ECB Gives Sweden EUR3 Billion Loan

"The European Central Bank (ECB) stepped in yesterday to help avert a Baltic financial crisis by lending EUR3 billion to the central bank in Sweden, whose banks dominate the region's financial sector. The ECB move signaled the Frankfurt institution's willingness to shore up official European help for countries such as Latvia, which is fighting to avoid a potentially disastrous devaluation of its currency. The EUR3 billion the ECB is supplying to the Riksbank will be used to boost the Swedish central bank's foreign reserves - increasing its firepower to help Swedish private sector banks if necessary...." [Financial Times/Factiva]

AFP adds that "...the move came amid mounting speculation that the financial crisis could force Latvia to devalue its currency, the lat, which is pegged to the euro. This would cause heavy losses for Swedish banks there. The Riksbank had earlier asked to borrow EUR9.2 billion in foreign currency from the Swedish National Debt Office to restore its foreign currency reserve.... Sweden, an EU member, borrowed the money from the ECB even though it is not part of the eurozone...." [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

The WSJ reports that European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Joaquin Almunia "...said Wednesday that the bloc wants to avoid a devaluation of the Latvian currency 'at any price,' while a Swedish regulator said that country's banks were strong enough to withstand a blowout in the Baltic region, where they are heavily exposed. The comments bolstered currencies across Eastern Europe, which had fallen after Latvia last week attempted a failed bond auction and its currency, the lat, came under attack...." [The Wall Street Journal/Factiva]

[Press-releases] Neste Oil’s plans for global leadership in palm oil diesel will drive massive rainforest destruction and climate change

Neste Oil's plans for global leadership in palm oil diesel will drive massive rainforest destruction and climate change

PORVOO, FINLAND – 12 May, 2009: This morning, 32 Greenpeace activists from Finland and Sweden are demonstrating in a palm oil diesel refinery of Neste Oil in Porvoo, Finland, where they hung a banner with the text 'Neste Oil – destroying the rainforests'. Neste Oil, an oil refining company largely owned by the Finnish government, is set - over the next three years - to become the world's largest consumer of palm oil. This expansion will lead to massive deforestation and contribute to global warming.

Palm oil production is the leading cause of deforestation in Southeast Asia; the clearance and burning of rainforests and peatlands for oil palm plantations releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide. As a result, Indonesia is now the third largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world. This rampant deforestation is also pushing species like the orang-utan and the Sumatran tiger to the brink of extinction.

Greenpeace is urging the Finnish government to use its influence to stop Neste Oil using palm oil, and not to subsidise palm oil for fuel in the future. The most significant way to reduce transport emissions is to make cars more energy efficient and to develop a low-energy and low-carbon transport system.

Neste Oil uses palm oil as the main component of the NExBTL-diesel and markets it as an environmentally-friendly alternative to fossil fuels. This 'green' marketing contradicts the warnings that climate scientists issued last year that palm oil grown on deforested land is many times more damaging to the climate than conventional fuels.

The company has publicly announced its plans to dramatically scale up its production and has recently invested in new NExBTL refineries in Finland, Singapore and the Netherlands, due online in 2009, 2010 and 2011 respectively. If these plans go ahead, the company will require at least 1.5 million metric tons of palm oil a year, making it the biggest single consumer of palm oil worldwide. Based on current yields, this increase in demand would require at least 325,000 hectares of oil palm plantations, equivalent to an area significantly larger than Luxembourg.

"Palm oil biodiesel is not a solution to climate change. It actually makes the problem worse if rainforests are cut down to grow the palm oil to fuel our cars. Neste Oil's expansion plans are a major climate threat increasing the pressure for deforestation in Southeast Asia and endangering species like the orang-utan," said Greenpeace Nordic palm oil campaigner, Maija Suomela.

"If the Finnish government is serious about tackling climate change, it must stop investing in forest destruction and instead invest in renewable energy solutions, such as waste-based raw materials, and provide significant funding for rainforest protection."

Neste Oil claims to source all of its palm oil from established plantations in Malaysia. When asked by Greenpeace, the company refused to provide any evidence of traceability in its entire supply chain from the plantation to the refinery. It is also failing to provide any indication of where it intends to source future palm oil supply. The Swedish gas company OKQ8 has already refused to sell Neste Oil's palm oil diesel and a recent trial planned for Stockholm's ferry traffic was cancelled in December.

Greenpeace is calling on Finland to contribute almost € 1 billion every year, by 2020, to developing countries such as Indonesia, so that they can better cope with the effects of climate change and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by protecting forests and developing clean energy supply.

This is its share of € 110 billion that the EU and other rich countries must invest as part of the new global climate deal in Copenhagen, to be agreed at the end of the year.

SWEDEN TOPS UN’S INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT INDEX

SWEDEN TOPS UN'S INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT INDEX
New York, Mar 2 2009 10:00AM

The most advanced nations when it comes to information and communication technology (ICT) are found in northern Europe, with Sweden topping the list, according to a new ranking released today by the United Nations of 154 countries worldwide.

The ICT Development Index (IDI), produced by the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU), compared developments in these countries over a five-year period from 2002 to 2007 using indicators such as households with a computer, the number of Internet users and computer literacy levels.

"The report shows that overall the magnitude of the global digital divide remains unchanged between 2002 and 2007. Despite significant improvements in the developing world, the gap between the ICT haves and have-nots remains," the agency said in a news release.

The research found that the most advanced countries in ICT are from northern Europe, with the exception of the Republic of Korea, which ranks second, followed by Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland and Norway.

These countries are followed by other, mainly high-income countries from Europe, Asia and North America. Western and northern Europe and North America are the regions with the highest IDI scores, and most countries from these regions are among the top 20 ICT economies, according to the ITU.

The agency added that poor countries, in particular the least developed countries (LDCs), remain at the lower end of the index with limited access to ICT infrastructure, including fixed and mobile telephony, Internet and broadband.

Given the close relationship between ICT level and gross domestic product (GDP), many of the poorer countries, especially in Africa, rank further down in the IDI, with little change in ranking since 2002, ITU reported.

Some developing countries, though, have moved up considerably in the Index over the five-year period, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China and Viet Nam, partly due to high mobile cellular growth, coupled with an increase in Internet users.

ITU added that both developed and developing countries have increased their ICT levels by more than 30 per cent over the five-year period, but developing countries are still lagging behind on ICT access and usage.

The data also showed that there has been a clear shift away from fixed to mobile cellular telephone use, and that by the end of 2008, there were over three times more mobile cellular subscriptions than fixed telephone lines globally. Two thirds of those are now in the developing world compared with less than half in 2002.

Also, based on ITU estimates, 23 out of 100 inhabitants globally used the Internet at the end of 2008. But penetration levels in the developing countries remain low, and Africa with 5 per cent penetration is lagging behind. When it comes to broadband penetration, figures are even lower, noted the ITU, the lead UN agency for ICT issues, and the global focal point for governments and the private sector in developing networks and services.
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