18ha to be reclaimed at Jurong Island, near Cyrene
from wild shores of singapore
Blue, red and yellow
from The annotated budak and Plain wanderer
Nesting of sunbird
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Peaceful Dove in courtship mode
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Wildfact updates: Marvellous Molluscs!
from wild shores of singapore
Do we really need water filters?
from Water Quality in Singapore
Move comes as Shell ramps up output at its HPEO plant
Ronnie Lim Business Times 16 Nov 10;
(SINGAPORE) More land is being reclaimed off Ayer Merbau on Jurong Island to accommodate new investors like soap and detergent makers at a new value-add petrochemicals corridor shaping up there, as well as other potential downstream parties, BT has learnt.
Shell just last week said it was ramping production of high-purity ethylene oxide (HPEO) needed by investors at the new corridor there.
And sources said that JTC Corporation is reclaiming about 18 hectares off Ayer Merbau, starting with some 7-8 ha in the south and another 5 ha in the north of the area.
Ayer Merbau is where Shell's mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) plant - part of its new US$3 billion petrochemical complex - and its now wholly-owned Ethylene Glycols Singapore plant, is sited.
Shell just last week bought out its Japanese partners in EGS, with this now enabling it to better integrate the EGS and MEG plants so that it can increase its HPEO production to 100,000 tonnes per annum right away, or up from 60,000 tpa currently.
Shell Chemicals vice-president, Iain Lo, told BT last Thursday that this will allow it to supply enough HPEO to downstream customers whose new plants will be up and running in about 18-24 months time. HPEO - which through ethoxylation, like putting ethylene oxide on alcohols - is used for products like soap and detergent.
Shell is now evaluating longer-term HPEO requirements, including from other customers, before proceeding with its plans to add even more capacity by investing in a new HPEO column or plant at its MEG plant.
In connection with the land work at Ayer Merbau, JTC has also just tendered for a consultant to do environmental monitoring and to come up with a management plan for the reclamation there.
Sources estimate that the reclamation is expected to add some 10 per cent more land to Ayer Merbau, where Singapore's first petrochemical complex, Petrochemical Corporation of Singapore is also sited.
BT earlier reported that some other Japanese and German investors are also looking at possible new downstream plant investments there.
Germany's Lanxess, which is currently building a 400 million euros (S$687 million) synthetic rubber plant on Jurong Island, is said to be discussing butadiene feedstock for a possible second plant here to produce Nd-PBR, another hard-wearing synthetic rubber used for making tyres.
Its most likely butadiene source here will be Shell, whose new petrochemicals complex here has a butadient extraction unit.
Another is Mitsui Chemicals, which has already invested over S$1 billion in five plants here, and which indicated earlier this year that it was now considering a sixth plant in Singapore.
This could possibly be for additional capacity for elastomers (flexible and light resin modifiers that improve the impact resistance of moulded products like car bumpers).
Evangeline Majawat New Straits Times 16 Nov 10;
KUALA LUMPUR: Up to 80 per cent of Malaysia's corals have recovered from the mass bleaching which affected the region in July.
This is good news to divers, tour operators and environmentalists, who are deeply concerned about the health of the corals.
The mass coral bleaching, which is also happened in neighbouring Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, forced the closure of 12 dive spots in Kedah, Pahang and Terengganu.
The Marine Parks Department has banned all recreational activities in the 12 spots including the famous Pulau Tenggol in Redang and Pulau Perhentian Besar in Pulau Perhentian. The ban has been extended to March.
But some sites have shown a remarkable recovery of up to 80 per cent.
"The department had conducted studies on the affected areas. It was reported that most of the corals have shown positive signs of recovery," said the department's newly-appointed director-general Dr Sukarno Wagiman yesterday.
He said the ban was necessary to reduce the human impact on the corals.
"Temperature, salinity and levels of ultraviolet radiation are factors that will affect the rate of coral recovery.
"Human disturbance will also contribute to the rate."
Sukarno admitted that the number of tourists dipped slightly with the closure of the 12 sites. He estimated the total arrival of tourists to marine parks in Johor, Kedah, Pahang and Terengganu this year to fall between 1,000 and 4,000 people.
"But I'm confident that the number will bounce back once we reopen the sites."
As of August this year, the department registered about 491,000 tourists in marine parks in Peninsular Malaysia. Last year saw about 530,000.
Coral bleaching happens when the colourful algae that gives coral its colour and food dies, turning it into a bone white colour.
It is thought that a temperature increase of more than one degree Celsius and excessive sunlight trigger the single-celled algae zooxanthellae to attack the corals.
Beginning April this year, easterly winds from the cooler waters of the Pacific Ocean have been pushing warmer waters into the Southeast Asian region.
This has caused significantly warmer waters of between 30degC and 32degC.
Denise Hruby Phnom Penh Post 15 Nov 10;
An international conservation group has announced the discovery of a new species of carnivorous pitcher plant native to Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains.
The species, named Nepenthes holdenii after British photographer Jeremy Holden, who first stumbled across the plant in 2006, produces pitchers that can reach 30 centimetres in length and can thrive in drought- and fire-prone areas.
“I found it and photographed it, but it took me a couple of years to find someone who could identify it,” Holden said.
Eventually Holden made contact with François Mey, a French botanist and pitcher plant expert, who flew to Cambodia in August this year to see the plant for himself.
“Within 10 seconds [Mey] could tell that it is a new species,” said Holden.
According to a statement announcing the discovery of the plant, which was issued by the conservation organisation Fauna & Flora International, “the large red and green pitchers that characterise Nepenthes holdenii are actually modified leaves designed to capture and digest insects”.
“The carnivorous strategy allows the plants to gain additional nutrients and flourish in otherwise impoverished soils,” the statement added.
Another unusual adaptation is the plants’ “ability to cope with fire and extended periods of drought” because of “a large underground tuber which sends up a new pitcher-bearing vine after the fires have passed”, the statement added.
Nepenthes holdenii is the second new species of pitcher plant to be discovered in Cambodia recently.
New Species of Carnivorous Plant Discovered in Cambodia
ScienceDaily 15 Nov 10;
A new species of carnivorous pitcher plant has been found by Fauna & Flora International (FFI) in Cambodia's remote Cardamom Mountains. The discovery of Nepenthes holdenii is an indicator of both the stunning diversity and lack of research in the forests of the Cardamom Mountains.
The large red and green pitchers that characterize Nepenthes holdenii are actually modified leaves designed to capture and digest insects. The pitchers can reach up to 30 centimeters long. The carnivorous strategy allows the plants to gain additional nutrients and flourish in otherwise impoverished soils.
A further unusual adaptation seen in this new species is its ability to cope with fire and extended periods of drought. Cambodia's dry season causes forests to desiccate and forest fires are common. Nepenthes holdenii exploits the clearings caused by these regular blazes by producing a large underground tuber which sends up a new pitcher- bearing vine after the fires have passed.
British photographer Jeremy Holden, who first found the plant on the FFI survey and after whom it is named, said: "The Cardamom Mountains are a treasure chest of new species, but it was a surprise to find something as exciting and charismatic as an unknown pitcher plant."
This discovery is the latest in a series of new species described from the Cardamom Mountains, including a green-blooded frog and a number of new reptiles. Jenny Daltry, FFI Senior Conservation Biologist said: "The flora of Cambodia is still poorly known and potentially holds many new species for researchers to discover."
François Mey, the French botanist and Nepenthes expert who described the plant said: "This amazing species may be the most drought-tolerant of the genus. Thanks to a large underground tuber, it has the ability to endure extended periods of drought and fires."
Francois Mey and Jeremy Holden are currently working on a book devoted to the carnivorous plants of Cambodia.
Tan Ee Lyn PlanetArk 16 Nov 10;
Researchers have found genes in wild varieties of soybean that make them resistant to certain diseases and hope to use them in cultivated species of soy to make them more hardy.
They may also have found genes that make wild varieties resistant to drought and saline soil -- traits that cultivated soybean will need because the amount of arable land is shrinking around the world.
"(These traits) enable them to survive in suboptimal conditions and are important for utilizing marginal land," said Lam Hon-ming, deputy director of the State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology at the Chinese University in Hong Kong.
"We can extract these genes and use them in varieties cultivated in suboptimal and marginal land," Lam said in a telephone interview on Monday.
Lam and his colleagues in Hong Kong and China sequenced the genomes of 17 wild and 14 cultivated varieties of soybean, and uncovered many genes in the wild varieties that were either absent or different in the cultivated species.
Their findings were published in Nature Genetics on Monday.
Soybean has been cultivated in China for almost 5,000 years and in the United States since 1765, and artificial selection of traits over time has resulted in a loss of many genes.
"However, the wild varieties have preserved these traits to survive in harsh conditions and they are important now with China's arable land and water resources shrinking," Lam said.
With a population set to grow to 1.44 billion by 2030 from 1.33 billion in 2009, China is eager to find ways to increase food production. The task, however, is made difficult because of insufficient water and arable land.
It needs to feed 22 percent of the world's population but has only 7 percent of the world's arable land. Its water resources are meager at just 25 percent of the per capita world average. And a quarter of its water is so polluted it is unfit even for industrial use.
"Good arable land will not increase. We have to look for marginal land and develop stress tolerance genes. There will be a higher chance of getting these resources in the wild," Lam said.
The study underlined the importance of preserving the habitat of wild crops, Lam said.
"Habitats for wild soybean are shrinking and that is alarming. People should protect the habitat for wild crops or biodiversity will shrink," he said.
(Editing by Sugita Katyal)
Unilever's environmental audit and sustainable agriculture plans are a gamechanger for the way that global companies behave, says Jonathon Porritt
Jonathon Porritt guardian.co.uk 15 Nov 10;
For the last two years, Unilever has been carrying out a comprehensive 'audit' of the impact on the environment from the use of its products, in terms of water, waste and emissions of greenhouse gases. It already had all the data relating to the manufacture, processing and transport of its products, and has been making good progress in reducing all those direct impacts over the last 10 years or more. But those direct impacts turned out to be relatively insignificant when compared with what happens when customers actually use these products.
Having amassed the data, category by category, brand by brand, the Executive Team then set targets for reducing those impacts, unleashing an unprecedented search for innovative solutions across the entire company. Some of those innovations will require reformulating the product itself, or completely redesigning the packaging. Some will require a very different engagement with the customer, with a view to 'co-creating' the environmental benefit by using the product in a different way.
To be honest, I've never seen a process quite like this. The data-gathering has been rigorous (as is always the case in Unilever), and the targets are seriously ambitious. If it's all delivered, then the net impact on the environment in 2020 will be no greater than it is today even though the company is simultaneously setting out to double its revenues during the same time period. Doubling revenues and halving impacts is going to be one hell of a challenge.
On top of that, Unilever have also announced that 100% of its agricultural raw materials will be 'sustainably sourced' by 2020. Since 1997, Unilever's food brands have been developing a Sustainable Agriculture Code for all its suppliers, covering every aspect of production. It's an extraordinary document, and makes most governments' guidance on 'good agricultural practice' look extremely crude. Its work with the Rainforest Alliance on certifying its main tea brands, and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil have been widely acknowledged as groundbreaking. But to put in place systems of certification and self-assurance covering every single ingredient in every single product is a vast undertaking.
It's important to point out that it may be a little premature to get too excited about all this! It is, after all, just a Plan. Success can only be judged in terms of what is delivered, not in terms of what is being promised. There's a long way to go before 2020 – and even if every target is achieved, in every country all around the world, environmentalists will still point out that the use of Unilever's products is still having a huge impact on the natural world.
The lion's share of that growth will be in developing and emerging countries where there are still billions of people for whom the benefits of good food, balanced diets, hygiene and sanitation are still not available. Some of Unilever's growth will be achieved in meeting those basic needs, and some in terms of more aspirational consumer products that will be more problematic environmentally. But who is to say that the average citizen in India has less of a right to enjoy a Magnum ice cream than the average UK citizen?
Finally, for me personally, one of the greatest strengths of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, is the holistic vision that lies behind it – combining all the environmental metrics with nutrition and hygiene targets, community investment and educational projects, employee engagement and so on.
In this a game-changer for Unilever? Absolutely. Is it the best Plan out there for big global companies? I believe it is.
• Jonathon Porritt is Founder Director of Forum for the Future
Michel Moutot Yahoo News 15 Nov 10;
DOHA (AFP) – Powerful international mafias are turning their sights more and more on expanding into ivory poaching, illegal fishing and other "green" crimes, police and experts say.
Because of poor monitoring, relatively low risks and the prospects of big money, the environment has become a safe target for crime gangs whose more traditional activities include crimes such as drug trafficking and extortion.
"The criminals that are engaged in this field are obviously very organised," said David Higgins, manager of Interpol's Environmental Crime Programme, told AFP on the sidelines of the 79th Interpol General Assembly in Qatar.
Environment-related crime "crosses international borders and jurisdictions all the time," he said.
On November 8, Interpol adopted a resolution unanimously pledging support to back the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and to fight environmental crime.
CITES secretary general John Scanlon said the resolution "sends a very strong message to those who seek to rob countries of their natural resources that the global law enforcement community recognises that it must work together, led by Interpol, to bring these environmental criminals to justice."
According to Higgins, the resolution "shows how seriously the police community of the world takes environmental crime and we look forward to the ongoing support of our member countries in this area."
In its resolution, the global police organisation said environmental crime "is not restricted by borders and involves organised crime which engages in other crime types, including murder, corruption, fraud and theft."
John Sellar, a Scottish former police officer who led the fight against green crimes in CITES, had long hoped for such a resolution.
"People don't imagine the kind of money involved in wildlife trafficking. They still too often believe that local poachers go out and shoot whatever they can find, when in fact you have real networks of professional criminals getting organised to kill and ship wildlife on a massive scale," Sellar said.
"We were beginning to convince police and custom officials of the importance of environmental crimes, then 9/11 happened and we went back a decade," he said of the 2001 terror attacks on the United States.
"We're only now beginning to come back to their agendas."
Samuel Wasser, from the University of Washington in Seattle, has said wildlife trafficking was worth more than 20 billion dollars annually, with seizures of ivory worth up to 20 million dollars each year.
Organised crime gangs are investing fortunes in the knowledge the returns will be no less than those obtained by trafficking drugs -- but with much less severe penalties in the case of failure.
"There is big money involved," Higgins said.
"You have groups and networks that are hiring helicopters to hunt down elephants and rhinos in southern Africa," he said. "It shows the level of profit they can make, if they are ready to make this kind of investment."
In 2005, the Australian Navy intercepted a European-flagged ship that was fishing for Patagonian toothfish, a critically endangered and rare species worth a fortune on the black market.
"The Australian navy pursued these people from the coast of Australia half way to South Africa and caught them. It indicates how much money is involved: these people are ready to go all the way down to the other side of the earth to harvest these fish," Higgins said.
"The bad guys are interested in environmental crime because they see that the eyes of the law enforcement community aren't on the ball," he said.
"They are focusing on human trafficking and drugs, so as a criminal group, you know that if you smuggle drugs across a border, there is a good chance you'll get caught, but if you're taking a couple of Pangolins (small scaly mammals) in Asia across a border, most law enforcement officers aren't looking for it."
* China consumption now 1.2 times more than is sustainable
* Rapid urbanisation and changing consumer patterns to blame
* Consumption still lower than per capita global average
David Stanway Reuters AlertNet 15 Nov 10;
BEIJING, Nov 15 (Reuters) - China is living further and further beyond its environmental means as it tries to meet surging demand from its huge and increasingly urban population, a report by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) said.
The report said that overall changes in consumption patterns and the shift from rural to urban lifestyles were putting more pressure on China's already threadbare environment -- and the implications are global.
If the whole world consumed the same amount of resources as China did in 2007, it would require the equivalent of 1.2 planets, up from 0.8 in 2003, according to calculations in the WWF's 2010 China Ecological Footprint Report, released on Monday.
In terms of comparison, if the global consumption level reached those of the United States, it would require the equivalent of 4.5 earths, and if they were the same as India, it would only need 0.5 earths, the report said.
"What this report tells us is that China's ecological footprint is about 20 percent higher than the planet can sustain," James Leape, director general of WWF International, told Reuters after the report was launched.
"That puts them in the middle of the pack, but obviously on a track that cannot be sustained in the long run."
China's footprint -- its use of farmlands, forests, fisheries and urban land, as well as its carbon emissions -- amounted to 2.2 global hectares (gha) per capita in 2007, higher than the desired per capita biological capacity of just 1.8 gha, but still 40 percent lower than the global average of 2.7 gha.
Though China has successfully improved its biocapacity by boosting crop yields and improving efficiency over the last five decades, consumption is still growing at a much faster rate.
China's breakneck economic growth has become one of the key issues in ongoing global climate change talks, with Beijing insisting that a new pact should place most of the burden on rich nations and leave growth in the developing world undisturbed.
Chinese officials and academics have accused western critics of hypocrisy, saying not only that its people have a right to prosperity, but also that its spiraling energy and resource use has been caused in part by the torrent of cheap manufactured goods it has been supplying to the rest of the world.
But the WWF's figures deliberately exclude China's export market, and if they were included the picture would be even worse, said Leape.
China's economic fortunes continue to be underwritten by coal, the dirtiest of fossil fuels as well as one of the biggest sources of atmospheric carbon dioxide, one of the greenhouse gases responsible for global warming.
"China's carbon emissions have increased more than 20 times in the last 50 years and that is really what is driving the fast growth of the economy," said Leape.
The International Energy Agency estimated earlier this year that China had already overtaken the United States to become the world's biggest energy consumer, and with per capita levels still so much lower, many fear a Chinese consumption peak could be decades away.
While its population is at 1.3 billion and rising, Chinese policy makers claim the country would have had to feed and house an additional 300 million citizens if it had not imposed draconian measures to restrict each family to just one child.
Li Lin, one of the authors of the WWF report, said population has now stabilised and that the crucial issue was now the growth in per capita consumption levels.
"You can imagine how it would be if we have 300 million more people in China, but this study shows that population and per capita consumption have both doubled (in the last 50 years)," she said.
"Population growth is now stable and we now have to focus on the per capita (rate), which is now the driving force."
(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
Carbon and cities central to a sustainable China
WWF 15 Nov 10;
Beijing, China – Addressing carbon emissions and urban development will be crucial if China is to continue to improve well-being without costing the planet, says a new report launched today.
The “China Ecological Footprint Report 2010”, jointly published by WWF and China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), explores the country’s challenges and opportunities in an increasingly resource-constrained world.
Over the past three decades China’s per capita income has grown by more than 50 times as a result of economic development. However, rapid industrialization, urban development and intensive agriculture have increased the pressure on nature.
“Our environment is the basis for life and human development. Due to rapid social and economic development in recent years, environmental issues are increasingly becoming a bottleneck for future economic growth,” said Zhu Guangyao, Secretary General of CCICED. “The next twenty years will be critical for China to realize sustainable development. With this in mind, it is the goal of the Chinese government to accelerate the formation of a resource efficient and environmentally-friendly society.”
A world consuming resources and producing wastes at Chinese levels for 2007 would need the equivalent of 1.2 planets to support its activities, compared to 0.8 of a planet at 2003 Chinese consumption levels. The global average in 2007 was 1.5 planets, meaning that it would take 1.5 years for the Earth to regenerate the resources used and to absorb the CO2 emitted that year.
Carbon emissions and individual wealth have become the major factors influencing China’s Ecological Footprint.
“Raising awareness of China's footprint is a crucial step in China's efforts to improve the well-being of its people without jeopardizing their future,” said Jim Leape, WWF International Director General. “This analysis tells us that to achieve its goal of a ‘harmonious society,’ China must find ways to grow its economy while protecting the natural systems upon which the economy, and society, depend – from the Yangtze River to the Amazon forest.”
In 2008, carbon footprint associated with energy demand for buildings, transport, consumption of goods and provision of public services account for more than half of China’s Ecological Footprint in 29 of China’s 31 provinces. In the municipalities of Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin, and in the industrialized province of Shangdong this portion exceeds 65 percent.
“The analysis clearly indicated the importance of China moving quickly to a low carbon development model and the crucial role that will be played by energy efficiency, cleaner energy and the push to sustainable cities,” Leape said.
There are clear differences between rural and urban areas, primarily due to income gaps and consequent variations in consumption and energy utilization.
"Crucial role that will be played by energy efficiency, cleaner energy and the push to sustainable cities."
The analysis suggests that for provinces where per capita GDP exceeds RMB 30,000 (approximately US$ 4,500), Ecological Footprint increases in parallel. In China high-income segments of population are overwhelmingly located in cities, and Ecological Footprint of cities is 1.4 to 2.5 times greater than rural areas.
In 2008 Beijing had the greatest footprint per person and Yunnan has the smallest. Between 1985 and 2008 Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Guangdong and Chongqing have seen the greatest overall growth in their footprint per person.
There are, however, promising signs of China’s attempt to achieve sustainable development. The rate of increase in Ecological Footprint has slowed down in most Chinese provinces during 2005-2008 in comparison to 2000-2005. In Beijing, this trend is attributed to a more stable rate of urbanization, together with energy conservation measures and to the transition from a manufacturing to a service economy.
“Today China’s global influence is greater than at any time in recent history and by reducing pressure on natural resources through better management and increased efficiency, the country can play an important role in sustaining the global environment while gaining competitiveness,” Leape said.
Download: China Ecological Footprint Report 2010 - English 1.84 MB pdf
Karin Zeitvogel Yahoo News 15 Nov 10;
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The world will run out of oil around 100 years before replacement energy sources are available, if oil use and development of new fuels continue at the current pace, a US study warns.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis (UC-Davis) used the current share prices of oil companies and alternative energy companies to predict when replacement fuels will be ready to fill the gap left when oil runs dry.
And the study's findings weren't very good for the oil-hungry world.
If the world's oil reserves were the 1.332 trillion barrels estimated in 2008 and oil consumption stood at 85.22 million barrels a day and growing yearly at 1.3 percent, oil would be depleted by 2041, says the study published online last week by Environmental Science and Technology.
But by plugging current stock market prices into a complex equation, UC-Davis engineering professor Debbie Niemeier and postdoctoral researcher Nataliya Malyshkina calculated that a viable alternative fuel to oil will not be available before the middle of next century.
The researchers analyzed the share prices of 25 oil companies quoted on US, European and Australian stock exchanges, and of 44 alternative energy companies that produce fuels such as ethanol or bio-diesel, or are developing fuel cells, batteries and propulsion systems aimed at replacing gasoline and diesel in vehicles of the future.
What they found is that the market capitalization, or total value of all stock shares, of traditional oil companies far outstripped that of the alternative energy companies.
That indicated to them that investors believe oil is going to do well in the near future and occupy a larger share of the energy market than alternative energy, said Malyshkina.
"To assess the time until a considerable fraction of oil is likely to be replaced by alternatives, we used advanced pricing equations to make sense of the large discrepancy between the market capitalization of traditional oil companies and the market capitalization of alternative-energy companies," she told AFP.
Their calculations show that there would not be a widely available replacement for oil-based fuels before 2140, which, even if the more optimistic date of 2054 for oil depletion is retained, would mean there could be a gap of around 90 years when it might be difficult to run a motor vehicle.
Nearly two-thirds of crude oil is used to produce gasoline and diesel to run vehicles, said Malyshkina.
The researchers' calculations were based on the theory that long-term investors are good predictors of when new technologies will become commonplace.
"Sophisticated investors tend to put considerable effort into collecting, processing and understanding information relevant to the future cash flows paid by securities," said Malyshkina.
"As a result, market forecasts of future events, representing consensus predictions of a large number of investors, tend to be relatively accurate."
Similar calculations have been used to accurately predict the outcome of elections and the results of sports events, Malyshkina said.
But all is not doom and gloom, says the study.
On the oil supply side, consumption could well decrease in future as more energy-saving measures are introduced and used by consumers, and new oil reserves could become available as extraction techniques improve.
On the alternative fuel side of the equation, the study did not look at nonprofits, government agencies and universities which are developing new fuels, because they are not quoted on the stock market.
And if governments announced new policy initiatives to promote alternative fuel development, share prices of alternative energy companies would rise, and the gap between the end of oil and the kick-in of alternative fuels would shrink.
IRIN Reuters AlertNet 15 Nov 10;
TEGALEGA, 15 November 2010 (IRIN) - Indonesian farmers, who account for 57 percent of the country's poor, are increasingly struggling to deal with the impacts of climate change, as the longer rainy season leads to poorer yields and a shorter harvest.
"Normally one hectare would produce 6MT, now it produces only 2.5MT," says Ujang Majudin of his rice crop.
Majudin heads a farmers' cooperative on the island of Java with more than 300 members. But with such bad weather this year, it is struggling.
"Almost all the crops are destroyed, so production is very low and the price I have to pay for the vegetables is very high," Majudin says, pointing at the piles of rotting vegetables in his storage shed.
Indonesia normally has a six-month wet season (November to March) and a six-month dry season (June to October), but this year it simply kept on raining. The UN World Meteorological Organization blames the weather phenomena La Niña, saying the rains will continue for the next four to six months. As well as vegetable and rice farmers, producers of palm oil, tin, cocoa, coal and rubber also complain about the heavy tropical storms.
The consequences are already being felt at local markets where crop prices have jumped 20 percent.
Farmer Muhamad Subadri has a small plot of land in the fertile hills of Tegalega, a four-hour drive from the capital Jakarta. With nine mouths to feed he is very worried about the enormous rainfall. "The pesticides I use on my crops have been washed away, so caterpillars eat my crops. And for the rice it is a problem because we can't dry it, so it rots."
Rice dependency
In other areas paddy fields are flooded, making it impossible to even harvest the rice, a staple food which Indonesians eat more than any other people on Earth: 136kg per person per year, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
For the first time in three years the Indonesian government announced last month it would import rice, even though it aims to be self-sufficient.
"There could be a very wide impact, on the whole of Asia. We'll know by early next year, because La Niña is predicted to last to early 2011... The problem the Indonesian government faces now is uncertainty, which is why their decision to buy rice has been a wise one," said Benni Sormin, assistant representative with the FAO in Jakarta.
Indonesia's food logistics agency, Bulog [ http://www.bulog.co.id/ ], will supplement shrinking stocks for distribution to the poor with bulk imports from Vietnam and Thailand. The agency said it would seek to boost its stockpile to two million MT.
To increase food security for its more than 250 million people, three out of five of whom live in rural areas, the Indonesian government is trying to diversify diet habits to other crops such as corn and wheat. Still, rice is the basis of every meal, a reliance that could make Indonesia vulnerable to price fluctuations on the international markets if shortages continue.
Since 2007, Indonesia has boosted rice production by 15 percent to 36 million tonnes, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, but no official measures have been taken to compensate a possible fall in 2010. Bayu Krisnamurti, the deputy Minister of Agriculture, said government was very aware of the situation.
"We have to be alert and cautious with any of our decisions and look at any opportunity to make the food [situation] secure... But you have to understand that even though the challenge is domestic, the situation is actually global, it is not simply only Indonesia," Krisnamurti said.
Back in the hills of Tegalega, the owner of the cooperative sighs when he sees a pile of just-harvested corn: "Look at the size, so small, that's not normal, not normal at all. It is all because of the rains."
Following is the first in a series of Q+As on major climate change themes.
Timothy Gardner Reuters AlertNet 15 Nov 10;
Nov 15 (Reuters) - The two big countries most opposed to adopting policies that would quickly cut greenhouse gas emissions also happen to be the world's largest producers of coal, the fuel that emits the most carbon dioxide.
China, the world's top greenhouse gas polluter and the biggest coal producer, wants the world to give it a chance to fully industrialize, just as the United States and Europe have, before it starts cutting emissions. [ID:nSGE6940EP]
The United States, the No. 2 emitter and coal producer, has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions only about 4 percent from 1990 levels by 2020. That's far less than the 20 percent cut by 2020 from 1990 that the 27 countries in the European Union have pledged.
Here are key questions about the climate policies in the world's biggest polluters starting with the strongest efforts.
HOW IS THE E.U. DOING?
Most countries in the European Union have moderate to small amounts of coal and oil.
That combined with domestic taxes on motor fuels have driven energy efficiency in countries there since before the EU was formed. In addition, unreliable imports of natural gas from Russia has also helped push many EU countries to look toward renewables, such as wind and solar power.
In 2005, the EU was the first place to adopt carbon markets The cap and trade market is mandatory for its 27 members and ramps up into a tougher third phase from 2013.
In addition, the EU has a goal of cutting emissions 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020. Environment ministers from Britain, France, and Sweden have said this year they would support deepening the cut to 30 percent, though businesses have balked at that.
The EU also has a plan to make 20 percent of all energy alternative by 2020. All these efforts make the EU the world's leading emissions fighter. Still, no region is yet on track for making the kind of cuts scientists say are necessary to avoid the worst effects of climate change such as droughts, heat waves and floods.
HOW ARE CHINA AND OTHER ASIAN COUNTRIES TAKING ACTION? China is not ready to start cutting emissions. Instead, it has pledged to cut carbon intensity, or the amount of carbon dioxide emitted for each unit of economic output, by 40-45 percent by 2020 compared to 2005.
China has also embarked on a program to increase output of renewables like wind and solar power. It wants 15 percent of energy to be renewable by 2020, from less than 9 percent in 2009. It is also exploring market-based mechanisms such as emissions trading for specific sectors or regions to meet its CO2 targets.
India, which emits far less per-capita than either China or the United States, set a goal last year of slowing its carbon intensity by between 20 and 25 percent by 2020, from 2005 levels.
It is also a large coal producer.
Japan, which never had big supplies of fossil fuels, has long been a leader in nuclear power, which emits practically no greenhouse gases. It has a target of cutting emissions 25 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels, if other major emitters follow suit. Tokyo has a cap-and-trade emissions market and a country-wide plan could start in 2013 if the laws are passed by parliament.
Australia, which shelved emissions trading laws earlier this year after fierce political opposition, has created a panel to recommend the best way to price carbon emissions. Neighbouring New Zealand has the only national CO2 trading scheme outside Europe but a price cap on tradeable pollution units, limited supply and soft transition measures mean trading is thin.
HOW IS THE U.S. DOING ON CLIMATE AFTER THE ELECTIONS?
President Barack Obama admitted after the elections in November, in which Republicans won control of the House of Representatives, he will not have the votes to pass national cap-and-trade market this year, next year or the year after that.
Still, his administration has said it would stick with a pledge to cut emissions 17 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels -- equal to a cut of about 4 percent from 1990.
SO THAT MEANS THE U.S. WILL DO VERY LITTLE?
Not exactly. Obama's administration has taken several steps on transport to curb CO2 pollution and move toward alternative fuels.
Turning to electricity, Congress could pass national mandates for utilities to generate minimum amounts of renewable power, perhaps next year. A bill backed by a Democrat has some Republican support, but it probably needs to recognize nuclear power as clean electricity in order to pass.
WILL STATES FILL SOME OF THE GAPS IN THE U.S.?
That is likely. In fact the elections gave a big boost to California's carbon market and alternative energy as voters upheld a 2006 clean energy law.
It will create a cap-and-trade market in California, the world's eighth largest economy, by 2012. In addition, several Western states and Canadian provinces could join a regional emissions market, led by California.
In the East Coast the country's only mandatory cap-and-trade market, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, has been underway for two years. (Editing by Ed Lane)
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