Beware of fake carbon brokers, warns Indonesian government

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 27 Oct 09;

The government has warned local authorities to carefully review all carbon brokerage firms offering incentives such as huge financial benefits from the forestry sector for engaging in carbon trading.

Forestry Ministry official Wandojo Siswanto said over the weekend that many carbon brokers were now directly approaching regents and mayors, asking them to sign memorandums of understanding (MoU) to develop projects under the REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) scheme.

"They offer pledges that say the regencies or cities will get a lot of money from REDD projects but they provide no programs," he told a journalist training program in Bogor, West Java, on Saturday.

"Regents and mayors in Kalimantan and Sumatra have been offered such promises. The brokers who claimed to be carbon developers launch intensive campaigns to convince regents to sign the MoUs. But at the moment not a single cent goes to local administrations."

Wandojo said the brokers would then sell the MoUs on the international market as part of an elaborate money-making scheme.

The training, which aims to raise awareness of the Copenhagen climate conference in December, was jointly organized by WWF-Indonesia and the Society of Indonesian Environmental Journalists (SIEJ).

Wandojo, who is also head of the country's representative group for the forestry sector at the international climate change conference, declined to name the brokers involved, saying there were at least 20 international carbon brokers in Indonesia's forestry sectors.

"There are misperceptions about the REDD, particularly among local administrations who see carbon trading as something that could earn them some income. It makes it easy for the carbon traders to convince the regents and mayors," he said.

Wandojo admitted his office could not do much to resolve the problems since the regional autonomy had handed forest management to the local authorities.

The Copenhagen conference is likely to agree on REDD, an alternative scheme to cut greenhouse gas emissions and slow the onset of climate change.

Indonesia was the first country to issue a regulation on REDD, allowing indigenous people, local authorities, private organizations and businesspeople, both local and foreign, to run REDD projects.

Under the regulation, permits for REDD projects would only be granted to people who are certified to control forests.

The Aceh administration reportedly canceled an MoU with a carbon broker just minutes before its signing ceremony last year.

Delegates from all over the world are slated to gather in Copenhagen in December to decide on whether the REDD should be included in the new global climate agreement.

The new agreement would replace the existing Kyoto Protocol on emissions cut targets, which will expire in 2012.

Doddy Sukadri from the National Council on Climate Change (DNPI) said REDD projects had the potential to help the country cut about 2.3 million tons of emissions by 2030.

"But a lot of crucial issues related to the REDD scheme remain unresolved. We can look at difficult issues, especially regarding the scheme's financial sources, during the climate change conferences this year," he said.

The government has said that the REDD could be effective in Indonesia if the main drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, such as illegal logging and forest conversions, could be addressed properly.

With about 120 million hectares of rainforest, Indonesia is the world's third most heavily forested nation.

However, the deforestation rate is still high. About 1.08 million hectares is cleared each year by rampant illegal logging and forest fires.

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Greenpeace sets up camp in Sumatra forest to prevent climate destruction

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 27 Oct 09;

Greenpeace has set up a "climate defender camp" in Indonesian rainforest to protect forest from deforestation to help deal with the climate change.

The camp, placed in Kampar Peninsula in Sumatra, was aimed to bring urgent attention to the role that deforestation plays in driving dangerous climate change, a critical issue to be addressed at the UN Copenhagen Climate Summit in December.

“We are taking up position at the front line of forest and climate destruction to tell world leaders that to avert climate chaos they must tackle deforestation here and now,” Bustar Maitar, Greenpeace South East Asia forest campaigner said in his statement.

He said that would remain there for several weeks.

He said that much of forest that once surrounded the Peninsula has been destroyed to make way for plantations, largely for products like paper and palm oil, which are transported worldwide and used to make chocolate, toothpaste and so-called ‘climate-friendly’ biofuels.

Greenpeace is also calling on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to give the climate some breathing space by instigating moratorium on any further destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests or carbon rich peat soils they grow on.

Greenpeace asks EU to help Indonesia protect forests
Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 28 Oct 09;

From its “climate defender camp” in Riau, Greenpeace Indonesia has called on world leaders to help Indonesia protect its forest and to cut emissions in its fight against climate change.

The Greenpeace activists placed two large banners with portraits of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicholas Sarkozy in a peatland area in Riau ahead of the European Union leaders’ summit scheduled for Thursday in Brussels.

“The EU has accumulated a historical carbon debt by fuelling deforestation and forest degradation abroad. It is now the responsibility of European leaders to commit to substantial public funding to stop the last remaining tropical forests from going up in smoke,” Bustar Maitar, Greenpeace South East Asia forest campaigner, said in a statement.

Indonesia hosts the world’s third largest forested area with about 120 million hectares of rainforest. But the country also has the highest deforestation rate in the world with about 1.08 million hectares lost to widespread illegal logging, forest fires and farmland conversion.

Indonesia has promised to cut its emissions from the forestry sector by 26 percent by 2020.

“President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s words [on emissions reduction target of 26 percent] are a sign of hope for the millions of people who are already suffering the impacts of climate change,” Shailendra Yashwant, campaign director for Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said.

“He needs financial assistance from developed countries to turn his commitments into action. The EU leaders must show leadership as he has and put their money where their mouth is.”

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The palm oil scandal: Boots and Waitrose named and shamed

Retailers complicit in environmental damage caused by industry, World Wide Fund for Nature says

Martin Hickman, The Independent 28 Oct 09;

Most British manufacturers and retailers including Boots, Morrisons and Waitrose have done little to limit the environmental damage done by the production of the world's cheapest vegetable oil, according to research published today.

In a survey of leading European food and household firms, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said that only Sainsbury's, Marks and Spencer and a handful of other companies had made substantial progress towards sourcing sustainable palm oil.

Continental retailers came out worst in the survey of 59 firms, with many French, German and Dutch chains making no effort to prevent the huge problems caused by the oil's production.

Palm oil is found in chocolate, biscuits, cereals, soap, shampoo and dozens of other products, but is also widely used as a bio-fuel for cars and power stations. While providing much needed income for developing countries, it has led to severe deforestation, human rights abuses and loss of endangered wildlife in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Orangutans, the arboreal great apes now restricted to the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, are threatened with extinction because of the loss of their habitats. Deforestation – of which palm oil is the biggest cause in Indonesia and Malaysia – also generates 20 per cent of global climate change emissions.

The WWF disclosed that 40 of the 59 companies had not bought any oil certified sustainable by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (Rspo) – which sets environmental standards for the £16bn-a-year industry, the most important of which is a ban on planting new oil palms in virgin forests.

Of 25 UK companies, 14 had not bought any Rspo oil – Aldi, Associated British Foods, Croda international, Boots, Warburtons, Britannia Food Ingredients, Waitrose, Morrisons, Jordans Ryvita, Northern Foods, Reckitt Benckiser, Co-op, Premier Foods and Tesco. Out of a maximum of 29 points, WWF scored them between 0 and 16.

However, seven British firms were among the best 10 performers Europe-wide, including Sainsbury's, Marks and Spencer and Cadbury. Among foreign companies, Nestlé, ranked mid-table, this week committed to switching to 100 per cent Rspo oil by 2015.

The WWF said it hoped the naming and shaming would raise awareness of palm oil's environmental damage and encourage companies to act. Presently, companies have bought only 19 per cent of the 1.3m tonnes of certified oil.

The WWF believes palm oil will grow in importance in coming years, because production is forecast to rise by up to 10 per cent annually and the only place palm oil can be grown is in the tropics, home to the world's great rainforests.

"The top-scoring companies have shown what's possible, with some buying substantial quantities of certified oil, but now it's a question of whether the majority will follow," said Adam Harrison, WWF's senior policy officer for food and agriculture. "If they do, it will transform the market, giving producers the confidence to grow more sustainable palm oil. If they don't, there will be grave consequences for the environment."

Waitrose said it recognised the importance of the issue and expected to make progress in the next 12-18 months, while Morrisons said: "We are working with our suppliers to ensure palm oil used as an ingredient in our own label products comes from sustainable sources."

Lidl said it was working towards securing a sustainable supply by 2015, while Warburtons said that in addition to joining the Rspo it would take advice from the WWF on sustainable sourcing. Boots said it used only a small amount of derivatives that were not commercially available, "hence our score in this report which we do not feel reflects our commitment to this subject".

Justin King, chief executive of Sainsbury's, which sources sustainable oil for its fish, biscuits and soap, said: "Much more work now needs to be done, and it is vital that other retailers and food manufacturers follow our lead to ensure that the rainforests are preserved for future generations."

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil

* Established in 2003, the RSPO aims to stop environmental damage from palm oil. But not enough companies are paying the extra 10 to 20 per cent per tonne for this greener supply.

* By mid-2009, certified plantations were able to produce 1.75 million tons – one third of the EU's palm oil use. By this month, only 200,000 tonnes had been traded – 5 per cent of Europe's annual consumption.

Most European palm oil buyers fail sustainability test
WWF 27 Oct 09;

Gland, Switzerland – The majority of European palm oil buyers are failing to buy certified sustainable palm oil, despite its availability and the previous commitments by many companies to purchase it, according to a first assessment by WWF.

WWF’s Palm Oil Buyers’ Scorecard, released today, scored the performance of 59 of the most prominent retailers and manufacturers in Europe that buy and use palm oil in their products. The Scorecard comes as the world’s largest producers, buyers, and traders of palm oil gather for the 7th Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, held Nov. 2-4 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The Scorecard reveals that 10 of those 59 companies have scored 20 or more points, and thus are considered by WWF to be showing real progress on their commitments to buy and use sustainable palm oil. They have joined the Roundtable, properly monitored their palm oil purchases, and have put in place and started to take action on commitments to buy certified sustainable palm oil.

WWF has been asking buyers of palm oil to commit to the RSPO since 2003, and while some of these companies show encouraging signs of stepping up their commitments and actions on sustainable palm oil, the majority of companies are not. 19 of the 59 companies scored between 0 and 3 out of 29 possible points, meaning that they have taken very little or no action to curb their use of non-certified palm oil and are failing to respond to the efforts that palm oil producers have made to achieve certification under the Roundtable

Meanwhile, a range of 28 companies scored between 5 – 20 points. While a few are showing progress many of these have only just begun to take action on responsible palm oil. While some have put policies and systems in place, often they have yet to start buying certified sustainable palm oil.

“WWF welcomes the action of those companies that have moved toward buying certified palm oil,” said Rod Taylor, Director of the Forests Programme at WWF International. “Although many companies have a long way to go, the performances of the top companies in the Scorecard signal to the rest of the industry that it is possible to turn commitment into action and transform the market.”
Further actions by these companies will be captured in the next version of the Scorecard, scheduled for 2011.

“However, WWF also acknowledges that even the top scoring companies in the Scorecard need to continue to raise their game if they are to use certified palm oil for 100% of their palm oil supply, which is the stated objective of many of these companies.”

“Because certified palm oil is now available, it is time to hold major palm oil users to account for their policies and actions,” Taylor said.

The growing demand for palm oil is adding to the already severe pressure on remaining rainforest areas of the world. The loss of forest in Indonesia is threatening the survival of species such as the orang-utan, the Sumatran tiger, rhino and elephant. Forest loss and the draining of peatlands for palm oil plantations is also contributing to climate change and displacing local people who rely on the forest for food and shelter. Palm oil is one of the world’s fastest expanding crops in Southeast Asia as well as West Africa and South America.

It is because of threats like this that WWF worked with other NGOs and the palm oil industry to set up the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in 2003. Since then WWF has worked with the industry to ensure that the RSPO standards contain robust social and environmental criteria, including a prohibition on the conversion of valuable forests. Certified Sustainable Palm Oil has been available since November 2008 and provides assurance that valuable tropical forests have not been cleared and that environmental and social safeguards have been met during the production of the palm oil.

WWF opted to grade palm oil buyers after releasing figures in May showing that only a small percentage of the sustainable palm oil available on the market had been bought. Since then, the situation is starting to improve. Over the last year, RSPO certified plantations have produced over 1,000,000 tonnes of certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO), and over 195,000 tonnes have been sold to date. While this still represents only 19 percent of the available supply on average, the RSPO has reported that CSPO sales have been growing in recent months.

The scoring of companies was a two-step process that took six months to complete. In the first step, WWF evaluated the performance of companies based on publicly available data, such as corporate sustainability reports. WWF then sent a preliminary score to each company with a package of information to brief companies about the Scorecard, including details on the project’s objectives and the methodology. The companies were given the opportunity to submit additional information to WWF that might improve their scores.

The Scorecard will be published every two years and eventually will expand to include palm oil buyers in other markets around the world.

WWF Palm Oil Buyers’ Scorecard 1.25 MB pdf

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Bioengineered Plants Gone Wild

Joe Palca, NPR 27 Oct 09;

Special genes inserted into crop plants have a way of leaking into the environment. That much scientists know for sure. What they're less certain about is what effect those genes have on plants growing in the wild.

Andrew Stephenson is interested in answering that question. He's a plant ecologist at Penn State University. Plant breeders put things called transgenes into plants to give them desirable properties such as disease resistance.

"People were concerned that when the transgene escapes into the wild populations, it will provide a fitness advantage," says Stephenson.

A fitness advantage means the wild plants, with this advantageous transgene, might grow out of control, mucking up the ecosystem.

Meet The Cucurbita

Stephenson studies a wild squash plant called cucurbita, the Texas gourd. It looks like a pumpkin plant, but with smaller leaves. The fruits are about the size of a baseball or softball, they're round or slightly pear-shaped, and they taste terrible.

Cucurbita shows up throughout the American Southwest and Mexico. Stephenson wanted to know what would happen when his wild gourd picked up a transgene that's used in cultivated squash to protect the crop from plant viruses.

So he purposely created a strain of Texas gourd with the transgene, and planted some next to the same gourd that didn't have the transgene. Then he waited for spring, when aphids would bring a plant virus to the field.

Stephenson reports in the journal PNAS that as the virus spread through the field, it only affected the Texas gourd without the transgene.

Enter The Cucumber Beetle

So at first, it looked as if scientists were right to worry that the transgene might give cucurbita a fitness advantage. But then, something strange happened. After the aphids arrived in the field, along came another pest: the cucumber beetle. These beetles carry a different plant disease ... not a virus, but bacteria

"These bacteria secrete an exopolysaccharide, a kind of snotlike stuff," says Stephenson.

When the beetles eat the gourd's leaves and flowers, this snotlike stuff gets into the plant's plumbing. This first causes the leaves to wilt, and then ultimately kills the plant.

But, surprisingly, the beetles don't seem to like the taste of the virus-infected cucurbita, so they tend to chew on the healthy plants protected by the transgene.

"As the virus spreads through the susceptible plants in the field, the beetles become increasingly concentrated onto the healthy transgenic plants," says Stephenson.

Yes, the plants are protected from the virus, but that makes them more vulnerable to the bacteria.

Stephenson says no one suspected that would happen.

The Fitness Advantage

Now in this particular case, the unintended consequences aren't bad. The wild gourd apparently won't grow out of control because if the transgene gives the plant a fitness advantage, the cucumber beetle takes that advantage away.

But Norman Ellstrand, a plant geneticist at the University of California, Riverside, says that is not what's important about Stephenson's research. "We know the transgene sometimes give us unexpected effects. And when you do an experiment like Stephenson's group did," says Ellstrand, "you see how complicated ecology really is."

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Oil firm delays new bid to plug Timor Sea leak: officials

Yahoo News 27 Oct 09;

SYDNEY (AFP) – A Thai-based firm put off a fourth attempt to stop a major oil leak in the Timor Sea off Australia's northwest coast on Tuesday due to technical problems, some nine weeks after the spill started.

PTTEP Australasia said equipment problems forced a delay until later this week, heightening environmentalists' concerns over the site where up to 2,000 barrels of oil, gas and condensate has been gushing daily since August 21.

"We have previously stated and the industry has acknowledged this is a complex operation," said company spokesman Jose Martins.

"We are attempting to steer accurately a relief well through deep, hard rock formations. This has taken longer than expected for technical reasons and not through a lack of resources or commitment."

The World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) says thousands of marine animals are under threat from the spill and the chemicals used to disperse it, with 16 seabirds dying and species including dolphins and turtles exposed to the slick.

Environment minister Peter Garrett defended the delay in plugging the leaking Montara wellhead, saying it usually took between three and four attempts to complete such a "tricky and technically challenging" task.

But local conservationists urged the government to take charge of the spill, reportedly Australia's worst in 40 years, and protect pristine ocean environments from potentially damaging drilling activities.

"The Rudd government needs to show leadership and ensure that sensitive marine areas in the Kimberley (region) are not peppered with oil and gas wells," said Martin Pritchard, director of environmental group Environs Kimberley.

"We're talking about one of the world's few remaining virtually untouched oceans. We have an international obligation to protect what remains by putting them in marine sanctuaries," Pritchard added.

The WWF last week warned that wildlife was dying and "hundreds if not thousands of dolphins, seabirds and sea-snakes are being exposed to toxic oil" after surveying the spill area, 250 kilometres (155 miles) offshore.

An official government survey is yet to deliver its findings. PTTEP Australasia has agreed to pay for environmental monitoring of the area for at least two years.

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Ecuador wants funds to stop rainforest oil output

Adrian Croft, Reuters 27 Oct 09;

LONDON (Reuters) - Germany, Spain and France have expressed interest in a pioneering Ecuadorean plan not to pump oil from under a tropical forest in return for international compensation, Ecuadorean officials said on Tuesday.

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, on a London visit, called for support for the Yasuni initiative, under which Ecuador would leave 850 million barrels of oil, worth $6 billion, underground as a contribution to countering climate change.

In return for not exploiting the oil in the environmentally rich area, the OPEC-member country is looking to other countries to pay it $350 million a year.

"We are proposing to the world that we will leave that oil underground. That means giving up on $6 billion, but we would thereby avoid polluting the planet," Correa said in a speech at the Chatham House thinktank.

Not touching the oil would avoid creating 410 million tons of carbon dioxide, Ecuador says.

Ecuador has launched a diplomatic offensive to promote its plan before U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen in December.

The left-wing Correa said that so far, the only progress toward international acceptance of the plan had been a German proposal to contribute $50 million a year for 13 years.

Foreign Minister Fander Falconi said the German support was conditional on Ecuador setting up a proposed international trust fund, into which countries would pay the money, and on a second country agreeing to give financial backing to the plan.

Falconi said the Spanish government had given strong support for the plan and Yolanda Kakabadse, a member of Ecuador's Yasuni commission, said the French government had expressed interest.

RUSSIAN VISIT

No talks are planned in Britain, where Correa is on a private visit, but the Ecuadorean delegation travels to Russia on Wednesday and will discuss the proposal there, Falconi said.

Ecuador says that foregoing oil drilling in a block that overlaps the Yasuni National Park would also protect two indigenous tribes living in isolation there.

The proceeds of the initiative would be used for clean energy projects and to alleviate poverty in Ecuador.

Ecuador also has more ambitious plans to invite other developing countries with energy resources -- such as other countries in the Amazon region, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Congo -- to form a consortium.

The consortium might then propose the creation of a new tradeable instrument, similar to carbon permits, that would put a value on carbon dioxide that was not emitted because resources were left in the ground.

During Correa's trip to Russia, Falconi said Ecuador would sign a strategic association agreement to promote cooperation on investment and technology transfer.

He said Ecuador had no plans to buy arms from Russia, although he said Ecuador would complete the purchase of two Russian helicopters, a deal he said had been negotiated over the past year.

Correa is a critic of Washington and an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is building up his military with Russian weapons.

Both socialist presidents object to a deal being negotiated between Colombia and the United States under which U.S. anti-narcotics operations will be launched from Colombian bases.

(Additional reporting by Sujata Rao; Editing by Stefano Ambrogi and David Brough)

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Micro Loans Bring Light To Rural Poor

Rina Chandran, PlanetArk 28 Oct 09;

AHMEDABAD - When night falls in remote parts of Africa and the Indian subcontinent, hundreds of millions of people without access to electricity turn to candles or flammable and polluting kerosene lamps for illumination.

Slowly through small loans for solar powered devices, microfinance is bringing light to these rural regions where a lack of electricity has stymied economic development, literacy rates and health.

"Earlier, they could not do much once the sun set. Now, the sun is used differently. They have increased their productivity, improved their health and socio-economic status," said Pinal Shah from Sewa bank, a micro-lending institution.

Vegetable seller Ramiben Waghri took out a loan to buy a solar lantern which she uses to light up her stall at night. The lantern costs between $66-$112, about a week's income for Waghri.

"The vegetables look better by this light, and it's cheaper than kerosene and doesn't smell," said Waghri, who estimates she makes about 300 rupees ($6) more each evening with her lantern.

"If we can use the sun to save some money, why not?"

In India, solar power projects, often funded by microcredit institutions, are helping the country reduce carbon emissions and achieve its goal to double the contribution of renewable energy to 6 percent, or 25,000 megawatts, within the next four years.

Off-grid applications such as solar cookers and lanterns, which can provide several hours of light at night after being charged by the sun during the day, will help cut dependence on fossil fuels and reduce the fourth biggest emitter's carbon footprint, said Pradeep Dadhich, a senior fellow at energy research institute TERI.

"They are reaching people who otherwise have limited or no access to electricity, and depend on kerosene, diesel or firewood for their energy needs," he said.

"The applications not only satisfy these needs, they also improve the quality of life and reduce the carbon footprint."

Sewa, or Self Employed Women's Association, is among a growing number of microfinance institutions in India focused on providing affordable renewable energy sources to poor people, who otherwise would have had to stand for hours to buy kerosene for lamps, or trudge miles to collect firewood for cooking.

SKS Microfinance, India's largest MFI, offers solar lamps to its 5 million customers, while Grameen Surya Bijlee (Rural Solar Electricity) Foundation helps fund lamps and home and street lighting systems for villagers in India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

"Providing electricity is a government responsibility, but it's a gigantic task and the government alone cannot do it," said Shirish Garud, coordinator of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) in south Asia.

"In many cases, the end-user has no access to conventional banking and financial services, which is why we need MFIs."

The Aryavart Gramin bank has approved loans for the installation of 8,000 solar-home-systems in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state and a key grain growing region.

In Africa too, micro-loans are bringing solar systems to homes, schools and cottage industry businesses in remote regions, off-the-grid. Poor people use money they would have spent on kerosene to pay back their loans for the solar devices.

BILLION LAMPS

Hundreds of millions of people in India have little or no access to electricity. Yet demand for power by industries in a country which saw its GDP at or above 9 percent in the three years to 2007/08 has taken a toll on capacity and infrastructure.

Of the 76 million homes in India that have no access to electricity, 65 million use carbon-emitting kerosene, according to REEP. Kerosene is highly flammable and the fumes are noxious. Every year thousands of people in developing countries die from accidents involving kerosene stoves and lamps.

Developing nations now emit more than half the world's greenhouse gases and that figure is set to rise.

In India, greenhouse gas emissions are expected to jump to between 4 billion tons to 7.33 billion tons in 2031. There is no figure for India's current greenhouse gas emissions.

Its per capita emissions, estimated at 1.2 tons, are expected to rise to 2.1 tons by 2020, according to a recent government-funded study.

India adds about 10 gigawatts of power every year and is likely to see a shortfall of as much as 21,000 MW as capacity expansion fails to keep up with demand, leading to more outages. Solar power will ease some strain on the grids.

In neighboring Bangladesh, the state-owned and private sector power plants can generate between 3,700 to 4,300 megawatts of electricity a day, against a demand of 5,500 megawatts, according to the state run power development board.

With only 40 percent of the country's people having access to electricity, microfinance institutions such as Grameen Bank have made a major push toward expanding the use of solar power.

Since 2001, 350,000 solar home systems have been installed in Bangladesh and 550,000 solar lanterns have been distributed, bringing solar power to around 4 million people.

"Right now 2.5 million people are benefiting from solar energy and we have a plan to reach 10 million people by the end of 2012," said Dipal Chandra Barua, managing director of Grameen Shakti, an offshoot of 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Grameen Bank which encourages the use of alternative energy.

ALTERNATIVE POWER

In India, renewable energy makes up less than 3 percent of the country's total installed capacity, with wind accounting for much of this contribution.

Investor interest in solar is growing, and a new solar plan for the country is to be unveiled by December, around the same time as a global climate change summit in Copenhagen.

In western Gujarat state, which launched its own solar mission earlier this year, mega solar parks are planned. But even here, it is microfinance that is helping power lights and stoves in rural homes and small towns, where power outages are common.

REEEP, which is developing 10 renewable energy projects with microfinancing, estimates that 234 billion rupees ($49 billion) is needed to provide solar lanterns to 65 million rural homes.

This amount is less than half of the total subsidy the government provides to make kerosene affordable for the poor.

Some of this money will come from MFIs, who face a much smaller risk on the small, short-term loans for solar appliances. REEEP, along with energy research institute TERI, is spearheading the "lighting a billion lives" campaign, which seeks to replace kerosene and paraffin lanterns with solar devices.

Launched last year with partners including the Clinton Climate Initiative, it has so far covered more than 100 villages.

Sewa's Project Urja ("energy"), with funding from U.S.-based Lemelson Foundation, partners with India's Solar Electric Light Co (SELCO) to improvise lighting and cooking devices.

"It's cheaper, healthier and it's low maintenance," said Pinal Shah, in charge of energy projects at Sewa Bank, which has disbursed more than 6 million rupees ($124,000) in loans for solar appliances to about 10 percent of its 300,000 members.

SELCO's other devices include headlamps for midwives, solar lights for farmers breeding silk worms for India's silk industry and sewing machines powered by solar power.

In the congested Jamalpur neighborhood in Ahmedabad, Salma Mohammad's small corner shop is lit by a solar-powered battery that she bought with a loan of 33,000 rupees from Sewa Bank.

"This shop has helped me raise my children," she said. "The solar battery has improved our lives, given us much to be grateful."

($1=48 rupees)

(Editing by Megan Goldin)

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Obama Announces $3.4 Billion In Grants For Smart Grid

Steve Holland, PlanetArk 28 Oct 09;

ARCADIA, Florida - President Barack Obama on Tuesday announced $3.4 billion in grants to help build a "smart" electric grid meant to trim utility bills, reduce blackouts and carry power generated by solar and wind energy.

It was the largest award made in a single day from the $787 billion stimulus package approved by Congress. The White House said the award will create tens of thousands of jobs while upgrading the U.S. electric grid.

Republicans have heavily criticized the stimulus as wasteful spending that has done little to reduce America's 9.8 percent jobless rate.

The grants, which range from $400,000 to $200 million, will go to 100 companies, utilities, manufacturers, cities and other partners in 49 states -- every state except Alaska.

Obama made the announcement after taking a tour of an array of 90,000 solar panels that line a grassy plain of cow pastures deep in the muggy heart of Florida, apparently more panels than there are people in Arcadia.

Obama, doffing his suit coat against the heat and humidity, told a crowd the program was an important investment in the types of clean energy he would like to foster in the United States to wean the country off carbon fuels.

He said the grants would go to private companies, utilities and cities and were aimed at creating a "smarter, stronger and more secure electric grid."

"At this moment, there's something big happening in America when it comes to creating a clean energy economy," Obama said.

Carol Browner, Obama's top adviser on climate change and energy issues, told reporters that the current grid system was outdated and dilapidated.

"Not only do we need to make the current system bigger and add more watts, but we need to make it function better," she said.

"MORE THAN A FACE-LIFT"

The grants will not be used to build new power lines, but improve the capabilities of the electrical system. "I would say it's more than a face-lift," Browner said.

The money will pay for about 18 million smart meters that will help consumers manage energy use in their homes, 700 automated substations to make it faster for utilities to restore power knocked out by storms and 200,000 smart transformers that allow power companies to replace units before they fail, thus avoiding outages.

The winning companies have secured an additional $4.7 billion in private money to match their government grants, creating $8.1 billion in total investment in the smart grid.

One of the winning companies is Constellation Energy's Baltimore Gas and Electric Co, which will receive $200 million in grants to add to $250 million in private funds to deploy a smart meter network for all of its 1.1 million residential customers.

Constellation Energy chairman Mayo Shattuck said the new technology would put the country on the brink of the "greatest transformations of the electric grid ever."

"This technology allows consumers to have the opportunity to reduce their bills and it allows utilities to increase their efficiency," Shattuck said.

The White House will act fast to get the money into the economy, with the funds expected to be in the accounts of the winning companies within 60 days. The projects themselves will last 12 to 36 months.

BGE customers can use the meters to view their electricity use in real-time, allowing them to run appliances when there is less demand on the grid and power prices are cheaper.

Sempra Energy's San Diego Gas and Electric Co subsidiary will get $28.1 million on top of the $32 million it plans to spend to connect 1.4 million smart meters.

(Editing by David Storey)

Obama unveils historic power grid reform
Yahoo News 27 Oct 09;

ARCADIA, Florida (AFP) – President Barack Obama Tuesday announced the largest modernization of the US electricity grid in history, in a 3.4-billion-dollar bid to launch a new era of renewable energy consumption.

The president toured the largest solar energy plant in the United States to unveil the program, under which 100 firms, manufacturers, utilities and cities were awarded grants worth from 400,000 to 200 million dollars.

The new plan will help build a nationwide "smart energy grid" to cut costs and improve reliability of the creaking system.

"We need to do more than just add solar megawatts to this electrical grid," Obama said, against a backdrop of rows and rows of solar panels sown like vines in the fields at the DeSoto solar energy plant in Arcadia, Florida.

"This grid... still runs on century-old technology. It wastes too much energy and costs us too much money and it's too susceptible to outages and blackouts."

Obama compared the current US electricity grid, plagued by breakdowns and outages to the national roads system built during the 1920s and 1930s.

Carol Browner, Obama's special assistant on energy and climate change predicted the program would have a "transformational impact on how electricity is generated, delivered, and consumed."

"We have a very antiquated system in this country. We need to upgrade that system, we need to modernize that system, and with it will come tremendous benefits for consumers and for our environment."

The grants keep a campaign promise from Obama's 2008 election campaign and are drawn from his 787-billion-dollar economic stimulus plan.

The program is in line with his vow to lead the global battle against bloated energy consumption and climate change, and to build a "green economy" to produce a new generation of jobs in an environmental revolution.

Administration officials battling the worst economic crisis for decades said the project would create tens of thousands of jobs and lay the foundation for a new green energy infrastructure in the United States.

The administration touted an analysis by the Electric Power Research Institute that estimated that the use of smart grid technologies could cut electricity use by more than four percent by 2030, saving 20.4 billion dollars.

Officials also said that the investment in the smart energy grid would allow companies to better draw electricity generated by solar power in the western United States and wind power from midwestern states for instance.

"I would say this is much more than just a facelift," said Browner.

"This is about really making something function in a modern way so that consumers can have better choices."

The program will also fund the installation of millions of smart meters in homes and businesses, which will help consumers regulate their own energy use.

Administration officials argue the plan will put the United States on a path to generate 20 percent or more of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.

It will finance the installation of one million in-home displays, 170,000 smart thermostats and 175,000 load control devices to allow consumers to cut their energy use, the White House said.

Many of the projects are also supplemented by matching capital from private firms.

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India swamped by 420,000 tonnes of e-waste: lobby group

Yahoo News 27 Oct 09;

NEW DELHI (AFP) – India faces a mounting challenge to dispose of an estimated 420,000 tonnes of electronic waste a year that it generates domestically and imports from abroad, a green lobby group said Tuesday.

Priti Mahesh, senior programme officer with New Delhi-based Toxic Link, said there were no separate figures for e-waste generated by Indians and the amount imported, but the scale of the problem was growing.

"It is a major problem and growing at the rate of 10 to 15 percent annually. We think by 2010, the e-waste in India will go up to 800,000 tonnes," Mahesh told a conference on the subject in New Delhi.

Pollution control officials, who declined to give figures for the quantity of e-waste, said India had only six regular recycling units with an annual capacity of 27,000 tonnes.

The rapid advance of technology in mobile phones or televisions was behind the increase in waste, as well as increased demand from India's growing middle classes who see electronic appliances as important status symbols.

Most e-waste is dismantled by workers with bare hands that exposes them to carcinogenic metals including barium, lead, copper and cadmium, a study by the group showed.

"It's already a problem and on its way to becoming worse because 97 percent of waste gets recycled in hazardous conditions," Mahesh said.

Responding to these concerns, S. Saroj, a federal environment ministry official, said the government would bring in legislation to curb the imports of e-waste and regulate recycling.

"The draft law will be ready in the next four to six months," she said acknowledging the need for tighter control and monitoring of the sector.

Most of the waste from abroad came in the form of charity donations of old technology that finds its way to dumps or imports from countries like the United States, she said.

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Australia Needs National Plan For Rising Seas

Michael Perry, PlanetArk 28 Oct 09;

SYDNEY - Australia needs to adopt a national policy to combat rising sea levels, which may see people forced to abandon coastal homes and banned from building beachside homes, said a parliamentary climate change committee.

The committee's report said that A$150 billion ($137 billion) worth of property was at risk from rising sea levels and more frequent storms.

Australia is an island continent with 80 percent of its 21 million people living on the coast. Authorities are split on adopting a policy of retreat or defense against rising seas.

The country's current coastal management policy is fragmented and authorities need to adopt a national policy to coordinate new coastal building codes, and relocation and evacuation plans, said "Managing Our Coastal Zone in a Changing Climate" report.

Australia must examine the legal liability and insurance cover associated with property loss and damage due to climate change, improved early warning systems for extreme seas, and work to prevent the spread of tropical diseases such as dengue fever.

"The key message that emerged from the inquiry is the need for national leadership in managing Australia's coastal zone in the context of climate change," Jennie George, a government MP and committee chair, said in launching the report on Tuesday.

"This is an issue of national significance."

The report said thousands of kilometers of coast around Australia was at risk from rising sea levels and extreme weather events caused by climate change.

An estimated 711,000 homes were within 3 km (2 miles) of the coast and less than 6 meters (yards) above sea level.

Tropical Queensland state was the most at risk, with almost 250,000 buildings vulnerable. Next was the most populous state New South Wales (NSW) with more than 200,000. Coastal flooding and erosion already costs NSW around A$200 million a year.

The report called for a national policy which could see government authorities prohibit occupation of land or future building development on property due to sea hazards.

It called for building codes, including cyclone building codes, be revised to increase resilience to climate change.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that a global rise in sea level of some 80 cm (31.5 inches) is possible by 2100.

But the report warned a mean sea level rise was not the major threat to coastal property, but more frequent storms and sea surges on top of higher sea levels posed the greatest risk.

"The gradual rise of sea level will continue to be almost imperceptible," it said. "Elevated sea levels will lead to an increase in the potential impact of extreme sea level events caused by storm surges and heavy rainfall."

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Australia coastal living at risk
BBC News 27 Oct 09;

Australians may have to leave coastal areas as rising sea levels threaten homes, according to a new report.

The parliamentary committee report says urgent action is needed, as seas are expected to rise by 80cm (31 inches).

About 80% of Australians live in coastal areas, and the report recommends new laws banning further development in coastal regions.

Correspondents say the authorities are divided over whether to retreat from rising seas or defend the coastline.

Coastal identity

The report, entitled Managing Our Coastal Zone in a Changing Climate, urges the authorities to consider "the possibility of a government instrument that prohibits continued occupation of the land or future building development on the property due to sea hazard".

It estimates that Aus$150bn ($137bn) worth of property is at risk from rising sea levels and more frequent storms in future years.

There are almost 50 recommendations in the report, ranging from a national coastline plan and greater co-operation between different authorities to a revised building code to cope with storm surges and soil erosion.

It does not say the government should force people to move inland but proposes that an independent group look into whether the government could - and should - do just that.

Australia's major cities are all in coastal areas, as well as the homes of some six million people outside the main population centres, according to the report, which was issued late on Monday after 18 months of study.

Alan Stokes, the task force's executive director, said banning development in certain areas was necessary if the government wanted to prevent a major loss of life in the event of natural disasters such as tsunamis.

"There's no doubt Australia will remain and continue to be a coastal community," he said.

"But we may have to be a bit more considerate about which parts of the coast we develop further and which ones we don't," he added.

Last week the government reintroduced carbon trading legislation which was rejected in August and is among a package of bills aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions by up to 25% by 2020.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, founded by the UN, estimates that a global rise in sea level of some 80cm is possible by 2100.

RISK TO AUSTRALIA'S COASTAL POPULATIONS
# Queensland: 250,000 buildings at risk
# New South Wales: 200,000 buildings at risk
# Western Australia: 94,000 buildings at risk
# Victoria: 80,000 buildings at risk
# South Australia: 60,000 buildings at risk
# Northern Territory: 900 buildings at risk
# Tasmania: 20% of coastline at risk

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Rising sea temperatures bad news for Indonesian seaweed farmers

Desy Nurhayati, The Jakarta Post 27 Oct 09;

Seaweed farmers in Nusa Penida and Nusa Lembongan islands, Bali, are suffering from changing sea conditions as a result of climate change.

Community development group Kalimajari, which assist seaweed farmers in Nusa Penida, said sea temperatures had increased by between 2 and 3 degrees Celsius in the last two years, causing the outbreak of a disease locally known as ice-ice, a condition that causes seaweed to decay.

“Farmers have been complaining about sea temperatures getting hotter, and have found the outbreak occurs every planting cycle,” I Gusti Agung Ayu Widiastuti, from Kalimajari, told a seminar on adaptation to climate change in coastal areas, in Sanur, Bali, on Tuesday.

She said the extreme changes in sea conditions had depleted stocks of Euchema seaweed, previously the most profitable species for farmers.

Seaweed production decreased from 500 tons in 2007 to 200 tons in 2008.

Seaweed farming is the main livelihood of people on the two islands. Normally, they earn between Rp 1.5 and 2 million each harvest period, but now they struggle to make ends meet.

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Climate chief Lord Stern: give up meat to save the planet

Robin Pagnamenta, Times Online 27 Oct 09;

People will need to turn vegetarian if the world is to conquer climate change, according to a leading authority on global warming.

In an interview with The Times, Lord Stern of Brentford said: “Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better.”

Direct emissions of methane from cows and pigs is a significant source of greenhouse gases. Methane is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a global warming gas.

Lord Stern, the author of the influential 2006 Stern Review on the cost of tackling global warming, said that a successful deal at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December would lead to soaring costs for meat and other foods that generate large quantities of greenhouse gases.

He predicted that people’s attitudes would evolve until meat eating became unacceptable. “I think it’s important that people think about what they are doing and that includes what they are eating,” he said. “I am 61 now and attitudes towards drinking and driving have changed radically since I was a student. People change their notion of what is responsible. They will increasingly ask about the carbon content of their food.”

Lord Stern, a former chief economist of the World Bank and now I. G. Patel Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, warned that British taxpayers would need to contribute about £3 billion a year by 2015 to help poor countries to cope with the inevitable impact of climate change.

He also issued a clear message to President Obama that he must attend the meeting in Copenhagen in person in order for an effective deal to be reached. US leadership, he said, was “desperately needed” to secure a deal.

He said that he was deeply concerned that popular opinion had so far failed to grasp the scale of the changes needed to address climate change, or of the importance of the UN meeting in Copenhagen from December 7 to December 18. “I am not sure that people fully understand what we are talking about or the kind of changes that will be necessary,” he added.

Up to 20,000 delegates from 192 countries are due to attend the UN conference in the Danish capital. Its aim is to forge a deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently to prevent an increase in global temperatures of more than 2 degrees centigrade. Any increase above this level is expected to trigger runaway climate change, threatening the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

Lord Stern said that Copenhagen presented a unique opportunity for the world to break free from its catastrophic current trajectory. He said that the world needed to agree to halve global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 to 25 gigatonnes a year from the current level of 50 gigatonnes.

UN figures suggest that meat production is responsible for about 18 per cent of global carbon emissions, including the destruction of forest land for cattle ranching and the production of animal feeds such as soy.

Lord Stern, who said that he was not a strict vegetarian himself, was speaking on the eve of an all-parliamentary debate on climate change. His remarks provoked anger from the meat industry.

Jonathan Scurlock, of the National Farmers Union, said: “Going vegetarian is not a worldwide solution. It’s not a view shared by the NFU. Farmers in this country are interested in evidence-based policymaking. We don’t have a methane-free cow or pig available to us.”

On average, a British person eats 50g of protein derived from meat each day — the equivalent of a chicken breast or a lamb chop. This is a relatively low level for a wealthy country but between 25 per cent and 50 per cent higher than the amount recommended by the World Health Organisation.

Su Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Vegetarian Society, welcomed Lord Stern’s remarks. “What we choose to eat is one of the biggest factors in our personal impact on the environment,” she said. “Meat uses up a lot of resources and a vegetarian diet consumes a lot less land and water. One of the best things you can do about climate change is reduce the amount of meat in your diet.”

The UN has warned that meat consumption is on course to double by the middle of the century.

Vegetarian diet is better for the planet, says Lord Stern
Meat wastes water, creates greenhouse gases and could become as socially unacceptable as drink-driving
David Batty and David Adam, guardian.co.uk 26 Oct 09;

Eating meat could become as socially unacceptable as drink-driving because of the impact it has on global warming, according to a senior authority on climate change.

Lord Stern of Brentford, former adviser to the government on the economics of climate change, said people will have to consider turning vegetarian to help reduce global carbon emissions.

"Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world's resources. A vegetarian diet is better," Stern said.

Farmed ruminant animals, including cattle and sheep, are thought to be responsible for up to a quarter of "man-made" methane emissions worldwide.

Stern, whose 2006 Stern Review warned that countries needed to spend 1% of their GDP to stop greenhouse gases rising to dangerous levels, said a successful deal at the climate change conference in Copenhagen in December would massively increase the cost of producing meat.

People's concerns about climate change would lead to meat eating becoming unacceptable, he predicted.

"I think it's important that people think about what they are doing and that includes what they are eating," he told the Times. "I am 61 now and attitudes towards drinking and driving have changed radically since I was a student. People change their notion of what is responsible. They will increasingly ask about the carbon content of their food."

Stern, a former chief economist at the World Bank and now IG Patel Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, also warned that helping developing countries to cope with the adverse effects of global warming would cost British taxpayers about £3bn a year by 2015.

Meanwhile, an international effort to ensure that biofuel used by Britain and other western countries to tackle global warming does not damage the environment is on the brink of collapse.

The Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an initiative of companies and campaigners, is divided over the need to control carbon emissions and could break up within days, insiders say.

Ministers last year introduced a demand on fuel suppliers to replace 2.5% of petrol and diesel sold with biofuel, at least 8% of which is currently palm oil.

The RSPO was established to set and enforce environmental standards for palm oil production, but has run into trouble after palm plantation companies in Indonesia and Malaysia blocked efforts to curb their greenhouse gas emissions.

"If this issue is not resolved and greenhouse gas emissions are not included in the standard, then I don't see how the RSPO can continue to act as a certifying body," said Marcus Silvius of environment group Wetlands International, who sits on the RSPO's working group on greenhouse gases.

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