(Reuters) – EDF Trading, subsidiary of French utility EDF, said on Thursday it has ended its involvement in a biogas project in Honduras which an environmental group claims is linked to human rights abuses.

“We have taken the situation in Honduras very seriously and have spent the past few months looking at our options in respect to our withdrawal,” said John Rittenhouse, chief executive of EDF Trading, in a statement.

“We have therefore issued our notification of termination to the seller and will no longer be involved in this project,” he said.

The Aguan biogas project in Honduras is applying for registration under the United Nations’ Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which rewards firms for investing in emissions-cutting schemes in developing countries.

Environmental watchdog group CDM Watch claims the project, which is being developed by Grupo Dinant subsidiary Exportadora del Atlantico, is linked to human rights violations including the killing of more than 20 peasants in the past year who were occupying the land.

German Rodriguez, named in a U.N. project design document as a contact at Exportadora del Atlantico, told Point Carbon News that he did not “agree with the findings of the report.”

This week, the Carbon Markets Investors Association said, should any human rights abuse be proven, all companies involved in the project should terminate their commercial relationship with it.

CDM consultants Perspectives was a project participant but terminated its involvement in the project in January.

The German Investment and Development Bank had pledged a loan of more than $20 million to the project but canceled its contractual commitments on April 8, CDM Watch said.

The CDM’s executive board, is likely discussing the project at its meeting in Bangkok, which draws to a close on Friday.

Article by Nina Chestney, appearing courtesy Reuters.

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(Reuters) – Developing countries accused Japan on Wednesday of breaking a pledge to extend a U.N. pact for fighting global warming beyond 2012 and said that climate talks in Mexico would fail unless Tokyo backed down.

Japan, among almost 40 industrialized nations curbing greenhouse gas emissions under the United Nations’ Kyoto Protocol until 2012, said it will not extend cuts unless other big emitters like the United States and China also join in.

“There will be no successful outcome for Cancun” if Japan sticks to its refusal to extend cuts under Kyoto, said Abdulla Alsaidi, the chair of the group of 77 and China, the main body of developing nations at the two-week talks in Mexico.

Nearly 200 nations are trying to draft a modest package to help avert floods, droughts, heatwaves and rising seas. But Wednesday’s tensions show that hurdles remain in building trust between rich and poor countries since the 2009 Copenhagen summit failed to agree a treaty.

“It does not make sense” to extend Kyoto, Hideki Minamikawa, a deputy Japanese environment minister, told a news conference. He said a broader deal was needed as Kyoto countries now account for only 27 percent of heat-trapping emissions.

“We need to achieve global reductions,” he said, adding that Japan wanted to register all post-2012 cuts in a new deal, building on a non-binding Copenhagen Accord agreed last year by 140 nations accounting for 80 percent of emissions.

Christiana Figueres, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said Japan had made similar statements in the past and warned all sides that a clear decision on Kyoto’s fate was not expected to be taken in Cancun.

“Given the diversity of positions on the Kyoto Protocol, it is not going to be possible for Cancun to take a radical decision one way or another on the Kyoto Protocol,” she said.

That means ever less time to agree on what happens to Kyoto before its first period ends on December 31, 2012.

“WILLINGNESS TO COMPROMISE”

Kyoto obliges its members to cut emissions by an average 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-2012 and they are meant to agree new cuts.

Kyoto underpins carbon markets, which want assurances of policies beyond 2012 to guide investments. The International Energy Agency says $18 trillion needs to be spent by 2030 to ensure a shift from fossil fuels toward cleaner energies.

The European Union and other Kyoto backers also want others to join in beyond 2012 but have been less outspoken. The United States never ratified Kyoto, arguing that it would cost U.S. jobs and wrongly omitted 2012 targets for China and India.

Overall, Figueres said the talks were on track.

“The start is constructive, it’s positive and we have very public expressions of the willingness to compromise,” she said of countries including top emitters China and the United States.

Cancun will seek a package of measures including a “green fund” to channel aid to the poor, ways to help developing nations adapt to the impact of climate change and efforts to protect tropical forests that soak up carbon as they grow.

In Brazil, the government said deforestation in the Amazon region fell to its lowest level on record, marking what could be a watershed in the conservation of the world’s biggest rainforest.

The government wants to showcase that it is one of the few major economies slashing greenhouse gases, which in Brazil come mostly from burning or rotting trees.

In Cancun, carbon market lobbyists and some countries called for a U.N. decision to commit to continue trade in carbon offsets under Kyoto after 2012, regardless of whether a new climate deal is agreed.

And the United Nations urged a global phase-out of old-style light bulbs and a switch to low-energy lighting that it said would save billions of dollars and combat climate change.

Article by Alister Doyle and Timothy Gardner; edited by Stacey Joyce and John O’Callaghan; appearing courtesy Reuters.

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Chinese officials say international climate talks next week in Mexico will succeed only if wealthy countries are willing to share technologies and funds to help developing nations reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While Western nations had pledged at last year’s climate summit in Copenhagen to pay into a $30 billion fund to help developing countries deal with the effects of climate change, details of the fund have not been finalized. Xie Zhenhua, a senior Chinese climate envoy, said that developed nations must cut their emissions “massively” to allow development space for emerging nations.

China’s tough negotiating stance comes as a new report shows that emissions from China and other developing countries are having an increasingly significant impact globally. According to the annual Global Carbon Project report, released this week, global carbon emissions dropped only 1.3 percent in 2009, far below the projected 3 percent decrease, largely as a result of emissions increases in China. Greenhouse gas emissions in China reached 7.5 billion tons in 2009, a 9 percent increase.

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The “trees” feature a unique, low-energy design that increases safety and attracts tourists to local businesses after dark.

In an effort to make people in Angkor Wat, Cambodia more comfortable while walking the streets at night, avant garde Nothing Design Group created the tree-like solar lamps in partnership with Asiana Airlines and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).

Angkor Wat is a UNESCO World Heritage site, but many tourists felt unsafe exploring the town once the sun had set. These cheerful lighting installations encourage visitors to become more integrated with the local community, and allow locals to generate more income by keeping businesses open later.

The solar trees also help demonstrate the immediate impact renewable energy can have on developing countries, especially when traditional infrastructure is limited.

So far, 16 solar streetlights have been installed, and the team plans to install 5 to 10 more a year until 2015.

Article by Beth Buczynski, appearing courtesy Crisp Green.

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The United States and a coalition of the world’s island nations and least developed countries are placing growing pressure on swiftly developing countries — most notably China — to commit to firm CO2 emissions reductions targets at the Copenhagen summit. As the U.S.’s chief climate negotiator, Todd Stern, told reporters there’s “no way” to solve the global warming problem “by giving the major developing countries a pass,” poor states and island nations proposed that all countries sign an agreement with legally binding CO2 reductions targets. China rejected that idea.

The Alliance of Small Island States — composed of 43 nations highly vulnerable to global warming and sea level rise — was joined by 48 of the world’s poorest countries in proposing that the Copenhagen summit set a goal of holding global temperature increases to 1.5 C (2.7 F) above pre-industrial levels. But as the small nations were making that plea, the UK’s Met Office said that given rapidly rising concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere, meeting a 1.5 C goal was virtually impossible and that holding global temperature increases to 2 C (3.6 F) will be difficult, even in the highly unlikely event that global greenhouse gas emissions peak in 2020.

On Wednesday, Stern took a harder line with China and major developing nations, eliciting a sharp response from the Chinese. Speaking with reporters, Stern said that with 97 percent of the growth in greenhouse gas emissions between now and 2030 expected to come from China, India, Brazil, and other booming developing economies, these nations must make firm commitments to reduce their output of CO2.

“If you care about the science — and we do — there’s no way to solve this problem by giving major developing countries a pass,” Stern said. “We’re not talking about the same kind of need for actions from the vast majority of developing countries. But the major ones, it’s going to be absolutely essential.

“China — I’m not being critical — has an extraordinarily successful economy… But emissions are emissions,” Stern said. “You’ve just got to do the math. It’s not a matter of politics or morality or anything else. It’s just math. And you cannot get the kind of reductions you need globally if China is not a major player in this. That’s the reality.”

Chinese diplomats struck back, with the nation’s climate change ambassador, You Sei, suggesting that the U.S. needed to rethink its stance. “What they should do is some deep soul-searching,” he told reporters. Another Chinese diplomat belittled America’s proposed reductions in greenhouse gases and said that the U.S.’s role as the largest cumulative emitter of greenhouse gases is an important factor in negotiations. “The historical responsibility of developing nations is actually low,” said Su Wei, a climate change negotiator.

As diplomats exchanged words over the responsibilities of the industrialized versus the developing world, U.S. financier George Soros identified a potential way in which rich nations could transfer tens of billions of dollars to poor nations to cope with rising sea levels and other problems associated with global warming. Speaking to reporters in Copenhagen, Soros told reporters that a proposal by wealthy nations to spend $10 billion a year to help the poor adapt to climate change was “not sufficient” and that tension over such aid “could actually wreck the conference.”

The billionaire suggested that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) use $100 billion of its funds — money set aside to assure liquidity in the global financial system — and make a one-time infusion into the climate change fund. The money, part of an arcane financial mechanism known as “special drawing rights,” would make it “possible to substantially increase the amount available to fight global warming in the developing world.” But Soros noted a major hurdle to his proposal – the U.S. exerts major control over the IMF and Congress would have to approve the funding plan.

As the conference entered its fourth day, a report by 100 of Europe’s leading marine scientists was released to the press, with the researchers warning that the Earth’s oceans are becoming acidic at a faster rate than at any time in the last 55 million years.

The report said that the seas were absorbing high levels of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as a result of human activity and that the acidity of the oceans has increased 30 percent since the Industrial Revolution. The study, an exhaustive review of existing scientific research into ocean acidification, said that coral reefs, some mollusks and the algae and plankton that are essential to the marine food web will be “severely affected” by 2050 because of the acidification problem.

Article appearing courtesy of Yale Environment 360

[photo credit: New America Foundation]

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The developing world, where 44 percent of people lack access to electricity, could soon be one of the biggest markets for solar power, according to participants at the Solar Power International conference in California.

To date, just 1 percent of solar panel production has been installed in poor nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, a situation that Michael Eckhart, president of the American Council on Renewable Energy, called “a scandal for our industry.”

Eckhart and other experts said that in addition to finding financing to help low-income residents install solar panels, a major challenge is purchasing and replacing the batteries to store electricity at night and on cloudy days.

Another significant hurdle is replacing the energy-wasting incandescent bulbs and old, inefficient appliances and computers often used by village households.

One expert who has installed off-the-grid solar arrays in Africa and China said in regions where villagers use compact fluorescent bulbs and efficient appliances the cost of installing an adequate solar array and battery can be 75 percent cheaper.

Article appearing courtesy of Yale Environment 360

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Since I just posted about my thoughts on sustainable energy in Africa, I might as well follow up with more musings on sustainable development there. Although most of my time in Kenya was spent in Nairobi, I also had a chance to explore Lake Naivasha’s industry and ecosystem. I met, for example, with the VP of Finance and Administration of Homegrown Ltd, a huge floriculture company specializing in roses, exporting hundreds of millions each year. A few things struck me from the encounter.

First, Lake Naivasha, the source of water for the entire local flower industry, is changing. It is drying up and its water is becoming more polluted. While this is partially due to natural cycles, it is mostly attributed to man. Homegrown and other florists in the Lake Naivasha Growers Group surprised me with their recognition of culpability and their proactivity in addressing the issue despite no government requirement to do so. For example, they have planted local shrubs along the banks to slow runoff and filter the water that enters the lake.

Second, Homegrown is committed to reducing its environmental impact through elimination of chemical-based pesticides. However, the need to reduce rose-eating pests remains. To strike this balance, Homegrown founded another company, DuduTech (“Dudu” means “insect” in Swahili.), which develops “pesticides” by using naturally occurring insects that prey on the pests. This includes predatory insects, parasitic bugs, and a host of other approaches that all have the same objective: neutralize the pests without introducing chemicals into the environment. Cool stuff.

Finally, however, I don’t see how the model for this industry is sustainable at all. In a country (nay, on a continent) where hunger is rampant, thousands of prime agricultural hectares are being used for flowers instead of food crops. The flowers (and the small amount of food crops that actually are produced) are exported immediately (Time from harvest to European retailer shelves is 24-48 hours.) which incurs huge environmental costs for refrigeration and transportation. Local labor is employed (and treated very fairly, it seems), but the vast majority of profit is captured by the company owners, which are largely foreign. I can’t blame the owners for their choices because the economics clearly support them, but there has to be a better way. Local companies using the land for production of locally distributed food would result in Europeans not having roses for their dining tables but millions fewer hungry Africans.

What do you think, how can sustainability be introduced in environments (no pun intended) in which the economics are stacked against it? Is it the responsibility of the government to step in and change the economic environment? Should the onus be on businesses to do the right thing? Or should consumers step up and drive policy with their votes/dollars?

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