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  • Public transport advocate calls for tax reform

    Families paying for policy neglect: The chief executives of some of Australia’s biggest companies recently called on the Government to get serious about climate change before the cost of inaction becomes too great, she said. Families pay the increasing daily price of an economically, socially and environmentally unsustainable addiction to oil.

    Lip service to public transport: Cities are grinding to a halt under the weight of traffic while governments at all levels pay lip service to public transport. Each of these problems has at its heart a tax damage to inefficient resource use.

    Time to strengthen renewables incentives: With predictions of a global peak (then decline) in oil production within the next decade, this is a time for tax reform that strengthens incentives for energy efficiency and innovation, and makes polluters pay the full cost of the damage they do to our children’s planet, she said.

    The Age, 8/5/2006, p. B6

    Source: Erisk Net  

  • States get serious about water

    Advice needed: NSW Premier Morris lemma would announce on 8 May the establishment of a panel of independent experts to advise the government on Sydney’s water planning. National Water commissioner Peter Cullen would head the panel.

    Toowoomba’s $75m water recycling plant: In Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, Mayor Di Thorley and her supporters are attempting to push through plans to build a $75 million water recycling plant, producing water suitable for drinking. It would be the first potable water recycling scheme in Australia, according to The Australian Financial Review (8/5/2006, p. 5). If Cr Thorley can win majority support from Toowoomba residents in a referendum, due by September, the federal government has pledged $22 million towards the plant.

    Many water schemes in Qld, SA and WA: The Queensland government is on track with its Western Corridor recycled water scheme. When finished in 2009, the scheme would provide 110 million litres of recycled water a day for industry to the west of Brisbane via a 200-kilometre pipeline. South Australia and Western Australia also have multimillion-dollar upgrades for waste water treatment plants, as well as new plants, on their drawing boards.

    NSW six major water recycling projects: The western Sydney plant follows six other major water recycling projects either completed or under development in NSW. These include the proposed Camellia industrial recycling scheme (which would produce 6 billion litres of water a year), and the Rouse Hill residential recycling scheme, which chums out 4.1 billion litres of recycled water per year for use in laundries, gardens and toilets.

    The Australian Financial Review, 8/5/2006, p. 5

    Source: Erisk Net 

  • CSIRO promotes clean coal technology

    Trials were held at;

    • Liddell power station in NSW, by Solar Heat and Power, for extra steam production: and

    • CSIRO’s National Solar Research Facility in Newcastle is exploring the use of Concentrating Solar Thermal technology to reform methane from natural or coalbed gas to make synthesis gas (CO + CO2 + H2) for;

    •  power generation (Solar-Gas;

    • industrial chemical or transport fuel production, or

    •  for generating hydrogen for power production.

    •  this created CO2 to put into a CO2 dump

    Reference: ECOS 129, Feb-Mar 2006, p.4. website: http://www.publish.csiro.au/ecos

    Erisk Net, 11/4/2006

  • Nepalese biogas reverses deforestation

    Expanded use of cooking and lighting: The Nepal Biogas project signed by the Government would reduce emissions and was expected to expand the country’s use of cooking and lighting in rural households.

    Non-commercial price for biogas: Biogas units would be sold at a non-commercial price to help displace traditional fuel sources like fuel wood, kerosene and agriculture waste. Each household biogas unit would be able to reduce nearly five tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e) annually, Nepalnews.com reported.

    First project in Nepal under CDM: "This is the first greenhouse gas emission (GHG) reductions project in Nepal under the CDM of the Kyoto Protocol," according to a press statement by the World Bank country office in Nepal.

    Only 15 per cent with access to electricity: Only 15 per cent of Nepal’s rural population has access to electricity. The country’s dependence on fuel wood contributed greatly to deforestation and it was hoped the switch to biogas will change that.

    Project seen as major breakthrough: "This project is a major breakthrough," said Ken Ohashi, World Bank country director of Nepal. "It is the result of years of painstaking work by visionary Nepalis who saw that clean environmental practices would eventually bring economic and social payoffs."

    Reference: Digest of latest news reported on website of Climate Change Secretariat of United Nations Framework on Climate Change Control (UNFCCC). 4 May 2006. Address: PO Box 260 124, D-53153 Bonn. Germany. Phone: : (49-228) 815-1005, Fax: (49-228) 815-1999. Email: press@unfccc.int
    http://www.unfccc.int

  • Green buildings attract buyers

    Tenants start to pay less for black buildings: But the biggest opportunities to add value by including sustainability features were in the 90 per cent of buildings in the market that were built before 1990, the report said. Interestingly, the report warned that while tenants still don’t want to pay premium rents for green buildings, at the same time they were increasingly prepared to discount inefficient buildings that did not meet basic sustainability criteria.

    Costs of $320,000 investment; "The motivation for the discount is not some altruistic wish to save the planet but a bottom-line cost saving that is reflected in building outgoings and occupancy benefits," the report said. A-grade building of 30,000 square metres, the report looked at what happened with a $320,000 investment in seven basic sustainability practices.

    $90,000 a year savings:

    •  savings worked out at $90,000 a year;

    •  outgoings were cut by 2.2 per cent and

    •  valuation increased by $3 million. "The building value jumps from $177 million to $180 million," it said. Other case studies include GPT Office’s view of sustainability, Melbourne City Council’s new headquarters, CH2, and Westpac Banking Corporation’s new headquarters in Sydney.

    The Australian Financial Review, 11/4/2006, p. 54

  • Bolivia and Venezuela put the squeeze on oil companies

    Venezuela started energy revolution: Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, the region’s largest oil producer, started the energy revolution by imposing tougher operating terms and retrospective tax increases. He had three objectives: implementing a populist manifesto, boosting oil income and tweaking the US’s cheek. He increased tension by strengthening links with Fidel Castro and underwriting the Cuban economy by supplying cheap oil.

    Bolivia to control all natural resources: Now President Morales has shown his hand, to popular acclaim. On May Day he unveiled a program of state control that went further than oil. He declared: "This is just the start: tomorrow or the day after it will be mining, then the forestry sector and eventually all the natural resources for which our ancestors fought." The trio – Chavez, Morales and Castro – are attempting to reduce US influence, which favours the forces of conservatism, in the region. They have considerable populist appeal.

    The Sydney Morning Herald, 4/5/2006, p. 22

    Source: Erisk Net