News

$2 million for South Pacific climate change fund

The Federal Government has announced the first $2 million of funding of its $US150 million election promise to help some South Pacific nations fight climate change.

Parliamentary secretary for Development Assistance Bob McMullan says the $2 million will be provided through AusAID to fund programs in Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga and Solomon Islands.

A total of $400,000 will be provided to Samoa over the next two years through the United Nations Development Program.

"The AusAID grant will contribute to the community-based adaptation program, focussing on projects that deal with reducing the climate change impact on ecosystems and livelihoods," Mr McMullan said.

"We are supporting nationally-identified environmental priorities using an existing grants program and importantly, providing more support for local projects and activities.'".

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Production of biofuels increases emissions

Growing crops to produce biofuels is actually increasing greenhouse gas emissions, according to two separate US studies.

The studies, published in the the journal Science, show that changes to land use associated with growing food-based biofuels produce the greatest source of emissions.

One study found that converting forests and grasslands to produce food-based biofuels in Brazil, South-East Asia and the US created a "biofuel carbon debt", releasing 17 to 420 times more carbon than the annual greenhouse gas reductions they achieve by replacing fossil fuels.

The scientists looked at carbon released into the air when soils are overturned and existing vegetation rots or is burned away. In one case, they found it would take 423 years to repay the carbon debt incurred by converting an Indonesian peatland into a biofuel plantation.

The scientists found that even changing existing US farmland from food to biofuel crops will increase emissions as forest and grasslands elsewhere become replacement sites for crop cultivation.

The second study, which estimated emissions from this land use change, found that corn-based ethanol nearly doubled greenhouse emissions over 30 years, and increased greenhouse gases for 167 years.

The Australian Conservation Foundation said the new findings provided a "timely warning" about the need for caution.

"Biofuels aren't any panacea," said the foundation's rural landscapes campaigner, Corey Watts. "By rushing headlong into the biofuels area, we could really produce some nasty global consequences."

But groups representing the biofuel industry said the studies did not reflect the Australian situation. "A lot of our ethanol and biodiesel is produced from existing crops," said Bruce Harrison, chief executive officer of the Biofuels Association of Australia. "We haven't torn down any rainforests to do that."

The two research projects included scientists from the University of Minnesota, Princeton University and Iowa State University.

Stephen Schuck, manager of Bioenergy Australia said the new papers depicted a "worst case scenario". But he said the industry was moving away from using food crops.

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RMIT and DPI join forces on climate change

RMIT University’s Global Cities Institute and the Victorian Department of Primary Industries (DPI) have formed a partnership to strengthen work on climate change adaptation in south-western Victoria.

The two organisations will share information, stakeholder data and interviews connected with their projects.

The Global Cities Climate Change Adaptation Project looks at local communities adapting to climate change in the Asia Pacific region.

The local communities to be focused on are the Hamilton region in western Victoria, St Kilda in Melbourne, Petaling Jaya in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and a small fishing community in Papua New Guinea.

Workshops will be held in each of these communities, encouraging people to think through what might happen as a result of global climate change and to begin formulating strategies to address the social, economic and ethical implications.

The first of the scenario workshops will take place in Hamilton next month. Hamilton is a long-term research site for RMIT and the rural industries in the region are a focus of the work of the DPI.

The DPI is using similar workshops in its project but will be focusing on the agricultural sector and the role of government institutions in adapting to climate change in rural areas.

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SA establishes Climate Change Council

A high-level independent council has been formed in South Australia to advise the Premier on on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change.

The Premier's Clmate Change Council will advise on achieving energy efficiencies, increasing the use of renewable energy, finding ways to remove greenhouse gases and achieving relevant targets

Established under Australia’s first legislation to set greenhouse reduction targets, the Climate Change and Greenhouse Emissions Reduction Act 2007, the Council features representatives with significant backgrounds in business. 

Appointed for periods of up to three years, the Council’s members include:

• Mr David Klingberg AM (Chair) – current Chancellor, University of South Australia
• Ms Julie Pettett – Chief Executive Officer, Conservation Council of South Australia
• Mr John Kerr – private business consultant and Director of Capital Strategies Pty Ltd
• Mr Robert Chapman – Managing Director, BankSA
• Mr Jim White – General Manager, Business Sustainability, Onesteel and 2007 South Australian Professional Engineer of the Year
• Professor Emeritus Mary O’Kane – Executive Chair of Mary O’Kane and Associates Pty Ltd and former Vice‑Chancellor of the University of Adelaide
• Ms Dianne Davidson – Managing Director, Davidson Viticulture Consulting Service and internationally recognised agricultural scientist
• Mr Don Bursill AM – Director, Playford Trust, Adjunct Research Professor at the University of South Australia, and water industry expert
• Ms Verity Sanders – Strategic Planner (Environmental Policy), Local Government Association
• Dr Suzanne Miller – Director, South Australian Museum and expert in geology and earth sciences.

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US funding cut puts FutureGen at risk

Federal funding of the $1.8 billion FutureGen project is under threat following the Bush Administration’s decision to end its commitment to the projectc, citing massive budget blow-outs.

The project, a partnership with utilities and coal companies in the US, China, Europe and Australia, was supported with a $15 million commitment by the former Howard Government, but the announcement by the US Government has undermined the project, and Energy and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson has refused to commit to the funding.

Australian coal companies, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Xstrata contributed more than $50 million to the project.

A spokesperson for FutureGen has announced that the project will continue despite the US funding cut, which represented three-fourths of the project’s funding.

"The board wants to move forward with the project," said FutureGen spokeswoman Carly Baker.

"They believe it is in the best interest of the public."

Greens senator, Christine Milne, has called on the Rudd Government to pull taxpayers money out of FutureGen and other projects saying the Howard government's clean coal strategy had collapsed.

"All the government money in the project from the Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund has all come to nothing," she said. "Government funding for FutureGen and any other clean coal pipedreams should be withdraw in in favour of renewable technologies that are up and running now."

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Ethtec announces ethanol production commercialisation project

Australia’s Ethanol Technologies Limited (Ethtec), a Willmott Forests Limited company, has announced that work had begun on a three-year AU$20 million project designed to commercialise a new patented fuel ethanol production process.

The technology converts fibrous biomass to ethanol and generates surplus electricity from combustion of the lignin co-product.

The individual new technology processes to be brought online at the new plant during the next three years include:

• Phase one: Hydrolysis: concentrated sulphuric acid treatment of woody biomass feedstock to produce sugars using a twin screw extruder and tube reactor.
• Phase two: Lignin separation and acid recovery: separation of the lignin and the acid from the sugars, recycling of the acid for continuous production and recovery of the lignin for combustion to provide process energy.
• Phase three: Fermentation: simultaneous fermentation of the pentose and hexose sugars to ethanol using newly developed micro-organisms.
• Phase four: Ethanol recovery: from the fermentation broth by induced phase separation using potassium carbonate, simultaneously treating and recycling the water to production.

Ethtec director and chief scientist Dr Russell Reeves says that, if the commercialisation program is successful, production time could be slashed from “days to minutes” and fuel ethanol production costs dramatically reduced.

He says feasibility studies have concluded that fuel ethanol produced by the Ethtec process will have a crude oil equivalent cost in the range of US$36-50 per barrel when the ethanol is used in blends with petroleum fuels.

This cost of ethanol, without government subsidies, is highly competitive with the current cost of crude oil which is in the range of US$90-100 per barrel.

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Announcements

IPCC Fourth Assessment Report available discounted to CO2 News readers for a short time

Last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was awarded the Nobel Prize for its work combating global warming, and its production of their Assessment Reports was a major basis for the award. 

They are definitive thematic surveys, published every six years by working groups of the world’s absolute leading climate and environmental scientists. 

To celebrate the publication of the 2007 Reports (with the third due in Australia in March ‘08), Cambridge University Press would like to offer CO2 News readers a unique chance to save 20% on them all March 10, 2008. 

The volumes are;
Working Group 1 - The Physical Science Basis
Working Group 2 - Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
Working Group 3 - Mitigation of Climate Change 

For more information on the individual volumes, including downloadable index, sample pages and more - or to order, follow the link below. 

Enter the promotion code IPCC08 at the checkout stage and you will automatically receive a 20% discount.
Plus as a special bonus offer, this code will also entitle you to 10% off any other CUP environmental science title until March 10, 2008.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER OR FOR MORE INFORMATION 

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Conferences & Events

Clean Energy Conference 2008 - Solar, Wind, Wave, Tidal, Geothermal

Clean Energy Conference 2008

14th & 15th April, Sydney Harbour Marriott

Solar, Wind, Wave, Tidal, Geothermal

The new federal government’s commitment to Kyoto together with the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target of 20% has sparked a rash of investment into the clean energy sector. Australia is a world leader in the renewable energy space with ideal resources and geography to capitalise on existing and new technologies to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and coal.

As an island nation surrounded by water, wave and tidal technologies present fantastic opportunities for base load power. Likewise, the winds generated off vast expanses of ocean, and more recently wind generation in the outback, ensure strong renewable capacity. Lastly, Australia leads the world in research and development of solar generation. Our hot and often at times parched climate, lends itself perfectly to solar generation and some unique solutions that generate power even when “the sun don't shine”

Climate change and its effects are a reality which cannot be ignored. Business and the community have embraced renewable energy with vigour. Generators and retailers are actively engaging renewable energy and increasing exposure and investment into the renewable energy arena.

Clean Energy will present many world first leading examples of clean energy case studies, recent implementations, trials and those at the cutting edge of deploying clean energy technologies.

To see the full program and registration details, click HERE 

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9th Annual Emissions Trading Summit

On 12 December 2007, Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, began the formal process of ratification of the Kyoto Protocol at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali.

The Rudd Government’s approach to climate change requires the development of an effective and efficient national regulatory approach to emissions trading that will benefit both the environment and the economy.

Join us at this year’s Emissions Trading Summit, on 29-30 May 2008 at Crowne Plaza, Darling Harbour Sydney and gain valuable insight into the following areas:

• The political, economic and environmental implications of the Bali Summit and preparing for the Copenhagen agreement in 2009.
• Analysis of key scheme design issues: linking domestic and international markets, analysis of the legal issues associated with international linking and lessons learnt from Phase One of the EU ETS.
• The economics of emissions trading – mitigating risks, turning risks into opportunities, the impact of a national emissions trading scheme on the economy and the role of financial markets in Australia’s ETS
• How business and industry can profit from climate change and abatement schemes through case studies by leading business and industry bodies.

To view agenda updates and speaker line-up CLICK HERE

Learn from leading industry and government experts, including senior representatives from:

• United Kingdom Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
• Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Regional Economics
• Macquarie Bank
• Australian Conservation Foundation
• ASX
• GHG Offset Services
• UNSW

PLUS: Attend the separately bookable masterclass on Wednesday 28 May 2008: An introduction to Emissions Trading and solidify your knowledge of: Kyoto – deconstruction the Protocol, The evolution of emissions trading The importance of scheme design, Emissions trading and the economy

For more information CLICK HERE

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Victorian Sustainable Development Conference 2008

The Victorian Sustainable Development Conference 2008, being held at Zinc, Federation Square, Melbourne on 22-23 April will bring together key Victorian Government ministers, industry leaders, local government, scientists, conservationists and others to discuss the current and future directions and frameworks for sustainability in Victoria, and will review how it will affect Victorian local government, business and the community.

Over 30 experts and leaders in sustainability will address the conference, including: Hon. Gavin Jennings MLC, Minister for Environment and Climate Change; Hon. Peter Batchelor MP, Minister for Energy and Resources; Dr Ian McPhail, Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability; Dr Wendy Craik, Director, Murray-Darling Basin Commission Timothy Piper, Director, AiGroup; Kelly O'Shanassy, Chief Executive Officer, Environment Victoria; Rob Hogarth, Partner, KPMG; Phil Harrington, Principal Consultant, Climate Change & Sustainable Development, Pitt & Sherry.

It will provide an opportunity to examine progress towards sustainable objectives in a range of key areas such as:

• Water
• Murray-Darling Basin Water Plan
• Energy efficiency
• Climate change response
• Waste and resource recovery
• Planning and urban design 

The Conference will also feature best practice case studies in sustainable development, including creating a sustainable workplace, addressing challenges of sustainability, and provide advice for how state and local government and business can achieve their sustainable development goals in a cost-effective manner.

The Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment is a strategic partner of the Conference, and the event is also being supported by the Society for Sustainability and Environmental Engineering, Environs Australia, and the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand.

Further information is available from the conference website at www.halledit.com.au/conferences/sustainability/2008  

Alternatively, contact Denise McQueen on (03) 8534 5021 or denise.mcqueen@halledit.com.au 
 

Strategic Partner:

Gold Sponsors:

Silver Sponsor:

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Seminar - Carbon Trading: Kyoto & Beyond

Carbon Trading: Kyoto & Beyond

Legalwise Seminars is bringing together Australia’s leading experts for a thought provoking half-day seminar on the current issues and emerging challenges facing carbon trading.

Topics include:

• Australian Ratification of the Kyoto Protocol - What Does it Mean?
• Emissions Trading in Australia - Scheme Design and Implications
• How might the Carbon Market Evolve in Australia
• Contracting for Carbon - Contract Forms and Issues

The half-day seminar will be held in:

Sydney - Thursday 13 March
Brisbane - Thursday 20 March
Melbourne - Tuesday 4 March

Programs differ slightly from state to state for full program and speaker details please visit http://www.legalwiseseminars.com.au/env/?campaign=c02

Alternatively, contact Christel Wilson
Tel: (02) 9387 8133
Fax: (02) 9387 8711
Email: cwilson@legalwiseseminars.com.au

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