WTO negotiators sense new tone in fish talks

* Negotiators engage in detailed fisheries talks
* Subsidies encouraging overfishing
Jonathan Lynn Reuters AlertNet 8 Oct 10;

GENEVA, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Talks to curb fisheries subsidies have taken on new life, negotiators said on Friday, boding well for efforts to revive depleted global fish stocks and reach a deal to open up world trade.

Trade diplomats said that differences in the fisheries talks at the World Trade Organization remained wide, but countries were working hard to find ways of bridging the gaps.

"It's very clear to me that all delegations remain highly committed and have shown a very constructive disposition," Trinidad's ambassador to the WTO, Dennis Francis, who chairs the negotiations on trade rules that include fisheries subsidies, told Reuters. A diplomat from a large emerging economy commented: "It's a very good atmosphere. People are asking questions and exchanging information."

The new mood contrasts with past meetings on fisheries and other topics marked by deep differences and a reluctance to discuss detail.

The talks turn on ways of curbing the subsidised overfishing held responsible for the near-collapse of global fish stocks, on which hundreds of millions of people rely for food, while finding exceptions for developing countries to allow their small-scale fishermen to continue to earn a living.

INDUSTRIAL FISHING

The ambassador for a large industrialised power said many countries were now focusing on an arrangement that would deal with the most dangerous subsidies rather than covering every problem.

These would be subsidies that increase the capacity of vessels or fleets, such as support for construction and renovation, or facilitate changes in ownership or country.

Australia has called for subsidies for fishing methods that destroy the underwater environment, such as bottom trawling, to be banned.

The environmental activist group Oceana, which advises the U.S. government, estimates that fisheries subsidies total $20 billion a year -- equivalent to about one quarter of the value of the world fish catch.

Fuel subsidies allow fishing fleets to trawl the high seas thousands of miles (kilometers) from home in operations that would not be economical without the subsidies, it says.

The talks are part of the WTO's Doha round to help poor countries prosper through more trade while freeing up global commerce, and mark the first time a specifically environmental issue has been included in trade negotiations.

Rich countries are leading the charge for strict limits on subsidies, despite the concerns of their own fishing communities, but countries such as Japan and China are worried about the impact on their industrial fishing fleets and developing countries such as India and Indonesia are suspicious of moves that could hurt their subsistence fishermen.

The latest WTO fisheries talks took place as part of an informal process of brainstorming by small groups of ambassadors hoping to find a way out of the deadlock that has dogged the more formal Doha negotiations for the past couple of years.

These aim to build trust by looking at options for the whole range of negotiations, not just the core industrial goods and agriculture talks that are stuck on U.S. calls for big emerging states like Brazil, China and India to offer more access.

The start of these small-group talks before the European summer break led WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy to talk of a new dynamism in the Doha negotiations, launched in late 2001.

Many diplomats in Geneva have been talking of the possibility of a breakthrough in 2011. But U.S. chief agricultural negotiator Isi Siddiqui said on Oct. 5 that despite recent progress the Doha talks could stretch into 2012.

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Malaysia log-jam threatens disaster in Sarawak

BBC News 8 Oct 10;

Logs and wood debris flowing down a river in Malaysia have blocked river transport and are threatening major flooding downstream.

The town of Kapit on the Rajang River in Sarawak has already been cut off, state media reported.

Heavy rains have forced millions of cut logs at a timber depot into the river.

The combination of a heavy monsoon season with extensive logging, both legal and illegal, is creating a dangerous situation, local media said.

A major environmental disaster was unfolding in Sarawak, which is heavily forested and logged, The Star newspaper reported.
Fear

The newspaper said heavy rains are believed to have caused a flood at a logging camp on the upper reaches of Balleh River - a tributary of the Rajang - prompting the surge of large logs into the river.

The paper quoted a local businessman as saying that the events were unprecedented.

A Sarawak blog, Hornbill Unleashed, carried pictures of the log jam and demanded action from the government for better infrastructure in the state.

"The chief minister who is in charge of issuing logging licences for the last 30 years should be held responsible," says Hornbill Unleashed in its posting.

The river is the only means of transport for communities in the area and residents further downstream are writing blog and twitter entries expressing fear at what might happen when the log train reaches them.

50km logjam on the Rajang river
Philip Hii The Star 9 Oct 10;

SIBU: Logs and debris, stretching for 50km on the Rajang river, reached Sibu town at about 10am yesterday leaving many people shocked by the scale of what is turning out to be an environmental disaster.

“This is unprecedented and beyond imagination,” Environment and Public Health Minister Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh said after assessing the situation at the Express Passenger Boat Terminal in the morning.

According to a statement from the Natural Resources and Environment Board, the source of these logs and debris were from the Baleh River and its tributaries above Kapit.

Several days of heavy rain earlier this week in Putai and Nu­­ngun in upper Baleh had caused a massive landslide which brought down the logs and debris into the rivers. The high water level and swift current in Baleh River and its tributaries also washed the logs and debris along their banks.

Wong said it was a serious natural disaster which had caught both the public and government off guard.

“We haven’t started to calculate the amount of losses and the damage caused,” he said, adding that once the logs and debris had made their way out of Sibu, the authorities would start to check the foundation of the Durin and Lanang bridges.

It was estimated by a sawmill manager that the volume of the logs and debris would be more than 300,000m3.

The situation was worse around noon when the whole area at the confluence of the Rajang and Igan rivers was completely logjammed. Most of the logs and debris flowed down the Rajang while some of them flowed to the Igan.

The Malay villages which were built on stilts on the right bank of the Igan were fortunate to escape calamity as the logs and debris flowed near the opposite bank.

Meanwhile, Land Development Minister Datuk Seri James Masing blamed unscrupulous timber companies for the disaster. He travelled up the river to Kapit yesterday and was disturbed by what he saw.

“There is still a lot of debris, making travel unsafe. There are also dead fish in the river. It’s an ecological disaster,” Masing, the Baleh assemblyman, told The Star.

He said that this was the third time in three years – the first was in 2008 at Sungai Gat and the second in Sungai Tunoh last year – that such an incident had happened and he feared that it would have far-reaching implications on the state, particularly on the timber industry.

He said the state government had laid down rules for logging but what was happening clearly showed that the rules were not being followed.

“I have gone around the world telling people that we are doing logging correctly. Now this happens. What will people think of us? We must take action against these unscrupulous timber companies.”

He said the authorities concerned must take their job more seriously and enforce the laws stringently.

Rajang River Still Innavigable Due To Massive Floating Debris
Bernama 8 Oct 10;

SIBU, Oct 8 (Bernama) -- The Sarawak government will conduct a thorough investigation into the alarming situation where long stretches of debris floating on the Rajang River has rendered it innavigable to all boats here Friday.

"We need to find out the causes, but if there are evidence to indicate that it is due to human factor, stern action will be taken against the perpetrators," said State Minister of Environment and Public Health Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh.

The country's longest river, the Rajang at 563 kilometres long from its source, was innavigable to all boats, big or small, from about noon, here.

The river was like a conveyor belt in a sawmill but instead of transporting uniformly cut wood, it carried an endless flow of uprooted trees, discarded logs and all manner of vegetative debris from Kapit, some 176km away.

Kapit experienced an alarming situation from about 2pm yesterday.

Wong who watched the scene from the Kapit Express Boat Terminal, described the situation as a "natural calamity of gigantic proportion".

"I was told in Kapit yesterday that the debris was about 50km long.

"It is still continuing in Kapit today although happening in smaller portions and length," he told reporters at the scene.

Wong said he had been told that there had been massive landslides in Putai and Nungun, which are logging concession areas in Balleh in the interiors of Kapit Divison due to heavy rain a few days ago.

But he said he was still waiting for detailed reports from the state Natural Resources and Environment Ministry.

Wong said the situation had never been seen or experienced here before and was rather scary.

"When the situation improves and there is a navigable path along the river, teams from the Public Works Department and Sarawak Rivers Board will check on the Durin and Lanang bridges to dislodge any debris that might have been trapped at their foundations in the river.

Meanwhile, express boats and other vessels leaving on afternoon trips to Kapit had to delay their trips.

Those who left this morning, had to stop somewhere safe along the route.

-- BERNAMA

River disaster hits Sarawak
PHilip Hii The Star 8 Oct 10;

SIBU: A major environmental disaster is unfolding in the state, as kilometre after kilometre of logs and wood debris flow down the Rajang.

It was believed that heavy rain in the upper reaches of Balleh River – a tributary of the Rajang – had caused landslides at log ponds of a major timber camp and brought down the logs and wood debris.

Kapit businessman Tay Hock Joo, who telephoned The Star in Sibu yesterday evening, said nobody in Kapit had ever seen such an occurrence before.

He said the residents first noticed the debris at about 1pm.

River transport was cut off when logs and debris started filling the entire width of the river by 4pm.

At 7.30pm, the debris was reported to have reached Song and was expected to hit Sibu early in the morning.

Sibu residents are worried by the extent of damage the logs and wood debris would cause to their properties such as jetties and boats.

“We are also worried whether the foundation of the Durin and Lanang bridges are strong enough to withstand the pressure,” said Sibu resident Simon Ting.

Meanwhile, several government officials said the authorities were unprepared for such an incident as it had never happened before and they also did not have the capacity to stop the wood from flowing downstream towards Sibu.

Logjam on Rajang river cleared
The Star 9 Oct 10;

SIBU: The Rajang River became navigable again Saturday after a massive logjam caused by widespread landslides upstream cleared, bringing relief to operators of passenger and cargo vessels.

The long stretch of logs and wooden debris floating downstream from Balleh in the Kapit Division over the past two days has drifted to sea.

Nevertheless, officers from the Natural Resources and Environment Board (NREB) and the Sarawak Rivers Board (SRB) were closely monitoring the situation, said Environment and Public Health Minister Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh.

“They are also surveying the damage caused to wharves, jetties and other infrastructure and will help to remove debris stuck there,” he told reporters after presenting a RM10,000 government grant for the construction of the new RM1.25mil St John’s Anglican Church here.

Wong reiterated that the debris was not from the Bakun Dam area in Belaga but Balleh in Kapit.

“The area, with its huge catchment, has experienced very heavy rainfall in the past few days, causing widespread landslide, erosion and flooding.

“The wooden debris which was swept away could have been accumulated there for the past 40 or more years,” he said.

Passenger and cargo boats are able to travel safely and keep to their schedules now.

Over the past two days, it had been nightmarish for the boat operators as they had to delay or postpone trips or stop halfway because of the huge quantities of logs and debris floating downstream.

Ling Kok Chung, 65, who runs the Bahagia Express boat service, said there were no less than 25 express boats plying the Rajang River, of which 16 ply daily from here to Kapit and back.

For some people living along the river, the logjam brought some kind of a windfall.

They ventured out on the river in their longboats to collect logs for sale to the nearest sawmills or for their own use. Others benefited from the bountiful harvests of seemingly “drowsy” fish.

Civil servant Dollah Salleh, 55, said he went out from 8pm to midnight Friday night and scooped up some 6kg of the “baong” (a catfish species) from the Igan River, a tributary of the Rajang.

In Kapit, some fortunate people managed to catch the “empurau” fish which is usually sold for about RM500 per kg.

In MIRI, Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan dismissed any notion that the logjam signalled the beginnings of an environmental disaster.

“It is not a natural disaster. I will not want to comment until I have the full report,” he told reporters after opening the Borneo International Beads Conference 2010 Saturday.

He said all quarters should stop speculating on the causes of the logjam and allow the authorities tasked with investigating the matter to complete their job.

Some quarters had blamed logging in the upper reaches of the river for the floating logs and debris.

Dr Chan, who is also the state disaster relief committee chairman, said the wet weather lately could have triggered the situation. -- Bernama

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Logging Blamed for Floods in West Papua

Fidelis E. Satriastanti & Camelia Pasandaran Jakarta Globe 8 Oct 10;

Jakarta. Activists on Friday blamed environmental degradation and forest conversions for the recent flash floods in Wasior, West Papua, that left more than 100 people dead, and demanded the government immediately review development policies in the area.

“The Wasior disaster could be considered an ecological disaster triggered by environmental destruction and land use changes over the past few years,” said Chalid Muhammad, chair of the Indonesian Green Institute.

“Wasior, which is located in a lowland area, consists of swamps and sago plantations that have been transformed to other uses like mining, which contributed to the disaster.

"Meanwhile, in the upstream area, forests are being decimated through logging concessions or illegal logging.”

His statement comes a day after Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said rampant illegal logging could have caused the floods as he had found around 200,000 square meters of illegal logs in his recent field trip in Sorong, also in West Papua.

Environmentalists have long been calling on the government to clamp down on illegal logging in Papua, which still has some of the country’s most dense primary forests.

Data compiled by the Indonesian Green Institute and Yappika foundation earlier this year showed that West Papua was vulnerable to ecological disasters as a result of plans to allow the conversion of more than 5 million hectares of primary forests and 1.4 million hectares of secondary forests.

In addition, from 2005 to 2009, satellite image analysis have shown a deforestation rate of 254,460.41 hectares per year in the province — a total of 1,017,841.66 hectares.

Chalid said that accounted for 25 percent of the national deforestation rate.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Friday the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) reported that the floods were not related to illegal logging.

“However, this Sunday I will directly see whether it is related to environment destruction,” he said. “That way, I could see for myself, and with the help of experts will analyze the cause of the disaster.”

Antung Deddy Radiansyah, assistant deputy for lake and river damage control at the State Ministry for the Environment, said earlier on Friday the ministry had conducted field checks on the areas before the flood and found that 90 percent of the forest coverage was still in good condition.

“The flash floods occurred because the steep slopes of the Wasior river upstream had already collapsed and covered the river areas,” Antung said. “The slides covered the river just like a dam, causing the flash floods.”

Additional reporting from Antara

Environment Ministry: forest conditions in Wasior good
Antara 8 Oct 10;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The environment ministry (KLH) says that the condition of the forest above Wasior, the capital of Teluk Wondama district in West Papua is still good.

The office`s assistant deputy for lake and river damage control, Antung Deddy Radiansyah, said at the office here on Thursday a team of Green Indonesia Program had checked several days before the flash flood occured.

"A team from KLH conducted a field check several days before the flood and saw 90 percent of forest coverage was still good," Andung said.

He said the flood occured after the steep slope in the upstream area of Wasior River slided to cover the river.

"The landslide covered the river like damming it up to cause a flash flood," he said.
Andung also predicted the slope had fallen because of the effect of a recent earthquake in Papua.

According to data from satellite imaging the Wasior river was unable to hold rainwater after it was covered by soil from the landslide.

He said KLH had already made a map of areas vulnarable to landslides and floods across the country, also making a note of environmental destructions found in the areas.

"The man has been made known to all local governments since January 2010 including the Papua administration," he said.

Based on it he said local governments had to conduct delineation and identify areas vulnarable to natural disasters.

"Based on the map local governments must make an adaptation program to face climate change problems that may happen in their regions," he said.(*)

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Mangroves disappear from Tangerang coastline

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post 8 Oct 10;

A large part of mangrove forests along 51 kilometers of Tangerang regency coastline has depleted over the past year, putting residents in coastal areas at risk of tidal waves and rising sea levels.

“Diminishing plants are attributed to the government’s lack of commitment to conservation of mangrove forests. This condition has been exacerbated by economic activities by locals such as uncontrolled sand quarrying along the beach,” Uyus Setia Bakti, coordinator of Banten Environmental Care Foundation (Yapelh), told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

A survey conducted by the green group recently found that mangrove forests in Kohod, Keramat, Karang Serang, Margamulia, Tanjung Kait and Tanjung Burung villages had already perished.

“Many programs held to prevent the mangrove forests from more severe damage appear to be in vain,” Uyus said.

The Tangerang Environmental Management Agency (BPLH) data revealed mangrove forests covered 10,000 hectares a few decades ago.

A Yapelh survey held in 2007 found 3,000 hectares mangrove forests were left. Currently, the forest has shrunk to 500 hectares, and is situated within the area controlled by state forestry company PT Perhutani.

Uyus said many residents did not understand the importance of mangrove forest preservation and converted them into commercial areas, such as fish and shrimp farms.

However, head of land conservation and environmental damage control at the BPLH, Herry Herlan, said that the destruction of the mangrove forests was caused by large waves.

“The waves during seasonal transition periods are quite high with no wave breakers to protect the mangrove forests,” he said.

The Tangerang regency administration planted 9,000 mangrove seedlings in Mauk and Teluk Naga areas in 2006 to restore the forests, but local residents have cut them down.

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Sarawak plans ambitious 'Aluminium City'

Proposal to buy Bakun hydro-electric dam is part of audacious plan to attract aluminium related businesses to set up shop in the area
S Jayasankaran Business Times 9 Oct 10;

THE Sarawak state government's RM6-7 billion proposal to buy the Bakun hydro-electric dam from the federal government is based on a plan to transform the area into an 'Aluminium City' comprising smelters, downstream manufacturers and metallurgical research and development facilities.

According to a senior state official, the plan calls for the 2,400 megawatt dam to have two main customers - both aluminium smelters. Smelters require huge amounts of power, which is why they require 'cheap' energy that can only come from renewable sources like hydro-electricity.

The idea is that with the right incentives, the state's enormous production of the metal would soon attract aluminium related businesses to set up shop in the area permanently to create the so-called Aluminium City. 'It is a big undertaking because we will have to spend money to put in the place the right infrastructure,' the official said. 'But we believe the federal government will help.'

The audacious plan reflects Sarawak's wish to transform its economy away from over-dependence on commodities - oil and gas, palm oil, timber and pepper - to sectors like industry and services. Sarawak is one of the few states in Malaysia that routinely runs up budget surpluses, which is why it can fund the acquisition - but it is relatively under-developed compared to Peninsular Malaysia.

Two weeks ago, Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud announced the huge offer for Bakun Dam - and said he was willing to compromise.

'We have made our bid of RM6 billion but it is flexible in the sense that if the method of payment can be made lighter we can increase a bit more, but there is limit to what we can pay,' he told reporters in the state. The official said the state could go up to RM7 billion if need be.

The dam is owned by Sarawak Hidro, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Ministry of Finance. But Sarawak's offer is likely to be accepted - a notion confirmed by Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin last week. ÂÂ

The Bakun project, Malaysia's largest hydro-electric dam, is located on the Balui River in the upper Rejang River basin, 37 km upstream from Belaga.

It was mooted in the early 1980s by the federal government to diversify the country's power sources and was first awarded to Ekran, a company controlled by Sarawak businessman Ting Pek Khing. Physical work on the dam started in 1994.

Sarawak Hidro was established to take over development and management of the project in 2000 after it was crippled the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98.

At end-2002, a Sime Darby-led consortium won a competitive tender to undertake the civil works for the dam for less than RM1.8 billion.

The work was completed last month, with flooding set to start this month. Sarawak Hidro's managing director Zulkifle Osman said yesterday it will begin as early as next week.

Mr Zulkifle said it will take about seven months for the water to reach the minimum operating level of 195m above sea level for tests of the dam's turbines to be carried out.

The scale of the project is mind boggling. Impounding the Balui River, according to Mr Zulkifle, will enable water levels to rise steadily to flood 69,500 hectares of land - an area about the size of Singapore. Bakun will also be the world's second tallest concrete rock-filled dam.

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Great global food waste

Teresa Lim, For The Straits Times 9 Oct 10;

NOT so long ago, the BBC invited four top British chefs to cook a banquet for 60 - out of rubbish. All the meat, fish, vegetables and fruit they wanted to use had to be foraged from bins.

These weren't actual rubbish bins, of course, but near enough. Some of the chefs dug around the large, green wheelie containers that London councils put in street markets for vendors to throw away produce they can't sell because of blemishes or slight age. Other chefs went to supermarkets, cafes and takeaways for food that was about to be chucked out.

No need to feel sick - all the produce had to be approved by a hygienist who made sure they were not infected by bacteria, and were safe to eat.

The point of the programme, called 'The Great British Waste Menu', was to highlight how offhand and unthinking we have become about surplus. For instance, fish-and-chip shops regularly discard perfectly good fish, offcuts from the standard pieces they need for the fryer.

In one clip, a delicatessen manager was on the point of tossing out two huge joints of beef that were near their use-by age. They were meant for roast beef sandwiches which he was no longer going to put on the week's menu. Has nobody heard of the freezer?

In Britain, such waste amounts to more than £2 billion (S$4 billion) a year in the retail food industry alone. Nobody has started to count yet the figure for homes, but it's easy to guess it will be huge. The BBC's cameras were allowed into the house of a well-dressed but overweight woman, who opened her fridge to reveal shelves crammed with food.

She could hardly remember what she had, let alone what was still edible. The chefs rescued some packs of salmon just beyond their use-by date. These didn't actually get past the beady-eyed food hygienist back in the kitchens.

Obesity is a growing problem in Britain. At the National Health Service, there has been more than a tenfold increase since the year 2000 in the number of people accepting procedures to reduce the size of their stomachs. In 2008, 1,378 gastric bands were fitted on overweight patients while 504 had their stomachs stapled, according to statistics quoted in London's The Sunday Times.

Looking at the frankly fat lady with her over-full fridge, the uncharitable thought came to mind that eating and wasting less would do her figure (and her health) a power of good. With regard to those packs of salmon, the thought clearly never entered her mind to freeze and save them. In Britain, town councils are threatening to weigh people's rubbish so there is less waste and the cost of rubbish disposal can come down.

In Britain, the wide range of consumer goods, once only dreamt of, is now taken for granted. We expect to have salmon and lamb, avocado and rocket, artisanal chocolate puddings or lemon tarts at the snap of our fingers. The supermarkets jump to obey.

There was a time when we believed consumerism was what kept our economies going. Now we know not only that it has its limits - cue the credit crunch - but also that, carried to its logical conclusion, rabid consumerism will decimate forests and empty mines. It is a raging fire that will burn itself out only when we have cut down all the world's wood.

Driving in the north-west of England recently, we stopped at a service station that had not just a Waitrose for the delectation of hungry motorists, but also a Marks and Spencer. Both are well known for the breadth and luxury of their food range.

I will never forget the wall of chilled cabinets in Waitrose for the sandwiches alone, nor the silently staring customers lined up opposite them, paralysed by the 20 different ways you can package slices of white or brown bread with a little something in between - smoked salmon and cream cheese, chicken caesar, roast beef and horseradish, crayfish and rocket, prawn mayonnaise, seafood cocktail, gammon and cheddar, turkey club... You get the picture. Those customers were overwhelmed by the choice, not delighting in it.

Who does eat all these sandwiches? In London, cafes and restaurants do give unsold food to the homeless at the end of the day. But here in countryside west of the Pennines? My guess is it all gets binned.

Food scientists are forever going on about the need for genetically modified food because of shortages globally. However, to develop new strains of food, more money needs to be spent on research and development. It seems wanton not to think first about cutting down on waste and doing something with the resources that are saved. That £2 billion a year could do a lot for irrigation systems in Africa, helping people grow and conserve their own food.

The Great British Waste feast was, by the way, a huge success. The canapes, the starter, the main course, the pudding - from previously discarded courgette, fish, beef, strawberries - were miracles of elegance and taste. Nobody complained and nobody, as far as we know, died of food poisoning.

Start using up what's in your fridge and freezer now.

The writer is a Singaporean based in London.

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Geoengineering the Planet - What is At Stake for Africa?

Diana Bronson AllAfrica.com 7 Oct 10;

Geoengineering is playing an increasingly more prominent role in northern-led approaches to tackling climate change, writes Diana Bronson, with proponents dismissively oblivious to the social and environmental consequences for populations around the world.

While geoengineering - the intentional large-scale modification of the earth's systems, including systems related to climate - may sound like science fiction, it is in fact an increasingly hot topic in climate change policy circles of industrialised countries. Less frequently discussed are the impacts this emerging policy orientation - and the technologies if they were ever deployed - will have on Africa.

With the publication of the UK Royal Society's report last year,[1] meetings organised by the National Academy of Sciences, parliamentary and congressional hearings on the topic in the UK and the US,[2] millions of dollars flowing in research funds from both well-known billionaires (such as Bill Gates, formerly of Microsoft, and Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines)[3] and new programmes on their way,[4] it is time for civil society actors and governments in the rest of the world to take notice. In fact, an international, transparent, democratic debate on these strategies and technologies is long overdue.

Changing the climate, as is obvious by the unintentional damage already inflicted on this overstretched planet, is not something that will respect national borders. Geoengineers (scientists, entrepreneurs and policy advocates) have a number of technologies they propose to study, experiment and eventually use. They fall into three broad categories:

1. The first set of geoengineering strategies is known as solar radiation management (SRM). These proposals aim to reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the planet by reflecting more of it back to space, therefore reducing atmospheric warming. This is known as increasing the Earth's albedo. SRM proposals include shooting massive amounts of sulphur dioxide or aluminium aerosols or engineered nanoparticles into the stratosphere, making clouds whiter by spraying seawater at them, covering deserts with plastic, painting mountaintops white or creating a layer of foaming bubbles on the surface of the ocean.

2. The second set of technologies is composed of attempts to draw mega-tonnes of greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere and lock them up either biologically or mechanically. Examples include dumping iron (or urea) into the sea in order to 'fertilise' areas that are poor in nutrients, thereby stimulating the growth of tiny phytoplankton, which will theoretically sequester C02 from the atmosphere in the bottom of the sea. This has never actually worked. Also in this camp are suggestions to change the chemistry of the ocean to improve C02 absorption (known as enhanced weathering), artificial trees or carbon-sucking machines and appropriating and burning forest and crop residues into a charcoal that is subsequently buried for carbon sequestration (called biochar).

3. A third set of geoengineering proposals dispense with controlling the climate and attempt instead to directly control weather - intervening to reduce or redirect hurricanes or seeding clouds for rainfall in drying regions. Such technologies are widely practiced (150 incidents in 40 countries according to one report)[5] and are often connected to military objectives and institutions, being used most famously by the US to impede enemy troop movements during the Vietnam war. Often discussions of geoengineering omit weather modification, but as historian James Fleming has convincingly shown in his book 'Fixing the Sky', the historical and philosophical roots of contemporary geoengineering proposals are found in much older attempts to control the weather.

All of these proposals will have social and environmental impacts that will be felt far away from where the decisions to deploy would be taken. In fact, as the scientific discussion gets more elaborate, and geoengineering gains credibility in Washington and London as climate 'plan b', the whole question of how such technologies could be internationally governed emerges. Increasingly, geoengineering advocates are dismissing the multilateral approach where all countries have a seat at the table and are speaking of 'bottom-up' or 'soft-law' or 'voluntary guidelines' as a stand-in for binding international law.[6] Seemingly oblivious to the fact that industrialised countries have sabotaged every sensible multilateral approach to climate change, they are now saying that more informal governance arrangements are required. Perhaps global governance by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), the G20 or the Major Economies Forum? Or simply a coalition of the willing - anything but the United Nations, where all countries have a seat at the table.

STRATOSPHERIC AEROSOLS ... AND IMPACTS ON THE GROUND

One of the most talked about 'solar radiation management' technologies involves shooting tiny particles of sulphur dioxide or aluminium into the upper layer of the atmosphere known as the stratosphere (up to about 50km from earth). This essentially imitates large and powerful volcanoes by spreading dust, so that more sun gets reflected back to space than would naturally be the case, thereby creating a cooling effect without in any way reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

This artificial cooling is treating the symptom rather than the cause of global warming and is liable to entail many negative side effects. No one really knows exactly what those effects will be because computer models are notoriously simplistic and cannot accurately predict how a complex climate system will react to attempts to engineer it. Nor do even the best scientists really understand how the climate system works. Nevertheless, one effect that does show up on several computer simulations as well as historical record (after Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1991) is less precipitation and more disturbances in the African and Indian monsoons. Needless to say, this would cause a massive disruption in agricultural production, potentially threatening the food supplies of up to 2 billion people.[7] Other negative impacts of this technology could include whiter skies, damage to the ozone layer, less effective solar energy, obstruction of astronomy, continuing ocean acidification and a host of unknown other ecosystem disturbances. Finally, if the injections needed to be stopped, very quick and very dangerous warming would occur without any time for human or ecosystem adaptation.[8]

This is also one of the most centralised of the technologies, and is arguably very cheap to execute and quick to cause an impact. Military institutions and contractors would certainly be used to develop the hardware (Boeing, for instance, is already working on this). A single state, a small coalition of countries, a corporation, or even an individual could execute such a plan for a relatively modest sum. Furthermore, who would decide at what temperature the earth's thermostat should be set? Who would control the size of the particles to be used? And who would have the power to cancel such an experiment should its effects be worse than anticipated? Wars are fought over much less.

Finally, there is no 'field' where the 'stratospheric option' can be tested - we have but one planet earth. While one very small-scale test has already been done in Russia,[9] it could not actually prove anything about how aerosols would act if deployed at the massive scale that would be required in order to affect the climate. As Alan Robock and his colleagues have written:

'... geoengineering cannot be tested without full-scale implementation. The initial production of aerosol droplets can be tested on a small scale, but how they will grow in size (which determines the injection rate needed to produce a particular cooling) can only be tested by injection into an existing aerosol cloud, which cannot be confined to one location. Furthermore, weather and climate variability preclude observation of the climate response without a large, decade-long forcing. Such full-scale implementation could disrupt food production on large scale.'[10]

BIOCHAR OR CHARCOAL FOR THE EARTH

Biochar is without a doubt the geoengineering technology that already sees Africa as its preferred testing ground. Unused agricultural 'waste', or crops and wood from trees grown for this purpose, are burnt under low-oxygen conditions in a process known as pyrolisis (a type of gasification) and then added to the soil where they remain stored allegedly for 'hundreds to thousands of years'.[11] In addition to supposedly safely sequestering carbon, the process delivers bioenergy as a by-product that can replace some fossil fuel uses. Already, biochar projects are underway in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Namibia, Niger, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.[12]

There is a huge amount of hype about biochar, and people who are desperate for solutions can be surprisingly credulous. Consider this interview with Laurens Rademaker from the Biochar Fund, a 'social profit' that is 'cash-flow positive' offering 'investment opportunities':

'The benefits to these farmers are instant and very significant. With biochar, they can jump from being undernourished to well-fed, and from subsistence farmer to a peasant that can sell some surplus--after only one or two harvests.'[13]

None of this has been scientifically proven and most of it is profoundly illogical. In fact, no reliable studies on the long-term impact of biochar on soils have been done. Sometimes parallels are drawn with the ancient Amazonian practice of terra preta, but they have more to do with public relations than science. We do not know for example how different feedstocks affect biochar's chemical and physical properties; or about its long-term stability in the soil; and then the social and economic constraints and impacts have barely been thought about.[14] UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) advises that biochar plantations should be treated with great caution and that the impacts on long-term agricultural sustainability and biodiversity are unknown.[15] But this does not stop the carbon profiteers and charlatans from promoting it: in fact ConocoPhilipps Canada, which is involved in Alberta tar-sands production, is actively working to get biochar accredited in international carbon markets![16] It is what Eduardo Galeano would call upside-down: dirty oil that digs up long-buried carbon as fossil fuels and then buys carbon credits by burning up living carbon in Africa using a technology that is highly contested, but that markets itself as a solution.

The other main problem with biochar is the huge amount of land that would be required for its industrial production - hundreds of millions of hectares. If every last stalk and twig is grabbed to be burnt and buried, biodiversity would be undermined, soil nutrients would be robbed and people (especially those with insecure land tenure) would be forced off their land. Diverse and carbon-rich ecosystems would be further disturbed and commercialised as every last bit of nature is subjected to carbon markets that work in favour of those who design the rules and control the capital - and allow the overproduction and overconsumption of the industrialised North to continue unabated.[17]

2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity and it is also a year of critical decisions on these planet-altering schemes. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will hold its biannual Conference of Parties (a meeting of environment ministers from 193 countries) in Nagoya, Japan, in October 2010. That meeting will take stock of the crisis of biodiversity with species extinction, deforestation, overfishing and the energy and climate crises fighting for space on its agenda. Some voices at that meeting will seek to protect biodiversity from the ravages of overconsumption, monocultures, fossil fuel addiction and rampant urbanisation. Others will promote growth, market mechanisms and techno-fixes above all other considerations, blindly commodifying every last bit of air, land and sea. This latter group are liable to see geoengineering the earth as an option to be considered, rather than a dangerous practice to be stopped.

At the meeting of the CBD's Scientific Body on Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA), which met in Nairobi in May 2010, a moratorium on geoengineering activities was proposed: '[N]o climate-related geo-engineering activities [are to] take place until there is an adequate scientific basis on which to justify such activities and appropriate consideration of the associated risks for the environment and biodiversity and associated social, economic and cultural impacts.' This resolution alone will not be enough to stop the scientific hubris and political arrogance behind geoengineering, but it would at least stop the most aggressive entrepreneurs from being able to conduct experiments while the majority of the world's peoples and governments have only just begun to learn what these technologies are. It is vital that African countries and other members of the G77 and China stand firm on this moratorium and put the policy emphasis back where it belongs: on the responsibilities of the wealthy countries who caused the problem of climate change in the first place.

The CBD adopted a moratorium on ocean fertilisation back in 2008 and it has been largely successful, despite the Lohafex experiment which sailed off South African shores in early 2009.[18] Since then, the science on ocean fertilisation has overwhelmingly discredited the practice, with well-known oceanographers urging us all that 'it is time to move on.'[19] We must build on this precedent and ensure that no geoengineering experiments be allowed to take place on land, in the seas or in space. A civil society campaign calling for precisely such a moratorium on geoengineering experiments was launched earlier this year at the World Summit on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, hosted by the Bolivian government. It is called Hands Off Mother Earth, or HOME.

You can join the movement by sending your photograph - with your hand up to signal your opposition - a message of support to photo@handsoffmotherearth.org.

* Diana Bronson is a member of ETC Group.

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Waste pickers offer climate change solution

Karl Malakunas Yahoo News 7 Oct 10;

TIANJIN, China (AFP) – Maya Khodave normally spends her days rummaging through rubbish dumps in a crowded Indian city but this week she is in China to offer herself as part of the solution to tackling global warming.

Dressed in a colourful sari, the slightly built 23-year-old has dazzled amid a wall of dark-suited negotiators at United Nations climate change talks while trying to raise awareness about the value of waste pickers around the world.

"We play a very important role in the environment, yet our work is not recognised," Khodave told reporters on the sidelines of the event in Tianjin, her voice strong and loud but tears occasionally welling in her eyes.

There are about 15 million people in cities across the developing world who survive by collecting rubbish, according to the Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance (GAIA), a non-government organisation that brought Khodave to China.

People such as Khodave can play an important role in combating climate change because they cheaply and efficiently gather materials such as paper, metal and organic waste, then sort them and send them off for recycling.

"For one tonne of paper we gather for recycling, we save 17 trees," Khodave said.

However, while the UN process under the Kyoto Protocol rewards companies for burning waste and extracting gas from landfill, the waste pickers and recycling have been ignored.

Through a UN programme called the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), polluting companies in rich countries can claim "carbon credits" by supporting projects in developing nations that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

CDM has backed 186 waste-to-energy projects, primarily landfill gas and incinerators, in countries such as India, but so far no recycling projects have been funded, according to the GAIA.

The waste-to-energy projects are backed through the CDM because they are seen as helping reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that are blamed for global warming.

But Khodave said the CDM projects were devastating for waste pickers' livelihoods because it meant they often got far less access to rubbish.

Private companies would often come in to cities to collect the waste for the incinerators, while guards would protect the rubbish at landfills, she said.

"These companies are burning waste and making briquettes from it. What this means is we cannot make compost anymore, we are not able to send the materials for recycling," said Khodave, who is a leader of an Indian waste pickers union.

Making matters worse, the waste-to-energy projects were often not nearly as green as they claimed, according to GAIA's climate change director, Neil Tangri, who was also in Tianjin for the UN talks.

Tangri said landfills leaked significant amounts of methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas, while waste incinerators emitted a third more carbon dioxide than coal-fired power plants to produce the same amount of energy.

"The irony is that not only do they have direct emissions of their own... they reduce the amount of recycling," Tangri said.

Promoting recycling would be a much effective way for the UN to help deal with waste in developing countries, according to Tangri.

GAIA and a small group of other NGOs are calling on the UN to support waste pickers by providing them with support through a planned climate fund that is being discussed during the Tianjin talks.

The climate fund is part of a complex package of initiatives countries are trying to establish as part of a hoped-for global pact to curb greenhouse gases.

But the waste pickers' campaign is as much about raising awareness and securing recognition as it is about money, according to Tangri.

"They are the poorest of the poor, governments don't like to deal with them, society doesn't have much respect for them," he said.

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Deforestation deal offers rare hope in climate change fight

Claire Snegaroff Yahoo News 8 Oct 10;

TIANJIN, China (AFP) – An ambitious plan to fight climate change by paying states to preserve their forests could be a rare bright spot at next month's UN climate talks -- but many questions remain unresolved.

The REDD+ mechanism -- Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation -- offers financial compensation to countries such as Indonesia, Brazil and Congo River basin states if they protect vital tropical forests.

Deforestation accounts for nearly 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions -- more than the global transportation sector and second only to the energy sector -- and destroys the earth's precious pollution-absorbing carbon sinks.

In the Chinese city of Tianjin, where negotiators are trying this week to break a stalemate in United Nations talks for a global warming deal before next month's summit in Mexico, REDD+ has emerged as a potential rallying point.

"We were very close to an agreement in Copenhagen (last year)," a European negotiator told AFP on condition of anonymity. "But the end of the conference was so chaotic, we weren't able to get it through the chain of approval."

Delegates were working on a framework agreement enshrining the mechanism and a series of "safeguards" to prevent states from violating the rights of their indigenous peoples in the name of forest protection.

In the meantime, Norway and France signalled they were unwilling to wait for the often laborious UN negotiations to conclude and launched their own initiative.

Northern countries have already pledged four billion dollars over three years to the programme.

But many obstacles remain before REDD+ can help halt deforestation, according to Greenpeace's international forest climate campaigner Paul Winn.

Parties "have done everything to avoid the issues", Winn said.

Prickly, but fundamental, issues include: How to put a price on each tonne of avoided carbon? Should calculations be based on past deforestation or future plans? How can nations prevent forests from being held hostage for ransom?

And perhaps the most important question is: the cost of REDD+ is estimated at tens of billions of dollars per year -- where will the money come from?

The idea of financing the fight against deforestation, even in part, through carbon markets as proposed by the European Union has sparked a furious reaction from non-governmental organisations and Bolivia, the main opponents to the scheme.

For Greenpeace, such a system risks reducing pressure on developed countries to reduce their own emissions because they could "buy" cheap pollution rights.

"Mother Nature is not for sale," Bolivia's chief negotiator, Pablo Solon, insisted on Wednesday.

In addition there are concerns over how to protect the rights of indigenous people without violating the sovereignty of the affected states.

"This will not be easily resolved," the European negotiator said.

Finally, how to guarantee the money goes to the right people?

"Corruption is a big threat because there is really going to be a lot of money," said Victoria Tauli-Carpuz, a member of the delegation from the Philippines in Tianjin.

The number of outstanding issues will require years of negotiation, Greenpeace's Winn said.

In the meantime, some 13 million hectares (32.1 million acres) of forest -- a space equal to the size of Greece -- vanishes each year.

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China blames climate talks impasse on rich nations

* China presses developed countries to improve targets
* China official says talks "losing trust"
* Rich economies say they need to work out legal fine print
Chris Buckley Reuters AlertNet 8 Oct 10;

TIANJIN, China, Oct 8 (Reuters) - China said rich nations must vow greater cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and warned of lost trust in talks over a climate change deal, while rich countries accused Beijing of under cutting progress.

Feuding on Friday over the future of a key U.N. treaty on fighting climate change, the Kyoto Protocol, has diluted hopes that negotiations in the Chinese city of Tianjin can lay a firm base for agreeing on a new, binding climate deal next year.

The week-long talks end on Saturday and are the last before a high-level meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in less than two months.

Kyoto's first phase ends in 2012 and what happens after that is in contention, with rich and poor countries disagreeing over whether Kyoto should be extended or replaced with a new treaty that covers all big greenhouse gas polluting nations.

In a sometimes combative meeting of hundreds of negotiators, Huang Huikang, China's Special Representative for Climate Change Negotiations, said negotiators were losing trust in each other.

"Today here in Tianjin we really need to rebuild trust and confidence. We are losing confidence and trust," Huang said.

"We are all concerned about the slow status of our negotiations."

The United Nations is worried the talks will stall and create a gap in application from 2013 which could halt Kyoto's $20.6 billion carbon market.

TARGETS

Beijing wants to keep Kyoto and its firm division between the duties of rich economies and poorer ones, including China.

Washington and other rich nations want a new pact to reflect the surge in emissions from the developing world, now accounting for more than half of annual global greenhouse gas pollution.

And China wants developed countries to offer far more ambitious carbon cuts before emerging economies also shift.

"Now the key issue is the lack of any substantive progress on the developed countries' side. If Annex 1 countries take the lead in the mitigation process, I suppose developing countries will do their part," Huang told reporters.

Kyoto binds 37 rich, or Annex 1, nations to meet quantified emissions reduction targets, also called mitigation goals. Under Kyoto, developing countries take voluntary steps to curb the growth of their emissions.

The European Union's climate chief, Connie Hedegaard, urged negotiators in Tianjin "to make compromises within the next 24 hours".

"We need a substantial package of decisions to be taken in Cancun in order to keep the momentum, to show that international negotiations can deliver," she told reporters in Helsinki.

China is the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, having passed the United States, but its emissions per-capita remain well below Western levels.

China's emissions are set to keep growing for years to come, and it wants rich nations to slash theirs so that it and other developing countries have the room to grow. [ID:nLDE68L23Z]

Huang, the Chinese climate envoy, said the developed nations under Kyoto "must reach the target of more than 40 percent emissions reduction based on the 1990 level (by 2020)."

That position is far beyond present targets from the developed world: the U.S. Senate is struggling to approve a vow to cut emissions by about 4 percent below 1990 levels.

The wrangling in Tianjin also underscored how vulnerable the tortuous negotiations are to procedural push and shove.

Several delegates said China, backed by Brazil, opposed opening up broader discussion of legal issues raised by inserting new numbers into an extended Kyoto after 2012.

"China and Brazil are very strongly of the opinion that it makes no sense to start discussing those legal issues as long as there is no clarity about the (emissions target) numbers", said Wendel Trio, a climate change expert with Greenpeace.

-- Additional reporting by Terhi Kinnunen in Helsinki (Editing by David Fogarty and Gerard Wynn)

China warns trust ebbing from climate talks
Yahoo News 8 Oct 10;

TIANJIN, China (AFP) – China on Friday warned trust and confidence are being sapped from long-running UN talks aimed at forging a global deal on climate change, amid a grinding standoff with the United States.

The latest round of negotiations in the Chinese city of Tianjin are aimed at laying the foundations for a UN summit on global warming in Mexico next month, after world leaders failed to broker a binding deal in Copenhagen last year.

But while delegates said some incremental progress has been made in Tianjin this week, others said much more action is needed while major players China and the United States gave no ground in their stand-off.

"I want to emphasise no compromise... on the interests of developing countries," the Chinese foreign ministry's special representative for climate change, Huang Huikang, told delegates ahead of Saturday's final session.

"We are losing trust and confidence."

Huang had earlier repeated China's long-held positions that the United States and other rich nations must commit to making bigger cuts in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are blamed for climate change.

He said they must also give money and transfer technology to developing countries to help them cut their emissions and adapt to climate change.

"Now the key is there is a lack of substantive progress on the developed countries' side," Huang told reporters.

The United States, meanwhile, has insisted this week that it will not provide climate funds unless the big developing countries such as China allow their greenhouse gas emission reduction efforts to be monitored and verified.

The same issues were crucial factors in the failure by world leaders to broker a binding deal on climate change in Copenhagen.

Greenpeace international climate policy director Wendel Trio on Friday hit out at the continuing hardline stance from the major players in the talks, saying it was a major roadblock to substantive progress.

"We need to get out of this culture of confrontation," Trio told reporters.

"The culture where governments say: 'We will only move forward if the others move first.' That's not what we want. We want all countries to move forward because of the planet, not because of what others are doing."

Nevertheless, there were signs of progress in some areas that could form the basis for specific agreements at the summit in Cancun, Mexico.

Delegates said one area of potential progress was developing a framework for a fund that would distribute money to poor nations to mitigate and cope with climate change.

Rich nations 'failing to deliver climate cash'
Roger Harrabin BBC News 8 Oct 10;

Rich nations are failing to live up to their promise of giving US$30bn to poor countries to help them cope with climate change, according to a report.

The money was pledged at last year's Copenhagen summit in order to build trust between rich and poor nations.

The scheme - championed by former UK PM Gordon Brown - is supposed to deliver the funds by the end of 2012.

But a report to the German government says much of the money has been taken from other aid budgets.

If the findings are correct, it confirms allegations by pressure groups that rich countries are repackaging existing funds and presenting them as special climate finance.

Campaigners claim programmes to tackle poverty will suffer if this is allowed to happen.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

If we are not careful a big chunk of the money will go in paying wealthy consultants from rich countries to find out how much money is new”

End Quote John Drexage IISD, Canada

Cash transfer from rich to poor is a major theme at the Tianjin climate conference, the last major gathering before this year's UN climate summit in Mexico.

Delegates also heard an update about potential sources for the agreed $100bn long-term climate finance.

The report on the $30bn short-term cash is by the consultancy Climate Analytics. It says a total of $31.2bn has been pledged so far - more than the amount promised at the global gathering in the Danish capital last December.

Devil in detail

But the question is what counts as "new and additional finance". The term was used in the controversial Copenhagen Climate Accord, but has no agreed definition.

The paper concludes that if the only funds counted are new climate funds additional to official aid budgets since Copenhagen, then the sum raised so far is just $8.2bn.

A more generous definition of additional finance might see the allowable funds swelled to $17bn - but even this is far from the $30bn figure.

The report says there is very little transparency in rich countries' pledges.

The claim comes as rich nations are demanding transparency in developing nations' actions to tackle climate change.

"There must be much better verification of developed countries' finance proposals," Xie Zhenhua, China's chief climate negotiator, told BBC News.

Bill Hare from Climate Analytics said: "This is a really important issue because so much trust has been lost in the climate negotiations with so many rich nations failing to live up to their legally binding targets to cut emissions, then asking the developing nations to do more to tackle climate change.

"This fund will look like a scam if it's not improved. If you can't have trust - and this process has been severely damaged by lack of trust - it's going to be very bad news indeed."

John Drexage from the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) in Canada told BBC News: "We mustn't get too obsessed about this - if we are not careful a big chunk of the money will go in paying wealthy consultants from rich countries to find out how much money is new."

A former diplomat was more cynical about the "smoke and mirrors" of international finance: "Treasuries don't allow ministers to make spending pledges - they go into a side room and warn there is no new money available - then they get creative as to how to present a package that will look good on paper.

"There's a huge amount of grey area here - it's impossible to be precise on these figures."

Meanwhile, the meeting heard about progress from the high-level advisory panel tasked with finding the annual $100bn to be given by rich nations to poor nations from 2020.

This also formed part of the Copenhagen Accord from 2020, and the US$100bn was again first mooted by Gordon Brown, as a way to help poor countries cope with the projected consequences of climate change.

The panel's spokesman, Daniele Violetti, said the report would be finalised next week.

"The group is not proposing a 'silver bullet' for every problem - it's more a question of assessing what various revenues could generate over time," he said.

There could be eight sources of finance, most of them coming from the public sector.

It is reported that the panel has been considering bunker fuel taxes for aviation and shipping, but that a proposed Tobin tax (levy on currency traded across national borders) on financial transactions has been quashed by the US.

The panel's conclusions will be examined closely because the US and the UK both insist that public sector money will be used to leverage private sector investment - much of it from the carbon markets.

Henry Derwent, CEO of the International Emissions Trading Association, said governments might be over-estimating the cash that could be generated from markets.

"The current maximum primary market investment under the CDM (Clean Development Mechanism - the official international carbon trading market) is $2-3bn a year," he told BBC News.

"With the current trend in carbon prices, it doesn't seem to be going in the right direction to me - so it's hard to see how this could contribute a large proportion of $100bn."

The carbon market will burgeon if a comprehensive global deal on emissions is agreed - but observers in Tianjin are not optimistic that will happen in the next few years, if at all.

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Best of our wild blogs: 8 Oct 10

Metamorphosis - the Birth of a New (Butterfly) Book
from Butterflies of Singapore

16 Oct (Sat): Talk on "Butterflies of Singapore"
from Celebrating Singapore's BioDiversity!

Birds at Buloh
from Trek through Paradise

Digging around at Pandan Reservoir
from Water Quality in Singapore

Red Junglefowl – eclipse adult male
from Bird Ecology Study Group

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Sengkang stink lingers

Huge compost heap from Punggol Way site fouls mood of residents; contractor working to clear the air
Amresh Gunasingham & Ted Chen Straits Times 8 Oct 10;

THE stench was unbearable. It was so smelly some people could not sleep. Others felt nauseous and dizzy. Two weeks after it was reported that a stink had enveloped pockets of the Sengkang estate in the north-east, the smell still lingers.

Residents have complained in droves, and the National Environment Agency (NEA) is now taking further action.

It had earlier pinned the blame for the smell on a 200-tonne mound of rotting food and woodchips dumped at a construction site in Punggol Way.

The NEA served a nuisance order under the Environmental Public Health Act on the contractor - construction giant Koh Brothers - to clear the mound immediately. But this warning was not heeded, and now the agency says it will fine the contractor - as much as $10,000, said an NEA spokesman yesterday.

Mr David Tay, group public relations manager of Koh Brothers, said lorries have been deployed since last Friday to cart away the excess compost, a week after the original report.

The NEA spokesman said the stench could have spread while the compost was being excavated. 'Removal work is ongoing and the contractor has since engaged more lorries to increase the number of trips made to the incineration plants.'

But Mr Tay said the stink cannot be helped. He said the source of the smell is compost, which is needed as fertiliser to turf the land.

In January last year, Koh Brothers was awarded two contracts worth about $200 million by the Housing Board (HDB) to develop the area into housing estates.

Compost is needed to fertilise land being developed for the upcoming Punggol Waterfront project, the company said.

It is understood that a large amount of compost is needed as the site has been zoned an eco-precinct by the HDB, meaning the environment will be replete with more greenery. Mr Tay said sub-contractors employed by Koh Brothers may have 'overestimated' the amount of compost needed.

But he admitted the mound may not have been properly covered in the evenings. And it certainly has raised a stink among residents in the area.

Over the past two weeks, some 169 complaints have been lodged with the NEA, with 49 of them made yesterday.

Residents have also aired their gripes online. The community forum on Sengkang.com shows more than 100 postings about the odour.

Student Sufiyan Hassan, 15, of Compassvale Secondary in Sengkang, said his entire school compound stank yesterday morning for several hours.

'We couldn't concentrate on work, and all of us had to cover our noses with our shirts,' said the student, whose school is about 1km from the site. 'Have you ever been to Mandai Zoo? That's what it smelt like.'

Madam Charinee Wongkat, 25, who lives in Sengkang East Way, 1.7km from the construction site, said the smell was at its worst last week. 'It was very smelly and we couldn't sleep. It lasted the whole night,' said the housewife, who had to resort to closing her flat's windows.

Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC MP Charles Chong told The Straits Times he received complaints as recently as last week, though none yesterday.

He intends to gather feedback from residents at today's Meet the People session about the latest occurrence and survey the site personally.

Professor Phillip Eng, a consultant respiratory physician at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre, said the odour was unlikely to be harmful as it would take a cumulative inhalation of toxics over an extended period to cause any harm.

Koh Brothers said it will moderate the amount of compost used at the construction site and make sure the mound is covered properly.

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