Virus Threatens World's Biggest Wild Abalone Fishery

PlanetArk 11 Sep 08;

SYDNEY - The world's biggest wild abalone fishery, which accounts for 25 percent of the global annual harvest, may be under threat from a destructive virus, Australian officials said.

The ganglioneuritis virus has been detected in two abalone from waters off Australia's southern island state of Tasmania and tests are under way to determine the extent of the threat.

The virus has already devastated the abalone industry in nearby Victoria state on the Australian mainland.

"Our current activities are aimed at trying to determine the location and extent of any disease in the wild so we can develop appropriate control measures," Tasmania's chief veterinary officer Rod Andrewartha said in a statement.

Abalone is a rare and expensive shellfish eaten as a delicacy in parts of Asia and regarded as a symbol of wealth in Chinese society. Tasmania's abalone export industry is worth about A$335 million (US$418 million) a year.

The abalone virus, which affects the nervous system of abalone and has a high mortality rate, was first detected in Australian waters in 2006 off the Victorian coast.

The virus was recently detected in two abalone processed in a plant on Tasmania's southeast coast.

"We are not seeing signs of contamination within the live holding facility that held the two that tested positive," Tasmanian Abalone Council president Greg Woodham told the Mercury newspaper on Wednesday in Hobart, Tasmania.

Divers were gathering samples from wild abalone for scientific testing.

"We are targeting our surveillance and sampling from the wild fisheries to see if there any signs of this disease out there," said Andrewartha. (US$1=A$1.25) (Reporting by Michael Perry; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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Wild Animals Suffer on 'Junk Food' Diets

Stephan Reebs, LiveScience.com Yahoo News 10 Sep 08;

In the Baltic Sea, birds called common guillemots raise their young on herringlike fish called sprat. In the 1990s, local sprat became unusually abundant after populations of their main predator, cod, plunged because of overfishing and climatic changes.

Yet during that time, guillemot chicks grew poorly. Why?

The answer may lie in the "junk food hypothesis," which holds that poor-quality food can hamper the reproductive success of marine predators just as badly as low-quantity food.

Henrik Österblom, the biologist from the Baltic Nest Institute at the University of Stockholm who studied the guillemots, noted that sprat were leaner when they were abundant and had to compete for limited supplies of zooplankton. The lean sprat made less-nutritious meals for the guillemot chicks. The chicks' parents tried to compensate by bringing home more sprats, but because they catch and carry just a single fish at a time, it was hard to keep up.

The guillemots aren't alone: recent experiments have shown that many marine fish-eaters, including Steller's sea lions and kittiwakes, either can't raise healthy young or can't maintain their own weight when fed low-energy food, however plentiful.

With colleagues, Österblom reviewed all the papers he could find on the subject and concluded that the junk food hypothesis could explain, at least in part, recent cases of breeding failure among northern marine predators.

The research was detailed in the journal Oikos. /span>

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Over-fishing, not climate change, is greatest danger to world's oceans

Louise Gray, The Telegraph 10 Sep 08;

The biggest current threat to marine life is not climate change but over fishing and mankind's demand for water, experts have warned.

A study, drawing on the expertise of more than 100 top aquatic ecologists, looked at the world's water-based ecosystems, including lakes, rivers, tropical waters and Arctic seas.

The state of the world's oceans has been of much concern recently, particularly the affect of increasing temperatures on marine life as global warming takes hole.

However the research, led by Professor Nicholas Polunin of Newcastle University, found man's serious impact on aquatic life will happen long before climate change takes full effect.

He said: "Across the 21 different ecosystems we have looked at, direct human actions have long been exceeding - and will long continue to exceed - the effects of climate change in almost every case.

"That is not to say that climate change isn't happening or is unimportant.

"Coral reefs are threatened by oceanic warming and the release of carbon frozen and buried in wetlands has major implications for the Earth.

"But the demise of fish stocks through fishing and decline of rivers through excessive off-take are just two dramatic examples of how people are directly changing aquatic ecosystems and threatening the natural services that they deliver."

He urged the science community not to overplay the effect of global warming, in comparison to the direct effect mankind has had on the natural world.

"Climate change has got people thinking about the future at all levels and the next step in our ecological planning of the planet's water resources needs to be more comprehensive, encompassing growing human consumption, its causes and consequences."

Fishing for bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean should be banned, an independent panel has said. The expert panel was commission by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).

In its final report, which has been seen by the World Wildlife Fund, it concluded all activity should be suspended in the Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery, and sanctuaries should be created in all main spawning areas as a matter of urgency in order to save the endangered species.

"Such staggering conclusions from independent experts only reinforce what WWF has been saying for years - this is a fishery grossly out of control, and if the fishery is not closed now pending a radical management overhaul, this majestic species may be confined to the history books," Dr Sergi Tudela, head of fisheries at WWF Mediterranean said.

The bluefin tuna is considered to be endangered. However it is still in high demand in restaurants around the world. A recent investigation by Greenpeace and WWF found the fish was being served at a Michelin-starred restaurant part owned by Robert De Niro.

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Cold water rings dinner bell for West Coast salmon

Jeff Barnard, Associated Press Yahoo News 9 Sep 08;

A federal oceanographer says a flip-flop in atmospheric conditions is creating a feast for salmon and other sea life off the West Coast, reversing a trend that contributed to a virtual shutdown of West Coast salmon fishing this summer.

Bill Peterson of NOAA Fisheries in Newport, Ore., said Tuesday the change in cycle of an atmospheric condition known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation last fall has brought cold water flows from the Gulf of Alaska, which are carrying an abundance of tiny animals known as copepods that are the foundation of the food chain.

It's unknown how long the good times will last, but Peterson said ocean surveys of chinook salmon in June found lots of yearling juveniles, which should grow up to be plentiful stocks of adults by 2010. Coho surveys start in a couple weeks.

Peterson said last spring that he expected the rebound, and the confirmation of his expectations were reported by The Oregonian.

While the cycle used to last as long as 20 years, it has lately taken about four years for conditions to change; but no one knows for sure what the future will bring, Peterson added.

Ed Bowles, fisheries chief for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said salmon that spend most of their time in the ocean close to the coast, such as fall chinook, coho and Willamette River spring chinook, should reap the greatest benefits, but crab, ling cod, rockfish, sea birds and other ocean life are rebounding as well.

Bowles was cautious in his assessment.

"Overall, we are seeing more years of poor ocean conditions than we are good," he said. "This is a welcome respite in what more typically has been discouraging news."

Bowles added that Columbia River salmon have also benefited from court-ordered increases in the water spilled over hydroelectric dams, which speeds their migration downriver to the ocean and increases the number that survive.

The Pacific Decadal Oscillation switched last November, developing into the most favorable conditions for West Coast fisheries since 1999, which was the gateway to several good years for fish, Peterson said.

The boost in copepods meant more food for baitfish, such as sand lance and smelt, which are food for larger fish such as salmon.

That changed in 2005, when starvation conditions developed for young salmon migrating from their native streams to the ocean.

Three years later, there were so few adults that federal authorities practically shut down commercial and sport fishing off Oregon, Washington and California.

Federal authorities are investigating a variety of factors that could have contributed to the collapse of salmon returns from British Columbia to California.

One of the leading suspects is irrigation withdrawals from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in California. Salmon from the Sacramento River saw some of the sharpest declines, and a federal judge is working to reduce the harm on young salmon from irrigation withdrawals from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

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Is 'Green' Fashion Sustainable? Designers Say Yes

Chelsea Emery, PlanetArk 11 Sep 08;

NEW YORK - Fashion trends come and go, but "green" is here to stay, say designers and sponsors at New York's fashion shows this week.

Scores of lines boasting biodegradable fabrics, recycled thread or organic materials are sashaying down the catwalks and, if sales of the often more-costly clothing meet expectations, designers and labels will have profitable new revenue streams.

But fashion is fickle, and any hot fad risks being pushed to the back of the closet like 1980s' shoulder pads.

Still, companies such as cosmetics powerhouse Aveda and designers such as Abi Ferrin are banking that the sustainable approach to style has staying power.

"To characterize the environment as a 'trend' is extremely shortsighted," said Aveda spokeswoman Ellen Maguire. "Going green is good business."

Backstage at the Rodarte, 3.1 Phillip Lim shows and others at the semi-annual Fashion Week sponsored by Mercedes Benz, Aveda stocked steel bottles filled with New York tap water.

The designers, in turn, agreed to avoid fur and use only post-consumer recycled paper for invitations.

Aveda is one of the fastest growing brands in cosmetics giant Estee Lauder Companies Inc's portfolio, said Maguire.

"Consumers are gravitating to companies that care for the environment," she said. "It's not a niche, it's not a trend."

So-called green clothes are being stocked in top venues. Macy's high-end department chain Bloomingdale's carries organic cotton tops and jeans, while Saks Fifth Avenue offers a US$2,815 Behnaz Sarafpour organic wool coat.

"Sales people today care about how your product is made," said designer Ferrin, whose flowing garments feature environmentally friendly thread and buttons carved by Nepalese women rescued from the sex trade.


CAN IT LAST?

Ferrin also uses recycled materials for her clothing tags and, while her recycled paper printing costs are 15 percent higher, "you have more people buying your products so it evens out," she said.

Ferrin said she expects to double her sales this year to more than US$1 million.

Environmentally conscious fashion "is a megatrend," said Margaret Jacob, sustainability director at Invista, which owns Lycra, a synthetic fiber used in garments to increase wear and strength. "It's a mentality, a way of thinking about business."

The focus on green manufacturing and recycled materials is galvanizing the fashion trade but will not last unless the industry sets specific standards or until consumers believe green materials will noticeably improve their lives, said Susan Scafidi, a Fordham University fashion law professor.

"The consumer needs to be convinced it's not only good for the environment but also for her," she said. "That's true of sustainability in architecture. No one wants to work in a sick building. But do we feel the same about our clothes? Not yet."

Even eco-conscious designers know the trend won't expand unless the world's highest profile stars bring "green" sensibilities into their fashions.

"It's really when you have the Tom Fords and the Michael Kors of the world using (non-plastic fibers) that we'll really start seeing an impact," said designer Elisa Jimenez, who uses soy and bamboo fiber in her garments.

Jimenez, who competed in Bravo cable channel's "Project Runway" reality show and grabbed attention for marking her fabric with spit, said most of her private clients ask for gowns using alternative fabrics, despite the higher costs.

Jimenez said events like Fashion Week are vital for making trends like eco-fashion cool and lasting.

"It has to be the highest price-point before middle class America wants it," she said. "It's like a red velvet rope." (Editing by Michelle Nichols and Vicki Allen)

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Falling palm oil price makes palm biodiesel viable, may offer target for NGOs

mongabay.com 10 Sep 08;

Plunging palm oil prices are increasing its attractiveness as a biofuel feedstock and thereby helping buoy demand for the oilseed, reports Reuters.

With the feedstock accounting for as much as 80 percent of the cost of producing biodiesel, surging palm oil prices due to rising demand as an ingredient in food, consumer, and industrial products have undermined the economics of biodiesel production using the oilseed. Now that prices have fallen by about half since peaking in March at 4,486 Malaysian ringgit per metric ton, it is again profitable to produce biodiesel from palm oil.

"Biofuels have become attractive again, that is one thing which will support prices. CPO is now cheap," James Fry, chairman of LMC International, told Reuters at a palm oil producers conference in Singapore. "Palm oil prices will find support around 2,300 ringgit because of the biofuels demand, unless crude oil falls faster than I think."

"Biofuels can generate some instant demand which can mop up the surplus [palm oil production]" Dorab Mistry, a leading industry analyst and director of Godrej International, told Reuters.

The run-up in the price of palm oil since early 2005 has been linked to rising demand for crude oil, which has effectively driven up the price of all other vegetable oils. Producers in the U.S. and Europe have been diverting vegetable oils (canola/rapeseed and soy) and other agricultural feedstocks (especially corn) to the production of biofuels, buoying the high price for grains and oilseeds worldwide.

Most palm oil is currently used in food products, cosmetics, and for industrial purposes — less than one percent of Malaysia's 2007 production was used for biodiesel. Such use has helped deflect some of the criticism levied by environmentalists against the industry, which maintains that palm oil is helping "feed the world" and has a favorable energy balance relative to biofuel feedstocks grown in Europe and the United States. However now that more palm oil will be going into biofuel production, it may make the industry an easier target for green groups who say that oil palm expansion is destroying large tracts of rainforests and peatlands, releasing greenhouse gases and putting endangered species like the orangutan at risk.

Already facing an onslaught from activists — including a recent "consumer-awareness" campaign by the Rainforest Action Network in the U.S. — the palm oil industry has launched a two-pronged response: cleaning up operations by establishing criteria for sustainable production (the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil - RSPO) and a global PR campaign to promote the virtues of palm oil while simultaneously attacking critics via editorials, blogs and web sites. The marketing effort has included what scientists say are misleading claims on the carbon balance and biodiversity value of plantations. One promotional video features iguanas and hummingbirds apparently living in harmony with a Malaysian oil palm plantation even though the species are only found in the Americas.

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The Philippines lost forest fastest in Southeast Asia: EU official

Country also 7th in the world
Veronica Uy, Inquirer.net Global Nation 10 Sep 08;

MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippines lost forest cover at a rate of 2.1 percent every year from 2000 to 2005, the fastest in southeast Asia and the seventh in the world, said Juan Echanove, a project officer of the Delegation of the European Commission to the Philippines.

"The Philippines' total forest area, including degraded forest, is now just 24 percent of the land area, the second smallest to urban Singapore in southeast Asia, and one of the smallest of all tropical countries in the world, and even well below dry Mediterranean countries like Greece or Italy," he said.

In his report, Echanove also said the forest to population ratio in the Philippines is only 0.1 hectares of forest per head, "one of the worst in the world -- at the level of Saharan countries."

He said that in Southeast Asia, there has been a net 2 percent decrease of forest area a year, equivalent to 2.8 million hectares per year, much of it in Indonesia

Myanmar had the second fastest rate of forest decline after the Philippines, he said.

Echanove said that for Asia, overall efforts to conserve biodiversity through a system of protected areas has been "positive" as there has been a net increase of forest area during the same period.

This, he said, is a change in trend from the 1990s, when the region "suffered a dramatic net loss of forest."

Echanove attributed the improvement to China's efforts to stop forest loss through massive investments in reforestation and log bans. He said China's efforts have resulted in an increase of forest area of four hectares a year.

He also noted India's small net increase of forest area.

However, he pointed, "although the approaches for protected areas management have changed considerably, human-animal conflicts remain unsolved and hunting and habitat destruction is resulting in continuous loss of wildlife in the Asian forests, illegal trade of endangered wildlife is still a major concern in many parts of Asia."

Echanove said the rise of the middle class in Asia, particularly in China, with a huge demand for forest products and eco-tourism services are taking its toll on the environment.

"Despite various efforts to conserve forest in Asia through logging bans, acceleration and reforestation programs, the pressure on natural resources will remain severe," he said.

Echanove said balancing demand for diverse array of products and services from different segments of society in poverty alleviation, population control, and equitable trade will continue to be the most important challenge facing Asia.

"The environment is the base of the survival of the poor. Forests cannot be protected without securing the interests of the people," he said.

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Alaska, Russia Forests Overlooked in Climate Fight

Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 11 Sep 08;

OSLO - Old forests from Alaska to Russia soak up vast amount of greenhouse gases as they age and are wrongly overlooked as a weapon in a UN-led fight against global warming, a study said on Wednesday.

"New growth continues in forests that are centuries old," an international team of scientists wrote in the journal Nature of old forests outside the tropics that make up 15 percent of the world's total tree-covered area.

Plants soak up heat-trapping carbon from the air as they grow and release it when they die. Until now, most scientists have reckoned that mature forests have a neutral impact on the climate, with any new trees merely replacing others that die.

The report, by scientists in Belgium, the United States, Germany, Switzerland, France and Britain, estimated that old-growth forests outside the tropics absorbed a net 1.3 billion tonnes of carbon a year with ever denser vegetation.

That is almost as much as the total annual industrial greenhouse gas emissions by the 27-nation European Union.

"Until now there was a belief that ecosystems -- like weeds, bacteria in a pond or forests -- reach carbon neutrality when they age," lead author Sebastiaan Luyssaert of the University of Antwerp told Reuters.

"We find no support for that idea," he said. The scientists urged greater protection for temperate forests and northern pine forests such as in Siberia, Canada, the Nordic region or Canada.

The forests studied, from 15 to 800 years old, kept on growing thicker roots and branches while carbon-rich leaves and other debris built up in the soil. And new vegetation quickly replaced fallen trees that could take decades to rot.


REDWOOD LIMIT

Still, forests could not go on absorbing more carbon for ever. Forests along the Pacific coast of the United States, where giant redwoods flourish, seemed at the limit with between 500 and 700 tonnes of carbon per hectare (2.5 acres), they said.

And the scientists said there was too little data to know if tropical forests, less affected by seasonal swings and other factors, also kept accumulating carbon as they aged.

Deforestation, often burning of forests to clear land for farming, accounts for 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from human sources, according to UN data. Warming can stoke droughts, heatwaves, more powerful storms and rising seas.

Climate negotiators from 190 nations, meant to agree a new UN pact to fight global warming by the end of 2009, are debating ways to pay developing nations to slow deforestation from Brazil to Indonesia.

The Nature study urged wider protection for other forests and said that: "carbon-accounting rules for forests should give credit for leaving old-growth forest intact."

"The focus on deforestation has been limited to the tropics," Luyssaert said. "We kind of forgot about the forests in places like Siberia, Canada and Alaska. Hopefully we can draw attention to them."
(Editing by Matthew Jones)

Old forests help curb global warming too: study
Yahoo News 10 Sep 08;

Old-growth forests remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, helping to curb the greenhouse gases that drive global warming, according to a study to be published Thursday.

Many environmental policies are based on the assumption that only younger forests, mainly in the tropics, absorb significantly more CO2 than they release.

Partly as a result, primary forests in temperate and subarctic regions of the northern hemisphere are not protected by international treaties, and do not figure in climate change negotiations seeking ways to reward countries that protect carbon-absorbing woodlands within their borders.

Some 30 percent of global forest area -- half old-growth -- is unmanaged primary forest.

"Old-growth forests can continue to accumulate carbon, contrary to the long-standing view that they are carbon neutral," lead researcher Sebastiaan Luyssaert, a professor at the University of Antwerp in Belgium, told AFP.

An international team led by Luyssaert analysed scores of databases set up to monitor the flow of carbon into and out of the world's vegetal ecosystems.

They calculated that primary forests in Canada, Russia and Alaska alone absorb about 1.3 gigatonnes of carbon per year, about ten percent of the net global carbon exchange between the ecosystem and the atmosphere.

These forests need to be protected not just because they help to absorb carbon dioxide, but also because destroying them could release huge stores of greenhouse gases.

"Old-growth forests accumulate carbon for centuries and contain large quantities of it," Luyssaert said. If these pools of CO2 "are disturbed, much of this CO2 will move back into the atmosphere," he added.

The new study, published in the London-based science journal Nature, suggests that UN climate change negotiations underway should also include incentives for northern hemisphere countries to protect their forests.

"The discussions should be expanded to include boreal and temperate forests in Canada and Russia," Luyssaert said.

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Urban man cuts fuel intake, but will this lifestyle last, IEA asks

Yahoo News 10 Sep 08;

Businesses, lifestyles and urban behaviour in advanced countries led by the United States are adapting to high energy prices, the IEA said on Wednesday, but wondered if this energy dieting will last.

For example, "the shift from gas-guzzling SUVs (sports utility vehicles) to smaller, more efficient vehicles is becoming a stampede."

In the language of economists, the big question is whether the huge and rapid rise in prices in the last two years is causing a temporary "suppression" of demand or lasting "destruction" of some consumption.

However, "a more pertinent question is arguably whether the ongoing structural shift towards greater energy efficiency will be more pronounced than in the past," the International Energy Agency says, using behaviour in the United States as a leading indicator.

"The available evidence so far, albeit it admittedly anecdotal, suggests that US consumers are both expecting the oil price to stay high and the economy to remain subdued."

The ratio of sales of SUV-type vehicles in the US to total vehicles sales was now less than half for the first time since the early 2000s.

This was likely to have "significant consequences" for the overall efficiency of the 250 million vehicles in the United States, beyond the effect of tougher fuel-efficiency standards.

At current sales of 13 million new vehicles per year, replacement of the entire fleet would take nearly 20 years but "the potential effect could be dramatic," the IEA calculates.

The result could be "a thirty-percent efficiency improvement" to levels seen in Europe and Japan, and "a fall of some 3.0 million barrels per day in US gasoline (petrol) demand which currently accounts for close to 45 percent of total domestic oil demand."

The IEA insisted: "This figure may seem far-fetched, but the current trend may well be seen in retrospective as the inflexion point, the peak, of US gasoline demand."

US motorists were cutting back on their driving, and travellers were flying less, turning to other means of transportation such as trains, buses, motorbikes and even cruise ships.

The head of the oil industry and markets division at the IEA, David Fyfe, told AFP: "We haven't made root and branch changes to our 2009 (demand) forecasts because some of this evidence is anecdotal.

"But there's a growing body of evidence that high prices in conjunction with weakening economic conditions, are having an impact on people's lifestyles which could last."

The report says that data so far shows that "the oil price rise, combined with the economic downturn, has been devastating for the beleaguered US consumers", since retail fuel prices had "almost tripled in less than two years."

It is not evident that "old habits will return" when the economy recovers and if the recent price fall continues because "behavioural changes could by then be well entrenched" and experience as well as theory showed that people responded more to price rises than to price falls.

And "the suburban sprawl may be gradually losing its appeal," the IEA suggests.

House prices appeared to be falling slightly more in suburbs, away from the centres of economic activity, and in even more distant "exurbs".

This could suggest that "more Americans are considering living closer to their place of work... another structural trend that would eventually entail less driving."

And there is "increasing evidence that businesses, ranging from manufacturing to airlines, are fundamentally changing the way they operate, since many business practices were designed for an era of cheap energy."

The IEA concludes: "This trend could also signal a momentous structural change in the making."

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Global warming threatens Asia-Pacific security, warns Australian PM

Kevin Rudd announces increase in defence spending in response to accelerating arms race in region

David Batty and agencies, guardian.co.uk 10 Sep 08;

Food and water shortages caused by global warming could lead to military conflict among the Asia-Pacific's emerging superpowers such as China and India, the Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, warned today.

Australia needed to strengthen its armed forces in response to an "explosion" in defence spending in Asia, he said. There was a growing arms race in the Asia-Pacific, and economic and political conflicts could lead to military confrontation, he said.

"Militarily ... as it has already become economically and politically, the Asia-Pacific will become a much more contested region," Rudd said.

Among the emerging challenges to Australia's security were the "increased militarisation" of the region and "preparing for the new challenges of energy security and anticipating the impact of climate change on long-term food and water security," he said. "Population, food, water and energy resource pressures will be great."

While the Asia-Pacific would increasingly be linked economically, the Australian prime minister said, longstanding disputes - such as those between North and South Korea and between China and Taiwan - were likely to remain potential flashpoints for conflict.

Rudd announced that Australia's defence budget would increase by 3% annually for a decade, and said strengthening the navy was the country's military priority.

"There is an arms build-up across the Asia-Pacific region and Australia therefore must look at the long-term future at the same time as advancing our diplomacy," he said.

Neil James, the executive director of independent thinktank the Australian Defence Association, said that due to inflation the spending increase would not be enough to maintain Australia's current military capability, let alone expand it.

"Australia underspent on defence for about three decades, so the current increases are really a catch-up," said James.

Rudd said Australia would strengthen security cooperation with Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, while maintaing its defence alliance with the United States as the bedrock of its security policy.

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'Emissions-free' power plant pilot fires up in Germany

Simon Sturdee, Yahoo News 9 Sep 08;

One of Europe's biggest power firms inaugurated a prototype coal-fired power station on Tuesday it says is almost emissions-free but environmentalists were less than impressed.

Located on the site of the existing Schwarze Pumpe power station in eastern Germany, Sweden's Vattenfall said the new technology has the potential to allow coal to be burnt without releasing harmful greenhouse gases.

"Today industrial history is being written," Vattenfall Europe's chief executive Tuomo Hatakka told a news conference.

"Coal has a future, we are convinced of that, but the carbon dioxide emissions from it have no future."

After first burning the coal, or in this case lignite, in pure oxygen -- itself a new method -- Vattenfall captures the carbon dioxide released using a technology called Carbon Capture and Storage, or CCS.

This involves compressing the gas, transporting it away in liquid form and sending it deep underground where it is safely sealed away, either in depleted gas or oil fields or in underground cavities full of saltwater.

Capturing the gases prevents them escaping into the Earth's atmosphere and contributing to global warming.

In the case of the pilot plant outside Spremberg close to the Polish border, the liquid carbon dioxide is taken 350 kilometres (210 miles) in lorries and injected "for permanent storage" into an empty gas field in northern Germany.

With around two-thirds of the world's power generated by burning fossil fuels and humanity set to rely heavily on these "for the foreseeable future," Vattenfall says the new technology is the way forward.

But environmental groups, which staged a small demonstration outside the plant on Thursday as some 400 guests arrived for the inauguration ceremony, said the technology would never catch on.

Germany's BUND pressure group slammed CCS as a "fig leaf" allowing new coal-fired power stations that chuck out millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide to be built while giving the appearance of addressing global warming.

"Vattenfall managers talk a lot about supposedly environmentally friendly coal power stations but they are still planning and building conventional coal-fired power stations with high levels of CO2 emissions," BUND's energy spokesman Thorben Becker said.

Greenpeace said that CCS decreases the amount of energy produced by coal-fired plants by 10 to 40 percent, meaning a much greater amount of coal must be burnt to produce the same amount of energy.

But the World Wide Fund for Nature was more forgiving, believing CCS "can serve as a technological bridge" until a better alternative is developed, WWF climate expert Regine Guenther told the Berlin daily Tageszeitung.

Vattenfall admitted that the technology has some way to go, not least with regard to its high cost, but also in terms of the infrastructure needed to transport and store the captured carbon dioxide.

At the pilot project around four trucks will be needed to take away the 240 tonnes of gas produced every day, and if CCS was applied on a large scale, the volume produced would mean that pipelines would need to be built, Vattenfall's vice-president for research Lars Stroemberg said.

The firm insisted that storing the gas was safe, however, saying underground reservoirs of carbon dioxide already occur naturally in geological formations where it has been trapped by sedimentary rocks in much the same way as oil or gas.

"There is much more storage capacity than will ever be needed," Stroemberg said.

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New Zealand Parliament Passes Carbon Trading Scheme

PlanetArk 11 Sep 08;

SYDNEY - New Zealand on Wednesday passed a climate change bill that will set up the country's first emissions trading scheme and help it meet obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, the government said.

Trading of carbon credits begins in 2009 and Wednesday's parliamentary approval means the system is the first national cap-and-trade scheme outside of Europe.

Neighbouring Australia has set a 2010 deadline for its scheme to begin operation.

The bill faced a rocky path to approval by lawmakers, with the minority-led government forced into months of negotiation with the Greens and New Zealand First parties to win majority support.

The bill was passed into law on a 63-57 vote in parliament.

The Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill will eventually bring all sectors of the economy under a regime that sets limits on the amount of greenhouse gas they can emit.

Those that breach their limit will have to buy credits from users that produced emissions below their ceiling.

The New Zealand trading scheme will phase in sectors across the economy and includes all emissions from forestry from 2008, transport by 2009, stationary energy such as coal-fired power stations by 2010 and agricultural waste by 2013.

About 60 percent of New Zealand's power comes from hydro-electricity, while agricultural emissions, such as methane from livestock, comprise about half the nation's total greenhouse gas emissions.

The plan would act as a catalyst to bring forward clean technology and would create incentives for climate-friendly behaviour and investments, according to David Parker, minister for climate change.

"For the first time we will start factoring in the true cost of greenhouse gas emissions into our economy," Parker said in a statement.

New Zealand was joining 27 others nations that had adopted emissions trading schemes, and many others that were developing them, Parker said.

Provisions in the bill meant New Zealand could meet its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol while helping the country reduce emissions at the lowest possible cost, Parker said.

"It does so in a fair and effective way by charging the polluter for increases in emissions and rewarding decreases," Parker said.

New Zealand aims to be "carbon neutral" in the total energy sector by 2040. (Reporting by James Regan; Editing by David Fogarty)

FACTBOX - Carbon Trading Schemes Around the World
PlanetArk 11 Sep 08;

Companies and governments are turning to emissions trading as a weapon to fight climate change, in a carbon market worth US$64 billion last year.

Cap-and-trade schemes force participants -- often energy-intensive industries -- to buy permits to emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, which is produced from burning fossil fuels.

New Zealand's parliament on Wednesday passed the Labour government's climate change bill, which will introduce emissions trading from 2009.

The scheme will eventually cover all emissions from the economy, but critics said it was too slow to phase in the crucial sectors such as agriculture, which makes up around half of the countries total emissions.

Australia's leading climate guru Ross Garnaut last week said the Australian government should aim for an emissions cut of at least 10 percent by 2020 (based on 2000 levels), or up to 25 percent if a tougher target is adopted.

He also recommended that Aussie carbon prices be pegged at A$20 (US$16) a tonne from 2010, with only marginal increases for the first two years.

The 27-nation European Union launched its cap-and-trade scheme in 2005, while Canada is set to launch a market of its own in 2010.

US senators in June defeated a proposed federal US climate change bill which included cap and trade.

In another type of carbon market, countries and companies can trade carbon offsets under three, UN-led Kyoto Protocol schemes.

A full list of established and proposed schemes follows.


INTERNATIONAL SCHEMES

KYOTO PROTOCOL (United Nations) (1)

Launched: 2005

Mandatory for 37 developed signatory countries

Target: 5 percent reduction in 1990 emissions by 2008-2012

Contains three sub-schemes to help signatories meet targets:

1- Clean Development Mechanism (CDM): Developed countries can invest in clean energy projects in developing nations

2- Joint Implementation (JI): Rich countries can invest in clean energy projects in former communist countries or "economies in transition"

3- Assigned Amount Units (AAUs): Signatories can trade surplus emissions rights among themselves

First commitment period expires in 2012 and governments scrambling to negotiate a successor agreement.

EU ETS - European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (2)

Launched: 2005 (Phase 1: 2005-2007, Phase 2: 2008-2012, Phase 3: 2013-2020)

Mandatory for 27 nations in EU

Covers around half of all EU emissions

Target: Reduce EU ETS emissions by 21 percent by 2020 compared to 2005 levels

Worth US$50 billion in 2007 (3)


PROPOSED NATIONAL SCHEMES

UNITED STATES

Mandatory cap-and-trade scheme proposed under Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act was rejected by the US Senate in June, but many observers expect either presidential candidate to introduce new climate legislation within first six months of their presidency.

CANADA (4)

Launch: 2010

Mandatory for all 10 provinces and three territories

Target: Reduce 2006 emissions by 20 percent by 2020

Scheme covers 50 percent of Canada's emissions

Potential problems: Alberta already has a provincial scheme and several provinces have joined US regional schemes.

JAPAN (5)

Currently a voluntary scheme (JVETS), and government trialling a mandatory scheme in autumn 2008.

Target: Cut emissions by 14 pct below current levels by 2020

JVETS (voluntary scheme) - Launched: 2005

Target: Cut emissions from a 2002-2004 average, using government-subsidised clean energy equipment

AUSTRALIA (6)

Launch: 2010

Mandatory - to cover 75 percent of Australian emissions

Target: First cap (2010-2012) to cut emissions to 8 percent above 1990 levels (Australia's Kyoto target). Medium-term caps could be 10-25 percent below 2000 levels by 2020, while long-term targets "should reflect increasing levels of ambition" and move country towards an eventual goal of reducing 2000 emissions by 60 percent by 2050.

NEW ZEALAND (7)

Launch: Obligations start in 2008, trading starts in 2009

Mandatory - includes forestry in 2008, electricity in 2010, transport fuels (16 pct of total emissions) in 2011 and agricultural waste (47 pct of total emissions) from 2013.

Target: To be announced

Participants will receive permits representing 90 percent of 2005 emissions between 2013-2018. Free permits will then be phased out from 2019 to have full auctioning by 2029. Importing HFC and PFC offsets to be restricted until 2013, and using AAUs for compliance will only be allowed between 2008-2012.

Auckland's TZ1 exchange has been appointed to be VCS (Voluntary Carbon Standard) registry.

Sources: (1) UNFCCC

(2) European Commission

(3) World Bank

(4) Environment Canada

(5) Japanese government

(6) Australian government

(7) New Zealand government, Barclays Capital (Compiled by Michael Szabo; Editing by David Fogarty)

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