Best of our wild blogs: 11 May 09

Oil spill off Sentosa?
on the Lizard's Tales blog

Pulau Hantu
on the brand new nature calls blog

Predawn at Hantu reefs
on the wonderful creation blog and on the psychedelic nature blog and on the wild shores of singapore blog with sexy mangroves on the wall

Man fishing illegally at Labrador beach
on the Lazy Lizard's Tales blog

Snake Tales
on the My Itchy Fingers blog

Chek Jawa Walk
an account by a young participant on the Cicada Tree Eco-Place blog

Launch of Cicada Tree Website
on the Cicada Tree Eco-Place blog and on the wild shores of singapore blog

Uninvited guest on Vesak Day: Bats
on the Lazy Lizard's Tales blog

Munia eating grass seeds II
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Yellow-vented Flowerpecker eating the Indian cherry
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

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New book on migratory birds out in September

Ang Yiying, Straits Times 11 May 09;

BIRD watchers at the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, a haven for migratory birds, will have a reference guide to turn to by September.

The guidebook will feature 70 species of such birds, and give information on their migration patterns and the routes they take.

News of the book came yesterday, World Migratory Bird Day, marked on the second weekend of May each year. The book is the product of research done by the National Parks Board (NParks), which manages Sungei Buloh, and a donation of US$10,000 (S$14,730) from Grand Hyatt Singapore hotel.

NParks director of conservation Wong Tuan Wah said the book will have international appeal, as the featured birds come from all over the world.

Retired civil servant Wong Kum Sang, 62, and student Brandon Chia, 15, volunteer guides at Sungei Buloh who have seen sample pages of the book, say its detailed information sets it apart from existing guidebooks.

The price of the book, to have a first print run of 2,000 copies, has not yet been set.

NParks and Grand Hyatt have also organised a photography competition on the flora and fauna at Sungei Buloh. Visit www.nparks.gov.sg/photo competition for more information.

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Electric City: Singapore giving electric vehicles a go

Straits Times 11 May 09;

AFTER deliberating for more than 10 years, Singapore has decided to give electric vehicles (EVs) a go. The Government has said it will set aside $20 million for a trial that will put the first EVs on the roads here from next year.

The three-year programme will not only test the robustness of EVs, it will explore how EV owners can sell back unused power to the electricity grid; it will also measure the carbon footprint EVs leave behind. Senior Correspondent Christopher Tan reports

GETTING STARTED: The first electric cars from mainstream manufacturers could arrive by January 2011. Models from Nissan and Renault are likely to be the first, followed by choices from several other major manufacturers after 2012. Those who are picky about design and performance need not fret. Not all electric cars are geeky transport pods that seat only two and max out at 90kmh.

The Tesla Model S (above) is a high-performance saloon that seats five and has a huge boot. It hits 100kmh in under six seconds and covers 480km on a single charge. Right-hand-drive models are expected in two years.

Estimated price: $190,000 on the road before the green rebate.

DRIVING: An electric car operates pretty much like a petrol-powered car, except that, instead of cranking it up, you just switch it on. It is almost silent on the go and when idling, has no gears and is very torquey.

No lubricants are needed, so it is cheaper to run than a conventional car and is practically maintenance free.

A compact model consumes less than $1 in power a day, against around $4 in fuel for a petrol-equivalent car.

KEEP MOVING: Charging points are unlikely to be as commonplace as petrol stations. In countries which have had EVs for over a decade, like France (above) and the United States, street signs point EV owners to the nearest charging stations.

Motorists will also be able to look up where these are online. A Web-based locator will be useful if and when Malaysia jumps on the electric bandwagon. Its national car-maker Proton recently said it is exploring partnerships to start making electric cars as early as the end of this year.

FILLIN' UP: For those living in landed property, charging the car at home will be a cinch. Most users however will rely on public charging points.

A smart card-based access and payment system could be one way of ensuring that these points are secure, safe and tamper-proof.

The user drives into a lot reserved for EVs (below) and taps a card on a reader to open the charging outlet. He either keys in the charge time he wants or selects a 'charge to full' button. He hooks up the car to the point and taps the card to shut the outlet.

GOING GREENER: EVs here will rely on gas-fired power stations for electricity, so they will not - strictly speaking - be 'zero emission'.

However, they will still be a lot more efficient than combustion-engine cars because they are able to convert 90 per cent (or more) of the energy used into motion, compared to less than 40 per cent for fuel-driven cars.

The California Air Resources Board has said that even if 10,000 EVs in California are all plugged in at the same time to recharge, they would take up less than 0.06 per cent of California's total power demand.

Plug in and fill up
Straits Times 11 May 09;

WITH close to 90 per cent of Singapore residents living in high-rises, charging up an electric car will not be as simple as pulling an extension cord out to the driveway.

Facilities for public charging will thus be needed, but setting these up will not be that straightforward.

Several options are on the table, but the one Singapore picks has to be applicable to a wide range of electric vehicles (EVs), including commercial vehicles, two-wheelers and plug-in hybrids.

Mr Anthony Rawlinson, the Singapore-based former chairman of US electric vehicle systems maker Enova, said charging formats are either of the inductive or conductive type.

Inductive chargers, which operate by proximity electromagnetics, are thoroughly weather-proof but costly.

No metal parts are exposed, like the way some electric toothbrushes and shavers are charged. In some systems, the driver does not even have to touch anything. He simply parks near a charging point and the system takes over.

Mr Rawlinson said that there is no need to go with this sophisticated system, since it only has only one real advantage - an aesthetic one.

The conductive method, as the name suggests, requires contact and thus involves plugging in.

Mr Rawlinson said this method is not necessarily less safe, since the car and the charger itself will have circuit breakers and everything is heavily insulated.

'It's almost child-proof,' he said.

Industry observers believe Singapore will go for the conductive method.

But even here, there are two types to choose from - the normal-charge and the quick-charge types.

The former is essentially a regular electrical outlet linked to a secured access and payment system. Estimated to cost less than $10,000 each, a normal-charge system takes six to eight hours to charge an EV fully.

A quick-charge system, costing at least five times more, can juice up a battery-powered car in 20 to 50 minutes. Partial charges can be done in as quickly as five minutes, which will make the vehicle good for about 40 km.

Mr Andre Roy, the group managing director of Wearnes Automotive, which will offer electric cars from 2011, said: 'My feeling is that we'll start with a normal-charging system, then move gradually to quick-charging.'

He foresees operators charging a premium for quick charges, which will mostly be for top-ups which EV owners will purchase for just enough power to get them to a normal charging station.

Normal-charging points are likely to be in sheltered Housing Board carparks, with lots reserved for EV owners.

Mr Roy said these charging points could become 'a revenue source' for restaurants, carpark operators and small businesses.

The Wearnes group has had early talks with HDB on setting up charging points.

Mr Rawlinson said plenty of charging points will be needed - and soon - for EVs to work here.

'You can't start like the CNG exercise, with only one station on Jurong Island. We have only a small window for EVs to take hold before oil jumps back up.'

It was only last year that crude oil hit record levels of close to US$150 a barrel. Prices are now around US$55 a barrel.

To kick-start EVs, Mr Rawlinson suggested that utility companies undertake to build the first charging points and also to provide free charging. He also pointed out that EV fleet owners can trade in the carbon credits earned on their fleets to businesses which need them.

Meanwhile, California-based EV service provider Better Place is advocating battery exchange as an alternative to having a network of charging points.

Its spokesman explained that the company has developed battery-switch stations which mechanically remove exhausted batteries and replace these with new ones - in under a minute.

This week, Better Place will unveil the world's first such exchange in Yokohama, Japan.

CHRISTOPHER TAN

Countries and car makers gearing for change
Straits Times 11 May 09;

NATIONS and car-makers the world over are looking to electric vehicles (EV) as an alternative to the combustion engine.

This latest attempt comes on the back of progress in battery technologies and an expanding charging infrastructure.

Energy groups and about 20 car makers such as Renault and Nissan have been working with the German group RWE to develop a universal standard plug. This can be used with a 400-volt supply enabling a full charge in about 20 minutes.

The Renault-Nissan Alliance has begun zero emission vehicle initiatives in Japan's Kanagawa prefecture and Yokohama, as well as in Israel, Denmark, Portugal, Monaco, Britain, France, Switzerland, Ireland, China and Hong Kong.

In the United States, the Alliance is looking into developing an EV infrastructure in half a dozen states.

Later this year, the US' Fisker Karma will roll out the world's first plug-in hybrid sports car. It will be powered by lithium-manganese batteries supplied by Vancouver-based Advanced Lithium Power, founded and led by Singapore-born Lim Loong Keng. In China, cellphone battery maker BYD claims to have made a car that can run over 400km on a single charge. It has attracted foreign investors like Mr Warren Buffet, who holds a nearly 10 per cent stake in it, and is in talks to appoint a dealer in Singapore.

California-based EV service provider Better Place has persuaded Australia, California, Hawaii and Canada to commit to setting up EV-charging networks.

Several countries have perks in place to encourage EVs. In the US, buyers get a rebate of up to US$7,500 (S$11,000) each; in Norway, free charging points and exemption of import tax, and India, free parking and no road tax. Recently, Britain set aside £20 million (S$44 million) to build EV charging points and facilities. Buyers will get up to £5,000 in rebates.

Nearer Singapore, in Japan, Tokyo Electric Power will roll out about 200 quick-charge stations by March 2010.

But nothing quite signals the change of tide as Ford Motor's move: It has put US$550 million into retooling a Michigan plant that once produced bulky SUVs to make an all-electric Focus by 2011.

CHRISTOPHER TAN

What green light for electric motoring means
Straits Times 11 May 09;

THE $20 million in government funding to help put electric vehicles on the road beginning next year comes in the wake of important breakthroughs in green automotive technology. Research and development in energy storage has yielded alternatives that are lighter, capable of holding a charge longer and more readily recycled than lead batteries. Electric cars continue to go farther before requiring charging. As they begin to match vehicles running on petrol or diesel in terms of distance as well as utility, they are becoming the more obvious choice for being more energy efficient and thus, environmentally safer.

More so than almost all countries, Singapore is a good fit for them. Commuting distances in the compact city state rarely exceed their range. Electric motors emit almost no pollutant, unlike internal combustion engines which spew fumes that contain carcinogenic and other harmful particulates. Electric cars will transfer their environmental impact to power stations that supply them electrical energy, but the three main electricity generating plants - PowerSeraya, Senoko and Tuas - run mostly on natural gas, which burns more cleanly than does coal or oil. If even cleaner energy options emerge later, it is more practical and economical to retrofit a few power stations than 850,000 petrol or diesel vehicles.

In helping to set up the infrastructure for electrical charging, the Government will need to consider a separate grid or different tariffs. It has to ensure prices will not rise for all consumers as demand increases. With little doubt remaining in the environmental argument for going electric, land transport policy needs to focus on pricing, including the true cost of congestion. How much will electric cars add to traffic jams? The 40 per cent rebate on additional registration fee for 'green' - including electric - vehicles recognises their smaller carbon footprint despite their similar physical size. If electric cars really catch on by 2011 when the rebate ends, the green incentive might become counter-effective.

A more desirable approach would be to favour electric buses and taxis over cars. Greening public transport will kill two birds with one stone: Help to reduce peak-hour gridlock while serving the environmental cause. Singapore has fewer buses per million people than Hong Kong or London, according to the Land Transport Authority. Adding electric buses to the fleet is the way to catch up. These are fast becoming as clean and as energy efficient as lighter electrical vehicles. Electric motoring is getting the green light, but the road ahead must be clear.

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The Philippines' most expensive fish faces extinction

Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon 10 May 09;

Filed Under: Fishing Industry, Environmental Issues, Local authorities

DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines -- Scientists are racing against time to save the delicious but rare ludong (or lurung), the country's most expensive fish, from possible extinction.

Over the years, the ludong population was decimated by unrestrained and unregulated catching during its spawning season, coupled by destruction of its habitats like mangrove forests and watershed areas, and pollution of rivers and lakes, said Westly Rosario, chief of the National Integrated Fisheries Technology Development Center here.

"The fish is now rare and elusive," Rosario said in a recent interview.

Ludong (Cestraeus plicatilis) is native to the Cagayan River that stretches from Cagayan to Quirino provinces in the Cagayan Valley, and to the Abra River in the Cordilleras.

It is called the "President's Fish" because of its steep price of P4,000 a kilogram, which only the rich can afford.

Rosario said that in 1997, when his office started a study on ludong, the researchers still found the fish sold in abundance in public markets in Cagayan.

"At that time, it was very easy [to find ludong]. Marami-rami pa [It was quite plenty]. But this time, wala [there’s none]. Wala ka nang mahuli [you can't catch one anymore]," Rosario said.

The ludong spawns two to six days a year from October to November. A catadromous fish (one that lives in fresh water but migrates to marine waters to breed), it swims downstream to spawn and then goes upstream to the upper reaches of the Cagayan River to grow in the pools.

In 2003, a 600-gram ludong caught in Aparri, Cagayan, was taken to Rosario's office here. The catch gave hope to scientists researching on the fish.

"We had wanted it to breed in captivity," Rosario said.

But the problem was how to find a mate for the captured ludong. Due to its rarity, Rosario said, they were not able to catch one.

"We even tried to go fishing. Pero, hindi talaga kami makahuli (But we could not catch one)," he said.

He said he even hired the best fishermen in the area and offered a higher price for a live catch that he could use for research purposes.

"And yet, despite that, we did not get anything," he said.

He said the late Tineg town Mayor Clarence Benwaren had been helping him in catching the elusive fish, especially in his town. But in 2002, Benwaren was murdered while attending a wedding in Calauan town, Laguna province.

The only live ludong in captivity died in May in 2008 when Typhoon "Cosme" ripped off the roof of the NIFTDC aquarium and exposed the fish to the elements.

In November 2008, Rosario said, a 750-gram ludong was caught and taken to his office. But it died the following month.

"It could be because of stress -- its migration from upstream. The Cagayan River is about 500 kilometers long," he said.

With the death of the ludong after five years in captivity, the effort to save ludong "is back to square one," he said.

"What I did this year is to create a team that will work on ludong collectively," he said.

The team is composed of limnologists (scientists who study ponds and lakes), biologists, chemists and aquaculturists from the National Fisheries and Development Institute in Quezon City, where Rosario is concurrent executive director.

"So, there are people who will work on the biology, people who will work on profiling of the Cagayan River and then those who will work on collecting the fingerlings because these are really very elusive," he said.

In a paper that he presented in a fishery forum four years ago, Rosario appealed for people's cooperation and participation in the conservation and preservation of the ludong.

"Embarking on this significant endeavor will surely pay dividends that will redound to the preservation of this precious gift that we can proudly present as heritage to generations to come," he said. "This is the mission we must support and be part of."

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Indonesia trying to unite support of ocean nations with the Manado World Ocean Conference

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post 10 May 09;

Indonesia will try to convince the world of the key role of the ocean in climate change and the importance of including it as a part of United Nations climate talks when the five-day World Ocean Conference in Manado kicks off Monday.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said Saturday the ocean had been overlooked for years by the world as a major carbon sink, despite covering two-thirds of the Earth's surface.

"The ocean plays a major role in determining the world's climate system, but climate change talks have not included it so far. We aim to bring the declaration of this conference to the UN climate talks in Copenhagen by the end of this year," he told reporters when conducting final checks on the event's preparations.

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Freddy Numberi has repeatedly said the ocean should be given credit for its role in absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2), similar to forests that help control climate change. He highlighted the latest legal framework that governs the use of the ocean, the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea, (UNCLOS), which is now 27 years old.

"We hope the Manado Ocean Declaration will be incorporated into talks during the 15th UNFCCC Conference of Parties meeting in Copenhagen," he said.

Hassan pointed out Indonesia's long struggle to convince the world of the importance of the ocean.

"We need to unite all the ocean countries to be able to push for the inclusion of the ocean in the Copenhagen talks," he said.

"We have to work hard to determine what's next after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. With the declaration, we hope the ocean dimension will play a greater role *in a new agreement* after the Kyoto Protocol."

The WOC is also expected to produce a joint declaration acknowledging the destructive impacts of climate change on the ocean and small-island states, with the rising rate of global climate change in recent times threatening marine species and the livelihood of the people living in those countries.

Manado is also set to host the Coral Triangle Initiatives (CTI) Summit, which will be attended by leaders of six countries: Malaysia, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

Maritime minister Freddy said donor countries had granted US$70 million through the Global Environmental Fund (GEF) for the conservation of coral reefs, marine resources and ecosystems within the region. Indonesia, he added, had also received $40 million from the US alone for the same cause. Indonesia now hopes to receive the largest portion of GEF funds as it initiated the CTI process, the minister said.

Hassan said that as the country with the largest area within the coral triangle, Indonesia deserved to get the most funds.

The country also wants the secretariat of the CTI to be set up in North Sulawesi.

Hosting the WOC has prompted an influx of investment and tourists.

Indroyono Susilo of the organizers said total private investment from outside and inside the province had reached Rp 1.5 trillion, mostly in the construction of facilities and hotels.

With all hotels fully booked for the duration of the event, foreign and local tourists are expected to jump in the coming months.

In March, the number of tourists jumped by more than 20 percent, or 1,700 people, from March last year, Governor S. Harry Sarundajang said.

Nations gather for oceans talks in Indonesia
Aubrey Belford Yahoo News 9 May 09;

MANADO, Indonesia (AFP) – Ministers and officials from 70 nations will gather in Indonesia on Monday for talks on protecting the world's oceans and to help set the stage for climate change talks in December.

The five-day World Ocean Conference in Manado city is being touted as a first-of-a-kind meeting on the oceans' role in mitigating climate change and on the consequences of higher temperatures such as rising seas, extinctions and food shortages.

Environment, fisheries and resources ministers are expected to agree a declaration aimed at influencing the direction of the Copenhagen talks scheduled for year end, where nations will gather to hammer out the successor to the expiring Kyoto protocol.

Organisers say they hope to expand the scope of any future climate change agreement to encompass marine environments, on which hundreds of millions of people rely for their livelihoods.

"The conference will be non-binding but it is the highest political level ocean conference done so far," said Indroyono Soesilo, the Indonesian official in charge of organising the event on Sulawesi island.

"If we are able to put oceans into world climate change policies it will be a success for us because it has never happened before.

"Because of global warming we will have sea level rises that will make some island nations disappear, so let's do something about that."

The sidelines of the conference will also see the launch of an international plan to save the Coral Triangle, an underwater ecosystem in Southeast Asia that is half the size of the United States and has been compared to the Amazon rainforest in its biodiversity.

Leaders from the six Coral Triangle Initiative nations -- Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands -- will sign a joint plan to protect the region, home to more than half the world's coral reefs.

But while organisers express optimism over the meeting, scientists say knowledge about the oceans is so limited that not much is known about how they will behave under the influence of climate change or the role they can play in absorbing carbon.

The boosting of ocean research and agreements on international sharing of data are expected to be a part of any conference declaration.

"If you talk about marine carbon issues it's still a long way to go," The Nature Conservancy's Coral Triangle Centre head Abdul Halim said.

"Unless you have at least basic scientific evidence to support your argument it's really difficult for people to argue about."

The conference comes amid a slew of gloomy studies on the possible effects of global warming.

A report in the science journal Nature last month found catastrophic sea level rises of up to three metres are a "distinct possibility" within the next century.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted in 2007 that sea levels could rise by up to 59 centimetres (23 inches) by 2100, drowning low-lying island nations.

Studies predict conference host Indonesia, an archipelago of roughly 17,000 islands, is set to lose many outlying islands, threatening its sea borders with neighbouring countries.

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UK 'Green' power plants may burn palm oil

Use of fuel blamed for destruction of rainforest in South-east Asia
Martin Hickman, The Independent 11 May 09;

The operators of Britain's first "biofuel" power plants are considering burning palm oil, which is blamed for causing rainforest destruction in south-east Asia.

At least four new power stations are being planned around the UK to burn vegetable oils with the assurance that they will generate less pollution than burning climate-change-causing fossil fuels. Two that would power more than 50,000 homes, at Portland in Dorset and Newport in South Wales, are considering using palm oil.

W4B Energy, which has submitted a planning application to build the £30m Portland plant, says it would use only sustainable supplies certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). Vogen Energy, behind the plant at Newport, says production of its palm oil would not harm the environment.

But environmentalists say using any palm oil would be unwise because it would put pressure on supplies, even if the supplies which go into the power stations are officially sustainable. Some green groups are also unsure whether the RSPO system for certifying "sustainable" supplies is sufficiently robust.

Most of the 38 million tonnes of palm oil produced globally is used in food and cosmetics. But the need for biofuels to mix with petrol and as "feedstock" for power stations is putting pressure on demand, which is forecast to grow at 6 to 10 per cent a year.

Conservationists are concerned at the loss of primary forest in Sumatra and Borneo and elsewhere, to make way for plantations. New plantations result in large losses of wildlife and are blamed for imperilling the future of the tree-dwelling orangutan, which could become extinct in the wild in 20 years.

The power plants would help the UK meet its target of generating 15 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, but the Government says it must "proceed cautiously" to prevent biofuels raising food prices and destroying wildlife in developing countries. New sources of power are also required because new nuclear power stations will not be in operation until after 2020 and many existing fossil fuel power stations are coming to the end of their life.

But Robert Palgrave, a member of the pressure group Biofuelswatch, argued that growing crops for electricity was a less efficient use of resources than using that land for wind turbines: "To produce the amount of palm oil for food, cosmetics and biofuel is an incredible demand and the only way they can get it is through deforestation."

James Turner, a Greenpeace forests campaigner, said: "Using palm oil to fuel a power station could be even more damaging than burning fossil fuels."

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Whaling peace talks 'fall short'

Richard Black, BBC News 11 May 09;

Moves to make a peace deal between pro and anti-whaling nations have stalled, with no chance of agreement this year.

Countries have been talking for nearly a year in an attempt to hammer out an accord by this year's International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting.

But a draft report seen by BBC News admits the process has "fallen short".

A source close to the talks blamed Japan, saying it had not offered big enough cuts in its Antarctic hunt, conducted in the name of research.

Earlier meetings had raised the possibility that Japan might countenance annual reductions in its catch over the next five years, perhaps down to zero.

However, the source said that at a meeting held last month in San Francisco, Japan had offered to cut the haul to 650 minke whales per year, only 29 fewer than were caught last season.

This, the source said, "killed any prospect of agreement in Madeira" - the location for this year's IWC meeting, which takes place next month.

In return for downscaling its annual scientific hunt, Japan has been seeking a small annual quota for four coastal communities which, it says, have whaling as an important part of their cultural background.

This has drawn the ire of many environment groups, which say it would effectively contravene the 1982 global moratorium on commercial whaling.

The working group that has been discussing the proposed deal will ask the IWC's scientific committee to investigate how quotas for such "small-type coastal whaling" might be regulated.

Japan is seeking a quota of 150 minke whales per year.

'Right spirit'

Informal discussions on the "peace process" started two years ago, and the formal process was instigated at last year's IWC meeting in Santiago.



Led by the US chairman, William Hogarth, the IWC established a small working group of countries to pursue discussions over the year.

The idea was to find a "package" of reforms that all sides could live with.

Its report is due for publication on 18 May.

The draft seen by BBC News says that given the complexities and the sensitivities, "it should not come as a surprise that it has thus far not been possible to secure agreement" on the key issues - scientific hunting, small-type coastal whaling and whale sanctuaries.

But, it says, "significant concrete results" have emerged from the process, citing "the greatly improved atmosphere and the spirit of respectful dialogue".

'Nothing special'

Conservation groups have been divided on the merits of the process.

Some are opposed to any deal that would allow commercial hunting, on however limited a scale.

They are also concerned that other countries may seek to engage in small-type coastal whaling if the category were established.

A South Korean newspaper recently reported that the Seoul government would pursue such a request.

Other conservation groups have backed the process as something that could reduce the overall annual catch - now numbering about 2,000 - of species under the IWC's jurisdiction.

The working group's report suggests the process should continue for a further year, a notion that appears to command support in Washington and Tokyo.

Last month, a meeting of 32 IWC member nations from the "pro-sustainable use" bloc, held in Tokyo, agreed that the peace process should have their backing

But, they declared, whales should not be placed in a special category of animals exempt from "sustainable use".

They welcomed the recent trading of whale meat between Iceland, Norway and Japan, and rejected the creation of whale sanctuaries - all of which place them at odds with the aims of anti-whaling countries.

The BBC's source suggested these nations might feel the peace process was not worthwhile, if Japan was not going to offer larger reductions in the annual Antarctic catch.

For an agreement to happen, the source suggested, "another level of the Japanese government" would have to be involved, rather than the Fisheries Agency which, critics say, benefits politically from the current situation.

The Japanese government is likely to give its formal reaction after the report's publication.

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Government climate change report calls for new institutions to curb global warming

Julian Borger, guardian.co.uk 10 May 09;

A report commissioned by the British government will call today for an overhaul of global institutions to combat climate change.

The report, to be published by the Centre on International Co-operation at New York University, recommends the creation of powerful surveillance and enforcement mechanisms similar to those of the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. The new institutions would ensure countries honour their commitments to cut carbon emissions.

"This implies a significant pooling of sovereignty, greater coercive powers at international level, and significant investment in surveillance and research," the authors, Alex Evans and David Steven, write. They say that for any new climate deal to be effective, countries that do not join the international effort to curb global warming should face pariah status.

"It seems inevitable that a long-term climate deal will ultimately require an 'all or nothing' approach to international participation. Either countries play a full part in the system, or they sit outside the international system and are effectively barred from all forms of international co-operation," they say. "Carbon default, in other words, would become as weighty an issue as sovereign default, or failure to comply with a security council resolution. That this should currently seem inconceivable indicates the extent of the shift in understanding that is still needed."

The Kyoto accord on global climate change has weak enforcement ­mechanisms and involved very little institutional change. Kyoto is due to expire in 2012, and summit negotiations on a successor treaty take place in Copenhagen in December.

The report, An Institutional Architecture for Climate Change, was commissioned by the Department for International Development. It does not necessarily represent the department's views, a Dfid spokesman said, but was a starting point for a necessary debate at the Copenhagen conference. "This report highlights many of the issues that will be on the table for discussion at the Copenhagen summit in December," the spokesman said.

"Copenhagen represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to set climate goals that avoid dangerous temperature rises and it is vital that we ensure ­effective reform of global institutions as part of this."

The report warns that a long-term solution to global warming could be delayed if a deal in Copenhagen falls foul of wholesale cheating, exploitation by corrupt officials and rigging of carbon markets – tainting the climate change effort.

Bickering over burden-sharing, overseen by toothless institutions would waste effort and distract attention from the looming threat of catastrophic change.

The report suggests that a transparent formula, or algorithm, would have to be agreed which would distribute the burden of restructuring economies. A new body would be created, the International Climate Control Committee, with a robust surveillance mandate to report on, among other things, national performance in reducing emissions.

There would also have to be a new institution with an enforcement role and the capacity to make intrusive inspections, measuring emissions, in the same way that inspectors from the IAEA now oversee nuclear facilities.

The role of the World Trade Organisation would also have to be rethought, the report says, to take account of the carbon implications of international trade.

Such reform of international institutions is likely to be hugely controversial and bitterly fought out, but the authors say there is very little time left to get it right.

They estimate the world has less than a decade to limit global warming to less than two degrees, and "less time than that to design the institutions of the post-carbon age."

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