ChinaDialogue News

Clean energy act may save $3 billion in the Philippines

China Dialogue — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:35:00 -0400

The Philippines can save over US$2.9 billion now that the country's Senate has passed the Renewable Energy Act -- legislation that had spent 19 years in limbo -- a study by WWF and University of the Philippines has found.

The savings will come from increasing the country's renewable energy
share in its power generation mix from 0.16% to 41%, the report said.
These renewable energy sources include wind, solar, ocean,
run-of-river hydropower and biomass.

The money saved by creating more renewable energy can be used for
social and infrastructure programs, the report added. "We can send 17
million children to school, build 250,000 classrooms, establish
135,000 health centres, feed three million families and build 38,000
kilometres of farm-to-market roads," Renewable Energy Coalition
spokesperson Catherine Maceda told WWF.

The landmark legislation aims to accelerate the development and use of
the nation's vast renewable energy resources through fiscal and
non-fiscal incentives for investors.

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Climate change may hit penguin colonies

China Dialogue — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:04:00 -0400

A global temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius could cause the decline or disappearance of half to three-quarters of the major Antarctic penguin colonies, according to a new WWF report.

The report states that 50% of Emperor penguins and 75% of Adélie
penguins are under threat.

A global temperature rise has already reduced the ice cover in the
Southern Ocean, which is an essential nesting and feeding ground for
Emperor and Adélie penguins. Krill populations -- a vital food source
for penguins -- have also declined.

Many scientists regard a two-degree rise in global average temperature
above pre-industrial levels as the threshold level for unacceptable
risks of catastrophic climate change. Most climate-change models
forecast such a rise could be a reality in less than 40 years.

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Researchers debunk "China energy myth"

China Dialogue — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 08:18:00 -0400

China's air pollution is not caused by outmoded energy technology or the absence of government regulation, a study by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology finds. The detailed survey says the problem lies in the complex interactions between market forces, commercial pressures and new types of governmental regulation.

The report involved dozens of managers at 85 power plants across 14
Chinese provinces, and found that while most new plants were built to
very high technical standards, there were problems in the way that the
energy infrastructure was being operated and the types of coals being
burned.

New market pressures encouraged plant managers to buy the cheapest,
lowest quality and most polluting coal, the report said. At the same
time, expensive-to-operate smokestack scrubbers or other cleanup
technologies lay idle.

The researchers said the situation is more amenable to change than
people may assume. "With expanding regulatory capacity and
increasingly sophisticated efforts to regulate through market-friendly
pricing mechanisms, reformers could achieve change relatively
quickly", report co-author and associate professor at MIT, Edward
Steinfeld, said.

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Cities must do more to protect nature, says UN official

China Dialogue — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:18:00 -0400

The world's cities must do more to protect animals and plants by increasing parkland, planting trees and recycling resources, Reuters reported the UN's top biodiversity official as saying.

Cities cover just 2% of the planet's land area but dictate 75% of the
use of the world's natural resources, Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive
secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, told Reuters.

"This growth of cities is not in developed countries, but in
developing countries where there is still biodiversity. We want to
make sure that this growth is not at the expense of biodiversity," he
added.

Half of the world's population lives in urban areas, according to the
UN. That proportion is expected to rise to two-thirds by 2050.

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Drought resistant GM crops "in four years"

China Dialogue — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:13:00 -0400

Farmers will be able to grow genetically modified drought-resistant crops in four to five years, scientists told the Guardian.

Varieties of drought-tolerant oilseed rape and maize were already
being tested in field trials in the United States, the report quoted
David Dennis, the chief executive of Performance Plants Incorporated
in Kingston, Ontario, as saying. Dennis claimed the new varieties can
increase yield by 40% when the plants are most water-stressed.

Global warming is predicted to make arable land in developing
countries less productive or unusable. GM advocates claim
drought-resistant crops could play an important role in adapting to
these new challenges.

However, opponents of GM crops say the scientists' claims are
exaggerated. "We would take any claims that these crops are just
around the corner with a large pinch of salt because we have heard it
all before," said Claire Oxborrow of Friends of the Earth.

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Indonesian rain forests "under palm oil threat"

China Dialogue — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 10:50:00 -0400

Indonesia must do more to save rain forests in Papua from destruction, particularly with plans to open up huge tracts of land to develop palm oil plantations, environmentalists said.

Indonesia is the world's biggest producer of palm oil, an industry
which has been sharply criticised for destroying rain forests and
wildlife. According to Reuters, the country hopes to open up 6 million
hectares of forest in the province of Papua, which comprises a
majority part of the western half of the island of New Guinea, to the
palm oil industry. The report comes despite Indonesia's earlier
pledges to protect its forests with international carbon trading
projects.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reports
that Indonesia has the fastest deforestation rate in the world, at
almost 1.9 million hectares per year.

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Climate change is linked to diseases

China Dialogue — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:26:00 -0400

A Wildlife Conservation Society report has warned that rising temperatures due to global warming may increase the spread of a “deadly dozen” diseases, including avian flu and yellow fever, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Released at an environmental conference in Barcelona, the report stressed that even minor disturbances in global temperatures could increase the spread of disease in wild animals, which then may be passed on to humans. Governments were urged to better monitor wildlife heath in order to keep track of how pathogens may spread with climate change.

The diseases listed in the report included avian flu, tick-borne babesia, cholera, ebola, parasites, plague, lyme disease, red tides of algal blooms, Rift Valley fever, sleeping sickness, tuberculosis and yellow fever.

“The term ‘climate change’ conjures images of melting ice caps and rising sea levels that threaten coastal cities and nations,” said Steven Sanderson, who heads the New York-based conservation society, “but just as important is how increasing temperatures and fluctuating precipitation levels will change the distribution of dangerous pathogens.”

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FAO urges review of biofuels policy

China Dialogue — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:16:00 -0400

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) cautioned that increasing the world's use of biofuels would only push up global food prices while having little effect on greenhouse-gas emissions, Reuters reported.

In its annual "State of Food and Agriculture" report, released Tuesday, the FAO found that "while biofuels will offset only a modest
share of fossil energy use over the next decade, they will have much bigger impacts on agriculture and food security."

Calling for an urgent review of "current policies supporting, subsidising and mandating biofuel production and use", the agency
urged more funding toward "second-generation" fuels from non-food plant matter, such as algae or straw.

The global food-import bill is expected to jump 26% to US$1.035 trillion in 2008, due to price rises in rice, wheat and vegetable
oils, the FAO said. The agency noted that a rise in biofuels has put more people at risk of hunger and in need of assistance.

The report also states that while crops used for biofuels -- such as maize, sugar, oil seeds and palm oil -- do soak up carbon dioxide as
they grow, the fuel used in their cultivation and processing decreases that efficiency. If trees are cleared to plant the crops, it continued, any gains can be lost.

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US has two years to create critical polar-bear habitats

China Dialogue — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 11:37:00 -0400

As part of a legal settlement with environmental groups, the US interior department has two years in which to designate areas of the Arctic as critical habitat for polar bears, thereby protecting those areas from oil development, Reuters reported on Monday.

Oil drilling is the most significant source of habitat loss for polar bears and after global warming, which has been causing significant
melting of Arctic ice in recent years.

Three environmental organisations -- the Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council -- are
still suing the interior department to mandate the regulation of greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide and other gases are considered the
primary sources of the rising temperatures leading to habitat loss for Arctic wildlife. The environmental groups also want to have polar
bears listed as "endangered", a more critical classification than the current "threatened".

Oil companies are increasingly turning to the Arctic waters as
potentially lucrative areas for drilling.

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Pollution poisons Guangxi villagers

China Dialogue — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 09:36:00 -0400

More than a hundred villagers in southern China have been poisoned after drinking water apparently contaminated by arsenic from industrial waste, the Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday.

Quoting the Xinhua report, the Associated Press said 136 residents of
two Hechi city villages in Guangxi region began to show a variety of
symptoms -- including swelling in the face and eyes, vomiting and
blurred eyesight – last week. Excessive amounts of arsenic were found
in their urine. Xinhua said the poisoning was not serious and the
villagers would recover with immediate treatment. Safe drinking water
was being transported to the area.

The contaminated water is believed to come from a metallurgy company
that had discharged water rich in arsenic before 2005. Then, the water
seeped underground and tainted a local pond, Xinhua said, citing a
government investigation.

China's rapid economic growth has brought with it a surge in heavily
polluting industries. The country's leadership recently has become
more sensitive to the environmental costs of the economic boom.

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