Paper and pulp producer Mondi expects to report considerably higher interim earnings, saying that its headline earnings a share for the six months ended June 30, 2010, were likely to be between 22c a share and 27c a share, compared with a 0,8c a share headline loss the year before.
Basic earnings a share were expected to be between 18c and 23c a share, compared with an earnings loss of 7,1c a share for the six months ended June 2009.
A recent ad campaign aimed at gaining Midwestern senators support for US climate change legislation has backfired in Brazil. The ad by the National Farmers Union and Avoided Deforestation Partners, an alliance of major environmental organizations and utilities, advocates for farm state senators to support U.S. emission limits by offering an incentive: the ability of companies to purchase emission offsets in the form of standing tropical forests, which sequester the potent greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
FOR decades, some university endowments, pension funds and other big investors have put part of their money to work in the woods. They’ve bought large tracts of timberland, viewing them as an asset class separate from stocks, bonds and other forms of real estate.
AMONG THE MANY NASTY things that humans are doing to the environment, few rank worse than destroying tropical forests. Rainforests sustain an astonishing diversity of species and keep our planet liveable by limiting soil erosion, reducing floods, maintaining natural water cycles, and stabilising the climate. Yet roughly 10 million hectares of tropical forest are destroyed every year – the equivalent of 50 football fields a minute.
California is poised to become the nation’s first state to ban single-use plastic and paper bags at supermarkets and convenience stores.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, breaking with his usual practice of not taking a position on legislation until it reaches his desk, praised passage of the measure by the Assembly in June, signaling his likely signature should it pass in the Senate.
I had indicated in last week’s column that I would treat with three particular aspects of global climate funding (aid) as I wrap up for now, my analysis of the LCDS, the Guyana – Norway Agreement and associated arrangements, as well as several environmental topics related to global warming and climate change. The first of these aspects (the likely impact of the current global financial and economic situation on the flow of climate funds from the global North to the poor countries of the South, particularly the poor rainforest ones) was considered last week.
July 2010: The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has published a brief describing its investment programme for sustainable forest management (SFM) and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of carbon stocks ( REDD+), as well as opportunities for funding of forest-related activities in the fifth GEF cycle (GEF-5).
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), as part of the UN Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD Programme), is developing a project to systematically analyze literature on methods used to measure and assess terrestrial carbon stocks, using an evidence-based approach.
Not even intense international pressure, the BP oil spill, worsening floods, or the fact that the last six months have been the warmest on record globally was enough to push US climate legislation through the Senate. In the end the legislation died without a single Republican supporting it and a number of Democrats balking. Democratic Senate leader, Harry Reid, said they would continue to push climate legislation in the fall, but analysts say success then is unlikely given up-coming elections in November.
