CLIMATE POLICY
1.1. Diplomats Begin Work on Climate Accord
7 May 2007, The Associated Press
Developing countries called for more money and expertise to help them fight the potentially catastrophic effects of global warming, as more than 1,000 diplomats began work Monday on a new accord to control greenhouse gases.
The 166 countries and organizations at a two-week meeting of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bonn are to negotiate key elements of a treaty to succeed the 10-year-old Kyoto Protocol, which set binding targets on industrial countries to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases believed to cause global warming.
The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, and delegates said a new accord should be in place within two years to move smoothly into a new regime of controls.
Ideas raised at the preliminary meeting in Bonn will be put before a larger meeting in December in Bali , Indonesia , when U.N. officials hope to launch formal negotiations on a post-Kyoto treaty.
That treaty also should draw in the United States , the world’s largest polluter, which refused to accept the mandatory limits of the Kyoto system, and emerging giants like India and China , which were exempted from Kyoto obligations, U.N. officials say.
It is the first time government climate delegations are meeting since the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a spate of reports this year, drawing on the studies of some 2,500 scientists, which predict grim consequences of global warming if swift action is not taken.
The reports warned that climate changes will hit poor countries hardest _ less rain in arid areas like northern Africa and more severe floods in river deltas like Bangladesh . Millions of poor people will suffer from greater hunger, thirst and disease, and as much as 30 percent of species will be threatened with extinction.
But in its latest report, released Friday, the IPCC said the means and technology exists to prevent the worst, provided governments move quickly to commit the resources.
Following the IPCC reports, which were six years in the making, "there is increasing sense of urgency and of a need to move forward," said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention and the top U.N. climate official.
De Boer said environment ministers will informally meet twice before the Bali convention to get a better understanding of how that meeting will take shape.
"What you traditionally find in the run-up to an important negotiating moment is that not everybody is willing to put their cards on the table," he said.
German delegate Nicole Wilke, speaking for the European Union, told the conference’s opening session that global carbon emissions should peak within 10 to 15 years, and afterward should move toward a 50 percent decrease.
She reiterated the EU’s commitment to reduce emissions by 30 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, as long as other countries join in that target. At the very least, she said, Europe would slash emissions by 20 percent within 13 years.
Wilke called for expanding Europe ‘s carbon trading market, allowing countries and industries to buy and sell carbon credits to give financial incentives for curbing emissions.
Pakistan , speaking on behalf of 77 developing countries plus China , put the onus on the industrial countries to increase funding and technology help.
Though the world faces a common goal, countries must meet them according to their "respective capabilities," Pakistani delegate Jamil Ahmad said. That meant deep emissions cuts by the developed world and helping less capable countries build their capacity to adapt to new weather conditions.
The industrial world must "move significantly beyond the current institutional and financial arrangements," Ahmad said.
1.2. Kyoto expiry looms over climate talks
10 May 2007 , Reuters
A climate summit in Indonesia this December must launch formal talks to extend the Kyoto Protocol after 2012 or face a hunt for alternatives, climate analysts and policy officials said on Thursday.
Time is running short on a new Kyoto deal. Diplomats reckon it will take two years to negotiate a successor pact, and then another two years for national governments to ratify.
Many delegates among 166 nations attending exploratory talks in Bonn this week say they have become gloomier about the chance of formal negotiations starting in Bali , Indonesia .
Without decisive progress it would be necessary to look for fall-back options, Artur Runge-Metzger, head of the European Commission’s Climate Change Unit, told Reuters.
"That would be triggered if you would really see that Bali would be a failure: if in Bali you would not know how to proceed forward on the negotiations," he said.
"There are a vast number of meetings planned. To say now Bali will be a failure would be completely wrong."
What is needed is a clear plan of action, he said.
"A kind of program of work, whatever you want to call it, that outlines what needs to be done. Some part of this program has already been decided last year in Nairobi ," he added, referring to agreement to review the Kyoto Protocol and for rich nations which already have emissions caps to negotiate new ones.
But analysts are already looking at strategies to bridge the gap between 2012 and when a successor Kyoto deal is in place.
"We do need to think about bridging strategies between Kyoto commitment periods," said Elliot Diringer, director of international strategies at the U.S.-based Pew Centre on Global Climate Change.
"While it would be preferable to have a new set of mandates from 2012 we should prepare alternatives. We could have an agreement from 2015 and in the meantime maintain existing caps."
Diringer felt even 2009 may be too early to launch formal Kyoto extension talks, as a new U.S. administration beds in. The United States pulled out of the present Kyoto pact in 2001.
Businesses globally say they need clarity on the shape of future climate policy, in order to make investments now in infrastructure that could last 40-plus years.
One such policy is a carbon market that requires big polluters to buy permits to produce greenhouse gases, and so puts a price on carbon emissions.
The European Union recently adopted emissions targets to 2020 which will guarantee its carbon market until then, regardless of any successor to Kyoto .
"We’ve already made that decision," said Runge-Metzger.
1.3. 15th Session of the CSD – joint press statement
www.eu2007.de
15th Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development — Joint Press Statement by Sigmar Gabriel, German Federal Minister for the Environment, representing the EU-Presidency and Stavros Dimas, European Commissioner for the Environment
The European Union (EU) deeply regrets that the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was unable to agree on a ambitious text on energy, climate, air pollution and industrial development. The 15th annual session of the CSD met in New York in order to bring forward the commitments on sustainable development made in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation agreed in 2002.
The European Union is convinced that the CSD is a unique forum to advance sustainable development at the global level. Sustainable development needs an integrated approach and the CSD is the right body to take this forward. It is regrettable that the CSD 15 did not succeed in playing that role.
"The world has been waiting for the UN to take concrete steps to address issues such as poverty eradication through access to affordable and sustainable energy services, energy efficiency, renewable energies, climate change, air quality. The European Union has, therefore, worked tirelessly over the last two weeks to negotiate a meaningful agreement," said the German Federal Minister for the Environment, Sigmar Gabriel, representing the EU-Presidency.
"The challenges posed by climate change, energy security, and air pollution are now seen more clearly than five years ago. They require strengthened and more ambitious, international policy commitments. It is unfortunate that the CSD 15 was unable to deliver," said Stavros Dimas, European Commissioner for the Environment.
The EU strongly supported time-bound targets for renewable energy, the integration of energy policies into national planning by 2010, a review arrangement for energy issues within in the CSD, an international agreement on energy efficiency, among others. The EU considers these as essential elements on the way to achieving the Millennium development goals.
1.4. US seeks G8 global warming ‘dilution’
11 May 2007, http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21717090-1702,00.html
The US is trying to dilute a declaration on global warming to be made at next month’s G8 summit, sources close to the talks said, putting it on a collision course with hosts Germany .
In a draft of the declaration dated April 2007 seen by Reuters, the US objects to a pledge to limit global warming to 2C this century and cut world greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050.
Washington also questions whether the UN is the best forum to tackle the climate crisis and rejects a section stating that carbon markets are a key means of developing and deploying climate-friendly technologies.
“They have rejected any mention of targets and timetables, don’t want the UN to get more involved and refuse to endorse carbon trading because it must by definition involve targets,” one well-placed source said on condition of anonymity.
The leaders of Britain , the US , Russia , Canada , Japan , Italy and France will attend the summit hosted by Germany in the Baltic resort town of Heligendamm from June 6-8.
Also present at the meeting will be the heads of state of South Africa , Mexico , Brazil , China and India as the key group of major developing countries.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is determined to push through wide ranging declarations committing to global action on climate warming and energy security, but is meeting equally strong resistance from Washington , supported by Canada .
“There is a very serious game of poker being played, which is very disappointing at this late stage and given the scale of the problem,” another source close to the negotiations said.
“It is an open question whether Mr Merkel will be prepared to accept a watered-down declaration or break with G8 tradition and declare a failure on climate change.
“Either way the ink will still be wet when the final declaration is made,” the source said.
Scientists predict that average temperatures will rise by between 1.8 and 3C this century due to carbon gases from burning fossil fuels for power and transport, causing floods, famines and putting million of lives at risk.
The Kyoto Protocol is the only global agreement on curbing carbon emissions, but it was rejected by the US in 2001, is not binding on China and India and effectively expires in 2012.
Negotiations to expand and extend Kyoto beyond 2012 are barely moving, and diplomats are hoping that the G8 summit will agree a declaration strong enough to revitalise the talks.
They say success at Heiligendamm would raise hopes that a meeting of environment ministers under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali in December could agree outline principles for new post-2012 negotiations.
Failure in Germany could delay the process even further and risk leaving a post-2012 vacuum given the time it is likely to take to negotiate and ratify any Kyoto replacement.
1.5. Japan to propose post-Kyoto steps to halve emissions by 2050
8 May 2007, KYODO
Japan to propose post-Kyoto steps to halve emissions by 2050.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is set to propose global steps aimed at halving greenhouse gas emissions from the current levels by 2050 during the Group of Eight summit in June, and has already gained agreement from U.S. President George W. Bush to cooperate with Japan’s efforts, Japan-U.S. diplomatic sources said Tuesday.
Given the Japan-U.S. cooperation, the G-8 summit is likely to make progress in its discussions toward creating a new international framework to fight global warming beyond the 2012 time frame set under the Kyoto Protocol.
The sources said Abe told Bush in their talks last month that Japan is set to soon unveil the proposal, and the U.S. president agreed to a request for close cooperation between the two nations to detail the envisioned steps in the course of Japan hosting the G-8 summit next year, saying, ”Fair enough.”
Tokyo wants to seek a G-8 consensus at this year’s summit in June to compile an action plan as a post-Kyoto framework next year when it hosts the meeting of leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States in the Lake Toya hot-spring resort area in Hokkaido, the sources said.
The two leaders also agreed on the need to create an ”effective” international framework that also includes China, India and other major emerging economies as key greenhouse gas emitters along with industrialized nations, and Bush called the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum a much favorable venue, the sources said.
The planned proposal is similar to the reduction target demanded by the European Union ahead of this year’s G-8 summit to be hosted by Germany in June in Heiligendamm, where a post-Kyoto Protocol framework will top the agenda.
European G-8 members have been calling for substantial global greenhouse gas emission cuts of around 50 percent by 2050 compared to 1990 levels in a statement to be issued after the Heiligendamm summit. The United States and Japan were believed to have been reluctant to include such a target.
Host Germany’s draft statement, recently obtained by Kyodo News, says, ”We are committed to taking strong and early action in order to contribute our fair share to limit global warming to 2 C…this require global greenhouse gas emissions to peak within the next 10 to 15 years, followed by substantial reductions of around 50 percent by 2050 compared to 1990s levels.”
According to the sources, Abe told Bush during the April 27 talks at Camp David just outside Washington that Japan’s proposal will involve developing technologies, creating low-carbon societies and taking other steps to halve emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses by 2050.
Abe and Bush agreed that the two countries can contribute to international efforts to fight global warming by employing energy-saving and other technological measures.
Tokyo has been working to beef up international efforts to fight global efforts as also highlighted in an agreement reached between Abe and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during their talks on April 11 in Tokyo to cooperate in the process of creating an effective post-Kyoto Protocol framework from 2013 for reducing emissions of greenhouse gasses.
By securing commitments from China and the United States, which are not involved in the Kyoto Protocol, Abe intends to take the lead in the annual G-8 summit, especially over the European countries.
The Kyoto Protocol, formulated in 1997 under a U.N. framework, requires industrial countries to cut their greenhouse gas emission from 1990s levels by an average of 5.2 percent by 2012.
But the pact does not cover major emerging economies like China and India, and the United States has refused to ratify it after signing it, thus leading its effectiveness to be called into question.
The sources said Abe explained to Bush about the commitments made by China during his talks with Wen, and noted that Japan intends to set up a new financial framework to help developing nations deal with global warming.
Bush criticized Beijing for failing to contribute to international fights against global warming and imposing high tariffs on imports of environment technology to gain profits, while taking advantage of its position as a developing nation, the sources said.
Bush stressed the need for the United States and Japan to urge China to address the problems, a move that would make it easier for Japan and other countries to export technology to help improve the environment in China, the sources said.
Bush indicated that climate change will also be a major focus at the APEC summit, which also includes China, in September in Australia, while criticizing Beijing for not doing enough to protect the environment, the sources said.
Bush was quoted as telling Abe that the APEC summit offers an opportunity to discuss the issue, especially in light of technological development, with his counterparts from such countries as Australia, China, Mexico and Thailand.
ENERGY
2.1. Momentum Grows to "Ban the Bulb"
9 May 2007, IPS
On Feb. 20, Australia announced it would phase out the sale of inefficient incandescent light bulbs by 2010, replacing them with highly efficient compact fluorescent bulbs that use one-fourth as much electricity.
If the rest of the world joins Australia in this simple step to sharply cut carbon emissions, the worldwide drop in electricity use would permit the closing of more than 270 coal-fired (500 megawatt) power plants. For the United States, this bulb switch would facilitate shutting down 80 coal-fired plants.
The good news is that the world may be approaching a social tipping point in this shift to efficient light bulbs. On Apr. 25, just two months after Australia’s announcement, the Canadian government announced it would phase out sales of incandescents by 2012. Mounting concerns about climate change are driving the bulb replacement movement.
In mid-March, a U.S. coalition of environmental groups — including the Natural Resources Defence Council, the Alliance to Save Energy, the American Coalition for an Energy-Efficient Economy, and the Earth Day Network — along with Philips Lighting launched an initiative to shift to the more-efficient bulbs in all of the country’s estimated four billion sockets by 2016.
In California, the most populous state, Assemblyman Lloyd Levine is proposing that his state phase out the sale of incandescent light bulbs by 2012, four years ahead of the coalition’s deadline. Levine calls his proposed law the "How Many Legislators Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb Act."
On the U.S. East Coast, the New Jersey legislature is on the verge of requiring state government buildings to replace all incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents by 2010 as part of a broader statewide effort to promote the shift to more-efficient lighting.
The European Union, now numbering 27 countries, announced in March that it plans to cut carbon emissions by 20 percent by 2020. Part of this cut will be achieved by replacing incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents. In Britain, a nongovernmental group called Ban the Bulb has been vigorously pushing for a ban on incandescents since early 2006.
Further east, Moscow is urging residents to switch to compact fluorescents. In New Zealand, Climate Change Minister David Parker has announced that his country may take similar measures to those adopted by Australia.
Last month, Greenpeace urged the government of India to ban incandescents in order to cut carbon emissions. Since roughly 640 million of the 650 million bulbs sold each year in this fast-growing economy are incandescents, the potential for cutting carbon emissions, reducing air pollution, and saving consumers money is huge.
At the industry level, Philips, the world’s largest lighting manufacturer, has announced plans to discontinue marketing incandescents in Europe and the United States by 2016. More broadly, the European Lamp Companies Federation (the bulb manufacturers’ trade association) is supporting a rise in EU lighting efficiency standards that would lead to a phase-out of incandescent bulbs.
At the commercial level, Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, announced a marketing campaign in November 2006 to boost its sales of compact fluorescents to 100 million by the end of 2007, more than doubling its annual sales. In Britain, Currys, Britain’s largest electrical retail chain, has announced that it will discontinue selling incandescent light bulbs.
Switching light bulbs is an easy way of realising large immediate gains in energy efficiency. A study for the U.S. government calculated that the gasoline equivalent of the energy saved over the lifetime of one 24-watt compact fluorescent bulb is sufficient to drive a Prius (hybrid gas/electric car) from New York to San Francisco.
While a worldwide phase out of the inefficient incandescents would reduce world electricity use by more than three percent, shifting to more-efficient street lighting and replacing older fluorescent tubes with newer, more-efficient ones might double this reduction in power use.
Although highly efficient compact fluorescent bulbs have been around for a generation, they have until recently been on the fringe, used only by environmentally-minded consumers and typically sold in hardware stores, but not in supermarkets. One reason consumers lacked interest was that the new bulbs can cost five times as much as incandescents. Only the more knowledgeable consumers knew that an incandescent bulb uses only one-fourth as much electricity, lasts 10 times as long, and easily saves 50 dollars during its lifetime.
One disadvantage of compact fluorescents is that each bulb contains a small amount of mercury, roughly one-fifth the amount in a watch battery. This mercury is only a small fraction of that released into the atmosphere by the additional coal burned to power an incandescent.
Mercury released by coal-fired power plants is the principal reason why 44 of the 50 states in the United States have issued mercury intake advisories limiting the consumption of fish from freshwater streams and lakes. Nonetheless, worn-out compact fluorescents, watch batteries, and other items that contain mercury still need to be recycled properly. Fortunately, this is possible, whereas the mercury spewing from coal smokestacks blankets the countryside, ending up in the water and food supply.
Shifting to the highly efficient bulbs sharply reduces monthly electricity bills and cuts carbon emissions, since each standard (13-watt) compact fluorescent over its lifetime reduces coal use by more than 210 pounds. Such a shift also substantially reduces air pollution, making it obviously attractive for fast-growing economies plagued with bad air like China and India.
In the United States, an ingenious website called 18seconds.org (the name derives from the time it takes to change a light bulb) provides a running tally of compact fluorescents sold nationwide since Jan. 1, 2007. As of early May, it totaled nearly 37 million bulbs, yielding a reduction in carbon emissions comparable to taking 260,000 cars off the road.
Sponsored by Yahoo! and Neilson, the site also provides data on how many dollars are being saved and how much less coal is burned. Data are available on the website for each state, providing a convenient way of monitoring local progress in replacing incandescents.
In a world facing almost daily new evidence of global warming and its consequences, there is a need for a quick decisive victory in the effort to cut carbon emissions and stabilise climate. If we can engineer a rapid phase-out of incandescent light bulbs it would provide just such a victory, generating momentum for even greater advances in climate stabilisation.
2.2. Four Percent of Global Warming Due to Dams, Says New Research
9 May 2007, International Rivers Network
Large dams may be one of the single most important contributors to global warming, releasing 104 million metric tonnes of methane each year. This estimate was recently published in a peer-reviewed journal by Ivan Lima and colleagues from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE).
"There is now more than enough evidence to show that large dams are a major source of climate-changing pollution," says Patrick McCully, Executive Director of International Rivers Network. "Climate policy makers must address this issue."
Lima’s calculations imply that the world’s 52,000 large dams contribute more than 4% of the total warming impact of human activities. They also imply that dam reservoirs are the largest single source of human-caused methane emissions, contributing around a quarter of these emissions.
Methane is a more potent heat-trapping gas than carbon dioxide, although it does not last as long in the atmosphere. One year’s large dam methane emissions, as estimated by Lima, have a global warming impact over 20 years equivalent to that of 7.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide – higher than annual carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning in the US.
Lima and his co-authors propose capturing methane in reservoirs and using it to fuel power plants. Lima says, "If we can generate electricity from the huge amounts of methane produced by existing tropical dams we can avoid the need to build new dams with their associated human and environmental costs."
"It is unfortunate that Lima’s study has come too late to be included in the recent reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change," says Patrick McCully. "Partly because of the influence of the hydro industry and its government backers, climate policy-makers have largely overlooked the importance of dam-generated methane. The IPCC urgently needs to address this issue."
Methane is produced by the rotting of organic material in reservoirs. The massive amounts of methane produced by hydropower reservoirs in the tropics mean that these dams can have a much higher warming impact than even the dirtiest fossil fuel plants generating similar quantities of electricity.
This is only the second estimate published in the scientific literature of global greenhouse gas emissions from dams. The previous estimate, published in 2000, which included only emissions from reservoir surfaces, estimated global releases at 70 million tonnes of methane and a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Lima’s calculations take account of emissions from turbines and spillways and the rivers immediately downstream of dams, in addition to reservoir surfaces. Lima’s paper does not address dam emissions of carbon dioxide or another greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide.
Lima has also produced the first published estimates of methane emissions from dams at the national level in Brazil, China and India. These estimates show dams in Brazil and India are responsible for a fifth of these countries’ total global warming impact. Dams in China are estimated to produce 1% of the country’s climate pollution, although for methodological reasons this is likely an underestimate.
CONFERENCES
3.1. Russia and the Kyoto Protocol 2007
St. Petersburg, 24 – 25 May
Online registration will be available soon. Meanwhile please write to [email protected] to get registered.
Following the overwhelming success of last year’s conference which gathered over 300 participants and 20 exhibitors from from 24 countries, we are pleased to invite you to meet the Russian authorities, project owners and developers, emission reduction buyers, potential project hosts, technology providers, carbon investors and analysts.
To learn more about the conference, sponsorship and exhibition opportunities, please visit http://www.pointcarbon.com/Events/article20697-369.html.
3.2. International Young Scholar Network for Earth Systems Science, Third Workshop
Bristol, UK June 2-5, 2007
This small workshop will focus on understanding decision making on land-use issues, in order to move towards modelling these processes in Earth System Models. We encourage interdisciplinary applicants from the natural and social sciences, economics, engineers and scholars from the humanities with research interests in the Earth system. The goal of the YSN workshop will be a manuscript reviewing the state-of-art in decision-making in land-use modelling and its impacts on biogeochemistry and climate from an Earth’s System perspective, and prioritise future research topics. Participants will be expected to write whitepapers before the workshop, and continue finalizing the manuscript after the workshop.
For more information see the attached flyer and also the web page at: http:///ww.aimes.ucar.edu/activities/YSN/2007_UK/YSN_BRISTOL.shtml.
3.3. IEW meeting 2007: first announcement
The International Energy Workshop (IEW) is a network of global energy experts who meet annually to discuss a wide range of topics, with particular emphasis on global as well as regional energy issues. The annual IEW meetings focus on energy assessments and try to understand the reasons for diverging views of development in the energy sector. This year’s meeting will be held 25–27 June 2007 at Stanford University, Stanford, California.
A call for abstracts in the energy-economy-environment field (including Post-2012 Regimes for the UNFCCC) can be found at http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/ECS/IEW2007/index_1stannouncement.html.
3.4. Scientific framework of environmental and forest governance — The role of discourses and expertise
The IUFRO conference to be held on 27 and 28 of August 2007 in Goettingen/Germany.
Please consult the Call for Papers for further information under: http://www.iufro.org/science/divisions/division-6/60000/61200/61202/activities/ or http://www.iufro.org/download/file/1648/3058/goettingen07-call-for-paper.doc.
3.5. DISCCRS International Interdisciplinary Climate Change Symposium
Hawaii, Sept. 10-17, 2007 — Deadline for applications: 30 April 2007.
Airfare, room & board are fully paid for 36 accepted candidates from around the world. Social scientists are especially encouraged to apply!
DISCCRS (pronounced "discourse") is an interdisciplinary initiative for recent Ph.D. graduates conducting research related to climate change and its impacts. The goal is to broaden research interests and establish a collegial peer network extending across the spectrum of natural and social sciences, humanities, mathematics, engineering and other disciplines related to climate change and its impacts. The initiative includes a public webpage, electronic newsletter, and annual symposia funded through 2008.
Expenses: Airfare and on-site expenses are provided through NSF grant EAR-0435728 to Whitman College.
Eligibility: Ph.D. requirements related to climate change and impacts. Recent Ph.D. graduates from all disciplines and countries are invited to join the DISCCRS network and apply to be a DISCCRS symposium scholar.
Thirty-six applicants will be selected by an interdisciplinary committee of research scientists. During the week participants will provide oral and poster presentations in plenary format, hone interdisciplinary communication and team skills, and discuss emerging research, societal and professional issues with each other and with established researchers invited to serve as mentors.
For questions, please contact: [email protected].
3.6. COP 13, COP/MOP3
Venue of the thirteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 13) and the third session of the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 3) Nusa Dua, Bali, 3 to 14 December 2007.
The Bureau of the UNFCCC met on Tuesday, 13 February 2007 and decided to accept with gratitude the offer by the Government of Indonesia to host COP 13 and COP/MOP 3 at the Bali International Conference Centre and the adjacent facilities and services in Nusa Dua.
The Bureau requested the secretariat to complete the corresponding host country agreement with Indonesia in time for the sessions of the Subsidiary Bodies in May 2007.
Further information on the Conference will appear on the UNFCCC website.
PUBLICATIONS
4.1. Energy and transport subsidies in Australia
Institut for Sustainable Futures commissioned by Greenpeace Australia Pacific: Billions of taxpayers’ dollars are being given to fossil fuel-burning industries each year in Australia, boosting fossil fuel profits and increasing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions being released.
Download the report: http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/australia/resources/reports/climate-change/energy-and-transport-subsidies.pdf.
4.2. Residual Risk
A report on nuclear safety, jointly authored with UCS (US), Öko-Institut (D) and Institute for Risk Research (A).
The full report (116 p.) can be downloaded at: http://www.greens-efa.org/cms/topics/dokbin/181/[email protected].
4.3. The Economics of Nuclear Power
A new report commissioned by Greenpeace International and published by a team of international energy and economic experts which conclusively proves that nuclear power is neither a practical nor economically viable solution to tackling climate change.
Download the report: http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/international/press/reports/the-economics-of-nuclear- power.pdf.
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