Environment Report 9 Dec 2002 to 15 Dec 2002

S/N		Title	Synopsis
I. Subject Area: Environment Policy & Regulation
1	EU Agrees To Sulphur-Free Fuel Phase In By 2009		The European Union will ensure sulphur-free petrol and diesel are fully available by 2009 in a move to promote lower traffic emissions and improve fuel efficiency of vehicles.
2	EU Member States, Parliament Agree On Citizens Access To Environmental Data		European Union member states and the European Parliament have reached an agreement on a directive designed to give citizens easier access to environmental information held by public authorities.
3	Ontario Government Offers Tax Incentives To Promote 'Green' Electricity Generation		The Ontario government will provide a combination of tax incentives and tax holidays to promote the development of new electricity generation projects from renewable sources.
II. Subject Area: Environmental Technology
4	Successful CFC Destruction Tests		Eco Logic and Fielding Chemical Technologies Inc. of Ontario, Canada have successfully tested a technology that can be used to destroy Chlorofluorocarbon (CFCs) without the creation of problematic residuals.
5	Turning Food Waste Into Plastic		Researchers at Hawaii Natural Energy Institute in Honolulu have used food scraps to come up with what they claim is an inexpensive way to make biodegradable polymer.
III. Subject Area: General Environmental News
6	Reduced Carbon Dioxide Emission From Cars		European Commission's latest report on reducing carbon dioxide emission from passenger cars shows that EU efforts to work within the car industries have resulted in a 10% reduction in emissions from new cars sold since 1995.
7	Satellite Used To Track Pollution Hotspots		Scientists have combined satellite images from NASA and the European Space Agency to identify pollution hotspots and track pollutants as they move across the globe.
8	California's First Hybrid Fuel Cell Bus Enters Into Service		California's first hybrid fuel cell bus has been launched. The bus draws its electricity from fuel cell and batteries.

9	New Water Index Highlights Haves And Have Not	A new Water Poverty Index developed to highlight the differences between water-rich and water-poor nations will be the cornerstone of the Third Water Forum in Kyoto in March 2003.
10	Air Pollution Damages Across Generations	Researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, reported that air pollution from steel mills causes genetic damage that fathers can pass to the next generation.
11	Tree Farms Won't Halt Climate Change	According to the first results of CarboEurope, a Europe-wide programme that has pioneered research into carbon budget, planting forest to soak up carbon dioxide, a measure allowed under the Kyoto Protocol to address climate change, will actually result in the release of more carbon in the first 10 years.

SUMMARY REPORT

Period covered: 9 Dec 2002 to 15 Dec 2002

Item 1	EU Agrees Sulphur-Free Fuel Phase In By 2009
Summary	The European Union (EU) will ensure sulphur-free petrol and diesel are fully available by 2009 in a move to promote lower traffic emissions and improve fuel efficiency of vehicles. The plan will ensure that cleaner fuels are phased in from the start of 2005 at the latest. Sulphur-free fuels are petrol and diesel with less than 10 parts per million of sulphur. Their availability would allow carmakers to introduce more effective catalytic converters and other devices to reduce emissions of pollution, such as particulate matter and nitrogen oxides. The fuel will also produce less pollution from existing vehicles.
Reference	http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/19041/story.htm

Item 2	EU Member States, Parliament Agree On Citizens Access To Environmental Data
Summary	European Union member states and the European Parliament have reached an agreement on a directive designed to give citizens easier access to environmental information held by public authorities. The new directive is a very important step forward as it gives the public a right-of-access to environmental information that is held or produced by public authorities. It also obliges the authorities to make on their own initiative, such information available on electronic databases that are publicly and easily accessible such as the Internet.
Reference	International Environment Report, Vol 25, No. 24, page 1104

Item 3	Ontario Government Offers Tax Incentives To Promote 'Green' Electricity Generation
Summary	The Ontario government will provide a combination of tax incentives and tax holidays to promote the development of new electricity generation projects from renewable sources. The incentives will encourage the development of both traditional electricity sources and investments in renewable sources. The tax incentives include: comprehensive tax holiday to promote the development of electricity from cleaner, alternative, and renewable energy sources; tax holiday for any newly created assets that generate alternative electricity; 100 percent corporate tax write-off for the cost of assets used to generate electricity from alternative and renewable sources; capital tax exemption for assets used to generate electricity from renewable sources; sales tax rebate for building materials used in the construction of alternative energy facilities; and corporate income tax holiday for revenues derived from the sale of new supply of electricity generated from alternative sources.
Reference	International Environment Report, Vol 25, No. 24, page 1127

Item 4	Successful CFC Destruction Tests
Summary	Eco Logic and Fielding Chemical Technologies Inc. of Ontario, Canada have successfully completed tests that show Eco Logic's Gas-Phase Chemical Reduction (GPCR) technology can be used for the destruction of Chlorofluorocarbon (CFCs) without the creation of problematic residuals. CFC R-12 was selected for the tests because it is a highly stable compound and is believed to be one of the most difficult to destroy. Potential markets for the GPCR technology include refrigerants reclaimed as part of Canada's Refrigerant Management Collection Programme and waste refrigerants from the automotive industry.
Reference	http://www.earthvision.net/ColdFusion/News_Page1.cfm?NewsID=23328

Item 5	Turning Food Waste Into Plastic
Summary	Researchers at the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute in Honolulu have used food scraps to come up with what they claim is an inexpensive way to make biodegradable polymer. The substance could be used in disposable products such as bottles, wrappers and even surgical instruments. Plastic engineers with the British company ICI began making biodegradable polymer about a decade ago from pure sugar and organic acid which required a much more costly process. Food waste can reduce the cost by 40 percent as it contains more organic matter that can be easily digested by microbes for polymer biosynthesis. Besides cost savings, the new method is also more environmentally friendly than conventional plastic manufacturing.
Reference	http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/12/08/plastic.food/index.html

Item 6	Reduced Carbon Dioxide Emission From Cars
Summary	The European Commission's latest report on reducing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission from passenger cars shows that EU efforts to work with the European, Japanese and Korean car industries have resulted in a 10% reduction in emissions from new cars sold since 1995. Although the Commission welcomes the progress made, it warns that further measures are needed to meet car emissions target of 120g CO₂/km by 2010. In order to meet the target, the average annual reduction rate in emissions has to be 2%, about 4g/km per year. The Commission has indicated that they will start discussions with the industry next year on how to further reduce emissions from passenger cars.
Reference	http://www.edie.net/news/Archive/6382.cfm

Item 7	Satellite Used To Track Pollution Hotspots
Summary	Researchers from the US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the NASA Goddard Space Fight Center and the University of Bremen in Germany have used a variety of devices on board NASA satellites and the European Space Agency Sensing Satellite to track three pollutants viz. carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and aerosols, which have been observed moving from China eastward over Japan and the northern Pacific Ocean. Other findings of the research included especially high concentrations of the pollutants over the eastern US, western and southern Europe, and eastern China.
Reference	http://www.edie.net/news/Archive/6405.cfm

Item 8	California's First Fuel Cell Bus Enters Into Service
Summary	California has launched its first 30-foot fuel cell hybrid bus. The hybrid bus is powered by a 75-kilowatt fuel cell installed in the rear of the bus. The fuel cell produces electricity for the electric motor that propels the bus. It also charges the batteries on board the bus. In times of peak demand, the bus draws on both the fuel cell and batteries. The fuel cell combines hydrogen and oxygen to create electricity efficiently without emissions. According to the company supplying the fuel cell, this is considered a significant step in the use of fuel cell technology for bus application and is also another success in California's overall efforts to develop fuel cells for all types of transportation applications, including fleet vehicles and automobiles.
Reference	http://earthvision.net/ColdFusion/News_Page1.cfm?NewsID=23288

Item 9	New Water Index Highlights Haves And Haves Not
Summary	A new Water Poverty Index developed to highlight the differences between water-rich and water-poor nations will be the cornerstone of the Third Water Forum in Kyoto in March 2003. The index was developed by researchers from Britain's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and experts from the World Water Council. Five different criteria are used to construct the index viz. resource, access, use, capacity and environment. The International Water Poverty Index demonstrates that it is not the amount of water resources available that determine poverty levels in a country, but the effectiveness of how those resources are used. Out of a total of 147 countries, the index ranks Finland top followed by Canada.
Reference	http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/12/12122002/reu_49161.asp

Item 10	Air Pollution Damages Across Generations
Summary	Researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, reported that air pollution from steel mills caused genetic damage that fathers could pass to the next generation. It is not clear if the genetic damage could harm anyone's health, but tests on mice showed that those allowed to breathe air near a smoke-belching steel mill had fewer offspring that had more genetic mutations than unexposed mice. The findings suggest that there is an urgent need to investigate the genetic consequences associated with exposure to chemical pollution through the inhalation of urban and industrial air.
Reference	http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/12/12102002/reu_49141.asp

Item 11	Tree Farms Won't Halt Climate Change
Summary	In a bid to halt climate change, the Kyoto Protocol allows countries to meet their emission targets by planting forest to soak up carbon dioxide. However, according to the first results of CarboEurope, a Europe-wide programme that has pioneered research into the carbon budget, these "Kyoto forests" will actually release more carbon than growing trees absorb in the first 10 years. The researchers found that the problem was the soils. Forest soils and organic matter buried in them typically contain three to four times as much carbon as the vegetation above. When the ground is cleared for forest planting, rotting organic matter in the soil releases a surge of CO₂ into the air. This release will exceed the CO₂ absorbed by growing trees for at least the first 10 years. Only later will the uptake of carbon by the trees begin to offset the losses from soils. It was once assumed that most of the CO₂uptake came from young forests, since old forests were thought to be in equilibrium with the atmosphere - soaking up as much gas as they spew out. The researchers found that old forests actually accumulate more carbon than young plantations. This suggests that conservation of old forests would be a better policy for tackling global warming than planting new ones.
Reference	http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/climate/climate.jsp?id=ns99992958

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