Total Vascular Flora of Singapore!
from Urban Forest
How to visit the shores of Singapore?
from wonderful creation
Students talk about Singapore’s future
from Pulau Hantu
Fungi and Other Fauna @ MNT
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature
Tanimbar Corella’s eating behaviour
from Bird Ecology Study Group
my garden
from Singapore Nature
Singapore Creates First Official LOHAS Region in Asia
from AsiaIsGreen
Singapore and Dutch groups team up in $5.2m project to help preserve saltwater-resistant plant
Amresh Gunasingham, Straits Times 14 Nov 09;
OVER the next four years, a group of researchers here will be taking notes on the natural and man-made factors that affect the survival of mangrove swamps.
They want to know, for example, how sea waves, sediments, storms and even the amount of shipping activity build up or curb the growth of these saltwater-resistant trees and shrubs native to tropical and sub-tropical coastlines.
The data they collect will be used here and in the region, where efforts are ongoing to preserve stretches of mangroves.
There are two reasons to protect them: Mangroves provide natural protection against erosion of the coastline. and they also play host to ecosystems of other plants and animals.
The world has already lost two- thirds of its mangroves - as much as 40,000 sq km - in the last century; here, if one goes back further to precolonial times, an estimated 97 per cent is already gone, in part through land reclamation and development.
Governments in the region are also looking into reversing the loss of mangroves, either through replanting, ensuring development respects the natural environment or by factoring mangrove conservation into projects.
The $5.2 million study is the baby of researchers from the Singapore-Delft Water Alliance, an inter-disciplinary research centre set up by the National University of Singapore (NUS), Dutch water specialist Delft Hydraulics and national water agency PUB.
Researchers will home in on five mangrove habitats here, including Sungei Buloh, Pasir Ris and Pulau Ubin.
The project's principal investigator, Assistant Professor Edward Webb of NUS' department of biological sciences, said the study has 'important implications' for the restoration of mangroves and their ecosystems.
Already, the team has noted, for example, that sandy beaches pounded incessantly by waves are unsuitable sites for mangroves to take root.
'So we need the right combination of hydrodynamics and sediment input to support mangroves,' he explained.
Prime mangrove-growing conditions have come together to give rise to the thriving mangrove forests of Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and Pasir Ris Park, which are regularly used by students as outdoor classrooms.
Dr Daniel Friess, a geomorphologist from NUS also working on the project, said mangroves play an ecological role, in that the nutrients they produce can, for example, support offshore fish farms.
Mangrove forests, with their complex tangle of roots and trunks, can also fulfil an all-natural engineering role: Aside from preventing shoreline erosion and reducing sedimentation in coastal waters, they can act as natural barriers against tsunamis.
The tsunami of December 2004 wiped out many coastal towns, but villages on coasts fringed by mangroves were protected from total destruction.
Dr Friess added that with sea levels expected to rise by up to 59cm by 2100 as a result of global warming, low-lying areas could go under water. Mangroves left as they are could complement man-made sea walls to minimise the damage.
Associate Professor Vladan Babovic, the director of the Singapore-Delft Water Alliance, pointed to this use of mangroves to restore parts of Singapore's ecological landscape that includes fish, seagrass and corals.
To overcome the effects of climate change, a combination of 'hard' and 'soft' methods is needed, he said.
'Building concrete sea walls can fulfil a certain function, but by promoting biodiversity, we can also use nature to reinforce the engineering function,' he explained.
Energy Carta pushing clean-tech sector; 18,000 new jobs likely by 2015
Eisen Teo, Straits Times 14 Nov 09;
JOB seekers could be missing out on green-collar jobs - employment opportunities in areas that help to save the environment - believes Energy Carta, a non-profit organisation here.
The field is new, and it could do with some crusaders to help sell it.
The group, founded two years ago by five final-year undergraduates from the National University of Singapore (NUS), aims to get across the message that environmentally conscious youths can find career prospects in the clean-tech sector.
The area is expected to contribute $1.7 billion to Singapore's gross domestic product and offer 18,000 new jobs by 2015.
It may be easy to get youths enthusiastic about projects that centre on sustainable development and environmental issues. The problem is that few venture into the field after they graduate from university.
One of Energy Carta's founders, bank management associate Chean Yujun, 26, puts this down to a lack of awareness.
And it is the non-engineering students who are least interested, so Ms Alison Wong, 21, a third-year environmental engineering student at NUS and an Energy Carta member since April, believes.
Many think environmental conservation does not really concern them, she said, or that it belongs to the domain of engineers.
But the group wants to make it known through events such as talks and seminars that the local clean-tech sector offers jobs even for non-engineering types.
These include designing and managing green buildings, carbon trading and developing more energy-efficient computing, or 'green computing'.
Today, Energy Carta has 30 members, with a following of more than 800 on Facebook.
Through its annual events like the Asian Youth Energy Summit (Ayes), students can rub shoulders with speakers from clean-tech industry giants such as Asia Cleantech Capital and Vestas.
Its second summit was staged at NUS over two days in September, and brought together 238 youths and speakers from more than 30 clean-tech companies.
It was organised in tandem with the Chevron Case Challenge, a competition to promote appreciation of issues facing the energy industry.
Almost 100 teams mapped out a 20-year energy plan for a fictitious city, and the winning team walked away with $3,000 in cash.
Ayes director Bharath Seshadri, 20, a final-year NUS mechanical engineering student, joined Energy Carta in April last year to learn how to apply pragmatic solutions to environmental problems.
'That's better than simply railing against global warming and environmental pollution,' said the Indian national, who is gunning for a job in the energy industry after he graduates next year.
'We must all work together to leave our planet in a better position than we found it.'
To find out more, visit http://www.energycarta.org
Green-collar jobs
Sustainable architect
Designs green buildings which efficiently use energy and water resources, reduce waste and pollution, and protect the health of occupants.
Environmental engineer
Applies science and engineering principles to optimise the environment for human habitation, which includes rehabilitating polluted land. Studies the environmental impact of proposed construction projects and advises on treatment of industrial waste.
Green IT professional
Straits Times 14 Nov 09;
Installs, maintains and trouble-shoots computing and communications systems that cut down on energy wastage and pollution.
Carbon trader
Brokers deals between companies that buy credits from other companies to offset their carbon emissions.
Clean energy researcher
Conducts research and development for clean technologies.
Some organisations that offer green-collar jobs in Singapore
Economic Development Board (Alternative Energy), Energy Market Authority, Energy Studies Institute, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Renewable Energy Corporation, Siemens, The Carbon Neutral Company, Urban Redevelopment Authority, Vestas Wind Systems.
The diesel-electric buses consume 30% less fuel and are disabled-friendly
Christopher Tan Straits Times 14 Nov 09;
JUST a week after a taxi operator rolled out Singapore's first hybrid taxis, two green buses are set to hit the roads here.
The buses, which run on a combination of diesel and battery power, are said to use up to 30 per cent less fuel than conventional ones.
As a result, their tailpipe emissions, which are harmful to the environment, will also be cut.
The buses, assembled in China, were the result of a joint venture led by ST Kinetics, a Singapore engineering company better known for its military vehicles.
ST Kinetics teamed up with two other companies to make the hybrid buses: Chinese bus-maker King Long, which supplied the chassis, and ALP Energy, which supplied the lithium battery management system.
The latter is owned by Singapore-born businessman Lim Loong Keng, who is now a Canadian.
ST Kinetics is currently in talks with two bus operators about running trials for the buses.
The Straits Times understands they are SMRT Corp and Brickston Transport, a company whose main business is ferrying factory workers.
ST Kinetics hopes to convince the two firms of the buses' viability during the trial, and hopes they will order more such coaches in future.
Brickston's owner Colin Gan, 50, is already swayed by the prospect of lower running costs. 'First and foremost, it can save fuel. And then it's also green.
'I've told them, if everything is set, I'm prepared to take 10 coaches.'
An SMRT spokesman would say only that the firm was 'studying the feasibility of adding eco-friendly alternatives, including hybrid buses, to our bus fleet'.
ST Kinetics has dabbled in so-called 'alternative energy' vehicles in the past. Since 1997, it has invested more than $80 million in start-ups dealing with such vehicles in the United States, China and South Korea.
Last year, it had a commercial breakthrough when it delivered a fleet of hybrid baggage tow trucks to Changi Airport. In electric mode, the trucks were found to be suitable for the enclosed, air-conditioned areas they often operate in.
The two hybrid buses will be the first diesel-electric vehicles to ply public roads here. The hybrid cars and taxis here are petrol-electric.
Besides their green credentials, the buses also comply with the latest government requirements for public buses - they provide wheelchair-accessibility, for example.
The one drawback of the buses: Cost. At $500,000 apiece, they are between 25 per cent and 30 per cent more expensive than conventional buses.
Bus operators The Straits Times spoke to cited this as a potential hurdle to adopting the vehicles. The uncertainty of the new technology is another, they added.
However, ST Kinetics general manager Mah Chi Jui pointed out that the vehicles' lower fuel costs mean long-term savings for the operators.
A bus company would take just three years to recoup the extra money spent on a green bus, he said.
Meanwhile, Singapore's biggest bus company, SBS Transit, said it is also exploring the possibility of buying hybrid buses.
The company has some experience with green buses - SBS Transit already runs 12 compressed natural gas variants here.
In addition, its parent group, ComfortDelGro Corp, owns London public bus operator Metroline, which is currently trying out five hybrid buses there.
A ComfortDelGro spokesman said the London trials have been successful.
Between them, SBS Transit and SMRT operate close to 4,000 buses. There are another 2,500 or so private buses with 35 seats or more. The vast majority run on diesel.
Allison La I, The Star 14 Nov 09;
MALACCA: This state may be renowned as an international tourist destination possessing modern trappings coupled with old world charm, yet little is known of its hidden jewel along the city’s coastline that is a haven for thousands of migratory birds.
One such area is the mangrove forest along the Bandar Hilir coastline fronting the Pulau Melaka reclaimed island, where thousands of birds flock to roost just as the sun begins to set.
Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Bird Conservation Committee (Waterbird Groups) co-ordinator Ang Teck Hin said he was impressed after seeing the abundance of birds, especially the graceful white egrets.
Despite the city’s coastline having undergone changes due to reclamation since the 1980s, he said there remained small pockets of mangrove forest that continue to support a rich eco-system.
“It is heartening to see how resilient Mother Nature can be if you consider that the coastline is reclaimed and not natural.
“Yet the mangrove managed to take root and flourish in just a decade, to become home to myriad species of waterbirds,” he said when met at Pulau Melaka recently.
Ang, who was promoting the Pulau Melaka Bridge as a bird-watching area, said there were some 3,000 white cattle egrets (bangau kerbau) and about 200 black-crowned night heron (pucung kuak) sighted.
He noted that a large number of the birds had originally roosted at a patch of gazetted mangrove in Ujong Pasir next to the Portuguese Settlement but had moved here recently.
“We were informed that there used to be almost 2,000 egrets and several hundred of herons there. However, recent development and noise disturbances have forced them to relocate here,” he said.
He noted that these two particular waterbirds were protected species, with a good number of the white cattle egrets having made Malacca their permanent home despite being migratory in nature.
He said the mangrove, covering less than 3ha, is used by some 20 species of migratory birds which roost here to escape the harsh winter months in Siberia, Mongolia, northern China and Central Asia.
“They migrate and spend their winters in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia during the months of August to April.
“Then they fly northwards again to their breeding grounds starting from March,” explained Ang, adding that Malacca was one of their stopovers on this passage as well as being the final destination in the cold season, wintering here for six months.
Meanwhile, MNS Negri Sembilan & Malacca branch chairman Lim Ming Hui was excited at the sighting of two new migratory bird species, the Eurasian Curlew (kendi besar) and Pacific Golden Plover (rapang kerinyut), at the mangrove forest here.
“Not many people would take up bird-watching as a hobby but at least we have opened their eyes to the rich bird life found along the Malacca city coastline.
“Hopefully, there will be greater awareness for the need to protect this unique habitat,” she said.
Besides roosting at the mangrove, she said the waterbirds would usually feed along the mudflats during low tide.
More than 300 tourists and members of the public were at the site recently to watch the graceful birds as they returned to the mangrove.
Banda Hilir assemblyman Tey Kok Kiew said he would push the state to gazette the area as a bird-watching site.
He added that besides helping to preserve nature, the bird-watching activity could also attract tourists.
Fidelis E. Satriastanti, The Jakarta Globe 13 Nov 09;
With most river basins in the country suffering from severe degradation, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences is trying out a new rehabilitation approach involving replanting species endemic to areas near the water.
Didik Widyatmoko, the head of research at the institute, also known as LIPI, said they had so far planted 5,500 seeds on two locations — a public area and a protected, private one.
More than six hectares of public land in Girimukti, West Java — an upstream area of the Citarum River — have been planted with about 3,100 seeds comprising 33 species, including avocado, rambutan, durian, mango and orange. The project also aims to help provide a source of livelihood for residents in the area, who can harvest and sell the fruit.
Meanwhile, on four hectares of protected land in Bodogol, in West Java’s Gede Pangrango National Park, upstream of the Cisadane River, 2,400 seeds from eight species endemic to the area have been planted to restore the land to its natural habitat.
“Planting is important, but the aim of the project is for research,” Didik said. “On one hand, it is for conservation, on the other it could be used for economic purposes.”
Didik said the Rp 250 million ($26,000) project would be monitored every three months over the next five years to determine the plants’ growth and survival rates.
“We’re predicting that most of the plants will mature after five years and we’re hoping the ecosystem will have been restored by that time,” he said.
Sumarto Suharno, head of the Gede Pangrango National Park, said there were about 7,655 more hectares that needed to be restored in the area.
“So, that’s our biggest challenge now. This land used to be productive, with more than 5,000 families living here,” Sumarto said. “We’ve also been doing land rehabilitation with the help of other stakeholders. We hope the LIPI model can work perfectly.”
Endang Sukara, deputy chairman for life sciences at LIPI, said the researchers hoped to develop a model to help residents restore and rehabilitate their own areas.
“If it succeeds, then we’ll need to bring this to a higher level [of bureaucracy] as a recommendation, because the idea for rehabilitation or restoration should be based on scientific research,” Endang said.
www.chinaview.cn 13 Nov 09;
JAKARTA, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- Finnish global paper giant UPM-Kymmene planned to stop purchasing pulp from Asia Pacific Resources International Holding Limited (APRIL), which has involved in rainforest destruction in Riau province of Indonesia, Green peace said here Friday.
The decision comes following a move by dozens of Green peace activists from around the world who chained themselves to escavators in a logged peat land forest the province, demanding the United States to take more actions to end deforestation. The activists are now being detained by the police.
Greenpeace campaigner for Southeast Asia Bustar Maitar said that UPM, which supplies products like photocopy paper to global markets including the United States, China, Europe and Australia, admitted that APRIL's pulp "comes from a very delicate environment."
"It is reported that the firm would begin to cancel its contract with APRIL," Maitar told Xinhua over phone.
"The plan indicated a very positive move by UPM to help protect Indonesia's rainforests and carbon rich peatlands, the destruction of which leads to climate change, mass species extinction and causing poverty in forest dependent communities," he added.
"If international companies start distancing themselves from this environmental disaster, the call to end global deforestation here and around the globe will only get louder and louder."
Greenpeace estimates the contract to be equal to over 4 percent of APRIL's total pulp production, worth over 55 million U.S. dollars annually.
The campaigner said that APRIL had involved in forest destruction as the firm still had not licencing completely and operating at the peatland area in which its depth was more than 3 meters.
Besides, the firm had started operation before completing assessment of the location of the highly conservative forest.
"This is illegal under Indonesian law," said Maitar.
Emma Rowley, Sky News Online 13 Nov 09;
Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin has been honoured three years after his death, by having a rare new species named after him.
But instead of an exotic croc or another headline-grabbing beast, the name of the late Australian naturalist is being lent to a humble snail.
The tree snail, Crikey steveirwini, lives in the mountainous regions of north Queensland near Cairns.
Queensland Museum scientist Dr John Stanisic, who discovered the snail, said it shared some unique qualities with its namesake.
"In contrast with its more drab coloured ground-dwelling relatives, Crikey steveirwini is a colourful snail, with swirling bands of creamy yellow, orange-brown and chocolate giving the shell an overall khaki appearance," he said.
"It was the khaki colour that immediately drew the connection to the late Crocodile Hunter."
The 44-year-old, known for exclaiming "Crikey" when confronted with a particularly deadly animal, habitually wore a khaki shirt and shorts during his on-camera encounters with the natural world.
The extremely rare snail has only been found in three places, on the summits of high mountains in far north Queensland and at altitudes above 1,000 metres.
"These mountainous habitats will be among the first to feel the effects of climate change and Steve Irwin's tree snail could become a focal species for monitoring this change," Dr Stanisic added.
Irwin's widow Terri said the naturalist would have been delighted to have a new species bear his name and signature cry.
She said: "Steve also had a long history of collaborating with staff at the Queensland Museum and I'm sure he would be pleased to know his name is continuing to highlight a rare and endangered Queensland species."
Dr Stanisic will present a commemorative certificate to the Irwin family on Sunday as part of Steve Irwin Day celebrations at Australia Zoo, which he co-owned with his wife.
Irwin's daredevil antics, which saw him go face-to-face with deadly creatures such as crocodiles and poisonous snakes, won him a global following.
He was killed in September 2006 in a freak accident involving a stingray as he filmed an underwater documentary off Australia's northeast coast.
Rare species discovery honours wildlife campaigner Steve Irwin
Queensland Museum 12 Nov 09;
Queensland Museum scientist Dr John Stanisic has named a rare species of tree snail discovered in north Queensland in honour of wildlife advocate and conservationist Steve Irwin.
The snail, Crikey steveirwini, was found in the mountainous regions of north Queensland's Wet Tropics near Cairns.
Honorary Research Fellow Dr Stanisic said that like its namesake, the Crikey steveirwini is a unique creature with some interesting qualities that set it apart from other land snails.
"This is an extremely rare species of snail," Dr Stanisic said.
"So far it has only been found in three locations, all on the summits of high mountains in far north Queensland and at altitudes above 1,000 metres which is quite unusual for Australian land snails.
"These mountainous habitats will be among the first to feel the effects of climate change and Steve Irwin's tree snail could become a focal species for monitoring this change.
"In contrast with its more drab coloured ground-dwelling relatives, Crikey steveirwini is a colourful snail, with swirling bands of creamy yellow, orange-brown and chocolate giving the shell an overall khaki appearance.
"It was the khaki colour that immediately drew the connection to the late Crocodile Hunter," Dr Stanisic said.
Dr Stanisic will present a commemorative certificate to the Irwin family this Sunday 15 November as part of Steve Irwin Day celebrations at Australia Zoo. He will also talk about his discovery and have some Crikey steveirwini snail shells on hand for visitors to see.
Steve Irwin's wife Terri Irwin said Steve would have been delighted to have a new species bear both his name and his signature catch cry.
"Steve worked tirelessly to promote conservation, wildlife and the environment and his work enabled the plight of endangered species to reach a whole new audience," Ms Irwin said.
"Steve also had a long history of collaborating with staff at the Queensland Museum and I'm sure he would be pleased to know his name is continuing to highlight a rare and endangered Queensland species."
Steve Irwin was awarded the Museum's highest accolade in 2003 - the Queensland Museum Medal - for his exceptional contribution to the understanding and appreciation of Australian wildlife at an international level and his commitment and passion to conservation and the environment.
The discovery of the Crikey steveirwini was announced publicly in Dr Stanisic's paper published in the online scientific journal, Zootaxa. The full paper can be accessed at www.mapress.com/zootaxa/taxa/Mollusca.html.
Species profile: Crikey steveirwini Stanisic, 2009
Etymology: In memory of the late Steve Irwin, wildlife warrior, environmental educator and Queensland Museum medallist.
Holotype: QMMO 78184, Mount Spurgeon, 7 km north, 16°22'S, 145°13'E, altitude 1250 m. Collected by G.B. Monteith, H. Janetzki, L. Roberts, 19 October 1991.
Description: Shell medium-sized, yellowish cream to creamy brown with dark chocolate-brown spiral bands of various widths, turbinate with a very high spire; whorls rounded, sutures weakly impressed; protoconch with vague radial ridges to smooth, teleoconch with weak radial growth threads and incised spiral striae; lip weakly thickened, brown; imperforate; height to 15mm.
Distribution: Central Wet Tropics (uplands), North East Queensland.
Key localities: Mt Lewis; Mt Spurgeon; Lambs Head, West of Edmonton.
Habitat and ecology: Rainforest; arboreal living on leaves on trees.
The "new energy" economy rolls forward even as hopes for an international deal to combat climate change at Copenhagen shift into reverse.
Douglas Fischer, Scientific American 13 Nov 09;
BRIGHTON, Colo. - The low-carbon economy has already arrived on the windy prairie north of this fast-growing Denver 'burb. It's here that Danish wind-turbine giant Vestas converted 298 acres of hayfield into the West's largest turbine factory - and turned Brighton into a magnet for "green" energy companies.
It's part of a $1 billion investment by the company in the United States, what Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter touts as a "new energy economy."
"We have a caseload of 56 prospects. Of those, a majority are energy-related industries," said Raymond Gonzales, president of the Brighton Economic Development Corporation. "People are looking. They're not slowing down. And they're aggressively looking at the United States."
Some say these efforts - not the upcoming Copenhagen climate treaty talks - provide the most promising route to energy independence, climate change mitigation and job creation.
Regardless of whether delegates emerge next month with a comprehensive replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, industry's full-throttle acceleration toward a low-carbon future will continue, they say.
Vestas isn't the only company spending millions of its capital. Several utilities are investing some $1 billion on an industrial-scale carbon capture and storage tests at coal plants in Wisconsin, West Virginia and Oklahoma. The race to perfect the batteries that will power the next generation of automobiles and buses has manufacturers in Europe, the United States and China scurrying to build plants and research centers.
"The vast majority of the utility industry (has) pretty much accepted the reality that CO2 is something they have to cope with," said Revis James, director of the energy technology assessment center for the Electric Power Research Institute, or EPRI, a California-based nonprofit that helps drive long-range development and is coordinating carbon capture experiments at coal plants in the Midwest and Southeast.
Failure in Copenhagen won't "substantially stop what's going to happen," James added. "The utilities have to deal with (carbon emissions). They have to respond one way or another."
Many business leaders and policy analysts counter the status quo - a piecemeal, federated approach to carbon and energy emissions - doesn't carry enough of a signal to produce the revolution required of our economic and energy sectors.
Private-sector investments and regional and local government efforts to boost "green" technology are good, they say. But that's just the down payment: The transformative change necessary to avoid the worst warming won't come until the international community firmly sets a global standard in place.
"What you want is something sustainable, predictable and long-term," said Roby Roberts, spokesman for Vestas Americas. "That's what you want out of the climate rules, but that's going to be a few years away."
Vestas is making its $1 billion bet in the United States because local governments have sent enough of a signal and all signs point to the country as the next great wind market, Roberts said. For instance, some 29 states have imposed renewable fuel portfolio standards - requirements that utilities generate a minimum percentage of their electricity from renewable fuels such as wind, solar or geothermal.
"Given the fundamentals in the United States, it does rival any place in the world," Roberts said. "Instead of waiting, we're putting out money there."
But the lack of certainty is unsettling, Roberts acknowledged. Renewable fuels standards are inconsistent. Tax and pricing policies are fickle. "They have a lot of off-ramps that really give you pause."
True change, advocates say, will not happen until carbon has a price. And that needs either comprehensive domestic energy and climate legislation now before the Senate or a worldwide climate treaty.
"You can't have on-again, off-again fiscal policies," said Energy Secretary Stephen Chu at a White House press briefing last month. "As soon as you stop fooling around with all this on-again, off-again stuff you start seeing real growth."
So what, then, to make of all the growth underway?
Outside Racine, Wisc., the plume from We Energies' Pleasant Prairie power plant dominates the skyline, sending some 3,500 gallons a minute of vaporized Lake Michigan water pouring skyward round the clock.
The 1,300-megawatt plant is Wisconsin's biggest. But down below, deep in the shadow of the plant's 450-foot stack, is the feature that makes this plant unique in the state: A way to capture some of the carbon dioxide it sends skyward from all that coal.
Bolted to the plant is a labyrinth of pipes, valves and catwalks surrounding two modest cooling towers. Diverted flue gas is cooled and filtered through ammonia in one column, then pumped to the other, where steam from the plant reheats it and strips off the carbon.
It is simply a test. The five-story contraption is dwarfed by other scrubbers stripping soot, sulfur and other pollutants from the plant's flue. It can capture 90 percent of the carbon dioxide from the exhaust, although We Energies is diverting less than 1 percent of its flue through the CO2 scrubber.
There's no place to store that carbon anywhere in Wisconsin - the state's geology is just too porous, say plant operators - and so after capture the carbon dioxide is released back into the flue stream.
But the test is a success - the first industrial-scale example of carbon capture in the United States. It is step No. 1 in a three-part, $1.1 billion experiment being conducted by a consortium of energy companies to establish that carbon capture and sequestration technology can strip greenhouse gas emissions from today's coal-fired power plants.
The second part of this experiment went online last month: American Electric Power's Mountaineer plant in West Virginia became the first plant in the United States to sequester carbon dioxide emissions, diverting approximately 20 megawatt's worth of emissions and burying the carbon dioxide in saline rock formations 8,000 feet below the Ohio River. The third test, expected to start in 2012, will scale the process up to a semi-commercial production - a 200-megawatt coal plant in Oklahoma.
AEP, We Energies and 37 other partners involved with these tests are working feverishly to show that baseload coal can be part of a low-carbon energy future, said Henry Courtright, senior vice president of EPRI, which is helping coordinate the project.
They're not waiting for regulations, he added. They're looking to beat them.
A new carbon framework will emerge, Courtright said. And if coal doesn't have a way to beat those constraints, it will be left behind.
"We see a great deal of (regulatory) uncertainty over the next 10 years," Courtright said. "That's why it's vitally important to have this carbon capture technology in place by 2015. If it slips out, you're probably looking at nuclear as your low-carbon, predictable energy source."
In this sense, Copenhagen is irrelevant.
Managers building next-generation battery plants or looking for places to put wind turbine factories aren't worried the talks will end in mid-December with no consensus on carbon limits.
They fear their competitors - or a different industry, or an as-yet unseen technology, or even another country - will emerge victorious in the race to decarbonize various industrial and economic sectors.
China intends to invest $1 million an hour for the next decade - $88 billion in all - in green technologies. The Energy Department expects solar and wind to balloon into a $3.5 trillion market. President Obama last month offered up $3.4 billion in matching grants to hasten development of a "smart grid" in the United States.
"What's truly amazing is the amount of investment flowing into green technology in the absence of any price signal," said Kristen Sheeran, director of the Economics for Equity and the Environment Network. "It's clear we'll continue to see these kinds of investments flowing into green technology, if for no other reason that the Chinese are doing it ... and U.S. producers are realizing this is where the future is going to be made."
But to maximize development - to see revolution across vast sectors of the economy - many economists say government has to step in with some sort of incentive or signal.
In general, economists see two ways to drive new technologies and shift cultural paradigms: Policy makers can push the technology into the market by targeting investing at specific research. Or they can pull it by setting a bar or standard and offering incentives to clear the mark.
Economists disagree wildly on the effectiveness of various strategies. California in the late 1990s and early 2000s tried to pull the automobile market into electric power by requiring that a certain percentage of each automaker's sales in the state be zero-emissions vehicles. President Carter in the 1970s tried to push the development of solar and wind energies, investing some $1.4 billion a year in solar alone by 1981. Neither ultimately worked.
So far federal and state governments have mostly pushed efforts to decarbonize the economy, offering grants and tax incentives for specific projects.
But so long as carbon is free, those efforts push against prevailing economic forces, said Adam Jaffe, dean of College of Arts and Sciences and professor of economics at Brandeis University.
"You can push against economic forces, and you may have some success, but if you get a framework that puts a price on carbon, then the economic forces are on your side," he said.
For climate this is particularly crucial, he said, given the problem is global, the consequences dire, the remedies unknown and almost uncountable.
Jaffe as analogy compares a price on carbon to the economic incentives that have sent generations of miners off to the hills in search of glory and riches: Instead of searching for gold, these new carbon prospectors will be looking for ways to cut emissions.
"We don't know where the deposits are or how deep in the ground they are or which are expensive and which are cheap," he said. "But the clearest thing to do, if you want a whole bunch of people running around prospecting for carbon, is to make it clear that carbon has value."
Sheeran agrees. Failure at Copenhagen means technical change continues, albeit in fits and starts. It will remain confined mostly in the developed world, continuing the global technological divide.
It also likely won't force the breakthroughs that can bring the steep emissions cuts necessary to keep atmospheric carbon dioxide levels at 350 parts per million - a threshold the globe passed in 1987 and that is seen simultaneously as impossible to reach yet crucial to maintain to avoid the worst climatic effects.
"The faster we can get a price signal the faster we can get across that the era of carbon emissions is coming to an end," she said.
A taste of that new era can found out here on the Colorado prairie, where Weld County Road 4 has been renamed New Energy Drive.
Right now it's the taste of dust. Vestas' two plants are going up faster than Weld and Adams counties can pave the roads to the site, and truck traffic combined with winds whipped the grit across the landscape on a recent autumn afternoon.
But soon it will be the taste of money, or so city leaders hope.
Vestas is bringing 2,000 jobs to the region, and Brighton civic leaders anticipate the creation of another 4,000 as the plant draws ancillary suppliers.
The city spent $40 million in infrastructure improvements last year alone, including $8 million delivering sewage, water, utilities and other upgrades to the Vestas site.
Raymond Gonzales, president of the city's Economic Development Corporation, grew up in Brighton before leaving for Washington, D.C., and a stint in Albuquerque as then-Gov. Bill Richardson's labor secretary.
He remembers when Brighton was a farm town with nothing but a K-Mart distribution center on its outskirts. That's still there, except now it is landlocked by neighborhoods and shopping centers. The city is booming, having evolved from farms to a bedroom community to a live/work place of its own. It has a new hospital, new City Hall, new $5.5 million library. The old Armory re-opened last month as an arts center, the first time Brighton has had such a center since the opera house burned on July 25, 1955.
"Having a federal framework is critical to the success of this," Gonzales said. "Federal policy, state policy has to be in favor of attracting these kinds of investments."
Colorado wants that economy and has put the state policy in place, said James Martin, executive director of Colorado's Department of Public Health and the Environment. Federal and international policies will eventually follow. But in the meantime, he added, there's plenty of work for states and local governments to do.
"I don't think you'll see any retrenchment in Colorado" if federal or international climate mitigation efforts collapse, he said. "These are very large markets that will exist no matter what."
"Copenhagen is tremendously important for a host of reasons," he added. "But our commitment to renewable energy and natural gas are independent of the climate debate in many respects."
"You'll see that across the country," he said. "As industry leaders break out of the pack and demonstrate it can be done, everybody follows."
"It's a new paradigm, but it's a fairly painless paradigm shift."
This article originally appeared at The Daily Climate, the climate change news source published by Environmental Health Sciences, a nonprofit media company.
* Investment in restoring ecosystems can bring high returns
* Subsidy reform, REDD actions need to be endorsed
Nina Chestney, Reuters 13 Nov 09;
LONDON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Nations that take into account natural resources in their investment strategies will have higher rates of return and stronger economies, a report backed by the United Nations' Environment Programme said on Friday.
With less than one month until a U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen, the report urges policymakers to reform their economic policies to stop the destruction of natural resources such as forests and oceans.
"Repairing the ecosystem by replanting forests, restoring mangroves along coastlines or rebuilding coral reefs are very smart ways of doing adaptation. People going into Copenhagen are not necessarily aware of these things," Pavan Sukhdev, the leader of the study prepared by UNEP's Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity Initiative, told Reuters.
For example, planting and protecting nearly 12,000 hectares of mangroves in Vietnam costs over $1 million but it saves over $7 million in dyke maintenance expenditure.
The report estimates that investment in mangrove and woodland restoration could achieve rates of return up to 40 percent, tropical forest investment up to 50 percent and grassland investment 79 percent.
"We studied the economics of using nature better -- through adaptation and restoration. In each case we found the benefits exceed the cost, typically between 3 and 75 times," Sukhdev said.
Brazil, India and Indonesia emerged as leaders in leveraging natural capital, while Korea has also got good plans, Sukhdev added.
"Governments need to pay attention to this report and start looking at nature in a more holistic way," WWF director Gordon Shepherd said. "With smarter approaches to economics this can change but right now we are paying for their ignorance."
SUBSIDIES
The report also calls for reform to subsidies which harm the environment. The worst subsidies are for fossil fuels, which total between $240 billion and $300 billion a year globally.
Global fishery subsidies, which amount to $34 billion out of a $90 billion market, should also be reformed to prevent the collapse of fisheries around the world.
Measures to combat deforestation, which accounts for almost 20 percent of current greenhouse gas emissions, should also be given priority.
Under a U.N.-market based forestry scheme called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD), rich countries reward developing nations for preserving forests to prevent emissions through the use of an expanded carbon market.
REDD+ expands the idea to protection, restoration and sustainable management of forests.
Several nations want to see REDD incorporated into a new global climate agreement.
"REDD+, as well as ecological restoration, need to be given a bit of a fillet through the Copenhagen process. These are the first two steps on the ladder. When these get going then a lot else will fall in place," Sukhdev said.
(Editing by Sue Thomas)
Policy makers urged to look at role environment plays in supporting communities
IUCN 13 Nov 09;
The importance of biodiversity and ecosystems to economies around the world is the focus of a series of five reports from the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study. The latest TEEB report, tailored for policy makers, is released today.
TEEB is a major international initiative, of which IUCN is an integral part, which brings together expertise from the fields of science, economics and policy to draw attention to the economic benefits of biodiversity and the financial impact if we don’t protect species and the natural world.
This latest report is geared towards national and international policy makers, to make them aware of the critical role that environmental systems play in supporting communities, be they large or small.
Joshua Bishop, IUCN’s Chief Economist, says “with the global economic crisis, the time is right for policy makers to look for new ways to kick start their economies and to renew employment whilst, at the same time, protecting the environment. The TEEB report should show them how to do that."
An interim report, released in May 2008, showed how the degradation of biodiversity and ecosystems can significantly compromise economic growth and efforts to reduce poverty.
IUCN's Chief Economist Joshua Bishop explains latest TEEB report (2.76MB PDF)
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) website
EEB report released on the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for National and International Policymakers
UNEP 13 Nov 09;
Brussels, 13 November 2009 - Policy-makers who factor the planet's multi-trillion dollar ecosystem services into their national and international investment strategies are likely to see far higher rates of return and stronger economic growth in the 21st century, a new report issued today says.
Some countries have already made the link to a limited extent and are glimpsing benefits in terms of jobs, livelihoods and economic returns that outstrip those wedded to older economic models of the previous century.
* In Venezuela, investment in the national protected area system is preventing sedimentation that otherwise could reduce farm earnings by around US$3.5 million a year (Pabon-Zamora et al.2008).
* Planting and protecting nearly 12,000 hectares of mangroves in Vietnam costs just over US$1 million but saved annual expenditures on dyke maintenance of well over US$7 million (Tallis et al. 2008).
* One in 40 jobs in Europe are now linked with the environment and ecosystem services ranging from clean tech 'eco-industries' to organic agriculture, sustainable forestry and eco-tourism.
* Investment in the protection of Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve is generating an annual of income of close to US$50 million a year, has generated 7,000 jobs and boosted local family incomes (CBD 2008).
The new report, prepared by The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) initiative hosted by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), calls on policy-makers to accelerate, scale-up and embed investments in the management and restoration of ecosystems.
It also calls for more sophisticated cost benefit analysis before policy-decisions are made. The report cites a study on mangroves in south Thailand on the conversion of mangroves into shrimp farms.
Subsidized commercial shrimp farms can generate returns of around US$1,220 per hectare by clearing mangrove forests. But this does not take into account the losses to local communities totaling over US$12,000 a hectare linked with wood and non-wood forest products, fisheries and coastal protection services (Barbier 2007).
Nor does the profit to the commercial operators take into account the costs of rehabilitating the abandoned sites after five years of exploitation - estimated at over US$9,000 a hectare.
Speaking at a press conference in Brussels today, Pavan Sukhdev, TEEB's Study Leader, said: "Nature's multiple and complex values have direct economic impacts on human well being and public and private spending. Recognizing and rewarding the value delivered to society by the natural environment must become a policy priority.
The economic invisibility of ecosystems and biodiversity is increased by our dominant economic model, which is consumption-led, production-driven, and GDP-measured. This model is in need of significant reform. The multiple crises we are experiencing - fuel, food, finance, and the economy - serve as reminders of the need for change.
It is now up to governments to provide fiscal or other incentives to move us from short-term opportunism to long term stewardship. The right policies can help us move toward a resource efficient economy."
The report comes in advance of the UN climate convention meeting in Copenhagen where governments are expected to give the green light to funding developing countries to maintain forests.
Close to 20 percent of current global greenhouse gas emissions are linked with deforestation. Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) aims to counter this while also generating financial flows from North to South.
REDD and REDD+, which includes not only maintaining forests but planting and recovering forest systems, secured the backing of close 15 presidents and prime ministers at a special meeting hosted last month by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said:
"Paying developing countries under REDD marks a fundamental step forward in terms of bringing the huge financial importance of ecosystems and biodiversity into the centre of economic activity."
"It could open the door to more creative and forward-looking funds and mechanisms covering other nature-based infrastructure such as peatlands and wetlands en route to support for the services generated by coastal and marine ecosystems such as coral reefs to mangroves," he said.
The report outlines a ten-point plan aimed at catalyzing a transition to more ecosystem savvy economies able to meet the multiple challenges and deliver the multiple opportunities on a planet of six billion people, rising to nine billion by 2050.
The report has a number of key recommendations for policymakers to consider:
1: Invest in ecological infrastructure: This can provide cost-effective opportunities to increase resilience to climate change, reduce risk from natural hazards, improve food and water security, and contribute to poverty alleviation. Up-front investments in maintenance and conservation are almost always cheaper than trying to restore damaged ecosystems, and the social benefits that flow from restoration can be several times higher than the costs. Preliminary TEEB estimates suggest that the potential rates of return can reach 40 percent for mangrove and woodlands/shrublands, 50 percent for tropical forests and 79 percent for grasslands when the multiple ecosystems services are taken into account.
2: Reward benefits through payments and markets: Payments for ecosystem services (PES schemes) from local (e.g. water provisioning) to global (the REDD-Plus proposal for Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, as well as from afforestation, reforestation, and effective conservation).
3: Reform environmentally harmful subsidies: Reforming subsidies that are inefficient, outdated or harmful makes double sense during a time of economic and ecological crisis.
4: Address losses through regulation and pricing: The cost of losses of biodiversity and ecosystem services should be tackled through regulatory frameworks that establish environmental standards and liability regimes. Designing a robust instrumental and market framework to confront resource users with these costs is a key priority for policy makers.
5: Recognise that protected areas are a cornerstone of conservation policies and provide multiple benefits: The global PA network covers around 13.9 percent of the Earth's land surface, 5.9 percent of territorial seas, and only 0.5 percent of the high seas: nearly a sixth of the world's population depend on protected areas for a significant percentage of their livelihoods. Investing US$45 billion in protected areas could secure vital nature-based services worth some US$5 trillion a year, including the sequestration of carbon, the protection and enhancement of water resources and protection against flooding (Balmford et al. 2002). There are also employment incentives, for example, in Bolivia protected-area tourism generates over 20,000 jobs, indirectly supporting over 100,000 people (Pabon-Zamora et al. 2009)
The TEEB study shows that benefits of reform are multiple. It also reinforces the growing evidence that there are a number of urgent strategic ecosystem priorities that require policy shifts to address them:
6: Halt deforestation and forest degradation should be an integral part of climate change mitigation and adaptation focused on 'green carbon'. It has the added benefit of preserving the huge range of services and goods forests provide to local people and the wider community;
7: Protect tropical coral reefs - and the associated livelihoods of half a billion people - through major efforts to avoid global temperature rise;
8: Save and restore global fisheries, which are currently under threat of collapse from over fishing;
9: Recognise the deep link between ecosystem degradation and the persistence of rural poverty and align policies across sectors with key Millennium Development Goals.
10: Agree to a forest carbon deal at Copenhagen.
Over 100 experts from science, economics and policy from across the globe have been involved in the research, analysis and writing of the TEEB for Policy-makers Report, which has been co-ordinated by Patrick ten Brink of the Institute of European Environmental Policy in Brussels.
TEEB is an independent study, lead by Pavan Sukhdev, hosted by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) with financial support from the European Commission; Germany, United Kingdom and the Netherlands, and recently joined by Norway and Sweden.
TEEB for policy-makers is one of a series of five interconnected reports. These include the Report on Ecological and Economic Foundations (parts of which were published online in September 2009) and targeted end-user outputs for local and regional administrators, business and citizens. These will be released in the coming months until the final TEEB synthesis report in October 2010. Work is also taking place to analyse a large number of economic values for the main types of ecosystem services around the world and these findings will also be available in 2010. Further information is at www.teebweb.org.
Economists fail to account for ‘natural capital’ – report
WWF 13 Nov 09;
Gland, Switzerland: Many economists are failing to assess the value of their countries’ natural resources, putting billion’s of people’s well-being at risk and contributing to catastrophic species loss, according to a new United Nations Environment Programme report.
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for National and International Policy Makers 2009 (TEEB), released today, states that governments must adopt better accounting systems that measure the true value of natural resources, and integrate them in government decision-making.
WWF welcomed the report, urging governments to heed the call to reform their economic policies to halt the destruction of natural resources.
“Governments need to pay attention to this report and start looking at nature in a more holistic way”, said WWF Director of Global and Regional Policy Gordon Shepherd, “With smarter approaches to economics this can change but right now we are paying for their ignorance.”
Investing in conservation, management and restoration of ecosystems will provide economic returns and services to society that outweigh the immediate monetary returns of unchecked use of natural resources, such as the clear-cutting of forests or overfishing, according to the report.
“We are running down our natural capital stock without understanding the value of what we are losing” the report states.
“Degradation of soils, air, water and biological resources can negatively impact on public health, food security, consumer choice and business opportunities. The rural poor, most dependent on the natural resource base, are often hardest hit,” according to the report.
“The problem is that economists do not give market prices for ecosystem services and biodiversity,” according to the study. “This means that the benefits we derive from these goods (often public in nature) are usually neglected or under-valued in decision-making.” “This in turn leads to actions that not only result in biodiversity loss, but also impact on human well-being.”
The report also makes several recommendations for policy-makers.
They include, for example, that policy must address reforming environmentally harmful subsidies – up to a third of which currently support fossil fuel use – and invest in ‘ecological infrastructure’. The latter “can provide cost-effective opportunities to meet policy objectives, such as increased resilience to climate change, reduced risk from natural hazards, and improved food and water security as a contribution to poverty alleviation.”
In addition, Shepherd said businesses must likewise re-evaluate their use of the natural resources on which they depend to ensure their long-term profits. In doing so, they can be part of the solution to current environmental crises, such as species loss and deforestation.
“Ultimately, this must be a wide-ranging effort to re-evaluate natural resources and it must involve everyone, including private industry, governments, international agreements like the Convention on Biological Diversity, and indigenous and local people,” said Shepherd. “It will take a concerted effort to make our planet healthy again.”
TEEB’s study on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity was launched by Germany and the European Commission in response to an earlier G8+5 Environment Ministers proposal to develop a global study on economics of biodiversity loss.
Esther Ng, Today Online 14 Nov 09;
SINGAPORE - A new school of thought seems to have emerged post-financial crisis: Whether economies have mended should be measured not just with financial yardsticks, but also social and ecological ones.
Those of this view believe that new paradigms are needed to manage both the economy and the environment.
According to a survey commissioned by electronics conglomerate Siemens, more than half of sustainability experts polled said the economic crisis may stimulate progress towards sustainable development, with 86 per cent anticipating increased investment in green technologies.
The findings of the study, The Economic Crisis and Sustainable Development, were released at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) CEO Summit on Friday, as leaders from 21 economies gathered to examine issues surrounding sustainability in the context of the global economic crisis.
About 270 people from government, the private sector, academia and non-profit organisations took part in the poll.
When asked for their ideas on fixing the world's economy, 22 per cent suggested a "triple bottomline" - one which includes environmental, economic and social performance.
To achieve this, they suggested switching to renewable and low-carbon sources and improving energy efficiency, while some called for better regulation of financial markets and banks.
Seven in 10 believe a green industrial revolution will improve people's living conditions and create jobs. While 52 per cent said the crisis may stimulate progress towards sustainable development, 30 per cent foresee a mild negative impact.
North American respondents (63 per cent) were most positive, as were those in Apec member economies (54 per cent).
But experts were split over whether a paradigm shift will take place in the next five years, with opinions ranging from very optimistic to very pessimistic.
Respondents in non-Apec economies were more inclined to be sceptical (52 per cent) than those Apec economies.
Lenore Taylor, The Australian 14 Nov 09;
Almost 250,000 homes, now worth up to $63 billion, will be "at risk of inundation" by the end of the century, under "worst-case but plausible" predictions of rising sea levels.
The study -- released ahead of the crucial Senate vote on Labor's emissions trading scheme -- modelled the effect of a 1.1m sea-level rise on cities and towns around Australia.
This is a higher level than the 79cm end-of-century rise predicted by the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, but in the mid-range of some subsequently published research.
It found between 157,000 and 247,000 homes "at risk of inundation" -- meaning they would be permanently flooded or frequently flooded by storm surges or king tides -- with hospitals, water-treatment plants and other public buildings also found to be at risk.
Even Sydney airport would be at "increased risk" of inundation, according to the study, written by the Department of Climate Change with input from CSIRO, Geosciences Australia and scores of academics.
The study -- which models possible risks down to township and local government areas complete with aerial photographs of towns showing the possible inundation -- appears timed to give the public a sharp reminder of the possible dangers of climate change.
It also increases pressure on the opposition as the government's ETS bill is brought back to parliament next week.
It found NSW had "the greatest exposure", with between 40,800 and 62,400 homes at risk, followed by Queensland (35,900 to 56,900), Victoria (27,600 to 44,600), South Australia (25,200 to 43,000) and Western Australia (18,700 to 28,000).
Within each state, it identified the local government areas where property was most "at risk" -- for NSW, Lake Macquarie, Wyong, Gosford, Wollongong, Shoalhaven and Rockdale; for Queensland, Moreton Bay, Mackay, the Gold Coast, Fraser Coast, Bundaberg and the Sunshine Coast; and for Victoria, Kingston, Geelong, Wellington and Port Phillip.
The study says that "based on the recent science 1.1m was selected as a plausible value for sea-level rise for this risk assessment. It is important to note that the purpose of a risk assessment is to identify areas of risk and therefore plausible worse-case scenarios need to be considered."
Andrew Ash, director of the CSIRO climate-change adaption flagship, said the 1.1m sea-level rise was "certainly plausible".
"As things stand, the only variation will be exactly when we reach that level," Dr Ash said.
Given the study was meant to help government planning decisions, it was therefore "both plausible and appropriate" to model a 1.1m rise.
As well as the threat of inundation, the study calculates how many buildings are under threat from "soft" erodable shorelines.
250,000 homes 'at risk' from rising seas
Sarah Clarke and staff, ABC 14 Nov 09;
A new report has warned that up to 250,000 homes around Australia will be inundated due to climate change by the turn of the century.
The Federal Government report titled Climate Change Risks to Australia's Coast is the most comprehensive assessment to date, taking into account a projected 1.1-metre rise in sea level and an increasing risk of extreme weather events like tidal and storm surges.
Up to $63 billion worth of residential property faces inundation, as well as 120 ports, some airports - including Brisbane and Sydney - and 1,800 bridges.
Rising sea levels also threaten the five power stations and three water treatment plants located within 200 metres of Australia's coastline.
Scientist Tim Flannery has been appointed to chair the next phase of this report and he says the graphic assessment needs to be treated seriously.
"If you get a six-metre sea level surge with a cyclone on a place like the Gold Coast you have got very serious trouble," he said.
"The thing about sea level rise is that its inexorable, it strikes at all coasts at the same time.
"Anyone who thinks we we may be able to adapt to this, I beg you to think again, because the scale at which you would have to build sea walls or coastal defence barriers is so massive."
National approach
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says she too is concerned by this assessment and a national emergency plan needs to be put in place.
She says from now on, every planning and development approval must consider climate change as one of the greatest risks.
"That's going to take information, it's going to take work, it's going to take coordination," she said.
"This is a very important step in providing the information Australia needs."
Nick Harvey from the University of Adelaide was one of the eight scientists contributing to another report, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, that assessed Australia's climate change risks.
He argues the key to reducing the danger is putting in place a national approach.
"We definitely need a national plan but you also do need to look at regional variations in sea level around the coast, and they will affect different frequencies," he said.
"For example, if we're talking about the return frequency of the, say, the one-in-100-year storm, that is going to affect different parts of the country in a different manner.
"I think in Sydney there were some major storms a while ago and if you're looking at the one-in-100-year event that's going to become far more frequent by the year 2100."
The report warns that New South Wales will have the "greatest exposure" to sea level rises, with up to 60,000 homes at risk.
The State Water Minister, Phil Costa, says his Government is committed to a national response to the threat.
"It's catastrophic. We've already begun the process of ensuring that the planning regime is working towards the potential of sea level rise, so we have time, we can do it and we can only do it as a nation," he said.
"We can't have just one state dealing with this particularly difficult time that's ahead of us - we all have to work together."
In Victoria, up to 45,000 residential buildings are at risk of being inundated by rising sea levels, with 70 per cent of those located in the Kingston, Hobsons Bay, Greater Geelong, Wellington and Port Phillip local government areas.
It puts the current value of those buildings at around $10.3 billion, with nearly 5,000 structures located within 110 metres of soft, erodible shorelines.
The report also says up to 57,000 residential buildings in Queensland could be at risk because of the sea level rise.
It found the areas most at risk of inundation were Moreton Bay, Mackay, the Fraser Coast, Bundaberg and the Gold and Sunshine Coasts.
In South Australia, as many as 43,00 homes may be at risk. Nearly half are within the Port Adelaide Enfield and Charles Sturt council areas.
Senator Wong also used today's launch of the report to take a swipe at climate change sceptics in the Coalition, saying the science in the report shows that climate change is real.
Jose Arturo Cardenas Yahoo News 13 Nov 09;
CHACALTAYA, Bolivia (AFP) – Once home to the highest ski resort in the world and now reduced to a rocky mountainside, Bolivia's Chacaltaya range bears powerful witness to the precipitous melting of glaciers.
The rusting remains of a ski lift now dominate what was once the highest ski-run in the world perched on the Chacaltaya glacier at some 5,300 meters (17,390 feet) high.
Only a snowy ice cap of some 50 square meters (538 square feet) remains of the magnificent Chacaltaya glacier which spread over 1,600 square meters in the 1950s.
"That's all there's left: a little piece of ice that is disappearing and will last no more than a year," said Alfredo Martinez, a veteran guide and founder of the Bolivian Andean Club.
Glancing at old black and white photographs, he recalled better times for his beloved Andean glacier, when ski competitions saw Argentine and Chilean athletes make the two-hour trip from the capital La Paz on a narrow and winding road.
Martinez remembered the very last race, three years ago, on Chacaltaya's steep incline that delighted extreme sports enthusiasts.
But today, "it's a dead glacier," said Edson Ramirez, glaciologist at the Institute of Hydraulics and Hydrology in La Paz.
Skiers have now migrated to nearby Cerro Charquini, where they can still find enough snow.
Ramirez is part of a team of international scientists studying the Tropical Andes stretch of mountain range on horseback in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.
The scientists, who have studied Chacaltaya for the past 15-20 years, had forecast it would completely disappear in 2015.
But with accelerated global warming spurring the ice to melt at the rate of six meters (20 feet) per year compared to about a meter in the 1940s, its demise has come six years earlier than expected.
Around Chacaltaya, Bolivia's Royal Cordillera region, which boasts pristine valleys, fields, lakes and waterfalls surrounded by mountains, has lost 43 percent of its snow-capped peaks in the past 33 years.
The same grim scenario can be found at the neighboring Huayna Potosi mountain (6,088 meters) or the majestic Illimani, which dominates La Paz at 6,462 meters.
For Ramirez, there is only one culprit, climate change, blamed on greenhouse gases that are particularly prevalent in industrialized countries.
Experts say most tropical glaciers in the Andes are doomed to disappear in the medium term due to global warming.
In 2000, Bolivia only emitted 0.35 percent of the world's greenhouse gases, the humanitarian group Oxfam noted in a report published ahead of key UN-sponsored climate talks in Copenhagen next month.
And yet, Oxfam warned Bolivia will be hit disproportionately as thousands of Andean farmers and La Paz residents depend on melt waters from the glaciers, which accounts for 15 percent of the capital's supply.
Nearly half of the country's energy supply -- 40 percent -- comes from hydroelectric sources.
The apparent injustice is fueling a government-backed civil lobbying effort to push for "international climate justice" and pressure industrialized countries to compensate populations hit by their "climate crimes."
In the meantime, Chacaltaya with its breathtaking view of the Altiplano high plain remains a sought-after hiking spot, as the debate over global warming puts it in the spotlight.
Tourists here come face to face with one of the devastating consequences of glacier loss -- that the area where snow has already melted heats up even more quickly thus causing the snow around it melt faster still.
Martinez, a 74-year-old veteran climber, demonstrated the phenomenon, grasping a handful of snow between his fingers and rubbing it against a rock.
"Before, the rock was so cold that the snow was preserved," he said. "Now, it disappears within a few seconds."
Yahoo News 13 Nov 09;
GENEVA (AFP) – A "catastrophic accumulation" of millions of tonnes of "e-waste" from computers, cellphones and television sets is fuelling a global pile of hazardous waste, an international body warned Friday.
Figures due to be released by the Basel Convention on transboundary movement of hazardous waste will show that the amount of discarded electronic goods has grown exponentially in recent years, officials said.
The convention's office said the stockpile, which includes toxic heavy metals and hazardous chemicals, needed to be tackled swiftly.
"I'd say it's something in the region of six billion tonnes, it's a rough estimate," said Katharina Kummer Peiry, executive secretary of the international agreement, which was signed in 1989.
"E-waste did not even exist as a waste stream in 1989 and now it's one of the largest and growing exponentially," she told journalists.
A report by experts for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) estimated that the flow would soon reach 50 million tonnes a year, generated at three times the rate of other solid municipal waste.
The Basel Convention underlined that e-waste was a by-product of the business and consumer boom in electronic communications.
"Add an increasing demand for electronic gaming, higher definition televisions or smart cars, and the result is a catastrophic accumulation of e-waste, now and into the future," it added in a statement.
The experts advising UNEP flagged electronic scrap as "one of the topical environmental issues of the 21st century," especially with the shorter useful lifespan of each generation of hardware as technological development accelerates.
Extracts of data released on Friday showed that transboundary movements of overall hazardous waste grew by about a fifth from 9.35 million tonnes in 2005 to 11.25 million tonnes in 2006.
Some 172 countries have signed up to the Basel Convention, which regulates international movements of hazardous and toxic wastes, amongst others by ensuring that all shipments are approved by the receiving country.
Apart from preventing "toxic colonialism" -- developing countries being used as dumps for toxic waste from industrialised nations -- the convention also hoped to stem cross border movement of industrial waste in order to encourage nations to dispose of their own.
But movements have grown this decade, as has the number of countries trading such waste. Some 101 countries were exporters in 2006, against 63 two years earlier.
Officials also admit that substantial illicit trade in chemical and hazardous waste is still not accounted for.
The UNEP report noted that a "significant" amount of "end-of-life" gadgetry, appliances and computers were now being imported into developing countries for reuse, refurbishment or processing.
Cheap labour costs, weak environmental and health rules made those nations attractive destinations, they argued, while second-hand items sent to poorer nations for extended use eventually ended up on a scrapheap in a different country to where they were bought.
Several nations on Friday highlighted the issue of e-waste ahead of the 20th anniversary celebrations for the Basel Convention on November 17.
"The Basel regime is still too much focused on hazardous wastes, it does not sufficiently reflect that products can be brought to countries and become waste later," said Swiss ambassador Dante Martinelli.
A "catastrophic accumulation" of millions of tonnes of "e-waste" from computers, cellphones and television sets is fuelling a global pile of hazardous waste, an international body warned Friday.
Figures due to be released by the Basel Convention on transboundary movement of hazardous waste will show that the amount of discarded electronic goods has grown exponentially in recent years, officials said.
The convention's office said the stockpile, which includes toxic heavy metals and hazardous chemicals, needed to be tackled swiftly.
"I'd say it's something in the region of six billion tonnes, it's a rough estimate," said Katharina Kummer Peiry, executive secretary of the international agreement, which was signed in 1989.
"E-waste did not even exist as a waste stream in 1989 and now it's one of the largest and growing exponentially," she told journalists.
A report by experts for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) estimated that the flow would soon reach 50 million tonnes a year, generated at three times the rate of other solid municipal waste.
The Basel Convention underlined that e-waste was a by-product of the business and consumer boom in electronic communications.
"Add an increasing demand for electronic gaming, higher definition televisions or smart cars, and the result is a catastrophic accumulation of e-waste, now and into the future," it added in a statement.
The experts advising UNEP flagged electronic scrap as "one of the topical environmental issues of the 21st century," especially with the shorter useful lifespan of each generation of hardware as technological development accelerates.
Extracts of data released on Friday showed that transboundary movements of overall hazardous waste grew by about a fifth from 9.35 million tonnes in 2005 to 11.25 million tonnes in 2006.
Some 172 countries have signed up to the Basel Convention, which regulates international movements of hazardous and toxic wastes, amongst others by ensuring that all shipments are approved by the receiving country.
Apart from preventing "toxic colonialism" -- developing countries being used as dumps for toxic waste from industrialised nations -- the convention also hoped to stem cross border movement of industrial waste in order to encourage nations to dispose of their own.
But movements have grown this decade, as has the number of countries trading such waste. Some 101 countries were exporters in 2006, against 63 two years earlier.
Officials also admit that substantial illicit trade in chemical and hazardous waste is still not accounted for.
The UNEP report noted that a "significant" amount of "end-of-life" gadgetry, appliances and computers were now being imported into developing countries for reuse, refurbishment or processing.
Cheap labour costs, weak environmental and health rules made those nations attractive destinations, they argued, while second-hand items sent to poorer nations for extended use eventually ended up on a scrapheap in a different country to where they were bought.
Several nations on Friday highlighted the issue of e-waste ahead of the 20th anniversary celebrations for the Basel Convention on November 17.
"The Basel regime is still too much focused on hazardous wastes, it does not sufficiently reflect that products can be brought to countries and become waste later," said Swiss ambassador Dante Martinelli.
Yahoo News 13 Nov 09;
THE HAGUE (AFP) – The Dutch government said Friday it wants to introduce a "green" road tax by the kilometre from 2012 aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent and halving congestion.
"Each vehicle will be equipped with a GPS device that tracks how many kilometres are driven and when and where. This data will be then be sent to a collection agency that will send out the bill," the transport ministry said in a statement.
Ownership and sales taxes, about a quarter of the cost of a new car, will be scrapped and replaced by the "price per kilometre" system aimed at cutting the Netherlands' carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent.
"Traffic jams will be halved and it helps the environment," the ministry said.
Dutch motorists driving a standard family saloon will be charged 3 euro cents per kilometre (seven US cents per mile) in 2012. That would increase to 6.7 cents (16 US cents per mile) in 2018, according to the proposed law.
Every vehicle type will have a base rate, which depends on its size, weight and carbon dioxide emissions.
Taxis, vehicles for the disabled, buses, motorcycles and classic cars will all be exempt.
"An alternative payment will be introduced for foreign vehicles," the ministry statement added.
The Dutch cabinet approved the road tax bill on Friday. It will need the backing of parliament before it becomes law.
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