UK joins UN fund to throw US$800 million to Asia’s loggers, palm-oil barons and politicians

JAKARTA ~ The UK is to donate £100 million (US$150 million) to tropical countries such as Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Vietnam, to help them protect forests and reduce their impact on climate change.
The donation will be made through a fund operated under a new initiative of the United Nations which aims to extend carbon [...]

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 [...]

UN’s forest carbon plan slammed: REDD won’t work says FOE

JAKARTA ~ International proposals to protect forests as a way of stopping climate change could displace 1.6 billion people and will also fail to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, campaigners warn. 
From today until 12 December, the Polish city of Poznań is hosting crucial United Nations climate talks amidst fears that forest carbon trading will [...]

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.

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 [...]

Palm oil body accused of ignoring greenhouse gas emissions

JAKARTA ~ The body set up to certify “sustainable” palm-oil production in Malaysia and Indonesia is completely ignoring greenhouse gas emissions in its certification procedure, according to a report issued today.
In a damning statement, Wetlands International says that palm oil shipped to Europe by members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is far [...]