November 22, 2007 (Forbes) – Leaders of 16 Asian nations including China and India signed a pact on the environment Wednesday, pledging action on climate change and forest cover, and promoting the use of nuclear energy. The East Asia Summit members threw their support behind a UN plan as the ‘core mechanism’ for tackling global warming.
November 15, 2007 (Reuters) – Greenpeace has blocked a tanker carrying more than 30,000 tonnes of palm oil from leaving an Indonesian port to protest against forest destruction blamed on plantations, the environmental group said on Thursday.
The protest came less than three weeks before a U.N. climate change meeting on the resort island of Bali, where delegates from 189 countries will debate ways to slow down global warming, including the impact of dwindling tropical rainforests.
November 14, 2007 (Biofuel Review) – A new Australian company, Jatoil Limited, formed to invest in the global market for biofuels, has announced an initial public offering to raise up to Aus$10 million ahead of its planned listing on the ASX on 12 December. According to the company it will supply rising international demand for biofuels by both growing and selling low-cost biodiesel feedstock overseas. The company’s main business will be the supply of Jatropha oil. It will, it says, develop its Jatropha feedstock supplies with local partners, initially in Asia, to supply the local Asian economies where the feedstock is grown and the European Union.
November 14, 2007 (Christian Science Monitor) – For decades, conservationists have sought to halt the wholesale clearance of Indonesia’s tropical rainforests by loggers and plantation companies. But repeated calls for sustainable forestry practices to safeguard biodiversity haven’t succeeded in stopping the chain saws.
Now, help may be arriving in the shape of a carbon-trading program that would effectively pay Indonesia and other forest-rich countries not to chop down their trees. Behind the initiative is the potential monetary value – as yet unrealized – of tropical forests as vast stocks of carbon that the industrialized world can offset against greenhouse-gas emissions.
November 9, 2007 (Telegraph.co.uk) – Big international companies are fuelling the wholesale destruction of critically important rainforests and peatlands in Indonesia in their search for cheap palm oil, a hard-hitting report claims.
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Vast swathes of pristine forest are disappearing in a slash-and-burn policy creating palm oil plantations to feed the demand of multi-nationals who accept no responsibility for the resulting degradation, according to Greenpeace.
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Aerial shot of deforestation in Riau province, Sumatra Continue reading
November 8, 2007 (IHT) – Industry-driven deforestation in Indonesia could “detonate a climate bomb” if not brought under control, the environmental group Greenpeace said Thursday.
A report by Greenpeace, launched in Singapore, said the burning of Indonesia’s rainforests and peatlands to build palm oil plantations releases massive amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Every year 1.8 billion tons of emissions are released by the practice, accounting for 4 percent of global emissions.
“Trade in palm oil by some of the world’s food giants and commodity traders is helping to detonate a climate bomb in Indonesia’s rainforests and peatlands,” the report said. “Efforts to prevent dangerous climate change will not succeed unless this and other industries driving forest destruction are brought under control.”
November 5, 2007 (Energy Current) – Asia Pacific’s biodiesel consumption is likely to reach 1.2 million tonnes (1.32 million tons) in 2007, with China, Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines being the largest markets, according to a report by Frost & Sullivan.
Biodiesel production in the region, which previously focused on export markets especially for the European Union (EU), will be increasingly driven by domestic demand, the report, Strategic Analysis of the Asia Pacific Biodiesel Industry, said.
Government mandates and other policies favouring biodiesel use will drive demand to around eight million tonnes (8.8 million tons) by 2013. “The governments of New Zealand, the Philippines and South Korea have introduced blending mandates, either for biofuels as a class or specifically for diesel, which will create a guaranteed market, although the blending percentages are generally low when compared to the EU market,” Frost & Sullivan’s Director of Industrial Technologies Mark Dougan said.
October 26, 2007 (Jakarta Post) – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has maintained Indonesia’s stance that developing countries should reach emissions reduction targets voluntarily, despite objections aired by Australia and the United States.Yudhoyono made the statement on the first day of the two-day ministerial meeting ahead of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference in Bogor, West Java on Wednesday.
“The post-2012 regime should strengthen the commitment of developed countries to reduce their emissions. The major economic powers should be faithful to their commitments under the current and future climate regimes,” Yudhoyono said.
“Developing countries, on the other hand, should participate voluntary in reducing their national greenhouse gas emissions according to their national circumstances.”
October 25, 2007 (EcoFriend.org) – What better way than to spread the awareness about climate change and global warming than to go round the world in a solar taxi.
This chic-three wheeler is the brainchild of Louis Palmer, and it took 3 years of develop this eco-friendly taxi using cutting-edge technology. The solar cells in this taxi have been provided by a leading manufacturer of silicon solar cells, Q.Cells, and the batteries are high efficiency ZEBRA batteries, specifically designed for electric vehicles. The Solar Taxi has a lifespan of approximately 200,000 – 300,000 km. It is expected that if it is mass produced it would cost approximately €10,000 ($14,000 / £7,000).
October 24, 2007 (Jakarta Post) – While India and China have seen fortunes moved through their carbon markets, none of Indonesia’s carbon projects have received certification from the United Nations for carbon emission trade with developed nations, an official said Tuesday. Indonesia has since last year listed nine carbon projects to the UN Executive Board for approval. Continue reading
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