CLIMATE
1.1. Europe running out of time to cough up climate cash
19 March 2009, FOEE
European leaders meeting in Brussels today failed to cough up the cash needed to finance the fight against climate change, provoking condemnation from Friends of the Earth Europe.
Heads of the 27 European Union countries spent most of their time discussing multi-billion Euro responses to the financial and economic crises and did not commit a single cent of the money Europe must contribute to international efforts to deal with global warming.
Financing is key to getting developing countries to sign-up to stronger climate action due to be negotiated at a UN meeting in Copenhagen this December. Poor countries will not agree to a new treaty unless they have assurances from the developed world – which has the historical responsibility for emitting the gases which cause climate change – that it will significantly reduce its own emissions and contribute to their adaptation and mitigation efforts. But so far the EU has not put any figures on the funds it will make available.
“The EU has been guilty of inaction for some time, now this inaction is turning into deliberate blocking of progress. Europe must start to pay its climate debts and come up with at least 35 billion Euro now,” said Sonja Meister, climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe.
“The EU is jeopardising the chances of a satisfactory and just solution to the climate crisis. If industrialised countries fail to act now, climate change will cost many times more than the current economic crisis and threaten the lives of millions of people worldwide.”
Earlier this week Yvo de Boer, the United Nations top climate official, suggested that the EU was reneging on existing international agreements by proposing that funds previously promised to developing countries will only flow if they first act to decarbonise their economies – something which is clearly against what was agreed at UN talks in 2007.
“By trying to impose conditions on developing countries for climate funds, the EU is breaking the promises it made in Bali,” added Sonja Meister.
Friends of the Earth believes that if EU governments are serious about tackling climate change they must urgently put legislation in place to ensure significant annual cuts in domestic greenhouse gas emissions adding up to at least 40% emission cuts across Europe.
Link: http://www.foeeurope.org/press/2009/Mar19_Europe_running_out_of_time_cough_up_climate_cash.html
1.2. EU states in downturn think twice on climate fund
19 March 2009, Reuters
European Union member states hit by the global economic crisis urged the bloc Thursday not to promise the developing world more money to combat climate change than they can afford.
The comments could worry organizers of a conference in Copenhagen on finding a successor to the Kyoto protocol against global warming because its success hangs on whether enough money can be found to persuade poor nations to tackle the problem.
EU member states including Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary fear EU negotiators will commit them to providing more money than they can now afford because of the economic downturn.
"We should readjust the priorities," Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev told reporters at a summit at which EU leaders were discussing the climate issue and looming recession.
"What really concerns EU citizens today is how jobs will be preserved and how we can keep Europe steady in this unprecedented crisis."
Polish and Bulgarian officials said they wanted more precise details of how the burden would be shared before the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen in December.
"Obviously the enthusiasm for having economic support for the climate package has not increased during the economic crisis," said Cecilia Malmstrom, EU affairs minister of Sweden, which will hold the EU presidency during the Copenhagen talks.
"That is an issue that is of great concern to us."
POOR COUNTRIES SEEK HELP
Poor countries blame industrialized nations for climate change and say they do not do enough to help the poor adapt to its impact, such as by creating drought- or flood-resistant crops, or helping build barriers to rising sea levels.
"The EU will have to pay the bill for its historical emissions — this means committing to provide at least 30 billion euros per year by 2020 to an international climate fund for developing countries," said politician Rebecca Harms of the German Green group.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters informal discussions had focused on an annual EU contribution of between 20 billion euros and 40 billion.
He said Warsaw would oppose any attempt to divide that burden up according to countries’ emissions levels — a move that would hurt Poland as it relies on heavily-polluting coal.
The east European states fear a repeat of their problem last year when the EU committed to cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent by 2020. They recognized the potential impact on their economies too late to steer the debate.
Central and eastern Europe countries are trying to stop an evaporation of foreign funds that prompted Hungary and Latvia to seek a lifeline from the International Monetary Fund and contributed to social unrest.
Some experts see the Copenhagen conference as the last chance to keep global warming in check.
U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer this week criticized European finance ministers for not living up to promises made at the launch of the two-year process in Bali in 2007.
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen urged his European counterparts not to put the brakes on funding.
"I would very much like to see the EU in the driver’s seat. We have to send a clear message that we are going to take on a fair share of the global financial burden," he said.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52I6ZL20090319?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
1.3. EU plans puts climate finance at risk: industry
19 March 2009, Reuters
European Union plans to re-write the rules of a $6 billion scheme that pays developing nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions risks stalling climate investment, policymakers and industry leaders said on Wednesday.
The EU’s executive Commission this week detailed plans to force industry in advanced emerging economies such as China to meet efficiency or other standards before they qualify for carbon offsets from cutting carbon emissions.
Commission officials want the new rules agreed at a major U.N.-led climate meeting this December in Copenhagen, meant to thrash out a new climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol.
"We should agree by the end of this year the basic architecture," EU Commission official Peter Zapfel said on Wednesday.
"We’re talking about a mechanism we want up and running by 2013," he added, speaking at a carbon market conference also held in Copenhagen.
That tight timetable and lack of any clear rules worried investors, especially given that December’s climate meeting already faces huge challenges to get 190 countries to agree ambitious action to fight climate change.
"I must admit I’m starting to get frightened about the Copenhagen meeting," said Nick Campbell, chair of the climate working group at Europe’s biggest business lobby group BusinessEurope.
"I wonder how this is going to come together," he said, referring to the lack of detail so far in the EU’s plans.
"I get a headache just thinking about it," said Seb Walhain, head of environmental markets at Fortis Bank Netherlands.
DEAD
At present under the clean development mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol developing countries earn carbon offsets if they implement projects that avoid greenhouse gas emissions, for example by installing wind or hydro power.
Rich countries, and mostly the European Union, buy the offsets to help them meet their climate targets more cheaply.
The EU now wants entire industrial sectors in advanced developing countries such as China to meet certain efficiency or emissions standards first before earning credits.
The idea will probably get U.S. support as a way to impose more carbon costs on Chinese competitors.
But the plan has no formal developing country support yet. Some are likely to see the move as a back door to climate targets that they reject as their economies expand.
As China is home to so many CDM projects, undermining its role could be dangerous to the health of the entire scheme.
"For me it’s a jump in the dark with a negotiating position, to see what the pushback is," Campbell said. "Is it time to cut the CDM off at its knees? Particularly in the current situation we really need the rules best understood by business."
China has so far earned most offsets under the CDM, and at present there is no certainty about how the proposed change would affect existing projects.
"What happens to these projects if the CDM is dead?" asked John Kilani, the U.N. official heading such market mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol, speaking to Reuters on the fringes of the Point Carbon conference.
"No private investor goes in on the basis of such uncertainty. The way it’s packaged has to ensure that the implications for existing projects are considered."
Commission officials said that the EU had created most demand for carbon offsets so far and now wanted to increase that finance.
"Are we killing the CDM? What we’re looking for is how can we scale up," Zapfel said.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52H5W320090318
1.4. Earth Hour 2009 – What Will You Be Doing?
Cuddling up with your loved ones and admiring the stars in the night sky or organising a treasure hunt in the dark? At 8:30pm on Saturday 28 March, people from all corners of the world will turn off their lights for one hour – Earth Hour – and cast their vote for action on climate change. Anybody can participate and join together with millions of people across the globe celebrating Earth Hour.
Earth Hour is about taking simple steps everyday that collectively reduce carbon emissions – from businesses turning off their lights when their offices are empty to households turning off appliances rather than leaving them on standby.
More at: http://www.earthhour.org/home/
1.5. EU Calls On Farmers To Start Adapting To Climate
17 March 2009, Reuters
Europe’s farmers must think how to adapt to climate change in coming decades, altering their practices to cut greenhouse gas emissions, make agriculture more resilient and keep land in use, a European Commission paper said.
The uneven effects of climatic change were likely to widen regional differences across the European Union’s farmland and increase economic disparities between rural areas, the Commission said in the draft paper seen by Reuters on Monday.
"In the long run, climatic pressures may lead to further marginalisation of agriculture or even to the abandonment of agricultural land in parts of the EU," the paper said.
"This would significantly affect landscapes and biodiversity and influence the overall development of European regions," it said. "Over the next decades, adaptation will need to go beyond mere adjustments of current practice."
Farming’s contribution to global warming — agriculture is a significant source of nitrous oxide and methane emissions — could be mitigated if farmers focused on renewable energies and bioproducts as well as on storing carbon in arable soils.
The paper suggested, for example, that farmers look at soil and tillage practices that help maintain and increase organic carbon in soils. Organic farming was likely to be more resilient to climate change because of its efficient nutrient cycles and soil management, and tendency to promote higher biodiversity.
"Over the next decades, adaptation will need to go beyond mere adjustments of current practice," it said.
Shorter-term technical solutions might include protecting orchards from frost damage, improving cooling systems in animal shelters and changing planting dates and crop variety selection for better adaptation to growing season lengths, it said.
But longer-term answers were needed across EU countries’ farming sectors. Vulnerable areas could be identified at a national level, irrigation plans developed, while there could be more support for farming research and experimental production.
All that would need funding, said the paper — which is still in draft form and due to be published next month.
"Autonomous farm level adaptation may find its limits as climate change impacts gradually become more drastic," it said.
"Financial support to adaptation needs to be envisaged because some of the measures for adjusting to new climatic conditions are likely to be costly and need investments, which are unaffordable to farmers," the paper added.
Link: http://www.planetark.com/enviro-news/item/52059
ENERGY
2.1. Commission adopts two regulations to progressively remove from the market non-efficient light bulbs
18 March 2009, Europa PR
The Commission adopted today two ecodesign regulations to improve the energy efficiency of household lamps and of office, street and industrial lighting products. The two regulations lay down energy efficiency requirements which will save close to 80 TWh by 2020 (roughly the electricity consumption of Belgium, or of 23 million European households, or the equivalent of the yearly output of 20 power stations of 500 megawatts) and will lead to a reduction of about 32 million tons of CO2 emission per year. Inefficient incandescent light bulbs will be progressively replaced by improved alternatives starting in 2009 and finishing at the end of 2012. As a result of these regulations, 11 billion euros are expected to be saved and re-injected every year into the European economy.
More at: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/411&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
2.2. Commission pushes ICT use for a greener Europe
12 March 2009, Europa PR
As part of its effort to combat climate change and drive economic recovery, the European Commission today called on Member States and industry to use information and communications technologies (ICT) to improve energy efficiency. These technologies are expected to reduce total carbon emissions in Europe by up to 15% by 2020. ICT can not only improve monitoring and management of energy use in factories, offices and in public spaces but above all help make people more aware of how they use energy. With smart metering in their homes, for example, consumers have been found to reduce their energy consumption by as much as 10%.
More at: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/393&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
2.3. Shell dumps wind, solar and hydro power in favour of biofuels
17 March 2009, Guardian.co.uk
Shell will no longer invest in renewable technologies such as wind, solar and hydro power because they are not economic, the Anglo-Dutch oil company said today. It plans to invest more in biofuels which environmental groups blame for driving up food prices and deforestation.
Executives at its annual strategy presentation said Shell, already the world’s largest buyer and blender of crop-based biofuels, would also invest an unspecified amount in developing a new generation of biofuels which do not use food-based crops and are less harmful to the environment.
The company said it would concentrate on developing other cleaner ways of using fossil fuels, such as carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology. It hoped to use CCS to reduce emissions from Shell’s controversial and energy-intensive oil sands projects in northern Canada.
The company said that many alternative technologies did not offer attractive investment opportunities. Linda Cook, Shell’s executive director of gas and power, said: "If there aren’t investment opportunities which compete with other projects we won’t put money into it. We are businessmen and women. If there were renewables [which made money] we would put money into it."
Shell said biofuels fitted its core business of providing fuels, logistics, trading and branding. Cook added: "It’s now looking like biofuels is one which is closest to what we do in Shell. Wind and solar are interesting [but] we may continue to struggle with other investment opportunities in the portfolio even with big subsidies in many markets. We do not expect material investment [in wind and solar] going forward."
The company also confirmed that it would increase its dividend payments this year by about 5% to $10bn.
Friends of the Earth (FoE) criticised Shell for freezing investment in renewables such as wind in favour of biofuels. "Shell is backing the wrong horse when it comes to renewable energy – biofuels often lead to more emissions than the petrol and diesel they replace," the campaign group said.
Until recently, Shell’s investment in wind power featured prominently in its corporate advertisements. FoE said the company’s move heralded a slightly more honest approach. "Shell is at least being a bit more honest about the fact they are a fossil fuel company. It has seen the limitations of the greenwash it was putting out a few years ago."
Shell has about 550 megawatts of wind farm capacity around the world, enough to power a city the size of Sheffield when the wind blows. Last year, it pulled out of the 1,000MW London Array project, the joint venture to build what would be the world’s largest offshore wind farm, in the Thames Estuary. Former project partner E.ON has yet to decide to continue with the £3bn investment needed.
Outgoing chief executive Jeroen van der Veer admitted that the company had suffered some "technology baths" in the past when it backed unprofitable technologies. "We don’t do it [renewables] all."
The company has predicted that by 2025, 80% of energy will come from fossil fuels and 20% from alternative energy sources. Yet it is spending just over 1% of its budget on alternative technologies. Over the past five years, only $1.7bn of the $150bn it has invested has gone towards alternative energies.
Cook pointed out that at one stage the company only invested 1% of its budget on liquefied natural gas, which is now a big part of its business. "You have to start somewhere," she said.Van der Veer also admitted that Shell’s overall R&D budget would "fall a bit" as the company focused on the most promising technologies and in the wake of the oil price slump.
The company said it would raise debt levels to maintain dividend payments and its spending programme. Van der Veer insisted that energy demand in the long term was strong and oil prices would recover. "The problem is you don’t know when the long term starts."
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/17/royaldutchshell-energy
2.4. Europe’s energy chiefs aim for carbon-neutral electricity by 2050
19 March 2009, Guardian.co.uk
The heads of 61 power groups in the EU tonight have committed to achieving carbon-neutral electricity within an integrated power market by 2050.
Their declaration, handed to Andris Piebalgs, EU energy commissioner, comes as Europe is under attack for lowering its ambitions to combat climate change, handing over leadership to the US and China and reneging on efforts to help the poorest developing countries adapt to a low-carbon economy.
The chief executives, including from the four main German groups, often seen as the principal culprits of faltering progress, made energy efficiency a cornerstone of climate change policy for the first time.
Lars Josefsson, president of Eurelectric, the industry association, and head of Swedish group Vattenfall, said the sector needed to invest €1.8tn (£1.7tn) between now and 2030 to replace ageing plants, develop "smart" grids, meet surging demand and deliver on environmental targets.
"I and my fellow CEOs have reiterated our belief that a competitive functioning market is the best means to deliver on this goal in a cost-effective manner while also ensuring the basic imperative of supply security – keeping the lights on and delivering reliable power to citizens and industry."
But the chief executives, including Ian Marchant from Scottish & Southern Energy, will anger green campaigners by insisting that nuclear power as well as new renewable energies is a core component of carbon-free supply. They also demanded clean fossil technologies, including carbon capture and storage (CCS) and highly efficient combined heat and power, as other core elements. They want simplified licensing procedures for new build, including nuclear.
In a clear nod to EU leaders, who begin their spring summit in Brussels today, they added that the scale of investment required a "stable, coherent and market-orientated investment framework".
EU governments are at loggerheads over a €5bn plan by the European Commission to spend unused EU budget lines on predominantly carbon-free energy, including CCS, offshore power grids and, until this week, the Nabucco gas pipeline from the Caspian Sea to western Europe.
It will be discussed at the summit over the next two days amid signs that it is unravelling and evidence that political indecision is driving down carbon prices. Eurelectric urged the leaders to work for a global approach to the challenge of mitigating greenhouse gases, increase support for R&D and CCS and buttress market-based electricity prices. Consumers have already been warnedthat "green" energy will require price rises of up to 20%.
Welcoming the commitment, Piebalgs said: "If we want to win the battle against climate change and decarbonise EU electricity supply, we need to change completely the way we think energy production, consumption and development."
The EU’s current policy objectives include cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 20% and gaining 20% of primary energy from renewables by 2020. Emissions cuts would rise to 30% if a global post-Kyoto deal is achieved at December’s Copenhagen climate change summit.
Arthouros Zervos, president of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), said in Marseille: "If the EU is to meet its CO2 reduction and renewables targets, improve security of supply and create real competition in the European power market, we need to extend our power grids and change the way we operate them.
"At current fuel prices, electricity production costs from a new wind farm, coal plant and gas station are more or less the same. If a truly interconnected European grid existed and power markets were effective, the uncertainty of volatile carbon and fuel prices would ensure that wind – which avoids these unknown quantities – would become the most cost-effective of the three. We need the power markets to ensure that future investors are fully exposed to fuel and carbon price risk."
The EWEA said EU power markets are biased towards traditional fuels because they are dominated by vertically-integrated power groups such as Germany’s E.On and RWE, France’s EDF and Italy’s Enel. It demands that EU leaders proceed with plans to break up these big groups by forcing them to "unbundle" or sell off their transmission activities to open up the market.
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/19/europe-energy-power-climate
EMISSIONS
3.1. Japan buys 30 mln tonnes of CO2 rights from Ukraine
18 March 2009, AlertNet
Japan on Wednesday sealed a deal to buy emissions rights from Ukraine, marking its first deal via a government-to-government trading scheme under the Kyoto Protocol and paving the way for another similar deal soon.
Kiev will deliver 30 million tonnes of so-called Assigned Amount Units (AAUs) to Japan, with the sale’s proceeds earmarked for six specific environmental measures in Ukraine, including renewable energy projects, the Japanese government said in a statement.
The other five areas are energy conservation, utilisation of coal bed methane, shift to cleaner fuels, pollution reduction and reduction of other greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide.
The value of the deal was not disclosed.
Japan has said it hopes to complete another government-to-government deal in April with a different eastern European country, also estimated to involve tens of millions of tonnes, to help it meet its emissions target under Kyoto.
Under Kyoto, industrialised countries comfortably under their emissions reduction targets can sell emissions rights, or AAUs, to other governments.
The number of AAUs held by each nation is calculated with reference to emissions levels in 1990, Kyoto’s baseline year. Each AAU represents a tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent.
Several former Soviet bloc countries have an excess of AAUs after their heavy industries collapsed in the 1990s, and are offering to sell them to those nations well above their Kyoto targets, including Japan.
After Japan’s second AAU deal is announced, the Japanese government will have secured the majority of the 100 million tonnes of CO2 offset credits it planned to buy during the 2008-2012 Kyoto period, a government source has said.
A second Japanese government source told Reuters on Monday that talks with Poland and Hungary had been delayed, increasing the prospect of a deal with the Czech Republic.
A Czech government official said on Feb. 17 that the country is on track to sell around half of its AAUs to Japan.
TRANSPARENCY
AAUs are often cheaper than European Union emissions permits
The statement said the two governments agreed that Ukraine’s National Environmental Investment Agency would play a key role to manage the proceeds and monitor the usage of the pooled money on the specific environmental activities.
Further details on the environment technology transfer from Japan are to be decided later, said an official at the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO), the Japanese government’s emission offset purchasing agency.
Japan, the world’s fifth-biggest greenhouse gas emitter, saw emissions rise to a record 1.37 billion tonnes in the year to March 2008, compared with its Kyoto commitments to cut them to 1.19 million tonnes on average in the five years to March 2013.
Apart from the government, Japan’s utility and steel companies are buying offsets to help them meet voluntary emissions targets.
Japanese trading companies are also involved in early stage investments in clean energy projects in developing countries like India and China under Kyoto’s Clean Development Mechanism emissions trading scheme.
Japanese industry’s voluntary emissions reductions are a core part of Japan’s plan to meet its Kyoto target.
Link: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/T12318.htm
3.2. UN fears Brussels rewriting emissions deal
17 March 2009, FT.com
European Union leaders could scupper progress in the fight against global warming if they fail on Wednesday to agree financing for emissions cuts in the developing world, the United Nation’s top climate change official said.
Speaking before the EU’s annual spring council meeting, Yvo de Boer told the Financial Times he feared the EU was backsliding on its promises and rewriting an agreement made in 2007 in Bali. The bloc, he said, was in danger of widening the rift between rich and poor countries on the issue of climate change.
He warned: “It’s clear that we need significant financial support [for poor countries] on the table. I think it is essential that the EU comes up with an amount [at the spring council].”
Financing is key to gaining the consent of developing countries to a successor to the Kyoto protocol, to be negotiated at a UN meeting in Copenhagen this December. Kyoto, not ratified by the US, sets emission limits for developed nations and has a compliance period that runs for the five years to 2012.
Poor countries will not agree to a new treaty unless they have assurances from the developed world that financing mechanisms will be incorporated in the treaty that help to fund the cuts in greenhouse gas emissions they need to make. They also want assurances on the amounts of funding that they can expect over the coming decade.
But while the EU has led the world on proposing deep cuts, of 20 or 30 per cent, in its emissions by 2020, talks on financing for the developing world have stalled because of the opposition of some countries, chiefly Poland.
Mr de Boer warned: “We need a significant sum on the table to be able to build confidence [among poor countries] in the willingness of industrialised countries to commit.”
He said the EU could raise financing by auctioning off permits under the emissions trading scheme, by asking for contributions from member states or imposing a levy on the trade in carbon credits. He estimated that developing countries would require finance flows of $5bn to $10bn a year from 2010 to curb their emissions, surging to $220bn (€170bn, £156bn) a year by 2020.
EU diplomats included estimates of their contributions to developing nations in draft proposals. Yet they have removed them from final texts and repeatedly refused to table any specific numbers, or determine how they will be financed.
Those omissions were particular notable at meetings in Brussels this month of EU environment and finance ministers.
Joris den Blanken, a policy analyst at Greenpeace, said further delay would leave little time to bridge differences before Copenhagen.
Link: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3f112dfe-132c-11de-a170-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=70662e7c-3027-11da-ba9f-00000e2511c8.html
CONFERENCES
4.1. Seventh session of the AWG-KP and fifth session of the AWG-LCA
29 March-08 April 2009,Bonn, Germany
The provisional agendas for the seventh session of the AWG-KP and the fifth session of the AWG-LCA are now available online.
More at: http://unfccc.int/2860.php
4.2.. The world in crisis: Economics and Policies for Global Transformation – Alternative Ecofin Conference
Date: March 30th – April 1st 2009
Venue: Michnùv palác, Újezd 450/40, Prague, Czech Republic
(i) Prague Conference
The meeting of EU Economic and Finance ministers (ECOFIN) is taking place for the first time in the Czech Republic. The historical conjuncture of this event is exceptional. The world is witnessing the deepest financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression in 1929. At the same time, the climate crisis seems to turn into a dramatic acceleration, while the planet is confronting an energy crisis. Poverty and hunger are increasing.
In such a situation, civil society has to raise its voice and to mobilise for change. The economic paradigm that has dominated in the last decades, has failed. We urgently need alternatives. The EU has to play an eminent role in the process of change. Our conference is meant to discuss such alternatives and to contribute to the process of reform ahead.
Prague conference continues in the tradition of Alternative ECOFIN Conferences held since 2006 in Vienna, Berlin and Ljubljana. In regard to deep and multiple crises the conference will go beyond the EU financial and economic policies.
More at: http://www.glopolis.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=38&Itemid=58
4.3. "Nuclear Bank? No Thanks!".
Banks play an important role as major sponsors of the nuclear industry. As with every project, funding is essential for realization of nuclear projects. Preventing bank loans potentially results in nuclear plans being put on hold. Therefore, we have to remind banks of their obligations towards human rights, inform them of the problems that may arise and constructively provide information, but also make them aware that they might be putting their reputation at risk by financing nuclear projects. To raise and increase awareness of the role of nuclear funding among bank management, personnel and customers is an essential and powerful tool.
The Overall aim of the workshop is to develop a joint campaign that will effectively stop commercial banks from financing nuclear power plants. In order to prevent financial institutions from financing nuclear projects, cross-border alliances and functional networks are important and necessary.
Within this workshop we will look closely at the current situation regarding nuclear projects in Europe, taking into account possible banks providing loans for realization, review and critically assess new concepts, strategies and cross-border actions.
The workshop takes place in the Hotel Ibis in Linz, Austria (across the street from the train station in Linz) on 30th of March: 10:00-17:30 (open for all registered participants) & 31st of March: 9:00-17:00 (Internal strategy meeting ‘Nuclear banks-no thanks campaign’ – by invitation only)
Application
We warmly invite you to apply for participation by sending an informal email to [email protected] by 20th of March at the latest. Please shortly explain your motivation for participation. Professional and emotional qualification, ambition and regional balance will be considered.
Please contact for further information, Elvira Pöschko, Antiatom Szene, Phone.: 0043-650-6660065, E-Mail: [email protected]
4.4. BIKETOUR 2009
The 2009 Biketour – the project for everyone interested in do-it-yourself ("diy") environmentalism, culture, nature, community life and the art of travelling without engines – the exact opposite of an all-inclusive flight to the beach.
Moving all our stuff by sheer pedal power, we will create an eco-mobile community building up strong connections between participants coming from different cultures and groups, as well as between ourselves and our hosts.
Beginning of July 2009 we will start cycling from Macedonia to Croatia, crossing Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. We plan to start our tour on the Belgrade-Skopje train(!), and we will reach the MuM festival in Croatia, 28th of August.
More at: http://www.ecotopiabiketour.net/
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Disclaimer: We do not guarantee for the accuracy, reliability or content of information. For help or questions, contact: [email protected].
