Nobel laureate wants global environment court

Yahoo – AFP, October 24, 2017

Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkol Karman calls for a global tribunal to
prosecute executives of multinational corporations who damage the environment (AFP
Photo/Orlando SIERRA)

Tegucigalpa (AFP) - Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkul Karman proposed in Honduras on Tuesday the creation of a global tribunal to prosecute executives of multinational firms who damage the earth.

Karman, of Yemen, made the suggestion in the Central American country that Amnesty International last year described -- along with its neighbor Guatemala -- as the most dangerous in the world for environmentalists.

"A world court should be created that could punish all these multinational corporations" that damage the environment and contribute to climate change, Karman said through a translator.

She spoke at a press conference with Shirin Ebadi of Iran, a fellow Nobel laureate who won the peace prize in 2003.

As part of the Nobel Women's Initiative, they aimed "to gather a first-hand account of the ongoing violence against women land defenders" in Honduras and in Guatemala, where they travelled later Tuesday, the group's website says.

The murder of Berta Caceres, 45, gunned down last year, highlighted the threat to Honduran activists and sparked international outrage.

Caceres opposed plans by the company Desarrollos Energeticos to build a hydroelectric dam across a river on which indigenous communities depended.

Rachel Vincent, advocacy and media director for the Nobel Women's Initiative, said Honduras has the world's highest rate of murders for human rights and land defenders.

Since 2009, 123 activists have been killed, she said.

In comments to AFP, Karman said a special international court is needed "to fight against corruption and money laundering and against all those involved in destroying the environment and exploiting the climate in a damaging way."

She said such a tribunal could be similar to The Hague-based International Criminal Court which investigates and tries people charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Karman said the court she proposes would handle cases in which human rights and environmental activists or anti-corruption fighters are "found dead."

She also said the investigation of Caceres's murder must be deepened "to discover all those who benefited from this crime."

Eight people were arrested, among them an employee of Desarrollos Energeticos.

The Nobel laureates met Austra Berta Flores, the mother of Caceres, on Saturday.

In Guatemala, they are to join two other Nobel Peace Prize winners, Guatemala's Rigoberta Menchu and Jody Williams of the United States.

Nicaragua signs Paris climate agreement

Yahoo – AFP, October 24, 2017

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega (R), flanked by his wife and Vice President
Rosario Murillo (L), speaks to supporters in Managua on July 7, 2017 during the
celebration of the 38th anniversary of "El Repliegue" at Victoria Square in Managua
 (AFP Photo/INTI OCON)

Managua (AFP) - Nicaragua signed the Paris climate agreement Monday, leaving the United States and Syria as the only two holdouts on the global climate pact.

The government of President Daniel Ortega said the global 2015 pact represented "the only international instrument that offers the conditions to face global warming and its effects," according to a statement read out by Vice President Rosario Murillo.

Monday's announcement leaves the United States and Syria as the only countries holding out on the Paris deal, which set measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to prevent temperatures rising by more than two degrees.

US President Donald Trump in June announced the start of a three-year process to pull out of the agreement on the grounds that it would put the US at an economic disadvantage.

Ortega said last week that Nicaragua would sign the pact, but did not say when.

The tiny central American country had previously refused to sign the agreement on the grounds that it did not go far enough to combat global warming.

"We welcome Nicaragua's announcement, which further underscores the commitment of the international community to take full responsibility for our shared planet," said Elliott Harris, assistant secretary-general of the UN environment program.

"We must all continue to step up our individual and collective efforts to face climate change, one of the greatest challenges of our time."

Weather threat

In September, the leftist Ortega announced during a private meeting with World Bank directors in Managua that his country would join the agreement, but the news was later removed from the official government website without explanation.

In its statement announcing the decision Nicaragua noted the dangers of more frequent natural disasters with "high costs, loss of lives and increasing material damage."

The Central American country's move to join the pact comes just weeks after tropical storm Nate struck the region, highlighting the vulnerability of Nicaragua and its neighbors to the effects of climate change.

The storm unleashed heavy rains that triggered floods and mudslides, cutting a path of destruction that flattened houses and destroyed roads and bridges.

Nate left at least 32 in Central America, 15 of them in Nicaragua, the hardest hit.

The Nicaraguan environmental organization Centro Humboldt praised its country's move to join the global pact.

"We applaud this decision," the organization's director, Victor Campos, told AFP. "We had asked them to support the accord and we are very happy with the decision."

He said the government must now define how Nicaragua will participate, and his organization plans to urge developing a national plan concerning climate change.

Norway solar firm signs 2.5 bn-euro deal with Iran

Yahoo – AFP, Eric Randolph, POctober 17, 2017

Norway's Saga Energy will work with Iran's Amin Energy Developers to install two
gigawatts of solar panels around the central desert region (AFP Photo/
CHANDAN KHANNA)

Tehran (AFP) - Just days after US President Donald Trump called for further isolation of Iran, a Norwegian solar company signed a deal Tuesday to invest 2.5 billion euros in the country over the next five years.

"Norway is fully committed to the JCPOA (nuclear deal) and this is proof that we have taken the opening very seriously, and we will see more investment very soon," Norwegian ambassador Lars Nordrum told AFP.

He was hosting the signing at his Tehran residence between Norway's Saga Energy and Iran's Amin Energy Developers, who will work together to install two gigawatts of solar panels in multiple sites around the central desert region.

That makes it the second-largest investment deal in Iran since the 2015 nuclear deal eased global sanctions, and dwarfs the 600 megawatt solar project finalised just last month between Iran and British investment fund Quercus.

The timing was coincidental, but comes just days after Trump's bellicose speech in which he called for further sanctions on Iran.

It underlines the challenge Washington hardliners will face in trying to convince Europeans, who have remained firmly behind the nuclear deal, to abandon their burgeoning ties with the Islamic republic.

The Norwegian project is being financed by a consortium of European private and state investors, and backed by a sovereign guarantee from the Iranian government.

"I'd like to thank Norway, which has always been one of the best friends to Iran, for this exciting opportunity," said Saeid Zakeri, head of international affairs for Amin.

Business risk

European and Asian businesses have shown great interest in tapping into Iran's relatively wealthy and largely untouched market of 80 million people.

But continuing US sanctions on Iran, and Trump's aggressive rhetoric, have bred a crippling uncertainty that mean many investment plans are stuck on the drawing board.

There have been a few big deals, most notably France's Total, which signed a $5 billion gas deal in June alongside China's CNPC.

A few other major firms such as Siemens, Renault and Peugeot have extensive investments.

Solar projects are particularly important for Iran, which has severe pollution problems, as well as facing existential environmental threats from desertification and warming temperatures.

"We expect there to be some business risk in the Middle East, and Europe stands united in its support of the JCPOA," said Nordrum.

"This is a great win because Iran really needs renewables and this is a new sector for us," he added.

Saga is a young company, formed by former oil and gas project managers and engineers who shifted into the renewables sector after traditional energy markets were badly hit by falling prices.

A partnership with Taiwan's Delta Electronics, a major player in the solar sector, has helped them mobilise large amounts of capital from Europe.

"We are a small company with mighty partners," said Saga's development manager Gaute Steinkopf at the signing.

"We hope to build a factory in Iran to build the panels so that we are also generating jobs here," he added.

The tough climatic conditions in Iran offer a chance for research as well as business.

"To withstand the heat here, you need very good panels. This is the huge challenge," said Saga director Rune Haaland.

"We want to learn more about this, and we're hoping to establish a relationship between a university here and in Norway," he said.

First hydrogen-powered train set for northern Netherlands in 2018

DutchNews, October 12, 2017 

The Coradia iLint train. Photo: Alstom

The northern provinces of Friesland and Groningen and rail operator ProRail are hoping to test run a train powered by hydrogen next year, the Volkskrant said on Thursday.

The parties involved want to determine whether a hydrogen-powered train will prove to be a cheap and sustainable alternative for the diesel trains now operating from the provincial capitals of Leeuwarden and Groningen. 

Most trains in the Netherlands run on electricity but there are no electric overhead lines on the rail network in Friesland and Groningen where the trains are powered by diesel. To switch to electric trains would cost hundreds of millions of euros, hence the potential move to hydrogen. 

The hydrogen-powered train is a realistic alternative for tracks without overhead power supplies, said Wouter Wiersema of engineering consultancy Arcadis which is conducting a feasibility study of the new train. 

But major changes are needed if the diesel engines are to be retired. Storage facilities for hydrogen – a  very light, flammable fuel – will have to be created on trains and in stations. Strong safety measures are vital, said Wiersema. 

The French train manufacturer Alstom is experimenting with a hydrogen-powered train in northern Germany. Once this train, called the Coradia iLint, has been given full safety clearance, it will also be able to travel on the Dutch rail network and the trials can take place, the Volkskrant said.

Italy's high-rise forests take root around the world

Yahoo – AFP, Céline CORNU, October 8, 2017

Milanese architect Stefano Boeri's leafy project is now being exported around
the world (AFP Photo/MIGUEL MEDINA)

Milan (AFP) - As balconies bristle with tree branches and sunshine dapples the leaves of thousands of plants, two apartment buildings in the heart of Milan have almost disappeared under lush forest.

The brainchild of Milanese architect Stefano Boeri, the Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) uses more than 20,000 trees and plants to adorn the high-rise buildings from top to bottom – a project now being exported all over the world, from China to the Netherlands.

The two original leafy towers dominate the skyline in the northern Italian city, giving residents -- including celebrities like footballer Ivan Perisic -- an enviable view over the new district of Porta Nuova and beyond.

Cherry, apple and olive trees spill over balconies alongside beeches and larches, selected and positioned according to their resistance to wind and preference for sunlight or humidity.

Boeri said the idea came from his obsession with trees and determination to make them "an essential component of architecture," particularly as a weapon to combat climate change.

"I was in Dubai in 2007 and I watched this city growing in the middle of the desert, with more than 200 glass towers multiplying the effect of heat," he recalls.

He wanted instead to create something that "as well as welcoming life, can contribute to reducing pollution, because trees absorb microparticles and CO2".

"Cities now produce about 75 percent of the CO2 present in the atmosphere. Bringing more trees into the city means fighting the enemy on the spot," he said.

Milanese architect Stefano Boeri's leafy project is now being exported around the

world (AFP Photo/MIGUEL MEDINA)

'Best Tall Building Worldwide'

Opened in 2014, the Vertical Forest won the prestigious Frankfurt International Highrise Award, and the Chicago Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat named it Best Tall Building Worldwide.

"It's a unique thing to live here, we're in direct contact with the plants while being in the city centre and in a super modern skyscraper," says Simona Pizzi, who can see the mountains from her 14th floor apartment.

"The plants have developed a lot over the past three years, and we see them changing with the seasons," adds the proud owner of an apple tree, where the white flowers contrast magnificently with the green foliage.

Boeri worked closely with botanists to create a nursery of a thousand trees that have been trained to grow under specific conditions.

The team faced numerous challenges, from how the balconies should be structured to take the weight of the plants, to how to secure the tree roots and what needed to go into the soil.

They even carried out resistance tests at a hurricane centre in Miami.

"For every human being living in the building, there are about two trees, 10 shrubs and 40 plants," Boeri said.

The future of housing?

The vegetation soon transformed into a veritable wildlife park: 9,000 ladybirds brought over from Germany to eat parasites -- to leave the plants pesticide free -- multiplied over the space of a few weeks.

Cherry, apple and olive trees spill over balconies alongside beeches and larches, 

selected and positioned according to their resistance to wind and preference for

sunlight or humidity (AFP Photo/MIGUEL MEDINA)

"The extraordinary thing that we did not expect was the incredible amount of birds that nested here. We have small hawks on the roofs, and swifts that had previously disappeared from Milan," Boeri said.

The architect and his team are now working on a dozen or so Vertical Forest projects around the world, including Lausanne in Switzerland, Utrecht in the Netherlands, Sao Paolo in Brazil and Tirana in Albania.

The aim in Eindhoven in the Netherlands is to swap the sort of luxury pads seen in the Milan project -- which go for some 11,000 euros ($12,900) per square metre -- for social housing, a project Boeri says he's particularly keen on.

And because the cost of the trees is low, it's not an unreasonable ambition, he says.

He is also thinking big in China, where not only are two towers under construction in Nanjing and a hotel in the works in Shanghai, but there are plans for a "Forest City" of some 200 buildings in Liuzhou.

"China is now realising it faces the dramatic problem of air pollution, but also of uncontrolled urbanisation, with cities growing out of suburbs, creating megacities," he said.

"Every year fifteen million peasants abandon the countryside to come to the city, we have to come up with some answers, with new green cities," says Boeri, who took part in the COP21 conference on climate change in Paris in 2015.

The architect has not patented the Vertical Forest and has even written a book revealing the secrets and techniques behind it, which he hopes will encourage a new, greener way of developing cities.

Italy's high-rise forests take root around the world, from China to the Netherlands https://t.co/MvGZbuGRcY pic.twitter.com/fcGettntfU

— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 8, 2017

US trio wins physics Nobel for detection of waves from black hole collisions

Yahoo – AFP, 3 October 2017

Members of the Nobel Committee for Physics announce the 2017 prize winners

US astrophysicists Barry Barish, Kip Thorne and Rainer Weiss were awarded the Nobel Physics Prize on Tuesday for the discovery of gravitational waves, the Nobel jury said.

Predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago as part of his theory of general relativity, but only detected in 2015, gravitational waves are "ripples" in the fabric of space-time caused by violent processes such as colliding black holes or the collapse of stellar cores.

Their discovery opens a door on the mysteries of the Universe.

"Their discovery shook the world," said Goran K Hansson, the head of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences which selects the Nobel recipients.

Barish, Thorne and Weiss co-created the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) at the prestigious California Institute of Technology, which has taken home 18 Nobels since the prizes were first awarded in 1901.

The first-ever direct observation of gravitational waves was made in September 2015 at LIGO, the result of an event some 1.3 billion light-years away.

Since then, the enigmatic ripples have been detected three more times: twice more by LIGO and once by the Virgo detector located at the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO) in Cascina, Italy.

"Gravitational waves spread at the speed of light, filling the Universe, as Albert Einstein described in his general theory of relativity. They are always created when a mass accelerates, like when an ice-skater pirouettes or a pair of black holes rotate around each other," the Nobel jury explained.

"Einstein was convinced it would never be possible to measure them. The LIGO project's achievement was using a pair of gigantic laser interferometers to measure a change thousands of times smaller than an atomic nucleus, as the gravitational wave passed the Earth."

Catholic church to make record divestment from fossil fuels

The Guardian, Arthur Neslen, 3 October 2017

A Catholic church spire against smoky coal power plants in North Rhine-Westphalia,
Germany. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

More than 40 Catholic institutions are to announce the largest ever faith-based divestment from fossil fuels, on the anniversary of the death of St Francis of Assisi.

The sum involved has not been disclosed but the volume of divesting groups is four times higher than a previous church record, and adds to a global divestment movement, led by investors worth $5.5tn.

Christiana Figueres, the former UN climate chief who helped negotiate the Paris climate agreement, hailed Tuesday’s move as “a further sign we are on the way to achieving our collective mission”.

She said: “I hope we will see more leaders like these 40 Catholic institutions commit, because while this decision makes smart financial sense, acting collectively to deliver a better future for everybody is also our moral imperative.”

Church institutions joining the action include the Archdiocese of Cape Town, the Episcopal Conference of Belgium and the diocese of Assisi-Nocera Umbra-Gualdo Tadino, the spiritual home of the world’s Franciscan brothers.

A spokesman for the €4.5bn German Church bank and Catholic relief organisation Caritas said that it was committing to divest from coal, tar sands and shale oil.

In a symbolically charged move, the Italian town of Assisi will also shed all oil, coal and gas holdings the day before a visit by the Italian prime minister, Paolo Gentiloni, to mark St Francis’s feast day.

Assisi’s mayor, Stefania Proietti – a former climate mitigation professor – told the Guardian: “When we pay attention to the environment, we pay attention to poor people, who are the first victims of climate change.

“When we invest in fossil fuels, we stray very far from social justice. But when we disinvest and invest in renewable and energy efficiency instead, we can mitigate climate change, create a sustainable new economic deal and, most importantly, help the poor.”

The origins of the latest church action lie in last year’s climate encyclical by Pope Francis – himself named after St Francis of Assisi – although the project was advanced by the Global Catholic Climate Movement.