Fear that it will be costly for consumers to address climate change is largely unfounded, a new modeling exercise conducted for the magazine New Scientist suggests.

Radical cuts to the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions will cause barely noticeable increases in the price of food, drink and most other goods by 2050, indicates a model developed by Cambridge researchers for the magazine New Scientist.

“These results show that the global project to fight climate change is doable … It’s not such a big ask as people are making out,” says Alex Bowen, a climate policy expert at the London School of Economics, according to the magazine.

At current prices, going low-carbon is forecast to add around five pence to the price of a loaf of bread or a pint of beer. The price of household appliances such as washing machines rises by a few pounds, New Scientist reports.

According to the model, overall food prices will increase by one percent, electronics by two percent, and electricity by 15 percent. However, it would be a lot more expensive to travel by air, unless a low-carbon alternative to jet fuel is found. A return flight from London to New York would jump from £350 to around £840 – or what corresponds to an increase of 140 percent.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told Parliament the country plans to reduce by 20 percent to 25 percent the ratio of pollution to production compared with 2005 levels.

India will significantly slow the growth of its climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions over the next decade as its economy keeps expanding, an official said Thursday ahead of world climate change talks.

However, the developing country will not accept a binding emissions reduction target, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said.

Ramesh told Parliament the country plans to reduce by 20 percent to 25 percent the ratio of pollution to production compared with 2005 levels. The announcement comes just days before world leaders are set gather in Denmark to discuss a new climate pact.

As one of the world’s largest populations with a fast-growing economy, India has been under pressure to bring its own emissions-reduction plan to the UN climate talks in Copenhagen following pledges by the US and China — the world’s top two emitters of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming — to reduce their own pollution.

India ranks fifth in world carbon dioxide emissions, accounting for 4.7 percent of the world’s emissions, according to Ramesh.

To reach its objective, the Indian government will introduce mandatory fuel efficiency standards in 2011, enforce building codes for greater energy efficiency, and deploy cleaner technology in coal-fired power plants, Ramesh said.

India had previously announced a plan to build a massive 20,000 megawatt solar energy facility by 2022.

BEIRUT: With the Copenhagen summit on climate change less than a month away, environmental activists warned Lebanon’s new government on Sunday that it cannot sit by while larger nations debate global warming policy. With high levels of air and sea pollution, water mismanagement and electricity demand outstripping supply, Lebanon can hardly claim to be a world leader on environmental issues.

In spite of past administrations failing to seriously address the country’s checkered environmental record, Wael Hmaidan from environmental NGO IndyACT, told The Daily Star that Lebanon needed dynamic and decisive action by its politicians.

“We all know that the planet is negotiating a new agreement on climate change. Lebanon so far has been outside these negotiations,” he said. “Like the rest of the world, Lebanon will be devastated by climate change. Even though it is a small country with very little political power, Lebanon can make a difference.

“We have a problem with energy and this is also an environmentally linked problem. At this stage we need to reduce our CO2 emissions and we will not have an economy if we don’t have a secure source of energy,” he added.

The prospect of going into coal-fired production has been raised by some in Lebanon – a huge mistake, according to Hamaidan.

“Coal produces more CO2 than anything else and coal [usage] will prevent Lebanon getting any assistance in the international energy sector.

“The best alternative for Lebanon at the moment is to go into natural gas,” said Hmaidan, which produces 40 percent less CO2 than coal. “This way Lebanon will be reducing its emissions. Renewable energy needs to be introduced to Lebanon over the years, but gas can be deployed immediately and in significant amounts.

Garabed Kazanjian, oceans campaigner for Greenpeace in Lebanon, agreed that renewable energy needed to be implemented bit by bit.

“Overall, there should be a government initiative to gradually convert the national energy plan towards the use of a sustainable energy source,” he told The Daily Star. “In a region considered as the well of oil and everlasting nuclear disputes, Lebanon has the potential to become the pioneer in the solar sector.”

Water supply in Lebanon has long been a divisive topic and Kazanjian said that plans mooted for the construction of damns were not a viable way to tackle shortages.

“As a solution to water problems, we can build reservoirs to trap rainwater, and use according to our needs,” he said.

Lebanon produces approximately 1.4 million tons of solid waste every year, of which only eight percent is recycled. Many villages and towns simply tip refuse in local dumps, posing health risks as well as environmental damages.

The most obvious example of this is Sidon’s dump, parts of which were strewn this month over miles of coastline following heavy storms.

“The Sidon dump is a disgrace to the Lebanese government and a health hazard to the population, in addition to a source of toxic discharge to the marine life in its vicinity,” said Kazanjian. The Lebanese government must, in the earliest possible occasion, officially close down the waste dump.

“There are available funds for such a project. All that is lacking is the political decision.”

More generally, the new administration must educate the population as to the benefits of recycling if Lebanon is ever to curb its ever-increasing waste pile, according to Kazanjian.

“Efforts should be made to increase public awareness on daily activities, such as diminishing the use of plastic bags, encouraging the use of public transportation, and the use of solar power as a source of energy,” he said.

Time for action is short and with issues such as national security and the perilous state of the economy up for discussion, Lebanon’s new government may have more pressing needs to attend to.

Not so, said Hmaidan: “If we don’t work on climate change there is no need to work on anything else.”

World leaders will probably not be able to draw up a new global treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol at December’s UN climate conference in Copenhagen.

However, Mexico’s top climate change diplomat believes the meeting will yield significant results including an accord to cap rising temperatures and pledges for billions of dollars to help poor countries cope with climate change.

“What is important is that in Copenhagen we say what it is we want, and afterward the ‘how.’ If we decide what the goal is, the terms of the negotiations that follow will be easier,” says Luis Alfonso de Alba according to Reuters.

Denmark has proposed that the world delay a final legal agreement until 2010. Instead, countries should try to reach a “binding” political deal at the December meeting.

According to de Alba, the Copenhagen agreement must at least include a commitment to prevent the earth’s temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) and a binding commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least half by 2050, with at least 80 percent of the reduction coming from developed nation.

If these targets are agreed, negotiators should be able to arrive at a final binding treaty by the end of 2010 at a meeting that Mexico is likely to host, he says.

“What is most probable is that this work finishes in Mexico. What is clear is that it must not end after Mexico. It ends either before or at the Mexico meeting.”

China announced plans Thursday to cut its carbon emissions by up to 45 percent as measured against its economic output – a target aimed at keeping its surging growth while still reining in pollution.

According to the State Council announcement, China pledges to cut carbon intensity – carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product – by 40 to 45 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels.

The goal does not mean that China will cut its total carbon emissions by 2020. Given the expected growth in its economy, its global warming emissions should increase over the next decade – but at a much slower pace than if China had made no changes.

China is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases believed to cause global warning.

India, the world’s fifth-biggest greenhouse gas emitter, has proposed a similar policy to link emissions to growth in gross domestic product.

China’s State Council said the improvements would come through better research and development, clean coal technology, advanced nuclear energy and better transportation systems. Tax laws and regulations will also be changed to encourage energy efficiency.

China announced earlier that Premier Wen Jiabao will take part in the Copenhagen conference.

Despite setting a target on carbon emissions, China is not expected to accept an international treaty that sets a binding target for it.

Yu Jie, head of policy and research programs for The Climate Group China, a non-governmental group, describes China’s 45 percent target as “quite aggressive”.

Leader of WWF Global Climate Initiative, Kim Carstensen, says that “a 40-45 percent reduction in China’s carbon intensity from business as usual projections is far from trivial.”

“Given the size of China’s economy, the decoupling of China’s economic growth from growth in emissions is one of the most important factors that will determine whether the world can get on course to keep temperature rise below two degrees Celsius,” says Carstensen.

UN climate chief Yvo de Boer says in a comment that “the US commitment to specific, mid-term emission cut targets and China’s commitment to specific action on energy efficiency can unlock two of the last doors to a comprehensive agreement” in Copenhagen.

Connie Hedegaard, Danish Minister for the UN climate conference says that “it is new and very encouraging that China comes forward internationally”.

“Now it is clear to the world: The Copenhagen deadline works. One by one, governments from all over the world are delivering before the climate conference next month. This is good news. However, we must analyse more carefully what the new Chinese announcement translates to when it comes a percentage for deviation from business as usual,” she says.

Climate change effects are already wrecking lives in Africa, AFP writes in a report from the continent.

Currently, around 23 million people face starvation across east Africa as failed rainy seasons have reduced crops, livestock and devastated livelihoods. Experts say the east African drought is the worst in decades.

The agency lists other recent changes reported by scientists. A US study revealed that snow caps on Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak, are rapidly melting and could vanish completely in 20 years mainly due to climate change.

Climate change is blamed for altering the border between Uganda and the DR Congo. The border is marked by a river that is changing its course over the years reportedly due to melting ice caps in the mountains. And rising sea temperatures off South Africa’s coast have disrupted the annual sardine migration, which leads to smaller numbers of sardines, scientists say.

The African continent emits four percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions but consequences of global warming appear harsh here. That is the reason why African nations want developed countries to commit to huge emissions cuts and provide billions of dollars in funding for developing countries to adapt to climate change.

However, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, head of an African Union panel representing the continent at the UN climate conference in December, is not expecting firm decisions at the Copenhagen conference, reports the AFP.

Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga calls for sober negotiations.

“We really should not go to Copenhagen and play the hard ball and the blame game,” he tells AFP.

“This issue is so crucial that it requires full cooperation because if the North does not cooperate with the South it means all of us are going to be victims. All of us are going to be losers.”

Despite heated opposition in Congress, the president will present a US pledge to cut emissions by 17 percent over the next decade on the way to reducing heat-trapping pollution by 80 percent by mid-century, the White House said Wednesday.

The 17 percent figure is in line with IEA’s objective of limiting the long-term concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to 450 parts per million of CO2 equivalent and keeping the global temperature rise to two degrees Celsius, said Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka.

“Such a commitment is quite positive, and it will make a contribution to our debate and discussion in Copenhagen,” Tanaka told reporters at the Japan National Press Club.

The IEA, which serves as a policy adviser to 28 mostly industrialized oil-consuming nations, estimates that global emissions may actually decline this year – possibly by three percent – because of the financial downturn.

Tanaka said the recession has given the world a “window of opportunity” at Copenhagen.

But without a change in government policies, consumption will rebound. The IEA estimates that by 2030, energy demand will be 40 percent higher than in 2007.

Switzerland is drying out
The devastating drought that hit the Alpine country in 2003 will soon become a frequent summertime condition, a new report states.

26 percent of Swiss farmland is at risk due to recent climate change, a report by federal agricultural institute Agroscope says. Instead of the 38,000 hectares of land that presently receive regular irrigation some 400,000 hectares will be in need of it by 2050.

“I was surprised to see the size of the area (to be hit by drought). The area is expanding, that’s the significant part,” researcher Jurg Fuhrer of Agroscope tells AFP, while adding that it may not be economically feasible to extend irrigation to the entire area at risk.

During the severe drought that hit most of Europe during the summer of 2003, Switzerland was one of the countries affected the most. Besides having temperatures much higher than normal, no rainfall occurred in three months. This is likely to become a frequent Swiss summertime condition, according to Agroscope.

No China-US climate pact from Obama visit
President Barack Obama’s visit to China next month is not likely to yield a separate accord on countering global warming, though both countries are pushing for progress for upcoming global talks in Copenhagen, the top US envoy on climate change says.

“I don’t think we’re going to get an agreement per se,” says Todd Stern, the US special envoy for climate change. However, he says Obama will work with Chinese President Hu Jintao toward facilitating an agreement at the international meeting.

Just over a month is left before the UN ministerial conference in Copenhagen, which will cap two years of negotiations on a global climate change treaty to replace the UN’s 1997 Kyoto Protocol on cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

Obama will make his first visit to China on Nov. 15-18.

“It’s never been an effort on our side to work toward a separate deal, but we’re going to be trying to make as much progress as possible,” Stern says.

“We’re pushing them and they’re pushing us,” he says.

“All of us have to take responsibility for our own countries and for the sake of all mankind. This is not a matter of saying, only if other countries take certain measures will we take certain measures. It is not that kind of future,” Xie Zhenhua, China’s top climate envoy, told reporters Tuesday.

“In eight months, President Obama has done more to regulate carbon dioxide emissions than anyone has done in US history,” Stern says. “We had to jump onto a moving train. He has done that and done it very rapidly. I reject the notion that we’re not doing enough or not doing much.”

Comprehensive energy and climate legislation passed the House of Representatives in record time, Stern says.

The Senate bill, however, is proving more difficult. On Tuesday, the Obama administration warned a Senate panel that the US could slip further behind China and other countries in clean energy development if Congress fails to pass climate legislation.

Stern is upbeat about the prospects for Copenhagen, though experts say tough challenges remain.

“I think there’s a deal to be had. That doesn’t mean we’re going to get it,” Stern says. “I want to get a deal done, and I think we can.”

Drought, typhoons hurt Asia’s rice production
A drought in India and typhoons in the Philippines have damaged large tracts of rice paddies, threatening to upset the fragile food market amid fears of shortages and riots, experts says.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap of the Philippines, the world’s biggest rice importer, told an international rice conference, Wednesday, the impact of the next “perfect storm” will be greatest on vulnerable countries like his, and the world’s poor.

He proposed an international food reserve that will safeguard against wild fluctuations in food prices. When prices are down, producers can build stocks to halt further decreases, while consumers can turn to the reserves when prices are rocketing, Yap said.

“We are not very far off from possibly another rerun of 2008,” he said. Last year’s record-high price of rice and other staples led to riots in at least 30 countries, according to the World Food Program.

Rice is a staple for half of the world’s population, a big chunk of them poor, Yap said.

While there is no official estimate yet of losses due to low rainfall in India, a drought of similar magnitude in 2002 lowered rice production in that country by 23.5 million tons (21 million metric tons), Mohanty said.

“So it is very likely the crop yield will be 20 million less than what we had last year,” he added.

This year India’s summer monsoon, vital for agriculture because of the rainfall it brings, was the weakest since 1972. In some parts of the country, however, floods also damaged crops.

Global rice production needs to grow around 1.2 percent to 1.5 percent a year to meet increasing demand from population growth.

Currently, growth is falling to less than 1 percent a year because of variety of factors.

Brazil speeds up its Copenhagen homework
The Brazilians now back a UN forest scheme and are looking into even deeper carbon dioxide emissions cuts than previously announced.

Brazil, home country of the world’s largest forest, the Amazon, is now ready to support a global scheme to conserve forests. The scheme called REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) is expected to be agreed at the UN conference on climate change in Copenhagen this December.

“In previous meetings Brazil didn’t defend REDD – that position has evolved,” Environment Minister Carlos Minc says according to Reuters.

Under the scheme industrialized countries would be able to free themselves of some of their own reduction commitments by supporting rainforest conservation. The positive Brazilian position is however contingent of a 10 percent ceiling as to how much an industrialized country can be relieved of its own commitments.

“Rich countries still have to do their homework,” Carlos Minc states.

The minister also reveals that Brazil is looking into even deeper cuts in its own greenhouse gas emissions than previously announced. As Brazil is not included in the list of so called Annex 1 nations (all industrialized countries) under the Kyoto Protocol it has no obligation to state reduction targets.

Still, both Carlos Minc and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have announced earlier that Brazil would freeze its carbon dioxide emissions at the 2005 level by 2020, meaning 2.1 billion tons annually.

Preparing for the UN conference in Copenhagen, Brazil is considering if emissions could be reduced to 1.7 billion tons by 2020 – a 40 percent reduction compared with the 2.7 billion tons anticipated under a business-as-usual scenario.

Roughly half of the reduction would come from reducing deforestation, while the rest would come from improved farming practises, increased use of bio fuels and planting of trees.

According to Reuters’ reporting a final Brazilian decision on its position for the UN negotiations in Copenhagen can be expected at November 3rd.

Parents and drivers who go pick there kids up from schools all over Lebanon, don’t take an entire 8 cylinder vehicle to pick up one child. I saw 30 cars lined up waiting to pick up kids yesterday and there is 1 person in each car. They create a lot of traffic and release more CO2 in the air. Why not consider car pooling or organizing a bus to pick all of these kids up according to where they live in the city? That is something parents can organize. Talk to people within your community so you can make this possible.

Try not to buy too many plastic water bottles and throwing them away. Carry your own water bottle from your home.

Turn out your lights at home when you’re not using them.

Use public transportation. I know it can be a drag in Beirut at times, but taking a cab is cheaper for you and it is one less car on the street. There are more cars than human beings in Lebanon.

Like I said before, if you feel you don’t have the power to do anything, consider these hints. You have to change yourself before judging the world on how it should operate.

– Rami Eid

Australian coast threatened
A new report into the effects of climate change on Australia’s vast coastline is forcing Australians to consider the unthinkable: life away from the surf.

Beach culture is key to the nation’s identity. Some 80 percent of people live along the coast, so oceanside living is often seen as a virtual birthright. But a government environmental committee warns that thousands of miles (kilometers) of Australia’s coastline are under threat from rising sea levels.

The report, issued to parliament late Monday after an 18-month study, suggests officials consider the possibility of banning people from living in vulnerable areas.

“The Committee agrees that this is an issue of national importance and that the time to act is now,” the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Climate Change, Water, Environment and the Arts wrote.

The report makes 47 recommendations on how Australia can better prepare for the effects of climate change, including reviewing evacuation plans, overhauling building codes to ensure sturdier homes, and having the government take a bigger role in helping coastal communities adapt to the impacts of rising sea levels.

The report does not say the government should force people to move inland but proposes an independent group look into whether the government could — and should — do just that.

Alan Stokes, executive director of the Sydney-based National Seachange Taskforce, which represents coastal community councils across Australia, says banning development in certain areas is necessary if the government wants to prevent a major loss of life in the event of natural disasters such as tsunamis.

Aside from obvious safety issues, many coastal residents are finding it increasingly difficult to insure homes that are in high-risk areas, and the situation will only worsen as beach erosion escalates, he said.

“There’s no doubt Australia will remain and continue to be a coastal community,” he said Tuesday. “But we may have to be a bit more considerate about which parts of the coast we develop further and which ones we don’t.”

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd used the report to try and drum up support for his climate change legislation, which would curb the amount of greenhouse gas pollution the country emits. Rudd told parliament on Tuesday that the findings highlight the need for passage of a carbon pollution reduction scheme ahead of December’s global conference on the issue in Copenhagen.

UN signals delay in climate change treaty

Janos Pasztor, director of the secretary-general’s Climate Change Support Team, said Monday “it’s hard to say how far the conference will be able to go” because the US Congress has not agreed on a climate bill, and industrialized nations have not agreed on targets to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions or funding to help developing countries limit their discharges.

Pasztor told a news conference “there is tremendous activity by governments in capitals and internationally to shape the outcome” of the climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December, which “is a good development” because political leadership is essential to make a deal.

But he indicated that Copenhagen most likely won’t produce a treaty, but instead will push governments as far as they can go on the content of an agreement.

Pasztor stressed that there is still a final negotiating session in Barcelona, Spain, from Nov. 2-6 that will be followed by two more weeks of work in Copenhagen.

The secretary-general is in close contact with the Danish prime minister and might go to the meeting of Asian and Pacific leaders in Singapore on Nov. 14-15 — which President Barack Obama plans to attend — to keep pressing for a global accord in Copenhagen, Pasztor said.

Pasztor said a US climate bill is very important because without one, US negotiators in Copenhagen can’t negotiate on targets for emissions reductions.

He said two key unresolved issues are agreement on emission reduction targets for industrialized countries and how to finance actions by developing countries to limit their emissions growth and adapt to the effects of climate change.

Developed countries want to provide money for specific actions to curb emissions — but developing countries say the actions depend on how much money they’re going to get, Pasztor said, and that still hasn’t been decided.