Best of our wild blogs: 6 Dec 12

Saving Bidadari
from Rojak Librarian

Glass act
from The annotated budak

Random Gallery - Gram Blue
from Butterflies of Singapore

Birding @ Jurong Lake 2012
from PurpleMangrove

Read more!

Shell to move gas hub to Singapore

Alvin Foo Straits Times 6 Dec 12;

ENERGY giant Royal Dutch Shell will move its new global integrated gas business from Holland to Singapore as early as next year to be closer to the fast-growing Asian market.

The unit, which is now based in The Hague, covers various aspects of natural gas, from exploration to production, transport and downstream use.

Mr Andy Brown, Shell's upstream international director, told a media webcast yesterday: "We have a new integrated gas business that will be going live next year, once we have all the approvals from the various staff councils. It will be based in Singapore.

"We still see potential in Europe with some growth, but the major growth will come now in Asia.

"It's a big step and demonstrates the depth of our relationships in Singapore in all sectors, in particular the chemicals and refining sectors."

The Straits Times understands the move is likely to result in more investment and new jobs being created here.

A Shell spokesman said yesterday: "We are studying the options of related job opportunities in the region. It is too early to comment on the specifics."

Observers said the move is timely, given that Singapore's new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal will begin operations next year.

Last month, Shell said it would expand capacity at its ethylene cracker complex on Pulau Bukom to ramp up production of olefins and aromatics by more than 20 per cent.

The ethylene cracker, which started up in March 2010, is the centrepiece of the US$3 billion (S$3.66 billion) Shell Eastern Petrochemicals Complex.

Shell hinted yesterday that there will be more projects here lined up in the coming months.

Shell Chemicals executive vice-president, Mr Ben van Beurden, said: "Will there be more in Singapore? Absolutely... Stay tuned, there's going to be a little more news coming in the next few months about things we are pursuing in Singapore, all building off this large integrated refining petrochemical hub we are developing."

Read more!

Singapore calls for emissions reductions to achieve climate change deal

Channel NewsAsia 5 Dec 12;

DOHA: Singapore has called on countries to show their commitment by pledging emissions reductions in order to achieve a global deal on climate change.

Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said the new agreement must be applicable to all.

"Climate change is a global challenge that requires a global solution. All parties have to play their part by making a contribution," he said.

Mr Teo was delivering Singapore's national statement at the High-Level Segment of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Doha, Qatar, on Wednesday.

"In this regard, developed countries have to show leadership in emissions reductions. Developing countries, too, can and must make a contribution to the process," he said.

Mr Teo said for the new agreement to be applicable to all, it has to be acceptable to all. It has to take into account the unique national circumstances and constraints of parties.

He said this will allow each party to decide how best it can contribute, based on the context and constraints of each country, and provide a greater impetus for universal participation.

"The global agreement is only a means to an end. Ultimately, we need to encourage and incentivize all parties to adopt the right policies early to make the transition to a low emissions development pathway. It is therefore important to provide support to build capacity in developing countries," he said.

Mr Teo said Singapore is committed to play its part in the global fight against climate change.

He said Singapore has made an unconditional pledge to reduce its emissions by 7-11 per cent below business as usual (BAU) by 2020. It has also committed to a 16 per cent below BAU pledge, if there is a legally binding global agreement.

Mr Teo added: "Our vision for Singapore is a climate-resilient global city that is well-positioned for green growth. While climate change poses a challenge, it also offers tremendous opportunities for new economic growth. The global demand for low-carbon solutions will catalyse demand for new skills and technology.

"Singapore has placed priority on developing areas such as clean energy and energy efficiency, green buildings, public transport, smart grids, carbon management, as well as waste and water management.

"As Singapore is a city state with limited access to renewable energy, energy efficiency is core to our efforts to reduce emissions in all sectors. To support this, a new Energy Conservation Act will come into effect in April 2013."

Mr Teo said the global challenge of climate change requires a global response, with the participation of all countries and contributions by all.

"The multilateral rules-based system under the UNFCCC is fundamental to solving the global climate challenge. We need to protect and strengthen the UNFCCC and take it one step further towards a truly global agreement, so that it remains an important platform for global action against climate change," he said.

- CNA/de

Read more!

Malaysia: RM1.46m for clouded leopards

New Straits Times 6 Dec 12;

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Wildlife Department and Danau Girang Field Centre recently received RM1.46 million from the Sime Darby Foundation to fund a conservation project on endangered Sunda clouded leopards in the state.

The grant is part of the foundation's Big9 programme that also conserves other animals, including sun bear, orang utan, elephant, hornbill, Malayan tiger, proboscis monkey, Sumatran rhinoceros and banteng.

Department director Datuk Dr Laurentius Ambu said the project aimed to increase the conservation efforts and public awareness of the wild cat species in Borneo and Sumatra.

"It is also to build local capacity for carnivore field research in Malaysia and to gather essential ecological data.

"The information will enable the development of effective conservation measures to ensure the survival of the Sunda clouded leopards in the fragmented landscape of contemporary Borneo," he said in a statement.

The three-year project will culminate in an international workshop and its result will assist the department to develop a state plan for conservation of the species.

Centre director Dr Benoit Goossens said during the period, they would study the species interactions and habitats, especially in the fragmented landscape of the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary in east of Sabah.

"We will use state of the art satellite telemetry to see how the species respond to a highly degraded and fragmented areas.

"Our centre will also carry out intensive camera trap surveys tailored to estimate and investigate seasonal and annual variation in density of Sunda clouded leopards."

In addition to that, they will also come up with detailed mapping of habitat corridors through and around oil palm plantations for clouded leopards and their prey.

Dr Benoit said the project would see the development of an education programme primarily for schoolchildren from oil palm plantation areas.

"Education and capacity building have always been a priority for the Sime Darby Foundation, and as such, the project will also include the training of two Malaysian master's students," Goossens said.

The project is also a collaboration with several partners, including Oxford University and Cardiff University of United Kingdom, British Columbia University of Canada and Universiti Malaysia Sabah.

Read more!

Australia: Tourism has no effect on Ningaloo whale sharks

Courtney Trenwith WAToday 5 Dec 12;

Tourism has not affected whale sharks at Ningaloo Reef, a five-year study has found.

Even allowing people to swim with the mammals has had no impact, indicating conservation efforts are working, the Australian Institute of Marine Science-University of WA report says.

The number of tourists participating in whale shark activities at Ningaloo Reef has sharply increased from 1000 to 17,000 since 1993 and now generates about $6 million each season.

The research, the first multi-year study on the effects of ecotourism on whale shark populations, found sharks that frequently encountered tourists were just as likely to return to the reef as sharks that little interaction with humans.
Advertisement

"Our research shows that the code of conduct used by the Department of Environment and Conservation to protect whale sharks is very effective with no detectable impacts of tourists on their aggregation behaviour at Ningaloo across years," the report's lead author, Rob Sanzogni, said.

The reef's ecotourism industry was sustainable in its present form.

Kim Hands, development manager at Ecocean, which was involved in developing the code of conduct, said the findings were good news.

She hoped other countries where whale sharks congregated, including Mexico, would adopt similar regulations.

"Obviously, it's been a good model and worked very well as a great example for the rest of the world," she said.

Conservation organisation WWF’s marine spokesman Paul Gamblin said the report was encouraging and showed the industry was receiving appropriate attention but more needed to be done to assist our neighbours, particularly around the Coral Triangle, including Indonesia and the Philippines.

"Australia has played an important role but needs to up the ante to protect the whale sharks when they leave our waters," he said.

"We need to help support local community tourism projects up there because the whale sharks enter more dangerous waters when they leave Australia."

Mr Gamblin said despite the report's positive findings there were still concerns about the impact of resources projects in waters near Ningaloo Reef.

"It increases our concern about the increasing development of the oil and gas industry which is getting ever closer to Ningaloo, including areas where the whale sharks migrate through," he said.

"There's potential for a spill, the impact of very high levels of underwater noise and drilling is something that we should be very concerned about the tourism industry.

"[Protection of whale sharks] is something that obviously needs ongoing vigilance; we can't take our eye off the ball."

The researchers hope the report will provide a blueprint for similar work on the impact of ecotourism on other marine megafauna such as manta rays and whales.

Read more!

Indonesia Approves Landmark Forest Protection Project

David Fogarty PlanetArk 6 Dec 12;

Indonesia on Wednesday approved a rainforest conservation project that sets aside an area roughly the size of Singapore and rewards investors with tradable carbon credits in the first of its kind to win formal backing in the country.

Four years in the making, the Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve will protect nearly 80,000 hectares (200,000 acres), much of it carbon-rich peat swamp forest at risk of being felled for palm oil plantations.

Russian energy giant Gazprom and German insurance firm Allianz are backers of the project, the world's first on deep peat.

A senior Indonesian official announced the approval on the sidelines of U.N. climate talks in Doha, Qatar. Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan signed a letter last week saying the project had passed all the key steps. Reuters has seen a copy.

"We hope projects like Rimba Raya will lead the way in proving that conservation can address the rural development needs of the communities and also preserve our forests for generations to come," Hasan said in a statement.

Indonesia has the world's third-largest expanse of tropical forests but these are disappearing quickly in the rush to grow more food and exploit timber and mineral wealth. Forest clearance is a major source of greenhouse gases.

By saving the forest and locking away planet-warming carbon, investors such as Gazprom will receive carbon credits they can sell for profit or use to cut their own emissions. Money from credit sales will also fund local livelihood projects.

The project area, in Central Kalimantan province on Borneo island, is brimming with rare animal species and adjoins a national park. It is designed to be a sanctuary for endangered orangutans.

Rimba Raya is part of a U.N.-led scheme called reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD). The aim is to show forests can pay for themselves and compete with powerful palm oil, mining and timber interests.

It challenges Indonesia's often poor conservation record and lax enforcement where national parks are illegally logged. Palm oil firms have also been found guilty of flouting laws and illegally clearing forest for plantations.

"This is a small but significant step in terms of contributing to the government's efforts to reduce carbon emissions and showing that larger volumes of forest carbon credits can be sold to credible buyers," said Andrew Wardell, program director, forests and governance, at the Center for International Forestry Research in Indonesia.

But he said REDD projects remain costly to develop and validate.

Over Rimba Raya's 30-year life, the project will generate about 104 million credits, each representing a metric ton (1.1023 tons) of carbon. In total, that equates to 300 million to 500 million euros ($390 million to $650 million) based on current market rates for REDD carbon offsets.

POWERFUL FRIENDS

Hasan's comments mark a dramatic swing in Rimba Raya's fortunes.

The project initially met all the ministry of forestry milestones and look set for approval in 2010. But it fell foul of opaque land use rules and pressure from a palm oil firm.

After being approved to cover 90,000 ha, the project in early 2011 was slashed in half, jeopardizing its viability. The ministry cited overlapping claims to the land. The ministry also granted palm oil firm PT Best Agro International 9,000 ha of land previously allotted to the Rimba Raya project.

A Reuters special report last year on the project highlighted the ministry's about-face and the mismatch between the government's green goals and the power of palm oil firms.

After the Reuters story, the project found powerful backers that eventually restored the ministry's support.

These included Indonesian businessman Rusmin Widjaja, who stepped in as a white knight to use his influence and financial backing. Singapore-based Widjaja supplies flight simulators to the Indonesian military but also invests in waste-to-energy projects. He recently told Reuters of his worries about the rapid loss of Indonesia's forests.

"Forests in Indonesia need good governance, need clear rules and this project is a good for Indonesia and the world. That's why I wanted to save this project from disarray," he said.

Central Kalimantan governor A. Teras Narang also offered critical support in letter last month seen by Reuters.

Perhaps most influential, though, is Triwatty Marciano, a special adviser to Rimba Raya and wife of the Marciano Norman, the head of Indonesia's State Intelligence Agency.

Ibu Watty, as she is known, helped resolve differences within the ministry and overcome opposition from PT Best. In a July 2012 letter to the ministry approved by Best President Director Winarto Tjajadi, and seen by Reuters, the firm effectively renounced its claim to any overlapping concessions in return for replacement land elsewhere.

For the project developers, Americans Todd Lemons and Jim Procanik, it marks the end of long and at times bitter process.

"Our mistake was in assuming that the logic of REDD and Rimba Raya was self-evident," said Lemons, CEO of project development firm InfiniteEARTH.

Both men, along with Gazprom, invested heavily in Rimba Raya to ensure it met the toughest verification standards. Credits are expected to start to flow to Gazprom, Allianz and other buyers in early 2013.

(Editing by Nick Macfie)

Read more!

Clashes over financing threat UN climate talks

Michael Casey Associated Press Yahoo News 6 Dec 12;

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — The world's poorest nations on Wednesday called for significant financing to cope with the impacts of global warming, setting up a potential clash with rich countries that could slow progress on reaching a global climate pact by 2015.

Rich countries, including the United States, said at U.N. climate talks in Doha that they have fulfilled promises to provide more than $30 billion the past three years and remain committed to providing $100 billion a year by 2020. But developing nations want that financing increased gradually starting next year — a commitment the European Union, United States and Japan are not willing to make.

"Obviously developing countries think it should be an upward curve," Brazil's chief negotiator Andre Correa do Lago told reporters. "The best solution would be a straightforward commitment to an increase every year of resources until 2020."

Pa Ousman Jarju, chairman of the 48-member Least Developed Countries at the talks, said it was too early to say the disputes over financing could spill over to other areas of negotiations, including the extension of the Kyoto Protocol, which will expire this year, and a work plan to prepare for the 2015 deal.

Among the financing demands from developing countries is a financial roadmap through 2020 as well as the mechanism —whether it be a financial tax or a transport tax — to generate the necessary funds.

"We would we want to see finance on the table as we leave here," Jarju said. "It's not a negotiating tactic. It's part of package that we expect in Doha. ... They understand implications of us not having a finance package. I will not call it a failure as of now because all our delegations are engaged."

The European Union's Peter Betts, sitting on the same panel as Jarju, was unmoved. He said EU member states would make their own pledges — the United Kingdom on Tuesday offered â,7/82.2 billion ($2.87 billion) in climate financing through 2015 and Germany â,7/81.8 billion ($2.35 billion) in 2013 — but that a near-term target of financing from the EU would not be forthcoming at this meeting.

"These are tough financial times in Europe, as I'm sure you have noticed," Betts said. "We, as other developed countries, are not in position at this meeting to agree on a target for 2015."

The American negotiator Jonathan Pershing agreed.

"The commitment in the first part was a voluntary agreement on the part of donor countries to collectively provide something approaching $30 billion and we exceeded that commitment. The second part was to mobilize $100 billion by 2020 and we are working on that," Pershing said. "To me, the question of whether there are new commitments that get announced here is not the right question. The question really is did we do the first one and the answer is yes. Are we working on the second? The answer is yes."

The bickering over financing is the latest clash between rich and poor nations over the past decade that have undermined efforts to reach a deal that would keep global temperatures from rising more than 2 C (3.6 F), compared to preindustrial times. Temperatures have already risen about 0.8 C (1.4 F), according to the latest report by the IPCC and a recent projection by the World Bank showed temperatures are expected to increase by up to 4 C (7.2 F) by 2100.

Earlier in the day, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told The Associated press that it was "only fair and reasonable that the developed world should bear most of the responsibility" in fighting the gradual warming of the planet.

Ban's comments echoed the concerns of China and other developing countries, which say rich nations have a historical responsibility for global warming because their factories released carbon emissions into the atmosphere long before the climate effects were known.

"The climate change phenomenon has been caused by the industrialization of the developed world," Ban told The Associated Press. "It's only fair and reasonable that the developed world should bear most of the responsibility."

Many rich nations, including the U.S. and EU countries, are demanding the 2015 pact include commitments from developing nations who are expected to produce the bulk of emissions in the decades ahead. Among them is China, which has overtaken the United States as the world's largest emitter.

"Rich countries will need to do more than poor countries, that is clear," EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard told The AP. "But all of us will have to do the maximum we can because otherwise we can't cope with climate change."

How to divide the burden of emissions cuts is at the core of discussions to create a new global climate treaty that would apply to all nations. The only binding pact so far, the Kyoto Protocol, only covers the emissions of industrialized countries. Last year, governments agreed to reach a deal by 2015 that would go into effect by 2020.

"This deadline must be met. There is no time to waste, no time to lose for us," Ban said.

"Climate change is happening much, much faster than one would understand," he added. "The science has plainly made it clear: it is the human beings' behavior which caused climate change, therefore the solution must come from us."

Associated Press writer Karl Ritter contributed to this report.

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 5 Dec 12

Yellow submarine
from The annotated budak and Tail order

the uncommon common kingfisher @ ubin - Dec2012
from sgbeachbum

Foraging White-breasted Waterhen and Great Egret
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Read more!

New uses, opportunities underground in land-scarce Singapore: Khaw Boon Wan

Channel NewsAsia 4 Dec 12;

SINGAPORE: National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan has spoken of the possible new uses and opportunities that lie underground in land-scarce Singapore.

He said in his blog entry, "Going Underground", on Tuesday that he recently explored the Jurong Rock Caverns (JRC) with Mr S Iswaran, who's Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and Second Minister for Trade and Industry and Home Affairs.

Mr Khaw described his visit to the JRC, which is located at a depth of more than 130 metres beneath the Banyan Basin on Jurong Island, as "quite an experience".

Under Phase One, it has five caverns providing storage and terminalling facilities for liquid hydrocarbons such as crude oil. They form an important infrastructure of Singapore's petrochemical industry.

Mr Khaw noted that such facilities are normally built above ground, as they'll be cheaper. Building them underground frees up valuable land for other purposes.

The five caverns are made up of storage galleries, as high as nine storeys.

Mr Khaw said these translate to a saving of about 60 hectares of land, which is very significant for Singapore.

"Not quite to the centre of the Earth, but the visit down the shaft to the deepest part of Singapore, nevertheless, left a deep impression. The JRC opens up new opportunities for land-scarce Singapore. Beyond storage, what more can be moved underground?" Mr Khaw wrote.

- CNA/ck

2 underground caverns for hydrocarbons ready by June
Straits Times 5 Dec 12;

TWO giant rock caverns to store oil and petrochemicals on Jurong Island are set to be completed by next June.

Yesterday, Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan said in a blog post that he visited the caverns recently, and that they were "almost completed".

They will be used to store liquid hydrocarbons.

Industrial landlord JTC Corporation is building the caverns as part of its Jurong Rock Cavern project.

As part of the first phase, five caverns will be built by 2014 and offer 1.47 million cubic metres of storage space to companies.

The first phase of the project costs $890 million.

The caverns are being built 130m under Jurong Island, and each cavern is about 27m tall, the height of a nine-storey building.

Mr Khaw said in his blog post: "Normally, such facilities are built above ground as they will be cheaper. But by building them underground, we free up valuable land for other purposes."

He estimated that the land savings from the rock caverns would amount to 60ha, about the size of 130 football fields.

Several other projects have been launched to investigate the potential uses of underground space here.

The Ministry of National Development, for example, is studying the possibility of clustering facilities such as reservoirs, power plants and landfills beneath the ground.

The need to delve deeper is urgent because of Singapore's growing lack of above-ground space.

In a recent paper, researchers here noted that Singapore's 2001 Concept Plan projected a land demand of 800 sq km for a population of 5.5 million people.

FENG ZENGKUN

Read more!

'More can be done' to ramp up energy efficiency

Expert calls for more information on economic gains from energy-saving consumer products
Neo Chai Chin Today Online 5 Dec 12;

SINGAPORE - Given a choice between two similar television sets in a store, consumers would likely buy the cheaper one. But they may choose differently if a label shows that in two years' time, the other television set's energy savings will exceed its initial price premium.

Providing information on the economic gains from energy-saving consumer products is just one of the "many things" governments around the world can do to ramp up energy efficiency, but governments often do not provide full information, said Dr Fatih Birol, Chief Economist of the International Energy Agency (IEA), yesterday.

According to the IEA's analysis, two-thirds of the potential to improve energy efficiency in economically-viable ways will remain unrealised through to 2035.

This is akin to shutting down an oil field after extracting only one-third of its oil, said Dr Birol, who was in town for the South-east Asia launch of the World Energy Outlook 2012, IEA's flagship publication.

Calling it an "epic failure of international energy policy making", he added that efficiency policies can make a difference to even the world's largest economy.

The United States' declining oil import dependency is due not only to the growth of its domestic production, but also as a result of its drop in domestic oil consumption - driven by new fuel efficiency standards for cars introduced by the first Obama administration, he said.

With more natural gas producers and Europe exerting pressure on gas exporters to lower prices, Dr Birol is hopeful the same will happen in Asia.

Singapore uses mainly natural gas for power generation.

As prices of natural gas in Asia are determined by commercial contracts and indexed to fuel oil prices, Singapore's electricity tariffs are affected by oil prices.

"There're some first signals of certain spot markets ... and I hope that new producers coming into picture will provide for Asian consumers, Asian importers, strong cards in their hands to negotiate new contracts," he said.

Expert urges bigger push for sustainable energy
Jonathan Kwok Straits Times 5 Dec 12;

THE energy industry is still failing to put the sector onto a more sustainable path, said an expert yesterday.

Dr Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency (IEA), argued that more needs to be done to raise energy efficiency and the access to energy for poor people across the world.

Subsidies for fossil fuels in many countries are also delaying the transition to alternative, cleaner forms of energy.

Such subsidies amounted to US$523 billion (S$635 billion) worldwide last year, up almost 30 per cent from the figure in 2010 and six times more than subsidies for renewable energy.

Dr Birol called these fossil fuel subsidies the "No. 1 public enemy in the fight against climate change" at a forum to mark the South-east Asia launch of the IEA's flagship report, the World Energy Outlook 2012.

The forum at Raffles Hotel was jointly organised by the Paris-based IEA and Singapore's Energy Market Authority.

"(Fossil fuel subsidies) remain most prevalent in the Middle East and North Africa, where momentum towards their reform appears to have been lost," said the executive summary for the report.

Dr Birol noted that energy demand and carbon dioxide emissions are rising and fossil fuels are still dominant as sources of energy, despite the growth in low-carbon sources of energy.

Renewable energy - especially wind and solar power - is under pressure, he said.

Global energy efficiency is also lagging behind in the absence of a "concerted policy push" by governments, said Dr Birol.

"Two-thirds of the economically viable potential to improve energy efficiency will remain unrealised through to 2035."

Yet such action is important to delay global warming, buying time to secure a much-needed global climate agreement, he said.

The report also said the Asean economies are set to play a key role in global energy markets over the next 25 years.

South-east Asia's energy demand is expected to expand by more than 80 per cent over the period.

This growth will refocus the global energy landscape towards Asia, especially with the rising energy needs in China and India.

"But many challenges will need to be overcome if South-east Asia is to meet its growing needs at affordable prices and in a sustainable manner," said Dr Birol.

The World Energy Outlook report also sets out updated projections of energy demand, production, trade, investment and carbon dioxide emissions, broken down by country, fuel and sector, from now till 2035.

Read more!

South Sudan's elephants could be wiped out in 5 years

Hereward Holland PlanetArk 5 Dec 12;

The once-thriving elephant population of South Sudan could be wiped out in five years if rampant poaching is not brought under control, a wildlife protection group said on Tuesday.

After decades of civil war the African country, which became independent last year, has fewer than 5,000 elephants left, down from around 130,000 in 1986, according to the United States-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

Driven by demand from China, the price of ivory has quadrupled in the last few years, Paul Elkan, South Sudan Director at WCS, said.

"Within the next five years the elephants in South Sudan could completely be gone with the current rates of poaching," Elkan told reporters.

He said 2011 was the worst year on record for poaching worldwide, with 24 tonnes of ivory seized.

Black market trade in wildlife and wildlife products is worth an estimated $10 billion per year, according to the Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking, a group of government and wildlife organizations.

Elkan said the southern rebel army ate much of the country's wildlife during the 1983-2005 civil war against the Khartoum government in the north. Raiders from the north also massacred wildlife, particularly elephants, he said.

South Sudan's zebras and rhinos may have already been wiped out, Elkan said, warning that the new nation's giraffes are also on the brink of extinction.

South Sudan's infrastructure has been devastated by years of war and economic neglect, and conservationists are now worried new road construction will make poaching and trafficking easier.

"Those elephants that survived the war are having a hard time surviving the peace," Elkan said.

Gabriel Changson Chang, South Sudan's minister of wildlife conservation and tourism, said South Sudan has struggled to prosecute poachers and smugglers because it lacks the laws to try them.

The government hopes to pass anti-poaching legislation in the middle of 2013 to help end the illegal trade, he said.

"There must be a legal framework so that when they are apprehended, they are tried according to specific articles of that act," Chang told reporters.

He said the government was reviewing a 30-year land lease agreed in 2008 with the United Arab Emirates-based Al Ain National Wildlife. The deal gave the Gulf company a hotel and wildlife concession in the pristine grasslands of the eastern Boma National Park.

The minister said the company had built a 50-room lodge on the concession but had not yet opened it.

"We need to know if they are still interested in operating that facility or not. If not it will be auctioned out to other interested investors."

South Sudan wants to set up a safari tourism industry based around the migration of an estimated 800,000 white eared kob antelope - one of the largest migrations in the world with numbers that potentially rival the migrations in Tanzania's Serengeti plains.

(Editing by Rosalind Russell)

Read more!

Extreme weather is new normal, U.N.'s Ban tells climate talks

Barbara Lewis and Alister Doyle PlanetArk 5 Dec 12;

Extreme weather is the new normal and poses a threat to the human race, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday, as he sought to revive deadlocked global climate change talks.

Ban's intervention came as efforts to agree a symbolic extension of the U.N. Kyoto Protocol, a treaty that obliges about 35 developed nations to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, looked to be faltering.

In a speech to almost 200 nations meeting in Doha to try to get a breakthrough, Ban said a thaw in Arctic sea ice to record lows this year, superstorms and rising sea levels were all signs of a crisis.

"The abnormal is the new normal," he told delegates at the November 26-December 7 talks. He said signs of change were apparent everywhere and "from the United States to India, from Ukraine to Brazil, drought (has) decimated essential global crops".

"No one is immune to climate change - rich or poor. It is an existential challenge for the whole human race - our way of life, our plans for the future," he said.

Urging nations to cast off their apathy and embrace ambition, he had earlier said that Superstorm Sandy, which lashed the Caribbean and the United States a month ago, had "given us an awakening call".

The failure to agree a Kyoto extension is blocking efforts to lay the foundations of a new global U.N. deal that is meant to be agreed in 2015 and to enter into force from 2020.

At the last attempt in 2009, a summit in Copenhagen failed to agreed a global deal to succeed Kyoto.

Kyoto required countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels from 2008 to 2012.

"A BLANK SLATE"

Robert Stavins, director of Harvard University's environmental economics program, said there was some hope that an accord could be struck in 2015.

"It's a blank slate and there is always hope for long-term happiness," he said, likening the situation to somebody seeking a new romance after being twice divorced.

Ban said that Kyoto should be a platform for future climate change action even though Russia, Japan and Canada are pulling out, leaving a group led by the European Union and Australia that account for only 15 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions.

The defectors say Kyoto is no longer relevant because emerging nations led by China and India will have no targets to curb their soaring emissions from 2013. And the United States, the second biggest emitter behind China, never ratified Kyoto.

Ban also said that rich nations should step up aid to help the poor cope with climate change after a $10-billion-a-year funding program promised for 2010-12 runs out.

Rich nations have set a long-term goal of providing $100 billion in aid by 2020 and poor nations say they want a clear timetable for aid from 2013. Faced with an economic slowdown at home, most developed nations are only promising "continued" aid.

Britain said it would spend around £1.8 billion ($2.9 billion) to finance climate change measures from 2013-15, on top of previously announced funds for 2011-15. It also unveiled new projects from Africa to Colombia, including a 98-million-pound-scheme ($157.75 million) to aid renewable power generation in Africa.

"If anything, the science is telling us it's now getting warmer quicker than we had previously expected," said Ed Davey, British energy and environment minister. "Our actions as a world are going slower than we had previously hoped."

(Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

At climate talks, UN chief rejects warming doubts
Karl Ritter Associated Press Yahoo News 5 Dec 12;

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Pointing to the destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy and other weather disasters this year, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told an international climate conference Tuesday that it was time to "prove wrong" those who still have doubts about global warming.

Ban, addressing delegates at the annual U.N. climate talks, said time is running out for governments to act, citing recent reports showing rising emissions of greenhouse gases, which most scientists say are causing the warming trend.

"The abnormal is the new normal," Ban told environment ministers and climate officials from nearly 200 countries. "This year we have seen Manhattan and Beijing under water, hundreds of thousands of people washed from their homes in Colombia, Peru, the Philippines, Australia."

"The danger signs are all around," he said, noting that ice caps are melting, permafrost thawing and sea levels rising.

Delegates at the two-week talks that are set to end Friday are discussing future emissions cuts and climate aid to poor countries, issues that rich nations and the developing world have struggled to agree on for years.

In Doha, developing countries have criticized richer nations for not promising higher emissions cuts and not giving any firm commitments on how they plan to scale up climate aid to $100 billion by 2020, a pledge they made three years ago.

Ban told reporters after his speech that richer countries, including the U.S., "should take leadership" on climate change because they have the resources and technology to address the problem.

On Tuesday, Britain announced two initiatives to support renewable energy in Africa and a water management program that it said would help 18 million poor people become more resilient to climate change. The initiatives, totaling 133 million pounds ($214 million) over the next three years, were welcomed by climate activists.

"At last, a developed country has finally made a pledge for future climate finance here in Doha," Oxfam Climate Change Policy Advisor Tracy Carty said, but noted that the details remain "hazy."

At a side event earlier Tuesday, Ban said the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy in the Caribbean and the U.S. east coast should be a wake-up call, showing "that before it's too late, we have to take action."

Climate scientists say it's difficult to link a single weather event to global warming but some say the damage caused by Sandy was worse because of rising sea levels.

A small minority of scientists still question whether the warming seen in recent decades is due to human activities, such as the carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.

"Let us avoid all the skepticism. Let us prove wrong all these doubts on climate change," Ban said.

Climate scientists have already observed changes including melting Arctic ice and permafrost, rising sea levels and acidification of the ocean, shifting rainfall patterns with impacts on floods and droughts.

Low-lying Pacific island states, in particular, are losing shoreline to rising seas, expanding from heat and the runoff of melting land ice.

Governments represented at the Doha conference have started talks on crafting a new global climate treaty that would take effect in 2020. They are also discussing how to rein in greenhouse gas emissions before then, partly by extending the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty limiting the emissions of most industrialized countries that expires this year.

The U.S. never joined Kyoto, because it didn't cover emerging economies such as India and China, which now has the world's highest carbon emissions.

With only a few days remaining to agree on the Kyoto extension and other issues, the head of the U.N. climate change secretariat, Christiana Figueres, reminded the delegates that the "eyes of the world" are upon them.

"Present and future generations are counting on you," she said.

Read more!