February 1: Canada agrees on greenhouse gas emission cuts lower than initial target; Baikal Ecological Wave group is being raided without a warrant; and Yvo de Boer, saying climate talks will have to continue in Mexico
This is part of a trial series
Today in French and Canadian news, The Canadian Minister of Environment, Jim Prentice, announced that Ottawa would align with U.S. objectives in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and gave himself ten years to reduce emissions by 17% compared to those of 2005 levels. This is of course lower than the initial target of 20% and still not legally binding. "The new target will lead to increased emissions of greenhouse gas rather than reducing it," stated Greenpeace.
The diplomatic traumas suffered by China in Copenhagen, where Beijing took much of the blame for the summit's failure, has hardened opinions, said Li Yan, Greenpeace China's climate campaigner to The Guardian: "Now there are stronger conservative voices and more concerns about the changed diplomatic circumstances and the economic downturn."
French newspapers report that France is deliberating a possible ban on blue-fin tuna imports, hoping that this would have a domino effect. Greenpeace's Francois Chartier is hoping that this will become part of the Doha agreement.
The authorities have raided the office of the environmental group "Baikal Ecological Wave" without a warrant, confiscated all the computers and the Internet server, accusing them of unlicensed use of software, and then summoned the employees to "talk" with the prosecutor. This was reported to co-chair of the Baikal Ecological Wave, Marina Richwanowa. "The actions of the militia is obviously a direct connection with the work of the Organization for Lake Baikal and to the repositioning of a paper and pulp factory," said Roman Waschenkow, coordinator of the Baikal program at Greenpeace Russia.
The story on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has surfaced in Australian news once again. Simon Lewis, a Royal Society research fellow at Leeds University who specialises in tropical forest ecology believes the IPCC should ban the use of reports from campaign groups. One such example is the report, A Global Review of Forest Fires, that WWF published in 2000. It was commissioned from Andrew Rowell, a freelance journalist and green campaigner who has worked for Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and anti-smoking organisations. The second author was Peter Moore, a campaigner and policy analyst. The story has also been picked up by Fox News and The Independent.
André Amaral, Nuclear Campaign Coordinator of Greenpeace Brazil, commented on the lack of transparency in the actions taken by the Brazilian Nuclear Program. He said the agency that regulates and supervises the program, the National Commission of Nuclear Energy (CNEN), is also the parent company of some companies that operate nuclear power development.
The building of the nuclear power plant Olkiluoto in Finland, is being criticized by the people building it. A Polish Greenpeace journalist is said to have interviewed the builders that told him the plant was covered with a structure on the outside so inspectors would not see the cracks and defects in the walls.
In Australia, The Herald Sun blog features Jon Faine, the ABC climate alarmist who refused to discuss the Climategate scandal, finally allowed a sceptic Lord Monckton onto his Melbourne morning show, together with "fellow alarmist and Greenpeace activist" Rupert Posner, listen to the show here.
The renewable energy technology company founded by Jeremy Leggett, who campaigned for Greenpeace International on climate change in the 1990s, is considering a flotation on the London Stock Exchange, features in the Business section of The Times Online. A listing could value the company at up to £100 million, according to an estimate by an industry expert.
Greenpeace has launched a protest campaign against the cultivation of GE potatoes and GE maize. On Saturday, the environmentalists marched to the Marienplatz in Munich and have been collection signatures in 46 other German cities. The action is addressed to the State Economy Minister Ilse Aigner (CSU), Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen (CDU) and CSU chief Horst Seehofer.
In general environmental news focus is still strong on the World Economic Forum in Davos, receiving coverage in Europe. CNBC quotes Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, "an economic agenda rather than a green agenda. It needs to be explained more clearly that this is about energy security and jobs going in a different direction.” Reuters reports Yvo de Boer and the Climate Minister of Denmark said in Davos, that global climate talks will have to continue in 2011 but can not guarantee a deal in the next ministerial meeting in Mexico.
A consortium of Russian LUKoil and Norwegian Statoil signed a final deal to develop one of Iraq's biggest oil fields yesterday, key to the country's plans to boost output and generate sorely needed reconstruction revenues. Iraq is looking to revamp an oil sector battered by years of sanctions, neglect, postwar violence and political bickering. Sunday also offered some much-needed political capital for Iraqi officials as they head into elections in March, this is being reported in The Moscow Times.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is planning a $US100 billion fund to help developing countries mitigate the effects of climate change, the agency's head said. "The new growth model will be low carbon," Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the IMF, told political and business leaders meeting at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos this weekend, Australian The Daily Telegraph reports.
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) produced a league table of major supermarket retailers in the UK, ranking them from best to worst in terms of environmentally-friendly refrigeration. The EIA found leakage alone from the cooling systems - not including the energy to power them - accounted for a third of the UK's annual supermarket carbon footprint, Sky News reports. Waitrose was placed at the top of the table and praised for its commitment to roll out HFC-free refrigeration in all new stores and for innovative leakage reduction measures.
Switzerland is deliberating of voluntarily committing to higher emissions reduction targets of about 30%, saying that it would be a good incentive to develop ecological innovations and more efficient use of resources, making those a part of the economic strategy for the future.
From today, shops in the UK selling batteries larger than those for watches and hearing aids must have a collection point for used ones under European Union law.
(Picture credit: Copyright Greenpeace/Activists present message directly at an international seafood fair - "Time and Tuna are running out".)
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Comments
You say that QUOTE: The story on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has surfaced in Australian news UNQUOTE but that is only a very small part of the story. The IPCC scandal is being reported worldwide and exposing the blatant propaganda about human-made climate change that the UN has been pushing out for a couple of decades. Of course, Greenpeace and sister environmental activist organisations like WWF have given full support but it is all crumbling now. People are learning coming to recognise that they have been subjected to one of the worst distortions of the truth seen since the Third Reich.
"Climategate", "Pachaurigate", "Glaciergate" and "Amazongate" have destroyed the credibility of the IPCC and its supporters.
Pete Ridley human-made global climate change skeptic.
Posted by: Pete Ridley | February 1, 2010 8:16 PM
as for the european union law it would have made sense to collect the old batteries as they are being sold rather than just have a collection point,then again a refund would work really well,i remember that as a kid and money being scarce i would pick up anything that had a refund on it ,like a discarded beer bottle or collecting old newspapers and it sure was a incentive to actually do something and get rewarded.
if there is no reward for the induvidual than the system is guaranteed to fail
Posted by: finn braaksma | February 2, 2010 9:04 AM
Thanks Pete, but I wasn't looking for a hero.
Scientists are human; the combined GDP of the USA, France, Germany, the UK and Chile combined wont change that fact.
One thing humans do is make mistakes. Where is the sense of inventing mountains where there were no mountains before? Quite the contrary, today is not 50,000 years ago. A population of 10,000 may not need to show much concern about how many rocks they chip or roots they pull, but todays population of 6.7+ billion should show some responsibility and precaution in how we churn our only biosphere Earth.
Me, I like to look at the science before diving into anyone's political agenda. I know that there is so much evidence, so much diverse evidence, that indicates an anthropogenic effect on climate, that it can be difficult to wrap ones mind around. There is the melting of glaciers, the net rapid loss of Earth Ice, changing habitats, changing life cycles, the basic chemistry of our only atmosphere, the codependence of our atmosphere with life ... many studies in addition to over all temperature indicate an anthropogenic effect on climate.
I know that all this can be difficult to wrap ones mind around, but is either complexity or difficulty to understand enough reason to dismiss or ignore it?
On a related note, Bluefin Tuna is such a grand specie, and so close to extinction. It would be a shame to loose them:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/oceans/fair-fisheries
Posted by: listenin | February 3, 2010 5:50 PM