The environment in the news thursday, 30 August 2012

Instead, he said the Australian market would be linked to that which operates in Europe.

Financial express (Bangladesh): Dhaka most flood prone among world's 9 cities

Agosto 29, 2012 - HaitiLibre.com

As part of efforts to modernize agriculture, the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development (MARNDR) organized with the support of IICA and a funding of the USDA/CARDI, a training on protected agriculture (in greenhouses).

País: Haití

Agosto 29, 2012 - NTRzacatecas.com

Mérida.- El reto de la siguiente administración federal será generar políticas y estrategias claras para fortalecer la educación, ciencia, tecnología y especialmente el campo de energías renovables, las cuales tienen que ser prioridad nacional, señaló el especialista Eduardo Bárzana García.

País: México

Agosto 29, 2012 - Neuquen.gov.ar

Son organizadas por el ministerio de Energía, Ambiente y Servicios Públicos y participan unos 30 municipios y comisiones de fomento. La apertura estuvo a cargo del ministro de la cartera, Guillermo Coco.

País: Argentina

Agosto 29, 2012 - Jamaica Observer

THE Caribbean is, in the coming months, to see a move to strengthen public and private sector partnerships to bring about a reduction in land-based sources of pollution across the region.

Regional

Agosto 29, 2012 - Expreso

Intercia inauguró la primera planta para este tipo de desperdicios

País: Ecuador

Agosto 28, 2012 - Periódico Digital Centroamericano y del Caribe

El Instituto Nicaragüense de Estudios Territoriales (Ineter), la Universidad Nacional Agraria (UNA), la Fundación para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Agropecuario y Forestal de Nicaragua (Funica), el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) y otras organizaciones, llevaron a cabo un foro acerc

País: Nicaragua

Agosto 28, 2012 - La Hora.com.ec

Áreas protegidas de Ecuador UBICACIÓN: Se localiza en la parroquia El Morro, cantón Guayaquil, provincia del Guayas. EXTENSIÓN: 10.130,16 hectáreas DESCRIPCIÓN: Esta área está influenciada directamente por las corrientes marinas que llegan del Océano Pacífico y es diferente a las zonas interiore

País: Ecuador

Agosto 28, 2012 - Jamaica Observer

MONTEGO BAY, St James — Panther Corporation is providing 200 jobs with immediate effect for persons in western Jamaica for the construction of the Caribbean’s first solar-powered recycling centre in Montego Bay.

País: Jamaica

Agosto 28, 2012 - El Nuevo Diario

La región debe mantener los esfuerzos por lograr la "seguridad climática, alimentaria y ciudadana", destaca

Regional

Agosto 28, 2012 - Hoy Digital

El Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales y el Ayuntamiento de Santo Domingo Este firmaron hoy un acuerdo estratégica que consiste en la promoción y preservación ambiental de los recursos naturales de esa demarcación, así como de zonas aledañas.

País: República Dominicana

Agosto 28, 2012 - Diario de Centro América

Diariamente se producen 7 mil toneladas de basura en nuestro país. Durante la Conferencia del Cambio Climático, elaborada por Naciones Unidas en 2010, declararon a Guatemala como el segundo país más vulnerable de todo el mundo, a raíz de que en nuestro territorio aún no se cuenta con una cultura de

País: Guatemala

Agosto 28, 2012 - Science Daily

? Researchers at the University of Hawaii -- Manoa (UHM) School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) made a discovery that challenges a major theory in the field of coral reef ecology.
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RONA MEDIA UPDATE

THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS

Thursday, August 30, 2012
Reuters: Finance key as U.N. talks on climate deal resume

29 August 2012

The U.S., Japan and the EU will come under pressure this week to pledge billions of dollars a year from 2013 to help the world's poorest nations fight climate change, as negotiators from more than 190 countries meet to advance talks on a new global climate pact.

Delegates will gather for a week-long U.N. meeting in Thailand on Thursday to agree a work plan towards signing in 2015 a new pact that would force all nations to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases starting in 2020.

The talks are expected to put pressure on traditional richer nations to ensure pledges to provide $10 billion per year in climate finance do not expire in December without new aid emerging, and come as the world's largest economies struggle to rein in their debt and budget deficits.

"In Bangkok, governments will be forced to focus on the fact that at this stage no new money has been pledged for climate finance in 2013 and that up to 90 percent of the finance provided in 2010-2012 has simply been pre-existing foreign aid repackaged," said WWF in a media statement.

The issue could test a nine-month old negotiating alliance between the EU and poorer nations that was formed in Durban at last year's climate talks and was seen as crucial in putting pressure on big emitting nations to promise to sign up to a new deal.

"There will be pressure from small island states and least developed countries on the EU to make those pledges. I am sure that finance will get some airplay in Bangkok," said Wendel Trio, director of environmental group CAN Europe.

PROGRESS

The meeting is a pre-cursor to end-of-year ministerial talks to be held in Qatar, where the EU said it would adopt a second legal goal to cut emissions under the Kyoto Protocol starting in 2013, providing all nations have shown commitment to sign a new climate deal that will take effect after Kyoto 2 ends.

But progress on a global deal has been slow after negotiators at climate talks in Germany in June took a longer-than-expected five days just to agree who should steer the talks over the next three years.

Seasoned observers say unless things advance more quickly, the EU could stall on signing Kyoto, meaning no country would be legally bound by international agreement to cut emissions after this year.

"(Negotiators in Bangkok) will have to make decisions that give a little more flesh to the bones on the one-and-a half-page agreement in Durban," said Alden Meyer with the Union of Concerned Scientists, a long-term observer of U.N. climate meetings.

"Everyone knows if there is no progress on the Durban work plan then the (Kyoto) deal is off," he said, adding it was unlikely the EU would walk away from the treaty, but said heel-dragging could put off other countries from joining the bloc under Kyoto.

Last week, Australia's main opposition party, which is favored to win next year's general election, said it would not object to signing a second round of targets under the treaty, putting pressure on the current Labor government to act.

"I don't think Australia will come forward on the Kyoto Protocol in Bangkok," said Erwin Jackson, deputy CEO of Australia-based Climate Institute, adding that he expected the Australian government to hold out until Qatar before making its mind up.

EQUITY

Key to progress at the Bangkok talks will be if nations can resolve the highly-charged issue of whether advanced developing economies should be allowed to adopt softer emission targets than more traditional industrialized nations under any new deal.

Meanwhile the U.S. wants all nations to have the same type of targets backed by legal force - a move that would shatter a 20-year old principle in environmental politics that all nations share common but different responsibilities to tackle climate change.

"I think if they can get some agreement on the equity and differentiation front that would help. But that is going to be hard for countries like the U.S., who say the Durban Platform represented the death of the firewall between developing and developed countries," said Meyer.

Another thorny issue will be how to get countries to deepen voluntary pledges to cut emissions before a new treaty comes into effect in 2020 to ensure the planet does not warm to catastrophic levels.

Rich nations have pledged to cut emissions on aggregate up to 18 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, far below the 25-40 percent cut that scientists say is necessary to keep warming below dangerous levels.

"In Bangkok there are a number of workshops on how (those pledges) can be increased. Unfortunately given that not a single country appears to be moving, I am not optimistic," said Trio.

OTTAWA — Canada has joined with the United States and Israel in demanding the head of the United Nations abandon plans to visit Iran this week — for fear the Islamic Republic will use it for political gain.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird expressed Canada’s opposition to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s trip in a letter dated Aug. 23.

“Iran’s actions at home and abroad undermine the letter and spirit of the United Nations’ foundational documents.

“As custodian of this United Nations’ Charter, I implore you to reconsider this visit.”

Ban is travelling to Tehran to attend a summit of 120 countries that call themselves the Non-Aligned Movement.

The movement grew out of the Cold War and was initially comprised of nations that didn’t want to align themselves with either the United States and its allies, or the Soviet Union.

It has since grown into a powerful bloc at the UN, often supporting each other on key issues.

The summit comes amid Western efforts to isolate Iran over its clandestine nuclear program, poor human rights record and support for terrorism — including recent sanctions that have reportedly hit the ruling regime hard.

The U.S., Israel, Jewish groups and human rights organizations are all worried the Iranian government will use the visit as propaganda — a position Baird echoed.

“Iran’s current rulers will use your presence to further their own, hateful purposes,” Baird wrote.

“Such a visit would serve only to legitimize and condone the record of this regime, which Canada views as the single most significant risk to global peace and security today.”

Ban has reportedly promised to raise Iran’s human rights record and its nuclear program during his visit.

Its nuclear aspirations have been of particular concern because of fears it is trying to acquire a nuclear arsenal.

The Iranian government has repeatedly denied the charge, but that hasn’t calmed concerns, especially given its refusal to be open about its current activities.

Asked Tuesday whether Ban’s visit might be useful in addressing human rights or the nuclear question with Tehran, Baird told reporters such a discussion could happen instead when UN leaders meet in New York next month.

“What we’re concerned (about) is that his (Ban’s) presence will be used to bolster the regime politically,” Baird said.

“I just think they’re going to exploit his presence there for nefarious purposes.”

(The author is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own.)

By Gerard Wynn

LONDON Aug 29 (Reuters) - Dwindling Arctic summer sea ice is unlikely to spur new policies to curb fossil fuels without more evidence of environmental impact, given stalled U.N. climate talks and political attitudes to mineral resources.

The area of Arctic sea ice reached a record minimum on Sunday, in a 33-year satellite record, according to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC), following a progressive melt and thinning which could see an ice-free North Pole in summer within a decade or two.

That throws a spotlight on Arctic oil and gas, as explorers gain access, and the global sector as melting ice highlights the impact of carbon emissions through global warming.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimated four years ago that the Arctic region "may constitute the geographically largest unexplored prospective area for petroleum remaining on Earth," in the only publicly available estimate of the fossil fuel resource.

It calculated that the area north of the Arctic Circle contained about 13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil, 30 percent of the undiscovered natural gas, and 20 percent of undiscovered natural gas liquids, excluding unconventional resources such as gas hydrate and shale gas and oil.

The Arctic has warmed faster than the rest of the planet in part because of an effect where open water absorbs more heat than reflective ice, creating a self-perpetuating cycle of warming.

Surface temperatures last year over the Arctic Ocean were an average 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer compared with the 1981-2010 period, ten times 0.15 degrees warming globally, according to data from the U.S.-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Local impacts include threats to wildlife and coastal erosion from a larger expanse of open water.

Wider risks could include disruption of weather patterns in the northern hemisphere, and even release of the powerful greenhouse gas methane from vast ice-like deposits on the Arctic seabed and from melting onshore permafrost.

IMPACT

It would take palpable impacts to jolt an international energy response to melting Arctic ice.

Each considered a direct connection between Arctic ice melt and heavier-than-average snowfall in western Europe and the eastern United States in the winters of 2009/10 and 2010/11.

One proposed that warmer, open water in the Arctic was responsible for an observed slowing of the northern jet stream, leading to more persistent, "stuck" weather patterns at mid-latitude.

High latitude jet streams are speeded by a temperature gradient between less cold and extremely cold air at the north and south poles, much as a river flows faster down a steeper slope.

Both papers found that, for unclear reasons, less Arctic sea ice was correlated with an atmospheric circulation similar to that well known for bringing cold air and heavier snowfall to mid latitudes, meteorologically known as the negative phase of the winter North Atlantic Oscillation.

See this graphic, from the University of New Hampshire: link.reuters.com/cyv93s

The papers were a first attempt at unravelling the inevitable impact of a warmer Arctic Ocean on atmospheric circulation, but in the context of a short data record and the chaotic multitude of factors which drive the weather.

Contradicting the theory, the 2011 summer saw the third biggest Arctic sea ice melt on record, but was followed by a relatively mild winter in western Europe.

RESPONSE

Without firmer evidence for risk, an energy policy response will be muted.

U.N.-backed talks are the international forum for cutting global carbon emissions and curbing fossil fuels and have been a victim of consensus voting, where decisions must be agreed unanimously by 194 participating countries including oil exporters, which stand to lose out from CO2 cuts.

It seems there is little chance of a melting Arctic adding impetus to talks which have all but stalled since the latest round kicked off in 2007, the same year as the previous record ice melt, and which have since produced non-binding resolutions and no global deal.

Meanwhile, attempts to drive local action, such as Greenpeace's "Save the Arctic" campaign, appear optimistic despite a worthy aim to prevent spills in a unique place.

Greenpeace is campaigning for a moratorium along the lines of the 1991 Antarctic Protocol on Environmental Protection.

Some of the world's biggest energy producers including the United States, Norway and Russia ratified the Antarctic agreement, whose article 7 states that "any activity relating to mineral resources, other than scientific research, shall be prohibited."

But none of these countries border Antarctica, and a better signal may be their approach to the Brussels-based Energy Charter, the world's most internationally ratified energy treaty which 51 countries have signed.

It binds members to rules on energy access and arbitration in the case of disputes, for example to protect investors in oil pipeline projects while recognising national sovereignty.

European Union countries have ratified the treaty, alongside central Asian producers and consuming nations like Japan, but the United States, Canada, Russia and Norway have not.

The biggest Arctic natural gas resource is off the north coast of Russia, while the largest Arctic crude oil resource is off the northern coasts of U.S. Alaska and Canada.

These countries have exclusive rights to much of these resources, under the U.N. Convention on the law of the sea up to 350 nautical miles out, and it may require an unlikely, unilateral restraint not to exploit them. (Reporting by Gerard Wynn; Editing by Alison Birrane)