Airlines Want Global Carbon Pact, But Not Yet

As the New Year begins, airlines will have to start buying carbon credits to pay for carbon emitted during all flights into and out of Europe, in a move that the EU hopes will cut the sector’s environmental impact and boost investment in green technology. EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard has urged aviation companies to invest in more efficient engines and cleaner fuels, such as biofuels, which will also help reduce their fuel costs in the long run.

Carriers will have to buy permits for every tonne of CO2 emitted on flights into and out of EU airports

By Will Nichols in Business Green (29 December 2011):

Airlines will have to start buying carbon credits to pay for carbon emitted during all flights into and out of Europe from next week, in a move that the EU hopes will cut the sector’s environmental impact and boost investment in green technology.

Carriers will join power plants and factories in the emissions trading scheme (ETS), although permits will not have to be handed over until 2013.

Branson predicts aviation could be among ‘cleanest’ industries within 10 years

The scheme started on schedule after surviving a legal challenge by trade organisation Airlines for America (A4A), formerly known as the Air Transport Association of America, as well as American Airlines and United Continental.

The airlines had argued that forcing non-EU carriers to abide by the rules breached international aviation agreements and constituted an unlawful tax, but this was dismissed first by Advocate General Juliane Kokott, an adviser to the European Court of Justice, and subsequently by the court itself.

Huge pressure has been heaped on the EU to soften its stance and exempt airlines from outside its borders from the ETS.

But the European Commission has maintained that, as the preferred option of a global carbon pricing mechanism managed through the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has not been forthcoming, action must be taken at a regional level.

Aviation accounts for around three per cent of global emissions, but green campaigners predict this to rise significantly as other sectors decarbonise.

The ICAO has delivered non-binding commitments to improve fuel efficiency by 1.5 per cent annually to 2020, cap net emissions from that date, and cut net emissions in half by 2050, but has failed to deliver the binding regulations the EU wants to see.

Campaigners say the move to put a price on aviation emissions on flights into and out of the EU could save around 183 million tonnes of CO2 each year by 2020.

They have also dismissed industry warnings that fares will skyrocket as a result of emissions trading.

Pamela Campos, an attorney at the Environmental Defense Fund, said passengers could expect between €0.5 and just under €3 to be added to ticket prices as a direct consequence of emissions trading.

However, UK fares are likely to see an additional rise owing to Air Passenger Duty, which will increase eight per cent in April.

Bill Hemmings, programme manager at Brussels-based campaign group Transport & Environment, also dismissed airlines’ claims that emissions trading will cost upwards of €10bn by 2020.

“The fact that airlines are getting 85 per cent [of the permits they need in the first year] free looks like they’re in a good position to make windfall profits,” he told reporters on a telephone conference call.

EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard has urged aviation companies to invest in more efficient engines and cleaner fuels, such as biofuels, which will also help reduce their fuel costs in the long run.

Many green campaigners are wary of biofuels, saying they compete with food crops for land, a problem that would be exacerbated by increased biofuel demand from the aviation industry.

However, advocates have argued that the sector will never fully rely on biofuels to decarbonise and that the fuels likely to be scaled up are second-generation biofuels, variously derived from waste, algae and industrial gases. Several leading airlines, including Virgin, KLM, Lufthansa and Qantas, have already tested such fuels.

It is also hoped that any increase in airline fares that results from the ETS will incentivise more people to switch to alternatives, such as rail or video conferencing.

However, opposition to the EU scheme remains intense, despite the European Court of Justice ruling. US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has written to EU commissioners warning that the US will take “appropriate action” if Brussels does not halt or delay emissions trading, while a bill introduced to the Senate in December would prevent US airlines from complying.

Chinese carriers have also threatened legal action, while there are rumblings of discontent even among European carriers which are fearful of a trade war.

“We won’t get agreement on a global approach if states are throwing rocks at each other because Europe wants to act extra-territorially,” said Tony Tyler, director general and chief executive of the International Air Transport Association, after the court decision.

“Europe should take credit for raising the issue of aviation and climate change on the global agenda. But what is needed now is for Europe to work with the rest of the world through ICAO to achieve a global solution.”

The prospect of more regional legislation has also been raised by a case in the US in which a group of organisations led by the Center for Biological Diversity is trying to force the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set efficiency standards for jet engines.

The group’s contention that the EPA has a responsibility under the Clean Air Act to examine whether aviation emissions are detrimental to public health was upheld by a judge in July.

The EPA has been instructed to respond by February, but is likely to seek a delay in line with its previous record of postponing regulations on emissions from power plants and smog. However, if the decision is not overturned, it will have to investigate the potential for aviation emission regulations.

If the inclusion of the aviation in the ETS proves successful it could pave the way for the shipping industry to be incorporated into the scheme. Shipping has tended to make more progress in promoting efficiency improvements than aviation, but the EU has similarly threatened to bring the industry into the scheme if a global regime for cutting emissions is not enforced.

Source: www.businessgreen.com

We used to call this the silly season. When journalists around the world would fill the void left by the lack of business and political news with unusual or human interest stories. Some of the articles in this issue – the first for 2012 – would be silly, if they weren’t deadly serious. Nothing like starting the New Year on the right foot – with 20 plus items of interest – as it does promise to be an eventful year and hopefully a more sustainable one with a promise of better – and greener – things to come. New Yorkers got a good start to the year when the iconic New Year’s Eve Ball was illuminated – for a change – with thousands of LED energy saving lights and it was human power from the Duracell Smart Power Lab which charged up the batteries to light up the 2-0-1-1 sign. Philippines had a wet start to the year after weeks of devastating floods, but help is at hand and hopefully a change to the damaging logging practices which reputedly aggravated the floods. We have for you the top climate stories of 2011 and the best of clean energy innovations. Some good news on inventions as well as news about chocolate, endangered species, coal mining’s demise, king tide impacts, Nepal’s glacier lakes, Hawaii’s energy advances,  Palau Island’s solar airport, Europe’s aviation emission tax and  Google’s greener data centre. Reports from Sydney that free range eggs are not all they’re cracked up to be and wind farms are getting opposition from influential quarters. Japan is under fire for its whale meat hunger and poor nuclear power management. Maria Adebowale of Capacity Global is in the spotlight. Did you know that 2012 is the UN’s designated Year of Sustainable Energy for All or that there’s a fear that climate change journalists are a dying breed? And to show we’re not taking things lying down, we have the last word to tell you what were top reads of 2011 and what’s in store for 2012. Hope springs eternal. – Ken Hickson

Illegal Logging in Sensitive Watershed Areas

Logging is emerging as a major culprit behind the flood disaster that killed at least 1,257 people in the southern Philippines. As Philippine President Benigno Aquino earmarks 1.6 billion pesos (S$47.4 million) for the acquisition of new technology for more accurate weather and disaster information, the World Bank releases US$500 million (S$650 million) to help with the recovery and reconstruction efforts in the Philippines.

Aquino to put $47m in weather technology

Straits Times (31 December 2011):

MANILA: Philippine President Benigno Aquino has directed his office to release 1.6 billion pesos (S$47.4 million) for the acquisition of new technology for more accurate weather and disaster information, following the destructive tropical storm Washi that struck the country recently.

The World Bank has also released US$500 million (S$650 million) to help with the recovery and reconstruction efforts in the Philippines, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.

Relief operations are continuing in the south of the country, where Singapore’s Mercy Relief and Red Cross are among those bringing relief to thousands of homeless victims.

Mercy Relief has been aiding affected communities through a food and water programme in Barangay Consolacion, Cagayan de Oro city, while the Singapore Red Cross (SRC) has dispatched a second team to distribute relief items to shelters in the city.

The $12,000 five-day programme by Mercy Relief, comprising 500 packs of freshly cooked food and bottled water daily, will run till tomorrow. The group is also procuring 200 sets of tarpaulins for affected families to help ease overcrowding at the shelters.

Mercy Relief is conducting fund raising in Singapore until Jan 15 to help support the relief efforts. The public can call 6332-6320 for more information.

A second team from SRC has distributed $200,000 worth of relief items donated by people in Singapore to the 47 relief centres in Cagayan de Oro. The items in the ‘Family Christmas Pack’ include food, clothing, blankets and school supplies. More than 12,000 displaced families are housed in the centres.

The Philippine Star newspaper reported yesterday that the homeless living in relief centres in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan may find themselves displaced a second time when schools reopen next Tuesday.

The Department of Education reportedly rejected appeals from local governments to extend the use of classrooms as temporary shelters for evacuees until February.

As a result, those in charge of relief efforts have begun building ‘tent cities’- clusters of hundreds of tents in which an estimated 2,580 families will be staying over the next few months before their new permanent homes are constructed, the newspaper quoted Mr Rey Magbanua, response manager for Humanitarian Response Consortium as saying.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

Logging in spotlight after Philippines flood tragedy

It is emerging as major culprit behind disaster that killed over 1,200

Alastair McIndoe in Straits Times (31 December 2011):

MANILA: Logging is emerging as a major culprit behind the flood disaster that killed at least 1,257 people in the southern Philippines.

In a country highly prone to natural disasters, the loss of vast areas of protective forest cover in uplands and watersheds has long put communities at risk from flash floods and landslides triggered by pounding seasonal rains.

In the aftermath of the catastrophic floods in two coastal cities on Mindanao island on Dec 17, a nationwide logging ban ordered by President Benigno Aquino 11 months ago to help prevent such disasters from recurring is under the spotlight.

Environment officials admitted this week that the logging ban had not been enforced in a politically volatile part of Mindanao that has been hard to govern.

An investigation is now under way to determine whether ongoing logging there contributed to the flood damage unleashed by tropical storm Washi.

But the region already has some of the country’s most depleted forests, said Forest Management Bureau assistant director Nonito Tamayo.

Aerial footage of Ligan City’s shoreline taken days after the storm shows a thick carpet of logs and other debris washed down from swollen river systems.

Officials believe the logs came from nearby Lanao del Sur province in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). The logging ban was ignored because the four-million population in ARMM had its own environmental authority.

‘That was the problem,’ Environment Secretary Ramon Paje told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. ‘When the President declared a total log ban, they were not sold on the idea. So logging in the ARMM was allowed and above that, there was illegal logging.’

President Aquino has ordered ARMM governor Mujiv Hataman – who has been just days in the job – to enforce the ban and crack down on illegal logging.

It is a tough assignment. This corner of the Philippines has a notorious reputation for lawlessness – a legacy of decades of insurgency, warlordism and a high incidence of poverty.

And because of security concerns, the ARMM still has not been fully mapped for geo-hazards, said the government’s geological survey chief Sevillo David.

All the same, its new governor swiftly sacked a senior environment officer – and has said that more heads will roll – after uncovering evidence of continued logging in a sensitive watershed area feeding Mindanao’s main river system.

Government data shows the ARMM has only around 250,000ha of forest cover left. ‘That’s small considering the size of the region,’ said Mr Tamayo.

The national picture is just as bleak.

Decades of rampant logging – and often illegal – have reduced the country’s natural forest cover from 80 per cent at the turn of the 20th century to 24 per cent today, leaving just over 7 million ha of forest. The perils of tree-thin uplands were devastatingly exposed in 1991 by flash floods which killed more than 6,000 people in the central Philippine city of Ormoc. The debris flushed down a mountainside included hundreds of logs and shipping containers of cut timber.

After years of ineffective campaigns against illegal logging, there are some signs that the government’s logging ban is not merely another exercise in good intentions but with weak implementation.

According to the environment department, 450 cases of illegal logging have been brought to court since the ban, and there have been 72 convictions. Mr Paje said that turning the President’s executive order into legislation would give the logging ban ‘more teeth’ and ensure that it remains in force after his term in office.

The only legal sources of timber are now from commercial plantations, which cover 330,000ha, and imports. Senator Loren Legarda, an environmental crusader, wants the logging ban to last 25 years.

The administration also plans to plant 1.6 billion indigenous trees on 1.5 million ha of forest-depleted land between this year and 2016. Under the programme, 100,000ha was targeted for this year, which Mr Tamayo says was met.

The goal for next year is 200,000ha, and 300,000ha for each of the following three years.

Among those helping are the nation’s schoolchildren. Those in state education are each required to plant 10 seedlings a year. Mining firms must plant 100 trees for every one they displace.

As for the logs recovered from Washi’s disaster zone, they will be used to repair damaged schools. Classes resume on Jan 3 and in the city of Cagayan de Oro alone, some 406 classrooms need repairing.

Source: www.wildsingaporenews.blogspot.com

Profile: Maria Adebowale

Businesses that put people and the planet before profit are more likely to make it through the tough times, says Maria Adebowale, founder of Capacity Global, a UK think tank and social enterprise working on environmental justice. While not predicting the clinking of celebratory glasses in the corridors of most small sustainable businesses, she is willing to bet that sustainability will stay at top of their agenda.

Maria Adebowale for the Guardian Professional Network  (28 December 2011):

Sustainable companies see profit as a means to an end, not the end in itself.

Common themes run in conversations with partner organisations and friends running small-scale businesses in the third and social enterprise sectors. These are: the loss of contracts and funding, the eating up of reserves, which, in the worst scenario equals a further loss of staff, and the end of projects that support local engagement and environmental improvements in some of the most vulnerable neighbourhoods.

Based on these conversations, the potential collapse of the Eurozone and shadowy second dip recession, predicting the future for sustainable business in 2012 could be a pretty depressing task. It certainly doesn’t feel like it’s time to toast to a bright new year. But there is a case for dogged optimism.

My guess is business that is not centred around profit will slog through the hard times fully committed to the triple bottom line: people, profit and planet. That means continuing to allocate resources: money or time to reducing carbon footprint, supporting sustainable behaviour change, whilst actively working with poorer communities – economic down turn or not.

This is down to a fundamental principle of authentic sustainable business. Profit is a means to an end not the end in itself. Austerity can hinder the time it takes or how much can be done but despite this the commitment to social and environmental change stays at the heart of a holistic business.

The slightly rosier scenario is that smaller businesses that aren’t only there for profit, will get far more canny at reducing spend and pooling resources to deliver as part of cross sector consortiums to maintain cash flow and deliver on their organisation’s cause.

This does not mean that there will not be fewer projects and services needed to support community asset building or environmental protection nor does it mean that balancing priorities won’t create numerous challenges. And frustratingly it doesn’t even mean that some good sustainable businesses won’t really struggle and possibly fail.

So I am not predicting the clinking of celebratory glasses in the corridors of most small sustainable businesses but I am willing to bet that sustainability will stay at top of their agenda next year, and the next.

Maria Adebowale is director and founder of Capacity Global, a think tank and social enterprise working on environmental justice and a member of the Guardian Sustainable Business Advisory Panel.

Capacity Global is the only non-governmental organisation and think tank in the UK focusing on urban environmental justice and equality, and the first national environmental organisation to be awarded the Social Enterprise Mark for its economic, social and environment aims.

Maria has a degree in Organisation Studies and Business Law and a Masters in Public International Law (human rights and environmental law) and is the author of the Third Sector Climate Change Declaration.

Maria advises on advises on environmental justice and is currently working on the challenges of climate change, transport and food security on urban regeneration and environmental justice. She is also listed as one of the most influential environmentalists for her contribution to the environmental and social justice agenda.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

The last word:

Scoring 2011 Issues and Committing to 2012 Opportunities

Trolling through the reports and past issues, we find some interesting results…and we tell you what was the most read/opened edition of abc carbon express the year past.  What item/article did more of you read than anything else?  Who was the most popular profiled personality of the year? And what was the single or recurring topic  which generated the most interest from readers? Interestingly, you seem to be keener on good news – scientific discoveries,  inventions and  innovations – than reports of bad things happening around us, even though we have consistently reported on the disasters which have befallen us.  For this and more – including some of our predictions, or more accurately, commitments for 2012 – Read More

The first edition of 2011, number 134, was actually the one edition of abc carbon express which produced the highest percentage of readers – those who opened and clicked on more articles than any issues which followed. The best read article then was one about “Where there’s sun there’s power to burn or store”. A good way to start the year.

But the one single article/item which elicited the best response all year was when we reported on the 100 Global Sustain Ability Leaders and listed the chosen ones. That was issue number 150, which came out in August. Naturally enough, many of our readers were among top 100 – as you would expect – but looking for who’s there and who’s not, obviously created unprecedented interest. We’ll do it again this year, of course. And expect to create just as much reader interest.

What is welcome news to us – as originators of the new global annual list – is that so many of the chosen few have decided to make known their selection, using it in media releases, websites and biographies. It is encouraging to know we are getting recognition – up with the Nobels and Oscars!

So what more can we tell you about your reading habits?

That the second most read single story of the year was the one entitled – “Sizing up innovations; a small solar charger and a floating solar island” – which appeared in issue number 155 and reported on the Third Wave Power’s MPowerPad and Singapore’s plans  to create an island covered in solar panels.

Who was the most popular of the people we profile in each issue?

Well, we have to announce a draw for this title of the year. Interface founder and business sustainability leader Ray Anderson – who we profiled only days before he sadly departed this earth to which he had contributed so generously – along with Cate Blanchett, who besides taking such a strong personal commitment to sustainable and green practices, has led the Sydney Theatre Company on that journey as well. She achieved added attention during the year for appearing in a climate change “pro carbon price” advertisement in Australia – consistent with her beliefs and practices, we must add – which drew criticism from some quarters.

The one subject or  issue which keeps cropping up and which seems to be of greatest interest to readers is solar power. We try, as we must, to give every subject and issue equal space. We have covered wave, tidal, hydro, wind, geothermal and all the clean energy options. We have also drawn attention to dirty coal, guzzling gas, greasy oil – not showing our bias of course! – but it is consistently solar which comes up tops. For us and our readers.

It has been a year of disasters and some of them at least have been quite directly attributable to a changing climate and the increase in extreme weather events we have come to expect more frequently.

What was reported as the worst flooding in Thailand for 50 years – or was it 100 years? – we can  now expect to see again and again. This is not just about extreme weather, but the changes man has made to the way we use our land and water. Will we continue to build on river plains?

And it points to how we must – before it is too late – start fully fledged adaptation processes. It goes without saying – but we will say it again and again – that the world has left it too late to seriously stop the climate from changing and going beyond the manageable level. So we have to get better prepared to face the consequences.

That means adapt to change, yes, but it also means we must get much better at managing disasters across borders. It is about time the UN or one of its international agencies, brought together all relevant NGOs, to form a genuine global task force to swing in to action with experts, food, water and rescue equipment.  And not wait until asked. It is amazing that this seems to happen more easily when it comes to peace-keeping or military operations, but more difficult to engineer when it comes to major weather or humanitarian disasters.

While we are on disasters, we must acknowledge the worst of 2012. Without a doubt, the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and consequent nuclear accident – a triple whammy – was worse than anyone could have expected. Even the normally very well organised Japanese were seemingly at a loss to comprehend it and manage it.

It did lead to some soul searching, both in terms of disaster management as well as the suitability of nuclear energy. It led Germany to say “no to nuclear” in its clean energy future and many other nations to question whether they should seriously consider nuclear options.

We must also draw attention to the earthquake which damaged Christchurch, New Zealand (a former home city of ours) so severely and produced serious losses of life, businesses and homes. While the number of fatalities was much less than similar sized geological events – Haiti for example – it has been a “disaster too far” which refuses to stop. Thousands of aftershocks have continued for months leaving citizens and businesses wondering how they can remain in a city subjected to an ongoing onslaught of danger and damage.

While we know we cannot connect earthquakes directly to climate change, we did run a report during the year which showed scientific evidence of geological changes to the earth from melting glaciers and rising sea levels. These could well increase. We have said ourselves that we cannot believe that taking so much out of the earth and seabed – oil, gas, coal, for example– and burning it, cannot have some unintended consequences.

More research is needed but so is the realisation that we must clean up our act and switch to a clean energy future which is sustainable and will allow us to live at peace with ourselves and maybe one day in the distant future expect less, not more, disasters.

Turning to a future closer to home, what are the professional and personal commitments – not resolutions! –I am prepared to make for 2012. Here’s a seven point plan:

1. To grow the business of SASA – Sustain Ability Showcase Asia – in a sustainable way of course, by reaching out to more businesses – and Government agencies – not just in Singapore and Australia, but throughout Asia Pacific.  We can offer advisory services and provide direction. We can get more people and companies started on the sustainability journey. We can also do what we apparently do best – act as a matchmaker – by bringing together Governments, businesses, individuals, consultants and NGOs to work together to achieve so much more than is possible alone.
2. To keep abc carbon express on track as a voice or mouthpiece for all organisations and businesses committed to doing something about climate change. Looking at  issues and opportunities. Highlighting developments from around the region and around the world in clean energy, clean tech, water, waste and carbon management, as well as promote energy efficiency and all sustainability measures for businesses, for countries, for homes and communities.
3. To put renewed emphasis on making events more sustainable – in Singapore and elsewhere. We have started with our appointment as sustainability consultants for the big three week long lighting festival in Singapore in March – i Light Marina Bay. We have adopted an international standard for sustainable events, the same being utilised  for the London Olympics this year. All conference and exhibition organisers and venues need to get on board the sustainability journey.
4. To broaden the appeal and client base of the communications consultancy we took over the management of in the later part of 2011. It will from now on be known as H2PC Asia, formerly Professional Public Relations Singapore and a member of the Racepoint Group.  We’ve started work for the National Environment Agency (NEA) and hope to see more business  in the clean energy and clean tech space, to complement our current client portfolio which includes investor relations and media relations, along with technology and telecomunications businesses.
5. To put a higher value on time, a precious resource that disappears without trace!. That’s based on advice business friends have given me, as I apparently give of my time too freely! Of course, I will continue to support organisations like WWF and the Singapore Environment Council (SEC). And clients have no fear that I’m about to put up my rates. But I’m going to get better at managing my time and making sure everyone – including me – gets a better return on my investment of time.
6. To get another book written and completed this year, marking as it does 50 years since I first started out in my journalism  career. A few have been awaiting a promised book of communications industry case studies for a long time and that could well be what it’s mostly about. Don’t expect a heavy tome like “The ABC of Carbon”, but a more sustainable, manageable size in print and digital form. Less said the better at this stage, except to say it’s underway.
7. To go on a much talked-about, long-awaited trip to another distant continent. Business will be done, but we’ll squeeze in some leisure here and there of course. Catching up with old friends and seeing some places again – and some for the first time. Not a magical mystery tour, but a plan to take my dear wife on a much- desired and well-deserved journey.

So here’s to the year ahead: A good one all around. Busy, but rewarding. Happy, but not over-indulgent or wasteful. Sustainable, but never boring. Energetic, but well-managed.

Cheers!

Source: www.abccarbon.com and www.sustain-ability-showcase.com