THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Wednesday, November 25 2009
UNEP and the Executive Director in the News
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Capital FM (Kenya): WB backs Kenya power plan
Reuters: Amazon forest schemes await strong climate pact
Deutsche Welle (Germany): Das Duo, ohne das in Kopenhagen nichts geht
Tagesschau.de (Germany): Der Klimawandel im Netz
Other Environment News
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AFP: China calls for stepped up climate cooperation with EU
Guardian (UK): US and India pledge common action on climate change
AFP: Obama upbeat on climate, report shows worse crisis
AFP: Canadian parliament votes for deep CO2 emissions cut
BBC News: Climate 'drives African conflict'
Reuters: Warming means rain but no crop boost for NE China
AFP: India electric car pioneer plans biggest plug-in plant
Environmental News from the UNEP Regions
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ROAP
RONA
Other UN News
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Environment News from the UN Daily News of November 24th 2009
Environment News from the S.G.’s Spokesman Daily Press Briefing of
November 24th 2009
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UNEP and the Executive Director in the News
Capital FM (Kenya): WB backs Kenya power plan
Nov 24 2009
The government’s recent efforts to switch the country’s power production from hydro
dependency to one that focuses on renewable energy has received backing from the
World Bank.
Speaking during a tour of the Olkaria Geothermal Power Plant on Tuesday, World Bank
Vice President for Africa Obiageli Ezekwesili said as the world shifts focus on mitigating
effects of climate change, renewable sources of energy such as geothermal was the way
of future power production.
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has already indicated that Kenya has
the capacity to produce its entire electricity requirements from clean energy sources.
The UN agency puts the potential wind energy at 2,000MW and 7,000MW from
geothermal and substantial biomass resources.
Ms Ezekwesili revealed that geothermal development was one of the key energy
projects the bank would be ready to finance to help boost power production.
“Over a period of 10 years the government would need to invest $4.5 billion in up-scaling
the contribution of geothermal energy to 49 percent of its energy mix which we would be
willing to partner with the government to make it possible,” she said.
Ms Ezekwesili was however quick to add that the government should not rely on direct
foreign investments to finance energy projects adding they should be in the forefront of
generating its own funds.
“I am therefore pleased when I hear that KenGen recently had a public infrastructure
bond offer to raise its own capital for infrastructure development.”
Also speaking during the tour, Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen)
Managing Director Eddy Njoroge pointed out they were keenly looking towards Solar
Thermal energy to further strengthen power production capacity that is also
environmentally friendly.
“I will be going to Spain with a team from KenGen to learn from them since they are a
world leader when it comes to harnessing solar and thermal energy,” he revealed.
The government has in the past revealed it was keen on importing hydropower from
Ethiopia to stabilise power supply and demand. Mr Njoroge welcomed the move saying it
would offer Kenya cheap hydro energy (pegged at four US cents per kilowatt-hour)
which could be added on to the national grid.
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Ms Ezekwesili further stressed this point adding that Kenya had the potential to solve its
energy crisis, which she noted was a major constraint to economic development.
“I have had the opportunity to look at your economic blue print and see that energy is
one of the key areas the government is addressing the energy situation,” she said in
reference to Vision 2030.
She however urged the government to focus on enhancing its distribution capacity, to
make power more accessible to Kenyans as they seek to improve their social status.
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Reuters: Amazon forest schemes await strong climate pact
24 Nov 2009
The boat plows on through the brackish green river, taking Jose de Oliveira Quadro on a
journey that may have been futile a few years ago.
Strangers have been fishing in his village's lake and Quadro is on a two-hour ride to
recruit help from the nearest police post in Brazil's vast Amazon forest. He admits he
probably wouldn't have bothered before his river-side community was made part of a
pioneering scheme that pays each family about $30 a month to act as forest guardians.
"I can't let them take the food off our plates," said the nearly toothless 35-year-old.
"Thank God we have more help these days."
Quadro's journey is part of a new chapter in the long struggle to save the world's
greatest forest that will be central to efforts in Copenhagen next month to frame a new
global effort to curb the planet's warming.
His tiny settlement is one of 36 communities and 320 families receiving the payment in
the Juma reserve, an area the size of U.S. state Delaware in Brazil's Amazonas state
that is the first official emissions-reducing project in the Amazon.
Working schemes for REDD, which stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation
and Degradation and allows the sale of credits to offset carbon pollution elsewhere, are
few and far between now. But a climate deal including REDD could be a potent tool to
cut deforestation, which globally accounts for up to 20 percent of carbon emissions -more than all the world's cars, ships and planes combined.
"What the world needs to understand is that we have done our housecleaning, valued
the forest as much as we can, tested good practice and now we need a response or the
people will end up pressuring the forest for survival," Amazonas state Governor Eduardo
Braga told Reuters.
Versed in the minutiae of global climate talks, Braga is the modern face of a state nearly
the size of Alaska whose previous government handed out free chainsaws to loggers.
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The fresh-faced 48-year-old set up the "Bolsa Floresta" program that hands out the
monthly stipend to about 7,000 forest families, including in Juma. He said a strong
accord on REDD could boost the program to 60,000 families by 2014 or about half the
population living in the state's vast forest.
CONCERNS
Accounting for more than half of the world's standing forest and 55 percent of Brazil's
greenhouse gas emissions through its destruction, the Amazon is both a villain and a
victim of climate change.
REDD offers a possible way both to cut the destruction that has razed nearly a fifth of
the forest and combat poverty that remains at African levels despite Brazil's economic
rise.
Yet hope is mixed with concern over the role of the private sector and whether forest
dwellers have enough say in decisions about them sometimes being made thousands of
miles away.
Banks, carbon-trading firms, and companies seeking to boost their green credentials are
ramping up their interest ahead of Copenhagen, with estimates that REDD could bring in
$16 billion a year for Brazil alone. Coca Cola Co, Brazilian bank Bradesco, and the
Marriott Hotels chain are helping to fund the Bolsa Floresta project.
Environmental groups such as Greenpeace worry that too much reliance on carbon
markets for funds could result in speculation or a flood of cheap credits, allowing rich
countries to continue polluting at little cost.
Brazilian critics of REDD say it risks making high levels of Amazon deforestation
acceptable. Brazil's government this month trumpeted the lowest deforestation rate in
two decades, but the 2,700 square miles (7,000 square km) cleared in the year to
August was still equivalent to nine New York cities.
Brazil's government, after an initially luke-warm response to REDD, is expected to back
it in Copenhagen.
In Amazonas, however, not everyone sees Juma and the private Sustainable Amazon
Foundation that manages it in partnership with the state government as a desirable
model.
"If this is REDD, we need to fight it," said Rubens Gomes, coordinator of the Amazon
Working Group, an umbrella group for Amazon social and environmental organizations.
Some 49 social groups published an open letter in October rejecting market-based
REDD schemes.
Gomes complains civil society groups such as his were excluded from the creation of the
foundation, which is headed by Braga's former environment secretary Virgilio Viana. He
worries social handouts will create a culture of dependency.
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"Without another source of income, we won't create opportunities and they will continue
to exchange trees for food and for clothes," Gomes said.
The foundation head Viana told Reuters that many critics of the project were simply
ideologically opposed to markets.
SUSTAINABILITY
The $30 monthly stipend is a useful rather than a transformational boost to family
incomes in Juma, which can be between $2,000 and $5,000 a year.
But for Quadro and the other inhabitants of Juma, which lies in an area threatened by
intrusions from a major highway, the payment funded by contributions by guests of the
Marriott appears to be changing the way they see the forest.
"If we take trees from the river banks, the river will dry up and it will hurt our fish," he
said, standing in front of trees that resounded to the squawks of parrots.
"If we take the trees from the land, it will hurt our hunting and we'll be without food for
our children."
Families that receive the Bolsa Floresta pledge to stop destructive practices and act as
the eyes and ears of the forest by reporting illegal deforestation -- a role that is often
beyond Brazil's thinly-resourced environmental agency.
The idea is for carbon emissions saved in the reserve compared to a "business as
usual" scenario to be sold as credits, with the funds used to improve education and
stimulate sustainable industries such as nut gathering.
Given a forecast that Juma will generate 3.6 million tonnes of credit in its first 10 years, it
could expect a windfall of more than $7 million a year at current carbon prices.
A study by McKinsey & Company found that Brazil could cut its emissions by about 40
percent compared to "business as usual" by 2030 with annual investments of 5.7 billion
euros ($8.4 billion) in forest preservation and social programs, half the average global
cost of emissions reduction.
In Juma, though, the community's own deforestation -- slash-and-burn clearing to grow
traditional crops -- continues. The nutrient-thin Amazon soil is a farmer's nightmare,
forcing communities to cut down trees for fresh land.
Environmentalists say that for projects like Juma to be sustainable over the long term
and avoid dependency, they need to shift to permaculture farming that can co-exist with
the forest and to strengthen the weak market for forest products.
FINDING MARKETS
REDD projects will one day end, leaving Amazon forest communities to stand on their
own feet again.
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"I think that's the big challenge of REDD -- to use this income ... in a way that's going to
generate sustainable long-term income," said Monique Vanni, a London-based
environment consultant who visited Juma this month.
"That's all about finding new markets and getting them to organize production."
Sustainable practices such as rubber, managed logging, and nuts are potentially many
more times lucrative than destructive industries. A chronic lack of education and market
access in the Amazon has long hampered their growth.
In the main Juma community of Boa Frente, such efforts are in their infancy. Only nut
collection provides a significant alternative income, although there are plans to sell
seeds from trees to replant degraded forest in other parts of Brazil and to begin a
managed logging program.
While debate goes on over the best way to save it, time continues to tick away for the
Amazon. Extremes such as a severe drought in 2005 and heavy floods this year
underline concerns about the effect of climate change on the forest.
About 100,000 families are now on the move in Amazonas state, searching for new land
after their crops were wiped out by this year's floods, Braga said. REDD may not a
panacea, he said, but done with professional monitoring and safeguards against
corruption, it is a vital part of the solution.
"The pressure on the forests is the most worrying in four years," he said. "Because of
this, the world can't wait any more.
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Deutsche Welle (Germany): Das Duo, ohne das in Kopenhagen nichts geht
24 November 2009
Die zwei größten Treibhausgas-Verursacher sind China und die USA. So lange sie nicht
bereit sind, verbindliche Zusagen in den Klimaverhandlungen zu machen, werden sich
viele andere auch nicht festlegen wollen.
"Die USA und China sind Schlüsselländer für einen erfolgreichen Abschluss in
Kopenhagen", betont Greenpeace-Delegationsleiter Martin Kaiser. Die USA, weil sie
historisch gesehen der größte Klimasünder sind – und auch weiterhin die weitaus
größten CO2-Emissionen Pro-Kopf haben. China, weil es die Menge macht: Der
aufstrebenden Wirtschaftsmacht hat in der Gesamtsumme der CO2-Emissionen die
USA bereits überholt.
Besser als ihr Ruf?
Die Signale vom letzten APEC-Gipfel in Singapur waren nicht gerade positiv. Es ist mehr
als unwahrscheinlich, dass US-Präsident Barack Obama die Zustimmung in Senat und
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Kongress für ein ehrgeiziges, verbindliches Klimaabkommen erhalten kann. Und China
gibt ganz klar der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung Priorität. Dennoch, so der Chef des UNUmweltprogramms - Achim Steiner - sollte man die Positionen der beiden
Klimasupermächte vielleicht etwas zurückhaltender bewerten.
Unglücklicherweise werden sowohl China als auch die USA in den Verhandlungen heute
mehr nach ihrer Vergangenheit als nach den Zukunftsaussichten beurteilt." Dabei
würden gerade diese beiden Nationen langfristig von einer CO2-niedrigen Wirtschaft
besonders profitieren, so der UNEP-Chef.
Eigeninitiative
Die Verhandlungspositionen der beiden Supermächte spiegeln nicht unbedingt die
Situation im eigenen Land. So sind viele Kommunen in den USA bereits weitaus
klimafreundlicher als die Regierung in Washington. Mit eigenen Klimainitiativen
übernahmen 300 amerikanische Kommunen die Emissionsziele des Kyoto-Protokolls,
während sich die Bush-Regierung weigerte, das Protokoll zu unterzeichnen.
In Kalifornien hat Gouverneur Arnold Schwarzenegger mit Hilfe der demokratischen
Mehrheit im Regionalparlament seinem Bundesstaat eine Reduktion des Ausstoßes von
Treibhausgasen verordnet: minus 20 Prozent bis 2025. Er verklagte die sechs großen
Autokonzerne des Landes auf Schadensersatz für die Folgen des Klimawandels. Was
Kalifornien der Industrie abverlangt, wirkt weit über den Bundesstaat hinaus. Kein
Konzern will den Riesenmarkt an der Westküste verlieren.
Umdenken in China
Und auch China ist in mancher Hinsicht weitaus klimafreundlicher als allgemein
angenommen wird, betont UNEP-Chef Achim Steiner und hebt den Bau des U-BahnSystems in Shanghai hervor. Dort entsteht zurzeit das weltweit größte U-Bahn-System
mit einer mehr als 400 Kilometer unterirdischen Schienenstrecke. "Das wird Millionen
von Autos von den Straßen nehmen." Außerdem: Bereits heute ist China Weltführer in
solarthermische Anlagen, die Windkraftanlagen in China produzieren jährlich mehr
Megawatt als in jedem anderen Land der Erde.
Neue Gespräche
In Kopenhagen müssen sich die beiden Klima-Supermächte vor allem auf verbindliche
Ziele festlegen. Aber: Die Situation ist vielleicht doch nicht so festgefahren, wie viele
befürchten. Das meint zumindest der Chef des UN-Klimasekretariats, Yvo de Boer.
Denn immerhin finden mittlerweile bilaterale Gespräche zwischen Washington und
Peking statt. "Das ist auf jeden Fall ein sehr positives Zeichen. Und gemeinsam könnten
die USA und China sehr viel erreichen."
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Tagesschau.de (Germany): Der Klimawandel im Netz
24 November 2009
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Die Gletscher schmelzen, die Meeresspiegel steigen, die Sommer werden heißer: Der
Klimawandel lässt sich nicht mehr ignorieren. Auch im Internet gibt es mittlerweile eine
Flut von Informationen zu Klimawandel, Klimaschutz und Klimarettung. tagesschau.de
gibt eine Übersicht über die interessantesten und wichtigsten Seiten.
Dieser Eisblock in Patagonien im Süden Argentiniens ist vom Upsala-Gletscher
abgebrochen.Eine gute Einführung in das Thema ist das Dossier "Klimawandel" der
Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung. Hier werden grundsätzliche Fragen geklärt wie
der Unterschied zwischen Wetter und Klima, aber auch Klimamodelle und –szenarien für
die Zukunft vorgestellt. Auch die Broschüre "Herausforderung Klimawandel" vom
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung bietet eine gute Übersicht: Neben
Definitionen und Klimamodellen wird das Klima der letzten 100 Jahre analysiert, und es
werden Prognosen für die Zukunft versucht.
Die Welternährungsorganisation der Vereinten Nationen (FAO) hatInformationsblätter zu
verschiedenen Bereichen wie Energie, Nahrung oder Biodiversität zusammengestellt,
die auf englisch die wichtigsten Fakten zusammenfassen. Vielfältiges Material
wie Statistiken und Grafiken zu Temperaturtrends, CO2-Emissionen und zur
Veränderung des Niederschlags gibt es auf den Seiten des Hamburger Bildungsservers.
Bundesregierung und EU
Die Politik soll Lösungen schaffen: Mit Angela-Merkel-Masken protestieren am
24.10.2009 Aktivisten in Berlin für eine bessere Klimapolitik. (Archiv)Das
Bundesministerium für Umwelt und Naturschutz hat eine Klimaschutzinitiative gestartet.
Verschiedene Klimaschutzprojekte an Schulen werden durch Förderprogramme
unterstützt. Eines davon ist die "Aktion Klima!", die Unterrichtsmaterial zum Thema
Klimaschutz von Lehrern für Lehrer bereitstellt. Wissenschaftlich unterstützt wird die
Bundesregierung vom Umweltbundesamt, das unter anderem einen CO2Rechnerbereitstellt, mit dem man seinen persönlichen CO2-Ausstoß berechnen kann.
Die Europäische Kommission liefert auf ihrer Seite Broschüren und FAQs zu
verschiedensten Klima-Themen, zum Beispiel zur Emissionsreduktion im Energie- und
Transportsektor.
Politische Akteure / UNO
Der Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (der Weltklimarat) ist ein
wissenschaftlicher Ausschuss der UNO. Er soll Risiken der globalen Erwärmung
beurteilen und die Regierungen beraten. Im Frühjahr 2007 gab der IPCC den
Bericht "Klimaänderung 2007" heraus und schreckte damit viele auf. Der Bericht macht
deutlich, dass gegen den Klimawandel sofort gehandelt werden müsse. Unter anderem
für diesen Bericht wurde dem Klimarat zusammen mit Al Gore 2007 der
Friedensnobelpreis verliehen. Publikationen über das Ausmaß des Klimawandels sind
auch auf den Seiten des UNEP (Umweltprogramm der Vereinten Nationen)
veröffentlicht. Hier gibt es eine Übersicht über die wichtigen internationalen Akteure im
Klimawandel. In seiner Multimedia-Abteilung bietet das UNEP unter anderem
interessante Filme, Fotos und Podcasts über den Klimawandel in Afghanistan, Costa
Rica und Afrika.
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Klimapolitik und Klimaabkommen
Auf ihm ruhen viele Hoffnungen für einen Wechsel in der Klimapolitik: US-Präsident
Barack Obama, hier beim G20-Gipfel in Pittsburgh am 25.09.2009.Der Klimawandel ist
mittlerweile international eines der wichtigsten politischen Streitthemen. Eine globale
Einigung scheint weit entfernt. Momentane völkerrechtliche Grundlage für den
Klimaschutz ist das 1997 in Kraft getretene Kyoto-Protokoll, das erstmals verbindliche
Ziele für den Ausstoß von Treibhausgasen in den Industrieländern festlegt. Eine Liste
aller bisherigen Umweltabkommenliefert das UNEP.
Klimakonferenz in Kopenhagen
Die Homepage derKlimarahmenkonvention der Vereinten Nationen (engl. United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC) zählt schon den
Countdown bis Kopenhagen. Das internationale Umweltabkommen UNFCCC hat es
zum Ziel, die globale Erwärmung zu verringern. In Kopenhagen werden sich zwischen
dem 7. und dem 18. Dezember die Vertragsstaaten der Klimarahmenkonvention zu
Beratungen treffen. Ziel ist es, ein Nachfolgeabkommen für das Kyoto-Protokoll zu
beschließen, das 2012 ausläuft. Auf der offiziellen Seite der Konferenz gibt es die
aktuellen Nachrichten, einKlima-Quiz und verschiedene Klima-Blogs. Die historischen
und wissenschaftlichen Hintergründe der Klimakonferenz erklärt auch das
Bundesministerium für Umwelt und Naturschutz. Hier findet sich außerdem alles
Wissenswerte zu den vorangegangenen Klima-Verhandlungsrunden. Die
Initiative "Countdown to Copenhagen" - ein Zusammenschluss von Kirchen,
evangelischen Entwicklungswerken und ökumenischen Initiativen - fordert von den
Regierungen, in Kopenhagen zu einem "fairen und effektiven Abschluss" zu kommen.
Hier können Interessierte sich am "Kopenhagen-Aufruf der Kirchen"beteiligen, der auf
Schritte zur CO2-Minderung und Hilfe für Entwicklungsländer drängt.
Forschungsinstitute in Deutschland und weltweit
Klima und Klimawandel sind ein weites Forschungsfeld, mit dem sich die
verschiedensten Einrichtungen und Institute beschäftigen. So erforscht zum Beispiel
das Max-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie in Hamburg das Erdklima. Es bietet eine
interessante Liste von FAQs, die mit Themen von Golfstrom über Hurrikans bis hin zur
globalen Erwärmung beschäftigt. Das Potsdam Institut für
Klimafolgenforschung beschäftigt sich mit Fragestellungen zum Globalen Wandel, der
Klimawirkung und der nachhaltigen Entwicklung.
Eine Graphik des Climate Prediction Center zeigt die Temperaturen der Ozeane mit
Abweichungen an.Die Klimaüberwachung desDeutschen Wetterdienstes soll in
regelmäßigen Abständen den Zustand des Klimasystems darstellen und vergleichen.
Dazu sind lange Zeitreihen meteorologischer Größen notwendig. Das Climate Prediction
Center ist eine Einrichtung des nationalen Wetterdienstes der USA und liefert auf seiner
Homepage viele interessante Wetterprognosen und -rückblicke. So kann man zum
Beispiel unter "Storm Tracks" die Entwicklung von Stürmen verfolgen.
Auf den Seiten des Goddard Space Flight Center der Nasa findet sich eine
umfangreiche Sammlung von Animationen über die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels für
Ozeane, Polargebiete, Land und Atmosphäre. "Wie können wir unseren
Energieverbrauch senken?" Das ist eine der Fragen, mit denen sich dasEnvironmental
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Change Institute (ECI) der Oxford-Universität befasst. Daneben betreibt es Forschungen
zu Klima und Ökosystemen. Das ECI ist Teil des Oxford Centre for Tropical Forests,
einem Netzwerk von Organisationen, die zum Tropischen Regenwald forschen.
"Klimawandel oder Klimaschutz?" - Umweltschutzorganisationen
Die Vernichtung des Regenwaldes verschlimmert den Klimawandel: Illegale
Brandrodung eines Waldstücks in Riau auf der Insel Sumatra.Nicht nur
wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse liefern, sondern auch handeln und den Klimawandel
aktiv aufhalten wollen diverse Umweltschutzorganisationen.Greenpeace erklärt auf
seiner Homepage den Treibhauseffekt und die Ozonloch-Problematik. Die Organisation
fordert, der Klimaschutz brauche eine Energiewende.
Zwar trifft der Klimawandel am stärksten die ärmeren Länder auf der Südhalbkugel, aber
auch in Deutschland hinterlässt er deutliche Spuren: Meeresspiegelanstieg,
Extremwettersituationen und Hochwasser in den Flüssen. Das zeigt der
Report "Auswirkungen des Klimawandels auf Deutschland" der Organisation
Germanwatch. Der WWF betrachtet das Jahr 2009 als "Jahr der Entscheidung:
Klimawandel oder Klimaschutz?" Auf öffentlichen Druck in Kopenhagen drängt auch
die Klima-Allianz, ein Zusammenschluss von über 100 Gruppen aus Kirchen,
Entwicklungsorganisationen, Umweltverbänden und Gewerkschaften. Ihre Internet-Seite
versteht sich als Informationsplattform für alle, die selbst aktiv werden wollen. Und wer
mehr wissen möchte über Umweltschutzprojekte im Regenwald, der kann sich bei dem
Verein "Rettet den Regenwald" informieren.
Selbst aktiv werden im Klimaschutz
Und weil Klimaschutz nicht nur ein Thema der Regierungen und auf den internationalen
Politik-Gipfeln ist, sondern in jedem einzelnen Haushalt anfängt, gibt der
WWF Energiespartipps – unter dem Motto "Jeder kann das Klima schützen". Ob heizen,
waschen, kochen oder einkaufen, an vielen Stellen kann täglich Energie gespart und die
Umwelt geschützt werden. Die "77 besten Tipps" dafür gibt der NABU, denn:
"Klimaschutz beginnt im Haushalt."
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Other Environment News
AFP: China calls for stepped up climate cooperation with EU
24 November 2009
China called on the European Union Tuesday to step up cooperation on climate change,
saying global warming would be at the top of the agenda at next week's China-EU
summit.
"Soon after the summit the international community will have the Copenhagen
conference on climate change," Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun said, referring to the
meeting in Denmark to agree a new UN pact on global warming.
"China and (the) EU should strengthen coordination and have closer cooperation on
climate change because it serves the common interest of both sides and will help
advance international efforts to tackle climate change." Zhang said such cooperation
would be discussed at next Monday's summit in the eastern city of Nanjing, when the
two sides will also focus on the international financial crisis and China-EU relations.
Widely viewed as the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases, China has refused to
commit to binding gas reductions at the Copenhagen talks, nor has it agreed to set a
date for when its gas emissions reach their peak. Meanwhile,
China has called on developed nations to acknowledge their historic role in global
warming and urged them to make significant emissions cuts and provide developing
nations with environmentally-friendly technology.
The EU has already vowed to reduce its emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels
before 2020, raising the target to 30 percent in the event of an international
agreement on the issue, while Japan has offered 25 percent cuts.
The United States, the world's second largest emitter, has yet to set limits but
Washington is expected to announce a target for reducing its greenhouse gas
emissions before the UN climate conference.
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Guardian (UK): US and India pledge common action on climate change
24 November 2009
America and India today pledged common action to fight climate change and to build a
new global clean energy economy, claiming the new "green partnership" between two of
the world's biggest emitters would help produce a strong political deal at next month's
summit in Copenhagen.
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Barack Obama and visiting Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, both committed to
"significant mitigation actions", i.e. reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
With today's understanding, three of the world's top emitters, China, America and India
are now committed to action on emissions at Copenhagen, though they have yet to
reveal the actual targets. But it does significantly boost the prospect that world leaders
could commit to strong action at the UN summit, despite the rancorous atmosphere
among their official negotiating teams at the last set of meetings in Barcelona this month.
"It takes us one step closer to a successful outcome in Copenhagen." Obama said.
Today's pledge from Singh comes a day after the White House said Obama would
commit to cutting emissions before the Copenhagen meeting gets underway. China's Hu
Jintao committed to reducing the future growth rate of emissions during Obama's visit to
Beijing a week ago.
India's new commitment is to take what the White House described today as "vigorous
action to combat climate change" in return for assistance from industrialized countries for
its shift from coal to cleaner energy sources. Singh made it clear there would be a price
for India's cooperation. "We will do more if there is global support in terms of financial
resources and technology transfer," he told the Council of Foreign Relations yesterday.
Some of that support came through today, with the announcement of a joint research
centre, with US and Indian government funds, to help speed the development of more
energy efficient technologies, as well as carbon capture and storage. It is thought the US
government will contribute $100m a year to the centre over the next five years.
"India was a latecomer to industrialization and as such we have contributed very little to
the accumulation of greenhouse gas emissions that caused global warming, but we are
determined to be part of the solution," Singh said.
Although India has resisted international pressure to commit to legally binding emissions
targets in negotiations, the country has over the last year embarked on a series of new
greener measures.
India's cabinet this week approved a plan to triple solar capacity to 20 gigawatts by
2022, and to give more incentives to the development of solar power.
The two countries directed their national labs to work together on expanding solar and
wind energy potential. US officials have also been working with India to set up a local
version of the Environmental Protection Agency, which could regulate industry and help
assure supply of clean water and air.
In recent weeks, Brazil, Indonesia and South Korea have all slapped down hard figures
on the negotiating table. A specific target from China is expected soon and, under one
scenario, China reveal it at a summit with the European Union on 30 November in
Nanjing.
That would pave the way for Obama to announce the US targets soon after. But creating
this domino effect requires a strong enough commitment by Beijing to convince wavering
US senators that China was moving significantly beyond business as usual.
12
But several recent reports and recommendations on China's likely ambition have
generated fears that the carbon target will actually mark a step back from its existing
efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, once more placing the talks in jeopardy.
"Some of the numbers being bandied around seem worryingly low given China's weight
of economic growth. But we remain confident that China will ultimately offer us an
emissions reduction target that represents a significant reduction from business as
usual," said a European diplomat.
The closest the government in Beijing has come to announcing a goal was at the UN
summit in September, when president Hu Jintao's promised to reduce the carbon
intensity of China's economy by a "notable margin" between 2005 and 2020. But recent
reports have suggested that China is considering a reduction in carbon intensity emissions relative to economic growth - in the lower end of the range 40-50% in the
period of 2005-2020.
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AFP: Obama upbeat on climate, report shows worse crisis
24 November 2009
US President Barack Obama sought Tuesday to boost hopes of a landmark deal at the
Copenhagen climate summit, as a new report showed the crisis facing the planet is
deeper than previously thought.
Obama said the world was "one step closer to a successful outcome in Copenhagen," as
he hosted key developing nation India at the White House a week after returning from
top global polluter China.
"It's also essential that all countries do what is necessary to reach a strong operational
agreement that will confront the threat of climate change while serving as a steppingstone to a legally binding treaty," he added at a joint news conference with Indian Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh.
His comments came as scientists warned the planet could be getting much hotter, much
faster than anticipated only two years ago, according to a review drawn up ahead of
the December 7-18 UN climate conference. Related article: Climate update -- from bad
to worse.
The 68-page report suggests that many of the estimates in a report by the
UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 were too low.
The planet could now warm by 10.8 degrees Fahrenheit (seven degrees Celsius) and
sea levels could rise by 3.25 feet (over a meter) by 2100, scenarios that seemed
improbable just two years ago.
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"This is a final scientific call for climate negotiators from 192 countries who must embark
on the climate protection train in Copenhagen," said Hans Schellnhuber, director of
Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), which oversaw the
paper.
"They need to know the stark truth about global warming and the unprecedented risks
involved."While the United States, whose stance is regarded as crucial at the global
warming summit,raised hopes that major powers were moving towards a deal, experts
cautioned that uncertainty remains over Washington's stance.
The United States has yet to announce concrete targets for cutting greenhouse gas
emissions, although the Obama administration plans to do so in the coming days.
China has put the issue on the agenda of a meeting with the European Union next week
and leaders of the 53 members of the Commonwealth, representing around two billion
people, are set to address it at their weekend gathering in Trinidad.
Australia, the world's heaviest per capita polluter, is attempting to rush legislation
through parliament curbing emissions ahead of the Copenhagen talks, which aim to
clinch a global treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocolbefore it expires in 2012.
"Just as we partnered with each other in the shaping of the knowledge economy, we
have the opportunity today to become partners in developing the green economy of the
future," Singh told reporters at the White House.
India, China and other developing nations have been pressing for Western nations to
offer technology and other support to help them reduce the intensity of emissions
blamed for global warming.
But the emerging economies have resisted legally binding requirements, saying that
wealthy nations, not them, bear the historic responsibility for carbon emissions.
"The key issue here at the moment is the United States," the world's number two polluter
and wealthiest country, said United Nations climate chief Yvo de Boer.
"My sense is Obama will be in a position to come to Copenhagen with a target and a
financial contribution," he said in Brussels on Monday.
A senior Obama administration official said the US targets would not differ much from
levels set out in legislation before Congress.
A US House of Representatives bill, passed in June, calls for cutting greenhouse gas
emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and by 83 percent by 2050. A version
before the Senate includes a 20 percent reduction from 2005 levels by 2020.
The European Union has vowed to reduce its emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels
before 2020, raising the target to 30 percent in the event of an international agreement.
14
Japan has offered 25 percent, but attached conditions.In order to limit warming to
two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), a threshold widely adopted as safe,
scientists say emissions by industrialized nations must fall by 25-40 percent by 2020
over 1990 levels.
The United States was the world's biggest carbon emitter until it was overtaken
by China in 2006, according to the Global Carbon Project, a consortium of leading
climate scientists.
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AFP: Canadian parliament votes for deep CO2 emissions cut
24 November 2009
Canada's parliament on Tuesday passed a motion urging Prime Minister Stephen
Harper's minority Tory government to adopt a deep carbon dioxide reduction target at
upcoming international climate talks.
The motion calling on the ruling Conservatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by
25 percent from 1990 levels was supported by all three of Canada's opposition parties,
137 votes to 124.
It has no legal weight."However, it demonstrates that the position of Canada's
environment minister does not represent that of most Canadians when he goes to
Copenhagen (for climate talks)," said Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe.
"And the international community will know it now," he said.
Canada has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent from 2006
levels by 2020, leading to a 60-70 percent reduction from 2006 levels by 2050.
But the figures are less significant when compared to the efforts of other nations and
political-economic blocs -- notably the European Union, which is to cut emissions by up
to 30 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels, as required by the Kyoto Protocol.
If pegged to 1990 levels, Canadian carbon reductions would amount to a mere three
percent, critics note. Andcarbon emissions are currently up more than 35 percent from
1990.
On Monday, Canada's Quebec province announced it would cut its CO2 emissions by
20 percent from 1990 levels or about eight tonnes per resident by 2020.
It foresees requiring big changes in its transportation sector, which accounts for 40
percent of its CO2 emissions, and by industries with the introduction of a carbon market.
15
Beleaguered Environment Minister Jim Prentice suggested that past transfers of federal
funds to Quebecwould help the province achieve its lofty goal.
At the upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen, meanwhile, he said Canadian negotiators
would push for all major emitters to accept CO2 reduction targets, alluding to the United
States, China and India.
"Canadian negotiators will fight to ensure that the next climate treaty really reduces
greenhouse gas emissions while protecting Canadian interests," he said.
Sixty-five heads of state are expected at the Copenhagen climate talks from December 7
to 18.
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BBC News: Climate 'drives African conflict'
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Climate has been a major driver of armed conflict in Africa, research shows - and future
warming is likely to increase the number of deaths from war.
US researchers found that across the continent, conflict was about 50% more likely in
unusually warm years.
Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they suggest strife
arises when the food supply is scarce in warm conditions.
Climatic factors have been cited as a reason for several recent conflicts.
One is the fighting in Darfur in Sudan that according to UN figures has killed 200,000
people and forced two million more from their homes.
Previous research has shown an association between lack of rain and conflict, but this is
thought to be the first clear evidence of a temperature link.
The researchers used databases of temperatures across sub-Saharan Africa for the
period between 1981 and 2002, and looked for correlations between above average
warmth and civil conflict in the same country that left at least 1,000 people dead.
Warm years increased the likelihood of conflict by about 50% - and food seems to be the
reason why.
"Studies show that crop yields in the region are really sensitive to small shifts in
temperature, even of half a degree (Celsius) or so," research leader Marshall Burke,
from the University of California at Berkeley, told BBC News.
"If the sub-Saharan climate continues to warm and little is done to help its countries
better adapt to high temperatures, the human costs are likely to be staggering."
16
Conflicting outcomes
If temperatures rise across the continent as computer models project, future conflicts are
likely to become more common, researchers suggest.
Their study shows an increase of about 50% over the next 20 years.
When projections of social trends such as population increase and economic
development were included in their model of a future Africa, temperature rise still
emerged as a likely major cause of increasing armed conflict.
"We were very surprised to find that when you put things like economic growth and
better governance into the mix, the temperature effect remains strong," said Dr Burke.
At next month's UN climate summit in Copenhagen, governments are due to debate how
much money to put into helping African countries prepare for and adapt to impacts of
climate change.
"Our findings provide strong impetus to ramp up investments in African adaptation to
climate change by such steps as developing crop varieties less sensitive to extreme heat
and promoting insurance plans to help protect farmers from adverse effects of the hotter
climate," said Dr Burke.
Nana Poku, Professor of African Studies at the UK's Bradford University, suggested that
it also pointed up the need to improve mechanisms for avoiding and resolving conflict in
the continent.
"I think it strengthens the argument for ensuring we compensate the developing world for
climate change, especially Africa, and to begin looking at how we link environmental
issues to governance," he said.
"If the argument is that the trend towards rising temperatures will increase conflict, then
yes we need to do something around climate change, but more fundamentally we need
to resolve the conflicts in the first place."
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Reuters: Warming means rain but no crop boost for NE China
24 November 2009
Climate change is likely to bring more rain to China's northeastern bread basket, but too
late in the year to benefit crops, seriously threatening a major region for wheat, corn and
rice, a report said on Tuesday.
Climate change-driven water scarcity in the country's northeast could lop up to 12
percent off forecast average crop yields.
17
Droughts are exacerbated by limited irrigation in an area that has historically had
fairly reliable water supplies but is already losing millions of tonnes of potential
grain production a year from shortages.
The report, "From bread basket to dust bowl" highlights how complicated the
impact of climate change may be in many areas, and also the threats it poses to
China's food supplies.
Many models of warming driven by greenhouse gases suggest northeast China may get
more rain and a longer growing season.
But this report, prepared with leading Chinese experts on climate change and farming,
suggests such changes may not bring bigger yields -- at least, not without major
spending to counter shifting and increasingly erratic rain patterns.
"In Northeast China, where the climate can only support one harvest per year, crops are
sown in spring, thus spring-time precipitation is critical," the report, drawn up by
consultants McKinsey Climate Change using government data, said.
"The suggestion that climate change could increase average annual precipitation in
Northeast China ought not to be mistaken for climate change relieving drought...Climate
change will still lead to increased drought because it decreases the critical springtime
precipitation," it added.
Heavier rains that fall in summer will do little for crops. Neighboring north China will fare
better, with a slight increase in useable downpours because that area supports two
plantings a year.
But global warming is also likely to bring an increase in "extreme events" -- in the
northeast, droughts -- that will also cut into farmers' average yields over several years.
The potential slide in harvests is worrisome for a country that prides itself on food selfsufficiency, and is already losing crop productivity to drought.
By 2030 the North and the Northeast together are expected to provide over a quarter of
China's grain, more than Brazil's entire output, it added.
SPEND TO SAVE
Investment in areas such as high-tech irrigation, soil management and seed technology
could cut the losses by half.
McKinsey estimates the price tag for the two northern bread basket areas at 5 billion
yuan ($732.3 million) a year over two decades, but says much of this could come from
businesses.
The report also suggested agricultural insurance to protect farmers in years when
drought was too fierce to salvage crops.
18
"Two-thirds of these possible solutions have attractive returns, and one would hope that
the private sector could be leveraged," said report author Martin Joerss, who used data
from China's Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Urbanization will cut the number of affected farmers, and expected legislation to allow
land transfers should also allow the creation of larger farms which have capital to spend
on more expensive equipment.
However the report also warns some adaptation could potentially be undermined by
longer-term events beyond the scope of their report -- particularly the forecast shrinkage
of China's rivers if glaciers retreat.
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AFP: India electric car pioneer plans biggest plug-in plant
25 November 2009
Chetan Maini, the engineer who pioneered India's first electric car, had his eureka
moment two decades ago when he drove a vehicle fuelled by solar power across the
blazing Australian outback.
Now Maini, the man behind Reva Electric Car Co., is building in southern India what he
says will be the world's biggest factory making battery-powered city commuter cars."It's
the first attempt at mass production of a green car," said Maini, who studied hybrid
electric technology at California's Stanford University and developed the no-clutch, nogears Reva as head of a 75-member engineering team.
"With growing climate change awareness, I think we're at the tipping point for electric
cars," Maini told AFP in an interview.
The drive in 1990 which set Maini on his career track was a General Motors-sponsored
solar-powered race in which his car finished third, beating many of the global car
companies.
"Driving across the continent on the sun's energy made me think how we could
use alternative energy to power cars in the Indian context," he said.
"When I saw how our cities were getting polluted, I realized employing clean, alternative
energy could make a lot of sense -- we needed to develop this kind of technology," he
said.Maini has put some 3,000 of the zero-polluting three-door Revas on the roads in
India and Britain -- where it is known as the G-Wiz -- in the eight years since the
company started selling the cars.
The Reva was formed in 1994 as a joint venture between the family-owned Maini Group
and AEV of the United States to manufacture environment-friendly vehicles.
19
But it took seven years for the first Reva to go on sale as Maini and his team worked on
the design.
Afterward, "we were in a test marketing phase, trying to see how people used electric
cars, what were their needs. But that's now over and we're ready to move to the massmarket stage," Maini said.
In September, Reva got a big endorsement when GM announced it would team up with
the tiny car company to develop a plug-in version of the best-selling GM Spark mini-car
as the US giant embraces electrically powered driving.
"We think their technology is the best," said GM India president Karl Slym.
The Reva -- named after Maini's mother -- can seat two adults and two children and
cover 50 miles (80 kilometers) on a single charge of electricity.
New models feature sleeker looks than the Reva, which resembles a modified golf-cart,
and will offer greater distance.
The company's next generation three-door, four-seater hatchback NXR is intended to be
a family car and will go into production in 2010.
It will have a top speed of 65 miles per hour and travel 100 miles on a single charge. The
car will go on sale for around 10,000 Euros (15,000 dollars) and can be charged in 90
minutes.
The higher-end NXG will have a 125-mile range and an 80 mile per hour top speed and
sell for 23,000 euros in Europe.
The price of the new vehicles is not fixed for India but the cars are expected to sell for
"much less," said Maini.
The Reva currently retails for around 350,000 rupees (7,500 dollars) and is built at a
small factory outside the southern city of Bangalore.
Maini is targeting people who want a vehicle for city jaunts or as a second automobile.
The cost of running an electric car in India is a tenth of a petrol-fuelled car, Maini said.
The car has no oil filters, spark plugs or radiators so maintenance costs are also low.
"Since we started, there's been quite a big change in consumer mind-sets," said Maini,
whose love affair with cars began when he was a child assembling remote-controlled toy
vehicles.
"We are also seeing a large policy shift by governments to environmentally friendly
vehicles," he added. Maini is eyeing annual sales of "5,000 plus" for the next three years
and then 30,000 annually from cars produced at his new Bangalore factory, which is
being built with venture funding.
20
There is a large market as the infrastructure for electricity is widespread -- even in India,
he said.
"All you need is the installation of a standard plug point -- 15 amps -- that is used for an
air conditioner or an iron.
Most people only need a larger car if they are going out of town.
"The tie-up with GM is part of a three-pronged strategy for Reva which wants to make its
own cars under the Reva brand, franchise production in countries such as the United
States and license the company's technology for use by global companies.
GM and Reva have promised the new electrically powered Spark mini-car will be
on Indian roads in a year and they see a market later abroad.
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21
ROAP MEDIA UPDATE
THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Wednesday, November 25, 20099
UNEP or UN in the News
-
Indonesia, UN sign program to tackle deforestation, climate change - Xinhua
1.5 Billion People Worldwide Live In Darkness - Scoop
Indonesia, UN sign program to tackle deforestation, climate change - Xinhua
JAKARTA, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's Ministry of Environment and the United
Nations' agencies on Monday signed the UN-REDD (Reducing Emissions from
Deforestation and Forest Degradation) program, just in time for the upcoming
Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in December, in an effort to address climate
change by stopping the destruction of Indonesia's vast forests.
The UN-REDD program was signed at the National Dialog on Climate Change, a high
level meeting organized by the ministry andthe United Nations Development Program
(UNDP).
Indonesia is one of nine UN-REDD pilot countries and part of a global effort, the UN
Collaborative Program on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest
Degradation in Developing Countries,which was launched in September 2008 by the UN
Secreatry General Ban Ki-moon and the prime minister of Norway.
"Globally, almost 20 percent of the world'a green house gas emissions come from
deforestation and forest degradation. Therefore, Norway is commited to supporting
developing countries like Indonesia to stop the devastating destruction of the forest,"said
the Norwegian Minister of the Environment and International Development Erik Solheim
at the signing ceremony.
REDD has become an eminent priority for Indonesia and the global community since
deforestation and forest degradation represent a major source of green house gas
emission, in addition to hindering human development and threatening biodiversity.
Indeed, according to the Second National Communication also launched on Monday,
more than half of Indonesia's green house gas emissions are related to forestry peat
land sector (except 2003).
"Most of Indonesia's green house gas emissions come from deforestation and forest
degradation ," said Hakan Bjorkman, the UNDP's Country Director
Man Ho So, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization Representative in Indonesia
said that a key challenge will be to ensure monitoring, reporting and verification.
"This will be the priority for the UN-REDD," said Man.
22
The UN-REDD is funded by the government of Norway, bringing together the
comparative strengths of FAO, UNDP and UNEP as partners to work together with the
Ministry of Forestry. The objective is to support Indonesia in developing a fair,
equitable,and transparent REDD architecture.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/23/content_12525790.htm
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1.5 Billion People Worldwide Live In Darkness - Scoop
Tuesday, 24 November 2009, 12:43 pm
Press Release: United Nations
New UN Energy Report Says 1.5 Billion People Worldwide Live In Darkness
New York, Nov 23 2009 6:10PM With the United Nations climate change summit in
Copenhagen just 13 days away, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has
highlighted the need to ensure that the energy needs of developing countries are central
to any new climate agreement, after a new report found that almost a quarter of the
world’s 6 billion people live without electricity.
The majority of the 1.5 billion people who live in the dark are in the least developed
countries (LDCs) of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, according to the report, The
Energy Access Situation in Developing Countries: A Review Focusing on the Least
Developed Counties and Sub-Saharan Africa.
“Expanding energy access is essential to tackle global poverty. It needs to happen at the
lowest cost and in the cleanest and most sustainable way possible to help developing
countries establish a low-carbon route to development,” Olav Kjorven, UNDP Assistant
Administrator and Director of the Bureau for Development Policy, told reporters in New
York at the launch of the report.
“Almost half of humanity is completely disconnected from the debate on how to drive
human progress with less emissions and greener energy because their reality is much
more basic than that: they carry heavy loads of water and food on their backs because
they don’t have transport; they cook over wood fires that damage their health, not with
electricity, gas or oil,” said Mr. Kjorven.
“We must ensure that the energy needs of these people are central to a new climate
agreement,” he added, referring to the pact to curb greenhouse gas emissions that
countries are hoping to achieve when they meet in the Danish capital in December.
Mr. Kjorven noted that two million people die every year from causes associated with
exposure to smoke from cooking with biomass and coal – and 99 per cent of those
deaths occur in developing countries.
In LDCs and sub-Saharan Africa, half of all deaths from pneumonia in children under five
years, chronic lung disease and lung cancer in adults are attributed to the use of solid
fuel, compared with 38 per cent in developing countries overall.
According to the report, to halve the proportion of people living in poverty by 2015 – the
first of the eight globally agreed targets known as the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) – 1.2 billion more people will need access to electricity and two billion more
23
people will need access to modern fuels like natural gas or Liquefied Petroleum Gas
(LPG), also called propane.
“We have to see Copenhagen as an opportunity. For a climate deal to work, it also has
to be a development deal. Developing countries have to see that this deal would help
them move forward, not slow down,” Mr. Kjorven stated.
The report was produced in partnership by the UNDP and the World Health Organization
(WHO), with support from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0911/S00767.htm
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General Environment News
-
65 world leaders to participate in Climate Summit - Miadhu
China wind power group seeks $2.2B in HK IPO – China Daily
Utilities distributor targets Clean Fleet - Manila Bulletin
65 world leaders to participate in Climate Summit - Miadhu
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
It has been revealed that 65 heads of states and governments will be attending the most
important environmental summit held in December this year in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The organizers of the climate summit announced this week that leaders of most of the
world’s biggest economies were planning to attend, including the UK, Germany, France,
Spain, Japan, Australia, Brazil and Indonesia. This sends positive signals of a climate
saving deal to be reached in this meeting.
When President Mohamed Nasheed was once asked by a journalist what would be the
option left if the Copenhagen summit fails, his answer was, “we will die.”
By saying this President Nasheed meant that Maldivians do not have a chance of living
in this land and that we would have to live as refugees in some corner of the world.
After concluding the Vulnerable-14 summit held in Maldives, President of Kiribati Anote
Tong said that even though they will not get 100% success at the climate summit, at
least 90% success is expected.
The Climate Summit will begin on December 7 and will go on till 18th of the month.
While initially invitations were sent out to environment ministers of all the UN member
countries, organizers have upgraded that summit by sending out invitations to heads of
state and governments. Danish officials are trying to get the participation of leaders of
important states like USA and China, countries which are responsible for 40% of the
world’s greenhouse gases.
The main purpose of the summit is to produce a new global climate-change treaty on
limiting emissions of greenhouse gases that would replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol
which will end on 2012.
24
Some nations are working really hard to replace Kyoto Protocol with an even better
treaty and the Danish officials do hope that a binding treaty will be reached in this
particular conference. The Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently said he detected a
move by nations in both the developed and developing world to reach a compromise
agreement.
http://www.miadhu.com.mv/2009/11/local-news/65-world-leaders-to-participate-inclimate-summit/
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China wind power group seeks $2.2B in HK IPO – China Daily
HONG KONG: China Longyuan Power Group Corp Ltd, Asia's largest wind power
generator, plans to raise up to HK$17.1 billion (US$2.2 billion) from a Hong Kong initial
public offering (IPO), sources close to the deal said on Sunday.
Longyuan is a major subsidiary of China Guodian Corporation, one of China's five
largest power generation groups. The company is selling 2.1 billion shares, or 30
percent of its enlarged share capital, at a price range indicated between HK$6.26 and
HK$8.16 per share, the sources said.
The company could not immediately be reached for comment.
Longyuan initially planned to raise around $700 million through the IPO, sources told
Reuters in July, but the company has boosted its expectations because of stronger-thanexpected demand.
The sources are directly involved in the deal but are not authorised to speak on the
record about the transaction.
The company is selling 2.1 billion shares, or 30 percent of its enlarged share capital, at a
price range indicated between HK$6.26 and HK$8.16 per share, the sources said.
Longyuan's offering price represents a multiple of about 22 times to 28.9 times forecast
2010 earnings and postshoe multiple of 23 times to 30 times, one of the sources said.
By comparison, global wind peer Spain's Iberdrola Renovables trades at 28 times 2010
forecast earnings while EDP Renovaveis trades at 30 times.
The company, which will kick off a marketing roadshow on Monday, aims to list on Dec
10, in a deal handled by Morgan Stanley and UBS.
Longyuan is the largest wind power generator in Asia and the fifth-largest in the world. It
had a 24 percent share of China's wind power market in terms of total installed capacity
as of the end of 2008, according a UBS report, citing wind power research company
BTM Consult.
The company had 3,032 MW of consolidated wind power generating capacity at the end
of the third quarter 2009.
25
The underwriters on average estimated Longyuan's 2009 earnings would jump 164
percent to 890 million yuan ($130 million), and a further 100 percent jump to 1.78 billion
yuan in 2010.
The growth is mainly because of capacity expansion in the wind power segment and
lower coal costs.
Renewable energy accounts for just a fraction of a percent of China's total electricity
output. Coal-dependent China hopes to bring that up to 10 percent by 2010 and 15
percent by 2020.
Last year, global investments in renewable energy reached $119 billion, where a fifth
was invested in Asia Pacific, according to a report by UNEP Sustainable Energy Finance
Initiative.
China led new investment in Asia, rising 18 percent over 2007 to $15.6 billion, mostly in
new wind projects.
China's renewable energy sector has grown remarkably in recent years, as Beijing
pushes for sustainable development, but overcapacity is already threatening polysilicon
and wind power equipment industries as a result of blind expansion.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-11/23/content_9022696.htm
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Utilities distributor targets Clean Fleet - Manila Bulletin
November 23, 2009, 3:20pm
As the effects of climate change have become more evident and destructive as
witnessed by recent calamities brought about by massive typhoons, various groups and
companies have initiated ‘green’ projects that can help reduce greenhouse gas
emissions.
With this, major utility company Meralco is now driving towards a ‘greener’ path by
enforcing a ‘Clean Fleet’ management system that is being implemented starting with
Meralco’s South Distribution Services in partnership with CAI-Asia (Clean Air Initiative
for Asian Cities), the Lopez Group Business Excellence and Isuzu, one of the
company’s suppliers.
With the Clean Fleet management system, Meralco aims to attain a sustainable
greenhouse gas reduction in its distribution business specifically in its fleet equipment.
“Meralco is very aware of its carbon footprint. With this corporate initiative, we aim to
contribute to a greener environment by partnering with like-minded organizations and by
reducing the emissions of our more than 1,000 units of fleet equipment,” said Ferdinand
Geluz, project manager and SDS head.
“We want to improve our processes to optimize fuel and equipment use and reinforce
awareness and influence employee behavior through participation, training and
monitoring.”
26
The Meralco SDS, which covers Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, and Quezon provinces
(which is over half of Meralco’s franchise area) is the pilot site since SDS was ISO
14001 certified for its Environmental Management System last March 2009.
“This climate change initiative makes Meralco one of the first Philippine companies to
engage in GHG accounting and voluntary reduction using the United Nations
Environment Program-developed Clean Fleet Management Toolkit. The project will show
that greening the utility operations also means economic opportunities for the utility
through efficiency initiatives related to GHG reduction for fuel and equipment use,” said
Geluz.
“Sharing the greening journey will support the move that GHG avoidance and reduction
can be done with minimum cost and disruption to operations.”
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/230802/utilities-distributor-targets-clean-fleet
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RONA MEDIA UPDATE
THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
UNEP or UN in the News
The Washington Post: EU: US should spell out long-term climate goal
The Washington Post: U.S. to offer target for emission cuts
The Washington Post: Opposition backs Australian carbon reduction bill
Reuters: U.S. To Bring Emissions Cut Target To Copenhagen Talks
The New York Times: U.S. to Set Emissions Target Before Climate Talks
The New York Times: Green Business and Indigenous Rights
San Francisco Chronicle: Emissions target puts Obama in political bind
San Francisco Chronicle: The challenge in Copenhagen: reshaping the world
EU: US should spell out long-term climate goal
The Washington Post, November 24, 2009, by ROBERT WIELAARD and ARTHUR
MAX
STRASBOURG, France -- The United States should be ready to spell out its long-term
vision for reducing carbon emissions over the next two decades, not just until 2020, the
European Union said Tuesday.
With two weeks to go before a global climate conference, the EU urged Washington and
Beijing to come to the Copenhagen event with meaningful bids to check their
greenhouse gas emissions.
All countries are being asked to report to the summit on what actions they will take over
the next decade to reduce carbon emissions or curb their growth.
27
But Swedish Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren said the United States should go
beyond 2020 to show that it is on a steep and continuous pathway of reductions.
"It's important what they will deliver in 2025 or 2030," Carlgren told The Associated
Press. "It would play a crucial role if they could deliver such plans."
Carlgren, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said he was pleased with the
report from the White House Monday that the U.S. would deliver an emissions reduction
target to the Copenhagen conference. Washington has resisted doing so without the
backing of Congress, which is not expected to pass climate legislation until next year at
the earliest.
"I welcome it, but still it needs to be sufficiently ambitious," Carlgren said. "An agreement
in Copenhagen will stand or fall on sufficiently ambitious targets by the U.S. and China."
Legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives would slash heat-trapping
pollution by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020. A U.S. Senate bill seeks a 20 percent
reduction over the next decade.
The EU has said those targets are too low and do not match the pledge by the 27-nation
European block to slash emissions by as much as 30 percent below 1990 levels as part
of a global agreement.
Carlsen said by outlining its plans through 2030, the U.S. could show it was on a
comparable path with the Europeans.
U.N. scientists have recommended that developed countries make cuts of 25 to 40
percent in C02 emissions by 2020 to avoid a catastrophic rise in sea levels, harsher
storms and droughts, and climate disruptions.
At least 65 world leaders will attend the Copenhagen summit Dec. 7-18 as
representatives of 192 nations seek to lay out the framework for a new global warming
treaty. White officials say Obama is considering attending, but has not yet decided.
Carlgren said he also expected China to strengthen its emissions commitments at
Copenhagen, although he acknowledged the Chinese intentions announced so far are
high.
China already has set a 15 percent target for renewable energy, a greater energy
efficiency target and an expansion of its forest cover by 100 million acres (40 hectares)
by 2020.
Carlgren said China can dig deeper to reduce the growth of emissions in its rapidly
expanding economy. A 10 percent increase in China's emissions would wipe out two
years of efforts by the EU, he said.
U.S. to offer target for emission cuts
28
The Washington Post, November 24, 2009, by Juliet Eilperin
The United States will identify a near-term emission reduction target as part of an effort
to reach a comprehensive climate agreement in Copenhagen next month as long as
other major greenhouse gas emitters do the same, senior administration officials said
Monday.
"There will be a submission that takes cognizance of where we are in the legislative
process," an official said.
Todd Stern, the U.S. special envoy for climate change, has said that any emission target
the administration identifies during the international talks starting Dec. 7 would be
contingent on the adoption of domestic legislation.
Paul Bledsoe, a spokesman for the bipartisan National Commission on Energy Policy,
said the administration should be careful not to jeopardize the chances for a U.S. climate
bill in order to meet international expectations at the U.N.-sponsored talks.
"The U.S. cannot negotiate at Copenhagen above the targets in domestic legislation
without risking support for that legislation in the Senate," he said. "If the [European
Union] demands continue above the U.S. domestic targets, they set up an impossible
dynamic for the administration."
President Obama will make a decision "in the coming days" on whether to attend the
Copenhagen talks, said one of the senior officials who briefed reporters on condition that
they not be identified. World leaders who have said they will attend include French
President Nicolas Sarkozy, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
"The president has always said if it looks as though negotiations have proceeded
sufficiently that going to Copenhagen would give a final impetus or push to the process,
that he would be willing to go," the official said.
The House has passed a bill calling for a 17 percent reduction from 2005 levels by 2020
and an 80 percent cut by 2050, which the official described as "one data point" for a
target. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has passed legislation
with a 20 percent reduction by 2020, but that number is expected to drop as more
centrist lawmakers weigh in on the bill. Both of these numbers are more modest cuts
than the European Union and developing countries have called on the United States to
make as part of a global pact.
Also Monday, the World Meteorological Organization reported that greenhouse gases in
the atmosphere reached record highs in 2008, with carbon dioxide levels increasing
faster than before. Levels of greenhouse gases, which are produced in part by natural
sources such as forest fires and human activities such as fuel combustion, have been
rising every year since detailed records started being kept in 1998, the World
Meteorological Organization said.
29
Opposition backs Australian carbon reduction bill
The Washington Post, November 24, 2009, by ROD McGUIRK
CANBERRA, Australia -- Australia's opposition leader Tuesday pledged his party's
support for contentious legislation proposed by the government aimed at curbing the
country's greenhouse gas emissions.
Australia is one of the world's worst carbon dioxide polluters per capita because of its
heavy reliance on its abundant coal reserves. As the driest continent after Antarctica, it
is also considered one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change.
Malcolm Turnbull said his Liberal Party senators and senior lawmakers agreed during a
seven-hour meeting to support the Labor Party government's bill in a Senate vote this
week.
While some Liberal senators have said they will refuse, Turnbull said Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd's government was assured seven Liberal votes needed to pass the
legislation in the 76-seat Senate would be received.
"I am confident ... the legislation will be passed," Turnbull told reporters.
The Senate rejected similar legislation in a vote in August with only Labor's 32 senators
supporting it.
The government responded by amending the package through five weeks of intensive
negotiations with the Liberals.
The government on Tuesday released details of that compromise deal that increases
financial assistance to major polluters including electricity generators and ensures that
farmers are not taxed for the methane produced by livestock.
The government plan would institute a tax on industries' carbon emissions starting in
2011 and limit Australia's overall pollution. The government wants to slash Australia's
emissions by up to 25 percent below 2000 levels by 2020 if the United Nations can
agree on tough global targets at a Copenhagen summit in December.
Rudd said he wants the legislation passed as an example to the world before he attends
the Copenhagen summit.
"The world is also watching what happens here," Rudd told reporters. "Global
momentum toward an outcome on climate change, we're all part of that."
The minor opposition Greens party was critical that the proposed deal doubled to
AU$1.5 billion ($1.4 billion) the amount of compensation paid to the coal industry, which
is Australia's main export.
About 20 protesters who want deeper cuts to Australia's carbon emissions than the
government is proposing interrupted Rudd for several seconds in Parliament by blowing
whistles from the public gallery. Security guards escorted them out.
30
A panel of U.N. scientists has recommended that developed countries cut between 25
percent and 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 to avoid a catastrophic
rise in sea levels, harsher storms and droughts, and climate disruptions.
U.S. To Bring Emissions Cut Target To Copenhagen Talks
Reuters, November 24, 2009, by Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON - The United States will propose an emissions reduction target at U.N.
climate change talks in Copenhagen in December with an eye toward winning support
from U.S. lawmakers who must agree to put it into law.
A senior Obama administration official told reporters on Monday that Washington would
make clear in the "next several days" what it planned to put on the table at the talks, and
a greenhouse gas emissions goal -- in line with proposals in the U.S. Congress -- would
be included.
The White House would also decide in the coming days when and whether President
Barack Obama would attend the December 7-18 meeting, the official said.
The talks are meant to help forge a deal to fight global warming after the Kyoto Protocol
-- a pact that binds countries around the world to cut emissions -- expires in 2012.
The United States, the world's biggest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases, is a
critical player in the talks, but the Obama administration's position has been hampered
by slow progress on a climate bill in the U.S. Senate.
Big emitters such as China, the world's top carbon polluter, are watching Washington for
its position.
Most nations have given up hopes of agreeing to a binding legal treaty text in
Copenhagen, partly because of uncertainty about what the United States will be able to
offer.
The senior official said U.S. negotiators will propose an emissions reduction target that
takes into account a pending bill in the Senate and a bill passed in the House of
Representatives, even though a final law is not complete.
"We don't want to get out ahead or be at odds with what can be produced through
legislation," the official told reporters.
"Whatever number we put on the table will be with reference to what we think can come
out of the legislative process."
The official declined to say whether the proposal would involve a range or a single
figure.
31
He also downplayed the role that a U.S. law not being in place has played in the overall
process.
"It would be a mistake to conclude that the international community's failure to reach a
final treaty in Copenhagen was due to the lack of domestic legislation in the United
States."
The U.S. House passed a bill that sets a 17 percent reduction target for emissions by
2020 from 2005 levels. A Senate version is shooting for a 20 percent cut.
Senate support for the figure that U.S. negotiators put forward will also be critical
because it will have to ratify a treaty once one is finished.
The United States signed Kyoto but did not ratify it.
GOING TO COPENHAGEN, GETTING A DEAL
Denmark, which will host the meeting, still hopes that leaders can agree to a "politically
binding" agreement in December under which developed nations would set goals for
cutting emissions by 2020, developing nations would agree to slow the rise of their
emissions, and the rich would come up with new aid and clean technology to help the
poor cope with climate change.
Activists said it was a good signal that the Obama administration was planning to
announce actual targets.
"I think it's good news that they've made a decision to put numbers on the table," said
Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "It
helps."
Meanwhile the U.N. World Meteorological Organization said on Monday concentrations
of greenhouse gases, the major cause of global warming, are at their highest levels ever
recorded and are still climbing,
The head of the agency, Michel Jarraud, said the trend could be pushing the world
toward the most pessimistic assessments of the rise in temperatures in coming decades
and said this underlined the need for urgent action.
Denmark wants top leaders to come to Copenhagen to illustrate that urgency.
It said on Sunday that 65 world leaders -- including those from Britain, Germany, France,
Australia, Japan, Indonesia and Brazil -- have confirmed that they will attend a summit at
the end of the December 7-18 period.
Obama's presence is seen as critical to the legitimacy of any deal that would be agreed.
"The president has always said ... if it looks as though the negotiations have proceeded
sufficiently that going to Copenhagen would give a final impetus or push to the process
... that he would be willing to go," the U.S. official said.
32
Obama goes to neighboring Oslo in early December to pick up the Nobel Peace Prize,
but world leaders have been invited to come to Copenhagen at the end of the two-week
climate meeting.
Climate is likely to feature in talks between Obama and Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh on Tuesday in Washington.
India has announced plans to boost solar power from near zero to 20 gigawatts by 2022,
but tied chances of success to international finance and technology.
Separately, Indonesia rejected a World Bank study that ranked the nation as the world's
third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, when taking emissions from deforestation and
draining of peat bogs on top of industrial emissions.
U.S. to Set Emissions Target Before Climate Talks
The New York Times, November 24, 2009, by JOHN M. BRODER
WASHINGTON — The United States will propose a near-term target for reducing
greenhouse gas emissions before the United Nations climate change meeting in
Copenhagen next month, a senior administration official said Monday. President Obama,
the official said, will announce the specific target “in coming days.”
The announcement of a target will take the current legislative stalemate over a climate
bill into account, the senior official said, and thus might present a range of possible
reductions rather than a single figure.
The lack of consensus in Congress puts Mr. Obama in a tricky domestic and diplomatic
bind. He cannot promise more than Congress may eventually deliver when it takes up
climate change legislation next year. But if he does not offer some concrete pledge, the
United States will bear the brunt of the blame for the lack of an international agreement.
The official also said the president would decide shortly whether and for how long he
might attend the December climate meeting, which runs from Dec. 7 to Dec. 18. He
repeated the president’s assertion that he would consider attending if his presence could
be a useful impetus to a deal.
The official, a member of the team of American climate change treaty negotiators, spoke
at a White House briefing under the condition that he not be identified.
The Obama administration has so far resisted demands that it commit to a specific
emissions reduction goal, saying that it could not pre-empt Congress, which has stalled
on climate change legislation. China, the world’s largest emitter of climate-altering
gases, has also refused to spell out its plans for reducing emissions, although President
Hu Jintao promised in September that his country would reduce the amount of emissions
per unit of economic output by a “notable margin.”
Many observers of the climate negotiations expect China to deliver a more specific
pledge on this so-called carbon intensity target before the Copenhagen meeting opens.
33
Mr. Obama has come under criticism from leaders of dozens of countries that have
already set domestic greenhouse gas reduction targets. He is also under fire from
numerous environmental advocates who say the United States, the world’s secondlargest emitter, must take a credible commitment to Copenhagen to ensure that the talks
do not fall apart.
The House passed a measure in June that calls for a 17 percent reduction over 2005
levels of the domestic emissions of the gases that contribute to the heating of the planet.
A Senate committee passed a bill last month that sets a 20 percent target, but that is
likely to be weakened in future negotiations.
Paul Bledsoe of the bipartisan National Commission on Energy Policy said the
president’s hands were tied by Congressional inaction. “The U.S. cannot negotiate at
Copenhagen above the targets in domestic legislation without risking support for that
legislation in the Senate,” Mr. Bledsoe said. “If European demands continue above the
U.S. domestic targets, they set up an impossible dynamic for the administration.”
A second administration official briefing reporters on Monday said that Mr. Obama would
have a stronger hand at Copenhagen if Congress had already acted on climate change
legislation, but that the debate on health care had blocked it.
“We would have preferred that health care be done a long time ago, and we’d be having
an energy debate today,” the official said.
Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, said Mr. Obama could credibly tell
delegates to the climate conference that the United States intended to reduce its
emissions by 17 percent to 20 percent, based on the legislation that has been approved
by the House and the Senate environment committee.
“It’s important for the president to exert that leadership with consultation with Congress,”
Mr. Kerry said in an interview late last week.
Mr. Obama and leaders of a number of other major countries have said that the
Copenhagen talks would not yield a comprehensive and binding treaty to address global
warming. Instead, the more than 190 nations represented there are expected to produce
an interim agreement that addresses the major issues without requiring ratification or
international enforcement.
Green Business and Indigenous Rights
The New York Times, November 24, 2009, by PETE BROWNE
A new report released over the weekend calls attention to the plight of indigenous
communities affected by climate change mitigation measures.
The study by Survival International, a London-based organization promoting the
interests of tribal peoples, documents the impact of the biofuels industry, hydro-electric
power, carbon-offsetting and forest conservation schemes on indigenous communities
worldwide.
34
“There is an urgent need to address climate change, but this must not be at the expense
of indigenous peoples’ rights,” said David Hill, a spokesman for Survival International.
According to the report, some climate change mitigation measures have led to
exploitation, violation and in some cases destruction of land recognized as belonging to
indigenous communities.
The study follows a statement by the World Bank president, Robert Zoellick, who said
last week that it was critical for indigenous people to be included in climate change talks.
“Climate change exacerbates the difficulties that indigenous communities already face,”
Mr. Zoellick said in a published statement, “including loss of land and resources, lower
human development indicators, discrimination, unemployment, and economic and
political marginalization.”
The forest conservation scheme to be discussed at Copenhagen, which uses financial
incentives to encourages developing countries to reduce emissions from deforestation
and forest degradation, is also a source of concern for indigenous communities.
Previous draft versions of the scheme — officially called the Reducing Emissions from
Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries, or R.E.D.D. — refer to
the possible inclusion of the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous Rights, which
gives indigenous communities the right to give or withhold consent to developments in
their territories.
This, Mr. Hill said, “could be made legally binding,” though it remains unclear whether it
will be included in the final text.
The International Forum of Indigenous Peoples on Climate Change has expressed
similar concerns.
“If there is no full recognition and full protection for indigenous peoples’ rights, including
the rights to resources, lands and territories, and there is no recognition and respect of
our rights of free, prior and informed consent,” the group wrote in a statement in
September, “we will oppose R.E.D.D.”
Emissions target puts Obama in political bind
San Francisco Chronicle, November 24, 2009, by John M. Broder
Washington -- The United States will propose a near-term emissions reduction target at
the U.N. climate change summit in Copenhagen next month, a senior administration
official said Monday. President Obama will announce the target "in coming days," the
official said.
The announcement of a target will take the current legislative stalemate over a climate
bill into account, the senior official said, and thus might present a range of possible
reductions rather than a single figure.
35
The lack of consensus in Congress puts Obama in a tricky domestic and diplomatic bind.
He cannot promise to the world more than Congress may eventually deliver when it
takes up climate change legislation next year. But if he does not offer some concrete
pledge, the United States will bear the brunt of the blame for the lack of an international
agreement.
The official also said the president would decide shortly whether and for how long he
might attend the December climate meeting. He repeated Obama's assertion that he
would consider attending if his presence could be a useful impetus to a deal.
The official spoke at a White House briefing under the condition that he not be identified.
The administration has so far resisted demands that it commit to a specific goal for
reducing emissions, saying it could not pre-empt Congress.
China, the world's largest emitter of climate-altering gases, has also refused to spell out
plans for reducing emissions, although President Hu Jintao promised in September that
his country would reduce the amount of emissions per unit of economic output by a
"notable margin." Many observers expect China to deliver a more specific pledge before
the Copenhagen meeting.
Obama has come under criticism from leaders of dozens of countries that have already
set domestic greenhouse gas reduction targets. He is also under fire from numerous
environmental advocates who say the United States, the world's second-largest emitter,
must take a credible commitment to Copenhagen to ensure that the talks do not fall
apart.
The House passed a measure in June that calls for a 17 percent reduction over 2005
levels of domestic emissions. A Senate committee passed a bill last month that sets a 20
percent target, but that is likely to be weakened in future negotiations.
Obama and leaders of a number of other major countries have said the Copenhagen
talks will not yield a comprehensive binding treaty to address global warming. Instead,
the more than 190 nations represented there are expected to produce an interim
agreement that addresses the major issues without requiring ratification or international
enforcement.
The challenge in Copenhagen: reshaping the world
San Francisco Chronicle, November 24, 2009, by ARTHUR MAX
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) --Next month's climate summit in Copenhagen seeks
to transform the way we run the planet, from the generation of energy, to the building of
homes and cities, to the shaping of the landscape. It would also shift wealth from rich to
poor countries in the process.
36
No wonder a deal will be tough to cut.
In recent weeks, prospects brightened, then dimmed, then revived again.
President Barack Obama dampened expectations when he said during his Asian tour a
final package could not be completed at the conference. He then lifted hopes by
signaling the U.S. might go further in the talks in the Danish capital than had been
expected because of lagging U.S. legislation.
Hoping to nudge negotiations off dead center, key governments have strengthened
pledges to control their nations' greenhouse gases, the heat-trapping emissions blamed
for global warming.
But everyone is still waiting to see what the U.S. will do.
The major economies "are coming to Copenhagen ready to fill in the blanks. They are all
looking to see what happens in Congress, and what the U.S. is able to bring to the
table," said climate analyst Jennifer Morgan of the World Resources Institute, a
Washington think tank.
Facing mounting impatience, the U.S. delegation could bring a provisional number to the
conference, promising at least a 17 percent cut in greenhouse gases over the next
decade, measured against 2005 — a number drawn from bills awaiting congressional
approval.
"It's a bit of a balancing act," said U.S. analyst Alden Meyer, of the Union of Concerned
Scientists. The Obama administration wants to satisfy the international demand for
clarity without seeming to pre-empt U.S. lawmakers, "providing ammunition for
opponents in the Senate."
More than 65 heads of government will attend the final days of the Dec. 7-18
conference, investing personal prestige in the outcome. They include the leaders of
Britain, France, Germany, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan and Spain.
Success is a matter of definition. Two years ago, when negotiations began, delegates
anticipated a full treaty would be signed in Copenhagen to succeed the 1997 Kyoto
Protocol, which set emissions limits on 37 industrial countries. The U.S. rejected Kyoto
because it imposed no obligations for China, India and other rapidly emerging
economies.
Now the Danish hosts and the United Nations say it will be enough to nail down all the
political elements, leaving the details, technical issues and legal language to be filled in
over the following six months to a year.
Many developing countries say that's not good enough, and insist Copenhagen aim for a
full-fledged legal document.
The divide over Copenhagen's goals reflects an abiding distrust between manufacturing
powerhouses that built vast riches over 200 years, while spewing carbon dioxide and
37
other industrial gases into the atmosphere, and countries still struggling to end hunger
within their borders.
A new militant African bloc could complicate the Copenhagen negotiations. The 50 or so
nations briefly walked out of committee meetings at the last round of talks in Spain
earlier this month, alleging Western countries were not negotiating in good faith.
Whatever agreements emerge on Copenhagen's numerous issues, they must be
accepted by all 192 countries.
As in the Kyoto accord, whose emission reductions expire in 2012, these talks aim to
negotiate 2020 reduction targets for industrial countries. Unlike Kyoto, developing
countries will be asked to contribute by presenting detailed plans for shifting to lowcarbon growth, although it is unclear how that would be written into the accord and
whether they would be held to account for their promises.
The second crunch issue is money: how much wealthy countries will give poor countries
to cope with climate change, whether major emerging economies should chip in to a
global fund, and how it will be distributed and managed, giving developing countries an
equal voice. Experts say $150 billion a year may be needed eventually.
Scientists say carbon emissions must level off by 2015 and then start to rapidly decline.
Within 40 years, manmade emissions should be half what they were in 1990 — and 8095 percent lower in the economically advanced countries — to avoid the worst scenarios
of climate disasters.
"We are seeking nothing less than the transformation of our energy system," Jonathan
Pershing, the chief U.S. delegate, told negotiators at the final pre-Copenhagen round of
talks.
Activists say that transformation must be comparable in scale to the Internet revolution:
more wind, solar and nuclear energy, electric or biofuel cars and public transportation,
smart electricity grids that reduce waste, concentrated high-rise cities that eliminate long
commutes, an end to deforestation and more efficient carbon-storing agriculture.
The U.N. says the targets announced by industrial countries for 2020 add up to
reductions of 16 to 23 percent below 1990 levels, far less than the 25 to 40 percent
scientists say is needed.
In recent weeks some governments had upped their bids, while some developing
countries promised energy reforms. The new Japanese government pledged to cut
emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels. Norway committed to a 40 percent decrease,
and South Korea, not obliged to accept a carbon cap, volunteered a target of 4 percent
below 1990.
Among developing countries, Indonesia pledged to stem its carbon-producing
deforestation and reduce emissions by 26 percent. Brazil said it would roll back Amazon
deforestation by 80 percent by 2020. China, the world's largest emitter, says renewables
such as solar and wind power will be 15 percent of its energy package by 2020, and it
will reduce its energy consumption by 20 percent per unit of production.
38
General Environment News
The Washington Post: Nuclear power regains support
The Washington Post: Maine, Vt., step up regulation of polluted runoff
Reuters: Recovery Act Spurs $4 Billion in Wind Power Projects
The New York Times: E.U. Official Says Europe Should Pledge Steeper Cuts in
Emissions
San Francisco Chronicle: Clemson to get $98M for wind energy test facility
The Globe and Mail: Quebec breaks from Ottawa in plan to cut greenhouse gases
THE MONTREAL GAZETTE: Future is green economy
THE MONTREAL GAZETTE: Germans to eat under 'green' arches
Nuclear power regains support
TOOL AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE Even green groups see it as 'part of the answer'
The Washington Post, November 24, 2009, by Anthony Faiola
LONDON -- Nuclear power -- long considered environmentally hazardous -- is emerging
as perhaps the world's most unlikely weapon against climate change, with the backing of
even some green activists who once campaigned against it.
It has been 13 years since the last new nuclear power plant opened in the United States.
But around the world, nations under pressure to reduce the production of climatewarming gases are turning to low-emission nuclear energy as never before. The Obama
administration and leading Democrats, in an effort to win greater support for climate
change legislation, are eyeing federal tax incentives and loan guarantees to fund a new
crop of nuclear power plants across the United States that could eventually help drive
down carbon emissions.
From China to Brazil, 53 plants are now under construction worldwide, with Poland, the
United Arab Emirates and Indonesia seeking to build their first reactors, according to
global watchdog groups and industry associations. The number of plants being built is
double the total of just five years ago.
Rather than deride the emphasis on nuclear power, some environmentalists are
embracing it. Stephen Tindale typifies the shift.
When a brigade of Greenpeace activists stormed a nuclear power plant on the shores of
the North Sea a few years ago, scrawling "danger" on its reactor, Tindale was their
commander. Then head of the group's British office, he remembers, he stood outside the
plant just east of London telling TV crews all the reasons "why nuclear power was evil."
The construction of nuclear plants was banned in Britain for years after the 1986
Chernobyl disaster in what was then the Soviet Union. But now the British are weighing
the idea of new nuclear plants as part of the battle against climate change, and Tindale
is among several environmentalists who are backing the plan.
"It really is a question about the greater evil -- nuclear waste or climate change," Tindale
said. "But there is no contest anymore. Climate change is the bigger threat, and nuclear
is part of the answer."
39
A number of roadblocks may yet stall nuclear's comeback -- in particular, its expense.
Two next-generation plants under construction in Finland and France are billions of
dollars over budget and seriously behind schedule, raising longer-term questions about
the feasibility of new plants without major government support. Costs may be so high
that energy companies find financing hard to secure even with government backing.
But experts also point to a host of improvements in nuclear technology since the
Chernobyl accident and the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island plant in
Pennsylvania in 1979. Most notable is an 80 percent drop in industrial accidents at the
world's 436 nuclear plants since the late 1980s, according to the World Association of
Nuclear Operators.
A 'pragmatic' approach
So far at least, the start of what many are calling "a new nuclear age" is unfolding with
only muted opposition -- nothing like the protests and plant invasions that helped define
the green movement in the United States and Europe during the 1960s and 1970s.
As opposition recedes, even nations that had long vowed never to build another nuclear
plant -- such as Sweden, Belgium and Italy -- have recently done an about-face as they
see the benefits of a nearly zero-emission energy overriding the dangers of radioactive
waste disposal and nuclear proliferation.
In the United States, leading environmental groups have backed climate change bills
moving through Congress that envision new American nuclear plants. An Environmental
Protection Agency analysis of the Waxman-Markey bill passed by the House, for
instance, shows nuclear energy generation more than doubling in the United States by
2050 if the legislation is made law. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is
reviewing applications for 22 new nuclear plants from coast to coast.
To be sure, many green groups remain opposed to nuclear energy, and some, such as
Greenpeace, have refused to back U.S. climate change legislation. Groups that support
the bills, such as the Sierra Club, say they are doing so because the legislation would
also usher in the increased use of renewable energies like wind and solar as well as
billions of dollars in investment for new technologies. They do not say they think nuclear
energy is the solution in and of itself.
"Our base is as opposed to nuclear as ever," said David Hamilton, director of the Global
Warming and Energy Program for the Sierra Club in Washington. "You have to
recognize that nuclear is only one small part of this."
But Steve Cochran, director of the National Climate Campaign at the Environmental
Defense Fund -- a group that opposed new nuclear plants in the United States as
recently as 2005 -- also described a new and evolving "pragmatic" approach coming
from environmental camps. "I guess you could call it 'grudging acceptance,' " he said.
"If we are really serious about dealing with climate change, we are going to have to be
willing to look at a range of options and not just rule things off the table," he said. "We
may not like it, but that's the way it is."
40
That position, observers say, marks a significant departure. "Because of global warming,
most of the big groups have become less active on their nuclear campaign, and almost
all of us are taking another look at our internal policies," said Mike Childs, head of
climate change issues for Friends of the Earth in Britain. "We've decided not to officially
endorse it, in part because we feel the nuclear lobby is already strong enough. But we
are also no longer focusing our energies on opposing it."
Some leading environmental figures, including former vice president Al Gore, remain
skeptical of nuclear's promise, largely because of the high cost of building plants and the
threat of proliferation, illustrated by Iran's recent attempts to blur the lines between
energy production and a weapons program. Other countries seeking to build their first
nuclear plants would probably purchase fuel from secure market sources in Europe and
the United States, rather than enrich their own. And experts remain cautious about the
prospect of seeing so much nuclear fuel in global circulation.
"I'm assuming the waste and safety problems get resolved, but cost and proliferation still
loom as very serious problems" with nuclear energy, Gore told The Washington Post's
editorial board this month. "I am not anti-nuclear, but the costs of the present generation
of reactors is nearly prohibitive."
Meeting tough goals
Yet for nations such as Britain -- home of the world's first commercial nuclear plant -- a
return to nuclear is seen as essential to the goal of meeting aggressive targets for
reducing carbon emissions.
As reserves of natural gas from the North Sea dwindle, Britain also is betting on nuclear
to help maintain a measure of energy independence.
After years of resisting new plants after the Chernobyl meltdown, the government did an
initial about-face in 2007, calling for a list of possible sites for reactors. This month,
British officials announced plans to fast-track construction of 10 plants. They will also
push for more wind and solar energy, but those technologies are still seen by many to
have limitations because of problems with transmission and scale, while "clean coal"
plants are years from commercial viability.
As may happen in the United States, the plants in Britain are expected to go up in
communities with existing nuclear complexes where support for them is already high.
Tindale, 46, publicly switched his position less than a year after leaving his job as head
of Greenpeace here. But his opinion began to change earlier, he said. Rather than being
vilified by environmentalists, his public shift has sparked a thoughtful debate here among
opponents, supporters and those on the fence.
"Like many of us, I began to slowly realize we don't have the luxury anymore of
excluding nuclear energy," he said. "We need all the help we can get."
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Maine, Vt., step up regulation of polluted runoff
The Washington Post, November 24, 2009, by DAVE GRAM
MONTPELIER, Vt. -- Maine and Vermont are moving ahead of other states on regulating
pollution in storm water running off roofs and parking lots, which often carries oil and
other toxic substances.
Vermont last week became the second state, following Maine, to change regulations
designed to reduce runoff entering streams and other water bodies after heavy storms.
The states already regulate several aspects of storm water, including those from new
projects and construction sites. The new rules are expected to affect already existing
commercial and residential developments, some in place for decades.
"This is different in that it looks at development that actually predated the program," said
Don Witherill, director of Maine's Division of Watershed Management.
The new regulations apply to property owners in watersheds of streams that don't meet
water-quality standards due to storm runoff pollution. It requires these property owners
to get special permits.
A permit could require property owners to make improvements like installing grassy
areas to absorb runoff from paved areas, holding ponds or taking other measures.
Homeowners living very near the affected streams - for now, five in Vermont and one in
Maine - would be required to comply by taking steps such as making sure roof gutters
aren't draining onto paved areas or cleaning up pet waste in their yards.
Jennifer Callahan, an environmental analyst with Vermont's Department of
Environmental Conservation, said that Vermont violators could face fines.
Establishing new regulations comes as attention grows around the country to polluted
storm runoff. Part of the concern is prompted by fears that climate change is bringing
more intense storms.
Environmental group officials said Monday the 1972 Clean Water Act has been
successful in addressing industrial water pollution and improving treatment of municipal
sewage.
"Some sources of pollution actually are decreasing in the United States," said Nancy
Stoner, head of the water program at the Washington-based Natural Resources Defense
Council. "But storm water pollution continues to grow because we're continuing to
develop."
Not everyone was happy with the new permit system. Joe Sinagra, executive officer with
the Homebuilders and Remodelers Association of Northern Vermont, said the rules
would add significantly to the cost of redeveloping blighted commercial properties.
42
Sinagra cited a two-thirds-empty South Burlington shopping plaza. "A number of people
now have looked at the property as a potential redevelopment. But the cost of doing so
is astronomical because of the need to bring it up to these new standards," Sinagra said.
Witherill said Maine's regulations won't be cost-free, either. They'll require a group of
property owners in the Long Creek watershed, near Portland, to chip in $3,000 per year
per acre of impervious surface - like parking lots - into a fund dedicated to paying for
projects to reduce storm water flowing into the stream.
Officials in both states said holding ponds and grassy areas designed to absorb water
flowing off of parking lots are two of the methods commonly used to reduce storm runoff
flowing into streams.
Stoner said it's expected a similar regulatory system may be set up to reduce storm
water flowing into Chesapeake Bay, but, "It appears that New England is ahead on the
issue."
Callahan said of the effort to impose new regulations on existing developments, "It's
going to be a nationwide thing. Other states just haven't gotten there yet. I'm not sure
why we're at the cutting edge, but we are."
Recovery Act Spurs $4 Billion in Wind Power Projects
Reuters, November 24, 2009, by Susan Kraemer
Through its Texas subsidiary Horizon Wind Energy, the giant Portuguese company EDP
Renewables; the second largest wind company in the world, intends to almost triple its
US projects to $4 billion worth of new wind energy projects in the United States through
2012.
This year alone Horizon Wind Energy installed $1.5 billion worth of wind power, adding
800 megawatts of clean energy to the grid to bring its US total to more than 2,500 MW in
21 states.
The CEO attributes the expansion to our new renewable energy incentives.
"EDP Renewables is serious about partnering with the United States for a number of
reasons, but most of all because of the leadership we have seen from the federal
government," said Antonio Mexia, chief executive of EDP and chairman of EDP
Renewables.
Current legislation does extend the investment tax credit (ITC) available to wind
developers; till 2012. But uncertainty about passage of the on-again off-again ITC
extension at the end of last year created a dive in wind projects into the first quarter of
2009. In the bailout bill last Fall it was extended (after eight attempts) at least long
enough to prevent expiration until a more renewable-friendly administration would be
sworn in.
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In February the Obama administration not only extended the ITC till 2012, but also
allowed wind developers to also benefit from a 30% production tax credit available to
homeowners and businesses that encourages development of any form of renewable
energy.
To help companies hard-hit by the downturn; the 30% tax credit legislation was modified
under the Recovery Act to be made available as a cash grant within 60 days if a
business had no profit to take a tax credit against.
There were no size limits on eligible businesses, only that it have no profits to take an
investment tax credit against. An excel file listing ongoing awarded cash grants begins
with an architectural office, that received almost $20,000 to put on a solar roof.
The cash grants, that began with these awards in September, also encourage investors
by providing secure returns. For example, Texas-based JPM Capital is investing just
over $101 million in a Horizon wind farm and will get paid back via cash grants that it
expects to receive instead of tax credits. Like the rest of the wind sector Horizon was hit
by the threatened ITC expiration last year.
The new legislation is also designed to encourage immediate reinvestment of renewable
energy profits, so manufacturing for the nacelles, blades and other parts must be done
here in the US to qualify.
Investment in wind power creates thousands of installation, maintenance and
manufacturing jobs as well as some you might not have thought of like asking farmers if
they want to host wind turbines.
E.U. Official Says Europe Should Pledge Steeper Cuts in Emissions
The New York Times, November 24, 2009, by JAMES KANTER
BRUSSELS — Stavros Dimas, the environment commissioner of the European Union,
called on the trade bloc on Monday to pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30
percent from 1990 levels to demonstrate leadership before a landmark climate change
summit meeting in Copenhagen in December.
E.U. member states have insisted that such a pledge is conditional on commitments by
the United States and other countries, like China, to do more to control their emissions.
Last year, E.U. countries agreed to cut emissions by a lesser amount, by 20 percent, by
the end of the next decade.
But Mr. Dimas said Monday that the bloc should move unilaterally to cut emissions by 30
percent by 2020 because it was the best way to secure a deal that would help limit the
rise in global temperatures to a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), the
internationally accepted goal.
“In my opinion, the 30 percent commitment by the European Union would be better in
our negotiations,” Mr. Dimas said. “The moral pressure would be much stronger on the
developed countries and developing countries alike.”
44
Andreas Carlgren, the environment of Sweden, which holds the current rotating
presidency of the E.U., said at a news conference Monday that the bloc was “very close”
to making a pledge to cut emissions by 30 percent, but was not yet ready to do so.
Mr. Carlgren noted that the E.U. was awaiting improved offers of commitment on
emissions from the United States and China. “We’re still asking for a more ambitious
bid,” Mr. Carlgren said of the United States in particular.
Environment ministers of the European Union met this week before the Copenhagen
gathering to put the final touches on the bloc’s position.
In reality, E.U. heads of state and government could pledge a deeper cut in emissions
and offer more financial aid to those countries most vulnerable to climate change during
their own year-end summit meeting set for Brussels during the second week of
December, when the Copenhagen meeting would already be under way.
Yvo de Boer, the United Nations climate chief, who also briefed journalists in Brussels
on Monday, said wealthy industrialized countries should agree to give “fast track”
financing of $10 billion a year to poor countries from 2010 to 2012 as part of efforts to
help secure a new climate agreement in Copenhagen.
Clemson to get $98M for wind energy test facility
San Francisco Chronicle, November 24, 2009, by MEG KINNARD
Clemson University is getting nearly $100 million to study wind energy, funding that
officials at the South Carolina school said Monday could eventually lead to thousands of
new jobs for the state.
"This positions Clemson and South Carolina to become national leaders in the
development of wind energy and benefit from the green economy," said school President
James Barker. "We believe it will have a tremendous positive benefit for the state."
The new facility for wind turbine drive train testing will be part of the Clemson University
Restoration Institute campus at the former Navy base in Charleston. A drive train takes
energy generated by a turbine's blades and increases the rotational speed to drive the
electrical generator, like the transmission in a car.
It needs to be near the state's coastline, and not at Clemson's main campus in the
state's northwestern corner because the 200-ton wind turbines being tested will likely
arrive by sea, officials said.
"Wind power holds tremendous potential to help create new jobs and reduce carbon
pollution," said U.S. Energy Department Secretary Steven Chu. "We are at the beginning
of a new Industrial Revolution when it comes to clean energy and projects like these will
help us get there faster."
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Chu, who is scheduled to visit Clemson's main campus on Nov. 30 for a symposium on
green energy, says the facility will create needed jobs and could eventually help lower
energy costs for consumers.
The Energy Department gave Clemson $45 million in federal funding under the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. State and private sources provided $53
million in matching funds, for a total of $98 million, officials said.
Several other states have received stimulus funds to study wind energy but they pale in
comparison to Clemson's award. Last week, Michigan State University announced it had
received nearly $84,000 to measure wind speeds around the state. And the University of
New Hampshire has also received $700,000 in federal stimulus funds to help develop
three deep water wind energy test sites in the Gulf of Maine.
Clemson officials said that funding will become available by the end of January, with
construction expected to begin next year. The facility should be up and running by the
end of 2012, said Imtiaz Haque, a mechanical engineering professor at Clemson.
Officials estimated that the facility will initially employ at least 100 people, but some say
the overall job benefit could be exponentially greater. Building off of the new facility's
research, the Energy Department has estimated that the wind industry in South Carolina
could eventually provide anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 jobs.
"As the wind energy market emerges along the East Coast and turbines continue to
grow in size and weight, South Carolina is strategically positioned to serve as an
industrial hub for this evolving industry," said John Kelly, executive director of the
Restoration Institute. "Obviously this is the beginning of what we hope will be the
location for manufacturers."
Quebec breaks from Ottawa in plan to cut greenhouse gases
The Globe and Mail, November 24, 2009, by RHÉAL SÉGUIN
Quebec is taking the final step in its break from Ottawa on climate change, unveiling an
ambitious plan to reduce greenhouse gases and blasting the federal government for
inaction only a few weeks before a major international environmental conference.
Premier Jean Charest announced yesterday that, by 2020, the province will reduce
greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 per cent below 1990 levels, a goal similar to the target
the European Union has adopted.
The ambitious target-setting is the latest in a series of policy moves on the environment
from the provinces, with Quebec and B.C. leading a surge ahead of the cautious position
of the Harper government.
Mr. Charest warned that Canada will pay a heavy price if it fails to reduce greenhouse
gases significantly, because Europe is set to enforce aggressive emission cuts and is
threatening to impose duties on imports from countries that don't follow suit. He said
Canada-Europe trade relations could be affected if no international consensus is
46
reached at next month's United Nations conference in Copenhagen, which
representatives of Quebec and other provinces will attend as part of the Canadian
delegation.
"There's the threat of economic reprisals if we don't follow the path being set in
Copenhagen," Mr. Charest said at a news conference after his announcement at the
Montreal Council on Foreign Relations. "This is real, this is not fiction. ... Our economy
rests on exports and on natural resources. For us, the consequences would be very
serious."
John Drexhage, director for climate change and energy at the International Institute for
Sustainable Development, said that trade reprisals for countries that are not planning to
make major cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions are being discussed in Europe and
Washington.
"If Canada doesn't come in with any kind of target and doesn't agree to sign on, it is
conceivable then that Canada would become victimized by this," he said.
Quebec's stringent new target would give the province the lowest level of greenhousegas emissions per resident on the continent. Quebec, where all political parties agree on
complying with the Kyoto accord on climate change, already has the country's lowest
level of greenhouse-gas emissions - 10 tonnes per resident or the equivalent of half of
the Canadian average - because of its widespread use of hydro-electricity. The province
has already broken with Ottawa once on the issue, aiming to reduce its emissions by the
Kyoto target of 6 per cent below the 1990 level by 2012.
Mr. Charest said he plans to reach the new objective by investing in public transportation
and adopting tough regulations to reduce automobile emissions similar to the strict
standards set in California. The province is also hoping rapid development and
marketing of electric automobiles will significantly reduce its dependency on fossil fuels.
The objective is tied to Quebec's involvement in the Western Climate Initiative, an 11member group of Canadian provinces and U.S. states that have agreed to implement a
cap and trade greenhouse-gas emission system by 2012. Regulations will determine the
amount of emissions for each industrial sector, and companies can trade carbon credits.
Ontario and British Columbia are the only other provinces with emission-reduction
targets. Ontario plans to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions by 15 per cent below the
1990 level by 2020. B.C. plans to reduce emissions by 33 per cent below 2007 levels,
which Quebec said is the equivalent of about a 14-per-cent reduction below 1990 levels
by 2020.
Ottawa's intended target is to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 2020 by 3 per cent
below 1990 levels.
Future is green economy
Already flowering in Quebec, Charest says
THE MONTREAL GAZETTE, November 24, 2009, by LYNN MOORE
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Quebec's decision to lead North America in offsetting climate change should give the
province a starring role in tomorrow's green economy, Premier Jean Charest told an
gathering of opinion makers in Montreal yesterday.
The province will slash greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 per cent from 1990
levels by 2020, Charest said in a speech to the Conseil des relations internationales de
Montréal. That bounce will put Quebec ahead of targets set by the federal government
and other jurisdictions.
"We see Quebec as having a unique opportunity to establish a new energy model and to
unleash a new economic cycle, that of the green economy," said Charest, whose
announcement received immediate support from business leaders and environmental
activists.
"Countries and states that know how to transform their economies by focusing on
renewable energy and technological innovation will be the winners in this new era. Their
businesses will export their solutions around the world. And, thanks to their energy
efficiency, they will be protected from rising energy costs."
In his speech, and later with reporters, Charest acknowledged reaching the
government's goal will not be a walk in the park. And some sectors will find it more
difficult than others.
But as a nordic country, Canada will be among the first to experience climate change,
said Charest, noting the next generation will see a new maritime shipping route open in
the waters north of Quebec.
"What will it cost us if we refuse to act?" he asked.
To reach the 2020 goal, Quebec will focus on transportation, electric vehicles, in
particular, he said. The province will invest in public transit and intermodal transportation
of goods, review provincial planning laws to slow urban sprawl, encourage the use of
wood as a building material and gradually eliminate oil heating systems.
"Quebec has the resources, the know-how, the entrepreneurs and the infrastructures to
become a symbol in the new green economy," he said.
Quebec industry has already proved it is possible to combine reducing emissions and
economic development, the audience heard.
"In 2006, it reduced its emissions by more than seven per cent from 1990 (levels).
During the same period, the GDP (gross domestic product) of Quebec rose by 41 per
cent," Charest said.
The province's green sector is already in flower, Charest said. There are 1,600
companies involved in green or sustainable-development businesses, providing more
than 34,000 jobs. Since 2003, average annual rate of investment in that sector has been
just about 41 per cent, he said.
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Vital to the reaching Quebec's emissions goal is the implementation of a carbon-capand-trade system by 2012, Charest said.
The mechanism for a carbon market has already been adopted by Quebec and it is in
line with the Western Climate Initiative, a grouping of four provinces and seven U.S.
states that are pushing to force Canada and the U.S. to take the matter seriously.
Germans to eat under 'green' arches
McDonalds. 'Out of respect for environment'
THE MONTREAL GAZETTE, November 24, 2009
With the crunch climate change summit in Copenhagen fast approaching, even
McDonalds has decided to go green - at least with its logo, a senior executive said
yesterday.
At German branches of the U.S. fast-food chain, the famous golden arches will be
emblazoned on a green background, rather than its usual red, McDonalds Germany
vice-president Holger Beeck said.
The change will be made on all new and refitted restaurants "out of respect for the
environment," Beeck told the Financial Times Deutschland.
The instantly recognizable logo is the world's sixth-most valuable brand, according to a
2009 report by Interbrand consultancy, behind only Coca-cola, IBM, Microsoft, General
Electric and Nokia.
A study this month showed McDonalds was the most popular brand for German
consumers between the ages of 12 and 18.
The Dec. 7-18 Copenhagen talks are aimed at agreeing an international pact to cut
carbon emissions and providing money to poorer nations to transfer green technology
and help them cope with the ravages of climate change.
McDonalds has in the past come under fire from environmental groups on several fronts,
including its use of packaging and deforestation.
However, Greenpeace also have praised the company for efforts to be more
environmentally friendly, including introducing refrigerators without harmful
chlorofluorocarbons.
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