Switzerland expands border into Italy as glaciers melt

Switzerland has expanded its border at Italy's expense because of melting glaciers in the high Alps. The Swiss government today approved shifting the border up to 150 metres into Italian territory in some areas. The changes were made after the Swiss Federal Office of Topography found that the watershed, which determined the border in 1942, had moved because of melting glaciers and snow fields. Topographer Daniel Gutknecht says Switzerland has become "a little bit" larger but added "we won't be correcting the atlas". The Italian embassy in Bern said the change had been approved by Rome.

SOURCE : guardian.co.uk

Australia passes 20% renewables bill

Legislation matches European targets for clean energy

Australia's parliament today passed a law demanding that 20% of the country's electricity come from renewable sources by 2020, matching European targets.

The law would quadruple the renewable energy target set by the previous government in 2001 and provide enough clean electricity to power the households of all 21 million Australians.

The target matches one set by the European Union, which leads the world in green power technology.

But some officials warned that more aggressive cuts in greenhouse gas emissions are needed as well.

The bill was passed by the Senate and House of Representatives on Thursday after the government reached a deal with the main opposition party to increase government assistance to industries that are heavy users of electricity and create safeguards for existing investment in the coal mining industry.

Currently, 8% of Australia's electricity comes from renewable sources, including hydroelectric generators built late last century, according to the private Clean Energy Council.

Critics argue the target will make electricity more expensive in coal-rich Australia without curbing the amount of climate-warming greenhouse gases that the nation emits, as overall electricity consumption rises.

Climate change minister, Penny Wong, told the Senate on Wednesday that even with one-fifth of Australia's electricity coming from renewable sources by 2020, the nation's carbon gas emissions are projected to be 20% higher than 2000 levels.

"The only way we're going to be able to turn around the growth in our carbon pollution ... is to put a firm legislated limit on the amount of carbon that we produce and make those who create the pollution pay for it," Wong said.

Last week the Senate rejected a government-proposed bill that would have taxed industries' carbon emissions starting in 2011 and slashed the country's emissions by up to 25% below 2000 levels by 2020.

SOURCE : guardian.co.uk

Mexico Hit By Lowest Rainfall In 68 Years

Mexico is suffering from its driest year in 68 years, killing crops and cattle in the countryside and forcing the government to slow the flow of water to the crowded capital.

Below-average rainfall since last year has left about 80 of Mexico's 175 largest reservoirs less than half full, said Felipe Arreguin, a senior official at the Conagua commission, which manages the country's water supply.

More than 1,000 cattle have been lost due to lack of rainfall, and up to 20 million tons of crops managed by 3.5 million small farmers are at risk of being lost, agriculture groups say.

The arid northwest region of Mexico has been hardest hit, along with the central part of the country surrounding Mexico City where 20 million people live.

Mexico typically has a rainy season from around June to October, topping up lakes and reservoirs that supply much of the country's water during the rest of the year.

The El Nino weather phenomenon, a warming of the seas in the Pacific Ocean, has induced a dry spell in South America and is likely partly to blame for Mexico's lack of rain, experts say.

Authorities have reduced the flow from the Cutzamala series of dams and rivers more than 60 miles long that supplies a quarter of Mexico City's water to ensure enough is available until next year's rainy season.

Trucks are delivering water to some parts of the capital where cuts have made the flow of water intermittent.

In Mexican states like San Luis, Aguascalientes and Colima, some farmers have been unable to successfully plant their crops because of a lack of rain, while others watched their corn and beans plants wilt. Authorities are handing out cash to small farmers in hard-hit areas.

Four-fifths of Mexico's water resources are used to irrigate crops and the government is encouraging farmers to adopt more efficient methods over the long term.

In neighboring Guatemala, the government is distributing emergency food to 56,000 families whose crops have been damaged.

Mexico's sugar crop was harvested before the drought set in, and coffee farms are mostly in unaffected areas.

Already-taxed underground water accounts for most of the supply to Mexico City, an urban sprawl built over a drained lake bead, and will likely face more stress.

Mexico has had slightly less rainfall over the past decade but there is insufficient data to say how much global warming can be blamed, Arreguin said.

Mexico City officials are urging residents to conserve water by installing efficient shower faucets and to use buckets instead of hoses to wash their cars.

SOURCE : REUTERS

First Solar, SoCal Edison Set New Solar Projects

First Solar Inc and utility Southern California Edison said on Tuesday that they would build two photovoltaic solar power projects with a capacity of 550 megawatts.

The projects in the California counties of Riverside and San Bernardino would provide enough power to supply 170,000 homes when completed in 2015, the companies said.

The announcement is the latest move by U.S. utilities to increase their production of electricity from renewable energy sources to meet stricter state environmental rules and as the United States moves closer to regulating greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels.

The projects are also a sign that financing for new solar installations might be starting to recover after a year when many major banks abandoned the industry because of the meltdown in the credit markets.

First Solar is the one of the world's largest producers of photovoltaic cells, which turn sunlight into electricity. Its production costs are the lowest in the industry, although its thin-film cadmium telluride cells are not as efficient in capturing the sun's rays as the more traditional silicon-based cells.

First Solar will engineer, procure and construct the projects -- a 250-megawatt installation to be called Desert Sunlight near Desert Center, California, and a 300-megawatt project to be called Stateline in northeastern San Bernardino County.

Southern California Edison, owned by Edison International, delivered about 65 percent of solar energy produced in the United States last year.

Pending approval by state regulators, construction will begin on Desert Sunlight in 2012 and on Stateline in 2013.

First Solar shares climbed 1.2 percent to $136.07 on Nasdaq, while Edison International shares slipped 0.3 percent to 31.61 on the New York Stock Exchange.

SOURCE : REUTERS

Germany Launches CO2 Scrubbing At RWE Plant

The launch of the pilot plant to test the process at RWE's Niederaussem brown coal plant signifies another step toward coal generators' aims to capture climate-harming CO2 emissions, and in another step burying them safely underground.

The EU wants all new coal-to-power plants after 2020 to be equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.

Germany is Europe's top greenhouse gas emitter.

The 9 million euros ($12.72 million) pilot unit was 40 percent funded by the Berlin ministry, said RWE and its partners chemicals group BASF and Linde.

If it works successfully, the process will be transferred to existing coal and gas fired power plants after 2020.

BASF supplies solvents and Linde the process engineering.

RWE Chief Executive Juergen Grossmann said that a national CCS law, which had been postponed in June, needed to become a top priority after national elections in September.

He said that apart from power generators, the CCS technology was also needed by refineries, chemical plants, steel mills and cement factories.

RWE is seeking one billion euros from a partner or public funds to help finance a coal plant using CCS of commercial size at Huerth, which could be up and running from 2014.

The government coalition moved back the CCS legislation, which would also have created a basis for the exploration of CO2 storage facilities, because of political controversy.

Green campaigners say CCS diverts interest and funding away from alternative energies. Anti-coal lobbies are trying to stop planned coal plant projects even if they are made CCS-ready.

SOURCE : REUTERS

India Must Invest In Green Technology: PM Manmohan Singh

India's prime minister said on Tuesday the country must invest in its own environmentally friendly technologies, the latest in myriad pledges from one of the world's biggest polluters to fight climate change.

Manmohan Singh's comments underlined how India was seeking to undercut demands by rich nations for it to do more to curb carbon emissions. New Delhi has constantly resisted emissions targets, saying it will take its own unilateral action to cut pollution.

Global negotiations for a new U.N. agreement on climate change are stuck on the question of how much cash or technology rich nations will provide the poorer countries.

Singh's comments also signaled that India, the world's fourth-largest polluter, was willing to put in money to develop expensive clean technologies to supplement what it might get from rich countries.

"Our growth strategy can be different. It must be different," the prime minister said, referring to the western world's decades of industrialization that is blamed for climate change.

He said India's energy use will rise sharply in the coming decades as it tries to lift a multitude out of poverty, but stressed a different development path must be walked.

"For this we need access to new technologies that are already available with developed countries. We must also make our own investments in new environment-friendly technologies," he told a national conference on environment and forests in New Delhi.

India has already announced several steps to fight global warming, such as ramping up solar power investment, expanding forest cover and bringing in domestic energy efficiency trading.

"In dealing with the challenge of climate change and environmental degradation we face the unfair burden of past mistakes not of our making," Singh said.

"However, as we go forward in the march of development we have the opportunity not to repeat those mistakes."

With about 500 million people, or about half the population lacking access to electricity and relying on dirty coal to expand the power grid, India's booming economy has huge potential to leap-frog to a low-carbon future.

But it says it needs a little hand-holding by rich countries to keep it on the right path.

SOURCE : REUTERS

Electric car industry boost as leading developer plans production of tens of thousands of vehicles a year

Carmaker developing three models with Renault for sale in Denmark and Israel, with plans to expand scheme further

The electric car industry received a boost yesterday after a leading developer of low-emission vehicles said it would produce of tens of thousands vehicles a year from 2011. Better Place, which will run the scheme with Renault, plans to market them initially in Denmark and Israel.

The French carmaker is developing three models: a saloon, a compact city car and a van. In Denmark, a car will cost up to 200,000 kroner (£23,080).

"We expect the production of electric vehicles to be in the tens of thousands per year for the Danish market from 2011," said Jens Moberg, chief executive of Better Place Denmark, the Danish subsidiary of the transport company developing the lithium batteries fitted in the vehicles.

Electric car drivers will need to sign up for a monthly subscription with Better Place to get access to the batteries. "It will be like signing up for a mobile phone contract," said Moberg.

He declined to say how much a subscription would cost but said the battery would cost €8,000 (£6,900) to manufacture in 2011-12. "I expect the cost to come down afterwards as production expands," he said.

Drivers can recharge the batteries at home, which would take several hours, or switch batteries at a "swap station", taking three to five minutes – less time than it takes to fill a petrol tank.

In Denmark, close to 100 battery swap stations will be available around the country, with plans to expand further.

Drivers will also be able to top up their batteries at charge spots installed at car parks and on the streets. Copenhagen is working to install up to 60 by the time of the UN climate change summit in December, when world leaders will attempt to broker a worldwide deal to reduce carbon emissions.

A number of electric Renault cars will also be available to drive during the conference. Those trying out the cars will not have to worry about parking, as it is already free to park an electric car anywhere in Copenhagen.

Moberg said Better Place was in discussion with a number of European countries, including France, about expanding the scheme further from Israel and Denmark.

SOURCE : guardian.co.uk

Hurricane Bill on Atlantic Track Toward Bermuda

Hurricane Bill is pictured moving through the Atlantic Ocean, more than 1,160 miles (1,870 km) east of the Lesser Antilles islands of the Caribbean, in this satellite image.

Hurricane Bill, the first hurricane of the 2009 Atlantic season, gained strength quickly as it churned across open ocean on Monday in the direction of Bermuda, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

China Climate Change Report : Top climate change policy advisers has urged the government to set firm targets.

A new study by some of China's top climate change policy advisers has urged the government to set firm targets to curb greenhouse gas emissions so they peak around 2030.

Following are some of the key proposals of that study, "2050 China Energy and C02 Emissions Report."

SETTING GREENHOUSE GAS TARGETS

The study proposes setting relative and then absolute targets for limiting China's emissions of the greenhouse gases from human activities that are stoking global warming. The "relative" targets could involve carbon intensity goals, curbing the amount of emissions needed to create each unit of economic worth.

Later, it says, the government could apply absolute caps on emissions, also allowing for the emergence of a "cap-and-trade" market so companies could buy and sell emissions rights, domestically and internationally.

Movement to such a carbon-trading market should be cautious, the study says. "Once allocation of pollution rights is handed to the government, that may create room for rent-seeking, so ultimately it becomes impossible to effectively allocate rights."

CARBON TAXES

The report devotes a chapter to the potential benefits and costs of a "carbon tax." Such a tax, applied to fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil, "would play a clear role in curtailing our country's future carbon dioxide emissions."

A tax of 100 yuan ($14.6) on every metric ton of carbon from 2010, which would rise to 200 yuan on every metric ton in 2030, could by 2030 reduce emissions by up 24 percent less than they would have been under a "business as usual" scenario.

ENERGY MARKET AND FINANCIAL REFORMS

The study examines proposals to deepen market reforms of the energy sector and force coal-users to pay more for the estimated environmental costs. It also encourages reforms to encourage more investment and private capital in clean energy.

EMISSIONS SCENARIOS

In the study, Jiang Kejun of the Energy Research Institute says that if China continues a "business as usual" approach focused on economic growth and does little to curb emissions, its carbon dioxide output from fossil fuel alone could peak at the equivalent of 3.5 billion metric tons of pure carbon a year by 2040. That does not include greenhouse gas emissions from other sources, such as livestock and land-use changes.

If China adopts policies to promote "low-carbon development," emissions could reach 2.4 billion metric tons of carbon a year by 2050.

Under an "enhanced low carbon scenario" of even more stringent steps, they could reach a maximum of 2.2 billion metric tons a year in 2030 and fall to 1.4 billion metric tons in 2050.

SOURCE : REUTERS

Kenya May Lose All Its Lions in 20 Years

Kenya's lion population could disappear altogether in the next 20 years because of climate change, habitat destruction, disease and conflict with humans, the country's wildlife authority said on Monday.

Lions are one of the so-called Big Five along with elephants, buffaloes, leopards and rhinos that are the major tourist attraction in Kenya's game parks.

Kenya, heavily reliant on tourist dollars, lost an average 100 lions in each of the last seven years; from 2,749 lions in 2002, to some 2,000 of the big cats now, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said.

"The trend of lion population decline is disturbing and every effort needs to be made to ensure that Kenya either stabilizes its population at the current 2000 lions or increases the numbers to an ecologically acceptable level," KWS said in a statement.

It said it has tracking devices fitted on five lions to monitor their movement and better understand the human-lion conflict in the southern Amboseli ecosystem.

The southern Tsavo National Park -- famous for a pair of man-eating lions that devoured scores of railway construction workers by dragging them from their tents at night in the 1890s -- has only 675 lions, KWS said.

SOURCE : REUTERS