Romania and Bulgaria would be given the most leeway to increase their CO2 output.

The European Commission will propose allowing the poorest new central European member states to increase greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20 percent by 2020 over 2005 levels under a major energy and climate change plan to be unveiled next week, EU sources said.
The sources said the 15 old member states would bear the brunt of cuts required to meet the 27-nation European Union’s goal of an overall reduction of 20 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels, with national targets set according to GDP per capita, Reuters reported.
A draft document from the EU executive says the effort--the Commission has excised the term “burden“--should be shared “based on the principle of solidarity among member states.“
Under the proposals, which could still be changed before the January 23 announcement, the richest old member states will have to cut emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main gas blamed for global warming, by up to 20 percent from 2005 levels.
The sources said Romania and Bulgaria, the poorest newcomers who joined in January 2007, would be given the most leeway to increase their CO2 output since they had the greatest need to catch up in economic development.
Luxembourg and Ireland were among the countries that would be expected to make the deepest cuts.
An EU official said 2005 was set as the reference year because it was the first and only year for which the EU had full data on actual emissions by installations covered by the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS).
Half of the overall cut would come from sectors covered by the trading scheme, including power generation, refineries and heavy industries, while the other half would have to be achieved by a mixture of increased renewable energy use and reduced emissions from buildings and transport.
Under the complex package of proposals on combating climate change, increasing renewable energy usage, reforming the ETS and promoting new green technologies, the sources said the biggest fight was over the obligation to use more renewable sources in power generation.
Renewables include solar, wind, wave and hydro-electric power as well as biomass.

Australia’s Federal Court on Tuesday ordered Japan to stop hunting and killing whales anywhere around its coastline or off Australian Antarctic territory.
The ruling, in a case brought by the Humane Society International, comes with a Japanese whaling fleet sailing in Antarctic waters where they plan to kill around 1,000 whales this season, AFP reported.
Judge James Allsop found that the Japanese whaling company Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd had killed Antarctic minke whales and fin whales in the Australian Whale Sanctuary in contravention of Australian law.
The company effectively represents the Japanese whaling industry and runs the ships currently involved in the hunt.
“The court orders that the respondent be restrained from killing, injuring, taking or interfering with any Antarctic minke whale, fin whale or humpback whale in the Australian Whale Sanctuary,“ Allsop said.
The Australian Whale Sanctuary generally extends to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometer) from the coast, but further in some areas to cover offshore waters and islands, according to the Australian government.
However the court noted that unless the Japanese whalers entered Australian jurisdiction where they could be seized, there was no practical way the order could be enforced.
Japan exploits a loophole in a 1986 international moratorium on commercial whaling to kill whales for what it calls scientific research, while admitting the meat from the hunt ends up on dinner plates.
Australia has led international opposition to the annual hunt in Antarctic waters, but an expert in international law told AFP the effect of the court’s ruling would be mainly symbolic.
“The Australian Whale Sanctuary is a creature of Australian law,“ said Don Rothwell, professor of international law at the Australian National University.
“It’s a designated zone that exists around the Australian continent, the adjoining offshore islands and also the Australian Antarctic Territory. It’s not a zone which is recongised by the international law.“
If the Australian government tried to enforce the court’s order, it would probably spark a major diplomatic row, Rothwell said.
Environmental groups Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd said this week their ships had located the Japanese whalers in Antarctic waters and had “chased“ them from the hunting zone.

Philippine Supreme Court will designate special courts to speed up a backlog of environmental cases and ensure polluters are penalized for breaking the law, a spokesman confirmed.
Illegal mining, logging and over fishing are serious problems in the Philippines but few violators are punished either because they pay off officials or because overworked judges tend to prioritize civil and criminal cases over environmental disputes, Reuters reported.
“We want to come out with decisions so that we can set an example that environmental cases are really being prioritized and so we can enforce these environmental laws properly,“ said Jose Midas Marquez, the chief justice’s head of staff.
He added, “It seems that many of the violators don’t really care because no one gets penalized. If we have cases clearly penalizing violators this might serve as a wake-up call.“
Water pollution, poor sanitation and air pollution cost the Philippines around 14 billion pesos ($350 million) a year, according to a recent study by the World Bank.
Environmental courts and tribunals have been established across the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia, Bangladesh, New Zealand, Thailand, Pakistan and India.
But they do little good if laws are not enforced, experts say.
India has more than 200 environmental laws on the books, “but compliance is not there,“ environmental lawyer M.C. Mehta said.
In Thailand, more than 1,000 environmental cases have been brought to “green“ benches since they were set up in 2004, but most of those cases are still winding through the system.
In Manila, Marquez said about 150 courts would be designated as environmental courts within the next two weeks and guidelines for hearing the cases would then be issued.
Experts from the Asia-Pacific region began a three-day conference in Bangkok on Monday aimed at improving enforcement of environment laws.
Some 80 judges, prosecutors and legal experts from 40 Asia-Pacific nations attended at the event.

The number of vultures in Nepal to have dropped to about 500 nesting pairs from 50,000 in 1990.

They can be found at 6,000 meters on snowbound passes over the Himalayas and in the depths of the Congolese rainforest.
They drift around the Southern ocean and are piled high on the beaches of Nova Zemlaya to the north of Russia after being swept thousands of miles on the Gulf stream.
But the end may now be in sight for the flimsiest of plastic bags after China pledged to ban them from June.
China’s this week decision means it has joined an accelerating number of countries, states and cities taking action against the plastic litter that has accompanied rapid urban growth and increasing wealth, the Guardian reported.
The bags have contributed to floods and health problems in many countries, blocking drains and providing perfect pools of warm water for mosquitoes and other insects to breed rapidly.
This week, shopkeepers in Beijing, who hand out 2bn bags a year, were sanguine about the prospect of no longer wrapping everything in plastic so thin that it can only be used once, and of paying a small tax on all other plastic bags.
“No one has said anything to us about it yet, but I guess they will in June when the rule starts.“
“I think it will be inconvenient but we’ll just charge for them. I’m sure we’ll get used to it,“ said Wang Jing, a sales assistant at a 24-hour supermarket.
A cashier at a large supermarket said that the ban might be a good thing. “We are probably giving out about 10,000 plastic bags a day. Customers often complain that they are poor quality; we have to use two bags most of the time.“
He added, “No one minds about this because the bags are so cheap. But I think customers might be willing to pay a bit more for better quality.“
China took a lead from Hong Kong, which used to produce 8bn bags a year but after numerous “no plastic“ days and voluntary bans introduced a bill to impose a levy on plastic bags.
It emerged this week that Chinese officials had also consulted Bangladesh, the first large country to ban bags, in 2002, after they were identified as a leading cause of severe flooding.
At least 40 countries, states and major cities have imposed, or are considering, bans.
According to the UN environment program based in Nairobi, the plastic problem is now “on the agenda of almost every African country“.

At least 40 countries, states and major cities have imposed, or are considering, bans on plastic bags.

A surge in demand for exotic freshwater turtles and tortoises in Southeast Asia is fuelling rampant illegal trade in the animals in Indonesia, wildlife experts warned.
Traffic Southeast Asia said its investigators discovered that 48 species of freshwater turtles and tortoises were sold in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta and the vast majority were illegally obtained, AFP reported.
Traffic’s senior program officer Chris R. Shepherd urged Indonesia to step up enforcement to stop the illegal trade and nab the criminals.
“Traffic encourages the government of Indonesia to ensure combating wildlife crime is given high priority“, Shepherd said.
Traffic is based in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

The number of vultures in Nepal to have dropped to about 500 nesting pairs from 50,000 in 1990.

Nepal will open its first vulture breeding center to try to save the birds from extinction, a leading conservation group said.
Of the eight species of vultures found in Nepal, the white-rumped and slender-billed vultures are categorized as critically endangered.
The numbers of both species have plunged in Nepal and India and scientists say the decline is largely due to farmers dosing their cattle with diclofenac, a drug used to treat inflammation, poisoning the scavenging birds, Reuters reported.
The plan is to capture at least 10 breeding pairs of vultures for each of the critically endangered species and keep them initially in two aviaries at Kasara in Chitwan National Park, said Dev Ghimire, an official with Bird Conservation Nepal.
The park, located 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Kathmandu, is popular for its rare Asian rhinoceroses.
Conservationists estimate the number of vultures in Nepal to have dropped to about 500 nesting pairs from 50,000 in 1990, primarily from eating dead cattle treated with diclofenac.

Scientists have discovered genetic information that helps explain how monarch butterflies find their way from Canada to winter nesting grounds in the mountains of Mexico.
The study, published online in the PLoS Biology Journal and the Public Library of Science, found that the butterflies’ biological clocks help them use the sun as a compass, said AP.
Dr. Steven Reppert, the University of Massachusetts neurobiologist who led the study’s seven-member research team, said monarch butterflies have unique circadian clocks, which regulate daily activities like sleep and hunger.
The researchers genetically mapped the molecular underpinnings of the butterflies’ circadian clocks and found cryptochrome proteins common in both insects and mammals.
Reppert believes these proteins enable the monarchs to navigate using the sun’s position in the sky.
“A butterfly’s brain is no bigger than the head of a pin, and yet it has this incredible capability. So we really want to understand that,“ Reppert said.
When understood completely, the find might help shed light on the biological clocks of humans, and in turn aid research into everything from sleep disorders to depression.
Lincoln Brower, a monarch expert at the University of Florida and Sweet Briar College in Sweet Briar, Virginia, said the discovery was significant because it shows that “studying the monarch butterfly is producing crucial information about the nature of life“.
The research was funded in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Czech Republic’s Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports.