The environment in the news
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Guardian Unlimited :World Bank must lead on climate change, says BennMark Tran Thursday April 12, 2007 The World Bank should challenge richer countries to help the developing world adapt to climate change and set "bold new targets" for investment in renewables, Britain said today. Speaking ahead of World Bank meetings in Washington at the weekend, Hilary Benn, the international development secretary, said poorer countries should not be expected to carry all the costs in the move to cleaner technologies. "We need international financing that helps to meet these extra costs - and the World Bank to lead in designing them and making them work," Mr Benn told an audience at the London School of Oriental and African Studies.
Britain, he said, was ready to do its part through the new £800m environmental transformation fund recently announced by the chancellor, Gordon Brown. "We have already earmarked £50m from this for the Congo basin to achieve the objectives we all have for sustainable livelihoods and climate change," Mr Benn said. A Greenpeace report, Carving up the Congo, this week illustrated the pressure for logging in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where 40 million people depend on the forests for their livelihood. Mr Benn said the bank needed to develop pilot projects that get enough money to poor people living in forests to give them alternative ways to improve their lives, other than deforestation. He said logging in the DRC had the potential to destroy not only livelihoods but hugely damage the world's climate: 34bn tonnes of carbon could be released if the country's forests were destroyed - equivalent to the UK's entire carbon output since 1946. "The World Bank now needs to set itself bold new targets for investment in renewables, energy efficiency, and low-carbon economic growth," Mr Benn said. "They must reflect the scale of challenge set out by recent reports, and the costs of not acting now." ________________________________________________________________________
BOGOR, Java, Indonesia, April 12, 2007 - A massive death of corals resulting from an earthquake off Aceh, Indonesia on March 28, 2005 was just discovered by scientists two years after the upheaval. They found that an entire island heaved more than a meter upwards, exposing and killing corals in unprecedented numbers. Last month, scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society's Indonesia Program and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, ARCCoERS, first investigated the condition of coral reefs off the province of Aceh on the island of Sumatra. In surveys that covered 35 sites along 600 kilometers (372 miles) of coastline, the scientists documented, for the first time, the effects of earthquake uplift on coral reefs. Dr. Stuart Campbell, coordinator of the Wildlife Conservation Society Indonesia Marine Program says, "This is a story of mass mortality on a scale rarely observed. In contrast to other threats like coral bleaching, none of the corals uplifted by the earthquake have survived." The entire island of Simeulue, with a perimeter of 300 kilometers (186 miles), was raised up to 1.2 meters (3.9 feet) following the March 2005 earthquake, exposing most of the coral reefs which ringed the island.
"This is a unique opportunity to document a process that occurs maybe once a century and promises to provide new insights into coral recovery processes that until now we could only explore on fossil reefs" says Baird. Campbell adds, "The news from Simeulue is not all bad. At many sites, the worst affected species are beginning to re-colonize the shallow reef areas. The reefs appear to be returning to what they looked like before the earthquake, although the process may take many years. "The challenge now is to work with local communities and government agencies to protect these reefs to ensure the recovery process continues," he says. The team found coral reefs ranging from diverse assemblages of branching corals in sheltered waters to vast areas of table corals inhabiting surf zones. The team also documented, for the first time in Indonesia, extensive damage to reefs caused by the crown-of-thorn starfish, a coral predator that has devastated reefs in Australia and other parts of the world. "Finding the starfish damage is particularly important," says Baird. "Most observers would attribute damage on this scale to more common reef threats in Indonesia such as cyanide fishing or bleaching. "People monitoring Indonesian corals reefs now have another threat to watch out for, and not all reef damage should be immediately attributed to human influences," he says. Many other reefs in the area continue to be damaged by destructive fishing including bombing and the use of cyanide although these practices are now illegal in Indonesia. Dr. Campbell says, "While reef condition in southwestern Aceh is generally poor, we have found some reefs in excellent condition as well as and evidence of recovery at damaged sites." Campbell and Baird are hopeful that coral reefs in this remote region can return to their previous condition and provide local communities with the resources they need to prosper. The scientists say recovery would be enhanced by management that encourages sustainable uses of these ecosystems and the protection of critical habitats and species. The Wildlife Conservation Society is based at New York's Bronx Zoo. Its Indonesia program is headquartered at Bogor, Java. The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, supported by the government of Australia, is based at James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef. ________________________________________________________________________
BELGIUM: April 13, 2007 BRUSSELS - Airlines should be required to buy more credits to emit carbon dioxide (CO2) than currently envisioned in a plan to include aviation in the European Union's emissions trading scheme, an EU lawmaker said on Thursday. Peter Liese, a German conservative lawmaker charged with steering a bill on the issue through the European Parliament, said deputies would push for more CO2 credits to be auctioned to airlines rather than given free of charge by EU governments. A draft proposal from the European Commission unveiled in December foresees auctioning only about three percent of the CO2 permits to airlines in 2011-2012, when the aviation sector is first slated to join the scheme, Liese told reporters. A non-binding European Parliament report approved in July called for 100 percent auctioning of permits to airlines. "We don't have a final view in the parliament as of yet, but I think there's going to have to be a compromise somewhere between 3 percent and 100 percent," he said. "It's the most fair allocation," he added. "When a percentage of permits is auctioned, then it's a clear market-based instrument without any political decision about how much permits anyone would get." Airlines say it is unfair to make them buy more permits when other industries already involved in the scheme are given most of theirs for free. Liese said money from such auctions could be used to help transport modes that are more friendly to the environment such as railways. Both parliament and EU member states must agree on a final version of the proposal before it can become law. The EU's emissions trading scheme is its key tool to fight global warming and meet commitments to cut emissions of greenhouse gas emissions agreed under the Kyoto Protocol. NO ROYAL EXEMPTIONS The scheme sets limits on the amount of CO2 -- the main greenhouse gas -- that big industries can emit and allows companies to buy or sell emissions permits depending on whether they exceed or undercut their limits. Airlines are not currently in the scheme. The Commission has proposed that inter-EU flights be included from 2011 and international flights that land in or depart from the 27-nation bloc be included from 2012. Liese said lawmakers did not favour a staggered approach and would suggest one date for aviation to join the system. He declined to name a date on Thursday, but said it would not be as late as 2013 as some have suggested to make the timing correspond with the start of the second phase of Kyoto. The parliament would also quash an exemption that would exclude government flights and those taken by royal families in EU member states from the scheme, he said. "I don't think that's right," Liese said. "We want that exception withdrawn from the Commission proposal, and I'm sure the parliament will confirm that when it votes." He said a vote on the draft legislation would likely be held in the parliament's plenary session in November. Story by Jeff Mason 
Reuters: Transport Seen Surging, Damaging Climate - UN Draft NORWAY: April 13, 2007 OSLO - Surging use of cars and planes will push up greenhouse gas emissions in coming decades, making the transport sector a black spot in a fight against global warming, according to a draft UN report. "Transport activity is expected to grow robustly over the next several decades," according to a 101-page technical summary of a draft report by the UN climate panel, the most authoritative on threats from global warming. The summary, to be issued on May 4 in Bangkok at a meeting of scientists and more than 100 governments, says efforts to curb emissions from transport "are faced with many barriers" despite options such as new engine technologies or biofuels. Transport, mostly trucks and cars, accounted for 26 percent of total world energy use in 2004 and, barring a major shift, "projections foresee a continued growth in world transportation energy use by 2 percent a year, with energy use and carbon emissions about 80 percent above 2002 levels by 2030." In some nations such as the United States, Italy and Australia car ownership is already 5 to 8 per 10 inhabitants -- 10 or 100 times more than in developing states. The study projects biofuels could rise to 3 percent of total transport fuel by 2030, or to 10 percent if a penalty for emitting heat-trapping carbon dioxide were US$25 a tonne. Measures such as tighter vehicle efficiency standards, lighter materials and better aerodynamics could double the fuel economy of new vehicles by 2030, roughly halving their emissions. It foresees more use of hybrid cars but says, for instance, the outlook for hydrogen powered vehicles is uncertain. The section on transport is part of a draft by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that says fighting global warming can be inexpensive but that governments are running short of time to avert big temperature rises threatening more droughts, heatwaves, floods and rising seas. About 2 percent of total carbon dioxide emissions from human activities come from aviation. Emissions from this sector are are likely to rise by 3-4 percent a year given projected annual traffic growth of 5 percent outpacing annual improvements in aircraft fuel efficiency of 1-2 percent, it says. Planes also damage the climate in other ways, partly by emitting heat-trapping nitrous oxides at high altitude. "These effects are estimated to be about 2 to 4 times greater than those of aviation's CO2 alone," it says. Extra charges for fuel or the inclusion of the aviation sector into a greenhouse gas trading system "would have the potential to reduce emissions considerably", it says. Story by Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ________________________________________________________________________
US: April 13, 2007 WASHINGTON - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told environmentalists on Wednesday they needed to stop nagging and make their cause sexy, likening it to bodybuilding's evolution from a weird pursuit to mainstream. "Bodybuilding used to have a very sketchy image," the former bodybuilding champion told an environmental forum at Georgetown University. "... It had fanatics and it had weird people. ...But we changed that. ... It became sexy, attractive." "Like bodybuilders, environmentalists were thought of as kind of weird and fanatics also, you know, the serious tree huggers," Schwarzenegger said. He said those pushing for limits on greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution were not on the fringe but in the center of the debate on global warming, adding that the environmental movement needs to get to the point where it "is no longer seen as a nag or as a scold." "We have to make it mainstream, we have to make it sexy, we have to make it attractive so that everyone wants to participate," Schwarzenegger said. In Washington to meet with the head of the Environmental Protection Agency and Democratic Sen. Diane Feinstein of California, the Republican governor said politicians who oppose acting to curb greenhouse gas emissions will endanger themselves. 'GOODBYE, MY LITTLE FRIEND!' "Your political base will melt away as surely as the polar ice caps," he said. "... You will become a political penguin on a smaller and smaller ice floe that is drifting out to sea. Goodbye, my little friend! That's what's going to happen." The Bush administration has been slow to act to curb emissions that spur global warming. The Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday it was still evaluating a Supreme Court ruling that gives the agency the power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Before his speech, Schwarzenegger talked with the agency's chief, Stephen Johnson, about California's request for federal permission to enforce tough state limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Johnson said on Tuesday California may not proceed until its request is evaluated; he said that process would begin "shortly." Schwarzenegger noted California's moves to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020 and to cut the carbon content in transportation fuels by 10 percent, acknowledging that these moves and others by his state would not turn the tide on global warming. However, he said what happens in California has impact around the globe, and among states and Canadian provinces that have become California's environmental partners. "We're going to change the dynamic of greenhouse gas and carbon emissions ourselves," Schwarzenegger said. "We are not waiting for anyone, we are not waiting for the federal government or Washington." Story by Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent ________________________________________________________________________
12/04/2007 Anger has erupted over the plan to allocate part of the forest to a sugar cane grower [Reuters]
Two men of Asian origin were stoned to death by protesters and security guards shot dead two demonstrators who were trying to break into a shop, police said. Troops in armoured cars were deployed in Kampala after police fired tear gas and live rounds to stop rioters attacking Asian businesses. Thousands had rallied in the capital against the plan to clear around 7,000 of the 30,000 hectares (75,000 acres) in Mabira Forest Reserve east of Kampala. The government plans to seek parliamentary approval before handing over the forest land to the Indian-founded Mehta Group for sugar cane farming. Military police beat and dispersed the demonstrators, who had also attacked motorists of Indian origin and burnt a truck that was carrying sugar. "All Indians should go back to Bombay. Mr President, let Mabira stay," read some of the placards brandished by the crowd. Temple Attacked As scores of demonstrators hurled rocks at police in pouring rain, officers rescued more than 100 Asian men besieged in a Hindu temple and elsewhere. Fifty-year-old Dipaul Patel said: "We were inside the temple and the protesters started attacking us from outside. "It was very frightening." One witness, Senusu Mugodansonga, said a mob killed an Asian man after he crashed a motorbike into them. Frank Muramuzi, the organiser of the demonstration, said the march began peacefully, before a "misunderstanding" with the police. "All of a sudden they opened fire with tear gas and live ammunition," Muramuzi said. Expulsion Idi Amin, Uganda's former military ruler, expelled Uganda's Asians in 1972. Thousands have returned, but they are viewed with suspicion by some Ugandans who resent their domination of many businesses. Police commanders had approved Thursday's march, called to protest against plans to cut down thousands of hectares of Mabira forest to expand the estate of a local sugar company, Scoul. Scoul is part of the Mehta Group. Environmental impact The controversy began last year when Yoweri Museveni, the president, ordered a study into whether to use part of the forest to grow sugar cane. Mabira - which has been a nature reserve since 1932 - is one of Uganda's last remaining patches of natural forest. The government's proposal has angered many Ugandans, with some saying the environmental costs of slashing the forest would far exceed the economic benefits of the plantation. Environmentalists say destroying Mabira could have grave ecological consequences, from increased soil erosion to the drying up of rivers and rainfall, and the removal of a buffer against polluting nearby Lake Victoria. They say it would also threaten monkeys and nine species found only in Mabira and surrounding forests. In a newspaper advertisement published on Thursday, Scoul said "anti-development lobby groups" were misleading Uganda's public about the company's plans for Mabira. "Scoul is very conscious of the environment and would not like to disturb the ecology," it said. ________________________________________________________________________ The Monitor Uganda: I Cannot Be Intimidated, Says Museveni (Kampala) April 13, 2007 Emmanuel Mulondo & Al-Mahdi Ssenkabirwa Wakiso PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni said yesterday that no amount of pressure from critics would shake him into dropping his plan to re-allocate part of Mabira Forest to the Mehta family for sugarcane growing. Speaking at the launch of the Prosperity for All (Bonna Bagaggawale) programme at Kakiri in Wakiso district, Mr Museveni hosted by Vice President Gilbert Bukenya said he had fought many wars, winning all them and would continue winning. He said lack of vision and foresight by critics would not help get Ugandans out of poverty. "That is why I enjoy those things I read about Mabira in newspapers. These people even put their thoughts on paper and this is where we shall beat them," he said. "We shall answer them. We are going to discuss this issue in Cabinet and we shall also discuss it in Parliament. I am going to mobilise my people," he said. The President attributed widespread poverty to failure by Ugandan to process produce and industrialise. He urged Ugandans to have at least an income generating activity in each household and always focus on producing things that bring in more revenue in case what they produce earns them little. At the ceremony, the President handed over 20 heifers to subsistence farmers to enable them graduate to commercial agriculture. Present were Speaker Edward Ssekandi, several ministers, MPs, district chairmen and other local politicians. Mr Museveni said his efforts to rid Uganda of poverty would not be sabotaged by anyone. "I cannot be intimidated. I cannot be out-shouted on radio. The future of Africa lies in processing. So when they are shouting on radio, let them know that I can also shout." He commended Prof. Bukenya whom he said was a good student of Bonna Bagaggawale. "Bukenya is a good student of Bonna Bagaggawale and I encourage other NRM leaders to emulate him." He also commended Dr Beatrice Wabudeya and Speaker Edward Ssekandi whom he said had also tried to cause change in their respective constituencies. He attacked MPs who he said were concentrating on "peripheral issues instead of addressing issues that affect their constituents." "We have talked about these things so many times but they (MPs) are not bothered," the President said as he pointed to the shade where MPs were seated. Recalling the bush war struggle in the area, Mr Museveni said he launched the first attack on Kakiri police station on April 6, 1981. "But I am not here now to attack the police station. I am here to attack poverty."
Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, Apr 12, 2007
The Security Council's primary responsibility is for the maintenance of international peace and security as set out in the U.N. Charter, according to the G77. All other issues, including those relating to economic and social development, are assigned by the Charter to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the General Assembly. The G77's strong reaction to the upcoming Security Council meeting, scheduled to take place on Apr 17, is expected to be reflected in a letter to Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry of Britain, current president of the 15-member Council. The decision to send a letter to Parry Jones was taken at a closed-door meeting of the G77 on Thursday. The letter is expected to say that the ever-increasing encroachment by the Security Council on the roles and responsibilities of other principal organs of the United Nations represents a distortion of the principles and purposes of the U.N. Charter, and also infringes on their authority and compromises the rights of the general membership of the United Nations. Ambassador Munir Akram, current G77 chair and permanent representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, said that some of the G77 members feel that the Security Council has gone beyond its mandate. He said issues such as nuclear non-proliferation and even terrorism are issues for the general membership. "The concept of the Security Council, as I read the U.N. Charter, is that the Council comes into action when there are actual threats to peace, and breaches of the peace," Ambassador Akram told IPS. On earlier occasions the Security Council had also "encroached" into ECOSOC and General Assembly territory by holding meetings on gender rights, HIV/AIDS, terrorism and U.N. procurement and peacekeeping. Last year, the Group of 77 under the chairmanship of South Africa protested the debate on U.N. procurement. But U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, then president of the Security Council, refused to remove the item from the agenda and continued with the one-day discussion despite protests from the G77. Akram said that some of these thematic issues are not threats to peace or breaches of the peace. But, of course, it is a matter of interpretation. Terrorism may be a threat to peace, he argued, but the Security Council is not dealing with an actual situation when it is involved in setting norms and creating international laws. "Law-making powers, according my interpretation of the charter, are clearly assigned to the General Assembly, not to the Security Council," he added. At a press conference last week, Parry Jones told reporters the very fact of holding a meeting on climate change and highlighting it was important. The meeting is to be chaired by British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, but there are no plans either to issue a presidential statement or adopt a resolution on climate change, the British envoy said. Meanwhile, the 117-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) has also criticised the British proposal to hold a meeting on climate change. Ambassador Ileana Nunez Mordoche of Cuba, current NAM chair, has expressed NAM's concerns "regarding the continued and increase encroachment by the Security Council on the functions and powers of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council and other organs through addressing issues which traditionally fall within the competence of the latter organs." China, which is a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, is a key member of the Group of 77, along with Ghana, Indonesia, the Republic of Congo, Panama, Peru, Qatar and South Africa -- all rotating non-permanent members of the same Council. Akram said that individual members have the full right to speak in their national capacities. "Some of them have said they will speak at the Security Council meeting while others have said they will not speak because they are challenging the authority of the Council to take up this issue," he told IPS. The issues of energy and climate change, which will be discussed at the meeting, are considered vital for sustainable development. But the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which took place in Johannesburg in September 2002, assigned responsibilities in the field of sustainable development to the General Assembly, ECOSOC, the Commission on Sustainable Development, the U.N. Environment Programme, the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol. But "no role was envisaged for the Security Council," Akram said. An Asian diplomat, whose country is a member of the G77, told IPS that intuitively, there would seem to be a nexus between environmental degradation brought about by climate change and the advent of conflict. This is clear to anyone who thinks that conflict is often about securing resources, for example, scarce water resources. But, the problem that one has in making an intellectual argument -- as to why the Security Council should discuss this -- is that one cannot seem to point conclusively to any one conflict as being an example, he said. "Why is it a threat to international peace and security?" he asked. There seems to be no conclusive study that makes the argument based on scientific research or exhaustive data. "This has given rise to the perception that this debate is being held either simply for the sake of having a debate or just to publicize the issue," he added. Otherwise, Britain should have introduced this as a formal agenda item for the Security Council to discuss. The fact that they are not planning follow-up meetings reaffirms this perception, he noted. (END/2007) ________________________________________________________________________
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