The city of San Francisco awarded the first contract in its efforts to produce solar power from panels atop municipal buildings. Voters approved two propositions in November 2001 to permit bond issuance to raise funds for renewable energy generation projects.

San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is spearheading the renewable energy efforts by placing solar panels on San Francisco's public buildings. Its first project from the two propositions is the solar power development efforts on the Moscone Center, a prominent convention center.

More than 100 governments meeting in Rome are expected to negotiate more than US$500,000 in aid to developing countries to help them to reduce the use of the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other ozone-depleting substances, an action called for in the Montreal Protocol.

The phase out of CFCs by developing countries is the top priority today for the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer. Scientists believe that only when all countries meet their Montreal Protocol targets, the stratospheric ozone layer will stabilize and then return to full health within 50 years.

Developing nations are slated to reduce their use and manufacture of CFCs by 50% in 2005 and 85% in 2007 under the Protocol. Developed countries have almost completely switched away from using CFCs in 1996.

Japan will stiffen regulations on the highly toxic dioxin in gas discharged from incinerators and empower prefectural governors to order commercial operators of incinerators to observe the new standards, from 1 Dec 2002.

Scientists in Hawaii have developed a biological reactor that converts a slurry of food waste into a biodegradable plastic.

According to the scientists, food waste is mixed with water to create a slurry and stored in a warm, airtight container. Bacteria would then break down the organic molecules in the food waste, releasing acids as by-products. The acidic products are then siphoned off and fed into a sack-like sheath dangling inside a second vessel. The bacteria in the second vessel would then convert the acids into biodegradable polymer. The bioplastic polymer makes up around 70 per cent of the bacterial mass harvested from the process. About 22 to 25 kilograms of polymer can be produced for every 100 kilograms of slurry.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it has awarded $5.6 million to a consortium of universities studying ways to make clean transportation fuels from coal. The award will advance ongoing research on C1 chemistry. C1 chemistry refers to technology that uses synthesis gas produced from coal or natural gas as feedstocks for producing ultra-clean liquid transportation fuels and hydrogen.

Japanese electronics firm Matsushita announced that it has developed a method of recycling the plastic casings for electronic equipment.

The plastic is crushed and then heated to 160 - 200^oC until it becomes soft. This is a relatively low temperature, which means that the physical characteristics of the plastic are not damaged, says Matsushita. A solvent is then added that melts only the flame retardants, which are then separated from the plastic using the company's newly developed kneading technology. The plastics can then be molded into the shape required for the new product.

A joint venture between the Australian National University and Origin Energy has developed a new type of solar cell with the potential to revolutionise the global solar power industry.

A solar panel using Sliver Cell ™, uses just one tenth of the costly silicon in conventional solar panels while matching power, performance and efficiency.

In a collaboratively study of eight European countries, scientists have found that eating fish from mercury contaminated waters may counteract the health benefits of omega3 fatty acids, also present in fish.

By measuring mercury in toenail clippings of heart attack patients and healthy volunteers across Europe, scientists correlated mercury intake with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) body levels. DHA in body fat is a marker of fatty fish intake. Mercury and DHA levels were found to be related, indicating that fish is likely to be the main source of toenail mercury in the populations studied, with mercury levels 15% higher in coronary patients than in the healthy volunteers.

The US EPA has proposed the final 10 air toxics standards as required under the Clean Air Act. Air toxics, also known as hazardous air pollutants are known to cause cancer and other serious health problems in humans. In 1990, Congress required EPA to control emissions of 188 air toxics from more than 100 different types of industries.

The standards being proposed are:

• auto and light duty truck surface coating;
• combustion turbines;
• industrial, commercial and institutional boilers and process heaters;
• iron and steel foundries;
• lime manufacturing;
• metal can surface coating;
• plywood and composite wood products manufacturing;
• primary magnesium refining;
• reciprocating internal combustion engines; and
• taconite iron ore processing.

Researchers at the Scripps Institute of Oceanograpy in San Diego, California, used modeling and satellite imagery to show that solar radiation that would otherwise be reflected back into space was being absorbed by phytoplankton, contributing to global warming.

The Scripps study found that the radiation absorbed by phytoplankton raises global average temperatures by 0.1 to 0.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.06 to 0.33 degrees Celsius) compared with computer models without phytoplankton.

Phytoplankton are microscopic plant-like organisms that free-float on the world's oceans, and are the major source of sustenance for animal life in the seas. They had not previously been associated with climate change.