A code of ethics for nature appreciation and photography in Singapore
on the wild shores of singapore blog
Western and Eastern Marsh-harriers in Singapore?
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog
Still blue
on the annotated budak blog
Crocodile Post on STOMP
on the Hell Hath No Fury Like Nature Scorned blog
Seen on STOMP: Monkey romps
on the Lazy Lizard's Tales blog
Tips For Rainforest Hiking With Kids
on the Nature Escapes Blog
WWF 5 Mar 09;
Jakarta – 34 video cameras will follow around the Javan rhinos wherever they go, in an attempt to find out more about the world’s most endangered large mammal and help to prevent the species from going extinct.
With fewer than 60 Javan rhinos left in the world, the camera footage is a useful tool to get to know more about how these single-horned animals use their habitat and thus help to protect them.
Cameras installed in Indonesia`s Ujung Kulon National Park, home to around 50 of the animals, have already helped to reveal some previously unknown behaviours of the rare mammal, which can weigh 2,300kg and measure over 3m in length.
Now 34 cameras have been installed in all areas known as the rhino’s habitat blocks on the southern tip of Java and record the large creatures 24 hours a day.
“The project is helping the most endangered large mammal species,” said Adhi Rachmat Hariyadi who leads WWF-Indonesia's project in Ujung Kulon National Park. “We’ve already recorded video of nine individuals, including a mother and calf.”
The rhino, known for its shyness, has been in the limelight already in the past. One of the female Java rhinos made headlines across the world last year when she was captured wrecking one of the cameras , possibly out of fear that it may hurt her calves.
The project is run by WWF and the Ujung Kulon National Park.
Camera traps are fairly basic photographic equipment with infra red triggers which take a picture every time they sense movement in the forest. Extensive research is required to determine the best place to locate the camera, which is usually attached to a tree. Cameras are often located in remote and inaccessible parts of the forest where the creatures can be found.
Not enough calves
In locations like Ujung Kulon, a protective waterproof box is vital to ensure the camera can cope with the rain and humid conditions.
“Video serves as a positive tool to provide evidence on the urgency of saving this species, said Agus Priambudi, head of Ujung Kulon National Park. “It is important to be able to show the real condition of Javan rhinos to local and central governments.”
Of the two populations left, the Indonesian population in Ujung Kulon National Park has the better chance of survival since it is the only one that still has proof of breeding. But a healthy population should have several calves born each year. There has been no verifiable signs of Javan rhinos breeding in Cat Tien NP in Vietnam.
“We are concerned because we have not seen many very young calves for several years and worry that the population may be dependent on two or three breeding females,” Hariyadi said.
Conservationists want to identify another suitable site, where a second population could be established,
This will help diffuse the danger of all the animals living in one place, which is risky because of the danger of catastrophic events like disease, eruptions from nearby volcanoes and other unforeseen disasters,” said Susie Ellis, Executive Director of the International Rhino Foundation.
To prevent the rhino population from going extinct, the Government of Indonesia launched the rhino conservation strategy in 2007 entitled “Rhino Century Project” (Proyek Abad Badak) in partnership with WWF, International Rhino Foundation (IRF), Asian Rhino Project (ARP), Yayasan Badak Indonesia (YABI), and US Fish and Wildlife Service, to create an additional Javan rhino population by translocating a few individuals from Ujung Kulon to another suitable site.
New footage shows rare rhinos in Indonesia: WWF
AFP 5 Mar 09;
JAKARTA (AFP) — New infra-red footage released Thursday captures hitherto unseen images of elusive Javan rhinos, the most endangered mammal in the world with less than 60 individuals believed to remain alive.
The grainy video was released by environmental group WWF which has been monitoring the rhinos for about 20 years in the rugged Ujung Kulon National Park on the southern tip of Indonesia's Java island.
The clips show a mother and calf and a large male wallowing in various mud holes, revealing behaviour researchers had never seen before and helping with the identification of individual animals.
In one clip shot at night, a female rhino chases a wild pig away from her mud hole.
"These rhinos are very shy. In the last 20 years our team has only seen rhinos two or three times with their own eyes," WWF Asian rhino coordinator Christy Williams told AFP.
He said WWF had previously operated still cameras in the dense jungle but the rhinos -- which can weigh 2,300 kilogrammes (5,070 pounds) and measure over three metres (10 feet) in length -- were often frightened by the shutter and fled the area or attacked the cameras.
Under an expanded project to film the animals, 34 cameras with infra-red triggers which take video any time they sense movement in the forest have been painstakingly installed in likely rhino haunts.
Typically they are concealed in trees overlooking wallowing ponds and streams and most of the clips released Thursday show the animals wading or wallowing in mud.
"The videos are showing a lot of young animals but not many calves so even though there is evidence of breeding it is not enough," Williams said.
"A healthy rhino population should be increasing at about seven percent a year or about three or four calves, but here we are getting three or four calves every four or five years."
The WWF is identifying other suitable rhino habitat areas on Java with a view to resettling some individuals from Ujung Kulon to boost their chances of survival.
"This will help diffuse the danger of all the animals living in one place, which is risky because of the danger of catastrophic events like disease, eruptions from nearby volcanoes and other unforeseen disasters," International Rhino Foundation executive director Susie Ellis said.
Adhi Rachmat Hariyadi, who leads WWF-Indonesia's project in Ujung Kulon, said the camera project was helping "the most endangered large mammal species".
"Within a month since the new cameras were installed, we've already recorded video of nine individuals, including a mother and calf," he said.
"We are concerned because we have not seen many very young calves in Ujung Kulon National Park for several years and worry that the population may be dependent on two or three breeding females."
Rhino experts from around the world met in Indonesia earlier this week to discuss plans and progress on protecting rhinos.
"Action needs to be urgently taken because the rhino population has stagnated," Williams said.
Researchers said a smaller population of Javan rhinos in Vietnam's Cat Tien National Park no longer appeared to be breeding.
Yeo Han Kwang, Today Online 5 Mar 09;
The top picture shows the woods mentioned in Melissa Koh’s I Say piece, ‘Leave my green spot alone’ (Feb 27). I saw these trees for the first 18 years of my life — that picture was taken in 1996. I was dismayed when I saw bulldozers parked there, to clear space for a school which only took a quarter of the land they cleared.
The next picture shows what is there today. If it looks familiar, it is the place where a World War II bomb was found and detonated on Tuesday.
While I appreciate NParks’ efforts to make Singapore a little greener than some cities, there is no replacement for truly beautiful natural spots.
Shereena Sajeed, 938LIVE Channel NewsAsia 4 Mar 09;
SINGAPORE: The world's largest underground depot off Upper Paya Lebar Road is officially open. Built at a cost of S$295 million and taking five years to complete, Kim Chuan Depot is the nerve centre of the upcoming circle line.
Besides housing the operation control centre of the new line, the depot will provide maintenance and washing facilities for the Circle Line's 77 three-carriage driverless trains.
The Land Transport Authority, which handed over the depot to SMRT, said the facility occupies 11 hectares of land. It is four storeys high, but half of it is below ground.
Security features highly in the setup. Deputy director of SMRT's Station Operations, Mr Chia Chun Wah, explained: "For example, we have a detailed card access system (and) only officers that are trained are given the access. Other general staff are not allowed to enter the area at all.
"On top of that, we also put in some motion-detecting system. For example, if there's an intrusion by a visitor, a guest or even officers into a protected area, the alarm system will sound."
Going underground is a strategic move to free up the land above for future industrial developments of up to nine storeys high. But that does not mean space underground is not optimally used, said SMRT CEO Saw Phaik Hwa.
"This is a very compact system here. I think we have done a very good job to ensure that we make the best use of the space. I mean, if you see the spare parts area over there, I think we only have two men to handle the thousands and thousands of spare parts, because it's all computerised," she said.
Ms Saw added that more than 300 staff have been hired for the Circle Line so far. She expects to hire a hundred more within the next 12 months.
The first phase of the Circle Line is due to open on May 30, with five stations in operation. These are Bartley, Marymount, Serangoon, Bishan and Lorong Chuan. The remaining 24 stations will open from 2010.
- 938LIVE/so
Jessica Cheam, Straits Times 5 Mar 09;
A NEW local player has joined the race for alternative ways to produce energy.
Mainboard-listed ISDN Holdings has won rights to technology that can convert Singapore's waste into diesel fuel.
The engineering firm marked its first foray into the environmental business yesterday by announcing a new $1 million joint venture, W2Energy.
The new firm will build plants that can convert waste such as plastic, wood, waste oil and municipal solid waste into diesel fuel. ISDN Holdings will own 35 per cent of this company, with the rest owned by two German partners.
One of them is German scientist Christian Koch, who holds the intellectual property rights to the process that enables the conversion of waste into high-quality diesel, ISDN managing director Teo Cher Koon told The Straits Times.
W2Energy has a 20-year licence to use this technology to build plants that employ a catalyst to convert any waste containing hydrocarbons into synthetic diesel fuel. This fuel can be classified as biodiesel and will enjoy tax breaks and potential carbon credits, said Mr Teo.
A typical plant, which produces around 500 litres of diesel per hour, costs about 4 million to 5 million euros (S$7.8 million to S$9.7 million) to build.
Dr Koch has built such plants in countries such as Germany, the United States, Spain and Mexico.
Mr Teo said the plants are designed in such a way that they can tap into the energy they generate to operate.
W2Energy will provide the same technology and expertise to build these plants, and it will tap into ISDN's existing network to spread this technology to Asia, he added.
The firm will target waste management businesses and governments. 'This environmentally friendly technology enables countries to address their waste issues. Recycling waste such as plastic is a big challenge, and most countries just bury them,' said Mr Teo.
Market research by ISDN has shown an 'extremely encouraging' response, he added. 'There are many markets where there is a need for technologies like this which can convert waste into something useful.'
Within Asia, W2Energy is first targeting Singapore and China as places where it can build its plants, and will later move on to other countries in the region.
ISDN does not expect its new business to take long to generate revenue, said Mr Teo. 'It's no surprise we're going into this business. It is very promising.'
The firm recently reported a 13.2 per cent increase in revenue to $116 million for the 2008 financial year, with net profit climbing 21.8 per cent to $6.8 million. Its shares closed three cents down at 50 cents yesterday.
Elizabeth Wilmot, Straits Times 5 Mar 09;
IMAGINE a world in which waste is converted into clean energy, where sewage can be easily purified, and where tricycles are solar-powered.
These are just some of the 11 ideas for clean energy from companies invited to present such proposals to the Asia Forum for Clean Energy Financing held at the Grand Plaza Park Hotel.
Three of the 11 ideas were picked as winners.
Mr Tan Keng Hong, executive manager of Advon Singapore, one of the winning companies, outlined the firm's vision of a desalination system with a difference.
'This product is very innovative in the sense that it can have two functions at the same time - it can generate cooling and it can do water desalination,' he said. 'We are very excited. We feel there's potential and if everything is successful, I'm sure this product will sell.'
The one-day forum was organised by energy giants like the Climate Technology Initiative (CTI), part of the International Energy Agency.
The forum, backed by Spring Singapore, aimed to provide an opportunity for potential investors to be introduced to developers of clean energy projects from all over Asia.
Of the 60 proposals received, 11 were short-listed and presented to a panel of judges at the forum last night.
The three final winners will receive consultancy services from CTI's Private Financing Advisory Network for their clean energy proposals.
Spring's Victor Tay, who is director of transport, logistics, environmental and engineering services, biomedical and chemicals, said: 'Singapore has been actively looking at the environmental sector as an area for growth.
'We see a lot of small and medium-sized enterprises or entrepreneurs here who are looking towards innovative projects and ideas, and therefore this has become a facilitation platform where good ideas and good environmental technology projects are fleshed out.'
Another winner was Aequero, an advisory and asset management firm for clients involved in energy sectors.
Chief executive Duncan Ritchie said the first thing the firm would do was 'finalise the project development and build our first plant, probably in the Philippines or Thailand'.
He was undaunted by the implementation of his clean diesel project idea amid the crisis. 'I don't think any of the financial worries or concerns we have at the moment should derail us from the fundamental issue at hand, which is environmental concerns such as climate change, carbon emissions and so on.
Said Mr Tay: 'There are clearly many sectors not performing that well, but the environmental (sector) is one of those that is still growing. In fact, we project in the next five to 10 years, it will be a stellar performer, given there are limited natural fuel resources.'
The winners
The three winning clean energy project proposals:
# Full Advantage (Thailand)
To develop an integrated facility to harness energy from biogas, a by-product of organic matter breakdown, and biocompost, waste from a bioethanol plant and sugar mill.
# Aequero (Singapore and Hong Kong)
To use a catalytic process to convert plant organic waste and rubbish into clean diesel while producing no harmful gases.
# Advon Singapore (Singapore)
To develop a desalination system which can purify seawater or sewage water while performing a cooling function at the same time.
Batteries here low on mercury, not harmful to environment
Teh Jen Lee, The New Paper 5 Mar 09;
BATTERIES here do not need to be specially disposed of, unlike in other countries.
This is because the mercury content in them is minimal and won't harm the environment.
This is good news for Mr Jack Png, 48, a graphic designer, who is finally able to get rid of the more than 50 batteries that he and his wife had been collecting for the past few years.
They had been holding on to the used batteries out of concern that they may contribute to the landfill problem faced in other countries.
In countries that do not incinerate before landfilling, mercury and other hard metals may leak from used batteries into waterways and contaminate drinking water.
Mr Png called The New Paper recently and said: 'There used to be a company which collected used batteries for recycling in France. When I called the National Environment Agency (NEA), I was told there was a company that used to work with schools.
'But it was not viable to continue the programme, so they scrapped it. My neighbour also did some research and he told me that there was no place to throw batteries in Singapore.'
One concern was whether alkaline batteries, which contain mercury, could be incinerated along with normal trash.
A spokesman for NEA replied: 'The common household batteries used in Singapore are zinc carbon and alkaline batteries. The concern with the disposal of such batteries is mercury which may be added to the batteries during production.
'Since 1992, the NEA has mandated through legislation that household batteries sold in Singapore must comply with mercury content limits of not more than 0.001 per cent by weight of mercury in zinc-carbon batteries and not more than 0.025 per cent by weight of mercury in alkaline batteries.'
Lithium-ion batteries safe, too
As for lithium-ion batteries, they do not contain mercury.
Hence, all used household batteries can be disposed of together with other household waste as refuse at Singapore's waste-to-energy incineration plants.
These incineration plants are equipped with air pollution control equipment to remove pollutants and ensure that emissions meet the stipulated standards.
What about rechargeable batteries that are no longer effective?
The spokesman said: 'Household rechargeable batteries are mainly lithium-ion and nickel metal hydride types.
'They are mainly used in appliances like handphones and notebooks. Several brand owners such as Nokia, Motorola and Dell have instituted products - take-back schemes that consumers can make use of to return their unwanted products including the batteries for recycling.
'Alternatively, the used batteries can be disposed of with other refuse at our incineration plants which are equipped with pollution control systems.'
More links
Batteries: rechargeable or disposable better?
Economists sceptical about Obama's way to rejuvenate middle class
Bhagyashree Garekar, Straits Times 5 Mar 09;
In a choppy economy shedding jobs by the thousands, the Obama administration's push to create 'green jobs' that pay better, cannot be outsourced and help save the environment - all at the same time - has generated much excitement.
Some colleges have begun lining up new courses, anticipating a surge in the demand for a green workforce, and students are showing greater enthusiasm for careers as wind turbine technicians, solar panel installers, fuel cell engineers or energy efficiency experts.
United States President Barack Obama sparked the excitement when he announced last month that more than US$20 billion (S$31 billion) would be invested in a cleaner, greener economy. He also set up a task force, led by Vice-President Joe Biden, which placed green jobs at the centre of its plan to rejuvenate the middle class.
Green jobs - broadly defined - are those which provide products and services that use renewable energy resources, reduce pollution, and conserve energy and natural resources.
Electricians who install solar panels, plumbers who install solar water heaters, farmers engaged in biofuel production and construction workers who build energy-efficient green buildings, wind power farms, solar and wave energy farms qualify as green jobs, the White House said.
Such jobs, according to Mr Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, pay 10 per cent to 20 per cent more than similar work outside the field and cannot be outsourced.
Moreover, investment in creating a green job apparently gives more bang for the buck. A joint study by an influential Washington-based think-tank, the Centre for American Progress (CAP), and the University of Massachusetts found that an investment of US$100 billion in energy efficiency and renewable technology could create two million jobs - nearly four times as many jobs as spending the same amount within the oil industry.
Mr Bracken Hendricks, an analyst at the CAP, justified the expenditure.
'Making buildings more energy efficient, constructing mass transit lines, installing solar panels, growing biofuels - all this work must take place right here, in both urban and rural areas. These jobs are impossible to outsource,' he said.
Many economists, however, remain unconvinced that the green jobs will measure up to the hype.
'There is great scepticism on several counts among economists about the very nebulous idea of green jobs,' said Mr Ken Green, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute.
Investing money in green jobs means diverting money from elsewhere. The rosy scenarios on green jobs fail to account for job losses in mining, oil, transportation and other sectors through such policies that tax these sectors, he said.
Second, the claim that green jobs involve no outsourcing is a myth, say experts. The concrete, steel and silica needed for installing an insulated roof or constructing a windmill can be outsourced, said Ms Sophia Koropeckyj, a senior labour economist at Moody's economy.com.
To acquire all the materials from within the country would contravene trade laws and lead to protectionism from US trading partners at their end.
Conversely, all the jobs in the oil industry from the point gas is shipped in cannot be outsourced either, said Mr Green.
'It is also unclear how employing more people at higher wages that green jobs supposedly fetch is efficient or beneficent for the economy or the consumers,' he said.
Third, spending by the government is wasteful. The billions invested to create these jobs will be routed via the federal and state governments and some studies show that just about 18 per cent of such money typically goes into the projects, the rest being used to meet administrative costs.
Fourth, the time span to create green jobs is longer than envisaged by the Obama administration.
For instance, the planned 14,480km of new power lines to carry electricity generated in remote
areas will have to pass through private property, national parks and state parks, and obtaining consent for putting up the lines will not be easy.
That is a 10-year project, not one for creating jobs in two years, said Mr Green.
Ms Koropeckyj was doubtful that job losses could be stanched this year. Her research outfit, after taking stimulus spending into account, was projecting a net job loss this year and a recovery next year.
'The green part of the industry is a very small part. And the idea that the government can create green jobs to neutralise those that are being lost would be more palatable if it were over a longer time period,' she said.
bhagya@sph.com.sg
Examples of green jobs
BROADLY defined, they are jobs which provide products and services that use renewable energy resources, reduce pollution and conserve energy and natural resources. Electricians who install solar panels, plumbers who install solar water heaters, farmers engaged in biofuel production and construction workers who build energy-efficient green buildings, wind power farms, solar and wave energy farms qualify as green jobs.
According to Mr Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, such jobs pay 10 per cent to 20 per cent more than similar work outside the field and cannot be outsourced.
University of Adelaide, Science Alert 5 Mar 09;
University of Adelaide research has discovered that there are many more species of Australian lizards than previously thought, raising new questions about conservation and management of Australia's native reptiles.
PhD student Paul Oliver, from the University's School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, has done a detailed genetic study of the Australian gecko genus Diplodactylus and found more than twice the recognised number of gecko species, from 13 species to 29. This study was done in collaboration with the South Australian Museum and Western Australian Museum.
"Many of these species are externally very similar, leading to previous severe underestimation of true species diversity," says Mr Oliver.
"One of the major problems for biodiversity conservation and management is that many species remain undocumented.
"This problem is widely acknowledged to be dire among invertebrates and in developing countries.
"But in this group of vertebrates in a developed nation, which we thought we knew reasonably well, we found more than half the species were unrecognised."
Mr Oliver says this has great significance for conservation. For instance, what was thought to be a single very widespread species of gecko has turned out to be eight or nine separate species with much narrower, more restricted habitats and possibly much more vulnerable to environmental change, he says.
"This completely changes how we look at conservation management of these species," he says.
"Even at just the basic inventory level, this shows that there is a lot of work still to be done. Vertebrate taxonomy clearly remains far from complete with many species still to be discovered. This will require detailed genetic and morphological work, using integrated data from multiple sources. It will require considerable effort and expense but with potentially rich returns."
A paper on this study `Cryptic diversity in vertebrates: molecular data doubles estimates of species diversity in a radiation of Australian lizards (Diplodactylus, Gekkota)' is published online in Proceedings of the Royal Society: B.
Bernama 4 Mar 09;
KUCHING, March 4 (Bernama) -- Sarawak is carrying out a population census on the Orang Utan, or 'the wild man of the forest in Borneo', to determine their number in the state, Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) Managing Director and CEO Datuk Len Talif Salleh said today.
He said it was an initiative taken by SFC.
"It's time to compile an inventory of the Orang Utan population in the state. It's population has shown an increase as conservation and rehabilitation programmes initiated and carried by Sarawak, Sabah, and Indonesia to provide specific habitat for Orang Utan, prove to be a success," he told reporters here today.
Earlier, he attended the launching of a "Seminar of Biodiversity of Eastern Lanjak Entimau-Hidden Jewel of Sarawak' by State Assistant Minister of Planning and Resources Management Mohamad Naroden Majais here.
The state has an estimated Orang Utan population of 2,000, where the biggest concentration of the Orang Utan population is the Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary (LEWS).
On allegations that Sarawak was allowing the clearing of forests for logging and oil palm cultivation, which affected the Orang Utan's habitat, Len dismissed them as baseless accusations.
He said the state had declared the Orang Utan habitats as national parks, apart from endorsing the species as fully protected under the Sarawak Forestry Ordinance.
"Development efforts, either logging or oil palm plantation, in the state have never destroyed the Orang Utan's habitat. The state government has declared substantial areas as Orang Hutan's habitat," he said.
Meanwhile, Len said the SFC was investigating reports that turtle eggs were served at a function last Saturday despite the government's ban on its consumption in the hope of conserving and protecting the endangered reptile.
"We started the investigation on Monday. At this point in time, I don't want to say anything until the investigation is complete. We will take action according to Sarawak's Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1998, where all marine turtles and their eggs are totally protected.
"It is an offence to hunt, kill, capture, and sell the protected animals or to possess any of their parts," he said.
-- BERNAMA
Manado to Host First Ocean Forum
Fidelis E. Satriastanti, Jakarta Globe 5 Mar 09;
Up to 15,000 people from 121 countries will soon descend on the North Sulawesi provincial capital of Manado to attend the world’s first climate change forum on oceans.
The World Ocean Conference along with the Coral Triangle Initiative will be held from May 11 to 15 and are expected to give birth to the Manado Ocean Declaration, a definitive statement on oceans and climate change.
“We hope MOD will become for oceans what REDD is for forests,” said Indroyono Soesilo, deputy for the National Conference Committee.
“Where REDD involves carbon trading based on reducing carbon through better forestry management, MOD will do the same through, for example, the preservation of coral reefs,”
Indroyono said.
However, he pointed out that this conference is only the first step toward getting MOD included in the Copenhagen conference on climate change later in the year.
“We need international support, especially from the United Nations Environment Program, and the conference is the first initiative heading us in that direction,” he said.
MOD, he said, would focus on four basic discussions — the impact of climate change on the ocean, the role of the oceans in regulating global climate change, adaptation and mitigation, and opportunities for regional and international cooperation.
Kuki Soejachmoen, executive director of Pelangi Foundation, a nongovernmental organization for climate change issues, while agreeing that marine ecosystems have greater influence on the environment, felt that expectations for the conference were perhaps set too high, and thought there would be international resistance to carbon trading and oceans.
“Yes, oceans do absorb carbon dioxide, but how long they keep it there is still scientifically questionable,” Kuki said.
She said even though there were many carbon trading schemes, such as REDD, the world was still waiting for definitive proof that these schemes actually worked.
“Until now, it’s not certain how much forest can contain how much carbon,” she said. “And oceans are much more dynamic and less understood than forests with regard to carbon.”
Last month, Freddy Numberi, the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, said the government should push for the inclusion of the Coral Triangle Initiative in the carbon trading scheme under the clean development mechanism.
“We are hoping that in the long term, CTI can be included for clean development mechanism which is why we need to move right now in preserving our coastal areas so we can get money from it,” he said.
CTI was an Indonesian initiative introduced by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the APEC leader’s meeting in September 2007.
The coral triangle covers 75,000 square meters and spans six countries and is considered home to the world’s most abundant variety of sea life.
David Fogarty, PlanetArk 5 Mar 09;
SINGAPORE - Indonesia has applied to join a World Bank program that supports developing nations' efforts to fight deforestation and help them earn cash through the sale of tradable carbon credits.
The Bank's $350 million Forest Carbon Partnership Facility aims to support developing states design and create projects under a U.N.-backed scheme that could eventually earn poorer nations billions of dollars a year by protecting their forests.
A Bank official in Jakarta said on Wednesday the Indonesian government this week submitted a lengthy submission to apply to join the Bank's partnership.
The Bank backs the United Nations' forest carbon scheme called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, or REDD, which the U.N. hopes to formally bring into a broader climate pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol from 2013.
Guyana and Panama have already applied to join the Bank's program but Indonesia is by far the largest to date and among the most crucial nations given the size of the country's remaining forests as well as the rapid rate at which they have been lost.
Indonesia is developing separate REDD regulations and is expected to issue them by mid-year, a top government official has said. About 20 REDD schemes are at various stages of development in Indonesia, the Bank has said, and has become a leader in developing rules governing the scheme.
SLASH AND BURN
Slash-and-burn farming and clearing for oil palm and other plantations have triggered vast fires in Indonesia, particularly on peat land, accelerating the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, scientists say.
Scientists say deforestation is responsible for 20 percent of mankind's greenhouse gas emissions.
The submission says between 1997 and 2000, Indonesia's deforestation rate was 2.8 million hectares per year, falling to 1.2 million hectares in 2000 to 2005.
It says the main drivers are extensive forest harvesting by pulp, paper and palm oil firms, expansion into rainforests and peat land by agriculture and forest plantations as well as encroachment by low-income communities into forest lands.
It also says REDD could be a major driver for investment.
"REDD-related incomes could also support a substantial investment in peat land restoration and broadly-based, rural and village level forest enterprises.
"Such an investment could result in alternative and sustainable livelihoods for many of Indonesia's 10 million lowest income families who currently survive on uncontrolled harvesting of forest and expansion of slash and burn agriculture."
The submission also explores the cost competitiveness of REDD versus palm oil and timber plantations.
It says the opportunity cost for deforestation for palm oil on degraded forest land on mineral soil was $3,963 a hectare, while clearing that land would release 184 tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent per hectare.
Carbon credits would have to be priced at $21.54 (27 euros) a tonne to be competitive to deter such plantations.
By comparison, the costs for planting on carbon-rich peatland were $4,265 per ha, while credits would only be $4.19 (5.25 euros) a tonne because emissions from peatland would release 1,018 tonnes of CO2-equivalent per hectare if cleared.
(Editing by Sue Thomas)
Andy Sullivan, PlanetArk 5 Mar 09;
REEDVILLE - It doesn't look like a disaster area.
Crab boats dart back and forth on this inlet of the Chesapeake Bay as they have for generations. On the shore, million-dollar vacation homes catch the morning sun.
But watermen aren't pulling blue crabs out of the Bay this winter. After years of decline, the U.S. Commerce Department declared the fishery a federal disaster last September and Maryland and Virginia shut it down until spring.
It was a symbolic as well as an economic blow for the men who harvest the region's defining culinary treat.
Watermen faced a stark choice: Stay ashore until March, or take a state job pulling abandoned crab traps and other junk from the bottom of the Bay.
So on this frigid winter morning, Spencer Headley is on cleanup duty, a floating janitor on one of the country's most intractably polluted bodies of water.
It's decent money -- $300 a day plus expenses -- and you can't beat those government hours. But Headley, 32, wonders why he must now rely on the state rather than the water for his livelihood.
"We're not trying to tear the Bay up. We're just trying to make a living off a fishery that's been going for more than 100 years," he says, one eye on his sonar display.
"Why all of a sudden is it a disaster?"
STEADY STREAM OF POLLUTANTS
That disaster has been steadily building since Europeans first mapped the Bay's shores 400 years ago.
Stretching roughly 200 miles from northern Maryland to southern Virginia, the Chesapeake is the largest estuary in the United States and for hundreds of years was one of its most productive fisheries, yielding shad, sturgeon, oysters and baitfish. As recently as 1993, the Bay accounted for about half of the country's blue crab harvest.
But the fishery has declined as the region has boomed. Roughly 16.6 million people live in its watershed, which stretches as far as upstate New York, and an average of 439 more move to the region each day. That means more houses and more traffic as urban sprawl eats up forests and farmland.
The impact of this growth can be seen along Sligo Creek, which draws herons and foxes to its banks as it winds through the densely packed suburbs northeast of Washington, D.C.
Along the way, the creek picks up a steady stream of pollutants: lawn fertilizer, pet feces, motor oil and silt, washing off the parking lots and other hard surfaces that cover 35 percent of its 12-square-mile watershed.
Local activist Bruce Sidwell points out a sewer line that runs across the creek, exposed by years of erosion. It could be leaking raw sewage before long.
Sidwell's grass-roots group reports polluters and organizes litter pickups, and he's eager to showcase the filtering pools that help clean the creek's upper reaches.
But water quality remains poor and is not likely to improve without substantial changes in the landscape, Sidwell says.
"It would take quite an effort to get it up to 'fair' water quality," he says.
On its journey to the Chesapeake, water from Sligo Creek mingles with runoff from farms and sewage treatment plans.
Nitrogen and phosphorus in that runoff feed massive algae blooms that suck oxygen out of the water each summer, killing clams and worms that provide the blue crab with food and aquatic grasses that give it shelter.
Last year, the "dead zone" covered 40 percent of the Bay.
Not surprisingly, crabs have suffered. The 2007 catch was the worst in recorded history, and last year the catch was even worse in Virginia and only slightly better in Maryland.
With fewer crabs in the Bay, watermen now routinely catch far more than the 46 percent that scientists say is the upper limit to maintain a healthy population.
Observers say time is running out to reverse the damage.
"The Bay is now degraded to the point that its basic ability to withstand even low levels of pollution is in jeopardy," said Naval Academy professor Howard Ernst, an expert on the restoration effort.
A 25-year, $6 billion cleanup effort by state governments and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has come under widespread criticism as it has repeatedly fallen short of its stated goals. Officials also overstated their success to keep funding in place.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an environmental group, sued the EPA last month to force it to set a firm cap on pollutants. The group is heartened that new EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has promised to make the Bay cleanup a priority.
"We certainly are hearing the right words," said foundation president Will Baker. "But to be honest, we have heard those words for 30, 35 years and what we need to see is action."
'GRASS THAT'S PAINTED ON'
Headley has seen the changes up close. He's pulled up traps filled with dead crabs, suffocated in oxygen-depleted water. He's seen the state reduce the number of traps he's allowed to drop in the water from 500 to 350.
And he's seen mansions sprout along the shoreline, their lawns fertilized with the very chemicals that are choking the Bay. "Grass as green as you've ever seen in your life, looks like it's painted on," he says.
Easing his 46-foot (14 meter) Chesapeake Bay Deadrise back to the dock, Headley passes rusted shacks and crumbling chimneys, the ruins of once-thriving oyster and baitfish industries.
The crab fishery, too, is a shadow of its former self, employing 40 percent fewer jobs than it did a decade ago.
There are only a handful of crabbers working out of Reedville now, Headley says, but plenty of people are moving to town to enjoy the scenery.
Headley knows everybody on the water, but sometimes when he comes ashore he doesn't recognize a soul. A way of life is dying.
(Editing by Alan Elsner)
BBC News 4 Mar 09;
Climate change is already having an impact on European bird species, according to British scientists.
Details of the study by an international team of researchers have been published in the journal Plos One.
Some birds are expected to do well as temperatures rise, but these are in the minority, the researchers write.
"Overall, the trend is towards net loss," said a spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), which contributed to the study.
Strong Link
The researchers found birds that are expected to do well as temperatures rise had indeed increased in number since the 1980s.
But some 75% of species studied by the researchers had declined in the same period.
The study compared the change in population numbers of bird species over the last two decades with the projected change in their ranges and found a strong link.
These shifts in species territory are thought to be associated with climate change.
Of the 122 species included in the study (out of 526 species that nest in Europe), 30 are projected to increase their range, while the remaining 92 species are anticipated to experience a contraction in their territory.
Rising temperatures
The latter group includes the lapwing, currently found throughout the UK as well as much of western Europe. That however, is predicted to change with the Lapwing disappearing from areas of southern Europe as temperatures change.
The scientists developed a measure, which they call the climate change indicator, to describe how changes in temperature are affecting species.
Rising temperatures are likely to have a positive effect on some species, said co-author Dr Stephen Willis, from Durham University. This means some birds are likely to extend their ranges north.
That means some mainland species could colonise the British Isles if they continue to respond to climatic warming in the way the models predict, and in the absence of other barriers such as the ability to disperse and the lack of suitable habitat.
Extinction
The Cirl bunting, for example, already has a small presence in the UK, in the south west but as the map above shows, is projected to spread much further across the country.
These potential colonists include the great reed warbler, the subalpine warbler and the bee-eater.
One UK species, the Scottish crossbill, could face extinction, the RSPB warned. The crossbill's range is already restricted to the Caledonian pine forests of Scotland.
"We need to redouble our efforts," said the RSPB spokesman, "for a G8 nation to lose a species is shameful."
The spokesman said preserving pine forests could be crucial to the survival of the crossbill.
The study was the work of researchers from Durham University, Cambridge University, the RSPB, the European Bird Census Council, the Czech Society for Ornithology, the French National Museum of Natural History and Statistics Netherlands.
Climate change bad news for most birds: study
Yahoo News 4 Mar 09;
PARIS (AFP) – Birds in Europe are already feeling the heat from climate change, with three species suffering reduced ranges or population for every one that benefits from warming, said a study published Wednesday.
Researchers found a strong match between data collected over decades from a continent-wide monitoring network and computer models forecasting the impact of global warming.
"Although we have only a very small actual rise in global average temperatures, it is staggering to realise how much change we are noticing in wildlife populations," said lead author Richard Gregory of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in Britain.
"If we don't take our foot off the gas now, our indicator shows that there will be many much worse effects to come."
Any increase in Earth's average temperature above 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial times "will create global havoc" for birds and other wildlife, he said in a press statement.
The study, published in the online journal PLoS ONE, analysed data for 122 wild bird species, more than a fifth of the 526 species known to nest in Europe.
"We found that the number being negatively impacted was nearly three times greater than that benefit from climate change," said co-author Frederic Jiguet, a research at France's National Museum of Natural History.
The researchers created the first continent-wide indicator of climate change impact on wildlife.
"Our indicator is the biodiversity equivalent of the FTSE stock exchange, only instead of summarising the changing fortunes of businesses, it summarises how biodiversity is changing due to climate change," said Stephen Willis of Durham University.
Birds that were predicted to fare well under global warming have expanded their habitats, and those predicted to have done badly declined over the last two decades, he said.
The species that have thrived due to climate change include bee-eater, cirl bunting, hoopoe, golden oriole, goldfinch, collared dove, and four species of warbler: Cetti's, great reed, Sardinian and subalpine.
Those hit hardest by rising temperatures include snipe, meadow pipit, brambling, willow tit, lapwing, thrush nightingale, wood warbler, nutcracker, northern wheatear, and lesser spotted woodpecker.
Valerie Elliott, The Times Online 4 Mar 09:
The survival of honeybees is under threat from an unknown army of 20,000 beekeepers who keep hives as a hobby.
In a hard-hitting report today, the National Audit Office (NAO) suggests that unless these amateurs are identified and taught how to spot disease in bees, the country’s food production capacity will be reduced.
The urgency is reinforced by the growing popularity of the pastime, with about 3,200 people a year investing in safety suits and veiled helmets.
The pollination of fruit, vegetables and other crops is valued at almost £200 million a year and the biggest beneficiaries are English apples, which are worth £104 million annually to the national economy.
Figures released by the audit office show that 90 per cent of English apple production relies on honeybees. Unless government inspectors find out who keeps bees, and where, they will be unable to prevent the further destruction of bees.
The plight of honeybees was part of an investigation into whether the handling of animal disease control budgets by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs represented value for money.
About 30 per cent of colonies were lost to disease during the 2007-08 winter and the endemic varroa parasite now affects 95 per cent of hives. There are an estimated 274,000 colonies compared with 400,000 in 1960.
The audit office is concerned, however, that the control of varroa is being hampered by the lack of colony inspections by the National Bee Unit, part of Defra. It is also unhappy that control efforts to date have failed to prevent varroa, which was not seen in Britain before 1992, from becoming endemic in 2006.
The NAO suggests a new campaign by inspectors to persuade all beekeepers to join a national register. So far only 17,000 have done so. If that fails, it suggests that ministers should examine the viability of a compulsory scheme, similar to those in Belgium, France and New Zealand. It is also anxious that the Government should organise training for beekeepers to help them to spot signs of disease and to notify inspectors who can then prevent further loss of colonies.
At present inspectors identify about 80 per cent of hives with disease. Only a fifth of keepers report possible disease problems in their own hives.
Another problem highlighted by the report is that the varroa mite, which feeds on bees and spreads viruses, is resistant to treatments that tackle infestation.
Some beekeepers are therefore buying supplies of oxalic acid via the internet. Its use is widespread within the European Union but is not licensed in Britain. Enforcement authorities have turned a blind eye to this unlawful activity because they recognise that the substance needs to be approved for use.
There are concerns that if keepers dilute the crystals with excessive water it may cause a risk to human health and a burning sensation to the eyes or skin.
Edward Leigh, the Conservative MP and chairman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, is particularly concerned that disease controls are being undermined by the enormous number of beekeepers unknown to the Government.
“Action to stem the very high losses of honeybees in recent years crucially depends on a regime of comprehensive inspections and treatment of colonies. At the moment, this isn’t being done,” he said.
In January Hilary Benn, the Rural Affairs Secretary, announced an extra £4.3 million to be spent over the next five years on bee protection and disease research.
Martin Smith, the chairman of the British Beekeepers’ Association, who keeps eight colonies in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, said he was concerned that the extra money would be spent on leaflets and campaigns to persuade beekeepers to join the national register instead of vital scientific research into the underlying causes of the decline in colonies.
Tim Lenton, BBC Green Room 4 Mar 09;
Climate change is a massive problem that needs big and bold solutions, says Professor Tim Lenton. In this week's Green Room, he outlines the reasons why "geo-engineering" projects, such as reflecting sunlight back into space, could help win the battle against dangerous climate change.
The climate is undoubtedly changing, and it is changing faster than many scientists thought it would, especially in the Arctic.
Regardless of the ineffectual Kyoto Protocol, carbon dioxide emissions from human activities increased by 3% per year during 2000-2006.
Even if we can globally get our act together and reduce CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050, we are still heading for at least a 2C (3.6F) warmer world.
This may be too much for elements of the climate system, including the Arctic sea ice and Greenland ice sheet, which could pass a tipping point on the way there.
The resulting climate change may well be "dangerous"; and if so, mitigation alone cannot avoid it.
But reducing CO2 emissions is not the only way. There are two "geo-engineering" approaches that could complement it: reflecting more sunlight back to space, or actively removing CO2 from the atmosphere.
Both aim to cool the planet; but one tackles the symptoms (higher temperatures) while the other, like mitigation, addresses the underlying cause (elevated CO2 concentrations).
But do these approaches really offer a silver bullet to solve the climate problem?
From mirrors in space to reflective roofs on our homes, reducing the amount of sunlight the Earth absorbs could counteract (to varying degrees) the extra heat radiation trapped by the increasing greenhouse effect.
For a given option, the strength of the cooling effect is determined by the change in reflectivity applied, the area it is applied over, and the altitude of application.
Air-cooled
Among the most potent options is injecting tiny sulphur particles into the stratosphere to scatter more sunlight.
In principle, this could counteract the projected warming resulting from the future concentrations of atmospheric CO2 up to at least twice the pre-industrial level.
Such options might be developed within decades, and if they are deployed, their cooling effect would be very fast acting.
However, the cooling effect will also be short-lived, so if activities start on a global scale (which is necessary for them to be effective), there will need to be a commitment to maintain them for many centuries.
Stopping the activity would result in dangerously rapid climate warming, far worse than the steadier warming they were designed to counteract.
In effect, such technologies imply an unprecedented duration and level of international co-operation to maintain them.
Who today is willing to commit future generations to collectively controlling the planetary thermostat?
There are also undesirable side effects of this kind of medicine.
We know from past volcanic eruptions that reducing incoming sunlight weakens the water cycle, promoting drought in regions including India and the Sahel in northern Africa.
Growing attraction
So, what about the other geo-engineering approach?
From planting trees or fertilising the ocean to chemical "scrubbing", there are several ways of creating carbon "sinks" to remove CO2 from the air.
In general, these options act more slowly and progressively than those that reflect sunlight.
CO2 removal activity has to be ramped up and maintained for several decades (and in some cases centuries) for it to have a significant effect on atmospheric CO2 and climate.
For it to be truly effective, the carbon must be transferred to a long-lived reservoir such as charcoal in soil, or geological storage for liquid CO2.
The proposals vary greatly in their potential effectiveness, which of course also depends on the area or scale of application.
Perhaps the most potent option, on the century timescale at least, is to grow plants to get CO2 out of the air and then convert their biomass to both charcoal and (bio)fuels.
The charcoal would be added to soil as "biochar" and the fuels used for combustion, but ideally with capture of the CO2 and transfer to geological reserves.
The attraction of such an approach is that it produces energy and heat as well as agricultural benefits, and might (according to some estimates) generate revenue.
Most, if not all, other geo-engineering schemes will cost money and thus rely on willingness to pay.
The climate side-effects of creating carbon sinks are generally less than for sunlight reflection options, but the socio-economic side effects may be considerable.
Follow the money
So where do we go next? Many fear that even discussing geo-engineering options undermines mitigation efforts.
But mitigation alone may not be able to avoid dangerous climate change, so we must consider what other activities could complement it.
There is no simple silver bullet among the geo-engineering options, but some could make an invaluable contribution.
Potent and rapidly deployable sunlight reflection options could be held in reserve as an emergency response should we get some early warning of approaching tipping points.
The creation of significant CO2 sinks is just as valid as reducing the sources of the greenhouse gas, because the atmosphere cannot tell the difference.
Together, they give the best chance to stabilise atmospheric CO2 and ultimately reduce it.
But economic assessment of the various geo-engineering options is badly needed, because cost will likely determine which, if any, are deployed.
Ultimately climate change is a problem of risk management. There is already a substantial risk of dangerous impacts, even if we do start meaningful global mitigation of CO2 emissions.
Given this context we must weigh up the balance of risks of using, or not using, geo-engineering.
Professor Tim Lenton is an Earth system scientist based in the School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website
Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 5 Mar 09;
OSLO - Industrialized nations have added greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the annual totals of France or Australia to a 1990 baseline against which cuts required by U.N. climate treaties are measured.
Emissions reported by 34 nations for the 1990 base year that underpins U.N. efforts to rein in global warming have risen 3.5 percent overall to 17.6 billion tons in the most recent annual data from 17.0 billion in the first U.N. compilation in 1996, a Reuters survey showed on Wednesday.
That difference -- adding about 600 million tons of gases emitted mainly by burning fossil fuels to the problem -- is more than the current annual emissions of countries such as Italy, Australia or France.
The biggest rises have been by the United States and Russia.
Governments refine their emissions counts year by year, in some cases adding new gas sources. In many cases revisions to the 1990 baseline also add to emissions in subsequent years, swelling totals that are contributing to warm the planet.
"One possible reason for a small upward trend could be the permanent improvement in the completeness of national greenhouse gas inventories," said Sergey Kononov, head of the unit at the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat that compiles emissions data.
Eighteen nations that submitted data in 1996 have since revised up their 1990 totals, while 16 have revised down, according to the Reuters survey.
Kononov saw no sign that countries were tampering with the data -- a higher 1990 baseline might make it easier to make "cuts" and would undermine U.N. treaties and faith in carbon markets.
OBAMA CUTS
"To our knowledge, there has been no reason for such a worry," he told Reuters. "In general, the degree of variation seems to be in line with the usual level of uncertainties in greenhouse gas inventories."
President Barack Obama wants to cut U.S. emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020. U.S. officials say revisions to 1990 have also swollen numbers for subsequent years, making cuts no easier to achieve.
"Any additions or changes are always made going back to 1990 wherever possible," said Perry Lindstrom of the U.S. Energy Information Agency.
He said one tiny addition, for instance, was emissions from plastics burned to generate energy from municipal waste that were not estimated for the original data in the mid-1990s.
The United States, the top emitter behind China according to many experts, has revised up its 1990 emissions by 290 million tons to 6.1 billion since the mid-1990s. U.S. emissions were up 14.4 percent since 1990 in 2006.
About 190 nations have agreed to work out a new U.N. climate treaty in December in Copenhagen to step up a fight against warming that the U.N. Climate Panel says will bring more heat waves, droughts, floods and rising seas.
Under the U.N.'s existing Kyoto Protocol, almost all developed nations have promised to curb emissions by an average of at least 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.
Still depressed by the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, emissions by all industrialized nations were 4.7 percent below the 1990 benchmark in 2006, the last year for which data is available.
After the United States, Russia has made an upwards revision of about 250 million tons for 1990, the last year of smokestack industry under communist rule. Other big upwards revisions include France and Japan. Among big downwards revisions are Australia, Ireland and Italy.
Michael Szabo, PlanetArk 5 Mar 09;
LONDON - Exchange-traded volumes for European Union emissions permits and Kyoto Protocol carbon offsets traded so far in 2009 are double last year's average, data from the exchanges showed.
Nearly 700 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), or more than the annual CO2 emissions of Canada, were traded over six European exchanges in February, according to the data.
At a weighted average price of 9.68 euros per metric ton, this represents a trade value of 6.71 billion euros ($8.49 billion).
The volumes include EU Allowances (EUAs), the permits traded under the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme, and Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs), the project-based carbon offsets issued by the United Nations.
February's volumes were 61 percent above the 429.4 million metric tons traded in January, and 147 percent more than the monthly average of 280.6 million metric tons in 2008.
The bulk of the trading was done on London's European Climate Exchange, owned by Climate Exchange plc, and Paris' BlueNext, a joint venture between NYSE Euronext and Caisse des Depots.
Other major exchanges that trade EUAs and CERs include Nord Pool, EEX, Climex and NYMEX's Green Exchange.
February saw a surge in trading as cash-strapped firms seeking to raise funds in the short-term dumped 2008 EUAs ahead of the issuance of 2009 permits, which carried a February 28 deadline.
As a result, spot trading was heavy at 235 million metric tons, or one third of exchange volumes. This compares to a 2008 average of around 10 percent of volumes made up by spot trading.
(Editing by William Hardy)
Yahoo News 4 Mar 09;
GENEVA (AFP) – Four international agencies on Wednesday urged the motor industry and governments to adopt global fuel economy targets that would cut automotive greenhouse emissions by half by 2050.
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP), International Energy Agency, International Transport Forum and motoring's FIA Foundation said such a target for cars should be tied to packages designed to stimulate economic recovery in the motor industry.
"We have to find ways to reconcile legitimate aspirations for mobility, an ambitious reduction in CO2 from cars worldwide and global economic recovery," said Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the IEA, on the sidelines of the Geneva Motor Show.
"In confronting the economic recession this is a real opportunity for governments to combine support for the auto industry with measures to achieve environmental and policy goals," he added.
The world car fleet is expected to triple by 2050, especially in developing countries.
That raises potentially serious consequences for climate change unless more is done to control transport emissions and improve fuel consumption per kilometre, according to the agencies launching the lobbying initiative.
A report by the "50 by 50" Global Fuel Economy Initiative said the target could save the equivalent of about half the European Union's annual emissions -- about six billion barrels of oil and two gigatonnes of carbon dioxide a year.
The target could be achieved progressively with existing technologies such as more economical engines and more efficient components, it added.
"We're not talking about the pipe-dreams that some car companies have sold us for 10 or 20 years now while opposing any kind of fuel efficiency standards through government regulatory frameworks," said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.
Halve emissions from cars by 2050, auto industry told
Consortium claims '50 by 50' initiative could save equivalent of half EU's current C0² emissions
David Gow, guardian.co.uk 4 Mar 09;
The global auto industry and governments were today set a target of halving emissions from cars by 2050 by an international agency consortium including the UN.
The number of cars on the world's roads is forecast to have tripled by then, as billions in developing countries take to the roads. The aim of the "50 by 50" initiative, launched at the annual motor show in Geneva, is to offset that growth with improved fuel efficiency to stabilise greenhouse gas emissions at their current levels.
"We're not saying that nobody can have a car," said Jack Short, secretary general of the International Transport Forum, one of the forum members.
"We have not set a ceiling here, but a floor," added Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme.
Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the International Energy Agency, said the target could be achieved with existing technologies, including electric vehicles, hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell-powered cars, as well as with more fuel-efficient internal combustion engines.
The consortium is already in talks with governments and auto industry executives about its initiative which, it says, should be started at once — and be integrated into financial support for the ailing industry.
"This is a building-block towards making the transport sector part of the solution towards a low-carbon economy," Short said. "The era of cheap oil is simply over and government policy to accommodate this change must include setting fuel standards," added Tanaka, saying transport accounted for a quarter of global emissions.
The consortium, which also includes the FIA Foundation, claims the programme could save 6bn barrels of oil and 2 gigatonnes of CO² a year, equivalent to half the total current emissions of the EU.
Based on emission levels in new cars built in 2005, the scheme sets interim targets to be achieved by 2020 and 2030 in line with those set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It comes with the claim that it could cut global oil import bills by $300bn-plus a year by 2025 and by $600bn by 2050.
The protagonists insisted that it should begin now because of the crisis in the car industry, not despite it. "More than ever, clear signals are needed regarding where vehicle designs and markets should be heading over the coming decades," they said.
But Tanaka cautioned that electric cars fuelled by power from old-style coal-fired plants made no sense or contribution to cutting emissions. "We have first to de-carbonise the power sector and then use new technologies that make a genuine difference." Steiner added: "We need a de-coupling of the growth of traffic from emissions."
The initiative came just hours after Fiat launched a new internal combustion engine, both petrol and diesel, that, it claimed, could cut emissions by at least 10percent and produce 10percent more power. The "Multiair" engine, to be used initially in Alfa Romeo's Mito supermini car, directly controls air through the intake engine valves.
Alfredo Altavilla, head of Fiat Powertrain Technologies, said the turbo version in small cars could be 25% more fuel-efficient and reduce emissions by the same proportion — making the Mito one of the first models to emit less than 80g per km.
He took a swipe at rival manufacturers such as Toyota, which have staked huge investments in hybrids, electric vehicles and alternative fuels. "When we have reached, say, 2020 or 2025 and the evolution of the internal combustion engine is exhausted then you could move to electric cars if needed.
It makes no sense to put on the market engines which cost ¤5000-7000 more than conventional engines and hoping someone will subsidise these exotic technologies. What we're doing is reducing consumption and emissions but remaining affordable." But he refused to set a price for the new engine or the car.
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