AVA says vegetables in markets safe to eat: following checks on vegie farms with 'red spots'

Channel NewsAsia 1 Dec 07;

SINGAPORE: The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) says all vegetables sold in Singapore are safe for consumption.

This follows checks at vegetable farms in Sungei Tengah and the Lim Chu Kang Agrotechnology Parks, where red spots were found on crops there.

The spots were caused by a dye released from an RSAF aircraft being tested at Tengah Airbase in preparation for an upcoming aerobatic display.

AVA said the red spots were only found on crops in six farms in the Lorong Semangka area in Sungei Tengah.

The farmers have three days to destroy the affected crops, which come up to some 200 tonnes of vegetables.

Dr Paul Chiew, deputy director of Veterinary Public Health at AVA, said: "AVA's priority is to assure the safety of food, including vegetables. As the red dye is not approved for use in food, AVA is requiring all the vegetables in the 6 affected farms to be destroyed as a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of our consumers."

AVA said that once the affected crops are destroyed, the farmers must irrigate their land to flush out any remaining trace of the dye.

AVA also assured the public that all vegetables sold in wet markets and supermarkets are safe for consumption.

The Defence Ministry said the amount of red dye deposited will not cause adverse health effects when inhaled or when in contact with the skin.

MINDEF said the RSAF conducted a ground trial which involved producing red smoke from one of its stationary aircraft at the airbase on 23 November.

Strong winds may have dispersed the residual dye from the smoke to the farms.

It is looking into the case and has suspended all such trials.

MINDEF said all reasonable claims arising from this incident will be considered and compensation will be paid accordingly.

Members of the public requiring assistance on this matter can call the MINDEF hotline at 1800-760 8844. - CNA/ir

200 tonnes of 'dyed' veggies to be dumped
Precautionary move should not affect market prices, says AVA
Mavis Toh , Shuli Sudderuddin, Straits Times 2 Dec 07;

VEGETABLE farmer Wong Kok Fah is seeing red these days - hard not to, given that the lush crops of kailan, chye sim and Chinese cabbage of farms in the area are being destroyed because of a red dye.

Normally Mr Wong, 45, would be harvesting his prized vegetables but yesterday, he and five workers were disposing of over 200 tonnes of produce from the 3ha he farms.

'It's such a waste,' Mr Wong said. 'Some of the crops are practically ready to eat, but I guess safety is more important.'

Farmers on five other plots were facing the same heartbreaking task, one that will eventually see 200 tonnes of vegetables dumped.

The farm plots in the Lorong Semangka area of Sungei Tengah were collateral damage from a Republic of Singapore Air Force training exercise on Nov 23.

The elite Black Knights aerial display team was testing red dye used to create a plume of smoke from the exhausts of their F-16C jets, but some was blown over crops, trees and vehicles.

Mr Wong discovered the problem last Tuesday when he saw that his farm netting was speckled with red spots.

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) stepped in and told farmers on Friday night that all their crops had to be disposed of.

Dr Paul Chew, AVA's deputy director of veterinary public health, said: 'We have to take the precautionary measure...as the dye is not meant for consumption.'

Vegetable prices are not expected to be affected. The 200 tonnes of produce - about 10 lorry loads - that will be incinerated in Tuas comprise less than 1 per cent of Singapore's consumption, said Dr Chew.

Farmer Tan Bock Tat, 40, will lose 1.3ha of crops but he remains business-minded: 'The price of vegetables is very high now and I hope we will be compensated at market rates.'

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: 'We are in direct contact with the affected farms. All reasonable claims...will be considered and compensation paid accordingly.'

Vehicles were also affected. Mr Jason Sia, 29, unemployed, said his white Honda Civic was covered with droplets.

'I might have to polish it, which will cost $60 to $100. Worse still, I might need to repaint it,' he said.

Four other vehicles in the area were also affected.

Mindef has a hotline for queries: 1800-760- 8844.

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ABC Waters project to usher in cleaner waterways throughout Singapore by 2009

Channel NewsAsia 1 Dec 07;

SINGAPORE: The PUB wants to work with the community to beautify and maintain Singapore's pristine waters through the ABC Waters project.

The Active, Beautiful and Clean Waters project will involve all 32 major rivers, more than 7,000 kilometres of canals and drains and 17 reservoirs by 2009. Launched in April this year, the project was piloted at three locations - Kolam Ayer, Bedok Reservoir and MacRitchie Reservoir.

More than just shoring up river and canal banks or providing clean water,
the PUB wants to find out what residents want.

On Saturday, the PUB held the first community workshop on the project, engaging residents at Kolam Ayer.

As part of their plans, Kolam Ayer residents want to enjoy concerts and watersports on their stretch of the Kallang River.

"My wishlist for Kolam Ayer is to have a place where people can enjoy and de-stress themselves....have some time to enjoy the sun and the sea," said a resident.

The Kolam Ayer project will be completed by March next year.

While Singaporeans can expect beautiful waterfront facilities, they must also exercise responsibility over them.

Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Environment and Water Resources Minister, said: "It is not sustainable for the Ministry, or the PUB, or NEA to do everything that we want to do. We have to get community participation and ownership. As we open up our waterways, we beautify them, it's not something that we just go, have fun and go back. You must feel that you are part of it." - CNA/ir

Read more!

Highest bridge in Singapore links Mt. Faber and Telok Blangah Hill

Channel NewsAsia 1 Dec 07;

SINGAPORE: The highest bridge in Singapore does not have a name yet, and Singapore's Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has orgainsed a naming competition for those eager to leave their mark.

From now until the middle of January 2008, the public can visit the URA's website at www.ura.gov.sg to cast their votes.

The bridge across Henderson Road, which stands at 37 metres above ground, is Singapore's highest pedestrian bridge. Its centre portion was lifted into place just before dawn on Saturday.

The centre portion was put together in around 2.5 months, and took about five hours, at a speed of 10m per hour, for it to be lifted 37m above ground and fitted into place.

The cautious speed was due to the bridge's tilt, which meant lifting operations had to be done carefully, with engineers constantly checking the hydraulic jacks and cables.

Linking Mount Faber and Telok Blangah Hill, the bridge is part of the government's project to join the Southern Ridges.

One thing passers-by will notice about the bridge is that it has been built at an incline.

The structure is as such to accommodate the height difference between Mount Faber and Telok Blangah Hill, while allowing easy access for wheelchair users.

The bridge was mostly completed at about 5.15am on December 1. However, the pedestrian access will only be opened in February next year.- CNA/yb

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Loss of 'goddess' a grave warning sign

John Yeld, The Cape Argus, Independent Online 30 Nov 07;

"What does that say about our values and priorities? And it's not likely to be a unique event in the next few decades."

One marine mammal - the Chinese river dolphin, or baiji - has gone extinct in the past 50 years and others are likely to follow in the coming decades, a leading marine scientist has warned.

The baiji, a white dolphin found only in China's Yangtze River and nicknamed "the goddess of the Yangtze", is considered extinct after scientists failed to find a single animal during a six-week search on the river last November and December.

Speaking on Thursday at the opening plenary of the 17th biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, Society for Marine Mammalogy president John Reynolds made a plea for scientists to also promote conservation of the species that they worked on and cared about, which was "far more difficult" than science.

"We're losing species, we're losing stocks - the standard (scientific) operating procedures are not working well," he warned.

The conference, co-hosted by the Society for Marine Mammalogy and Pretoria University's Mammal Research Institute, has attracted more than 900 delegates from 57 nations. It is the first time it has been held in the southern hemisphere and only the second time outside north America.

Reynolds noted that the recent extinction of the baiji - the small, nearly blind white dolphin - had been foreseeable and could have been prevented.

"What does that say about our values and priorities?" he asked, and added: "And it's not likely to be a unique event in the next few decades." The Caribbean monk seal had also been "irrevocably lost", and at least another 22 species or particular stocks of species - including the killer whales off the North American coastline - were on the verge of becoming extinct unless urgent conservation programmes were implemented, he pointed out.

"And based on recent history, I don't know if we will (be able to implement such programmes)," he warned.

There were some success stories, such as the Alaskan bowhead whale whose numbers were increasing at more than three percent a year, which was "great news".

However, marine mammals were facing a number of risks in the future, including global climate change.

"It's a really daunting picture, and there are no guarantees that all stocks and species will make it."

Reynolds said conservation was "more difficult, more elusive" than good science, and he challenged society members to augment their science by also practising conservation advocacy, "for what you think is right".

"All that is needed is a collective will to preserve."

Reynold's theme was echoed by eminent Japanese marine mammal scientist Dr Toshio Kasuya, who was presented with the society's second Kenneth S Norris Career Achievement Award, in honour of his "exemplary and sustained contributions to science and society through research, teaching and service in marine mammalogy" over 46 years.

Kasuya, who retired last year, spoke of two marine mammal "tragedies" in Japan's fisheries history.

These were the failure of the government fisheries agency to take the scientists' advice to regulate the annual catch by coastal fishermen of as many as 21 000 dolphins, most of them striped dolphins, and the hunting of sperm whales off Japan.

Officially this hunting killed 88 000 whales between 1910 and 1988, but the true number could have been two or even three times greater because of poaching by Japanese coastal fishermen and Soviet pelagic fishing.

Kasuya said there was "no doubt" that whales had culture, with experience transmitted among members of the group.

"Whales can learn, they live long enough to accumulate experiences and they have a social system to transmit it to others."

He was opposed to Japan's recent approach of evaluating science in terms of economic benefit and said no marine mammal science was free from the conservation imperative.

"We are responsible for the future of marine mammals, even when we are paid by organisations with other objectives."

This article was originally published on page 13 of The Cape Argus on November 30, 2007

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World's largest mangrove badly hit by cyclone: official

Shafiq Alam Yahoo News 1 Dec 07;

Environmentalists said they believed the forest would regenerate on its own and warned that human tampering with the rare ecosystem could prove disastrous.

A quarter of Bangladesh's Sunderbans forest has been damaged by a deadly cyclone that left a trail of devastation in the vast mangrove swamp, a top forestry official said Saturday.

The world's largest mangrove forest bore the brunt of the cyclone that smashed into Bangladesh on November 15, killing more than 3,200 people and wiping out thousands of villages.

"The cyclone has left huge devastation in the Sunderbans unseen for decades. Some 1,500 square kilometres (600 square miles) of the forest was damaged," chief government forest conservation official A.K.M. Shamsuddin said.

"At least seven percent of the (Bangladeshi portion of the) forest was severely damaged... while another 17 to 18 percent was partially damaged," he told AFP, adding initial satellite images showed the extent of the destruction.

The 10,000 square kilometre forest straddles the borders of Bangladesh and India's West Bengal state and lies on the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta.

The Bangladesh portion comprises 60 percent of the total area. The Indian side was untouched by the cyclone.

A UNESCO team was visiting the delta of lush forested islands, separated by a complex network of tidal rivers and creeks, to survey the destruction, Shamsuddin said.

"We're figuring out how we will tackle the damage," he added.

"If necessary, we may have to opt for assisted natural regeneration in some areas and planting in others," he said.

Under assisted regeneration, workers clear away fallen trees and other storm debris to allow new saplings to grow.

But environmentalists said they believed the forest would regenerate on its own and warned that human tampering with the rare ecosystem could prove disastrous.

"This is not the first time that the Sunderbans has been hit by a huge cyclone," said Niaz Ahmed Siddiqui, known as a world expert on the Sunderbans.

"We have recorded history of such cyclones hitting the forest in the last 200 to 300 years," he said.

"Every time the forest has been battered, it has regenerated on its own," said Siddiqui, who headed the Bangladesh government's mangrove forest research unit for 15 years.

"Any human intervention to regenerate trees is unwarranted and would be suicidal," he said.

Some less severely hit areas could start regenerating in three to four months' time, added mangrove forest management specialist Fariduddin Ahmed.

"It's a unique eco-system. It does not need any human touch -- any human disturbances would make regeneration difficult," he added.

Although not inhabited, the jungle is a magnet for thousands of impoverished villagers who live along its boundaries and work there as fishermen or collect honey or wood.

The Sunderbans is also home to an estimated 500 Royal Bengal tigers. There are only an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 of the endangered species left worldwide, down from 100,000 in 1900.

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Earth Observations: working together could protect against droughts, natural disasters and disease

Earth monitor meeting makes progress
Clare Nullis, Associated Press, Yahoo News 30 Nov 07;

The Group on Earth Observations aims to link up the myriad satellites, ground stations, radar systems and ocean monitors that often operate in isolation.

Working together, the monitoring systems could boost the capacity to predict — and protect against — droughts, floods, hurricanes and disease.

"The goal is to provide the right information in the right format at the right time to the right people so they can make the right decisions," U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne said Friday during the group's annual conference in Cape Town.

China and Brazil promised to distribute their Earth observation satellite data free to Africa, while the European Union has also launched a project to help Africa close its Earth observation gaps.

Enormous strides in the sharing of technology and pooling of ideas have been made in the past few years. There are tsunami alert systems to prevent a repeat of the 2004 southeast Asian catastrophe that killed 230,000 people.

But the challenges associated with global warming, overpopulation, deforestation and desertification are growing. There are glaring gaps in poor, heavily populated countries, and too little overall coordination.

The warnings for a recent Bangladesh cyclone came from a Bangladesh-born hurricane expert in the United States who made his own calculations about the impact of the storm and send word home.

The 3,500 killed were a fraction of the toll of earlier years.

A Global Earth Observation System was devised in 2005 for completion in 2015 with the aim of allowing access to a vast quantity of information on changes in the Earth's land, oceans, atmosphere and biosphere through a single Web portal.

The system envisages common technical standards to ensure that data emanating from one country can be received and understood in another. One of the items up for discussion Friday was a common alert protocol that would include a single radio frequency for disasters — such as operates for air traffic control.

If authorities were able to predict drought three to six months in advance, this would enable them made decisions on planting crops and water resource allocation way ahead of time.

In the United States, this could help save billions of dollars, and in Africa it would save untold lives, Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr., head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told The Associated Press.

Tracking and combating the spread of infectious diseases like malaria and cholera could be improved if early warning systems were developed for infected areas, according to South African Science and Technology Minister Mosibudi Mangena.

Similarly, early warnings of likely epidemics in Africa's "meningitis belt," would allow health experts to integrate user-friendly climate forecasts into vaccination and treatment programs for the disease.

Kempthorne said information and expertise gleaned from the North American Drought Monitor program developed by Canada, Mexico and the United States would be made available to other continents.

"Each of the nations represented here holds pieces to a puzzle which, when the different pieces are assembled, we get a total view of Earth," Kempthorne said.

"More people will be fed, more diseases mitigated and more lives saved from natural disasters," as a result.

He said the sense of cooperation at the conference was overwhelming, far removed from the bitter politics surrounding global warming.

The United States has been seen as slow to even acknowledge man was causing global warning, and has balked at the 1997 Kyoto accord requiring 36 industrial nations to radically reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2012.

Read more!

Another Whale Falls Ill At Georgia Aquarium

WSBTV 30 Nov 07;

ATLANTA -- Marina, the second oldest beluga whale at the Georgia Aquarium, has recently fallen ill and is being watched twenty-four hours a day. Marina has lost her appetite and has become disoriented.

“Every resource is being given to the team to ensure that Marina is receiving the best possible care,” said Jeff Swanagan, president and executive director, Georgia Aquarium.

“She has a variety of ailments being treated, but her lost sense of direction is the primary concern of the veterinary and husbandry team treating her. Without regaining her ability to navigate, she will not be able to survive in any environment.”

She has already suffered an injury to her rostrum (chin). More than 100 staff will be involved in covering shifts to ensure Marina’s safety, according to aquarium officials. Veterinary and husbandry teams are continuing diagnostic procedures to further understand her condition. Marina, estimated to be 25 years old, is currently being cared for off-exhibit.

In November 2005, three beluga whales, including Marina, were transferred to the Georgia Aquarium on a breeding loan. The Georgia Aquarium team is collaborating with veterinarians from the University of Georgia and the University of Florida.

The three other beluga whales at the Georgia Aquarium, Nico, Maris and Natasha, are all eating normally and responding to the husbandry team.

Officials said an update on Marina will be released Monday afternoon or sooner if her condition changes.

Gasper, one of the Georgia Aquarium's five beluga whales at the time, was euthanized in January after months of declining health.

Whale sharks Ralph and North also died at the Aquarium this year.

Aquarium fights to save ill whale
Mark Davis, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 30 Nov 07;

A beluga whale at the Georgia Aquarium is not well and has been taken off exhibit, officials said Friday.

Marina, a 25-year-old female, has stopped eating and has been swimming erratically since before Thanksgiving, the aquarium said. She also has ulcers and a bump on her snout, and is on 24-hour care, employees said.

The announcement highlights the death earlier this year of Gasper, a popular, bubble-blowing beluga who contracted an incurable disease. The two cases are not related, aquarium officials say.

Marina is the second-oldest whale in the exhibit; Natasha, 28, is oldest. Belugas may live to 35 or older in the wild.

Veterinarians aren't sure what caused Marina to stop eating or swimming like her three tank mates in the Arctic Quest exhibit, said Jeff Swanagan, the aquarium's president and executive director. Nor do they know how serious the 1,570 pound whale's afflictions may be.

"Animals are so good at hiding their symptoms," he said.

Marina's symptoms prompted the aquarium to begin a ceaseless watch Thursday afternoon, when veterinarians placed her in a separate tank adjacent to the beluga exhibit. The aquarium lowered the water and placed 14 people in wet suits in the pool's 55-degree shallows.

Since then, more than 100 people have taken four-hour turns helping the Delphinapterus leucas swim in a tight circle, keeping her away from the pool's edges. Swanagan called it "an incredible effort."

The care will continue for as long as it takes for the whale to improve, he said. The aquarium has also called experts from the Universities of Georgia and Florida to help assess Marina's condition.

That condition, he said, first became apparent just before Thanksgiving when her swimming no longer mirrored the graceful loops and dives of Nico, Maris and Natasha, the other belugas in Arctic Explorer. The aquarium took her off the exhibit, but periodically let her rejoin the others. They quarantined her after she turned sideways and banged her rostrum, or snout, on a rock.

The whale's symptoms don't appear encouraging, said Lori Marino, an Emory University neuroscience lecturer who is a specialist in whales, dolphins and porpoises.

"Those are two cardinal things: off-feed and not swimming well," she said. "That's bad."

Marina, Maris and Natasha came to Georgia in November 2005 in the hope they would breed with males Nico and Gasper. They are on a breeding loan from the Wildlife Conservation Society's New York Aquarium.

Since then, Nico has expressed interest in the females, especially Maris, 13 and the youngest of the trio. He's frequently mated with her this year.

Gasper wasn't as fortunate. The aquarium euthanized him in January after determining he would not recover from a bone disease he contracted at another exhibit. Marina's woes, Swanagan said, "are a totally different situation."

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Sunken Antarctic cruise ship leaves oil spill, threatening 2,500 penguins

Canadian Press 1 Dec 07;

SANTIAGO, Chile - About 2,500 penguins en route to their Antarctic mating grounds could be sickened by a diesel fuel spill from a Canadian cruise ship that struck an iceberg and sank last week.

A marine biologist says areas surrounding the almost two kilometre-long spill site include breeding grounds for Antarctic and Adelia penguins, and the largest mating colony for Papua penguins.

Maria Jose Rosello, a Chilean marine biologist, says: "The danger is that this fuel spill will impede the journey that species like Papua penguins make at this time of year.

Rosello says the area is also home to seals, petrels and other sea birds.

The MS Explorer, an adventure travel ship operated by a Toronto company, was on a 19-day cruise off Antarctica when it hit an iceberg on Nov. 23.

The ship's 154 passengers and crew had to get into lifeboats in the middle of the night. They waited more than three hours in unusually calm, icy waters until they were rescued by a Norwegian cruise ship.

About 190,000 litres of diesel, 24,000 litres of lubricant and 980 litres of gasoline were on board when the Explorer then sank hours later.

Chile's navy said Thursday that bad weather has kept clean-up experts from containing the spill, which is for now penned in by large chunks of floating ice in the Bransfield Strait, about 80 kilometres east of King George Island.

"The diesel oil continues flowing" from the ship, which now rests 1,460 metres below the sea, Veronica Vallegos, an official at the Chilean Antarctic Institute, told Cooperativa radio.

Vallegos and other Chilean experts who toured the spill site reported seeing no contaminated birds this week, but noted they hadn't been able to assess damage the diesel might have done to fish, krill, algae and plankton colonies, a key part of the Antarctic food chain.

"There's always environmental danger when fuel leaks, and even more so in a zone with high biodiversity," Vallegos said.

Studies by scientists who regularly conduct research in Antarctica at this time of year will be key to establishing the extent of the damage, she said.

Diesel is the least harmful type of hydrocarbon product, scientists told a news conference Thursday.

Read more!

High tides affect Indonesian fish farmers

Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post 30 Nov 07;

Rising tides in Indramayu regency, West Java, have forced farmers to harvest their fish ponds earlier than expected to avoid huge losses.

Reports Thursday indicated farmers were forced to harvest hundreds of hectares of traditional fish farms early because they had been engulfed by seawater from high tides in the Java Sea.

"The farmers had to harvest early to avoid further losses," said leader of the Indramayu Fish Farmers Association (PPTI), Nono Sudarsono.

Nono said high tides had gradually inundated some 100 hectares of traditional fish farms from Nov. 27.

The majority of damaged ponds are located in the coastal areas of Kandanghaur and Indramayu regencies.

"Most of the damaged farms consisted of milk fish raised traditionally by farmers," he said.

He added the high tides had caused farmers to suffer hundreds of millions of rupiah in damages.

"They usually harvest fish into the third month of raising, but due to the floods, many farmers were forced to harvest earlier to prevent huge losses, even though they had only raised the fish from between one to two months."

Farmers can yield 1.5 tons of fish per hectare under normal conditions, but due to the premature harvest, they have only been able to harvest half the volume.

"They can only harvest around 800 kilograms of fish per hectare at most," Nono said.

An environmentalist from the Workers and Environment Foundation (YLBH), Yoyon Suharyono, has urged fish farmers to replant coastal areas with mangrove.

According to Yoyon, replanting coastal areas with mangrove trees is crucial, since mangrove forests act as barriers against high tides. He said pounding waves could easily reach land and damage residents' homes and fish farms due to the chronic condition of mangrove swamps.

"A mangrove forest can block waves and minimize the damage, but if it's damaged, seawater can easily reach the shore and cause extensive damage," he said.

Read more!

Indonesian religious, traditional wisdom urged for green protection

The Jakarta Post 30 Nov 07;

Religious and ethnic leaders expressed concern Thursday over global warming, asserting no spiritual teachings or traditional beliefs allowed the unchecked exploitation of nature.

Environmental damage caused by human activities is against all spiritual and traditional values, which teach people to preserve and live in harmony with nature, Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsuddin said during a discussion here.

The event was organized by Muhammadiyah, one of Indonesia's most influential Muslim organizations, to seek a common ground among different groups prior to the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali from Dec. 3 to 14.

World representatives will convene at the UN conference to negotiate a global treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Religious and ethnic leaders will also be involved in the negotiations aimed at pushing developed countries to reduce carbon emissions produced by industrial activities and to shoulder the responsibility for any failure to meet reduction targets.

Present during Thursday's meeting were representatives of Indonesia's five biggest religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism and Hinduism.

Ethnic tribal leaders from Banten, Sumatra, Papua, Madura and Borneo also were in attendance.

Buddhist priest Tadisa Paramita said human greed was behind the environmental degradation that has translated into natural disasters such as floods and drought.

He said humans had benefited from industrial activities at the expense of the environment, ignoring nature's protests sent through a number of disasters.

"Nature responds according to what humans do. We believe that nothing comes as a coincidence ... people reap what they sow."

Father Ismartono of the Indonesian Bishops Conference said: "Humans are not the owners of this earth and have no right to exploit nature the way they do. God is the creator of this earth and humans are the steward."

Indonesia has seen some of the worst environmental damage in the world, with some 50 million hectares of forest throughout the country heavily exploited.

The country has been cited for its rapid rate of deforestation, and has been called one of the main contributors to global warming.

Al Azhar, representing the Riau Malay tribe from Sumatra, told the audience how forests in his region were exploited by timber companies despite protests from indigenous people.

"Indigenous people will plant one tree if they cut down one tree ... but the companies come and take everything from the forest without any effort to replace it."

Leonard Imbiri from Papua said the forests in Papua had been devastated.

"People know of Papua as having amazing and wild forests ... but you can come and see now, the forests and nature there have been badly damaged. Gone are the indigenous people's efforts to preserve them," he said. (lln)

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Indonesia could net US$2 billion from forest conservation

Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post 30 Nov 07;

If it is rapacious business interests that are destroying our forests, then perhaps it might be ingenious business responses that could help save them -- especially if such "commercial conservation" can generate as much money as exploiting the forests.

In the Indonesian context, there may be up to US$2 billion in potential annual revenues that could be generated just by preserving the country's forests and offering them as a carbon-dioxide (CO2) "sinks" on the global carbon-trading market.

"We should think of forests beyond timber, rattan and minerals. The most valuable aspect of a forest is actually its ability to retain and absorb carbon (CO2). That's what many people don't quite grasp yet," Laode M. Kamaluddin, regional director of the non-profit Borneo Tropical Rainforest Foundation (BTRF), said during a workshop on forest carbon-trading Thursday.

"So, our forests should be seen as manageable and durable asset, and no longer just as an exhaustible commodity."

Building on this "business-like mind-set" regarding the carbon value of forests, Laode said Indonesia should not miss out on the already existing -- and growing -- carbon trading market to raise funds for better managing and conserving its forests, and doing so in a "business-like manner".

This includes establishing professionally managed bodies for forest conservation projects, which could work closely with local communities, and ensure that the projects turned out as profitable as if the forests were used for commercial purposes.

"The aim is to show that the benefits of conserving forests are comparable to those of exploiting them," Laode said.

Studies show that a hectare of preserved forest can provide a sink for between 90 and 400 tons of CO2, while a ton of CO2 can fetch between US$3 and $20 on the carbon market.

If calculated using median figures, Laode pointed to how just one million hectares of forest in Kalimantan, Aceh, Papua or any other of Indonesia's provinces could fetch up to Rp 18 trillion (US$2 billion) alone.

As a rough comparison, the government only expects to take in Rp 2.3 trillion in royalties and fees from forestry concessions. Royalties and fees from mining, some concessions for which are located in forest areas, are expected to come to Rp 4.8 trillion.

Indonesia has some 88 million hectares of rainforest, the world's third largest area, yet is estimated to be losing up to 1.8 million hectares each year due to illegal logging and forest fires. Such risks mean that forest-related carbon projects in Indonesia are only worth between US$5 and 10 per ton of CO2 reduction.

The Swiss-based BTRF, Malinau regency in East Kalimantan and the U.K.-based Global Eco Rescue (GRE), have entered into a public-private partnership to conserve 325,000 hectares in the area worth an initial 325,000 euros.

The Malinau project is expected to serve as a pilot project in setting a more accurate "carbon value baseline" for others in Indonesia. It comes on the heels of BTRF's and GRE's one-million-hectare project in Brazil's Amazon forest, and 500,000-hectare project in Malaysia's Sabah.

Malinau regent Marthin Billa said the project was also expected to promote a culture of preserving forests and benefiting from their resources, as shown by the Dayak people, who only remove as much wood and rattan as they need, and clear forest land using responsible methods.

Forest conversation projects can at present only be offered through the voluntary carbon market (VCM), as they are not part of the Kyoto Protocol's clean development mechanism (CDM), which only includes reforestation as an emissions reduction method.

The carbon market was born from the CDM, which allows developed nations to invest in green projects in developing countries in exchange for their required emissions reduction quota.

The international conference on climate change, which Indonesia will host next week in Bali, is expected to discuss the inclusion of the proposed Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) mechanism for the 2012 post-Kyoto Protocol agreement on emissions reduction -- combining reforestation methods with conservation.

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 1 Dec 07

NEW Singapore dragonfly online resources
Dragonflies and damselflies of Singapore lists and photo index
Asia Dragonfly mailing list: find photos and post information

Singapore horseshoe crabs in the news
on the cyber dino blog

From wetland to wasteland
A sad article featured on the budak blog

Bali Who
the contradictions of trying to save the planet on the reuters environment blog

Drongo and woodpecker
an odd partnership on the bird ecology blog

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Farmers near Tengah Air Base told to destroy 200 tonnes of greens

Farmers told to destroy 200 tonnes of greens after red dye from airbase falls on them
Mindef says dye was from an aircraft being tested on the ground last Friday
Jessica Jaganathan & David Boey, Straits Times 1 Dec 07;

SOME farmers and people living near Tengah Air Base have, literally, been seeing red the past week after the area was doused with droplets of red dye last Friday.

Six vegetable farms have been told to destroy 200 tonnes - about 10 lorry-loads - of the stained caixin, kangkong and other leafy vegetables.

This comes a week after The Straits Times received a flurry of complaints on its Stomp website that cars, crops and even someone's pet cat had been sprinkled with what people thought was 'red paint'.

Yesterday, the Ministry of Defence cleared the air.

It said the dye was released by an aircraft being tested on the ground for about 20 minutes at about 2pm last Friday.

The Straits Times understands that the Republic of Singapore Air Force's Black Knights aerial display team was testing the dye to create a red plume of smoke in the exhaust of an F-16C fighter jet.

Strong winds carried the smoke into the area south-east of the base.

Colonel Darius Lim, Mindef's director of public affairs, said: 'We are currently conducting further investigations and have suspended all such trials. Standard aviation dye was used in this trial.'

He assured the public that 'the amount of red dye deposited will not cause adverse health effects when inhaled or when in contact with the skin'.

Neighbouring the airbase is a cluster of vegetable farms. Officers from the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) checked 46 vegetable farms in the Sungei Tengah and Lim Chu Kang Agrotechnology parks.

They found that six farms in the Lorong Semangka area in Sungei Tengah had crops that were stained.

These farms were ordered to destroy the crops as tests showed that the dye was not approved for use in food.

AVA officers will check the farms today to ensure that the produce is destroyed and disposed of properly.

None of the stained produce left the farms.

The AVA added that all vegetables sold in wet markets and supermarkets are safe.

One farmer estimated his losses to be $70,000 and said he has to wait another three to four weeks for the next harvest.

Another farmer, Mr Wong Kok Fah, who said he will lose more than 10 tonnes of crops, asked: 'How am I going to pay my staff?'

The dye did not affect the nearby Kranji Reservoir, according to the PUB, the national water agency.

Water samples from the area where the six farms are located have also been collected for testing, said Mr Tan Nguan Sen, the PUB's director of catchment and waterways.

Not so lucky was a resident in Teck Whye who made a police report last Friday after discovering red spots the size of pin heads on his white Honda Civic car.

'I would like to know who will compensate me for the damage to the car's paintwork,' he said.

Col Lim said: 'We are in direct contact with the affected farms to address their concerns. All reasonable claims arising from this incident will be considered and compensation will be paid accordingly.'

Singapore air force left red-faced by botched test
Yahoo News 1 Dec 07;

A test by Singapore air force of a red plume of smoke for an acrobatic display has backfired after a cloud of the dye polluted nearby farms' vegetable plots.

The air force was testing the dye on the ground, but strong winds carried the smoke away from the base, the ministry of defense said in a statement on Saturday.

Nearby farms had to destroy 200 tonnes of vegetables -- about 10 truck loads -- since the dye is not approved for food use, the Straits Times paper said.

The ministry of defense said it would not cause adverse health effects if inhaled.

The paper said it had received a flurry of complaints from people saying everything from a pet cat to white cars were sprinkled with the red dye. One farmer estimated his losses at S$70,000 ($48,410), the paper said.

Claims for compensation will be considered, said the ministry's Colonel Darius Lim in the statement.

(Reporting by Neil Chatterjee)

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AVA revises regulations on plants imported from West Malaysia

Channel NewsAsia 30 Nov 07;

SINGAPORE: The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) has announced tighter regulations concerning plant import from West Malaysia.

Starting from 1 December, travellers returning from West Malaysia are only allowed to bring in up to three plants without potting medium – such as soil, sphagnum moss, peat moss and potting mix – or 250 gm of seeds or both, without an import permit from AVA and a plant health certificate.

This is because potting medium, if not properly treated, could contain microscopic worms which can cause poor growth or death of plants.

The AVA said these worms can multiply quickly and spread to other healthy plants and will thus be detrimental to the plant health status of Singapore.

Presently, travellers returning from West Malaysia are allowed to bring in up to three plants with or without potting medium.

However, for travellers intending to bring in plants with potting medium from West Malaysia, they must now obtain an import permit from AVA and a plant health certificate from Malaysia.

Violation of the above regulations will result in confiscation and destruction of the plants and seeds.

More information is available online at the AVA website http://www.ava.gov.sg/

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I'm a virus: Harming the earth

Dr Manoj Thulasidas, Today Online 1 Dec 07;

It is unlikely that we will get exterminated; we are far too sophisticated for that. In all likelihood, we will make our planet uninhabitable. We may, by then, have our technological means of migrating to other planetary systems. In other words, if we are lucky, we may be contagious! This is the inescapable conclusion of this intellectual exercise.

On one poignantly beautiful autumn day in Syracuse, a group of us physics graduate students were gathered around a frugal kitchen table. We had our brilliant professor, Lee Smolin, talking to us. We held our promising mentors in very high regard. And we had high hopes for Lee.

The topic of conversation on that day was a bit philosophical, with Lee describing to us how the Earth could be considered a living organism. Using insightful arguments, Lee made a compelling case that the Earth, in fact, satisfied all the conditions of being an organism.

Lee, by the way, lived up to our great expectations in later years, publishing highly-acclaimed books and generally leaving a glorious imprint in the world of modern physics.

The point in Lee's view was not so much whether or not the Earth was literally alive, but that thinking of it as an organism was a viable intellectual model to represent the Earth. Such intellectual acrobatics was not uncommon among us physics students.

In the last few years, Lee has actually taken this mode of thinking much farther in one of his books, picturing the universe in the light of evolution. Again, the argument is not to be taken literally, imagining a bunch of parallel universes vying for survival. The idea is to let the mode of thinking carry us forward and guide our thoughts, and see what conclusions we can draw from the thought exercise.

A similar mode of thinking was introduced in the movie Matrix. In fact, several profound models were introduced in that hit movie. One misanthropic model that the computer agent Smith proposes is that human beings are a virus on our planet.

It is okay for the bad guy in a movie to suggest it, but an entirely different matter for a newspaper columnist to do so. But bear with me as I combine Lee's notion of the Earth being an organism and Agent Smith's suggestion of us being a virus on it. Let's see where it takes us.

The first thing a virus does when it invades an organism is to flourish using the genetic material of the host body. The virus does it with little regard for the well-being of the host. On our part, we humans plunder the raw material from our host planet with such abandon that the similarity is hard to miss.

But the similarity doesn't end there. What are the typical symptoms of a viral infection on the host? One symptom is a bout of fever. Similarly, due to our activities on our host planet, we are going through a bout of global warming. Eerily similar, in my view.

The viral symptoms could extend to sores and blisters as well. Comparing the cities and other eye sores that we proudly create out of pristine forests and natural landscapes, it is not hard to imagine that we are indeed inflicting fetid atrocities on our host Earth. Can't we see the city sewers and the polluted air as the stinking, oozing ulcers on its body?

Going one step further, could we also imagine that natural calamities, such as the Asian tsunami, are the planet's natural immune systems kicking into high gear?

I know that it is supremely cynical to push this comparison to these extreme limits. Looking at the innocent faces of your loved ones, you may feel rightfully angry at this comparison. How dare I call them an evil virus?

Then again, if a virus could think, would it think of its activities as evil?

If that doesn't assuage your sense of indignation, remember that this virus analogy is a mode of thinking rather than a literal indictment. Such a mode of thinking is only useful if it can yield some conclusions. What are the conclusions from this human-viral comparison?

The end result of a viral infection is always gloomy. Either the host succumbs or the virus gets beaten by the host's immune systems. If we are the virus, both these eventualities are unpalatable. We don't want to kill the Earth. And we certainly don't want to be exterminated by the Earth. But those are the only possible outcomes of our viral-like activity here.

It is unlikely that we will get exterminated; we are far too sophisticated for that. In all likelihood, we will make our planet uninhabitable. We may, by then, have our technological means of migrating to other planetary systems. In other words, if we are lucky, we may be contagious! This is the inescapable conclusion of this intellectual exercise.

There is a less likely scenario — a symbiotic viral existence in a host body. It is the kind of benign lifestyle that Al Gore and others recommend for us. But, taking stock of our activities on the planet, my doomsday view is that it is too late for a peaceful symbiosis. What do you think?

The writer is a scientist from the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, or Cern, who currently works as a senior quantitative developer at Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore.

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Social aims in mind but business acumen also needed

Lin Yanqin, Today Online 1 Dec 07;

THEY'RE businesses with a social purpose, but good intentions, it seems, can only carry a social enterprise (SE) so far.

Without the knowhow and resources to run a business, some SEs — enterprises with a social aim of helping those in need — have found themselves struggling to deliver. Some might even ultimately be forced to shut down, to the loss of its beneficiaries.

That is why more needs to be done to boost a sector with a "generally poor entrepreneurial environment and a culture of letting the Government take the lead", said a report commissioned by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS).

The report looks at the state of Singapore's fledging SE sector and offers a slew of recommendations for change — such as ways to match SEs with business expertise and available funds, and introducing school courses to teach business skills in a non-profit sector.

What poses a challenge now is perception, said the report. For instance, consumers sometimes regard SE products as inferior and expect them to be lower-priced, putting SEs at a pricing disadvantage, said the report. This makes it difficult for SEs to attract employees and customers.

Meanwhile, some organisations — private and non-profit — think of SEs as being "more like a charity" and "entitled to support and subsidies".

In contrast with countries like the United States that have a stronger SE sector, local SEs typically have their roots in non-profit groups rather than the private sector. With staff from social service rather than business backgrounds, the firms lack the management capabilities to keep going.

Financial instability is also an issue. While 42 of the 94 SEs surveyed for the report were profitable in the current financial year — 31 had earned income as a primary source of income — SEs also rely on donations. This puts them at the mercy of changing donor sentiments and limited fundraising capabilities, said the report.

It added: "Most social enterprises are not able to plan strategically but have a tendency to think short-term and fight fires as they arise."

And the SEs' small scale means they cannot afford IT or audit support services, for instance, and have to rely on staff with limited knowhow or volunteers who come and go.

As for support and seed-funding, the report noted that government efforts in Singapore focus mainly on social services for the needy. Those SEs championing causes like the arts, sports and health, on the other hand, get less support.

In addition, with no central repository where SEs can identify and assess what is available to them, they may have difficulty accessing the funds available from companies such as M1, DHL and Standard Chartered Bank.

While the report recommends measures to correct such shortfalls, some social entrepreneurs point out that the right strategy helps.

Said Mr Anderson Tan, who runs Fued Cafe, a cybercafe that reaches out to help youths at risk: "To survive, a social enterprise needs to fulfil its commercial objectives first, and keep its social objectives at the back of the mind without losing sight of it. Once you have achieved commercial viability, you can leverage on your social objectives because it becomes an edge over pure-profit businesses."

"There are lots of cybercafes but ours is the only one that really engages youths" and this differentiating factor keeps the cafe in business.

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Fuel cost woes? 'Go for lower grades'

Oil expert says higher octanes won't make car go faster. His advice: Check car manual's recommended grade of petrol
Lin Xinyi, Straits Times 1 Dec 07;

Some may abandon the road altogether. Car owner Wong Wan Ying, 44, said: 'If prices continue to rise, I might have to stop driving.' Other drivers told the Straits Times they would consider planning their routes more precisely, driving less and taking public transport.

DRIVERS looking for some respite from sky-high petrol prices should consider changing to a lower grade of fuel, according to one expert.

Consultant Ong Eng Tong, a 40-year veteran of the oil industry, said many drivers think pricier petrols will make their cars go faster - but that is not how it works.

'If 92-octane is sufficient, pumping 95 or 98-octane will not bring about any difference,' he said yesterday.

His advice: Check your car manual to find out the recommended grade of petrol.

Many drivers have turned to penny-pinching after the country's four petrol retailers raised their prices on Wednesday - all within the span of eight hours. All but one grade of petrol is now above the $2 mark - a record.

The price hike has forced businessman David Lim to downgrade the petrol for his car. For the past two months, he has filled his Toyota Camry with 95-octane, instead of 98-octane.

'I won't try 92-octane unless I've no choice,' said Mr Lim, 55.

But that isn't such a bad thing, according to Mr Ong. Most Japanese and Korean makes will do fine with 92-octane, the lowest grade of petrol available here.

'(Even) 95-octane is good enough for cars from Mercedes-Benz and BMW,' said Mr Ong.

'In fact, in Germany, they only have 95-octane.'

Before discounts, 98-octane petrol now costs $2.08 a litre, while 95-octane and 92-octane cost $2.006 and $1.973 respectively.

Motorists who make the switch from 98-octane to 95-octane could save $7.40 per 100 litres. Dropping from 95 to 92 would lop $10.70 off 100 litres.

Mr Chua Kim Leng, 40, said he would resort to a more drastic change should petrol prices continue to rise.

Mr Chua, the owner of a 1.8 litre-MPV, said he would consider looking for a smaller car.

Some may abandon the road altogether. Car owner Wong Wan Ying, 44, said: 'If prices continue to rise, I might have to stop driving.'

Meanwhile, motorcyclists who are already pumping 92-octane are finding other ways to cope with the hike.

Mr Sam Thung, 27, said: 'I save where I can. My meals used to cost $3 to $4 but now I go for meals that cost $2.50.'

The cook pumps a full tank every day, which costs him $6 - up by about $1 since the start of the year.

Other drivers told the Straits Times they would consider planning their routes more precisely, driving less and taking public transport.

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Finnish refiner to build world's largest biodiesel plant in Singapore

Channel NewsAsia 30 Nov 07;

SINGAPORE: Singapore's biodiesel industry got a boost on Friday. Neste Oil, a refiner from Finland, said it has decided to invest nearly S$1.2 billion to build the world's largest biodiesel plant in Singapore.

In a statement, Neste said the plant will have a design capacity of 800,000 tonnes each year.

This will make it the largest facility producing diesel fuel from renewable feedstock anywhere. The plant will use mostly palm oil for raw material.

The company said it chose Singapore because it is the world's third-largest centre for oil refining.

Singapore is also a central location in terms of product and feedstock flows and logistics.

Neste believes this will give Singapore excellent potential to develop into a centre for Asian biofuel production.

The Economic Development Board will also support the investment by helping with research and development, as well as assisting with recruiting and training personnel.

Construction of the plant at Tuas will start in the first half of next year and it is due to be completed by the end of 2010.

The plant will be integrated into the area's existing industrial infrastructure, and will make use of local site utilities and port and storage services.

When operational, the plant will employ around 100 people.

Analysts say the move is positive for Singapore.

ABN AMRO Asia Securities' investment analyst Nirgunan Tiruchelvam said: "..... it places Singapore as a hub in the biodiesel industry. There has been a few other developments earlier this year and last year where other companies have set up biodiesel facilities in Singapore because of its superior logistics."

According to Neste, the use of biofuels is predicted to increase rapidly in developed economies over the next few years.

For now, though, analysts believe the plant's impact on Singapore's economy will be minimal.

ABN AMRO Asia Securities' Nirgunan Tiruchelvam said: "The production being anticipated in this biodiesel facility is a small percentage of the petroleum requirements of this country. So the impact on the Singapore economy per se will be quite minimal. However it may encourage other players in the biodiesel industry to ramp up capacity in Singapore." - CNA/ir

World's biggest biodiesel plant to be built in Singapore
Bryan Lee, Straits Times 1 Dec 07;

A FINNISH firm will build the world's biggest biodiesel plant in Singapore at a cost of 550 million euros (S$1.18 billion).

The plant will convert palm oil into fuel for cars, trucks and other vehicles.

Oil refiner Neste Oil's investment will create 100 jobs and boost the Republic's goal of riding a growing global wave of environmentally friendly industries.

Unlike fossil fuels, biodiesels are a renewable energy source as they are derived from crops that can be repeatedly grown and harvested.

Also, Neste says greenhouse gas emissions from its fuel are 40 to 60 per cent less than conventional diesel.

Green industries are now far more than a mere buzzword for cause-hungry Hollywood celebrities.

They are fast becoming big business, and Singapore wants in on this hot new sector.

The Neste plant, announced yesterday by the Helsinki-listed firm, is the second big clean energy win for Singapore in as many months.

Norway's Renewable Energy Corp said in October that it is building a $6.3 billion solar panel plant - the world's biggest such facility here.

'Singapore is an excellent location for the plant because of its good infrastructure,' said Neste executive vice-president Jarmo Honkamaa. 'It is one of the world's big oil refining hubs.'

Mr Honkamaa said Singapore's proximity to palm oil production sites such as Malaysia and Indonesia was another reason for siting its first overseas biodiesel plant here.

Neste now runs a biodiesel plant with an annual capacity of 175,000 tonnes at its Porvoo oil refining complex in Finland. A second plant with a similar capacity is being added there and will come on stream in 2009.

The new plant here will be built on a 19-ha plot in Tuas, and will be able to produce 800,000 tonnes of biodiesel every year.

When completed in 2010, it will be the largest biodiesel investment here, much bigger than a US$130 million (S$188 million) project by Australia's Natural Fuel that is aiming for an annual capacity of 600,000 tonnes a year.

'This investment is a strong endorsement of Singapore's drive to develop a robust and sustainable biofuels industry, differentiated by a focus on next-generation technologies,' said the Economic Development Board's energy, chemicals and engineering services head Julian Ho.

Most of the new plant's output will likely be shipped to Europe, where demand for biodiesel is strongest.

But demand from other developed nations is expected to pick up over the next few years as governments move to cut emissions of greenhouse gases to address rising concerns about global climate change.

$1.2b investment for biodiesel
Finnish company to build facility here to produce renewable diesel from palm oil
Esther Fung, Today Online 1 Dec 07;

From 2010, Singapore will be home to the world's largest facility producing diesel fuel from renewable feedstocks.

Finnish company Neste Oil Corporation is investing approximately 550 million euro ($1.17 billion) to build a plant here to produce 800,000 tonnes of renewable diesel a year using its NExBTL technology. NExBTL diesel uses a flexible mix of vegetable oils and animal fats to produce the diesel, which Neste says significantly reduces exhaust emissions.

"Singapore is an excellent location for this type of plant. Because of its existing infrastructure, we can save some investment costs," Mr Jarmo Honkamaa, deputy chief executive officer and head of oil refining said in a teleconference from Finland.

"We have received favourable tax treatment from Singapore, so that helps us make the decision to locate in Singapore."

Palm oil is the main raw material to produce this biodiesel, and Singapore was chosen for this site because of its proximity to suppliers from Malaysia and Indonesia.

"The palm oil has to be certified as sustainable palm oil, but we have also options to use vegetable oils and animal fats, especially animal fats which could be available in the area," Mr Honkamaa said.

He said that the biodiesel, which can be used in cars, will be mainly exported to Europe, but did not rule out producing for Singapore, South Korea and the United States, which have voiced interest to buy these fuels.

Construction of the plant will begin in the first half of next year, and is expected to be completed by end 2010. The plant will occupy a 19-ha site in the Tuas Industrial Zone, and will hire around 100 people.

When the Singapore facility is ready, it will overtake the one in Europe, which produces about 600,000 tonnes of diesel, Mr Honkamaa said.

The Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) has assisted the refining and marketing company in the preparations for the project.

"This second-generation biofuels manufacturing investment is a strong endorsement of Singapore's drive to develop a robust and sustainable biofuels industry," said Mr Julian Ho, the EDB's executive director, energy, chemicals and engineering services.

Refiner to build 550m euro S'pore biodiesel plant
Finnish facility with capacity of 800,000 tonnes a year set to be world's largest
Matthew Phan, Business Times 1 Dec 07;

(SINGAPORE) Finland-listed refiner Neste Oil is building a palm oil-based biodiesel plant in Singapore at a cost of 550 million euros (S$1.17 billion), it said yesterday.

The plant will have a design capacity of 800,000 tonnes per annum, making it 'the largest facility producing diesel fuel from renewable feedstocks anywhere', Neste said in a release to the Helsinki Stock Exchange.

Using Neste's proprietary NExBTL technology, the plant will produce biodiesel that is 'completely sulphur free', with 'no aromatics', Jarmo Honkamaa, executive vice-president at Neste, told BT in a phone interview.

With over 99 per cent cetane levels - this is analogous to the octane level for gasoline and measures how evenly a diesel fuel burns - Neste's fuel goes far beyond the average cetane levels of about 50 per cent now found in European diesel oils, he said.

Neste will export output from the Singapore plant 'most likely to Europe', as the fuel is meant for the latest vehicle engines there, said Mr Honkamaa.

But it is also seeing a lot of interest from Japan and the US, and would consider selling in Singapore if a local market emerged, he said.

Construction of the plant will begin in the first half of 2008, and is due to complete by end 2010.

It will be located in the Tuas industrial zone and integrated into the area's existing industrial infrastructure, making use of local site utilities and port and storage services, Neste said.

The plant will employ about 100 people when operational.

To supply the plant, Neste will 'most likely source palm oil locally produced', said Mr Honkamaa.

The firm has 'committed itself to only using palm oil certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil as soon as sufficient quantities are available'.

The RSPO certification system was approved only this month and compliant palm oil will be available from early 2008 onwards, it said.

Mr Honkamaa said that Neste plans to build other biodiesel plants of similar scale in Rotterdam and the US, to complement existing plants in Finland.

The first NExBTL facility was commissioned in Finland in summer 2007, and a second is due to come onstream in 2009.

But the local Economic Development Board has been very helpful with smoothing the process, which led to the Singapore plant being announced first, he said.

EDB will support the investment through R&D and assistance with recruiting and training personnel, according to the release.

Singapore is the world's third largest oil refiner, with a central location in terms of product and feedstock flows and logistics, giving it 'excellent potential to develop into a centre for Asian biofuel production', said Neste.

Neste To Build US$814 Mln Singapore Biofuel Plant
Story by Tarmo Virki, PlanetArk 3 Dec 07;


HELSINKI - Finnish refiner Neste Oil said on Friday it would spend 550 million euros (US$814 million) to build the world's largest biodiesel plant in Singapore to meet growing but controversial demand for biofuels.


Neste said the plant would have a design capacity of about 20,000 barrels per day, and use mostly palm oil as its raw material, though it can use also soy oil or animal fats.

"The investment forms part of Neste Oil's strategic goal of becoming the world's leading renewable diesel producer," the firm said.

Neste said the use of biofuels is seen growing rapidly over the next few years and that its biodiesel, branded NExBTL, is the cleanest renewable fuel around.

While Neste believes using its proprietary technology is the best way to do business, the market has voiced scepticism over its ability to manage large investment projects, as the refiner has faced major teething problems with its key unit producing conventional diesel at its refinery in Porvoo, Finland.

"For now at least the market will rightly be left wondering if the Neste Oil management can be trusted to project manage any material investment programmes -- and this goes to the heart of its ambitious, biodiesel ambitions," Citigroup said in a note.

The use of biofuels made from crops such as maize, sugarcane and vegetable oils is expected to rise rapidly in developed economies and is seen by many as a way to cut emissions of greenhouse gases and provide an alternative fuel source to crude oil, which has been pushing US$100 a barrel this year.

Some environmentalists, however, dispute the greenhouse gas emissions benefits of biofuels and are alarmed by deforestation to increase palm oil output and the effect on food prices.

On Sunday environmental group Greenpeace tried to prevent a tanker bringing palm oil to Neste's first biodiesel plant, which is now running at full capacity of 170,000 tonnes, in Porvoo.

Construction of the plant in Singapore, which is close to major palm oil producers Malaysia and Indonesia, will begin in the first half of 2008, with completion due by the end of 2010.


PALM OIL PRICE BOOST

The announcement is expected to boost prices of palm oil, which have more than doubled since January 2006, a Malaysian industry analyst said on Friday.

"We are already facing supply constraints and not even able to meet the demand from the food sector," said M. R. Chandran, an independent consultant and former head of Malaysian Palm Oil Council. "It is very good news for the market."

Soaring feedstock prices have squeezed the margins of biodiesel producers in Asia and only large producers like Neste Oil will survive, he said.

"Obviously now it is the volumes game, it is like the refinery sector. Margins are so small that you have to have the volumes in order to be economically viable," Chandran said.

The news about the biodiesel plant came on a day when the world's largest palm planter Sime Darby relisted on the Malaysian stock exchange at a 36 percent premium to its indicative price, after merging with two other palm-oil groups.


ENVIRONMENT WORRIES

Neste said it was committed to only using palm oil certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a system approved in November 2007, which would probably be available from the early part of 2008 onwards.

Greenpeace said the certification scheme was not enough.

"It does not matter if there are certificates or not. Growing demand is leading to accelerating destruction of rain forests," said Juha Aromaa, Greenpeace spokesman.

Shares in Neste Oil were up 1.2 percent at 24.05 euros at 1447 GMT, against the DJ Stoxx European oil and gas index, up 0.7 percent.

(Additional reporting by Naveen Thukral in Kuala Lumpur and Sami Torma in Helsinki; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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Green living scores in design contest for homes in Marina South

URA selects 4 schemes out of 30 entries from S'pore, overseas architects
Uma Shankari, Business Times 1 Dec 07;

A LOW-RISE eco-village, canal streets, a coastal shopping promenade and terraced communal green roofs - coupled with dramatic views and contrasting skylines. This is the living environment suggested by the winning entrants in a competition to get ideas on how Marina Bay should look.

In September, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said it will set aside 60 hectares - the Marina South Residential District (MSRD) - for 11,000 homes.

A design competition to inspire innovative ideas to distinguish the area was announced at the same time.

When the competition closed on Nov 12, 30 entries had been received from local and overseas architects. Foreign submissions came from Hong Kong, Australia, Indonesia, India and the US.

Four schemes have been selected and another two received special mention. The winners are Hong Kong's Compass Studio and Singapore's Khoo Teik Rong, SKPS-Project and Surbana. Special mention was given to Australia's Chor and Singapore's ZONG Architects.

The four winners will get $10,000 and the two special mention schemes $5,000.

'We are impressed with the numerous interesting and novel ideas from the competition,' said URA's director for urban planning and design Fun Siew Leng.

'They will serve as a starting point to stimulate reflection and inspiration to develop Marina South into a distinctive waterfront garden district for generations to come.'

MSRD will also have 1.6 million sq ft set aside for hotel use and 678,000 sq ft of commercial space. The entire project will be developed over 15 to 20 years, once supporting infrastructure has been put in place.

Four winning design ideas for Marina South residential area
Cheow Xin Yi, Today Online 1 Dec 07;

Wave-like high-rises juxtaposed against developments with terraced communal green roofs, vast vistas of water and greenery, and contrasting skylines.

That is the vision (picture) that a Singapore architectural firm, Surbana, has of the upmarket 60-ha Marina Bay area that will eventually house 11,000 homes when the project is completed over the next 15 to 20 years.

It was one of four winning entries in the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore (URA) and Singapore Institute of Architects' Marina South Residential District Design Ideas Competition. The results were announced on Friday.

"The URA is at a conceptual stage of planning for Marina South," said Ms Fun Siew Leng, URA's director of urban planning and design who is also a member of the jury panel.

"The numerous interesting and novel ideas garnered from the competition ... will serve as a starting point that stimulates reflection and inspiration to further develop Marina South into an attractive, distinctive waterfront garden district for generations to come."

The URA is the master planner for the site.

The other three winning entries came from Singaporean Khoo Teik Rong, a group that calls itself SKPS-Project and Compass Studio from Hong Kong.

These designs feature ideas from low-rise eco-villages to canals lined with commercial activities.

The 30 submissions hailed from as far away as India and the US.

Striking ideas thrown up for Marina South project
4 winners in design competition boast features such as terraced buildings, 'floating' blocks
Tay Suan Chiang Straits Times 1 Dec 07;

IT'S been a hazy vision up to now but the first stunning proposals for the Marina South Residential District, unveiled yesterday, indicate that a design revolution is brewing on Singapore's waterfront.

The four proposals - picked from a design competition that attracted 30 entries from India to Australia - promise an intoxicating cocktail of architectural flamboyance and ecological innovation in what has been touted as Singapore's future No. 1 residential hot spot.

It is the first time a design competition has been held as part of the planning process for a residential district here.

And the ideas thrown up have not been seen here before: They include elevated condominiums, terraced buildings resembling cascading gardens, and 'floating' housing blocks with Amsterdam-style canals.

The winners, who each get $10,000, include local architecture firm Surbana, Hong Kong's Compass Studio and national serviceman Khoo Teik Rong, an architecture graduate from Melbourne's RMIT University.

The designs remain just suggestions at this stage and may not be part of the final plan, but they serve as a striking starting point for the ambitious project.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) will now compile a final plan for the 60ha site, which will be developed over 15 to 20 years and will have up to 11,000 homes.

The competition, organised by the Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA) and the URA, asked entrants to unscramble what amounted to a Rubik's cube of design challenges.

At the basic level, 11,000 housing units had to be incorporated with commercial, hotel and community facilities on a prime site near the upcoming Gardens at Marina South and Marina Bay Sands integrated resort.

But proposals had to show how high-density living could be achieved while retaining the ambience of a waterfront garden.

The judges also looked for environmental sustainability and a sense of community, while calling for designs that would allow Marina South to showcase the City in a Garden vision.

Mr Khoo, 23, drew on inspiration from a visit to Amsterdam and opted for canals to run through the site to make the area more intimate.

'I didn't want a site that would have only large-scale buildings,' he said.

The Surbana team had a 'green and blue' strategy. Green in the form of plants on the roofs of low-rise buildings, which would be terraced to give the appearance of gardens sloping to the marina.

Blue covered their housing idea - 30- to 50-storey-high blocks placed on shallow pools, making them appear to float on water.

Compass Studio, meanwhile, used hills as its inspiration - it wanted high-rise buildings to resemble hills that meet the lower plains. It also proposed a low-rise eco-village.

The fourth winner was SKPS-Project, a group of five architects, mostly from Singapore. They proposed lifting residential blocks 30m above the ground and planting trees underneath.

Reacting to the designs, Mr Mink Tan of Mink Architects said they were visually evocative, with 'a mix of everything'. 'If done successfully, this can be a...shining example of Asian urban living.'

Ex-SIA president John Ting of AIM & Associates was encouraged by the designs, but said more refinement was needed. He suggested the land can be split into smaller parcels and various architects let loose: 'Then we can learn how to work the land better.'

Property developers and consultants were more hardheaded, telling The Straits Times that it was too early to judge if the designs were commercially viable.

The 30 entries are on display at City Hall until Dec 8.

Shaping the homes of Marina South
High-rise blocks depicting hills and canals for boat rides are among the suggested features of four winning proposals
Tay Suan Chiang Straits Times 1 Dec 07;

WATERFRONT-GARDEN living that's just minutes away from the city. That is what residents at the future Marina South Residential District can expect.

No date has been set for when people can move in.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has set aside 60ha of land between Gardens at Marina South and the Straits of Singapore, which will host some 11,000 homes, with a mix of commercial, hotel and community facilities for all to enjoy.

To get ideas for this project, the URA and the Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA) held a competition in September.

Open to students and professionals in planning, architecture and landscape, both locally and internationally, it drew 30 entries.

Participants had to illustrate how high-density living can co-exist with a waterfront garden concept, and set a new landmark in residential development.

A five-member panel, including Mr Tai Lee Siang, SIA president, and Ms Fun Siew Leng, director of urban planning and design at URA, chose four winners who each won $10,000.

The winning ideas will serve as an inspiration and catalyst for the masterplan.

The four winning and other entries are on display at City Hall, Level 3 Chambers, till Dec 8, from 10am to 10pm. Admission is free.

Design by Surbana, Singapore

THIS proposal adopts two broad housing strategies.

The first is the Blue strategy, where 30- to 50-storey-high residential towers sit directly on a vast expanse of water in a radial manner. This allows residential owners to have breathtaking views.

Carparks and vehicle movements will be limited to the basement levels, freeing up the ground level for water-themed playgrounds.

In the second Green strategy, most of the rooftop spaces will be semi-public gardens. Public gardens and spaces are also carved out between apartment blocks, creating a closeness to nature.

An internal canal system will allow residents to take boat rides around the area.

Design by Compass Studio Limited, Hong Kong

The overall design of this proposal resembles rolling hills - depicted by high- rise residential blocks of various heights - that overlook a low-rise village.

The towers are arranged such that they have views of the Gardens at Marina South and the seafront.

Connecting the buildings are several high-level terraces called 'Sky Cloud Gardens', and they will be used for leisure activities.

Nearer the waterfront will be a low-rise eco village. Traffic here is restricted to green means of transportation, preferably electric cars.

Design by SKPS Projects, Singapore

The focus here is on creating more open areas and creating a waterfront space for communal and commercial use. Garden decks will link this area to the Gardens at Marina South.

The residential buildings will be lifted 10 storeys above ground, so the space below can be used by the public. There are also plans to plant rainforest

Design by Khoo Teik Rong, Singapore

Khoo Teik Rong was inspired by the many canals he saw in Amsterdam and wanted to recreate the same atmosphere. His canals will be artificially created and connect the Gardens at Marina South to the sea.

There are also plans for the canals to be lined with street-level shops.

His residential blocks will consist of high-rise ones as well as townhouses and waterfront homes.

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Asia has its own models to beat water woes

Complex challenge can be met as keys to solution exist within region as a whole
Asit Biswas, Strait Times 1 Dec 07;

Major and fundamental changes in water governance practices are thus needed. There are many success stories in Asia in this regard.

For example, during the past 30 years, Singapore has made remarkable breakthroughs in its governance practices as a result of which it now has one of the best, if not the best, water supplies, waste-water management, and overall catchment management in the world.

LEONARDO da Vinci said water is the driver of nature.

Nearly half a millennium later, his wisdom can be considered prophetic. Increasingly, water is seen as the planet's driving lifeblood.

Asia, poised for greater growth, needs rational water development and efficient water management to ensure that such growth is not jeopardised.

Moreover, having adequate access to energy and water is one of the keys to resolving many existing societal problems.

Human survival and ecosystem conservation depend on the reliable availability of adequate water of appropriate quality. After all, food and agricultural production requires water.

In recent years, this water-food linkage has become more complex because of social and environmental concerns, technological developments, globalisation and management practices.

With the Industrial Revolution, water needs started to increase significantly, as did its collection, treatment and waste-water disposal.

Environmental issues for water management became salient during the 1970s. Development activities, including those on water, had to consider environmental implications, which gained momentum in the 1980s and are now universally accepted as integral to efficient and rational water management.

With rapid industrialisation and demands for a better quality of life, energy requirements have gone up as well. In recent years, the energy needs of Asian developing countries have increased very rapidly and will keep doing so. These have major water-related implications.

We can confidently predict, on current assessments of water resources, expected future water demands, available technology, knowledge and experience, that Asian developing member countries (DMCs) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) should not experience, or expect, a future crisis because of scarcity of water.

What is important is that, irrespective of the rhetoric on a looming global water crisis and likely water wars, there is now enough knowledge, technology and expertise available in Asia to solve existing and future water problems.

Nevertheless, some Asian DMCs will find it much harder than others to ensure their future water security. This, however, is likely to be the general situation not only for the water sector, but also for all other development-related sectors in those countries.

Major and fundamental changes in water governance practices are thus needed. There are many success stories in Asia in this regard.

For example, during the past 30 years, Singapore has made remarkable breakthroughs in its governance practices as a result of which it now has one of the best, if not the best, water supplies, waste-water management, and overall catchment management in the world.

In the process, its national water agency, the PUB, has gained full confidence of the public in the level of services it consistently provides. Most of this transition happened within about two decades.

It is now important for improving the performance of the water sector that a comprehensive search be made to identify similar success stories from all over Asia in areas like water supply, waste-water management, irrigation, and hydropower development.

These successes need to be reviewed independently by knowledgeable and experienced water experts in terms of their veracity, long-term sustainability, and potential replicability in other parts of Asia. It is also essential to analyse the enabling context of each success story to see how and why it managed to make remarkable progress, when other urban centres did not.

Successful Asian good-practice models are essential for South-South knowledge and experience transfer in the context of the special monsoon climatic conditions of the region. European and North American models have often not been successful in Asia.

Successful models from Asian monsoon areas are likely to be more replicable to other Asian DMCs than are models directly imported from Europe and North America. However, the Asian models should only be applied after appropriate modifications for site-specific conditions.

Improving data reliability and availability is another hurdle that must be overcome.

Data must also be readily accessible to the people who need them, ranging from national and international organisations to research and academic institutions, non-governmental organisations and civil society in general.

If the status of water development and management is to be improved, it is essential that collection, quality and management of data receive significantly higher priority in all Asian DMCs than has been the case to date.

A new paradigm of 'business unusual' is needed that can solve the region's water and waste-water problems in a cost-effective and equitable manner. It will require a new tripartite partnership, different from the earlier models: government, corporate (public or private) and society.

The tasks of the government could include formulation of an overall framework within which the three parties can operate, and the promulgation of regulatory regimes for the service providers.

The corporate partner could be public or private. If public, it should be an autonomous and accountable government entity with operational and financial autonomy, and free from political and bureaucratic interference.

In fact, many water utilities in Asian DMCs now fail to function efficiently because of unnecessary rules, regulations, administrative requirements, and bureaucratic and political interference.

Under such conditions, it would indeed be a miracle if a utility succeeds in providing reliable levels of services efficiently and equitably to all on a sustainable basis.

The Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority is to be held up as a model of an autonomous public corporate partner - it has already revolutionised the water supply of that city. This type of model needs further consideration for possible use by other Asian DMCs.

The third partner should be civil society, which, as a general rule, needs to move away from its current apathetic response to poor and unacceptable levels of water and waste-water service delivery.

Consumers will have to pay a fair price for receiving water and waste-water services, so they need to be encouraged to demand good-quality service.

Water quality management has mostly been a neglected issue in Asian DMCs. The health costs and social impacts are likely to be substantial at present. While these have not been carefully assessed for the region, the annual economic cost is likely to be billions of dollars.

Institutional strengthening and restructuring, inter-institutional coordination, and capacity building in technical, administrative, and managerial aspects are urgent requirements, as are significant improvements in the formulation and implementation of legal and regulatory regimes, and transparency and non-corruptibility of the associated administrative and management processes.

Considering the massive funding needed to manage water quality because of past neglect, it is highly unlikely that the public sector can generate the needed investment funds. Funding that can be generated from private sector and multilateral and bilateral agencies will be useful, but even this is unlikely to be enough.

New forms of funding mechanisms are needed, and need to be available on a sustained basis for a reasonable period of time.

Despite the deteriorating water quality in many Asian DMCs, the issue is not getting the political priority and social attention it deserves at national and local levels. Overall governance, including political, legal and institutional conditions, has often contributed to an environment that has not encouraged new investments. This situation needs to be changed, and a comprehensive perspective is essential.

Solving the water problems of the future will require additional skills and capacity, innovative approaches and new mindsets. A more holistic approach that can successfully coordinate the energy, food, environment and industrial policies of a nation, all of which have direct linkages to water, is needed.

All these factors make future water management in Asia a far more complex task than ever before. The challenge is formidable but it can be met, as the knowledge, experience and technology to solve the problems in a timely manner exist within Asia, not in one location, but within the region as a whole.

The writer is head of the Mexico City-based Third World Centre for Water Management, and winner of the 2006 Stockholm Water Prize - the highest honour in the water industry. This article is excerpted from his contribution to the inaugural Asian Water Development Outlook, a publication by the Asian Development Bank.

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Why Bali talks matter to Singapore

They may lead to future deal on emissions reductions that could affect developing states
By Arti Mulchand Straits Times 1 Dec 07;

If Indonesia's proposal that developing countries be paid to protect their forests is accepted, it could help mitigate the haze that has the region in a chokehold during the land-clearing season.

WITH no more than 0.2 per cent of the world's greenhouse gases coming from this tiny island state, Singapore's emissions seem to hardly make a dent in the atmosphere.

As Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has put it: 'Even if Singapore shuts down... no lights, no fans, no air-cons, no cars, buses, MRT, nothing, the amount of carbon...not generated will be the same as three days of energy consumption in China.'

But as representatives of some 190 countries gather next week in Bali to decide the future of the Kyoto Protocol, the current pact to cut carbon dioxide emissions, Singapore, like many around the world, will be watching what surfaces from the talks.

If all goes well, analysts believe Bali could kickstart a two-year negotiation for Kyoto's successor - a more 'comprehensive' emissions reductions framework in which developed countries agree to serious emissions cuts.

At the same time, developed countries want developing nations, especially mega-emitters like India and China, to shoulder some responsibility and agree to develop in a 'cleaner' way.

Therein lies the rub.

The issue of binding targets has been the main reason countries, especially developing ones, have been reluctant to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, since they feel they would have to sacrifice economic growth to meet the targets.

While Singapore ratified the protocol last year, it was as a non-Annex 1 country, which means it is not obliged to cut emissions. Annex 1 nations have to cut emissions by at least 5 per cent below their 1990 levels by 2012.

The talks matter for Singapore because they may set the stage for any future international emissions reductions agreement, which could affect developing countries.

Another issue that will be watched closely is Indonesia's proposal that developing countries should be paid to protect their forests.

If the proposal is accepted, it could help mitigate the haze that has the region in a chokehold during the land-clearing season.

But it will also raise the tricky issue of just how the burden of paying to protect forests should be shared by developed countries.

The Republic will also be interested in the Clean Development Mechanism, which allows developed countries to undertake environmentally friendly projects in developing ones to make up for some of the greenhouse gases they produce.

This will be discussed at the conference.

Singapore is pushing to be a regional centre for such green initiatives and technology.

Singapore, for its part, has put energy efficiency high up on the agenda, and the government has pumped in some $350 million to grow the clean energy sector.

The Republic has its own National Climate Change Strategy and has created the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore to promote carbon trading and other energy initiatives.

It also aims to cut energy intensity, or carbon dioxide emissions per dollar of GDP, by 25 per cent from 1990 levels by 2012.

Singapore, after all, does sit in the heart of Asia, which is set to bear the brunt of climate change, with changing weather patterns bringing drought and disease, and rising seas displacing millions of impoverished people.

Like many other developing countries, including China and India, Singapore has constantly underlined its stance that even as it is prepared to do its bit to mitigate climate change, it cannot afford to take 'drastic measures' at the expense of economic growth.

This is because Singapore is totally dependent on fossil fuels, with few feasible alternatives.

Then there are other issues: Singapore is a major manufacturing base for multinational firms, and a major air and sea hub where a large amount of fuel is uploaded to planes and ships.

Singapore argues that it should not be penalised for this production, as the goods are predominantly being consumed overseas.

That cannot all be 'put onto our account, because that's not fair and that does not make sense', Mr Lee has said.

This is a view that has its critics, including National University of Singapore academic and climate change commentator Natasha Hamilton-

Hart. Associate Professor Hamilton-Hart told a seminar on climate change earlier this week: 'The fact that Singapore is an exporting country has contributed to its wealth. And if you own the benefits, you should take the responsibility.'

Singapore leaders have pledged that the country will 'contribute' constructively to negotiations, but also made plain that they will have to safeguard 'national interests', like everyone else.

It is a view that is likely to be shared by many in the Group of 77, a bloc that represents about 130 developing countries.

The road to Bali
Straits Times 1 Dec 07;

Bali will set the scene for a post-Kyoto global climate change agreement, but much has happened in the last 12 months that could influence its outcome.
March: The IPCC's Working Group 1, which assessed the physical science backing climate change and its man-made drivers, releases its first report for policymakers. It was produced by more than 620 experts and governments, and was reviewed line by line by representatives of 113 governments.

April: The second segment of the IPCC report, on 'Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability' is released, and concludes that 'evidence from all continents and most oceans shows that many natural systems are being affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature increases'.

May: The final instalment of the IPCC report is released, pointing to possible strategies to curb climate change. One key issue in the debate concerns a proposal to limit concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to between 445 parts per million and 650 parts per million, with pressure from developing countries to raise the lower limit. Eventually, though, the original proposed figure is accepted into the summary created for policymakers.

Nov 16: The strongest scientific warning on climate change yet, the IPCC Synthesis Report, is issued. It declares that it is more than 90 per cent sure that humans are to blame for rising temperatures, and that 'abrupt or irreversible' impacts could result.

On the table in Bali
Business Times 1 Dec 07;

Delegates will ride bicycles to meetings but more substantial action is needed, writes Matthew Phan.

COME Monday, world leaders will meet in Bali until Dec 14 to discuss the future of the planet.

Delegates will ride to meetings on bicycles, as befits the theme of the talks: how to reduce world emissions of greenhouse gases, which scientists say are causing global warming.

At the 13th Conference of the Parties (COP13) in Bali, leaders aim to firm up what the Kyoto Protocol could look like after 2012, when current targets to cut emissions under the treaty will expire.

The protocol emerged as early as 1997, out of discussions that began as the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It came into force in 2004, and as at October this year, some 175 countries representing over 61 per cent of world emissions have ratified or accepted the treaty, making it the best known co-ordinated effort to curb emissions.

But Kyoto has glaring weaknesses, the most infamous of which is the failure of heavy emitters like the US and Australia to ratify the treaty, though the latter is set to change its stance.

A crucial part of Kyoto is a commitment from developed countries listed under Annex I to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions by an average of 5 per cent from 1990 levels, during the period 2008 to 2012.

The US accounts for more than a fifth of world emissions from fossil fuel use and industrial processes, or 5.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, and originally agreed to slash this by 7 per cent.

For its part, the US says that China should also reduce emissions - which thanks to industrial processes like cement production became the world's heaviest emitter last year, surpassing the US by 8 per cent. Still, China ranks far lower on a per capita basis.

China has not ratified Kyoto and has not set any reduction targets, though it plans to cut energy use per dollar of GDP by a fifth by 2010.

As Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UNFCCC, says: 'Powerful economies have to stop playing chicken with the future of the world.'

So far only the EU has demonstrated leadership - it has unilaterally committed to increase targets to 20 per cent of 1990 levels by 2020 - and has said that it will increase these to 30 per cent if other developed nations join in.

Other issues on the Bali agenda centre on how to make the treaty's mechanisms more effective.

Kyoto works via market mechanisms like the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme. More relevant to Asia, though, is the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

Under the scheme, projects that reduce emissions in developing countries generate carbon credits. Project owners can sell them to EU members or other countries to help them meet targets.

The market for so-called Certified Emissions Reductions is roaring. It reached almost US$5.5 billion in 2006 and further growth is expected. But it is not enough, industry players say.

Further cuts

To cap the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at levels that imply an acceptable risk of climate change, emissions must come down much faster.

The CDM accounted for more than half a billion tonnes of potential reductions in 2006. But according to a report to the UK government by economist Nicholas Stern, to stabilise emissions at relatively safe levels (450 parts per million of carbon dioxide), they must be lowered by 70 per cent by 2050, which requires a drop of 7 per cent a year.

Given that world emissions were 42 billion tonnes in 2000 and are probably higher now, this implies cuts of at least three billion tonnes a year to start. Guy Turner, an analyst at Point Carbon, says: 'The scale of the challenge is far, far greater than our capability at this time.'

Part of the reason is lack of resources, which means that the UN cannot register projects fast enough. Also, registration and transaction costs mean that many small-scale projects are not worth doing.

To address these, the UN has developed a scheme called 'programmatic CDM', where hundreds of projects of the same type can be grouped together, speeding up the approval process. Another option in the works is 'sector-based', where plants from the same industry can register quickly if they meet performance benchmarks.

Under such schemes, projects like improving energy efficiency in thousands of houses across a region, or installing fuel efficient engines in large vehicle fleets, could be registered. This would accelerate and broaden efforts.

Another critical issue is deforestation. According to the UN, the cutting of trees accounts for up to a quarter of world emissions every year. But carbon reductions from forestry do not qualify under the CDM, though Mr de Boer points out that deforestation leads to over 5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide released a year, several times the volumes traded by the EU.

With so much at stake, observers say the Bali meetings must be decisive, although they warn that too much should not be expected. COP13 will just be a starting point, but must provide an ambitious roadmap to conclude by 2009.

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