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  • Beijing opens green super-ministry

    Rowan Callick, China correspondent The Australian

    THE Chinese Government has underlined its concerns about the environment by upgrading it into one of five new super-ministries announced yesterday.

    But the bureaucratic hurdles have proven too great to create the long-expected energy super-ministry.

    Overall, it is a timid result from a much-vaunted review aimed at streamlining decision-making and supervision, with the number of cabinet-level agencies reporting to the peak government body, the State Council, cut by just one from 28 to 27.

    In announcing the outcome to the annual session of the National People’s Congress, Hua Jianmin, the secretary-general of the State Council, said the reforms were "aimed at building an efficient and service-oriented government". He said "problems of overlap between departments, disconnect between power and responsibility and low efficiency are still quite stark".

    He stressed the importance of the new Environment Ministry, saying: "China will face the need for environmental protection as a severe challenge for a long time to come, with the task of reducing pollution an arduous one."

    This third major restructuring of government within the past decade creates a National Energy Commission to take responsibility for energy strategy, security and development.

    But the National Development and Reform Commission, the top planning agency, will continue to control the administration and regulation of the sector.

    Massive state-owned corporations, including PetroChina and the State Grid, which opposed answering to a new Energy Ministry, successfully fought its creation.

    The new Environment Ministry marks a step up for the modestly resourced State Environmental Protection Administration. The other super-ministries are:

    * The Ministry of Industry and Information, into which will be folded the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, the Ministry of Information Industry, the State Council Information Office, and – oddly – the State Tobacco Monopoly Bureau.

    * The Ministry of Health will incorporate the State Food and Drug Administration, and will have stronger powers to supervise safety in those products, a growing cause of controversy and concern in the past year after a series of scandals that saw a former head of the SFDA executed for corruption.

    * The Ministry of Transport will incorporate the old Ministry of Communications and the old General Administration of Civil Aviation. It will be responsible for two new agencies, the State Civil Aviation Bureau and the State Post Bureau.

    * The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security takes on the roles of the old Ministry of Personnel and Ministry of Labour and Social Security. It will establish a new agency, the State Bureau of Civil Servants.

    The powerful NDRC – which formerly monitored many Chinese industries, acting as an intermediary between them and the State Council – appears to be one casualty in the shake-up.

    It will lose its project-approval powers and its wide-ranging supervisory role.

    Mr Hua said the People’s Bank of China – which in China is an arm of government – will take on a strengthened role co-ordinating financial departments.

  • Cut deeper, IPCC tells Wong

    From ABC Online  

    Australia has been told it must commit to a 25 per cent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020 if it is to be taken seriously by other members of the Kyoto club.

    That is the message from a key member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr Bill Hare, who is currently in Australia.

    Dr Hare is currently helping the United Nations set up the next climate agreement for when the Kyoto Protocol winds up in 2012.

    He met with economist Ross Garnaut, who is advising the Federal Government on the costs of climate change.

    Dr Hare says Professor Garnaut’s recommendation for a 90 per cent cut in emissions by 2050 is good, but short-term targets are also crucial.

    "I think the level of ambition is in the right range," he said.

    "What’s missing and I think will come in the final report are reductions targets for 2020".

    Dr Hare says Australia must deliver on its Bali commitment and explain how it can help cut global emissions by 40 per cent over the next decade.

    "For Australia to start making a contribution and to start setting an agenda which the Rudd Government wants to do, then it needs to have a very serious proposal for what it is prepared to do and what it thinks the rest of the world should be doing to prevent dangerous climate change," he said.

    See related article at Climate Friendly 

  • Glacier meltdown slips into Bangkok talks

    From the Australian  

    A THAW of the world’s glaciers has accelerated to a new record with some of the biggest losses within Europe, in a worrying sign of climate change, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said today.

    "Meltdown in the mountains," UNEP said in a statement, saying that a retreat of glaciers from the Andes to the Arctic should add urgency to UN negotiations on working out a new treaty by the end of 2009 to combat global warming.

    "Data from close to 30 reference glaciers in nine mountain ranges indicate that between the years 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 the average rate of melting and thinning more than doubled," it said.

    Some of the biggest losses were in Europe — in the Alps, the Pyrenees and the Nordic region — according to the UNEP-backed World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) at the University of Zurich in Switzerland.

    "The latest figures are part of what appears to be an accelerating trend with no apparent end in sight," WGMS director Wilfried Haeberli said.

    The estimates, based on measuring the thickness of glacier ice, indicated an average loss of about 1.5 metres in 2006, up from just over half a metre in 2005. UNEP said that the thinning was the fastest since monitoring began.

    Since 1980, glaciers have thinned by about 11.5 metres in a retreat blamed by the UN Climate Panel mainly on human use of fossil fuels.

    The thaw could disrupt everything from farming — millions of people in Asia depend on seasonal melt water from the Himalayas — and power generation to winter sports. The thaw could also raise world sea levels.

    UNEP said glaciers were among the clearest indicators of global warming. "There are many canaries emerging in the climate change coal mine. The glaciers are perhaps among those making the most noise," said Achim Steiner, head of UNEP.

    The WGMS monitors about 100 glaciers in total.

    Mr Steiner said that governments had agreed to work out by the end of 2009 a new pact to succeed the UN’s Kyoto Protocol, which binds developed nations except the United States to curb emissions of greenhouse gases.

    "Otherwise, and like the glaciers, our room for manoeuvre and the opportunity to act may simply melt away," he said.

    A first set of UN negotiations on a new climate treaty will be held in Bangkok from March 31-April 4.

  • Naked residents face Tweed Council

    naked residents face Tweed CouncilResidents of the coastal village Hastings Point in northern New South Wales demonstrated nude on March 11 after Tweed Council ignored their submission to wait for a ruling by the NSW Land and Environment Court before approving further developments on the estuary. The residents have made a video of their nude protest which is available on You Tube.

    The Tweed Shire is being run by administrators after the council was sacked for corruption in 2005 following a report by Maurice Daly of the Independent Commission against Corruption. The Daly Report identified breaches of the Land and Environment regulations by council and council staff, allowing illegal developments to go ahead and overturning or ignoring decisions of the Land and Environment Court. The naked residents say that the practice has continued under the administrators. The council meeting of March 10th decided to allow a development to go ahead despite the fact that it is currently before the Land and Environment Court.

    See the Naked Residents , visit their website

  • Tributes flow for water expert Cullen

    From ABC online  

    Water experts are paying tribute to Professor Peter Cullen, one of Australia’s leaders in the field.

    The 65-year-old founding member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists died overnight at his home near Canberra.

    Professor Cullen was active in advising governments on how to address dwindling water supplies.

    He retired in 2002 but continued his scientific work, focusing on the plight of Australia’s rivers.

    Professor Mike Young of the Wentworth group says Professor Cullen was a wonderful communicator who could translate complex science to ordinary, young Australians and politicians.

    "Peter really was a great Australian who loved and understood water and wanted to find better ways to manage it," he said.

    "He believed if we got water management right, then Australia would have a sustainable future."

    Professor Cullen’s friend and professional colleague, Paul Perkins, says Australia’s natural waterways have lost a great advocate.

    "He towered above everything," he said. "He was a big man in intellect, in size, in appetite for new things, and so on.

    "He wasn’t just an environmentalist or agricultural scientist – he covered… the whole spectrum."

    Dr Paul Sinclair from the Australian Conservation Foundation says the scientist was passionate about alerting Australians to the crisis facing the country’s river systems.

    "There’s sort of two sorts of academics," he said.

    "There are academics who like to bang in the ivory tower and there are academics who like to be down and dirty in the swamp.

    "Peter Cullen … liked to be down and dirty in the swamp.

    "When he retired from his academic post, it appeared to me that there was … no change in his work regime and he appeared to be busier than ever."

    Politicians from all sides have paid tribute.

    Federal Water Minister Penny Wong says Professor Cullen made a powerful contribution to water reform.

    Senator Wong says he was an inspiration to many.

    Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has praised the Professor’s dedication, saying he hopes his legacy lives on.

    New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma also paid tribute to Professor Cullen.

    In a statement, Mr Iemma says the academic was a man of great vision who made an outstanding contribution to water policy.

  • Clean-Energy Trends 2008

    Further proof of clean tech’s move from marginalized to mainstream is abundant. A growing number of governments announced plans to generate electricity from renewables. Corporations continued to jump on, if not lead, the race to transition to a cleaner, greener economy. Venture capitalists in the U.S. invested $2.7 billion in the clean-energy sector, representing more than 9 percent of total VC activity. Cleanenergy indices outpaced the broader markets in 2007. For example, the NASDAQ® Clean Edge® U.S. Liquid Series index (co-developed by Clean Edge and NASDAQ) was up 66.67 percent last year, compared with 3.53 percent for the S&P 500 index and 9.81 percent for the NASDAQ Composite index.

    According to Clean Edge research:

    • Biofuels (global production and wholesale pricing of ethanol and biodiesel) reached $25.4 billion in 2007 and are projected to grow to $81.1 billion by 2017. In 2007 the global biofuels market consisted of more than 13 billion gallons of ethanol and 2 billion gallons of biodiesel production worldwide.
    • Wind power (new installation capital costs) is projected to expand from $30.1 billion in 2007 to $83.4 billion in 2017. Last year’s global wind power installations reached a record 20,000 MW, equivalent to 20 large-size 1 GW conventional power plants.
    • Solar photovoltaics (including modules, system components, and installation) will grow from a $20.3 billion industry in 2007 to $74 billion by 2017. Annual installations were just shy of 3 GW worldwide, up nearly 500 percent from just four years earlier.
    • The fuel cell and distributed hydrogen market will grow from a $1.5 billion industry (primarily for research contracts and demonstration and test units) to $16 billion over the next decade.

    Together, we project these four benchmark technologies, which equaled $55.4 billion in 2006 and expanded 40 percent to $77.3 billion in 2007, to grow to $254.5 billion within a decade.

    U.S Venture Capital Continues to Grow and Grow

    U.S.-based venture capital investments in energy technologies more than quadrupled from $599 million in 2000 to $2.7 billion in 2007, according to New Energy Finance (with supporting data from Clean Edge and Nth Power). As a percent of total VC investments, energy tech increased from .6 percent in 2000 to 9.1 percent in 2007. Between 2006 and 2007, venture investments in the U.S. clean-energy sector increased by more than 70 percent.

     

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