Tiempo Climate Newswatch

Yvo de Boer is to step down as executive secretary of the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on July 1st 2010 to work in the private sector and academia. "Working with my colleagues at the UNFCCC Secretariat in support of the climate change negotiations has been a tremendous experience," de Boer said. "It was a difficult decision to make, but I believe the time is ripe for me to take on a new challenge, working on climate and sustainability with the private sector and academia," he continued.

"It is quite bad news he is quitting at this point," commented climate change consultant Mark Lynas, "because the world is in desperate need for a reliable pair of hands to get through this dark period where climate change negotiations are under assault from anti-science deniers, by the Climategate furore and by the United States Senate. I think he is very likely to be going because he has had enough. Because the whole process is unraveling at this point." de Boer has led the UNFCCC Secretariat since September 2006.

The European Union (EU) could exceed its target of generating 20 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by the year 2020, the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) estimates. "Europe has witnessed a sea-change since the 2009 Renewable Energy Directive was agreed, as in 2008 many countries were stating that their target would be difficult to meet. Now the majority are forecasting that they will meet or exceed their national target," commented Justin Wilkes from EWEA.

Companies from Morocco, Tunisia, Spain, France and Italy are joining the German founders of the Desertec solar power project. The Desertec Industrial Initiative intends to supply 15 per cent of Europe's power by the middle of the present century. Fields of mirrors will harvest solar energy to boil water, driving turbines to generate power. The electricity that is produced will be distributed across a network covering Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The immediate goals of the project are to set up demonstration projects and to ensure an appropriate legal framework is in place. Price incentives will be needed to justify investment.

Commercially-viable crops of the biofuel jatropha can only be grown on fertile soil, according to a new report from ActionAid, despite claims that jatropha cultivation will not displace food crops. BP has pulled out of a joint venture to establish jatropha plantations. "As other [renewable fuel] technologies came up, we looked again at whether jatropha was going to be the best biofuel source that could be scaled up. There were problems with it. We have decided to look elsewhere," a spokesman said.

"Jatropha is a real gold-rush crop, and the same amount of common sense that applies in a gold rush has been applied to the jatropha rush," commented ActionAid's Meredith Alexander, co-author of the report. "Jatropha was the subject of an explosion of fabulous propaganda. But this was an untried crop at commercial levels and the many thousands of marginal farmers who have gone into production have been experimented on with disastrous results. They are simply not getting the income they were promised and now cannot afford food for their families."