Japan uses offsets to meet Kyoto emission goal - media | Reuters.Japan met its Kyoto Protocol obligations to lower greenhouse gas emissions by planting trees and buying carbon credits as actual emissions rose, media reported on Sunday, days after the country watered down targets for cutting them further by 2020.

Japan uses offsets to meet Kyoto emission goal - media | Reuters: "Japan, the world's fifth-biggest greenhouse gas emitter, was obliged under Kyoto to cut emissions by 6 percent from 1990/91 levels to 1.186 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent a year on average over the five years to March 2013.

The Nikkei business daily said actual emissions rose by 1.4 percent to 1.279 billion tonnes, but Japan met its target with offsets for planting trees and through the government and companies purchasing carbon credits from abroad."

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"Football for Hope. Energy for Hope": Yingli Green Energy Supplies Solar Solutions for the 16th Football for Hope Centre in South Africa - WSJ.com. The sixteenth centre of FIFA's Football for Hope Program has been officially inaugurated in Alexandra, South Africa. In order to honor this occasion, Deputy Minister of Sport and Recreation, Mr. Gert Oosthuizen, FIFA's General Secretary, Mr. Jerome Valcke, representatives of the non-profit organization Grassroot Soccer (GRS), the South African Football Association (SAFA) and Yingli Green Energy jointly addressed the media. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131113/CN16206 ) (Logo: http://www.prnasia.com/sa/2012/04/01/20120401160439160364.jpg ) The FIFA "20 Centres for 2010" campaign, which was called into life as part of the 2010 FIFA World Cup(TM) official corporate social responsibility program "Football for Hope," is nearing completion. Alongside FIFA, Yingli Green Energy, an Official Sponsor of the FIFA World Cup(TM) and the world's largest PV module manufacturer, utilized its expertise in renewable energy to provide solutions for this campaign to assist FIFA in improving the social environment for children in Africa with solar power. For the centre in Alexandra, Yingli Green Energy provided PV modules for the solar street lighting system.

"Football for Hope. Energy for Hope": Yingli Green Energy Supplies Solar Solutions for the 16th Football for Hope Centre in South Africa - WSJ.com: "Yingli Green Energy has equipped all centres with a total of 258 pieces of PV modules with a supply capacity of 23 kilowatt peak. Each centre was able to choose between a variety of photovoltaic systems such as a solar-powered lighting system for the playing field, a water pump including water reservoir or a photovoltaic power supply system. Since the launch of the campaign, 16 centres have been built across the African continent and four remaining centres pending by the end of the year or in 2014. FIFA has closely and constantly collaborated with the communities where the centres had been built, in order to ensure that the new infrastructure would meet the local needs. Each Football for Hope centre consists of a playing field for football and a building where educational projects take place and football is viewed as an instrument for promoting motivation and dialog within the community."

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BBC News - Aid agencies say typhoon shows need for action on climate change. The committee, comprising 14 aid agencies, said Typhoon Haiyan was a glimpse of the future for millions who will be at risk from extreme weather. It said the meeting in Warsaw should agree to rapidly cut carbon emissions. But negotiators say such action is unlikely as a global deal is not expected until 2015. The British agencies argue that extreme weather events such as Typhoon Haiyan follow a growing pattern of threat that points strongly towards climate change. Continue reading the main story “ Start Quote We need to see a response from the delegates in Warsaw to match that of the overwhelming response of the public to this devastating tragedy” Neil Thorns Cafod In 2012, the Philippines was the country that suffered the most fatalities from extreme weather events and was ranked the second most affected from climatic disasters.

BBC News - Aid agencies say typhoon shows need for action on climate change: "Now Haiyan has struck and affected around 12 million people.

"This should be a wake-up call for negotiators who have been sleepwalking through a process fraught with delay and indecision," said Oxfam's Max Lawson.

"The images we have seen from the Philippines are a reminder that climate change is not about numbers and process, but a growing reality for poor people who desperately need support to protect themselves and build safer futures."

Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Sri Lanka, seemed to support this view, saying the "evidence appeared to be growing."

However, scientists point out that unequivocally linking a specific weather event such as Haiyan to climate change is impossible."

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Workout only a part of wellness at work. Companies that focus on wellness programs without changing their business culture to care about their employees’ overall well-being won’t have engaged workers. And that hinders productivity, causes higher turnover and puts people at higher health risks, said Rosie Ward, a health management services manager with Marsh & McLennan Agency in Minneapolis. She addressed dozens of business people Wednesday at a conference held as part of the city’s Live Well Sioux Falls initiative, now in its second year. | The Argus Leader | argusleader.com

Workout only a part of wellness at work | The Argus Leader | argusleader.com: "“We’re looking more at the emotional, the occupational, the spiritual, the financial, the environmental,” said Kandy Jamison, account executive for health and wellness at Howalt McDowell. “We’re trying to look at that total well-being.” As a result of the change from mostly an activity-based wellness program, more of the 90-plus employees are participating, she said. They’re realizing wellness doesn’t always mean losing 50 pounds and going to the gym daily.Howalt McDowell isn’t measuring the financial savings by having healthier employees just yet. But healthier, happier people are typically more productive, Jamison said.“I think if it’s the culture and the right thing to do and you do care about your employees … and if a value can be documented, then you’re a winner.”" CLICK LINK TO READ FULL ARTICLE

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Australia's Carbon Tax Under Fire As New Government Takes Control. Australia's new government prepared to take control of the nation Sunday, with Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott vowing to immediately scrap a hated tax on carbon polluters and implement a controversial plan to stop asylum seekers from reaching the nation's shores. Abbott met with bureaucrats to go over his border security plans and said his first priority would be to repeal the deeply unpopular carbon tax on Australia's biggest industrial polluters.

Australia's Carbon Tax Under Fire As New Government Takes Control: "Abbott's conservative Liberal Party-led coalition won a crushing victory in elections Saturday against the center-left Labor Party, which had ruled for six years, including during the turbulent global financial crisis. Labor was ultimately doomed by years of party instability and bickering, and by its decision to renege on an election promise by implementing the carbon tax, which many Australians blame for steep increases in their power bills.

The Australian Electoral Commission's latest count Sunday had the coalition likely to win a clear majority of 86 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives. Labor appeared likely to secure 57."

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Philippines Urged to Take Leadership Role on Climate Change. The Philippines has an outsize stake in uniting the world on climate-change commitments, the European Union Commissioner for Climate Action says. Connie Hedegaard told a news briefing on Friday in Manila that the Philippines should take a leadership role in prodding larger, wealthier nations to agree to a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The country has a lot at stake, as the third-most vulnerable country on the planet to extreme weather and rising sea levels. Speaking between meetings with local officials, Ms. Hadegaard said the EU and the Philippines share some views on how to “inject some ambition” into the 2015 talks on a new deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol. Both are parties to the Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty binding industrialized countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to forestall, if not reverse, global warming. The U.S. signed the Kyoto Protocol but didn’t ratify it, while Canada withdrew from it two years ago. Commissioner Hedegaard said frequent floods in Manila in recent years, including the flooding caused by the typhoon-intensified monsoon last month, puts the country in a “very interesting role” to help convince large producers of greenhouse gases on the need to act decisively on climate change agreements. “I’m extremely impatient…with a world that says it wants to address these issues but at a phase that is modest, too modest. That is why we want to inject some sense of urgency in the 2015 conference,” Ms. Hedegaard told The Wall Street Journal. “The challenge is to move a bit faster because that is what we need to do.” The WorldRiskReport 2012 of the United Nations University Institute of Environment and Human Security identified only Vanuatu and Tonga as more vulnerable thatn the Philippines to extreme weather events and increases in sea levels. An archipelago of more than 7,000 islands, the Philippines is situated between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea and is battered every year by around 20 typhoons. Since the Philippines passed the Climate Change Act in 2009, the country’s climate change policy agenda has shifted from mitigation to adaptation and disaster-risk reduction. - Southeast Asia Real Time - WSJ

Philippines Urged to Take Leadership Role on Climate Change - Southeast Asia Real Time - WSJ: "Ms. Hedegaard said the E.U. is committed to reducing greenhouse gases by at least 20% by 2020, adding that one-fifth of the bloc’s budget for the next seven years will be spent for projects to address climate change.

She said that Europe believes that “intelligent way forward would be to solve our economic issues, our growth problems…the job and social aspects and the environment and climate change at once. In the end, it is about how we are creating the growth in the future,” she added.

The E.U. has been helping the Philippines by extending assistance to protect its forests, while European companies have invested in renewable energy projects in the Southeast Asian country."

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The World's Largest Solar-Powered Boat | Crew members of the Turanor PlanetSolar, the world's largest solar-powered boat, arrive in the port of Monaco after completing the first around-the-world trip using solar energy

The World's Largest Solar-Powered Boat | The World's Largest Solar-Powered Boat - Yahoo! News Philippines: "Crew members of the Turanor PlanetSolar, the world's largest solar-powered boat, arrive in the port of Monaco after completing the first around-the-world trip using solar energy, May 4, 2012. (REUTERS/Eric Gaillard)"

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