The Australia's new Prime Minister Julia Gillard has also delayed the introduction of Emission Trading Scheme. Although the government and conservative opposition have both promised to cut emissions by five percent by 2020, but the opposition is opposed to carbon trading, which it calls a great big new tax.

Emission trading is opposed by big businesses and mining companies on the plea, that it would increase their costs and projects offshore.

Gillard said that a trading scheme was essential to reduce carbon emissions, but no decision would be made until a new Citizen’s Assembly canvassed community views for the next 12 months.

The decision has angered the environmentalists scientists and businesses.

According to opinion polls, voters want quick action on climate change. Business is increasingly concerned over the lack of a carbon policy, with power suppliers warning of stalled investment and rising power prices.

Economics professor Warwick McKibbin, a board member of the Reserve Bank of Australia, said, "Labor’s climate policy was extremely disappointing and delayed action purely for political advantage.”

WITT ENVIS WEBSITE is a national repository and dissemination centre on Environment Audit & Accounting. It parks compilations of Environment Audit Reports, Guides, news items, books, periodicals, as also lists of Environmental Experts, Institutions and other ENVIS Centres. It also contains two bimonthly updates published by WITT, ie, WISTA: Environment Audit and WISTA: Environment Accounting, as also the monthly ENVIS Newsletter.

The Website facilitates meeting the emerging information needs of industries and institutions for managing environmental, social and business issues and securing eco-friendly sustainable development.

The WITT ENVIS centre also provides information and guidance to industries concerning environmental/ pollution problems.
Contact us on Email: witt@envis.nic.in, info@wittsenvis.org

We will appreciate receiving your feedback. It will help us make our services more user-friendly; and you may win a prize too.

So Visit
http://www.wittsenvis.org

A pilot scheme for retail solar power in Japan has been in place since last November, with the government providing subsidies and tax breaks to owners of houses with solar panels as well as developers of solar and other renewable power sources.

Now trade ministry says that from as early as 2012, utility firms will be required to buy at a fixed rate electricity generated from renewable sources of energy, including mega solar, wind, geothermal, biomass and small hydropower.

The cost will be passed on to consumers in a scheme called a “feed-in” tariff. This system is already in use in some European countries like Germany and Spain.

The ministry estimates the new plan could boost carbon-free electricity capacity to almost 50,000 megawatts in 10 years after the launch.

A heat wave in Moscow has caused several peat fires and forest fires.

The emergency ministry said 34 peat fires and 26 forest fires were blazing as on 26th July in the area surrounding Moscow, covering almost 59 hectares (145 acres). Experts warned the air had become dangerous. Alexei Yablokov, an internationally renowned biologist who runs Russia’s Green Party, said air pollution caused by the smog’s high amount of carbon dioxide could kill hundreds of more people than usual in the Moscow region.

The emergency ministry said it was the worst such attack since a smog outbreak in 2002, which was also a result of smoke from fires caused by hot weather. Andrei Selsvosky, Moscow's health department chief said, "The average death rate in normal times is between 360 and 380 people per day. Today it is around 700."

Uganda is facing a threat of being invaded by dangerous plants, including the killer Congress weed (Parthenium hysterophorus).

These plants have historically had severe negative impacts on human and animal health, agricultural production, tourism, transport, hydropower generation, biodiversity and the environment.

The National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) has since 2006 implemented a project that seeks to remove barriers to effective management of invasive plant species (IPS). The project has sought to influence policies to make them recognise the threat posed by IPS, raise awareness, foster prevention and control measures against, build capacity to deal with IPS.

A point of worry is that new and even more dangerous inventions continue. A case in point is the Congress weed that entered Uganda about four years ago and has now invaded several districts including national parks. This plant has been declared a noxious weed in many countries in the world and Uganda must do the same. The population of this weed is still small and incursion localised which makes eradication possible provided resources are availed timely.

It is necessary that government commits resources to enable continuity of the work the NARO invasive species project has been doing and more so take up the coordination of other efforts in the management of IPS.

As a part of its reforms on “efficiency savings”, the Department of Environmental Food Resources Administrating (Defra) has announced its plan to abolish two of its key environmental commissions, namely the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP) and remove Defra funding from the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC).

Caroline Spelman, Secretary of State said that she was “determined to play the lead role in driving the sustainability agenda across the whole of government," a responsibility she would not delegate to an external body. She added that removing the SDC and focusing responsibility for sustainable development policy within Defra would improve accountability, avoid duplication and lead to essential efficiencies.

However, the environmental body Environment Protection UK has criticized the decision.