United Nations Stalled on Strategy to Save Forests

World Growth -- a U.S.-based non-governmental pro-growth organization -- called on wealthy nations to honor their commitments to support the United Nations’ strategy to save forests in the developing world.

World Growth Chairman Alan Oxley points out that rather than assisting poor countries in their efforts to implement sustainable forestry, U.N. aid donors have been directing those much-needed funds to anti-forestry initiatives promoted by NGOs like Greenpeace and WWF.

Speaking on the release of a new report from the World Growth Forestry and Poverty program -- “Forestry and Development: Building the Foundations for Sustainability” -- timed to coincide with this week’s meeting of the U.N. Forum on Forestry, Mr. Oxley explains, “The U.N. has always insisted that forestry initiatives both protect biodiversity and promote economic growth.

However, influenced by persistent criticism against commercial forestry NGOs like Greenpeace and WWF, aid donors have provided funding to anti-forestry campaigns that devastate the economic welfare of poor communities by restricting forestry in developing countries."

“There’s clear evidence that Greenpeace’s illegal logging claims regularly ignore the facts. World Growth’s new report shows that global targets to reserve 11 percent of the world’s forests for conservation have been far exceeded -- an impressive 80 percent of the Amazon rainforest remained intact. Moreover, the annual rate of deforestation is now less than 0.2 percent per year and falling.”

In “Forestry and Development,” World Growth reveals that deforestation is not caused by commercial forestry (or illegal logging), but rather pressure of population growth and the need to produce valuable crops.

It also outlines the steps necessary to implement sustainable forestry (good technical knowledge of forests, well-trained forest officials, clear property rights and carefully designed forestry policy), noting that the intensive process is costly.

“If the world’s forest-rich developing countries are to successfully transition to sustainable forestry practices, they’ll need financial assistance,” Mr. Oxley continues.

“For that reason the U.N specifically outlined an obligation to resume aid to poor countries for this very purpose in its strategy on developed countries. However, aid donors have yet to honor this commitment.”

In 1991, the World Bank 1991 decided to not support sustainable forestry in tropical countries. Though the organization has informally conceded this policy was wrong and has even recently made a major loan to Brazil to support sustainable forestry, the formal position of the Bank is still stuck in the past.

“Donors have fallen into an aid trap,” says Mr. Oxley. “Rather than fund sustainable forestry -- which enables developing countries to responsibly develop their natural resources and then finance forest conservation themselves -- activist groups have convinced funders to subsidize measures to temporality improve conservation.

Because the conservation can only continue as long as the donor provides the aid, this is poor alternative. “Good aid, on the other hand, produces self-perpetuating conservation. For that reason, the U.N., the World Bank, and world leaders must formally reject misguided anti-forestry policies.”

The two-wheeled electric car that will 'never crash'

General Motors Corp. and Segway Inc. are working together to develop a two-wheeled, two-seat electric vehicle designed to be a fast, safe, inexpensive and clean alternative to traditional cars and trucks for cities across the world.

The Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility, or PUMA, project also would involve a vast communications network that would allow vehicles to interact with one another, regulate traffic flow and prevent crashes, the companies said last week.

"We're excited about doing more with less," said Jim Norrod, chief executive of Segway, the Bedford, N.H.-based company best known for its innovative electric stand-and-ride electric scooter that's used by police departments, pizza deliverymen and others in urban settings.

"Less emissions, less dependability on foreign oil and less space," Norrod said.

The 300-pound prototype runs on a lithium-ion battery and uses Segway's characteristic two-wheel balancing technology, along with dual electric motors. It's designed to reach speeds of up to 35 miles per hour and can run 35 miles on a single charge.

Ideally, the vehicles would also be part of a communications network that through the use of transponder and Global Positioning System technology would allow them to drive themselves. The vehicles would automatically avoid obstacles such as pedestrians and other cars and therefore never crash, Burns said.

As a result, the vehicles would not need air bags or other traditional safety devices and include safety belts for "comfort purposes" only, he said.

Though the technology and its goals may seem like something out of science fiction, Burns said nothing new needs to be in- vented for it to become a reality.

Meanwhile, the recession has resulted in some of the lowest industrywide vehicle sales in more than a quarter-century.

But Burns argued that some of the most revolutionary ideas have been born out of tough economic times.

"The next two months, and really 2009, is all about the reinvention of General Motors," he said.

A Tool Necessary for Kids to Build a Habit of Using Rechargeable

April 22 marks the thirty-ninth annual celebration of Earth Day. Founded in 1970 by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day is now observed around the world.
For the last forty years, Earth Day celebrations have served as a yearly reminder that we can each make a difference. In fact, little changes can make a huge difference.

Accordingly, Solar Wholesale will demonstrate their kid's solar charger and car at Boulder EarthFest on April 18th, and at Blue Mountain Boulder Elementary School in Longmont on April 22nd, the Earth Day.

This product provides an excellent tool to allow age 8 and above children easily integrate rechargeable batteries into their daily lives, help them to start on a life-long habit of responsible battery use.

With more and more devices in our daily lives requiring battery power (toys, remote control, mobile phones, etc.), encouraging our children to use rechargeable batteries will yield benefits all their lives … environmental benefits and financial benefits.

For example, according to current prices at a well known national retailer, four rechargeable NiMH AA batteries cost about $11 and can be recharged up to 1000 times each.
Replacing the equivalent of 1000 AA dry cell batteries, at approximately $6.00 per 4-pack would save an astounding $1489. Imagine how much waste you would generate by dumping 1000 AA dry cells compared to only four AA rechargeable.

And now, companies like Solar Wholesale of Superior, Colorado offer this low cost kid's solar charger in the form of a toy car that allows children age 8 + years to play and capture the power of the sun to keep those rechargeable batteries ready to use with free solar power.

With the environment becoming an increasingly important topic and our current economy at its lowest point in years, it makes sense to teach our children (and ourselves) the benefits to both the environment and our wallets of using rechargeable batteries powered by free solar energy.

As Lily Zhu, the founder of Solar Wholesale remarked, "Using a kid's solar charger is environmental and financial friendly for every family."

Global Climate Talks Slow-Going

170 countries meeting for climate negotiations haven’t resulted in any headway on central issues:
fixing mandatory emission reduction targets for industrial countries, setting objectives for developing countries to rein in their own rapidly expanding emissions, and raising some $100 billion a year to help poor countries adjust to changing climate conditions.

There’s nothing surprising in that sentence: it’s not like those countries are in any way held accountable to their citizens if they don’t make progress. Still, their negotiators keep at it, which is saying something.

Interestingly, in response to the jammed negotiations, President Obama is duplicating an effort that Bush tried: have the 17 largest economies meet together since that’s where the primary problems are arising.

The first meeting is scheduled for April 27-28 in Washington, with more leading up to a July summit in Italy.

Among those invited are the swiftly developing economies of China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia and South Africa. Korea and Japan join the U.S., Russia and several European countries from the industrial world, as well as representatives of the European Union. Denmark won an invitation as host of the decisive Copenhagen meeting.

Will the supposedly more focused set of meeting make more of a difference? I doubt it. Although, having President Obama’s people in place for a longer period of time might help spur things along.

Unfortunately, they seem to be adopting the Bush attitude that the U.S. won’t be the primary responsible party to get climate action underway.

President Obama seems to recognize that delay is no longer an option. I hope that attitude translates to real action and an aggressive course of action to come out of the Copenhagen, Denmark talks later this year.

Otherwise, some of the costs we face, like those outlined in this table from the NRDC (based on somewhat conservative estimates), will come to fruition. Anything we do now will be cheaper.

Climate Change Conference in Abu Dhabi

This project will examine the impact on development and on developing countries of carbon markets and climate-related investment. The objective is to elaborate a more useful and effective framework for climate-based development.

It draws on the expertise of NYU Law faculty in climate change, environmental law, development finance, international trade and investment, international transaction taxation and tax policy generally, global institutions, and global regulatory governance.

It is closely linked to both the IILJ's Global Administrative Law project and the IILJ Financing Development program.

Upcoming Events
: Abu Dhabi Conference on Climate Change: Financing Green Development, May 3-5, 2009

NYU Law School is holding a conference in Abu Dhabi May 3-5, 2009 on Climate Change: Financing Green Development. The conference, held with the support of the Abu Dhabi government, will address the legal and regulatory elements of carbon markets, climate finance, and climate-related investment in developing countries.

The issues for discussion, include market-based climate regulatory programs, the design, governance and linkage of carbon markets, climate-related conditions on various forms of development finance, international trade and investment law governing domestic climate regulation including of emissions trading and climate assets, and tax and distributional issues.

Conference participants include leading representatives of the climate finance industry, carbon market regulators, developing countries, multinational businesses, sovereign wealth funds, international organizations, and NGOs as well as academic experts.

NYU faculty, other academics, regulators, and expert practitioners will present papers on key legal, regulatory, and policy issues associated with climate finance and development in order to frame discussion and debate among all participants.

Nanotech and environment: beauty or animal?

Nanotechnology holds been utilise mostly in the wellness industry. What could Nanotech make for the environment? There is an interesting background article in Nanoweek

Nanoweek News : But scientists working in the relatively unknown field of environmental nanotechnology argue that work on the nanoscale makes not need to be to the hurt of the environment.
Surveys hold presented that nanotechnologies can be employed to not only proctor and forbid pollution, but to clean upwardly pollutants once they hold already done their style into the environment.
Given policy shapers ' increased center how emanations can be cut, and the environment protected, the want of treatment on how nanotechnologies could assist is a surprising inadvertence.

Sydney first major city to mark Earth Hour 2009

The floodlit cream shells of the famed Opera House dimmed Saturday as Sydney became the world's first major city to plunge itself into darkness for the second worldwide Earth Hour, a global campaign to highlight the threat of climate change.

From the Great Pyramids to the Acropolis, the London Eye to the Las Vegas strip, nearly 4,000 cities and towns in 88 countries planned to join in the World Wildlife Fund-sponsored event, a time zone-by-time zone plan to dim nonessential lights between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

Involvement in the effort has exploded since last year's Earth Hour, which drew participation from 400 cities after Sydney held a solo event in 2007. Interest has spiked ahead of planned negotiations on a new global warming treaty in Copenhagen, Denmark, this December. The last global accord, the Kyoto Protocol, is set to expire in 2012.

Despite the boost in interest from the Copenhagen negotiations, organizers initially worried enthusiasm for this year's event would wane with the world's attention focused largely on the global economic crisis, Earth Hour executive director Andy Ridley told The Associated Press. Strangely enough, he said, it's seemed to have the opposite effect.

"Earth Hour has always been a positive campaign; it's always around street parties, not street protests, it's the idea of hope not despair. And I think that's something that's been incredibly important this year because there is so much despair around," he said. "On the other side of it, there's savings in cutting your power usage and being more sustainable and more efficient."

In Australia, people attended candlelit speed-dating events and gathered at outdoor concerts as the hour of darkness rolled through the country. Sydney's glittering harbor was bathed in shadows as lights dimmed on the steel arch of the city's iconic Harbour Bridge and the nearby Opera House. (quote:AP)

Global warming giving nuclear new claim to clean

The nation's worst nuclear power plant accident was unfolding on Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island when an industry economist took the rostrum at a nearby business luncheon.

It did not go well.

Those in the standing-room-only crowd listened to economist Doug Biden's thoughts about cheap, reliable nuclear power, but Biden could not calm their nerves or answer their pointed questions: Should they join the tens of thousands of people fleeing south-central Pennsylvania? Should they let their children drink local milk?

Three decades later, fears of an atomic catastrophe have been largely supplanted by fears about global warming, easing nuclear energy into the same sentence as wind and solar power. Dogged by price spikes and an environmental assault on carbon dioxide emissions, fossil fuels are the new clean-energy pariah.

"There's a lot of support for nuclear now, and most of that support is borne out of a concern for the desire to have emissions-free energy sources," said Biden, who still advocates for power companies as the president of Electric Power Generation Association in Pennsylvania.

Policymakers in numerous states are warming to nuclear power, even in states where the facilities are banned. Nuclear reactors generate one-fifth of the nation's power. Some see nuclear as a stable, homegrown energy source in light of last year's oil price spikes. Others see it as a way to meet carbon-reduction goals.

Public interest is emerging, too: A Gallup Poll released in recent days shows 59 percent favor the use of nuclear power, the highest percentage since Gallup first asked the question in 1994.

If the U.S. nuclear industry is hitting a new high point, Saturday marks the anniversary of its low point. Thirty years ago, the partial meltdown of Three Mile Island's Unit 2 put the perils and shortcomings of nuclear power under the world's microscope.

No one was seriously injured in the accident, in which a small amount of radiation was released into the air above the Susquehanna River island 12 miles south of Harrisburg. Studies of area residents have not conclusively linked higher rates of cancer to radiation exposure.

Since then, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not granted one license for a nuclear power plant. The industry says it has made major safety advances, but huge obstacles remain.

It takes years to license and build a reactor. Construction costs billions of dollars. The nation has no long-term storage site for the 2,000 tons of radioactive waste being produced annually by the 104 reactors operating in 31 states.

While some environmental groups grudgingly accept nuclear power as part of the energy landscape, others continue to oppose it. Counting waste costs and government subsidies makes nuclear no more effective than a combination of efficiency measures, desert solar stations, wind power and geothermal energy, they say.

Last month, President Barack Obama called for a cap on greenhouse gas emissions that would almost certainly raise the cost to operate coal- and gas-fired plants. It was another arrow in the quiver of nuclear power advocates who argue that there is no other reliable source of power that is free of greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide.

In the last two years, 26 applications for new reactors been submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which expects to issue a license no earlier than 2011. No such application was filed in the 28 years following the Three Mile Island accident.

In red states and blue states, public officials are paving the way for new reactors to call their states home. Even lawmakers in fossil fuel-rich Oklahoma, are advancing a bill that would effectively lift a moratorium on nuclear power.

"It makes sense to at least have other options out there," Oklahoma House Speaker Chris Benge said.

Republican Charlie Crist of Florida and Democrats Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania and Martin O'Malley of Maryland, governors who get high marks from environmental groups, all support proposals for new reactors in their states.

"By no means is (nuclear power) the sole answer to our energy problems, but I think it actually has a definitive place in the whole array of things we need to do to reach our goals of producing enough to meet demand," Rendell said.

In the past year, the Florida Public Service Commission has approved four new reactors, including two at a proposed Progress Energy Inc. plant along central Florida's Gulf Coast.

Bill Johnson, chief executive of the Raleigh, N.C.-based utility, said the proposal met two important criteria for public acceptance: It dovetailed with Crist's anti-global warming agenda and the desire for reasonably priced power.

Down the Susquehanna River from Rendell's office in the Pennsylvania Capitol, the destroyed Three Mile Island Unit 2 remains sealed.

Its core was shipped away years ago and what is left inside the containment building remains highly radioactive.

Next to it is Three Mile Island's Unit 1, now owned by Exelon Corp. and still churning out electricity. Three Mile Island would even make a fine place to build another reactor — were it not for the memory of the 1979 accident, perhaps.

"I think politically that would be difficult," Biden said. (quote:AP)

World water forum pledges action

A seven-day focus on the world's water crunch wound up Sunday with a pledge by more than 100 countries to strive for clean water and sanitation for billions in need and fight drought and flood.

But some countries criticised the cornerstone outcome of the fifth World Water Forum as flawed while activists dismissed the event itself as a "trade show."

The declaration, coinciding with World Water Day, was issued at the end of a three-day ministerial meeting, climaxing the biggest-ever conference on the planet's freshwater crisis.

"The world is facing rapid and unprecedented global changes, including population growth, migration, urbanisation, climate change, desertification, drought, degradation and land use, economic and diet changes," the statement said.

It set out a roster of non-binding recommendations, including greater cooperation to ease disputes over water, measures to address floods and water scarcity, better management of resources and curbing pollution of rivers, lakes and aquifers.

Some countries tried to beef up the statement so that it recognised access to safe drinking water and sanitation as "a basic human right," rather than a "basic human need," which was the final text.

They were blocked by Brazil, Egypt and the United States, delegates said.

Around 20 dissenting countries signed on to a separate statement to spell out their position after the conference's close. A Venezuelan delegate said they included Bangladesh, South Africa and Spain.

The textual difference, which has political and legal ramifications, is being debated under the UN Convention on Human Rights. Numerous countries, led by Latin America, have already enshrined access to water as a right in their constitution.

The World Water Forum is held every three years, and has gained in importance as a meeting place for debating the globe's amplifying problems of freshwater.

At least 25,000 policymakers, water specialists and grassroots workers took part in this year's event, a record attendance.

Campaigners representing the rural poor, the environment and organised labour on Saturday attacked the Forum as a vehicle for water privatisation and called it for to be placed under the UN flag.

"We demand that the allocation of water be decided in an open, transparent and democratic forum rather than in a trade show for the world's large corporations," said Maude Barlow, senior advisor to the president of the UN General Assembly.

The Forum is staged by the World Water Council, a French-based organisation whose funding comes in large part from the water industry.

Providing access to drinking water and sewerage, conserving resources and building reservoirs and dikes to cope with water stress and water excess would cost rich countries alone around 200 billion dollars per year, according to estimates.

"Mobilising the resources... is likely to be one of the greatest challenges we face," said US delegate Alonzo Fulgham.

The ministers said they would "promote effective use of financial resources from all sources" but did not state a preference for whether water should be in public or private hands.

This is a thorny issue, because campaign groups say utilities that are in private hands ramp up tariffs, hitting the poor especially.

However, the ministers said they "acknowledge" that the costs of recovering water investment had to be "fair, equitable and sustainable."

Around 880 million people do not have access to decent sources of drinking water, while 2.5 billion people do not have access to proper sanitation, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said in a report on Tuesday.

By 2030, the number of people living under severe water stress is expected to rise to 3.9 billion, a tally that does not include the impacts of global warming, according to the OECD.

The world's current population of more than 6.5 billion is growing at the rate of 80 million a year. By 2050, there is expected to be nine billion people.

Feeding them -- and growing crops for biofuels -- will spur even greater demands from agriculture, which already takes up 70 percent of available freshwater. (quote:AFP)

Tokyo declares cherry blossom season open

Japanese authorities on Saturday declared the cherry blossom season open in Tokyo, with the blooming date getting earlier due to what some experts say is the effect of global warming.

Millions of Japanese wine and dine each year at parties under the cherry trees, whose delicate but short-lived blossoms have left centuries worth of poets pondering the ephemeral nature of beauty.

A meteorological agency official confirmed that more than 10 buds on a designated Somei-Yoshino cherry tree planted in the grounds of Yasukuni shrine, central Tokyo, came into bloom on Saturday morning.

The officially declared blooming date in the capital came earlier than average for the fourth consecutive year, according to the agency.

"A rise in temperatures is one of the key elements prompting cherry trees to bloom," another agency official said. "The early blooming could be affected by global warming, but we need more study to probe it."

Researchers at Kyushu University have predicted that global warming would prompt cherry trees to bloom in northern Japan more than three weeks earlier than average by the end of this century, the Mainichi Shimbun reported.

"The results showed climate change can also affect our familiar events such as cherry blossom," Hisanori Ito, a meteorologist at the western Japanese university, told the daily. "Global warming is an imminent problem."

The closely-watched announcement made the headlines with Japanese television networks showing footage of white and pink blossoms swaying gently under the spring sunshine.

Mapping the location of the cherry-blossom front, which moves northeast along the Japanese archipelago, is a key duty for the meteorological agency in March and April. (quote: AFP)

Millions wasted on Africa water projects: research

Hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted on rural water projects in Africa because the donors and aid agencies that built them ignored maintenance, a new report claimed Friday.

London-based research organisation the International Institute for Environment and Development said about 50,000 water supply points across rural Africa had failed, representing a loss of 215 to 360 million US dollars.

"It is not enough to drill a well and walk away. Water projects need to support long-term maintenance needs and engage local communities. Without this, it is like throwing money down the drain," said report author Jamie Skinner.

The report says that of the 52 deep water borehole and supply systems built by the charity Caritas in Senegal's Kaolack region since the 1980s, only 33 are still functioning.

It also quotes research by the Global Water Initiative, which is backed by numerous non-governmental organisations (NGOs), showing 58 percent of deep water boreholes in northern Ghana need repair.

Of 43 such boreholes in western Niger, 13 are abandoned, 18 stop working for at least three days once a year, and 12 do not work for at least three days more than three times a year.

"Every day that a borehole does not provide safe water, people are obliged to drink from unclean pools and rivers, exposing them to water-borne diseases," Skinner said, urging a change in the way NGOs and donors approach the problem.

Patrick Nicholson, head of communications at Catholic development charity Caritas, said it was impossible to guarantee that all the boreholes set up with the help of his organisation were still functioning.

But he said Caritas focused on setting up such projects with local people, and ensuring they had a stake in their ongoing maintenance.

"Whatever project we are working on, we are trying to make sure that it has a long-term impact on the community and that it survives," he told AFP.

"The people who build these boreholes are not us, they are those communities. From that point onwards they have a stake in ensuring that they are maintained."

The IIED report was released as nations meet in Istabul for the week-long World Water Forum and ahead of the United Nation's World Water Day on March 22.

Violence at Indonesian Greenpeace protest

Greenpeace activists and security guards clashed outside the headquarters of Indonesia's biggest logging and palm oil company, the Sinar Mas Group, in Jakarta Thursday, environmentalists said.

Activists said they were punched and kicked by guards and police as they tried to protest against alleged illegal land-clearing in Indonesia's vast eastern Papua region and on Borneo island.

"The excessive violence today by Sinar Mas security is testament to the way this company does business," Greenpeace Southeast Asia Forest campaigner Bustar Maitar said in a statement.

"Sinar Mas may think they are above the law, but the right to peaceful protest is enshrined in the Indonesian constitution."

Greenpeace climbers unfurled a huge banner reading "Forest and Climate Criminal" on the building as part of the demonstration to demand a halt to the company's logging.

The protest came as Greenpeace released what it said was photographic evidence taken last year showing that Sinar Mas had cleared huge tracts of peatland and forests near the Papua town of Lereh and in Lake Sentarum National Park in Borneo's West Kalimantan province.

The group's investigations showed Sinar Mas had cleared carbon-rich peatland -- a key source of greenhouse gases when burnt or denuded -- to a depth greater than three metres, breaking Indonesian law, spokesman Martin Baker said.

"Indonesia is allowing companies like Sinar Mas to exploit natural resources without any comeback and that's stealing from Indonesia's future, clearly," Baker said.

Baker urged local and global companies, including Unilever and Procter & Gamble, to stop buying products from Sinar Mas until it adopted more responsible business practices.

"We're not against economic development, we're not against palm oil. We're targeting Sinar Mas because it's a big company and it could influence the market to change business practices for the better," he added.

Sinar Mas president Daud Darsono confirmed the clash between protesters and guards but said security was the responsibility of building management, not the company.

"If we're being accused of deforestation for palm oil, I'd say that's not true. We are a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, when we clear land we ensure that we follow by its principles," Darsono said.

Greenpeace has been lobbying the country's main logging companies and the government for an immediate moratorium on the expansion of oil palm plantations, which are blamed for the loss of vast areas of pristine forest.

Indonesia is widely seen as the world's third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, a major contributor to climate change, by virtue of the pace of its deforestation. (AFP)

World loses 70 mln hectares of forest in 15 years

The world had lost more than 70 million hectares of forests from 1990 to 2005, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a report released on Monday.

According to the report on the State of the World's Forests, most of the deforestation has taken place in South America, Africa and the Caribbean.

The FAO said the pace of deforestation in developing countries is unlikely to decline in the near future because high food and fuel prices will favor continued forest clearance for production of livestock and agricultural crops for food, feed and biofuel.

From 1990 to 2005 Latin America lost 64 million hectares of forests, some 7 percent of the world's total, the report said.

"In Africa, forest loss is likely to continue at current rates," said the report, stressing that "increasing frequency of droughts, declining water supplies and floods" will undermine efforts to manage African forests sustainably. Africa lost 8 million hectares of forest land from 1990 to 2005.

"In Asia and the Pacific, home to more than half of the world's population with some of the most densely populated countries in the world, demand for wood and wood products is expected to continue to increase in line with the growth in population and income," the report said. (Source: Xinhua)

China says stimulus plan won't sacrifice environment

China's 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion), two-year stimulus package to counter the global economic slowdown will not lead to the environment being sacrificed for growth, a deputy minister said on Wednesday.

The plan, unveiled late last year to help the world's third-largest economy survive what Beijing terms a "financial tsunami," is focused on infrastructure and other big ticket items, as well as housing.

Since the package was announced the Environment Ministry has approved 970 billion-yuan worth of projects, but has also turned down schemes worth 104 billion yuan, vice-minister Wu Xiaoqing told reporters at the annual meeting of parliament.

These included projects which may threaten drinking water sources, would consume too much energy, damage nature reserves or were in sectors in which the government was trying to control overcapacity, Wu said.

"This a red line, a high-tension cable, which cannot be touched and cannot be crossed," he added.

"We have especially stressed in our meetings that we would rather been seen as the baddy today than as a criminal in history, and we will most definitely keep the bar high," Wu said.

Still, the government has actually cut the amount of money from the package intended specifically for environmental protection to 210 billion yuan from an original 350 billion yuan.

Another vice-environment minister, Zhang Lijun, said the money for tackling the crisis was not only about ensuring growth and promoting domestic consumption. It was also to be invested in phasing out polluting, inefficient and wasteful factories.

"It's an opportunity to restructure, and we must use this opportunity well," Zhang added.

But the official said there would be no turning back on the government's support for car purchases, even though this has led to ever-worsening congestion in the cities and degraded the air.

China overtook the United States as the world's number one auto market in January and many of the world's biggest car brands have Chinese factories pumping out vehicles primarily for a growing domestic middle class.

"Certainly there is an impact upon the environment from the increase in vehicles, that's without a doubt. But we cannot not develop the auto industry just because of its effect on the environment," Zhang said.

"If people can't drive cars, they'll have to go back to the time of everyone riding bicycles. I don't think this is realistic, and it is not possible." (Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Europe’s new climate gambit - shifting the heat onto developing nations?

European environment ministers, who today discussed Europe’s proposals for the Copenhagen climate summit in December, appear to be backtracking from a UN agreement by which developed countries take the lead on climate action.

The ministers, meeting as the EU Environment Council, call on developing countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15-30% from expected levels by 2020 – while the EU has set itself a 20% reduction target from 1990 levels, which should increase to 30% when the global deal is agreed.

Rather than strengthening their own targets, EU Ministers called upon a number of developing countries to consider taking on binding emissions caps. Other developing countries are also being asked to elaborate plans for low carbon development by 2012, but the EU Ministers have only pledged to provide support for the development of these plans to Least Developed Countries – rather than all developing countries.

"much take, little give"

“EU Ministers seem to be trying to exorcise the spirit of Bali, where industrialised countries agreed to take the lead in a global deal to keep climate change under control,” said Katherine Watts, International Climate Change Policy Advisor at WWF UK.

“The EU has long agreed to support developing countries to reduce their emissions, but today’s proposal is much take and little give.”

EU ministers acknowledged that global investment for climate change policies may amount to €175 billion per year in 2020, but have left it to EU Heads of State and Government to agree how it should be generated.

They have also failed to offer a concrete package to facilitate deployment of clean technologies in developing countries, placing excessive confidence in the markets’ ability to deliver. Adequate provision of finance and technology is necessary for a successful deal in Copenhagen.

“Europe is focusing excessively on the role of emissions trading,” said Watts. “Carbon markets are proving to be a useful tool but are not a silver bullet. Even here Europe sets a poor example with its reluctance to fully auction permits and back up trading with other instruments such as emissions performance standards.”

The world needs Europe

While the EU Environment Council proposals have to be approved later in March by EU Heads of State and Government, they fall surprisingly short of measures needed to fulfil Europe’s stated ambition to contribute to keeping global warming below the 2˚C threshold level for avoiding unacceptable risks of catastrophic climate change.

“The EU agreed its 2ºC target in 1996, based on the then best available information about climate impacts. We now know that impacts are predicted at far lower temperatures than once was thought,” said Watts.

“The targets being proposed by the EU, despite being one of the better gambits on the table, show a worrying reality gap. With the window for avoiding the worst climate impacts beginning to close, the world needs a Europe ready to collaborate and do its fair share.”

WWF asks that Europe lift its proposed 2020 emissions cuts from 20% by 2020 from 1990 levels, a target further weakened by offsetting, to a 45% target. Two thirds of this should be in the EU itself, and the financial equivalent of the remainder being used to support developing countries’ actions. (panda.org)

Panda porn fails to inspire couple

A Thai zoo has again resorted to artificial insemination of its giant pandas after pornography, low-carb diets and even a spell out in the cold failed to inspire the celibate pair. Chiang Mai zoo's star residents, nine-year-old Chuang Chuang and his eight-year-old partner Lin Hui, have showed no interest in reproducing the traditional way since they arrived on a 10-year loan from China in 2003.

But determined zoo officials, despite failing in a previous attempt at sperm donation two years ago, said they were hopeful a second try could finally produce a cub. "The artificial insemination was successfully conducted on February 18 at 1.30pm, which was the most suitable time for successful reproduction," Sophon Dumnui, the head of the team behind the attempt, said in a statement.

The zoo must now wait up to three months to find out if the method has worked. Hopes were first raised among zoo officials this year when cold weather in the northern city in January prompted an unusually frisky response from Lin Hui.

Authorities took the pair out of their usual climate-controlled environment in the hope that the chilly climes would provoke a steamy response during the pandas' mating season. Lin Hui was first artificially inseminated with semen from her companion in April 2007, but she failed to become pregnant.

The previous year Chuang Chuang, who had been deemed too heavy to mate with Lin Hui, lost seven kilograms on a low-carbohydrate diet, and was then shown 15-minute video clips of successful panda couplings. But the panda porn did little to inspire.

Giant pandas, notorious for their low sex drive, are among the world's most endangered animals. Nearly 1 600 pandas are believed to survive in the wild in China and about 180 are being raised in captivity in zoos worldwide.