Business and Biodiversity: Are You a Green Leader?

UNEP 21 Apr 10;

Seoul (Republic of Korea), 21 April 2010 – Biodiversity is a building block for the natural system on which much of the world's wealth depends directly or indirectly: yet too few in business realize the extent of the risks and potential rewards of managing their impact on this key nature-based asset.

A new publication from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), previewed at B4E, the Business for Environment Global Summit, in Seoul today, helps companies understand the challenges and opportunities by examining the impact of their sector and revealing what other companies are doing to manage biodiversity issues.

As such it is a new and additional insight into how the corporate sector can be part of the transition to a low-carbon, resource-efficient, 21st century Green Economy.

Are you a green leader? Business and biodiversity: making the case for a lasting solution, prepared by UNEP's Paris-based Division of Technology, Industry and Economics and its Cambridge-based World Conservation Monitoring Centre, looks at a broad spectrum of business, including mining, energy, agrifoods, fisheries and aquaculture, construction, forestry, tourism, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, fashion and finance.

Many sectors rely on raw materials such as timber, fish, cotton, crops and clean water, or work with supplies and suppliers throughout the life cycle of production processes. But many do not realize how threatened those supplies are, and fail to include this in their calculations and business plans.

For instance:

* Biodiversity is disappearing at up to 1,000 times the natural rate, and ecosystems are functioning less and less effectively.

* The economic loss of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation to the world economy is estimated to be $US2-4.5 trillion.

* About 60 per cent of ecosystems have been degraded or used unsustainably, including provisioning (food and fibre) and regulating services (climate, flood, water purification).

* Around 50 countries face moderate or severe water stress

* By 2030, it is thought that water scarcity could cut agricultural harvests by 30 per cent.

* In Indonesia, coffee yields have dropped by 18 per cent in some areas because of falling pollination rates.

* The cost of environmental degradation related to water loss in the Middle East and North Africa is estimated at $US9 billion a year.

"The message is simple," said Achim Steiner, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNEP. "Most if not all businesses rely directly or indirectly on natural or nature-based assets, many of which are becoming increasingly scarce as a result of mismanagement and a lack of investment and re-investment. This translates into a business risk, but also a business opportunity."

"Indeed how a company translates the value of biodiversity and ecosystem services - such as those from forests and soils to freshwaters and the atmosphere - into their business strategies will increasingly define the bottom line in terms of profit and loss and sales to a new generation of more aware and demanding consumers," he added.

Are you a Green Leader?, the executive summary of which is released today, helps companies to begin this transition by helping them assess their risk. It outlines the business case that a failure to address biodiversity issues could affect supply of resources, access to markets, brand and reputation, licence to operate and access to finance. In addition, companies could face a consumer backlash, as more and more customers are demanded sustainably produced products and services.

The full-length publication of Are you a Green Leader? will be launched at the first Global Business of Biodiversity Symposium in London in July.

The executive summary is available for downloading at http://www.unep.fr/scp/business/

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World's Longest Bug And 'Ninja' Slug Discovered in Borneo

Jeanna Bryner, livescience.com Yahoo News 22 Apr 10;

An eccentric bunch of species have recently come out of hiding in the rainforests of Borneo, including the world's longest known stick insect - think two skinny pencils end-to-end, a slug that shoots "love darts," and a color-changing frog, scientists announce today.
The new WWF report details the 123 newly identified species that have been discovered since February 2007 when the three countries that make up Borneo agreed to conserve 85,000 square miles (220,000 square kilometers) of tropical rainforest, designated as the Heart of Borneo (HoB).

That's a rate of discovery of three species per month. Previously, scientists have estimated that there are about 2 million known species of life on Earth, and anywhere from 5 million to 100 million species that remain undiscovered.

"As the past three years of independent scientific discovery have proven, new forms of life are constantly being discovered in the Heart of Borneo," said Adam Tomasek, who leads the WWF project.

Here's an introduction to the new gang:

Longest insect - Measuring more than 1.6 feet (0.5 meters) in length, the world's longest stick insect, called Phobaeticus chani, was found near Gunung Kinabalu Park, Sabah. So far, only three specimens of the species have been found, all in the Heart of Borneo.

Fiery snake - Kopstein's Bronzeback snake (Dendrelaphis kopsteini) is about 5 feet (1.5 meters) long. Its neck is colored a bright orange, which fuses into an iridescent and vivid blue, green and brown pattern that extends the entire length of its body.

Color-changing frog - Called Rhacophorus penanorum, this small frog species, whose males grow to just 1.4 inches (3.5 centimeters), was discovered in Gunung Mulu National Park, Sarawak, in the Heart of Borneo. Also called the Mulu flying frog, the amphibian has a small pointed snout and is unusual in that the species has bright green skin at night but changes color to display a brown hue during the day. Its eyes follow suit to change color as well. And while the minute animal may not fly with the birds, it uses its webbed feet and aerodynamic flaps of skin on the arms and legs to glide from tree to tree.

Spectacled bird - Named because of its prominent eye-rings, the spectacled flowerpecker has a grey body with bright white arcs above and below its eyes, a white throat and white tufts at the breast sides. Scientists think the flowerpecker is a canopy specialist, feeding off fruits high in tree canopies.

Ninja slug - This green and yellow slug (Ibycus rachelae) was discovered on leaves in a mountain forest at altitudes up to 6,233 feet (1,900 meters) in Sabah, Malaysia. The slug sports a tail that's three times the length of its head, which it wraps around its 1.6-inch-long (4 cm) body as if a pet cat. In fact, its discoverers initially planned to name the slug Ibycus felis, after its feline inspiration. Instead, they named it after the girlfriend of one of its discoverers, Menno Schilthuizen of the Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity 'Naturalis.'
Maybe there's more to the name than meets the eye: The slug species makes use of so-called love darts. Made of calcium carbonate, the love dart is a harpoon-like structure that pierces and injects a hormone into a potential mate. The dart could increase the slug's chances of reproduction.

"The distinction between slugs and snails is not so strict in that part of the tropics, because most of the slugs, including the new one we described, are semi-slugs meaning they still have a shell but the shell is so small that it can't retract its body into it," Schilthuizen told LiveScience.

And though they've found several new slug and snail species, Schilthuizen said this rainforest environment isn't ideal for the animals. That's because the soil is highly acidic, which dissolves the animals' limestone shells.

Overall, the Heart of Borneo is now called home by 10 primate species, more than 350 birds, 150 reptiles and amphibians and a staggering 10,000 plants that are found nowhere else in the world, according to the new report.

To keep these species and their lush home safe from demise, under the 2007 agreement, the three governments have committed to conserve and sustainably manage the area.

More photos on livescience.com website.

Heart of Borneo emerges as home of world’s longest insect, lungless frog and “ninja” slug
WWF 22 Apr 10;

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei: A frog with no lungs, a “ninja” slug firing love darts at its mate, and the world’s longest insect are among new species discovered in the three years since the Heart of Borneo conservation plan was drawn up by the three governments with jurisdiction over the world’s third largest island.

New WWF report Borneo’s New World: Newly Discovered Species in the Heart of Borneo details 123 new species discovered since the February 2007 agreement by Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia to conserve 220,000 km2 of irreplaceable tropical rainforest, designated the Heart of Borneo (HoB).

“As the past three years of independent scientific discovery have proven, new forms of life are constantly being discovered in the Heart of Borneo,” said Adam Tomasek, leader of WWF’s HoB Initiative.

Explorers have been visiting the island of Borneo for centuries, but vast tracts of its interior are yet to be biologically explored, he said.

“If this stretch of irreplaceable rainforest can be conserved for our children, the promise of more discoveries must be a tantalising one for the next generation of researchers to contemplate,” he added.

The HoB, an “island within an island” is home to ten species of primate, more than 350 birds, 150 reptiles and amphibians and a staggering 10,000 plants that are found nowhere else in the world, the report says.

The rate of discovery since the foundation of the HoB is more than three new species per month, providing ample justification for the decision to protect the region.

Speaking at the launch of the report during a meeting of the three Heart of Borneo governments, Brunei Darussalam’s Minister of Industry & Primary Resources, the Honourable Pehin Dato Yahya, paid tribute to the dedicated scientists who spent countless hours in challenging conditions to uncover the staggering bio-diversity.

“These amazing new findings highlight the importance of our efforts to implement the HoB Declaration’s bold vision,” he said of the region which also contains the pygmy elephant, orangutan, rhinoceros, and clouded leopard.

With so many new species discovered every month, WWF has made the region a global priority through its Heart of Borneo Initiative. WWF offices in Malaysia and Indonesia support tri-government efforts to conserve and sustainably manage the HoB.

Under the 2007 agreement, the three governments have committed to enhance protected area and trans-boundary management, develop eco-tourism and support sustainable resource management.

“Three years on, the Heart of Borneo Declaration is proving to be an irreplaceable foundation for conservation and sustainable development by establishing a framework for action to protect Borneo’s globally outstanding biodiversity, eco-system services and livelihoods,” WWF’s Tomasek said.

“The discovery of these new species in the Heart of Borneo underlines the incredible diversity of this remarkable area and emphasizes the importance of the commitments already made by Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia to protect it,” he added.

The discoveries also highlight the need to increase financial and technical support to ensure their continued survival, he said.

'Love-dart' slug, lungless frog among new species on Borneo
Romen Bose (AFP) Google News 22 Apr 10;

KUALA LUMPUR — Wildlife researchers said Thursday they have discovered around 120 new species on Borneo island, including a lungless frog, the world's longest insect and a slug that fires "love darts" at its mate.

Conservation group WWF listed the new finds in a report on a remote area of dense, tropical rainforest that borders Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei on Borneo.

The three governments in 2007 designated the 220,000-square-kilometre (88,000-square-mile) area as the "Heart of Borneo" in a bid to conserve the rainforest.

"We have been finding on average three new species a month and about 123 over the last three years, with at least 600 new species found in the last 15 years," Adam Tomasek, head of WWF's Heart of Borneo initiative told AFP from Brunei.

"The new discoveries just show the wealth of biodiversity on Borneo island and the promise of many more future discoveries that could eventually help cure illnesses like cancer and AIDS and contribute to our daily lives," he said.

The "Heart of Borneo" region is home to 10 species of primate, more than 350 birds, 150 reptiles and amphibians and about 10,000 plants that are not found anywhere else in the world, the report said.

Among the finds are a seven-centimetre (three-inch) flat-headed frog, known as "Barbourula kalimantanensis", discovered in 2008, which breathes entirely through its skin instead of lungs.

Researchers in the same year also discovered "Phobaeticus chani", the world's longest stick insect, with a body 36 centimetres long. Only three specimens of the creature have ever been found.

Another interesting find was a long-tailed slug that uses "love darts" made of calcium carbonate to pierce and inject a hormone into a mate to increase the chances of reproduction.

The WWF urged governments act sensitively when developing the area's economic potential.

"We know that it is impossible for the three governments not to have development in mining, oil palm plantations and logging in the area," Tomasek said.

"What we want to have is a balance so that we have a foundation of conservation and sustainable development in order to protect this unique site for future generations," he added.

Indonesia and Malaysia, the world's two largest exporters of palm oil, account for 85 percent of global production.

Palm oil -- used extensively across the globe for biofuel, processed food and toiletries -- has been vilified by environmental campaigners for causing deforestation and threatening the survival of near-extinct species.

Tomasek said the "Heart of Borneo" initiative is also important for protecting the habitat of endangered species such as the pygmy elephant, orangutan, rhinoceros and clouded leopard.

"In many ways this is the last stronghold for the long-term survival of these species," he said.

The Sumatran rhinoceros is one of the world's most endangered species, with only about 200 remaining in the wild, up to 180 in Indonesia and the rest in Malaysia.

The Bornean sub-species is the rarest of all rhinos, with just 30 left in the wild on Borneo island.

Conservationists also warned the world has less than 20 years left to save about 50,000 to 60,000 of the charismatic red-haired orangutans left in the wild.

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Thai customs seize illegal haul of 296 ivory tusks

Yahoo News 21 Apr 10;

BANGKOK (AFP) – Thai authorities said Wednesday they have seized a massive ivory haul worth 2.2 million dollars, confiscating 296 tusks sent from Qatar to Bangkok international airport.

The customs department said they acted on a tip-off to discover the tusks Saturday in a shipment declared as "printing metal", bound for a Thai company based in the capital.

A customs official said the elephant tusks, weighing 1,390 kilos (3,058 pounds) and valued at 70 million baht (2.2 million dollars), most likely originated from southern Africa.

The case is under investigation and no arrests have been made as yet, the official said. The shipment is illegal under international laws that ban the trafficking of endangered species and their products.

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What Country Is the Best at Protecting the Environment?

Remy Melina, livescience.com Yahoo News 21 Apr 10;

After dropping more than 20 spots this year in one ranking that measures how well countries are working to protect the environment, the United States is taking steps to improve its environmental impact.

The 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ranks 163 countries based on 10 indicators of environmental protection, such as levels of air pollution, marine protection laws, water quality, and their rate of planting new trees. The EPI is composed biannually by a team of environmental experts at Yale University and Columbia University.

The U.S. came in 61st place with a score of 63.5 out of 100, a significant drop from landing in 39th place with an EPI score of 81.0 in 2009.

"We're the only country that has a significant amount of people that don't believe in climate change," said Marc Levy, deputy director of Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN). "The central challenge of our time is to help people understand what's happening around them."

Iceland led in the ranking with an EPI score of 93.5. Switzerland came in second on the list with a score of 89.1, followed by Costa Rica with 86.4 and Sweden with 86.0.

Levy, who is one of the EPI project leaders, said that although the year to year results are not strictly comparable due to varying data collection methods, some categories can be compared. For example, data collected by CIESIN show that the U.S. has been lagging behind European countries in curbing greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and climate change for the past 20 years.

"Judging how well a country recycles is extremely complicated, it's not just about recycling but also about managing waste and limiting how much is produced to begin with," Levy said.

"The countries that are really trying to reduce waste are working to change people's behavior so that they use fewer materials," Levy said.

One way that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is currently working on decreasing the release of hazardous waste during the industrial production is by setting the National Waste Minimization Goal. This measure aims to work with industries and the public in reducing the use and release of four million pounds of toxic chemicals found in America's manufacturing processes by 2011.

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New Book Urges Reversal Of DDT Ban To Fight Malaria

Tim Cocks, PlanetArk 22 Apr 10;

Six years after the insect killer DDT was globally outlawed on grounds of environmental damage, two researchers say there are new reasons for doubting the chemical is harmful and are urging its use against malaria.

In a book launched on Wednesday, Donald Roberts, professor of tropical medicine at the U.S. military's Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, and Richard Tren, head of lobby group Africa Fighting Malaria, argue that DDT is the only effective weapon against the deadly mosquito-borne parasite.

Environmental group Greenpeace defended the United Nations' aim of eventually eliminating DDT use worldwide and said evidence that it harms wildlife and human health was sound, even if not conclusive.

DDT's unprecedented power to kill insects won its inventor a Nobel prize in the 1940s and it was considered a wonder chemical until evidence emerged of its toxicity to wildlife and people, leading Western nations to ban it in the 1970s.

A treaty to forbid its use worldwide along with a dozen other industrial chemicals came into effect in 2004, but some countries like South Africa and Ethiopia still take advantage of tightly limited exemptions allowing indoor spraying.

Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloromethylmethane (DDT) has been blamed for birth defects in humans and threatening endangered birds such as the bald eagle by thinning their egg shells.

"There are an almost endless list of claims that DDT causes one kind of harm or another but ... with each claim, the evidence that the DDT is the cause is simply not there," Roberts told Reuters in a telephone interview.

NETS, INSECTICIDES

"The Excellent Powder" claims new evidence shows DDT is harmless because it is similar to organic chemicals found in nature that animal life can deal with.

The book also tackles the issue of resistance to the poison, saying DDT is a good repellent, not just killer, of mosquitoes.

Malaria kills roughly a million children a year, mostly in Africa, according to the World Health Organization.

In the tropical West African nation of Ivory Coast, malaria kills 176 children under five each day, the government's top malaria official, Dr Sam Koffi Moise, told Reuters.

"The challenge is to give access to better prevention. We need mosquito nets but also insecticides like DDT," he said.

Roberts and Tren's book examines a 2009 study linking DDT in South Africa to birth defects and argues the data doesn't support it.

"Millions of malaria deaths ... occurred during ... decades of environmental activism (against) DDT," the book concludes.

Tren, a free market lobbyist who has also criticized tobacco control, said bird species harmed by DDT were already under threat and that DDT was "a minor source of harm compared to the hunting, shooting, poisoning and land use changes."

Greenpeace scientist David Santillo told Reuters greens approved use of DDT where there was no alternative, but evidence of it accumulating in birds and polar bears was clear, and evidence of harm to humans worrying enough to urge caution.

"If we're to wait until we have absolute confirmation that (health problems are) a direct result of DDT exposure that's something we'll probably never have because you can't expose humans deliberately to DDT to measure the effect," he said

"There's a need to develop a broader range of malaria controls to break this reliance on DDT ... as a silver bullet."

(Editing by Giles Elgood)

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Green Groups Point To Ash Cloud Silver Lining

Gerard Wynn and Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 22 Apr 10;

Iceland's erupting volcano has spewed plenty of ash but far less greenhouse gas than Europe's grounded aircraft would have generated.

Carbon dioxide emissions totaled 150,000 tonnes a day in the early days of the eruption, according to Durham University. That compares with 510,000 tonnes per day emitted when planes are flying as normal over the continent.

But experts cautioned it was hard to draw conclusions about the overall impact of pollution because more cars and buses were on the roads to help stranded travelers and the volcano is emitting a nasty cocktail of toxins.

Europe's skies were open for business on Wednesday after an ash cloud wrecked timetables for six days, stranding passengers and costing the airline industry $250 million a day. Ash can scour and even paralyze jet engines.

Planes add to global warming through emissions of carbon, other chemicals and their vapor trails, scientists say.

They also produce pollutants and noise around airports.

The first analysis of air quality around London's two busiest airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, showed that pollutants which can causes respiratory problems had plummeted, said the London Air Quality Network.

"That entire signal dropped to zero (from Thursday through Saturday)," said Ben Barratt at King's College London, who helps coordinate the Network's data, referring to nitrogen dioxide.

"The quality of life difference is mostly down to noise, and we're getting lots of emails saying how lovely it is," he added.

Aviation in 32 European nations emitted 510,000 tonnes a day of CO2 in 2007, according to the European Environment Agency. Assuming two-thirds of flights are canceled, that means a cut of 340,000 tonnes a day, not counting non-European carriers.

Colin Macpherson, a geologist at the University of Durham in England, estimated the volcano's initial emissions at 150,000 tonnes of CO2 a day, drawing on data from a previous eruption.

Northerly winds helped limit health damage from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland, blowing the ash off-shore to Europe. And air quality in nations including Britain and Norway has been largely unaffected because little ash has reached the ground so far.

(Editing by Janet McBride)

Ash cloud's silver lining: bluer skies
Joji Sakurai And Karl Ritter, Associated Press Yahoo News 22 Apr 10;

LONDON – As volcanic ash cast a shadow over millions of lives, Londoners and other city dwellers across Europe were treated to a rare spectacle of nature: Pristine, blue skies brighter than any in recent memory.

The remarkable sight happened in part because mass flight groundings prevented busy airspace from being crisscrossed with plumes of jet exhaust that create a semi-permanent haze — and other effects beyond the white contrails themselves.

Just as city lights make it necessary for us to go to the desert to appreciate the true glitter of stars, so has modern aviation dulled us to what the noontime sky can really look like — until the erupting volcano in Iceland offered a reminder.

Britain's poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, was inspired to write verses about the unusually clear skies above London: "Five miles up the hush and shush of ash/Yet the sky is as clean as a white slate/I could write my childhood there."

Scientists cast the phenomenon in more prosaic terms. Without aircraft contrails, "the skies have been particularly blue," said meteorology professor Chris Merchant of the University of Edinburgh.

The clearer skies are primarily due to a high pressure system in the region, but Merchant said the blue tone has been deeper than normal because of the lack of vapor from aircraft engines. Depending on weather conditions, the vapor trials can expand into thin cirrus clouds.

It's as if somebody suddenly ripped a veil away, exposing the true colors of the heavens.

Amid frustration at the travel disruptions caused by the volcano, some European urbanites have also found something eerily pleasant in the sight of a sky without planes.

In fact, part of the surreal quality of the whole affair has been the illusion of going back to a calmer, less complicated age in which the air was cleaner, life was less harried (no cross-planet shuttles for one-day meetings in Hong Kong), and jets didn't rumble constantly in our ears.

"It's definitely quieter without the planes," said Margaret Mellard, a 63-year-old retiree in London's Regent's Park. "You really do see the difference. It's been really pleasant."

The crisis has caused some to reflect, perhaps nostalgically, on the age when people spent weeks or months en route to their destination. Hopping on a plane, popping an Ambien and waking up 10 hours later in a different time zone and culture seems somehow less romantic.

There was also introspection in the notion of humankind's vulnerability to the whims — or is it laws? — of nature. Would even the climate be affected? In an era of unprecedented concern about the environment, that, too, captured attention.

For skygazers, the ash cloud produced another fringe benefit: spectacular fiery sunsets caused by dusk light filtering through ash.

At least for now, the powerful eruptions from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl) volcano have not knocked the global climate off balance like past eruptions. The ash has not fallen to earth in any significant amounts outside Icelend.

The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines spewed a massive cloud of sulfur dioxide that quickly spread across the globe, blocking enough sunlight to reduce average global surface temperatures by about 1 degree Fahrenheit (half a degree Celsius).

In 1783, a toxic ash cloud released by a volcanic eruption on Iceland killed tens of thousands of people and had a strong cooling effect on Europe and North America.

Unlike those eruptions, the Icelandic plume has not climbed into the stratosphere, about 40,000 feet (12,000 meters) above the Earth's surface. That layer of the atmosphere is more stable than lower levels where rain clouds rinse the dust particles from the air.

"Once the volcanic material comes up to those altitudes, it can stay for a year or so," said Eigel Kaas, a climate expert at the University of Copenhagen. "Because once the particles are up in the stratosphere there is no precipitation."

Should the Icelandic eruption persist and grow stronger, however, there is a chance that the summer could become a tad cooler in Europe, Kaas said.

"If it continues for a month with a rather high altitude, 8-10 kilometers (5-6 miles), then it will definitely impact climate in a regional manner, mainly Europe," he said.

Calculating the impact of reduced carbon emissions — a key contributor to global warming — is a more complex equation.

On an average day, European air travel generates more than 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide — representing about 3 percent of total greenhouse emissions — according to the European Environment Agency. Those aircraft emissions have been cut by more than half in recent days as aircraft were grounded across the continent.

But many of the stranded passengers have chosen to travel by road — in some cases thousands of miles — burning fuel that otherwise would have been left in the tanks.

It's hard to estimate the added emissions, since it remains unclear how many extra vehicles are on the road as a result of the airspace closures and how far they are traveling.

Then there's the volcano's own CO2 emissions.

Colin Macpherson, a professor in earth sciences at Britain's Durham University, estimates that the volcano belched out 150,000 tons of CO2 a day over the first three days of the eruption, and then progressively less.

By comparison, the world's volcanoes release an average of 44 million tons of CO2 annually, Macpherson said.

Alice Bows, a climate scientist at the University of Manchester, said "a back-of-the-envelope calculation" suggests that because aviation is so carbon-intensive, there should be a net reduction in emissions.

Even if the flight stoppage yielded only a small reduction in man-made emissions, Bows wondered whether the travel chaos would have a more lasting effect — on people's minds.

"In the grand scheme of things, the interesting thing for me is, does this change behavior in any way? Does it make people consider different forms of travel?" she said. "Anecdotally we're hearing about people using video conferencing to conduct interviews with people abroad, when they would normally have flown for the interview."

___

Ritter reported from Stockholm. Associated Press Writer Sylvia Hui contributed to this report.

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Volcanic climate change? Not likely, say experts

Richard Black, BBC News 21 Apr 10;

Watching the enormous plumes of dust and ash rising from Eyjafjallajokull, it is hard to imagine that this almost week-long eruption would not have any effect on weather and climate.

But that is the likelihood; that the impact on Britons, Europeans and the citizens of the wider world will be limited to cancelled flights, with no other effects on the skies.

Volcanoes produce tiny particles - aerosols - which have a net cooling effect on the world because they reflect solar energy back into space.

They also produce carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

Historically, the cooling has outweighed the warming. The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in The Philippines lowered global temperatures by about 0.4-0.5C - but Eyjafjallajokull, dramatic as it looks, is simply not in that league.

"Icelandic scientists have made a first estimate of the volume of material ejected, and it's about 140 million cubic metres," says Mike Burton from Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology.

"That's a lot in five days; but Pinatubo ejected 10 cubic kilometres - that's 100 times as much.

"So this is not the big climate changing eruption that some people seem to think it is."

As well as the sheer volume of aerosols, the other factor influencing the size of its climatic impact is the altitude they attain.

If material reaches the stratosphere, it can remain aloft for several years; but if it stays in the troposphere, the lowest layer, it tends to come back to Earth in days or weeks.

"At the moment, the eruption cloud reaches around 22,000 feet (7km)," says Anja Schmidt from the School of Earth and Environment at the UK's Leeds University.

"That's high enough to affect aviation but is unlikely to be high enough to have a strong effect on the climate system."

Low carbon life

Dr Burton's team has spent more than a decade refining methods for measuring the gas output from volcanoes, and made a trip to Iceland in early April, before the Eyjafjallajoekull eruption began but after the earlier, less vigorous spell of activity at nearby Fimmvorduhals.

They found Fimmvorduhals was producing about 20-25,000 tonnes of CO2 each day.

Based on the relative size of the volcanoes, he estimates that Eyjafjallajoekull could have emitted about 10 times that amount per day at its peak.

But that lasted for less than a week; things now appear to be much quieter.

And even over that peak period, its daily CO2 output was only about one-thousandth of that produced by the sum total of humanity's fossil fuel burning, deforestation, agriculture and everything else.

In fact, the extra CO2 produced from the volcano is probably less than the volume "saved" by having Europe's aeroplanes grounded.

But any precise comparison of those two effects will depend on the eventual duration of the grounding as compared with the eventual duration and intensity of the eruption.

The last Eyjafjallajokull eruption lasted for two years, and it is possible that this one will do the same; whether it does or not is anyone's guess at present.

"But the thing to realise is that there are already a number of volcanoes around the world, including Etna and Popocatepetl, that are continually outgassing CO2 now," says Dr Burton.

"The amount of CO2 output still pales into insignificance beside human emissions."

The Italian team is planning another trip to Iceland as soon as travel conditions allow, to get more precise measurements of gas emissions from Eyjafjallajokull.

Weather whys

Ash in the sky, but no aeroplanes: a recipe, you might think, for a change in the weather.

When US authorities banned flying following 9/11, the temperature difference between night and day over the continental US increased by at least 1C.

Jet contrails were effectively acting as cirrus clouds, researchers concluded - reflecting solar energy in the day, acting as a blanket by night.

But nothing of that kind has been observed following the Eyjafjallajokull eruption - or indeed any other impact on weather, according to UK Met Office scientist Derrick Ryall.

"Given the size of the eruption, we wouldn't expect any impact, except perhaps around Iceland itself," he says.

"If it goes on for a few months, someone will certainly be keeping an eye on it but it would be hard to ascertain - you'd need some pretty sophisticated analysis."

Dramatic though the pictures from Eyjafjallajokull have been, the likelihood is that history will not rank it as a volcano that shook the world - not a Pinatubo, not a Krakatoa, and definitely not a Toba - the eruption some 70,000 years ago that apparently brought on a six-year global freeze.

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Japan Eyes Households To Help Cut CO2 Emissions 25 Percent

Risa Maeda and Chisa Fujioka, PlanetArk 21 Apr 10;

Japan will step up its call this week to use greener household technologies to cut CO2 output to shift away from sharp emission caps or carbon taxes on industry proposed in parliament that labor worries could cost jobs.

Japan's Democratic Party-led government has pledged to cut greenhouse gases 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, more than triple the amount proposed by the previous government.

A recent environment ministry however report suggests that households cutting fossil energy use and expanding renewable and nuclear power instead of caps on industry are the better ways to achieve the goal than targeting industry.

But some analysts have dismissed the report, saying a structural change in combating emissions without breakthroughs in costly "green" technology that industry would need to meet caps would hurt the economy.

One analyst said that without emission caps or buying carbon credits to offset pollution, the new target is unrealistic.

"Japan will sooner or later lower itself down from the minus 25 percent hurdle," said Yasuhiko Tabaru, a senior consultant at the Mizuho Information and Research Institute, referring to the portion to be cut domestically.

"Former Prime Minister Taro Aso's government spent reasonable time for research before he came up with the minus 8 percent target, and I still think that that target is not far from the very limit Japan can do on its own efforts."

But with the government mum on carbon credit purchases for now, it will kick off a series of public meetings from Thursday aimed at sharing a sense of urgency to meet the 2020 target by explaining Japan's long-term energy and environment policy.

A key reason for the focus on households, analysts say, is to appeal to public concern about climate change while keeping labor support ahead of crucial mid-year upper house polls.

JAPAN A LOW EMITTER

Voluntary emission cut efforts since the 1970s have helped Japan pump out only half as much CO2 as the EU or the United States per unit of economic output.

Manufacturers, which account for the bulk of emissions in the world's fifth-biggest emitter, have also led efforts to put Japan on track to achieve its binding emissions reduction target under the Kyoto Protocol for the 2008-2012 period.

But a climate bill before parliament that has suggested a carbon tax on industry, being debated this week, may cost political support for the government as it attempts an ambitious fiscal reform program.

The environment ministry report instead emphasizes meeting the climate pledge by more mundane efforts like promoting smart meters, double glazing windows, using low-carbon central heating, and energy-saving bulbs as well as solar panels and hybrid and electric cars.

The appeal of such an approach, the environment ministry says, is to generate demand of as much as 32 trillion yen ($347 billion) by households and small businesses in the next decade.

Such new "green" demand is a key hope for Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who came to power in September after more than 50 years of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party, to prop up Japan's economy, which has been trapped in deflation for more than a decade.

Environment Minister Sakihito Ozawa has said the priority is on funding efforts by households and regional communities to cut CO2, areas which Japan has neglected in the past compared to other environmentally-conscious countries.

But Ozawa has not elaborated how Japan will encourage such efforts without increasing its already heavy fiscal debt.

(Editing by Ed Lane)

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Study warns of climate health threats

Randolph E. Schmid, Associated Press 22 Apr 10;

WASHINGTON – Climate change poses a growing threat to health, from heart disease to heatstroke and from illness carried by water to bug-borne sickness.

A group of federal agencies issued a report on the threat Wednesday, looking at what areas need to be studied.

"To mitigate and adapt to the health effects of climate change, we must first understand them. This report is a vital new roadmap for doing that," said Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "There is an urgent need to get started."

Published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the report concludes that climate will force people, "to negotiate with their changing environment as never before to find ways to reshape it both for short-term protection and long-term alleviation of health consequences."

Among the proposed research areas are efforts to determine how climate change might contaminate seafood, beaches and drinking water, and the effects of changes in extreme weather events on sewage discharges and run-off and what this will mean to human health.

Disaster planning and management improvements may be needed and the report encourages research aimed at strengthening health care and emergency services, especially when events such as floods, drought and wildfires threaten health.

Areas stressed for research were:

• Asthma, respiratory allergies and airway diseases.

• Cancer.

• Diseases spread by insects and other vectors.

• Foodborne diseases and nutrition.

• Heat-related sickness and death.

• Heart disease and stroke.

• Human growth and development.

• Mental health and stress-related disorders.

• Neurological diseases.

• Waterborne diseases.

• Weather-related injuries and death.

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Industrialized Nations' CO2 Falls 2.2 Percent In 2008

Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 22 Apr 10;

Industrialized nations' greenhouse gas emissions fell by 2.2 percent in 2008, the steepest decline since the break-up of the Soviet Union as economies slowed, a Reuters compilation showed Wednesday.

Emissions are likely to have fallen more sharply in 2009 due to recession that analysts said was a bigger brake than government policies meant to shift from use of fossil fuels toward cleaner energies such as wind or solar power.

Final government data sent to the United Nations in recent days -- used to judge compliance with climate treaties -- shows that emissions from 36 nations fell to 17.10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents in 2008 from 17.48 billion in 2007.

U.S. greenhouse emissions fell by 2.8 percent to the lowest level since 2001 and European Union emissions were down 2.0 percent. Among the top industrialized emitters, Russia was the main exception with a 1.9 percent rise in 2008.

The overall 2008 fall drove industrialized nations' emissions to 6.7 percent below levels in 1990, the U.N. benchmark year for judging efforts to avert heatwaves, floods, droughts, species extinctions and rising sea levels.

"The fall in carbon emissions from developed countries in 2008 is most likely an early sign of the impact of the global financial crisis," Pep Canadell, head of the Global Carbon Project at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization, told Reuters..

"There is no basis for suspecting that the decline is the result of a coordinated and new effort in emission reductions with sudden results in 2008," he said. Oil prices peaked at $147 a barrel in July 2008, also contributing to cuts in energy use.

SOVIET SMOKESTACKS

The 2.2 percent fall is the biggest for industrialized nations since a tumble of 3.5 percent in 1992, the year after the collapse of the Soviet Union and smokestack industries in the former communist bloc, according to U.N. data.

Carbon emissions from European factories and power plants fell more than 11 percent in 2009, recent data showed, after a 3 percent fall in 2008.

A few developed countries, including Australia, have not yet submitted 2008 numbers. Canadell said world emissions probably rose overall in 2008, pushed up by growth in China and India, which do not report annual data.

The 2008 falls will help many industrialized nations meet goals under the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol. Developed nations except the United States are due to cut emissions by an average of at least 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.

And it may make cuts by 2020 promised at the U.N.'s Copenhagen climate summit in December seem less daunting.

U.S. President Barack Obama's target of cutting emissions by about 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, for instance, works out as "just" 14.8 percent from 2008's 6.9 billion. U.S. legislation to cap emissions is stalled in the Senate.

"The economic crisis can help," said Steffen Kallbekken, a researcher at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research, Oslo. But he said recession also cut EU carbon prices, for instance, threatening green investments.

Economic growth for rich nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) slowed to 0.6 percent in 2008 from 2.7 percent in 2007. The OECD estimates an economic contraction of 3.5 percent in 2009.

(Editing Lin Noueihed)

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One Third of Countries Show Promising Gains in Low Carbon Economic Growth Since the Copenhagen Climate Accord

UNEP 21 Apr 10;

Seoul, South Korea - The 2010 Climate Competitiveness Index, the most comprehensive study to date of national progress to create green jobs and economic growth through low carbon products and services, shows that in spite of uncertainty surrounding international climate negotiations, countries have forged ahead with low carbon growth strategies in the first quarter of 2010.

The annual Climate Competitiveness Index (CCI), produced by the independent non-profit institute AccountAbility, in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), combines two sets of data.

It investigates "Climate Accountability" to validate if a country's climate strategy is clear, ambitious and supported by stakeholders, as well as "Climate Performance," considering each country's capabilities and track record on delivering its strategy.

The Index analysed 95 countries responsible for 97 per cent of global economic activity and 96 per cent of global carbon emissions.

It concludes that despite gaps in performance and accountability, 46 per cent of countries have demonstrated some improvement in climate accountability since the UNFCCC Copenhagen conference in December 2009.

Thirty two countries have made significant improvements, with Germany, China and the Republic of Korea being the outstanding examples. India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines and Rwanda have also enhanced their climate accountability.

"This report comes as a breath of fresh air," said Alex MacGillivray, Managing Director at AccountAbility.

"The CCI shows that countries at all levels of development can develop political leadership, stronger institutions and engaging with stakeholders to deliver climate competitiveness. Climate competitiveness is no longer rhetoric. It is a real, massive and dynamic economic frontier. This latest analysis proves that governments are seizing opportunities for Green Growth and making significant strides to tackle the climate crisis."

He added, "The Climate Competitiveness Index is the essential guide to understanding opportunities - and accountability - in the multi-trillion dollar low carbon economy of the new decade."

Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Japan and France show the most consistent progress on combining accountability and performance. Switzerland and Austria are strong on performance, while the UK and USA are strong on accountability. The Republic of Korea, Hong Kong and Malaysia are developing good strategies and the BASIC nations (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) are progressing towards climate competitiveness.

The CCI predicts that the global market for low carbon products and services will be in excess of US$2 trillion in 2020.

However, to secure this market, countries need ambitious climate competitiveness strategies, as well as the institutional infrastructure to build markets and convince investors.

The report underscores the importance of the business sector. It concludes that business must play a proactive role in promoting climate competitiveness.

Countries that perform well on the CCI have a critical mass of firms managing, reporting on and reducing their emissions - whilst aggressively growing portfolios of low carbon products and services.

"Releasing this report at this year's Business for the Environment Summit in Seoul, attended by hundreds of political, business and civil society leaders, is a tribute to the many individuals who play a critical role in building the new Green Economy," commented Hee Ryung Lee, Lead Analyst at AccountAbility.

"This survey proves that the most progressive countries are purposefully and carefully nurturing business as part of their strategy towards enduring low carbon growth."

The CCI demonstrates that the best national performers have a coherent institutional framework of low carbon support for business, including chambers of commerce, stock exchanges, investment agencies, government departments and NGOs dedicated to green growth.

The investment promotion agency in Finland, the Presidential Office in the Republic of Korea and Kenya's Green Energy Foundation are three examples of institutions supporting climate competitiveness.

The CCI indicates that there is no single blueprint or pathway to climate competitiveness. Countries and regions are pursuing distinctive climate strategies based on national priorities and capabilities.

As examples, Bolivia, Ghana, Vietnam and Bangladesh all demonstrate strong citizen concern coupled with limited business engagement.

Emerging economies like Brazil and the Philippines enjoy strong government leadership. In other cases, leadership is evident in the business community, for example in Scandinavia and Singapore.

For more information contact:

Alex MacGillivray, Managing Director, AccountAbility, mobile phone +0044 7825634002 or alex@accountability.org

Nick Nuttall UNEP Spokesperson and Head of Media, +41 795 965 737 or +254 733632755, or nick.nuttall@unep.org

Notes to Editors

Download the Climate Competitiveness Index 2010 and view supporting materials at www.climatecompetitiveness.org

The Climate Competitiveness Index 2010 is the largest and most systematic effort to gauge how countries around the world are placed to succeed in the low carbon economy.

It combines indicators that are already available in the public domain with new data generated by AccountAbility to provide insight into 95 countries, responsible for 97 percent of global economic activity and 96 percent of carbon dioxide emissions.

'The annual Climate Competitiveness Index (CCI) combines two sets of data' on climate accountability (the climate strategy is clear, ambitious, and supported by all stakeholders) and climate performance (the country has the track record and capabilities to deliver the strategy). Each dimension has four domains and 13 variables.

The 2010 CCI does not apply different measures or weightings to countries at different levels of development, or to differentiate Annex-1 and Non-Annex 1 countries.

The CCI 2010 does not combine the scores of the two dimensions into a single league table for this inaugural version of the index.

Related link: http://www.climatecompetitiveness.org/

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Copenhagen pledges set Earth for +3 C warming: study

Yahoo News 21 Apr 10;

PARIS (AFP) – Carbon-curbing pledges under the Copenhagen Accord are likely to doom Earth to warming of three degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) or more, compared to the deal's target of 2 C (3.6 F), scientists said on Wednesday.

In an analysis published by the journal Nature, researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) near Berlin said the promises fell very short of the headline-making mark.

"It's amazing how unambitious these pledges are," they said.

Born in the final hours of the chaotic UN climate summit last December, the Accord sets a goal of limiting warming to 2 C (3.6 F).

But it does not set a date for achieving this, nor stepping-stone targets for getting there, and the roster of pledges it sets up, gathering rich and poor countries alike, is voluntary.

If the promises are carried out, global yearly emissions of greenhouse gases will increase by 10 to 20 percent above current levels, reaching the equivalent of 47.9-53.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) by 2020, says the study.

"This would result in a greater than 50 percent chance that warming will exceed 3 C (5.4 F) by 2100," PIK said in a press release.

"To be on track for meeting the 'below 2 C' climate target, global emissions of no more than 40 to 44 gigatonnes (billion tonnes) of CO2 equivalent have to be achieved by 2020."

Added PIK researcher Malte Meinshausen: "Forty-eight gigatonnes of C02 emissions is not on track to meet the 2 C goal -- it is like racing towards a cliff and hoping to stop just before it."

The Copenhagen Accord remains politically contested.

It was devised by leaders of a couple of dozen countries to stave off a fiasco in Copenhagen, billed as the culmination of a two-year process towards a post-2012 climate treaty.

Green groups lashed the deal as toothless and left-led countries in the Caribbean and Latin American charged it violated the principles of international democracy.

Talks have resumed under the 194-nation UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) but there is negligible consensus on how to move forward or incorporate the Copenhagen Accord.

In their analysis, the PIK researchers said a big loophole was surplus allowances under the Kyoto Protocol, whose current provisions expire at the end of 2012.

These surplus allowances can be used by industrialised countries who undershoot their Kyoto targets for emissions reudctions.

The United States, the world's No. 2 carbon emitter, is not party to Kyoto, nor is China, the world's No. 1, because it is a developing country and does not have binding emissions targets.

The authors say that the Kyoto targets were weak, which means many countries will be banking their surpluses for use later -- a tally that they estimate at a huge 11 gigatonnes.

Warming of 3 C (5.4 F) or more would have a huge effect on Earth's climate system, possibly leading to more frequent drought, flood, storms and rising seas affecting millions of people, scientists have said.

Since pre-industrial times, Earth's mean surface temperature has risen by about 0.8 C (1.4 F), yet this has been enough to cause the loss of Arctic ice and glaciers, soften permafrost and affect seasons in northerly latitude.

'Paltry' carbon curbs point to 3C
Richard Black, BBC News 21 Apr 10;

Pledges made at December's UN summit in Copenhagen are unlikely to keep global warming below 2C, a study concludes.

Writing in the journal Nature, analysts at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts Research in Germany say a rise of at least 3C by 2100 is likely.

The team also says many countries, including EU members and China, have pledged slower carbon curbs than they have been achieving anyway.

They say a new global deal is needed if deeper cuts are to materialise.

"There's a big mismatch between the ambitious goal, which is 2C... and the emissions reductions," said Potsdam's Malte Meinshausen.

"The pledged emissions reductions are in most cases very unambitious," he told BBC News.

In their Nature article, the team uses stronger language, describing the pledges as "paltry".

"The prospects for limiting global warming to 2C - or even to 1.5C, as more than 100 nations demand - are in dire peril," they conclude.

Between now and 2020, global emissions are likely to rise by 10-20%, they calculate, and the chances of passing 3C by 2100 are greater than 50%.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this implies a range of serious impacts for the world, including

* significant falls in crop yields across most of the world
* damage to most coral reefs
* likely disruption to water supplies for hundreds of millions of people.

More than 120 countries have now associated themselves with the Copenhagen Accord, the political document stitched together on the summit's final day by a small group of countries led by the US and the BASIC bloc of Brazil, China, India and South Africa.

The accord "recognises" the 2C target as indicated by science. It was also backed at last year's G8 summit.

Many of those 120-odd have said what they are prepared to do to constrain their greenhouse gas emissions - either pledging cuts by 2020, in the case of industrialised countries, or promising to improve their "carbon intensity" in the case of developing nations.

Some of the pledges are little more than vague statements of intent. But all developed countries, and the developing world's major emitters, have all given firm figures or ranges of figures.

The EU, for example, pledges to cut emissions by 20% from 1990 levels by 2020; China promises to improve carbon intensity by 40-45% by 2020 compared against 2005; and Australia vows an emission cut of 5-25% on 2000 levels by 2020.

The Potsdam team concludes that many of the detailed pledges are nowhere near as ambitious as their proponents would claim.

They calculate that the EU's 20% pledge implies an annual cut of 0.45% between 2010 and 2020, whereas it is already achieving annual reductions larger than that.

China's 40% minimum pledge also amounts to nothing more than business as usual, they relate; and among developed countries, only pledges by Norway and Japan fall into the 25-40% by 2020 range that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommends as necessary to give a good chance of meeting the 2C target.

Hot air

Whereas many countries, rich and poor, have indicated they are willing to be more ambitious if there is a binding global deal, the Potsdam team notes that in the absence of a global deal, only the least ambitious end of their range can be counted upon.

Writing in the BBC's Green Room this week, Bryony Worthington from the campaign group Sandbag argues that the EU can easily move to its alternative higher figure of 30% - and that it must, if it wants to stimulate others to cut deeper.

"Many countries are looking to Europe to show how it is possible to achieve growth without increasing emissions," she said.

"Only when they see that this is possible will they be inclined to adopt absolute reduction targets of their own."

An additional factor flagged up in the analysis is that many countries have accrued surplus emissions credits under the Kyoto Protocol.

Countries such as Russia and other former Eastern bloc nations comfortably exceeded their Kyoto targets owing to the collapse of Communist economies in the early 1990s.

Without a binding global agreement preventing the practice, these nations would be allowed to put these "banked" credits towards meeting any future targets - meaning they would have to reduce actual emissions less than they promised.

These "hot air" credits could also be traded between nations.

Stern words

This is not the first analysis of the Copenhagen Accord pledges, but it is one of the starkest.

Lord Stern's team at the Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change and the Environment in London has also run the figures; and although their conclusions on the numbers are similar, they do not see things in quite such a pessimistic light.

"You cannot characterise an emissions path for a country or the world by focusing solely on the level in 2020 or any other particular date," said the institute's principal research fellow Alex Bowen.

"It is the whole path that matters, and if more action is taken now to reduce emissions, less action will be required later, and vice versa."

The Potsdam team acknowledges that if emissions do rise as they project, it would still be possible to have a reasonable chance of meeting 2C if very strict carbon curbs were applied thereafter, bringing emissions down by 5% per year or so.

"In an ideal world, if you pull off every possible emission reduction from the year 2021 onwards, you can still get to get to 2C if you're lucky," said Dr Meinshausen.

"But it is like racing towards the cliff and hoping you stop just before it."

They argue that positive analyses may "lull decision-makers into a false sense of security".

The UN climate process continues through this year, with many countries saying they still want to reach a binding global agreement by December.

But stark divisions remain between various blocs over emission cuts, finance, technology transfer and other issues; and it is far from certain that all important countries want anything more binding than the current set of voluntary national commitments.

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