Climate Fight Costs May Be Three Times More

PlanetArk 28 Nov 08;

LONDON - The cost of efforts to avoid dangerous global warming may be 170 percent higher than 2007 estimates, a report for the UN's climate agency said on Thursday.

The report comes four days before the UN leads a fresh round of talks in Poland to agree a successor to the Kyoto Protocol in ongoing negotiations marred by squabbles over who should bear the cost of fighting climate change.

The UN report cited research by the International Energy Agency (IEA), energy adviser to 28 countries, and others which showed growing capital costs especially in the energy sector.

"The increased investment needed is entirely due to higher capital costs for energy supply facilities," it said.

"This increases the scale of the challenge to generate additional investment and financial flows," said the study, titled "Investment and financial flows to address climate change: an update."

Growing capital costs are partly a result of unprecedented demand for gear such as wind turbines driven by climate and energy security policies.

Thursday's report was commissioned for the UN's climate change secretariat which leads the December 1-12 talks in Poznan, Poland.

The new report will add to concerns that a multi-trillion dollar bailout of the global economy in the past two months may have diverted too much cash away from the climate fight.

Last year the corresponding study estimated the additional investment required to cut greenhouse gas emissions by a quarter at $200-210 billion annually by 2030.

That estimate included only the capital cost of measures including efficiency improvements to buildings and more low-carbon power including nuclear and renewable energy.

It excluded other costs such as R&D as well as the benefit of fuel savings from improved efficiency.

However more recent studies in 2008 showed higher estimates. A report on technology transfer also for the UN climate agency estimated total finance needs of $300-1,000 billion annually over the period from now to 2030.

The IEA estimated annual additional investments in technologies to fight climate change at $1,000 billion annually from 2010-2050.

Cost of reducing emissions by 2030 likely to surge: UN report
Yahoo News 28 Nov 08;

PARIS (AFP) – Hundreds of billions more dollars are likely to be needed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by a 2030 target, according to UN estimates published on Friday ahead of global talks on climate change.

The report, to be presented at the December 1-12 conference in Poznan, Poland updates 2007 estimates that said investment to mitigate carbon emissions had to be ramped up in the coming years, reaching between 200-210 billion dollars annually in 2030.

The goal, in this benchmark scenario, is to reduce levels of global-warming pollution to 25 percent below 2000 levels in 2030.

In the new report, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said the emissions goal was virtually unchanged.

But it said the estimates of financial needs for mitigation had been revised sharply upwards -- by "about 170 percent."

It cited "higher projected capital costs," especially in the energy sector, to introduce solar panels and fuel cells that had yet to become competitive with fossil fuels.

There was also the potential bill for implementing carbon storage, a technology that is still at the pilot stage, said the report.

Under carbon storage, carbon dioxide (CO2) is captured from big polluting sources such as coal-fired power plants, rather than released into the atmosphere where it would add to the greenhouse-gas effect.

Instead, the CO2 would be pumped deep below ground, in disused gas fields or other geological chambers and stored there indefinitely.

Most the funding needs will have to be focussed in developing countries, the UNFCCC report said.

China has now outstripped the United States as the world's No. 1 carbon emitter, and India is set to become third largest, according to estimates released in September by the research consortium the Global Carbon Project.

The UNFCCC report said that its estimates for funding needs to help poor countries adapt to the impact of global warming were unchanged over 2007, "and remain in the tens of billions, possibly hundreds of billions of dollars, every year."

The Poznan talks are a stepping stone towards a new pact, due to be sealed in Copenhagen in December 2009, for reducing emissions and boosting adaptation funds beyond 2012, when the current provisions of the UN's Kyoto Protocol expire.

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Rich Shelving CO2 Cut Ambitions As Economies Slow

Alister Doyle, PlanerArk 28 Nov 08;

OSLO - Many industrialised nations are shelving ambitions for the deepest cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 as economic slowdown overshadows the fight against climate change.

About 190 countries meet for UN climate talks in Poznan, Poland, next week with scant mention of a deal in Vienna last year by almost all rich nations to consider cuts in emissions of 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

"That target is perhaps something that's on the back-burner for the time being," said Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN Climate Panel that said last year that industrialised nations needed to make such cuts to avoid the worst of warming.

Struggling with the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, everyone from US President-elect Barack Obama to European leaders are focusing more on stimulus packages that should help a shift from fossil fuels by creating "green" jobs.

Pachauri said world leaders might find it easier to discuss ambitious cuts in a few months, "after the dust settles" from the financial crisis. Poznan will review progress toward a new climate treaty to be agreed by the end of 2009 in Copenhagen.

But he also told Reuters: "If we want to limit temperature increase to 2 Celsius (3.6 F), or thereabouts, then clearly (25-40) is the target we should be watching."

Two Celsius is seen by the EU, some other nations and many environmentalists as a threshold for "dangerous" climate change -- disrupting water supplies, farming and causing more coastal floods from rising sea levels.

"Only the EU and Norway" have discussed cuts within the 25-40 percent band, said Harald Dovland, a senior Norwegian official who chairs a UN climate committee in Poznan looking at future pledges by industrialised nations.

The idea of 25-40 percent cuts was always a stretch.
But the Vienna agreement is likely to haunt many -- deep cuts by rich nations are often brandished by developing nations such as China and India as a pre-condition for the poor to start curbing their own rising emissions.

EU STRUGGLES

And the EU's target only reaches Pachauri's band because the 27-nation bloc has offered to cut emissions unilaterally by 20 percent below 1990 levels and by 30 percent by 2020 if other nations follow suit.
The 30 percent path, analysts say, looks ever more unlikely.

Obama's United States, Japan and Canada plan cuts that would return their emissions to around 1990 levels by 2020. Australia will announce a 2020 goal before Poznan. Russian emissions are far below 1990 levels after the collapse of Soviet-era industry.

The EU, which sees itself as a climate leader, is struggling to carry through its unilateral goal and is handing concessions to heavy industry before a December 11-12 summit meant to seal the pact over objections from Italy and Poland.

Dovland said the jury was still out on the final impact of the financial crisis. "I hear both versions. Some say 'we cannot', others say 'this is an opportunity to change to a low carbon society'," he said.

John Kerry, acting chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he would travel to Poznan to give the message that "America is back" and committed to fighting global warming after little action by President George W. Bush.

Obama has spoken of a "planet in peril" and says he will cut US emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020 -- they have risen about 14 percent above 1990 levels -- followed by far deeper cuts of 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

Kerry said the United States would be guided by the findings of Pachauri's panel but also told a telephone briefing: "we have to try to figure out what is achievable in Copenhagen within one year, given our economic realities."

Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol, which obliges all other developed nations to cut emissions by at least 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. That means the United States, the top emitter with China, did not sign the Vienna statement.

A summit of 20 major economies about the financial crisis hosted by Bush in Washington this month barely mentioned climate change, listing it among "other challenges" alongside food security and terrorism.

Pachauri said he was not surprised. "One wouldn't expect (Bush) to talk about climate change when the house around him was crumbling," he said.

(Editing by Dominic Evans)

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Best of our wild blogs: 27 Nov 08

Drilling and blasting close to Cyrene Reef until Feb 09
on the wild shores of singapore blog

Another oil rig parked off Pulau Semakau: 'Aban Pearl'
on the wild shores of singapore blog

Water skiing site designated near Sentosa's natural shore
on the wild shores of singapore blog

Sir David Attenborough's Life in Cold Blood
broadcasts on okto 26 Nov- 24 Dec on the wild shores of singapore blog

BESG’s website logged half a million visitors
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Yellow bird
on the annotated budak blog

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Smugglers arrested in Johor with 65 pangolins

The Star 27 Nov 08;

MUAR: Marine police have detained three men and seized 65 pangolins and a tortoise during a raid at a house near Bukit Pasir here.

The men, including two orang asli, aged between 28 and 39, were believed to be members of a syndicate involved in smuggling exotic animals into the country.

Muar marine police base commanding officer Asst Supt Mohamad Pouzi Abdul Rauf said the pangolins were estimated to be worth more than RM72,000.

Major haul: ASP Mohamad Pouzi (second from right) looking at the tortoise which was seized during the raid in Bukit Pasir on Tuesday night.

“We have been on the lookout for months for pangolin smuggling cases, usually from Indonesia. A team managed to trace the syndicate members,” he said.

The team, headed by Insp Mohd Naser Marzuke, spotted a car with two men behaving suspiciously and followed the vehicle to Bukit Pasir, he told reporters at the marine jetty here yesterday.

ASP Mohamad Pouzi said that when the car stopped at the house at 10pm on Tuesday, the team rushed in and found bags containing pangolins and a 41kg tortoise.

He said initial investigation showed that the house was being used as a trading point for smugglers to sell the animals to buyers who would take them out of Muar.

The three suspects would be charged with smuggling protected animals into the country he said, adding that the animals would be surrendered to the Muar Wildlife Department.

“We have made three pangolin seizures since September and we believe certain syndicates are using Muar as an entry point to bring in pangolins from Indonesia,” he said.

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Tourism hit as Kelantan’s beaches are washed away

The Star 27 Nov 08;

KOTA BARU: Most of Kelantan’s beaches are badly eroded and this is affecting the state’s tourism plans.

Department of Drainage and Irrigation (DID) director-general Datuk Ahmad Husaini Sulaiman said that erosion is eating away at some 30km of beachfront stretching from Sabak in Pengkalan Chepa up through the Thai-Malaysia border areas.

DID has placed those areas under category one, with erosion occurring rapidly over the past five years.
Disappearing act:. Fisherman Nawi Mahmud, 75, walks along Pantai Kuala Pak Amat which is being eroded by strong waves from the South China Sea.

“To date, DID has not received any significant plans on how to arrest the natural phenomenon but we would undertake a study and recommend to the rightful authorities how best to tackle the problem,” Ahmad Husaini said after inspecting the erosion at Pantai Kuala Pak Amat in the Pantai Cahaya Bulan (PCB) coastal area.

Erosion of local beaches is cited as a natural phenomenon due to the increasingly strong waves from the South China Sea.

It is disheartening to the state since Kuala Pak Amat, for instance, has sound tourist potential having been the historic landing site of Japanese troops in World War II.

This was the Japanese point of invasion into Malaya just hours before its carriers bombed the US Pacific fleet in Pearl Harbour, Hawaii.

For now, Ahmad Husaini said the DID planned to seek federal allocation to rehabilitate the Kuala Pak Amat beachfront next year.

It would also closely monitor the remaining stretches of beach to prevent the erosion from reaching coastal villages.

To date, the DID has installed two wave breakers at Sabak and in Pantai Irama, Bachok.

However, more are needed in the long-term to overcome the erosion, Ahmad Husaini said.

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Back to burning coal

Asia could switch to this cheaper option to satisfy its energy needs, says expert
Esther Ng, The New Paper 27 Nov 08;

ONE might expect that more energy will come from renewable sources in the future, but China, India and South-east Asia could possibly turn instead to a resource from the past — coal — thus contributing significantly to rising sea levels, said the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA).

According to Mr Nobuo Tanaka, world energy demand will expand by 45 per cent between now and 2030, with the fast-growing Asian economies being the biggest guzzlers, and more than a third of this will come from coal.

Compared to oil — whose price has been fluctuating in recent months — and natural gas, coal is a much cheaper source of energy as it is readily available, he said at the launch of the World Energy Outlook yesterday.

But, burning coal in electricity generating plants produces more carbon dioxide than oil or gas, thus contributing more to global warming. It also produces sulphur dioxide, a colourless gas that contributes to acid rain.

One way of discouraging countries from using coal would be to impose a levy on greenhouse gas emission or carbon pricing, he said. Likewise, there should be an incentive for the capture of carbon emission through carbon capture and storage (CCS) — a technique for trapping carbon dioxide as it is emitted from power plants, compressing it, and transporting it to a suitable storage site where it is injected into the ground.

However, Mr Tanaka said that CCS will not be commercially viable before 2030. He urged governments to make their coal plants “capture ready”, in tandem with carbon pricing.

Mr Tanaka admitted, though, that incentives will be necessary to get countries like Vietnam, Indonesia and China to invest in clean technology.

“CCS is costly and less efficient because it uses additional energy to capture carbon,” he said.

The challenge for Asian economies, he said, is to strike a balance between economic growth and sustainability. He called on governments to improve energy-efficiency by “investing more in the transport sector, exploring renewable energy sources like solar panels and wind turbines and green buildings”.

As for nuclear energy,Mr Tanaka said it was not a feasible option for Singapore as operating a nuclear plant requires substantial expertise, and having one just to power the Republic’s energy needs may be an overkill. Instead, the IEA chief said, a better option would be for nuclear energy to be shared across the South-east Asian region.

Earlier this month, ahigh-powered International Advisory Panel on Energy had suggested that a nuclear plant could not be dismissed from Singapore’s range of long-term energy solutions.

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PUB devotes S$600,000 to install water-saving devices in needy households

Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia 26 Nov 08;

SINGAPORE: Using more water-efficient devices has helped 37 needy families cut their bills by at least five per cent, according to a PUB trial in July this year.

That will now be expanded into a S$600,000 nation-wide programme starting in April 2008.

Low income households which are using water at above average rates will be picked out. Volunteers will then go to their homes and install water-saving devices for free.

Small and medium enterprises will also get more money to fund items or projects that will cut their monthly water bills by about 10 per cent.

PUB has increased co-funding to 80 per cent from the previous 50 per cent. The national water agency will work with SPRING Singapore to promote the use of the fund.

The Environment and Water Resources Minister, Yaacob Ibrahim, said: "In light of the expected slowdown in the economy, the measures taken to reduce water consumption in your buildings and processes would be even more impactful as they translate to cost savings in the long term and contribute to resource efficiency and cost competitiveness."

The money comes from the Water Efficiency Fund, which was launched in 2007. So far, it has already supported four projects. The projects are undertaken by Canberra CCC, ExxonMobil, SCORE and SATS Catering.

Besides funding, PUB has also rolled out a new campaign called the "10% Challenge" for companies to reduce their monthly use of water.

One example is the Regent Hotel, which cut water usage by 16 per cent, which is enough water for 33,000 showers in a year.

PUB will use the Internet, a guidebook and courses for building managers, to reach out to hotels first. PUB said businesses like hotels accounts for half the total water consumption in Singapore.

It will then take the challenge to schools, and commercial and government buildings. - CNA/vm

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Sea levels set to rise faster than expected

WWF 26 Nov 08;

Geneva, Switzerland: Even warming of less than 2°C might be enough to trigger the loss of Arctic sea ice and the meltdown of the Greenland Ice Sheet, causing global sea levels to rise by several metres.

Ahead of next week’s meeting of governments in Poznan, Poland for UN climate talks WWF analysis of the latest climate science comes to the dire conclusion that humanity is approaching the last chance to keep global warming below the danger threshold of 2°C.

”The latest science confirms that we are now seeing devastating consequences of warming that were not expected to hit for decades,” said Kim Carstensen, WWF Global Climate Initiative leader.

“The early meltdown of ice in the Arctic and Greenland may soon prompt further dangerous climate feedbacks, accelerating warming faster and stronger than forecast.

“Responsible politicians cannot dare to waste another second on delaying tactics in the face of these urgent warnings from nature.

“The planet is now facing a new quality of change, increasingly difficult to adapt to and soon impossible to reverse.

“Governments in Poznan must agree to peak and decline global emissions well before 2020 to give people reasonable hope that global warming can still be kept within limits that prevent the worst.

“In addition to constructive discussions in Poznan we need to see signals for immediate action.”

The CO2 storage capacity of oceans and land surface – the Earth’s natural sinks – has been decreasing by 5 per cent over the last 50 years. At the same time, manmade CO2 emissions from fossil fuels have been increasing – four times faster in this decade than in the previous decade.

WWF is urging governments to use the Poznan talks for an immediate U-turn away from the fatal direction the world is heading in.

“We are at the point where our climate system is starting to spin out of control,” said Carstensen. “A single year is left to agree a new global treaty that can protect the climate, but the UN talks next year in Copenhagen can only deliver this treaty if the meeting in Poznan this year develops a strong negotiation text.”

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Climate change is a battle for existence in the Maldives

Karishma Vyas Yahoo News 25 Nov 08;

MALE (AFP) – Among the many grim predictions of climate change experts, the future fate of The Maldives stands out as a genuine doomsday scenario with the island chain nation facing nothing short of extinction.

A one-metre (3.3-foot) rise in sea level would almost totally submerge the country's 1,192 coral islands scattered off the southern tip of India. Experts predict a rise of at least 18 centimetres is likely by the end of the century.

So pressing has the danger become that the new Maldivian President Mohamed Anni Nasheed has said his government will begin saving now to buy a new homeland for his people to flee to in the future.

"We are talking about taking insurance -- if the islands are sinking we must find high land some place close by. We should do that before we sink," Nasheed said following his recent election victory.

"I don't want Maldivians to end up as environmental refugees in some camp," he said.

The new Maldivian government says it has already broached the subject of new land with a number of countries and found them to be "receptive".

India and Sri Lanka are targets because they have similar cultures and climates, while Australia has also been mooted as an option.

The fate of the pristine white beaches of the Maldives, South Asia's most expensive tourist destination, is set to be one of the features in discussions at a UN climate conference in the Polish city of Poznan from December 1-12.

The country's land area is only about 300 square kilometres (115 square miles), while its sea area is nearly 100,000 square kilometers (38,610 square miles).

Over 80 percent of the land is less than one meter above mean sea level.

"Climate change and associated sea level rise represents a catastrophe in the making for Maldives," the Maldivian environment ministry said.

For some Maldivians, such as fisherman Ali Usuf, the impact of climate change can already be felt.

Like all his fellow tuna fisherman, Usuf is wholly dependent on livebait to reel in his daily catch.

The bait is taken from small schooling fish varieties that breed and live on the Maldives' 9,000-square-kilometre network of coral reefs that are highly vulnerable to climate change.

Warmer waters have already taken their toll on the health of the reefs and, as a result, on livebait stocks.

For Usuf, no bait means no catch and therefore no livelihood

"Because of global warming it's difficult to get bait. This affects our life," Usuf told AFP. "Just today, one boat turned back because they didn't catch any bait."

Around one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of livebait is required to catch 10 kilos of tuna.

Former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom launched a book in April to highlight the threat to the Maldives posed by global warming.

He said at the time that they could only adapt to the problem by relocating citizens to safer islands. The alternative, building protective walls on the 193 inhabited islands, was too expensive.

Gayoom himself was nearly washed into the Indian Ocean in April 1987 when giant tidal waves swept the capital island of Male.

"While I was inspecting the damage, a large wave reared up suddenly and buffeted the vehicle I was in," Gayoom wrote later. "It was a moment of fear, not for my own safety, but for the safety of the people of Maldives."

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Honey bee crisis threatens English fruit farmers

Nigel Hunt, PlanetArk 27 Nov 08;

LONDON - Where in the United States, fruit farmers pay to have bees trucked thousands of miles to pollinate their crops and in parts of China, humans with feather dusters have taken on the task, in Britain most bees go nature's way.

Britons have a deep nostalgia for home-grown honey and its associations with an ordered rural lifestyle. But here, too, the honey bee population is dwindling, and with winter under way faces a tough fight for survival.

Besides warnings the country will run out of English honey by Christmas, there is a threat to growers of fruits such as apples and pears.

A wet summer on top of changed sowings and increasingly intensive agriculture have limited opportunities to forage for nectar, risking starvation for bees. Most colonies are also infested with a dangerous parasitic mite.

"We are extremely aware of the enormous threat there is to honey bees and the huge reduction in population," said Adrian Barlow, chief executive of trade group English Apples and Pears. "It is something we are very concerned about."

To collect a pound of honey, a bee might have to fly a distance equivalent to twice around the world. This is likely to involve 10,000 flower visits or perhaps 500 foraging trips, according to the British Beekeepers' Association (BBKA).

Honey bees pollinate about 90 percent of apples in Britain and also have an important role for many other crops including runner beans, pears and raspberries.

Britain has about 250,000 hives, about 80 percent of them looked after by small-scale beekeepers who sell most of their honey to friends, colleagues and at farm shops.

The other 20 percent are kept by larger bee farmers who produce honey on a more commercial scale.

Richard Steel in the Cambridgeshire countryside has been keeping bees for 27 years. He had about three dozen colonies but lost about two thirds of them, blaming heavy rains during the spring/summer mating season as a key factor.

"What was happening ... with a lot of the colonies that failed was that the queens were running out of sperm and not being able to lay fertile eggs," he told Reuters by telephone.

"I put this down to the fact that they possibly mated with fewer drones (due to the wet weather)."

The United States, France, Greece and many other countries have also suffered heavy losses in the bee population and researchers are still searching for answers.

British beekeepers have been demanding the annual state budget for bee health research be raised to 1.6 million pounds ($2.37 million) from 200,000 pounds now. Hundreds of them delivered a petition to the prime minister in London earlier this month calling for more research spending.

"The increased funding we are asking for is a drop in the ocean compared to the billions of pounds the government has found for bank bail-outs," BBKA President Tim Lovett said, referring to moves prompted by the global financial crisis.

MORE WHEAT, FEWER FLOWERS

The term Colony Collapse Disorder was first used in North America in 2006, initially applied to a sharp rise in colony losses in that region. But European beekeepers have also seen similar phenomena.

"Collapse is a jargonistic term," said Francis Ratnieks, professor of apiculture at the University of Sussex in southern England. "The hive doesn't actually collapse. The bees just go away. It is basically hives dying in the winter."

Long-term changes in agriculture have not helped the honey bee. A jump in wheat prices last year led to a 13 percent rise in plantings in Britain. Wheat does not provide any nectar.

Sowings of oilseed rape -- a bees' favourite which does flower -- fell by 12 percent for this year's harvest, according to figures issued by Britain's farm ministry.

"Oilseed rape is a magnet for honey bees," said Stuart Bailey, chairman of leading British brand Rowse Honey which has committed 100,000 pounds ($157,000) to support research into bee health at the University of Sussex.

Sussex University's Ratnieks also pointed out that agriculture has become more intensive: "In the old days a field of wheat would have more weeds in it, but farmers are not in the business of growing weeds."

Wet summers have also made it hard for bees to store up enough food to survive the long winter from end-October to mid-March when flowers are scarce.

"We've had a couple of years of very wet, cold windy summers that have caused a significant shortfall in terms of the food that the honey bee can stack up for the wintering period and it has caused heavier than normal losses," said Stephen Hunter, deputy director of plant and bee health at the British government's National Bee Unit.

Hive losses during last winter reached 30 percent, compared with about 10 percent during a normal year, estimated BBKA Chairman Martin Smith. He said beekeepers were restricting the amount of honey they were taking from hives and many were providing additional food.

VARROA DESTRUCTOR

On top of this, one of the main threats to British honey bees is a parasitic mite called Varroa destructor. Originally confined to Asian honey bees, it has spread across Europe and reached England in 1992. It now infests 95 percent of hives.

Strains of the mite have now developed which are resistant to treatments used against them. Varroa mites feed on both adult bees and brood, as well as spreading harmful bee viruses.

In Ratnieks' view, Britain's bee declines can be largely attributed to the mites.

"There is a hope that we can breed honey bees to be more resistant to the mite and other diseases -- if not fully resistant -- by making them less suitable hosts," he said.

Rowse Honey, which as market-leader for the home-produced market is sponsoring efforts to address the problem, has an alarming prognosis: "We are definitely going to be out of English honey by Christmas. It has been a terrible year," said its chairman Bailey.

The threat to home-grown honey only represents a small opportunity for other producers. The British eat about 30,000 tonnes of honey a year of which about 3,000 tonnes is home produced. The biggest source of imports is Argentina and other important suppliers include Mexico, Hungary and India.

"In this country honey is a niche product," said the National Bee Unit's Hunter. "It is mainly pollination we are worried about."

"In China they are actually trying to dust fruit trees with long feather dusters to try and pollinate them," Bailey of Rowse Honey said. "How ludicrous is that?" We have just got to look after the honey bee."

(Editing by Sara Ledwith)

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"Green" palm oil sales expected to pick up

Aloysius Bhui, PlanetArk 27 Nov 08;

JAKARTA - Palm oil producers in Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea may sell 1 million tonnes of "sustainable" palm oil next year, up ten-fold on 2008 although still only a tiny fraction of global sales, officials said.

Under fire from green groups and some Western consumers, the palm oil industry established the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in 2004 to develop an ethical certification system, including commitments to preserve rainforests and wildlife.

RSPO palm oil sales have been slower than initially envisaged and if next year's target is reached would still represent only 2.6 percent of the total output of Indonesia and Malaysia, the world's top two producers.

"With just one and a half months left, sales of sustainable palm oil this year will not be as big as the certified output capacity," said Derom Bangun, a vice chairman of the RSPO.

The first sale of the certified products is due to hit the market this month with a shipment from Malaysia to Rotterdam.

The 500 tonne shipment was produced by United Plantations, with Unilever and Britain's third largest grocer J. Sainsbury among the buyers.

A host of products on an average supermarket's shelves contain palm oil, ranging from margarines and biscuits to lipsticks, shampoo and detergents.

The issue of "green" palm remains contentious and some conservation groups argue that the current voluntary rules are ineffective in protecting the environment.

At an RSPO meeting last week, Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono defended Indonesia's drive to expand palm plantations despite calls from some green groups for a moratorium.

"The government has its own program of preserving our forests; we aim to keep 60 percent of our forests in addition to allocated protected forests," the minister was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying in a statement at the conference in Bali.

Greenpeace said in a statement that RSPO was failing to take action against members who continued to destroy swathes of Indonesia's peatlands and forests.

"Sustainable palm oil continues to be a farce while RSPO stands exposed as a weak and ineffectual industry body," said Bustar Maitar, Greenpeace Southeast Asia Forest Campaigner.

Three planters -- Sime Darby Plantations Bhd and United Plantations of Malaysia, and New Britain Palm Oil Ltd of Papua New Guinea -- have so far been approved by the RSPO.

The three's combined certified sustainable palm oil output is 631,257 tonnes a year but they only started selling this month.

Additional output next year is expected to come from other companies to be certified, with at least four Indonesian companies -- PT Musim Mas, PT Phindoli, PT London Sumatra, and PT Sime Indo Agro having being audited and awaiting certification, said Desi Kusumadewi, a spokeswoman for RSPO Indonesia.

"We hope that in very near future, PT Musim Mas will get the certification. That will increase the output of sustainable palm oil," Kusumadewi said.

She said other Indonesian planters were expected to apply for certification next year, including PT Asian Agri.

Malaysia and Indonesia, home to more than 4 percent of the world's rainforests, produce nearly 85 percent of total palm oil.

According to Hamburg-based oilseeds analysts Oil World's forecast, Indonesia and Malaysia's combined crude palm oil output may be 36.89 million tonnes this year and 38.4 million in 2009.

(Editing by Ed Davies)

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How Geothermal Heat Pumps Could Power the Future

Michael Schirber, LiveScience.com 26 Nov 08;

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

The term "geothermal energy" might bring to mind hot springs and billows of steam rising from the soil, but you can get energy from the ground without moving to Iceland or Yellowstone. You just need a geothermal heat pump.

"We call anything below the ground geothermal," said John Lund, director of the Geo-Heat Center at the Oregon Institute of Technology.

This includes geothermal heating, in which hot underground water is used to heat a building, and geothermal power, in which steam from very hot underground rock (more than 300 degrees Fahrenheit) is used to drive an electric generator.

However, these hydrothermal resources are only available in select areas. A geothermal heat pump (sometimes called a ground source heat pump) can work anywhere.

"They are the fastest growing geothermal use in the world," Lund told LiveScience, with about 20 percent annual growth.

Refrigerate the outdoors

If you've ever touched the tubes on the back of a working refrigerator, you know that it is pulling heat from the inside and radiating it to the rest of the kitchen.

A heat pump is like a refrigerator run backwards. It pulls heat from outdoors (as if it were trying to cool the outside) and releases it indoors.

In both a fridge and a heat pump, a system of tubes circulates a refrigerant fluid that becomes hot when compressed and cold when expanded.

To heat a home, the hot compressed fluid is typically passed through a heat exchanger that warms the air that feeds into a duct system. This "spent" fluid is then cooled through expansion and brought into contact with a ground source, so it can "recharge" with heat.

Although pumping the fluid requires electricity, a geothermal heat pump is more efficient than any alternative heating system. In fact, current models can produce as much as 4 kilowatts of heat for every 1 kilowatt of electricity. This is because they are not generating heat, but rather moving it from the outside.

And some heat pumps can cool as well as heat a home. A valve controls the direction of the fluid, so that heat can flow in both directions.

Down to earth

Some people are familiar with heat pumps that exchange heat with the air outside. These sometimes get lukewarm reviews because they do not work well when the temperature drops below freezing - just when you need them the most.

Geothermal heat pumps overcome this problem by exchanging heat with the ground, which maintains a constant temperature between 45 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on the location.

"You wouldn't notice the difference between a home with a geothermal heat pump and one with a gas furnace," Lund said.

There are a number of ways to pull heat from the ground.

The most popular is a vertical geothermal heat pump, in which holes are drilled 150 to 200 feet below the surface. Pipes installed in these holes circulate water (with a dash of anti-freeze) that brings up heat to warm the refrigerant fluid.

An alternative is the horizontal heat pump, where the water-filled pipes are laid about 6 feet deep over a wide area. Although less expensive, these systems require a lot of land to heat a moderate-size building.

For those who live near a body of water or who have their own water well, it is possible to use that water directly as the outside heat source.

Ground swell

The biggest drawback for geothermal heat pumps is that their initial cost can be several times that of traditional heating and cooling systems. The installation for a typical house can run from $6,000 to $13,000, according to ToolBase Services, a housing industry resource.

However, geothermal heat pumps can pay for themselves over time with reduced energy bills. A homeowner can save 30 to 70 percent on heating and 20 to 50 percent on cooling costs over conventional systems, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

This may be why their popularity is growing. The United States leads the way with close to a million geothermal heat pumps, mostly in the Midwest and East Coast. Another million units can be found throughout Europe and Canada.

"Maybe in Antarctica it wouldn't work, but everywhere else it does," Lund said.

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