wildsingapore news: Sep 8, 2008

Puget Sound geoduck farming may harm marine life

The Seattle Times 6 Sep 08;

Raising geoducks may endanger inland marine life and tidelands, Pierce County planners say, a finding that could likely complicate the county's permit process for farming the ugly but lucrative giant clams.
TACOMA, Wash. —

Raising geoducks may endanger inland marine life and tidelands, Pierce County planners say, a finding that could likely complicate the county's permit process for farming the ugly but lucrative giant clams.

Highlights of the decision were provided in an e-mail Wednesday to County Council member Terry Lee, who had inquired about the status of a permit application. The News Tribune found the correspondence Thursday during a review of geoduck (GOO'-ee-duck) permit records.

Kathleen Larrabee, a county Planning and Land Services Department supervisor who drafted the decision, told the newspaper that notices were sent within the past week to two permit applicants. One, Taylor Shellfish Farms, the West Coast's largest geoduck grower, is fighting efforts to close the harvest at its geoduck farm on Case Inlet.

Similar letters probably will be sent to six other permit applications later, Larrabee said.

"If that applies to one geoduck farm, it has to apply to each geoduck farm," she said.

Growers may then drop their applications or modify their plans, issue an environmental report on how they would deal with the planners' concerns or offer scientific evidence to dispute the county's assessment.

"This shows a lot of wisdom on Pierce County's part despite the legal challenge the industry has promised," said Laura Hendricks of the Gig Harbor area, a spokeswoman for the Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat.

For more than a year, the coalition has sought a county requirement for a full environmental review before any new geoduck farms are authorized. The group contends that intensive shellfish farming harms shorelines, fish and wildlife.

"We are pleased to see the process moving forward and the issues getting more defined," Taylor spokesman Bill Dewey said, explaining that his company will offer scientific research to meet the county's concerns.

"There's actually been a fair amount of work done," Dewey said. "We'll just have to wait and see how it comes out."."

A dispute over Taylor's geoduck farm northwest of Joemma Beach State Park resumes Monday in Thurston County Superior Court in Olympia. The coalition has asked a judge to overturn a Pierce County decision that allows Taylor to harvest clams despite expiration of a permit.

Most geoduck farming operations cover beaches with thousands of plastic tubes and yards of netting to protect baby clams from predators.

Best of our wild blogs: 8 Sep 08

Shell on Pulau Bukom
what goes on there? on the wild shores of singapore blog

Spotted Wood Owl spotted
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Ducks of Oz
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Don't step on the little red nose shrimps
on the wild shores of singapore blog

Shell 'shuts Singapore refinery unit due to technical faults'

Straits Times 8 Sep 08;

ROYAL Dutch Shell shut down its 115,000 to 130,000 barrels per day (bpd) No. 4 crude distillation unit (CDU) in Singapore on Friday due to technical problems, a source at the refinery said.

'It would take about a week or so to fix the problem,' the source told Reuters on Saturday.

Shell's Bukom refining complex has a total capacity of 500,000 bpd, and has two other CDUs which are running at around a 90 per cent rate.

The No. 4 CDU, the complex's second-largest, was running at reduced rates of 70 to 80 per cent, or 90,000 bpd, since its restart from maintenance last month, in part due to weak margins, a refinery source had said earlier this week.

It normally runs at a 90 per cent rate of around 105,000 to 110,000 bpd, the source had said.

A Shell spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment. The refiner does not normally comment on operational matters.

Last month, some oil refiners in Asia cut or were planning to cut crude processing rates, following similar moves by Western peers, as high fuel prices hit demand and pressured margins.

The margins have only started to recover recently as crude prices eased, with the five-day average for complex margins in the Singapore refining centre standing at US$6.67 a barrel versus US$4.92 in the last 15 days. The August average was US$4.06 a barrel, the lowest monthly average seen so far this year, compared with April's US$10.13, the highest so far this year.

REUTERS

All systems go for open gas market here from next Monday

Source says market players tested IT system thoroughly
Ronnie Lim, Business Times 8 Sep 08;

(SINGAPORE) Sept 15 - this is when Singapore will liberalise or completely free up its gas market.

This means that all natural gas - whether piped from Malaysia and Indonesia or shipped via LNG tankers from elsewhere - will be intermingled and transported via a PowerGas-owned and managed inland gas pipeline network to all end-users such as power stations and petrochemical plants here.

'Everything has been tested and it's all systems go for a Sept 15 launch,' a source told BT, adding that there may still be a bit more fine-tuning even then - after players' feedback of the Gas Transportation System Solution (GTSS) or IT operating system developed by Singapore Power subsidiary PowerGas.

Market authorities such as regulator Energy Market Authority (EMA) want to ensure a 'bug-free' GTSS from Day 1 - which meant comprehensive and exhaustive testing of the IT system with all the market players involved - and that was a reason why the gas market opening was postponed from the earlier July 1 target to the mid-September date.

Liberalisation of the gas market - following that of the electricity market in January 2003 - is important as natural gas accounts for over 80 per cent of electricity-generating feedstock. Open competition in gas supplies is aimed at keeping prices down.

Under a liberalised gas market there will be licensed gas 'shippers' including Gas Supply Pte Ltd and Sembcorp (both Indonesian gas buyers), Keppel Corp and Senoko Power (which buy Malaysian gas) and PowerSeraya, which wants to be a gas trader as part of its plans to be an integrated energy player.

But there will only be one 'transporter', PowerGas, which is in charge of the inland gas pipeline grid.

There will also be 'importers' - which includes some of the shippers - which deal directly with the gas producers to source for the gas. UK's BG Group, appointed the aggregator or sole buyer of liquefied natural gas for Singapore earlier this year, will be one such importer.

Ahead of the Sept 15 market launch, SembCorp Gas is expected to have transferred its onshore gas pipeline assets to PowerGas and have been compensated for exiting the gas transportation business.

Field trials for the GTSS started in early June, which was also the time when PowerGas advertised for personnel to administer and manage the gas market operations, as well as technical officers and technicians to maintain the system.

To prepare for the market opening, the government also implemented an amended Gas Act in February which facilitates open, competitive access for gas importers and retailers to Singapore's pipeline grid and the upcoming LNG terminal.

Despite the impending gas market opening this month, one player still left out in the cold is Island Power.

Island has had to suspend its $1 billion power station project on Jurong Island as it has been unable to bring in its own Indonesian gas supplies because of legal pipeline tangles involving incumbent Singapore players.

It had filed an application to the EMA last year to help it resolve this and gain access to the pipeline.

Last month, an EMA spokeswoman told BT that while 'the Gas Network Code (or market opening here) will give Island Power access to the onshore pipelines, the work to open access to the offshore pipelines for Island Power is still in progress'.

Alarm grows as Indonesia snubs West over bird flu

Business Times 8 Sep 08;

(JAKARTA) With nearly half the world's human bird flu deaths, concern is building over Indonesia's refusal to share virus samples and its health minister's increasingly strident denunciations of global 'conspiracies'.

Indonesia stopped sharing the samples with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in December 2006 on fears pharmaceutical firms would use them to make vaccines that are too expensive for poor countries. The initial move by Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari earned international plaudits for taking on an unfair global system, but with WHO talks at an impasse, Ms Supari's increasing belligerence is raising alarm.

The minister has broadened her critique of an 'unfair, neocolonialist' global health system, raising the possibility earlier this year that the United States was using the virus to develop biological weapons in her book, It's Time for the World to Change: Divine Hands Behind Avian Influenza.

Ms Supari told a rapturous crowd at a book discussion last week that rich nations were creating 'new viruses' and sending them to developing nations in order to create markets for drug companies to sell vaccines.

'Indonesia sends a virus to the WHO but it suddenly ends up with the US government. Then the US government turns the virus into dollars and we don't know what kind of research,' she said.

'Then the virus is turned into vaccines (that are sent to) Indonesia and Indonesia has to buy them and if they don't buy them, it turns and turns again, and in the end developed countries make new viruses which are then sent to developing countries,' she said.

Bird flu scientists abroad and in Indonesia have raised concerns that while Ms Supari seeks to reshape the global order, time is being wasted in understanding a virus that could potentially kill millions if it mutates into a form transmissible between humans.

Indonesia announced in August that 112 people have died from the virus, out of more than 240 worldwide since late 2003. Only a handful of samples and genetic sequences have been shared with the WHO and researchers. The health ministry also earlier this year stopped publicly announcing bird flu deaths, only releasing information information weeks or months after victims have died. 'I'm a bit suspicious what she's doing is more politics and not in fact for the global health system,' said Ngurah Mahardika, a virologist from Udayana University on Bali island.

'This will lessen the strength, the power of the preparedness of the global system ... (withholding samples means) we don't have any epidemiological and virological signal now of what the virus looks like,' Dr Mahardika said. -- AFP

AVA should guide the Town Councils on kindness to animals

Letter from Sharifah Abdul Jabbar, Today Online 8 Sep 08;

I REFER to “Youth step up for the animals” (Sept 5).

Let’s start a pro-active kindness movement by involving grassroots resources such as schools, Residents’ Committees and Community Clubs to instill a sense of empathy in our children, as well as their adult guardians, with projects that encourage children to interact, play with and care for small animals.

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) should also guide Town Councils to work with welfare organisations to sterilise strays and provide feeding shelters.

A gracious society is not just educated citizens and beautiful parks.

There is also humanity, kindness and empathy towards fellow human beings and the other occupants of this earth. Or have we forgotten this?

Domestic animals may not have economic value, but that does not mean their lives are worthless.

Change of heart
Be kind, your cat looks to you for its existence
Letter from Dr Tan Chek Wee, Today Online 8 Sep 08;

THE residents who care for the stray cats in the area where I live alert each other whenever “new” cats and kittens appear, so that they can be taken in for sterilisation, or rescued for re-homing if the kittens are too small to survive on their own.

Lately, there has been an increase in the number of abandoned cats and kittens. For example, within the period of one month, we found two, almost identical cats wearing identical collars, a white cat, as well as two kittens. There is still a tom cat that will be found soon.

Although these cats and kittens were wary in the beginning, they became friendly after a while, indicating that they had once been in a human environment.

Is it a coincidence that this spate of abandonment should occur before festive periods? Were these cats thrown out to make way for new furniture?

Last year, a friend of mine rescued a cat and her two kittens who were living among discarded furniture, with cat feeding bowls placed beside them. They were also rescued before a festive period.

Besides being run over by cars, some cats that hide in drains may be drowned or swept away during a downpour.

To you, it may just be a cat, but to the cat, you are everything. Please be kind.

Bangladesh seeks billions to fight climate change

Shafiq Alam, Yahoo News 7 Sep 08;

Bangladesh wants rich nations to pay the billions of dollars it says it needs to help fight the effects of climate change because they are the biggest environmental culprits.

The impoverished South Asian nation -- one of the world's lowest emitters of greenhouse gases -- will highlight its plight to the British government and other international donors in London on September 10.

Bangladesh environment secretary A.H.M Rezaul Kabir told AFP that a study by the World Bank, leading donors and the Bangladeshi government had found the country urgently needed huge amounts of money to ensure its survival.

"We need at least four billion dollars at least by 2020 to build dams, cyclone shelters, plant trees along the coast and build infrastructure and capacities to adapt to increasing number of natural disasters," Kabir said.

Environmental experts say Bangladesh is experiencing more rainfall, flooding and droughts, as well as cyclones as a direct result of climate change.

Last year widespread flooding and a devastating cyclone caused crop and infrastructure damage worth 2.8 billion dollars -- around four percent of Bangladesh's gross domestic product - according to a World Bank study.

"We hope Western countries will grant the money as compensation for being the biggest carbon emitters," Kabir said. "They are responsible for our woes and the increasing number of the disasters that befall on us."

"In London, we will show where we are vulnerable and present our strategy to fight the greater number of floods, cyclones, a rise in sea levels crop losses," he said.

Bangladesh's army-backed authorities this year launched a 44-million-dollar fund dedicated solely to fighting the problems that the country faces as a result of climate change.

The Nobel Prize winning United Nations Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts rising sea levels will devour 17 percent of Bangladesh's total land mass by 2050, leaving at least 20 million people homeless.

James Hansen, director of the US-based NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, paints an even grimmer picture, forecasting the entire nation will be under water by the end of the century.

One of Bangladesh's leading environment scientists, Atiq Rahman -- a co-author of the IPCC report -- believes money is not enough and rich countries should feel obliged to offer assistance.

"We are facing devastating disasters, which are occurring through no fault of our own. The world should not stay indifferent while Bangladesh goes under the sea," he said.

Rahman said the Bangladeshi government had launched an aggressive battle to fight climate challenges, but it should have started many years earlier.

He said it was not too late but the country needed a lot of support -- including funding and technical expertise -- from the global community.

"We especially need help from those rich nations whose carbon emissions have created the problems -- and they should also be prepared to open their doors to the millions of Bangladeshis who will become climate refugees."

Thousands of Australia's koalas felled by land-clearing: WWF

Yahoo News 7 Sep 08;

Australian koalas are dying by the thousands as a result of land clearing in the country's northeast, while millions of birds and reptiles are also perishing, conservation group WWF said Sunday.

The environmental body warned that unless urgent action was taken to stop trees being felled, some species would be pushed to the brink of extinction.

In an annual statement, Queensland state last week revealed that 375,000 hectares of bush were cleared in 2005-06 -- a figure WWF said would have resulted in the deaths of two million mammals.

Among those that perished as a result of loss of habitat would have been 9,000 tree-hugging koalas, WWF Australia spokesman Nick Heath said.

"It's a horrifying figure," Heath told AFP. "Two million mammals and that's all sorts of kangaroos, wallabies. We couldn't come to an exact figure on the birds, but I would say it would be over five million."

Heath said WWF's figures were based on earlier scientific assessments of animal density in each area of the state combined with the amount of land cleared over the 2005-2006 period.

He said the animals that died in the largest numbers were reptiles, including lizards and turtles.

Of particular concern was the impact on the koala, an iconic marsupial found only in Australia and which is most populous in Queensland state.

"There is scientific debate about whether koalas are on the verge of extinction or not... I don't want to enter into that debate," Heath said.

"All I say is, whether they are endangered or not, killing 9,000 koalas is unacceptable.

"People want koalas to exist, they don't want them to be on the endangered list. And if we kill 9,000 a year, even if they are not on the endangered list now, they will be if we don't stop."

Heath said that turning native bush into grazing paddocks meant that many of the animals killed died in fires set by farmers to clear debris after bulldozers cut down the trees.

"So these animals die horrific deaths," he said. "They are either dead from being run over or falling from a tree, or if they survive that, they are burnt alive."

The Queensland government has set up a task force to help conserve koala populations amid greater urban development in the state's southeast.

Can capitalism save the Amazon?

Ben Anderson, BBC Panorama 7 Sep 08;

It would be easy to think that the rainforest was saved, or at least, that the destruction of the Amazon rainforest is no longer one of the great crises facing a planet finally reaching consensus on the issue of global warming.

Sting still does annual concerts, but by and large as a cause - one of the first I ever noticed as a child growing up in the 1980s - has largely disappeared from the public sphere.

After 30 minutes in a plane with Greenpeace, who have been monitoring deforestation in the Amazon for the last seven years, it was clear that while it may have disappeared as a cause, the loggers, cattle ranchers, and now the soya-farmers are as busy as they have ever been.

Underneath us a sand road, which will one day be paved, was already flanked on both sides by endless fields of crops, burnt-out forest and farmers so sure that they would not get arrested they had built houses, silos, warehouses and roads.

Much of this illegal land clearance was even taking place on what is supposed to be protected land.

It is clear that environmental campaigning, and Brazilian law itself, have both largely failed to protect the Amazon.

Deforestation had been going down for three years straight, but when commodity prices, particularly beef and soya, went up, all the mechanisms that had been lauded, were powerless.

Deforestation soon increased - according to some, by as much as 69%.

It is also clear that if we are serious about combating climate change, the debate about what to do is seriously skewed.

Farmer's alliance

As I stood next to one huge forest fire, I thought of all the times I have been urged to unplug my phone charger, turn my TV off standby or turn the thermostat down by a couple of degrees.

Yet I cannot remember ever being told that the fires burning down the rainforest are responsible for 20% of worldwide carbon emissions, the same amount as all the transport in the world combined.

Thankfully I soon met a few men who were convinced that things could change.

In the state of Mato Grosso, the most deforested state in Brazil, I met American John Carter, a Gulf War veteran, who is married to a Brazilian.

He arrived in the Amazon over 10 years ago, thinking, like me, that after all the rhetoric, there had to be people on the ground making huge strides in conservation.

Bank backing

John decided to go it alone, and set up the Land Alliance, which now includes 166 farms and controls over 1.6m hectares of land.

Not only are they committed to sustainable development, John has attracted voluntary money from the Dutch agricultural Rabobank, who pay him to keep enough of his forest standing to offset their carbon emissions.

I asked John how the money he gets from Rabobank compares to the money he gets from traditional crops.

"It's easily three times more than I could make than I could make with beef and it's twice what I could make with soya beans. So it's a huge number," he said.

That was encouraging enough, but across Brazil's northern border I saw two models that not only place monetary value on standing forests, but do it without relying on payments from carbon emitters.

The Kyoto protocol rewards those who chop down trees but then replant, but makes no provision for those who do not chop down their trees in the first place.

Essential services

Hylton Murray-Philipson is the managing director of Canopy Capitol, whose idea is simple enough.

"If you had bought the rights to car-parking in 1950, and agreed to pay Hammersmith council £1 per slot, for 100 years," he explained, "for the first 10 years of that investment, everybody would be laughing at you, they'd think you were completely crazy.

"Think of it now - something that was inconceivable then, is now commonplace - we all pay £100 a slot or whatever it is. So if you had those rights, you would now be sitting pretty."

Hylton sees the essential services that the rainforests provide in the same way. He has secured the rights to 370,000 hectares of Guyana's rainforest, and needed to attract 10 investors to get his project going.

He got them with just 12 calls. "Nobody has called me mad for placing such a value on the services of the rainforest," he said. In fact the World Bank have invited him to speak at their annual meeting.

And if I needed proof that the basic premise of Hylton's idea could be rolled out across an entire country, I soon got it.

Need for change

President Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana has actually offered stewardship of his country's entire rainforest to the UK, in exchange not for investment, but development aid and assistance.

Despite his rainforest being the size of England, and despite his offer being on the table for over two years, Mr Jagdeo has, incredibly, had no response to his offer.

But it was at least possible to see that the forces that had been responsible for the destruction of the rainforest, could be deployed to save it.

It will take a great deal of work and international resolve to apply the idea to a country the size of Brazil, but many of the people I met on my journey told me one thing that convinced me that things could change. It is absurd that while beef, soya and timber reach record prices, the essential services that the rainforests provide are worth nothing.

Enough people from all sides of the debate seem to be realising this, and that is what leaves me believing that the rainforest can, as it must, be saved.

Panorama: Can Money Grow on Trees? BBC One at 2030 BST on Monday 8 September.

Deforestation and poverty behind Haiti flood crisis

Clarens Renois, Yahoo News 8 Sep 08;

With severe flooding, hundreds dead and hundreds of thousands lacking food and basic provisions, Haiti has been hit badly so far this hurricane season, with four severe storms in less than four weeks.

The Caribbean nation has suffered more than its neighbors, also lashed by major storms, in part because of severe deforestation and extreme poverty.

After Tropical Storm Fay and Hurricane Gustav in August, the poorest country in the Americas was devastated by Tropical Storm Hanna last week, and flooding was compounded Saturday night and Sunday when Hurricane Ike clipped the country's northern peninsula as it raged westward toward Cuba.

Damaged infrastructure and continuing rains left aid organizations struggling to bring emergency assistance to hundreds of thousands of storm victims.

About 600 people died in Haiti's recent storms, according to UN and government figures, and one million were affected. The storms also battered roads and bridges.

But many say the damage could have been reduced by better environmental planning.

"There's a real emergency. Measures should be taken to take to slow down the degradation of the environment in Haiti," said Joel Boutroue, representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

"With this rhythm of deforestation, we're up against a wall," Boutroue said, adding that the lack of tree cover contributes to poverty as well as provoking flooding.

The use of charcoal in most cooking in Haiti -- where some 70 percent live on less than two dollars per day -- has contributed to massive deforestation.

Wood is systematically cut for use as charcoal, in baking and for laundry, contributing to Haiti's environmental destruction.

Haiti's plant cover is estimated at less than two percent and recent heavy downpours led to severe flooding much worse than in the neighboring Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.

Haitian Environment Minister Jean-Marie Claude Germain said a lack of proper agricultural planning dating back to the country's independence at the start of the 19th century contributed to the country's vulnerability.

"In neighboring Dominican Republic, plant cover is estimated at 30 percent and the army looks after the environment sector, contrary to Haiti where there's no environment policy," Germain said.

The country's geography compounds the problems: with 80 percent of Haiti covered by mountains, all kinds of hurricanes pose a threat, said meteorologist Ronal Semelfort.

Boutroue, an international aid coordinator, called on the Haitian government and international donors to invest in the environment and "act quickly" to rethink reforestation programs.

"They need to make changes now, pending significant government reforms," he said.

Nigeria to Spray Pest-Ravaged Northern Farmlands

PlanetArk 8 Sep 08;

LAGOS - Nigeria will spend 251 million naira (US$213,339) to spray farmlands in its arid northern region that are being ravaged by thousands of tiny grain-eating quela birds and locusts, the agriculture minister said on Sunday.

Massive swarms of the black, red-beaked migratory birds and desert locusts have destroyed swathes of millet, maize, sorghum and rice farms in about a dozen arid states just before harvest.

"To ensure food security ... the federal government has approved a total of 220 flight hours and over 60,000 litres of pesticides to be utilised immediately to control the quela birds and grasshoppers in the affected frontline states," Minister of State for Agriculture Ademola Seriki told a news conference.

Aerial spraying of farms will start on Wednesday, while the affected states will also be provided with ground spraying equipment like manual and motorised sprayers, Seriki said.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and top crude oil producer, loses about 40 percent of its annual crop output to pests, according to experts.

Seriki said Nigeria, the world's eighth biggest oil exporter, was examining more cost-effective and sustainable strategies, such as a public-private partnership to check the menace of agricultural pests in the future. Quela birds and locusts, which move in large numbers and can devour a field of crops overnight, traditionally scourge the Sahara and the Sahel every year, moving eastwards towards Arabia, but rarely enter Nigeria in serious numbers.

Last year, swarms of locusts hit Nigeria after causing havoc in Mauritania, Mali and Niger, then headed towards Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region. (Reporting by Tume Ahemba; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Fish or fuel debate divides Norway's far north

Business Times 8 Sep 08;

(HENNINGSVAER, Norway) The pristine Lofoten Islands off Norway's far north paint an idyllic image of tranquillity, but beneath the surface is a roiling debate over the islands' resources, dividing fishermen, environmentalists and oil companies.

Oilmen spurred by the meteoric rise in oil prices have for some time been eyeing the picturesque archipelago, where high mountains plunge down into the sea.

Norway is currently the world's fifth-biggest oil exporter, but it has seen its production of black gold decline since peaking in 2001.

And there have been no major discoveries in recent years to provide a glimmer of hope once its ageing, dwindling wells dry up.

'Production from the fields currently producing on the Norwegian continental shelf will be reduced by 50 per cent by 2023,' says Oerjan Birkeland, exploration manager for StatoilHydro in the far north.

'The region off Lofoten is of interest because we think there is a potential for oil and gas,' he adds.And that is exactly what environmentalists and fishermen do not want to hear.

These waters are home to the world's biggest remaining cod stocks, a species that has been a victim of overfishing in both Europe and North America, as well as the biggest herring stocks.

Fishing is the Lofoten Islands' main commercial activity. The coastline attests to this, dotted with quaint fishing cabins on stilts, some of which have now been converted into shelters for tourists - another important industry for the islands' 25,000 residents.

Each spring, a thousand-year-old tradition is continued: the cod is placed outdoors to dry on huge wooden structures, before being exported to southern Europe for another time- honoured tradition, the classic dish bacalao.

'For some islands, if there was no fishing you would have to leave,' says Hermod Larsen, the local head of the Raafisklag, the organisation that sells the fish. 'We have to live together (with the oil companies), but not in Lofoten.'

The government, under pressure from environmentalists and itself torn on the issue, has prohibited all oil activities in the unspoiled area until at least 2010, when the issue will be reviewed. With that deadline now just over a year away, StatoilHydro - a company 63 per cent owned by the state and which brings in a bundle to state coffers - has launched a major charm offensive emphasising its environmental efforts.

Maren Esmark of the Norwegian branch of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) brands the lobbying campaign as 'disgusting'.

'If you were to have an oil spill around Lofoten in the winter, it would be difficult to clean it because there are only four hours of daylight,' she says\. \-- AFP

Thaw Of Polar Regions May Need New UN Laws - Experts

Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 8 Sep 08;

OSLO - A new set of United Nations laws may be needed to regulate new Arctic industries such as shipping and oil exploration as climate change melts the ice around the North Pole, legal experts said on Sunday.

They said existing laws governing everything from fish stocks to bio-prospecting by pharmaceutical companies were inadequate for the polar regions, especially the Arctic, where the area of summer sea ice is now close to a 2007 record low.

"Many experts believe this new rush to the polar regions is not manageable within existing international law," said A.H. Zakri, Director of the UN University's Yokohama-based Institute of Advanced Studies.

Fabled shipping passages along the north coast of Russia and Canada, normally clogged by thick ice, have both thawed this summer, raising the possibility of short-cut routes between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Dozens of legal experts are meeting in Iceland from Sept. 7-9 to debate the legal needs of the polar regions. Other threats include a surge in tourism, with 40,000 vistors to Antarctica in 2007 against just 1,000 in 1987.

Many legal specialists believe there is a lack of clarity in existing laws about shipping, mining, sharing of fish stocks drawn northwards by the melting of ice, and standards for clearing up any oil spills far from land.

"Oil in particular and risks of shipping in the Arctic are big issues. It's incredibly difficult to clean up an oil spill on ice," said conference chairman David Leary of the Institute of Advanced Studies, which is organising the conference with Iceland's University of Akureyri.

"The question is: do we deal with it in terms of the existing laws or move to a new, more global framework for the polar regions?" he told Reuters.

"SEVERE" CONDITIONS

Some experts say the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea is unclear, for instance, when it speaks of the rights of states to impose restrictions -- such as compulsory pilots for ships -- off their coasts in "particularly severe climatic conditions" or when ice covers the sea for "most of the year."

With the ice receding fast, defining what conditions are "particularly severe" could be a problem, said law professor Tullio Scovazzi of the University of Milano-Bicocca.

Leary said the eight nations with Arctic territories -- the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Finland -- have so far preferred to limit discussion to existing international laws.

The WWF environmental group is among those urging a new UN convention to protect the Arctic, partly fearing that rising industrial activity will increase the risk of oil spills like the Exxon Valdez accident off Alaska.

"We think there should be new rules, stricter rules. We are proposing a new convention for the protection of the Arctic Ocean," said Tatiana Saksina of the WWF.

Alaska's state governor Sarah Palin, Republican vice presidential candidate in Nov. 4's US election, is an advocate of oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

A boom in tourism in Antarctica meanwhile risks the accidental introduction of new species to an environment where the largest land creature is a flightless midge.

Bio-prospecting may also need new rules. Neural stem cells of Arctic squirrels could help treat human strokes, while some Arctic fish species have yielded enzymes that can be used in industrial processes.
(Editing by Catherine Evans)

New laws needed in changing polar regions: experts
Yahoo News 7 Sep 08;

Some 40 legal experts from around the world gathered in Iceland on Sunday for a three-day conference aimed at staking out a new legal framework for the fragile and changing polar regions.

"A new coordinated international set of rules to govern commercial and research activities in both of the Earth's polar regions is urgently needed to reflect new environmental realities and to temper pressure building in these highly fragile ecosystems," organisers said in a statement.

The Polar Law Symposium is being hosted by the United Nations University and the University of Akureyri in northern Iceland, the venue of the event, and features a wide range of legal experts in fields related to new challenges arising in the Arctic and Antarctic.

In the Arctic, climate change is leading the polar ice cap to melt away, with scientists predicting the fabled Northwest Passage will open up in the summer months by 2030.

An ice-free North Pole holds the promise of far shorter shipping routes between Europe and Asia and of making the region's untold wealth of natural resources, including oil and gas, more accessible.

But there is a flip-side to the coin.

"With the area being more accessible, there's more activity and thereby more risk of some form of accident, like a vessel sinking or even a new oil spill along the lines of Exxon Valdez," symposium chairman David Leary of the UN University told AFP.

Tatiana Saksina of the World Wildlife Fund's International Arctic Programme agreed.

"Arctic sea routes are among the world's most hazardous due to lack of natural light, extreme cold, moving ice floes, high wind and low visibility, and the Arctic marine environment is particularly susceptible to the effects of pollution," she cautioned in a statement.

"Yet there are no internationally binding rules to regulate operational pollution from offshore installations. Strict standards for the transportation of Arctic oil are also urgently needed," she said.

While there are already certain regulations in place, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Saksina insisted they were inadequate for protecting rapidly changing ice oceans.

"There is an urgent need for a comprehensive international environmental regime specially tailored for the unique Arctic conditions. This regime is needed before natural resource development expands widely," she said.

Antarctica, meanwhile is facing a different set of challenges, largely linked to a growing parade of tourists and researchers visiting the icy continent.

In 2007, some 40,000 tourists and tour staff visited Antarctica, while in the summer months there are now around 4,000 researchers based at 37 permanent stations and numerous field camps there.

According to the Madrid Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty, signatories must avoid all change and risk to the continent's ecosystem by avoiding the introduction of non-native species and micro-organisms.

Experts at the Akureyri conference however warned that heightened tourism in the area could make it difficult to ensure that no one tracks in alien soil and seeds or introduces "infectious disease-causing agents" through interaction with wildlife or by leaving behind organic waste.

The symposium will wrap up on Tuesday with participants agreeing on a set of recommendations to send to governments, international bodies and other interested parties.

The list of recommendations should be printed and ready to send out within six weeks of the event, conference chairman Leary said.

Eat less meat to fight climate change: UN expert

Yahoo News 7 Sep 08;

People should cut their consumption of meat to help combat climate change, a top United Nations expert told a British Sunday newspaper.

Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told The Observer that people should start by having one meat-free day per week then cut back further.

The 68-year-old Indian economist, who is a vegetarian, said diet change was important in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and environmental problems associated with rearing cattle and other animals.

"Give up meat for one day (per week) initially, and decrease it from there," he said.

"In terms of immediacy of action and the feasibility of bringing about reductions in a short period of time, it clearly is the most attractive opportunity."

Other small-scale lifestyle changes would also help to combat climate change, he said without elaborating.

"That's what I want to emphasise: we really have to bring about reductions in every sector of the economy."

Pachauri is due to give a speech in London on Monday under the title: "Global Warning: the impact of meat production and consumption on climate change".

Pachauri, who was re-elected for a second term six-year term as IPCC chairman last week, has headed the organisation since 2002 and oversaw its seminal assessment report in 2007 which gave graphic forecasts of the risks posed by global warming.

The IPCC warned then that without action the planet's rising temperatures could unleash potentially catastrophic change to earth's climate system, leading to hunger, drought, storms and massive species loss.

The organisation also won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 along with former US vice president Al Gore.

Shun meat, says UN climate chief
Richard Black, BBC News website 7 Sep 08;

People should consider eating less meat as a way of combating global warming, says the UN's top climate scientist.

Rajendra Pachauri, who chairs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), will make the call at a speech in London on Monday evening.

UN figures suggest that meat production puts more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than transport.

But a spokeswoman for the UK's National Farmers' Union (NFU) said methane emissions from farms were declining.

Dr Pachauri has just been re-appointed for a second six-year term as chairman of the Nobel Prize-winning IPCC, the body that collates and evaluates climate data for the world's governments.

"The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has estimated that direct emissions from meat production account for about 18% of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions," he told BBC News.

"So I want to highlight the fact that among options for mitigating climate change, changing diets is something one should consider."

Climate of persuasion

The FAO figure of 18% includes greenhouse gases released in every part of the meat production cycle - clearing forested land, making and transporting fertiliser, burning fossil fuels in farm vehicles, and the front and rear end emissions of cattle and sheep.

The contributions of the three main greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide - are roughly equivalent, the FAO calculates.

Transport, by contrast, accounts for just 13% of humankind's greenhouse gas footprint, according to the IPCC.

Dr Pachauri will be speaking at a meeting organised by Compassion in World Farming (CIWF), whose main reason for suggesting people lower their consumption of meat is to reduce the number of animals in factory farms.

CIWF's ambassador Joyce D'Silva said that thinking about climate change could spur people to change their habits.

"The climate change angle could be quite persuasive," she said.

"Surveys show people are anxious about their personal carbon footprints and cutting back on car journeys and so on; but they may not realise that changing what's on their plate could have an even bigger effect."

Side benefits

There are various possibilities for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with farming animals.

They range from scientific approaches, such as genetically engineering strains of cattle that produce less methane flatus, to reducing the amount of transport involved through eating locally reared animals.

"The NFU is committed to ensuring farming is part of the solution to climate change, rather than being part of the problem," an NFU spokeswoman told BBC News.

"We strongly support research aimed at reducing methane emissions from livestock farming by, for example, changing diets and using anaerobic digestion."

Methane emissions from UK farms have fallen by 13% since 1990.

But the biggest source globally of carbon dioxide from meat production is land clearance, particularly of tropical forest, which is set to continue as long as demand for meat rises.

Ms D'Silva believes that governments negotiating a successor to the Kyoto Protocol ought to take these factors into account.

"I would like governments to set targets for reduction in meat production and consumption," she said.

"That's something that should probably happen at a global level as part of a negotiated climate change treaty, and it would be done fairly, so that people with little meat at the moment such as in sub-Saharan Africa would be able to eat more, and we in the west would eat less."

Dr Pachauri, however, sees it more as an issue of personal choice.

"I'm not in favour of mandating things like this, but if there were a (global) price on carbon perhaps the price of meat would go up and people would eat less," he said.

"But if we're honest, less meat is also good for the health, and would also at the same time reduce emissions of greenhouse gases."

Australia Adviser Urges Cautious Carbon Targets

James Grubel, PlanetArk 8 Sep 08;

CANBERRA - Australia's top climate adviser on Friday recommended carbon be sold for an initial A$20 (US$16) a tonne from 2010, with only marginal increases for the first two years, to help business adjust to carbon trading in Australia.

In an updated report on targets for a trading scheme, academic Ross Garnaut said Australia should also aim to cut emissions by at least 10 percent by 2020, or up to 25 percent if the government adopts a tougher target.

Environment groups condemned the new targets as too low to help stop global warming, but business groups said Garnaut's targets were too tough and would be difficult to achieve without major breakthroughs in clean energy technology.

"A 10 percent national emissions reduction target by 2020 will be extremely difficult to achieve," said Mitch Hooke, from the Minerals Council of Australia, which represents Australia's major resource industries.

"Meeting this target without significant technological breakthroughs is akin to moving Australia to a candles economy."

Garnaut said the government should sell carbon permits at A$20 a tonne initially, with the price rising each year by four percent on top of inflation, until an open market would set the price of pollution from 2013.

Analysts said the recommended price was at the centre of current market prices for trades and would represent the penalty price for companies for exceeding their emissions limits, giving business some certainty in the early years of trading.

"The price is bang in the middle of our current price spread," said Gary Cox, head of environmental derivatives for Newedge Group in Australia. "On the screens right now the price is A$19 bid, A$22 offered, so the price is pretty reasonable."

He was referring to Australia's embryonic over-the-counter carbon market, which saw its first trade in May when energy group AGL Energy Ltd sold 10,000 Australian emission units to Westpac Banking Corp Ltd at A$19 per/tonne.

Since then about eight more trades have occurred at prices ranging from A$18 to A$21.50 a tonne.

Australia's centre-left Labor government has promised to introduce carbon trading from July 2010 to help the country cut its carbon emissions, but has come under attack from companies that say the scheme could drive some firms out of business.

The government, which has made the carbon scheme a central plank of its policy, says it is willing to negotiate with business and has said Garnaut's report is only one source of advice.

"We respect his advice, we'll listen to his advice, but ultimately it is for government to make its decisions on these matters," Climate Change Minister Penny Wong told reporters.

Australia's expanded carbon trading system will cover 75 percent of the economy, and 1,000 of Australia's biggest companies, with hefty initial subsidies for big polluting firms to help them adapt.

The country is the world's 16th biggest carbon polluter and produces about 1.5 percent of global emissions. But Australia is the fourth largest per-capita emitter, with five times more carbon pollution per person than China.

A NEW KYOTO

World environment ministers and negotiators will meet in Copenhagen in late 2009 to try to work out a new agreement on how to curb global emissions, to come into force after the initial phase of the Kyoto Protocol pact expires in 2012.

Garnaut, who was asked to advise the government on the costs and impacts of climate change and carbon trading, has proposed two models for Australia's targets, based on a strong aspirational target from Copenhagen, and a softer target.

Garnaut said Australia should push for the new agreement to set a strong target to limit worldwide carbon dioxide emissions to 450 parts per million in the atmosphere, although a limit of 550 parts per million were more achievable.

Global atmospheric CO2 concentrations are about 390 ppm compared with pre-Industrial Revolution levels of about 280 ppm.

Under the stronger aspirational target, Australia would need to cut its emissions by 25 percent by 2020, and 90 percent by 2050, based on levels from the year 2000. Gross domestic product would then be 1.6 percent lower than it would be in 2020 if the government took no action to cut emissions.

Under the more practical target of 550 parts per million, Australia would need to cut emissions by 10 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050, with gross domestic product to be only 1.1 percent lower than it would otherwise be in 2020.

Centre-left Labor government's target is to cut emissions by 60 percent of 2000 levels by 2050.

Garnaut said Australia should set its own target of a five percent cut in emissions by 2020 if talks in Copenhagen fail to reach a global deal.

The Australian Greens, who share the balance of power with two independents in the upper house Senate, said the government needed stronger targets than Garnaut recommended.

"The weak targets ... released today are based on outdated science, risk catastrophic climate change and will undermine global negotiations towards an effective climate treaty," Greens leader Bob Brown said.

(US$1=A$1.22)

(Additional reporting by Rob Taylor and Bruce Hextall and David Fogarty)

FACTBOX - Impacts of Australia Emissions Trade
PlanetArk 8 Sep 08;

CANBERRA - Australia's top climate adviser on Friday recommended cautious targets to start carbon emissions trading, with carbon priced at A$20 (US$16) a tonne beginning in 2010 and emissions cut between 10 and 25 percent by 2020.

Academic economist Ross Garnaut, dubbed Australia's equivalent of British climate adviser Nicholas Stern, makes a final report to the government on Sept. 30.

Following are the impacts two regime scenarios would have by 2020 under "practical" and "aspirational" targets set by Garnaut using official Treasury Department modelling. The centre-left government will respond later in 2008.

* Carbon emissions permit price set at A$20 a tonne from 2010, rising by 4 percent a year above inflation until 2013. Market demand will then drive the price.

* The most likely "Practical" scenario sees emissions cuts, accompanied by concerted global action, of 10 percent by 2020, lowering Australian GDP by 1.1 percent and reducing consumption by 1.8 percent. The price of carbon would rise to A$34.50 in present dollar terms.

* The tougher "aspirational" scenario sees emissions cuts of 25 percent by 2020, lowering GDP by 1.6 percent and reducing consumption by 2.4 percent. The price of carbon would rise to A$60 in present dollar terms. Garnaut says this scenario is unlikely given current world sentiment on climate change.

* A third weakest scenario, seen in the event of a collapse of global climate talks on a post-Kyoto climate deal in Copenhagen in 2009, would see unconditional cuts by Australia of 5 percent by 2020. This offer would lower GDP by 1.3 percent and consumption by 1.6 percent. The price of carbon under this scenario would be driven higher because of global trading instability, rising to A$52.60.

(US$1 = A$1.22)

(Reporting by Rob Taylor; Editing by David Fogarty)

FACTBOX - Greenhouse Gas Curbs, From Australia to India
PlanetArk 8 Sep 08;

The following factbox compares national goals for fighting climate change, from the United States to India, after Australia's top climate adviser proposed 2020 greenhouse gas emissions targets on Friday.

The data compares the widely varying plans with a 1990 base year in the UN's Climate Convention and its Kyoto Protocol for curbing emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels.

The 37 nations bound by Kyoto have agreed to consider cuts of between 25 and 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, a range indicated by the UN Climate Panel as needed to avoid the worst of droughts, floods, heatwaves and rising seas.

Almost no governments have set such tough goals. Developed nations pledged last year to make "comparable" efforts:

AUSTRALIA - Climate Change advisor Ross Garnaut called on Friday for cuts of at least 10 percent, and up to 25 percent, in 2000 emissions by 2020. "Under Kyoto accounting rules Australia's emissions were almost the same in 1990 and 2000," his report says. The centre-left government already aims to cut emissions by 60 percent below 2000 levels by 2050.

UNITED STATES - President George W. Bush in April set a 2025 peak for US emissions, by when US emissions are likely to be about 30 percent above 1990 levels. Bush's likely successors want far tougher goals. Democrat Barack Obama favours cutting US emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Republican John McCain aims to cut to 1990 levels by 2020 with a 60 percent cut below 1990 levels by 2050.

EUROPEAN UNION - EU leaders agreed in 2007 to cut emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and by 30 percent if other nations make similar cuts. That implies a 14.2 percent cut from 2005 levels by 2020, according to the European Commission. EU leaders want rich countries to aim to reduce emissions by 60 to 80 percent by 2050, compared to 1990.

JAPAN - Tokyo plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60-80 percent below 2005 levels by 2050, implying a cut of about 14 percent by 2020 from 2005. That would put emissions about 4 percent below the 1990 Kyoto benchmark by 2020.

CANADA - The government's "Turning the Corner" plan seeks to cut emissions by 20 percent below 2006 levels by 2020 and envisages cuts of 60 to 70 percent below 2006 by 2050. Applied to the usual Kyoto 1990 benchmark, a 20 percent cut from 2006 would put emissions 2.7 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

NORWAY - Aims to cut emissions by 30 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 and to be "carbon neutral" by 2030, when any emissions will be offset by cuts elsewhere.

NEW ZEALAND - Aims to be "carbon neutral" in the total energy sector by 2040.

SOUTH KOREA - The government plans next year to set a 2020 target to curb rising emissions. South Korean currently has no obligations for curbs under the Kyoto Protocol.

DEVELOPING NATIONS

CHINA - The government's 2006-10 plan aims to reduce energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 20 percent, curbing the rise of greenhouse gas emissions. Beijing also plans to quadruple gross domestic product between 2001 and 2020 while only doubling energy use.

INDIA - New Delhi says priority must go to economic growth to end poverty while shifting, under a national action plan unveiled in June, to clean energies led by solar power. The government is setting no greenhouse caps but says per capita emissions will never exceed those of developed nations.

SOUTH AFRICA - The government aims to brake rising emissions and offers a scenario under which emissions will rise until 2020-25, stay flat for up to a decade and then fall. It will set mandatory energy efficiency targets and a shift away from coal.

COSTA RICA - Aims to cut its net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2021, the 200th anniversary of independence.

BROADER SOLUTIONS

THE KYOTO PROTOCOL - A pact binding all rich nations except the United States to cut emissions on average by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.

GROUP OF EIGHT - Leading industrial nations agreed at a G8 summit in Japan in July to a "vision" of cutting world emissions of greenhouse gases by 50 percent by 2050.

GLOBAL - About 190 nations agreed at a meeting in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007 to work out a treaty by the end of 2009 to succeed Kyoto, comprising deeper emissions cuts by rich nations and action by poor countries to slow rising emissions.

-- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/ (Compiled by Alister Doyle in Oslo, Editing by Anthony Barker)

Carbon caps: Economic concerns lead to caution

Michael Richardson, Straits Times 8 Sep 08;

CHINA'S top legislature has just approved a new law designed to put production in what is now one of the world's four biggest economies on a more sustainable foundation. When the law comes into force in January, it will add weight to government efforts to get industry to use energy and other resources less wastefully and curb emissions that harm human health and the environment.

Dubbed the 'circular' economy by officials, this is China's latest effort to go green by raising efficiency and harnessing alternative energy to reduce reliance on coal, oil and gas - all of which when burned release carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming and climate change.

China pays a heavy price for waste and inefficiency in its economy. Mr Ma Kai, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said last year that in 2006, China used 15 per cent of the world's energy to produce just 5.5 per cent of global GDP. He added: 'The overall growth of the Chinese economy is inspiring, but one of the worries is that we have paid too dear an environmental and resources price for such growth.'

Enacting the new law intended to improve this situation is the easy part. Enforcing it at all levels of the Chinese bureaucracy will be much more difficult. Provincial and local governments across the vast country compete to attract and retain industries (and the employment and wages they bring), even if they are dirty or only semi-clean.

China, like the Bush administration in the United States, is wary of committing to a binding national cap on its greenhouse gas emissions because it knows that doing so could undermine its competitive advantage. This will happen unless there are agreed global rules, universally and equitably applied to all sectors of all major economies. Otherwise, energy-intensive industries and sectors in some countries will be hit harder than others elsewhere by emission controls and taxes.

To see the buffeting facing governments and economies in the brave new world of environmental correctness, Beijing need look no further than Australia, one of China's leading resource suppliers. Australia is the fourth largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world on a per capita basis, mainly because, like China, it relies heavily on coal to generate electricity. However, Australia emits five times more per person than China.

The Australian Labor government under Prime Minister Kevin Rudd plans to launch a national cap-and-trade scheme by 2010 that will put a price on emissions and oblige companies to buy permits to cover them.

The plan, which is still under negotiation with industry, has triggered a raging debate over how costs are to be apportioned among companies, consumers and government. Mr Rudd said last week that the scheme would 'help drive our long-term transformation to a low carbon economy'. But industry has warned it could drive large emitters offshore or out of business, while sharply raising prices of electricity and other products for consumers.

The government has promised compensation for consumers and help for businesses facing higher energy costs. But that would distort the 'polluter pays' principle so as to ease the burden on firms most likely to lose their competitive edge at home or abroad. Energy-intensive industries with more than 2,000 metric tonnes of emissions per A$1,000 (S$1,170) in revenue would pay for only 10 per cent of their emissions, while cleaner companies producing 1,500 to 2,000 tonnes would pay for 40 per cent of their emissions.

Wherever emissions trading schemes have been mooted, they are proving controversial. As part of its drive to lead the world in fighting climate change, the European Union has promised to cut emissions by 20 per cent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels. It has said it would deepen the cut to 30 per cent if other big economies like China and the US join the global reduction effort.

However, some members of the European Parliament are now having second thoughts in the face of industry protests. They are calling for a full impact assessment before cutting beyond 20 per cent. No wonder, then, that China is cautious. It does not want to cut its emissions to spite its economy.

The writer is an energy and security specialist at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

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