US bids to break Copenhagen deadlock with support for $100bn climate fund, lower than What needed to fight the Crisis

The US moved to assert its leadership and save the UN climate talks in Copenhagen from collapse today, saying it was ready to support a $100bn (£62bn) fund to shield poor countries from the ravages of climate change.

But speaking at the conference, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, warned developing countries that the finances would only flow if their leaders signed up to a strong global warming deal at the summit.

"The US is prepared to work with other countries to jointly mobilise $100bn a year by 2020," Clinton told a press conference on a day that began with reports that the summit's Danish hosts had given up hope of reaching a deal.

However, she warned: "In the absence of an operational agreement that meets the requirement that I outlined there will not be the final commitment that I outlined - at least from the United States."

The $100bn figure was formally put on the table at the conference last night by the Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zenawi, who is head of the African group of nations. It is much lower than many developing nations say is necessary to help them adapt to climate change and develop green technologies.

Zenawi acknowledged that his proposal would disappoint some in Africa. But he said: "My proposal dramatically scales back our expectation of the level of funding in return for more reliable funding and a seat at the table in the management of such fund."

Clinton also made it clear that America would not budge on its demand for greater accountability from rapidly emerging economies like China and Brazil that they are living up to whatever pledges they make to cut emissions.

Even as 115 world leaders began arriving to put their personal imprint on a deal, the summit hosts were admitting they had failed to broker an agreement.In the chaotic end game to the negotiations could mean that world leaders only have time to hastily paper over a face-saving agreement.

Source : www.guardian.co.uk

Sidelines of Copenhagen Summit : India Announces Incentives for Wind Power Generation

India's ministry of new and renewable energy Thursday announced the implementation of incentives for grid-connected wind power projects providing cleaner power.

Wind electricity producers will now receive a generation-based incentive of 0.50 rupees ($0.01) per unit of electricity fed into the grid. The government will spend about 3.8 billion rupees on subsidies as of the new scheme.

"Providing 0.50 rupees per unit is huge if you compare it with existing wind power generation costs," Debashish Majumdar, chairman and managing director, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency, told reporters on the sidelines of an industry event. "The average price of wind power in India is currently about 3 rupees per unit."

Installed wind power in India stands at 10,500 megawatts, of the country's total of 15.59 gigawatts.

India's federal government is promoting the renewable sector through a mix of fiscal and financial incentives as it aims to exploit its renewable energy potential by attracting investments in the sector and reduce carbon emissions.

The latest tariff incentive comes three months after the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, which regulates power tariffs in the country, announced tariff norms for companies investing in renewable energy projects, stating they will get a 19% pretax return on investments for the first 10 years of generation and 23% thereafter.

The tariff on power produced by wind energy will vary between 3.76 rupees and 5.64 rupees per kilowatt hour, depending on the wind velocity at the site, CERC had said.

Copenhagen Summit Carbon Footprint Biggest Ever: Report

The Copenhagen climate talks will generate more carbon emissions than any previous climate conference, equivalent to the annual output of over half a million Ethiopians, figures commissioned by hosts Denmark show.

Delegates, journalists, activists and observers from almost 200 countries have gathered at the Dec 7-18 summit and their travel and work will create 46,200 tonnes of carbon dioxide, most of it from their flights.

This would fill nearly 10,000 Olympic swimming pools, and is the same amount produced each year by 2,300 Americans or 660,000 Ethiopians -- the vast difference is due to the huge gap in consumption patterns in the two countries -- according to U.S. government statistics about per person emissions in 2006.

Despite efforts by the Danish government to reduce the conference's carbon footprint, around 5,700 tonnes of carbon dioxide will be created by the summit and a further 40,500 tonnes created by attendees' flights to Copenhagen.

The figure for the flights was calculated by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), while the domestic carbon footprint from the summit was calculated by accountants Deloitte.

Deloitte included in their calculations emissions caused by accommodation, local transport, electricity and heating of the conference center, paper, security, transport of goods and services as well as energy used by computers, kitchens, photocopiers and printers inside the conference center.

Accommodation accounted for 23 percent of the summit's greenhouse gas emissions in Copenhagen, while transport caused 7 percent. Seventy percent came from activities inside the conference center, said Deloitte Consultant.

"We have been forced to put up some temporary buildings in order to provide the delegation rooms because the number of participants is so much larger than expected," said the Consultant.

The temporary buildings housing delegation offices are not well insulated and are warmed by oil heaters, so this area is the most energy-wasteful, said the Consultant.

The researchers assumed that 60 percent of conference participants would catch public transport to and from the conference but according to the Consultant that was probably optimistic.

Source : REUTERS

Developed Rich Nations Must Assume Responsibility For Environmental Duties: Pope Benedict XVI

Industrialized nations must recognize their responsibility for the environmental crisis, shed their consumerism and embrace more sober lifestyles, Pope Benedict said on Tuesday.

The pope's call for more environmental commitments came in his message for the Roman Catholic Church's annual World Day of Peace, to be marked on Jan 1 and whose theme is "If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation."

The message is traditionally sent to heads of state, government and international organizations and its importance this year is more significant because its release coincided with the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen.

In the message he said "It is important to acknowledge that among the causes of the present ecological crisis is the historical responsibility of the industrialized countries,".

While saying that developing countries "are not exempt from their own responsibilities with regard to creation," and had a duty to gradually adopt effective environmental measures, the bulk of his criticism was aimed at rich nations.

Speaking of the need for all nations to address the issue of energy resources, he said:

"This means that technologically advanced societies must be prepared to encourage more sober lifestyles, while reducing their energy consumption and improving its efficiency."

He called on all people to "move beyond a purely consumerist mentality" so that they could "rethink the path which we are traveling together" and adapt "a lifestyle marked by sobriety and solidarity" between the haves and the have nots.

Environmental issues deserved the attention of the world community because the were human rights issues that could influence the right to life, food, health and development.

"Sad to say, it is all too evident that large numbers of people in different countries and areas of our planet are experiencing increased hardship because of the negligence or refusal of many others to exercise responsible stewardship over the environment," he said.

Source : REUTERS

Failing To Curb Use Of Pesticides That Have Been Accumulating In Arctic Food Chain and in Polar Bears-study

The U.S. government violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to curb use of pesticides that have been accumulating in the Arctic food chain and in the fat of polar bears, a species listed as threatened, environmentalists charged in a lawsuit on Thursday.

While the biggest threat to polar bears comes from the rapidly warming Arctic climate and the disappearance of sea ice, the pesticide onslaught creates more woes for an already stressed population, said a Center for Biological Diversity staff attorney in Anchorage.

The Center for Biological Diversity filed the lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

The lawsuit is probably the first to target the impact of pollutants emitted far away on an Endangered Species Act-listed population, Noblin said.

Persistent organic pollutants commonly contained in pesticides are known to be carried by atmospheric and ocean currents thousands of miles (km) northward to the Arctic.

The lawsuit targets 14 types of pesticides it says scientists have found in alarming quantities in lakes, snowpack and fish and animals' bodies in the far north.

They include Atrazine, an herbicide from Syngenta AG commonly used by corn growers, and Endosulfan, also used in agricultural operations and produced by Bayer Cropscience Ltd, a unit of Bayer AG.

None of the pesticides listed in the lawsuit is used in Alaska.There have been other legal actions that resulted in local pesticide limits for the benefit of endangered or threatened species.

The problem of pollutants transported into the Arctic has been an issue of international concern.

Under the 2004 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, nearly 200 nations have agreed to reduce or eliminate the use of 12 chemical compounds, including dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls, or PHBs, and DDT.

The U.S. government signed the convention but the Senate has yet to ratify the treaty.

Source : REUTERS

Copenhagen Updates: China Urges U.S. To Increase Copenhagen Offer

China urged President Barack Obama to increase a U.S. offer to cut carbon emissions but its top climate envoy indicated willingness on Wednesday to compromise at a U.N. conference in Copenhagen.

Xie Zhenhua said that China wanted to play a constructive role at the December 7-18 climate talks, where a successful outcome largely depends on agreement between the United States and China which together emit 40 percent of global greenhouse gases.

"I do hope that President Obama can bring a concrete contribution to Copenhagen," Xie told Reuters.

When asked whether that meant something additional to what Obama has already proposed, a 3 percent cut on 1990 levels by 2020, Xie said: "Yes."

Xie also said that China could accept a target to halve global emissions by 2050 if developed nations stepped up their emissions cutting targets by 2020 and agreed to financial help for the developing world to fight climate change.

Xie said that he preferred a final, legally binding agreement at the meeting in Copenhagen, but if that were not possible a deadline to wrap up a full treaty by June "would be very good."

Source : REUTERS

First Fuel Cell Boat Cruises Amsterdam's Canals

The "Nemo H2",a canal boat powered by fuel cells emitting only water vapour and gliding silently through Amsterdam's centuries-old canals. The boat can carry about 87 people, is the first of its kind designed specifically to run on a fuel cell engine, in which hydrogen and oxygen are mixed to create electricity and water, without producing air-polluting gases.

"That's important in a city like Amsterdam with over 125 canal trips per day," said project manager Alexander Overdiep.

A boat trip around Amsterdam's concentric semi-circles of canals is a popular tourist pastime in the Dutch capital.

From spring, visitors will have the option of a 'CO2 Zero Canal Cruise', for an extra 50 (euro) cents.

The new boat cost more than double to build than a canal boat running on a diesel engine, and needs to visit a hydrogen dispensing station for a refill once a day, while normal boats only need a fuel top-up once a week.

But developers of the 3 million euro project, which was partly government funded, said costs would decline as more boats followed this test phase, and if more advanced hydrogen distribution infrastructure emerged.

Source : REUTERS

Updates on U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen - 2009 Set To Be Fifth Warmest Year On Record

This year is likely to be the fifth warmest on record and the first decade of this century the hottest since records began, the World Meteorological Organization said on Tuesday.

Speaking on the sidelines of a U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen, WMO head Michel Jarraud pointed to extreme hotspots this year -- Australia had its third warmest year since record dating began in 1850, "with three exceptional heatwaves."

"I could go on. There was the worst drought in five decades which affected millions of people in China, a poor monsoon season in India causing severe droughts, massive food shortages associated with a big drought in Kenya," he told reporters.

Jarraud also highlighted extreme floods, including one which broke a 90-year record in Burkina Faso. 2009 marked the third lowest summer Arctic sea ice on record, after the two previous years, he added.

Vicky Pope, head of climate change advice at Britain's MetOffice Hadley Center, which supplied some of the WMO data, agreed that 2009 is likely to be the fifth warmest year.

"Essentially what's happened is we've gone into an El Nino," she added, referring to a natural weather pattern which drives abnormal warming in the eastern Pacific Ocean and can unleash wider havoc in global weather. The hottest year record, 1998, coincided with a powerful El Nino, and a new El Nino developed this year.

Source : REUTERS

Scientists Say Paper Battery Could Be In The Works

Ordinary paper could one day be used as a lightweight battery to power the devices that are now enabling the printed word to be eclipsed by e-mail, e-books and online news.

Scientists at Stanford University in California reported on Monday they have successfully turned paper coated with ink made of silver and carbon nanomaterials into a "paper battery" that holds promise for new types of lightweight, high-performance energy storage.

The same feature that helps ink adhere to paper allows it to hold onto the single-walled carbon nanotubes and silver nanowire films. Earlier research found that silicon nanowires could be used to make batteries 10 times as powerful as lithium-ion batteries now used to power devices such as laplop computers.

"Taking advantage of the mature paper technology, low cost, light and high-performance energy-storage are realized by using conductive paper as current collectors and electrodes," the scientists said in research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This type of battery could be useful in powering electric or hybrid vehicles, would make electronics lighter weight and longer lasting, and might even lead someday to paper electronics, the scientists said. Battery weight and life have been an obstacle to commercial viability of electric-powered cars and trucks.

Source : REUTERS

Australian Winemakers Can Now Flag Green Credentials

Australian winemakers who care about the environment as much as their vintages can now seek formal recognition for their green credentials under a voluntary certification scheme.

The EntWine Australia scheme, launched this week, requires companies to have their practices certified, independently audited and to report annually in relation to their carbon footprint and other indicators.

The Wine Federation of Australia (WFA) developed the scheme in consultation with the industry and it is currently working with the international alcoholic beverage trade association, Federation Internationale des Vins et Spiritueux (FIVS), to ensure it is recognized internationally.

Australia is one of the world's biggest wine producers, as well as the world's biggest greenhouse-gas polluter per capita. It is also prone to water shortages, droughts and devastating bush fires.

Earlier this year, winemaker Foster's started selling two Wolf Blass brand wines in recyclable PET bottles to reduce its carbon footprint.

Foster's also supported pilot studies for the EntWine certification, as did Orlando Wines, McWilliam's Wines, De Bortoli, Sitella Wines, Voyager Estate, Winemakers of Rutherglen and the Langhorne Creek Grapegrowers' Association, WFA said.

Source : REUTERS

Coke To Move To Climate Friendlier Greener Vending Machines

Coca-Cola Co said on Thursday that it will eliminate a major greenhouse gas in its new vending machines and coolers, raising the bar for climate friendly refrigeration in the food and beverage industry.

Coke's Chief Executive Muhtar Kent said that the company, which sells everything from soda and juice drinks to water, will replace hydrofluorocarbon, also known as HFC, in its new vending machines and coolers by 2015.

While Coke's 10 million vending machines, coolers and other refrigeration equipment around the world keep its drinks chilled, they also are the biggest contributor to the company's carbon footprint.

Together the refrigeration systems emit 15 million metric tons of greenhouse gases each year -- about 40 percent of the company's total.

Greenhouse gases from hydrofluorocarbons are partly blamed for global climate change and are expected to make up 28 to 45 percent of carbon emissions by 2050.

That has prompted the food and beverage industry to find other ways to cool products and cut their environmental impact. Earlier this year Pepsico Inc launched a pilot program for greener vending machines with carbon-dioxide cooling.

Coke executives said that carbon dioxide is the company's preferred replacement, followed by hydrocarbon refrigeration, which uses a synthetic fluid.

To ramp up the transition to greener machines, Coke and its bottling partners will buy 150,000 units of HFC-free equipment in 2010, doubling the company's current pace for buying the systems.

Coke has invested $50 million in research for climate friendly replacements. The company expects the move to greener equipment to cut its emissions by nearly 53 million metric tons -- the equivalent of taking 11 million cars off the road for a year -- over the 10-year life-span of the equipments.

Source : REUTERS

Cloud Computing Goes Green In Finland

With the thought to make the greenest data center on the planet, a city power firm Helsingin Energia of Helsinki preparing the data center in the chill of a massive cave beneath an orthodox Christian cathedral.

Excess heat from hundreds of computer servers to be located in the bedrock beneath Uspenski Cathedral, one of Helsinki's most popular tourist sites, will be captured and channelled into the district heating network, a system of water-heated pipes used to warm homes in the Finnish capital.

Finland and other north European countries are using their water-powered networks as a conduit for renewable energy sources: capturing waste to heat the water that is pumped through the system.

Due online in January, the new data center for local information technology services firm Academica is one way of addressing environmental concerns around the rise of the internet as a central repository for the world's data and processing -- known as "cloud computing."

Companies seeking large-scale, long-term cuts in information technology spending are concentrating on data centers, which account for up to 30 percent of many corporations' energy bills.

Data centers such as those run by Google already use around 1 percent of the world's energy, and their demand for power is rising fast with the trend to outsource computing.

One major problem is that in a typical data center only 40-45 percent of energy use is for the actual computing -- the rest is used mostly for cooling down the servers.

Data centers' emissions of carbon dioxide have been running at around one third of those of airlines, but are growing 10 percent a year and now approach levels of entire countries such as Argentina or the Netherlands.

The center's location in the bowels of the cathedral has an added bonus: security. It is taking over a former bomb shelter carved into the rock by the fire brigade in World War Two as a refuge for city officials from Russian air raids.

Source : REUTERS

Climate Change Worries Sends Nepal Cabinet To Everest Base

Nepal's cabinet plans to meet at the base camp of Mount Everest this month to highlight the impact of global warming on the Himalayas ahead of next month's U.N. negotiations on climate change, a minister said on Monday.

The base camp is located about 5,300 meters (17,400 feet) up the 8,850 meter (29,035 feet) mountain and is the point from where climbers to the Everest summit begin their ascent.

"The cabinet meeting is meant to draw the attention to the adverse impact of climate change to the Himalayas including Sagarmatha," Forest Minister Deepak Bohara told Reuters, using the Nepali name of the mountain.

Recently, Maldives held the world's first underwater cabinet meeting last month, in a symbolic cry for help over rising sea levels that threaten the Indian Ocean archipelago's existence.

Bohara said Nepal would also send some of its renowned Everest climbers to Copenhagen next month to highlight the problems of glacier melting, erratic rains and unprecedented forest fires.

Negotiations for a new global accord to fight global warming are scheduled to conclude at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in the Danish capital in December.

Experts say mountainous Nepal, home to eight of the world's 14 tallest peaks, including Mount Everest, is vulnerable to climate change despite being responsible for only 0.025 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, among the world's lowest.

Thousands of glaciers in the Himalayas that are the source of water for 10 major Asian rivers, whose basins are home to a sixth of humanity, could go dry in the next five decades because of the global warming, they say.

Source : Reuters

Ford Van Drive Closer To Its Goal To Go All-Electric In 2010

Ford is driving closer to its goal of producing an all-electric car with the announcement of an electric van for North America for 2010. The Ford Transit Connect BEV will incorporate a drivetrain from Azure Dynamics and lithium ion batteries from Johnson Controls-Saft.

The van will get 80 miles before needing to be charged and will be sold into fleets, according to Ford Manager of corporate news Jennifer Moore.

Source : Reuters

Shrimp's Eye Points Way To Better Super High-Quality DVDs

The amazing eyes of a giant shrimp living on Australia's Great Barrier Reef could hold the key to developing a new type of super high-quality DVD player, British scientists said on Sunday.

Mantis shrimps, dubbed "thumb splitters" by divers because of their vicious claws, have the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom.

They can see in 12 primary colors, four times as many as humans, and can also detect different kinds of light polarization -- the direction of oscillation in light waves.

Now a team at the University of Bristol have shown how the shrimps do it, using remarkable light-sensitive cells that rotate the plane of polarization in light as it travels through the eye.

Manmade devices do a similar thing in DVD and CD players but they only work well for one color, while the shrimp's eye operates almost perfectly across the whole visible spectrum from near ultra-violet to infra-red.

Transferring the same multi-color ability into a DVD player would result in a machine capable of handling far more information than a conventional one.

"The mechanism we have found in this eye is unknown to human synthetic devices. It works much, much better than any attempts that we've made to construct a device," researcher Nicholas Roberts told Reuters.

He believes the "beautifully simple" eye system, comprising cell membranes rolled into tubes, could be mimicked in the lab using liquid crystals.

Details of the mantis shrimp research were published in the journal Nature Photonics.

Just why the mantis shrimp needs such a rarefied level of vision is unclear, although researchers suspect it is to do with food and sex.

Source : Reuters

Energy-Efficient One size Charger That Fits All New Mobile Phone Solution

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations' telecom arm, had given its stamp of approval "to an energy-efficient one-charger-fits-all new mobile phone solution.

"Every mobile phone user will benefit from the new Universal Charging Solution (UCS), which enables the same charger to be used for all future handsets, regardless of make and model," the ITU said in a statement.

"Some manufacturers are already incorporating the UCS in their devices," an ITU spokesman said.

The association hopes a universal charger will help reduce waste by cutting down on the number of chargers produced and then thrown away with the purchase of a new handset.

There are already more than 4 billion mobile phone subscriptions around the world.

In June, top mobile phone suppliers such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson and other industry majors agreed to back an EU-wide harmonization of phone chargers, which means phones compatible with standard charging devices are available in Europe from next year.

The EU estimates unwanted phone accessories account for thousands of tons of waste in Europe each year.

Source : Reuters

Google Working On 'Smart' Plug-In Hybrid Charging

Google Inc is in the early stages of looking at ways to write software that would fully integrate plug-in hybrid vehicles to the power grid, minimize strain on the grid and help utilities manage vehicle charging load.

"We are doing some preliminary work," said Dan Reicher, Google's director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives. "We have begun some work on smart charging of electric vehicles and how you would integrate large number of electric vehicles into the grid successfully."

"We have done a little bit of work on the software side looking at how you would write a computer code to manage this sort of charging infrastructure," he said in an interview on the sidelines of an industry conference.

Google, known for its Internet search engine, in 2007 announced a program to test Toyota Prius and Ford Escape gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles that were converted to rechargeable plug-in hybrids that run mostly on electricity.

One of the experimental technologies that was being tested by the Web search giant allowed parked plug-ins to transfer stored energy back to the electric grid, opening a potential back-up source of power for the system in peak hours.

Reicher said Google has been testing its fleet of plug-in hybrids "pretty intensely" for the last couple of years.

"One of the great things about plug-ins is this great opportunity for the first time to finally have a storage technology," he said

Reicher said the company is trying to figure out how to manage the impact of having millions of future electric vehicle owners plugging in their vehicles at the same time.

Apart from plug-in hybrids, Google also is working on other green technologies such as developing its own new mirror technology that could reduce the cost of building solar thermal plants by a quarter or more, and looking at gas turbines that would run on solar power rather than natural gas.

The often-quirky company also said in late 2007 that it would invest in companies and do research of its own to produce affordable renewable energy -- at a price less than burning coal -- within a few years, casting the move as a philanthropic effort to address climate change.

Source : REUTERS

European Union, United States Eye Green Goods Tax Pact In Climate Fight

The European Union and the United States are holding talks on forging a pact with OECD countries and China to eliminate duties on green goods as part of incentives to Beijing in a potential global climate deal.

EU diplomats told Reuters that under a plan being discussed by Brussels and Washington, the 30 nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and China would agree a global pact to phase out import tariffs on goods such as wind turbines, renewables and green technologies.

But any deal is unlikely to include environmentally friendly hybrid cars, the diplomats said.

"The talks are entering an advanced stage. Brussels and Washington hope this could be one of the incentives needed to get China on board in the lead up to the Copenhagen climate change talks," one EU diplomat told Reuters.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative's office said the United States and the EU had been pushing within the Doha round of world trade talks since November 2007 for a deal to cut tariffs on environmental goods "and continue to work closely in pushing for concrete progress."

"We remain eager to move ahead with negotiations to eliminate tariff barriers on climate-friendly technologies and spur momentum on a larger WTO Doha package on environmental goods and services," said USTR spokeswoman Carol Guthrie.

U.S. businesses such as United Technologies Corp and General Electric Co, that are frustrated with the slow pace of the Doha round, have urged the Obama administration to consider alternative paths to reach a deal to boost trade in environmental goods and services.

China is on course to become the world's largest producer of wind turbines in the world this year and is a major manufacturer of solar products.

Source : REUTERS

Carbon Fund Assets Up 25 Percent To $16 Billion In 2009

Carbon fund assets have grown by a quarter to $16.1 billion since last year, despite several funds having failed due to the economic downturn, research by Environmental Finance Publications showed on Thursday.

The growth of carbon fund assets has slowed compared to the previous year, when they swelled by 65 percent to $13 billion.

Carbon funds either buy carbon credits to sell for profit to investors, or supply them to emitters which are subject to mandatory caps on their emissions.

Since last August, 16 new carbon funds have appeared on the market, but eight were subsequently put on hold or closed down.

Most of the new funds listed this year are still in the fundraising stage and face an uphill struggle as they try to raise cash, the research found.

Given that the economic downturn has reduced industrial output, companies facing carbon cut targets have less need to buy credits to cover reduced carbon dioxide emissions.

Added to that, the future of the global carbon market after 2012 remains unclear and hopes are diminishing that U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen in December can provide much clarity.

Source : REUTERS

China, South Korea Lead In Green Stimulus Investment

South Korea and China lead the world's 20 largest economies in the percentage of economic stimulus money they invest in environmental projects, the U.N. Environment Program reported on Thursday.

Other members of the Group of 20 leading economic powers, including the United States, trail behind in percentage of green investment from stimulus money, the agency found.

Almost exactly a year after the global financial crisis began, the U.N. agency found that about 15 percent of the estimated $3.1 trillion in global stimulus funds are "green" in nature.

But only 3 percent of stimulus funds committed to environmental projects were actually disbursed by the middle of this year, and the total in committed funds is still below 1 percent of global gross domestic product, the amount economists recommend to reduce dependence on carbon and fuel the transition to a greener world economy, the agency said.

The level of funding for renewable energy is not enough to cut carbon emissions and limit average global warming to 3.6 degrees F (2 degrees C), the increase above which some of the most severe effects of climate change are predicted.

The U.N. agency's executive director, Achim Steiner, called on the G20 leaders to have stimulus packages that double their green investments in sustainable energy to $500 billion a year to keep the global temperature rise below this threshold.

The report also noted that global stimulus commitments include some $250 billion in what the agency called "perverse subsidies" for fossil fuels and agriculture that can actually add to climate change are operating in the G20 economies.

In order of the percentage of stimulus money committed to environmental projects, South Korea was first with 79 percent; China had 34 percent; Australia 21 percent; France 18 percent; United Kingdom 17 percent; Germany 13 percent; United States 12 percent; South Africa 11 percent; Mexico 10 percent; Canada 8 percent; Spain 6 percent; Japan 6 percent; Italy 1 percent.

Source : REUTERS

EU To Propose Climate Action On Planes, Ships

Aviation and shipping should cut their respective carbon dioxide emissions to 10 and 20 percent below 2005 levels over the next decade, the European Union is likely to propose at global climate talks this week.

EU diplomats said the cuts might be linked to a tax on fuel to generate billions of dollars of revenues to help poor countries cope with climate change -- a key contribution to finding a global climate deal by December.

After fine-tuning the proposal, the EU will present it at a meeting in Bangkok where climate negotiators from up to 190 nations will try to revive momentum toward a deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol from 2013.

Aviation and shipping are not covered by Kyoto, the global climate change treaty agreed in 1997.

Britain, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, and most eastern European states have already indicated support for a cut of 20 percent or more to shipping emissions, compared to 2005 levels, according to a document seen by Reuters.

But seafaring nations including Malta, Cyprus, and Spain favor easier reductions. There is also debate over the base-line year.

The proposal has been put forward by Sweden, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, and is based on a report three weeks ago by the EU's executive, the European Commission.

The Commission calculated the two sectors could generate revenues as high as 25 billion euros ($36.7 billion) a year in 2020, if their emissions were capped at 30 percent below 2005 levels.

Some countries with big airlines or a heavy reliance on air links have put up opposition. France, Finland, Italy, Malta and Austria have suggested airlines get an easier target than 10 percent.

"How these targets should be met should be decided by the International Civil Aviation Organization and International Maritime Organization," said the EU diplomat. "Should they fail, the EU will come back to the issue in 2011."

A system of taxes might meet more political resistance than a cap and trade scheme, which would force polluters to buy permits to emit carbon dioxide.

Shipping would be best served by a cap and trade scheme, the industry associations of Australia, Britain, Belgium, Norway and Sweden argued in a report last week that did not set targets.

The UK Chamber of Shipping estimated a trading scheme for emissions would cost the seaborne industry up to 6 billion euros a year, depending on the price of carbon.

Source : REUTERS

Climate Change Threatens Rare Species In Mekong: WWF

Climate Change Threatens Rare Species In Mekong: An Irrawaddy dolphin, also known as the Mekong dolphin, swims in the river at Kampi village in Kratie province, 230 km (143 miles) northeast of Cambodia.

Climate change is threatening 163 rare species discovered only last year in the Greater Mekong region, conservation group WWF said Friday.

Events such as frequent droughts and floods plus a rise in sea levels spell danger for species in what WWF called in a report "one of the world's last biological frontiers," a region spanning Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and China's Yunnan province.

"Forecasts for the Greater Mekong region show that climate change will dramatically alter ecosystems," Geoffrey Blate, WWF's regional climate change coordinator, told Reuters.

"Species most at risk are those with the least physiological tolerance to changes in temperature and precipitation, and those species with narrow or very restricted habitats."

Among the rare new species identified as vulnerable in the "Close Encounters" report are a bird that would rather walk than fly, a frog with fangs and a leopard-striped gecko with orange eyes.

Their habitats and the food they need for survival are often already restricted and climate change is expected to worsen the situation, according to the WWF.

It said many would not be able to adapt to climate change, "potentially resulting in massive extinctions."

With a diverse geography and climate zones, the Mekong is home to over 320 million people and numerous rare species, including the deer-like saola and the world's largest huntsman spider with a leg span of 30 cm (12 inches).

Source : REUTERS

UK Organic Food Needs To Be Cheaper in comparison with non-organic products to Return to Strong Growth : Trade Board

Organic food in Britain is often too expensive in comparison with non-organic products and the price gap must narrow if the struggling sector is to return to strong growth, the Organic Trade Board said.

Organic bread costs nearly a third more than non-organic, while the differential for Gala apples was 69 percent.

"More than a 60 percent premium is a big decision for any shopper," Finn Cottle, trade director for the organic sector umbrella body, told a conference on Tuesday.

After years of double-digit growth the organic sector, which also includes products like make-up and clothes, hit a barrier last year when the economic downturn kicked in.

Sales are now down about 10 percent, which coupled with tighter credit and some retailers pushing cheaper brands, has put pressure on organic producers, many of which are small, family-run firms.

"I think the price differential should be about 20 percent," Cottle said. "We (organic producers) should be looking for a consumer price that is comparable with (non-organic) premium brands. Some (price differences) are quite shocking."

In contrast with Gala apples, a bottle of organic gin costs only about 4 percent more than its non-organic counterpart while cheddar cheese sells for only 1 percent more.

Cottle said the sector must reconnect with shoppers who moved away from the organic sector to save money.

"We know many people are in favor of organic, we just have to make sure they buy our products," she said.

The trade body has a target to push organic sales to 3 billion pounds ($4.9 billion) by 2015, against the 100 million pounds it was worth in 1994.

Ed Crammer, of market analysts TNS, which looks at supermarket sales, said that while many people bought organic, a far smaller number could be properly termed "organic buyers."

"10 percent of people buying organic represent 57 percent of total spend...while 14 percent of those buying organic accounted for just 1 percent -- basically this latter group buy organic almost by mistake."

The organic sector needed to target the 90 percent of people who occasionally buy organic, he added.

Source : REUTERS

U.S. To Track Greenhouse Gases For First Time

The U.S. government will begin requiring big companies to monitor and report greenhouse gas emissions, officials said on Tuesday, a move that could make it easier for federal regulators to cut emissions if Congress does not pass a climate change bill.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said its new reporting system will help it understand where greenhouse gas emissions originate and ultimately help reduce emissions.

"This is a major step forward in our effort to address the greenhouse gases polluting our skies," said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. "The American public, and industry itself, will finally gain critically important knowledge and with this information we can determine how best to reduce those emissions."

The EPA said its reporting system will cover 85 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions spewed by roughly 10,000 facilities. An oil refinery, power plant or other facility would have to report its polluting data if its carbon dioxide emissions totaled at least 25,000 tons a year.

A 25,000 ton annual carbon dioxide threshold is comparable to the emissions from 131 rail cars of coal consumed, 58,000 barrels of oil consumed, or the emissions from the annual energy use of about 2,200 homes.

"The public has both a need and a right to know about the country's biggest emitters," said Mark MacLeod, director of special projects at Environmental Defense Fund. "The transparency provided today will inform smart policy that targets the biggest sources of heat-trapping emissions."

The global warming pollutants covered under the EPA's reporting system include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and hydrofluorocarbons.

The new reporting system takes effect in January 2010 and large emitters are required to file their annual emissions data in 2011. Vehicle and engine manufacturers outside of the light-duty sector will begin phasing in their emissions reporting with the 2011 car model year, the agency said.

The EPA has said it would prefer Congress to cut U.S. emissions, but the agency has taken action that will allow it do to so if necessary.

Democratic U.S. Senators plan to propose a bill this month to slash U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, a bill that is expected to face stiff opposition. The House of Representatives has already passed a climate change bill.

President Barack Obama, citing in part the EPA's action, told the United Nations that "the United States has done more to promote clean energy and reduce carbon pollution in the last eight months than at any other time in our history."

Source : REUTERS

Antarctic Coastal Ice Thinning Surprises Experts

Scientists are surprised at how extensively coastal ice in Antarctica and Greenland is thinning, according to a study Wednesday that could help predict rising sea levels linked to climate change.

Analysis of millions of NASA satellite laser images showed the biggest loss of ice was caused by glaciers speeding up when they flowed into the sea, according to scientists at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and Bristol University.

"We were surprised to see such a strong pattern of thinning glaciers across such large areas of coastline -- it's widespread and in some cases thinning extends hundreds of kilometers inland," said Hamish Pritchard of BAS who led the study.

"We think that warm ocean currents reaching the coast and melting the glacier front is the most likely cause of faster glacier flow," he said in a statement.

"This kind of ice loss is so poorly understood that it remains the most unpredictable part of future sea level rise," he added. BAS said the study gave the "most comprehensive picture" of the thinning glaciers so far.

Rising seas caused by a thaw of vast stores of ice on Antarctica and Greenland could threaten Pacific islands, coasts from China to the United States and cities from London to Buenos Aires.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said earlier this month global warming, blamed mainly on burning fossil fuels, could raise sea levels by 50 cm to 2 meters (20 inches to 6 ft 6 in) this century -- higher than most experts have predicted.

Among findings, Wednesday's study said 81 of 111 fast-moving glaciers in Greenland were thinning at twice the rate of slow-flowing ice at the same altitude.

"Dynamic thinning of Greenland and Antarctic ice-sheet margins is more sensitive, pervasive, enduring and important than previously realized," they wrote. "Dynamic thinning" means loss of ice due to a faster flow.

They said it was too early to determine whether the thinning was a sign that sea level rise would accelerate from a current rate of about 3 mm (0.12 inches) a year.

"Working that out is the next task," David Vaughan, a BAS glaciologist among the authors, told Reuters. Thinning in some areas could be caused by changes in snowfall, for instance, not the slide of ice toward the ocean, he said.

Source : REUTERS

Storing CO2 In Soil Should Be On U.N. Agenda for Climate talks in Copenhagen in December: Al Gore

Developing emissions markets to encourage farmers in poor countries to store more carbon dioxide in soil should be a key topic on the U.N. climate talks agenda, global warming activist Al Gore said.

"I think that soil carbon conservation and recarbonizing of soil must be the next stage in this negotiating process," former U.S. Vice President Gore told reporters on the sidelines of a climate conference at the United Nations.

Agriculturists can store more carbon in soil through techniques such as no-till farming that leaves crop residue on the ground instead of plowing it up and releasing the carbon into the atmosphere, or through crop rotations.

Gore said that if a clear signal on carbon storage in soil emerged from the 190-nation U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen in December, it would serve as a "very important measure" to help get developing nations to participate in helping to slow climate change.

Rich and poor countries aim to hammer out a new global deal at the Copenhagen meeting on how to slow global warming and deal with its consequences, but talks have stalled on how to share the burden.

In sub-Saharan Africa, soil carbon has been so depleted that it harms food production and is expected to worsen as a consequence of global warming, Gore said.

Soils can hold carbon for thousands of years when dead leaves, crop residue and other vegetation combine chemically with existing soil particles instead of rotting fully. More carbon is held in this way than in trees and other vegetation.

But agricultural techniques such as heavy plowing, the use of too much fertilizer, and the discarding of the practice of rotating crops have led to the depletion of soils and the carbon in them in many countries.

Gore said polluters and investors in rich countries could potentially help invest in projects promoting new and improved agricultural methods that retain carbon, such as no-till farming, in developing countries through carbon credits.

Similar offsets resulting from storing carbon in forests and soils are already available in voluntary carbon markets, including ones for domestic projects on the Chicago Climate Exchange.

Opponents of such programs say the science is still young on measuring how much carbon is stored in this way. As a result, the price for soil sequestration offsets has traditionally trailed the price of other offsets projects such as solar energy farms.

Others say measurements are improving and that the offsets are a huge potential market that could reward farmers and make the soil yield more and better food.

Gore said improving the soil in many poor countries through such offsets could help fight against hunger and malnutrition.

Source : REUTERS

Arctic Ice Melts To Third-Smallest Area On Record

Arctic Ice Melts To Third-Smallest Area On Record Photo: NASA
The summer retreat of sea ice over the Arctic is shown in this combination of images from animation stills modeled from July 1, 2009 and September 7, 2009 from the National Snow and Ice Data Center, released to Reuters September 17, 2009.
Photo: NASA

The Arctic's sea ice pack thawed to its third-lowest summer level on record, up slightly from the seasonal melt of the past two years but continuing an overall decline symptomatic of climate change, U.S. scientists said on Thursday.

The range of ocean remaining frozen over the northern polar region reached its minimum extent for 2009 on September 12, when it covered 1.97 million square miles (5.1 million square km), and now appears to be growing again as the Arctic starts its annual cool-down, the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported.

That level falls 20 percent below the 30-year average minimum ice cover for the Arctic summer since satellites began measuring it in 1979, and 24 percent less than the 1979-2000 average, the Colorado-based government agency said.

This summer's minimum represents a loss about about two-thirds of the sea ice measured at the height of Arctic winter in March. By comparison, the Arctic ice shelf typically shrank by a little more than half each summer during the 1980s and 1990s, ice scientist Walt Meier said.

The lowest point on record was reached in September 2007, and the 2009 minimum ranks as the third smallest behind last year's level. But scientists said they do not consider the slight upward fluctuation again this summer to be a recovery.

The difference was attributed to relatively cooler temperatures this summer compared with the two previous years. Winds also tended to disperse the ice pack over a larger region, scientists said.

"The long-term decline in summer extent is expected to continue in future years," the report said.

The U.S. government findings were in line with measurements reported separately by the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in Norway, which reported this summer's minimum ice extent at just under 5 million square km (1.93 million square miles).

Scientists regard the Arctic and its sea ice as among the most sensitive barometers of global warming because even small temperature changes make a huge difference.

"If you go from a degree below freezing to 2 degrees above freezing, that's a completely different environment in the polar region," Meier said. "You're going from ice skating to swimming. Whereas if you're on a tropical beach and it's 3 degrees warmer, you probably wouldn't even notice it."

World leaders will meet at the United Nations in New York on Tuesday to discuss a climate treaty due to be agreed on in December.

Source : REUTERS

Environmental Groups "Team Earth" To Use Web To Save Rainforest

Environmental activists are taking to the Internet in a new bid to help save the world's rainforests with the help of major corporations including Starbucks Corp and Dell Inc.

Campaigners plan to announce on Monday the formation of "Team Earth," a social network that includes businesses, nongovernmental organizations, students and politicians with the hope of battling tropical deforestation.

Team Earth will launch in November, but its organizers wanted to spread the word this week, as world leaders gather in New York for the United Nations General Assembly.

"This is a moment when leaders around the world need to take action. We cannot afford for our representatives ... not to take action, so we're mobilizing the public," said Peter Seligmann, chief executive of Conservation International, which is spearheading the effort.

Starbucks Chief Executive Howard Schultz said he joined forces with Conservation International over shared concerns over "divergent efforts of many separate parties -- NGOs, corporations, politicians and individuals -- trying to do something in which perhaps the sum of the parts could be greater if there was collective action."

Schultz said it makes business sense for companies to take serious action against social and environmental issues because it is important to employees and customers.

"In order to make a sustainable enduring business that's profitable, you're also going to have to create a balance between profitability and a social conscience," Schultz said in an interview.

Some of Starbucks' existing environmental targets include having all of its new company-operated stores meeting green building standards starting in 2010 and having all of its cups recyclable by 2012.

Actor Harrison Ford, a Conservation International board member best known as the star of the "Indiana Jones" films, is supporting the effort, and told Reuters that large-scale cooperation was best.

"Our individual efforts have been fruitful but history shows that real change is not accomplished through individual efforts but through movements," Ford said, noting that governments and corporations must also be involved.

Team Earth will use social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter, along with its own site, to gather support for its causes, which also include climate change, water conservation and health.

Source : REUTERS

Solar Activity On the Surface of Sun Can Also Hit Earth With Wild Winds

The Sun can lash the Earth with powerful winds that can disrupt communications, aviation and power lines even when it is in the quiet phase of its 11-year solar cycle, U.S. scientists say.

Observers have traditionally used the number of sunspots on the surface of the Sun to measure its activity. The number of sunspots reaches a peak at what is called the solar maximum, then declines to reach a minimum during a cycle.

At the peak, intense solar flares and geomagnetic storms eject vast amounts of energy into space, crashing into the Earth's protective magnetic fields, knocking out satellites, disrupting communications and causing colorful aurorae.

But scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in the United States and the University of Michigan found that the Earth was bombarded with intense solar winds last year despite an unusually quiet phase for the Sun.

"The Sun continues to surprise us," said Sarah Gibson of the center's High Altitude Observatory and lead author of the study. "The solar wind can hit Earth like a fire hose even when there are virtually no sunspots."

Scientists previously thought the streams of energy largely disappeared as the solar cycle approached the minimum.

Gibson and the team, which also included scientists from NOAA and NASA, compared measurements from the current solar minimum interval, taken in 2008, with measurements of the last solar minimum in 1996.

Although the current solar minimum has fewer sunspots than any minimum in 75 years, the Sun's effect on Earth's outer radiation belt was more than three times greater last year than in 1996.

The research, published in the latest issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research, found that the prevalence of high-speed streams during the solar minimum in 2008 appeared to be related to the current structure of the Sun.

As the number of sunspots fell over the past few years, large holes lingered in the surface of the Sun near its equator. The high-speed streams that blow out of those holes engulfed Earth during 55 percent of the study period in 2008, compared to 31 percent of the study period in 1996.

A single stream of charged particles can last for as long as 7 to 10 days, the study says.

"The new observations from last year are changing our understanding of how solar quiet intervals affect the Earth and how and why this might change from cycle to cycle," said co-author Janet Kozyra of the University of Michigan.

Source : REUTERS

Nepal's Sherpa Community Sending Piece Of Rock From Mount Everest as "Memento" For Obama To Show Climate Change Impact

Nepal's sherpa community is sending a piece of rock from Mount Everest to U.S. President Barack Obama to underscore the impact of global warming on the Himalayas.

Environmental group WWF said Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal had promised to carry the "memento" and give it to Obama when world leaders meet in New York next week as "a symbol of the melting Himalayas in the wake of climate change."

Heads of state will attend a U.N. General Assembly meeting as well as hold talks on climate change in New York.

The rock was collected from the 8,850 meter (29,035 feet) Mount Everest by Apa Sherpa, who climbed the mountain for a record 19th time in May.

Sherpas, mainly living in Nepal's Solukhumbhu district, home to the world's tallest peak, are known for their climbing skills.

A WWF-Nepal statement said more than 200,000 youth had also signed a petition to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanding action on global warming ahead of crucial climate talks in Copenhagen.

Negotiations on an accord to replace the Kyoto Protocol are scheduled to conclude at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in the Danish capital in December.

Experts say mountainous Nepal, home to eight of the world's 14 tallest peaks, including Mount Everest, is vulnerable to climate change despite being responsible for only 0.025 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, among the world's lowest.

Average global temperatures are rising faster in the Himalayas compared to most other parts of the world, according to the Kathmandu-based International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

Source : REUTERS

Iraq Approved a Project To Make Bio fuels Out Of Rotting Dates

Iraq's prime minister has approved a project by a United Arab Emirates-based company to make biofuel from dates that would otherwise be wasted because they have started to perish, Iraqi officials said on Sunday.

Iraq has the world's third largest oil reserves but its crumbling farm sector, which has suffered from decades of sanctions, isolation and war, is the country's leading employer.

A long drought has conspired with entrenched problems like high soil salinity, poor irrigation practices and a lack of proper seeds and fertilizer to hold back domestic farming and make Iraq heavily dependent on grain imports. Iraqi officials are keen to do anything to boost agricultural productivity.

Iraq, whose date palm plantations dot the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in an otherwise parched landscape, used to be a leading date exporter. It exports a tiny amount at present, officials say.

Faroun Ahmed Hussein, head of the national date palm board, said the Emirati company would produce bioethanol from dates that farmers cannot export because they are starting to rot. It would be used domestically at first, then possibly later exported.

He declined to name the company, estimate the cost of the project or say how much bioethanol it was expected to produce.

He said Iraq produces 350,000 tonnes of dates annually, a sharp fall from 900,000 tonnes produced before the U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein but still more than the 150,000 tonnes it currently consumes. Some are fed to animals, he said.

Biofuels are seen by some policymakers as a key element in the fight against climate change, because plants suck up carbon from the atmosphere, and in the quest for alternatives to non-renewable fossil fuels.

Source : REUTERS

Small Hydro Power-plant To Help Boost Rural Africa Development

Mini hydro plants could be the answer to a lack of power in rural Africa, especially as larger power projects are put on hold due to limited cash and abundant red tape, industry officials say.

Analysts say the continent could generate as much as 330,000 megawatts (MW) from its hydro reserves, yet only some 7 percent of that potential has been exploited so far.

So far only one in four Africans is linked to the grid, but power needs on the continent are estimated to triple by 2035.

Small hydro plants, involving small dams, pumps or water mills, can light villages with minimal environmental impact.

A 7 MW plant in the South African town of Bethlehem is expected to supply power to 15 percent of the roughly 70,000 people, at a total cost of 100 million rand ($13.24 million).

Mini plants satisfy people's basic needs, like the 0.75 kilowatt turbine in Kenya's Kerugoya village which gives access to power without forcing people to walk miles to the next town.

African governments say the extension of electricity lines to more people is a priority. Kenya is in the process of adding 200,000 new electricity consumers every year until 2012.

Civic group Practical Action is building 15 mini hydro plants in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique to light homes, schools and clinics and to irrigate fields.

Kenya, the world's largest exporter of black tea, also plans to build 10 mini hydro plants supplying a total of 23 MW to irrigate tea plantations.

Mini hydro projects will also help retain professionals such as teachers and health workers in rural areas.

Source : REUTERS

India Eyes Policy Changes To Cut Renewables Energy Costs

India, which hopes to attract $16 billion in renewable energy investments by 2012, will soon announce new policies to cut the cost of investment in the green sector, the chief of India's renewables agency said on Thursday.

Proposals include financial incentive models linked to units of green power generated and tax cuts based on accelerated depreciation benefits. India currently has an investment-linked incentive policy.

"Issues such as accelerated depreciation are being now discussed and we should be able to announce the plans soon," Debashish Majumdar, chairman and managing director of the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency, said at the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit.

India has already attracted about $5 billion worth of investment in renewables over the past two years -- leading to 4,000 megawatts of green power, mostly from wind -- but the high initial investment cost of green power has deterred many investors.

India hopes to attract about $21 billion worth of investments in renewable energy in the 2007-2012 plan period.

Majumdar, whose agency makes loans to renewables projects, said it hoped to meet that target but the global financial downturn had slowed investment during the past year-and-a-half.

This could hurt India's target of generating 25,000 MW of power from renewable energy over the next four years, more than double the current generation level of 12,000 MW.

"We have about 40 projects in the pipeline worth about $500 million," Majumdar said in New Delhi.

This is below the usual pace of investment, typically between 50 to 60 projects every quarter. The new projects are mostly for wind, hydro and bio-mass power.

Just three percent of India's total power mix now comes from renewables, and developing the sector is at the core of a national plan on climate change that does not commit to any emission targets.

In spite of its pledge to adopt clean technology, pollution-spewing coal remains the backbone of India's power sector -- making up about 60 percent of generation -- with the government planning to add about 70,000 MW in the next 4 years.

One of the thrusts of the national climate plan is developing solar power and India plans to generate 20 gigawatts of solar power by 2020.

Wind could generate a "considerable share" of India's power, the Global Wind Energy Council said in a new study released on Wednesday.

Source : REUTERS

Wind Power Could Meet China's Electricity Demands By 2030 : Study

Wind power could meet China's electricity demands through 2030 and cut carbon dioxide emissions in China by 30 percent, U.S. and Chinese researchers said on Thursday.

China already is the world's chief emitter of carbon dioxide, a leading so-called greenhouse gas implicated by scientists in global climate change.

China currently generates 792.5 gigawatts of electricity per year, mostly through coal-fired power plants, and that output is expected to grow by 10 percent per year, a team from Harvard University in Massachusetts and Tsinghua University in Beijing reported in the journal Science.

About 80 percent of China's electricity comes from coal.

Wind energy accounts for just 0.4 percent of China's total current electricity supply, but the country is quickly adding capacity, trailing only the United States, Germany and Spain in existing wind farms, the scientists said.

To study the potential of wind energy in China, the team used data from NASA as well as global meteorological data collected from surface observations, aircraft, balloons, ships, buoys and satellites worldwide.

They found that a network of wind turbines operating at as little as 20 percent of their rated capacity could provide more than seven times China's current electricity consumption.

To meet its growing energy demand with coal-fired plants, China could potentially increase the country's carbon dioxide output to 3.5 gigatons a year, the scientists said.

The team calculates that the switch to wind power would cost China around $900 billion dollars at current prices over the same 20-year period.

"This would require a major investment of resources and could be accomplished only on the basis of a carefully designed long-range plan for the Chinese power sector," the team wrote.

Source : REUTERS

U.S. Ethanol Producer Green Plains Sees Stronger Ethanol Sector

The shakeout in the U.S. ethanol industry in the past year has helped draw stronger players to the business and made producers better able to cope with soft margins, Green Plains Renewable Energy Inc's chief executive said on Thursday.

Since November of last year, several of the nation's biggest producers of the corn-based gasoline substitute have filed for bankruptcy protection as ethanol margins turned negative.

Those margins have recovered to about 10-20 cents a gallon in recent months as corn prices have fallen and because of government mandates for rising usage.

Most producers in the industry that makes about 700,000 barrels per day, or more than 7 percent of the nation's gasoline demand, should be able to survive on margins between about 15-30 cents per gallon, Green Plains' CEO Todd Becker said at the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit.

Green Plains, the fourth largest U.S. ethanol producer by volume, has benefited from the shakeout: the company purchased two plants in Nebraska built by now-defunct VeraSun Energy, which fell into bankruptcy last year.

That acquisition from lender AgStar Financial Services, which had bought six of VeraSun's plants, lifted Green Plains' capacity to 480 million gallons per year.

Green Plains, which earns about 20 percent of its revenues -- that totaled $285 million in the second quarter -- from its agriculture business, is also staying on the lookout for other available plants.

"If the right plant comes up in the right locality -- we're very picky -- we'll add it," he said.

The U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard mandates the mixing of 12 billion gallons of traditional ethanol made from grains like corn into the nation's gasoline supply in 2010, up from about 10.5 billion this year. The mandated target will hit a maximum of 15 billion gallons in 2015.

That growing share of the market has attracted large energy companies, including Valero Energy, the nation's largest oil refiner, which bought seven of VeraSun's plants in a bankruptcy auction.

That has helped the industry mature, Becker said, and was a healthy development for the renewable fuel.

Oil companies such as Exxon Mobil and BP Plc are also investing in next generation biofuels, joining agricultural giants like Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland who are major ethanol producers.

Source : REUTERS

European Union Executive Moves To Protect Bluefin Tuna

The European Union's executive has provisionally backed a ban on fishing for Atlantic bluefin tuna, which has been pushed close to extinction by industrial fishing boats.

Prized by sushi lovers and chronically overfished for years, bluefin tuna commands sky-high prices in Asia, particularly in Japan where a single fish can fetch up to $100,000.

The European Commission said it would support the EU co-sponsoring a proposal by Monaco to list the species under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) next March.

But the EU will not fully commit until its 27 member countries have been consulted on September 21 or before new scientific data emerges in November.

"The European Commission shares many of the concerns expressed by Monaco about the state of stocks of Atlantic bluefin tuna," said a Commission spokeswoman. Opposition could come from big tuna fishing nations such as Malta and Italy.

"We welcome that the Commission accepts, at last, the gravity of the bluefin tuna's plight," said Ral Romeva, who represents the European Parliament on the issue. "We can only regret that it still refuses to commit to take the firm steps that are needed to save this fish," he added.

Last year, the European Commission accused France and Italy of breaching their quotas on bluefin tuna fishing.

"Bluefin tuna has become endangered because of disgraceful fisheries management in the EU," said Greenpeace campaigner Saskia Richartz.

The main problem is caused by industrial vessels that use a purse seine net, which floats the top of a long wall of netting on the surface while its bottom is weighted under the water.

Europe has a two-month season for the six EU states -- Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain -- that fish in Mediterranean and east Atlantic waters with purse seiners.

Commission experts say the EU's fishing capacity is so large, and bluefin trawling activity so concentrated in one month, the EU quota can be exhausted in two days of fishing.

Source : REUTERS

Birth Control Could Head Off Climate Crunch

Birth control and new technologies -- not lifestyle change alone -- may be needed to head off a combined climate, food and energy crunch later this century, said the head of Britain's science academy Martin Rees.

The world's population is expected to rise by one third to more than 9 billion people by 2050, and may keep growing, fuelling concern about food and energy shortages and a more difficult task to curb greenhouse gases heating the planet.

But analysts and environment and development groups rarely mention population control, which smacks of totalitarianism, in U.N.-led climate talks meant to agree in December a broader, more ambitious pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol.

"There should not be any stigma in providing women with ways of getting out of ignorance, poverty and getting access to contraceptives," said Rees, president of the Royal Society, at the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit.

"I think population issues need to be higher up the agenda because population beyond 2050 is very uncertain. There should not be any stigma against stronger efforts to give women in Africa more empowerment."

There will be more than 1 billion extra people in Africa than now by 2050 said Rees, who added the continent by then would have three times the population of Europe -- which had triple Africa's population in 1950.

Rees gave two priorities for policymakers now to maintain food, energy and low-carbon air supplies later this century:

"Substituting as quickly as possible fossil fuels and doing all we can to ensure the global population doesn't continue rising after 2050," he told Reuters in London.

"There are going to be pressures on the environment, not just climate change but food and water."

The Chinese government estimates its population was 300-400 million smaller in 2008 as a result of a one-child policy introduced in 1979. Its population now is about 1.3 billion.

Source : REUTERS

Looking Breakthrough Ideas in Green Technology, Google Plans New Mirror For Cheaper Solar Power

Google Inc is disappointed with the lack of breakthrough investment ideas in the green technology sector but the company is working to develop its own new mirror technology that could reduce the cost of building solar thermal plants by a quarter or more.

"We've been looking at very unusual materials for the mirrors both for the reflective surface as well as the substrate that the mirror is mounted on," the company's green energy czar Bill Weihl told Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday.

Google, known for its Internet search engine, in late 2007 said it would invest in companies and do research of its own to produce affordable renewable energy within a few years.

The company's engineers have been focused on solar thermal technology, in which the sun's energy is used to heat up a substance that produces steam to turn a turbine. Mirrors focus the sun's rays on the heated substance.

Google hopes to have a viable technology to show internally in a couple of months, Weihl said. It will need to do accelerated testing to show the impact of decades of wear on the new mirrors in desert conditions.

Another technology that Google is working on is gas turbines that would run on solar power rather than natural gas, an idea that has the potential of further cutting the cost of electricity, Weihl said.

"In two to three years we could be demonstrating a significant scale pilot system that would generate a lot of power and would be clearly mass manufacturable at a cost that would give us a levelized cost of electricity that would be in the 5 cents or sub 5 cents a kilowatt hour range," Weihl said.

Google is invested in two solar thermal companies, eSolar and BrightSolar but is not working with these companies in developing the cheaper mirrors or turbines.

In wide-ranging remarks, Weihl also said the United States needs to raise government-backed research significantly, particularly in the very initial stages to encourage breakthrough ideas in the sector.

The company has pushed ahead in addressing climate change issues as a philanthropic effort through its Google.org arm.

Source : REUTERS

India To Set Industry Efficiency Targets By December, 2010

India hopes to set up by December next year energy efficiency targets for more than 700 industrial units, which account for 40 percent of India's fossil fuel use, the country's head of energy efficiency said on Monday.

Ajay Mathur, director-general of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, said India's energy efficiency market was worth about $15 billion which could generate energy saving of up to two percent of the country's total energy use now.

The scheme is among a number of emissions reduction measures India has announced that could bolster the nation's position ahead of a U.N. gathering in Copenhagen in December aimed at trying to win agreement on a broader pact to fight climate change.

Source : REUTERS

Threatened by Risisng Sea Levels, Maldives To Introduce Green Tax On Tourists

The Maldives archipelago, threatened by rising sea levels blamed on climate change, said on Monday it would introduce a new environment tax on all tourists who use its resorts and provide its economic lifeline.

Famed mostly for high-end luxury resorts and white-sand atolls, the Maldives has made a name for itself as an advocate for mitigating climate change because rising sea levels are forecast to submerge most of its islands by 2100.

The Maldives' $850 million economy gets more than a quarter of its gross domestic product from tourists, but has not yet taxed them to help it fight climate change.

President Mohammed Nasheed, who in March outlined plans to make the Maldives the world's first carbon-neutral nation within a decade, said an environment tax was soon to be levied on all tourists.

"We have introduced a green tax. It's in the pipeline. It's a matter of parliament approving it and I hope parliament will approve it -- $3 per each tourist a day," Nasheed told reporters in Male, the capital of the Indian Ocean archipelago.

Based on an annual average of 700,000 tourists who spend an average of three days on the islands, that translates to about $6.3 million annually.

In March, Nasheed launched a $1.1 billion initiative to convert the islands solely to renewable energy from fossil fuels, and buy and destroy EU carbon credits to offset emissions from tourists flying to visit its resorts.

The government has acknowledged it needs outside investment to fund those plans, and Nasheed's trip to U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen in December.

Last month, his office said he would not attend the talks because of a budget crisis that forced the country to seek a $60 million International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan.

Nasheed said he still had no plans to attend "unless someone very generously helps us. I hope someone will assist us."

He said the Maldives had little leverage in the outcome of the Copenhagen talks, which are to create a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, but a huge stake.

"There is no point in Maldives entering the agreement. It is a small country. It is India, China, Brazil, the United States that have to join in," he said. "No one is going to come out as a winner without an agreement."

Source : REUTERS