Low faith in biofuels for climate

by Richard Black

Decision-makers in the climate change field have little faith in biofuels as a low-carbon technology, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) has found.

Unveiled at the UN climate convention meeting in Bali, its survey shows professionals have more confidence in bicycles than in biofuels.

The findings come as ministers assemble for the final part of the UN talks.

Conservation groups have highlighted the impact of climate change in the tropics and the Antarctic.

European negotiators at the two-week meeting in the beach resort of Nusa Dua are hoping that the meeting will launch a two-year process leading to a further round of binding cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, to come into force when the current Kyoto Protocol targets expire in 2012.

But delegates say much ground remains to be covered as ministers from nearly 190 nations arrive for the last three days of discussions under the UN climate convention (UNFCCC) and Kyoto Protocol.

Fuelling doubts

"Technology must be at the heart of the future response to climate change," UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer declared at the talks.

But which technology? In a survey of 1,000 professionals in 105 countries, IUCN attempted to gauge which technologies inspire the most confidence.

The survey included people from governments, NGOs and industry.

Of 18 technologies suggested by IUCN, the current generation of biofuels came bottom of the list, with only 21% believing in its potential to "lower overall carbon levels in the atmosphere without unacceptable side effects" over the next 25 years.

Nearly twice as many were confident in the potential of nuclear energy while solar power for hot water and electricity emerged as the most favoured low-carbon technologies.

Life at the extremes

Overall, respondents said increasing energy efficiency and reducing demand could produce more benefits than "clean" energy sources.

Although the EU and the US are attempting to boost the expansion of biofuels, recent evidence is equivocal about their potential.

Studies show they may produce only marginal carbon savings compared to conventional petrol and diesel.

In Indonesia and elsewhere, forests are being cleared for palm oil plantations, partly to produce biofuels.

There is evidence that leaving forests intact results in greater climate benefits while protecting biodiversity.

Two presentations on the sidelines of the Bali conference have highlighted the impacts of climate change on the natural world.

Conservation International (CI) researchers took forecasts from the the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) 2007 assessment of the Earth's likely climatic future, and calculated what those forecast trends would mean for areas safeguarded for nature, such as national parks and forest reserves.

They found that more than half of these zones are vulnerable to projected climate change. In 21 countries, mainly in the tropics, more than 90% of protected areas are vulnerable.

"We previously assumed that if the land is protected, then the plants and animals living there will persist," said Sandy Andelman, head of CI's Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring network.

"That may be wishful thinking."

WWF, meanwhile, looked at conditions at the Earth's other climatic extreme - the cold of the Antarctic peninsula.

This tendril of land that projects from the Antarctic towards the tip of South America is warming much faster than the global average. According to WWF researchers, sea ice cover has declined by about 40% over the last quarter century.

"The research done over the last couple of years is that many penguin populations across Antarctica are in decline, with some dropping as much as 65%," said WWF's director-general Jim Leape.

"You are seeing a massive loss of sea ice in important parts of the continent, and that sea ice is crucial to the food web of Antarctica upon which these penguins depend."

Binding ties

Like other conservation groups, WWF is calling for the inclusion of binding targets for reducing carbon emissions in any agreement coming out of the Bali conference. A draft circulating this week calls for industrialised nations to cut their emissions by 25-40% by 2020.

It is supported by the EU. But the US, Australia, Canada and Japan are arguing against the inclusion of concrete targets at this stage.

"To start with a predetermined answer, we don't think is an appropriate thing to do," US chief negotiator Harlan Watson has said.

But there is frustration among some developing countries at what they see as a lack of political will among the high emitters.

"If nobody shows the willingness to deal with the reduction of carbon emissions to a manageable level, then what are we doing here?" Brazilian delegate Thelma Krug told the AFP news agency.

Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo , former US Vice-President Al Gore urged the US and China to "stop using the others' behaviour as an excuse for stalemate" and work together to find a mutually acceptable way of tackling climate change.

Mr Gore and his fellow Nobel laureate, IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri, will be in Bali for the ministerial talks, as will the new Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd whose recent ratification of the Kyoto Protocol injected fresh optimism into the UN process.

But three days of busy talks lie ahead if a deal is to be made.

BBC

Penguins now threatened by global warming

by Paul Eccleston

Global warming is threatening one of the most endearing symbols of Antarctica - the penguin.

Four species of penguin are facing a dual threat from loss of nesting sites and a shortage of food.
 

The environmental conservation group WWF is warning that rising temperatures and the resulting loss of sea ice is robbing the emblematic birds of the nesting grounds they need to breed successfully.

At the same time climate change and over-fishing has led to a reduction in the availability of krill - tiny crustaceans - which they rely on for food.

The most vulnerable of the four species at risk is the biggest, the Emperor, renowned for the stoic male which nurses its solitary egg on its feet throughout the long Antarctic winter when temperatures can drop to almost -50§C.

All four species - the others are Gentoo, Chinstrap, and Ad‚lie - have suffered dramatic drops in population, according to the Antarctic Penguins and Climate Change report.

Global warming is happening much more quickly in some parts of the continent, particularly the north-west area of the continent known as the Antarctic Peninsula, where in the last 50 years temperatures have risen by about 2.5§C - as much as five times the world average.

The Southern Ocean has also warmed all the way down to a depth of 3,000m. In this area, an important breeding area for the penguins, sea ice has been forming later and receding earlier and covering a smaller average area each winter.

Sea ice now covers 40 per cent less area than it did 26 years ago off the West Antarctic Peninsula.

Krill and fish that normally live around sea ice have been decreasing and numbers may have declined by as much as 80 per cent since the 1970s. Many scientists believe that the fate of sea ice and its relationship to the food chain holds the key to the survival chances of many species in Antarctica.

Emily Lewis-Brown, Marine and Climate Change Officer at WWF-UK. said: "As the ice melts, these icons of the Antarctic will have to face an extremely tough battle to survive.

"One of the coldest environments in the world is actually seeing some of the fastest rates of global warming, and unless action is taken to reduce global CO2 emissions, the future of many Antarctic species looks bleak."

The majestic Emperor has seen some of its colonies halved in size over the past half century. Warmer winter temperatures and stronger winds have forced the penguins to raise their chicks on increasingly thinner sea ice. For many years sea ice has broken off early and many eggs and chicks have been blown away before they were ready to survive on their own.

Populations of Ad‚lie have dropped by 65 per cent over the past 25 years in the Antarctic Peninsula as temperatures have risen

It has had to contend not only with a shortage of food with the disappearance of sea ice, but its cousins, the Gentoos and Chinstraps have ironically taken advantage of the warmer temperatures and invaded its territory.

Scientists fear for the Ad‚lie because it needs land that is free of snow and ice to raise its young. The warmer temperatures have resulted in more moisture in the atmosphere resulting in more frequent and heavier snowfalls.

But some colonies of Chinstraps have also seen reductions in numbers of up to two thirds because the shortage of food has made it more difficult for its to survive.

The Gentoo has also seen its numbers fall because they are becoming increasingly dependent on krill for food as other sources have been depleted by overfishing.

Emily Lewis-Brown said: "The UN climate change summit underway in Bali must agree a process now which results in comprehensive, ambitious, and fair global emission reduction targets beyond the current phase of Kyoto which ends in 2012. It's vital that governments agree upon a clear, shared vision to keep global warming to less than 2øC above pre-industrial levels."

The charity also wants to see international action to protect Antarctica from other pressures such as fisheries and tourism.

Telegraph, UK

EU criticises Israel settler plan

A senior EU official has criticised an Israeli decision to build more houses in occupied East Jerusalem, joining the US in condemning Israel.

External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said she was "very concerned" about a plan for 300 new homes on land captured in the 1967 war. "We want to have a successful peace process," Ms Ferrero-Waldner said.

In rare condemnation by the US, the secretary of state said it threatened new Israeli-Palestinian talks.

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the former Austrian foreign minister, was speaking after talks with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Brussels. Mr Fayyad said the fresh settlement activity was against "the letter and the spirit" of the recent Arab-Israeli peace conference.

"Those actions are clearly inconsistent with the overall direction this process should take if it is to produce an outcome that is satisfactory to all; lasting peace in the Middle East," he said.

Obligations

He said the Palestinian Authority would seek $5.6bn (œ2.7bn) in aid for 2008-10 at a donors' conference next week in Paris.

The first face-to-face meeting after last month's Annapolis summit is due to take place on Wednesday.

Under obligations contained in the international peace plan known as the roadmap, agreed in 2003 and revived in 2007, Israel must cease settlement activity on occupied land.

However, Israel says the restriction does not apply in East Jerusalem, which it annexed in 1967. The annexation has not been recognised internationally.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the plan "doesn't help build confidence", after meeting Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Brussels on Friday.

The new units will be built at Har Homa settlement, which already has about 2,000 houses, in an area of south-east Jerusalem known to Palestinians as Jabal Abu Ghneim.

BBC

Algiers bomb shatters UN office

The UN has confirmed 10 of its staff died in a double car bombing in the Algerian capital, Algiers, which killed at least 26 people and injured 177.

Medics believe up to 62 people died when the devices went off, shearing the facade off the UN refugee agency and hitting a government building.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the worst attack on the UN since 2003 "an abjectly, cowardly strike".

Al-Qaeda's North Africa wing claimed responsibility on an Islamist website.

Algerian television has reported that six people were pulled alive from the ruins of the UN offices.

Missing staff

"We now believe that the UN death toll is at 10," said UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe, adding that "a number of staff" were still missing.

The neighbouring office of the UN Development Programme was also damaged when the first car bomb went off at around 0930 (0830 GMT).

It was the deadliest attack on the UN since militants bombed its offices in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2003, killing 22 people.

At around the same time, an explosion ripped into a bus packed with students outside

Algeria's Constitutional Council in the Ben Aknoun district.

The body rules on the constitutionality of laws and supervises elections.

In an unverified online statement, a group calling itself al-Qaeda in the Land of the

Islamic Maghreb said two vehicles packed with 800kg (1,700lb) of explosives each were used in the blasts.

The group labelled the UN buildings an "international infidels' den" and said it had carried out the attacks to honour one of its senior militants, who died fighting Algerian troops.

It called on Western leaders to "heed the demands of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden".

UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres said his office was "of course a target for those that have a completely nihilist vision of today's world". Algerian Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni confirmed a suicide bomber was behind the blast which hit the UN offices.

The UN secretary general led international condemnation of the attacks.

"This was an abjectly cowardly strike against civilian officials serving humanity's highest ideals," he said.

Violence upsurge

US President George W Bush condemned the attack "by these enemies of humanity" and French President Nicolas Sarkozy called the bombings "barbaric and cowardly".

Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem, who visited the injured in hospitals, said nothing could "justify the crime".

There have been a series of bomb attacks across Algeria during the past year in which scores of people have died.

In September more than 50 people were killed in suicide attacks - one of them involved a truck packed with explosives being driven into a coast-guard base.

Members of the public have recently held rallies in protest at the upsurge in violence. Many of the recent blasts were also claimed by al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb (AQLIM), including a triple suicide bombing in Algiers in April which killed 33 people.

Algeria suffered a brutal and bloody civil war in the 1990s, but in recent years violence had declined.

BBC

UN chief warns Myanmar

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned Myanmar the international community was running out of patience with its authoritarian regime, saying Monday the junta must embrace democracy and stop inflicting suffering on its own people.

"I know the international community is very much impatient, and our patience is running out," Ban told a news conference in Bangkok, Thailand.

"The people of Myanmar have suffered from isolation for such a long time and it's high time now that the Myanmar authorities and the people ... enjoy democracy and freedom."

A U.N. human rights envoy said Friday that Myanmar's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in September killed at least 31 people, twice the toll acknowledged by the junta.

The envoy, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, also said that 650 people remained in custody from the crackdown and another 74 people were missing.

The United Nations and governments around the world expressed outrage after the junta's troops opened fire on pro-democracy protests, which were led by Buddhist monks. Rights groups have reported continued arrests and abuse, despite claims by the junta that the crackdown has stopped.

"I would like to emphasize that the return to statue quo is not acceptable, and is politically unsustainable," Ban said.

He appealed to the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations to play a special role in pushing Myanmar -- one of its members -- toward democratic reforms.

"We need ASEAN's special cooperation," Ban said. "ASEAN has a special political responsibility in promoting further democratization."

ASEAN, which has a stance of not interfering with its members' domestic affairs, has been criticized for not doing enough to pressure Myanmar's military leaders.

Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N.'s special envoy to Myanmar, has toured Southeast Asian countries in recent weeks but failed to get any governments to take a strong public line against their neighbor.

AP