BBC: Business chiefs urge carbon curbs

BBC: Business chiefs urge carbon curbs

By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website

Their blueprint for tackling climate change is being handed to Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda ahead of next month's G8 summit in Japan.

Companies involved include Alcoa, British Airways (BA), Deutsche Bank, EDF, Petrobras, Shell and Vattenfall.

They argue that cutting emissions must be made to carry economic advantages.

The business leaders hope their ideas will feed through the G8 into the series of UN climate meetings that are aiming to produce a successor to the Kyoto Protocol when its current targets expire in 2012.

Scientific and economic evidence assembled by the Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Stern Review mean, they believe, that taking climate action now would be prudent.

"While recognising that there are still some uncertainties in the scientific and economic evidence available, these CEOs conclude that a responsible risk management approach to the issue requires political and business leaders to take action now," the document states.

The companies involved span all of the G8+5 countries and virtually every major industrial sector.

Among the key recommendations are that:

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  All major economies, including developing ones such as China and India, should be included in the post-Kyoto deal, with richer countries committing to deeper and earlier emissions reduction
  
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  Governments should aspire to halve global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050
  
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  Governments and businesses should urgently explore bottom-up approaches to reducing emissions
  
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  A global carbon trading system should be established as soon as possible
  
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  Emissions caps should be applied flexibly across industry, with some sectors allowed leeway to preserve competitiveness.
  

"But the report makes it clear that business can't operate in a policy vacuum - we need strong leadership from governments."

Some of the report's elements fall close to aims already articulated by political leaders.

Last week, Mr Fukuda declared an ambition to cut Japan's greenhouse gas emissions by 60-80% by 2050.

But many environmental groups argue that shorter term targets are needed, as progress towards them is easier to gauge and backsliding more obvious.

The EU's ambition is to make cuts of 20% from 1990 levels by 2020. But the business coalition decided against setting a short term figure.

"Creating an environment that will encourage people to do things differently is more important than setting a global target," said Steve Lennon, managing director of the South African energy giant Eskom.

But environmentalists will argue that promoting a 2050 target that is "aspirational" rather than set in stone, and allowing wiggle-room for high-emitting industries, may lead to a relatively weak post-Kyoto deal.

There is no doubt that some of the companies in this coalition see economic opportunities arising from climate change solutions.

"We see enormous opportunities for the financial industry, beyond the challenge we face as global citizens," said Caio Koch-Weser, vice chairman of Deutsche Bank.

"If leadership is there to create a Kyoto successor that is based on cap and trade, then it creates a global carbon market - and then we are in business."

The CEO Climate Policy Recommendations to G8 Leaders are the culmination of a year of discussions facilitated by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).

Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
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Reuters: Tourism boom threatens Costa Rica eco-paradise

Thu Jun 19, 2008 8:30pm EDT

 By John McPhaul

TAMARINDO, Costa Rica (Reuters) - Pungent brown sewage spews into the Pacific ocean. In the background, cranes put up hotels and beachfront apartments.

Once home to monkeys, turtles and other rare wildlife, this stretch of coast in northwest Costa Rica is developing so fast that it is tarnishing the country's reputation as a destination for eco-tourists.

Some 1.4 million people visit Central America's richest country every year, but they no longer come just for the national parks that cover more than a quarter of its area and are home to almost 5 percent of the world's plant and animal species.

They also want sand, surf and even real estate.

The biggest stimulus came when the airport at nearby Liberia began handling international flights five years ago, putting the previously little-known Guanacaste province within, for example, three hours of Miami.

With tropical sunshine, sandy beaches and surf, developers saw a chance to attract everyone from surfers and honeymooners to U.S. retirees seeking a second home, transforming sleepy towns with names like Tamarindo, Quepos, Playas del Coco and Jaco.

The result is rampant construction that environmentalists fear could balloon into noisy, sprawling resorts with cruise ship ports and golf courses like those of Cancun, Mexico, which guzzle water and pollute the environment.

"These cases of poorly planned tourist developments in Costa Rica could affect the well-deserved reputation as a pioneer in eco-tourism," said Ronald Sanabria, a Costa Rican who works for the Rainforest Alliance, an international advocate for sustainability.

Already, Costa Rica has lost up to half of its monkey population in the last 12 years as developers expand into their jungle habitat, according to scientists at the University of Costa Rica.

Light pollution from Tamarindo is making life harder for leatherback turtles. The town's lights disorient the tiny hatchlings, sending them toward the luminescence instead of out to sea, where they are safer from predators.

"These large-scale tourism projects have big consequences for the environment," said Fabian Pacheco, of the Costa Rican Federation for the Conservation of Nature.

SURF'S UP

The issue is a familiar one in developing countries as they weigh the benefits of tourist dollars that come with high-rise hotels against the loss of greenery when virgin land is paved over.

Tourism is Costa Rica's top foreign exchange earner. Property developers point to the big contribution the construction sector makes to the economy, accounting for 5 percent of gross domestic product and growing by 16 percent last year.

The tourist boom has also created jobs in a poor region. "It's been good for the locals. Most of them are happy to have good, decent jobs," said Denise Shante, 51, a Canadian property broker who sells apartments priced up to $2.5 million.

As Costa Rica attracts more mainstream tourism, neighboring Panama is aggressively promoting its own eco-tourism credentials.

The breakneck development has the government and even the tourism industry worried.

When rains overflowed septic tanks in Tamarindo, tons (tonnes) of raw sewage flowed into the ocean and the resort lost its "blue flag" issued by Costa Rica's water utility to indicate healthy ocean water conditions.

"Costa Rica can no longer project the pure image of an eco-tourism paradise since reality shows investors are free to develop more and more projects without clear rules," the Costa Rican Hotel and Resorts Association warned in a report in May.

President Oscar Arias, whose government wants to cut the country's net carbon emissions to zero by 2021, has begun a crackdown at newer Pacific resorts, closing some businesses and ordering height restrictions on buildings near the beach.

"Tamarindo and Jaco got out of our hands, but our scientists are working on ways of assuring development that is compatible with nature," Arias told Reuters.

The Costa Rican Chamber of Construction says unregulated building is still going on, and in Tamarindo the most prominent feature is its building sites swarming with laborers.

The town, world-famous for its surf, bustles with surfers and tanned shoppers who fill its shops, bars and restaurants.

Some, like Shawn O'Neil, 28, a surfer from San Diego, California, say it is unfair to rope off pretty beaches for an elite who can afford expensive eco-resorts while shutting out those who prefer cheaper all-inclusive hotels.

"People say how built up Tamarindo is, but it doesn't seem like much after San Diego and Los Angeles."

(Reporting by John McPhaul; Writing by Robin Emmott in Mexico City; Editing by Eddie Evans)

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Reuters: Retreating Antarctic sea ice threatens southern whales

Thu Jun 19, 2008 4:04pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - The retreat of Antarctic sea ice because of global warming will threaten already endangered migratory whales by reducing their feeding areas, the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) said on Thursday.

The report, "Ice Breaker - Pushing the boundaries for Whales" says winter sea ice will retreat by up to 30 percent in some places, making the whales travel up to 500 km (310 miles) further south in search of food.

As well as retreating, the vital front between cold sea ice and warmer sea water which causes an upwelling of nutrients supporting the krill on which the whales feed will also contract, reducing the amount of food available.

"Essentially, what we are seeing is that ice-associated whales such as the Antarctic minke whale will face dramatic changes to their habitat over little more than the lifespan of an individual whale," said WWF officer Heather Sohl.

The longer migration paths will not only increase the energy the whales use to get to their feeding grounds but also reduce the duration of the feeding season because of the time taken to get there, the report said.

The report is timed to coincide with the 60th annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Santiago, Chile next week at which Brazil will proposed the adoption of a South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary.

Whaling nations Japan and Norway are also waging a determined campaign to get the IWC's 1982 moratorium on commercial whaling lifted.

Especially at risk from the retreating Antarctic sea ice are the Blue Whale, the world's largest living creature, and the Humpback Whale.

These are only now starting to stage a comeback after being hunted to the brink of extinction in the 20th century before the IWC whaling moratorium came into force.

Scientists predict that global average temperatures will rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius this century due to burning fossil fuels for power and transport -- with faster and greater warming at the poles.

The WWF predictions are based the assumption that average temperatures will rise by 2.0 degrees Celsius by 2042.

(editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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China Daily: Bridging The Iran-West Divide To Save Cheetahs
June 19, 2008

Iranian and Western wildlife experts are working together to save rare cheetahs from extinction in this arid, mountainous region, despite a nuclear row between their governments.

US- and British-based conservation groups are backing a campaign spearheaded by Iran's Department of Environment (DoE) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to prevent the endangered Asiatic cheetah from dying out.

Iran is believed to host the only 60 - 100 Asiatic cheetahs left in the wild. Some eke out a living in a forbidding terrain of jagged peaks, deep gorges and bone-dry plains in the Kuh-e Bafgh protected area in Yazd province in central Iran.

The sleek and spotted cats once roamed between the Arabian Peninsula and India, but their number in Iran is estimated to have fallen by roughly half in the last three decades.

"This is a wonderful case of the urgent conservation needs of the cheetah transcending political differences," executive director Luke Hunter of Panthera, a non-governmental organization (NGO) in New York, said in an e-mail. The United States, which severed ties with Iran after its 1979 Islamic revolution, is leading efforts to isolate the Middle Eastern country over nuclear work Washington suspects is aimed at making bombs, a charge Teheran denies.

But Hunter, an Australian, said he believed "both Iranians and Americans realize that we cannot afford to allow politics to affect the cheetahs. If we did, we could lose them." Iranian officials expressed similar views.

"I love anybody who works for conservation and wildlife protection. It doesn't matter who it is," said Ali Akhbar Karimi, a 59-year-old veteran from Iran's Department of Environment in Yazd province.

Until the first half of the 20th century, Iran was home to four of the so-called big cats - including lions and tigers - but now only leopards and cheetahs remain.

The Asiatic cheetah is closely related to its better-known African counterpart, a killing machine that can reach speeds of 100 km an hour in pursuit of its prey.

In Iran, cheetahs have been pushed close to extinction by increased population pressure and a lack of resources to protect them, with villagers hunting their prey for food and herds of sheep and goat encroaching on their habitats.

"We need to do something urgent to save them," said Iranian biologist Houman Jowkar, field director for US-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Yazd. "It is a national treasure." The Kuh-e Bafgh Protected Area, stretching for 885 sq km across a remote part of Yazd, is one of five such pockets of land in Iran where the cheetah still holds out, despite the poaching of gazelles and other prey.

It is hard to believe anything or anybody can thrive in the rocky and bushy landscape, parched brown already in May.

Temperatures here soar to around 50 C in the summer and plunge below freezing in winter.

Karimi said he had seen several cheetahs this year, including females with cubs, offering hope for the future.

Iran's Department of Environment and the UNDP joined forces to launch the cheetah project in 2001, with the help of well-known US wildlife biologist George Schaller.

His emergency recommendations included increased anti-poaching efforts and the appointment of new game guards.

Panthera and the WCS provide funds, expertise and training, while the Zoological Society of London also gives money.

In early 2007, the WCS introduced a program to trap up to eight of the cheetahs and fit them with radio-tracking collars to follow their movements and learn more about them.

Agencies
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