Carbon Trust Ready To Work On Saving Energy

He admits that a carbon price is still the single most important thing to accelerate industry and new opportunities, but Robert Hill, an environment minister under the Howard government and now chairman of the new Carbon Trust, says it will focus on energy savings programmes that will work with the financial sector. He told the Climate Change @ Work in Sydney last week that, despite its formation almost a year ago, the trust is still in transition.

The ABC PM programme (26 May 2010):

MARK COLVIN: It’s almost a year since the Federal Government announced that it would set up the Australian Carbon Trust. The Prime Minister said this was a practical, local way to help businesses and households save money by becoming more energy efficient.

But the $75 million program is still not off the ground. The trust has a temporary office in Brisbane but still no functioning website. Its chairman, the former Howard government environment minister, Robert Hill, says they haven’t just been sitting around but there have been complex administrative challenges.

Bronwyn Herbert reports.

BRONWYN HERBERT: The Federal Government pitched the Australian Carbon Trust as a practical way for Australia to reduce its greenhouse footprint, mainly through encouraging businesses to retrofit buildings to become more energy efficient.

Robert Hill was an environment minister under the Howard government and is now the chairman of the trust. He told a green jobs conference in Sydney today that, despite its formation almost a year ago, the trust is still in transition.

ROBERT HILL: We’re only just in the process of being set up. We’re based in Brisbane. We’ve just appointed our CEO (chief executive officer). We’re just negotiating the final transfer of the programs from the Government and we’ll have to get out there and do the business.

BRONWYN HERBERT: Now there’s been a fair delay in getting the Australian Carbon Trust up and running and why the delay?

ROBERT HILL: It’s taken a while but I think it’s because it’s new. The Australian Government hasn’t ever outsourced its climate change programs in this way so every step has been quite challenging.

BRONWYN HERBERT: So when will we see it up and running?

ROBERT HILL: Well the senior executives are all appointed now and they have at least temporary offices in Queensland, although we’re about to sign a lease and the negotiation of transfer of the programs from Canberra is at its final stages. So haven’t just been sitting around.

BRONWYN HERBERT: He says the trust will set up an energy savings program that will work with the financial sector. Its aim is to overcome what the Federal Government has identified as a market failure.

ROBERT HILL: If you have a situation where there’s not a relationship between the energy saving and the owner, in other words if the tenant’s paying the, well getting the benefit for the energy saving, then why is the, why is the owner going to invest the money?

So there’s been failures both in, in the way in which we’ve structured our leases generally in Australia and also there’s been failures in terms of the economics of the market, market model and it wants us to try and overcome those failures and to, and it’s prepared to put public money into work with the banks and take up the opportunities to retrofit.

BRONWYN HERBERT: Apart from the energy efficiency program, the trust will also set up a program for householders to pledge to save energy in their own homes to gain tax benefits.

The carbon trust program was seen as the local aspect of Australia’s attempt to reduce its carbon emissions, alongside the carbon pollution reduction scheme. Robert Hill says that scheme would have become a reality if his own side of politics hadn’t had a leadership spill.

ROBERT HILL: They almost did it successfully if it hadn’t have been for my side imploding at the, at the line they would’ve have. So then they wouldn’t have been too smart by half. They would have been very clever wouldn’t they? That’s how, that’s how politics, politics works.

BRONWYN HERBERT: In terms of the carbon pollution reduction scheme, you mentioned that it’s unnecessarily complex. What changes would have made it more palatable in your view?

ROBERT HILL: Well, that’s a big question because you can’t just sort of take out a piece or add another, another piece. But I’m just saying that the, the final Australian model was a very complex model in terms of the, you know, the exemptions and the offsets and so forth and I think the complexity was one of the reasons, or contributed to a lack of public confidence.

BRONWYN HERBERT: He says a carbon price is still the single most important thing to accelerate industry and new opportunities. But despite a stalemate in fixing a price on carbon, there are other ways to boost the green economy.

John Buchanan is the director of the Workplace Research Centre at the University of Sydney.

JOHN BUCHANAN: There are a whole range of initiatives bubbling up from below and I suppose the thing that’s of interest to us, as researchers, is why isn’t policy engaging with these more spontaneous movements? You know Australia has led the pack historically, you know, Jack Mundy and the green bans showed that Australians can support an environmental stance.

But, in a sense, if there’s a problem in Australia it is in the leadership. I think the population at large is ready to move but the leadership itself has been very cumbersome and compromising in the way it moves forward and that’s not inspiring leadership.

Source: www.abc.net.au

And for some insight into what the Carbon Trust was set up to do we go back to an announcement by Minister Penny Wong (25 March 2010):

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has announced the directors and management team of the Australian Carbon Trust Limited.

The Australian Carbon Trust – to be chaired by Professor Robert Hill – will lead efforts to boost energy efficiency in households and businesses across Australia. It will be responsible for implementing the Energy Efficiency Trust and the Energy Efficiency Savings Pledge Fund.

The Australian Carbon Trust head office will be based in Brisbane.
Senator Wong announced the appointment of the following directors to the Trust Board:

• Martijn Wilder, Head of Baker & McKenzie’s Global Climate Change and Emissions Trading Practice.
• Tony Coleman, Director of Lonergan Edwards Associates.
• Don Matthews, National President of the Australian Industry Group and former Chief Operating Officer of Amcor Australasia.

“These directors will bring a great diversity of commercial and governance experience to the Board of the Australian Carbon Trust,” Senator Wong said.
“The Australian Carbon Trust represents an innovative new way of engaging Australian households and businesses to support them to take action to save energy.”

Senator Wong also announced the appointment of the Trust management team:

• Chief Executive Officer Meg McDonald, who was previously President and Treasurer of Alcoa Foundation and Director, Global Issues, Alcoa Inc.
• Chief Operations Officer Cath Bremner, who was previously Head of International Development at The Carbon Trust in London.
• Chief Financial Officer Andrew Powell brings a wealth of financial management expertise to the position.

The Energy Efficiency Trust will promote the use of energy efficient technologies and practices – including through financing the retrofitting of commercial buildings.

The Energy Efficiency Savings Pledge Fund will help householders identify energy efficiency opportunities. Using web-based tools, households will be able to work out their energy use and identify ways to save energy and save money. The Pledge Fund will also enable householders to donate in a tax efficient way towards the purchase and retirement of Australian Emissions Units – or offsets approved under the National Carbon Offset Standard.

Source: www.climatechange.gov.au

Nissan has begun building a battery factory next to its main North American auto-assembly plant as Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn predicts US demand for electric vehicles will surge. He has set a goal for Nissan and its biggest shareholder Renault SA, which he also runs, to lead the market for electric autos, as the US, Japan and Europe push automakers to cut oil consumption and carbon emissions tied to global warming.

By Alan Ohnsman for Bloomberg (217 May 2010):

Nissan Motor Co. began building a battery factory next to its main North American auto-assembly plant as Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn predicts U.S. demand for electric vehicles will surge.

The plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, will be able to supply lithium-ion battery packs for 200,000 electric cars a year when it opens in 2012, more than the 150,000 rechargeable Leaf hatchbacks Nissan plans to build there annually. Japan’s third- largest carmaker said yesterday its $1.7 billion investment in the Leaf and battery capacity in Tennessee, funded mainly by a $1.4 billion U.S. government loan, may create 1,300 local jobs.

“‘We know that we are the most bullish on the market,” Ghosn, who predicts global electric-car sales may reach 500,000 a year by 2012, said yesterday. “What we’re doing here will radically transform the automotive experience for consumers.”

Ghosn, 56, has set a goal for Nissan and its biggest shareholder Renault SA, which he also runs, to lead the market for electric autos as the U.S., Japan and Europe push automakers to cut oil consumption and carbon emissions tied to global warming. While General Motors Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and other rivals are readying their own rechargeable models, none matches Ghosn’s 2012 sales target.

Nissan will gain economies of scale to reduce costs when demand reaches the predicted level, Ghosn said.

“I don’t see this as a risk. I see this as a huge opportunity,” Ghosn said at an event at the Smyrna factory. “When we get to 500,000, 1 million units, we don’t need government support.”

Nissan has received 13,000 pre-orders in the U.S. for the Leaf, Ghosn said.

The automaker fell 2 percent in Tokyo to 634 yen as of 9:32 a.m., while the benchmark Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.7 percent. Nissan’s stock has declined 22 percent this year.

‘Wildly Optimistic’

Detroit-based GM aims to build 45,000 of its Volt plug-in cars, which also use gasoline, annually by 2012. Toyota hasn’t set volume targets for either the plug-in version of its Prius hybrid, which will be available to U.S. retail customers from 2012, or the “urban commuter” electric minicar, set to arrive in the U.S. the same year.

“Sales of 500,000 vehicles by 2012 is just wildly optimistic,” said KG Duleep, a Washington-based analyst for ICF International who helps the National Academy of Science and U.S. agencies with advanced automotive technology. President Barack Obama has set a goal of getting 1 million plug-in and battery vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015.

Ford Motor Co. said May 24 it’s investing $135 million and adding 220 jobs at three Michigan facilities to help the Dearborn, Michigan-based company introduce five models powered wholly or in part by electricity by 2012.

Global Capacity

With Nissan’s new factory and others announced by U.S. auto and battery makers, by 2012 the country will have about 20 percent of forecast global capacity to produce advanced batteries, Daniel Poneman, U.S. deputy secretary of energy, said yesterday at the Smyrna site.

“By 2012, factories like this one will be shipping tens of thousands of electric vehicles to showrooms around the world,” Poneman said. The Obama administration so far has committed $12 billion to advanced vehicle technologies, he said.

The first shipments of Yokohama-based Nissan’s Leaf, capable of traveling as far as 100 miles solely on battery power, will arrive late this year in the U.S. and Japan.

Nissan has said it expects U.S. tax credits and rising fuel prices to spur demand for the $32,780 car, which will cost $25,280 after U.S. subsidies.

Energy Department Loan

Nissan last year was awarded an Energy Department loan of as much as $1.6 billion for “advanced technology” vehicle production in the U.S. The company has since modified its loan application, eliminating an initial plan to make electrodes for the batteries and leaving the production to Japan’s NEC Corp., Mark Swenson, Nissan’s vice president of North American manufacturing, said in an interview yesterday.

“We still hope to do that eventually, but for now the electrodes will be supplied by NEC in Japan,” he said.

About 70 percent of employees being added in Smyrna will be for the battery plant, with the rest going to work on the Leaf assembly line, Swenson said.

Nissan’s North American unit is based in Franklin, Tennessee.

Australia’s 2010 Electric Vehicle Conference will be held in Brisbane on 21 October.

Source: www.news.businessweek.com and www.evconference.com.au

Trend to Ethics & the Environment for Investment Funds

True to global research, companies that value their intangible assets and pay regard to the social, environmental and community issues that ultimately matter to stakeholders are now registering above-average financial performance, according an a study by The Natural Edge. And Tim Blue in The Australian says “investment options that promise a sustainable and ethical approach are gaining traction within superannuation funds”.

Report by The Natural Edge in Eco Magazine

True to global research, companies that value their intangible assets and pay regard to the social, environmental and community issues that ultimately matter to stakeholders are now registering above-average financial performance.

This is being reflected by Socially Responsible Investment Funds in Australia outperforming the ASX200.

Often ‘sustainability’ is referred to using terms such as ‘corporate social responsibility’ and ‘triple bottom line reporting’. Ultimately, all of these terms refer to the same pressure to perform to a wider set of criteria than traditional financial ones.

International strategic investment firm Innovest’s 2004 report, Corporate environmental governance: a study into the influence of environmental governance and financial performance, found that,

‘In 51 of the 60 studies reviewed, a positive correlation was found between environmental governance and financial performance … Results from fund, sector and company analysts are all generally positive.’

Research by AMP Capital Investors suggests similar defining trends are emerging in Australia. A number of studies by the firm regarding the performance of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) managers in Australia show that the median SRI fund outperforms the ASX200 over the medium term.

Of the top five performing funds in Australia last year, three of them were SRI funds. Their more recent research confirms the value of focusing on performance in these areas known as ‘intangible assets’.

Twenty years ago, company valuation was mostly about tangible assets – buildings, equipment and investments. AMP5 shows that over 75 per cent of the value of a typical Australian company is made up of unseen or intangible assets. These include a company’s corporate reputation; the way it attracts and retains its employees; its occupational, health and safety practices; and its environmental performance.

In The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First, Stanford University Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer carefully reviewed the research evidence on the characteristics of high performing organisations. He concluded that the most critical factor was human resource practices. This is perhaps intuitive: global studies indicate that better employers have higher revenue, higher profit growth and higher investment returns.

Westpac Australia, for instance, has found that 50 per cent of graduates chose it over other Australian banks for employment, explicitly because of its proactive Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) approach. 

The Hayes Best Employer Survey (2006) shows that nearly 75 per cent of 20-yearolds will not apply for a job if they’re uncomfortable with the company values.8 CSR gives competitive advantage

Company boards are realising they can improve their organisations’ competitive advantage through a sustainability strategy that both focuses on reducing operational costs through efficiency and delivers higher quality, ‘greener’ products that command premium prices.

But Harvard Business School’s Professor Michael Porter and colleague Mark Kramer wrote recently that, ‘Many companies have already done much to improve the social and environmental consequences of their activities, yet these efforts have not been anywhere nearly as productive as they could have been … The fact is, the prevailing approaches to CSR are so fragmented and so disconnected from business and strategy as to obscure many of the greatest opportunities for companies to benefit society.

If instead, corporations were to analyse their prospects for social responsibility using the same frameworks that guide their core business choices, they would discover that CSR can be a source of opportunity, innovation and competitive advantage.’

This is being increasingly understood. Martin Jones, General Manager for Government Relations at CSR Ltd, reported to us that, ‘In 2007 there has been a much stronger recognition by the management of CSR Limited of the importance of sustainability and the role it can play in developing competitive advantage at the company. An initial focus will be on improved understanding of the company’s carbon footprint, and the implications in terms of mitigation, business opportunities and customer requirements. We intend to build on the leadership from Professor Porter to understand how to leverage our internal skills for the greatest sustainability outcomes.’

Risk management

Sustainable business strategies can also assist companies to proactively address emerging risks, especially at a time when climate change liability related litigation has already begun. Managing these risks is becoming a key investment criterion, and this is placing significant pressure on firms to apply socially and environmentally responsible strategies and practices to their business operations. Over 180 investment firms, totalling US$8 trillion worth of investments, have now signed the UN Principles for Responsible Investment.

Three of the four largest fund management companies in Australia signed up in early 2007: BT Financial Group, AMP Capital Investors and Colonial First State Global Asset Management.

Addressing investor demands

Investment houses are increasingly demanding performance information from firms across social and environmental impacts in addition to their financials.

This is reflected by the exponential increase in the number of companies using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) – fast becoming the world’s pre-eminent sustainability reporting framework. Of the top 250 companies in the world, 64 per cent published sustainability reports in 2005.

Companies are joining the GRI because they know that ‘if you can’t measure it, then you can’t manage it.’

Those that begin with a rigorous process to collect sustainability performance data and metrics are well placed to assess how best to strategically approach sustainable business practice and meet their CSR aims.

What then are the key steps for firms to develop strategies to improve their competitive advantage through a sustainability strategy? As Porter and Kramer write, ‘To put these broad principles (of corporate social responsibility) into practice, a company must integrate a social perspective into the core frameworks that it already uses to understand competition and guide its business strategy.’

However, as The Natural Edge Project (TNEP) associate Dan Atkins, Director of Sustainable Business Practices, cautions, ‘Developing an appropriate strategy and articulating a vision that meets the relevant stakeholders’ expectations is becoming a critical component of shareholder value.

How that vision and strategy is integrated within the organisation is largely dependent on getting the frameworks in place and a culture to execute the strategy in a way which is aligned to the overall business objectives and values.’

Key operational steps to ensure this occurs, identified by TNEP and its partners, include the following:

• Obtain board and senior management understanding and commitment. Assign overall responsibility for CSR to senior management to ensure alignment of core frameworks with the company sustainability strategy.

• Undertake a comprehensive audit of the company’s performance across social, environmental and financial indicators and the interactions between them.

• Bring together quantitative data on social and environmental performance to better inform decision making.

• Map social and environmental risks and opportunities to better inform company strategy.

• Identify opportunities to improve operational efficiency and new ‘greener’ product differentiation.

• Re-assess HR policy to ensure attraction and retention of the best staff. Foster a culture of innovation and institute appropriate rewards. Build the skills capacity of all employees.

• Initiate whole-of-company engagement, incorporating sustainability objectives into individual work performance measures. Establish multi-disciplinary teams ensuring all areas of the business are engaged.

• Review marketing and communications processes.

• Engage with stakeholders on CSR and develop partnerships including both internal and external participants, suppliers, customers and financiers.

• Report qualitatively in the annual report on social and environmental performance.

There is now significant evidence from market successes that pursuing these sustainable business practices pays significant dividends. A sustainability strategy with CSR reporting reinforces a company’s capacity to act responsibly and profitably, while creating new ways to\ improve both short- and long-term value for shareholders.

Karlson ‘Charlie’ Hargroves, Michael H. Smith, Peter Stasinopoulos and Stacey Hargroves, The Natural Edge Project (hosted by Griffith University). Based on research commissioned by CSR Limited.

Source: www.ecosmagazine.com

Tim Blue in The Australian (26 May 2010):

We are sorry we have not been able to access or provide a soft or text version of the Tim Blue article referred to. We have available a print copy of the article and a scanned image (jpeg) and PDF version, which we can supply on request. Please email to  kenhickson@abccarbon.com

Source: www.theaustralian.com.au

Space Yacht Out of this World & Planet Star on the Ocean Waves

A Japanese rocket, which blasted off late last month carrying a Venus probe, was equipped with a kite-shaped “space yacht” designed to float through the cosmos using only the power of the sun. Meanwhile, the world’s largest solar powered ship, the PlanetStar, which made its first public appearance at the Hamburg port festival in Germany last month, is designed to sail around the world using sunlight alone.

By Louis Makiello in Eoch Times (23 May 2010):

The world’s largest solar powered ship made its first public appearance at the Hamburg port festival in Germany May 7–9.

The catamaran, christened PlanetSolar, is almost 102 feet (31 meters) in length and designed to sail around the world using sunlight alone. It was a star attraction at the festival.

PlanetSolar was built in Kiel, Germany, and weighs about 94 tons (85 tonnes). Its top speed is 14 knots (about 16 miles per hour), and it has a respectable cruising speed of 7.5 knots.

The ship is covered with about 5,700 square feet (536 square meters) of photovoltaic solar panels. Using energy stored in batteries, the ship can sail at cruising speed for three days without sun.

PlanetSolar will depart from the South of France in April 2011 and will stop at New York, San Francisco, Darwin in Australia, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi before returning to France 160 days later.

A crew of three or four will man PlanetSolar on its ocean crossings, but the boat will have up to 40 people onboard during the promotional trips planned for each stopover. The crew includes Frenchman Gérard d’Aboville, who is famous for rowing alone across the Atlantic and the Pacific.

The 31,000-mile (50,000 km) route will take PlanetSolar across the Atlantic Ocean, through the Panama Canal, across the Pacific and Indian oceans, over the Red Sea, and through the Suez Canal. Organizers are considering changing the last stage of the voyage as they fear Somali pirates might hijack the ship. Instead of going through the Red Sea, the ship could go around Africa, past the Cape of Good Hope. This would take it far from the equator and its vital sunlight.

The project is the idea of Swiss paramedic, pilot, and engineer Raphaël Domjan, who will be captain. He has obtained the backing of various companies, institutions, and personalities. They include a Swiss watch company, a solar power company, the Swiss government, the great-grandson of writer Jules Vernes, sailing record-holder Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, and famous diver Albert Falco.

“During our round-the-world tour, we will have to manage whatever energy nature gives us,“ said Raphaël Domjan in a press release. “We will have to constantly optimize our route and speed in line with the available sunshine and the medium-range weather forecast. No one has ever undertaken such a task.“

Unless it capsizes, sinks, runs aground, turns back, or breaks down, PlanetSolar will set several world records. This will be the first ever round-the-world voyage, the first Indian Ocean crossing, and the first Red Sea crossing by a solar powered boat.

Despite certain limitations (night lasts six month in the Arctic Ocean), solar powered ships can cruise indefinitely. Until now, only sailing boats and nuclear powered vessels have enjoyed such limitless freedom.

Source: www.theepochtimes.com

By Miwa Suzuki for AFP (20 May 2010):

A Japanese rocket blasted off late last month carrying a Venus probe and a kite-shaped “space yacht” designed to float through the cosmos using only the power of the sun.

The launch vehicle, the H-IIA rocket, took off from the Tanegashima space centre in southern Japan on schedule at 6:58 am (Thursday 2158 GMT), three days after its original launch was postponed by bad weather.

Live footage on the website of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) showed the rocket disappear into the sky.

“The rocket is flying normally,” JAXA said 20 minutes after blast-off.

It carried with it the experimental “Ikaros” — an acronym for Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation of the Sun — designed to be propelled by the pressure of sunlight particles.

Similar to an ocean yacht pushed by wind, the device has a square, ultra-thin and flexible sail, measuring 14 by 14 metres (46 by 46 feet), that will be driven through space as it is pelted by solar particles.

The sail, only a fraction of the thickness of a human hair, is also partly coated with thin-film solar cells to generate electricity.

The name of the spacecraft alludes to Icarus, the figure from Greek mythology who flew too close to the sun. The space yacht, however, is headed in the direction of Venus.

Ikaros, which cost 1.5 billion yen (16 million dollars) to develop, will be the first use of the propellant-free technology in deep space, although it has been tested in orbit around the Earth before.

“This idea of a solar sail was born some 100 years ago, as we often find it in science fiction novels, but it has not been realised to date,” JAXA says on its website.

“If we can verify this navigation technology through the Ikaros, it will mark the first spectacular achievement of its kind in the world.”

The rocket’s payload also includes the Planet-C Venus Climate Orbiter, a box-shaped golden satellite, fitted with two paddle-shaped solar panels, that is set to arrive at Venus in about six months.

Venus is similar in size and age to Earth but has a far more hostile climate, with temperatures around 460 degrees Celsius (860 degrees Fahrenheit) and large amounts of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas on Earth.

Scientists believe a probe of the climate of Venus will help them deepen their understanding of the formation of the Earth’s environment and its future.

The probe — nicknamed Akatsuki, which means “Dawn” in Japanese — will work closely with the European Space Agency’s Venus Express.

Fitted with five cameras, its mission is to peer through the planet’s thick layer of sulphuric acid clouds to monitor the meteorology of Venus, search for possible lightning, and scan its crust for active volcanoes.

It will observe the planet in an elliptical orbit, from a distance of between 300 and 80,000 kilometres (200 to 50,000 miles).

The H-IIA rocket, developed by JAXA and made by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, is Japan’s primary space launch vehicle. It will also carry four other small satellites, developed by Japanese universities and other institutions.

Source: www.news.yahoo.com

Cooking Up A Storm The Eco-friendly Way

One potential area is for the carbon credit market to fill the gap via carbon offsetting, connecting the developed world’s emissions with solutions for those most at risk from the impact of global warming. Non-profit organisations like Solar Cookers International (SCI) and Worldstove are offering these communities real alternatives to their reliance on firewood and charcoal, a major cause of deforestation and topsoil erosion in Africa, Asia, Latin America and other third world areas.

Eco-cooking encouraging sustainable communities

Cassie Ryan in Epoch Times 26 May 2010

Since the early 1990s, expanding refugee populations in war-torn Africa have exacerbated problems with access to cooking fuel and clean water. Nonprofit organisations like Solar Cookers International (SCI) and Worldstove are offering these communities real alternatives to their reliance on firewood and charcoal, a major cause of deforestation and topsoil erosion in Africa, Asia, Latin America and other third world areas.

These carbon-negative initiatives are successfully linking with local governments and the private sector to stimulate sustainable initiatives.

One potential area is for the carbon credit market to fill the gap via carbon offsetting, connecting the developed world’s emissions with solutions for those most at risk from the impact of global warming.

Solar Cookers

In West Africa, many households spend over 25 per cent of income on cooking fuel, while others travel for hours to chop down firewood.

Some governments subsidise bottled cooking gas, but solar cookers are becoming part of the real solution.

Presently, SCI’s largest project involves three Darfur refugee camps in Chad where women have manufactured over 30,000 cardboard and foil “Cookits”, reducing firewood trips outside the camp by 86 per cent.

Solar stoves reduce household fuel consumption, while also improving child and maternal health. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), half the world’s population uses solid fuel – usually wood, charcoal or dung – for household energy, causing indoor pollution and 1.5 million deaths annually, with pneumonia the leading killer of children under five.

Senegalese women, trialling solar stoves in 2008, reported immediate benefits, such as clean air, sterilised water and utensils, and better-tasting food. Improved finances from reduced kerosene consumption and more time for profitable activities like sewing clothing to sell, rather than collecting firewood, were also noted. Other benefits include – safety, particularly for children; greater nutrition due to lower cooking temperatures and no burning; cooking nutrient-rich legumes despite the longer times required; and quicker cleaning with less washing water collected. Gender inequality is also avoided in countries like Tibet, where young girls collect firewood while the boys attend school.

Biochar

Produced from a growing range of biomass fuels – from nut shells to animal waste, bamboo and used vegetable oil – biochar generates energy for cooking and heating while its co-product is applied to soils, with many carbon sequestration benefits, such as increased bio-available water and organic matter, enhanced nutrient cycling and reduced leaching.

Scaling up

In 2008, the Senegalese Ministry of Biofuels and Renewable Energy entered an agreement with Solar Household Energy to produce and sell stoves locally and mobile solar bakeries are now establishing to support communities. Currently, African solar cookers cost up to $US200 ($A240) and are too expensive for war-affected communities without subsidies.

RESPECT International is researching affordable designs and producing an instruction manual on how to build and use these designs based on surveys collected in Liberia about available materials and the type of food and cooking habits.

According to IRIN, a project of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, carbon trading could achieve third world sustainability by enabling first world investors to help those most affected by global warming not to pollute.

Private-public investment partnerships are vital in places like Africa, with its growing number of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects able to massively cut global carbon emissions while multiplying energy production levels. UNEP’s Bakary Kante says:

 “Africa has an enormous potential to be eligible for more investment.”

The bottom line is that these simple initiatives are curbing carbon dioxide emissions while also enabling poor people to cope with climate change-related issues and still achieve sustainable, profitable growth – a worthy cause indeed for more investors to consider.

Source: www.theepochtimes.com

BBC World News and Newsweek in association with Shell have launched the sixth annual World Challenge competition to identify and honor projects or small businesses from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at a grassroots level.

The 2010 Challenge invites nominations for innovative projects or ideas that demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit working for the benefit of the community while adopting a responsible approach. Nominated projects should demonstrate the innovative use of technology or an invention; should increase investment in the local community; and should take a responsible approach toward the environment. Nominations may be submitted in the categories of community welfare and enterprise, health and education, sustainable farming, energy, water and environment.

The first place winner of the challenge will receive a grant of $20,000, and the second and third place finalists will each receive a grant of $10,000.

Deadline: July 7, 2010

Source:  www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/

Lucky Last – The Challenge is to Adapt to a Changing Climate

Is it true that even if all human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases were to stop tomorrow, it would take about 1000 years for temperatures to return to their pre-Industrial Revolution level? Let’s assume that’s the case, get ready for the worst and prepare for a much hotter place. Adapting to climate change is vital. See the latest Ecos Magazine (published by CSIRO) and the article by Graham Readfearn. Read More By Graham Readfearn in Ecos Magazine:

The terms ‘adaptation’ and ‘mitigation’ are fundamental to the public debate on climate change. Most efforts to address climate change so far have been almost entirely focused on mitigation – taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to enhance the world’s carbon ‘sinks’. But the reality is that no matter how successful these mitigation efforts are, all of the Earth’s species and ecosystems are faced with the challenge of adapting to climate change. This is because the flow-on effects of higher levels of greenhouse gases take time to work their way though the Earth’s complex atmospheric, land and water systems. One journal paper has estimated that if all human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases were to stop tomorrow, it would take about 1000 years for temperatures to return to their pre-Industrial Revolution The implication is that while we need to continue making efforts to tackle the causes of climate change, we also need to understand how humans and other species might adapt (or not) to inevitable climate change impacts. ‘It’s an important problem that’s not been addressed in the past,’ says Professor Jean Palutikof, Director of the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF).

‘The whole of last year was dominated by thinking about mitigation – and not to any great purpose.’ In February, the Federal Government released a position paper that outlined the adaptation challenge for Australia. ‘The impacts of climate change will affect almost every facet of Australia’s economy, society and environment,’ the paper said. ‘Adapting to climate change will involve all levels of government, business and the community.’ The document highlights some of the impacts to which Australia and Australians will need to adapt, regardless of the success or failure of global attempts to cut emissions of greenhouse gases – hotter and drier conditions, more heatwaves, more frequent bushfires and rising sea levels.

NCCARF has identified eight priority areas for adaptation research (see box), such as impacts on infrastructure and human settlements, biodiversity, and human health. The aim is to develop climate change adaptation plans for each of these areas – for example, what does a rise in sea level mean for development and infrastructure in coastal areas? What changes could be made to planning rules to manage the increased risk of flooding? What can industries such as agriculture do to adapt to rising temperatures? How will people’s health be affected by increased temperatures? What can hospitals, emergency services and communities do to make services more effective?

Professor Lesley Hughes, of Macquarie University’s Department of Biological Sciences, says that it is ‘one thing to know that climate change is happening’ but another to ask what to actually do about it. Professor Hughes, who has been researching the impacts of climate change on ecosystems for more than 20 years, is concerned about limited adaptation options in the natural world in the event of severe climate change. ‘Ultimately it’s [about] extinction of lots of species and destruction of ecosystem processes. There will simply be a lot of changes in the way that ecosystems function. ‘With terrestrial biodiversity, the adaptation options are limited compared to human systems. In agriculture we could change where we put dams or cattle. Yes, it’s expensive, but they are do-able. But with terrestrial biodiversity, your options are far more limited.’

Using wallabies as an example, Professor Hughes explains that animal species in a changing climate could adapt via two mechanisms. The first, assisted migration, involves the physical relocation of a population to an area with a less hostile climate. The second involves the creation of natural migration corridors through protecting critical habitat linkages. But there is also a third option, according to Professor Hughes. ‘One of the most important things we can do for natural systems is to simply make them more resilient to change by promoting their current health.’ Professor Hughes warns that we also need to understand the knock-on effect elsewhere of our adaptation actions. ‘For example if the northern part of Australia is getting wetter, then we could clear whole areas for agriculture. Now that’s good for agriculture, but bad for biodiversity. ‘This is part of the complexity of adapting to climate change. One action might be good for one thing but it’s not always going to be good for another.’ In June, NCCARF, together with CSIRO, will host the world’s first international conference on climate adaptation, entitled ‘Preparing for the unavoidable impacts of climate change’. The conference has already created waves in the international research community, with more than 800 abstracts of scientific papers being submitted from researchers in 55 countries, many from developing nations.

‘Adaptation will be much more of a problem for people living in developing countries than in other developed countries,’ says Professor Palutikof. ‘Those countries are at the pointy end of the impacts of climate change, although Australia could be an exception to that rule.’ • Source: www.nccarf.edu.au/adaptation-research-networks and www.csiro.au

Congratulations to Queensland’s Minister of Climate Change & Sustainability Kate Jones – the State’s youngest ever Cabinet Minister – for producing a new little champion for the environment, baby Thomas, who arrived the day she was supposed to be in Parliament one day last month.

Look out for me – and a host of brilliant speakers and activities – at LEAF (Logan Eco Action Festival) – this Saturday 5 June (World Environment Day) at Griffith University’s Logan Campus, Brisbane.

Then there’s the Business Eco Forum at Samsara, Milton on Wednesday 9 June and the Energy and Sustainability Workshop on Saturday 12 June at the Griffith University EcoCentre, Nathan Campus.

If it’s the book you’re after, catch me at Angus & Robertson, Post Office Square Brisbane on Friday 11 June.