September 2010

Royal Society issues new climate change guide that admits there are 'uncertainties' about the science, 30 September 2010 by The Daily Mail: "The UK’s leading scientific body has been forced to rewrite its guide on climate change and admit that it is not known how much warmer the Earth will become."
- "The Royal Society has updated its guide after 43 of its members complained that the previous version failed to take into account the opinion of climate change sceptics."
- "Now the new guide, called 'Climate change: a summary of the science', admits that there are some 'uncertainties' regarding the science behind climate change."
- "The 19-page guide says: 'It is not possible to determine exactly how much the Earth will warm or exactly how the climate will change in the future, but careful estimates of potential changes and associated uncertainties have been made.'"
- "The new guidance still makes it clear that human activity is one of the likely causes for climate change but now does so in a more considered way."[1]

US $50 Million Pledge For Cleaner Cookstoves is Big Win For Women, Forests & Climate, 21 September 2010 by TreeHugger: "Today Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to announce a $50 million pledge of seed money, distributed over five years, to help the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves provide 100 million clean-burning biomass cookstoves by 2020 to people in Africa, Asia and South America."
- "[T]he UN says every year 1.9 million people, mostly women and children, die from ailments caused by exposure to smoke from inefficient biomass cooking stoves."
- "What fuels these cookstoves? In some places it's dried animal dung--eminently renewable and frankly a good use of natural resources, but still a health hazard indoors--but it's also wood. Gathered and cut from forests, often carried long distances, again most often by women, this contributes to rampant deforestation in some places and is a burden that can be lessened by stoves which use fuel more efficiently."
- "Beyond the effect of cookstove smoke on people in the immediate vicinity, the black carbon soot has a climate impact as well."[2]

UNEP Bioenergy Issue Paper #4: Stakeholder Engagement (PDF file)
- "The Bioenergy Issue Paper Series No. 4 gives decision-makers, on both a policy level and project level, an outline of the key processes that are needed for stakeholder engagement in bioenergy planning. It illustrates the importance of stakeholder engagement as a tool for sustainable project implementation, and addresses the difference between the engagement process and tokenism in practice."
- For more information on the bioenergy program at the United Nations Environment Programme, please go to: http://www.unep.fr/energy/bioenergy/
EPA clean air regulations might dim green luster of biomass plants in Oregon and nationwide, 16 September 2010 by OregonLive.com: "Freres Lumber fired up its biomass plant in 2007 as part of the green power rush, banking on tax breaks to generate steam and electricity at its Lyons mill by burning forest slash and mill waste."
- "But proposed rules from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency -- including new regulations on boiler pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the plants -- could force the company to sample emissions more and put 'pollution controls on top of pollution controls,' Freres executives say."
- "Oregon backers are hoping wood-fired power plants will spur thinning in the state's abundant national forests, create thousands of rural jobs and provide a domestic source of fuel."
- "Even with pollution controls, emissions of carbon dioxide, lung-damaging particulates and other pollutants from burning wood can be greater than burning coal or natural gas. And classifying biomass as renewable power could encourage overdevelopment of wood burning power plants, threatening forests in the long term, critics say."
- "The U.S. Department of Energy expects biomass to supply 14 percent of U.S. electricity by 2030, up from just more than 1 percent now."
- "The arguments tend to run to absolutes, either counting all greenhouse gas emissions from biomass or not counting any. In calling for detailed comments, the EPA signaled it's trying to account for the nuances."[3]

Fungus Genes Help Turn Grass into Ethanol, 10 September 2010 by Technology Review: "Genes copied from a common fungus could simplify the production of ethanol from abundant materials such as grass and wood chips, a development that could one day help ethanol compete with gasoline."
- "Scientists have taken genes from a fungus that grows on grass and dead plants, and transplanted them into yeast that is already used to turn sugar into ethanol. The genes let the yeast ferment parts of plants that it normally can't digest, potentially streamlining the production of ethanol."
- "Most ethanol is produced using simple sugars, like the glucose derived from corn kernels or sugar cane. Ethanol producers would like to use glucose from more abundant sources, such as corn husks and stalks, switchgrass, wood waste, and other tough plant materials. But those plant parts are made of cellulose, a carbohydrate built from long chains of sugars. For yeast to produce ethanol from these materials, the complex carbohydrate has to first be broken down into very simple sugars, a process that takes time and normally requires the addition of expensive enzymes."
- "With the new technique, ethanol makers would no longer have to break cellulose down into simple sugars. Instead, they would only need to break down cellulose into an intermediate material called cellodextrin."[4]

World Bank report: demand for biofuels and animal feed is causing land grabs, 8 September 2010 by Friends of The Earth: "On the launch of a new World Bank report today (8 September 2010) in which the Bank explicitly identifies biofuels as one of the driving forces of land grabs in Africa and acknowledges its detrimental impact on local livelihoods, Friends of the Earth renews its call on rich countries to drop their biofuels targets and invest in planet-friendly farming."
- "Mariann Bassey, African food and agriculture coordinator for Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria said: 'The World Bank is backing the practice of nations selling vast agricultural lands to foreign investors, despite evidence that the expansion of industrial farming is trashing rainforests, increasing emissions, and pushing up global food prices.'"
- "Last week Friends of the Earth released new research showing that the scale of land grabbing in Africa for biofuel production was underestimated and out of control...Even more land will be required for biofuels if the European Union is to reach its target of obtaining 10 per cent of transport fuels from renewable sources by 2020, it says."[5]
  - Read the full World Bank report: Rising Global Interest in Farmland (PDF)
  - Read the full Friends of The Earth report: Africa: Up for Grabs (PDF)

Malaysia's once-vaunted biofuel industry grinds to halt, 6 September 2010 by AFP: "Malaysia's once-vaunted biofuel industry has seen production grind to a halt since a March announcement that the government's mandatory switch to the green energy will be delayed to June 2011."
- "Malaysia had ambitions to become a global leader in biodiesel and unveiled grand plans for the industry as the price of crude oil spiralled, peaking in mid-2008."
- "However, the future of the alternative fuels is now in question given cheaper crude prices and the higher cost of Malaysia's palm oil."
- "Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) figures show that the production of biodiesel, a mixture of diesel with five percent processed palm oil, dropped 99 percent from 12,640 tonnes in March to just 137 tonnes in July."
- "Malaysian Biodiesel Association vice-president U.R. Unnithan said the country had the capacity to produce 2.6 million tonnes of biofuel annually but that demand had completely dried up."
- "Unnithan said Malaysian biofuel cannot compete in international markets as many countries have protectionist measures and subsidies in place."[6]

Greens Warn World Bank Over Palm Oil Funding, 5 September 2010 by Jakarta Globe: "Environmental groups Greenpeace and Sawit Watch have called on the World Bank to extend its international suspension of financing for the palm oil sector unless producers meet environmental criteria."
- "Jefri Saragih, head of Sawit’s campaign in Indonesia, said on Sunday that the World Bank must provide palm oil makers with clear guidelines on what they must do to reduce their industry’s impact on global warming."
- "Environmental groups have been making a stir with campaigns accusing palm oil firms of illegal deforestation, with Sinar Mas Group being boycotted by some of its top buyers."
- "On Thursday, US fast food giant Burger King said it would stop buying palm oil from the firm and its subsidiaries after Greenpeace mounted a successful campaign against Sinar Mas’s land-clearing practices."
- "Unilever and Nestle earlier dropped the supplier over the criticism."
- "Since 1965, the World Bank has channeled nearly $2 billion for 45 projects in the palm oil sector in 12 nations across Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia."
- "Indonesia has been a major focus of the financing, receiving $618.8 million of the total funding. The World Bank suspended the financing in September 2009 over environmental concerns."[7]

USDA and DOE Partnership Seeks to Develop Better Plants for Bioenergy, 2 September 2010 by the US Department of Energy: "Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced research awards under a joint DOE-USDA program aimed at improving and accelerating genetic breeding programs to create plants better suited for bioenergy production."
- "The research grants will be awarded under a joint DOE-USDA program focused on fundamental investigations of biomass genomics, with the aim of harnessing lignocellulosic materials--i.e., nonfood plant fiber--for biofuels production. Emphasis is on perennials, including trees and other nonfood plants that can be used as dedicated biofuel crops."[8]

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September 2010

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