(March 30 , 2010) Carbon markets are again facing allegations of a scam involving the trading of carbon credits. Reuters reports the Australian company WesternField Holdings Inc. has been accused of defrauding investors down under of A$3.5 million ($3.2 million) through a telemarketing swindle. Although blacklisted by the country’s securities regulator, the firm continues to operate.
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Tackling corruption in Haiti is possible. Here’s how
(March 30, 2010) Haiti and its donors need to face up to bad governance and failed aid. They need to develop a strategy against corruption. This means more than controls and audits, more than training and technical assistance, needed though they are. We must ask how the design and implementation of Haiti’s reconstruction and development strategy might address what public administration experts Derick Brinkerhoff and Carmen Halpern called the sanctioned plunder that was and remains the core of Haitian politics.
Running on empty: Severe drought threatening China’s power sources
(March 30, 2010) The severe drought plaguing southwest China has not only left millions of people without adequate water supply, it has also dramatically reduced power production in the region.
HIPC debt relief is not the solution
(March 30, 2010) HIPC was a necessary evil we agree. We also recognize that it is a stop-gap measure that addresses the symptoms of our under-development, rather than the causes a half-hearted response to the ever-growing agitation for total debt cancellation that characterized the 1990s. But, even total debt cancellation will not solve our problems. At best, it will provide a temporary respite from the excruciating poverty we have known for decades now.
Despair as the mighty Mekong falters
(March 29, 2010) Chinese dams blamed for falling water levels and erosion of river bank.
Mekong states to face China over river
(March 27, 2010) Four Southeast Asian countries badly hit by falling water levels in the mighty Mekong river will next week confront China, blamed for squeezing the river with dams, but concessions from Beijing are unlikely.
The 2010 annual report on China’s environment: Friends of Nature’s China Green Book
(March 25, 2010) Last Friday, Beijing-based NGO, Friends of Nature, released its Annual Report on China’s Environment and Development 2010, a collection of articles from some of China’s top environmental groups, legal and environmental scholars, and journalists.
Southeast Asia drought triggers debate over region’s water resources
(March 25, 2010) A drought across southern China and Southeast Asia has brought the Mekong River to its lowest level in 50 years. The drought has led to debate over the vital resource and the effects that economic development, especially dam construction, may have on the river flow.
City to start progressive charging for water
(March 23, 2010) Beijing will pilot progressive charging for residential water consumption in the first half of this year, according to the Beijing Water Authority. Progressive charging for residential use will work on a quota basis, the Beijing Water Authority said Sunday. A consumption quota will be given to residents, from which anything over the fixed amount will be charged at twice the standard rate.
Inspection of city water usage
(March 22, 2010) The authorities are launching an inspection of venues in Beijing that consume the largest amounts of water, with a focus on public baths, as countries around the globe mark World Water Day today.
Tibet’s rivers strangled by dams
(March 22, 2010) China’s grand pipe-dream is to divert abundant water from the Tibetan highlands to reach water-starved cities of the north and west of China, which have around 300 million people, says Canadian documentary maker Michael Buckley in his recent film “Meltdown in Tibet”.
A river will run through it: project seeks to restore the Yongding River in Beijing
(March 18, 2010) Officials in Beijing have approved a plan to rebuild the once-flowing Yongding river in the southwest corner of the city. According to reports, officials have agreed to spend 17-billion RMB ($2.48-billion) to construct an ecosystem of interconnected creeks and lakes.
As economy booms, China faces major water shortage
(March 16, 2010) A decade ago, China’s leaders gave the go-ahead to a colossal plan to bring more than 8 trillion gallons of water a year from the rivers of central China to the country’s arid north. The project would have erected towering dams, built hundreds of miles of pipelines and tunnels, and created vast reservoirs with a price tag three times that of the giant Three Gorges Dam.
Blame on Chinese dams rise as Mekong River dries up
(March 17, 2010) As the water level in the Mekong River dips to a record 50-year low, a familiar pattern of fault-finding has risen to the surface. China, the regional giant through which parts of South-east Asia’s largest waterway flows through, is again at the receiving end of verbal salvoes from its neighbours.
When the Mekong runs dry
(March 17, 2010) Low water levels on the upper Mekong River have renewed criticism over hydropower dams China has erected on the waterway’s upper reaches. Environmental groups and governments have pinned blame on China’s inward-looking water management policies, although some experts say the real culprit is unusually severe drought conditions in southwestern China, northern Thailand and Laos.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Probe Media
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Probe International 