The occasion was "Cool Biz", a summer-long campaign encouraging office workers to dress down and while thermostats are turned up.

The aim is to reduce energy use and boost Japan’s lagging efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Officials say that despite such steps, Japan, host of the 1997 meeting that led to the Kyoto Protocol, is struggling to cut emissions, which have risen 8 percent since 1990 instead of dropping the pledged 6 percent.

Many in the world’s second-largest economy also chafe at the tough targets their nation is bound to meet under Kyoto when the world’s largest polluter, the United States, has rejected it and booming nations such as China and India have no obligations to cut emissions for the present.

It was partly from a latent sense of unfairness that Japan joined five other nations — including China, India, and the United States — to form a "Beyond Kyoto" pact that critics say could undermine existing treaties.

Tokyo still firmly backs Kyoto. It will press all nations to be bound by the pact’s next framework aimed at fighting global warming when 150 countries meet in Montreal later this month to discuss taking the protocol beyond 2012, when phase one ends.

"We are part of Kyoto, so we have to obey it, at least until 2012 — it’s an international promise, after all," said Takashi Inoue, group manager at the Energy and Environment group at Keidanren, Japan’s largest business lobby.

"After that, though, we can look at things a bit more freely, and we must create something that the United States, China and India can take part in, too," he added. "Without them, any efforts we make will be meaningless."

Others involved in Japan’s climate change talks agreed, noting that rapid development in China and India over the coming years means they must be bound by any new framework.

MEANINGFUL, PRACTICAL, INCLUSIVE

Among the proposals Japan might push at Montreal is that any post-Kyoto pact must run over a longer time period, should set goals based on a variety of conditions and not just numbers, and must include periodic review and revision, if needed.

But Tokyo’s top priority is getting more nations involved. This is why it joined the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, feeling that increasing the forums where global warming can be discussed is all to the good.

As with other participants, Japan maintains the new pact complements Kyoto instead of threatening it, as critics charge.

"This pact is unlikely to set goals and develop in?o a framework of its own," said a Foreign Ministry official.

"We need dialogue in the greatest number of places in order to get the largest number of ideas of how to proceed from here," he added.

Many see the six-nation pact mainly as a technology exchange, with advanced nations passing on expertise to energy-hungry developing countries — and gaining business opportunities as they do so.

"Kyoto has forced us to work hard and develop new technology," Keidanren’s Inoue said. "This will be an essential element of international competition, and a big plus for us."

WORK AT HOME

Japan, though, has plenty to focus on at home.

One of the least efficient sectors is private houses, where emissions have risen 28.8 percent from 1990 levels because of an increase in the number of appliances, such as computers.

As a result, campaigns such as "Cool Biz" and its winter equivalent "Warm Biz" — when temperatures will be set at 19 degrees Celsius (66 degrees Fahrenheit) in government offices, 20 elsewhere — are widely welcomed for their ability to rally consumers.

Environmentalists welcome these efforts, but say the best method would be an environment tax of 2,400 yen per tonne of carbon emitted from fossil fuels. The business lobby opposes the measure, which has already failed to pass parliament once.

Environment Minister Yuriko Koike told Reuters in a recent interview that the ministry hoped to promote such a tax.

"I think this is a good way to change Japan’s thinking on energy," she said.

Environmentalists agreed.

"The government isn’t doing what it really should," said Masaaki Nakajima, at Greenpeace Japan. "Warm Biz and Cool Biz are good, of course, but there are many other really essential things they could be doing, like an environment tax."

The agreement came at a meeting of South Asian officials in the Bangladeshi capital, ahead of a Nov. 12-13 summit of regional leaders which aims to push a long-standing goal of economic integration to achieve higher growth.

The region has been victim of two of the world’s worst disasters in the past year — the Indian Ocean tsunami and the Kashmir earthquake — and authorities have been found ill-equipped to tackle the aftermath.

"Cooperation in disaster preparedness and disaster management is … a priority area for SAARC," India’s junior Foreign Minister, Edappakath Ahmed, said referring to the seven-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

"India’s offer to host a SAARC regional centre for disaster management has been welcomed … and accepted in principle," he told a news conference.

"This is a recognition of India’s abundant experience and capabilities in this regard, which we are prepared to put at the disposal of SAARC member states."

SAARC, a 20-year-old economic groupin?, includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives.

While the tsunami killed 40,000 people in Sri Lanka and 16,000 in India, last month’s Kashmir earthquake killed over 73,000 on the Pakistani side of the disputed region and another 1,300 on the Indian side.

New Delhi is working on a plan to set up an early warning system for ocean disasters like tsunamis and a monitoring system costing $28 million is being built in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad.

India was also quick to rush to the assistance of Sri Lanka and sent help to distant Indonesia after the tsunami.

Efforts by India and Pakistan to work together to help victims of the Kashmir earthquake have, however, moved gingerly due to traditional rivalry between the neighbours over the disputed territory.

Russia and Norway, the world?s number two and three oil exporters respectively behind Saudi Arabia, are both looking north for new finds. By some US estimates, the Arctic could hold a quarter of the world’s undiscovered petroleum reserves.

"I am convinced that there will be a closer cooperation between the two countries in the energy sector," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during talks with Nordic foreign ministers meeting in Harstad in the Arctic Circle.

He said the drive would not be derailed by ? dispute last month over a Russian trawler, accused by Norway of illegally fishing in the Arctic, and a long-running controversy over setting a maritime boundary between the two countries.

Cooperation could include both production of oil and gas and specialised equipment for work in the Barents Sea region, where costs are high because of factors including freezing cold, winter darkness and the risk of icebergs, he said.

Norwegian energy groups Statoil and Norsk Hydro are on a shortlist of five foreign companies, along with Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Total, to help Russia’s Gazprom develop the vast Shtokman natural gas field in the Arctic.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere also said he wished for closer ties on oil and gas. But he said Norway hoped for common international standards for oil and gas exploitation in the Arctic to protect the fragile environment.

COMMON RULES

"It helps very little if we adopt very different rules and say we are taking care of the environment unless there really is a comprehensive approach," he said.

The nations at the talks — Russia, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland — separately agreed measures ranging from relaxing some visa requirements to promoting trade and protecting the environment.

A report by 250 scientists last year said the region was warming faster than the rest of the globe, apparently because of a build-up of heat-trapping gases from burning fossil fuels, and that the Arctic Ocean could be free of ice in summer by 2100.

"We have not done enough given the magnitude of the challenge," Finnish Foreign Minister Errki Tuomioja said.

Temperatures in Harstad, a port of 15,000 people, were a relatively balmy 7 Celsius (44.6 Fahrenheit) on Thursday. Snows have failed to fall as normal across large parts of the region in recent years, disrupting winter pastures for reindeer and birds’ migration patterns.

Nordic nations and Russia have been holding ministerial talks most years since 1993 to promote regional cooperation cut off by the East-West divide during the Cold War.

Before the 1917 Bolshevik revolution in Russia, six European nations had consulates in the village of Hammerfest on the Arctic tip of Norway to help promote trade with Russia in timber, minerals and fish.

The requirement will lead t? a 20-fold increase in biofuels use, which currently stands at about 0.25 percent of all road fuel sales, and the announcement received a largely positive response from the farming and renewable energy sectors.

"I’m very positive (about the announcement). It is unusually unambigous and that is a great step forward," said Andrew Owens, chief executive officer of UK biofuels supplier Greenergy.

The measure, known as the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation, should save around one million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in 2010, the equivalent of taking a million cars off the road, Darling said in a statement.

"I think it (five percent) is realistic. We’re delighted," said Malcolm Shepherd, managing director of biofuels company Green Spirit Fuels Plc.

Biofuels use in the UK has been growing during the past few months, with supermarket giant Tesco Plc among those expanding sales at its forecourts.

"This is a big step forward in the UK’s effort to combat climate change," Clare Wenner, head of biofuels at the Renewable Power Association, said.

The RPA, however, expressed disappointment at the five percent requirement, which is a volume target and is the equivalent of 3.5 percent on energy content.

The European Union biofuels directive released in 2003 calls for a target of 5.75 percent on the basis of energy content.

DISAPPOINTMENT

"It is disappointing that the government has gone only as far as five percent. Still, we are confident the figure will increase over time so that motorists can do more to save carbon in the future," Wenner said.

Oil companies that sell more than the five percent obligation will be able to sell credits to other companies.

Greenergy’s Owens said that was an important feature of the measure as it would be impossible to ensure all areas reached the five percent level.

The UK government also proposed a scheme requiring companies to supply details on the level of carbon savings achieved.

Owens said that requirement might be challenging for some palm oil suppliers but it was not clear how much generally it would benefit domestic producers at the expense of imported supplies as producers such as Brazil could produce bioethanol often with huge carbon savings.

The UK relies heavily on Brazilian bioethanol to meet its current use of biofuels.

British crops such as wheat, sugar beet and rapeseed could be used to supply biofuels.

"We have been pushing government for a while now to introduce a meaningful target for biofuel use and we are delighted they have now done so," National Farmers Union Scotland vice-president Bob Howat said in a statement.

"Whilst a five per cent target sits just below the EU- recommended level, this is still an extremely significant move," he added.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has sought to champion tackling climate change, particularly under Britain’s presidency this year of the Group of Eight economic powers.

At a July summit, G8 nations agreed on measures to tackle global warming but set no targets, mainly due to resistance from the United States which rejects the Kyoto Protocol on curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

Scientists predict global warming will put millions of lives at risk through rising sea levels, floods and droughts.

"It is difficult to criticise other countries, such as the United States, who will not meet their (Kyoto) targets if we are unable to meet our commitments," said Lord May, president of the Royal Society, the British national academy of science.

He said the government risked missing its Kyoto commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 12.5 percent from 1990 levels by 2012.

"Emissions have risen for the last two years and if this trend persists, the UK will miss its Kyoto target," said May.

He pointed out that emissions in the United States had actually declined in the last two years, although they were still 20 percent above 1990 levels.

May told the House of Lords there was a "disconnect" between the two central themes of Britain’s G8 presidency.

"On the one hand are solemn and sincere promises to increase aid and support development to Africa: on the other hand, there is a lack of agreement on measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions which means increasing amounts of aid will be spent on tackling the consequences," he said.

May’s attack comes before a meeting later this month of 150 countries in Montreal to discuss taking the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012 when the first phase ends.

He said Britain needed more regulations to encourage the private sector to invest more in renewable energy sources.

In the 1980′s, the Fish & Wildlife Service began relocating any otters found south of Point Conception, on the southern California coast, to San Nicolas Island. The goal of the program was to establish a population of several hundred otters at San Nicolas Island that would be protected from oil spills, fishing boats and other hazards.

The inherent flaw in this plan is obvious, however: wild animals do not understand the concept of boundaries, nor do they necessarily stay where they’re put. Today, with only a few dozen otters at San Nicolas Island, the Fish & Wildlife Service admits that its relocation project was a failure and is looking at other options for helping the otters recover. One alternative the
agency is considering would continue to protect the otters that remain at San Nicolas Island while allowing the rest of the 2,500 otters off California’s coast to return to the full range of their natural habitat, including south of Point Conception.

The Fish & Wildlife Service is currently accepting comments on its various options for new otter recovery plans.

== What to do ==
Send a message urging the Fish & Wildlife Service to adopt a new recovery plan that would allow sea otters to return to the full range of their natural habitat along California’s coast.

== Contact information ==
You can send a comment to the Fish & Wildlife Service directly from NRDC’s Earth Action Center at [url=http://www.nrdc.org/action/]http://www.nrdc.org/action/[/url] Or use the contact information and sample letter below to send your own message.

== Sample letter ==

Subject: Sea otter translocation – Adopt Option 3C

Dear Field Supervisor Noda,

Sea otters are an important part of California’s coastal environment. They help maintain healthy kelp forests and they enhance the state’s economy by attracting visitors who come to see the otters playing in the wild. The Fish & Wildlife Service should therefore encourage the recovery of the California sea otter by adopting Option 3C, which would allow otters to return to and expand into their historic southern California range.

The Fis? & Wildlife Service’s program to relocate otters to San Nicolas Island was costly, difficult for the otters and ultimately unsuccessful. Continuing to prohibit sea otters from expanding into their natural range threatens their future existence. In the last few years, otter populations have leveled off as more otters have died from diseases and other causes.

I care about California’s otters and I want to see them recover fully. I urge you to choose Option 3C and let the otters recover along the entire California coast.

Sincerely,

The action now shifts to the House of Representatives, where a vote on its version of the budget reconciliation bill could occur as early as tomorrow. The current text of the bill would open the Arctic Refuge, as well as coastal areas, to drilling and sell off public lands to the highest bidder. If enough representatives threaten to vote against the bill if it contains these harmful provisions, however, House leaders may be forced to remove them, or to abandon
the bill altogether.

== What to do ==
Send a message *right now* urging your representative to vote No for the budget reconciliation if Arctic or coastal drilling is included.

== Contact information ==
You can send a message to your representative directly from NRDC’s Earth Action Center at [url=http://www.nrdc.org/action]http://www.nrdc.org/action[/url]

Phone calls are also very important right now, so if you have a moment to call your representative, the Capitol switchboard number is 202-224-3121.

The seminar is aimed to establish and develop future cooperation between academic representatives and the students in the field of environmental and sustainable development.

To apply to participate on the Seminar it is necessary to fill in and send back enclosed registration form until November 25th via E-mail:suuns@neobee.net or fax: +381 21 6350 821.

Fill free to distribute this information.

The maize, known by its code number 1507, is jointly made by Pioneer Hi-Bred International, a subsidiary of DuPont Co., and Dow AgroSciences unit Mycogen Seeds.

The maize, modified to resist certain insects and herbicides, will be used in animal feed. The authorisation is valid across the EU-25 for 10 years.

"Robust post-marketing rules will ensure that the product can be traced and monitored when put on the market," the Commissio? said in a statement.

"When put on the market, it will need to be clearly labelled as containing genetically modified maize. Its post-market monitoring will be assured through a unique identifier assigned to the maize to enable its traceability."

The EU decision is a rubberstamp procedure applied by the Commission. It is permitted under a legal default process that kicks in when ministers are unable to agree among themselves after a period of three months.

Despite last year’s lifting of an effective biotech moratorium using default procedures, EU countries have not managed to agree by themselves on a GMO approval since 1998.

Luxembourg, Greece and Austria consistently vote against GMO approvals. They are offset by countries like Britain, Finland and the Netherlands that almost always vote in favour. Others sit on the fence or vary their vote according to the product concerned.

Europe’s consumers have been far more reluctant than those in the United States to accept GMO products, which manufacturers insist are safe.

In late August the Commission rubberstamped a similar approval for a GMO rapeseed made by US biotech giant Monsanto, again for use in animal feed.

Bremen-based AN has 1,300 wind power systems with a combined capacity of around 1,300 megawatts and employs some 200 people, Siemens said in a statement.

AN’s capacity represents around 8 percent of the total in Germany, the world’s biggest wind market by installed capacity.

The company is a close partner of Bonus Energy, the Danish wind-energy firm Siemens bought last year.

"With the acquisition of this company we want to further expand our market share in Germany," Siemens Power Generation unit head Andreas Nauen said in the statement.

The global wind power market is seen growing by around 17 percent annually on average in the coming years as governments increasingly rely on an expansion of wind energy to curb greenhouse gas emissions, which are blamed for global warning.

Siemens said it already had approval from German anti- trust authorities and could close the deal by the end of the year.