The International Institute for Sustainable Development ()
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CLIMATE-L NEWS
ISSUE
3
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Contents
1)
CASHING IN ON
KYOTO NO EASY TASK (The Moscow Times September 13, 2002)
2)
CLIMATE CHANGES TO HAMMER
CHINA'S AGRICULTURAL SECTOR RESEARCH (China Daily September 13, 2002)
3)
ANCIENT ANTARCTIC ICE CHALLENGES CLIMATE CHANGE
THEORIES (AFP
September 13, 2002)
4)
INDIAN CAPITAL BREATHES EASY AFTER POLLUTION CHECKS
(Reuters
September 13, 2002)
5)
DUTCH MIGHT BREACH
KYOTO PROTOCOL (Expatica News September 13, 2002)
6)
THAILAND: UNEP OFFICIAL CRITICIZES
CARBON CREDIT REJECTION (UN Wire September 12, 2002)
7)
URBAN SPRAWL CHANGES WEATHER (BBC
September 12, 2002)
8)
OIL CHIEFS RAP
OTTAWA OVER KYOTO (Financial Post
September 12, 2002)
9)
SCIENTIST: INJECT CO2 EMISSIONS INTO EARTH'S CRUST
(Reuters
September 10, 2002)
10)
BIOLOGISTS: GLOBAL WARMING THREATENS THOUSANDS OF
ANTARCTIC SPECIES (Associated Press
September 9, 2002)
11)
KYOTO WON'T KILL CANADA'S OIL SANDS
BOOM - ANALYSTS (Planet Ark September 6, 2002)
12)
PM WRONG ON KYOTO: BHP (news.au.com
September 6, 2002)
13)
KYOTO, MEET THE TIGER (Globe and Mail
September 6, 2002)
14)
RICH SOIL GOOD FOR TRAPPING CARBON DIOXIDE STUDY
(Reuters
September 6, 2002)
15)
CANADIAN MINISTER SAYS
KYOTO COST ESTIMATES ON WAY (Planet
Ark September 6, 2002)
16)
INTERVIEW - INSURER CALLS FOR TOUGH RULES ON
POLLUTION (Planet
Ark September 6, 2002)
17)
GERMANY IN ELECTION-TINGED PUSH FOR
WORLD CONFERENCE ON RENEWABLE ENERGY (Associated Press September 5, 2002)
18)
PALAU FAULTS EARTH SUMMIT ON GLOBAL
WARMING (Planet Ark September 5, 2002)
19)
SUNCOR CEO SAYS PREPARED FOR
KYOTO, UNHAPPY ABOUT IT (Reuters
September 2002)
20)
CANADA WILL RATIFY KYOTO PROTOCOL BUT
CLAIM CREDITS FOR SOME EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS Associated Press September 5,
2002)
21)
BREAKAWAY BLOC SETS ITSELF TOUGHER TARGETS WEAKNESS
OF FINAL STATEMENT SPURS 30 COUNTRIES, INCLUDING THE EU, TO GO IT ALONE
ON GREEN ENERGY (The Guardian
September 5, 2002)
22)
ANALYSIS - EARTH SUMMIT DEAL-A GREY DAY FOR GREEN
ENERGY? (Planet
Ark September 4, 2002)
23)
KYOTO MAY COME INTO FORCE IN MONTHS
(Independent September 4, 2002)
24)
THE PROTOCOL BUSH TRIED TO KILL LIVES TO FIGHT
ANOTHER DAY (Independent
September 4, 2002)
25)
PUTIN CONFIRMS
RUSSIA'S INTENT TO RATIFY KYOTO PROTOCOL (AFP September 4, 2002)
26)
PRIME MINISTER SAYS
AUSTRALIA MAY SIGN KYOTO PROTOCOL (Associated Press September 4, 2002)
27)
RUSSIA ANNOUNCES PLAN TO RATIFY KYOTO
PROTOCOL ON GLOBAL WARMING (Associated Press September 3, 2002)
28)
CHINA, RUSSIA BACK KYOTO GREENHOUSE
GAS PACT (September 3, 2002)
29)
ROTHSCHILD, E3 LAUNCH CARBON CREDIT INVESTMENT FUND
(Planet
Ark September 3, 2002)
30)
RUSSIA GIVES KYOTO KISS OF LIFE (BBC
September 3, 2002)
31)
CARBON DIOXIDE?
NORWAY CAN'T GET ENOUGH (Planet Ark September 2, 2002)
32)
BUSH OUT IN THE COLD AS G8 WARMS TO
KYOTO (The Star September 02 2002)
33)
BANK PLAN TO BURN LESS OIL RIG GAS MAY HELP POOR (Planet
Ark September 2, 2002)
34)
OIL ROW STALLS EARTH SUMMIT AS LEADERS TRADE BARBS
(Reuters
September 2, 2002)
35)
JAPAN DEVELOPS NEW WAYS OF CREATING
SUSTAINABLE ENERGY (SABCnews.com September 2, 2002)
36)
BLAIR: "IN TRUTH
KYOTO IS NOT RADICAL ENOUGH (CNN September 1, 2002)
37)
NEGOTIATORS UPBEAT AFTER REACHING AGREEMENT ON
CLIMATE CHANGE, TRADE (Associated Press
September 1, 2002)
38)
U.S. TO SUBMIT ALTERNATIVE TO KYOTO
PROTOCOL AT EARTH SUMMIT (Japan Today August 31, 2002)
39)
RUSSIA BALKS AT KYOTO PACT (CNN August
30, 2002)
40)
KYOTO TO BE RATIFIED IN FALL: MP
(National Post August 30, 2002)
41)
EU PLANS DISASTER FUND AFTER DEVASTATING FLOODS (Planet
Ark August 30, 2002)
42)
AUSTRALIA EYES ASIA AS MARKET FOR COAL REPORT
(Inter Press Service
August 30, 2002)
43)
U.N.: FREAK WEATHER, WARMING LINKED (AFP
August 30, 2002)
44)
PACIFIC ISLAND THREATENS AUSTRALIA
OVER GLOBAL WARMING (ABC NewsOnline August 29, 2002)
45)
EU SUPPORTS
KYOTO PROTOCOL (Japan Today August 29, 2002)
46)
FEATURE - BROKERS BLAZE TRAIL FOR NEW GREENHOUSE GAS
MARKET (Planet
Ark August 29, 2002)
47)
GREENPEACE, BIZ URGE CLIMATE CHANGE ACTION (United
Press International
August 29, 2002
48)
FLOODS A WAKE-UP CALL ON CLIMATE CHANGE - SCIENTIST
(Planet
Ark August 29, 2002
49)
TINY
ISLAND FEARS GLOBAL WARMING WILL CAUSE ITS DESTRUCTION (USA Today August
28, 2002)
50)
INDIA RATIFIES CONTROVERSIAL KYOTO
PROTOCOL (IndiaExpress August 28, 2002)
51)
AUSTRALIA GIVEN LEAD ON CLIMATE STATEMENT
(smh.au.com
August 28 2002)
52)
EUROPEAN SPACE WATCH ON CLIMATE (The Guardian
August 28, 2002)
53)
CHRÉTIEN COULD DELIVER
KYOTO TO WORLD (Globe and Mail August 28, 2002)
54)
NGOS URGE ENFORCEMENT OF
KYOTO PACT (Japan Today August 28,
2002)
55)
JAPAN MAKES EARTH
SUMMIT APPEAL FOR US TO RATIFY GLOBAL WARMING PACT JOHANNESBURG (AFP
August 28, 2002)
56)
CLIMATE CHANGE
ACTION URGED (BBC
August 28, 2002)
57)
WSSD/PANEL DISCUSSION ON BIODIVERSITY AND
ECOSYSTEMS MINISTER VOICES SMALL ISLANDS' CONCERN
OVER GLOBAL WARMING (Seychelles Online August 28, 2002)
58)
CLIMATIC WINDFALL FOR CORPORATES (Economic Times
August 27, 2002)
59)
FLOODS A WAKE-UP CALL ON CLIMATE CHANGE, SCIENTIST
SAYS (Reuters
August 27,2002)
60)
SOUTH AFRICA SETS TARGET FOR GREEN
ENERGY BY 2012 (Planet Ark August 26, 2002)
61)
NORWEGIAN CO2 SEA INJECTION TRIALS CANCELED (ENS
August 26, 2002)
62)
SUMMIT: OECD ENERGY AGENCY URGES
RADICAL CHANGES (ENS August 26, 2002)
63)
WORLD POLITICS GENERATES HOT AIR ON GREENHOUSE
(smh.com.au
August 26 2002)
64)
STUDY SUGGESTS CHOLERA WILL WORSEN AS GLOBE WARMS
(Reuters
August 26, 2002)
65)
GERMANY REITERATES CALL ON US TO JOIN
KYOTO CLIMATE PROTOCOL (IRNA August 24, 2002)
66)
KYOTO PROTOCOL GETS A RIDE IN
FUEL-ALCOHOL CAR (Inter Press Service August 23, 2002)
67)
FAST-TRACKING ADHERENCE TO THE
KYOTO PROTOCOL (Business Day August
22, 2002)
68)
CHINA PREPARES TO ADOPT CLIMATE CHANGE
TREATY (Reuters August 22, 2002)
69)
EUROPEAN GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS ACCELERATING (ENS
August 22, 2002)
70)
CHINA CLOSE TO RATIFYING KYOTO
PROTOCOL (Agence France-Presse August 22, 2002)
71)
BOULDER BACKS GLOBAL WARMING SUIT CITY
READY TO JOIN FIGHT OVER FOREIGN ENERGY PROJECTS (Bouldernews August 21,
2002)
72)
'GLOBAL WARMING THREATENS
AFRICA' (BBC August 20, 2002)
73)
PWC LAUNCHES CLIMATE CHANGE SERVICE IN
INDIA (Financial Express August 20, 2002)
74)
JOHANNESBURG SUMMIT: Senior UN
Official Pleads for Effective Climate Policies (Inter Press Service August
19, 2002)
75)
SMALL ISLAND STATES AND CLIMATE CHANGE
(Samoa Observer August 17, 2002)
76)
HOW
AUSTRALIA PLAYS THE KYOTO GAME by
Jeffrey Simpson (Globe and Mail September 13, 2002)
77)
WHY NOT HELP MAKE OUR WORLD CLEANER? by Wasant
Techawongtham (Bangkok
Post September 13, 2002)
78)
CHAMPIONS OF ENERGY (Mail & Guardian
September 13, 2002)
79)
WHO SAYS GOOD SENSE IS TOO EXPENSIVE? by Emma Duncan
(International Herald Tribune
September 2, 2002)
80)
JUST A CLIMATE COWBOY by Duane D. Freese (TCS
August 29, 2002)
81)
VIEWPOINT: END GLOBAL POVERTY BEFORE GLOBAL WARMING
by Bjorn Lomborg (National Geographic News
August 29, 2002)
82)
ANALYSIS: NATURE'S WARNINGS TO THE JOHANNESBURG
SUMMITEERS by Jeffrey D. Sachs (Daily
Times August 28, 2002)
83)
NOW IS THE TIME FOR RICH TO MATCH POOR'S GENEROSITY
by Andrew Simms (The Guardian
August 27, 2002)
84)
ENTERING THE POST-PETROLEUM CENTURY by Christopher
Flavin (International Herald Tribune
August 27, 2002)
85)
AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE ON GLOBAL WARMING by Purnima M
Gupta (Financial Express
August 26, 2002)
ON THE WEB
86)
LAUNCH OF NEW COMMUNITY CARBON FUND TO HELP POOR
COUNTRIES UNDER
KYOTO PROTOCOL (World Bank September2, 2002)
87)
PUTTING ENERGY INTO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - UNEP
LAUNCHES NEW GLOBAL CLEAN ENERGY NETWORK AT
JOHANNESBURG WORLD SUMMIT (UNEP
September 2, 2002)
88)
BIODIVERSITY, CLIMATE, AND DESERTIFICATION REGIMES
STRENGTHENED BY NEW PARTIES AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES (UNFCCC, CDB, CCD
August 30, 2002)
89)
RAGING WATERS TORRENTIAL RAINS HAVE LOOSED DEADLY
FLOODS ALL ACROSS
EUROPE. IS GLOBAL WARMING TO BLAME?
Time
90)
CLIMATE CHANGE A BALLOONING PROBLEM FOR DEVELOPING
WORLD (Greenpeace International
August 21, 2002)
91)
THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN: A RESPONSE TO
BENITO MULLER AUBREY MEYER (Open Democracy August 2002)
GENERAL NEWS
1) CASHING IN ON KYOTO NO EASY TASK
The Moscow Times
September 13, 2002
Internet:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2002/09/13/044.html
Following
Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov's recent announcement that Russia will soon
ratify the Kyoto Protocol, debate is raging over how participating in the
pact can turn a profit. Before any money can be made from its unused
emissions quotas, however, Russia will first need to invest into its energy
sector -- but the mechanisms for such investment programs are yet to be
created. Speaking after a seminar Thursday on the potential benefits of
Kyoto for Russia, Oleg Pluzhnikov, deputy head of the Energy Ministry's
ecological department, said that while the world has already began to invest
in emission-cutting technologies, Russia lacks the means to run such
projects. "Even if there are investors who want to invest in modernizing a
power plant, they simply have nowhere to turn to," Pluzhnikov said.
Signed by 84
countries in 1997, the Kyoto Protocol is aimed at cutting greenhouse gas
emissions in a bid to prevent global warming. The document set the maximum
emission levels for participating countries at 1990 levels. For Russia,
whose industrial output and energy consumption have shrunk by about 25
percent since 1990, the treaty offers a chance to capitalize on the gap
between its emissions and the higher levels it would be granted under the
pact. Consequently, one of the most popular topics related to the Kyoto
Protocol is how Russia can make money out of it.
Options range from selling
unused quotas to other nations struggling to meet their own emissions
targets, to reducing Russia's foreign debt on the condition that the money
saved is spent on nature conservation programs. The lucrative yet still
vague option of cashing in on fresh air also faces a list of problems
related to the lack of any legal basis for activities related to the Kyoto
Protocol. State Duma Deputy Alexander Kosarikov said the potentially thorny
issue of ownership of emission quotas must be addressed. "Should someone
spend money on cutting emissions, it would be reasonable to assume that the
difference than should be the property of the investor," Kosarikov said.
"But there is no mechanism whatsoever for that." Kosarikov, however, noted
that the protocol will likely sail through the Duma. "But surely there will
a demand for the document to be beneficial for the country," he said.
2) CLIMATE CHANGES TO HAMMER CHINA'S
AGRICULTURAL SECTOR - RESEARCH
China Daily
September 13, 2002
Internet:
http://www.chinadaily.net/news/cb/2002-09-13/86155.html
Global
climate change will have a heavy impact on China's agricultural production,
according to the latest research findings. "If we do not take urgent
measures, crop yields in China may decrease by 5 to 10 per cent in the
coming 30 years," Lin Erda, head of a climate and agriculture research team,
told China Daily on Thursday. About 10 per cent of China's farmland is
going to vanish because of global warming, said Lin, quoting from research
findings of a group of scientists from China and the United Kingdom who are
studying the impact of climate change on China's agriculture. In addition to
decreases and fluctuations in crop yields, there will be changes in the
disposition of China's agricultural lands and possible increases in
investment in the sector, Lin said.
Lin,
president of the Agro-meteorology Institute of the Chinese Academy of
Agricultural Sciences, is acting head of the UK-China climate project, which
was launched in 2001. Lin made his comments prior to the wrap-up of a
two-day UK-China workshop on the impact of climate change on agriculture on
Thursday in Beijing. Li Xueyong, vice-minister of science and technology,
said on Thursday at the workshop that the Chinese Government has effectively
curbed emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide by controlling
population growth, improving energy efficiency and expanding afforestation
work.
"Today's
workshop is evidence that we are working hard to settle the world problem
through international co-operation," said Li, whose ministry has poured a
lot of energy into climate change research. Scientists from the ministry
are conducting basic research on climate change theory, technology and
methods to slow down climate change and national strategies, policies and
actions. Official statistics indicate that between 1998 and 2002, China
earmarked a total of 580 billion yuan (US$70 billion) for environmental
protection, accounting for 1.29 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP)
for the period.
The
co-operation between China and the UK in climate change work has been
applauded by the visiting UK Vice-Minister of Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs Dennis Macshane. "The workshop is an important step for us
following the World Summit on Sustainable Development (which was recently
held in South Africa's Johannesburg)," he said at the workshop. China and UK
have both approved the Kyoto Protocol, showing their willingness to join
hands with other countries to combat environmental degradation, he added.
3) ANCIENT ANTARCTIC ICE CHALLENGES CLIMATE CHANGE
THEORIES
AFP
September 13, 2002
Internet:
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/020913015032.parqllhi.html
A 15-year
study of ancient Antarctic ice has challenged prevailing theories about the
process of climate change, a scientist involved in the research said
Friday. The Australian-French project involved scientists drilling through
90,000 years of compacted Antarctic snow over a six-year period and then
analyzing the ice core they recovered for a further nine years. Their
findings, to be published this week in the journal Science, appear to
contradict prevailing theories that past climate change in Antarctica was
triggered by change in the Northern Hemisphere.
Tas van Ommen,
one of the study's authors, said information gleaned from Antarctic ice
dating back about 14,500 years had shown a different sequence of global
climate change at the time than previously thought. At that time, Greenland
abruptly starting warming while Antarctica's temperature also changed,
although more gradually. Earlier study of that period using less precise
dating techniques had put the Antarctic change after Greenland's, leading to
widely held theories that the southern climate shift was a response to that
happening in the north. "Using our better dating, we found that the
Antarctic change occurred before the abrupt Greenland jump by as much as 500
years and so could not be a response at all," Van Ommen told the Australian
Associated Press.
The new study
indicates Antarctica could be the real driver of climate change or that
changes in the two hemispheres are not connected at all, said Van Ommen, a
senior research scientist at the Australian Antarctic Division and the
Antarctic Cooperative Research Center. Researchers said the findings
underscored our lack of understanding of the exact mechanisms behind climate
change and would force a rethink of computer models used to predict future
environmental shifts. "The fact that abrupt changes can occur in the
climate system raises questions about climate stability, especially when
forced by humans via the greenhouse effect," Van Ommen said, referring to
theories that global warming is caused by man-made "greenhouse gases". "For
computer predictions of future climate to be reliable, they must be able to
also reproduce changes in past climate like those probed in this study," he
said.
The key to
the new study was the recovery of the ice core, done over a six-year period
from 1987 at Placer Dome near Casey station in Australian Antarctic
Territory. The core, 10 centimeters (four inches) in diameter, was
recovered in two-meter (6.6-foot) lengths until bedrock was reached at a
depth of 1.2 kilometers (.7 miles) and taken to Hobart, Tasmania, for study
by Australian and French scientists. Analyses of tens of thousands of
samples provided a window on the environment going back 19,000 years and,
for the first time, allowed tight time scale synchronisation with core
samples from Greenland. "What it does show is that unravelling the climate
is like peeling layers off an onion skin and the more we learn, the more we
know we don't know," Van Ommen said Earlier this week the release of a
separate US study exposed another flaw in climate change models by showing
that it was much colder in the upper atmosphere over the South Pole than
previously believed. Those findings will impact on computer models used to
predict the impact of global warming caused by greenhouse gases, scientists
said.
4) INDIAN CAPITAL BREATHES EASY AFTER
POLLUTION CHECKS
Reuters
September 13, 2002
Internet:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020913/lf_nm/environment_india_pollution_dc_1
NEW DELHI,
India (Reuters) - Five years ago, the Indian capital was rated as one of the
most polluted cities in the world, continually shrouded in an eye-stinging
smog of foul gas and noxious fumes. No longer. Pollution levels in the
wheezing metropolis of 13 million people have come down significantly since
the government cracked down on exhaust-belching vehicles and closed down
smoke-spewing factories in the late 1990s. "There has been a 25 percent
reduction in pollution levels since 1995. Sulfur dioxide in the air is
within prescribed limits and suspended particulate matter has also come
down," said Dilip Biswas, chairman of the Central Pollution Control Board.
"Now you can see the stars at night," he told Reuters. Delhi's air still
may not be as clean as some Western capitals or Asian cities such as
Singapore, but it is among the most successful in Asia at fighting
pollution. The cleanup, prodded by orders from the country's highest court,
kicked off in 1996 when the government ordered thousands of chemicals and
textile factories to close. But the campaign gained pace when the
government phased out commercial vehicles older than 15 years in 1998 and
then ordered all public transport -- including taxis, buses and
three-wheelers -- to switch to compressed natural gas.
NATURAL GAS
Delhi, which
lacks a local rail network, relies on a fleet of about 12,000 buses, 65,000
taxis and three-wheelers for transport. Today, about 6,000 buses have
changed from diesel to natural gas and thousands of three-wheelers have also
adopted the cleaner fuel. "Today, if you are at a red light, your eyes
don't water and you don't just see a haze around you," Anumita Roychowdhury,
coordinator of air pollution control at the Center for Science and
Environment, told Reuters. Environmentalists say they're hoping to return
the city, dotted with about 20,000 ancient monuments, back to the days when
you could still breathe easily. Delhi -- said to be built on the remains of
seven old cities, the first of which dates back to around 900 BC -- had just
a few thousand cars and buses about 30 years ago and the word "pollution"
was not in the local vocabulary. But as the number of vehicles rose to 3.3
million at the end of 1999 from 1.8 million in 1981, New Delhi was smothered
in black clouds of smoke spewing from old cars and lumbering trucks hauling
huge loads which choked up main roads during rush hour. Government
statistics show there are currently 3.6 million vehicles in the Indian
capital.
COLONIAL RULERS
The majestic
city of sprawling gardens and grand bungalows built as the capital of
British India by the country's then colonial rulers turned into an urban
nightmare. Almost every other person suffered one respiratory disease or
another and in winter both air and rail traffic were disrupted by thick smog
hanging over the capital. While the growing number of vehicles pumped smoke
and fumes into the air, factories spread across the city, adding to the
filth in the air. "Vehicles, especially those with diesel, account for 70
percent of the city's pollution while power plants are responsible for 15
percent and industry about 10 percent," said Roychowdhury.
India
concedes a need for urgent action to cut back on emissions of industrial
gases blamed for global warming and creating more extreme weather patterns,
but Environment Minister T.R. Baalu said at the Johannesburg Earth Summit he
was skeptical of the "Asian brown haze" identified in a U.N report. The
United Nations Environment Program report said a 2-mile thick cloud of ash,
acids and other particles over south Asia threatened the lives of millions
and could have an impact much further afield. It could bring drought and
flooding as rainfall patterns altered, it said.
5) DUTCH MIGHT BREACH KYOTO PROTOCOL
Expatica News
September 13, 2002
Internet:
http://www.expatica.com/index.asp?pad=2,18,&item_id=25460
AMSTERDAM -
The environment policies of the Balkenende government make it "uncertain" if
the Netherlands will fulfil its requirements according to the Kyoto
Protocol, it has been claimed. The government's policies could in fact lead
over the next eight years to the production of an extra three-megaton of
CO2, one of the Greenhouse-causing gases. The NRC Handelsblad said the
predictions were included in the new yearly environmental overview report
from the Government Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM).
The higher production of CO2 is blamed on the abolition of the previously
proposed kilometre levy - which was designed to reduce the amount of traffic
- and the lowering of the excise duties on car fuels.
The report
also identified the lowering of subsidies for environmentally friendly
products and investment as playing a key role in the higher amount of C02
being released in the atmosphere. On the positive side, the continued
operations of the nuclear reactor at Borssele, located near Goes in Zeeland,
is expected to help limit the amount of CO2 production. According to the
Kyoto Protocol, the Netherlands is obligated between 2008-12 to produce 6
percent less CO2 and other greenhouse gases compared against 1990 levels.
Without environmentally saving agreements, the Netherlands will produce over
eight years 239 megaton of CO2 or other greenhouse gases such as methane and
fluorine.
But that must
be brought back by 40 to 199 megaton, the half of which can be obtained
internationally - often by purchasing credits from more environmentally
friendly countries. The other 20 megatons will need to be obtained
domestically. The RIVM report said the size of the domestic breaches of the
protocol depend largely on the precise manner of the government's
economising. It also depends on voluntary business agreements in respect to
the environment, RIVM said. A domestic breach of the protocol might be as
high as six megatons if the "uncertainty" effect of the government's
environment policies was calculated in. Moreover, RIVM said an "uncertain
image" amounting to a 14-megaton rise in CO2 production is also being
considered. The Dutch rate of CO2 production has risen on average by 1
percent every year since the 1980s, but the production of other greenhouse
gases has declined, in which the total amount of released Greenhouse gases
in the Netherlands has remained stable.
6) THAILAND: UNEP OFFICIAL CRITICIZES
CARBON CREDIT REJECTION
UN Wire
September 12, 2002
Internet:
http://unfoundation.org/unwire/util/category_search.asp?objCat=environment
A U.N.
Environment Program official yesterday criticized Thailand's decision not to
sell carbon credits to developed countries under the Kyoto Protocol on
climate change, saying the move could prevent the country from achieving
cuts in its greenhouse gas emissions. "Thailand could benefit from some
projects, particularly those dealing with renewable energy. So it is unwise
to refuse the mechanism," said UNEP regional coordinator Thanavat Junchaya.
He added that Thailand's rejection of the system, under which foreign
countries would invest in Thai carbon dioxide-cutting programs in exchange
for credits to put out more emissions of their own, shows Thailand's
"disrespect for the spirit of the pact."
Thai Science,
Technology and Environment Minister Sonthaya Khunpleum said that Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has called on the ministry to handle the issue
carefully, as it could affect the country's natural resource management
policy. "The government does not mean to shut the door on the mechanism,"
Sonthaya said. "However, we believe that Thailand has the potential to
implement the projects ourselves and has no need to rely on rich countries."
The administration will nevertheless set up a committee to handle the issue,
the Bangkok Post reports. Chulalongkorn University law lecturer Chareon
Khampeeraphab voiced support for refusing to participate in carbon-credit
programs, citing possible economic exploitation of Thailand's biodiversity.
"It is dangerous to allow foreign countries to conduct reforestation
projects in our country because of risks of biopiracy," he said (Kultida
Samabuddhi, Bangkok Post, Sept. 12).
7) URBAN SPRAWL CHANGES WEATHER
BBC
September 12, 2002
Internet:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2002/leicester_2002/2253636.stm
Climate
experts are urging the UK Government to consider the impact of urban sprawl
on the weather. Cities are potentially as big an influence on local
rainfall and temperatures as more general, large-scale changes in the
climate, they say. Skyscrapers and closely packed houses are of particular
concern, a panel of UK climatologists told the British Association's science
festival in Leicester. Both designs of building could increase local
rainfall by creating low-level turbulence in the air, said Professor Chris
Collier of the University of Salford in Greater Manchester. Another issue
is so-called "heat islands" created by hot air from factories, cars, and
people crammed into cities. The centre of Manchester, for example, is
warmer than surrounding rural areas by about 8 degrees Celsius. This could
change the way the air circulates, leading to an increase in rainfall in
certain areas of the city, said Professor Collier.
New approach
Such factors
must be taken into account by ministers when they plan increases in housing
density, say in the South East of England, he said. "The way in which the
buildings are designed and built will have an impact on local weather," he
told BBC News Online. "People need to understand that when you change the
building fabric and building density, there will be an impact on local
weather. "We need to investigate it more," he added. "Because those changes
could approach the size of the changes that you can get from climate
change." The "heat island" effect in major cities has been recognised for
some years and has become a major subject for research. Only last month,
scientists in Tokyo warned of the difficulties Japan's first city would face
from local increases in temperature.
8) OIL CHIEFS RAP OTTAWA OVER KYOTO
Financial Post
September 12, 2002
Internet:
http://www.nationalpost.com/financialpost/story.html?id=%7B84711547-7C48-4AD2-9F53-A69B080DE37E%7D
Gwyn Morgan,
chief executive of EnCana Inc., North America's largest independent energy
company, has written an eight-page letter to Jean Chrétien, the Prime
Minister, urging him not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change
because it would sacrifice economic growth without helping the environment.
In the letter, Mr. Morgan maintains that "signing the Kyoto Protocol would
go down in history as one of the most damaging international agreements ever
signed by a Canadian Prime Minister." His letter emerged on the same day Tim
Hearn, chief executive at Imperial Oil Ltd., Canada's leading producer,
lashed out at the accord and the "deep-thinkers" in Ottawa while speaking at
the Peters & Co. energy conference in Toronto. Mr. Hearn told the crowd of
investors that signing the agreement "wouldn't be good for anybody." The
statements by the two CEOs represent the strongest public opposition to
Kyoto by Canadian executives so far, and are likely the heighten debate over
the accord, which the federal government has pledged to sign before the end
of the year. The Kyoto Accord would commit Canada to reducing greenhouse gas
emissions 6% below 1990 levels. Mr. Morgan and Mr. Hearn both believe a
separate, Canadian strategy would better serve the economy and environment.
Mr. Morgan also warns "since EnCana operates in many countries in the world,
we have greater flexibility than non-international companies to move our
investment programs if growth is constrained here in Canada."
He writes
that an objective analysis of the facts shows signing Kyoto would create "a
huge economic and environmental" disadvantage for the country. "The most
severe impact would be on consumers, not producers of energy -- in other
words, essentially all Canadian businesses and individuals from sea to sea,"
he writes." Why? Because more than 80% of greenhouse gas emissions come from
the consumption of energy rather than its production." Mr. Morgan delivers a
harsh rebuke of pronouncements that Kyoto would create an opportunity for
companies to restructure their businesses to create new goods and services,
compensating Canadians for a higher cost of living and job losses. "Such a
leap of faith is tantamount to believing in the tooth fairy," he writes. Mr.
Morgan goes on to warn that investors would take careful note of such
developments, adding that it could lead to a stock market "risk discount" of
home-based companies and make them more vulnerable to foreign takeover. And
he attacks Kyoto for its environmental failings, noting that the countries
constrained by the accord represent only about 30% of world's greenhouse gas
emissions. He said the remaining 70% of emitters would likely increase their
emission levels as new growth investments are transferred to such
countries.
As for the
notion that emissions could be managed through carbon-trading credits are
not the panacea they are made out to be. "Just imagine the potential for
Enron-like games that could be played when accounting for the purchase of
emissions credits from places like Russia and other countries. And how could
anyone convince Canadian voters that sending money to Russia was good for
the Canadian or global economy?" In his letter, Mr. Morgan pledged his
company's cooperation in devising a proposed "Made-In-Canada" solution. In
an interview yesterday, Mr. Morgan said he decided to write the Prime
Minister after considering the implications of the accord for all sectors of
the economy. He said he has yet to hear back from Mr. Chrétien. "We have the
opportunity to truly reduce emissions," he told the Financial Post. "What
really frustrates me about Kyoto is that it will result in a worldwide
increase in carbon emissions." Meanwhile, Mr. Hearn received an enthusiastic
response from an investor audience yesterday when he delivered a firm
criticism of the Kyoto issue.
"There's
absolutely no reason in this country why we can't have good environmental
management and ... economic growth for the prosperity of all Canadians -- my
view is that Kyoto fails on both accounts," Mr. Hearn said. "It's somewhat
incongruous to me that the federal government will end up going down a path
that's going to shrink our economy, transfer wealth out of the country and
reduce jobs." Mr. Hearn, who leads Canada's largest oil company, said
through "very strong consultation" with the public, business community and
interest groups, the country could develop its own emissions strategy that
would achieve sound environmental management and economic growth. He added:
"To speculate today what kind of prevarications are going on with the deep
thinkers in Ottawa, I think would be inappropriate. It would be highly
speculative. "But I'll say one thing, if they sign Kyoto in its present
form, it won't be good for anybody." Mr. Hearn's speech was well received.
"The industry has been too quiet on this issue," one investor said he said.
"It was about time someone stood up and really spoke out on Kyoto. We all
want to help the environment, but this isn't going to help anyone."
Rick George,
chief executive of Suncor Energy Inc., added his voice to those looking for
a made-in-Canada solution. "One of the things that concerns us the most is
that when we compete, we compete in putting crude oil and other energy
products in the U.S. So we are competing against Saudi Arabia, against
Mexico and Venezuela, none of which are signatories to Kyoto. "Our whole
game is staying competitive and getting our costs down, and anything that
burdens us more than our competitors is obviously a concern."
9) SCIENTIST: INJECT CO2 EMISSIONS INTO
EARTH'S CRUST
Reuters
September 10, 2002
Internet:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020910/sc_nm/science_gas_dc_1
LEICESTER,
England (Reuters) - Carbon dioxide emissions will in future have to be
injected into the earth's surface if the environment is to be saved, a
scientist said on Tuesday. "CO2 sequestration is one of the most powerful
tools we have of reducing CO2 emissions to the atmosphere," Andy Chadwick,
principal geophysicist at the British Geological Survey told reporters. "We
need to bring about some quite Draconian cuts in CO2 emissions," he added on
the margins of the British Association for the Advancement of Science annual
festival. Chadwick said the technique of pumping carbon dioxide back into
the earth in a manner that prevented it re-entering the atmosphere had been
applied and perfected at the Sleipner gas field in the North Sea over the
past few years.
Operator,
Norwegian oil company Statoil, had already injected some five million tons
of carbon dioxide into a saline aquifer about one kilometer below the
seabed. Time delayed, three-dimensional seismic surveys had shown the CO2
was spreading gradually through the vast subterranean reservoir where it was
being contained by an impermeable cap of shale and clay. He said that even
if only one percent of the aquifer's storage volume was used to store carbon
dioxide it would represent one year's output of CO2 from the equivalent of
900 coal-fired or 2,300 gas-fired 500 megawatt power stations.
Chadwick said
the technique did involve a cost, which would obviously rise in the case of
a power station and where no suitable geological structure was in the
immediate vicinity. "It is expensive at the moment, but a lot of research
is being done to find out how to reduce the costs," he said, suggesting that
exhausted oil and gas fields might provide useful storage areas. He also
acknowledged that CO2 sequestration was by its nature only an intermediate
measure to help save the environment from the poisonous emission of
greenhouse gases while renewable energy sources were developed. "Carbon
sequestration is viewed as an interim measure for the next 50-60 years to
effect the major cuts we need to achieve," Chadwick said.
10) BIOLOGISTS: GLOBAL WARMING THREATENS
THOUSANDS OF ANTARCTIC SPECIES
Associated Press
September 9, 2002
Internet:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020909/ap_wo_en_po/britain_antarctic_warming_1
LONDON - Global warming could cause the extinction of
thousands of Antarctic species in the coming century, a biologist warned
Monday. Lloyd Peck, of the British Antarctic Survey, said the 2 degree
Celsius (3.6 degree Fahrenheit) rise in sea temperatures predicted by many
scientists could create fatal changes in the habitats of rare and fragile
cold-water creatures. "We are talking about thousands of species, not four
or five," he told the British Association Festival of Science at Leicester
University in central England. "It's not a mite on the end of the nose of
an elk somewhere. ... If the climate models are correct, we are likely to
lose at least large populations of these species."
Among the threatened species are sea spiders that measure 30
cm (1 foot) across, fluorescent sea gooseberries the size of a rugby
football, 750 kinds of sandflea and many small mollusks and worms, Peck
said. While species that inhabit Antarctic lakes adapt well to large changes
in temperature, those that live in the seas are far more sensitive, he said.
Some areas of the Antarctic Ocean have temperatures that vary only 0.1
degrees Celsius (0.18 degrees Fahrenheit) over the course of a year,
conditions that have existed for 10 to 15 million years. Temperatures rise
to a high of about 1 degree Celsius (33.8 degrees Fahrenheit) during the
summer, Peck said. Most cold-blooded residents of the Antarctic sea bed
cannot survive long-term in temperatures higher than 3 to 6 degrees Celsius
(37.4 to 42.8 degrees Fahrenheit), and are unable to carry out many
essential activities when it is warmer than 2 to 3 degrees Celsius (35.6 to
37.4 degrees Fahrenheit). If these species perish, fish and larger organisms
like penguins, seals and whales could eventually be affected, Peck said.
On the Net: British Antarctic Survey,
http://www.antarctica.ac.uk
11) KYOTO WON'T KILL CANADA'S OIL SANDS BOOM
- ANALYSTS
Planet Ark
September 6, 2002
Internet:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=17636&newsdate=06-Sep-2002
CALGARY,
Alberta - Canada's energy future remains linked to Alberta's vast oil sands
despite claims by some executives that ratifying the Kyoto Protocol will
prevent companies from investing in the high-emission projects. Prime
Minister Jean Chretien said on Monday Canada will put the accord to cut
greenhouse gas emissions to a vote in Parliament this year, raising the ire
of energy-rich Alberta. Huge oil sands reserves are still one of the
industry's most attractive investments, especially with supplies of light
oil declining in western Canada, said Stephen Calderwood of brokerage Salman
Partners. "It is the future of the Canadian oil industry. Sure we have to
be responsible (with development plans) but we can't just drop the idea. It
doesn't make any sense," he said. "I don't think there is any way you can
replace the oil sands." Some company officials have said Canada's pledge to
approve the Kyoto Protocol by year-end will jeopardize a multibillion-dollar
boom buoying Alberta's economy.
The gooey
mixture of oil and sand yields bitumen, or extra-heavy oil, which is into
synthetic crude for use by refiners in Canada and the United States.
Numerous companies, including Canadian Natural Resources Ltd, Nexen Inc. and
Petro-Canada, are planning large oil sands developments. But Petro-Canada
has said up to C$5.3 billion ($3.4 billion) in oil sands spending could be
canceled if the federal government in Ottawa adopts any of its four proposed
Kyoto implementation strategies. The 1997 global treaty calls for Canada to
cut greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent from 1990 levels by 2012.
Calderwood said talk by energy companies of canceling the big projects,
which create thousands of construction jobs, are partly aimed at influencing
federal and provincial politicians. Despite years of talks between Ottawa
and the provinces, the two sides have not agreed on a clear strategy to cut
greenhouse gases. The emissions of gases such as carbon dioxide are believed
by many scientists to cause global warming. "There is a certain amount of
posturing, but there is also a certain amount of genuine concern about the
idea that we're driving down this road with no headlights on," he said.
A project led
by Shell Canada Ltd. illustrates why implementing the controversial program
may not wipe out the oil sands boom. Shell Canada and partners are spending
C$6.2 billion to build the 155,000 barrel-a-day Athabasca oil sands project.
It is scheduled to begin producing bitumen by the end of October.
Greenhouse gas emissions from the project will be lower than the
conventional oil it displaces, Shell Canada spokeswoman Jan Rowley said.
The company will use new technology, upgrade existing operations and,
possibly, use emission credits from a yet-to-be-defined trading program to
meet the commitment. "Can an oil sands project come on with aggressive
greenhouse gas emissions targets? The answer is yes," she said. "We've
demonstrated what's possible and so far we have no reason to believe we
can't meet the targets." However, the frenzied pace of recent years for oil
sands projects will slow considerably if implementing Kyoto reduces returns
on investments, another analyst predicted. "If you layer in any more costs,
it's just going to make it more difficult for the industry to find and
develop crude oil and natural gas and make a dollar doing it," said Gord
Currie with brokerage Canaccord Capital.
12) PM WRONG ON KYOTO: BHP
news.au.com
September 6, 2002
http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,5044169%255E421,00.html
BIG business
has turned on Prime Minister John Howard over his opposition to the Kyoto
Protocol. BP and BHP Billiton yesterday said the Prime Minister's refusal to
sign an international agreement on climate change was further isolating
Australia and would force them to invest offshore in clean energy and
greenhouse gas reduction projects. The companies both said they would be
seeking to invest in projects overseas so they could be involved in what is
expected to be a trillion-dollar-a-year market in trading carbon credits --
credits for reducing emissions. They warned Australia would miss out on
multi-billion-dollar deals and new jobs will be lost because greenhouse
reduction projects like forests would be worthless here. The attack by big
business is another blow to John Howard and further isolates the Government,
which is already suffering fierce international and local criticism.
13) KYOTO, MEET THE TIGER
Globe and Mail
September 6, 2002
Internet:
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/TGAM/20020906/EKYOTO/Editorials/commentEditorials/commentEditorials_temp/2/2/3/
Nearly a
quarter-century ago, Inco Ltd. of Sudbury, Ont., was North America's largest
source of sulphur emissions that cause acid rain. When ordered to reduce
those emissions, it protested that jobs would be lost, production reduced,
investment forestalled. Yet today, Inco has cleaned up its act and become
the world's lowest-cost nickel producer. And it sells its technological
know-how to the world. Acid rain, meanwhile, is fading as a threat. Inco
provides a valuable lesson as Canada attempts to cut carbon emissions linked
to the warming of the planet, as required under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The
broad challenge is to view Kyoto not merely as a new set of costs but as a
reason to sharpen efficiency and translate that into an aggressive new
industry. It is to seize the opportunity in what will be a decades-long
battle internationally against climate change. On this challenge, Canada has
fallen down. Alberta, the country's major oil and gas producer (and one that
persists in approving coal-fired power plants), has naturally focused on
Kyoto's costs, but the federal government has failed to reply with a bold
investment strategy.
"If we
unleash the floodgates of investment," asks David McGuinty, president of the
National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy, "what is the
magnitude of opportunity?" A timely question. Ever since the Liberal Party's
1993 Red Book, the party has been talking up innovation. Cost estimates for
turning Canada into an innovation-driven economy vary wildly; even as we
talk about the Northern Tiger we wish to become, we're still pretty
toothless. In that same vein, Canada has given much attention under the
Kyoto process to emissions credits from countries such as Russia. Has it
spent as much time figuring out how to generate more tangible returns at
home -- in emissions reductions, in health-care savings that come from
cleaner air, in energy savings from better-built buildings, in the spinoffs
that come from say, public-transit expansion? A huge market in energy
efficiency is waiting to be taken by the throat. Canada has a
$23-billion-a-year industry in environmental technology and expertise,
according to the Canadian Environmental Industry Association. Companies such
as Ballard Power Systems Inc. of Burnaby, B.C., are selling fuel-cell
engines to be installed in buses in San Jose, Calif. Still, Canada seems to
be falling behind competitors, particularly in the United States, in
high-demand areas such as renewable energy.
Innovation
comes through necessity. A domestic trading system in carbon credits will
help produce innovations at the lowest possible cost. This is the system in
which companies receive bonus points for exceeding emissions targets, and
sell those points to companies that have trouble meeting their targets.
Canada also should consider tax incentives and other support for research
and development in the area of climate change. The United States is spending
$4.5-billion to nudge renewable energies and other environmental
technologies along. Kyoto means putting a price on carbon pollution. The
market will have no choice but to become engaged, and so, too, will Canadian
consumers and taxpayers. Just look at Inco.
14) RICH SOIL GOOD FOR TRAPPING CARBON DIOXIDE - STUDY
Reuters
September 6, 2002
Internet:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020906/sc_nm/environment_soil_dc_1
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - A sticky protein shed by fungi living on plant roots is
responsible for absorbing and storing sizable amounts of the carbon dioxide
pollution linked to global warming, U.S. Agriculture Department scientists
said on Friday. The protein, glomalin, glues soil particles and organic
matter together which stabilizes soil and keeps carbon from escaping into
the atmosphere. Farmland and forests around the world are seen as valuable
to offset carbon emissions from cars and industrial plants, offering the
potential for carbon credit emission trading. Kristine Nichols, a soil
scientist with the USDA's Agricultural Research Service, analyzed glomalin
in soils collected from Colorado, Georgia, Maryland and Nebraska. Tests
showed that the glomalin stored nearly one-third of the carbon absorbed by
soil, an amount far greater than humic acid, which had been thought to store
the most carbon. Glomalin gives soil the rich, fertile texture readily
recognized by farmers and longtime gardeners. It lasts from 7 to 42 years in
soil, depending on conditions, researchers said. Another USDA researcher,
Sara Wright, is studying glomalin levels to measure the amount of carbon
stored in soils beneath tropical forests.
"Glomalin is
unique among soil components for its strength and stability," Wright said.
Other soil components that contain carbon are quickly degraded and break
down, she said. "Our next step is to identify the chemical makeup of each
of its parts, including the protein core, the sugar carbohydrates, and the
attached iron and other possible ions," she said. Global warming has been
linked to the growing amount of heat-trapping gases such as carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere. Scientists say the gradual increase in temperature may
melt glaciers, increase sea levels and lead to broad weather changes in
crop-growing areas.
15) CANADIAN MINISTER SAYS KYOTO COST
ESTIMATES ON WAY
Planet Ark
September 6, 2002
Internet:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=17631&newsdate=06-Sep-2002
CALGARY,
Alberta - Canada aims to have the costs of cutting emissions under the Kyoto
accord hammered down next month as part of plans for meeting its
commitments, the country's energy minister said this week ahead of a meeting
with anxious oil executives. The energy industry has blasted Prime Minister
Jean Chretien's announcement this week that Parliament will vote on
ratifying the treaty before the end of this year, saying the decision was
made without knowing the costs and potential harm to the economy. "I think
it's important for us and for the industry, and particularly for the large
emitters, to have a pretty good understanding of what does it mean for their
costs, is it realistic and can we deliver on it," Natural Resources Minister
Herb Dhaliwal told reporters. The estimates will be part of a draft plan
for implementation to be put before ministers from the federal and
provincial governments at a meeting in October, he said. Dhaliwal stressed
Ottawa was still bent on making sure no region of the country is
disproportionately harmed by any measures associated with the global
agreement on reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, which are believed to
cause global warming.
The burning
of fossil fuels, which in Canada are produced in large part in Alberta and
other parts of the west, is a main source of such gases as carbon dioxide
and methane. The oil industry has lamented it would bear much of the cost
of cutting emissions under Kyoto, hurting its competitiveness and sending
investment dollars elsewhere. Some firms have already said they may be
forced to scale back planned investments in major oil sands projects. The
United States, the main importer of Canadian oil and gas, has backed away
from the Kyoto accord. In recent days, the industry and Alberta government
have both accused Ottawa of breaking its promise to engage in extensive
consultations before making a ratification decision. Dhaliwal disagreed,
saying talks were still going on. "We've been consulting for a long time on
this file, we've had many meetings, we've consulted all summer long. I've
met this industry," he said before meeting with 10 top executives from large
and small energy producers. "We'll have a draft plan that is going to the
joint ministerial meeting...We've done lots of consultations - now is the
time to make a decision."
He said
Canada would keep pressing its Kyoto allies on its desire to gain credits
for the clean energy it exports to the United States, even though European
officials have flatly refused to give them up. Dhaliwal declined to say if
Canada might change its mind on ratification if it does not win the
concessions, only that "it is extremely important to make sure that we do
get credit." A senior energy industry official said Dhaliwal's comments did
little to remove uncertainty. "I think it's hopeful that there will be a
plan. It's got to be costed to be able to understand it," said Pierre
Alvarez, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the
industry's main lobby group. "I think the time frame is highly ambitious. I
won't say impossible, but it is highly ambitious when you consider what's at
stake. I'm not sure how the provinces themselves will be able to respond to
a plan they only receive in mid to late October."
16) INTERVIEW - INSURER CALLS FOR TOUGH
RULES ON POLLUTION
Planet Ark
September 6, 2002
Internet:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=17627&newsdate=06-Sep-2002
LONDON - A
senior insurance figure said the industry had been frozen out of the Earth
Summit in Johannesburg and called for tougher measures against climate
changes, which risk costing insurers billions of dollars. Carlos Joly, head
of the insurance industry's environmental initiative, told Reuters that
politicians had not listened to proposals from the world's biggest insurers'
despite the industry's potential to lead efforts to tackle global warming.
He said political leaders lacked the courage to compel companies to clean up
their operations, leaving insurers exposed to the devastating storms which
some believe are increasingly common because of rising levels of greenhouse
gases.
Insurers have
been unable to formally present proposed company reporting standards in
Johannesburg, because finance ministries of the big governments seem
apathetic, Joly said. "My general observation about Johannesburg is that
politicians and government officials have yet to realise the potential power
for change that banks and insurance companies can wield as actors for
sustainable development," he said. Insurers monitor climate closely as they
have very large exposures to floods, droughts, storms and hurricanes. Some
companies believe such catastrophes have become more frequent because of
changing weather patterns. Insurance companies have warned they will not pay
the growing claims resulting from climate change. They will simply exclude
paying out claims from events, such as flooding or windstorms, caused by
global warming, leaving governments, business and individuals to pick up the
bill themselves.
As a result,
insurers have tried to raise awareness of the growing environmental problem
and have begun looking at ways they can help the environment by how they run
their own companies, under the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP)
insurance initiative, which Joly chairs. Some of the world's biggest
insurers, including Munich Re, Swiss Re, Gerling, Skandia and Storebrand
have taken the lead in considering the impact that carbon dioxide and other
greenhouse gases have had on the environment. But such actions have not been
matched by politicians. "These companies have taken the environmental agenda
to heart, but have found little encouragement from the political
establishment," Joly said. Insurers who have signed up to the UNEP insurance
initiative must report which environmental and social criteria they consider
as part of their everyday operations and how they help achieve sustainable
development.
ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS
Joly said
governments and supranational bodies such as the European Commission should
pass legislation requiring insurance pension funds and long-term savings
schemes to consider how they invest their money affects the environment.
Another way insurers can help tackle climate change is in how they
underwrite certain environmental risks. But governments have not imposed
regulations on businesses making them financially liable for their
contribution to global warming. Without this, Joly said, insurers have not
been able to promote sustainable development through charging lower premiums
to companies that emit fewer harmful gasses. "The risks from carbon dioxide
emissions are not included in any regulations," he said. "As a result those
risks cannot be factored into how one prices an insurance policy...That is a
gaping hole." Insurers and investment funds also exert massive influence as
the biggest investors in the financial markets and Joly said pension funds
should be compelled to report annually how their portfolio choices reflect
non-financial considerations.
New "green"
reporting standards could prompt companies to challenge for the title of
being the most ethical investor, Joly said. "In a competitive world, best
practice would win." Individual countries have taken a few steps in this
direction. In the UK, pension funds are required to state whether they have
an ethical investment policy, but are not compelled to state what impact
that has on their portfolios. The Netherlands has gone further by offering
pension funds tax breaks for investing in riskier but environmentally
friendly companies in the emerging economies. But environmental concerns
are not at the forefront of most insurers' minds. Insurers have been
pummelled by the tumbling value of their equity investments, with the
world's two largest reinsurers Munich Re and Swiss Re last week writing off
around 2.0 billion euros ($1.99 billion) of the value of their equity
stakes. But Joly said: "It is worth reminding ourselves that the problems
in the stock markets today are not the overwhelming issue from a long term
point of view."
17) GERMANY IN ELECTION-TINGED PUSH FOR
WORLD CONFERENCE ON RENEWABLE ENERGY
Associated Press
September 5, 2002
Internet:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020905/ap_to_po/germany_world_summit_1
BERLIN -
Germany is organizing a global conference on renewable energy in the coming
months, officials said Thursday, to focus international pressure for binding
targets, a goal opposed by the United States at the World Summit. Designed
to build on the summit that ended Wednesday in Johannesburg, the proposal
also offers German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder a chance to brush up his
environmental credentials ahead of national elections this month. "We hope
that countries will set targets for increasing the share of renewable energy
sources," Environment Ministry spokesman Michael Schroeren said Thursday.
"We want to send the message that there are numerous countries that have
more ambitious goals than those agreed at Johannesburg."
Despite
pressure from European countries, World Summit delegates failed to reach
agreement on timetables and targets for boosting the use of energy from the
sun, wind and other renewable resources. Environmental groups blamed the
United States, oil-exporting countries, Canada, Australia and Japan for
spearheading resistance. The summit's final declaration contained only an
appeal for countries to promote renewable energy. Germany plans to invite
government officials as well as scientists to the international energy
conference, to be held in the former West German capital of Bonn, Schroeren
said, expanding on a proposal that Schroeder presented at the World Summit.
No date was immediately set, but preparations are likely to take several
months. Last year, a U.N. climate change summit was held in Bonn.
Schroeder,
who heads a government of Social Democrats and Greens, has recently played
up the environment as a theme in his campaign for a second term in Sept. 22
elections. Flooding that caused billions in damage in eastern and southern
Germany last month gave the Greens, the junior coalition partner, an issue
to mobilize voters. Some government leaders portrayed the floods as a sign
of global climate change, saying it underscored the need for further steps
to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. Schroeder has also pushed the point
Germany has led most other countries in meeting international targets on
cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
18) PALAU FAULTS EARTH SUMMIT ON GLOBAL WARMING
Planet Ark
September 5, 2002
Internet:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17617/story.htm
JOHANNESBURG
- The Pacific island state of Palau branded the Earth Summit a
disappointment in fighting global warming this week, saying climate change
was a growing threat to its people and myriad rare species. But tiny Palau
in the western Pacific, which says it has more species of wildlife by area
than any other nation, said it would not join the Pacific state of Tuvalu in
a planned lawsuit blaming the United States for rising temperatures. Palau
says it has 1,400 different types of fish in its waters. Other creatures
include rare green turtles, salt-water crocodiles and giant clams that can
weigh up to two tonnes. "We're putting our hopes in the international
community coming to its senses," President Tommy Remengesau told Reuters of
climate change threatening a necklace of 200 islands making up Palau. "For
island states it's a matter of life and death," he said of scientists'
warnings that polar icecaps could melt and swamp low-lying states. "For us
it's not just sustainability, it's survival." Palau has a population of
about 19,000. He said there would be "a lot of disappointment" in nations
like Palau after the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which ends
yesterday and barely touched on global warming.
U.S. President George W.
Bush has pulled out of the 1997 Kyoto pact, under which developed nations
agreed to rein in emissions of greenhouse gases produced mainly by cars,
homes and factories burning oil and other fossil fuels. Scientists say the
gases are trapping heat in the atmosphere and boosting temperatures. Many
islands in Palau could be swamped by rising sea levels. Remengesau said
that global warming was leading to more extreme weather, including a surge
in sea temperature in 1997 that bleached about 80 percent of coral reefs.
Storms were also carrying salt water onto farmland and threatening wildlife.
19) SUNCOR CEO SAYS PREPARED FOR KYOTO,
UNHAPPY ABOUT IT
Reuters
September 5, 2002
Internet:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020905/wl_canada_nm/canada_energy_suncor_kyoto_col_1
NEW YORK
(Reuters) - Suncor Energy Inc. will push ahead with its marquee Canadian oil
sands projects regardless of whether or not Ottawa ratifies the Kyoto
Protocol on greenhouse gas reduction, its chief executive said on Thursday.
Prime Minister Jean Chretien said on Monday Canada will put the pact to a
vote in Parliament this year, sparking pitched criticism by numerous oil
industry executives, who question the ability of high-emission oil sands
projects to operate profitably with the extra costs. "Regardless of what
happens on Kyoto we've got an action plan on climate change and we've had it
for about five years, so we've been working on it," Suncor CEO Rick George
said in an interview in New York. "It isn't something where we think we
should do nothing," said George, whose company produces 225,000 barrels per
day of diesel, light sweet crude, and sour crude from oil sands located near
Fort McMurray in northern Alberta.
Suncor,
Canada's fourth-largest integrated oil company, expects oil sands production
to double by 2012. The 1997 global Kyoto accord would commit Canada to
cutting emissions of greenhouse gases that scientists believe are warming
the earth by 6 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Suncor may be prepared
for Kyoto, but George is far from a cheerleader for the pact. He said
Chretien's decision on Kyoto had the mark of a lame duck leader, akin to
former President Clinton 's pardoning controversial figures just before he
left office. "I think it's safe to say the prime minister's announcement
took many people by surprise," said George. "He's announced his retirement
and is trying to make this progress as he's going out the door." Chretien
announced last month he will retire in February 2004 Still, George said
Suncor has cut carbon dioxide emissions by 15 percent over the last 10
years, through efficiency and carbon sequestration. The latter pumps the
greenhouse gas back into the ground at oil fields pushing up hard-to-reach
oil. The company has also experimented with carbon dioxide emissions
trading with electricity producer Niagara Mohawk Power Corp., a National
Grid unit that switched from coal to natural gas fired plants. George said
he could not estimate how ratification would affect Suncor's bottom line
until more details are known.
Canada aims
to have the costs of cutting emissions under the Kyoto accord hammered down
next month as part of a draft implementation plan, Herb Dhaliwal, the
federal Minister of Natural Resources, said late Wednesday. Suncor said
much of how Canadian energy companies deal with Kyoto depends on what
happens in the United States, the leading consumer of Canadian oil, and
which last year turned its back on the climate change pact. Development of
northern Alberta's oil sands is widely seen as the key to Canada's energy
future as traditional oil sources are depleted and the United States moves
to bolster its sources of secure imports. Another company with
multibillion-dollar oil sands plans, Petro-Canada, softened its tone on
Kyoto on Thursday after saying earlier this week that implementing the
treaty could threaten its investments. It said it remained concerned with
potential costs of Kyoto on oil sands development, but stressed its plans
are devised to ensure profitability under a range of scenarios. "Our
position going forward is to continue to pursue these opportunities,"
vice-president Gary Bruce said in a statement. Petro-Canada is also
building emission-reduction technology into its project plans, Bruce said.
20) CANADA WILL RATIFY KYOTO PROTOCOL BUT CLAIM CREDITS FOR
SOME EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS
September 5, 2002
Associated Press
Internet:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020905/ap_wo_en_po/canada_kyoto_accord_1
TORONTO -
While Canada intends to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, it will seek credits for
up to 29 percent of the emissions reductions required by the agreement, a
government minister confirmed Thursday. The 1997 protocol calls for reducing
greenhouse gas emissions to 6 percent below the 1990 level by 2012. In
Canada, that would mean a drop of 240 megatons a year in the emissions
blamed for contributing to global warming.
Natural
Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal said Canada's implementation plan includes
claiming credits for exporting so-called clean energy - natural gas and
hydroelectric power - to the United States and elsewhere. Environment
Minister David Anderson also said this week that Canada would seek credits
for its exports, noting the natural gas and hydroelectric power would
replace "dirty" energy such as coal-fired electricity. Under the plan made
public earlier this year, Canada would cut its emissions by 170 megatons a
year and claim the other 70 megatons a year as credit for clean energy
exports.
The idea is
opposed by European nations. Roy Christensen, press attache for the European
Union delegation in Canada, said ratification means accepting the agreement
as negotiated instead of trying to change it after the fact. "As far as
we're concerned, the protocol is not open to renegotiation," he said. Prime
Minister Jean Chretien did not mention the credit scheme when he announced
Monday at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa that
Canada's Parliament would vote on ratification later this year. Chretien's
Liberal Party has a solid majority in the legislature, making ratification
virtually certain. He was praised by environmental groups for his
announcement, which would give the protocol a strong chance of obtaining the
necessary support to take effect despite its rejection by the United States
- the world's largest producer of greenhouse gases.
U.S.
President Bush said the Kyoto limits would harm the U.S. economy, and he has
called for a unilateral schedule of emissions reductions. The U.S. stance
evoked widespread international condemnation. Canada's powerful energy
industry is lobbying Chretien's government to also reject ratification
because of the potential harm to the Canadian economy. Opinion polls show a
majority of respondents in Canada support ratifying the protocol.
Negotiators from more than 100 countries, including the United States and
Canada, wrote the Kyoto agreement reached in 1997. Under it, the treaty must
be ratified by at least 55 countries, including those responsible for 55
percent of the world's emissions in 1990. With Canada and Russia pledging
ratification, the protocol would meet the threshold to take effect.
21) BREAKAWAY BLOC SETS ITSELF TOUGHER TARGETS WEAKNESS
OF FINAL STATEMENT SPURS 30 COUNTRIES, INCLUDING THE EU, TO GO IT ALONE ON
GREEN ENERGY
The Guardian
September 5, 2002
Internet:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,786098,00.html
Dismay over
the weakness of the final outcome of the earth summit spilled over into the
final plenary session of the conference yesterday when an EU delegation led
an orchestrated protest over lack of targets for increasing renewable energy
production across the world. The leaders of more than 30 government
delegations pledged to go further than the summit declaration on increasing
the share of renewable energy as part of the global energy supply. The
countries concerned agreed to a regular review of progress, on the basis of
clear and ambitious targets at a national, regional and "hopefully at a
global level". "Such targets are important tools to guide investment and
develop the market for renewable energy technologies," their statement
said. Support for the proposal came from all 15 EU states, Norway, Iceland,
Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia,
Brazil, Argentina, Uganda, Mexico and other Latin American states, plus some
Caribbean and Pacific islands. The US isolation on the issue of climate
change was further underlined when its only remaining ally on the issue,
Australia, shifted ground yesterday.
The prime
minister, John Howard - who had previously insisted Australia would not
ratify the Kyoto protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions - said he would
now reconsider, "whether America has signed it or not". One other
last-minute change which particularly pleased the leader of the UK
delegation, the environment secretary Margaret Beckett, was the
reinstatement of a clause on human rights which had been resisted by the US,
the Vatican and Islamic states - a rare combination. The clause had omitted
the rights of women to contraception and abortion, and asserted the
superiority of local cultural and religious values. The objection from the
US was removed when it was pointed out that the clause would give tacit
approval to widely condemned local traditions such as genital mutilation.
"This is an extremely good outcome," Mrs Beckett said. "This could have set
the clock back. This is a hugely important issue because it would have
allowed such practices as genital mutilation, which are wholly unacceptable.
I am very pleased about this outcome on another crucial issue."
Meanwhile, an
attempt by the US to water down provisions on corporate accountability and
regulation was rejected, after objections by Ethiopia and Norway. The US
was reduced to writing a letter to the conference chairman, the South
African president, Thabo Mbeki, to state its position that there should be
no new rules in this area. Wrangling continued into the evening - but was
finally agreed - on the final political text for the summit, originally
written by Mr Mbeki, which was also tough in the area of corporate
accountability. This was seen as a victory for environmental groups such as
Friends of the Earth, which had made controlling the power of multinationals
one of its main campaigns.
Reflecting
the continued fears for the future of the weaker developing nations, the
text stated: "The deep fault lines that divide human society between the
rich and poor and the ever-increasing gap between the developed and
developing worlds pose a major threat to global prosperity, security and
stability. "The adverse effects of climate change are already evident,
natural disasters are more frequent and more devastating, and developing
countries more vulnerable, and air, water and marine pollution continue to
rob millions of a decent life."
The statement
said that globalisation had added to these challenges. The benefits and
costs were unevenly distributed, with developing countries facing special
difficulties. "We risk the entrenchment of these global disparities," it
said. "Unless we act in a manner that fundamentally changes their lives, the
poor of the world may lose confidence in their representatives and the
democratic systems to which we remain committed." However, environment and
development groups at the summit remained angry that so few targets and
timetables for action had reached the final text. A group of 50 American
pressure groups attending the summit put out a statement saying: "We
disassociate ourselves from the Bush administration's positions and role at
the summit." Disappointment was not confined to pressure groups. Jan Pronk,
the special envoy to the summit of the UN secretary general Kofi Annan,
said: "We have had a narrow escape. The outcome is better than we feared,
but much less than we needed. "There is a huge gulf between those inside
the hall and people's expectations. We have to look at a better way of
managing these things. It all could so easily have fallen apart."
22) ANALYSIS - EARTH SUMMIT DEAL-A GREY DAY
FOR GREEN ENERGY?
Planet Ark
September 4, 2002
Internet:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=17576&newsdate=04-Sep-2002
JOHANNESBURG
- The Earth Summit's decision not to set itself a firm target for boosting
green energy is a lost battle for renewable energies like solar and wind
power, but it's not the end of the war, analysts said. Facing stern
opposition from the United States and OPEC countries, attempts by the
European Union and many South American countries to set the world's first
target for increasing the global share of renewable energies failed. "This
deal is worse than no deal," said Friends of the Earth's Kate Hampton in a
comment typical of green campaigners who see renewable energy as the only
alternative to fossil fuels, which are blamed for potentially disastrous
global warming.
The wording
agreed on the energy chapter of what will be adopted as the summit's action
plan for sustainable development promotes "cost effective technologies" to
the poor, "including fossil fuel technologies as well as renewable energy".
This may give some cheer to champions of development in a world where some
two billion people, a third of the world's population, have no modern
energy. But it did little to turn the world away from its thirst for oil,
environmentalists said. Fossil fuels like oil, coal and gas make up about
80 percent of world energy use. Environmentalists see them as unsustainable
not only because they are finite but also because they emit heat-trapping
gases when burned, leading to climate change. Alex de Roo, a Dutch Green
Euro MP, said the summit had forgotten its role of supporting "sustainable"
development - economic growth that would not damage the environment. "The
spirit of Rio is lost," said de Roo, referring to the first Earth Summit in
Brazil in 1992 which issued a blueprint for sustainable development called
Agenda 21. "This was about classic economic development for the poor, and
the link with sustainability has been lost."
SHADOW OF BUSH
Kalee Kreider
of Washington-based National Environmental Trust said the lack of targets
for renewable energies was a victory for U.S. President George W. Bush, the
man who pulled the United States out of the Kyoto climate change pact and is
reviled by green campaigners as a friend of the oil industry. "Despite the
fact that President Bush is on his ranch, his shadow has loomed large in
Johannesburg," Kreider said.
Bush declined
an invitation to the summit, attended by some 100 other heads of state and
government. Margot Wallstrom, the EU Environment Commissioner who was a key
figure in keeping Kyoto afloat after the U.S. pullout, said the deal was far
from a complete failure for renewable energies. "What we have done is for
the first time, we got the energy issue discussed as one of the core issues
of sustainable development," she told reporters. The fact that energy had
dominated the summit boded well for the future, she said, adding that many
countries which had said they could not accept targets told her afterward
that they were sorry the EU's proposal failed.
South African
Mineral and Energy Affairs Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka told EU delegates
as the meeting broke up: "Don't despair. You have raised the challenge.
"Many of you have raised the baton. I'd like to think that (in future) we
can give it our best shot...clearly this (deal) is not enough." But as the
next Earth Summit may well be at least 10 years away, where do climate
change campaigners take their battle now? They already rule out nuclear
energy as an acceptable, climate-friendly option.
THINK GLOBAL WARMING...
One arena may
be the Kyoto Protocol, the global pact on cutting largely fossil
fuel-related emissions. Although that treaty was dealt a near fatal blow
when Bush pulled out last year, it looked a shade healthier this week when
Canadian Prime Minster Jean Chretien used the summit to announce parliament
would vote on approving Kyoto by year-end. Chretien's Liberals have a
comfortable majority in parliament and Kyoto's approval is likely if the
party backs it. If Russia also ratifies, as it has said it intends to, the
treaty will come into legal force, requiring some action on cutting
emissions by the end of the decade.
Kyoto
signatories will soon start discussing targets for developing countries that
are currently exempt and bigger targets for richer countries. But ahead of
that process, which will not begin for a few years, action on renewable
energies and climate will begin at home - even in the United States, said
WWF campaigner Jennifer Morgan. The EU has its own target of doubling its
use of renewables to 12 percent of total energy consumption by 2010. It is
discussing a system to allow countries and firms to trade the "right to
pollute" in order to bring costs down. At national, regional and local
level, including in some U.S. states and cities, politicians are setting
targets for use of renewable energies, Morgan said. "At that level it will
be a different battle ground," said Morgan. "One where there won't be any
alliances with OPEC."
23) KYOTO MAY COME INTO FORCE IN MONTHS
Independent
September 4, 2002
Internet:
http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=330262
Russia and
Canada took the Earth Summit by surprise yesterday when they said they would
ratify the Kyoto treaty to combat global warming. The announcements pave the
way for the deal to take effect possibly before the end of the year. The
news came as a blow to President George Bush, who did not attend the summit
and has set out to kill the treaty since coming to power last year. The
United States succeeded at the summit in blocking targets for increasing
renewable energy supplies. Countries responsible for 55 per cent of the
industrialised countries' emissions of carbon dioxide - the main cause of
global warming - have to ratify the Kyoto Protocol for it to take effect.
Ratifications by Russia and Canada will take the treaty well over the
threshold, leaving America and Australia isolated in rejecting it. John
Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, and Margaret Beckett, the Secretary of
State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said they were thrilled. "We
have been working very hard to persuade countries that this is the right
thing to do," Mrs Beckett said.
Both
countries had indicated they might not be able to ratify the treaty. To
complete delegates' delight, the Chinese Premier, Zhu Rongji, announced that
his country had already ratified the Protocol. China's participation was not
needed to bring the treaty into force, but still gave it an immense boost
because the country is one of the world's biggest sources of carbon dioxide.
Kate Hampton, of Friends of the Earth, said the news was totally unexpected.
"This is wonderful. Russia and Canada have resisted intense US pressure.
George Bush has been foiled again."
24) THE PROTOCOL BUSH TRIED TO KILL LIVES TO
FIGHT ANOTHER DAY
Independent
September 4, 2002
Internet:
http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=330261
George W Bush
has snatched defeat from the very jaws of victory. Just as the US President
was doubtless beginning to congratulate himself on achieving almost all his
objectives at the Earth Summit - most notably blocking targets for
increasing renewable energy by rallying oil exporting countries - he has
been unexpectedly routed on the environmental issue closest to his heart.
Canada and Russia have announced, despite strong US pressure, that they are
taking steps to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Their ratifications will bring
into force the treaty on fighting global warming that Mr Bush has been
trying to destroy ever since taking office. In a strange twist, the summit's
greatest success has come in an area scarcely under discussion. The Kyoto
Protocol was only a small part of an agenda mainly devoted to poverty and
environmental issues, such as lack of energy and basic sanitation, which
most immediately affect the poor. Before the summit Canada had warned it was
unlikely to ratify Kyoto and during it Russia's Deputy Minister of Economic
Development and Trade said there was, "a risk, without a doubt" that his
country would not join in. Russia's omission would have been fatal. Under
the protocol 55 countries, crucially including nations responsible for 55
per cent of the industrialised world's emissions of carbon dioxide, would
have to ratify if the treaty was to come into effect.
Ninety
countries have ratified, clearing the first hurdle. But the treaty's
supporters have struggled to make up the 55 per cent, with the United States
and Australia, which together account for more than 38 per cent of
emissions, staying out. Without Canada, it would have been tight. Without
Russia it would have been impossible. Both countries have their problems. In
Russia, left-wing representatives in the Duma oppose the treaty. And the
country is likely to make much less money out of the treaty than expected by
selling generous allowances of carbon dioxide emissions to other countries -
the market has fallen since the US decided to stay out of it.
Canada,
meanwhile, has faced opposition from energy-exporting states like Alberta.
And it has suffered particularly heavy arm-twisting from the US, with which
its economy is closely linked. But pressure built up at the summit has
helped bring both countries on board. After intense argument, its plan of
action includes a clause recording that the nations who have already joined
the treaty "strongly urge" others to ratify it "in a timely manner". This
was interpreted, particularly in Russia, as a call by the world to get on
with it. And the pressure has built up as leader after leader has called on
the waverers to join in. Tony Blair said that the treaty was "right", and
called for further ratifications. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany
went further, calling on "states to ratify the Kyoto Protocol as quickly as
possible so that it can enter into force before the end of the year". He
warned that the recent floods in his country, central Europe and China
showed that "climate change is no longer a sceptical forecast, but a bitter
reality." But perhaps the most moving appeal of all came from President
Maumoon Abdul Gayoom of the Maldives, whose country is due to disappear
beneath the waves as global warming causes the seas to rise. "Low lying
nations are at greater risk than ever before" he said. "Time is running out.
The Kyoto Protocol must be universally honoured."
Of course,
the failure to agree renewable energy targets will make it harder to reduce
carbon dioxide given off by fossil fuels that will be needed to fight global
warming. But the world is unlikely to let President Bush have the last word
here, either. The European Union announced that it would form a "coalition
of the willing" with progressive developing countries to promote renewables.
And Chancellor Schröder is to call an international conference on the issue.
Besides, once the treaty is in force, countries will be bound to reduce
their emissions and will have an incentive to do so quickly, because they
will be able to sell their allowances to countries slower at reducing
emissions. As money begins to be made out of the treaty, and new cleaner
technologies take off, American business is likely to clamour to join the
party. So Mr Bush - who chose to holiday on his Texan ranch rather than join
his fellow leaders - may yet have cause to regret his decision to stay away.
25) PUTIN CONFIRMS RUSSIA'S INTENT TO RATIFY
KYOTO PROTOCOL
AFP
September 4, 2002
Internet:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=21080269
MOSCOW:
Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed on Tuesday that Moscow intended
to ratify the UN Kyoto Protocol on global warming although some "technical"
problems remained with the deal."We are positive about this process and the
aims of the Kyoto protocol. We intend to ratify," Putin said during talks
with German President Johannes Rau." There are still certain issues
lingering on the technical level, so it is better that you talk to the
experts about this," Putin told reporters.
Earlier on
Tuesday, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov announced at the Earth
Summit in Johannesburg that Moscow hoped to ratify the Kyoto Protocol "in
the very near future." "Russia has signed the Kyoto Protocol and now we are
preparing for its ratification. This ratification we hope will occur in the
very near future," Kasyanov said. Ratification by Russia will mean that the
climate change pact will take effect, despite US opposition. The protocol
can take effect only after it has been ratified by at least 55 of countries
accounting for at least 55 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions in
1990.Analysts said ratification by Russia would push the numbers beyond 55
per cent.
26) PRIME MINISTER SAYS AUSTRALIA MAY
SIGN KYOTO PROTOCOL
Associated Press
September 4, 2002
Internet:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020904/ap_wo_en_po/australia_kyoto_protocol_1
CANBERRA,
Australia - As pressure mounts on Australia to ratify the Kyoto accord on
climate change, Prime Minister John Howard softened his previous hardline
opposition to the pact Wednesday, saying he might still sign. Like the
United States, Australia has opposed the treaty, arguing that because
developing countries are not covered, it would only transfer high polluting
industries to poor countries without cutting emissions that lead to global
warming.
However,
Howard said Wednesday that he would sign if it became clear it was in
Australia's interest to do so. "Our concern at the moment about ratifying
Kyoto" is that the government does not know what its obligations to reduce
greenhouse gases would be after 2012, the end of the first target period of
the treaty, Howard said. "If we become convinced in the months ahead that
it's in Australia's interests to sign the protocol, we'll sign it whether
America has signed it or not," the prime minister told Brisbane radio
station 4BC.
Howard's
comments came after China announced Tuesday it had already ratified the
treaty and Russia said it will ratify, clearing the way for the agreement to
become law in much of the world. The Kyoto Protocol aims to combat a slow
but steady rise in the earth's temperature by getting industrialized nations
to cut carbon dioxide emissions to below-1990 levels by 2012. Many
countries view the accord as crucial to reversing a global warming trend
blamed for cataclysmic storms, floods and droughts worldwide. Enough
countries have already ratified Kyoto, but for it to take effect, those
countries must account for at least 55 percent of carbon dioxide emissions
based on 1990 output. Russia's ratification would meet that requirement.
Among the
main industrialized nations, the United States, Canada and Australia are the
main holdouts, though Canada promised Monday to put the accord before its
Parliament this year. Australia is one of the world's largest emitters of
greenhouse gases per head of population. It is responsible for more than 1.5
percent of emissions although it accounts for about 1 percent of global
economic activity.
See Also:
AUSTRALIA MAY
SIGN KYOTO PROTOCOL Associated Press September 4, 2002
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020904/ap_on_re_au_an/australia_kyoto_protocol_2
27) RUSSIA ANNOUNCES PLAN TO RATIFY KYOTO PROTOCOL ON
GLOBAL WARMING
Associated Press
September 3, 2002
Internet:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020904/ap_wo_en_po/world_summit_154
JOHANNESBURG,
South Africa - Russia promised to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on global
warming, a move that would bring the historic accord on cutting greenhouse
gases into effect despite U.S. opposition. The announcement came as leaders
at the World Summit wrapped up a long-term blueprint for tackling global
woes of poverty and pollution and attention shifted to immediate crises,
including Iraq. Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz sought support from
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former South African President Nelson
Mandela for heading off a threatened U.S. attack. Annan urged Aziz to
comply with U.N. Security Council resolutions, which call for the
unconditional return of weapons inspectors, his spokeswoman said.
Mandela
publicly urged Washington on Monday to act within the U.N. framework and not
attack Iraq unilaterally. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was expected
to hear more such advice Wednesday during his own meeting with Annan, as
well as leaders including Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov. "I do not
favor unilateralism no matter where it comes from," said French President
Jacques Chirac at a news conference. Moscow would veto any measure for
military action against Baghdad that comes up before the Security Council,
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said in Moscow. The United States also
continued to be hammered for its rejection of the Kyoto protocol, which many
countries view as crucial for reversing a global warming trend blamed for
cataclysmic storms, floods and droughts worldwide.
"All
countries around the world need to address the questions of environmental
protection ... under the same rules," said Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi. U.S. Environmental Protection Administrator Christie Whitman said
the United States supported other countries' ratification of the deal. But
she said the agreement was not appropriate for the United States, which is
taking other action to limit climate change. Kasyanov did not say exactly
when Moscow would ratify, frustrating Kyoto's U.N. and European backers, who
had hoped for a commitment to get it done this year. "Russia has signed the
Kyoto Protocol and now we are preparing for its ratification," Kasyanov
said. "That ratification will occur in the very near future."
In Moscow,
Russian President Vladimir Putin also said "we intend to sign" the accord,
but gave no timeline and said experts were still reviewing the documents.
But the strong signal after much wavering was viewed as positive by Kyoto
backers. Enough countries have already ratified Kyoto, but for it to take
effect, those countries must account for at least 55 percent of carbon
dioxide emissions based on 1990 output. Despite Washington's withdrawal last
year, that can still be met if Russia joins the European Union and Japan in
ratifying. Russia, whose industry - and pollution - has declined
dramatically since 1990, had hoped to benefit greatly from mechanisms
established by Kyoto to let countries buy the right to pollute from those
that come in under their quota.
But the
United States, as the biggest polluter, was expected to be the biggest
buyer. Environmentalists said they suspected Russia was dragging its feet
hoping to gain in other areas, such as increased financial aid or
compensation for maintaining its vast forests as a carbon sink, absorbing
and storing excess carbon in the atmosphere. Ecuador's president, Gustavo
Noboa, raised a similar point during a forum on financing for sustainable
development in Latin America and the Caribbean. "If the developing world
needs our oxygen, we must be economically compensated," he said, referring
to competing demands between developing and preserving tropical rain
forests. Ecologists often describe rain forests as the "lungs of the
planet," transmitting oxygen to the atmosphere while using carbon dioxide.
"I agree that
we should fight against terrorism," he said. "This is something that has
marked us all. But I would like to give some of the same impetus and
financial resources to the fight against poverty." His call for action was
echoed by most of the dozens of leaders who spoke Tuesday. "Put your money
where your mouth is," said Jan Balkenende, prime minister of the
Netherlands. "We've done the talking, so let's start walking!" Late Monday,
negotiators resolved the last main sticking points in a 70-odd page plan to
turn commitments made 10 years ago at the Rio Earth Summit into reality.
Most of the items were geared to helping the world's poorest people without
polluting.
After losing
its push for targets on the use of wind and solar energy, the European Union
said it would form a coalition of "like-minded countries and regions"
willing to commit to strict timetables for increasing renewable energy.
Many developing countries had sided with the United States and Japan against
including the targets in the summit's plan, arguing they were a rich
country's luxury. The text agreed late Tuesday includes a commitment to
"urgently" increase the use of renewable energy sources, but says cleaner
use of fossil fuels is also acceptable, diplomats said.
British
Environment Minister Margaret Beckett called the plan "a generous and
serious and substantial outcome." Dropped language linking women's health
care with human rights become a sticking point in 11th hour deliberations,
but was restored before the plan was official adopted by the summit's main
committee of ministers. As U.N. officials prepared the agreed proposals for
final adoption by the full summit, world leaders worked to wrap up a
political declaration in which they commit to building a "humane and caring
global society in pursuit of the goal of human dignity for all."
28) CHINA, RUSSIA BACK KYOTO GREENHOUSE GAS
PACT
Reuters
September 3, 2002
Internet:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020903/sc_nm/environment_summit_kyoto_dc_1
JOHANNESBURG
(Reuters) - Russia and China gave their backing on Tuesday for the Kyoto
protocol meant to cut emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for warming the
planet. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov told the Earth Summit he
expected Moscow to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on global warming soon. Russian
ratification would, due to a complex weighting system, virtually ensure the
treaty is implemented despite its rejection by the biggest air polluter, the
United States. "Russia has signed the Kyoto Protocol and we are now
preparing its ratification. We consider that ratification will take place in
the very nearest future," Kasyanov said to applause from a plenary session
of the U.N. meeting. The treaty has been passed to the Russian parliament.
European
Union nations in particular are pressing Russia to have its parliament
ratify the 1997 treaty as soon as possible to bring it into effect and open
the way to special aid flows for poor countries hit by climate change.
Shortly after his speech to the summit, Reuters asked him whether he
expected the ratification to take place this year. "Maybe this year," he
replied, but declined further comment. China, the world's second biggest
polluter, earlier told the U.N. meeting it had ratified the agreement. But
as a developing country, China is not bound by any goals for restraining
emissions of carbon dioxide, mostly caused by burning fossil fuels such as
oil and coal.
Targets under Kyoto so far
apply only to developed states but might in future be extended to China, the
world's most populous nation with more than a billion people. "I would like
to announce hereby that the Chinese government has ratified the Kyoto
protocol," Premier Zhu Rongji told delegates at the World Summit on
Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. China had been expected to back
the Kyoto climate pact. The agreement holds industrialized nations to
cutting emissions of carbon dioxide to around five percent below 1990 levels
by 2012. "With reform and opening up, China has scored an average annual
growth rate of 9.3 percent of gross domestic product in the past decade or
so," he said. He also said "excessively rapid" population growth had been
brought under control.
See Also:
RUSSIA
ANNOUNCES PLAN TO RATIFY KYOTO PROTOCOL AS LEADERS TAKE THE PODIUM AT WORLD
SUMMIT Associated Press September 3,2002
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020903/ap_wo_en_po/world_summit_147
29) ROTHSCHILD, E3 LAUNCH CARBON CREDIT INVESTMENT FUND
Planet Ark
September 3, 2002
Internet:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17562/story.htm
SYDNEY -
Rothschild Australia and Australia-based environmental group E3
International launched yesterday a new fund to allow highly polluting
companies to offset their emissions by buying carbon credits from cleaner
firms. Billed as the first of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region and soon
to be followed by other similar private investment vehicles, the Carbon Ring
Consortium seeks to raise $2 million, with individual investors obliged to
pay $100,000. "With recent developments in international climate change
policy, the question is no longer if, but when the global carbon trading
market will emerge," said Richard Martin, chief executive officer of
Rothschild Australia.
Rothschild
said in a prospectus that the Carbon Ring Consortium would be open for
investments until October 30. It would be wrapped up in June 2003, when the
carbon credits purchased will be distributed to investors pro rata. Trading
environmental credits is an emerging market designed to allow firms that
fail to meet emissions standards to buy credits from other firms that
undercut their targets. The Kyoto accord signed by developing nations in
the Japanese city of that name envisages some carbon credit trade between
countries with so-called carbon sinks - forests - and others that produce
higher levels of pollution than they are allowed to.
The same
applies to companies, and a nascent market has already emerged in the United
States where some states have limits on acid rain components like sulphur
dioxide and others have limits on carbon dioxide emissions. Greenhouse
gases such as carbon dioxide are blamed by many scientists for rising world
temperatures. The investment bank said it was estimated that the global
carbon trading market could be worth up to $150 billion by 2012. It said it
looked increasingly likely that the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on reducing
greenhouse gas emissions would be ratified by enough countries to come into
effect, notwithstanding the decision of the United States and Australia to
reject the accord.
The process
of investing will involve workshops to allow investors to gain hands-on
knowledge of the new market. The unregistered, managed investment scheme
will be the first in a series of private investment vehicles that Carbon
Ring Pty Limited, a joint venture between Rothschild and E3 International,
expects to launch in the coming years, the partners said.
30) RUSSIA GIVES KYOTO KISS OF LIFE
BBC
September 3, 2002
Internet:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2233220.stm
Russia is planning to ratify the Kyoto treaty on global
warming soon, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov has confirmed at the World
Summit on Sustainable Development. Russia's backing would mean that enough
big producers of greenhouse gases have signed up to bring the treaty into
effect. The treaty received a massive blow when the United States - the
world's biggest polluter - pulled out under the presidency of George W Bush.
The ratification promise by Russia - the third biggest polluter - gives the
ailing treaty the kiss of life. "Russia has signed the Kyoto Protocol and we
are now preparing its ratification," Mr Kasyanov's told delegates at the
summit in Johannesburg to warm applause. "We consider that ratification will
take place in the very nearest future." The treaty needs a majority of
greenhouse gas producers - responsible for 55% of 1990 worldwide carbon
emissions - to sign up before it can be implemented. Russia's involvement
would take it past that level, even without the US. The 1990 figures showed
the US producing 36% of carbon emissions, and Russia 17%. Russian President
Vladimir Putin said in April that his country would ratify Kyoto.
Windfall
However, a final review of costs and benefits was taking
place over the summer, with opponents claiming the treaty might hinder
Russia's economic development. But the benefits could be enormous. Russia
expects its carbon emissions to be down by 20% from 1990 levels when Kyoto
comes into force in 2008 - meaning it would then be able to sell carbon
pollution "credits", bringing a potential windfall of tens of billions of
dollars. Russia would be able to use this money to modernise its
energy-intensive industries.
However, Russia would have first to prove that its emissions
levels for 1990 were accurate. If it cannot do this, experts say, the
bonanza will not materialise. Russia's announcement was welcomed by
environmental campaigners. "Confirmation by Russia is good news for the
climate and brings us that bit closer to ratification of the Kyoto protocol
this year," Gordon Shepherd of World Wildlife Fund International told BBC
News Online. "Only Russia and Canada are needed to enable the protocol to
enter into force." On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien told the
summit his country's parliament would vote on ratification before the end of
the year. The US has been unmoved by the welter of criticism it has received
since pulling out. President Bush argues that US business interests would be
harmed by the treaty.
Chinese backing
China has also proclaimed its support for the protocol, with
Prime Minister Zhu Rongji telling delegates at the World Summit that the
government had completed the domestic phase of its path to adopting the
treaty. "I would like to announce hereby that the Chinese Government has
ratified the Kyoto protocol," Mr Zhu was quoted by Reuters news agency as
saying. China, as a developing nation, is not bound by the goals for
restraining carbon dioxide emissions laid out in the Kyoto agreement, but
Chinese support is crucial for its survival. It is the world's
second-largest producer of carbon dioxide emissions - and the US has long
cited China as one reason why it will not ratify the deal. "China hopes that
other developed countries will ratify or approve the protocol as soon as
possible so as to enable it to enter into force within this year," Mr Zhu
added.
31) CARBON DIOXIDE? NORWAY CAN'T GET ENOUGH
Planet Ark
September 2, 2002
Internet:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=17543&newsdate=02-Sep-2002
STAVANGER, Norway - The rest of the world may be struggling
to get rid of greenhouse gas emissions but Norwegian oil companies and
environmentalists are uniting to claim they cannot get enough carbon
dioxide. The focus is growing on returning the pollutant to oil and gas
reservoirs, a process, which could help the world's third largest oil
exporter to meet its Kyoto commitments. Depending on the complexities of
individual reservoirs, it can also have the side effect of increasing
pressure and enabling even more hydrocarbons to be pumped out.
State-dominated oil company Statoil has pledged to use the technique of
re-injecting carbon dioxide into rock strata, as it develops the Snoehvit
gas field in the environmentally sensitive Arctic Barents Sea. Statoil has
already used the technique at its Sleipner field, a spokeswoman said.
The company argues that putting back into reservoirs carbon
dioxide produced as a bi-product of oil and gas exploration is
environmentally friendly. A parallel proposal to dispose of carbon dioxide
by injecting it in liquid form into the Norwegian Sea has been vetoed by
Norway's environmental minister. But on the issue of injecting the gas back
into reservoirs, even Norway's leading environmental activist Frederic Hauge
commented: "The biggest problem is getting a big enough volume of carbon
dioxide." He said his Bellona environmental group had helped to find
development partners to facilitate work by oil major Shell on a gas-powered
zero emission fuel cell which could be used to provide energy on offshore
rigs. At the same time, the cell would produce almost pure carbon dioxide
ready for re-injection.
INNOVATION AWARD
At Norway's largest gathering of the oil and gas industry,
Offshore Northern Seas (ONS) which ends last week, Norske Shell, the
Norwegian unit of Anglo-Dutch major Royal/Dutch Shell, was awarded the
conference's innovation award for the fuel cell, which could help Norway to
meet its Kyoto commitments. Under the Kyoto Protocol on reducing emissions
in greenhouse gases, Norway must reduce total emissions by 16 percent within
six to 10 years. Norway's oil and gas exploration activity is responsible
for some 30 percent of the nation's carbon dioxide emissions, Shell says.
Onshore, Norway relies chiefly on emission-free hydro-electric power. The
zero-emission solid oxide fuel cell is not here yet, however. Shell said it
plans to set up a pilot plant in western Norway, beginning in 2004. Hauge
estimates that orders for between 150 and 250 fuel cells for the southern
part of the Norwegian sea would be needed to make a factory viable.
32) BUSH OUT IN THE COLD AS G8 WARMS TO
KYOTO
The Star
September 2, 2002
Internet:
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=3&art_id=ct2002090221555033K320123&set_id=1
Industrialised G8 countries have broken ranks with the United States by
urging the rest of the world to urgently ratify the Kyoto protocol on
climate change. World leaders came to Johannesburg on Monday not just with
promises, but with concrete plans to eradicate poverty. And in a surprise
move, one of America's closest allies, Canada, announced its intention to
ratify the protocol before the end of the year, along with another ally,
Japan.
They joined
the European Union and Britain in making urgent calls on the whole world to
ratify the agreement on climate change and to implement measures to combat
carbon dioxide emissions, which are believed to cause global warming. With
hopes raised for a universal commitment to reduce emissions, all eyes will
be on US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who will deliver his country's
statement on Wednesday during a whistle-stop at the summit. America,
Australia, and Russia are the major countries still refusing to ratify
Kyoto. China last week announced it would start the process of ratification.
The US
government, which tried to get even references to Kyoto eliminated from the
draft summit text, now faces strong pressure to fall in line with the rest
of the world. Recently, US President George W Bush again stressed that the
protocol could not be endorsed because it evoked the principle of
"common-but-differentiated responsibility", which placed a larger burden on
industrialised countries to reduce emissions.
33) BANK PLAN TO BURN LESS OIL RIG GAS MAY
HELP POOR
Planet Ark
September 2, 2002
Internet:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=17522&newsdate=02-Sep-2002
JOHANNESBURG
- A plan to cut down on wasteful burning of natural gas from oil rigs will
help cut down greenhouse gas emissions and could provide poor people with
access to cheap fuel, the World Bank said last week. Launching the scheme
at the Johannesburg Earth Summit, World Bank Managing Director Peter Woicke
said although some oil companies already had to cut their own gas burning,
evocative of oil fields and known as 'flaring', the new scheme would build
on this and help the environment too. "If we can reduce gas flaring we will
make a major commitment to the environment," he said. "Were the flaring of
gas in Africa alone to be used for power generation in efficient power
plants, this could produce approximately 50 percent of the current power
consumption of the African continent."
Gas flaring is not only a
waste of an otherwise fairly clean fuel, but the inefficiency of the process
can result in the release of methane, a greenhouse gas approximately 21
times more potent than carbon dioxide and blamed for global warming. Philip
Watts, Chairman of Royal Dutch/Shell, said the new partnership, involving
public and private money, would help bring on board companies who had not
managed to make much progress in reducing their gas wastage. "Some
companies have been more progressive than others," he said. "This is an
opportunity to share best practices." They also said the initiative would
explore using the gas saved as a cheap and clean fuel for small-scale use in
local communities. Despite commitments by governments and companies, the
level of gas flaring has remained virtually constant over the last 20 years,
according to a World Bank report. Over 100 billion cubic metres of gas are
flared every year, equivalent to almost 600 Tera Watt hours of energy, or
about one and a half times the amount used in Africa.
34) OIL ROW STALLS EARTH SUMMIT AS LEADERS
TRADE BARBS
Reuters
September 2, 2002
Internet:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020902/ts_nm/environment_summit_dc_110
JOHANNESBURG
(Reuters) - A dispute between Europeans and Americans on Monday over curbing
the use of oil held up a deal at the Earth Summit as world leaders urged
support for the grand U.N. action plan to end poverty and save the planet. A
parade of heads of state and government took to the podium in Johannesburg
to support its lofty goals, urged on by children who demanded an end to
international bickering and chided them for breaking the promises they made
to future generations at the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro 10 years
ago. "Too many adults are too interested in money and wealth to take notice
of serious problems that affect our future," said 11-year-old Justin Friesen
from Canada, standing next to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the
podium before the leaders.
But the
reality of human conflict was everywhere in view. Behind closed doors,
officials from the United States and OPEC oil exporters stonewalled efforts
by the European Union and some developing countries for a firm global target
for switching away from oil and other climate-warming fossil fuels toward
"green" renewable energy sources like wind and solar power. In the main hall
Third World leaders blasted greed among the rich nations as tensions over
Iraq and Zimbabwe crackled. In downtown Johannesburg, police turned water
cannon on about 100 pro-Palestinian protesters outside a venue where Israeli
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres was due to speak.
The energy
issue was the main remaining hurdle to agreeing a plan tackling a host of
threats to mankind, from pollution and poverty to AIDS and the extinction of
plant and animal species. Skeptics say its vast ambition deprives it of
meaning, especially as the United States has resisted what it sees as empty
symbolism in setting targets for such sweeping goals and argues that, as
after Rio, many nations will simply ignore them. "We deal with everything
and there is a risk at the end of the day that it means nothing," said
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, whose country holds the EU
presidency.
ABSENT BUSH
President
Bush) was notably absent and the only leader of the Group of Seven
industrial powers not to speak. So the leader of world's strongest nation
did not hear the leader of one of its smallest make an earnest plea to
Americans and others to adjust their lifestyles and save his entire island
state from disappearing beneath the waves of the Pacific. "We want the
islands of Tuvalu, our nation, to exist permanently for ever and ever, and
not to be submerged under water merely due to the selfishness and greed of
the industrial world," Prime Minister Saufatu Sopoanga told the summit.
Rising sea
levels caused by polar ice being melted by global warming threatens the
low-lying coral atolls. And scientists say it is the gases of vehicle
exhausts and industry that are causing a greenhouse effect, warming up the
atmosphere. Sopoanga called on industrial states to bind themselves to the
Kyoto Protocol on curbing those emissions. Bush pulled out of it, saying it
was expensive and unfair for the U.S. economy.
European
leaders including British Prime Minister Tony Blair and German Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder also pushed for the pact. Canadian Prime Minister Jean
Chretien ended months of uncertainty, announcing he would ask parliament to
ratify it. Russia holds the key to implementing the accord and has said it
intends to. But it is not yet clear when that might happen. Bush was
represented in Johannesburg by a low-level delegation led by Undersecretary
for Energy Robert Card. In a separate approach to the problem, the EU,
Brazil and some other countries are trying to embed firm targets for
increasing the use of "green" energy sources in the U.N. plan. Talks broke
up in the small hours and resumed to continue throughout the day. Washington
says it cannot bind the American people to targets it believes other nations
will not respect.
END "GLOBAL APARTHEID"
South African
President Thabo Mbeki called on the World Summit on Sustainable Development
to end the "global apartheid" between the rich and billions of poor, with a
plan that contains reaffirmed commitments to Third World aid and fairer
trade. Western leaders insisted they were doing their bit. "Today in
Johannesburg, humanity has a date with destiny," said French President
Jacques Chirac. "Our house is burning down and we are blind to it," he
added, suggesting a "solidarity levy on the wealth created by globalisation"
to help the poor. An aide suggested taxes on air tickets or financial deals.
But that is hardly likely to find favor with U.S. business.
There was
rather more blistering rhetoric from Third World firebrands like Venezuela's
leftist President Hugo Chavez. "If we are tackling fires, let us not respect
arsonists," he said, recalling a coup this year that nearly toppled him as
the United States looked on with what many saw as tacit approval. "We must
confront the privileged elites who have destroyed a large part of the
world," he added. President Robert Mugabe laid into Blair over his support
for white farmers being forced off their land in Zimbabwe: "Blair, keep your
England and let me keep my Zimbabwe," he said to loud applause for a stand
against colonialism. Blair had already left. Mugabe was out of the room when
Blair gave his speech. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who sent Deputy Prime
Minister Tareq Aziz to the summit, won some support from South African
former president Nelson Mandela over U.S. threats to oust him: "We are
really appalled by any country whether it is a superpower or a poor country
that goes outside the United Nations and attacks independent countries,"
Mandela said.
35) JAPAN DEVELOPS NEW WAYS OF CREATING
SUSTAINABLE ENERGY
SABCnews.com
September 2, 2002
Internet:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200209030041.html
Japanese
deputy minister said industrial technology is the key element in sustainable
development. Yoshihisa Oshima was speaking at the Ubuntu Village in
Johannesburg at the World Summit on Sustainable Development Conference. The
Kyoto Protocol, signed by 142 countries in 1997, required that developed
nations reduce global warming by cutting their greenhouse gas emissions to
1990 levels by 2012. To lessen its use of fossil fuels, Japan has
implemented trial tests involving various technologies, making use of wind,
ice and snow. Oshima said Japan is doing all it can to follow the ideals set
out by the Kyoto Protocol. "We are developing more electrical appliances and
cars. There will be no solutions without zero emission technology. It must
be developed and utilised," he said.
Working in conjunction with
the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (Nedo),
the government hopes to bring together financial and human resources, and
technological expertise, in order to create this new technology. "If
industry proves to be a primary driver for sound technology, then the
government will support these industries," says Oshima. This project aims to
establish how to distribute wind power systems by installing systems at
locations with different weather conditions to gather data on which
conditions produce the greatest amount of output. Wind is a clean, renewable
energy and, like solar energy, is inexhaustible. In Japan, the introduction
of wind power generation began in the 1980s, while Germany, the United
States, Spain and Denmark are also using wind energy. Once this form of
energy is developed and implemented, it is important that industries follow
suit. "All industries should encourage and support these ideas. It is an
industrial responsibility," says Takao Suzuki of the Japan Automobile
Company (Jama). "We are trying to support environmental protection as well
as trying to meet the Kyoto goals." Jama is looking into ways of using fuel
cells in cars in order to reduce emissions. By 2010, Japan hopes to have at
least 3,8 million units of these cars on the road. The government is
studying what infrastructures are necessary to implement this new
technology, Oshima says. "Only once we've achieved this can we say that
technology has helped sustainable development." This new technology works in
Japan, but needs to be adapted so that it can be marketed to the rest of the
world, particularly the developing world. - Witsnews.
36) BLAIR: "IN TRUTH KYOTO IS NOT RADICAL
ENOUGH"
CNN
September 1, 2002
Internet:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/africa/09/01/blair.climate.glb.reut/index.html
MAPUTO,
Mozambique (Reuters) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair called on Sunday
for more ambitious goals to curb climate change, saying sceptics like the
United States could be won over by a global drive to develop clean fuel
technology. Trying to bridge one of the bitterest disputes at the Earth
Summit in South Africa, Blair said harnessing clean energy sources held the
key to ensuring economic growth without threatening the planet. He told a
gathering of politicians and businessmen in Mozambique that world leaders
needed to set goals beyond the Kyoto protocol on climate change set five
years ago -- which the United States has refused to ratify. "In truth Kyoto
is not radical enough," he said. "Yet it is at present the most that is
do-able and even then the largest nation, the United States, stands outside
it." "They believe the targets are unachievable without unacceptable
economic consequences."
Blair will
address the Earth Summit on Monday. His close but absent ally, U.S.
President George W. Bush, faces fierce criticism from environmentalists who
say he is obstructing progress on the environment and sustainable
development. The British premier said that, to address U.S. fears, better
use of science, technology and market incentives were needed to win support
for Kyoto "and the necessary, more radical, action on climate change."
Calling for greater political will to tackle the problem, Blair promised to
put forward specific British proposals after consulting with G8 allies. "We
need a systematic attempt to work out the potential of the most exciting
scientific work now being done, for example in the areas of fuel cell
technology, offshore wind and tidal energy, and converting waste to create
methane," he said. "Kyoto is right, but it is not enough."
Blair's own
green adviser has criticised his domestic record, saying that in five years
under Blair environmental progress has been too timid and describing his
Labour government as intoxicated with big business. But Blair said he was
proud of his record and defended the role of business in promoting growth
and development. "We can't solve climate change by being anti-business or
anti-success," he said.
He also
repeated British calls for an opening up of U.S. markets and reform of EU
farm subsidies, which developing countries say block their agricultural
exports to Europe. "Free trade is vital and neither the EU, the U.S., Japan
nor any other wealthy nation should be retreating from it," he said.
Blair was due
to fly from Mozambique on Monday to join leaders from around 100 countries
at the Johannesburg summit. Environmental groups said he would set out
proposals aimed at preventing the mismanagement of revenues paid to
developing countries by oil, gas and mining companies through open
accounting of all payments to governments. Publish What You Pay, a
coalition of more than 60 non- governmental organisations, said it "warmly
welcomes the announcement and Mr Blair's leadership on the issue." But it
said regulation rather than a voluntary framework was needed. The groups
said oil, gas and mining industries were important to more than 50
developing countries that were home to 3.5 billion people. More than 1.5
billion of those people lived on less than $2 a day. But often the oil
firms paid money to institutions which were unaccountable to their citizens
and became "a vehicle for embezzlement, fraud and corruption," they said.
37) NEGOTIATORS UPBEAT AFTER REACHING
AGREEMENT ON CLIMATE CHANGE, TRADE
Associated Press
September 1, 2002
Internet:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020901/ap_wo_en_po/world_summit_104
JOHANNESBURG,
South Africa - As heads of state started arriving at the World Summit on
poverty and the environment, bleary-eyed negotiators were upbeat Sunday
after reaching deals on climate change and trade. "We have absolutely no
choice. We must deliver," Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said. The
10-day conference, which started last Monday, aims to agree on a plan to
turn promises made at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio into reality. Diplomats
said one contentious issue was resolved late Saturday, when negotiators
settled on wording to address the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which
the United States has refused to sign.
The agreed
text says nations that have ratified Kyoto "strongly urge" states that have
not done so to ratify it in "a timely manner." "This is very encouraging,"
said Danish Environment Minister Hans Christian Schmidt, whose country holds
the EU presidency. Environmentalists also welcomed the agreement. Steve
Sawyer, climate director for Greenpeace, called it "a tremendous achievement
in this process because basically it doesn't go backward." "It's about the
only thing in this text that doesn't," he added.
Negotiators
also reached compromises on trade that largely stick to language agreed to
at a World Trade Organization meeting in Doha, Qatar. They include a
reaffirmation of commitments to hold negotiations with a view to phasing out
agriculture and other trade-distorting subsidies. The last outstanding issue
was resolved late Sunday when negotiators agreed to delete language giving
the WTO precedence over multilateral environment agreements, diplomats said
Sunday. "There's a sense of euphoria among the delegates that they've been
able to settle this very difficult issue," said Lucian Hudson, spokesman for
the British delegation.
Delegates
have now agreed more than 95 percent of the 70-odd page plan, though a few
tough issues remain, summit Secretary-General Nitin Desai said. "The
document is almost finished," South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma said. The head of the U.S. delegation, Undersecretary of State
Paula Dobriansky, said she was "encouraged" by the progress made. "The
process is not just about approving text. It's about working with developing
countries that look to us for concrete action," she said. "Failure is not an
option." Negotiators meeting behind closed doors worked late into the night
Sunday to settle remaining differences over energy and sanitation.
Developing
nations have sided with the United States against setting targets on
renewable energy sources, while the European Union and other countries are
pushing for a commitment to halve the number of people without access to
sanitation by 2015. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen,
representing the 15-nation EU, said the goal was feasible. "We have the
technology and the talent, and I would also say we have the money," he
said. But the United States has resisted including new targets and
timetables in the action plan, arguing the way to get results is through
concrete projects - not paper agreements.
With
governments increasingly cash-strapped, the summit has emphasized the role
public-private partnerships can play in alleviating poverty and protecting
the environment. "We've all realized that governments can't do it alone. We
live in an era of partnerships," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told
government and corporate leaders at a series of "Business Day" events.
Israel and Jordan announced a partnership of their own, the largest ever
between the two countries, a dlrs 800 million pipeline intended to save the
shrinking Dead Sea. Both governments also appealed for international
assistance to fund the project that will take three to five years to
complete.
More than 50
world leaders were expected in South Africa for the start of the final
session Monday, when heads of state will address the summit, with the number
climbing to 109 before the summit ends Wednesday. Outside the summit Sunday,
a group of protesters demonstrated against the increasingly authoritarian
rule of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who arrived in South Africa on
Saturday. Also Sunday, Annan and South African President Thabo Mbeki
visited the Sterkfontein Caves, an archaeological site near Johannesburg.
Among the hundreds of finds at the 13 caves are the remains of a 3.5
million-year-old human ancestor. "This is the window through which we get a
glimpse into our shared past," Mbeki said. "I hope and trust that this
valley of human ancestors will inspire and guide us as we face the
challenges of our modern world."
38) U.S. TO SUBMIT ALTERNATIVE TO KYOTO
PROTOCOL AT EARTH SUMMIT
Japan Today
August 31, 2002
Internet:
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=8&id=228479
JOHANNESBURG
- The United States plans to submit an alternative to the 1997 Kyoto
Protocol on curbing global warming in an implementation document top leaders
aim to adopt next week at the ongoing Earth Summit in Johannesburg, South
Africa, several negotiation sources said Friday. A U.S. delegation source
said that although Washington accepts references to the Kyoto Protocol in
the Plan of Implementation, the protocol is only one way of dealing with
global warming and that wording in the protocol in the draft implementation
plan must be changed.
The new
proposal is expected to contain wording that would clarify the U.S. position
of having companies independently deal with global warming, and is almost
certain to be opposed by Japan and the European Union, which hold the
position that the Kyoto Protocol is the only international standard on
global warming. The issue is expected to become one of the main points of
contention at the ministerial-level talks of the 10-day U.N. Summit on
Sustainable Development. The current draft of the implementation plan states
that governments must fulfill their resolution "to make every effort to
ensure the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol to the U.N. Framework
Convention on Climate Change," but the U.S. has been opposing such wording.
According to sources close to the summit, the U.S. has compiled a new
proposal, which it plans to submit to the ministerial-level talks, and has
conveyed its intention to the Japanese side.
A senior Japanese Foreign
Ministry official said, "It is desirable for countries to move forward with
the Kyoto Protocol, which is a common rule for the world to deal with global
warming." The pact, adopted in the ancient Japanese capital of Kyoto, will
only enter into force 90 days after being ratified by 55 states representing
55% of industrialized countries' carbon dioxide emissions in 1990. The U.S.,
the largest carbon dioxide emitter in the world, has rejected the protocol.
(Kyodo News)
39) RUSSIA BALKS AT KYOTO PACT
CNN
August 30, 2002
Internet:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/africa/08/30/russia.kyoto.glb/
JOHANNESBURG,
South Africa -- Russia has said it could decide not to ratify the Kyoto
Protocol, a move that would threaten the future of the global warming pact.
The U.S. has already rejected the protocol, which is designed to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, amid widespread international criticism. Although
Moscow plans to ratify the treaty, Russian Deputy Minister Mukhamed Tsikanov
of the Ministry for Economic Development and Trade warned there was a
possibility it may yet be rejected: "There is a risk, there is a risk,
without a doubt." "Because... we don't have the economic stimulus, the
economic interest in the Kyoto Protocol," he told Reuters at the World
Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg on Friday.
Moscow feels
billions of dollars it had expected to earn by selling "rights to pollute"
under the treaty's quota trading mechanism are now in doubt since the U.S.,
the biggest potential buyer, has pulled out of the Kyoto process. "That
means that it turns out that Russia is losing a potential market for its
trading quota. The economic stimulus to the Kyoto Protocol is disappearing,"
Tsikanov said. "This is a key point that could play a negative role overall
in the whole Kyoto Protocol process." Countries accounting for 55 percent
of the developed world's carbon dioxide emissions in 1990 must sign up for
the treaty to become effective. Countries responsible for just over 37
percent have signed it, including all 15 countries in the European Union and
Japan. Ratification by Russia would add 17.4 percent.
Moscow did
sign up to a plan for implementing the 1997 treaty at protracted
negotiations in Bonn a year ago, following U.S. President George Bush's
rejection of the protocol. Tsikanov said his ministry would report to the
government next month having gathered data from various departments on the
likely impacts of ratification. So far, he believed, there was not
sufficient reason to refuse ratify: "Today, on the basis of all the material
gathered, I can say there is for the time being no reason for Russia to be
against the Kyoto Protocol." But the absence of the U.S. from the process
is a serious drawback, he added.
See Also:
RUSSIA THROWS
A CURVE ON KYOTO ACCORD United Press International August 30, 2002
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20020830-031155-3114r.htm
RUSSIA MAY
ABANDON KYOTO PROTOCOL ABC NewsOnline August 31, 2002
Internet:
http://abc.net.au/news/2002/08/item20020831083012_1.htm
40) KYOTO TO BE RATIFIED IN FALL: MP
National Post
August 30, 2002
Internet:
http://canada.com/national/story.asp?id=%7B5F667B51-BE9E-48FA-8203-9F4742F1CF01%7D
ZURICH and
OTTAWA - Parliament will be asked to ratify the hotly contested Kyoto
Protocol on climate change before the end of this year despite opposition
from Alberta and large parts of the business community, the chairman of the
House of Commons environment committee said yesterday. The government's own
testing of public opinion, meanwhile, has found support for Kyoto declines
when people find out more about the implications of the treaty on the
economy and on their own lives. Extensive focus group testing, which has not
yet been shared with Cabinet members, warns that support for ratifying and
implementing Kyoto could evaporate quickly. The testing found that many
people are not prepared to see substantial public spending on the issue and
are not prepared to be inconvenienced themselves. Charles Caccia, a
long-time Liberal MP and the chairman of the environment committee, said the
Prime Minister will bring the accord before Parliament for a vote late this
fall whether or not consultations with business leaders and the provinces
have yielded agreement. "I would bet my last dollar on that," he said. "I am
convinced we will ratify, so it is only a question of when, but by the end
of the year. That is my understanding of what is in place." The treaty will
be ratified over Alberta's objections, he added. The Prime Minister's Office
said yesterday the government will finish its consultation process before
moving ahead, quashing speculation Jean Chrétien would announce Canada's
decision to ratify the accord at the World Summit on Sustainable Development
in Johannesburg next week.
"The Prime
Minister has said he will continue to consult with the provinces and other
stakeholders," a spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office said. The
protocol would commit Canada to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 6%
below 1990 levels by 2012. Scientists believe the emissions -- caused mainly
by burning oil, coal and gas -- are causing the global atmosphere to warm
up, leading to more extreme weather events like floods, droughts and storm
swells. Alberta says the Kyoto accord would put too heavy a burden on its
fossil-fuel-driven economy, while business groups worry the requirement to
cut emissions will put them at a disadvantage against the United States,
which has said it will not ratify Kyoto. Both say the federal government
promised them more consultations before ratification. Mr. Caccia, who is
travelling with the Prime Minister, said it is clear to him that while
consultations may have to continue, the result is not in doubt. "The process
has to have its full course, fine. But the substance is there. At the end of
the process is ratification," Mr. Caccia said. Cabinet is set to consider an
implementation plan on Sept. 26, then present it to the provinces at an
October meeting. The plan would include $500-million in funding to offset
business costs and the continuation of Canada's demand to receive credit for
exports of hydroelectricity and clean-burning natural gas. Business leaders
are expecting the ratification announcement at a key meeting on Oct. 23 of
the Kyoto parties in Delhi, India, giving the federal government the months
of September and October to consult with provinces, environmentalists and
industry.
"The schedule
we've been hearing is targeted toward an announcement in Delhi," said Skip
Willis, vice-president of ICF Consulting, a company that advises major
companies like Alcan and Dupont on greenhouse gas strategies. "Our sense is
that the critical decision has been made and now it's a question of putting
together a reasonable implementation plan." "There is a commitment to
conclude the consultations. That I understand will be in October," Mr.
Caccia said. "Once that is done, then the process will have been completed
and then the substance will be decided upon, and that's when the
ratification is likely to be approved by Parliament." The Canadian Alliance,
the Official Opposition, is against the treaty, but the New Democratic
Party, Bloc Québécois and the Conservatives support it. Mr. Chrétien,
accompanied by Mr. Caccia and Senator Nick Taylor, Liberal chairman of the
Senate environment committee, stopped in Zurich to attend a conference on
federalism before continuing to South Africa. Mr. Taylor, an Albertan,
agreed with Mr. Caccia that ratification will come before the end of talks
with the provinces. Mr. Caccia, a veteran environmentalist who has served in
Parliament since the 1970s, said fears that Kyoto will cost the Canadian
economy too much are overblown. He said business would be better served by
certainty. "The lesson can be drawn from the acid rain experience," he said.
"Acid rain did not prove to be the business disaster everyone predicted at
the time and it will be the same with greenhouse gas emissions." "Business
was very nervous at that time. It wants to be given assurances about
timetables and targets."
The focus
group testing found strong support for the principle that industries and
regions causing most of the greenhouse gas emissions should bear the cost
burden of reducing them. This "polluter should pay" principle runs contrary
to the Prime Minister's stance that the burden of combatting climate change
should be shared by the whole country. The probe, the result of 26 focus
group sessions in 13 cities, involving more than 200 people, was conducted
between June 17 and July 4 on behalf of Environment Canada. The work was
carried out by public policy research companies Créatec of Montreal and
Earnscliffe Research and Communications of Ottawa and delivered to
Environment Canada in early August. Among the key messages of the focus
group sessions is that the public has a very limited understanding of the
treaty and the issue of climate change. "When asked about causes, there was
a large amount of guesswork, much of it incorrect, and many people simply
couldn't muster a thought about the causes [for climate change] beyond
'pollution,' " the report says. The main thing people understand about the
Kyoto Protocol is that the United States doesn't support it and won't sign
the treaty, a draft report on the focus group results said. But, as focus
groups were presented more information, this additional information raised
concerns about job losses and reduced economic growth and fears that Canada
would be put at a disadvantage economically to the U.S., the draft report
said.
Support for a Canadian
alternative to the Kyoto treaty is stronger in the West than in the eastern
part of the country, the report said. The focus groups split evenly on the
question of combatting climate change through the Kyoto treaty or working
with the U.S. on policies to reduce greenhouse gases, the draft report said.
"While many believe that ratification of the Kyoto Protocol is the ideal
scenario, the more prudent scenario is generally believed to be a
made-in-Canada/made in North America approach," the draft report said. Any
policies on climate change need to embrace the principles that they won't
increase government spending significantly, or increase the cost of living
to citizens or cause a lot of inconvenience in people's everyday lives, the
focus groups said in weighing different policy options. As well, the groups
said the policy to be adopted by Ottawa should not damage the competitive
position of Canadian business or the health of the Canadian economy. The
focus groups also expressed support for the idea of consultations with the
public and the provinces before the federal government takes a final
decision on whether or not to ratify the agreement.
41) EU PLANS DISASTER FUND AFTER DEVASTATING
FLOODS
Planet Ark
August 30, 2002
Internet:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=17510&newsdate=30-Aug-2002
BRUSSELS -
The European Union said this week it hopes to set up a disaster relief fund
of up to one billion euros (dollars) after floods caused havoc in Germany,
Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Officials will also work on
freeing up billions of euros in aid from reshuffling budgets to help Germany
meet the costs of cleaning up after the disaster. The floods in central
Europe in August caused deaths, forced evacuations of homes and left
widespread damage in historical cities such as Prague and Dresden. The
decision to form a disaster fund was taken to provide fast relief in the
wake of any catastrophe. "This will be an expression of European
solidarity," Commission President Romano Prodi told a news conference.
At present,
the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, has to scramble around to
find money from other sources, usually by reallocating spending from the
budget, which amounts to more than 98 billion euros for 2002. Prodi said
500 million euros would initially go into the fund, which he expected to be
available for disaster relief this year. The size could be doubled in future
years, he added. But the head of the European Parliament's budget
committee, which must ultimately approve any such fund, said the EU
legislature might prefer having one-off budgets for disasters. A statement
quoted budget chief Terry Wynn as saying that parliament "would rather
support ad hoc actions to cover the costs of future floods or other natural
catastrophes. "Furthermore the unpredictability of natural disasters makes
it questionable to freeze EU money in future budgets," he said. Parliament
has before thrown out the idea of disaster fund, rejecting the idea in 1997.
It said that the amount, 10 million euros, was too small and rules to get
funds were complicated.
FUND WON'T BUST BUDGET
Prodi said
disaster relief money would be focused on emergency requirements, rebuilding
water and electricity supplies and for social and transport needs. "We
need to tackle these problems decisively and quickly," Prodi said. The
disaster fund would be available for current EU states as well as those
negotiating entry, he said. He added that the fund would not cause the EU
budget to break the spending limit of 1.27 percent of EU gross domestic
product, set at a summit in Berlin in 1999.
A Commission
statement estimated the flood damage to Germany at 15 billion euros, to
Austria at two billion euros, the Czech Republic two to three billion and 35
million euros for Slovakia. The Commission said that the floods should make
EU leaders reflect on how such disasters happen and the extent to which
human intervention is responsible. It said the Earth Summit on sustainable
development, currently taking place in Johannesburg, should lead to concrete
steps to promote the better use of land and water and cut greenhouse gases,
believed by many scientists to affect the weather by creating global
warming. EU officials said Germany and Austria would also benefit from
several billion euros more in spending from a reshuffle in funds used for
regional aid and to develop roads and transport.
42) AUSTRALIA EYES ASIA AS MARKET FOR COAL -
REPORT
Inter Press Service
August 30, 2002
Internet:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/oneworld/20020830/wl_oneworld/1032_1030729056
BANGKOK, Aug
30 (IPS) - As the ''king coal'' of fossil-fuel exporting nations, Australia
should stop pushing dirty-fuel onto Thailand and other Asian nations and
promote clean energy if it is serious about reducing greenhouse gases, two
environmental groups said in a report Friday. In a report they jointly
released while the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) is
underway, the environment group Greenpeace and the Mineral Policy Institute
accused Australia of trying to make developing Asian nations dependent on
fossil fuels -- which pollute the environment and produce greenhouse gases
that cause global warming. They say these moves by Australia, which the
report calls ''the king of coal', give yet more proof of its poor record on
taking genuine steps to address global warming. This record is already
evident in how Australia has thumbed its nose up at international efforts to
cut greenhouse gas emissions - such as the 1997 Kyoto protocol that binds
industrialized countries to reducing these emissions, critics say.
''Australia needs to stop using dirty tricks in the Third World and sign the
Kyoto Protocol,'' Greenpeace South-east Asia campaigner Penrapee Noparumpa
said. Australian industry ''is dependent on producing polluting fuel and
wants to export its coal and its coal technology to Thailand, but people
here want something different,'' Penrapee added. She was talking about
plans for a 1,400-megawatt, coal-fired power station to be built in coastal
town of Ban Krut in Prachuap Khiri Khan province south of Bangkok, which
would use 80 percent Australian coal from the PT Adaro mine in Indonesia.
Residents
there have been campaigning against the project since it was first proposed
eight years ago, winning a two-year respite earlier this year when the prime
minister said project construction would be temporarily suspended. Other
parts of South-east Asia are also the target of Australia's coal exports. As
it is, the authors of the Greenpeace report write, ''Australia is expected
to remain the major coal exporter to Asia until 2020, meeting half the
region's coal import demand.'' ''Coal consumption in South-east Asia is
forecast to rise annually by 9.5 percent, on average,'' the report says.
''Consequently coal imports to these countries are expected to rise by 14
percent per year to 30 million tons in 2010, with total consumption reaching
totaling 75 million tons.'' With coal-fired technology becoming increasingly
unpopular in developed countries like Europe and North America,
multinational energy firms are finding it difficult to sell their now
antiquated coal technology. But that is where the search for new markets
comes in. In an effort to stay relevant and profitable, energy firms are
looking to developing countries, where demand for electricity is booming and
where restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions are still in the early
stages. By opening up export markets for Australia's coal, the government
and Australian fossil fuel producers are flouting international efforts to
reduce dependence on burning coal and other fuel that contributes to climate
change, Greenpeace says.
Scientists
have long issued dire warnings about the environmental and social costs of
ignoring mounting evidence that global warming is being caused by greenhouse
gases, mainly carbon dioxide that comes from industry and the burning of
fossil fuel - mostly by industrialized nations. ''In Australia 90 percent
of electricity comes from coal, one of the reasons why Australia produces
the most greenhouse per person in the developed world,'' Greenpeace climate
campaigner, Frances MacGuire, said. ''I call that hypocrisy, Australia will
not ratify Kyoto but at the same time wants to push Thailand into a
situation where it is dependent on coal-fired technology, Penrapee said.
''What about what people here want? What damage will this do to the
environment?'' Australia says that signing the Kyoto Protocol would drive
Australian industry offshore, as most of its developing country neighbors
have not set targets to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases.
Industrialized countries say that big developing countries like China and
India should also be bound by targets to cut greenhouse gases. But
developing nations argue that the countries that are the biggest producers
of these gases - rich nations - should bear the biggest burden of the
cutbacks. ''We're surrounded by countries that are not within the Kyoto
framework and we could seriously disadvantage our industry,'' Minister for
the Environment Robert Hill told ABC Television earlier this month.
''We could
impose heavy costs on our businesses, we could be driving investment
offshore at the very time when really what we want to do is to continue a
strong and competitive economy while at the same time meeting our
international obligations to cut back on greenhouse emissions,'' he said.
For the Kyoto climate treaty to become international law, 25 nations that
account for more than 55 percent of the world's greenhouse gases must agree
to abide by it. This task has been made difficult with the United States,
the world's largest producer of greenhouse gases and responsible for around
25 percent of global emissions, pulling out of the agreement in March 2001.
Australia and Canada have also said they would not sign the climate treaty.
However, Thailand's cabinet confirmed this week its intention to ratify the
Kyoto climate treaty when it sits down with world leaders in Johannesburg,
South Africa at the WSSD this week. ''It is up to Thailand to reject dirty
energy and demand renewable energy technology,'' Penrapee said in a
telephone interview from a rally in Ban Krut, where the coal-fired plant is
supposed to be built. With installation help from Greenpeace, locals are
celebrating the setting up of a 400-watt wind turbine that will generate
enough clean energy to light up the town center. ''Thailand has the chance
now to go down the path of clean electricity - without relying on fossil
fuels,'' said Penrapee.
43) U.N.: FREAK WEATHER, WARMING LINKED
AFP
August 30, 2002
Internet:
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20020826/enviro.html
Aug. 30 -
Evidence is growing of a link between global warming and the floods and
droughts that devastated parts of Asia and Europe this year, the head of the
United Nations' body on climate change said at the Earth Summit Friday.
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, told journalists there was undeniable proof that the Earth was
warming. Scientists, he said, were striving to determine whether these
higher temperatures had already wreaked climate change, including extreme
weather events. It was impossible to give a "scientifically robust answer"
at the moment, he said. But, he said, "I think the evidence is becoming
stronger that a lot of these extreme events are part of the overall process
of climate change." "(...) There is a fair amount of statistical evidence
and there is certainly anecdotal evidence that with the events that you see
around the world which are extreme in nature, there is obviously a growing
frequency, a growing severity, and I think the indications are that there is
a link there."
Ramon Pichs
Madruga, a member of the panel that specializes in mitigating the effects of
climate change, told AFP that the cyclones hitting the Caribbean were become
more frequent and more intense, and there was "evidence and associations"
that this was caused by global warming. In a lengthy report last year that
had resounding political repercussions, the IPCC predicted the Earth's mean
surface temperature would increase by between 1.4 and 5.8 Celsius (2.5 to
10.4 Fahrenheit) by 2100, compared with 1990 levels. Sea levels would rise
from 8 to 88 centimeters (3.6 to 35 inches), a potential threat to small
island states and low-lying areas, it said. Action to tackle global warming
was launched 10 years ago at the first Earth Summit in Rio, which led last
year to the Kyoto Protocol, a deal that commits rich industrialized
signatories to cutting emissions of fossil-fuel gases.
President
George W. Bush walked away from the treaty last year, leaving the ambitious
pact almost crippled. American opposition to Kyoto was a key factor in
ensuring that global warming and climate change are only minor items at this
summit, delegates said. Attempts to include a brief reference of support
for Kyoto in the summit's blueprint for action have triggered fierce rows
between the United States and the European Union, the protocol's main
backer. On Thursday, an Austrian research paper released on the sidelines
of the summit warned that more than three dozen of the world's poorest
countries might lose up to a fifth of their grain-growing capacity by 2080
because of water scarcity caused by warming. Ironically, the rich world,
which has most to blame for the climate change threat, would benefit.
Farmers in cold regions in North America and northern Europe would be able
to open up lands for crop-growing, according to the study, conducted by the
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.
Pachauri said
that it was vital to start work now to help combat the effects of climate
change in poor, vulnerable countries. Global warming is a complex interplay
of the world's seas, atmosphere and land, and it is only in the past decade
that scientific tools have emerged that give an accurate idea of the
phenomenon. Oil, gas and coal release carbon dioxide when they are burned.
The gas acts like an invisible shroud, trapping the sun's heat instead of
letting it radiate safely back into space.
44) PACIFIC ISLAND THREATENS AUSTRALIA OVER
GLOBAL WARMING
ABC NewsOnline
August 29, 2002
Internet:
http://abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s661406.htm
The Pacific island of Tuvalu
is renewing its threat to take legal action against Australia on the issue
of global warming. Tuvalu is trying to rally support from other island
nations at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. The
Tuvalu Government is calling on Australia to cut down its greenhouse gas
emissions. Finance and Planning Minister Bikenibeu Paeniu is lobbying other
nations at the Sustainable Development Summit to join in a planned lawsuit
against Australia and the United States. Mr Paeniu says Australia needs to
come clean about its environmental record. "I for one need to be convinced
that Australia is indeed cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions as we are
told by the Minister for the Environment," he said. Tuvalu says the
emissions are contributing to global warming, which could put island states
at risk, as sea levels rise.
45) EU SUPPORTS KYOTO PROTOCOL
Japan Today
August 29, 2002
Internet:
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=8&id=228144
JOHANNESBURG - Danish
Minister for the Environment Hans Christian Schmidt said Wednesday the 15
member states of the European Union (EU) support the Kyoto Protocol, in
reference to an implementation plan expected to be adopted at the U.N.
summit on sustainable development being held in Johannesburg.His statement
followed reports that the EU was considering removing the words of resolve
for countries "to make every effort to ensure the entry into force of the
Kyoto Protocol," from the draft of the Plan of Implementation. (Kyodo News)
46) FEATURE - BROKERS BLAZE TRAIL FOR NEW GREENHOUSE GAS
MARKET
Planet Ark
August 29, 2002
Internet:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=17487&newsdate=29-Aug-2002
NEW YORK -
Big business brokers in trading rooms at staid Wall Street addresses may be
doing more to cut pollution than protesters at the Earth Summit in
Johannesburg, South Africa. Take Benedikt von Butler, a broker at Evolution
Markets LLC in Manhattan, who is one of a new breed of environmental
financiers at natural gas, bonds, and coal brokerage firms. Brokers like
von Butler create markets out of 30 types of air pollution - from sulphur
dioxide (SO2), a component of acid rain, to carbon dioxide (CO2), a gas
scientists say warms the Earth by trapping solar heat in its atmosphere. In
emissions trading, companies who have cut pollution by more than agreed
targets can sell "credits" to other companies that are still polluting more
than they should. A variety of regulators set the targets. The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency set limits on acid rain components SO2 and
nitrogen oxide (NOx). For CO2, Oregon, Massachusetts and New Hampshire have
passed reduction laws. But most CO2 trading is spurred by the prospect of
international caps such as those outlined by the Kyoto Protocol, which aims
to reduce greenhouse gas levels to near-1990 levels by 2012.
"Sometimes
companies decide to trade because they fear future regulations; they need to
cover the risk which can be potentially devastating," said Neil Cohn, a
greenhouse broker at Manhattan's Natsource LLC, a company set up in the
1990s to broker natural gas. President George W. Bush has rejected the pact
saying it would result in job losses, but all 15 European Union members and
Japan have ratified the plan.
The SO2
market, at $4 billion a year and growing, is the oldest and most successful.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency capped SO2 emissions of 200 of the
nation's biggest utilities in 1990. Soon 2000 utilities will be capped - by
even tighter emissions limits. Brokers profit on the deals and emissions
have been reduced well beyond legal limits. The youngest market kicked off
in April after British regulators required utilities to generate 3 percent
of their electricity from renewable sources such as wind farms. In the
morning, von Butler telephones British utilities to look for demand. In the
afternoon, he calls green projects in Latin America who provide supply. The
British utilities only manage 2.8 percent renewable generation. "It's a
chronically short market," he said.
Whether they
work on Wall Street or through Web trading platforms like CO2e.com, a Cantor
Fitzgerald company formed with PricewaterhouseCoopers, emissions brokers
create value for pollution by linking industries such as utilities, oil
refiners, cement, paper and glass makers with similar firms in their
industry who invest in emissions reduction equipment. "Some people think
emissions trade means you are paying to pollute, which really isn't true,"
said Peter Zaborowsky, Evolution Markets' managing director. "You're
basically financing emissions reductions elsewhere." Brokers also link
buyers with global green projects that reduce emissions such as Blue Source
LLC, which has sequestered CO2 deep into the ground at oilfields since 1999,
both reducing CO2 levels and retrieving hard-to-get oil. Landfills that
create electricity by burning methane, a potent greenhouse gas formed by
rotting garbage, also provide supply. "If I'm an aluminum manufacturer or a
utility, I don't want to spend my time in India, China and Latin America
finding little projects to invest in and having risks involved," said
Natsource's Cohn. "I would want to deal with someone that's going to cover
this for me at a cost and probably create a lower cost portfolio than I
could ever do on my own," he said. Globally, Natsource now has more than 50
greenhouse brokers.
GREENHOUSE BATTLE OVER KYOTO AND ON THE HILL
At the Earth
Summit in Johannesburg this week and next, delegates will discuss methods of
reducing emissions, but on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., a battle is
also brewing. Bush's Clear Skies Act, introduced this month, proposes
further market-based initiatives for SO2, nitrogen oxide and mercury
emissions but not for CO2. Senator James Jeffords, the independent from
Vermont who chairs the Senate environment committee, has stated that he
prefers a bill that regulates greenhouse gas. Companies have lined up to
manage their risks. Liabilities including potential shareholder lawsuits
blaming industries for global warming problems have created a whole category
of insurance.
DOLLARS AND CENTS
The world's
top reinsurance company Munich Re , estimates that global warming impacts
could cost $300 billion annually by 2050. Trading in carbon emissions could
grow somewhere between $75 billion and $145 billion annually according to
the world's No. 2 reinsurer Swiss Re . CEO Jacques Dubois said: "The way we
deal with climate change and substantial emissions reductions ultimately
turns into a financial issue, and the problems associated with environmental
disaster quickly become measured in dollars and cents." A few companies,
including DuPont Co. , acknowledged possible consequences if the Kyoto
Protocol passes in their financial statements. Other companies, such as the
world's No. 2 energy company BP , have started trading emissions within
their company.
Swiss Re this
summer hosted an emissions trading conference in New York with the Coalition
of Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES), a Boston-based group of
environmentalists and investors. "It was great because it was a dry
business conference - people in suits talking emissions trade," CERES
spokeswoman Nicole St. Clair told Reuters. "Emissions trading has finally
gone mainstream." Some 200 million metric tons of CO2 have traded since
1992, brokers said. Brokers and companies do not reveal how much money they
make on deals. But CO2 brokers said credit reductions for CO2 run between 50
cents and $2 per metric ton per year. By 2012 the price will rise to $5 to
$9 per ton as the markets mature and regulations broaden, they said. This
summer, CO2e.com brokered the largest CO2 deal to date: 6 million tons of
CO2 equivalent. In that deal, Ontario Power Generation bought credits from
Blue Source. "All sorts of people have been laid off on Wall Street,"
Evolution's von Butler said. "Five years ago this job didn't exist. We're
hiring people, so that's encouraging." Evolution, which also trades
over-the-counter coal, has 15 environmental financiers on its staff.
47) GREENPEACE, BIZ URGE CLIMATE CHANGE ACTION
United Press International
August 29, 2002
Internet:
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20020829-070431-8317r.htm
JOHANNESBURG,
South Africa, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- The business community and the environmental
action group Greenpeace, in a self-described unprecedented event, Thursday
joined to urge action on climate change and to demand the United States
ratify the Kyoto climate protocol. The two groups, in making the
announcement, said in a statement: "Greenpeace is well known for its
disagreements with and campaigns against activities of some of the companies
who are members of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development."
The WBCSD is
well known for advocating a market-based and free trade approach to solving
environmental problems, including voluntary measures that often differ
radically from Greenpeace approaches. The two groups, however, share the
same belief that the threat of human-induced climate change requires strong
efforts and innovation by all sectors in a common international framework.
They have agreed to convene a dialogue to urge governments to act more
forcefully to provide an international political framework that enables,
stimulates and rewards innovation and implementation of the Kyoto protocol.
WBCSD
President Bjorn Stigson said: "We are making this statement before the heads
of state arrive at the world summit. We are calling on them to put their own
differences aside and make the reduction of the greenhouse gases a reality."
At a conference that has so far delivered little, there has been
considerable attention to this meeting of minds. Mark Moody Stuart, new
chairman of Anglo American mining group and former head of Shell, joined the
positive mood by saying, "It's a myth that we are not in favor of
regulation. Yes, corporations are part of the problem but they are an
integral part of the solution as well." While many of the non-governmental
organizations see this coalition as a climate coup that might just deliver
action, James Shikwati, of the Kenya-based Inter Regional Economic Network,
is concerned. "Of course big business likes regulation, it provides a useful
barrier to entry to small businesses," he said. Shikwati points to the
statement of WBCSD member Chris Boyd of Lafarge, the French cement maker,
that "It will be easier for businesses to implement global climate change
policies rather than adhere to different national regulations." Shikwati
said what Lafarge and the rest of big industry wants is for no climate
change policies but since that approach failed they now want "all countries
to have to implement climate policies." If all have to comply then there is
a level playing field but Shikwati said it's a level playing field just for
the rich. "What the developing world needs is to export goods to the west
and if we have to comply with their regulations then we will never be able
to sell them anything," Shikwati complained.
It's far from
certain the business initiative is as nuanced and calculating as Shikwati
believes because many business people seem to genuinely believe they have to
act against climate change. Many of the pro-trade NGOs think this will be a
temporary peace since the Greens want large-scale reductions in greenhouse
gas emissions. The WBCSD has been able to focus the climate debate even more
strongly on Exxon Mobil and the U.S. administration, but since they are not
popular at the conference the long-term effect is uncertain. Exxon is
not a member of the WBCSD and disagrees with the tack taken by the council.
U.S. President George Bush is not attending the meeting so the debate is
unlikely to flourish. The next stop will be a climate conference in Delhi in
October.
See Also:
CLIMATE FOES
BURY HATCHET BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/africa/2220927.stm
INDUSTRY
JOINS GREENPEACE TO DEMAND CLIMATE ACTION Planet Ark August30, 2002
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=17509&newsdate=30-Aug-2002
TRADITIONAL
ADVERSARIES CALL FOR ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE Greenpeace International
August 28, 2002
http://www.greenpeace.org/news/details?news_id=24688&campaign_id=
http://www.wbcsd.ch/newscenter/releases/200200828_kyoto1.htm
48) FLOODS A WAKE-UP CALL ON CLIMATE CHANGE - SCIENTIST
Planet Ark
August 29, 2002
Internet:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17491/story.htm
JOHANNESBURG
- The devastating floods which have killed scores of people across central
Europe are the wake-up call that could push industrial nations to act faster
to stop the planet heating up, a leading scientist said this week. Robert
Watson, now the World Bank's chief scientist since he was ousted from the
chair of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) in April
due to U.S. opposition, insists dramatic floods and droughts will become
more frequent. "You don't have to identify each event with climate change.
All you have to say is this is the type of world that may become more
prevalent. It is the sort of wake-up call, I believe, that could have an
impact," he told reporters at the Earth Summit. Scientists say "greenhouse
gases" produced by human activities during the past 100 years have made the
world a warmer place and increased carbon dioxide emissions are set to
linger in the earth's atmosphere for years to come. As head of the IPPC,
Watson predicted the Earth's temperature could rise by up to 5.8 degrees
Celsius (10.4 Fahrenheit) over the coming century, a change that he says
would lead to more extreme weather patterns. "(The floods are) the type of
event which will become more prevalent in a warmer world. It's the sort of
thing that can be a wake-up message to say 'If this becomes more frequent
this is not the type of event we want to see in the future'," he said.
Besides the
floods which swept across Europe this month, hundreds have died as
torrential rain hit China, Nepal, Iran and the Philippines in recent weeks.
Watson said as the globe heats up rainfall would become heavier and more
frequent in areas where it already rains a lot while arid areas would suffer
from more droughts. On the positive side, crop yields would increase in
more temperate zones, such as Europe and North America, but this would be
offset by a decrease in the tropical zones where many of the world's poor
live. Climate change is notably absent from the agenda at the 10-day World
Summit on Sustainable Development, a conference to find ways of hauling
millions of poor out of economic despair without putting further strain on
the planet's ecosystem. The United States, which emits a quarter of the
world's man-made greenhouse gases, has rejected the Kyoto protocol on
cutting pollution and Watson says pressure from Washington ensured climate
change was not on the agenda in Johannesburg.
49) TINY ISLAND FEARS GLOBAL WARMING WILL
CAUSE ITS DESTRUCTION
USA Today
August 28, 2002
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2002-08-28-world-summit_x.htm
JOHANNESBURG,
South Africa (AP) - The tiny island nation of Tuvalu sees the issue of
global warming as a matter of life and death. Few at the U.N. development
summit seem to care. Tuvalu fears it will be crushed by storms, rising ocean
levels and disruptions to marine life caused by global climate change. But
the United States does not want the summit to commit to specific pollution
controls, and the world's developing nations - many of them major oil
producers - have little interest in the concerns of a country of 12,000
people. "If this issue of climate change is ignored, what will happen to
Tuvalu?" said Paani Laupepa, Tuvalu's assistant secretary of the
environment. Tuvalu comprises nine low-lying coral atolls in the Pacific
Ocean between Australia and Hawaii whose highest point is just 15 feet above
sea level. Studies suggest the global sea level has risen about 7.8 inches
over the past 100 years, and some experts say the rate is increasing.
"Tuvalu is flat. As flat as a pancake," Laupepa said. "We are at the front
line of climate change." In March, the country's prime minister appealed to
Australia and New Zealand to provide homes for his people if his country is
washed away. But at what is expected to be the world's largest U.N.
gathering, the country's worries are being largely ignored.
Contentious
negotiations over the conference's action plan have mainly involved three
groups, the European Union, a coalition of industrialized nations including
Japan and the United States, and the G-77 group of developing nations.
Tuvalu is a member of none of these. When Tuvalu's representative raises his
hand in heated negotiating meetings, he is never called on, some officials
say. His contributions to the climate change debate are brushed aside. "The
nations with the most at risk should be the ones that are the most heard,"
said Jennifer Morgan, of the World Wildlife Fund. The issue of global
warming, which was so central to negotiations at the Rio Earth Summit in
1992, is barely present here. At the earlier summit, 170 nations agreed to
voluntarily reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels. The 1997 Kyoto
Protocol, which is strongly supported by Europe, seeks to codify the Rio
pledges and make emissions reductions binding. But the United States has
rejected the protocol and strongly opposes any explicit mention of Kyoto in
this summit's action plan. "We would prefer it to refer to a global effort
without a specific reference to the Kyoto protocol that would respect those
that are pursuing Kyoto as well as those producing other strategies," a
senior official with the U.S. delegation said.
The United
States and other oil-producing countries also have proposed watering down
timetables for expanding the world's use of renewable energy. Many experts
believe that fossil fuels and other nonrenewable energy sources contribute
to global warming. Tuvalu worries that global warming is causing more deadly
cyclones at odd times of the year. It is changing its seasons, throwing off
the island's agricultural schedule and damaging the marine ecosystem that
many depend on for their livelihoods. Many of Tuvalu's climate change
concerns are shared by fellow members of the 43-nation Alliance of Small
Island States, which includes nations as diverse as Cuba and Mauritius.
"Climate change continues to be a highly underrated issue," said Tuitoma
Neroni Slade, Samoa's mbassador to the United Nations and the chair of the
island alliance. "Everybody that should be backing Kyoto is stepping back."
Morgan, of the World Wildlife Fund, said the main climate change concerns
should be dealt with through the Kyoto process, not here. But she said the
effort to ignore Tuvalu's plight has been unfair. "It just shows the balance
of power. These rich nations, they have such a bigger say when Tuvalu has so
much at stake," she said.
50) INDIA RATIFIES CONTROVERSIAL KYOTO
PROTOCOL
IndiaExpress
August 28, 2002
Internet:
http://www.indiaexpress.com/news/world/20020828-1.html
India has
ratified the contentious Kyoto Protocol, said Union Minister for Environment
and Forests T. R. Baalu said in Johannesburg on Wednesday. India had
submitted the instruments of accession at the United Nations headquarters
two days ago, said the Minister. "India's accession to the Kyoto Protocol is
a reiteration of our commitment to addressing and resolving various issues
of global concern in a multilateral manner," Mr. Baalu said at the ongoing
World Summit for Sustainable Development. "I hope that other countries will
also soon ratify the Kyoto Protocol so that it could come into force before
Cop-8 [Conference of Parties to the United National Framework Convention on
Climate Change], which starts in New Delhi on the 23rd of October," he said.
The Kyoto Protocol, which commits a country to the principle of multi-lateralism
in resolving issues of global concern, was adopted in 1997 and aims at
reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
The protocol
requires that the industrialized countries reduce their emission of
greenhouse gases by an average of 5.2 per cent during the first
implementation period between 2008 and 2012. Industrialized countries that
contribute 55 per cent of the emissions are required to ratify the protocol
before it is brought into force. Till now, only those countries that
contribute 36 per cent of the emissions have ratified the protocol. The
Minister said United States and Russia must sign the protocol to make it
effective. While the US has walked out of Kyoto Protocol, Russia was
contributing 17 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, he added.
See Also:
INDIA HAS
RATIFIED KYOTO PROTOCOL: BAALU India Times August 28, 2002
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=20469241
51) AUSTRALIA GIVEN LEAD ON CLIMATE
STATEMENT
smh.com.au
August 28, 2002
Internet:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/08/27/1030053058795.html
Australia is
pushing to have any reference to the Kyoto protocol dropped from the
statement on climate change produced by the United Nations World Summit on
Sustainable Development. This came as Australia was accused of playing a
spoiler role with the United States and Canada. Despite Australia's
continued opposition to the international climate change treaty it has
gained the responsibility for writing the draft statement that will go
before the international meeting next week. A member of the 50-strong
official Australian Government delegation, led by the Environment Minister,
David Kemp, will spend the next few days trying to find language acceptable
to all countries on one of the summit's most contentious issues. Australia
and the US continue to question the effectiveness of the greenhouse gas
emissions treaty, a position that has brought both countries into conflict
with the European and British delegations.
The executive
director of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Don Henry, said allowing
Australia to play a lobbying role on climate change was "like putting the
fox in charge of the henhouse". By being given the job of writing the
statement Australia must find the middle ground in a debate over whether or
not to ratify the Kyoto protocol. There is talk at the summit, which began
on Monday and runs until next week, that the two extra countries needed to
bring the protocol into law could be persuaded during the course of the
talks. Australia has so far followed the lead of the US and refused to
ratify the Kyoto protocol, arguing that it is an ineffective way of dealing
with the problem of climate change.
52) EUROPEAN SPACE WATCH ON CLIMATE
The Guardian
August 28, 2002
Internet:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,781630,00.html
European
space scientists were preparing last night to launch the latest in flying
thermometers - an instrument to take the temperature of the planet. A
two-ton Meteosat second generation satellite, known as MSG, was scheduled to
have taken off just before midnight aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou in
French Guiana. It will sit in geostationary orbit 22,000 miles above the
Gulf of Guinea, the point where the Equator and the Greenwich meridian
intersect. And its most advanced instrument will be the first to measure
the Earth's radiation budget - that is the sunlight absorbed by the planet,
and the infrared warmth radiated away into space or absorbed by the
atmosphere. With GERB, the geostationary Earth radiation budget experiment,
climate scientists will have new insight into the processes by which the
planet is heated or cooled.
"Climate
change is an issue of vital concern for today's society," said Jacqui
Russell, science coordinator for GERB. "We will learn much more about how
our complex climate system behaves, and increase our ability to predict
climate change by using GERB." The driving force for the Earth's climate is
the sun. But the planet's total heat is affected by changing circumstances
such as clouds, ice cover, urban pollution, fossil fuel burning, volcanic
dust, shifts in the chemistry of the atmosphere and even the vapour trails
of jet aircraft. Global average surface temperatures rose by 0.5 C and sea
levels by between four and 10 inches in the last century. Six of the 10
warmest years recorded were in the 1990s, and the other four were in the
1980s. To understand how temperatures will change in the next century,
researchers need very precise data now and for the next decade.
The
experiment will cost £9m and was designed and built by scientists and
engineers in the UK, Italy and Belgium. The all-important detector package -
the "eyes" of the instrument - was produced at the University of Leicester
space centre. "Producing these detectors was a major challenge as there are
256 sensitive elements to the detector, each of which has to be carefully
calibrated and characterised. Data has to be simultaneously collected,
amplified and processed for each of the 256 elements, 256 times during every
2 minute period," said David Llewellyn-Jones, professor of earth observation
science. This process generates large volumes of data which has to be sent
back to Earth. This is done from a spinning satellite: MSG rotates at 100
revolutions per minute as it scans the Earth. MSG is an £800m eye in the
sky that will also provide better warnings of flash floods, disastrous snow,
hailstorms and tropical cyclones.
53) CHRÉTIEN COULD DELIVER KYOTO TO WORLD
Globe and Mail
August 28, 2002
Internet:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/TGAM/20020828/UKYOTN/International/international/international_temp/5/5/24/
OTTAWA and
TORONTO -- Will he or won't he? A big political question hanging over Prime
Minister Jean Chrétien's trip to Johannesburg next week is whether he will
use the occasion to commit Canada to ratifying the Kyoto Protocol. The
temptation to announce Canada's ratification has to be huge. Mr. Chrétien
can effectively deliver the protocol to the world community if he agrees in
Johannesburg that Canada will ratify. For a Prime Minister at the end of his
mandate who is casting about for a legacy, that would be a world-class coup.
The protocol
will come into force globally once countries responsible for at least 55 per
cent of the world's greenhouse-gas emissions in 1990 have ratified. As it
stands now, countries responsible for 37.1 per cent have done so. Russia,
which is responsible for 17.4 per cent of the 1990 emissions, has vowed to
ratify and is expected to do so this year. Canada's ratification, with 3.3
per cent, would bring the total above the magic 55-per-cent mark. In
international eyes, that would confer heroic status on the beleaguered
Canadian leader. It would also bring the World Summit on Sustainable
Development back from the brink of irrelevance by delivering a finished
international protocol that was born 10 years ago at the Earth Summit in Rio
de Janeiro. Yesterday, much of the buzz in the corridors at Johannesburg
centred on what Canada will do. Many recalled the heady days of the Rio
Summit when then-prime minister Brian Mulroney was the first world leader to
sign the international biodiversity convention, and they wondered whether
Canada might play a similar role this time.
But if
unconditional ratification would make Mr. Chrétien a hero in Johannesburg,
it would likely cripple him at home. His government has already pledged not
to ratify the accord until a workable plan to enact the global warming deal
is produced and consultations with provinces and the public conclude this
fall. Mr. Chrétien is expected to signal a strong commitment to Kyoto in a
speech on Monday, but senior officials who spoke at a background briefing
yesterday were coy about how far the Prime Minister is prepared to go at
Johannesburg.
One of the aides even said
they "don't know" what Mr. Chrétien is going to say during his address. "I
think we will leave it to the Prime Minister to reveal what's in his
speech," an official added. Any move to unconditionally embrace ratification
of Kyoto in Johannesburg would ignite a political backlash back home.
Alberta has already warned of a court challenge if Ottawa goes it alone on
the issue. Sources say privately that Mr. Chrétien's aides are pleading
with him to stick to the government's pledged timeline and avoid jumping the
gun in Johannesburg. Former Liberal cabinet minister Lloyd Axworthy, a
strong supporter of Kyoto, said he believes Mr. Chrétien has the "will, the
spirit" to ratify as soon as possible, but thinks the Prime Minister is
leery of rushing things.
54) NGOS URGE ENFORCEMENT OF KYOTO PACT
Japan Today
August 28, 2002
Internet:
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=228042
JOHANNESBURG
- Japanese nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) appealed Tuesday night to
Japan's environment minister to ensure the inclusion of a prompt realization
of the Kyoto Protocol in an implementation plan of the ongoing Johannesburg
summit on the environment and development. "We, the environmental NGOs
attending the (World Summit on Sustainable Development) strongly request the
Japanese government support stipulating that the Kyoto Protocol be put into
effect before the end of the year and that its implementation is ensured, at
an official meeting," the NGOs said in a statement. (Kyodo News)
55) JAPAN MAKES EARTH SUMMIT APPEAL FOR US
TO RATIFY GLOBAL WARMING PACT
JOHANNESBURG
AFP
August 28, 2002
Internet:
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/020828133244.zddpxqgo.html
Japan made an
appeal at the Earth Summit Wednesday for the United States to ratify the
Kyoto Protocol, the UN agreement to combat global warming that President
George W. Bush ditched last year. Japanese Environment Minister Hiroshi
Ohki said that the protocol, agreed in the Japanese city of Kyoto in 1997,
was the cornerstone of efforts to curb greenhouse-gas pollution blamed for
climate change. "Japan calls upon the United States of America, the largest
emitter of greenhouse gases, to ratify the Kyoto Protocol," Ohki said at a
seminar. He also appealed to Russia to move quickly to ratify the treaty so
that it could take effect.
The Kyoto Protocol requires
rich industrialised countries to trim output of carbon-based gases by a
deadline of 2008-2012. Bush abandoned it in March 2001, shortly after
taking office. He complained that it would be too costly for the US economy
and unfair because it did not require big, emerging countries such as China
and India to make targeted reductions in their own pollution. Bushs move
almost destroyed efforts to complete Kyotos complex rulebook, but the accord
was saved thanks to concessions by the European Union that were eventually
accepted by Australia, Canada and Japan. The accord will take effect once
it has been ratified by at least 55 countries accounting for at least 55
percent of carbon dioxide pollution as of 1990 levels. Ratification by
Russia, the last major industrial signatory, is therefore vital, but experts
at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg say this is unlikely to happen before
2003. Ohki said that achieving Japans goal of a six-percent reduction from
the 1990 level "is not an easy task" given that the country is a big energy
consumer, but he said it had already made big strides to improve efficiency
before the 1990 benchmark because of the oil shock. But, he said, Tokyo was
confident that it could keep the target, and there was also a benefit that
the campaign would create "entirely new industries" and boost employment.
The United States accounts by itself for around a quarter of global
emissions of greenhouse gases.
56) CLIMATE CHANGE ACTION URGED
BBC
August 28, 2002
Internet:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/africa/2220584.stm
Researchers at the science and technology forum at the World
Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg have called for a new
"cold war" on climate change. They said urgent action was needed to combat
damage humans have done to the world's climate, atmosphere and
biodiversity. The call comes after delegates reached agreement on ways to
tackle the world's fisheries crisis. US researcher Berrien Moore said that
political interests had dominated research agendas on climate change for too
long. He added that the irreversible changes humans had wrought on the
environment, including the felling of large swathes of forests, meant that
policy makers could no longer ignore the dangers. "The issues are there and
we're not going to be able to duck them," he said.
Fisheries deal
The fisheries deal - the first substantial one reached at the
summit - envisages restoring most of the major global fisheries to
commercial health by 2015. At the insistence of the US, the agreement
stipulates that replenishment of stocks should happen "where possible". But
the agreement is also seen as a defeat for the US because it does specify a
target and a timetable. The Americans had argued that, instead of new
targets, countries should try to keep to existing commitments. The UN says
more than 25% of the world's fisheries are over-exploited, 50% are being
fished to their full capacity and 75% need immediate action to freeze or
reduce fishing to ensure future supplies. Another section of the agreement
provides for the establishment of marine protected areas across the planet
by 2012.
Targets set
This is the first agreement reached which has a specific date
for completion. It will be incorporated in the action plan at the end of
the summit. The BBC's Alex Kirby in Johannesburg says the agreement has
eased the dour mood that marked the opening of the World Summit. Agreement
is also said to be close on about 50 specific targets for improving the
environment, preventing loss of biodiversity, education for women and aiding
poor countries, Canadian officials told French news agency AFP. Activists
had complained that agreement on important issues was being stifled by the
interests of big business. But green activists scored a small victory on
Tuesday by having the issue of big business accountability over the
environment put back in the summit's draft action plan. The re-proposed
text calls for a "global reporting initiative" in which businesses are
encouraged to report annually on activities that affect the environment.
Activist complaints
Public discussions on agriculture began on the second day of
the summit. Observers say agreement on agriculture will prove difficult, as
developing countries say that the Europeans and Americans are not prepared
to discuss reform of the world trade system and the reduction of subsidies
to agriculture. They also said the broad agenda of this summit creates
almost endless scope for disagreements and is making consensus difficult to
achieve. Delegates from the European Union have complained that their
American counterparts are not prepared to sign up to specific targets on
issues such as energy and water. At the summit opening on Monday, South
African President Mbeki urged delegates to come up with practical ways of
tackling poverty and ending a world order based on the "survival of the
fittest".
57) WSSD/PANEL DISCUSSION ON BIODIVERSITY
AND ECOSYSTEMS MINISTER VOICES SMALL ISLANDS' CONCERN OVER GLOBAL WARMING
Seychelles Online
August 28, 2002
Internet:
http://www.seychelles-online.com.sc/archives/10280802.html
The Minister
for Environment, Mr Ronnie Jumeau, who is heading a six-strong delegation at
the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) taking place in
Johannesburg, has made a statement highlighting the concerns of small island
developing states especially with regard to their vulnerable ecosystems in
the context of global warming. Minister Jumeau made the statement on Monday
in a panel discussion on biodiversity and ecosystems which followed the
opening speech of President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa. According to the
Seychelles delegation at the WSSD, Minister Jumeau received an ovation and
applause for his statement, and soon afterwards was interviewed by the
Agence France Presse (AFP). In his statement Minister Jumeau noted that
small islands make up one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on
earth, but as a microcosm of the environmental ills afflicting us all, "we
are also among the most threatened ecosystems especially within the context
of global warming." "Unfortunately, since many of us small islands tend to
have relatively high GDP's per capita when viewed within the context of
developing states ... we are faced with an increasing paucity of
international support at the very moment when our very economic survival and
physical existence are being threatened by changing trade rules and global
warming respectively," the minister said.
"And yet we
do our very best, within the economic and technical constraints particular
to small island states, to do our part. In Seychelles, for example, 46% of
our total land area of only 455 km2 is protected in national parks, nature
reserves and protected areas, and we have two world heritage sites, both
fully managed and financed by ourselves. All this is done by a population of
80,000 people only, and much of the time, just for a pat on the head," the
minister added. "The Seychellois, all 80,000 of us, would like to add our
voices with a loudness that belies our size, to all of you here calling for
a change in rules of trade which we feel are especially unfair to small
island developing states which are having to add increasing economic
isolation to our physical loneliness.
"And to those
of you who are refusing or delaying to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, we the
small island developing states say this, as the water slowly but surely
rises above our ankles: this to us is not a matter of protecting short-term
political or money interests, but a matter of our very survival," Minister
Jumeau said. Besides Minister Jumeau, the Seychelles delegation at the WSSD
include Mr Peter Sinon, Seychelles Ambassador to South Africa; Mr Rolph
Payet, director general in the Ministry of Environment; Mr Terry Jones,
director for International Relations in the Ministry of Tourism; Mrs
Florence Benstrong, Mayor of Victoria as well as Chairman of the Women's
Parliamentarians Association and representative of the civil society; and Mr
John Neville, director of the Marine Conservation Society, representative of
a Seychelles NGO.
58) CLIMATIC WINDFALL FOR CORPORATES
Economic Times
August 27, 2002
Internet:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?artid=20292529
NEW DELHI:
Heard of the base Indian who threw away a pearl richer than all his tribe?
Now hear about Indian companies sitting on pots of gold invisible to their
blinkered eyes. Many projects initiated by them after January 1, 2000, in
diverse areas of energy efficiency, cogeneration, natural gas, alternative
auto fuels, hydel power, etc, qualify for certified emission reductions that
will become tradable commodities circa 2005 in a global market worth
billions of dollars. Climate change and the Kyoto protocol that mandates
targeted reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 36 developed countries
could mean a windfall for Indian corporates. In other words, reducing
greenhouse gas emissions as part of a strategy to arrest climate change is
not so much bleeding-heart environmentalism as corporate finance. Many
leading companies of the world have already latched on to the commercial
potential of abating emissions. Energy major BP, for instance, has reported
a saving of $650 million from its climate change initiatives.
Trading in carbon has
already begun in several countries, most vigorously in European ones. And
once the Kyoto Protocol, ratified by India recently, comes into force in
2003 - which is likely despite US opposition - the ground would be ready for
formal trading in CERs. Michael Molitor, head of PriceWaterhouseCoopers'
global practice in Climate Change Services, told ET that formal trading in
CERs and other related products is expected to begin in 2005. He expects
carbon to be listed on the major commodity exchanges of the world and traded
just like any other commodity. In the first year itself, he expects carbon
worth $6 billion to be traded. Under the Kyoto Protocol, 36 developed
countries have an obligation to reduce their emission of greenhouse gases by
2012. Nations will pass on the responsibility to their companies that
produce the emissions. A sound method of containing emissions is through
trading in emissions. Emissions trading works like this. The aggregate
amount of pollutant permitted is determined by the appropriate regulatory
body and allocated among companies that produce the pollution.
59) FLOODS A WAKE-UP CALL ON CLIMATE CHANGE,
SCIENTIST SAYS
Reuters
August 27,2002
Internet:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020827/sc_nm/environment_summit_floods_dc_1
JOHANNESBURG
(Reuters) - The devastating floods which have killed scores of people across
central Europe are the wake-up call that could push industrial nations to
act faster to stop the planet heating up, a leading scientist said on
Tuesday. Robert Watson, now the World Bank's chief scientist since he was
ousted from the chair of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPPC) in April due to U.S. opposition, insists dramatic floods and droughts
will become more frequent. "You don't have to identify each event with
climate change. All you have to say is this is the type of world that may
become more prevalent. It is the sort of wake-up call, I believe, that could
have an impact," he told reporters at the Earth Summit. Scientists say
"greenhouse gases" produced by human activities during the past 100 years
have made the world a warmer place and increased carbon dioxide emissions
are set to linger in the earth's atmosphere for years to come. As head of
the IPPC, Watson predicted the Earth's temperature could rise by up to 10.4
Fahrenheit over the coming century, a change that he says would lead to more
extreme weather patterns. "(The floods are) the type of event which will
become more prevalent in a warmer world. It's the sort of thing that can be
a wake-up message to say 'If this becomes more frequent this is not the type
of event we want to see in the future'," he said.
Besides the
floods which swept across Europe this month, hundreds have died as
torrential rain hit China, Nepal, Iran and the Philippines in recent weeks.
Watson said as the globe heats up rainfall would become heavier and more
frequent in areas where it already rains a lot while arid areas would suffer
from more droughts. On the positive side, crop yields would increase in
more temperate zones, such as Europe and North America, but this would be
offset by a decrease in the tropical zones where many of the world's poor
live. Climate change is notably absent from the agenda at the 10-day World
Summit on Sustainable evelopment, a conference to find ways of hauling
millions of poor out of economic despair without putting further strain on
the planet's ecosystem. The United States, which emits a quarter of the
world's man-made greenhouse gases, has rejected the Kyoto protocol on
cutting pollution and Watson says pressure from Washington ensured climate
change was not on the agenda in Johannesburg.
60) SOUTH AFRICA SETS TARGET FOR GREEN ENERGY BY 2012
Planet Ark
August 26, 2002
Internet:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=17441&newsdate=26-Aug-2002
PRETORIA -
South Africa said last week it planned over the next decade to supplement
coal energy with green fuels in a bid to clean up an industry that is one of
the most notorious air polluters on the continent. Deputy Energy Minister
Susan Shabangu said the country hoped to tap the wisdom of environment
experts scheduled to attend the World Summit on Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg next week where renewable energy will be a key issue. We're
confident renewables are a viable form of energy. We're committed to
reducing our contribution to global warming," Shabangu told reporters at the
launch of a draft white paper on promotion of renewable energy and clean
energy development. South Africa, Africa's economic powerhouse, relies
heavily on its vast coal reserves for most of its energy requirements.
Coal-fired power stations generate 90 percent of the country's electricity.
The country boasts electricity prices among the cheapest on the continent is
also the most notorious air polluter, officials say. Despite its dirty
image, South Africa says it is unlikely to replace coal as the primary
source of fuel. But in the wake of global pressure for a cleaner earth, the
government is moving to diversify its energy mix and plans to generate an
extra 10,000 Gigawatt hours of green energy in a decade.
"Our target is that two
percent of electricity demand by 2012 will be supplied by renewable energy
sources. Alternatively it could replace eight percent of our current diesel
with bio-diesel," Shabangu said. The white paper seeks to lay out a
regulatory framework for the renewable energy sector, lay out a pricing
structure and create an attractive environment for foreign direct
investment. Shabangu said the white paper would be submitted for cabinet
approval in September after which it will become government policy.
Official statistics show acute respiratory illnesses due to noxious gases
emitted by fossil fuels are the second biggest killer of children under five
in the country. The biggest culprit for the emissions is the domestic stove
fired by charcoal or wood used mostly in poor rural households. The
government hopes to replace this with cleaner fuel made from sunflowers,
staple maize and solar energy. Other alternative sources include wind
energy along the Cape coast and wild coast. At least 40,000 delegates and
100 heads of states are expected to gather at the summit in Johannesburg, to
discuss ways to curb global poverty while protecting the planet.
61) NORWEGIAN CO2 SEA INJECTION TRIALS
CANCELED
ENS
August 26, 2002
Internet:
http://ens-news.com/ens/aug2002/2002-08-26-02.asp
OSLO, Norway,
August 26, 2002 (ENS) - A last minute veto from Norway's environment
minister has scuppered what would have been the world's first attempt to
demonstrate sequestration of carbon in the oceans by injecting liquid carbon
dioxide (CO2) into the Norwegian Sea. Carbon sequestration is being
considered as a technique to remove the main greenhouse gas, CO2, from the
atmosphere to curb global warming. Echoing the arguments of environmental
nongovernmental organizations that had campaigned to stop the experiment,
Børge Brende said in a statement that the project "could come into conflict
with current international regulations on the marine environment."
A license for
the experiment granted by the Norwegian pollution control agency on July 5
was therefore rescinded. "In the opinion of the environment ministry, the
use of deep sea marine areas as potential storage places for CO2 must first
be thoroughly discussed at international level and clarified legally,"
Brende said. Led by the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (Niva), a
coalition including American, Japanese, Canadian and Australian
organizations had planned to inject five metric tonnes of liquid CO2 at 800
metres depth off the coast of Norway. The CO2 ocean sequestration project
was originally set up to run a similar test off Hawaii, but this plan was
dropped in the face of local opposition.
The decision
has prompted Niva to decide to drop out of the project, a spokesperson told
reporters today. Capturing and sequestering CO2 from fossil fuel burning is
being pursued as a possible means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Last
year, the European climate change program concluded that it offered "good
potential" for reducing emissions, but that further research is needed, in
particular to reduce costs.
The Norwegian
oil firm Statoil is already injecting some one million metric tonnes of CO2
per year into the rock strata of an offshore oilfield in the North Sea, but
no one has yet tried sequestration in the oceans. Environmental groups
argue that the project would have meant "dumping" CO2 in the ocean in
violation of the 1972 London dumping convention and of the 1992 Ospar
convention on protection of the North Sea environment. The Ospar Commission
discussed this issue in late June but is unlikely to have an answer until
next year, a spokesperson said. Greenpeace and other NGOs also claim that
injecting CO2 into the oceans could harm wildlife, and that the gas might
return much more quickly than expected to the atmosphere, undoing the object
of the exercise. The NGOs fear that sequestration of CO2 might prop up the
fossil fuel industries and distract attention from efforts to move towards a
low carbon economy based on renewable energy such as solar and wind. Still,
Norway is making an effort to limit the emission of greenhouse gases. On May
30, Norway became one of the first industrialized countries to ratify the
Kyoto Protocol on reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases. "Global
climate change is the largest environmental threat to our planet in this
century. By being one of the first industrialized countries to ratify the
Kyoto Protocol, we signal the seriousness we attach to this problem and that
we want to do our share to solve it." The Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change establishes legally binding commitments on
limitations and reductions in emissions of six greenhouse gases, including
CO2. The protocol was adopted in 1997 and commits Norway to limit its
emissions of greenhouse gases in the period 2008 to 2012 to a maximum of one
percent above its emissions level in 1990.
62) SUMMIT: OECD ENERGY AGENCY URGES RADICAL
CHANGES
ENS
August 26, 2002
Internet:
http://ens-news.com/ens/aug2002/2002-08-26-03.asp
JOHANNESBURG,
South Africa, August 26, 2002 (ENS) - Some 1.6 billion people today have no
access to electricity, while 2.4 billion rely on primitive biomass for
cooking and heating. In the absence of "radical" new policies, 1.4 billion
will still have no electricity in 30 years time, according to a new study by
the International Energy Agency released today at the World Summit on
Sustainable Development.
The
International Energy Agency (IEA), based in Paris, is an autonomous agency
linked with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD), a group of the world's industrialized nations. The study points to
"enormous" new investments needed to supply energy to growing economies. "We
are not on a sustainable energy path unless we make considerable changes,"
said Robert Priddle, IEA executive director. "A secure supply of energy to
underpin essential economic activity and provide services to society is
essential if sustainable development is to be achieved." The IEA is the
energy forum for 26 member countries whose main function is to maintain and
improve systems for coping with oil supply disruptions. The agency also
claims to improve the world's energy supply and demand structure by
developing alternative energy sources and increasing the efficiency of
energy use, and to assist in the integration of environmental and energy
policies.
In its new
study, "Energy & Poverty," the IEA shows the magnitude and future trends in
what it terms "the vicious circle of energy and poverty." "We believe that
energy supplies are secure only so long as they are produced and used in an
environmentally sensitive manner," said Priddle. The study is one chapter
in the next edition of the IEA's biennial world energy projections, the
"World Energy Outlook 2002," due for release in Osaka, Japan on September
21. These findings from the study have been made available now because of
their direct relevance to the World Summit on Sustainable Development, where
energy is one of the central themes, the agency said. The World Energy
Outlook presents projections till the year 2030 for supply and demand of
oil, gas, coal, renewable energy sources, nuclear power and electricity
covering the world and 18 major regions. It draws conclusions for energy
security, trade and investment, and assesses energy related carbon dioxide
emissions and policies designed to reduce them. The IEA has identified
eight areas where "action must be taken" to guarantee the world a
sustainable energy future: energy security, greater efficiency in the use of
energy, greater use of renewable energies, improving the way energy markets
work, enhancing the role of technology and research to provide clean and
cost effective energy, addressing health, environment and safety concerns,
increasing access to energy, and developing sustainable transportation
systems.
Sustainable
transportation systems are essential, since transport is the fastest growing
use of energy worldwide, the IEA says. Rapidly increasing populations and
vehicle usage have created gridlock and sprawl, as well as exceptionally
high levels of air pollution, noise and accident rates. A new IEA
publication, "Bus Systems for the Future, Achieving Sustainable Transport
Worldwide," shows how new transit systems can revolutionize urban travel
using clean diesel, compressed natural gas, hybrid-electric and fuel cell
powered buses. "Express busways, employing high capacity buses and new
technologies such as GPS-based bus tracking systems, can conveniently and
reliably move up to 10 times as many people along a route as can cars - and
cover their costs," the agency says. Calling it "sustainable development in
action," IEA member countries work to enable developing countries and
transition economies to adopt clean technologies and best practices through
the Climate Technology Initiative, providing design and technology
assistance along with training and capacity building programs.
63) WORLD POLITICS GENERATES HOT AIR ON
GREENHOUSE
smh.com.au
August 26 2002
Internet:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/08/26/1030053013014.html
Australia may
be in the doghouse on global warming - but we're not alone, as John Garnaut
explains. Professor Warwick McKibbin, one of Australia's internationally
recognised experts on global warming, is not one of the 272 economists
petitioning the Federal Government "to ratify the Kyoto Protocol without
delay". "It is a pretty sad indictment of the profession when people sign
these things en masse without expertise," he says. Clive Hamilton, whose
Australia Institute pushed the petition, says he "wouldn't waste the postage
stamp" inviting McKibbin to enlist because he "serves the Government's
interests". The world may be moving towards a consensus that greenhouse
emissions are causing global warming but has never been more polarised on
what to do about it.
Today, the
key players line up in Johannesburg for Earth Summit 2002 - and some say the
future of the Kyoto Protocol is on the line. "The fundamental problem with
the Kyoto Protocol is it assumes that nature is priceless and therefore the
costs of taking action should be unbounded. Extreme environmentalists don't
believe in trade-offs but incorporating trade-offs are inevitable for
sustainable policy," McKibbin says.He warns that an "arbitrary" system of
emission targets could kill the Kyoto Protocol. And if the protocol is
ratified, he says, "it will be because the framework has become so corrupted
that its targets are essentially meaningless". In its original form, Kyoto
purported to limit global greenhouse gas emissions to 5 per cent below 1990
levels by 2010. The developing world, which is increasing its rate of
emissions faster than any other group of countries, has been excused from
the regime. The US, under President George W Bush, refuses to sign until the
developing world is included. By 2050, the US and the developing world will
account for 75 per cent of greenhouse emissions. The base year, 1990, was
chosen because it coincided with the peaks of European and Soviet bloc gas
emissions. Emissions fell dramatically in Europe and the Soviet bloc after
1990 due to restructuring of the European coal industry and the collapse of
the Soviet bloc economies, but not because of climate change considerations.
For these countries, Kyoto's targets are likely to be meaningless because
they will be well below them anyway.
And countries
that stood to be affected by Kyoto's targets, such as Japan, have been given
allowances for carbon "sinks" to effectively relax the restrictions. Greens
senator Bob Brown, who strongly advocates signing Kyoto, concedes that the
agreement will only reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 1 or 2 per
cent. "Kyoto is a symbol of global efforts to turn this thing around, but
nothing more than that," he says.
The
Australian Government's position is confusing. It has refused to sign but
has spent vast diplomatic resources on expanding its Kyoto targets and
carving out its own methods of calculating emissions. It has mouthed support
for greenhouse gas reduction programs but declined to put forward an
alternative policy. The Minister for Environment, Dr David Kemp, recently
announced that Australia was close to meeting its Kyoto Protocol greenhouse
gas emission targets for 2010. He projected that Australia's emissions would
then be 11 per cent above 1990 levels, slightly exceeding Australia's
specially negotiated level of 8 per cent. Senator Brown says Kemp's figures
are a "technical snow job".
Even
Professor McKibbin, who played a hand in calculating Kemp's figures, agrees
that the apparently benign picture is "almost completely" due to creative
accounting rather than actual reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. "The
land-use loophole is called 'the Australia clause' because it only affects
Australia," he says. "It is legitimate within the Kyoto political compromise
process. Everyone's a winner if you negotiate intelligently for your own
exemption here and [carbon] sink there." Contrary to the Government's
claims, Australia has increased its emissions by 31 per cent since 1990. We
have the distinction of producing one-third more greenhouse gas per capita
than anyone else in the world, with the volume of emissions increasing more
rapidly than in any other industrialised country.
Supporters
acknowledged that the Kyoto Protocol has been badly compromised by politics
but say it is an important symbolic first step and far better than nothing.
Perversely, in Australia at least, Kyoto's failings may have postponed the
advent of an effective greenhouse policy and given businesses a sense of
complacency. Regardless of whether Kyoto is a symbolic first step or it
fails altogether, the challenge for business will be "to get ahead of the
curve" and adjust products and production processes for policy post-Kyoto.
What we know with certainty is that a bunch of atmospheric gases,
particularly carbon dioxide, let through the sun's ultraviolet rays but
reflect the earth's infrared rays - thus trapping heat like a greenhouse.
Climate modelling suggests that doubling the concentration of carbon dioxide
would increase global temperatures by 1.5C to 4.5C. The range of uncertainty
is large because heating causes a whole host of counter-effects, such as
increased humidity, cloud cover and precipitation and changing ocean
currents, each of which introduces other variables. The rate of greenhouse
gas accumulation depends on another set of variables, including population
growth, economic growth and the development and distribution of technology.
Rising
temperatures will cause sea levels to rise - because water expands rather
than because melting ice caps will shrink - which may lead to devastation in
heavily populated delta areas of Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh. In the
absence of preventative measures, a 50cm rise in sea level (the median
projection for 2100) would flood 11 per cent of Bangladesh, displacing 5.5
million people, and increased humidity would also spread devastating
malarial epidemics and intensify the severity of tropical storms. The
developing world will wear the human cost of global warming. The change and
damage to global ecosystems are even more complex, more difficult to measure
and more difficult to rectify.
Some
economists argue that an "absolute" emissions cap, as was intended for
Kyoto, is an inappropriate and politically impractical response to the
uncertain costs of global warming. It is estimated that for American
businesses and consumers to reduce their levels of greenhouse emissions to
the levels required if the US signed the Kyoto Protocol (on its present
terms), the price of oil would have to rise by 65-275 per cent and the price
of coal would have to rise by 3-12 times. If vested interests and consumers
allowed such a cap, the American economy would be crippled.
While the
present Australian Government has opposed measures to make business and
consumers answerable for the environmental costs of their actions, the
dramatic costs of global warming will force future governments to adopt
different policies. The NSW Government has already proposed its own
greenhouse reduction measures. In Victoria the Opposition has proposed
replacing petrol with hydrogen in all cars by 2020. A proposal by
Professors McKibbin and Peter Wilcoxen would leave it to individual
governments to apply a fixed cost on greenhouse emissions, with that cost
agreed globally and applied uniformly across countries. Businesses and
consumers would then be left to determine whether any given gas-emitting
activity was worth that cost. They propose a hybrid system of carbon taxes
and permits. For example, carbon emissions would cost $10 per ton, financed
either by owning or buying a permit or paying that fee as a tax to the
Government. This would raise the cost of oil by about 15 per cent. And
tradeable permits, both annual and permanent, could be issued to existing
users for free or new users at a cost. The permit system would create
valuable carbon property rights and, accordingly, encourage vested interests
to help police the system. Such a system would not require a complex
international monitoring process because it would create a source of revenue
for governments who would then have the incentive to monitor the system
domestically.
But many
businesses, such as the Australian power industry generally, remain stuck at
the bottom of the coal pit. Coal produces four times more greenhouse gas
emissions than petrol and 30 times more than natural gas. One third of
Australia's greenhouse emissions derive from power generation and 90 per
cent of our power generation is fuelled by coal. A new study by energy
consultant Dr Robert Booth shows Australia is actually increasing its
reliance on coal power and, despite improvements in technology, production
has become less efficient over the past eight years. Whether future
regulation takes the form of McKibbin's flexible economic model, the
Victorian Liberal Party's interventionalist proposal or Kyoto-style limits,
energy-intensive industries are in for some unpleasant surprises.
64) STUDY SUGGESTS CHOLERA WILL WORSEN AS
GLOBE WARMS
Reuters
August 26, 2002
Internet:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=571&ncid=751&e=5&u=/nm/20020826/hl_nm/cholera_environment_dc_1
NEW YORK
(Reuters Health) - A new study provides the first direct evidence that
global warming may be worsening epidemics of infectious disease.
Researchers have found that the cyclic global weather phenomenon El Nino has
begun to affect the course of cholera epidemics in Bangladesh, an effect
that is likely driven by warming of the land and water in the area due to
climate change. El Nino is an unusual warming of the Pacific Ocean close to
the equator. The phenomenon occurs every 2 to 7 years, and can cause weather
changes, such as increased temperatures and decreases in rainfall and
relative humidity. It has been linked to outbreaks of infectious diseases
including dengue fever, malaria and cholera. Cholera spreads through
contaminated food and water, and is common in many less-developed countries.
A cholera pandemic is currently under way, affecting more than 75 countries.
To
investigate whether there might be a connection between El Nino and cholera,
and to determine if global warming could play a role, Dr. Mercedes Pascual
of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and colleagues reviewed climate
records and information on cholera cases in Bangladesh. Their findings are
reported in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences. The investigators found little association between cholera cases
and El Nino during the first half of the 20th century. But the climate
phenomenon was related to changes in the number of cholera cases during the
1980s and 1990s. In fact, the researchers estimate that El Nino accounted
for 70% of the variation in the number of cholera cases during the last two
decades of the 20th century.
The fact that
the link between climate variability and cholera has become stronger in
recent decades "provides the first evidence for an effect of climate change
on an infectious disease," Pascual told Reuters Health. "The idea is that
with climate change, the variability of climate also changes, leading to a
stronger effect on the disease," she said. Pascual and colleagues note that
El Nino, along with global warming, are heating up the land and water of the
Indian subcontinent, which could lead to increased proliferation of the
bacterium that causes cholera. Also, the authors note, this warming could
itself increase the likelihood that people will come into contact with
contaminated water. Most experts expect that the climate changes caused by
future El Ninos will be more dramatic, either as a result of global warming
or because of naturally occurring variations in climate. "The
implications," according to Pascual, "are sustained or increased levels for
future cholera outbreaks in Bangladesh."
65) GERMANY REITERATES CALL ON US TO JOIN
KYOTO CLIMATE PROTOCOL
IRNA
August 24, 2002
Internet:
http://www.irna.com/en/head/020824183919.ehe.shtml
Berlin, Aug
24, IRNA -- German Development Aid Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul here
Saturday once again urged the United States to join the Kyoto Protocol on
global warming. "One has to apply pressure on the American government for it
torejoin the Kyoto Protocol in the future," Wieczorek-Zeul told the radio
station Deutschlandradio in Berlin. "The US, with its level of energy
consumption, is the biggest
polluter of
carbon dioxide emissions," she pointed out. Wieczorek-Zeul added that this
topic would be a major point at the discussions and debates during the
upcoming 2002 Earth Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. The US accounts
for 36 percent of the industrialized world's carbon dioxide emissions
output. The 1997 UN protocol, the first world response to tackling global
warming, requires industrialized countries to cut emissions of greenhouse
gases below 1990 levels over the next 10 years.
66) KYOTO PROTOCOL GETS A RIDE IN
FUEL-ALCOHOL CAR
Inter Press Service
August 23, 2002
Internet:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/oneworld/20020823/wl_oneworld/1032_1030102356
RIO DE
JANEIRO, Aug 22 (IPS) - Germany and Brazil will formalize a project at the
World Summit on Sustainable Development, to begin Monday in Johannesburg,
that entails production of automobiles in line with the Kyoto Protocol on
climate change, announced Foreign Minister Celso Lafer in the Brazilian
capital Thursday. Brazil's President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Germany's
Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder are to sign an initial accord to foment the
manufacture in Brazil of 100,000 new cars that run on fuel-alcohol. Ideally,
manufacturing will begin before the end of next year, said Lafer. Cardoso
and Schroeder are both planning to participate in the summit, also known as
Rio+10, to take place Aug 26-Sep 4 in the northern South African city of
Johannesburg. The project calls for the Brazilian government to grant a
sales tax exemption of 1,000 reais (320 dollars) in order to stimulate the
purchase of the new vehicles by taxi drivers, car rental agencies and
government entities. The costs of the tax incentive, totaling some 100
million reais (32 million dollars), are to be covered by the German
government.
The aim is to
curb emissions of carbon dioxide, which is produced in the combustion of
gasoline and other fossil fuels and leads to the so-called greenhouse
effect, the cause of global warming. With this initiative, Germany and
Brazil are putting into practice the Clean Development Mechanism of the
Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty that sets targets for reducing
emissions of gases that cause climate change. Germany's financial
contribution will not be a donation, but rather represents the acquisition
of credits to be included in future calculations to determine whether the
European nation has met its greenhouse-gas-reduction targets, as stipulated
by the Protocol. The 100,000 new vehicles in Brazil will require an
estimated annual supply of 430 million liters of alcohol, for 10 years,
which is considered the productive life of the car.
The demand
for fuel could spark a re-launch of an alcohol production program that
Brazil began in the 1970s to overcome the need for imported petroleum. But
the program has been on the decline for more than a decade due to relatively
low gasoline prices and the uncertainty surrounding fuel-alcohol supplies.
Cars that run on alcohol, which at one point represented more than 90
percent of Brazil's total car manufacturing output, today do not reach even
0.1 percent of the total number of vehicles in circulation. Producers of
sugarcane -- used in the production of fuel-alcohol -- have been clamoring
for a reactivation of the Proalcohol initiative, even as a measure to
stabilize sugar prices. Now the sugarcane growers may see the greenhouse
effect and the Kyoto Protocol as their allies. The agreement with Germany
will allow them to expand production, create jobs, and tag more sugarcane
for distillation, thus preventing a surplus on the sugar market.
The Kyoto
Protocol was approved in 1997, but will only enter into effect when enough
countries -- whose greenhouse gas emissions add up to 55 percent of the
total world output -- have ratified it. It has proven a difficult target,
given that the United States has withdrawn from the treaty, and alone is
responsible for 25 percent of emissions. With the new Brazil-Germany
project, the two nations confirm their intentions to hold world leadership
positions on environmental questions. Brazil will present other initiatives
as well at the Johannesburg Summit, including one that calls on all
countries to achieve renewable energy production equal to 10 percent of
total national consumption by the year 2010.
The European
Union with Germany in the lead, has implemented a similar program, so is
expected to back the Brazilian proposal, already approved by the rest of
Latin America and the Caribbean. Fuel-alcohol could be an important tool for
achieving the objective of 10 percent renewable energy sources. With its
experience, technology and low production costs, Brazil could become a major
exporter of this fuel.
China, India
and Japan have already expressed interest in replacing petroleum-based fuels
with alcohol, says Sergio Amaral, Brazil's Minister of Development, Industry
and Foreign Trade. The Cardoso government enacted several environmental
measures Thursday, leading observers to believe the president is trying to
strengthen the country's position going into the Johannesburg Summit.
Cardoso formalized the National Biodiversity Policy, a plan resulting from
broad public debate, and decreed the creation of Tumucumaque National Park,
considered the world's largest reserve of protected tropical forest, located
in the northern state of Amapá.
In Congress, meanwhile,
lawmakers are considering to legislative bills that would stiffen penalties
for environmental crimes, particularly bio-piracy, and improve management of
Brazil's extensive genetic wealth. Cardoso said that he will make an appeal
at the World Summit on Sustainable Development for wealthy countries to
contribute more towards the protection of Brazil's natural resources, given
that this South American giant's biodiversity and Amazon forests are vital
for the health of the entire planet. Because of its efforts and
initiatives, Brazil is qualified to play a global leadership role when it
comes to environmental issues, said the president.
67) FAST-TRACKING ADHERENCE TO THE KYOTO
PROTOCOL
Business Day
August 22, 2002
Internet:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200208220430.html
IN 30 years
Durban could find itself a high-risk malaria zone all year round, and SA
will be facing massive food shortages due to a dramatic reduction in
rainfall. That is just part of the alarming picture painted by the Africa
Environmental Outlook, a recent United Nations (UN) Environment Programme
report. The cause of the predicted problems is climate change caused by
global warming. With the World Summit on Sustainable Development looming
large, Paul Norrish is making a concerted effort to disseminate the message
that climate change is everyone's problem, and not just a mess that the
world's richest nations should be cleaning up. He is the campaign manager
for the Johannesburg Climate Legacy project, which is hoping to raise $3m to
support local initiatives that will permanently reduce carbon emissions
contributing to global warming. The project was conceptualised by SA
businesses, including Eskom and Anglo American, and the World Business
Council for Sustainable Development. It has been managed by UK-based Future
Forests in association with partners including the International Institute
for Energy Conservation, South South North and Energy Cybernetics. SA has a
dismal track record when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, being the
world's 14th largest emitter of carbon dioxide. Some of the greenhouse gases
are captured and stored by "sinks" like the ocean and forests, but others
remain in the atmosphere and trap heat, creating the greenhouse effect.
Culprits include carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, methane and water vapour.
The summit
will generate an estimated 300000 tons of carbon dioxide, most of it created
by delegates as they fly to and from SA. Airline travel contributes about
15% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, says Norrish, a figure that is
set to rise as airline travel increases over the coming years. Countries
that have signed the 1997 Kyoto protocol, which seeks to codify pledges made
at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, agree to cap their emissions of greenhouse
gases, though not necessarily immediately. SA has signed the protocol, but
because it is a developing country, it will only have to cap its emissions
from 2012. Even so, Kyoto does not cover airline travel. The legacy project
is therefore asking delegates to the summit to travel "carbon neutral", by
buying "Climate Legacy certificates" to offset the carbon they will
generate. They can calculate how much carbon their travel and energy
consumption during their stay in SA will generate on the climate legacy's
website, www.climatelegacy.com. A $10 certificate is worth about one ton of
carbon emissions. The money will be placed in a trust fund and used to
support a variety of projects in SA that encourage efficient use of energy
and create jobs. Proposals include an initiative to equip two mine shafts
with energy efficient lighting, by replacing 50000 incandescent 100W light
bulbs with 11W lamps. The mining sector is one of the biggest energy
consumers in sub-Saharan Africa. Norrish says a company can expect to see a
30% reduction in its energy bills, and recoup its investment in the new
lighting system within three years. And since the bulk of SA's electricity
comes from coal-powered generators, less energy consumption means less
carbon dioxide emissions about 200000 tons less over a 10-year period.
Another
project plans to conduct an "energy audit" of Chris Hani Baragwanath
Hospital, the largest hospital in the southern hemisphere, and reduce its
energy consumption. Norrish says that energy saving steps can be simple,
such as alerting people to just how much energy cellphone chargers consume
when they are left plugged in 24 hours a day. "Few consumers realise that
95% of the energy used by a mobile phone charger is used when it is not
charging. If it was switched off at the socket, we'd all save money and
carbon dioxide."
The hospital
would also benefit from energy efficient lighting, heating, and boilers, and
plans to work with the water affairs and forestry department to reduce its
water consumption. So far the British and Norwegian delegations have
undertaken to travel carbon neutral, as have those from the UN Development
Programme, UN Environment Programme, World Bank and the Global Environment
Facility. Corporate sponsors include Rio Tinto, Procter & Gamble and Shell.
The legacy project is clearly hoping to raise awareness about just how much
gunk is spewed out by airline travel, but perhaps more importantly, it is a
creative attempt to encourage local industry to start taking steps to reduce
their energy consumption long before they are legally obliged to do so under
the Kyoto protocol.
68) CHINA PREPARES TO ADOPT CLIMATE CHANGE
TREATY
Reuters
August 22, 2002
Internet
http://asia.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=topnews&StoryID=1361053
BEIJING
(Reuters) - China said on Thursday it is close to approving the Kyoto
climate pact, a move that would give the protocol the backing of one of the
world's top polluters and further isolate the United States in its rejection
of the treaty. "We are currently making preparations on this matter, but it
has not been finalised," a Foreign Ministry official told Reuters when asked
if China would ratify the Kyoto treaty.
Another
ministry official familiar with the matter, speaking privately earlier this
week, said the State Council, China's cabinet, was putting the finishing
touches on approving the treaty. State Council backing is essential for all
major treaties and laws in Communist-ruled China. The treaty would also need
ratification from China's parliament when it meets next March, but the body
is a rubber stamp for decisions made by top leaders. The Kyoto treaty is
aimed at spurring industrialised nations to cut emissions of carbon dioxide
-- said by many scientists to be a major cause of global warming -- to about
five percent below 1990 levels by 2012. As a developing country, China would
not be held to emission reductions under the treaty even though it is the
world's second-largest producer of carbon dioxide after the United States.
But as a signatory to the pact, China would be eligible for so-called clean
development mechanisms, which would allow developed countries to earn
credits for their emission goals by investing in emission-reducing projects
in developing countries.
"NO TIME TO WASTE"
Premier Zhu
Rongji, who has tackled environmental issues in the past, could announce
China's backing for the pact at a U.N. conference on sustainable development
starting later this month in South Africa, diplomats said. "During meetings
in the last month, we have perceived a clear intent from the Chinese to
ratify the Kyoto Protocol as soon as possible," one diplomat said. "We
cannot be sure of the timing, but we wouldn't be surprised if they had
something at the conference in Johannesburg," the diplomat said.
China's
ratification would once again focus criticism on the United States, which
says the treaty would hurt its economy while freeing developing countries
such as China and India from environmental controls. A Chinese Foreign
Ministry official said on Wednesday Beijing opposed any attempt to
renegotiate the pact or draw up a replacement. "There is no time to waste
and there is no time to have long-lasting debates or negotiations," Zhang
Jun, deputy director of the ministry's department of international
organisations, told reporters. China has criticised suggestions it should
also cap emissions, saying it must first focus on economic growth to raise
standards of living for its 1.3 billion people. However, China is
increasingly concerned about environmental problems such as the clouds of
smog hanging over its cities, and has taken its own steps to cut pollution.
Earlier this year, the State Council approved a plan to spend nearly $8
billion to clean up pollution and enact strict control targets by 2005.
69) EUROPEAN GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
ACCELERATING
ENS
August 22, 2002
Internet:
http://ens-news.com/ens/aug2002/2002-08-22-01.asp
BERLIN,
Germany, August 22, 2002 (ENS) - Carbon dioxide emissions in the European
Union rose in 2001 by three-quarters of one percent, according to new data
from the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). Emitted by the
combustion of fossil fuels, carbon dioxide (CO2) is the main greenhouse gas
responsible for global warming as it forms a blanket trapping the Sun's heat
close to Earth. Last year's rise is greater than between the years 1999 and
2000, when CO2 levels increased by just 0.5 percent across the 15 EU member
countries. The 2001 increase pushed CO2 emissions once more above 1990
levels, at which the EU pledged to stabilize them by 2000.
A European
Environment Agency report in April showed a rise in total emissions of
greenhouse gases during 2000. Releases of the six greenhouse gases governed
by the Kyoto Protocol rose by 0.3 percent from 1999 levels the agency
reported. In 1999, emissions had fallen by two percent. Some EU countries
have already reported rising CO2 emissions in 2001, including the UK,
Germany, and Denmark. DIW's report shows the trend is widespread across the
European Union. Findings of the DIW report are based on statistics from oil
firm BP's 2002 energy review adjusted to take account of the carbon dioxide
output when various fuels are burnt. This "combustion CO2" comprises about
95 percent of all human CO2 emissions - industrial processes, international
aviation and shipping are excluded - which in turn represent 82 percent of
EU greenhouse gas emissions. According to the DIW report, combustion CO2
emissions rose in 2001 in 10 of the EU 15 member states and fell in only
four. Those countries with rising emissions include not only Germany and
the UK, which provided the motor for lower aggregate emissions during the
1990s, but also all six of the countries furthest adrift from their
greenhouse gas limitation targets under the Kyoto Protocol. Under the Kyoto
Protocol, an addition to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change ratified by the EU in June, the member states must cut their
emissions of the six greenhouse gases by eight percent from 1990 emission
levels.
Countries
with increasing emissions percentages were:
-
Ireland:
+5.7
-
Finland: +3
-
Sweden:
+2.7
-
Netherlands: +2.4
-
Portugal:
+2.1
-
Germany:
+1.6
-
UK: +1.5
-
Spain: +0.8
-
Denmark:
+0.6
-
Austria:
+0.2
Italy managed
to stay even with the previous year while Belgium led the reductions with
-4.7 percent, followed by Luxembourg with -4.4 percent, France with -1.6
percent, and Greece with -0.1 percent. Renewable sources of energy that do
not emit greenhouse are being used more widely across the European Union,
according to an official report released today. Eurostat, the Statistical
Office of the European Communities in Luxembourg reported that six percent
of energy consumed in the EU comes from renewables. The data was made
public in conjunction with the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development
opening in Johannesburg, South Africa on Monday.
70) CHINA CLOSE TO RATIFYING KYOTO PROTOCOL
Agence France-Presse
August 22, 2002
Internet:
http://www.etaiwannews.com/China/2002/08/22/1029980104.htm
China is
close to ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and an announcement
will be made around the time of the upcoming U.N. Earth Summit, a senior
foreign ministry official said yesterday. "China's State Council (cabinet)
has already decided to ratify the Kyoto Protocol," said Zhang Jun, deputy
director-general of the foreign ministry's department of international
organizations and conferences.
Zhang added
that procedures were under way to finalize the details of China's
ratification. He was speaking during a news briefing on Premier Zhu
Rongji's trip to Johannesburg at the end of this month to attend the Earth
Summit, formally known as the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development.
Zhang stressed that the formal stages of ratifying the agreement on reducing
greenhouse gas emissions had not been completed, saying that this will be
done "around the time of the summit." Asked whether ratification would be
announced before Zhu heads to South Africa, Zhang suggested Zhu could make a
formal statement at the summit. "The summit begins on August 26 but Premier
Zhu will speak on September 3," Zhang said.
The 1997 U.N.
protocol, the first coordinated world response to tackling global warming,
requires industrialized countries to cut emissions of greenhouse gases to
below 1990 levels by 2008-2012. The United States dropped out of the
agreement last year. China's decision to ratify the agreement will likely
put additional pressure on Washington, which has faced criticism from other
countries for its decision. Beijing has advocated that developed countries,
such as the United States, take a leading role in reducing greenhouse gas
emissions and to do more to protect the environment. The Kyoto Protocol
does not require China and other developing countries to reduce emissions, a
point Washington has objected to as being unfair. But Zhang said China is
nonetheless committed to improving the environment and has adopted measures
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He reiterated China's longtime stance
that developed countries should shoulder most of the responsibility. "It's
a plain fact to everyone that without proper development of developing
countries, sustainable development in the world cannot have a good
foundation and cannot have a good future," Zhang said. "In light of this
... we should first solve the problems of the developing countries."
71) BOULDER BACKS GLOBAL WARMING SUIT CITY
READY TO JOIN FIGHT OVER FOREIGN ENERGY PROJECTS
Bouldernews
August 21, 2002
Internet:
http://www.bouldernews.com/bdc/city_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2422_1338470,00.html
Boulder is
willing to join a lawsuit to force American-financed energy projects in
other countries to detail their impact on global warming. A Vermont-based
environmental law firm asked the city government to join the lawsuit if it
is filed. Joining the lawsuit is projected to cost Boulder $7,000. On
Tuesday, the City Council approved backing the legal action. The lawsuit is
expected to be filed on behalf of Greenpeace U.S.A. and Friends of the Earth
against the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Export-Import
Bank of the United States.
The intention
is to raise awareness about how U.S. corporations - with federal government
financial help - contribute to green house gas emissions through their
activities abroad, City Attorney Joe de Raismes said. The lawsuit would be
an unprecedented effort to try to apply National Environmental Policy Act
disclosure standards to financial and insurance entities backing
international energy projects, he said. "It is test litigation," de Raismes
said.
Ronald Shems, a partner in
the Burlington, Vt., firm of Shems, Dunkiel & Kassel, is exploring the suit
to represent the interests of maple sugar producers, marine biologists and
wind energy companies in addition to environmental groups, a city memorandum
said. Shems declined to discuss the suit or when it might be filed, saying
he had an ethical obligation not to talk about it before it is filed. The
law firm contacted Boulder officials because studies have suggested that
global warming could reduce snowpack runoff that Boulder relies upon for its
water supply. Councilman Mark Ruzzin said global warming could have a big
impact on Boulder and other American cities, and he predicted that Boulder
will ultimately be just one of many municipalities involved in the lawsuit.
72) 'GLOBAL WARMING THREATENS AFRICA'
BBC
August 20, 2002
Internet:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/africa/2204756.stm
A new report
by a conservation group warns that food and water supplies in Africa could
be put at risk if global warming continues at the current rate. The World
Wide Fund for Nature, WWF, says climate change could spell disaster for
millions: changes in the amount and distribution of rainfall would affect
crops and animals alike. As an example of the impact of climate change, WWF
says that the ice-cap on Mount Kilimanjaro has shrunk by more than 80% since
1900. The WWF calls for the implementation of limits or reductions in
greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to global warming, that were
adopted at the Kyoto international climate conference in 1997. The global
implementation of the Kyoto protocol on gas emissions has been effectively
blocked by the decision of United States President, George Bush, to reject
mandatory controls on gas emissions in March 2001.
US key
Reduced
rainfall in the semi-arid Sahel region south of the Sahara desert is another
example of the effects of pollution and climate change on Africa in the WWF
report. "If carbon pollution is left unchecked, climate change will have a
pervasive effect on life in Africa. "It will threaten the people, animals
and natural resources that make Africa unique," according to the report's
author, Dr Paul Desanker, Co-Director of the Centre for African Development
Solutions in Johannesburg. He says the coming World Development Summit in
Johannesburg must decide to implement the convention on pollution and gas
emissions agreed at Kyoto five years ago. The United States is key to
achieving this, he told BBC News Online. As the largest producer of carbon
pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, the United States can make or break
international attempts to limit pollution. "If the US doesn't come aboard
to limit gas emissions, this will be a complete waste of time," according to
Dr Desanker. He says that action on emissions by the European Union and
other industrialised countries will have no significant effect if the United
States is not persuaded to back the Kyoto convention.
Coral reefs
The WWF report also calls
for action to support sustainable land use in Africa and the development of
"clean and affordable" energy sources in Africa by 2010. Dr Desanker says
Africa should be helped to develop energy provision that does not rely
mainly on burning fossil fuels such as coal, which increase carbon
pollution. The Fund's report also warns that climate change is leading to
"widespread loss of human life and livestock" It also says that East
Africa's coral reefs are in danger of disappearing. Over 50% of the area's
reefs have died as a result of "bleaching" through pollution. The loss of
reefs will affect fisheries, food security, marine biodiversity and tourism
income. Further climate change will also threaten vulnerable animal and
plant species in Africa and threaten migration routes for animals and birds
within Africa and between Africa and other continents.
73) PWC LAUNCHES CLIMATE CHANGE SERVICE IN
INDIA
Financial Express
August 20, 2002
Internet:
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=15740
New Delhi,
Aug 20: PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has started a climate change service
in India as the country has emerged a potential destination for the
developed world to meet emission reduction commitments under the Kyoto
Protocol. "Many corporations, including British Petroleum, Shell, Dupont,
IBM and Johnson and Johnson, have plans to tie up with companies in the
developing world, including India, to fulfill their commitment of the Kyoto
Protocol. PwC has already initiated talks with 10 Indian companies to
provide its services on climate change," a senior PwC official told FE. The
Indian companies are in the power generation, wind and bio-mass renewables,
equipment manufacturing, cement and aluminium sectors. PwC has appointed
its director (climate change services) Michael Molitor to set up a separate
team for India. "India and China have the potential to account for nearly
three quarters of all developing country clean development mechanisms (CDMs),"
Mr Molitor told FE. The Kyoto Protocol requires the developed countries to
limit the emission from greenhouse gases (GHGs). The protocol provides for
an option to member-countries to implement CDMs in any other non-member
country and get 'carbon credit.' Six main GHGs are carbon dioxide, methane,
nitrogenoxide, hydroflorocarbons, perflorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride.
The strategy
of big corporations in the developed world is to invest in energy efficiency
improvement programmes, fuel substitution, adoption of renewable sources of
energy and in some cases even carbon offset (forestry) creation
initiatives. The investment in this direction will result in 'carbon
credits,' which determine the amount GHGs emission allowed for a particular
company operating in the developed world. They are looking at India, China,
Mexico, Brazil and South Africa as potential partners where they can uarn
valuable 'carbon credit,' Mr Molitor said. "The developing nations have
also to gain," he said, adding corporations in the developing countries
benefit on three counts, they get capital to finance their energy efficiency
programmes, it enhances profitability resulting from improved efficiency and
access to newer technologies. "Country commitments to reduce GHGs in Europe
and Japan are translated into corporate commitments. The opportunities for
reduction of emissions are fewer and also per unit cost of GHG reduction in
these countries is very high, hence, many corporation in the developed
countries are turning to corporations in the developing countries and
forming strategic alliances," he explained. India is witnessing a spurt in
CDM-related activity in light of the government of India's decision to host
conference of parties. The ministry of environment and forests has issued a
notification to all PSUs to identify and develop CDM projects.
74) JOHANNESBURG SUMMIT: SENIOR UN OFFICIAL
PLEADS FOR EFFECTIVE CLIMATE POLICIES
IPS
August 19, 2002
Internet:
http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=11706
Effective
climate policies can contribute to progress on all the issues that top the
agenda of the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD),
according to a senior United Nations official. In an interview with IPS,
Joke Waller-Hunter, executive secretary of the Bonn-based UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), stressed that ''Climate change issues
are closely linked to those of sustainable development.''
BONN, Aug 19
(IPS) - Effective climate policies can contribute to progress on all the
issues that top the agenda of the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD), according to a senior United Nations official. Recently
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan highlighted water, energy, health,
agriculture and biodiversity as issues ''requiring urgent action'' in
Johannesburg. In an interview with IPS, Joke Waller-Hunter, executive
secretary of the Bonn-based UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),
said: ''Climate change issues are closely linked to those of sustainable
development.'' Waller-Hunter, who replaced Michael Zammit-Cutajar last May
said: "During the Convention's first decade, the centrepiece of global
negotiations was to agree on the rules for its implementation. Our challenge
now is to apply those rules and to move climate change to the centre of
national policy-making and action by business and civil society." In fact,
the contribution that action on climate change can make to sustainable
development was emphasized by the Marrakech Ministerial Declaration, adopted
by the Conference of Parties (COP) last November in Morocco as an input to
the Johannesburg Summit.
The ministers
called for capacity building, technology innovation and cooperation with the
biodiversity and desertification conventions. From their start at the Rio
Earth Summit in 1992, the three conventions - climate, biodiversity and
desertification - address the complex interactions among human and natural
systems and represent different aspects of the same challenge, that is, how
to ensure the sustainable exploitation of the earth's resources,
Waller-Hunter said. The international community was working through these
conventions to promote economic and social development while preserving
living and non-living environment. Together, the Rio Conventions offered a
sound platform for promoting sustainable development over the coming decade.
''Their practical toolkits and their focus on partnerships and synergy show
the way forward. Accelerating action under the three agreements will go a
long way toward meeting the goals set by the Johannesburg Summit,'' the
UNFCCC executive secretary said.
To mark the
tenth anniversary of the development and implementation of the Rio
Conventions, a special exhibit has been organized at the WSSD in
Johannesburg. "Rio Conventions: synergy for sustainable development" is the
name of a joint exhibit in the 'Ubuntu Village' at WSSD. The exhibition is
set up by the secretariats of the conventions on climate change,
desertification and biodiversity. Staff from each secretariat will be
on-hand to provide information and respond to questions. Presentations and
demonstrations of websites, databases and other information products will be
given. Of special note are the 'WEHAB Theme Days' during which special
presentations will show linkages between the work of the conventions,
partner organizations and the WSSD themes. WEHAB stands for water, energy,
health, agriculture and biodiversity. The UNFCCC executive secretary said
at their meetings June 5 to 14 in Bonn, delegates from 186 countries had
discussed the need for capacity building, technology innovation and
cooperation with the biodiversity and desertification conventions.
The meetings
coincided with the completion of ten years after the Climate Change
Convention was opened for signature at the Rio Earth Summit. Bonn
discussions revealed that the Eighth Session of Conference of Parties to the
Climate Change Convention (COP8) October 23 to November 1 in New Delhi would
focus on national and international efforts to accelerate action under the
Convention. These actions will then link to new work under the Kyoto
Protocol agreed five years ago in Japan. Waller-Hunter expressed
satisfaction that the European Union and Japan had ratified the Kyoto
Protocol at the start of the June meetings. But it is not expected to enter
into force in time for the New Delhi conference. However, the Bonn meetings
prepared a number of draft decisions for adoption by the COP8 in New Delhi.
For example, they agreed on guidelines for the reporting and review of
national greenhouse gas inventories, a vital step for ensuring a
standardized and more rigorous approach to tracking long-term emissions
trends and determining whether progress is being made.
The meetings
also considered the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC), as contained in its Third Assessment Report published last
year. Delegates discussed the relevance of these findings to their work and
asked various international research programmes to provide their views on
the IPCC's proposals on how to prioritise future research. Other issues
included establishing the procedures for the Executive Board of the Kyoto
Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism and making practical arrangements for
the first session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of
the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. Work programmes were agreed on education,
training and public awareness and for the Expert Group on Technology
Transfer. The Clean Development Mechanism itself is purported to assist
developing countries in achieving sustainable development.
75) SMALL ISLAND STATES AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Samoa Observer
August 17, 2002
Internet
http://www.samoaobserver.ws/news/local/ln0802/1708ln010.htm
The small
island states of the Forum held their annual Summit in Suva this week and
have issued a statement outlining concerns of the smaller islands states of
the region. These states are the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, the
Republic of Marshall Islands and Tuvalu, representing the Smaller Island
States of the Forum: The statement reads:
(1) Noted the
authoritative nature of the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change issued in 2001;
(2) Expressed
their continuing grave concerns about the current and potential adverse
impacts of climate change, climate variability and sea level rise on all
Smaller Island States members;
(3) Called
for urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and for further
commitments in the future by all major emitters;
(4)
Emphasized the need for all nations to commit to the global effort to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions and the adverse impacts of climate change, taking
into account the special circumstances of small island developing States;
(5) Agreed
that the only truly effective way to address the issue of climate change
globally was through full commitment by all UNFCCC Parties to the objectives
of the Convention and the full implementation of the Kyoto Protocol;
(6) Expressed
profound disappointment at the decision of the US to reject the Kyoto
Protocol;
(7) Urged all
Parties of the UNFCCC to urgently ratify the Kyoto Protocol which is a
significant first step forward on a path to ensuring effective global action
to combat climate change;
(8) Warmly
welcomed the acceptance of the Protocol by Japan and approval of the
Protocol by the European Community.
The smaller
island states are considered the most vulnerable to the impact of climate
change and sea level rise. And the issue is already creating dissension in
the Forum meeting with Australia also refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol.
aimed at reducing green house gas emissions to 1990 levels. The USA, the
biggest producer of greenhouse gasses has under President Bush refused to
sign the Protocol negotiated during the Clinton administration. President
Bush's pro-big business stance and close connections with the energy sector
in America are coming under more fire in recent weeks with revelations of
fraudulent accounting by big business, and by the collapse of the energy
company Enron. Like the USA, Australia is a major user and producer of
fossil fuel, the number one source of greenhouse gases.
OPINIONS
76) HOW AUSTRALIA PLAYS THE KYOTO GAME by
Jeffrey Simpson
Globe and Mail
September 13, 2002
Internet:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/TGAM/20020913/COSIMP13/Headlines/headdex/headdexColumnists_temp/7/7/9/%22
CANBERRA --
Australia, a big carbon emitter like Canada, has a simple answer to the
Kyoto Protocol on climate change: No deal. In June, Prime Minister John
Howard's government said it would not sign the protocol. It repeated that
position at the Johannesburg summit, where Canada hypocritically declared it
would ratify Kyoto while unilaterally giving itself a 30-per-cent credit for
"clean" energy exports to the United States. The Canadian position is
universally rejected by other Kyoto signatories, and privately sniggered at
by Australians, who found themselves condemned along with the United States
in Johannesburg. But condemnation did not shake the Howard government's
position: Australia rejects Kyoto but will try to meet its targets for
emission reductions outside the treaty.
That
rejection should theoretically encourage Kyoto critics in Canada. After all,
the Australians negotiated brilliantly at Kyoto, winding up with a target
that would allow them to increase emissions by 8 per cent from 1990 levels,
while Canada agreed to cut emissions by 6 per cent. Canadian critics might
now ask: If Australia, with such a generous target, won't sign, why should
Canada, with a more stringent one, do so? Canada, of course, did not fully
know what it was doing in the Kyoto negotiations, in the sense that it did
not think through how it would achieve the stringent reductions. Prime
Minister Jean Chrétien instructed his negotiators to stay close to the U.S.
position, and when it unexpectedly changed during the negotiations, so did
Canada's.
The results
have been evident ever since: The government could not figure out how to
meet the target. Rather than say so directly, it engaged in a sleight of
hand by unilaterally assigning Canada a 30-per-cent reduction for hydro and
natural gas exports to the U.S. Australia's position, although not
hypocritical, is a trifle curious. While rejecting Kyoto, the government
insists it will meet the country's target, which means that, instead of
emissions increasing by 22 per cent from 1990 to 2012, as they would have,
they will now rise by "only" 8 per cent. Australia will not be bound by the
treaty, although the opposition Labour Party and the state premiers (all
Labour) believe it should be ratified.
From the
start, Australia complained that Kyoto provided no requirement or even
incentive for developing countries, including China and India, to reduce
emissions. With those countries excluded, and the U.S. rejecting Kyoto, 75
per cent of the world is out of the protocol. So, asks the Howard
government, why should Australia be in? It's the same kind of argument that
Kyoto critics in Canada will use. Australia, a big coal producer, uses lots
of coal domestically to fire energy plants and aluminum smelters and exports
large quantities throughout Asia. It worries that Kyoto's methods would
impose undue hardship on Australia. "Any greenhouse penalty not shared by
our competitors could see Australia lose plants offshore, with no benefits
to global greenhouse effects," argued a government policy paper.
And yet the
government is committed to spending $900-million (Canadian) on measures to
combat global warming. Some of the government's strategy has already been
announced -- measures it says can reduce the increase of emissions from 22
per cent to 11 per cent. How to get the remaining 3 per cent to meet the
overall target of "only" an 8-per-cent increase has yet to be determined.
One way might be to slow down the conversion of forested land to
agricultural uses. But the country's farm lobby is very powerful, and the
Liberal government gets political support from rural areas. Australia is
also a major agricultural exporter, although its wheat crop has been
battered by drought. No wonder the government has committed itself to
extensive consultations before deciding how to proceed.
The Kyoto
debate in Australia is much less intense than in Canada. The major
disagreement between the government and opposition is not over the
8-per-cent increase, but over the best method to achieve it: inside or
outside Kyoto. Canada's decision to "ratify" the protocol got a little
attention in Australia, but the subsequent sleight of hand over the
30-per-cent credit for "clean" emissions went largely unnoticed. Except by
government officials who are much too polite to underline its hypocrisy;
they merely inquire how Canada expects to get away with its unilateral
exemption. They are asking a good question, to which there is no clear
answer, as the mumbling comments from Canadian ministers reveal.
77) WHY NOT HELP MAKE OUR WORLD CLEANER? by
Wasant Techawongtham
Bangkok Post
September 13, 2002
Internet:
http://www.bangkokpost.net/News/13Sep2002_news39.html
Wasant
Techawongtham is Deputy News Editor for Environment and Urban Affairs,
Bangkok Post.
What is this
cabinet resolution that rejects easy money from rich countries to help poor
folk like us emit less gases that warm the Earth? The cabinet surprised a
lot of people on Tuesday when it decided that Thailand would play no part in
a scheme that would let industrialised countries buy their way in polluting
the world. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was reported to have a direct
hand in this. With this decision, this little land called Siam is about to
play havoc with an international deal that took negotiators years to strike.
It could set a trend among developing countries, and that should worry many
people in the United Nations and the industrialised world. The action came
only two weeks after this same cabinet decided to ratify the Kyoto Protocol
just as Earth Summit II began in Johannesburg. Some people opposed the move,
fearing the impact of the so-called clean development mechanism (CDM).
The protocol,
agreed in the Japanese city of Kyoto in 1997, is a pact that will guide
attempts to fight global warming under the UN Framework Convention on
Climate Change. Initially, industrialised countries are committed to cutting
on average 5.2% of their emissions between 2008 and 2012 based on 1990
levels. Some will have to cut as much as 7%. To achieve these targets, rich
countries will have to transform the way they run their industries and, to
some extent, the way they live. To make it easier to reach targets, the
protocol contains sweeteners that allow the rich nations to ``buy''emissions
reductions from poor countries. This can be done by paying for projects that
result in reduced emissions of greenhouse gases, such as cleaner production
technology or afforestation.A lot of money is expected to be spent under the
scheme. The total cost is not known but the World Bank estimates that
reducing a tonne of carbon will cost between $5 and $15 in the Third World
compared to $50 in the developed world.
The CDM is
supposed to benefit both rich and poor countries, sort of like a trickle
down theory of carbon emissions. The World Bank two years ago established a
$150 million ``prototype carbon fund'' to experiment with this mechanism. A
Thai firm is said to be in the pipeline to receive funding for its power
plant that uses biomass as fuel. With so much money involved, is PM Thaksin
being a fool for refusing it? Experts have cautioned the government not to
reject it out of hand but to consider proposals on a case-by-case basis. No
doubt the prime minister has his reasons for coming out with such a strong
stance against the deal. These, I suspect, are more economic than
environmental. Mr Thaksin is probably looking several years down the road to
when Thailand will need to rely on its carbon emissions surplus. For now,
developing countries have no reduction targets to meet. But talks will begin
soon on setting some targets for the less developed countries.
As an
agricultural country, Thailand will have to deal with an abundance of
methane, a major greenhouse gas produced by rice paddies. It is also no
secret that Mr Thaksin aims to make Thailand a powerhouse in the region. The
process will be energy-intensive, resulting in a great deal of carbon
emissions. Whatever emissions surplus the country has now will come in handy
when the time comes. Mr Thaksin's motives make economic sense but they do
nothing for the global environment. Rich and poor countries alike have a
responsibility to keep their emissions down. The CDM is a cynical instrument
that exploits the poor purportedly for the sake of the environment. Mr
Thaksin is right to reject it but he should prove that his heart is in the
right place by declaring that Thailand will try to reduce emissions as well.
78) CHAMPIONS OF ENERGY
Mail & Guardians
September 13, 2002
Internet:
http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.jsp?a=67&o=9005
Northern
countries are 'buying' projects in South Africa that are compatible with the
Kyoto Protocol. Monwabisi Booi used to believe that the environment was a
liberal issue, irrelevant to basic needs. "It was an academic debate," he
says, "all about the saving of the white rhino." But factors in his life
collaborated to pull him into the debate, converting him from political
activist to energy champion. At home in East London Booi helped to lay
bricks to raise money for his development studies at the University of the
Western Cape. Later, from his service shack in Khayelitsha, he realised the
link between community needs and sustainable energy. After two years in
development work, he joined a force of young, black energy activists placed
at local level to introduce cutting-edge initiatives into communities.
Booi and his
peers, says Sarah Ward, manager of Urban Sustainable Energy for Environment
and Development (Seed), are of necessity humanists as well as political
animals -- selling environmental urgency to national ministers, political
councillors and local residents. They shine in contrast to South Africa's
traditional environmentalists, white engineers with "technical know-how and
a narrow field of vision".Seed plants its energy champions in local
structures -- local municipalities, government departments and NGOs -- to
tackle the "hidden part of poverty". Energy burns up more than a quarter of
the income of the urban poor, but the pressure to deliver houses tends to
override this critical detail. Seed, which targets low-income housing and
public development, is a Sustainable Energy Africa programme, funded by
Danish development funders Danida.
Seed pays for
the training and wages of its nine advisers, and covers network meetings and
computer expenses. The partner organisations cover the rest of the expenses.
The "infiltration" of these activists into local structures makes a big
change, says Ward, to NGOs "scratching on the outside of local authorities,
often in opposition to them". Their placement "inside" also cancels out the
temptation to blame local authorities. Partners include the South African
Local Government Association, the Ethekwini Municipality and NGOs such as
the Development Action Group. Seed also supports "links" (designated staff)
in the Department of Minerals and Energy Affairs and the Department of
Housing.
In between
sitting on the caucus of the Environmental Justice Network Forum, which
trains community- based organisations in energy issues, Booi makes
presentations to local politicians and national portfolio committees on the
environment and energy. Within their stations the advisers are connected to
people with power, people who have sufficient charge to introduce new
policies. Booi's connection is Ossie Asmal, environmental coordinator at
Tygerberg Administration -- City of Cape Town. Starting with a master's in
environmental management and experience in community development in Hanover
Park on the Cape Flats, Asmal became a key founder of the Local Agenda 21
group. This group translates sustainable development resolutions made at the
1992 Rio world conference into local action. Booi is one of Asmal's vital
conduits in his job of overseeing different strategies to manage the local
environment.
Booi's
initial mandate was the Build and Live Safe project in Khayelitsha. He
trained building inspectors, helping them stretch their role beyond the
settling of boundary disputes and the enforcement of building regulations to
giving advice to residents about layout planning, insulation and placement
on sites. The Build and Live Safe project includes a schools energy
programme aimed at conscientising children about energy. High school
children, for example, are required to do energy audits of their school,
says Booi. The project amplified into the Kuyasa Clean Development Mechanism
(CDM) pilot project, aimed at mitigating climate change. This is one of the
country's four efforts to "package" projects compatible with the 1990 Kyoto
Protocol, an international agreement to mitigate 5,2% of the world's carbon
emissions by between 2008 and 2012. The world's northern countries gain
points for paying for such projects in developing countries. "Pollution
knows no boundaries," says Booi, and the northern countries are "buying"
projects in places such as South Africa, Bolivia and Mozambique.
South South
North, funded by the Dutch government, is helping to "package" the CDM
pilot. Ten "demo houses" in Khayelitsha have been fitted with ceilings by
local artisans. Solar water heaters and incandescent light bulbs have also
been installed. A baseline study calculating the savings in terms of
potential carbon emissions from the burning of paraffin for warmth or coal
for electrical geysers must be done before the package is ready for sale.
The country that takes it will ultimately pay for identical additions to
2309 houses in Kuyasa, Khayelitsha. Booi is involved in a second CDM project
in which methane will be recovered from decomposing organic matter in a
closed landfill site in Bellville. Methane can be burned to create
electricity, replacing coal as a much cleaner source of fuel. A critical
requirement for these projects, says Booi, is that they contribute to the
sustainable development of the country as a whole.
79) WHO SAYS GOOD SENSE IS TOO EXPENSIVE? by
Emma Duncan
International Herald Tribune
September 2, 2002
Internet:
http://www.iht.com/ihtsearch.php?id=69392&owner=(IHT)&date=20020903141417
The writer is managing
editor at WWF International, formerly the World Wide Fund for Nature, in
Gland, Switzerland. She contributed this comment to the International Herald
Tribune.
JOHANNESBURG:
Critics of the Kyoto Protocol argue that its targets for reducing greenhouse
gas emissions are not economically viable. But many companies have of their
own accord put similar targets in place, with benefits not only to the
environment but to profits and productivity as well. The consequences of
global warming and climate change - rising sea levels, more frequent and
intense extreme weather events such as floods and droughts, and adverse
effects on a variety of species from coral to polar bears - are accumulating
rapidly and measurably. They require immediate attention. Industry accounts
for about 25 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions from industrialized
countries. The effort required to change industrial practises to reduce
emissions need not be a burden. Many businesses are realizing that reducing
emissions can have a positive effect on earnings. One of DuPont's largest
plants in the United States cut its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of
product by close to half from 1993 to 1997, and shaved $17 million a year
from its total energy bill. Other companies are also realizing that
strategies for climate management and improving energy efficiency will be
necessary to remain competitive.
In 2000, WWF
International established the worldwide Climate Savers initiative to get
industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with a focus on carbon dioxide.
The Climate Savers team works with companies to customize a cost-effective
strategy for reducing emissions. Firms agree to have their emissions
verified by an outside party. One of the first companies to enter into a
Climate Savers agreement was Johnson Johnson. It pledged to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2010. The company
plans to achieve this through a variety of measures including increased
efficiency, recommissioning buildings and using more environmentally
friendly sources of energy.
Other firms
that have made Climate Savers agreements - IBM, Polaroid, Nike, Lafarge and
the Collins Companies - have similar plans. Lafarge, the world's largest
cement manufacturer, also plans to increase the use of less carbon-intensive
cement materials, such as fly ash from coal-fired power plants and slag from
the steel industry. The commitments made by these firms will result in a
significant dent in global emissions. Lafarge alone emits some 70 million
metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, equivalent to twice the emissions of
Switzerland. Their goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 10 percent
below 1990 levels by 2010. The actions of these companies show that it is
possible not only to meet but to exceed the commitment made by most
industrialized countries under the Kyoto Protocol, which is to cut global
warming gases to an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. They
debunk the claim made by countries refusing to ratify the protocol that
meeting Kyoto targets will be too expensive and therefore not economically
viable.
80) JUST A CLIMATE COWBOY by Duane D. Freese
TCS
August 29, 2002
Internet:
http://www.techcentralstation.com/1051/envirowrapper.jsp?PID=1051-450&CID=1051-082902A
United
Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, responding to a question from
Washington Post columnist William Raspberry, listed President Bush's
breaking with the Kyoto Protocol and its reductions of greenhouse gas
emissions as first among three specific ways where he says the United States
has fallen short in its role as world leader. (The other two are failure to
support the anti-torture convention and a new International Criminal
Court.) "Leadership comes with some obligations," Annan intoned. Then, in
the midst of Europe's flooding, The Washington Times' Paul Martin quoted
Gallus Cadonau, managing director of the Swiss Greina Foundation, as urging
punitive tariffs on U.S. imports to force cooperation on greenhouse gas
emissions. As though floods hadn't occurred since the time of Noah, Cadonau
claimed, "This definitely has to do with global warming. We must change
something now. Those nations that really are careless with the environment
should have to compensate."
Finally, some
environmental groups on Aug. 27 filed a suit against the administration in
an attempt to force it to conduct environmental studies before approving
energy projects, claiming such projects might contribute to global warming.
"This first-of-its-kind legal action is urgently called for because we need
to compel the Bush administration to take some action against global
warming," said Friends of the Earth president Brent Blackwelder. Well, to
paraphrase Ronald Reagan's retort to Jimmy Carter's attempts to portray him
as a radical ideologue: "There they go again." Just as liberal critics of
Reagan here and abroad denounced him as an ignorant cowboy in foreign
affairs for what proved to be his successful positions on arms control, so
environmental alarmists today try to portray Bush as insensitive to world
concerns on climate change.
Nothing,
though, could be further from the truth. Bush is giving the issue of climate
change plenty of deference, more than most conservatives would like. And he
is hardly going it alone. On the home front, the administration will spend
$1.8 billion on climate science, another $1.3 billion on climate
technologies and $4.6 billion over the next five years on tax incentives on
alternative fuels. It is all part of an effort outlined in March by which
the administration hopes to increase energy efficiency - decreasing the
volume of carbon required for each dollar of economic growth - by 18 percent
over the next decade. On the foreign front, it has put up $500 million for
the replenishment of the Global Environment Facility, which funds the
transfer of clean energy technology, including fully funding the arrears
left by the Clinton administration. Even more important, the administration
has negotiated eight bilateral agreements, including deals with the European
Union and Italy as well as China and India, both of which have no
obligations under Kyoto to reduce greenhouse gases even though each will
exceed U.S. levels within two decades. And it has six other agreements in
the works, including one with the Russian Federation, which is the 3rd
largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
To free
marketers, especially those of us skeptical of the whole global warming
scare, the preferred prescription is to fund continued research into
climate, as what is known today doesn't support the alarmists high-cost
remedies. But at least the approach the Bush administration is following has
the virtue that it won't put the world in an economic straightjacket, as
those suing the administration want to do. While giving the alarmists' views
too much weight, the Bush approach at least recognizes that technology and
economic growth - not regulation and litigation - are the keys both to
improving the environment and adapting to weather's constant bad behavior.
That makes them far preferable to Kyoto, which Congress would never approve
and Bush rejected for good reason. Every reputable economic study has
demonstrated the short timetable to meet its strictures would impose heavy
economic penalties for almost no environmental gain, especially as it
excludes developing countries that now produce more than half the world's
emissions and where they are growing the fastest.
Indeed, a
study in the spring edition of the Journal of Economic Perspectives by
Australian economist Warwick J. McKibbon and economist Peter J. Wilcoxen of
the University of Texas, both of whom consider climate change a real
problem, found Kyoto to be "a deeply flawed agreement that manages to be
both economically inefficient and politically impractical." They note that
its effect would force U.S. firms "to spend $27 billion to $54 billion to
buy pollution permits from abroad every year. That amount exceeds the $26
billion that manufacturing firms spent to operate all pollution abatement
equipment in 1994 (the most recent year for which data is available)." But
that's the least of the problems. Those permit purchases likely would do
neither the nations that bought them nor the nations that sold them much
good. "The balance of trade for a developed country that imported permits
would deteriorate substantially, possibly leading to increased volatility in
exchange rates. Developing countries that exported permits ... would see
their exchange rates appreciate, causing their other export industries to
collapse." In short, Kyoto is a lose-lose proposition.
What is win
win? Well, trying to make developing nations meet greenhouse gas targets,
too, isn't the answer. As Paula Dobriansky, undersecretary of State for
Global Affairs, told the preparatory session for the U.N. sustainability
summit that began Aug. 26 in Johannesburg, South Africa: "It would be unfair
- indeed, counterproductive - to condemn developing nations to slow growth
or no growth by insisting that they take on impractical and unrealistic
greenhouse gas targets." Instead, fostering transfers of cleaner energy
technologies to developing countries, which is what the Bush approach with
its bilateral accords attempts to accomplish. According to Assistant
Secretary of State John H. Turner told a Senate committee in late July, the
purpose of the bilaterals is "to enhance our multilateral cooperation." "We
are seeking to build relationships that will enable us and others to address
the long-term challenge of climate change on a balanced and measured basis,
consistent with the need to ensure continued economic prosperity for our
citizens and our nation," Turner testified.
India and
China, for example, need to and are going to use coal to fuel a large
portion of their energy use. Clean coal technologies developed in this
country have the virtue of producing fewer noxious emissions, such as the
sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide that make up much of the "brown cloud" now
hovering over much of Asia. Bilateral agreements with those countries can
ease the transfer of cleaner coal technologies to them. Similarly,
Australia, also a major coal burner, has its own clean coal technologies to
share. And it has an interest in developing technologies to take care of the
one gas that clean coal technologies don't reduce - carbon dioxide. So
agreements with it encourage exchange of information and joint ventures on
both clean coal technology and carbon sequestration technology. An agreement
with the seven Central American countries encourages better forestry
practices, as the region's rainforest provides a sink for collecting carbon.
Aid improving disaster preparedness in a region subject to sharp swings in
weather in any event will save lives immediately. A ton of carbon is a ton
of carbon, however it is reduced - by sequestration, creation of a sink,
foregoing of an emission, or substitution of one energy source for a cleaner
one. And the great advantage of bilateral agreements, as opposed to the
multilateral Kyoto protocol, is that these deals build on the strengths and
needs of each country.
Developing
nations are going to use the resources they have at hand. They cannot afford
exotic technologies - such as wind and solar - that developed countries have
yet to demonstrate they can afford to put into widespread use. It's less of
a leap to see these countries make use of hydroelectric, clean coal and,
even, nuclear technologies, all of which can be done with lower carbon
emissions than now projected as long as developed countries advance those
technologies and make them safe and available. As Dobriansky said, "The hope
of growth and opportunity and prosperity is universal. It is the dream and
right of every society on our globe." By not acting as a lemming on Kyoto
and leading the world over a climate change cliff, President Bush is meeting
his obligations to the citizens of this country and the people of the
developing world. There goes another president again, defying the
conventional logic of alarmists by following his aspirations and uncommon
sense for a better world.
81) VIEWPOINT: END GLOBAL POVERTY BEFORE
GLOBAL WARMING By Bjorn Lomborg
National Geographic News
August 29, 2002
Internet:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/08/0829_020829_summit5.html
Bjorn Lomborg
is the director of the Danish National Environmental Assessment Institute,
and author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, Cambridge University Press
2001.
With the UN
World Summit on Sustainable Development underway in Johannesburg this week,
much is being said about sustainability and development. The phrase
sustainable development is a curious mix of Western concern for
environmental sustainability and the developing world's concern for
substantial, economic development. At these big environmental gatherings it
has historically been the First World's priorities that have won out. The
challenge in Johannesburg is to finally get the courage to put development
ahead of sustainability.
Why does the
First World worry so much about sustainability? Because we constantly hear a
litany of how the environment is in poor shape. Natural resources are
running out. Population is growing, leaving less and less to eat. Species
are becoming extinct in vast numbers, and forests are disappearing. The
planet's air and water are becoming more polluted. Human activity is, in
other words, defiling the Earth, and humanity may end up killing itself.
Unlike the
person pictured here, an estimated 1.2 billion people do not have access to
clean drinking water, and about 2.5 billion lack proper toilets or sewerage
systems. More than five million people die each year from water-related
diseases such as cholera and dysentery. Third World leaders say that their
priority is development in order to eliminate poverty. There is, however,
one problem: This litany is not backed up by the evidence. Energy and other
natural resources have become more abundant, not less so. More food is now
produced per head of the world's population than at any time in history.
Fewer people are starving. Species are, it is true, becoming extinct. But
only about 0.7 percent of them are expected to disappear in the next 50
years, not the 20 percent to 50 percent that some have predicted. Most forms
of environmental pollution look as though they have either been exaggerated,
or are transient-associated with the early phases of industrialization. They
are best cured not by restricting economic growth, but by accelerating it.
That we in
the West are so willing to believe the litany despite the overwhelming
evidence pointing in the other direction means that we often make poor
prioritization, focusing excessively on sustainability. Nowhere is this more
pronounced than in the discussion on global warming. There is no doubt that
pumping out carbon dioxide from fossil fuels has increased global
temperature. Yet too much debate is fixated on reducing emissions without
regard to cost. By agreeing to the 1997 Kyoto climate treaty, Europe has set
itself the goal of cutting its carbon emissions more than 30 percent below
what they would have been in 2010. But even with renewable sources of energy
taking over, the UN Climate Panel still estimates a temperature increase of
four degrees to five degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2100. Such a rise is
projected to have less impact in the industrialized world than in developing
countries, which are predominantly in warmer regions and have fewer
resources to cope with the problems of climate change. Despite our intuition
that we need to do something drastic about global warming, economic analyses
show that it will be far more expensive to cut carbon dioxide emissions
radically, than to pay the costs of adaptation to the increased
temperatures. Moreover, all current models show that the Kyoto Protocol will
have surprisingly little impact on the climate: Temperature levels projected
for 2100 will be postponed for only half a dozen years.
The Economic of the Kyoto Protocol
Yet, the cost
of complying with the Kyoto Protocol will be U.S. $150 billion to $350
billion annually (compared to $50 billion in global annual development aid).
With global warming hurting primarily Third World countries, we have to ask
if the Kyoto treaty is the best way to help them. The answer is no. The cost
of meeting the Kyoto treaty for just one year would be enough to solve the
biggest problem in the world-we could give clean drinking water and
sanitation to every person on the globe. This would save two million lives
each year and prevent half a billion people from contracting a severe
disease. In fact, for the same amount the Kyoto Protocol would have cost
just the U.S. every year, the UN estimates that we could provide every
person in the world with access to basic health, education, family planning,
and water and sanitation services. Wouldn't this be a better way of serving
the world?
We need to
focus more on development than on sustainability. Development not only
possesses intrinsic value but in the long run it will lead the Third World
to become more concerned about the environment. Only when people are rich
enough to feed themselves do they worry about the environment and future
generations. Focusing more on sustainability can easily result in
prioritizing future generations at the expense of current generations, which
is a backward way of solving our problems. In contrast, focusing on
development has the advantage of both helping people today and creating the
foundation for a better tomorrow. The U.S. has a unique opportunity in
Johannesburg to refocus the attention on development. The Bush
administration has been chastised by many Europeans for not caring enough
about sustainability, especially in its rejection of the Kyoto Protocol. The
cynical Europeans are probably right that the U.S. decision was an
expression of rather narrow U.S. interests. But in Johannesburg the American
decision could be recast as an attempt to focus on the most important issues
on the global agenda, basically championing fundamental issues such as clean
drinking water, sanitation, health, and poverty reduction. Such a move would
regain for the U.S. the moral high ground. When the U.S. rejected the Kyoto
treaty last year, the EU talked endlessly about how it was left to them "to
save the world." But if the U.S. is willing to commit the resources to
ensure development it might actually end up being the savior.
82) ANALYSIS: NATURE'S WARNINGS TO THE
JOHANNESBURG SUMMITEERS by Jeffrey D. Sachs
Daily Times
August 28, 2002
Internet:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_28-8-2002_pg5_15
Jeffrey D.
Sachs is Professor of economics and Director of the Earth Institute at
Columbia University.
Nature's
awesome powers have been on frightening display lately. As world leaders
gather in Johannes-burg to discuss global environmental threats, many parts
of the planet are battered by floods, droughts, harvest failures, massive
forest fires, and even new diseases. Man's relationship to nature is a theme
as old as our species, but that relationship is changing in complex ways.
The most important result of the Johannesburg Summit should be a recognition
that more scientific research and much more global cooperation is needed.
Floods and droughts have been scourges from ancient times, yet the
frequency, size, and economic impact of these disasters has grown in recent
years. Insurance claims against natural disasters rose to unprecedented
levels during the 1990s, suggesting that the social costs of environmental
upheavals have intensified. Climate shocks such as the fierce El Niño of
1997-98 played a major role in recent economic upheavals. Indonesia and
Ecuador, among other countries, succumbed to financial crises in 1997-98
that were linked (in part) to agricultural crises caused by the severe El
Niño.
Part of the
growing climate effect ressults from our sheer numbers. Largely as a result
of technological successes in the past 200 years, the human population has
grown seven-fold since 1800, from around 900 million in 1800 to more than 6
billion people today, crowding humanity into vulnerable spots throughout the
world. More than 2 billion of the world's 6 billion people live within 100
kilometers of a coastline, and so are vulnerable to ocean storms, flooding,
and rising sea levels due to global warming. Hundreds of millions more live
in fragile habitats on the steep slopes of mountains, or in semi-deserts, or
in rain-fed regions where crops fail regularly when rain doesn't arrive.
Human beings are also changing the environment everywhere, often in ways
that make societies more vulnerable. This is especially the case in
impoverished countries. The increasing population density in rural Africa,
with its intensification of farming, is leading to massive soil depletion.
When drought comes to Southern Africa, as it has this year, tens of millions
of impoverished peasant families struggle for survival.
Because
African poverty contributed to the uncontrolled spread of AIDS, the
combination of climate shocks and epidemic disease is devastating. Millions
of AIDS orphans in Southern Africa live with grandparents too old and weak
to produce food or to secure it. Because of the onset of the El Niño, it's
likely that the drought will continue into the coming year. The most
remarkable feature of these environmental changes is that they are not
limited to local environments. For the first time in human history, human
society is undermining the environment at the global scale, through climate
change, extinctions, and degraded ecosystems. Man-made global warming,
caused mainly by fossil-fuel burning in rich countries, may well be a factor
in the frequency and severity of major droughts, floods, and tropical
storms. The frequency and intensity of the El Niño cycle in the past 25
years may also be the result of global warming. China's heavy floods in
recent years are partly the result, it seems, of the excessive melting of
mountain snows on the Tibetan Plateau, which was caused by higher
temperatures.
These growing
environmental risks are complex. The effects of environmental change may
occur only after many years and may be felt halfway around the world. Or the
effects may be indirect. Land use changes, say, can amplify the spread of
infectious diseases by changing the mix of species or the ways that animals
and humans interact. Politicians are inept at handling such problems, so
environmental risks continue to grow without adequate changes in public
policy. When disasters hit (such as this year's droughts or floods),
politicians cannot be held accountable for mistakes made over the course of
many decades.
The summit in Johannesburg
can draw the world's attention to these pressing problems. Even if the
summit produces few specific results, it can make a difference if three
demands are made of the summiteers: we should insist that the world's
politicians recognize the overwhelming scientific evidence that points to
the major environmental perils humanity faces; we should press these leaders
to invest more public money in basic environmental research and in the
development of new technologies to address environmental risks. For example,
investments in research on alternative energy systems that can limit global
warming are vital; third, we should insist that our politicians agree to
greater international environmental cooperation, lest the neglectful and
shortsighted policies within each nation end up destroying the global
ecosystem.
83) NOW IS THE TIME FOR RICH TO MATCH POOR'S
GENEROSITY by Andrew Simms
The Guardian
August 27, 2002
Internet:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldsummit2002/story/0,12264,781009,00.html
Andrew Simms
is the policy director of the New Economics Foundation, a social and
environmental thinktank
Ten years ago
the world saw the most generous gesture in the history of international
relations. To support the lifestyle of millions, one group of countries
relinquished their claim to the debts - worth trillions of dollars - of
another. In 1992 most of the poorest countries in the world queued up to
sign the UN framework convention on climate change. In a stroke they wrote
off the historical ecological debts of rich countries, run up by their
burning of finite fossil fuels and the resulting legacy of global warming.
The convention called for a plan to stop dangerous climate change based on
precaution, equity and the high-polluting countries taking the lead. Poor
countries agreed their price before signing. But has it been met over the
past 10 years? The review is dismal. Aid has fallen dramatically. The price
of commodities depended on by poor countries have halved since 1980. Heavily
indebted countries have "unsustainable" debt return, and they will have to
pay, even if it means less money available for health, education and the
environment.
This is how
the poor have been paid back for their forgiveness of the carbon debts of
the rich. By contrast, rich countries committed a paltry $400m (£263m) a
year from 2005 to help developing nations adapt to climate change. At the
same time the rich countries subsidise their dirty domestic fossil fuel
industries by a minimum of $70bn-$80bn a year. Incredibly, global warming
has been squeezed off the agenda at Johannesburg. Is it because the
different treatment of ecological debt and financial debt is too
embarrassing? Because if you change the accounting system to measure what
really matters, such as whether or not the environmental budget is balanced,
Europe and the US look hopelessly indebted. For at least two centuries
industrialised countries built their wealth on a dripfeed of fossil fuels.
Since Britain received its first oil shipment in the 1860s, the global
economy expanded enormously. Oil equals economic opportunity, but also
unprecedented trouble. For every fossil-fuel step forward, the global
economy takes three steps back due to the global warming. According to the
World Disasters Report, three things have shot up over the past 30 years:
the number of climate-related disasters, their economic costs and the number
of people affected. Experts talk of "adapting" to global warming. But for
island dwellers whose land barely breaks the ocean's surface, their only
adaptation is to become environmental refugees. The full scale of damages is
potentially so large that it promises the end of human development.
Fossil fuels
will have to be rationed. The big question is, how? Echoing his father at
the first earth summit, George Bush says he will do nothing to hinder the US
way of life. America behaves like a dissolute aristocratic son, selfishly
blowing the family's inheritance. But controlling global warming means
shrinking and sharing the carbon emissions cake. A workable global deal
means moving, in a set time, to equal slices. Yet rich countries seem only
capable of passing on bad habits. Research shows that for every tonne of
carbon pollution Britain has cut over the past 10 years, it adds three by
backing dirty fuel projects in developing countries. One step forward, three
steps back.
Today, the
global economy is like a multinational audited by Andersen, guided by
nonsense statistics. We need an accounting system to avoid an environmental
Enron - new indicators to measure real progress, to see if we are living
within our environmental budget and increasing human well-being. At
Johannesburg the world needs another gesture as generous as that made by
poor countries at Rio. The rich have to leave space in the atmosphere for
poor countries to develop.
84) ENTERING THE POST-PETROLEUM CENTURY by
Christopher Flavin
International Herald Tribune
August 27, 2002
Internet:
http://www.iht.com/articles/68825.html
The writer, president of the Worldwatch Institute in
Washington, contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune
JOHANNESBURG
The renewable energy sources of today have about the same share of the
overall energy supply, and the same prospect for rapid future growth, as
petroleum did a century ago. In 1902, petroleum accounted for around 2
percent of total commercial energy. But it was expanding quickly in niche
markets. With wind and solar power markets now doubling in size every three
years, manufacturers are able to scale up production and drive down costs.
Only sectors like cell phones and the Internet have growth rates comparable
to those of renewables today. The market for oil is growing at less than 1.5
percent per year.
The current
energy system based on fossil fuels is undermining global security. It is
dangerous to depend on the Middle East for oil. It is also ecologically
risky to continue polluting and warming the atmosphere with oil and coal
residues. Reducing dependence on fossil fuels before a major crisis forces
an unplanned transition should be a security priority. The selection of
energy by the United Nations secretary-general, Kofi Annan, as one of five
key themes for the World Summit on Sustainable Development is an important
indicator of progress in the past decade. What a difference a decade can
make. Since 1992, renewable energy markets have shifted into a new gear.
Global wind power generation, for example, has risen from 2,170 megawatts at
the start of 1992 to 24,800 at the start of 2002, a more than tenfold
increase.
The world has
entered the post-petroleum century in which diminishing oil supplies, the
limited capacity of the atmosphere to absorb carbon dioxide and the
burgeoning energy needs of billions of people in the developing world all
point to the need for new sources of energy to complement and replace the
previous century's fossil fuels. The extraordinary growth of renewable
energy in the last decade was driven by dynamic markets in a handful of
countries. In the case of wind power, three-quarters of the global capacity
is found in Germany, the United States, Spain, Denmark and India. In some
regions of Denmark, Germany and Spain, wind power already provides more than
20 percent of the electricity - more than the hydro or nuclear share of
world energy supplies.
The success
of these five countries, plus Japan, which has dominated the solar market in
recent years, stems from policies adopted in the last decade. The challenge
for Johannesburg is to extend the success of these five nations to the world
as a whole. It is essential that the summit action plan include a clear
recognition of the important role of renewable energy in powering a
sustainable world, as well as practical recommendations for what national
governments and the international community can do. With 4 billion people
relying predominantly on unsustainable energy sources, and the remaining 2
billion lacking access to electricity or liquid fuels, the world's energy
haves and have-nots are each in unsustainable positions. Both could benefit
enormously from the accelerated spread of renewable energy.
The potential
for renewable energy is increasingly recognized both in the worlds of
government and of business. This is seen in a growing flow of capital into
renewables from large oil and power companies, as well as from the venture
capital sector. Legislation is starting to spread at national and state
levels. Brazil, China and India are among the countries that have recently
strengthened their renewable energy laws, with the aim of accelerating
market growth. In the United States, nearly half the members of Congress
belong to the renewable energy caucus.
The Group of
Eight has set up a special government/industry Task Force on Renewable
Energy that issued a report in July 2001. It concluded that "renewable
energy resources can now sharply reduce local, regional and global
environmental impacts as well as energy security risks, and they can in some
circumstances lower costs for consumers." The leader of that task force,
Mark Moody Stuart, a former chief executive officer of Royal Dutch/Shell,
has called on governments "to expand renewable energy targets, removing
inappropriate subsidies and switching some to renewable energy to provide a
level playing field in the energy sector."
The main
responsibility for accelerating the use of renewable energy lies with
governments that regulate the energy sector, dictate taxes, allocate
subsidies and otherwise influence energy trends. The international community
can provide assistance in a number of important ways, and the Johannesburg
summit offers important opportunities for progress:
1. Ambitious,
specific goals for increasing the share of renewables in the total energy
supply are proven tools for galvanizing government action. The success of
renewable energy goals can be seen in Germany, where a national target on
renewables passed in 1991 spurred market and policy development, allowing
the country to greatly exceed its initial goal. More recently, the European
Union has established a goal of doubling the contribution of renewables to
its electricity supply by 2010. A Latin American and Caribbean proposal to
the Johannesburg summit calls for 10 percent of world energy to come from
renewables by 2010.
2. Since the
policies of just a few countries have expanded markets so dramatically in
the past decade, it is important that the policies of these nations be
widely introduced to government and industry leaders around the world.
Particular focus should be on providing access to the grid under a system of
standardized contracts at fair and reasonable prices; and on providing
limited, cost-effective subsidies at the minimum level needed to spur market
development.
There is also
a need for a specific institution to serve as a clearing house and
disseminator of effective new energy policies, and to provide active policy
advice and human capacity-building for all countries, with a particular
focus on developing nations. 3. International institutions and bilateral
agencies have generously subsidized the export and development of fossil
fuel and nuclear technologies during the past five decades. Even today, the
bulk of such financing goes to well established but in many cases
unsustainable energy sources. A shift in energy funding priorities to
renewable energy is essential to accelerate market growth, especially in
developing nations.
85) AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE ON GLOBAL WARMING
by Purnima M Gupta
Financial Express
August 26, 2002
Internet
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=16029
The author
specialises on climate change-related issues
Despite
hectic pre-summit preparations that went in for the World Summit on
Sustainable Development - also popularly known as "Rio+10" - being held at
Johannesburg from August 26 to September 4, it did not get the kind of
attention that was given to the previous Earth Summit held at Rio de Janeiro
in 1992, which alerted the global community to the hazards of deprivation in
the natural environment. At Johannesburg, the global community will take
stock of the prevailing situation. As a leading developing country, India is
an important participant at Rio+10.
Awareness
about environmental degradation across different strata of society has
increased significantly since the 1992 summit. However, the action taken to
deal with the issues involved has not been commensurate with the magnitude
of the problems. That environmental issues have still not moved to the
centre-stage of political decision-making is evident, particularly in the
case of Global Warming (GW). According to climate experts, there are six
main greenhouse gases (GHGs) - carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydro
fluorocarbons, perfluoro carbons and sulphur hexafluoride. The major culprit
responsible for GW, however, is carbon dioxide, produced by burning fossils
like coal, oil natural gas, etc.
The threat
from GW is now accepted to be real. The average global surface temperature
is projected to increase by 1.40C to 5.80C over the period 1990-2100, with
the frequency and severity of droughts increasing in Asia and Africa. GW is
also believed to be responsible for the melting of glaciers. Receding
glaciers are affecting the levels of water in rivers. Recent reports have
also brought out that the Ganga is drying up because the Gangotri glacier,
its main source, is receding at the rate of 10 to 30 metres a year. While
the Ganga is drying up, there are signs now of rising water levels in the
Bhakra Nangal Dam reservoir. The melting of glaciers in the upper Himalayas
has been cited as a major contributor to this. This does not bode well for
the physical environment in India.
For instance,
the extremely deficient monsoon showers in India this year are being
attributed to GW. The Centre for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies, based in the
US, had predicted acute soil moisture stress conditions in major parts of
India due to less than normal rainfall and high temperatures. An earlier
edition of The Financial Express (July 14, 2002) carried an exhaustive
report on this. Moreover, studies at Cornell and Princeton Universities have
brought out that climate change has begun to trigger the spread of disease
in plants and animals, but which may eventually spill over to humans.
Kyoto Protocol
The Earth
Summit of 1992 arrived at a Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC).
The Conference of the Parties (CoP) held at Kyoto in Japan in 1997 arrived
at a Protocol setting legally binding targets for industrialised countries
to reduce their GHG emissions by about 7 percent from 1990 emission levels
by 2008-2012. The success of the Protocol hinges upon ratification by at
least 55 countries, particularly the biggest contributors of emissions.
However, the US, which is the largest producer of GHG emissions, despite
having signed the Protocol with a commitment to reduce emissions by 25
percent to 30 percent by 2010 as compared to 1990 levels, refuses to ratify
the Protocol until the developing countries, particularly India and China,
are also brought on board.
The Way Ahead - Need for a Roadmap
Current
political agendas at national and international levels revolve more around
Terrorism, relegating issues on Environment to the background. The
Development versus Environment debate makes it even more difficult for
environmental issues to come to the centrestage of politics. But the problem
of GW is here to stay for several decades. The developed group of nations
have still not arrived at an agreement on implementing significant cuts in
GHG emissions. The principle of "differentiated responsibilities" included
in the Climate Change Convention places a greater responsibility on the
countries of the North in emissions reductions.
Undoubtedly,
there has been a lot more than mere rhetoric in dealing with climate change
issues, across both the North and South. The international negotiating
processes have evolved the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint
Implementation Programmes, apart from Emission Trading, to bring about
"clean energy", i.e. low carbon energy. Nevertheless, the action taken so
far has been significantly less than desired levels. The Indian government
and non-governmental organisations have been actively participating in the
global negotiations and their follow-up actions with a view to moving along
the path of "clean energy" technologies. This is a long term process
involving not only resources but also a commitment to implement clean
technologies.
The entire
exercise of bringing about clean energy has to be viewed against the nexus
between conventional energy lobbies, industry and political priorities. GW
is closely connected with this. It is a "good" dose of incentives, financial
assistance and political will that will take forward the process of
implementing cuts. Climate change negotiations are hard economic
negotiations. This is the predominant reason for the absence of any cuts in
emissions by the North over a period of 10 years. This reflects the strength
of the existing energy lobbies.
India has to
work hard to realise the goals of the Kyoto Protocol. After witnessing the
impact of GW, the contributory anthropogenic factors (i.e., human-induced)
have to be curtailed. If sufficient care is not taken, climate change will
add additional stress to the already difficult living conditions for the
vast majority of Indians, visible in varying areas such as deteriorating
health, food production, water resources along with desertification, sea
level rise and loss of biodiversity.
It is
industrialising countries like India who will be the major losers due to the
adverse impacts of climate change because of their dependence on
agriculture. India and other developing countries must adopt response
strategies to combat climate change on a wider scale. An important response
strategy is to prepare the communities and increase their resilience to face
and cope with the adverse impacts of climate change.
The global
community must come forward to help in building capacity in this respect in
India. India has to tackle climate change from a short-term and long-term
perspective. In the short term, energy-efficient and low carbon fuels need
to be encouraged through suitable incentives, eg., tax rebates. A long-term
approach to deal with this problem should emphasise the use of renewable
sources of energy like solar and wind energy. Greater application of solar
energy in rural areas (farming and household energy) would go a long way in
reducing dependence on conventional fossil fuels. These suggestions should
be put forward at the Rio+10 summit for initiating global action on them.
ON
THE WEB
86) LAUNCH OF NEW COMMUNITY CARBON FUND TO HELP POOR
COUNTRIES UNDER KYOTO PROTOCOL
World Bank
September 2, 2002
Internet:
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20064895~menuPK:34463~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html
JOHANNESBURG,
September 2, 2002-Sixty-four of the poorest countries in the world such as
Mozambique, Togo, and Senegal in Africa, Honduras in Latin America, and
Nepal and Bangladesh in Asia could benefit from the new Community
Development Carbon Fund (CDCF) initiative, launched by the World Bank on
Monday, at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.
The World
Bank and the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) have joined
forces to collaborate on the US$100 million fund, which will provide finance
for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, to small-scale projects in small
developing countries and rural areas of all developing countries. The
emphasis within the CDCF will be on renewable energy, energy efficiency,
solid waste to energy conversion, and agroforestry projects, with
significant and measurable community development benefits. Poorer
communities will get the advantage of development dollars coming their way,
and participants in the fund will receive carbon emission reduction credits
for reduction in carbon emissions. This initiative is the first to
exclusively target small-scale projects and local communities in the
developing world through the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto
Protocol.
" Until now,
countries like mine have been bypassed by the growing market in carbon
emission credits," said Lidia Brito, Minister of Higher Education, Science
and Technology for Mozambique. " This will enable private capital seeking
carbon credits to reach deep down into the poorest areas of the developing
world, not just to reduce carbon emissions, but to serve the aims of
sustainable development through transfer of clean energy technology and
sustainable agriculture. And that will mean real improvement in the lives
of the poor." By working through local intermediaries such as financial
institutions, micro-credit institutions, cooperatives, and NGOs, and by
applying streamlined project procedures compatible with small-scale Kyoto
projects, the CDCF will seek to lower transaction costs and the risks
involved in developing such projects.
At Monday's
CDCF launch, the CEO of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Mr. Mandla
Gantsho, and Mr. James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, signed
the first such intermediary agreement, to channel funds for the purchase of
greenhouse gas emissions ("carbon finance") to small and medium scale
enterprises under the CDCF in the Southern Africa region. The carbon finance
business has taken on a new sense of urgency in the face of mounting
evidence that the Earth's climate is changingand that could have dire
consequences for major parts of humanity. Climate change, and accompanying
disrupted weather patternscaused by the so-called greenhouse effect through
atmospheric loading of greenhouse gasescould wreak havoc on the planet,
particularly parts of the developing world. The threat climate change
poses to long-term development and the ability of the poor to escape from
poverty is of particular concern to the World Bank.
"The impacts
of climate change will put the poor of the developing world at even greater
risk. We are facing a climate crisis of unprecedented proportions, and it
will take responses at every level, both private and public," said World
Bank President James D. Wolfensohn. "Our challenge is to make markets work
efficiently to internalize the costs of environmental degradation for the
benefit of the poor and for sustainable development. The Community
Development Carbon Fund is a natural extension of our efforts to make sure
that poor countries can benefit from carbon emissions trading." Five years
after it started, the global carbon finance business the market that
provides credits for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions is approaching
the half-billion dollar level in cumulative trade value. It is expected
that the carbon market will exceed one billion dollars a year by 2008. Yet
right now most developing countries are missing out on the benefits of
carbon finance dollars. The Bank's responsibility is to make sure that an
equitable share of this money, much of it private sector, ends up in the
hands of the poorest, in the poorest areas of developing countries.
The private
sector will be key to the success of the CDCF. In dealing with their carbon
emission obligations, companies will face an acid test from their investors
and stakeholders to be accountable for not just how much they save in carbon
emissions, but also where they save those emissions. Add to that, how they
contribute to sustainable development as required under the applicable Clean
Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol. More than a dozen companies and
governments see the CDCF as an opportunity to do just that put a human face
on carbon finance, by combining carbon emission reductions with
development. These companies and governments have signed a Memorandum of
Understanding with the CDCF to help develop the new fund. They include the
European companies Swiss Re, Rabobank, four Japanese companies including
Chugoku Electric and Idemitsu Kosan oil company; the Canadian company
TransAlta, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the Norwegian company
Industrikraft Midt-Norge, the French transport entity RATP, and the
governments of the Netherlands and Norway. "This is both a powerful example
of public/private partnership, and a practical way of financing sustainable
development," said Andrei Marcu, Executive Director of IETA.
87) PUTTING ENERGY INTO SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT - UNEP LAUNCHES NEW GLOBAL CLEAN ENERGY NETWORK AT JOHANNESBURG
WORLD SUMMIT
UNEP
September 1, 2002
Internet:
http://www.unep.org/Documents/Default.asp?DocumentID=264&ArticleID=3118
The goal of
bringing new and less polluting energy sources to billions of deprived
people around the world came a step closer today as the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) launched a pioneering global network of
"sustainable energy" centres. JOHANNESBURG/PARIS, 1 September 2002 -
Speaking at the launch here at the World Summit on Sustainable Development,
Klaus Toepfer, UNEP's Executive Director said, "The provision of
environmentally sound energy services are integral to poverty alleviation
and sustainable development." "Over two billion people in developing
countries do not have access to reliable forms of energy," Toepfer said.
"Nine out of ten Africans have no access to electricity," he continued.
"Providing clean energy on a sustainable basis is not only vital for
fighting environmental issues like global warming but for reducing poverty
and misery in Africa and parts of Asia and Latin America."
Access to
affordable, modern energy services is increasingly seen as a pre-requisite
for sustainable development and poverty alleviation. Access to energy is a
condition for achieving the UN's Millennium Development Goals including the
goal to halve the proportion of people in poverty by 2015 that is at the
heart of the Johannesburg debate. For one-third of the world's population,
dependence on traditional fuels results in many hours spent each day
gathering wood, animal and crop waste. Moreover, limited access to adequate
and appropriate energy, including electricity (there are currently two
billion people worldwide who lack access to electricity) means that
value-adding income generating activities are constrained. The consequences
for the environment of present energy production and consumption patterns
are also significant. For example, in developing countries, the widespread
use of traditional fuels for indoor cooking and heating results in serious
respiratory diseases and loss of life related to indoor air pollution, as
well as a contribution to deforestation, particularly in arid and semi-arid
areas.
Air pollution
in developing countries is one of the four most critical global
environmental problems. Such pollution causes an estimated two million
excess deaths per year, or 5 percent of the global burden of disease. At
the global level, emissions of greenhouse gases, which mostly originate from
the use of fossil fuels, (presently 80 percent of the world's primary energy
comes from fossil fuels), will have to be reduced in order to combat global
warming. Solving the climate change challenge means reducing global
dependence on fossil fuels. The new Global Network on Energy for
Sustainable Development (GNESD), made up initially of ten centres in ten
developed and developing countries, will help promote the research, transfer
and take-up of green and cleaner energy technologies to the developing
world. It will achieve this by strengthening collaboration between existing
"centres of excellence" that work on energy, development and environment
issues. And, through these centres, influence sustainable energy policies,
strategies and programmes. "The underlying rationale of the Network is that
it increases the capacity of developing country research institutions to
look at energy for sustainable development issues, says Mark Radka, head of
UNEP's Energy Unit. "Furthermore, it creates a shared research and
information base on policy and technical guidance, advice and information."
"Critically, the Network will help all partners to develop and apply
policies suitable to the needs and constraints of developing countries, thus
supporting the use of energy as an instrument for poverty alleviation and
sustainable development," he said.
Promising advances in energy-related technology hold a great potential for
sustainable development, particularly regarding renewable energy and energy
efficiency.
A number of
technology options (energy from wind, "new" biomass, solar, geothermal
sources) have been advanced to a state of technical reliability, and
technological developments continue to reduce costs. The challenge remains
to introduce or scale up the application of sustainable energy services.
Similarly, policy and regulatory challenges remain if these are to become
commercially viable options and able to compete with conventional and
environmentally harmful energy options that typically benefit from
favourable pricing conditions and perverse policy incentives.
"Technological solutions to energy problems are available today. We now need
the political will and action to implement them," Toepfer said. "The
choices humankind makes on energy in the next decade will largely determine
the history of the 21st century, and in particular whether we are able to
put ourselves securely on the path to sustainable development," he said.
88) BIODIVERSITY, CLIMATE, AND
DESERTIFICATION REGIMES STRENGTHENED BY NEW PARTIES AND FUNDING
OPPORTUNITIES
UNFCCC, CDB, CCD
August 30, 2002
Internet:
http://unfccc.int/press/prel2002/pressrel300802.pdf
Johannesburg,
30 August 2002 - As delegates in Johannesburg work towards broad agreements
on poverty alleviation and sustainable development, three issue-specific
treaties that contribute to these goals - the conventions on biological
diversity, climate change and desertification - continue to attract vital
support for carrying out their mandates. The biodiversity, climate change
and desertification conventions all have their roots in the 1992 Rio Earth
Summit. After a decade of institution-building and national and
international
action, they
provide coherent frameworks and practical tools for promoting sustainable
development. The Convention on Biological Diversity has thus far received
some $1.4 billion in funding from the Global Environment Facility and $2
billion in co-funding for country-driven projects to conserve and
sustainably use biodiversity. Meanwhile, since the start of the World Summit
on Sustainable Development, the CBD has welcomed two newcomers: Kuwait and
Bosnia-Herzegovina - bringing the total number to 185 parties. The CBD's
Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety has added six new parties - Austria,
Belarus, Bhutan, Denmark, the EC and Mexico - bringing the total to 31.
Fifty ratifications are required for entry into force.
The number of
ratifications of the Kyoto Protocol of the Climate Change Convention went up
drastically during the summit. The total number now stands at 89
ratifications, including developed countries representing 37.1% of the rich
world's carbon dioxide emissions, some two thirds of the way to the 55%
required for entry into force. In addition, the Protocol's Clean Development
Mechanism, one of the most important new instruments for financing
sustainable development since Rio, is fast becoming operational.
The UN
Convention to Combat Desertification, which until now has relied on a
so-called Global Mechanism for identifying possible sources of funding in
support of activities for reversing dryland degradation, is also opening up
new and concrete opportunities for financing. The WSSD has called for the
GEF to become a financial mechanism of the Convention and it is expected
that the next assembly of the Global Environment Facility to be held in
Beijing in October 2002 will agree to open its multi-billion dollar fund to
anti-desertification projects. The Convention to Combat Desertification has
welcomed seven new parties this year: Andorra, Somalia, the Slovak Republic,
the FYR of Macedonia, Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Maldives bringing
its membership to 184 parties.
89) CLIMATE CHANGE A BALLOONING PROBLEM FOR
DEVELOPING WORLD
Greenpeace International
August 21, 2002
Internet:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200208210574.html
As governments from around the world prepare for the
Earth Summit next week in Johannesburg, Greenpeace today launched a hot air
balloon with the message "Save the Climate" over Mae Moh, the biggest
coal-fired power station in Southeast Asia, to protest against the
continuing growth of fossil fuels globally. "Climate change starts right
here at Mae Moh and everywhere around the world that we continuously and
recklessly burn fossil fuels," said Athena Ronquillo- Ballesteros,
Greenpeace Southeast Asia campaigns manager. "Climate change is the biggest
environmental threat facing the planet and developing countries like
Thailand are most vulnerable to its effects on agriculture, livelihoods and
major ecosystems. Fossil fuels are a dirty, old fashioned way to generate
electricity and have no place in the 21st century, yet globally, rich
developed countries are continuing to push these climate- damaging
technologies on the developing world. Hypocritically, many of these same
countries are pretending to do something about climate change at home while
dumping their dirty technology abroad," Ronquillo-Ballesteros added.
Greenpeace is
calling on governments around the world to make a commitment at the Earth
Summit to provide affordable renewable energy to the two billion people
around the world who live without electricity, to phase out all subsidies to
fossil and nuclear fuels, and to ensure that 10% of global energy is
provided by renewable resources by 2010. Greenpeace is also seeking a
commitment that international financial institutions be required to move 20%
of their energy investments to clean, renewable energy. Mae Moh is the
oldest, largest and dirtiest fossil-fuel power plant in Thailand. The power
station complex covers 135 square kilometres of open cut lignite coal mine
and includes 13 power generation units. The mine has operated since 1955.
Construction of the power plant units began in 1975 and the last unit was
completed in 1995.
"Mae Moh is a
typical example of power stations built in the developing world with money
from rich countries, seeking to make profits by exporting dirty polluting
technology which would not be acceptable in the North," said Ronquillo-
Ballesteros. "For example, the last coal-fired power station built in the UK
was completed in 1972. Yet the UK, through its Export Credit Guarantee
Department, has funded fossil fuel and nuclear power generation projects
worth US$2.7billion each year, during the last ten years." The USA and
Australia - two of the countries doing their utmost to derail international
action on climate change, are also encouraging fossil fuel dependence in the
developing world. US corporation Mirant owns and operates some of the
biggest coal-fired power stations in the Philippines, such as Sual and
Pagbilao coal-fired power stations.
Edison,
another US company - in conjunction with a consortium of US, Hong Kong,
Japanese and Thai corporations - is proposing to build two power stations in
the Thai province of Prachuab Khiri Khan. Australia provides most of the
Philippines' imported coal and wants to expand its Thai market to provide
coal for the Edison projects. The UK French corporation, Alstom, has
provided technology for several existing coal-fired power plants in
Southeast Asia, including Sual in the Philippines, and is planning more.
"Like many developing countries around the world, Thailand is hungry for
clean, reliable and affordable power," said Ronquillo-Ballesteros. "This
will only happen if foreign investments coming into the country are diverted
away from fossil fuel projects to clean projects like solar, wind and modern
biomass."
Greenpeace is
supporting the campaign of local residents who have opposed these dirty
energy projects for the past eight years. Today's balloon protest is part of
Greenpeace Choose Positive Energy tour of Southeast Asia with the ship MV
Arctic Sunrise. Throughout the tour, the ship's crew, the staff from the
Greenpeace office of Southeast Asia and other Greenpeace offices have worked
with local communities in Thailand and the Philippines to fight the
development of dirty, polluting energy and promote clean renewable energy.
Tomorrow (22nd August) Greenpeace will launch its Alternative Energy
Scenario for Thailand, illustrating how renewable energy sources such as
solar and wind power, can meet Thailand's future electricity needs.
90) RAGING WATERS TORRENTIAL RAINS HAVE
LOOSED DEADLY FLOODS ALL ACROSS EUROPE. IS GLOBAL WARMING TO BLAME? Time
http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/article/0,13005,901020826-338594,00.html
91) THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN: A RESPONSE TO
BENITO MULLER AUBREY MEYER
Open Democracy
August 2002
http://www.opendemocracy.net/forum/Message_Details.asp?StrandID=83&DebateID=177&CatID=99&M=1308&T=1308&F=177
Aubrey Meyer is director of the Global Commons Institute
(GCI) Aubrey Meyer of the Global Commons Institute defends his pioneering
'contraction and convergence' approach to climate change as the only path to
survival. (See Climate New #1)
During the
past decade, negotiations at the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC), have become progressively divorced from the
objective and principles of the original agreement reached at Rio in 1992.
The objective had been to stabilise rising concentrations of greenhouse
gases in the global atmosphere below a level that would trigger dangerous
rates of climate change. The principles were precaution and equity. The
Kyoto Protocol of 1997, the result of the post-Rio negotiation, has been
recognised both as 'a heroic first step' and also as completely inadequate.
However arduously achieved, it is a creature of blame and shame resulting
from what was, effectively, guesswork. It is hardly a robust long-term
framework for survival.
There is a
real need for a global framework for survival that takes us beyond
guesswork. Contraction and Convergence (hereafter C&C) is such a model. The
Global Commons Institute (GCI)has advocated it at the UN and elsewhere
during the past decade. Precisely because it is a global accounting system
based on the objective and principles of the UNFCCC, it has attracted
increasingly influential support. Many governments at the UN support it, as
do eminent persons and institutions. C&C is a tool for negotiating the
totality of global greenhouse gas emissions contraction to save the climate
on the basis of precaution. At the same time, it offers a way of negotiating
the international shares of the process which addresses two fundamental
requirements - that the negotiation takes place on the logical basis of
equity (that is convergence to equal per capita shares or rights by all the
parties involved); and that the negotiation takes place on a global and
time-specific basis.
GCI's C&C-Options computer model simply provides the numbers
for all the possible rates of emissions contraction and, within this, all
the possible rates of convergence. GCI has its own views about what rates of
C&C will be effective, but in essence C&C is a straightforward calculating
procedure that makes possible a review of all the options and therefore an
effective, inclusive outcome that is both safe and fair. |