THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Tuesday, 25 June 2013
UNEP and the Executive Director in the News
MEDIA COVERAGE ON THE LAUNCH OF GEO-5 FOR BUSINESS REPORT
Guardian (UK): Smart businesses will act now to reduce their environmental
impact
Bloomberg Business Week (UK): Munich Re to Rio Tinto to Bear Costs of Climate
Change, UN Says
Voice of America (US): UN: Climate Change May Impact Global Business
Indo-Asia News Service- IANS (India): Changing environment to impact global
business
Aol (UK): UN- Green concerns set to hit firms
Courrier Mail (Australia): Environment holds business risk: UN
MSN News (New Zealand): Changing environment to impact global business: UN
Ecoseed (US): Changes in global environment to cause major changes to
business – U.N. Report
Voxy (New Zealand): Environmental issues 'will have growing Impacts on
business'
French
Portugeese
German
OTHER NEWS
CNN (US): Elephant killings surge as tusks fund terror
Deutsche Welle (Germany): Kyoto Protocol comes into force in Afghanistan
Deutsche Welle (Germany): UNEP report sees slowdown in renewable energy
investments
Africa review (Kenya): Give them bread: Feeding the hungry no longer a science
Reuters AlertNet: Kenya: Scratch-Card Solar Brings Clean Energy to Kenya's Poor
Other Environment News
AFP: Indonesia steps up firefighting, Malaysia still in smog
Reuters: Obama takes on power plant emissions as part of climate plan
Financial Times (UK): ‘Climate bomb’ warning over China coolant release
Guardian (UK): Tasmania's old growth forests win environmental protection
BBC News (UK): Fukushima nuclear plant: Toxic isotope found in
groundwater
Phil Star (Philippines): Palace mulls moving oil depot out of Manila
Star (Kenya): The Nile Basin States Are Gifts of the River
Environmental News from the UNEP Regions
ROA
ROAP
ROLAC
RONA
ROWA
Environmental News from the UN
ENVIRONMENT NEWS FROM THE UN DAILY NEWS
ENVIRONMENT NEWS FROM THE S.G’s SPOKESMAN DAILY PRESS
BRIEFING
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AFP
Guardian (UK)
Bloomberg (UK)
Voice of America (US)
Times of India
DPA (Germany)
UNEP and the Executive Director in the News
MEDIA COVERAGE ON THE LAUNCH OF GEO-5 FOR BUSINESS
Guardian (UK): Smart businesses will act now to reduce their environmental
impact
21 June 2013
The snow-topped peaks of the north-eastern US and the Olifants river in South Africa, with its
resident hippos, may seem like worlds apart.
Yet businesses operating in these two locations – hubs for ski tourism and mining respectively –
face the same challenge of an increasingly uncertain future, due to the far-reaching impacts of
climate change, and other environmental trends.
Half the ski resorts in the US north-east may no longer be viable in 30 years due to rising
temperatures. Platinum mines around the Olifants river system are set to pay 10 times more for
using water over the next decade if chronic shortages persist.
A new report released on Friday by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) says
that financial impacts linked to environmental changes are set to be felt far more frequently by
greater numbers of business across the globe.
The new study, GEO-5 for Business says that the future success of businesses in transport,
tourism, finance, food, and other sectors, will hinge on their ability to manage the major risks
posed by climate change, depleted natural resources, the loss of biodiversity, and extreme
weather conditions.
But the study says smart businesses can buck the trend and create competitive advantage, by
tapping into future demand for sustainable technologies, services and products, and by reducing
their own environmental footprint.
Today, environmental impacts on business are costing the global economy around $4.7tn each
year, primarily from pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
GEO-5 for Business shows that severe floods in Australia in 2010/11 resulted in more than
$350m in claims to re-insurer Munich Re. The same period of extreme weather in Australia
contributed to a loss of $245m by mining group Rio Tinto due to reduced shipments.
In the pharmaceutical industry, biodiversity loss, and extinctions of plant species, could result in
the loss of one major drug every two years.
With the world's fast-growing population, and rising incomes in emerging economies, demand
for natural resources is on track to treble by 2050 – meaning that water and other critical raw
materials for industry will be less available, and more expensive.
To meet the world's resource needs in a sustainable way, UNEP has urged a "decoupling" of
economic growth from resource use, involving major investment in technological, financial and
social innovation. This can at least freeze per capita consumption in wealthy countries, and
support developing nations to follow a more sustainable path.
Faced with the twin challenges of tackling poverty and supporting development with degraded
natural capital, world leaders at last year's UN Conference on Sustainable Development
(Rio+20) gave a clear backing to the green economy; low-carbon, resource-efficient and
inclusive sustainable development that operates within planetary boundaries.
Through its Green Economy Initiative, UNEP is providing a package of advisory services to
more than 20 countries to strengthen national green economy plans. Working from Mongolia
(hosts of World Environment Day 2013) to Mexico, the services consist of policy advice,
technical assistance and training to support initiatives that promote equitable, sustainable
development.
GEO-5 for Business demonstrates that the business opportunities presented by a green
economy exist across in all sectors, in all parts of the world.
Office and home owners, for example, are increasingly seeing the benefits of reduced operating
costs, increased building values, greater return on investment, and higher occupancy rates from
new and retrofitted green buildings. Through the LEED programme (Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design), the US Green Building Council is certifying 1.5m square feet of building
space every day in more than 130 countries.
Opportunities in other industries include growing demand for ICT services for collecting and
processing environmental data that can allow governments and companies to monitor
environmental performance.
In the leisure business, spending on eco-tourism is increasing by more than six times the growth
rate of tourism overall, and can reduce the high levels of water use and marine pollution linked
to the industry. In the energy sector, the proportion of total power generation from renewable
sources is set to rise from 20% to 31% by 2035 – presenting significant opportunities to
advance clean energy technologies.
Many industries are already joining forces and moving ahead. This week saw the first
anniversary of a landmark partnership between the UN and the insurance industry to strengthen
the sector's resilience in the face of environmental risks.
To date, some 60 leading insurers, insurance market bodies and international organisations –
worth more than $5tn in total assets – have signed up to the Principles for Sustainable
Insurance initiative aimed at improving environmental, social and economic sustainability in the
sector.
Overall, it is estimated that more than 80% of the capital needed to reduce global carbon
emissions to agreed international targets, and slow the pace of climate change, will come from
the private sector.
Whether in the US, South Africa, or across the globe, businesses can make a choice. Instead of
running the risk of succumbing to the impacts of environmental changes, skiing, mining, or other
companies, can seize the opportunity to adapt. By slimming down their use of natural resources,
better managing waste, and investing in sustainable products and markets, companies can cut
costs, protect and improve their reputation, and future-proof their business for the realities of a
resource-constrained 21st century.
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Bloomberg Business Week (UK): Munich Re to Rio Tinto to Bear Costs of Climate
Change, UN Says
21 June 2013
Corporations from Munich Re to Rio Tinto Group will bear rising costs from pressures on the
Earth’s environment such as changes in the climate and water shortages, according to a United
Nations Environment Program report.
Their success will increasingly hinge on the ability to adapt to a “rapidly” changing environment
and to develop goods and services that help reduce the effect of climate change and are less
reliant on water and harmful chemicals, the agency said today in a report released at
Bloomberg’s London office.
“Climate change and dwindling availability of natural resources like water will shape future profit
and loss and drive new markets,” UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said in the study.
“Companies that face up to these realities are likely to be the ones that thrive and remain
competitive in a rapidly changing world.”
Businesses are trying to curb damage to the environment by moderating greenhouse-gas
emissions, water usage and trash disposal. At the RIO+20 summit on sustainability a year ago,
the UN detailed $513 billion of commitments from governments and companies seeking to
reduce strain on the Earth’s resources.
A week ago, British billionaire Richard Branson, chairman and founder of Virgin Group Ltd., and
Kering executive Jochen Zeitz said they were setting up a panel of business leaders dubbed the
“B Team” to devise business strategies that prioritize environmental effects alongside profit.
Flooding Costs
Today’s GEO-5 for Business study builds on the fifth edition of the UN Global Environment
Outlook, released in June 2012 and marking the institution’s most comprehensive assessment
of the state of the planet. The rising frequency of extreme weather events linked to climate
change is a risk for all industries, today’s report showed.
The UN cited as an example flooding in Australia in 2010 and 2011 that led to more than $350
million of claims for Munich Re and $245 million of costs for miner Rio Tinto. While scientists
balk at attributing individual natural disasters to climate change, they say rising temperatures
will lead to an increase in extreme weather events.
Temperature gains may render fewer than half of ski resorts in the U.S. Northeast economically
viable within 30 years, while water charges for platinum mines in South Africa’s Olifants River
system may increase 10-fold by 2020 as the region dries up, according to the study.
Risks, Opportunities
The report examined 10 areas of business, identifying risks and opportunities for each that
result from environmental pressures. The findings include:
-- Building and construction companies may find opportunities limited in some areas due to
water scarcity, while consumers step up pressure to minimize waste. Urbanization will lead to
growing demand for “green” housing and infrastructure.
-- Chemical companies will face increasing government regulations and consumer pressure to
minimize water usage and cut waste. Demand for chemicals used in insulation, energy-efficient
lighting and water purification is set to grow.
-- The reliability of power grids may be put under pressure by increasing heat waves. Utilities
will have to shore up infrastructure that’s vulnerable to extreme weather. Renewable energy is
predicted to increase at the expense of coal.
-- Operational costs of mining companies will be hit by extreme weather events, while
environmental laws may prevent their spread into some areas. Demand for minerals and metals
used in renewable energy technologies is set to grow.
-- In finance, insurers may face rising costs from claims, while there will be increased demand
for insurance and more financing opportunities for projects relating to climate change.
-- Food and drinks companies face depleted fish stocks and shifting agricultural zones as the
climate changes. New markets are predicted to open up for climate-resilient food varieties.
-- The loss of plant and animal species will limit discoveries of compounds used in health care.
Demand for health care services may rise due to air pollution and water-borne diseases.
-- Data centers for information and communication companies are energy-intensive and
vulnerable to rising power prices. Makers of electronic goods may face new regulations and
consumer pressure to cut waste. Markets will grow for products that manage energy use in
buildings and process other environmental data.
-- Tourism may decline in some areas due to environmental degradation. Eco-tourism is
growing, and customers are often willing to pay more for it.
-- Transportation companies face supply chains disrupted by extreme weather, and regulations
to reduce their emissions. Incentives may boost low-carbon and fuel-efficient technologies.
The study “is in many ways a prospectus for the 21st century company: one that internalizes
how rapid and accelerating environmental change will shape risks, but also the need and
demand for new sustainable products and market opportunities,” Steiner said.
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Voice of America (US): UN: Climate Change May Impact Global Business
21 June 2013
Extreme weather events, including rising temperatures linked to climate change, and growing
competition for natural resources mean tough times may be ahead for the business sector, the
United Nations said in a report published Friday.
Nick Nuttall is from the United Nations Environmental Program.
“We are living in a world of more extreme weather events. We are living in a world of rising
water scarcity. We are living in a world where things like natural resources are being gobbled
up at an increasing rate. By 2050, if we carry on this way, natural resource consumption will
triple," said Nuttall.
The report is called "GEO-5 for Business: Impacts of a Changing Environment on the Corporate
Sector." It follows the U.N.’s Global Environment Outlook which made a comprehensive
assessment of the state of the world's changing climate.
According to that report, human pressures on the planet mean that several critical
environmental thresholds are approaching or have already been surpassed.
Nuttall says that has widespread implications for global business. The new report looks at how
construction, chemicals, mining, food, and other industries will all be impacted.
Nuttall gives the example of South Africa, where pressure on natural resources will impact
mining costs.
“Certainly in respect to their platinum mines, they could actually face water charges 10 times
their current value by 2020, so that's in just seven years, because of water scarcity in South
Africa," he said.
Rising temperatures will also impact the tourist industry, the report says. For example, it says
less than half of the ski resorts operating in the northeast of the United States will remain
economically viable 30 years from now.
Nuttall says that meanwhile, the world's population is growing, especially in countries with
developing economies. Governments will have to make major investments for infrastructure
needs such as transport and electricity.
Nuttall says it’s important the future is built with the environment in mind.
“So there is a huge amount, trillions of dollars, being invested in the coming years in many
developing countries. And that is happening in a sense through the private sector. The
question is whether the governments involved can push that investment into the green,
environmentally friendly space," said Nuttall.
According to the U.N. report, 80 percent of the capital needed to address climate change may
come from the private sector.
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Indo-Asia News Service- IANS (India): Changing environment to impact global
business: UN
22 June 2013
The future of the private sector will increasingly hinge on the ability of businesses to adapt to the
world's rapidly changing environment, according to a UN report.
The report titled "GEO-5 for Business: Impacts of a Changing Environment on the Corporate
Sector" was released by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in the British capital, Xinhua
reported.
It analysed the potential risks to 10 different sectors of the economy, and also the opportunities
that many companies could grasp if they develop goods and services that can reduce the
impacts of environmental concerns.
"From extreme weather events, to rising pressures on finite natural resources, changes in the
global environment will increasingly impact operating costs, markets for products, the availability
of raw materials, and the reputation of businesses," the UNEP document said.
In the tourism sector, for example, a 1.4-2.2 degree Celsius rise in average winter temperatures
would likely mean the closure of more than half of the ski resorts operating in the northeastern
US in 30 years.
As for water scarcity, it said platinum mines in South Africa's Olifants River system faced 10
times higher water charges by 2020 as they compete with local communities for the ever
scarcer commodity.
The report also outlines key recommendations for each of the 10 sectors, including building and
construction, chemicals, power, extractives, finance, food and beverage, healthcare, IT, tourism,
and transport.
"The report speaks to the reality of climate change and natural resource scarcities," said UNEP
Executive Director Achim Steiner.
"It makes the case that whether it be in water saving, or climate-proofing infrastructure, the
world is going to look for solutions that in turn will drive corporate competitiveness, reputation
risk and a transition to an inclusive green economy," he said.
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Aol (UK): UN- Green concerns set to hit firms
21 June 2013
Growing environmental issues such as climate change and water shortages are set to hit
businesses from the power sector to the tourist industry, a United Nations report has warned.
Rapid changes in the global environment will increasingly effect operating costs, markets for
products, the availability of raw materials and even the reputation of businesses across a range
of sectors, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) study said.
But while there are huge commercial risks from extreme weather events, a loss of wildlife and
habitats and growing pressure on limited natural resources, there are significant opportunities
for businesses that seize the initiative.
The report examined the impact of environmental changes the world is facing on a range of
sectors, including building and construction industries, power supplies, finance, food and drink,
healthcare, technology and tourism.
The future of the private sector will increasingly hinge on the ability of businesses to adapt to
environmental changes and develop new environmentally-friendly goods and services, UNEP
warned.
Climate change, which is set to increase extreme weather such as floods and droughts as well
as push up temperatures, is a key concern. Severe floods in Australia in 2010-2011 resulted in
350 million US dollars (£250 million) claims to insurer Munich Re, contributing to a 38% drop in
quarterly profits, while the same extreme conditions saw mining giant Rio Tinto lose 245 million
US dollars (£158 million) in earnings.
Rising temperatures will hit tourism businesses, with fewer than half of the ski resorts in the
north east US likely to be viable in 30 years if winter temperatures increase, while the growing
zones for food crops will shift as local climates change.
Power companies will need to toughen up infrastructure or move it to protect energy supplies
from extreme weather, while transport networks are also likely to be more frequently disrupted.
UNEP executive director Achim Steiner said the report outlined the risks faced by businesses
from rapid and accelerating environmental change, but also the need and demand for new
sustainable products and market opportunities.
"The report speaks to the reality of climate change and natural resource scarcities and outlines
how more creative decisions by the private sector with longer term horizons may assist in
meeting these challenges. It makes the case that whether it be in water saving or climateproofing infrastructure, the world is going to look for solutions that in turn will drive corporate
competitiveness, reputational risk and a transition to an inclusive green economy."
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Courrier Mail (Australia): Environment holds business risk: UN
21 June 2013
Rising temperatures, storms linked to climate change and growing competition for water and
land point to tough times ahead for the business sector, but also a chance for profitable
innovation, the United Nations says.
Citing the ravages of floods in Australia in 2010-11 which cost insurer Munich Re $US350
million ($A382 million) and mining group Rio Tinto another $US245 million, the report on Friday
said companies had no choice but to adapt.
"From extreme weather events, to rising pressures on finite natural resources, changes in the
global environment will increasingly impact operating costs, markets for products, the availability
of raw materials, and the reputation of businesses, from finance and tourism, to healthcare and
transport," said the UN Environment Program document.
"The future of the private sector will increasingly hinge on the ability of businesses to adapt to
the world's rapidly changing environment and to develop goods and services that can reduce
the impacts of climate change, water scarcity, emissions of harmful chemicals, and other
environmental concerns."
In the tourism sector, for example, a 1.4-2.2C rise in average winter temperatures would likely
mean the closure of more than half the ski resorts operating in the northeastern United States in
30 years.
The report said Earth-warming greenhouse gas emissions were projected to double in the next
50 years, leading to a global average surface temperature increase of 3-6C by the end of the
century.
As for water scarcity, it said platinum mines in South Africa's Olifants River system faced 10
times higher water charges by 2020 as they compete with local communities for the ever
scarcer commodity.
Global electricity demand could be over 70 per cent higher in 2035 than 2009, said the report -and pointed to more frequent heat waves associated with climate change affecting grid
reliability.
But while the risks to business were "significant", they also presented unique opportunities for
companies that seized the growing demand for greener technology, investments and services,
said the report entitled "GEO-5 for Business: Impacts of a Changing Environment on the
Corporate Sector."
More than 80 per cent of the capital needed to address climate change may come from the
private sector.
"This can bring about significant 'green economy' investment opportunities in the finance sector
for green buildings, energy-efficiency technology, sustainable transport and other low-carbon
products and infrastructure," the UNEP said.
"In cities, around 60 per cent of the infrastructure needed to meet the needs of the world's urban
population by 2050 still needs to be built, presenting significant business opportunities for
greener urban construction and retrofits."
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MSN News (New Zealand): Changing environment to impact global business: UN
22 June 2013
In the tourism sector, for example, a 1.4-2.2 degree Celsius rise in average winter temperatures
would likely mean the closure of more than half of the ski resorts operating in the northeastern
US in 30 years
In the tourism sector, for example, a 1.4-2.2 degree Celsius rise in average winter temperatures
would likely mean the closure of more than half of the ski resorts operating in the northeastern
US in 30 years.
As for water scarcity, it said platinum mines in South Africa's Olifants River system faced 10
times higher water charges by 2020 as they compete with local communities for the ever
scarcer commodity.
The report also outlines key recommendations for each of the 10 sectors, including building and
construction, chemicals, power, extractives, finance, food and beverage, healthcare, IT, tourism,
and transport. 'The report speaks to the reality of climate change and natural resource
scarcities,' said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.
'It makes the case that whether it be in water saving, or climate-proofing infrastructure, the world
is going to look for solutions that in turn will drive corporate competitiveness, reputation risk and
a transition to an inclusive green economy,' he said.
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Ecoseed (US): Changes in global environment to cause major changes to
business – U.N. Report
24 June 2013
According to the new report released by the United Nations Environment Program, climate
change and global changes in the environment will have drastic effects on how the private
sector will do business.
The report, titled “GEO-5 for Business: Impacts of a Changing Environment on the Corporate
Sector,” predicts that global environment trends today are creating new risks and opportunities
for companies in the future. Global environment trends such as extreme weather events,
increasing demand on limited natural resources, as well as climate change can affect operating
costs, markets for products, availability of raw materials, and business reputation.
“Understanding environmental trends is of critical importance to business leaders. Just as
social, economic, market, and technological trends – and company responses to those trends –
influence the success of business, so too do environmental trends,” according to the report.
Findings of the report suggest that with the greenhouse gas emissions projected to double in
the next 50 years, a temperature increase of 3 degrees Celsius to 6 degrees C by the end of the
century is inevitable. For the business sector, this means that there will be a market shift that
will favor lower-carbon products, while shifting production and transportation patterns to adapt to
local conditions. Prices of energy, food, and certain types of commodities will also be on the rise
as a result of increased greenhouse gas emissions.
When it comes to waste management, it is projected that the world will produce 20 to 50 million
tonnes of waste yearly, majority of which will come in the form of electronic waste. For
businesses, there will be a growing market opportunity in recovering, reusing, or recycling of ewaste.
It is also predicted that with the increased prices of building and construction materials and
fossil fuel in the future, there will be an increased demand for sustainable infrastructure, energy
efficient buildings and technologies, and renewable energy technologies.
As for policies, climate change will cause businesses to push for regulatory measures focusing
on green building practices and technologies, as well as reduced energy use and G.H.G.
emissions. On the government’s side, policies that set energy efficiency codes, on-site
renewable energy technologies, public procurement sustainability policies, and policies that are
designed to reduce G.H.G. emissions are expected to be enacted.
The business sector will also be greatly affected by regulatory measures such as the United
States’ Clean Air Act and Montreal Protocol which will ban the use of certain chemicals that
produce G.H.G.s.
The report concludes that with the environmental landscape changing, so too will the business
landscape. It is up to business leaders to take advantage of the opportunities and to take into
consideration the risks of the changing environment.
“Companies that face up to these realities are likely to be the ones that thrive and remain
competitive in a rapidly changing world where factors such as climate change and dwindling
availability of natural resource like water will shape future profit and loss and drive new
markets,” said the U.N. Under Secretary-General and U.N.E.P. Executive Director Achim
Steiner.
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Voxy (New Zealand): Environmental issues 'will have growing Impacts on
business'
21 June 2013
The future of the private sector will increasingly hinge on the ability of businesses to adapt to the
world’s rapidly changing environment and to develop goods and services that can reduce the
impacts of climate change, water scarcity, emissions of harmful chemicals, and other
environmental concerns.
From extreme weather events, to rising pressures on finite natural resources, changes in the
global environment will increasingly impact operating costs, markets for products, the availability
of raw materials, and the reputation of businesses, from finance and tourism, to healthcare and
transport.
While the risks are significant, such environmental changes also represent major opportunities
for businesses that successfully manage them, and seize the demand for sustainable
technologies, investments and services.
These are among the main findings of a new report released by the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) and SustainAbility today, entitled GEO-5 for Business: Impacts of a
Changing Environment on the Corporate Sector.
"GEO-5 for Business is in many ways a prospectus for the 21st century company-one that
internalizes how rapid and accelerating environmental change will shape risks, but also the
need and demand for new sustainable products and market opportunities," said UN Under
Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.
"The report speaks to the reality of climate change and natural resource scarcities and outlines
how more creative decisions by the private sector with longer term horizons may assist in
meeting these challenges. It makes the case that whether it be in water saving, or climateproofing infrastructure, the world is going to look for solutions that in turn will drive corporate
competitiveness, reputational risk and a transition to an inclusive green economy,’ added Mr.
Steiner.
The new report is based on UNEP’s Global Environment Outlook (GEO-5); the UN’s most
comprehensive assessment of the state of the global environment. According to that report,
human pressures on the global environment mean that several critical environmental thresholds
are approaching, or have already been surpassed, beyond which abrupt changes to the lifesupport functions of the planet could occur.
Through a detailed analysis of the construction, chemicals, mining, food, and other industries,
GEO-5 for Business outlines the specific risks of such changes to each sector, and how
businesses can adjust to create long-term competitive advantages.
The report shows that the rising frequency of extreme weather events, often linked to climate
change, poses risks to all sectors. Severe floods in Australia in 2010-11, for example, resulted
in more than US$350 million in claims to re-insurer Munich Re, which contributed to a 38 per
cent quarterly drop in profit for the company. The same period of extreme weather in Australia
contributed to a loss of US$245 million in earnings by mining group Rio Tinto.
Rising temperatures are challenging the future viability of tourism businesses, says the new
report. A study cited in GEO-5 for Business states that fewer than half of the ski resorts
operating in the US northeast are likely to remain economically viable in 30 years, if average
winter temperatures increase between 2.5 and 4F.
The UNEP study says that more than 80 per cent of the capital needed to address climate
change may come from the private sector. This can bring about significant ‘green economy’
investment opportunities in the finance sector for green buildings, energy-efficiency technology,
sustainable transport and other low-carbon products and infrastructure
In cities, around 60 per cent of the infrastructure needed to meet the needs of the world’s urban
population by 2050 still needs to be built, presenting significant business opportunities for
greener urban construction and retrofits. Over 1.5 million square feet of building space are being
certified with green standards each day.
Water scarcity remains a critical challenge for all sectors profiled in GEO-5 for Business.
Companies in the tourism, chemicals and other sectors could face increased operational costs.
In South Africa, platinum mines in the Olifants River system are expected to face water charges
ten times their current value by 2020 due to water scarcity. Competition with local communities
and other water users could potentially lead to negative impacts on reputation.
Findings by Sector from GEO-5 for Business
- Building and Construction
The sector remains vulnerable to volatility in energy markets and rises in energy prices due to
the energy-intensive nature of producing steel, concrete and other materials. Concerns about
low water availability in certain regions may limit potential development opportunities. The
sector could come under increasing consumer pressure to reduce waste generated during
construction.
Urbanization and economic development in emerging economies can translate into substantial
demand for new, greener housing and infrastructure. Demand for coastal and flood defenses,
and structures that can withstand extreme weather, may also rise.
- Chemicals
Chemical production is often water intensive. Consequently, the sector will face increasing
consumer pressure to be more water-efficient, and to better manage emissions of chemical
waste. Increased regulations may phase out, or restrict the use of, certain chemical products.
Such regulations can open up market opportunities to provide more sustainable alternatives.
Demand is set to rise for chemicals used in high-performance insulation, energy-efficient
lighting, renewable energy technologies, as well as products linked to water-saving
technologies, such as purification and desalination. Greater use by companies of more
sustainably-produced chemicals, coupled with efforts to minimize adverse impacts, can
enhance reputation and brand value.
- Power
By 2035, global electricity demand could be over 70 percent higher than 2009 levels. More
frequent heat waves associated with climate change may impact the reliability of the grid. In
2012, blackouts in Northern India, which were caused by higher demand due to high
temperatures and low monsoon rains, left hundreds of millions of people without power for
several hours. Power companies will need to harden, or relocate, infrastructure vulnerable to
extreme weather, and better prepare for supply interruptions.
Coal’s global share of total power generation is expected to decrease from two-fifths to one third
by 2035, while renewables are set to increase from 20 to 31 per cent. The ‘decarbonisation’ of
electricity will present opportunities for the sector to advance renewable energy technologies.
- Extractives
Extreme weather events associated with climate change are influencing operational costs in the
sector in many parts of the world. Legislation to extend protected areas that support marine and
terrestrial biodiversity may limit the areas available for future exploration and extraction.
Opportunities may come through an increased demand for certain minerals and metals used in
renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. Warming temperatures may open up
previously inaccessible areas for exploration, although potential environmental impacts will need
to be assessed.
- Finance
Insurers may experience severe capital losses and reduced profitability if they fail to adequately
identify and plan for climate-related risks. Property and casualty insurers will likely see
increasing claims due to severe weather. On the other hand, the capital needed to address
climate change will result in a greatly-expanded market for financing.
Financial institutions will need to enhance coordination with the scientific community to ensure
access to environmental data and analysis that can inform better planning.
- Food and Beverage
High levels of water use and heavy reliance on ecosystem services render this sector especially
vulnerable to environmental change. Growing zones for food crops will shift as local climates
change. Marine fish stocks are increasingly overexploited or depleted, while ocean acidification
and higher water temperatures are thought to be major factors in the degradation of coral reef
ecosystems, which provide nursery grounds for some commercially important fish species.
New markets are set to open up for more climate-resilient food varieties. Markets for organic
food and beverages expanded on average by 10 to 20 per cent per year during parts of the last
decade. Companies certified as sustainable food producers can also tap into growing customer
demand.
- Healthcare
Biodiversity loss will limit the discovery of natural compounds used in new medicines or
traditional remedies. One estimate suggests that extinctions of certain species mean the Earth
is losing one major drug every two years.
Approximately one quarter of the global disease burden can be attributed to environmental
factors. Demand for healthcare services could rise further, especially due to conditions linked to
air pollution, and water-borne diseases.
- Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
Datacentres use up to 200 times more electricity than standard office buildings, making ICT
companies’ operating costs vulnerable to increases in energy prices. Electronic waste (e-waste)
is the fastest-growing waste stream in the world. Its proliferation, as well as concerns about the
environmental impacts of the sourcing of key materials in developing countries (eg. heavy
metals), may lead to increasing consumer and regulatory pressure on the industry,.
The ICT sector is likely to see growing demand for collecting and processing environmental
data. Growth markets will also lie in ICT products that enable environmental improvements in
other sectors (eg. building energy management systems).
- Tourism
Extreme weather events, impacts of climate change, water scarcity, and declining biodiversity
can make particular destinations more or less attractive to consumers, thus impacting market
demand for businesses operating in these locations. Stricter regulations on some practices (eg.
fishing and snorkeling on coral reefs) may impact niche sectors.
Overall, tourism demand is set to grow globally, especially the market for nature-based tourism
and eco-tourism - for which customers are often willing to pay more.
- Transport
Extreme weather could disrupt supply chains and infrastructure more frequently. Increasing
extreme weather and water scarcity could disrupt supply chains and infrastructure more
frequently. Regulations in many countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, can increase
costs, shift consumer demand, and influence product design. Such regulations will grow more
restrictive and widespread as climate concerns increase. Complying with regulations to reduce
levels of air pollution (soot and particulate matter) from vehicles could also add to operational
costs.
At the same time, governments are introducing regulations and incentives to stimulate demand
for cleaner transportation options. Businesses in the sector can take advantage of new and
expanded markets for low-carbon and fuel-efficient technologies.
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French
AFP : Changement climatique: risques et opportunités pour le secteur privé
21 Juin 2013
Avec la hausse des températures, la multiplication des événements extrêmes et une tension
croissante sur les ressources, le monde économique doit s'attendre à de fortes perturbations
liées au changement climatique, mais aussi à de nouvelles opportunités, souligne l'ONU
vendredi dans un rapport.
Citant les dégâts causés par les inondations en Australie en 2010/2011, qui ont coûté 265
millions d'euros à l'assureur Munich Re et 185 millions d'euros au groupe minier Rio Tinto, le
rapport juge que les entreprises n'ont pas d'autre choix que de s'adapter.
"Des événements climatiques extrêmes jusqu'à la pression croissante sur les ressources, les
changements environnementaux vont avoir un impact de plus en plus fort sur les coûts
d'exploitation, les marchés, la disponibilité des matières premières", dans des secteurs aussi
variés que "la finance, le tourisme, la santé et le transport", estime le Programme des Nations
unies pour l'environnement (PNUE).
"L'avenir du secteur privé va de plus en plus dépendre de sa capacité à s'adapter", juge-t-il
dans ce rapport intitulé "GEO-5: impacts d'un environnement en mutation sur le secteur privé".
Dans le secteur du tourisme, par exemple, une augmentation de 1,4°C à 2,2°C des
températures moyennes en hiver pourrait entraîner la fermeture de plus de la moitié des
stations de ski du nord-est des Etats-Unis dans 30 ans.
Ce rapport estime que les émissions de gaz à effet de serre devraient doubler dans les 50
prochaines années, entraînant une hausse des températures de 3 à 6°C d'ici la fin du siècle,
bien au-delà de l'objectif fixé par la communauté internationale de la limiter à 2°C.
Côté pénurie d'eau, le rapport cite les mines de platine dans la vallée de l'Olifants en Afrique du
sud. Le coût de l'eau, de plus en plus rare et utilisée également par des communautés locales,
devrait être décuplé d'ici 2020..
Par ailleurs, la demande globale d'électricité pourrait être 70% plus élevée en 2035 qu'en 2009,
estime le PNUE qui pointe le risque d'une plus grande fragilité du système.
L'an dernier, des coupures d'électricité dans le nord de l'Inde, causées par des températures
très élevées et les pluies ont affecté des centaines de millions de personne durant plusieurs
heures.
Ces risques "significatifs" pour le secteur privé représentent aussi une opportunité unique pour
les entreprises qui peuvent satisfaire une demande de plus en plus forte pour une technologie,
des investissements, notamment dans les énergies renouvelables, et des services plus
vertueux écologiquement.
Plus de 80% du capital nécessaire pour faire face au changement climatique pourrait provenir
du secteur privé.
Ainsi, dans les villes, "environ 60% de l'infrastructure nécessaire pour répondre aux besoins de
la population urbaine mondiale d'ici 2050 doit encore être construite, ce qui représente des
opportunités significatives pour des constructions et rénovations plus vertes", estime le PNUE.
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Les Echos (France) : Le réchauffement, une opportunité pour les entreprises
Portugeese
24 Juin 2013
La hausse des températures et la multiplication d'événements climatiques extrêmes offriront
aux entreprises de nouvelles opportunités, estime un rapport du Programme des Nations unies
pour l'environnement (PNUE). Plus de 80 % du capital nécessaire pour faire face à ces
changements pourraient venir du secteur privé. Des investissements massifs pourraient ainsi
être réalisés dans l'« économie verte », notamment dans les bâtiments écologiques, les
technologies éco-énergétiques, les transports durables. « Aux Etats-Unis, par exemple, la
demande d'électricité pour les véhicules électriques devrait augmenter de plus de 1.700 % d'ici
à la fin de la décennie », jugent les auteurs de ce rapport intitulé « GEO-5 : impacts d'un
environnement en mutation sur le secteur privé ». Inversement, la hausse des températures
menace la viabilité future des entreprises touristiques. Aux Etats-Unis, plus de la moitié des 103
stations de ski du nord-est du pays risquent de disparaître dans trente ans.
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CDurable (France): GEO-5 for Business, pour les entreprises
21 Juin 2013
Les changements climatiques, les pénuries d’eau ou inondations et la perte de biodiversité
auront une incidence grandissante sur l’activité des entreprises dans le monde. Seules les
entreprises sachant s’adapter à un environnement en mutation et saisir les possibilités offertes
par l’économie verte bénéficieront d’un avantage concurrentiel. Voici les principales conclusions
d’un nouveau rapport publié aujourd’hui par le Programme des Nations Unies pour
l’environnement (PNUE) et intitulé GEO-5 pour les entreprises : incidences d’un environnement
en mutation sur le secteur des entreprises.
L’avenir du secteur privé dépendra de plus en plus de l’aptitude des entreprises à s’adapter à
un environnement mondial en rapide mutation et à mettre au point des biens et des services à
même de réduire les incidences des changements climatiques, de la rareté de l’eau et des
émissions de substances chimiques nocives, entre autres problèmes environnementaux.
Depuis les phénomènes météorologiques extrêmes jusqu’à l’accentuation des pressions
s’exerçant sur les ressources naturelles limitées, les mutations de l’environnement mondial ont
un impact sur les dépenses d’exploitation, la demande de certains produits, la disponibilité des
matières premières et la réputation des entreprises, notamment dans les secteurs de la finance
et du tourisme et dans ceux de la santé et des transports.
Mais ces mutations environnementales représentent aussi des opportunités majeures pour les
entreprises qui savent gérer efficacement les risques correspondants et tirer parti de la
demande mondiale croissante de technologies, investissements et services durables.
Voilà quelques-unes des principales conclusions d’un nouveau rapport publié aujourd’hui par le
Programme des Nations Unies pour l’environnement (PNUE) et intitulé GEO-5 pour les
entreprises : incidences d’un environnement en mutation sur le secteur des entreprises.
« GEO-5 pour les entreprises est à bien des égards un prospectus pour l’entreprise du 21ème
siècle, une entreprise qui internalise la façon dont l’évolution rapide et en accélération de
l’environnement déterminera les risques, mais aussi la nécessité et la demande de nouveaux
produits et débouchés durables », a déclaré le Secrétaire général adjoint de l’ONU et Directeur
exécutif du PNUE, M. Achim Steiner.
« Ce rapport reflète la réalité des changements climatiques et des pénuries de ressources
naturelles et décrit comment des décisions plus créatives du secteur privé s’inscrivant dans un
horizon à plus long terme peuvent aggraver ces problèmes ou contribuer à y faire face. Il
souligne que, que ce soit par des économies d’eau ou une infrastructure résistante au climat, le
monde recherche des solutions qui, à leur tour, stimuleront la compétitivité des entreprises,
amélioreront leur réputation et encourageront une transition vers une économie verte inclusive
», a ajouté M. Steiner.
Les changements climatiques, les pénuries d’eau ou inondations et la perte de biodiversité
auront une incidence grandissante sur l’activité des entreprises dans le monde selon un
nouveau rapport publié aujourd’hui par le Programme des Nations Unies pour l’environnement
(PNUE) et intitulé "GEO-5 pour les entreprises : incidences d’un environnement en mutation sur
le secteur des entreprises."
Cette nouvelle publication est basée sur le cinquième rapport sur l’Avenir de l’environnement
mondial (GEO-5) du PNUE, l’évaluation la plus complète de l’état de l’environnement mondial
réalisée au sein du système des Nations Unies. Selon cette publication, du fait des pressions
exercées par l’activité humaine sur l’environnement mondial, plusieurs seuils critiques sont sur
le point d’être atteints, ou ont déjà été franchis, ce qui pourrait entraîner des modifications
radicales des conditions du maintien de la vie sur la planète.
Grâce à une analyse détaillée des secteurs de la construction, des produits chimiques, de
l’extraction minière et de l’alimentation, entre autres, GEO-5 pour les entreprises souligne les
risques spécifiques de ces changements pour chaque secteur ainsi que la façon dont les
entreprises peuvent s’adapter pour générer des avantages concurrentiels à long terme.
Le rapport montre que la plus grande fréquence des phénomènes climatiques extrêmes,
souvent liés aux changements climatiques, pose des risques pour tous les secteurs. Les graves
inondations qui ont frappé l’Australie en 2010-2011, par exemple, ont donné lieu au versement
de 350 millions de dollars d’indemnités par le réassureur Munich Re, qui a enregistré de ce fait
une baisse de 38 % de son bénéfice trimestriel. Le même épisode de conditions climatiques
extrêmes en Australie a contribué à un manque à gagner de 245 millions de dollars pour le
groupe minier Rio Tinto.
La hausse des températures remet en question la viabilité future des entreprises touristiques,
affirme GEO-5 pour les entreprises. D’après une étude citée dans le rapport, moins de la moitié
des 103 stations de ski situées dans le nord-est des Etats-Unis pourraient être encore
économiquement viables dans 30 ans, si les températures hivernales moyennes augmentent de
2,5° à 4°C.
L’étude du PNUE indique que plus de 80 % du capital nécessaire pour faire face aux
changements climatiques pourraient venir du secteur privé. Des investissements importants
pourraient ainsi être réalisés dans l’« économie verte », notamment dans les bâtiments
écologiques, les technologies éco-énergétiques, les transports durables. Aux États-Unis, par
exemple, la demande d’électricité pour les véhicules électriques devrait augmenter de plus de
1700 % d’ici à la fin de la décennie.
Dans les villes, 60 % environ des infrastructures nécessaires pour répondre aux besoins de la
population urbaine du monde d’ici à 2050 doivent encore être construites, ce qui ouvre aux
entreprises d’importantes possibilités d’activités de construction et de rénovation
écologiquement rationnelles en zones urbaines. Plus de 138 000 mètres carrés font l’objet
d’une certification écologique chaque jour.
La pénurie d’eau reste un enjeu critique pour tous les secteurs examinés dans GEO-5 pour les
entreprises. Les entreprises des secteurs du tourisme et des produits chimiques, entre autres,
pourraient être confrontées à une augmentation de leurs dépenses d’exploitation et entrer
davantage en concurrence avec les communautés locales et les autres consommateurs d’eau,
ce qui pourrait avoir des répercussions négatives sur leur réputation. En Afrique du Sud, les
mines de platine dans le bassin hydrographique du fleuve Olifants pourraient devoir supporter
des charges de consommation d’eau dix fois supérieures à leur valeur actuelle d’ici à 2020 en
raison de la rareté de l’eau.
Résultats par secteur de GEO-5 pour les entreprises
Bâtiment et construction
Ce secteur reste exposé à l’instabilité des marchés de l’énergie et à la hausse des prix de
l’énergie en raison de la forte intensité énergétique de la production d’acier, de béton et d’autres
matériaux. Les inquiétudes suscitées par la faible disponibilité de l’eau dans certaines régions
pourraient peser sur les possibilités de développement. Les consommateurs pourraient exercer
une pression croissante sur le secteur pour qu’il réduise l’impact des déchets. Plus de 40 % de
tous les déchets solides sont générés par la construction.
L’urbanisation et le développement économique dans les économies émergentes peuvent se
traduire par une demande importante de nouveaux logements et infrastructures plus
écologiques. L’adoption de mesures pour protéger les côtes et mettre en place des digues
contre les inondations ainsi que des structures propres à résister aux conditions
météorologiques extrêmes, pourrait également être réclamée avec de plus en plus d’insistance.
Produits chimiques
Le secteur (qui représente actuellement 42 % de la consommation totale d’eau de l’activité
industrielle) pourrait être de plus en plus contraint par les consommateurs d’utiliser l’eau de
manière plus efficace et de mieux gérer les émissions de déchets chimiques. Le renforcement
des réglementations pourrait conduire à l’élimination progressive ou à la restriction de
l’utilisation de certains produits chimiques. Cependant, ces réglementations pourraient être
aussi à l’origine de nouveaux débouchés, car il faudra produire des substances de
remplacement plus écologiquement rationnelles.
La demande devrait augmenter pour ce qui est des produits chimiques utilisés dans l’isolation
haute performance, l’éclairage écoénergétique, les technologies des énergies renouvelables
ainsi que des produits liés aux technologies permettant d’économiser l’eau, comme la
purification et le dessalement. Une plus grande utilisation par les entreprises de substances
chimiques produites de façon durable, couplée à des efforts pour minimiser les impacts
négatifs, peuvent améliorer la réputation et la valeur de leur marque.
Électricité
En 2035, la demande mondiale d’électricité pourrait être de 70 % supérieure aux niveaux de
2009. Les vagues de chaleur plus fréquentes associées aux changements climatiques peuvent
avoir une incidence sur la fiabilité du réseau. En 2012, les pannes qui ont frappé le nord de
l’Inde, suite à l’accroissement de la demande imputable aux températures élevées et aux faibles
pluies de mousson, ont laissé des centaines de millions de personnes sans électricité pendant
plusieurs heures. Les compagnies d’électricité devront renforcer, ou relocaliser, les
infrastructures vulnérables face aux phénomènes climatiques extrêmes et être mieux préparées
à faire face aux interruptions d’approvisionnement.
La part mondiale du charbon dans la production totale d’électricité devrait revenir de deux
cinquièmes à un tiers d’ici à 2035, tandis que celle des énergies renouvelables devrait passer
de 20 à 31 %. La ‘décarbonisation’ du secteur de l’électricité offrira l’occasion à ce secteur de
favoriser les technologies d’énergies renouvelables.
Activités extractives
Les phénomènes météorologiques extrêmes associés aux changements climatiques influent sur
les dépenses d’exploitation du secteur dans de nombreuses parties du monde. L’exploration de
nouvelles zones pourrait être limitée à l’avenir sous l’effet de législations prévoyant l’extension
des zones protégées où la biodiversité marine et terrestre est préservée.
L’accroissement de la demande de certains minéraux et métaux utilisés dans les technologies
relatives aux énergies renouvelables et à l’efficacité énergétique pourrait offrir de nouvelles
opportunités. Le réchauffement des températures pourrait donner accès à des fins d’exploration
à des zones jusque-là inaccessibles, même si les incidences potentielles sur l’environnement
devront être évaluées.
Finance
Les assureurs pourraient enregistrer de fortes pertes en capital et une baisse de leur rentabilité
s’ils ne parviennent pas à identifier de manière adéquate et à planifier les risques liés au climat.
Les compagnies assurant les biens et les risques divers verront probablement les demandes
d’indemnisation augmenter sous l’effet des phénomènes météorologiques violents.
Les institutions financières devront renforcer la coordination avec la communauté scientifique
pour s’assurer l’accès aux données et analyses environnementales pouvant contribuer à une
meilleure planification.
Alimentation et boissons
Du fait de niveaux élevés de consommation d’eau et d’une forte dépendance à l’égard des
services écosystémiques, ce secteur est particulièrement exposé aux changements
environnementaux. Les stocks de poissons marins sont de plus en plus surexploités, voire
épuisés, tandis que l’acidification des océans et l’élévation de la température de l’eau sont
considérées comme jouant un rôle majeur dans la dégradation des écosystèmes de récifs
coralliens, qui servent d’aires d’alevinage à certaines espèces de poissons commercialement
importants.
De nouveaux débouchés devraient s’ouvrir pour les variétés d’aliments plus résistantes au
climat. Les marchés des aliments et des boissons biologiques ont progressé en moyenne de 10
à 20 % par an pendant une partie de la dernière décennie. Les entreprises certifiées en tant que
producteurs alimentaires durables pourraient aussi tirer parti de la plus forte croissance de la
demande de consommation.
Soins de santé
Le secteur de la santé est considéré comme comprenant les produits pharmaceutiques, les
diagnostics / dispositifs médicaux, hôpitaux, centres chirurgicaux et autres établissements de
santé. Il doit faire face aux impacts des facteurs environnementaux sur la santé humaine.
Le secteur est également confronté à certains risques et opportunités plus directement liés à
d’autres secteurs (par exemple, les bâtiments, l’énergie électrique).
La perte de biodiversité pourrait limiter la découverte de composés naturels entrant dans les
nouveaux médicaments ou les remèdes traditionnels.
Selon une estimation, le monde doit renoncer à un médicament majeur tous les deux ans du fait
de l’extinction de certaines espèces.
Technologies de l’information et des communications (TIC)
Les centres de données utilisent jusqu’à 200 fois plus d’électricité que les immeubles de
bureaux classiques, d’où la sensibilité des dépenses d’exploitation des entreprises TIC à des
hausses des prix de l’énergie. Les déchets d’équipements électriques et électroniques sont le
flux de déchets qui augmente le plus rapidement dans le monde et pourraient inciter les
consommateurs et les organismes réglementaires à réclamer plus activement leur réduction.
Les impacts environnementaux de l’approvisionnement en matières essentielles dans les pays
en développement (par exemple, métaux lourds) pourraient être aussi une source de
préoccupation.
Dans le secteur des TIC, les besoins en matière de collecte et de traitement des données
environnementales vont probablement s’accroître. Les produits TIC qui conduisent à des
améliorations environnementales dans d’autres secteurs (systèmes de gestion énergétique des
bâtiments, par exemple) seront aussi des marchés en expansion.
Tourisme
Les événements météorologiques extrêmes, les incidences des changements climatiques, la
rareté de l’eau et la baisse de la biodiversité peuvent rendre certaines destinations plus ou
moins attrayantes pour les consommateurs, ce qui a une incidence sur l’activité marchande des
entreprises opérant dans ces emplacements. Des réglementations plus strictes de certaines
pratiques (par exemple, la pêche et la plongée avec tuba sur les récifs coralliens) peuvent avoir
un impact sur les marchés de niche.
Globalement, la demande touristique devrait s’accroître au niveau mondial, surtout pour les
activités touristiques axées sur la nature et l’écotourisme – pour lesquelles les clients sont
souvent prêts à payer plus cher.
Transports
Les phénomènes météorologiques extrêmes pourraient perturber plus fréquemment les chaînes
d’approvisionnement et les infrastructures. La nécessité de se conformer à des réglementations
plus nombreuses visant à réduire les niveaux de pollution de l’air (suies et matières
particulaires) provenant des véhicules pourrait aussi augmenter les dépenses d’exploitation des
sociétés de transport.
Dans le même temps, les gouvernements mettent en place des règlements et des mesures
incitatives pour stimuler la demande d’options de transport propres. Les entreprises du secteur
pourraient tirer parti des perspectives nouvelles et en expansion offertes par les technologies
sobres en carbone et économes en carburant.
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Portugeese
Oglobo (Brazil): Mudança do clima oferece risco, mas também chance de
inovação, diz ONU
21 Junho 2013
Empresas devem aproveitar oportunidade de desenvolver 'economia verde'.
Dados são de relatório do Pnuma, agência ambiental das Nações Unidas.
Temperaturas elevadas, tempestades vinculadas às mudanças climáticas e uma competição
crescente por água e terra indicam tempos difíceis para o futuro dos negócios, mas também
uma oportunidade para uma inovação rentável, informou a Organização das Nações Unidas
(ONU) nesta sexta-feira (21).
Mencionando a destruição provocada pelas inundações na Austrália em 2010-2011, que
custaram à seguradora Munich Re o montante de US$ 350 milhões e ao grupo de mineração
Rio Tinto outros US$ 245 milhões, o informe diz que companhias não tiveram oportunidade de
se adaptar.
"De eventos climáticos extremos a pressões crescentes sobre recursos naturais finitos, as
mudanças no meio ambiente global aumentarão cada vez mais o impacto sobre custos
operacionais, mercados para produtos, disponibilidade de materiais naturais e a reputação de
negócios, do financeiro ao turístico, do sanitário ao de transportes", diz o documento do
Programa das Nações Unidas para o Meio Ambiente, o Pnuma.
"O futuro do setor privado dependerá cada vez mais da habilidade dos negócios em se adaptar
ao meio ambiente em rápida transformação e para desenvolver bens e serviços capazes de
reduzir os impactos das mudanças climáticas, da escassez hídrica, das emissões de produtos
químicos nocivos e outras questões ambientais", acrescenta.
No setor do turismo, por exemplo, uma elevação de 1,4 ºC a 2,2 ºC nas temperaturas médias
do inverno provavelmente representaria o fechamento de mais da metade dos resorts de esqui
no nordeste dos Estados Unidos em 30 anos
Perdas no turismo
No setor do turismo, por exemplo, uma elevação de 1,4 ºC a 2,2 ºC nas temperaturas médias
do inverno provavelmente representaria o fechamento de mais da metade dos resorts de esqui
no nordeste dos Estados Unidos em 30 anos.
O relatório diz que as emissões de gases de efeito estufa, relacionados com o aquecimento
global, devem dobrar nos próximos 50 anos, conduzindo a um aumento da temperatura média
global de 3 ºC a 6 ºC até o final do século.
Risco de apagão
No que diz respeito à escassez hídrica, o documento destaca que as minas de platina no
sistema do Rio Olifants, na África do Sul, terão aumentadas em dez vezes as cargas hídricas
até 2020, ao competir com as comunidades locais pela commodity cada vez mais escassa.
A demanda global por eletricidade poderia ser até 70% maior em 2025 do que em 2009,
continua o informe, indicado para ondas de calor mais frequentes associadas com a mudança
climática afetando a confiabilidade da rede.
No ano passado, apagões no norte da Índia causadas por altas temperaturas e poucas chuvas
deixaram milhões de pessoas sem energia por várias horas.
Oportunidade de crescimento econômico
Mas enquanto os riscos para os negócios são "significativos", eles também representam
oportunidades únicas para empresas que aproveitarem a demanda crescente por tecnologia
verde, investimentos e serviços, destacou o informe.
Mais de 80% do capital necessário para responder às mudanças climáticas devem vir do setor
privado. "Isto pode resultar em oportunidades de investimentos significativos de 'economia
verde' no setor financeiro para prédios verdes, tecnologia de eco-eficiência, transporte
sustentável e outros produtos e infraestruturas de baixo carbono", destacou o Pnuma.
"Nas cidades, cerca de 60% da infraestrutura necessária para atender às necessidades da
população urbana do mundo até 2050 ainda precisam ser construídas, apresentando
oportunidades de negócios significativas para construções urbanas e reformas mais
ecológicas", emendou.
Também haveria oportunidades no setor energético, com a expectativa de queda da proporção
total do cavão na geração de energia de dois quintos para um terço até 2035, enquanto as
renováveis subiriam de 20% para 31%, diz o informe. 'A descarbonização da eletricidade
apresentará oportunidades para o setor para avançar nas tecnologias de energia renovável",
aponta o relatório.
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Em (Brazil): Meio ambiente representa riscos e oportunidades para os negócios
21 Junho 2013
Temperaturas elevadas, tempestades vinculadas às mudanças climáticas e uma competição
crescente por água e terra indicam tempos difíceis para o futuro dos negócios, mas também
uma oportunidade para uma inovação rentável, informou a ONU esta sexta-feira.
Mencionando a destruição provocada pelas inundações na Austrália em 2010-2011, que
custaram à seguradora Munich Re US$ 350 milhões e ao grupo de mineração Rio Tinto outros
US$ 245 milhões, o informe diz que companhias não tiveram oportunidade de se adaptar.
"De eventos climáticos extremos a pressões crescentes sobre recursos naturais finitos, as
mudanças no meio ambiente global aumentarão cada vez mais o impacto sobre custos
operacionais, mercados para produtos, disponibilidade de materiais naturais e a reputação de
negócios, do financeiro ao turístico, do sanitário ao de transportes", diz o documento do
Programa das Nações Unidas para o Meio Ambiente.
"O futuro do setor privado dependerá cada vez mais da habilidade dos negócios em se adaptar
ao meio ambiente em rápida transformação e para desenvolver bens e serviços capazes de
reduzir os impactos das mudanças climáticas, da escassez hídrica, das emissões de produtos
químicos nocivos e outras questões ambientais", acrescenta.
No setor do turismo, por exemplo, uma elevação de 1,4 a 2,2 graus Celsius nas temperaturas
médias do inverno provavelmente representaria o fechamento de mais da metade dos resorts
de esqui no nordeste dos Estados Unidos em 30 anos.
O relatório diz que as emissões de gases de efeito estufa, relacionados com o aquecimento
global, devem dobrar nos próximos 50 anos, conduzindo a um aumento da temperatura média
global de 3 a 6 grau Celsius até o final do século.
No que diz respeito à escassez hídrica, o documento destaca que as minas de platina no
sistema do Rio Olifants, na África do Sul, terão aumentadas em dez vezes as cargas hídricas
até 2020, ao competir com as comunidades locais pela commodity cada vez mais escassa.
A demanda global por eletricidade poderia ser até 70% maior em 2025 do que em 2009,
continua o informe, indicado para ondas de calor mais frequentes associadas com a mudança
climática afetando a confiabilidade da rede.
No ano passado, apagões no norte da Índia causadas por altas temperaturas e poucas chuvas
deixaram milhões de pessoas sem energia por várias horas.
Mas enquanto os riscos para os negócios são "significativos", eles também representam
oportunidades únicas para empresas que aproveitarem a demanda crescente por tecnologia
verde, investimentos e serviços, destacou o informe, intitulado "GEO-5 for Business: Impacts of
a Changing Environment on the Corporate Sector".
Mais de 80% do capital necessário para responder às mudanças climáticas devem vir do setor
privado.
"Isto pode resultar em oportunidades de investimentos significativos de 'economia verde' no
setor financeiro para prédios verdes, tecnologia de eco-eficiência, transporte sustentável e
outros produtos e infraestruturas de baixo carbono", destacou o Pnuma.
"Nas cidades, cerca de 60% da infraestrutura necessária para atender às necessidades da
população urbana do mundo até 2050 ainda precisam ser construídas, apresentando
oportunidades de negócios significativas para construções urbanas e reformas mais
ecológicas", emendou.
Também haveria oportunidades no setor energético, com a expectativa de queda da proporção
total do cavão na geração de energia de dois quintos para um terço até 2035, enquanto as
renováveis subiriam de 20% para 31%, diz o informe.
"A descarbonização da eletricidade apresentará oportunidades para o setor para avançar nas
tecnologias de energia renovável", destacou o Pnuma.
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German
Deutche Press Agenter-DPA: UN: Klimawandel bedeutet Risiko und Chance für
Wirtschaft
21 Juni 2013
Klimawandel und Wasserknappheit sind nach einem Bericht des UN-Umweltprogramms (Unep)
für Unternehmen Risiko und Chance zugleich.
London - Klimawandel und Wasserknappheit sind nach einem Bericht des UNUmweltprogramms (Unep) für Unternehmen Risiko und Chance zugleich.
Einerseits müssten Firmen sich in den kommenden Jahren mit neuen Problemen durch extreme
Wetterbedingungen oder den Rückgang von Rohstoffen auseinandersetzen, heißt es in der am
Freitag in London vorgestellten Studie.
Andererseits könnten sie, wenn sie die richtigen Weichen stellten, zum Beispiel von der
Entwicklung alternativer Energien oder umweltverträglicher Techniken ökonomisch profitieren.
Laut Unep ist jede Branche anders betroffen:
- Baubranche: Steigende Energiepreise und Wasserknappheit werden zur immer größeren
Herausforderung. Gleichzeitig steigt der Bedarf nach umweltverträglicheren Häusern und
entsprechender Infrastruktur - ein Wachstumsgebiet für die Branche. Auch könnte es mehr
Aufträge für Dämme oder Bauten, die extremen Wetterbedingungen standhalten, geben.
- Chemiebranche: Der Druck zum besseren Umgang mit Chemieabfällen wächst, zudem dürften
die Regularien für die Branche schärfer werden. Wachstumsfelder sind Chemikalien, die zum
Beispiel für energieeffizientes Licht oder zur Gewinnung erneuerbarer Energien sowie zur
Wasseraufbereitung gebraucht werden.
- Strom: Bis zum Jahr 2035 könnte der weltweite Strombedarf dem Unep zufolge rund 70
Prozent über dem des Jahres 2009 liegen. Die Zukunft sieht der Bericht in erneuerbaren
Energien.
- Finanzbranche: Versicherer müssen auf die wachsende Zahl der Katastrophen reagieren und
entsprechende Produkte entwickeln, um profitabel zu bleiben.
- Essen und Trinken: Kaum eine andere Industrie ist laut Unep so anfällig für
Umweltveränderungen. So können sich verändernde Wetterbedingungen die Anbaugebiete
verschieben, zudem sinkt der Fischbestand in den Weltmeeren. Doch die Nachfrage nach
ökologisch angebauten Lebensmitteln wächst dem Bericht zufolge, zudem könnten stärker
Klima-resistente Lebensmittel Chancen bieten.
- Gesundheitsbranche: Ein Verlust an Artenvielfalt führt dazu, dass weniger Medikamente neu
entdeckt werden. Die Nachfrage nach Medizin dürfte durch die steigende Luftverschmutzung
und Krankheiten, die durch schmutziges Wasser ausgelöst werden, steigen.
- Tourismus: Extremes Wetter oder andere Veränderungen können das Aus für viele
Touristenziele bedeuten. Immer mehr Menschen entscheiden sich jedoch für Natur- und ÖkoTourismus und sind auch bereit, mehr dafür zu zahlen.
- Transport: Strengere Abgas-Vorschriften und extremeres Wetter stellen die Branche vor
Herausforderungen. Die Entwicklung von umweltfreundlichen Transportmöglichkeiten hat laut
Unep jedoch Zukunft und wird unter anderem von den Regierungen unterstützt.
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Frankfurter Neue Press: UN: Klimawandel ist Risiko und Chance
21 Juni 2013
Klimawandel und Wasserknappheit sind nach einem Bericht des UN-Umweltprogramms (Unep)
für Unternehmen Risiko und Chance zugleich.
London.
Einerseits müssten Firmen sich in den kommenden Jahren mit neuen Problemen durch extreme
Wetterbedingungen oder den Rückgang von Rohstoffen auseinandersetzen, heißt es in der am
Freitag in London vorgestellten Studie.
Andererseits könnten sie, wenn sie die richtigen Weichen stellten, zum Beispiel von der
Entwicklung alternativer Energien oder umweltverträglicher Techniken ökonomisch profitieren.
Laut Unep ist jede Branche anders betroffen:
- Baubranche: Steigende Energiepreise und Wasserknappheit werden zur immer größeren
Herausforderung. Gleichzeitig steigt der Bedarf nach umweltverträglicheren Häusern und
entsprechender Infrastruktur - ein Wachstumsgebiet für die Branche. Auch könnte es mehr
Aufträge für Dämme oder Bauten, die extremen Wetterbedingungen standhalten, geben.
- Chemiebranche: Der Druck zum besseren Umgang mit Chemieabfällen wächst, zudem dürften
die Regularien für die Branche schärfer werden. Wachstumsfelder sind Chemikalien, die zum
Beispiel für energieeffizientes Licht oder zur Gewinnung erneuerbarer Energien sowie zur
Wasseraufbereitung gebraucht werden.
- Strom: Bis zum Jahr 2035 könnte der weltweite Strombedarf dem Unep zufolge rund 70
Prozent über dem des Jahres 2009 liegen. Die Zukunft sieht der Bericht in erneuerbaren
Energien.
- Finanzbranche: Versicherer müssen auf die wachsende Zahl der Katastrophen reagieren und
entsprechende Produkte entwickeln, um profitabel zu bleiben.
- Essen und Trinken: Kaum eine andere Industrie ist laut Unep so anfällig für
Umweltveränderungen. So können sich verändernde Wetterbedingungen die Anbaugebiete
verschieben, zudem sinkt der Fischbestand in den Weltmeeren. Doch die Nachfrage nach
ökologisch angebauten Lebensmitteln wächst dem Bericht zufolge, zudem könnten stärker
Klima-resistente Lebensmittel Chancen bieten.
- Gesundheitsbranche: Ein Verlust an Artenvielfalt führt dazu, dass weniger Medikamente neu
entdeckt werden. Die Nachfrage nach Medizin dürfte durch die steigende Luftverschmutzung
und Krankheiten, die durch schmutziges Wasser ausgelöst werden, steigen.
- Tourismus: Extremes Wetter oder andere Veränderungen können das Aus für viele
Touristenziele bedeuten. Immer mehr Menschen entscheiden sich jedoch für Natur- und ÖkoTourismus und sind auch bereit, mehr dafür zu zahlen.
- Transport: Strengere Abgas-Vorschriften und extremeres Wetter stellen die Branche vor
Herausforderungen. Die Entwicklung von umweltfreundlichen Transportmöglichkeiten hat laut
Unep jedoch Zukunft und wird unter anderem von den Regierungen unterstützt
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Focus (Germany): UN- Klimawandel bedeutet Risiko und Chance für Wirtschaft
21 Juni 2013
Klimawandel und Wasserknappheit sind nach einem Bericht des UN-Umweltprogramms (Unep)
für Unternehmen Risiko und Chance zugleich.
Einerseits müssten Firmen sich in den kommenden Jahren mit neuen Problemen durch extreme
Wetterbedingungen oder den Rückgang von Rohstoffen auseinandersetzen, heißt es in der am
Freitag in London vorgestellten Studie.
Andererseits könnten sie, wenn sie die richtigen Weichen stellten, zum Beispiel von der
Entwicklung alternativer Energien oder umweltverträglicher Techniken ökonomisch profitieren.
Laut Unep ist jede Branche anders betroffen:
– Baubranche: Steigende Energiepreise und Wasserknappheit werden zur immer größeren
Herausforderung. Gleichzeitig steigt der Bedarf nach umweltverträglicheren Häusern und
entsprechender Infrastruktur – ein Wachstumsgebiet für die Branche. Auch könnte es mehr
Aufträge für Dämme oder Bauten, die extremen Wetterbedingungen standhalten, geben.
– Chemiebranche: Der Druck zum besseren Umgang mit Chemieabfällen wächst, zudem
dürften die Regularien für die Branche schärfer werden. Wachstumsfelder sind Chemikalien, die
zum Beispiel für energieeffizientes Licht oder zur Gewinnung erneuerbarer Energien sowie zur
Wasseraufbereitung gebraucht werden.
– Strom: Bis zum Jahr 2035 könnte der weltweite Strombedarf dem Unep zufolge rund 70
Prozent über dem des Jahres 2009 liegen. Die Zukunft sieht der Bericht in erneuerbaren
Energien.
– Finanzbranche: Versicherer müssen auf die wachsende Zahl der Katastrophen reagieren und
entsprechende Produkte entwickeln, um profitabel zu bleiben.
– Essen und Trinken: Kaum eine andere Industrie ist laut Unep so anfällig für
Umweltveränderungen. So können sich verändernde Wetterbedingungen die Anbaugebiete
verschieben, zudem sinkt der Fischbestand in den Weltmeeren.
Doch die Nachfrage nach ökologisch angebauten Lebensmitteln wächst dem Bericht zufolge,
zudem könnten stärker Klima-resistente Lebensmittel Chancen bieten.
– Gesundheitsbranche: Ein Verlust an Artenvielfalt führt dazu, dass weniger Medikamente neu
entdeckt werden. Die Nachfrage nach Medizin dürfte durch die steigende Luftverschmutzung
und Krankheiten, die durch schmutziges Wasser ausgelöst werden, steigen.
– Tourismus: Extremes Wetter oder andere Veränderungen können das Aus für viele
Touristenziele bedeuten. Immer mehr Menschen entscheiden sich jedoch für Natur- und ÖkoTourismus und sind auch bereit, mehr dafür zu zahlen.
– Transport: Strengere Abgas-Vorschriften und extremeres Wetter stellen die Branche vor
Herausforderungen. Die Entwicklung von umweltfreundlichen Transportmöglichkeiten hat laut
Unep jedoch Zukunft und wird unter anderem von den Regierungen unterstützt.
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OTHER NEWS
CNN (US): Elephant killings surge as tusks fund terror
20 June 2013
The accelerating pace of the slaughter of elephants for their tusks has put African elephants at
catastrophic risk in the coming decades. To make matters worse, some of the region's most
notorious armed groups are taking tusks to finance their atrocities.
The Somali terrorists of al-Shabaab, the Sudanese government-supported janjaweed militia that
has been responsible for much of the violence during the Darfur genocide, and the Lord's
Resistance Army, which has kidnapped hundreds of boys and girls across central Africa to be
fighters and sex slaves, are participating in this illegal trade.
These groups typically kill elephants using the automatic weapons that they also use to kill
people. And as the militants become more involved in the poaching business, they apply the
same lack of discrimination in killing elephants that they have demonstrated with their human
victims. For example, poachers thought to be janjaweed from Sudan, working with Chadians,
allegedly killed at least 86 elephants, including calves and 33 pregnant females, over the course
of a week.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare found that at least 400 elephants were slaughtered
between January and March 2012 at the Bouba Ndjida National Park in Cameroon. Animal
rights groups say poaching is worse than it's been in decades. They say it may be even worse
than it was in the 1980s, before the international ban on ivory was put in place.
Watch: Fighting the Lord's Resistance Army slaughter of elephants
Typically, the elephants are killed only for their tusks. Poachers often hack off their trunks first
and then their tusks with hacksaws and machetes, and leave the bodies to rot. Some Lord's
Resistance Army groups have reportedly eaten the meat of some of the elephants they have
killed, which is not surprising given their frequent hand-to-mouth existence in the bush.
This appalling reality presents an opportunity for conservation groups and anti-atrocity and
human rights groups to join forces to combat the threat posed to people and elephants by these
armed groups.
Achim Steiner, U.N. undersecretary general and the U.N. Environment Program's executive
director, said, "The surge in the killing of elephants in Africa and the illegal taking of other listed
species globally threatens not only wildlife populations but the livelihoods of millions who
depend on tourism for a living and the lives of those wardens and wildlife staff who are
attempting to stem the illegal tide."
According to a report released in March 2013 by UNEP, 17,000 elephants in monitored reserves
were killed in 2011. The toll climbed in 2012. The number of elephants killed for their tusks has
exploded in recent years because of high prices from rising global demand for ivory, particularly
in China and Thailand. The pace of killing outstrips wild elephants' natural reproductive
replacement rate.
Armed groups take advantage of the increasing value of ivory to fund their atrocities. Their
fighters have the training and weapons to kill large numbers of elephants and trade their tusks
for arms, ammunition and food. The Enough Project and the Satellite Sentinel Project recently
released a report focused on the LRA's poaching of elephant tusks in the Democratic Republic
of Congo's Garamba National Park. The LRA, whose leader Joseph Kony is the subject of an
arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity,
has for decades terrorized the people of central Africa. Other groups, such as al-Shabaab and
the janjaweed, seem to have made similar calculations.
Ivory poaching for profit by armed groups is not new. In the 1970s, according to University of
London researcher Keith Sommerville, the South African military partly funded its support of
white Rhodesian forces fighting African rebel groups through revenue from the killing of
elephants in Rhodesia, which was then legal. Rebels in Angola and Mozambique, also
supported by South Africa, took tusks and sold them through South Africa.
Both poaching and armed groups such as the LRA arise from a vacuum of governance. Indeed,
The New York Times correspondent Jeffrey Gettleman and others say that members of the
armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda have
participated in the illegal ivory trade as well.
Only effective local, national, and transnational action can stop this horror. Anti-atrocity groups
such as the Enough Project can advocate for actions to shut off the demand for ivory in Asia.
Conservation groups could broaden their focus to include efforts to end wars that have created
a symbiotic relationship between ivory poaching and civilian suffering. Both types of
organizations should emphasize the longer-term requirement for effective governance to lessen
the likelihood of war and ivory poaching.
Joint and parallel action could tap activist organizations, increase the pressure on policymakers
for action and broaden the knowledge about both of these problems among those who
previously had focused on only one.
The combined efforts of conservation and human rights groups could spur the efforts of
governments and international organizations to slow the destruction of the African elephant and
free the people of east and central Africa from the threat of Joseph Kony and his ilk. This could
be the start of a beautiful friendship, one that could help stop the massacre of both humans and
animals in Africa.
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Deutsche Welle (Germany): Kyoto Protocol comes into force in Afghanistan
Media Coverage in other languages
14 June 2013
Afghanistan joined the Kyoto Protocol in April. This came into force this week. The country is
one of the most vulnerable to climate change worldwide.
The smog over the Afghan capital Kabul is visible kilometers away. There is a thick layer of dust
on buildings and cars. People cannot breathe easily and often use scarves or masks to prevent
the fine dust from getting in.
There are few green spaces in Kabul and there is no sophisticated sewage system. Instead
most household waste flows in open drains alongside roads.
Afghanistan's National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) says some 3,000 inhabitants
die annually from respiratory diseases.
The average particulate matter (PM) count is 190 - much higher than in the Chinese capital
Beijing where it is 121 on average according to the World Health Organization.
Smokes rise from a brick factory in Kabul, Afghanistan (Ahmad Massoud)(dtf) Kabul is thick with
smog
For a green future
By joining the Kyoto Protocol, the "country has come one step further in the fight against climate
change," said Ghulam Hassan Amiry, the head of the climate change department at NEPA. He
added that although Afghanistan had observed the protocol unofficially before and had been
represented at international climate conferences, by signing it officially, "we can benefit from
financial support."
Christoph Bals from the environment NGO Germanwatch agreed: "The main factors driving
Afghanistan to sign the Kyoto Protocol are certainly the fight against the environmental damage
caused by climate change and the support it receives in so doing. He pointed out that
Afghanistan's joining would not have any worldwide impact but the move showed the
government was on the right track. “It also shows how vulnerable Afghanistan is because of the
consequences of climate change and that people are now beginning to reflect upon it."
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) says that since 1989 over 6.7 million
Afghans have been affected by disasters and extreme weather events such as drought,
earthquakes, epidemic diseases, sandstorms and harsh winters.
The fact that the glaciers of the Himalayas are melting is also creating great problems such as
extreme drought. Up to 80 percent of Afghans depend directly on natural resources for income
and sustenance. Agriculture provides livelihoods for over 60 percent of the population.
An elder Afghan man carries opium poppies EPA/TIAGO PETINGA +++(c) dpa - Bildfunk+++
Drought is harming agriculture
Almost four decades of war have only exacerbated the damage caused by climate change.
Ghulam Hassan Amiry says there is a great deal to be done especially as environmental
protection only really became an issue a few years ago: "We don't have a sewage system and
no recycling. Our natural water resources are almost depleted. Afghanistan does not have the
means to solve these problems and yet they are extreme hindrances to the country's
development."
First step towards a national plan
Air pollution is particularly high in Afghanistan's big cities. Elsewhere it is actually quite low
because there has not been much industrialization. According to the World Bank, Afghanistan
has one of the world's lowest carbon emissions rate per person, at 0.2 tonnes per capita only.
However, the impact of climate change is very tangible in the South Asian country, says Ghulam
Hassam Amiry. In the past 10 years, the average temperature has risen by 0.13 degrees.
Classed as a developing country, Afghanistan does not have to adopt any binding emission
targets. However, it does have to draw up a plan to reduce greenhouse gases, by developing a
low carbon energy and transport system.
The UN provides support for the development of solar, wind and other renewable energy
sources.
'The people's cooperation is needed to protect the environment.'
A new environment institute in Kabul is set to raise awareness about these issues and teach
people how to find solutions. "We need the people's cooperation to protect the environment,"
says Amiry. "First, we have to create a culture of environment protection in the Afghan society."
Afghanistan also suffers the effects of high carbon emissions from neighboring Iran and
Pakistan which have both signed the Kyoto protocol. Noorullah Kaleem from the ministry of
foreign affairs, says that banned fuels and gases often end up in Afghanistan because the
borders are so porous. "We've had many discussions with our neighbors and these will continue
but so far the delegation has not had any results."
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Deutsche Welle (Germany): UNEP report sees slowdown in renewable energy
investments
12 June 2013
Global demand for renewable energy has continued to rise steadily, a fresh United Nations
report has shown. But the study also pointed out that lower prices had prompted a reduction in
revenue in the sector.
For only the second year since 2006, global investments in regenerative sources of energy in
2012 failed to top levels of the previous year, a report by the United Nations Environment
Program (UNEP) showed Wednesday. The world geneterate more power from renewable
sources than ever before, however, pointing to improved efficiency in the sector.
Year-on-year investments drooped by 12 percent, largely due to dramatically lower prices for
solar panels and weak US and EU markets, the survey claimed.
The report pointed out, though, that despite a lower increase in resources spent on extending
the use of renewables, overall investments last year totaled $244 billion (183.7 billion euros)
worldwide, the second largest annual amount ever recorded for the sector.
Major employer
UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said the uptake of renewable energies continued
globally, with a dramatic surge in current projects.
DW.DE
Argentina builds first-ever solar neighborhood to fight energy poverty
A solar power project in Buenos Aires is providing electricity for some of the city's poorest
households. Volunteers are hoping to create Argentina's first green community - one rooftop at
a time. (07.06.2013)
"There have been sharp falls in manufacturing costs of wind turbines and solar panels,
contributing to a shake-out in the industry in 2012," Steiner said. "This is not only normal in a
rapidly growing industry, but is also likely to lead to even more competition with even bigger
gains for consumers."
Total renewable power generation capacity hit another record last year at 115 GW of new
capacities installed globally and totaling 1,470 GW, up 8.5 percent from 2011.
The UNEP study said an estimated 5.7 million people worked in the sector last year. But it
added that although a growing number of nations invested in renewables, the bulk of
employment remained concentrated in Brazil, China, India, the EU and the US.
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Africa review (Kenya): Give them bread: Feeding the hungry no longer a science
24 June 2013
Over 500 government ministers and diplomats from around the world were among guests
invited for a sumptuous meal during a meeting held in Kenya's capital Nairobi on February 19,
2012.
On the menu of the five-course meal was yellow lentil commonly known as dal, grilled sweet
corn and a variety of vegetables including French Beans. Only this time, something about the
meal was different. It had been prepared using ingredients that had been rejected by various UK
supermarkets because they were not beautiful enough.
Tristram Stuart, the author of Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal and founder of
Feeding the 5000, had earlier visited several farmers across Kenya to collect the 1,600 kilos of
“unwanted” fruit and vegetables and used what he got to prepare the meal that was used to
feed the VIPs, who included Kenya’s permanent secretary for Environment, Mr Ali Mohamed.
“The waste of perfectly edible ‘ugly’ vegetables is endemic in our food production systems and
symbolises our negligence,” says Mr Stuart, who has been campaigning to reduce food
wastage.
Some of the food he collected was also given as donation to local charities such as Msedo
School in Nairobi’s Mathare slums.
According to Mr Siago Benedict who runs the school, learners only get a meal a day at the
school, but when Mr Stuart made the donation, the school was able to provide a balanced diet
of two meals that day.
Because the school did not have sufficient storage capacity, students were allowed to carry
some of the food home to share with their families.
Mr Staurt says that apart from the cost implications and environmental impact, food wastage
also increases pressure on the already strained global food system.
“It’s a scandal that so much food is wasted in a country with millions of hungry people; we found
one grower supplying a UK supermarket who is forced to waste up to 40 tonnes of vegetables
every week, which is 40 per cent of what he grows,” Mr Stuart says.
Use the ‘leftovers’
But rather than wring their hands in despair or throw away the rejected food, farmers have learnt
to use the ‘leftovers’ to feed pigs, cows and other domestic animals, which are a source of
livelihood and which also produce meat or milk which supplement family diets.
In recent years, drought, low grain stocks and speculation in food stocks have been blamed for
widespread hunger across the globe. However, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
says food waste could worsen the situation in coming decades if not checked.
According to the Unep, food loss and wastage refer to the decrease in mass or nutritional value
of food throughout the supply chain that was intended for human consumption.
According to a recent study by FAO, about one third of all food produced worldwide gets lost or
is wasted in either production or consumption stages, amounting to 1.3 billion tonnes annually.
Unep and FAO estimate this to cost about $1 trillion.
The report says that retailers and consumers discard around 300 million tonnes that is fit for
consumption, around half of the total food squandered in industrialised countries. This is more
than the total net food production of Sub-Saharan Africa and would be sufficient to feed the
estimated 900 million hungry people worldwide. About 239 million of the starving population is to
be found in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“Wasting food makes no sense — economically, environmentally and ethically,” Unep executive
director Achim Steiner said early this year. “To bring about the vision of a truly sustainable
world, we need a transformation in the way we produce and consume our natural resources.”
However, not all the food is lost in the production process or in the supply chain; consumers
also contribute to rising global hunger and food insecurity through improper storage. Many are
the times when they throw away good food.
Preservation
According to Think. Eat. Save. Reduce Your Food website, simple actions by consumers and
food retailers can dramatically cut the amount of food lost or wasted each year.
The campaigners call on consumers to avoid impulse-buying of food, eat food that is already in
the fridge before buying more, keep fresh produce in freezers, cook and eat what is bought first,
be creative with leftovers for instance using chicken to make sandwiches and donating nonperishable food to children’s homes or shelters.
As experts renew their calls for increased production to stem hunger in Kenya and other
developing countries, the World Hunger Education Service points that the world produces
enough food for everyone.
Their data indicates that agriculture alone produces about 17 per cent extra calories per person
today than it did 30 years ago, despite a 70 per cent growth in population globally.
Indigenous food
Unep is also urging families in Africa to use indigenous food preservation methods. For instance
in Nigeria, garri, which is produced from cassava tubers is peeled, washed then grated or
pounded. It is later fermented and roasted for long-term storage.
In western Kenya, maize is dried then stored using ash to keep it free of weevils and aflotoxin.
Such methods are particularly effective in areas without constant supply of electricity or with a
high supply of food that can be preserved using these methods.
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Reuters AlertNet: Kenya: Scratch-Card Solar Brings Clean Energy to Kenya's Poor
20 June 2013
At Sibanga market, 10 km (6 miles) outside the town of Kitale in western Kenya, Timothy
Nyongesa walks into the Mibawa Suppliers shop to collect a gadget that he hopes will brighten his
children's studies and his family's health.
In exchange for an initial payment of 1,000 Kenyan shillings (about $12), Nyongesa walks out with
a kit that will generate solar energy at his home. He jumps on his bicycle and snakes along a
footpath to his village of Sinyerere, 6 km farther into the countryside.
Nyongesa's family is one of more than 3,000 in the Kitale area who since 2011 have switched to
solar power instead of using kerosene lamps to light their homes.
"I cannot have my children study using a kerosene tin-lamp when those in the neighbourhood are
using electricity from the sun," he said.
The solar kits, which aim to scale up access to solar power for Kenya's poor, are marketed using
an instalment plan that puts the 10,000-shilling (about $120) pack within reach of people with
modest incomes. After an initial deposit of 1,000 shillings, the user makes weekly payments of
120 shillings ($1.40) for 80 weeks before fully owning the system.
Scratch cards with codes enable the purchaser to make their payments securely from home via
SMS - using their mobile phone that can be kept charged with the solar kit.
Ashden Award
The innovative effort, by Azuri Technologies, a UK-based company that developed and
manufactures the IndiGo solar kits, on Thursday was named a winner of the 2013 Ashden
Awards, considered the world's leading green energy prize. The awards recognise innovations
that promote sustainable energy to reduce poverty and tackle climate change.
"It has been tremendous to see the appetite for IndiGo," said Simon Bransfield-Garth, chief
executive officer of Azuri Technologies. "At the same time, we are acutely aware of the scale of
problem we are attempting to tackle and so all our effort is on growing to reach as many
customers as possible."
In a statement at the launch of a new report on markets for renewable energy, Achim Steiner,
executive director of the UN Environment Programme, said that uptake of renewable energies
was continuing to increase globally as countries, companies and communities saw the
opportunities to capitalize on low-carbon economies and the potential for future energy security
and sustainable livelihoods.
Nyongesa's interest in the solar system, however, has as much to do with his children's health as
anything else.
Health experts say kerosene lamps produce fumes that are hazardous to breath, and Nyongesa
says some of his children complain about eye irrigation, which he associates with prolonged use
of the lamps.
The 51-year-old Nyongesa, who has three wives, is coy about exactly how many children he has
("Let's put it at 15"), but says that 11 of them go to school and use lamps at home for at least two
hours a day to study.
Kerosene lamps are also bad for the environment. The British Air Transport Association calculates
that each tonne of kerosene burned produces 3.15 tonnes of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas
that is largely responsible for atmospheric warming, which contributes to climate change.
Nevertheless, a recent study by the U.S. National Institutes of Health estimated that 500 million
households globally still rely on kerosene or other liquid fuels for lighting and consume 7.6 billion
litres annually.
The new solar lighting system is the second Nyongesa has bought for his family in three months.
He gave the first to his first wife to provide light for studying and other domestic needs.
The IndiGo kit consists of a 3-watt solar panel, a battery, two LED lamps, a phone charging unit
and connection cables.
The device is designed to serve needs of the poor, particularly in Africa. Apart from Kenya, it is
also marketed in Malawi, South Sudan and Zambia.
So far, the Mibawa Suppliers shop in Kitale is the only place in Kenya where the IndiGo kits are
sold, said Edward Namasaka, who is the sole supplier in the country.
However, Namasaka says he has already identified five more traders in other towns in Western
Kenya and intends to begin supplying the gadgets to them soon.
Cheaper than kerosene?
Although raising the weekly payment may be a challenge for many people who survive on less
than 100 shillings ($1.15) a day, many people prefer it to the high cost of purchasing kerosene
and charging mobile phones, Namasaka said. The biggest incentive is that once the payments
are done, the customer owns the IndiGo kit and can continue to access power without cost.
There are measures in place in case a user defaults on a payment. The battery charging system
contains a microchip that links it to a central server: if a weekly payment is missed, the system can
be automatically disabled.
But Namasaka tries to be lenient, giving those who cannot service their loans a window period of
up to one month to pay the belated instalment.
Emmanual Siboe, one IndiGo user, called the system "a revolution."
Apart from previously paying nearly 100 shillings a week for kerosene for lighting, he explained,
"every time I needed to charge my phone, I had to walk all the way to the shopping centre, and
pay 20 shillings for the service."
Siboe reckons that the cost of charging his phone, along with those of his wife and daughter, used
to be 180 shillings ($2.25) a week.
"But with this gadget that harvests energy from the sun, I now charge it free of charge," he said.
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Other Environment News
AFP: Indonesia steps up firefighting, Malaysia still in smog
24 June 2013
Indonesia stepped up aerial operations on Monday to extinguish forest fires raging on Sumatra
island as Malaysia remained smothered by smog and Singapore enjoyed sunny skies thanks to
favourable winds.
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for Indonesia's national disaster agency, said a fourth
helicopter was deployed Monday for "water bombing" sorties in addition to two airplanes
conducting cloud-seeding runs to induce rain over the parched island.
"We have carried out 14 water-bombings, dropping a total of 7,000 litres (1,820 gallons) of water
onto the fires. To boost the operation, we have deployed an extra helicopter for water bombing
today," he said in a text message to media.
Local police in Sumatra's Riau province said a landowner and a smallholder had been arrested
for causing more than 400 hectares (988 acres) of peat land to catch fire. Firefighters earlier
said they were having difficulty fighting fires on such soil.
Smog from Sumatra is a recurring problem during the June-September dry season, when
plantations and smallholders allegedly set off fires to prepare land for cultivation despite a legal
ban.
So far, attempts by Indonesia to induce rain have had little success.
"The cloud-seeding technology is meant to speed up rainfall, but with few clouds, there's little
we can do. The rain was more like a drizzle," Indonesian disaster agency official Agus Wibowo
told AFP.
Officials in Singapore, which bore the brunt of the smog last week, warned against
complacency, saying the situation could deteriorate again if monsoon winds carrying smoke and
particulates from Sumatra changed direction.
Malaysia called on Indonesia on Monday to stop "finger-pointing" after its larger neighbour
claimed several Malaysian companies are also responsible for forest fires.
"They are saying Malaysian companies are involved but Indonesian companies are also
involved," Malaysia's natural resources and environment minister, G. Palanivel, told reporters.
Foreign Minister Anifah Aman added that whoever was responsible should be brought to book
regardless of nationality and called it a problem for Southeast Asia, which suffered its worst
smog outbreak in 1997-98 and a recurrence in 2006.
Much of Malaysia continued to wheeze under a shroud of smoke Monday with its southern half
hit particularly hard. In the capital Kuala Lumpur, the pollution index neared the "very unhealthy"
200 level for the first time during the current outbreak.
Schools in Kuala Lumpur and several states were ordered to close and authorities advised
parents to keep children indoors or make them wear face masks outside.
In one district close to Singapore, a state of emergency was declared after the Air Pollutant
Index rating soared to 746 on Sunday, the country's highest recording since the 1997-1998
crisis.
Pollution levels in Malaysia's south eased Monday but generally worsened elsewhere, with the
city of Port Dickson, which lies on the Malacca Strait across from Sumatra, hitting the
"hazardous" 335 level.
Conditions in densely populated Singapore first began to improve from "harmful" on Saturday
and the pollutant index at mid-afternoon Monday was between 50 and 100 -- within the
"moderate" air-quality bracket.
"We must expect the haze to come back," Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong warned
on his Facebook page.
The elderly, ailing people, pregnant women and young children are the most vulnerable to the
effects of what is referred to as "the haze" in Southeast Asia.
Singapore Environment Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said on Sunday that "the improvement in
the air quality is due to a change in the direction of the low-level winds over Singapore".
"However, we must remain prepared for further fluctuations depending on weather conditions,"
he added.
Organisers of an international conference in Singapore on reducing the threat of nuclear
weapons, scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, said the event has been postponed "due to
increasingly hazardous weather conditions".
Singapore Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam as well as former US secretary of state George P.
Shultz and former US defence chief William J. Perry were among the scheduled speakers at the
18-nation meeting.
"We are disappointed that we won't be able to host this historic gathering in Singapore this
week," said Joan Rohlfin, president of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, one of the organisers.
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Reuters: Obama takes on power plant emissions as part of climate plan
25 June 2013
President Barack Obama will attempt to kick-start a global climate agenda on Tuesday with
proposals including a plan to limit carbon emissions from existing U.S. power plants that is sure to
face opposition from the coal industry, many business groups and Republican lawmakers.
Obama, whose first-term attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through a "cap and trade"
system was thwarted by Congress, promised in his second inaugural address to tackle the issue
again.
Environmentalists and Obama's political base have been anxious for action, but the first months of
his second term have been dominated by immigration reform, a failed attempt to pass strict gun
control measures, and a series of political scandals.
Republicans, in turn, have been emboldened by Obama's stumbles. Many also question climate
science and oppose regulatory actions they say could hurt the economy.
The Democratic president aims to address those concerns and make good on his inaugural
promise with a speech, scheduled for 1:55 p.m., that lays out a new plan to reduce emissions,
boost renewable fuels, and lead the world in tackling global warming.
The key proposal involves the thousands of power plants, many of them coal-fired, which account
for roughly one-third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
Obama will direct the Environmental Protection Agency to draft a plan setting carbon emission
limits on existing power plants by June 2014, finalizing those rules a year later, according to senior
administration officials who briefed reporters before the speech.
"We already set limits for arsenic, mercury and lead, but we let power plants release as much
carbon pollution as they want," one official said.
The proposals are likely to draw criticism from segments of the energy industry and some
Republican lawmakers that they will cost jobs and hurt the U.S. economic recovery. In addition,
they could be tied up in court for years.
The administration officials did not give details of what the limits for existing plants would entail.
Separately, the EPA would finalize overdue plans for carbon limits on new power plants by
September, they said.
Environmental groups that had early word of the administration's plans cheered.
"Tackling carbon pollution from power plants is the greatest opportunity and should be at the core
of any serious approach to reduce U.S. emissions. For the first time, a U.S. president is taking
such action," Andrew Steer, president of the World Resources Institute, said in a statement.
"This announcement will have ripple effects that will increase the urgency of action around the
globe."
KEYSTONE OVERHANG, INTERNATIONAL FOCUS
None of the president's proposals, including plans to reduce emissions from heavy duty trucks
after 2018, require congressional approval. That alone is likely to spark howls from Obama's
opponents on Capitol Hill.
"(Obama) made it very clear that his preference would be for Congress to act and move
comprehensive energy and climate legislation forward," the official told reporters. "At this point ...
the president is prepared to act."
Some environmentalists fear that Obama will use new climate measures to head off criticism if his
administration approves the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil from Canada to
refineries in Texas.
A senior administration official said the decision on Keystone has not been made.
Green groups want Obama to reject the pipeline. Republicans and many businesses say it will
help the economy, and some unions support the project because of the jobs likely to be created
during the pipeline's construction.
The president's allies abroad will be watching, too. In 2009, Obama pledged to reduce U.S.
greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 - cheering partners
in Europe, who were frustrated by less ambitious promises made by Obama's Republican
predecessor, George W. Bush.
Obama will stand by that pledge on Tuesday, and officials said Washington wants to take the lead
in international efforts to seek a new agreement to reduce emissions after 2020.
"We will be seeking an agreement that is ambitious, inclusive and flexible," the White House said
in a written version of Obama's climate plan.
As part of its global efforts, the White House would propose World Trade Organization talks on
free trade in environmental goods and services, officials said. The United States would also plan
to end its support of public financing for new coal power plants overseas unless they used carbon
capture technology. Very poor countries would still get support.
Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed this month to cooperate in fighting climate
change by cutting the use of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs.
The White House plan includes measures to tackle HFCs as well as emissions from methane,
another potent greenhouse gas.
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Financial Times (UK): ‘Climate bomb’ warning over China coolant release
23 June 2013
A “climate bomb” of potent greenhouse gases 15,000 times more damaging to the climate than
carbon dioxide is set to be released by some of the world’s leading producers of refrigerants
following a ban on climate credits.
The companies, the majority of them in China, argue that a ban on trading of climate credits for
the incineration of HFC-23 makes it no longer financially viable to destroy the gas, which is a
byproduct of a substance used in air conditioners and refrigerators.
A warning by the Environmental Investigation Agency in a report to be released on Monday will
raise the pressure on China to ban such gases and end economic incentives for their production
in multilateral talks.
Some 19 factories – 11 in China – making HCFC-22 have been receiving climate credits under
the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism for installing and operating incinerators to burn HFC-23
that is created during the manufacturing process, instead of venting it into the atmosphere.
Facilities in developing countries can sell emission reduction credits to buyers in developed
countries to allow the latter to meet their targets under the Kyoto protocol.
However, the European Emissions Trading Scheme, the world’s largest carbon market, banned
trading in those credits last month after finding that the financial incentive drove companies to
produce more HFC-23 instead of curbing it. Other climate exchanges have said they will follow,
causing substantial revenue streams for the producers to dry up.
The EIA said an investigation had shown that most of China’s non-CDM facilities were emitting
HFC-23 already. “If all of these facilities [under the CDM] join China’s non-CDM and vent their
HFC-23, they will set off a climate bomb emitting more than 2bn tonnes of CO2 equivalent
emissions by 2020,” it said.
People involved in the sector in China said this was likely to happen. “If there is no more funding,
the CDM plants could start venting as well,” Mei Shengfang, deputy secretary-general of the
China Association of Fluorine and Silicone Industry, said. He added that authorities were
considering offering support.
An executive at China Fluoro Technology, one of the largest Chinese CDM plants, said: “Our
company is still incinerating the HFC-23 now. If the money is used up, we can stop incineration.
We can’t go on doing this, we can’t afford it and we have no duty to do it.”
Releasing HFC-23 into the atmosphere is not illegal. China has been blocking proposals for a ban
as part of multilateral talks under the Montreal Protocol to phase out hydrofluorocarbons, which
continue on Monday in Bangkok.
China raised hopes this month when President Xi Jinping and President Barack Obama of the US
said at a summit that they had agreed to work together to reduce the production and consumption
of hydrofluorocarbons. “This is a reversal of China’s attitude, and all eyes are on China now to see
if it’s for real,” said Alexander von Bismarck, executive director at EIA.
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Guardian (UK): Tasmania's old growth forests win environmental protection
24 June 2013
Almost 200,000 hectares of Tasmania’s old growth forest have been world heritage listed,
bringing hope that a three-decade fight between environmentalists, politicians and loggers is over.
The World Heritage Committee has extended the heritage listed boundary of the Tasmanian
Wilderness World Heritage Area by more than 170,000 hectares after accepting a proposal from
the Australian government which will give the areas the highest level of environmental protection
in the world.
The old growth forest areas now added to the heritage listing are in the Upper Florentine as well
as within the Styx, Huon, Picton and Counsel River Valley.
Logging will continue in the forest in areas Environment Minister Tony Burke described as “less
contentious”.
The proposal the government put to the World Heritage Committee was the work of people within
the forestry industry as well as environmentalists, including Miranda Gibson who famously spent
457 days living in a tree in the old growth forest in a campaign for extended environmental
protection.
Speaking from Hobart where she had watched a livestream of the World Heritage Committee
handing down the decision, Gibson said she was thrilled and had contemplated returning to the
tree if she was unhappy with the decision.
“It’s good to know I don’t have to go back to the tree unless I want to visit,” she said.
“The hardest part [of living in the tree] was not knowing how long I would be up there or if the
loggers would come and log around me.
“It was obviously also very isolating.”
Gibson started living at the top of the 60 metre eucalypt tree in December 2011 and was driven
out by bushfires in March this year. By then the proposed extended areas for world heritage listing
had been granted temporary protection.
She decided to campaign from the ground until the committee handed down their official decision.
Environmentalists have been fighting for protection of more of the old growth forests in Tasmania
for years, while the forestry industry argued it was vital for jobs in the state that logging of some
parts be allowed
“Today is the result of decades of people standing up for the forest,” Gibson said.
“It is testament to the strength of the community we have been able to achieve this.
“If it was not for individuals standing up over the past few decades there would be many parts of
the forest that would already be gone.”
While the natural values of the forest have been listed there is still a fight for the cultural values to
be recognised.
Burke said the government would continue to consult with Indigenous communities in Tasmania
to have the cultural values considered by the World Heritage Committee.
“For the first time it’s [an environmental agreement] been done, not through a political process, but
through a genuine community process where industry and environment groups came up together
with a package that they thought would deliver what each of them wanted most,” he said in a
statement.
“We have the conservation groups saying the high conservation areas are being protected and for
the people who look at it from an industry perspective this is part of that entire package that has
resulted in 30 years of conflict in Tasmanian forestry being resolved through an extraordinary
agreement that made it through the stakeholders made it through the parliament and now has
been endorsed by the WH committee as being a conservation outcome of international
importance.”
The Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area is home to tall eucalypt forests, glacial landforms
and alpine and sub-alpine environments. The Styx-Tyenna area has the highest concentration of
tall eucalypt forest in the world.
The area is also important habitat for rare and threatened species such as the endangered
wedge-tailed eagle and the Tasmanian Devil.
Greens Leader Christine Milne tried with former leader Bob Brown to have the areas of the forest
world heritage listed in 1989 but the pair’s efforts were thwarted by then-Premier Michael Field
who drew up conservation boundaries environmentalists have long criticised.
“It’s fantastic that after so many years of campaigning conservationists around Tasmania, and
indeed the world, can celebrate the protection of these magnificent wild forests that contain the
tallest flowering plants on earth and an array of wonderful wildlife,” Milne said.
“In recognising the decades of work of conservationists I want to pay tribute to the late Helen Gee
who was involved for 40-plus years and whose book For the Forests is a wealth of information on
all those people who, in many cases, put their bodies in front of the bulldozers.
“We can all smile broadly knowing that at last Tasmania’s forests of outstanding universal value
are now protected for all time.”
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BBC News (UK): Fukushima nuclear plant: Toxic isotope found in groundwater
19 June 2013
High levels of a toxic radioactive isotope have been found in groundwater at Japan's Fukushima
nuclear plant, its operator says.
Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said tests showed Strontium-90 was present at 30 times
the legal rate.
The radioactive isotope tritium has also been detected at elevated levels.
The plant, crippled by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, has recently seen a series of water leaks
and power failures.
The tsunami knocked out cooling systems to the reactors, which melted down.
Water is now being pumped in to the reactors to cool them but this has left Tepco with the
problem of how to safely store the contaminated water.
There have been several reports of leaks from storage tanks or pipes.
Detecting increasing levels of the highly radioactive substance Strontium-90 indicates that Tepco
is still struggling to contain the Fukushima reactors.
Water continues to be a massive problem as the company is running out of storage space for the
large amounts of the liquid they use every day as to cool the plant.
On top of that around 400 tonnes of groundwater flow into the reactor buildings every day. They
have even dug up 12 relief wells near the site in an effort to halt the ingress.
As to the high levels of Strontium-90 detected, it has a half life of 29 years. This means that in
humans it can continue to irradiate them for many years. It can be ingested from food or water
and tends to concentrate in the bones and is believed to cause cancer there.
In animal studies, exposure to Strontium-90 also caused harmful reproductive effects. These
effects happened when animals were exposed to doses more than a million times higher than
typical exposure levels for humans.
Sea samples
Strontium-90 is formed as a by-product of nuclear fission. Tests showed that levels of strontium in
groundwater at the Fukushima plant had increased 100-fold since the end of last year, Toshihiko
Fukuda, a Tepco official, told media.
Mr Fukuda said Tepco believed the elevated levels originated from a leak of contaminated water
in April 2011 from one of the reactors.
"As it's near where the leak from reactor number two happened and taking into account the
situation at the time, we believe that water left over from that time is the highest possibility," he
said.
Tritium, used in glow-in-the-dark watches, was found at eight times the allowable level.
Mr Fukuda said that samples from the sea showed no rise in either substance and the company
believed the groundwater was being contained by concrete foundations.
"When we look at the impact that is having on the ocean, the levels seem to be within past trends
and so we don't believe it's having an effect."
But the discovery is another setback for Tepco's plan to pump groundwater from the plant into the
sea, correspondents say.
Nuclear chemist Michiaki Furukawa told Reuters news agency that Tepco should not release
contaminated water into the ocean.
"They have to keep it somewhere so that it can't escape outside the plant," he said. "Tepco needs
to carry out more regular testing in specific areas and disclose everything they find."
The Fukushima power plant has faced a series of problems this year. Early this month, radioactive
water was found leaking from a storage tank.
The plant also suffered three power failures in five weeks earlier this year. A leak of radioactive
water from one of the plant's underground storage pools was also detected in April.
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Phil Star (Philippines): Palace mulls moving oil depot out of Manila
24 June 2013
Malacañang is studying a plan to move the Pandacan oil depot from the nation's capital after a
warehouse in Sta. Ana district allegedly leaked oil and other fuel products into the Pasig river over
the weekend.
Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said on Monday that the Office of Executive Secretary
Paquito Ochoa is undertaking the study after the issue was elevated to the Office of the President.
“Pinag-aaralan po yan ng Office of the Executive Secretary and we will let you know kung ano ang
magiging resulta ng pag-aaral na yun,” Lacierda said at a a press briefing.
An approximately 100 liters of bunker oil was discovered at around 2:00 a.m. on Sunday at the
Sta. Ana and Pandacan side of the Pasig River in Manila after residents in nearby area
complained about the foul odor late Saturday night, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said.
The oil spill caused foul odor reaching as far as Malacañang, with residents around the affected
areas complaining of breathing difficulties.
Authorities contained the oil spill was contained on Sunday.
The Philippine Coast Guard said its Marine Environmental Protection Unit is now conducting
investigation into the incident and was directed to get samples of oil.
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Star (Kenya): The Nile Basin States Are Gifts of the River
25 June 2013
"Egypt is the gift of the Nile." This Fifth Century BC pronouncement of Greek Historian Herodotus
was reaffirmed when Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi declared that his country is keen not to
risk losing a "single drop of Nile water" on which their civilisation is based.
Speaking to supporters, President Mursi declared that Egypt had no intentions to wage war
against Ethiopia but vowed to keep all options open. According to Ayman Shabaana, political
science professor at Cairo University, the Nile is the state and a threat to the river constitutes a
threat to national security.
President Mursi's remarks came following a move a by Ethiopian authorities to divert the waters of
the Blue Nile to in advance of its planned $4.7 billion (Sh403.4 billion) dollar Grand Renaissance
Dam. This will be Africa's largest hydropower plant, producing 6,000 megawatts of electricity and
creating a reservoir with a capacity of 63 billion cubic metres.
A report of a tripartite technical committee comprising Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan has announced
that its findings are inconclusive on the planned dam's effects on Egypt and Sudan. However, it is
estimated that Egypt could lose up to 20 per cent of its "water share" over the three-five years
needed to fill the dam. Over the last couple of weeks, bellicose rhetoric, including talk of hostile
acts to force Ethiopia to halt the dam has raised concerns of conflict over the waters of the Nile.
With an annual discharge of 2,830 cubic metres per second, just six per cent of the mighty Congo
River, the Nile basin is worryingly water constrained. The population of its upstream neighbours
are growing rapidly, fueling increased demand for more water and food.
Projections by the UN show that the combined population of the Nile Basin countries will grow to
circa 340 million by 2030. The enduring ghosts of the colonial agreements, which preclude
inclusive upstream cooperation, aggravate this grim reality.
The agreements are absurd. For example, Ethiopia, the source of the Blue Nile, which contributes
an estimated 85 per cent of the Nile River, has no rights over the water to the extent that it
infringes the natural and historical rights of Egypt in the waters of the Nile.
A 1929 agreement with Britain-representing East African colonies-gave Egypt the right to veto
upstream projects that would affect its "water share". With the posturing in Cairo, Egypt is
essentially defending its unbridled historic rights over the Nile waters.
The enduring binding nature of the treaty beyond the British colonial rule is largely because of the
compulsory transmission of all the rights and obligations of the predecessor upstream colonial
state to their independent successor.
Egypt's natural and historical rights over the Nile waters was challenged in 2010 when a new
water-sharing agreement, Nile Cooperative Framework Agreement, was signed among six
upstream states, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. Congo and
South Sudan have signaled that they will sign the CFA.
Last week, Ethiopia's Parliament ratified the Nile Cooperative Framework Agreement; an
agreement intended to replace colonial-era agreements that gave Egypt and Sudan the biggest
share of the Nile waters.
Buoyed by this ratification, Ethiopia has indicated that it is happy to talk with the Egyptians but
such talks would not entertain any consideration to halt or delay the construction of the dam.
Unanimous agreement and ratification of the CFA has not been achieved largely because of
unhelpful inclusion of the nebulous notion of "water security" and the insistence by Egypt and
Sudan that Article 14 (b) should obligate upstream states not to adversely affect their water
security and current uses and rights.
Egypt and Sudan are also unyielding in their demand for early notification mechanism before
upstream countries undertake any irrigation or hydropower projects. Egypt wants the CFA to
guarantee its access to the historical 55.5 billion cubic metres based on the 1959 agreement with
Sudan.
Given the enduring colonial legacy, the Nile is the only major river basin without a permanent legal
and institutional framework for its use and management.
Herodotus was wrong. All the Nile basin states are the gift of the Nile.
Egypt and Sudan must return to the negotiating table. They must work cooperatively with the
upstream Nile basin states on inclusive binding rights and responsibilities, beyond distracting and
unattainable delusions such as water security. Relinquishing exclusive rights over the waters of
the Nile is the bitter but necessary pill Egypt and Sudan must swallow.
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Environmental News from the UNEP Regions
ROA MEDIA UPDATE
THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Los Angeles Times (US): Biofuel project in Kenya ignites land, environmental
disputes
Foreign firms seeking land in Africa for biofuel crops run into opposition from communities and
environmental activists despite promising jobs and development.
DIDA ADE, Kenya — With its leaf-thatched mud huts, bad roads, chronic unemployment,
crushing poverty and vast tracts of "underutilized" land, the Tana River Delta in eastern Kenya
seemed the perfect place for a foreign businessman looking to grow crops that could be turned
into biofuel.
Canadian David McClure believed the project, which involved leasing more than 600 square
miles at a minuscule cost, would be both profitable and humanitarian.
But McClure underestimated local resistance and deep sensitivity about land in a region where
ethnic violence linked to land use has flared repeatedly. Four years after launching the project,
his company pulled out, leaving McClure bitter and defeated, accusing the Kenyan government
of betraying Kenyans by frustrating his plans.
He was not alone in seeing Africa as an exciting new frontier for biofuel production, with cheap
land that, to an outside eye, looks wasted.
Millions of acres have been snapped up across the continent by foreigners for farming biofuel
plants, such as the oil-producing jatropha, which McClure wanted to grow. These projects are
usually pitched by companies as being good for the environment and good for poor Africans.
But biofuel crop projects have been attacked by environmental and humanitarian activists as
doing more harm than good, often replacing food crops that are badly needed in poor countries
or destroying natural habitat like forests.
Demand for biofuel is driven by European Union regulations requiring that 10% of energy
consumption in member states come from renewable sources by 2020. A British humanitarian
organization, Action Aid, reported last year that more than 193,000 square miles had been
planted
with
biofuel
plants
globally,
much
of
it
in
Africa.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-kenya-biofuel-20130622,0,7673575.story
or robyn.dixon@latimes.com>
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Reuters AlertNet: Kenya looks to geothermal energy to boost power supply
About ten kilometres north of the Kenya's Rift Valley town of Nakuru lies a massive shield
volcano with one of the biggest calderas in the world. Standing at about 7,474 feet above sea
level with a sheer cliff, locals describe it as an easy suicide zone. Perhaps, this is how the crater
earned its name 'Menengai' - Maasai dialect for 'Corpse'.
Now, with funding from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Bank's Climate
Investment Fund (CIF), the government of Kenya is taking advantage of this volcanic opening to
generate electricity using hot steam from the earth's crust to run turbines.
"This is a move in a positive direction because with shifting climatic conditions we need more
sources of energy that are not affected by the prevailing climatic conditions," said John Kioli, the
chief executive officer of the Green Africa Foundation , a local nongovernmental organisation
that champions a greener future.
In recent years, Kenya - which gets much of its energy from hydropower - has faced power
rationing, largely because of reduced water levels at hydroelectric generating plants. The worst
experience was in 2006, when the national grid ran short of 90 megawatts after rains were
delayed. The shortages affected major businesses, as well as schools, hospitals, military camps
and homes. For more details check:
http://allafrica.com/stories/201306220197.html?aa_source=acrdn-f0
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Star (Kenya): Schools deplete 60 trees a day - expert
Green Africa Foundation chairman Isaac Kalua has asked schools to find alternative sources of
energy like biogas. Addressing school heads in Mombasa on Saturday, Kalua, who is an
environment expert, said schools depend too much on wood fuel.
He was speaking at the just-concluded conference for school heads. He said schools use an
average of 60 trees daily. "If we do not conserve our environment, our country is headed for
doom," Kalua said.
He said the depletion of water towers in the country is "mind boggling".Kalua said out of 8.7
million houses in the country, 5.6 million depend entirely on firewood for energy. For more
details please check: http://allafrica.com/stories/201306240065.html
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Tanzania Daily News (Tanzania): Harmful species 'invade' dar
TANZANIA has more than 120 invasive species whose impact can be harmful to the country's
economy, the environment and human health.
Speaking exclusively to the 'Daily News', Ms Hulda Gideon, of Tanzania Commission for
Science and Technology (COSTECH) said that the introduction of such species causes harm to
the economy, environment and human health. "They are characteristically adaptable,
aggressive and have a high reproductive capacity. Their vigor combined with a lack of natural
enemies often leads to population outbreaks."
A study and documentation of invasive species launched in 2010, showed that the country had
60 such species, but recent documentation of the invasive species shows that there are more
than 120 at the moment. COSTECH, in collaboration with other research institutions and other
stakeholders, agreed to establish the Tanzania Biodiversity Information Facility (TanBIF). For
more details please check: http://allafrica.com/stories/201306240464.html
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Daily Observer (Gambia): Gambia launches €2m water sector reform project
The government of The Gambia through the Ministry of Fisheries and Water Resources has
secured a 2 million euros [approximately D89M] water sector reform project from the African
Development Bank (AfDB) through its Africa Water Facility. The amount includes Gambia
government's 5% counterpart contribution.
The African Water Facility (AWF) is an initiative of the African Ministers Council on Water
(AMCOW). It is hosted and managed by the African Development Bank (AfDB), with the overall
purpose of assisting African countries to mobilise and apply resources for the Water and
Sanitation sector to help enable them to successfully implement the Africa Water Vision (2025)
and meet the MDGs (2015). The AWF began its operations in 2006. For more details please
check: http://allafrica.com/stories/201306240472.html
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ROAP MEDIA UPDATE
THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
UN News centre: Sustainable management of natural resources can bring peace
to Afghanistan – UN report
24 June 2013
Sustainable and equitable management of Afghanistan’s natural resources such as land, water,
forests and minerals can contribute to peacebuilding in the country, according to a United
Nations report released today.
The report, Natural Resource Management and Peacebuilding in Afghanistan, describes how
the UN and the international community can assist the Afghan Government to improve the
management of natural resources in a way that contributes to peace and development on a
national scale.
“Effective management of natural resources will help build peace in Afghanistan, and therefore
development work and investment in all natural resource sectors must be managed carefully,”
said the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General with the UN Assistance
Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Mark Bowden.
“Disputes in Afghanistan over natural resources can aggravate existing ethnic, political and
regional divisions,” he added.
The study, which was funded by the European Union (EU), also aims to encourage international
organizations to introduce mechanisms into their projects to ensure that they do not
inadvertently exacerbate conflict over natural resources.
Up to 80 per cent of Afghans are directly dependent on natural resources for income and
sustenance, and 60 per cent of the population obtain their livelihoods from agriculture, making
equitable management of these resources particularly relevant in the country.
Natural resources contribute to underlying tension and conflict in Afghanistan as powerful
groups try to gain control over access to irrigation water for downstream provinces, communities
compete over land, illegal trade of forest timber and gemstones is widespread, and corruption is
rampant.
“The issue in post-conflict countries is how to make natural resources a blessing that reinforces
stability and not a curse that drives conflict,” said Nicholas Haysom, a Deputy Special
Representative of the Secretary-General in Afghanistan.
The report notes that the international community can help improve the management of natural
resources in Afghanistan by building capacity to help implement management structures and
laws relating to natural resources, supporting community-level dispute resolution processes,
improving data collection to enable early warning alerts when risks are detected, providing
funding for conflict resolution that takes an environmental approach, and making environmental
assessments a standard component of all development projects.
Led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the report was developed in close
collaboration with the Natural Resources Contact Group of the UN in Afghanistan and produced
at the request of the UN Country Team, in partnership with the EU-UN Global Partnership on
Land, Natural Resources and Conflict.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=45258&Cr=afghan&Cr1=
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Scoop: Sustainable Management of Natural Resources in Afghanistan
25 June 2013
Sustainable Management of Natural Resources Can Bring Peace to Afghanistan – UN Report
New York, Jun 24 2013 - Sustainable and equitable management of Afghanistan’s natural
resources such as land, water, forests and minerals can contribute to peacebuilding in the
country, according to a United Nations report released today.
The report, Natural Resource Management and Peacebuilding in Afghanistan, describes how
the UN and the international community can assist the Afghan Government to improve the
management of natural resources in a way that contributes to peace and development on a
national scale.
“Effective management of natural resources will help build peace in Afghanistan, and therefore
development work and investment in all natural resource sectors must be managed carefully,”
said the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General with the UN Assistance
Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Mark Bowden.
“Disputes in Afghanistan over natural resources can aggravate existing ethnic, political and
regional divisions,” he added.
The study, which was funded by the European Union (EU), also aims to encourage international
organizations to introduce mechanisms into their projects to ensure that they do not
inadvertently exacerbate conflict over natural resources.
Up to 80 per cent of Afghans are directly dependent on natural resources for income and
sustenance, and 60 per cent of the population obtain their livelihoods from agriculture, making
equitable management of these resources particularly relevant in the country.
Natural resources contribute to underlying tension and conflict in Afghanistan as powerful
groups try to gain control over access to irrigation water for downstream provinces, communities
compete over land, illegal trade of forest timber and gemstones is widespread, and corruption is
rampant.
“The issue in post-conflict countries is how to make natural resources a blessing that reinforces
stability and not a curse that drives conflict,” said Nicholas Haysom, a Deputy Special
Representative of the Secretary-General in Afghanistan.
The report notes that the international community can help improve the management of natural
resources in Afghanistan by building capacity to help implement management structures and
laws relating to natural resources, supporting community-level dispute resolution processes,
improving data collection to enable early warning alerts when risks are detected, providing
funding for conflict resolution that takes an environmental approach, and making environmental
assessments a standard component of all development projects.
Led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the report was developed in close
collaboration with the Natural Resources Contact Group of the UN in Afghanistan and produced
at the request of the UN Country Team, in partnership with the EU-UN Global Partnership on
Land, Natural Resources and Conflict.
For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1306/S00577/sustainable-management-of-natural-resources-inafghanistan.htm
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Shanghai Daily: Successive crises affect Cote d'Ivoire's environment: UNDP
24 June 2013
ABIDJAN, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Successive crises in Cote d'Ivoire had a negative impact on the
West African country's environment, the UN environment agency said on Monday.
Speaking in Abidjan, the head of the delegation of experts from the United Nations
Environmental Program (UNEP), Samantha Newport, said the evaluation to ascertain this
impact had begun following a request by Cote d'Ivoire's government.
"The evaluation will mainly examine the environmental consequences related to issues such as
degradation of national parks and classified forests," Newport said.
She said her team will also be interested in other environmental threats such as the Ebrie
lagoon, coastal erosion and environmental governance.
Cote d'Ivoire has witnessed a number of political crises including the 1999 coup d'etat, the
2002-2003 civil war and the 2010-2011 post-election violence.
The country's environment suffered the collateral effects of those turmoils amid reports of illegal
exploitation and occupation of the protected zones.
Facing the degradation, authorities have decided to seek expert support in developing a new
environmental policy.
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.asp?id=149313
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ROLAC MEDIA UPDATE
THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
For a full summary of news from Latin America and the Caribbean region, visit:
http://www.pnuma.org/informacion/noticias/2013-06/24/index.html
Ver todas la Noticias Ambientales
http://www.pnuma.org/informacion/noticias/2013-06/24/index.html
Manchete Notícias
UNEP: Disposing refrigerants in the Caribbean a challenge
Junio 23, 2013 - West Indies News Network
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN): Disposal of refrigerants used in refrigerators and cooling appliances
is a difficult challenge for the Caribbean, according to Donalyn Charles, Project Manager...
Call for policy on mercury bulbs
Junio 20, 2013 - Nation news
A SURINAMESE SCIENTIST has suggested governments should legislate the use and disposal
of mercury-filled light bulbs to prevent poisoning.
Chile incrementará uso de energías renovables no convencionales
Junio 24, 2013 - Prensa Latina
24 de junio de 2013, 08:55Santiago de Chile, 24 jun (PL) El 55 por ciento de los proyectos de
generación eléctrica en Chile son plantas solares y eólicas, reveló hoy un informe de la
Corporación de Bienes de Capital.
Chile incrementará uso de energías renovables no convencionales 24 de junio de 2013,
08:55Santiago de Chile, 24 jun (PL) El 55 por ciento de...
País: Chile
Aplica CONAFOR programas para la conservación de ecosistemas
Junio 24, 2013 - Crónica Campeche
En el marco del Día Mundial de la Preservación de los Bosques Tropicales, la Comisión
Nacional Forestal (CONAFOR), aplica programas de conservación para estos ecosistemas,
toda vez que anualmente a nivel mundial, 10 millones de hectáreas de bosques tropicales son
alteradas por la explotación.
...y composición arbórea. Por lo anterior, expuso que la deforestación ha ocasionado que los
bosques tropicales se hayan reducido alrededor del...
País: México
Corales mesoamericanos rumbo a convertirse en desierto marino
Junio 24, 2013 - La Gaceta Online
Por Danilo Valladares Los cuatro países del arrecife mesoamericano, Belice, Honduras,
Guatemala y México, no salen bien parados de un análisis sobre las medidas que podrían
tomar para protegerlo del cambio climático y de otros impactos humanos.
...guatemaltecos de Punta de Manabique y Sarstún, en la costa del mar Caribe cerca de la
frontera con Honduras, no escapan a los efectos del cambio...
Regional
Proyectos de energía renovable en Centroamérica
Junio 24, 2013 - La Prensa Gráfica
Los proyectos abarcan energía solar fotovoltaica para producir electricidad.
...otros. La AEA surgió en el marco de la Cumbre Mundial de Desarrollo Sostenible de
Naciones Unidas celebrada en Johannesburgo en 2002, y se concretó...
Resguarda México desierto con mayor diversidad del mundo
Junio 23, 2013 - La Estrella Online
2013-06-23 — 2:49:00 PM — Por Epifanio Cortés Cedillo MEXICO. La Reserva de la Biosfera
El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar, ubicado en el estado de Sonora, en el norte de México, es
considerado el desierto con mayor diversidad biologica del mundo, según fuentes consultadas
por Xinhua.
...(1987); el Santuario de Ballenas El Vizcaíno (1993); las Islas y Areas Protegidas del Golfo de
California (2005); y la Reserva de la Biosfera Mariposa...
País: México
Hacia una ley de protección de glaciares en Chile
Junio 23, 2013 - Portal Minero
Hace un par de semanas el reconocido doctor en Glaciología, Cedomir Marangunic, fue
invitado por la Comisión del Medio Ambiente del Senado a exponer ante esa corporación. Se
comienza a hablar sobre la necesidad de avanzar hacia una Ley de Protección de Glaciares en
nuestro país, y este experto tiene
...tiene porque aunque podamos disminuir la acción del hombre sobre el cambio climático,
igualmente se van a extinguir por los efectos naturales...
País: Chile
Desarrollo sostenible en foro venezolano de diversidad biológica
Junio 22, 2013 - Prensa Latina
22 de junio de 2013, 18:32Caracas, 22 jun (PL) La ciudad de Punto Fijo (estado de Falcón)
acogerá las actividades del IV Congreso Venezolano de Diversidad Biológica, previsto del 23 al
28 de junio para debatir los retos del desarrollo, informaron hoy los organizadores.
Desarrollo sostenible en foro venezolano de diversidad biológica 22 de junio de 2013,
18:32Caracas, 22 jun (PL) La ciudad de Punto Fijo (estado...
País: Venezuela
CRECEN AMENAZAS PARA HUMEDALES
Junio 22, 2013 - Planeta Azul
México carece de capacidad para proteger los 138 humedales de importancia internacional que
ha registrado ante la Convención Ramsar, advirtió Exequiel Ezcurra, director del Instituto para
México y Estados Unidos de la Universidad de California y presidente del Consejo Nacional de
Áreas Naturales Pro
...Marismas Nacionales sobre los manglares, o los proyectos en el Caribe que han intentando
varias veces hacer hoteles y desarrollos sobre los manglares...
País: México
Deforestadas unas 1.764 hectáreas de bosques paraguayos en menos de un año
Junio 22, 2013 - Acento
La destrucción de los bosques que se encontraban en el distrito de Nueva Esperanza, situado a
unos 200 kilómetros de la frontera con Brasil
...de la ONG. Nueva Esperanza "ha registrado esta suma crítica" de deforestación, pese a que
en la Región Oriental rige una Ley que prohíbe las...
País: Paraguay
Surprise Species at Risk from Climate Change
Junio 24, 2013 - Science Daily
? Most species at greatest risk from climate change are not currently conservation priorities,
according to an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) study that has introduced
a pioneering method to assess the vulnerability of species to climate change.
Surprise Species at Risk from Climate Change Most species at greatest risk from climate
change are not currently conservation priorities, according...
El ornitorrinco amenazado por el cambio climático
Junio 24, 2013 - Diario Ecologia
El calentamiento global podría disminuir en un tercio las zonas habitadas por el ornitorrinco en
Australia y este podría desaparecer. Este mamífero que pone huevos, con cola de castor,
hocico en forma de pico de pato, venenoso, semiacuático, es un extraño animal emblemático y
endémico de Australia
El ornitorrinco amenazado por el cambio climático El calentamiento global podría disminuir en
un tercio las zonas habitadas por el ornitorrinco...
Unión Europea plantea bajar emisión de gases
Junio 23, 2013 - El Caribe
Las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero podrían provocar que a finales de este siglo las
temperaturas se incrementen en al menos 4 grados Celsius.
...Europea plantea bajar emisión de gases Las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero
podrían provocar que a finales de este siglo las temperaturas...
Foro Mundial del Medio Ambiente empieza hoy con el agua como tema principal
Junio 22, 2013 - Acento
Durante la inauguración, la ministra de Medio Ambiente de Brasil, Izabella Teixeira, recalcó la
importancia de la manutención de los recursos hídricos.
...hídricos. Teixeira afirmó que el agua debe ser tema central para el desarrollo sostenible y
pidió el compromiso de todos para proteger no sólo los recursos...
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RONA MEDIA UPDATE
THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Look to the Stars: Pioneer Swimmer Prepares to Circumnavigate The Globe
http://www.looktothestars.org/news/10373-pioneer-swimmer-prepares-to-circumnavigate-theglobe
Pioneer swimmer and ocean advocate Lewis Pugh was today unveiled as the United Nations
Environment Programme's Patron for Oceans as he prepares to embark on an epic
circumnavigation of the globe.
Mr. Pugh, a maritime lawyer from London, is the only person to have completed a long distance
swim in every ocean of the world. In 2007 he swam across an open patch of sea at the North
Pole to highlight the melting of the Arctic sea ice and in 2010 he swam across a newly formed
glacial lake on Mt Everest to draw attention to the impact of climate change in the Himalayas.
Next year Mr. Pugh will embark on a three-year journey that will see him cross three oceans
and 18 seas. Along the way, he will be promoting UNEP’s work and spearheading their
campaign for the establishment of more Marine Protected Areas.
“I’m very excited to engage with UNEP as Patron for their work on oceans. Their work is
crucial,” said Mr. Pugh. “One of the goals of the Convention on Biological Diversity is to see 10
per cent of our oceans set aside as properly managed Marine Protected Areas by 2020. We
must achieve this target. Over 10 per cent of terrestrial land is protected by National Parks. If we
can do it on land, we can surely do the same in the sea. I am looking forward to rolling up my
sleeves and helping UNEP in every way possible.”
“I have been swimming for 27 years, and over that period I’ve seen our oceans change. I’ve
seen enormous chunks of ice slide off Arctic glaciers. I’ve swum over bleached coral killed by
rising sea temperatures, and over the bones of whales hunted to the edge of extinction. I’ve
visited lakes high in the Himalayas where once there was only ice,” Mr. Pugh added. “I’ve seen
drastic changes in my lifetime – changes that have come about because of our actions. In my
lifetime I’d like to see us change, because we have it within our power to make a positive
difference.”
Mr Pugh becomes only UNEP’s second Patron for a specific cause. He joins Kenyan Patrick
Makau, the Marathon World Record Holder, who is Patron for Clean Air.
His long experience as an inspirational speaker will play a key role in bolstering support for a
world in which oceans and seas are seen as vital natural resources that require far higher levels
of sustainable management and conservation.
Millions have viewed his talks at TEDGlobal on conserving our oceans. His speech on
leadership at the BIF Conference in Rhode Island was voted one of the “7 Most Inspiring Videos
on the Web.” In 2010, the World Economic Forum named him a Young Global Leader.
“We are delighted to have Mr. Pugh join the UNEP family,” said UN Under-Secretary-General
and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner. “His passionate advocacy for oceans dovetails
with UNEP’s Regional Seas Programme to address and reverse the accelerating degradation of
the world’s oceans and coastal.”
“Humanity is having an inordinate environmental and economic impact on oceans and seas,” he
added. “UNEP’s Green Economy report has identified transformational pathways that can
reduce pollution, address overfishing and achieve a marine environment that can into the future
continue to support lives and livelihoods in areas from tourism to fisheries and renewable
energies. The messages Lewis will carry to audiences across the globe can inspire and catalyse
action.”
The Regional Seas Programme, launched in 1974 in the wake of the 1972 United Nations
Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm, is one of UNEP’s most significant
achievements in the past 40 years.
The programme engages neighbouring countries in comprehensive and specific actions to
sustainably manage their shared marine environment. Today, more than 143 countries
participate in one or more of the 18 Regional Seas programmes around the world, six of which
are administered by UNEP. Click here for more on the programme.
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Reuters: U.N. says Pakistan has food “emergency” but donors look elsewhere
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/24/us-pakistan-hunger-idUSBRE95N0AQ20130624
(Reuters) - Hunger in Pakistan is at emergency levels after years of conflict and floods, but
funding has dwindled as new crises such as Syria grab donors' attention, the United
Nations food aid chief said on Sunday.
Fighting in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan compounded problems caused by three
consecutive years of floods that destroyed crops and forced millions of people to temporarily
abandon their homes.
Although most have now returned, about half of Pakistan's population still does not have secure
access to enough food, up from a little over a third a decade ago, the U.N. World Food
Programme (WFP) said. Fifteen percent of children are severely malnourished, and some 40
percent suffer from stunted growth.
"This is an emergency situation, both from the food security side as well as from the malnutrition
side," WFP chief Ertharin Cousin told Reuters. "We need to raise the alarm."
At a center for treating acute malnutrition in Pakistan's Swat Valley, visited by Cousin on
Sunday, a young mother called Zainab clutched her underweight 2-month-old baby and waited
for a high-nutrition food ration.
"When the area was evacuated, we left our cattle and our homes, when we came back our
cattle were dead and our homes were destroyed," said Zainab, who wore a black burqa.
There is growing concern that international donors will lose interest in the unstable border areas
after the withdrawal next year of U.S.-led foreign forces from Afghanistan.
Already, Cousin said, the rising cost of the refugee crisis in Syria meant it was harder to attract
funds to Pakistan.
WFP's Syria-related operations currently cost $26 million a week, and are forecast to rise as
high as $42 million a week by the end of the year, putting a strain on Western donors.
North Korea is even worse hit by funding shortages, Cousin said, partly due to a drop in
donations noticed at the beginning of this year, when Pyongyang threatened to launch a nuclear
attack on the United States.
"We are significantly under-funded in DPRK going into this lean season, and we are very
concerned about what that means," said Cousin, who called off a visit to North Korea during the
tensions in March. She said she still planned to visit.
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UN News Centre: UN relief officials sound alarm over deepening food insecurity
in Palestine
Link:http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=45240&Cr=palestin&Cr1=#.UchJXjvYh8E
21 June 2013 – The heads of two United Nations aid agencies today raised the alarm over the
worsening food insecurity in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, where one in three Palestinian
households now struggle to feed their families.
Preliminary results of a joint UN survey carried out by the Palestinian Central Bureau of
Statistics, the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) found
that 1.6 million people – or 34 per cent of households – were food insecure in 2012.
This represents a “dramatic” rise from 27 per cent in 2011, stated a joint news release from
WFP and UNRWA.
Contributing factors include high unemployment rates, stagnant economic growth, the financial
problems of the Palestinian Authority, the continued Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the
six-year blockade of Gaza.
WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin and UNRWA Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi
today visited a Bedouin village between Jerusalem and Jericho where a food distribution carried
out jointly by the two agencies was taking place.
“High food prices and low wages mean that 1.6 million Palestinians don’t know from where their
next meal is coming,” said Ms. Cousin. “Yet food security is security. Food security is a vital
component for sustained peace across the region.”
Ms. Cousin also welcomed a new agreement with UNRWA that will strengthen cooperation in
Palestine and throughout the region and address the urgent needs of the population.
In nearby Jericho, she met shoppers using electronic vouchers from WFP to buy olive oil, salt
and other groceries, most of which are produced locally in Palestine. In the past three years,
WFP has injected more than $100 million into the Palestinian economy through local purchase
and the redemption of electronic food vouchers. This investment supports local businesses and
generates employment.
WFP reaches approximately 650,000 food-insecure, non-refugee households in Palestine.
Meanwhile, UNRWA provides food assistance to more than one million food-insecure Palestine
refugees across the Middle East.
During the visit to the village of Khan al Ahmar, the two officials signed a Memorandum of
Understanding, in an agreement which will deepen and expand ties between their agencies.
“As well as cooperating more in the fields of food security and nutrition, we can share expertise
in logistics, supply chain management and other initiatives, not just in Palestine, but regionally,
particularly as we face up to the challenge of the Syria crisis,” said Mr. Grandi.
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United States
The New York Times: Kerry Prods India to Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/world/asia/kerry-prods-india-to-cut-greenhouse-gasemissions.html?ref=earth&_r=0
NEW DELHI — Secretary of State John Kerry urged India on Sunday to begin to address
climate change by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases even as it attempts to bring
electricity to tens of millions of its citizens now living without it.
“I do understand and fully sympathize with the notion that India’s paramount commitment to
development and eradicating poverty is essential,” Mr. Kerry said in a speech at the start of a
two-day visit. “But we have to recognize that a collective failure to meet our collective climate
challenge would inhibit all countries’ dreams of growth and development.”
In an effort to prod the Indians to act, Mr. Kerry warned that climate change could cause India to
endure excessive heat waves, prolonged droughts, intense flooding and shortages of food and
water.
“The worst consequences of the climate crisis will confront people who are the least able to be
able to cope with them,” he said.
Mr. Kerry has long been active on the issue of climate change. His speech was part of a
broader push by the Obama administration that includes a presidential address, scheduled for
Tuesday, on steps the White House plans to take domestically, including establishing the first
limits on carbon emissions from new and existing power plants.
President Obama is also expected to pledge to lead a global effort to reduce climate-altering
emissions and help both the poorest nations and newly industrializing countries like India adapt
to the inevitable costs of a warming planet.
India is one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gases in the world, and it has
consistently rejected efforts by developed countries to slow down its energy consumption,
fearing that it would retard its economic growth and hamper its drive to reduce poverty. India
now ranks third in the world in production of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent heat-trapping
gas, behind China and the United States.
When Mr. Obama and Xi Jinping, China’s president, met in California two weeks ago,they
agreed to take steps to cut back on global production and use of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs,
a component in coolants in refrigerators and air-conditioners.
Experts said at the time that such an effort would not be successful without the participation of
India, where the use of refrigeration and air-conditioning is growing rapidly.
Mr. Kerry, on his first trip to India as secretary of state, was joined here by Ernest Moniz, the
secretary of energy, and other senior American officials.
In his speech, Mr. Kerry sought to make the case that protecting the environment could be
consistent with India’s economic development by improving energy efficiency and spurring
investment in green technology. The United States, he said, would announce an effort to
improve the energy efficiency of India’s air-conditioners.
But Mr. Kerry appeared to stop short of committing India to some sort of negotiated international
regime to phase out HFCs, though he alluded to the possibility.
“We can also work together to globally phase down hydrofluorocarbons,” he said, “and eliminate
the equivalent of roughly two years’ worth of current global emissions by the year 2050.”
Mr. Kerry also pleaded with India to commit to working constructively on a global treaty to be
negotiated under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. India has
shown some reluctance to fully engage in the negotiations, out of fear that a global regime
would impose the greatest cost on countries least able to afford them. The 190-plus signatories
to the United Nations climate convention have agreed to complete a new treaty with binding
legal force by the end of 2015.
Mr. Kerry tried to reassure India that any such pact would take its needs into account. “I am
convinced that we can move toward a global agreement that puts us on track to avert the most
dangerous climate change, that is sensitive to and respectful of the diversity of national
circumstances and capabilities, and that is fair, pragmatic and can actually evolve with changing
circumstances,” he said.
The visit comes at a time of some tension on trade in relations between the United States and
India.
In a letter to Mr. Kerry this month, the leading Democrat and Republican on the Senate Finance
Committee asserted that the Indian government and courts had violated intellectual property
rights by allowing India’s pharmaceutical industry to make a generic copy of a patented drug.
The letter, signed by the committee’s chairman, Max Baucus of Montana, a Democrat, and Orrin
G. Hatch of Utah, a Republican, also asserted that India was establishing barriers to American
investment. Mr. Kerry urged the completion of an investment treaty.
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The New York Times: For Solazyme, a Side Trip on the Way to Clean Fuel
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/business/for-solazyme-a-side-trip-on-the-way-to-cleanfuel.html?ref=earth
STARTING when they became friends in freshman year at Emory University in Atlanta,
Jonathan S. Wolfson and Harrison F. Dillon would take off into the mountains of Wyoming and
Colorado for weeks at time. They spent their days hiking in the wilderness and their nights
drinking bourbon by the campfire, talking big about how one day they would build a company
that would help preserve the environment they both loved.
They graduated, and the backpacking trips grew shorter and further between. Mr. Dillon went on
to earn a Ph.D. in genetics and a law degree, and ended up working as a biotech patent lawyer
in Silicon Valley. Mr. Wolfson received law and business degrees from New York University and
eventually started a software business. But the two still got together every year. And they kept
talking about the company that, they imagined as time went on, would use biotechnology to
create renewable energy.
“These were delusional rantings of kids,” said Mr. Wolfson, who, like Mr. Dillon, is now 42.
Then Mr. Dillon found microalgae, and delusional became real. Microalgae, a large and diverse
group of single-celled plants, produce a variety of substances, including oils, and are thought to
be responsible for most of the fossilized oil deposits in the earth. These, it seemed, were microorganisms with potential. With prodding, they could be re-engineered to make fuel.
So in 2003, Mr. Wolfson packed up and moved from New York to Palo Alto, Calif., where Mr.
Dillon lived. They started a company called Solazyme. In mythical Valley tradition, they worked
in Mr. Dillon’s garage, growing algae in test tubes. And they found a small knot of investors
attracted by the prospect of compressing a multimillion-year process into a matter of days.
Now, a decade later, they have released into the marketplace their very first algae-derived oil
produced at a commercial scale. Yet the destination for this oil — pale, odorless and dispensed
from a small matte-gold bottle with an eyedropper — is not gas tanks, but the faces of women
worried about their aging skin.
Sold under the brand name Algenist, the product, costing $79 for a one-ounce bottle, would
seem to have nothing in common with oil refineries and transportation fuel. But along with other
niche products that the company can sell at a premium, it may be just the thing that lets
Solazyme coast past the point where so many other clean-tech companies have run out of gas:
the so-called Valley of Death, where young businesses stall trying to shift to commercial-scale
production.
For years, policy makers, environmentalists and entrepreneurs have trumpeted the promise of
harnessing the power of the sun, wind, waves, municipal solid waste or, now, algae. There has
been some success. Since 2007, United States energy consumption from renewable sources
has grown nearly 35 percent, and now accounts for about 9 percent of the total, according to the
Energy Information Administration.
But the gains have been punctuated with prominent failures. Once-promising clean-tech
ventures that attracted hundreds of millions in federal support — like the solar panel maker
Solyndra, the cellulosic ethanol maker Range Fuels and the battery supplier A123 Systems —
have failed. While ethanol, derived from crops like corn and sugar cane, has become a
multibillion-dollar industry, it threatens to drive up the price of those plants for food and cannot
yet replace conventional fuel. The next generation of biofuels, based on nonfood plants, is still
struggling to take off.
Venture capital, which once gushed to renewable-energy start-ups like crude from an oil well,
has slowed. In contrast to software-based companies like Instagram or Facebook, these new
energy businesses burn through staggering amounts of capital over many years for research
and early-stage equipment before even demonstrating their promise, much less turning a profit.
Worldwide in 2012, venture capital investing in clean technologies fell by almost one-fourth, to
$7.4 billion, from $9.61 billion in 2011, according to the Cleantech Group’s i3 Platform, a
proprietary database.
“These are very high-innovation, capital-intensive, long-term businesses, and new-energy
technology is a very new field,” said David Danielson, a former venture capitalist who is
assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy at the Energy Department. “We
need a new model for how these projects are going to get financed and commercialized.”
In other words, clean-energy companies can’t rely only on the classic venture-capital approach
in which investors demand a fat, fast return. Mr. Danielson said that to succeed, companies
need a combination of government research-and-development grants, industrial partnerships
and a willingness to pursue higher-value product lines en route to entering larger, but lowermargin markets.
“The problem with a lot of clean-tech deals is that they have been about the way you make
things in high volume or in production, which means you can’t prove out the ideas unless you
build factories and actually make things in volume,” said Andrew S. Rappaport, a venture
capitalist who is a board member of Alta Devices, a solar film start-up.
That company is one of a handful that, like Solazyme, is pursuing niche markets for its core
product, in its instance developing fast-charging cases for smartphones and tablets, until it can
produce low-cost, commercial quantities of solar materials for homes and businesses. A Bay
Area start-up called Amyris, meanwhile, has shifted its genetically engineered yeast toward
chemicals and cosmetic ingredients as it tries to build a biofuel business.
For Solazyme, the hope is that by manipulating strains of algae to make proteins, complex
sugars and oils that can serve a variety of functions — like moisturizing skin or replacing eggs
and butter in brioches — it will stay afloat as it struggles to reach the next stage. And that next
step is making huge quantities of renewable energy products at a price that can compete with
fossil fuels.
One obvious question is whether this strategy will work. Another is, will it work too well?
SOLAZYME’S story — which is far from done — shows just how circuitous the road to creating
profitable energy technologies can be.
By the time Mr. Dillon and Mr. Wolfson began their company in 2003, researchers had mapped
the genome of algae, a feat that started the partners on their quest to redesign the plants’
genetic codes to produce valuable commodities. In addition to oils, algae naturally produce
other substances, including hydrogen and oxygen. At first, Mr. Dillon and Mr. Wolfson
considered focusing on hydrogen because it seemed that carmakers would be designing
hydrogen-powered vehicles. But they soon dismissed that approach because the economic and
technical challenges of capturing, storing and transporting hydrogen proved insurmountable —
and the vehicles never took off.
The Solazyme partners realized they needed to make a product that could use existing
equipment and infrastructure — so-called drop-in fuels that wouldn’t require car or aircraft
manufacturers to make new engines or fuel refiners to use new equipment. Fuel oil seemed the
best bet, and they set about trying to unlock the mechanisms that the plants use to make it.
The problem with producing fuel oil is that volume is king. Oil producers generally make only a
few dollars on each barrel they sell, so they make enormous profits only by selling billions of
barrels. It didn’t matter if Solazyme made a terrific, carbon-neutral product — or if it made it
ingeniously. If it couldn’t make enough, the business would never fly.
Nowhere in the clean-tech sector is the conundrum of scaling up more evident than in biofuel.
Cellulosic fuel may finally be close to achieving real scale: the Energy Department, which has
sometimes been overly optimistic in the past, predicts that there will be 80 million gallons in
commercial production by 2015, and at least one company, KiOR, has begun shipping costcompetitive cellulosic biofuel to American customers, with others expected to follow soon. But
the Energy Department is supporting research on using organisms like yeast and bacteria to
make fuels that can directly replace conventional gasoline, and does not expect them to hit
commercial scale until 2017. Those using algae will take even longer, until 2022, energy officials
predict.
At Solazyme, the partners’ early realization of the challenge spurred them to step up testing.
They poked and nudged the algae, trying to produce something that mimicked existing fuel oil.
They also re-engineered the microorganisms to see what else could come out.
“The point was still a straight line to fuels, but it started to be clear how long this was going to
take,” Mr. Wolfson said, describing the company’s rapid evolution toward developing multiple
product lines. “This was going to be longer and harder than all of our discussions about starting
a company.”
The big discovery was that algae, depending on the strain, could make oils that, biochemically,
looked a lot like others found in nature or already in use in the marketplace. And industries like
cosmetics, food and petrochemicals would pay more for each gallon, or milliliter, of output. All of
the oils in question, whether destined to become gear lubricants or salad dressings, have a
similar molecular backbone. But properties like melt point, saturation level or energy storage
could be manipulated by adding or subtracting carbon atoms or controlling the location and
connection of fatty acids and hydrogen atoms.
But there was a catch: the partners had sold investors on an energy business, not one that
made cosmetics, nutritional supplements and soap. They had also told their board that they
would be able to make fuel through photosynthesis, a process then considered “sexy,” Mr.
Wolfson said. That’s because the sunlight that would fuel the algae’s growth was free; other
methods of goosing the algae included adding food sources like sugar. But growing algae where
they could get enough sunlight required huge ponds of water and the risk of plant loss.
After several late-night conversations and scrambling to come up with an alternative plan, Mr.
Wolfson and Mr. Dillon met with the board in a tiny conference room near the entrance to their
Menlo Park lab and offered a new plan. They would grow algae in tanks in the dark in a process
called heterotrophic fermentation to make the specialty oils for ancillary markets that would pave
the long road to fuel.
They were worried the board might desert them, Mr. Dillon said, but their main backers, Jerry
Fiddler, an angel investor who is still the board chairman, and Dan Miller and Roger Strauch of
the Roda Group, the company’s largest investor, went along. The three, who had already
invested roughly a combined $1.3 million, agreed on the spot to finance further testing of the
idea.
Not everyone agreed with the change. Several board members eventually left, and several
established venture capitalists who had been interested in leading rounds of financing refused
to do so because the founders insisted on pursuing multiple markets, Mr. Wolfson said.
“It’s very true that if you try to do too many things and you don’t focus as a company, you’ll fail
— focus actually does matter,” Mr. Wolfson said. “That’s portfolio theory for them. ‘I’m making a
bet on you on fuel; I want you to focus on that.’ What they didn’t really understand is our
platform is a focused platform to produce oils.”
IT has taken several years of experimenting — starting in a lab with equipment bought on eBay
and repaired by Mr. Fiddler — to develop that platform.
The team genetically engineers the microbes to produce oils with the different properties that a
customer might want. One might be an oil that doesn’t explode in a transformer. Another might
be a fat with the mouth feel of cocoa butter in chocolate, or something that mimics palm kernel
oil to go into soap. Starting with a one-milliliter vial, technicians make the algae multiply by
suspending them in a broth rich in sugar and other nutrients, moving them into progressively
larger vats until they reach the desired volume, anywhere from five to 600,000 liters.
The scientists then deprive the algae of nitrogen, which halts their division. Under this stress,
they begin to produce oil, a protective response. The oil swells their tiny cells, up to 85 percent
of their mass, in a kind of microscopic version of producing foie gras.
“It’s not a very healthy cell” at the end of the process, said Peter J. Licari, Solazyme’s chief
technology officer. But the process could be one of the company’s competitive advantages over
other approaches. In open-pond growth, for instance, the cells often yield no more than 15
percent oil, Mr. Licari said.
The resulting liquid is then fed through a series of tanks, rollers and other equipment that
squeeze out the oil, leaving behind a mass that is mostly cell walls. No matter the oil, the
process varies little, Mr. Licari said, and is easily adapted to make the complex sugars —
polysaccharides — that went into the original Algenist skin care line.
The company has a multiyear agreement with Mitsui, the Japanese conglomerate, to tailor oils
for chemical and industrial markets. In a joint venture with Solazyme, the Brazilian agricultural
and food giant Bunge is building a plant next to its sugar cane refinery in south central Brazil; it
will use the sugar to feed the algae, which it expects to make up to 30 million gallons a year of
oil for soaps and other products. Solazyme also has an agreement to develop oils for Unilever
to be used in soap, personal care and nutritional products.
On the cosmetics side, the Algenist line has been a hit at Sephora and QVC, where executives
say customers are particularly attracted to the story of an accidental discovery by lab scientists
working on green energy.
“We continue to tell this alternative story about this very interesting ingredient that’s come from
a very unlikely source in the world of skin care,” said Claudia Lucas, director of beauty
merchandising at QVC.
Solazyme executives say they will get to the fuel business eventually. By producing algaederived oils at a commercial scale at a reasonable price, they hope to entice established
companies to invest in plants and equipment so that the fuel can work as a volume business.
But for now the focus is on the higher-value markets.
“The higher returns we can show out of each plant to start out with, the faster we can get plants
financed and built,” Mr. Wolfson said. The company expects to charge roughly 30 percent more
for its fuels and chemicals than they cost to make, and 40 percent more for its nutritional
products. But it can get 60 percent more for the cosmetic oils.
Whether the company can build a profitable business is an open question. Analysts say it has
amassed an impressive list of industrial partners and investors — including Chevron — but its
operating figures suggest there is still more promise than delivery.
Last year, the company had a net loss of $83 million on $44 million in sales. Its stock price is
$12.62, well below its initial public offering price of $18 a share in 2011 and its high of about
$26. Like many renewable-energy ventures, Solazyme has relied on government income — it
used to supply the military with small amounts of expensive diesel — but in the first quarter this
year, revenue for research programs dropped, driven by a decline in government grants. It is
also taking on debt, adding roughly $185 million earlier this year.
EVEN so, analysts are generally bullish about the company’s prospects, despite some who
express skepticism that Solazyme will ever develop the fuels.
“Fuels is still an opportunity for them,” said Rob Stone, a research analyst who tracks clean tech
at Cowen & Company. He added that because the new, commercial-scale manufacturing
capacity could be used entirely to satisfy demand in the higher-value markets, it might not make
sense for Solazyme to use up its production space to make lower-margin fuels. “I think they
could make a very large company without ever doing much at all in the fuel business,” he said.
It is a point that Mr. Wolfson comes close to conceding, saying that the entry to commercial fuel
production is years away, and even then might be in making fuel additives rather than the dropins they have been pursuing. That possibility doesn’t seem to bother anyone around the office.
Executives seem almost more excited about their ventures into nutrition, making low-saturated
fats and oils without transfats. A visit to the company’s headquarters in South San Francisco
included a multicourse lunch highlighting Almagine, a powdered fat and protein supplement
meant to replace eggs and saturated fats. Solazyme is developing it through a partnership with
Roquette, a starch processor. Included in the tasting were salad dressings, Alfredo sauce for
pasta, brioches, shortbread cookies and ice cream, all with lower saturated fat and calories and
higher protein contents than standard versions.
It’s a far cry from the campfire rantings of two college friends out to save the environment. But
now they have a new crusade. "I think the difference that this company will make in food alone
will be enormous," Mr. Dillon said. Or, as Mr. Fiddler put it: “Even if we never succeed in energy,
food is hugely valuable and hugely beneficial to the world.”
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The New York Times: Obama to Unveil Climate Plan on Tuesday (Blog)
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/22/obama-to-unveil-climate-plan-ontuesday/?ref=earth
President Obama said Saturday that he would make a major speech on Tuesday to unveil his
second-term plan to curb the causes and effects of climate change, a plan expected to include
limits on carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants.
“This Tuesday, I’ll lay out my vision for where I believe we need to go – a national plan to
reduce carbon pollution, prepare our country for the impacts of climate change, and lead global
efforts to fight it,” Mr. Obama said in avideo released by the White House. “This is a serious
challenge – but it’s one uniquely suited to America’s strengths.”
Mr. Obama’s decision to use his executive authority to regulate utilities reflects a determination
that he has no prospect of passing such sweeping policies through Congress. But while the
Supreme Court validated the power of the executive to regulate carbon emissions without
further legislation, the president’s move may draw lawsuits and other challenges from industry
and Republicans citing the economic costs.
The administration has already moved to curb emissions of new power plants, but expanding
regulation to existing utilities would be among the most consequential decisions the president
could make. More than a third of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States are produced
by electric power facilities.
Mr. Obama did not say in his video what would be included in his Tuesday speech, but
administration officials have previously said it would includeproposed power plant rules.
Because of the complicated regulatory process, it could take until the end of his second term to
put them in place.
“There’s no single step that can reverse the effects of climate change,” Mr. Obama said in the
video. “But when it comes to the world we leave our children, we owe it to them to do what we
can.”
As word of Mr. Obama’s plans spread in recent days, Republicans criticized the president for
risking an already fragile economic recovery. “I think this is absolutely crazy,” Speaker John A.
Boehner said earlier in the week. “Why would you want to increase the cost of energy and kill
more American jobs at a time when the American people are still asking the question, where are
the jobs?”
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Huffington Post: West Fork Complex Fire: South Fork, Colo. Town Braces For
Long Wildfire Evacuation
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/23/west-fork-complex-fire-southfork_n_3487424.html?utm_hp_ref=green&ir=Green
DEL NORTE, Colo. — A colossal wildfire near a popular summer retreat in southern Colorado
continues to be driven by winds and fueled by dead trees in a drought-stricken area, authorities
said Sunday.
The weather has prevented fire crews from making progress on the blaze, which grew overnight
to 108 square miles, up from 100 on Saturday. The speed with which the fire has spread is
exceptional: It was just below 50 square miles Friday evening.
No structures have been lost in the fire, and no injuries have been reported.
It is doubtful fire crews could establish any containment lines until there's a break in the
weather, possibly Tuesday, officials said. They remained optimistic they can protect the town,
however.
As of Sunday, officials firefighters remained focused on protecting South Fork, the Wolf Creek
ski area and homes along Highway 149.
Crews hoped to get aircraft up to drop water over the fire before afternoon winds of 30 to 40
miles an hour returned Sunday. Pete Blume, a commander with the Rocky Mountain Type 1
Incident Command Team, said the wildfire is the worst ever known to hit the Rio Grande
National Forest.
"It's not typical to have these kinds of fires here," said Blume. "But beetle kill and drought is also
not the norm."
Firefighters are hoping for a break in the high winds as well as the anticipated July monsoons to
help them fight back the flames. Until then, Blume said, "with that much beetle kill and drought
we could have every resource in the country here and still not put in a containment line."
Still, fire officials believe portions of the blaze will likely burn all summer in forested,
nonresidential areas, with full extinguishment probably months away.
The lightning-sparked blaze started June 5, but its rapid advance Friday prompted the
evacuation of hundreds of visitors and the town's 400 permanent residents.
Residents and tourists were settling in for a long wait before they can return to their homes,
cabins and RV parks.
"They just said they had no idea how long it would be before we could be back in South Fork,"
said Mike Duffy, who owns the South Fork Lodge.
Duffy said he and his wife, Mary, were able to get their personal possessions before fleeing fastadvancing flames that officials initially feared would overtake the town. But with the fire still
within three miles of South Fork, they are worried about the long-term impact of a prolong
evacuation and news reports about the fire raging around the tourism-dependent town.
Summer visitors include many retirees from Texas and Oklahoma who come to the mountains
to flee the heat.
South Fork Mayor Kenneth Brooke estimates that between 1,000 to 1,500 people had to flee,
including the summer visitors and permanent residents.
More than 600 firefighters were battling the blaze, and more are coming every day. They also
focused on newest arm of the fire as it crept through beetle kill toward the historic mining town
of Creede, the last silver boom town in Colorado before the industry went bust in the late 1800s.
Elsewhere in Colorado, about a dozen fires also continued to burn. Firefighters were making
progress on a 19-square-mile wildfire near Walsenburg in southern Colorado. The fire was 10
percent contained.
And a wildfire in foothills about 30 miles southwest of Denver was expected to be fully contained
Sunday evening. That fire burned 511 acres and forced 100 people to leave their homes.
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Rolling Stone: Goodbye, Miami
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-the-city-of-miami-is-doomed-to-drown-20130620
When the water receded after Hurricane Milo of 2030, there was a foot of sand covering the
famous bow-tie floor in the lobby of the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach. A dead manatee
floated in the pool where Elvis had once swum. Most of the damage occurred not from the
hurricane's 175-mph winds, but from the 24-foot storm surge that overwhelmed the low-lying
city. In South Beach, the old art-deco buildings were swept off their foundations. Mansions on
Star Island were flooded up to their cut-glass doorknobs. A 17-mile stretch of Highway A1A that
ran along the famous beaches up to Fort Lauderdale disappeared into the Atlantic. The storm
knocked out the wastewater-treatment plant on Virginia Key, forcing the city to dump hundreds
of millions of gallons of raw sewage into Biscayne Bay. Tampons and condoms littered the
beaches, and the stench of human excrement stoked fears of cholera. More than 800 people
died, many of them swept away by the surging waters that submerged much of Miami Beach
and Fort Lauderdale; 13 people were killed in traffic accidents as they scrambled to escape the
city after the news spread – falsely, it turned out – that one of the nuclear reactors at Turkey
Point, an aging power plant 24 miles south of Miami, had been destroyed by the surge and sent
a radioactive cloud over the city.
Rising Seas: A City-by-City Forecast
The president, of course, said Miami would be back, that the hurricane did not kill the city, and
that Americans did not give up. But it was clear to those not fooling themselves that this storm
was the beginning of the end. With sea levels more than a foot higher than they'd been at the
dawn of the century, South Florida was wet, vulnerable and bankrupt. Attempts had been made
to armor the coastline, to build sea walls and elevate buildings, but it was a futile undertaking.
The coastline from Miami Beach up to Jupiter had been a little more than a series of rugged
limestone crags since the mid-2020s, when the state, unable to lay out $100 million every few
years to pump in fresh sand, had given up trying to save South Florida's world-famous beaches.
In that past decade, tourist visits had plummeted by 40 percent, even after the Florida
legislature agreed to allow casino gambling in a desperate attempt to raise revenue for storm
protection. The city of Homestead, in southern Miami-Dade County, which had been flattened
by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, had to be completely abandoned. Thousands of tract homes were
bulldozed because they were a public health hazard. In the parts of the county that were still
inhabitable, only the wealthiest could afford to insure their homes. Mortgages were nearly
impossible to get, mostly because banks didn't believe the homes would be there in 30 years. At
high tide, many roads were impassable, even for the most modern semiaquatic vehicles.
Global Warming's Terrifying New Math
But Hurricane Milo was unexpectedly devastating. Because sea-level rise had already pushed
the water table so high, it took weeks for the storm waters to recede. Salt water corroded
underground wiring, leaving parts of the city dark for months. Drinking-water wells were ruined.
Interstate 95 was clogged with cars and trucks stuffed with animals and personal belongings, as
hundreds of thousands of people fled north to Orlando, the highest ground in central Florida.
Developers drew up plans for new buildings on stilts, but few were built. A new flexible carbonfiber bridge was proposed to link Miami Beach with the mainland, but the bankrupt city couldn't
secure financing and the project fell apart. The skyscrapers that had gone up during the Obama
years were gradually abandoned and used as staging grounds for drug runners and exoticanimal traffickers. A crocodile nested in the ruins of the Pérez Art Museum.
And still, the waters kept rising, nearly a foot each decade. By the latter end of the 21st century,
Miami became something else entirely: a popular snorkeling spot where people could swim with
sharks and sea turtles and explore the wreckage of a great American city.
Even more than Silicon Valley, Miami embodies the central technological myth of our time – that
nature can not only be tamed but made irrelevant. Miami was a mosquito-and-crocodile-filled
swampland for thousands of years, virtually uninhabited until the late 1800s. Then developers
arrived, canals were dug, swamps were drained, and a city emerged that was unlike any other
place on the planet, an edge-of-the-world, air-conditioned dreamland of sunshine and beaches
and drugs and money; Jan Nijman, the former director of the Urban Studies Program at the
University of Miami, called 20th-century Miami "a citadel of fantastical consumption." Floods
would come and go and hurricanes might blow through, but the city would survive, if only
because no one could imagine a force more powerful than human ingenuity. That defiance of
nature – the sense that the rules don't apply here – gave the city its great energy. But it is also
what will cause its demise.
You would never know it from looking at Miami today. Rivers of money are flowing in from Latin
America, Europe and beyond, new upscale shopping malls are opening, and the skyline is
crowded with construction cranes. But the unavoidable truth is that sea levels are rising and
Miami is on its way to becoming an American Atlantis. It may be another century before the city
is completely underwater (though some more-pessimistic scientists predict it could be much
sooner), but life in the vibrant metropolis of 5.5 million people will begin to dissolve much
quicker, most likely within a few decades. The rising waters will destroy Miami slowly, by
seeping into wiring, roads, building foundations and drinking-water supplies – and quickly, by
increasing the destructive power of hurricanes. "Miami, as we know it today, is doomed," says
Harold Wanless, the chairman of the department of geological sciences at the University of
Miami. "It's not a question of if. It's a question of when."
The 10 Dumbest Things Ever Said About Global Warming
Sea-level rise is not a hypothetical disaster. It is a physical fact of life on a warming planet, the
basic dynamics of which even a child can understand: Heat melts ice. Since the 1920s, the
global average sea level has risen about nine inches, mostly from the thermal expansion of the
ocean water. But thanks to our 200-year-long fossil-fuel binge, the great ice sheets in Greenland
and Antarctica are starting to melt rapidly now, causing the rate of sea-level rise to grow
exponentially. The latest research, including an assessment by the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, suggests that sea level could rise more than six feet by the end of
the century. James Hansen, the godfather of global-warming science, has argued that it could
increase as high as 16 feet by then – and Wanless believes that it could continue rising a foot
each decade after that. "With six feet of sea-level rise, South Florida is toast," says Tom
Gustafson, a former Florida speaker of the House and a climate-change-policy advocate. Even
if we cut carbon pollution overnight, it won't save us. Ohio State glaciologist Jason Box has said
he believes we already have 70 feet of sea-level rise baked into the system.
Of course, South Florida is not the only place that will be devastated by sea-level rise. London,
Boston, New York and Shanghai are all vulnerable, as are low-lying underdeveloped nations
like Bangladesh. But South Florida is uniquely screwed, in part because about 75 percent of the
5.5 million people in South Florida live along the coast. And unlike many cities, where the wealth
congregates in the hills, southern Florida's most valuable real estate is right on the water. The
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development lists Miami as the number-one most
vulnerable city worldwide in terms of property damage, with more than $416 billion in assets at
risk to storm-related flooding and sea-level rise.
South Florida has two big problems. The first is its remarkably flat topography. Half the area that
surrounds Miami is less than five feet above sea level. Its highest natural elevation, a limestone
ridge that runs from Palm Beach to just south of the city, averages a scant 12 feet. With just
three feet of sea-level rise, more than a third of southern Florida will vanish; at six feet, more
than half will be gone; if the seas rise 12 feet, South Florida will be little more than an isolated
archipelago surrounded by abandoned buildings and crumbling overpasses. And the waters
won't just come in from the east – because the region is so flat, rising seas will come in nearly
as fast from the west too, through the Everglades.
Even worse, South Florida sits above a vast and porous limestone plateau. "Imagine Swiss
cheese, and you'll have a pretty good idea what the rock under southern Florida looks like,"
says Glenn Landers, a senior engineer at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This means water
moves around easily – it seeps into yards at high tide, bubbles up on golf courses, flows through
underground caverns, corrodes building foundations from below. "Conventional sea walls and
barriers are not effective here," says Robert Daoust, an ecologist at ARCADIS, a Dutch firm that
specializes in engineering solutions to rising seas. "Protecting the city, if it is possible, will
require innovative solutions."
Those solutions are not likely to be forthcoming from the political realm. The statehouse in
Tallahassee is a monument to climate-change denial. "You can't even say the words 'climate
change' on the House floor without being run out of the building," says Gustafson. Florida Sen.
Marco Rubio, positioning himself for a run at the presidency in 2016, is another denier, still
trotting out the tired old argument that "no matter how many job-killing laws we pass, our
government can't control the weather." Gov. Rick Scott, a Tea Party Republican, says he's "not
convinced" that global warming is caused by human beings. Since taking office in 2011, Scott
has targeted environmental protections of every sort and slashed the budget of the South
Florida Water Management District, the agency in charge of managing water supply in the
region, as well as restoration of the Everglades. "There is no serious thinking, no serious
planning, about any of this going on at the state level," says Chuck Watson, a disaster-impact
analyst with longtime experience in Florida. "The view is, 'Well, if it gets real bad, the federal
government will bail us out.' It is beyond denial; it is flat-out delusional."
Local governments, including Broward and Miami-Dade counties, have tried to compensate by
forging regional agreements to cut carbon pollution and upgrade infrastructure to make their
cities more resilient, but without help (and money) from the state and federal governments, it's
pretty ineffective. Given how much Florida has to lose from climate change, the abdication of
leadership by state and federal politicians is almost suicidal – when it isn't downright comical.
Watson recalls attending a meeting on natural-hazard-response planning in South Florida,
funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state: "I mentioned sea-level
rise, and I was treated to a 15-minute lecture on Genesis by one of the commissioners. He said,
'God destroyed the Earth with water the first time, and he promised he wouldn't do it again. So
all of you who are pushing fears about sea-level rise, go back and read the Bible.'"
Rising seas will present an escalating series of challenges, most of which, on their own, will
appear to be manageable. It's not hard to see how it will play out: As each new crisis arises,
engineers will propose expensive solutions and people may be fooled into thinking that sealevel rise is not such a big deal. But in many cases, sea-wall extensions and elaborate pumping
and drainage systems will turn out to be giant boondoggles, with money shoveled out to
politically connected contractors for projects that are ineffective or overwhelmed by continually
rising seas. "Engineers want to sell solutions, and often that means downplaying the
seriousness of the problem in the long term," says Wanless.
One of the first consequences of rising seas will be loss of drinking water. In fact, it's already
starting to happen. Nobody understands this better than Jayantha Obeysekera, the chief
modeler for the South Florida Water Management District, who is known to everyone as "Obey."
The water-control system in Florida is crazily complex, even to people whose business it is to
understand it. One recent hot morning, Obey and I visited several dikes and canals in the Miami
area.
Our first stop was a big steel gate – in water-management parlance, it's called a "salinity-control
structure" – in a poor black neighborhood in North Miami. We turned off a busy four-lane road
and drove through a grassy area littered with soda bottles and plastic bags, stopped at the gate
and stood at the edge of a 30-foot-wide canal. Three manatees floated lazily in the stagnant
water. This canal, like hundreds of others in South Florida, was dredged in the early 20th
century to allow water to drain out of the Everglades. The canals worked fine for a while,
lowering the water level in the swamp enough to allow developers to pave them over and make
millions selling the American Dream to sun-starved suburbanites. But then by the 1950s, people
started noticing their drinking water was getting salty. In South Florida, the drinking-water supply
comes from a big lake just below the surface known as the Biscayne aquifer. Engineers
examined the situation and determined that the combination of draining the swamps and
pumping out the aquifer had changed hydrostatic pressure underground and allowed salt water
to move into the aquifer. To stop this, the Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water
Management District built dozens of these salinity-control structures at key points on the canals.
When they were closed, salty water wasn't able to flow into the canals. But if there was a big
storm and intense flooding, the gates could be opened to allow drainage.
That worked pretty well for a time. The gates were engineered so that, when they were closed,
the fresh water was about a foot and a half higher than the salt water. This freshwater "head"
(as engineers called it) helped keep pressure in the aquifer and kept the salt water at bay.
But in the 50 years since the structures were built, much has changed. For one thing, nearly 80
percent of the fresh water flowing into the Everglades has been diverted, some of it into
industrial-agriculture operations. At the same time, consumption has skyrocketed: The 5.5
million or so people who now live in South Florida consume more than 3 billion gallons of water
every day (including industry and agriculture). Almost all of that is pumped out of the aquifer,
drawing it down and allowing more and more salt water to move in. At the same time, the sea
level is rising (about nine inches since the canals were first dredged), which also helps push
more salt water into the aquifer.
"Here, you can see the problem," Obey says, pointing to the saltwater side of the gate. "The
water is only 10 inches lower on this side than on the canal. When this structure was built in
1960, it was a foot and a half. We are reaching equilibrium."
Obey explains that when there is a torrential rain (a frequent occurrence) and inland Florida
floods, there is nowhere for the water to go. Cities on the western edge of Miami-Dade County,
such as Hialeah and Sweetwater, are now at risk of massive flooding with every big storm. To
solve this, the South Florida Water District is installing pumps on the freshwater side of the
control structures on the canals. The pumps, which cost about $70 million each, can take the
runoff water from storms and pump it into the ocean to alleviate flooding.
But stopping saltwater incursion is more difficult. The town of Hallandale Beach, just a few miles
north of Miami, had to close six of its eight wells due to saltwater intrusion. The town now buys
half its water from a well field in Broward County and is working on a deal to drill six new wells
of its own, at a cost of about $10 million. Fort Lauderdale has also faced saltwater intrusion, as
has Lake Worth, a community just south of Palm Beach. "In the long run, the whole area is likely
to have problems," Obey says.
The conventional solution to this was simple: Drill new drinking wells farther west, away from the
salty water. The trouble is, engineers have done that already and can't move any farther west
without running into the Everglades. Instead, engineers are now turning to more radical
solutions, such as trying to capture storm water and store it underground, or reuse water from
sewage-treatment plants. This will help, but ultimately South Florida is likely to rely more and
more on desalination, a complex industrial-scale process that eliminates the salt from the sea
water. Right now, South Florida has 35 desalination plants operating, with seven more under
construction. They have the capacity to produce 245 million gallons of potable water per day.
But desalinization is expensive and requires huge amounts of energy. In 2008, the city of
Tampa opened a new $158 million desalination plant, one of the largest in the nation, which
produces up to 25 million gallons of fresh water a day – about 10 percent of the region's water
needs. Construction costs alone will run about $6 billion to desalinate just one-third of the water
used for southern Florida.
For many cities in South Florida, securing a reliable supply of drinking water is going to be a
heavy financial burden. "South Florida is not going to run out of drinking water," says Fred
Bloetscher, an associate professor of civil engineering at Florida Atlantic University. "But it will
be an expensive fix." Bloetscher estimates it will cost upward of $20 billion to $30 billion to replumb South Florida and armor it with pumps and a stormwater-recapturing system to deal with
a three-foot sea-level rise. And when the waters keep rising? "Well, you just have to believe that
we will come up with some kind of a solution," Bloetscher says.
Later in the day, Obey and I visit another gate along what was once the Miami River. Today, it
has been dredged and transformed into a charmless canal. Obey shows me the new pumps
that were recently installed on the structure to control flooding in the area. We are standing on
the east side of the structure, where the sea bumps against the steel gates. I ask Obey if he can
imagine a day when South Floridians find themselves surrounded by the water but with no clean
fresh water to drink. "I do not have an answer to that question," he says modestly. "Right now,
I'm focused on the next decade or two. That will be difficult enough."
Iwas driving with Harold Wanless through Miami Beach one day when the sun suddenly
disappeared and the skies opened up. When it rains in Miami, it's spooky. Blue sky vanishes
and suddenly water is everywhere, pooling in streets, flooding parking lots, turning intersections
into submarine crossings. Even for a nonbeliever like me, it feels biblical, as if God were
punishing the good citizens of Miami Beach for spending too much time on the dance floor. At
Alton Road and 10th Street, we watched a woman in a Toyota stall at a traffic light as water
rose up to the doors. A man waded out to help her, water up to his knees. This flooding has
gotten worse with each passing year, happening not only after torrential rainstorms but during
high tides, too, when rising sea water backs up through the city's antiquated drainage system.
Wanless, 71, who drives an SUV that is littered with research equipment, notebooks and mud,
shook his head with pity. "This is what global warming looks like," he explained. "If you live in
South Florida and you're not building a boat, you're not facing reality."
Michael Góngora, a Miami Beach city commissioner, prides himself on his willingness to face
reality. We met at a conference in April on extreme weather held downtown, where Góngora
spoke eloquently about the dangers of more intense hurricanes and about his commitment to
sustainability. "We want to be the greenest city in Florida," he said proudly. Góngora, 43, the
state's first openly gay commissioner, is now running for mayor of Miami Beach. He was,
notably, the only politician at the extreme-weather conference.
Góngora has as much green cred as any politician in Miami. As commissioner, he has pushed
for the first citywide recycling program and helped create a sustainability plan that encourages
developers to erect greener buildings. When it comes to sea-level rise, he is no denier: "It is a
big challenge," he told me one morning in his sparsely furnished office on the fourth floor of
Miami Beach City Hall. Like most South Floridians, he believes sea-level rise is something that
is going to happen slowly and that engineers will figure out a way to address. "There is $24
billion dollars of real-estate investment here," says Góngora. "The people who own that property
are not going to let it just be washed away. We will figure out a solution. It's too valuable not to."
Truth be told, it's hard to live on a thin barrier island seven miles long like Miami Beach and be a
climate-change denier. The ocean-facing side is protected by a man-made dune and beach,
which is 10 feet high on the southern end, but the west side of the island is only a few feet
above Biscayne Bay. Not so many years ago, the west side was a mangrove swamp. When the
city emerged in the 1920s, nobody gave any thought to sea-level rise – they just chopped down
the mangroves and started building on the low, swampy ground. As a result, the west side of
Miami Beach is among the most flood-prone areas in Florida. Whenever there is a full moon and
a high tide, the sea water comes up through the old storm drains and flows into the streets. In
some places, it bubbles up between the street and the sidewalk. During high tide, Miami Beach
can feel like it is being swallowed up by the waves. And of course, as the seas rise, this is only
going to get worse.
To address this, the city of Miami Beach hired CDM Smith, a Massachusetts-based engineering
firm, to come up with a $200 million stormwater plan that, in theory, will keep the city dry for the
next 20 years. Under the plan, the city will build sea walls, triple the number of stormwaterdrainage pumps, reline storm-discharge pipes and install one-way valves on outlet pipes so that
rising sea water cannot flow back into the pipes and flood the city. Góngora is rightly proud of
this plan. "No one else in Florida has come up with anything like this," he says. "I think it shows
that we are dealing with this problem in a frank and realistic way."
Góngora's plan, as it is now, runs into some troubles: It only addresses the consequences of six
inches of sea-level rise, which is on the low end of scenarios over the next 20 years. When you
ask Góngora what happens to Miami Beach when the sea level rises three feet and inundates
the entire west side of the city, he says, "I trust we will find a solution. I have been to
Amsterdam. I have seen what the Dutch have done. If they can figure it out, so can we."
You hear this a lot in South Florida: The Dutch can do it, and so can we. The Dutch promote it,
too. The Dutch Consulate in Miami hosts get-togethers to tout Dutch engineering firms, passing
out beautiful coffee-table books that illustrate dike and storm barriers in the Netherlands. "It's
like the Dutch East India Company all over again," Wanless says, referring to the Dutch
company that dominated world trade in the 17th and 18th centuries. "They have expertise to
sell, and they are pushing it hard."
The Dutch certainly have valuable experience living with water. Dutch engineers were involved
in creating the massive levees that were built to protect New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina,
and they are deeply involved in conversations about how to protect New York and New Jersey
from another Sandy. But no Dutch engineering firm I talked to had any concrete ideas about
how to save Miami. "New Orleans looks a lot like the Netherlands – it is below sea level, with a
big dike around it," says Piet Dircke, program director for water management at ARCADIS in the
Netherlands. "If you don't pump it out, the city drowns. It's a big bathtub. We know how to do
that. Miami is different. It is also a low-lying city but far more complicated because of issues
about water quality, the porousness of the limestone the city sits on, as well as water coming in
from the west, through the Everglades."
Some engineers point to the coastal resort community of Scheveningen in Holland as a possible
inspiration for what might be done in Miami. In Scheveningen, engineers created an elaborate
dike with a road and parking within it, as well as pedestrian walks and a man-made sand dune.
But Scheveningen has an altogether different geology and coastline than southern Florida. Then
there is the question of scale: The dike at Scheveningen is a half-mile long and cost nearly $100
million to design and construct. Miami Beach alone is seven miles long – the entire Florida
coastline is more than 1,200 miles. Even if an elaborate dike like this were possible, you can't
build a wall along the entire coast. If you just walled off Miami Beach, the water would still flow
in from the bay side.
Góngora touts the virtues of sea walls as a way to protect the city, but those have problems,
too. For one thing, although they can help protect from storm surges, they don't necessarily
keep the water out. "The water can just seep in through the limestone," says Richard Saltrick,
the Miami Beach city engineer, who notes that in some places the seepage is slow enough that
it can be pumped out. Another problem: The city of Miami Beach has about 60 miles of sea
walls on the island. "The vast majority of them are on private property," says Saltrick. How do
you force people to raise them higher – do you pass a law requiring everyone whose property
includes a sea wall to spend tens of thousands of dollars to upgrade them? Does the city pay for
it? And, of course, you can have 59.5 miles of six-foot-high sea walls, but if there is one open
gap that is only three feet high, the water will come rushing in.
For the next 20 years, Miami Beach hopes to escape inundation by installing a network of about
40 pumps around the city that can be cranked up after storms to pump flood water off the
streets and inject it deep underground. It's a good idea, and it may work for a while. But in the
end, Saltrick believes the only long-term way to protect Miami Beach from sea-level rise is to
raise the city itself: the roads, the buildings, everything. "It's a huge undertaking," Saltrick says.
"But someday, it may come to that." The city is planning to raise roads when it can, but even
that is an impossibly complex task in a built-up place like Miami Beach. "When you raise the
road even a few inches, what happens to the water?" Saltrick asks rhetorically. "It runs off the
road into the buildings and homes alongside it. So you have to raise those, as well."
Miami Beach has other infrastructure problems, too. One of them is how to dispose of the 22
million gallons of sewage the city's residents create each day. Right now, it's pumped out to one
of Miami-Dade County's wastewater-treatment plant, which sits on Virginia Key in Biscayne Bay.
The decrepit old facility, which has been plagued by spills and overflow for a decade, is hugely
vulnerable to storm surges and rising tides. And yet instead of moving the plant to higher, safer
ground, the county wants to sink $550 million into repairs and system upgrades, leaving it where
it is and risking its destruction by rising waters. "The only way to motivate people who are in
denial about climate change is for the leaders to instill confidence that we'll all still be here in
2100 and that critical infrastructure – like water, roads and sewers – will be here, too," says
Albert Slap, a lawyer who represents the Biscayne Bay Waterkeepers, an environmental group
that is involved in the fight over the plant. "And right now, that leadership is sorely lacking."
Beyond all these fears that keep south Florida's environmentalists and urban planners up at
night, rising sea levels present an even more chilling threat to life in greater Miami. Turkey Point
Nuclear Plant, which sits on the edge of the Biscayne Bay just south of Miami, is completely
exposed to hurricanes and rising seas. "It is impossible to imagine a stupider place to build a
nuclear plant than Turkey Point," says Philip Stoddard, the mayor of South Miami and an
outspoken critic of the plant.
The Turkey Point nukes began operation in the early Seventies, long before sea-level rise was
an issue. But precautions were taken to protect the plant from hurricanes; most importantly, the
reactor vessels are elevated 20 feet above sea level, several feet above the maximum storm
surge the region has seen. According to Florida Power and Light, the electric utility that
operates the plants, there is virtually no chance of a storm surge causing problems with the
reactors. As evidence of this, Michael Waldron, a spokesman for the company, points to the fact
that Hurricane Andrew, a Category Five hurricane, passed directly over the plant in 1992, with
very little damage. "It goes without saying that safety is our number-one priority," Waldron said
in an e-mail.
But Stoddard and other critics of the plant are not reassured. For one thing, although the plant
did weather the hurricane, the peak storm surge, which was 17 feet high, passed 10 miles north
of the plant. According to Peter W. Harlem, a research geologist at Florida International
University, the plant itself only weathered a surge of about three feet – hardly a testament to the
storm-readiness of the plant. How would Turkey Point fare if it were hit with a Hurricane Katrinasize storm surge of 28 feet?
Stoddard also points out that, although the reactors themselves are elevated, some of the other
equipment is not. "I was given a tour of the plant in 2011," says Stoddard. "It was impressively
lashed down against wind, but even I could see vulnerabilities to water." Stoddard noticed that
some of the ancillary equipment was not raised high enough. He was particularly struck by the
location of one of the emergency diesel generators, which are crucial for keeping cooling waters
circulating in the event of a power failure (it was the failure of four layers of power supply that
caused the meltdown of reactors in Fukushima, Japan, after the plant was hit by a tsunami in
2011). Stoddard says the generator was located about 15 feet above sea level, and it was
housed in a container with open louvers. "How easy would it be for water to flow into that? How
well does that generator work when it is under water?"
Another problem: Turkey Point uses a system of cooling canals to dissipate heat. Those canals
are cut into coastal marsh surrounding the plant, which is only about three feet above sea level.
But the biggest problem of all is that inundation maps show that with three feet of sea-level rise,
Turkey Point is cut off from the mainland and accessible only by boat or aircraft. And the higher
the seas go, the deeper it's submerged.
According to Dave Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer and the director of the Nuclear Safety Project
for the Union of Concerned Scientists, the situation at Turkey Point underscores the
backwardness of how we calculate the risks of nuclear power. The Nuclear Regulatory
Committee, which oversees the safety of nukes in America, demands that operators take into
account past natural hazards such as storms and earthquakes, "but they are silent about future
hazards like sea-level rise and increasing storm surges," Lochbaum says. The task force that
examined nuclear-safety regulations after the Fukushima tsunami recommended that the NRC
begin taking future events into account, but so far, they have not acted on the recommendation.
Still, Florida Power and Light insists the plant is perfectly safe. When I asked for details about
their plans to armor the plant from sea-level rise, their PR reps were elusive. They told me that
the plant's current design is suitable to handle sea-level rise but would not tell me how much.
(Six inches? Six feet?) They would not disclose plans to protect or redesign the cooling canals.
They assured me that "all equipment and components vital to nuclear safety are flood-protected
to 22 feet above sea level." But when I asked to visit the plant and see for myself, they refused.
I went out there anyway. I was denied access to the inner workings, but I got a very nice view of
two aging 40-year-old reactors perched on the edge of a rising sea with millions of people living
within a few miles of the plant. It was as clear a picture of the insanity of modern life as I've ever
seen.
Florida Power and Light thinks Turkey Point is such a great place for nukes that they are
proposing to build two more reactors out there. Given the life expectancy of a nuke plant, it
means that the people of South Florida would likely live with the threat of a radioactive cloud
over their heads until at least 2085. The plan, which would cost upward of $18 billion, has not
yet been approved by state or federal regulators.
Miami is the most connected city in America, a place where the entire economy is geared
toward the next big banking deal, real-estate deal, drug deal. As Wayne Pathman, a land-use
attorney in Miami, put it to me, "The biggest question for the future of Miami is how investors will
react when they understand the risks of sea-level rise." The rivers of cash that are flowing into
the city right now are pretty clear evidence that few investors are worried about that risk.
Brickell, the hot new neighborhood where the $1 billion Brickell CityCentre, one of the biggest
new developments in the city, is currently under construction, is a few blocks from the water –
streets are already nearly impassable during big storms. "It's partly denial and ignorance, and
partly a feeling that they can beat the odds," says Tony Cho, the president of Metro1 Properties
Inc., a large real-estate firm in Miami.
One thing that may change that is insurance rates. After Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992, many
large insurers stopped offering property coverage in the state, citing the high risks of hurricane
insurance. That left Florida in a dangerous position, with only small regional insurers to
underwrite storm coverage for homeowners. But in the event of a large storm, the small insurers
don't have sufficient capital to cover the claims they would receive. To remedy the situation, the
state began offering its own low-cost insurance under the name Citizens Property Insurance
Corporation, which has become the largest insurer in the state. By subsidizing insurance,
lawmakers hoped to keep costs down and development booming. The problem is, Florida is
now on the hook for billions of dollars. "A single big storm could bankrupt the state," says Eli
Lehrer, an insurance expert and president of the R Street Institute, a conservative think tank in
Washington, D.C.
Flood insurance is likely to skyrocket, too. The National Flood Insurance Program is currently
more than $20 billion in debt, thanks to payouts related to Hurricane Sandy and other extremeweather events. In 2012, Congress passed the Flood Insurance Reform Act, which jacks the
price of insurance up for people living in known flood zones. More reforms of this sort are sure
to come. For a place like Miami, where virtually the entire city is a flood zone, the economic
costs could be in the hundreds of billions.
The financial catastrophe could play out like this: As insurance rates climb, fewer are able to
afford homes. Housing prices fall, which slows development, which decreases the tax base,
which makes cities and towns even less able to afford the infrastructure upgrades necessary to
adapt to rising seas. The spiral continues downward. Beaches deteriorate, hotels sit empty,
restaurants close. Because Miami's largest economies are development and tourism, it's a
deadly tailspin. The threat of sea-level rise bankrupts the state even before it is wiped out by a
killer storm.
In the not-so-distant future, rising waters will certainly drown Miami. But is that necessarily the
end of the city? John Stuart, the chair of the architecture department at Florida International
University, is working with students and professors on a multiyear project to imagine what South
Florida's future might look like. "It's pretty clear that we are not going to be able to stop the water
from coming in, so how will we live?" One of their inspirations is Stiltsville, a collection of
structures in built-on pilings in Biscayne Bay from the Thirties by Miami residents, some looking
for a place to party beyond the easy view of the law (although they are abandoned now, a few of
Stiltsville's structures still survive in the bay). Stuart and his colleagues are trying to imagine
what a city in the water would look like – How do you get electricity? Who provides emergency
services? "It is really unlike anything humans have tried to do before," Stuart says. "How do you
build a floating city in this kind of environment?"
Stuart is energized by the challenge of thinking about this. And if sea-level rise happens slowly
enough and Miami doesn't get hit with a hurricane and the drinking-water supply doesn't go bad
and the real-estate market doesn't crash and the beaches aren't washed away, the city of Miami
may well have time to transform itself into a modern Venice.
But more likely, the ocean will seep slowly into the city, higher and higher every year, until a big
storm comes along and devastates the place and people begin to question the wisdom of living
in a world that is slowly drowning. The potential for chaos is self-evident as Miami becomes a
place people flee from rather than flock toward. Liberty City, a black community downtown, is
one of the poorest neighborhoods in Miami. It also happens to be on some of the highest
ground. "Developers will target this neighborhood," Hashim Yeomans-Benford, a community
organizer in Liberty City, told me. "But I'm not sure it will be a peaceful transition." As we drove
around one afternoon, Yeomans-Benford talked about the history of racial violence that simmers
just below the surface in Miami. "People will not leave without a fight," he warned.
Americans will also have to face up to the fact that Everglades National Park, home to one of
the most remarkable ecosystems in the world, is a goner. More than half the park will be
inundated with just three feet of sea-level rise, and the rest of it will vanish shortly thereafter.
"We are going to have to change the name to Everglades National Marine Sanctuary," one
scientist told me. Besides the obvious tragedy of losing a unique ecosystem, it calls into
question the wisdom of spending billions of federal dollars on the sentimental fantasy that the
Everglades can ever be "restored."
One of the biggest uncertainties in Miami's future is how the rest of America will feel about
rescuing the city. Nobody questioned the wisdom of spending $40 billion in tax dollars to rebuild
after Katrina and another $60 billion to help rebuild after Sandy, but will they feel the same
about Miami – land of millionaires and beach condos – when the time comes? Not that
everyone doesn't love Miami. But at some point, Congress is going to balk at spending $50
billion to rebuild the city every time a tropical storm passes by.
"South Florida doesn't have the power of New York," says Daniel Kreeger, the South Floridabased executive director of the Association of Climate Change Officers. "We don't have any
major cultural institutions, we don't have Wall Street, we don't have any great universities. The
unpleasant truth is that it will be all too easy for the rest of the nation to just let South Florida
go."
That is, of course, not the American way. We don't let cities go. We don't secede territory to the
ocean. But this is the direction that our failure to cut carbon pollution is taking us. The loss of
Miami will be a manifestation of years of denial and apathy, of allowing Big Oil and Big Coal to
divert us from understanding the real-world consequences of our dependence on fossil fuels.
In Wanless' view, the wisest course of action now is to stop subsidizing coastal development
and create federal and state policies that encourage people to move out of at-risk low-lying
areas. "Instead of spending a billion dollars to build a new tunnel for the Port of Miami, we
should be spending that money to buy people out of their homes and relocate them to higher
ground," Wanless says. "We have to accept the reality of what is about to happen to us." But
that won't happen without political leadership, and on this issue, of course, the state of Florida
has none. ("I have a solution for that," says former speaker Gustafson. "We need to all march
up to the capital in Tallahassee and burn the fucker down. That's the only way we're gonna save
South Florida.")
Stuart compares Miami with Baiae, the ancient Roman resort town in the bay of Naples that was
once a playground for Nero and Julius Ceasar. Today, because of volcanic activity, the ruins of
Baiae are mostly under water. "This is what humans do," says Stuart. "We inhabit cities, and
then when something happens, we move on. The same thing will happen with Miami. The only
question is, how long can we stick it out?" But for Stuart, who lives in Miami Beach, the fact that
the city is doomed doesn't diminish his love for the place. "That's the thing about Miami," he
says. "You'll want to be here until the very end."
This story is from the July 4th, 2013 issue of Rolling Stone.
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United Press International: White House: Climate change isn't partisan
http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2013/06/20/White-House-Climatechange-isnt-partisan/UPI-73821371724874/
WASHINGTON, June 20 (UPI) -- Climate change policies in the United States should not fall
victim to bipartisan politicking, the White House energy adviser said.
President Obama described climate change as one of the top threats to the international
community in a wide-ranging speech Wednesday in Berlin.
Obama's administration has been criticized by environmental groups for lacking a clear-cut
climate policy. The president said Wednesday, however, it was time to act.
"Our generation must move toward a global compact to confront a changing climate before it is
too late," he said. "That is our job. That is our task. We have to get to work."
White House energy adviser Heather Zichal was quoted by online news magazine Politco as
saying the president will outline new energy policies that would not require additional funding or
legislation to move forward.
"It's time to turn this issue from a red-state [Republican], blue-state [Democrat] issue to an
American issue, and frankly that's what I think you'll be seeing from the president and the rest of
his Cabinet -- a sustained focus on depoliticizing the climate on climate policy," she was quoted
as saying after the president's speech.
Zichal said the plan may include benchmarks for renewable energy, energy efficiency and
reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
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US News and World Report: Immigration Bill Amendment Aims to Win Residency
Rights for Climate Change Refugees
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2013/06/21/immigration-billamendment-aims-to-win-residency-rights-for-climate-change-refugees
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, introduced an amendment Wednesday to the pending immigration
bill that aims to allow Pacific islanders and others affected by climate change to reside legally in
the United States.
"It simply recognizes that climate change, like war, is one of the most significant contributors to
homelessness in the world," Schatz said, according to Think Progress.
If enacted as law, the amendment would allow non-U.S. citizens to seek recognition as
"stateless persons," allowing them possible legal residency in the U.S.
"This amendment to the immigration bill gives the Secretary of Homeland Security the
discretion, but not an obligation, to take into account situations in which a person cannot return
to their country because it's uninhabitable due to climate change," a Schatz spokesperson told
U.S. News in an email.
"This is not an abstract issue. Hawai'i has had a long, close and enduring relationship with its
island neighbors in the Pacific for which climate change is an imminent threat. For Kiribati, the
Marshall Islands, the Cook Islands and others, rising seas threaten the very existence of these
countries," said the spokesperson. The amendment's language does not specify these
nationalities.
According to Refugees International, there are currently 4,000 people without citizenship from
any country living in the United States. "Statelessness is not a recognized condition under U.S.
immigration law, so it is nearly impossible for people without nationality to obtain residency,
asylum, or citizenship in the United States," the group said in a May post.
The current Senate immigration bill would grant conditional legal status to "stateless" people,
and they would ultimately be able to apply for permanent residency and citizenship.
Schatz's amendment say the DHS secretary "in consultation with the Secretary of State, may
designate, as stateless persons, any specific group of individuals who are no longer considered
nationals by any state as a result of sea level rise or other environmental changes that render
such state uninhabitable for such group of individuals."
The amendment would also instruct the comptroller general to "carry out a study on the effects
of climate change-induced migration on United States immigration policies" and "climate
change-induced internal migration of residents of Alaska, Hawaii, and other States" within 18
months of the bill becoming law.
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Planet Ark: Stakeholders brace for White House move on power plant emissions
http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/69025
Before President Barack Obama unveils a plan to lower carbon emissions from thousands of
existing U.S. power plants, stakeholders on all sides of the issue have attempted to make their
mark on the regulations.
Electric utilities, environmental groups, large electricity consumers, and states have been
working furiously behind the scenes for months to have a say in new rules that will be laid out by
the Environmental Protection Agency.
Obama, in a video released by the White House on Saturday, confirmed that he will deliver a
major speech on climate change on Tuesday. "I'll lay out my vision for where I believe we need
to go - a national plan to reduce carbon pollution," Obama said.
Administration officials have said the White House will use the Clean Air Act to tackle power
plants, which account for nearly 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.
This comes as no surprise to the companies and states that will have to either comply with or
carry out the regulations. For the past few months, they have been working behind the scenes
to influence the EPA before it begins what could be a months- or years-long rule-making
process.
"The traditional industry response to EPA rule-making is - the EPA puts something out and then
we respond to it," said Emily Fisher, a director of legal affairs for energy and environment at
electric industry lobby group Edison Electric Institute (EEI). "This is different in that we feel
obligated to be more engaged early on."
Fisher said the EPA will be in a "gray area" when it takes its first steps to regulate existing
sources because the agency will need to use a rarely used and broadly worded section of the
Clean Air Act, known as 111(d).
Under that statute the EPA would set federal emissions guidelines and decide upon the best
systems or technologies for reducing emissions. Each state would then be left to set
performance standards for its power plants and to determine how the plants will meet those
standards.
Because there is little legal precedent for the rule, the agency will rely on a range of external
sources for input, said Dina Kruger, a former director of the EPA climate change division and
now a regulatory consultant.
EARLY START
Environmental group the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has developed the most
detailed proposal so far.
In December it unveiled a plan in which the EPA would set state-specific emissions rates that
would give the states most reliant on coal-generated energy more time to comply.
Dan Lashof, NRDC's climate and clean air program director, said the group wrote the plan to
"rehabilitate the reputation of the Clean Air Act," which critics say will raise electricity prices,
"and show there is a flexible way to regulate carbon."
Under the plan, a state that currently gets more electricity from coal-fired power plants than
cleaner-burning natural gas or renewable energy would set an emissions rate target in 2020 that
is higher than for a state that is less coal-dependent. States would then develop their own plans
to meet the target.
The NRDC said its plan would cut carbon pollution 26 percent under 2005 levels by 2020 and
cost $4 billion, which it said was a fraction of the cost of health and environmental damages
from not acting on climate change.
But this approach may be vulnerable to legal challenges, said Robert Wyman, a lawyer at
Latham and Watkins in Los Angeles who heads up a coalition of major companies that are also
trying to influence the EPA rule-making.
The EPA "lacks the legal authority to differentiate among states in setting the eventual
performance standards for specific fuel and technology subcategories," Wyman said.
The National Climate Coalition, which includes companies such as Boeing, Shell and utilities
NRG and Midwest Generation, has developed a framework for the EPA that Wyman feels would
stand up to potential legal challenges.
Under their approach, the EPA would set separate emission performance standards for coaland gas-fired power plants.
"The EPA would develop the basic building blocks for coordinated state action while leaving to
the states the choice of approach," according to a summary of their plan.
The NCC approach would let utilities calculate average emissions across their range of facilities,
which in turn would enable states to use market-based mechanisms, such as trading of
emissions permits.
EARLY ACTORS
Several states and certain utilities that have already taken steps to lower carbon levels at their
plants will lobby the EPA to get credit for emissions already reduced under states' carbon
reduction or clean energy programs.
Xcel Energy, which operates in states with renewable energy mandates including Colorado and
Minnesota, estimates that its greenhouse gas reductions by 2020 will be three to four times
greater than if it kept its fleet of coal plants and tried to maximize their efficiency under future
EPA regulations.
States such as California and the nine northeastern states in the Regional Greenhouse Gas
Initiative, which have market-based cap-and-trade systems in place, have also said they will
seek equivalency.
The EEI also warned in a white paper on existing power plant rules in 2012 that while the EPA
should give companies "flexible approaches" to meet the standard, "some are concerned that
flexibility may open the door to more stringent standards."
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E&E News: CLIMATE: Obama to lay out ambitious global warming plan
http://www.eenews.net/eedaily/stories/1059983337/search?keyword=CLIMATE%3A+Obama+to
+lay+out+ambitious+global+warming+plan
President Obama is set to provide details tomorrow of how he plans to deliver on his secondterm promise of tackling man-made climate change.
Obama announced in a video this weekend that he will lay out his climate agenda in a speech at
Georgetown University and that it will seek to "reduce carbon pollution, prepare our country for
the impacts of climate change and lead global efforts to fight it."
The announcement follows months of speculation about how Obama would make good on his
inaugural and State of the Union vows to again make global warming an administration priority.
He billed the plan as good for the United States economically, employing scientists, engineers,
entrepreneurs and workers to develop and build a low-carbon economy.
He also returned to a theme from his January inaugural speech, saying that addressing climate
change is about protecting the next generation. "When it comes to the world we leave our
children, we owe it to them to do what we can," he said.
Industry officials vowed to fight the plan if it contains overly burdensome regulations. Last week,
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) panned the president's yet-to-be-released climate
change plans as "absolutely crazy," certain to increase the cost of energy and "kill more
American jobs."
Environmentalists applauded Obama's pending announcement but said they will be listening
closely for an expected presidential commitment to curb greenhouse gases from today's fossilfuels utilities.
"He knows that addressing climate change is not only an obligation we have to the next
generation, but something we owe ourselves -- because it means modernizing our energy
system in order to generate electricity that is reliable, affordable, healthy and clean,"
Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp said in a statement.
Natural Resources Defense Council President Frances Beinecke took slight exception to the
president's statement in the video that "there's no single step that can reverse the effects of
climate change."
She said, "The single-most important thing we can do, as a nation, is to reduce the dangerous
carbon pollution from our power plants," noting that the sector accounts for 40 percent of U.S.
CO2 emissions.
The Sierra Club's Michael Brune concurred. "Establishing strong pollution standards for new
and existing power plants is critical for protecting our families and our planet from runaway
climate disruption and is something our coalition has worked mightily to achieve," he said.
EDF, NRDC, the Sierra Club and others have been laying the groundwork for years for U.S.
EPA rules to curb new and existing power plant emissions (see related story). They sued the
agency to regulate CO2 under the Clean Air Act, pressed for curbs on utility-sector emissions
and kept up the pressure on allies in the administration who put off finalizing a rule for yet-to-be
built power plants while repeatedly saying they had "no plans" to regulate CO2 from today's
power fleet.
Now the White House appears to be signaling that it may be time to make those plans after all.
Details of the rumored White House announcement had been trickling out for weeks, but last
week, the president and a senior aide hinted that existing power plant rules will probably be part
of that mix.
Speaking Wednesday during a visit to Germany -- a country that has slashed its own emissions
by a quarter compared with 1990 levels, mostly by reducing the carbon intensity of its power
sector -- the president called climate change the "global threat of our time" (Greenwire, June
19.)
His top energy and climate change adviser, Heather Zichal, told a Washington, D.C., audience
on the same day that her boss sees climate change as "a legacy issue" and offered the Clean
Air Act as a tool that history has shown could be used to combat power plant emissions
successfully (Greenwire, June 19).
Green groups said last week that they were expecting to see years of work pay off.
"Presumably, this is the moment that we have been waiting for since the Massachusetts v.
EPA case was decided," said Joshua Saks, legislative director for the National Wildlife
Federation, referring to the landmark 2007 Supreme Court decision that started EPA down the
path to carbon regulations. "And we are doing everything we can to be ready to respond and to
support this, assuming that it takes the necessary steps forward."
Greens say they are prepared to push for a rule that makes a significant dent in the emissions
of a sector that is responsible for 40 percent of the United States' CO2.
"Now that we have rumblings of a potential climate plan on the horizon, we are ramping up work
to make sure that that's a strong plan and that we are set to spread the world about that
announcement if and when it happens," said Nathan Wilcox, Environment America's federal
global warming director.
League of Conservation Voters (LCV) President Gene Karpinski said, "This is one of the most
important campaigns our community has ever put together to elevate support for a historic set of
proposals."
Even after the regulations are finalized, he added, environmental groups are poised to align with
other advocates in the public health, labor and business spheres to stave off an all-butguaranteed push to undo them legislatively.
Greens not satisfied?
But while environmentalists celebrated, some hinted that whatever Obama proposes tomorrow
will not be enough to stave off the growing threat of catastrophic climate change.
The Sierra Club's Brune said Obama's climate "legacy" will not be secure unless he eventually
rejects the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
"A clear and bold commitment from the president to address climate disruption also gives us
hope that he is prepared to cement his legacy by rejecting the dirty and dangerous Keystone XL
pipeline, ending destructive oil drilling in the Arctic, halting mountaintop removal, and
abandoning dirty energy," he said.
But many have speculated that Obama may be offering his climate commitments now to mollify
environmentalists ahead of a decision later in the year to approve the Alberta-to-Texas oil sands
pipeline.
And Bill Snape of the Center for Biological Diversity said Obama should commit to extend EPA's
regulatory scope beyond the utility sector to other industries that contribute heavily to global
warming.
"The international targets the U.S. have announced are clearly well below what the best science
says we need, even from a pro-rated perspective of U.S. global contributions," he said in an
email, referring to Obama's pledge that the United States would cut its emissions 17 percent
below 2005 levels by 2020.
He suggested that EPA use the Clean Air Act to implement a broader cap on greenhouse gas
emissions. "Such a move could actually allow the US significant leverage with our trading
partners," he said.
Industry push-back
Meanwhile, industry is prepared to go on the defense if Obama announces tomorrow that his
administration will move ahead with existing power plant rules.
"The law does not allow the president a broad range of options for addressing carbon emissions
from existing power plants," said Scott Segal of Bracewell & Guiliani in an email. "If he pushes
the envelope, and suggests a plan with unrealistic timetables or emissions limits, the plan may
well violate the spirit and text of the Clean Air Act."
NRDC has put forward a proposal that would allow utilities some flexibility in reducing their
emissions from existing plants but hold them to a strict standard. But industry lawyers have
argued that it oversteps the limits of the section of the Clean Air Act that EPA would use to
regulate emissions from existing sources.
By requiring emissions reductions that are not technologically feasible, said Segal, EPA could
drive up power costs and stop economic recovery.
This track would "even force energy-intensive manufacturing overseas, thus increasing carbon
emissions as goods flow back to the United States," he said.
He recommended that Obama stick to "win-win" strategies like energy efficiency and "steer
clear of untenable regulations."
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The Christian Science Monitor: Obama's cold calculation on global warming (OpEd)
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2013/0620/Obama-s-cold-calculationon-global-warming
By the Monitor's Editorial Board / June 20, 2013 at 5:07 pm EDT
As president, Barack Obama has never visited North Dakota. Does that matter? Yes, if he now
acts to effectively shut down hundreds of coal-burning power plants, a regulatory move that
officials say is only days away.
In 2010, North Dakota generated 82 percent of its electricity from coal. Many other states,
from Wyoming to Kentucky, rely heavily on coal for either energy or jobs. In 15 states, at least
half of the power comes from coal. To be sure, they are among the worst contributors to global
warming.
Yet people in these states would be forced to make the largest personal sacrifice in Mr.
Obama’s plan to dethrone “king coal” and help the United States be a leader in curbing climate
change.
The president should now visit those places heavily dependent on coal and try better
persuasion. This would be smart politics to avoid the blocking tactics of both Democratic and
Republican leaders from those states. But it would also address on a personal level the fact that
Americans in general remain resistant to the sacrifices needed for drastic reductions in
greenhouse-gas emissions.
Five years ago, for example, 48 percent of Americans said their personal actions on energy use
would significantly reduce their contribution to global warming; that figure has since dropped to
31 percent, according to the latest survey by Yale and George Mason universities.
Such trends show Obama has work to do. And those states most dependent on fossil fuels are
most in need of being convinced of their common bond to the rest of humanity and to future
generations. Environmental action relies more on individuals than government to see
themselves in a wider, even global community and accept the discipline and sacrifice needed to
protect the planet.
That may sound a bit corny, but the main tactic of climate-change activists – stoking fear –
hasn’t worked very well over the past quarter century. And appeals that rely on scientific
predictions of temperature increases and to economic self-interest have also shown their limits.
Obama blames Congress for not requiring the existing coal plants to end carbon emissions into
the atmosphere – a requirement that is unfeasible with current commercial technology. He has
long threatened to take executive action. Indeed White House officials said this week
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will soon issue regulations on existing plants.
Such tough emission rules will probably face a long battle in the courts with suits filed by coaldependent states – whether their governors are Democratic or Republican. Kansas, Montana,
and West Virginia have already advised the Supreme Court that the EPA is abusing its authority
under the Clean Air Act.
Heather Zichal, the White House coordinator for energy and climate change, says Obama has
made action on climate change a “legacy issue” for his second term. If so, he needs to do more
than give speeches on global warming in Washington or, as he did this week, in Berlin.
“Peace with justice means refusing to condemn our children to a harsher, less hospitable
planet,” he told the Germans. Now he needs to look North Dakotans in the eye and convince
them of the need for heart-felt responsibility – and sacrifice – for the rest of the world
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Canada
The Star Phoenix: U.S. environmental expert cautions Alberta landowners about
pipeline risks
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/environmental+expert+cautions+Alberta+landowners
+about+pipeline+risks/8564074/story.html
Alberta must introduce tougher regulations to catch pipeline spills and mandate better
technologies to prevent them, says a pipeline expert visiting from the United States.
"When it comes to leak detection, we have a problem with the regulations themselves and what
they allow pipeline companies to miss when it comes to leaks," said Anthony Swift, a lawyer
with expertise in pipeline safety for the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council
in Washington, D.C.
Swift, who previously testified against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline expansion from
Alberta to the Gulf Coast, spent the week speaking to landowners in Camrose, Bowden and Lac
La Biche about issues with pipelines running through their properties.
"We're finding that many of the safety issues that concern our pipeline systems are shared
across the border. Both the United States and Canada are facing the same challenges and,
particularly in Alberta, there have been a series of major pipeline accidents, many of which have
been associated with lax or lack of regulatory oversight," said Swift, who was invited to Alberta
by the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, the Alberta Surface Rights Group and the Council of
Canadians.
One recent leak emptied 9.5 million litres of industrial waste water from a pipeline operated by a
Texas-based company over 42 hectares near Zama City, a remote Alberta community near the
border with the Northwest Territories. Apache Canada said an on-site operator detected the
leak and reported it to the Energy Resources Compensation Board June 1. Marc Douglas,
spokesman for Apache, said in an email one bird, a common American bittern, has died.
Another leak is being cleaned up northwest of Manning after a Plains Midstream Canada
pipeline spilled about 950 barrels of natural gas liquids and byproducts from its 79-kilometre,
six-inch Kemp Pipeline. Early investigations suggested the leak may have been caused by
construction equipment.
The Alberta government says the province has strong regulations to deal with such incidents.
"We have a long track record of looking after pipelines in our province," said Mike Feenstra,
spokesman for the energy ministry. Feenstra said statistics show 99.9 per cent of Alberta diluted
bitumen is transported via pipelines safely.
One year ago, the Energy Re-sources Conservation Board reported a rate of failure per
thousand kilometres of pipeline as 1.5, down from 2.2 in 2006. That's in a province that has
nearly 400,000 kilometres of pipelines, including those that move gas, oil, water or other
products.
"We have a very safe system in Alberta, one of the most tightly regulated systems in the country
for pipelines," Energy Minister Ken Hughes said in 2012.
In Canada, Swift said oil companies are required to detect a leak in the volume of five per cent
of a pipeline's capacity within five minutes.
"That's all well and good, but once leaks get below five-per-cent capacity, the regulations
weaken significantly," he said.
A leak of between two and five per cent of a pipeline's capacity must be detected within seven
days. A leak of between one to two per cent of a pipeline's capacity must be detected within one
month.
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The National Post: Companies roll out contingency plans as power remains cut
off in areas of downtown Calgary
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/06/23/companies-roll-out-contingency-plans-as-power-remains-cut-offin-areas-of-downtown-calgary/
Major energy and financial companies with offices in downtown Calgary rolled out contingency
plans on the weekend, bracing for disruptions Monday as officials continued to survey floodrelated damage and power remained cut off from pockets of the city’s core.
The city at the heart of Canada’s energy industry remains in a state of emergency more than
four days after the Bow and Elbow rivers spilled over their banks, swamping nearby
communities and city streets and forcing thousands from their homes.
Officials said parts of the downtown could be without power until at least mid-week. “We don’t
know yet what the extent of the damage is, which is why we leave a fairly wide open time
frame,” said Bruce Burrell, director of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency.
Gianna Manes, chief executive officer of power company Enmax Corp., said one of three
substations that service the downtown had taken on water. Speaking to reporters Sunday, Ms.
Manes said the company is still assessing damage to the units and transmission infrastructure.
“We are guardedly optimistic,” she said, saying the overall electrical system in the city remained
“strong.”
She said crews from Epcor Utilities Inc. in Edmonton were assisting in recovery efforts, and that
Enmax would seek help from other utilities “as necessary.” Of 24,000 customers without power,
roughly 10,000 were located in the downtown core as of Sunday afternoon, officials said.
By Sunday evening, companies were rolling out contingency plans. Natural gas giant Encana
Corp. is asking workers to stay home as per city instructions, spokesman Jay Averill said. “We
expect many Encana staff have been impacted. Their safety and security are the most important
right now,” he said in an email.
More than 3,000 employees can access computer systems remotely, Mr. Averill said. “We have
asked that anyone that is working on business critical functions and others that are capable of
accessing their workstations from home to do so in the coming days.”
Employees at Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil company, were being redirected from its
downtown tower to satellite offices elsewhere in the city, spokeswoman Sneh Seetal said in an
interview Sunday. “We’re encouraging them not to use remote connections so they don’t tax the
system,” she said.
She said the flood has not impacted operations. Employees are being contacted via social
media services such as Twitter and Facebook, she said. The company has not assessed
damages to its downtown office, she said.
Imperial Oil Ltd. will remain closed Monday, spokesman Pius Rolheiser said in an emailed
message. Essential services will be maintained via remote access and car washes at the
company’s Esso gas stations have been shut down, he said.
Canada’s National Energy Board has closed its downtown office and activated an emergency
operations centre, it said in a message posted to its web site.
The board is monitoring the high water and flooding in southern Alberta, it said. “Major hearings
and applications have not been affected,” the board said, adding that it is “monitoring pipelines
under our jurisdiction and they remain safe.”
Also Sunday, Enbridge Inc. shut down two major oil sands pipelines as a precaution because of
heavy rain conditions, spokesman Graham White confirmed. The shutdown of the 570,000barrel-a-day Athabasca and the 600,000-barrel Waupisoo pipelines, which connect oil sands
deposits in the north to export hubs at Edmonton and Hardisty, Alta., followed an unrelated leak
of 750 barrels of light, synthetic crude on the company’s Line 37 north of Cheecham, Alta. Mr.
White did not say when the lines would be restarted.
Calgary’s downtown houses about one-third of the city’s employment base, or between 150,000
and 180,000 workers, said Adam Legge, president and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of
Commerce. None of them currently have access to their workplace, he said.
Indications are that the full extent of the evacuation will be measured in weeks, not days, he
said. Smaller businesses face a “triple whammy,” Mr. Legge said, including lost revenue,
damage to premises and damage to inventory.
Data is scant at this point in terms of direct impacts on business, but Mr. Legge said companies
that don’t have remote technology and those that rely on foot traffic would be most impacted by
the shutdown. Larger oil and financial services companies typically house their computer
networks off-site, he said.
In hard hit High River, Alta., Bank of Montreal has brought in a trailer to take over operations for
one of its swamped branches, spokesperson Laurie Grant said. A flooded branch near
Calgary’s Elbow Park will remain closed. About 75 staff from the bank’s evacuated downtown
offices would be relocated to other BMO locations.
Ken Warren, managing partner of the Calgary office of law firm Gowlings, said computer
systems were transferred to the firm’s Vancouver office in anticipation of a power outage that
never actually came. The Calgary office remains under evacuation order and physical damage
is considered limited, he said.
“Our internal stuff can all wait. It’s really making sure our clients get dealt with,” Mr. Warren said
Sunday. That is complicated because the legal business remains largely paper-based, and
lawyers who are currently cut off from their filing cabinets have few options. “For us, it really will
be access to the building” that will let things get back to normal. “And then we’ll play catch-up.
We’re a service industry.”
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Mondaq: Canada: Endangered Species Act: Permit By Rule Going Ahead
http://www.mondaq.com/canada/x/246752/Endangered+Species+Act+Permit+By+Rule+Going+Ahead
Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources is moving ahead to shift some Endangered Species Act
permits to a "permit by rule"/ registration system, through Ontario Regulation 176/13. This
"Modernization of Approvals" initiative is modelled on the successful one already well underway
in the Ministry of the Environment. It was supported by the report of the Endangered Species
Act Panel, as one of its six themes.
I'm a strong supporter of the "Modernization of Approvals"/permit by rule concept: the idea that
common, low risk, frequently permitted activities can be governed by a standard set of rules,
instead of a bespoke permit. If the activities are well chosen and the rules are well designed, a
registration/permit by rule system makes routine permits faster, more predictable and more
uniform, without reducing species protection. Enforcement is essential, of course, but it should
be easier to enforce standard rules than it is to enforce one-off permits bedevilled by little
variations. And reducing the number of routine permits should free up regulatory staff to focus
on the more challenging applications, as has been happening at the Ministry of the
Environment.
Please note that MNR is calling its approach "Rules in regulation", instead of the more common
"permit by rule". The Ministry of Environment calls the same approach its "registry" or "EASR"
system.
In a telling sign of the importance of Endangered Species Act protection, the Ministry received
10034 comments on its proposal: 9469 comments writing and 565 online. 90% were form
letters, both for and against the proposal. As a result, a number of useful amendments were
made to the proposal, now Ontario Regulation 176/13 (which amends O. Reg. 242/08)
Expert Panel Recommendations
Here is what the expert panel recommended:
The Ministry of Natural Resources should implement an approval continuum where a "permit by
rule" (PBR) approach is implemented for certain projects/activities, which must meet a
prescribed standard set of implementation conditions instead of proceeding through the regular
negotiated approvals process (Permit by Review). Projects/activities that would suit this
approach are those which are common and repeated, where there is confidence in the
mitigation and therefore a lower risk to the species / habitat and where acceptable
implementation best management practices are followed / repeated, such as conservation
projects where the purpose is habitat creation. Risk assessment criteria could be developed by
MNR to determine what other types of projects/activities would be subject to this PBR standard
condition approach. It is recommended that PRB will only be implemented in exceptional
circumstances for a relatively small proportion of approval applications in cases where the risk
to ESA species is demonstrably low.
Compliance would be enforced by focusing on self-regulation with random audits of activities,
and charges being laid for non-compliance, as appropriate.
Public Comments and MNR response
Here is a summary of the public comments that were received on the concept, along with MNR's
responses:
"1. The ESA should be strengthened, but the proposal weakens the Act and would lead to a
degradation of habitat; the proposal does not meet MNR's mandate or the intent of the ESA
The regulatory amendments continue to maintain a high level of protection of species at risk and
their habitat. MNR is changing the way its work is carried out to better serve those who rely on
the ministry for programs and services in a way that is consistent with MNR's mandate. There
are no changes to the Act, but rather to O. Reg. 242/08, which is a regulation enabled by the
current legislation. The changes are consistent with the purposes of the ESA.
Some of the changes after consultation and engagement that strengthen the protection of
species at risk required by the proposal are:



The regulation requires proponents to consider Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge (ATK)
when preparing a mitigation plan, which will facilitate engagement at the community
level.
Aquatic Species (s. 23.4) Conditions in the standardized approach were expanded to
provide more options for taking actions to benefit affected species.
Ecosystem protection (s. 23.11)
Eligible proponents were restricted to legal entities such as municipalities, universities and notfor-profit groups that have among their primary objectives natural heritage conservation,
ecological conservation or similar objectives. (See s. 23.11 for a full list.)
This section does not apply to activities in the following sensitive ecological community types:
fen, bog, sand barren or dune, beach bar, alvar, cliff or talus.
" Newly-listed and transition species – development (s. 23.13)
species that are found on-site late in the activity process are not eligible for this provision and a
permit would be required for this circumstance.
"newly-listed species" is restricted to species listed on the Species at Risk in Ontario List as an
endangered or threatened species for the first time on January 24, 2013.





Newly-listed and transition species – development (s. 23.13) and Early exploration
mining (s. 23.10) Proponents are prohibited from carrying out any part of the activity in
an area that is being used, or has been used at any time in the previous three years, by
woodland caribou (forest-dwelling boreal population) to carry out a life process related to
reproduction, including rearing.
Pits and quarries (s. 23.14) The time period in which to complete a mitigation plan when
a species first appears on a site was reduced from three to two years.
Safe harbour habitat (s. 23.16) The "safe harbour plan" concept was removed. The
regulation now only allows eligible safe harbour habitat (i.e. temporary habitat for
species at risk, that will be removed at a later date) to be created or enhanced in
accordance with a permit or agreement issued by or entered into with the Minister. .
Species protection, recovery activities (s. 23.17) An animal care protocol is required for
activities involving handling of certain types of species at risk, in order to minimize
potential adverse effects on the species.
Threats to health and safety, not imminent (s. 23.18)
While comments received, including the ESA Panel recommendations, supported the concept of
streamlining approvals for health and safety activities, some concern was expressed that the
language in the proposal was too broad, allowing too many activities to be eligible for the
amendment. The ministry changed the wording from "is unacceptable under the circumstance"
to "is likely to have serious consequences in the short or long term if the activity is not carried
out." in order to scope the activities and added sub categories of activities to further scope what
activities would be eligible.
Eligibility for activities related to the maintenance, repair, removal, replacement,
decommissioning or upgrade of an existing structure or infrastructure was restricted such that
there can be no: increase in the area occupied by the structure or infrastructure (except in
relation to culverts), change in its location or use/function of the infrastructure.
The removal and decommissioning of structures was added to the list of eligible activity types to
reflect that in some cases repair may not be possible or that a safer course of action may be to
remove or decommission an unsound structure or infrastructure.
Many large or complex projects now require a mitigation plan (e.g., removal or replacement of
an entire structure or infrastructure, or decommissioning of a dam).
Activities related to a drainage work to which s. 23.9 (Drainage works) of the regulation applies
are not eligible for s. 23.18

A number of species are excluded from specific sections of the regulation due to the
potential risk the activities present to these particular species.
2. Administrative efficiencies are not addressing the needs of species at risk (SAR) but reflect
economic needs of industry, and MNR budget cuts; it is not realistic to expect industry to follow
rules in regulation without MNR oversight.
The administrative changes to the regulation (Trapping – incidental catch s. 23.19, Possession
for educational purposes, etc. s. 23.15, and Commercial cultivation of vascular plants, etc. s. 12)
do not alter species protections but rather help avoid duplication and integrate a number of
approvals with other planning processes in place within MNR.
Under the "rules-in-regulation" model put in place by these regulatory amendments, proponents
of activities that would otherwise have prohibited impacts on species at risk or their habitats
must satisfy requirements set out in the regulation. In most case proponents are required to
register their activities with the Ministry and take a number of steps to minimize adverse effects
on protected species or habitat. MNR will continue to conduct education and outreach activities,
monitoring, auditing, and where necessary enforcement actions for the purpose of protecting
and recovering species in Ontario.
3. Need increased efficiencies and flexibility for industry (e.g., there should be a window of two
years before mitigation of adverse effects is required, health and safety proposal should not
have any excluded species)
The Ministry is providing greater flexibility to industry by proceeding with a "rules-in–regulation"
regulatory model for eligible activities in a way that continues to protect species at risk. The
Ministry is focusing its efforts and resources on responding to requests for ESA permits for
activities not covered in this regulation that are likely to have greater potential to impact species
at risk.
4. The Crown Forest Sustainability Act (CFSA) already provides for needs of SAR; the forest
sector is required to continuously update their management practices to be consistent with
provincial recovery strategies developed under the ESA; the forestry sector should be exempt
from the ESA based on unnecessary duplication with CFSA.
The new provision dealing with forest operations sets out the conditions that persons conducting
forest operations impacting species at risk or their habitats must comply with if not acting under
an ESA permit. This provision will apply to forest operations conducted before July 1, 2018 (5
years), during which time the Ministry will establish a panel to review the linkages between the
ESA and the CFSA. The panel will include members from Aboriginal communities, along with
stakeholders from the forest industry, municipalities and environmental organizations.
5. Recommendation to charge fees for permits as a means to offset budget cuts and avoid
exemptions
Implementing a full cost recovery system for permitting is under consideration, but is out of
scope for the current regulatory amendments.
6. General concern that registration and "rules-in-regulation" are intended to replace permitting;
new SAR on sites should be addressed through overall benefit permits.
Where appropriate, MNR is shifting from a "review and approval" model to a registration and
"rules–in-regulation" model. The rules set out in the regulation are comparable to permit
conditions and include requirements such as: registering with MNR; taking reasonable steps to
minimize adverse effects on the species; developing mitigation plans using expert advice and
the best available information; monitoring and reporting on the effectiveness of mitigation
measures and beneficial actions (where applicable); and, reporting of sightings to MNR. Some
activities are eligible only if linked to existing instruments or approvals. In some instances,
higher risk activities, species, community types or sensitive time periods for species have been
excluded from the applicability of the regulation.
Permits will continue to be required where an activity is not eligible for one of the provisions of
the regulation, or the requirements of the regulation cannot be met.
In addition, overall benefit permits would still be required for the development or construction
phases of many activities that impact species at risk or their habitat. For existing operations,
newly found species must be protected as soon as they are found by avoiding and minimizing
adverse effects, followed by the development and implementation of a longer term mitigation
plan.
7. Registration must be mandatory for all proposals; registration will not provide enough
information for MNR to monitor when exemptions are being used, or the cumulative effects
resulting from activities occurring under the exemptions.
All of the new regulatory provisions require the proponent to comply with rules laid out in the
regulation. All but two of the eighteen provisions require registration; activities, locations and
species will be recorded in the registration. The Ministry will be aware of activities that are
occurring under the regulation, where they are taking place on the landscape, and which
species are affected; this will facilitate analysis of cumulative effects.
Two of the regulatory provisions (Commercial cultivation of vascular plants, etc. s. 12 and
Forest operations in Crown forests s. 22.1) do not require the proponent to register with the
Ministry before undertaking a specified type of activity. The amendments to s. 12 (Commercial
cultivation of vascular plants etc.) leave that section largely unchanged, though cultivators will
no longer be required to give notice to MNR.
Forest operations carried out under approved forest management plans would not require an
ESA permit provided the proponent complies with the rules set out in regulation. MNR is
responsible for approving forest management plans under the Crown Forest Sustainability Act.
The regulatory scheme in place under that Act already includes requirements to address
impacts to species at risk; it also requires reports that will assist the Ministry with assessing the
cumulative disturbance of forestry operations. Additional conditions in the regulation include
direction consistent with the Caribou Conservation Plan related to forest management planning.
8. Comments and questions about consultation, the amount of information in the first posting
and the makeup of the ESA Panel
This proposal notice about the ESA regulatory amendments was originally posted on the
Environmental Registry (ER) for a 45 day comment period on December 5, 2013. The comment
period for this notice was subsequently extended, and the notice was updated with a ten page
document containing additional information on January 24, 2013, for a total of 82 days. MNR
continued to consult with stakeholders during the development of the regulation.
The ESA Panel was developed to deliver advice to the ministry on improving the implementation
of the ESA and represented a range of interests and expertise.
9. Concerns about the scope of "transition" for activities that are already approved or planned.


To be eligible for the "transition" provision (Newly-listed and transition species –
development s. 23.13) there are a number of conditions that must be followed for
activities that were approved or planned prior to dates specified in the regulation. These
include conditions that require proponents to protect individual members of species at
risk carrying out critical life processes such as reproduction and hibernation. Conditions
also require proponents to take steps to avoid or minimize adverse effects on species or
habitat; monitor and prepare a report on the effectiveness of these actions annually;
develop and implement a mitigation plan for affected species at risk, carrying out habitat
restoration or enhancement activities; and report observations of species identified to
MNR.
The ER notice dated December 5, 2012 included a number of potential sectors that
might be included in the "transition provision". The document that was added on January
24, 2013 providing additional detail included a list of specific activities; other sectors that
felt they might be eligible for this provision were invited to provide comments to MNR.
Activities that have been added to the "transition" provision as a result of comments
received by the Ministry are:
Constructing drainage works under an agreement filed under s. 2 (2) of the Drainage Act, or in
respect of which an engineer's report was adopted under s. 45 (1) of the Drainage Act
Carrying out a transit project, as defined in s. 1 (1) of Ontario Regulation 231/08 (Transit
Projects and Metrolinx Undertakings) made under the Environmental Assessment Act, in
respect of which the Minister has given a notice to proceed with the transit project under O.
Reg. 231/08
Construction of Solar Facilities less than three or four hectares in area (An activity described in
s. 3 of O. Reg. 350/12 for the purposes of s. 20.21 of the Environmental Protection Act)
Advanced exploration carried out under Part VII of the Mining Act provided certain criteria are
met (including written receipt of a closure plan by the Director of Mine Rehabilitation)
Mine production carried out under Part VII of the Mining Act provided certain criteria are met
(including written receipt of a closure plan by the Director of Mine Rehabilitation)
Rehabilitation of a mine hazard/Voluntary rehabilitation of a mine hazard provided certain
criteria are met

Clarification was requested regarding eligibility under an existing transition regulatory
provision for development and infrastructure affecting Redside Dace. Clarification
regarding eligibility under s. 23.1 has been added to the regulation.
10. In response to requests by two industry sectors, the Ministry added two provisions to apply
to the operation of wind facilities, and early mineral exploration. They are:

Wind facilities (s. 23.20 ) This section applies to a person who is engaged in the
operation of a wind facility within the meaning of Ontario Regulation 359/09 (Renewable
Energy Approvals under Part V.0.1 of the Act) made under the Environmental Protection
Act.

Early exploration mining (s. 23.10) This section applies with respect to certain mining
activities that constitute early exploration as defined in s. 1 (1) of Ontario Regulation
308/12 (Exploration Plans and Exploration Permits) made under the Mining Act.
Clarification
Butternut (s. 23.7) The ER proposal states that individuals would register their activities affecting
Butternut with MNR at least 30 days prior to removal of any retainable Butternut tree. However,
rather than registering ahead of time, individuals must submit a Butternut Health Assessor's
report to the appropriate MNR District Manager at least 30 days before completing the
registration and the start of the proposed activity that will impact Butternut."
Improving the speed and predictability of Endangered Species Act permits has reportedly been
a major request of the business community. Now that they are getting some of that, will
enforcement be beefed up to ensure that the new system works?
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist
advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
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_________________________________________________________________
The Financial Post: Oil giants could feel major pain should world get serious
about reducing global temperatures
http://business.financialpost.com/2013/06/21/oil-climate-change-producers/
A global economy that stubbornly refuses to wean itself off low interest rates. Central banks that
seem hell bent on destroying confidence in money with Hail Mary quantitative easing programs.
Made-in-Europe bank bail-ins, which have depositors around the world worried about insured
savings. And let's not forget Kim Jong-un, Asia's Supreme warmonger, who seems determined
to launch a new Korean conflict. Investors have an impressive list of reasons to wonder if the
bull in equities that pushed the S & P 500 to a record high this year will keep running, especially
since nobody knows if it was motivated by genuine optimism, trading computers or simply the
wishful thinking of investors with a serious lack of attractive places to park their money.
How Suncor climbed atop the list of Canada's biggest companies2
After one year at the oil giant's helm, CEO Steve Williams has begun to stake out his own turf
and says the company is no longer interested in growth for growth's sake. Read more3.
Canadians, of course, never got to fully ride the bull, thanks to weakness in commodities. But
there are reasons to be optimistic about domestic energy plays if global enthusiasm for stocks
holds. The discount on Canadian oil, which can cost the economy tens of billions of dollars
annually, contracted to less than US$15 in April from more than US$40 last year. Furthermore,
polling data suggests about 74% of Americans and 68% of Canadians support the Keystone XL
pipeline, which is why the smart money is currently betting Washington will give a green light to
the controversial project. Uncle Sam isn't exactly holding his breath for more Canadian oil; and it
will take more than just a few pipelines to the Gulf Coast to totally reverse the price discounts for
Canadian crude. Alberta must get its oil to other markets. But that is the plan, according to
Alberta Energy Minister Ken Hughes, who insists a market diversification strategy will eventually
ensure the province's crude reaches customers willing to pay top dollar for it.
For long-term thinkers, now could be a great time to load up on beat-up western Canadian
energy plays, right? Not so fast, partner. Before placing any bets, please be advised that being
the world's only major oil-producing jurisdiction without direct access to an ocean may actually
be the least of Alberta's energy-related problems. Remember peak oil? Well, that's so
yesterday.
The hot topic du jour, at least amongst those willing to discuss it, is peak demand. Indeed, the
scarcity of oil pales in comparison to the problems that could arise if the human race actually
consumes the fossil fuel reserves that back the market capitalizations of listed energy
companies. That's why bank analysts and credit rating experts are now starting to join early
proponents of the so-called carbon bubble theory, warning that energy sector valuations ignore
the world's climate change target and could be decimated if the international community puts its
money where its mouth is and collectively moves to protect Mother Earth by attacking demand
for oil, coal and gas.
According to journalist Mark Lynas, author of Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, a
respected summary of possible global warming outcomes based on climate science, a
worldwide temperature increase of just one degree Celsius could see the western United States
once again "plagued by perennial drought," devastating agriculture and driving out humans on a
larger scale than during the Dust Bowl exodus in the 1930s. On the other side of the Atlantic, a
resurgent African monsoon could drive rainfall back into the Sahara while Mount Kilimanjaro
eventually becomes snow free. Melting in the Alps could remove the "glue" that holds the
region's peaks together, generating giant landslides.
Nevertheless, with political realism being the dominant attendee at the Copenhagen climate
conference in 2009, the official international line in the sand became two degrees, which could
completely melt the Greenland ice sheet and eventually raise sea levels by seven metres, not to
mention inflict Middle East-style temperatures on Europe, where the current summer range in
temperature was enough to cause 30,000 heatstroke deaths in 2003. "Two degrees of
warming," Lynas noted in a 2007 newspaper column, "will be survivable for most humans," but
"a third of all species alive today may be driven to extinction as climate change wipes out their
habitat."
As things stand, the two-degree target is highly unrealistic, especially with weak economic
growth and reports of an unexpected pause in global warming undermining government resolve.
According to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the world's average rate of decarbonization
has been just 0.8% since 2000. Even if that rate doubled, notes the consultancy's climate
change expert Leo Johnson, a six-degree increase by the end of the century is conceivable. To
stabilize atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations at 450 ppm, which would deliver a 50%
chance of limiting global warming to two degrees, there needs to be a six-fold improvement in
our rate of decarbonization from now until 2050. But as Johnson points out, "the policy context
for carbon capture and storage (CCS) and nuclear, critical technologies for low carbon energy
generation, remains uncertain" while "support for renewable energy technologies is being
scaled back" and improvements in carbon intensity have stalled in emerging markets, "where
the E7 is now emitting more than the G7."
From a strictly investing standpoint, it doesn't actually matter if the two-degree target is a pipe
dream. It doesn't even matter if global-warming skeptics are proven correct and no action
whatsoever is needed on the climate change front. The financial risk in question revolves
around just how hard the world will try to reduce the use of fossil fuels, because the current
agreed-upon plan of action could trigger a staggering collapse in the value of oil, gas and coal
assets. Indeed, if the international community gets serious about its stated temperature goal,
about two-thirds of existing energy sector reserves, which currently support about US$4 trillion
in share value and back more than US$1 trillion in debt, are actually superfluous to the world's
needs, according to Unburnable Carbon 2013: Wasted Capital and Stranded Assets, a recent
study by Lord Nicholas Stern, a London School of Economics professor, and climate think-tank
Carbon Tracker.
Instead of accepting that the world has more than enough fossil fuel reserves for its own good,
the Stern report notes the top 200 energy companies spent US$674 billion, or about 1% of
global GDP, to increase supplies last year. And if the trend continues, an additional US$6 trillion
will be spent developing further energy assets over the next decade. "Pretending business
models reliant on more carbon emissions fit with increasing carbon constraints is the equivalent
of the emperor's new clothes," stated James Leaton, Carbon Tracker's research director, who
insists financial market regulators need to start looking at the systemic risks posed by global
plans to implement climate change policy. Stern added: "Smart investors can see that investing
in companies that rely solely or heavily on constantly replenishing reserves of fossil fuels is
becoming a very risky decision."
The carbon bubble is front page news in the United Kingdom, where a Guardianheadline
recently warned that the global economy faces another major financial crisis because of the
apparent disconnect between stated international intentions on climate policy and the current
market value of fossil fuel companies. The newspaper interviewed billionaire investor Jeremy
Grantham, who stated his Boston-based money manager, GMO, was considering pulling out of
investments in coal and unconventional oil operations in Canada. Carbon bubble theorists insist
climate change public policy will eliminate the business case for oil sands production along with
the Keystone pipeline. According to a 2010 MIT study, annual Canadian bitumen production will
increase more than six-fold by 2050 (from 2005 levels) without significant government action on
global warming. But with caps on CO2 emissions implemented worldwide, MIT concludes
"Canadian bitumen production becomes essentially non-viable even with CCS technology."
Paul Spedding, co-head of energy sector research at HSBC in London, issued the first bank
report on the carbon bubble in January. Oil & Carbon Revisited: Value at Risk from ‘Unburnable'
Reserves concludes the potential value at risk for oil and gas majors such as BP, Shell and
Statoil equals 40-60% of market caps when you combine the potential negative impact of
stranded assets and the related impact of downward pressure on prices for fossil fuels. It is
"highly unlikely that the market is pricing in the risk of a loss of value from this issue," Spedding
writes. He advises energy sector investors to focus on low-cost companies, or companies with a
gas bias, because "capital-intensive, high-cost projects, such as heavy oil and oil sands, are
most at risk."
Investors are increasingly concerned about longer-term systemic issues such as climate change
and aging populations
In March, Standard & Poor's Rating Services published What A Carbon-Constrained Future
Could Mean For Oil Companies' Creditworthiness, which outlined the risk facing three oil sands
operations, Cenovus Energy Inc., Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. and Canadian Natural Resources
Ltd. The study is one of a series looking at how to integrate environmental risk into corporate
credit analysis. "As much as we would like to say that we are thought leaders, and we are in
many respects, it has become apparent to us over the past few years that investors are
increasingly concerned about longer-term systemic issues such as climate change and aging
populations," says co-author Michael Wilkins. The S & P study assumed – and it's a big
assumption – that public policy steps are taken to limit global warming to the two-degree target
and then examined the possible impact on company cash flows and ability to exploit reserves
"because limiting emissions translates into a peak demand situation." The intent was to focus on
companies most at risk, which led to the Canadian oil sands. "The bottom line on all this,"
Wilkins says, is that if serious efforts are taken to meet the international target, lower oil demand
could lead to dramatically lower prices. As a result, the Canadian companies studied, which
have $13.6 billion in bonds outstanding (with more than 50% maturing after 2020), could face
either negative outlook revisions or credit-rating downgrades over the next five years, which
could lead to higher financing costs as well as dividend cuts and project cancellations.
According to Wilkins, the impact on diversified majors such as BP and Shell would be more
muted in the short term, but pressure on them would grow after 2017.
In its stress test, S & P assumed Brent crude prices dropped to US$65 per barrel as a result of
worldwide restraints on carbon, while the HSBC study envisioned oil prices falling to US$50.
Some may view US$50 as unrealistic, but the bank points out that a fall of three million barrels
per day in demand in 2009 caused Brent oil prices to fall to US$40. Michelle Dathorne, S & P's
oil sector specialist in Toronto, says the rating agency was comfortable with the less severe
price assumptions in its carbon bubble report, but she admits most oil sands operations would
be rendered unsustainable at crude prices around US$50.
Not surprisingly, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has raised the alarm, warning
pension funds that it estimates at least 78% of Canada's proven oil, bitumen, gas, and coal
reserves, and 89% of proven-plus-probable reserves, would need to remain underground to
avoid catastrophic climate change. But Canadian energy sector officials don't seem prepared to
even entertain the possibility that oil demand will dramatically drop as a result of steps to control
climate change, at least not publicly.
Cenovus spokesperson Brett Harris said he couldn't comment on any study that claims his
company's creditors and shareholders face significant risks from international climate change
objectives. "What I can say is that as the world's population continues to grow and emerging
nations begin to enjoy the kind of prosperity and lifestyle we enjoy in the West, we believe there
will continue to be strong and growing demand for energy," he says. "We also believe that fossil
fuels will continue to play the largest role in fulfilling that energy demand for decades to come."
No other company approached for this story was willing to comment on the carbon bubble.
Husky Energy spokesperson Kim Guttormson said: "I'm sorry, but we don't have anyone
available to speak to you about that." Management at Canadian Natural Resources issued a
standard "no comment." Siren Fisekci, head of investor relations at Canadian Oil Sands, bluntly
declared, "We would not be interested in commenting on these reports." She suggested the
Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) was a better place to seek comment.
Suncor spokesperson Erin Rees also deflected questions to the oil sector association, which, in
turn, insisted requests for opinion on the carbon bubble should be directed at analysts and risk
experts. "This is not our expertise," said CAPP spokesperson Markus Ermisch, who offered a
counter argument, noting "the IEA predicts significant demand growth over the next few
decades, and our own forecasts show that Canadian crude oil production will double."
But the IEA argued in its 2012 World Energy Outlook that "no more than one-third of proven
reserves of fossil fuels can be consumed prior to 2050 if the world is to achieve the 2°C goal,
unless carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is widely deployed." As HSBC pointed
out, the IEA actually projects demand for oil and coal declining from 2020 onward if the world
attempts to meet existing climate change objectives. Under the IEA's low carbon assumptions,
coal and oil consumption would drop from 2010 levels by 30% and 12%, respectively, by 2035.
Tzeporah Berman, an eco-activist and author of This Crazy Time: Living Our Environmental
Challenge, thinks the Canadian energy sector has its head stuck in the oil sands. "We are
moving to a low-carbon economy by design or default," she says, adding "the type of unfettered
growth anticipated by the oil industry and our federal government only makes economic sense
in a world that has utterly failed to act to curb global warming." In other words, she says,
Canada is banking its economic future "on a world view that has us headed toward a dangerous
scenario of global warming."
I'd be a big buyer if oil got crushed on environmental concerns. That is just wild speculation on
my part
Energy sector risk posed by climate change policy, however, is barely on the radar of
mainstream economists or Bay Street's stock market crowd. One of Toronto's top hedge fund
managers says very few institutional investors talk about a carbon bubble risk. "I don't know
any," he says, adding "my thoughts are until you see a breakthrough new technology that poses
a credible alternative to oil, we will have continuing demand offset by depleting supply. I'd be a
big buyer if oil got crushed on environmental concerns. That is just wild speculation on my part."
Toronto money manager Greg Newman, though, agreed to look at the issue and offer an
opinion. "I do not believe the carbon bubble will plunge the world into another financial crisis,"
says the director of wealth management at ScotiaMcLeod's Newman Group. "And I do not
believe that oil companies need to fear dramatically lower valuations at present due to future
regulations."
As far as Newman is concerned, carbon bubble theory ignores the positive impact of creative
destruction. "Energy companies," he says, "will have to respond to future changes and
challenges to thrive or survive. Technologies will emerge that will become game changers.
Many present energy companies will adapt and many will fade away. This is progress. But is it
reasonable to assume that the world will collectively enact regulations that in effect reduce the
demand for oil to such an extent that it should be now reflected in oil stock prices? I think not."
From a logistical and infrastructure perspective, the wealth manager simply can't imagine
significant changes in how the world fuels itself in the near future. "Assuming cleaner and
equally abundant alternatives were available," he says, the related subsidies and infrastructure
costs make large-scale deployment unrealistic, "particularly at such a fragile time." Furthermore,
Newman says anyone who follows politics, especially in the U.S., which he notes can't even
enact common sense gun reforms widely supported by voters, can see it is unlikely that
governments will somehow collectively implement carbon regulations so contrary to the way
consumers and businesses currently operate. "Investors try to assess oil company valuations
with logic and pragmatism," he says. "My view is that they are doing an efficient job of this at
present by not assessing any extreme impact from future regulatory changes."
When all is said and done, energy sector investors appear to have two options. If they believe
world leaders have what it takes to get serious about stated climate change commitments, then
it makes sense to follow Grantham's lead and move to limit exposure to the market. If, on the
other hand, they are confident that unproven CCS technologies or perhaps something new will
allow the citizens of Earth to have their fossil fuels and safely consume them, too, they can hope
for the best on the pipeline front and bet on Canadian oil. Unfortunately, if technology fails to
save the day and government action on climate change never materializes, then any wealth
generated by Canadian crude may not be appreciated by future generations. After all, according
to Lynas' book, if the world temperature increases by six degrees, then civilization as we know it
will probably disappear along with much of the human race.
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‫‪ROWA MEDIA UPDATE‬‬
‫‪THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS‬‬
‫‪Tuesday, June 25, 2013‬‬
‫‪Abudhabi Env‬‬
‫وجمعية الصناعيين تطلقان مكتب مساندة اإلنتاج األخضر‬
‫اإلسكوا‬
‫ّ‬
‫جمعية الصناعيين اللبنانيين مؤتم اًر صحافياً يوم الخميس ‪ 27‬حزيران‪/‬يونيو ‪ 2013‬إلطالق‬
‫تعقد اإلسكوا بالتعاون مع‬
‫ّ‬
‫الجمعية في الصنايع‪.‬‬
‫مقر‬
‫ّ‬
‫مشروعهما المشترك "مكتب مساندة اإلنتاج األخضر" عند الساعة ‪ 11:00‬صباحاً في ّ‬
‫يشهد االفتتاح كلمات لكل من نعمت افرام‪ ،‬رئيس جمعية الصناعيين اللبنانيين‪ ،‬ورلى مجدالني‪ ،‬مديرة إدارة التنمية المستدامة‬
‫واإلنتاجية في اإلسكوا‪ ،‬على أن ُيعرض فيما بعد ملخص عن المشروع وآلية عمله‪.‬‬
‫أنشأت جمعية الصناعيين اللبنانيين "مكتب مساندة اإلنتاج األخضر" بالتعاون مع اإلسكوا وهو يرمي إلى توفير المعلومات‬
‫والمش ورة الفنية للمؤسسات الصغيرة والمتوسطة التي ترغب في تطوير منتجاتها‪ ،‬وتطوير سبل اإلنتاج المتعبة لديها لتتالءم مع‬
‫مبادئ وأهداف التنمية المستدامة وتمكينها من االنخراط ضمن االقتصاد األخضر الناشئ‪.‬‬
‫ويوّفر المكتب خدمات متعددة مثل جمع ونشر المعلومات حول فرص األعمال الخضراء‪ ،‬والسياسات والبرامج والمؤسسات‬
‫والقوانين الوطنية المتصلة باالقتصاد األخضر‪ ،‬وفرص التمويل األخضر‪ ،‬برامج الدعم اإلقليمية والدولية المتاحة وأفضل‬
‫ظم المكتب أيضاً دورات لتدريب المدربين وورش عمل وطنية تتناول مواضيع ذات‬
‫الممارسات في مجال اإلنتاج األخضر‪ .‬وين ّ‬
‫صلة باالقتصاد األخضر‪.‬‬
‫الهدف من هذا المكتب هو تنمية المعرفة بالسياسات والبرامج ونشر التجارب العالمية واإلقليمية والمحلية الناجحة في هذا‬
‫المجال؛ زيادة فرص وصول صانعي القرار إلى المعلومات المتعلقة بفرص وخيارات اإلنتاج األخضر على المستويين الوطني‬
‫والمحلي؛ وأخي اًر تطوير المهارات الفنية لصياغة سياسات وطنية ومحلية وبرامج لتحفيز وتنمية القطاعات اإلنتاجية الخضراء‪.‬‬
‫‪http://www.abudhabienv.ae/permalink/5073.html‬‬
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‫)‪Addustour (Jordan‬‬
‫ظهور الثعلب األفغاني في محمية ضانا بعد اختفاء ‪ 19‬سنة‬
‫كشفت الكاميرات الليلية المستخدمة في محمية ضانا للمحيط الحيوي قبل يومين‪ ،‬ظهور الثعلب األفغاني الذي اختفى أثره في‬
‫المحمية منذ ‪ 19‬عاما‪.‬‬
‫ وتم‬،‫ لمعرفة انواع الحيوانات البرية الموجودة في المحمية‬،1994 ‫وكانت الجمعية الملكية لحماية الطبيعة قامت بدراسة عام‬
‫ لكنها اختفت منذ ذلك التاريخ لتكشف الكاميرات الليلية ظهور احد‬،‫اكتشاف هذا النوع واإلمساك بثالثة ثعالب أفغانية ذكور‬
.‫الثعالب في المحمية بعد تصويره في ساعة متأخرة من الليل قبل يومين‬
‫ ويعرف بالثعلب الملوكي وهو‬،‫وقال مدير المحمية المهندس عامر الرفوع ان الثعلب األفغاني يعتبر من أجمل أنواع الثعالب‬
‫ ويعتبر من األنواع المهددة باالنقراض على‬،‫ كيلو غرام‬1‫ر‬5 ‫ ويبلغ وزنه حوالي‬،‫أصغر حجما من الثعالب األخرى وأوفرها فراء‬
‫ كطريقة رئيسية‬،‫ وبين الرفوع ان المحمية كانت استخدمت تقنية الكاميرات الليلية منذ ثالث سنوات‬.‫الصعيد المحلي والدولي‬
‫ واظهرت هذه الطريقة العديد من األنواع الحيوانية المهددة‬،‫وهامة في تبيان التنوع الحيوي الذي يعيش في محمية ضانا‬
‫ مثل الوشق والذئب العربي والضبع المخطط والتي تعيش بأمان في‬،‫باالنقراض على الصعيد المحلي واالقليمي والعالمي‬
‫ يذكر أن محمية ضانا للمحيط‬.‫المحمية التي تعتبر بيئة مناسبة وموئال حيويا للكثير من الحيوانات البرية المهددة باالنقراض‬
‫ وتقع جنوب محافظة الطفيلة وتبلغ مساحتها حوالي‬,1993 ‫ تأسست عام‬,‫الحيوي والتي تديرها الجمعية الملكية لحماية الطبيعة‬
‫متر فوق مستوى‬1600 ‫ و تتميز بتباين واضح في نطاقاتها المناخية نتيجة لتباين مناسيبها التي تتراوح ما بين‬،‫ كيلومتر‬300
‫ ووجود اربع انظمة حيوية‬,‫ تحت مستوى سطح البحر ما كان له اثر في تمايز النطاقات الحيوية‬200 ‫سطح البحر الى‬
‫ نوعا من‬38 ‫ وتم تسجيل‬،‫ نوعا من النبات ثالثة منها تسجل ألول مرة في العالم‬833 ‫ وتسجل المحمية وجود‬.‫جغرافية‬
.‫ موقعا أثريا‬98 ‫ و‬،‫ نوعا من الطيور‬215 ‫ بالمئة من الثدييات في األردن و‬50 ‫ أي ما يقارب‬،‫الثدييات‬
http://www.addustour.com/ViewTopic.aspx?ac=\LocalAndGover\2013\06\LocalAndGover_issu
e2072_day25_id499422.htm
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SANA (Syria)
Ministry of Water Resources and UNICEF hold workshop to support water sector
Damascus, (SANA) - The workshop held by the Ministry of Water Resources in al-Sham Hotel
in cooperation with United Nations Children's Fund(UNICEF) on Monday focused on explaining
the mechanisms of supporting the water sector and promoting hygiene in Syria during the
current crisis. Deputy Minister of Water Resources Osama al-Akhras pointed out that the
workshop is part of the efforts exerted to alleviate Syrians' suffering under the shadows of the
crisis, adding that cooperation between ministries concerned and the UN organizations which
are interested in the water sector helped provide services to the citizens.
He said that the drinking water and sanitation sector suffered severe shortage due to the
economic blockade imposed on Syria, affirming that cooperation with these organizations
participated in obtaining a lot of operating and maintenance equipment.
Head of Organizations Management Department in the Ministry of Expatriates and Foreign
Affairs, Abdul Moneim Annan pointed out that the current crisis in Syria has produced negative
impacts on the Water Sector because the armed terrorist groups prevented the employees of
the Water Resources and Health Ministries from reaching their work place, which caused some
service centers to stop.
For his part, UNICEF representative in Syria Mark Ose hailed the work of the Water sector
employees under the supervision of the Ministry of Water Resources and the participation of
`Local Administration Ministry and Syrian Arab Red Crescent, affirming the commitment of
UNICEF to support water sector in Syria.
http://sana.sy/eng/21/2013/06/24/489182.htm
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SANA (Syria)
Awareness Campaign on Occasion of World Environment Day
The State Ministry for Environmental Affairs and Damascus Countryside Governorate on
Wednesday organized a field campaign for spreading environmental awareness in Qudsaya,
Damascus Countryside, to mark the World Environment Day.
The volunteers participating in the campaign planted 600 saplings of pine, palm, oak, jasmine
and roses in the squares near a temporary housing center in the area.
The campaign also included an exhibition of paintings done by children staying in the center.
State Minister for Environmental Affairs Nazira Serkis said the State Ministry will work to
improve environmental conditions in areas affected by terrorism.
In turn, Damascus Countryside Governor Hussein Khalloud said that the Governorate and the
State Ministry are organizing a program on occasion of World Environment Day to check up on
families in housing centers and involve them in environmental activities.
The 2013 theme for World Environment Day is "Think.Eat.Save." This theme aims to
encourage individuals to limit wastage and losses in food and decrease the amount of food
waste. In this framework, the State Ministry for Environmental Affairs is organizing campaigns
and lectures and producing TV, radio and press material to raise awareness.
http://sana.sy/eng/27/2013/06/05/485950.htm
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SANA (Syria)
On Environment Day, Syria Committed to All Protocols to Protect Environment
At a time when all countries of the world are celebrating the World Environment Day, several
industrial countries are still ignoring dozens of reports issued by international organizations and
the United Nations on the necessity of preserving the environment.
The developing countries, including Syria, spare no effort to take active measures to protect the
environment being a collective responsibility regardless of the industrial countries' violations of
the environment.
Syria's commitment to protecting the environment was marked through several achievements,
including the establishment of the Ministry of State for Environment Affairs and signing various
international laws and protocols related to the protection of the environment.
‫‪However, the western colonialist states have been supporting and arming their mercenaries‬‬
‫‪who attacked the economic and environmental capabilities of Syria as they set fire to tens of oil‬‬
‫‪wells in Syria to waste of the fortunes of the Syrian people in addition to inflicting harmful effects‬‬
‫‪on the environment and biodiversity in Syria.‬‬
‫‪The Syrian Federation of Agriculture Chambers stressed that 26 kinds of local animals and‬‬
‫‪plants have died out because of the practices of the mercenaries of the western countries.‬‬
‫‪A recent study issued by the Ministry of State for Environment Affairs revealed that in 2013 air‬‬
‫‪contained higher rates of sulfur atoms and carbon dioxide which pose threats to the biodiversity‬‬
‫‪and the ecological system of Syria due to the practices of the armed terrorist groups.‬‬
‫‪http://sana.sy/eng/27/2013/06/04/485809.htm‬‬
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‫)‪SANA (Syria‬‬
‫لجنة دراسة تكاليف التدهور البيئي تشكل فرق عمل متخصصة في مختلف المجاالت‬
‫ناقشت اللجنة الفنية المركزية المشكلة إلعداد دراسة لتكاليف التدهور البيئي في سورية لعام ‪ 2013‬سبل تذليل جميع الصعوبات التي‬
‫تعيق العمل وتبسيط اإلجراءات اإلدارية بهدف الوصول إلى تقرير متكامل وشامل ‪.‬‬
‫وبحثت اللجنة خالل اجتماعها اليوم تشكيل فرق عمل مختصة تقوم بمهام محددة في قطاعات المياه والبيئة الساحلية وقطاع الصحة‬
‫والهواء واألراضي إضافة إلى قطاعي الغابات والبيئية العالمية حيث يقوم كل فريق بدارسة المعلومات التي تم جمعها من المحافظات‬
‫والجهات المعنية بعد فرزها من فريق عمل مختص في وزارة البيئة على أن تجتمع فرق العمل بشكل دوري كل أسبوعين كما تم خالل‬
‫االجتماع تشكيل لجنة إلعداد الصياغة األولية لمسودة تقرير تكاليف التدهور البيئي ‪.‬‬
‫وأشار رئيس اللجنة المهندس سليمان كالو معاون وزيرة الدولة لشؤون البيئة إلى أن الدراسة ستركز على اآلثار البيئية السلبية والتخريب‬
‫المتعمد للبيئة الناتج عن أعمال المجموعات اإلرهابية المسلحة موضحا أن أهمية الدراسة تكمن في إعدادها من فريق وطني يضم كل‬
‫الجهات الحكومية المعنية في هذا المجال واالستعانة بالخبرات الوطنية التي تخدم موضوع الدراسة والتي سترفع إلى الجهات العليا في‬
‫سورية من اجل اتخاذ القرارات واإلجراءات الالزمة للنهوض بالوقع البيئي في سورية بكل مجاالته ‪.‬‬
‫وتضم اللجنة المصغرة ممثلين عن وزارات البيئة والزراعة والسياحة واإلدارة المحلية والصحة والكهرباء والصناعة و النفط والثروة‬
‫المعدنية والنقل والشؤون االجتماعية والعمل ‪ ،‬إضافة إلى ممثلين عن هيئة التخطيط والتعاون الدولي والمكتب المركزي لإلحصاء ‪.‬‬
‫‪http://sana.sy/ara/8/2013/06/18/488161.htm‬‬
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‫)‪SANA (Syria‬‬
‫نادي أصدقاء البيئة في حمص يخطط لتنفيذ أنشطة وحمالت نظافة في جميع أرجاء المحافظة‬
‫تركزت المحاضرة التي أقامها نادي أصدقاء البيئة بفرع اتحاد شبيبة الثورة في حمص اليوم تحت عنوان "دور الشباب في حماية البيئة‬
‫من التلوث" حول طرق الحفاظ على البيئة من االنتهاكات العديدة التي تتعرض لها نتيجة أعمال التخريب والحرق و نشر السموم على يد‬
‫العصابات اإلرهابية المسلحة‪.‬‬
‫وأشارت المحاضرة الى أهمية تفعيل دور الشباب في تقديم التوعية البيئية التي يتلقونها في المحاضرات والندوات التي يقيمها فرع الشبيبة‬
‫والعمل على نقلها إلى محيطهم و تشجيع المواطنين على إقامة حمالت نظافة شعبية في أحيائهم بهدف بقائها نظيفة خالية من التلوث‪.‬‬
‫وكشف رئيس مكتب العمل التطوعي بالنادي مرعي الزعبي أنه يتم التحضير حاليا للقيام بالعديد من األنشطة وحمالت النظافة التي‬
‫ستشمل جميع أرجاء المحافظة بمشاركة الشباب في الروابط والوحدات الشبيبية‪.‬‬
‫وأوضح الزعبي أن النادي نفذ منذ بداية الشهر الحالي حتى تاريخه خمس محاضرات بيئية وصحية إضافة لتوزيع نشرات تناولت العديد‬
‫من القضايا الصحية والبيئية الهامة منها دور الجمعيات البيئية غير الحكومية في التوعية البيئية‪ ..‬وحماية البيئة أخالق سامية وتربية‬
‫راقية‪ ..‬والمشافي صديقة الطفولة إضافة إلى التدخين ومضاره الصحية واالقتصادية‪.‬‬
‫واكد أهمية المحاضرات والنشرات الدورية التي يصدرها النادي حيث استفاد منها نحو ‪ 1000‬شاب وشابة وتهدف إلى تقديم التوعية‬
‫للشباب في المجالين الصحي والبيئي إضافة إلى مشاركتهم في هذه الفعاليات ليكونوا عناصر فاعلة ومساهمة‪.‬‬
‫‪http://sana.sy/ara/8/2013/06/16/487827.htm‬‬
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‫)‪SANA (Syria‬‬
‫وزيرة الدولة لشؤون البيئة تؤكد تعاون جميع الجهات لوضع إجراءات عملية لمكافحة التصحر‬
‫أكدت الدكتورة نظيرة سركيس وزيرة الدولة لشؤون البيئة أن سورية تواصل جهودها للحد من تدهور األراضي ومكافحة التصحر‬
‫والجفاف من خالل إقامة المحميات في البادية ومشاريع التوسع في الغطاء النباتي ومشاريع تثبيت الكثبان الرملية وخاصة في المناطق‬
‫القريبة من السكك الحديدية والمشروع الوطني للتحول إلى الري الحديث‪.‬‬
‫وأشارت الوزيرة سركيس خالل افتتاح الندوة التوعوية الخاصة بمناسبة اليوم العالمي لمكافحة التصحر الذي يأتي هذا العام تحت شعار‬
‫يجب أ ال نترك مستقبلنا للجفاف إلى أنه تم إنشاء نظام إنذار مبكر عن الجفاف وصندوق التخفيف من آثار الجفاف والكوارث الطبيعية‬
‫ومشروع التنمية المتكاملة في البادية السورية‪.‬‬
‫ولفتت إلى أن الوزارة أنجزت الخطة الوطنية لمكافحة التصحر وتتابع تنفيذ مشروع دراسة االنجرافات الريحية في بادية دير الزور‬
‫بالتعاون مع جامعة الفرات لدراسة حجم هذه االنجرافات ووضع الحلول المناسبة لها‪.‬‬
‫وبينت سركيس أن المطلوب تعاون جميع المؤسسات الحكومية والمنظمات الشعبية والمجتمعات المحلية واتخاذ كل اإلجراءات الالزمة‬
‫لمنع المد الصحراوي وتطبيق اإلجراءات والطرق النموذجية لمكافحة التصحر موضحة أن وزارة البيئة تنسق مع جميع الجهات لوضع‬
‫الحلول المناسبة والمشاريع والبرامج الوطنية لمكافحة التصحر‪.‬‬
‫وتضمنت الندوة عدة محاضرات تناولت أسباب الجفاف ومظاهره ونتائجه إضافة إلى الجهود المبذولة من قبل االتحاد العام للفالحين‬
‫لمكافحة التصحر والجفاف كما تم عرض فيلم عن ظاهرة التصحر وفيلم عن العواصف الغبارية‪ .‬حضر الندوة مشاركون من وزارة البيئة‬
‫ووزارة الزراعة واالتحاد العام للفالحين والجمعيات األهلية البيئية‪.‬‬
‫من جهة أخرى قامت الوزيرة سركيس بجولة ميدانية على بعض مراكز اإلقامة المؤقتة لألسر المتضررة من إرهاب المجموعات‬
‫المسلحة في منطقتي دمر والزاهرة بدمشق‪.‬‬
‫وأكدت سركيس في تصريحات للصحفيين أن الهدف من الحمالت البيئية الميدانية في مراكز اإلقامة المؤقتة هو نشر الوعي البيئي بين‬
‫األسر المتضررة وتعزيز السلوكيات البيئية االيجابية تجاه البيئة وغرس قيم محبة وبيئة الوطن وزراعة األشجار في نفوس األطفال‬
‫المقيمين في هذه المراكز من خالل مشاركتهم في أنشطة التشجير والنظافة والرسوم البيئية مشيرة إلى أن هذه األنشطة توفر الراحة‬
‫النفسية للعائالت واألطفال في هذه المراكز‪.‬‬
‫وبينت أن الوزارة تعمل مع جميع الجهات المعنية الحكومية والخاصة والمجتمع األهلي من أجل اتخاذ جميع اإلجراءات التي تساهم في‬
‫توفير بيئة صحية ونظيفة للقاطنين ضمن هذه المراكز إضافة إلى تأهيل كوادر قادرة على نشر الوعي البيئي في مراكز اإلقامة المؤقتة‪.‬‬
‫واطلعت الوزيرة سركيس على أوضاع األسر داخل المركز وعلى األنشطة التي يقوم بها األهالي واألطفال القاطنون فيها من خالل‬
‫تعليمهم الرسم واألشغال اليدوية والموسيقا وبرامج الكمبيوتر وتضمنت الجولة زراعة عدد من غراس الورد الجوري والزمزريق وتنفيذ‬
‫أنشطة بيئية وتوعوية لألطفال وحمالت نظافة ميدانية وتأهيل هذه المراكز بيئياً‪.‬‬
‫‪http://sana.sy/ara/8/2013/06/17/487999.htm‬‬
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‫_________________________________________________________________‬
‫)‪Al Bayan (UAE‬‬
‫وزارة البيئة والمياه‪ :‬مبادرات تعزز حجم اإلنتاج الزراعي‬
‫أفاد المهندس سيف محمد الشرع الوكيل المساعد للشؤون الزراعية والحيوانية بوزارة البيئة والمياه‪ ،‬بأن للوزارة برامج ومبادرات في‬
‫مجال اإلرشاد الزراعي من أجل تعزيز حجم اإلنتاج‪ ،‬باإلضافة إلى إجراء الدراسات واألبحاث‪ ،‬إلى جانب برامج مكافحة اآلفات‬
‫واألمراض التي تؤثر في اإلنتاج الزراعي‪.‬‬
‫وأكد أن أهم المبادرات التي نفذتها وزارة البيئة والمياه لمكافحة اآلفات التي تصيب أشجار النخيل مبادرة "نخيلنا"‪ ،‬حيث يتم من خاللها‬
‫مكافحة حشرة سوسة النخيل الحمراء‪ ،‬والحميرة والدوباس وحفار العذوق وحفار الساق وعنكبوت الغبار‪ .‬وتضمنت المبادرة أربعة‬
‫محاور رئيسية‪ ،‬وترتكز على تطبيق حزمة متكاملة من اإلجراءات والتدابير وتوظيف أحدث النظم والتقنيات في اكتشاف اآلفات‬
‫ومكافحتها ومعالجة األشجار المتضررة‪.‬‬
‫وأوضح الشرع أن مرض التدهور السريع ألشجار المانجو يتركز في المنطقة الشرقية من الدولة‪ ،‬وتتضح أعراضه من خالل ذبول‬
‫األوراق واألفرع‪ ،‬وقد تظهر األعراض على جانب واحد من الشجرة وسرعان ما تنتشر لتشمل الشجرة بأكملها‪ ،‬كما تظهر األعراض‬
‫على شكل إفرازات صمغية على جذوع األشجار‪ ،‬وذبول األوراق وموت األشجار‪ ،‬وظهور صبغات بالحزم الوعائية لألفرع‪.‬‬
‫وذكر بأن الوزارة نفذت حملة متخصصة لمكافحة مرض التدهور السريع فيما يقارب ‪ 14776‬شجرة مانجو في المنطقة الشرقية لـ ‪65‬‬
‫مزرعة منذ بداية نوفمبر ‪ 2012‬وحتى مارس ‪ ،2013‬باإلضافة إلى تنفيذ برامج اإلرشاد الزراعي من قبل المهندسين والمرشدين‬
‫الزراعيين على مستوى المنطقة وتقديم اإلرشادات الالزمة عن اإلجراءات الوقائية للتصدي لآلفات التي تصيب هذه األشجار وإجراءات‬
‫العناية بها‪ ،‬وتحديد برامج التسميد‪ .‬ويستمر برنامج المكافحة في شهر سبتمبر بعد انتهاء فترة اإلنتاج‪.‬‬
‫وفي جانب األبحاث المتعلقة بمرض التدهور السريع ألشجار المانجو‪ ،‬فقد أجرت الوزارة دراسة النتخاب أصناف مانجو مقاومة‬
‫للفطريات المسببة لمرض التدهور السريع ألشجار المانجو‪ .‬حيث يعتبر من األمراض المنتشرة والمعروفة في كثير من الدول المنتجة‬
‫للمانجو‪ ،‬ومن العوامل الرئيسية المساعدة على انتشار هذا المرض عدم العناية بالرعاية البستانية‪ ،‬التسميد وزراعة محاصيل بينية مع‬
‫أشجار المانجو‪ ،‬وإصابة الجذور بالجروح أثناء عمليات التنظيف‪ ،‬باإلضافة إلى وجود األشجار المصابة بالحقل مع األشجار السليمة غير‬
‫المصابة‪ ،‬واستخدام أساليب الري التقليدية (الغمر) حيث ينتقل الفطر الممرض من األشجار المصابة إلى األشجار السليمة‪.‬‬
‫‪http://www.albayan.ae/across-the-uae/news-and-reports/2013-06-25-1.1910259‬‬
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‫‪Gulf News (UAE): Green light for Al Fahidi Market in Dubai‬‬
‫‪Dubai: The civic body’s first commercial green building – Al Fahidi Market – which is expected‬‬
‫‪to open its doors to the public in the next few months, will save a total of 45 per cent of energy‬‬
‫‪per day due to its policy of power saving and re-use of energy sources.‬‬
‫‪The green building code as set by Dubai Municipality has 79 regulations, out of which Al Fahidi‬‬
‫‪Market has adopted 67 and applies each of them to their full capacity.‬‬
‫‪Eng Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality, announced that 210 shops‬‬
‫‪have already been leased out at a cost of over Dh100 million.‬‬
‫‪The market was built at a cost of Dh50.5 million across an area of 27,000 square metres, and is‬‬
‫‪located at Al Souk Al Kabeer area in Bur Dubai. Officials noted that it resembles Souq Naif in‬‬
‫‪Deira in terms of its traditional architecture, with a combination of the traditional and modern.‬‬
‫‪http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/environment/green-light-for-al-fahidi-market-in-dubai‬‬‫‪1.1201357‬‬
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‫)‪Al qabas (Kuwait‬‬
‫فريق الغوص ينقذ نقعة الشمالن من ‪ 4‬أطنان مخلفات‬
‫تمكنت الفرق المشاركة في حملة تنظيف «نقعة الشمالن» بمنطقة شرق من رفع أربعة أطنان من المخلفات هناك خالل شهر يونيو‬
‫الجاري والتي تسبب تلوثا بيئيا في البحر وجون الكويت ‪.‬‬
‫وقال رئيس فريق الغوص الكويتي بالمبرة التطوعية البيئية وليد الفاضل لـ «كونا» امس ان حملة تنظيف النقعة ترمي في المجمل الى‬
‫حماية البيئة البحرية الساحلية والمحافظة على جمالية تلك المنطقة ‪.‬‬
‫وأضاف الفاضل ان المخلفات المرفوعة تشمل االكياس البالستيكية والعلب المعدنية وشباك الصيد المهملة وأسماكا نافقة‪ ،‬موضحا ان‬
‫الفرق المشاركة في حملة التنظيف تتألف من بلدية الكويت ومؤسسة الموانئ الكويتية واتحاد الصيادين وادارة سوق شرق فضال عن‬
‫فريق الغوص الكويتي بالمبرة التطوعية ‪.‬‬
‫ولفت الى المساهمة الفعالة للجميع في رفع المخلفات من النقعة‪ ،‬مشيرا الى وجوب توعية الصيادين بخطورة بعض الممارسات الخاطئة‬
‫على البيئة الساحلية مع تشديد العقوبات على المخالفين لقوانين النظافة والمتسببين بهذا التلوث البحري‪.‬‬
‫‪http://www.alqabas.com.kw/node/776153‬‬
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‫‪IISD: Oman to Host Ministerial Conference on Water and the ITPGR17‬‬
‫‪As announced by the Secretariat of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for‬‬
‫‪Food and Agriculture (ITPGR), Oman will host a Ministerial Conference on water and the ITPGR‬‬
‫‪on 21 September 2013, immediately prior the fifth session of the ITPGR Governing Body (GB).‬‬
‫‪ITPGR GB 5 is scheduled to take place from 24-28 September 2013, in Muscat, Oman.‬‬
‫‪The Ministerial Conference will focus on uses of water for agricultural purposes, food crops and‬‬
‫‪food security, to address climate change and drought through the ITPGR. “Water and drought‬‬
‫‪are increasingly critical issues for plant genetic resources and food production in numerous‬‬
‫‪regions, so we hope that the Ministerial Conference in Oman will allow ministers to discuss‬‬
‫‪concrete actions on how to sustain food security and crop production under drought conditions‬‬
‫‪and under the impact of climate change on smallholder farmers," said ITPGR Secretary Shakeel‬‬
‫‪Bhatti. GB Chair Javad Mozafari (Iran) indicated that the Ministerial Conference is an important‬‬
‫‪opportunity to draw attention to the major issues directly concerning the Near East region.‬‬
‫‪GB 5 will address a range of issues including implementation of the Treaty's Multilateral System‬‬
‫‪(MLS) of access and benefit-sharing (ABS), the funding strategy and farmers' rights.‬‬
‫‪http://biodiversity-l.iisd.org/news/oman-to-host-ministerial-conference-on-water-and-the-itpgr/‬‬
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‫)‪26 sep (Yemen‬‬
‫منظمة حماة البيئة تدعو الستقبال رمضان بدون اطارات مشتعلة وتحذر من خطورتها‬
‫دعت منظمة حماة البيئة والتنمية المستدامة المواطنين إلى استقبال شهر رمضان لهذا العام بدون حرق اإلطارات‪.‬‬
‫واكد رئيس المنظمة الدكتور اسماعيل محرم أن أعمال حرق اإلطارات ظاهرة دخيله على المجتمع اليمني ‪ ,‬وتؤثر على البيئة وعلى‬
‫صحة المواطن‪.‬‬
‫موضحا أن األدخنة الناتجة من اإلطارات المشتعلة تحتوي على العديد من الغازات السامة التي تؤدي إلى الكثير من األمراض وتؤثر‬
‫على البيئة المحيطة‪.‬‬
‫وأشار الدكتور محرم الى أن التجارب العلمية أثبتت أن حرق إطار واحد ينتج عنه ملوثات تعادل أضعاف ما ينفث ويخرج من مداخن‬
‫المصانع ‪ ,‬وان تلك االدخنة تحتوي على أكسيد النتروجين إضافة إلى نسبة كبيرة من العناصر الثقيلة والسامة كالرصاص والزرنيخ‬
‫وغيرها من المواد السامة التي تؤثر على الصحة العامة والبيئة‪.‬‬
http://www.26sep.net/news_details.php?sid=92946
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ENVIRONMENT NEWS FROM THE
UN DAILY NEWS
25 June 2013
UN News Centre: UN official calls for urgent action to improve air quality in AsiaPacific region
21 June 2013
With smog levels hitting all time highs in cities across the Asia-Pacific region, a senior United
Nations official there is calling on Governments to do more, with greater urgency, to tackle the
myriad challenges associated with worsening air quality.
“The ongoing problem of air pollution between Indonesia and Singapore is symptomatic of a much
wider challenge for the countries of [the region],” said Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Secretary of the
UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), urging Governments in
the region to prioritize critical issues of air quality and human health.
Cross-boundary pollution is politically complex, but it must be urgently addressed. We need
more effective frameworks to manage ecosystem services, such as air and water, which
transcend administrative and political boundaries.
“Cross-boundary pollution is politically complex, but it must be urgently addressed. We need more
effective frameworks to manage ecosystem services, such as air and water, which transcend
administrative and political boundaries,” she said, adding that such matters are regional issues
which must be tackled at the regional, as well as national and local levels.
According to ESCAP, urban air pollution generated by vehicles, industries, and energy production
causes an estimated 500,000 premature deaths in Asian cities every year.
With more than 1.7 billion people across the region still reliant on dung, wood, crop waste, and
coal to meet their basic energy needs, indoor air pollution from solid fuel use is estimated to be
responsible for more than 1.6 million deaths. Exposure rates are especially high amongst women
and children, who spend the most time near domestic hearths.
“Health is the single most important enabler of development,” said Ms. Heyzer, stressing that
efforts to build a more sustainable region must prioritize preventing “pollution of our air, our water,
our food, and other common regional goods.”
Indeed, there is little point in investing in healthcare systems and ensuring access if, at the same
time, the cost of the region’s growth is the destruction of the most basic environmental resources
on which human health depends, she said.
In the context of increasingly severe climate change, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have
dominated regional and global air quality discussions. But Ms. Heyzer stressed that: “We must
also remember that one of the most serious and directly damaging issues of air pollution,
especially in our rapidly urbanizing regions, is the concentration of particulates, which greatly
increases the risk of heart and lung diseases and cancers.”
Calling on the governments of the region to do more to tackle issues of worsening air quality, she
said that the nexus of air, water, food, energy, and land is not simply an environmental one – it is
where social, economic, and environmental concerns converge.
“Our commitment to sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific will ultimately stand or fall on
our response to these issues,” she said, explaining that it is through strengthening existing
mechanisms, and through inclusive intergovernmental platforms, such as ESCAP, that the
challenges could be best addressed to the benefit of all the people of the region.
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ENVIRONMENT NEWS FROM THE
S.G’s SPOKESMAN DAILY PRESS BRIEFING
25 June 2013
UN News Centre: New York, 24 June 2013 - Statement Attributable to the
Spokesperson for the Secretary-General on India Floods
The Secretary-General is saddened by the loss of life, and the damage to homes and
infrastructure in India as a result of the torrential floods in the northern state of Uttarakhand over
the last week. He extends his sincere condolences to the people and Government of India,
especially the families of those who have died, been injured or otherwise affected in this disaster.
The Secretary-General welcomes the swift response by the National and State Disaster
Management authorities. The United Nations stands ready to lend its assistance to emergency
recovery and rebuilding efforts if needed.
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