Indigenous Peoples Central to Efforts to Combat Climate Change

26.07.2016

Governments must do much more to provide the enabling conditions required for indigenous peoples, local communities, smallholders and their organizations to restore degraded landscapes and achieve climate change mitigation and adaptation in practice, according to FAO.

Speaking at an event on the sidelines of the 23rd session of the Committee on Forestry, FAO Assistant-Director General René Castro Salazar warned that the issue of indigenous rights to land and territories was ‘critical’ for the success of climate change initiatives.

“Unless we help indigenous peoples achieve secure land tenure and better governance, it will be very hard to achieve long-term solutions,” Castro Salazar said. “We are lagging behind, and we need to do more.”

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, said at the event that very few countries have so far made a clear commitment to a requirement in the Paris Climate Change Agreement that countries undertaking climate change activities should ensure the rights of indigenous peoples.

She also highlighted the large number of violent deaths of people protecting their forests and rights to land in 2015 – the deadliest year for environmental defenders on record.

“It’s a dire situation in terms of respect for the rights of indigenous peoples,” Tauli-Corpuz said.

A third of global forests are under some form of management by families, smallholders, local communities and indigenous peoples, and represent some of the most important carbon stocks in the world. Government-recognized community forests alone hold an estimated 37.7 billion tonnes of carbon stock.

Family smallholders, local communities and indigenous peoples have a key role to play in preserving these carbon stocks by reducing deforestation, managing forests sustainably and restoring tree cover as part of productive rural economies, particularly when they belong to strong producer organizations.

In addition, an estimated 1.5 billion hectares of land hold potential for smallholder farmers to combine agriculture with trees.

But failure to find the best way to engage with local stakeholders and align their interests with forest conservation can significantly compromise the chances of achieving carbon sequestration and mitigation targets.

In an outcome statement issued at the close of the event, participants urged governments to provide the enabling conditions required for local communities, indigenous peoples and local producers – with special focus on women and youth – to manage larger territories, from securing and enforcing tenure rights to creating favorable business incentives and offering technical, financial and business extension services.

They also called on global financing mechanisms, government programmes and private investors to direct investment and support towards local communities, indigenous peoples, smallholders and producer organizations.

Finally, they called for climate change initiatives to shift towards giving greater ownership to local communities, indigenous peoples, smallholders and producer organizations and engaging them in participatory and qualitative assessment of the forest cover and trees on farms they manage.

The event was co-organized by FAO and the Forest and Farm Facility, a partnership between FAO, the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and AgriCord.

Source: fao.org

Green Finance is Key to Resolving Climate Change

26.07.2016

WINDMILLS — Photo - Illustration: Pixabay

Climate change is not just an environmental challenge — it is a fundamental threat to development in our lifetime. Without immediate action targeted at emissions reductions by the international community, climate change could result in an additional 100m people living in extreme poverty by 2030 and reverse many of the development gains of the last decade. A 2007 United Nations study projected adaptation finance needs for developing countries would start at $28bn annually by 2030.

The costs for this cannot be borne by the public sector alone. There is a key role for the private sector, including the financial industry, to play in the struggle for a greener future. In fact, the private sector is the largest source of climate finance, devoting $243bn in 2014 to climate-related investments, according to the Climate Policy Initiative’s Global Landscape of Climate Finance 2015.One huge opportunity lies in green finance. Currently, green finance remains marginal to overall financial flows and inadequate for global needs.

There have been some encouraging developments over the past few years, including significant advances in mobilizing and mainstreaming green finance within financial institutions and financial markets. New and innovative financial products and services such as green bonds and green guarantees have been developed.

The green bonds market almost quadrupled between 2013 and 2015, reaching $42.4bn in 2015. The Paris climate accord re-confirmed the need to mobilize significant funding from public and private sources to finance the investment requirements outlined in the agreement. In this context, green bonds have already proven to be an important financial instrument capable of raising billions in climate finance.

Growing numbers of investors, banks, and insurers have also committed to integrating environmental and sustainable development issues into their decisions. Countries, including many G20 members, are mainstreaming sustainable development considerations into their financial market development efforts by including climate and broader environmental factors.

This includes encouraging voluntary action by financial institutions, such as the adoption of environmental management standards. Countries are also adopting policies and regulations aimed at improving information flows and capabilities through codes of conduct and disclosure requirements.

But despite this progress, green financing hasn’t reached its full potential. There is an estimated $1tn needed annually for climate-aligned investments, of which about $450bn is needed for non-OECD countries. The Climate Bond Initiative estimates that labelled green bonds issued globally in 2015 represented less than 1 per cent of total US dollar bond issuance and less than 0.2 per cent of debt securities issued globally.

The potential for scaling up the green bond market is tremendous. For green financing to realize its full potential, however, the public and private sectors need to work together. Removing fossil fuel subsidies, introducing a meaningful price for carbon and effective environmental regulations are critical, while public investment also has an important role to play.

There are a number of ways to help mobilize private capital for green investments. These include helping to enhance information flows, improving environmental risk management practices in the financial sector, eliminating market obstacles, and promoting market innovations. Providing proper incentives and ensuring policy coherence between financial and wider sustainable development policies are also vital to help the sector grow.

Responding to climate change is not only the right thing to do — it also makes good business sense.

Source: medium.com

How is Climate Change Impacting the Water Cycle?

26.07.2016

Climate change increases our risk of both heavy rains and extreme droughts. But why – and how – is that? Aren’t the two contradictory?

Science has shown that climate change touches every corner of our planet’s ecosystem, and the water cycle is no exception. Because the processes involved are highly dependent on temperature, changes in one have consequences on the other. Specifically, as global temperatures have steadily increased at their fastest rates in millions of years, it’s directly affected things like water vapor concentrations, clouds, precipitation patterns, and stream flow patterns, which are all related to the water cycle.

So how does climate change impact the water cycle? We’ve created an infographic that illustrates what’s going on, but we’ll describe it here too. Put simply, water evaporates from the land and sea, which eventually returns to Earth as rain and snow. Climate change intensifies this cycle because as air temperatures increase, more water evaporates into the air. Warmer air can hold more water vapor, which can lead to more intense rainstorms, causing major problems like extreme flooding in coastal communities around the world.

But it doesn’t end there. At the same time that some areas are experiencing stronger storms, others are experiencing more dry air and even drought. Like we mentioned above, as temperatures rise, evaporation increases and soils dry out. Then when rain does come, much of the water runs off the hard ground into rivers and streams, and the soil remains dry. The result? Still more evaporation from the soil and an increased risk of drought.

Source: climaterealityproject.org

Climate Change: Cities are Key to Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions

25.07.2016

The heat that saw forest fires sweep through Uttarakhand and damage the already fragile ecosystem of the Himalayas… the heat spikes that caused deaths in Rajasthan and Bihar… the drought that put severe stress on underground water supplies.

All this, no doubt, caused some people to seriously think about climate change.

Whether or not the record temperatures are directly linked with greenhouse gas emissions, most scientists agree that climate change will make extreme weather more likely. Climate change was a crucial topic at the recent World Cities Summit in Singapore. It is one of the world’s biggest challenges. On one hand, population growth and rising standards of living are generating a bigger demand for energy, on the other there is a need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And cities are at the heart of the solution.

The global population is growing—from over 7 billion today, it will reach an estimated 10 billion by the end of the century. With this, the growth of cities will accelerate. Over half of the global population already lives in cities. By 2050, the proportion will be around three-quarters, with half of this growth happening in Asia alone.

Also, cities consume two-thirds of the energy the world produces; by 2040, they would use almost 80%. Even with heroic efficiency efforts, the amount of energy the world is consuming by the end of the century is likely to double compared to today.

One of the major challenges we face is how to halt the accumulation of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide in the atmosphere?

The Shell Scenarios team—which has been developing possible visions of the future since the 1970s, helping generations of Shell leaders explore ways forward and make better decisions—models possible futures and has just published its latest supplement, A Better Life with a Healthy Planet: Pathways to Net Zero Emissions.

In it, we can see a possible path—challenging though it may be—to a world where emissions of carbon dioxide are at net zero levels. That means the emissions that remain are offset, or captured and stored below ground. This is not a target for Shell; it is something the world must achieve.

Cities, and how we plan them, will be central to achieving this. They have a huge opportunity to become more energy-efficient: through building standards; by using waste heat from power generation to warm homes; by encouraging high-density living to reduce travel and encourage smaller electric or hydrogen-powered cars; by building high-capacity public transport systems.

The evolving energy mix will be vital too. Natural gas, for example, produces half the carbon dioxide and one-tenth of the air pollution as compared to coal when burnt for power. Gas power stations also partner well with renewables, providing reliable electricity when there is no sun or wind. Here, adding carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to power stations and industrial complexes will be critical to reduce emissions enough to reach net zero.

Renewables will, of course, continue to grow rapidly as part of the mix, but mainly produce electricity.

Today, electricity accounts for less than one-fifth of the total energy used in the world. For renewables to have a major impact, our scenario shows the share of electricity in the energy mix will need to grow to at least 50%.

This means people must meet the costs of, for example, electric or hydrogen-electric cars. Households and businesses not supplied with waste heat must be warmed with electricity. Food processing and light manufacturing must also go electric.

However, even with all these changes, the greenhouse gas emissions will continue to enter the atmosphere for the foreseeable future.

The production of chemicals used in so many of the things we take for granted will continue to rely on oil and gas. Where very high temperatures or dense energy storage are required—such as in the manufacturing of iron, steel and cement, or in heavy freight and air transport—we will almost certainly see continued use of hydrocarbon fuels.

There will also be regions that switch to low-carbon energy at different speeds, for political, economic or demographic reasons.

Continuing emissions will have to be offset. We can plant forests and use agricultural practices that raise the carbon content of the soil, such as ploughing partly burned biomass into fields. We can also burn biomass for power, coupled with CCS. Plants can suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Using CCS will make sure it never goes back to the atmosphere.

Whether in cities or beyond, none of this will be easy. However, all of it is possible. Only if the world starts working towards it right now.

Source: financialexpress.com

Leonardo Dicaprio Foundation Makes Historic Grant Announcement

25.07.2016

LDF announces its largest-ever portfolio of environmental grants, increasing the organization’s total direct financial giving to over $59 million since 1998. Additionally, after a period of increased grantmaking and a goal of expanding its global impact, the foundation warmly welcomes veteran environmental leader Terry Tamminen as CEO.

$15.6 million in grants have been awarded for wildlife and habitat conservation, to aide in the defense of indigenous rights, and to support innovative grass roots efforts aimed at combating climate change and solving complex environmental issues. These grants support the work of LDF partners, which range from major environmental conservation organizations to local partners who are fighting to protect and defend vital ecosystems and species that are gravely impacted by the global environmental crisis caused by climate change.

Grants were awarded in 5 key program areas — Wildlife & Habitat Protection, Oceans Conservation, Indigenous Rights, Innovative Solutions, and Climate Change. Below is a summary of this round of grants:

Wildlife/Habitat Protection Portfolio: $7,631,508
LDF is protecting endangered wildlife by enabling cutting-edge, results-driven conservation and restoration projects in the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems. Only 12% of the world’s forests and natural wildlands are protected. As global demand increases for timber, fossil fuels, minerals, and agricultural products like palm oil, rubber and soy, corporations are encroaching deeper into the world’s last wild places. The foundation’s grant making strategy aims to improve the future for vulnerable wildlife on land by protecting and restoring natural habitats, ending poaching in critical regions, and reintroducing native species back into the wild. At the same time, the foundation’s partners on the ground work with local governments and communities to build successful, long-term solutions that benefit all stakeholders. Grantees include the Elephant Crisis Fund (Wildlife Conservation Network and Save the Elephants), Lion Recovery Fund (Wildlife Conservation Network), Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary (George Adamson African Wildlife Preservation Trust), Maasai Wilderness Conservation Fund, Turtle Conservancy, Naturalia, California Mountain Lion Conservation (National Park Service), World Wildlife Fund, Pacific Wolf Coalition, Defenders of Wildlife and International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Oceans Portfolio: $2,525,000
LDF is a leader in marine conservation, working to improve ocean health and protect key ocean ecosystems and marine wildlife by supporting innovative projects in underserved areas. Oceans provide half of the world’s oxygen supply, regulate the global climate system and directly support the life of nearly 50% of all living species. Yet, only 2% of the oceans are formally protected. LDF’s partnerships aim to safeguard endangered ocean habitats and species, constrain overfishing, and establish and expand marine protected areas. Grantees include Oceans 5 and the Global Partnerships for Sharks Fund.

Indigenous Rights Portfolio: $2,100,000 million
Less than one percent of philanthropic giving goes to indigenous people and issues, and only a small fraction of that money is granted to indigenous-led organizations or initiatives directly. Yet, according to the IUCN, 80% of the world’s remaining biological diversity is found on indigenous lands and traditional territories; 90% of the world’s language and cultural diversity. Even without consideration of vital justice, human rights, and equity issues, arguably one of the most important strategies to protect wild species and places, is to partner with the people who call those places home. Investment in the emergence of an effective, empowered, and indigenous-led conservation movement is essential to protecting the Earth. Grantees include Utah Dine Bikeyah, RAVEN, United Tribes of Bristol Bay, Wishtoyo Foundation and Amazon Watch.

Innovative Solutions Portfolio: $2,085,000
Portfolio Objectives: LDF’s Innovative Solutions portfolio is designed to support innovation at the grassroots level that can be replicated and amplified to bring about new pathways for change. The work in this context includes tools and tactics that are flexible, forward thinking and creative. The range of tools includes new ways to use the legal framework to empower communities, sustainable design, technology driven solutions and empowering citizens to become active through bold media and education initiatives. Grantees include Digital Democracy, Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, Mongabay, Waterkeeper Alliance, Water Defense, Bioneers, Biomimicry Institute, Earth Echo International and People’s Grocery.

Climate Change Portfolio: $1,300,000
The outcome of COP21 signals that there is an unprecedented opportunity to invest in climate solutions that will further elevate the urgency of the issue and immediately make an impact. The consensus that was reached at COP21 signaled a greater opportunity to accelerate the deployment of strategies and solutions in order to make a broader impact. Investing in a diverse combination of powerful tools can help to increase our efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions and expedite the transition to a clean, green economy. These tools include innovative use of the legal system, media, and technology. Grantees include Our Children’s Trust, Desmog Blog, Empowered By Light, TreePeople and Native Renewables.

Source: leonardodicaprio.org

Groupe Renault Announces Carsharing Pilots with New Renault Mobility Services

22.07.2016

Groupe Renault today announced Renault MOBILITY, which has been in its pilot phase since June 2016 at the La Défense site (France), in partnership with the Schumacher group Renault Bellini dealership. With this service, Renault will offer the public and companies its vehicles under a car sharing scheme, with both electric and combustion engine vehicles (ZOE, Captur, Clio). Renault brand aims to develop its solutions in urban and rural areas through its network of partners, to offer a truly local service.

“With Renault MOBILITY, Renault offers a Renault brand vehicle or other, made easily accessible and available at any time. The aim is to meet all travel needs, from individuals to whole fleets, with flexible and adaptable solutions at the best price,” said Christophe Chevreton, Renault France director of the new mobility project.

In addition to individual use, a company’s employee may then use a Renault brand vehicle or other, under the carsharing scheme both for his business and private travel. The cost will be borne by the company for all business use and billed to the employee for his private use. This service has been in place at Plessis-Robinson (France) since the end of 2015.

A new player in the carsharing market in France, Renault MOBILITY uses the technological solutions provided by RCI Mobility, a subsidiary of RCI Bank and Services. The system will be launched officially for the Paris Motor Show, which will take place in October.

Source: media.renault.com

To Fight Climate Change, We Need to ‘Uberize’ the Energy Industry

22.07.2016

Organizing capital, in isolation, isn’t enough to get hundreds of Elon Musks dedicating themselves to building companies that develop critical new wind, solar, nuclear and battery technology.

In June, Hemant Taneja attended a breakfast organized by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Bill Gates, with top business and policy leaders from around the world. The investors in the meeting were dedicated to increasing funding of early-stage energy companies. Of course, that’s a much-needed step. As the data below shows, exponential decrease in solar costs has led to exponential increase in solar capacity, despite limited technology investment. This has been principally driven by consistent, long-term policy that drove deployment at scale.

Uber and Tesla show that when companies create amazing consumer experiences, large, fragmented markets can organize fast around a new solution. Customer adoption of Uber, the enthusiasm for Tesla electric cars, and advances in self-driving vehicles have brought the transportation sector to a point of no return. The days of internal combustion engine and gasoline are numbered. Just think about that: in less than a decade, cars running on electric power will be a utility that we can access on demand. Far fewer of us will own cars. The most in-demand new cars will be electric. That is an amazing step forward towards reducing CO2 in the atmosphere.

The swift change to electric-powered transportation makes it all the more important to transform the 21st-century electricity system. An effective way to do that will be to employ the lessons from Uber and Tesla and let entrepreneurs lead the established companies.

How? A crucial early step will be to align utilities with entrepreneurs instead of against them. Let’s create regulatory and business models that give utilities a path to evolve their role from operating mammoth power plants and transmission grids to operating software-powered platforms that interconnect the small-scale power solutions in homes and small businesses. This then becomes a platform that supports entrepreneurial solutions, much like the internet or the iPhone and app store. Utilities can prosper, providing reliability and resiliency in the power network, while faster-moving entrepreneurs create ever more effective ways to generate, move, trade, market, share and store power.

Entrepreneurs will come in hoards to tackle this great mission if they can take advantage of the economies of unscale that have propelled other sectors. Airbnb is an unscaled response to hotels, re-assembling demand for places to stay in a whole new way. The Honest Company took advantage of unscaling to profitably compete against Procter & Gamble in consumer brands.

What can entrepreneurs do in the field of energy? One important role: solve the problem of power storage. A major barrier to unscaling electricity is that it can’t be stored effectively. Tesla and a number of global companies are racing to build affordable battery technology for homes and businesses. Once energy can be stored cost effectively in small quantities, much less of it needs to be produced centrally and distributed on power grids.

Put all of this together, and this is systems thinking about the problem. It follows market principles, centering solutions around what customers actually want. We need to bring to the power industry the same mindset we apply to internet-based “utilities” like Facebook and Google. After all, how are they any less important to life today than energy?

If we do this right, no utility will ever again build a large-scale carbon-based power plant. Such a thing won’t be necessary if every home is generating electricity on its roof and the grid works more like the internet, moving power to where it’s needed and storing excess in new-age batteries for reliable access. Just as anyone can now be a hotelier because of Airbnb, in a decade anyone will be able to be a power company once these new technologies are in place. In an unscaled era, the mini power plant in a home or small business will be better, cheaper, cleaner and more resilient than the next massive power plant.

Customers will have choices, and if new energy technologies are better, cheaper and cleaner than old ones, that’s what customers will choose.

Source: weforum.org

Small Increase in Energy Investment Could Cut Premature Deaths from Air Pollution in Half by 2040

22.07.2016

Each year an estimated 6.5 million deaths are linked to air pollution with the number set to increase significantly in coming decades unless the energy sector takes greater action to curb emissions. Air pollution is a problem felt around the world, particularly the poorest in society. No country is immune as a staggering 80% of the population living in cities that monitor pollution levels are breathing air that fails to meet the air quality standards set by the World Health Organization. Premature deaths from outdoor air pollution are projected to rise from 3 million today to 4.5 million by 2040, concentrated mainly in developing Asia. Meanwhile, premature deaths from household air pollution will decline from 3.5 million to 3 million over the same period, although they continue to be heavily linked to poverty and an inability to access modern energy.

In its first ever in-depth analysis of air quality, the IEA’s World Energy Outlook (WEO) special report released today highlights the links between energy, air pollution and health. It identifies contributions the energy sector can make to curb poor air quality, the fourth-largest threat to human health, after high blood pressure, poor diets, and smoking.

Energy production and use – mostly from unregulated, poorly regulated or inefficient fuel combustion – are the most important man-made sources of key air pollutant emissions: 85% of particulate matter and almost all of the sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides. Millions of tonnes of these pollutants are released into the atmosphere each year, from factories, power plants, cars, trucks, as well as the 2.7 billion people still relying on polluting stoves and fuels for cooking (mainly wood, charcoal and other biomass).

The air quality outlook is not set in stone, but rather it is a policy choice. The report presents strategies tailored to various country circumstances to deliver cleaner air for all. A Clean Air Scenario demonstrates how energy policy choices backed by just a 7% increase in total energy investment through 2040 produce a sharp improvement in health. Under such a scenario, premature deaths from outdoor air pollution would decline by 1.7 million in 2040 compared with our main scenario, and those from household pollution would fall by 1.6 million annually.

The IEA strategy for cleaner air requires the implementation of a number of proven policies. Actions to deliver access to clean cooking facilities to an additional 1.8 billion people by 2040 are essential to reducing household emissions in developing countries, while emissions controls and fuel switching are crucial in the power sector, as is increasing energy efficiency in industry and emissions standards that are strictly enforced for road transport. Overall, the extra impetus to the energy transition means that global energy demand is 13% lower in 2040 than otherwise expected and, of the energy that is combusted, three-quarters is subject to advanced pollution controls, compared with only around 45% today.

Aligned with its energy policy strategy for cleaner air, the WEO special report highlights three key areas for government action:
1. Setting an ambitious long-term air quality goal, to which all stakeholders can subscribe and against which the efficacy of the various pollution mitigation options can be assessed.
2. Putting in place a package of clean air policies for the energy sector to achieve the long-term goal, drawing on a cost-effective mix of direct emissions controls, regulation and other measures, giving due weight to the co-benefits for other energy policy objectives.
3. Ensuring effective monitoring, enforcement, evaluation and communication: keeping a strategy on course requires reliable data, a continuous focus on compliance and on policy improvement, and timely and transparent public information.

Source: iea.org

These Are the Cities where the Fewest People Drive to Work

21.07.2016

Nearly 90% of Hong Kong’s residents commute without using a car, while more than 80% of Parisians travel to work on foot, by bike or using public transport, according to research outlined in JLL’s Benchmarking the Future of World Cities report.

But rapid urbanisation is putting significant strain on infrastructure – affecting both public transport and private car users.

To address the problem, cities – and innovators – are building effective and forward-facing public transport systems. For example, Shanghai has built 21 subway lines, London opened its East-West and North-South cycle ‘superhighways’, and Elon Musk has pioneered a ground-breaking Hyperloop.

Paris, ranked second, has a consistently highly ranked transport system, while Shanghai, in third, already has an extensive subway system, with further expansion planned by 2030.

Seven of the top 10 cities on the list are Western European. The JLL report highlights the strength of public transport systems in not only these major European cities, but also medium-sized ones. “Their size and relative compactness makes systems manageable, affordable and comfortable,” write the report’s authors.

Environmental concerns, including both short-term smog and pollution, and the longer-term contribution of car emissions to climate change, are driving change.

Oslo announced plans last year to ban all vehicles from its center within the next few years. Meanwhile, Paris has already held car-free days, with further initiatives announced this year. Designated routes will be car-free on Sundays and public holidays, while other routes will see cars banned entirely.

By 2020, only cars made in or before 2011 will be allowed in the city.

But ending our love affair with cars won’t be easy. An Australian study showed that “commuters are unlikely to sacrifice the comfort of the private car for a minor time saving”. To encourage more people to use public transport, we’ll need to break this emotional attachment to the car, argues the author. At the same time, breakthroughs in electric car technology also offer hope for cleaner commutes.

Source: weforum.org

We Are Developing on the Basis of Maximum Optimization of our Processes

21.07.2016

The basis of socially responsible functioning of each company is the fact that it becomes aware of the importance and necessity of its own impact on improving general social conditions and the environment in which it operates. This is the reason why the energy efficiency has become a permanent commitment and strategic scheme of the Atlantic Group to reduce the impact on the environment through the rationalization of energy and water consumption, decreasing of waste and increasing of waste separation, generally in all our processes.

Special projection was done in order to improve energy efficiency of the companies in Serbia and it was financed with the help of EBRD. This project was a part of a broader strategy to improve the system of all Atlantic Group’s production processes and also to support the regional activities with more rational usage of resources and energy, cost reduction, and environmental protection. In addition to savings related to efficiency, it is expected that the planned investments in operating companies in Serbia will additionally reduce the CO2 emission for 600 tonnes per year. Savings in the use of gas and electricity, as well as water consumption in production processes are enabled by investing in Atlantic Group’s new equipment in Serbia.

In particular, for plants in Serbia we have collectively reduced the energy consumption, from expended 75,539 MWh in 2012 to 53,140 MWh in 2014, which represent significant savings of resources and they go along with our general strategic setting to develop on the basis of maximal optimization of our processes. Waste management and pollution prevention remains our permanent priority, and that is the reason why the amount of sorting and separation of waste was increased in the whole Atlantic system in 2014. The amount of recycled waste is increased for 8 percent compared to the previous year. We already recycle almost 50% of waste in Štark and Grand on an annual basis and there is a tendency that this percentage will continue to grow. Other important environmental activities are carried out simultaneously in four key areas: integration of ecological perspective in all business areas and functions, integration of environmental values in exiting projects, a range of activities for raising of the ecological values of employees, and also the second year in a row, we report on sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility which are in accordance with GRI principles (Global Reporting Initiative).

Montreal Protocol Negotiations to Phase-Down Climate Warming Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) Enter Crunch Time

21.07.2016

EU Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Cañete will be in Vienna on 21-22 July to take part in negotiations on amending the Montreal Protocol to achieve a global reduction in the use of climate warming hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs ). An HFC phase-down would be a concrete step towards implementing the Paris Agreement on climate change.

In 2015 in Dubai all Parties to the Montreal Protocol agreed to work towards an HFC amendment in 2016. The outcome of the Vienna negotiations will be decisive for the prospects of achieving this.

On 21 July, in the margins of the negotiations , the Commissioner will take part in the High-Level Assembly held by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC). The aim is to secure an ambitious HFC amendment to the Montreal Protocol for the meeting of the parties in Kigali, Rwanda, in October.

On 22 July the Commissioner will participate in a Ministerial Roundtable Discussion at the opening of the Third Extraordinary Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol. He will also meet with members of the High Ambition Coalition, the alliance of developed and developing countries that helped shape the successful outcome in Paris. In the margins the Commissioner will meet with US Secretary of State John Kerry, and Catherine McKenna, Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change.

HFCs are part of the family of fluorinated gases that have replaced certain ozone depleting substances used in refrigeration and air-conditioning systems. This follows the successful efforts of the Montreal Protocol – the international agreement designed to reduce the production and consumption of gases damaging the Earth’s ozone layer. While HFCs do not damage the ozone layer, they are potent greenhouse gases, with a global warming effect up to 15 000 times greater than carbon dioxide (CO₂), and their emissions are rising strongly.

Photo: dreamstime.com

Source: ec.europa.eu

Revealed: Vatican Bank Officials Tied to Fossil Fuels

21.07.2016

Two Vatican Bank board members have financial links to the fossil fuels industry, with one reported to have donated to a leading climate sceptic organisation, according to an Energydesk investigation.

The news comes with the trouble-hit institution still reeling after two board members unexpectedly resigned in May, citing concerns over the way the Bank was being run.

Now with Pope Francis himself having spoken out against the fossil fuel industry, our investigation has found that two members of the bank’s board have senior roles in companies which either operate in the energy sector or have millions of pounds invested in it, including in oil giants Shell and Exxon.

Vatican Bank board member Sir Michael Hintze is the chief executive of Cayman Island-based private hedge fund CQS Cayman which holds $8.3m worth of stocks in energy companies, including $1.7million in fracking giant Devon Energy and Anadarko Petroleum, according to analysis byBloomberg.

Hintze was also chief executive and portfolio manager of CQS Rig Finance before it was liquidated in 2014. Launched by CQS Cayman, CQS Rig Finance constructed and maintained oil and gas rigs, as well as other equipment used by the oil and gas industry.

The Australian-born hedge fund manager is also a trustee of the right-wing thinktank the Institute of Economic Affairs, which has a history of backing climate sceptic research and Hintz is reportedly a major financial backer of Nigel Lawson’s controversial climate sceptic pressure group the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF).

GWPF heavily criticised the Pope’s climate encyclical when it was published last year.

The group wrote in a press release: “the Vatican is being led astray by its advisors by statements on climate change that are scientifically lacking and ethically dubious.”

Board president Jean-Baptiste Douville de Franssu advises two funds which together hold shares worth hundreds of millions of dollars in oil and gas companies.

One fund, Carmignac Gestion, holds stocks worth $675.2m in American company Anadarko Petroleum. The firm was forced to pay $5.1billion to settle a case around environmental damage caused by one its subsidiaries in 2014. Carmignac Gestion also holds stocks in Shell and Exxon.

German banker Clemens Boersig, who quit his post at the bank in May, received $218,000 for his role on the board of gas company Linde AG last year and remains on the company’s supervisory board.

The firm, which specialises in industrial chemicals, healthcare and engineering is involved in coal gasification projects in India and has recently shown an interest in the burgeoning Iranian petrochemicals industry, attending an event in Tehran before Christmas. Linde is not solely interested in fossil fuels and backs “hydrogen economy”, a possible replacement for oil.

Douville de Franssu, Hintze and Boersig were all appointed to the bank’s Board of Superintendence, which directs its policies and investment strategy, in July 2014 as part of an effort to reform the institution.

Mauricio Larraín, former US ambassador to Vatican City Mary Ann Glendon and Alfred Xuereb, the non-voting secretary, the church’s representative on the board were appointed to the bank’s board at the same time; as was Carlo Salvatori who quit his post, along with Boersig, in May.

Vatican Bank board members enjoy a five-year mandate, but both Boersig and Salvatori chose to quit their posts early. At the time, Reuters reported that both men were frustrated at the slow pace of change at the institution.

Douville de Franssu sits on the board of three investment companies: La Francaise des Placements SAS, Carmignac Gestion SA and private Belgian firm Petercam SA.

Both La Francaise des Placements SAS and Carmignac Gestion hold extensive investments in oil and gas companies.

Along with stocks in Anadarko, Luxembourg-based asset management firm Carmignac Gestion holds more than $20.7m in Exxon Mobil and $22.6m in Shell. La Francaise des Placements holds stocks worth $10m in Shell.

In his encyclical last year, Pope Francis stated that destroying the natural world for man’s own benefit was a “sin” against God and future generations.

As a result campaign groups and activists, like 350.org and Naomi Klein, have called for the Vatican Bank to match the Pope’s message on climate change and divest from oil and coal firms.

Vatican Bank spokesperson Max Hohenberg previously told the Guardian: “there really isn’t much to divest”. It is reported that 95% of the bank’s assets are tied up in government bonds. It is estimated that the bank has 6 billion Euros under management.

The Vatican Bank refused to comment on our findings.

Source: energydesk.greenpeace.org

First-Ever Global Standard to Measure Food Loss and Waste

20.07.2016

A partnership of leading international organizations is launching the Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard at the Global Green Growth Forum (3GF) 2016 Summit in Copenhagen. The FLW Standard is the first-ever set of global definitions and reporting requirements for companies, countries and others to consistently and credibly measure, report on and manage food loss and waste. The standard comes as a growing number of governments, companies and other entities are making commitments to reduce food loss and waste.

“The scale of the problem of food loss and waste can be difficult to comprehend. Having this new standard by which to measure food loss and waste will not only help us understand just how much food is not making it to our mouths, but will help set a baseline for action. UNEP welcomes the new FLW Standard and calls on countries and companies to use it to start measuring and reporting food loss and waste, in parallel to taking action to deliver on SDG Target 12.3: Halve food waste by 2030.”said Achim Steiner, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

This standard is a real breakthrough. For the first time, armed with the standard, countries and companies will be able to quantify how much food is lost and wasted, where it occurs, and report on it in a highly credible and consistent manner,” said Andrew Steer, President and CEO, World Resources Institute. “There’s simply no reason that so much food should be lost and wasted. Now, we have a powerful new tool that will help governments and businesses save money, protect resources and ensure more people get the food they need.”

The Food Loss and Waste Protocol is a multi-stakeholder partnership convened by World Resources Institute and initiated at the 3GF 2013 Summit. FLW Protocol partners include: The Consumer Goods Forum, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), EU-funded FUSIONS project, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), WRAP (The Waste and Resources Action Programme) and World Resources Institute.

The FLW Standard will also help reduce food loss and waste within the private sector. In 2015, The Consumer Goods Forum, which represents more than 400 of the world’s largest retailers and manufacturers from 70 countries, adopted a resolution for its members to reduce food waste from their operations by 50 percent by 2025, with baselines and progress to be measured using the FLW Standard. Some leading companies, like Nestlé and Tesco, are already measuring and publicly reporting on their food loss and waste.

Source: unep.org

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