The environment in the news wednesday, 31 October, 2012
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- Back to Menu _________________________________________________________________ Forest News (CGIAR): Farmers help tiger conservation efforts in India
- Back to Menu ============================================================= Environmental News from the UNEP Regions ROAP MEDIA UPDATE
- Back to Menu ============================================================= ROLAC MEDIA UPDATE THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
- El Nuevo Diario (República Dominicana): RD es sede del diálogo sobre mitigación emisiones gases efecto invernadero
- Canal 15 (Nicaragua): Deforestación amenaza supervivencia de las aves en la isla de ometepe
- ACN (Cuba): Expondrán en la Isla peligros del cambio climático y daños costeros
- La Nación (Costa Rica): Cambio climático y transporte urbano alternativo
- Eldigital.com.mx (México): Preparan el “Primer Congreso de Educación Ambiental”
- Periódico Digital Centroamericano y del Caribe (El Salvador): El Salvador será sede de cumbre sobre medio ambiente
- Proceso Digital (Honduras): Honduras pierde anualmente 70 mil hectáreas de bosque, según informe del SICA
- ABC Color (Paraguay): Buscan proteger bosques en Paraguay
- Jamaica Observer: UN Atlas illustrates link between climate change, health
- SBS Radio: Climate change struggles of small island nations
_________________________________________________________________ Sydney Morning Herald (Australia): 'Carbon bubble' looms for fossil fuel industry: Gilding 31 October 2012 Global business leaders have been warned of a "carbon bubble" that will pop as nations accelerate their move into renewable energy and send the value of coal miners and other fossil fuel industries tumbling. Paul Gilding, an Australian environmental activist and former head of Greenpeace, told the opening of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) that Asia was leading a drive into solar and other renewable energy sources that would leave countries dependent on coal exposed. It will be "game over for coal" as the price of solar photovoltaic panels collapses, said Mr Gilding ahead of Wednesday's speech in Seoul. Australia's plans to ramp up its coal exports would probably not be realised as international efforts to limit the emissions of greenhouse gases add to the technological advances already under way, he said. Advertisement "I don't think that [export expansion] is going to take place because the world's going to move away from coal before we get there," he said. Overnight Tuesday, Scotland set a goal of meeting half its electricity demand from renewable sources by 2015, up from 35 per cent last year. It aims to get all its power from clean sources by 2020. Other countries, including from the European Union to China and South Korea, are stepping up efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Members of the WBCSD include global business giants such as Toyota, General Electric, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Shell. Wednesday's meeting was expected to include addresses by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. 'Radical' shift Mr Gilding author of "The Great Disruption," said his invitation to speak at the event reflected a shift taking place in business circles. "My message would have been too radical for them five years ago, whereas now it's sort of the centrepiece of the opening," he said. Companies and nations now have to cope with environmental constraints at a time when the health of the global economy was already weak, he said. "The global economy is in serious trouble, trapped between debt and growth," he said, according to the notes of his speech." If we grow successfully, our resource and climate challenges will break us. If we don't grow our debt will break us." Events such as Hurricane Sandy - which has left a damage bill of as much as $US45 billion for the northeastern US this week - highlights the point that "mother nature doesn't negotiate", he told the gathering. Mr Gilding said as many as half of those in the audience "won't make it" because their businesses were tied to industries, such as fossil fuels, that won't make the changes needed. "We know from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research that to reduce the risk of crossing that two-degree (Celsius) threshold to around 20 per cent — to give us an 80 per cent chance of not spiralling out of control — gives us a carbon budget," Mr Gilding said. "On current forecasts the entire budget — for burning coal, oil and gas — will be consumed in a little over a decade. "That will then leave around three-quarters of all the currently known, economically recoverable reserves unable to be burnt, reserves that are today the key assets of listed companies. "Just consider the consequences when the markets realise that financial carbon bubble could burst." Australia is the world's largest coal exporter, with the product behind only iron ore in generating export revenue, according to the Australian Coal Association's website. Thermal coal exports are projected to rise from 162 million tonnes to 271 million tonnes by 2017, while coking coal exports are on course to rise to 218 million tonnes by 2017, the website said. According to James Hansen, head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, known coal reserves alone hold about 600 gigatons of carbon, of which about one quarter have been burnt. Big winners, losers Mr Gilding said: "We're now at a point where business interests are no longer aligned amongst the business community. There are going to be big winners and big losers." He singled out global food producer Unilever as one company that was repositioning itself to ensure its supply chain could withstand increased competition for scarce resources. Mr Gilding said governments would also see advantage in diversifying their energy sources as they struggle to lower unemployment rates: "A US study found new renewable energy generation would create three times as many jobs per dollar invested as fossil fuels do." Government interest, though, may also come from their militaries. Mr Gilding said armed forces from Singapore to Germany and the US were aware of increased competition for water, food and other scarce resources — issues likely to be made worse by climate change. "It is a major issue of geopolitical power," he said. Technology may drive some of the change. If China dominates solar power, for instance, it would take away a major source of income for the Middle East, which is already an unstable region. Mr Gilding said the keen interest from armed forces showed such issues are no longer fears confined to environmentalists: "It's a very good indicator that the issue has reached a different stage." Back to Menu _________________________________________________________________ Prague Daily Monitor (Czech Republic): EC renews funding for transport and environment 31 October 2012 The European Commission has renewed payments from operational programmes Environment and Transport and almost Kc43bn came to the Finance Ministry's accounts, both programmes being among the largest and at the same time most problematic in drawing of subsidies from the EU. Ministry spokesman Ondrej Jakob told CTK that the EC had approved and paid on the ministry's applications for EUR876.4m (Kc21.7bn) from programme Environment and EUR845.8m (Kc21bn) from programme Transport. The EC suspended the payments from these two operational programmes in June 2011 (programme Environment) and August 2011 (programme Transport). Payments from a number of other programmes, central and regional ones, were suspended as well due to the EC's doubts about the way the Czech Republic is drawing money from the EU's funds. The release of subsidies for some operational programmes came already in July but the first payments from programmes Transport and Environment came only now, Jakob said. The EC proposed this year in October that it will not pay up to EUR500m (Kc12.5bn) worth of money from EU funds to the Czech Republic this year for its programmes Transport and Environment. Prime Minister Petr Necas earlier said that the Czech Republic was not losing the money because it could be used to finance other projects. Jakob said the same thing yesterday. "The operational programmes are losing no money from their allocation but new projects will have to be submitted so that the total amount of money be drawn," Jakob explained. Problems with drawing of subsidies by the Czech Republic peaked in the first half of this year. The EC reproached Czech authorities in particular shortcomings in control and audit. The Finance Ministry therefore in March stopped asking the EC for retroactive payment of the subsidies that the state is paying to the recipients first from its own budget. Audits in several subsidised programmes followed, including the two largest ones - Transport and Environment. By these two programmes, the EC has proposed "financial corrections" equal to 5 percent from the volume of expenditures paid to the recipients by August 31, 2012 by the Operational Programme Environment and 10 percent by the Operational Programme Transport. "The Czech Republic has accepted the financial corrections and pledged to apply them by gradually lowering the sums in the applications for the payments," Jakob said. The total financial correction amount is Kc1.7bn by programme Environment and Kc9.5bn by programme Transport. Of this, Kc1.6bn (Environment) and Kc4.8bn (Transport) has already been deducted from the applications for payments submitted by the EU on October 18, 2012, he added. In 2007 - 2013, the Czech Republic can gain up to Kc798.7bn (with the use of the crown's current rate) from Brussels within all its programmes. Authorities paid Kc348.3bn to recipients of subsidies between 2007 and the beginning of July 2012. The Czech Republic is drawing subsidies from the EU by means of 26 operational programmes. Its authorities manage seventeen programmes and other programmes concern, for example, cross-border cooperation with the neighbouring countries. Transport is the largest operational programme in the Czech Republic. The EC has earmarked EUR5.77bn (Kc147bn) for it. Programme Environment is only a bit smaller. The Transport Ministry will ask the EU by the end of January 2013 for the payment of Kc18bn for transport projects, minister Pavel Dobes said at a press meeting yesterday. Together with the Kc43bn paid thus far, the ministry would thus draw over 40 percent of the total amount of money from the Operational Programme Transport. Dobes named some substitute projects for which the subsidies could be used, for example modernisation of motorway D1, the oldest and longest motorway in the Czech Republic which after completion is to connect Prague, Brno and Ostrava, and new sections of motorway D3 which will lead from Prague to Ceske Budejovice and the Austrian border. Like the other projects, these constructions have to be completed by 2015 for the subsidies to be paid. Dobes still believes that the entire sum of Kc147bn will be drawn from the Operational Programme Transport and that the Czech Republic will not have to return any money to the EU. Back to Menu _________________________________________________________________ Forest News (CGIAR): Farmers help tiger conservation efforts in India 31 October 2012 Smallholder farmers living on the fringes of a tiger sanctuary in southern India found themselves in a lurch after it was declared a protected area in the early 1960s. The unrestricted harvesting of firewood, nuts, fodder and medicinal plants from the sprawling forest —a practice their forbearers had always taken for granted— was suddenly illegal. But thanks to an innovative agroforestry programme, today the villagers have enough of these and other products for use and sale—with no need to pull from the plush canopy of the Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve. While such protected areas are the first, and often only, line of defense in efforts to protect biodiversity, studies by the Center of International Forestry Research indicate their ability to either benefit or harm local communities depends largely on how they alter both economic opportunities and access to natural resources. By working with the farmers, researchers are showing the importance of trees in improving livelihoods and the ecology of landscapes, said Rengaian Ganesan, a scientist with the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) in India. Ganesan said when the project started in 2006, they found that farmers living on the fringes of the nature reserve – a biodiversity hotspot — had acute fuel wood and fodder shortages. “There were not many trees on their intensively farmed plots in the wetlands bordering the forest,” he said. “The boundary between the villages and the reserve also appeared to be uncharacteristically sharp, with hardly any buffer or transition zone.” It turned out local communities were buying fuel wood from collectors harvesting a large area of forest, about 10 square kilometres. Rather than throw their hands up in despair or advocate stricter no-go rules in the park, Ganesan says he and co-researchers asked two important questions: What was the real demand for fuelwood of these villages? And could these demands be satisfied outside the forest? A 17-month census of fuel collectors revealed that 28 tons of wood were being collected monthly from the forest to be sold for fuel in the three villages dotting the perimeter. To prevent this and further destruction of the reserve, they would have to find an alternative, reliable source of about 300 tons of wood per year to meet the needs of the residents. The researchers soon realised that the solution lay right at their feet: the wood could be raised in the villages just outside the forest, by the smallholder farmers themselves. In a “multi-purpose homestead gardening and greening project,” ATREE project staff worked with the farmers to quickly increase the tree cover on the land. Fifty-four different species were raised from saplings. Most were native species, but exotic fast-growing multipurpose trees were also used. Some were grown in nurseries, others in backyards—quite often by women acting alone or in organized groups. “The creation of income-generating work for women and families represents a major fringe benefit of the project,” said Ganesan. Three years into the project, trees can be seen growing in common spaces in the village, and under-utilised areas such as farm borders, around lakes and irrigation channels. The creation of income-generating work for women and families represents a major fringe benefit of the project. So far, households have collected around 700 kilograms of fuelwood, fruits, fodder for their livestock, and in addition sold timber worth around US$100 from their village-grown trees. The households continuously add new saplings to their plots, further enriching the biodiversity of the villages. “The trees in the villages act as a mosaic of ‘transition forest,’ providing habitats or food for a diversity of creatures—from wild animals to pollinators,” he adds. Ganesan said the agroforestry programme coordinated by ATREE has brought many intangible benefits, such as the preservation of traditional knowledge on trees, and renewed ownership of a wealth of tree genetic resources by local communities. Following Ganesan’s talk, Tim Christophersen of U.N. Environmental Programme said the ATREE model should be copied widely. “Kenya, where I currently live, imports US$4 million worth of timber from the Democratic Republic of Congo each year, which represents a huge stress on the Congo Forest and River Basin,” he said. “Yet with a similar model, this timber could be farmed locally in Kenya.” Research by CIFOR, meanwhile, indicates heavily forested developing nations hoping to benefit from Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation—a U.N.-backed schemed aimed at mitigating the effects of global climate change—have a lot to learn from integrated conservation and development projects linked to protected areas like this one. Success or failure has in the past varied depending on whether the focus is on management and the status of certain species or changes in land use. The speed with which projects are implemented can also dictate the outcome. Back to Menu ============================================================= Environmental News from the UNEP Regions ROAP MEDIA UPDATE THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS Wednesday, October 31, 2012 Business Recorder: 'Over 60 percent of land projected to become urban by 2030 yet to be built' 31 October 2012 Global urbanisation will have significant implications for biodiversity and ecosystems if current trends continue, with knock-on effects for human health and development, observes a new assessment by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The assessment 'Cities and biodiversity outlook', which draws on contributions from more than 123 scientists world-wide, stated that over 60 percent of the land projected to become urban by 2030 has yet to be built. This presents a major opportunity to greatly improve global sustainability by promoting low-carbon, resource-efficient urban development that can reduce adverse effects on biodiversity and improve quality of life, it says. The 'Cities and biodiversity outlook' is the world's first global analysis of how projected patterns of urban land expansion will impact biodiversity and crucial ecosystems. It was produced by the Secretariat of the CBD in partnership with the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC) and Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI). The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity operates under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The report observed that the world's total urban area is expected to triple between 2000 and 2030, with urban populations set to double to around 4.9 billion in the same period. This urban expansion will draw heavily on water and other natural resources and will consume prime agricultural land. According to the report, urban expansion is occurring fast in areas close to biodiversity 'hotspots' and coastal zones. In rapidly urbanising regions, resources to implement sustainable urban planning are often lacking. Cities are also increasingly recognised for their role in supporting plant and animal species and diverse ecosystems. Urban green spaces perform important ecosystem services, such as filtering dust, absorbing carbon dioxide from the air and improving air quality. Data from the United Kingdom shows that a 10 percent increase in tree canopy cover in cities may result in a 3-4 degrees Celsius decrease in ambient temperature, thus reducing energy used in air conditioning. It states that urban biodiversity also delivers important health benefits. "Studies have shown that proximity to trees can reduce the prevalence of childhood asthma and allergies. Sustainable urban planning, which addresses biodiversity issues along with other priorities such as poverty alleviation, employment, and housing, can bring positive effects for health and the environment," it added. http://www.brecorder.com/general-news/172/1253011/ Back to Menu _________________________________________________________________ Planet Ark: China to raise environmental bar for mining projects: association 31 October 2012 China is expected to issue new guidelines by the end of the year to encourage metals miners to conserve domestic resources and protect the environment, a director at the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association said on Tuesday. Hu Changping, director of heavy metals at the association, said Beijing aims to tighten the requirements on firms allowed to mine metals and will announce the guidelines before the end of this year. "Copper, lead and zinc mines will be included," Hu told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry conference in Xiamen, in the southeastern province of Fujian. Authorised firms would be required to submit mining project proposals to the Ministry of Land and Resources and also receive approval from environmental authorities. No other details of the scope of the guidelines were immediately available. Back to Menu ============================================================= ROLAC MEDIA UPDATE THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS Wednesday, October 31, 2012 For a full summary of news from Latin America and the Caribbean region, visit: http://www.pnuma.org/informacion/noticias/2012-10/30/index.html Ver todas la Noticias Ambientales http://www.pnuma.org/informacion/noticias/2012-10/30/index.html El Nuevo Diario (República Dominicana): RD es sede del diálogo sobre mitigación emisiones gases efecto invernadero Octubre 30, 2012 PUNTA CANA, República Dominicana – El desarrollo de acciones de mitigación de cambio climático y la definición de estrategias políticas ambiciosas son los temas abordados en el diálogo regional que se realiza en este municipio, organizado por el Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP) con los auspicios d Canal 15 (Nicaragua): Deforestación amenaza supervivencia de las aves en la isla de ometepe Octubre 30, 2012 Miembros de Fauna y Flora Internacional celebraron una feria para plantear el cuido de las aves y su ecosistema en la Isla de Ometepe. 170 especies de aves habitan en la Isla de Omepete, según el monitoreo que realiza Fauna y Flora Internacional.
Más de 500 ambientalistas de 77 países se reunirán el próximo mes en El Salvador para discutir estrategias de trabajo internacional a favor del medio ambiente. Caribbean to benefit from Smithsonian marine biodiversity project Octubre 29, 2012 - Green Antilles Outcome magazine reports on a major long-term project to study coastal marine biodiversity and ecosystems around the globe. The project is made possible by a $10 million donation from Suzanne and Michael Tennenbaum, to the Smithsonian research institute. Regional
Proceso Digital (Honduras): Honduras pierde anualmente 70 mil hectáreas de bosque, según informe del SICA Octubre 29, 2012 Tegucigalpa - El miembro de la comisión de ambiente y desarrollo del Sistema de Integración Centroamericana (SICA), con sede en El Salvador, Carlos García, dijo que Honduras pierde unas 70 mil hectáreas de bosque anualmente por la desforestación e incendios forestales. ABC Color (Paraguay): Buscan proteger bosques en Paraguay Octubre 29, 2012 La Agencia de los Estados Unidos para el Desarrollo Internacional (USAID) implementa nueve proyectos pilotos para fomentar un manejo forestal más sostenible y disminuir la deforestación de bosques nativos. Jamaica Observer: UN Atlas illustrates link between climate change, health Octubre 30, 2012 GENEVA, Switzerland — The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) have teamed up to launch an Atlas of Health and Climate meant to be used by governments to get early warnings on outbreaks of diseases following climaterelated natural disasters. SBS Radio: Climate change struggles of small island nations Octubre 30, 2012 Small island nations from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific are making common cause on climate change. El Nuevo Día : Sufren los anfibios el cambio climático Octubre 29, 2012 Se altera el comportamiento de algunas especies de ranas tropicales 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 186.95 Kb. Share with your friends:
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