Palm biodiesel exports rise despite NGO attacks

The Star 12 Nov 09;

KUALA LUMPUR: Local palm biodiesel exports to the European Union (EU) and the United States have continued to rise this year despite the ongoing attacks on palm oil greenhouse gas (GHG) emission issues as well as anti-palm oil campaigns by non-governmental organisations, said Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) director-general Datuk Dr Mohd Basri Wahid.

As at end-August, some 167,846 tonnes of local palm biodiesel had been exported compared with a total of 182,108 tonnes exported in the whole of 2008.

“I expect the palm biodiesel export for 2009 will match last year’s figure,” Basri said at the final day of MPOB’s International Palm Oil Congress 2009 (PIPOC 2009) yesterday.

However, production volume so far this year was under 10% of the total installed capacity of the local biodiesel plants in operation, he said.

Malaysia currently produces almost two milllion tonnes of palm biodiesel per year.

“Despite the approved 91 biodiesel licences, the number of plants built and in operation is still very low given the current high feedstock (palm oil) prices,” Basri said.

Basri said only seven biodiesel plants were in operation. “Eleven new plants are under construction while 52 plants are still under planning,” he added.

He expects palm biodiesel demand to remain slow going forward given the strict EU’s legislation on GHG emission and the land use issue in the United States.

Furthermore, weak demand for the B5 fuel programme in the domestic market is not helping the progress of palm biodiesel in the country, leaving producers with no margin to sustain production.

“The Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry will soon be submitting a paper to the Cabinet on proposals to deal with the palm biodiesel issues and possibly introduce B3 fuel,” said Basri.

Meanwhile, The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) secretary-general Dr Vengeta Rao said the RSPO principles and criteria (P&C) for independent smallholders were expected to be completed by the first half of 2010.

RSPO hoped to come out with the generic P&C for independent smallholders by February and this would lead to more smallholders working towards getting the RSPO certification and start producing more certified sustainable palm oil, he said.

At the same time, the RSPO P&C for local smallholders under the Government schemes was still under development while the RSPO P&C for Indonesian smallholders under schemes was now completed, he added.

He also said RSPO expected its membership to increase to 400 by year-end from 389 currently. — By HANIM ADNAN


Threat to market access looms
Hanim Adnan, The Star 12 Nov 09;

KUALA LUMPUR: The climate change and sustainability issues promoted by the “greenies” groups in the West to label palm oil as unsustainable are fast turning into political agendas and will soon become trade barriers imposed by Western countries to hamper the export of palm oil by producing nations, said Malaysian Palm Oil Council deputy chief executive officer Dr Kalyana Sundram.

He said growing concerns over the environmental issue by developed countries could translate into limiting the market access for palm oil through innovative non-tariff trade barriers and levying discriminatory tariffs mainly to protect and promote their own crop industries.

To successfully compete in the developed countries’ markets, palm oil producers had to succumb to the constantly changing “sustainable” requirements imposed by the developed nations and the non-govermental organisations (NGOs), Kalyana said at a panel discussion on “Trade and Environmental Challenges: A Reconcilliation” at the close of Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) International Palm Oil Congress 2009 (PIPOC 2009).

Indonesia Palm Oil Commission president Dr Rosediana Suharto said: “Fighting with the NGOs on the issue of carbon emissions in the peatland areas is a sheer waste of energy.

“Talking to industry people either business-to-business or government-to-government will be a much better platform for oil palm planters to be heard.”

She claims that NGOs would change their objectives depending on where they got their financial resources from.

Indonesia which is the third largest carbon dioxide emitters in the world, is heavily criticised by NGOs given its oil palm plantations’ expansion into peatland areas.

By 2010, Indonesia’s palm oil production is expected to increase by about 21 million tonnes.

To counter the negative claims on palm oil, United Plantations Bhd director of research Dr Gurmit Singh said Malaysia, for example ,must form a strong, articulate team to challenge the unfounded accusations by NGOs and developed nations that are against palm oil.

In this regard, the work by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil certification programme for oil palm planters was honourable, he said. However, the RSPO needs to iron out the issues on the greenhouse gas emission by the EU with its planter members, as “many believe that the strict RSPO eight principles, 39 criteria and 25 indicators were enough to address the issue on sustainability.”

Netherlands Embassy in Malaysia’s agriculture counsellor Adrie de Roo said sustainability was the key political issue that was of priority to the Netherlands.

He said about one million tonnes of palm oil was exported to Rotterdam annually.

“There are many consumers like Unilever as well as Malaysian palm oil companies with refineries in the Netherlands like IOI Group and Sime Darby, providing jobs to our people,” he said, adding that the country has an unbiased and balanced position on palm oil.

Read more!

New crocodile hopes in Cambodia

Guy De Launey, BBC News 10 Nov 09;

Conservationists say there is fresh hope for one of the world's rarest reptiles.

DNA tests have found 35 pure-bred Siamese crocodiles at a wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia.

There are fewer then 250 of the species left in the wild, but the crocodiles at the sanctuary could now form the basis of a captive-breeding programme.

Siamese crocodiles may be smaller than some other species, but they're easily capable of breaking human limbs.

So for the conservationists at the Phnom Tamao wildlife rescue centre, taking DNA samples was a hazardous task.

In February this year, they wrangled and wrestled 69 of the beasts so they could gather genetic information.

And now it turns out all the hard work was worth it.

Thirty-five crocodiles have been confirmed as pure-bred Siamese - including six adults which may be suitable for starting off a captive breeding programme.

And more than two dozen younger crocs may be released into the wild when they are old enough.

The discovery continues a remarkable comeback for the species.

Siamese crocodiles were declared extinct in the 1990s - before a small population was discovered in Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains.

But the conservation organisation Fauna and Flora International has warned that any celebrations would be premature.

Siamese crocodiles mature slowly.

So it will take 15 years before the breeding programme comes to fruition.

And in the meantime, everything from poaching to hydroelectric projects pose a threat to crocodiles and their habitats.

Read more!

Australian dam project shelved to save fish, turtles

Yahoo News 12 Nov 09;

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia on Wednesday rejected plans to build a massive new dam, despite pleas it is needed to provide water to residents, because of its feared impact on endangered fish and turtles.

Environment Minister Peter Garrett said the 1.8 billion dollar (1.7 billion US) Traveston Crossing Dam, in Queensland state, would have had an irreversible impact on Australian Lungfish, the Mary River Turtle and Mary River Cod.

"It is clear to me that the Traveston Dam cannot go ahead without unacceptable impacts on matters of national environmental significance," Garrett told reporters.

"The area that would be flooded by this proposal is a critical habitat for populations of these species."

The state government had pushed for the dam, with Premier Anna Bligh saying it was "absolutely critical" for the future of southeast Queensland.

"We are the fastest growing region in Australia and the people who are moving here need to drink water, their families need water to bathe, the industries that employ them need water to operate," Bligh said.

Garrett's decision paves the way for a 10-day consultation process on alternatives, including the possibility of desalination plants, with the government set to announce a final decision on November 25.

The Australian Lungfish, the sole Australian survivor of a family of fishes that have been around since the dinosaurs, has fins that resemble flippers.

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New life for Croatia's griffon vultures

Lajla Veselica Yahoo News 11 Nov 09;

BELI, Croatia (AFP) – Rescued and nurtured for nearly a year, then fitted with a satellite transmitter, Letricia appeared reluctant at first to leave its island sanctuary and embark on its long, uncertain migration.

The last of eight griffon vultures to be released into the wild last month from the northern Croatian island of Cres, it eventually took wing searching for food.

Griffon vultures are extinct in many European countries and are endangered in Croatia, but this sanctuary at the picturesque village of Beli has rescued, healed and released 95 birds since it was set up in 1993.

For the first time, two of those climbing high into the sky -- including Letricia -- have been equipped with satellite transmitters which can stay on for years, providing data on their location, altitude, speed and course.

Others are marked with cheaper rings and wing-tags for identification and monitoring, which is how one of the Croatian birds was discovered in Chad, in central Africa.

"When I saw them flying for the first time, I was fascinated," said Goran Susic, a 51-year-old ornithologist who runs the sanctuary.

When the project began there were only around 20 pairs of vulture griffons on Cres. It has now been raised to some 70 pairs, more than half the species' total number of pairs in Croatia where they live on four northern islands.

Still, their survival is at risk on several fronts. One is the decline of sheep farming, as the scavengers eat mainly sheep carcases.

Another is creeping urbanisation which is destroying their habitat, while tourists often disturb their nests and they also suffer the collateral damage of farmers trying to poison wild boar.

Croatia's griffon vultures are the only ones which nest as low as 10 metres above sea level, often secreted in high cliffs from where their young all too easily fall into the waves below.

The first shelter at Beli was far too small for these birds of prey, which have a wingspan of 2.4 to 2.8 metres (eight to nine feet).

"They were kept in rather poor conditions -- in an overcrowded cage where they could not fly -- until they reached a sufficient weight to be released. Although we were saving them, it was a kind of torture," Susic recalled.

A new shelter, more than 20 times bigger, opened in May, and visitors can observe the birds from close range from a special viewing room.

Their release into the wild has also been made less traumatic.

"Before we transported them in boxes or bags to the top of the island where they were kept in small cages overnight prior to be released," Susic said.

"It was an enormous stress that we wanted to diminish."

This year the eight birds were separated on the eve of the big event in a part of the sanctuary to make their departure less stressful.

Four birds will remain in Beli, as for various reasons they cannot survive in the wild. Eleven will be cared for and then released in 2010, by when they should have learned to eat, fly and behave in a group.

The birds of prey fly across Europe and parts of Asia at a height of 6,000 to 7,000 metres (19,800 to 23,100 feet) and speeds up to 160 kilometres (100 miles) per hour, until they are five years old.

Then the survivors return to nest on Cres, where a pair, mating for life, has one young every two years on average.

Griffon vultures do not have a sense of smell but compensate for that with perfect sight. They communicate using wing signals at a distance of up to 10 kilometres.

Letricia was rescued in Poland and recovered at Warsaw zoo before it was returned to Croatia. Another vulture, named Neven, was injured in a car crash on a road in southern France, where it remained with a mate.

And there was Banco, eaten by leopards after landing in an unroofed cage at Salzburg zoo in Austria.

"Maybe their troubles are just beginning as they go back in the wild," said Angela Flemming-Pedersen, a Swiss visitor to the sanctuary, as she watched the birds fly away.

"Vultures are a symbol of cleansing your soul and letting things go," said Mieka Dado, another visitor from Maastricht in the Netherlands.

"We all have to do that at some point in our lives," added the 47-year-old holistic therapist, who plans to stay in Beli for a month as one of dozens of volunteers from across Europe.

Griffon vultures are endangered in all European countries except in Spain, home to 18,000 pairs representing 95 percent of the species in Europe.

Many countries where they were extinct, such as Bosnia, Bulgaria, France, Israel and Italy, have programmes to reintroduce them.

Despite Susic's enthusiasm, he worries authorities are not so keen on his project.

"If it was a 'good-looking' attractive species like dolphins, it would be different," he lamented. "Sometimes I feel like we're begging for mercy"

Read more!

Drastic action may save reefs

University of South Australia, Science Alert 12 Nov 09;

Australian marine scientists have issued an urgent call for massive and rapid worldwide cuts in carbon emissions, deep enough to prevent atmospheric CO2 levels rising to 450 parts per million (ppm).

Professors Charlie Veron (former Chief Scientist, Australian Institute of Marine Science) and Ove Hoegh-Guldberg of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and The University of Queensland, have urged the world's leaders to adopt a maximum global emission target of 325 parts per million (ppm).

This will be essential, they say, to save coral reefs worldwide from a catastrophic decline which threatens the livelihoods of an estimated 500 million people globally.

This is substantially lower than today's atmospheric levels of 387 ppm, and far below the 450ppm limit envisaged by most governments attending Copenhagen as necessary to restrain global warming to a 2 degree rise, on average.

“This may take a long time. However, climate change is an intergenerational issue which will require intergenerational thinking,” Professor Hoegh-Guldberg said.

“If CO2 levels are allowed to continue to approach 450 ppm (due by 2030–2040 at the current rates at which emissions are climbing), reefs will be in rapid and terminal decline world-wide from mass coral bleaching, ocean acidification, and other environmental impacts associated with climate change,” Professor Charlie Veron, Professor Hoegh-Guldberg, Dr Janice Lough of COECRS and the Australian Institute of Marine Science and colleagues warn in a new scientific paper published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin.

“Damage to shallow reef communities will become extensive with consequent reduction of biodiversity followed by extinctions,” they said.

“Reefs will cease to be large-scale nursery grounds for fish and will cease to have most of their current value to humanity. There will be knock-on effects to ecosystems associated with reefs, and to other (marine) ecosystems.”

The researchers say that coral deaths due to bleaching were first observed when global atmospheric CO2 levels passed 320ppm in the 1970s. By the mid-1980s, at 340 ppm, sporadic, highly-destructive events were being recorded.

In the paper, published in Marine Pollution Bulletin 58, they argue for a long-term limit “below 350ppm” to be set.

Prof Veron told the British Royal Society recently that Australia's Great Barrier Reef would be on ‘death row' unless urgent action was taken to stem global carbon emissions.

“We are tracking the IPCC's worst case scenario. The global CO2 situation, tracked by temperature and sea level rise, is now following the worst case scenario,” he says. “The people meeting at Copenhagen need to hear this message.”

At the same time CO2 emissions are turning the oceans more acidic, causing damage to corals and all life with a carbonate skeletons or shells and, if unchecked, potentially leading to mass extinctions of ocean life like those of the geological past.

“We are already well above the safe levels for the world's coral reefs. The proposed 450ppm/2 degree target is dangerous for the world's corals and for the 500 million people who depend on them,” Professor Hoegh-Guldberg said.

“We should not go there, not only for reasons of coral reefs, but for the many other impacts that are extremely likely.

“We deduce, from the history of coral bleaching, that the safe level for coral reefs is probably about 320 or 325ppm.

"From fossil air taken from ice cores we know the world has not exceeded 300ppm for at least the last 760 000 years, so we are already in dangerous territory.

"We are already way outside the limits that mother earth has been operating within for millions of years.”

"Then there is sea level rise. The latest scientific consensus that the minimum sea level rise we can expect globally is 1 m. The IPCC's earlier estimates on this are now seen as far too conservative. A metre of rise will displace at least 30 million people and contaminate the underground water supplies of many coastal cities with salt.

"Tens of millions of people are going to be displaced. This is not just about corals. Big issues of food security and regional security are also at stake, and we all need to wake up to the fact that climate change is not simply about warm days.”

"It will cost less than 1 per cent of GDP growth (over the next 50 years) to sort this problem out. In times of war individual countries have devoted anything from 40 to 70 per cent of their GDP to the war effort, so the effort required to cease emitting carbon is far, far smaller.

“It is completely affordable, completely achievable.

“The consequences of not cutting carbon emissions sharply are extremely serious for humanity. It is time all people understood this.”

Read more!

Experts reject Indonesia's carbon emission status

The Jakarta Post 11 Nov 09;

Environmental experts say the country is not a carbon emitter, countering a report sponsored by the World Bank and Britain’s development arm that ranked the country the world’s third-largest emitter after the US and China.

The report, which was released in 2007, said that Indonesia’s total annual emissions of carbon dioxide reached 3 billion tons after the US, the world’s top emitter with 6 billion tons, followed by China with 5 billion tons.

Nani Hendiarti, a marine researcher from the National Assessment and Application of Technology Agency (BPPT), said Tuesday that Indonesian waters absorbed more carbon than they released.

Nani said the conclusion was based on her study that analyzed data of sea temperatures from the last 24 years.

Her simulation showed that the country’s waters with cool average temperatures were larger than
areas with average warm tempe-ratures.

Cool seawater absorbs carbon, while warm seawater releases it.

“I have estimated that the average temperature of our cool waters is minus 0.18 degree Celcius, while our warm areas have an average temperature of 0.08 degree Celcius,” she said during a press conference held by the Association of the Indonesian Scholars of Oceanography in Jakarta.

“The research result shows the average temperature of cool waters is twice as large as the temperature of warmer seawater,” she said.

She added that over the last 24 years, Indonesian waters were characterized by cooler temperatures.
She acknowledged that Indonesia released huge amounts of carbon, but said the amount released was smaller than that absorbed.

“We have phytoplankton beneath our waters that absorbs carbon,” she said.

Phytoplankton obtains energy through the process of photo-synthesis.

“Photosynthesis is responsible for much of the oxygen present in the earth’s atmosphere. Therefore, it absorbs a lot of carbon to release oxygen.”

She estimated the number of Phytoplankton could reach a million cells per liter of water.

Edvin Aldrian, chairman of the Center of Air Quality and Climate Change at the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), told the conference that sea temperatures had a more significant impact on the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere than illegal logging. (nia)

Read more!

Dhaka, Manila and Jakarta top list of Asian cities facing brutal climate future

WWF 12 Nov 09;

Hong Kong – Dhaka, Manila and Jakarta are topping a WWF ranking of the climate vulnerability of 11 major cities in Asia.

As Heads of States gather in Singapore for the APEC summit, WWF says that developed and developing countries must cooperate to prepare these cities for a brutal climate future, highlighting that their vulnerability is yet another compelling reason for a fair, ambitious and binding deal at the Copenhagen Climate Summit in December.

According to Mega-Stress For Mega-Cities, many of the cities analyzed are extremely exposed to threats such as storms and flooding, while huge numbers of people and assets at stake result in worrying levels of socio-economic sensitivity. At the same time, the cities often lack capacity to protect themselves from devastating impacts.

“Climate change is already shattering cities across developing Asia and will be even more brutal in the future”, said Kim Carstensen, Leader of the WWF Global Climate Initiative. “These cities are vulnerable and need urgent help to adapt, in order to protect the lives of millions of citizens, a massive amount of assets, and their large contributions to the national GDP.”

“The APEC summit this week in Singapore provides an opportunity to exploit the true win-win potential offered by low carbon growth strategies for countries in the Asia Pacific region, with benefits for both the economy and the climate.”

The WWF report covers 11 urban centers across Asia, all located in coastal areas or river deltas. Following Dhaka (9 out of 10 possible vulnerability points), other cities at high risk are Manila and Jakarta (8 each), Calcutta and Phnom Penh (7 each), Ho Chi Minh City and Shanghai (6 each), Bangkok (5), and Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Singapore (4 each).

“Asia is urbanizing rapidly, and we can be certain that urban areas will be crucial battlegrounds in the fight against climate change”, said Carstensen.

“Cities are responsible for most of the world’s energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, but they are also pioneers when it comes to developing innovative solutions. We can’t afford to surrender them to climate change. Instead, we must empower them to become change agents and protect both rural and urban areas from devastating impacts.”

The report also includes rankings for sub-categories such as environmental exposure, socio-economic sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Poorer cities often lack sufficient adaptive capacity and generally rank higher in terms of their overall vulnerability.

“Leaders in hotspots of danger like Dhaka, Manila or Jakarta need urgent support from their counterparts in the industrialized world. Effective near-term and long-term adaptation will depend on financial support, technology cooperation, and capacity building”, said Carstensen.

According to WWF, this week’s APEC summit in Singapore provides leaders from developed and developing countries around the Pacific with a great opportunity to boost cooperation on adaptation to climate impacts as well as low carbon economic growth.

“Now we are only a couple of weeks away from the Copenhagen Climate Summit, but so far leaders have failed to clear the way for success next month in Denmark”, said Carstensen.

“APEC is the last chance before Copenhagen for leaders from a number of key countries to show that they really want to protect the planet from climate change.”

* Mega Cities report 2.02 MB pdf
* Mega Cities executive summary 754 KB pdf

Major Asian cities face climate disaster: WWF
Roberto Coloma AFP 12 Nov 09;

SINGAPORE — Low-lying and impoverished Asian coastal cities such as Dhaka, Manila and Jakarta are vulnerable to "brutal" damage from climate change without global action, environmental group WWF warned Thursday.

Energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions must be curtailed in "mega-cities" where global warming will affect everything from national security to water availability, the influential campaign group said.

"Climate change is already shattering cities across developing Asia and will be even more brutal in the future," said Kim Carstensen, head of the WWF Global Climate Initiative.

"These cities are vulnerable and need urgent help to adapt, in order to protect the lives of millions of citizens, a massive amount of assets, and their large contributions to the national GDP (gross domestic product)."

Including their suburbs, Dhaka, Manila and Jakarta now have a combined population of about 49 million, according to WWF.

It said better-off cities such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore also faced varying degrees of risk from climate change, such as rising sea levels, excessive rain, flooding and heatwaves.

Hong Kong could see dramatically fewer cold days per year while dengue fever appears to be spreading to previously unaffected parts of Singapore, it noted.

"Asia is the most populous and arguably the most vulnerable continent in the world because of the high risk of climate impacts and relatively low adaptive capacity," the report said.

"Unfortunately, the full extent of climate change has likely not been fully realised," it said, noting that temperatures in Asia have risen by one to three degrees Centigrade (two to five degrees Fahrenheit) in the last 100 years.

WWF issued its report to coincide with a weekend summit here to be attended by US President Barack Obama, Chinese President Hu Jintao and other Asia-Pacific leaders.

The summit takes place three weeks before crucial talks on a new world climate pact open in Copenhagen on December 7.

WWF said that on a "vulnerability" scale going up to 10, Dhaka rated nine points, and Manila and Jakarta eight each.

"Leaders in hotspots of danger like Dhaka, Manila or Jakarta need urgent support from their counterparts in the industrialised world," Carstensen said.

"Effective near-term and long-term adaptation will depend on financial support, technology cooperation, and capacity-building," he said.

Calcutta and Phnom Penh received scores of seven each on the WWF danger scale, Ho Chi Minh City and Shanghai six each, Bangkok five, and Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Singapore four each.

It urged the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum to use their summit to promote strategies to reduce carbon emissions across the 21-member organisation.

In a communique to be issued at the end of their annual meeting Sunday, the APEC leaders are expected to declare their support for a global deal at next month's Copenhagen climate gathering.

"We believe that global emissions will need to peak over the next few years, and be reduced to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, recognising that the time-frame for peaking will be longer in developing countries," said a draft of the statement obtained by AFP.

China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said Thursday that it would seek a "fair and reasonable" result at Copenhagen but reiterated that rich nations must bear most of the burden for redressing global warming.

The WWF report said that while they cause many of their own climate-related problems, Asia's big cities are also part of the solution.

It said "cities are hot spots of innovation and technology and have therefore traditionally been the places where many of the solutions to the world's problems have been developed."

Read more!

Climate takes back seat at APEC

David Fogarty, Reuters 11 Nov 09;

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - With little prospect of any new climate change initiatives emerging at an APEC meeting in Singapore this weekend, the climate agenda might instead focus on liberalizing trade in green goods and services.

Keeping the fragile global economic recovery on track will dominate the talks at the 21-member Pacific rim group meeting, but climate change is also expected to feature prominently with just weeks to go before a major U.N. climate gathering.

Analysts, however, say the leaders will offer no major initiatives to give the Copenhagen talks a much needed push.

The United Nations wants the December 7-18 Copenhagen meeting to yield a broader, and tougher, legally binding agreement by all nations to fight climate change but negotiations have largely stalled, dimming hopes of success.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum gathering represents one of the final opportunities ahead of Copenhagen for world leaders to try to overcome differences on the shape of a broader climate pact to fight rising seas, more chaotic weather and threats to crops and livelihoods.

APEC, which ranges from economic giants the United States, Japan and China to oil-rich Brunei, accounts for more than 40 percent of world trade and over 60 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

"I wouldn't really expect major progress. I think it's going to be overwhelmed by trade, financing," said Changhua Wu, Greater China Director for think tank The Climate Group.

She pointed to the depressing mood that had settled over the Copenhagen talks process and the huge range of unresolved issues.

"I think we could see greater emphasis on macroeconomic stability in general this year," said Leong Wai Ho, senior regional economist at Barclays Capital in Singapore.

But he pointed to the region being prone to costly climate disasters such as typhoons and storm surges and the predicted greater intensity of such disasters as the planet warms.

Recent storms in Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines have killed hundreds, destroyed roads, bridges, farms and homes, lowered farm output and pushed up food prices.

"This link suggests that, despite the distraction from the global economic crisis, APEC leaders are widely expected to call for further cuts in energy consumption amongst themselves at the Singapore meeting," Leong told Reuters.

Wu and other analysts said APEC might try to boost regional trade in clean-energy products and services.

"Our argument would be if you want to push the economy into gear again a very good way to do that would be through green investments because they normally imply a lot of jobs," said Kim Carstensen, the head of conservation group WWF's global climate initiative.

China, South Korea and Japan have large spending plans to boost the clean-energy sector and are keen to boost global market share. The United States is also pushing for greater market access for its green goods.

KEEPING FACTORIES HUMMING

In a draft leaders' declaration obtained by Reuters, APEC backs limiting the global average temperature increase to within 2 degrees Celsius and for emissions to peak within the next few years and then fall by 50 percent from 1990 levels by 2050.

The timeframe for the emissions peak would be longer in developing countries, the draft says. It reinforces an earlier goal of reducing energy intensity by at least 25 percent by 2030 and to try to boost trade in green goods and services.

Given the fragility of the global recovery and concerns over rising unemployment in the United States, bread-and-butter issues will dominate leaders' discussions, said Song Seng Wun, senior economist at CIMB brokerage in Singapore.

"First things first is to get the factories humming again and Americans start spending again with their own money," he said.

The leaders' final declaration needed to point to goals and benchmarks for success at Copenhagen, said Carstensen.

"I would look to them to produce some signals of ambition, referring to Copenhagen, referring to Copenhagen as a place where results need to be achieved," he said.

A key climate benchmark for APEC would be the final text retaining the goal to cut emissions by half by 2050.

"Normally it doesn't survive in these kinds of circumstances," Carstensen said, referring to past objections from China and other big developing nations on adopting a 2050 emissions target unless rich nations adopt a 2020 target as well. The draft doesn't mention a 2020 target.

Some analysts also pointed to the growing threat of protectionism and U.S. and French references to slapping so-called "carbon tariffs" on goods from big developing nations.

"Rather than looking for positive ways to win-win, we are turning to win-lose," said Simon Tay, Schwartz Fellow of the U.S.-based Asia Society.

(Additional reporting by Nopporn Wong-Anan; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Read more!

Playing with weather stirs debate in China

Yahoo News 11 Nov 09;

BEIJING (AFP) – Chinese scientists artificially induced the second major snowstorm to wreak havoc in Beijing this season, state media said, reigniting debate over the practice of tinkering with Mother Nature.

After the earliest snow to hit the capital in 22 years fell on November 1, the capital was again shrouded in white Tuesday with more snow expected in the coming three days, the National Meteorological Centre said.

The China Daily, citing an unnamed official, said the Beijing Weather Modification Office had artificially induced both storms by seeding clouds with chemicals, a practice that can increase precipitation by up to 20 percent.

The office refused to comment on the report when contacted by AFP. On Tuesday, an official had said the storm was "natural".

City weather officials have previously said that such methods are aimed at alleviating a drought over much of north China, including Beijing, that has lingered for more than a decade.

But residents have griped about the flight delays, traffic snarls, cancelled classes and other inconveniences of a surprise snow storm, saying officials could warn them if they are planning to toy with the clouds.

Beyond the day-to-day hassles, experts said the weather manipulation had other undesirable side-effects in the longer term, the paper reported.

"No one can tell how much weather manipulation will change the sky," Xiao Gang, a professor in the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the paper.

"We should not depend too much on artificial measures to get rain or snow, because there are too many uncertainties up in the sky."

Zhao Nan, a Beijing engineer, was quoted as saying the more than 5,500 tonnes of erosive snow-melting chloride used on city roads Tuesday -- nearly half the annual allotment -- could "erode steel structures of buildings".

In 2005, the snow-melting agent was responsible for killing 10,000 trees in Beijing and decimating 200,000 square metres (2.15 million square feet) of grassland, the paper said, citing official statistics.

Despite a massive effort to clear the capital of snow that involved over 15,000 workers, many roads remained blocked, while highways into Beijing and in neighbouring Hebei and Shanxi provinces were closed, state press reports said.

Read more!

It takes a new model of development to hug a tree

Thomas Friedman, The New York Times in the Business Times 12 Nov 09;

NO matter how many times you hear them, there are some statistics that just bowl you over. The one that always stuns me is this: Imagine if you took all the cars, trucks, planes, trains and ships in the world and added up their exhaust every year. The amount of carbon dioxide, or CO2, that all those cars, trucks, planes, trains and ships collectively emit into the atmosphere is actually less than the carbon emissions every year that result from the chopping down and clearing of tropical forests in places such as Brazil, Indonesia and the Congo.

We are now losing a tropical forest the size of New York state every year and the carbon that releases into the atmosphere now accounts for roughly 17 per cent of all global emissions contributing to climate change.

It is going to be a long time before we transform the world's transportation fleet so that it is emission-free. But right now - like tomorrow - we could eliminate 17 per cent of all global emissions if we could halt the cutting and burning of tropical forests. But to do that requires putting in place a whole new system of economic development - one that makes it more profitable for the poorer, forest- rich, nations to preserve and manage their trees rather than to chop them down to make furniture or plant soya beans. Without a new system for economic development in the timber-rich tropics, you can kiss the rainforests goodbye. The old model of economic growth will devour them. The only Amazon your grandchildren will ever relate to is the one that ends in dot-com and sells books.

To better understand this issue, I'm visiting the Tapajos National Forest in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon on a trip organised by Conservation International and the Brazilian government. Flying in here by prop plane from Manaus, you can understand why the Amazon rainforest is considered one of the lungs of the world. Even from 20,000 feet, all you see in every direction is an unbroken expanse of rainforest treetops that, from the air, looks like a vast and endless carpet of broccoli.

Once on the ground, we drove from Santarem into Tapajos, where we met with the community cooperative that manages the eco- friendly businesses here that support the 8,000 local people living in this protected forest. What you learn when you visit a tiny Brazilian community that actually lives in, and off, the forest is a simple but crucial truth: To save an ecosystem of nature, you need an ecosystem of markets and governance. 'You need a new model of economic development - one that is based on raising people's standards of living by maintaining their natural capital, not just by converting that natural capital to ranching or industrial farming or logging,' said Jose Maria Silva, vice-president for South America of Conservation International.

Right now, people protecting the rainforest are paid a pittance - compared with those who strip it - even though we now know that the rainforest provides everything from keeping CO2 out of the atmosphere to maintaining the flow of fresh water into rivers.

The good news is that Brazil has put in place all the elements of a system to compensate its forest-dwellers for maintaining the forests.

Brazil has already set aside 43 per cent of the Amazon rainforest for conservation and for indigenous peoples. Another 19 per cent of the Amazon, though, has already been deforested by farmers and ranchers. So the big question is what will happen to the other 38 per cent.

The more we get the Brazilian system to work, the more of that 38 per cent will be preserved and the less carbon reductions the whole world would have to make. But it takes money.

The residents of the Tapajos reserve are already organised into cooperatives that sell eco-tourism on rainforest trails, furniture and other wood products made from sustainable selective logging and a very attractive line of purses made from 'ecological leather' aka rainforest rubber. They also get government subsidies. There are community co-ops like this all over the protected areas of the Amazon rainforest.

But this system needs money - money to expand into more markets, money to maintain police monitoring and enforcement, and money to improve the productivity of farming on already degraded lands so that people won't eat up more rainforest. That is why we need to make sure that whatever energy-climate bill comes out of the US Congress, and whatever framework comes out of the Copenhagen conference next month, they include provisions for financing rainforest conservation systems like those in Brazil. The last 38 per cent of the Amazon is still up for grabs. It is there for us to save. Your grandchildren will thank you. -- NYT

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Push for Clean Energy: Shedding light on carbon dependence

Goh Sui Noi, Straits Times 12 Nov 09;

FOR the 200 residents of the remote Indian village of Kattehole in Karnataka state, life became literally brighter last year. Until then, the villagers, who did not have access to electricity, relied on kerosene-burning lamps that produced black, unhealthy soot. Bedtime was 7.30pm or 8pm simply because the lighting was too poor for them to do much else.

Then, in the middle of last year, a group of technicians from solar lighting company Selco came to demonstrate what their systems could do for the villagers. They were duly impressed but could not afford the initial cash outlay for the system, which cost 12,000 rupees (S$358) for a two-light system.

So, Selco helped 15 families secure loans with a rural bank, reported the Financial Times. Vegetable farmer Boralingaiaha, 41, will repay 250 rupees a month over four years for his two-light system, much less than the 100 rupees a week he forked out previously for five litres of kerosene. Now, children in Kattehole can study till 10pm.

Selco's solar lighting system brings good, clean lighting to remote areas that electricity grids do not reach - and more cheaply and efficiently to areas the grids do reach. In India, where disruptive power cuts can happen often, solar energy provides more reliable lighting.

Selco, founded by 39-year-old social entrepreneur Harish Hande, demonstrates that going green need not conflict with development and poverty alleviation. Started in 1995, the company has sold solar lighting systems to more than 95,000 village homes. It broke even in 2001 and made a profit every year thereafter until 2005, when a shortage of solar cells led to a spike in their prices. The company has secured new funding and hopes to be in the black within two years.

On a much larger scale, Lighting Africa, a World Bank Group initiative, aims to provide clean, affordable and efficient lighting products and services to 250 million sub-Saharan Africans by 2030. Many households and small businesses on the continent have no access to electricity grids. Like the Kattehole farmers, they rely on fuel-based sources such as kerosene lamps. Lighting is often the most expensive expenditure item for households, taking up 10 per cent to 15 per cent of their income.

Lighting Africa works with the private sector to develop products based on efficient lighting technologies such as light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, using renewable energy such as solar power.

Developing nations in Africa and Asia are well-placed to take a low-carbon growth path and alleviate poverty through sustainable means. Lacking in the polluting conventional power infrastructure of developed nations, they can start on a relatively clean slate. They can leapfrog old high-carbon technology and use green technologies. What they lack is funds to do so.

Mr Richie Ahuja, the India programme manager for the United States-based non-profit organisation Environmental Defence Fund, estimated that developing nations would need US$200 billion (S$277 billion) to US$500 billion annually to combat climate change. He further pointed out that while 15 per cent of global capital flows were public, the remaining 85 per cent were private. Clearly, the private sector has a huge role to play in funding projects to mitigate climate change.

And, as it had been pointed out, markets are created by public policy. Said WWF International director-general James Leape: 'Government policy on fossil fuels is making them cheaper than they may be.'

For example, energy subsidies are meant to bring social benefits, but subsidies can lead to wastage. Subsidising carbon-emitting fossil fuels encourages their use. A study by the International Energy Agency in 2006 showed that in the 20 largest non-OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries, subsidies of fossil fuels made up US$170 billion of a total of US$220 billion in energy subsidies in 2005.

Energy subsidies reform should be undertaken so that subsidies enhance access to sustainable energy sources or have a positive impact on the environment, the United Nations Environment Programme has urged.

Such a reform would not only move public funds to projects that mitigate climate change, but also help unleash private funds in the same direction. This is because subsidies would make renewables profitable. In Denmark, where wind power is subsidised, nearly 20 per cent of its power is generated through wind turbines. A wind turbine industry has flourished, with Danish makers exporting 90 per cent of their products and accounting for half of the world's wind turbines.

What would really drive private-sector investments in green technologies would be the adoption of binding caps on carbon emissions by developed nations. Said Mr Ahuja: 'I believe this will unleash incredible amounts of capital for innovation, both product and process innovation, that will support climate- friendly development in both the developed and developing economies.'

Caps would effectively put a price on carbon and force companies to look for energy-efficient and clean technology solutions. Moreover, poor countries, with their low carbon emissions - an average of 1.6 tonnes per capita against 16 tonnes per capita for developed nations - can sell their carbon credits to rich countries and use the earnings to pay for their low-carbon solutions.

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Golf balls take 1,000 years to decompose

The Telegraph 11 Nov 09;

Golf balls are becoming a "major litter problem", according to scientists who have discovered that it takes between 100 and 1,000 years for one to decompose naturally.

In America alone, an estimated 300 million are lost each year and when scientists searched the bottom of Loch Ness searching for evidence of the monster they were startled to discover hundreds of thousands of the plastic balls.

Now the Danish Golf Association has conducted research into the environmental impact of the litter.

The scientists found that golf balls release a high quantity of heavy metals during decomposition, including dangerous levels of zinc found in solid core balls.

When submerged in water, the zinc attached itself to the ground sediment and poisoned the surrounding flora and fauna.

Torben Kastrup Petersen, course manager for the Danish Golf Union, said the scale of the problem is unknown.

"There has been very little research on the environmental impact of golf balls, but it's safe to say the indicators are not good. We are planning to collaborate with environmentalists in America to conduct more tests to fully explore the extent of the problem," he said.

Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, said: "From the moon to the bottom of Loch Ness, golf balls are humanity's signature litter in the most inaccessible locations.

"Keep your balls on the fairway or invest in a stock of biodegradable balls."

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