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The main impact of climate change will be on water supplies and the world needs to learn from past cooperation such as over the Indus or Mekong Rivers to help avert future conflicts, experts said on Sunday.

Green Business | COP15

Desertification, flash floods, melting glaciers, heatwaves, cyclones or water-borne diseases such as cholera are among the impacts of global warming inextricably tied to water. And competition for supplies might cause conflicts.

"The main manifestations of rising temperatures...are about water," said Zafar Adeel, chair of UN-Water which coordinates work on water among 26 U.N. agencies.

"It has an impact on all parts of our life as a society, on natural systems, habitats," he told Reuters in a telephone interview. Disruptions may threaten farming or fresh water supplies from Africa to the Middle East.

"Therein lies the potential for conflicts," he said. Shortage of water, such as in Darfur in Sudan, has been a contributing factor to conflict.

But Adeel said that water had often proven a route for cooperation. India and Pakistan have worked to manage the Indus River despite border conflicts and Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia have cooperated in the Mekong River Commission.

"Water is a very good medium (for cooperation). It's typically an apolitical issue that can be dealt with," said Adeel, who is also director of the U.N. University's Canada-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health.

250 MILLION

Regions likely to become drier because of climate change include Central Asia and northern Africa. Up to 250 million people in Africa could suffer extra stress on water supplies by 2020, according to the U.N. panel of climate experts.

"There are many more examples of successful transboundary cooperation than conflict over water," said Nikhil Chandavarkar, of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and Secretary of UN-Water.

"We are trying to take the examples of good cooperation -- the Mekong, the Indus are examples. Even where there were hostilities in the surrounding countries the agreements did function," he told Reuters.

Adeel said that water should have a more central role in debates on food security, peace, climate change and recovery from the financial crisis. "Water is central to each of these debates but typically isn't seen as such," he said.

And efforts to combat global warming will themselves put more strains on water because of rival economic demands -- such as for irrigation, biofuels or hydropower.

Adeel noted efforts to manage water supplies by counting how much water goes into products -- from beef to coffee.

One study showed that it took 15,000 litres to produce a pair of blue jeans, he said. Making industries aware of water use could help shift to conservation. He said the world might reach a "millennium goal" of halving the proportion of people without access to safe water by 2015 but was failing in a related target of improving sanitation. About 2.8 billion people lack access to basic sanitation.

esident Gives Biofuels a Boost
Categories: Biofuel
Tags: biofuels, environment, EPA, ethanol, Obama

The nation's biofuel industry got a major push yesterday as President Obama announced a plan to produce 36 billion gallons of ethanol and advanced biofuels a year by 2022 to meet a mandate in the 2007 energy bill. The New York Times reported that the country now produces 12 billion gallons of mostly ethanol per year. The plan is to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases while spurring the country's clean-energy industry.

At the same time, the Environmental Protection Agency, said that new data showed that biofuels can improve the climate by displacing fossil-based fuels.

"Today's action by the EPA will help expedite the development and deployment of an entire new slate of high performance advanced biofuels," said Advanced Biofuels Association President Michael McAdams. "A more robust advanced biofuels industry will not only help put Americans back to work, but will also ensure a better tomorrow for future generations as it lowers greenhouse gas emissions."

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Anti-whaling protest group Sea Shepherd said a Japanese whaling vessel "intentionally rammed" one of its protest boats on Saturday during a standoff in Antarctic waters.

Green Business

The harpoon ship Yushin Maru 3 hit the protesters' vessel Bob Barker off Cape Darnley in Australia's Antarctic territory, penetrating its hull, the group said in a statement posted on its website.

Despite the incident, which occurred in the early afternoon eastern Australian time, the Bob Barker continued to try to block the activities of Nisshin Maru, the factory ship of the Japanese whaling fleet, the group said.

"No crew was injured during the collision. The Bob Barker continues to block the slipway of the Nisshin Maru, preventing the transfer of slaughtered whales and effectively shutting down illegal whaling operations," Sea Shepherd said in a statement.

The incident follows the sinking of another Sea Shepherd protest boat, the Ady Gil, during a collision with Japanese whalers in early January.

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Scant ice over the Arctic Sea this winter could mean a "double whammy" of powerful ice-melt next summer, a top U.S. climate scientist said on Thursday.

Green Business

"It's not that the ice keeps melting, it's just not growing very fast," said Mark Serreze, director of the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center.

In January, Arctic sea ice grew by about 13,000 square miles (34,000 sq km) a day, which is a bit more than one-third the pace of ice growth during the 1980s, and less than the average for the first decade of the 21st century.

Arctic ice cover is important to the rest of the world because the Arctic is the globe's biggest weather-maker, sometimes dubbed Earth's air-conditioner for its ability to cool down the planet.

More melting Arctic sea ice could affect this weather-making process; it is unlikely to lead to rising sea levels, any more than an ice cube melting in a glass of water would make the glass overflow.

If Arctic ice fails to build up sufficiently during the dark, cold winter months, it is likely to melt faster and earlier when spring comes, Serreze said by telephone from Colorado.

"We've grown back ice in the winter, but that ice tends to be thin and that's the problem," he said. "You set yourself up for a world of hurt in summer. The ice that is there is also thinner than it was before and thinner ice simply takes less energy to melt out the next summer."

With less of the Arctic sea covered in ice in winter, and with the existing ice thinner and more fragile than before, "you've got a double whammy going on," Serreze said.

This more perishable thin ice is prone to early melting, and when it does, the heat-reflecting light-colored sea ice is replaced by heat-absorbing dark-colored ocean water, which accelerates spring and summer melting in the Arctic.

This winter, there were unusually warm December temperatures in the Arctic due to a weather pattern known as the Arctic oscillation, so ice grew more slowly than normal.

In January, that pattern shifted to produce cooler Arctic temperatures. The ice extent -- the area the ice covers -- was below normal over much of the Atlantic sector, including the Barents Sea, part of the East Greenland Sea and in the Davis Strait.

There was above-average ice extent on the Pacific side of the Bering Sea, the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported.

The last three years -- 2007, 2008 and 2009 -- had the lowest level of ice extent since satellite records began in 1979.

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If fighting climate change was an Olympic sport, the organizing committee for this month's Vancouver Winter Games would have won a bronze medal, a report released on Wednesday says.

Green Business | COP15

Organizers have done a good job in areas such as building energy-efficient sports venues, but have fallen short in other areas such as offsetting the carbon emissions produced by Games-related transportation, according to the David Suzuki Foundation, a leading Canadian environmental group.

"A bronze is good, but we could have done better," said David Suzuki, founder of the group, which has been working with Vancouver Games organizers on environmental issues.

The report found fault with the International Olympic Committee, saying that while it promotes the idea of protecting the environment, it does little to make sure local organizers follow-up on their promises to do so.

"Tellingly, most people aren't even aware that environment is one of the three official pillars of the Olympic movement," the report's authors wrote.

Vancouver, on Canada's Pacific Coast, made a series of environmental commitments when it was awarded the Winter Games, which begin February 12, and the report said the event will likely be remembered as being environmentally friendly overall.

Among the most lofty goals set by organizers was to attempt to make the event carbon neutral, offsetting the greenhouse gas emissions generated by building venues and transporting athletes to Vancouver.

Vancouver has done a better job on cutting emissions than past Winter Olympics hosts, but it has not addressed the biggest source of Games-related emissions, those produced by spectators, the foundation said.

"Without offsetting spectator air travel, which accounts for about half of the climate impact of the Vancouver Olympics... the Vancouver Olympics cannot make an unqualified claim to be carbon neutral," the authors said.

The report was also prepared before organizers began trucking large amounts of snow to a mountain venue near Vancouver that has been struggling with unseasonably warm temperatures since the beginning of the year.

Suzuki cautioned against drawing a direct link between global warming and the sudden snow melt at the venue, Cypress Mountain, but added; "That's the kind of thing that climate change would lead to."

Organizers said they were pleased to have won a bronze, and that their efforts may be viewed even better after the Games because spectators have not yet seen some of the programs they have planned to promote environmental issues.

Vancouver does have a voluntary program to help spectators offset carbon emissions from air travel to Vancouver, but only about 5 percent of the people expected to come have signed up, an official said.

The Suzuki Foundation praised some of the technology being used at venues, such as a system that recaptures heat from the sewage system at the newly built Vancouver athletes' village.

On a Pacific beach in Costa Rica, a researcher whispers the number after counting the slimy, round white eggs just laid by a rare leatherback turtle in a hole dug in the sand under bright moonlight.

Turtles like this 1.5 meter (5 ft) female have probably been struggling out of the surf at night since before the dinosaurs disappeared 65 million years ago. The region is the main nesting site in the east Pacific for the critically endangered species.

Numbers of leatherbacks emerging onto this Costa Rican beach fell to 32 in the 2008-09 season from 1,500 two decades ago -- due to factors such as nearby hotels, poaching of eggs, accidental snaring in fishermen's nets and global warming. Arrivals so far this season are slightly up.

Far from the beach, other experts may give a new argument for conserving the turtles by studying whether their fast-clotting blood can give clues to aiding humans, or if the way they regulate buoyancy can inform submarine design.

In 2010 -- the International Year of Biodiversity -- the United Nations wants efforts to slow the accelerating pace of extinctions to reach beyond nature lovers, to companies and economists.

Shifting emphasis from emotional images of polar bears, pandas or leatherbacks that stress the fragility and beauty of nature, the focus is on a harder-headed assessment of how the natural world is a key to economic growth and new products.

"Boosting biodiversity can boost the global economy," the U.N. Environment Programme said in a headline over a statement launching the theme. Natural services by coral reefs, forests or wetlands are too often undervalued, it said.

But profits from imitating nature have often been elusive. By some U.N. estimates, three species an hour are going extinct, most of them before they have even been identified.

"It's like we have a house full of wedding presents," said James Spotila, a professor of environmental science at Drexel University in Philadelphia. "And we're throwing them out of the window before we even open them."

EXTINCTION CRISIS

U.N. reports say the world is facing the worst spate of extinctions since the dinosaurs vanished, due to factors such as expanding cities, forest clearance, overfishing, climate change and species disrupting new habitats.

Yet a hectare of intact coral reef, for instance, can be worth up to $1 million a year for tourism, up to $189,000 for protecting coasts from storms, up to $57,000 as a source of genetic materials and up to $3,818 for fisheries, according to a preliminary U.N.-backed study in late 2009.

The problem is translating such estimates into cash.

"I always ask: 'where's the business proposal?'," said Gunter Pauli, head of Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives which looks for opportunities in nature.

Many pharmaceutical firms rely on nature. Among recent examples, scientists developed the malaria drug artemisinin from sweet wormwood, while the Madagascan periwinkle and Pacific yew tree have both yielded treatments for cancer.

Beyond medicines, firms are looking to "biomimicry," tricks evolved by nature such as adhesives inspired by the feet of gecko lizards that can walk on ceilings, or cellphone screens imitating iridescent butterfly wings to generate colors.

Companies including Royal Dutch Shell, Dupont and Nike work with the Montana-based Biomimicry Guild, which seeks to identify new ideas.

"It's so fun to see the light go on in their eyes. They can see 'we can make money and do the right thing'," said Sherry Ritter of the Guild.

Still, Pauli said only three biomimicry products had secured annual turnover over 100 million euros ($144.3 million).

These are Velcro -- Swiss inventor George de Mestral was inspired in the 1940s by plant burrs trapped on his dog's fur -- hypodermic needles which Terumo Corp modeled on the jab of a mosquito, and paints derived from a self-cleaning trick by the lotus plant, sold by U.S. Sto Corp. and other groups.

ABALONE KEVLAR?

"A lot are nice, romantic ideas," Pauli said. "The abalone (shellfish) produces materials stronger than Kevlar: correct. Commercial viability: zero. It's too complicated."

Among new business ideas, he said coffee farms in Colombia had created 10,000 jobs by using coffee waste as fertilizer to grow edible tropical mushrooms. In turn, the remaining waste can be sold as animal feed.

"If you say: 'can we talk about triple cash flows?' then the entrepreneur gets interested," he said, referring to the three income sources in such a project.

Studies showing the utilitarian value of nature are an extra reason for conservation, said Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

It is only natural that these approaches, and the new data they generate, are receiving more attention since their estimates are suddenly becoming more robust, he said.

"Biodiversity decline is predominantly caused by economic activities in the broadest sense, and the policy debate all too often tends to pit 'economic' interests against 'environmental' interests. The recent work shows that this juxtaposition is fundamentally flawed," he said.

The "Copenhagen Accord," agreed by some nations at U.N. climate talks in 2009, will also seek to promote the use of tropical forests to soak up greenhouse gases, a new source of income for poor nations.

Spotila, a leatherback turtle expert, said turtle blood is quick to clot to avoid giving sharks a scent that can bring an attack. Scientists are studying turtle blood for possible clues to stem bleeding in humans, for instance after surgery.

And the leatherbacks, the biggest species of turtle, can dive deeper than other turtles, leading experts to wonder how they regulate buoyancy. That and the shape of their shells could give clues to submarine or ship design.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature is seeking corporate sponsors to slow losses of species after the world failed to reach a U.N. goal, set in 2002, of slowing the rate of extinctions of animals and plants by 2010.

"We failed miserably," said Jean-Christophe Vie, deputy head of IUCN's species program. He said using economics to make the argument for protecting nature is often only stating the obvious.

"We need an economic argument, but I find it very sad," he said. "Things like fisheries, timber, pollination, clean water. Can you imagine the size of the economy or company needed to (protect) that?"

On Playa Grande, researchers such as Tera Dornfeld mark the site of the eggs after the female turtle has filled in the hole with her giant rear flippers and returned to the ocean. Later, the eggs will be dug up and transferred to a hatchery.

In a local economic battle, park managers fear developers may win permission from politicians to develop hotels, roads and villas closer to the remote beach.

"I fear that more development here would be the final nail in the coffin for the turtles," said Frank Paladino, professor of biology at Indiana Purdue University and director of research in the Las Baulas park that covers the beach.

In one sign of hope, an aging poster on the wall of the research center says the turtles could all be gone by 2010. A turtle and her 49 eggs have proven that wrong.

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Brazil granted an environmental license on Monday for the construction of a controversial hydroelectric dam in the heart of the Amazon rainforest.

Green Business | Brazil

The $17 billion project on the Xingu River in the northern state of Para will help the fast-growing Latin American country cope with soaring demand for electricity but has raised concern about its impact on the environment and native Indians.

Environment Minister Carlos Minc said 97 square miles/500 sq km of land would be flooded by the Belo Monte dam, a fraction of the 1,900 square miles/5,000 sq km, in the original plans that involved four hydroelectric dams. It was scaled down for ecological reasons.

Around half the area, or 48 square miles, are already flooded naturally for part of the year during the rainy season.

"The environmental impact exists but it has been weighed up, calculated and reduced," Minc said.

The 11,000-megawatt Belo Monte dam is part of Brazil's largest concerted development plan for the Amazon since the country's military government cut highways through the rainforest to settle the vast region during its two-decade reign starting in 1964.

Dams, roads, gas pipelines, and power grids worth more than $30 billion are being built to tap the region's vast raw materials, and transport its agricultural products in coming years.

The license lists 40 requirements that must be fulfilled by the company that wins the bid to construct the dam -- before it can begin building. It includes more studies, construction of local infrastructure and maintenance of the local environment.

The winning bidder would have to pay 1.5 billion reais ($803 million), the estimated cost of fulfilling these demands through public and private entities. It includes the cost of rehousing an estimated 12,000 people who would be relocated.

"Not one Indian on indigenous land will be displaced," he said. Others living in one town outside protected lands would be resettled and compensated, he added.

Environmental groups say the Belo Monte project, which will also create a waterway to transport agricultural commodities grown in the Amazon, would damage the sensitive ecosystem and threaten some fish species.

Minc said measures would be taken to prevent the extinction of some species and protect the livelihoods of those who make a living by fishing, both for food and for the rare ornamental fish that live in the river.

Minc said it was unlikely more dams would be added to the project in the future, but he did not rule it out.

Among the utilities wanting to build and operate the dam are Brazil's state-run Eletrobras. ($=1.866 reais)

(Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier and Maria Carolina Marcello; Writing by Peter Murphy; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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Britain needs to focus on more than just carbon dioxide emission cuts and manage its water, waste and food resources better to remain competitive, a report by the Aldersgate Group said on Monday. The group is a coalition of businesses, non-governmental organisations, think-tanks and individuals.

Green Business | COP15

In a report to the British government, it said UK businesses could save 6.4 billion pounds a year by the improved management of energy, water, food and waste resources.

"There is understandably a focus on carbon in policy making at the moment. However, there are equally pressing resource demands across many areas of the economy which need to be addressed," said John Harman, former chairman of the Environment Agency and lead author of the report.

"We cannot rely on the market to act in time to anticipate constraints in natural resource stocks, we have to act in advance."

Water resources are already under pressure in many parts of Britain but the effects of climate change and an increase in population will put greater pressure on water supplies.

The government should be introducing stronger incentives to reward water companies who reduce the amount of water they provide, water reduction targets, revised pricing mechanisms, educating consumers about water usage, and driving forward innovation in water treatment technology.

The area of land and water available to produce the resources of one person is currently 2.1 global hectares (gha). Current UK demand for these resources is 5.2 gha -- twice the world average, according to the WWF.

Increasing population levels and biofuel generation will further squeeze the amount of land available for food production.

The government needs to set targets for reducing food waste, encourage renewable energy generation from waste using fiscal incentives and encourage farmers to use outputs from food waste processing as bio-fertilizers where safe to do so.

Reducing food waste after purchase can be helped by packaging innovations, while the food industry should give clear advice on product storage and use and clearer date labeling.

Government policy to manage the flow of scrap materials need to be better targeted and more strictly implemented, the report said. The UK is losing 450 million pounds a year by landfilling steel and aluminum.

The report suggested the government ban the landfill of metals or products with more than 20 percent metal content by 2011, define some metals as endangered and encourage the collection rather than dispersal of vulnerable supply metals in the waste stream.

Working with industrial sectors to substitute materials with other alternatives could help avoid unnecessary metals waste.

Global climate talks may have to continue into 2011 after failing last month to agree on a Kyoto successor, the U.N.'s climate chief and Denmark's new climate minister told Reuters on Friday.

Green Business | COP15 | Davos

The world failed to commit in Copenhagen last month to succeed or extend the existing Kyoto Protocol from 2013. The U.N.'s top climate official, Yvo de Boer, could not guarantee a deal in Mexico, the next scheduled ministerial meeting.

A lack of trust and the economic crisis complicated prospects for a deal in Mexico in December, added President Felipe Calderon, the prospective host of those talks.

"Whether we can achieve that in Mexico or need a bit more time remains to be seen and will become clearer in the course of the year," de Boer said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, where executives said they would invest in low-carbon technologies regardless of a global climate deal.

"It's very difficult to pin down. One of the lessons from Copenhagen was don't rush it, take the time you need to get full engagement of all countries and make sure people are confident about what is being agreed."

India's top climate envoy Shyam Saran said on Thursday that that the world would "probably not" agree an ambitious deal this year unless the global economy improved.

Deadlock last month centered on how far big emerging economies should follow the industrialized world and enforce binding actions to fight climate change.

Denmark holds the presidency of the U.N. process until the Cancun meeting. Its new climate minister, Lykke Friis, agreed it was too soon to be sure of success in Mexico.

"The ultimate goal is to reach a legally binding deal but it's too early to say if it will be done in Mexico. No-one has the complete game plan to get to Cancun, that's what we're trying to find out now."

Denmark still did not know how much each industrialized country would contribute of about $30 billion to help developing nations fight climate change from 2010-2012, as agreed in the final "Copenhagen Accord," she added.

Mexico would do their best, said Calderon.

"My perception is that the lack of consensus is related to the economic problems in each nation, because there are economic costs associated with the task to tackle climate change.

"We want in Cancun a robust, comprehensive and substantial agreement," by all 193 signatories of the U.N.'s climate convention, he said.

"We need to try to learn from our mistakes ... we need to return trust and confidence between the parties."

The U.N.'s de Boer said countries must arrange additional meetings this year, in addition to the two already timetabled in Bonn in June, and then in Mexico if they wanted agreement.

De Boer said he was "very happy" to receive confirmation yesterday from the United States that it had beaten a January 31 deadline to submit formally its planned carbon cuts, to be written into the non-binding Copenhagen Accord.

For a factbox of all pledges submitted so far to the United Nations, double-click here -- [ID:nLDE60S0UY]

(Reporting by Gerard Wynn, Editing by Mike Peacock)

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The United States on Thursday formally notified the United Nations that it has embraced the Copenhagen Accord setting nonbinding goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that was negotiated last month.

Barack Obama | Green Business

Todd Stern, the top U.S. climate negotiator for the Obama administration, also gave notice that, as expected, it will aim for a 17 percent reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming by 2020, with 2005 as the base year.

A final emissions reduction target will be submitted, the U.S. said, once the U.S. Congress enacts domestic legislation requiring carbon pollution cuts. But such legislation has an uncertain fate in the Senate.

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