Tiempo Climate Newswatch

Rivers such as the Nile, Indus and Mekong that have inspired religions and civilizations are amongst the ten most threatened on the planet, according to a new report from WWF. "In the last 50 years we have altered ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any other period in history," according to the report. "Physical alteration, habitat loss and degradation, water extraction, over-exploitation, pollution, and the introduction of invasive species threaten the planet’s freshwater ecosystems."

As many rivers face multiple threats - over-extraction, climate change, development of infrastructure, such as dams, invasive species and over-fishing - the report advises that governments must develop holistic policies in response. "As governments become concerned about climate change reducing water run-off, they build more dams to store more water, which then results in more water being extracted from the rivers and so builds up more ecological problems," warns Jamie Pittock from the WWF Global Freshwater Programme. "The problem is totally solvable," says Tom Le Quesne at WWF. "There's plenty of water in the world. It is a political problem."

Trade in carbon permits doubled to more than US$26 billion in 2006, according to Point Carbon. "You're helping... serve our global civilization so well," former United States vice-president Al Gore told delegates at Carbon Market Insights 2007, held in Copenhagen, Denmark earlier in March. Italy will open an emissions trading exchange in April and Canada will announce plans for regulating emissions this month. Meanwhile, full operation of the European trading scheme is being delayed as countries wait for approval to trade from the United Nations (UN). Software links between the European and UN systems also need to be put in place.

The European Union plan to cut emissions by 20 per cent by the year 2020 has strengthened confidence in the future of carbon markets and will increase financial assistance to developing nations. "We’ve calculated that if the European Union does this 20 per cent cut and does about half of it through flexibility mechanisms... that could generate an [annual] carbon finance flow of US$15bn by 2020," said Yvo de Boer, head of the climate treaty secretariat. "That is a potential flow of resources that can also represent an attractive incentive to developing countries to green their economic growth." Gore did caution investors in Copenhagen not to neglect the sustainability goals of flexibility mechanisms such as the Clean Development Mechanism. "I don't want to flag that as a major challenge to the integrity of the system, but it would become one if it were not attended to, and much work is being focused on that," he said.

The Group of Eight Plus Five have reached a consensus that there is an "urgent need to act" on climate change, according to Yvo de Boer, executive director of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The agreement was reached at a meeting of environment ministers, held in Potsdam, Germany.

de Boer said that he was "unexpectedly encouraged by the very constructive outcome." There was, though, dissent at the meeting. The United States opposed plans for a global carbon emissions trading scheme and the recognition of forestation programmes in developing nations as a contribution to the response to global warming. "We find that very regrettable," commented German environment minister Sigmar Gabriel, who hosted the meeting. Reporting on the conference, de Boer noted that issues such as deforestation and the sustainability of biofuels would feature in the next major round of the climate treaty negotiations in Bali, Indonesia, later this year. "What happens if you are cutting down rainforests in order to plant sugar cane or palm oil?," he said. "Aren’t you really doing more harm than good?"