Threat to European biodiversity 'as serious as climate change'

Most of Europe's species and habitats are in poor condition and the risk of extinction continues to rise, environment chiefs are to warn at a major biodiversity conference in Athens this week
Juliette Jowit, guardian.co.uk 24 Apr 09;

The natural world across Europe is suffering a crisis as serious as the threat of climate change, Europe's environment chiefs are to warn this week.

A report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) to be published next month sounds the alarm that most species and habitats across the continent are in poor condition and the risk of extinction continues to rise.

New figures for the UK also show that even the most important and rare plants and animals are suffering: eight out of 10 habitats and half of species given the highest level of European protection are in an "unfavourable" condition.

Species at risk in the UK range from insects like the honeybee and swallowtail butterfly, to mammals and birds at the top of the food chain such as the otter and the golden eagle, said the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH).

The losses threaten to undermine vital ecosystem services like clean water and fertile soils, which underpin both quality of life and the economy, said Jacqueline McGlade, the EEA's executive director.

"Much of our economy in Europe relies on the fact we have natural resources underpinning everything," McGlade told the Guardian. The losses of wildlife and habitat are a threat to being able to live sustainably within the enviroment in the future, she said. "Some of the losses are irreversible."

McGlade will present findings from the agency report at a major conference next week called by the European environment commissioner Stavros Dimas. He is worried that the European commission has failed to meet a pledge to halt biodiversity loss by 2010, and recently warned "the loss of biodiversity is a global threat that is every bit as serious as climate change".

"The reasons that we are losing biodiversity are well known: destruction of habitats, pollution, over-exploitation, invasive species and, most recently, climate change," Dimas will tell the conference in Athens. "The compound effect of these forces is terrifying."

At another high-level conference in London on Wednesday, organised by the CEH, leaders from business, government, academics and NGOs will warn that ecosystems underpin human lifestyles from air, water and food to resources for industry.

Professor Lord May of Oxford, a former government chief scientific adviser and president of the Royal Society, said: "Our massive and unintended experiment on the planet's reaction to unsustainable levels of human impacts is approaching crisis point. The future is not yet beyond rescue, provided we take appropriate action with due urgency."

The EEA report says although there have been some conservation successes, including halting the decline of common songbirds, the "overall status and trends of most species and habitats give rise to concern".

Figures for the habitats and species awarded special protection under the EU habitats directive reveal that across 40 countries of Europe and the former Soviet Union, 50-85% of habitats and 40-70% of species were in an "unfavourable" condition, and many more could not be assessed because of a lack of information.

Across Europe, the biggest declines from 1990 to 2000 had been for bogs and fenland, heathland and coastal habitats. Woodland, forests and lakes had grown, but these increases were dwarfed by the biggest habitat expansion, which was "constructed, industrial, artificial habitats".

Populations of some European common birds stopped falling in the 1990s, but all groups of birds had fallen in numbers since 1980, and other species groups like butterflies, amphibians and pollinating insects had declined dramatically, said the report.

The report notes that habitats and species in the habitats directive were chosen because they were under threat, and so were harder to conserve.

"Ecosystems generally show a fair amount of resilience," it adds. "Beyond certain thresholds, however, ecosystems may collapse and transform into distinctly different states, potentially with considerable impacts on humans."

Reforms to be put to the conference in Athens include better management of protected areas, which now make up more than 17% of the European Union territory; targets for economic sectors, such as transport, to ensure they do not have a negative impact on the environment; and more work on putting a "value" on ecosystem services so conservationists can argue their case against developers, said McGlade.

"This is not about putting a price on everything, it's a value. This will transform the discussion because somebody can say 'you're eating away at our capital - grassland', or whatever the landscape or species is."

In a statement, Defra, the UK environment department, said the government fully supported strong international targets, but said many conservation schemes were working.

"For example, England's Sites of Special Scientific Interest are in better condition than ever at 88.4% in favourable or recovering condition compared with 57% in 2003," it added.

Globally, last year's annual "red ist" of endangered species from the IUCN conservation organisation warned that the world's mammals face an extinction crisis, with almost one in four of 5,487 known species at risk of disappearing forever.

Some UK species at risk

Mammals - Dormouse, otter

Birds - Golden eagle, cuckoo

Insects - Swallowtail butterfly, garden tiger moth, stag beetle

Amphibians - Great crested newt

Pollinators - Honeybee, several kinds of bumblebee

Source: Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

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Ivory Coast activists scupper palm oil project

Yahoo News 24 Apr 09;

ABIDJAN (AFP) – Ivory Coast's main palm oil company, Palmci, on Friday announced it was abandoning a major plantation scheme in the south of the country after opposition by environmentalists to destruction of a forest.

"Palmci has decided to abandon this project in the face of the refusal of certain NGOs to accept the coexistence of environmental preservation and the development of economic activity," the firm said in a statement.

Scrapping the project would lead to the loss of a potential 1,000 agricultural jobs, 300 more in industry and an investment of 18 billion CFA francs (27.4 million euros / 36.3 million dollars), the statement added.

"It's a shame for the region," Franck Eba, Palmci's spokesman on sustainable development, told AFP, but he explained that opposition from non-governmental organisations had made the scheme "too complicated."

"We're satisfied," said Inza Kone, the coordinator of RASAP-CI, a research and action programme to safeguard primates in the west African nation, but he rejected the idea that ecologists were ideologically opposed to development.

Palmci had planned to promote palm oil production in the forest swamplands of Tanoe in the far southeast of Ivory Coast, a region where rare primates are already at risk of extinction, Kone added.

This unprotected forest territory covers about 12,000 hectares (29,700 acres) between the Ehy lagoon and the Tanoe river, which forms a natural border with Ghana.

Palmci has not altogether given up on its plan and is scouting other areas where it can step up palm oil production, Eba said.

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Vicious forest fires in Nepal raise climate change questions

The forest fires that recently flared up in Nepal raise important questions about the effects of climate change on the Tibetan Plateau, writes Navin Singh Khadka. From chinadialogue, part of the Guardian Environment Network
guardian.co.uk 24 Apr 09;

The forest fires that flared unusually viciously in many of Nepal's national parks and conserved areas this dry season have left conservationists worrying if climate change played a role.

At least four protected areas were recently on fire for an unusually long time. Satellite imagery from US space agency NASA showed most of the big fires were in and around the national parks along the country's northern areas bordering Tibet.

Active fires were recorded in renowned conservation success stories like the Annapurna, Kanchanjunga, Langtang and Makalu Barun national parks. The extent of the loss of flora and fauna is not yet known.

Press reports said more than 100 yaks were killed by fire in the surrounding areas of the Kanjanchanga National Park in eastern Nepal. Trans-Himalayan parks host rare species such as snow leopards, red pandas and several endangered birds.

More than the loss of plants and animals, the carbon dioxide emitted by the fires was a matter of concern, according to Ghanashyam Gurung, a director at WWF's Nepal office. Some of the national parks in the plains bordering India were also on fire, but those caused less concern among conservationists and forest officials. "Fires in the protected areas in the plain lands can be controlled easily because we have logistics and manpower ready for that - and that is what we did this time," said Laxmi Manandhar, spokesman for Nepal's Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation. "But in the national parks in the Himalayan region, we could hardly do anything because of the difficult geography. Nor do we have facilities of pouring water using planes and helicopters."

Forest fires in Nepal's jungles and protected areas are not uncommon during the dry season between October and January. Most of the fires come about as a consequence of the "slash and burn" practice that farmers employ for better vegetation and agricultural yields. But this time the fires remained out of control even in the national parks in the Himalayan region where the slash and burn practice is uncommon. In some of the protected areas, the fires flared up even after locals and officials tried to put them out for several days.

So, why were the fires so different this time? "The most obvious reason was the unusually long dry spell this year," says Gurung, just back in Kathmandu from Langtang National Park to the north of the capital. "The dryness has been so severe that pine trees in the Himalayan region are thoroughly dry even on the top, which means even a spark is enough to set them on fire."

For nearly six months, no precipitation has fallen across most of the country - the longest dry spell in recent history, according to meteorologists. "This winter was exceptionally dry," says Department of Hydrology and Meteorology chief Nirmal Rajbhandari. "We have seen winter becoming drier and drier in the last three or four years, but this year has set the record."

Rivers are running at their lowest, and because most of Nepal's electricity comes from hydropower, the country has been suffering power cuts up to 20 hours a day. Experts at the department said the severity of dryness fits in the pattern of increasing extreme weather Nepal has witnessed in recent years.

Had it not been for recent drizzles, conservationists say some of the national parks would still be on fire. They point to "cloud burst phenomena" – huge rainfall within a short span of time during monsoons, and frequent, sudden downpours in the Himalayan foothills – as more examples of extreme weather events. "Seeing all these changes happening in recent years, we can contend that this dryness that led to so much fire is one of the effects of climate change," said Rajbhandari.

Anil Manandhar, head of WWF Nepal, had this to ask: are we waiting for a bigger disaster to admit that it is climate change? "The weather pattern has changed, and we know that there are certain impacts of climate change."

However, climate-change expert Arun Bhakta Shrestha, of the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), was cautious about drawing conclusions. "The prolonged dryness this year, like other extreme events in recent years, could be related to climate change but there is no proper basis to confirm that. The reason [why there is no confirmation] is lack of studies, observation and data that could have helped to reach into some conclusion regarding the changes."

Indeed, there has been no proper study of the impacts of climate change on the region: not just in Nepal but in the entire Hindu Kush Himalayas. This is the reason why the region has been dubbed as a "white spot" by experts, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Limited studies have shown that temperature in the Himalayas has been increasing on average by 0.06 degrees Celsius annually, causing glaciers to melt and retreat faster. The meltdown has been rapidly filling up many glacial lakes that could break their moraines and burst out, sweeping away everything downstream. In Nepal and neighbouring countries, these "glacial lake outburst floods" and monsoon-related floods resulting from erratic rainfalls are at present the most talked-about disasters in the context of climate change.

If conservationists' and meteorologists' latest fears mean anything, forest fires may also be something that would be seen as one of the climate impacts.

In the wake of the 2007 United Nations climate change conference in Bali, Nepal has been preparing to join an international effort known as Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). But if the forest fires it saw this year became a regular phenomenon, the country will instead be emitting increased carbon dioxide into the atmosphere - a case of climate science's not very aptly-named "positive feedback".

• Navin Singh Khadka is a journalist with the BBC Nepali service. He has a sustained interest in environment, with a focus on climate change vis-a-vis Himalayan ecology

• This article was shared by our content partner chinadialogue, part of the Guardian Environment Network

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Bolivia: water people of Andes face extinction

Climate change robs Uru Chipaya of lifeline that had sustained them for millennia
Rory Carroll and Andres Schipani, The Guardian 24 Apr 09;

Its members belong to what is thought to be the oldest surviving culture in the Andes, a tribe that has survived for 4,000 years on the barren plains of the Bolivian interior. But the Uru Chipaya, who outlasted the Inca empire and survived the Spanish conquest, are warning that they now face extinction through climate change.

The tribal chief, 62-year-old Felix Quispe, 62, says the river that has sustained them for millennia is drying up. His people cannot cope with the dramatic reduction in the Lauca, which has dwindled in recent decades amid erratic rainfall that has turned crops to dust and livestock to skin and bones.

"Over here used to be all water," he said, gesturing across an arid plain. "There were ducks, crabs, reeds growing in the water. I remember that. What are we going to do? We are water people."

The Uru Chipaya, who according to mythological origin are "water beings" rather than human beings, could soon be forced to abandon their settlements and go to the cities of Bolivia and Chile, said Quispe. "There is no pasture for animals, no rainfall. Nothing. Drought."

The tribe is renowned for surviving on the fringe of a salt desert, a harsh and eerie landscape which even the Incas avoided, by flushing the soil with river water. As the Lauca has dried, many members of the Uru Chipaya have migrated, leaving fewer than 2,000 in the village of Santa Ana and the surrounding settlements.

"We have nothing to eat. That's why our children are all leaving," said Vicenta Condori, 52, dressed in traditional skirt and shawl. She has two children in Chile.

Some members of the tribe blame the crisis on neglect of the deities. The chief has lobbied for greater offerings and adherence to traditional customs. "This is in our own hands," he said.

Scientists say rising temperatures have accelerated the retreat of Andean glaciers throughout Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. A ski resort in Bolivia's capital, La Paz, the highest in South America, closed several years ago because of the retreat of the Chacaltaya glacier. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned in 2007 that warmer temperatures could melt all Latin America's glaciers within 15 years. A recent World Bank study sounded fresh alarm on the issue.

Indigenous groups from around the world are meeting in Alaska this week to discuss global warming. "Indigenous peoples are on the frontlines of climate change," said the host, the Inuit Circumpolar Council. A new Oxfam report, meanwhile, has warned that within six years the number of people affected by climate-related crises will jump by 54% to 375 million.

Evo Morales, Bolivia's president, told the Guardian that his government would form a united front with indigenous groups for a "big mobilisation" at a summit in Denmark this year to draw up a successor to the Kyoto treaty. They intend to push industrialised countries to cut carbon emissions. "We are preparing a team from the water and environment ministries to focus not only on the summit but beyond that."

One of South America's poorest countries, Bolivia is struggling with competition for natural resources. Water scarcity has hit La Paz and its satellite city, El Alto, prompting conservation campaigns. The shortage is nationwide. The Uru Chipaya accuse Aymara communities, living upriver from the Lauca, of diverting more and more water supplies. "It's a dual cause: climate change and greater competition. The result is an extremely grave threat to this culture. I am very worried," said Alvaro Díez Astete, an anthropologist who has written a book on the tribe.

With so many of the young people migrating to cities, where they speak Spanish, the Uru language could disappear within a few generations. Some Uru Chipaya fear the battle for cultural survival could already be lost. The rutted streets of Santa Ana are largely deserted and little disturbs the stillness of the dry plains that once were fields.

Several dozen, mostly elderly, people gathered on a recent Sunday to share soup from communal pots. "We are at risk of extinction," said Juan Condori, 55. "The Chipaya could cease to exist within the next 50 years. The most important thing is water. If there is no water the Chipaya have no life."

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Levees can't save New Orleans from floods: report

Chris Baltimore, Reuters 24 Apr 09;

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Bigger, higher and stronger levees cannot save New Orleans from the worst floods and the city remains vulnerable to a repeat of Hurricane Katrina, the National Academy of Sciences said on Friday.

New Orleans had the flood protection of a 350-mile network of levees, I-walls and T-walls ringing the city when Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore on August 29, 2005. The levees broke, flooding 80 percent of the city.

The hurricane killed about 1,500 people along the U.S. Gulf Coast and caused $80 billion in damages, making it the costliest U.S. natural disaster.

As Katrina demonstrated, "the risks of inundation and flooding never can be fully eliminated by protective structures no matter how large or sturdy those structures may be," said the report by the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council.

"Substantial risks" of living in flood-prone areas were never clearly communicated to residents before Katrina, it said, and simply rebuilding New Orleans and its hurricane-protection system back to pre-Katrina levels would leave the city vulnerable to another flooding disaster.

The first floor of buildings in flood-prone parts of the city should be raised at least to the 100-year flood level, which the report called a "crucial flood insurance standard." But for heavily populated cities like New Orleans, that standard is inadequate, said the report, part of a five-part study by the academies in the wake of Katrina.

The 100-year standard basically stipulates protection based on the assumed worst damage of the worst flood in the last 100 years. It determines insurance rates for the National Flood Insurance Program administered by the federal government.

But structures in New Orleans' most flood-prone areas have a 26 percent chance of flooding over the term of a 30-year mortgage, and the 100-year standard is "far too risky" to rely on, the report said.

Authorities should discourage settlement in flood-prone areas and encourage voluntary relocation away from them, the report said. They should also shore up electricity supplies that are key to running giant pumps that route floodwaters away from the city, the report said.

Large portions of New Orleans are below sea level, which makes it vulnerable to floods and storm surges from hurricanes. Located at the mouth of the Mississippi River delta, New Orleans is in close proximity to Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne.

The city's levee system was tested again in September 2008, when a surge from Hurricane Gustav nearly overtopped a protective T-wall along New Orleans' Inner Navigation Canal.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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New momentum for global climate pact despite 'gaps'

Gina Doggett Yahoo News 24 Apr 09;

SYRACUSE, Italy (AFP) – The world's top polluters have found new momentum towards a landmark deal to fight global warming at Group of Eight-led talks, but serious "gaps" remain to be overcome, delegates said Friday.

"Realism has set in in discussions among key nations... the realisation that time is running out" ahead of key UN talks in Copenhagen in December, said Achim Steiner, the head of the UN Environment Programme, as the three-day talks wound up in Syracuse, Italy.

"I do leave Syracuse very much concerned that there is no clear pathway to resolving the gaps that remain," Steiner admitted, saying the main stumbling blocks were setting targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and financing for the greening of developing countries.

Brazilian Environment Minister Carlos Minc said "great mistrust" remained between North and South (the historical northern industrial powerbase and emerging powers in the southern hemisphere), but both sides agreed that they could make "substantial compromises" appropriate to their means and situations.

Since the talks here were not required to produce decisions, "they allowed for constructive exchanges between the G8 countries and the others," Minc told reporters.

Brazil proposed a 10 percent tax on oil industry profits to help poor countries join the fight against global warming, he said.

The development aid charity Oxfam complained of a "first step syndrome" in climate change talks, saying the Syracuse meeting was no different.

"Lots of declarations of principle, but no clear and measurable commmitment," Oxfam said in a statement.

The meeting was among several forums on the way to the Copenhagen meeting aimed at sealing an international pact for curbing greenhouse gases beyond 2012.

"You can say they kicked the can down the road," agreed Kim Carstensen, director of the Worldwide Fund for Nature's Global Climate Initiative, while praising the delegates for linking environmental and economic crises in a credible way.

"The positive side is the environment ministers have actually taken that theme as something they own and as a message to their leaders," Carstensen told AFP.

The G8-Plus talks here brought together the environment ministers from Group of Eight members Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States and their counterparts from Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea.

Overall, the G8 countries are responsible for more than 40 percent of the world's carbon gas emissions.

The United States and China are the world's top two carbon polluters, but US per capita emissions are four to five times those of China and about double those of Europe.

The delegates spelled out "frankly and clearly" the issues on which G8 heads of state and government should "devote their leadership capacities" at their July summit, Italian Environment Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo said.

These include improving energy efficiency, developing renewal energy, sustainable agriculture and transportation and building and protecting ecological infrastructure, a top UN delegate said earlier.

The talks in Sicily were buoyed by a sea change in US environmental policy following years of disengagement on environmental issues.

US delegate Lisa Jackson said Thursday she brought a "message of hope" from US President Barack Obama, who already boasts of having made more progress on US energy policy in his first three months in office than the United States has seen in 30 years.

"It's a good feeling to know that the world is waiting to welcome the US to the table and is not too frustrated by the lack of leadership in the past," Jackson said.

The EPA chief on Friday urged stronger action to avert environmental "exposures (that) uniquely affect children."

She told the delegates: "We must work in earnest to ensure that their bright future is not overcast by the clouds of pollution, climate change and other environmental degradation."

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Al Gore backs US climate change bill

Yahoo News 24 Apr 09;

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A bill to curb greenhouse gases is "one of the most important pieces of legislation" ever before the US Congress, Nobel laureate and champion of the environment, Al Gore, said Friday.

"Passage of this legislation will restore America's leadership of the world and begin, at long last, to solve the climate crisis," said Gore, the former US vice president who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on combating global warming.

"It is truly a moral imperative," he told the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Congress is examining a draft bill for clean energy development that aims to cut carbon emissions by 20 percent from their 2005 levels by 2020, and boost reliance on renewable sources of energy.

Gore, a former lawmaker in both houses of Congress, said the legislation would simultaneously address three major challenges facing the United States: climate change, the economic crisis and national security threats.

"Our country cannot afford more of the status quo, more gasoline price instability, more job losses, more outsourcing of factories, and more years of sending two billion dollars every 24 hours to foreign countries for oil."

The draft bill is set to pass the House of Representatives thanks to a wide Democratic majority there, but its future remains uncertain in the Senate.

Gore said the bill was as important as the civil rights legislation passed by Congress in the 1960s giving African-Americans the right to vote, and the Marshall Plan of the late 1940s for rebuilding Europe after World War II.

But Republicans and some Democrats from coal- or oil-producing states warn of potentially catastrophic economic impacts from setting limits on emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

Republican House Minority leader John Boehner said Gore "deserves another Oscar for his testimony today on the Democrats? plans for a massive national energy tax on every American," referring to Gore's Academy Award for his documentary on climate change "An Inconvenient Truth."

"As Mr. Gore spoke to the television cameras in the Committee chamber, news reports indicate that behind the scenes, Democrats are wheeling and dealing, trying to buy votes for this disastrous bill with your taxpayer dollars," Boehner said in a statement.

The White House and the Democratic majority in Congress want the bill completed by the end of the year, with President Barack Obama planning to travel to Copenhagen for a major UN climate change conference in December.

Gore pleads for unity on climate, despite divide
Dina Cappiello And H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press Yahoo News 24 Apr 09;

WASHINGTON – Former Vice President Al Gore, the leading American voice on climate change, urged lawmakers Friday to overcome partisan differences and take action to reduce greenhouse gases, but Democrats and Republicans sparred even more vigorously over the cost of dealing with global warming.

Gore, who won a Nobel prize for his work on climate change, told a congressional hearing that "the dire and growing threat" of a warmer earth requires the parties to unite to deal with the environmental threat. He endorsed a House Democratic bill that would limit carbon dioxide and other pollution linked to warming.

"It is a challenge that this Congress must rise to," Gore said. "I wish I could find the words to get past the partisan divide that both sides have contributed to. ... It shouldn't be partisan. It should be something we do together in our national interest."

But former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., argued that the Democratic proposal to reduce greenhouse gases would "punish the American people" by imposing higher energy costs and threatening jobs.

"This bill is an energy tax," Gingrich said. "An energy tax punishes senior citizens, it punishes rural Americans, if you use electricity it punishes you. This bill will increase your cost of living and may kill your job."

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee that is writing the bill, shot back that Gingrich was resorting to "the old scare tactics" designed to undermine any congressional effort to address the problem.

"When American people hear the statements you have made today, they get scared, which I think is exactly what is intended," a visibly angry Waxman told Gingrich, a potential presidential contender in 2012 and a leading voice of the GOP.

Gore defended the science that warns of a potential climate crisis later this century and insisted the blueprint outlined by House Democrats would address the problem without soaring prices for Americans.

"I think the cost of energy will come down when we make this transition to renewable energy," said Gore, who predicted economic costs would be much greater if global warming is not reined in by a shift from the use of fossil fuels. Democrats argued that the development of renewable and energy efficient technologies will produce jobs and mitigate cost increases.

The House bill calls for mandatory reductions in carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases by 20 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, and 83 percent by mid-century. It also would require utilities to produce a quarter of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025 and impose new efficiency requirements.

The measure would cap greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels. Under a compromise being discussed, a large portion of these emission permits would be given away, while others would be auctioned with much of the revenue to be redistributed to ease the impact of higher energy costs.

Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the committee's top Republican, argued that the proposed "cap-and-trade" system would cost tens of billions of dollars a year. "How in the world can we have a (pollution) trade system that doesn't cost jobs and doesn't cost the economy?" he said.

House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio denounced the draft bill as a "massive national energy tax on every American .... who drives a car, buys a product manufactured in the United States, or has the audacity to flip on a light switch."

Barton said Republicans are putting together their own climate proposal that would scrap the "cap-and-trade" system. He said the GOP proposal, yet to be unveiled, will call for expanding nuclear energy and pumping more money into ways to capture carbon from coal-burning power plants.

While Republicans were critical, some Democrats expressed concern as well.

"How do we protect our people?" asked Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., whose state is reeling from the economic recession and is home to many energy-intensive industries, including the ailing auto industry. Dingell said he's not convinced the bill will protect U.S. jobs, especially if China isn't forced to take similar actions.

"If the United States leads, China will follow," Gore argued.

Friday's session concluded days of hearings on the climate bill, which Waxman says he hopes his committee will approve by the end of May. The Obama administration broadly endorsed the legislation, although some issues — such as allocating the pollution permits — have yet to be worked out.

Democratic sponsors of the bill hoped Friday's testimony of former Sen. John Warner, R-Va., might sway some GOP lawmakers.

Warner said dealing with the climate issue is essential for national security and the sake of future generations — even if there are economic consequences.

"Is this the time to challenge an issue of this magnitude which has ramifications of cost to everyone here in this country and is going to require sacrifices. I say to you, yes, it is the time," Warner said.

Gore pushes for U.S. climate law this year
Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters 24 Apr 09;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Global warming activist Al Gore on Friday urged passage this year of a U.S. law to slash greenhouse emissions, saying failure to pass legislation could cause the collapse of world climate negotiations.

Gore, the former U.S. vice president and star of the Oscar-winning documentary film "An Inconvenient Truth," told members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that passing a climate law is a "moral imperative" that will affect U.S. standing in the world community.

"Once we find the moral courage to take on this issue, the rest of the world will come along," Gore said. "Now is the time to act before the world gathers in Copenhagen this December to solve the crisis. Not next year, this year."

He said that the passage of this bill would be met with "a sigh of relief" at the Copenhagen meeting aimed at crafting a follow-up agreement to the carbon-capping Kyoto Protocol.

If it fails to pass, Gore said, "I think that would be awful to contemplate ...

"If the administration went to this global negotiation without this legislation, then I think we might well see a slow-motion collapse of the (climate change) negotiations."

The United States is seen as a lead actor in global climate talks, notably at a State Department meeting in Washington next Monday and Tuesday of the 17 countries that emit the most greenhouse gases. These include rich countries like the United States, Japan and members of the European Union, along with such fast-growing developing economies as China and India.

In the fourth straight day of climate hearings on Capitol Hill, Gore praised the carbon-capping legislation crafted in the Energy and Commerce Committee for its plan to rapidly introduce new green technologies that will create new jobs.

Gore, a former Democratic senator from Tennessee, appeared with former Senator John Warner, a Virginia Republican, who helped shepherd a carbon-cutting bill to the Senate floor last year. The bill ultimately died on a procedural maneuver, but paved the way for this year's effort.

The bill now being crafted in the House of Representatives is based on a cap-and-trade system, favored by President Barack Obama, to cut U.S. emissions by roughly 15 percent by 2020 -- back to 1990 levels.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)

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U.S. seeks reins in new set of climate talks

Jeff Mason, Reuters 24 Apr 09;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States hopes to take the reins of international efforts to battle global warming next week with a meeting of major economies aimed at facilitating a U.N. pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

President Barack Obama, a Democrat who took office in January, called the meeting last month to relaunch a process that began under his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, whose commitment to curbing climate change was viewed with skepticism by much of the world.

The stakes are higher now. The Kyoto Protocol, which caps greenhouse gas emissions, runs out in 2012 and leaders from around the globe will gather in Copenhagen in December to forge a successor treaty. Environmentalists hope renewed engagement by the United States and Obama's push for U.S. leadership on the issue will result in a deal.

The White House views next week's meeting in Washington, which groups 16 major economies including the European Union and the United Nations, as an avenue toward securing a broader pact -- a goal that many believed Bush did not share.

"The Bush administration obviously had a completely different approach to this issue than we do," Todd Stern, the U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change, told Reuters, adding Obama wanted to invigorate the forum with more substance.

"They were not fundamentally looking for an international agreement," he said of the Bush administration. "We are looking for an international agreement and we're looking for cooperation at a significant, we hope, transformative level."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to make opening remarks on Monday. Officials said participants would discuss cooperation on technology and other issues.

Bush began the major economies forum in 2007, but the initiative was marred by concern among participating countries that he was trying to circumvent wider United Nations talks.

"Nobody took him seriously because he spent eight years pretending climate change didn't exist," said David Bookbinder, chief climate counsel for environmental group Sierra Club, referring to Bush.

"Obama, on the other hand, obviously is taking climate change very, very seriously and wants, reasonably enough, to talk to everyone about what to do ahead of Copenhagen."

FACILITATING U.N. TALKS

James Connaughton, a former top environmental adviser to Bush, said the former president's motives were also focused on facilitating a U.N. pact.

"The point of this was to be able to inform and help accelerate progress in the UN," he told Reuters.

Obama hopes to cut U.S. emissions by roughly 15 percent by 2020 -- back to 1990 levels -- tougher than Bush, who saw U.S. emissions peaking as late as 2025.

European governments and many environmentalists want Obama to go further.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu indicated on Saturday in Port of Spain, Trinidad, that Washington was not interested in retooling its percentage goal for 2020.

"I think that rather than debating a few percent, the best thing we can do is to get started as soon as possible," he told reporters at the Summit of the Americas.

But the April 27-28 meeting, and follow-ups in other countries, are expected to pave the way toward Copenhagen and work out some of the disagreements that remain.

The major economies include: Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and the United States. Denmark, which is hosting the U.N. meeting in December, was also invited.

"The presence of the major economies forum increases our chances of success for getting an agreement at Copenhagen," said Annie Petsonk, international counsel for the U.S.-based Environmental Defense Fund.

"The more that those countries can come together around a framework, the greater likelihood that they can pour that into a larger agreement."

One stumbling block, however, may lie with some poor countries and other developing nations not present and what contribution will be demanded from them.

"We do not see the most vulnerable countries included in these discussions and that is what we would like to see," said Kim Carstensen, head of environmental group WWF's Global Climate Initiative.

(Additional reporting by Deborah Zabarenko; Editing by Eric Walsh)

U.S., California push ahead in climate politics
Mary Milliken, Reuters 23 Apr 09;

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Democrats in Congress worked on Thursday to win over U.S. lawmakers skeptical of climate change legislation, while climate leader California took another major step with low-carbon rules on fuels that could be copied nationwide.

The two moves signaled growing political momentum behind efforts to curb greenhouse gases, which President Barack Obama, a Democrat, has made a policy priority after years of slow going by his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush.

U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern told Reuters in an interview Thursday that "what happens in our own legislative process" will determine the country's commitment to cutting emissions in a global climate deal.

In California, where climate change legislation was passed in 2006, regulators on Thursday adopted a landmark rule to slash carbon emissions in motor fuels and spur the market for cleaner gasoline alternatives.

It marks the first attempt by a government anywhere in the world to subject transportation fuels -- as opposed to the cars and trucks they power -- to limits on their potential for releasing greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

"California's first-in-the-world Low Carbon Fuel Standard will not only reduce global warming pollution -- it will reward innovation, expand consumer choice and encourage the private investment we need to transform our energy infrastructure," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said after the landmark decision.

Schwarzenegger said 16 states, Obama and members of Congress support a national standard modeled on California's. Environmental groups say the state may also influence European Union policy.

DEMOCRATS OFFER FLEXIBILITY

In Washington, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held its third consecutive day of hearings on Thursday on a proposal to drastically limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases spewed from factories and utilities.

In the face of staunch opposition from most Republicans and the concerns of several moderate Democrats, Representative Edward Markey announced on Thursday that industries would be allowed some free pollution permits under the legislation, to be written in coming weeks.

There has been a spirited debate on Capitol Hill and within the environmental movement over whether firms should have to pay for all their emission permits, which could affect the price of permits auctioned by the government.

"There are going to be some free allocations of allowances," Markey told reporters, without specifying what entities would receive the allowances or what percentage might be free.

In acknowledging some permits would be free under the bill, Markey may have taken a major step toward enticing some wavering Democrats to support the measure.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, who wrote draft climate control legislation with Markey, wants his panel to complete work on the bill by the end of May, teeing up a vote by the full House later in the year.

LEGISLATION NOT "INSURMOUNTABLE"

The measure faces its toughest hurdle in the 100-member Senate, where 60 votes are needed for passage. But climate envoy Stern said he thought it would be possible to get enough support to pass the bill.

"I don't think the problem's too insurmountable," he said.

The crux of the bill is a cap-and-trade system, favored by Obama, to cut U.S. emissions by roughly 15 percent by 2020 -- back to 1990 levels. That commitment would be welcome by many nations frustrated by U.S. stonewalling on carbon cuts for a decade.

The message of a new climate strategy at the White House echoed abroad in Italy on Thursday, where the top U.S. environment official said her government would work tirelessly toward a deal on global warming. [nLN259261]

"I bring from President Obama his message of hope, his message of change, his message of common purpose for the environment," Lisa Jackson, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), told environment ministers from rich and poor nations on her first overseas visit.

(Reporting by Deborah Zabarenko, Jeff Mason and Ayesha Rascoe in Washington, Suzanne Hunt in Sacramento and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; editing by Todd Eastham)

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U.S. gets leeway on U.N. climate deadline

Reuters 24 Apr 09;

OSLO (Reuters) - Countries such as the United States can come up with ideas for a U.N. climate pact beyond an April 24 deadline, the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat said on Friday.

Among a few submissions this week, African nations said developing nations will need to get at least $267 billion a year by 2020 to help them fight climate change under a treaty due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December.

Many other nations have laid out their views of the content of the deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. But the U.S. administration of President Barack Obama, who took office in January, has said it will miss the April 24 deadline.

"There is a bit of leeway for parties to submit documents in coming days if they have good reason," said John Hay, spokesman for the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, saying it was not too late for Washington and others to submit ideas.

Obama wants to cut U.S. emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020 as part of the deal meant to rein in global warming blamed on greenhouse gases released by burning fossil fuels. In 2007, U.S. emissions were 16.8 percent above 1990 levels.

But Washington has given few details of how it wants a U.N. pact to work, such as funding for developing nations or how far countries such as China or India should rein in emissions.

"I think there is some understanding of a little bit of flexibility in the deadlines, but not a great deal," U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern said on Tuesday.

"We will be making submissions on a number of subjects in a few days," he told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Hay at the U.N. Secretariat said the April 24 deadline was set to ensure that documents reach drafting experts in good time before a next round of 190-nation talks from June 1-12 in Bonn.

Under the timetable, the first draft of a full negotiating text will be debated at the June talks as part of efforts to slow global warming that may bring more droughts, floods, heatwaves and rising sea levels.

Deadlines for submissions are often missed -- some texts were late ahead of the last meeting in Bonn in April.

Stern told Reuters on Thursday that U.S. flexibility in negotiating a new climate pact depended on passing a U.S. law to cut greenhouse gas emissions, which he said was not an "insurmountable task."

The African nations said this week that developed countries should cut emissions by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 to avoid the worst of climate change -- far deeper than cuts being considered by the United States and other rich nations.

(Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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Best of our wild blogs: 24 Apr 09

Forces of nature during Earth Day
on the wonderful creation blog

Storm winds whip S'pore: Just look at the damage caused
on the Lazy Lizard's Tales blog

You CAN make a difference for spiders at Sungei Buloh
on the wild shores of singapore blog

Free Chek Jawa Boardwalk tour: 26 Apr (Sun)
on the Adventures with the Naked Hermit Crabs blog

Great Hornbill manipulating a fig
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Envirofest Meeting, 23 Apr 2009
on the Envirofest Singapore blog and also (after a detour to look at mangrove plants at the Botanic Gardens) on the wild shores of singapore blog

What have you done for your blog friends lately?
on the Nature Blog Network blog

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Retain Sea Sand Ban: Indonesian Fisheries Ministry

Arti Ekawati, Janeman Latul & Teguh Prasetyo
Jakarta Globe 23 Apr 09;

The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries is strongly against lifting of ban on sea sand exports to Singapore, with a senior official arguing that sea sand mining had negative effects on the country.

“It would be better if we do not lift the ban,” Aji Sularso, the director general for sea resources at the ministry, said in an interview at his office.

In 2002, the Ministry of Trade allowed sand exports, with stringent conditions defining limits sets on exploitation areas. Aji supervised a team investigating sea sand mining control and supervision in 2002, which resulted in the ministry allowing partial sand quarrying at the time.

“However, the damage was greater than the benefits,” he said, adding that although selling sand could boost exports, it could also lead to an environmental disaster.

“We should not prioritize economic benefits over the ecological impact,” he said.

For example, in the outlying Nipah Island in the Riau region, the provincial administration has received considerable revenue from sand extraction. However, in order to maintain the integrity of Indonesia’s territorial borders, sand had to be transported from other islands to ensure Nipah did not sink into the sea.

Nipah is close to the Indonesian border with Singapore and Indonesia must maintain it as an island if it wants to ensure claims on its maritime borders. “It cost the state budget Rp 350 billion [$32.2 million] for Nipah’s reclamation, so did the sand exports really bring any benefit to us? I don’t think so,” he added.

Other government agencies have also opposed lifting the ban.

“The Foreign Affairs Ministry has expressed its objection, citing sovereignty reasons, while the Directorate General of Custom and Exercise also objected to the plan,” Aji said.

On Wednesday, the Trade Ministry said it was evaluating whether to continue a 2007 ban on the export of sea sand to Singapore. Irwandi Rajabasa, a representative of sea sand exporters welcomed the plan, saying that the government should carefully control mining activities if it was going to be effective.

But Toto Dirgantoro, vice chairman of the Indonesian Exporters Association, or GPEI, called on his members to stop importing sand, saying that it only widened Singapore’s territory at Indonesia ’s expense.

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Blue Plan to save Singapore's biodiversity-rich coral reefs ready

Conservationists urge Govt to step in to save what's left
Grace Chua, Straits Times 24 Apr 09;

THE most comprehensive proposal yet to save Singapore's coral reefs was released yesterday. It called for the Government to formally recognise the richness of reef habitats like Raffles Lighthouse and Cyrene Reef in the southern islands.

Over 60 per cent of coral reefs here have been lost to development, and the rest is under threat from climate change and pollution.

The remaining 5 to 10 sq km of reefs harbour more than 250 species of hard corals, 120 species of fish and 12 seagrass species - almost on a par with the rest of South-east Asia's hot spots for biodiversity.

The marine conservation Blue Plan, over a year in the making, was compiled by a team of academics, environmental organisations and civil society groups.

They intend to seek public feedback and release a final version in late May to the National Parks Board, the Urban Redevelopment Authority and other government agencies.

Mr Farid Hamid, chairman of the Blue Plan committee, said: 'These reefs are part of our national heritage, and we have a moral and ethical responsibility to pass that heritage on to generations to come.'

He added that the Blue Plan was a step towards protecting other marine habitats, such as mangroves and rocky shores.

The committee's main recommendations to the Government include conserving what remains of Singapore's natural coastline, conducting a biodiversity survey of reefs, and reviewing laws about reef-damaging practices, such as the use of drift nets, which can ensnare turtles and dolphins.

Mr Francis Lee, chairman of the International Year of the Reef Singapore campaign and who contributed to the Blue Plan, said: 'Protecting reefs is not a zero- sum game, and it need not be development against conservation.'

Marine areas here are home to a broad variety of species, with more found each year.

At least three new species of fish - including the 2.5cm-long broad-barred mangrove goby - have been discovered here since 2001, while boaters and divers spot dolphins and sea turtles regularly.

In addition, reefs play an important role in protecting coasts from the effects of sea-level rise due to global warming.

They could also be a tourist attraction or a source of drug discovery - last year, a researcher here found a compound in blue-green algae from Pulau Hantu that killed cancer cells.

Calls to save Singapore's reefs date back to the 1980s and 1990s, so the Blue Plan is one more in a long line of proposals.

In fact, the current Blue Plan builds on recommendations from a previous version, submitted to the Government's Feedback Unit in 2001.

Experienced marine biologist Chou Loke Ming, who contributed to the proposal, was optimistic that it would be implemented.

'Starting in the mid-90s, you saw sustainable development projects like (offshore landfill) Pulau Semakau. So attitudes have changed for the better, and we're no longer seeing the unnecessary destruction of coral reefs,' Professor Chou said.

Mr Lee added that public awareness and interest was another encouraging sign.

Each year, about 100,000 people go on guided reef walks or dives here, and about 3,500 are marine-conservation volunteers.

The Blue Plan was released at the opening of the Asia Dive Expo 2009 at the Marina at Keppel Bay yesterday.

It can be downloaded at the International Year of the Reef 2008 Singapore campaign's website at iyor08singapore.blogspot.com

Feedback can be sent to blueplan.singapore@gmail.com before May 14.

Save Singapore reefs
Grace Chua, Straits Times Breaking News 23 Apr 09;

THE most comprehensive proposal to save Singapore's coral reefs yet was released on Thursday, calling for the government to formally recognise the richness of reef habitats like Raffles Lighthouse and Cyrene Reef in the southern islands.

Over 60 per cent of coral reefs here have been lost to development, and the rest is under threat from climate change and pollution.

Yet the remaining 5 to 10 square km of reefs harbour more than 250 species of hard corals, 120 species of fish and 12 seagrass species - almost on par with the rest of South-east Asia's hotspots for biodiversity.

The marine-conservation Blue Plan, over a year in the making, was compiled by a team of academics, environment NGOs and civil society groups.

They intend to seek public feedback and release a final version in late May to the National Parks Board, the Urban Redevelopment Authority and other government agencies.

Mr Farid Hamid, the chairman of the Blue Plan committee, said: 'These reefs are part of our national heritage, and we have a moral and ethical responsibility to pass that heritage on to generations to come.'

He added that the Blue Plan was a step towards similar proposals for other marine habitats, such as mangroves and rocky shores.

The committee's main recommendations to the government include conserving what remains of Singapore's natural coastline, conducting a biodiversity survey of reefs, and reviewing laws about reef-damaging practices, such as the use of drift nets, which can ensnare turtles and dolphins.

Mr Francis Lee, chairman of the International Year of the Reef Singapore campaign and who contributed to the Blue Plan, said: 'Protecting reefs is not a zero-sum game, and it need not be development against conservation.'

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.

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