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SHANGHAI, CN -- A study of construction professionals around the world has found that the majority expect more than 60 percent of their projects will be focused on green building within the next five years.

Environmentally friendly building currently accounts for more than 10 percent of domestic projects for almost a third of the respondents who participated in the study. It is the first to examine green building market trends and drivers on a global scale, according to McGraw-Hill Construction Analytics, which conducted the research and produced a report on the findings in partnership with the World Green Building Council.

The 50-page report, "Global Green Building Trends: Market Growth and Perspectives from Around the World," is based on a survey of early market adopters in 45 countries in seven regions: Europe, North America, South America, Australia and New Zealand, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The highlights of the report were presented at McGraw-Hill Construction’s 2008 Green Building and Energy Efficiency International Conference, September 19 and 20, at the Shanghai World Financial Center.

The bottom-line impact of eco-friendly building is expected to be strong, according to the study. It found that 86 percent of firms expect rapid or steady growth in sales and profits associated with green building.

Of the seven global regions, the fastest-growing green building market is Asia, where 73 percent of the firms are expected to be dedicated to green building by 2013 compared with the 36 percent that now do so, the study found.

The study also found that solar power is the most common form of renewable energy around the globe. Fifty-two percent of industry professionals reported using solar power today, and usage is expected to reach 76 percent in five years. The biggest growth spurt among renewables was projected for wind power: 20 percent reported using it today and a jump to 57 percent is expected by 2013. Use of geothermal power is expected to rise from a current 22 percent to 45 percent in five years.

Looking at drivers, the study found the top reason businesses around the world cited for green building is that it is "the right thing to do."  In Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East-North Africa, "supporting the domestic economy" was frequently cited. And firms in Asia and Europe said “environmental regulations” are a big motivator.

"Green building has truly become a global movement," said Harvey M. Bernstein, McGraw-Hill Construction’s vice president of Industry Analytics, Alliances and Strategic Initiatives.

"Firms around the world are awakening to the positive business, environmental and societal impacts of green building," Bernstein said in a statement announcing release of the report. "We are seeing widespread growth as green becomes increasingly visible throughout the global marketplace."

World Green Building Council Executive Director Andrew Bowerbank noted that buildings and infrastructure globally account for 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. “This is more than what the transportation or manufacturing sectors contribute,” said Bowerbank in a statement. "It is critical now that industry leaders recognize current environmental opportunities in the marketplace and begin to collaborate to demonstrate effective solutions."

WASHINGTON -- The world pumped up emissions of the chief human-produced global warming gas last year, setting a course that could push beyond leading scientists' projected worst-case scenario, international researchers said Thursday.

The new numbers, which some scientists called "scary," were a surprise because experts thought an economic downturn would slow energy use. Instead, carbon dioxide output rose 3% from 2006 to 2007.

That amount exceeds the most dire outlook for emissions from burning coal and oil and related activities as projected by a Nobel Prize-winning group of international scientists in 2007.

Meanwhile, forests and oceans, which suck up carbon dioxide, are doing so at lower rates, scientists said. If those trends continue, the world will be on track for the highest predicted rises in temperature and sea level.

The U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that an increase of between 3.2 and 9.7 degrees Fahrenheit could trigger massive environmental changes, including melting of the Greenland ice sheet, the Himalayan-Tibetan glaciers and summer sea ice in the Arctic.

Corinne Le Quere, professor of environmental sciences at the University of East Anglia and the British Antarctic Survey, said the prediction that current emissions put the planet on track for a temperature rise of more than 11 degrees means the world could face a dangerous rise in sea level as well as other drastic changes.

Richard Moss, vice president and managing director for climate change at the World Wildlife Fund, said the new carbon figures and research showed that "we're already locked into more warming than we thought."

"We should be worried -- really worried," Moss told the Washington Post. "This is happening in the context of trying to reduce emissions."

The new data also shows that forests and oceans, which naturally take up much of the carbon dioxide humans emit, are having less impact. These "natural sinks" have absorbed 54% of carbon dioxide emissions released since 2000, a drop of 3 percentage points compared with the period between 1959 and 2000.

The pollution leader was China, followed by the United States, which past data show is the leader in emissions per person in carbon dioxide output. And although several developed countries slightly reduced output in 2007, the U.S. churned out more.

Still, it was large increases from China, India and other developing countries that spurred the growth of carbon dioxide pollution to a record high of 9.34 billion tons of carbon. Figures released by science agencies in the U.S., Great Britain and Australia show that China's added emissions accounted for more than half of the worldwide increase. China passed the U.S. as the No. 1 carbon dioxide polluter in 2006.

Emissions in the U.S. rose nearly 2% in 2007, after declining the previous year. The U.S. produced 1.75 billion tons of carbon.

"Things are happening very, very fast," Le Quere told the Associated Press. "It's scary."

Gregg Marland, a senior staff scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, said he was surprised at the results because he thought world emissions would drop because of the economic downturn. That didn't happen.

"If we're going to do something [about reducing emissions], it's got to be different than what we're doing," he said.

The emissions are based on data from oil giant BP PLC, which show that China has become the major driver of world trends. China emitted 2 billion tons of carbon last year, up 7.5% from the previous year.

"We're shipping jobs offshore from the U.S., but we're also shipping carbon dioxide emissions with them," Marland said. "China is making fertilizer and cement and steel, and all of those are heavy energy-intensive industries."

Developing countries not asked to reduce greenhouse gases by the 1997 Kyoto treaty -- China and India are among them -- now account for 53% of carbon dioxide pollution. That group of nations surpassed industrialized ones in carbon dioxide emissions in 2005, an analysis of older figures shows.

India is in position to beat Russia for the No. 3 carbon dioxide polluter behind the U.S., Marland said. Indonesia's levels are increasing rapidly.

Denmark's emissions dropped 8%. The United Kingdom and Germany reduced carbon dioxide pollution by 3%, while France and Australia cut it by 2%.

But it remains unclear how much industrialized countries will be able to reduce their carbon output in the years to come, regardless of whether developing nations seek to restrain their greenhouse gas emissions. The federal government predicts U.S. fossil fuel consumption will increase. Japan, Canada and several other countries that committed to reducing their carbon emissions under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol have fallen far behind in meeting their targets.

Moreover, new scientific research suggests the globe is already destined for a greater worldwide temperature rise than predicted. Last month, two scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and UC San Diego published research showing that even if humans stopped generating greenhouse gases immediately, the world's average temperature would "most likely" increase by 4.3 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century.

Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, they based their calculations on the fact that new air-quality measures worldwide are reducing the amount of fine particles, or aerosols, in the atmosphere and diminishing their cooling effect.

What is "kind of scary" is that the worldwide emissions growth is beyond the highest growth in fossil fuel predicted just two years ago by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said Benjamin Santer, an atmospheric scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Under the panel's scenario then, temperatures would increase by somewhere between 4 and 11 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100.

If this trend continues for the century, we would be exceedingly lucky "for it just to be bad, as opposed to catastrophic," said Stanford University climate scientist Stephen H. Schneider.

More and more organizations are adopting Corporate Responsibility (CR) commitments to integrate environmental, ethical, and social factors in their business strategies, operations, products and services, and in how they relate to their suppliers.

The Sustainability Purchasing Network in British Columbia recently published a study on trends and drivers of sustainability purchasing, noting the tendency for firms to adopt sustainable purchasing policies on the heels of adopting sustainability commitments.

The study also identified the ripple effect of large purchasers like Wal-Mart, which uses its marketplace influence to persuade its 60,000 suppliers to use less energy and reduce product packaging. Another trend raising the ire of activists concerned about sweatshop conditions overseas is offshoring, which arises from the globalization of the supply chain.

In theirGuide to the Business Case and Benefits of Sustainability Purchasing the Sustainability Purchasing Network compiled a number of financial and management benefits to organizations that adopt sustainable purchasing practices. The financial and management benefits include:

• Cost reductions in material and utility expenditures, waste disposal, health and safety costs, and legal and insurance costs;
• Attracts customers and helps meet their expectations for sustainably produced goods;
• Simplifies compliance with environmental, health and safety regulations, and reporting;
• Improves access to capital;
• Helps suppliers better understand purchaser needs and promotes product innovation; and
• Helps attract and retain talent and improve employee productivity.

Integrating social and ethical criteria into the purchasing decision can generate benefits such as better wage levels, working conditions, human rights, and health and safety. It can also support vulnerable groups and provide community services, promote a strong local economy and economic opportunity for indigenous people, and improve conditions in the developing world.

It’s not just companies that are following this approach. Vancouver’s Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) has adopted a program they call "Buy Smart," which includes goals to:

• Increase their social, ethical, and environmental performance;
• Support the growth of Aboriginal and minority-owned businesses and the sustainable enterprise sector;
• Increase jobs for socially and economically disadvantaged groups;
• Build higher performance venues and operations to support an excellent Games;
• Support the local and provincial economy;
• Increase sustainability purchasing leading to innovation, trade, and investment in the sustainability sector; and
• Create a best practice model for sustainable purchasing.

Lest one think the fascination with sustainable purchasing is going away any time soon, a recent TerraChoice report, EcoMarkets 2008 Summary Report, says otherwise. They surveyed over $78 billion of purchasing power in Canada and the U.S. and found that 68% of North American organizations increased their green purchasing in the past 12 months. They also note 91% of purchasers believe they will become more active green purchasers over the next two years.

More retailers are jumping on the bandwagon of ethical sourcing. An AT Kearney 2007 report revealed that over half of U.S. Fortune 100 corporations are addressing the social aspects of their supply chains, with 54% tracing metrics on supplier labour practices and 32% tracking metrics on supplier wages.

Most purchasers find the real value of sustainability purchasing lies in supplier engagement. Purchaser-supplier collaborations are a gold mine of product and service innovation, improved social and environmental conditions, and long-term economic benefits for both parties.

Firms that overlook the strategic opportunity of engaging their suppliers in their quest to serve new markets, satisfy growing government regulations, manage diminishing resources, and build their corporate reputations are missing a key business opportunity.

By Coro Strandberg
Coro Strandberg is an Advisor with the Sustainability Purchasing Network (http://www.buysmartbc.com/)

Contact Info: Coro Strandberg

Website : GLOBE-Net

State-owned power giant Meridian Energy took a $112 million knock to profits because of a "perfect storm" of events, including severe drought, and at times relied on North Island gas-fired power for much more than half its energy.

Combined, the state power companies made a $446 million profit, down $115 million mainly because of Meridian's tough year in the face of the second lowest hydro lake levels since 1931.

Meridian made $128.6 million after tax, down from $241 million last year.

Despite the profit slump, Meridian had already decided early this year to pay the Crown a $235.9 million dividend, which it was able to do because of its low debt levels and assets worth $6.6 billion.

Last month, Meridian increased retail power prices about 6 per cent, but it would not comment on the potential for power price rises next year.

This week, Contact Energy raised power prices 10 per cent to 12 per cent.

Nationally, power prices have risen by about 55 per cent since 1999, when Labour was elected to office.

Meridian chief executive Tim Lusk said winter had been hard for the company to manage because of the prolonged drought.

The company suffered the "perfect storm", with low lake levels in both islands, the unexpected shutdown of Contact Energy's New Plymouth power station and the sudden closure of part of the Cook Strait power cable, which will not be fixed till 2012.

Meridian's profits were hammered because it had to buy high-priced power from gas-fired power stations in the North Island to sell to its own contracted customers.

Wholesale power prices skyrocketed to $356 a megawatt hour in the final quarter of the financial year - more than five times the prices a year before.

Hydro stations provided well under half of Meridian customers' needs, even though the biggest customer, the Bluff aluminium smelter cut production and power demand by 10 per cent.

The smelter is now back to near full production after recent rain in the South Island.

Meanwhile, fellow state energy firm, Mighty River Power posted a $111 million annual profit, up from $96.9 million last year.

Chairwoman Carole Durbin said Mighty River regarded geothermal as its No1 development priority.

The company had made good progress on several fronts, notably the completion of the 100MW Kawerau geothermal power station, he said.

The Waikato drought, which reduced hydro volumes by 9 per cent, required running the Southdown gas-fired co-generation plant to cover the shortfall, with increased wholesale electricity prices not fully offsetting higher gas purchase costs.

Mighty River's retail arm, Mercury Energy, continued to perform well, she said.

Genesis Energy increased its profit to $99.1 million in the year ended June 30 from a restated $89.5 million last year as it generated more power.

National grid company Transpower made an after-tax profit of $108 million, down from $134 million the previous year.

High energy prices and tight budgets may be bad news for street lights.

Endangered species? (Photo: John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times)

From Belmont, Mass., (see this article from The Boston Globe) to the tiny but trendy town of Marfa, Tex., (News West 9) a number of municipalities have turned off, or are considering turning off, their street lights to save money.

Even Fairbanks, Alaska, has discussed turning out the lights, to the chagrin of local police. According to an article this summer in The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, a whopping 60 percent or more of the city’s electricity bill comes from street lights.

(Seems staggering, but it is dark half the year.)

The London Times reported last week that the city council of Powys, Wales, had decided to darken 64 percent of its lamps. “I know that elderly people are particularly concerned,” a local official was quoted as saying.

And in Santa Rosa, Calif., an Adopt-A-Light program gives residents the opportunity to turn darkened street lights back on — they just have to pay $150 a year for each light.

The rationale from the Adopt-a-Light program guide:

The City of Santa Rosa has 14,500 street lights and 200 traffic signals. Each year, it costs $1.5 million to provide energy to these lights. Revenue shortfalls in the city’s general fund are expected to be in the range of $2.5 million. As part of a citywide program to reduce expenditures, a number of midblock street lights on selected collector and arterial streets have been turned off. At current energy rates, the city anticipates that this program will reduce its energy bill by $150,000 annually.

The $150 payment is submitted to the Public Works Department. “Include the pole number on the check,” the program further advises. “Allow two weeks for the light to be energized.”

To be sure, there are alternatives that keep street lights on and cut the bill. Many cities, like St. Paul, are considering switching to more efficient light-emitting diodes to keep their streets lighted. Last month at our sibling blog, Bits, Eric Taub reported on a small pilot program in New York City, aimed at testing L.E.D.’s here. And Santa Rosa has switched to L.E.D. technology in all street lights at intersections — which are not subject to the Adopt-a-Light program.

Taking a different approach, the mayor of Ann Arbor, Mich., is considering using motion sensors on street lights, which will darken the lamps if no activity is detected on the street.

Also worth noting: a smarter grid — in which electricity prices are based on time of day — might make the issue moot. Street lights are obviously creatures of the night, and nighttime is when demand for electricity, and thus the cost of generation, is lowest.

Somali pirates in small boats hijacked the arms-laden Ukrainian freighter Faina on Thursday.

“We just saw a big ship,” the pirates’ spokesman, Sugule Ali, said in a telephone interview. “So we stopped it.”

The pirates quickly learned, though, that their booty was an estimated $30 million worth of heavy weaponry, heading for Kenya or Sudan, depending on whom you ask.

In a 45-minute interview, Mr. Sugule spoke on everything from what the pirates wanted (“just money”) to why they were doing this (“to stop illegal fishing and dumping in our waters”) to what they had to eat on board (rice, meat, bread, spaghetti, “you know, normal human-being food”).

He said that so far, in the eyes of the world, the pirates had been misunderstood. “We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits,” he said. “We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas. We are simply patrolling our seas. Think of us like a coast guard.”

The pirates who answered the phone call on Tuesday morning said they were speaking by satellite phone from the bridge of the Faina, the Ukrainian cargo ship that was hijacked about 200 miles off the coast of Somalia on Thursday. Several pirates talked but said that only Mr. Sugule was authorized to be quoted. Mr. Sugule acknowledged that they were now surrounded by American warships, but he did not sound afraid. “You only die once,” Mr. Sugule said.

He said that all was peaceful on the ship, despite unconfirmed reports from maritime organizations in Kenya that three pirates were killed in a shootout among themselves on Sunday or Monday night.

He insisted that the pirates were not interested in the weapons and had no plans to sell them to Islamist insurgents battling Somalia’s weak transitional government. “Somalia has suffered from many years of destruction because of all these weapons,” he said. “We don’t want that suffering and chaos to continue. We are not going to offload the weapons. We just want the money.”

He said the pirates were asking for $20 million in cash; “we don’t use any other system than cash.” But he added that they were willing to bargain. “That’s deal-making,” he explained.

Piracy in Somalia is a highly organized, lucrative, ransom-driven business. Just this year, pirates hijacked more than 25 ships, and in many cases, they were paid million-dollar ransoms to release them. The juicy payoffs have attracted gunmen from across Somalia, and the pirates are thought to number in the thousands.

The piracy industry started about 10 to 15 years ago, Somali officials said, as a response to illegal fishing. Somalia’s central government imploded in 1991, casting the country into chaos. With no patrols along the shoreline, Somalia’s tuna-rich waters were soon plundered by commercial fishing fleets from around the world. Somali fishermen armed themselves and turned into vigilantes by confronting illegal fishing boats and demanding that they pay a tax.

“From there, they got greedy,” said Mohamed Osman Aden, a Somali diplomat in Kenya. “They starting attacking everyone.”

By the early 2000s, many of the fishermen had traded in their nets for machine guns and were hijacking any vessel they could catch: sailboat, oil tanker, United Nations-chartered food ship.

“It’s true that the pirates started to defend the fishing business,” Mr. Mohamed said. “And illegal fishing is a real problem for us. But this does not justify these boys to now act like guardians. They are criminals. The world must help us crack down on them.”

The United States and several European countries, in particular France, have been talking about ways to patrol the waters together. The United Nations is even considering something like a maritime peacekeeping force. Because of all the hijackings, the waters off Somalia’s coast are considered the most dangerous shipping lanes in the world.

On Tuesday, several American warships — around five, according to one Western diplomat — had the hijacked freighter cornered along the craggy Somali coastline. The American ships allowed the pirates to bring food and water on board, but not to take weapons off. A Russian frigate is also on its way to the area.

Lt. Nathan Christensen, a Navy spokesman, said on Tuesday that he had heard the unconfirmed reports about the pirate-on-pirate shootout, but that the Navy had no more information. “To be honest, we’re not seeing a whole lot of activity” on the ship, he said.

In Washington, Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, declined to discuss any possible American military operations to capture the ship.

“Our concern is right now making sure that there’s a peaceful resolution to this, that this cargo does not end up in the hands of anyone who would use it in a way that would be destabilizing to the region,” Mr. Morrell told reporters at the Pentagon. He said the United States government was not involved in any negotiations with the pirates. He also said he had no information about reports that the pirates had exchanged gunfire among themselves.

Kenyan officials continued to maintain that the weapons aboard were part of a legitimate arms deal for the Kenyan military, even though several Western diplomats, Somali officials and the pirates themselves said the arms were part of a secret deal to funnel weapons to southern Sudan.

Somali officials are urging the Western navies to storm the ship and arrest the pirates because they say that paying ransoms only fuels the problem. Western diplomats, however, have said that such a commando operation would be very difficult because the ship is full of explosives and the pirates could use the 20 crew members as human shields.

Mr. Sugule said his men were treating the crew members well. (The pirates would not let the crew members speak on the phone, saying it was against their rules.) “Killing is not in our plans,” he said. “We only want money so we can protect ourselves from hunger.”

When asked why the pirates needed $20 million to protect themselves from hunger, Mr. Sugule laughed and said, “Because we have a lot of men.”

Mohammed Ibrahim contributed reporting from Mogadishu, Somalia, and Eric Schmitt from Washington.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/world/africa/01pirates.html?_r=4&ref=world&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

ECONOMIST Ross Garnaut has continued to urge decisive action on climate change in his final report, despite acknowledging global financial markets were in turmoil.

However, the business sector said it expected economic modelling from federal Treasury on emissions trading, due later this month, would take greater account of the present turmoil.

In a 700-page document, Professor Garnaut yesterday reiterated his earlier advice to the Federal Government that it introduce carbon trading in early 2010 and preferably with targets to reduce emissions by 25 per cent of 2000 levels by 2020, if an international accord is struck.

If a global deal cannot be brokered with big polluting countries such as China and India, Prof Garnaut said Australia should aim for a 10 per cent reduction of 2000 levels by 2020.

Business groups were quick to label the Garnaut Review as too optimistic in the context of current financial volatility.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry cautioned that "only a measured approach, tailored to international development and with appropriate compensation arrangements, would be in the national interest" under present instability.

"Against this backdrop, the results of Treasury modelling is more important than ever," ACCI said.

But with the financial crisis accelerating around the world, doubts are beginning to surface over whether the much-delayed economic report will be released this month.

Cement Industry Association chief Robyn Bain forecast that Treasury's paper, so crucial to the design of an emissions scheme, would be released as late as December.

"They are going to have to watch what impact China will feel from the Wall St fallout before they can assess the likely effect on Australian sectors of carbon reduction policy," Ms Bain said.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we get the modelling on Christmas Eve.

"It's more important given what happened in the US yesterday that the government get its scheme absolutely right."

She said that if there had been room for error, it disappeared a few weeks ago.

Australian Industry Group chief Heather Ridout said Prof Garnaut's proposed emissions cuts would be difficult to meet in the absence of commitments from all countries.

"What is happening in global markets today reinforces the importance of a gentle start to emissions trading with a low carbon price and realistic pollution reductions," Ms Ridout said.

"People can be heroic about climate change, but heroism can sometimes border on the reckless."

Prof Garnaut also called for Australia to lead and fund the development of carbon capture and storage technologies in order to allow coal to continue being used by power generators.

But wind energy company Pacific

Hydro hit out at the report saying it did not do enough to encourage the expansion of the renewable energy sector.

"Where we disagree with the review is in the role of the renewable energy target in developing our industry over the next 10 years so it is at a point where it can compete effectively with existing fossil fuel power generators," PacHydro chief Rob Grant said.

IN A serious setback to the Rudd Government's stated ambition to become a world leader on climate change, new global figures show Australia's greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuel are continuing to rise rapidly in stark contrast to other developed countries.

"Australia's position remains unique as a developed country," said Dr Michael Raupach, a CSIRO scientist and co-chair of the Global Carbon Project which released the figures yesterday. "Since 2000 Australian fossil-fuel emissions have grown by 2 per cent per year".

This rapid rise will make it difficult for Australia to cut its emissions by 2020, even by the modest amount of 10 per cent recommended by Professor Ross Garnaut, the Government's climate change adviser.

Scientists expressed alarm at the figures, which also show global greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels have soared since 2000, largely because of economic growth in developing countries. Emissions have grown four times faster than the previous decade, exceeding the worst-case scenarios of the UN's peak scientific body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

India is poised to become the third biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, taking the place of Russia. The top three emitters of carbon dioxide will soon be China, the US and India.

The new emissions figures put together by scientists from Australia, the US, France and Britain reveal that humans generated 10 billion tonnes of carbon in 2007 from the use of fuels like coal and oil, from making cement and from massive deforestation. This put the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at 383 parts per million, around 37 per cent above the levels at the start of the industrial revolution and the highest level for at least 650,000 years.

"This new update of the carbon budget shows the acceleration of both carbon dioxide emissions and atmospheric accumulation are unprecedented and most astonishing during a decade of intense international developments to address climate change," Dr Pep Canadell, another member of the project, said.

The figures only measure carbon dioxide emissions. When other gases like methane are added, the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are around 410 parts per million, according to CSIRO scientist Dr Paul Fraser. The most recent UN scientific reports find that if the concentrations go over 450 parts per million, the world risks increasing average temperatures more than 2.5 degrees, which could cause mass extinctions of species.

Dr Barry Brook, director of the Research Institute for Climate Change and Sustainability, said the latest figures for atmospheric carbon were ominous. "If you look at current government policy, then it doesn't add up anyway, even before these figures," he said."Cutting our emissions by 60 per cent by 2050 won't do it, because we are already such high emitters per capita. It has to be more like 90 per cent.".

Addressing a climate change meeting in New York, Mr Rudd warned the introduction of an emissions scheme in Australia and globally was vexed enough without expecting nervous economies to bear further expense by putting a price on carbon. "It is an even greater difficulty at a time when the global economy is under great global financial stress."

with Phillip Coorey

The world’s most comprehensive initiative designed to assist super funds manage the risks and maximise the opportunities associated with climate change was launched today at Parliament House by Federal Minister for Superannuation, the Hon. Senator Nick Sherry.

Called the Australian Asset Owners Climate Change Initiative, it is the product of a unique partnership between The Climate Institute and the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST).

“This initiative is designed to assist Australian superannuation and pension funds adopt best practice and to lead international competitors in managing the risks and maximising the opportunities in the response to the challenge of climate change,” Climate Institute CEO John Connor said.

The initiative consists of a survey of 80 of Australia’s largest superannuation funds, each with more than one billion dollars under management, backed by best practice guidelines both of which will be updated annually.

“The survey and best practice guidelines will assist asset owners, who collectively manage more than a trillion dollars of investor capital - equivalent to Australia’s annual GDP, to better manage the material impacts of climate change and the consequences of government policy,” Mr Connor said.

“In order to look after the long-term interests of members, funds will be encouraged to invest in and/or ensure companies have strategies in place to manage climate risks, and to take advantage of emerging clean technology and carbon permit markets.”

AIST Chair, Ian Robertson, said super funds had a fiduciary obligation to address long-term risks for their beneficiaries, and climate change would have to be the greatest long term risk of all.

“Climate change is an issue that everyone thinks someone else should do something about. As asset owners of more than one trillion dollars, super fund boards are ideally placed to do something constructive and poorly placed to avoid that responsibility,” Mr Robertson said.

AIST’s partnership with The Climate Institute on this unique initiative would build on other AIST research projects such as recent work examining the carbon footprint of superannuation funds, Mr Robertson said.

They didn’t cast a single vote, but Ecuador’s monkeys, tortoises (pictured) and orchids just acquired constitutional rights, along with the rest of the nation’s nature.

On Sunday, Ecuador’s human citizens voted their approval of a new constitution; reports vary but approximately two-thirds of people voted yes (New York Times). The document included language making Ecuador the first nation to legislate rights for nature:

“Nature or Pachamama [the Andean earth goddess], where life is reproduced and exists, has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution. Every person, people, community or nationality, will be able to demand the recognition of rights for nature before the public bodies.”

The section was written in cooperation with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, based in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, which has helped individual communities legislate similar rights for nature. In June, Spain’s legislature supported rights for great apes (Great Beyond), but the Ecuador constitution appears to go much further.

“With this vote, the people of Ecuador are leading the way for countries around the world to fundamentally change how we protect nature,” Mari Margil, associate director of the Fund, said in a press release. Actually, probably a lot of them were more concerned about the parts of the constitution that are meant to help the poor, by providing free education, giving homemakers social security, and providing building materials for first-time homeowners (Guardian). The nature section has been locally “derided,” according to Dot Earth. Despite the popular support, the Latin Business Chronicle suggests the new constitution will just increase president Rafael Correa’s control and increase problems for foreign investors.

Ecuador’s natural bounty includes Amazon jungle with more than 300 tree species per hectare, parrots, jaguars and butterflies. The mountain cloud forest hosts orchids, hummingbirds, toucans and spectacled bears. The nation also includes the Galapagos islands, host to unique tortoises, iguanas, and birds.

Image: Paul Guther, US Fish and Wildlife Service

This chart shows a 'chemical equator' just north of Australia. Red represents high levels of carbon monoxide on Jan. 30, 2006. Blue reflects clean air.

MSNBC staff and news service reports updated
11:50 a.m. ET
Sept. 23, 2008

Scientists have discovered a "chemical equator" that divides the polluted air of the Northern Hemisphere from the largely uncontaminated atmosphere of the Southern Hemisphere.

Researchers found evidence for an atmospheric chemical line about 30 miles wide in cloudless skies in the Western Pacific, with levels of carbon monoxide four times higher on the northern side.

The discovery will provide clues to help scientists model simulations of the movement of pollutants in the atmosphere more accurately, and to assess the impact of pollution on climate, the researchers said in a statement on Tuesday.

Previously, scientists believed that a cloudy Pacific region where the trade winds meet formed the boundary between the polluted air of the Northern Hemisphere and the clearer air of the Southern Hemisphere.

"The shallow waters of the Western Pacific, known as the Tropical Warm Pool, have some of highest sea surface temperatures in the world, which result in the region's weather being dominated by storm systems," noted Jacqueline Hamilton, a University of York researcher and lead author of a report to be published in the Journal of Geophysical Research — Atmospheres, a publication of the American Geophysical Union.

"The position of the chemical equator was to the south of this stormy region," she said, adding that "powerful storms may act as pumps, lifting highly polluted air from the surface to high in the atmosphere where pollutants will remain longer and may have a global influence."

The scientists discovered evidence of the chemical equator using sensors on a specially equipped airplane during flights north of Darwin, Australia.

Reuters contributed to this report.