Singapore Business Federation to launch clean energy directory next year

Inaugural survey of industry will list a few hundred Singapore-based firms
Matthew Phan, Business Times 4 Dec 07;

THE Singapore Business Federation (SBF) will release the first directory listing of clean energy-related companies in Singapore in the first half of 2008, along with an inaugural survey of the industry.

The directory will be 'comprehensive', and already includes the names of a few hundred Singapore-based firms, according to its director of industry development Patrick Chan in an interview.

But most of these play 'secondary' or supporting roles to the industry, such as in consultancy, financing and research, or logistics and manufacturing of components, he said.

'As far as primary companies are concerned, while we have attracted the likes of REC and Vestas, there are not many locally originated companies in this area,' said Mr Chan.

'Primary' vendors comprise seven of the directory's 15 sub-groupings.

The seven primary sub-groupings range from renewable energy providers (like solar, wind or fuel cells), to carbon trading, energy efficiency, power generation, environmental management and conservation, and other sectors like agriculture.

Another eight sub-groupings play 'secondary' or supporting roles. They include brand names like market research firms Frost & Sullivan, which now have separate divisions for clean energy, oil majors like Shell, BP and ExxonMobil, as well as accounting firms KPMG, PwC and GrantThorton, which are looking at carbon and energy audits.

In comparison, local firms are still very much at the awareness and learning stage, said Mr Chan.

But this has benefited consultancies and research organisations, as firms try to find out more by joining conferences, informal sessions or exhibitions, he said.

Project managers and financiers - of whom many major players have based regional operations in Singapore - have also grown thanks to activity in other South-east Asian countries.

It could be another 1 to 2 years before Singapore firms play a substantial role in clean energy, either as primary vendors or buyers, said Mr Chan.

Meanwhile, the industry survey - which has obtained responses from at least 60 firms so far and is due to release preliminary results in Jan 2008 - will shed light on the state of the industry and clarify issues and future potential.

The SBF includes Clean Energy as one of its three major industry sectors, along with Franchising and Infocomm Technology.

It was added only this year, after the government said in March that it would commit $350 million to research funding for the sector, said Mr Chan.

The Economic Development Board estimates the sector will add over $1.7 billion in value and employ over 12,000 professionals by 2012.

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Singapore as water technology hub

Business Times 4 Dec 07;

SINGAPORE'S efforts to become a hub of water technologies will be boosted by three new events this week.

PUB, the national water agency, will sign tomorrow a memorandum of understanding with Toray, an established membrane supplier in Japan, to collaborate on water research and development projects.

The other two events are a water safety workshop in Singapore which will be attended by 13 representatives from Vietnam, the Philippines and Laos, and Singapore's participation in the inaugural Asia Pacific Water Summit in Beppu, Japan.

Professor Tommy Koh, chairman of the Governing Council of Asia Pacific Water Forum, will be sharing the group's achievements at this summit.

A PUB press statement yesterday said the MOU between PUB and Toray is aimed at finding water solutions through R&D activities, test bedding and early adoption of new technologies.

The first project - jointly developed by PUB, Toray and the National Water Research Institute, a top US-based research organisation - will focus on the use of nano-porous materials in membranes. The objective is to produce and test mixed matrix membranes for water purification.

On the three-day water safety workshop, PUB says this is the first workshop under the WHO-Singapore partnership agreement signed in August this year to jointly promote the safe management of drinking water.

Terrence Thompson, regional adviser (Environmental Health) from WHO's Western Pacific Regional Office, said: 'Singapore is one of the few Asian countries where you can drink water directly from the taps. That achievement is a role model and an inspiration for other countries which are struggling with the issue of safe drinking water. Singapore, with its strength in safe water management, can contribute significantly to our cause in promoting the protection of water.'

The Asia Pacific Water Summit is the first summit on water in Asia that will be attended by heads of government and ministers from Asia-Pacific. It aims to seek commitment from the region's leaders to place more importance on water in their national development agendas.

One highlight is the launch of the Asian Water Development Outlook 2007. Commissioned by Asian Development Bank and prepared by leading experts on water from the region, the report identifies nine areas of concern from water pollution to urbanisation and climate change.

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Carbon trading 'key to stopping deforestation'

Paul Eccleston, Telegraph 3 Dec 07;

Carbon trading could be the key to stopping the destruction of the rainforests, a new report claims.

In the past deforestation has been driven by the belief that a forest was worth more dead than alive.

But new research shows that the forests have the potential to earn substantially more from carbon offsetting if they are left intact.

Research for the Partnership for Tropical Forest Margins showed that forests torn down to make way for agriculture earned between $1-$5 per ton of carbon they released.

But traders in the emerging European carbon market were currently paying up to five times that amount - $35 - for an offset tied to a one-ton reduction in carbon.

The new research, issued to coincide with the Bali climate summit, said the comparison was important because industries in developed countries were looking to spend billions of dollars on carbon credits to meet new requirements for curbing greenhouse gases.
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The study examined the money made from deforestation over the last 10-20 years in areas of Southeast Asia, Central Africa and the Amazon Basin which was mostly driven by the desire for farm land or timber.

Brent Swallow, leader of the study and Global Coordinator of the Partnership for Tropical Forest Margins, said: "Deforestation is almost always driven by a rational response to what the market values and for some time now, it has just made more financial sense to many people in forested areas to cut down the trees.

"What we discovered is that returns for deforestation are generally so paltry that if farmers and other land users were rewarded for the carbon stored in their trees and forests, it is highly likely that a large amount of deforestation and carbon emissions would be prevented."

Halting deforestation, responsible for 20 per cent of the world's CO2 emissions, is high on the agenda at Bali.

Confusion over how to value and monitor the large amounts of carbon stored in tropical forests has so far prevented forests being included in the carbon offset market.

Meine van Noordwijk, Southeast Asia Regional Coordinator of the World Agroforestry Centre, said: "We understand that allowing people in forested regions of developing countries to participate in carbon markets presents major challenges, but it's naive to think that conservation is going to occur absent a market incentive.

"Everyone has a stake in finding a way to make it work because it's hard to see how any global effort to combat climate change will succeed if it ignores a major source of the problem."

The study examined the trade-offs between carbon and financial returns in three areas in Indonesia, and one area each in Peru and Cameroon, all of which have undergone extensive deforestation.

They found that in most instances at the sites in Indonesia, deforestation returned less than $5 per ton of carbon released and in some areas, less than $1. In forested areas rich in peat, which is particularly efficient at trapping carbon, the figure was about $0.10 to $0.20 per ton.

An analysis of deforestation in the Amazonian forests of the Ucayali Province of Peru produced similar results. Most of the deforestation, which was mainly driven by a desire for crop land, generated less than US $5 per ton of carbon released.

The Cameroon study sites produced a better return. Deforestation returns about US $11 per ton of carbon emissions, which was mainly due to an increase in secondary forest and the fact that in Cameroon, cocoa production-which elsewhere has decimated tropical forests-has tended to occur within forests, and resulted in more in forest degradation than outright deforestation.

The study claimed that paying for the preservation of the rainforests not only encouraged conservation but could also help recoup some of the carbon already lost to deforestation through sustainable agriculture.

Dennis Garrity, Director General of the Nairobi, Kenya-based World Agroforestry Centre said that, "Not only does agroforestry have the potential to store carbon, it also addresses the need for alternative livelihoods amongst populations who currently benefit from deforestation."

The report said that establishing a forest-based carbon market would be complicated.

Frances Seymour, Director General of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) based in Indonesia, said: "The challenge will be to ensure that payments for maintaining forests actually reach local people, and do not end up in the wrong pockets.

"For the system to be effective, we will need new mechanisms for allocating payments that are efficient as well as fair."

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Time to stop the climate blame game

Malini Mehra, BBC News 3 Dec 07;

As a key UN climate change conference gets underway in Bali, Malini Mehra says the current global political system is "abysmally unfit for purpose". In this week's Green Room, she calls for nations to stop playing the blame game, and work together to deliver a low carbon global economy.

Representatives from more than 180 nations have gathered in Bali to begin discussions towards a new global deal on climate change.

The odds could not be higher - climate change is a challenge of civilisational dimensions.

Scientists have coined a term for our new age - they call it the "anthropocene" because human interference with planetary systems is affecting the very life-support systems we depend upon.

They warn that we may be the last generation to live in an age of climate stability, and that we are now entering an era outside human experience.

Jim Hansen - the man who first broke the warnings about the greenhouse effect in 1988 - says: "We are on the precipice of climate system tipping points beyond which there is no redemption."

The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) puts it more diplomatically. In its carefully worded, politically-parsed and vetted Synthesis Report, it warns that "anthropogenic warming could lead to some impacts that are abrupt or irreversible, depending upon the rate and magnitude of the climate change".

More recent studies suggest that phenomena such as accelerated melting of the Greenland ice sheet and less carbon dioxide (CO2) being absorbed by the oceans mean that tipping points and abrupt climate change could actually be much closer than we think.

Breaking the deadlock

If the scientists are worried and calling for action, what has been the reaction of our political leadership?

As I sit here in Delhi, the talk is of Bali being an almighty battle between the "rich North" and the "poor South".

The position of my own government is well known. India is a staunch supporter of the "principle of common but differentiated responsibilities" enshrined in the text of the UN climate convention when it comes to environmental effort.

In short, this holds that as non-historical emitters with large poor populations and negligible per capita emissions, developing countries should not be expected to reduce their emissions.

Development pathways cannot be compromised as a result of climate change, and developing countries need room to develop.

The head of the Chinese delegation at Bali - citing figures suggesting developed countries are responsible for 77% of greenhouse gas emissions prior to 2000 - says: "The primary responsibility for tackling climate change should rest with the developed countries - they should take the lead."

This southern perspective is a bit of a caricature of reality. Outside the handy world view of political blocs such as the G-77/China, the world of the 21st Century is infinitely more diverse.

It defies the easy categorisation of labels, such as "developing" or "southern" that political traditions and ideological expediency ascribe.

For example, the inconvenient truth is that countries at immediate risk of climate change, such as small island states, are given short shrift by more powerful middle-income nations like India and China, which are more effective at setting agendas on behalf of the developing world.

Indeed, a coalition of small island states now wants China and India to reduce their emissions. China's CO2 emissions now arguably exceed those of the US, while India is the world's fourth largest emitter.

Even if the developed world were to stop emitting tomorrow, we would still be locked into long-term climate change, with China's and India's projected emissions tipping us over the edge.

In it together

Current global climate politics are abysmally "unfit for purpose". The carving up of the world into "developed" and "developing" countries is not only archaic, it has created a pack mentality and self-justifying logic that has hidden diversity, masked interests and obstructed the emergence of truly co-operative global solutions.

Finding a politics more suited to the precarious climate-constrained age we are living in will require a return to first principles, new thinking and new mindsets.

The first principle is to recognise a common human interest in a pro-active response to climate change. Playing the waiting game will not benefit anyone - we are imperilled as a species, not as nationalities.

Climate justice requires that we maintain climate stability for poor, vulnerable and marginalised communities in every country. The poor should not be used by others as an excuse for inaction.

Once we have agreed to preserve climate stability, we need to ensure there is a fair share of the global commons for everyone and that all countries can gain from the opportunities presented by moving to a low carbon economy. Weaning the world off oil will be of greatest benefit to the poorest countries.

Thirdly, if our bloc politics are a constraint on action, we need to change them. Thinking "out of the box" may be difficult for bureaucrats and others with a vested interest in the institutional status quo, but change is possible.

Progressive politicians, business leaders, civil society organisations and opinion formers have a key role to play in articulating a new global ethics and a politics of the possible that drive change in a new forward-looking direction.

Climate change must be seized as a new agenda of hope and opportunity to galvanise a new generation of leaders for whom action, not rhetoric, counts and who are committed to making positive change happen.

As the delegates in Bali reflect on our future, they would do well to think as human beings.

Malini Mehra is the founder and chief executive of the Centre for Social Markets, which specialises in corporate responsibility, sustainability and climate change

The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website

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Rich not doing enough to help poor fight climate change: Oxfam

Yahoo News 4 Dec 07;

Rich countries need to increase their financial support to help the world's poorest nations adapt to the effects of climate change, Oxfam said Tuesday, describing current levels of aid as "an insult".

The British-based relief agency said rich nations had so far only contributed 67 million dollars into a United Nations fund to help impoverished countries combat global warming.

Americans spent more on suntan lotion each month, Oxfam calculated in a report published to coincide with the opening of the Bali conference sponsored by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which is designed to pave the way for a new pact to address the problem.

"This figure represents quite an insult, to be frank, given that the least developed countries will need at least one to two billion dollars to meet just their most urgent adaptation needs," said the report's author, Charlotte Sterrett.

Oxfam said rich countries gathering on the Indonesian island need to honour their promises to the fund by increasing their commitments, with an emphasis on adaptation rather than mitigation.

"Bali needs to tackle both cause and effect equally. Even if the world stopped polluting today, the worsening impacts of climate change will be with us for 30 years or more," Sterrett said.

"That's why it is so vital that rich countries help developing countries to cope now. This would also signal their genuine intent to tackle the problem."

Negotiators should help identify new systems for raising financing to help vulnerable people in developing nations have resources and support to plan for and protect themselves from the impact of global warming, Oxfam said.

Adapting to climate change in developing countries is likely to cost at least 50 billion pounds (103 billion dollars) per year and potentially more if carbon emissions are not cut worldwide, it added.

But current pledges to the fund set up to deal with this stand at 163 million dollars, of which 67 million dollars has been delivered.

Vulnerable communities were being hit by food and water shortages and increased poverty because of unpredictable weather and climate-related crises like floods, strong winds, high tides, forest fires and drought, it added.

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Developing countries to cause 'climate crisis'

Paul Eccleston, Telegraph 3 Dec 07;

Carbon emissions from developing countries will result in a climate crisis within a generation, according to new research.

Within 20 years they will be producing more CO2 than the rich industrialised countries based mainly in the northern hemisphere.

And even if the 'North' - Europe, North America, the former Soviet Union (FSU) Japan, Australia and New Zealand - eliminated all its emissions immediately it wouldn't be enough to stop severe climate change.

The 'South' - Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific islands - faced an environmental disaster.

The shock claims are made by the Centre for Global Development (CGD), an American independent, think tank that works to reduce global poverty and inequality. It says its research has been empirically reviewed.

The CGD said it was a dangerous fallacy to believe that the North was responsible for climate change and should dramatically cut its emissions while the South should be given the time to catch up with more prosperous countries through economic expansion powered by fossil fuels.

By 2025 atmospheric CO2 from the South, combined with widespread deforestation, would match global amounts that triggered the first climate crisis conference in Rio in 1992.

Things would get steadily worse for the South if carbon-intensive growth was allowed to continue in a last-minute fossil-fuelled development push before the onset of catastrophic climate change.
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"We conclude that the conventional wisdom is dangerously misguided," the report states.

"The South cannot relegate mitigation to the North until it achieves prosperity. In fact, cumulative emissions from a carbon-intensive South have already reached levels that are dangerous for the South itself. They are more than sufficient to create a global climate crisis, even if the North eliminates all of its emissions immediately.

"So we face another inconvenient truth: a carbon-intensive South faces environmental disaster, no matter what the North does. For its own sake, the South must recognise this hard truth, accept the necessity of serious, costly mitigation, and immediately embark on a low-carbon development path.

"The North must clearly do the same, while recognising that its own survival requires an immediate, large-scale commitment to assisting emissions reductions in the South."

The report claims that by 2030, if the South's industrial expansion is unchecked, scientists in an isolated South would observe unequivocal global warming, widespread glacial and polar melting, and a rising sea level. The South's governments would then have to introduce plans for a carbon-free future.

If global emissions continued unabated, the resulting increases in temperatures and sea level, greater storm intensity, reduced agricultural productivity, and dwindling freshwater supplies would be likely to undermine the South's development long before it arrived at northern income levels.

Focusing on the North's obligations to cut emissions would be a dangerous distraction because the South's own emissions had already moved it close to the brink of rapid global warming. Cumulative emissions from the North would force the South to take fundamental and unavoidable decisions about cutting its emissions much earlier than previously thought.

David Wheeler, the lead author of the study, said: " The South's population is over four times greater than the North's, so it has been trapped by the sheer scale of its emissions at a much earlier stage of development.

"The South finds itself weighed down by a mass of humanity, as well as the energy technologies and fuels of an earlier age. The question is not if the South will commit to emissions reductions - under any scenario it eventually must for its own sake - but whether it will do so in time, and how the costs of the transition are to be shared."

Wheeler and his co-author, Kevin Ummel, compiled CGD's recently released Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA) online database, which discloses for the first time the CO2 pollution of all power plants and companies in the world.

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Top Yahoo searches in 2007: Global warming and celebrity melt-downs

Glenn Chapman, Yahoo News 3 Dec 07;

A review of Yahoo searches reveals global warming, celebrity meltdowns, social networking and a literary boy wizard's final adventure captured mankind's attention in 2007.

The US Internet giant sifted billions of searches made this year by its hundreds of millions of users worldwide to identify trends regarding what piqued people's interest.

The results were posted on Monday at Yahoo's website under the banner of "Top Trends in Search in 2007"

"It is really a barometer for what is interesting and relevant for the world," Yahoo director of product marketing Raj Gossain said while discussing the findings with AFP.

"We have a set of trends that identifies a culture that is really on the brink of change. There are a lot of inflection points that relate to the environment, politics, trade, and how they view celebrity."

Information about fallen Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein and the Middle East was the most sought-after news followed by oil prices and the activities of US President George W. Bush.

"People were checking the status of the war and we've seen more and more searches on exit strategies," said Yahoo senior news editor Vera Chan.

"People are monitoring the situation in Iran, the nuclear program and worries of further military confrontations."

Product recalls proved to be hot topics, with queries logged regarding problems with pet food, toys, and even peanut butter.

Internet searches revealed a hunger for knowledge about global warming and ways to do something about it, according to Gossain.

Recycling, hybrid cars, solar energy, and former US vice president Al Gore, who shared a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his battle against global warming, were among top "green" searches for the year.

"These queries indicate a desire for people to take action," Gossain said. "The issue has clearly gone into the public consciousness."

The Internet was rife, as usual, with searches for information on celebrities. This year the focus was on stars whose lives were troubled or tragic.

Queries about pop singer Britney Spears topped the list, followed in succession by those about celebrity brat Paris Hilton and Anna Nicole Smith, a former Playboy centerfold found dead in a Florida hotel room in February.

"These stories are our pop culture Greek tragedy," Chan said of celebrity sagas.

"We've seen in the past couple of years there is a circuit celebrities travel. You go on some kind of spree, apologize and check into rehab. This year it seems the stakes were much higher."

Internet searches were also enthralled with "final farewells," the top one being for fictional boy wizard Harry Potter.

The last of in the series of Potter books by author J.K. Rowling was released this year.

The Internet was also scoured for information about the finale of the cable television series "The Sopranos" and the death of Marvel Comic cartoon hero "Captain America."

Video-sharing website YouTube, online encyclopedia Wikipedia and online social-networking locale Facebook led the pack in technology searches, followed by an Apple Inc. triad of iTunes, iPod and iPhone, according to Yahoo.

Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, and Sony's Playstation 3 video game consoles landed in the top ten technology searches, along with the music-playing video game "Guitar Hero."

Global warming joined animals, games, dinosaurs and homework subjects in the top ten Yahoo searches by children.

"2007 seems to be a year when we are at a crossroads and change is going to come in personal lives and on the global stage," Chan said.

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Nature Conservancy study finds marine conservation cuts poverty

Stevie Emilia, The Jakarta Post 3 Dec 07;

Well-managed marine conservation can significantly help reduce poverty and enhance the quality of life for local communities, according to a new study.

The study, Nature's Investment Bank, which was released by The Nature Conservancy in Manado, North Sulawesi, on Thursday, was based on more than 1,100 interviews within poor communities in four countries, including Indonesia, from November 2006 to May this year.

In Indonesia, the study was conducted in North Sulawesi's Bunaken National Park, a popular diving destination in the province.

"This important study demonstrates that conservation and the well-being of humans are indelibly linked," said Stephanie Meeks, acting president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy.

"It's clear from this study that taking steps to protect vital natural systems, such as through the establishment of marine protected areas, provides clear benefits to people as well as wildlife."

Governments around the world are wrestling with questions about whether investment in conservation benefits the lives of the extremely poor.

This new study suggests that such investments do bring about measurable economic and quality of life benefits.

In the study, it was found that restoration of local resources, be they fisheries or coral reefs, increased fish catches and economic opportunities, improved community health as well as directly enhanced the lives of local residents.

Craig Leisher, who co-authored the study along with Dutch economist Dr. Peter van Beukering and Brazilian/Australian social scientist Dr. Lea M. Scherl, said when protected marine areas are developed with government support and scientific data, and are managed primarily by local communities that take pride in the management of their natural resources, significant improvements in quality of life can be seen.

"Building networks of resilient marine protected areas will help maintain the food and income necessary to support coastal communities as well as curb the use of destructive fishing techniques," he said.

Poverty has risen to the forefront of global issues, with nearly 3 billion people around the world living on the equivalent of US$2 a day or less, forcing millions to make decisions that damage their environment in order to feed themselves and their families.

When poverty increases, fish stocks are depleted. Fishermen are often driven to use destructive methods to catch what little is left, damaging the reefs and fish habitats that produce the food local communities depend upon for survival.

With every 5 percent loss of coral reefs, 250,000 to 500,000 tons of fish are lost as well, threatening food security for millions.

According to the study, tour operators in Bunaken National Park noted that tourists come for world-class diving and their presence directly benefits the local economy and tourism sector.

Marine conservation also directly benefits local farmers and fishermen because hotels and restaurants purchase much of their food from them.

In Bunaken National Park, the study found that marine conservation has benefited local communities, such as from the creation of more than 1,000 new jobs open to the local community, and by allowing those working in tourism to earn twice as much as fishermen. Moreover, 20 percent of park entrance fees are used for local community projects.

The study also found out that fishermen in Bunaken's marine protected area spent some 50 percent less time per year fishing than fishermen in areas without a marine protected area, while their income was roughly equal. This finding suggests in protected areas fishermen have more time to invest in other activities, such as the tourism industry.

The study, which was co-funded by the Nature Conservancy, Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, the Australian government, WWF-Indonesia and was completed in collaboration with local NGOs and universities in each of the four study sites, also found similar results in other areas researched.

Links

On the Nature Conservancy website
Nature's Investment Bank Report Finds Marine Conservation Can Reduce Poverty
and its Protected Areas page

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Cameroon welcomes home "Taiping Four" gorillas

Tansa Musa, Reuters 1 Dec 07;

YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Cameroon has welcomed home four endangered western lowland gorillas known as the "Taiping Four", following an international campaign that won their return from Malaysia, where they were illegally smuggled five years ago.

The four, a male and three females, were flown to Douala airport late on Friday from South Africa, where they had been kept at the National Zoological Garden in Pretoria after the Malaysian government sent them back to Africa in 2004.

Malaysia' Taiping Zoo had acquired the apes after they were trapped as infants in Cameroon's forests in 2002 and illegally smuggled out of the central African country.

DNA tests established they came from Cameroon, whose government launched an intense diplomatic lobbying campaign for their return, backed by international conservation groups that seek to protect endangered primates.

"This is a victory for our diplomacy. This is proof of our commitment to the principle of the protection of our wildlife," Cameroon's Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, told reporters at Douala airport as the gorillas were unloaded in big cages from the plane.

As he spoke, young men and women wearing T-shirts from a local environmental group performed traditional dances and chanted songs calling for wildlife to be preserved. They waved placards with the message "No to gorilla trafficking".

After their arrival, the gorillas were taken to the Limbe Wildlife Centre sanctuary. They will initially be freed into a quarantine facility before joining 11 other gorillas at the sanctuary in a special enclosure.

Pretoria's zoo sent two of its primate keepers with the apes to assist with their resettlement at the Limbe sanctuary.

Western lowland gorillas are grey brown, grow up to 6 feet (1.83 metres) tall and can weigh as much as 275 kg (606 lb). Their intelligence and physical structure make them one of man's closest relatives.

Man is their only predator, with hunters tracking them for bushmeat and timber companies destroying their natural habitat.

Cameroon is one of the few countries where they still exist in the wild, although numbers are fast dwindling.

"I am absolutely delighted that the gorillas are back in Cameroon ... This sends a message to poachers and traffickers that the world will not stand by and tolerate the illegal trade in wildlife. Our wildlife indeed should stay wild and stay in the jungle," Christina Pretorius of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) said.

IFAW was one of several conservation groups that backed Cameroon in its campaign to recover the "Taiping Four".

Due to an increase in the hunting of animals for bushmeat -- especially prized primates -- across Africa, sanctuaries across the continent are dealing with an influx of primate orphans in need of lifelong care.

The Limbe sanctuary has rescued four chimps this year alone.

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U.S. says seeks new climate deal, rejects Kyoto

Alister Doyle, Reuters 3 Dec 07;

BALI, Indonesia (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday it would seek a new global deal to fight climate change after Australia's move to ratify the Kyoto Protocol isolated it as the only developed nation outside the current U.N. pact.

"We're not here to be a roadblock," U.S. delegation leader Harlan Watson said on the opening day of a December 3-14 meeting of almost 190 nations in Bali, Indonesia, seeking to agree a roadmap to work out a successor to Kyoto which runs to 2012.

"The United States intends to be flexible and work constructively on a Bali roadmap," he said, referring to plans for Bali to launch two years of negotiations on a new U.N.-led deal to fight climate change beyond 2012.

"We respect the decision that other countries have made and we would, of course, ask them to respect the decision we have made," Watson told a news conference.

Earlier, delegates gave almost a minute's applause to news that Australia's new Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was signing documents to ratify the Kyoto Protocol hours after taking office.

The United States is now the only developed nation opposed to Kyoto. President George W. Bush rejected the pact in 2001, saying it would cost U.S. jobs and wrongly excluded 2012 targets for developing nations.

Watson said that Washington was willing to discuss a new long-term deal to succeed Kyoto.

"The response will have to be global," he said, adding that Washington would be flexible in considering whether targets should be voluntary, the approach favored by Bush until now, or binding as under Kyoto.

CLEAN COAL

Washington has ploughed billions of dollars into new technologies, ranging from hydrogen to "clean coal," rating the hope of breakthroughs a better solution than Kyoto's caps.

Kyoto binds 36 industrial nations to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by an average of at least 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. Australia will be the 37th.

Watson said that Kyoto nations would face a struggle to keep their pledges of cuts. "The current regime of legally binding is not doing the job," he said.

It was not going to be easy to reach 2012 goals under Kyoto, he said. "Only a few countries have reduced emissions absolutely -- the UK, Germany and a few others ... It's going to take heroic steps to meet 2012 targets."

Watson said that U.S. emissions had risen by just 1.6 percent from 2000-05, when the economy expanded by 12 percent and the population rose by 5 percent.

That U.S. performance is better than many Kyoto nations. But U.S. emissions in 2005 were also 16 percent higher than in 1990, the benchmark year for Kyoto.

(Editing by Alex Richardson)

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Green group warns Java of looming disaster from loss of protected forests

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post 3 Dec 07;

The continued loss of protected forests on Java could lead to serious ecological disasters on the densely populated island costing the country some Rp 136 trillion annually, an environmental organization said over the weekend.

According to a recent study of Java's forests between 2002 and 2006, conducted by the Greenomics Indonesia, some 165,000 hectares of conservation and protected forests on Java experienced decreasing ecological function.

"Most of the deterioration can be found in West, Central and East Java provinces," Greenomics executive director Elfian Effendi said.

"The large number of squatters in forests and illegal logging have made things even worse," he said.

He said at least 61 regencies in the three provinces were prone to floods, landslides and drought due to climate change and the damage due local forests.

"Damage to conservation and protected forests has affected at least 123 rivers and is threatening more than 10 million hectares of farmland and thousands of villages located along the rivers," said Elfian.

"During the rainy season, floods submerge farmland and villages in coastal areas; landslides hit villages and damage infrastructures in mountainous areas.

"In the dry season, drought hits almost all regencies located in mountainous areas, costing Rp 136.2 trillion annually to the government and the people on the island," he said.

Elfian stressed the importance of maintaining balanced and sustainable development on Java, and halting logging in conservation and protected forests.

He also called for increased efforts to reforest barren areas prone to natural disasters.irregular seasons and the ecological disasters have caused losses in the agriculture sector," he said.

"Climate change will remain a major hurdle for people-based economic development in years to come.

"The more forest areas are damaged, the more serious the ecological disasters will be and the more losses the people will suffer."

Indonesia and the United Nations Convention on Climate Change are jointly hosting the latest meeting to start hammering out a new global agreement to replace the existing Kyoto Protocol. The 13th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change starts Monday.

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IT industry 'damaging' the environment

Paul Eccleston, Telegraph 3 Dec 07;

The rapidly expanding information and technology industry is having a growing impact on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, a new report claims.

IT is growing faster than the aviation industry and, with more than a billion computers on the planet, is responsible for around two per cent of man-made CO2 annually, which is on a par with the global airline industry.

An environmental campaign group is now urging the industry to wake up to the environmental impact it is having and adopt better energy policies.

In its report An Inefficient Truth, the charity Global Action Plan calls on the Government to introduce new laws that will force IT companies and users to cut their energy use.

The report claims there are an estimated 10 million office PCs in the UK and 43 per cent of the adult population regularly uses one at work.

IT equipment accounts for about 10 per cent of the country's total efficient electricity use.

As the number of people using computers rises so does the energy consumed by UK organisations.

Information and communications technology (ICT) equipment accounts for about 10 per cent of the UK's total electricity consumption or the output from four nuclear power stations.

The intensive power requirements needed to run and cool data centres now accounts for around a quarter of the IT industry's sector's CO2 emissions.

Between 2000 and 2006, energy consumption from non-domestic ICT equipment increased by more than 70 per cent and is expected to grow a further 40 per cent by 2020.

The Inefficient Truth report said that although computers had helped transform the world they had also greatly increased demand for energy. Because of the fear of power cuts, companies increased storage capacity, operated back-up generators and even duplicated their systems, resulting in an upwardly spiralling cycle of energy consumption.

The use of ICT was growing at a faster rate than the increase in flying but unlike the aviation industry, IT had the opportunity to make energy savings at very little cost.

The report said the link between increased energy consumption of ICT and man-made climate change was clear and cutting energy use now made sense not just environmentally but also as a way of business cutting costs.

Computer servers 'as bad' for climate as SUVs
Catherine Brahic, NewScientist.com news service 3 Dec 07;

Computer servers are at least as great a threat to the climate as SUVs or the global aviation industry, warns a new report.

Global Action Plan, a UK-based environmental organisation, publishes a report today drawing attention to the carbon footprint of the IT industry in the UK.

"Computers are seen as quite benign things sitting on your desk," says Trewin Restorick, director of the group. "But, for instance, in our charity we have one server. That server has same carbon footprint as your average SUV doing 15 miles to the gallon. Yet, whereas the SUV is seen as a villain from the environmental perspective, the server is not."

The report, An Inefficient Truth states that with more than 1 billion computers on the planet, the global IT sector is responsible for about 2% of human carbon dioxide emissions each year – a similar figure to the global airline industry.

The energy consumption is driven largely by vast amounts of customer and user data that are stored on the computer servers in most businesses. The rate at which data storage is growing surpasses the growth in the airline industry: in 2006, 48% more data storage capacity was sold in the UK than in 2005, while the number of plane passengers grew by 3%.
Unknown cost

The group ran a survey of some of the largest businesses in the UK in an attempt to find out how aware the industry is of its carbon footprint.

The survey revealed that more than half of the IT professionals surveyed believed their environmental impact was "significant", however:

• 86% of them do not know the carbon footprint of their activities

• two thirds of the departments they work for are not responsible for paying their own energy bills

• more than half do not even see those bills

The bottom line is that IT departments "are buying lots and lots of kit that they have to run and cool without knowing what the energy cost of that kit is", says Restorick.

The survey also revealed that considerable amounts of electricity could be saved by more efficient data storage: 60% of the departments said they were using less than half their storage capacity and 37% said they are storing data indefinitely.

Restorick told New Scientist that simply increasing the efficiency of energy use and data storage could easily cut 30% of power use in businesses. "In theory, this could happen overnight," he says.
ID cards

Respondents to the survey said they are given few if any incentives to "go green". Global Action Plan is calling on the UK government to review its policies on long-term data storage to take into account the environmental implications and to encourage businesses to only keep the data they need to save.

Restorick points out that policies being pursued by the government have considerable carbon costs. "This government is very keen on individual ID cards," says Restorick. "We would say you should be doing a carbon analysis of putting ID cards into our country – such cards would require data being kept on every single person in the country for an infinite amount of time."

The report is published as a major UN conference about climate change opens in Bali, Indonesia.

From 3 to 14 December, thousands of representatives from governments around the world, NGOs, climate policy makers, researchers, environmental activists, and lobbyists meet in Bali to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto protocol and discuss its progress.

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