EU-DIGEST

For the complete report from The Sydney Morning Herald click on this link

Czech Republic - Vaclav Klaus: Beware the church of climate alarm - by Miranda Devine

"As the Czech President, Vaclav Klaus, an economist, anti-totalitarian and climate change sceptic, prepares to take up the rotating presidency of the European Union next year, climate alarmists are doing their best to traduce him. The New York Times opened a profile of Klaus, 67, this week with a quote from a 1980s communist secret agent's report, claiming he behaves like a "rejected genius", and asserts there is "palpable fear" he will "embarrass" the EU. But the real fear driving climate alarmists wild is that a more rational approach to the fundamentalist religion of global warming may be in the ascendancy - whether in the parliamentary offices of the world's largest trading bloc or in the living rooms of Blacktown."

As the global financial crisis takes hold, perhaps people are starting to wonder whether the so-called precautionary principle, which would have us accept enormous new taxes in the guise of an emissions trading scheme and curtail economic growth, is justified, based on what we actually know about climate.

Note EU-Digest: The viewpoint of Sydney Morning Herald's Miranda Devine is a typical conservative corporate reaction, protecting corporate interests above the environment and long term human needs. The fact is that Mr. Klaus, the ceremonial non-universally elected President of the Czech Republic, is considered a "Dr.Stangelove" by many politicians in Europe and by a large number of people in his own country. Unfortunately the Czech Republic will take over the 6 months rotational EU Presidency from France in January. This will provide Mr. Klaus with a "soap-box" to spout all his nonsensical theories about the EU, politics and the environment. But.... eventually its all to the benefit of freedom of expression, still alive and well in Europe.

Labels: Czech Republic, Environment, EU, Pollution and the environment, Vaclav Klaus

September 23 was Earth Overshoot Day

September 23 this year marked an unfortunate milestone: the day humanity will have used all the resources nature will generate this year, according to Global Footprint Network data. Earth Overshoot Day marks the day when humanity begins living beyond its ecological means. Beyond that day, we move into the ecological equivalent of deficit spending, utilizing resources at a rate faster than what the planet can regenerate in a calendar year.

Globally, we now now require the equivalent of 1.4 planets to support our lifestyles. But of course, we only have one Earth. The result is that our supply of natural resources -- like trees and fish -- continues to shrink, while our waste, primarily carbon dioxide, accumulates.

Labels: Ecology, Environment

Swedish town prides itself as environmental role model

The Swedish town of Vaexjoe will be "green" or will not be at all. That's the slogan in this town that has become a world leader in environmental protection and has even loftier goals. While the European Union (EU) aims to raise its share of renewable energy consumption to 20 percent by 2020, Vaexjoe, a town of 80,000 people nestled between lakes and forests in Sweden's south, can boast of already exceeding 50 percent -- and 90 percent when it comes to heating. Carbon dioxide emissions per inhabitant dropped by 30 percent between 1993 and 2006.

Labels: Alternative Energy, Environment, EU, Sweden

Europe Joins 'Lights Out' for Earth Hour

From Rome's Colosseum to the Sydney Opera House, floodlit icons of civilization went dark Saturday for Earth Hour, a worldwide campaign to highlight the threat of climate change. The environmental group WWF urged governments, businesses and households to turn back to candle power for at least 60 minutes starting at 8 p.m. wherever they were. The campaign began last year in Australia, and traveled this year from the South Pacific to Europe in cadence with the setting of the sun. Several U.S. cities also planned symbolic blackouts or dimmings of monuments, including at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. "What's amazing is that it's transcending political boundaries and happening in places like China, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea," said Andy Ridley, executive director of Earth Hour. "It really seems to have resonated with anybody and everybody." Earth Hour officials hoped 100 million people would turn off their nonessential lights and electronic goods for the hour. Electricity plants produce greenhouse gases that fuel climate change.

Labels: Economy, Energy, Environment, EU

Climate, financial crisis, economy top EU summit agenda

The crisis on financial markets, climate change & energy, and Europe's global competitiveness are the main topics of this week's EU spring summit in Brussels. Presidents and prime ministers of the 27 European Union member states are arrive in Brussels on Thursday for a two-day meeting. Informally, they're also expected to discuss the ratification of the new EU treaty, which the EU would like to be completed by the end of this year. Ireland is the only country to hold a referendum on this treaty, which is expected to happen late May or June.

Labels: Economy, Environment, EU, Policy

The European Union bans certain biofuel sources in draft law

Amidst renewed fears over the impact of biofuels on the environment, which a recent Royal Society report warned could “do more harm than good,” the European Union has issued a draft law that would propose a ban on the imports of bio fuels derived from crops grown on certain types of land — such as forests, wetlands and grasslands. It would also require them to deliver a — as yet undetermined — “minimum level of greenhouse gas savings.” Palm oil is cited by many as a particularly insidious source of biofuel because of the unacceptable environmental and societal costs it incurs.

Labels: Biofuels, Environment, EU

EU to push for concrete talks on new climate deal in Bali - by Honor Mahony

International talks on how to fight global warming begin on Bali today with the EU hoping to push other countries to sign up to negotiations on another climate change treaty after the current one expires in 2012.The 11-day conference is supposed to come to an agreement on how to continue with climate change measures after the current Kyoto protocol expires in just over four year's time.

Labels: Environment, EU, Pollution and the environment

Revealed in Britain: the man behind court attack on Gore film - by Jamie DowardThe school governor who challenged the screening of Al Gore's climate change documentary in secondary schools was funded by a Scottish quarrying magnate who established a controversial lobbying group to attack environmentalists' claims about global warming. Stewart Dimmock's high-profile fight to ban the film being shown in schools was depicted as a David and Goliath battle, with the Kent school governor taking on the state by arguing that the government was 'brainwashing' pupils.

The Observer has established that Dimmock's case was supported by a powerful network of business interests with close links to the fuel and mining lobbies. He was also supported by a Conservative councillor in Hampshire, Derek Tipp.

Records filed at the Electoral Commission show the New Party has received nearly all of its money - almost £1m between 2004 and 2006 - from Cloburn Quarry Limited, based in Lanarkshire. The company's owner and chairman of the New Party, Robert Durward, is a long-time critic of environmentalists. With Mark Adams, a former private secretary to Tony Blair, he set up the Scientific Alliance, a not-for-profit body comprising scientists and non-scientists, which aims to challenge many of the claims about global warming.

A High Court ruling last week that the Oscar-winning documentary would have to be screened with guidance notes to balance its claims was welcomed by climate-change sceptics.

Labels: Al Gore, Britain, Environment, EU, Noble prize

Russia - Sochi Olympic site win is making Environmentalists and Ecologists see red

"Our feelings are complicated and mixed," Andrei Petrov, the World Heritage coordinator at Greenpeace in Russia, told reporters on Thursday. "On the one side for me and all Russian citizens this is great news but on the other hand there is the construction of the Olympic Games in the buffer zone of a World Heritage Park."

Environmentalists fear the bobsleigh track and the Olympic village will eat into a kilometre-wide buffer zone protecting mountains, forests, rivers and wildlife in the Western Caucasus World Nature Heritage Site beyond the resort.Facilities at the Olympic village will dissect the traditional feeding and migration grounds of the brown bear and red deer, he added, as well as ripping up rare flowers and plants.

Labels: Ecology, Environment, EU Russia, Sochi

Paris Joins 2-Wheel Trend in Europe - by JENNIFER CONLIN

Biking is fast becoming the transportation of choice in environmentally aware European cities. Take Paris, for instance. As of next week, the French capital will have more than 10,000 bikes for rent at 750 stations (right) around the city, providing both tourists and residents with an opportunity to feel environmentally chaste, not to mention giving them a fun, fast way to explore. Called Vélib’, the program allows riders to pick up and drop off the three-speed bikes at any one of the various stations spread throughout the city. The first 30 minutes are free; after that the cost is 1 euro, or about $1.35, for the first half-hour, 2 euros for the second half-hour and 4 euros for each half hour after that.

Labels: Biking, Environment, Europe

Labels: Environment

EU lawmakers warn against neglecting civil rights in US-relations

Leading European Union lawmakers on Wednesday demanded to make human rights a basic part of EU-US relations, warning the EU against a focus on boosting economic ties only. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) made their comments days before a summit in Washington which is expected to be a litmus test for transatlantic relations.

Labels: Environment, EU, Human Rights, US

Europe looks to Norwich for green inspiration - by DOMINIC CHESSUM

The city's environmental credentials have been lauded throughout the UK for some time but now countries across Europe are looking to Norwich for green inspiration.

Norwich boasts more green councillors than anywhere else in the UK and has a plethora of environmental campaign groups including direct action group Rising Tide and Norwich Friends of the Earth. Adrian Ramsay, leader of the Green Party in Norwich was one of those interviewed. He said: "Norwich is also good in terms of campaigning on environmental issues and in terms of quality of life but there are also areas where there is a long way to go. We need to improve recycling facilities, which the council has agreed to do, and we need to require housing developers to build more energy efficient housing."

Labels: Environment, EU, Green Policy, Norwich

Energy Policy: A Norwegian Perspective-by Olav Akselsen, MP

The upcoming 15th Session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development that will take place in May and which has Energy as its focal theme. Energy is the focal theme because of its importance for efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals following up the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002. Energy remains a key vehicle to promote sustainable economic and social development within a more equitable world order.

Norway has ambitious goals regarding capture, use and storage of CO2. In order to realise CCS technologies as soon as possible, the Norwegian government and Statoil have agreed to establish the world's largest full-scale CCS project in conjunction with a projected combined heat and power plant at Mongstad oil refinery in Norway. It will be fully operational by the end of 2014. We are developing groundbreaking new technology, which can become an export item and a guarantee for future petroleum activities in Norway.

Labels: Alternative Energy Resources, Environment, Norway

Mediterranean weather will prevail in Central Europe, expert says

People in Central Europe, including the Czech Republic, will have to cope with the Mediterranean type of weather and extreme phenomena, mainly drought and heavy precipitation, Czech climatologist Jan Pretel told CTK today. Pretel, who is attending a meeting of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said that man's share in global warming is beyond doubt. "There is really a minimal number of those who deny this," Pretel said.

One of those who denies this is Czech President Vaclav Klaus who in his replies to U.S. Congressmen's questions recently compared environmentalism to communism and dismissed claims that man himself destroys his planet.

Labels: Environment, EU, Vaclav Klaus

Why We Should Rejoice After Fifty Years Of The EU - without unity in Europe even the Germans would be eating with chopsticks-Chris Davies

So the EU is 50. It's not a bad age and its future looks secure. Recent concerns about global warming and future energy supplies have reminded governments of their dependence on one another and reinforced the desire to move forward together."Think of the improvements to water and air quality, cleaner beaches, protected habitats, more recycling, better waste management, banning of dangerous chemicals, and now the raft of measures designed to slow climate change." Pollution pays no respect to national boundaries and this is action most people welcome.

Do you have a mobile phone? In 1987 the EU introduced a common standard for digital mobile telephones.It created a huge market for manufacturers and gave a massive stimulus to innovation - a good example of Europe at its best.

Can you imagine any European country trying to negotiate alone with the emerging superpower that is China? Even the Germans would end up eating with chopsticks!

Labels: Environment, EU 50, European Unity, Future, Politics, World Trade

Saving the World: Merkel, the Queen of Europe - by Dirk Kurbjuweit

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is often inscrutible. But her diplomatic deftness managed to get 27 European leaders to agree to a far-reaching climate policy. She has made the European stage her own.

Angela Merkel is relentlessly Angela Merkel, even when she is experiencing what others might celebrate as a triumph. A small glimmer of joy on her otherwise exhausted-looking face was all she could muster at a press conference after the European Union summit in Brussels last Friday. Her reserve was especially conspicuous next to the visible glow on the face of José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission -- he was seated next to Merkel and was soaking in the satisfaction of emerging from this meeting as a winner.

Angela Merkel's strength is her dependability, and from dependability grows the confidence that this chancellor can be a leader, even in sacrifice.

Labels: Environment, Integration, Political

Europe leaves me green with envy - by Jim Kenzie

Why do North Americans have such unsophisticated tastes in automobiles? Do we really want to drive around in beige Corollas and grey Civics, or do we do so because that's all the car companies offer us? Take a peek at an Alfa Romeo Spider and tell me you don't want to take it to bed with you. Thoughts like this come to mind every time I'm in Europe, but especially when attending a major auto show like this week's in Geneva.

Even the Civics and Corollas they get over here are way cooler than ours.

Labels: Environment

Sony wins Sustainable Energy Europe Award

Launched in 2005, the European Commission's Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign aims at raising public awareness and promoting sustainable energy across Europe. The campaign will contribute to the achievement of EU energy policy targets in the fields of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency, clean transport and alternative fuels. "The competition for the Sustainable Energy Europe Awards is an integral part of the Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign," says Andris Piebalgs, European Commissioner for Energy. "The Awards are aimed at highlighting the successes of the most outstanding projects and rewarding the Sustainable Energy Partners most worthy of recognition and praise."

In an award ceremony held at the Residence Palace in Brussels on 1st February 2007, the European Commission awarded Sony for its voluntary commitment to energy efficiency. Sony was nominated for its excellent results in maximising the energy efficiency of its products, especially of its BRAVIA LCD TV models. The standby power consumption of all Sony BRAVIA TVs is below one watt, while currently 30 of them achieve a standby consumption of only 0.3 watts, well below the market average.

Labels: Environment

Labels: Environment

Illegal South Asian immigrants take dangerous route to Europe

Illegal South Asian immigrants have long strived to get into Europe by land routes, but of late they are favouring the much longer and more dangerous route from West Africa by the sea.

This has come to light after a fishing trawler Marine 1, with nearly 400 illegal passengers on board, including many Indians, was towed away by Mauritanian authorities in northwest Africa Feb 2.

Labels: Environment

Labels: Environment

Germany Under Fire for Climate Change Hypocrisy

The new UN report on climate change has increased pressure on governments around the world to act on global warming. However the German government is being criticized for resisting EU moves to reduce car emissions.

Reactions to the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on climate change have been quick. The report, which was released Friday and contains the UN's strongest conclusion yet that human activities are leading to global warming, made headlines around the world and provided new impetus for action on climate change.

On Saturday, 45 countries joined France in calling for a new international environmental organization to act on climate change. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, too, is sending out mixed messages on climate change.She is under fire for her government's threats to block an EU attempt to impose emissions reductions on the automobile industry. The German car industry is one of the country's key industrial sectors and forms a powerful political lobby.

Labels: Environment

Sun Sentinel; Global warming - Ft.Lauderdale Mayor Naugle calls Global Environmental Panelists meeting in Paris "scientists who've had too much wine"

Jim Naugle Mayor of Fort Lauderdale who didn't join 28 other South Florida mayors in signing the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, a movement to fight climate change on the local level told the Press he did not sign the Agreement because - "I think man has little to do with it."

Commenting on Friday's release of a chilling report on Global warming by the Intergovernmental Panel in Paris on Climate Change, where the world's leading climate scientists concluded that global warming is "unequivocal" and that human activity was "very likely" the reason, with "very likely" defined as expert judgment above 90 percent certainty - Naugle said: "To me it sounds like a bunch of scientists meeting in Paris who've had too much wine."

Labels: Environment

France and 45 other countries call for world environmental monitor

PARIS: Forty-five nations joined France in calling for a new environmental body to slow global warming and protect the planet, a body that potentially could have policing powers to punish violators. Absent were the world's heavyweight polluter, the United States, China and India, booming nations on the same path. The effort Saturday, led by President Jacques Chirac of France, came a day after the release of an authoritative, and disturbingly grim, scientific report saying that global warming was "very likely" caused by mankind, and that climate change would continue for centuries even if heat-trapping gases were reduced. It was the strongest language ever used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, whose last report was issued in 2001.

Labels: Environment

Pollution in the Caribbean - "Villagers in Trinidad and Tobago say no to Alcoa smelter plans" - by JACQUELINE CHARLES

Villagers in Trinidad and Tobago are vowing to fight government plans to allow U.S.-based Alcoa to build an aluminum smelter on a man-made island.Already one of the wealthiest countries in the Caribbean with 12.6 percent economic growth last year and per capita income of $19,700, according to the CIA World FactBook, Trinidad and Tobago is a leading provider of natural gas to the United States.

Otaheite, a village about 45 miles southwest of the capital city of Port-of-Spain, has become the latest battlefield in the struggle over Manning's desires to create a modern industrial state by allowing U.S.-based aluminum giant Alcoa to build a $1.5 billion smelter on this twin-island Caribbean nation. Manning and his ruling People's National Movement government argue that the Alcoa plant, and a less controversial one being developed for the nearby La Brea community, will create hundreds of new jobs, allowing the already industrialized nation to further diversify its oil and natural gas-based economy.But environmentalists say the negative impact of Alcoa's smelter's emissions and solid wastes residue will far outweigh any positive economic gains. For months they have led a barrage of bruising protests that have shut down roads and often turned into shouting matches.

The smelter debate also has leaked into politics in an election year in this deeply polarized nation, where the population of 1.3 million is almost equally split between Afro-Trinidadians and Indo-Trinidadians. Opposition groups have used the controversy to try to portray Manning as being out of touch with the people.'They cannot seem to understand the word `No.' - No Smelter,' said Peter Vine, an agricultural physicist and lecturer at the University of the West Indies here, who is among the scholars, musicians, farmers and now fishermen fighting to keep the smelter out of Trinidad and Tobago. ``We don't want Alcoa. End of discussion.''

Note EU-Digest: Alcoa is the world's leading producer of primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum, and alumina and is active in all major aspects of the aluminum industry. For information on some of Alcoa's world-wide pollution problems click on this link

or go to http://www.nosmeltertnt.com/alcoa_lawsuits.html

Labels: Environment

Europe's BMW's Hydrogen 7 Luxury Sedan - - by Michael Bettencour

America is about to receive the most advanced, greenest and surely the most expensive production-ready BMW in the world, valued at about half a million dollars. If you’re one of the select few to be deemed worthy by BMW, it’ll be loaned to you for free. An overflowing money clip — on its own — won’t grant a shot at one of the six-week to six-month “leases” BMW will offer on 25 to 30 BMW Hydrogen 7 sedans — all of which are prototypes, not actual production cars — that arrive in the U.S. this spring. Each one will be entrusted to a carefully chosen politician, scientist, business leader, media member or celebrity who BMW thinks can best champion hydrogen as an alternative fuel for the masses.A total of 100 Hydrogen 7 sedans will be distributed worldwide to countries in Europe and Asia in addition to the U.S.

In Europe, interested parties qualified by BMW must lease the car for an amount still to be determined (laws in the U.S. prevented leasing arrangements and so BMW offers the Hydrogen 7 for free). BMW hopes to start selling hydrogen-powered 7 Series sedans in the U.S. by 2020 and roll out the technology on other models thereafter.The only emission when running on hydrogen is water vapor, making hydrogen theoretically more environmentally friendly than other alternative fuels and fuel-saving technology.

Labels: Environment

‘Rising sea levels will not flood Holland’

The Netherlands will not be flooded because of global warming but the sea level along the Dutch coast will rise more than the in the rest of the world, according to a report by Dutch environmental think-tank MNP and weather bureau KNMI. The United Nations climate panel said on Friday that the sea level is set to rise between 18 and 59 centimetres by 2100. But the KNMI says the rise in sea levels off the Dutch coast could be as high as 85 cm because the level of the North Atlantic will rise more than elsewhere.

Increases of less than one metre per century could be tackled using current technology, the Dutch organisations said. However they warned that inland waterways would also be more vulnerable to flooding. Most of the Netherlands is below sea level and the country is protected by a complicated system of dykes, seawalls and sluices.

Labels: Environment

EU: UN needs bigger environment role

EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas told the UN's climate change conference on Friday that the UN should upgrade its 'environmental programme' into a full-fledge UN Environmental Organisation. "We in the EU have proposed to look seriously at the way the UN deals with environmental issues," Dimas said. "We have proposed to strengthen the environmental voice inside the UN, notably through strengthening UNEP, and upgrading it into a UN Environmental Organisation. We believe that this way, the UN will be better equipped to deal with today's pressing environmental issues, from water to air pollution, to biodiversity, to climate change."

"There is no way a single group of countries will be able on its own to tackle climate change," Dimas said. "If there is one example of why we need to work jointly, at the international level, it is the fight against climate change." Dimas said global cuts in greenhouse gas emission can only be achieved with global action. The United States, he said, must be first to act.

Labels: Environment

The Doomsday Clock is ticking

The current period of globalization coincides with an erosion of the global agreements and norms that have constrained the spread of nuclear weapons since 1970 when the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) came into force.

In recent years, however, the United States appears focused on denying nuclear weapons only to its adversaries — while accommodating its friends.

As we stand at the brink of a second nuclear age and at the onset of an era of unprecedented climate change, our way of thinking about the uses and control of technologies must change to prevent unspeakable destruction and future human suffering.

Labels: Environment