From: Reuters
Published May 15, 2008 09:29 AM

http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/36348

China's deadliest earthquake in decades could cut by up to 5 percent the country's supply of carbon offsets under the Kyoto Protocol over the next 12 months, a market China dominates, Lehman analysts estimated on Thursday.

Rich countries can meet Kyoto greenhousegas limits by investing in emissions cuts in developing countries, earning carbon offsets in return.

China is expected to supply about half of the annual 540 million tonnes of offsets called CERs (certified emissions reductions) developing countries are projected to sell through 2012 and worth more than 25 billion euros ($38.75 billion) on a secondary market.
Some 15 million tonnes of China's annual output were within a 150 kilometer radius of Monday's quake centered in the southwest Sichuan province, Lehman said.
"We counted seven impacted companies among the world's top 20 project developers," said Laurent Segalen, Lehman head of emissions trading, who listed EcoSecurities, Deutsche Bank, Endesa and Mitsubishi Corp among developers with nearby projects.

http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/36347

From: Thomas Schueneman, Global Warming is Real, More from this Affiliate
Published May 15, 2008 09:28 AM

The Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Actpassed the U.S Senate Environment and Public Works Committee last December by a vote of 11---8. (A quick fact sheet on the bill is available here in pdf)

In the coming weeks the legislation will come to a full vote on the floor of the Senate. The bill calls for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 71% below 2005 levels by 2050 — phased in at 4% by 2012 and 19% by 2020.

The EPA's own analysis states that, despite many opponent's claims of economic ruin, the bill "would not significantly harm the U.S. economy over the next 20 years". (The full EPA analysis — 193 pages — is available in pdf)

The typical right-wing economic alarmism aside, there are serious concerns about the bill from environmental groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. Sean Casten gives a good summary of the objections in a post at Grist but the upshot is that many feel the bill doesn't mandate the kind of emissions reduction scientists say is needed to avoid the worst ofglobalwarming (80% below 1990 levels by 2050), is too cumbersome in its implementation, and rewards corporate polluters, in part by directing auction revenues mandated the bill to fossil fuel and automotive industries. (Friends of the Earth has an analysis of these "giveaways" here in, you guessed it, pdf)

However, not everyonethinks it's so bad. The Natural Resources Defense Council calls for a "strengthened" bill but urges that the time is now for decisive legislative action on climatechange. (Ready for another pdf? Here's a guide from the NRDC outlining what they suggest is needed in any effective climate change legislation and a comparison of the various bills before the 110^th Congress)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/16/world/asia/16myanmar.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: May 16, 2008
YANGON, Myanmar--- Normally, at this time of year, Burmese farmers in the southern delta of Myanmar would be draining their rice paddies, plowing their fields with their water buffaloes and preparing to plant new seeds for an autumn harvest.
But two weeks ago, Cyclone Nargisdid away with all that. The storm's timing could not have been worse. Tens of thousands of farm families lost their draft animals, their rice stocks and their planting seeds. Now the harvest is in doubt as well.

"I think we're going to miss it, we're going to miss the harvest," said Hakan Tongul, deputy country director for the World Food Program in Myanmar. "Time is short."

Mr. Tongul and other international aid experts with long experience in Myanmar fear the cyclone has disrupted the seasonal cycle of life in the Irrawaddy Delta, once one of the world's most fertile and important rice-growing regions.

Delta farmers lost 149,000 water buffaloes, said Brian Agland, the country director for CARE, and it will be impossible to replace them in time for the plowing season. Instead, CARE and other aid groups will likely be buying what the locals call "iron buffaloes" — small red tractors made in China that go for about $1,000 apiece.

Huge deliveries of new rice seeds are needed, too. Thailand is the likely source for new seeds, Traditionally, delta farmers have used seeds from the rice they grew the year before.

New livestock — pigs, ducks, chickens and fish fingerlings in addition to buffaloes — and seeds are among the priority items for aid groups working in rural development in the delta. "The agricultural cycle is so critical," Mr. Agland said Thursday. "We've got to avoid a hunger gap, and we've got very little time."

On Thursday, the government's count of the dead rose nearly 5,000, to more than 43,000, with 27,838 missing, The Associated Press reported. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has estimated the death toll at between 68,833 and 127,990, The A.P. said.