The environment in the news thursday, 22 May 2008
UNEP or UN in the news International Authorities Join Environment Day
Download 457.62 Kb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- UN chief urges junta to open up for relief
- General environment news
UNEP or UN in the newsInternational Authorities Join Environment DayThursday, 22 May 2008, 10:17 am Press Release: Business Council for Sustainable Development Media Release 22 May, 2008 International authorities lead NZ World Environment Day events Two of the world's foremost authorities on managing climate change will be joined by the Prime Minister Helen Clark and New Zealand business leaders at Auckland events to mark World Environment Day on June 4. The New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable development leads the programme for the day with a business breakfast featuring the Executive Director of the United Nations' Environment Programme, Dr Achim Steiner, who leads the world's response to climate change. Dr Steiner is one of the world's foremost voices on climate change and measures that business can introduce to mitigate the effects on the environment. He will be joined at the breakfast by New Zealand's Minister for Economic Development, Dr Pete Hodgson. Dr Steiner is widely regarded as an authorative and entertaining speaker on the areas he will discuss with the Business Council. He will focus on what he believes are both the major challenges and the many opportunities available to businesses around the world as they move to reduce their impact and develop new technologies to counter climate change. Immediately following the Business Council's business breakfast is a half-day business symposium to be opened by the Prime Minister Helen Clark and featuring Dr Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC). Dr Steiner will also chair one of the discussion panels at the Symposium. Among the business and Government leaders featuring on the various discussion panels are the Secretary to the Treasury, John Whitehead, and Business Council members and leaders Fonterra CEO Andrew Ferrier and Contact Energy CEO David Baldwin. "This combination of politicians, business leaders and leading international figures in the climate change debate is probably the most high-powered group assembled in New Zealand to highlight and discuss answers to the hugely pressing issue of Climate Change," says Business Council Chief Executive Peter Neilson. That's a sentiment echoed by the head of Victoria University's Institute of Policy Studies and the Climate Change Research Centre Dr Jonathan Boston. The Institute is the host of the Business Symposium. "What makes this symposium so valuable is that we are talking about opportunities and answers, some of which are already being implemented, while others are on their way for businesses wanting to take hold of the momentum that is building in this crucial field. "New Zealand leads the world into the United Nations' World Environment Day and we are fortunate, through the work of the Ministry of the Environment, and MFAT to have secured the calibre of speakers available for these two keynote events." The Business Council's Business breakfast is at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, Westhaven, at 7.30am on June 4 with the Business Symposium at the same venue immediately following the breakfast. RSVPs for limited seats still available at these events can be e-mailed to office@nzbcsd.org.nz. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0805/S00332.htm ……………………………………. UN chief urges junta to open up for reliefACHARA ASHAYAGACHAT Burma should open up for free movement of international relief aid and workers to help victims of Cyclone Nargis, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said yesterday. The UN chief made the call on the eve of his high profile, two-day visit to Burma, saying he would do his best to convince the Burmese generals to ease restrictions on international aid, and to secure well-coordinated medium and long-term relief efforts between the reclusive regime, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), and the international community. Burma was in a ''critical moment'' as the country had never before been struck by any disaster of this scale, while the distribution of relief aid could only reach 25% of the people in need so far, the UN chief said in a brief statement shortly after arriving in Bangkok yesterday. Mr Ban will travel to Rangoon today to begin his visit. He will hold talks with senior Burmese officials before flying to Burma's capital Naypidaw to meet Snr Gen Than Shwe, chairman of the ruling State Peace and Development Council http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/22May2008_news03.php General environment newsSplit Over Carbon Capture TechnologyBy Stephen de Tarczynski MELBOURNE, May 21 (IPS) - Australia’s plan to develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology -- whereby greenhouse gas (GhG) emissions from fossil-fuel fired power stations are trapped and stored rather than released into the atmosphere -- is pitting green groups against one another. CCS "is not a technology that is actually on the table to be used within the time-frame that we have," says Julien Vincent, a climate and energy campaigner with Greenpeace Australia Pacific. In a report released earlier this month by Greenpeace International -- titled ‘False Hope’ -- the environment group outlined the reasons behind its opposition to the development of CCS. These include concerns over energy wastage, the cost involved in setting up and maintaining CCS-based power plants -- as well the effect on "sustainable solutions to climate change" as investment is diverted towards CCS -- and safety issues. But underpinning Greenpeace’s wariness of CCS is the time factor. "If we had more time or we had any reason to believe that carbon capture and storage could come online sooner and make a contribution then obviously, with our goal to avoid runaway climate change, we would be considering it," Vincent told IPS. One major environment organisation which is not only considering CCS but supporting research into the technology is WWF Australia. A spokesman for WWF says that the technology must be developed in order to ascertain whether CCS will be a viable option for reducing carbon emissions. He argues that this needs to happen within the next five to six years. "At the moment we don’t know whether this works. But we need to know immediately, otherwise we need to drop it and get on with what we know works," the spokesman told IPS. Governments have begun the process of working on the question of the viability of CCS. The federal and Victorian state governments are involved in funding Australia’s first -- and purportedly the world’s largest -- geosequestration (also known as CCS) demonstration plant, which was launched in early April in Victoria’s south-west. Other CCS projects are in operation around the world, most notably in Norway, Canada, and Algeria. The process of geosequestration involves the capture of carbon dioxide emitted from the combustion of fossil fuels. The carbon is compressed, transported and then -- according to operators of the Australian project, the CO2 Cooperative Research Centre (CO2CRC) -- "injected into deep geological formations where it will be trapped for thousands or even millions of years." Fossil fuels -- such as coal, oil and natural gas -- currently supply around 85 percent of the world’s energy, yet the burning of these emit large amounts of GhGs. CO2CRC hopes that its project -- which will bury some 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide -- will demonstrate that the technology is safe and can "make deep cuts into Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions". As part of its first budget, the Rudd government announced on May 13 an AUD 500 million (481 million US dollars) fund -- to be rolled out over eight years -- to develop and deploy "clean-coal" technologies such as CCS. Greenpeace has dismissed this as "wasted money." WWF, while welcoming the government’s commitment to tackle climate change, is critical of the time-frame for the roll-out of the "clean coal" funds. "Allocating 500 million dollars over eight years is simply paying lip service to the scale of the climate change problem. We need 500 million dollars over one year, not eight years," says WWF Australia CEO Greg Bourne. In a seemingly odd partnership, WWF has joined the Climate Institute in aligning itself with the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU) and the powerful Australian Coal Association in calling for the creation of a taskforce to oversee a quicker implementation of CCS and for the government to make the technology a commercial reality. But Greenpeace argues that support of CCS should not be funded by taxpayers. "The mining industry and the minerals industry are highly profitable. They should be able to fund this themselves," says Vincent. Bourne opines that the government needs to be involved. "We can raise something like AUD 500 million a year by putting a AUD one per tonne levy on coal exports. That would be one of the ways in which we can really accelerate the technology." The WWF boss told IPS that it is vital that the government acts on legislative and regulatory requirements as well as infrastructure needs. "Companies can only do a certain amount of research before the risk becomes too high. Because if you pour a lot of money in, but the government hasn’t done any work, then you run the risk of having stranded research work," says Bourne. But the author of the Greenpeace report on CCS, Emily Rochon, described CCS as a "scam". "It is the ultimate coal industry pipe-dream," she said in a statement. Vincent supports this view. "There’s an inevitability that we need to phase out polluting industries such as coal." He argues that the coal industry is propagating a "false solution". "And you can understand why they do. Because they stand to lose out as we move away from fossil fuel generation," he says. Australia is a major producer and exporter of coal, the source of 85 percent of the country’s electricity. Of the coal mined in Australia, around 75 percent is exported. Greenpeace is continuing in its actions to oppose CCS. It says that a statement backing its report was signed by more than 100 international NGOs and climate groups, including 40 from Australia. Prior to the budget, Greenpeace collected 30,000 signatures in a petition calling for the government to invest in renewable energy sources rather than fossil fuels. While acknowledging that CCS is unlikely to have an impact on reaching 2020 emissions targets, a WWF spokesman told IPS that the technology is potentially "a major player in avoiding dangerous climate change." "But if it does work and is proven to work it could play a very significant role in meeting the world’s 2050 emission reduction targets," he says. http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42440 ………………………………………………. 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 457.62 Kb. Share with your friends:
|