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  • Australia rates cars on energy use

    Modernised energy ratings will appear on all new cars from October, the federal government has announced.

    The ratings will show fuel consumption of a new vehicle in city and country driving, along with its rate of greenhouse emission.

    "The new label is about helping motorists make informed choices about the environmental impact of their new car and the cost of running their vehicle on the family budget," Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement.

    "While the numbers on a fuel consumption label do not replicate all driving conditions, additional information on the new fuel consumption label will help consumers to better understand the fuel consumption of vehicles under different traffic conditions."

    Mr Albanese will sign off on the new labelling system next week and it will be mandatory on new model cars from October.

    The announcement came as the nation’s peak motoring body, the Australian Automobile Association (AAA), announced a string of climate change initiatives.

    Association executive director Mike Harris announced a nationwide audit of all motoring clubs in a bid to lower the emissions of the five million emergency calls responded to annually by organisations like the NRMA and RACQ.

    The AAA will also convene an international summit in June to study how to further reduce the dangerous gases emitted by cars.

    "We will encourage sustainable motoring," Mr Harris said at the joint government-AAA launch.

    But he promised there would be no attempt to demonise motorists.

    "The AAA clubs are acutely aware of the importance of the car to people from all walks of life."

  • Mine pumps sea water up Andes

    The Esperanza project, set in the Atacama, one of the world’s driest deserts, will pump sea water through 90 miles (145 km) of pipe to an altitude of 7,545 feet (2,300 meters). The average mine requires millions of gallons of water during the course of its life, some 40 years, making access to reliable water increasingly crucial as global warming looms and cities grow.

    More mines near the desert coasts of Chile and Peru plan to install desalination plants soon. Costs of the elaborate filtration systems have fallen over the last decade, while lofty global metals prices, boosted by demand from fast-growing Asia, may keep profits high for years to come.

    Engineers in Peru from Southern Copper <SPC.LM><PCU.N>, a major metals producer, and Mitsui Mining & Smelting Co’s <5706.TK1> Santa Luisa mine have inspected Cerro Lindo’s sea water system as they plan for the future, Arce said.

    Chile’s Escondida mine, the world’s biggest copper mine, may expand a desalination system it installed years ago, said a spokesman at BHP Billiton <BLT.L><BHP.AX>, the mine’s owner. "It’s working really well and we are thinking of expanding it," he said. The existing plant supplies a quarter of all water at the mine.

    WATER CONFLICTS

    Mining drives the Peruvian and Chilean economies, and is chiefly responsible for their exports. But conflicts over water, especially in Peru, where they often turn violent, have delayed billions of dollars of investments in new mines. Poor residents in Peruvian mountain towns, afraid of losing access to fresh water, have delayed Zijin Mining Group <2899.HK> of China’s $1.4 billion Rio Blanco copper project and Anglo American’s <AAL.L> Quellaveco copper project.

    Strident communities concerned about pollution have also forced companies to scrap plans for new mines, including Newmont’s <NEM.N> Cerro Quilish gold project, and the Tambo Grande gold project of a small Canadian company. "The scarcity of water will cause economic conflict – it already has in parts of Peru, and it will affect the development of industry," said Jorge Alvarez Lam, climate change specialist with the Peruvian government.

    (Additional reporting by Dana Ford in Lima and Pav Jordan in Santiago; Editing by David Gregorio

  • Sour times

    From The Economist

    The sea is becoming more acidic. That is not good news if you live in it

    EVERY silver lining has its cloud. At the moment, the world’s oceans absorb a million tonnes of carbon dioxide an hour. Admittedly that is only a third of the rate at which humanity dumps the stuff into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, but it certainly helps to slow down global warming. However, what is a blessing for the atmosphere turns out to be a curse for the oceans. When carbon dioxide dissolves in water it forms carbonic acid. At the moment, seawater is naturally alkaline—but it is becoming less so all the time.

    The biological significance of this acidification was a topic of debate at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston. Many species of invertebrate have shells or skeletons made of calcium carbonate. It is these, fossilised, that form rocks such as chalk and limestone. And, as anyone who has studied chemistry at school knows, if you drop chalk into acid it fizzes away to nothing. Many marine biologists therefore worry that some species will soon be unable to make their protective homes. According to Andrew Knoll, of Harvard University, many of the species most at risk are corals.

    The acid test

    Dr Knoll drew this conclusion by studying the fossil record. The end of the Permian period, 252m years ago, was marked by the biggest extinction of life known to have happened on Earth. At least part of the cause of this extinction seems to have been huge volcanic eruptions that poured carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. But some groups of animals became more extinct than others. Sponges, corals and brachiopods (a once-widespread group that look a bit like bivalve molluscs) were particularly badly hit.

    Rather than counting individual species of fossils, which vary over time, palaeontologists who study extinction usually count entire groups of related species, called genera. More than 90% of Permian genera of sponges, corals and brachiopods vanished in the extinction. By contrast, only half of the genera of molluscs (the real ones) and arthropods disappeared.

    Dr Knoll reckons this is because molluscs and arthropods are able to buffer the chemistry of the internal fluids from which they create their shells. This keeps the acidity of those fluids constant. Sponges, corals and brachiopods, however, cannot do this.

    The situation at the moment is not as bad as it was at the end of the Permian. Nevertheless, calculations suggest that if today’s trends continue, the alkalinity of the ocean will have fallen by half a pH unit by 2100. That would make some places, such as the Southern Ocean, uninhabitable for corals. Since corals provide habitat and food sources for many other denizens of the deep, this could have a profound effect on the marine food web.

    Gretchen Hofmann of the University of California, Santa Barbara, has brought some experimental evidence to bear on the question. She is investigating the effects of changing acidity and temperature in the sea on a creature called the purple sea urchin. This animal is a scientists’ favourite for embryological experiments, and has thus had its genome sequenced (in part by Dr Hofmann, as it happens), so it is well understood. Dr Hofmann’s work suggests that a combination of heat and acidity is more deadly than either alone. When she and her team reproduced the conditions which are predicted to prevail in 2100 if carbon-dioxide emissions are not curbed, they found that the genes of larval sea urchins had to work up to three times harder than normal to form the animals’ skeletons. On top of that, those skeletons were often deformed.

    No corals, no sea urchins and no who-knows-what-else would be bad news indeed for the sea. Those who blithely factor oceanic uptake into the equations of what people can get away with when it comes to greenhouse-gas pollution should, perhaps, have second thoughts.

  • Corporate report card shows new awakening

    A new report from Green.biz reviews the state of the environment in the global economy. You can download the report from them , but here is a lightning summary of the ten top stories of 2007.

    1. Corporate Climate Commitments – Major companies are making public commitments about their strategies to address climate change in record numbers.
    2. Automotive Industry Finally Gets It – Major carmakers are bringing us more fuel-efficient and hybrid vehicles, with plans to launch plug-in hybrids soon.
    3. Planes, Trains, Trucks, and Ships are Going Green Too – Other players in the transportation sector are also implementing eco-efficient tech to reduce their environmental impact.
    4. Green Marketing/Greenwashing – Just as companies are increasingly catering to the "green consumer," mainstream consumers are increasingly skeptical of such claims.
    5. Toxic Product Reduction – Manufacturers and retailers faced a public backlash this year concerning toxic materials in their products. As such, they are making amends to reduce or eliminate them in future production.
    6. E-waste – The computing industry got serious this year about energy use and disposal problems associated with technology. 
    7. Big Companies Get Real about Sustainability – More Fortune 500 businesses announced plans to incorporate company-wide initiatives to engender smarter resource use.
    8. Green Buildings Skyrocket – Green buildings become the norm in major urban centers across the nation.
    9. Banks Pull Out of "Dirty Investments" – Shareholder activism pressure large banks to invest in clean energy production instead.
    10. "Zero" is Where It’s At – "Zero-waste," "zero-carbon," and "zero-emissions," are the rallying cries from the new initiatives emerging from the corporate sector.

    This ambitious effort to analyze green business trends provides a much-needed perspective on the field.

    The overall results?

    Major businesses have made commendable strides towards streamlining their business strategies with an environmentally sustainable focus over the last year. However, it remains to be seen whether, in fact, these approaches are making a difference to the environment. Insufficient data exists as of yet to make conclusive claims about the efficacy of these programs in the aggregate.

    This leads to a mixed verdict, "Companies are getting cleaner and more efficient, but only incrementally, and many of the gains are offset by the ever-growing economy."

    The report looks at more sector-specific trends over the next week, we will shed light on some of the factors hindering further "conscious capitalism" evolution.

  • Texas wind power tops 3%

    Texans are even turning tapped-out oil fields into wind farms, and no less an oilman than Boone Pickens is getting into alternative energy.

    “I have the same feelings about wind,” Mr. Pickens said in an interview, “as I had about the best oil field I ever found.” He is planning to build the biggest wind farm in the world, a $10 billion behemoth that could power a small city by itself.

    Wind turbines were once a marginal form of electrical generation. But amid rising concern about greenhouse gases from coal-burning power plants, wind power is booming. Installed wind capacity in the United States grew 45 percent last year, albeit from a small base, and a comparable increase is expected this year.

    At growth rates like that, experts said, wind power could eventually make an important contribution to the nation’s electrical supply. It already supplies about 1 percent of American electricity, powering the equivalent of 4.5 million homes. Environmental advocates contend it could eventually hit 20 percent, as has already happened in Denmark. Energy consultants say that 5 to 7 percent is a more realistic goal in this country.

    The United States recently overtook Spain as the world’s second-largest wind power market, after Germany, with $9 billion invested last year. A recent study by Emerging Energy Research, a consulting firm in Cambridge, Mass., projected $65 billion in investment from 2007 to 2015.

    Despite the attraction of wind as a nearly pollution-free power source, it does have limitations. Though the gap is closing, electricity from wind remains costlier than that generated from fossil fuels. Moreover, wind power is intermittent and unpredictable, and the hottest days, when electricity is needed most, are usually not windy.

    The turbines are getting bigger and their blades can kill birds and bats. Aesthetic and wildlife issues have led to opposition emerging around the country, particularly in coastal areas like Cape Cod. Some opposition in Texas has cropped up as well, including lawsuits to halt wind farms that were thought to be eyesores or harmful to wetlands.

    But the opposition has been limited, and has done little to slow the rapid growth of wind power in Texas. Some Texans see the sleek new turbines as a welcome change in the landscape.

    “Texas has been looking at oil and gas rigs for 100 years, and frankly, wind turbines look a little nicer,” said Jerry Patterson, the Texas land commissioner, whose responsibilities include leasing state lands for wind energy development. “We’re No. 1 in wind in the United States, and that will never change.”

    Texas surpassed California as the top wind farm state in 2006. In January alone, new wind farms representing $700 million of investment went into operation in Texas, supplying power sufficient for 100,000 homes.

    Supporters say Texas is ideal for wind-power development, not just because it is windy. It also has sparsely populated land for wind farms, fast-growing cities and a friendly regulatory environment for developers.

    “Texas could be a model for the entire nation,” said Patrick Woodson, a senior development executive with E.On, a German utility operating here.

    The quaint windmills of old have been replaced by turbines that stand as high as 20-story buildings, with blades longer than a football field and each capable of generating electricity for small communities. powerful turbines are able to capture power even when the wind is relatively weak, and they help to lower the cost per kilowatt hour.

    Much of the boom in the United States is being driven by foreign power companies with experience developing wind projects, including Iberdrola of Spain, Energias de Portugal and Windkraft Nord of Germany. Foreign companies own two-thirds of the wind projects under construction in Texas.

    A short-term threat to the growth of wind power is the looming expiration of federal clean-energy tax credits, which Congress has allowed to lapse several times over the years. Advocates have called for extending those credits and eventually enacting a national renewable-power standard that would oblige states to expand their use of clean power sources.

    A longer-term problem is potential bottlenecks in getting wind power from the places best equipped to produce it to the populous areas that need electricity. The part of the United States with the highest wind potential is a corridor stretching north from Texas through the middle of the country, including sparsely populated states like Montana and the Dakotas. Power is needed most in the dense cities of the coasts, but building new transmission lines over such long distances is certain to be expensive and controversial.

    “We need a national vision for transmission like we have with the national highway system,” said Robert Gramlich, policy director for the American Wind Energy Association. “We have to get over the hump of having a patchwork of electric utility fiefdoms.”

    Texas is better equipped to deal with the transmission problems that snarl wind energy in other states because a single agency operates the electrical grid and manages the deregulated utility market in most of the state.

    Last July, the Texas Public Utility Commission approved transmission lines across the state capable of delivering as much as 25,000 megawatts of wind energy by 2012, presuming the boom continues. That would be five times the wind power generated in the state today, and it would drive future national growth.

    Shell and the TXU Corporation are planning to build a 3,000-megawatt wind farm north of here in the Texas Panhandle, leapfrogging two FPL Energy Texas wind farms to become the biggest in the world.

    Not to be outdone, Mr. Pickens is planning his own 150,000-acre Panhandle wind farm of 4,000 megawatts that would be even larger and cost him $10 billion.

    “I like wind because it’s renewable and it’s clean and you know you are not going to be dealing with a production decline curve,” Mr. Pickens said. “Decline curves finally wore me out in the oil business.”

    At the end of 2007, Texas ranked No. 1 in the nation with installed wind power of 4,356 megawatts (and 1,238 under construction), far outdistancing California’s 2,439 megawatts (and 165 under construction). Minnesota and Iowa came in third and fourth with almost 1,300 megawatts each (and 46 and 116 under construction, respectively).

    Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado and Oregon, states with smaller populations than Texas, all get 5 to 8 percent of their power from wind farms, according to estimates by the American Wind Energy Association.

    It has dawned on many Texans in recent years that wind power, whatever its other pros and cons, represents a potent new strategy for rural economic development.

    Since the wind boom began a few years ago, the total value of property here in Nolan County has doubled, and the county judge, Tim Fambrough, estimated it would increase an additional 25 percent this year. County property taxes are going down, home values are going up and the county has extra funds to remodel the courthouse and improve road maintenance.

    “Wind reminds us of the old oil and gas booms,” Mr. Fambrough said.

    Teenagers who used to flee small towns like Sweetwater after high school are sticking around to take technical courses in local junior colleges and then work on wind farms. Marginal ranches and cotton farms are worth more with wind turbines on them.

    “I mean, even the worst days for wind don’t compare to the busts in the oil business,” said Bobby Clark, a General Electric wind technician who gave up hauling chemicals in the oil fields southwest of here to live and work in Sweetwater. “I saw my daddy go from rags to riches and back in the oil business, and I sleep better.”

    Wind companies are remodeling abandoned buildings, and new stores, hotels and restaurants have opened around this old railroad town.

    Dandy’s Western Wear, the local cowboy attire shop, cannot keep enough python skin and cowhide boots in stock because of all the Danes and Germans who have come to town to invest and work in the wind fields, then take home Texas souvenirs.

    “Wind has invigorated our business like you wouldn’t believe,” said Marty Foust, Dandy’s owner, who recently put in new carpeting and air-conditioning. “When you watch the news you can get depressed about the economy, but we don’t get depressed. We’re now in our own bubble.”

  • Global businesses ahead of governments on climate

    The companies, which describe themselves as "Climate Savers", did not announce any new goals for reducing their carbon dioxide emissions as they have already committed to individual targets.

    Instead they pledged to urge their business partners and other companies to follow their lead, to develop energy efficient products and to encourage their customers to lead an environmentally friendly lifestyle.

    "We are moving into a carbon-constrained world, a low-carbon economy — a new economy," said James Leape, director general of WWF International, which is supporting the initiative.

    "We need champions. There are precious few political leaders in this world yet who are stepping up to the level of action that is required.

    "Climate change would wreak havoc in natural systems of all kinds, from coral reefs to mountain forests, and it could cause — if unchecked — upheaval in all of our lives, and in the economies on which we depend," said Leape.

    The captains of industry issued their call as officials from the United Nations and 21 countries wrapped up two days of talks in Tokyo as part of efforts to forge a new deal on fighting global warming by the end of next year.

    The closed-door talks came ahead of negotiations in Bangkok from March 31 to April 4 on reaching a deal to succeed the landmark Kyoto Protocol, whose obligations on slashing gas emissions expire in 2012.

    The meeting yielded no firm agreement but there was a "candid exchange of opinions", a Japanese foreign ministry official told reporters.

    "Some industrialised countries said that developing nations are different and so should not all be treated the same on this issue," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

    The world’s second biggest economy after the United States, Japan is the home of the Kyoto Protocol, the landmark 1997 treaty that mandated cuts in greenhouse gas emissions heating up the planet.

    But Japan is far behind in meeting its Kyoto commitments. The government has refused to legally bind companies to cap gas emissions, fearing that it could jeopardise the economy’s slow recovery from recession in the 1990s.

    The WWF urged Japan to do more.

    "I am struck that we’re not yet seeing Japan leading this issue the way one would expect, and I say that because Japan has been a leader in energy efficiency historically," Leape told reporters.

    Japan aims to take a lead in the debate over measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions when it hosts this year’s summit of leaders from the Group of Eight industrialised nations in July.

    "There’s a great opportunity here for Japan to lead over the next year because the G8 is so important as a political lever," said Leape.