Gas boom risks 'perfect storm' for climate, economy: report

PARIS, France — Global natural gas capacity under construction has doubled in a year according to new analysis that warned Tuesday the investment boom in the world's fastest-growing fuel risks a "perfect storm" of climate chaos and stranded assets.

Capital expenditure on liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities has surged from $82.8 billion to $196.1 billion over the last 12 months, according to a report by Global Energy Monitor.

Following a string of divestments from high-profile LNG funders, the report warned that at least two dozen projects were recently cancelled or are in serious financial difficulty.

"LNG was once considered a safe bet for investors," said Greg Aitken, research analyst at Global Energy Monitor.

"Not only was it considered a climate-friendly fuel, but there was substantial governmental support to make sure that these mega-projects were shepherded to completion with all the billions they needed.

"Suddenly the industry is beset with problems," Aitken said.

As the coronavirus pandemic squeezes investors and a growing social movement against new gas projects gathers pace, the report said troubled projects were facing a range of difficulties in sustaining finance.

In the past year Berkshire Hathaway and the governments of Sweden and Ireland were among financiers to drop several billion dollars worth of gas project funding, it noted.

'Economically unsound decision'
While its proponents push LNG as a "bridge fuel" because it is less polluting than coal, a new gas-fired power plant has roughly the same environmental impact as a new coal plant, given the leakage of methane throughout the supply line.

Methane is dozens of times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide over a 100-year time scale.

The landmark 2015 Paris climate deal enjoined nations to limit global temperature rises to "well below" two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

The accord also commits countries to work towards a safer warming cap of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the safest and surest way to reach the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal would require a 15 percent decline in gas use by 2030 and a fall of 43 percent by 2040.

Global Energy Monitor said that any new gas infrastructure "directly contradicts the Paris climate goals".

The European Investment Bank (EIB) — the world's largest multilateral lender — said last year it was ceasing funding for nearly all new fossil fuel projects.

EIB vice-president Andrew McDowell said investing in new LNG capacity "is increasingly an economically unsound decision".

"We need to take advantage of opportunities that put us firmly on the path to reaching net-zero by 2050 whilst securing more jobs in the short and long term," he told AFP.

"This will undoubtedly be challenging, and it can't be instant. But it must happen."

Agence France-Presse

Airlines' fuel practices feed doubts over climate commitment

PARIS, France — Airlines have taken steps to reduce their carbon footprints under the gaze of public opinion, but the pressure of the bottom line means some fly with extra fuel, boosting emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases.

As the highly competitive air travel industry is being pushed to reduce its carbon emissions—which it puts at two to three percent of the global total—the practice known as fuel tankering has become an acid test for airlines' commitment to really go green.

In fuel tankering, an aircraft's tanks are filled sufficiently at the departure airport to avoid having to take on additional fuel for the return leg at a destination airport where fuel costs may be higher, or there are supply issues.

According to a study by Eurocontrol, the practice is a money-saving strategy for airlines as it outweighs the cost of additional fuel needed to carry the extra weight on the outbound flight.

"Aviation is a very competitive market and each airline needs to minimise operating costs, in order to keep its ticket prices as competitive as possible," said the group, an inter-governmental organisation that helps harmonise regulations in the sector.


With fuel accounting for up to 25 percent of airlines' operating expenses, "saving fuel has become a major challenge for aviation", it added.

Eurocontrol found that in Europe fuel tankering concerns about one in six flights, on average resulting in an extra 136 kg of fuel burned.

Despite the additional fuel cost of 75 euros it still results in a net saving of 126 euros per flight. That saving also includes nine euros for purchasing carbon allowances for the 428kg of additional CO2 generated.


The report estimated that in Europe fuel tankering could generate net savings of 265 million euros per year for airlines, while adding 286,000 tonnes of fuel burnt and 901,000 tons of CO2 emissions.

"This represents about 2,800 round-trips between Paris and New York or the annual emissions of a European city of 100,000 inhabitants," said the report.

Everybody does it...

After being called out for fuel tankering by the BBC, British Airways called it a "common practice across the airline industry" and said that it is done for "operational, safety and price reasons."

British Airways said it resorts to fuel tankering for "mainly short-haul destinations where there are considerable fuel price differences between European airports."

Willy Walsh, the head of IAG, British Airway's parent company, acknowledged that the issue shows that airlines are torn between economic and environmental imperatives.

"What we see today is that there is often a conflict between what we do that makes a commercial and financial sense and the things we should be doing from an environmental point of view," he told investors at a gathering at the beginning of November.

Germany's Lufthansa said it resorts to fuel tankering only exceptionally for operational reasons because the practice "goes against our goal of reducing carbon emissions," said a spokesman.

Air France said it practiced fuel tankering only on "some specific" routes for economic or organisational reasons.

Offsets

The airline industry adopted in 2016 a mechanism called CORSIA to offset any increase in CO2 emissions from 2020 levels using tree-planting and other schemes that absorb carbon.

This will allow the industry to continue to grow to meet rising demand for air travel without adding any additional carbon on a net basis.

Budget airline easyJet announced it plans to go further by offsetting emissions from all flights.

Most airlines have also undertaken efforts to reduce their emissions such as optimising flight paths, using electric towing vehicles or reducing the weight of seats.

But these efforts are not sufficient believes Andrew Murphy of the non-governmental organisation Transport and Environment.

"The increase of aviation emissions and stories like this show that actually the industry isn't doing enough and actually we can't just rely on the industry to cut it's own emissions," said Murphy.

"The equation is super complex" to arrive at a reduction of emissions when the volume of air traffic is expected to double every 15 to 20 years, said Pascal Fabre, an air travel expert at the consultancy Alix Partners.

The situation is even more daunting as airlines need to make money to survive, with around a dozen going out of business in the past year and a half according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

source: philstar.com

Climate change, corruption blamed for Venice flood devastation

VENICE, Italy — Much of Venice was under water on Wednesday night after the highest tide in 50 years ripped through the historic Italian city, beaching gondolas, trashing hotels and sending tourists fleeing through rapidly rising waters.

The government in Rome was expected to declare a state of emergency at a cabinet meeting on Thursday after Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte described the flooding as "a blow to the heart of our country."

Officials blamed climate change while shopkeepers on the Grand Canal raged against those who have failed to protect the UNESCO city from the high tide.


They said corruption had repeatedly delayed a barrier protection system that could have prevented the disaster.

"The city is on its knees," Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro said in an interview with national broadcaster RAI.

"There's widespread devastation," he said in the famed St Mark's Square, which bore the brunt of the flooding. "In all likelihood the damage from last night runs into hundreds of millions of euros."

The state of emergency for a natural disaster will allow the government to use "exceptional powers and means" to intervene more quickly, and Conte said his government was ready to allocate funds.

"The disaster that has struck Venice is a blow to the heart of our country," Conte said at the scene. "It hurts to see the city so damaged, its artistic heritage threatened."


St Mark's Square was calm on Wednesday evening, with just a smattering of tourists walking through the relatively dry square marked with occasional puddles.

Four Venetian friends who had gathered in the square, all wearing boots, said the relative quiet and lack of tourists was upside of an otherwise harrowing few days.

"We've never seen anything like it," said Alvise, 19.

Earlier, tourists lugging heavy suitcases waded in thigh-high boots or barefoot through the submerged alleys, as gondola and water taxi drivers baled sewage-tainted water out of their trashed vessels.

'We can't live like this' 

Dirty water was swirling around the marble tombs inside the 12th-century crypt of St Mark's Basilica, which suffered untold damage when an unprecedented high tide swept through the city.

It was closed to tourists as were many other Venice highlights including the Fenice Theatre and the Ducal Palace.

"We said last year that the basilica had aged 20 years in a high tide. It risks having aged much more than that in this one," said the building's procurator Carlo Alberto Tesserin.

A 78-year old was killed by an electric shock as the waters poured into his home.

"We ask the government to help us, the costs will be high," mayor Brugnaro tweeted. "These are the effects of climate change."

"The future of Venice is at stake," he warned. "We cannot live like this anymore."

Environment Minister Sergio Costa blamed climate change and the "tropicalization" of violent rainfall and strong winds.

"This is what is happening more and more often in the Mediterranean," Costa said on Facebook.

"Global warming will destroy our planet if we do not immediately reverse the direction."

'Acqua alta' 

The exceptionally intense "acqua alta," or high waters, peaked at 1.87 meters (six feet). Only once since records began in 1923 has the water crept even higher, reaching 1.94 meters in 1966.

"It was unbelievable. The water rose so quickly," said resident Tiziano Collarin, 59, as he surveyed the damage.

"Windows were blown out, there are those who have lost everything," he said as the flood alarm rang out to warn those in the canal city that the tide, which had receded somewhat overnight, was rising once again.

The fire brigade said it had carried out over 400 operations as well as laying on extra boats as water ambulances.

Around 160 firefighters were deployed to rescue people stranded on jetties and to recover boats broken free from their moorings.

President of the Veneto region Luca Zaia said 80 percent of the city had been submerged, causing "unimaginable damage" to the city, which has 50,000 residents but receives 36 million visitors each year.

A massive infrastructure project called MOSE has been under way since 2003 to protect the city, but it has been plagued by cost overruns, corruption scandals and delays.

The plan involves 78 gates that can be raised to protect Venice's lagoon during high tides—but a recent attempt to test part of the barrier caused worrying vibrations and engineers discovered parts had rusted.

Outside historic Venice, the Lido and Pellestrina islands were also hard hit by flooding

source: philstar.com

Climate activist Greta Thunberg declines environmental award

STOCKOLM, Sweden —  Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on Tuesday refused to accept an environmental award, saying the climate movement needed people in power to start to "listen" to "science" and not awards.

The young climate activist, who has rallied millions to her "Fridays for Future" movement, was honored at a Stockholm ceremony held by the Nordic Council, a regional body for inter-parliamentary cooperation.

Thunberg had been nominated for her efforts by both Sweden and Norway and won the organization's annual environment prize.

But after it was announced, a representative for her told the audience that she would not accept the award or the prize sum of 350,000 Danish kroner (about $52,000 or 46,800 euro), the TT news agency reported.

She addressed the decision in a post on Instagram from the United States.

"The climate movement does not need any more awards," she wrote.

"What we need is for our politicians and the people in power start to listen to the current, best available science."

While thanking the Nordic Council for the "huge honor," she also criticized Nordic countries for not living up to their "great reputation" on climate issues.


"There is no lack of bragging about this. There is no lack of beautiful words. But when it comes to our actual emissions and our ecological footprints per capita... then it’s a whole other story," Thunberg said.

Still only 16 years old, Thunberg rose to prominence after she started spending her Fridays outside Sweden's parliament in August 2018, holding a sign reading "School strike for climate."

source: philstar.com

Greta Thunberg berates leaders as UN climate summit falls short

UNITED NATIONS, United States — An emotional Greta Thunberg tore into world leaders at a UN climate summit Monday, accusing them of betraying her generation by failing to tackle greenhouse gas emissions, as announcements by major economies fell far short of expectations.

The Swedish teen's impassioned speech, in which she repeated the words "How dare you" four times, was the defining moment of the meeting, called by UN chief Antonio Guterres to reinvigorate the faltering Paris climate agreement.

Ahead of the conference, the United Nations issued a release saying 66 countries vowed to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, along with 10 regions, 102 cities, and scores of businesses.

But pre-summit predictions of new, headline-grabbing commitments, particularly by the likes of China and India, failed to match reality, angering environmental groups.

The world's top scientists believe long-term temperature rise must be limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels to prevent runaway warming with catastrophic effects.

But rather than peaking, the level of emissions being released into the atmosphere are at an all-time high, triggering global weather hazards from heat waves to intense hurricanes and raging wildfires.

New data released Monday showed the 2019 Arctic sea ice minimum is ranked at second-lowest in the 41-year satellite record, effectively tied with 2007 and 2016.

"I shouldn't be up here. I should be back at school on the other side of the ocean," said Thunberg, 16, who has become the global face of a growing youth movement against climate inaction that mobilized millions in a worldwide strike on Friday.

"You come to us young people for hope. How dare you?" she thundered, her voice at times breaking with emotion.

Matters did not improve much as a succession of national leaders took to the podium saying they understood the gravity of the situation but then failing to announce concrete plans.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not say explicitly whether his country would enhance its commitments made under the Paris agreement -- though he did say it was working on more than doubling its renewable energy capacity.

There was also no new announcement by China, the world's biggest emitter. Senior foreign policy official Wang Yi spoke instead about the need for multilateralism, taking a veiled swipe at US President Donald Trump for pulling out of the Paris accord on taking office.

"The withdrawal of certain parties will not shake the collective will of the international community," he said.

Environmental and campaign groups reacted with almost unanimous disappointment.

"I think Greta's impassioned cry for sanity and for actually listening and acting based on the science was ignored," Greenpeace International chief Jennifer Morgan told AFP.

Trump surprise

Fewer than half of the 136 heads of government or state in New York this week to attend the UN General Assembly attended on Monday.

Trump, who announced his intent to withdraw the US from the Paris agreement and has heaped scorn on climate science, had been expected to skip the event but made a brief unscheduled appearance, spending a few minutes in the hall, where he applauded Modi's speech and then left.

Among those absent were President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, under whose leadership the Amazon rainforest is continuing to burn at record rates, and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, whose government has pursued an aggressively pro-coal agenda.

Laurence Tubiana, one of the architects of the Paris agreement, told AFP the summit that Chinese lack of action was linked to its internal politics as it prepares its next five-year-plan.

But she said that she saw progress too.

"The big win is these group of countries who are for net zero by 2050," she said.

"The next step is to have them explain how they do that and what they do immediately." 

Increased urgency

Earlier, opening the summit, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: "The climate emergency is a race we are losing, but it is a race we can win."

French President Emmanuel Macron invited his counterparts from Chile, Colombia and Bolivia to a meeting where $500 million in extra funds were pledged by major donors.

Macron also lauded Russia, which ratified the Paris agreement on Monday, and said Europe must do more, repeating a vow to close coal-fired plants by 2022.

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, repeated recently announced pledges including $55 billion for a new innovation and technology package and net zero emissions by 2050.

And British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the UK would double its climate change funding through an overseas development program to $14.4 billion over five years.

In his closing comments, Guterres emphasized the positives, highlighting the growing action from the corporate sector, commitments from countries to plant more than 11 billion trees.

But he added: "We need more concrete plans, more ambition from more countries and more businesses, saying the next critical landmark would come at a conference in Santiago in December.

source: philstar.com

Environmental activists pluck plastic from world's beaches on mass cleanup day

PARIS, France — Thousands of volunteers wielding nets and bin bags scoured coasts, parks and riverbanks across the globe Saturday, in a litter-picking drive highlighting the vast quantity of trash dumped worldwide, a day after mass international climate protests.

Campaigners took part in World Cleanup Day from Manila to the Mediterranean, as hundreds of thousands of people across the world take part in demonstrations and activities calling for urgent action on the environment.

Young people have been at the forefront of the movement, with masses of children skipping school on Friday for a global climate strike, which teen activist Greta Thunberg said was "only the beginning".

Some four million people filled city streets around the world on Friday, organisers said, in what was billed as the biggest ever protest against the threat posed to the planet by rising temperatures.

It kicked off a week of climate action called for by Thunberg, who was among several hundred young activists attending a climate summit at the United Nations on Saturday.

The World Cleanup Day on Saturday is an initiative that has got millions into the streets and cleaning up litter across the globe since it began just over a decade ago.

In France, volunteers posted images of their trash hauls on social media -- heaps of assorted waste, soft drink cans and plastic containers.

A climate protest on the streets of Paris attracted some 15,000 people, according to a tally by independent consultancy Occurrence, but the rally was marred by clashes between security forces and a relatively small number of troublemakers. 


"The conditions for a non-violent march are not in place," Greenpeace, a co-organiser of the event, said on Twitter, as police fired teargas at protesters. 

'For us to help'

While the types of trash collected varied, the common material in the bin bags across the planet was plastic, amid surging concerns over the environmental costs of single use items and microplastics in world waterways. 

Plastic pollution is a major problem across Southeast Asia, but particularly in the Philippines, which -- along with China, Vietnam and Indonesia -- is frequently listed among the world's worst offenders.

In the Philippine capital, some 10,000 people swept across a long stretch of beach on heavily polluted Manila Bay, clutching sacks they filled with rubbish.

"It's for us to help the environment, especially here in Manila, there's a lot of garbage," Mae Angela Areglado, a 20-year-old student told AFP as she pitched in with the cleanup -- held right next to the city's huge Baseco slum.

"(Plastic is) affecting the marine life because they think that it is food," she added.

In the Pacific island nation of Fiji, which is among the countries worst affected by sea level rises and has become a vocal advocate for global climate action, people scoured palm-fringed beaches west of the capital Suva, heaving discarded car tyres and engine parts from the coast.

On Australia's Bondi beach activists sifted through the sand, carting off bits of plastic and cigarette butts.

Youth leading way

The mass cleanup is coordinated by the Let's Do It Foundation, which began life in Estonia and says that 18 million people from 157 countries participated in the global cleanup day last year. This year, it says more than 160 countries are taking part.

"Garbage is a global problem and it affects all the people in the world. It knows no state borders," said the organisation's president Heidi Solba in a statement.

The group said about 30,000 people are participating in Estonia on Saturday in a drive focusing on small litter like bottle tops and cigarette butts.

Mart Normet, leader of the initiative in Estonia, said he drew hope from the enthusiasm of young people.

"When I look at the new photos on Facebook, I can see that the new generation is bringing a completely new attitude. Littering and damaging consumption are a thing of the past," he said.

In Vietnam's capital Hanoi, around 1,400 volunteers went searching for litter under the scorching sun.

"Although our actions are very small -- like cleaning trash from the sidewalk -- it could spread a meaningful message," 18-year-old Hoang Thi Hoan told AFP, as motorists zipped by on a busy street.

Friday's strike organisers 350.org said the youth-led rallies were the start of 5,800 protests across 163 countries over the next week.

UN chief Antonio Guterres met young activists in New York on Saturday, telling them: "There is a change in momentum... due to your initiative and to the courage, with which you have started these movements."

A landmark UN report to be unveiled next week will warn global warming and pollution are ravaging Earth's oceans and icy regions in ways that could unleash misery on a global scale.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said in August that the level of microplastics in drinking-water is not yet dangerous for humans but called for more research into potential future risk and a reduction in plastic waste.

Seventy-nine percent of the plastic ever made has ended up dumped, with little reused or destroyed despite recycling and other initiatives to curb use, a UN report from 2018 said.

source: philstar.com

Google opens online window on toll of climate change

SAN FRANCISCO, California — As world leaders gathered in Paris on Monday in the hope to stopping catastrophic climate change, Google Maps provided online views of remote locations where wildlife is struggling for survival.

A “Street View” feature at the free online map service has grown from simply showing scenes outside of business or residential addresses to allowing arm chair adventurers to virtually explore mountains, rain forests, ocean depths and more.

Some settings find creatures in dire straits, such as polar bear in the Canadian Arctic appearing to desperately wait for bay ice that doesn’t form because temperatures are too warm.

“From polar bears in the Canadian Arctic, to communities in the Brazilian Amazon, to blue oak trees in Central California, the impacts of climate change are being felt by plants, animals and people across the planet,” said Google Earth outreach program manager Karin Tuxen-Bettman.

“With Street View, you can get a window into some of our world’s changing ecosystems, and learn how nonprofit and other organizations are working to keep our planet healthy.”

Polar Bears International (PBI) borrowed Street View Trekker 360-degree camera and location-pinpointing gear to enhance maps with scenes of polar bears in Manitoba as the sea ice on which they depend vanishes.

PBI incorporated the Street View scenes into its website and a lesson plan for schools to help children learn about the habitat.

Brazilian nonprofit Amazonas Sustainable Foundation (FAS) used Trekker Gear to capture scenes in the Amazon forest and put isolated local communities on the map.

FAS captured imagery from three reserves in the Amazon and uses it for education about rain forest protection and sustainable ecosystem management, according to Google.

- Visualizing climate change -The initiatives aims to make climate change more real for people and inspire them to act by allowing them to virtually explore remote areas, and see beauty lost or under threat due to climate change.

Street View imagery also allows for comparisons over time to show how environments are changing along with the climate.

“Street View is great for visualizing the impacts of climate change, but we’re also using our Street View platform to measure climate data, which can be used by scientists, policymakers, businesses and citizens to drive better decisions,” Tuxen-Bettman said.

Google Earth has worked for several years with the Environmental Defense Fund to map methane leaks from natural gas lines under an array of US cities by equipping Street View cars with special gear, according to Tuxen-Bettman.

Street View cars will begin measuring more pollutants, such as climate change culprit carbon dioxide, in an alliance with environmental sensor network specialty firm Aclima, according to California-based Google.

“Essentially, we’re turning Street View cars into environmental sensing platforms,” Tuxen-Bettman said, noting that they will first be put to work in California communities.

source: interaksyon.com

Pope wows Washington but takes on controversial church sex abuse, immigration, climate change

WASHINGTON DC - Pope Francis received a rapturous welcome to Washington on Wednesday but did not shy away from controversy, addressing church sex abuse and urging action on immigration and climate change.

President Barack Obama was clearly delighted to welcome to the White House a pontiff who can lend moral and spiritual force to his own priorities, but others may be left uncomfortable by the pope's stances.

Meeting Catholic bishops in Washington, he praised their handling of the child sex abuse scandal that rocked the US church.

"I realize how much the pain of recent years has weighed upon you," he said.

"And I have supported your generous commitment to bring healing to victims…and to work to ensure such crimes will never be repeated."

The Argentine pontiff waded into another bitter US political debate when he urged the church to embrace new immigrants, speaking "not only as the Bishop of Rome, but also as a pastor from the South."

"Perhaps it will not be easy for you to look into their soul. Perhaps you will be challenged by their diversity. But know that they also possess resources meant to be shared," he said.

He later moved on to conduct his first mass in North America, a ceremony to canonize a Franciscan friar who brought Christianity to California, Junipero Serra -- a figure also shrouded in controversy.

Native Americans hold Serra responsible for the suppression of their centuries-old culture and the death of many thousands of their ancestors.

Consternation over his elevation to sainthood did not overshadow the visit, however, and Francis was cheered by euphoric crowds with breathless wall-to-wall televised coverage as he toured Washington's stately boulevards.

'Welcoming the stranger'

Obama, America's first black president, gave the first Latin American pope an effusive welcome to the White House, praising his moral leadership.

"I believe the excitement around your visit must be attributed not only to your role as pope, but to your unique qualities as a person," Obama said, praising Francis' humility, simplicity, and generosity of spirit.

Though Francis has inveighed against the materialism that the United States seems to embody like no other country, he is also a potential political ally for Obama, sharing many of his progressive goals and bringing along many of America's 70 million Catholics.

Speaking in fluent, if accented, English, the 78-year-old returned the warm blessings of his host.

"As the son of an immigrant family, I am happy to be a guest in this country, which was largely built by such families," he said.

Francis said he would address Congress "to offer words of encouragement to those called to guide the nation's political future in fidelity to its founding principles."

Obama lauded Francis for reminding the world that "the Lord's most powerful message is mercy."

"That means welcoming the stranger with empathy and a truly open heart, from the refugee who flees war-torn lands to the immigrant who leaves home in search of a better life," Obama said.

Their message may also resonate strongly in a Europe convulsed by a refugee crisis.

And, as many US conservatives question the very existence of man-made climate change, Francis and Obama made a de facto joint appeal for action.

"Holy Father, you remind us that we have a sacred obligation to protect our planet, God's magnificent gift to us," Obama said.

Francis took up the call.

"Accepting the urgency, it seems clear to me also that climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation," Francis said.

Pomp and circumstance

The pope was afforded a full ceremonial welcome and a 40-minute one-on-one meeting with Obama in the Oval Office.

But the White House held off a planned 21-gun salute that would not have chimed with the pope's stature as a man of peace.

That was the only expense spared during a historic first visit to Washington -- a political city that shrugs when presidents, queens, and sheikhs roll through.

The visit was a political mirror of Pope Benedict's 2008 visit to George W. Bush's White House. Those two leaders were as conservative as their successors are progressive.

Still, the White House insisted it is not co-opting a holy man in order to batter Republican foes in Congress.

"The goal of the pope's visit, and certainly the goal of the meeting was not to advance anyone's political agenda," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

The Vatican played a crucial role in brokering talks between Cold War foes Havana and Washington that led to the recent restoration of diplomatic ties.

But the pope told reporters that he would not specifically bring up Washington's embargo of Cuba in his speech Thursday before American lawmakers, who largely favor a tough line with Havana.

Republicans are already crying foul.

Congressman Paul Gosar, who is Catholic, declared he would boycott the pontiff's address to protest his "leftist" views.

'The people's pope'

Nevertheless, there is no mistaking the political value of enlisting a popular pope's moral authority.

Seven out of ten Americans have a favorable impression of Francis, according to a Washington Post-ABC poll.

The pontiff will make two speeches during his visit, the address to Congress and another to the United Nations on Friday.

He will wrap up his historic six-day US trip on Saturday and Sunday in Philadelphia at an international festival of Catholic families.

source: interaksyon.com

Bill Gates asks: 'Who will suffer most from climate change?'

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna -- “Who will suffer most from climate change?” Bill Gates posed this question in his latest blog post.

“The world’s poorest farmers show up for work each day for the most part empty-handed. That’s why of all the people who will suffer from climate change, they are likely to suffer the most,” Gates wrote, answering his own question.

Gates is optimistic, noting that many of the tools farmers need to adapt are quite basic, including better seeds, fertilizer, and training.

“The Gates Foundation and its partners have worked together to develop new varieties of seeds that grow even during times of drought or flooding,” he added.

The tools he mentioned included the “scuba” rice, a flood-tolerant rice variety that can survive underwater for up to two weeks. So far, 10 million farmers in South Asia have access to scuba rice, among other climate-smart rice varieties.

Scuba rice is being promoted by the Stress-Tolerant Rice for Africa and South Asia (STRASA) Project, an IRRI-led project supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In April of this year, senior officers of the Gates Foundation came to IRRI headquarters in Laguna to see for themselves the work being done at the world’s premier research center on rice. They toured IRRI’s research facilities and heard updates on the science and partnership between the two organizations, including the latest on climate change-ready rice varieties.

Gates’s response aligns with the International Rice Research Institute’s mission to confront the challenges of growing rice in the midst of the changing climate.

, , IRRI director general, pointed out that many farmers who belong to the poorest of the poor have not benefited fully from the first Green Revolution of the 1960s-70s. This time around, the second Green Revolution seeks to leave no farmer behind.

source: interaksyon.com

Pentagon sees climate change as national security risk

WASHINGTON DC -- The Pentagon had regarded climate change as a security risk for the United States and were integrating possible impacts of global warming into the planning cycles, according to a US military report.

In the report submitted to the Congress on Tuesday at the request of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the Pentagon said that US national security interests around the world was subject to risks given the possibility that foreign states which were already fragile would be vulnerable to disruption caused by climate change.

"It is in this context that the department must consider the effects of climate change -- such as sea level rise, shifting climate zones, and more frequent and intense severe weather events -- and how these effects could impact national security," said the report.

The report said that US combatant commands were in the process of integrating climate-related impacts into their planning cycles to reduce the national security implications of climate change, covering areas such as the Arctic, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and South America.

source: interaksyon.com

EU summit tackles climate change, Ebola

BRUSSELS - European Union leaders meet at a summit in Brussels Thursday aimed at clinching a high-stakes deal on combating climate change and boosting efforts to fight the deadly Ebola virus.

The heads of state and government from the 28-member EU will also search during the two-day meeting for ways to foster economic growth and jobs amid fears of a triple-dip recession.

The main focus on Thursday will be on an ambitious package of climate change targets for 2030, but the leaders face 11th-hour differences over how member states share the burden.

Draft conclusions for the summit seen by AFP call for cutting greenhouse gases by 40 percent over 1990 levels, making renewables account for 27 percent of energy use and setting an energy savings target of 30 percent.

But there are objections all round the table, especially from coal-reliant Poland, which says the cost of updating its power plants is too high, and from Portugal, which wants closer cross-border energy infrastructure.

"There are still difficult issues which need to be resolved. We will see if we manage to do that," a German government source told reporters on condition of anonymity.

But other European sources were more upbeat.

"There is no agreement yet but I think the differences of opinion have been narrowed down to a couple of outstanding issues which will be settled by the leaders on Thursday night," said one source.

Ebola fight

Agreement is likely to be simpler on action to tackle the Ebola outbreak in west Africa, which has claimed nearly 4,900 lives, and prevent it from becoming a global threat, although money will again be an issue.

EU foreign and health ministers met on the subject over the past week.

"Our leaders will discuss the question on what more can be done to scale up our financial support and our medical care and equipment on the ground," an EU source told reporters.

EU member states and the European Commission have already pledged nearly 600 million euros ($750 million) to fight Ebola.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to call on fellow EU leaders to boost that amount to one billion euros, British government sources said.

A Spanish nurse who was the first person to catch Ebola outside Africa has been cured of the deadly virus, doctors confirmed Tuesday, easing fears of it spreading in Europe.

The leaders will also discuss Ukraine although any progress is unlikely as an EU review on the ceasefire between Kiev and pro-Moscow rebels is not due until next Tuesday.

They may also discuss the threat from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, particularly the threat of foreign fighters returning to carry out attacks at home.

The EU economic talks on Friday will be joined by European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi. A eurozone summit will also be held Friday.

The climate debate is likely to be the toughest, coming against a backdrop of energy security worries in the EU, which is at odds with its biggest gas supplier Russia over the crisis in Ukraine.

EU sources said poorer fossil-fuel dependent states like Poland and others in eastern Europe are at loggerheads with richer northern nations over "who pays and how much" for modernizing power plants and cutting emissions.

Meanwhile, countries like Spain and Portugal are at odds with France over their desire to build more cross-border cables to export surplus electricity produced by wind power.

The EU wants to have an agreement on the climate change targets, among the world's toughest, in place ahead of a summit in Paris in 2015 at which a new UN-backed global treaty on climate change is to be agreed.

Climate negotiators have been meeting this week in Luxembourg and are likely to stay down to the wire, a Polish diplomat said.

"The balloon of expectation is pumped up so high that if we don't have a deal (at the summit) it will be perceived in a bad way," the diplomat said.

source: interaksyon.com

What would happen if carbon emissions continue to rise? UN scientists paint grim picture of future

PARIS - UN scientists are set to deliver their darkest report yet on the impacts of climate change, pointing to a future stalked by floods, drought, conflict, and economic damage if carbon emissions go untamed.

A draft of their report, seen by AFP, is part of a massive overview by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), likely to shape policies and climate talks for years to come.

Scientists and government representatives will meet in Yokohama, Japan, from Tuesday to hammer out a 29-page summary. It will be unveiled with the full report on March 31.

"We have a lot clearer picture of impacts and their consequences... including the implications for security," said Chris Field of the United States' Carnegie Institution, who headed the probe.

The work comes six months after the first volume in the long-awaited Fifth Assessment Report declared scientists were more certain than ever that humans caused global warming.

It predicted global temperatures would rise 0.3-4.8 degrees Celsius (0.5-8.6 degrees Fahrenheit) this century, adding to roughly 0.7 C since the Industrial Revolution. Seas will creep up by 26-82 centimetres (10.4-32.8 inches) by 2100.

The draft warns costs will spiral with each additional degree, although it is hard to forecast by how much.

Warming of 2.5 C over pre-industrial times -- 0.5 C more than the UN's target -- may cost 0.2-2.0 percent of global annual income, a figure that could amount to hundreds of billions of dollars each year.

"The assessments that we can do at the moment probably still underestimate the actual impacts of future climate change," said Jacob Schewe of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Germany, who was not involved in the IPCC drafting.

Many scientists concurred, he said, that recent heatwaves and floods were evidence of climate change already on the march -- and a harbinger of a future in which once-freakish weather events become much less rare.

Among the perils listed in the draft are these:

-- FLOODING: Rising greenhouse-gas emissions will "significantly" boost the risk of floods, with Europe and Asia particularly exposed. In the highest warming scenarios of untamed greenhouse gas emissions, three times as many people will be exposed to severe river flooding as with lower warming.

- DROUGHT: For every 1 C (1.8 F) rise in temperature, another seven percent of the world's population will see renewable water resources decline by a fifth.

- RISING SEAS: If no measures are taken, "hundreds of millions" of coastal dwellers will be displaced by 2100. Small-island states and East, Southeast, and South Asia will be the biggest land-losers.

- HUNGER: Average yields of wheat, rice, and corn may fall by two percent per decade, while demand for crops is likely to rise by up to 14 percent by 2050 as Earth's population grows. The crunch will hit poor, tropical countries worst.

- SPECIES LOSS: A "large fraction" of land and freshwater species may risk extinction, their habitat destroyed by climate change.

Security threat

Poverty, migration, and hunger are invisible drivers of turbulence and war, as they sharpen competition for dwindling resources, the report warns.

"Climate change over the 21st century will lead to new challenges to states and will increasingly shape national security policies," its draft summary says.

"Small-island states and other states highly vulnerable to sea-level rise face major challenges to their territorial integrity.

"Some transboundary impacts of climate change, such as changes in sea ice, shared water resources, and migration of fish stocks, have the potential to increase rivalry among states. The presence of robust institutions can manage many of these rivalries to reduce conflict risk."

By reducing carbon emissions "over the next few decades," the world can stave off many of the worst climate consequences by century's end, says the report.

The IPCC will issue a third volume, on strategies for tackling carbon emissions, in Berlin on April 13.

The panel has issued four previous "assessment reports" in its quarter-century history.

Each has sounded a louder drumbeat of warning about the gigatonnes of carbon dioxide spewed by traffic, power station,s and other fossil-fuel burners and methane from deforestation and farming.

The Yokohama volume goes further than its predecessors in forecasting regional impacts in greater detail and emphasizing the risk of conflict and rising seas.

The IPCC's last big report in 2007 helped unleash political momentum leading to the 2009 UN climate summit in Copenhagen. But its reputation was dented by several mistakes, seized upon by climate skeptics as proof of bias.

source: interaksyon.com

UN talks approve climate pact principles

WARSAW - UN negotiators reached consensus Saturday on some of the cornerstones of an ambitious, global climate pact to be signed in 2015 in a bid to stave off dangerous warming.

Nearly 24 hours into extra time, a plenary meeting approved a modified text, thrashed out during an hour-long emergency huddle in the Warsaw National Stadium hosting the annual round of notoriously fractious talks.

Later, in a closing plenary session of the conference, delegates applauded as the text was given the green light.

Notably, negotiators had replaced the word "commitments" for nationally-determined greenhouse gas emissions cuts, with "contributions".

Developed and developing nations have clashed in the Polish capital ever since negotiations opened on November 11 to lay the groundwork for the new pact to be signed in Paris by December 2015.

It will be the first to bind all the world's nations to curbing Earth-warming greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal, oil and gas.

A key point of contention in Warsaw was the opposition of emerging economies like China and India to any "commitments" that were equally binding to rich and poor states and did not take into account their history of greenhouse gas emissions.

The issue is a fundamental one that has bedevilled the UN climate process since its inception 18 years ago.

Developing nations, their growth largely powered by fossil fuel combustion, blame the West's long emissions history for the peril facing the planet, and insist their wealthier counterparts carry a larger responsibility to fix the problem.

"Only developed countries should have commitments," Chinese negotiator Su Wei earlier told fellow negotiators. Emerging economies could merely be expected to "enhance action", he said.

The West, though, insists emerging economies must do their fair share, considering that China is now the world's biggest emitter of CO2, with India in fourth place after the United States and Europe.

Delegates had also reached a consensus agreement on financing to help poor countries deal with climate change effects.

But early Saturday evening, no agreement had yet been struck on creating a "loss and damage" mechanism for future climate harm that vulnerable countries say is no longer avoidable.

source: interaksyon.com

As rich, poor nations butt heads, troubled UN climate talks run into extra time

WARSAW -- UN climate talks were blocked in Warsaw Saturday more than 12 hours after they were to have delivered a roadmap towards a global pact to stave of dangerous global warming.

The belligerent negotiations were to have closed at 1700 GMT on Friday, but by breakfast time Saturday, diplomats were still shuttling to and fro in a last-ditch bid to find consensus.

"There will be no forcing of decisions against the will of parties," conference president Marcin Korolec of Poland told a brief stock-taking meeting at 0600 GMT -- and said it was "premature" to set a time for the closing plenary meeting.

"We will reconvene here in a formal setting at 9am (0800 GMT) to address the situation and find a way forward to conclude the conference," he said.

The Warsaw round of the notoriously fractious annual talks have seen rich and poor nations butting heads since November 11 about their respective contributions to the UN-backed goal of limiting average global warming to 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels.

UN nations had agreed to sign a global deal by 2015 to meet this goal with binding targets for all countries to curb climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions.

The pact must be inked in Paris in two years' time, and will enter into effect in 2020.

Negotiators from over 190 countries argued in the Polish capital over apportioning targets for carbon emissions cuts between rich and poor states, and over funding for climate-vulnerable countries.

On current emissions trends, scientists warn the Earth could face warming of 4.0 C or higher over pre-industrial levels -- a recipe for catastrophic storms, droughts, floods and land-gobbling sea-level rise that would hit poor countries disproportionally hard.

A major sticking point was the insistence of some developing nations like China and India, their growth fuelled by fossil fuel combustion, to be guaranteed less onerous emissions curbs compared to wealthy nations.

In hotly disputed language, some wanted the new deal to impose "commitments" on developed countries, whose long history of emissions they blame for the current state of affairs, and seek only "efforts" from emerging economies.

The West, though, insists emerging economies must do their fair share, considering that China is now the world's biggest emitter of CO2, with India in fourth place after the United States and Europe.

A draft text that negotiators mulled over on Saturday underlined that the pact would be "applicable to all parties".

And it invited the world's nations to announce their emissions-curbing commitments "well in advance" of the Paris gathering.

Money was also a bone of contention.

Developing nations insist that wealthy nations must show how they intend to keep a promise to ramp up climate aid to $100 billion (74 billion euros) by 2020, up from $10 billion a year from 2010-12.

Still struggling with an economic crisis, however, the developed world is wary of unveiling a detailed long-term funding plan at this stage.

A separate draft text on finance "urges" parties to mobilise funds "at increasing levels".

"We came here for a finance COP (Conference of Parties). What we got was peanuts," Bangladeshi negotiator Qamrul Chowdhury told AFP of the text on Saturday.

The funding crunch lies at the heart of another issue which bedevilled the talks: demands by developing countries for a "loss and damage" mechanism to help them deal with future harm from climate impacts they say are too late to avoid.

Rich nations feared this would amount to signing a blank cheque for never-ending liability.

Observers said a compromise on this point may be announced soon.

On Thursday, environment and developmental observer groups stormed out of the conference, saying the talks had produced little more than hot air and were "on track to deliver virtually nothing".

source: interaksyon.com

New Aussie PM Abbott moves to repeal climate tax

SYDNEY -- Australia's new conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott Wednesday moved to abolish a carbon tax designed to combat climate change as his first major economic reform since taking office.

Abbott said the September 7 election that he won decisively had been a referendum on the future of the tax, which was imposed by the former Labor government on major polluters from 2012 in a bid to reduce carbon emissions.

"No one should be in any doubt -- the government is repealing the carbon tax in full," he said as he introduced a bill to repeal the tax into parliament. "We are doing what we were elected to do. We have said what we mean and we will do what we say -- the carbon tax goes. It goes."

Scrapping the divisive tax was a central election promise of Abbott who had argued the cost of the levy was passed on to consumers, resulting in higher utility bills and day-to-day costs.

"The intention of the new government is to put power prices down by axing this toxic tax and by using other means to reduce emissions," he said.

"This is our bill to reduce your bills, to reduce the bills of the people of Australia."

Abbott also said the removal of the tax would strengthen the economy of Australia, which is among the world's worst per capita polluters due to its reliance on coal-fired power and mining exports.

The carbon tax had charged the country's biggest polluters for their emissions at a fixed price and was due to transition to an emissions trading scheme.

The new government instead favors a "direct action" plan that includes an incentive fund to pay companies to increase their energy efficiency, a controversial sequestration of carbon in soil scheme, and the planting 20 million trees.

Abbott had earlier been forced to wait for about an hour to move the legislation after Labor, which opposes the dismantling of the tax, stalled proceedings with debate about the government's nickname for opposition leader Bill Shorten.

The prime minister had referred to his opposition counterpart as "Electricity" Bill Shorten during a media interview earlier in the day, a moniker attacked by Labor as "name-calling."

Then as he began to move the bill, Abbott was interrupted by yelling protesters in the public gallery.

"Inaction (on climate) is simply not good enough," shouted one protester, one of more than a dozen removed from the chamber.

The government also introduced a bill to repeal the mining tax -- a levy once proposed as a 40 percent tax on "super profits" within the industry but which was ultimately greatly reduced in size and scope after a backlash from the mining sector.

source: interaksyon.com

Filipinos urged to adapt to climate change

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje today said that Filipinos must learn to accept the growing intensity of typhoons, including the great volume of water that comes with storm or monsoon rains, as well as the long drought during the dry season, as the “new normal”.

“There is nothing we could do but to adapt to climate change and the only way we could be prepared for the impact of climate change is to accept that these recent developments in our country like intense weather disturbances, heavy rainfall, as well as long dry season are now the “new normal,” Paje said in an interview in PTV Channel 4.

Paje also urged people to listen to authorities during calamities and stop being “sutil” (stubborn) when they are asked to evacuate to safer grounds. The landslide area at Litex in Brgy. Commonwealth, Quezon City has been identified as susceptible to landslide in 2002.

He said he would ask the local government of Quezon City to have the area be declared as a “permanent danger zone”.

According to Paje, the Philippines has been identified to be highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. For this, he said, the government has been working on long term solutions to minimize damage on people and government infrastructures.

He cited the convergence project his agency is working with the Department of Public Works and Highways in building small water impounding dams in the uplands.

“If you allow rainwater to go down the watersheds it would result in flooding. But if you can impound them, the water becomes precious resource that you can use during the dry season,” Paje stressed.

According to him, the Agriculture Department has already successfully developed new rice varieties that are resilient to climate change.

He also said the DENR through its Mines and Geosciences is developing new bigger geohazard maps with a scale of 1:10,000, which will be distributed down to the barangay level.

The DENR has previously distributed more than 75,000 geohazard maps with scale of 1:50,000.

(www.denr.gov.ph)

source: asianjournal.com

Clinton: No New Cold War

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland, (AFP) — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday the United States was not seeking conflict with a rising China but urged emerging powers to act more “constructively’’ in the world.

As academics in China and elsewhere increasingly speak of US decline, Clinton offered a robust defense of the United States and said it still had the military power, innovative companies, and core values to make it “exceptional.’’

But addressing aspiring military leaders at the US Naval Academy, Clinton said bluntly that 2012 “is not 1912, when friction between a declining Britain and a rising Germany set the stage for global conflict.’’

“We are not seeking new enemies. Today’s China is not the Soviet Union. We are not on the brink of a new Cold War in Asia,’’ Clinton told the academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

“A thriving China is good for America, and a thriving America is good for China – so long as we both thrive in a way that contributes to the regional and global good,’’ she said.

Clinton acknowledged concerns overseas about US intentions but denied that the United States was bent on “denying rising powers their fair share’’ or on bringing them into “a rigged system’’ designed to preserve US power.

But Clinton said that rising Asian powers – naming China, India, and Indonesia – have been able to prosper thanks to an international system supported by the United States.

“Some of today’s emerging powers act as selective stakeholders, picking and choosing when to participate constructively and when to stand apart from the international system,’’ she said.

“While that may suit their interests in the short term, it will ultimately render the system that has helped them to get where they are today unworkable. And that would end up impoverishing everyone,’’ Clinton said.

The United States has frequently voiced concern that China, despite its rising wealth and ambitions, has not taken the role of a leading power on tough issues such as North Korea, Iran, and climate change.

Clinton conceded that many Americans faced “difficult’’ economic times but said that there was “simply no substitute’’ for the United States in the world.

“Only the United States has the global reach, the resources, and the resolve to deter aggression, rally coalitions, and project stability into diverse and dynamic regions of danger, threat, and opportunity,’’ Clinton said.

“There is no real precedent in history for the role we play or the responsibility we have shouldered. And there is also no alternative,’’ she said.

source: mb.com.ph