UN Climate Change Conference set to begin Monday

SINGAPORE ~  The United Nations Climate Change Conference - Poznań, Poland gets underway on Monday.
The two-week meeting, the fourteenth Conference of the 192 Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the fourth meeting of the 183 Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, is the half-way mark in the negotiations on an [...]

Assembly slams UN over 13,000 tonne carbon footprint shock

SINGAPORE  ~ Carbon dioxide emissions accruing from the UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan next month, are expected to reach a staggering 13,000 tonnes. 
Estimates produced by the Polish government and covering air travel, hotels, meeting rooms and local transport show that the 8.000 participants at the 12-day conference will incur nearly 2 tonnes of CO2 [...]

Eaten by the waves: a climate change cry from Pacific islanders

BANGKOK ~ The World Council of Churches and Christians from the Pacific islands have appealed for worldwide solidarity to stop global warming and a further rise in sealevels, a matter of life and death in their communities.
Rev. Asora Amosa, a Samoan-born pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand, spoke of the region’s feeling [...]

Rimbunan Hijau logging rights withdrawn by PNG supreme court

THE Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea has quashed a decision granting logging rights over the country’s huge 800,000 hectare Kamula Doso virgin forest area to Rimbunan Hijau (RH) in a court case brought by the PNG Eco-Forestry Forum.
In a major victory for good governance and for the environmental movement of Papua New Guinea (PNG), [...]

UN sanctions required to stop Indonesia logging: campaigners

SINGAPORE ~ Indonesia, currently third after China and USA in the CO2 emission league table, could become the world’s worst unless something is done to stem the country’s pursuit of wealth through logging and palm-oil cultivation.
Responding to the declaration by Californian governor Arnold Schwarzenegger last week that his state would send financial aid to keep [...]

Palm oil club is a dismal failure: Greenpeace

SINGAPORE ~ The palm oil industry body, the Roundtable on Sustainable Oil (RSPO), has failed dismally to take up the challenge of sustainable oil, Greenpeace said yesterday.”‘Sustainable palm oil’ continues to be a farce while RSPO stands exposed as a weak and ineffectual industry body.” said Bustar Maitar, Greenpeace Southeast Asia forest campaigner.

Up to 20 million Vietnamese threatened by ADB, World Bank dam

VIENTIANE (Laos) ~A hydropower development in the lower Mekong River could negatively impact the livelihoods of millions of Vietnamese who rely on fishing and irrigation in the area.
Without referring specifically to the Asian Development Bank and World Bank-funded US$1.45 billion Nam Theun 2 Hydropower dam under construction upstream in Laos, a Vietnamese official said  hydropower [...]

Minister admits palm-oil cultivation ‘out of control’ in Indonesia

SINGAPORE ~ Indonesia’s agriculture minister Mr Anton Apriyantono said international demands for a moratorium on the country’s drive to expand oil palm plantations, is beyond the control of his government.
Speaking at the opening of the annual meeting of the recently discredited Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in Bali, Apriyantono said any moratorium, including the one [...]

Indonesia, Australia in for much worse droughts: new research

JAKARTA ~ New research has revealed that Australia and Indonesia are likely to experience more frequent and intensified droughts, while eastern Africa and southern India is likely to get wetter.
Scientists studying the history of tropical weather patterns stored in long-lived corals have discovered that climate variability in the Indian Ocean has intensified during the [...]

RSPO palm oil club is nothing but greenwash: Greenpeace

SINGAPORE ~ Greenpeace is calling upon the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil to take immediate action against member companies that are destroying Indonesia’s forests and peatlands.
Greenpeace research shows that the “Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil” (RSPO),  which opens its annual shindig in Bali today, is little more than greenwash, the organisation said in a [...]