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  • Amazon deforestation at record low, data shows

    Amazon deforestation at record low, data shows

    Rate of illegal logging has fallen, but critics claim Brazil has weakened protection measures by revising Forest Code

    Damian blog : Amazon Deforestation

    Truck filled with ilegal wood in the vicinities of Anapu, Para, Brazil. In 2008, Brazil saw a record rate of deforestation in the Amazon – now it has fallen to its lowest level. Photograph: Paulo Fridman/Corbis

    Deforestation of the Amazon has fallen to its lowest levels since records began, according to data recently released by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research.

    The boost for the environment comes a week after president Dilma Rousseff was criticised for weakening the forest protection measures widely credited for the improvement, and two weeks before Brazil hosts the Rio+20 Earth summit.

    Using satellite imagery, the institute said 6,418 sq km of Amazon forest was stripped in the 12 months before 31 July 2011 – the smallest area since annual measurements started in 1988.

    The data continues an encouraging trend. Since the peak deforestation year of 2004, the rates of clearance have fallen by almost 75%.

    “This reduction is impressive; it is the result of changes in society, but it also stems from the political decision to inspect, as well as from punitive action by government agencies,” Rousseff said.

    She was speaking at a ceremony on Tuesday to mark the opening of two new nature reserves: the 34,000-hectare (83,980 acres) Bom Jesus Biological Reserve in Paraná, and the 8,500-hectare (20,995 acres) Furna Feia National Park in Rio Grande do Norte.

    To mark World Environment Day, the Brazilian president also signed a number of other measures to expand existing parks, protect areas of biodiversity and recognise the land rights of indigenous communities.

    Rousseff said Brazil was “one of the most advanced countries” for sustainable development, but its impressive efforts have been undermined by new legislation that reduces requirements on farms created by illegal logging to reforest portions of cleared land.

    Under domestic and international pressure, Rousseff vetoed 12 of the most controversial sections of the revised Forest Code, but environmentalists are furious that many other changes will go through.

    The Brazilian government insists that the compromise was a realistic balance of agricultural and environmental priorities. Environment minister Izabella Teixeira says 81.2% of the country’s original forest remains – one of the highest levels in the world.

    But 10 former environment ministers have criticised the measures as a “retrograde step”. In an unusual cross-party collaboration, they jointly signed a letter opposing the change to a code that they described as “the single most relevant institutional basis for the protection afforded to forests and all the other forms of natural vegetation in Brazil.”

    Amazon Deforestation Amazon deforestation over the years

    Economic and technological factors have also contributed to the slowing of clearance rates. The rise in the value of the Brazilian currency and the fall of soya and beef prices in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis eroded the incentive for land clearance for agricultural exports.

    Implementing regulations remains extremely difficult in the wild west-like frontiers of the Amazon and the interior forest regions. But enforcement has been strengthened by increasingly precise satellite monitoring by the National Institute for Research in the Amazon.

    This November, Brazil plans to launch a new satellite with a resolution of five metres, up from the current level of 250 metres. With close-to-real-time date, the central authorities are able to quickly notify federal police and environment officials about ongoing, illegal land clearance operations.

    The government has also responded rapidly and flexibly. After a two-month spurt of clear-cutting in Mato Grosso early last year, it established a task force to strengthen countermeasures and sent 700 inspectors to the region. This year, eight municipalities were added to the list of critical areas, bringing them under closer inspection.

    According to local media, the task force has apprehended 325 trucks, 72 bulldozers and 62,000 cubic metres of illegally cut timber and embargoed 79,500 hectares of land in the region.

    The environment ministry says further factors in the drop of deforestation are regularisation of land tenure, initiatives to encourage sustainable practices and the expansion of protected areas. According to the UN Global Biodiversity Outlook, Brazil accounts for nearly 75% of the 700,000 sq km of protected areas created around the world since 2003.

  • Investing in the Vast Solar Energy Potential of the Middle East and North Africa

    Investing in the Vast Solar Energy Potential of the Middle East and North Africa

    Posted: 07 Jun 2012 04:23 PM PDT

    Arguably, the Middle East and North Africa are ripe for renewable energy investment, particularly in the solar energy sector and specifically in terms of concentrated solar power (CSP). Because it relies on its own oil, it can afford the massive subsidies necessary to weather the transformation that could eventually make renewable energy affordable and accessible. Those subsidies become more affordable when Middle Eastern governments take stock of the savings on rising domestic oil and gas consumption that can be diverted to more revenue-generating…Read more…

  • Barry O’Farrell’s big cash to build houses across NSW

    Barry O’Farrell’s big cash to build houses across NSW

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    Barry OFarrell

    Housing cash splash … Premier Barry O’Farrell. Source: The Daily Telegraph

    THE state’s lagging housing market will get a much-needed kick start, with the O’Farrell government extending stamp duty concessions to entice homebuyers.

    As the Big Four banks yesterday finally passed on interest rate cuts, Treasurer Mike Baird said he would provide developers with a $200 million budget sweetener to build properties in growth areas on Sydney‘s fringe.

    Stamp duty concessions for people who buy off-the-plan units or house-and-land packages will be extended and hundreds of millions of dollars will go towards an infrastructure fund to get homes built.

    Mr Baird is expected to announce in Tuesday’s state budget that an initial two-year scheme to axe stamp duty for people buying off-the-plan – up to $600,000 – will be extended indefinitely, with the stamp duty threshold lifted to at least $650,000.

    There is a trade-off. Homebuyers will receive concessions of only between 25 per cent and 50 per cent of stamp duty. The new home concession had been due to expire on June 30.

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    RUN-DOWN hospitals will be given a boost, with a record $4.7 billion set aside for infrastructure over four years.

    It can also be revealed that about $200 million will flow into a special fund to encourage developers to build homes in the northwest and southwest growth centres of Sydney.

    The move is part of attempts to get the economy moving through the property market.

    Government sources confirmed the money would fund road and sewage infrastructure, rather than requiring that developers fund the work.

    To help pay for the scheme, the government will cut 10,000 public service jobs, lift speeding fine revenue by $12.5 billion and leave $2.4 billion aside to fund a major road, such as the M5 duplication.

    Mr Baird has signalled a deficit of $826 million for 2012-13 followed by three surpluses. There will be a small deficit in 2011-12.

    In 2010, the previous state Labor government announced the stamp duty concession for all off-the-plan apartments.

    In his last budget, Mr Baird axed the concession for other first-home buyers, but kept it for those buying new homes, and raised the threshold to those properties worth up to $835,000.

    The Property Council has been lobbying the O’Farrell government to retain the off-the-plan and house-and-land package concession as well as lift the threshold.

     

  • Anti-coal campaign comes under fire

    Anti-coal campaign comes under fire

    Amy Remeikis

    June 8, 2012 – 3:46PM

    Activist groups GetUp and Greenpeace have taken aim at the proposed Galilee Basin mega coal mine projects by targeting its potential international investors.

    The groups, in conjunction with BankTrack, have taken out a full page newspaper advertisement in the Asian edition of the Financial Times, alerting interested backers to what they say are “key investment risks”.

    But in a rare show of accord, both the state and federal governments have condemned the campaign, with Treasurer Wayne Swan and Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney accusing the organisations of “obnoxious behaviour” and of taking a narrow view.

    The advertisement, titled “Investor Alert”, is headed “will you sink your profits on the Great Barrier Reef?” and specifically mentions the $6.4 billion Alpha Coal project, which is partly owned by the Indian investment conglomerate, GVK, and Gina Rinehart.

    It goes on to warn of “major public controversy” in relation to “political interference” in the state government’s approval process and advises of growing public concern regarding the project and its associated infrastructure, which it says will likely result in “lengthy delays and significant cost blow outs”.

    GetUp campaigns director Sam McLean said the advertisement, which cost “tens of thousands of dollars” and was funded through donations, was just one stage of the campaign.

    “We’ve planned an initial ad this week and we’ll keep campaigning on the issue for as long as these projects are proposed,” he said.

    Mr McLean said he believed the impact of the advertisements “could be huge” and the Financial Times was a deliberate choice because of its reach.

    “We know that reading this newspaper is part of a daily routine for the analysts of major Asia investment companies,” he said.

    “We know that the story that they (investors and analysts) have been getting is very one-sided, that they have been told that there are easy projects, they have government approval, they have public support, that it is going to be a quick and easy process, but in fact there are huge numbers of risks with these projects that investors haven’t been told about.”

    The most concerning risk to GetUp and other like-minded organisations, Mr McLean said, was the impact to the Great Barrier Reef.

    But Mr Swan said while the federal government “had to pull … the Queensland government in line”, he believed the advertisement was “deplorable”.

    “They should be condemned and I condemn them in the strongest possible way,” Mr Swan told reporters in Brisbane.

    Despite a political stoush between the federal and state governments over the approval process for the Alpha mine, Mr Seeney said he backed Mr Swan’s comments.

    “I think it could be damaging for the Queensland economy,” he said.

    “I think anyone who takes a sensible look at the resources industry in Queensland can very quickly understand that the Queensland economy needs the resource sector.”

    The Queensland Resources Council was even stronger in their criticism of the advertisement, with chief executive Michael Roche labelling the Greenpeace and GetUp campaigns “increasingly shrill and irrational” in a statement.

    “GVK and other Indian companies are looking to Australian coal resources to improve the quality of life for millions of their people, which is possible only through access to affordable and plentiful supplies of electricity,” he said.

    “For a country like India, coal is the energy source that ticks these boxes.

    “I congratulate GVK Hancock on their commitment and vision and their thoroughness in preparation of their environmental impact statement for the mine and rail project, which goes to about 10,000 pages.

    “With the stringent conditions placed on environmental management of the project, it can only be a win for both Queenslanders and the people of India.”

    However, Mr McLean said campaign organisers would continue to target the mine where it hurt the most – investment.

    “We are in discussion with some potential investors, but we can’t discuss [the details],” he said.

    “We just think it is really important that they know the risks.”

    Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/anticoal-campaign-comes-under-fire-20120608-200xv.html#ixzz1xFRr918L

  • Quakes shake up townships in state’s north

    Quakes shake up townships in state’s north

    June 9, 2012 – 8:10AM

    Two earthquakes have struck in northern NSW, and have been felt in Tamworth, Gunnedah and Coonabarabran and in areas more than 100km away.

    A 4.2 magnitude quake struck at Lake Keepit, northeast of Gunnedah, at 9.31pm yesterday, Geoscience Australia says.

    It had a depth of 17km.

    A similar sized earthquake nearby struck about two minutes earlier, the Australian Seismological Centre says.

    The centre’s director Kevin McCue said these were the first earthquakes greater than magnitude 4 to strike inland northern NSW since December 1969, when a magnitude 5 quake struck near Coonabarabran.

    Mr McCue said last night’s quakes were felt as far as Coonabarabran, 120km from the epicentre, as well as in Tamworth and Gunnedah.

    “I was talking to people up there. All the glass was jiggling in cupboards,” he said.

    “It’s unusual to have an earthquake of this size.”

    He said it’s unlikely the quakes caused structural damage to homes in major towns, but some may have cracked walls or chimneys.

    Twitter accounts have come in from Tamworth, Manilla and Gunnedah.

    Seismologist Dr Michael Phillips, who lives 5km from Coonabarabran, said his wife Claire Milton, a doctor, and their eight-year-old son Max felt the earthquakes in their farmhouse.

    “They heard and felt it,” he said.

    “The china in the cabinet was rattling and my son’s bunk bed was banging on the wall.

    “The whole house was rattling and shaking – it lasted 30 seconds.”

    Dr Phillips, who is also a physicist, said the size of the earthquakes had overwhelmed his seismological measuring equipment.

    “It was too much for the instrument,” Dr Phillips said, adding it was likely that one of the earthquakes was an aftershock.

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/quakes-shake-up-townships-in-states-north-20120609-202ad.html#ixzz1xFQLzjvs

  • Orica facing fines for Gladstone Harbour releases

    Orica facing fines for Gladstone Harbour releases

    ABCJune 8, 2012, 5:58 pm

    Multinational chemical manufacturer Orica is in trouble yet again, this time in Queensland, over the alleged release of heightened levels of cyanide into Gladstone Harbour.

    The state’s environment watchdog has charged the company with more than 250 breaches relating to discharges in January and February.

    That follows the leaks at its ammonia plant near Newcastle last year.

    Queensland Environment Minister Andrew Powell says if found guilty, the company faces a maximum penalty of $1 million per offence.

    “This investigation started in March this year. We were made aware of allegations that on multiple occasions Orica had discharged effluent water containing cyanide in excess of its permitted levels,” he said.

    “Orica’s been charged with 279 offences of what in the technical term is wilfully contravening a development condition of a development approval, in contravention of section 4351 of the Environmental Protection Act 1994.”

    Mr Powell says Orica has a long history of non-compliance and that is why the department is seeking prosecution.

    “The Premier’s given me a very clear mandate: where industry is doing the right thing I’m not to be a roadblock, but where they are doing the wrong thing I have the full force of the Environmental Protection Act at my disposal,” he said.

    Gladstone Harbour has been the site of fish deaths and abnormalities in the past several months, but Mr Powell says the Government is still waiting on expert opinion to determine if there is a connection.

    “At this stage, Gladstone Harbour has a lot going on at the moment. It will be a case of getting that expert opinion to give more confidence around that,” he said.

    “What I can comment on is the fact that there was significant dilution of the cyanide upon the release.

    “So there is an initial assessment that the environmental and human health risks are relatively low, if non-existent.”

    Orica has issued a statement saying it intends to defend the complaints and believes there has been no environmental harm or risk to human health.