Tiempo Climate Newswatch

In the United States, Democratic senators drafting climate change legislation are proposing that firms such as the Goldman Sachs Group would be barred from a planned carbon market or face trading restrictions. There is concern that speculation may cause excessive price swings in the cap-and-trade system. "The volatility that has existed in the oil market is exactly what we don't want to happen in carbon markets," said Maria Cantwell, a senator from Washington state.

Former Democratic senator Timothy Wirth has criticized the planned legislation as having "gotten out of control." "The Republicans are right - it's a cap-and-tax bill," he said. "That's what it is because they are raising revenue to do all sorts of things, especially to take care of the coal industry, and it makes no sense." He wants the law to focus solely on coal-fired power plants, rather than covering the whole economy. "I'm not critical of cap-and-trade," he continued. "But it has to be used in a targeted and disciplined way."

An El Niño event has begun in the central Pacific and is likely to continue into 2010, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). "Although some of the atmospheric changes associated with this warming have been initially slow to develop into classical El Niño climate patterns, the warming is now well-established enough for scientists to conclude that it is consistent with a basin-wide El Niño event," the agency reported.

"El Niño, which is established right now, is associated with weaker monsoons and also weaker cyclone season in the North Atlantic," commented WMO scientist Rupa Kumar Kolli. "We are already aware that South Asia is under a grip of an intense drought because of the very weak monsoon activity," he continued. Southeast Asian environment ministers met last week to discuss ways of mitigating haze pollution, likely to be aggravated by dry El Niño conditions. "Recognizing the situation will be drier than normal, the ministers now agree that: 'Let us prepare for the worst, do what we can,'" said Yaacob Ibrahim, Singapore environment minister. It was agreed to ban all open burning and to suspend permits for burning in fire-prone areas.

Carbon finance could provide an attractive investment channel for developing countries to use in limiting climate change by slowing forest loss, Andrew Speedy of the Food and Agriculture Organization told a regional forum in Hanoi, Vietnam. "Close to 18 per cent of global emissions stem from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries. That is more than the emission from the entire transport sector worldwide," he said. Hua Duc Nhi, Vietnam's deputy minister of agriculture and rural development, said that it was "the right time for countries to create new solutions and finance mechanisms for sustainable forest management in order to help local communities and the whole world,"

"Climate change is to a very large extent about water change," according to Anders Berntell of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI). "Because it's through water that we will first and foremost experience climate change - too much water, too little water, water in the wrong place at the wrong time." SIWI organizes the annual World Water Week, which was held last week in Stockholm, Sweden. Participants heard calls for governments to take action to adapt to the effects of climate change on water availability.