Virgin Atlantic flies jumbo jet powered by biofuel

By The Associated Press

LONDON: Nuts picked from the Amazon rainforests helped fuel Sunday the first commercial airline flight partly powered by renewable energy.

Virgin Atlantic flew a jumbo jet from London to Amsterdam, with one of its four fuel tanks filled with a blend including babassu oil and coconut oil, to show that it could produce less carbon dioxide than normal jet fuels. "This breakthrough will help Virgin Atlantic to fly its planes using clean fuel sooner than expected," Richard Branson, the airline's president, said before the Boeing 747-400 took to the air. "The demonstration flight will give us crucial knowledge that we can use to dramatically reduce our carbon footprint."

The flight, which landed safely in the Netherlands, carried pilots and several technicians but no passengers. The Boeing 747, which reached a planned maximum altitude of 7,620 meters, or 25,000 feet, had one unmodified engine running on a mixture of about 25 percent biofuel and the rest standard jet kerosene.

Fuel accounts for 30 percent to 50 percent of airlines' operating costs, and aviation contributes about 2 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. That is expected to rise to 3 percent by 2050, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Some analysts praised the test flight as a potentially useful experiment. But others criticized it as a publicity stunt by Branson, and noted it came as scientists were questioning the environmental benefits of biofuels.

"It's great that somebody like Richard is willing to put some of his billions into an experiment aimed at reducing the climate change impact of aviation," said James Halstead, an airline analyst at the London brokerage firm Dawnay Day Lockhart. "But there are a lot of unanswered questions about the usefulness of biofuels in the battle against global warming." A Virgin Atlantic spokesman, Paul Charles, predicted this biofuel would produce much less carbon than regular jet fuel, but said it would take weeks to analyze the data from the flight. It is just the latest example of how the world's airlines are jumping on the environmental bandwagon by trying to find ways of reducing aviation's carbon footprint.

These efforts have included finding alternative jet fuels, developing engines that burn existing fuels more slowly and changing the way planes land. The experiment by Virgin Atlantic and its partners - Boeing, General Electric and Imperium Renewables - also came at a time when high oil prices and the U.S. economic slowdown are causing consolidation in the airline industry.

Aircraft engines cause noise pollution and emit gases and particulates that reduce air quality and contribute to global warming and global dimming, where dust and ash from natural and industrial sources block the sun to create a cooling effect. About a year ago, the European Commission said greenhouse gas emissions from aviation accounted for about 3 percent of the total in the European Union and had increased by 87 percent since 1990 as air travel became less expensive.

Charles said the Virgin Boeing 747-400 jet and its engines did not have to be redesigned to use biofuel on the test flight. He said carbon emissions on a normal flight were generally three times the fuel burned, and that technical engineers on the test flight would take readings and analyze data to estimate its greenhouse gas emissions.

There is a rush to develop biofuels, especially ethanol from corn and feedstock like switchgrass and wood chips, as a substitute for gasoline. But recent scientific studies have found that most biofuels cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels, if the full emissions costs of producing these "green" fuels are considered. To support biofuel development, a large amount of natural land is being converted to cropland globally. The destruction of natural ecosystems releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere when they are burned and plowed, and deprives the planet of natural sponges that absorb carbon emissions. In addition, cropland absorbs far less carbon than the rain forests or even scrubland that it replaces.

Airbus, the European plane maker, tested gas-to-liquid fuel this month on a superjumbo A380 in conjunction with Rolls-Royce. The information gleaned from the test flight will be evaluated by Virgin, Boeing and General Electric. Boeing will ask other carriers to do tests, which could lead to biofuel-powered commercial flights within five years, according to Billy Glover, Virgin's environment director.

Virgin and General Electric tested a number of different biofuels produced by Imperium Renewables of Seattle before choosing coconut and babassu because they were suitable in initial tests and would not compete with staple food supplies or cause deforestation, the airline said. Babassu nuts are harvested from palms by local workers from the Amazonian rainforest. "Biofuels are not a panacea. There are a whole load of issues," said John Strickland, director of the aviation specialist JLS Consulting of London. "Some have the issue of substituting food crops and they don't necessarily produce enough, in terms of volume, to replace kerosene."

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(Jakarta, Rabu 27 February 2008)

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Energy and Continuity of Environment

Energy and Continuity of Environment

(Global Warming Problem)

By Jacob Paradox

Modern society very to availability of energy. Almost in all activities sector, energy become requirement of fundamental which cannot be bargained again. Therefore, progress a state very related to the availibility of energy in state.

Justly Mention of nations go forward like America, Japan, and other European countries, even Korea. Availibility of energy in very adequate the nations to conduct activity in various area which can be pledged for the development of nation and his state. But in levying of energy of course have to pay attention factor continuity of environment. Because being place environment live this shade do not less important from requirement of other life. Destroy environment, is the same ill starredly ownself. Environment a state will very other state, because we remain is same under the sun. That cause also every state very is obliged to seriously pay attention and prevent things which can become cause of damage of environment.

Impact damage of environment like global warming, moment nowadays have started to be felt in various this hemisphere. Like the happening of improvement of air temperature, sea surface go up, what can engulf isles, and continent around coast, the happening of climate change, what nowadays have happened in some places of including in this country. All that because human being place environment and other life being have impure. Even according to source which can be trusted, ferocity of topan which recently like knocked over one part of the in American continent, prediction by all experts as effect of global warming. Other threat which do not fail the danger of for human life, are the happening of sour rain.

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(Jakarta, Senin 25 February 2008)

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Counting the carbon at the counter

By Felicia Mello The Boston Globe

BOSTON: Customers buying Timberland shoes now have something to think about other than style, comfort and price. It is global warming.

The company's fall collection includes a gray fabric sneaker, priced at $49.99, and a wool-lined leather clog for $105. A close look at the labels shows, however, that the clog is a bargain when it comes to greenhouse gases that cause global warming: 66 pounds, or 30 kilograms, of carbon dioxide and other gases were emitted in producing the clog, compared with 88 pounds for the sneaker. Timberland is among a growing number of companies seeking to capitalize on consumers' growing concern about climate change by developing "carbon labels" for everything from shoes to shampoo. Though mostly in use in Britain, the labels are gaining ground in the United States. Timberland is the first in the United States to place the tags on store shelves, and major corporations like PepsiCo and Wal-Mart Stores are conducting inventories of how much carbon is emitted in making their products and are considering labeling merchandise.

But climate experts say today's complex, transnational supply chains make it challenging to accurately assess a product's carbon footprint - the total emissions generated during production and transportation. And no national standard exists to verify any reported results. Timberland ranks its shoes on a climate-impact scale of 0 (less than 5.5 pounds of greenhouse gases emitted) to 10 (220 pounds or more emitted). That information appears on shoe tags and leaflets inside shoe boxes, and is combined with data about resource consumption and chemical use to calculate a shoe's overall green index rating.

"With all the media attention around environmental issues, people are noticing that their lives are affected by environmental ills and they really have the purchasing power to make a difference," said Betsy Blaisdell, manager of environmental stewardship for Timberland. "Hopefully, this will become a competitive advantage for companies who are aggressively demonstrating a reduction in their carbon footprint."

Some marketing specialists doubt that the labels will drive consumer choices, other than among a small percentage of people who are committed environmentalists. "There's certainly a heightened awareness for these issues because of all the media attention and notoriety of such films as 'An Inconvenient Truth,' " said Blaine Becker, director of marketing for Hartman Group, a market research firm that focuses on natural products. "But when it comes down to how all of this translates into purchasing behavior, there's still a long way to go."

Carbon emissions are too abstract a concept to resonate with most consumers, he said. For now, customers will have to trust Timberland that the information on the label is accurate. Rankings are computed by the company using a formula that measures everything from the amount of leather in a shoe to the energy used by a particular factory.

Timberland is trying to recruit other companies to develop a standardized method for verifying carbon emissions, and is discussing the issue with outdoor apparel companies including Nike, North Face and REI. Calculating carbon emissions is simple enough when the object is gasoline, said Jonathan Pershing, director of the climate program at the World Resources Institute, which developed a widely recognized method for companies to figure their overall greenhouse gas emissions. But it gets tricky for a more complex product, like jeans.

"You have to ask, where was that pair of jeans made?" Pershing said. "Was it made with hand labor or a machine, and what was powering the machine? Where did the cotton come from, the United States or Egypt?" If it was from Egypt, he said, was it grown with an irrigation system or rainwater? "All of a sudden," he said, "the analysis becomes, at the moment, beyond what we can do."

A few consulting businesses have been formed to help companies cope with these challenges. Many rely on industry averages to make their calculations or concentrate only on the manufacturing process and ignore pollution caused by obtaining raw materials and by distribution. Transportation, in particular, poses a difficulty, since, for example, a last-minute decision to ship a product by air rather than on the ground can sharply increase emissions.

The process is so complicated that the British food retailer Tesco has pledged $10 million to establish a research organization to help figure out the best way to calculate carbon labels for all the products it carries. The British government is supporting pilot projects by three companies including Walkers potato chips, a PepsiCo subsidiary that this year became the first company to place carbon labels on all its products. The goal is to establish a national, independently verified carbon label, said Euan Murray, carbon footprint manager at the Carbon Trust, a government-financed organization that is running the effort.

Murray said more than 100 companies, many of them multinationals, had expressed interest in participating in the program, which requires them to pledge to reduce their carbon emissions each year. Nicki Lyons, a spokeswoman for PepsiCo United Kingdom, said the labeling effort had helped the company take steps to reduce its products' carbon footprint. For example, the company discovered that more carbon was emitted in farming the potatoes for the Walkers chips (44 percent) than in manufacturing or transporting them (30 percent and 9 percent), Lyons said. As a result, it asked farmers to produce potatoes with less moisture, which require less energy to store. PepsiCo said it was watching the Walkers experiment closely and was still considering whether to replicate it with its products in the United States.

While there is no comparable government-sponsored effort in the United States, several major companies are gathering information about carbon emissions in their supply chains, information that may one day show up on labels. Dell, for example, now requires all its suppliers for its computer products to publicly report their emissions and work to reduce them. And Wal-Mart has hired consultants to calculate the carbon emissions created by several of the products on its shelves. Timberland says it has anecdotal evidence that customers like the carbon tags, but has not done comprehensive market research.

Browsing through the Timberland store outside Boston recently, Tim Horgan, a shopper, said he would consider making a purchase because it caused fewer carbon emissions. "That might be the thing that tipped me over the edge if I was trying to decide: Do I buy that shoe or keep looking?" he said. But Jorge Iberico, shopping for souvenirs while on vacation from Peru, disagreed. If I'm going to buy shoes, the first thing I'm going to think about is if I like them and how comfortable they are, and the last thing will be the environment," he said.

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(Jakarta, Jumat 22 February 2008)

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States ask SEC to require disclosure of climate risks (Global Warming Problem)

States ask SEC to require disclosure of climate risks

By Felicity Barringer

NEW YORK: Two environmental groups and the financial officers of 10 states and New York City are asking the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to require companies to disclose the risks that climate change could pose to their bottom lines. The petition was expected to reach the commission Tuesday, representatives of the groups said. The action by Ceres, a coalition of environmental activists and investors, along with Environmental Defense and investors managing $1.5 trillion in assets is the second in recent days to focus attention on the potential impact on Wall Street of climate change.

On Friday, Andrew Cuomo, the attorney general for New York, started an investigation of five energy companies to determine if they had adequately disclosed any financial risk they might face from their ownership stake in or operations of coal-fired power plants. Scientists believe that carbon dioxide, the main emission from these plants, is a leading cause of recent global warming. Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, said in an interview, "We need this because right now more than half of the S&P 500 are not disclosing their climate risk, which we would consider a material risk in this day and age."

A fact sheet prepared by Ceres and Environmental Defense said that regional, state and local initiatives to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions apply in areas representing 58 percent of the country's gross domestic product and 54 percent of its population. The fact sheet also said that Allstate, one of the country's leading insurers, "did not mention climate change, global warming greenhouse gases or carbon dioxide" in its most recent annual report. Rich Halberg, a spokesman for Allstate, said he was puzzled by that statement. "The very first risk factor we report on Page 1 are significant losses we may face from catastrophes and severe weather," he said. He added that the company's social responsibility report, issued separately from the annual report, deals with climate issues.

Ceres has insistently raised the question of corporate financial disclosure of climate risk, usually in the context of shareholder resolutions, for about five years. This week's escalation comes as the Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress try to fine-tune a legislative approach to energy and climate-change issues. Lubber, when asked if it would be possible to quantify a risk that might arise from U.S. legislation that remained unapproved, echoed that point: "You don't have to put an exact number on it. If federal regulation puts a cap on carbon, it means businesses will have to change their technology, maybe buy new equipment. It needs to be noted."

Aside from Ceres and Environmental Defense, the petition was joined by Cuomo and the comptrollers of New York State and New York City; the California state comptroller and the huge California state government and teachers' pension funds; and Florida's chief financial officer. Others involved included financial officials from North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Rhode Island and Maine, and the New Jersey State Investment Council.

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(Jakarta, Jumat 22 February 2008)

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191 nations accelerate limits on threats to ozone (Global Warming Problem)

191 nations accelerate limits on threats to ozone

By Reuters

OTTAWA: A deal by 191 nations to eliminate ozone-depleting substances 10 years ahead of schedule is a "pivotal moment" in the fight against global warming, Environment Minister John Baird of Canada said Saturday. Delegates at a UN conference in Montreal struck the deal late on Friday. The agreement will phase out production and use of hydrochlorofluorocarbons for developed countries to 2020 from 2030 and to 2030 from 2040 for developing nations.

The United Nations also hailed the deal, saying it could cut billions of tonnes in greenhouse gas emissions. Washington says the faster phase-out of hydrochlorofluorocarbons will be twice as effective as the Kyoto protocol in fighting climate change. The United States walked away from the protocol in 2001 and Canada says it cannot meet its Kyoto targets.

The deal "will stand out as a pivotal moment in the international fight against global warming," Baird told a televised news conference in Montreal. Baird said the fact that India, the United States and China - major countries not bound by firm Kyoto targets - had signed the deal was a promising sign ahead of talks designed to produce a climate change accord after 2012. The UN Environment Program conference in Montreal marked the 20th anniversary of the Montreal protocol, which was designed to cut the use and output of chemicals found to harm the ozone layer.

Damage to the layer protecting the Earth from ultraviolet radiation has been linked to an increased risk of cancers and cataracts among humans. Hydrochlorofluorocarbons are used in air conditioners and refrigerators. "Governments had a golden opportunity to deal with the twin challenges of climate change and protecting the ozone layer and governments took it," Achim Steiner, UNEP's executive director, said in a statement. "The precise and final savings in terms of greenhouse gas emissions could amount to several billions of tonnes."

The White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said the agreement "represents one of the most significant new global actions to confront climate change by reducing the greenhouse gas profile of the phased-out substances." Under the terms of the deal, all governments agreed to freeze hydrochlorofluorocarbon production by 2013 compared to average production levels in 2009 and 2010.

Developed nations agreed to cut production and consumption by 75 percent by 2010 and by 90 percent by 2015 on the way to a full phase-out by 2020. Developing nations committed to a 10-percent cut in production and consumption by 2015, a 35-percent cut by 2020, a 67.5-percent reduction by 2025 and a phase-out by 2030.

UNEP said that delegates had agreed to find enough money to provide financial and technical help to developing nations, but gave no details. The United States said before the talks that finding enough aid to satisfy China would be crucial. Baird said in an interview that he had been "stunned and really pleased" by what he called China's huge contribution during the talks.

UNEP said it has spent $2 billion U.S. since 1987 on helping developing nations curb the use and production of ozone-damaging substances. A study group will now probe how much the accelerated elimination is likely to cost. It will report early next year.

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(Jakarta, Jumat 22 February 2008)

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We can combat climate change (Global Warming Problem)

THE MESSAGE FROM THE UN

We can combat climate change

By Ban Ki Moon

One day, we learn that the ice might be gone from Arctic sea by 2050. The next, we hear that world governments met in Montreal to accelerate a deadline for phasing out the ozone-depleting chemicals known as chlorofluorocarbons - a milestone in combating global warming. One day, we learn how cyclones are forming ever further north in the Indian Ocean, affecting the Seychelles for the first time in half a century, and that the island of Grenada, all but destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, was long deemed by Lloyds of London to lie outside the Caribbean hurricane belt. The next, world leaders in New York pledge their best efforts to tackle the problem that most agree has become a "defining issue of our era."'

These are the two faces of climate change - worsening cases of extreme weather on the one hand, accompanied by scientific evidence that humankind is the cause; on the other, clear signs that the world has awakened to the scale of the problem and, at long last, has decided to do something about it. This is the message from the recent high-level meeting on climate change at the United Nations. The idea was to spur conversation, to get global policy-makers together to make common cause in finding solutions to a common problem. In this, we succeeded beyond our expectations. Certain words ran like a thread through our discussions: "urgency," "action," "now."

It was the largest such meeting ever held, with more than 80 heads of state. And I sensed something remarkable happening, something transformative - a sea-change, whereby leaders showed themselves willing to put aside blame for the past and to pose to themselves more forward-looking questions. Where do we go from here? What can we do, together, in the future? President Michelle Bachelet of Chile put it bluntly, likening our fragile planet to an island in the universe: "We can destroy it, or save it."

There was no shortage of bad news. Fishermen in Mauritius blamed warmer weather for driving tuna into deeper waters, diminishing their catch and making it harder to earn a living. Unusually severe El Niño weather cost Peru 4.5 percent of its GDP last year.

We heard how melting glaciers in South Asia will mean severe shortages of water for half a billion people, and how much of northern China may become desert. Micronesia's delegate worried openly about his country sinking beneath the rising seas. "How do we explain to our people, to future generations, that we have nothing for them," he asked, meaning it literally. But there was good news, too. Brazil said it had reduced deforestation in the Amazon basin by 50 percent. India is devoting 2 percent of GDP annually to flood-control and food-security programs, as well as mandating tough energy efficiency standards. We heard how California, the cradle for generations of technological revolutions, is mobilizing both politically and entrepreneurially to fight climate change.

All this sets the stage for an advance at the December climate change summit in Bali. We need a breakthrough - an agreement to launch negotiations for a comprehensive climate change deal that all nations can embrace. It will be difficult but I am optimistic. We are in a different place, today, than yesterday. At our UN meeting, the international community made a clear commitment to change. Governments will pursue their own solutions - from mandatory emissions controls to market mechanisms like carbon-trading to new fuel efficiency technologies and conservation. This is as it should be; there are many paths to Rome. The important thing is that all agree: National policies should be coordinated within the United Nations, so that our work together is complementary and mutually reinforcing.

No less important is the shared sense of urgency. Henceforth, climate change will no longer be a primarily environmental concern. It has become a matter of strategic consequence - a core political issue for every government on earth. This represents a turning point, with enormous implications. As a political issue, climate change becomes closely linked to economic development. The World Bank and UNDP will begin to explore ways of financing energy efficiency and anti-pollution programs in developing countries. We spoke of an Adaptation Fund that supplements international aid with money for climate change projects that benefit the whole world, not merely the countries that initiate them.

Trade and technology transfer incentives will be part of the equation. Wealthy nations must help provide incentives to poorer ones to take steps that help us all. The lesson from Montreal and New York, one environmental expert noted, is that "curbing climate change may not be as hard as it looks."' With political will, he suggested, comes results. Our job is to translate the spirit of New York into deeds in Bali.

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(Jakarta, Jumat 22 February 2008)

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Climate change becomes urgent security issue in Australia (Global Warming Problem)

Climate change becomes urgent security issue in Australia

By Tim Johnston

SYDNEY: As the first bush fires of the year rage through Australia's national forests, concern over climate change is intensifying among Australians.

A telephone survey of more than 1,000 people released Wednesday showed that 40 percent of Australians thought that global warming was a greater threat to security than Islamic fundamentalism. Only 20 percent thought it was less serious. The survey, by the U.S. Studies Center, based at the University of Sydney, came a day after the government's top scientific body said that rising temperatures and reduced rainfall were inevitable in Australia.

The report brought calls for more resources to be focused on mitigating the effects of future climate change rather than the current policy of trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Extreme weather, including a drought that has persisted in some places for six years, has focused the Australian public on climate change, and it is shaping up as a major issue in general elections expected to be called in the next few weeks.

On Tuesday, Australia's most influential scientific research body, the government-funded Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, released a report that said an average temperature rise of 1 degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) was likely by 2030, along with many more days with temperatures of more than 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) and reduced rainfall over much of southern Australia, already the driest part of the driest inhabited continent on earth. "The message is that global warming is real, humans are very likely to be causing it and that it is very likely that there will be changes in the global climate system in the centuries to come larger than those seen in the recent past," the report said.

Recent events have made the subject even more urgent for many Australians. In the spring season, about 50 separate bush fires, fanned by unseasonably hot weather and strong winds, have already burned about 30,000 hectares, or 74,000 acres, of bush and national forest and destroyed a house. Large areas of the state of New South Wales, including Sydney, had a total fire ban in force Wednesday.

"It is very interesting to see how climate change has moved from the environmental field to the security sphere," said Alan Dupont, who heads the U.S. Studies Center, referring to the report released Wednesday. "Most of the government response has been about reducing greenhouse gas emissions rather than trying to manage the effects of the change."

The survey's results echo comments last week by the head of the Australian police, Commissioner Mick Keelty, that climate was a growing security concern. "We could see a catastrophic decline in the availability of fresh water," Keelty said. "Crops could fail, disease could be rampant and flooding might be so frequent that people, en masse, would be on the move. "Even if only some and not all of this occurs, climate change is going to be the security issue of the 21st century."

His comments provoked a sharp response from Prime Minister John Howard, who said terrorism was a more immediate threat to security than climate change. Howard was until recently a skeptic on climate change, and the opposition Labor Party has said that his recent attention on climate is driven more by polls than conviction. Australia has one of the world's highest per capita emissions of greenhouse gases. The government has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, saying it is meaningless because it does not impose restrictions on the two greatest emerging emitters, India and China.

Environmentalists say that the time to tackle climate change is running out and that the major global economies need to commit themselves to radical cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Both the United States and Australia have resisted efforts to set hard emissions targets and have encouraged the development of technologies like nuclear and "clean coal" in an effort to improve the efficiency of carbon-based fuel sources. The U.S. Studies Center survey relied on 1,213 phone interviews from July 13 to 29. It had a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

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(Jakarta, Jumat 22 February 2008)

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