Four nations, four cities take 'climate neutral' pledge

Yahoo News 21 Feb 08;

Senoko Power, Singapore is one of the five companies joing CN Net

Four nations and a clutch of cities and corporations unveiled a Web-based information hub on Thursday to help meet a pledge to radically de-carbonize their economies in the coming decades.

The Carbon Neutral Network was unveiled at an international meeting of environment ministers, gathered in Monaco for a special session of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) focussing on global warming.

Costa Rica, Iceland, Norway and New Zealand are the founding nations of "CN Net," designed as an information exchange for nations, local governments and businesses which seek to cut their greenhouse-gas emissions to zero.

"Climate neutrality is an idea whose time has come," said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

The movement will be driven, he predicted, not just by the urgent need to address climate change but by "the abundant economic opportunities emerging for those willing to embrace a transition to a green economy."

CN Net's founding members admitted facing unique problems on the road to "zero emissions" economies.

Norway's dominate challenge, for example, is curbing oil- and gas-related emissions, whereas for New Zealand, agriculture represents 50 percent of its current greenhouse gases.

New Zealand's tens of millions of livestock are major producers of methane, an even more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide (CO2).

The country has said it will generate 90 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025, and halve per capita transport emissions by 2040 through the use of electric cars and biofuels.

CN Net "signifies a major step forward in creating a coordinated global response to climate change," said Climate Change Minister David Parker.

Norway's goal is to become climate neutral by 2030, two decades ahead of a previously set deadline.

One third of that target will be achieved through carbon offsets, the investment in carbon-reducing projects around the globe, said Environment Minister Erik Solheim.

At home, reduction of emissions -- especially from oil production -- will come through carbon capture and storage, a system for trapping carbon emissions underground, as well as expanded public transport and stricter fuel efficiency for vehicles, he said.

Iceland's central challenge is transport and industry, including fishing and fish processing.

"We have effectively de-carbonized our energy production sector, and hope to do the same in the coming decades with other sectors of the economy," said Environment Minister Thorunn Sveinbjarnardottir.

Iceland aims to reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions by 75 percent before 2050. The country's electricity production is already among the greenest on the globe.

Costa Rica's target date for climate neutrality is 2021. It has put in place a mix of taxes and incentives to protect forests, and to encourage carbon storage and sequestration.

Joining these four nations in CN Net are the cities of Arendal in Norway, Vancouver on the west coast of Canada, Vaxjo in Sweden and Rizhao in northern China.

Close to 100 percent of urban housing in Rizhao, in Shandong Province, already has solar heaters. Compared to 2000, the amount of energy used per unit of GDP has fallen by almost a third and C02 emissions by almost half.

The five companies joining the CN Net are: Co-Operative Financial Services, Britain; Interface Inc, of the United States; Natura, Brazil; Nedbank, South Africa and Senoko Power, Singapore.

U.N. group sets up climate neutral forum
Gerard Wynn, Reuters 21 Feb 08;

MONACO (Reuters) - The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) launched a new online network on Thursday to help countries, cities and firms aiming to be "climate neutral" exchange ideas on ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The Climate Neutral Network will connect people around the world who have committed to become climate neutral by reducing and offsetting their emissions of the gases blamed for heating the planet, said Achim Steiner, head of UNEP.

"The idea is to share ideas," he said.

UNEP, which is hosting 154-nation climate talks in Monaco, aims to be climate neutral itself in 2008, with the whole United Nations due to follow.

Monaco said on Thursday it would become the fifth country to commit to carbon neutrality under the UNEP project, joining Costa Rica, Iceland, Norway and New Zealand.

"We aim very quickly to come up with climate neutrality for the principality ... we are joining (the project) today," environment minister Robert Calcagno told reporters.

Monaco, which famously hosts the high-octane Formula 1 motor-racing series each May, is making efforts to cut emissions by subsidizing solar power, among other projects.

Four cities in Sweden, Norway, China and Canada also joined the scheme on Thursday, and five companies.

Pressure from investors and the public has prompted many cities and companies to commit to cutting emissions, but some dismiss carbon neutrality as a publicity stunt or "greenwash."

Critics say carbon offsetting -- paying others to cut emissions on your behalf, for example by planting trees or building wind farms -- allow individuals, businesses and governments to avoid taking action themselves.

Norway's environment minister Erik Solheim said on Thursday that his country could not achieve its target of being climate neutral by 2030 without using offsetting.

"It's (offsetting) absolutely necessary," Solheim said.

The Monaco climate conference is the biggest since December, when nearly 200 countries agreed in Bali, Indonesia to launch two-year talks on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol after 2012.

UNEP's Steiner said the new online network, which can be found at www.unep.org/climateneutral, would help those talks.

"As climate negotiations take place it's no reason to sit back and wait," he said .

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AfDB gives $814 mln for Central Africa forests

Reuters 21 Feb 08;

TUNIS (Reuters) - The African Development Bank (AfDB) will provide $814 million over the next two years to help safeguard Central African forests threatened by war, poverty and poor governance, the bank said on Thursday.

Bank President Donald Kaberuka told reporters the money would go to 13 projects aimed at improving the management of natural resources in 2008-2010 in the Congo Basin, home to 37 percent of the world's remaining tropical forests.

"Forests (in the Congo Basin) have an important economic and climatic role ... Unfortunately, these forests are threatened mainly by poverty, governance crises and conflicts," he said.

The bank previously provided a total of $2.7 billion to Central African states to improve farming and protect forests.

A 2006 study by non-governmental organizations showed that half of the Congo Basin forests would disappear in 2030 due to intensive exploitation and population growth.

Environmental groups say that protecting tropical forests is the most direct and fastest way to mitigate some of the impact of climate change.

Scientists say Africa is expected to be hit hardest by global warming, which is blamed on carbon dioxide emissions from industry, transport and modern lifestyles in rich countries.

(Reporting by Sonia Ounissi; editing by William Maclean and Elizabeth Piper)

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14 Things That Would Make Life Better

LiveScience Yahoo News 20 Feb 08;

At the top of many personal wish lists you might find a new car or a Caribbean vacation. But scientists have compiled a global wish list of 14 things that would make life better for everyone.

A committee of scientists and engineers gathered by the National Science Foundation met several times over the last year to compile a list of engineering challenges that, if met, would improve how we live. Today they announced their final choices.

"We chose engineering challenges that we feel can, through creativity and commitment, be realistically met, most of them early in this century," said committee chair and former U.S. Secretary of Defense William J. Perry. "Some can be, and should be, achieved as soon as possible."

In no particular order, the resulting wish list is:

Make solar energy affordable
Provide energy from fusion
Develop carbon sequestration methods
Manage the nitrogen cycle
Provide access to clean water
Restore and improve urban infrastructure
Advance health informatics
Engineer better medicines
Reverse-engineer the brain
Prevent nuclear terror
Secure cyberspace
Enhance virtual reality
Advance personalized learning
Engineer the tools for scientific discovery

The committee decided not to rank the challenges. The public can vote on which one they think is most important and leave comments at the project Web site, http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/.

The final choices fall into four themes that the panel thinks are essential for humanity to flourish - sustainability, health, reducing vulnerability and joy of living. The committee did not try to include every important challenge, or endorse particular approaches to meeting the goals it named. The goal, said the panel, was not to predict the future, but to identify what needs to be done to make the future better.

"Tremendous advances in quality of life have come from improved technology in areas such as farming and manufacturing," said committee member and Google co-founder Larry Page. "If we focus our effort on the important grand challenges of our age, we can hugely improve the future."

The committee included such experts as geneticist J. Craig Venter, futurist Raymond Kurzweil, Nobel laureate Mario Mol'na, Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, as well as a variety of international scientists and engineers.

Through an interactive Web site, the effort received worldwide input from prominent engineers and scientists, as well as from the general public, over a one-year period. The panel's conclusions were reviewed by more than 50 subject-matter experts.

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Shell says cheap renewable energy still far off

Mark Trevelyan, Reuters 21 Feb 08;

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The world faces a doubling of energy demand by 2050 but renewable sources are still too expensive and will take decades to make a big impact, Royal Dutch Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer said on Thursday.

In a speech on "Shell scenarios for the 21st century," van der Veer said one of the three hard truths facing the world was a big rise in demand as the global population rose from around six billion to nine billion by mid-century.

He told the EastWest Institute think-tank in Brussels that Shell saw "about 50 percent more demand for energy in the world in the coming 25 years, and a doubling of energy (demand) by 2050."

The second hard truth was that most renewable energy sources were still far too expensive, even compared with higher prices for oil, gas and coal.

"Renewables are still too expensive. They will come, I'm not self-serving, I'm not defensive but it will take a very long time" either to achieve the technological breakthroughs required or to build many more nuclear power stations, van der Veer said.

"You see that we have a lot of tensions. The world demands more energy," he added. "Renewables may come to a solution but it will take decades before it is big."

The third truth was that the reserves of oil and gas that were easily accessible and close to the markets where they were required, were depleting. Extracting new supplies would require much larger investments per unit than in the past.

SELF-INTEREST OR COOPERATION?

Van der Veer said Shell saw two broad scenarios: a scramble in which countries "fight for themselves" on energy policy and set their own rules with minimal cooperation, or a "blueprint scenario," where governments cooperated to create large markets with common standards.

In the first, much time would be lost on making inroads into cutting carbon emissions. The second would be much more favorable to pricing C02 in a consistent way.

"As a company, we think it is much better that the blueprint scenario will happen," van der Veer said.

"There's still a lot of confusion about the role of governments and the role of companies," he added, citing the controversial development of oil sands in Canada.

"If it is open, I fail to see why we should not do that," van der Veer said.

Canadian oil sands mining projects are seen as a key source of North American energy supply for decades to come, but environmental groups have criticized their impact on water use, carbon emissions, wildlife and health.

"If the Canadian government says 'we do not open oil sands', then I don't think that the world will use less energy," van der Veer said.

"I think energy demand will stay the same, so the right question to ask is: if the Canadian government doesn't open oil sands for exploitation, what will be the balance of fuel? I give you my modest opinion, I think it is either coal or nuclear, and you make the choice."

Oil sands are a mix of sand or clay, water, and extremely heavy crude oil. The oil is difficult and costly to extract and is only viable when the oil price is high.

Canada's oil sands are the target of more than $100 billion of investment as the world's oil industry aims to cash in on the need to feed growing demand for secure oil supplies, especially in the United States.

Mined oil sands from Shell, Syncrude Canada Ltd. and Suncor Energy Inc, are processed into about 800,000 barrels of refinery-ready light crude a day, which is roughly 30 percent of the country's overall oil output.

Output is expected to triple by the middle of the next decade.

(editing by Barbara Lewis)

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Discarded fishing line is killing birds

Group cleaning up monofilament to make mangroves safe
Kevin Lollar news-press.com 20 Feb 08;

An immature brown pelican dangled grotesquely Wednesday from the mangroves of a rookery island in Estero Bay.

Death by discarded fishing line: The treble hook of a lure dug into the bird’s right leg as several yards of monofilament line wrapped around the bloody limb and secured the bird to the mangrove branches.

“This one’s fresh,” said Heather Stafford, program manager of the Estero Bay and Charlotte Harbor Aquatic Preserves. “It might have just happened — last night or today.

“It makes you mad. I don’t know if people realize that birds can be hung up and killed this way.”

Along with Stafford, environmental specialist Cheryl Parrott of the Estero Bay Aquatic Preserve, and volunteer Pam Jones-Morton of Estero and 11 other volunteers in two other boats spent the day pulling fishing line, hooks, lures and trash from rookery islands in preparation for the upcoming nesting season.

The problem with fishing line in the environment is simple: Fishermen trying to cast near the mangroves get hung up in the trees and, instead of moving their boats to retrieve their gear, they break the line, leaving long strands hanging from the branches or prop roots.

Birds often become entangled in the line and end up hanging from the trees, where they die of starvation, dehydration or strangulation.

Over the course of five hours Wednesday, Stafford, Parrott and Jones-Morton cleaned up six islands and found three other dead and entangled birds, all badly decomposed: an immature little blue heron, a great blue heron and what was probably a snowy egret.

“We’re cleaning up these islands so we won’t find birds caught in monofilament,” Parrot said. “We want to give them a safe place to nest and have the highest nesting success rates possible.”

Discarded fishing line also can entangle and kill dolphins, sea turtles and manatees.

Monofilament, the most common kind of fishing line, can take up to 600 years to decompose.

Waiting for his charter at the Lovers Key State Park boat ramp Wednesday morning, Capt. Eric Hart said he sees less fishing line in the mangroves now than in previous years.

“More people are starting to be more conscious about it,” he said. “But there are still people out there who think if you sink a bottle to the bottom of the bay, it’s not littering.”

Another reason for less fishing line in the mangroves, Hart speculated, is more people are using braided fishing line, which is extremely strong and less likely to break when a hook is caught in the mangroves.

That theory sounded good until Parrott found the end of braided line high in the canopy of a mangrove island. Following the line for about 30 feet, she found the rotting carcass of a great blue heron wrapped in the braided line and a long piece of monofilament.

“In the best of all worlds, fishermen along the mangroves would gather their line if they got hung up,” Stafford said. “Then we wouldn’t have to do this. Fishing is a great sport, and we want people to fish here, but we also want them to take their fishing line with them.”

Wednesday’s cleanup started in a chilly northeast wind as the aquatic preserve’s Boston Whaler pulled up to an island north of Lovers Key.

As the team waded ashore, they saw the white feathers and exposed vertebrae of the dead immature little blue heron.

“You ask why we come out here: This is why,” Jones-Morton said. “I think people think ‘out of sight, out of mind:’ If you leave fishing line behind, it’s gone. But it’s not. It stays in the environment for hundreds of years, and it only takes a day for a bird to die.”

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Iceland bans capelin fishing

Reuters 21 Feb 08;

REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Iceland said fishing for capelin in its waters was halted on Thursday over worries the breeding population has shrunk to dangerously low levels in a move analysts say could damage economic growth.

The ban will last for the rest of the year.

"Putting a halt to capelin fishing is the only option we have right now," Prime Minister Geir Haarde told a parliamentary committee on Thursday, according to Icelandic national radio.

"But of course we hope that we will find more capelin and will be able to start fishing it again," he added.

The usual yearly quota for capelin, a member of the smelt family, is for 250,000 tons. Icelandic fishermen have caught an estimated 40,000 tons so far this year.

The ban is expected to cost Iceland as much as 10 billion Iceland crowns ($149.2 million) in lost exports. Icelandic bank Kaupthing said the ban could shave 0.4-0.7 percentage point from economic growth in 2008.

"This is the second blow to Iceland's fishing industry in little over a year. The cod quota allowance was cut earlier this year, amounting to a decrease in exports in the range of 15-20 billion crowns," the bank said in a note.

But high fish product prices and a favorable exchange rate have cushioned the blows, the bank added.

The decision to stop capelin fishing comes at the instigation of the Icelandic Marine Research Institute, whose research shows there are only about 200,000-270,000 tons of the fish left in the ocean around the North Atlantic island.

This is much less than the 400,000 tons current fishing rules say should be left of the stock for spawning every year.

The Ministry of Fisheries said it will monitor the fishing grounds and has not excluded the possibility that they might find more capelin and that fishing could then start again.

(Reporting by Kristin Arna Bragadottir; editing by Michael Roddy)

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Australian dugongs flee feeding grounds and move

Bayside Bulletin 21 Feb 08;

Dugongs are fleeing seagrass feeding grounds on Moreton and Amity banks and going to places like Thompson’s Point on Macleay, as the grass is more extensive.

A SUDDEN increase in dugong numbers in the South Moreton Bay region has raised concerns over the health of their traditional dugong feeding grounds.

Spokesman for the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland Bayside Branch Simon Baltais said the recent Lyngbya toxic algae bloom (cyanobacteria) may have caused significant damage to the seagrass meadows on the Moreton and Amity banks and this might explain the sudden appearance of large numbers of dugongs in the waters of Southern Moreton Bay.

“The sudden appearance of dugongs in the waters of Southern Moreton Bay is a major concern, but also highlights some positives,” he said.

“Photographs by local residents and research by WPSQBB shows the Southern Moreton Bay region still supports significant seagrass meadows and dugongs maybe using these until the seagrass meadows on the Moreton Banks have recovered.

“The use of the seagrass meadows in the Southern Moreton Bay region shows how important they are to the long term survival of the Moreton Bay dugong population.

“We should be ensuring we take great care of these seagrass meadows if we are to continue to enjoy the magnificent sight of dugongs, something that is quite special as there is no other place on the planet where one can see a dugong herd so close to a major urban centre.”

Mr Baltais said anyone boating in the Southern Bay region should show great care and reduce their speed.

“We would be very keen to hear more about these dugong sightings,” he said.

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Orissa should curb turtle deaths: Greenpeace

KalingaTimes 21 Feb 08;

Bhubaneswar, Feb 21: With death of Olive Ridley sea turtles due to illegal fishing spiralling, Greenpeace on Thursday presented the Orissa government with a clear 'upper limit' target for turtle mortality along the coast from Paradip to Chilika.

Criticising the government for failing to solve the recurring tragedy, Greenpeace demanded that the funds recently released by the Centre be utilised to undertake effective patrolling to prevent illegal trawling.

As of January end this year, 2970 turtle carcasses had been counted along this stretch of the coast. Greenpeace challenged the government to reduce the current rate of turtle mortalities by 20 percent until the end of April.

Stating that this figure would itself be on par with turtle mortalities in the previous years, Sanjiv Gopal of Greenpeace said turtle mortalities increasing by the day.

“At the very least, as a first step, the government should commit to keeping the total casualties this year on par with those in previous years. This would require intensive patrolling to keep mechanised fishing out of turtle congregation areas,” Gopal said.

Olive Ridley turtles throng Orissa's coastline between November and May every year and thousands of them get killed each year by illegal fishing.

Previously, state government officials had cited lack of funds as the reason for their inability to protect the species.

In 2007, the state government received from the Centre a sum of Rs 2 crores for turtle protection. The funds were disbursed in November 2007, Greenpeace said in a statement.

This amount was in line with a Greenpeace estimate of Rs.2.2 crores needed for improved patrolling to protect turtles.

Further, the Fisheries Department had also acquired two patrol vessels to enforce the no-trawling zones and protect both turtles and traditional fishermen.

"Even though the resources are now available, it is ironic that the turtle toll until January 31 is almost 3000 in the Paradip–Chilika stretch, a dramatic 76 percent increase from the average of the previous four turtle seasons.

“While reducing mortality to zero might not be practical, it is high time the Government of Orissa demonstrates its commitment to protecting its turtles, by setting itself, progressively depreciating annual turtle mortality reduction targets. It must start with what is left of this turtle season. This benchmark would enable the government's turtle protection efforts to be evaluated in an objective manner,” Gopal said in the statement.

Illegal fishing and especially trawling has resulted in the death of over 100,000 turtles over the last decade. Even as illegal fishing in the Devi river mouth area continues unabated, the situation in the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary remains unknown, with no independent verification of official figures possible.

“Further, the government is not open to joint efforts on monitoring the mortality of turtles in collaboration with conservation groups and NGOs, as this would reveal shocking levels of turtle casualties on the Orissa coast.

While the government has maintained that annual mortalities from the last three seasons has not exceeded 4000, estimates from several independent agencies place this at a range above 10,000 for every season,” Gopal said.

"While funds for turtle protection have now been allocated, Greenpeace remains committed to also resolving the concerns of traditional fishermen impacted by conservation measures, either through compensation of income lost or by the initiation of alternative income generation approaches.

Improved patrolling and alternative income generation are two sides of the same coin, and both are critical to resolve the unnecessary and recurring turtle-fisher crisis,” he added.

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Best of our wild blogs: 21 Feb 08

New blog! Biodiversity Crew @ NUS
about researchers and students in the biodiversity research focus group at the Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore. Selected information based on internal emails in 2007 were added to the blog and backdated to the time of their original posting. This site is currently managed by N. Sivasothi a.k.a. Otterman.

Reef talk at Maris Stella High School
part of the International Year of the Reef celebrations, Debby Ng and Toh Chay Hoon give a talk about our reefs and shores! Bravo! more on the hantu blog

Seagrasss Angels at Labrador Park
Our youngest seagrassers do a check up on this beloved but beleaguered shore on the labrador blog

Himalayan Swift controversy
an update on the bird ecology blog

TeamSeagrass at Semakau
a wonderful weekday at this large seagrass meadow on the teamseagrass blog and a photo montage on the budak blog

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Dolphin Exporter Wants To Export Live Dolphins to Singapore

Pacific Magazine 18 Feb 08;

(Solomon Star)

Fisherman and dolphin exporter Robert Satu has signed an agreement with Western Provincial Government allowing him to export fish from the province and supply the Honiara market, reports the Solomon Star.

“My aim is to give money to the grassroots and I am prepared to help our local fishermen get maximum benefit from their catch,” Satu says.

The local fisherman also hopes to secure another license from the provincial government to supply tame dolphins to hotels in Gizo for tourists, and to export live dolphins to Singapore.

Dolphin exporter signs deal with Western Province
Joy A. Rikimae, Solomon Star 19 Feb 08;

LOCAL fisherman and dolphin exporter Robert Satu yesterday signed an agreement with Western Provincial Government allowing him to fish in the province to sell overseas.
Mr Satu said the agreement would also allow him to provide for the market in Honiara City.

Under the arrangement Mr Satu will be fishing and buying fish from locals to sell. “My aim is to give money to the grassroots and I am prepared to help our local fishermen get maximum benefit from their catch,” the local fisherman said.

Mr Satu said he would be buying fish from locals at a good price.

He will be using his boat “Send Grouper” to trade around Western Province.

Mr Satu said the boat, which he bought for AU$98,000 (SB$650,000) will be arriving in Gizo from Brisbane, Australia, next week.

The local fisherman also hoped to get another license from Western Province Government to supply tame dolphins to hotels in Gizo for tourists.

“This is part of attracting tourists to our islands,” Mr Satu said.

Meanwhile, Mr Satu is now looking at exporting live dolphins to Singapore. “I have switched from Dubai because Singapore offers a more attractive package for our market,” Mr Satu said.

He said he now have 18 dolphins ready for export.


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Yahoo News 12 Oct 07

3 dolphins found dead in Solomon Islands
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Report of a Fact-finding Visit to the Solomon Islands, 9-12 September 2003 (PDF file)
by Graham Ross1, Frances Gulland1, Nick Gales, Robert Brownell and Randall Reeves

Environmental Concerns Action Network Of Solomon Islands response to the IUCN REPORT

"ECANSI (Environmental Concerns Action Network of Solomon Islands) wishes to place on record the deep concern of this organization over the Report of a Fact-finding visit to the Solomon Islands, 9-12 September, 2003 by Drs Graham Ross and Frances Gulland on behalf of the IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group and the IUCN/SSC Veterinary Specialist Group."

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Feedback participants ask why Budget 2008 exclude disabled, green issues

Channel NewsAsia 20 Feb 08;

SINGAPORE : Participants at a feedback session on Tuesday questioned why there are no major announcements on environmental issues in this year's Budget.

But Minister of State for Finance and Transport Lim Hwee Hua said this does not imply that the government has little interest on this topic.

Mrs Lim made this point at an internet dialogue on the Budget which involved 33 participants consisting of students, professionals and businessmen aged 16 to 68.

She highlighted the work of the recently-formed inter-ministerial committee as a platform for green issues.

During the e-Townhall, some participants also talked about the cost of daily expenses and how monetary handouts are being assessed.

Some asked why the type of housing is being used. But the Vice-Chairman of REACH, Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman, who co-chaired the event, pointed out that besides the type of housing, assessment is also made using the size of income.

Others wanted to know why the handicap seemed to be left out during the Budget announcement.

But Mrs Lim pointed out that different ministries are looking after different issues affecting the disabled, including education and transport matters.

And this is because the handicap or elderly do not belong to any one particular ministry.

Mrs Lim said: "The fact that certain topics are not included in any particular year's Budget does not mean that they are forgotten or they are of lesser importance. They will continue to be reviewed and when there are substantive tax changes or policy changes or incentives to be provided, then they would be included in the Budget. So the Budget is just one point in the whole timeline in any ministries' works." - CNA/de

A green way round rising costs
Do more to encourage energy-efficient practices, urges business community
Sheralyn Tay and Cheow Xin Yi, Today Online 21 Feb 08;

BUDGET 2008 may mean different things to different people. But for some in the business community, it is noted for its silence on the green front.

Several panellists at a seminar to analyse the Budget's impact on businesses here expressed disappointment that it failed to even mention the word "green".

One, Mr Phillip Overmyer, said that simple measures — such as providing tax incentives for companies remodelling or building new facilities to install equipment and fixtures that are energy efficient — would have made for a good start towards a greener Budget.

Mr Overmyer, chief executive of the Singapore International Chamber of Commerce, was among the five speakers who took part in a panel discussion at the seminar organised by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

PwC tax partner David Sandison added: "I think Singapore has possibly missed an opportunity in the wake of the Bali conference on climate change to come out with something world-leading because it's one of the highest consumers of energy per capita in the world."

At a post-Budget Internet dialogue on Tuesday, Minister of State for Finance and Transport Lim Hwee Hua said the lack of green incentives in the Budget did not imply that the Government had little interest in the area.

Indeed, in recent years, much progress has been made to put green issues — especially energy efficiency — on the national agenda.

The slew of green initiatives that have been introduced includes the Green Mark, a scheme that recognises buildings for environmental sustainability. However, there are also those who believe that Singapore could go much further in its attempts to embrace green energy in a big way.

For example, Singapore may want to consider feed-in tariffs (FITs) as a means of promoting the use of green energy, said Mr Stefan Mueller, managing director of Conergy Asia Pacific in Singapore, the regional headquarters for the German-based company that specialises in renewable energy solutions.

Countries which promote FITs have laws that require utilities companies to buy green energy back from households, companies or organisations that generate it — at a higher market rate to help offset the investment costs. In other words, by installing a renewable energy solution to a house or a commercial building, the owner not only saves money but also stands to make some — always a great way to promote a new initiative.

According to Mr Mueller, some 40 countries, including Germany, South Korea and Spain, have benefited from FITs.

In response to Today's queries, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) noted that the FIT scheme has several drawbacks. It may distort "the playing field" between the various energy options, and homeowners may face higher electricity bills.

According to a white paper by the World Future Council, a non-governmental organisation, FITs help accelerate the switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy by making the latter more economically viable.

For example, solar-derived electricity is currently two to three times more expensive than electricity tariffs for households in Singapore. But the more people adopt renewable energy solutions, the cheaper the technology is likely to be.

According to Mr Mueller, since 1990, Germany's FIT structure has created 214,000 jobs and saved 97 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in 2006 and at a cost of about US$2 ($2.80) more per household per month.

"Looking at green energy regulations and incentives that have been implemented elsewhere, perhaps this is one area in which Singapore is falling behind," Mr Mueller said.

For example, more needs to be done to encourage the use of Photovoltaic (PV) technology — systems that generate electricity from sunlight, Mr Mueller said. In tropical Singapore, PV is the most viable renewable energy option, compared to wind or water.

The few PV systems here are a "recent occurrence", said the Building and Construction Authority (BCA). They have been installed in several educational institutions as well as the BCA Academy and Biopolis.

Mr Howard Shaw, executive director of the Singapore Environment Council, also believes the FIT system could be a "good addition" to the country's overall renewable energy infrastructure.

"The idea is that a home that generates any access energy can sell it back to the grid essentially means that your electricity meter could move backwards or run slower," he said.

But while the FIT energy model may have worked well in several countries, the Government "has chosen not to adopt FIT currently" because of several drawbacks, said the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI).

"By acting as an implicit subsidy, FIT for solar power essentially distorts the playing field among the various energy options and could possibly result in a sub-optimal allocation of resources," said an MTI spokesperson. "Unless there are clear signs of market failure, we do not think it is desirable for the Government to subsidise one energy source over another."

The MTI also added that FITs result in higher electricity prices as the FIT premium used to cross-subsidise renewable energy will have to be borne by all consumers, households and businesses alike.

"In some cases, FIT rates could end up being as much as two to three times higher than the electricity tariffs generated through conventional means," the spokesperson said.

But the MTI stressed that the Government is not dismissing solar power.

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Singapore cannot sustain 6.5 million comfortably

Letter from Yong Koi Kwong, Straits Times Forum 21 Feb 08;

IT WAS reported recently in The Straits Times that the country planners are toying with the idea of a 6.5 million city state.

MM Lee is of the opinion that the city state could accommodate a country of 5-5.5 million with a certain level of comfort. I could not but agree more with MM Lee's idea.

Singapore is situated in a hot humid equatorial region. The average relative humidity is 80 per cent with a daily average temperature of 24 to 32 degrees Celcius for virtually the whole year. The average number of hours of sunshine is 5.5 to 6 hours. It is very unpleasant to live in such an environment if there is no natural ventilation to take away one's perspiration.

Our country is unique in that we are a sovereign city state with no countryside. Only half the land could be built up (including about 12 per cent for roads). The rest of the country is occupied by military training grounds, central catchment area, 17 reservoirs and golf courses and five airports or airfields and two naval bases.

In spite of our relentless land reclamation for the last 40-odd years which grew our country to the present area of about 700 sq km and a projected area of 780 sq km, Singapore would be the most densely populated country with 12,800 persons per sq km of habitable area if the population is projected to grow to 5 million. If the population is planned for 6.5 million, the average number of persons per sq km is 16,640.

We always compare ourselves with Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a special case as there is no necessity to make aside land for defence and reservoirs. If Hong Kong is to grow to 10 million people the average density is only less than 10,000 per sq km (the area of Hong Kong is 1,045 sq m).

Hong Kong is in the sub-tropical region with a lower relative humidity. Half the year, the weather in Hong Kong is relatively cool and pleasant.

The aim of economic growth is to provide a good overall living environment for all the people, not just figures.

The founding group of leaders headed by MM Lee has done a good job of bringing our country to this present level of living standards for the vast majority of the population and they rarely made mistakes.

We could live with the accolade such as the busiest port, best run airline and airport but the accolade that we are the densest populated sovereign state is one which we could live without.

This is the only piece of real estate which we Singaporeans have on this planet Earth and would be proud to call our country.

Read more!

GDP still best measure of economic health

Today Online 21 Feb 08;
Letter from Lim Bee Khim
Director Corporate Communications
For Permanent Secretary
Ministry of Trade and Industry

We refer to the article, "A silver lining to a lower GDP?" (Feb 15), which makes several assertions about Singapore's economic performance that we would like to comment on.

First, the article argues that gross domestic product (GDP) is not a good measure to gauge a country's economic progress.

It is true that GDP has its limitations as a measure of economic welfare or progress. It does not reflect externalities like environmental costs nor does it reflect income distribution.

What GDP does measure is the income generated by economic activities within a country — and this is still the best gauge of an economy's progress. Knowing a country's GDP per capita tells us a lot more about the economic well-being of its people than any other single measure. Other measures can complement GDP but cannot replace it.

Second, the article suggests that GDP growth has benefit- ted mainly capital owners. The fact is that GDP growth has benefitted owners of both labour and capital.

The wage share of GDP has remained fairly stable over the years. Excluding the years of economic slowdown, the wage share has ranged from 41 per cent to 44 per cent over the last 20 years with no discernible trend up or down.

Third, the article argues that GDP growth came largely from immigration. But this ignores the complementary role that foreign manpower plays in our economy. It is true that of Singapore's total employment growth of 237,000 in 2007, local employment growth accounted for less than half — at 92,000.

But the pertinent question is not whether foreign employment grew faster than local employment, but whether the inflow of foreign manpower has helped labour-short businesses to expand, attract investments that might otherwise not have come to Singapore and create jobs for locals.

A more relevant measure of the role of foreign manpower is the local unemployment rate — which has fallen to 3.0 per cent, the lowest in a decade. Local employment growth has been setting record highs for three consecutive years.

Fourth, the article infers that Singapore is losing competitiveness since labour productivity declined by 0.9 per cent in 2007. Assessments of productivity and competitiveness cannot be made on the basis of just one year's data.

Measured productivity is strongly influenced by cyclical factors. Productivity is best assessed over a longer horizon. Over the past five years (2003-2007), annual productivity growth averaged 3.1 per cent — a respect-able rate of growth for a mature economy like Singapore.

The strong GDP growth of recent years has benefitted Singaporeans. In 2007, the average nominal monthly household income of resident households rose 9.6 per cent, the highest increase in a decade. To ensure the well-being of all Singaporeans, we must continue to focus on economic growth and the quality of that growth.

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A Silver Lining to a Lower GDP?

Loh Chee Kong, Today Online 21 Feb 08;

Yes, if it drives us to a wider perspective of progress

LIKE a Formula One racer dropping several gears to enter a treacherous bend, the projected slowdown in Singapore's economic growth may not be all bad news — not even in a country seemingly obsessed with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

From a blistering 7.7-per-cent annual GDP growth, on average, of the past four years, Singapore's economy is forecast to grow between a more muted 4 and 6 per cent this year.

Moderate growth can be a good thing, say economists, if it injects a sense of realism amid inflation that hit historic highs last year.

Said CIMB-GK economist Song Seng Wun: "When the economy is continually expanding, the expectation of strong growth could lead to inflationary pressure when there's too much demand chasing after too few goods."

Here's the rub: If high GDP growth isn't always good news, what does this say about its limitations as a primary gauge of a country's economic progress? And what are the possible chinks in the Singapore armour masked by such headline figures?

Take the nation's low productivity levels last year and some economists' perception that Singapore is taking a shortcut with its aggressive immigration drive.

Former top civil servant Ngiam Tong Dow has argued that our GDP has expanded "largely on infusions of foreign labour" and has identified raising productivity as the "central economic challenge". He questioned if the Government's intention to hit a population size of 6.5 million was a stop-gap measure that could inflict social and economic costs.

Citigroup economist Chua Hak Bin said: "A lot of growth is coming from immigration. It's not certain that income per capita is rising as strongly."

Still, the economists agree, Singapore has to import labour in the short term. And yes, a larger population base could make Singapore more resilient to swings in the global economy.

But if this base comprises a larger fraction of foreigners, who are probably less rooted, "the swings in the labour force will be more dramatic with the economic cycles", said Dr Chua.

What about boosting productivity instead?

HSBC economist Robert Prior-Wandesforde's back-of-the-envelope calculations showed productivity is shrinking by 3 per cent while wages are rising by 7 per cent. "That's clearly unsustainable. It implies Singapore is losing a lot of competitiveness."

But Mr Song thinks productivity levels could be distorted by the growing labour-intensive hospitality and financial sectors, in which output cannot be accurately measured.

"We shouldn't get too hung up about productivity measures at this juncture. It has to be taken into the context of the industry you are talking about, compared to the global figures," he said.

Dr Chua disagreed, citing the example of Hong Kong, which has a similar economic make-up but higher productivity.

Aside from media headlines, Singapore's apparent fixation with GDP extends to the civil service, in which the remuneration of ministers and top civil servants includes a bonus of up to eight months' pay if growth hits 10 per cent or more.

Yet, GDP figures are "at best, a snapshot of the economy", says Mr Song — and increasingly so in a globalised economy, in which capital flows, largely unchecked, and incomes at the top and bottom stretch out.

While the GDP acts as a common yardstick for all countries, it does not capture an economy's peculiarities. In Singapore's case, he points out, its size and openness mean headline numbers tend to "exaggerate" the actual state of the economy.

For instance, the GDP wobbled in the fourth quarter last year due mainly to the volatile pharmaceutical sector, which employs relatively few people, he said.

Apart from not reflecting income distribution, the GDP does not capture negative externalities generated by economic growth, such as environmental degradation.

Elsewhere, policymakers are warming up to the use of alternative measurements. In France, President Nicholas Sarkozy has appointed Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz to head a panel to devise a new method of economic calculation that includes quality-of-life factors.

Should other measurements, such as the Gross National Income — which measures the amount of wealth that stays within a country's borders — and the median wage, have bigger roles to play?

"The issue really is, who benefits from GDP growth? A lot of the gains come from capital owners rather than the average worker," said Dr Chua. "If you look at the median wage, there can be years when even though growth was quite strong, the average wage of the low-income can actually fall in absolute terms."

Read more!

Young ambassadors to spearhead feedback activities in schools

Wee Jun Kai, Business Times 21 Feb 08;

REACH (Reaching Everyone for Active Citizenry @ Home), the government agency for engaging and connecting with citizens, yesterday launched its Junior REACH Ambassadors programme.

For the programme, 70 youths from 14 participating schools, including Institutes of Technical Education, junior colleges, polytechnics and secondary schools, will take on the role of ambassadors, spearheading feedback activities in their schools to encourage youth participation and interest in national policy-making.

REACH chairman Amy Khor said: 'This is a major milestone for REACH as we go one level up with our youth engagement and getting youth to play a more active role in shaping government policies.

'We will continue to grow and expand the programme and eventually reach out to all schools who desire to participate in the programme.'

During the student forum after the launch, guest of honour Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports and Second Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, tackled some questions, including queries about the Budget, brain drain, foreign talent and rising cost of living issues.

One student from Hwa Chong Institution asked the minister if the Budget had overlooked the disabled, citing articles in local media detailing the size of hongbao that different segments of society received from the Budget.

In response, Dr Balakrishnan said that it was 'important not to segment the community' when looking at this year's Budget, which placed a premium on education and innovation.

'There will inevitably be people who are left behind and the disabled make up just a small group,' he added.

He emphasised then that what was important was a safety net that was 'real and sustainable', which would ensure that Singaporeans 'can provide for themselves, put their children in school and receive healthcare when they need it'.

He also mentioned that the government spends four times more on a disabled child in a special school than the average student.

Of course, Singapore's bid to host the inaugural 2010 Youth Olympic Games, for which the results will be made known at 7pm today, also came up.

The minister said: 'If Singapore were to win, I believe it will send a very strong message that the Games is open, not only to big cities, not only to old cities, but to young cities as well.'

On Singapore's chances of winning, he said: 'I do not wish to speculate, please wait.'

Read more!

A Singapore spaceport?

Second firm looking at Singapore as space tourism base while first hits funds snag
Leong Wee Keat, Today Online 21 Feb 08;

THE latest plot sounds familiar but the suspense has not abated: Will space tourism take off here or be consigned to the realm of pure science fiction?

Virgin Galactic — the space tourism arm of British billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Group — is looking at Singapore as a possible base for its commercial spacecraft within the next five years.

At a global space conference at the Singapore Airshow yesterday, Virgin Galatic's chief operating officer Alex Tai said the company hopes to expand its business after its first venture in the United States lifts off in 2011.

If there is a sense of deja vu about all this, it is because another space tourism company, Space Adventures, had grandly announced in February 2006 its plans to build spaceports in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Singapore at the cost of US$265 million ($404 million) and US$130 million, respectively.

But Space Adventures' plans here have hit a snag: It has only managed to raise just over half the required investment, said president and chief executive Eric Anderson. He aims to raise the funds by the year's end and, if the money does not materialise, the firm could move on to other Asian countries.

Space Adventures has been speaking to government agencies here and while they have been "supportive", Mr Anderson said, his efforts in the UAE were more fruitful. The spaceport got clearance from the UAE's rulers and Department of Civil Aviation. Crown Prince Sheikh Saud Saqr Al Qasimi of Ras Al Khaimah, where the spaceport is likely to be based, also pledged US$30 million.

It was reported last September that aviation authorities here had not given the project the green light. Mr Anderson said it was also a lot more difficult convincing a local consortium of companies to put up the money.

Earlier yesterday, Minister of State for Trade and Industry S Iswaran told reporters that plans to build a spaceport here were a private initiative. While welcoming new players to tourism, he said the ultimate take-off test for space tourism was commercial viability.

He added: "Whether it is commercial space ventures or adapting these technologies for terrestrial applications, those are areas Singapore can be meaningfully involved in."

Mr Tai said the space tourism industry is looking for "that Netscape moment", when someone makes a lot of money, before other investors will decide they, too, "want to make an awful amount of cash".

Mr Joerg Kreisel, who runs a consultancy specialising in space ventures and equity finance, told Today a spaceport endeavour was "a very complex commercial undertaking. It is not just an infrastructure which somebody rents and everyone is happy. It goes all the way to regulatory, the financing, the share in upsides and legal liabilities if an accident happens".

For Virgin Galactic, plans to build its first spaceport in New Mexico, America had to be put to a local vote, said Mr Tai. More than 200 prospective passengers from 30 countries have booked seats with the company, shelling out US$200,000 apiece. Rocketed into sub-orbital space, passengers would get about five minutes of zero-gravity time — and an unparalleled view — before gliding back to Earth.

With the growing number of millionaires in the Asia Pacific, Mr Tai said Singapore was an "excellent place" to base the company's product and it could partner Space Adventures or the Singapore Government to do so.

Singapore spaceport project stalled due to lack of funds
Lim Wei Chean, Straits Times 21 Feb 08;

TWO years after it was announced to great fanfare, the project to build a spaceport in Singapore is still nowhere near taking off.

United States-based Space Adventures announced in 2006 that it wanted to bring space tourism to the region by launching flights into outer space from Singapore.

At the time, it also said that it would build a facility to teach Singaporeans about space flight.

The target completion date for the project was some time next year. But yesterday, its chief executive officer Eric Anderson said the consortium, which includes six local companies such as Octtane and ST Medical, had managed to raise only half of the US$120 million (S$170 million) needed.

Mr Anderson admitted it was facing a struggle to raise the rest of the amount, but said he was not giving up.

He hoped the consortium will be able to secure the money it needs by the year end.

Mr Anderson was among close to 100 delegates at the Global Space Conference, the first space meeting held here.

Issues such as the commercial application of space technology were discussed, with space tourism proving a hot topic.

Reacting to the stalled Singapore venture, Minister of State for Trade and Industry S. Iswaran, the guest of honour at the event, said space tourism was 'only one limb' of the growing industry - which is worth US$220 billion - that Singapore could tap into.

Research and development of space technology, a huge area, is one which Singapore, with its focus on engineering research, can do something about, he added.

Indeed, the Economic Development Board aims to use the conference as a launch pad to seek opportunities in this sector.

Meanwhile, Virgin Galactic has also expressed interest in bringing space travel to Singapore.

It did not give details, but its chief operating officer Alex Tai said that the company has plans to expand operations beyond the US - where it is working on a spacecraft and spaceport - into Europe, Australia and Singapore.

Read more!

Singapore's Green Temple

Solar panels, wind turbines and soon, recycling of rainwater. Welcome to Singapore's...GREEN TEMPLE

Liew Hanqing, The New Paper 21 Feb 08;

FOR some, going green may mean recycling the occasional drink can or glass bottle.

But for 69-year-old Lee Boon Siong, going green has become nothing less than a mission.

The honorary president and director of the Poh Ern Shih temple along Chwee Chian Road (off Pasir Panjang Road) has turned the 54-year-old institution into an environmental beacon.

Solar panels on the temple's roof generate electricity and heat water for temple use, and wind turbines power the temple's lamps.

And soon, there'll even be a water-recycling system in place.

Mr Lee said: 'I just hope other institutions can see what we've done, learn and improve on it.

'I belong to the generation which destroyed the environment for profit. Hopefully, this will help repair some of the damage.'

IT STARTED IN CANADA

Mr Lee said his heightened environmental awareness began after he moved to Vancouver in 1969 to live and work there.

He said: 'Canada has always been conscious of climate change and its causes, and has championed the use of alternative energy.

'During my stay there, this attitude rubbed off on me.'

Mr Lee, who worked as a lawyer and notary in Canada, was posted back to Singapore in the 80s and began volunteering at Poh Ern Shih in 1995.

In the late 90s, when the issue of rebuilding the temple came up, Mr Lee mooted the idea of incorporating 'green' features into the building.

However, his ideas were met with some scepticism from building consultants who felt they were impractical.

But he was adamant in turning his vision of a green temple into reality.

He read up voraciously on environmental innovations and consulted experts on features that could be implemented in the new $18million building.

While taking this reporter on a guided tour of the temple, Mr Lee used terms like 'poly-crystalline', 'mono-crystalline' and 'amorphous' - referring to different types of solar panels - with ease.

He also spoke animatedly about the environment-friendly fixtures that will be completed in the second phase of the temple's rebuilding, which will end in June.

Mr Lee said: 'As far as we can, we hope to make this temple self-sustaining.

'But more importantly, I hope that people can learn from its design.'

His wish may not be far from being fulfilled.

The amount of electricity generated by the solar panels is tracked by a data logger. The data is then routinely collected by students from Singapore Polytechnic for research.

The polytechnic has also lent the temple two wind turbines, which are mounted at different levels on the temple's roof.

Pointing to the turbines, Mr Lee said proudly: 'These, here, are my babies.'

His enthusiasm is contagious, and his attention to detail impeccable.

Even the furniture in the nuns' quarters are made of environment-friendly bamboo.

'We chose bamboo because it's a resource that can be replenished in five years,' he said.

And though the features come with a hefty price tag - the solar panels alone cost $220,000 - Mr Lee said they are well worth the money.

'Based on current electricity prices and the amount of electricity we're saving with the panels, we expect to break even in 25 years,' he said.

The point, he said, is to make a statement.

'People often ask about costs, but you can't put a price tag on saving the earth,' he said.

Visitors to the temple were impressed by its features.

Mr Michael Chua, 47, founder of environmental technology company SET Systems for Environmental Technologies, said he felt the temple was doing a 'great job' in its effort to go green.

He recently visited the temple because he had heard about its green innovations.

Mr Chua said: 'To me, Poh Ern Shih Temple is a shining example of an institution which looks at life in a more universal manner.

'We all live in this environment and we should do our best to take care of it.'

Poh Ern Shih's green features

# Seven solar panels on temple's roof are connected to seven water tanks. Each tank costs about $5,000.

# Wind turbines on roof charge batteries that light up lamps.

# Modular boxes made of bamboo double up as platform beds and work desks

FUTURE FEATURES (ready in June)

# Rainwater running off the ground will flow into tanks and used to water plants on temple grounds.

# Rainwater to be filtered and purified through reverse osmosis and used as reserve drinking water supply.

# Micro Hydro Generators to harness energy of free-falling rainwater. Energy used to charge batteries of older devotees' motorised wheelchairs.

Read more!

Putting Singapore's transport policies on track

Christopher Tan, Straits Times 21 Feb 08;

EARLIER this month, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, while speaking at an Institute of Policy Studies seminar, acknowledged that the Government had got its sums wrong when it implemented Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) 10 years ago.

'Our prediction of consumer behaviour was not quite right,' he said. 'We now know that the person, having bought a car, will use it, whatever the cost of the ERP. So now we have a problem.'

That is why some changes in transport policy are being rolled out, including halving the annual vehicle growth rate to 1.5 per cent from next year. The policy governing car ownership and usage, though, is not the only one being overhauled.

In the Land Transport Review revealed last month, Transport Minister Raymond Lim announced a number of other changes. They were all, refreshingly, commuter-centric.

One significant revision pertains to how new rail projects would be approved. It used to be that a new MRT line had to be commercially viable independently before it could be built. Singaporeans will remember the North-East Line saga. The debate on when to build it went on for over a decade between the Government and residents in the north-east. And when it was finally opened in 2003, the operator was allowed to keep Buangkok station closed, creating another ruckus among residents.

From now on, new rail lines can be built as long as the overall MRT network remains viable.

Another policy tweaked pertained to trunk bus services along MRT lines. Previously, bus services along a new MRT line were removed zealously. This was to avoid duplication and wastage of resources, and avoid compromising the viability of the new train line. The 'rationalisation' of bus routes was at times overdone, and created much unhappiness among commuters.

Now, the Government says it would be kosher for buses to ply mature stretches of MRT lines. This is certainly good news for commuters who have found trains too packed for comfort.

Next stop: A distance- based 'throughfare' system, and an integrated season pass for bus and train rides.

Commuters have been asking for the season pass since the first trains started rolling 20 years ago. One argument against this included not wanting people to make transfers unnecessarily. Moreover, for a common pass to emerge, the two operators had to work hand in hand - not always an easy thing.

A 'throughfare' system is much fairer, as it does not penalise commuters for making transfers, which have become increasingly necessary due to bus 'rationalisations'.

As Government Parliamentary Committee for Transport chief Cedric Foo puts it colourfully: 'If you ship something from Shanghai to Rotterdam, and the box is transhipped in Singapore and Colombo, you cannot charge the customer more. In fact, you might have to charge lower because of the time delay.'

The next profound change is the Government assuming the role of master bus route planner. Currently, it leaves the planning to the operators and the Public Transport Council. The Land Transport Authority will take over this role some time next year.

The move makes sense, as it would take the profit motive out of route-planning exercises. And it would also rectify the lack of cooperation between the two competing bus operators.

Another significant move is to introduce competition to the bus and rail sectors, so that operators are kept on their toes as far as service standards are concerned.

Rail and bus routes are likely to be parcelled out and put up for tender. Operators, local and foreign, will be invited to bid for them.

The new way is expected to be a marked improvement over the current set-up, where rivalry between the two public transport groups does not translate into real competition that benefits the commuter directly.

Less significant but no less important is the decision to erect screen doors for all surface MRT stations. These doors will prevent people from accidentally falling onto the tracks, though they may not deter those bent on killing themselves. Still, as the rail network grows, minimising track incidents will be crucial.

The car owner is not left out. A recent bugbear has been the punitive road tax applied to some high-powered hybrid cars. This is addressed with a new formula that does not diminish the attractiveness of the green car rebate.

Finally, there is barrier-free access for wheelchairs: This is a fundamental shift from the days when policymakers felt it was best to provide the handicapped and infirm with dedicated services. Today, with barrier-free access planned for all trains, MRT stations, buses and bus stops (which pretty much covers all roadside curbs), Singapore is moving towards a new level of inclusiveness.

All these initiatives, many overdue, are aimed at persuading more people to use public transport - a necessity as the island prepares itself for a population of up to 6.5 million people. The initiatives are backed by a record infrastructural investment of $50 billion over the next 12 years.

Commuters have international consultants Booz Allen Hamilton in part to thank for the sweeping reforms. The firm was hired a year ago to help review the land transport system. Kudos should also go to Mr Lim, who was bold in changing the status quo on so many levels.

The proof of the pudding, however, is in the eating, and the minister has a huge job before him in seeing the plans through. But already, signs have emerged that things are moving in the right direction.

One such sign was SBS Transit's dividend declaration last week. For the 2007 financial year, it is recommending a final dividend of 3.25 cents, down sharply from 6.5 cents for 2006 and 5 cents for 2005. Chief executive Kua Hong Pak says the company has to set aside 'a lot more' to provide new services.

If commuters' interests had taken a backseat to shareholder value in the past, SBS Transit's decision may well be the first light of a new dawn.

The slew of changes, when realised, will in effect overturn some established policies that used to be vigorously defended. To the man in the street, this is a sign that public feedback is noted. Though the changes may not be made as quickly as the public might desire, they are possible.

Read more!

China's winter disaster: It's not just the weather

Goh Sui Noi, Straits Times 21 Feb 08;

IT WAS a touching story: 30 cold and frightened children stranded on a bus on an icy road for eight days and nights.

They had been left behind in the city of Xiantao in Hubei province, while their parents had gone to the prosperous southern city of Shenzhen in Guangdong province to work.

Their journey began on Jan 24. It should have taken just 15 hours before they were reunited with their parents for the Chinese New Year holidays. The journey turned into a nightmare as their bus got stuck in snowstorm-ravaged roads on the Hunan-Guangdong border.

According to the Hong Kong-based newspaper Oriental Daily, the children were discovered by a reporter, who put them on a southbound train.

But was their ordeal necessary? Were the ordeals of the more than 100 million Chinese hit by the snowstorms that began on Jan 10 necessary?

These are questions that some Chinese are asking as the country works to restore normalcy and begins to add up the costs of the worst natural disaster to hit China since the floods of 1998, which affected 180 million and killed 4,000 people.

The winter storms this year affected 21 provinces and regions, killed 107 people - some believe that the figure is higher - and caused direct economic losses of 111.1 billion yuan (S$22 billion).

The storms have brought untold suffering to millions, including migrant workers stranded for days at railway stations and on the road, amid breakdowns in the transport network. About 5.8 million train passengers were left stranded during the worst of the crisis between Jan 25 and Jan 31.

Millions more were plunged into darkness because power grids were downed by heavy snow and ice. Chenzhou, a city of four million in Hunan province, was without electricity or water for about two weeks.

Many of those affected were stoic. A stranded migrant worker by the name of Hong told the Associated Press: 'I think you can say the government is doing an okay job. What can you do? It's the weather.'

But some think the crisis reflected not just the weaknesses of China's infrastructure, but also the government's lack of preparedness.

China's transport system has not kept pace with its phenomenal economic growth. Its railways carry 25 per cent of the world's railway traffic on just 6 per cent of the world's track length, according to the World Bank.

As for the country's power infrastructure, power cables in the regions affected by the winter storms were too fine to withstand the heavy snowfalls and ice build-up. Power lines broke and transmission towers toppled over.

Adding to the electricity woes, coal-fired power plants fell short of fuel as transport networks broke down. Many of these stations had only three days' supply of coal instead of the 18 days' to 20 days' stockpile they should carry.

Deutsche Bank's chief economist for Greater China, Dr Ma Jun, told The Straits Times that the infrastructure system could not cope with the scale of disruption that took place.

To make matters worse, the government did not have a disaster response system that could be activated in the event of any emergency. The result was that there was a lack of coordination in disaster relief efforts, as no one knew who was responsible.

Some Beijing-based commentators also slammed the government for its slowness in responding to the disaster. They drew parallels between this and the Sars epidemic in 2003 when the government admitted to the crisis and swung into action months after the first cases appeared in Guangdong province and after the epidemic had spread to Beijing, killing hundreds.

In this instance, as early as December last year, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) had sent a report to the relevant authorities warning that vigilance was needed as snowstorms were anticipated.

CMA deputy administrator Xu Xiaofeng told Central China Television earlier this month that he and his colleagues had noted that the winter was unusually warm, the La Nina phenomenon was forming in the Pacific, and that these two phenomena, in conjunction, could lead to colder weather than usual.

But even as the first snowstorms hit between Jan 10 and Jan 16, the central and local authorities did not seem to pay much heed. The Chinese media, noted one commentator, initially reported casually on the storms. The media's light touch was possibly a result of strict media controls.

This meant that people did not get enough information on the severity of the storms. If the parents of the 30 children had known about the poor condition of the roads, would they have sent for them still?

It was not until the chaotic scenes of millions of passengers stranded at the major transport centres of the big coastal cities hit TV screens, that the government started paying closer attention. It was not until Jan 29, nearly three weeks after the first storms hit, that top Chinese leaders held their first meeting on the disaster.

They decided to mobilise the military. Nearly 800,000 troops and 1.96 million militia and army reservists were sent to clear roads, repair railway and power lines, evacuate people and deliver supplies.

It was also on Jan 29 that the government started to tell would-be travellers to stay where they were until the transport situation improved.

The economic fallout of the winter storms is not expected to be severe. Deutsche Bank has cut this year's growth forecast for China by 0.4 of a percentage point - from 10.4 per cent to 10 per cent.

Dr Ma warns that the inflation rate may go up as large swathes of winter crops have been destroyed. A spiral effect may occur if shortages prompt panic buying.

For the long term, China needs to strengthen its infrastructure and put in place a disaster response system that is flexible enough to respond to different disasters, the economist said.

Right now, the Chinese government has been reactive, putting in place a specific response system for a particular disaster after it occurs - flood control systems after the 1998 floods, a Sars response system after the Sars epidemic of 2003, and so on.

For a government that seeks legitimacy through responsiveness to the people's needs, it has to do better than just react (slowly, to boot) to disasters after they have occurred.

Read more!

Singapore not affected by forest fires in Sumatra

Channel NewsAsia 21 Feb 08;

SINGAPORE: The National Environment Agency said Singapore is not affected by forest fires in Indonesia.

On Wednesday, Singapore's Meteorological Service detected 41 hotspots in Sumatra.

Localised smoke plumes were observed to emanate from some of the hotspots in Riau.

However, Singapore is not affected by the smoke plumes, as the prevailing northerly to north-easterly winds are blowing them away from Singapore.

The 24-hour PSI in Singapore on Wednesday was 46 which was within the 'Good' range. -CNA/vm

Read more!

Smoke, Soot Dims China, India Climate Prospects

Gerard Wynn, PlanetArk 21 Feb 08;

MONACO - Air pollution is blotting out a tenth of China's sunlight and a similar amount in India, a leading US climate scientist said on Wednesday.

The soot, called black carbon and produced by burning coal, dung, wood and diesel, rises in the upper atmosphere, where it traps the sun's heat and blots out the light, raising the temperature at higher altitudes but cooling the earth below.

Veerabhadran Ramanathan, an atmospheric scientist at the University of California, said that as a result the soot is contributing to the melting of the glaciers and weakening Indian monsoons.

Himalayan glaciers supply water to hundreds of millions of people in China and India, and melting attributed to climate change is expected to affect supplies within 20 to 30 years.

"We found it (soot) was responsible for about half the warming," Ramanathan told Reuters on the fringes of the Monaco meeting of 100 environment ministers, hosted by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

The soot is also landing on the glaciers as a dark dust which makes the ice less reflective, speeding up melting.

Himalayan glaciers are warming twice as fast as Indian plains, he added.

One way to tackle the problem is to replace wood or dung for cooking with biogas or shiny metallic solar cookers.

In the meantime, soot emissions are rising in India and at best levelling off or rising in China, said Ramanathan, who also heads UNEP's Atmospheric Brown Cloud project, set up in 2001 to measure the impacts of soot and ash around the world.

Ramanathan estimates the loss of sunlight worldwide at under 3 percent since 1950, compared to recent studies showing 8-10 percent dimming in China and 7 percent less light over India.

By blotting out light, the smoke is cooling the Indian ocean, cutting evaporation and disrupting the monsoon, he said, and possibly altering airflows leading to drier weather in northern China.

"Of all the things we can do the dumbest is to cut out the sunlight. There's general acceptance now that there's something wrong with the Indian monsoon."

But cleaning the atmosphere and allowing in more sunlight would add about 1 degree centigrade to 0.8 degrees global warming happening already from carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

"This research is showing the urgency of bringing down CO2," Ramanathan said, adding that he wasn't convinced that global climate talks launched in December in Bali, Indonesia, would do enough to tackle the problem.

As a result he advocated research to determine the feasibility of technologies which manipulate the climate, for example scattering reflective particles in space to stop the Earth from cooking.

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Gorilla Project Unites Uganda, Rwanda And Congo

Francis Kwera, PlanetArk 21 Feb 08;

KAMPALA - Uganda, Rwanda and Congo launched a joint effort on Wednesday to protect endangered mountain gorillas that roam the three nations' jungle borders.

Fewer than 720 of the primates -- famous for the shimmering silver hair on the backs of males -- are believed to exist in the wild, spread across the remote Virunga hills where Democratic Republic of Congo meets Uganda and Rwanda.

They are a lucrative source of income from tourists, many of whom are high-end visitors paying $500 a day for tracking permits.

"For the first time, the three countries have decided to protect the great apes which are threatened with extinction and insecurity in the region," Moses Mapesa, the head of the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), told a news conference in Kampala.

His Rwandan counterpart, Rosette Rugamba, said gorilla numbers were at risk from poaching, encroachment by humans and insecurity. Eastern Congo is a hotbed of militia groups, some of which have been accused of hunting mountain gorillas.

"The 10-year trans-boundary strategic plan will identify groups and communities which affect the life in the Virunga area and directly address encroachment and poaching," she said.

The first four years of the plan, costing 4.1 million euro ($6.03 million) is being funded by the Dutch government.

According to the UWA, the number of gorillas in southwest Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, a stand-alone enclave for the primates, is 340 -- making it the single largest population.

Another 250 are thought to roam on the Rwandan side of the border. A smaller number are in Congo, where wildlife officials say at least 10 were killed last year.

Gorilla numbers across the region fell to a low of around 370 in the 1980s. But renewed conservation efforts, coupled with the primates' growing value as tourist attractions, has seen numbers recover. Bwindi has seen 12 percent population growth over the last decade due to better protection from poachers.

(Editing by Daniel Wallis)

Africa's Great Lakes nations launch project to protect rare gorillas
Yahoo News 21 Feb 08;

Three Great Lakes nations on Wednesday launched a joint project to protect the rare mountain gorillas that are threatened with extinction in the east central African region.

About 720 critically endangered mountain gorillas remain in the wild, all of them in the mountain forests of Rwanda, Uganda and the volatile east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The first four years of the "10-year strategic project" is funded by the Dutch government and is aimed at protecting the mountain gorillas and their habitat as well adressing poaching and encroachment that have blighted the rare species.

The scheme will include measures to improve the lives of the communities who depend on the nearby national parks for survival, said Uganda Wildlife Authority spokeswoman Lillian Nsubuga.

"About four million euro (5.8 million dollars) will go into this project," she told AFP, adding that the three nations derive about five million dollars (3.4 million euros) a year from interest in the mountain gorillas, including tourism.

Officials said project will seek strengthening and harmonisation of the three countries' policies and laws on the conservation and management of protected areas and the associated natural resources.

In addition, they called for political support from their respective governments to the ongoing transboundary conservation initiatives.

"The International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP) is to ensure the conservation of mountain gorillas and their regional afromontane forest habitat in Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC," according to a joint statement by wildlife officials in the three nations.

Ten mountain gorillas have been killed and two have gone missing in the DRC Virunga park since January 2007. These deaths, some blamed on fighters loyal to cashiered DRC general Laurent Nkunda, have sparked outrage among conservationists.

After two were killed and eaten in January last year, the renegade troops pledged to halt the killings in a meeting with Virunga park officials mediated by the United Nations and Congolese army, but the deal fell apart.

Local and foreign militias as well as Congolese soldiers, poachers and illegal miners regularly cross this area of the park, one of Africa's largest.

According to conservationists, about 720 critically endangered mountain gorillas -- estimated figures as follows: 340 in Uganda, 250 in Rwanda and 130 in eastern DRC -- remain in the wild, all of them in the mountainious forests in the three countries.

There are 1,100 rangers protecting five national parks -- four of which are classified as UNESCO World Heritage Sites -- in eastern DRC. Some 150 rangers have been killed while on duty in the past decade.

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Planktos kills iron fertilization project due to environmental opposition

mongabay.com 19 Feb 08;

Planktos, a California-based firm that planned a controversial iron-fertilization scheme in an attempt to qualify carbon offsets, announced that it failed to find sufficient funding for its efforts and would postpone its project indefinitely.

The announcement came as welcome news to environmentalists who feared the plan would be damaging to marine life. Planktos had planned to dump tons of iron dust in waters near the Galapagos islands.

Planktos claimed it was a victim of "a highly effective disinformation campaign waged by anti-offset crusaders... [which] caused the company to encounter serious difficulty in raising the capital needed to fund its planned series of ocean research trials."

Scientists questioned whether the firm would be able to quantify carbon sequestration from its efforts, while the U.S. government ruled that the experiment would violate ocean dumping laws. Planktos intended to use foreign vessels to skirt the U.S. Ocean Dumping Act.

Citing research showing links between wind-blown iron dust and photosynthesizing-microorganisms known as phytoplankton, Planktos believed artificial iron fertilization would trigger massive blooms of phytoplankton that would absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and help fight global warming. The firm would then sell the carbon credits to individuals and companies looking to offset their greenhouse gas emissions.

Scientists — including researchers at Stanford and Oregon State Universities — said that any bloom of phytoplankton induced by Planktos would be accompanied by a bloom in bacteria as phytoplankton die. These bacteria may produce gases--like nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas--that counteract the effects of carbon sequestration by phytoplankton. Further, bacterial decay consumes oxygen, which alters water chemistry.

"Ocean fertilization schemes... may not remove as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as has been suggested," said Dr. Michael Lutz, now at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. "The limited duration of previous ocean fertilization experiments may not be why carbon sequestration wasn't found during those artificial blooms. This apparent puzzle could actually reflect how marine ecosystems naturally handle blooms."

Environmental group WWF also warned that the introduction of large amounts of iron to the ecosystem would likely be accompanied by other trace metals that would be toxic to some forms of marine life.

"World Wildlife Fund's concern extends beyond the impact on individual species and extends to the changes that this dumping may cause in the interaction of species, affecting the entire ecosystem," said Dr. Sallie Chisholm, microbiologist, MIT and board member, World Wildlife Fund. "There's a real risk that this experiment may cause a domino effect through the food chain."

"There are much safer and proven ways of preventing or lowering carbon dioxide levels than dumping iron into the ocean," said Dr. Lara Hansen, chief scientist, WWF International Climate Change Program. "This kind of experimentation with disregard for marine life and the lives of people who rely on the sea is unacceptable."

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Shell Scales Back Proposed Arctic Drilling Plan

Yereth Rosen, PlanetArk 21 Feb 08;

ANCHORAGE - Royal Dutch Shell has offered to scale back its oil drilling plans in the Beaufort Sea in order to win the lifting of an injunction against the activity, but the move is unlikely to placate opponents of the plans.

Alaska natives won a court order blocking Shell's plan to drill in the Beaufort last summer, but the major is hopeful that it can persuade the Alaska native groups that led the legal challenge to drop their opposition.

"We felt, let's digest this in digestible chunks, let's proceed in digestible chunks, so the communities can see from the experience of it that this is very manageable," Shell's US president, John Hoffmeister, told Reuters on the sidelines of a industry conference this week.

Shell now plans to use one drilling rig instead of two when it tests its Sivulliq oil prospect off in the Beaufort Sea if the court lifts its injunction. Shell also plans to drill only partial wells -- called top-hole wells -- at the site which would not extend to the hydrocarbon reservoir.

But the proposed lower level of activity was not enough to convince some opponents.

"I just still don't feel reassured that there's a real good plan for oil spills with ice chunks as big as this building," said Siikauraq Martha Whiting, mayor of the Northwest Arctic Borough.

The Alaska native groups fighting the drilling plan are unlikely to go along with a less aggressive program either, said Erik Jorgensen, a Juneau-based lawyer for Earthjustice, an environmental law firm that represents the groups.

"They see all this activity as just being done far too fast, especially when the environment around them is changing so rapidly (due to climate change)," said Jorgensen.

"They want the government to carry out an entirely new environmental impact assessment study."

The waters of the Beaufort Sea are a traditional subsistence hunting ground for Inupiat native communities that live on the northern coast of Alaska. The area where Shell plans to drill is near calving grounds of the Bowhead whale.

A federal appeals court in San Francisco heard oral arguments in the case in December but has yet to issue a ruling on the challenge to the drilling.

Shell paid $44 million for the Sivulliq prospect during a federal sale of Beaufort Sea drilling rights in 2005 in the first move of the major's big return to Alaska.

More recently, Shell paid more than $2.1 billion for drilling rights in the adjacent Chukchi Sea at a federal lease sale earlier this month. Higher commodity prices and a dwindling amount of available acreage globally led Shell back to Alaska, company officials said.

Environmental groups are already challenging in court the federal government's move to sell acreage in the Chukchi Sea, a major polar-bear habitat.

(Additional reporting by Robert Campbell in Juneau, editing by Robert Campbell and Matthew Lewis)

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Global map pinpoints disease 'hotspots'

BBC News 20 Feb 08;

A detailed map highlighting the world's hotspots for emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) has been released.

It uses data spanning 65 years and shows the majority of these new diseases come from wildlife.

Scientists say conservation efforts that reduce conflicts between humans and animals could play a key role in limiting future outbreaks.

Writing in Nature, they said their map revealed that global anti-EID resources had been poorly allocated in the past.

Researchers from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), and the US-based University of Georgia and Columbia University's Earth Institute analysed 335 emerging diseases from 1940 to 2004.

They then used computer models to see if the outbreaks correlated with human population density or changes, latitude, rainfall or wildlife biodiversity.

Finally, the data was plotted on to maps to reveal the "hotspots" around the globe.

Healthy environment

"Our analysis highlights the critical importance of conservation work," said co-author Dr Kate Jones, a research fellow for ZSL.

"Conserving areas rich in biodiversity from development may be an important means of preventing the emergence of new diseases."

The researchers found that 60% of EID events were caused by "non-human animal" sources.

They add that 71% of these outbreaks were "caused by pathogens with a wildlife source".

Among the examples listed by the team was the emergence of Nipah virus in Malaysia and the Sars outbreak in China.

Others included the H5N1 strain of bird flu, Ebola and West Nile virus.

The number of events that originated from wild animals had increased significantly over time, they warned.

"This supports the suggestion that zoonotic EIDs represents an increasing and very significant threat to global health," the paper's authors wrote.

They added that it also highlighted the need to understand the factors that lead to increased contact between wildlife and humans.

"We are crowding wildlife into ever smaller areas, and human population is increasing," explained Dr Marc Levy, a global change expert at Columbia University's Earth Institute.

"Where those two things meet, that is the recipe for something crossing over."

He added that the main sources were mammals that were most closely related to humans.

'Missing the point'

While some pathogens may be picked up while hunting or by accident, others - such as Nipah virus - are transmitted to humans from wild animals via livestock.

Because humans had not evolved resistance to these EIDS, the scientists said that the results could be "extraordinarily lethal".

The main hotspots were located in low latitude regions, like South Asia and South-East Asia, which were not the financial focus of global funds to prevent the spread of EIDs.


"The world's public health resources are misallocated," opined co-author Peter Daszak, executive director of the Consortium for Conservation Medicine at the US-based Wildlife Trust.

"Most are focused on richer countries that can afford surveillance, but most of the hotspots are in developing countries.

"If you look at the high-impact diseases of the future, we're missing the point."

However, Dr Dazak said that the maps were the first to offer a prediction of where the next new disease could emerge.

His colleague, Dr John Gittleman from the University of Georgia's Odum School of Ecology, described the data-set as a "seminal moment in how we study emerging diseases".

"Our study has shown that bringing ecological sciences and public health together can advance the field in a dramatic ways," he observed.

The researchers said that the priority should be to set up "smart surveillance" measures in the hotspots identified on the map.

Dr Daszak explained that logistically straightforward bio-security measures, such as screening people who come into contact with wild birds and mammals in the hotspot areas, could halt the "next Aids or Sars before it happened".

"It simply follows the old adage that prevention is better, and cheaper, than finding a cure.

"If we continue to ignore this important preventative measure, then human populations will continue to be at risk from pandemic diseases," Dr Daszak warned.

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Risk Of Permafrost Thaw A "Wild Card" In Warming - UN

PlanetArk 21 Feb 08;

MONACO - A thaw of Arctic permafrost is a "wild card" that could stoke global warming by releasing vast frozen stores of greenhouse gases, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Wednesday.

More research was urgently needed into the possibility of a runaway release of methane, a powerful heat-trapping gas trapped in frozen soils in Siberia, Canada, Alaska and Nordic nations, it said in a 2008 yearbook issued at 154-nation talks in Monaco.

"The unknowns about the amount and rate of methane release from the thawing Arctic makes it a wild card when considering climate change risks," UNEP head Achim Steiner said in an annual report with a special section on Arctic methane.

UNEP said that global methane emissions from all sources, both natural and caused by human activities, were estimated at 500-600 million tonnes a year. A quarter to a third was emitted from the wet Arctic soils, where microbes produce methane.

Arctic methane emissions were projected to at least double during the 21st century, partly because of an increase in wetlands caused by thawing of permafrost, it said.

"The balance of evidence suggests that Arctic feedbacks that amplify warming, globally and regionally, will dominate during the next 50 to 100 years," it said.

Vast amounts of methane entering the atmosphere "would lead to abrupt changes in the climate that would likely be irreversible," UNEP said. "We must not cross that threshold."

Global warming, blamed mainly on human burning of fossil fuels that produce heat-trapping carbon dioxide, is projected to bring more floods, droughts and to raise world sea levels. Methane is the number two greenhouse gas from human activity.

"A potentially very large Arctic source of methane to the atmosphere is the decay of organic matter in the form of dead plant, animal and microbial remains that have been frozen in shallow permafrost for tens of thousands of years," it said.

"This important source of atmospheric methane is not currently considered in modelled projections," it said.

Another vast source of methane is in icy deposits known as methane hydrates, often in sediments deep under the world's oceans. Such hydrates store more carbon than all the proven reserves of coal, oil and gas and could also thaw, UNEP said.

Temperatures in the Arctic are rising by about twice the global average -- darker ground and seawater, when exposed, soak up far more heat than reflective ice and snow.

(Reporting by Gerard Wynn, writing by Alister Doyle in Oslo, Editing by Stephen Weeks)

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