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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 4th, 2008 We received an e-mail showing how little costs to buy gasoline (in German called Benzin) and diesel fuel if you live in a so called developing oil-exporting country or in the USA Date: July 4, 2008 1 Liter = 0.264174 gal (US Liq) The Austrian e-mail evokes the following list. We went then and looked up other countries and found that Austria is actually a bargain when compared to other developed economies. The Austrian 1.32 Euro/liter is 2.16 times what the complaining American sissies are paying, but only 78.7% of what Norwegians are paying or 80.7% of what the Dutch are paying. On the other hand Japan at 0.99 Euro/liter is another chaeap-shot so is Canada at 0.88 Euro/liter. And you know already what we think? Those that pay more for their gasoline have also decreased their dependence on oil by efficiency methods and conservation - they also developed alternatives to oil and have started building the economy of the future. So, it is actually the US that is falling behind while it transfers its funds to the Gulf States hoping that the increased National Debt will devalue the US$ to the point that it remains valueless paper in their hand.The problem is that they do not sit on the money anymore. They actually buy assets with that money - among that buying spree they also buy up chunks of America. So what then? Will they agree to American taxation without representation - or the US will eventually find out that Bush made a Faustian Deal with the US oil companies and with his Arab friends. Our advice to our Austrian readers is thus - DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE TAX ON FUEL - BUT MAKE SURE THE MONEY IS USED SO THAT EVENTUALLY YOU WILL HAVE TO BUY LESS OF IT. The following is what we got in the mail - then look at what we added for the sake of analysis. if our other readers want to get the actual numbers in US dollars, please use the above conversion factors. BENZINPREISE INTERNATIONAL Benzin that is Gasoline - but much of the posting is about Diesel - this because in Europe the motor-fuel of choice is high quality Diesel. Afghanistan Normalbenzin € 0,43 Algerien Diesel € 0,11 Aserbaidschan Diesel € 0,31 Ägypten Diesel € 0,14 Ãthiopien Super € 0,24 Bahamas Diesel € 0,25 Bolivien Super € 0,25 Brasilien Diesel € 0,54 China Normal € 0,45 Ecuador Normal € 0,24 Ghana Normal € 0,09 !!!!!!! Grönland Super € 0,50 Guyana Normal € 0,67 Hong Kong Diesel € 0,84 Indien Diesel € 0,62 Indonesien Diesel € 0,32 Irak Super € 0,60 Kasachstan Diesel € 0,44 Katar Super € 0,15 Kuwait Super € 0,18 Kuba Normal € 0,62 Libyen Diesel € 0,08 !!!!!!! Malaysia Super € 0,55 Mexico Diesel € 0,41 Moldau Normal € 0,25 Oman Super plus € 0,20 Peru Diesel € 0,22 Philippinen Diesel € 0,69 Russland Super € 0,64 Saudi Arabien Diesel € 0,07 !!!!!! Südafrika Diesel € 0,66 Swasiland Super € 0,10 !!!!!! Syrien Diesel € 0,10 !!!!! Trinidad Super € 0,33 Thailand Super € 0,65 Tunesien Diesel € 0,49 USA Diesel € 0,61 Venezuela Diesel € 0,07 !!!!! Vereinigte Arabische Emirate Diesel € 0,18 Vietnam Diesel € 0,55 Weißrussland Diesel € 0,51 EU und dem Finanzminister sei dank ist der Österreicher bzw. Europäer dumm Bitte dieses E-Mail weiter zu schicken damit wenigstens einige Leute Benzinpreise auf der eigenen Webseite And looking at international prices for July 4, 2008 at - http://benzinpreis.de/international.phtm… Land Normalbenzin in € Superbenzin in € SuperPlus in € Diesel in € Österreich 1,26 1,29 * 1,28 1,32 * UK 1,40 1,46 1,50 1,58 Finnland 1,47 1,50 1,50 1,36 Frankreich 1,39 1,34 * 1,44 1,37 * Irland 1,26 1,26 1,15 1,43 Island 1,35 1,40 1,47 1,50 Israel - 1,05 - - Italien 1,36 1,46 1,34 1,45 Japan 0,99 1,08 - 0,79 Kanada 0,88 0.87 0.82 0.90 Neuseeland 1,03 0,97 - 1,46 Niederlande 1,56 1,61 1,69 1,31 ** Norwegen 1,60 1,61 1,46 1,56 Schweden 1,37 1,39 1,36 1,47 Schweiz 1,24 1,21 * 1,23 1,37 * Ungarn 1,29 1,26 1,20 1,31 Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 2nd, 2008 If Africa Will Agree To Stop Shooting at Itself, and if the Donor Countries Can Agree To Do Something Positive in the Follo-up To A World-Agreement on a new Climate Change agreement, Africa Should be Indeed a Major Part of a Carbon Trading Mechanism. In Anticipation of the Above, Some Tough Minded People Want To Try To Have Propsals On The Table For Real Plans Of Action. We Wish Them, And Ourselves - the Best of Luck. Subject: Solicitation of African Carbon Offset Projects & Travel Sponsorship Opportunity July 2, 2008 At COP‐13 in Bali, the UNFCCC Secretariat announced its intent to convene the first Africa Carbon Forum, in partnership with the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) and the multilateral agencies supporting the Nairobi Framework, including UNEP, UNDP, UNIDO, UNECA, and the World Bank. The Nairobi Framework aims to assist developing countries, especially those in sub‐Saharan Africa, to enhance their participation in the CDM. This groundbreaking high‐profile event will combine a carbon investment trade fair, a policy forum for African DNAs and climate change officials, as well as targeted capacity building for the CDM. The Forum will take place from 3 ‐ 5 September 2008 at Le Meridien Hotel, Pointe Des Almadies, in Dakar, Senegal. Further details and a draft agenda can be downloaded from the IETA website: http://www.ieta.org/ieta/www/pages/index… The organizers therefore invite all interested parties to attend and to submit their carbon offset project concepts for consideration. As co‐organizers of the Forum, UNEP and UNDP have pledged to provide travel sponsorships for CDM project champions from across the African continent to attend the event, based on a competitive selection. See attached document for additional details on the sponsorship procedures and requirements. http://www.ieta.org/ieta/www/pages/index… ————- BACKGROUND At COP13 in Bali, the UNFCCC Secretariat announced its intent to convene the 1st Africa Carbon Forum, in collaboration with the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) and the partner agencies of the Nairobi Framework, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), The World Bank and the African Development Bank. The Nairobi Framework was initiated with the specific target of helping developing countries, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa, to improve their level of participation in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). OBJECTIVE This event will bring together representatives from designated national authorities (DNA), national focal points (NFP), representatives from several UN agencies, governments and the private sector. The Africa Carbon Forum is a platform that will strengthen links between CDM project developers and the region’s investment community, provide opportunities for DNA representatives to exchange views and share their experiences relating to the CDM, while facilitating knowledge sharing and transactions between project sponsors and global carbon offset credit buyers. The Forum will take place from 3-5 September 2008 in Dakar, Senegal, at Le Méridien Hotel, located in the Pointe Des Almadies area. The complete schedule of this three-day event will be available shortly. The Africa Carbon Forum provides a platform for companies to Present, Showcase, Meet and Interact. The exhibitor section will be open to the following types of entities: ——————- Also from Denmark: Based on the unequal geographical distribution of CDM activities where the Least Developed Countries (LDC) are largely under represented and the increasing microfinance activities in these countries, the Executive Board to the CDM launched the idea to explore the possibilities for combining CDM development with microfinance mechanisms. The COP endorsed the concept and the Government of Denmark decided to finance the project. The purpose of the project is to identify possible synergies between the CDM, especially CDM Programme of Activities (PoA), and microfinance mechanisms. The objective is to enhance CDM activities in LDCs, in particularly sub-Saharan Africa, by exploring ways to improve the financial feasibility of mitigation projects that are pertinent to LDCs. DANIDA has appointed the Danish consulting engineering company NIRAS A/S to execute the study for which we have engaged the services of the internationally recognised experts Ms. Christiana Figueres and Mr. Hans Jürgen Stehr to enhance our in house capacity. We would like to report to the EB on the advance of PoAs worldwide. Thus, if you are developing a PoA we would like to know the country(ies), the sector, and the foreseeable CPAs. We are particularly interested in PoAs in LDCs and Africa, but would be happy to receive information on PoAs in other regions. We will collate the information received and make it available to users of Climate L, as well as include it in the report to the EB. We recognise the sensitivity of particular information during the project development process due to competition issues and will thus make sure that no confidential information is distributed and that the information will be collected without attribution to who is developing the PoA if requested. Ms. Hanne Holm-Jørgensen NIRAS email: hhj at niras.dk Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 27th, 2008 From: climate at joanneum.at Workshop “Climate Change in South-Eastern European Countries III: Causes, Impacts, Solutions ” on the 18th and 19th September 2008 in Graz, Austria. For more information about the workshop please visit the website: For participation, researchers are encouraged to prepare either or both … Kind regards, Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 25th, 2008 EU fails to convince OPEC to boost oil production writes Renata Goldirova from Brusells for the EUobserver. 24.06.2008 - The group of major oil-exporting countries, OPEC, has ruled out a further increase in oil production, saying there is sufficient supply to the market and that other factors, including US foreign and economic policies, are to blame for record price hikes. “All you need to do is look at the data to be convinced that the market is well-supplied in oil, that we have enough surplus capacity and we have enough stocks in the market,” Chakib Khelil, the president of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), said on Tuesday (24 June).
The price of petrol has passed from ten dollars in 1999 to 95 dollars last year. Speaking after discussion with the European Union in Brussels, Mr Khelil cited the recent US sub-prime mortgage crisis, financial market speculation, the weak US currency and worsening geopolitical situation as main factors behind the high prices. When asked about how much the price will jump over the summer holiday season, Mr Khelil replied: “It is the sixty-billion dollar question”. “The market is waiting to see how the dollar is to evolve in July, how the geopolitical situation is going to evolve with the threats made to Iran. So if you can answer those questions, I can answer the question concerning the price,” he said. The EU, for its part, insists that the oil price is to large extent driven by fast growing energy consumption in China and India. It has repeatedly called for supplies to be boosted. EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs urged OPEC to scrap the production ceiling in order to provide relief for the market. “In my opinion, there is no reason to keep ceilings on production,” he said. “If there are no ceilings, markets will adapt much faster,” he added. “In this respect we could expect prices to go down, not to go up as the tendency has been till now.” “We need to work much closer to discover what action should be taken because investments take billions and to change consumer behaviour also takes time,” the commissioner added. He also suggested stronger supervision of activities in financial markets and reiterated the EU’s intention to decrease oil import dependency through its energy-climate change package. Under the package, the EU has committed itself to boosting renewable energy production and cutting energy consumption. In response to the EU’s plans, the OPEC president said: “All of this of course is going to lower the demand, but I think it is a good thing to lower the demand. We just have some more supplies and maybe some lower prices.” “The EU is doing a very good job and should continue this way,” Mr Khelil added, underlining the potential benefits for OPEC members of having new technologies linked to energy efficiency and CO2 emission cuts. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 19th, 2008 Subject: Re: COPENMIND ‘08 ~ GET ACCESS TO € 100 BILLION OF RESEARCH. COPENMIND 2008 connects industry to more than 150 universities and research institutes worldwide while saving you time and money. An event for face-to-face knowledge sharing between universities and industry. You get to reap the benefits of global research budgets worth more than € 100 billion. Access to the world’s greatest minds represents a unique opportunity for recruitment and branding of your company. USA USA and CANADA: SOUTH AMERICA: ASIA: OCEANIA: EUROPE: Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 17th, 2008 UN DAILY NEWS from the UNITED NATIONS NEWS SERVICE - 16 June, 2008: ========================================================================= BAN WELCOMES MOVE BY SAUDI KING TO TACKLE ‘ABNORMALLY HIGH’ OIL PRICES. King Abdullah “acknowledged that the current oil price is abnormally high, due to speculative factors, and he is willing to do what he can to manage the price of oil to the adequate level,” Mr. Ban told reporters in Jeddah yesterday following meetings with the Saudi monarch and other officials. “I am grateful that the King intends to convene a high-level meeting of major oil producers and consumers on this issue next week in the Kingdom,” he added. “We also expect that His Majesty the King and his Government will take the necessary measures to stabilize the price of oil.” Saudi Arabia has also reportedly announced it will increase its oil production by 200,000 barrels a day starting next month in an effort to deal with the growing demand. The Secretary-General, who was on a two-day visit to the Kingdom, said oil prices have had a major impact on the rising cost of food, a concern expressed by a number of world leaders during a recent summit held in Rome to discuss the global food crisis. It has also “weakened our capacity to address climate change issues,” he noted, adding that ——– We are flabbergasted? What did Ban have to pay for this “success?” His multiple travels start looking like - don’t lose any opportunity fate throws at you, if you can avoid doing solid and quiet work to remake the UN so it becomes a global policy center. Every week now points at rather another event where his predecessor - Kofi Annan - does in effect upstage him by helping remake Africa for a start. Yes, the high price of oil gave an opening to speculators to increase disproportionately the price of food. What Kofi Annan does, is he uses the occasion to help Africa grow its own food rather then fight for it on the global market. The price of food will not roll back even if the price of oil will be stabilized, or even come down slightly for a while. The way to handle this is to push local food production using the window of opportunity that opened up because of the increase of price of oil - and do both - increase the production of food and the production of alternate energy in the poor countries. The rich have reacted finally by starting to use less energy. The higher price of oil is thus actually the ladder to climb out of the marshes of fools into which globalization mislead us. Why eat in New York apples from Chile if we can grow them right here? Why not grow in Chile soybeans instead for food by the local indigenous people and for biodiesel for the better-off Chileans? Why grow in the US Midwest cheap corn for Africa rather then develop small scale corn production locally. The low price of oil helped speed up global warming that might have been the reason for this year’s failure of corn production in the US. Whatever you think of this last remark, the bottom line is that this year there will be less corn coming out from the US, so it is a good year to push for the improvement of Africa’s agriculture. How about Mr. Ban following up on the Malawi example and joining the Annan efforts by getting the UN to revisit its globalization goals. But above is only part of the issue. In effect the Saudis know they have to watch not to pass the yellow line of gold that will kill their business by having pushed too far so the world does indeed move away from oil. The effect of the Saudi move was to bring on Monday the barrel from $140 down to $134.61 - this may have been the psychological line they were aiming at anyway. The dollar fell a little and the corn futures rose a little. So, what are Ban’s bragging rights? Further, to all of this we find also some meaning of a different line of thinking we posted as per a consultant who understands the oil market and the way political manipulations were responsible for its movements. See: “The oil economist Dr Mamdouh Salameh, who advises both the World Bank and the UN Industrial Development Organisation (Unido), told The Independent on Sunday that the price of oil would now be no more than $40 a barrel, less than a third of the record $135 a barrel reached last week, if it had not been for the Iraq war.” Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on May 27th, 2008 From the number of hits on this article we know it is quite popular - did Mr. Ban read it? We do not know. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 8th, 2008 The Financial Times of London: A weaker dollar could even see investors push the oil price higher. Last month, Opec president Chakib Khelil used this argument to predict $200 oil – and it looked less far-fetched this week when the Goldman Sachs analyst who correctly predicted $100 oil made a similar, if self-serving, prediction. Look what I came up when we searched for “Oil $200″ on Financial Times online: http://search.ft.com/search?queryText=Oi… The stuff is exciting to us - this because we need a higher price of oil in order to bring recalcitrant folks to their senses. The need is to proceed decreasing the dependence on oil. To do this we will have to sell the remaining Hummers to the world’s museums. We saw this week the start by General Motors scratching their production of SUVs. Also, we saw the UN making grand promises for a hunger free world, but going home after being rebuffed by the Latin Americans who won the day. Biofuels are not the source of hunger but the opposition to them is another oil industry invention. The higher the price of oil - the better - but clearly we can envision much better ways of achieving this then by burying the dollar so that the oil magnates get their feed. Had we gone to the sun rather then Iraq, we would by now have turned the dollar around. Washington will try now to tar white-man Barak Obama in order to keep some of the Washington establishment in place. Those folks better be retired to the salt mines and straight thinking fresh and green folks replace every single one of them. Do not bring in MIT professors, they did not relearn yet the difference between thermodynamics and human dynamics. Bring in old time, home grown conservationists as the real honesty-goodness conservatives. We looked at some of the stuff being pushed around the webs and we are appalled at what the US election campaign will be like. Bring in folks that believe a dollar in hand is valued more then a dollar in speculative spin. Bring in 140 IQ folks that know to operate technologies that could effectively be run by 100 IQ folks. Do not sell us pie-in-the-sky, but allow the world to grow rice and wheat and corn. Make the world proud again when holding in hand a green US dollar. Obama, we hope someone gives you to look at this posting. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 1st, 2008 Inauguration of Politkovskaya Room at the EU Parliament: President Hans-Gert Pöttering will unveil a plaque at a ceremony officially naming parliament’s press conference room after murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya Wednesday, June 4, 2008, 4.30pm. Also: Tuesday June 3, 2008, the Parliament will look at Media pluralism: Permalink | |