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Shell maintains flare keeps plant safe; NEA says air quality on mainland not affected
Victoria Vaughan Straits Times 2 Sep 10;
Flaring at Shell's oil refinery on Pulau Bukom seen from Pulau Semakau, about 2km away, in February. -- PHOTO COURTESY OF RIA TAN
A LARGE flame topped by a plume of black smoke has been spotted shooting up from a chimney at Shell's oil refinery on Pulau Bukom for the last six months.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) says it is aware of the situation known as 'flaring' and that the emission of dark smoke from a chimney is against the law outside agreed limitations.
While Shell says it is within the limitations, an NEA spokesman said: 'We are working with Shell to understand and stem this unusual spate of smoke emissions from the flare stacks.'
Flaring burns off chemicals in crude oil (hydrocarbons) which are not being used. It also helps prevent fires and explosions in a plant due to a gas build-up.
'Black smoke is emitted by a flare when there is insufficient steam to burn off the hydrocarbons in a smokeless manner.
'It is the responsibility of the plant operator to ensure that sufficient steam is produced to keep the flare smoke-free,' said the NEA spokesman.
The steam provides the oxygen to allow the hydrocarbons to burn without smoke. NEA says the flare at Pulau Bukom has 'not impacted the air quality on the main island of Singapore so far, and there is no cause for concern'.
Mr Dai Nguyen, Shell's health, safety and environment manager, said flaring acts as a 'safety relief valve' to allow the combustible gases to be burned and released as water and carbon dioxide, which are not hazardous. He said: 'We understand that the sight of such a large flame can cause concern... but we want to assure everyone that flaring at the site is a vital part of keeping the plant safe.'
The dramatic sight has caused some consternation with nature blogger Ria Tan, who runs the WildSingapore blog. She has been commenting on the flaring since she first saw it in February.
Ms Tan said: 'I have been visiting the south islands for about 10 years and I have seen flaring before but not as often or as large as this.
'The smoke goes up into the sky and comes back down into the water and gets dispersed, it affects everything not just marine life. I want to be assured people are keeping an eye on it.'
The Straits Times' citizen journalism website Stomp has also been receiving regular posts about the flare since March.
Tug boat captain Thomas Heng sent in a photo of the flare last month. 'I do see flares from time to time... but not with so much smoke and not for such a length of time,' he said.
Related links
More about flaring and incidents of flaring on Bukom on the wild shores of singapore blog.
Sonio Kolesnikov-Jessop The New York Times 1 Sep 10;
SINGAPORE — Light festivals, which have become increasingly popular over the past decade, usually focus on light as an art medium. But Mary-Anne Kyriakou, a lighting director and artist, founded Smart Light Sydney last year as a low-energy light festival with an environmental message, and she is now working on a similar event in Singapore.
The Singapore event, I Light Marina Bay, which will run from Oct. 15 to Nov. 7, will feature a Light Walk with more than 20 illuminated art installations and sculptures as well as interactive and performance-based displays. But a primary aim will be to raise awareness of energy-saving lighting technology.
“I believe it is important to show that spectacular lighting effects do not necessarily require vast amounts of electric power, a commodity which we must learn to monitor for ecological and sustainability reasons,” said the Australian artist Warren Langley, whose work will be displayed. “While the objects I create are first and foremost artworks, they have an inherent message as well.”
Mr. Langley’s “Singapore Flora” uses continuous LED light cable to construct flowerlike shapes inside a steel vase.
“Each ‘petal’ in the flowers runs on one watt only, while the spiral shapes in the sculpture run on around four to five watts per meter,” Mr. Langley said. “This is an extraordinarily small amount of power for such a dramatic lighting effect.”
Other low-energy installations include an artwork that uses solar-powered LED lights, and another that relies on kinetic energy generated by hand cranks to power four fishing-rod-like fiber optic poles — an allusion to Singapore’s past as a fishing village — mounted on the balustrades of the Helix Bridge, a new, illuminated pedestrian bridge that leads to the glitzy Marina Bay Sands casino resort.
In Sydney, Ms. Kyriakou persuaded the occupants of two office buildings to switch off their lights every night after 7 p.m, a small gesture that she said would offset the festival’s use of power for light.
She says she hopes to do something similar in Singapore, but concedes that she may face an uphill battle. Marina Bay is flanked by the skyscrapers of the central business district, by the historic Fullerton Hotel — spectacularly lit at night, and by the new integrated resort with its sky park, a potentially iconic addition to the night skyline.
Still, “we need to raise awareness,” Ms. Kyriakou said. “Sustainability needs to occur through behavioral changes.”
Arthur Max Associated Press Google News 2 Sep 10;
AMSTERDAM — Greenpeace said about 500,000 Facebook users have urged the world's largest online social network to abandon plans to buy electricity from a coal-based energy company for its new data center in the U.S.
Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo sent a letter Wednesday to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg warning that the company risked its reputation and financial health if it ignored the environmental impacts of its actions.
"Facebook is really out of step with the trend" among information technology companies, Naidoo told The Associated Press by phone.
But Facebook says it is committed to environmental responsibility and that the data center in the state of Oregon is "one of the most efficient in the world."
The Amsterdam-based environmental group started a Facebook campaign in February after the company announced plans to build the center in Oregon.
Last week, Greenpeace-sponsored groups urging Facebook to use 100 percent renewable energy passed a collective 500,000 members — a small fraction of Facebook's more than 500 million users worldwide.
Naidoo said Facebook "had a choice" as to where to locate the data center and made an "active choice to lean in the direction of dirty coal."
But Facebook says Greenpeace is offering a simplistic explanation of how energy grids work, and the company choose the location of its data center because it could be energy efficient. To say the Facebook "chose coal" is inaccurate, said spokesman Barry Schnitt.
The high desert climate of Prineville, Ore., is dry and cools down at night, which Schnitt said has allowed Facebook's data center to operate without energy-hungry "chillers," used to cool the buildings so that the servers inside don't overheat.
Naidoo said his organization singled out Facebook because of its reach across the globe, especially among the young. Information-technology companies, including titans such as Microsoft, contribute an estimated 2 percent of human-made carbon emissions, about the same as the aviation industry. But the IT sector is growing fast. Greenpeace cite studies saying the industry has the capability to reduce its emissions 15 percent by 2020.
Greenpeace says the utility PacifiCorp, which powers the data center, uses 83 percent coal in its energy mix. But PacifiCorp spokesman Tom Gauntt said this number is actually 58 percent. The rest is natural gas at about 20 percent and hydro and renewable energy at about 10 percent each.
Burning coal for power is one of the largest sources of carbon accumulating in the atmosphere.
Facebook faces campaign to switch to renewable energy
Social networking site under fire over intention to run giant new data centre mainly on coal-powered electricity
John Vidal, guardian.co.uk 1 Sep 10;
Social networking website Facebook is coming under unprecedented pressure from its users to switch to renewable energy. In one of the web's fastest-growing environmental campaigns, Greenpeace international says at least 500,000 people have now protested at the organisation's intention to run its giant new data centre mainly on electricity produced by burning coal power.
Facebook will not say how much electricity it uses to stream video, store information and connect its 500m users but industry estimates suggest that at their present rate of growth all the data centres and telecommunication networks in the world will consume about 1,963bn kilowatt hours of electricity by 2020. That is more than triple their current consumption and more electricity than is used by France, Germany, Canada and Brazil combined.
Facebook announced in February that it planned to build what is expected to be the world's largest centralised data storage centres in Portland, Oregon. Although it will include some of the world's most energy-efficient computers, the sheer scale of the Facebook operation will almost certainly use more electricity than many developing countries.
The company has said it will source its electricity from Pacific Power. It uses coal power – the dirtiest form of power generation – for 67% of its electricity, and produces less than 12% of its electricity from renewable sources. The company has said it plans to generate more electricity from renewables in future but has given no detailed information.
In a statement Facebook said: "It is true that the local utility for the region we chose, Pacific Power, has an energy mix that is weighted slightly more toward coal than the national average. However, the efficiency we are able to achieve because of the climate of the region and the reduced energy usage that results minimises our overall carbon footprint.
"Said differently, if we located the data centre most other places, we would need mechanical chillers, use more energy, and be responsible for more overall carbon in the air – even if that location was fuelled by more renewable energy."
Kumi Naidoo, director of Greenpeace International, urged Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to commit his company to a plan to phase out the use of dirty coal-fired electricity. In a letter to Facebook, Naidoo said: "Facebook is uniquely positioned to be a truly visible and influential leader to drive the deployment of clean energy."
Earlier this year Greenpeace admitted that many of its own web hosting operations are also housed in data centres powered primarily by coal and nuclear power. The environmental group said it offset all the energy used to power its main website in Amsterdam and used renewable energy where it could. Many of its servers in Washington also used wind power.
New Straits Times 1 Sep 10;
MORE parks instead of shopping malls will help draw more global talent to Greater Kuala Lumpur.
This is the verdict of expatriates interviewed by the New Straits Times.
Ritz-Carlton Hotel Kuala Lumpur general manager Stephen A. Cokkinias said an education system on a par with global education would attract professionals with families to migrate here.
He commended the existing road networks but called for a wider rapid train system from KL to the surrounding nine local authorities that made up Greater KL.
"There is no need for more shopping malls. More parks are needed as well as residential areas with clean air.
"Even recycling must be promoted as a foreigner choosing to stay here wants to know that the city they live in will stay healthy for years to come."
My Second Home Leisure chief consultant Michele Kok said her clients loved to buy properties near parks or green belts.
"They like areas with security like the condominiums in Mont Kiara."
Kok works for one of the companies serving participants of the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) initiative by the Tourism Ministry.
Kok suggested that for Greater KL to work, there should be a dedicated government agency such as MM2H to address the needs of the expatriates.
"Under MM2H, we act as agents to help foreigners in their dealings with government agencies, as sometimes there is a language barrier resulting in miscommunication which may turn them off," she said.
One of Kok's clients, Korean You Yang Hee, 57, said the main reason that attracted her to buy property at Mont Kiara was security.
"I could have chosen to go to Jakarta, Manila or Bangkok, but I chose KL because it is safer. Also, it is cheaper to play golf here, which is my passion. The cost of living is also cheaper."
However, You, who drives, finds it hard to find her way outside of KL because of ill-placed road signs not written in English.
"Also I find roads in KL and its surrounding areas to be dirty."
She added that the broadband connection here was slow and unreliable.
Ian Hal, an architect, said KL could be a very frustrating city.
"KL is a low-density area with townships sprawled across it and wasted undeveloped ground lying in between. There are vibrant places like Damansara Utama and Taman Tun Dr Ismail that have nice cafes and shops.
"But because it is spread apart, people have to rely on cars to travel to these places."
Hal, who uses public transport to travel, said bus stops at non-strategic locations made his life miserable. But Hal, who has travelled to other Asian countries, commended the country's tolerance and hospitality to foreigners.
Greater KL, a 10-year plan to transform the region into the best place to live, includes 10 local authorities which are about 279,327ha in size. They are Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Selayang, Ampang Jaya, Petaling Jaya, Subang Jaya, Shah Alam, Klang, Kajang and Sepang.
Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Minister Datuk Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin had recently said Greater KL was targeted to be in the top 20 list in world economic growth and most liveable metropolis by 2020.
Andrew Buncombe The Independent 2 Sep 10;
The humble hardworking elephant is not an animal that usually likes to complain. But over the years, while higher-profile, more urgently threatened species have been the subject of widescale conservation efforts, elephant numbers have been allowed to dwindle. Perhaps worse, the gender ratio – since only males have tusks, it is they who are sought by poachers – has become perilously skewed.
In an attempt to address these concerns, the Indian authorities have now decided to declare the elephant its "national heritage animal" and to afford it the same level of protection as bestowed upon the mighty tiger. "We need to give the same degree of importance to the elephant as is given to the tiger in order to protect the big animal," said the Environment minister, Jairam Ramesh.
It is estimated there are 26,000 Asian elephants in India today, of which 3,500 are working animals. While the total population has not experienced the sort of drastic decline undergone by the tiger, the gender ratio is skewed so that in some areas there is just one male elephant for 100 females. At the same time, the habitats of the large animals are constantly being diminished by the expansion of human communities. As a result of such conflict, some 400 people are trampled to death every year in India by wild elephants and dozens of elephants are killed by villagers in retaliation.
"Elephant habitats are under tremendous pressure. Rapid economic expansion and development pressures require far more attention than land use plans from an ecological perspective," a panel, commissioned by the government, announced this week. "New knowledge needs to be brought in regarding the population and habitat assessment."
The panel, tasked with studying the elephant problem and finding solutions, suggested a series of measures to help retain the elephant population and minimise conflicts between the animals and people. Among the proposals was the establishment of a national elephant conservation authority, better management of elephant reserves and protection of almost 90 corridors that the animals use across the country from mining, irrigation and other industrial projects.
It also called for educating the authorities at Hindu temples in the south of the country about the proper treatment and care of "temple elephants" and suggested that forest guards tasked with protecting the animals required better training and more modern equipment. Staff at such parks are notoriously badly paid, giving them little incentive to perform well.
The chairman of the 12-member panel, Mahesh Rangarajan, a professor of history at Delhi University, told The Independent that whereas in the 1960s and 1970s the Indian government had thrown itself behind tiger conservation, the plight of elephants had been largely overlooked.
"The tiger captured the political imagination and came to symbolise India's threatened wildlife, but the elephant did not," he said. "I think the threat to the tiger invoked a sense of crisis and then everybody rallied around." He added: "With the elephant it is not a crisis of extinction, but a crisis of attrition."
India's tigers face a much more pressing threat. From an estimated total of 100,000 in 1900, the population is now officially listed at a little over 1,400. Yet many experts believe the true size of the community may be half of that.
While tigers are threatened by human incursion into their habitat and depletion of prey species, the main reason for their tumultuous decline has been the failure to stop the illegal trade for tiger parts for traditional Chinese medicine.
Panel: India must secure elephant reserves
Nirmala George, Associated Press Yahoo News 31 Aug 10;
NEW DELHI – India should protect its elephant population by securing its wildlife reserves, curbing poaching and restricting development in the corridors they use to travel between forested areas, a panel recommended.
Poaching for ivory and increased conflicts between people and elephants due to their dwindling habitat are key problems faced by India's wild elephant population, estimated at around 26,000.
The Elephant Task Force recommended setting up a national elephant conservation authority, better management of elephant reserves and protecting 88 corridors that the animals use across the country from mining, irrigation and other industrial projects.
The report's lead author, Mahesh Rangarajan, said elephants have not received the same attention as tigers and other endangered wildlife, partly because their rate of decline has not been as dramatic. The numbers of wild elephants in India have stayed about the same over the past decade, but their habitat has continued to decline.
"With the elephant it is not a crisis of extinction, but a crisis of attrition," he said.
Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh said India was declaring the elephant its "National Heritage Animal" to raise awareness of the issue.
The panel also said Tuesday that India needs to curb poaching by using trained forest guards with modern communication equipment.
Only male Asian elephants have tusks, and the poaching of males for their ivory has drastically skewed the ratio between male and female elephants in India.
"In some places, the ratio is down to one male elephant for every hundred females," Rangarajan said.
Vivek Menon, a wildlife expert with the Wildlife Trust of India, said the panel's recommendations are a step in the right direction.
"If implemented in full, these are more than enough to save the elephant," he said.
Serean Lau The Star 1 Sep 10;
LANGKAWI: Improper dumping of sewage and the disappearance of turtles has caused an explosion in the jellyfish population which is threatening tourism here.
In the first 21 days of July alone, 185 cases of jellyfish attacks on tourists and residents including fishermen were recorded and this is becoming a cause of concern to the Langkawi Development Authority (Lada).
The authority is seeking Malaysia Nature Society’s help to reduce the number of jellyfish.
Lada’s economic affairs assistant officer Shajiddeen Shaari said the best way to curb the number of jellyfish would be to prevent marine pollution.
However, he said they faced problems in increasing the number of turtles, which feed on jellyfish, because of pollution along the beaches.
“Turtles mistake plastic bags for food as to they look like floating jellyfish to the turtles,” said Shajiddeen.
He said jellyfish are also reducing the fish population as they eat fish eggs.
Veteran nature guide Othman Ayeb said rising water temperatures due to pollution also contributed to the jellyfish boom.
He said that in the past, the jellyfish were usually found some 5km to 10km away from the shoreline.
“However, due to the improper management of sewage from resorts and hotels, the jellyfish started to breed along the shore,” he said.
Othman added that Pantai Cenang has the highest number of jellyfish because of the bad water quality.
“However, we have yet to ascertain the jellyfish species,” he said, adding that samples will be sent to Universiti Sains Malaysia for proper identification.
Stephen Then The Star 1 Sep 10;
ADELAIDE: International anti-palm oil activists have taken their cause to zoos. At the Adelaide Zoo, visitors are greeted by huge posters claiming that oil palm plantations were killing the orang utan and contributing to global warming.
The posters – put up by the so-called Palm Oil Action Group – are plastered on the wall of an orang utan enclosure at the zoo.
In one poster, the activists allege that there are only between 45,000 and 60,000 orang utans left in Borneo and that the primate will be extinct within 20 years “at the present killing rate of 50 orang utans per week”.
Another poster claims that the orang utans are being killed by oil palm plantation workers clearing land with guns, machetes, wooden stacks and fires.
Yet another poster asks for the global community to apply pressure on governments and private land companies to put a stop to this “orang utan killings” and halt the destruction of forests.
The campaign here, it is learnt, is part of an extremely vicious and widespread global drive by anti-palm oil activists against land development and oil palm projects in not only Malaysia but also in Borneo, Sumatra and Papua New Guinea.
The campaigns are not only depicted on the Internet and at international forums but also right in the heart of public parks and zoos in world famous tourists spots, with the map of Malaysia and Borneo prominently featured as hotspots for orang utan “genocide”.
The Star, which followed Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen through a 10-day promotional visit of New Zealand and Australia last week, found that the oil palm plantation and orang utan issues were not only a hot topic among Kiwi and Aussie nature-lovers, but also among their journalists.
Dr Ng was outraged when she saw the posters, saying they did not reflect the true situation in Malaysia.
She repeatedly raised the issue during her meetings with the foreign media and tourism bodies throughout her tour of the two countries.
However, Adelaide Zoo chief executive officer Dr Chris West told The Star these activists were very powerful lobby groups that could shape government decisions.
He said that Malaysia must tighten its environmental and animal welfare laws.
He said the enclosures for orang utan, pandas and tigers were among the most-visited by tourists and locals.
Asked why the activists were allowed to display such damaging posters about the alleged “killings” of orang utan, he said that in liberal countries the freedom of speech was paramount.
“These activists have a right to highlight what they believe to be the truth.
“What government leaders in Malaysia should do is to highlight what they know as the truth.
“They must counter these activists by showing to the world what they are doing to really protect, preserve and conserve the orang utans and how they are developing their oil palm and logging in globally acceptable manners.
“They must effectively stop illegal logging and massive land-clearing.
“Malaysian leaders must address these issues outside of Malaysia and fight the activists on foreign soil,” said Dr West.
Adelaide Zoo is one of three big zoos in the state of Southern Australia. More than 1.8 million tourists and Australians visit the zoos yearly.
Yahoo News 1 Sep 10;
TOKYO (AFP) – Fishermen from the Japanese town depicted in Oscar-winning eco-documentary "The Cove" kicked off their annual dolphin hunting season Wednesday, undeterred by international criticism.
A flotilla of boats went to sea in the morning but failed to catch any of the sea mammals on the first day, said a local government official from Taiji in southwestern Wakayama prefecture, who asked not to be named.
Every year, fishermen in Taiji herd about 2,000 dolphins into a secluded bay, select several dozen for sale to aquariums and marine parks and harpoon the rest for meat, a practice long deplored by animal rights activists.
The Taiji official said several foreigners with cameras were seen walking around town, but that there had been no protests and no confrontations between animal rights activists and pro-dolphin-hunting nationalist groups.
"I have no idea what the foreigners' intentions are, but there is nothing unusual going on in the town. Our stance remains the same. The town will continue hunting dolphins no matter what they say," said the official.
"The Cove", directed by Louie Psihoyos, won the Academy Award for best documentary this year, and has been followed up by a series that has started screening on cable channel Animal Planet called "Blood Dolphins".
The team that shot "The Cove" over several years often worked clandestinely and at night to elude local authorities and angry fishermen, setting up disguised cameras underwater and in forested hills around the rocky cove.
Individual fishermen in Taiji routinely decline to speak to foreign media, but they have the support of many local people in the town of 3,700 who defend hunting dolphins, porpoises and small whales as a centuries-old tradition.
Right-wing nationalist groups in Japan -- known for their ear-splitting street demonstrations using megaphones -- have attacked "The Cove" as anti-Japanese and tried to stop its screenings by harassing movie theatres.
Such harassment forced the film's distributor to scrap screenings in June, but it managed the first commercial showing at a police-guarded Tokyo theatre in July, despite a brief skirmish between right-wingers and supporters.
The official said Taiji had expected protesters against the dolphin hunts to flock to the town Wednesday but he told AFP: "I see no impact from the movie. The town's stance to continue dolphin hunting will not change either."
Activist Ric O'Barry, a central character in "The Cove", wrote in his blog that his campaign, Save Japan Dolphins, had called off a visit to Taiji after receiving news that "extreme nationalist groups are set to confront us".
Instead, he said he and other volunteers would on Thursday visit the US embassy in Tokyo "to symbolically present 1.7 million signatures from 151 countries" in a campaign to end the annual dolphin hunts.
Brett Israel LiveScience.com 1 Sep 10;
A proposed road through the Serengeti could jeopardize one of the largest migrations of land animals in the world, conservationists warn.
The proposed Arusha-Musoma highway would slice through the northern portion of one of the world's best- known wildlife sanctuaries, Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.
Conservation groups are pleading with the Tanzanian government to look at other routes to meet the transportation needs of the region, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).
As planned, the highway would cut through the annual migration routes of large mammals such as wildebeest and zebras. The road would affect nearly two million animals, including many threatened species such as cheetahs, lions, leopards, wild dogs, elephants and rhinos, the groups say.
"The Serengeti is the site of one of the last great ungulate migrations left on Earth, the pre-eminent symbol of wild nature for millions of visitors and TV viewers, and a hugely important source of income for the people of Tanzania through ecotourism," said James Deutsch of the WCS. "To threaten this natural marvel with a road would be a tragedy.
"We implore the Tanzanian government - known around the world for its commitment to conservation - to reconsider this proposal and explore other options," Deutsch added.
While the road is scheduled for construction in 2012, there is some confusion over where the government is in the planning process. A spokesman for the Tanzania National Parks, Pascal Shelutete, said the road won't be built until feasibility studies have been done. Reports in the Tanzania media, however, said the feasibility studies have already been completed, according to an Associated Press report.
If the road is built, it could potentially sever access to the Mara River in the north - a critical water source for the migrating mammals during the dry season - and cause the wildebeest population to collapse. Harming migrations could also drain tourism dollars from nearby national parks, such as Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve, the country's most important tourism destination.
"A commercial road would not only result in wildlife collisions and human injuries, but would serve to fragment the landscape and undermine the ecosystem in a variety of ways," said Jonathan Baillie, of the ZSL. "To diminish this natural wonder would be a terrible loss for Tanzania and all future generations."
Supporters of the proposed road say it is needed to improve transportation to and from the coast by linking the districts of Serengeti and Loliondo to the national road system.
"We recognize that there is an obvious need for infrastructure development in Tanzania," said Markus Borner, of the Frankfurt Zoological Society, which has worked in the Serengeti since the 1950s. "A far better option than the current proposal is placing a road to the south of the park. Such a road would be both cheaper to construct and would serve a much larger number of people without interrupting the migration and jeopardizing the iconic status of the Serengeti National Park."
Kristen Gelineau, Associated Press Yahoo News 1 Sep 10;
SYDNEY – A Tasmanian devil named Cedric, once thought to be immune to a contagious facial cancer threatening the iconic creatures with extinction, has been euthanized after succumbing to the disease, researchers said Wednesday.
The death of the devil — previously heralded as a possible key to saving the species — is another blow for scientists struggling to stop the rapid spread of the cancer, which is transmitted when the furry black marsupials bite each other.
"It was very disappointing indeed," said scientist Alex Kreiss of the Menzies Research Institute in Hobart, Tasmania, which has led the studies on Cedric. "It's just made us more determined to keep the research going."
The Tasmanian devil population has plummeted by 70 percent since Devil Facial Tumor Disease was first discovered in 1996. The snarling, fox-sized creatures — made famous by their Looney Tunes cartoon namesake Taz — don't exist in the wild outside Tasmania, an island state south of the Australian mainland.
In 2007, Menzies researchers injected Cedric and his half brother Clinky with facial cancer cells. Clinky developed the disease, but Cedric showed an immune response and grew no tumors — giving researchers hope that he could help them create a vaccine.
But in late 2008, Cedric developed two small facial tumors after being injected with a different strain of the cancer, which causes grotesque facial growths that eventually grow so large, it becomes impossible for the devils to eat. Current estimates suggest the species could be extinct within 25 years due to the prolific spread of the cancer.
Researchers removed the tumors, and Cedric appeared to be rallying. But X-rays taken two weeks ago showed the cancer had spread to the 5-year-old's lungs, Kreiss said. Tests confirmed the lung tumors were a result of facial tumor disease.
Surgery to remove the lung tumors was not possible, chemotherapy wouldn't have worked and researchers didn't want the animal to suffer, Kreiss said.
"We had to decide to euthanize him before he deteriorated," said Kreiss, who has worked with Cedric for years. "It was a really hard decision.
The scientists plan to soldier on in their quest to develop a vaccine, Kreiss said. There are also several other projects under way to help stave off extinction: Australian zoos have bred around 280 disease-free devils as insurance populations, and officials are conducting "suppression trials," where infected animals are trapped and removed.
The Menzies scientists buried Cedric, but have no plans to hold an official memorial for him, Kreiss said. Still, he hopes people will look to Cedric as a reminder of the hard work that must be done if the beloved creatures are to be saved.
"We always would like to remember Cedric as a symbol of the devils that are dying in the wild," Kreiss said.
Save the Tasmanian Devil Program: http://www.tassiedevil.com.au/tasdevil.nsf
'Cancer-immune' Tasmanian devil proves mortal
Yahoo News 1 Sep 10;
SYDNEY (AFP) – Australian researchers Wednesday mourned the death of Cedric, a Tasmanian devil thought at first to be immune to a devastating cancer which is threatening to wipe out the species.
Cedric, who was born in captivity, survived for two years after being repeatedly injected with cells infected with the contagious Deadly Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD), raising scientists' hopes.
But after X-rays showed tumours in his lungs he was put down last week. He was six years old.
"He was especially important, because he did produce an immuno-response initially," Dr Alex Kreiss, of the Menzies Research Institute, told reporters in Hobart.
"We would like to remember him as the symbol of the fight against DFTD. There are many devils that die in the wild that don't have a name."
Kreiss said Cedric had provided information towards finding a cure for the fatal disease which affects Australia's largest meat-eating marsupial.
Some 70 percent of devils have already been lost to the infectious disease, which is spread by biting as the feisty creatures mate and fight over animal carcasses.
"Cedric has played an important part in helping us to understand more about the disease," Kreiss said.
"While this death is sad news, it is only one part of the puzzle toward developing a vaccine against DFTD."
Experts have been gathering healthy devils and breeding them in zoos for the past six years, developing an "insurance population" of 220, but the species was declared endangered in 2009.
The devils first came to prominence when their unearthly shrieks and grunts while devouring corpses of dead animals terrified European settlers arriving in Tasmania in the 19th century.
Some 150 years later, the Devil is best known by "Taz", a wild Warner Brothers cartoon character that now fronts the conservation campaign to save the species.
University of British Columbia EurekAlert 1 Sep 10;
The world's most established fisheries certifier is failing on its promises as rapidly as it gains prominence, according the world's leading fisheries experts from the University of British Columbia (UBC), Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego and elsewhere.
Established in 1997 by the World Wildlife Fund and Unilever, one of the world's largest fish retailers, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has been helping consumers eat fish "guilt-free" by certifying fisheries. Major North American grocery chains such as Wal-Mart, Whole Foods and Europe's Waitrose carry seafood bearing the blue-mark label as part of their sustainability strategy.
But in an opinion piece published in the current issue of Nature, six researchers from Canada, Italy and the U.S. object to the many of the MSC's procedures and certification of certain species.
"The MSC is supposed to be a solution, but a lot of what they do has turned against biology in favour of bureaucracy," says Jennifer Jacquet, lead author and post-doctoral fellow with UBC's Sea Around Us Project.
The largest MSC-certified fishery, with an annual catch of one million tonnes, is the U.S. trawl fishery for pollock in the eastern Bering Sea. It was certified in 2005 and recommended for recertification this summer.
"Pollock has been certified despite a 64 per cent decline of the population's spawning biomass between 2004 and 2009, with no solid evidence for recovery. This has worrisome implications for possible harmful impacts on other species and fisheries besides the viability of the pollock fishery itself," says Jeremy Jackson from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. "How is that sustainable?"
Paul Dayton, also of Scripps Oceanography, and David Ainley, a biologist who works in the Antarctic, remain concerned about the recent certification of krill and the proposed certification of toothfish.
"The certification of the Ross Sea is an embarrassment as it flies in the face of existing data and denies any sense of precautionary management," says Dayton.
"We're especially concerned about the recent certification of Antarctic krill despite estimates of long-term decline and a link between krill population depletion and declining sea ice in areas sensitive to climate change," says Daniel Pauly, head of UBC's Sea Around Us Project. "The rationale for this certification is on further thin ice because the catch is destined to feed farmed fish, pigs and chicken."
Fisheries that are being heavily depleted, reliant on high-impact methods such as bottom trawling and that aren't destined for human consumption should be excluded from certification, conclude the authors, which include Sidney Holt, a founding father of fisheries science.
"The MSC should not certify fisheries that are not demonstrably sustainable, fisheries that use high-impact methods such as bottom trawling and/or fisheries that aren't destined for human consumption," says Pauly.
"The MSC needs to strengthen its commitment to its own principles in order to fulfill its promise to be 'the best environmental choice,'" says Jackson.
The authors also note that the current certification system, which relies on for-profit consultants and could cost as much as $150,000, presents a potential conflict of interest and discriminates against small-scale fisheries and fisheries from developing countries – most of which use highly-selective and sustainable techniques.
Dayton points out that "the failure of the MSC hurts the populations that are not sustainably taken and their ecosystems; it deprives the public of an opportunity to make a meaningful choice and it damages those fisheries that are well managed – this is especially important for those sustainable small-scale fisheries competing with the giants that buy certifications they have not earned."
"Unless MSC goes under major reform, there are better, more effective ways to spend the certifier's $13-million annual budget to help the oceans, such as lobbying for the elimination of harmful fisheries subsidies or establishing marine protected areas," says Jacquet.
Antara 1 Sep 10;
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Gelwin Yusuf, Head of the Marine and Fishery Research Office of the Marine and Fishery Affairs Ministry said fish catch had been affected by the climate change.
"The important aspect of the climate change impact is the pressure for food sustainability which is the change in the composition balance of the catch," Gelwin said here Tuesday at the Ministry office.
He said, if the La Nina phenomena caused wet drought in Indonesia until the end of 2010 or early in initial 2011, it would worsen production of lemuru for instance in Bali strait.
The decrease in this year reached lower than 24 percent than last year`s, he said, adding that it means 17 percent of the decrease occurred in the late 25 years.
He said, climate change also caused a five percent drop in the production of flooded-swamp fish in Indonesian waters in the last 13 years.
Gelwin said climate change could also change the composition of fish catch, and in the Atlantic waters the catch changed from demersal to pelagic ones, he said.
Demersal fish live on the bottom of the sea, while pelagic live in open waters, ocean and lakes.
The climate change was also considered to cause a change in the catch of starfish from vertebrate to invertebrates.
Gelwin explained, climate change put pressures not only on food sustainability, but also on coral and the marine ecosystem, society, and regional security.
Therefore, sea and marine technology could contribute to adaptation strategy and climate change mitigation, he said.
In the adaptation effort, the Ministry had built 1,612 climate-change houses in Tangerang, Lamongan, Demak, Pekalongan, Brebes, Indramayu, rembang, Pamekasan, Riau, Bali, and Banjar.
The Ministry also published fish spot approximation map consisting of maps of Sumatera, Kalimantan, Java-W Nusa Tenggara-E Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi, Maluku, and Papua.
It is important to produce supreme varieties which could sustain the effect of climate change, low-emission fish food, and eco-friendly cultivation technology to meet the need for adaptive technology of fishery, he said.
Tan Ee Lyn PlanetArk 2 Sep 10;
With the climate set to get warmer from greenhouse gases, Chinese scientists predicted on Thursday that freshwater for agriculture will shrink further in China, reducing crop yields in the years ahead.
In a paper published in Nature, they said the temperature in China had gone up by 1.2 degrees Celsius since 1960 and will increase by another 1 to 5 degrees Celsius by 2100.
"Such a pronounced summer warming would inevitably enhance evapo-transpiration, increasing the risk of water shortage for agriculture," wrote the researchers, led by Shilong Piao of the Center of Climate Research at Beijing University.
"Climate change may induce a net yield reduction of 13 percent by 2050."
Transpiration is similar to evaporation and refers to the loss of water vapor from plants.
They forecast that rice yields would decrease by 4 to 14 percent, wheat by 2 to 20 percent and maize by zero to 23 percent by the middle of the 21st century.
China only has 7 percent of the world's arable land, but needs to feed 22 percent of the world's population. Although its total water resource is huge in absolute terms, it is only 25 percent of the per capita world average.
Its climate has also become drier in the north, which holds 18 percent of the total water resource and 65 percent of total arable land, they added.
Heavy rainfall and flooding, meanwhile, have occurred in the southern parts of the country.
Apart from shrinking already scarce water supplies, higher temperatures have also led to the spread of pests, they said.
"Countrywide, a 4.5 percent reduction in wheat yields is attributed to rising temperatures over the period 1979-2000," the researchers wrote.
China's agriculture minister said in July that China faced a formidable task in meeting demand for grains such as rice, wheat and corn in the next 10 years.
China last year harvested a record 530.82 million tonnes of grain, but will need to increase annual supply by at least 4 million tonnes for the next decde to feed a population expected to hit 1.39 billion in 2015 from 1.32 billion at the end of 2008.
(Editing by Ron Popeski)
Climate: Risks loom for China: study
Yahoo News 1 Sep 10;
PARIS (AFP) – Climate change could reduce key harvests in China by a fifth if the gloomiest scenarios prove true, according to a study on Wednesday.
Publishing in the journal Nature, a team of Chinese scientists say China's climate "has clearly warmed" over the past half century, gaining 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) since 1960.
The hotspots were northeastern China with a warming trend of 0.36 C (0.65 F) per decade, and Inner Mongolia, with a warming of 0.4 C (0.7 F) per decade.
Nationally, heatwaves have become more common, the number of cold days has fallen sharply and glaciers that are vital river feeders are in retreat, they say.
The last century was the warmest period since 1600 and the country's seven warmest years have all occurred in the past decade.
Climate extremes included droughts which hit the country in the 1960s, the late 1970s, early 1980s, the 1990s and in northeastern China in the last decade.
In 1998, floods inundated 21 million hectares (52.5 million acres) of land, destroyed five million homes in the Yangtze basin and inflicted 20 billion dollars in damage.
Floods this year affected 230 million people, of whom more than 15 million had to be evacuated from their homes, and left more than 4,200 people dead or missing, according to a toll issued on Tuesday.
The paper, lead-authored by Peking University environmental scientist Shilong Piao, warns of problems for China's racing economy in coming decades if climate change bites hard.
Accurate prediction, though, is hard, it says.
"China experienced explosive economic growth in recent decades, but with only seven percent of the world's arable land available to feed 20 percent of the world's population, China's economy may be vulnerable to climate change itself," it warns.
The biggest problem could be water stress, amplified by a growing and increasingly wealthy population.
Water is abundant in southern China but sparse in the country's north, and overall China's per capita water availability is only 25 percent of the world average.
"Many regions lie in transitional zones where water resources, and hence agricultural production, could be affected positively or negatively by changes in climate," the study says.
In the most favourable scenario, grain yields by mid-century could remain stable or benefit from the rise in carbon dioxide levels.
But in the worst scenario, there could be declines of four to 14 percent for rice, between two and 20 percent for wheat and between zero and 23 percent for corn in cases where these crops are rainfed rather than irrigated.
The comparison is the yields of these crops between 1996 and 2000. Any future improvements in agro-technology in coming decades are not factored in.
"The range of model results is large, implying large uncertainties," cautions the paper.
The many unknowns are reflected by the wide range in predicting warming for China as a whole -- from 1 C to 5 C (1.8-9.0 F) by 2100, depending on worldwide emissions of greenhouse gases.
Computer simulations for climate impacts have advanced substantially for modelling what will happen worldwide, but lag when it comes to predicting regional effects, especially on rainfall, the paper says.
"To reach a more definitive conclusion, future work must... develop a better understanding of the managed and unmanaged responses to crops to changes in climate, diseases, pests and atmospheric constituents."
Yahoo News 1 Sep 10;
TOKYO (AFP) – Japan has endured its hottest summer since records began in 1898, the meteorological agency said Wednesday, during a heatwave that saw thousands of people taken to hospital suffering heatstroke.
The average temperature nationwide between June and August was 1.64 degrees Celsius above average for the period, forecasters said.
The previous record margin was 1.36 degrees C set in 1994.
The agency did not say what the average temperature was, but Tokyo's summertime temperatures averaged 27.1 degrees C (80.78 Fahrenheit).
In August, the mercury often soared above 35 degrees C in many areas of the country, the agency said.
"It can be said that weather was abnormal in this summer," an agency official, Shuhei Maeda, told a news conference. "The temperature is forecast to exceed 35 degrees centigrade in many places for a week to come."
Scorching summer weather led to at least 132 deaths and saw more than 30,000 people taken to hospital with heatstroke, the government said in mid-August.
Alister Doyle PlanetArk 2 Sep 10;
A global fund to help poorer countries switch to green industrial technology is vital in any new international pact to battle global warming, Switzerland's top climate change negotiator said on Wednesday.
The official, Franz Perrez, was speaking at a news conference on the eve of a two-day gathering of environmental ministers and experts from some 45 countries to discuss how to reach agreement on a funding deal.
"An agreement on viable long-term financing is one of the very important building blocks for a new convention to combat the challenge of climate change," said Perrez, whose country has organised the informal meeting together with Mexico.
In December, Mexico is to host a new formal effort to clear the way for a convention. A United Nations summit in Copenhagen at the end of last year ended in serious disarray.
Developing nations say billions of dollars are vital to help them start acting to slow global warming by shifting from fossil fuels, and to cope with challenges created by climate change ranging from droughts and floods to rising sea levels.
Big emerging economies like China, India and Brazil say they should not be hog-tied by environmental rules unless the West -- which they blame for global warming -- helps pay the cost.
It was agreed in Copenhagen that what Perrez dubbed a "fast-track" financing of some $30 billion was needed for the years 2010-2012 to create confidence, but the larger goal is to ensure by 2020 that $100 billion a year can be mobilized.
AUSTERITY PROGRAMMES
Environment ministers hope for progress on financing when they gather in Cancun from November 29 to December 10, despite austerity programmes adopted by rich nations in the wake of the world economic and financial crisis of 2008-09.
Perrez said the Geneva talks will try to pin down differences on how the funding will be set up and who might provide it, adding that he hoped an agreement might be reached by 2012 on how to create the mechanism.
The Copenhagen accord does not lay out who pays, or how to raise money, but among suggestions for 2020 are carbon markets, air travel levies and taxes on ships' fuel.
A Reuters overview last week showed that although specific promises so far for the 2010-12 period total $29.8 billion, some of this was old funding dressed up as new.
Japan, for instance, is promising half the total -- $15 billion -- but most of this is from a previous "Cool Earth Partnership" agreed several years ago to run from 2008-12.
The ministers' meeting will be the first since a review team called on Monday for a sweeping overhaul of the management of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change after it admitted there were errors in a 2007 report.
The review endorsed the main finding of the IPCC's report -- that mankind is to blame for global warming -- but Perrez said the furor over the errors might make it more difficult to raise the funds needed to tackle the overall challenge.
"But the basic understanding is still there," he said. "The developed countries recognize that they have to live up to their responsibilities."
(Editing by Jonathan Lynn and Tim Pearce)
Disasters show 'screaming' need for action - climate chief
Alexandra Troubnikoff And Richard Ingham Yahoo News 2 Sep 10;
GENEVA (AFP) – UN climate chief Christiana Figueres on Thursday warned that a string of weather calamities showed the deepening urgency to forge a breakthrough deal on global warming this year.
Speaking before some 40 countries were to address finance, an issue that has helped hamstring UN climate talks, Figueres said floods in Pakistan, fires in Russia and other weather disasters had been a shocking wakeup call.
"The news has been screaming that a future of intense, global climate disasters is not the future that we want," Figueres, newly-appointed executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), told reporters.
"Science will show whether and how those events are related to climate change caused by humanity's greenhouse-gas emissions, but the point is clear: We cannot afford to face escalating disasters of that kind."
Figueres called on governments to agree on "four or five" major planks at year-end UNFCCC talks in Cancun, Mexico, which would then serve as a platform for a 2012 global pact on climate.
"We read it that countries are assuming their responsibility, that they're being realistic, that they're being productive, that they're being constructive and that they're counting on very clear outcomes from Cancun," she said.
One of the issues in Cancun will be funding.
"The regulation of the financial issues is a key precondition for the successful conclusion of the climate negotiations in Cancun," said Swiss Environment Minister Moritz Leuenberger, in a speech to open the talks.
Hundreds of billions of dollars are needed to prevent future emissions of greenhouse gases by emerging economies and help poor countries facing worsening drought, flood, storms and rising seas.
The Geneva talks, running until Friday, gather more than 40 countries at ministerial level, including big advanced economies, emerging giants and countries representative of poor nations.
The tentative goal is to establish a "dialogue" on the broad lines of how to gear up as much as 100 billion dollars a years by 2020.
The many questions include the resources of this fund, the role of the private and public sector and how the money would be administered.
On Friday, Dutch Environment Minister Tineke Huizinga will unveil a website detailing action so far on "fast-track" finance of 30 billion dollars that has been promised over the next three years.
Both are the key pledges made by rich countries at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen last December, an event that bickering, textual wrangling and finger-pointing brought to within an inch of catastrophe.
Mistrust festers today, especially among developing countries eyeing the few solid promises made at that ill-fated meeting.
Developing countries in particular want assurances that the 30 billion dollars in short-term finance will come from new sources and is not siphoned off from development aid or existing budgets, said Oxfam policy advisor Romain Benicchio.
Switzerland and Mexico, co-hosting the meeting, insist the Geneva talks do not constitute the gathering of a cosy elite.
Instead, they say, the outcome will feed into the UN process, deemed the sole valid vehicle, despite its many problems, for dealing with the climate peril.
The 194-nation UNFCCC forum next meets in Tianjin, China, in October followed in Cancun from November 29-December 10.
After the traumatic outcome of Copenhagen, expectations have been dialled down.
At best, say experts, Cancun will deliver good progress on the main issues, but the world will have to wait for another year before a draft treaty sees daylight.
If all goes well, the accord would take effect beyond 2012, after present commitments under the UNFCCC's Kyoto Protocol expire, setting down a charter for drastically curbing man-made greenhouse gas emissions and building financial support.
Nations meet on climate cash, UN sees long haul
* 45 countries seek $30 bln 2010-12 in climate aid
* U.N. warns of long haul, no magic bullets
Alister Doyle, Reuters AlertNet 2 Sep 10;
GENEVA, Sept 2 (Reuters) - About 45 nations met on Thursday to seek ways to raise billions of dollars in aid to help the poor combat climate change as the United Nations warned them of a long haul to slow global warming.
Environment ministers and senior officials in Geneva were reviewing whether rich nations, hit by austerity cuts, are keeping a promise of $30 billion in "new and additional" climate aid for 2010-12 made at the U.N.'s Copenhagen summit.
"The funds are critical" to build trust between rich and poor damaged in Copenhagen, Christiana Figueres, the U.N.'s climate chief, told Reuters in an interview.
About 120 countries in Copenhagen also pledged to increase aid for developing nations to $100 billion aid a year from 2020, tapping sources such as carbon taxes or more costly plane tickets.
Figueres said cash could be a key to unlock progress on other climate problems, such as sharing clean technologies or protecting carbon-storing forests at the next meeting of environment ministers in Cancun, Mexico, from Nov. 29-Dec. 10.
Swiss Environment Minister Moritz Leuenberger told the start of the two-day talks that "the regulation of the financial issues is a key precondition for the successful conclusion of the climate negotiations in Cancun."
But Figueres predicted there would be no new global treaty to combat climate change in Cancun, even though she said that extreme weather such as floods in Pakistan or Russia's heat wave were "warning bells" about the risks of inaction.
"I don't think that governments are considering (a treaty) for Cancun," she said. A year ago, many nations were hoping that the Copenhagen summit in December would be a "big bang" deal to help solve climate change.
But that didn't happen and Figueres, head of the Bonn-based U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said it was more realistic to look for gradual progress in solving climate change, adding that there was no "magic bullet".
Cancun could end up setting a new deadline for working out a more binding deal, perhaps by the end of 2012.
CANCUN
Figueres said it was vital that developed nations be able to point to $10 billion allocated to climate aid for 2010 by the time they meet in Cancun. But she urged developing nations to give leeway in judging if it was truly "new and additional" as agreed in Copenhagen.
She said that all nations' 2010 budgets were agreed by national parliaments by the time of the December summit. "There are justifiable reasons to see why 100 percent of this allocation (in 2010) will not be additional," she said.
The Netherlands plans to launch a new website on Friday to track climate promises.
An overview by Reuters shows that aid promises total $29.8 billion for 2010-12, but it is unclear how much is new. Japan, for instance, has pledged the most aid, at $15 billion, but much of that was decided several years ago.
Janos Pasztor, director of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's climate change support team, said experts were trying to balance competing interests to come up with ways of raising $100 billion a year from 2020.
"There are different combinations of these sources that can give you $100 billion or more," he said, referring to ideas such as levies on carbon trading or plane fares. "But none of the sources on its own will be enough."' (Editing by Charles Dick)
FACTBOX-Climate aid pledges at $30 bln goal, but some old
Reuters AlertNet 2 Sep 10;
Sept 2 (Reuters) - Pledges by rich countries to provide developing nations with "fast start" funds to fight climate change are nearing a $30 billion goal for 2010-12, but some is not "new and additional" as promised.
Environment Ministers and officials from 45 nations are meeting in Geneva on Sept. 2-3 to review the pledge, made at the U.N.'s Copenhagen summit in December, and a linked goal of raising $100 billion a year in aid from 2020. [ID:nLDE681161].
Promises for 2010-12 so far total $29.8 billion, according to a Reuters overview compiled from official national data. It also shows projects in developing nations, from Tonga to Ethiopia, to help curb global warming.
WORLDWIDE
More than 120 nations agreed to the U.N.'s Copenhagen Accord in December for curbing global warming. On finance, developed nations agreed to give "new and additional resources ... approaching $30 billion for the period 2010-2012."
There are no rules for deciding who contributes what, no common reporting and no definition of what qualifies as "new and additional". The Copenhagen Accord also speaks of raising aid to at least $100 billion a year from 2020.
NATIONAL
UNITED STATES - $3.2 BILLION. The U.S. contribution to fast-start aid was $1.3 billion for 2010 and President Barack Obama requested $1.9 billion for 2011. The United States is a leading donor in a $3.5 billion plan to protect forests from 2010-12 also funded by Australia, France, Japan, Norway and Britain. For 2010, the State Department says that $448 million goes to helping countries adapt to climate change, $595 million to clean energy and $261 million to "sustainable landscapes."
JAPAN - $15 BILLION. Japan said in Copenhagen it would offer $15 billion in the three years to end-2012, including $11 billion in public money. The total amount includes around 1 trillion yen ($11.87 billion) left over from the "Cool Earth Partnership" initiative under the previous Liberal Democratic Party-led government running from 2008-2012. As of end-April, Japan had spent $5.3 billion for projects in countries including Indonesia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, India, Egypt, Kenya and Nepal. Japan has said it would spend the money "while monitoring developments in global negotiations". A foreign ministry official said it is unlikely to back off from the pledge and will continue to provide funding for developing countries which have backed the Copenhagen Accord and are working for a deal.
CANADA - $377 MILLION. Canada has committed C$400 million ($377 million) as fast-start funds for the 2010-11 fiscal year, Environment Canada said. The funds are additional to those previously considered for climate change programmes before Copenhagen. Future contributions have not been decided.
AUSTRALIA - $504 MILLION. In June, promised 559 million Australian dollars ($504.1 million) to the 2010-12 funds.
EUROPEAN UNION - $9.59 BILLION - In a mid-year review, the European Commission said "the EU is delivering on its fast-start pledge" for 2010 of 2.4 billion euros. For 2010-12, it said 7.55 billion euros ($9.59 billion) had been confirmed.
At that review, member states gave the following examples of projects in developing nations:
GERMANY - 4.2 million euros from 2009-10, to be increased by 10 million in 2010, to help Tonga and Vanuatu improve land use. Also, 2.25 million euros from 2010-13 to Ghana to help micro-insurance projects covering risks of droughts and extreme weather.
FRANCE - Loans to support national climate change action plans -- 185 million euros to Mexico, $800 million for Indonesia, 25 million euros for Vietnam, 125 million euros for Mauritius.
BRITAIN - 50 million sterling ($77.10 million) for Indonesia from 2011-16 to help curb greenhouse gases, partly by managing forests. Of the total, 19 million sterling is fast-start funds.
SPAIN - 45 million euros to the Adaptation Fund, which it says is the first significant contribution by a donor and 36 percent of Spain's pledge for fast-start funds for 2010.
THE NETHERLANDS - 310 million euros for fast-start funds for 2010-12. It says the funds are "new and additional" to overseas aid totalling 0.8 percent of gross national product. Of the cash, it plans to spend 90 million on renewable energy in Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
SWEDEN - Says it is helping countries including Mali. It says it will provide about 800 million euros from 2010-12 for climate aid projects.
FINLAND - Finland's contribution to EU fast-start finance is 110 million euros for 2010-12, an increase over 2009 spending. Projects include forest conservation in Nepal.
EUROPEAN COMMISSION - Says it will provide 50 million euros of fast-start financing per year from 2010-12. In 2010, 25 million euros will be allocated to capacity building related to climate change mitigation, forestry and technology cooperation, and 25 million to actions focusing on adaptation in Ethiopia, Nepal and the Pacific region.
OTHER
NORWAY - $1 BILLION. Says fast-start funds so far comprise support for slowing deforestation, totalling $1 billion for 2010-12. Other amounts may follow for other activities. Forest projects include in Brazil, Guyana, Indonesia and Tanzania.
SWITZERLAND - $136 MILLION. The government is seeking 140 million Swiss francs ($135.9 million) in fast-start funds. That is about 0.45 percent of $30 billion -- Switzerland's share of greenhouse gas emissions by developed nations is 0.3 percent, but is wealthier than most so can afford more.
(Compiled by Alister Doyle in Oslo; Additional reporting by Richard Cowan in Washington, Chisa Fujioka in Tokyo, Pete Harrison in Brussels, Louise Egan in Ottawa, Laura MacInnis in Geneva; Editing by Noah Barkin)
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