The Associated Press

    Thursday 21 February 2008

    Monte Carlo, Monaco - Private companies will soon be investing more than governments in cutting the production of greenhouse gases, the U.N.'s top climate change official said Thursday.

    Yvo de Boer said business efforts were good but also not enough - and that only a binding international agreement on cutting carbon emissions will make private sector efforts financially viable.

    "Business is really beginning to take climate change into account," de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention for Climate Change, told The Associated Press. "There's a momentum building in the finance community."

    He was speaking on the sidelines of a U.N. Environment Program forum in Monaco, the biggest meeting of environment ministers since international talks in Bali, Indonesia, in December produced agreement to adopt a plan by 2009 on collective worldwide efforts to reduce global warming.

    French nuclear manufacturing giant Areva announced Thursday that it went "carbon neutral" in 2007, joining the list of companies that say they have or plan to do so. An increasing number of multinational corporations are reporting their carbon footprint in their annual reports - and seeking to reduce it to please shareholders.

    Going "carbon neutral" generally means taking steps to compensate for the greenhouse gases that companies or individuals emit in doing business or in their daily lives. Such measures can involve funding projects that aim to reduce emissions elsewhere in the world of the gases blamed for climate warming, for example by giving money to plant trees, build hydroelectric dams, or provide cooking stoves that use less fuel.

    
    By Jonathan Fowlie and Fiona Anderson
    The Vancouver Sun

    Tuesday 19 February 2008

Province is first jurisdiction in North America to have consumer-based carbon tax.

    Victoria - Driving and other fuel-dependent activities are about to get more expensive as British Columbia becomes the first jurisdiction in North America to introduce a consumer-based carbon tax.

    The carbon tax will apply to virtually all fossil fuels, including gasoline, diesel, natural gas, coal, propane, and home heating fuel. B.C.'s carbon tax, the provincial government claims, will be the most comprehensive in the world.

    However, Finance Minister Carole Taylor vowed Tuesday that all money collected through the new tax will be returned through a package of tax cuts and credits.

    "We have to find a way that we can work towards improving our environment, but at the same time do it in a way that keeps our economy strong," said Taylor, as she presented a budget that, aside from the carbon tax, commits $1 billion over four years to fight climate change.

    The $37.7 billion provincial budget also promises an additional $2.9 billion over three years for health care spending. That brings the total health budget to $13.8 billion for the coming year.

    Taylor said the new carbon tax will begin July 1, starting at a rate that will have drivers paying about an extra 2.4 cents per litre of gasoline at the pumps.

    If you drive a Prius hybrid, the government estimates the new tax will cost you about $20 extra per year. If you have a Dodge Ram pickup truck, that number will be closer to $68 it says.

   
    By Margot Roosevelt
    The Los Angeles Times

    Wednesday 20 February 2008

    Low-income community groups in five California cities launched a statewide campaign Tuesday to "fight at every turn" any global-warming regulation that allows industries to trade carbon emissions, saying it would amount to "gambling on public health."

    The 21-point "Environmental Justice Movement Declaration" challenges the stance of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a national advocate of a cap-and-trade program that would allow heavy polluters, often located in poor neighborhoods, to partly buy their way out of lowering their emissions.

    "Under a trading scheme, 11 power plants to be built around Los Angeles could offset emissions by extracting methane from coal seams in Utah or planting trees in Manitoba," said Jane Williams of the California Communities Against Toxics, which fights pollution in low-income areas.

    The defiant tone of news conferences in Los Angeles, Fresno, Oakland, Sacramento and San Diego indicated that political turbulence might be ahead as the state Air Resources Board hammers out a strategy to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as required under a 2006 law.

    Until now, the debates over how to implement the law have been conducted in polite workshops with industry and environmental groups offering technical testimony to state air board officials. The agency must design a plan, due at the end of this year, to ratchet down emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, an effort that is likely to affect virtually every industry in the state.

    "Cap and trade is a charade to continue business as usual," said Angela Johnson Meszaros, director of the California Environmental Rights Alliance.

   
    The Associated Press

    Thursday 14 February 2008

    United Nations - Al Gore advised Wall Street leaders and institutional investors Thursday to ditch businesses too reliant on carbon-intensive energy - or prepare for huge losses down the road.

    "You need to really scrub your investment portfolios, because I guarantee you - as my longtime good redneck friends in Tennessee say, I guarandamntee you - that if you really take a fine-tooth comb and go through your portfolios, many of you are going to find them chock-full of subprime carbon assets," the former vice president said.

    Carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is the leading component of "greenhouse gases," which scientists say are playing a key role in warming the globe.

    Gore's remarks before a high-profile business crowd that collectively controls some $20 trillion in capital were intended to unleash a financial ripple effect that could force the world to start putting a price on carbon emissions.

    Gore, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to warn about climate change, compared the financial risks facing investors in carbon-using industries with the meltdown in the market for subprime mortgages given to people with blemished credit records or low incomes.

    "Similarly, the assumption that you can safely invest in assets that come from business models that assume carbon is free is an assumption that is about to go splat," he said. "You have lots of assets, many of you do, in your portfolios right now that truly do deserve that epithet 'subprime."'

   
    By Ashok B. Sharma
    The Financial Express

    Monday 11 February 2008

    New Delhi - The United Nations, apprehending that climate change can take a toll on agriculture, water resources, fisheries, forestry, public health and may increase the frequency of natural disasters ... has geared up to formulate appropriate support systems for the countries facing these challenges.

    "The UN systems would work in coordination with the national governments and other inter-governmental bodies. We are preparing a work plan in consultation with all these agencies. It will be deliberated in the UN Chief Executive Board, which will determine a coordination structure with key clusters of activity and specific lead agencies," said the executive secretary of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), Yvo de Boer, who was recently in India. He said global investments to the tune of $ 15 to 20 trillion was needed over the next 25 years to meet the challenges of climate change.

    In a draft document prepared after the Bali conference on climate change, the UN has noted that agriculture was both a source and a sink for greenhouse gases, as well as both a source and a user of energy. Water, land, bio-diversity and terrestrial ecosystem services would become stressed. This would impact food security and the ability to feed a population approaching 9 billion by 2050." Also, climate change impact on marine, coastal, estuaries and freshwater ecosystems is likely to affect many of the 200 million people directly or indirectly dependent on fisheries for their livelihoods, through changes in nature, distribution and productivity of aquatic resources," the draft document said.

   
    By John Vidal
    The Guardian UK

    Wednesday 13 February 2008

Leaked UN report says pollution three times higher than previously thought.

    The true scale of climate change emissions from shipping is almost three times higher than previously believed, according to a leaked UN study seen by the Guardian.

    It calculates that annual emissions from the world's merchant fleet have already reached 1.12bn tonnes of CO2, or nearly 4.5% of all global emissions of the main greenhouse gas.

    The report suggests that shipping emissions - which are not taken into account by European targets for cutting global warming - will become one of the largest single sources of manmade CO2 after cars, housing, agriculture and industry. By comparison, the aviation industry, which has been under heavy pressure to clean up, is responsible for about 650m tonnes of CO2 emissions a year, just over half that from shipping.

    Until now, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated shipping emissions to be a maximum 400m tonnes, but the new draft report by a group of international scientists is a more sophisticated measure, using data collected from the oil and shipping industries for the International Maritime Organisation, the UN agency tasked with monitoring pollution from ships. It not only shows emissions are much worse than feared, but warns CO2 emissions are set to rise by a further 30% by 2020.

    Contacted about the contents of the report, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the IPCC, said: "This is a clear failure of the system. The shipping industry has so far escaped publicity. It has been left out of the climate change discussion. I hope [shipping emissions] will be included in the next UN agreement. It would be a cop-out if it was not. It tells me that we have been ineffective at tackling climate change so far."