Global Approach Needed to Clean Up Rivers

Multiple environmental stressors, such as agricultural runoff, pollution and invasive species, threaten rivers that serve 80% of the world’s population, around 5 billion people, according to a US research paper published in Nature.   Monitoring the world’s fresh water would yield huge returns in terms of avoiding costly conflicts, providing food security, preserving unique life forms and a host of other valuable benefits.

Reported in Earth & Climate (29 September 2010):

 Multiple environmental stressors, such as agricultural runoff, pollution and invasive species, threaten rivers that serve 80 percent of the world’s population, around 5 billion people, according to researchers from The City College (CCNY) of The City University of New York (CUNY), University of Wisconsin and seven other institutions.

These same stressors endanger the biodiversity of 65 percent of the world’s river habitats and put thousands of aquatic wildlife species at risk. The findings, reported in the September 30 issue of Nature, come from the first global-scale initiative to quantify the impact of these stressors on humans and riverine biodiversity. The research team produced a series of maps documenting the impact using a computer-based framework they developed.

“We can no longer look at human water security and biodiversity threats independently,” said the corresponding author, Dr. Charles J. Vörösmarty, director of the CUNY Environmental CrossRoads Initiative and professor of civil engineering in The Grove School of Engineering at CCNY. “We need to link the two. The systematic framework we’ve created allows us to look at the human and biodiversity domains on an equal playing field.” The framework offers a tool for prioritizing policy and management responses to a global water crisis.

Many stressors threaten human water security and biodiversity through similar pathways, but influence water systems in distinct ways. For example, reservoirs convey few negative effects on human water supply but they significantly challenge aquatic biodiversity by impeding migration routes and changing water flow regimes.

Understanding and responding to the myriad threats to water security requires new methods to make diagnoses and to act on these findings. “As is the case with preventive medicine, our study demonstrates that diagnosing and then limiting threats at their local source, rather than through costly remedies and rehabilitation, is a more effective and sensible approach to assure global water security for both humans and aquatic biodiversity, ” notes Professor Vörösmarty.

“We’ve integrated maps of 23 different stressors and merged them into a single index,” said study co-leader Dr. Peter McIntyre, assistant professor of zoology, University of Wisconsin. “In the past, policymakers and researchers have been plagued by dealing with one problem at a time. A richer and more meaningful picture emerges when all threats are considered simultaneously.”

Among the stressors analyzed were the effects of pollution, dams and reservoirs, water overuse, agricultural runoff, loss of wetlands and introduction of invasive species. The authors said their findings are “conservative,” since there is insufficient information to account for additional stressors like pharmaceutical compounds and mining wastes.

High incident threat levels to human water security were found in developed and developing nations around the world. Affected areas include much of the United States, virtually all of Europe and large portions of Central Asia, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and eastern China.

“We uncovered a broad management principal operating at the global scale,” Professor Vörösmarty said. “In the industrialized world, we tend to compromise our surface waters and then try to fix problems by throwing trillions of dollars at the issues. We can afford to do that in rich countries, but poor countries can’t afford to do it.”

The researchers noted that causes of degradation of many of the developing world’s most threatened rivers bear striking similarities to those of rivers in similar condition in wealthy countries. However, going down the path of instituting highly engineered solutions practiced traditionally by industrialized nations, which emphasize treatment of the symptoms rather than protection of resources, may prove too costly for poorer countries.

There are many more cost-effective solutions, they point out. For example, engineers, can re-work dam operating rules to achieve economic benefits while simultaneously providing water releases downstream that preserve habitat and biodiversity.

With the high price tag for bringing water quality and supply in the developing countries to levels found in industrialized economies, Professor Vörösmarty argues that a more economical approach is called for. A strategy called integrated water resource management, which balances the needs of humans and nature, would best meet the dual challenge of establishing human water security and preserving biodiversity in the developing world.

It would be more cost effective, he contends, to ensure that river systems are not impaired in the first place. This could be accomplished through better land use management, better irrigation techniques and emphasis on protecting ecosystems. Healthy ecosystems provide many valuable, and free, services to society by providing clean water, flood control, and food supplies. The value of such freshwater services is in the trillions of dollars per year.

One of the project’s goals is to support international protocols to be used for water system protection since rivers maintain unique biotic resources and provide critical water supplies to people. An international approach is critical since more than 250 river basins cross international borders.

“It is absolutely essential to have information and tools that can be shared across nations,” Professor Vörösmarty stressed. “Our knowledge of these systems is progressively worsening as nations fail to invest in basic monitoring, true for both water quantity and quality. How can we craft protocols on biodiversity protection and human water security without good information?

“Monitoring the world’s fresh water would yield huge returns in terms of avoiding costly conflicts, providing food security, preserving unique life forms and a host of other valuable benefits. These benefits would cost pennies on the dollar.”

Source: www.esciencenews.com

Saving Forests May Fast Track Climate Resolutions

As the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) delegates meet this week in Tianjin, China to iron out technical issues and overcome differences between developed and developing nations, the real news may be coming from the parallel discussions on avoided deforestation. And from Indonesia comes the report that a major avoided deforestation project, led by Carbon Conservation’s Dorjee Sun, is going ahead to save 15,600 hectares of rainforest.

Report from Steve Zwick in Eco system Marketplace (4 October 2010):

Most Parties to the UN Climate-Change Convention agree that we can slow climate change in the short term by saving tropical rainforests and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).  They don’t, however, agree on how to finance that reduction in a fair and equitable way.  The REDD+ Partnership is supposed to unveil its proposals this week at Climate-Change talks in China.

Negotiators from all 194 Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are meeting this week in Tianjin, China.  It’s the last major meeting before year-end talks in Cancun, and officially they’re trying to iron out technical issues and overcome differences between developed and developing nations.

The real news, however, may be coming from the REDD+ Partnership, which is meeting in a parallel track in close cooperation with the UNFCCC.

The Two Official Tracks

Differences between developed and developing nations were institutionalized in 2006, at talks in Bali, which split negotiations into two tracks.  One track, the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex 1 Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP), focuses on tweaking the existing Kyoto Protocol.  The other, the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long Term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA) , focuses on creating a completely new protocol to replace Kyoto once it expires in 2012. 

The two tracks were supposed to converge in Copenhagen, but each has instead taken on a life of its own.  Generally speaking, developing countries support the AWG-KP, under which they have no obligations, while developed countries support the AWG-LCA, which aims to bring  developing countries into the process.

Because Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) was not included in the Kyoto Protocol, its role in policy is discussed in the AWG-LCA, which formed a “subsidiary body”, the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), to discuss the technical aspects of REDD.  Under the Kyoto Protocol, industrial countries can write off emissions captured through Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry (LULUCF) against their industrial emissions.  Because LULUCF is covered by the Kyoto Protocol, talks take place in the AWG-KP track.

The Copenhagen Accord recognized the need to create funding mechanisms for REDD+, a contentious concept that combines REDD with biodiversity protection and safeguards for local livelihoods.  By some definitions, REDD+ also incorporates aspects of LULUCF.

The REDD+ Partnership

As negotiations stalled, Norway took the lead in establishing the REDD+ Partnership, which aims to develop funding mechanisms that will complement evolving UN procedures.  In June, the Partnership released its interim partnership agreement, and co-chairs Junya Nakano of Japan and Federica Bietta of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations told Ecosystem Marketplace that they would spend the summer developing financing schemes and working on a plan that incorporates the needs of indigenous people.

Since then, however, details have been hard to come by, and scores of indigenous rights groups say they’ve been excluded from the process, while a Partnership spokesperson says it’s the groups that have shunned the process.

Either way, the Partnership is holding its own meeting parallel to formal negotiations this week, and promises to address critics before the event wraps up on Saturday.

Indeed, as the week progresses, it’s likely that more attention will focus on the REDD Partnership proceedings than on formal negotiations – even as UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres spoke of a growing convergence between the two tracks, but seemed intent on tempering enthusiasm.

“The agreements that can be reached in Cancun may not be exhaustive in their details,” she said.  “But as a balanced package they must be comprehensive in their scope and they can deliver strong results in the short term as well as set the stage for long term commitments to address climate change in an effective and fair manner.”

Steve Zwick is the Managing Editor of Ecosystem Marketplace. 

Source: www.ecosystemmarketplace.com

Radio Australia report (6 October 2010):

One of Indonesia’s most notorious logging companies has teamed up with a Time Magazine environmental hero to set up a carbon reserve on the island of Sumatra. Asia Pulp and Paper will join forces with Carbon Conservation, a company headed by Dorjee Sun, whose campaign to save Indonesian forests was the subject of the documentary ‘The Burning Season’. But some environment groups say the Kampar Carbon Reserve is all part of an ongoing process of ‘greenwashing’ at APP.

Presenter: Liam Cochrane
Speakers: Dorjee Sun, chief executive officer, Carbon Conservation; Aditya Bayunanda, coordinator for World Wildlife Fund, Indonesia Pulp & Paper

COCHRANE: For years, Asia Pulp and Paper has been seen as one of the environmental bad guys in Indonesia.

Greenpeace has been sharply critical of its logging operations, and the paper produced by APP was taken off the shelves at Woolworths, Staples and Office Depot because they thought APP’s claims of sustainability were dubious.

At the other end of the spectrum is Dorjee Sun, the charismatic environmental crusader who started the company Carbon Conservation as a vehicle to protect Indonesian forests.

Together, the unlikely partners have announced a plan to protect a 15,000 hectare area of peat forest in Riau province of Sumatra.

The forest was set to be cleared, drained and planted with fast growing timbers for pulping into paper products.

But Dorjee Sun has encouraged APP to rethink its approach.

SUN: They’ve made the commitment, working with us, to stop the logging and stop the plantation development. And in exchange, protect it and develop the local community for preservation rather than exploitation. And that creates carbon credits from protecting that carbon, which we trade to create the financial transaction.

COCHRANE: The idea is that major carbon emitters – that’s big companies in the developed world – should buy carbon credits, based on the amount of carbon that would have been lost if forests had been cleared and burned.

Europe already has a UN sanctioned carbon credit market that sells a one carbon credit – which is equal to one tonne of CO2 emissions – for around US$17.

Other carbon trades operate on a voluntary basis with much cheaper carbon credits – sometimes just US$2 per tonne.

Dorjee Sun says the Kampar Carbon Reserve has value beyond just trees.

SUN: The area that we’re protecting has tigers, it has tapirs, it has a lot of endangered plant species. So, to us, we’re hoping to be able to sell it for an amount obviously much higher, as high as possible, because the more money we get into the project, the more resources we have to protect that land.

COCHRANE: The project is billed as the world’s first privately funded carbon reserve initiative and a test of the concept’s financial viability.

But it has also attracted scepticism.

Aditya Bayunanda is the Indonesia Pulp & Paper coordinator for World Wildlife Fund.

He says the project might just be part of an ongoing public relations campaign to improve the environmental reputation of APP.

BAYUNANDA: This could be part of a greenwashing [at] APP because at the same time they’re opening natural forest and draining peat lands with an area that is larger than the area they set aside for this carbon reserve.

COCHRANE: Mr Bayunanda says many companies in Australia, the US and Europe have boycotted APP products because of their environmental record.

But other buyers do still source their paper from APP.

BAYUNANDA: Markets that are insensitive, or not yet sensitive to environmental issues, are still open to do business with them, mostly maybe in China, India, those other countries where environment issues are not yet mainstream.

COCHRANE: Dorjee Sun acknowledges there were, initially, deep doubts within his company about working with APP.

SUN: What we realised, from a pragmatic perspective, is that if you want to change the economy, there’s no denying you have to engage, you have to change the biggest multinationals, the biggest companies in the world. And if you want to change the multinationals, you have to work with them. You can’t just yell at them alone.

COCHRANE: He says he has great respect for the work done by Greenpeace and WWF, but wants to try a different approach.

SUN: In these circumstances, you need to get the poacher, to know the ways of the poacher, to become the protector.

Source: www.radioaustralia.net.au

The Great Australian Wave: Goodbye to Clean Energy Innovators

Renewable energy advocates say wave power could experience the same brain drain that hit the Australian solar industry over the past decade. Australian scientists and their solar technologies left for California and China, driven away by a lack of research and development support. Now the Clean Energy Council says young innovative wave energy companies have missed out on Federal Government renewable energy funding and are heading overseas.

Bronwyn Herbert reported for ABC PM programme (4 October 2010): 

MARK COLVIN: Renewable energy advocates say wave power could experience the same brain drain that hit the Australian solar industry over the past decade.

Australian scientists and their solar technologies left for California and China during that time – driven away by a lack of research and development support.

Now the Clean Energy Council says young innovative wave energy companies have missed out on Federal Government renewable energy funding and are having to head overseas.

Bronwyn Herbert reports.

BRONWYN HERBERT: The CSIRO recently produced a wave atlas that found if just 10 per cent of the energy generated from waves along Australia’s southern coast line were harnessed, it could meet half the nation’s current electricity consumption.

TOM DENNISS: The coasts that border the Southern Ocean are pretty much the best in the world for wave resource. With a resource like that it makes it that much easier to be commercially viable, too, if initial funding to get things built is available.

It’s a little bit of a mismatch. Australia has got a great resource, but not necessarily a good program for fostering these technologies.

BRONWYN HERBERT: Australian wave energy companies say they’ve missed out on local funding and have to head offshore for support.

Dr Tom Denniss is the chief technology officer at Ocean Linx.

TOM DENNISS: We almost have to rely on overseas money if it’s not forthcoming here because there’s no way we can get these technologies fully commercialised without actually putting full scale projects in the water. And those projects cost money and we really need to implement them where that money is available.

BRONWYN HERBERT: Carnegie Wave Power faces similar challenges.

The Perth-based company has just signed a three year agreement with Ireland’s Sustainable Energy Authority to test its technology over there.

A company spokesman says they would like to develop their technology domestically, but the Australian Government isn’t providing a lot of incentives.

Matthew Warren is the chief executive of the Clean Energy Council.

MATTHEW WARREN: It’s a real threat. There are other economies in the world – in Ireland, in the USA – that are already offering very attractive mechanisms and schemes to develop technologies. And companies like Carnegie have a responsibility to their shareholders. If they can’t develop in Australia, they’ll develop where they can develop. 

So that threat is real and the problem is, we need to get the strategy in place in time to prevent losing some of our critical IP, because if a company like Carnegie goes offshore, that sends a very bad signal to investors and other technology developers in that space, in that when you get through all the hard bits and when you’re getting close to succeeding, that’s when you have to start leaving.

BRONWYN HERBERT: Renewable energy advocates say wave power could experience the same sort of brain drain that has hit the Australian solar industry over the past decade.

Successful solar company Ausra – led by the former Sydney University Professor David Mills – went to California for funding.

Suntech was another company to migrate offshore, and it’s now one of the world’s biggest solar companies, based in China.

The Federal Government’s Energy Minister Martin Ferguson last year launched the $300 million Renewable Energy Demonstration Program at Carnegie’s pilot plant but that company eventually missed out on funding, as did Ocean Linx.

Tom Denniss again.

TOM DENNISS: There was one wave energy company that did receive quite a substantial grant for $66 million. That company is actually US-based, although the project that they would be developing is in Australia. 

If the handful of Australian companies were to have shared that money I think it would have been enough for all of us to have really made some substantial progress in the development of all our technologies.

BRONWYN HERBERT: The Federal Minister for Resources and Energy Martin Ferguson was unavailable to speak with PM.

In a statement a department spokeswoman says funding under the program was based on merit and the advice of the renewable energy committee.

MARK COLVIN: Bronwyn Herbert

Source: www.abc.net.au

ICT Boost for Sustainability, Economy & Efficiency

Boosting the economy by between $35 to $80 billion. Cutting Australia’s carbon emissions by 116 Mega tonnes (annually).Creating up to 70,000 jobs. Three critical advantages identified in the  Information Communication Technology (ICT) White Paper just released, which shows how substantial economic benefits, increased efficiency and improved sustainability can be achieved.

29 September 2010

The Australian Information Industry Association today released a White Paper examining the critical role that technology will play in the reduction of CO2 emissions and the development of a low-carbon economy. The Paper, ICT’s Role in the Low Carbon Economy, was released in Sydney.

“AIIA believes there is a pressing need to focus on the economic benefits of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as we examine the case for high-speed broadband in Australia,” said AIIA CEO Ian Birks.

“This White Paper consolidates a wide range of leading research into the application of technology to a low carbon economy.”

“Green technology will play a huge role in the return we make on any investment in broadband not only economically, but also in the delivery of environmental benefits,” Mr Birks said.

The report, ICT’s Role in the Low Carbon Economy, provides a series of recommendations to the Australian government for the development of a policy framework to reduce the nation’s carbon footprint.  It identifies five major areas of focus for government activity, then examines the net benefits of Green IT to seven key economic sectors and provides key recommendations in each area.

“Transitioning to a low carbon economy is a national priority and becoming increasingly important across both the public and business sectors,” continued Mr Birks.  “However the ICT sector has only played a marginal role in this debate up until the present time. ICT will have a critical role to play in delivering the right outcomes and will be central to conversations that seriously examine the low carbon economy in the future.”

The technologies outlined in the whitepaper can assist the government in meeting the commitment of a five per cent carbon emission reduction by 2020 and could, by the same deadline, bring about huge net benefits, in terms of Australian economic, environmental and social factors including:

-           Boosting the economy by between $35 to $80 billion

-           Cutting Australia’s carbon emissions by 116 Mega tonnes (annually)

-           Creating up to 70,000 jobs

“With a specific focus on sustainability and use of ICT to drive efficiency gains, a number of studies cited in this paper show how substantial economic benefits can accrue to an economy through the usage of ICT to improve sustainability,” concluded Mr Birks.

This Paper represents an increasing focus by AIIA and our members of the reality of the economic and social benefits that a digital economy in Australia will deliver. It joins the AIIA Green IT eBook – now with over 30,000 downloads – as a leading resource for the abatement of greenhouse emissions through technology.

Additional information about this White Paper

Over the last two years a number of significant research papers have been published, in Australia and internationally, that clearly identify the role ICT can play in reducing an economy’s carbon footprint. AIIA has identified over 30 reports from 20 different organisations that address these issues. These go far beyond a reduction in ICT’s own carbon emissions, which constitute around 2.7 per cent of Australia’s total[i]. Far more important is ICT’s enabling effect – its ability to reduce carbon emissions in other industries through greater efficiencies in their operations.

This White Paper references six of these reports, and draws less extensively on many others. It is also based on extensive input from key stakeholders in the Australian ICT industry – suppliers, users and consultants, putting the role of ICT and sustainability in an Australian context. The overall message is clear and consistent. Without ICT, it will be impossible to achieve the carbon emissions reductions Australia needs to achieve to prevent, or at worst mitigate, the consequences of climate change.

Where ICT Can Have the Greatest Effect

AIIA believes there are seven key areas where the intelligent application of ICT can make significant enabling contributions to reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and improving the country’s social and economic fabric. While we acknowledge there are other areas, the potential enabling effects relating to these seven areas will provide the highest and quickest return on investment:

•                  Green ICT. The ICT industry ‘s products need to be sustainably designed and, in many cases, managed to impact less on the environment.

•                  Energy Production and Distribution. Smart grids and smart metering will become increasingly important as energy costs increase over time.

•                  Transport and Logistics. Supply Chain Management (SCM) has long been a target for ICT-enabled efficiencies, particularly in facilitating open communication channels between each of the different transportation networks using a standardised platform.

•                  Building Management Systems. Inefficient heating and cooling systems of commercial, industrial and domestic buildings is one of the key areas of potential improvement in this area.

•                  Industrial Processes. Additional efficiency gains are now available through advanced process control initiatives, utilising intelligent ICT analytics to provide real-time feedback for maximising overall equipment effectiveness.

•                  Health. ICT-enabled improvements in health care, often called “e-health”, are an obvious area of improvement, through the use of such technologies as remote diagnostics and electronic patient records. Reducing travel, emergency department visits, and hospital admissions, maximising the usage of ICT will contribute to a more environmentally friendly and sustainable health industry.

•                  Education. Offering the ability to deliver, assess, and monitor educational training in a more efficient and effective manner, ICT provides the education industry with the ability to provide a more sustainable model for meeting the growing challenges of the industry.

About AIIA:

The Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) is the nation’s peak industry body for the technology sector. AIIA sets the strategic direction of the industry, influences public policy and provides members with productivity tools, advisory services and market intelligence to accelerate their business growth.

AIIA member companies employ 100,000 Australians, generate combined annual revenues of more than $40 billion and export more than $2 billion in goods and services each year.

Source: www.aiia.com and www.connectionresearch.com.au

Sunshine Coast Clean Tech Version of Silicon Valley

Strolling around the post-modern buildings at Sippy Downs and you could be in any world-class university or technology park – until you stumble across the wild kangaroos lazing around the campus grounds. Welcome to Australia’s no-worries-answer to Silicon Valley. So went the story on CNBC Europe. Now the Innovation Centre, along with the University of the Sunshine Coast and a healthy bunch of clean tech businesses, is putting on Australia’s first Clean Futures conference (21/22 October).

JULY 2010

Culture, Investment, Real Estate, Travel & Leisure

Hotspot: Sippy Downs, Queensland

Strolling around the postmodern buildings at Sippy Downs and you could be in any world-class university or technology park – until you stumble across the wild kangaroos lazing around the campus grounds. Welcome to Australia’s no-worries-answer to Silicon Valley

Located on the fringes of the Mooloolah River National Park, the 100ha site that is home to the University of the Sunshine Coast is about to become Australia’s first dedicated university town. Under an approved master plan, Sippy Downs will see its population double over the next decade as 2,500 dwellings get built around a self-contained business and technology precinct that will employ 6,000 knowledge workers in the information and green technology sectors.

Around 90km north of Brisbane, the country’s third largest city with two million people, Sippy Downs is a short hop down the Bruce Highway (seriously) to Australia Zoo, the wildlife park that was run by crocodile hunter Steve Irwin until his death in 2006. Further north are the idylls of Noosa Heads, Fraser Island and the pristine coastline near the southern reaches of the Great Barrier Reef. But Queensland wants to be known for more than just sun, surf, sand and dangerous creatures. In a bid to diversify the economy beyond seasonal tourism and property speculation, the state has earmarked this balmy hinterland as a hothouse for innovators and entrepreneurs.

The fact that southern Queensland is such a desirable location has its advantages. Th e region has attracted a surging community of highly-skilled professionals and managerial executives who either vacation here or else have decided to flee the urban stresses of Melbourne, Sydney and countless other cities abroad. All that was missing to perfect their new-found work/life balance was a business-support infrastructure attuned to the needs of home-brewed start-ups.

Which is where the already thriving Innovation Centre enters the equation. Founded in 2002 as a subsidiary of the University, the Centre comprises both a Business Incubator, to help nurture new ideas from their most embryonic stages, and also a Business Accelerator, for those that show the greatest commercialising potential or are in need of expansion. Th e support extends well beyond just office space, shared facilities and a communal pool table; fledgling companies get mentoring advice, professional and legal services and introductions to potential customers, partners and investors.

Under the stewardship of its founding CEO, Colin Graham, the Centre has played midwife to numerous businesses spanning such sectors as software development, electronics and nutraceuticals. Just recently, Big Ant studios, one of Australia’s largest game developers, announced plans to initiate a 30-person development team at the Centre’s Business Accelerator offices; taking advantage of the gaming community flourishing in nearby areas such as Fortitude Valley, Big Ant wants to hire 84 more gamemakers in the next four years alone.

Born in Northern Ireland before making his reputation in Scotland as the guiding force behind the Business Incubator for the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen and the author of EPeople: Engaging Talent in the Entrepreneurial Age, Graham typifies the dynamism of many of the expats here.

“Australia has always been a very entrepreneurial country,” says Graham, “initially by necessity, since you needed to be innovative and make use of whatever resources you had to get by and survive. These days, the Australian economy is dominated by the resources industry but there is also a new stream of entrepreneurs – often recently arrived immigrants who have chosen to live in Australia for its quality of life, and have brought their talents and international business networks with them.”

The net result has the makings of a new enterprise hub that is increasingly wired into the global economy. “When I came over from the UK to start the Centre, I thought we had all the ingredients for success but wasn’t totally sure everyone else would recognise this,” reflects Graham. “We are now one of the largest innovation centre’s in Australia – not bad for an area that was a paddock in the mid-90s. We have helped to start over 60 businesses and helped thousands of people connect with each other through high-level business networking events. I think the greatest success is showing that a regional area can compete for talent and ultimately show a new way of working that is more balanced, innovative and effective than what many people experience working in a big city.”

Source: www.cnbcmagazine.com

The Clean Futures conference, to be held on 21 – 22 Oct, is a practical event primarily aimed at entrepreneurs and business managers in the Cleantech sector – including areas such as as building materials and design, wind, solar, water, waste and energy management. It will also be of interest to business advisors, investors, government, educators and students.

The conference includes three main elements and people can attend one or all of these elements:

•           Practical one day workshop delivered by practitioners and industry experts, Fri 22 Oct

•           One day study tour visiting 3 cleantech business, Thurs 21 Oct

•           Green drinks – an evening business networking forum, includes business expo , features John Knaggs, CEO of Sunshine Coast Council and Bruce Napier, head of Cleantech Industry group, Thurs 21 Oct

Businesses will benefit by practical insights and ‘lessons learnt’ by some of Queensland’s leading environmental industry entrepreneurs – people like Bob and Christine Cameron of Rockcote and Gayne Emblin of Ritek, a building materials business with over 150 staff.

Source: www.innovation-centre.com.au

Big Brisbane Boost for Clean Energy & Zero Emission Future

Nothing if not controversial, GCI Research Fellow Guy Pearse takes us behind the ‘Climatesmart’ branding and asks how much longer Queensland expects to tackle climate change by increasing spin rather than cutting emissions. That’s on 28 October, while the night before on 27 October, Brisbane get’s it first-hand look at Beyond Zero Emissions plan for a “Renewable” Australia by 2020. Then the EV & Smart Grid Conference is on 21 October. Phew!

The Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan, a research collaboration between the climate solutions think tank Beyond Zero Emissions and The University of Melbourne’s Energy Research Institute shows how Australia can move to 100% renewable energy by 2020, using technology that is already commercially available and home-grown resources and labour.

The plan is particularly significant to the ‘sunshine state’ given its natural solar advantage (solar thermal with storage and wind are the two primary technologies).

The Zero Carbon Australia Project has already received widespread endorsements from voices as diverse as Malcolm Turnbull, Bob Brown, Tim Flannery and Robin Batterham (former Chief Scientist of Australia). It has also received a great deal of media coverage. 

To see the report or a list of endorsements/media to date, go to: http://beyondzeroemissions.org/zero-carbon-australia-2020 

The event is FREE but you must register. Go to this link to secure your ticket: http://zcabrisbanelaunch.eventbrite.com

Guy Pearse

Is ‘Queensland – The Smart State’ ?

Queensland’s Continuing Addiction to Carbon

When:

Thursday 28th October

5:30pm – 6:30pm

Where:

UQ Centre

Union Road

ST LUCIA QLD 4072

CLICK HERE TO RSVP

In his GCI Insight Seminar Series presentation, GCI Research Fellow Guy Pearse takes us behind the ‘Climatesmart’ branding and asks how much longer Queensland expects to tackle climate change by increasing spin rather than cutting emissions.

Last year the Queensland government released a glossy 424 page strategy called ‘ClimateQ: Towards a Greener Queensland’. There were lots of new ‘Climatesmart’ initiatives, but no timetable for cutting the state’s greenhouse gas emissions from their current level—the highest in the country. Instead, the government acknowledged that current policy would leave Queensland’s emissions 36% higher in 2050.

Though the emissions generated by the state’s coal exports are Queensland’s biggest single contribution to climate change by far, they were not mentioned in the strategy once. Meanwhile, the government is spending billions of dollars on infrastructure to help Queensland double coal exports over the next decade or so. The legacy of that is a state generating more than 50% more greenhouse pollution at home and abroad than Australia’s current national total. Seemingly en-route to becoming the ‘greenhouse ghetto of the South Pacific’, Queensland looks determined to fuel climate change as much as it feels it.

This event is free and open to the public

Light refreshments will be provided after the event.

Source: http://www.gci.uq.edu.au

It’s taking place again at the Novotel Brisbane on 21 October 2010. With 2 parallel conference streams: EVs and Smart Grid!

EV Conference 2010 is even more exciting!

After the success of EV Conference 2009, this year’s conference is expanding further to explore the short and long term impacts of EVs to all stakeholders and, in a parallel conference stream, will also focus on what Smart Grid really means to us.

Both subjects are closely linked and part of the overall energy puzzle that must be progressively solved by Utilities, councils, governments, developers, suppliers, consumers and many more to deliver a more sustainable society by improving its energy efficiency and reducing its dependency on fossil fuels.

With EV and Smart Grid experts from Australia and overseas, this is a unique opportunity to network and learn about these two fast-growing industries.

In addition, to maximise your day with us, our conference is also displaying exhibition booths within our break areas. 

http://www.evconference.com.au/

How to Get Money for Environmental Projects

There is more than $5 billion in federal and state government grants and subsidies available over the next five years for environmental improvement programs in Australia, according to sustainability strategists Equilibrium OMG, who have produced the second edition of a comprehensive guide on the grants and general assistance available to business and how to access them.

4 October 2010

MEDIA RELEASE

$5 BILLION IN GOVERNMENT GRANTS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT

There is more than $5 billion in federal and state government grants and subsidies

available over the next five years for environmental improvement programs.

Sustainability strategists Equilibrium OMG have produced the second edition of a

comprehensive guide on the grants and general assistance available to business and how

to access them.

Since the first edition in 2009, there has been a noticeable reduction in state government

funding overall but a significant increase in federal funds for water, climate change and

environmental education.

Equilibrium OMG Managing Director Nicholas Harford said the Guide is intended to help

bring businesses and government together to maximise environmental improvement.

“Knowing what these grants are, who is eligible and how to apply for them often requires

considerable time and resources that many businesses simply do not have,” he said.

“The Guide makes it easy to search for what grants are available and check eligibility

criteria.”

The Good Guide to Government Grants 2010 Edition provides information on $5.1 billion of

grants and a range of general assistance in the one convenient reference source, giving

details about funding programs, amounts and eligibility and linking electronically to the

source website for further information.

“Government grants are there to help business update technology and systems to achieve

environmental improvement, which can also deliver improved productivity,” he said.

“Governments have also recognised the there is a skills and knowledge gap with

organisations and people and there is increased funding for education that changes

attitudes and behaviour for greater sustainable development.”

“In short, the Guide is designed to help business make the most of government funding

and become more sustainable.”

Further information

Nick Harford +61 3 9671 3666 / 0419 993 234 / nick@eqlomg.com / www.eqlomg.com

Algae Bio Fuel for Ford Cars & Nissan Turns Over a New Green Leaf

There’s been a lot of buzz about algae as an alternative biofuel. Several business and university researchers are looking at algae’s potential as a viable alternative to fossil fuel. Now researchers at Ford are looking into algae as a fuel source for cars. While Nissan has revealed more details of its new electric concept car at the Paris Motor Show this week, designed to indicate the direction the Japanese car maker will take next with its EV technology as its electric Leaf prepares to go on sale at the end of the year.

October 4, 2010 3:47 PM PDT

Ford researchers looking at algae as a potential biofuel

by Suzanne Ashe 1 comment Share 61diggdigg

There’s been a lot of buzz about algae as an alternative biofuel. Several business and university researchers are looking at algae’s potential as a viable alternative to fossil fuel. And earlier this year, the House of Representatives introduced the Green Jobs Act of 2010, which offers investment tax credits for algae-based biorefineries.

Now researchers at Ford are looking into algae as a fuel source, the company announced.

“Algae have some very desirable characteristics as a potential biofuel feedstock and Ford wants to show its support any efforts that could lead to a viable, commercial-scale application of this technology,” said Sherry Mueller, research scientist at Ford Motor Company. “At this point, algae researchers are still challenged to find economical and sustainable ways for commercial-scale controlled production and culturing of high oil-producing algae.”

Certain species of algae have the ability to convert carbon dioxide to oil, carbohydrates, and other cell components through photosynthesis. Unlike soybeans and corn, algae is incredibly prolific; it can be grown almost anywhere in fresh or saline waters. Algae can also be grown year-round–there’s no harvest season.

Earlier this year Ford researchers visited Wayne State University’s National Biofuels Energy Laboratory, which is looking at suitable algae strains that could be used as a feedstock for biodiesel. Researchers at Ford’s Systems Analytics and Environmental Sciences Department are also looking into other bio-based fuel alternatives such as ethanol and butanol, the company said.

“Ford has a long history of developing vehicles that run on renewable fuels; and the increased use of biofuels is an important element of our sustainability strategy now and moving forward,” Tim Wallington, technical leader with the Ford Systems Analytics and Environmental Sciences Department said in a news release. “We look ahead from a technological, economic, environmental, and social standpoint at potential next-generation renewable fuels that could power our vehicles.”

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/greentech/#ixzz11R4LesLC

4 October

Green Car

Nissan has revealed more details of its new electric concept car after the Paris Motor Show opened yesterday.

It’s the first time the new concept has been seen in public and is designed to indicate the direction the Japanese car maker will take next with its EV technology as its electric Leaf prepares to go on sale at the end of the year.

Nissan says the new Townpod is designed to meet the needs of a new breed of professional who does not work fixed hours, and maybe even work for themselves so the lines between their business and social lives blur.  Likewise, the car is designed to be as equally multifaceted. Comparing the new Townpod to a ‘white tee-shirt’ which although usually worn casually, can be combined with a suit to look smart, this genre-busting vehicle is designed to mix the comfort and style of a passenger car with the businesslike utility of a commercial vehicle.

Just as classic sedans and estates have evolved over time into hatchbacks, MPVs, SUVs and now crossovers, to meet the needs of commuting life and weekend pleasure, Nissan’s new EV is the next evolution, it reckons.

François Bancon, general manager of Nissan’s Exploratory and Advance Planning Department explains: “At its core, a car is a means to transport people or goods from one place to another as simply and easily as possible. Nissan Townpod’s design supports the essence of its function. It is a smart car for people who demand more.”

Designed to look more van-like than the Leaf, the car is shaped to maximise internal space while still retaining aerodynamic efficiency.

Externally the Townpod consist of many familiar elements seen in the Leaf and although no details have been released on performance, it is likely that it will achieve similar credentials to the electric Leaf; which goes on sale in the US by the end of the year and in the UK in early 2011. It employs the same zero-emission technology found in Nissan’s first electric production car, with the charging point found in the nose behind an automatically retracting cover.

As it is just a concept car, Nissan has at the moment announced no plans to bring it to full production, but watch this space…

Source: www.thegreencarwebsite.co.uk

Bamboo Shoots High in the Green & Sustainability Stakes

Edible shoots and timber are just two of the most recognised uses of bamboo, a plant of economic, social and cultural significance throughout Asia. However, this fast-growing perennial member of the grass family also has a wide range of environmental applications, including carbon sequestration, wastewater reuse, and soil and water erosion control. Australian scientists and environmental engineers are beginning to take another look at this prolific perennial.

Tuesday, 05 October 2010

By Michele Sabto in Eco Magazine

Barriers towards commercialisation of bamboo is high labour cost.

Edible shoots and timber are just two of the most recognised uses of bamboo, a plant of economic, social and cultural significance throughout Asia. However, this fast-growing perennial member of the grass family also has a wide range of environmental applications, including carbon sequestration, wastewater reuse, and soil and water erosion control. Australian scientists and environmental engineers are beginning to take another look at this prolific perennial.

In South-East Asia, where bamboo is used primarily as a building material for low-cost structures, it is mostly harvested from wild stands. In other parts of the world, the area under plantation has been increasing at a fast rate; India and China dominate, with approximately 9 million and 5 million hectares respectively.1 In China, the growth in bamboo plantations has been partly driven by fast-growing domestic demand for wood: the country’s need for wood is expected to reach 260 million cubic metres in 2020, with an expected domestic production of only 139 million cubic metres.2 But, demand has also arisen for bamboo construction products from outside China.

Professor David Midmore, of Central Queensland University, has been involved in an Australian government-funded aid project that investigated silvicultural management of bamboo for shoots and timber in the Philippines and Australia.

Says Professor Midmore, ‘Bamboo growth rates are significantly faster than most woody species soon after planting and for this reason bamboo can be harvested much earlier than forest species. It can produce harvestable culms within 4–7 years of planting, which can subsequently be harvested annually for timber.’

In Australia, initial interest in bamboo in the 80s and 90s as a commercial crop had resulted in 200 hectares under plantation by 2002. However, Mr Bob Gretton, President of the Bamboo Society of Australia, explains that development of an Australian industry has struggled to compete with competitively priced imports, mostly from China.

‘In the late 1990s Australian bamboo growers planted commercial areas of Dendrocalmus asper, Bambusa oldhamii, Dendrocalamus latiflorus and a couple of other species for shoots,’ he says. ‘However, shoots are being imported at about anything between $2.50 and $4.50 a kilo and it is hard for Australian producers to compete.’

A small number of growers have found niche markets in the supply of fresh shoots to the restaurant market. Hans Erken, who runs a business called Earthcare, is an example. He sends the fresh shoots in the early season straight down to restaurants in Sydney.

Competitively priced imports have also hampered Australian growers interested in supplying bamboo for timber. Other barriers to commercialisation include high labour costs.

‘There are some aspects of bamboo growing that are less like a plantation and more like a horticulture project, so that increases the cost, as against a tree plantation’, says Mr Gretton.

Bamboos require summer water, and (edible) shoot production has a high water demand. This poses problems when water supply is affected by dry conditions. Professor Midmore and Mr Mark Traynor, of the Northern Territory Department of Primary Industries, investigated the ability of bamboo to continue to produce biomass under dry conditions, trialling practices designed to capitalise on this feature.3 They identified management strategies with the potential to allow for both shoot and culm production under seasonally dry conditions, including strategic irrigation and thinning regimes. Factors found to affect shoot and culm yields included the number of culms of different ages in each stand and the age of culms at harvesting.

Professor Midmore and other scientists, such as Dr Jeff Parr of Southern Cross University, point out that in addition to the wide range of human uses, bamboo may also provide a variety of potential ecosystem services, including erosion control. Bamboo has an extensive fibrous root system, and new culms are produced from underground rhizomes. This means that harvesting can occur without significant disturbance to the ground or even the dense leaf litter, which also contributes to protecting the soil from wind and rain events. The thick leaf litter produced by bamboo also collects and conserves moisture. Bamboo has been extensively used in South America, China and India for remediation and protection of degraded landscapes.

Dr Parr has been investigating the potential for soil organic carbon sequestration by bamboo leaf litter in collaboration with researchers from the Fujian Academy of Forestry Sciences in south-east China.

‘All bamboo leaves a prolific amount of leaf litter on the ground, and we’ve been looking at the leaf litter because the rest is often harvested,’ says Dr Parr. He explains that the Chinese are interested in this research.

‘A lot of bamboo in China is economic bamboo that is used for the production of lots of things, from flooring to clothing. They are interested in the sustainable harvest and use of bamboo, and at the same time are interested in what it’s doing in the way of locking up carbon. They’re interested in carbon trading,’ he says.

According to Dr Parr, leaf litter is often overlooked in carbon inventories. This is significant, because he says that it is mainly the phytoliths, or plantstones, produced in the epidermal cells of a plant’s leaf, sheath and stem that are good at occluding carbon. Phytoliths form as microscopic silica grains in the leaves and stems of many plant species (see Ecos Issue 145). They are particularly prolific in grasses such as bamboo species, and become incorporated into the soil matrix during decomposition of leaf matter. In a paper published in Global Change Biology, Parr and his co-researchers state that ‘relative to the other soil organic carbon fractions that decompose over a much shorter time scale, the carbon occluded in phytoliths is highly resistant against decomposition’.4

1  Midmore DJ (2009). Bamboo in the global and Australian contexts. Proceedings of a workshop held in Los Banos, the Philippines, 22–23 November 2006. Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.http://aciar.gov.au/publication/PR129

2  Meyer D (2009). Demand for bamboo grows as wood substitute and food, China Daily, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2009-11/16/content_8975436.htm

3  Traynor M and Midmore D (2009). Cultivated bamboo in the Northern Territory of Australia. Proceedings of a workshop held in Los Banos, the Philippines, 22–23 November 2006. Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. http://aciar.gov.au/publication/PR129

4  Parr J, Leigh S, Chen B, Yew G and Zheng W (2009). Carbon bio-sequestration within the phytoliths of economic bamboo species. Global Change Biology, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2009.02118.x

A story provided by ECOS Magazine – Australia´s most authoritative magazine on sustainability in the environment, industry and community.  This article is under copyright; permission must be sought from ECOS to reproduce it. Visit ECOS to sign-up for a print subscription

Source: www.sciencealert.com.au

Last Word – Shocking, But Did the Message Get Through?

Sometime you have to shock people to get them to sit up and take notice – a la smoking ads and gruesome road safety scenes. But for the first time when climate change is presented in this fashion, going further than Al Gore’s pedestrian powerpoint approach, people are not only shocked they get the ads taken off the air in the UK. Here’s what Sara Philips wrote about it in her environment section of ABC:

Violent ending to climate change ads

BY SARA PHILLIPS

ABC Environment | 1 OCT 2010

The 10:10 campaign shows a bloody end for students who do not want to reduce their carbon emissions.

Timed to capture the zeitgeist generated by the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen last year, the British government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change released a TV advertisement outlining the dangers of climate change, and encouraging people to take action.

It showed a little girl being read a bedtime story in which the nasty CO2 monster seemed set to take over the world. “Is there a happy ending?” she asked her dad, at which point the public service announcement kicked in with: “it’s up to us”.

The advertisement attracted hundreds of complaints. It was viewed by those that opposed the ad as being “upsetting and scaremongering”.

Heaven only knows what the people making those complaints would make of the latest ad doing the rounds on the Internet.

10:10 originally started as a British campaign but has spread beyond that corner of the world. It is supported by green groups 350 and Do Something in Australia. The latest offering from this organisation is titled “No pressure”. It shows a school teacher encouraging her class to get behind the campaign to reduce their own emissions by 10 per cent. “No pressure,” she says, before noting which kids are not planning to participate. She then presses a little red button on a black box and blows the non-conforming children to smithereens. Nearby children are splattered with gore.

The same theme is then repeated in an office, with a soccer team and with Gillian Anderson in a radio studio.

This ad is clearly supposed to be funny and shocking. Franny Armstrong, 10:10 founder told The Guardian, “Clearly we don’t really think they should be blown up, that’s just a joke for the mini-movie”.

But the reaction has not been universally positive. On Twitter, Tim Hollo (who is media advisor to Christine Milne, but was expressing his own views) tweeted, “I cannot possibly imagine this vid convincing one single person to take part in 10:10 #badcomms #climate #fail”.

Meanwhile, Graham Readfearn, freelance journalist and occasional writer for ABC Environment found it “so funny, I had to watch it twice.”

For better or worse, violence seems to be a recurring theme of climate awareness campaigns.

Earlier this year another British green group, Plane Stupid tried to make people aware of the climate impact of flying. They released an ad in which distant objects appeared to be falling from the sky. On closer inspection they are revealed to be polar bears plummeting towards to Earth, where they land with a bloody thump.

Another ad from the US Environmental Defence Fund showed climate change as a racing locomotive. A man on the tracks manages to step aside in time, but a child is left, demonstrating to us that climate change will have the most impact on our children.

Earlier this year, Greenpeace campaigned to have Nestle stop using palm oil in its products. The Internet ad showed a man enjoying a break from work and a Kit Kat, which was in fact an orang-utan’s finger that spattered his keyboard with blood.

Violence in ads can work: the Greenpeace orang-utan campaign was successful.

Australia’s famously graphic transport accident ads have been exported to the world. According to a 2003 study from the Monash University Accident Research Centre, “An international review of road safety media campaigns found average crash reductions of between 8 per cent and 14 per cent”. Support with vigorous policing also contributed.

The UN also employed violence to emphasise the damage that landmines do everyday around the world.

But there is a difference between car crashes and landmines and climate change. With the first two, a gruesome outcome is possible: the ads warn of conceivable risks.

Climate change is not likely to end in a bloody puddle, however. Although wars over diminishing resources have been predicted by some, the worst-case scenarios usually centre around starvation, drowning and natural disasters.

So far, the ad has gone viral. All over Twitter and the Internet, people are sharing the video. By this standard, the violence used in the 10:10 ad has been successful.

When asked about whether they were concerned about offending people, Armstrong told The Guardian, “Because we have got about four years to stabilise global emissions and we are not anywhere near doing that. All our lives are at threat and if that’s not worth jumping up and down about, I don’t know what is.”

But as the panel from the Gruen Transfer repeatedly remind us, it’s not whether people see the ad, it’s whether people do anything after seeing it. The success of this ad will be determined by its ability to make people feel good about 10:10 and encourage more people to sign up to the campaign.

Judging by most of the comments on Youtube so far, it would not seem it has succeeded.

Source: www.abc.net.au

Believe it or not, I’m in Singapore again, in advance of a complete business move in November. I’ve mentioned before the setting up of Sustain Ability Showcase Asia, which is now operational with our first clients on board. This time, I’m in the heart of South East Asia to attend to business, meet old and new friends. But we will return to Australia – Melbourne to be exact – for next week’s Carbon Expo and still have some more time in Brisbane to be part of a flurry of October climate friendly events. No need to worry about ABC Carbon – book, newsletter and consulting – as it will continue and we will make sure we look after our loyal Australian supporters as well as the growing number from other parts of the world.