Geoscientists offer an explanation for why the Deepwater Horizon oil spill didn’t have the environmental impact that many had feared. Using publicly available datasets, their study reveals that the force of the Mississippi River emptying into the Gulf of Mexico created mounds of freshwater which pushed the oil slick off shore.
The Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf fringing the Weddell Sea, Antarctica, may start to melt rapidly in this century and no longer act as a barrier for ice streams draining the Antarctic Ice Sheet, new research shows.
Hastings Funds Management and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan have won the right to a long-term lease of Sydney’s desalination plant after submitting a bid worth 2.3 billion Australian dollars (US$2.32 billion), three people familiar with the matter said Deal Journal Australia.
Bloomberg News
A glass of treated drinking water produced at the Kurnell desalination plant is arranged for a photograph in Sydney, Australia
The pair beat off separate bids by Australia-listed Spark Infrastructure and Industry Funds Management, the people said.
The New South Wales Government — advised by Goldman Sachs — intends to use the proceeds from the desalination plant long-term lease sale to retire debt and invest in other infrastructure projects.
At least four consortiums made the shortlist, but the UBS-advised team comprising of Spanish infrastructure group Acciona and Mitsubishi subsidiary Trility, withdrew from the process in March.
The desalination plant can supply up to 250 million liters a day and is currently operated by Veolia Water Australia.
It exists so Sydney residents aren’t solely dependent on rainfall for secure water supply. Australia is currently drought-free for the first time in a decade.
Morgan Stanley and RBC Capital Markets, acted as financial advisers to Hastings and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
A consortium of 11 banks including HSBC and RBC were involved in the debt financing of the deal. Australia’s “Big Four” banks –Westpac, National Australia Bank, ANZ Banking Group and Commonwealth Bank of Australia — were also part of the Gilbert + Tobin-advised consortium.
Part of the appeal for funds acquiring the lease for the desalination plant is its steady cash flows from an AAA-rated counterparty as the NSW government owns the offtake.
UN warns Asia’s giant cities over carbon emissions
Michael Bachelard
May 11, 2012
Still growing … a ceremony at the site of a new hotel in Beijing. Photo: AFP
JAKARTA: The United Nations has delivered a stark warning that Asian mega-cities can no longer develop first and rein in carbon emissions later.
A new report, released in Jakarta yesterday by the UN Development Program, will add impetus to efforts to encourage countries such as China and India to make deeper cuts to their fast-growing emissions at international meetings beginning in November.
But it acknowledges that without fast economic growth, 900 million people in the region will remain in poverty, unable to afford decent lives.
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”Asian growth is reducing global inequality,” UNDP regional director Ajay Chhibber told the Herald.
”But we have to give people choices which allow them to live healthy, long [lives] without necessarily aping the consumption patterns of the western world.”
Australian National University academic Andrew Macintosh said global negotiations had been at a ”Mexican stand-off” for 20 years as developed and developing countries each said the other needed to move first, or do more.
”Now there is an expectation that the Asian countries will do a lot more,” he said.
But the challenge, according to the UNDP, is to make sure these countries can continue to grow at the same time.
Despite growth rates of 5 per cent or more in consumption, one in 10 people in the Asia Pacific region still suffer from ”chronic under-consumption” with minimum dietary intakes, and a quarter have no electricity.
The battleground between growing consumption and climate change will be fought in the world’s mega-cities, half of which are in the Asia-Pacific region.
By 2026, more than half of the region’s population will live in a city. While they occupy just 2 per cent of the land in Asia, cities contribute more than two-thirds of greenhouse gases, particularly from transport and electricity.
Jakarta has 130 shopping malls, more than any other city on the planet. Its lack of a reliable public transport system means ownership of cars and motorbikes is rising by 20 to 30 per cent a year, with these all using heavily subsidised petrol.
The report notes that growing richer increases people’s demand for meat and dairy foods, for power to run air-conditioners and for private vehicles. It also generates more rubbish from packaging, which in Asian countries is often still burned or thrown into waterways.
Despite the growth of wealth in Indonesia, the potential for more growth is enormous. Only 11 per cent of people live in cities, and in rural areas only 3.4 per cent own a car.
”We’re not saying consume less, that Asia shouldn’t have a middle class,” Mr Chhibber said. ”But it’s how you plan your cities in terms of transport development, greener buildings, the shift to gas [for electricity] against other forms of fuel [such as coal], and much greater options on transportation.”
Low-lying mega-cities, however, were not only the engines of future climate change but also likely to be its most likely victims, Mr Chhibber said, with poor residents of cities having a limited ability to adapt to a changing climate.
The European climate chief, Connie Hedegaard, said there was now a widespread recognition that the old division between developed and developing countries had outlived its usefulness. Countries wanted ”something more dynamic”, she said.
Mr Chhibber said that ”until five years ago, many Asian countries were of the view that climate change was a problem for the developed world”.
”There’s a growing realisation at least among many of the Asian leaders that this is not good enough,” he said. ”[That’s a] big mindset change that gives us great hope.”
Reports from meetings in Europe this week suggest that realisation has hit home among negotiators, too. China, India and Indonesia have committed to reduce how much carbon dioxide they produce per unit of development, and are likely to promise more cuts at future negotiations.
”Ten years ago, all anyone said was all we want in Asia is growth, growth, growth,” Mr Chhibber said. ”Now … the mental road blocks that people have are beginning to drop. With every flood, every shock, people are beginning to see that Asia is vulnerable … and so we have to make these changes themselves.”
Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. The Heartland Institute used his image in its roadside billboard. Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features
An ultra-conservative thinktank has suffered a mass exodus of corporate donors after running an ad campaign comparing climate change believers to a serial killer.
The Heartland Institute has seen a core group of big-money supporters back out as a result of the provocative billboard. Insurance companies led the corporate world in donations to Heartland.
The firms who have decided to stop funding between them gave the thinktank $1m (£620,000) in 2010 and 2011, according to documents leaked this year.
But about two dozen insurance companies, including US giant State Farm, announced an end to support for Heartland because of the billboard. The ad, which ran for just a day on a Chicago expressway, featured an image of the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, and the caption: “I still believe in global warming. Do you?”
The drop-off in funds could wreck Heartland’s ambitious plans of increasing its fundraising by 67% in 2012, from $4.6m to $7.7m.
Heartland watchers have suggested the thinktank may be running short of funds, especially after moving into expensive new premises.
Drinks firm Diageo, which owns brands such as Guinness, Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker and Moët & Chandon, also pulled its funding and told the Guardian: “Diageo vigorously opposes climate scepticism.” However, Diageo funding for Heartland was just $10,000 over the last two years.
It was suggested the exodus might force Heartland to cancel its annual climate conference, scheduled for Chicago later this month. But Jim Lakely, a Heartland spokesman, said in an email: “The conference is going forward as planned. Only one (nonpaying) co-sponsor out of 50 has stepped away from the event.” He claimed the thinktank hoped to attract more corporate support for the three-day gathering.
The insurance company support had been for programmes unrelated to climate change, but industry leaders said the Heartland ad went too far.
“Recent revelations of the Heartland Institute’s radical position on climate change as portrayed on the new billboard featuring Ted Kaczynski made our association with other parts of your organisation untenable,” the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Re-insurers, representing 22 companies, told Heartland’s president.
State Farm, in a post on its Facebook page, also said it was cutting funds as a direct result of the billboard campaign.
The defecting companies between them contributed more than 15% of Heartland’s budget last year. Companies such as State Farm were among the thinktank’s biggest single donors. The cutting of ties with Heartland was the biggest success so far of a boycott call by environmental campaign groups Forecast the Facts and the Sierra Club. The latter said on Wednesday more than 20,000 people had backed its call for corporations to pull the plug on Heartland. Forecast the Facts is keeping a running tally of companies which have cut funds. The Sierra Club called on Microsoft and GlaxoSmithKline, which have both disavowed Heartland’s views on climate change, to also cut their funding.
Heartland aimed for a 170% increase in donations from the corporate community in 2012. Instead, it looks as though it will have to look outside the mainstream business world to a network of rightwing foundations, such as those operated by the Koch oil billionaires and other private interests, and an anonymous donor who has made big donations in past years.
SOLAR panel peddlers who have claimed the carbon tax will increase electricity prices by hundreds of per cent face “please explain” proceedings from the ACCC, as do builders who have told would-be customers to buy now to beat the carbon tax.
Commission chairman Rod Sims said it would issue “formal substantiation notices” to four or five businesses over the most concerning of 96 allegations of misleading and deceptive conduct made by consumers.
Mr Sims said some smaller solar spruikers had made “grossly exaggerated claims” that the carbon tax would increase electricity prices by 40 per cent a year, leading to cumulative hikes of a “couple of hundred per cent”.
The Independent Pricing & Regulatory Tribunal has said the first-year impact of the carbon tax on NSW electricity prices will be 9 per cent.
In this state the effect on a household will be spelt out in red text on bills, saying: “NSW Govt estimates that Federal carbon tax and green energy schemes add about $315 a year to a typical 7mWh household bill – see ipart. nsw.gov.au.”
Mr Sims said that in addition to the action against solar sellers, the ACCC would issue substantiation notices to builders who had told prospective purchasers to “buy now to beat the carbon price”.
“We don’t think you will,” Mr Sims said, because most of the items used to construct the home would not be purchased until after July 1.
Building groups had initially advised would-be customers that the carbon tax could add up to $6000 to the cost of a new home, Mr Sims said. After discussions with the ACCC that forecast had been almost halved.
Beyond substantiation notices, the ACCC can seek undertakings from businesses that they won’t make the claims again. It can also take court action and seek fines of up to $1.1 million.
“We will only litigate if we get someone recalcitrant,” Mr Sims said. Many of the other allegations consumers had made related to “silly” carbon tax claims.
These included:
A TAXI driver who tried to add a fee to fares citing the carbon tax – last year;
A CAFE owner who said price rises in January this year were due to the emissions impost; and
A BRICK supplier which said cost increases last month were because of the price on pollution.
Consumers had also dobbed in department stores and liquor outlets, Mr Sims said.
In these “silly” cases, letters were sent out and the recipients stopped making the false claims.
The ACCC has also asked energy retailers to disclose pricing plans for renewable electricity after consumers raised concerns that these products may attract the carbon tax.
“Given it’s [mostly] wind generation sitting behind [these products] it’s hard to see how there would be a carbon price component,” Mr Sims said. “But we don’t have a closed mind there.”
Mr Sims said most consumers were aware that the carbon tax did not start until July 1, which had made it more difficult for dodgy dealers.
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