(January 8, 2009) A roundup up of stories, reports, and other coverage of fraud in carbon markets.
A Great Wall of carbon credits
(January 8, 2009) BADALING, CHINA – A bitter wind knifes down the Great Wall of China and through a stand of smoketrees, Chinese pine, maidenhair and Shantung maple.
FACT SHEET: Earthquake Fatalities High in 2008
(January 6, 2009) The number of earthquake-related fatalities across the world was much higher in 2008 than in recent years.
Papua New Guinea and China’s New Empire
(January 3, 2009) In less than a decade, China has spun a web of strategic investments that stretches from Latin America to the former Soviet Union, from the remotest islands of the South Pacific to the huge oil fields of Angola and Sudan. In a range of resource-rich countries, China is diligently cultivating its interests. The Globe and Mail’s Geoffrey York
Water brief: Three Gorges Dam
(January 1, 2009) In The World’s Water 2008-2009, the Pacific Institute’s Dr. Gleick examines the usual anticipated benefits of the Three Gorges Dam: power, navigation and flood control and the growing list of problems — serious impacts on fisheries, coastal erosion due to vastly lower sediment flow in the Yangtze, landslides, earthquakes and social unrest due to the displacement of millions of people.
Ecuador hangs tough
(January 1, 2009) After months of threats, the government of Ecuador has made good on its promise to forego payment of foreign loans deemed illegitimate by the country’s debt audit commission. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa announced that his country would not be paying $30.6 million interest due Dec. 15 on its 2012 global bonds after the commission claimed the debt had been ‘illegally’ acquired by past administrations.
China quakes, but the dams don’t break
(December 28, 2008) The biggest potential disaster, Pearce reports, was averted at the Zipingpu dam, just 17 kilometres from the quake’s epicenter. “Holding back more than a cubic kilometer of water … the hydroelectric dam was the largest of a new, cheap design with a rock core and concrete face. As the tight valley sides juddered, the structure was squeezed and ended up 18 centimeters downstream, and 70 cm lower. … The concrete was ripped apart but the core of the dam survived.”
Glitch in the System
(December 23, 2008) Ecuador’s Conscientious Default. When the government of Ecuador failed to make a scheduled interest payment on private bonds this month, it was hardly the first time a country had defaulted in the middle of a financial crisis. In fact, it wasn’t even the first time for Ecuador. The small South American country did so just 10 years ago, at a time when the economy was reeling from natural disasters and a drop in oil prices.
Glitch in the System: Ecuador’s conscientious default
(December 23, 2008) When the government of Ecuador failed to make a scheduled interest payment on private bonds this month, it was hardly the first time a country had defaulted in the middle of a financial crisis.
Developers suspend major hydro investments in Lao PDR
(December 17, 2008) Investors have decided to suspend major electricity power development projects in Laos as a result of the international financial crisis, according to a Ministry of Planning and Investment official.
China to speed up building gigantic south-to-north water diversion project in 2009
(December 16, 2008) China would accelerate the construction on the country’s huge south-to-north water diversion project next year, head of the project office Zhang Jiyao said on Monday.
Chinese scientists talk about the Zipingpu reservoir-triggered earthquake
(December 15, 2008) Top Chinese scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have dismissed the possibility that the Zipingpu dam reservoir could have induced China’s devastating 2008 earthquake, complaining that the media has been “incessantly questioning the wisdom of building more and more hydro dams in earthquake-prone southwest China” in the wake of last year’s quake.
Ecuador defaults on foreign debt
(December 12, 2008) GUATAQUIL, Ecuador – Leftist President Rafael Correa defaulted on Ecuador’s foreign debt on Friday, vowing to fight bond holders in court in one of most aggressive moves against investors in the region for years.
Ecuador’s default
(December 12, 2008) After months of threats, the government of Ecuador has made good on its promise to forego payment of foreign loans deemed illegitimate by the country’s debt audit commission.
ANALYSIS: Chinese hydro concessions generate controversy in Cambodia
(December 11, 2008) In a desperate bid to attract investment in Cambodia’s failing power sector, the government is offering guaranteed power revenues to Chinese companies willing to finance and build large hydro dams, and sell their entire output to the financially-strapped state utility, Electricite du Cambodge (EdC).
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Probe Media
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