Biochar mitigation 25% better than biomass: report

TOKYO ~ Sustainable biochar production has the technical potential to make a substantial contribution to mitigating climate change, according to a report in Nature.
The report, one of the most objective and scientific ever undertaken, shows that maximum avoided emissions in the order of 1.8 Pg CO2-Ce annually, and of 130 Pg CO2-Ce over the course [...]

Greenhouse mafia active down under

ATTITUDES shown at Copenhagen by the world’s major per capita polluters namely the USA, Australia and China, demonstrated that the core thinking has barely changed since Kyoto 20 years ago.
Sure, the presentation is smoother, the denial less strident, and the opposition to change less aggressive; but behind the scenes it is clear that big [...]

US coalition rams home ‘coal is climate killer’ message

SINGAPORE ~ A coalition of US activists has launched a US$ multi-million campaign to debunk the myth that burning coal is clean.
The Reality Coalition, comprising the Alliance for Climate Protection, League of Conservation Voters, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Sierra Club, are uniting to tell the simple truth that there is [...]

Indonesia’s president doing next to nothing about climate change: Greenpeace

SINGAPORE ~ Indonesia’s president is reneging on the promise he made to halve his country’s greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation by 2009, environmentalists said today.
At the July 2008 Hokkaido G8 meeting, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made a commitment to reduce his country’s greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation by 50 percent within 18 months.
“Six months [...]

Climate change accelerating at a frightening rate: UN report

BEIJING ~ Cities from Beijing to New Delhi are getting darker, weather systems are becoming more extreme, and glaciers in mountain ranges like the Himalayas are melting faster than predicted, says a United Nations report issued today.
And it is all due to human-made Atmospheric Brown Clouds (ABCs) and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the United [...]

Coal-fired pollution to cost China US$390 billion

TAIPEI ~ Without significant action, by 2020, air pollution could cost China
US$390 billion per year as a result of disease, illness and premature death, states a report issued last week.
The report, entitled The True Cost of Coal, and commissioned by Greenpeace, WWF and the Energy Foundation, states that China’s coal-fired power stations are the country’s [...]

Singapore to get US$1.4 billion coal-fired power plant

SINGAPORE ~ Singapore authorities have given the go-ahead in principle for the  construction of a US$1.4 billion coal-fired co-generation power plant.
Local energy producer Tuas Power said in a statement received by Green Assembly, construction will commence next year and the plant will start operating in 2011.

Australian carbon targets seen too weak : Reuters

Five times more carbon per capita than China
CANBERRA ~ Prominent climate scientists criticized the Australian government’s top climate adviser today, saying his recommended targets for carbon emissions were too weak and would not help avoid catastrophic climate change, according to Reuters.
Climate adviser Ross Garnaut has urged the government to cut Australian Greenhouse gas emissions by [...]

Greenpeace backs carbon capture

GREENPEACE UK has put it’s full support behind carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology as part of the solution to combat climate change, the organisation said in a recent press statement.
Greenpeace had previously been firmly opposed to CCS technologies but they have now made a joint statement with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Friends of [...]

Olongapo says no to coal-fired power plant

MANILA ~ The Olongapo City government has passed a resolution objecting to a proposed 300 MW coal power plant in the Subic Bay area. Greenpeace Southeast Asia welcomed the decision and has called on other Philippine cities and provinces to join the movement to ‘quit coal’ and go renewable as a solution to stop dangerous [...]