake after diving to the bed of the lake and consulting with scientists.

"I worked myself in a paper producing industry," Grigory Borisov, a 45-year-old engineer from St. Petersburg told Reuters. "I know that Baikal is getting polluted and no purifying facility will save the lake."

Several hundred supporters of the factory, which employs 1,600 people, gathered Saturday in the city of Baikalsk, on the shoreline of the lake, which remains sacred for some Siberian tribes, in a rally organized by the mill.

A closure of the mill could lead to another ecological problem for Baikalsk, which would be left without revenues to operate water purifying plants and sewage facilities for the town, the organizers said.

The decision to reopen the Soviet-era mill is seen as part of the government's broader support for Russia's single industry towns, often in remote areas.

The government owns 49 percent of the mill. Tycoon Oleg Deripaska owns a minority stake.

(Reporting by Denis Pinchuk; Writing in Moscow by Lidia Kelly)


[Environment News]
[Green Business]
GEORGETOWN
Sat Mar 27, 2010 2:56pm EDT
Muslims pray for rain in drought-hit Guyana
｛干ばつに悩むガイアナ、イスラム教徒が雨乞い｝

(Reuters) - Muslims across Guyana prayed for rain on Saturday to end a drought that has battered the tiny South American nation's rice and sugar exports and caused food shortages in indigenous communities.

The government of the former British colony of about 750,000 people is struggling to irrigate farmland, with water at storage points reaching dangerously low levels.

The Central Islamic Organization of Guyana (CIOG), which represents Muslims in 145 mosques across the multiethnic nation, organized a day of prayers for rain.

"This activity is consistent with the Sunnah of the Prophet Mohammad beseeching the Creator to cause the rain to descend and alleviate sufferings," said one CIOG leader, Shaykh Moeenul.

Muslims make up about 7 percent of Guyana's population, with Hindus at 28 percent and Christians making up most of the rest across various denominations.

Guyana is one of several countries in the region, including neighboring Venezuela, that have been parched by drought since the end of last year.

"The Amerindian communities are really badly hit," President Bharrat Jagdeo said on Friday of the indigenous people who make up nearly a 10th of Guyana's population. "We have been supplying food to some communities but I need to increase that significantly."

The state-owned Guyana Sugar Corporation said this week that cane growth and development had been affected at five of its eight estates. Replanting had to be cut back on four estates, it said.

Guyana Sugar said the full impact on sugar production would not be known until the end of the second crop of 2010.

Export earnings from sugar fell 10.2 percent in 2009 to $119.8 million from a year earlier and rice export earnings fell 3.3 percent to $114.1 million.

(Reporting by Neil Marks; Editing by John O'Callaghan)


[Environment News]
[Green Business | COP15]
SYDNEY
Sat Mar 27, 2010 11:42pm EDT
Tuvalu to Times Square; landmarks off for Earth Hour
｛アースアワー、ツバルからタイムズスクエアまで、全世界で消灯｝

(Reuters) - Landmarks such as Sydney's Opera House, Beijing's Forbidden City and Taiwan's Taipei 101 office tower temporarily went dark on Saturday as nations dimmed the lights for Earth Hour 2010 to call for action on climate change.

The symbolic one-hour switch-off, first held in Sydney in 2007, has become an annual global event and organizers World Wide Fund for Nature said they expect this year's to be the biggest so far.

The remote Chatham Islands was the first of more than 100 nations and territories to turn off the power at 8:30 p.m. local time, in a rolling event around the globe that ends just across the International Dateline in Samoa 24 hours later.

Tiny Tuvalu, which fears being wiped off the map from rising sea levels, tried to go carbon-neutral for the event, pledging to cut power to its nine low-lying Pacific atolls and asking car and motorcycle owners to stay off the roads, WWF said.

Far to the south in Antarctica, Australia's Davis research station pledged to dim the lights.

As the blackout hour moved across the globe, London's Big Ben and the Paris' Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe flipped the switch. In New York City, the Empire State Building and Chrysler building went dark, as did the Times Square theater district and the United Nations building.

"As we watch the lights go out from continent to continent, let us reflect on the fragility and importance of our natural heritage and pledge to protect it for a sustainable future for all," United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement.

In Los Angeles, the lighted pylons at the entrance to Los Angeles International airport will go green for an hour, then dark during Earth Hour, according to airport officials.

Event co-founder Andy Ridley told Reuters that 126 countries and territories had so far signed up, with thousands of special events scheduled, including a lights-out party on Sydney's northern beaches and an Earth Hour 'speed dating' contest.

The number of participants is significantly up on 2009, when 88 countries and territories and more than 4,000 towns and cities took part. Organizers have estimated between 500 million and 700 million people were involved last year.

In Singapore, more than 1,000 people gathered for an Earth Hour carnival in the city center to watch the lights go out at office towers, hotels and other landmarks.

However, lights could still be seen from some buildings and construction sites, disappointing some in the crowd.

"I'm disappointed because most of the buildings' lights are not switched off," said Mat Idris, 26. "I had expected more support from companies," he added.

Thousands, many of them wearing black Earth Hour T-shirts, joined the main switch-off event in the Philippine capital Manila at the sprawling SM Mall of Asia.

Around 15 million Filipinos were expected to participate, according to WWF, to save the equivalent of 5 million pesos (nearly $110,000) worth of electricity.

Taipei 101, the world's second tallest building, turned off all exterior lights and persuaded 99 percent of its tenants to do the same for an hour, the tower's spokesman said.

"FRUSTRATION"

Ridley, WWF's executive director of Earth Hour, said he believed the perceived failure of last year's Copenhagen conference on climate change had stimulated interest this time.

"There is real frustration with the politics around climate change," Ridley told Reuters.

Business had shown strong support, he said, including the world's major hotel chains, which he said are responsible for a significant chunk of global emissions.

In India, Delhi's Red Fort will go dark, as will the pyramids and the Sphinx in Egypt and Rio de Janeiro's Christ the Redeemer statue.

Lights were also scheduled to go out over all the bridges over the Seine in Paris and London's Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge, while in the United States, more than 30 of the 50 state governors have lent their support.

Some, though, criticised the event.

"To hold a candles-and-champagne party indoors, on the mildest night of the year, for just one hour, shows that the whole thing is green tokenism," said Viv Forbes, chairman of climate change skeptic group the Carbon Sense Coalition.

(Additional reporting by Clement Quek in Singapore, Michael Perry in Sydney, Manolo Serapio Jr. in Manila and Ralph Jennings in Taipei, Chris Michau in New York; Editing by David Fogarty and Doina Chiacu)