By John Parnell
– The day’s top climate change stories as chosen by RTCC
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– Updates from our team at the UN Convention in Biological Diversity summit in Hyderabad
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– Updated from 0830-1700 BST (GMT+1)
Tuesday 16 October
Last updated: 1630
India: Australia has said it is now ready to sell Uranium to India in a move that brings the country’s plans to build 60GW of nuclear energy capacity a significant step forward. The Australian government lifted a ban on its mining firms selling Uranium to India around the same time that the industry dropped its active opposition to the then proposed carbon tax. (Economic Times)
EU: The EU will present its proposal of how best to deal with the over supply of carbon credits in its emissions trading system on November 14. It has been expected to withhold a number of credits to increase demand and lift the flagging carbon price. The presentation is timed to enable member states to come to a final decisions on the number of permits withheld or cancelled before the end of the year. (Bloomberg)
UNFCCC: The UN climate change agency has partnered with a regional development bank in Africa in an attempt to spread the benefits of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Africa lags behind India and China in terms of carbon cutting CDM projects established in the continent and it is hoped that the new collaboration could help under-represented nations. (UNFCCC)
Australia: The chief scientist at the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) has said that the rapid changes observed in the southern polar region are not the product of alarmist scientists.
“The findings around changes in Antarctica and the southern oceans are critically important to driving world climate,” said Nick Gales adding that “the role of scientists are not to be alarmists, and not to downplay the data, but simply to report it.” (Sydney Morning Herald)
US: Forty-nine of the 50 largest employers in the United States have plans to reduce their carbon emissions and the only one that doesn’t is Berkshire Hathaway, a holding company. Climate change is cited as a specific business challenge by 68% of the group which includes WalMart, Ford, Coca-Cola and Bank of America. (TriplePundit)
UK: The Green Alliance charity and think tank in the UK has released a report showing that the country could save £10bn a year if energy efficiency measures were incentivised by government in a similar way that renewable energy generation is. (Green Alliance report)
Qatar: The president of the UN climate change talks in Doha this November has said a second period of the Kyoto Protocol and the immediate future of climate financing will be top of the agenda. Comments from a speech by Qataari deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah given last week have been released with Al-Attiyah also saying climate funds were important for “nurturing a sense of trust and confidence among governments”. (COP18 official site)
UK: The British Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Davey, has spelled out the country’s intentions for the upcoming UN climate talks in Doha. As well as reiterating Britain’s preference for a 30% emission reduction at the EU (the current target is 20%) he also called for an end to the “binary” separation of developed and developing countries. (Department of Energy and Climate Change)
CBD COP11 in Hyderabad: The UN could be set to protect 120 ecologically and biologically significant areas (EBSAs). The “hotspots” are spread throughout the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Western South Pacific and Western Mid-Atlantic and RTCC understands that Parties to the CBD talks are keen to press ahead with the plans as soon as possible. Full story here.
US: The CEO of IT giant Oracle, who bought most of the Hawaiian island of Lanai for $500m has announced he will be turning it into a “model for sustainable enterprise”.
“I own the water utility, I own the electric utility. The electric utility is all going to be solar photovoltaic and solar thermal where it can convert sea water into fresh water,” Larry Ellison told CNBC. (TreeHugger)