Many commercial divers in Singapore untrained

Safety standards low as they do not have professional certification
Jermyn Chow & Carolyn Quek, Straits Times 2 Oct 08;

MR CHRIS Kyaw Naing Oo has been diving underwater since 2006 to weld metal and clean the hulls of ships for a living.

But the only diving qualification that the 24-year-old Myanmar national has is an open-water certificate, like any beginner leisure diver.

The basic scuba-diving course seems to be the minimum - and possibly inadequate - requirement for commercial divers who work in Singapore waters using heavy equipment.

It also appears that the four divers who were hurt or killed in two separate accidents over the past two months had only recreational diving certificates.

In the second of the two incidents, commercial diver Mohammed Borhan Jamal, 26, went missing on Sept 9 while he was underwater repairing a ship at the Eastern Petroleum A Anchorage. His body was washed ashore near Batam 12 days later.

Several weeks before, three commercial divers were hurt off Marina South Pier when the propeller of an oil tanker kicked into life while they were cleaning it.

According to industry watchers, there are about 30 marine contractors in Singapore hiring more than 100 divers between them. Most are small companies with a handful of divers, but a few are bigger outfits with more advanced diving gear for more complicated jobs.

Their work ranges from cleaning the hulls of ships to salvaging sunken vessels.

Unlike countries such as Britain and Canada, there is no requirement here for commercial divers to be professionally certified. Though some do shell out for professional training, most do not.

At present, there is a code of practice rolled out in 2005 by national standards body Spring Singapore. Dive companies are not legally bound to follow the code, but may find themselves answering tough questions in court if they are investigated for negligence in an accident.

The 60-page document sets out safety guidelines for working divers and the equipment they carry. It stipulates that a diver should 'have training and experience in diving commensurate with the required diving mode and diving operation', but does not give specifics.

Most companies assume that their divers will learn the bulk of their skills on the job, they told The Straits Times.

'They follow the senior divers underwater to help as assistants and observe the best work and safety practices for about three to six months before doing the jobs themselves,' said Mr Edwin Yeo, a dive superintendent in a global water and environmental engineering consultancy based here.

Is this good enough? No, said safety experts.

Many have called for a review of the code, pointing to the 'vague' and 'loosely worded' guidelines.

Mr Charles Rowe, a maritime consultant and experienced commercial diver, says that commercial diving training should be mandatory. 'Underwater technology is a well-paying profession and takes years of training, but not in Singapore,' said the 58-year-old American.

Singapore-based safety consultant Darren Brunton rates the country's safety standards in the marine industry 'Third World at best'.

'How can a recreational diver who is trained in five days do the work of a commercial diver?' the 47-year-old Briton and Singapore permanent resident mused.

The consultant for petrochemical companies such as Shell and ExxonMobil said commercial divers should be put through more formal and stringent training like in Britain.

There, trainees go through a 13-week course that teaches them how to dive safely with a load of about 40kg, wearing a full-face mask, and emergency air cylinder, and tethered to a pipe supplying air to them. They learn how to communicate with a supervisor on board a vessel and be towed to the surface on a safety line.

Such overseas courses also teach first aid, basic welding and the use of underwater tools. But they can cost as much as $33,000, which local dive companies say is too much.

'Such training is a good-to-have, not a must-have. It does not make economic sense to send our divers for such expensive courses when most of their work just requires them to dive about 15 to 20m underwater to do basic maintenance work,' said the operations director of a local commercial diving company who declined to be named.

Mr Brunton's other grouse: Local dive companies do not require their divers to use a full-face mask with a communications device connecting him to his colleagues in and out of the water. The former instructor with the British military diving school said: 'They are taking a gamble with their lives in Singapore's choppy and murky waters if they do so without proper risk assessment and diving plans.'

Commercial divers say visibility in local waters ranges from as low as 30cm to 2m at best. Some told The Straits Times that they do without specialised gear because it can be heavy and cumbersome, and slows down the work.

Another sticking point is the number of people which should be deployed on a job.

The code of practice says that for every diver who goes beyond 20m underwater, a supervisor, stand-in, attendant and the stand-in's attendant should be present.

In practice, the lack of manpower and the need to save costs mean that divers have to double up on jobs.

A 28-year-old commercial diver, who did not want to be named, said that some companies send only one diver down for small-scale jobs, instead of at least two to buddy up.

While most divers did not feel they were in danger, most agreed that more could be done to make diving safer here.

As Mr Rowe puts it: 'Fatalities should not be happening. It shows how complacent the industry has become.'

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Adopt A Sea Turtle At Sarawak's Turtle Island

Benama 2 Oct 08;

"Adopt A Sea Turtle" is a wildlife conservation programme in Sarawak that gives locals and foreigners a chance to experience turtle conservation activities at the turtle island of Pulau Talang-Talang Besar near here.

According to the latest issue of "Perkasa", the Sarawak Timber Industry Corporation's bi-monthly newsletter, participants will be able take part in conservation activities including tagging and measuring the turtles, patrolling the beach, transferring the eggs to hatchery, releasing the hatchlings, recording data as well as assisting in other research and educational activities.

"As one of the state's extensive efforts in wildlife protection, the turtle adoption programme is also a way of incorporating and involving locals and foreigners to value and celebrate what Sarawak has done thus far in sea turtle conservation," it said.

Launched by the then State Urban Development and Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh on April 30 this year, the four-day three-night programme is being conducted from May to September yearly at the island, which is part of the Talang-Satang National Park.

So far, eight species have been found at the national park, where 99 percent of nesting sea turtles recorded in Sarawak are of the Green Turtle species.

Following the listing of all sea turtles under the totally-protected species list in the Wildlife Protection Ordinance, 1993 (Amended 2003), a proposal was made to the state government to gazette sea grass beds and coral reefs at the Kuala Lawas area, which had been identified as feeding ground for green and hawksbill turtle as totally protected area.

Perkasa said other conservation efforts included the Reef Ball project, which was found to be successful in reducing the number of sea turtle mortality rate and ensuring its nesting areas are further protected besides benefiting the local fishermen by contributing significant increase in their catches.

However another 5,000 reef balls are still needed to protect the sea turtles' critical habitat, their swimming areas, nesting beaches and feeding ground and migration pathway along the 1,000-kilometre coastline of Sarawak.

"This is where other conservation orientated organisations and the private sector can play their role and show support," it said.

Legislations pertaining to sea turtles in Sarawak are also in place and have been regularly revised to suit the current needs in managing sea turtle reseach and conservation.

-- BERNAMA

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Experts warn species in peril from climate change

Brian Skoloff, Associated Press Yahoo News 1 Oct 08;

Climate change threatens to kill off up to a third of the planet's species by the end of the century if urgent action isn't taken to restore fragile ecosystems, protect endangered animals and manage growth, scientists warned Wednesday as a wildlife summit opened.

"Much of the predictions are gloom and doom. The ray of hope, however, is that we have not lost our opportunity. We still have time if we act now," said Jean Brennan, a senior scientist with Defenders of Wildlife and co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for her work on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The three-day summit, sponsored by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, assembled several world-renowned climate change researchers with dozens of wildlife experts to trade ideas on how to save species on a warming planet.

Florida has the lowest elevation of any state, the only living coral barrier reef in North America, and the Everglades, a unique wetland perilously close to collapse with at least 67 threatened or endangered species. The state's population is expected to nearly double to 32 million people by 2050, adding more pressure on shrinking wildlife habitats.

The commission called the summit to learn how best to protect Florida's wildlife and natural resources. Warming oceans and rising sea levels threaten to inundate Florida's developed coastline and barrier islands, kill its reef and decimate an economy based on tourism.

Experts noted that many plants and animals have temperature-specific habitats. A change of only a few degrees can kill them or send them seeking a better home.

"Species are moving to track what is the most ideal climate for them," Brennan said, adding that many are "desperately trying" to find their way through a maze of dams, development and other manmade obstacles along their natural corridors.

Brennan and others said creating wildlife pathways so animals can move freely northward as temperatures warm could mean the difference between survival and extinction.

"We have to have the ability for species to move and when they get there, wherever there is, it needs to be an intact and healthy ecosystem," Brennan said.

As the Earth's temperature rises, entire habitats will change, consumed by weather extremes, fires, pest outbreaks and invasions of nonnative species, said Virginia Burkett, a chief scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey.

Burkett, another co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, said extensive die-offs of pinion pine trees in the West are being attributed to climate change. She added some animal species are already disappearing.

Burkett cited the decline of the American pika, a small mountain-dwelling mammal also known as a rock-rabbit that is typically found in the western U.S. and Canada. The rodent maintains a body temperature topping 100 degrees, but with just a few degrees of climate change, "this animal will die," Burkett said.

She said officials need to begin reducing the non-climate change related stressors, "stop draining the wetlands, damming rivers."

Nature, she said, is highly adaptable and can be its own best protector against the effects of climate change if it can function, well, naturally.

Coastal growth also must be controlled and limited to allow for "wetlands to migrate inland naturally as sea level rise accelerates, and they can't do that if there's a road or a condominium there," Burkett added.

Before Friday's close, summit participants also will hold workshops on coastal ecosystems, land use planning, invasive species and wildlife adaptation.

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Sustainability ‘no longer just CSR’ says WWF chief

WWF 2 Oct 08;

Sustainability is no longer just a matter of corporate social responsibility (CSR), it is a fundamental business proposition, James Leape, Director General of WWF International, told a business audience in Geneva this week.

“WWF has been working for 47 years to save endangered species, but to save them we must get to grips with the challenge of humanity’s ecological footprint,” Mr Leape said at the opening session of WWF’s first One Planet Business conference.

Mr Leape said that the overuse of the world’s resources was having major impacts on the world’s wild places, and it must be tackled in the cities.

“With the urban population expected to double by 2050, new ways must be found in which to provide housing, food and transport,” Mr Leape said.

“If we are to achieve our goal of reducing the global ecological footprint to a sustainable level by 2050, we will need innovative partnerships among business, governments and civil society.

“We are promoting the concept of One Planet Living to help people understand and respond to this challenge, and our partnerships with business are at the heart of our strategy.

“Sustainability must be a good business proposition, but this is no longer just about corporate social responsibility. We are talking about a new bottom line.”

Mr Leape also went on to highlight the importance of water resources. “After climate change, water is the second biggest danger facing humanity,” he said.

“Water scarcity will be exacerbated by climate change. Seventy per cent of water use is linked to agriculture. A typical fast-food meal of hamburger, fries and cola requires 5,000 litres to produce it.”

The two-day conference featured case studies of WWF’s One Planet Living partnerships, including the Masdar City project in Abu Dhabi, a $22 billion solar-powered city that will be entirely car-free and produce zero waste.

It also highlighted examples where WWF has developed partnerships with industry sectors such as the Forest Stewardship Council and Marine Stewardship Council, initiatives which have helped bring sustainable wood and seafood products into mainstream markets.

One Planet Business is a WWF corporate engagement initiative aimed at transforming business practices and markets.

Other speakers at the two-day conference included Stefan Behling of the renowned architectural firm Foster and Partners, Dr Jonathan Woetzel from McKinsey and Malcolm Smith of Arup, the company developing the Dongtan eco-city in China.

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48 Hawaiian species proposed for endangered list in new ecosystem-based approach

Feds propose listing 48 Hawaiian species at once
David Briscoe, Associated Press Yahoo News 30 Sep 08;

The federal government took a new, ecosystem-based approach to the endangered species list on Tuesday, proposing an all-at-once addition of 48 species, including plants, two birds and a fly, that live only on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

The action by the Interior Department would designate about 43 square miles as critical habitat for all the species rather than considering each species' habitat separately, which has been the practice for three decades. Officials said considering the species all at once should save time and resources and would help the whole ecosystem.

The same approach is planned to help protect rare species on Oahu, the Big Island and Maui over the next several years, and it could be considered for the Arctic, big river systems of the Southwest and areas of the mountain West, according to department officials.

"For more than three decades, we've been struggling with one species at a time," said Dale Hall, Fish and Wildlife Service director, in a conference call with news media. "This gives us a chance to look at groups of species and at the same time be economical in the way we designate critical habitat."

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, in Honolulu for an island health conference, said the new "holistic approach" will benefit not only the listed species but also the rest of the ecosystem.

"By addressing the common threats that occur across these ecosystems, we can more effectively focus our conservation efforts on restoring the functions of these shared habitats," Kempthorne said.

The species include 45 plants, two birds and an insect, the Hawaiian picture-wing fly.

The Endangered Species Coalition hailed the action as "an end to the drought," noting that the Interior Department has added only one species to the endangered list in the past two years, the polar bear.

It pointed out that no recommendation has been made for 23 other species the administration had told Congress it would be proposing for this fiscal year.

The American Bird Conservancy said the two birds proposed for listing need all the help they can get. Both birds are species of honeycreepers.

The two Kauai birds are the akikiki and the akekee, both honeycreepers and prized finds for birdwatchers. The akekee is yellow and green with a short blue bill and long notched tail. The akikiki has dark feathers above and light feathers below and a pink bill.

George Fenwick, president of the conservancy, said recent surveys show the two species are on the brink of extinction, with fewer than 1,400 akikiki in 2005 in a shrinking Kauai habitat. The akekee population was estimated at 3,500 last year, down from about 8,000 birds in 2000.

Scientists blame nonnative plants, feral pigs and goats, disease introduced by mosquitoes and storms for the decline. Development also has hurt Kauai's ecosystem, though much of the land proposed for critical habitat is mountainous and roadless.

A final decision on adding the species to the list will be made after a yearlong study.

Hawaii has more endangered species than any other state with 329, and Kauai has more than any other Hawaiian island with the greatest diversity of plants and animals.

"It is appropriate that we begin this new approach to listing species and designating critical habitat in Kauai," said Patrick Leonard, field supervisor for the Pacific Islands Fish and Wildlife Office.

All but 1,646 acres of the 27,674 acres proposed for the 48 species overlap existing critical habitat for other species. Most of the land is federally owned, but nearly 6,000 acres is held by 12 private owners.

Officials said all the private land is either already designated critical habitat for rare species or is covered by other programs that would protect species and landowners would face no new restrictions under the proposal.

Known habitat for one of the species on the list, the Pritchardia hardyi plant, was left out of the proposal. Officials said it was not considered prudent to include it because the rare palm is often illegally gathered and designating its habitat would tell collectors where to find it.

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Eating kangaroos could help fight global warming: scientist

Yahoo News 1 Oct 08;

An offbeat suggestion that Australians should eat kangaroos instead of cattle and sheep has been given a scientific stamp of approval by the government's top climate change adviser.

The belching and farting of millions of farm animals is a major contributor to Australia's greenhouse gas emissions, Professor Ross Garnaut noted in a major report to the government on global warming.

Kangaroos, on the other hand, emit negligible amounts of methane gas.

If farmers were included in a system requiring industry to buy permits for the gas they produce, the cost of meat would rise and could lead to a change in eating habits, Garnaut said in the 600 page report released Wednesday.

"For most of Australia's human history -- around 60,000 years -- kangaroo was the main source of meat," he said.

"It could again become important. However, there are some significant barriers to this change, including livestock and farm management issues, consumer resistance and the gradual nature of change in food tastes."

Garnaut cited a study looking at the potential for kangaroos to replace sheep and cattle for meat production in Australia's rangelands, where kangaroos are already harvested.

The study concludes that by 2020, beef cattle and sheep numbers could be reduced by seven million and 36 million respectively, allowing for an increase in kangaroo numbers from 34 million now to 240 million by 2020.

This would be more than enough to replace the lost lamb and beef production, and kangaroo meat would become more profitable than cattle and sheep as the price of emissions permits increased.

Garnaut's report said livestock, mainly cattle and sheep, are responsible for some 67 percent of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.

Despite being the national animal and appearing on the Australian coat of arms, millions of kangaroos are slaughtered in the wild each year to control their numbers and much of the meat is used for pet food.

The idea of farming them for human consumption is controversial, but many health-conscious Australians already eat kangaroo meat.

"It's low in fat, it's got high protein levels, it's very clean in the sense that basically it's the ultimate free range animal," says Peter Ampt of the University of New South Wales's institute of environmental studies.

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Scientists Aim to Boost Southern Ocean CO2 Monitoring

David Fogarty, PlanetArk 2 Oct 08;

SINGAPORE - Australian scientists set sail later this week on a voyage that could lead to better data from the Southern Ocean, which plays a major role in acting as a brake on climate change.

Oceans absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide and the Southern Ocean between Australia and Antarctica plays the greatest role of all the world's oceans, scientists say.

The problem is there is no permanent monitoring of the Southern Ocean because of its wild seas and remoteness and scientists cannot accurately determine how a warming world is affecting the amount of CO2 the ocean is absorbing.

So marine scientists based in the southern Australian state of Tasmania sail on Friday to test two newly designed ocean moorings to see if they can withstand the pounding of 20-metre (70 feet) seas to send back data over many months.

"The oceans are protecting us from climate warming by absorbing our CO2 out of the atmosphere. Most of that is happening in the Southern Ocean," said Tom Trull, leader of the Ocean Control of CO2 Programme at the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre in Hobart.

"We don't know if that'll continue and we're concerned it might not. This equipment will help us find out," he said on Wednesday.

Trull said the Southern Ocean captures CO2 in two ways, or what are known as pumps. The gas is absorbed by seawater, mixing with the turbulent surface layer and carried to the depths by ocean circulation patterns.

The gas is also absorbed by billions of tiny phytoplankton and other organisms, which fall to the ocean bottom when they die, trapping carbon in deep bottom layers of sediment. "As climate warms, the surface layer gets more and more difficult to mix with the waters below, so that reduces the physical pump of CO2," he said.

Also, as climate warms, the amount of CO2 released by the tiny animals that feed on phytoplankton increases, reducing the biological pump, he said.

The aim of the current voyage is to test equipment that by this time next year could lead to long-term monitoring of the surface layers of the Southern Ocean.

Trull said the monitoring equipment would involve a float on the surface and more equipment about 50 metres (165 feet) below. Both are attached to a tether to the ocean floor about 4 km (2.5 miles) below.

"We're trying to get at those kind of near-surface processes but sample them on the timescale that matters to them, which is days and weeks, rather than sampling them when a ship goes out there, which is maybe a couple of times a year," he said.

It was the only way of telling how climate change was affecting one of the Earth's main sinks of CO2, the greenhouse gas produced by burning fossil fuels in cars, power stations and by industry.

"If it turns out the Southern Ocean is not absorbing it (CO2), we're going to have to be even more stringent with controls on emissions," he said. (Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

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Big is Best in Resilient Renewables Sector

Gerard Wynn and Timothy Gardner, PlanetArk 2 Oct 08;

LONDON/ NEW YORK - The "green economy" will rebound faster than most from global financial turmoil, because of government-guaranteed revenues for renewable energy.

Paralysed credit markets will hurt small project developers and herald buying opportunities for cash-rich utilities, speeding up what has been a transition from a niche to multinational renewable energy industry.

National and regional renewable energy targets worldwide -- meant to curb carbon emissions and improve energy security -- have created huge unfulfilled demand and a booming industry for makers of solar cells and wind turbines.

The resulting scramble has raised development costs for operators, and the added debt squeeze will now likely dent growth, strengthening the hand of utilities already muscling in to a recently cottage industry.

"The big projects being built by big utilities don't need to borrow from banks for short-term loans," said JP Morgan analyst Chris Rogers. "But if banks don't lend to each other they certainly won't lend to small project start-ups."

Even if utilities do have to borrow, they can do so cheaply as government-regulated businessess with guaranteed rates of return which can pass on costs to consumers, said analyst Pavel Mulchanov at Raymond James & Associates in Houston.

Big renewable energy companies including partial utility spin-outs are in the same, privileged credit position.

"Eighty percent of (our) capital is owned by the Iberdrola group, which translates into important financial support and access to capital markets under the umbrella of the parent company," said a spokesman for Iberdrola Renovables SA.

Denmark's BTM Consult estimates that utilities owned just 40 percent of global installed wind power capacity at the end of 2007, but that picture was changing rapidly.

"I would say about 80 percent will be owned by the utilities in the next five years," said BTM Consult analyst Per Krogsgaard, adding that the credit crisis would speed up that transition as utilities race to fill any gap.


WEAKER

A credit squeeze on smaller companies will weaken growth across the industry, curbing price too, analysts say.

"It's still early to understand the impact at the moment, but the recent reduction in valuations definitely reflects the prospect of slightly lower growth," said Luciano Diana at Morgan Stanley.

Shares in the world's biggest wind turbine maker Denmark's Vestas have fallen as much as 25 percent since a Morgan Stanley downgrade last week, on demand concerns, but rallied some 4 percent in afternoon trading on Wednesday.

"I can't say anything about a week or a month from now but so far we haven't met (seen) that (softening demand)," said Vestas spokesman Peter Kruse. "Of course, Vestas is not an island but our customers are energy companies, and have not yet been hit."

Morgan Stanley predicts 15 percent growth in global wind turbine installation in 2009 compared to 25 percent or more growth in the past two years.


GUARANTEED

The green economy will rebound well, however, provided government support remains in place, for example guaranteeing higher prices through feed-in tariffs for "green electricity" across much of Europe.

"Even though the stocks have been choppy to say the least, the underlying fundamentals of wind and solar would definitely not be my biggest concern even under a severe recession scenario," said Mulchanov.

There are some, very limited signs of weakness in government commitment.

On Monday, US lawmakers said they could run out of time to extend a wind power production tax credit (PTC) and a solar power investment credit (ITC), which have been powerful spurs for installations, in time for a Dec. 31 expiry deadline.

Failure to extend the credits in time would add to negative sentiment on the sector, analysts say.

Clouding the issue of PTC funding is the fact that just a few banks bought these tax credits from wind farms, allowing developers to monetise them upfront, several of which have since withdrawn from that market, an analyst said.

The United States represented about 30 percent of growth in the wind power industry this year, says Morgan Stanley.

But Germany recently strengthened its subsidy support for wind power. More broadly, Norway on Wednesday said it would double a state fund promoting investments in renewable energy to 20 billion Norwegian crowns (US$3.42 billion) in 2009.

(Additional reporting by Martin Roberts in Madrid and Kim McLaughlin in Copenhagen; editing by Christopher Johnson)

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Green Collar Jobs to Fuel Future Economy

Michael Schirber, LiveScience.com 1 Oct 08;

Editor's Note: Each Wednesday LiveScience examines the viability of emerging energy technologies - the power of the future.

With the economic downturn, many job markets seem in peril. However, investment in energy efficiency and renewable-energy strategies could create 2 million jobs in two years, economists claim.

In a recent report, researchers from the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts propose a $100 billion stimulus package that they say would create four times more jobs than would a similar investment in the oil industry.

"Our proposal is a Green Recovery program," said lead author Robert Pollin. "It is designed to precisely counteract the forces pushing the economy into a recession."

Besides reducing carbon emissions, the investment - which would combine tax credits and loan guarantees for envirotech companies - would reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil.

Moreover, it would create so-called "green collar" jobs that would benefit both traditional blue and white collar workers.

"Green investments will create jobs across the spectrum - from truck drivers, roofers, welders, secretaries, CEOs and research scientists," Pollin told LiveScience.

Wearing green

As many as one out of four workers in the United States will be working in the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries by 2030, according to a separate recent report from the American Solar Energy Society.

Who makes up the green collar work force?

"There's no real hard and fast definition," said Olivia Anderson of Acre Resources Ltd., an environmental job recruiter in the United Kingdom. "But green collar is any role implementing sustainability in business."

This can include retrofitting buildings, designing new solar cells, organizing recycling programs, carbon trading, or being part of a company's corporate responsibility team.

Perhaps this breadth explains why Anderson's company continues to place workers.

"We haven't seen a slowdown in our business," Anderson said. "There's a little bit of caution but people are still hiring."

She thinks part of this stability stems from the fact that governments and companies have both made public pledges to reduce their carbon footprint.

"They have to stick to it," she said.

The color of money

Worldwide, $148 billion was spent on clean energy technologies and projects in 2007, according to U.K.-based New Energy Finance, which provides investor information in alternative energy. This was an increase of more than 60 percent in investments from the year before.

Some foresee continued growth in the future, but it will likely depend on what government policies are enacted.

The Green Jobs Act of 2007 provides $125 million per year to fund green job training programs, but Congress has yet to appropriate the funds.

In the race for the White House, Sen. Barack Obama has proposed spending $150 billion over 10 years to help create 5 million new jobs in clean energy. Sen. John McCain has a plan to fund low-carbon technologies with proceeds from a cap and trade system.

"These programs are moving in the right direction," Pollin said. But "we need more dramatic action. This will benefit the environment and have a much greater positive impact on job availability."

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China's solar power growth comes at a toxic price

China's factories do not have the means to dispose of the hazardous waste generated in the manufacture of polysilicon panels
Ariana Eunjung Cha, Business Times 2 Oct 08;

THE first time that Li Gengxuan saw the dump trucks from the nearby factory pull into his village, he couldn't believe what happened.

Stopping between the cornfields and the primary school playground, the workers dumped buckets of bubbling white liquid onto the ground. Then they drove right back through the gates of their compound without a word.

This ritual has been going on almost every day for nine months, Mr Li and other villagers said.

In China, a country buckling with the breakneck pace of its industrial growth, such stories of environmental pollution are not uncommon. But the Luoyang Zhonggui High-Technology Co, here in the central plains of Henan Province near the Yellow River, stands out for one reason: It's a green energy company, producing polysilicon destined for solar energy panels sold around the world. But the byproduct of polysilicon production - silicon tetrachloride - is a highly toxic substance that poses environmental hazards.

'The land where you dump or bury it will be infertile. No grass or trees will grow in the place . . . It is like dynamite ) it is poisonous, it is polluting. Human beings can never touch it,' said Ren Bingyan, a professor at the School of Material Sciences at Hebei Industrial University.

The situation in Mr Li's village points to the environmental trade-offs that the world is making as it races to head off a dwindling supply of fossil fuels.

Forests are being cleared to grow biofuels like palm oil, but scientists argue that the disappearance of such huge swaths of forests is contributing to climate change. Hydropower dams are being constructed to replace coal-fired power plants, but they are submerging whole ecosystems under water.

Unexpected consequences

Likewise in China, the push to get into the solar energy market is having unexpected consequences.

With the prices of oil and coal still high, policymakers around the world are looking at massive solar farms to heat water and generate electricity. For the past four years, however, the world has been suffering from a shortage of polysilicon - the key component of sunlight-capturing wafers - driving up prices of solar energy technology and creating a barrier to its adoption.

With the price of polysilicon soaring from US$20 per kg to $300 per kg in the past five years, Chinese companies are eager to fill the gap.

In China, polysilicon plants are the new dotcoms. Flush with venture capital and with generous grants and low-interest loans from a central government touting its efforts to seek clean energy alternatives, more than 20 Chinese companies are starting polysilicon manufacturing plants. The combined capacity of these new factories is estimated at 80,000 to 100,000 tons - more than double the 40,000 tons produced in the entire world today.

But Chinese companies' methods for dealing with waste haven't been perfected.

Because of the environmental hazard, polysilicon companies in the developed world recycle the compound, putting it back into the production process. But the high investment costs and time, not to mention the enormous energy consumption required for heating the substance to more than 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit for the recycling, have discouraged many factories in China from doing the same. Like Luoyang Zhonggui, other solar plants in China have not installed technology to prevent pollutants from getting into the environment or have not brought those systems fully online, industry sources say.

'The recycling technology is of course being thought about, but currently it's still not mature,' said Shi Jun, a former photovoltaic technology researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Mr Shi, chief executive of Pro- EnerTech, a start-up polysilicon research firm in Shanghai, said that there's such a severe shortage of polysilicon that the government is willing to overlook this issue for now. 'If this happened in the United States, you'd probably be arrested,' he said.

An independent, nationally accredited laboratory analysed a sample of dirt from the dump site near the Luoyang Zhonggui plant at the request of The Washington Post. The tests show high concentrations of chlorine and hydrochloric acid, which can result from the breakdown of silicon tetrachloride and do not exist naturally in soil. 'Crops cannot grow on this, and it is not suitable for people to live nearby,' said Li Xiaoping, deputy director of the Shanghai Academy of Environmental Sciences.

Wang Hailong, secretary of the board of directors for Luoyang Zhonggui, said that it is 'impossible' to think that the company would dump large amounts of waste into a residential area. 'Some of the villagers did not tell the truth,' he said.

However, Mr Wang said that the company does release a 'minimal amount of waste' in compliance with all environmental regulations. 'We release it in a certain place in a certain way. Before it is released, it has gone through strict treatment procedures.'

Yi Xusheng, the head of monitoring for the Henan Province Environmental Protection Agency, said that the factory had passed a review before it opened, but that 'it's possible that there are some pollutants in the production process' that inspectors were not aware of. He said that the agency would investigate.

High hopes

In 2005, when residents of Mr Li's village, Shiniu, heard that a new solar energy company would be building a factory nearby, they celebrated.

The impoverished farming community of roughly 2,300, near the eastern end of the Silk Road, had been left behind during China's recent boom. In a country where the average wage in some areas is US$200 a month, many of the village's residents make just US$200 a year. They had high hopes that their new neighbour would jump-start the local economy.

The Luoyang Zhonggui factory grew out of an effort by a national research institute to improve on a 50-year-old polysilicon refining technology pioneered by Germany's Siemens. Last year, the factory was estimated to have produced less than 300 tons of polysilicon, but it aims to increase that tenfold this year - making it China's largest operating plant. It is a key supplier to Suntech Power Holdings, a solar panel company whose founder Shi Zhengrong recently topped the list of the richest people in China.

Made from the Earth's most abundant substance - sand - polysilicon is tricky to manufacture. It requires huge amounts of energy, and even a small misstep in the production can introduce impurities and ruin an entire batch. The other main challenge is dealing with the waste. For each ton of polysilicon produced, the process generates at least four tons of silicon tetrachloride liquid waste.

When exposed to humid air, silicon tetrachloride transforms into acids and poisonous hydrogen chloride gas, which can make people who breathe the air dizzy and can make their chests contract.

While it typically takes companies two years to get a polysilicon factory up and running properly, many Chinese companies are trying to do it in half that time or less, said Richard Winegarner, president of Sage Concepts, a California-based consulting firm.

As a result, Prof Ren of Hebei Industrial University said, some Chinese plants are stockpiling the hazardous substances in the hopes that they can figure out a way to dispose of it later. 'I know these factories began to store silicon tetrachloride in drums two years ago,' he said.

Pro-EnerTech's Mr Shi says that other companies - including Luoyang Zhonggui - are just dumping wherever they can. 'Theoretically, companies should collect it all, process it to get rid of the poisonous stuff, then release it or recycle. Zhonggui currently doesn't have the technology. Now they are just releasing it directly into the air,' said Mr Shi, who recently visited the factory.

Bleak situation

He estimated that Chinese companies are saving millions of dollars by not installing pollution recovery. He said that if environmental protection technology is used, the cost to produce one ton is approximately US$84,500. But Chinese companies are making it at US$21,000 to US$56,000 a ton.

In sharp contrast to the gleaming white buildings in Zhonggui's new gated complex in Gaolong, the situation in the villages surrounding it is bleak.

About a year ago, residents of Mr Li's village, which begins about 50 yards from the plant, noticed that their crops were wilting under a dusting of white powder. Sometimes, there was a hazy cloud up to three feet high near the dumping site; one person tending crops there fainted, several villagers said. Small rocks began to accumulate in kettles used for boiling tap water.

Each night, villagers said, the factory's chimneys released a loud whoosh of acrid air that stung their eyes and made it hard to breath.

'It's poison air. Sometimes it gets so bad, you can't sit outside. You have to close all the doors and windows,' said Qiao Shi Peng, 28, a truck driver who said that he worries about his one-year-old son's health.

The villagers said that the most obvious evidence of the pollution is the dumping, up to 10 times a day, of the liquid waste into what was formerly a grassy field. Eventually, the whole area turned white, like snow.

The worst part, said Mr Li, 53, who lives with his son and granddaughter in the village, is that 'they go outside the gates of their own compound to dump waste'. 'We didn't know how bad it was until the August harvest, until things started dying,' he said.

Early this year, one of the villagers put some of the contaminated soil in a plastic bag and went to the local environmental bureau. They never got back to him.

Zhang Zhenguo, 45, a farmer and small businessman, said that he has a theory as to why: 'They didn't test it because the government supports the plant.' - LAT-WP

Researchers Wu Meng and Crissie Ding contributed to this report

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Financial Storm Dims Hope of Tough UN Climate Pact

Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 2 Oct 08;

OSLO - Global financial mayhem is dimming prospects for a strong new UN pact to fight climate change, but it might aid cheap green schemes such as insulating buildings to save energy, analysts said.

The turmoil, straining government coffers with bank bailouts, may sap interest in more costly projects such as burying heat-trapping carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants, refining biodiesel or some renewable energies.

"There will be a shift in investments" towards energy efficiency, said Nick Mabey, director of E3G think-tank in London. Saving energy, such as by insulating buildings, gives quick returns and can help create jobs.

A year ago, many governments were billing the fight against warming as humanity's top long-term challenge after the UN Climate Panel said human use of fossil fuels would bring more floods, heatwaves, droughts and rising seas.

Now, with the United States caught in a financial storm that may cost US$700 billion of taxpayers' money to fix, a plan to agree a new UN treaty to fight global warming in Copenhagen in December 2009 is looking ever more ambitious.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Tuesday the market difficulties would make it harder to agree a climate deal, while US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said last week he may be forced to scale back his planned investments in energy.

"It's starting to weigh on peoples' minds that the whole process could go completely wrong," said Mabey. In the worst case, the negotiations could collapse, like UN trade talks.

"The problem of climate change is going to stick with us. But the pace and the scale of ambition may be less in the near term," said Elliot Diringer, a director at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change in Washington.


SMARTER

"Hopefully the crisis will make us smarter in spending our money," said Bjorn Lomborg, Danish author of "The Skeptical Environmentalist", who says many governments like Britain focus too much on costly projects such as offshore windmills.

More mundane carbon-saving projects may benefit.

Consultants McKinsey & Co. reckon emissions-cutting measures such as better building insulation, fuel efficiency in vehicles, more efficient lighting and air conditioning end up paying for themselves via lower energy bills.

But policies such as burying carbon dioxide, refining biodiesel or avoiding deforestation are among the most costly ways of slowing emissions, it says.

In the United States, both Obama and Republican candidate McCain have promised to do more than President George W. Bush, who said the Kyoto Protocol, which binds 37 industrialised nations to cut emissions until 2012, would be too expensive.

The UN Climate Panel has estimated the costs of slowing climate change at only 0.12 percent of world gross domestic product to 2030, with vast benefits in avoiding human suffering.

Diringer said the next US president should re-cast the fight against warming as a way to break dependence on oil imports and as a tool to help economic recovery -- some revenues from future carbon trading could go to the Treasury.

The worst financial crisis since the 1930s may also mean less aid to help developing nations, such as China, India, Brazil and Indonesia, tackle their soaring emissions.


FORESTS

Norway, which has led international donor efforts to slow burning of tropical forests blamed for 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, said it was still committed to help.

"We believe this is not an act of charity, this is an investment," Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told Reuters of the plan, which includes up to US$1 billion to Brazil to protect the Amazon.

Sven Teske, renewable energy director for environmental group Greenpeace, said investments still made sense. The wind energy market totalled US$37 billion in 2007 and added more than 19 gigawatts to the grid, he said.

"Money would be better spent on this," he said.

Lomborg said the pendulum could swing too far against climate action. "There is a real risk that we could end up under-worrying about climate change just as we are over-worrying today," he said. (Editing by Matthew Jones)

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UK Met Office warns of need for drastic cuts in greenhouse gases from 2010

• 3% a year may keep temperature rise to 2C
• Study says inaction could have dire consequences
Juliette Jowit, The Guardian 1 Oct 08;

The world will have to take drastic action within two years to reduce greenhouse gas pollution if it is to avoid the worst effects of climate change, a new study warns.

Weeks before world leaders meet to discuss the next big international treaty on cutting emissions, the scale of risk posed by failing to act rapidly is spelt out today by the UK Met Office's Hadley Centre.

The study shows that cutting global emissions by 3% a year from 2010 offers the only possible hope of avoiding a global temperature rise of more than 2C - widely recognised as the threshold beyond which the worst impacts of sea level rise and drought become a significant risk.

In the early years, at least, responsibility for such deep cuts in emissions would have to be borne by the UK and other rich countries, which are responsible for most of the historic build-up in emissions.

It raises the prospect of far-reaching changes, including a rapid spread in community renewable energy and wave and tide power, improvements in public transport, big shifts to cycling and walking and changes in diet. It would also lead to huge pressure for the UK to abandon plans for a third runway at Heathrow and new coal-fired power stations.

The warning from the Hadley Centre is likely to cause widespread concern, especially as the Met Office has a reputation for taking a cautious approach. It advises the UK government, the United Nations and other governments and businesses.

Writing in today's Guardian, Vicky Pope, the Met Office's leading adviser on climate change to the government, warns that failure by governments to agree to "large and early" cuts or to meet those targets in future "could have worrying and significant consequences for the world's climate".

Such a deal will be regarded as all but impossible by many experts as the 2010 deadline is soon after a big international meeting in Copenhagen in December next year, when the UN hopes a treaty will be signed.

Andy Atkins, executive director of Friends of the Earth, said: "Tactically we have to point out the opportunities and make it clear to them we have to act."

Others called for the Met Office's warning to spur the UK and other countries to more urgent action at the big UN meetings in Poznan, Poland, in December and in Copenhagen at the end of next year, when a replacement for the Kyoto protocol is due to be agreed.

So far, leaders of the G8 group of leading industrial nations have signalled support for a 50% cut in emissions, but have not pledged higher targets for their own countries.

"The new science should raise our ambition levels rather than [make us] back off," said Paul Cook, advocacy director of the development charity Tearfund. "It's a big shift but it's do-able."

The Hadley Centre analysed three possible agreements to cut global emissions, ranging from "early and rapid" to "late and slow" cuts, and compared them with what would happen if no action were taken. It found that if cuts begin in 2010 and quickly reach 3% a year then the most likely mid-range forecast temperature rise would be 2C above pre-industrial levels by 2100. This is based on cutting emissions by 50% globally by the middle of the century, as advocated by the UN and accepted by many national governments.

By comparison, an "early but slow" decline, beginning in 2010 but at a more modest level of 1% a year, would lead to likely temperature rises of 2.9C by the end of the century, and a "late and slow" decline beginning in 2030 would generate likely temperature increases of 4C by 2100.

At 2C, scientists have warned that at least one fifth of species are at risk of extinction and 1 to 2 billion people could suffer increased water stress; above 2C plants and soil significantly reduce the amount of carbon they absorb; and above 4C experts warn there is a danger of passing a "tipping point" at which methane release from permafrost and the collapse of big ice sheets accelerate the problems.

The Met Office's researchers also looked at what would happen if reductions began later but were then steeper: "It looked very like the 'early but slow' [scenario]," Pope told the Guardian. The reason delays cause greater impacts is that in the intervening years carbon would build up in the atmosphere, where it remains for a century.

Even more worrying than the "most likely" central projections are the "worst case outcomes", says Pope. Even for the optimistic "early and rapid" cuts there was a chance the temperature could rise by 2.8C - and any delay in making cuts ran the risk of the global thermometer coming close to or exceeding the crucial 4C figure.

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