++ recent news on climate change ... ++
Sun Sep 30, 10:48 AM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, hosting major polluting nations last week, sought to convince skeptics that he wants to help shape the next global deal on climate change, despite his long history of shunning such efforts.
But with only 15 months left in office, his chances of becoming a major player in the debate over climate change are diminishing quickly, analysts and diplomats said.
They added that his resistance to the kind of mandatory emissions limits sought by many allies in Europe and Japan may further weaken his influence as negotiations intensify over a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol. That treaty, which Bush rejected, expires in 2012.
Bush told a gathering of envoys from the 17 biggest emitters of greenhouse gases that he took global warming seriously and that the United States would do its part to combat it.
His acknowledgment of a problem highlighted a shift from his previous questioning of the science linking human activity to rising temperatures.
But Bush found himself at odds with many of the invited delegates as he tried to rally support for voluntary measures and declined to embrace the binding targets many believe are essential to tackling global warming.
"I think there was a lot of hope that the United States would show some movement," said Alex Lennon, a national security analyst and climate specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Now, Lennon said, "a lot of countries are already looking past this administration."
A European participant in the two-day climate session echoed that sentiment. "I know that with this administration we will not reach any results because the time is too short," the visiting official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
OUTSIDER STATUS
In another indication that Bush has failed to shed his status as an outsider in climate talks, he skipped a high-profile meeting on the subject at the United Nations a few days before the Washington session. He did attend a U.N. working dinner on climate, however.
When Bush first proposed convening a series of meetings of major emitters in May, many worried it was an attempt to undermine the U.N. negotiations on climate.
The countries attending the Washington session together account for 80 percent of the global economy and 80 percent of global emissions. They include large European countries such as Britain and Germany as well as fast-growing developing countries like China, India and Brazil.
"The mere fact that this meeting took place is a sign that the administration has changed its tune," said Charles Kupchan, professor of international relations at Georgetown University.
Still, Kupchan added, "The agenda he laid out for addressing the problem falls well short of what many industrialized countries -- particularly the Europeans -- would like to see."
Bush tried to overcome some of the skepticism about the gathering by emphasizing that he hoped it would help build momentum for the U.N. talks. The next set of U.N. negotiations are to take place in December in Bali.
Just one month before that, Bush will host German Chancellor Angela Merkel at his ranch in November and is sure to find himself in the familiar role of facing pressure to support tougher climate steps.
But the message Merkel brings may be aimed as much at the American public as at Bush himself.
In the years since Bush rejected the 1997 Kyoto treaty, the debate within the United States has shifted toward growing concern about global warming.
The Democratic-led Congress is considering several bills that would set mandatory emissions limits. Prominent corporations like General Electric and DuPont are calling for strong action on global warming, as are some Republican politicians such as California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
That has led many to many to believe that the president who succeeds Bush in early 2009 is almost certain to be more sympathetic to a tougher approach on climate change.
"I don't think that anyone believes that the next president -- whether Republican or Democrat -- will follow Bush's lead on climate," said Nicholas Eisenberger of Green Order, a New York consulting firm that advises companies on climate issues.
"The question for President Bush is whether he has anything relevant left to say," Eisenberger said. "If he does not, the world will just move on without him."
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Wal-Mart addresses climate change and supply chain
The key issues of risk management, supply chain and climate change have made their way to the top of media and corporate agendas recently. A Wal-Mart and Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) joint effort will measure the climate change effects across the Wal-Mart supply chain. In addressing the issue, Wal-Mart is proactively addressing one of its key risk areas, negative consumer perception.
Wal-Mart plans to reduce packaging by 5% by 2013 as part of its Sustainability 360 campaign.As more brands begin to identify the huge impact supply chain breakdowns and climate change have on their business, these two issues are taking a more prominent role in the risk assessment process.With Wal-Mart proactively addressing food safety, supply chain issues and climate change, are global brands shifting towards integrated management systems? Can they afford not to look at the big picture all of the time?
Is the long-term goal of large retailers choice editing of products that are not friendly to the planet?
Wal-Mart plans to reduce packaging by 5% by 2013 as part of its Sustainability 360 campaign.As more brands begin to identify the huge impact supply chain breakdowns and climate change have on their business, these two issues are taking a more prominent role in the risk assessment process.With Wal-Mart proactively addressing food safety, supply chain issues and climate change, are global brands shifting towards integrated management systems? Can they afford not to look at the big picture all of the time?
Is the long-term goal of large retailers choice editing of products that are not friendly to the planet?
Climate Change Action Who and How
There are an abundance of discussions going on about who drives change in behaviour patterns regarding climate change. There seem to be four schools of thought:
1) Government via regulation. Anne-Marie’s post touched on this. Defra have openly responded to the call for more transparent goverment policy on climate change initiatives. The general consensus is that governments need to provide a clear, long-term set of guidelines on carbon emissions that businesses and consumers can understand and be measured against. Equally as important is that all governments must work together, as proven by the Kyoto Protocol. This is not to say that the Kyoto Protocol has been ineffective, as many signatory nations have worked tirelessly to ensure that the measures put in place are carried out. But imagine, the power of all governments sharing a verifiable commitment to addressing climate change and setting measurable targets for reductions with significant penalties to non-compliers
2) Businesses via greener products and greener marketing campaigns. Renault have been a leader in this area, with their Eco2 campaign and products. Renault not only dedicated a global ad campaign to climate change issues, they set clear, measurable targets for their products and factories. Others, such as Triodos Bank base their entire business around being ethical and sustainable. Businesses play a crucial role in informing and educating the consumer on climate change issues. Clearly, they have the power to change consumer behaviour. Business and governments also have the option of “choice editing” at their disposal. Examples of effective choice editing have been the Australian government removing all non energy efficient lightbulbs from the market and The Co-op’s pulling off its’ shelves of inefficient light bulbs and domestic kitchen appliances. Choice editing by business, when combined with an informative marketing campaign, can lead to increased customer loyalty, as the consumer sees that business is willing to take a stand for the planet.
3) Consumers via purchasing habits and consumer groups. The “bottom up” approach is more relevant than ever due to the blogosphere, with 18,076 blogs containing the term climate change and growing! The power in these numbers combined with the influence of the some key blogs has big brands worried about their global image and reputation. Consumer groups are publishing the green credentials of brands and openly questioning their commitment to climate change. Many brands have dedicated staff responding to blogs and engaging with the online audience.Additionally, consumers, as quoted in recent research have expressed a willingness to pay more for products that are ethically produced as well as “green”. 70% of consumers also said that they wanted corporate green claims to be verified, showing that as consumers become better educated on climate change issues, their expectations of businesses actions are growing
4) Media The media have a direct effect on all of the above. The US government has been deluged with criticism for not signing the Kyoto Protocol, both in the US media as well as internationally.Business are all too aware of the danger of being caught out on their green strategies, actions and claims.Consumers are not immune to media pressure and influence, with recent articles focusing on the role of the individual in cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
The combination of these four groups and their influence is ensuring that climate change remains on the front pages of newspapers, remains a key topic in boardrooms (with over 65% of the world’s top 500 brands now having a someone responsible for climate change strategy at the board level), is a permanent discussion topic among the general public as well as a key topic that every politician has to address.Only through clear strategies that are informative and transparent to both business and consumers, backed by full government support and pressure, communicated by all types of media can there be a concerted global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Businesses having systems to measure data in place that are credible and verifiable will lead to the consumer trust that will change their buying habits.Can any of us afford to wait any longer?
1) Government via regulation. Anne-Marie’s post touched on this. Defra have openly responded to the call for more transparent goverment policy on climate change initiatives. The general consensus is that governments need to provide a clear, long-term set of guidelines on carbon emissions that businesses and consumers can understand and be measured against. Equally as important is that all governments must work together, as proven by the Kyoto Protocol. This is not to say that the Kyoto Protocol has been ineffective, as many signatory nations have worked tirelessly to ensure that the measures put in place are carried out. But imagine, the power of all governments sharing a verifiable commitment to addressing climate change and setting measurable targets for reductions with significant penalties to non-compliers
2) Businesses via greener products and greener marketing campaigns. Renault have been a leader in this area, with their Eco2 campaign and products. Renault not only dedicated a global ad campaign to climate change issues, they set clear, measurable targets for their products and factories. Others, such as Triodos Bank base their entire business around being ethical and sustainable. Businesses play a crucial role in informing and educating the consumer on climate change issues. Clearly, they have the power to change consumer behaviour. Business and governments also have the option of “choice editing” at their disposal. Examples of effective choice editing have been the Australian government removing all non energy efficient lightbulbs from the market and The Co-op’s pulling off its’ shelves of inefficient light bulbs and domestic kitchen appliances. Choice editing by business, when combined with an informative marketing campaign, can lead to increased customer loyalty, as the consumer sees that business is willing to take a stand for the planet.
3) Consumers via purchasing habits and consumer groups. The “bottom up” approach is more relevant than ever due to the blogosphere, with 18,076 blogs containing the term climate change and growing! The power in these numbers combined with the influence of the some key blogs has big brands worried about their global image and reputation. Consumer groups are publishing the green credentials of brands and openly questioning their commitment to climate change. Many brands have dedicated staff responding to blogs and engaging with the online audience.Additionally, consumers, as quoted in recent research have expressed a willingness to pay more for products that are ethically produced as well as “green”. 70% of consumers also said that they wanted corporate green claims to be verified, showing that as consumers become better educated on climate change issues, their expectations of businesses actions are growing
4) Media The media have a direct effect on all of the above. The US government has been deluged with criticism for not signing the Kyoto Protocol, both in the US media as well as internationally.Business are all too aware of the danger of being caught out on their green strategies, actions and claims.Consumers are not immune to media pressure and influence, with recent articles focusing on the role of the individual in cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
The combination of these four groups and their influence is ensuring that climate change remains on the front pages of newspapers, remains a key topic in boardrooms (with over 65% of the world’s top 500 brands now having a someone responsible for climate change strategy at the board level), is a permanent discussion topic among the general public as well as a key topic that every politician has to address.Only through clear strategies that are informative and transparent to both business and consumers, backed by full government support and pressure, communicated by all types of media can there be a concerted global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Businesses having systems to measure data in place that are credible and verifiable will lead to the consumer trust that will change their buying habits.Can any of us afford to wait any longer?
Malaysia concerned over climate change and civilisation gap
NEW YORK: Malaysia has made known at the United Nations its concerns over climate change and rising discord between civilisations, saying that these were among two global challenges facing mankind today.
“The course of human history is marked by a few pivotal moments, during which we can make the correct or wrong decisions that will impact on the destinies of those who come after us,” Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said.
There must be a will to moderate mankind’s excesses using science and technology as tools, the Prime Minister said.
“The time for us to invest in our collective future is here and now.”
Speaking on climate change, Abdullah cautioned that the worst has yet to come.
“The 2007 Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has made it clear that the scale and urgency of the challenge is greater than we had thought and feared.”
Addressing the 62nd UN General Assembly on Friday, Abdullah said a post-2012 agreement must be built upon the fundamentals of the Kyoto Protocol.
There should be absolute emission reduction targets for developed countries but the poorest countries of the world, which had the least capacity to adapt, should be allowed the least responsibility to mitigate the impact of climate change.
Climate change had implications on the global economy as well and not just the environment, he said.
“This is an important additional reason why the principle of differentiated responsibilities must apply, so that developing countries can maintain their capacities for sustainable development.”
Abdullah also spoke about the growing discord between Islam and the West, which he said was threatening to tear apart the fabric of peaceful relations between peoples and nations.
The cause, he said, was the repeated use of force by the powerful over the weak to secure strategic or territorial gains.
“The problem of Palestine, which has been festering for 60 years, tops the list of grievances which the Islamic world holds against the West.”
This was the single most important issue blocking peace and fraternity between Islamic and western countries, he said.
“All of us must play the role of honest brokers, assisting them through a difficult negotiating process on the path towards true peace. The onus of delivery is on all of us.”
He also said that Malaysia supported various international efforts to hold dialogues that made it clear that Islam was a religion that espoused universalism not exclusivity, tolerance not bigotry.
“On their part, Muslims have a responsibility to present to the world the true face of Islam. It must be made clear to all that Islam is a religion which abhors conflicts, more so between Muslims,” he said.
Abdullah, however, stressed that he was optimistic that universal human fraternity and coexistence was attainable “if and when the critical political and strategic issues are resolved, in tandem with the closing of the gap of misunderstandings between cultures and civilisations.”
This required wisdom and courage to recognise the problems, he said, adding that the well being of the Earth was within mankind’s control.
“The course of human history is marked by a few pivotal moments, during which we can make the correct or wrong decisions that will impact on the destinies of those who come after us,” Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said.
There must be a will to moderate mankind’s excesses using science and technology as tools, the Prime Minister said.
“The time for us to invest in our collective future is here and now.”
Speaking on climate change, Abdullah cautioned that the worst has yet to come.
“The 2007 Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has made it clear that the scale and urgency of the challenge is greater than we had thought and feared.”
Addressing the 62nd UN General Assembly on Friday, Abdullah said a post-2012 agreement must be built upon the fundamentals of the Kyoto Protocol.
There should be absolute emission reduction targets for developed countries but the poorest countries of the world, which had the least capacity to adapt, should be allowed the least responsibility to mitigate the impact of climate change.
Climate change had implications on the global economy as well and not just the environment, he said.
“This is an important additional reason why the principle of differentiated responsibilities must apply, so that developing countries can maintain their capacities for sustainable development.”
Abdullah also spoke about the growing discord between Islam and the West, which he said was threatening to tear apart the fabric of peaceful relations between peoples and nations.
The cause, he said, was the repeated use of force by the powerful over the weak to secure strategic or territorial gains.
“The problem of Palestine, which has been festering for 60 years, tops the list of grievances which the Islamic world holds against the West.”
This was the single most important issue blocking peace and fraternity between Islamic and western countries, he said.
“All of us must play the role of honest brokers, assisting them through a difficult negotiating process on the path towards true peace. The onus of delivery is on all of us.”
He also said that Malaysia supported various international efforts to hold dialogues that made it clear that Islam was a religion that espoused universalism not exclusivity, tolerance not bigotry.
“On their part, Muslims have a responsibility to present to the world the true face of Islam. It must be made clear to all that Islam is a religion which abhors conflicts, more so between Muslims,” he said.
Abdullah, however, stressed that he was optimistic that universal human fraternity and coexistence was attainable “if and when the critical political and strategic issues are resolved, in tandem with the closing of the gap of misunderstandings between cultures and civilisations.”
This required wisdom and courage to recognise the problems, he said, adding that the well being of the Earth was within mankind’s control.
PM tarik perhatian dunia terhadap dua cabaran global
NEW YORK 28 Sept. – Perubahan iklim yang menakutkan serta meningkatnya percanggahan antara budaya dan tamadun adalah dua cabaran global yang perlu ditangani dunia kerana ia menyentuh segenap kehidupan manusia tanpa pengecualian, kata Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Berucap di depan khalayak antarabangsa pada Perhimpunan Agung Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (UNGA) ke-62 di sini hari ini, Perdana Menteri menegaskan, perubahan cuaca kini menjejaskan kehidupan dunia manakala percanggahan sedang mengancam hubungan antara manusia dan negara.
Beliau bagaimanapun optimis persaudaraan dan kebersamaan sesama manusia dalam berhadapan dengan cabaran itu akan terus terjalin jika isu-isu strategik dan politik dapat diselesaikan, sekali gus menutup jurang salah faham antara budaya dan tamadun.
“Usaha ke arah itu memerlukan kebijaksanaan dan keberanian untuk memahami masalah yang timbul kerana kehidupan planet bumi ini sebenarnya masih berada dalam kawalan kita,” katanya pada perhimpunan 150 negara Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (PBB) itu.
Perdana Menteri menambah, semua pihak mesti mempunyai keazaman untuk membuka laluan itu bagi memenuhi keperluan generasi akan datang dengan memanfaatkan sains dan teknologi.
Dalam ucapan yang dihadkan selama 15 minit itu, Abdullah menekankan bahawa cabaran untuk menghadapi perubahan iklim yang sedang melanda dunia tidak pernah berlaku sebelum ini dan kesannya adalah besar dan menakutkan.
Sehubungan itu, beliau menggesa masyarakat dunia supaya memulakan proses perundingan pascaProtokol Kyoto yang perjanjiannya akan tamat pada 2012.
Katanya, sebarang inisiatif menangani perubahan iklim di peringkat nasional atau serantau perlu saling melengkapi dan dilaksanakan di bawah rangka kerja PBB dengan negara miskin diberi tanggungjawab yang kurang berbanding negara maju.
Pada pertemuan khas pemimpin tinggi PBB mengenai perubahan iklim di sini Isnin lalu, Malaysia menekankan perlunya dana baru diwujudkan dengan sumbangan oleh negara maju selain memudahkan penyaluran peruntukan sedia ada untuk menangani isu tersebut.
Dalam hubungan itu, Perdana Menteri menarik perhatian masyarakat dunia supaya tidak melupakan Persidangan Kemuncak Bumi di Rio de Janeiro, Brazil pada 1992 dengan tema menghargai alam sekitar dan pembangunan mapan.
“Mesej persidangan itu ialah perubahan sikap dan tingkah laku akan membawa perubahan bermakna. Kebenaran ini kekal dan kita perlu menunjukkan jalan semasa kita memulakan proses rundingan pascaperjanjian 2012 mengenai perubahan iklim,” katanya.
Menyentuh mengenai percanggahan antara Islam dan Barat, Abdullah yang juga Pengerusi Pertubuhan Persidangan Islam (OIC) berkata, punca utama konflik itu ialah kesilapan persepsi Barat bahawa Islam menyokong eksklusiviti dan menggalakkan ekstremisme.
Perdana Menteri berkata, semua pihak mesti mengambil tindakan untuk menghasilkan persefahaman tinggi antara pengikut budaya dan ketamadunan dengan Malaysia menyokong penuh sebarang usaha ke arah itu di peringkat antarabangsa.
Abdullah menegaskan, agama bukanlah punca masalah dunia sekarang sebagaimana disahkan oleh Laporan Kumpulan Peringkat Tinggi Perikatan Ketamadunan pada 13 November lalu.
Katanya, konflik antara Barat dan negara Islam adalah akibat penggunaan berterusan kekerasan oleh pihak yang berkuasa ke atas yang lemah untuk kepentingan teritorial dan strategik.
“Kesan daripada persaingan untuk mengawal dan mendominasi, hari ini wujud kesengsaraan di Afghanistan, Lebanon, Bukit Golan dan Iraq,” kata Perdana Menteri.
Di Iraq, katanya, kependudukan asing di negara itu yang telah menyebabkan kesukaran hidup rakyatnya kini merupakan fakta yang tidak boleh dinafikan.
“Rakyat Iraq seharusnya diberi sepenuh peluang untuk menentukan masa depan mereka sendiri. Untuk tujuan ini, Iraq memerlukan sebuah kerajaan yang boleh terlaksana melalui perdamaian,” katanya.
Abdullah memberikan contoh pengalaman perpaduan di Malaysia melalui perkongsian kuasa dalam kerajaan yang diwakili oleh semua kaum dan agama.
Beliau berkata, masyarakat antarabangsa mempunyai tanggungjawab untuk membantu rakyat Iraq mendapatkan keamanan dan kestabilan.
Begitu juga dengan masalah di Palestin, yang menurut Perdana Menteri, keamanan sebenar di sana hanya boleh dicapai jika hak rakyat diakui dan dilindungi semasa proses rundingan sedang dilakukan.
“Kedua-dua belah pihak yang berkonflik – Israel dan Palestin – mesti berkompromi untuk mencapai perdamaian,” katanya yang percaya jika masalah Palestin selesai, akan wujud keharmonian antara Barat dan negara Islam.
Menjelaskan pendekatan Islam Hadhari yang kini dilaksanakan oleh Malaysia, Abdullah menjelaskan, apabila timbul perbalahan, Islam menggalakkan kemaafan dan perdamaian melalui musyawarah yang boleh diterjemahkan dalam bentuk dialog dan rundingan.
– Utusan
Berucap di depan khalayak antarabangsa pada Perhimpunan Agung Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (UNGA) ke-62 di sini hari ini, Perdana Menteri menegaskan, perubahan cuaca kini menjejaskan kehidupan dunia manakala percanggahan sedang mengancam hubungan antara manusia dan negara.
Beliau bagaimanapun optimis persaudaraan dan kebersamaan sesama manusia dalam berhadapan dengan cabaran itu akan terus terjalin jika isu-isu strategik dan politik dapat diselesaikan, sekali gus menutup jurang salah faham antara budaya dan tamadun.
“Usaha ke arah itu memerlukan kebijaksanaan dan keberanian untuk memahami masalah yang timbul kerana kehidupan planet bumi ini sebenarnya masih berada dalam kawalan kita,” katanya pada perhimpunan 150 negara Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (PBB) itu.
Perdana Menteri menambah, semua pihak mesti mempunyai keazaman untuk membuka laluan itu bagi memenuhi keperluan generasi akan datang dengan memanfaatkan sains dan teknologi.
Dalam ucapan yang dihadkan selama 15 minit itu, Abdullah menekankan bahawa cabaran untuk menghadapi perubahan iklim yang sedang melanda dunia tidak pernah berlaku sebelum ini dan kesannya adalah besar dan menakutkan.
Sehubungan itu, beliau menggesa masyarakat dunia supaya memulakan proses perundingan pascaProtokol Kyoto yang perjanjiannya akan tamat pada 2012.
Katanya, sebarang inisiatif menangani perubahan iklim di peringkat nasional atau serantau perlu saling melengkapi dan dilaksanakan di bawah rangka kerja PBB dengan negara miskin diberi tanggungjawab yang kurang berbanding negara maju.
Pada pertemuan khas pemimpin tinggi PBB mengenai perubahan iklim di sini Isnin lalu, Malaysia menekankan perlunya dana baru diwujudkan dengan sumbangan oleh negara maju selain memudahkan penyaluran peruntukan sedia ada untuk menangani isu tersebut.
Dalam hubungan itu, Perdana Menteri menarik perhatian masyarakat dunia supaya tidak melupakan Persidangan Kemuncak Bumi di Rio de Janeiro, Brazil pada 1992 dengan tema menghargai alam sekitar dan pembangunan mapan.
“Mesej persidangan itu ialah perubahan sikap dan tingkah laku akan membawa perubahan bermakna. Kebenaran ini kekal dan kita perlu menunjukkan jalan semasa kita memulakan proses rundingan pascaperjanjian 2012 mengenai perubahan iklim,” katanya.
Menyentuh mengenai percanggahan antara Islam dan Barat, Abdullah yang juga Pengerusi Pertubuhan Persidangan Islam (OIC) berkata, punca utama konflik itu ialah kesilapan persepsi Barat bahawa Islam menyokong eksklusiviti dan menggalakkan ekstremisme.
Perdana Menteri berkata, semua pihak mesti mengambil tindakan untuk menghasilkan persefahaman tinggi antara pengikut budaya dan ketamadunan dengan Malaysia menyokong penuh sebarang usaha ke arah itu di peringkat antarabangsa.
Abdullah menegaskan, agama bukanlah punca masalah dunia sekarang sebagaimana disahkan oleh Laporan Kumpulan Peringkat Tinggi Perikatan Ketamadunan pada 13 November lalu.
Katanya, konflik antara Barat dan negara Islam adalah akibat penggunaan berterusan kekerasan oleh pihak yang berkuasa ke atas yang lemah untuk kepentingan teritorial dan strategik.
“Kesan daripada persaingan untuk mengawal dan mendominasi, hari ini wujud kesengsaraan di Afghanistan, Lebanon, Bukit Golan dan Iraq,” kata Perdana Menteri.
Di Iraq, katanya, kependudukan asing di negara itu yang telah menyebabkan kesukaran hidup rakyatnya kini merupakan fakta yang tidak boleh dinafikan.
“Rakyat Iraq seharusnya diberi sepenuh peluang untuk menentukan masa depan mereka sendiri. Untuk tujuan ini, Iraq memerlukan sebuah kerajaan yang boleh terlaksana melalui perdamaian,” katanya.
Abdullah memberikan contoh pengalaman perpaduan di Malaysia melalui perkongsian kuasa dalam kerajaan yang diwakili oleh semua kaum dan agama.
Beliau berkata, masyarakat antarabangsa mempunyai tanggungjawab untuk membantu rakyat Iraq mendapatkan keamanan dan kestabilan.
Begitu juga dengan masalah di Palestin, yang menurut Perdana Menteri, keamanan sebenar di sana hanya boleh dicapai jika hak rakyat diakui dan dilindungi semasa proses rundingan sedang dilakukan.
“Kedua-dua belah pihak yang berkonflik – Israel dan Palestin – mesti berkompromi untuk mencapai perdamaian,” katanya yang percaya jika masalah Palestin selesai, akan wujud keharmonian antara Barat dan negara Islam.
Menjelaskan pendekatan Islam Hadhari yang kini dilaksanakan oleh Malaysia, Abdullah menjelaskan, apabila timbul perbalahan, Islam menggalakkan kemaafan dan perdamaian melalui musyawarah yang boleh diterjemahkan dalam bentuk dialog dan rundingan.
– Utusan
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Stalagmites provide climate change clues
++ another way to see how far the climate has change during the past decades...look at stalagmites!! ++
26, Sept, 2007
ATLANTA, 26 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists studying cave stalagmites from Borneo have found the tropical Pacific might be more involved in climate change than previously believed.
Georgia Institute of Technology Assistant Professor of paleoclimatology Kim Cobb and graduate student Jud Partin studied stalagmites from two caves on the tropical Pacific island to determine how the Earth's climate suddenly changed several times during the past 25,000 years.
By analyzing the stalagmites, the researchers produced a high-resolution and continuous record of the climate affecting the equatorial rain forest.
"These stalagmites are, in essence, tropical ice cores forming over thousands of years," said Partin. "Each layer of the rock contains important chemical traces that help us determine what was going on in the climate thousands of years ago, much like the ice cores drilled from Greenland or Antarctica."
Partin and Cobb's research suggests the tropical Pacific played a much more active role in some of the abrupt climate change events of Earth's past than was once thought and might even have caused some of the changes.
Their findings are reported in the current issue of the journal Nature.
26, Sept, 2007
ATLANTA, 26 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists studying cave stalagmites from Borneo have found the tropical Pacific might be more involved in climate change than previously believed.
Georgia Institute of Technology Assistant Professor of paleoclimatology Kim Cobb and graduate student Jud Partin studied stalagmites from two caves on the tropical Pacific island to determine how the Earth's climate suddenly changed several times during the past 25,000 years.
By analyzing the stalagmites, the researchers produced a high-resolution and continuous record of the climate affecting the equatorial rain forest.
"These stalagmites are, in essence, tropical ice cores forming over thousands of years," said Partin. "Each layer of the rock contains important chemical traces that help us determine what was going on in the climate thousands of years ago, much like the ice cores drilled from Greenland or Antarctica."
Partin and Cobb's research suggests the tropical Pacific played a much more active role in some of the abrupt climate change events of Earth's past than was once thought and might even have caused some of the changes.
Their findings are reported in the current issue of the journal Nature.
Satu pertiga Bangladesh berisiko tenggelam
DHAKA: Peningkatan paras laut setinggi satu meter akan menenggelamkan satu pertiga daripada Bangladesh dan menyebabkan berjuta-berjuta rakyat kehilangan tempat tinggal, kata pegawai kanan kerajaan.
Fakhruddin Ahmed, yang bercakap pada persidangan perubahan cuaca di Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (PBB) di New York, menggesa negara kaya supaya membantu negara miskin menangani kepanasan global.
“Hari ini kita berdepan dengan realiti sukar fenomena perubahan suhu bukan lagi mitos dan kesannya tidak lagi sekadar agakan. Saya bercakap bagi pihak Bangladesh dan ramai lagi yang bakal berdepan bencana besar dengan peningkatan keganasan dan aliran cuaca yang tidak dapat dijangka
“Peningkatan paras laut setinggi satu meter akan menenggelamkan satu pertiga daripada keseluruhan kawasan Bangladesh yang akan menjejaskan 25 hingga 30 juta penduduk,” agensi berita BSS memetik Fakhruddin sebagai berkata.
Kawasan rendah Bangladesh mempunyai penduduk seramai 144 juta, 40 peratus daripadanya memperoleh pendapatan tidak sampai satu dolar sehari.
“Negara membangun tidak mampu menanggung kos peningkatan teknologi ekonomi mereka. Rejim selepas Kyoto perlu menubuhkan tabungan baru. Ia mesti memastikan pemindahan teknologi ini kepada negara seperti Bangladesh,” katanya.
Bangladesh diletakkan dalam undang-undang darurat sejak Januari lalu, apabila kerajaan disokong tentera mengambil alih kuasa sehari selepas pilihan raya dibatalkan kerana dakwaan penipuan undi. –Agensi
Fakhruddin Ahmed, yang bercakap pada persidangan perubahan cuaca di Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (PBB) di New York, menggesa negara kaya supaya membantu negara miskin menangani kepanasan global.
“Hari ini kita berdepan dengan realiti sukar fenomena perubahan suhu bukan lagi mitos dan kesannya tidak lagi sekadar agakan. Saya bercakap bagi pihak Bangladesh dan ramai lagi yang bakal berdepan bencana besar dengan peningkatan keganasan dan aliran cuaca yang tidak dapat dijangka
“Peningkatan paras laut setinggi satu meter akan menenggelamkan satu pertiga daripada keseluruhan kawasan Bangladesh yang akan menjejaskan 25 hingga 30 juta penduduk,” agensi berita BSS memetik Fakhruddin sebagai berkata.
Kawasan rendah Bangladesh mempunyai penduduk seramai 144 juta, 40 peratus daripadanya memperoleh pendapatan tidak sampai satu dolar sehari.
“Negara membangun tidak mampu menanggung kos peningkatan teknologi ekonomi mereka. Rejim selepas Kyoto perlu menubuhkan tabungan baru. Ia mesti memastikan pemindahan teknologi ini kepada negara seperti Bangladesh,” katanya.
Bangladesh diletakkan dalam undang-undang darurat sejak Januari lalu, apabila kerajaan disokong tentera mengambil alih kuasa sehari selepas pilihan raya dibatalkan kerana dakwaan penipuan undi. –Agensi
KL syor negara maju bantu atasi krisis iklim
Oleh Azhar Abu Samah di New York
MALAYSIA semalam mencadangkan satu tabung baru dengan dana yang lebih besar diwujudkan Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (PBB) bagi membantu negara membangun mengatasi masalah perubahan iklim dengan lebih berkesan.
Serentak itu, Malaysia juga mahu negara maju yang sedang dan sudah mendapat manfaat daripada pelaburan atau kegiatan mereka di negara membangun, lebih aktif membantu meningkatkan perlindungan di negara membangun daripada perubahan cuaca.
Menteri Luar, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar, yang mewakili Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi pada mesyuarat peringkat tinggi tidak formal mengenai perubahan iklim anjuran PBB, berkata negara maju mesti komited menawarkan pembiayaan dan teknologi kepada negara membangun bagi membentuk satu rejim iklim yang berkesan selepas Protokol Kyoto berakhir pada 2012.
"Negara maju perlu melakukan lebih usaha untuk menangani isu ini, terutama dari segi peruntukan pembiayaan kerana berdasarkan sejarah, negara maju banyak melepaskan gas rumah hijau dan mempunyai lebih kemampuan,” katanya selepas menghadiri mesyuarat itu, di sini, semalam.
Beliau berharap tabung penyesuaian yang kini diusahakan PBB mengikut Protokol Kyoto dapat beroperasi lebih awal dan pada masa sama mahu mahu dana alam sekitar sedunia yang ada ketika ini lebih mudah diperoleh negara anggota yang memerlukannya.
Katanya, banyak dana yang ditubuhkan untuk tujuan penjagaan alam sekitar menetapkan syarat yang sukar dipenuhi negara membangun, sekali gus menghalang usaha ke arah menangani perubahan iklim.
Protokol Kyoto diasaskan pada Konvensyen Rangka Kerja PBB Mengenai Perubahan Iklim dan menetapkan sasaran dan jadual pengurangan pelepasan gas rumah hijau wajib dipatuhi oleh negara perindustrian. Amerika Syarikat tidak memeterai protokol ini.
Tabung penyesuaian pula ditubuhkan bagi membiayai projek dan program penyesuaian konkrit di negara membangun yang menandatangani Protokol Kyoto.
Syed Hamid berkata, Malaysia sudah mengambil langkah terbaik untuk menangani masalah perubahan cuaca pada masa kini dan akan datang.
"Mengikut rancangan pembangunan lima tahun, Malaysia sudah memperuntukkan sejumlah besar wang untuk melakukan langkah pencegahan bagi mengurangkan kesan kerosakan alam sekitar pada peringkat sumbernya, meningkatkan usaha pemuliharaan dan menguruskan sumber alam semula jadi secara mapan," katanya.
Sementara itu, lebih 70 pemimpin negara maju dan membangun yang menyertai mesyuarat peringkat tinggi itu mahu usaha menangani masalah perubahan suhu dunia dilakukan melalui tindakan bersama iaitu Rangka Kerja Pelbagai Hala Tunggal dan sebarang keputusan hanya boleh dibuat Konvensyen Rangka Kerja PBB Mengenai Perubahan Iklim (UNFCCC).
Perubahan iklim agenda utama
Daripada Azhar Abu Samah Di New York
PERUBAHAN iklim akan menjadi agenda utama ketua negara dan pemimpin dunia pada Perhimpunan Agung Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (PBB) ke-62 bermula minggu ini, sekali gus membuka jalan untuk perbincangan lebih serius semua 192 negara anggota badan dunia itu bagi mengatasi masalah sejagat ini.
Selain tidak mengetepikan isu keselamatan dan politik antarabangsa untuk dibincangkan, antaranya Kosovo, kemudahan nuklear Iran, isu Palestin, Myanmar, Lubnan dan menghantar pasukan pengaman ke Darfur, Sudan, perhimpunan PBB kali ini sudah mendapat gambaran awal bahawa pemimpin dunia sudah bersedia untuk mengatasi masalah ketidaktentuan iklim dunia, termasuk merangka langkah tambahan bagi menguatkan lagi komitmen semua negara anggota menjayakannya.
Menteri Luar, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar, berkata kesan perubahan iklim dunia ketika ini begitu ketara, termasuk peningkatan suhu dunia dan cuaca tidak menentu yang membawa kepada banjir dan ribut kuat serta memberi kesan langsung kepada penduduk dunia
"Sudah sampai masa pemimpin dunia berkongsi kepakaran dan sumber, termasuk menyediakan kewangan bagi mengatasi masalah ini kerana ia membawa bahaya kepada kita," katanya sambil menambah, Malaysia turut merasai kesan perubahan iklim dunia apabila Johor dilanda banjir terburuk tidak lama lalu.
Bercakap kepada wartawan di sini semalam, Syed Hamid berkata, beliau akan mengambil bahagian pada majlis pembukaan mesyuarat peringkat tinggi perubahan iklim di PBB hari ini dengan membawa usul betapa penting PBB mempunyai sumber kewangan yang kukuh untuk menguruskan soal perubahan iklim dunia.
"Isu ini akan mencuri tumpuan dalam tempoh dua hingga tiga hari PBB bersidang, termasuk ketika perbahasan umum," katanya sambil menambah Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yang akan berucap pada 28 September turut menyentuh isu sama, termasuk pendekatan Islam Hadhari.
Beliau berkata, walaupun Protokol Kyoto yang akan berakhir pada 2012 sudah mengambil tindakan mengurangkan kesan pengeluaran gas rumah hijau, namun pemimpin dunia perlu merangka satu mekanisme baru bagi memperlihatkan tindakan positif untuk memelihara kepentingan generasi akan datang.
Difahamkan, kesepakatan yang dicapai pemimpin dunia mengenai isu perubahan iklim dunia pada perhimpunan agung kali ini akan membuka ruang kepada masyarakat antarabangsa memulakan rundingan bagi perjanjian baru ketika berlangsungnya persidangan mengenai perubahan cuaca dunia di Bali, Indonesia pada Disember ini.
PERUBAHAN iklim akan menjadi agenda utama ketua negara dan pemimpin dunia pada Perhimpunan Agung Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (PBB) ke-62 bermula minggu ini, sekali gus membuka jalan untuk perbincangan lebih serius semua 192 negara anggota badan dunia itu bagi mengatasi masalah sejagat ini.
Selain tidak mengetepikan isu keselamatan dan politik antarabangsa untuk dibincangkan, antaranya Kosovo, kemudahan nuklear Iran, isu Palestin, Myanmar, Lubnan dan menghantar pasukan pengaman ke Darfur, Sudan, perhimpunan PBB kali ini sudah mendapat gambaran awal bahawa pemimpin dunia sudah bersedia untuk mengatasi masalah ketidaktentuan iklim dunia, termasuk merangka langkah tambahan bagi menguatkan lagi komitmen semua negara anggota menjayakannya.
Menteri Luar, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar, berkata kesan perubahan iklim dunia ketika ini begitu ketara, termasuk peningkatan suhu dunia dan cuaca tidak menentu yang membawa kepada banjir dan ribut kuat serta memberi kesan langsung kepada penduduk dunia
"Sudah sampai masa pemimpin dunia berkongsi kepakaran dan sumber, termasuk menyediakan kewangan bagi mengatasi masalah ini kerana ia membawa bahaya kepada kita," katanya sambil menambah, Malaysia turut merasai kesan perubahan iklim dunia apabila Johor dilanda banjir terburuk tidak lama lalu.
Bercakap kepada wartawan di sini semalam, Syed Hamid berkata, beliau akan mengambil bahagian pada majlis pembukaan mesyuarat peringkat tinggi perubahan iklim di PBB hari ini dengan membawa usul betapa penting PBB mempunyai sumber kewangan yang kukuh untuk menguruskan soal perubahan iklim dunia.
"Isu ini akan mencuri tumpuan dalam tempoh dua hingga tiga hari PBB bersidang, termasuk ketika perbahasan umum," katanya sambil menambah Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yang akan berucap pada 28 September turut menyentuh isu sama, termasuk pendekatan Islam Hadhari.
Beliau berkata, walaupun Protokol Kyoto yang akan berakhir pada 2012 sudah mengambil tindakan mengurangkan kesan pengeluaran gas rumah hijau, namun pemimpin dunia perlu merangka satu mekanisme baru bagi memperlihatkan tindakan positif untuk memelihara kepentingan generasi akan datang.
Difahamkan, kesepakatan yang dicapai pemimpin dunia mengenai isu perubahan iklim dunia pada perhimpunan agung kali ini akan membuka ruang kepada masyarakat antarabangsa memulakan rundingan bagi perjanjian baru ketika berlangsungnya persidangan mengenai perubahan cuaca dunia di Bali, Indonesia pada Disember ini.
World Leaders Urge Action on Climate Change
World leaders share their views and fears about climate change, but are split on what to do about it
By David Biello
A parade of world leaders from heads of state to corporate chiefs urged action on climate change at the largest summit on the issue ever organized. "The time for doubt has passed," said U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in his opening remarks at the event held Monday at the United Nations. "National action must be at the center of our response to climate change—with industrialized countries taking the lead."
Not all the world's industrialized countries saw it that way, even those who agree global warming is a threat that needs to be stopped. "The core principle of Canada's approach to climate change is balance," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said during his remarks to the conference, stressing that action on climate change should not slow economic activity. "We are balancing environmental protections with economic growth."
Harper is set to join President Bush at a U.S.-led meeting of the 16 largest emitters of greenhouse gases scheduled to be held later this week in Washington, D.C. "The U.S. is fully committed to climate adaptation," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an address to the 150 participants on hand at the U.N. event. This represents a public acknowledgement by the Bush administration that global warming is a problem but leaves unclear how exactly the administration hopes to contribute to efforts to solve it other than by helping cope with its impacts.
National representatives discussed such impacts, stressing the urgency for action to slow them in their remarks to attendees during one of four concurrent sessions on curbing greenhouse emissions, adapting to climate change, technological solutions, and how to pay for such changes. Paraguay, for example, is experiencing a crippling drought that has led to the worst forest fires in its recorded history, whereas Kenya's recent drought deprived the country of three quarters of its electricity supply. Diseases like Chikungunya fever, which cripple patients with joint pain, have begun to appear in new areas, such as the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius.
And with Arctic ice cover shrinking more than ever this past summer, the Inuit of the northern circumpolar region say their way of life is disappearing. "We are told to adapt," Sheila Watt-Cloutier, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, said during her remarks on adaptation. "I find it deeply frustrating to be speaking on the necessary theme of adaptation and resilience rather than speaking on how to reverse the effects of climate change."
Although there was disagreement on exactly what should be done, there appeared to be a consensus that action should be taken to avert a 2-degree Celsius (3.6-degree Fahrenheit) rise in average global temperatures and to cut emissions of greenhouse gases in half by 2050. "By the middle of this century, we need to at least halve global emissions," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the conferees.
That translates to stabilizing greenhouse gas levels at roughly 450 parts per million (ppm), according to Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Already, atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas, are approaching 400 ppm, and at least the amount of warming caused by that level is likely by century's end. Therefore, emissions would need to peak then begin to decline in short order—by 2015—in order to reach the 2050 goal.
The U.N.'s Hot Air on Climate Change
Tuesday, Sep. 25, 2007 By BRYAN WALSH United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (left) speaks at the United Nations during a High Level event on Climate Change.
(l. to r.): Don Emmert / AFP / Getty; AP
Article ToolsPrintEmailSphereAddThisRSS Early in Monday's high-level United Nations meeting on climate change, officials proudly told reporters that the summit, which brought together leaders and ministers from over 150 nations to discuss global warming, would be carbon neutral. The greenhouse-gas effect of the 5,000 tons of carbon dioxide produced to hold the meeting and to fly U.N. staff and participants to New York would be offset by a $15,800 investment in a small-scale hydroelectric project in Honduras. Thus, in terms of its ecological impact on the world's climate, it would be as if the summit had never happened at all.
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It's hard not to conclude that the summit's political effect may be just as nonexistent. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon gave what was by his mild-mannered standards an impassioned speech calling for rapid action on climate change, and world leader after world leader rose to the lectern to emphasize the danger of global warming. "Today, the time for doubt has passed," Ban said in his opening address. "The time for action is now."
But at the end of the one-day session, the delegates hadn't come much closer to achieving the next meaningful step in the battle against climate change: negotiating a more complete successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires at the end of 2012. Though political awareness of the need to grapple with climate change was clearly at an all-time high — scores of national leaders don't suddenly convene at the U.N. without a decent reason — the global political will to actually do something still seems lacking. It's now 20 years since the issue of climate change was first raised in the U.N.'s General Assembly chamber by the island nation of Malta, 15 years since the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and 10 since after the Kyoto Protocol was drafted — and many governments speak as if they'd just discovered global warming. Other concerns remain more pressing, including the war in Iraq — a fact that was made apparent when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahadinejad (who skipped the climate meeting) gave his speech at Columbia University in the afternoon, drawing crowds of delegates around nearby televisions. The essential deadlock that has held up stronger international action on climate change — striking an acceptable balance of responsibilities between developed and developing countries — remains unbroken, and there was little evidence that would change before the next major U.N. climate conference in Bali, Indonesia, at the end of the year.
That was in no small part due to the absence of one national leader in particular: U.S. President George W. Bush, who chose not to address the U.N. meeting, though he did attend a dinner for leaders at Ban's request. (Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke instead, emphasizing the importance of investment in clean energy technologies, over specific limits for greenhouse gases.) But Bush will be at a climate change summit of his own at the end of the week. The White House invited major carbon emitters — including developing giants China and India — to Washington to discuss long-term goals on climate action. Both U.N. and Administration officials insist the two summits would be complementary, not competitive, but since the White House continues to insist on mostly voluntary action to cut carbon emissions, and the U.N. process is based on Kyoto-style mandatory cuts, contradiction seems inevitable. "People are concerned because [the White House] does have a history of going its own way," Gro Harlem Brundtland, a U.N. special envoy on climate change, told TIME. "But the U.N. process is absolutely the way we have to go. Climate change affects every nation."
But even if President Bush's meeting is meant to derail the U.N. conference — and the very fact of the summit raises hopes that the long-time climate skeptic may be thawing — the U.N. process could easily stall on its own. The Kyoto Protocol required emission cuts from developed countries that ratified the treaty, but not from developing countries, including fast-growing emitters like India and China. That double standard was the stated reason the U.S. refused to ratify Kyoto, and it needs to be fixed in the next round of climate negotiations. But there was little said in New York Monday to indicate that a solution would be found soon. Developing countries insist with much justification that they can't be expected to constrain their growing economies to slow carbon emissions, but it's difficult to see how citizens in developed countries — and not just in the SUV-loving United States — will accept strict limits while their economic competitors in India and China are allowed free rein. Nor is there much time to figure it out. "We only have two years to reach an agreement on post-Kyoto, and only three years to prepare the ground," says Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme. "It's down to the wire."
Beating the diplomatic buzzer will require innovation, and there were glimpses of the necessary creativity on Monday. Representatives from the Carbon Disclosure Project, a non-profit connected to hundreds of institutional investors controlling $41 trillion in assets, reported that major corporations have begun to increasingly act on climate change — outpacing many governments. Indonesia, the third-biggest carbon emitter after the U.S. and China, hosted a side meeting of rainforest nations, where they called for forest protections to be a larger part of Kyoto's successor agreement when negotiations start in Bali. (Deforestation is responsible roughly 20% of global carbon emissions.) "There is no better chance than in Bali to act decisively," Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told delegates at the close of the summit.
But the most inspiring words came from a prominent American politician who did show up at the U.N.: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The green-hued Republican, who backed a 2006 California law to reduce state greenhouse gas emissions 25% by 2020 — exactly the sort of mandatory cut President Bush refuses to consider — told delegates that the time for debate was finished. "The consequences of global climate change are so pressing, it doesn't matter who was responsible for the past," he said. "What matters is who is answerable for the future. And that is all of us." Pointing to California's success in creating two vital new industries — computers and biotech — and the entrepreneurial energy unleashed in the rapidly growing developing world, Schwarzenegger contended that humanity could innovate its way out of the climate change deadlock. That might be a bit simplistic, but when Schwarzenegger called for "action, action, action, action" it was hard to argue with him.
By : yuhazlinda yusof
Our right to convert forests
By FOO YEE PING
NEW YORK: Malaysia has maintained its right to convert forests to other land uses such as agriculture although it acknowledges that deforestation may lead to climate change.
Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar told a special meeting of Tropical Rainforest Countries’ Leaders here on Monday: “It is to our own interest to conserve and manage our forest resources on a sustainable basis.”
He said Malaysia, just like other developing countries, should not be denied the right to development particularly to fulfil its obligation to eradicate poverty.
He added that Malaysia was blessed with relatively large tracts of natural tropical forests, which covered almost 60% of its total land area.
He stressed that any approach to resolve the problem of climate change must consider the differences between developed and developing countries.
“Developed countries have already reached a stage in their economic development where they should reduce emission of greenhouse gases,” he said.
At a separate meeting on climate change, Syed Hamid called on developed nations to take the lead on finance and economics in fighting climate change.
“Although much has been said about the need for more financing, the sad fact is that this has not been forthcoming.
“Many of the funds set up for these purposes come with conditions that sometimes render it impossible for some developing countries to receive any financing in their struggle to adapt to climate change.”
Speaking to Malaysian journalists later, Syed Hamid said there was consensus that climate change problems must be dealt with at a multilateral level and within the ambit of the United Nations.
He also said that Asean must have a uniform policy and act collectively to protect its natural resources.
Malaysia, he added, was working with Brunei and Indonesia to protect the heart of Borneo.
NEW YORK: Malaysia has maintained its right to convert forests to other land uses such as agriculture although it acknowledges that deforestation may lead to climate change.
Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar told a special meeting of Tropical Rainforest Countries’ Leaders here on Monday: “It is to our own interest to conserve and manage our forest resources on a sustainable basis.”
He said Malaysia, just like other developing countries, should not be denied the right to development particularly to fulfil its obligation to eradicate poverty.
He added that Malaysia was blessed with relatively large tracts of natural tropical forests, which covered almost 60% of its total land area.
He stressed that any approach to resolve the problem of climate change must consider the differences between developed and developing countries.
“Developed countries have already reached a stage in their economic development where they should reduce emission of greenhouse gases,” he said.
At a separate meeting on climate change, Syed Hamid called on developed nations to take the lead on finance and economics in fighting climate change.
“Although much has been said about the need for more financing, the sad fact is that this has not been forthcoming.
“Many of the funds set up for these purposes come with conditions that sometimes render it impossible for some developing countries to receive any financing in their struggle to adapt to climate change.”
Speaking to Malaysian journalists later, Syed Hamid said there was consensus that climate change problems must be dealt with at a multilateral level and within the ambit of the United Nations.
He also said that Asean must have a uniform policy and act collectively to protect its natural resources.
Malaysia, he added, was working with Brunei and Indonesia to protect the heart of Borneo.
China's hydropower may be global warming time bomb
By Emma Graham-Harrison
BEIJING (Reuters) - China is scrambling to build massive hydropower dams to curb pollution and slake its thirst for energy, but scientists warn that reservoirs can also worsen global warming by emitting a powerful greenhouse gas.
Methane, which traps heat much more efficiently than carbon dioxide, is produced by plants and animals rotting underwater and released when that water rushes through hydropower turbines.
The Three Gorges Dam Project discharges water to lower the water level in the reservoir, due to excessive rainfall upstream of the Yangtze River, in Yichang, central China's Hubei province in this July 22, 2007 file photo. (REUTERS/China Daily)In a country that is already the world's top hydropower generator and aims to more than double capacity, dams could raise methane emissions by around 8 percent, recent research shows.
The flammable gas could also be trapped and used for power generation if dam designs were adapted, providing Beijing with cheap and clean energy instead of a global warming burden.
But the data is so new that even United Nations rules on calculating national emissions do not require dams to be included, dimming the chances of fast action.
China is set to overtake the United States as top producer of carbon dioxide this year and is the leading emitter of acid-rain causing sulphur dioxide. As part of a bid to constrain emissions growth, it is promoting renewable energy.
A string of hydropower reservoirs are the centrepiece of this plan, and their methane emissions may offset many benefits.
Worldwide, dams could generate the equivalent of one-fifth of methane from all other sources, a study by Ivan Lima from Brazil's National Institute for Space Research showed.
Shallow tropical reservoirs pose the biggest problem, with the worst producing more methane per unit of power than some fossil-fuel burning options, scientists and activists say.
China's dams are mostly quite deep and in temperate zones, both emissions-mitigating factors. But Beijing's vast network and ambitious expansion plans mean it is still a serious concern.
"China has around half of all the world's large dams, so the chances are there are a lot of reservoirs in conditions to be high emitters," said Patrick McCully, executive director of International Rivers Network (IRN).
"If you have very polluted reservoirs, particularly with a lot of sewage entering reservoirs, you have the situation to create a lot of methane and obviously China has some very bad water quality problems," McCully added.
FIZZY RELEASE
In natural lakes much of the gas is broken down to less-insulating carbon dioxide as it drifts to the surface.
But when the methane-rich water from the bottom of reservoirs is fed into power-generating turbines, the pressure drops, so the gas fizzes out like the bubbles when a soft drink can is opened.
But Brazil's Lima said there is already a solid body of research, and a link with significant methane emissions is borne out by a levelling off of emissions around the turn of the century, after a slowdown in dam construction.
"If hydroelectric dams are really important to this, then the atmospheric methane would respond to the dams," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Other scientists say the levelling off in emissions may have been a result of the destruction of wetlands -- which are major methane emitters -- offsetting a rise in emissions from natural gas fields.
China can at least rest easy that no one will be pointing a finger directly at its prestige project, the world's single-largest hydropower project, centred around a massive dam that flooded one of the country's most famous natural sites and threatens to cause erosions and landslides.
"With the Three Gorges, the amount of power produced means compared to coal it looks good," said IRN's McCully, adding it is still not an ideal answer to climate change concerns.
"Because it is still very large, there could be quite sizeable emissions," McCully added. "At the top end, where the reservoir is shallower, the problems are exacerbated."
NEW SOURCE OF GAS?
Lima said his research was not intended to demonise dams, and instead he would like to see governments change reservoir design to minimise emissions and trap the rest for power. The technology exists to do both, he says.
A question mark hangs over how willing Beijing or its power firms will be to invest time, money and expertise in tackling a problem so new it is not even really on the U.N. agenda.
But Beijing is concerned about the growing financial and diplomatic burden generated by its reliance on overseas oil and gas, currently meeting around half the country's needs.
Methane is the main component of natural gas and he estimates that in China alone around 2.6 million tonnes could be collected from dams for additional power generation, or the equivalent of over seven months of natural gas imports.
"We are wasting an important source of energy -- we might be able to extract it and produce power, and it is renewable," Lima.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China is scrambling to build massive hydropower dams to curb pollution and slake its thirst for energy, but scientists warn that reservoirs can also worsen global warming by emitting a powerful greenhouse gas.
Methane, which traps heat much more efficiently than carbon dioxide, is produced by plants and animals rotting underwater and released when that water rushes through hydropower turbines.
The Three Gorges Dam Project discharges water to lower the water level in the reservoir, due to excessive rainfall upstream of the Yangtze River, in Yichang, central China's Hubei province in this July 22, 2007 file photo. (REUTERS/China Daily)In a country that is already the world's top hydropower generator and aims to more than double capacity, dams could raise methane emissions by around 8 percent, recent research shows.
The flammable gas could also be trapped and used for power generation if dam designs were adapted, providing Beijing with cheap and clean energy instead of a global warming burden.
But the data is so new that even United Nations rules on calculating national emissions do not require dams to be included, dimming the chances of fast action.
China is set to overtake the United States as top producer of carbon dioxide this year and is the leading emitter of acid-rain causing sulphur dioxide. As part of a bid to constrain emissions growth, it is promoting renewable energy.
A string of hydropower reservoirs are the centrepiece of this plan, and their methane emissions may offset many benefits.
Worldwide, dams could generate the equivalent of one-fifth of methane from all other sources, a study by Ivan Lima from Brazil's National Institute for Space Research showed.
Shallow tropical reservoirs pose the biggest problem, with the worst producing more methane per unit of power than some fossil-fuel burning options, scientists and activists say.
China's dams are mostly quite deep and in temperate zones, both emissions-mitigating factors. But Beijing's vast network and ambitious expansion plans mean it is still a serious concern.
"China has around half of all the world's large dams, so the chances are there are a lot of reservoirs in conditions to be high emitters," said Patrick McCully, executive director of International Rivers Network (IRN).
"If you have very polluted reservoirs, particularly with a lot of sewage entering reservoirs, you have the situation to create a lot of methane and obviously China has some very bad water quality problems," McCully added.
FIZZY RELEASE
In natural lakes much of the gas is broken down to less-insulating carbon dioxide as it drifts to the surface.
But when the methane-rich water from the bottom of reservoirs is fed into power-generating turbines, the pressure drops, so the gas fizzes out like the bubbles when a soft drink can is opened.
But Brazil's Lima said there is already a solid body of research, and a link with significant methane emissions is borne out by a levelling off of emissions around the turn of the century, after a slowdown in dam construction.
"If hydroelectric dams are really important to this, then the atmospheric methane would respond to the dams," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Other scientists say the levelling off in emissions may have been a result of the destruction of wetlands -- which are major methane emitters -- offsetting a rise in emissions from natural gas fields.
China can at least rest easy that no one will be pointing a finger directly at its prestige project, the world's single-largest hydropower project, centred around a massive dam that flooded one of the country's most famous natural sites and threatens to cause erosions and landslides.
"With the Three Gorges, the amount of power produced means compared to coal it looks good," said IRN's McCully, adding it is still not an ideal answer to climate change concerns.
"Because it is still very large, there could be quite sizeable emissions," McCully added. "At the top end, where the reservoir is shallower, the problems are exacerbated."
NEW SOURCE OF GAS?
Lima said his research was not intended to demonise dams, and instead he would like to see governments change reservoir design to minimise emissions and trap the rest for power. The technology exists to do both, he says.
A question mark hangs over how willing Beijing or its power firms will be to invest time, money and expertise in tackling a problem so new it is not even really on the U.N. agenda.
But Beijing is concerned about the growing financial and diplomatic burden generated by its reliance on overseas oil and gas, currently meeting around half the country's needs.
Methane is the main component of natural gas and he estimates that in China alone around 2.6 million tonnes could be collected from dams for additional power generation, or the equivalent of over seven months of natural gas imports.
"We are wasting an important source of energy -- we might be able to extract it and produce power, and it is renewable," Lima.
World Leaders Press U.S. To Act on Climate Change
++ Pressure againts US to seriously take action againts the global warming that causes climate change ++
Wednesday, September 26, 2007,
Government officials from around the world flocked to Washington yesterday to press for mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change in anticipation of President Bush's summit on global warming later this week.
Using unusually blunt language, several high-ranking ministers from abroad, as well as American lawmakers, said the Bush administration's resistance to a national, economy-wide carbon cap is jeopardizing the world's ability to address climate change. Administration officials said they hope the talks Thursday and Friday will help the major carbon-emitting nations set a goal for cutting greenhouse gases by the end of 2008, but several foreign climate negotiators said that approach will not avert catastrophic climate change.
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Environment Minister Connie Hedegaard, a self-described "Danish conservative," said she and other European leaders "are getting a bit impatient, not on our own behalf but on behalf of the planet."
"We need the support of the U.S.," she said at a Capitol Hill briefing with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and other U.S. and European officials. "China, India and the other industrializing countries, they will not do anything unless the U.S. is moving."
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's special representative for climate change, John Ashton, reinforced that theme an hour later at a meeting downtown before the United Nations Foundation, saying he and others would judge the administration's talks by whether they produce a concrete commitment rather than another voluntary pledge.
"The question on the mind of everybody heading into those meetings . . . will be, 'How serious is this? Is this talking about talking, or deciding about doing?' " he told the audience, echoing a phrase that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) used at the United Nations on Monday. "The word 'voluntary' means what you can do without heavy lifting."
Kristen Hellmer, spokeswoman for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in an interview that the president does not object to other countries committing themselves to mandatory curbs on carbon emissions but rejects that strategy for the United States.
"These national strategies can certainly include whatever those countries feel is appropriate for their country," Hellmer said, adding that Bush prefers a "portfolio" of approaches that includes higher efficiency standards for appliances and the use of alternative fuels.
Several U.S. lawmakers also called on Bush to embrace a mandatory cap-and-trade system to cut greenhouse gases, though they acknowledged that the president has given no indication that he would sign such a bill.
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), who plans to speak today on global warming, will tell the Washington Sustainability Forum that the president has not gone far enough to make the summit a success.
"Until he embraces a program that mandates specific cuts in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, the leadership role that President Bush is reaching for by convening this important meeting will elude his grasp," Lieberman says in an advance text provided to The Washington Post.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007,
Government officials from around the world flocked to Washington yesterday to press for mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change in anticipation of President Bush's summit on global warming later this week.
Using unusually blunt language, several high-ranking ministers from abroad, as well as American lawmakers, said the Bush administration's resistance to a national, economy-wide carbon cap is jeopardizing the world's ability to address climate change. Administration officials said they hope the talks Thursday and Friday will help the major carbon-emitting nations set a goal for cutting greenhouse gases by the end of 2008, but several foreign climate negotiators said that approach will not avert catastrophic climate change.
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Environment Minister Connie Hedegaard, a self-described "Danish conservative," said she and other European leaders "are getting a bit impatient, not on our own behalf but on behalf of the planet."
"We need the support of the U.S.," she said at a Capitol Hill briefing with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and other U.S. and European officials. "China, India and the other industrializing countries, they will not do anything unless the U.S. is moving."
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's special representative for climate change, John Ashton, reinforced that theme an hour later at a meeting downtown before the United Nations Foundation, saying he and others would judge the administration's talks by whether they produce a concrete commitment rather than another voluntary pledge.
"The question on the mind of everybody heading into those meetings . . . will be, 'How serious is this? Is this talking about talking, or deciding about doing?' " he told the audience, echoing a phrase that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) used at the United Nations on Monday. "The word 'voluntary' means what you can do without heavy lifting."
Kristen Hellmer, spokeswoman for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in an interview that the president does not object to other countries committing themselves to mandatory curbs on carbon emissions but rejects that strategy for the United States.
"These national strategies can certainly include whatever those countries feel is appropriate for their country," Hellmer said, adding that Bush prefers a "portfolio" of approaches that includes higher efficiency standards for appliances and the use of alternative fuels.
Several U.S. lawmakers also called on Bush to embrace a mandatory cap-and-trade system to cut greenhouse gases, though they acknowledged that the president has given no indication that he would sign such a bill.
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), who plans to speak today on global warming, will tell the Washington Sustainability Forum that the president has not gone far enough to make the summit a success.
"Until he embraces a program that mandates specific cuts in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, the leadership role that President Bush is reaching for by convening this important meeting will elude his grasp," Lieberman says in an advance text provided to The Washington Post.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Action on climate change will cost
September 24, 2007
Bill Clinton is bullish on climate change. “There is way more economic opportunity than cost,” he told the Financial Times. Unfortunately Mr Clinton’s statement is wrong – cutting greenhouse gas emissions will have costs – and while playing down those costs may seem like good politics today, it will not serve Mr Clinton’s cause in the longer run.
In December, at a United Nations summit in Bali, the world’s leaders will begin negotiating a successor to the Kyoto protocol. That deal is crucial. Action to avert the worst effects of climate change cannot be postponed for ever. With Monday’s UN meeting and the Bush administration’s own climate change talks later this week, manoeuvring ahead of the summit is now in full swing.
Those manoeuvres are shaped by US opposition to Kyoto and by the need for large developing countries – especially China and India – to sign up to a successor. Mr Clinton was quite right to say that less developed countries cannot be expected to control their emissions unless the US gives them a lead.
Mr Clinton is wrong, however, to try to boost US support for action by playing down its costs. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that action to avoid the most dangerous effects of climate change would reduce the world’s annual gross domestic product by 3 per cent by 2030: not an intolerable burden, but still painful.
Mr Clinton – and Mr Bush – imply there is an alternative. New technologies – solar panels, hydrogen-fuelled cars, and others as yet unimagined – will cut carbon emissions and make the US richer. But while technological fixes are essential, they will be developed only if there are costs to carrying on business as usual, and that means imposing painful taxes or restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr Clinton calls for a burst of economic activity on climate change similar to US mobilisation for the second world war, but a better model is the settlement of the American West. The first was government directed and of short duration. The second was the result of thousands of individuals responding over many years to sensible incentives laid down by the government.
That is what needs to happen on climate change: the world needs to put a price on carbon emissions and let the market respond. If politicians pretend this can be done without pain, Bali will probably result in another five to 10 years of pretending to take action. Mr Clinton has the standing to help sell action on climate change to the public. He should not conceal its cost.
Bill Clinton is bullish on climate change. “There is way more economic opportunity than cost,” he told the Financial Times. Unfortunately Mr Clinton’s statement is wrong – cutting greenhouse gas emissions will have costs – and while playing down those costs may seem like good politics today, it will not serve Mr Clinton’s cause in the longer run.
In December, at a United Nations summit in Bali, the world’s leaders will begin negotiating a successor to the Kyoto protocol. That deal is crucial. Action to avert the worst effects of climate change cannot be postponed for ever. With Monday’s UN meeting and the Bush administration’s own climate change talks later this week, manoeuvring ahead of the summit is now in full swing.
Those manoeuvres are shaped by US opposition to Kyoto and by the need for large developing countries – especially China and India – to sign up to a successor. Mr Clinton was quite right to say that less developed countries cannot be expected to control their emissions unless the US gives them a lead.
Mr Clinton is wrong, however, to try to boost US support for action by playing down its costs. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that action to avoid the most dangerous effects of climate change would reduce the world’s annual gross domestic product by 3 per cent by 2030: not an intolerable burden, but still painful.
Mr Clinton – and Mr Bush – imply there is an alternative. New technologies – solar panels, hydrogen-fuelled cars, and others as yet unimagined – will cut carbon emissions and make the US richer. But while technological fixes are essential, they will be developed only if there are costs to carrying on business as usual, and that means imposing painful taxes or restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr Clinton calls for a burst of economic activity on climate change similar to US mobilisation for the second world war, but a better model is the settlement of the American West. The first was government directed and of short duration. The second was the result of thousands of individuals responding over many years to sensible incentives laid down by the government.
That is what needs to happen on climate change: the world needs to put a price on carbon emissions and let the market respond. If politicians pretend this can be done without pain, Bali will probably result in another five to 10 years of pretending to take action. Mr Clinton has the standing to help sell action on climate change to the public. He should not conceal its cost.
Malaysia Calls For New Funds To Tackle Climate Change
September 25, 2007 10:20 AM
NEW YORK, Sept 25 (Bernama) -- Malaysia, besides calling for easier access to existing world environment funds, has proposed the establishment of several new funds to help developing countries to effectively tackle climate change.Representing Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at a one-day UN-sponsored high-level informal meeting on climate change here, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said Malaysia also hoped to see the early operationalisation of the Adaptation Fund now being worked out under the Kyoto Protocol.The UN defines climate change as a change of climate attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere in addition to natural climate variations observed over comparable periods of time.The Kyoto Protocol builds on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and sets legally-binding targets and timetables for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by industrialised countries.The Kyoto Protocol's Adaptation Fund was established to finance concrete adaptation projects and programmes in developing countries that are parties to the Kyoto Protocol.Malaysia also called for a large fund, to be financed by developed countries, to be set up to help developing countries build up their defences against climate change, said Syed Hamid, who spoke at two special sessions in conjunction with the special climate change meeting.In the session on Financing The Response To Climate Change Investing In Tomorrow, he said Malaysia said another fund must be set up to help developing countries undertake reconstruction and rehabilitation measures following major disruptive climatic events.Syed Hamid said Malaysia also proposed appropriate funds to be expanded to help in the redesign of production and transport systems to be more climate-friendly.Developed countries, he said, must commit themselves to providing financing and technology to the developing world or else there would not be an effective climate regime after the expiry of the Kyoto Protocol at the end of 2012.In the session among Tropical Rainforest Countries' Leaders, Syed Hamid said Malaysia was of the view that any proposal to extend the life of the Kyoto Protocol beyond its 2012 expiry date and negotiations on climate change commitments should be done under the auspices of the United Nations.They should be under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF).Besides Malaysia, the Tropical Rainforest Countries at the special UN-convened meeting include Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Costa Rica, Brazil, Colombia, Cameroon, Congo and Gabon.Syed Hamid said Malaysia looked forward to working together with other Tropical Rainforest Countries as they all had a lot of commonalities in managing their forests.Malaysia, he said, shared the common concern of the international community that climate change was affecting the global environment and it was a matter that required immediate attention."This close bonding will give us better mileage in negotiating terms that are favourable to our respective countries," said Syed Hamid, adding that this would also help them close the gap in addressing the adverse effects of climate change among developing countries so that this would benefit the entire global climate system.He said although Malaysia had no obligations towards reducing greenhouse gases under the UNFCCC as it was only a Non-Annex 1 Party to the UNFCCC, the government had nevertheless taken and would continue to take steps to address challenges brought about by climate change.Syed Hamid stressed that reducing greenhouse gas emissions at source should be the primary focus in mitigating climate change.He said Malaysia, blessed with relatively large tracts of natural tropical forests covering almost 60 per cent of the country's land area, recognised the importance of tropical forests in mitigating the adverse impact of climate change.Malaysia has also managed its forests in accordance with Sustainable Forest Management practices, thus preventing its forests from sliding into the deforestation cycle, he said.Syed Hamid said given that forests played a significant role in Malaysia's socio-economic development, it would be to Malaysia's own interests to conserve and manage its forests on a sustainable basis.He said Malaysia, while recognising that deforestation may contribute to climate change, would still need to convert its forests to other land use like for development and agriculture.As such, he said, Malaysia, like other developing countries, should not be denied the rights of development, and in particular, in fulfilling its obligation to eradicate poverty.Syed Hamid also told the meeting that any initiative involving forests should not be limited to tropical rainforests but other forest types as well.The specially-convened meeting was part of several multi-pronged initiatives aimed at securing political commitment and build momentum towards the UN Climate Change Conference to be held in Bali from Dec 3 to 14.Those responsible for facilitating the talks say that the inputs would help the proposed launch of a new international climate change agreement to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.This is because the protocol's emission reduction targets for industrialised countries cover only a portion of global greenhouse gas emissions and these targets expire after 2012.Without a new agreement, they felt that it would be difficult to rein in both the emissions of highly industrialised countries and expanding emerging economies.-- BERNAMA
NEW YORK, Sept 25 (Bernama) -- Malaysia, besides calling for easier access to existing world environment funds, has proposed the establishment of several new funds to help developing countries to effectively tackle climate change.Representing Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at a one-day UN-sponsored high-level informal meeting on climate change here, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said Malaysia also hoped to see the early operationalisation of the Adaptation Fund now being worked out under the Kyoto Protocol.The UN defines climate change as a change of climate attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere in addition to natural climate variations observed over comparable periods of time.The Kyoto Protocol builds on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and sets legally-binding targets and timetables for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by industrialised countries.The Kyoto Protocol's Adaptation Fund was established to finance concrete adaptation projects and programmes in developing countries that are parties to the Kyoto Protocol.Malaysia also called for a large fund, to be financed by developed countries, to be set up to help developing countries build up their defences against climate change, said Syed Hamid, who spoke at two special sessions in conjunction with the special climate change meeting.In the session on Financing The Response To Climate Change Investing In Tomorrow, he said Malaysia said another fund must be set up to help developing countries undertake reconstruction and rehabilitation measures following major disruptive climatic events.Syed Hamid said Malaysia also proposed appropriate funds to be expanded to help in the redesign of production and transport systems to be more climate-friendly.Developed countries, he said, must commit themselves to providing financing and technology to the developing world or else there would not be an effective climate regime after the expiry of the Kyoto Protocol at the end of 2012.In the session among Tropical Rainforest Countries' Leaders, Syed Hamid said Malaysia was of the view that any proposal to extend the life of the Kyoto Protocol beyond its 2012 expiry date and negotiations on climate change commitments should be done under the auspices of the United Nations.They should be under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF).Besides Malaysia, the Tropical Rainforest Countries at the special UN-convened meeting include Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Costa Rica, Brazil, Colombia, Cameroon, Congo and Gabon.Syed Hamid said Malaysia looked forward to working together with other Tropical Rainforest Countries as they all had a lot of commonalities in managing their forests.Malaysia, he said, shared the common concern of the international community that climate change was affecting the global environment and it was a matter that required immediate attention."This close bonding will give us better mileage in negotiating terms that are favourable to our respective countries," said Syed Hamid, adding that this would also help them close the gap in addressing the adverse effects of climate change among developing countries so that this would benefit the entire global climate system.He said although Malaysia had no obligations towards reducing greenhouse gases under the UNFCCC as it was only a Non-Annex 1 Party to the UNFCCC, the government had nevertheless taken and would continue to take steps to address challenges brought about by climate change.Syed Hamid stressed that reducing greenhouse gas emissions at source should be the primary focus in mitigating climate change.He said Malaysia, blessed with relatively large tracts of natural tropical forests covering almost 60 per cent of the country's land area, recognised the importance of tropical forests in mitigating the adverse impact of climate change.Malaysia has also managed its forests in accordance with Sustainable Forest Management practices, thus preventing its forests from sliding into the deforestation cycle, he said.Syed Hamid said given that forests played a significant role in Malaysia's socio-economic development, it would be to Malaysia's own interests to conserve and manage its forests on a sustainable basis.He said Malaysia, while recognising that deforestation may contribute to climate change, would still need to convert its forests to other land use like for development and agriculture.As such, he said, Malaysia, like other developing countries, should not be denied the rights of development, and in particular, in fulfilling its obligation to eradicate poverty.Syed Hamid also told the meeting that any initiative involving forests should not be limited to tropical rainforests but other forest types as well.The specially-convened meeting was part of several multi-pronged initiatives aimed at securing political commitment and build momentum towards the UN Climate Change Conference to be held in Bali from Dec 3 to 14.Those responsible for facilitating the talks say that the inputs would help the proposed launch of a new international climate change agreement to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.This is because the protocol's emission reduction targets for industrialised countries cover only a portion of global greenhouse gas emissions and these targets expire after 2012.Without a new agreement, they felt that it would be difficult to rein in both the emissions of highly industrialised countries and expanding emerging economies.-- BERNAMA
Corporate giants face up to climate change
Big business is facing up to climate change with more than half of the world's 500 largest companies introducing schemes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a report says today.
The Carbon Disclosure Project's (CDP) fifth annual global report finds that 76% of the FTSE 500 companies who responded to its survey have put emissions reduction schemes in place - compared to 48% last year.
Some 80% of public-owned companies who responded to the survey see climate change as presenting risks and opportunities for their business. Some 95% of those who see climate change as a commercial risk have implemented emissions reduction programmes with a specific target and timeline.
But the 383 top companies who responded to the survey report greenhouse gas emissions totalling almost seven billion tonnes, which represents 14% of all global emissions by humans.
The CDP report concludes that corporate giants had made "significant progress in understanding and disclosing their positions relative to the risks and opportunities associated with climate change." In particular, the report highlights a narrowing gap between climate awareness and action among the FT500.
But it finds that a fifth of companies disregarded shareholders' requests for information about their response to climate change, and that climate change is not yet the responsibility of top management in many companies.A report on major US firms revealed that many are lagging behind the FTSE500 with only 29% of survey respondents implementing emissions reductions schemes.
The New-York based CDP is a collaboration of more than 315 global institutional investors, with assets totalling more than $41 trillion (£20 trillion). It is also today launching a Climate Disclosure Leadership Index, to highlight 68 companies in the FTSE500 that are leading the way on disclosing and reducing their emissions. They include Royal Bank of Scotland, Unilever, Hewlett Packard and Coca-Cola.
A separate partnership with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will also be announced. It will engage Wal-Mart's supply chain to report greenhouse gas emissions, emissions reduction targets and climate change strategies.
Paul Dickinson, the CDP's chief executive officer, says the partnership between CDP and Wal-Mart is a "very significant milestone in corporate action to mitigate climate change".
He adds: "Increasingly, investors view good carbon management as a sign of good corporate management. As CDP data plays an increasingly important role in informing investors on a company's approach to climate change, the pressure is increasing on companies to respond. And by moving CDP data collection into company supply chain management, CDP's reach will grow enormously."
The Carbon Disclosure Project's (CDP) fifth annual global report finds that 76% of the FTSE 500 companies who responded to its survey have put emissions reduction schemes in place - compared to 48% last year.
Some 80% of public-owned companies who responded to the survey see climate change as presenting risks and opportunities for their business. Some 95% of those who see climate change as a commercial risk have implemented emissions reduction programmes with a specific target and timeline.
But the 383 top companies who responded to the survey report greenhouse gas emissions totalling almost seven billion tonnes, which represents 14% of all global emissions by humans.
The CDP report concludes that corporate giants had made "significant progress in understanding and disclosing their positions relative to the risks and opportunities associated with climate change." In particular, the report highlights a narrowing gap between climate awareness and action among the FT500.
But it finds that a fifth of companies disregarded shareholders' requests for information about their response to climate change, and that climate change is not yet the responsibility of top management in many companies.A report on major US firms revealed that many are lagging behind the FTSE500 with only 29% of survey respondents implementing emissions reductions schemes.
The New-York based CDP is a collaboration of more than 315 global institutional investors, with assets totalling more than $41 trillion (£20 trillion). It is also today launching a Climate Disclosure Leadership Index, to highlight 68 companies in the FTSE500 that are leading the way on disclosing and reducing their emissions. They include Royal Bank of Scotland, Unilever, Hewlett Packard and Coca-Cola.
A separate partnership with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will also be announced. It will engage Wal-Mart's supply chain to report greenhouse gas emissions, emissions reduction targets and climate change strategies.
Paul Dickinson, the CDP's chief executive officer, says the partnership between CDP and Wal-Mart is a "very significant milestone in corporate action to mitigate climate change".
He adds: "Increasingly, investors view good carbon management as a sign of good corporate management. As CDP data plays an increasingly important role in informing investors on a company's approach to climate change, the pressure is increasing on companies to respond. And by moving CDP data collection into company supply chain management, CDP's reach will grow enormously."
Grim outlook for poor countries in climate report
The Arctic is again highlighted as being among areas most at risk. Photograph: CorbisThe effects of climate change will be felt sooner than scientists realised and the world must learn to live with the effects, experts said today.
Professor Martin Parry, a climate scientist with the Met Office, said destructive changes in temperature, rainfall and agriculture were now forecast to occur several decades earlier than thought.
He said vulnerable people such as the old and poor would be the worst affected, and that world leaders had not yet accepted their countries would have to adapt to the likely consequences.
The professor was speaking in London at a meeting to launch the full report on the impacts of global warming by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The report – which had its executive summary released earlier this year – says hundreds of millions of people in developing nations will face natural disasters, water shortages and hunger due to the effects of climate change.
Today Professor Parry, co-chair of the IPCC working group that wrote the report, said: "We are all used to talking about these impacts coming in the lifetimes of our children and grandchildren. Now we know that it's us."
He said the international response to the problem had failed to grasp that serious consequences such as reduced crop yields and coastal flooding were now inevitable. "Mitigation has got all the attention but we cannot mitigate out of this problem. We now have a choice between a future with a damaged world or a severely damaged world."
Professor Martin Parry, a climate scientist with the Met Office, said destructive changes in temperature, rainfall and agriculture were now forecast to occur several decades earlier than thought.
He said vulnerable people such as the old and poor would be the worst affected, and that world leaders had not yet accepted their countries would have to adapt to the likely consequences.
The professor was speaking in London at a meeting to launch the full report on the impacts of global warming by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The report – which had its executive summary released earlier this year – says hundreds of millions of people in developing nations will face natural disasters, water shortages and hunger due to the effects of climate change.
Today Professor Parry, co-chair of the IPCC working group that wrote the report, said: "We are all used to talking about these impacts coming in the lifetimes of our children and grandchildren. Now we know that it's us."
He said the international response to the problem had failed to grasp that serious consequences such as reduced crop yields and coastal flooding were now inevitable. "Mitigation has got all the attention but we cannot mitigate out of this problem. We now have a choice between a future with a damaged world or a severely damaged world."
Countries such as Britain need to focus on helping nations in the developing world cope with the predicted impacts, by helping them to introduce irrigation and water management technology, drought resistant crops and new building techniques.
Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the IPCC, said: "Wheat production in India is already in decline, for no other reason than climate change."
The report says that "extreme weather events" are likely to become more intense and more frequent, while higher global temperatures could affect crops and water supplies and spread disease.
The effect on ecosystems could be equally severe, with up to 30% of plant and animal species at risk of extinction if the average rise in global temperatures exceeds 1.5-2.5C.
The 1,000-page document is part of the IPCC's fourth overall assessment of climate change, to be published in full later this year. It was put together by the so-called Working Group II, which examines global warming's impact on the environment and people.
The experts involved warn that the consequences of rising temperatures are already being felt on every continent, and sooner than expected. It is "probably too late" to avoid some impacts in developing countries because about 1C of warming is already in the climate system, they warn. If it is not kept below 2C – which "currently looks very unlikely to be achieved" – up to 3.2 billion people will face water shortages and up to 600 million will face hunger, they have predicted.
The trade and development minister, Gareth Thomas, told the launch of the report at the Royal Geographical Society: "Failing to tackle it [climate change] will lead to floods, droughts and natural disasters which can destroy poor people's lives as well as their livelihoods."
Professor Parry said today that he was pessimistic about the chances of keeping the increase in global average temperatures below 2C. "And it's evident from the work of the IPCC that even with a maximum of 2C we're not going to avoid some major impacts at the regional level."
In February the report of the IPCC's first working group, which looks at the scientific background of climate change, concluded that global warming was "very likely" – a probability of 90% or greater – to have been caused by human activity.
A report in May by the IPCC's Working Group III, which examines how climate change can be addressed, argued that devastating global warming can be avoided without excessive economic cost but only if the world begins acting immediately.
Today's report concludes that while the impact of a warmer globe will have mixed effects – for example, it notes that crop yields could increase in northern Europe – the overall impact will be deeply negative, particularly in Africa, in the so-called "mega-deltas" of south and east Asia, and on small islands and in polar regions.
By 2020, the report warns, up to 250 million Africans may be left short of water, while access to sufficient food is "projected to be severely compromised by climate variability and change".
"New studies confirm that Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate variability and change because of multiple stresses and low adaptive capacity," says the document.
Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the IPCC, said: "Wheat production in India is already in decline, for no other reason than climate change."
The report says that "extreme weather events" are likely to become more intense and more frequent, while higher global temperatures could affect crops and water supplies and spread disease.
The effect on ecosystems could be equally severe, with up to 30% of plant and animal species at risk of extinction if the average rise in global temperatures exceeds 1.5-2.5C.
The 1,000-page document is part of the IPCC's fourth overall assessment of climate change, to be published in full later this year. It was put together by the so-called Working Group II, which examines global warming's impact on the environment and people.
The experts involved warn that the consequences of rising temperatures are already being felt on every continent, and sooner than expected. It is "probably too late" to avoid some impacts in developing countries because about 1C of warming is already in the climate system, they warn. If it is not kept below 2C – which "currently looks very unlikely to be achieved" – up to 3.2 billion people will face water shortages and up to 600 million will face hunger, they have predicted.
The trade and development minister, Gareth Thomas, told the launch of the report at the Royal Geographical Society: "Failing to tackle it [climate change] will lead to floods, droughts and natural disasters which can destroy poor people's lives as well as their livelihoods."
Professor Parry said today that he was pessimistic about the chances of keeping the increase in global average temperatures below 2C. "And it's evident from the work of the IPCC that even with a maximum of 2C we're not going to avoid some major impacts at the regional level."
In February the report of the IPCC's first working group, which looks at the scientific background of climate change, concluded that global warming was "very likely" – a probability of 90% or greater – to have been caused by human activity.
A report in May by the IPCC's Working Group III, which examines how climate change can be addressed, argued that devastating global warming can be avoided without excessive economic cost but only if the world begins acting immediately.
Today's report concludes that while the impact of a warmer globe will have mixed effects – for example, it notes that crop yields could increase in northern Europe – the overall impact will be deeply negative, particularly in Africa, in the so-called "mega-deltas" of south and east Asia, and on small islands and in polar regions.
By 2020, the report warns, up to 250 million Africans may be left short of water, while access to sufficient food is "projected to be severely compromised by climate variability and change".
"New studies confirm that Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate variability and change because of multiple stresses and low adaptive capacity," says the document.
Climate campaign to stop ill wind
The Vegetarian Society is to raise awareness of "emissions" from cattle as a leading cause of global warming with an ad campaign using the strapline "Silent but deadly".
Sir Paul McCartney and daughter Stella are patrons of the Vegetarian Society, which argues that "damaging gaseous emissions" from farmed animals exceed those from the world's entire transport system.
The campaign, which features a close-up of the rear of a cow, will include a range of "Silent but deadly" postcards and press ads that will run in environmental and ethical magazines over the coming months.
Ads will run in publications including Ethical Consumer, Ecologist, the Green Planet and Organic Life, as well as the Friends of the Earth's members' magazine Earth Matters.
"'Silent but deadly' is about getting the reader's attention, making them think and hopefully wanting to find out more about the connection between diet and climate change," said the Vegetarian Society head of communications, Liz O'Neill.
The ad claims that farmed animals produce 18% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, while the global transport industry accounts for 13.5%.
The advertisement finishes with the line "It's not just a lot of hot air."
Sir Paul McCartney and daughter Stella are patrons of the Vegetarian Society, which argues that "damaging gaseous emissions" from farmed animals exceed those from the world's entire transport system.
The campaign, which features a close-up of the rear of a cow, will include a range of "Silent but deadly" postcards and press ads that will run in environmental and ethical magazines over the coming months.
Ads will run in publications including Ethical Consumer, Ecologist, the Green Planet and Organic Life, as well as the Friends of the Earth's members' magazine Earth Matters.
"'Silent but deadly' is about getting the reader's attention, making them think and hopefully wanting to find out more about the connection between diet and climate change," said the Vegetarian Society head of communications, Liz O'Neill.
The ad claims that farmed animals produce 18% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, while the global transport industry accounts for 13.5%.
The advertisement finishes with the line "It's not just a lot of hot air."
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Eating less meat may slow climate change
++ eating can also help slow the climate change?? wow! ++
Sep. 12, 2007
LONDON --Eating less meat could help slow global warming by reducing the number of livestock and thereby decreasing the amount of methane flatulence from the animals, scientists said on Thursday.
In a special energy and health series of the medical journal The Lancet, experts said people should eat fewer steaks and hamburgers. Reducing global red meat consumption by 10 percent, they said, would cut the gases emitted by cows, sheep and goats that contribute to global warming.
"We are at a significant tipping point," said Geri Brewster, a nutritionist at Northern Westchester Hospital in New York, who was not connected to the study.
"If people knew that they were threatening the environment by eating more meat, they might think twice before ordering a burger," Brewster said.
Other ways of reducing greenhouse gases from farming practices, like feeding animals higher-quality grains, would only have a limited impact on cutting emissions. Gases from animals destined for dinner plates account for nearly a quarter of all emissions worldwide.
"That leaves reducing demand for meat as the only real option," said Dr. John Powles, a public health expert at Cambridge University, one of the study's authors.
The amount of meat eaten varies considerably worldwide. In developed countries, people typically eat about 224 grams per day. But in Africa, most people only get about 31 grams a day.
With demand for meat increasing worldwide, experts worry that this increased livestock production will mean more gases like methane and nitrous oxide heating up the atmosphere. In China, for instance, people are eating double the amount of meat they used to a decade ago.
Powles said that if the global average were 90 grams per day, that would prevent the levels of gases from speeding up climate change.
Eating less red meat would also improve health in general. Powles and his co-authors estimate that reducing meat consumption would reduce the numbers of people with heart disease and cancer. One study has estimated that the risk of colorectal cancer drops by about a third for every 100 grams of red meat that is cut out of your diet.
"As a society, we are overconsuming protein," Brewster said. "If we ate less red meat, it would also help stop the obesity epidemic."
Experts said that it would probably take decades to wane the public off of its meat-eating tendency. "We need to better understand the implications of our diet," said Dr. Maria Neira, director of director of the World Health Organization's department of public health and the environment.
"It is an interesting theory that needs to be further examined," she said. "But eating less meat could definitely be one way to reduce gas emissions and climate change."
Sep. 12, 2007
LONDON --Eating less meat could help slow global warming by reducing the number of livestock and thereby decreasing the amount of methane flatulence from the animals, scientists said on Thursday.
In a special energy and health series of the medical journal The Lancet, experts said people should eat fewer steaks and hamburgers. Reducing global red meat consumption by 10 percent, they said, would cut the gases emitted by cows, sheep and goats that contribute to global warming.
"We are at a significant tipping point," said Geri Brewster, a nutritionist at Northern Westchester Hospital in New York, who was not connected to the study.
"If people knew that they were threatening the environment by eating more meat, they might think twice before ordering a burger," Brewster said.
Other ways of reducing greenhouse gases from farming practices, like feeding animals higher-quality grains, would only have a limited impact on cutting emissions. Gases from animals destined for dinner plates account for nearly a quarter of all emissions worldwide.
"That leaves reducing demand for meat as the only real option," said Dr. John Powles, a public health expert at Cambridge University, one of the study's authors.
The amount of meat eaten varies considerably worldwide. In developed countries, people typically eat about 224 grams per day. But in Africa, most people only get about 31 grams a day.
With demand for meat increasing worldwide, experts worry that this increased livestock production will mean more gases like methane and nitrous oxide heating up the atmosphere. In China, for instance, people are eating double the amount of meat they used to a decade ago.
Powles said that if the global average were 90 grams per day, that would prevent the levels of gases from speeding up climate change.
Eating less red meat would also improve health in general. Powles and his co-authors estimate that reducing meat consumption would reduce the numbers of people with heart disease and cancer. One study has estimated that the risk of colorectal cancer drops by about a third for every 100 grams of red meat that is cut out of your diet.
"As a society, we are overconsuming protein," Brewster said. "If we ate less red meat, it would also help stop the obesity epidemic."
Experts said that it would probably take decades to wane the public off of its meat-eating tendency. "We need to better understand the implications of our diet," said Dr. Maria Neira, director of director of the World Health Organization's department of public health and the environment.
"It is an interesting theory that needs to be further examined," she said. "But eating less meat could definitely be one way to reduce gas emissions and climate change."
Despite Scary Global Warming Forecasts, Climate Scientists Remain Optimistic
++ should we be scared of the changing climate, or should we just be optimistic? ++
September 23, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Climate scientist Michael Mann runs down the list of bad global warming news: The world is spewing greenhouse gases at a faster rate. Summer Arctic sea ice is at record lows. The ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica are melting quicker than expected.
Is he the doomsayer global warming skeptics have called him?
Mann laughs. This Penn State University professor -- and many other climate scientists -- are sunny optimists. Hope blooms in the hottest of greenhouses.
Climate scientists say mankind is on the path for soaring temperatures that will melt polar ice sheets, raise seas to dangerous levels, and trigger mass extinctions. But they say the most catastrophic of consequences can and will be avoided.
They have hope. So should you, Mann said.
"Sometimes we fear that we are delivering too morose a message and not conveying enough that there is reason for optimism," Mann said.
Mann is not alone in laughing, even though the news he delivers could make people cry.
"It's hard at times," said University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver. "You can't give up hope because what else is there in life if you give up hope? When you give up hope, that's quitting and scientists don't like to quit."
That optimism is based on science and faith.
The science, Mann said, is because climate researchers are sure of one thing that the public isn't: The numbers show that there is still time to avert the worst.
NASA's James Hansen, who forecasts some of the bleakest outlooks on global warming, said in an e-mail: "I am always surprised when people get depressed rather than energized to do something. It's not too late to stabilize climate."
"I am not about to give up," Hansen wrote. He has hope, he says, because he has grandchildren.
The scientists say the public now understands how bad the problem is. So these researchers have faith that society will rally in time.
Bob Corell, an American Meteorological Society climate scientist, is hopeful because even industry is pushing for change -- and will make money in the deal.
Mann points to an international agreement 20 years ago this month that stopped the worsening global problem of ozone depletion. The same can be done for global warming, he said.
If the world spews greenhouse gases at its current ever rising rate, expect a 7-degree rise by the end of the century. If those gases are curbed, then warming can be kept to about 1 degree, an international panel of experts said earlier this year.
How about Al Gore? Does he lose hope?
"No, because we can't afford to," said the former vice president, who has helped bring global warming to center stage. "It's a genuine planetary emergency."
Optimism in the face of gloomy data isn't surprising, said psychologist David Myers of Hope College in Holland, Mich.
"Human beings are remarkably resilient," said Myers, who studies the psychology of happiness. "To do what climate researchers are doing takes enough optimism to sustain their hope and enough realism to create their concern."
Stanford University climate scientist Stephen Schneider has battled cancer and it has colored his outlook. He said the key is not to get overwhelmed by the belief that something is too tough. Sure a 2-degree rise in temperatures is bad. But 4 or 5 degrees would be even worse.
Schneider's wife, Stanford University biologist Terry Root, recalled how in 2002 she was sitting at the hospital as Schneider slept after cancer treatment. The oncology nurse came in, chatted and asked her what she did for a living.
Root said she studied how animals are being hurt by global warming. "That is such a depressing job," replied the nurse who daily deals with cancer patients.
Then they both laughed.
September 23, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Climate scientist Michael Mann runs down the list of bad global warming news: The world is spewing greenhouse gases at a faster rate. Summer Arctic sea ice is at record lows. The ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica are melting quicker than expected.
Is he the doomsayer global warming skeptics have called him?
Mann laughs. This Penn State University professor -- and many other climate scientists -- are sunny optimists. Hope blooms in the hottest of greenhouses.
Climate scientists say mankind is on the path for soaring temperatures that will melt polar ice sheets, raise seas to dangerous levels, and trigger mass extinctions. But they say the most catastrophic of consequences can and will be avoided.
They have hope. So should you, Mann said.
"Sometimes we fear that we are delivering too morose a message and not conveying enough that there is reason for optimism," Mann said.
Mann is not alone in laughing, even though the news he delivers could make people cry.
"It's hard at times," said University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver. "You can't give up hope because what else is there in life if you give up hope? When you give up hope, that's quitting and scientists don't like to quit."
That optimism is based on science and faith.
The science, Mann said, is because climate researchers are sure of one thing that the public isn't: The numbers show that there is still time to avert the worst.
NASA's James Hansen, who forecasts some of the bleakest outlooks on global warming, said in an e-mail: "I am always surprised when people get depressed rather than energized to do something. It's not too late to stabilize climate."
"I am not about to give up," Hansen wrote. He has hope, he says, because he has grandchildren.
The scientists say the public now understands how bad the problem is. So these researchers have faith that society will rally in time.
Bob Corell, an American Meteorological Society climate scientist, is hopeful because even industry is pushing for change -- and will make money in the deal.
Mann points to an international agreement 20 years ago this month that stopped the worsening global problem of ozone depletion. The same can be done for global warming, he said.
If the world spews greenhouse gases at its current ever rising rate, expect a 7-degree rise by the end of the century. If those gases are curbed, then warming can be kept to about 1 degree, an international panel of experts said earlier this year.
How about Al Gore? Does he lose hope?
"No, because we can't afford to," said the former vice president, who has helped bring global warming to center stage. "It's a genuine planetary emergency."
Optimism in the face of gloomy data isn't surprising, said psychologist David Myers of Hope College in Holland, Mich.
"Human beings are remarkably resilient," said Myers, who studies the psychology of happiness. "To do what climate researchers are doing takes enough optimism to sustain their hope and enough realism to create their concern."
Stanford University climate scientist Stephen Schneider has battled cancer and it has colored his outlook. He said the key is not to get overwhelmed by the belief that something is too tough. Sure a 2-degree rise in temperatures is bad. But 4 or 5 degrees would be even worse.
Schneider's wife, Stanford University biologist Terry Root, recalled how in 2002 she was sitting at the hospital as Schneider slept after cancer treatment. The oncology nurse came in, chatted and asked her what she did for a living.
Root said she studied how animals are being hurt by global warming. "That is such a depressing job," replied the nurse who daily deals with cancer patients.
Then they both laughed.
Kehangatan alam sekitar
HARI Alam Sekitar Sedunia disambut setiap tahun pada 5 Jun apabila dipersetujui oleh Majlis Keselamatan Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (PBB) pada tahun 1972. Seiring dengan itu, Program Alam Sekitar PBB turut diwujudkan pada tahun sama.
Hari Alam Sekitar Sedunia digunakan sebagai landasan menyuburkan rangsangan kesedaran terhadap alam sekitar. Selebihnya ia turut digunakan bagi melebarkan perhatian awam dan politik terhadap kepentingan alam kurniaan Allah s.w.t ini.
Tahun ini temanya ialah Pencairan Ais - Satu Topik Hangat (Melting Ice - a Hot Topic).
Seperti biasa, sebagaimana dijangka, acara menyusuli hari penghargaan kepada alam sekitar ini adalah tidak lebih umpama ritual semata-mata. Pelbagai program-program kesedaran yang direncanakan ternyata tidak pernah menyedarkan – hari ini diadakan kempen kebersihan, esok sungai kotor semula menjadi tong sampah. Tiap kali kempen kitar semula diperingatkan, esok kembali tidak sedar, botol ke mana dilempar, tin di mana dibuang.
Tetapi peraduan menulis esei mengenai alam sekitar, pertandingan poster di sekolah, menanam pokok selain program kitar semula dan kempen kebersihan ini tetap diadakan di sebalik usaha pelbagai pihak berwajib menyedarkan pentingnya alam ini dijaga. Sehingga pada satu tahap ia boleh sahaja dianggap mencurah air di daun keladi.
Kita barangkali sudah tidak berminat untuk membahas tentang tahap kesedaran tentang alam sekitar kerana grafnya menunjukkan peningkatan. Di dada media dan liputan televisyen, isu alam sekitar nampaknya mendominasi, satu petunjuk bahawa ia diminati selain banyak pihak sedar akan kepentingannya.
Tetapi perlu juga diakui bahawa tahap kesedaran itu bukan satu topik hangat. Maka, relevannya Hari Alam Sekitar Sedunia tahun ini ialah kita meraikannya semasa bumi alam kita menjadi semakin panas, bahkan ia semakin melarat tertekan dengan segala macam masalah alam sekitar dari hari ke hari. Itu topik hangat.
‘‘Alam yang semakin panas ini berkait rapat dengan kesan rumah hijau. Kesan rumah hijau pula adalah fenomena semula jadi kerana tanpanya planet Bumi yang kita diami ini akan menjadi 30 darjah Celsius lebih sejuk,’’ kata Timbalan Naib Canselor (Penyelidikan dan Inovasi) Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Profesor Dr. Zaini Ujang kepada Utusan Malaysia.
Beliau memudahkan cerita mengenai alam yang panas itu dengan mengaitkan bahawa ia satu bab yang dipelajari dalam subjek Geografi.
Katanya, Bumi dipanaskan oleh pancaran matahari. Apabila ia panas, ia memantulkan haba itu naik ke atmosfera.
Dianggarkan bahawa kira-kira 70 peratus daripada tenaga matahari itu naik semula ke langit. Namun sebahagian daripada sinar inframerah yang naik itu terperangkap dalam gas rumah hijau seperti karbon dioksida, karbon monoksida, kloroflurokarbon, metana dan sulfur oksida.
‘‘Haba yang terperangkap itulah yang memanaskan bumi. Kesan rumah hijau menjadikan bumi ini cukup panas,’’ ujar beliau yang juga Pengarah Institut Alam Sekitar dan Sumber Air (IPASA) UTM.
Tambah Zaini, peningkatan pelepasan gas rumah hijau telah mengganggu keseimbangan sistem yang kompleks itu menjadi alam yang kita diami ini panas. Justeru tidak hairan jika rekod bumi mencatatkan perkembangan yang pelik dan aneh akibat daripada gangguan tersebut.
Bagaimana tidak pelik dan macam mana bukan aneh jika ais di Lautan Artik boleh mencair. Contoh klasik lain pula, ialah perbezaan cuaca ketara benua Eropah dan Amerika dengan Afrika. Eropah biasanya dikaitkan dengan cuaca sejuk manakala Afrika pula panas, tetapi apa yang berlaku adalah sebaliknya.
Benua Afrika dilaporkan dengan kehadiran salji buat pertama pada tahun lepas – kali pertama juga sejak tahun 1981.
Laporan menyebut, cuaca sejuk melampau di kawasan termasuk bandar Soweto, selatan Johannesburg serta kawasan penempatan eksklusif di Sandton mencatatkan suhu sehingga 1 darjah Celsius.
Kalangan saintis mengaitkan keadaan pelik itu sebagai kesan pemanasan global– satu keadaan yang dijangka berlarutan akibat pencemaran gas rumah hijau hasil pembakaran bahan fosil yang terperangkap dalam atmosfera.
Biarpun sukar membuktikannya, seperkara yang perlu diakui ialah corak cuaca bumi kini berubah.
“Akibatnya paras air laut semakin meningkat yang berkait rapat dengan salji yang semakin berkurangan atau cair di kebanyakan kawasan pergunungan serta bongkah ais Greenland yang mencair. Ini menyebabkan air laut semakin panas dan menyebabkan taufan makin ganas berlaku dengan kerap.” Itulah pula logiknya di mana taufan aneh dan pelik banyak berlaku di China, Taiwan dan Vietnam sejak beberapa tahun lepas.
Bumi ini semakin panas dan adanya ancaman pemanasan global bukan sesuatu yang mengejutkan lagi. Cumanya, cara penerimaan kita tentang perkara yang satu itu. Tidak usah pergi terlalu jauh, melangkaui ais mencair di Artik atau perubahan iklim di benua Eropah atau Afrika.
Ambil contoh di negara kita sahaja. Kalau kita bersetuju, bukankah kawasan Cameron Highlands dan Bukit Fraser, yang satu ketika dahulu sejuk dingin lalu menjadi tumpuan, kini telah terasa bahang?
Ahli sains sangat pasti dan amat yakin bahawa 98 peratus pemanasan global yang kita alami sekarang berpunca daripada pelepasan karbon dioksida akibat pembakaran bahan bakar fosil yang telah dilakukan sejak abad ke-18.
Dalam hal ini, Protokol Kyoto dan pertumbuhan ekonomi rendah karbon perlu dijadikan asas dalam strategi dan pelan khusus mengikut konteks perubahan iklim bumi.
Sementara itu, sebagai warga alam, kita wajar insaf bahawa tiada satu sen dibayar apabila bumi diwarisi oleh kita Ia diberi percuma oleh Tuhan pencipta alam .
Namun, tidak semestinya kerana ia percuma, kita mengabaikan usaha menstabilkan alam sekitar itu sendiri. Seperkara yang perlu diterima, kebanyakan benan dan segala macam masalah yang ditanggung oleh alam ini adalah berpunca daripada kita semua – manusia, yang menjadi penghuni serta warganya sejak berkurun-kurun lama dahulu.
Tidak usah menunggu fenomena ais mencair, pemanasan global atau ia dijadikan topik hangat baru tergesa-gesa menjaga kepentingan alam sekitar.
Maka kerana itu kita percaya bahawa hari alam sekitar itu sepatutnya diraikan setiap hari, bukan 5 Jun setiap tahun seperti yang dilakukan sekarang.
Hari Alam Sekitar Sedunia digunakan sebagai landasan menyuburkan rangsangan kesedaran terhadap alam sekitar. Selebihnya ia turut digunakan bagi melebarkan perhatian awam dan politik terhadap kepentingan alam kurniaan Allah s.w.t ini.
Tahun ini temanya ialah Pencairan Ais - Satu Topik Hangat (Melting Ice - a Hot Topic).
Seperti biasa, sebagaimana dijangka, acara menyusuli hari penghargaan kepada alam sekitar ini adalah tidak lebih umpama ritual semata-mata. Pelbagai program-program kesedaran yang direncanakan ternyata tidak pernah menyedarkan – hari ini diadakan kempen kebersihan, esok sungai kotor semula menjadi tong sampah. Tiap kali kempen kitar semula diperingatkan, esok kembali tidak sedar, botol ke mana dilempar, tin di mana dibuang.
Tetapi peraduan menulis esei mengenai alam sekitar, pertandingan poster di sekolah, menanam pokok selain program kitar semula dan kempen kebersihan ini tetap diadakan di sebalik usaha pelbagai pihak berwajib menyedarkan pentingnya alam ini dijaga. Sehingga pada satu tahap ia boleh sahaja dianggap mencurah air di daun keladi.
Kita barangkali sudah tidak berminat untuk membahas tentang tahap kesedaran tentang alam sekitar kerana grafnya menunjukkan peningkatan. Di dada media dan liputan televisyen, isu alam sekitar nampaknya mendominasi, satu petunjuk bahawa ia diminati selain banyak pihak sedar akan kepentingannya.
Tetapi perlu juga diakui bahawa tahap kesedaran itu bukan satu topik hangat. Maka, relevannya Hari Alam Sekitar Sedunia tahun ini ialah kita meraikannya semasa bumi alam kita menjadi semakin panas, bahkan ia semakin melarat tertekan dengan segala macam masalah alam sekitar dari hari ke hari. Itu topik hangat.
‘‘Alam yang semakin panas ini berkait rapat dengan kesan rumah hijau. Kesan rumah hijau pula adalah fenomena semula jadi kerana tanpanya planet Bumi yang kita diami ini akan menjadi 30 darjah Celsius lebih sejuk,’’ kata Timbalan Naib Canselor (Penyelidikan dan Inovasi) Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Profesor Dr. Zaini Ujang kepada Utusan Malaysia.
Beliau memudahkan cerita mengenai alam yang panas itu dengan mengaitkan bahawa ia satu bab yang dipelajari dalam subjek Geografi.
Katanya, Bumi dipanaskan oleh pancaran matahari. Apabila ia panas, ia memantulkan haba itu naik ke atmosfera.
Dianggarkan bahawa kira-kira 70 peratus daripada tenaga matahari itu naik semula ke langit. Namun sebahagian daripada sinar inframerah yang naik itu terperangkap dalam gas rumah hijau seperti karbon dioksida, karbon monoksida, kloroflurokarbon, metana dan sulfur oksida.
‘‘Haba yang terperangkap itulah yang memanaskan bumi. Kesan rumah hijau menjadikan bumi ini cukup panas,’’ ujar beliau yang juga Pengarah Institut Alam Sekitar dan Sumber Air (IPASA) UTM.
Tambah Zaini, peningkatan pelepasan gas rumah hijau telah mengganggu keseimbangan sistem yang kompleks itu menjadi alam yang kita diami ini panas. Justeru tidak hairan jika rekod bumi mencatatkan perkembangan yang pelik dan aneh akibat daripada gangguan tersebut.
Bagaimana tidak pelik dan macam mana bukan aneh jika ais di Lautan Artik boleh mencair. Contoh klasik lain pula, ialah perbezaan cuaca ketara benua Eropah dan Amerika dengan Afrika. Eropah biasanya dikaitkan dengan cuaca sejuk manakala Afrika pula panas, tetapi apa yang berlaku adalah sebaliknya.
Benua Afrika dilaporkan dengan kehadiran salji buat pertama pada tahun lepas – kali pertama juga sejak tahun 1981.
Laporan menyebut, cuaca sejuk melampau di kawasan termasuk bandar Soweto, selatan Johannesburg serta kawasan penempatan eksklusif di Sandton mencatatkan suhu sehingga 1 darjah Celsius.
Kalangan saintis mengaitkan keadaan pelik itu sebagai kesan pemanasan global– satu keadaan yang dijangka berlarutan akibat pencemaran gas rumah hijau hasil pembakaran bahan fosil yang terperangkap dalam atmosfera.
Biarpun sukar membuktikannya, seperkara yang perlu diakui ialah corak cuaca bumi kini berubah.
“Akibatnya paras air laut semakin meningkat yang berkait rapat dengan salji yang semakin berkurangan atau cair di kebanyakan kawasan pergunungan serta bongkah ais Greenland yang mencair. Ini menyebabkan air laut semakin panas dan menyebabkan taufan makin ganas berlaku dengan kerap.” Itulah pula logiknya di mana taufan aneh dan pelik banyak berlaku di China, Taiwan dan Vietnam sejak beberapa tahun lepas.
Bumi ini semakin panas dan adanya ancaman pemanasan global bukan sesuatu yang mengejutkan lagi. Cumanya, cara penerimaan kita tentang perkara yang satu itu. Tidak usah pergi terlalu jauh, melangkaui ais mencair di Artik atau perubahan iklim di benua Eropah atau Afrika.
Ambil contoh di negara kita sahaja. Kalau kita bersetuju, bukankah kawasan Cameron Highlands dan Bukit Fraser, yang satu ketika dahulu sejuk dingin lalu menjadi tumpuan, kini telah terasa bahang?
Ahli sains sangat pasti dan amat yakin bahawa 98 peratus pemanasan global yang kita alami sekarang berpunca daripada pelepasan karbon dioksida akibat pembakaran bahan bakar fosil yang telah dilakukan sejak abad ke-18.
Dalam hal ini, Protokol Kyoto dan pertumbuhan ekonomi rendah karbon perlu dijadikan asas dalam strategi dan pelan khusus mengikut konteks perubahan iklim bumi.
Sementara itu, sebagai warga alam, kita wajar insaf bahawa tiada satu sen dibayar apabila bumi diwarisi oleh kita Ia diberi percuma oleh Tuhan pencipta alam .
Namun, tidak semestinya kerana ia percuma, kita mengabaikan usaha menstabilkan alam sekitar itu sendiri. Seperkara yang perlu diterima, kebanyakan benan dan segala macam masalah yang ditanggung oleh alam ini adalah berpunca daripada kita semua – manusia, yang menjadi penghuni serta warganya sejak berkurun-kurun lama dahulu.
Tidak usah menunggu fenomena ais mencair, pemanasan global atau ia dijadikan topik hangat baru tergesa-gesa menjaga kepentingan alam sekitar.
Maka kerana itu kita percaya bahawa hari alam sekitar itu sepatutnya diraikan setiap hari, bukan 5 Jun setiap tahun seperti yang dilakukan sekarang.
200 negara setuju hapus bahan kimia ancam ozon
MONTREAL 23 Sept. – Hampir 200 negara telah menyatakan persetujuan untuk mempercepatkan penghapusan bahan kimia yang mengancam ozon dan memburukkan lagi pemanasan global, lapor Program Alam Sekitar Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (UNEP), semalam.
Pengarah UNEP, Achim Steiner menandatangani perjanjian tersebut dengan ketua-ketua kerajaan terbabit bagi pengharaman pengeluaran bahan kimia hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC).
Pengharaman itu merupakan satu isyarat mustahak dalam usaha memperlahankan perubahan iklim dan pemanasan global.
“Ia barangkali perkembangan yang paling penting dalam proses rundingan persekitaran antarabangsa sekurang-kurangnya untuk tempoh lima atau enam tahun ini.
“Kerajaan mempunyai peluang yang cerah untuk bekerjasama dalam menangani masalah berkembar iaitu perubahan iklim di samping melindungi lapisan ozon yang kian menipis,” katanya.
Perjanjian itu dicapai sewaktu para pemimpin dunia bersiap sedia menghadiri Perhimpunan Agung Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (UNGA) yang antara lain cuba membentuk perjanjian sejagat dalam menyelesaikan masalah gas rumah hijau.
Menerusi persetujuan itu, negara maju akan melalui fasa tanpa menghasilkan HCFC pada 2020 manakala negara membangun bermula pada 2030.
Tempoh itu adalah 10 tahun lebih awal daripada perjanjian terdahulu.
Perjanjian tersebut telah merombak jadual yang dibuat pada 1987 di bawah Protokol Montreal, bertujuan untuk menyingkirkan penggunaan HCFC dan bahan kimia berkaitan yang selalu dijumpai dalam peti sejuk dan penyembur rambut.
Pengarah UNEP, Achim Steiner menandatangani perjanjian tersebut dengan ketua-ketua kerajaan terbabit bagi pengharaman pengeluaran bahan kimia hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC).
Pengharaman itu merupakan satu isyarat mustahak dalam usaha memperlahankan perubahan iklim dan pemanasan global.
“Ia barangkali perkembangan yang paling penting dalam proses rundingan persekitaran antarabangsa sekurang-kurangnya untuk tempoh lima atau enam tahun ini.
“Kerajaan mempunyai peluang yang cerah untuk bekerjasama dalam menangani masalah berkembar iaitu perubahan iklim di samping melindungi lapisan ozon yang kian menipis,” katanya.
Perjanjian itu dicapai sewaktu para pemimpin dunia bersiap sedia menghadiri Perhimpunan Agung Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (UNGA) yang antara lain cuba membentuk perjanjian sejagat dalam menyelesaikan masalah gas rumah hijau.
Menerusi persetujuan itu, negara maju akan melalui fasa tanpa menghasilkan HCFC pada 2020 manakala negara membangun bermula pada 2030.
Tempoh itu adalah 10 tahun lebih awal daripada perjanjian terdahulu.
Perjanjian tersebut telah merombak jadual yang dibuat pada 1987 di bawah Protokol Montreal, bertujuan untuk menyingkirkan penggunaan HCFC dan bahan kimia berkaitan yang selalu dijumpai dalam peti sejuk dan penyembur rambut.
Sepakat kawal iklim dunia
SIDANG kemuncak Kerjasama Ekonomi Asia Pasifik (APEC) di Sydney, Australia menyaksikan buat pertama kali pihak yang paling banyak mencemar alam sekitar – Amerika Syarikat, China dan Rusia – memeterai perjanjian ‘longgar’ untuk mengurangkan pengeluaran gas yang mencemarkan selepas keengganan mereka untuk mematuhi Protokol Kyoto.
Protokol Kyoto yang dipersetujui pada sidang Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (PBB) di Kyoto, Jepun pada tahun 1997 menetapkan pengurangan tahap pengeluaran gas karbon dioksida yang boleh mempengaruhi iklim global. Protokol itu antara lain menetapkan negara maju mengurangkan lima peratus gas pada 1990 dan 12 peratus pada tahun 2008.
Perkembangan tersebut dilihat menarik kerana ia memberi gambaran tentang kesan pelepasan gas rumah hijau semakin disepakati oleh negara-negara maju dan negara sedang membangun. Ia sekali gus bakal mempengaruhi perbincangan PBB tentang perubahan iklim.
PBB melalui agensinya, World Meteorological Organization mendapati pemanasan cuaca sememangnya jelas dan kebanyakan disebabkan oleh kegiatan pembakaran bahan api fosil seperti arang batu.
Perkembangan ini juga boleh dilihat sebagai satu kompromi antara negara-negara anggota APEC yang mana secara bersama mewakili 60 peratus daripada ekonomi dunia.
Sebelum ini, negara-negara maju seperti AS memaksa negara-negara sedang membangun mengikut telunjuk mereka untuk memastikan persekitaran dunia tidak terus tercemar.
Negara-negara ekonomi sedang membangun yang diketuai oleh China dan Indonesia percaya negara-negara maju sepatutnya mengambil tanggungjawab lebih besar terutamanya dalam membiayai kos menyelesaikan masalah pemanasan global.
Negara-negara membangun mempunyai kebimbangannya tersendiri bahawa penetapan sebarang syarat yang mengikat akan menjejaskan perkembangan ekonomi mereka ketika negara-negara maju tidak mempunyai masalah berbuat demikian kerana kemajuan teknologi yang dimiliki.
Sebagai contoh, negara maju tidak mempunyai pergantungan terhadap bahan arang batu yang merupakan penyumbang kepada seperempat pengeluaran karbon di dunia.
Namun begitu, melalui persetujuan program perubahan cuaca APEC di bawah Deklarasi Sydney, negara-negara maju dan membangun dapat mencapai perjanjian yang lebih mengikat pada sidang kemuncak tahunan konvensyen mengenai iklim PBB yang akan diadakan di Bali, Indonesia pada akhir tahun ini.
Konvensyen di Indonesia akan merangka pakatan PBB yang baru menggantikan Protokol Kyoto yang akan berakhir pada 2012.
Perjanjian yang dicapai melalui APEC tidak boleh dianggap sebagai platform tetapi sebaliknya satu lonjakan untuk tindakan masa depan dalam menangani perubahan iklim dunia dengan lebih baik dan menyeluruh di kalangan penduduk dunia.
Protokol Kyoto yang dipersetujui pada sidang Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (PBB) di Kyoto, Jepun pada tahun 1997 menetapkan pengurangan tahap pengeluaran gas karbon dioksida yang boleh mempengaruhi iklim global. Protokol itu antara lain menetapkan negara maju mengurangkan lima peratus gas pada 1990 dan 12 peratus pada tahun 2008.
Perkembangan tersebut dilihat menarik kerana ia memberi gambaran tentang kesan pelepasan gas rumah hijau semakin disepakati oleh negara-negara maju dan negara sedang membangun. Ia sekali gus bakal mempengaruhi perbincangan PBB tentang perubahan iklim.
PBB melalui agensinya, World Meteorological Organization mendapati pemanasan cuaca sememangnya jelas dan kebanyakan disebabkan oleh kegiatan pembakaran bahan api fosil seperti arang batu.
Perkembangan ini juga boleh dilihat sebagai satu kompromi antara negara-negara anggota APEC yang mana secara bersama mewakili 60 peratus daripada ekonomi dunia.
Sebelum ini, negara-negara maju seperti AS memaksa negara-negara sedang membangun mengikut telunjuk mereka untuk memastikan persekitaran dunia tidak terus tercemar.
Negara-negara ekonomi sedang membangun yang diketuai oleh China dan Indonesia percaya negara-negara maju sepatutnya mengambil tanggungjawab lebih besar terutamanya dalam membiayai kos menyelesaikan masalah pemanasan global.
Negara-negara membangun mempunyai kebimbangannya tersendiri bahawa penetapan sebarang syarat yang mengikat akan menjejaskan perkembangan ekonomi mereka ketika negara-negara maju tidak mempunyai masalah berbuat demikian kerana kemajuan teknologi yang dimiliki.
Sebagai contoh, negara maju tidak mempunyai pergantungan terhadap bahan arang batu yang merupakan penyumbang kepada seperempat pengeluaran karbon di dunia.
Namun begitu, melalui persetujuan program perubahan cuaca APEC di bawah Deklarasi Sydney, negara-negara maju dan membangun dapat mencapai perjanjian yang lebih mengikat pada sidang kemuncak tahunan konvensyen mengenai iklim PBB yang akan diadakan di Bali, Indonesia pada akhir tahun ini.
Konvensyen di Indonesia akan merangka pakatan PBB yang baru menggantikan Protokol Kyoto yang akan berakhir pada 2012.
Perjanjian yang dicapai melalui APEC tidak boleh dianggap sebagai platform tetapi sebaliknya satu lonjakan untuk tindakan masa depan dalam menangani perubahan iklim dunia dengan lebih baik dan menyeluruh di kalangan penduduk dunia.
Perubahan iklim agenda utama
PERUBAHAN iklim akan menjadi agenda utama ketua negara dan pemimpin dunia pada Perhimpunan Agung Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (PBB) ke-62 bermula minggu ini, sekali gus membuka jalan untuk perbincangan lebih serius semua 192 negara anggota badan dunia itu bagi mengatasi masalah sejagat ini. Selain tidak mengetepikan isu keselamatan dan politik antarabangsa untuk dibincangkan, antaranya Kosovo, kemudahan nuklear Iran, isu Palestin, Myanmar, Lubnan dan menghantar pasukan pengaman ke Darfur, Sudan, perhimpunan PBB kali ini sudah mendapat gambaran awal bahawa pemimpin dunia sudah bersedia untuk mengatasi masalah ketidaktentuan iklim dunia, termasuk merangka langkah tambahan bagi menguatkan lagi komitmen semua negara anggota menjayakannya. Menteri Luar, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar, berkata kesan perubahan iklim dunia ketika ini begitu ketara, termasuk peningkatan suhu dunia dan cuaca tidak menentu yang membawa kepada banjir dan ribut kuat serta memberi kesan langsung kepada penduduk dunia.
"Sudah sampai masa pemimpin dunia berkongsi kepakaran dan sumber, termasuk menyediakan kewangan bagi mengatasi masalah ini kerana ia membawa bahaya kepada kita," katanya sambil menambah, Malaysia turut merasai kesan perubahan iklim dunia apabila Johor dilanda banjir terburuk tidak lama lalu. Bercakap kepada wartawan di sini semalam, Syed Hamid berkata, beliau akan mengambil bahagian pada majlis pembukaan mesyuarat peringkat tinggi perubahan iklim di PBB hari ini dengan membawa usul betapa penting PBB mempunyai sumber kewangan yang kukuh untuk menguruskan soal perubahan iklim dunia. "Isu ini akan mencuri tumpuan dalam tempoh dua hingga tiga hari PBB bersidang, termasuk ketika perbahasan umum," katanya sambil menambah Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yang akan berucap pada 28 September turut menyentuh isu sama, termasuk pendekatan Islam Hadhari.
Beliau berkata, walaupun Protokol Kyoto yang akan berakhir pada 2012 sudah mengambil tindakan mengurangkan kesan pengeluaran gas rumah hijau, namun pemimpin dunia perlu merangka satu mekanisme baru bagi memperlihatkan tindakan positif untuk memelihara kepentingan generasi akan datang. Difahamkan, kesepakatan yang dicapai pemimpin dunia mengenai isu perubahan iklim dunia pada perhimpunan agung kali ini akan membuka ruang kepada masyarakat antarabangsa memulakan rundingan bagi perjanjian baru ketika berlangsungnya persidangan mengenai perubahan cuaca dunia di Bali, Indonesia pada Disember ini.
"Sudah sampai masa pemimpin dunia berkongsi kepakaran dan sumber, termasuk menyediakan kewangan bagi mengatasi masalah ini kerana ia membawa bahaya kepada kita," katanya sambil menambah, Malaysia turut merasai kesan perubahan iklim dunia apabila Johor dilanda banjir terburuk tidak lama lalu. Bercakap kepada wartawan di sini semalam, Syed Hamid berkata, beliau akan mengambil bahagian pada majlis pembukaan mesyuarat peringkat tinggi perubahan iklim di PBB hari ini dengan membawa usul betapa penting PBB mempunyai sumber kewangan yang kukuh untuk menguruskan soal perubahan iklim dunia. "Isu ini akan mencuri tumpuan dalam tempoh dua hingga tiga hari PBB bersidang, termasuk ketika perbahasan umum," katanya sambil menambah Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yang akan berucap pada 28 September turut menyentuh isu sama, termasuk pendekatan Islam Hadhari.
Beliau berkata, walaupun Protokol Kyoto yang akan berakhir pada 2012 sudah mengambil tindakan mengurangkan kesan pengeluaran gas rumah hijau, namun pemimpin dunia perlu merangka satu mekanisme baru bagi memperlihatkan tindakan positif untuk memelihara kepentingan generasi akan datang. Difahamkan, kesepakatan yang dicapai pemimpin dunia mengenai isu perubahan iklim dunia pada perhimpunan agung kali ini akan membuka ruang kepada masyarakat antarabangsa memulakan rundingan bagi perjanjian baru ketika berlangsungnya persidangan mengenai perubahan cuaca dunia di Bali, Indonesia pada Disember ini.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
How climate change will affect the world
++ a sight to picture..how would the world be if the climate totally changed??++
effects of climate change will be felt sooner than scientists realised and the world must learn to live with the effects, experts said yesterday.
Martin Parry, a climate scientist with the Met Office, said destructive changes in temperature, rainfall and agriculture were now forecast to occur several decades earlier than thought. He said vulnerable people such as the old and poor would be the worst affected, and that world leaders had not yet accepted their countries would have to adapt to the likely consequences.
Speaking at a meeting to launch the full report on the impacts of global warming by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Professor Parry, co-chairman of the IPCC working group that wrote the report, said: "We are all used to talking about these impacts coming in the lifetimes of our children and grandchildren. Now we know that it's us."
He added politicians had wasted a decade by focusing only on ways to cut emissions, and had only recently woken up to the need to adapt. "Mitigation has got all the attention, but we cannot mitigate out of this problem. We now have a choice between a future with a damaged world or a severely damaged world."
The international response to the problem has failed to grasp that serious consequences such as reduced crop yields and water shortages are now inevitable, he said. Countries such as Britain need to focus on helping nations in the developing world cope with the predicted impacts, by helping them to introduce irrigation and water management technology, drought resistant crops and new building techniques.
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, said: "Wheat production in India is already in decline, for no other reason than climate change. Everyone thought we didn't have to worry about Indian agriculture for several decades. Now we know it's being affected now." There are signs a similar shift is under way in China, he added.
The summary chapter of yesterday's report was published in April, after arguments between scientists and political officials over its contents. Prof Parry said: "Governments don't like numbers, so some numbers were brushed out of it."
The report warns that Africa and the Arctic will bear the brunt of climate impacts, along with small islands such as Fiji, and Asian river megadeltas including the Mekong.
It says extreme weather events are likely to become more intense and more frequent, and the effect on ecosystems could be severe, with up to 30% of plant and animal species at risk of extinction if the average rise in global temperatures exceeds 1.5C-2.5C. The consequences of rising temperatures are already being felt on every continent, it adds.
Prof Parry said it was "very unlikely" that average temperature rise could be limited to 2C, as sought by European governments. That would place 2 billion more people at risk of water shortages, and hundreds of millions more will face hunger, the report says.
effects of climate change will be felt sooner than scientists realised and the world must learn to live with the effects, experts said yesterday.
Martin Parry, a climate scientist with the Met Office, said destructive changes in temperature, rainfall and agriculture were now forecast to occur several decades earlier than thought. He said vulnerable people such as the old and poor would be the worst affected, and that world leaders had not yet accepted their countries would have to adapt to the likely consequences.
Speaking at a meeting to launch the full report on the impacts of global warming by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Professor Parry, co-chairman of the IPCC working group that wrote the report, said: "We are all used to talking about these impacts coming in the lifetimes of our children and grandchildren. Now we know that it's us."
He added politicians had wasted a decade by focusing only on ways to cut emissions, and had only recently woken up to the need to adapt. "Mitigation has got all the attention, but we cannot mitigate out of this problem. We now have a choice between a future with a damaged world or a severely damaged world."
The international response to the problem has failed to grasp that serious consequences such as reduced crop yields and water shortages are now inevitable, he said. Countries such as Britain need to focus on helping nations in the developing world cope with the predicted impacts, by helping them to introduce irrigation and water management technology, drought resistant crops and new building techniques.
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, said: "Wheat production in India is already in decline, for no other reason than climate change. Everyone thought we didn't have to worry about Indian agriculture for several decades. Now we know it's being affected now." There are signs a similar shift is under way in China, he added.
The summary chapter of yesterday's report was published in April, after arguments between scientists and political officials over its contents. Prof Parry said: "Governments don't like numbers, so some numbers were brushed out of it."
The report warns that Africa and the Arctic will bear the brunt of climate impacts, along with small islands such as Fiji, and Asian river megadeltas including the Mekong.
It says extreme weather events are likely to become more intense and more frequent, and the effect on ecosystems could be severe, with up to 30% of plant and animal species at risk of extinction if the average rise in global temperatures exceeds 1.5C-2.5C. The consequences of rising temperatures are already being felt on every continent, it adds.
Prof Parry said it was "very unlikely" that average temperature rise could be limited to 2C, as sought by European governments. That would place 2 billion more people at risk of water shortages, and hundreds of millions more will face hunger, the report says.
Ancient British bog may hold climate change clues
++ Lets see how the climate has changed so far...++
LONDON (Reuters) - An ancient British bog that pumped out high amounts of greenhouse gases during a period of global warming 55 million years ago may offer clues about future climate change, researchers said on Wednesday.
An analysis of sediments from the bog suggests that global warming caused methane emissions to rise in the wetlands, which in turn sent temperatures there even higher, the researchers said.
Scientists are interested in this period because the Earth warmed fairly quickly as increased amounts of carbon dioxide entered the atmosphere at a pace similar to what is happening today, said Richard Pancost, a geochemist at Bristol University, who led the study.
Greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide are widely blamed for global warming. Scientists say average temperatures will rise by 2-6 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, causing droughts, floods and violent storms.
"It is in the same ballpark of what we have done over the past 100 years and what we might do over the next 100 years," Pancost said in a telephone interview.
The team analyzed sediments taken from a wetland in southeast England that was unearthed during construction of a rail link between London and Paris.
This section of exposed rock offered a clear sediment record of changes in vegetation and indicated how global warming affected the area tens of millions of years ago, Pancost said.
The researchers looked at molecular fossils that came from bacteria and found that as temperatures rose, the organisms switched to a diet of methane -- probably because there was more of it around, Pancost said.
"Methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas," he said. "So if the processes at (the bog) were widespread, then the increase in methane emissions could have caused further warming, amplifying the climate change at this time."
The bog became part of a vicious cycle -- warmer temperatures caused higher emissions of methane, which drove temperatures even higher, he said.
"The main event made it warmer and wetter," Pancost said. "What we are talking about is a response to the system."
The researchers, who published their findings in the journal Nature, cautioned that the data was only from a single site but said it nevertheless shows how some ecosystems might respond to rapid climate change in the future.
This means that warming could occur both because of more carbon pumped into the atmosphere through the burning of coal and oil and from the biological response of the individual ecosystems, the team said.
"If wetlands exhibit similar response, they will produce more methane and amplify the effect of global warming," he Pancost said. "That is what we suggest happened 55 million years ago."
LONDON (Reuters) - An ancient British bog that pumped out high amounts of greenhouse gases during a period of global warming 55 million years ago may offer clues about future climate change, researchers said on Wednesday.
An analysis of sediments from the bog suggests that global warming caused methane emissions to rise in the wetlands, which in turn sent temperatures there even higher, the researchers said.
Scientists are interested in this period because the Earth warmed fairly quickly as increased amounts of carbon dioxide entered the atmosphere at a pace similar to what is happening today, said Richard Pancost, a geochemist at Bristol University, who led the study.
Greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide are widely blamed for global warming. Scientists say average temperatures will rise by 2-6 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, causing droughts, floods and violent storms.
"It is in the same ballpark of what we have done over the past 100 years and what we might do over the next 100 years," Pancost said in a telephone interview.
The team analyzed sediments taken from a wetland in southeast England that was unearthed during construction of a rail link between London and Paris.
This section of exposed rock offered a clear sediment record of changes in vegetation and indicated how global warming affected the area tens of millions of years ago, Pancost said.
The researchers looked at molecular fossils that came from bacteria and found that as temperatures rose, the organisms switched to a diet of methane -- probably because there was more of it around, Pancost said.
"Methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas," he said. "So if the processes at (the bog) were widespread, then the increase in methane emissions could have caused further warming, amplifying the climate change at this time."
The bog became part of a vicious cycle -- warmer temperatures caused higher emissions of methane, which drove temperatures even higher, he said.
"The main event made it warmer and wetter," Pancost said. "What we are talking about is a response to the system."
The researchers, who published their findings in the journal Nature, cautioned that the data was only from a single site but said it nevertheless shows how some ecosystems might respond to rapid climate change in the future.
This means that warming could occur both because of more carbon pumped into the atmosphere through the burning of coal and oil and from the biological response of the individual ecosystems, the team said.
"If wetlands exhibit similar response, they will produce more methane and amplify the effect of global warming," he Pancost said. "That is what we suggest happened 55 million years ago."
Greenland's Jakobshavn glacier sounds climate change alarm
++another warning on climate change++
JAKOBSHAVN GLACIER, Greenland (AFP) - The chaotic cavalcade of blueish ice tumbling into the sea from the world's fastest-moving glacier is sounding a daily climate change alarm, say scientists ahead of International Polar Day on Friday.
The Jakobshavn Glacier, on Greenland's west coast, is melting twice as fast as 10 years ago and advancing toward the sea at 12 kilometres (seven miles) per year, compared with six kilometres (three and a half miles) before.
In its 4th Assessment report issued earlier this year, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the world's oceans could rise by 50 centimeters (20 inches), putting tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions of people at risk by century's end.
But that estimate does not factor in the latest findings about the melting of glaciers in Greenland and loss of ice in Antarctica, which many experts say could eventually increase sea levels, and the rate at which they rise, by several fold.
Jakobshavn, moving toward the ocean at a clip of 30 to 40 metres a day, is but a single icy tongue reaching out from the Greenland icesheet, a massive block of ice and snow up to three kilometres (1.9 miles) thick covering 80 percent of the island, which is four times the size of France.
If the sheet's entire 2.85 million cubic kilometres (685,000 cubic miles) of ice were to melt, it would lift sea levels by seven metres (23 feet), swamping every major coastal city in the world.
Even in worst-case scenarios, such a meltdown would happen over centuries, not decades. But what scientists fear most is the "tipping point" beyond which the loss of ice becomes a self-reinforcing, positive feedback loop.
As sea ice -- the focus of the International Polar Day -- continues to recede, it gives rise to a phenomenon called albedo.
Albedo is the reflectivity of light. Because sea ice has a bright surface, most of the solar energy that strikes it is reflected back into space.
When that ice covering is replaced by dark-blue sea, however, the heat is absorbed, thus accelerating the melt.
"Over the last 30 years, temperatures have been rising twice as fast at the poles as the rest of the planet, which means that if we are looking at a global rise of 2 degrees C (3.6 F) by century's end, we will probably have an increase of 4 degrees C (7.2 F) here," said French scientist Jean Jouzel, accompanying French environment minister Jean-Louis Borloo to Greenland on a fact-finding mission.
These rising temperatures have resulted in a dramatic shrinkage of the ice covering the Arctic, with the total surface area dropping from four to three million square kilometres (1.15 million square miles) in just one year, the European Space Agency (ESA) said last week.
That has created a lot of newly-exposed blue water, and is tenfold the yearly average of ice cover lost over the previous decade.
Jakobshavn, meanwhile, continues to melt as it races -- by glacial standards -- toward the sea."In 1996, the glacier shed 27 cubic kilometers (6.5 cubic miles) of water per year, and today it is 50 km3 (12 cu. miles) per year. It is already too late to stop this movement, but we have compelling reasons to try to keep the temperature of the planet close to its current level," said Jouzel.
For now, Greenland accounts for about 15 percent of the world's rise in sea levels. No one can say what that figure will be in a decade or a century, but the trend is clear, said another French climatologist, Herve Le Treut.
"What is sure is that there is no way to reverse the mechanism, and we are almost sure that it will continue to rise," he said.
The International Polar Year 2007-2008 is a multi-national research effort involving 50,000 scientists from over 60 countries. Their aim is to better understand the polar regions -- their ecology and biodiversity, geological history, relation to climate change -- and raise public awareness.
JAKOBSHAVN GLACIER, Greenland (AFP) - The chaotic cavalcade of blueish ice tumbling into the sea from the world's fastest-moving glacier is sounding a daily climate change alarm, say scientists ahead of International Polar Day on Friday.
The Jakobshavn Glacier, on Greenland's west coast, is melting twice as fast as 10 years ago and advancing toward the sea at 12 kilometres (seven miles) per year, compared with six kilometres (three and a half miles) before.
In its 4th Assessment report issued earlier this year, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the world's oceans could rise by 50 centimeters (20 inches), putting tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions of people at risk by century's end.
But that estimate does not factor in the latest findings about the melting of glaciers in Greenland and loss of ice in Antarctica, which many experts say could eventually increase sea levels, and the rate at which they rise, by several fold.
Jakobshavn, moving toward the ocean at a clip of 30 to 40 metres a day, is but a single icy tongue reaching out from the Greenland icesheet, a massive block of ice and snow up to three kilometres (1.9 miles) thick covering 80 percent of the island, which is four times the size of France.
If the sheet's entire 2.85 million cubic kilometres (685,000 cubic miles) of ice were to melt, it would lift sea levels by seven metres (23 feet), swamping every major coastal city in the world.
Even in worst-case scenarios, such a meltdown would happen over centuries, not decades. But what scientists fear most is the "tipping point" beyond which the loss of ice becomes a self-reinforcing, positive feedback loop.
As sea ice -- the focus of the International Polar Day -- continues to recede, it gives rise to a phenomenon called albedo.
Albedo is the reflectivity of light. Because sea ice has a bright surface, most of the solar energy that strikes it is reflected back into space.
When that ice covering is replaced by dark-blue sea, however, the heat is absorbed, thus accelerating the melt.
"Over the last 30 years, temperatures have been rising twice as fast at the poles as the rest of the planet, which means that if we are looking at a global rise of 2 degrees C (3.6 F) by century's end, we will probably have an increase of 4 degrees C (7.2 F) here," said French scientist Jean Jouzel, accompanying French environment minister Jean-Louis Borloo to Greenland on a fact-finding mission.
These rising temperatures have resulted in a dramatic shrinkage of the ice covering the Arctic, with the total surface area dropping from four to three million square kilometres (1.15 million square miles) in just one year, the European Space Agency (ESA) said last week.
That has created a lot of newly-exposed blue water, and is tenfold the yearly average of ice cover lost over the previous decade.
Jakobshavn, meanwhile, continues to melt as it races -- by glacial standards -- toward the sea."In 1996, the glacier shed 27 cubic kilometers (6.5 cubic miles) of water per year, and today it is 50 km3 (12 cu. miles) per year. It is already too late to stop this movement, but we have compelling reasons to try to keep the temperature of the planet close to its current level," said Jouzel.
For now, Greenland accounts for about 15 percent of the world's rise in sea levels. No one can say what that figure will be in a decade or a century, but the trend is clear, said another French climatologist, Herve Le Treut.
"What is sure is that there is no way to reverse the mechanism, and we are almost sure that it will continue to rise," he said.
The International Polar Year 2007-2008 is a multi-national research effort involving 50,000 scientists from over 60 countries. Their aim is to better understand the polar regions -- their ecology and biodiversity, geological history, relation to climate change -- and raise public awareness.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Europe’s Dirty 30
Most of Europe's "dirtiest" power stations are located in Germany and the UK (10 plants each), followed by Poland (4 plants).
10 May 2007-Brussels, Belgium / Gland, Switzerland – A new ranking of Europe’s worst climate-polluting power stations reveals the least efficient power stations in Europe with the biggest emissions of carbon dioxide.
The WWF ranking — the Dirty Thirty — lists Greece’s Agios Dimitrios and Kardia (owned by DEH) as the dirtiest power stations, followed by Niederaußem in Germany (owned by RWE).
In 2006 the “Dirty Thirty” were responsible for 393 million tonnes of CO2, which is equal to 10 per cent of all EU CO2 emissions.
Europe’s dirtiest power stations are all coal-fired, with the worst ten running on particularly CO2-intense lignite. As CO2 emissions are considered the main cause for global warming and devastating climate impacts, it is essential to have a stronger EU Emissions Trading Scheme that delivers significant emissions reductions by encouraging investment in cleaner and more efficient plants.
“The facts are clear. The power sector needs to phase out dirty coal as soon as possible,” says Stephan Singer, Head of WWF’s European Climate and Energy Unit.
“This must be done through an improved EU Emissions Trading System, helping the EU achieve its target of up to 30 per cent reduction in emissions by 2020.”
The WWF ranking results from the analysis of 2006’s data included in the European Emissions Registry, managed by the European Commission. The global conservation organization looked at the absolute CO2 emissions of power stations in EU countries (million tonnes of CO2 per year) and ranked the 30 biggest emitters according to their level of efficiency (grams of CO2 per Kilowatt hour).
Most of the “Dirty Thirty” are located in Germany and the UK (10 plants each), followed by Poland (4 plants). Just four companies account for most of Europe’s dirtiest power stations. More than half of the 30 plants analysed are run by RWE (Germany), Vattenfall (Sweden), EDF (France) and EON (Germany). RWE and Vattenfall are also the EU’s largest corporate climate polluters.
“We cannot tolerate a power sector where the dirtier get richer,” adds Singer. “The EU must ensure that only those who clean up their power stations reap monetary rewards.”
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