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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 22nd, 2008 The 10-member ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. They are joined by Japan, China and South Korea in the ASEAN Plus Three talks. This is the 13 member Asian cover. The East Asia Summit involves these 13 plus Australia, New Zealand and India. Then comes the ARF - Asean Regional Forum - that includes these 16 and Canada, North Korea, Russia, the U.S., the EU and others - so here we get the whole Eurasian world with the addition of the US and Canada, and with the exclusion of Africa, Latin America and the Small Island States. The ASEAN Regional Forum will meet in Singapore on this Thursday - on Thursday - July 24, 2008. The series of meetings hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is held annually in the summer to prepare for the leaders’ Summit later in the year that will focus mainly on food and security, disaster management, economic conditions and climate change issues, Japanese Foreign Ministry officials said in Tokyo. The ARF now will place specific emphasis on security issues, particularly disaster relief, counterterrorism, maritime security, and nonproliferation and disarmament, according to the officials. The whole onion reminds us of what went on under the cover of the runnup to the Hokkaido G8 meetings earlier this month. This time, the Summit will include only the 13 States that amount to the 11 Asian States including India and the auxiliaries from Australia - New Zealand. This Summit will leave out the TransAtlantic party goers. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 18th, 2008 About the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) (posted originally on www.SustainabiliTank.info on June26, 2008) The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is an independent not-for-profit organisation aiming to create a lasting relationship between shareholders and corporations regarding the implications for shareholder value and commercial operations presented by climate change. Its goal is to facilitate a dialogue, supported by quality information, from which a rational response to climate change will emerge. CDP provides a coordinating secretariat for institutional investors with a combined $57 trillion of assets under management. On their behalf it seeks information on the business risks and opportunities presented by climate change and greenhouse gas emissions data from the world’s largest companies: 3,000 in 2008. Over 8 years CDP has become the gold standard for carbon disclosure methodology and process. The CDP website is the largest repository of corporate greenhouse gas emissions data in the world. CDP leverages its data and process by making its information requests and responses from corporations publicly available, helping catalyse the activities of policymakers, consultants, accountants and marketers. For more information, visit web site: WWW.CDPROJECT.NET Letter from CDP CEO: CDP’s information request 2008 is now complete and we have received a high level of very informative, detailed company responses, as more and more companies seek to understand their impact on the climate and the impact climate change will have on their business. We have also seen some very interesting developments in the global political climate in the past few months. The UK government is considering a mandatory reporting scheme for corporate greenhouse gases, the New Zealand government is looking at a cap and trade system. In the USA, the Lieberman-Warner Bill, although defeated in the Senate earlier this month, showed how a future cap and trade system in the USA might shape up. Climate change will be on the agenda at the G8 Summit in Japan next month and Tokyo’s Metropolitan government has just voted unanimously for a cap and trade system which will cover the capital’s offices and factories. We still have a very long way to go to reaching a global agreement, but the political appetite is growing. ———————- From: marieke.beckmann at cdproject.net The joint CDP and IBM project is one of the most detailed research projects into corporate carbon management practice ever undertaken in the UK. Findings have been collated from in-depth interviews with representatives from Aviva, Centrica, HBOS, IBM, Lloyds TSB, Scottish and Southern Energy, Tesco, Thomson Reuters, TNT, Unilever and United Utilities. Questions were focused on their current carbon management schemes and future plans. Paul Dickinson, Chief Executive of the Carbon Disclosure Project, said: “Many companies face challenges in collecting data and in developing a carbon strategy. The guidelines, developed from our joint research project with IBM, are designed to support corporate executives in the implementation of climate change strategies and ensure that best practice data is readily available to carbon managers, experts and novices alike.” Gill Hall, Head of Carbon Management at IBM commented: “The findings from the research are fascinating and highlight the complexities of managing carbon data. It is clear that carbon management is becoming more and more important to businesses and we hope that the guide will help continue the education of companies towards best practice for corporate carbon management.” The research highlights that companies introduce carbon data management systems for reasons such as cost reduction, risk mitigation, competition, reputation enhancement and end-user pressure. The Best Practice Guide has been developed to address the issues raised by the research and to provide advice on how to successfully devise a corporate climate management response. Areas covered by the report include: - A properly formulated carbon strategy is essential, providing structured targets and goals. Target setting inevitably varies according to industry sectors making it difficult to make direct comparisons between businesses. However, the introduction of standardised methods and processes would facilitate the comparison of underlying emissions data between organisations. - Monitoring and measuring carbon emissions is important before reduction commitments are made; highlighting areas for improvement and allowing accurate target setting. - Carbon strategies need to be developed in line with growth prospects. Targets that relate to increases in output and scale of operations allow a company to grow and cut emissions simultaneously. - Engagement of employees and the support of senior executives can improve the data gathering process and contribute creative ideas to reduce office emissions. For more information on the Best Practice Guide and the research conducted, please go to: www.cdproject.net About CDP Carbon Disclosure Project is a UK Registered Charity no. 1122330. A company limited by guarantee registered in England no. 05013650. For more information please visit www.cdproject.net The IBM home page can be found at ibm.com IBM, IBM logo and ibm.com are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. If these and other IBM trademarked terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (® or ™), these symbols indicate U.S. registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information was published. IBM: Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 10th, 2008 From: lynda.a.mcdonald at btinternet.com The Global Commons Institute [GCI] recently collated some of what Kemal Dervis, Administrator of UNDP called ‘the emerging consensus’ for Contraction and Convergence (C&C) into this “Carbon Countdown” documentation. Carbon budgeting and risk-analysis proportionate to 350-750 ppmv is examined: Professor Ross Garnaut’s Draft Climate Report to the Australian Government has just been published. From a government now serious about climate change, it is very welcome to find it contains well-focused C&C argument. He makes the case for C&C as pragmatic and addresses some of the arguments raised about C&C. ‘The Age’ reported that “C&C is on the table” at the recent G8 though, in the event, the G8 outcome seemed inconclusive As downloading from source proved difficult, the full Report Garnaut is also sited at: - ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 9th, 2008 Global Markets - latest news No formal greenhouse targets at G8 summit. By William L. Watts & Chris Oliver, MarketWatch. a Wall Street Journal Blog. LONDON (MarketWatch) — Leaders of 16 nations at a multilateral gathering in Japan agreed to back a plan for making long-term reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions, although the deal fell short of establishing formal reduction targets. “We, the leaders of the world’s major economies, both developed and developing, commit to combat climate change in accordance with our common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities,” the nations said Wednesday in a communiqué at the Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido. The G8 nations include the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy Canada and Russia. Backers included Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Mexico and South Africa, in addition to the G8. But the joint statement didn’t include language from Tuesday’s statement issued by the G8 leaders, in which they said they shared a vision to cut greenhouse emissions in half by 2050. See full story. Only three of the non-G8 countries in attendance — South Korea, Australia and Indonesia — backed the 50% reduction, Reuters reported, and this prevented inclusion of the language in Wednesday’s statement. Leaders of emerging economies have argued that developed countries should first spell out their own goals for emissions reductions. All the same, President Bush hailed the final statement as a sign of “significant progress.” In the end, Wednesday’s statement said the leaders shared a vision for “long-term cooperative action, including a long-term global goal for emission reductions that assures growth, prosperity, and other aspects of sustainable development, including major efforts towards sustainable consumption and production, all aimed at achieving a low-carbon society.” William L. Watts is a reporter for MarketWatch in London. So both gentlemen were not in Hokkaido - their reporting is based on material they read on the web - Did the WSJ really see it like we did - that this G8 exercize, under Japan leadership subservient to the US wishes, will not come up with real and meaningful results? —————— If it was a G8 meeting - why not take as final decision what was decided already on Friday without the participation of the other 8? Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and South Africa - the remaining 5 out of the additional 8 - plain and simple said that they do not participate in games when the G8 do not have the stomach for real figures put down in real time. By saying that they want first to see a real offer from the G8, before putting on the record their own participation in emissions reduction, they are actually in full rights and have done nothing worse then pointing flashlights at the meager document of the G8. As we said already in another posting today, it was the Bush, Harper Fukuda position that doomed these 2008 G8 meetings under Japan leadership. President Bush won this battle. Our only remaining question is - why did Fukuda invite the other 8 to participate? Had the G8 met in their own closed cocoon and come up with a final declaration, was that not expected to be better then having a bigger show with folks to be held later as responsible for this failure? What does now Fukuda frame next to his Prime Minister chair in order to say that the meeting he chaired was a success? —————– And the previous article - a day earlier - that was referenced in the July 9, 2008 article - The VISION thing that came to nothing a day later: G8 leaders share ‘vision’ on emission cuts. LONDON (MarketWatch) - Leaders of the Group of Eight wealthy nations on Tuesday said they shared a “vision” to cut global greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050. In a joint statement on the environment and climate change, the G8 leaders said they “seek to share” with all parties involved in U.N.-brokered talks “the vision of … the goal of achieving at least 50% reduction of global emissions by 2050, recognizing that this global challenge can only be met by a global response.” Japan and the European Union are seeking to formalized emission-reduction targets, building on last year’s general agreement among the G-8 nations to “consider seriously” the reductions. The U.S. and several other developed countries { read here Canada and Japan } have said they will not enter an agreement to reduce future greenhouse gas emissions which does not include binding commitments by growing industrial powers such as China and India to cut carbon. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was pleased with progress made toward climate change and other issues following a morning meeting with President Bush. “As always, we’ve had a very interesting exchange of view, very intensive exchange of view, and let me tell you that I’m very satisfied with the work that has gone on, on the G8 documents, as regards progress on the issue of climate change, cooperation in the area of food and oil,” Merkel said at a photo opportunity with Bush. This year’s summit, held at a lakeside resort on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, brought together leaders from 22 nations, including the top G8 officials. { 8+8+5 - the last five are Africans in need and they were not even deemed a reference in the article the following day that speaks of 16 - so, our question is even more to the point - if you had no intention in bringing these other 13 into the decision making process, except for eventually blaming the first 5 from among the second group of 8 for the failure, who needed here also the second group of five that did not even get invited to dinner? All of this is part of our various postings these last few days. We predicted disaster - and here it is starring at us } Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 7th, 2008 You can now register online for Carbon Market Expo Australasia 2008 by visiting http://www.carbonexpo.com.au The event boasts a “cutting edge” speakers programme, workshops and Trade Fair and will be attended by a diverse range of businesses including; · energy providers and other significant industries with corporate abatement strategies Fiona Wain Tony Beck On behalf of the Organising Committee For further information please contact; Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 3rd, 2008 For this year’s summit, the G8 has invited China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, Mexico, Australia and South Korea to its “outreach” session on climate change. Apart from the G8’s inability to come up with anything on global warming, some world leaders have questioned the value of the summit’s current framework. During a meeting with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on June 3, French President Nicolas Sarkozy vehemently argued that the G8 forum should be expanded to include such countries as China and India, according to Japanese diplomats. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown also appears to be positive about expanding the group, although he has not explicitly discussed it, they said. Fukuda strongly disagrees, saying the G8 should remain a forum for a small number of states bearing a large responsibility for the international community. Tokyo fears expanding the meeting would diminish Japan’s clout on the world stage. “Japan, Germany and Italy are reluctant about expansion. They do not want to weaken the power of the G8 to send out political messages,” said a senior Foreign Ministry in charge of European affairs. “President Sarkozy is of the opinion that the G8 was originally started as a forum for economic discussions, and talking about economic issues without the participation of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) is meaningless. He believes noneconomic issues should be discussed at the U.N. Security Council,” the official said. But Japan, Germany and Italy are not permanent members of the Security Council and attach greater political value to the G8 forum, the official said. Another senior Foreign Ministry official argued that expanding the G8 membership would only increase political taboos that member states can’t touch on during the closed-door summit. For example, adding China would make it impossible to discuss human rights issues and world currency issues related to the yuan, the official said. Despite speculation that the G8 leaders may discuss the expansion issue in Hokkaido, Japanese officials insist it will not be a formal topic. “I guarantee that will never be on the formal agenda,” Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said Tuesday. “None of (the foreign ministers) of the G8 has discussed the issue yet. At least Japan has not said it wants to expand the G8.” —– Really, if they want relevancy, why not create first the United European Group of States Federation or whatever they want to call it, so little States like Italy are not allowed to interfere with the work of the big ones. So - EU, US, Russia, China, India, Japan, Brazil are a good start for a relevant compact G7. Candidates-in-waiting or whatever you want to call it are then - Australia, South Africa, Canada, Indonesia, Korea. OK, not to have another upset State - probably the inclusion of Canada could give us the new starting G8. In any case, it seems that unless Japan gets a seat on the UN Security Council, the G8 will continue to show its irrelevancy for all to see. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 3rd, 2008 From: jeh1 at columbia.edu makes some very interesting points about relative parts of coal, oil, and gas in 2007 emissions and their historic part in the present composition of the air, and the various sources of these emissions. He makes suggestions and asks for Fukuda’s leadership. Please open the above link in order to read Jim Hansen’s intervention to the G8. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 25th, 2008 Cooperative Spirit Emerges at Whaling Commission Meeting. SANTIAGO, Chile, June 24, 2008 (ENS) - With whaling nations and their allies on one side and pro-conservation nations on the other, annual meetings of the International Whaling Commission have been increasingly gridlocked and acrimonious. But today at the 60th annual IWC meeting in Santiago there was a breakthrough. The 81 member governments agreed on a new way of dealing with the issues that separate them. After intensive discussions among officials during the last week, including a closed door commissioners’ meeting on Sunday all nations seem prepared to make the new approach work. First, the IWC has agreed to change the rules of engagement under which meetings operate, in the hope of developing an atmosphere more conducive to change. The establishment of a small working group, which is the second development, will allow substantive issues that have persisted in dividing the Commission to be addressed. The group will attempt to resolve 33 significant issues. “This a major step forward - for the first time in 20 years we have agreed to a concrete process to talk about the substantive issues that divide us,” said New Zealand Conservation Minister Steve Chadwick in Santiago. The crux of the problem is that commercial whaling has been prohibited throughout the world’s oceans for the last 20 years, but in reality it has continued under the guise of scientific whaling by Japan. “Members of the Commission have always known what these issues are, but until now have never agreed to sit down together and try to find a way out of the impasse,” Chadwick said. “My meeting yesterday with Peter Garrett, the Australian Minister for the Environment, reconfirmed both countries’ determination to find a way to end scientific whaling,” said Chadwick. “New Zealand and Australia share very similar views on whale conservation and we will continue to work closely at the IWC to ensure a constructive meeting that maximizes the protection of whales.” The meeting opened Monday with speeches of welcome by Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs Alejandro Foxley and Chilean Minister for the Environment Ana Lya Uriarte. Outside the meeting, Uriarte and more than a thousand Chileans formed a human whale sculpture, calling for the protection of whales. Today, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and ministers from Chile, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Costa Rica gathered at Quintay on the coast, to witness the declaration of the new marine sanctuary in the Gulf of Corcovado. Establishing this new sanctuary demonstrates Chile’s commitment to marine protection. The IWC Scientific Committee reported on the status of Antarctic minke whales, North Pacific common minke whales, Southern Hemisphere humpback whales, Southern Hemisphere blue whales and small populations of bowhead, right and gray whales. There was positive evidence of increases in abundance for humpback, blue and right whales in the Southern Hemisphere, although they remain at reduced levels compared to their pre-whaling numbers. Special attention was paid to the status of the endangered western North Pacific gray whale, whose feeding grounds coincide with oil and gas operations off Sakhalin Island, Russian Federation. The population numbers only about 120 animals and although there is evidence that it has been increasing at perhaps three percent per year over the last decade, any additional deaths, for example in fishing gear as has recently occurred, put the survival of the population in doubt, the Scientific Committee said. The commission agreed to work together to try to mitigate human threats to this endangered population and there was praise for Japanese efforts to reduce bycatches in its waters. Ship strikes and entanglements are a threat to the endangered western North Atlantic right whale population which numbers around 300. The commission agrees again that mortality due to human causes should be reduced to zero as soon as possible. A new report submitted to the IWC Scientific Committee by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, IFAW, appears to confirm warnings from international researchers and conservationists that Japan is underreporting the number of whales it kills each year. “The government of Japan is unable to regulate the sale of whale meat in the country,” said Naoko Funahashi, director of IFAW Japan and co-author of the report. “DNA testing proves more fin whales are being sold in Japan than the government admits having killed.” The research team, led by Dr. Scott Baker of Oregon State University, analyzed DNA from 99 whale meat products purchased in Japanese markets since 2006 and identified six baleen whale species - humpback, fin, sei, Bryde’s, North Pacific minke, and Antarctic minke. In the case of the fin whales, the study used methods similar to human forensic genetics to identify products from a total of 15 individuals for sale in 2006 and 2007. But Japan reported a total of 13 fin whales killed under its scientific whaling program over the same period. Official records of whales entangled and killed in fishing nets do not seem to account for the additional fin whale meat in the market. Although the government of Japan claims to have DNA records for each whale killed, it refuses to share the information, said Funahashi. After considering the new report from the market surveys, the Scientific Committee again urged Japan to provide such data to help detect any illegal, unreported or unregulated catches. Three reports presented to the IWC Scientific Committee by conservationists Monday offer evidence that overfishing, not whales, is responsible for declining fish stocks around the world. The Humane Society International, WWF and the Lenfest Ocean Program offered reports debunking the science behind the “whales-eat-fish” claims emanating from whaling nations Japan, Norway and Iceland. The argument has been used to bolster support for whaling, particularly from developing nations. “Who’s eating all the fish? The food security rationale for culling cetaceans,” the report co-authored by Dr. Daniel Pauly, director of the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre for the Humane Society International contrasts “the widely different impacts of fisheries and marine mammals.” Fisheries target larger fish where available and marine mammals consume mainly smaller fish and tiny crustaceans such as krill, the report points out. “Dr. Pauly’s findings should refute, once and for all, the misconception that whales are eating all the fish and need to be killed to protect the world’s fisheries,” said Patricia Forkan, president of the Humane Society International. Also presented to the IWC Scientific Committee was an analysis of the interaction between whales and commercial fisheries in northwest Africa. The model, funded by the Lenfest Ocean Program, shows no real competition between local or foreign fisheries and great whales. The third report is a review of the scientific literature originating from Japan and Norway - the two countries most strongly promoting the idea that whales pose problems for fisheries. Funded by WWF, the study found flaws in much of the science and concluded that “where good data are available, there is no evidence to support the contention that marine mammal predation presents an ecological issue for fisheries.” Dr. Susan Lieberman of WWF said, “These three reports provide yet more conclusive evidence that whales are not responsible for the degraded state of the world’s fisheries. It is now time for governments to focus on the real reason for fisheries decline - unsustainable fishing operations.” Permalink | |