The environment in the news tuesday, 30 May 2006
ROAP Media Update 30 May 2006
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- UN Environment Program
- BAYERBoost scholarship offers experience and funds
- United Nations Environment Programme
- WHO to help Indonesia with vaccination, disease surveillance
- Emptying the Narmada and a forest
- UNDP-UNEP
- LAOS: SUEZ ENERGY INTERNATIONAL AND THE HOUAY HO DAM
- GE Says China Sales Could Soar Amid Energy Drive
- Flash Floods Strike Bangladeshi Islands
- Countries to jointly fight sandstorms
- Beijing to abolish traditional plough farming in three years
- Japan, China Eye Energy Cooperation for Better Ties
ROAP Media Update 30 May 2006UN or UNEP in the news China, India 'could slash energy use' China Daily, China - (Agencies)- Updated: 2006-05-30 - China, India and Brazil could reduce energy use by a quarter with simple efficiency schemes but banks have been sluggish to lend to such projects, an international study suggests. The three-nation report, led by the World Bank and the UN Environment Program, said many banks had overlooked chances to boost their profits by lending to help businesses cut energy waste while oil prices hover at around $US70 a barrel. "Cutting energy waste is the cheapest, easiest, fastest way to solve many energy problems, improve the environment and enhance both energy security and economic development," said Robert Taylor, a World Bank energy specialist who led the study. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-05/30/content_603731.htm also in: ‘China, India, Brazil could slash energy use’ Daily Times, Pakistan, 30 May 2006 - http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C05%5C30%5Cstory_30-5-2006_pg5_16 China, India 'could slash energy use' Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, 30 May 2006 - http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/China-India-could-slash-energy-use/2006/05/30/1148754967040.html China, India 'could slash energy use' The Age, Australia, 30 May 2006 - http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/China-India-could-slash-energy-use/2006/05/30/1148754967040.html BAYERBoost scholarship offers experience and funds Scoop.co.nz (press release), New Zealand - Tuesday, 30 May 2006, Press Release: Bayer NZ Environmental research and restoration main focus Applications are now open for an exciting new environmental scholarship scheme that offers senior secondary school and undergraduate tertiary students the chance to work in their chosen areas of study during the summer holidays. Known as BAYERBoost, the scholarship scheme is the result of a partnership between Bayer New Zealand Ltd and the Royal Society of New Zealand. …"Under the BAYERBoost scheme, students in conjunction with an employer or host organisation, are able to apply for funding that will essentially pay their wages during the summer break. However, their area of work must be involved in the areas of the environment, conservation or sustainable development. …"As a research-based enterprise, Bayer places great emphasis upon awakening enthusiasm among young people. Through our global partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme we already support several projects in the region aimed at increasing environmental awareness and improving knowledge of the environment. "In New Zealand we are delighted to be able to partner with the Royal Society and deliver a scholarship scheme that will help students not only with their studies, but financially too." This year's scholarships are worth between $3000 and $6000 depending upon whether students are secondary or tertiary. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0605/S00071.htm WHO to help Indonesia with vaccination, disease surveillance EastDay.com, China, 30 May 2006 - The World Health Organization (WHO) will help support vaccination campaigns and set up a disease surveillance system in Indonesia's quake-hit island of Java, the UN organization said yesterday. WHO will help organize vaccination campaigns against measles, which can be a major killer and spreads rapidly in crowded areas, said a WHO statement. …Besides, WHO has sent vehicles loaded with medicines and communications equipment into the quake-hit area, including with emergency health kits containing drugs and medical supplies for 50,000 people for three months, along with surgical kits to support 600 operations. … About 200,000 people are displaced from their homes. Bantul District, south of the ancient city of Yogyakarta and with a population of about 790,000, is reported to be the worst hit with the majority of houses destroyed. http://english.eastday.com/eastday/englishedition/world/userobject1ai2069678.html Emptying the Narmada and a forest Hindu Business Line, 30 May 2006 - Omkareshwar , Madhya Pradesh - At Omkareshwar on the south bank of the Narmada river, there are more human beings at the Omkareshwar dam site busy choking the river with cement and steel than pilgrims at the white temple of Lord Shiva, the destroyer. Lorries and dumpers line the stretch near the dam site as work goes on without a stop while Lord Shiva, also known as Mahakal, takes a commercial break from his vocation. In earlier times, the temple was girdled by the Narmada (for the public it is Narmadaji) and the Cauvery, a tributary, with pilgrims performing the parkirama (the roundabout) by foot or boat. The Cauvery is no more. Boulders and debris from the dam have finished it. Humans have taken over the job of Lord Shiva. … Motor down the Indira Sagar Dam along the Bhopal road and one can note vast depots packed with orderly piles of cut wood. It reminded one of pictures of Jewish skulls stacked up with a trace of pride by Hitler's Germany. Empty Narmada and an empty forest. "In the location of the project, biodiversity issues and the social economic consideration have found no place," says a UNDP-UNEP case study on India. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/05/30/stories/2006053001922000.htm General Environment News CIFOR REPORT: HOW INVESTORS IGNORE SERIOUS PROBLEMS WITH PULP MILLS By Chris Lang. Published in WRM Bulletin 106. In the last decade, financial institutions and investment banks have handed out more than US$40 billion for new pulp projects in the South. Analysts expect another US$54 billion to be invested in pulp mills in the South by 2015 much of it in Brazil, Uruguay, China, the Mekong Region and the Baltic States. We might assume that given the large amounts of money involved, the banks would carry out careful analysis before investing. Not so, according to a new report published by the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), "Financing Pulp Mills: An Appraisal of Risk Assessment and Safeguard Procedures". Inadequate research into proposed pulp projects "may lead to a new wave of ill-advised projects, setting up investors, forest-dependent communities and the environment for a precipitous fall," according to CIFOR. Asia Pulp and Paper's default on the US$14 billion that the company and its subsidiaries owed affected financial institutions around the world, but as CIFOR's Chris Barr pointed out to the Financial Times, "the financial sector has been reluctant to look at what the lessons of APP's collapse have been." http://chrislang.blogspot.com/2006_05_29_chrislang_archive.html LAOS: SUEZ ENERGY INTERNATIONAL AND THE HOUAY HO DAM By Chris Lang. Published in WRM Bulletin 106, May 2006 - "We want to hold accountable those companies that built or profited from the dam - the Korean company that built it or the Belgian company that owns the dam now. There should be letters sent saying, 'You are making money from this, why don't you take some responsibility and help all those people impacted by this project - allow them to move back?' We need to have enough land for us to be able to farm, which means moving to areas we consider our old territory, and we need to be given the right to live there with self respect and independence." A Nya Heun man, from Champasak province in the south of Laos, said this to Oxfam Australia's Melanie Scaife in November 2005. The dam he's talking about is the Houay Ho dam built by a consortium of Daewoo (South Korea), Loxley (Thailand) and Electricité du Lao. Electricity from the 150 MW dam is exported to Thailand. In 2001, Belgian company Tractebel Electricity and Gas International bought up a majority share of the dam. In 2003, after a merger, Tractebel EGI became Suez Energy International, a wholly owned subsidiary of multinational corporation Suez. Melanie Scaife's interview with a Nya Huen man who she called Boun, to protect his identity, is published in International Rivers Network's April 2006 issue of World Rivers Review. "Before the dam was built we used to have enough to eat," Boun told Scaife. "We fished the rivers, collected vegetables in the forest and had plenty of rice. We lived on our own without having to depend on aid or support from anyone else. Now in the resettlement areas, we are totally impoverished and dependent on others." http://chrislang.blogspot.com/2006_05_27_chrislang_archive.html GE Says China Sales Could Soar Amid Energy Drive CHINA: May 30, 2006 - BEIJING - General Electric Co., the world's second most valuable company, said it expects sales in China could double to US$10 billion by 2010, with some of that growth coming from the development of clean energy technologies. The International Energy Agency has said China needs to spend US$2.5 trillion by 2030 to meet its energy needs, but as a result of the country's already dynamic growth, pollution has become major issue because 70 percent of China's energy comes from dirty-burning coal. http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/36575/story.htm Flash Floods Strike Bangladeshi Islands BANGLADESH: May 30, 2006 - DHAKA - Flash floods triggered by early monsoon rains have washed away more than 400 houses in two Bangladeshi islands in the Bay of Bengal, officials said on Monday. Hundreds of people have been affected by the flooding in Kutubdia island, 45 km (30 miles) from the town of Cox's Bazar, but there has been no report of any casualties, a local official said. The other affected island was Maheshkhali, 15 km (10 miles) off Cox's Bazar, where some 70 houses were damaged by surging waters and landslides triggered by the rains. Floods in Bangladesh kill hundreds of people and make thousands homeless each year.Monsoon rains normally hit the country in the middle of June. http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/36578/story.htm Countries to jointly fight sandstorms People's Daily Online, China, 30 May 2006 - China plans to join forces with neighbouring countries in a drive to combat sandstorms. The storms are one of the most serious environmental issues affecting millions of Chinese and people in neighbouring countries, but officials hope they will be able to combat them by working in partnership with other affected nations. "By the end of the year we hope a special foundation will be established by China and neighbouring countries which were also plagued by sandstorms this spring, like South Korea and Japan," said Qu Guilin, director of the department of International Co-operation under the State Forestry Administration (SFA). Qu revealed the long-awaited plan at a press conference held during the Beijing International Conference on Women and Desertification, which opened in Beijing yesterday. http://english.people.com.cn/200605/30/eng20060530_269620.html Beijing to abolish traditional plough farming in three years People's Daily Online, China, 30 May 2006 - Beijing municipality has become the first area in China to announce the abolition of deep-plough farming methods in favor of environmentally-friendly conservation tillage. The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and the Beijing municipal government jointly announced the launch of conservation tillage on Monday. Under an agreement between MOA and the Beijing government, both sides will invest 80 million yuan (10 million U.S. dollars) to promote the conservation tillage methods to be used on more than 2.3 million mu (153,333 hectares) by 2008. Conservation tillage is widely used internationally and involves modern planting methods, allowing plant waste to decompose into the soil as a natural fertilizer. The ground cover provided by the waste also prevents wind erosion. http://english.people.com.cn/200605/30/eng20060530_269615.html Japan, China Eye Energy Cooperation for Better Ties JAPAN: May 30, 2006 - TOKYO - Japanese and Chinese officials expressed hope on Monday that a new initiative aimed at cooperating in saving energy and protecting the environment would help mend fences between the two countries. Sino-Japanese relations are at their lowest point in decades, weighed down by a territorial dispute and rows related to Japan's invasion and occupation of parts of China from 1931 to 1945. The two governments agreed on Monday to launch a policy dialogue aimed at thrashing out specific projects and goals on energy conservation. Japan also agreed to help train Chinese specialists in energy conservation and coal-mining. "It is important for us to seize this forum as an opportunity and launch a number of projects by holding dialogue and exchanges at various levels," Japanese Trade Minister Toshihiro Nikai said in a keynote address at the start of a three-day forum of government officials, business leaders and academics from Japan and China. http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/36577/story.htm ____________________________________________________________________________ Directory: cpi -> briefs briefs -> The environment in the news briefs -> The environment in the news briefs -> The environment in the news briefs -> The environment in the news briefs -> The environment in the news briefs -> The environment in the news briefs -> The environment in the news briefs -> The environment in the news briefs -> The environment in the news Download 154.69 Kb. Share with your friends:
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