Best of our wild blogs: 18 Jul 09

New Book: Decapod Crustacean Phylogenetics
by Prof Peter Ng from Systematics & Ecology Lab, NUS

Life History of the Sky Blue
from Butterflies of Singapore

Marine debris recce at Sungei Mandai Kechil mangrove
from Otterman speaks

Nearly stepped on a nightjar
from Otterman speaks

July - Ubin North Shore
from ubin.kopisg

Lucky my duck doesn't like seafood
from The annotated budak

Kusu in kurz
from The annotated budak

Poisoned birds left to suffer all around Toa Payoh estate
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales

A Hidden Beast High Up the Tree
from Creatures in the Wild

White-headed Munia and Panicum maximum
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Rufous Woodpecker feeding juvenile
from Bird Ecology Study Group

News Flash: Total Solar Eclipse!
from You run, we GEOG

Selimang beach: New place to go for flower crabs
about swimming crabs and cockles from The Lazy Lizard's Tales

Compare maps with iRemember.sg
from Otterman speaks

Waste not, want not
on bottled water from The Straits Times Blogs

Discarded balloons can kill sea turtles
from wild shores of singapore

Borneo Sun Bear Conservation Centre To Be Built In Sepilok
from Bornean Sun Bear Conservation

Read more!

EDB pumps $15m into studies on harnessing solar power

Straits Times 18 Jul 09;

Eight projects have been granted a total of $15 million by the Economic Development Board to conduct research on solar technologies for the tropics. The projects include:

Using solar technology to generate both electricity and heat

# Led by Professor Andrew Tay of the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Dr Jiang Fan from Singapore Polytechnic

# Most solar technologies focus on producing electricity. But only 16 per cent to 20 per cent of solar energy can be converted by solar cells into electricity. About 80 per cent of this energy becomes heat.

Companies are now beginning to use this waste heat to warm up water.

The researchers hope to install a 10 kilowatt system at an NUS hostel block in Eusoff Hall in a year's time, serving about 100 student residents.

The same system is enough to power a two- or three-room HDB flat for a year, said Dr Jiang. A smaller 6kw unit is being tested at Singapore Polytechnic.

Customising solar modules for Singapore weather

# Led by Professor Armin Aberle from NUS

# Solar cells are sandwiched between two glass panels. The sides are closed off with a sealant to protect them from dirt and the elements. This entire unit is called a solar module.

The efficiency of solar cells, which were developed in temperate climates, drops when the temperature goes above 25 deg C because higher temperatures affect the electrons' ability to convert into electricity.

The researchers want to test if the solar modules on the market will live out their 20-year warranties in tropical climates where temperatures often soar above 30 deg C.

They also want to find out what kind of packaging would be most suitable for the tropics - for example, whether a different coating for the glass would have to be used to protect the solar cells inside from heat.

Packaging makes up about 30 per cent of the cost of a solar module and the researchers are also trying to see if they can bring this cost down.

Self-cleaning solar cells

# Led by Professor Charanjit Singh Bhatia from NUS

# Currently, glass panels which protect solar cells inside a solar module are flat and transparent, and get dirtied easily, which makes them less efficient.

The researchers want to put tiny cylinder-shaped nano particles on the glass surface so that it is no longer smooth, and there will not be enough surface tension for dirt to stay on the surface.

Flat-glass surfaces also reflect a lot of sunlight away from the solar module. The tiny cylinders help direct some of these rays back towards it.

S$15m awarded to 8 clean energy research teams
Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia 17 Jul 09;

SINGAPORE: The Singapore government has awarded S$15 million to eight research teams under the Clean Energy Research Programme.

The selected proposals, picked out from 31 submissions, span a vast range of innovations focused on roof-mounted solar-harvesting systems for the tropics.

They include solar-driven cooling systems and self-cleaning solar cells.

The Clean Energy Programme Office, which awarded the funds, said on Friday that Singapore's location in the tropics, coupled with its highly urbanised landscape, makes it an ideal location to harness solar energy.

It added that there is also vast market potential in similar urbanised cities for successful products to be exported.

The Clean Energy Research Programme was launched in 2007 to speed up research and development efforts to help drive the growth of the clean energy industry in Singapore.

Read more!

Getting rid of humidity can cut air-con bill: Singapore scientists

Scientists here plan to use silica gel to reduce air-con's power usage
Liaw Wy-Cin, Straits Times 18 Jul 09;

ONE reason that air-conditioners are such big energy guzzlers is that Singapore's humid air has to be cooled before the moisture can be removed.

To make air comfortably dry, the machines have to first chill it from about 30 deg C to 8 deg C, when the moisture condenses into water that can be drained away. This air, now far too cold for people, is warmed again to, say, a cool 22 deg C.

A group of scientists here is working on a way to remove the humidity that will do away with the excessive chilling, cutting energy usage by 40 per cent in the process.

The team, led by Professor Joachim Luther, chief executive of the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore, plans to have a prototype ready in two years.

The group's idea is to pass air through a box lined with silica gel - a moisture- absorbing substance commonly used to keep items such as camera parts and packaged food dry - so the air does not have to be cooled first. Solar energy, or waste heat from motors and generators in the air-conditioning unit, could be used to dry the silica gel for reuse.

The project is one of eight, by tertiary institutions and the company DuPont Apollo, awarded a total of $15 million by the Economic Development Board (EDB) yesterday. The other projects deal mainly with customising solar technologies for the tropical climate.

One problem with current solar technologies is that they were developed to work in temperate climates, and the efficiency of solar cells drops with temperatures above 25 deg C.

Prof Luther, who has been awarded one other grant to customise solar technologies for the tropics, said: 'Manufacturers give a 20-year warranty, but under tropical climate conditions, where temperatures and humidity are higher, we don't know if they will last that long.'

His institute is trying to design solar cells that work well in the tropics.

Engineers, Professor Andrew Tay from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Dr Jiang Fan from the Singapore Polytechnic, also won an EDB grant to develop a solar unit that can generate both electricity and heat - say for water heaters - that works well in the local climate. The team is planning to install a unit at an NUS hostel to road test it.

Clean technology - which looks at products and services that improve efficiency while reducing cost, energy consumption waste or pollution - has been identified as a new economic pillar for Singapore. Almost $700 million in total has been set aside, over five years, to support research and development in clean energy, the environment and water.

Read more!

New Zealand's clean-tech push

Straits Times 18 Jul 09;

New Zealand recently earmarked clean technology as a new area of economic growth. Liaw Wy-Cin visited several companies there to see how the industry is being built up.

DRIED sewage can be used to produce electricity, but the cost of drying this waste is high because the process uses up a lot of energy.

One company in New Zealand, Flo-Dry, has found a way to remove some water from sewer sludge, so it can reduce the cost of the drying process by 20 per cent to 30 per cent, said the company's managing director, Mr Tissa Fernando.

Explained Flo-Dry senior chemical engineer Praveen Bhagat: 'We electro-shock the sludge. We charge the particles in the sludge, so the water is pushed out of the sludge.'

After three years of researching this technology, Flo-Dry engineers have been able to increase the amount of solids in the sludge to between 20 per cent and 50 per cent.

The company is in talks with Singapore's national water agency, PUB, about testing one of Flo-Dry's units at a used water reclamation plant here, said Mr Fernando.

Singapore currently reclaims waste water for use, and burns the resulting sludge.

Flo-Dry is one of some 220 companies in New Zealand which have made a business out of clean technology in areas such as waste reclamation, solar technology and more energy-efficient buses and light bulbs.

Like Singapore, the New Zealand government has identified clean technology as a pillar of the economy that it wants to grow for the future.

Some 70 per cent of New Zealand's electricity is already powered by clean energy - hydropower. The nation, however, wants to increase this to 90 per cent by 2025 and is exploring ways to tap the heat coming out of its volcanoes to generate electricity. Some of New Zealand's clean tech companies are also looking to Singapore to help drive their business.

Flotech, which makes gas compressors and treats waste gas generated by industrial processes for use as fuel, for example, builds its gas compressors and biogas towers in Singapore.

The company's sales director, Mr Steve Rowntree, said: 'As our customers are mainly in Europe, Singapore is a more central location. We also get a lot of the steel from Singapore, so it makes no sense to ship the raw material all the way down here, and then have to ship the complete product all the way up to Europe again.

'We can save 11/2 to two months on a project by building our products in Singapore.'

New Zealand bus company Designline International, which makes hybrid and electric buses, is also in talks with parties in Singapore about testing some of its buses here, said the company's commercial manager, Mr Wes Jones Jr.

And the country's business incubator for start-up companies, The Icehouse, has teamed up with the commercial arm of Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research - Exploit Technologies - to push the technologies to market.

One start-up to benefit from this partnership is solar water heater developer Spud. The company is talking to manufacturers in Singapore about making the product, said its director, Mr Richard Gourley.

The advantage of manufacturing in Singapore, said Mr Gourley, is the country's skills and experience in mass production for big markets.

'It's very important to be dealing with somebody who has integrity with many markets, because you don't know what is going to happen to your product if you leave it with someone with less skill and experience,' he said.

But it is not just manufacturing that Singapore and New Zealand are interested in. Both want to develop high-value research and development in the clean-tech sector as well.

Singapore earmarked the sector as a new economic pillar in 2006. It aims to create 18,000 jobs in this sector by 2015. The figure so far is more than 3,000.

Technologies for an energy-saving society
Straits Times 18 Jul 09;

THERE are more than 220 clean technology companies in New Zealand. Here are some of these companies and the technologies they have developed:

# SOLAR HEATED OUTDOOR SHOWER

A company, Spud, short for Special Projects Under Development, has designed a solar heated shower - Sunshower - made up of a fence of corrugated plexiglass bent into a series of folds.

The many folds reflect the sunlight within the glass panel, which retains the heat. Pipes running across the glass warm up the water running through them.

Water can be connected to this 'radiator fence' through a garden hose, and the heated water comes out at the top of the 'fence'.

The hot water can also be stored in an insulated container, which keeps its heat for later use.

The Sunshower can be used to heat water in outdoor pools or as an outdoor shower in resorts in the region, for example, said one of its company's directors, Ms Janice Gourley.

# ENERGY USAGE SOFTWARE

Technology company Energy Intellect has developed a program that can measure energy consumption.

The company has linked up with meter manufacturer Stream. It offers industrial users the option to predesignate a power usage limit for the month, for example. If the usage exceeds this limit, certain appliances will automatically be switched off.

# DOMESTIC HEAT-CUM-ELECTRICITY GENERATOR

Thirteen years of research and development have led to technology company Whisper Tech's mini-power station for the home.

The WhisperGen (right) uses natural gas to heat water and, in the process, produce electricity as a by-product.

The company is targeting Europe as a market, where natural gas is four times cheaper than electricity. Its mini-power station will let home users generate their own electricity in their homes.

# REDUCING POWER CONSUMPTION

Energy-saving bulbs developer Energy Mad has tied up with local power companies in New Zealand to offer discount vouchers to consumers who buy its bulbs at supermarkets.

The bulbs consume less electricity, which means power companies can save on the massive investments needed to lay new power lines and build new power stations, said the company's co-founder, Mr Tom Mackenzie.

He said the company is talking to town councils in Singapore to replace some street lights with its Ecobulbs.

# ELECTRIC AND HYBRID BUSES

Designline International builds electric and hybrid buses (above). The buses are currently being used in Australia and New Zealand and are on trial in Mexico, the United States and South Korea.

# ENERGY-SAVING VALVES

Emech Control designs valves for industrial use, in meat processing, for example, which have cut energy and water use by 15 per cent to 20 per cent.

# GETTING FUEL FROM ALGAE

Former Christchurch mayor Vicki Buck is working on harvesting fuel from algae, something scientists have increasingly taken an interest in.

Read more!

APEC-Japan energy efficiency fund launched

Straits Times 18 Jul 09;

APEC and Japan have set up a 120 million yen (S$1.86 million) fund to support energy efficiency programmes throughout the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) region.

Apec executive director Michael Tay and Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry official Makoto Shiota yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding to set up the fund.

The signing took place at the Shangri-La Hotel here, ahead of an Apec trade ministers' meeting next week.

Energy efficiency would benefit member economies, said Mr Tay. 'The implementation of energy efficiency measures effectively pays for itself, through long-term reductions in energy costs.'

Funds will go towards projects such as energy efficiency research and workshops for member countries to share information.

The money will be disbursed through the Apec Support Fund.

There are no targets specifically attached to the energy efficiency sum, but it follows a 2007 Apec declaration that member nations would try to improve energy efficiency by at least 25 per cent by 2030, from 2005 levels.

Although environmentalist groups such as Greenpeace have dismissed the non-binding, voluntary target as lacking teeth, Apec said it was committed to addressing the issue of environmental quality and contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions while ensuring members' energy needs.

Apec is a regional forum to foster growth through investment and freer trade.

Its 21 member economies include both developed and developing nations, such as the United States, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Chile and Vietnam.

Read more!

Global warming to open up north-east Arctic tanker route

Melting ice in the Russian Arctic will create a safer, shorter route cut for tankers, but will have even bigger implications for the global energy market
Lesley Riddoch, guardian.co.uk 17 Jul 09;

A new "north-east passage" for shipping around Russia's Arctic coast and across the North Pole will be opened within a decade as global warming causes the ice cap to melt, Norway's foreign minister has predicted.

Jonas Gahr Store, speaking at a recent public lecture in Edinburgh, said the route through previously inaccessible Russian waters, could cut tanker journey times between Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Yokohama in Japan by 40%, and provide a safer and "pirate-free" route for trans-global shipping.

"The rise in temperatures across the Arctic is twice the world average. Soon there will be no summer ice – that will open up new routes and new strategic issues for the world," he said. The forecast follows previous predictions that the more famous north-west passage will be opened by climate change.

The melting ice also has implications for the global energy market. The Arctic is thought to hold 20% of world resources of fossil fuels – principally sub-sea gas in the massive Shtokman field. The Russian government plans to start extracting gas from the Barents Sea by 2011 with French partners Total and the Norwegian state-owned Statoil.

The Arctic operating environment however is extremely hostile. Some 250 miles offshore, Shtokman cannot be reached by helicopter from continental bases. Explorers would also need to contend with temperatures of -50C (-58F) and ice flows the size of Jamaica.

With 50 Norwegian exploration and supply companies already registered in Murmansk, Mr Gahr Store believes Russia accepts it cannot develop the area alone.

He refutes the idea that a dash for gas and the creation of new Arctic shipping lanes threatens Norway's green credentials.

"A man-made problem needs a man-made solution. The IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] predicts that by 2030/2040 the proportion of energy supplied by fossil fuels will be unchanged at 80% but consumption will have increased. The answer is to produce electricity from fossil fuels without emissions by using carbon capture. Norway is already doing this [in the North Sea] – we store 1m tonnes of CO2 every year. It's monitored and there have been no leaks."

Carbon capture may be acceptable to some environmentalists but co-operation with Russia's nuclear industry is not.

The Norwegian environmental group Bellona has published plans by Russian scientists to use nuclear-powered underwater drill vessels.

Dr Alexander Frolov, deputy head of Russian state weather forecaster Roshydromet, suggests conventional platform-based drilling may be impossible: "As the Arctic climate gets milder, the risk of huge iceberg formation and ice storms in the Barents Sea will grow significantly by 2015. The threat from ice formations of 100km long should not be underestimated."

The Shtokman Development Company plans to address this challenge by using floating removable platforms, which may be nuclear powered and which can be moved around in case of "emergency situations". The eye-watering entry on its website reads: "The forerunning Shtokman concept is a floating, disconnectable spar able to dodge roving icebergs of the 2m-tonne variety."

Mr Frolov has also suggested icebergs could be destroyed with bombs, though admitting that "might raise ecological concerns".

Russian experts now believe the safest way to avoid icebergs is to copy the Norwegians and operate sub-sea, laying pipelines in deep trenches.

The Norwegians have acquired considerable experience from developing their own Ormen Lange gas field, in depths of 3,000 metres which supplies 20% of the UK's needs through the world's longest sub-sea pipeline. Their new Snohvit development in Hammerfest is the world's most northerly liquefied gas production centre – most of Snohvit is also sub-sea.

Read more!

Radar beams could protect bats from wind turbines

A stationary beam reduces bat activity near turbines by almost 40%, research shows
Jacob Aron, guardian.co.uk 17 Jul 09;

Radar beams that irritate bats could be used to prevent the animals from being diced by the spinning blades of wind turbines, according to a study of how the animals react to radar signals. The researchers discovered that a stationary beam reduced bat activity near the turbines by almost 40%.

Bat and bird populations can be significantly effected by collisions with turbines. A six-week study at two wind farms in the US recorded more than 4,500 bat deaths and the Peñascal wind farm in southern Texas is currently using radar to prevent migrating birds from flying into it.

"This is a major problem in the States, especially during the bats' migratory period," said Paul Racey of the University of Aberdeen, which undertook the study. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs recently commissioned a three-year study to gather data on the effect wind farms are having on bats in the UK.

Racey, who co-authored the research, outlined three ways to deter bats using radar in a paper published today in the journal PLoS One. One method employs a rotating antenna similar to those used in air traffic control - bats are known to avoid these large installations and the researchers hoped to replicate the effect with a smaller device. The team also tested a stationary antenna that used two different radar signals that used different pulse lengths.

His results showed that a fixed antenna was most effective at keeping the bats away. Radar signals led to a drop in bat activity of 38.6% in an area 30 metres from the device. The animals appeared to be unharmed by the experience and returned once the radar was switched off. With refinement and purpose-built radar transmitters, the effect could be even greater, said the researchers. "We want 80- 90% reduction in bat activity," said Racey.

Scientists don't know why bats avoid radar signals. One explanation is that radar energy warms the bats' wings "like a kitchen microwave" said Racey. Another theory suggests the bats' ears heat up, causing them to "hear" the radar signal as a clicking sound.

The research comes a day after the energy and climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, announced a target of the UK producing 31% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, which includes 3,000 new wind turbines. Racey said that these additional turbines should only be built if they satisfy conservation laws intended to preserve bat habitats, and mounting the radar devices could solve this problem.

Read more!

Severn tidal power scheme should not go ahead, warns Environment Agency

The contentious Weston barrage would be the largest renewable energy project in Europe but comes with a huge ecological cost
John Vidal, guardian.co.uk 17 Jul 09;

A giant tidal energy scheme which the government is counting on to meet ambitious new green energy targets set this week should not be built because it would be so ecologically destructive, the chair of the Environment Agency has warned ministers.

The government's roadmap to a low-carbon UK called for a 34% cut in emissions by 2020, with the power sector contributing the bulk of that saving. The Weston barrage, running 10 miles across the Severn estuary between Weston-super-Mare and Cardiff, is by far the largest of four tidal power schemes being considered by government and would be the centrepiece of the nation's renewable energy plan.

It could generate 8.6 gigawatts of zero-carbon electricity from the Severn – the equivalent of eight large coal-fired power stations – and would be the single largest renewable energy project in Europe.

But the £5bn flagship scheme would permanently flood nearly 35,000 hectares (86,000 acres) of internationally protected wetlands. It would also destroy some of Britain's most important fisheries in the Severn, Wye and Usk catchment areas, said Lord Smith in an interview with the Guardian.

"The great wall across the Severn channel poses the classic environmental dilemma. It would generate 5% of all the UK's electricity needs but at a huge cost in terms of fishing and habitats. These immense environmental impacts outweigh the carbon reduction benefits which you would get. We are advising the government on this pretty strongly," said the government's chief environmental adviser.

"There must be ways of harnessing tidal power from the estuary without the gross impacts that the Weston scheme would have. I regret that we are not putting as much effort as we could into tidal reefs and defences. We should be addressing the possibility of tidal power around the country. Tidal energy should be one of the key ways of generating electricity", he said.

Smith's comments will not be welcomed by the government which this week committed itself to generating 20% of the UK's energy from renewable sources within only 11 years, but it is meeting technical and planning delays with wind power.

A decision on the barrage will be given next year but ministers are keen to see it started because it would contribute more to emission cuts than any other scheme. The energy minister, Lord Hunt, said this week: "The Cardiff-Weston barrage has the potential to save the equivalent of the yearly CO2 emissions from all homes in Wales."

The barrage, which would be a huge engineering feat on the scale of some of the world's biggest construction projects, is shaping up to be one the most contentious environmental issues of the decade. The National Trust, the RSPB and WWF, together representing more than 5 million people, have said that a barrage would be "economically dubious" and "ecologically disastrous".

They have also argued that 5m tonnes of CO2 would be emitted during construction and another 5m tonnes during transport of the materials, undermining claims that the barrage would help reduce emissions.

Smith also warned the nuclear industry, another part of the energy and climate change secretary, Ed Miliband's "trinity" of low-carbon electricity plans, that climate change could seriously affect their costs. He said the agency would demand that nuclear power companies build major sea defences to protect nuclear power against the sea level rises expected over the next 100 years.

"Virtually all the new [nuclear] stations are by the sea. We will look at them on a case-by-case basis but all sites must be fully defensible. The power companies know that they will have to defend them on a very large scale. Protection against flood risk must be absolute."

Smith also questioned Miliband's intention to preserve low-cost mass air travel, revealed in the Guardian this week. Calling for a debate on the future of aviation, he argued that climate change made it doubtful people could fly so much in 40 years' time. "By 2050 we should have reduced greenhouse gases by 80%, which means we will have 20% left. How much of that 20% should be taken by aviation?

"Aeroplanes will get more efficient but they will not be able to completely remove their carbon emissions. By 2050 we will need to have decided how much flying we can do. "

Read more!

Turkmenistan tries to green its desert with manmade lake

• President wants canals dug into natural basin to create 'blossoming oasis'
• Critics predict only a drain on finance and another ecological disaster
Luke Harding in Moscow and agencies, guardian.co.uk 17 Jul 09;

The central Asian nation of Turkmenistan has cemented its reputation for eccentricity with an ambitious attempt to create a vast lake in the centre of the country's Karakum desert.

In a logic-defying feat that might have appealed to Stalin, engineers have begun pumping water from a network of canals that irrigate cotton fields across the country. It is being channelled into the natural Karashor depression in remote northern Turkmenistan. The aim: to make what has been poetically dubbed Golden Age Lake.

At an opening ceremony on Wednesday, the country's president, Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov, plunged a spade into the earth and released the first water from a tributary canal. Surrounded by shimmering desert, dignitaries and local tribesmen, he declared: "We have brought new life to these once-lifeless sands."

In comments reported by the state-run Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper, he said: "I am convinced that our great deeds will be recalled by glory."

The president then rode off on a jewellery-bedecked horse, climbed into his helicopter and flew back to the capital, Ashgabat.

Experts have expressed dismay at the quixotic Soviet-style project. They point out that much of the water pumped into the searing desert will evaporate, adding that it is likely to be contaminated with toxic pesticides and fertilisers.

Turkmen officials disagree. They insist the lake will attract migratory birds, stimulate biodiversity and make flowers and plants bloom in a country that is 80% desert. Once completed the lake is supposed to cover 770 square miles, reach a depth of around 70 metres and hold more than 130bn cubic metres of water. Filling it could take 15 years and cost up to $4.5bn.

This is not the first project in Turkmenistan to raise eyebrows. The government recently unveiled a new tourist resort on the shores of the Caspian Sea designed to rival Las Vegas. Currently, western tourists have great difficulties obtaining visas for Turkmenistan, and most foreign journalists are banned.

The former Soviet republic's late dictator Saparmurat Niyazov dreamed up the Golden Lake project before his sudden death in 2006. His successor, Berdymukhamedov, buoyed by soaring incomes from gas exports, decided to press ahead with the idea despite fierce objections from environmentalists.

"These canals will serve as a major source of irrigation to turn the Karakum into a blossoming oasis," Berdymukhamedov told a crowd of more than 1,000 people that included top government officials and diplomats.

History suggests that he is making a mistake. For decades, central Asia's environment has suffered from over-ambitious Soviet-era irrigation projects. The Aral Sea, which once lay on the border between the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, was the world's fourth-largest lake. It has since shrunk by almost 90%, devastating fisheries as salinity levels spiked.

Read more!

Clouds, seas to be targeted by U.N. climate report

Alister Doyle, Reuters 17 Jul 09;

OSLO (Reuters) - Cloud formation, sea level rises and extreme weather events are among areas set to get more attention in the next U.N. report on global warming due in 2014, the head of the Nobel Peace Prize winning panel said on Friday.

Rajendra Pachauri also said the panel did not plan to issue more frequent reports as suggested by some governments, reckoning that several years were needed to come up with robust findings. The last series of reports was in 2007.

"We would certainly have much more greater detail," in the next reports, Pachauri told Reuters in a telephone interview from Venice, where leading scientists have been meeting from July 13-17 to work on an outline to be approved later this year.

"In the case of clouds we will certainly provide much greater emphasis in this report -- clouds, aerosols, black carbon. These are issues that we will certainly cover in much greater detail," he said.

The 2007 report pointed to cloud formation as a big uncertainty in climate change. Warmer air can absorb more moisture and so lead to more clouds in some regions -- the white tops can reflect heat back into space and offset any warming.

In an opposite effect, black carbon -- or soot from sources such as factories or forest fires -- can blanket ice and snow with a heat-absorbent dark layer and so accelerate a thaw.

"Sea level rise is another issue that...will get much greater in-depth attention," he said.

Scenarios for sea level rise this century in the 2007 report ranged from 18 to 59 cm (7-24 inches). But it said that 59 cm should not be considered an upper limit because of uncertainties about a possible melt of Greenland and Antarctica.

HEATWAVES, MUDSLIDES

And the panel, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is also planning an extra report on extreme events such as droughts, floods, heatwaves or mudslides projected because of global warming.

Pachauri said the next report by the IPCC, which shared the 2007 Nobel Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, was intended to guide nations after the planned agreement of a new U.N. climate treaty in Copenhagen in December.

He welcomed an agreement by major economies at a Group of Eight summit in Italy last week to recognize a broad scientific view that world temperature rises should not exceed 2 Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.

But he said too little was being done to achieve the limit.

"It's a step forwards. I wish they would have made some commitments on what would ensure limiting the temperature increase to 2 degrees," he said.

"In the (2007 report) we said if you want to limit temperatures to that range all we have is up to 2015 as the year when global emissions must peak and they must decline thereafter," he said.

Greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, have risen fast in recent years although recession is now curbing industrial activity in many nations. China has overtaken the United States as top emitter.

Of 177 scientific scenarios in the 2007 report, only 6 looked at tough emissions curbs needed to keep temperature rises below 2 Celsius.

Governments have put more funding into scientific research into higher emissions limits that they judge to be more likely.

"We're certainly going to look at much more stringent mitigation," Pachauri said, when asked if governments were still reluctant to put money into looking at curbs needed to achieve the 2 Celsius limit.

(Editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Read more!

New pact to let European public track pollutants

Stephanie Nebehay, Reuters 17 Jul 09;

GENEVA (Reuters) - European citizens will be able to find out what dangerous substances are emitted in their neighborhoods under an environmental treaty to go into effect in 17 countries in October, the United Nations said on Friday.

Participating states will have to issue public inventories of major pollutants that their industries, traffic, agriculture and enterprises spew into the air, soil and water, including greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

Some 86 categories of substances -- ranging from mercury and other heavy metals, benzine, asbestos, pesticides including DDT, and dioxins -- are covered under the pact.

"These inventories are made available to the public over the Internet and generally also through a downloadable map that helps people identify major pollutants that are traveling through their neighborhoods to discover what is in their backyard ...," Michael Stanley-Jones, an environmental expert at the U.N. Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), told reporters.

"It doesn't cover all chemicals, but it does cover the major releases of chemicals," he said.

The pact, signed in 2003 by 36 countries, enters into force on October 8 after being ratified recently by a 17th country (France), according to the Geneva-based agency. It is open to all U.N. member states for ratification.

"It is truly a global instrument, part of a global movement initiated in the 1980s after the major accidents in Bhopal and Chernobyl," said Stanley-Jones.

A catastrophic industrial accident in central India killed nearly 8,000 people in 1984 when tons of toxic gas leaked from a pesticide plant of Union Carbide, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Co, the largest U.S. chemical maker.

The Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986, the world's worst civil nuclear accident, sent radiation over most of Europe.

The protocol to the 2001 Aarhus Convention enables citizens to voice concern over pollution to industry or regulators.

"As the major greenhouse gas pollutants are included in the protocol, this will give decision-makers and the public powerful new tools for identifying the major industrial sources of greenhouse gas emissions," Stanley-Jones said.

"Major exceptions are for national security (facilities) and also the nuclear industry -- radioactive substances are not covered by the protocol," he said, noting that countries may add further substances and facilities to their national registers.

Countries outside of Europe, including Chile and Mexico, have developed their own registers and China's industrial region of Shanghai is also drawing one up, according to the expert.

The 17 states that have ratified the Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers are: Albania, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland. The European Commission is also a party.

(Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)

Read more!

Brazil kicks up stink over imported British trash

Reuters 16 Jul 09;

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilians are kicking up a stink over 1,200 tonnes of British garbage, including toilet seats, dirty diapers and used syringes, that are rotting at two southern ports after arriving in container ships.

The trash, which arrived in Brazil earlier this year, was destined for Brazilian companies that said they were expecting shipments of recyclable plastic, officials say.

Instead, port officials found the containers that originated at the British port of Felixstowe packed with trash, ranging from the chemical toilet seats to food remnants and computer pieces.

Brazil's federal prosecution office asked the foreign ministry on Thursday to request that Britain take back the shipments.

"We will ask for the repatriation of this garbage," said Roberto Messias, the president of Brazilian environment agency IBAMA. "Clearly, Brazil is not a big rubbish dump of the world."

IBAMA has imposed fines on the import companies involved in the shipments and Messias said it was "difficult to believe" they were innocent of any wrongdoing.

The British Embassy said in a statement it was investigating the case and would "not hesitate to act" if it was found that a company had violated the Basel Convention on the movement of hazardous waste.

Both countries are signatories of the treaty, which came into force in 1992.

(Reporting by Fabio Murakawa and Stuart Grudgings; editing by Todd Eastham)

Brazil demands return of UK waste
BBC News 18 Jul 09;

Brazilian authorities are demanding that more than 1,400 tonnes of hazardous British waste found in three ports be returned to the UK.

The Brazilian environment agency, Ibama, says that international treaties have been violated.

An investigation into how and why the waste was sent to Brazil has been launched by the British government.

It has emerged that two companies named by Brazil as suspected exporters of the waste are owned by a Brazilian.

The waste, which included syringes, condoms, nappies and bags of blood, was found in about 90 shipping containers on three Brazilian docks in recent months.

The latest 25 containers found in a port near Sao Paulo were put on show for journalists on Friday.

'Not a rubbish dump'

The BBC's Gary Duffy said that inside them was everything from leftover food to cleaning products, creating a foul-smelling mess.

Among the rubbish were the names of many British supermarkets, and UK newspapers were also clearly identifiable.

Ibama officials say they want the waste sent back to the UK.

"We will ask for the repatriation of this garbage," said Roberto Messias, Ibama president.

"Clearly, Brazil is not a big rubbish dump of the world."

Reports in the UK media say the waste was sent from Felixstowe in eastern England to the port of Santos, near Sao Paulo, and two other ports in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul.

The Brazilian companies that received the waste said they had been expecting recyclable plastic, The Times reported.

Ibama has named two British companies it suspects as being involved in the shipments.

The Brazilian director of those companies, who is based in England, told BBC Brazil that anything in the containers that was not plastic for recycling was the responsibility of his suppliers.

The British Embassy in Brazil said in a statement that it was investigating and would "not hesitate to act" if it was found that a UK company had violated the Basel Convention on the movement of hazardous waste.

Both the UK and Brazil are signatories of the treaty, which came into force in 1992.

UK Environment Secretary Hilary Benn told The Times he had ordered an investigation.

"If, having looked into this particular case, there are lessons that need to be learnt about enforcement, then we will do that," he said.

British probe into 'toxic waste dumping' in Brazil
Yahoo News 18 Jul 09;

LONDON (AFP) – The British government has launched a probe into reports several British companies have been involved in dumping hazardous waste in Brazilian ports, reports said Saturday.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn told The Times newspaper he had ordered the investigation after reports that shipping containers carrying tonnes of syringes, condoms, bags of blood and other waste had turned up in Brazil.

Benn said he could consider tightening rules on transporting waste.

"If, having looked into this particular case, there are lessons that need to be learnt about enforcement, then we will do that," he said.

Some 90 shipping containers have been discovered on three docks in Brazil containing hazardous material in recent months, with local inspectors finding waste electronic equipment as well as medical byproducts, newspapers here said.

The waste has been linked to two British companies, and sent from Felixstowe in eastern England to docks at Brazil's Santos, near Sao Paulo, and two other ports in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, the Independent said.

The companies in Brazil that received the waste claimed to have been expecting recyclable plastic, The Times said.

Plastics, paper and other goods are shipped between countries around the world for recycling including for scrap metal.

The UN-administered Basel Convention, which came into force in 1992, bans shipments of toxic waste from industrialised countries.

UK set to take back Brazil waste
BBC 19 Jul 09;

The UK is working with Brazilian authorities to return more than 1,400 tonnes of toxic waste to Britain, the Environment Agency has said.

Head of waste Liz Parks said plans were being made to bring back the rubbish, but it could take a number of weeks.

An inquiry into how the waste, including syringes, condoms and bags of blood, was sent to three Brazilian ports has been launched by the UK.

The Environment Agency says those responsible could face prosecution.

It confirmed its Brazilian counterpart has named Worldwide Biorecyclables and UK Multiplas Recycling - both based in Swindon - as being involved, but would not confirm or deny whether the agency was investigating the two companies.

Ms Parks told the BBC's Newshour she understood the waste, found in about 90 shipping containers, was currently being held by the Brazilian authorities.

"They haven't yet released it, as far as I'm aware. But arrangements are being made for that to happen. And it will take a number of weeks for the waste to be returned," she said.

'Unlimited fines'

She also warned the British courts took the dumping of hazardous waste very seriously.

"We do prosecute people. We've had a number of successful prosecutions in recent years.

"And in fact in the crown court, people can be fined unlimited amounts and prison sentences are imposed."

On Saturday, Brazil demanded the waste be sent back to Britain.

Roberto Messias, president of the Brazilian environment agency, Ibama, declared that Brazil was "not a big rubbish dump of the world".

The agency also said the arrival of the toxic cargo had violated the Basel Convention on the movement of hazardous waste, of which both the UK and Brazil are signatories, which came into force in 1992.

Ingrid Oberg, regional chief of Ibama, later told the BBC the cargo mainly consisted of domestic waste.

"It's a lot of food containers and cleaning product containers. We found old clothes, shoes, papers, a lot of old newspapers.

"In some of the containers recently found there were also some technological products, like DVDs, pieces of computers, plastic stuff. But mainly it's domestic garbage."

British companies

As well as the presence of syringes, condoms and bags of blood, the rubbish was deemed dangerous because the contents of the containers were going rotten.

"There were larvae and then there's a big risk of contamination," said Ms Oberg.

"We are taking care so that it's not taken out of the containers. So it doesn't bring any contamination to our soil," she added.

Reports in the UK media say the waste was sent from Felixstowe in England to the port of Santos, near Sao Paulo, and two other ports in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul.

It has also emerged that two companies named by Brazil as suspected exporters of the waste are owned by a Brazilian.

The director, who is based in England, told BBC Brazil the containers should have contained plastic for recycling and any other contents were the responsibility of his suppliers.

Read more!

Plastic bag revolt halves nationwide use in the UK to 450m

Small green revolution reaches milestone as government figures reveal shoppers are rejecting plastic bags
John Vidal, The Guardian 17 Jul 09;

It began in 2007 with a few traders in the small town of Modbury in Devon refusing to give out plastic bags. But yesterday their small green revolution reached a national milestone: British shoppers have nearly halved the number of single-use bags they get through.

Figures from Wrap, the government's waste and resources programme, show that whereas 870m single-use plastic bags were handed out in the UK in May 2006, the figure for May 2009 was down to 450m – a 48% reduction, and 4,740 tonnes to send to landfill against 8,890 tonnes in May 2006.

Nationwide rejection of the bags, which take up to 1,000 years to decompose and clog drains and pollute oceans, followed a government challenge to retailers to voluntarily halve bag use by June 2009.

"Over the past year or so, we've invested £3m to help our customers change the habit of a lifetime. We've cut the number of single-use bags our customers use by 53%," said an Asda spokeswoman.

But Asda still expressed frustration at the scheme. "The populist appeal of plastic bags has obscured more pressing issues, such as packaging reduction, carbon and energy use, and waste."

Further reductions should be implemented through a carrot not a stick approach, and at retailers' own discretion, it said. The €0.15 (12p) tax introduced in the Republic of Ireland in 2002 has cut bag use by more than 90%.

Yesterday the Welsh Assembly government said the dramatic reduction in bag use would not affect its proposal to introduce a 15p charge on single-use carrier bags. "Wales is still using 27m plastic bags a month, or 324m a year, " said the environment minister Joan Davidson.

Rebecca Hosking, the BBC filmmaker who persuaded Modbury and other towns to reject plastic bags after seeing how they killed wildlife around the world, yesterday said the supermarkets had fought hard against the voluntary reduction in bag use. "What has been achieved is fantastic but they have complained non-stop like little children. You'd have thought they were being asked to go on a vegan diet or something. This has not been difficult at all. No-one has lost trade, or gone out of business in Modbury or anywhere else," she said.

The plastic bag issue has divided environmentalists with some arguing the action is inconsequential while others say it is an important symbol of reduced consupmtion and often leads to further environmental action.

Read more!

Shipping emissions plan 'stalls'

Roger Harrabin, BBC News 17 Jul 09;

Plans to reduce rising emissions from global shipping have faltered at a key international meeting.

The International Maritime Organization delayed a decision to raise the cost of ships' fuel and use the money to help poor nations tackle climate change.

Delegates from developing countries complained that rich nations had reneged on other promises.

Environmental groups criticised the lack of progress, saying that the world could not afford to wait any longer.

When the Kyoto Protocol was agreed, the shipping and aviation sectors were left out because no-one could agree on how the emissions should be allocated.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) was given the task of finding a way around the problem, but there has been little progress to date.

This week, the IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee did agree draft technical measures to improve the efficiency of ships' designs.

It also agreed on ways to improve the efficiency of shipping operations.

However, the meeting did not make any progress on the idea of raising the cost of ships' fuel in order to help poorer nations deal with the consequences of climate change.

Environmental groups are frustrated over what they see as a lack of meaningful progress.

"The global shipping industry emits a billion tonnes of CO2 [per year], and that number is on course to double or even triple by 2050," said Peter Lockley, head of transport policy at WWF.

"So far, there is not a single policy in place in the world to limit those emissions," he told BBC News.

"This week, we have been trying to discuss ways in which we can.

"They have made some progress on technical measures but there is still going to be nothing that is compulsory for shipping owners."

Rich nations say they do want a deal that puts up the price of fuel, but some key developing countries are angry that the wealthy states have not delivered on their side of the bargain.

The issue of a fuel levy is likely to be discussed again in the autumn during the full meeting of the IMO.

Read more!

G8 outcome falls short of needs - IPCC chief

Yahoo News 17 Jul 09;

PARIS (AFP) – The head of the UN's panel of climate-change experts said on Friday he was encouraged by climate pledges at last week's G8 summit but warned commitments still fell short of what was required by science.

Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told AFP the outcome of the L'Aquila talks was "a bit of a dichotomy."

"On the one hand, the G8 leaders have agreed to this so-called aspirational goal of reducing (greenhouse-gas) emissions by 80 percent up to 2050, and seeing that temperature increase doesn't exceed two degrees (Celsius)," he said.

"But on the other hand, they haven't take into account the IPCC's assessment that if we want to limit the increase to two degrees, we have to ensure that emissions peak no later than 2015.

"If that's the case, they should have clearly come up with what they are going to do about reducing emissions in the immediate, short run. They haven't done that. I see that as a gap that hasn't been filled."

The UN's 192-nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is hosting talks aimed at forging a new global pact for tackling global warming and its impacts.

The treaty would take effect after 2012, ratcheting up curbs on greenhouse-gas pollution set down in the landmark Kyoto Protocol.

But little more than five months are left for wrapping up the process, launched as a "roadmap" in Bali in 2007. A planetary-wide conference in Copenhagen in December will be the climax.

The world's eight top industrialised nations set a goal of at least halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, with rich economies curbing their own pollution by 80 percent by this date.

But the aim was not endorsed in the G8's meeting the next day with China, India and Brazil and other emerging giants.

The two summits also supported the aim of limiting warming to two degrees (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels. The target was sketched by the IPCC in its 2007 Fourth Assessment Report as a means of averting the worst damages of climate change.

Neither summit, though, saw any advance on an emissions target for 2020, which many experts say is more important than a distant objective for mid-century.

Pachauri was interviewed by phone in Venice, where the IPCC met to sketch the parameters of the Fifth Assessment Report, which will be issued in several volumes from 2013.

He fended off criticism that the six-year gap between the fourth and fifth reports was too long.

Some commentators have said climate change is happening faster than thought and the IPCC process is too ponderous. As a result, policymakers are not being kept up to speed with scientific analysis of the threat, according to this view.

"Everything that we said in the Fourth Assessment Report still holds valid," Pachauri contended.

"You've got to take a balanced and comprehensive view of all the literature that comes out. There's always a danger if the IPCC is going to base assessment on just a year or two of observations, or a year or two of research outputs, we could actually be playing into the hands of the (climate) skeptics."

Read more!