Int'l eco forum opens in SW China

English.news.cn, 2014-07-11,  Editor: Yang Yi

 

Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao (C) poses for a group picture with guests
 attending the opening ceremony of Eco Forum Global Annual Conference Guiyang
 2014 in Guiyang, capital of southwest China's Guizhou Province, July 11, 2014.
Li addressed the opening ceremony Friday. (Xinhua/Ou Dongqu)

GUIYANG, July 11 (Xinhua) -- An international forum on environmental protection opened on Friday in Guiyang, capital of southwest China's Guizhou Province.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in a congratulatory letter to the Eco Forum Global Annual Conference Guiyang 2014 that China, together with other countries and international groups, will strengthen cooperation in environmental protection and work to fulfill international environmental protection conventions.

The theme of the forum this year, "joining hands, leveraging reforms to bring forth a new era of eco-civilization -- government, enterprise and civil society: institutional framework and paths toward green development," reveals the role of China's reform in the green drive as well as the common responsibility borne by the government, enterprises and the public on the matter, Li said in the letter.

Around 1,000 guests, including representatives from 61 countries and regions, have gathered to share opinions and experiences on climate change, clean technology, green production, and legislation on environmental protection before the conference closes on Saturday.

Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao attended the opening ceremony.

The Eco Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders in the shaping of global, regional and industry agendas.

The opening ceremony of the Eco Forum Global Annual Conference Guiyang

 2014 is held in Guiyang International Eco-conference Center in Guiyang, capital of

 southwest China's Guizhou Province, July 11, 2014. The theme of the forum this year

 is "joining hands, leveraging reforms to bring forth a new era of eco-civilization --

government, enterprise and civil society: institutional framework and paths toward

green development." (Xinhua/Ou Dongqu)

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Most ready for 'green sacrifices'

The poll suggests the public are more ready than politicians

BBC News

Most people say they are ready to make personal sacrifices to address climate change, according to a BBC poll of 22,000 people in 21 countries.

Four out of five people say they are prepared to change their lifestyle, even in the US and China, the world's two biggest emitters of carbon dioxide.

Three quarters would back energy taxes if the cash was used to find new sources of energy, or boost efficiency.


Chinese respondents were more positive than any others about energy taxes.

BBC environment reporter Matt McGrath says the poll suggests that in many countries people are more willing than their governments to contemplate serious changes to their lifestyles to combat global warming.

According to the survey, 83% of respondents throughout the world agree that individuals will definitely or probably have to make lifestyle changes to reduce the amount of climate-changing gases they produce.

The poll also suggests that a large majority of people in each individual country surveyed believe that sacrifices will be necessary.

In almost all countries in Europe, and in the US, most people believe the cost of fuels that contribute most to climate change will have to increase.

The only exceptions were Italy and Russia, where significant numbers of people believe that increases in the price of energy will not be necessary.

The pollsters suggest that high energy costs in both countries could have put people off the idea of increasing prices even further.

Attitudes to rising energy costs in Asia and Africa are more varied.

In China and Indonesia, large majorities believe that higher energy costs are necessary, but in South Korea and India majorities in favour of higher prices are much smaller.

And in Nigeria, 52% of the respondents did not believe that higher fuel costs would be necessary to combat global warming.

Green China?

Opinions are divided on proposals to increase taxes on fossil fuels.

Worldwide, only 50% are in favour and 44% are opposed.

The Chinese are the most enthusiastic when it comes to energy taxes: 85% of those polled are in favour, 24 percentage points more than in the next most-supportive countries.

In the rest of the world, only narrow majorities - and sometimes minorities - favour higher energy taxes.

However, when people opposed to energy taxes are asked whether their opinion would change if the revenue from the taxes were used to increase energy efficiency or develop cleaner fuel, large majorities are produced in every country in favour of higher taxes.

And when those opposed to higher taxes are asked whether they would change their minds if other taxes were reduced in order to keep their total tax burden the same, the survey again discovered large majorities in every country in favour of higher green taxes.

"This poll clearly shows that people are much more ready to endure their share of the burden than most politicians grant," said Doug Miller, director of Globescan, the polling company that conducted the survey on behalf of the BBC.

Globescan interviewed 22,182 people in the UK, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, the Philippines, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, and the United States. Interviews were conducted face-to-face or by telephone between 29 May 29 and 26 July 2007.

READ THE FINDINGS

BBC World Service poll results in full [1.40MB]

Eco-friendly lifestyle is the "norm"

Londonstockexchange.com, 2nd November 2007

Feeling guilty about harming the environment is making people live in a more green way, says Defra.

The 2007 Survey of Public Attitudes and Behaviour toward the Environment found that a third of people talk to their friends and family about how they can help the environment.

Nearly nine out of ten people polled said they give unwanted items to charity shops or friends and family and eight out of ten said they try and to reuse paper, jars, envelopes and bottles.

"The most encouraging finding in this survey is the majority of people believing that it's up to individuals to accept responsibility by making lifestyle changes," said Environment Minister Joan Ruddock.

He explained that the choices people make concerning the environment are "vitally important" because 40 per cent of climate change emissions are a result of individual actions.

The Guardian reported that CO2 emissions worldwide rose by over three per cent every year between 2000-04. During the 1990s the average was 1.1 per cent....

Shrink your footprint and save the earth

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post /Jakarta

You can count your own annual carbon emissions and be responsible by offsetting them through small measures that could ease the impacts of climate change -- from changing the light bulbs you use to planting trees in the backyard.

While on a much smaller scale than the large industries that emit tons of greenhouse gasses daily, the personal activities of the some six billion people that live on the earth also contribute to the collection of gasses trapped in the atmosphere, leading to global warming.

Frequent use of private cars, exploiting green areas for construction, regularly eating meat or leaving electrical household equipment on standby affect the climate and have led to prolonged droughts, increased rainfall, a reduction in biodiversity and a rise in climate-related diseases.

The amount of carbon you produce in a year can be determined using a carbon calculator and the result is known as your carbon footprint.

It gives an indication of your impact on the environment through the burning of fossil fuels such as oil and gas, which is measured in tons of carbon dioxide emitted per year.

The www.carboncalculator.com Web site, for instance, assesses how you can offset your carbon emissions. If, say, you cannot give up the car, it will suggest a number of trees to plant or an amount of money to donate to companies developing renewable energy sources.

It examines factors like electricity bills, travel activities, the number of people in the household and types of private vehicle, and then tallies approximately how many tons of carbon you emit per year and offers actions to offset the emissions.

Such Web sites, including others that are more region-based, encourage the public to do their share in easing the impacts on climate change caused by their daily activities, UN Ambassador for the Millennium Development Goals in Asia and the Pacific Erna Witoelar said Tuesday in a discussion to mark World Environment Day.

"I fly a lot and airplanes emit a lot of carbon. Thus I offset this by giving money to an organization of (Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize laureate) Wangari Maathai to help her reforestation programs and others here," she said.

However green activists agreed that energy conservation was the best solution to curbing emissions while at the same time joined forces to push governments to carry out carbon-cutting programs on a far larger scale, such as the use of renewable energy instead of coal-fired generators, as well as reforestation.

Research shows many small actions can save energy. Reducing use of transportation and air conditioning, covering pans to heat the contents, recycling glass bottles and newspaper, buying food with less packaging, hanging washing out to dry rather than tumble drying and fitting energy-efficient light bulbs throughout the house all help.

Indonesia, an archipelagic nation with an agricultural backbone, stands to be affected the worst from climate change as sea level rises will cover parts of it while drought will cause food production problems.

Currently it ranks as the third biggest greenhouse gas emitter, mostly from its unbridled deforestation rate of 2.8 million hectares of land per year.

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A green Jakarta begins at home

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Caring for the environment can mean more than just changes to your lifestyle. It can also change how you raise your children.

Television presenter Charles Bonar Sirait drastically overhauled his family's habits after being 'enlightened' by seeing the impact small family lifestyle changes could make on the environment.

Like many parents, Charles used to keep two decorated, colorful and air-conditioned rooms, one for each of his two children.

Before, he kept the children in separate rooms because he wanted to teach them to be independent by sleeping separately from their parents from a young age.

"I taught my children to sleep in their own rooms since they were one-year-old. I wanted them to be independent," Charles told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

But after Charles was elected an honorary member of the leading environmental group the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) last year he changed his family's lifestyle.

"I began to see what we can contribute from our homes. I tried to apply earth-friendly ideas to any decision I made," said Charles, who also teaches at the Tantowi Yahya Public Speaking School.

His first move was to redesign his main bedroom to allow his four-year-old and six-year-old children to sleep in the same room as him and his wife.

"We can sleep together in the room from Monday to Friday. My children are very happy and more importantly we can turn off the two air conditioners (in their rooms)."

On top of this change, Charles also cut the use of air conditioners during the daytime by opening up more ventilation in the house. He also matched his working schedule with his wife so they could go to work together in the same car.

"By doing all this, we could save at least Rp 1,500,000 (about US$161) a month in energy. It seems simple but it makes a difference for the environment," he said.

Charles is one of many people struggling to reduce their carbon emissions, which are blamed by the vast majority of scientists for global warming.

Global warming may sound like too big an issue to deal with, but individuals can make a difference.

The State Ministry for the Environment says Jakarta produces 60 percent of Indonesia's ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) emissions through its air conditioners and refrigerators, among other appliances.

The Jakarta administration argues it cannot force people to stop using CFCs because of a lack of reasonable alternatives.

However, an alternative is in fact readily available in the form of more ozone-friendly hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which are more expensive than CFCs and widely used in much of the developed world, where CFCs are banned.

The CFCs used in Jakarta are imported from India and China.

A technician at an air conditioning company in Palmerah Barat, Winarly, said small to middle sized shops tended to be driven by the large price difference to opt for the cheaper CFCs.

"The price difference is threefold. We can't afford to buy the eco-friendly products since most customers also don't want to pay more," he said

Winarly said a 13.6 kilogram tank of CFC cost Rp 600,000, while HFC sold for Rp 2,000,000.

As the government began its CFC phaseout, Winarly said CFC suppliers began illegally filling tanks intended for other gases with CFCs.

"To make things worse, most technicians can't determine whether the freon (the broad family of substances to which both CFCs and HFCs belong) is eco-friendly or illegal since there's no equipment available to test it," he said.

He said many dealers preferred to sell CFCs in smaller one-kilogram tanks for Rp 20,000, finding the lower price to be popular with consumers.

"The quality of the freon in the one-kilogram containers is worse than the CFCs in the 13.6 kilogram tanks because it's leftovers from other countries dumped into Indonesia," he said.

Winarly's workshop uses at least four CFC containers per month.

"We release the freon residue (into the air) since the government doesn't provide a place for us to put it," he said.

CFCs have long been pinpointed as the major source of thinning of the earth's ozone layer, which helps to filter ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Intensive exposures to CFC residue also poses health hazards such as skin cancer and cataracts.

Indonesia ratified the Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol on ozone layer protection in 1992 which obliged it to phase out the use of ozone-depleting substances.

The protocol requires Indonesia to stop importing CFCs by December 2007.

Meanwhile, Muhammad Suhud of WWF-Indonesia said many air conditioning and refrigeration technicians did not understand how to prevent the escape of CFC residue.

"The solution lies on the hands of the government. They must cut the illegal import of CFCs into the country," he said.

'I separate organic from non-organic waste'

The Jakarta Post

Earth Day, which has been celebrated on April 22 since 1970, promotes awareness concerning environmental issues. The Jakarta Post asked residents about ways in which they incorporate environmental awareness into their lifestyles.

Dhani, 26, is an information technology officer. She lives in Slipi, West Jakarta:

I joined an environmental group at my university in Yogyakarta. We often carried out environmental programs such as cleaning up our campus. We cleaned up all kinds of garbage from the campus courtyard as well as campaigning for proper waste disposal.

I also participated in a recycling program held at campus. The organizer asked us to bring along any paper we no longer needed which they later donated to a community who made souvenirs such as picture frames and pencil boxes out of it.

Irene, 24, has recently graduated from university. She lives in Bendungan Hilir, Central Jakarta:

To be honest, I have never joined any environment-related groups or participated in any environmental campaigns. But I always try to look after the environment by disposing of waste properly. I even separate organic and non-organic waste into different bags.

I also try to live an energy-saving lifestyle. I never turn on my television unless I really want to watch it and I use as little water as possible on a daily basis. I also prefer walking to using a car or motorcycle if I am traveling a short distance. Can this be considered as an environmentally friendly lifestyle?

Tips for greening your home

The Jakarta Post

Man-made natural disasters, especially in the past few years, have shown that the slogan "think globally, act locally" has not reached down to earth in Indonesia yet. To help Jakartans lead a green lifestyle, The Jakarta Post's Adianto P. Simamora, Anissa S. Febrina and Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak provide tips on how to conserve natural resources and reduce emissions.

Home design and material

Orientation - The length of the house should face north or south to avoid direct sun exposure. The east-west axis is best for service areas like the kitchen or bathroom.

Layout - It's best for homes in the tropics to have a "thin" layout, in which the distance between the front and rear walls is no more than eight meters. - Building an inner courtyard is a design solution for homes in crowded areas without enough space for a backyard, the feature that would allow the best cross ventilation. - Percolation pits for water runoff can also be built underneath an open inner courtyard. - Arrange rooms in the house to face the inner courtyard to provide better air circulation. - Place pot plants in inner courtyards to maximize the amount of oxygen produced indoors -- but don't forget to put them outside at night.

Roof - A roof tilting between 20 and 30 degrees will best reflect sun rays and radiation, preventing heat from pooling on your roof. - Clay roof tiles are still the best material for homes in the tropics. - Upper decks are potential areas for additional open green space, plant grass and plants on them but make sure that the concrete construction is built properly to avoid water seeping into your home. - Put a skylight above your bathroom with transparent tiles to allow natural lighting during day.

Building materials - Build thick walls to insulate the inside of your home from hot days. - Using stone as an exterior cover can prevent heat from getting inside. - Use interior and exterior colors that reflect energy from the sun rather than absorbing it. White and pastel shades work best.

Air circulation - Cross ventilation is the key to allowing better air flow. - Tall roofs might be more expensive during construction, but in the long run, they provide thermal comfort and remove much of the need for air conditioning. The ideal ceiling height is around three meters, but higher is better, as more height gives more space for hot air to rise. - Exposed ceilings also provide more room for air circulation than flat ceilings. - Tall windows allow better circulation. - Alternate glass windows with wooden blinds lower the amount of light and heat entering the house.

Artificial lighting and color - Downlights and spotlights might enhance the aesthetic value of your interior, but they require a lot of electricity. Turn them off whenever possible. - If you have halogen standing lamps, consider replacing them with compact fluorescent lamps. Compact fluorescent standing lamps use 60% to 80% less energy, produce more light, and do not get as hot as halogen lamps. - Use task lighting instead of brightly lighting an entire room, focus the light where you need it. For example, use fluorescent under-cabinet lighting for kitchen sinks and countertops under cabinets.

Fence - Plant vines on the exterior wall or your fence as a great looking heat insulator.

Garden and landscaping - Trees are an essential element in creating a moderate micro-climate. - For the pavement, grass blocks provide a better level of water absorption than asphalt or cement. - Water your garden either between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m. or between 8 p.m. and midnight to avoid evaporation. Midday watering is not effective in a hot climate since half of the water is usually lost to evaporation. - Connect the drains on your roof to containers. The collected rainwater can be used for watering plants. - Leave grass clippings on the lawn. Grass clippings make good fertilizer when they decompose. Leaving them on your lawn keeps them from occupying limited landfill space. - Let grass grow a bit taller and it won't need as much water. - Plant local plants that do not consume much water. Add anti-insect shrubs such as zodia and lavender to chase away mosquitoes rather than using canned sprays.

In the garage

Car washing - In order to reduce consumption of non-potable water, gray water can be collected from sinks, tubs, and everything else except toilets, and then reused for other purposes such as car washing. - Never leave the hose running when you wash your car. Use a squeeze type (pistol grip) hose nozzle, or use a sponge and several pails of clean water for hand rinsing. - Practice the wet-wash-rinse routine only when the car is extremely dirty. In many situations, the car could simply be washed with the warm soapy water and then rinsed. This eliminates the need for the pre-wash wetting, and cuts down on water use. - When pre-wash wetting, or rinsing, use a gentle spray from the hose instead of a high velocity stream of water. The finer spray will wet the surfaces just as well without nearly as much splash and waste as a hose at full power. - If you prefer to use commercial car washes, find out which ones in your neighborhood filter and recycle their wash water.

For your car - Walk, bike and take a bus when possible. Use your car only when necessary. - If you own more than one car, drive the one that gets the best fuel mileage whenever possible. - Go easy on the brakes and gas pedal. Avoid "jackrabbit" starts by accelerating gradually whenever possible. Also, anticipate stops to avoid sudden braking. - Avoid long idles. Turn off the engine if you anticipate a lengthy wait. Instead of idling at a drive-up window, park the car and go in. Idling burns more petrol than restarting the engine. - Avoid carrying unneeded items in the trunk. Extra weight decreases gas mileage. Also, reduce drag by placing items inside the car or trunk rather than on roof racks. - Use overdrive. If your car is equipped with overdrive gearing (on 5-speed manual transmissions and 4-speed automatic transmissions), be sure to make use of the overdrive gear as soon as your speed is high enough. If you have a manual transmission, the lower the shift speed, the better the fuel economy. - Keep tires properly inflated and aligned. Periodic wheel alignments and keeping tires inflated to the maximum recommended pressure can improve your mileage. - Get regular engine tuneups and car maintenance checks. Tuneups improve performance as well as mileage.

Sources: Indonesian Architects Association, Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT), WWF Indonesia Power Switch campaign, www.epa.gov and various sources