Wildfires swept through several villages in Siberia, burning down over 400 homes on Wednesday, Russia's Emergencies Ministry said, following a wave of blazes that killed over 50 people earlier in the summer.

No casualties were reported from the flames in the Altai region bordering Kazakhstan that followed wildfires which killed 54 in central Russia in July and August, during Russia's worst heat wave since records began 130 years ago.

Emergencies ministry spokeswoman Irina Andrianova told RIA news agency that 433 homes were torched in one village, Nikolayevka, 15 km from the Kazakh border, leaving 1,166 people without shelter.

The wildfires originated from Kazakhstan, the ministry website said, amid strong gusts of wind.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/09/3006803.htm?section=justin

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Gus: the Chinese have also had their fair share of "record weather". Here is Australia, living in Sydney we could think global warming is over, but higher average winter temperatures in Hobart and in Darwin have far more than offset the "cool" Sydney winter, which was still the 12th on the hottest winter's list.

Obviously, the Chinese know something about climate change. They must have the feeling that things won't improve unless they take drastic steps — and so should we. Whether the Chinese climate expert does not agree with the decree and would like some more flexibility is only a small side-issue. Like some of us in the West, the Chinese would have done proper research on "global warming" and the outlook is not pretty...

Here in Australia, when we had a small chance to do a little bit about it, our efforts, as feeble as they were, got scuttled by a god-botherer Abbott and the small-is-never-good-enough Greens. Despite his "election epiphany" on the road to Globus Climatus, it's obvious that Abbott and his acolytes do not "believe" in climate change. The only one who does understand the problem somewhat is Malcolm Turnbul. Being in the mist of bilious ratbag rightwing wolves, he won't have a voice and will resign once more with more goodbyes than Nellie Melba, unless he switches allegiances or become an independent to make a deal with the Labor government. Even Bob Carr is suggesting this clever stint for what it's worth.

Now on the other side of the fence, the Greens have to hold their frothing horses and understand this matter has to be taken small steps at a time.

Global warming is over. Welcome to global hotting.

China Takes Lead in Clean Energy, With Aggressive State Aid

 

The booming Chinese clean energy sector, now more than a million jobs strong, is quickly coming to dominate the production of technologies essential to slowing global warming and other forms of air pollution. Such technologies are needed to assure adequate energy as the world’s population grows by nearly a third, to nine billion people by the middle of the century, while oil and coal reserves dwindle.

But much of China’s clean energy success lies in aggressive government policies that help this crucial export industry in ways most other governments do not. These measures risk breaking international rules to which China and almost all other nations subscribe, according to some trade experts interviewed by The New York Times.

A visit to one of Changsha’s newest success stories offers an example of the government’s methods. Hunan Sunzone Optoelectronics, a two-year-old company, makes solar panels and ships close to 95 percent of them to Europe. Now it is opening sales offices in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles in preparation for a push into the American market next February.

To help Sunzone, the municipal government transferred to the company 22 acres of valuable urban land close to downtown at a bargain-basement price. That reduced the company’s costs and greatly increased its worth and attractiveness to investors.

Meanwhile, a state bank is preparing to lend to the company at a low interest rate, and the provincial government is sweetening the deal by reimbursing the company for most of the interest payments, to help Sunzone double its production capacity.

Heavily subsidized land and loans for an exporter like Sunzone are the rule, not the exception, for clean energy businesses in Changsha and across China, Chinese executives said in interviews over the last three months.

But this kind of help violates World Trade Organization rules banning virtually all subsidies to exporters, and could be successfully challenged at the agency’s tribunals in Geneva, said Charlene Barshefsky, who was the United States trade representative during the second Clinton administration and negotiated the terms of China’s entry to the organization in 2001.

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Gus: what is more important? protecting an outmoded WTO or saving the planet with cleaner energy?

The Australian dollar has risen above 93 US cents for the first time since April, after the release of buoyant Chinese economic data.

At around 6:50am (AEST) the dollar was trading at US$0.9306 - its highest level since April 30.

Figures released by China's National Bureau of Statistics on Saturday showed that inflation rose at an annual rate of 3.5 per cent in August, a faster pace that the 3.3 per cent rate recorded in July.

That was the fastest rate in almost two years, and was fuelled by rising food prices as devastating floods destroyed crops and halted transport.

There are mixed views from economists on whether the surge in inflation will spark a rate rise.

CommSec's chief economist, Craig James, says the Chinese central bank, the People's Bank of China, can afford to sit on the sidelines for now, because the floods were a one-off.

"While at face value inflation looks at problem, once you dig beneath the surface it is clear that special factors are at work," he said.

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Gus: economists and money men are never happy, are they?... You're successful, they suck your blood till they make you sick. You're lean and poor, they blame you for your predicament and hammer you for not being able to suck your blood dry. Yes, there's not much difference between bed-bugs and economists/money-men, except you can kill bed-bugs with some degree of success...

 

Nations Agree to Shrink Global Trade Imbalances By SEWELL CHAN

Representatives of the world’s largest economies, meeting in South Korea, reached tentative agreement early Saturday on the need to rein in trade imbalances, as part of an American-brokered compromise on calming exchange-rate tensions that have threatened to disrupt the uneven global recovery.

The Obama administration on Friday urged the other economic powers that make up the Group of 20 to agree to curb persistent surpluses and deficits that could contribute to the next financial crisis.

The proposal, which included a numerical limit, was backed by South Korea and quickly drew support from Britain, Canada and Australia. But it met with resistance from Germany and ambivalence from Japan, both major export countries. China, whose currency battle with the United States has threatened to derail the process of global economic cooperation, did not formally weigh in.

So after a marathon negotiating session that stretched into the predawn hours Saturday, the G-20 representatives agreed on the goal of “reducing excessive imbalances” — without a specified limit — and called on the International Monetary Fund to examine the causes of “persistently large imbalances.” The draft statement, to be ratified later Saturday, will also call on countries to “refrain from competitive devaluation” of their currencies, officials said.

The lengthy and often chaotic negotiations illustrated the growing difficulty of securing cooperation among the G-20, whose leaders, including President Obama, will gather next month in Seoul, South Korea. But the agreement could be a critical moment in preventing the outbreak of a currency war, as Brazil, a G-20 member that skipped the weekend meetings, has warned.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner offered the administration’s proposal on Friday at the start of a two-day meeting of G-20 finance ministers and central bankers in Gyeongju, South Korea. American officials called for the biggest industrialized economies to get their current-account balance — whether a surplus or a deficit — below 4 percent of gross domestic product by 2015. That goal, five years away, would be in line with China’s own forecasts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/23/business/global/23finance.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

 

A new report has found that global carbon dioxide emissions are set to reach record levels this year.

The snapshot, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, shows that after a dip in emissions last year, greenhouse gases are on the way back up.

The global financial crisis led to a 1.3 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in 2009.

But that slowing has fast been offset by renewed growth in fossil fuel emissions as the global economy recovers.

The CSIRO's Michael Raupach says developing countries like China and India are driving the growth.

"Emissions are continuing to grow over the long term," he said.

"We're seeing no signs of a systematic reduction in global emissions, although there are now levelling off of emissions from developed countries.

"But emissions in developing countries are continuing to climb quite rapidly.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/22/3072391.htm

see toon at top... One of our major hypocritical problems here is that WE, (in the west), we have transferred our comfort manufacturing to places like China and India... So we can point the finger at them all we like, we're still the buyers/manufacturers of our goods that contribute to GW. Consumption reduction seems to be the only way to stem the tide of global warming but then the capitalist system would have an apoplectic fit, wouln't it?

Here's one plus from the global economic recession: Carbon dioxide pollution last year dropped for the first time in a decade.

But it didn't last and it wasn't as big a drop as expected.

Burning fossil fuels to power factories, cars and airplanes spews out greenhouse gases that warm the world. But during the economic downturn, some factories shut down and people didn't drive or fly as much. The helped drop emissions about 1.3 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to a study published Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience.

There's been a close link between gross domestic product and pollution in recent decades, said study lead author Pierre Friedlingstein of the University of Exeter in England. "The good part of the crisis is that it reduces emissions."

In the United States, the Energy Department said that emissions dropped 7 percent in 2009 because of three equal factors: the slowing economy, slightly better energy efficiency and cleaner energy.

Worldwide, it was mostly a matter of the economy, Friedlingstein said. In 2009, the world spewed nearly 34 billion tons (about 31 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide. That's a drop of 453 million tons from the previous year - what the U.S. emits in about 26 days.

The last time carbon dioxide pollution dropped worldwide was in 1999 and this was the biggest decrease since 1992, according to records by the Energy Department's Oak Ridge National Lab. Despite last year's improvement, worldwide carbon emissions have increased by 25 percent since the year 2000.

Carbon pollution is probably already rising this year, the study authors said, and likely to set yet a record in 2010.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2013488369_apusscicarbonpollution.html

see comment above and toon at top...

China is fast becoming a global leader on climate change, according to a report by Australia's Climate Commission.

The independent body's report, "The Critical Decade: International Action on Climate Change", presents an overview of action taken by governments in the last nine months.

It's found that every major economy has policies in place to tackle the issue, but China is at the forefront in strengthening its response with the government "taking ambitious strides to add renewable energy to its mix".

Chief Climate Commissioner Tim Flannery has told Radio Australia's Connect Asia program that China is turning away from fossil fuels.

"China has capped the amount of coal they're going to be burning, pretty close to current levels, and instead are expanding renewables very quickly," he said.

"If you look at just the year 2011 to 2012, which is the last year we've got data for, the amount of wind and solar capacity put into China equalled about a third of Australia's total electricity generation,

"So they really are taking a leadership position," Mr Flannery said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-29/an-china-global-climate-change-leader/4657300?section=australianetworknews

See toon and story at top...

 

The Chinese government has indicated a strong desire — and made some specific proposals — to reduce its reliance on coal, a step that would be a welcome development for the Chinese people and the planet as a whole. But there is a lot we don’t know yet about Beijing’s strategy and whether it will be bold enough to have a meaningful effect on local air quality and climate change.

State-owned news outlets reported this month that the government would ban the use of coal in Beijing and other urban areas by 2020 in an effort to reduce the noxious air pollution that chokes many cities. In July, a Chinese academic who is also a senior lawmaker said the government was considering a national cap on coal use as soon as 2016.

China is the world’s largest consumer of coal, using about 45 percent of the global total. It is also the largest emitter of carbon dioxide. So China’s energy policies will be crucial to limiting the damage from climate change. It’s thus welcome news when President Xi Jinping says that reducing pollution will be a priority for his administration.

But he and other officials have provided few details — and, indeed, have sent conflicting, even disturbing, signals about their plans. Some measures China is considering could actually exacerbate climate change.

One particularly misguided plan, for instance, would involve building 50 large industrial facilities in western China to convert coal into synthetic natural gas. This would help the government reduce air pollution in Beijing and Shanghai by replacing coal-fired power plants with cleaner gas facilities. But the process of converting coal to gas would increase the country’s total carbon emissions and consume huge amounts of water in what are already arid regions.

A recent Greenpeace report estimated that the 50 plants China is planning to build could spew as much as 1.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air every year, or about one-eighth of the country’s total emissions in 2011. The country already has two coal-to-gas plants in operation, is building three more and has approved the construction of 16 others. China and the world cannot afford the damage these plants will cause.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/opinion/sunday/china-confronts-its-coal-problem.html

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Meanwhile the Abbott regime of Australia is trying to work the coal mining industry in this country into a digging frenzy before the Chinese slow their imports from overseas... The price of coal will collapse and more coal digging will be necessary to make up for the cash short fall... A vicious circle of more digging for lesser profits...

See also: http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/27688

China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, has been dramatically underreporting the amount of coal it consumes each year, it has been claimed ahead of key climate talks in Paris.

Official Chinese data, reported by the New York Times on Wednesday after being quietly released earlier this year, suggests China has been burning up to 17% more coal each year than previously disclosed by the government.

The revelation – which may mean China has emitted close to a billion additional tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year – could complicate the fight against global warming ahead of the United Nations climate change conference in Paris, which begins on 30 November.

In 2012 China consumed 600m more tonnes of coal – or more than 70% of the United States’ annual total – than previously disclosed, according to the revised data.

China’s national bureau of statistics did not immediately confirm the report. However, speaking at a coal conference in Beijing, an adviser to the natural resources defence council said: “The new figures are more accurate than before.”

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/04/china-underreporting-coal-consumption-by-up-to-17-data-suggests

 

See toon at top and read articles below it.