Scientists beg for climate action

Seth Borenstein, Associated Press, Yahoo News 6 Dec 07;

For the first time, more than 200 of the world's leading climate scientists, losing their patience, urged government leaders to take radical action to slow global warming because "there is no time to lose."

A petition from at least 215 climate scientists calls for the world to cut in half greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It is directed at a conference of diplomats meeting in Bali, Indonesia, to negotiate the next global warming treaty. The petition, obtained by The Associated Press, is to be announced at a press conference there Wednesday night.

The appeal from scientists follows a petition last week from more than 150 global business leaders also demanding the 50 percent cut in greenhouse gases.

That is the estimate that scientists calculate would hold future global warming to a little more than a 3-degree Fahrenheit increase and is in line with what the European Union has adopted.

In the past, many of these scientists have avoided calls for action, leaving that to environmental advocacy groups. That dispassionate stance was taken during the release this year of four separate reports by the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

But no more.

"It's a grave crisis, and we need to do something real fast," said petition signer Jeff Severinghaus, a geosciences professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif. "I think the stakes are way way too high to be playing around."

The unprecedented petition includes scientists from more than 25 countries and shows that "the climate science community is essentially fed up," said signer Andrew Weaver of the University of Victoria in Canada. It includes many co-authors of the intergovernmental climate change panel reports, directors of major American and European climate science research institutions, a Nobel winner for atmospheric chemistry and a winner of a MacArthur "genius" award.

"A lot of us scientists think the problem needs a lot more serious attention than it's getting and the remedies have to be a lot more radical," said Richard Seager, a scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

The organizers of the petition — two Australians, two Germans and an American — would not comment about their efforts before their 11 p.m. EST press conference. But several scientists who signed on talked of losing patience.

"Action needs to be taken and needs to be taken now," said Marika Holland, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research who signed on. "The longer we wait, the worse it's going to become."

Negotiators in Bali are working on the initial groundwork for a treaty that would take effect after 2012, the expiration date of the Kyoto Protocol, a climate treat the United States didn't sign. However, no on expects concrete results at the closed-door sessions.

NASA scientist Gavin Schmidt, who signed the petition, said "the time for half-measures and the time for voluntary agreements and the time for arguing about 1 percent here and 1 percent there — those things are no longer relevant."

Schmidt noted while scientists have been dismissed by some as unrealistic, the call for a 50 percent emissions cut by business leaders "helps give credence to the idea that it's achievable."

Policy analysts, who weren't part of either petition, split on how meaningful the two petitions are.

What's happening is people are agreeing "that the cost of inaction is on the high side and the cost of action is affordable," said Joseph Romm, a policy analyst at the liberal think-tank Center for American Progress, energy business consultant and trained physicist.

But Jerry Taylor, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute said "scientists are in no position to intelligently guide public policy on climate change." Scientists can lay out scenarios, but it is up to economists to weigh the costs and benefits and many of them say the costs of cutting emissions are higher than the benefits, he said.

Granger Morgan, a professor of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, said he sees "a growing realization among a wide variety of players that we've got to stop talking about this and start some action." But, he added, "I'm not going to hold my breath that we're going to get anything."

The declaration: http://www.climate.unsw.edu.au/bali/

Scientists demand swift climate action at Bali meet
David Fogarty Yahoo News 6 Dec 07;

Climate scientists from around the world urged delegates at U.N.-led talks in Bali on Thursday to make deeper and swifter cuts to greenhouse emissions to prevent dangerous global warming.

In a declaration, more than 200 scientists said governments had a window of only 10-15 years for global emissions to peak and decline, and that the ultimate goal should be at least a 50 percent reduction in climate-warming emissions by 2050.

"We appreciate this is a significant challenge for the world community," Professor Andy Pittman, from the University of New South Wales in Australia, told reporters in Bali.

"But it is what is required to reduce the risks of dangerous climate change, and that is what we are all trying to do here."

The meeting in Bali, involving about 190 nations, aims to initiate a two-year dialogue leading to a broader climate pact by 2009 to replace or upgrade the Kyoto Protocol.

The goal is to find a formula that will bring outsiders such as the United States, China and India into a global compact to fight growing emissions of carbon dioxide, which is produced from burning fossil fuels in power stations, industry and transport.

The United States, the world's top carbon emitter, has come under intense pressure from all sides at the Bali meeting to curb its emissions and on Wednesday U.S. lawmakers moved a step closer to approving caps.

A Senate committee approved legislation outlining a cap-and-trade system for industry, power generators and transport. The bill is headed for debate in the full Senate.

"The United States simply has to take a leadership role," Senator John Warner, a Virginia Republican and the bill's co-sponsor told the committee.

"We are the superpower in the world and we've got to utilize our status to try and help correct a situation I think all of us acknowledge is causing hardships ... that are really without precedent."

TIME TO ACT

President George W. Bush pulled America out of the Kyoto Protocol saying it threatened the economy and unfairly excluded big developing nations such as China and India from binding emissions cuts.

In turn, China and India say rich nations must do more to cut emissions and that caps would hurt their economies as they try to lift millions out of poverty.

"If we don't act, China and India will simply hide behind America's skirts of inaction," Warner said.

A group of U.S. scientists in Bali welcomed the committee's move. "This is a very welcome development. It shows the increasing isolation of the U.S. administration," said Alden Meyer of the U.S. Union of Concerned Scientists.

Professor Diana Liverman of Britain's Oxford University said the world was already seeing substantial impacts from global warming, but a warming of 2 degrees Celsius would have severe impacts in Africa, Australia, the polar regions and the Pacific Islands.

The U.N. climate panel, which released a series of reports on climate change this year, says the world is at risk from rapidly melting glaciers, vanishing sea ice and loss of icesheets.

Polar bears have become an iconic symbol of climate change because the area of Arctic sea ice they rely for hunting has shrunk to record lows during the summer.

Outside the Bali conference centre, eight activists dressed as polar bears added a twist to the climate debate by holding banners reading: "Humans need help too."

Separately, the WWF conservation group said that 55 percent of the Amazon rain forest could be wiped out or severely damaged by 2030 by a "vicious feedback loop of climate change and deforestation."

It said the effects of warming could cut rainfall and aggravate current trends in farming, fires, droughts and logging in the world's largest tropical forest.

The Amazon's forests are a giant store of carbon dioxide -- trees soak up the main greenhouse gas as they grow and release it when they rot or are burnt.

(Additional reporting by Alister Doyle in Bali, Deborah Zabarenko in Washington and James Grubel in Canberra; editing by Jeremy Laurence)

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British group blames West for Chinese pollution

Yahoo News 5 Dec 07;

Western countries are largely responsible for China's greenhouse gas emissions due to their insatiable demand for cheap Chinese products, a Britain-based non-governmental organisation said Wednesday.

In a report released to coincide with the United Nations climate change conference which opened in Indonesia on Monday, the World Development Movement (WDM) said blaming China for climate change was a red herring.

"The very real danger at the Bali conference is the talks breaking down in a pointless blame game," the group's policy chief Pete Hardstaff said in a statement.

"Using the mass media to point the finger at China will not help get the global deal we need to avert climate change disaster. Not only have rich countries historically caused the problem, they are also importing' emissions from the developing world."

He said rich countries like Britain must "recognise their responsibility for fuelling climate change, not only with emissions created on our shores but also with our massive consumption of goods produced overseas."

Carbon pollution, emitted especially by the burning of oil, gas and coal, traps heat from the Sun and warms the Earth's surface, inflicting changes to weather systems.

Emissions are spiralling, driven more recently by coal-fired plants in fast-growing China and India.

China's economy has boomed at nearly double-digit rates over much of the past 25 years and it is now one of world's biggest emitters of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

But on a per capita basis its emissions are much smaller than those of Western nations, and fall even further when trade and consumption are factored into the equation, the WDM said.

"The average Chinese citizen is responsible for emitting three tonnes of CO2 (carbon dioxide), whilst the average UK citizen is responsible for emitting 13.2 tonnes of CO2" each year, the WDM said in a report which estimated emissions on the basis of where products were consumed.

China produced more than it consumed and exported mainly manufactured goods which produced a high level of CO2. Britain, on the other hand, consumed more than it produced and exported low-pollution products like financial services.

The 11-day conference in Bali is being held under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change with delegates from more than 180 nations.

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Mandatory greenhouse gas emissions cuts: Japan and Canada wavering?

Green groups say Japan, Canada wavering on climate targets
Charlie McDonald-Gibson, Yahoo News 5 Dec 07;

Japan and Canada appear to be backing away from mandatory emissions cuts expected to be at the heart of a new global accord on fighting global warming, environmental groups said Wednesday.

The charge was levelled as nearly 190 nations met in the Indonesian resort of Bali, looking to take the first steps toward a new agreement to combat climate change when the current phase of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012.

Organisers said the key climate talks were on track to hammer out a new roadmap toward tackling global warming, but activists said that the thorny issue of greenhouse gas emissions cuts must be addressed as soon as possible.

Green groups said Japan had revived the idea of pledges to reduce gases blamed for raising the world's temperature, rather than committing to mandatory targets under the future agreement, which is currently the case under Kyoto.

"Emissions reduction targets are the heart of the Kyoto Protocol," youth activists from the Climate Action Network said in a statement. "Japan's proposal would kill it."

Japan quickly rejected the criticisms, and a government spokesperson in Tokyo insisted they were committed to curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

"To say that Japan isn't enthusiastic is off the mark," Nobutaka Machimura told reporters.

Angela Ledford Anderson of the US-based National Environment Trust said Canada had meanwhile caused concern by hinting that if emissions pledges are made, all nations would have to sign up to them.

Green groups stress that as the industrialised world has been historically responsible for climate change, they should shoulder the majority of the burden -- and that it would be unfair to make poorer nations pay too much.

"There is a little concern about the positioning of Japan and Canada. Their proposals are really not building on the strengths of the Kyoto Protocol," Anderson told AFP.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said last month that the 1997 Kyoto Protocol failed because it did not impose binding cuts on major emitters such as China and India.

The United States -- currently the only industrialised nation not to have ratified the Kyoto Protocol -- has rejected mandatory emissions cuts, advocating voluntary targets instead.

Activists say that so far, the United States has kept a relatively low profile at the talks, but Anderson said she thought Japan's emerging stance may be an attempt to win over the US and bring them on board any new agreement.

The European Union backs mandatory targets for wealthy countries, and on Tuesday repeated a previous pledge that they would commit to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2020 if the rich world follows suit.

Stephan Singer, head of the climate unit with environmental group WWF, said they were also "very concerned" about Japan's initial statements.

He said it was unclear if Tokyo was still intending to stick to a pledge made in Vienna in August, where Kyoto Protocol parties agreed to recognise the need for industrialised countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent to 40 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels.

"We want this to be part of the formal negotiations" when environment ministers arrive later in the conference, which ends December 14, he said.

Singer said they were also seeking clarity on Australia's position.

In his first official act after being sworn in as Australia's leader following elections last month, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd ratified the Kyoto Protocol on Monday, further isolating the United States.

However, activists said that Australia had still not stated whether or not they will throw their weight behind emissions cut targets for 2020.

Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said Wednesday that there were many different views on how the talks should proceed, but he said discussions were on track.

"No one is dragging their feet," he told reporters.

Japan climate proposal worries activists
Charles J. Hanley, Associated Press, Yahoo News 5 Dec 07;

In an opening gambit, Japan has proposed that the Bali climate conference pursue a broad "least common denominator" approach to negotiating new controls on global-warming gases. Environmentalists couldn't think less of it.

The proposal says nothing about making future targets for emission reductions legally binding — the principle underlying the current Kyoto Protocol.

"Is Japan scrapping the Kyoto Protocol on its 10th birthday?" asked Japanese environmentalist Kyoko Kawasaka. A Canadian colleague spoke of a "plot" by Japan and the United States to block a new Kyoto-style global agreement.

Japanese officials protest that they are simply trying to kick-start negotiations here at the annual U.N. climate meeting, viewed as the most critical such session in years.

The exchange offers an early view of what promises to be a contentious two weeks on this relaxed resort island, where many hope the more than 180 national delegations will decide to launch two years of serious negotiations on a global framework for fending off dangerous climate change.

The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 requires 36 industrialized nations to reduce their emissions of heat-trapping "greenhouse gases" — carbon dioxide and some other industrial, agricultural and transportation byproducts — by an average 5 percent below 1990 levels before its expiration in 2012.

The United States is now the only industrial nation to reject Kyoto. President Bush's administration says mandatory cutbacks would damage the U.S. economy and objects that they don't cover poorer but fast-developing nations like China and India. Bush favors allowing each country to decide on voluntary, "bottom-up" reductions in emissions.

The pro-Kyoto parties, led by the European Union, seek a "Bali roadmap" for talks that would produce by 2009 a new treaty requiring still-deeper reductions by richer nations after Kyoto expires. Many also want firm but less stringent commitments from China and others to slow the emissions growth of their booming economies.

The EU has pledged 20 percent cutbacks by 2020, and 30 percent cuts if the U.S. joins in. Many scientists believe emissions must be cut at least in half by mid-century to head off the worst of global warming — rising seas, flooding, severe droughts, extreme weather and other drastic impacts.

In a draft submitted for consideration, Japan proposed that talks begin on a post-Kyoto agreement that would address a "global long-term goal for emission reduction" and "policies and measures" for reining in emissions.

It mentions a possible "sectorial approach on bottom-up basis" — meaning nationally, not internationally, determined reductions in power plant or automobile emissions, for example.

Activists criticized the draft's omission of internationally binding cuts.

"It's clear to a number of us that the U.S. would like nothing more than for nothing to happen on the Kyoto track," said Canadian Steven Guilbeault, a leading environmentalist spokesman here. "They will let their Japanese colleagues do that."

Kawasaka, of Tokyo's environmentalist Kiko Network, asked: "Is Japan trying to please the United States?"

"Yes, of course," Hombu Kazuhiko, a Japanese delegation spokesman, told The Associated Press. "We don't want the U.S. out of the final decision-making. Our top priority is to start negotiations." Once that begins, he said, "we can add some more elements."

As for binding emission cuts, "between the lines, we're saying those things," Kazuhiko said. But for now, "we are aiming at some common denominator."

Chief U.S. climate negotiator Harlan Watson told AP that the Japanese are acting "on their own." But, he added, "we see a lot of elements in the Japanese proposal that are very much in our thinking."

The U.N. climate chief, Yvo de Boer, took a wait-and-see attitude.

"These are exactly the kinds of issues I would expect the group to focus on in the coming days," he said.

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Telcos can save millions by energy efficiency

Reuters 5 Dec 07;

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A typical western European mobile operator can save millions of euros a year by simple energy-saving measures, Nokia Siemens Networks said on Wednesday.

A typical operator with 10 to 15 million subscribers uses about 170 gigawatt hours of electricity a year to power its base stations, with electricity costs of 20.5 million euros ($30.2 million), said Anne Larilahti, head of NSN's environmentally sustainable business.

Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture between Nokia and Siemens, sells equipment to mobile network operators.

An operator's electricity bill can be cut significantly by allowing the indoor temperature of base stations to go as high as 40 degrees Celsius, up from the 25 degrees that currently are the standard, Larilahti said.

"You turn off air conditioning, or you turn it down, depending on the site, and then implement a few power-saving software features," such as partial shutdown of the equipment during the night, she said.

This saves an operator about 50 gigawatt hours of electricity a year, or 6 million euros -- the consumption of 5,000 households and equivalent to 26,000 tons of CO2, Larilahti said.

A more ambitious plan could save about 110 gigawatt hours a year, but would include spending on newer, more efficient equipment.

"It is a normal business case that an operator needs to make. Technologies are getting so much more efficient that if you're running five year old equipment, your operating expenditure is larger because of that," she said.

(Reporting by Niclas Mika; Editing by David Holmes)

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Bangladesh to seek World Heritage aid for Sundarbans

Reuters 5 Dec 07;

DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh will seek emergency funds from the World Heritage Centre to restore the ecosystem and biodiversity of the Sundarbans mangrove forest, badly mauled by last month's killer cyclone, officials said on Wednesday.

Cyclone Sidr, which struck the Bangladesh coast on November 15 with winds of 250 kph (155 mph), killed around 3,500 people, made millions homeless and destroyed a large part of the Sundarbans, a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to the Royal Bengal Tiger.

Forest officials said they had found two dead tigers and several deer following the cyclone, the worst to hit Bangladesh since 1991, when a storm killed around 143,000 people.

Officials said better preparedness and an advance warning system had helped save many people this time, but the vast mangrove forest had also largely offset the impact of the cyclone, which triggered a 5-metre (16-ft) water surge from the Bay of Bengal.

According to the forest department's preliminary estimate, the financial loss caused by Sidr to the mangroves would top 10 billion taka ($145 million), and experts say it might be more.

"Bangladesh is preparing a letter asking emergency funding from the World Heritage Centre for immediate rehabilitation of infrastructure in the Sundarbans," said Shafayat Hossain, a senior official at the Environment and Forest Ministry.

"After final assessment of total damage to the Sundarbans, we will formally seek assistance from the WHC," he said.

Bangladesh has banned logging, fishing, and breaking honey-hives in the entire Bangladesh part of the Sundarbans for a year, a spokesman for the environment and forest ministry said.

Fakhruddin Ahmed, head of Bangladesh's interim government, told donors that Dhaka would need around $150 million to restore damage to the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove area.

"In the backdrop of Sidr, we need to mobilize resources not only for a major forestation program in the coastal belts, but also to restore the flora and fauna of the Sundarbans," Fakhruddin said.

At least 60 percent of the 6,000 sq km (2,320 sq miles) mangrove swamps that lies within Bangladesh, home for more than 400 Royal Bengal tigers, was devastated, forest officials said. The Sundarbans stretch for another 4,000 sq km (1,545 sq miles) into India's eastern state of West Bengal.

Denmark on Wednesday backed Bangladesh's recent appeal to the international community for $1 billion assistance for rehabilitation and reconstruction following the cyclone.

"I am pleased to see that the people of Bangladesh have already started reconstruction," Ulla Tornaes, Denmark's minister for Development Cooperation, told a news conference in Dhaka after visiting cyclone affected areas in Bangladesh.

Denmark has pledged $4 million aid for emergency relief, long-term reconstruction and climate change adaptation in Bangladesh, she said.

(Reporting by Ruma Paul; Additional reporting Masud Karim and Nizam Ahmed; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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Uganda plans to boost forest cover

Tim Cocks, Reuters 5 Dec 07;

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda will plant millions of trees in the next four years at a cost of $253 million, as it tries to restore dwindling forest cover to 30 percent of its area from 22 percent, the government said on Wednesday.

Like many African countries, Uganda suffers from rampant deforestation that dries up rivers, triggers soil erosion and threatens wildlife, especially birds and primates.

But officials in the east African country also want the massive tree planting exercise to establish a recognized carbon sink that would enable it to earn credits on mechanisms set up to help countries meet their CO2 emissions targets.

Looking after forests, which suck carbon from the air, is seen as key in the battle against climate change, though the picture is complicated by a scientific study last year that showed living trees emit methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

"Our aim is to plant trees in our forest reserves but also to encourage those who own private land to plant," said Moses Watasa, spokesman of the National Forest Authority.

"In four years, we think we should reach 30 percent cover," he said. Several local and international timber companies would be involved, though Watasa declined to name any. Much of the initial funding would come from donors.

World leaders are meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali this week to strike a deal to replace the Kyoto protocol, which expires in 2012. Protecting forest is high on the agenda.

Watasa said Ugandan officials at the talks would push for a deal recognizing the positive impact of reforestation.

The government has come under fire from environmental campaigners and donors this year for plans, strongly supported by President Yoweri Museveni, to give away rainforests to be destroyed and turned into plantations.

In May, the government rejected two unpopular proposals to turn over rainforest reserves to sugar and palm oil planters after violent protests in which at least three people were killed.

But the Environment Ministry says some 55,000 hectares (136,000 acres) of forest cover disappears in Uganda every year because of poverty and population pressure. Many poor Ugandans in rural areas cut trees for firewood or timber.

"We are going to deploy forest rangers to tighten things up," Watasa said.

Scientists say Uganda's robust terrain can regenerate forests quickly, owing to a combination of its favorably wet climate and fertile soils beefed up by occasional splashes of ash from volcanoes, past and present.

(Editing by Bryson Hull and Mary Gabriel)

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High tides could flood Jakarta: Officials

Mustaqim Adamrah, The Jakarta Post 5 Dec 07;

Jakarta officials on Tuesday warned that high tides in December threatened to flood coastal areas in the city, following an alert sent by the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency.

The head of the city's crisis center, Heru Joko Santoso, said officials were warning that Penjaringan and Pluit subdistricts in North Jakarta would be threatened by high tides between Dec. 8 and 12, and Dec. 20 and 25.

"The tides could be worse than the last incident," he said.

Last Monday, battered sea barriers in the two North Jakarta districts were breached by an unusually high tide.

Jakarta Deputy Governor Prijanto said all the administration could do was provide an early warning "to alert residents about the high tide, and install a communal kitchen and health tent".

Heru said expected high rainfall levels in December would exacerbate the high tides, and floodwater could reach as far as the city-owned Laguna Pluit low-cost apartments and the office of the Pluit subdistrict administration.

He said the area around the Riverside apartments in Kapuk Muara subdistrict could also be affected.

Heru said tents would be set up around the Penjaringan subdistrict administration office and near Muara Karang bridge, to accommodate those forced from their homes.

He said the crisis center had warned Penjaringan residents about the possibility of flooding.

Meanwhile, heavy rain on Monday evening and Tuesday morning inundated hundreds of houses in Cawang subdistrict, East Jakarta, with floodwater reaching chest-level in some areas.

Another 1,500 houses in the Pondok Arum housing complex in Tangerang, Banten, were under 1.5 to 2 meters of water.

Flooding also affected Dr. Subki Abdulkadir Islamic Hospital in Bekasi, forcing it to close.

Heru said other parts of Jakarta, including Cawang, Kramat Jati and Jatinegara in East Jakarta, Cakung in North Jakarta and Pancoran in South Jakarta, were at risk of flooding because of heavy rain.

Governor Fauzi Bowo has met with the governor of neighboring Banten, Ratu Atut Chosiyah, to try and put together a plan on revitalizing water catchment areas along the border between the two provinces.

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Solar-powered taxi seeks to go around world

Alister Doyle, Reuters 5 Dec 07;

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Louis Palmer's taxi cost as much as two Ferraris, has a top speed of 90 kms (55 miles) per hour yet could make history as the first solar-powered car to drive around the world.

Palmer, a Swiss teacher who set off from Lucerne in July, is having a stop-off in Bali, Indonesia, to help environment ministers and others among 10,000 delegates get around at a December 3-14 U.N. climate conference in a luxury beach resort.

"This is the first time in history that a car is driving around the world without using a single drop of petrol," he told Reuters by the blue and white three-wheeled car, which tows a flat-topped trailer with 6 sq meters (65 sq ft) of solar panels.

"This car is driving entirely with solar energy," he said. So far he has driven 14,400 km (8,950 miles) through 17 nations including Romania, Turkey, Syria and India.

That is about a third of the way through a trip meant to take him across Australia, parts of Latin America, the United States, north Africa and back home in about a year's time.

The distance covered on land will be more than around the equator. Palmer is relying, however, on oil-powered ships for some stretches, such as from India to Indonesia. And he also has a petrol-fuelled vehicle for support, including repairs.

Palmer, 35, has a "taxi" sign on the roof -- he is willing to pick up passengers for free in the low-slung two-seater car.

"I had a drunk hitch-hiker in Hungary but also had Prince Hassan of Jordan inside," he said. In Bali, one job will be to pick up the head of the U.N. Environment Program, Achim Steiner, from the airport.

"I want to make people aware that there is global warming but you also have solutions," Palmer said. His car is an example of new ways to curb use of fossil fuels at the U.N. talks, which is trying to widen a fight against global warming.

He reckons the car would cost around 6,000 euros ($8,900) if mass produced. But factoring in work by sponsors and friends the car would be the cost of two Ferraris. "The top speed is 90, but in city traffic the Ferraris go 50. So do I."

The car is nine meters (30 feet) long including the trailer and weighs 700 kg (1,500 lb). Palmer admits he cheats if daily trips exceed 100 kms -- he then needs to use a back-up battery, charged by electricity from solar panels.

After a car crashed into his trailer in Syria "the transport minister decided to give us a police export. Wherever I went...I had a police escort with motorcycles and flashing lights."

(Editing by David Fogarty)

Feeling guilty over climate change? Call the solar taxi
Yahoo News 9 Dec 07;

Delegates at a key climate change summit feeling guilty about exhaust-spewing taxis have another solution -- call a solar taxi that has travelled over land to Asia all the way from Switzerland.

Cheery Swiss national Louis Palmer fulfilled a childhood dream when he set off from his home country on July 3, travelling over desert, city and sea in 17 countries to reach the conference in Bali, Indonesia.

"In 1986, I was a 14-year-old boy, I was dreaming that when I will be an adult, I want to drive around the world," he told AFP.

"Then it came to my mind, how can I travel around the world and enjoy the beauty of this world with a car that is polluting the world? Then I thought the perfect car would be a solar car."

His car, which has become a major attraction at the gates of the summit of some 188 nations, was built in three years with scientific help from four universities and 15 Swiss companies.

The car pulls a trailer with six squares metres (64 square feet) of solar panels which soak up the sun. The electricity is fed into the battery which powers the car, and can run for up to 100 kilometres (62 miles) a day.

Surplus electricity created by panels back at base in Switzerland is also fed back into the grid, so when Palmer travels by night or on a cloudy day, he can plug into the electricity supply and withdraw his earlier deposits.

"It's the first time in history that a car is driving around the world without a single drop of petrol," boasted Palmer, a teacher by training.

His epic solar journey is not his first adventure -- he traversed Africa on a bicycle and North America in a light aircraft.

Getting to Bali, however, has thrown up its own challenges. Traffic conditions in India were a nightmare, he said, while Saudi Arabia insisted on a police escort as he made his way across the desert.

So far, Palmer has gone by land through Europe and the Middle East, then by sea to India and on to Indonesia.

In one year from now, after traversing much of Asia, Australia, North America and Africa, he will return to Switzerland to try and drum up support for the commercial possibilities of solar cars.

For the moment, he has his hands full, with more curious customers waiting to take a ride in his unique automobile which, he said, "works like a Swiss clock."

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Divisions at climate change meeting

Michael Casey, Associated Press Yahoo News 5 Dec 07;

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd urged the United States to follow his country's lead and ratify the Kyoto Protocol, while rich and poor nations appeared divided Wednesday over what a future climate change pact should look like.

Rudd signed documents this week to formally adopt the accord that caps greenhouse gas emissions, reversing a decade of Australian resistance and leaving the United States as the only industrialized country to refuse to sign on.

"Our position vis-a-vis Kyoto is clear cut, and that is that all developed and developing countries need to be part of the global solution," the newly elected prime minister told the Southern Cross Broadcasting radio network in Australia.

"And therefore we do need to see the United States as a full ratification state," he said.

His comments put further pressure on the United States at the U.N. Climate Change conference in Bali, where nearly 190 nations hope to launch a two-year negotiating process that will result in a pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Failure to continue reducing emissions, experts warn, will almost certainly lead to catastrophic droughts and floods, and deaths linked to heat waves and disease.

The 175-nation Kyoto agreement of 1997 requires 36 industrialized nations to reduce their emissions of heat-trapping "greenhouse gases" — carbon dioxide and some other industrial, agricultural and transportation byproducts — by an average 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

The United States says it wants to be part of the negotiations on a follow-up accord, but refuses to endorse mandatory cuts in emissions favored by the European Union, choosing instead to focus on funding renewable energy projects and improving energy efficiency.

While the conference is in its early days, differences already were emerging, mostly over what should go into the "Bali roadmap," which will lay out the subjects for discussions in the years to come.

Japan, for example, offered up a proposal that doesn't include targets, while the EU has come out with a detailed wish list that includes demands for industrialized countries to take the lead in approving mandatory cuts, strengthening the carbon market and boosting funding to help poor countries adapt.

Meanwhile, delegates and activists say poor countries led by the Group of 77, which represents 132 mainly developing countries and China, have demanded that rich countries speed up the process of providing them with technologies that would help reduce pollution or improve energy efficiency.

They also want funds to adapt to the impact of global warming.

Meena Raman, chairman of Friends of the Earth International, said marathon debates over the issue, some running late into the night, indicated that the West wasn't taking their concerns seriously.

"How on earth can you talk about targets if you don't want to engage on the scope, the depth and need of technology?" she asked reporters. "In the last two days, the sincerity and urgency that is needed and goodwill from the (West) is not happening."

Few had criticism for Australia, however.

Rudd's Labor Party swept to power last month, ending more than 11 years of conservative rule under former Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch ally of President Bush.

Rudd has said he wants Australia to become a broker through "creative middle-power diplomacy." Though small by population, it is wealthy, developed, and has influence among its allies like the United States and Britain, as well as trade partners such as China.

"We've had a bad record on climate change," said Rudd, who is due to arrive in Bali next week. "It's time to put that behind us. I believe that we now need to do whatever we can to bridge the gap between the developed and developing worlds, because right now the gap is huge."

In addition to the United States, he said, China and India, which refuse to sign any deal that would slow their own pace of development, must be prepared to make commitments in the fight.

Bali climate talks focus on Kyoto offsets
Gerard Wynn, Reuters 5 Dec 07;

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Rich nations have less than a month to go before they must start meeting emissions caps under the Kyoto Protocol that aims to fight global warming.

Yet 16 of the 36 industrialized nations bound by Kyoto limits are over their targets set for 2008-2012 and may have to buy carbon offsets to meet these, drawing criticism at a U.N. meeting in Bali.

"There's this quite strong feeling (among poorer countries) that a number of commitments in those areas, commitments from the past, have not been met and will be conveniently forgotten when we switch to a new agenda item called the future," said Yvo de Boer, the U.N.'s head of climate change.

About 190 nations are meeting in Bali to try to initiate two years of talks that will lead to a successor pact from 2013. The goal is to agree on a broader climate pact bringing together rich and poor countries because targets under the existing Kyoto Protocol have been deemed too weak for the longer term.

Kyoto obliges rich nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5 percent by 2008-12 from 1990 levels, but allows them to pay developing countries to cut emissions on their behalf through a trade in carbon offsets.

Although Kyoto came into force in 2005, its commitment period only begins from Jan 1, 2008 till 2012.

Some developing countries, including Brazil, think rich nations should make painful emissions cuts at home, curbing their use of fossil fuels, before devising new ways to fund cheap cuts overseas such as reducing deforestation. Clearing tropical rainforests is a big contributor to climate change.

To focus on local action, the European Union has proposed a 10 percent limit on offsetting when meeting its goal to curb emissions by a fifth by 2020, de Boer told Reuters.

The EU is due to detail that measure next month and on Wednesday declined to comment on a 10 percent cap.

RISING

The United States did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol, saying in 2001 it was unfair to exempt developing countries from targets, and this week said that offsetting had allowed EU emissions to rise in spite of Kyoto caps.

Emissions of six of the 15 older members of the EU rose in 2005, putting the EU-15 about 2 percent below 1990 levels versus a Kyoto target of 8 percent.

"Emissions are rising, within that context (Kyoto) is not doing its job," said Harlan Watson, the head of the U.S. delegation in Bali. "I fully expect the EU will meet its targets through the (carbon offset) mechanisms."

The carbon offsetting scheme under Kyoto, called the Clean Development Mechanism, suits rich and many poorer countries by making it cheaper for rich countries to meet their targets and helping developing nations to curb emissions.

The U.N. body supervising the scheme said on Wednesday the current pipeline of offset projects could deliver up to 500 million tons of emissions cuts per year from 2008-12, equivalent to the annual emissions of Australia.

But many less developed countries including Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Indonesia told the conference they were missing out on the benefits.

That's partly because carbon offsetting pays companies to cut emissions, and doesn't favor African countries which have few emissions to start with. The U.N. panel proposed on Wednesday to waive fees for project developers in such states.

Outside the main Bali conference centre, three environmental activists wearing hard hats waved a placard reading -- "Youth wants hard emissions caps for industrialized countries."

"We want a 30 percent cut in domestic emissions (by 2020)," said Stephan Singer, policy officer at WWF, referring to rich countries. "We need offsetting on top of that cap. We need the money going into the South."

(Additional reporting by Alister Doyle, Editing by David Fogarty)


China wants climate talks to back technology fund
Chris Buckley, Reuters 5 Dec 07;

BEIJING (Reuters) - China wants rich economies to back a fund to speed the spread of greenhouse gas-cutting technology in poor nations as it seeks to persuade delegates at global warming talks the focus of responsibility belongs on the West.

At talks in Bali to start crafting an international agreement to fight climate change after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, some rich countries have said a new pact must spell out greenhouse gas goals for all big emitters.

China is emerging as the planet's biggest source of carbon dioxide from industry, vehicles and farms that is trapping more atmospheric heat and threatening disastrous climate change. Under Kyoto, it and other poor countries do not shoulder fixed goals to control such pollution.

While Beijing fends off calls for targets, it will press its own demands, especially that rich nations back a big boost in funds to encourage the spread of clean technology, Chinese climate policy advisers told Reuters.

"We want to see a substantial fund for technology transfers and development," said Zou Ji of the People's University of China in Beijing, a member of his country's delegation to Bali.

"There's been a lot of talk about developing and spreading clean coal-power and other emissions-cutting technology, but the results have been puny, and we want the new negotiations to show that developed countries are now serious about it."

That fund could come under a "new body to promote technology transfers," he said, adding that it would take some time for negotiations to settle on specifics.

China's demand for clear vows on technology, as well as a big boost in funds for adaptation to droughts, floods and rising sea levels caused by global warming, is real enough.

It also part of Beijing's effort to keep a united front with other developing countries and shine the spotlight back on rich nations, especially the United States, the world's biggest emitter, which has refused to ratify Kyoto.

"The real obstacle is the United States," said Hu Tao of Beijing Normal University, who previously worked in a state environmental think tank. "China must surely be part of any solution. But the answer has to start what the developed countries do to cut their own emissions and help us cut ours."

China says it is unfair to demand that it accept emissions limits when global warming has been caused by wealthy countries' long-accumulated pollution.

CLEAN POWER TECHNOLOGY

The United Nations recently issued data showing that Americans produced an average 20.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide each in 2004, versus 3.8 metric tons each for Chinese people.

A senior Chinese climate change policy-maker, Gao Guangsheng, last week told Reuters that China's hopes to obtain clean power-generation equipment had been frustrated by foreign politicians' and companies' worries about intellectual property theft, foregone profits and sensitive technology.

The adviser Zou said a technology transfer body could pair government support with private investors, easing worries about commercial returns and intellectual property safeguards.

China has set itself ambitious domestic targets to increase energy efficiency and replace carbon-belching coal with renewable energy sources, but it failed to meet its efficiency target in 2006.

An influx of funds could underwrite joint research projects and help developing countries create their own energy-saving devices, said Zhang Haibin, an expert on climate change negotiations at Peking University.

"The point is that we don't just want to buy fish. We want to learn how to fish for ourselves," Zhang said. "But if you want to keep selling fish for high prices, you won't teach me."

(Editing by Nick Macfie)

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Whatever Happened to Geothermal Energy?

Michael Schirber, LiveScience.com 4 Dec 07;

The world's greatest source of power lies a few miles under our feet. Geothermal energy, which draws on the heat from the Earth's interior, could supply the current global energy demand for more than 30,000 years.

The trick is tapping into it. Geothermal energy accounts for less than a half-percent of global energy consumption, according to the International Energy Association.

Most of the active geothermal plants are located in volcanically active places, like Iceland, where the Earth's outer crust is thin.

"Conventional geothermal has limited use because the required geology is not found everywhere," said geophysicist Roy Baria of the company Mil-Tech UK LTD.

Baria and others are engineering non-conventional places where the heat is farther down and there is no room for water to flow. These geological enhancements can have their drawbacks: One project in Switzerland was shut down earlier this year due to induced earthquakes.

Hot-button issue

A typical geothermal plant captures steam escaping from underground and uses it to turn turbine blades that generate electricity. The first such power plant began in Italy in 1904 and continues to work to this day.

Considered a green technology, geothermal does raise environmental concerns. In cases where steam is extracted (rather than just captured from natural vents) the extraction can allow other gases, like carbon dioxide (CO2), to escape. However, the amount of CO2 released per kilowatt-hour of electricity is only a few percent that of coal-fired power plants.

Although it supplies power more consistently than the fickle wind and daily setting sun, geothermal energy is not entirely renewable. The largest geothermal development in the world, the Geysers in California, actually had to shut down in 1989 because it essentially ran out of steam.

"It was overproduced," said Robert Zierenberg a geologist at the University of California, Davis.

The Geysers has since reopened, thanks to the underground injections of imported wastewater. With the fear or depleting natural resources, environmentalists have fought the development of other geothermal projects in places like Hawaii and Yellowstone.

From the land of ice and snow

But up in Iceland, geothermal is warmly accepted.

"Iceland is an ideal case for geothermal because it is a volcanic island with no natural fossil fuel reserves," said Peter Schiffman, also from U.C. Davis. Geothermal plants supply approximately a quarter of Iceland's electric power, and leftover heat is used to warm homes and greenhouses.

"The Icelanders have taken as much as they can from their geothermal resource," Zierenberg told LiveScience.

But they would like to take even more. Zierenberg and Schiffman are part of the Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP), which hopes to increase the normal 5 megawatt power output of a geothermal plant by a factor of 10. This will require digging into the hottest rock ever utilized.

Typical geothermal power plants use steam rising from underground fissures where the temperature is roughly 400 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius).

By drilling 3 miles down in a selected spot, IDDP will reach temperatures of 840 degrees Fahrenheit (450 degrees Celsius). At this temperature and pressure, water is in a strange liquid-gas phase called supercritical, which carries 10 times more energy than steam, Schiffman said.

The challenge will be divining where this supercritical water is. Fluid can only flow in rocks that are fractured, so IDDP has chosen a site where seismic activity is high.

"We look near earthquake areas because that is where cracking is occurring," Zierenberg said.

Enhancing nature

In other parts of the world, like Australia, Japan and Nevada, geo-engineers are generating their own tiny earthquakes to make hot dry rock amenable to geothermal energy.

"The way ahead is engineered, or enhanced, geothermal systems," Baria said. Often referred to as EGS, these projects require drilling a well a few miles down and pumping water in at high pressure. This induces small seismic events that fracture the rock and provide a route for water to flow. A second well is then drilled to bring the boiled water to the surface.

During the fracturing process, the typical size of the seismic events would not even register on the Richter scale, according to Baria.

"Normally it's peanuts," he said. "You notice it as a nuisance, but it's no threat to structures."

However, high-pressure water pumping at a Swiss EGS site last December induced four earthquakes in Basel ranging from 3.1 to 3.4 on the Richter scale.

"That project should not have been started there," Baria said, because Basel has a history of earthquakes including one that destroyed the city in 1356. "We advised that it was not a good place."

Local authorities in Basel have postponed the project while a review is being performed.

Land of opportunity

In a properly chosen location, earthquakes should not be a concern, Baria said. The best rock to drill into is igneous, which can be found beneath 70 percent of the Earth's land surface. In fact, a recent MIT report found that the U.S. potential for EGS is 50 times that of the country's other potential energy sources combined.

The biggest hurdle is the cost of drilling, which will generally need to be at least 3 miles down. Baria expects the average EGS power plant to cost $20 million to $30 million and to last 20 to 25 years.

Zierenberg doubted that the United States is ready for that kind of large-scale development.

"It's different in Iceland. They're more willing to embrace geothermal energy because they can see their glaciers melting," Zierenberg said.

Editor's Note: This article is part of an occasional LiveScience series about ideas to ease humanity's impact on the environment.

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Sea Shepherd sail against Japanese whalers

Yahoo News 5 Dec 07;

A militant environmental group heading for the Antarctic to confront Japanese whalers renamed one of their ships the "Steve Irwin" Wednesday in honour of Australia's late "crocodile hunter".

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was given permission to use the former TV star's name by his widow Terri, who was in Melbourne to farewell the ship and its 52-member crew as they set sail for the Southern Ocean.

"Whales have always been in Steve's heart and in 2006 he was investigating the possibility of joining the Sea Shepherd on part of its journey to defend these beautiful animals," Terri Irwin told a news conference.

Steve Irwin, a conservationist who became internationally famous for his television shows which featured risky stunts with wild animals, was killed in September 2006 when a stingray barb pierced his chest.

The ship which will carry his name is a 53-metre (174-foot) former Scottish fisheries vessel previously called the "Robert Hunter" after the Canadian co-founder of Greenpeace.

"Steve wanted to come to Antarctica with us to defend the whales, and now he will be joining us in spirit," said Sea Shepherd president Paul Watson.

"Steve Irwin's life demonstrated how one person can make a significant difference in the world."

Japan's annual hunt of the giants of the deep exploits a loophole in a 1986 moratorium that permits limited whaling for scientific purposes, although it is no secret that the meat ends up on supermarket shelves.

Watson, who has threatened in the past to ram Japanese whalers, said last week the ship's crew were prepared to be shot at and would wear body armour when on the bridge.

Watson has compared the Japanese whalers to illegal elephant poachers, while Japanese officials have likened Sea Shepherd to a terrorist group.

Greenpeace is also sending a ship to try to disrupt the hunt but has vowed a "non-violent action" campaign.

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Luxury travel goes green but long flights still favoured

Audrey Stuart, Yahoo News 5 Dec 07;

From Robinson Crusoe wilderness retreats in the Seychelles to high-design eco-lodges in Chile, luxury travel is pushing to go green, but big spenders are still hot on fossil-fuel-powered air travel.

"Green will be the hot colour in the luxury products and travel sector for years to come," Ed Ventimiglia, vice-president and publisher of the American Express travel magazine Departures, said at the International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM) that opened Tuesday.

While the global luxury travel business accounts for some 25 million annual arrivals -- or just three percent of total international arrivals -- when it comes to spending, wealthy tourists don't hold back.

Rich travellers spend an estimated 10,000-20,000 dollars per trip, which could include more than one destination, the ILTM said at the fair.

Speaking at the crowded event, Departure's chief editor Richard David-Story said today's ultimate luxury was a sustainable environment. "We need to innovate and agree on goals that will help sustainability," he said.

Hotels and resorts worldwide have taken up the challenge with such simple measures as removing the option of a daily sheet and towel change.

Some, like the Intercontinental Hotel in Bali, re-cycle waste water to irrigate their tropical gardens and have dropped tractor-power in favour of cattle to rake their endless stretches of beach sand.

Rental car firms and travel agents are also trying to do their bit for the environment.

Hertz has just launched a new Toyota hybrid eco rental car fleet.

And some travel agents, such as Penelope Bannerman of South African-based Far East Tours, have stopped producing glossy paper-hungry travel brochures, instead offering customers a chance to adopt a giant panda in China's Wolong Panda Reserve.

"But hotel clients seem largely unaware of these efforts and their carbon-offset and other initiatives," said a new research report carried out for the ILTM noted.

And a readers' survey by Departures showed private jet travel still popular, with readers making more than 1.5 million trips in private jets in the last 12 months, and a quarter of those interviewed likely to switch from commercial airlines to private jet or chartered flight in the next year.

Exactly why the affluent seemed less aware of saving energy than the average backpacker was difficult to explain, said Nancy Cockerell, head of research at TBP, which carried out the ILTM report.

The well-heeled were big contributors to philanthropic causes and active about reducing carbon emissions at home. But they appeared to believe their air miles were insignificant compared with the mass market and therefore had little impact on the environment, Cockerell told AFP.

"They seem to be in a separate world when they travel," she added.

The ILTM report said today's ultra-affluent travellers tend to shun large branded hotels in favour of destination clubs and resorts.

And with a host of unique, exotic and increasingly sustainable travel experiences on offer, the choice for the discerning traveller is large.

One pioneer in the market is Sonu Shivdasani's Six Senses Resorts & Spas group. His 65-villa Soneva Fushi resort in the Maldives aims to become totally carbon neutral by 2010 thanks to a range of innovative energy saving measures.

These include a biodiesel plant to convert oil from island coconuts and used-cooking oil into fuel that can be mixed with diesel to power the resort's generators.

Another example is South African-based Wilderness Safaris, offering wildlife experiences in some of the most remote and pristine areas of Botswana, Namibia as well as the Seychelles.

And environmental concerns are starting to shift travel patterns, with a growing move away from quick get-aways and a preference for longer vacations of upwards of two weeks.

Peter Lederer, the chairman of "Visit Scotland," summed up the view of many experts by stating that the short weekend break was under threat due to concern about rising carbon emissions related to air travel.

"I can't justify taking them," he stressed.

There is no question that travel will change. The debate is about how it will change," emphasized Lederer, who has pioneered green tourism in Scotland over the past 10 years.

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