Indonesia: Strengthening environmental safeguards

Peter Oksen and Taswin Munier, Jakarta Post 11 Dec 14;

Protecting the environment starts with policymaking as well as the development and design of projects. Environmental safeguarding tools can minimize hidden environmental costs and should be brought to the forefront of the environmental agenda by the new Environment and Forestry Ministry.

Most previous plans and projects in Indonesia have resulted in the accelerated degradation of natural resources. This will eventually create costs. Those who will have to bear the costs are the affected locals, the state and hence its tax payers. From an international point of view, the resulting loss of unique biodiversity and climate change impacts are of very high concern.

Environmental costs are often hidden costs as they are not well known and not included in the economic calculations used for evaluating the profitability of a project.

This could be costs associated with loss of habitat and the pollution of rivers, soil, the sea and air. The pollution could, for example, result in fewer catches of fish or the poisoning of people living off polluted land and breathing polluted air.

Usually, no budget is set to mitigate the costs as such costs are often referred to as externalized costs.

However, internationally, and also in Indonesia, increasing attention is being placed on externalized costs.

Methods and policies are developed to include these costs and concerns in the planning and permit-acquisition process. Green banking, triple bottom line, full-cost accounting, ecoBudget, extended cost-benefit analyses and many other tools and methods have been developed, often used voluntarily by large companies as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies.

And then there are the officially required Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA/KLHS) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA/AMDAL).

These two tools are presently the only commonly used environmental safeguarding tools in Indonesia.

As such, their effective implementation is critical for maintaining the biodiversity and environmental quality of Indonesia.

The SEA/KLHS is used to evaluate the environmental impacts of plans and policies. According to the Environmental Law, all major plans shall have a SEA made as part of the planning process, that is, not after the plan is finalized.

In the SEA, all impacts, including bio-physical, chemical, social, economic, health, and cultural, are assessed in a systematic way.

The focus is on strategic issues, that is, issues that cut across boundaries, population groups, regions, areas, and projects. Ideally, the externalized costs of a plan and policy should be calculated to give an idea of what hidden costs may be present.

If done well, a SEA will act as a policy dialogue tool for planners and policy makers, to engage the public and experts in making a plan or policy that is as green as possible. Recently, a major SEA has been completed on the Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Development (MP3EI).

The EIA/AMDAL is similar to SEA, only it is assessing a specific project rather than a plan. However, the EIA is also part of the permit-acquisition process and must be approved before a project can be implemented.

Both SEA and EIA were anchored in the former environment ministry, while the actual assessments are made by the plan, policy, and project owners who often hire specialized consultants to write them.

In the case of SEA, its development as an efficient policy dialogue tool has been slowed down by a lack of clear government regulations, which has resulted in six ministries having their own guidelines.

It is therefore difficult to apply a coherent approach to SEA’s and there is a need for a central agency to provide technical guidance and quality assurance.

With the merging of the environment and forestry ministries, there is a golden opportunity to take up and reinforce this important role. The Danish government and the Danish International Development Agency (Danida) support the development of SEA and EIA through the Environmental Support Program.

The new ministry should take the lead in ensuring efficient and focused SEA’s and EIA’s of high technical quality.

This could have an enormous positive impact on both the environment and forests in Indonesia.


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Peter Oksen is national program advisor and Taswin Munier is the national program administrator at the Danish International Development Agency (Danida) Environmental Support Program. The views are personal.

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Hong Kong's rich biodiversity threatened by lack of public awareness

Karen Lee says more must be done by the government, as few seem aware of its efforts to engage people in the development of an effective conservation strategy
Karen Lee South China Morning Post 11 Dec 14;

With more than 500 species of bird, 50 species of mammal, 100 reptile and amphibian species and countless species of insect - including several that are unique to the territory - Hong Kong's rich biodiversity should be treasured; protecting it should be a broad community endeavour.

The international Convention on Biological Diversity was extended to Hong Kong in 2011. It requires the government to develop, in collaboration with the community, a biodiversity strategy and action plan that takes into consideration local needs and priorities.

In his last policy address, the chief executive announced the launch of Hong Kong's participatory process for the action plan. Unlike a typical public consultation, in which pre-formulated policy options are offered up for people to offer feedback, the strategy is supposed take an open form, with public engagement from the start.

This is the first time such a policy process has been attempted in Hong Kong. It involves a three-tiered committee structure, bringing together stakeholders including government officials, academics, environmental non-government organisations and conservationists. There is also a series of public engagement events, including eight roving exhibitions and four public lectures run by the government. These meetings will forge the parameters for a more traditional public consultation, set to begin early next year. So what happens in those meetings is crucial.

Unfortunately, despite these engagement efforts, the public remains largely unaware of the plan. Publicity has been inadequate. Although the lectures were open to all, little news of their existence reached the wider public. At the first, walk-in participants voiced their concerns about the lack of promotion.

Although two engagement forums were held in June, details were not announced until a few days beforehand. As a result, the participants were mainly existing committee members, principally NGO representatives. Three YouTube videos were produced by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) to promote the biodiversity strategy and action plan in March. Yet, on average, they have each attracted around 700 views since their launch. Evidently, the promotion of the high-quality videos must be improved.

Furthermore, as the strategy is intended to develop a holistic approach to managing biodiversity, it requires the collaboration of all government departments to incorporate biodiversity considerations into mainstream policies, from housing to health. Yet, it appears that only the AFCD is heavily involved in its formulation. Such an imbalanced distribution of effort will not get Hong Kong very far in terms of protecting biodiversity.

Clear and in-depth implementation details, including the schedule, budget and specific actions of the plan, should be made available to the public as soon as possible. More thorough public engagement is needed, as are more documents and guidance for the wider public and among government departments, to help raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity conservation. This is the only way Hong Kong can protect its rich biodiversity.

Karen Lee is senior project manager at Civic Exchange

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Biodiversity: Life ­– a status report

Species are disappearing quickly — but researchers are struggling to assess how bad the problem is.
Richard Monastersky Nature 10 Dec 14;

Of all the species that have populated Earth at some time over the past 3.5 billion years, more than 95% have vanished — many of them in spectacular die-offs called mass extinctions. On that much, researchers can generally agree. Yet when it comes to taking stock of how much life exists today — and how quickly it will vanish in the future — uncertainty prevails. (Download a PDF of the graphic.)

Studies that try to tally the number of species of animals, plants and fungi alive right now produce estimates that swing from less than 2 million to more than 50 million. The problem is that researchers have so far sampled only a sliver of Earth’s biodiversity, and most of the unknown groups inhabit small regions of the world, often in habitats that are rapidly being destroyed.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) highlighted the uncertainty in the latest version of its Red List of Threatened Species, which was released in November. The report evaluated more than 76,000 species, a big increase over earlier editions. But that is just 4% of the more than 1.7 million species that have been described by scientists, making it impossible to offer any reliable threat level for groups that have not been adequately assessed, such as fish, reptiles and insects.

Recognizing these caveats, Nature pulled together the most reliable available data to provide a graphic status report of life on Earth (see ‘Life under threat’). Among the groups that can be assessed, amphibians stand out as the most imperilled: 41% face the threat of extinction, in part because of devastating epidemics caused by chytrid fungi. Large fractions of mammals and birds face significant threats because of habitat loss and degradation, as well as activities such as hunting.

Looking forward, the picture gets less certain. The effects of climate change, which are hard to forecast in terms of pace and pattern, will probably accelerate extinctions in as-yet unknown ways. One simple way to project into the future would be to assume that the rate of extinction will be constant; it is currently estimated to range from 0.01% to 0.7% of all existing species a year. “There is a huge uncertainty in projecting future extinction rates,” says Henrique Pereira, an ecologist at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research in Leipzig.

At the upper rate, thousands of species are disappearing each year. If that trend continues, it could lead to a mass extinction — defined as a loss of 75% of species — over the next few centuries.

Conservation policies could slow extinctions, but current trends do not give much comfort. Although nations are expanding the number of land and ocean areas that they set aside for protection, most measures of biodiversity show that pressures on species are increasing. “In general, the state of biodiversity is worsening, in many cases significantly,” says Derek Tittensor, a marine ecologist with the United Nations Environment Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge, UK.

Despite all the uncertainty, researchers agree that they need to devote more attention to evaluating current and future risks to biodiversity. One approach is to develop comprehensive computer models that can forecast how human activities will alter ecosystems. These general ecosystem models, or GEMs, are in their infancy: earlier this year, Tittensor and his colleagues published initial results from the first global model that seeks to mimic all the major ecological interactions on Earth in much the same way as climate models simulate the atmosphere and oceans (M. B. J. Harfoot et al. PLoS Biol.12,e1001841; 2014).

Building the GEM took 3 years, in part because the model tries to represent all organisms with body masses ranging from 10 micrograms (about the weight of small plankton) to 150,000 kilograms (roughly the size of a blue whale). “It needs a lot more development and testing, and ideally there will be a lot more variety of these models,” says Tittensor. But if they do a decent job of capturing the breadth of life in a computer, he says, “they have real potential to alert us to potential problems we wouldn’t otherwise detect”.

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Protecting mangroves can lower disaster risks, offer cash: experts

SALEEM SHAIKH Reuters 11 Dec 14;

LIMA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Better protecting the world's fast-disappearing mangroves could have big economic, social and environmental benefits, experts said at the U.N. climate talks in Lima this week.

Besides protecting shorelines from extreme weather and providing fish a safe place to breed, mangroves could play a big role in trapping climate-changing carbon emissions, something that has so far been largely overlooked, they said.

The world needs to ensure that, at both national and international levels, "mangroves have a place in REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) strategies and other low carbon development strategies such as National Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs),” said Achim Steiner, the U.N. Environment Program's executive director.

Right now, an absence of a carbon finance mechanisms for mangroves, and a lack of policy to support mangrove ecosystems - as well as widespread losses of mangroves themselves - mean hundredsof billions of dollars worth of potential benefits are being lost, the experts said.

As mangroves are cleared at a rate three to five times faster than other forests, according to UNEP estimates, those losses are particularly felt in developing countries where most mangroves are located, including Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Senegal, West Bengal, Vietnam and Sumatra.

A joint report by UNEP and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), launched in Lima, estimates the economic cost of the destruction of carbon-rich mangroves worldwide at $42 billion annually.

Tim Christophersen, a forest and climate change expert with UNEP, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that protecting and conserving mangroves is crucial for the climate resilience of the world’s coastlines as they face threats such as rising sea level, increasingly frequent and powerful storms and saltwater intrusion into drinking water.

The UNEP report argues that while policymakers and financial markets are beginning to take action, more needs to be done to hammer out methodologies for carbon accounting for mangroves and other coastal wetland ecosystems.

That would help conserve mangroves and increase their profile in the U.N.-led REDD+ program and within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the report said.

“The management of coastal wetlands is replete with numerous benefits including fisheries production and shoreline protection which promote adaptation in coastal communities,” said Stephen Crook, climate change director at the California-based environmental science and planning firm ESA, and a lead author of the IPCC’s 2013 wetlands supplement.

KENYA’S MANGROVES

UNEP’s Christophersen shared success stories of coastal wetlands carbon projects launched in India’s West Bengal state, as well as in Kenya, Senegal and Indonesia’s Sumatra island.

For instance, a Gazi Bay community-led carbon finance project in Kenya, which has helped conserve manage and restore 117 hectares of mangroves by late 2014, has been able to certify it is sequestering 3,000 tonnes of carbon and sold carbon credits based on that.

The funds have then been allocated to community protects and additional mangrove activities overseen by the village leaders themselves, Christophersen said.

"One of the many successes of the project is a significant cut in illegal harvesting of mangroves,” he said. The project also has included planting of fast-growing forest species on nearby land to serve as alternate wood sources, and has ensured that communities have ownership of the mangroves, he said.

Crook said that such community-based mangroves protection initiatives could be replicated in countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, and scaled up to help reduce the impacts of tropical cyclones, typhoons and sea level rise.

(Reporting by Saleem Shaikh; editing by Laurie Goering)

To restore mangrove forests, it’s all in the planning
BARBARA FRASER CIFOR 11 Dec 14;

LIMA, Peru—Conservation and restoration of the world’s coastal wetlands and mangroves—threatened by excavation and drainage for shrimp farms and development—can buffer the effects of climate change, protect livelihoods and avoid the emission of thousands of tons of greenhouse gases every year.

But those benefits will wash away with the next storm unless the project is planned well and implemented effectively, experts say.

Drawing on examples from around the world, a new publication from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the UN Environment Program (UNEP) provides guidance for successful wetland or “coastal blue carbon” projects.

“Guiding principles for delivering coastal wetland carbon projects” offers information ranging from an overview of the carbon stored in coastal ecosystems to possibilities for carbon financing.

The publication was launched Dec. 9 at an event hosted by the Indonesian government on the sidelines of the UN climate summit in Lima, Peru.

“This publication is very timely,” Heru Prasetyo, the head of Indonesia’s National REDD+ Agency, said at the book launch. “In the discussion of climate change, the issue of blue carbon, or ecosystems going beyond landscapes and merging into seascapes, is very important.”

'NO SINGLE SIZE FITS ALL’

Coastal wetlands deliver among highest ecosystem service values of all natural systems, said Tim Christopherson, UNEP senior program officer for forests and climate change.

Because they store large amounts of carbon while providing other services—including protection against storm surges, ecotourism opportunities and spawning habitat for fish—mangroves and wetlands both mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and help people living along the coast adapt to a changing climate, said Daniel Murdiyarso, principal scientist at CIFOR and one of the publication’s co-authors.

“The question is how to find synergies between mitigation and adaptation strategies,” he said. “Coastal wetlands vary from place to place, and no single size fits all. There must be options.”
Although inclusion of coastal ecosystems in carbon finance markets is new, lessons can be drawn from around the world, said co-author Stephen Crooks, climate change program manager at Environmental Science Associates (ESA).

The cases examined by the authors included wetlands in Abu Dhabi, China, Guyana, Kenya, the United States and West Papua.

“The fundamental message is to conserve first,” said Crooks, who works with a group that has restored 1,500 wetlands in the past four decades.


Degraded wetlands can be restored, as long as planners remember that mangroves must be planted above the mean tide level and consider factors such as sea level rise and allowing room for wetlands to migrate as conditions change, Crooks said.

That means thinking on a landscape scale and planning for the future, as well as practical considerations, such as dealing with unclear land tenure and restoring natural ecosystem processes instead of resorting to levees and culverts.

“Poor project planning is one of the most important factors in project failure,” Crooks said.

NOT JUST CARBON

The publication offers guidelines for planning a blue carbon project, such as choosing a carbon standard and a greenhouse gas accounting method and evaluating the risk of leakage—the possibility that conservation or restoration of a wetland in one place could lead to more clearing for shrimp farms somewhere else.

The authors also highlight the need to gain support from local residents by stressing the many services mangroves and other coastal wetlands provide.

“These ecosystems aren’t just important for carbon,” Crooks said. They are also important for biological diversity, flood and storm protection, forest products, ecotourism possibilities, and cultural and spiritual values, he said. “And they provide a lot of fish.”

For more information about CIFOR’s research on mangrove forests, please contact Daniel Murdiyarso at d.murdiyarso@cgiar.org.

CIFOR’s research on mangroves forms part of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry.

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Most-wanted environmental fugitives list leads to arrest of ivory suspect

Suspected ivory smuggler arrested in Zambia following first ever public appeal by Interpol to catch environmental criminals
Arthur Neslen The Guardian 11 Dec 14;

Ben Simasiku, a 31-year-old suspected ivory smuggler, has been arrested in Zambia after the first-ever Interpol public appeal, dubbed to track down nine environmental fugitives.

Simasiku had been on the run since a shoot-out between wildlife officials and 13 alleged poachers in Botswana’s Chobe National Park, on the Zambian border in July. One suspected poacher was killed in the gunfight.

Botswana’s authorities reportedly recovered recovered live ammunition, 34 ivory tusks, four axes, four elephant tails, 12 bags of assorted game meat and a digital weighing scale at the scene.

Stefano Carvelli, the head of Interpol’s fugitive investigative support unit told the Guardian: “Since we launched our global public appeal for information, Interpol has received many tips regarding the fugitives sought. The arrest of Ben Simasiku highlights the important role the public can play in helping police locate them. We encourage people worldwide to remain vigilant and to assist in bringing the remaining fugitives to justice.”

Simnasiku was captured by the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA)‘s intelligence and investigations unit on 2 December, and will now face trial in Zambia.

“The Zambian authorities are to be congratulated for acting quickly and capturing this criminal,” said Nathan Gichohi, an officer for the African Wildlife Foundation. “It is important we focus on stopping the middlemen, traffickers and kingpins of the ivory and rhino horn trade as much as the poachers.”

Along with with Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia, Zambia hosts Africa’s largest elephant populations. But since the 1960s, poachers are thought to have killed 90% of Zambia’s 250,000 elephants, and all of its 3,500 black rhino.

As rhino extinctions have spread, the vast majority of rhino poaching now takes place in just two countries, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Forest elephant populations in Africa meanwhile fell by around 62% between 2002 and 2011.

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Best of our wild blogs: 11 Dec 14

December of Dolphins
from wild shores of singapore

Poultry in motion
from The annotated budak

We Need the Sharing Economy
from Green Future Solutions

To collect or not to collect? Experts debate the need for specimens
from Mongabay.com news by Jeremy Hance

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NParks to keep track of monkeys using GPS collars

The one-year project to track the movements of monkeys from different groups will start next year. There were 420 monkey- related complaints this year as of mid-August, compared with 1,860 last year and 920 in 2012.
Feng Zengkun The Straits Times AsiaOne 11 Dec 14;

SINGAPORE - Where exactly do monkeys in Singapore go during the day, and how can this information be used to manage them? The National Parks Board (NParks) intends to find out soon by starting a one-year project to track up to 30 of the long-tailed macaques. Slated to start next year, it will use collars with global positioning system (GPS) to study the monkeys' ranges and movements in areas such as the Central Catchment Nature Reserve.

When asked, NParks said up to 30 of the monkeys from different groups will have collars put on them to understand the groups' movements, "as it is not practical to collar all monkeys".

The collars will have a releasing mechanism that can be triggered remotely, although monkey researchers said there should be a back-up plan to remove them in case the mechanism fails.

Asked how the information could be used to address human-macaque conflicts here, NParks only said that "the study will help guide the development of long-term management strategies for the macaques". But monkey researchers said the authorities could use the data to keep the animals away from homes more effectively, and hopefully without having to cull them.

In August, Ms Sim Ann, an MP for Holland- Bukit Timah GRC, said the monkey issue was "vexing" as many residents complain about the animals, and yet others are upset about the culling.

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) killed about 570 long-tailed macaques last year, and another 100 as of mid-August this year. This was a third of the estimated islandwide population of around 2,000 monkeys.

The culling appeared to have been effective: The AVA said there were 420 monkey-related complaints this year as of mid-August, compared with 1,860 last year and 920 in 2012.

But the researchers said the data could be used, for example, to show residents how much time the monkeys actually spend near their properties, in cases where they may wrongly believe the monkeys are there all the time.

Ms Amy Klegarth, a doctoral candidate at the University of Notre Dame in the United States who has tracked the monkeys here using GPS collars, added that the information could show the authorities which human homes the animals may rely on for food. "If the monkeys spend a lot of time at a particular apartment complex, it's likely because someone there is feeding them reliably, or the rubbish there is poorly sequestered," she said.

The monkeys' movements may also change at different times, for instance during the dry and wet seasons, and based on the fruiting patterns of plants in their diet.

More knowledge about these seasonal changes could help the authorities to refine strategies to keep them away from homes, the researchers said.

The Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) has suggested that the authorities use trained guards to shoo the monkeys away from residential areas. The researchers said this method would be more effective if the authorities could more precisely predict monkeys' movements.

Said Acres macaque rescue team and campaigns executive Sabrina Jabbar: "Collaring one monkey per group would enable us or park rangers to easily locate the groups in conflict zones, to quickly respond to complaints."

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Singapore’s carbon intensity level decreases by 30 per cent

SIAU MING EN Today Online 10 Dec 14;

SINGAPORE — Singapore’s carbon intensity — the amount of carbon dioxide emissions per GDP dollar — fell by 30 per cent between 2000 and 2010, much more than the global average decrease of 0.12 per cent in the same period, noted Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan today (Dec 10).

Speaking at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Lima, Peru, Dr Balakrishnan also noted how Singapore has been generating relatively low levels of carbon emissions per GDP dollar in the world, where it was ranked 113th out of 140 countries.

In the Biennial Update Report — a summary of the country’s actions to mitigate climate change and its effects — that Singapore had just submitted, it noted that the switch to a cleaner fuel mix, from fuel oil to natural gas, was one of the key policy initiatives that resulted in this decrease in carbon intensity levels.

Natural gas has lower carbon content per unit of electricity generated and the proportion of Singapore’s electricity generated by it increased from 26 per cent in 2001 to 84 per cent in 2012.

Other factors that helped lower carbon intensity levels include introducing various schemes that have promoted energy efficiency, such as the Green Mark Scheme for buildings and the Grant for Energy Efficient Technologies for industry.

The conference aims to lay the foundation for a new climate change agreement that will have to be finalised at the next UN Climate Change Conference in Paris next year.

In his speech at the conference, Dr Balakrishnan stressed the need to build momentum for the Paris conference and the importance of encouraging universal participation and recognising each country’s unique national circumstances.

Reaffirming Singapore’s commitment towards dealing with climate change issues, he also cited the recent launch of the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint 2014 as an example of the country’s plans in areas such as energy efficiency and climate resilience.

Singapore to cut carbon intensity by 30 per cent
SIAU MING EN Today Online 11 Dec 14;

SINGAPORE — The Republic has dramatically reduced its carbon intensity — or the amount of carbon dioxide emissions per dollar of gross domestic product — between 2000 and 2010, largely due to its switch from fuel oil to natural gas as the main energy source. Over that period, the carbon intensity fell by 30 per cent, compared to the global average decrease of only 0.12 per cent.

The improvement was revealed by Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan, when he delivered the Republic’s national statement at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Lima, Peru.

Between 2000 and 2010, Singapore’s total greenhouse gas emissions increased by about 21 per cent — to 46.83 million tonnes — while its GDP grew by about 76 per cent. Dr Balakrishnan noted that Singapore has been generating relatively low levels of carbon emissions per GDP dollar, ranking 113th out of 140 countries in the International Energy Agency 2014 Key World Energy Statistics report. “We contribute very little at aggregate level to global emissions but we will play our part,” he said.

Singapore has submitted its first Biennial Update Report — a summary of the country’s actions to mitigate climate change and its effects. The report noted that the Republic’s switch to a cleaner fuel mix was one of the key policy initiatives that led to the decrease in carbon intensity.

The proportion of Singapore’s electricity generated by natural gas – which has lower carbon content per unit of electricity generated – jumped from 26 per cent in 2001 to 84 per cent in 2012.

Other factors that helped lower carbon intensity levels include introducing various schemes that have promoted energy efficiency, such as the Green Mark Scheme - a benchmark for sustainable building practices - and a grant for owners and operators of industrial facilities to invest in energy efficient technologies.

Carbon intensity measures how efficient a country is in its use of fossil fuels such as fuel oil and natural gas.

The report said that the energy and transformation industries, which burn fossil fuels to generate electricity, contributed 46 per cent of the carbon dioxide emissions from fuel combustion in the energy sector in 2010, while industrial activities account for 38 per cent.

Experts hailed Singapore’s achievement in reducing carbon intensity but they noted that more can be done.

For example, Professor Rajasekhar Balasubramanian from the National University of Singapore cited how the public sector has been working towards decarbonisation by building greener buildings and looking at ways to convert waste into energy.

Nanyang Technological University economist Chang Youngho pointed out that efforts to further reduce carbon intensity may be costly. For instance, adopting energy efficient technology may lead to higher production costs, which could in turn affect economic growth.

Mr Kavickumar Muruganathan, Resident Engineer at the Singapore Environment Council, noted that the Grant for Energy Efficient Technologies has not been sufficiently tapped by the private sector since it was put in place in 2005. “More can be done to market these schemes... and get (firms) to switch to clean technology and renewable energy sources,” he said. Still, he said it will be harder to match the strides made in earlier years. “We might not be able to expect such a steep decrease in years to come, primarily due to the limitations in technology and nature,” he said, citing the example of solar energy which cannot yet fully replace natural gas as an energy source given existing technologies and the Republic’s environmental conditions.

At the conference, Dr Balakrishnan reaffirmed Singapore’s commitment to dealing with climate change issues, citing the recent launch of the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint 2015 as an example. The Republic has embarked on policies and measures that will reduce its emissions by 7 to 11 per cent below 2020 business-as-usual levels - estimated to be about 77.2 million tonnes.

The conference in Peru was aimed at laying the foundation for a new climate change agreement that will come into effect in 2020. The agreement has to be finalised at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris next year.

Singapore will do its part to combat climate change: Vivian Balakrishnan
Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia 10 Dec 14;
SINGAPORE: The Republic has achieved a 30 per cent decrease in carbon intensity, for a 10-year period between 2000 and 2010.

Speaking at a UN Climate Change Conference in Lima, Peru on Wednesday (Dec 10), Environment and Water Resources Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said this compares favourably with the global average decrease of 0.12 per cent over the same period.

Singapore is a member of the Small Island Developing States. On a global scale and at an aggregate level, the Republic contributes very little to global emissions. It is ranked 113th out of 140 countries, when it comes to carbon emissions generated per GDP dollars.

However, every little bit counts when it comes to combating climate change and Singapore will do its part, said Dr Balakrishnan.

Through various Government initiatives, the country has achieved a substantial decrease in carbon intensity, such as the move in the Year 2000 to switch from fuel oil to natural gas - a cleaner form of fossil fuel.

Today, close to 90 per cent of power in Singapore is produced by natural gas. There have also been moves to encourage the development of green buildings with energy-saving features and getting industries to take up machinery to reduce electricity consumption.

A reduction in carbon intensity essentially means that even as the nation develops, Singapore has managed to keep the levels of pollution in the country low. The challenge is in getting consumers and industries to reduce their reliance on energy and switch to clean energy sources.

In Peru, Dr Balakrishnan underlined the importance of encouraging universal participation and recognising each country's unique national circumstances in order to build a durable and effective global agreement on climate change.

“So for Singapore, we are a small island, we import almost 100 per cent of our energy needs and at the same time, we are alternative-energy constrained. By which we mean we have no access to renewable energy sources,” said director of the National Climate Change Secretariat, Mr Yuen Sai Kuan.

“For us, the most likely renewable energy source that we can tap on is solar, but even then, with the current state of technology, there are some limitations. For example, if there is thick cloud cover, which we often encounter in Singapore, this limits the effectiveness of solar power," he added.

CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECTS EVERYONE

Mr Yuen said: "Climate change is a global issue and the inter-governmental panel on climate change has over the last year released its projections for what the world's climate will be like in the Year 2100.

"So as a small island, we will certainly be affected by all the climate change that will happen, and if you look at some of the recent weather phenomenon that we see, dry spells, more intense rainfall, Singapore will certainly be affected. So as a responsible member of the global community, and in our own interests, we would want to reduce our own carbon emissions to help address this problem."

The meeting in Peru sets the stage for member states to finalise a new climate change agreement by 2015. It will come into effect from 2020 and Dr Balakrishnan said Singapore is committed to support this new global initiative.

- CNA/ek

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Grown trees uprooted at Bedok Reservoir after Sunday storm

The New Paper AsiaOne 11 Dec 14;

He saw the dark clouds loom above the shop on Sunday afternoon and sensed that a downpour was imminent.

Mr Low Eng How, 68, who works at a bird shop in Bedok Reservoir, knew it was time for him to move the cages further into the store.
He also had to lower the awnings so that the birds would be shielded from the rain.

He was right. The rain came - and more. It was a storm. And it was so powerful that it caught him completely off guard.

Mr Low told The New Paper yesterday: "The wind was just too strong. My friend and I had to hold the awnings down for a good 10 minutes just to keep the rain out.

"We also saw that chairs from the neighbouring shops were blown away."

Mr Low, who has been working at the shop for 20 years, said that although the area is prone to occasional storms, the one on Sunday was easily the worst he has experienced.

"It wasn't like anything I've seen in Singapore," he said.

"It felt more like something you'd see on the news when they report about disaster events in Taiwan or Japan."

Assistant supervisor Lau Ngie Kiang, 35, who works at a supermarket at Block 739A, Bedok Reservoir Road, felt the same way.

He and his colleagues had to slip on their raincoats to push their wares away from the downpour.

But the rain was so heavy that even with their raincoats on, all of them were drenched by the time they completed the task.

TYPHOON

Mr Lau said: "I was in Hainan, China, eight years ago and experienced a typhoon. This storm felt like that - it was that strong.

"I'm surprised at how powerful the storm was as it was not something you would expect to happen in Singapore, but I guess with the climate change, you never know."

He also said that the storm caused a tree to fall close to where he was working.

"Thankfully, no one was hurt," he said.

TNP went to the area yesterday and found that the 20 trees lining the reservoir had either been uprooted, or snapped at the trunks.

Some had landed on playgrounds and fitness corners.

Responding to queries from TNP, the Meteorological Service Singapore said that the maximum wind gust in Bedok on Sunday was about 20.2 metres per second.

Its spokesman said that the highest total daily rainfall recorded there that day was 44.8mm.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) had reportedly issued an advisory earlier on Sunday, warning that thunderstorms with gusty winds were expected over many areas of Singapore between 3.10pm and 4pm.

According to the NEA, the north-east monsoon season is from December to early March.

It said: "North-east winds prevail, reaching speeds of up to 20kmh. Spells of widespread moderate to heavy rain to occur, lasting from one to three days at a stretch."

The weather in Singapore is expected to be partly cloudy today and tomorrow. Thundery showers are expected on Thursday afternoon.

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Dog lover launches campaign against pet peeve

EMILIA TAN Today Online 11 Dec 14;

SINGAPORE — Several pet shops have failed to meet the housing and environment standards to ensure the welfare of animals being put up for sale, according to a man who has launched a campaign to highlight the issue.

Real estate agent Jacky Tan, who started the Dogs Hate Cages campaign on Facebook in late October, hopes to improve the housing conditions of dogs in pet shops here and, eventually, end the practice of putting these animals in cages.

The 38-year-old dog lover was prompted to launch the campaign after he had come across a pet store in Geylang in June that housed dogs in cages that looked too small and uncomfortable.

Mr Tan, who alerted the Singapore Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), was eventually referred to the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA), whose purview includes safeguarding the welfare of animals.

Under the AVA’s housing and environment guidelines, the length of a cage or enclosure in pet shops must be a least twice the size of the length of the animal (from the nose to the base of the tail), while the width or depth of the cage must at least be one and a half times bigger than the animal.

The height of the cage should also allow the animals to comfortably stand upright on their hind legs. Shop owners are also required to provide mats that cover at least half the floor area if the floor is made of thin wire or if the wire mesh has gaps larger than 1cm-by-1cm.

In early October, Mr Tan went to survey the housing conditions of seven other pet stores and found six of them to have “violated the guidelines”.

Mr Tan said the cages were either short in length, width or their height did not allow the dogs to stand on their hind legs. At some of the stores, the animals were not provided with mats or clean drinking water at the time of his visit, he added.

Mr Tan then decided to launch his campaign on Facebook on Oct 30, which has attracted 379 likes at press time yesterday.

In response to TODAY’s queries, the AVA said yesterday: “Under the AVA’s pet shop licensing conditions, pet shops are required to ensure that the cages or enclosures are safe and comfortable for the animals.

“This includes ensuring the cage or enclosure is in good condition, keeping the cage or enclosure clean and dry and ensuring the flooring provides firm and comfortable support for the animals.

“Following the feedback, the AVA has inspected the pet shops. Of the shops inspected, one of the pet shops displayed a dog in a cage that was small. Upon our advice, the pet shop has moved the dog to a larger enclosure. The dogs in the pet shops were inspected and found to be in satisfactory condition,” it added.

Three pet shops contacted by TODAY said they were aware of the AVA guidelines.

Ms Kelly Ng, owner of Sookee Kennel at Balestier Road, said: “Our cages meet the requirements by the AVA. We have different sizes of cages for dogs of different sizes. Our puppies are not always caged up.

“We let them out individually up to five or six times a day for 45 minutes each and we provide them with towels to sleep.

“Sometimes, we have to remove the towels after their dinner so they will not pee or poo on them.”

An employee from Wellfond Pets Katong said: “Some people misunderstand and do not know that certain breeds have very sharp teeth and they will chew up the mat we provide. The bits they swallow will cause them serious health problems so we don’t give them mats.”

Mr Timothy Loh, a spokesperson for Pet Lovers Centre, whose tenant Pick-A-Pet sells puppies, said: “Besides dimensions, one should also consider the comfort level of the enclosures — customised enclosures with comfortable padded flooring like what they (the shops) provide, as opposed to metal cages, which can be painful for the dogs — as well as how fast the dogs are being sold.”

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Trash talk: 269,000 tons of plastic litter choke world's oceans

Will Dunham Reuters Yahoo News 11 Dec 14;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There are plastic shopping bags, bottles, toys, action figures, bottle caps, pacifiers, tooth brushes, boots, buckets, deodorant roller balls, umbrella handles, fishing gear, toilet seats and so much more. Plastic pollution is pervasive in Earth's oceans.

Researchers unveiled on Wednesday what they called the most scientifically rigorous estimate to date of the amount of plastic litter in the oceans - about 269,000 tons - based on data from 24 ship expeditions around the globe over six years.

"There's much more plastic pollution out there than recent estimates suggest," said Marcus Eriksen, research director for the Los Angeles-based 5 Gyres Institute, which studies this kind of pollution.

"It's everything you can imagine made of plastic," added Eriksen, who led the study published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE. "It's like Walmart or Target set afloat."

Ninety-two percent of the plastic comes in the form of "microplastic" - particles from larger items made brittle by sunlight and pounded to pieces by waves, bitten by sharks and other fish or otherwise torn apart, Eriksen said.

Experts have sounded the alarm in recent years over how plastic pollution is killing huge numbers of seabirds, marine mammals and other creatures while sullying ocean ecosystems.

Some plastic objects like discarded fishing nets kill by entangling dolphins, sea turtles and other animals. Plastic fragments also lodge in the throats and digestive tracts of marine animals.

The researchers said plastic litter enters the oceans from rivers and heavily populated coastal regions as well as from vessels navigating shipping lanes.

Larger plastic objects, abundant near coastlines, often float into the world's five subtropical gyres - big regions of spinning currents in the North and South Pacific, North and South Atlantic and Indian Ocean.

In the middle of these gyres, plastic trash has accumulated into huge "garbage patches" that act as "giant blenders - shredders that eviscerate plastic from large pieces to microplastics," Eriksen said.

The study, based on data from expeditions to all five subtropical gyres, coastal Australia, the Bay of Bengal and the Mediterranean Sea, estimated that there are 5.25 trillion particles of plastic litter. Tiny plastic particles, down to the size of a sand grain, have fanned out through the oceans and reach even remote polar regions.

The researchers said the particles readily absorb chemical pollutants like PCBs, DDT and others, and these toxins enter marine food webs when ingested by fish and other sea creatures.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)

Full scale of plastic in the world's oceans revealed for first time
Over five trillion pieces of plastic are floating in our oceans says most comprehensive study to date on plastic pollution around the world
Oliver Milman Guardian 10 Dec 14;

More than five trillion pieces of plastic, collectively weighing nearly 269,000 tonnes, are floating in the world’s oceans, causing damage throughout the food chain, new research has found.

Data collected by scientists from the US, France, Chile, Australia and New Zealand suggests a minimum of 5.25tn plastic particles in the oceans, most of them “micro plastics” measuring less than 5mm.

The volume of plastic pieces, largely deriving from products such as food and drink packaging and clothing, was calculated from data taken from 24 expeditions over a six-year period to 2013. The research, published in the journal PLOS One, is the first study to look at plastics of all sizes in the world’s oceans.

Large pieces of plastic can strangle animals such as seals, while smaller pieces are ingested by fish and then fed up the food chain, all the way to humans.

This is problematic due to the chemicals contained within plastics, as well as the pollutants that plastic attract once they are in the marine environment.

“We saw turtles that ate plastic bags and fish that ingested fishing lines,” said Julia Reisser, a researcher based at the University of Western Australia. “But there are also chemical impacts. When plastic gets into the water it acts like a magnet for oily pollutants.

“Bigger fish eat the little fish and then they end up on our plates. It’s hard to tell how much pollution is being ingested but certainly plastics are providing some of it.”

The researchers collected small plastic fragments in nets, while larger pieces were observed from boats. The northern and southern sections of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans were surveyed, as well as the Indian ocean, the coast of Australia and the Bay of Bengal.

The vast amount of plastic, weighing 268,940 tonnes, includes everything from plastic bags to fishing gear debris.

While spread out around the globe, much of this rubbish accumulates in five large ocean gyres, which are circular currents that churn up plastics in a set area. Each of the major oceans have plastic-filled gyres, including the well-known ‘great Pacific garbage patch’ that covers an area roughly equivalent to Texas.

Reisser said traversing the large rubbish-strewn gyres in a boat was like sailing through “plastic soup.”

“You put a net through it for half an hour and there’s more plastic than marine life there,” she said. “It’s hard to visualise the sheer amount, but the weight of it is more than the entire biomass of humans. It’s quite an alarming problem that’s likely to get worse.”

The research found that the gyres themselves are likely to contribute to the problem, acting as “shredders” to the plastic before dispersing it.

“Our findings show that the garbage patches in the middle of the five subtropical gyres are not the final resting places for the world’s floating plastic trash,” said Marcus Eriksen, another of the report’s co-authors. “The endgame for micro-plastic is interactions with entire ocean ecosystems.”

The research, the first of its kind to pull together data on floating plastic from around the world, will be used to chart future trends in the amount of debris in the oceans.

But researchers predict the volume will increase due to rising production of throwaway plastic, with only 5% of the world’s plastic currently recycled.

“Lots of things are used once and then not recycled,” Reisser said. “We need to improve our use of plastic and also monitor plastics in the oceans so we get a better understanding of the issue.

“I’m optimistic but we need to get policy makers to understand the problem. Some are doing that – Germany has changed the policy so that manufacturers are responsible for the waste they produce. If we put more responsibility on to the producer then that would be part of the solution.”

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Critically Endangered Porpoise Could Be Extinct in Four Years

Tia Ghose LiveScience.com Yahoo News 11 Dec 14;

The rarest and most endangered marine mammal in the world could go extinct in four years without stepped-up enforcement measures, new research suggests.

Vaquitas, rare porpoises that live off the coast of Mexico, have been dying in droves, because the animals get caught in fishing nets. Now, a new study shows that governments are doing little to protect the animals against illegal fishing nets.

The vaquita, or Phocoena sinus, lives in the Gulf of California, off the coast of Mexico. The animals have winsome faces with a distinctive look.

"They look like they're wearing dark lipstick and mascara," said Rebecca Lent, executive director of the Marine Mammal Commission, an independent federal agency that aims to protect and conserve marine mammals.

The smallest type of porpoise, the vaquita measures just 4 to 5 feet (1.2 to 1.5 meters) in length and is typically hard to spot.

"These vaquita porpoises are very shy. They hardly ever appear," Lent told Live Science. "Most of the ones we have are ones that came up dead in fishing nets."

This cetacean is considered critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. And conditions are only getting worse. A July 2014 report used the animals' acoustic calls to estimate that fewer than 100 of these elusive creatures still live in the wild. The cetaceans have a baby just once every other year, and the most recent report suggests the population has dropped 18.5 percent in the last year.

Illegal fishing

The main culprit for the vaquita's steep drop is the rise of illegal fishing, according to July report. Boats hunting for an endangered fish called the totoaba, prized in China for the supposed medicinal properties of its swim bladder, have taken to using gill nets, a kind of vertical net that traps fish by their gills.

"It's essentially a wall across the environment," said Peter Thomas, International and Policy Program director for the Marine Mammal Commission "It's not visible to the vaquita," Thomas told Live Science. As a result, the animals get entangled in these nets.

While most of the vaquita's range is not currently protected from gill net fishing, about a fifth of their habitat is a protected area where the practice is outlawed.

Now, new photos taken on Dec. 4 reveal that extensive gill net fishing is going on, even in that small region. About 90 fishing boats have been in the area since the start of the new fishing season, with at least 17 confirmed to have gill nets aboard, the study found.

The new images highlight the importance of stepping up enforcement against illegal fishing, Lent said. The entire vaquita range should be protected, and more ships should patrol the area, he said. And to ensure that this type of fishing truly stops, simply having a gill net aboard should be illegal, Lent said.

"We're really down to the wire now" to save the vaquita, Lent told Live Science. "We really only have a couple of years."

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