QLD Conservation Council win appeal

12th October 2007

In a unanimous decision today, the QLD Supreme Court set aside a judgement made in the Land and Resources Tribunal (LRT). QCC had sought to have conditions imposed on a mine operated by xstrata Coal, to avoid, reduce or offset a proportion of its greenhouse gas emissions.

‘The Supreme Court has agreed with QCC that this was an unfair judgement by the LRT,’ said Toby Hutcheon, Coordinator of Queensland Conservation (QCC)

‘The decision led to xstrata Coal being given a licence to expand its coal mine without any conditions to avoid, reduce or offset greenhouse emissions,’ said Hutcheon

‘The Supreme Court decision now paves the way for the case to be re-heard. QCC will be pushing for this matter to be progressed as soon as possible’ said Hutcheon

‘We have lost 7 valuable months in the campaign towards stabilising QLD greenhouse gas emissions,’ said Hutcheon

This case illustrates the flaws in government greenhouse gas reduction policy. Whilst ordinary Queenslanders are being asked (quite rightly) to reduce their carbon footprint, big emitters are free from regulation.

‘Its time for the QLD EPA to impose conditions on all major polluters to regulate their greenhouse gas emissions,’said Hutcheon


For more Information: Toby Hutcheon 3221 0188/0419 664 503

Note: QCC took xstrata Coal to the Land and Resources Tribunal in January 2007, seeking to have conditions imposed on its operating licence. According to assessments, the mine and its coal would produce 84MT of CO2 over a 15 year period.

In handing down its decision the LRT President questioned the IPCC 4th Assessment Report and the views of some of Australia’s leading climate experts, including Prof Ian Lowe

Subsequent to this decision, the EPA approved xstrata’s licence without any of the sought conditions on greenhouse reductions. The QLD Government has a climate strategy aimed at reducing emissions by 60% by 2050.

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Scientists developing giant 'green energy' battery

September 13, 2007
From The Guardian (UK)


Eon UK is developing a giant battery designed to store electricity generated by wind farms and solar panels.

Scientists at the energy group's technology centre in Nottingham aim to build a large-scale prototype that would be able to store one megawatt of electricity for four hours - the equivalent to 10m AA batteries and the same size as four articulated lorry containers.

"Green power is only generated from wind farms when the wind blows and that might not be when the power's needed by customers," said Bob Taylor, managing director of energy wholesale and technology. "By researching and developing this battery we can store the power generated by wind farms any time and then use it when our customers need it the most.

"The storage system will also help the development of localised generation. For example, a school with solar panels can store the power generated at weekends and use it when the kids are back in school."

Eon is already working with small-scale prototypes; it expects the large prototype to be operational by autumn 2009. The project is being supported by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.

"We believe energy storage is a key which will help us unlock a lower-carbon tomorrow and radically change the way we think about energy," Mr Taylor said.

The industry regulator, Ofgem, said the concept was increasingly attractive. "It looked a long way from being deployed but we are seeing good progress here and internationally," said a spokesman.

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China Plans US$265 Bln Renewables Spending by 2020

September 5, 2007
From Planet Ark

China is able to set targets yet have no immediate obligations under the Kyoto protocol (ofcourse they will have future targets they won't be able to meet if they don't start acting now). This is in difference to Australia and the USA who have refused to join Kyoto so they don't have to set targets but have aspirational goals.

BEIJING - China plans to invest 2 trillion yuan (US$265 billion) in renewable energy by 2020, most of it corporate cash, to wean itself off polluting coal as it aims for cleaner growth, a top energy planner said on Tuesday.

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Howard's Kyoto resistance could be costing billion

September 9, 2007
From

THE Howard Government's refusal to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gases is costing Australian businesses about $3.8 billion a year, a study has found.

The report by respected environmental consultant Cambiar said the country was missing out on economic activity because local businesses could not fully participate in the $37.5 billion global carbon market, which last year alone tripled in value.

"This is the first time this analysis has been done and what we have found was that a significant opportunity has been forgone because we are not participating fully in the Kyoto process," Justin Sherrard, one of the report's authors, told The Sunday Age.

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Record Resource Consumption Depletes a Warming World

September 14, 2007
From Environmental News Service

Some statistics from the Vital Signs report

• In 2006, the world used 3.9 billion tons of oil. Fossil fuel usage in 2005 produced 7.6 billion tons of carbon emissions, and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide reached 380 parts per million.
  
  
• More wood was removed from forests in 2005 than ever before.
  
  
• Steel production grew 10 percent to a record 1.24 billion tons in 2006, while primary aluminum output increased to a record 33 million tons. Aluminum production accounted for roughly 3 percent of global electricity use.
  
  
• Meat production hit a record 276 million tons (43 kilograms per person) in 2006.
  
  
• Meat consumption is one of several factors driving rising soybean demand. Rapid expansion of soybean plantations in South America could displace 22 million hectares of tropical forest and savanna in the next 20 years.
  
  
• The rise in global seafood consumption comes even as many fish species become scarcer: in 2004, 156 million tons of seafood was eaten, an average of three times as much seafood per person than in 1950.
  
  
• The warming climate is undermining biodiversity by accelerating habitat loss, altering the timing of animal migrations and plant flowerings, and shifting some species toward the poles and to higher altitudes.
  
  
• The oceans have absorbed about half of the carbon dioxide emitted by humans in the last 200 years. Climate change is altering fish migration routes, pushing up sea levels, intensifying coastal erosion, raising ocean acidity, and interfering with currents that move vital nutrients upward from the deep sea.
  
  
• Despite a relatively calm U.S. hurricane season in 2006, the world experienced more weather-related disasters than in any of the previous three years. Nearly 100 million people were affected.
  

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Climate Fight Brings Mega Profits to EU Power Firms

August 27, 2007
From Planet Ark



This is an article about how the Cap and Trade system to manage Greenhouse Gases fails to achieve its aims. The reason is because the amount of pollution companies can emit is given to them as these carbon credits. That is the 'cap'. They then trade this by theoretically reducing the amount of polution and selling what they don't use to other companies. So the rort is that they are paid to pollute. There are other issues, not discussed in this article, where teh amount of pollution is not set until some date in the future. So these countries cut ALL their trees down (causing pollution but that doesn't matter in this cap and trade system) and then get paid through carbon credits by planting trees.

This is the sort of crazy shit that capitalism inflicts on this world. Why can't we just live the "common good"?

LONDON - European power companies are making billions of euros in excess profits in the European Union's battle to beat global warming by cutting emissions of carbon gases, and consumers are paying for it, economists say.


The electricity generators are given, free of charge, permits to emit millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide which are currently worth around 20 euros a tonne, but are then charging consumers as if they had been made to pay for the permits.

Michael Grubb, Chief Economist at the Carbon Trust and Director of Climate Strategies, calculates that this practice which he says is economically justifiable gives the industry windfall profits of some 20 billion euros (US$27.14 billion) a year.

"It is free money," he told Reuters. "It's how you'd expect companies to behave, but politically and morally it is going to be hard to justify making so much money out of a scheme designed to reduce emissions -- with consumers footing the bill."

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Howard 'fails to plan for climate security'

September 25, 2007
From News.com.au



THE Federal Government has left Australia unprepared for global turmoil caused by climate change, which the nation's top police officer has called this century's greatest security risk, Labor said today.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty said water and food shortages caused by global warming could have disastrous implications, particularly for border security.

Mr Keelty said the world could see a "catastrophic'' decline in the availability of fresh water in populated areas.

"Crops could fail, disease could be rampant and flooding might be so frequent that people en masse would be on the move,'' he said in a speech last night.

"Even if only some, if not all, of this occurs, climate change is going to be the security issue of the 21st century.

"It's not difficult to see the policing implications that might arise in the not-too-distant future.''

Mr Keelty said people in their millions would be attempting to cross oceans and borders to escape their plight.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute in July said the military would find itself involved in more disaster and relief missions because of climate change and spend more time protecting the nation's borders.

Federal Labor said such threats posed critical questions for the nation's strategic and capability planning.

"Yet the Howard Government is still working off a Defence White Paper developed in the late 1990s and released in the year 2000, which takes no account of the implications of climate change,'' defence spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon said.

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Fished Out: European Union Closes Bluefin Tuna Fishery

September 19, 2007
From

Although not directly related to climate change, this story is about mans' greed, selfishness and short term concerns causing a significant problem. Exactly the same as the cause of global warming.

The European Commission today decided to close the 2007 fishery for bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. On the basis of the catch returns received from the seven European Union countries that fish for bluefin, the 2007 EU quota of 16,780 metric tons has been exhausted, the Commission said.

This closure concerns Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Portugal and Spain. The other two member states involved, Italy and France, already closed their own fisheries earlier this summer.

European Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Joe Borg said, "Clearly there are problems both of overfishing a stock already threatened with collapse and of equity between the member states concerned. As is its duty, the Commission will do all it can to address these issues urgently."

The Commission has noted failings in the reporting of catch data necessary to monitor the uptake of the EU quota in real time. Borg said measures against such failings will be put in place in time for the 2008 fishery to prevent the problems experienced this year.

There are two populations of Atlantic bluefin tuna, a smaller western population which spawns in the Gulf of Mexico, and a larger eastern population which returns each May from the all around the North Atlantic Ocean to spawn in the Mediterranean Sea.

Spotter planes and helicopters are waiting for the tuna as they enter the Mediterranean. In an attempt to protect the spawning tuna, the use of spotter aircraft has been illegal in the month of June since 2001. But illegal flights during June have been observed, says WWF Mediterranean, which campaigns for protection of bluefin tuna.

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