Firefighters call for urgent climate change action
February 12, 2009
Posted in Green News
Australian firefighters have written an open letter to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd warning that the country needs to reassess its approach to climate change or risk more devastating bushfires of the type that have claimed at least 180 lives so far in the state of Victoria, ABC News reports. The letter, written by the United Firefighters Union of Australia, which represents the country’s 13,000 firefighters, wants the government to follow scientific advice and halve Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. “Without a massive turnaround in policies, aside from the tragic loss of life and property, we will be asking firefighters to put themselves at an unacceptable risk,” says the letter. Full story
Our man in Africa
February 5, 2009
Posted in Green News
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi urged African leaders at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa this week to nominate a single representative to lead negotiations on behalf of all 53 African countries at the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen in December, Bloomberg reports. If this idea were to fly, could South African environment minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk (pictured right) be the man for the job?
He has made a name for himself at international climate talks as an important voice for developing countries and, thanks to him, South Africa is often described as “punching above its weight” in climate negotiations. But there are doubts about whether he will retain his post in the environment ministry after South Africa’s next elections, which are expected to be held in the next few months. He is said to be highly regarded in international circles and many feel that his skills are needed in the climate negotiations. And, goodness knows, Africa could do with someone who can pack a good punch.
News briefs
December 19, 2008
Posted in Green News
- BOTTLE STOPPERS: Students at Britain’s Leeds University have voted to ban bottled still water from all their bars, cafes and shops. More than 30,000 pounds in profits reportedly will be lost from the sale of around 20,000 bottles of water a year to students by the university union’s outlets. “It’s a measure of concern about the environment, putting sustainability before profit,” Tom Salmon of Leeds University Union told the Guardian. Bottled water will be replaced by water fountains and “affordable, reusable water bottles”, and a campaign will promote tap water. [Source: Guardian] (Thank you to Anna on Twitter for the link)
- BUY EVERY MOUNTAIN: Capetonians were shocked to discover this week that Hout Bay’s landmark Sentinel mountain, which has been described as one of Cape Town’s most photographed features, has been put up for sale for a mere R12-million. Many people had been under the impression that the mountain was part of a national park. The fact that it is privately owned raises concerns that the mountain may be developed – Hout Bay is a very popular, upmarket, residential suburb. South African National Parks has apparently made “several offers” to buy the Sentinel, but they have been rejected. Any attempts to develop the land are likely to be met by fierce resistance from environmentalists. The estate agent involved in the sale was quoted as saying: “It’s quite unusual for a mountain to be up for sale. Whoever buys it will probably do so to be able to say: ‘I own that mountain’.” [Source: IOL]
- POWERING DOWN: The government has retrofitted 4,000 buildings with energy-saving equipment, saving R56-million a year in electricity costs, the deputy president, Baleka Mbete, told an energy saving conference earlier this month. It aims to eventually make every government facility energy efficient. Ms Mbete urged ordinary South Africans not to waste power. She also warned that Eskom will be carrying out routine maintenance to its infrastructure in January. This time last year rolling blackouts cost the economy billions of rands. [Source: BuaNews]
- SHORING UP: The Netherlands is spending billions of dollars on reinforcing its dykes amid fears of flooding from rising sea levels as a result of climate change. Two-thirds of the country lies below sea level. It is also investing in augmenting its fresh water supplies. [Source: AFP via TerraDaily]
Not the hottest, but 2008 still makes the top 10
December 17, 2008
Posted in Green News
The year 2008 is likely to rank as the 10th warmest year since climate records began in 1850, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the United Nations’ authoritative voice on weather, climate and water.
But don’t let the climate change denialists say ‘I told you so’, because all the years that have been warmer than 2008 have been during the last 12 years, the WMO director-general Michel Jarraud told a press briefing. And the reason this year’s temperature has been slightly lower that the rest of the 21st century so far is because of a moderate to strong La Niña that developed in the latter half of 2007. La Niña and El Nino are part of a naturally occurring climate cycle influenced by ocean surface temperature in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean.
Interestingly, a recently published survey of mortality from natural threats in the United States – which has been not-so-euphemistically dubbed the “death map” – found that heatwaves claimed more lives than more headline-grabbing natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes. (The survey period was 1970 – 2004, so it did not include Hurricane Katrina, which killed more 1,500 people in 2005 when it hit New Orleans).
The survey, published in the International Survey of Health Geographics, noted: “Over time, highly destructive, highly publicised, often catastrophic singular events such as hurricanes and earthquakes are responsible for relatively few deaths when compare to the more frequent, less catastrophic events.”
Other climate-change related info from the WMO report was that the extent of the Arctic Sea ice dropped to its second-lowest level since satellite measurements began in 1979 during the melt season this year – which peaks in mid-September.
“A remarkable occurrence in 2008 was the dramatic disappearance of nearly one-quarter of the massive ancient ice shelves on Ellesmere Island. Ice 70 metres thick, which a century ago covered 9 000 km2, has been chiselled down to just 1 000 km2 today, underscoring the rapidity of changes taking place in the Arctic,” the WMO said in a press release.
The ozone hole over Antarctica was smaller than last year, its area reached a maximum of 27 million km2 on 12 September. This is less than in the record year 2006 (more than 29 million km2) but larger than in 2007 (25 million km2). The variation in the size of the ozone hole from one year to another can be, to a large extent, explained by the meteorological conditions in the stratosphere, says the WMO.
Climate extremes, including devastating floods, severe and persistent droughts, snow storms, heatwaves and cold waves, were recorded in many parts of the world, notably Cyclone Nargis which caused devastation in Burma earlier this year.
‘No new coal’, says daring caped crusader
December 12, 2008
Posted in Green News
The cooling towers of Kingsnorth power station, near Nottingham in the UK. © Ed Clarke, iStockphoto.com
In an extraordinarily audacious and dangerous act of environmental sabotage, an unknown “caped crusader” breached the security of Britain’s Kingsnorth coal- and oil-fired power station and brought one of its 500MW turbines to a standstill last month. Then, after leaving a calling call which read “NO NEW COAL”, he simply disappeared.
The power station was brought to a halt for four hours. This means that the unknown saboteur single-handedly reduced Britain’s carbon emissions by 2 percent, the Guardian reports.
The hunt is now on for “climate man”. The police say they have no suspects and even seasoned climate activists say they have no idea who did it, but would really love to know.
A spokesperson for power utility E.ON was quoted in the Guardian article as saying: “It was extremely odd indeed, quite creepy. We have never known anything like this at all, but it shows that if people want to do something badly enough they will find a way.”
Read the full story here
(Thanks to Gavin for the link)
Visa problems keep Africans out of climate talks
December 12, 2008
Posted in Green News
Delegates from some of the African countries likely to be worst hit by climate change have been unable to attend the United Nations talks in Poznan, Poland, because of problems obtaining visas, Afrique en Ligne reports.
There are only three Polish Embassies in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa – in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria – which has made it very difficult for people wanting to attend the talks to obtain visas.
Saleemul Huq, head of climate change at the Institute for Environment and Development Studies in London, was quoted as saying that “the absence of media, NGO and government representatives from the countries most vulnerable to climate change has meant that their concerns have been slipping from the agenda”.
He added: “We have lost count of the number of people from such nations that have been unable to attend the full two-week conference because of the excessive time taken to process their visa applications. If this happens again at next year’s meeting in Copenhagen, it will be a serious impediment to getting a deal that is fair and equitable.”
Read the full article here
Guide to climate friendlier gadgets
November 26, 2008
Posted in Business, Lifestyle
The lastest Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics has just been released and this time, in the run-up to the big UN climate change talks in Poland next week, the focus is on climate leadership.
Consumer electronics can play an important role in moving the world towards a low-carbon future, but most companies have been slow to get serious about climate change, says Greenpeace. Although they have made “gradual” improvements on toxic and e-waste issues over the past few years, only a minority of consumer electronics companies are really leading on energy and climate change. And now Greenpeace wants them to step up to the challenge and show leadership.
Since June, the greener electronics guide has examined companies on their climate and energy criteria, which include, their direct emissions, their product performance, their use of renewable energy and their political support for emission cuts. And here’s what Greenpeace found:
Of the 18 market-leading companies included, only Sharp, Fujitsu Siemens and Philips show full support for the necessary emissions cuts of 30 percent for industrial nations by 2020.
Only HP and Philips have made commitments to make substantial cuts in their own emissions from the product manufacture and supply chain.
All the other companies in the guide make “vague or essentially meaningless statements about global emissions reductions and have no plans to make absolute emissions cuts themselves”.
Many companies have gained points from their products’ efficiency improvements.
Most companies use little renewable energy. Nokia, which is still in the number one spot, sources 25 percent of its total electricity use from renewable energy and is committed to sourcing 50 percent by 2010.
Other brands with points for renewable energy use are FSC, Microsoft, Toshiba, Motorola and Philips.
Although Philips and HP score well on energy issues, Greenpeace says they’re position on toxics is letting them down.
Those who score well on toxic chemical criteria already have products on the market free of the worst substances, including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba, FSC and Sharp.
Overall, the biggest moves up the ranking are Motorola, (from 15th to joint 7th), Toshiba (from 7th to 3rd) and Sharp, (up from 16th to 10th).
The companies falling down the ranking are the PC brands Acer, Dell, HP and Apple. Although Apple drops a place, it has improved its total score this time because of better reporting on the carbon footprint of its products, and although not scoring any extra points, its new iPods are now free of both PVC and brominated flame retardants.
Read more about how the companies fared.
Join the global day of climate action
November 23, 2008
Posted in Green News
On Saturday December 6 a Global Day of Action on Climate Change will be held to coincide with the United Nations climate talks in Poznan, Poland.
In South Africa, the Greenhouse Project and the South African Climate Action Network are organising an event at the Alexandra Children’s Library, 3rd Ave, Alexandra on Saturday the 6th from 11am to 5pm.
Go along to the event and you’ll see:
- Working examples and demonstrations of renewable energy
- The launch of the Itumeleng Organic Gardening Project
- A giant greenhouse for you to explore
- The Climate Change: ‘Mural of Hope’
- Music and entertainment
- Local food and drink made by solar cookers!
- The Debate Corner for you to ask questions and find out more about Climate Change and what you can do
- An information table with leaflets and brochures for you to take home
- A Kid’s Corner with painting
- Screenings of films throughout the day: An Inconvenient Truth, 6 Degrees and The Power of Community
If you want to get involved, the organisers are looking for volunteers to help them.
For more information about the about the day or if you would like to volunteer to help, please contact France Maleme on 011-720-3666 or 073-002-2274 or maleme2 [at] gmail [dot] com and Kyla Davis on 076-715-2414 or kylalliandavis [at] gmail [dot] com
SA corporates are getting the climate change message
November 19, 2008
Posted in Business
The results of South Africa’s second annual Carbon Disclosure Project survey show encouraging evidence that companies are beginning to respond meaningfully to the challenge of climate change, the minister of environmental affairs and tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, said in a speech at the CDP report’s launch on Wednesday.
He said that the companies that responded to this year’s survey “understand that it would not be economically, environmentally or politically sustainable for South Africa to continue to grow our emissions along a business-as-usual path”.
Other points made in his speech include that:
- The sample size had more than doubled from the Top 40 companies listed on the JSE Securities Exchange last year to the Top 100 companies this year.
- The response rate this year of 59 percent is apparently better than the global average of 55 percent. (Brazil’s Top 75 response result was 83 percent and India’s Top 200 result was 19 percent.) See Engineering News
- 75 percent of responding companies disclosed their greenhouse gas emissions, which the minister said was a sizeable increase on last year. Even though in several instances the disclosure was only on a “partial basis”, he said there was signs of an “emerging commitment to improved monitoring and reporting on greenhouse gas emissions”.
- Carbon-intensive companies dominate South Africa’s disclosed greenhouse gas emissions. The three largest emitters (excluding Eskom, the national electricity utility) – Sasol, BHP Billiton and Anglo American – account for two-thirds of the total reported greenhouse gas emissions of companies that responded to the survey.
- Electricity consumption constitutes 41 percent of the total reported greenhouse emissions. (About 90 percent of South Africa’s electricity is generated in coal-fired power stations.)
- Awareness of and engagement in government policy on climate issues appears to have increased significantly since last year’s report. Many senior executives across different sectors had been engaged in the process of formulating the government’s Long Term Mitigation Scenarios, which were released earlier this year
- Companies acknowledge that an escalating price on carbon will be part of the future business environment.
- Only 23 percent of companies disclosed specific, company-wide greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. “If South Africa’s emissions are to peak and then decline, companies will need to demonstrate a significantly higher level of ambition” in this area,” the minister said.
- Most of the companies have developed, or are implementing, formal systems for measuring and reporting on their emissions, but gaps remain in their governance systems for climate change, and in the nature and extent of executive board oversight on this issue, he said.
- South African investors do not appear to fully appreciate the business implications of climate change, nor are they exerting a meaningful influence on the corporate sector on this issue.
The minister also said: “Not only does proper tracking and reporting [of greenhouse gas emissions] make business sense, but it is only when companies know their carbon footprint that they can properly plan to mitigate. It is also an indicator of good corporate governance, of accountability, and of taking co-ownership for the future.”
Companies need to be prepared for an era when the reporting of GHG emissions will be mandatory, he added.
Africa ‘too risky’ for CDM investors
November 10, 2008
Posted in Business, Green News
African countries are not profiting from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects to tackle climate change in developing countries because of administrative and technical problems, according to climate specialists who met in Dakar last week. “People think it is too risky to invest in Africa,” a delegate was reported as saying. [AFP]
Africa has only 25 of the 1,192 CDM certified greenhouse gas cutting projects around the world – a mere 2.27 percent. Eleven of these projects are registered in South Africa. The CDM is a mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol through which developed countries can offset their greenhouse gas emissions by investing in emissions reduction projects in developing countries.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that the European Union has put forward a proposal to share renewable energy technologies with African countries and may also offer funding to African countries to develop their economies sustainably, reports Bloomberg. The proposal, which will be discussed in Algeria later this month, is being viewed as a way to break the deadlock in global climate change talks.
It was also announced last week that the Western Cape provincial government has established a Clean Development Mechanism office in Cape Town which is working on €60-million public transport project with the Italian government. The department of transport deal project reportedly involves between 100 and 150 higher-efficiency diesel buses, of the sort used during the Beijing Olympics. A memorandum of understanding has been signed with the Italian government for the provision of the buses. [Engineering News]
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