Three time frames for climate change

In understanding and dealing with global warming, the world has distinct but limited periods in which to act. For our leaders, the next 18 months will be the key. Saleemul Huq explains.

Climate change is the greatest challenge facing humanity. The world's leaders and citizens can and must face up to this fact and deal with it, and they have three distinct time frames in which to act.

The first period, spanning the next five to 10 decades, is the longest and is the time frame of our children and grandchildren. If greenhouse-gas emissions continue unabated over this period then global temperatures will rise by several degrees. This would have globally catastrophic impacts, including severe sea-level rise and more deadly heat waves, droughts, floods and more intense hurricanes. 

We can limit these impacts, but only if we act now. We need to reduce and then reverse the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere back to safe levels. This will entail being less wasteful with resources, avoiding deforestation, being more efficient with energy, and using more renewable sources of power such as wind and solar. The major emitting countries, including the two biggest, the United States and China, as well as others, both developed and developing must act now if we are to avert catastrophe over the coming decades.

The second period – the time frame of this generation – is the next two decades, during which a global temperature increase of at least one degree Centigrade is already inevitable. Even if all global emissions were to miraculously stop tomorrow, enough greenhouse gases have already accumulated in the atmosphere to mean that some climate change is unavoidable.

The most vulnerable countries include the 50 Least Developed Countries, the small island developing states and most of Africa. These three groups consist of nearly one hundred countries (some are in more than one group) with a total population of nearly a billion people. Their combined greenhouses-gas emissions are less than 3% of the global total, but they will certainly suffer the most adverse impacts of climate change. 

Of course they will not be the only ones to suffer. There are also significant vulnerable communities in wealthier developing countries such as China and India and in even the richest countries, as the poor communities of New Orleans who experienced Hurricane Katrina in August 2006 can testify.

Vulnerable countries and communities must prepare for climate change impacts through adaptation and they will need help. Richer countries must take responsibility for having caused the problem.

They can help the more vulnerable, primarily through funding but also through other means such as sharing technology and expertise.

The challenge for rich citizens (whether in rich or poor countries) is to transform themselves from unthinking consumers to conscious global citizens. They must recognise their responsibilities and then make efforts to reduce their own individual carbon footprints. And they must urge their leaders to take the necessary long-term policy decisions and compensate the victims of climate change.

Finally, the time frame of global leaders is the next 18 months. This is the time left until the 192 nations that are party to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change meet in Copenhagen to agree a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. 

Between now and the meeting in December 2009, the presidents, prime ministers and government ministers must agree on the elements of a fair and equitable global pact that will address climate change over the two time frames mentioned above. This means both mitigating climate change by rapidly reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and adapting to the impacts ahead.

To succeed, our leaders must lose their current mindset of striving for the best deal for their own country and its citizens. They are not just representing their own countries, but all of humanity. They are negotiating the state of the world their generation will leave behind for their children and grandchildren. 

The solutions lie in the hands of the leaders of all nations, especially those of the leading economies that emit most of the greenhouse gases that cause the problem. But citizens, especially those in the richer countries and rich citizens of the poorer countries, also bear a responsibility for action both personally as well as politically. Our leaders must rise to the challenge and all conscious citizens must urge them to do so. 

Saleemul Huq is head of the climate change group at the International Institute for Environment and Development. He is a coordinating lead author of the latest reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Source: Chinadialogue, July 16, 2008
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Researchers map risk of arsenic contamination
Naomi Antony

Researchers have produced a series of maps that highlight areas at risk from groundwater arsenic contamination in South-East Asia and Bangladesh.

The researchers, whose paper was published last week (11 July) in Nature Geoscience, used existing data on surface sediments and soil properties to map a variety of 'hotspots' in the region — some of which have not been tested previously for arsenic contamination.

The team calculated the probability of arsenic contamination using eight geological variables such as soil texture. They found that contamination was most likely in very young sediments, deposited before the last Ice Age. 

"Until now, no detailed risk maps for arsenic in groundwater existed," Lenny Winkel, a researcher at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, and one of the authors of the report, told SciDev.Net.

There was only one way to find out if water from a groundwater well contains arsenic and that was by sampling and analysing the groundwater — a time-consuming and costly matter."

The researchers found that their maps correlate with existing knowledge on arsenic contamination in South-East Asia and Bangladesh. But the maps also highlighted additional regions. 

"There are several known areas at risk, such as the Bengal delta area, the Red River delta of northern Vietnam and the Mekong delta," Michael Berg, a co-author of the study also from Eawag, told SciDev.Net. "But these maps pinpoint areas where arsenic has not been tested for."

The new areas include the Irrawaddy delta in Myanmar and a largearea on the eastern Sumatran coast in Indonesia. 

The researchers confirmed their findings by analysing groundwater tests conducted in the Irrawaddy delta in 2002, and collecting groundwater samples in the province of southern Sumatra last year.

Winkel says that these maps provide a "helpful tool" to immediately pinpoint areas that need to be prioritised for groundwater tests.

Arsenic poses a global threat to health, affecting over 100 million people worldwide. It enters drinking water supplies through natural deposits released into the groundwater. It can cause cancers, skin diseases and respiratory illness, even if ingested in small doses. The researchers now want to apply the method to other areas including Africa and northern Asia.

Alexander van Geen, a researcher at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Institute at the US-based Columbia University told SciDev.Net that the map emphasises the problem areas rather than why there is no arsenic in other areas. 

Van Geen also pointed out that the model is based on two-dimensional surface maps, whereas geological information contains a three-dimensional component — something that the authors themselves acknowledge, pointing out that in some situations, the environment at the surface differs from the geology at depth.

"The authors say there is not enough geological data to make such assertions [about why some areas are not contaminated] and I agree with them. But they could have still looked at it in some sort of depth-stratified way."

Source: SciDevNet, July 16, 2008
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Ghana to host Convention on Climate Change
Bernice Bessey 

Ghana has signed an agreement, with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to host the international conference on climate change in August next month. 

The agreement was signed, in order to outline enabling and financial mechanisms that countries can turn to, as they strive to tackle the problems and dilemmas, which arise from the complex side-effects of climate change. 

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and NEPAD, Mr. Akwasi Osei-Adjei, and UNFCCC Representative, Mrs. Salwa Dallalah, signed the agreement at the launch of Climate Change talks in Accra last Friday. 

According to the Minister, climate change affected every country in the world, be it developing or developed, and that the only way to check it, was to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, especially by industrialized countries. 

“One objective aspect of the Kyoto Protocol is that it recognizes that industrialized countries are mainly responsible for the current high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore places responsibility on them, regarding their reduction,” he stated. 

He added that by the end of the first commitment period, of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012, a new international framework has to be negotiated, and ratified to deliver the stringent GHG emission reductions. 

Mr. Osei-Adjei indicated that Ghana was fully committed, to global efforts to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change, and added that the upcoming conference would serve as a milestone, on the road to achieving the stringent reduction in GHG. 

The Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, Mr. Kwadwo Adjei-Darko, on his part, said Ghana’s motivation for hosting the conference, stemmed from the fact that she was enjoying great political stability, and progress in economic growth. 

According to him, the government of Ghana was working around the clock, in the development of national strategies, for climate change adoption and migration. 

Adjei-Darko noted that he was pleased the global community had awakened to the reality that climate change could cause harm to the world. 

“Climate change is now the greatest challenge of the 21st Century, because there is now compelling evidence that climate change is, and will dictate, the path of development, now and into the future,” he said, adding that climate change definitely provided opportunities for sustainable development. 

In his welcome address, the Executive Director of the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), Mr. Jonathan A. Allotey, warned on the harm that climate change would bring to economies, societies and eco-systems all over the world. 

He called for immediate action to be put in place, because things would be worse in a decade to come. 

“Floods, droughts, rising sea levels, extreme weather will pose a serious threat to economic life, critical infrastructure, food production and access to water to people dwelling, especially in the poorest regions,” he emphasised.

Mr. Allotey noted that in Africa alone, between 75 and 250 million people are projected to suffer from increased water stress in 2020. 

Source: The Ghanaian Chronicle, July 16, 2008
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Climate builds bridges across Asia 
Navin Singh Khadka 

Amidst growing criticism from industrialised countries for not committing to greenhouse gas reduction targets, India has indicated it would initiate regional efforts to deal with climate change. 

Some experts believe the regional approach could be aimed at resisting pressure from major western economies, while others say the South Asian country has no other way to face the global challenge. 

In its recently launched climate change national action plan, for example, India has stressed working with other nations in South Asia. 

"We will need to exchange information with the South Asian countries and countries sharing the Himalayan ecology," the plan reads. 

"Co-operation with neighbouring countries will be sought to make a comprehensive network for observation and monitoring of the Himalayan environment, to assess fresh water resources and the health of the ecosystem."

Sustaining the Himalayan ecosystem that India shares with most other South Asian countries is one of eight national missions in the action plan. 

Another mission, for national water, also talks about "customising climate change models for regional water basins". 

The Ganges, Meghna, Brahmaputra and Indus rivers forming the regional water basins are lifelines to hundreds of millions of people, nearly half of them poor. Experts have warned that the people hardest hit by climate change will be the poor. 

They have also said that most of the river basins in South Asia will see less and less water as Himalayan glaciers that feed them recede due to rising temperatures. 

Current troubles 

But even before it all becomes that bad, India is already water-troubled. "Many parts of the country are water stressed today," the climate change action plan says. 

"India is likely to be water scarce by 2050, and the problem is likely to worsen due to climate change impacts." Environmentalists say it is the threats of such impacts that could bring the region together.

"Unless we understand the climate change problem and work on it together as a region, we will never be able to deal with it," says Sunita Narain, director of the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

Sustaining the Himalayan ecosystem that India shares with most other South Asian countries is one of eight national missions in the action plan. 

Another mission, for national water, also talks about "customising climate change models for regional water basins". 

The Ganges, Meghna, Brahmaputra and Indus rivers forming the regional water basins are lifelines to hundreds of millions of people, nearly half of them poor. Experts have warned that the people hardest hit by climate change will be the poor. 

They have also said that most of the river basins in South Asia will see less and less water as Himalayan glaciers that feed them recede due to rising temperatures. 

Current troubles 

But even before it all becomes that bad, India is already water-troubled. "Many parts of the country are water stressed today," the climate change action plan says. 

"India is likely to be water scarce by 2050, and the problem is likely to worsen due to climate change impacts." Environmentalists say it is the threats of such impacts that could bring the region together.

"Unless we understand the climate change problem and work on it together as a region, we will never be able to deal with it," says Sunita Narain, director of the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

Sustaining the Himalayan ecosystem that India shares with most other South Asian countries is one of eight national missions in the action plan. 

Another mission, for national water, also talks about "customising climate change models for regional water basins". 

The Ganges, Meghna, Brahmaputra and Indus rivers forming the regional water basins are lifelines to hundreds of millions of people, nearly half of them poor. Experts have warned that the people hardest hit by climate change will be the poor. 

They have also said that most of the river basins in South Asia will see less and less water as Himalayan glaciers that feed them recede due to rising temperatures. 

Current troubles 

But even before it all becomes that bad, India is already water-troubled. "Many parts of the country are water stressed today," the climate change action plan says. 

"India is likely to be water scarce by 2050, and the problem is likely to worsen due to climate change impacts." Environmentalists say it is the threats of such impacts that could bring the region together.

"Unless we understand the climate change problem and work on it together as a region, we will never be able to deal with it," says Sunita Narain, director of the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

Source: BBC, July 16, 2008
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Industries urged to protect city's natural environment
SECTOR ADVISED TO EMPLOY ENVIRONMENTAL AUDIT 
Fikremariam Tesfaye 

Industries must design and plan a mechanism by which they can contribute to reduce environmental pollution, the Addis Ababa City Administration Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) urged on Tuesday.

The authority said it was empirical that the industries do so as their waste products have direct impact on the well being of the natural resource, environment, people, and animals.

The statements were made by Dr. Hailu Worku, EPA General Manager in his key remarks at a training workshop the authority organized for representatives from the industry sector in Addis Ababa.

He said that in order to reverse the environmental pollution trends particularly by wastes generated from manufacturing industries, it has been found very necessary to build the capacity of partners at the industries and staff of EPA in environmental auditing instruments. 

Most of industries in the city have no proper avoidance of waste products, Hailu said. During the workshop, a presentation was made on the concept and need of Environmental audit, a mechanism said to play an instrumental role in the protection and maintaining of the natural environment.

Hailu said environmental auditing would facilitate for the industries to identify and reduce wastes from its source, right from raw material storeroom, to the entire production process.

The audit is also designed to help industries comply with environmental related rules and regulations, while engaged in their day-to-day operations, Hailu explained.

Industry owners and managers drawn from 25 industries in the city attended the one-day workshop at the Ghion Hotel on Industrial Development and Pollution Control efforts of the Addis Ababa, organized by Addis Ababa Environmental protection Authority (EPA) in collaboration with UN-Habitat for at Ghion Hotel.

A three day long workshop for technical persons, industrial technologists will continue on Wednesday at the authority's office. Most industries are in the city are concentrated along Akaki Rivers' bank.

The major industries are food and beverage, textile tanneries, chemical, rubber and plastic, paper and paper products, metallic and non-metallic mineral products and wood industries. 

Addis Ababa is one of the cities where the problem of water pollution is at its highest state at present. 

Water quality in almost all the assessed sites along Akaki River was found to be deteriorated and not meeting the WHO, United States Environmental Protection Authority guide lines for river water. 30% of the city water is supplied from ground water. 

Source: The Africa Monitor, July 17, 2008
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CLIMATE CHANGE
World Bank says Asian cities at risk
Achara Ashayagachat

The World Bank has urged Asian cities to come up with climate resilient programmes to safeguard people from natural hazards triggered by climate change and rising sea levels. 

Coastal cities in Burma, China, Thailand and Vietnam are among the most vulnerable to rising sea levels, disaster response and climate change experts told a seminar on climate change impact reduction held by the World Bank in Pattaya this week. 

Extreme weather caused by climate change has threatened many Asian cities and could undercut economic progress in the region, they said. 

With climate change causing a rise in sea levels, some Asian cities are at a greater risk from storm surges and annual flooding. A projected one-metre rise in sea levels could lead to a two per cent loss of gross domestic product arising from a shortage of fresh water, the impact on agriculture and fisheries, the disruption of tourism and reduced energy security, the experts said. 

"The degree of impact from which cities suffer from climate change will ultimately depend on the actions and initiatives local governments take to build a more climate-resilient city," said Jim Adams, vice-president for the World Bank for the East Asia and Pacific Region. 

"City officials need to understand characteristics that make their cities vulnerable to disaster risk and develop a strategy to deal with it. They need to make the city climate-proof in order to protect city residents and properties from extreme weather," said Mr Adams. 

Home to an urban population of more than 660 million, East Asia is already susceptible to natural hazards. The region has been hit by many natural disasters this year, including the cyclone in Burma, the earthquake in China and a typhoon in the Philippines. 

Millions have been affected by these disasters _ nearly 200,000 people have died and tens of thousands are missing. 

These natural disasters seem to be getting worse, while global warming is also causing an increase in their intensity and frequency. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent reported 428 disasters from 1994-1998. That figure jumped to 707 from 1999-2003 with the greatest rise in developing countries. 

Source: Bangkokpost.com, July 19, 2008
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Wetlands could unleash "carbon bomb"
Deborah Zabarenko

The world's wetlands, threatened by development, dehydration and climate change, could release a planet-warming "carbon bomb" if they are destroyed, ecological scientists said on Sunday.

Wetlands contain 771 billion tons of greenhouse gases, one-fifth of all the carbon on Earth and about the same amount of carbon as is now in the atmosphere, the scientists said before an international conference linking wetlands and global warming.

If all the wetlands on the planet released the carbon they hold, it would contribute powerfully to the climate-warming greenhouse effect, said Paulo Teixeira, coordinator of the Pantanal Regional Environment Program in Brazil.

"We could call it the carbon bomb," Teixeira said by telephone from Cuiaba, Brazil, site of the conference. "It's a very tricky situation."

Some 700 scientists from 28 nations are meeting this week at the INTECOL International Wetlands Conference at the edge of Brazil's vast Pantanal wetland to look for ways to protect these endangered areas.

Wetlands are not just swamps: they also include marshes, peat bogs, river deltas, mangroves, tundra, lagoons and river flood plains.

Together they account for 6 percent of Earth's land surface and store 20 percent of its carbon. They also produce 25 percent of the world's food, purify water, recharge aquifers and act as buffers against violent coastal storms.

Historically, wetlands have been regarded as an impediment to civilization. About 60 percent of wetlands worldwide have been destroyed in the past century, mostly due to draining for agriculture. Pollution, dams, canals, groundwater pumping, urban development and peat extraction add to the destruction.

IMAGE PROBLEM

"Too often in the past, people have unwittingly considered wetlands to be problems in need of a solution, yet wetlands are essential to the planet's health," said Konrad Osterwalder, UN Under Secretary-General and rector of United Nations University, one of the hosts of the meeting.

So far, the impacts of climate change are minor compared to human depredations, the scientists said in a statement. As is the case with other environmental problems, it is far easier and cheaper to maintain wetlands than try to rebuild them later.

As the globe warms, water from wetlands is likely to evaporate, rising sea levels could change wetlands' salinity or completely inundate them.

Even so, wetland rehabilitation is a viable alternative to artificial flood control for coping with the larger, more frequent floods and severe storms forecast for a warmer world.

Northern wetlands, where permanently frozen soil locks up billions of tons of carbon, are at risk from climate change because warming is forecast to be more extreme at high latitudes, said Eugene Turner of Louisiana State University, a participant in the conference.

The melting of wetland permafrost in the Arctic and the resulting release of carbon into the atmosphere may be "unstoppable" in the next 20 years, but wetlands closer to the equator, like those in Louisiana, can be restored, he said.

Teixeira admitted wetlands have an image problem with the public, which is generally well-disposed to saving the rainforest but not the swamp.

"People don't have a good impression about wetlands, because they don't know about the environmental service that wetlands provide to us," he said.

(Editing by Alan Elsner)

Source: Yahoo News, July 20, 2008
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First Countries Named to Benefit from Forest Carbon Partnership Facility 
14 developing and 9 industrialized countries formally join partnership to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) 

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2008 –Fourteen states have been selected as the first developing country members of an innovative partnership and international financing mechanism to combat tropical deforestation and climate change.

The 14 developing countries include six in Africa (the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar); five in Latin America (Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Mexico, Panama); and three in Asia (Nepal, Lao PDR, and Vietnam). They will receive initial funding from the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), an innovative approach to financing efforts to combat climate change.

The FCPF aims to reduce deforestation and forest degradation by compensating developing countries for greenhouse gas emission reductions. The partnership, approved by the World Bank Board of Executive Directors on September 25, 2007, became functionally operational on June 25, 2008. The 14 tropical and sub-tropical countries will receive grant support as they build their capacity for REDD and tap into future systems of positive incentives for REDD. 

The decision about which countries will receive initial funding came at a two-day meeting in Paris of the FCPF Steering Committee. The committee was made up of an equal number of developing and industrialized countries, plus observers from international organizations, non-governmental institutions, and forest-dependent indigenous peoples and other forest dwellers. The committee was assisted in its decision by an independent Technical Advisory Panel comprised of experts in different technical fields and different regions of the world.

“Deforestation and forest degradation together are the second leading man-made cause of global warming,” said Joëlle Chassard, Manager of the World Bank’s Carbon Finance Unit. “They are responsible for about 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and the main source of national emissions in many developing countries. For that reason, we have been eager to initiate this partnership and assist countries while building a body of knowledge on how best to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by protecting forests and helping the people who benefit from them.”

Each of the nine industrialized countries that formalized their participation in the partnership was present at the Paris meeting. These countries are Australia, Finland, France (the French Development Agency), Japan, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Together, they have committed to contribute about US$82 million to the FCPF. More contributions from the public and private sector are expected in the coming months.

“The FCPF is an important mechanism for giving effect to what was agreed at the Bali climate change meetings in 2007 – that donors and developing countries should work together to trial approaches to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation,” said Robin Davies, Assistant Director General, Sustainable Development Group, AusAID, representing Australia, the first donor to the facility. “The selection of this initial group of developing country partners is an important first step in improving global understanding of ways to reduce forest carbon emissions and lift forest-dependent communities out of poverty.”

The grant money being provided to the first 14 developing countries in the FCPF will help them to prepare for future systems of positive incentives for REDD, in particular by establishing emissions reference levels, adopting REDD strategies, and designing monitoring systems. Developing countries have expressed a strong interest in participating in the FCPF and it is expected that more countries will receive support in the coming months.

“The FCPF has created a true partnership,” said Gisela Ulloa, National Clean Development Office NCDO Coordinator in Bolivia, “where developing countries and developed countries, alongside the World Bank, are working in a transparent and participative way to learn and support each other in the readiness process for REDD. Selection into the program will now allow Bolivia to build its capacity to undertake actions to slow deforestation and to become an early actor in the emerging market for REDD. By joining with other tropical nations and potential carbon market actors, we expect our pace of learning, preparation, and action to address climate change to be faster and better focused on the conditions and needs of our country."

At their meeting last December in Bali, the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change agreed to start demonstration activities on REDD. The FCPF, which was announced by the World Bank at the Bali Conference, will help to finance some of these demonstration activities.

Source: The World Bank, July 21, 2008
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Renewable energy European utilities acquire 
Shell's stake in world's largest offshore windfarm
Terry Macalister

The world's biggest offshore windfarm was put back on track yesterday as the UK energy minister boasted that the technology could attract £3bn investment to the north-east of England alone.

A host of wind schemes have been hit by planning delays, cost-inflation fears and opposition from the Ministry of Defence over concerns that turbines damage the efficiency of local radar.

The German-based energy group E.ON and the Danish utility Dong Energy have agreed to acquire Shell's 33% stake in the 1,000-megawatt London Array scheme for an undisclosed sum. The firms, which each own a one-third stake, are to become 50-50 partners in the windfarm, which could supply electricity to more than 750,000 homes in Greater London from the windfarm off the coast of Kent.

Paul Golby, chief executive of E.ON UK, who was angry when Shell first announced it wanted to pull out, said: "We hope to be able to keep the project on track and we should be able to complete the first phase by the end of 2012, subject to securing a number of contracts, such as those for the wind turbines." 

The purchase is a major relief for the government and came on the day the biggest onshore windfarm in Europe - planned for the Clyde - was given the green light by ministers. John Hutton, secretary for business, welcomed the deal, saying: "It is great news that E.ON and Dong Energy will be taking this exciting project forward."

Shell decided to withdraw from the project in May after a strategic review saying it did not meet its financial rates of return. Industry-wide cost inflation brought about by the oil price boom has raised the cost of the project to more than £2.5bn, way above the original estimates of £1.5bn three years ago.

On a visit to unveil a new renewable energy centre in Blyth, Northumberland, the energy minister, Malcolm Wicks, said the north-east's traditional manufacturing expertise could be utilised in the green energy sector.

"Offshore wind will play a significant role in helping us meet our challenging targets for a massive increase in the amount of energy generated from renewables. 

"With our plans to increase the financial support for offshore wind, it is evidence of our commitment to make the UK one of the most attractive places to invest in green energy," the minister said.

He said the Californian energy group Clipper Wind planned to develop the world's largest wind turbine - almost 10 times taller than Gateshead's Angel of the North - at the Blyth centre.

Source: Guardian, July 22, 2008
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