He also said Australia could do a lot on climate change, that the world was at the start of “a new energy and industrial revolution,” and that a price on carbon was required to fix market failure.

In the past day, Stern has met with Climate Change Minister Penny Wong, Shadow Climate Minister Greg Hunt, former Coalition leader Malcolm Turnbull and executives of the Global CCS Institute, for which he serves as international advisor.

He also met with independents Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor, whom he described as “very thoughtful, reflective and well-informed people thinking very seriously about the problems of the future.”

“We can’t properly tackle global priorities of food security, renewable energy, adaptation to climate change, public health and urbanization unless we manage water better,” said Julia Bucknall, World Bank Water Sector Manager.

Some 900 million people in developing countries have no access to drinking water – a number that will grow as population soars to over three billion by 2030. This means that the water sector faces immense challenges, the report said.

World Bank increased lending for water projects from $1.8 billion to $6.2 billion from 2003, when it developed its latest water strategy, to 2009. Some three-quarters of that funding went to water supply and sanitation.

The revised strategy calls for funding commitments  between $21 and $25 billion for FY10–13.

“To translate this vision for the water agenda into action, the Bank will continue to combine traditional and innovative financ¬ing and knowledge instruments,” the report said.

The joint implementation (JI) project will be located at the Shaturskaya Thermal Power Plant near Moscow. Under the Kyoto Protocol, JI projects generate tradeable emissions-reductions units that countries can use to meet their obligations to cut greenhouse gas emissions. 

“This is a much anticipated and very welcome development,” Christiana Figueres, head of UNFCCC, said in a statement. “It’s another clear sign that JI has an important role to play in directing investment to emission reduction in industrialized countries.”

The UNFCCC said the Russian project assumes building an additional electricity generation unit using an energy-efficient combined cycle gas turbine. It is one of 15 JI projects approved by the Russian government at the end of July and its registration will be deemed final after 45 days if it passes the UN-supervised scrutiny.

The project is the first in Russia under the Track 2 procedure, where the verification of emission reductions is supervised by the Joint Implementation Supervisory Committee, according to Bloomberg. Under Track 1, the verification procedures and the issuance of emission-reduction units are left up to the host country.

Africa is turning into a major source of premium carbon projects, according to the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA).

Speaking at the Press Club on Wednesday, Bandt reiterated the Green Party’s commitment to climate action.

He said: “We want a price on carbon and we want it soon.”

Oakeshott seconded the sentiment, saying: ”Lets get something on the table.”

Windsor added: ”I think we have a unique situation in this Parliament to start and drive this thing forward.”

1. In Latin America, diseases like dengue fever, bartonellosis and malaria are spreading faster than ever. Health experts are keeing a close eye as rising  temperatures change the way diseases behave, while collateral effects — from the retreat of glaciers that provide vital drinking and irrigation water to more frequent, intense storms and flooding — increase the burden on developing economies.
2. The recent catastrophic fires that recently swept through Russia, which affected the bread basket region, were followed by a sharp increase of prices for products like bread and cereal, from Ukraine to the U.S., where prices of wheat doubled in days.
3. Scientists are now blaming catastrophic floods in Pakistan, affecting some 20 milli0n people, on climate change.
4. The latest damage climate change is inflicting, according to NASA satellite data, is in reversing a decades-long trend of increased global plant growth. “Earth has done an ecological about-face,” a NASA statement said. “Global plant productivity that once flourished under warming temperatures and a lengthened growing season is now on the decline, struck by the stress of drought.”

Carbon credits traded were generated from an energy saving project operated by Daiwa House Industry and Taisei Rotec.

Prices were much higher than the current US$ 17-18 per tonne rate for UN-backed carbon offset credits traded in the Japanese market.

Japan’s cap and trade scheme aims to cap the city’s top 1,400 emitters, who must  cut their emissions by an average 7 percent between 2010 and 2014. Japan has pledged to cut its national emissions by 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

Tony Windsor, independent from New England

Two years ago, Tony Windsor introduced a bill aiming for at least a 30 percent cut in emission by 2020 and 80 percent cut by 2050. He has said that climate change “represents a severe and immediate threat to the environment in Australia and globally.”

During the CRPS debates last year, Windsor said the scheme was not tough enough. He also alluded to the importance of biochar, soil sequestration, renewable energy and behaviour changes.

Bob Katter, independent from Kennedy

Katter has backed or dismissed a hodge podge of climate policies. For instance he backs solar hot water, but doesn’t believe change of temperatures can cause ocean rise and harm to sea life and coastal areas.

“I describe myself not as a sceptic but as an ‘anti’,” he during a Parliamentary debate on the CRPS in February. “I do not say it lightly.”

Rob Oakeshott, independent from Lyne

Oakeshott was disappointed when the CPRS did not pass the Senate. He has sought to make emission reduction targets more stringed and cut assistance for trade-exposed large emitters and electricity generators.

He has not, however, sided with either party.

“Neither the government nor the Liberal-National opposition talking the truth about the problems or about the solutions,” Oakeshott has said. “We are witnessing a disgraceful failure of so-called leaders in this country to tell the story of climate change and energy security, and a failure to explain in context why it is in the national interest to put in place a range of energy measures, with one being a price on carbon leading to true pricing in the energy market.”

Oxford-style debate on the future of renewable energy in Australia – Tuesday, Sept 7

WHAT: Come see an impressive group of business and policy people debate the future of renewable energy in Australia; a debate held in conjunction with ECOGEN 2010 (www.ecogen2010.com).

Debators will include: Phil Harrington, Principal Consultant, Climate Change, Pitt & Sherry; Janice Larson, Head of Renewables for Government of British Columbia, Canada; Jeff Serfass, President, Technology Transition Corporation; Seb Henbest, Manager, Australia, Bloomberg New Energy Finance; Vincent Dywer, Partner, Norton Rose Australia; Adriana Downie,Chief Technology Officer, Pacific Pyrolysis. The event will be chaired by Dr Attilio Pigneri, Australian Association for Hydrogen Energy.

WHEN: Tuesday, Sept 7 2010, 5pm for a 530pm start, followed by discussion and informal drinks

WHERE: Room Bayside 201, Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour

Workshop: Forests and Carbon Markets – opportunities and challenges for Tasmania and Australia – Wednesday, Sept 23

WHAT: The GreenCollar Think Tank and Environment Tasmania are pleased to announce a one-day workshop focused on the role of forests in the carbon markets. The morning will feature a series of lecture-style contributions.

International climate change mitigation and forest carbon experts will introduce the role and potential of forests in greenhouse gas mitigation and guide you through the emerging policy and regulatory frameworks for both compliance (e.g. Kyoto-based) and voluntary carbon markets.

Experienced forest carbon project developers will provide a detailed overview of the range of greenhouse gas mitigation initiatives in the broader forestry area that are recognised under the various compliance and voluntary schemes. The ‘project development cycle’ – from concept development to recognition and award of credits – will be illustrated in detail through case studies of forest carbon project initiatives.

In the afternoon, three breakout discussion groups, focused on policy, project development and broader conservation co-benefits will allow participants to bring their ideas forward and engage with each other and the workshop presenters.

The workshop will conclude with a panel discussion.

WHEN: Thursday, Sept 23, 9am to 5pm

WHERE: Dechaineux Theatre, University of Tasmania School of Arts, Hobart

Other policies include:

• strict guidelines on new coal-fired power stations and invest $1 billion over 10 years towards converting Australia’s electricity grid to renewable energy sources
• pledge to pay “cash for clunkers” and give a $2000 rebate to people to trade in old, heavy polluting vehicles for newer, environmentally friendly cars
• setting up an independent commission to better explain the science behind climate change and report on international action

The government has not changed its stance on delaying the introduction of an emissions trading scheme for a couple of years, although Gillard has made a number of comments around the need for putting a price on carbon.

Meanwhile, Tony Abbot’s climate change policy during the election campaign remained unchanged from earlier this year.

– from the Climate Spectator website; 16 August 2010

The Heart of the Matter

by Dr Mark Dangerfield, technical director, GCS

Recently the NSW Natural Resources Commissioner, Dr John Williams, hosted a workshop in Canberra on resilience thinking that was attended by a platoon of scientists, agency staffers and consultants, all concerned about the environment.

In his opening remarks, the Commissioner urged the participants to consider a simple enough question: What matters most? A ripple went around the room as things that matter jostled for space in everyone’s head. No doubt thoughts of happiness, love, friendship, the mortgage and a few thoughts we don’t usually admit to arrived, and it was clear that there was not just one thought. The one thing that mattered did not appear instantly to everyone.

Caught as we are in the policy vacuum on climate change, with backflips and peculiar ideological positions to frustrate us, it might be useful to ask the same question of the climate change debate: What matters most?

Those representing heavy emitters will cry that exposure, unnecessary liability and uncertainty matter. Few of us like threats to business as usual. However, some exposed businesses have used climate change as an opportunity. We have all been offered the option to offset a flight or visit a carbon neutral office, where the most important thing is to be seen to be doing something good. Catastrophe can make for great PR, and so matters most, but for very different reasons.

Unless you install roofing insulation, climate change is of little consequence to small business. There is not much beyond the upward creep in the quarterly energy bill to keep your attention away from more pressing issues of cashflow, customers and the late arrival of a key staffer.

A couple of years ago, the general public in Australia thought climate change itself mattered most. They even elected a new government with a Prime Minister who claimed it was “the biggest moral challenge of our time”. Today polling suggests the majority see climate change as just another opportunity for politicians to renege on a promise. And a third of them think we should not pay a cent to fix it.

Climate scientists, at least those gathered under the banner of the IPCC, reached a consensus that greenhouse gas emissions matter most. Concentrations of gases that absorb reflected radiation, the atmospheric blanket that makes life as we understand it possible, were the key regulators of climate. Human activity was upsetting the delicate balance of greenhouse gas composition and we needed to stop that or risk catastrophic warming.

Emissions matter most because they lead to warming that puts more energy into the cyclical systems of atmosphere and ocean, changing the pattern of circulation, making it wetter, drier, and perhaps more stormy on an increasingly voluminous ocean. In short, having some very specific local climate effects.

The diplomats at the UNFCCC thought this mattered too, but not as much as the necessary diplomacy. So they negotiated at length to agree that net emission reductions matter, but that we need to negotiate some more to agree on the reduction targets and how to achieve them. Clearly, among the policy makers, it is debate that matters most.

Ask residents on the beach front at Byron Bay the question and it’s all about saving their homes from storms. They may not even know that warming will raise sea levels and may make some storm surges more acute, for it has always mattered that the ocean was only a wave away from your beachfront retreat. Save a thought for the 200 million citizens of Bangladesh on the Ganges delta who don’t even know that sea level rise matters most to them.

Irrigators along the Murray River in NSW who, despite having a legal license to extract water, have not seen any reach them for a long time, have another answer. What matters most to them is the real prospect of losing their livelihood altogether.

Clearly, there are as many things that matter most about climate change as if we had asked the question without the qualifier. Climate change is a threat and an opportunity, a challenge and a risk. For some it is real, but for most of us it is not the most important thought in our heads. So perhaps what matters most is not climate change at all.

Perhaps we have missed the real risk, the real challenge that we face, and the hint of what that is comes from all these specific concerns. What matters most is that we have the capacity to adapt and transform to a changing world.

It is critical that we give ourselves the flexibility to make our food production more efficient, ensure our environments will deliver all the services we take for granted and that our economic and social structures remain viable as they transition.

It also matters that we act on that capacity now, for the world is changing rapidly. The shifting climate just makes some of the inevitable the changes more acute and immediate. None of this should be a surprise, given that there are now close to seven billion souls trying to fix what matters most to them.

The former prime minister has been appointed a decision announced by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon in New York overnight.

Rudd will not be paid for his work with the new 21-member panel on global sustainability, which will meet for the first time within a month. The panel is expected to deliver a final report by the end of next year, ahead of the 2012 UN conference on sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro.

A better approach might consist of small steps in separate fields that built toward wider consensus rather than aiming for one sweeping pact, Ban said at a news conference at the UN.

“Climate change, I think, has been making progress, even though we have not reached such a point where we will have a globally agreed, comprehensive deal,” he told reporters.

Preliminary negotiations toward  a deal involving all 192 member states ended last week without a result. There is only one more round of talks leading up to Cancun.

The administration still hopes for a legislative victory on climate and energy, despite the political challenges of passing a controversial bill through the Senate after the chamber returns from its August recess, Carol Browner said.

“We will continue to see if we can get legislation,” she said. “We passed it in the House. We’ll continue to work in the Senate.”

Browner said the bill could “potentially” be approved after the November Congressional election.

Obama said during an Oval Office address in June that he was open to a range of options for a comprehensive energy bill but that “the one approach I will not accept is inaction.”

The US envoy has accused some countries of walking away from commitments made at Copenhagen last year to curb emissions.

“At this point, I am very concerned,” chief US negotiator Jonathan Pershing told BBC News at the conclusion of a week of talks in Bonn. “Unfortunately, what we have seen over and over this week is that some countries are walking back from progress made in Copenhagen, and what was agreed there.”

The EU’s climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard was also pessimistic. “These negotiations have if anything gone backwards,” she is quoted as saying.

Pershing told the press that some developing countries backed away from commitments to slow the growth of their emissions, saying such controls should only apply to industrialised countries.

He warned that record global temperatures, devastating floods in Pakistan and forest fires in Russia were “consistent with the kind of changes we could expect from climate change, and they will get worse if we don’t act quickly”.

The accord reached at the fractious summit in Copenhagen last year recognised the need to limit global temperatures rising no more than 2C  above pre-industrial levels.

In the non-binding agreement, rich countries promised to deliver $100bn a year by 2020 to help poor countries cope with the impacts of climate change.

Stung by the failure to secure a Senate vote on climate and energy legislation, leaders of some of the most influential green groups in the US are shifting efforts to defend the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to write climate rules.

Groups like Environment America, the Sierra Club and the Union of Concerned Scientists, with more than 2.5 million members combined, have gone on the defensive. “The era of the big bill I think is over,” an environmentalist whose group has not yet come out publicly on the issue told the Capitol Hill news source Politico.

Politico reports that such groups are hoping to defend and expand on state and regional climate laws and compacts, including a carbon market for power plants operating in the Northeast and emerging systems in the West. And they will work at the state public utility commission level to make carbon dioxide emissions a crux in reviewing permits for new and existing coal-fired power plants.

The Sierra Club is spending $18 million and has 100 people across the country working on challenges to coal-fired electricity, Michael Brune, the group’s executive director, told Politico. He hopes to increase the budget to $25 million next year.

“We don’t think we can fight climate change without getting a comprehensive, economy-wide cap,” Brune told Politico. “At the same time, we think in the short term, more significant gains can be achieved by focusing on other strategies.”

Climate change and the spread of land clearing “represents one the greatest global change experiments on Earth today,” the report found.  Carnegie researchers concluded that only 18 to 45 percent of the plants and animals found in these ecosystems “may remain as we know them today” by the year 2100,

Asia and the central and southern islands of the Pacific may fare better than other regions. Deforestation and logging, the primary drivers of changes in their local ecosystems, are down 22 percent in the last decade.  That still leaves up to 77 percent of the area at risk of biodiversity losses.

Among the conclusions are of the report:

• Climate change could alter two-thirds of the tropical forests in Central and South America.
• Over 80 percent of the Amazon Basin could suffer changes in its biodiversity.
• About 70 percent of Africa’s tropical forest biodiversity is at risk.
• Between 35 and 74 percent of the forests in the Congo Basin region are threatened by logging and climate change.

Instead of a sweeping bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) is bringing narrow legislation to the Senate floor that will focus on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, promotion of natural gas vehicles, home energy renovations and financing for the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

But it is unclear whether Reid has the votes to even get that through.

Efforts to include a carbon trading system and other elements of energy proposals when it became clear that supporters could not round up the 60 senators needed to overcome procedural attempts to block a vote before Congress leaves for the summer recess on 6 August.

John Kerry, co-author of the proposed Senate bill, vowed to keep working to find the 60 votes. He has insisted that legislation featuring carbon trading could still make it, either in the September session before legislators leave for their campaigns or in a lame-duck session after the mid-term elections.

The study found that 9.7 billion tonnes of carbon is stored in Australia’s central forests, grass and woodlands. It found that curbing land-clearing and wildfires and promoting the re-growth of native vegetation could help reduce pollution.

“Well over a billion tonnes [of carbon] can be stored between now and 2050 if we can put into practice better land management,” Patrick O’Leary, Pew spokesman, told public broadcaster ABC.

“This would be the equivalent of taking 7.5 million cars off the road every year for the next 40 years.”

He added that culling some of the large, non-native animals released into Australia’s wild, such as water buffalo and camels — which have reached plague proportions in some areas — would slash methane emissions.