Big polluters want to help poorer countries adapt

The world's industrialized countries are looking to provide ``significant financial resources'' to the developing world to help them combating global warming and will ask a September meeting of the worlds 20 major economies to take up the issue, US President Barack Obama said.

Poor countries have refused to commit to any reduction targets in their carbon emissions without firm pledges of financing from wealthier countries largely responsible for climate change. The dispute has been a thorn in negotiations for a new climate change treaty and scuttled any major breakthrough on targets from emerging at a Group of Eight summit here this week. Obama told a news conference that finance ministers of the G-20 would take up proposals to finance carbon emissions reductions in the developing world at their September summit in Pittsburgh. "We are looking at providing significant financial assistance to help these countries,'' he said, praising the British and Mexican leaders for having come up with ``creative proposals'' for the G20 to consider. Environmentalists said the move could help break a logjam in negotiations over a new climate control pact that is to be finalized in December in Copenhagen. "There was no real new commitment on finance, that is one of the disappointing outcomes of the G-8, but I take the annoucement by Obama of taking it into the G-20 as a recognition that what they've come up with so far isn't enough," said Kim Carstensen of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature. Obama spoke at the end of a meeting of the 17-nation Major Economies Forum, which has become the G-8's main forum for climate change. It includes the G-8, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan and the United States, as well as China, which has overtaken the US as the world's biggest polluter, and India, which is close behind. Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, Australia, South Korea and the European Union also are in that club of the world's major polluters.

Researchers develop 'green' industrial lubricant

Researchers have developed an eco-friendly
lubricating grease, based on ricin oil and cellulose derivatives. The new formula does not include any of the contaminating components of manufacture traditional industrial Lubricants.

The objective of this research was to develop a product that could be used as a lubricating grease but that was made only from natural materials and was 100 percent biodegradable," said José María Franco, chemical engineer at Huelva University (Spain) and member of the project team. Eco-friendly greases are "oleogels" that use cellulose derivatives from plants and ricin oil (from a bush) as a lubricant base. Franco said these new formulations are "an alternative to traditional lubricating greases, which create pollution that is difficult to combat once discharged into the environment", according to a Huelva University release. Existing lubricants are made from synthetic oils or petroleum derivatives, and thickeners made with metallic soaps or polyurea derivatives (a family of synthetic polymers). These are currently the best performers, but they also imply more problems from an environmental perspective. Millions of tonnes of hydraulic and industrial oils, and others from machinery, are discharged each year into rivers, the sea and fields. Mineral-based oils can contaminate groundwater for more than 100 years, and can prevent the

Variation in monsoon not due to climate change: Ramesh

Climate model studies has shown no significant impact on change in the mean onset of monsoon in the country, government said
"The long-term mean onset date of monsoon in India is 1st June, with a standard deviation of about 8 days," Environment minister Jairam Ramesh informed Rajya Sabha. "However, year to year variations in the onset or the propagation are part of the natural variability and cannot be attributed to climate change," he said. He however, added that "the government is aware of the challenges posed by climate change and has taken steps in this regard," Ramesh said the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) which was released on 30th June last year outlines steps that will enable the country to adapt to climate change and enhance the ecological sustainability of India's development path. Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) in Pune is a dedicated centre for climate change research set up to undertake focused research on the science aspects of climate change, the minister added.

Japan widens relief for mercury disaster victims

Japan passed a law Wednesday offering financial compensation to tens of thousands more victims of a mercury poisoning disaster in the 1950s


However, victims criticized the new law, which also splits up the company responsible for Japan's worst-ever industrial pollution case, as politicians continued to haggle over the amount of money victims would receive. The new law, which reduces the number of symptoms required for a patient to qualify for relief, is expected to pay an additional 20,000 victims out of an estimated 30,000 seeking compensation, the environment ministry said. The health disaster emerged in the 1950s in the small fishing town of Minamata on Kyushu island where chemical company Chisso Corp had for years dumped methyl mercury into a bay, poisoning fish and residents. Victims suffered spasms, seizures and loss of sensation and motor control that impaired their ability to walk and speak. Babies were born with nervous system damage and other mental and physical deformities. "The Minamata issue was where Japan's pollution and environment problems started," Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said. "We have been saying that it's important to solve the problem." But what was intended to lay to rest more than a half a century of grievances and legal battles only further embittered victims, who claimed that the bill serves to bury the company's responsibility. Chisso, which is headquartered in Tokyo and still operates in Minamata, will be split into two entities under the law -- one to oversee the payouts, and another to keep running the company's business operations. The parent company is scheduled to be liquidated once it completes the lump-sum payment for the compensation, which is expected to be gathered through sales of its subsidiary's shares, according to media reports. Hideo Ikoma, 51, who was born suffering from the effects of mercury, said Tokyo's decision to divide the firm was "unforgivable." "Every day has been a struggle between life and death," he said, pronouncing his words with difficulty. "Lawmakers think they can make the Minamata problem disappear by simply switching on their voting buttons. They have no clue what we endure." Ruling and opposition party lawmakers were meanwhile still debating the amount of compensation, with proposals ranging from 1.5 million to three million yen (15,500 to 31,100 dollars). The health problems in Minamata were first reported by a local hospital in 1956 but, although Chisso was immediately suspected, its management denied responsibility and the plant continued dumping mercury until 1968. The company was not officially blamed for the health problems until 1973. A court in 1988 found the then president of Chisso and then director of Chisso Minamata Factory guilty, but handed them suspended jail sentences. In 2004, the Supreme Court ruled that the Japanese government was partly responsible for not stopping the company from continuing to dump the toxic waste into the water. The recent law is the second government act since 1995, when Chisso was ordered to compensate 11,000 patients who had not previously been officially recognized as victims of the Minamata disaster.

No tiger found in Panna Tiger Reserve, MP govt admits

The Madhya Pradesh government admitted in the State Assembly that no tiger
was found in the Panna Tiger Reserve during a survey conducted in


This was stated by the Madhya Pradesh minister of state for forest, Rajendra Shukla in a written reply to a calling attention motion on the issue of dwindling tiger population in the state moved by Choudhary Rakesh Singh and others of the Congress. The minister also said that the State government was examining a report submitted by the Special Investigating Team set up by the Centre which said that illegal hunting was also among the reasons for the falling tiger population in Panna. Shukla said that a committee has been set up to look into the matter and suggest ways and means to ensure that such things do not recur. Its report was expected soon, he added. He said that the process for re-establishing tigers in the Panna Tiger Reserve had already begun with the translocation of two tigresses and pointed out that permission for translocating four more tigers/tigresses had been sought from the Centre. The Minister said that the State government agreed with the concern expressed by members and pointed out that all efforts would be made for protection of tigers and other forest animals.

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WHERE HAVE THE CLOUDS GON

POOR monsoon may have triggered off cold vibes between the NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s nodal agriculture ministry and earth sciences and technology minister Prithviraj Chavan’s domain. The developments are being seen as mirroring the covert tensions between the coalition partners in the key state, which is set to go to the polls later this year. While the India Meteorological Department(IMD), which updates the press on the progress of the rains — seminal to India’s economic growth and food security — is part of the latter, it is the former that has to bear the brunt, in consonance with state governments, of the ground-level work to minimise the adverse impact of a poor monsoon on agricultural output. That mismatch, infact, appears to be crux of the problem, with the farm ministry disapproving the latter’s decision to “rush” to update the media on the poor progress of the monsoons in end June. The second stage of monsoon forecasts, infact, confirmed what was becoming increasing apparent countrywide but was as yet to be acknowledged by the government: rainfall for the 2009 south-west monsoon season (June to September was likely to be “below normal” and not “near normal” at 96% of the Long Period Average (89 cms) as forecast in the first stage on April 17. Ironically, the second stage of monsoon forecasts have been made in end June ever since the two stage forecasts began in 2003. From 1988 to 2002, the IMD used the 16-parameter power regression and parametric models developed by noted scientist Vasant Gowariker, who hails from Maharashtra. However, the model failed to forecast the marked failure of the rains in 2002 as a result of which the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate dipped from 5.8% in the previous year to 4%. Agriculture output fell by 8%. Following that, the IMD adopted (in 2003) a two-stage long-range forecast strategy, of eight and 10 parameters, respectively. The first forecast for the SW monsoon was issued in April, using the eight-group parameter power regression and probabilistic models. An updated forecast is issued by the end of June, using the 10-parameter models. Interestingly, however, while the first stage forecast was announced at a jam packed press conference each year, the second stage forecast was issued as a press statement, comparatively quietly, a strategy that worked well for the government especially if there was a negative mismatch between the first stage and the second stage forecasts. What appears to have irked the farm ministry intensely is that this year, the earth sciences ministry announced the bleak second stage forecast — which would impact the country’s GDP negatively — at a jam packed press conference, heightening the “adverse publicity” from the media. The farm minister’s perception, sources hold, was that with that one move, the earth sciences ministry turned strobe lights on Mr Pawar and his ministry at an eminently awkward moment, even while heightening panic over a possible countrywide drought. That came to a head on Thursday when Mr Pawar was finally forced to admit to Rajya Sabha that there was indeed a bad monsoon situation in many parts of the country. But, he stressed, he was still “hopeful,” a deliberate pointer to the ministry’s continued insistence that the IMD’s July and August rainfall forecast would turnaround the bad monsoon story. Indeed, it was the farm minister who, in his very first press conference after he took office this time (and long before the negative second stage monsoon forecast), firmly announced his decision to not allow foodgrain exports until the new rice season began in September and stock-taking had been done. The commendably sober (in retrospect) decision came despite a massive 50 million tonnes in procurement that forced the FCI and state agencies to stock twice their storage capacity. Congress sources, though, dubbed the charge against the earth sciences ministry as “baseless”. “The second stage IMD forecast has been issued in end June since 2003. Unlike other years, a media conference could not be held at the time of the first stage forecast since the Election Commission’s model code of conduct had already gone into operation, so one was held at the second conference.” Another simmering quarrel appears to be the jurisdiction under which the IMD falls. Prior to 2006, the IMD was perceived as an adjunct of the farm ministry, making coordination that much easier at the highly sensitive (both for the country and the ruling government) monsoon forecast time. However, it was in 2006 during the earlier stint of Sharad Pawar as agriculture and food minister that the Congress-led government struck to undermine his powerful standing by reorganising the ministry of ocean development into ministry of earth sciences, the new parent ministry for the IMD. With advocate and flamboyant Congress spokesperson Kapil Sibal in the saddle, the annual two stage monsoon forecast exercise was then firmly plucked out of its embrace with the farm ministry and transformed into a highly orchestrated and stylised affair compared to earlier, anchored by no less than the minister himself. IMD officials were consequently instructed to “not to speak out of turn” to the press, a tradition that has come to stay. The manoeuvres by the Congress leadership could not have gone unnoticed by the Maharashtra strongman. He took an arched dig in Parliament earlier this week, even as apprehensions mounted over a poor monsoon impact on the country’s growth, at finance minister Pranab Mukherjee refusal to acquiesce to key pre-Budget by his ministry for the development of the primary sector. Boosting investment exponentially and according sufficient incentives to the private sector to attract investment into the weak sector were some of these. Big ticket investment was imperative to the sector, he told Parliament. Officially, his officials point to some Rs 80,000 crore allocation announced in the Budget for programmes that will impact agriculture, including NREGA, RKVY, PMGSY and the Indira Awaas Yojana, mostly core programmes directly monitored by the Centre. But it clearly rankles that key issues on the anvil, including a 5% interest subvention on short term loans (only a 1% subvention was announced) and a regular mechanism for debt rescheduling, were summarily dismissed. Worst cut of all, the long pending Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme, so crucial as risk protection for farmers at times of failed or poor monsoons also failed to show up in the Budget, of which much was expected. Ironically, one of the demands made by the farm ministry was also something poor monsoons demand loudly: that larger rainfed tracts of cultivated land to come under sprinkler and other micro irrigation. With this in mind, the farm ministry had asked for duty concessions on imports and excise cuts for small agri implements. Little wonder then, that Mr Pawar archedly put the blame on finance minister Pranab Mukherjee this week in Parliament when he was asked about the plight of Vidarbha’s farmers. Determinedly putting the onus on the FM, he replied: “The Finance Minister has announced in the Union Budget that he will set up the task force on protecting such farmers (who have taken loan from private money lenders). Once this task force is set up, I will be able to give a satisfactory reply.”