THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Wednesday, 24 February, 2010
UNEP and the Executive Director in the News
Coverage of the UNEP Governing Council Meeting
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Jakarta Post (Indonesia): Activists rally against UNEP meeting
Peoples Daily Online (China): Indonesia’s president officially opens UNEP conference on
environment
Jakarta Globe (Indonesia): SBY Gets Award for Ocean Protection
UN News center: Greater efforts needed to curb global warming – UN report
Smarticle (UK): UN Warns of Looming Surge in E-waste, currently Sits at 40 Million Tons
per Year.
VOA (US): E-Waste Creates Economic, Environmental Problem for Developing Nations
Unbeatable (UK): E-Waste Poses Huge Threat
Brunei Fm (Brunei): Indonesia congratulated for rejecting e-waste from us
CNN: Can e-waste be turned to gold?
Environment News Service: Smart Centers Planned to Recycle Mountains of Toxic EWaste
Ecologist (UK): UN warns India and China over growing problem of e-waste
UN News Center: Rechargeable Light, Clean Stove Win UN Prize
Media Newswire: Changing lives through sustainability
Nam News Network (Blog): More ambition needed if greenhouse gases are to peak in
time: UNEP report
Jakarta post (Indonesia): Pledged emissions cuts targets will not be effective: Study
CRI (China): UN Urges Countries to Agree Climate Change as Top Danger
Forbes (US): UN calls on countries to boost emission pledges
CRI (China):U.N. Launches "Safe Planet" Campaign in Environment Forum
ABC (Spain): La ONU considera exiguo el recorte de gases propuesto para evitar el
desastre
Weblog (Argentina): La ONU advierte sobre el aumento de basura electrónica
Cordis Noticias (Luxembourg): La ONU advierte del aumento de los residuos electrónicos
Rafaela (Argentina): Crece la basura tecnológica
La Nacion (Paraguay): ONU advierte del peligro de “las montañas” de desechos
electrónicos
El Mundo (Spain): Los residuos informáticos de la India aumentarán un 500% antes de
2020
Kleine Zeitung (Australia): Laut UNO-Bericht strengere Klima-Ziele nötig
Clarin (Argentina): Preocupa el incremento de los desechos electrónicos
Reuters: Las promesas de recortes de emisiones no bastan, dice la ONU
M and G (Blog): Schwellenländer auf elektronische Mülllawine vorbereiten
Bild (Germany): UN warnen vor Elektroschrottlawine
PMI (Blog): E-waste, allarme rifiuti elettronici: più regole e riciclo
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Other UNEP Coverage
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Zimbabwe Star (Zimbabwe): UN says tougher targets needed to avert climate disaster
Shanghai Daily (China): Hu reaffirms China's steadfast commitment to climate action
IPCC in the News
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Today Online (Singapore): UN chief urges environment officials to reject skeptics,
says climate change danger is real
Washington Times (US): CHESSER: World cools toward warmists
Investors Business Daily (Blog): Al Gore's Nine Lies
Hunts Post (UK): Climate change evidence is flawed
Huffington Post (US): Warming Is Unequivocal
Gazette (Canada): The empire has begun to strike back
Other Environment News
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Reuters: Climate change melts Antarctic ice shelves: USGS
BBC News: Hu says China committed to fighting climate change
Guardian (UK): World’s coral reefs could disintegrate by 2100
Telegraph (UK): AAAS: Coral reefs could disappear by the end of the century
BBC News: Out of sight, species quickly become out of mind
Environmental News from the UNEP Regions
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RONA
ROAP
Other UN News
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Environment News from the UN Daily News of November 23rd February 2010
Environment News from the S.G.’s Spokesperson Daily Press Briefing of 23rd
February
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UNEP and the Executive Director in the News
Coverage of the UNEP Governing Council Meeting
Jakarta Post (Indonesia): Activists rally against UNEP meeting
24 February 2010
Around 25 activists staged a rally against the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum in Denpasar, Bali, on
Wednesday.
Staging the rally at the Bajra Sandhi Monument in Renon, the activists said they
considered the meeting as “a political talk dominated by neoliberalism supporters.”
The activists were from various NGOs, including the Indonesian Forum for the
Environment (Walhi), the Bali Legal Aid and Human Rights Foundation (PBHI), and the
Manikaya Kauci Foundation.
The special session of the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment
Forum will be held from Wednesday to Friday. Some 1,500 participants from 192 countries
will attend the meetings.
Presiden Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is expected to open the forum later in the day.
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Peoples Daily Online (China): Indonesia’s president officially opens UNEP
conference on environment
24 February 2010
Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono officially opened the 11th Special
Session of the UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) Governing Council/Global
Ministerial Environment Forum at 11:00 Bali times ( 0300 GMT) on Wednesday.
The president said that he hopes the event could find the right solution on economic
development for current generation and in the same time saving the next one.
"With the theme of "One Planet Our Responsibility", the event stressed the importance of
the Earth for our next generation. Let' s find the best solution for this generation without
sacrificing the next one," said the president in his opening speech.
Yudhoyono said that in the last 12 years, the Earth has been experiencing the highest
temperature rise since 1850, prompting increase in sea level.
"One meter increase of sea level will impact negatively on millions of people," said the
president.
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That's why he stressed the importance of maintaining biodiversity.
"About 50,000 kinds of plants are already extinct and 40,000 species of endemic
vertebrate are threatened to be disappeared," said the president.
He said that in 2008, at least 50 billion U.S. dollars of the world's economic value has
disappeared, putting difficulties to countries in fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals
in 2015.
The president also shared Indonesia's effort in saving the world by implementing "one
person one tree" program.
"This year we target to plant one billion trees. We intend to contribute billions of trees to
the world that will absorb tens of tons of carbon dioxide," said the president.
He also said that Indonesia intend to decrease deforestation, increasing the use of
renewable energy and providing low-carbon mass transportation.
The event is scheduled to last till Feb. 26, gathering delegations from more than 130
countries.
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Jakarta Globe (Indonesia): SBY Gets Award for Ocean Protection
24 February 2010
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been honored by the UN for
protecting oceans at an international conference in Bali.
United Nations Environment Programme Executive Director Achim Steiner presented SBY
with the UNEP Award for Leadership and Promoting Oceans and Marine Conservations
and Management.
“This award is not only for the government but for the people of Indonesia,” said Steiner,
adding that he hoped it would encourage the government and the people of Indonesia to
take further steps to improve management of the country’s wealth of ocean resources.
The award acknowledges Yudhoyono’s commitment to cooperate with Malaysia, Papua
New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Philippines and Timor Leste to preserve coral
reefs.
Delegations from more than countries have gathered for the Bali UNEP conference, which
will focus on sustainable development, eco-friendly economies and biodiversity. In a
speech at the conference on Wednesday, SBY also encouraged ministers to tackle the
issue of climate change when they meet informally there later this week.
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Reuters: U.N. says emissions vows not enough to avoid rise of 2 degrees C
23 February 2010
Emission cuts pledges made by 60 countries will not be enough to keep the average
global temperature rise at 2 degrees Celsius or less, modeling released on Tuesday by the
United Nations says.
Scientists say temperatures should be limited to a rise of no more than 2 degrees Celsius
(3.6 F) above pre-industrial times if devastating climate change is to be avoided.
Yearly greenhouse gas emissions should not be more than 40 and 48.3 gigatonnes of
CO2-equivalent in 2020 and should peak between 2015 and 2021, according to new
modeling released on Tuesday by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Keeping within that range and cutting global emissions by between 48 percent and 72
percent between 2020 and 2050 will give the planet a "medium" or 50-50 chance of
staying within the 2 degree limit, said the report, which was based on modeling by nine
research centres.
However, the same study found that the world is likely to go over those targets. The
pledges were made by nations that signed up to the Copenhagen Accord.
"The expected emissions for 2020 range between 48.8 to 51.2 gigatonnes of CO2equivalent, based on whether high or low pledges will be fulfilled," the report said.
In other words, even in a best-case scenario where all countries implement their promised
cuts, the total amount of emissions produced would still be between 0.5 and 8.8
gigatonnes over what scientists see as tolerable.
Greenhouse gas levels are rising, particularly for carbon dioxide, because more is
remaining in the atmosphere than natural processes can deal with.
Carbon dioxide is naturally taken up and released by plants and the oceans but mankind's
burning of fossil fuels such as coal for power and destruction of forests means the planet's
annual "carbon budget" is being exceeded.
OTHER OPTIONS
UNEP's executive director Achim Steiner said the bleak prediction should motivate
countries to make more ambitious cuts.
"The message is not to sit back and resign and say we will never make it," he told
reporters in Nusa Dua on the Indonesian island of Bali, which is hosting a major U.N.
environment meeting.
"But it's not enough at the moment and there are other options that can be mobilised."
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Steiner said one such option was more investment in a scheme called reduced emissions
from deforestation and degradation (REDD), in which poor countries are paid to preserve
and enhance their forests.
A state of the environment assessment released by UNEP on Tuesday, the UNEP Year
Book 2010, also advocated more investment in REDD.
"It has been estimated that putting $22 billion to $29 billion into REDD would cut global
deforestation by 25 percent by 2015," the report said.
Forests soak up large amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide. Cutting them down and
burning the remains releases vast amounts of the gas, exacerbating global warming,
scientists say.
REDD is not yet part of a broader climate pact that the U.N. hopes to seal by the end of
year at major climate talks in Mexico.
Steiner told reporters a day earlier he expected talks this year to be a tough slog. The
Copenhagen climate summit last December ended with a political accord that was not
formally adopted and no clarity on the shape of a new climate pact to succeed the current
Kyoto Protocol.
"A deal has become more difficult than in Copenhagen. Let's be very frank. The world has
moved away, rather than closer, to a deal," he told reporters. "The politics of international
negotiation and the economics, the momentum that built up toward Copenhagen will not
be there for Mexico.
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UN News center: Greater efforts needed to curb global warming – UN report
23 February 2010
Nations must make more aggressive pledges to slash greenhouse gas emissions to
avoid global temperatures rising by 2 degrees Celsius and prevent the worst possible
effects of climate change, warned the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
in a report released today.
The study, based on expert estimates from nine leading research centres, suggests that
annual greenhouse gas emissions around the world should not exceed 40 to 48.3
gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2020 and should peak sometime between 2015
and 2021.
In addition to remaining within that range, the report also states that global emissions
need to be cut by between 48 and 72 per cent between 2020 and 2050 to even have a
50/50 chance of meeting the target of keeping global temperatures below 2 degrees
Celsius.
However, the estimated amount of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions for 2020 ranges
between 48.8 to 51.2 gigatons – depending on whether countries fulfill the high or low
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end of their reduction commitments – which amounts to an average shortfall of 4.7
gigatons, according to the report.
“There are clearly a great deal of assumptions underlying these figures, but they do
provide an indication of where countries are and perhaps more importantly where they
need to aim,” said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.
“There clearly is a ‘gigaton gap’ which may be a significant one according to some of the
modelers,” added Mr. Steiner on the eve of the three-day UNEP Governing
Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum in Bali, Indonesia, which kicks off on
Wednesday.
“This needs to be bridged and bridged quickly if the international community is to
proactively manage emissions down in a way that makes economic sense,” he said.
Mr. Steiner underscored the many reasons for making a transition to a low carbon,
resource efficient ‘green economy’ with climate change a key factor, but spotlighted
energy security, cuts in air pollution and diversifying energy sources as other significant
incentives.
This week’s gathering in Bali is expected to “shine a light on opportunities ranging from
accelerating clean technology and renewable energy enterprises to the climate, social
and economic benefits of investing in terrestrial and marine ecosystem,” said Mr.
Steiner.
In a related development, UNEP announced that the next round of formal negotiations,
under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, is slated to take place in
Bonn, Germany, from 9 to 11 April.
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CCTV (China): UN urges countries to unanimously agree climate change as
world's top danger
24 February 2010
The United Nations' Secretary General Ban Ki Moon urged countries to unanimously
agree that climate change is the world's top danger that has to be addressed, a UN
official said here on Wednesday.
Angela Cropper, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program
(UNEP), while reading Ban's message, said that the UN's chief has asked countries to
implement agreement resulted at the 11th Special Session of the UNEP Governing
Council/ Global Ministerial Environment Forum held in Nusa Dua of Bali province on
Feb. 22-26.
Ban, according Cropper, said that he has stressed the need of intensified effort due to
alarming deforestation as global forests diminish rapidly.
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"We need to improve environmental governance to reduce the gap of economic
development and environment issues. It needs a combination of political will, fund and
participation of private sector," Ban as quoted by Cropper as saying.
Achim Steiner, UNEP's Executive Director and UN's Under Secretary General, said that
the environment agency grabbed a success in making Bali Strategic Plan, the result of
its conference in 2004, as the undivided document from global environment issues.
"Bali Strategic Plan is not just a document, but it is implemented in every environment
talks," he said.
Indonesia's Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said the ministerial meeting on
environment has its own strategic value as it was the first one after the Copenhagen
summit that resulted in Copenhagen Accord on Dec. 18 last year.
"We have to use the opportunity to share our views informally to bring success of the
next climate change in Mexico," said Marty.
He said that the event is considered important as 2010 was chosen as the international
year of biodiversity.
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Smarticle (UK): UN Warns of Looming Surge in E-waste, currently Sits at 40
Million Tons per Year.
23 February 2010
A landmark EU-funded report co-produced by the United Nations University (UNU)
warns of a significant increase in waste from electronic products (e-waste) over the next
decade. Soaring sales of mobile phones, computers and other electronic products is
likely to impact public health and the environment in countries ill-equipped to properly
handle the surge in waste material.
Titled ‘Recycling – from E-Waste to Resources’, the report received funding from the
European Commission’s Directorate-General for the Environment.
It was co-authored by EMPA (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and
Research), Umicore, and UNU – all part of the global think tank StEP (Solving the Ewaste Problem).
The report presents findings of data collected from 11 developing countries across the
globe on national policies, skills, waste collection networks and informal recycling. The
results are used as a way to illustrate the current e-waste problem and to predict future
trends at a global level.
In 2007, more than 1 billion mobile phones were sold on the international market. Over
150 million mobiles and pagers were sold in the US alone in 2008, almost double the
amount sold 5 years prior.
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These sales figures inevitably mean a dramatic increase in the volume of e-waste
generated worldwide, a figure which currently sits at 40 million tonnes per year.
Compared with 2007 statistics, the report predicts that waste from old computers will
skyrocket to 400% in both China and South Africa by 2020.
Waste from discarded refrigerators will double or triple in India while old mobile phones
in the country will increase 18-fold. By 2020, e-waste from computers in countries like
Senegal and Uganda will increase fourfold to eightfold.
China is the second largest receptacle of e-waste (although e-waste imports were
banned, the country still receives waste from developed countries).
At approximately 2.3 million tonnes, China trails behind the 3 million tonnes level held by
the United States. Importantly, the majority of China’s e-waste is improperly disposed of
using practices that release toxic pollution.
UN Under-Secretary-General Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP), said: ‘This report gives new urgency to establishing
ambitious, formal and regulated processes for collecting and managing e-waste via the
setting up of large, efficient facilities in China.’ He added that China is not the only
country that will be confronted with the challenge.
The threat of environmental damage and health problems as a result of poor e-waste
recycling is likely to be faced by Brazil, India, Mexico and other countries.
As well as cutting greenhouse gas emissions, preventing health problems and
recovering valuable metals, Mr Steiner explained that better waste recycling can mean a
boost to employment. ‘By acting now and planning forward, many countries can turn an
e-challenge into an e-opportunity,’ he said.
‘One person’s waste can be another’s raw material,’ added Konrad Osterwalder, UN
Under-Secretary General and Rector of UNU in Japan. ‘The challenge of dealing with ewaste represents an important step in the transition to a green economy.’
Mr Osterwalder concluded, ‘This report outlines smart new technologies and
mechanisms which, combined with national and international policies, can transform
waste into assets, creating new businesses with decent green jobs. In the process,
countries can help cut pollution linked with mining and manufacturing, and with the
disposal of old devices.’
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VOA (US): E-Waste Creates Economic, Environmental Problem for Developing
Nations
23 February 2010
Societies are producing more and more electronic goods, and therefore more and more
electronic waste, or e-waste.
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The United Nations' Environment Program has released a report that warns of a
dangerous rise in the amount of such waste, which is often simply dumped in developing
countries, posing health hazards to residents.
Every year the world produces 40 million tons of electronic waste: from TVs to
refrigerators to cell phones and computers. And this figure will only increase.
For instance, by 2020, China is expected to throw away seven times more cell phones
than now, and India 18 times more.
These high-technology goods not only are bulky, they often contain toxic materials such as
lead and mercury. If the e-waste is not taken care of properly, it can cause pollution and
health hazards.
The Basel Action Network is a private group focused on halting the trade in toxic goods,
particularly waste goods. Executive director Jim Puckett says the world needs to take
urgent measures to end toxic trash.
"The industry has built in obsolescence unfortunately, so we're seeing things become
waste quicker than every before," Puckett said.
"Computers now have a life span of about two years now in the North; many mobile
phones are turned over within six months when somebody wants to newest model. So we
are creating a mountain and we're not going to stop people from consuming. So the first
thing we need to do is to get the toxic materials out of the equation".
The issue of e-waste is one of several topics being discussed this week at the United
Nation Program for Environment's conference in Nusa Dua, Indonesia.
Achim Steiner, the agency's secretary-general, says much of the e-waste should be
recycled. Beyond the environmental reasons, there is also an economic incentive, he
says: for example, three percent of the gold and silver mined worldwide is used in
personal computers and mobile phones.
"If you start investing and recycling and reusing these materials, you actually begin to look
at turning a problem into an opportunity; you start creating jobs, you start reducing the
amount of metals that leaves the cycle of our economy, you can reuse them," Steiner said.
"So those are all advantages if you begin to manage electronic waste not as we see from
industrialized countries to least developed countries without legislation. It is actually being
dumped in the backyards of the slums of this world."
The Basel Convention is an international agreement setting global guidelines on handling
e-waste. But it is not without weaknesses.
The United States, the single largest producer of e-waste, has never ratified the
convention. Also, e-waste has become a highly profitable illegal trade.
Some companies get rid of their trash by exporting it to poor countries where, instead of
being treated or recycled, it piles up in landfills, and the toxic materials can leach out into
water and soil.
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"One example that happened in West Africa: they export obsolete cars, and they stuff the
cars with obsolete computers hidden in the cars.
So we have all those ingenious schemes to do it. And it is actually in that sense very
comparable to arms smuggling, and drug smuggling because the incentives are financial
and a huge business is to be found in this," said Katharina Kummer, the executive
secretary of the Basel Convention.
The problem today is compounded by the growing complexity of the trade. E-waste used
to be produced by developed nations and then dumped in poor countries.
But today poor countries without recycling capacity export their e-waste to nations like
China, and emerging economies are also increasingly net producers of e-waste: China for
example has become the second larger producer after the United States.
Katharina Kummer says there remain limits to how much the traffic can be curbed.
"The responsibility of the countries is to adopt legislation and to enforce it," Kummer said.
"The problem though is that it requires a huge amount of money, and even the highest
developed countries, like the countries of the European Union, do not have the necessary
resources to prevent all those illegal exports from happening. So you can imagine what it
would look like for a poor country in Africa for example or a poor country from another part
of the world".
Electronic waste is more than an economical problem. It also affects the health of millions
of people who make a living by stripping out the waste dumped in their countries.
Environmental experts say it will take new funds and manpower to solve the problem, by
establishing safe recycling facilities and curbing illegal exports.
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Unbeatable (UK): E-Waste Poses Huge Threat
23 February 2010
Electronic companies have all been joining in on efforts to be more environmentally
friendly in whatever ways they can.
Consumers are being taught to shop "smart" and purchase products that are energy
efficient and use less packaging. However, what ever happens to all of those old products
that aren't being used anymore and are technically out of date?
A large percentage of those devices, including mobile phones, computers, video
receivers, kitchen electronics etc., are thrown in the trash or given to local collectors
extract precious metals from them in environmentally hazardous ways.
Global waste is growing at a rapid rate and it's been projected by the UN's Environmental
Programme that within the next year it will have increased by another 40 million tons.
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The study predicts that in the next 10 years, the amount of e-waste from dumped mobiles
in China will be about seven times larger than it was in 2007, and in India 18 times higher.
The United States is the winner when it comes to e-waste reporting 3 million tons a year,
followed by China's 2.3 million. However, China remains a major e-waste dumping ground
for developed countries.
According to the study, printers, pagers, digital cameras, music players, and laptops are
also a huge issue when it comes to waste.
Executive Director Achim Steiner explains, "This report gives new urgency to establishing
ambitious, formal and regulated processes for collecting and managing e-waste via the
setting up of large, efficient facilities in China."
Much of the developing world faces "rising environmental damage and health problems if
e-waste recycling is left to the vagaries of the informal sector."
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Brunei Fm (Brunei): Indonesia congratulated for rejecting e-waste from us
23 February 2010
The Basel Action Network has praised Indonesia for turning down nine containers of ewaste (electronic waste) from the United States last November 2009.
“Last night, I congratulated the Indonesian environmental affairs minister for the
Indonesian authorities` diligent action,” Jim Puckett, coordinator of Basel Action Network
(BAN), said here on Monday.
Old computer monitors in the nine containers are considered hazardous e-waste for
containing lead, he said when speaking to journalists attending a United Nations
Environment Program (UNEP) Workshop on “Reporting Green – Environment as News”.
He said e-waste was a problem which could poison the people. Some children working in
electronic companies have lead in their blood which later could damage their brain. A
similar problems could be found in China, India and Nigeria, he said.
The e-waste coming from Massachusetts was about to enter Semarang, Central Java, last
November. But, thanks to a tip-off from BAN, the Indonesian authorities managed to foil
the smuggling attempt.
In accordance with Indonesia`s law, hazardous import was banned, while for the US,
which has not yet ratified the Basel Convention, the export was legal, he said.
Besides the US, Afghanistan and Haiti are yet to ratify the Basel Convention.
An attempt was made to dump used computer monitors in Indonesia because it was
cheaper to export than recycle them, he said.
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The sale of electronic products in countries like China and India and across continents
such as Africa and Latin America are set to rise sharply in the next 10 years, according to
UN experts in a landmark report released by UNEP in Nusa Dua, Bali on Monday.
“And, unless action is stepped up to properly collect and recycle materials, many
developing countries face the spectre of hazardous e-waste mountains with serious
consequences for the environment and public health,” according to the report.
Issued at a meeting of Basel Convention and other world chemical authorities prior to
UNEP`s Governing Council meeting in Bali, the report “Recycling – from E-Waste to
Resources” , used data from 11 representative developing countries to estimate current
and future e-waste generation – which includes old and dilapidated desk and laptop
computers, printers, mobile phones, pagers, digital photo and music devices, refrigerators,
toys and televisions.
Nairobi-based UNEP is organizing “The Reporting Green Workshop” and “The
Simaltaneous Extraordinary Meetings of the Conference of the Parties (COPs) to the
Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions”, in Nusa Dua, from Feb. 22 to 26.
And on Feb. 24-26, UNEP will hold the 11th Special Session of the Governing
Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum, which is expected to be officially opened by
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and attended by around 100 environment ministers
from various countries.
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CNN: Can e-waste be turned to gold?
24 February 2010
The champions at the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver can stand on the podium
proud of their achievements, but the eco-minded among them can be extra proud that
their medals are made with traces of precious metals recovered from e-waste.
The amounts may be tiny (just 1.52 percent in the gold medals) but they provide a shiny
example of how precious metals recovered from disused circuit boards from electronic
devices can be re-used.
According to a new report, however, a more universal solution to a growing problem needs
to be found.
The report published this week by the United National Environment Program (UNEP) says
that in 10 years e-waste from old computers is set to increase by 400 percent in China and
South Africa from 2007 levels, and by 500 percent in India.
Based on 11 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America the report warns that in countries
with relatively little e-waste today -- such as Kenya, Peru, Senegal and Uganda -- it will
soon be a huge problem. Those nations can expect e-waste to increase from PCs alone
four-fold by 2020.
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Around 40 million tons of e-waste are produced each year, with much of it unaccounted
for, according to findings by Solving The E-waste Problem (Steps), a UN-initiative
supported by many major electronics companies.
While often dumping grounds for e-waste exported from the EU and the U.S., countries
such as China and India also will have to deal with a huge growth in home-produced ewaste fueled by a boom in sales of electronics.
The UNEP report states that much of the e-waste in developing economies is not handled
safely, often incinerated and exposing workers and the local environment to hazardous
chemicals and toxins.
How much money we are wasting here by not properly recycling e-waste and letting it go
to landfills?
"China is not alone in facing a serious challenge. India, Brazil, Mexico and others may also
face rising environmental damage and health problems if e-waste recycling is left to the
vagaries of the informal sector," Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP said in the
report.
According to Steps, China has 2 million of these backyard dismantlers and recyclers, far
greater than the official regulated sector.
"We need to find a way to keep them in the business to earn a living. E-waste recycling is
a rather complex process requiring a lot of capacity, technologies and knowledge," said
Ruediger Kuehr, of the United Nations University. "But easy steps can be taken so people
and the environment in the informal sector don't suffer harm."
Kuehr believes most of the short-term solutions come from better training and
infrastructure for the informal sector workers, but longer term needs more international
coordination and better local enforcement.
If done correctly it could be a money-spinner for those involved in every part of e-waste
disposal and recycling operations.
"One person's waste can be another's raw material. The challenge of dealing with e-waste
represents an important step in the transition to a green economy," Konrad Osterwalder,
U.N. under-secretary general, said in the report.
"Smart new technologies and mechanisms, which, combined with national and
international policies, can transform waste into assets, creating new businesses with
decent green jobs. In the process, countries can help cut pollution linked with mining and
manufacturing, and with the disposal of old devices."
One idea is to put greater responsibility on the companies that produce the goods, which
Kuehr suggests could be in their long-term interests as well.
"Instead of purchasing the product, we are only purchasing the service the product
provides. So it's then in the interests of the companies to see the equipment returned from
the consumer when they have new developments. It's a different system. It shifts
responsibility from the consumer to the producer."
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In the short term, it may be that Winter Olympic champions remain in the minority of those
safely getting their hands on e-waste gold. Yet the amount of money involved and greater
awareness makes Kuehr hopeful they won't be the only ones.
"How much money we are wasting here by not properly recycling and letting it go to
landfills? If we only look at the PC sector, it is gold worth in the hundreds of millions that
we are wasting," he said.
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Environment News Service: Smart Centers Planned to Recycle Mountains of Toxic
E-Waste
23 February 2010
To safely manage the floods of obsolete electronics headed their way, developing
countries need to establish e-waste management centers of excellence, the United
Nations Environment Programme advises in a report released Monday.
Sales of electronic products in China and India and across Africa and Latin America are
set to rise sharply in the next 10 years, according to UN experts in the report.
Unless environmentally sound actions are taken to collect and recycle materials, many
developing countries will face mountains of old computers, printers, mobile phones,
pagers, digital photo and music devices, refrigerators, toys and televisions with serious
consequences for the environment and public health.
Electronics contain up to 60 different elements, many valuable, some hazardous, and
some both. The report advises that if centers of recycling excellence are set up, obsolete
electronics that contain valuable metals such as silver, gold, palladium, copper and indium
can be harvested while creating recycling jobs.
Said Konrad Osterwalder, rector of United Nations University, which co-authored the
report, "One person's waste can be another's raw material. The challenge of dealing with
e-waste represents an important step in the transition to a green economy."
"This report outlines smart new technologies and mechanisms which, combined with
national and international policies, can transform waste into assets, creating new
businesses with decent green jobs," said Osterwalder. "In the process, countries can help
cut pollution linked with mining and manufacturing, and with the disposal of old devices."
The idea of mountains of e-waste is no exaggeration. Global e-waste generation is
growing by about 40 million tons a year, the report states. Globally, more than one billion
mobile phones were sold in 2007, up from 896 million in 2006.
In the United States, more than 150 million mobile phones and pagers were sold in 2008,
up from 90 million five years before.
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Manufacturing mobile phones and personal computers consumes three percent of the
gold and silver mined worldwide each year; 13 percent of the palladium and 15 percent of
cobalt.
The report finds that carbon dioxide emissions from the mining and production of copper
and precious and rare metals used in electrical and electronic equipment are estimated at
over 23 million tonnes - one-tenth of a percent of global emissions.
This figure does not include CO2 emissions linked to steel, nickel or aluminum, nor those
linked to manufacturing the devices.
"Recycling - from E-Waste to Resources," used data from 11 developing countries to
estimate current and future e-waste generation.
In South Africa and China for example, the report predicts that by 2020 e-waste from old
computers will have jumped by 200 to 400 percent from 2007 levels, and by 500 percent
in India.
By 2020 in China, e-waste from discarded mobile phones will be about seven times higher
than 2007 levels and, in India, 18 times higher.
By 2020, e-waste from televisions will be 1.5 to 2 times higher in China and India while in
India e-waste from discarded refrigerators will double or triple.
China already produces about 2.3 million tonnes domestically, second only to the United
States with about three million tonnes. And, despite having banned e-waste imports, China
remains a major e-waste dumping ground for developed countries.
Most e-waste in China is improperly handled, much of it incinerated by backyard recyclers
to recover the gold, but these informal practices release plumes of toxic pollution and yield
very low metal recovery rates compared to state-of-the-art industrial facilities, this report
and past investigations have found.
"This report gives new urgency to establishing ambitious, formal and regulated processes
for collecting and managing e-waste via the setting up of large, efficient facilities in China,"
says UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.
"China is not alone in facing a serious challenge," he said. "India, Brazil, Mexico and
others may also face rising environmental damage and health problems if e-waste
recycling is left to the vagaries of the informal sector."
The report was issued at a meeting of world chemical authorities prior to UNEP's
Governing Council meeting in Bali, Indonesia, which opens Wednesday.
The meeting brings together the Parties to three treaties - the Basel, Rotterdam and
Stockholm Conventions - that are working to enhance their cooperation and coordinate
their activities.
The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes
and their Disposal is the most comprehensive global environmental agreement on
hazardous and other wastes and has 172 government Parties.
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In 2008, Parties adopted guidelines on collecting and refurbishing used mobile phones
and the recovery and recycling their components at end-of-life.
The Rotterdam Convention covers 40 pesticides and industrial chemicals that have been
banned or severely restricted for health or environmental reasons by the Parties.
The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants protects human health and
the environment from chemicals that remain intact in the environment for long periods,
become widely distributed geographically, accumulate in the fatty tissue of living
organisms and are toxic to humans and wildlife.
Finding a way forward will be challenging, the report concludes. Developing vibrant
national recycling schemes is complex and simply financing and transferring high tech
equipment from developed countries is unlikely to work, according to the report.
It says China's lack of a comprehensive e-waste collection network, combined with
competition from the lower-cost informal sector, has held back state-of-the art e-waste
recycling plants.
It notes a successful pilot in Bangalore, India to transform the operations of informal ewaste collection and management.
Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Morocco and South Africa are cited as places with great
potential to introduce state of the art e-waste recycling technologies because the informal
e-waste sector is relatively small.
Kenya, Peru, Senegal and Uganda have relatively low e-waste volumes today but these
volumes are likely to grow. All four countries would benefit from capacity building in socalled pre-processing technologies such as manual dismantling of e-waste.
The report recommends countries establish e-waste management centers of excellence,
building on existing organizations, including the more than 40 National Cleaner Production
Centers established by the UN Industrial and Development Organization and the regional
centers established under the Basel Convention.
The report was co-authored by EMPA, the research institute for material science and
technology of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, a pioneer in monitoring and
controlling for e-waste management systems and setting recycling and disposal
standards.
Another co-author was Umicore, an international speciality materials group with a state-ofthe-art integrated metals smelter and refinery at Hoboken, Belgium where precious metals
as well as base and special metals are recovered and brought back to the market as pure
metals.
EMPA and Umicore are part of the StEP Initiative, Solving the E-Waste Problem, a think
tank hosted by UNU in Bonn, Germany. StEP's more than 50 members include UNEP and
the Basel Convention Secretariat, industry, government and international organizations,
NGOs and the science sector.
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A grant from the European Commission Directorate-General for the Environment funded
the report's preparation.
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Ecologist (UK): UN warns India and China over growing problem of e-waste
22 February 2010
African and Asian countries need proper electronic waste recycling systems to prevent the
surge in consumer demand creating toxic e-waste mountains
Less-industrialised countries like India, Uganda and Senegal face a mounting hazardous
e-waste problem unless proper recycling measures are enforced, says the UN.
Sales of consumer electronics, particularly mobile phones and computers, have soared in
the past two decades. In 2007, one billion mobile phones were sold, up from a figure of
896 million in 2006.
A report on e-waste from the UN Environment Programme says China and India are
expected to see sharp rises in electronics sales over the next decade, contributing to an ewaste mountain growing by 40 million tons a year.
E-WASTE DUMPING
The UNEP says e-waste cannot be left 'to the vagaries of the informal sector'. It says
large-scale collection and recycling facilities need to be established in China, India, Brazil
and Africa where levels of e-waste are rising.
The Ecologist reported recently on the dumping of Western electronic waste in Ghanaian
slums and the damage to the local population and environment caused by some of the
toxic components.
The UNEP report says countries like Senegal and Uganda can expect e-waste flows from
PCs alone to increase 4 to 8-fold by 2020.
CHINA AND INDIA
At present the problem is most acute in India and China, which together produce more
than 1.5 million tonnes of e-waste from TVs and 600,000 tonnes from refrigerators every
year.
In China, the report predicts that by 2020 levels of e-waste from old computers will have
increased by 200 to 400 per cent from 2007 levels, and by 500 per cent in India.
By that same year in China, e-waste from discarded mobile phones will be about seven
times higher than 2007 levels and, in India, 18 times higher.
But the UNEP says recycling can also recover valuable natural resources.
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'In addition to curbing health problems, boosting developing country e-waste recycling
rates can have the potential to generate decent employment and recover a wide range of
valuable metals including silver, gold, palladium, copper and indium,' said UN UnderSecretary-General Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP.
'By acting now and planning forward, many countries can turn an e-challenge into an eopportunity,' he added.
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UN News Center: Rechargeable Light, Clean Stove Win UN Prize
24 February 2010
A pair of grassroots initiatives bringing environmentally friendly stoves and rechargeable
lighting to remote communities in several countries are the recipients of this year’s
prestigious Sasakawa Prize, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
announced today.
The annual prize, worth $200,000 between the two projects, is awarded to sustainable
schemes that can be replicated at the local level across the world.
This year’s winners are Nuru Design, a company providing rechargeable lights to villages
in Rwanda, Kenya and India; and Trees, Water and People (TWP), an organization
distributing fuel-efficient stoves to people in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua
and Haiti.
“Combating climate change is not just up to governments; it starts at the grassroots level,
as communities tap into the power of renewables and sustainable technologies,” said
UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner, who chaired the four-person jury which included
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and UN Messenger of Peace Wangari Maathai.
“Through pioneering green ovens and sustainable lighting, Nuru Design and Trees, Water
and People are changing the lives of thousands of schoolchildren, housewives and
villagers across Latin America, Africa and India,” added Mr. Steiner.
With the lack of reliable energy and lighting affecting over 2 billion people in the developing
world and the equivalent of 260 million tons of carbon dioxide emitted every year from
burning kerosene and firewood, Nuru Design has already converted thousands of
households to rechargeable lights, and aims to prevent the emission of around 40,000
tons of carbon dioxide from kerosene lighting in 2010.
In Rwanda alone, Nuru – which means ‘light’ in Swahili – is helping 10,000 households
every three months switch from kerosene to its lighting system, and the company plans to
use the Sasakawa funding to scale up in Rwanda and to replicate their efforts in Burundi,
Kenya, Uganda and India, expanding to about 200,000 households.
In addition, through fuel-efficient cooking stoves that burn 50 to 70 per cent less wood,
TWP is helping households save money and preventing nearly 250,000 tons of hazardous
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emissions from traditional smoky open fires, which kill around 1.6 million women and
children annually.
To date, TWP has organized the building of 35,000 stoves throughout Central America
and Haiti, benefiting more than 175,000 people who save $1 to $5 per day on the cost of
wood. The initiative also decreases harmful carbon emissions by 1 ton of carbon dioxide
equivalent per year per stove for domestic users and 3.5 tons per year for commercial
users, like tortilla makers.
The winners are slated to receive the prize at a ceremony during this week’s 11th Special
Session of the UNEP Governing Council in Bali, Indonesia, which kicks off on Wednesday
and is attended by dozens of environment ministers.
Article also appears in Scoop (New Zealand)
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Media Newswire: Changing lives through sustainability
23 February 2010
Two projects bringing green stoves and clean lighting to remote communities in Latin
America, East Africa and India are the laureates of the 2009-10 UNEP Sasakawa Prize,
the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today.
This year's winners are Nuru Design, a company bringing rechargeable lights to villages in
Rwanda, Kenya and India; and Trees, Water and People ( TWP ), an organization that
collaborates with local NGOs to distribute fuel-efficient cook stoves to communities in
Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Haiti.
The UNEP Sasakawa Prize, worth $200,000, is given out each year to sustainable and
replicable grassroots projects around the planet. The winners will receive their prestigious
Prize at an Award Ceremony in Bali attended by dozens of Environment Ministers during
the 11th Special Session of the UNEP Governing Council.
In a year that saw global leaders meet in Copenhagen for the crucial climate conference,
the 2009 theme for the Prize is 'Green Solutions to Combat Climate Change'.
The winners, who were selected by a panel of four people including Nobel Peace Prize
Laureate and UN Messenger of Peace Wangari Maathai, will receive $100,000 each in
order to expand and develop their grassroots projects.
Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director and UN Under-Secretary-General who chaired
the Jury Panel, said: "Combating climate change is not just up to governments: it starts at
the grassroots level, as communities tap into the power of renewables and sustainable
technologies.
Through pioneering green ovens and sustainable lighting, Nuru Design and Trees, Water
and People are changing the lives of thousands of schoolchildren, housewives and
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villagers across Latin America, Africa and India. This is the Green Economy of tomorrow,
in action today."
The two projects are both helping to improve daily lives in far-flung, non-electrified villages
while helping to fight climate change.
Nuru Design has already converted thousands of households to rechargeable lights, and
aims to prevent the emission of around 40,000 tonnes of CO2 from kerosene lighting in
2010.
And through fuel-efficient cooking stoves that burn 50 to 70 per cent less wood, TWP is
helping households save money and preventing nearly 250,000 tonnes of hazardous
emissions.
THE WINNERS
Nuru Design
Lack of reliable energy and lighting affects over two billion people in the developing world
and remains a primary obstacle to improving health, increasing literacy and education,
and, ultimately, reducing poverty and hunger.
Meanwhile, the equivalent of 260 million tonnes of CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere
yearly from burning kerosene and firewood, which millions of people around the world rely
on for lighting.
With seed-funding from the World Bank Lighting Africa initiative, Nuru Design UK codeveloped and field-tested the Nuru lighting system with villagers and local partners in
Rwanda - UNDP Rwanda and Millennium Villages.
Nuru means "light" in Swahili, and the system consists of portable, inexpensive
rechargeable LED lights that sell for $5.
Nuru lights can be recharged by solar panel or AC charger, but the primary recharging
source is human power using the world's first commercially available, locally-assembled,
pedal generator: the Nuru POWERCycle.
Gentle pedalling for 20 minutes using feet or hands, bicycle-style, can fully recharge up to
five Nuru lights - each one lasting up to 37 hours.
The lights give up to two weeks of bright light on a full recharge, allowing children to study,
home-based businesses to operate, and households to function after dark.
The project has been a runaway success, making a significant, immediate and long-lasting
environmental impact. In Rwanda alone, Nuru is adding 40 entrepreneurs every quarter,
meaning 10,000 households every quarter will switch from kerosene to Nuru light.
Nuru Design plans to use the Sasakawa funding to scale up in Rwanda and to replicate
their work in Burundi, Kenya, Uganda and India - expanding to 800 entrepreneurs who will
deliver lighting to about 200,000 households.
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TREES, WATER AND PEOPLE
Nearly half the world's 6.8 billion people rely on smoky open fires to cook their daily meals.
This traditional practice causes deadly indoor air pollution which kills 1.6 million women
and children annually.
Trees, Water & People ( TWP ) , a non-profit organization, collaborates with local nongovernmental organizations ( NGOs ) in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua
and Haiti to distribute fuel-efficient cook stoves that burn 50 to 70 per cent less wood and
remove toxic smoke from homes. Other projects include community tree nurseries,
reforestation, protecting watersheds and the promotion of renewable energy.
To date, TWP has coordinated the building of 35,000 stoves throughout Central America
and Haiti, benefitting more than 175,000 people. The ecostoves burn 70 per cent less
wood than traditional ovens, saving families $1 to $5 per day.
They also decrease harmful carbon emissions by 1 tonne of CO2 equivalent per year per
stove for domestic users and 3.5 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year for commercial users,
like tortilla makers.
To supplement the fuel-efficient stoves project, TWP has helped villages create 16
community-run tree nurseries that sequester carbon and counter the effects of
deforestation. To date, three million trees have been planted throughout Latin America.
TWP will use the Prize money to support and expand the fuel-efficient stove projects and
community tree nurseries throughout Central America and the Caribbean, purchasing
equipment and materials necessary for increased stove production, as well as vehicles for
transportation and delivery.
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Nam News Network (Blog): More ambition needed if greenhouse gases are to peak
in time: UNEP report
24 February 2010
Countries will have to be far more ambitious in cutting greenhouse gas emissions if the
world is to effectively curb a rise in global temperature at 2 degrees C or less, says UN
Environment Programme (UNEP).
This is the conclusion of a new greenhouse gas modeling study, based on the estimates
of researchers at nine leading centres, compiled by UNEP.
The experts suggest that annual global greenhouse gas emissions should not be larger
than 40 to 48.3 Gigatonnes (Gt) of equivalent C02 in 2020 and should peak sometime
between 2015 and 2021.
They also estimate that between 2020 and 2050, global emissions need to fall by between
48 per cent and 72 per cent, indicating that an ambition to cut greenhouse gases by
around three per cent a year over that 30 year period is also needed.
22
Such a path offers a 'medium' likelihood or at least a 50/50 chance of keeping a global
temperature rise at below 2 degrees C, says the new report.
The new study, launched on the eve of UNEP's Governing Council/Global Ministerial
Environment Forum taking place in Bali, Indonesia, has analyzed the pledges of 60
developed and developing economies.
They have been recently submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) following the UN climate convention meeting in Copenhagen in December.
The nine modeling centres have now estimated how far these pledges go towards meeting
a reasonable 'peak' in emissions depending on whether the high or the low intentions are
met.
"The expected emissions for 2020 range between 48.8 to 51.2 GT of CO2 equivalent
based on whether high or low pledges will be fulfilled," says the report.
The report, as noted earlier, says that in order to meet the 2 degree C aim in 2050,
emissions in 2020 need to be between 40 Gt and 48.3 Gt.
Thus even with the best intentions there is a gap of between 0.5 and 8.8Gt of CO2
equivalent per year, amounting to an average shortfall in emission cuts of 4.7 Gt.
If the low end of the emission reduction pledges are fulfilled, the gap is even bigger-2.9 Gt
to 11.2 Gt of CO2 equivalent per year, with an average gap of 7.1 Gt says the report How
Close Are We to the Two Degree Limit?
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said: "There
are clearly a great deal of assumptions underlying these figures, but they do provide an
indication of where countries are and perhaps more importantly where they need to aim."
"There clearly is 'Gigatonne gap' which may be a significant one according some of the
modelers. This needs to be bridged and bridged quickly if the international community is to
pro-actively manage emissions down in a way that makes economic sense," he added.
"There are multiple reasons for countries to make a transition to a low carbon, resource
efficient Green Economy of which climate change is a key one. But energy security, cuts in
air pollution and diversifying energy sources are also important drivers," said Mr Steiner.
"This week at the UNEP GC/GMEF we will also shine a light on the opportunities ranging
from accelerating clean tech and renewable energy enterprises to the climate, social and
economic benefits of investing in terrestrial and marine ecosystems," he added.
Some of those multiple opportunities for action are showcased in the UNEP Year Book
2010 which is being presented to ministers responsible for the environment who are
attending the meeting.
These include Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD)
which gained political support at the Copenhagen climate change meeting.
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REDD, which involves supporting developing countries to conserve rather than clear
tropical forests, could make an important contribution not only to combating climate
change but also to overcoming poverty and to a successful UN International Year of
Biodiversity.
The Year Book estimates that investing $22 billion to $29 billion in REDD could cut global
deforestation by 25 per cent by 2015.
It also highlights a new and promising REDD project in Brazil, at the Juma Sustainable
Development Reserve in Amazonas. Here each family receives US$28 a month if the
forest remains uncut, one potential way of tipping the economic balance in favour of
conservation versus continued deforestation.
Renewables are also gaining momentum: although still very low compared to the huge
potential of renewable energy, the global installed wind generation capacity has grown at
the rate of 25 per cent per year over the past five years.
In China, for example installed capacity has nearly doubled every year since the end of
2004 - and the report notes that the wind energy potential under perfect conditions has
been estimated at up to 72,000 GW, nearly five times total energy demand. Probably 20
per cent of this energy potential could be captured in the future, representing almost 15
000 GW.
Managing a response to climate change also echoes the challenge of International
Environment Governance, a key theme at this week's GC/GMEF. Governance also
underpins the international response to other challenges highlighted in the UNEP Year
Book 2010
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Philstar (Philipines): UN calls for 'more ambitious action' to cut greenhouse gas
emission
23 February 2010
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) said Tuesday that countries will have to
be far more ambitious in cutting greenhouse gas emission if the world is to effectively curb
a rise in global temperature at 2 degrees Celsius or less.
In its Year Book 2010 released on the sidelines of the 11th Global Ministerial Environment
Forum and the Chemical Ministerial Convention at Nusa Dua of Bali province, the UNEP
said that annual global greenhouse gas emissions should not be more than 40 to 48.3
Giga tons (GT) of equivalent CO2 in 2020 and should peak sometime between 2015 and
2021.
The report also estimated that between 2020 and 2050, global emission need to fall by
between 48 and 72 percent, indicating that an ambition to cut greenhouse gases by
around 3 percent a year over the 30 years' period is also needed.
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"Such a path offers a 'medium' likelihood or at least a 50/50 chance of keeping a global
temperature rise at below 2 degrees Celsius," said the report.
It also said that the expected emissions for 2020 range between 48.8 to 51.2 GT of CO2
equivalent should be fulfilled. In order to meet the 2 degrees Celsius aim in 2050,
emissions in 2020 need to be between 40 and 48.3 GT.
Thus, the report said, even with the best intentions, there is a gap between 0.5 and 8.8 GT
of CO2 equivalent per year, amounting to an average shortfall in emission cuts of 4.7 GT.
Achim Steiner, the UN Under-Secretary General and the UNEP Executive Director, told
journalists that the report provided an indication of where countries are and perhaps more
importantly where they need to aim.
"The 'Giga ton gap' needs to be bridged quickly if the national community is to pro-actively
manage emissions down in a way that makes economic sense," Steiner said, adding that
more delay in taking action, more cost would be.
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Jakarta post (Indonesia): Pledged emissions cuts targets will not be effective: Study
24 February 2010
Pledges put forward since the Copenhagen climate change conference will unlikely be
able to keep temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius by the middle of the
century, a new study finds.
The new greenhouse gas modeling study — compiled in the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) Year Book 2010 launched Tuesday — urged countries to be more
ambitious in cutting greenhouse gas emissions if the world is to curb a rise in the global
temperature at 2 degrees Celsius or less.
The study suggests that annual global greenhouse gas emissions should not be larger
than 40 to 48.3 gigatons (Gt) of equivalent CO2 in 2020 and should peak sometime
between 2015 and 2021.
It estimates that between 2020 and 2050, global emissions need to fall by between 48 and
72 percent, indicating that cuts to greenhouse gas emissions of 3 percent a year over a 30
year period is also needed.
“Such a path offers a ‘medium’ likelihood or at least a 50:50 chance of keeping a global
temperature rise at below 2 degrees Celsius,” it said.
UNEP executive director Achim Steiner noted there are clearly a great deal of
assumptions underlying the figures, but they do provide an indication of where countries
are and perhaps more importantly, where they need to aim.
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“No one should assume that [the pledges] will be enough,” he said at the launch, held on
the sidelines of the three-day Simultaneous Extraordinary Meetings of the Conference of
Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions in Nusa Dua, Bali.
The conference will conclude Wednesday, the same day as the opening of the UNEP’s
Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum, the largest such meeting since
the Copenhagen Climate Conference last December.
The study, based on estimates by researchers at nine leading centers, has analyzed the
pledges of 60 developed and developing countries recently submitted to the UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The centers have now estimated how far these pledges go toward meeting a reasonable
“peak” in emissions depending on whether the high of the low intensions are met.
“The expected emissions for 2020 range between 48.8 to 51.2 Gt of CO2 equivalent
based on whether high or low pledges will be fulfilled,” it said.
Emissions in 2020 need to be between 40 and 48.3 Gt to meet the 2 degree Celsius aim
in 2050.
“There clearly is a ‘Gigaton gap’, which may be significant according to some of the
modelers and if over the next few years only the lower end of nations’ ambitions are
fulfilled,” Steiner said.
“This needs to be bridged, and bridged quickly, if the international community is to
protectively manage emissions down in a way that makes economic sense.”
Indonesian delegate Liana Bratasida, who is the environment minister’s assistant for
global environment affairs and international cooperation, acknowledged the Copenhagen
Accord as an important step, mainly for treating mitigation and adaptation efforts equally.
“But the [emissions cuts] pledges from the developed countries are far from enough,” she
said.
The US, which refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol of 5 percent emission cuts, would only
aim to cut its emissions by 17 percent by 2020 compared to 2005 levels.
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CRI (China): UN Urges Countries to Agree Climate Change as Top Danger
24 February 2010
The United Nations' Secretary General Ban Ki Moon urged countries to unanimously
agree that climate change is the world's top danger that has to be addressed, a UN official
said on Wednesday.
Angela Cropper, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program
(UNEP), while reading Ban's message, said that the UN's chief has asked countries to
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implement agreement resulted at the 11th Special Session of the UNEP Governing
Council/ Global Ministerial Environment Forum held in Nusa Dua of Bali province on Feb.
22-26.
Ban, according Cropper, said that he has stressed the need of intensified effort due to
alarming deforestation as global forests diminish rapidly.
"We need to improve environmental governance to reduce the gap of economic
development and environment issues. It needs a combination of political will, fund and
participation of private sector," Ban as quoted by Cropper as saying.
Achim Steiner, UNEP's Executive Director and UN's Under Secretary General, said that
the environment agency grabbed a success in making Bali Strategic Plan, the result of its
conference in 2004, as the undivided document from global environment issues.
"Bali Strategic Plan is not just a document, but it is implemented in every environment
talks," he said.
Indonesia's Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said the ministerial meeting on
environment has its own strategic value as it was the first one after the Copenhagen
summit that resulted in Copenhagen Accord on Dec. 18 last year.
"We have to use the opportunity to share our views informally to bring success of the next
climate change in Mexico," said Marty.
He said that the event is considered important as 2010 was chosen as the international
year of biodiversity.
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Forbes (US): UN calls on countries to boost emission pledges
23 February 2010
Countries will have to significantly increase their pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions
if there is any hope of preventing the catastrophic effects of climate change, according to a
U.N. study released Tuesday.
Sixty nations - including China, the United States and the 27-member European Union met a Jan. 31 deadline to submit pledges to the U.N. for reducing the heat-trapping gases
as part of a voluntary plan to roll back emissions. Together the countries produce 78
percent of the world's greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.
The deadline was set at a Copenhagen climate conference last December.
"Countries will have to be far more ambitious in cutting greenhouse gas emissions if the
world is to effectively curb a rise in global temperature," UNEP Executive Director Achim
Steiner said. "We know today that inaction on climate change in the long run will be
leading to catastrophic scenarios."
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Countries set a target in Copenhagen of keeping the Earth's average temperature from
rising more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above the levels that existed
before nations began industrializing in the late 18th century.
That would be no more than 1.3 degrees C (2.3 degrees F) above today's average
temperatures.
Scientists believe global emissions must be cut in half by mid-century in order to avoid the
melting of glaciers and icecaps, the flooding of low-lying coastal cities and islands, and
worsening droughts in Africa and elsewhere.
Steiner was on Indonesia's resort island of Bali for a meeting of environmental officials
from more than 140 countries that starts Wednesday.
Among the issues they expect to tackle are the importance of biodiversity, how to promote
greener economic development and the possibility of merging several U.N. environmental
agencies.
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, also is
to meet with environmental ministers in Bali later in the week to discuss a number of
issues, including a continuing controversy over several mistakes made in a 2007 climate
change report issued by his U.N.-affiliated panel.
The report's conclusion that Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035 turned out to be
incorrect and has bolstered arguments from climate skeptics that fears of global warming
were overblown.
Some Republican lawmakers in the United States have also called for Pachauri to resign.
Despite the mistakes, Steiner argued that the science behind global warming is robust and
that the report itself was helping countries combat it.
"These errors in a body of work involving tens of thousands of pieces that were brought
together is portrayed as having shaken the foundations of the science of climate change,"
Steiner said.
Indonesian Assistant Minister for Global Environmental Affairs Liana Bratasida said she
would remind Pachauri to consult with as many scientists on future reports to guard
against mistakes, which could undermine the public's trust in climate change science.
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CRI (China):U.N. Launches "Safe Planet" Campaign in Environment Forum
24 February 2010
The United Nations on Wednesday launched "Safe Planet Campaign for Responsibility on
Hazardous Chemicals and Wastes"on the side lines of the 11th Special Session of the
UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum held in Nusa Dua of Bali
province in Indonesia.
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Fatoumata Keita Ouane, United Nations Environment Program's Senior Scientific Officer
of Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, said that
countries must not delay to act now collectively.
"We hope that everybody could join the campaign for a better world," said Ouane at a
press conference. Nao Badu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Papua New
Guinea's National Economic and Fiscal Commission, said that countries must not only
cooperate in national or international level but also in various public policies.
"This is a serious issue and we have to do something related to it," Badu said.
According to the UNEP's data, there are 80,000 chemicals used in industry and
commerce, and there are several thousands high production volume chemical, meaning
many chemicals have potential to enter people's bodies.
The campaign has invited high-profile individuals and international experts to engage in a
dialog on how human bio- monitoring information can support the Millennium Development
Goals and the World Summit on Sustainable Development 2020 target to achieve sound
management of chemicals and wastes.
The campaign also highlighted the concrete measures and solutions to the growing
problem that are available through initiatives undertaken by three leading global chemicals
and wastes management instruments - the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions.
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ABC (Spain): La ONU considera exiguo el recorte de gases propuesto para evitar el
desastre
23 February 2010
El Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Medio Ambiente (UNEP) exigió a los
gobiernos objetivos "mucho más ambiciosos" que los propuestos hasta el momento de
forma voluntaria para frenar el calentamiento global.
"El acuerdo de Copenhague es un paso significativo en la dirección adecuada, pero que
nadie dé por sentado que es suficiente", destacó Achim Steiner, director ejecutivo del
UNEP, en la presentación de un nuevo estudio durante la conferencia ministerial de
seguimiento del cambio climático que se celebra en la isla indonesia de Bali.
El estudio de la UNEP estima que, aunque todos los países cumplan sus propuestas de
recorte, las emisiones de CO2 se situarán entre 0,5 y 8,8 gigatoneladas de CO2
equivalente al año, cantidades excesivas para mantener la temperatura por debajo de
esos dos grados que, según los expertos, harían "incontrolables" las consecuencias del
cambio climático.
En diciembre pasado en Copenhague se acordó que para mantener la actual temperatura
hasta 2050 las emisiones de gases deben situarse en 2020 entre las 40 y las 48,3
gigatoneladas.
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Aún así, y en el hipotético caso de que todos los países cumplan, sólo habría un 50 por
ciento de posibilidades de que el aumento de temperatura sea menor de dos grados.
En el peor escenario descrito en el documento titulado "¿Cómo de cerca estamos del
límite de los dos grados?", la diferencia entre la cantidad de gases considerada aceptable
e inaceptable sería de hasta 11,2 gigatoneladas.
Según Steiner, hay una "clara brecha" entre las estimaciones de los científicos y las
propuestas hechas por los países, "que tiene que ser atajada rápidamente".
Por eso, pidió a los gobiernos de los países industrializados y también a los de las
naciones en desarrollo, los dos grandes grupos enfrentados en Copenhague, que se fijen
un mayor recorte de emisiones de CO2 y mejoren sus propuestas de cambio de
paradigma económico.
Con este panorama, el director ejecutivo del UNEP se mostró moderadamente optimista
sobre la evolución de las emisiones globales y apuntó que "aún hay oportunidades de
mejora" en la respuesta de la comunidad internacional ante el cambio climático.
En este sentido, Steiner dijo que los países están adoptando medidas voluntarias para
reducir las emisiones, desarrollan nuevas tecnologías "verdes", combaten la deforestación
y la degradación y limitan el empleo de sustancias tóxicas.
El documento presentado en la conferencia de Bali se basa en los cálculos realizados por
nueve centros de investigación, empleando rangos y no cifras concretas, a partir de las
propuestas unilaterales enviadas el pasado enero por 60 países a las Naciones Unidas en
respuesta al acuerdo adoptado en Copenhague.
Steiner reconoció que predecir emisiones es "complejo" debido al número de variables e
hipótesis que hay que incluir en la ecuación, pero afirmó que el estudio da una
perspectiva sobre los "desenlaces potenciales" de la lucha contra el calentamiento global.
El UNEP hizo público este informe sobre cambio climático de forma conjunta con el
lanzamiento de su Anuario 2010, en el que se recogen los últimos avances relacionados
con el Medio Ambiente.
En esta publicación destacan, entre otros avances, la mejora del empleo que se da a los
recursos naturales, la gestión de los ecosistemas naturales y el mayor peso que tienen las
políticas públicas a la hora de afrontar los problemas medioambientes.
Además, el Anuario 2010 del UNEP ahonda en los descubrimientos científicos relativos a
la gestión de residuos tóxicos y peligrosos, a los ligados al cambio climático y a los
relacionados con las crisis medioambientales derivadas de conflictos y desastres
naturales.
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Weblog (Argentina): La ONU advierte sobre el aumento de basura electrónica
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23 February 2010
La ONU acaba de publicar un informe en el que advierte sobre el peligroso crecimiento de
la basura electrónica y sus graves consecuencias sanitarias y medioambientales, y
exhortó a profundizar las medidas de reciclaje. El organismo calcula que los desechos
crecen a un ritmo de 40 millones de toneladas al año.
Para Achim Steiner, director del Programa de Naciones Unidas para el Medio Ambiente,
“es urgente establecer métodos de reciclaje para reducir las emisiones de gases de efecto
invernadero y recuperar metales, como la plata, el oro, el paladio, el cobre o el indio”.
Los países que producen mayor cantidad de desechos son Estados Unidos (3 millones de
toneladas anuales) y China (2,3 millones), mientras que el país que crece más
rápidamente en producción de residuos electrónicos es India (500%).
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Cordis Noticias (Luxembourg): La ONU advierte del aumento de los residuos
electrónicos
22 February 2010
Un informe de referencia financiado con fondos comunitarios y producido en cooperación
con la Universidad de Naciones Unidas (UNU) advierte que durante esta década
aumentará de forma importante la cantidad de residuos electrónicos.
Es probable que el aumento en las ventas de teléfonos móviles, ordenadores y otros
productos electrónicos influya en la salud pública y en el medio ambiente en países poco
preparados para manejar los residuos generados.
El informe, titulado «Reciclaje: de residuos electrónicos a recursos», recibió financiación
de la Dirección General de Medio Ambiente de la Comisión Europea.
Sus autores pertenecen a EMPA (Laboratorios Federales Suizos de Investigación y
Ensayo de Materiales), Unicore y la UNU, todos miembros del gabinete estratégico global
StEP («Solución para el problema de los residuos electrónicos»).
El informe presenta datos de once países en vías de desarrollo de todo el planeta sobre
políticas nacionales, capacidades, redes de recogida de residuos y reciclaje no oficial.
Los resultados ilustran el problema actual que suponen los residuos electrónicos y
permiten anticipar tendencias futuras a escala global.
En 2007 se vendieron más de 1.000 millones de teléfonos móviles en todo el mundo. En
2008 sólo en los Estados Unidos se vendieron 150 millones de móviles y buscapersonas,
casi el doble que hace un lustro.
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Estas cifran apuntan a un aumento vertiginoso en la cantidad de residuos electrónicos
generados en todo el planeta, que actualmente se encuentra en torno a los 40 millones de
toneladas anuales.
Los autores predicen que, partiendo de las estadísticas de 2007 como base, los desechos
procedentes de ordenadores usados aumentarán un 400% hasta el 2020 tanto en China
como en Sudáfrica.
En la India, la cantidad de frigoríficos desechados se doblará y la de terminales de
telefonía móvil se multiplicará por dieciocho. En 2020 los residuos electrónicos que
dejarán tras de sí los ordenadores en países como Senegal y Uganda se habrán
multiplicado por entre cuatro y ocho.
China es el segundo mayor almacén de residuos electrónicos y, a pesar de que las
importaciones ya están prohibidas, sigue recibiendo cargamentos de este tipo desde
países desarrollados.
Con 2,3 millones de toneladas almacenadas cada año, China se sitúa en la segunda
posición mundial, sólo superada por los Estados Unidos con sus 3 millones de toneladas,
pero presenta el agravante de que los residuos se desechan en su mayor parte siguiendo
prácticas que liberan contaminantes tóxicos.
Achim Steiner, Secretario General Adjunto de las Naciones Unidas y Director Ejecutivo
del Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Medio Ambiente (PNUMA), declaró que
«este informe pone de manifiesto la urgencia de establecer procesos ambiciosos,
formales y regulados para la recogida y gestión de los residuos electrónicos mediante la
construcción en China de instalaciones eficientes y de gran tamaño», y añadió que este
país no es el único que se enfrentará a este reto.
Sobre países como Brasil, India, México y otros pesa el riesgo de sufrir daños
medioambientales y problemas sanitarios como consecuencia de un reciclaje deficiente
de residuos electrónicos.
El Sr. Steiner explicó que, además de reducir las emisiones de gases de efecto
invernadero, prevenir problemas sanitarios y recuperar metales valiosos, un reciclaje de
residuos más apropiado podría generar empleo.
«Si actúan ahora y planifican el futuro, muchos países podrán convertir el reto electrónico
en una oportunidad electrónica», observó.
«Los residuos de una persona pueden ser la materia prima de otra», añadió Konrad
Osterwalder, Secretario General Adjunto de las Naciones Unidas y Rector de la UNU en
Japón. «El reto de manejar los residuos electrónicos es un componente importante de la
transición hacia una economía ecológica.»
El Sr. Osterwald concluyó que «este informe pone de relieve nuevas tecnologías y
mecanismos inteligentes que, en combinación con políticas nacionales e internacionales,
pueden transformar residuos en bienes y dar lugar a nuevas empresas dedicadas a
actividades ecológicas.
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De manera simultánea, se podría ayudar a reducir la contaminación asociada a la minería
y la fabricación y al almacenamiento de dispositivos desechados.
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Rafaela (Argentina): Crece la basura tecnológica
23 February 2010
UNOS 40 MILLONES DE TONELADAS ANUALES
Un informe de Naciones Unidas advierte que en el Tercer Mundo no hay políticas de
reciclado, lo que genera mayores riesgos de contraer enfermedades.
En los Estados Unidos se desechan anualmente unos 19 kilos de basura electrónica por
habitante. En Europa, la cifra alcanza los 14 kilos.
En la Argentina, es de sólo 2,5 kilos. Y sin embargo, ¿a que no saben cuál es el país que
más problemas tiene con la chatarra? La respuesta –la Argentina, desde ya– fue el centro
de la discusión en el día de ayer, cuando el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el
Medio Ambiente (Pnuma) presentó un informe de resultados inquietantes:
de acuerdo con el estudio, todos los años se producen 40 millones de toneladas de
basura electrónica (computadoras, teléfonos, heladeras, juguetes, impresoras,
televisores, reproductores de música, cámaras digitales y un largo etcétera) y,
paradójicamente, el territorio que más padece esta avanzada high tech es el llamado
Tercer Mundo, donde no existe una política de reciclaje de todos estos metales.
¿El resultado? Millones de personas están quedando expuestas a montañas tóxicas que,
conforme van destilándose por el agua y el aire, provocan graves problemas
medioambientales y de salud.
“El tratamiento de esa basura ha llegado a ser no sólo importante, sino que es
absolutamente urgente”, afirmó Achim Steiner, director ejecutivo del Pnuma.
El primer país en la lista de mayores riesgos no es la Argentina, desde ya, sino China, un
país que produce 2,3 millones de toneladas de basura electrónica al año, y que en un
futuro –de acuerdo con las estimaciones– multiplicará por siete el tamaño de su montaña
de porquerías metálicas.
Si bien Estados Unidos supera esta cifra –con tres millones de toneladas–, lo cierto es
que el gobierno norteamericano tiene cláusulas de tratamiento de residuos que China, al
igual que toda América Latina, no tiene.
Y aún más: según el informe del Pnuma, China sigue siendo un importante vertedero de
basura electrónica procedente de los países ricos, pese a que existe una convención
internacional que prohíbe el envío de esa basura fuera de los países que la originan.
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La consecuencia es que en China –como en buena parte de Latinoamérica– gran parte
de la basura electrónica es incinerada o arrojada a basurales y rellenos sanitarios, lo que
libera a la atmósfera gases tremendos para la salud.
La exposición masiva a productos químicos tóxicos como el plomo, el cadmio y el
mercurio puede causar daños cerebrales, afectar el sistema nervioso, los riñones y el
hígado, y causar malformaciones.
“El boom del consumo mundial de aparatos eléctricos y electrónicos ha creado una
explosión en la generación de basura electrónica –advierte Greenpeace en un informe
llamado “High Toxic Tech”–. Miles de estos aparatos son exportados, muchas veces de
manera ilegal, desde la Unión Europea, Estados Unidos, Japón y otros países
industrializados hacia países en desarrollo, especialmente Asia.
En estos países, los trabajadores, muchas veces niños, en precarias condiciones realizan
el desmantelamiento y fundido de partes de estos aparatos y quedan expuestos a un
cóctel de venenos y químicos tóxicos”.
En la Argentina, si bien los números no se acercan ni remotamente a los asiáticos, la
basura electrónica también es un problema: un estudio hecho por la consultora
Ecogestionar junto con el INTI y la Cámara de Máquinas de Oficina revela que cada
habitante arroja, anualmente y en promedio, 2,5 kilos de residuos electrónicos, lo que da
100 mil toneladas al año (el 5% de la producción china).
“La cantidad es mucho menor que la de la basura domiciliaria, pero la diferencia es que
los desechos electrónicos tienen componentes cancerígenos; no es lo mismo tirar una
cáscara de manzana que tirar un monitor”, advierte el biólogo Gustavo Fernández
Protomastro, director de Ecogestionar.
“No es que haya mala fe por parte de los fabricantes de aparatos electrónicos, sino que
hay ciertas funciones que sólo las pueden cumplir ciertos metales.
El punto está en cómo se regula la llamada posventa: aquello que ocurre cuando el
artefacto que se vende ya es desechado.
Un aparato electrónico, a diferencia de la basura común, es altamente reciclable: puede
usarse un 95% de los insumos.
La clave es encontrarle la vuelta para hacerte cargo de la parte tóxica y recuperar los
metales que valen”.
En Europa, la posventa de electrónicos está regulada. Si, por ejemplo, una empresa
como IBM vende cien toneladas de aparatos, está obligada a reciclar cincuenta.
En Estados Unidos la norma es otra, pero en cualquier caso mantiene el tono
proteccionista: las empresas pueden hacer lo que quieran con los residuos electrónicos –
exportarlos, reciclarlos, etcétera–, siempre y cuando no los depositen en los basurales
norteamericanos.
En la Argentina, en cambio, no hay una normativa que fiscalice el llamado posconsumo.
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Y ese detalle es alarmante, si se tiene en cuenta que la basura electrónica es el segmento
de los desperdicios que, alentada por el boom de los chiches tecnológicos –
principalmente de celulares y computadoras–, más está creciendo a escala mundial.
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La Nacion (Paraguay): ONU advierte del peligro de “las montañas” de desechos
electrónicos
23 February 2010
“Las ventas de productos electrónicos en países como China e India y en los continentes
africanos y sudamericanos deberían aumentar fuertemente en los próximos diez años”,
prevé un informe del Programa de Naciones Unidas para el Medio Ambiente (PNUMA).
“Si no se lanza ninguna política para colectar y reciclar estos equipos, numerosos países
van a encontrarse con montañas de desechos electrónicos peligrosos, con graves
repercusiones para el medio ambiente y la salud pública”, advierte.
La cantidad de residuos electrónicos generados por los ordenadores debería crecer un
500% en India, y entre un 200 y 400% en Sudáfrica o en China respecto al nivel de 2007.
La progresión será también considerable para los teléfonos móviles, televisiones o las
neveras.
China ya produce alrededor de 2,3 millones de toneladas de residuos electrónicos
anuales, por detrás tan sólo de Estados Unidos (3 millones). Una gran cantidad de esta
basura “no es tratada debidamente”, apunta el PNUE.
El informe, que estudia once países representativos, se publica cuando los expertos de la
convención de Basilea sobre los residuos peligrosos se reúnen el lunes y el martes en
Bali, antes de la celebración de una asamblea general del PNUE.
Para Achim Steiner, director del PNUMA, “China ya no está sola para enfrentarse a este
inmenso desafío” que también concierne a “India, Brasil, México y otros países”.
Afirma que es “urgente” poner en marcha métodos de reciclaje que “ofrezcan el potencial
de generar empleo, reducir las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero y recuperar
importantes cantidades de metales, como la plata, el oro, el paladio, el cobre o el indio”.
Los equipos electrónicos actuales integran hasta 60 componentes diferentes. Los
teléfonos y los ordenadores portátiles consumen el 3% del oro y plata extraídos cada año,
el 13% del paladio y el 15% del cobalto.
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El Mundo (Spain): Los residuos informáticos de la India aumentarán un 500% antes
de 2020
23 february 2010
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Los residuos de productos electrónicos desechados se incrementará dramáticamente en
los países en proceso de desarrollo dentro de una década, según un estudio de las
Naciones Unidas publicado el lunes.
El informe indica que los residuos informáticos en la India, en particular, aumentarán en
un 500% de los niveles de 2007 para el año 2020.
Los 'e-residuos' -término que describe los productos electrónicos obsoletos, como pueden
ser los teléfonos, televisores, refrigeradores y otros aparatos obsoletos- crecen por 40
millones de toneladas cada año a escala mundial.
Aunque muchas personas se dedican a recuperar las partes más valiosas de estos
residuos -los componentes de cobre u oro-, estas operaciones frecuentemente suponen
la quema de partes de los aparatos, lo que termina por soltar toxinas.
El informe, publicado en Bali por el Programa de Naciones Unidas para el Medio
Ambiente (UNEP, según sus siglas en inglés), prevé que para el 2020 los 'e-residuos'
también crecerán en un 400% de los niveles de 2007 en China y Sudáfrica.
"Este informe da una nueva urgencia al establecimiento de ambiciosos procesos de
recopilación y gestión de los 'e-residuos'. Es particularmente importante crear grandes
instalaciones para esta labor en China ", declaró Achim Steiner, director ejecutivo del
UNEP.
"China no es el único que enfrenta a un serio desafío. La India, Brasil, México y otros
países también se verán afectados por serios daños al medioambiente y la salud pública
si no se regula el asunto de los 'e-residuos'.
El tratamiento y reciclaje de estas materias no se puede dejar al sector privado", señaló
en el informe.
El informe, co-escrito por el EMPA -la rama de investigación del Instituto Federal de
Tecnología de Suiza-, el grupo Umicore y la Universidad de las Naciones Unidas, dijo que
Estados Unidos es el mayor productor de 'e-residuos', generando en torno a 3 millones de
toneladas al año.
En segundo lugar: China, que produce alrededor de 2,3 millones de toneladas cada año,
y que recibe muchos de los residuos de países desarrollado, según el EMPA.
Tráfico ilícito
El informe de la ONE prevé que los residuos de teléfonos móviles en China en 2020
serán cerca de siete veces mayor que los niveles registrados en 2007; en la India serán
alrededor de 18 veces mayor.
El informe aboga por el transporte de algunos 'e-residuos', tales como tableros de
circuitos y baterías, de los países más pobres a los países que estén en mejores
condiciones para disponer de ellos apropiadamente.
El ministro de Medio Ambiente de Indonesia, Gusti Muhammad Hatta, resaltó que su país
es particularmente vulnerable al tráfico ilegal de 'e-residuos'. Por su parte, Jim Puckett, de
la ONG Action Network, dijo que las autoridades de Indonesia habían recientemente
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interceptado un cargamento de nueve contenedores llenos de 'e-residuos', enviados
ilegalmente desde el estado de Massachusetts en EE.UU.
"Ellos estaban llenos de tubos de rayos catódicos, pantallas de ordenador... Son trastos
viejos que la gente quería deshacerse de porque todos quieren pantallas planas ahora",
dijo.
Las autoridades de Indonesia han enviado el traslado de vuelta.
Si se gestiona adecuadamente, sin embargo, los 'e-residuos' representan una
oportunidad de negocio, dijo Konrad Osterwalder, rector de la Universidad de las
Naciones Unidas.
"Este informe combina el uso inteligente de las nuevas tecnologías con las políticas
nacionales e internacionales; pretende el uso correcto de los 'e-residuos', y su conversión
en activos que pueden generar nuevas empresas con puestos de trabajo verdes".
"En el proceso, los países pueden ayudar a reducir la contaminación relacionada con la
minería y la manufactura, y con la eliminación de aparatos viejos", dijo Osterwalder.
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Kleine Zeitung (Australia): Laut UNO-Bericht strengere Klima-Ziele nötig
23 February 2010
Der Treibhausgas-Ausstoß muss stark reduziert werden, um einen katastrophalen
Klimawandel zu vermeiden. Zu diesem Ergebnis kommt eine Studie des UNOUmweltprogramms (UNEP), die am Dienstag auf Bali vorgestellt wurde. Weltweit müssen
die Schadstoffemissionen demnach in den Jahren 2020 bis 2050 um 48 bis 72 Prozent
sinken.
Wenn die Treibhausgase in diesem Zeitraum jährlich um rund drei Prozent reduziert
würden, bestehe immerhin eine 50-prozentige Chance, den Anstieg der weltweiten
Temperaturen unter zwei Grad Celsius zu halten.
Die - rechtlich nicht bindenden - Vereinbarungen auf dem Kopenhagener Klimagipfel seien
zwar ein "Schritt in die richtige Richtung", sagte UNEP-Direktor Achim Steiner.
"Aber selbst bei den besten Schätzungen sollte niemand annehmen, dass das ausreichen
wird." Die Selbstverpflichtungen der Gipfelteilnehmer, die Emissionen zu senken,
genügten nicht.
Der UNEP-Jahresbericht stellte zudem einen Zusammenhang zwischen
Rohstoffknappheit, Umwelt- und Klimaveränderungen und einer Häufung von
Katastrophen und Konflikten her.
So hätten 40 Prozent der bewaffneten Konflikte im vergangenen Jahr eine direkte
Verbindung zur Konkurrenz um natürliche Ressourcen, heißt es darin. Ab Mittwoch
beraten auf Bali Umweltminister aus aller Welt über Umweltprobleme.
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Clarin (Argentina): Preocupa el incremento de los desechos electrónicos
23 February 2010
El progresivo incremento de los desechos electrónicos (integrados por computadoras,
celulares y monitores de tubo) provocará graves problemas sanitarios y
medioambientales si no se toman rápidamente medidas de reciclaje, advirtió ayer la ONU.
La basura electrónica es un nuevo tipo de desperdicio industrial que debe ser
cuidadosamente manejado debido a su alta toxicidad.
En la lista de los grandes productores de desechos aparece China con un estimativo de
2,3 millones de toneladas anuales, seguido por los Estados Unidos con 3 millones.
La cantidad de residuos electrónicos generados por las computadoras debería crecer un
500 % en India, entre un 200 y 400 % en Sudáfrica o en China, respecto al nivel de 2007,
según un informe del Programa de Naciones Unidas para el Medio Ambiente (PNUMA).
La Argentina, aunque está por debajo de estos niveles, genera una 100 mil toneladas al
año, a un promedio de 2,5 kilos por habitante, contra los 8 kilos del primer mundo, según
datos de la Cámara Argentina de Máquinas de Oficina, Comerciales y Afines (Camoca).
Para Carlos Simone, gerente de Camoca, en ese número "hay una combinación que son
parte de la oficina, hogar y el comercio.
En cuanto a subas, hay un 20 por ciento más que el 2007, por la renovación de los
monitores de rayos catódicos que se dejaron de usar y los celulares".
Para Achim Steiner, director del PNUMA, "es urgente establecer métodos de reciclaje
para reducir las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero y recuperar metales, como la
plata, el oro, el paladio, el cobre o el indio".
Cualquier circuito electrónicos de mediana complejidad integra hasta 60 componentes
diferentes. Los teléfonos y las portátiles consumen el 3% del oro y plata extraídos cada
año, el 13% del paladio y el 15% del cobalto.
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Reuters: Las promesas de recortes de emisiones no bastan, dice la ONU
23 February 2010
Las promesas de recortes de emisiones hechas por 60 países no serán suficientes para
mantener el aumento medio de temperatura mundial en dos grados centígrados o menos,
según un informe de Naciones Unidas difundido el martes.
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Los científicos dicen que las temperaturas deberían limitarse a un aumento de no más de
2 grados centígrados por encima de la época preindustrial para evitar el devastador
cambio climático.
Las emisiones anuales de gases de efecto invernadero deberían no ser más de 40 y 48,3
gigatoneladas de equivalente de CO2 en 2020 y deberían alcanzar su punto máximo
entre 2015 y 2021, según unas nuevas cifras difundidas el martes por el Programa
Medioambiental de las Naciones Unidas (UNEP).
Mantenerse dentro de ese rango y recortar las emisiones globales entre un 48 y un 72%
entre 2020 y 2050 le dará al planeta un 50% de posibilidades de quedarse dentro del
límite de los dos grados, dijo el informe, basado en los datos de nueve centros de
investigación.
Sin embargo, el mismo estudio halló que el mundo probablemente supere esos objetivos.
Las promesas las hicieron los países que firmaron el Acuerdo de Copenhague.
En otras palabras, incluso en el mejor de los casos si todos los países implementaran sus
recortes de emisiones prometidos, la cantidad total de emisiones aún estaría entre 0,5 y
8,8 gigatoneladas por encima de lo que los científicos consideran tolerable.
Los niveles de gases de efecto invernadero están creciendo, sobre todo por el dióxido de
carbono, porque queda más en la atmósfera de lo que los procesos naturales pueden
gestionar.
El dióxido de carbono es absorbido y liberado de forma natural por las plantas y los
océanos, pero se está excediendo el "presupuesto de carbono" anual del planeta por la
quema de combustibles fósiles como el carbón y la destrucción de los bosques.
El director ejecutivo de UNEP, Achim Steiner, dijo que la desalentadora previsión debería
motivar a los países a hacer recortes más ambiciosos.
"El mensaje no es sentarse y resignarse y decir nunca lo haremos", dijo a periodistas en
Nusa Dua, en la isla indonesia de Bali, que acoge una reunión de Medio Ambiente de la
ONU.
"Sin embargo en este momento no es suficiente y hay otras opciones que pueden
ponerse en marcha".
Steiner dijo que una de las opciones era más inversión en un plan llamado a reducir las
emisiones de la deforestación y degradación (REED), en el cual se paga a los países
pobres para preservar y mejorar sus bosques.
Un análisis medioambiental difundido el martes por la UNEP, el "UNEP Year Book 2010",
también recomendó más inversión en REDD.
"Se ha estimado que poner entre 22.000 y 29.000 millones de dólares en REDD recortaría
la deforestación global en un 25% para 2015", dijo el informe.
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Los bosques absorben grandes cantidades del dióxido de carbono causante del
calentamiento del planeta. Talarlos y quemar los restos genera enormes cantidades de
gas, exacerbando el calentamiento global, dijeron científicos.
REDD aún no es parte de un pacto climático más amplio que la ONU espera sellar para
finales de año en una cumbre sobre clima en México.
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M and G (Blog): Schwellenländer auf elektronische Mülllawine vorbereiten
23 February 2010
Auf Schwellen- und Entwicklungsländer kommt eine Lawine aus elektronischem Müll zu.
Weil dort immer mehr elektronische Geräte wie Mobiltelefone verkauft werden, wird die
Entsorgung von Altgeräten in Zukunft eine wichtige Aufgabe, auf die die Länder bereits
jetzt vorbereitet werden sollten.
Anderenfalls droht nicht nur ein Müllproblem, sondern es gehen auch Gefahren für die
Umwelt von dem elektronischen Schrott aus, befürchten UN-Experten. In dem jetzt durch
das Umweltprogramm der Vereinten Nationen (UNEP) veröffentlichten Report 'Recycling from E-Waste to Resources' werden die zu erwartenden Probleme aufgezeigt.
Gemäß dem Report wird beispielsweise in Südafrika und China die Menge des durch
aussortierte Computer gebildeten elektronischen Mülls bis zum Jahr 2020 um 200 bis 400
Prozent gegenüber dem Stand von 2007 steigen. In Indien wird dann sogar eine
Steigerung um 500 Prozent zu verzeichnen sein.
Die von weggeworfenen Mobiltelefonen verursachte Müllmenge wird 2020 in China sieben
Mal höher liegen als 2007, in Indien steigt sie bis dahin um das 18-fache.
Meist wird elektronischer Müll in Schwellen- und Entwicklungsländern nicht fachgerecht
entsorgt, sondern landet auf Deponien.
Dort gelangen gefährliche Inhaltsstoffe in die Umwelt und ins Wasser. Darüber hinaus
gehen wichtige Rohstoffe verloren, die sich durch gezieltes Recycling für den Bau neuer
Geräte verwenden ließen.
In vielen westlichen Ländern gibt es bereits Programme für Recycling und fachgerechte
Entsorgung elektronischer Altgeräte. Diese sollten den Verantwortlichen in
Schwellenländern näher gebracht werden.
Doch auch in westlichen Staaten besteht noch Verbesserungsbedarf. So werden
beispielsweise in Deutschland nach wie vor viele Althandys in den Hausmüll gegeben,
anstatt sie dem Recycling zuzuführen.
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Bild (Germany): UN warnen vor Elektroschrottlawine
40
24 February 2010
Die Vereinten Nationen haben vor einer anschwellenden Flut von Elektroschrott
gewarnt. Diese werde vor allem die Entwicklungsländer vor immense Umweltprobleme
stellen, heißt es in einem am Montag in Bali vorgestellten Bericht des UNUmweltprogramms (UNEP).
Der Müll aus ausgedienten Computern, Handys oder Fernsehern werde sich allein in
China von derzeit 2,3 Millionen Tonnen jährlich bis 2020 vervierfachen.
In Indien werde der Müllberg aus Kühlschränken mit ihren gefährlichen Kühlstoffen
binnen zehn Jahren auf das Dreifache anwachsen, heißt es weiter.
Am meisten Elektroschrott falle aber in den USA an, insgesamt drei Millionen Tonnen
pro Jahr. „Die Welle wird zurückschlagen“, warnte UNEP-Chef Achim Steiner in einem
Interview der Nachrichtenagentur AP.
„Besonders für die am wenigsten entwickelten Länder, die zur Müllhalde werden
könnten.“ Er verwies darauf, dass kaputte Computer aus Europa und den USA als
Spenden deklariert nach Afrika gebracht würden.
Der toxische Elektroschrott werde am Rande von Slums deponiert und könne dort zu
einer Gefahr für die Menschen werden. Die Welt ist nach dem UN-Bericht nur völlig
unzureichend auf die E-Schrott-Explosion vorbereitet.
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PMI (Blog): E-waste, allarme rifiuti elettronici: più regole e riciclo
24 February 2010
L'Unep lancia l'allarme e-waste: discariche di prodotti hi-tech dismessi dai paesi più
progrediti? E' lo scenario che si staglia nei paesi emergenti. Servono più regole per un
opportuno smaltimento
Computer e materiali elettronici come telefonini, palmari e stampanti a fine ciclo di vita
diventano tecno-spazzatura (e-waste) il cui accumulo sta diventando preoccupante.
E soprattutto nei paesi emergenti, moderne "discariche di prodotti hi-tech" in disuso,
"esportati" sotto forma di iniziative volte a diffondere la cultura informatica: è la denuncia
UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme).
L'allarme "insostenibilità rifiuti hi-tech" provenienti dalle aree più industrializzate è stato
lanciato da Achim Steiner, direttore UNEP, alla presentazione dello Studio Recycling from E-Waste to Resources .
La situazione è in progressivo peggioramento: entro il 2020 si potrebbe registrare un
aumento fino a +500% rispetto al 2007 in India e +400 in Cina, ad esempio.
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Nel complesso, ogni anno si producono 40 milioni di tonnellate di e-waste: è sempre più
impellente, quindi, definire regole e standard mondiali condivisi, oltre a un progetto per lo
smaltimento efficace dei rifiuti elettronici che, invece, potrebbero rappresentare una
risorsa economica e un potenziale per la creazione di posti di lavoro.
Di fatto, molti Paesi già utilizzano le discariche elettroniche per estrarre cobalto, oro,
argento e palladio.
Il tutto però oggi avviene utilizzando inceneritori o griglie a cielo aperto, quindi a
discapito dell'ambiente.
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Other UNEP Coverage
Zimbabwe Star (Zimbabwe): UN says tougher targets needed to avert climate
disaster
23 February 2010
Countries need to set tougher targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions if the world is to
avert a climate-change catastrophe, according to a new UN report released Tuesday.
A study compiled by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that between
2020 and 2050, global emissions need to fall by between 48 and 72 percent.
The report said the political will to cut greenhouse gases by around 3 percent a year
between 2030 and 2050 is needed for a 'medium' likelihood - or at least a 50/50 chance of keeping the global temperature increase at less than 2 degrees Celsius.
Under the non-binding Copenhagen Accord agreed at the UN climate change conference
in December, countries pledged to cut and limit greenhouse gases by 2020.
'Yes, the Copenhagen Accord represents a significant step in the direction of managing
emissions, but even in the best assumptions no one should assume for the moment that
will be enough,' UNEP executive director Achim Steiner said at a news conference.
The study was published ahead of a meeting of global environmental ministers from
Wednesday through Friday in the Indonesian resort island of Bali.
It analysed the pledges of 60 developed and developing countries which were recently
submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The study suggested that annual greenhouse gas emissions should not be larger than 40
to 48.3 gigatons of equivalent carbon dioxides in 2020, and should peak sometime
between 2015 and 2021.
42
Steiner said Monday that the failure to reach a binding accord in Copenhagen has made
efforts to reach such a deal more difficult.
'Copenhagen, in my mind, will be in history books as a moment where humanity has failed
in its responsibility to act,' he said.
But he said the whole world shared a responsibility to act in the next annual climate
conference in Mexico in December.
'You can always find reasons not to act because of someone else not doing the right
thing,' he said. 'And for Mexico, I think it will take leaders, and it is not only from the big
ones (nations).'
Article also appears in Inditop (Blog)
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Shanghai Daily (China): Hu reaffirms China's steadfast commitment to climate
action
24 February 2010
President Hu Jintao said yesterday China was committed to fighting climate change both
at home and in cooperation with the world.
Hu was addressing a study meeting attended by members of the Political Bureau of the
Communist Party of China Central Committee.
"We must fully recognize the importance, urgency and difficulty of dealing with climate
change," Hu said.
"We must make it an important strategy for our socio-economic development."
The government said some areas of the country were already seeing the effects of climate
change, with higher temperatures and reduced rainfall in some parts and stronger storms
in others.
China has pledged to cut the amount of carbon dioxide produced for each unit of
economic growth by 40-45 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels.
Hu said energy saving, emission cuts and environmental awareness must be inculcated
into Chinese society as a whole.
"We must actively participate in global cooperation to fight climate change," he said
According to a United Nations study released yesterday, countries would have to
significantly increase pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions if there was to be any
hope of preventing the catastrophic effects of climate change.
43
Sixty nations - including China, the United States and the 27-member European Union met a January 31 deadline to submit pledges to the UN for reducing the heat-trapping
gases as part of a plan to roll back emissions.
"Countries will have to be far more ambitious in cutting greenhouse gas emissions if the
world is to effectively curb a rise in global temperature," UNEP Executive Director Achim
Steiner said.
"We know today that inaction on climate change in the long run will be leading to
catastrophic scenarios," he said.
Steiner was on Indonesia's island of Bali for a meeting of environmental officials from more
than 140 countries that starts today.
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IPCC in the News
Today Online (Singapore): UN chief urges environment officials to reject skeptics,
says climate change danger is real
24 February 2010
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging environment ministers to reject attempts by
skeptics to undermine efforts to forge a climate change deal, stressing that global warming
poses "a clear and present danger."
In a message read by a U.N. official, Ban referred to a still-burning controversy over
several mistakes made in a 2007 report issued by the U.N.-affiliated Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change which drew widespread criticisms and sparked calls for the
resignation of its chairman, Rajendra Pachauri.
Despite the failure to forge a binding deal on curbing heat-trapping greenhouse gas
emissions at a U.N. conference in Copenhagen last December, Ban said the meeting
made an important step forward by setting a target to keep global temperature from rising.
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Washington Times (US): CHESSER: World cools toward warmists
24 February 2010
The global-warming industry is getting several bailouts, none of which it wants. Last week,
three major corporations - Conoco/Phillips, BP and Caterpillar - bailed out on the U.S.
Climate Action Partnership lobbyist collaboration.
Arizona bailed on the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) cap-and-trade plan. The Utah
House presumably wants to bail on WCI, too, because it overwhelmingly passed a
44
resolution requesting the Environmental Protection Agency to bail on its planned
regulation of carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act. Texas and Virginia also want the
nation's top environmental regulator to cease and desist.
On Thursday, the Netherlands' Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework
Convention on Climate Change, resigned.
The guru of global-warming diplomacy, after a disastrous December summit in
Copenhagen did not produce an international agreement on greenhouse gas reduction,
favored bailing over failing.
"I saw him at the airport after Copenhagen," said Jake Schmidt, a climate expert for the
Natural Resources Defense Council, to Associated Press. "He was tired, worn out." The
summit "clearly took a toll on him."
This followed an admission a few weeks ago by Phil Jones, former University of East
Anglia Climatic Research Unit director, that he had suicidal thoughts over his role in the
Climategate scandal.
On behalf of climate realists everywhere, I beg: Spare us the beleaguered scientists story
line. The collapse of the hollow cause they advocated, which spurred a sector bubble
probably larger than the 1990s Internet craze and the last decade's real estate speculation
combined, was inevitable. Billions of dollars - much of it belonging to taxpayers - were
poured into climate-related research and heavily subsidized "green" ventures because of
the hype.
Over the same period, global-warming skeptics (including respected scientists and policy
scholars) warned repeatedly that there was no authoritative, unified view behind climate
catastrophism.
But rather than heeding their cautions, large news organizations (and the activist Society
of Environmental Journalists) joined environmental harassment groups in marginalizing
them. They equated the doubters with disbelievers of tobacco's harm, the moon landing
and a spherical earth - you know, crackpots.
Had the media scrutinized the reports of the once-heralded U.N. Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC) rather than listening to the environoia movement, they would
have discovered the fragile ceramics were on the alarmists' shelf. It has only taken a few
curious bloggers and some journalists from the United Kingdom to finally scrutinize the
IPCC's footnotes, which represented the purportedly rigorous scientific study that
undergirded the report's conclusions.
What they found beneath the IPCC surface is an error-laden swamp of green groups'
promotional materials and amateur compositions by college students instead of the "peerreviewed" research alarmists had claimed.
Climategate spurred subsequent daughter controversies that included "Glaciergate"
(Himalayan ice not eroding as quickly as claimed), "Amazongate" (rain forests are
suffering from logging, not climate, according to a World Wildlife Fund report) and
"Africagate" (a Canadian environmentalist think tank said crop yields would be cut in half
because of increasing temperatures).
45
The barrage of revelations has prevented the Big Environment industrial-media complex
from controlling the story line.
Climategate data-fudger Michael Mann, the scientist at Penn State University known for
the "hockey stick" temperature chart, which rewrote history by eliminating the Medieval
Warm Period, last week bemoaned this new discourse on global warming.
In an interview with the Web site the Benshi, he whined about "an organized, well-funded
effort to discredit" the "scientific community," which he said was driven by the fossil-fuel
industry. He accused climate realists of conducting "smear campaigns run against
scientists for the sole purpose of discrediting them, so as to discredit the science."
Michael should Mann up. Whatever smudges appear on the reputations of warmismpromoting scientists have been applied by themselves.
After all, the skeptics aren't the ones who made up, fudged or twisted data or who
employed dubious and biased sources as the foundation for their predictions of calamity.
And the alarmists had (and still do) a massive funding advantage, amplified by their
colleagues at the major news organizations, which helped keep the messaging winds at
their backs. Grammies, Oscars and Nobels were part of their rewards.
But now we have another climate bailout. Though the U.S. media is not hunting down the
IPCC fallacies the way their British counterparts are, at the same time, they do not defend
global-warming proponents the way they once did. They once championed the cause with
vigor, but now a lot of big-city journalists have gone mute about the whole thing.
A suggestion to regain the attention: The scientists should undertake a Mark
McGwire/Tiger Woods-like apology campaign. Only then can they start on the road to
recovery and restore their lost reputations.
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Investors Business Daily (Blog): Al Gore's Nine Lies
23 February 2010
Climate Fraud: The godfather of climate hysteria is in hiding as another of his wild claims
unravels — this one about global warming causing seas to swallow us up.
We've not seen or heard much of the former vice president, Oscar winner and Nobel Prize
recipient recently as the case for disastrous man-made climate change collapses.
Perhaps he's off reading how scientists were forced to withdraw a study on a projected
sea level rise due to global warming after finding two "technical" mistakes that undermined
the findings.
The study, published in 2009 in Nature Geoscience, allegedly confirmed the conclusions
of the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that sea
46
levels would rise due to climate change. The IPCC put the rise at 59 centimeters by 2100.
The Nature Geoscience study put it at up to 82 centimeters.
Many considered the study and the IPCC's estimates too conservative in their warnings.
After all, Al Gore, in his award-winning opus, "An Inconvenient Truth," laughingly called a
documentary, foretold an apocalyptic vision of the devastation caused by a 20-foot rise in
sea levels due to melting polar ice caps "in the near future."
Now Mark Siddall, from the Earth Sciences Department at England's University of Bristol,
has formally retracted the study. "One mistake was a miscalculation; the other was not to
allow fully for temperature change over the past 2,000 years," he said.
According to Siddall, "People make mistakes, and mistakes happen in science." They
seem to be happening a lot lately, and more than just mistakes. We are talking about
outright fraud, the deliberate manipulation and destruction of data.
Last November, Al Gore was hailed by Newsweek as "The Thinking Man's Thinking Man."
Since then we and he have been given much to think about, starting with the damning emails from researchers associated with the Climate Research Unit at the University of East
Anglia in Britain.
The e-mails revealed an organized attempt to "hide the decline" in global temperatures, to
manipulate data to fit preconceived conclusions, and to discredit and shun reputable
skeptics.
A key finding of the IPCC, which along with Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007,
was revealed last month to be utterly bogus.
The IPCC claimed glaciers in the Himalayas would likely disappear by 2035. The only
thing they had to back it up was a 1999 non-peer reviewed article in an Indian massmarket science magazine.
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Hunts Post (UK): Climate change evidence is flawed
24 February 2010
Science does indeed work by evaluating evidence and forming possible explanations from
which predictions can be made.
Equally, if the evidence is flawed or assumptions mistaken, predictions based on them will
be wrong.
The case for (largely) man-made global climate change simply has not been made.
Unfortunately, everything published has not been "thoroughly scrutinised by other
scientists" as Mr Jones suggests. This is all too clearly demonstrated by recent revelations
of the astonishing incompetence and intellectual bankruptcy of the International Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) and East Anglia University's Climate Change Unit.
47
That institutions such as these have attracted vast research budgets, ultimately funded by
taxpayers around the world, is downright dangerous in diverting funding from genuinely
life-enhancing and environment-supporting scientific advances.
The reluctance of most of us to accept the theory of man-made global climate change
arises not from prejudice but from the fact that the theory is unproven: it remains a dogma,
that is, an article of faith.
Evidence has been produced by some scientists that water vapour has a far greater global
warming effect than CO2. Could it be prejudice that has prevented the wider acceptance
of this?
I am touched by the trust Mr Jones places in the judgement of George Bush. Presumably
he would accord Osama bin Laden the same respect.
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Huffington Post (US): Warming Is Unequivocal
23 February 2010
Is the Wall Street Journal making like an ostrich and sticking its head in melting
permafrost?
If you haven't already, check out the editorial page from yesterday's Wall Street Journal.
On it you'll find a spirited, one might say angry piece by L. Gordon Crovitz entitled "Climate
Change and Open Science: In the Internet age, transparency is the foundation of trust."
The piece riffs off a BBC interview with Phil Jones, the embattled director of the Climate
Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, to reach its inevitable conclusion that
"equivocation has replaced 'unequivocal'" in the climate science world.
That word unequivocal in this context carries symbolic meaning, having appeared in the
latest assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: "warming of the
climate system is unequivocal."
The word was included in the report after much discussion and debate and, as I
understand it, was retained over the objections of some politicians at the insistence of the
scientists.
Now the climate skeptics, including apparently the Wall Street Journal's editorial board,
would like to use the climategate incident to take the 'un' out of unequivocal.
Is the WSJ Editorial Page Getting Yellower?
As noted in yesterday's TheGreenGrok, the media coverage of climategate has not been
exemplary of journalism at its best.
Now outlets like the WSJ are using the occasion of the Jones interview to pile on -- using
quotations taken out of context to press their attack on climate scientists. RealClimate has
48
a nice piece on how the Daily Mail inaccurately spun the Jones interview to undermine the
science.
The WSJ's editorial follows a similar path. Here is one example.
The piece states: "Phil Jones ... acknowledged to the BBC that there hasn't been
statistically significant warming since 1995." OK, that is what he said, sort of. Why sort of?
Because the WSJ conveniently neglected to include the context.
Actually, Jones said that there was a warming trend in global temperatures since 1995 -at a rate of 0.12 degrees Centigrade per decade (or 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit per decade).
But because of the short time period, the rate was not quite statistically significant at the
95 percent confidence level.
It was "quite close to the confidence level" but not quite there.
Newspaper Decontextualizes Quotes, Misleading Readers
Simply put, a 95 percent confidence level means that there is a 95 percent probability that
the actual temperature trend was positive and a five percent probability it was not. The 95
percent confidence interval is referred to by statisticians as "2-sigma" because it covers
two standard deviations from the mean.
Scientists often choose the 2-sigma or 95 percent confidence level, instead of the 1-sigma
or 68 percent confidence level, to be conservative in their conclusions. Note: climate
scientists are being conservative in their pronouncements about global warming, not the
other way around.
Here's the point, Mr. Crovitz: saying that there was no statistically significant trend is not
the same as saying the temperature trend between 1995 and today was positive but not
significant at the 95 percent confidence level -- in fact it was statistically significant at a
slightly lower confidence interval.
Doing so can be particularly misleading when reporting to a public that is not aware that
scientists commonly use a 95 percent confidence level to establish statistical significance.
It is especially misleading since the lack of statistical significance in the trend at the 95
percent confidence level was related to the shortness of the time period over which the
trend was calculated.
I am left with three possible inferences from the Crovitz piece:
He never actually read the transcript from Jones's interview and just cribbed from the Daily
Mail. Tsk tsk.
He does not understand statistics, in which case what is he doing writing about science?
He has intentionally misled his readership.
I suppose there is a finite probability that I have got it wrong, and there is another
explanation. My confidence level is only 80 percent, so I guess I'm being a bit
unconservative in this instance.
It Is Unequivocal -- Just Look at Glaciers, Sea Ice, Permafrost, Earlier Springs ...
So much of the arguments about global temperature trends focus on how to interpret
temperature records from myriad weather stations.
49
Indeed, a lot of the climategate controversy surrounding Jones was about a paper he
wrote in 1990 trying to quantify the influence of urban heat islands based on weather
stations in China.
The debate over the temperature record is important for establishing the magnitude of the
warming but is unnecessary to establish that the globe is warming.
The globe integrates the temperature signals from all those individual stations and
provides very obvious, large-scale signs of climate change. What are those signs? How
about melting glaciers? How about shrinking sea ice? How about earlier arrival of spring?
How about melting permafrost?
And speaking of melting permafrost: this just out from the journal Permafrost and
Periglacial Processes. Authors Simon Thibault and Serge Payette of Laval University in
Quebec report on a study of permafrost extent near the James Bay area of Quebec.
Using a combination of aerial and ground surveys and historical aerial photographs, the
authors concluded that permafrost in the region had retreated northward by about 130
kilometers (80 miles) over the past 50 years. They note that the changes they found are
similar to the findings of numerous other permafrost studies, such as here and here. (See
related article and photographs here, here, here, and here.)
Don't believe it? Congratulations, you've joined the ranks of the skeptical ostriches with
their heads buried deep in the melting permafrost.
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Gazette (Canada): The empire has begun to strike back
23 February 2010
It was only a matter of time before the climate alarmists got their feet back under them.
There is too much at stake politically, too many careers and reputations on the line, too
much grant money for researchers and donations for environmental groups, too much
green-tax revenue for governments, too much prestige in academic circles at risk for those
who have asserted for more than a decade that man is causing damaging climate change
to slink away in defeat.
So it is of little surprise that in the past couple of weeks many alarmists have begun
asserting that despite all the revelations of the past three months about how key climate
scientists and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
have corrupted the scientific process in an obsessive drive to prove that climate change is
real, nothing has undermined the "fact" that the Earth is warming dangerously.
Since late November, the True Believers have watched in stunned silence as the
foundation of the climate-change theory has suffered one body blow after another.
50
First it was the revelation that scientists at the Climate Research Unit (CRU) in England -perhaps the most influential of the three sources the United Nations relies on for most of
its climate data -- were fudging their data to show more warming in recent decades than
had actually occurred.
At the same time, these scientists were doing their best to upend the peer-review process
at major scientific journals so scientists who disagreed with them would be unable to get
published.
And they were withholding their raw data and computer codes from other scientists and
government investigators so no one else could validate or debunk their research by
attempting to replicate it.
The alarmists have recently begun to rally around Phil Jones, the discredited head of the
CRU. Nearly two week ago, Jones gave an interview to the BBC in which he admitted
there had been no "statistically significant" global warming in the past 15 years.
Some news sources and global-warming skeptics overplayed Jones's exact words. Last
Sunday's Daily Mail in Britain, for instance, claimed Jones had performed a "U-turn" in his
claims for warming.
Jones, in fact, continues to insist the Earth is warming. But what he now admits is that it is
not warming that rapidly (just 0.12 C per decade) and not "at the 95-per-cent significance
level," the level needed to assert statistical certainty.
He also now allows that there may have been other periods in the past 1,000 years that
were as warm as or warmer than today.
While this is not a complete about-face, it is hardly business-as-usual, as the alarmist
would have us believe.
Even if Jones is still insisting that global warming is happening, there is now a measure of
doubt in his claims that never existed before. What makes Jones's words significant is not
that they reveal some 180-degree change in his thinking, but that for the first time he
admits significant uncertainty in the so-called settled science of climate change.
If leading climate scientists had spent the past 15 years saying the warming they were
seeing wasn't all that significant or that there remained many uncertainties about
predictions of future climate or that some pre-industrial periods had been warmer, would
there have been a Kyoto accord or a Copenhagen Earth summit? Would Al Gore's An
Inconvenient Truth have made $100 million? Would environmentalists have been asked to
write government policy? Would there be any support at all for green taxes and carbon
capture and other measures aimed at curbing carbon dioxide emissions?
LIKELY NOT.
Even though alarmists are correct that Jones has not recanted his earlier belief in the
warming theory, he has undergone a significant change.
51
Or take the assertion, recently very common among alarmists, that NASA's climate
scientists are still finding global warming occurring, so it must still be happening.
Frankly, NASA's climate scientists have hardly more credibility than the CRUs or IPCCs.
NASA is another of the three repositories of climate data relied upon by the UN, but three
years ago a significant error was found in its records. In the 1990s, NASA had begun
keeping temperature records differently, but it had failed to adjust all its pre-1990s records
(about 120 years' worth) to match the new method. When it reconciled its old records to its
new method, recent warm years ceased to be as remarkable. For instance, 1934 replaced
1998 as the warmest year. And 1921 became the third-warmest.
In 2008, NASA substituted September's global temperatures for October's (they claimed
accidentally), thereby distorting upward the worldwide averages for the fall of that year -an otherwise rather cool year.
And most recently, NASA has been shown to be cherry-picking the Earth stations it uses
to calculate global average. It has been eliminating stations in colder locations (polar, rural,
mountainous) and over-relying on warmer ones (mid-latitudes, urban).
Alarmists may want to believe this changes nothing, but that simply makes them the new
deniers.
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Other Environment News
Reuters: Climate change melts Antarctic ice shelves: USGS
22 February 2010
Climate change is melting the floating ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula, giving
scientists a preview of what could happen if other ice shelves around the southern
continent disappear, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said on Monday.
The ice has retreated so far from the land mass that Charcot Island, which has long been
connected to the peninsula by an ice bridge, emerged as a real island again last year, a
USGS scientist said.
"This is the first time since people have been observing the area, since the 1800s, that that
ice shelf has not hitched together Charcot Island and the peninsula," scientist Jane
Ferrigno said in a telephone interview.
The Antarctic Peninsula extends further northward than the rest of the roughly circular icecovered continent, and it is warmer than the rest of Antarctica. But even in the peninsula's
coldest, southern part, ice shelves are vanishing.
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Research by the USGS was the first to show that every ice front on the southern section of
the peninsula has been retreating from 1947 to 2009, with the most dramatic changes
since 1990.
A study of the phenomenon by the USGS in collaboration with the British Antarctic Survey
and assistance from the Scott Polar Research Institute and Germany's Bundesamt fur
Kartographie and Geodasie was posted at pubs.usgs.gov/imap/i-2600-c/ in February; a
statement was released on Monday.
ICE SHELVES ACT AS GLACIER DAMS
Ice shelves act as dams to keep land-based glaciers from flowing unimpeded into the sea;
when ice shelves melt, glaciers can move more quickly into ocean waters.
If all the land-based ice in Antarctica melted, scientists have estimated sea levels
worldwide could rise from 213 to 240 feet, according to the study. If just the ice in West
Antarctica melted, there would be a sea level rise of about 20 feet, threatening coastal
communities and low-lying islands.
The land-based ice on the Antarctic peninsula is not enough to fuel a major rise in sea
level, Ferrigno said. However, the dramatic disappearance of ice shelves there could give
a clue of what could happen when glaciers are free to flow seaward.
This is important because the Antarctic ice sheet contains 91 percent of Earth's glacier ice,
Ferrigno said.
Unlike Antarctic land-based ice, the ice that covers much of the Arctic Ocean would not
contribute to sea level rise if it all melted, in much the way that a melting ice cube in a
glass of water would not make the glass overflow.
But both the Arctic and Antarctic have major impact on weather in the temperate parts of
the world
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BBC News: Hu says China committed to fighting climate change
23 February 2010
President Hu Jintao said on Tuesday China was committed to fighting climate change,
both at home and in cooperation with the rest of the world, but stopped short of offering
any new policies.
Britain, Sweden and other countries have accused China of obstructing December's
Copenhagen climate summit, which ended with a non-binding accord that set a target of
limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius but was scant on details.
Chinese officials have said their country would never accept outside checks of its plans
to slow greenhouse gas emissions and could only make a promise of "increasing
transparency."
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Hu told a study meeting attended by senior politicians, including Premier Wen Jiabao,
that China took the problem seriously, state television reported.
"We must fully recognize the importance, urgency and difficulty of dealing with climate
change," the report paraphrased Hu as saying. "We must make it an important strategy
for our socio-economic development."
The government says some areas of the country are already seeing the effects of
climate change, with higher temperatures and reduced rainfall in some parts and
stronger storms in others.
China has pledged to cut the amount of carbon dioxide produced for each unit of
economic growth by 40-45 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels.
This "carbon intensity" goal would let China's greenhouse gas emissions keep rising, but
more slowly than economic growth.
Hu said energy saving, emission cuts and environmental awareness must be inculcated
into not only every government worker but Chinese society as a whole, state television
said.
"Climate change is a common, important challenge faced by countries around the
world," he said. "For a long time, we have paid a great deal of importance to tackling the
climate change issue on the basis of being responsible to our own people and the
people of the world."
As the world's biggest emitter, China has faced growing pressure from developed
countries and some poor ones to set firmer and deeper goals to curb its greenhouse
gases.
China says its emissions historically have been much lower than the developed world's,
and its emissions per capita are still much lower than those of wealthy societies.
"Dealing with the problem must be done on the basis of the country's economic
development," Hu said.
"We must proactively participate in global cooperation to fight climate change," he said.
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Guardian (UK): World’s coral reefs could disintegrate by 2100
23 February 2010
The world's coral reefs will begin to disintegrate before the end of the century as rising
carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere make the oceans more acidic, scientists warn.
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The research points to a looming transition in the health of coral ecosystems during
which the ability of reefs to grow is overwhelmed by the rate at which they are dissolving.
More than 9,000 coral reefs around the world are predicted to disintegrate when
atmospheric carbon dioxide levels reach 560 parts per million.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today stands at around 388ppm, but is
expected to reach 560ppm by the end of this century.
Coral reefs are at the heart of some of the most biodiverse marine ecosystems in the
world. They are home to more than 4,000 species of fish and provide spawning, refuge
and feeding areas for marine life such as crabs, starfish and sea turtles.
"These ecosystems which harbour the highest diversity of marine life in the oceans may
be severely reduced within less than 100 years," said Dr Jacob Silverman of the
Carnegie Institution in Stanford University, California.
Coral reefs grow their structural skeletons by depositing aragonite, a form of calcium
carbonate, from calcium ions in sea water. As oceans absorb atmospheric carbon
dioxide, they become so acidic the calcium carbonate dissolves.
Silverman's team studied a coral reef in the northern Red Sea and calculated its
response to increasingly acidic waters.
The research showed that the ability of the coral to build new structures depended
strongly on water acidity and to a lesser extent temperature.
From these data the researchers created a global map of more than 9,000 coral reefs,
which showed that all are threatened with disintegration when carbon dioxide levels in
the atmosphere reach 560ppm. Silverman was speaking at the American Association for
the Advancement of Science meeting in San Diego.
In a separate study, Simon Donner, an environmental scientist at the University of British
Columbia in Canada, warned that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is already at a high
enough level to cause devastating coral bleaching.
Corals have a symbiotic relationship with microscopic algae that live on them. The algae
give coral reefs their vibrant colours, but are also an important food source for the
habitat's marine life. When sea temperatures rise, the corals expel the algae and turn
white. Once this happens the coral is deprived of energy and dies.
"Even if we froze emissions today, the planet still has some warming left in it. That's
enough to make bleaching dangerously frequent in reefs worldwide," said Donner.
Bleaching had become increasingly widespread in recent years, Donner said. In 2006,
severe bleaching struck the southern part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the largest
coral reef system in the world. Last year scientists reported that a "lucky combination" of
circumstances had allowed the coral to recover from the disaster.
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Telegraph (UK): AAAS: Coral reefs could disappear by the end of the century
24 February 2010
The reefs will stop growing and start disintegrating when the amount of carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere reaches twice its pre-industrial level, scientists predict.
If current trends continue, this is expected to occur by the end of the 21st century.
Research leader Dr Jacob Silverman, from the Carnegie Institution in Washington D.C.
said: "These ecosystems, which harbour the highest diversity of marine life in the oceans,
may be severely reduced within less than 100 years."
Reef-building corals are highly sensitive to the acidity and temperature of the seawater in
which they grow, Dr Silverman told the annual meeting of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science in San Diego.
Oceans soak up carbon dioxide greenhouse gas from the atmosphere, but in doing so
become more acidic.
When the acid levels rise too high it prevents coral from extracting minerals from seawater
to build their hard skeletons. Temperature also affects this process.
Dr Silverman's team studied the metabolism of a northern Red Sea coral reef to assess its
sensitivity to environmental conditions.
The research showed that the ability of the coral to build new structures depended strongly
on water acidity and to a lesser extent temperature.
This association could be calculated and predicted by a mathematical equation, which the
scientists used to predict the fate of more than 9,000 coral reefs around the world.
Dr Silverman said: "A global map produced on the basis of these calculations shows that
all coral reefs are expected to stop their growth and start to disintegrate when atmospheric
CO2 (carbon dioxide) reaches 560 parts per million (double its pre-industrial level),
expected by the end of the 21st century."
Another speaker at the meeting highlighted a second threat to coral linked to global
warming.
Dr Simon Donner said increasing ocean temperatures made reefs more susceptible to
bleaching, caused by the loss of algae on which coral depend.
Corals have a symbiotic relationship with the microscopic algae that live in their tissues.
As well as giving coral its vibrant colour, the algae provide the reef creatures with most of
their energy.
56
When sea temperatures rise too high the association between coral and algae breaks
down. The coral then effectively expel the algae and turn white. Once this happens the
coral is deprived of energy and dies.
Dr Donner, from the University of British Columbia in Canada, said: "Even if we froze
emissions today, the planet still has some warming left in it. That's enough to make
bleaching dangerously frequent in reefs worldwide."
Mass bleaching events were extremely rare 30 years ago but had become increasingly
common in recent years, he said.
In 2006, severe bleaching struck the southern part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the
largest coral reef system in the world.
Last year scientists reported that a "lucky combination" of rare circumstances had allowed
the coral to recover from the disaster.
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BBC News: Out of sight, species quickly become out of mind
23 February 2010
Once species disappear from the face of the Earth, they are quickly forgotten, says
Samuel Turvey. In this week's Green Room, he warns that extinctions must be treated as
a warning that human activities, such as overhunting and agriculture, are making the
planet a poorer place to live.
It has been widely reported that the Earth's species are facing a sixth mass extinction and
that human activity is to blame.
What is less well known is that humans have also been responsible for causing species
extinctions throughout history and recent pre-history.
In the British Isles, we have lost most of our native large animals as a direct result of
overhunting and the way humans changed habitats.
How many people living in the UK would consider lynx, wolves, or pelicans to be part of
their native fauna, though? We have no direct cultural memory of any of these species
ever being part of the British environment.
Sooner or later, communities will inevitably forget about the former existence of species
that used to occur in their environment.
Local perceptions of past ecological conditions are expected to change over time, as older
community members die and younger members become adults, because accurate
information is unlikely to be passed down from generation to generation.
Over time, more and more degraded environmental conditions may therefore be seen as
"normal". This social phenomenon is called "shifting baseline syndrome".
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The existence of shifting baseline syndrome has been widely discussed and debated.
However, few studies have investigated the rate at which communities can forget about
environmental changes in the recent past.
Missed opportunities
This is particularly important for conservation because often environmental knowledge
from local communities is the only information available to assess the status of rare
species, or to reconstruct recent extinctions and environmental change.
For example, interviews with Aboriginal people in the central deserts of Australia have
revealed that native mammals such as the pig-footed bandicoot, previously thought to
have died out in the early part of the 20th Century, actually survived until at least the
1950s.
But just as human-caused species extinctions continue to occur, the true level of our
impact on the environment also continues to be forgotten.
The most significant recent extinction was the disappearance of the Yangtze River
dolphin, or baiji; the first large mammal to be wiped out in more than 50 years.
Once revered as a reincarnated princess, this species experienced a severe population
decline throughout the late 20th Century, mainly as a result of unsustainable levels of
accidental dolphin deaths in fishing gear.
Despite repeated pleas for international conservation intervention, by the late 1990s only
about 13 animals were thought to survive.
I participated in the range-wide baiji survey in 2006 that failed to find any evidence of
surviving dolphins in the Yangtze. In 2007, we declared the species to be probably extinct.
The loss of the baiji is only part of the massive-scale environmental degradation of the
Yangtze.
Until recently, the river was also home to the Yangtze paddlefish, the largest freshwater
fish in the world - mature adults could reach lengths of seven metres.
The paddlefish used to be caught commercially in the Yangtze, but overfishing and dam
construction caused the population to collapse, and only three individuals have been
caught in the past decade. The species may now already be extinct.
These factors also led to the disappearance of Reeves' shad, the basis of another
Chinese commercial fishery until the 1980s.
In 2008, I returned to the Yangtze region as part of a wide-range interview survey of
fishing communities.
We were interested in trying to find out if local fishermen, who spend much of their time on
the river, might know of the existence of any surviving baiji. Sadly, we found little evidence
to suggest that there were any baiji left in the river.
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As we conducted our interviews though we did make a surprising discovery.
Older people told us all about the historical declines of baiji, paddlefish and shad, how
often these species were seen and caught in the past, and even what they tasted like.
However, younger fishermen from the same communities had not only never seen baiji or
paddlefish, but had never even heard of them.
These distinctive species - a dolphin and a giant fish - had only died out a few years
earlier, and had been culturally and commercially important in the recent past, but already
local knowledge about them was disappearing very rapidly.
We estimated that more than 70% of fishermen below the age of 40, or who first started
fishing after 1995, were completely unaware of what a paddlefish was.
Our findings suggest that as soon as even "megafaunal" species stop being encountered
on a fairly regular basis, they immediately start to become forgotten. They are truly "out of
sight, out of mind".
It is the final insult for the baiji - not only was the species allowed to die out, forgotten by
the conservation community until it was too late, but it is now being forgotten, even in
China.
Conservation in the Yangtze remains an urgent priority. Although the baiji, shad and
paddlefish are now all probably gone, other species such as the Yangtze finless porpoise
are also in imminent danger of extinction.
But will we manage to act in time to save the porpoise? Or will this species, and many
others, also become completely forgotten?
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RONA MEDIA UPDATE
THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
UNEP or UN in the News
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Fox News: Inhofe Calls for EPA Probe of Scientists' Climate Change E-Mails
The Wall Street Journal: UN: Extra Climate Change Conference In Germany, April 9-11
CBC News: Climate change to bring fewer, stronger storms
Fox News: Britain's Weather Office Proposes Climate-Gate Do-Over
Reuters: Factbox: 100 nations sign up for Copenhagen climate deal
The New York Times – Editorial: Climate Change
The New York Times: EPA Chief Goes Toe-To-Toe With Senate GOP Over Climate
Science
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Inhofe Calls for EPA Probe of Scientists' Climate Change E-Mails
Fox News (US), February 23, 2010
The Senate's top global warming skeptic on Tuesday said he will ask the Environmental
Protection Agency's inspector general to probe the use of climate change data now at
the center of an international inquiry for an endangerment finding that gives the EPA
authority to regulate greenhouse gases.
Sen James Inhofe, R-Okla., said EPA administrator Lisa Jackson's decision to rely on
information from the U.N.'s International Panel on Climate Change to institute the
endangerment finding is
"The EPA accepted the IPCC's erroneous claims wholesale, without doing its own
independent review," Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., said about
"So EPA's endangerment finding rests on bad science," Inhofe said at a Tuesday
morning hearing.
But appearing before Inhofe at the Senate Environment and Public Works hearing on the
EPA's proposed 2011 budget, Jackson said the information under question "doesn't
undermine our endangerment finding."
She also rebuffed Inhofe's call to ask the agency's inspector general to investigate the
data, saying the Supreme Court ruled that greenhouse gasses are pollutants.
"They said the EPA must make a determination on whether or not greenhouse gases
endanger welfare. Rather than ignore that obligation, I believe I had no choice but to
follow the law of the land.
Inhofe is also considering a request to the Department of Justice for a probe of scientists
who he claims deliberately falsified data used by climate change advocates.
House Environment and Public Works Committee Republicans released a 40-page
report that was used by GOPers to ask Jackson how she can continue to advocate for
new global warming regulations even as the findings by the IPCC and the work of the
East Anglia Climate Research Unit in Britain create doubt about climate science.
"The CRU controversy features e-mails from the world's leading climate scientists -- emails that show disturbing practices contrary to the practice of objective science and
potentially federal law," the report reads.
"The released CRU e-mails and documents display potentially unethical, and illegal,
behavior," it continues. "Moreover, there are e-mails discussing unjustified changes to
data by federal employees and federal grantees. These and other issues raise questions
about the lawful use of federal funds and potential ethical misconduct."
Inhofe, whose family mocked Al Gore by building a snowman of the climate change
advocate on the Capitol grounds earlier this month, said in a statement ahead of the
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hearing on the EPA's 2011 proposed budget that the minority staff's report covers emails and documents from 1996 through November 2009.
He said the research shows the world's leading climate scientists discussing obstruction
of contrary data, manipulation of data, threats of journalists who questioned "consensus"
on the data and activism to influence the political process.
"We knew they were cooking the science to support the flawed UN IPCC agenda," he
said. "I suspect Climate-gate is only the beginning."
At the hearing, Inhofe also pressed Jackson to explain how her agency can press ahead
with what he calls a "jobs-killing agenda" when Congress has not passed cap-and-trade
legislation.
"How in the world can we justify doing something administratively that the Congress
overwhelming rejected, saying defiantly we don't care what you do, Congress?"
UN: Extra Climate Change Conference In Germany, April 9-11
The Wall Street Journal, February 23, 2010, by Alessandro Torello
BRUSSELS (Dow Jones)--The United Nations will hold an extra round of climate change
talks in Bonn, Germany, between April 9 and 11, the U.N. Framework Convention on
Climate Change said Tuesday.
"The decision to intensify the negotiating schedule underlines the commitment by
governments to move the negotiations forward towards success" at a year-end
conference in Mexico, said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer.
The UNFCCC organizes the U.N.-sponsored climate change negotiations. The outcome
of the Copenhagen conference in December disappointed many observers and policy
makers, who are now seeking to instill momentum in the negotiations again.
Two weeks of official talks were already scheduled for the end of May in Bonn, and for
the end of November in Cancun, Mexico.
Climate change to bring fewer, stronger storms
CBC News (Canada), February 22, 2010
Top researchers now agree that the world is likely to face stronger but fewer hurricanes
in the future because of global warming, seeming to settle a scientific debate on the
subject.
But they say there's not enough evidence yet to tell whether that effect has already
begun.
Since just before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi in 2005, duelling
scientific papers have clashed about whether global warming is worsening hurricanes
and will do so in the future. The new study seems to split the difference. A special World
Meteorological Organization panel of 10 experts in both hurricanes and climate change
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— including leading scientists from both sides — came up with a consensus, which was
published online Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience.
"We've really come a long way in the last two years about our knowledge of the
hurricane and climate issue," said study co-author Chris Landsea, a top hurricane
researcher for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The technical term
for these storms are tropical cyclones; in the Atlantic they are called hurricanes,
elsewhere typhoons.
The study offers projections for tropical cyclones worldwide by the end of this century,
and some experts said the bad news outweighs the good. Overall strength of storms as
measured in wind speed would rise by two to 11 per cent, but there would be between
six and 34 per cent fewer storms in number. Essentially, there would be fewer weak and
moderate storms and more of the big damaging ones, which also are projected to be
stronger due to warming.
An 11 per cent increase in wind speed translates to roughly a 60 per cent increase in
damage, said study co-author Kerry Emanuel, a professor of meteorology at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The storms also would carry more rain, another indicator of damage, said lead author
Tom Knutson, a research meteorologist at NOAA.
Knutson said the new study, which looks at worldwide projections, doesn't make clear
whether global warming will lead to more or less hurricane damage on balance. But he
pointed to a study he co-authored last month that looked at just the Atlantic hurricane
basin and predicted that global warming would trigger a 28 per cent increase in damage
near the U.S. despite fewer storms.
That study suggests Category 4 and 5 Atlantic hurricanes — those with winds more than
209 km/h — would nearly double by the end of the century. On average, a Category 4 or
stronger hurricane hits the United States about once every seven years, mostly in
Florida or Texas. Recent Category 4 or 5 storms include 2004's Charley and 1992's
Andrew, but not Katrina which made landfall as a strong Category 3.
Outside experts praise work
The study does a good job of summarizing the current understanding of storms and
warming, said Chunzai Wang, a researcher with NOAA who had no role in the study.
James Lee Witt, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said
the study "should be a stern and stark warning that America needs to be better prepared
and protected from the devastation that these kinds of hurricanes produce."
The issue of hurricanes and global warming splashed onto front pages in the summer of
2005 when MIT's Emanuel published a paper in Nature saying hurricane destruction has
increased since the mid-1970s because of global warming, adding it would only get
worse.
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Several weeks later Hurricane Katrina struck, killing 1,500 people, and the 2005
hurricane season was the busiest on record with 28 named storms and seven major
hurricanes. But then other scientists led by Landsea disputed the conclusions that
storms were already increasing in number or intensity.
Now Landsea and Emanuel are co-authors on the same paper with Knutson.
In 2007, the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said it was "more
likely than not" that man-made greenhouse gases had already altered storm activity, but
the authors of the new paper said more recent evidence muddies the issue.
"The evidence is not strong enough that we could make some kind of statement" along
those lines, Knutson said. It doesn't mean the IPCC report was wrong; it was just based
on science done by 2006 and recent research has changed a bit, said Knutson and the
other researchers.
Lately, the IPCC series of reports on warming has been criticized for errors. Emanuel
said the international climate panel gave "an accurate summary of science that existed
at that point."
Britain's Weather Office Proposes Climate-Gate Do-Over
Fox News, February 23, 2010, by George Russell
After the firestorm of criticism called Climate-gate, the British government's official
Meteorological Office apparently has decided to wave a white flag and surrender.
At a meeting on Monday of about 150 climate scientists in the quiet Turkish seaside
resort of Antalya, representatives of the weather office (known in Britain as the Met
Office) quietly proposed that the world's climate scientists start all over again on a "grand
challenge" to produce a new, common trove of global temperature data that is open to
public scrutiny and "rigorous" peer review.
In other words, conduct investigations into modern global warming in a way that the Met
Office bureaucrats hope will end the mammoth controversy over world temperature data
they collected that has been stirred up by their secretive and erratic ways.
The executive summary of the Met Office proposal to the World Meteorological
Organization's Committee for Climatology was obtained by Fox News. In it, the Met
Office defends its controversial historical record of temperature readings, along with
similar data collected in the U.S., as a "robust indicator of global change." But it admits
that "further development" of the record is required "in particular to better assess the
risks posed by changes in extremes of climate."
As a result, the proposal says, "we feel that it is timely to propose an international effort
to reanalyze surface temperature data in collaboration with the World Meteorological
Organization (WMO), which has the responsibility for global observing and monitoring
systems for weather and climate."
The new effort, the proposal says, would provide:
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--"verifiable datasets starting from a common databank of unrestricted data"
--"methods that are fully documented in the peer reviewed literature and open to
scrutiny;"
--"a set of independent assessments of surface temperature produced by independent
groups using independent methods,"
--"comprehensive audit trails to deliver confidence in the results;"
--"robust assessment of uncertainties associated with observational error, temporal and
geographical in homogeneities."
The Met Office proposal asserts that "we do not anticipate any substantial changes in
the resulting global and continental-scale ... trends" as a result of the new round of data
collection. But, the proposal adds, "this effort will ensure that the data sets are
completely robust and that all methods are transparent."
Despite the bravado, those precautions and benefits are almost a point-by-point
surrender by the Met Office to the accusations that have been leveled at its Hadley
Climate Centre in East Anglia, which had stonewalled climate skeptics who demanded to
know more about its scientific methods. (An inquiry established that the institution had
flouted British freedom of information laws in refusing to come up with the data.)
When initially contacted by Fox News to discuss the proposal, its likely cost, how long it
would take to complete, and its relationship to the Climate-gate scandal, the Met Office
declared that no press officers were available to answer questions. After a follow-up call,
the Office said it would answer soon, but did not specify when. At the time of publication,
Fox News had not heard back.
The Hadley stonewall began to crumble after a gusher of leaked e-mails revealed
climate scientists, including the center's chief, Phil Jones, discussing how to keep
controversial climate data out of the hands of the skeptics, keep opposing scientific
viewpoints out of peer-reviewed scientific journals, and bemoaning that their climate
models failed to account for more than a decade of stagnation in global temperatures.
Jones later revealed that key temperature datasets used in Hadley's predictions had
been lost, and could not be retrieved for verification.
Jones stepped down temporarily after the British government announced an ostensibly
independent inquiry into the still-growing scandal, but that only fanned the flames, as
skeptics pointed out ties between several panel members and the Hadley Centre. In an
interview two weeks ago, Jones also admitted that there has been no "statistically
significant" global warming in the past 15 years.
The Met Office's shift in position could be a major embarrassment for British Prime
Minister Gordon Brown, who as recently as last month declared that climate skeptics
were "flat-earthers" and "anti-science" for refusing to accept that man-made activity was
a major cause of global warming. Brown faces a tough election battle for his
government, perhaps as early as May.
It is also a likely blow to Rajendra Pachauri, head of the United Nations backed
International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose most recent report, published in
2007, has been exposed by skeptics as rife with scientific errors, larded with unreviewed and non-scientific source materials, and other failings.
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As details of the report's sloppiness emerged, the ranks of skepticism have swelled to
include larger numbers of the scientific community, including weather specialists who
worked on the sprawling IPCC report. Calls for Pachauri's resignation have come from
organizations as normally opposed as the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the
British chapter of Greenpeace. So far, he has refused to step down.
The Met Office proposes that the new international effort to recalibrate temperature data
start at a "workshop"' hosted by Hadley. The Met Office would invite "key players" to
start the "agreed community challenge" of creating the new datasets.
Then, in a last defense of its old ways, the Met proposals argues says that its old
datasets "are adequate for answering the pressing 20th Century questions of whether
climate is changing and if so how. But they are fundamentally ill-conditioned to answer
21st Century questions such as how extremes are changing and therefore what
adaptation and mitigation decisions should be taken."
Those "21st Century questions" are not small and they are very far from cheap. At
Copenhagen, wealthy nations were being asked to spend trillions of dollars on
answering them, a deal that only fell through when China, India, and other neardeveloped nations refused to join the mammoth climate-control deal.
The question after the Met Office's shift in stance may be whether environmentalists
eager to move those mountains of cash are also ready to stand down until the 21st
century questions get 21st century answers.
Factbox: 100 nations sign up for Copenhagen climate deal
Reuters, February 23, 2010, by Alister Doyle
China, India and Russia are the largest greenhouse gas emitters yet to make clear if
they fully endorse the deal, which sets a goal of limiting a rise in world temperatures to
less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F).
Under the non-binding pact, rich nations also plan to give $30 billion in climate aid from
2010-12, rising to $100 billion a year from 2020.
The U.N. Climate Change Secretariat asked its 194 members to spell out by February 1
if they want to be "associated," meaning their names will be listed at the top of the 3page document.
Under the flexible deadline, the number of associates has risen to 100. Of these, more
than 60 have also issued domestic goals for reining in climate change by 2020.
Following are details of national plans published on the website of the Secretariat -- an
asterisk (*) shows countries that have explicitly stated they want to be associated:
INDUSTRIALISED NATIONS -- EMISSIONS CUTS BY 2020 (FROM 1990
LEVELS UNLESS STATED)
* UNITED STATES - "In the range of" 17 percent from 2005 levels, or 4 percent below
1990 levels.
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* EUROPEAN UNION (27 nations) - 20 percent, 30 percent if others act.
RUSSIA - 15 to 25 percent
* JAPAN - 25 percent as part of a "fair and effective international framework."
* CANADA - 17 percent from 2005 levels, matching U.S. goal.
* AUSTRALIA - 5 percent below 2000 levels, 25 percent if there is an ambitious global
deal. The range is 3-23 percent below 1990.
* BELARUS - 5 to 10 percent, on condition of access to carbon trading and new
technologies.
* CROATIA - 5 percent
* KAZAKHSTAN - 15 percent
* NEW ZEALAND - 10 to 20 percent "if there is a comprehensive global agreement."
* NORWAY - 30 percent, or 40 if there is an ambitious deal.
* ICELAND - 30 percent in a joint effort with the EU.
* LIECHTENSTEIN - 20 percent, 30 percent if others act.
* MONACO - 30 percent; aims to be carbon neutral by 2050.
DEVELOPING NATIONS' ACTIONS FOR 2020
CHINA - Will endeavor to cut the amount of carbon produced per unit of economic
output by 40 to 45 percent from 2005 levels. This "carbon intensity" goal would let
emissions keep rising, but more slowly than economic growth. Says it "highly commends
and supports" the Copenhagen Accord but stops short of saying if it wants China listed
as an "associate."
INDIA - Will endeavor to reduce the emissions intensity of gross domestic product by 20
to 25 percent versus 2005.
* BRAZIL - Aims to cut emissions by between 36.1 and 38.9 percent below "business as
usual" levels with measures such as reducing deforestation, energy efficiency and more
hydropower.
* SOUTH AFRICA - With the right international aid, emissions could peak between 202025 plateau for a decade and then decline in absolute terms from about 2035.
* INDONESIA - Reduce emissions by 26 percent by 2020 with measures including
sustainable peat management, reduced deforestation and energy efficiency.
* MEXICO - Aims to cut greenhouse gases by up to 30 percent below business as usual.
A climate change programme from 2009-12 will also avert 51 million tonnes of carbon
emissions.
* SOUTH KOREA - Cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent below business as
usual projections
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SMALLER EMITTERS
* ARMENIA - Increase renewable energy output, modernize power plants, restore
forests.
* BENIN - Develop public transport in Cotonou, better forest management, methane
recovery from waste in big cities.
* BHUTAN - Already absorbs more carbon in vegetation than it emits from burning fossil
fuels; plans to stay that way.
* BOTSWANA - Will shift to gas from coal. Nuclear power, renewables, biomass and
carbon capture also among options.
* CONGO - Improved agriculture, controls on vehicles in major cities, better forestry
management.
* COSTA RICA - Plans a long-term effort to become "carbon neutral" under which any
industrial emissions will be offset elsewhere, for instance by planting forests.
* ETHIOPIA - Actions including hydropower dams, wind farms, geothermal energy,
biofuels and reforestation.
* GEORGIA - Will try to build a low-carbon economy while ensuring continued growth. It
said, however, that the legacy of the 2008 war with Russia limited its ability to act.
* GHANA - Switch from oil to natural gas in electricity generation, build more hydropower
dams, raise the share of renewable energy to 10-20 percent of electricity by 2020.
* ISRAEL - Will strive for a 20 percent cut in emissions below business as usual
projections. Goals include getting 10 percent of electricity generation from renewable
sources.
* IVORY COAST - Plans shift to renewable energies, better forest management and
farming, improve pollution monitoring.
* JORDAN - Shift to renewable energies, upgrade railways, roads and ports. Goals
include modernizing military equipment.
* MACEDONIA - Improving energy efficiency, boosting renewable energies,
harmonization with EU energy laws.
* MADAGASCAR - Shift to hydropower for major cities, push for "large scale"
reforestation across the island, improve agriculture, waste management and transport.
* MALDIVES - Achieve "carbon neutrality" by 2020.
* MARSHALL ISLANDS - Cut carbon dioxide emissions by 40 percent below 2009
levels.
* MOLDOVA - Cut emissions by "no less than 25 percent" from 1990 levels.
* MONGOLIA - Examining large-scale solar power in the Gobi desert, wind and
hydropower. Also to improved use of coal.
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* MOROCCO - Develop renewable energies such as wind, solar power, hydropower.
Improve industrial efficiency.
* PAPUA NEW GUINEA - At least halve emissions per unit of economic output by 2030;
become carbon neutral by 2050.
* SINGAPORE - Aims for a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 16 percent below
business as usual levels if the world agrees a strong, legally binding deal.
* SIERRA LEONE - Increase conservation efforts, ensure forest cover of at least 3.4
million hectares by 2015. Develop clean energy including biofuels from sugarcane or rice
husks.
TOGO - Raise forested area to 30 percent of the country by 2050 from 7 percent in
2005; improve energy efficiency.
Other nations asking to be associated, without outlining 2020 targets: Albania, the
Bahamas, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Chile, Colombia,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Fiji, Gabon, Guatemala, Guyana, Laos,
Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Montenegro, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Palau, Panama, Peru,
Rwanda, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, United
Arab Emirates, Uruguay.
Ecuador, Kuwait and Nauru reject association with the Accord. The Philippines said it
will support the Copenhagen Accord if developed nations make deep and early cuts.
Climate Change
The New York Times – Editorial (US), February 21, 2010
Yvo de Boer’s resignation on Thursday after nearly four tumultuous years as chief
steward of the United Nations’ climate change negotiations has deepened a sense of
pessimism about whether the world can ever get its act together on global warming.
Mr. de Boer was plainly exhausted by endless bickering among nations and frustrated by
the failure of December’s talks in Copenhagen to deliver the prize he had worked so
hard for: a legally binding treaty committing nations to mandatory reductions in
greenhouse gases.
His resignation comes at a fragile moment in the campaign to combat climate change.
The Senate is stalemated over a climate change bill.
The disclosure of apparently trivial errors in the U.N.’s 2007 climate report has given
Senate critics fresh ammunition. And without Mr. de Boer, the slim chances of forging a
binding agreement at the next round of talks in December in Cancún, Mexico, seem
slimmer still.
Yet his departure is hardly the death knell for international negotiations. It is not proof
that such talks are of no value or that the U.N. negotiating framework in place since
1992 should be abandoned.
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Even Copenhagen, messy as it was, brought rich and poor nations closer together than
they had been. And more than 90 countries representing 83 percent of the world’s
greenhouse gases promised, at least notionally, to reduce their emissions.
But his resignation does remind us that the U.N. process is tiring, cumbersome and
slow. It reinforces the notion that some parallel negotiating track will be necessary if the
world is to have any hope of achieving the reductions scientists believe are necessary to
avert the worst consequences of climate change.
The Copenhagen pledges, even if all of them are met, will merely stabilize global
emissions by 2020. What really matters is what happens after 2020, whether the world
can achieve reductions of at least 50 percent by midcentury. That won’t happen without
big cuts by big emitters like the United States, the European Union, China, India and
Brazil.
Even before Copenhagen, global leaders were exploring parallel tracks. Former
President George W. Bush brought together some of the big emitters, and President
Obama has expanded on this idea with the Major Economies Forum on Energy and
Climate, a group of 17 countries that plans to meet regularly.
The Group of 20 has put climate change high on its agenda, and bilateral efforts —
technology exchanges between China and the United States, for instance — are under
discussion.
The underlying thought is that the ultimate goal is a safe planet, and that absent a topdown global treaty, that goal is probably best achieved by aggressive, bottom-up
national strategies to reduce emissions.
Not that these are a sure thing; the United States, embarrassingly, has no national
strategy. Until it gets one, it can hardly lecture anyone else. Nor will the world stand a
ghost of a chance of bringing emissions under control.
EPA Chief Goes Toe-To-Toe With Senate GOP Over Climate Science
The New York Times, February 23, 2010, by Robin Bravender
U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson today defended the science underpinning pending
climate regulations despite Senate Republicans' claims that global warming data has
been thrown into doubt.
"The science behind climate change is settled, and human activity is responsible for
global warming," Jackson told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
"That conclusion is not a partisan one."
Jackson's comments came as the Senate panel scrutinized President Obama's $10
billion budget request for EPA. The administration's fiscal 2011 proposal would cut the
agency's total funding by about $300 million from 2010 levels while allotting $56 million -including $43 million in new funding -- for regulatory programs to curb greenhouse gas
emissions.
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Senate Republicans used the hearing as a platform to blast EPA over its plans to begin
rolling out greenhouse gas regulations next month after it determined last year that the
heat-trapping emissions endanger human health and welfare.
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the panel's ranking member, called on EPA to reconsider
that determination after recent reports have revealed errors in the reports from the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that were used to underpin EPA's
finding and a recent controversy surrounding e-mails stolen from climate scientists that
some have dubbed "Climategate."
"We've been told that the science still stands," Inhofe said. "We've been told that the
IPCC's mistakes are trivial. We've been told that Climategate is just gossipy e-mails
between a few scientists.
"But now we know there's no objective basis for these claims," he added. "Furthermore,
Climategate shows there's no 'consensus;' the science is far from settled."
Committee Republicans released a report (pdf) today detailing concerns over the
content of the e-mails that were lifted last year from computers at the Climatic Research
Unit of the University of East Anglia, a research institute whose studies help form the
basis of the IPCC reports.
Some of the e-mails reveal frustration with attacks from global warming skeptics, and
opponents of greenhouse gas regulations have pointed to several of the exchanges as
proof that scientists intentionally withheld climate data.
The Obama administration, as well as the majority of climate scientists and Democratic
lawmakers, have maintained that nothing in the e-mails upends the scientific consensus
that man-made emissions are contributing to climate change.
Jackson said that although science "can be a bit messy, the dust will settle" and that she
has not seen anything at this point to show that the endangerment finding is not on solid
ground.
"I do not agree that the IPCC has been totally discredited in any way," Jackson said,
adding that it is important to understand that the IPCC is a body that follows open and
impartial practices.
"Let me be very clear," said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) the committee chairwoman.
"The majority of this committee believes in strong numbers that we must act," on global
warming, she added.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) angrily blasted his Republican colleagues for their
implications that global warming science had not been settled.
"This country faces many many problems, not the least of which, we have national
leaders rejecting basic science," Sanders said. "I find it incredible, I really do, that in the
year 2010 on this committee, there are people who are saying there is a doubt about
global warming. There is no doubt about global warming."
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General Environment News
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The New York Times (US): A Reactor That Burns Depleted Fuel Emerges as a Potential
'Game Changer'
The New York Times: E.P.A. Plans to Phase in Regulation of Emissions
Environment News Service: Feds Plan Offshore Wind Consortium With 11 Atlantic States
DallasNews.com (Editorial): Clean air vs. jobs is a false choice
The Toronto Star: Adapt now to climate change, panel warns
Business Week: Markey: Brown win no death knell for climate bill
Reuters: Climate Change Melts Antarctic Ice Shelves: USGS
Reuters: Key Senator Sees No Quick Move On Climate Bill
Reuters: Major economies climate forum to meet in months -US
LA Times: Turf grass not always a 'green' thing, study shows
The Calgary Herald: U.S. wants climate deal this year
The Calgary Herald: Hu says China committed to fighting climate change
The Calgary Herald: Germany to cut incentives for solar power adaption by July
The Vancouver Sun: Games show why global warming must be tackled
The New York Times: Sending a message in 12, 000 bottles
A Reactor That Burns Depleted Fuel Emerges as a Potential 'Game Changer'
The New York Times (US), February 23, 2010, by Peter Behr
Politicians and scientists speak of them hopefully as "home runs" and "game changers,"
the long-shot technology breakthroughs that could produce a major advance toward the
nation's future climate policy goals.
After years in a status closer to science fiction than reality, the traveling wave nuclear
reactor is emerging as a potential "game changer," according to a U.S. Department of
Energy official. It helps that the reactor is the product of a team of top scientists backed
by the deep pockets of Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
This reactor (pdf) works something like a cigarette. A chain reaction is launched in one
end of a closed cylinder of spent uranium fuel, creating a slow-moving "deflagration," a
wave of nuclear fission reactions that keeps breeding neutrons as it makes way through
the container, keeping the self-sustaining reaction going.
And it goes and goes, perhaps for 100 years, said former Bechtel Corp. physicist John
Gilleland. He heads TerraPower LLC, a private research team based outside Seattle that
is pursuing the traveling wave reactor design.
"We believe we've developed a new type of nuclear reactor that can represent a nearly
infinite supply of low-cost energy, carbon-free energy for the world," Gilleland said in a
presentation. If it can be built, a commercial version of the reactor is 15 years away or
more, Gilleland acknowledged. But that could keep its development in step with the longrange policy and business investment decisions that lie ahead for the future of nuclear
power fuel cycles and reactor designs.
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The venture has caught the Energy Department's eye.
"We've just been introduced to the idea," said Warren "Pete" Miller, DOE's assistant
secretary for nuclear energy, who mentioned the project in his comments to last week's
2010 National Electricity Forum in Washington, D.C. "That's one innovation that could
make a tremendous difference" for nuclear power.
"These are game changers if they can be deployed," said Miller, a former official at Los
Alamos National Laboratory. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Technology
Review magazine chose the traveling wave reactor last year as one of 10 emerging
technologies with the highest potential impact.
Defusing a potential proliferation risk
The traveling wave reactor got another push earlier this month from Gates, at a speech
about futuristic technologies that he supports through the Intellectual Ventures initiative - a Bellevue, Wash., think tank. It is seeking "miracle" solutions on energy and health
fronts. TerraPower is one of Intellectual Ventures' projects.
The reactor design could power the United States for centuries and, if smaller, modular
versions can be perfected, it could also provide affordable power for poorer nations that
lack large-scale nuclear power infrastructure and power grids. "With the right materials
approach, this looks like it could work," Gates said.
"It's got lots of challenges ahead, but it is an example of the many hundreds and
hundreds of ideas we need to move forward," he said.
The design promises singular technical and political benefits. Albert Machiels, senior
technical executive at the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto, Calif., said the
enclosure of the traveling wave reaction defuses the threat of potential proliferation of
weapons-grade nuclear materials -- a critical issue for breeder reactors.
Breeder reactors produce plutonium as part of the fuel cycle, and once chemically
separated, it can be removed and used to fuel other nuclear reactors. But it may also be
a target for theft by terrorists or states seeking nuclear weapons.
In the traveling wave reactor, the fuel, initially, is likely to be the vast U.S. stores of
depleted uranium, which don't themselves pose a proliferation risk. Plutonium is formed
in the reaction process but undergoes transmutation into other elements and is
essentially consumed. Depleted uranium is a heavy, lead-like residue from making or
enriching uranium fuel. Lacking the volatile isotope U-235 that is used in conventional
nuclear power plant fuel and nuclear weapons, depleted uranium is currently used for
conventional anti-tank ammunition and in the keels of sailboats.
Patent applications by Gilleland and his team describe two connected waves traveling
through the fuel cylinder at a little less than a half-inch per month, one creating enough
fast-moving neutrons to keep the chain reaction alive, and the second burning up the
fuel.
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"Anything that minimizes the separation and isolation of plutonium is helpful," Machiels
said.
An old theory being re-explored by supercomputers
Scientists began looking at the concept in the late 1950s, Machiels said. Recent
developments in supercomputing have enabled the TerraPower scientists to simulate
the traveling wave concept and establish its feasibility, they say.
Machiels agrees. "The modeling capability that John Gilleland's team has achieved has
allowed a lot of progress. They have fantastic computing capabilities," he said. The
team's supercomputer cluster has more than 1,000 times the computational strength of a
desktop computer, TerraPower says.
The team draws on support from MIT, DOE's Argonne National Laboratory and other
scientific centers, and future testing will require more DOE support. But at this point, the
project is a private research venture.
It recalls the famous Tuxedo Park laboratory established by the millionaire investor and
amateur scientist Alfred Lee Loomis at his mansion outside New York City in 1926. Its
scientists went on to provide critical research in the development of radar and the atomic
bomb in World War II.
"This is a type of work that requires a deep, deep pocket," said Machiels. "The fact that
this is being funded now by a private firm is good, but very unusual." TerraPower is
backed by Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft's former chief technology officer, who now is
CEO of Intellectual Ventures.
Creating pilot demonstrations to verify the theory and computer simulations of the fuel
cycle is one of the technology's remaining challenges. Another is finding alloys for the
reactor cylinders that can withstand the heavy damage caused by neutron impacts.
Duncan Williams, writing last fall on the Nuclear Street blog site, noted that no one has
made a deflagration wave work yet -- it has only been demonstrated with simulation
software. "So it seems that this technology has many years to go before it becomes a
physical reality," he said.
"We cannot expect it is going to be delivered soon," Machiels agreed.
E.P.A. Plans to Phase in Regulation of Emissions
The New York Times, February 22, 2010, by John Broder
WASHINGTON — Facing wide criticism over their recent finding that greenhouse gases
endanger the public welfare, top Environmental Protection Agency officials said Monday
that any regulation of such gases would be phased in gradually and would not impose
expensive new rules on most American businesses.
The E.P.A.’s administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, wrote in a letter to eight coal-state
Democrats who have sought a moratorium on regulation that only the biggest sources of
greenhouse gases would be subjected to limits before 2013. Smaller ones would not be
regulated before 2016, she said.
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“I share your goals of ensuring economic recovery at this critical time and of addressing
greenhouse gas emissions in sensible ways that are consistent with the call for
comprehensive energy and climate legislation,” Ms. Jackson wrote.
The eight Democratic senators, led by John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, said
hugely significant decisions about energy, the economy and the environment should be
made by elected representatives, not by federal bureaucrats.
The senators, who earlier questioned broad cap-and-trade legislation pushed by the
Obama administration, join a number of Republican lawmakers, industry groups and
officials from Texas, Alabama and Virginia in challenging the proposed E.P.A.
regulations of industrial sources. Senate Republicans are going a step further, seeking
to prevent the agency from taking any action to limit greenhouse gases, which are tied to
global warming.
Ms. Jackson warned that if the Republicans thwarted the agency’s efforts to address
climate change, it would kill the deal negotiated last year to limit carbon pollution from
cars and light trucks and would have a chilling effect on the government’s scientific
studies of global warming.
“It also would be viewed by many as a vote to move the United States to a position
behind that of China on the issue of climate change, and more in line with the position of
Saudi Arabia,” Ms. Jackson wrote.
The group led by Mr. Rockefeller asked Ms. Jackson to suspend any E.P.A. regulations
of stationary sources — including coal-burning power plants and large industrial facilities
— while Congress considers comprehensive energy and climate change legislation. The
House passed a major climate and energy bill last summer that would have overridden
some of the agency’s regulatory authority. The Senate, however, has not acted on the
issue and there is considerable doubt that it will do so this year.
“E.P.A. actions in this area would have enormous implications, and these issues need to
be handled carefully and appropriately dealt with by the Congress, not in isolation by a
federal environmental agency,” Mr. Rockefeller said.
The Democrats who joined Mr. Rockefeller are Senators Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Bob
Casey of Pennsylvania, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Mark Begich of Alaska, Carl Levin
of Michigan, Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia and Max Baucus of Montana.
Manufacturers, oil companies and business coalitions also filed petitions objecting to the
proposed rules.
Environmental advocates said the E.P.A. was justified in declaring carbon dioxide and
gases that contribute to global warming to be dangerous pollutants under the Clean Air
Act and was moving cautiously to regulate them.
“These answers from Lisa Jackson hopefully will reassure the authors of the letter that
the E.P.A. is proceeding in a very measured way and doing what is achievable and
affordable to curb global warming pollution and focusing as they should on the biggest
sources like power plants and not small businesses,” said David Doniger, climate policy
director of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
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Feds Plan Offshore Wind Consortium With 11 Atlantic States
Environment News Service, February 22, 2010
WASHINGTON, DC, February 22, 2010 (ENS) - The federal government and 11 Atlantic
Coast states have taken a first step towards forming a "wind consortium" to expedite
offshore wind permitting processes and electricity transmission planning efforts for the
Atlantic Coast.
"America's offshore wind potential holds great promise for our clean energy future," said
Secretary Salazar at a meeting of the governors of Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf
states on Friday.
"A coordinated, region-wide approach to offshore wind will help us move forward with
orderly development in the Atlantic OCS," Salazar said. "Region-wide planning could
foster cooperative approaches to developing the infrastructure necessary to service
offshore wind development."
The Secretary credited the governors in attendance for being in the forefront of the
efforts to harness offshore wind to achieve in energy independence.
Maine Governor John Baldacci said the meeting signified a proactive first step in forming
an Atlantic Wind Consortium that will ensure cooperation of the states and the federal
government to speed up permitting of off-shore wind facilities.
"I appreciate the energy and enthusiasm that Secretary Salazar has brought to bear to
realize the great potential to create jobs and clean energy through a focused approach
to offshore wind development," said Governor Baldacci. "Maine has strong potential to
become a national leader in offshore wind development and the federal support for our
efforts is critical, especially in regards to streamlining permitting."
Governor Baldacci credited the Obama administration for its strong focus, financial
support and attention to reducing regulatory burdens such as permitting for clean energy
production.
While a broad mix of renewable energy sources is necessary to provide secure energy
supplies and jobs, Governor Baldacci told the Secretary that ocean wind should continue
to receive attention and support from the federal government.
Maine is particularly well-placed to be a leader in offshore wind energy generation due to
favorable geography, broad-based support including public-private partnerships and the
technological and workforce strengths that the state has built, the governor said.
"Maine's deep ocean waters relatively close to shore, combined with our extensive
maritime industry infrastructure and proximity to large northeastern regional energy
markets, makes the Gulf of Maine the ideal location to lead vital deepwater offshore wind
development efforts for the nation," said Baldacci.
The University of Maine DeepCwind Deepwater Offshore Wind Consortium has been
awarded $25 million of federal support, including federal Recovery Act funds, to expand
efforts to develop offshore wind capacity.
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In January, the University of Maine received a $12.4 million grant from the U.S.
Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology for construction
of its new deepwater offshore wind energy research and testing facility. Funded by the
Recovery Act, it will be the only facility of its kind in the United States to include
complete development capabilities for designing, prototyping and testing large structural
hybrid composite and nanocomposite components for the deep water offshore wind
energy industry.
In December, the Baldacci administration named demonstration sites for offshore wind
technology located in Maine coastal waters, including the University of Maine testing site
off Monhegan Island. The university has the goal for the first demonstration turbine to be
operating in the water in 2011.
"Additional federal funding and a coordinated approach by federal agencies for siting of
ocean wind and turbine projects are essential to facilitate ocean energy production in
Maine," said Governor Baldacci. "Maine is eager to lead the way to a more stable and
secure energy supply that is renewable and will create jobs here in this country."
In addition, Governor Donald Carcieri of Rhode Island; Governor Jack Markell of
Delaware; Governor Bob McDonnell of Virginia; Governor Martin O'Malley of Maryland;
and by phone, Governor Deval Patrick Massachusetts attended the news conference
announcing the consortium.
In Massachusetts, Energy Management Inc. has been going through an eight-year long
permitting process for the country's first offshore wind development, Cape Wind, on
Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound.
State and local permitting was completed in 2009, and a federal permitting decision is
expected by April 2010. Once it gets underway, construction will take two years and
create at least 600 construction jobs and 50 permanent jobs once the facility comes
online.
The Cape Wind project has been reviewed by 17 federal and state agencies over the
past eight years with each succeeding environmental report giving it a positive review.
The project is oppposed by Cape Cod residents who fear the Cape Wind project would
pose threats to public safety, marine wildlife and habitats, tribal and historic resources,
commercial fisheries, and the local economy.
More than five miles from the nearest shore, 130 wind turbines would produce up to 420
megawatts of renewable energy. In average winds, Cape Wind would provide threequarters of the Cape and Islands electricity needs.
Cape Wind will reduce wholesale electric prices for the New England region by $4.6
billion over 25 years, according to a report published February 11 by Charles River
Associates, an economic consulting firm.
Commissioned by Cape Wind, the report by Charles River Associates found that Cape
Wind will place downward pressure on the wholesale clearing price of electricity by
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reducing operations of higher priced and polluting fossil fueled units. This will result in
average savings of $185 million per year in New England.
"This report makes it very clear, Cape Wind will provide good long term value to electric
consumers," said Cape Wind President Jim Gordon. "By reducing operations of higher
priced fossil fuel units, Cape Wind will reduce regional electric prices, reduce pollutant
and greenhouse gas emissions while increasing our energy independence."
Clean air vs. jobs is a false choice
DallasNews.com (Editorial), February 19, 2010
In the heat of an election primary, Gov. Rick Perry's decision to sue the Environmental
Protection Agency may seem like smart politics, but it's also bad policy.
Sure, it buttresses his campaign theme, casting him as the protector of Texas jobs
against employment-crippling federal environmental mandates. And Perry is right when
he says Texas has a lot a stake.
But his approach is troublingly shortsighted. The lawsuit relies on thinking about the
state's past, not its future, and it falsely pits jobs against clean air. Instead of opposing
the tougher air quality rules, Austin would be wise to focus instead on how best to be a
leader in a less carbon-dependent economy.
Our state emits up to 35 percent of all greenhouse gases released by industrial sources
in the United States, and the state's energy sector remains a prominent generator of
jobs. So it's vital that Texas work on two tracks simultaneously – clean air and clean
jobs.
Efforts to buck the shift won't save jobs, but rather will tether Texas to 20th-century jobs
in the 21st century and, thus, have considerable negative consequences on the state's
long-term economic health. Dirty air endangers health and also kills jobs, as California
learned the hard way.
Texas' legal gymnastics also are odd because the EPA's authority to regulate
greenhouse gases has already been decided. The Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the
EPA has authority to regulate greenhouse gases in auto emissions and noted that the
agency must not avoid regulating those emissions, as the Bush administration had done,
unless it showed a scientific reason for refusing to act.
In December, the EPA moved a step closer to making new rules to restrict these
emissions when it issued a finding that manmade greenhouse gases constitute a danger
to health and the environment.
We don't dispute Perry's contention that the new greenhouse gases will impact the
state's coal-fired power plants as well as farmers and ranchers who use fossil fuels to
cultivate their land and fertilize their crops. But is it not better to prepare for the future
than to pretend that it will not arrive? And is it not better to take the right steps as a state
to make sure new jobs are created?
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In many ways, this state is less dependent on the oil and gas sector than it was 20
years, and that's a good thing. Diversification into telecommunications and technology
industries, for example, helped Texas survive past economic setbacks.
Likewise, new shifts toward a cleaner economy ultimately will create sustainable new
century jobs if we don't deny the future.
Adapt now to climate change, panel warns
The Toronto Star, February 23, 2010, by Tanya Talaga
Ontario needs to construct flood-proof roads, improve building guidelines and enact local
emergency response plans to cope with extreme weather threats, warns a blue-ribbon
report on combatting climate change.
That grim news comes from Ontario's 11-person expert panel on climate-change
adaptation, which includes Dr. Ian Burton and Dr. Barry Smit, who shared the 2007
Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. vice-president Al Gore.
They are urging Premier Dalton McGuinty's government to use their 96-page report, the
culmination of two years of work, as the province's template for coping with the changing
climate.
Temperatures are steadily on the rise and flooding, droughts and severe weather
scenarios need to be considered in most infrastructure planning, they say. The latest
projected climate scenarios for Ontario in 2050 show an increase in the annual average
temperature of 2.5 C to 3.7 C compared to what was seen from 1961 to 1990.
The Far North will be hit the hardest by climate change, experiencing more snow and
greater flooding, affecting roads, bridges and First Nations communities.
While Ontario can play a part in limiting greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon
dioxide, what actually happens to the broader climate depends on the actions of other
countries, the report noted.
"Adaptation, however, is much more within our control," it says. "Adapt, we can and
must."
By this spring Ontario should produce a "climate change adaptation action plan," able to
guide policy creation in everything from physical infrastructure – such as building better
roads and bridges – to agriculture, water, at-risk species and human health, the report
said.
Environment Minister John Gerretsen welcomed the report, saying the government
knows it has to "do things differently" as a result of climate change. The report has now
been handed out to various ministries.
The 59 recommendations in the report, entitled "Adapting to Climate Change in Ontario"
include:

Setting up a climate-change adaptation directorate in the environment ministry to
coordinate an action plan, reporting annually on progress. It should recommend new
policy and related legislation to all ministries.
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



The agriculture ministry should amend policies relating to business risk
management, income support and crop insurance.
The energy and infrastructure ministry should obtain a climate-change risk
assessment of Ontario's electricity grid and propose adaptive actions.
The province, working with homebuilders, should assess the possibility and
benefits of introducing guidelines to address climate risks – such as extreme flooding
– for existing residential, institutional and commercial buildings.
Introducing requirements in the Ontario Building Code for water conservation
measures, such as low flush toilets.
NDP MPP Peter Tabuns (Toronto Danforth) said the government has known for years
adapting to climate change is a problem but no detailed plan has ever surfaced.
"How hot do you want the Earth to be? How badly do you want it cooked?" said Tabuns,
a former director of Greenpeace Canada.
Markey: Brown win no death knell for climate bill
Business Week, February 23, 2010, by Steve LeBlanc
BOSTON -- Backers of a sweeping climate change bill say it could still win passage in
the U.S. Senate despite the election of Republican Sen. Scott Brown, who campaigned
against the measure.
Democratic Rep. Ed Markey, one of the bill's chief sponsors in the U.S. House, said
legislation's fate in the Senate never hinged on Democrats having 60 votes. The
measure would put the nation's first limits on pollution linked to global warming.
Markey, chairman of House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global
Warming, said the bill was always going to need support from both parties. It passed the
House last summer on a 219-212 vote.
"I'm still confident that something can happen and my hope is that we can do it with the
support of Sen. Brown," Markey said Monday during a conference call with reporters.
Markey said he hasn't spoken to Brown yet about the legislation.
During the campaign, Brown criticized so-called "cap and trade" legislation, which he
said would "cause energy prices to spike and chase businesses out of Massachusetts
and cost individual families more money just to heat their homes and turn on their lights."
"The cap and trade bill moving its way through Congress will kill jobs at a time when our
economy is on the brink," Brown said after winning the Republican nomination for the
Senate seat formerly held by the late Edward Kennedy. "To me that is unacceptable."
Sen. John Kerry, who is helping lead the push for a climate bill in the Senate, has met
several times with Brown -- meetings that included discussions of energy and climate
change, according to Kerry spokeswoman Jodi Seth.
Kerry has been working with South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham and
Connecticut independent Sen. Joe Lieberman to try to craft a climate bill that could pass
the Senate with bipartisan support. The goal is to get a bill passed by the spring that
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would invest in new energy sources and provide incentives for companies that develop
carbon capture technology.
Environmental activists say they are holding out hope for a climate bill, pointing to what
they say was Brown's relatively strong environmental record as a Republican state
lawmaker.
Brown voted for the creation of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a coalition of 10
northeastern states including Massachusetts intent on curbing carbon emissions.
During the campaign, Brown said he regretted the vote. He also said that the climate is
always changing and it's unclear whether it's a man-made phenomenon or a natural
occurrence.
Lora Wondolowski, executive director of the Massachusetts League of Environmental
Voters, said they are hoping to reach out to Brown, who also said during the campaign
that he supports the development of new sources of energy not powered by fossil fuels,
including solar, wind and nuclear power.
Wondolowski said some of Brown's comments during the campaign mirrored what she
called the "national rhetoric that we're hearing from the far right."
"I know he questioned a number of things as a candidate but we'll be pushing him to
swing back to where the electorate is on this issue," she said. "If he wants to represent
Massachusetts I think he's going to have to move in the right direction."
The climate bill approved by the House would require the U.S. to reduce carbon dioxide
and other greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and by
about 80 percent by mid-century. U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of
fossil fuels are rising at about 1 percent a year and are predicted to continue increasing
without mandatory limits.
The bill would also let government limit heat-trapping pollution from factories, refineries
and power plants and issue allowances for polluters.
Most of the allowances would be given away, but about 15 percent would be auctioned
by bid and the proceeds used to defray higher energy costs for lower-income individuals
and families.
Republicans were overwhelmingly against the measure, arguing it would destroy jobs in
the midst of a recession while burdening consumers with a new tax in the form of higher
energy costs.
Climate Change Melts Antarctic Ice Shelves: USGS
Reuters, February 23, 2010, by Deborah Zabarenko
WASHINGTON - Climate change is melting the floating ice shelves along the Antarctic
Peninsula, giving scientists a preview of what could happen if other ice shelves around
the southern continent disappear, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said on Monday.
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The ice has retreated so far from the land mass that Charcot Island, which has long
been connected to the peninsula by an ice bridge, emerged as a real island again last
year, a USGS scientist said.
"This is the first time since people have been observing the area, since the 1800s, that
that ice shelf has not hitched together Charcot Island and the peninsula," scientist Jane
Ferrigno said in a telephone interview.
The Antarctic Peninsula extends further northward than the rest of the roughly circular
ice-covered continent, and it is warmer than the rest of Antarctica. But even in the
peninsula's coldest, southern part, ice shelves are vanishing.
Research by the USGS was the first to show that every ice front on the southern section
of the peninsula has been retreating from 1947 to 2009, with the most dramatic changes
since 1990.
A study of the phenomenon by the USGS in collaboration with the British Antarctic
Survey and assistance from the Scott Polar Research Institute and Germany's
Bundesamt fur Kartographie and Geodasie was posted at pubs.usgs.gov/imap/i-2600-c/
in February; a statement was released on Monday.
ICE SHELVES ACT AS GLACIER DAMS
Ice shelves act as dams to keep land-based glaciers from flowing unimpeded into the
sea; when ice shelves melt, glaciers can move more quickly into ocean waters.
If all the land-based ice in Antarctica melted, scientists have estimated sea levels
worldwide could rise from 213 to 240 feet, according to the study. If just the ice in West
Antarctica melted, there would be a sea level rise of about 20 feet, threatening coastal
communities and low-lying islands.
The land-based ice on the Antarctic peninsula is not enough to fuel a major rise in sea
level, Ferrigno said. However, the dramatic disappearance of ice shelves there could
give a clue of what could happen when glaciers are free to flow seaward.
This is important because the Antarctic ice sheet contains 91 percent of Earth's glacier
ice, Ferrigno said.
Unlike Antarctic land-based ice, the ice that covers much of the Arctic Ocean would not
contribute to sea level rise if it all melted, in much the way that a melting ice cube in a
glass of water would not make the glass overflow.
But both the Arctic and Antarctic have major impact on weather in the temperate parts of
the world.
Key Senator Sees No Quick Move On Climate Bill
Reuters, February 23, 2010, by Richard Cowan
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WASHINGTON - Senator Max Baucus, whose committee oversees aspects of climate
control legislation, said on Monday there did not appear to be momentum yet for passing
a bill.
"If you actually read the tea leaves...it looks like it's not getting a head of steam," Baucus
told Reuters during a short interview.
Climate legislation aimed at controlling greenhouse gas emissions had been a top
priority of the Obama administration but like his efforts to reform the expensive health
care system, it has stalled in Congress.
Countries around the world are waiting to see what the Unites States will do on battling
global warming but there is growing doubt there are enough votes in Congress to get
pass the legislation in this congressional elections year.
As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Baucus has a big say in trade aspects of
a climate control bill.
His committee likely would have to sign off on any provisions that impose tariffs or other
charges on goods from countries that do not have strict climate control provisions and
thus could get a competitive advantage over U.S. products.
The Finance Committee also would review how pollution permits might be distributed to
companies under a cap and trade system that limits industry's carbon dioxide emissions
and lets them trade those permits with other companies.
Asked whether his committee would hold hearings on climate legislation this year and
produce legislation, Baucus said: "We should move. We need to move. It's a major
issue. But we only have so much time this year."
The Montana Democrat noted that his committee has a large agenda this year with
legislation to reform healthcare and create jobs "and other issues."
Last year, Baucus said he hoped his committee could handle a climate change bill early
into 2010, but he did not repeat that goal on Monday.
Baucus made clear if a climate bill were to move through the Senate he believed it
should be debated in formal hearings and work sessions of the Finance Committee. "I
think hearings and markups are very important," he said.
Democratic Senator John Kerry has been leading efforts in the Senate to produce a
compromise climate change bill. He is working closely with Republican Senator Lindsey
Graham and independent Senator Joseph Lieberman.
Besides cap and trade, they reportedly are looking at alternative mechanisms for
reducing U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, including a
carbon tax and a cap on emissions but without the trading component.
Major economies climate forum to meet in months -US
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Reuters, February 23, 2010, by Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Representatives from the world's biggest economies
will meet again in the coming months to go over ways to tackle climate change, the top
U.S. climate negotiator said on Tuesday.
Todd Stern, President Barack Obama's lead negotiator at international climate change
talks, said the U.S.-sponsored Major Economies Forum would gather again in the
aftermath of the December U.N. summit in Copenhagen, which concluded an "accord"
on global warming but not a binding treaty.
"We do plan to do an MEF meeting," Stern told reporters after speaking at a climate
conference on Tuesday.
"We ... haven't set the date yet, but I'm sure it will be in the spring," he said.
Stern said the United States would co-chair the meeting and that it would likely be held
in another country.
The forum is seen as one avenue to help prod along international talks to curb
greenhouse gas emissions blamed for heating the Earth, but Stern, who lamented some
of the limitations in the U.N. process, said it would not seek to circumvent the United
Nations.
"We've never regarded it, and I don't think anybody else has regarded it, as a negotiating
forum. It's a discussion forum," he said. "It's not an alternative forum where things are
going to be decided."
The forum groups 17 of the world's top emitters of greenhouse gases. It met several
times last year.
Turf grass not always a 'green' thing, study shows
LA Times, February 23, 2010, by Margot Roosevelt
Green is good, right?
Not necessarily when it comes to lawns, according to a new study by UC Irvine
researchers.
For the first time, scientists compared the amount of greenhouse gases absorbed by
ornamental turf grass to the amount emitted in the irrigation, fertilizing and mowing of the
same plots. It turns out keeping a lawn is not good for Mother Earth.
In four parks near Irvine, researchers calculated that emissions were similar to or greater
than the amount of carbon dioxide removed from the air through photosynthesis -- a
finding relevant to policymakers seeking to control the gases that trap heat in the
atmosphere and contribute to climate change.
"Green spaces may be good to have," said geochemist Amy Townsend-Small, the lead
researcher in the paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. "But they
shouldn't be automatically counted as sequestering carbon."
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The paper is particularly timely, she added, because governments are calculating their
carbon footprints and discussing whether parkland could offset other sources of
emissions, such as refineries, power plants and automobiles.
Turf grass, covering an estimated 1.9% of the United States, is the most commonly
irrigated crop and increasingly in demand in urban areas.
Townsend-Small and colleague Claudia Czimczik measured the carbon content of the
parks' soil and compared that with emissions from producing fertilizer, mowing with
gasoline-powered equipment and pumping water to irrigate the plots. The water was
recycled; but if it were fresh water transported from distant rivers, as is much of Southern
California's water, emissions would be higher, Townsend-Small said.
They also factored in the nitrous oxide released from soil after fertilization. Nitrous oxide
is a greenhouse gas 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, which is released by
fossil fuel combustion.
California has no regulations to control turf grass, but the study "shows the importance of
full life-cycle analysis for greenhouse gases," said Mary Nichols, head of the California
Air Resources Board, which is charged with reducing the state’s carbon footprint.
Research is underway, she said, to develop varieties of grass that need less mowing
and use less water.
Southern Californians, Townsend-Small said, could reduce the carbon footprint of their
lawns by using rakes rather than leaf-blowers and hand mowers rather than gasolinepowered equipment.
"About 40% of the drinking water we import at great financial and environmental
expense is used for ," said Paula Daniels, a Los Angeles Department of Public Works
commissioner. "This study hopefully will motivate more of us to make changes in our
landscapes."
U.S. wants climate deal this year
The Calgary Herald, February 23, 2010
The U.S. said it wants to reach a legally binding climate-change agreement at a summit
in Mexico in December, a sign President Barack Obama hasn't given up the fight for a
global accord to limit greenhouse gases.
The pact should cover "all major economies" and include elements from the non-binding
Copenhagen Accord made in December, the State Department said in a letter released
Monday by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
With China and India resisting mandatory curbs on their emissions and legislation in the
U.S. outlining domestic commitments stalled in the Senate, Obama is attempting to keep
the talks alive. A two-year push for a treaty ended in December with a voluntary deal that
wasn't accepted by all of the 193 nations present.
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A treaty would provide clarity about future greenhouse gas emissions caps for the
carbon markets.
Hu says China committed to fighting climate change
The Calgary Herald, February 23, 2010, by Reuters
President Hu Jintao said on Tuesday China was committed to fighting climate change,
both at home and in cooperation with the rest of the world, but stopped short of offering
any new policies.
Britain, Sweden and other countries have accused China of obstructing December's
Copenhagen climate summit, which ended with a non-binding accord that set a target of
limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius but was scant on details.
Chinese officials have said their country would never accept outside checks of its plans
to slow greenhouse gas emissions and could only make a promise of "increasing
transparency".
Hu told a study meeting attended by senior politicians, including Premier Wen Jiabao,
that China took the problem seriously, state television reported.
"We must fully recognise the importance, urgency and difficulty of dealing with climate
change," the report paraphrased Hu as saying. "We must make it an important strategy
for our socio-economic development."
The government says some areas of the country are already seeing the effects of
climate change, with higher temperatures and reduced rainfall in some parts and
stronger storms in others.
China has pledged to cut the amount of carbon dioxide produced for each unit of
economic growth by 40-45 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels.
This "carbon intensity" goal would let China's greenhouse gas emissions keep rising, but
more slowly than economic growth.
Hu said energy saving, emission cuts and environmental awareness must be inculcated
into not only every government worker but Chinese society as a whole, state television
said.
"Climate change is a common, important challenge faced by countries around the
world," he said. "For a long time, we have paid a great deal of importance to tackling the
climate change issue on the basis of being responsible to our own people and the
people of the world."
As the world's biggest emitter, China has faced growing pressure from developed
countries and some poor ones to set firmer and deeper goals to curb its greenhouse
gases.
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China says its emissions historically have been much lower than the developed world's,
and its emissions per capita are still much lower than those of wealthy societies.
"Dealing with the problem must be done on the basis of the country's economic
development," Hu said.
"We must proactively participate in global cooperation to fight climate change," he said.
Germany to cut incentives for solar power adaption by July
The Calgary Herald, February 23, 2010
The German government plans to cut state-mandated incentives for rooftop solar power
by 16 percent from July 1 and eliminate support for converted farmland, parliamentary
sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
The cuts in the feed-in tariff apply for rooftop photovoltaic systems while incentives for
conversion sites such as dumps and former army bases will be cut by 11 percent.
Incentives for non-agricultural fields will fall 15 percent.
But farmland, until now also eligible for incentives, will be exempted altogether,
according to Hans-Peter Friedrich, a leader in parliament for the Christian Social Union
that is the sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats.
So-called feed-in tariffs -- prices utilities are obliged to pay to generators of renewable
energy -- are the sector's lifeline as long as grid-parity, the point at which renewables
cost the same as fossil fuel-based power, has not been reached.
A parliamentary committee of Christian Democrats and Free Democrats reached
agreement on Tuesday after weeks of debate. Merkel's cabinet is due to discuss the
proposal on March 3.
It also has to pass through the lower house of parliament.
Environment minister Norbert Roettgen wanted steeper cuts for rooftop systems to take
effect even sooner, on April 1.
The tariffs have made Germany the world's largest market for photovoltaic installations,
accounting for about half of all installations in 2009 of the 18 billion euro ($24.45 billion)
global market. [ID:nLDE60J0PA]
Last year, Germany added a record 3 gigawatt of new capacity to bring its total of
installed capacity to about 9 gigawatts.
The centre-right government wanted to cut the FIT further in 2010 because an overall
decline in prices outpaced the annual FIT cut of 8-10 percent in recent years due to the
rapid growth of the industry and a global oversupply of solar panels.
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Roettgen's plans have faced considerable opposition from within the centre-right
coalition as well as from several states where the solar power industry has flourished.
They fear radical cuts over 10 percent will harm the fast-growing sector.
The FIT was already cut by 9 percent in January -- and has dropped by 8 to 10 percent
per year since the Renewable Energy Act was created by the last centre-left government
in 2000.
SolarWorld SWVG.DE, the country's biggest solar company by sales, and Q-Cells
QCEG.DE, one of the world's largest makers of solar cells, have said Roettgen's cuts
were too steep, too fast and would kill jobs in Germany.
Utilities are now obliged to pay 39 euro cents per kilowatt hour of electricity produced for
20 years for rooftop systems installed in 2010, down from 43 cents for those built in
2009.
That has gradually fallen from 57 cents per kwh in 2004. Utilities pass the higher costs to
consumers.
The average price to consumers for power derived from fossil fuel and nuclear fuel is
around 20 cents per kilowatt hour.
FITs from open field systems are slightly less than the rooftop installations.
Games show why global warming must be tackled
The Vancouver Sun, February 23, 2010, by Thomas Grandi and Ian Bruce
West Coast winters just aren't what they used to be. Vancouverites welcomed the world
to the 2010 Winter Olympics with blossoming cherry trees, flowering crocuses and a lack
of snow.
There's so little snow on Vancouver's lower-elevation North Shore mountains, in fact,
that trucks and helicopters had to haul it 260 kilometres from Manning Park to Cypress
for snowboard and freestyle ski events. We haven't seen any snow on Cypress since
mid-January and, except for one or two days, it's been too warm even for artificial snowmaking.
Although Vancouver's warmest winter on record can't be pinned entirely on global
warming (this is an El Nino year), it fits with the long-term pattern.
The snow season in Western Canada has declined by about four weeks over the past 50
years, and that could accelerate if we don't address the climate change crisis. More
importantly, today's spring Olympic conditions offer a glimpse of what the future will look
like for winter sports unless action is taken.
Whistler could experience an average temperature increase of up to five degrees over
the next 70 years if heat-trapping carbon emissions are allowed to build up in the
atmosphere at current rates.
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And that could spell the end --or at least a serious curtailment -- of the winter activities
that are the resort area's claim to fame and part of its economic backbone.
Whistler won't be the only place to feel the heat. Canada's ski industry includes more
than 250 ski resorts, and winter tourism for skiing alone brings in about $839 million to
the Canadian economy every year. Winter tourism as a whole in Canada generates
about $5 billion a year and supports more than 110,000 jobs.
Beyond winter sports and tourism, glaciers and snow are crucial sources of water for
communities, agriculture and hydro power, and support important ecosystems in
Western Canada.
They act like a bank account, storing snow and ice during cold, wet weather and
releasing water when we need it most, during hot, dry summers or years of drought.
Using satellite data, scientists estimate that B.C.'s glaciers are losing 22 cubic kilometres
of ice a year. That's as much water as all of Canada's homes, farms and factories use
annually.
Fortunately, solutions do exist, which is why we dropped off a petition signed by 22
Olympic athletes at Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Calgary constituency office in
December.
Together with these athletes, we believe the government of Canada should be part of
the solution and must put in place strong laws and policies to address global warming -for the sake of our children and ourselves, for the sake of winter sports and tourism, and
for the sake of our economy.
In crucial international negotiations, including the December Copenhagen climate
summit, Canada has failed to make any meaningful contribution; instead we were
singled out as having a weak approach that has contributed to Canada's rising
emissions.
The 2010 Winter Games have shown us that taking action to address emissions that
cause global warming is doable and affordable. For example, using energy-efficient
technologies in many of the venues will save money on energy costs in the long run.
Not only can we afford to bring our emissions under control, we can't afford not to.
Economists have shown that, even though measures to reduce emissions may cost
money in the short term, not addressing climate change will be far more costly over time.
We need to take note of some of the solutions advanced by the Olympic Games, but we
need to do much more. And we need to do it now.
We must look beyond the extreme efforts to truck and fly snow to event locations during
these Winter Olympics.
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These actions treat only the symptoms of a problem that will become much worse if
global warming is left unchecked. Let this moment serve as a catalyst to focus on the
root cause of the problem, global warming emissions.
Reducing emissions is the only effective approach to saving our winter sports culture,
our planet, and our future.
As Canadians, let's not allow our country to sit on the sidelines when solutions exist.
Thomas Grandi is a former Olympic athlete with the Canadian alpine ski team and a
World Cup ski champion. Ian Bruce is a climate change specialist with the David Suzuki
Foundation.
Sending a message in 12, 000 bottles
The New York Times, February 19, 2010, by Jesse McKinley
STEP onto the Plastiki, the eco-friendly catamaran currently bobbing around the San
Francisco Bay, and one suddenly has the undeniable sensation of being at sea on a
giant bath toy.
After all, almost everything is repurposed plastic: the deck, the cabin, the sails. Ditto for
the hulls, the holds, the hatches. But for all of that, the Plastiki — made from thousands
of recycled bottles and held together, no kidding, with cashew nut glue — feels
remarkably solid, gliding along with barely a ripple.
For while it is certainly a stunt, it’s also a real boat. But whether it’s a seaworthy boat
remains to be seen. Billed as a revolutionary piece of environmentally friendly
engineering by its creator, David de Rothschild, a 31-year-old English banking heir and
environmental daredevil, the Plastiki is about to face its first real-world test: a winding
11,000-mile journey from San Francisco to Sydney, Australia, an open-ocean route
considerably more challenging than sailing the Sausalito harbor.
As of Friday, the boat still hadn’t passed the Golden Gate Bridge, where 20-foot waves
are common, and even bigger swells lurk at sea.
Not to mention wind, rain and tides.
All of which, of course, raises a question: if the Plastiki, say, breaks apart in the middle
of the Pacific — spilling all those carefully collected bottles right back into the ocean —
doesn’t it kind of defeat the purpose?
Mr. de Rothschild, a self-described novice sailor, seems confident that a disaster won’t
happen (whenever the journey starts; the launch date is yet to be set).
“I’d give myself 100 percent chance of making it,” he said. Then he added: “But
obviously, there’s always a percentage that’s outside of our control.”
Indeed, Mr. de Rothschild said that just getting the Plastiki into the water has been a
victory, one that came after years of planning, months of delays and more than a few
nights of discouraged drinking.
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Many of the challenges had to do with the unusual design. Thousands of recycled plastic
bottles were melted and re-formed into a 60-foot-long boat.
Its two hulls are also ringed by about 12,000 whole and highly pressurized two-liter
bottles, some with their labels still clinging to their sides. It may be the only boat in the
world that you could redeem at your local deli.
Topside, the layout is simple: an angular igloo provides the only shelter, with six thin
bunks softened by six thin cushions.
There’s a tiny galley with a sink (in which a bottle of Kombucha was sighted) and a twoburner stove. There’s a tiny desk with room for a laptop, a logbook and a G.P.S. unit.
There’s — oddly — a skateboard, as well as several sailing tomes, like “The Log of the
‘Cutty Sark,’ ” by Basil Lubbock.
Power is provided by a small array of solar panels and windmills, and exercise is
provided by a stationary bike.
Asked how he and his five-member crew might entertain themselves for the planned
three-month journey, Mr. de Rothschild said, “sunbathing.” (He later added chess,
dominos and, yes, live blogging.)
The hulls’ bottles help absorb many blows from passing waves, but they also deprive the
Plastiki of a certain new-boat smell, Mr. de Rothschild said.
“If you were on another boat, it smells of fuel and it smells of that horrible fiberglass and
all those other things,” he said. “This doesn’t.”
That said, the insistence on using bottles for flotation drove away a few collaborators
during the project’s gestation, but it remains at the heart of the message preached by
Mr. de Rothschild: that waste can be used as a resource.
That extends to human waste; the Plastiki will include a small organic garden on board,
with fertilizer provided from compost made with, well, the crew’s natural leavings.
Mr. de Rothschild said the Plastiki mission was inspired by the famed 1947 journey of
the Kon-Tiki, wherein Thor Heyerdahl took his crew from South America to Polynesia on
a primitive, decidedly nonplastic raft.
Despite the Plastiki’s technological advantages, Matthew Grey, the project manager,
was more measured about the boat’s chances.
“While there is nothing quite like arriving at your destination to prove your point in its
entirety, any boat, no matter how it’s made, is vulnerable to the water out there,” said Mr.
Grey, who will monitor the Plastiki’s progress from the Polynesian island of Tuvalu.
“There’s some big waves out there.”
So it is that over the last several weeks, the captain of the Plastiki, Jo Royle, and coskipper, David Thomson, have been putting the boat through its paces on San Francisco
Bay.
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Ms. Royle, an experienced ocean yacht racer, said that the Plastiki presents more than a
few challenges, including the fact that it is, politely put, somewhat slow. Not quite doggypaddle slow, but the America’s Cup this ain’t. (That honor would belong to another San
Francisco boat owned by another millionaire adventurer, Larry Ellison.)
Then there is the issue of the boat’s agility, which Ms. Royle said was essentially that of
a traditional trading schooner.
A small biodiesel motor intended to add some oomph at the boat’s back end is useless,
she said. “We are very restricted in our ability to maneuver. We sail with the wind.”
So what happens if a storm hits?
“We don’t have the ability to get out of the way,” Mr. de Rothschild said. “So what we
need is to have enough confidence in the vessel to say, ‘Right, a storm is coming
through, we’ll put up a little storm jib and hunker down and let it go over.’ ”
Cashew glue aside, the other thing keeping the trip together is Mr. de Rothschild, who
has relentlessly promoted the Plastiki and is seemingly perpetually followed by cameras.
(One of the planned crew is a videographer from National Geographic.)
He is shy when it comes to saying how much of his family fortune he’s spent on Plastiki
— “more than I’d like and less than it could have,” he said of the cost — but he has lined
up all manner of sponsors.
Nike has also designed high-tops for him and Ms. Royle.
While they say they are confident enough to sail without a trail boat, they have painted
white crosses on the soles of the Nikes, a sailors’ tradition meant to ward of sharks and
other sea monsters.
His insoles have an image of a plastic bottle intertwined with a sword, a symbol of the
mission, and his dogs, Nesta and Smudge.
Floating on the bay on a calm day recently, Mr. de Rothschild seemed cheery about his
chances of making it across the Pacific.
“I’m over the moon,” he said. “I’m super chuffed.”
Back to Menu
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91
ROAP MEDIA UPDATE
THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
UNEP or UN in the News
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Rechargeable, Light, Clean Stoves Win UN Prize - Scoop
China's leaders begin challenging goal of cutting carbon emissions – China Daily
General Environment
News
Emission Cut Targets Inadequate:
Experts – Jakarta
Globe
UN Says Tougher Objective Required To Prevent Climate Disaster – India-server.com
East Asian Economy Could Suffer From Unprotected Seas - Bernama
UN calls for 'more ambitious action' to cut greenhouse gas emission - philstar.com
INTERVIEW - Hard to agree U.N. climate treaty in 2010 - de Boer – Malaysia Star
UN urges countries to boost green economy – People’s Daily Online
Green Watch: Can the United Nations environmental summit in Bali succeed? – The
Jakarta Post
Rwanda to host celebrations – The Himalayan Times
Thousands of Sri Lankan farmers to benefit from UN-funded anti-poverty scheme – UN
News Centre
Toxic pesticides rife in Kingdom, NGO reports – Phnom Penh Post
Rechargeable, Light, Clean Stoves Win UN Prize - Scoop
Wednesday, 24 February 2010, 1:01 pm
Press Release: United Nations
Rechargeable Light, Clean Stove Schemes Win UN Environmental Prize
A pair of grassroots initiatives bringing environmentally friendly stoves and rechargeable
lighting to remote communities in several countries are the recipients of this year’s
prestigious Sasakawa Prize, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
announced today.
The annual prize, worth $200,000 between the two projects, is awarded to sustainable
schemes that can be replicated at the local level across the world.
This year’s winners are Nuru Design, a company providing rechargeable lights to
villages in Rwanda, Kenya and India; and Trees, Water and People (TWP), an
organization distributing fuel-efficient stoves to people in Honduras, Guatemala, El
Salvador, Nicaragua and Haiti.
“Combating climate change is not just up to governments; it starts at the grassroots
level, as communities tap into the power of renewables and sustainable technologies,”
said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner, who chaired the four-person jury which
included Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and UN Messenger of Peace Wangari Maathai.
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“Through pioneering green ovens and sustainable lighting, Nuru Design and Trees,
Water and People are changing the lives of thousands of schoolchildren, housewives
and villagers across Latin America, Africa and India,” added Mr. Steiner.
With the lack of reliable energy and lighting affecting over 2 billion people in the
developing world and the equivalent of 260 million tons of carbon dioxide emitted every
year from burning kerosene and firewood, Nuru Design has already converted
thousands of households to rechargeable lights, and aims to prevent the emission of
around 40,000 tons of carbon dioxide from kerosene lighting in 2010.
In Rwanda alone, Nuru – which means ‘light’ in Swahili – is helping 10,000 households
every three months switch from kerosene to its lighting system, and the company plans
to use the Sasakawa funding to scale up in Rwanda and to replicate their efforts in
Burundi, Kenya, Uganda and India, expanding to about 200,000 households.
In addition, through fuel-efficient cooking stoves that burn 50 to 70 per cent less wood,
TWP is helping households save money and preventing nearly 250,000 tons of
hazardous emissions from traditional smoky open fires, which kill around 1.6 million
women and children annually.
To date, TWP has organized the building of 35,000 stoves throughout Central America
and Haiti, benefiting more than 175,000 people who save $1 to $5 per day on the cost of
wood. The initiative also decreases harmful carbon emissions by 1 ton of carbon dioxide
equivalent per year per stove for domestic users and 3.5 tons per year for commercial
users, like tortilla makers.
The winners are slated to receive the prize at a ceremony during this week’s 11th
Special Session of the UNEP Governing Council in Bali, Indonesia, which kicks off on
Wednesday and is attended by dozens of environment ministers.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1002/S00542.htm
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China's leaders begin challenging goal of cutting carbon emissions – China Daily
China's highest leadership Tuesday began considering proposals from the country's
senior researchers in an attempt to help achieve the country's ambitious goal of cutting
carbon intensity by 40 to 45 percent by 2020.
The move is a sign that China will roll out more economic and industrial policies to tackle
climate change this year when drawing up the development roadmap for the 12th FiveYear Plan (2011-15).
The political bureau of the CPC Central Committee has raised climate change as their
study topic for the second time during the past two years. The leadership usually holds
study meetings every one or two months.
At the study meeting in Beijing, President Hu Jintao said China is committed to fighting
climate change, and the leadership will be working hard to mobilize efforts to realize the
goal, which China came up with shortly before the Copenhagen summit.
Ever since Nov 26 last year, when China pledged to cut carbon intensity by 40 to 45
percent (from 2005 levels) before 2020, China's leaders, especially Premier Wen Jiabao,
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have been involved in intensive diplomatic efforts, including wide-ranging telephone talks
with world leaders, to move forward the Copenhagen agenda.
However, some countries, including Britain, have accused China of obstructing
December's Copenhagen climate summit, which ended with a non-binding accord that
set a target of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 C, but was scant on details.
"We must fully recognize the importance, urgency and difficulty of dealing with climate
change," Hu said in an address to other high-ranking leaders after listening to lectures
by Pan Jiahua, senior researcher with Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Xu
Huaqing, director of the Energy Research Institute affiliated with the National
Development and Reform Commission.
"We must make it an important strategy for our socio-economic development," Hu said.
Energy saving, emissions cuts and environmental awareness must be inculcated into not
only every government worker, but Chinese society as a whole, Hu said.
Active role praised
In another development, Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen recently
praised Wen Jiabao for his "important and constructive role" during the Copenhagen
climate change summit last December.
In a letter to Wen, Rasmussen agreed with the premier's evaluation that the
Copenhagen summit had delivered positive results, a Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokesperson said Tuesday.
The two leaders also agreed that the upcoming negotiations should be conducted under
the United Nations framework. China officials said they hope the two countries will
strengthen communication and dialogue in order to address climate change issues.
Rasmussen replied to Wen on Feb 12 after the Chinese Premier wrote separate letters
to Rasmussen and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, informing them that China
positively evaluates and supports the Copenhagen Accord, a political agreement
achieved last December after 192 UN members met in the Danish capital.
In the letter, Wen pointed out that the Copenhagen Accord reflected the political will of
all parties to actively tackle climate change, reaffirmed the principle of "common but
differentiated responsibilities" and upheld the dual-track negotiating mechanism of the
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol.
The letter reaffirmed China's commitment to advancing international cooperation on
tackling climate change and the direction for future negotiations.
Wen also said China will do its best to honor its commitments on climate change,
including a reduction of carbon dioxide emission intensity per unit of GDP by 40 to 45
percent by 2020 against 2005 levels; increasing to 15 percent the use of non-fossil fuels
in the country's total primary energy mix by 2020; and an increase of 40 million hectares
of forest and 1.3 billion cubic meters of forest volume by 2020 from 2005 levels.
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Wen also confirmed that China will continue to play an active and constructive role and
work jointly with the international community for a meaningful conclusion of the Bali
Roadmap negotiations at the Mexico Climate Talks, with the aim of achieving a
comprehensive, effective and binding outcome that will reinforce the implementation of
the convention and the protocol.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-02/24/content_9492163.htm
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Emission Cut Targets Inadequate: Experts – Jakarta Globe
Nusa Dua, Bali. Pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions made at the Copenhagen
summit in December are not enough to keep the world from a devastating climate
change scenario, a senior Indonesian environment official said here on Tuesday.
“They are still insufficient, because each country is still using a different baseline [for
reducing greenhouse gas emissions] and they are therefore not comparable,” said Liana
Bratasida, assistant minister for global environmental affairs and international
cooperation at the State Ministry for the Environment.
The commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions as stated in the 1997 Kyoto
Protocol, which agreed on reduce emissions by 5 percent from 1990 levels, were
clearer, she said.
Her statement came as the United Nations Environment Program released a report here
on Tuesday saying more ambitious emission cut commitments were needed to prevent
the world’s temperature from rising more than the feared two degrees Celsius. UNEP is
hosting a major environment meeting in Bali this week with officials from more than a
hundred countries.
According to the report, which was based on the estimates of researchers at nine
leading institutes, annual global greenhouse gas emissions should not exceed 40
gigatons to 48.3 gigatons of CO2-equivalent by 2020 and should peak sometime from
2015 to 2021. To achieve this, the report said global emissions need to fall by 48 percent
to 72 percent between 2020 and 2050.
However, the report, which analyzed the emission cut commitments made so far by 60
countries that signed up to the Copenhagen Accord, said: “The expected emissions for
2020 range between 48.8 gigatons to 51.2 gigatons of CO2-equivalent.”
Indonesia, a signatory to the accord, has vowed to reduce its emissions by 26 percent
by 2020.
“The Copenhagen Accord represents a significant step in the direction of managing
global emissions. But, no one should assume for the moment that this should be
enough,” Achim Steiner, UNEP executive director, said at a news conference.
“Therefore, based on the evidence that was presented, we mustn’t sit back and think if
only we implement the Copenhagen accord very well, everything will be fine.”
Also on Tuesday, UNEP released its “Year Book 2010.”
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The book estimates that investing between $22 billion and $29 billion in the mechanism
known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation could cut
global deforestation by 25 percent by 2025.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to open the 11th special session of
the Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum of the United Nations
Environment Program today. It runs through Friday.
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/emission-cut-targets-inadequate-experts/360404
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UN Says Tougher Objective Required To Prevent Climate Disaster – Indiaserver.com
As per the new UN report issued Tuesday to reduce the green house gas production all
the countries need to decide on tougher goals in order to prevent a calamity caused by
drastic climate change.
According to the recent study by UN Environment Programme (UNEP), between the
year s 2020 and 2050, green house gas emission has to come down between 48 and 72
percent.
The report also states that if the green house gas production is reduced by 3 percent in
each year between 2030 and 2050, there still remains a 50/50 chance of the increase in
global temperature by 2 degrees Celsius.
Under the voluntary Copenhagen Accord decided at the UN climate change conference
in December, countries assurance of cutting down the green house gas emission by
2020.
UNEP executive director Achim Steiner said, "Yes, the Copenhagen Accord represents
a significant step in the direction of managing emissions, but even in the best
assumptions no one should assume for the moment that will be enough."
The study got published before the meeting of global environmental ministers in the
Indonesian resort in Bali. It analysed the assurances of 60 developed and developing
countries which were recently submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change.
The study revealed that the total greenhouse gas emissions should not exceed40 to
48.3 gigatons of equal carbon dioxides in 2020 and should max out between 2015 and
2021.
He said, "Copenhagen, in my mind, will be in history books as a moment where
humanity has failed in its responsibility to act."
http://www.india-server.com/news/un-says-tougher-objective-required-to-21693.html
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East Asian Economy Could Suffer From Unprotected Seas - Bernama
NEW YORK, Feb 23 (Bernama) -- The East Asian economy could suffer seriously if
seas are not protected, according to the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP), Vietnam news agency reported Tuesday.
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In its new report, the UNEP said East Asia's economically viable coastal habitats and
ecosystems are under threat from pollution, alien invasive species and other factors.
Nearly three quarters of the population of the region depends directly or indirectly on
coastal areas, and 80 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) is linked to coastal
natural resources, stated Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director.
As a result, the degradation of the ecosystem and the costal environment would directly
impact the region's poverty levels unless urgent action is taken, he added.
UNEP's Marine Environment of the East Asia Seas States report said that almost 40
percent of coral reefs and half of all mangroves have already been lost while those
natural resources annually generate about US$112.5 billion and US$5.1 billion
respectively.
The East Asia Seas, with some of the world's highest concentrations of shipping and
fishing vessel activity, account for 50 percent of global fisheries production and 80
percent of global aquaculture production, the report said.
The UN noted that the East Asian Seas account for 30 percent of the world's seas under
national jurisdiction and called on the governments of the region, including Cambodia,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam to fulfil their vital role
in maintaining effective stewardship of the marine environment.
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=477440
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UN calls for 'more ambitious action' to cut greenhouse gas emission philstar.com
Updated February 23, 2010 04:01 PM
BALI (Xinhua) – The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) said Tuesday that
countries will have to be far more ambitious in cutting greenhouse gas emission if the
world is to effectively curb a rise in global temperature at 2 degrees Celsius or less.
In its Year Book 2010 released on the sidelines of the 11th Global Ministerial
Environment Forum and the Chemical Ministerial Convention at Nusa Dua of Bali
province, the UNEP said that annual global greenhouse gas emissions should not be
more than 40 to 48.3 Giga tons (GT) of equivalent CO2 in 2020 and should peak
sometime between 2015 and 2021.
The report also estimated that between 2020 and 2050, global emission need to fall by
between 48 and 72 percent, indicating that an ambition to cut greenhouse gases by
around 3 percent a year over the 30 years' period is also needed.
"Such a path offers a 'medium' likelihood or at least a 50/50 chance of keeping a global
temperature rise at below 2 degrees Celsius," said the report.
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It also said that the expected emissions for 2020 range between 48.8 to 51.2 GT of CO2
equivalent should be fulfilled. In order to meet the 2 degrees Celsius aim in 2050,
emissions in 2020 need to be between 40 and 48.3 GT.
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=552266&publicationSubCategoryId=200
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INTERVIEW - Hard to agree U.N. climate treaty in 2010 - de Boer – Malaysia Star
By Robert Nowatzki
BONN, Germany (Reuters) - Agreeing a U.N. climate treaty in 2010 will be "very difficult"
despite a new push to spur negotiations after the Copenhagen summit, the head of the
U.N. Climate Change Secretariat said on Tuesday.
Yvo de Boer, a Dutch citizen who announced plans last week to stand down in July after
four years, also suggested to Reuters Television that his successor should be from a
developing nation.
"I think that's going to be very difficult," he said of prospects for agreeing a new treaty at
an annual ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, from Nov. 29-Dec. 10. Rich and poor
are divided over sharing out the burden of curbs on emissions.
A U.N. summit in Denmark in December disappointed many nations by failing to agree a
new legally binding deal to succeed the existing Kyoto Protocol.
It ended with a non-binding Copenhagen Accord to limit warming to less than 2 degrees
Celsius (3.6 F) above pre-industrial times.
De Boer said developing countries would want to know what a treaty would mean "in
terms of obligations and what it's going to bring for them in terms of finance and
technology, before they're willing to take that step and say: 'yes, we're willing to work
towards a legally binding treaty'."
"So I think the first step will be to get the architecture right and I think that can be done in
Mexico. The next step would be to decide on a treaty on it," he said.
On Monday, key nations agreed to add an extra negotiating session of senior officials
from 194 nations in Bonn from April 9-11, on top of a meeting in Bonn from May 31-June
11. Delegates said it was a sign of willingness to work for a treaty.
MEXICO
De Boer also said he expected that Mexico would host talks among some key
negotiators in March.
De Boer said the choice of his successor was up to U.N. Secretary General Ban Kimoon. But he said "I think it would be quite useful to...have somebody from a developing
country."
So far, 100 nations have signed up for the Copenhagen Accord, which promises almost
$10 billion a year in aid from 2010-12, rising to $100 billion a year from 2020, as well as
setting the 2C temperature ceiling.
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De Boer said that the climate debate was shifting into a period when it could carry out
decisions already taken to slow droughts, floods, heatwaves, more powerful storms and
rising ocean levels.
"We're now moving into a phase that is very much about implementation and about
getting developing countries on board and acknowledging cooperation and adaptation,"
he said.
In Indonesia on Tuesday, a U.N. study said promised cuts in emissions, mainly from
burning fossil fuels, so far by 60 countries under the Copenhagen Accord were
insufficient to limit temperature rise to 2 degrees.
Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Programme, urged countries to announce
deeper cuts in emissions: "The message is not to sit back and resign and say we will
never make it."
De Boer will be joining business consultancy KPMG.
"I've always said that I think the ultimate solution to climate change needs to come from
the private sector, within boundaries designed by government, but from the private
sector," he said.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/2/23/worldupdates/2010-0223T191053Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-464042-1&sec=Worldupdates
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UN urges countries to boost green economy – People’s Daily Online
United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) on Tuesday urged countries to develop
further green economy as it is proved to be beneficial for human and environment.
Pavan Sukhdev, UNEP's Head of Green Economy Initiative, told a journalist workshop
that the environment-friendly concept could be adopted in many areas such as
transportation, infrastructure, recycling as well as food and agriculture.
"That's because green economy has objectives as engine of growth, creating decent
employment and solution of poverty," said Sukhdev.
According to estimate by German consultant Roland Berger, the global market for
environmental products and services currently runs at around 1,370 billion U.S. dollars
and could double to 2, 740 billion dollars in 2020.
The UNEP's data showed that renewable energy create new jobs.
"Globally, some 300,000 people are employed in wind power and at least 170,000 in
solar one," said the data.
While in food and agriculture, sales of organic food globally have surpassed 100 billion
dollars with great potential for green jobs growth.
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90778/90858/90863/6900243.html
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Green Watch: Can the United Nations environmental summit in Bali succeed? –
The Jakarta Post
Jonathan Wootliff | Tue, 02/23/2010 12:33 PM | Environment
The largest global environmental gathering since the Copenhagen climate change
summit last year is now being held in Bali, where ministers from over 100 countries are
convening together with scientists and ecology experts, business and non-governmental
organizations.
Arranged by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), participants are coming
from all over the world for a wide range of different meetings taking place at the Bali
International Conference Center all week.
In addition to the so-called 11th Special Session of the Governing Council/Global
Ministerial Environment Forum, there will be meetings of the parties to three important
conventions about safeguarding the adverse impacts of chemicals and waste on the
health of people and our the planet.
As is the usual practice for UN meetings, the proceedings will be highly complex,
constrained by international governance protocols and overwhelmed with jargon and
acronyms that are guaranteed to make the gathering of little interest the general public.
Perhaps some of the gobbledygook will be dispelled thanks to a workshop being staged
to "bring journalists into an active dialogue with experts, politicians and civil society
leaders on current key environmental issues such as biodiversity loss, opportunities of
the green economy and the future of environmental governance".
Forgive my cynicism, but the recent failure of the Copenhagen summit to deliver a
legally-binding climate change treaty has left me wondering whether environmental
protection is safe in the hands of the UN.
Grandly titled topics to be covered in the neatly-titled "Reporting Green" media workshop
will be "Pricing Nature: The Economic and Social Value of Ecosystems and Biodiversity",
"The Way Forward, Global Markets: The Green Economy Option" and "The International
Year of Biodiversity".
There is no doubt that these are all vitally important issues, but the big question is
whether any of the meetings in the beautiful resort of Nusa Dua will achieve anything
more than just hot air.
In spite of the disappointing outcome in Copenhagen, perhaps member states should be
blamed, rather than the UN itself, which has many laudable specialist agencies doing
much good in the world.
The brainchild of the United Nations Environmental Program, the International Year of
Biodiversity, is a celebration of biological diversity and its value for life on Earth, and is
meant to help raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity through activities and
events in many countries, including Indonesia.
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Biodiversity is the scientific term for variety of life on Earth. It is essential to sustaining
the living networks and systems that provide us all with health, wealth, food, fuel and the
vital services our lives depend on.
Humans are a part of nature, but some of our activities are threatening the diversity of
life on Earth, which is diminishing at a rapidly accelerating rate.
Loss of biodiversity can be irreversible and damage the life support systems on which
we depend for our very survival
Indonesia is extraordinarily rich in biodiversity and may well be home to more species
than any other country on Earth.
This country among the top five on plant diversity with an estimated 38,000 higher plant
species; leading the world list in palm diversity with 477 species; and has over half of the
350 species of dipterocarp trees.
Indonesia also ranks behind only Brazil and possibly Columbia in freshwater fish
diversity, with around 1,400 species.
The nation has long been a place of considerable interest to environmentalists and
ecologists.
Sir Stamford Raffles, a well-known English naturalist, discovered the siamang, the
world's largest species of gibbon in Sumatra.
Sulawesi is where entomological expert Anthony Bedford Russell identified a giant tree
nymph named Idea tambusisiana, which has a wingspan of more than 17 centimeters.
In 1911, the bird expert Erwin Stresemann collected an adult female of a beautiful
species of crested starling at Bubunan on the northern coast of Bali known as
Rothschild's Mynah.
And this Green-Watch column has reported many other magnificent examples of
Indonesia's wealth in biodiversity
This week's UN gathering in Bali is important to the future wellbeing of Indonesia and our
planet.
Unlike the Copenhagen meeting, the climate summit in Bali was universally regarded as
a success, which was much attributed to the skillful diplomacy conducted by Indonesia.
Sadly, Rachmat Witoelar, the gracious Chair of that illustrious summit, has predicted that
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) is now doomed
to failure.
And it's much respected Secretary-General, Yvo de Boer, has just announced he is
moving to the private sector, conceding that "the real solutions must come from
industry".
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Let's hope that the inherent weaknesses in the UN systems and processes can be
overcome again in Bali, for the sake of the world's biodiversity.
With the meetings being convened on the Island of the Gods, perhaps we can expect a
triumphant outcome.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/02/23/green-watch-can-united-nationsenvironmental-summit-bali-succeed.html
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Rwanda to host celebrations – The Himalayan Times
KATHMANDU: The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today announced
that Rwanda, an East African Country, will be hosting the World Environment Day 2010.
World Environment
Day (WED), which aims to be the biggest global celebration for positive environmental
action, is coordinated by UNEP every year on June 5.
This year’s theme for the celebrations is ‘Many Species. One Planet. One Future’ — a
message focusing on the importance of the globe’s wealth of species and ecosystems to
humanity, which supports this year’s UN International Year of Biodiversity.
Justifying the selection of the venue, UNEP said in a press statement that Rwanda’s
combination of environmental richness, including rare and economically important
species such as the mountain gorilla, allied to newly evolving and pioneering green
policies were some important reasons for selecting Rwanda as the host country.
Rwanda’s capital Kigali will be the venue for this global celebration, with a myriad of
activities over several days to inspire Rwandans, East Africans and people around the
world to take action for the environment, the statement said.
According to UNEP, it aims to mobilise more people than ever for the celebrations, with
a huge variety of activities ranging from school tree-planting drives to community cleanups, car-free days, photo competitions on biodiversity, bird-watching trips, city park
clean-up initiatives, exhibits, green petitions, nationwide green campaigns and much
more.
http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Rwanda+to+host++celebrati
ons&NewsID=229323
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Thousands of Sri Lankan farmers to benefit from UN-funded anti-poverty scheme
– UN News Centre
23 February 2010 – Nearly 58,000 farming households in Sri Lanka are expected to
benefit from a United Nations-funded programme designed to improve their livelihoods,
boost their incomes and enhance their participation in the marketing and selling of their
products.
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The $25 million loan from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will
enable the country’s National Agribusiness Development Programme to help small
producers, women, landless households and young people in rural areas.
Among the programme’s goals is to increase the incomes of smallholder farmers by 20
to 30 per cent, and help farmers become directly involved in processing and marketing
their products such as fruits, vegetables, spices, cereal, milk and dry fish.The
programme will provide business expertise so that farmers can take part in joint ventures
as equal partners with the private sector
“They will have access to financial resources so that they can take advantage of
emerging opportunities, building their own processing capacity and having better access
to markets. Increased on-farm productivity will lead to better farm-gate prices for their
produce,” the Rome-based agency noted.
Sri Lanka was the very first recipient of an IFAD loan, in April 1978, and since then the
agency has funded 15 projects in the South Asian nation for a total investment of more
than $217 million.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33858&Cr=ifad&Cr1=
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Toxic pesticides rife in Kingdom, NGO reports – Phnom Penh Post
Tuesday, 23 February 2010 15:04 David Boyle and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
A NEW report released by the Pesticide Action Network at a UN Environment
Programme forum on the use of toxic chemicals has found that Cambodia and 10 other
Asian countries are awash in highly hazardous pesticides.
Case studies conducted across Asia in farming areas that included Peam Chor district,
Prey Veng province, showed that 66 percent of pesticides used in agriculture were
highly hazardous, according to standards set by international bodies such as the World
Health Organisation.
The report found that 90 percent of farmers in Prek Krabrau commune who sprayed their
crops with pesticides routinely suffered from dizziness, 87 percent suffered from
headaches, 70 percent experienced blurry vision and 52 percent reported hand tremors.
Cambodian law already prohibits the use of 116 chemical pesticides and restricts the
use of another 40; however, the enforcement of these bans has been consistently
undermined by the illegal importation of the chemicals, mainly from Vietnam.
Bella Whittle, the author of the report and a programme officer at the Pesticide Action
Network, said better international coordination is needed to stem the flow of illegal
chemicals.
“As I understand it, there has been pretty genuine attempts in many of the Asian
countries to phase out class 1 acutely toxic pesticides; however, those pesticides are still
being used in some countries illegally,” she said.
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Hong Narit, cabinet chief at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said the
report would help the public better understand that overuse of chemical pesticides harms
farmers, consumers and the environment.
“The report is good for raising awareness in Cambodia, and now we are preparing
legislation on the management of the chemicals as well,” he said.
The report was released Sunday, the first day of the 11th UN Environment Programme
Global Major Groups and Stakeholders Forum in Bali, Indonesia.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010022332516/National-news/toxicpesticides-rife-in-kingdom-ngo-reports.html
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General environment news
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11 rainforest countries pledge sustainable forest management - Sify
President Hu calls for China to meet emission cut targets - Xinhua
Treaties help developing countries – The Jakarta Post
11 rainforest countries pledge sustainable forest management - Sify
2010-02-23 - Eleven tropical rainforest countries Tuesday agreed to commit on
sustainable forest management at a ministerial meeting held in Indonesia's Bali
province, Xinhua reported.
The tropical rainforests are home to diverse biological species and storehouses of
genetic resources. They also serve as sources of livelihood and a repository of cultural
heritage, the group, also known as F-11, said in a joint press statement.
Looking forward to 2010, the ministers emphasised that the forthcoming global climate
talks must include the issue of forest as an integral component.
Indonesian Foreign Minster Marty Natalegawa told reporters that the meeting was very
useful and productive as it gave opportunity for member countries to share their
experience on forestry issues.
'We have discussed various topics related to forestry matters, including biodiversity,
climate change and sustainable forest management,' said Marty.
Papua New Guinea Forestry Minister Belden Namah said all ministers in the meeting
supported initiatives of forest management practices.
'We support initiatives taken by the F-11 in the area of sustainable forest management,'
said Namah.
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The forum also agreed admission of Guatemala, Suriname and Guyana to the
association.
The F-11 consists of Indonesia, Brazil, Gabon, Costa Rica, Congo, Cameroon,
Colombia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Peru and Democratic Republic of Congo.
http://sify.com/news/11-rainforest-countries-pledge-sustainable-forest-managementnews-international-kcxu4eafahb.html
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President Hu calls for China to meet emission cut targets - Xinhua
BEIJING, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao called for China to step up
efforts to tackle climate change so as to ensure the country's carbon dioxide emission
cut 2020 targets would be reached.
Hu made the call on Monday at a lecture attended by members of the Political Bureau of
the Communist Party of China Central Committee.
China announced in November last year that it aimed to reduce the intensity of carbon
dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2020 by 40 to 45 percent compared with 2005
levels.
This was a "voluntary action" taken by the Chinese government based on its own
national conditions and would have profound and far-reaching significance in ensuring
China's economy and society develop in a sound and rapid manner, Hu said.
Combating climate change provided an important opportunity for China to speed up the
transformation of its economic growth pattern and adjust its economic structure, he said.
Appropriate handling of the climate change issue was vitally important to China's social
and economic development and was in the fundamental interests of the Chinese people
and people worldwide, he stressed.
China has always paid great attention to the issue of combating climate change, Hu
said.
China signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and had
made noticeable progress after it announced binding targets on the reduction of carbon
dioxide emissions per unit of GDP and major pollutants as well as the expansion of
forest coverage, he said.
He called for more efforts to save energy resources, improve energy efficiency, research
and promote environmental-friendly technologies and upgrade the country's capacity to
tackle climate change.
Efforts should also be made to improve relevant laws and policies to create favorable
conditions for emission cut, Hu said.
Hu stressed that China would stick to the principle of "common but differentiated
responsibilities", shoulder its due responsibilities as a developing country, actively
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participate in international cooperation on tackling climate change and help other
developing nations to improve their capacity to combat climate change.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-02/23/c_13185197.htm
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Treaties help developing countries – The Jakarta Post
Desy Nurhayati and Stevie Emilia , The Jakarta Post , Nusa Dua
Developing countries will benefit most from the synergy of three international
environment treaties as it may provide more funding and technical assistance to deal
with chemical and waste management issues.
Indonesian Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta said that as a vast
archipelagic country, Indonesia is particularly vulnerable to illegal trafficking of
hazardous substances and waste with about 2,000 potential entry points.
The country’s agricultural industry and others are also potential chemical emitters,
including those categorized as Persistent Organic Pollutants, he added.
“Therefore, international cooperation and agreement, at global and regional levels, are
crucial
in tackling these challenges,” he said.
On Monday, the Indonesian minister officially opened the Simultaneous Extraordinary
Meetings of the Conference of Parties to the three conventions.
The three are the Basel Convention on Hazardous Waste; the Rotterdam Convention on
the
Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in
International Trade; and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.
The three-day event is attended by about 1,200 participants from around 140 countries.
On Wednesday, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is slated to officially open the
United Nations Environment Program’s (UNEP) governing council meeting that will be
attended by around 100 environmental affairs ministers from various countries.
Hatta, president of the COP9 Basel Convention, is leading negotiations along with COP4
Rotterdam Convention President Judy Beaumont of South Africa and COP4 Stockholm
Convention’s Gholamhossein Dehghani of Iran.
Efforts to synchronize the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions were discussed
during the extraordinary meetings of the conventions’ parties Monday.
It was the first time hazardous chemicals and waste were discussed taking the life cycle
approach.
The meeting is focusing on six issues, including joint action, joint managerial functions,
joint services, synchronization on budget cycles and a joint audit account.
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Member of the Indonesian de-legation from the Environment Ministry, Rasio Ridho Sani,
said the synergy of the three conventions would streamline processes in dealing with
chemical and waste management issues.
“And with synchronization in budget, there will be more funds allocated to capacity
building in developing countries as we are aware that these countries lack the capacity
to tackle these issues,” he said.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/02/23/treaties-help-developing-countries.html
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ENVIRONMENT NEWS FROM THE
UN DAILY NEWS
23 February 2010
Greater efforts needed to curb global warming – UN report
Nations must make more aggressive pledges to slash greenhouse gas emissions to avoid
global temperatures rising by 2 degrees Celsius and prevent the worst
possible effects of climate change, warned the United Nations Environment
Programme(UNEP) in a report released today.
The study, based on expert estimates from nine leading research centres, suggests that
annual greenhouse gas emissions around the world should not exceed 40 to 48.3
gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2020 and should peak sometime between 2015
and 2021.
In addition to remaining within that range, the report also states that global emissions need
to be cut by between 48 and 72 per cent between 2020 and 2050 to even have a 50/50
chance of meeting the target of keeping global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius.
However, the estimated amount of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions for 2020 ranges
between 48.8 to 51.2 gigatons –depending on whether countries fulfill the high or low end
of their reduction commitments – which amounts to an average
shortfall of 4.7 gigatons, according to the report.
“There are clearly a great deal of assumptions underlying these figures, but they do
provide an indication of where countries are and perhaps more importantly where they
need to aim,” said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.
“There clearly is a ‘gigaton gap’ which may be a significant one according to some of the
modelers,” added Mr. Steiner on the eve of the three-day UNEP Governing Council/Global
Ministerial Environment Forum in Bali, Indonesia, which kicks
off on Wednesday.
“This needs to be bridged and bridged quickly if the international community is to
proactively manage emissions down in a way that makes economic sense,” he said.
Mr. Steiner underscored the many reasons for making a transition to a low carbon,
resource efficient ‘green economy’ with climate change a key factor, but spotlighted
energy security, cuts in air pollution and diversifying energy sources as other
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significant incentives.
This week’s gathering in Bali is expected to “shine a light on opportunities ranging from
accelerating clean technology and renewable energy enterprises to the climate, social and
economic benefits of investing in terrestrial and marine ecosystem,”said Mr. Steiner.
In a related development, UNEP announced that the next round of formal negotiations,
under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, is slated to take place in Bonn,
Germany, from 9 to 11 April.
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ENVIRONMENT NEWS FROM THE
S.G’s SPOKESPERSON DAILY PRESS BRIEFING
23 February 2010
MORE AMBITIOUS EMISSION CUTS NEEDED TO CURB RISE IN GLOBAL
TEMPERATURE
Countries will have to be far more ambitious in cutting greenhouse gas emissions if the
world is to effectively curb a rise in global temperature at 2 degrees C or less, according to
a new study by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
Based on estimates of researchers at nine leading centres, the study says that between
2020 and 2050, global emissions need to fall by between 48 and 72 per cent, indicating
that an ambition to cut greenhouse gases by around 3 per cent a year over that 30-year
period is also needed.
Meanwhile, two projects bringing green stoves and clean lighting to remote communities in
Latin America, East Africa and India have been awarded the 2009-10 UNEP Sasakawa
Prize.
This year’s winners are Nuru Design, a company bringing rechargeable lights to villages in
Rwanda, Kenya and India; and Trees, Water and People (TWP), an organization that
collaborates with local NGOs to distribute fuel-efficient cook stoves to communities in
Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Haiti. The Prize, worth $200,000, is
given out each year to sustainable and replicable grassroots projects.
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