Bangkok climate change talks make no real progress

The UN climate change negotiations that end today in Bangkok have largely failed to deliver any substantive progress on targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, or the transfer of technology and finance from rich to poorer nations for adaptation and mitigation, leading to serious questions about the political commitment of the industrialised nations.

"Last month, President Obama, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other leaders of industrialised nations all lined up to say how committed they were to tackling climate change and reaching an effective agreement on how to do this when UN negotiations end in Copenhagen in December," says Saleemul Huq, senior fellow in the climate change group at the International Institute for Environment and Development and a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

"This gave the world high expectations for the international negotiation session that has run for the past two weeks in Bangkok," says Huq. "But it seems like the negotiators from industrialised nations either didn't follow their leaders' speeches or haven't been received any new instructions because in virtually every aspect of the talks there has been minimal progress of any substance."

The G77/China group of 132 developing nations says that the EU is trying to "divide and conquer" the developing nations and detract attention from their own broken promises.

There was virtually no progress on new targets for developed nations that are party to the Kyoto Protocol to cut their emissions, despite them being legally bound to agree new targets.

The G77/China accuse the United States and European Union stand accused of trying to kill of the Kyoto Protocol, the only legal agreement that commits any nations to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases. The EU as a party to the protocol is legally bound to agree new targets for a post-2012 period.

In the negotiations focusing on ways to tackle climate change by reducing deforestation , the European Union has removed a provision that would protect against the conversion of natural forests to plantations, threatening impact for biodiversity and forest-dependent people.

Only Norway, by announcing that it would increase its pledge to cut emissions by 40% of their 1990 level by the year 2020. This is an increase from their earlier pledge of a 30% cut.

"One area of hope is that countries are now reaching agreement that adaptation is essential to protect people and economies in the developing nations," says Huq. "Negotiators made some good progress on adaptation to climate change, assuming that money will be available to do it. But the big questions still to be answered are: how much money will developed nations provide and how will it be chanelled to make adaptation a reality."

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change binds rich countries such as the United States and European Union member states to provide funding to developing nations to adapt to and mitigate climate change.

Climate adaptation will triple estimated costs, says study

Scientists led by a former co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that the UN negotiations aimed at tackling climate change are based on substantial underestimates of what it will cost to adapt to its impacts.

The real costs of adaptation are likely to be 2-3 times greater than estimates made by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), say Professor Martin Parry and colleagues in a new report，published by the International Institute for Environment and Development and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London.

The UNFCCC has estimated annual global costs of adapting to climate change to be US$40-170 billion, or the cost of about three Olympic Games per year.

But the report’s authors warn that these estimates were produced too quickly and did not include key sectors such as energy, manufacturing, retailing, mining, tourism and ecosystems. Other sectors that the UNFCCC did include were only partially covered.

Costs will be even more when the full range of climate impacts on human activities is considered, according to the report, launched on 27 August at a London press conference.

Parry and colleagues warn that this underestimate of the cost of adaptation threatens to weaken the outcome of UNFCCC negotiations, which are due to culminate in Copenhagen in December with a global deal aimed at tackling climate change.

“Finance is the key that will unlock the negotiations in Copenhagen but if governments are working with the wrong numbers, we could end up with a false deal that fails to cover the costs of adaptation to climate change,“ says Camilla Toulmin, director of the International Institute for Environment and Development, which co-published the report.

Professor Sir Brian Hoskins, Director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London, which co-published the report, says: "The costs of adapting to live with a changing climate are very uncertain. However, this new report suggests that previous attempts to figure out the costs have drastically under-estimated how expensive this could be. With such large sums potentially involved, the pressure to act now to reduce the extent of climate change is greater than ever.”

The new report calls for detailed case studies of what adaptation costs will be, and points out that the few that already exist suggest that costs will be considerable.

The report was reviewed by seven of the world’s foremost adaptation scientists, including the lead authors of the original UNFCCC study. Following this, close to 100 adaptation policy and research experts were invited to comment on the pre-publication draft.

Its key findings include:

Water: The UNFCCC estimate of US$11 billion excluded costs of adapting to floods and assumes no costs for transferring water within nations from areas of surplus to areas of deficit. The underestimate could be substantial, according to the new report.

Health: The UNFCCC estimate of US$5 billion excluded developed nations, and assessed only malaria, diarrhoea and malnutrition. This could cover only 30-50% of the global total disease burden, according to the new report.

Infrastructure: The UNFCCC estimate of US$8-130 billion assumed that low levels of investment in infrastructure will continue to characterise development in Africa and other relatively poor parts of the world. But the new report points out that such investment must increase in order to reduce poverty and thus avoid continuing high levels of vulnerability to climate change. It says the costs of adapting this upgraded infrastructure to climate change could be eight times more costly than the higher estimates predicted by the UNFCCC.

Coastal zones: The UNFCCC estimate of US$11 billion excluded increased storm intensity and used low IPCC predictions of sea level rise. Considering research on sea level rise published since the 2007 IPCC report, and including storms, the new report suggests costs could be about three times greater than predicted.

Ecosystems: The UNFCCC excluded from its estimates the costs of protecting ecosystems and the services they can provide for human society. The new report concludes that that this is an important source of under-estimation, which could cost over US$350 billion, including both protected and non-protected areas.

Photo by DanRhett

China electricity giants urged to cut emissions

Greenpeace has urged China’s top power companies to play a role in cutting emissions and easing the country’s reliance upon coal, by dramatically increasing energy efficiency and the use of renewables.

China’s top ten power companies and their heavy dependence on coal are hindering the country’s efforts to tackle climate change, a new Greenpeace report released on Tuesday said.

The top ten power companies provide almost 60% of China’s total electricity, says the report, entitled “Polluting Power: Ranking China’s Biggest Power Companies.”

By burning 20% of China’s coal in 2008, the companies emitted an equivalent of 1.44 billion tonnes of CO2. And emissions by the largest three, namely Huaneng, Datang and Guodian, surpassed Britain’s total emissions in the same year, according to the report.

"Climate change is humankind’s most urgent environmental problem. China’s power companies are not only the key coal consumer but also the major CO2 emitter. All parts of Chinese society must play a role in moving China away from intensive coal dependence and these major polluters must not be exempt from this responsibility,” said Greenpeace Climate Campaign Manager Yang Ailun,

During the past three and a half years, China has closed down the least efficient coal-fired plants with installed capacity totalling 54.07 gig watts, which is higher than the total capacity of Australia.

Greenpeace urges the Chinese power companies to phase out all inefficient coal-fired plants under 100 megawatt by 2012, saying that by doing so, China could reduce coal consumption by 90 million tonnes and avoid 220 million tonnes of CO2 emissions a year.

According to China’s renewable energy mid-and-long term development plan, by 2010, large power companies, including the top ten listed in this report, are obliged to have at least 3% of their installed capacity from non-hydro renewable sources.

But by the end of 2008, eight out of the ten were not even half way to
meeting this modest target, the report points out. “Yet, China has a huge potential to become the world leader in renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies,” Yang said.

Greenpeace also calls on the Chinese government to introduce a price signal for coal that not only effectively drives power companies to rapidly move to renewable energy, but also ensures that, during the transition, coal is used as efficiently as possible.

However, electricity price in China is regulated and fails to reflect the higher market price of coal. Power companies have expected a small rise of coal price to make a profit.

China must also double its national renewable energy target to 30% by 2020.

“In order to achieve these targets, the electricity sector, especially the large power companies, must play their crucial role. The challenges China is facing in the lead up to the UN Climate Meeting in Copenhagen this December will be even larger without serious actions to cut emissions by these companies,” Yang concluded.

UK doctors warned of increasing pressure as A/H1N1 claims first victim

British authorities have insisted that the risk to public health from the A/H1N1 virus, commonly referred to as Swine Flu, remains low despite the first death being reported last Sunday.

But there are mounting fears in some medical circles that a rise in cases may create problems for doctors and the national health system.

In the UK, 1,320 people have so far been identified as having contracted the virus including 59 cases confirmed on Monday.

While there is an obvious concern from the risks of A/H1N1, so far the virus has not shown itself to be as deadly a threat as some have feared.

An estimated 12,000 people, mainly in the older age group, die every year from seasonal flu in the UK, according to the British Medical Association. In the U.S. tens of thousands die annually from seasonal flu.

But so far the entire global death rate from A/H1N1 remains well below 1,000, with the WHO confirming only 146 deaths.

Many of those affected by A/H1N1 are in a much younger age group, and some are otherwise healthy individuals.

The greatest fear amongst medical experts is the virus could mutate and become ever more deadly.

In the past, pandemics have killed more than a million around the world. Between 1918 and 1919, the so-called Spanish Flu was responsible for an estimated 20 to 40 million deaths.

And in more recent history the Asian Flu in 1957 and the Hong Kong Flu of 1968 killed up to 4 million between them.

For the full story by Dongying Wang, published by Xinhua News Agency in June 2009, please click here. Also, please return to the blog to post your comment.

Low fare boosts Ryanair as Europe's biggest airline

Ryanair, Europe’s largest low fare airline, has reaped a net profit of over 100 million euros over the last year when most competitors announced significant losses.

Compared to the 2007/2008 figure, Ryanair’s net profit plunged 78 percent in the financial year ending on March 2009.

But it has been hailed as “a robust performance” during a year when record high oil prices and the downturn had taken its toll on many airways.

Ryanair's lowest fare services, which have delivered traffic growth and profitability, enabled the airline to soar through the recession and to become Europe's biggest airline in terms of passenger numbers and market capitalisation.


For the full story by Dongying Wang, published by Xinhua News Agency in June 2009, please click here. Also, please return to the blog to post your comment.

Eating seasonably promoted for sake of environment

Britain has enhanced its campaigns to increase people’s awareness of the environment impacts of their diet, as part of its overall efforts to build a greener society with ambitious emissions-cutting targets.

The latest movement is to encourage the consumption of seasonal produce, which is publicised as not only having good value and taste, but also causing much less pollution.

The campaign has won support from the government, business, NGOs, research groups and culinary circles.

However, more efforts have been urged to help consumers better understand the benefits of similar ethical dietary choices to stimulate them to adopt greener lifestyles.

For the full story by Dongying Wang, published by Xinhua News Agency in June 2009, please click here. Also, please return to the blog to post your comment.

Number of British millionaires sinks during recession

The downturn has forced thousands of wealthy Britons out of the club of millionaires, and the trend is only likely to turn around in two years, a British independent research group says.

The number of millionaires has been halved in the past two years to just below 250,000, according to the latest estimates of the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).

The 2009 list of Britain's richest 2000 published in the Sunday Times also shows that the number of British billionaires has fallen to 43 from 75 in 2008 and both the leading two billionaires this year reported their assets have plummeted by more than 60 percent.

For the full story by Dongying Wang, published by Xinhua News Agency in May 2009, please click here. Also, please return to the blog to post your comment.

UK into action to pursue clean coal power generation

Britain has started to test carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology at a working coal-burning power plant in Scotland. This has been hailed as a milestone” in the country’s green energy revolution.

With a potential in removing around 90 percent of the CO2 emitted by burning fossil fuels, the CCS is expected to help ensure energy supply in an environmental-friendly way.

Britain has also joined hands with Norway to tap the potential of the North Sea to store CO2, as part of its efforts to accelerate the commercial application of the green tech at an earlier date.

Britain has set off on a journey to fulfil its ambition to lead the world's low-carbon transformation.

For the full story by Dongying Wang, published by Xinhua News Agency in May 2009, please click here. Also, please return to the blog to post your comment.

Photo by purplerabbits

Virgin Atlantic flying high despite recession

The top two airlines in Britain have reported conflicting business results in the downturn. Leading operator British Airways has sustained record losses over the past year. In contrast, Virgin Atlantic saw its profits double in 2008.

The number of premium travellers has been cited as a key factor in Virgin Atlantic’s success. And how management reacted to the volatile oil prices proved to be crucial to the companies’ performance.

Animosity between the two airlines has been long running, and their market competition has increased further in the downturn.

While celebrating its success, Virgin Atlantic is still concerned about tactics employed by British Airways, especially its attempt to merge with American Airlines.

For the full story by Dongying Wang, published by Xinhua News Agency in May 2009, please click here. Also, please return to the blog to post your comment.

Photo by Ian Muttoo

Tight credit turns more Britons into loan shark victims

An independent think tank has sent a warning that more Britons will fall victim to loan sharks, as the recession continues to bite and sub-prime lending is shrinking.

Mortgage lending alone has contracted by 60 percent compared to a year ago. And there is no clear sign of recovery in months to come.

Local authorities are urged to protect those financially vulnerable from using predatory lenders, by taking measures such as mapping unlicensed lending, increasing public awarness, and enchancing enforcement against illegal lending.

For the full story by Dongying Wang, published by Xinhua News Agency in May 2009, please click here. Also, please return to the blog to post your comment.

Photo by kiss kiss bang bang