Photo: ©2009 WWF/Klein Hubet
BERN, SWITZERLAND – WWF Switzerland is counting two environmental battles won this week. Its fight to see Valais respect the Bern International Treaty that covers the protection of wolves, an endangered species, resulted in a decision by the Sion district tribunal 13 December to condemn former cantonal councilor Jean-René Fournier to 60 days community service, with the sentence suspended.
Fournier is no longer in the cantonal government but represents Valais in the upper house of the Swiss parliament.
Valais should start adding shepherds, dogs to sheep herds, says WWF
The decision relates to the 2006 death of a wolf that had killed 30 sheep in Valais. Fournier approved the permit to shoot the animal and after its death he stuffed it and had it on display in his office, despite the international ban to which Switzerland is party.
St Prex, a Vaud town of 5,100 people, inaugurated its new state-of-the-art recycling centre in 2011, now a busy place
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Batteries over 5kg will be taxed at purchase, rather than when they are recycled, starting 1 January 2012, says Bern. Household and small batteries currently carry a recycling tax, at purchase, but not larger ones, such as car batteries and industrial ones.
The new system is designed to boost the rate of recycling from last year’s 69 percent to at least 80 percent.
The change is also designed to ensure funds for collecting, transporting and recycling batteries, work that the federal government assigns to Inobat, a private organization based in Bern. By law, businesses in Switzerland that sell anything with batteries are obliged to take used batteries from customers; the country has some 11,000 collection points.
Swiss are world champion glass recyclers, some way to go on batteries
Some of the money collected by the revised tax will also be used for consumer education, to increase awareness of the need to recycle batteries and to raise the rate of recycling, 69 percent at 31 December 2010. The federal government has set a goal of 80 percent recycled batteries to preserve Switzerland’s natural resources. The figure is well below those for recycling several other items. The Swiss are world champion glass recyclers, with a 94 percent rate.
WWF suggests ways to reduce electricity consumption but keep holiday lights
Christmas decorations: WWF suggests ways to cut energy loss while still lighting up (photo: Coop, LED lights)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Swiss households, in the five to six weeks around the Christmas holidays, use electricity for decorative lights that is the equivalent of a small town during an entire year.
Enough, says environmental group WWF: there are ways to decorate with lights that will significantly reduce energy use.
Some CHF8 million is spent burning 40 million kWh decorating homes with lights over the holidays, the same amount used by 10,000 households with four people during the course of a year.
The starting point is to use LED lights, which may mean throwing out your old lights and replacing them with more energy-efficient ones, with incandescent or halogen ones using four to seven times more electricty than LED.
This article is republished with permission from IP Watch
By William New
Revised EPO Patent For Conventional Broccoli Has Public Interest Ramifications
To patent or not to patent, the great broccoli question
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A patent for a conventionally bred form of the common household vegetable broccoli appears to be on its way to acceptance by the European Patent Office following a change to the patent by the company filing it, according to sources. The decision not to revoke the patent, which has been the subject of protests and now calls for action in national courts, could clear the way for hundreds of other vegetable patents to follow, a source said.
In a rather legal format, the EPO announced on 25 October that an oral hearing in the so-called “broccoli” case had been cancelled, which observers say clears the way for approval of the patent in question. The cancellation of hearing came from the removal of objection by competing companies to the patent filer.
The move calls into question the bounds of patentability on plants and animals, after the EPO appeal board last year rejected patents on conventional breeding such as occurs in nature. The European Patent Office Enlarged Board of Appeal was asked to review the patentability of a grant on broccoli, and another patent on a tomato. The patented broccoli and tomato plants were not genetically modified, but rather simply bred conventionally as farmers have done for ages, according to sources.
Plant varieties are not patentable and are protected under a sui generis system at the International Union for the Protection of Plant Varieties (UPOV).
The board in December 2010 decided that “essentially biological processes for the production of plants (or animals)” are excluded from patentability (IPW, Biodiversity/Genetic Resources/Biotech,10 December 2010).
The broccoli and tomato cases, one patented by Plant Bioscience Ltd. (EP 1069819) and the other by the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture (EP 1211926), had been brought before the EPO’s Enlarged Board of Appeal after France-based seed cooperative Limagrain Group, Swiss biotech company Syngenta, and multinational food company Unilever filed complaints, respectively. Plant Bioscience already markets in the United Kingdom a “new variety” of broccoli made from conventional breeding methods.
Electric scooters soon for the Swiss post - Photo La Poste Suisse
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Swiss Post buildings and vehicles are about to shift firmly into ecology gear, with the group’s announcement that all of its letter delivery scooters will soon be electric and 20 of its premises will see photovoltaic systems installed on their rooftops.
The group has until now relied on hydroelectric and wind power.
The national postal system said Thursday 22 September that the moves are part of its “pro clima” programme effort to reduce CO2 emissions by 15,000 tons by 2013, compared to 2010, and to explore “other avenues” for energy sources without sacrificing economic viability.
The fleet of 7,500 scooters used for mail delivery will be replaced with electric models as each one wears out, so that by 2016 at the latest the entire fleet will be electric, using renewable energy sources.
The photovoltaic systems on its business premises will produce 6,000MWh a year, enough to cover 4 percent of Swiss Post’s electricity needs. The installation cost is CHF39 million, with the first system at Zurich-Muelligan, spanning 26,000m2, in an “advanced stage”.
Swiss Post’s CO2 reduction programme includes several other measures:
- Drivers of large delivery vehicles will be trained to use the Eco-drive method, already in use by PostBus drivers who have reduced their energy consumption by 3 percent.
- 140 gas-powered delivery and business vehicles are being converted to 100 percent biogas.
- Swiss Post is buying another 10 hybrid buses, which use 20-30 percent less energy than traditional buses.
- The group is setting up a number of sharing stations for employees, with electric cars and e-bikes.
public transport, Geneva
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Swiss public transport systems do more than simply carry more people for less fuel: they also get relatively high ecology marks for their overall impact on the environment.
A study ordered by the federal government, published in German 9 September, shows that while public transport is far ahead of road traffic at the moment in terms of pollution impact, much more needs to be done to ensure it stays well ahead because of the rapid rate of growth predicted for public transport, while cars are seeing improvements.
Public transport systems do well in terms of energy consumption, CO2 and atmospheric pollution but their good marks are lowered slightly by the increase in their traffic volume, higher speeds and their use of tunnels. The noise from trains, despite significant progress in recent years to reduce this, remains a problem.
The study, which also projected the impact of public transport over the next 20 years, has resulted in a decision by the Federal Council to redouble efforts to reduce noise, carbon emissions and to put a greater emphasis on susbtainable development where public transport is concerned.
Can Switzerland's environmental policies help China achieve a better balance between nature and humanity?
BERN, SWITZERLAND – A David and Goliath meeting on climate policy will take place from 14 to 21 August when a high-level Chinese delegation visits Switzerland to learn how the Swiss have developed their climate policy. China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, is making environmental protection and climate change a priority in its new five-year plan for 2011 through 2015.
The Swiss Foreign Affairs Department said in a statement 9 August about the visit that “Beijing is especially counting on international cooperation, and has launched an analysis of the different economic and legal instruments existing in certain countries. Hence, in 2010, China extended an invitation to Switzerland, via the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), to participate in the revision of the legal framework on the fight against air pollution and in the development of a draft law on the climate.”
Switzerland will be presenting an overview of “instruments developed to contribute to the implementation of Swiss climate policy, ranging from voluntary measures subscribed to by the economic sector, to the levying of a CO2 tax”, says Bern. The delegation will meet with experts from several federal offices, members of parliament and some private sector companies, with a visit to a company that employs voluntary climate protection measures.
The visiting Chinese team includes representatives from the National Development and Reform Commission, the Environmental Protection and Resources Conservation Committee of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Science, and representatives of the Academy of Social Sciences.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – EPFL chose the right week to talk about a new field project, part of a larger study of how environment influences flood rates in mountain valleys.
Ticino and parts of Valais, including Zermatt, are worriedly watching rising waters from heavy summer storms.
The two-year-old project to better understand the hydrology of the Alps in order to reduce risks is run by EPFL’s Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory (Eflum). It has set up 25 ground weather stations in a 20 km2 area that covers a large part of the Val Ferret watershed. The goal is to improve methods for predicting natural disasters to better warn populations in risk zones. “Mathematical models exist, but they still don’t take into account all the data that are needed to establish reliable predictions, such as the influence of air temperature, the formation of thermal winds or the impact of precipitation,” says Marc Parlange, the EPFL professor who heads the lab.
The field project this summer has involved setting up several new tools: two weather stations on 10m towers, a weather balloon that will be regularly deployed, and three Lidars, laser-based instruments which will be used to take continuous wind data over a height of nearly 2 km.
Water and wind input are two key aspects being studied this summer. Val Ferrat was chosen because it was the rare valley to meet a specific set of requirements, says Raphaël Mutzner, the PhD student responsible for hydrologic modeling.
There were not many options, he points out.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Wood harvests in 2010 were up 5 percent and, thanks to lower costs, profits rose overall, meaning that a larger part of forest maintenance costs in Switzerland were covered. Forests cover one-third of the land in Switzerland, with 29 percent of it in private hands and 71 percent owned by the public.
Forest in canton Bern in autumn
Switzerland has 1.26 million hectares of forest. Of the 71 percent that belongs to the public, 82 percent is owned by commune administrations and citizens (the bourgeoisies), with cantons, the federal government and other public authorities owning the rest.
Forest management companies are hired by the 246,000 private owners and 3,600 public ones to harvest the wood and maintain the forests, which are considered important for protecting against erosion and natural disasters, but which also play a key role in tourism, sports and leisure activities in the country.
Bern, with 20 percent of the wood harvest and Vaud, with 10 percent, are the two largest wood industry cantons.
The larger harvest coupled with lower costs is easing the industry out of its 2008-09 doldrums: in 2009 one cubic metre of wood brought in less than one franc but in 2010 this rose to CHF4 per m3.
The exception was the Alps, where sales of wood just covered the cost of cutting it.
Overall, the cost of maintaining Swiss forests is not covered by the sales and public authorities continue to provide additional financing.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Are you a gas-burning road hog who loves festivals and concerts? You might have to change your ways this summer, with environment and sustainable development the buzz words for Swiss festivals.
Montreux Jazz Festival, keeping an eye on electricity consumption (photo: Odile Meylan)
Montreux Jazz Festival, which runs to 16 July, is the first of the big summer festivals and it provides details about its environmental efforts on its web site. The MJF notes that it’s been given the Green ‘n Clean award from Yourope, which awards festivals that actively work to protect their impact on the environment.
Montreux turns on the lights, turns down the consumption
Two measures the MJF cites are its work with Alpiq to provide very low consumption lighting for Le Jardin and its work with e-covoiturage to reduce the number of cars coming to the festival.
Walk! World’s largest sports event encourages us to use our legs
The giant multicultural, multi-event Gymnaestrada, which has brought 20,000 gymnasts from around the world to Lausanne this week, said loud and clear at the outset that its sustainable charter was being given top priority. Walk to the events, as a starting point, it tells visitors.
Green festivals: a balancing act (photo, Gymnaestrada, 11 July group events)
The event increased the population of Lausanne by 20 percent overnight, creating rubbish and other problems, the organizers notes.
It details its green efforts on a web page, which at the end puts the onus on you and meet to make the charter work: “Help us to make this idea of sustainable development a reality! On a daily basis, travel sensibly, eat healthily, sort your rubbish and switch the lights off after you. From now on, you can support the WG-2011 by calculating your carbon footprint and committing to reduce it!”
Gymnaestrada runs until 16 July.
Paleo pushes festival-goers to reflect on transport
The Paleo Festival in Nyon opens 19 July and it will pull in more than 230,000 people by the time it ends 24 July. Paleo sent out a newsletter Tuesday 12 July about its efforts to push concert-goers in the right direction: greener travel.
The CFF rail company offers 20 percent off to anyone who goes by train, and online car-sharing options work for both Switzerland and France. RouteRank, newly improved, is a great way to find the best options for getting from your place to Paleo, and to find out your environmental impact in the process.
St Prex Classics, small is beautiful but also gentler on the environment
A late summer festival, the newly renamed St Prex Classics, takes another approach to the environment by keeping things manageable: 10 concerts over two weekends in intimate surroundings in the lakeside old town (Vieux Bourg) of St Prex (two are in Morges, this year only). The concert, now in its fifth year, runs from 16-28 August.
One rider's bike, from the 15% who cycle to EPFL
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – EPFL, the federal polytechnic institute in Lausanne, is pushing bicycles and will continue to do so until the end of June, in every sense, with its Bike to Work 2011 programme, which kicks off 23 May.
The school wants “to reduce by 10 percent by 2014 the 30 tons of CO₂ emitted daily by commuting vehicles on normal working days” and its previous Bike to Work programmes have made a good start: 15 percent of commutes are currently done on bikes, compared to 11 percent five years ago.
EFPL is registering Bike to Work riding teams until 31 May and will be giving out an electric bike to a winning team. The goal of this year’s programme is to get people used to riding bicycles for work. “To take part, you have to form teams of four people who are prepared to make 50 percent of their journeys to EPFL or to return home by bicycle, during the month of June”, the call for teams says.
The project is part of the larger Swiss Bike to Work programme, where companies register teams by 31 May, and the teams then ride at least part of the way to and from work 1-30 June, preferably combining this with public transport for the non-cycling part of the trip. The national programme has several prizes that include a weekend for two in Hamburg, to bicycles and bike accessories. Details
Electric car at the Grimsel Pass in Switzerland, with
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The German government has confirmed it will subsidize its budding green car industry with up to euros 1 million for electric cars, in order to have one million of them on the road by 2020. Angela Merkel made the announcement Saturday in her weekly newscast.
Welt am Sonntag newspaper says Germany is also considering boosting sales by encouraging consumers through tax cuts and special parking areas that would be free for electric cars, among other measures.
The amount is smaller than the estimate mentioned a month ago by puregreencars, which says industry analysts expect the green car measures to create up to 30,000 jobs, noting that the government plans to buy electric cars for its ministries.
But Spiegel magagzine in late April wrote that the government appeared to be setting off on the wrong carbon foot, with electric cars often having a worse carbon footprint than others.
AlpIQ, the Swiss Alpine energy company, which backs several electric car projects, predicts that 15 percent of the Swiss car fleet will be electric by 2020. The Alpmobil resort cars project during the summer of 2010 near the Grimsel and Furka passes saw a fleet of 60 electric cars made available to tourists, for silent, pollution-free touring.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Plans are afoot in Zurich to intall “bike lifts” to help weary cyclists tackle steep hills. Already introduced in Norway, the lifts operate similarly to conveyer-belts, the cyclists resting their foot on a moving band which then slides them up the hill.
In spite of Zurich’s relative lack of hills, there are a few key sites where bike riders could apparently do with some help. The newspaper 20 Minuten suggests the stretch between Zurich and Höngg might be one possibility. The system has been backed by Green Party transport campaigner Guido Trevisan.
Links to other sites: 20 Minuten (German), The Mirror
video, Trampe bike rail in Trondheim, Norway
Nasa image of smoke over Western Russia. Moscow on left side of image, clear streak in middle is Ural Mountains. Click to enlarge
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - French newspaper Le Monde has published an interview with an expert on Russia’s environment, Marie-Hélène Mandrillon, who says that though the drought and the highest temperatures – since records were kept – have contributed to the catastrophe, it is human intervention that has amplified it.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry says more than 712,000 hectares of land are affected by almost 550 forest and peat-bog fires. Muscovites are fleeing the city in search of cleaner air.
News reports say pollution levels are six times normal, and the US space agency, NASA, has measured increased carbon monoxide levels 12-km above Russia.
Recent reports indicate that fires have been stopped in a nuclear research centre at a closed city, Snezhinsk, in the Chelyabinsk region.
Forest Rangers became wood cutters
Moritz Leuenberger, Switzerland's Socialist minister for the environment, energy, transport, resigns
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Moritz Leuenberger, Socialist Party member who has been one of Switzerland’s seven federal councillors for the past 15 years, announced Friday morning that he will step down at the end of 2010. Leuenberger, 63, from Zurich, has headed one department, the Detec (environment, transport and energy) during his tenure and his left-leaning views have had a significant impact on the country’s approach to climate change.
He insisted in a press conference that journalists should not seek to find tactical reasons, that after 15 years as part of the government, he feels the time has come to leave. Leuenberger was scheduled to be the next president, taking up the post that rotates among the federal councillors in January 2011. Micheline Calmy-Rey, also a Socialist, from Geneva, will now become president in 2011, for the second time.
Bulgaria may opt out of the Russian pipeline that will carry crude oil to Greece, saying people living along the Black Sea don’t want it and fear that the project is not environmentally sound, reports the Moscow Times. Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov made the announcement after a meeting with European Union officials, but other members of the government hastened to point out that Sofia had not officially decided not to participate. The government press office later said Borisov would wait for an environmental assessment of the 300 km project.
Links to other sites: Novinite, Bulgaria, Radio Free Europe
Title: Conference: Climate change, trade and competitiveness: Issues for the WTO
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: In the absence of near-term agreement on globally binding emission targets in the wake of Copenhagen, nations will rely increasingly on nationally determined climate policies. As these policies vary in stringency, governments are likely to face political pressures to “level the playing field” – particularly in energy-intensive industries open to international competition.
Start Date: 2010-06-16
End Date: 2010-06-18
New aviation MBA programme takes off in Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The latest in a string of newly created MBA programmes in the region has been announced jointly by the International Air Transport Association (Iata) and the University of Geneva (Unige).
The new Executive MBA programme in aviation management, the first in Switzerland, will include coursework in international aviation law, aviation and the environment and airline financing. The programme begins in September 2010.
Professionals from the Iata Training and Development Institute, as well as from the Unige MBA programme will likely be the first to participate.
The announcement comes a day after the University of Lausanne, the HEC and the Tepper Institute in the US announced they were setting up an assets and wealth management MBA, and the AISTS in Lausanane announced two new sports management graduate programmes in conjunction with several universities in the Lake Geneva region.
Minimal noise, no one to argue with and the window opens: a good place to work (photo, copyright 2010 Claude Vedovini)
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – It’s official: big offices are more likely to make workers take time off work, fall sick and in general suffer more misery than smaller office spaces.
A new study of Swiss offices shows that the larger the office space, the more complaints increase about the physical environment: surrounding noise from background conversations, telephones and office equipment; dry or stale air; temperature too high or too low or varying too much; inadequate lighting and draftiness.
Absenteeism and lower productivity are significantly higher in large offices than in smaller one, an additional cost burden for companies with large offices.
Update 12:35 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) has criticized the impact on wildlife of construction projects for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. The cumulative impact, in particular, of several projects around the Black Sea resort are not being addressed, says Unep in a new report that was requested by the Russian government. The report follows a late January visit to the site by a Unep team.
It is not too late for the Games to serve as an environmental showcase, however, says Unep, which praises the Russian Railway, Ministry of Natural Resources and the 2014 Sochi Games organizers for being open to discussions.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Geneva-based IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), appears unready to bow to pressure to step down, if comments made to the BBC Friday 5 February are any indication.
“‘There is one mistake that occurred unfortunately, and we have clearly accepted that; we have expressed regret that it took place,’” the BBC quotes him as saying. “‘But there’s a huge volume of science over there – I mean, the IPCC’s fourth assessment report is a massive piece of work – and I think all of what we have said over there is totally valid.’”
Pachauri is in Delhi, India, for an IPCC sustainability conference.
Researchers and others in the climate change field are calling on Pachauri to accept personal responsibility for a significant error that was part of a recent IPCC report on climate change, which stated incorrectly that Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva-based ICVolunteers, which works with some 10,000 volunteers around the world, is running a second photography contest and exhibition following the success of its first one in 2009. The theme is “Diverse Perspectives on the Environment, Citizenship and Volunteering by using an investigative journalistic approach.”
Amateur photographers are invited to submit photos for the group’s gallery exhibit. They will also be used for an upcoming publication and calendar. The winner of the contest will be offered a Nikon digital camera.
Finges/Pfyn forest, above Miege, canton Valais
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Seven new regional nature parks in Switzerland, five of which are in French-speaking areas, now have federal funding that will allow their development to go ahead. The parks cover some of Switzerland’s most beautiful semi-wilderness areas. Le Doubs, for example, has magnificent rivers, canyons, forest and waterfalls but tourism is little developed in the area. The regional park’s fund go to building an infrastructure that adds to the regional economy while protecting the natural environment.
The funding follows the approval of plans earlier in 2009 and negotiations between the cantons and the Federal Office of the Environment (FOEN), Bern announced 1 December.
The parks will receive federal funds worth almost CHF5 million until end 2011.
A regional nature park is one of several categories of park in Switzerland and is defined as “a partly populated rural area, characterized by high nature and landscape values, with buildings and installations that fit harmoniously into the landscape and sites of local character”.
The new parks in the Lake Geneva region include:
Title: Global Challenges at the Intersection of Trade, Energy and the Environment — Graduate Institute and WTO
Location: World Trade Organisation, Room CR1, 154, rue de Lausanne, Geneva, Switzerland
Link out: Click here
Description: Series of conferences organized by the Graduate Institute and WTO on the intersection between trade, energy and the environment
Start Date: 22 Oct 2009
Start Time: 9:15
End Date: 23 Oct 2009
Obligatory registration by Monday, 19 October. Please send an email to souda.tandara@wto.org.
Conference is free.
A handy pocket guide from the Swiss government, published 1 September 2009, with Swiss environmental statistics and information on 17 environmental topics.
Collombey, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The large Tamoil refinery in Collombey, canton Valais, announced Wednesday 10 June that it is closing. Police from the cantons of Valais and Vaud had raided the offices of the refinery 9 June, citing repeated violations of environmental laws.
Libyan-owned Tamoil is one of Switzerland’s major providers of crude oil, importing 2.5 million tons, or 20% of Switzerland’s needs, according to federal government figures in 2008. Oil imports from Libya were halted for several weeks following the July 2008 arrest of Hannibal Qaddafi, the Libyan leader’s son, in Geneva. Relations between the two countries have been tense since then, with two Swiss engineers held in Tripoli, Libya for nearly a year, despite diplomatic efforts that include a visit by Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey in May 2009.
Title: Wood ants in the wild
Location: Parc Jurassien Vaudois
Link out: Click here
Description: The largest wood ant super colony in Europe can be found in this park from Vaud. A one day only display.
Date: 27 Jun 2009
Title: Lake Geneva cleanup
Location: Lake Geneva region
Link out: Click here
Description: A day to clean up Lake Geneva (Lake Leman), followed by activities and possibly even a museum visit. Pick a region and enjoy!
A special Lausanne edition will take place on 20 June as part of earth fest.
Start Date: 20 Jun 2009
End Date: 27 Jun 2009
Title: Guided visits through the arboretum
Location: Aubonne, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: Two weeks of guided, and thematic, visits through the arboretum. Explanations on plants and trees in bloom and children’s activities.
Start Date: 14 Jun 2009
End Date: 28 Jun 2009
Title: Iris flower show
Location: Vulleriens, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: Thousands of iris in bloom are yours for the view. Brunches and other activities are also available. The private gardens are open from Tuesday to Sunday.
Start Date: 17 May 2009
End Date: 28 Jun 2009
