Pacific islanders spotlight Czech power plays - Feature

Katerina Zachovalova

Prague - When a small Pacific islanders' country asked the Czech Republic to halt a refit of one of its outdated coal-fired power plants, arguing that it would threaten its existence, the news made international headlines.

But the request by the Federated States of Micronesia earlier this year was really more of a distraction from the real power plays going on in the Czech Republic, officials have said.

Instead, the case is a testimony to domestic political battles before the Czech Republic's May 28-29 general election and to the influence of the country's energy giant, CEZ.

"CEZ is capable of pushing its interests with all political parties. It leads people to say that this is not the Czech Republic but CEZ Republic," political scientist Jan Kubacek, who lectures at Prague's Charles University, told the German Press Agency dpa.

Earlier this week, the energy firm recorded yet another victory.

After numerous delays and one minister's resignation, the Czech Environment Ministry approved the CEZ plan to upgrade the Prunerov II power plant in the country's north - the controversial project opposed by Micronesia and the environmental groups.

"Building these large, inflexible, remotely sited power plants is old thinking. It represents an out-of-date approach to electricity," Walt Patterson, an energy expert at the London-based Chatham House think tank, told dpa.

At the core of the dispute is the planned refit's efficiency and resulting emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. Countries like Micronesia fear the climate change as scientists expect melting ice to raise sea levels and flood such islands.

Prunerov II, in operation since the early 1980s, is the Czech Republic's dirtiest power station in terms of CO2 emissions. In 2008, it belched out 6.4 million tons of the greenhouse gas and ranked the European Union's 43rd biggest emitter, the EU data showed.

CEZ has insisted it is installing technology that would greatly ease air pollution in the plant's vicinity and cut its current CO2 emissions by nearly one third, the company said.

The selected technology, however, would annually emit 205,082 more tons - or 5 per cent - of CO2 than the best technology available for such a refit, found an independent study commissioned by the ministry.

The cleanest option has been out of question for CEZ as it allegedly does not make business sense. It would increase the project's 25-billion-koruny (1.3-billion-dollar) price tag by another 7 billion to 8 billion koruny, a company spokesman said.

CEZ only seldomly loses its battles. Last year, the parliament passed a law under which CEZ gets carbon credits worth 60 billion koruny (3 billion dollars) for free, rather than paying for them to the state.

The company's critics say that CEZ is increasingly confident when approaching politicians.

"In general, CEZ was used to, even in matters that were at odds with existing legislation, approaching us and telling us this is the way it will be," former deputy environment minister for the climate, Ales Kutak, recently told Czech Television.

Kutak was fired shortly before the ministry approved the Prunerov renovation. He said that CEZ already tried to get him sacked, chiefly over his critical stance to the refit, a year ago.

Observers note that the Czech cabinets have been schizophrenic in their dealings with CEZ, in which the state owns a majority stake.

Politicians appear to prefer using the highly profitable company as a public finance cash cow, giving up their voters' interests. Their pre-election promises already count upon rising CEZ profits, based upon upwardly surging household energy prices.

"You can either defend the interests of the public against CEZ or you want high profits that often come at the expense of the citizens," Erik Tabery, the editor-in-chief of the Respekt weekly, told dpa.

But standing up to CEZ rarely reaps political reward.

Jan Dusik, a former environment minister who was nominated to the Czech caretaker cabinet by the Greens, resigned in mid-March rather than saying no to the project fiercely opposed by his party.

He was replaced by Rut Bizkova, a former spokeswoman of CEZ's coal-fired power plants, who gave the project a green light, fired Kutak and dissolved Kutak's climate change department.

Weeks before the polls, the ministry was under tremendous pressure to approve the renovation. The refit even made a list of government- backed projects aimed at creating jobs amid the slacking economy.

"The government included Prunerov in its package to fight unemployment," Tabery said. "CEZ gets anything it sets its eyes on."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/321452,pacific-islanders-spotlight-czech-power-plays--feature.html.

NATO chief fails to win Czech boost in Afghanistan - Summary

Prague - NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen failed on Friday to win over Czechs opposed to deploying more troops in Afghanistan. Rasmussen asked leaders of the largest Czech political parties to send a 19-member air security training team and two medical clinics manned by 32 medical staff.

"I urge all allies, including the Czech Republic, to provide trainers for our training mission," Rasmussen said after meeting the party leaders in Prague.

He said the training mission was key to ending the NATO's Afghan presence. "If we are not willing to do that, then our soldiers will have to stay longer," the NATO chief said.

Rasmussen's plea was in line with a proposal recently put forward by the Czech Republic's caretaker government, which offers to deploy an extra 55 soldiers. But the plan requires approval by parliament, where it faces resistance from leftist parties.

In talks held ahead of a Czech parliamentary election scheduled for May 28-29, Rasmussen failed to persuade the Social Democratic leader, Jiri Paroubek, to contribute the additional troops.

The NATO chief's Prague visit turned into yet another setback to the alliance's efforts in Afghanistan. On February 20, the Dutch government collapsed over NATO's request to prolong that country's mission there.

Paroubek said his party does not wish to pull out the Czech troops, but opposes the contingent's expansion.

"We do not want to increase our contribution," Paroubek told reporters at a joint press conference. "I can imagine that we change the structure of our mission."

Paroubek said that military instructors could replace some of the 535 soldiers approved for Afghanistan for 2010, a proposal which Rasmussen called insufficient. "We also need additional contributions," Rasmussen said.

However, the Social Democratic leader, whose party is currently leading in the opinion polls, hinted that he could revisit his stance after the May election. "We will gladly return to this discussion sometime in the autumn," Paroubek said.

The Czech Republic currently has 466 troops serving with the NATO Afghan mission, according to the Defense Ministry's website.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/312707,nato-chief-fails-to-win-czech-boost-in-afghanistan--summary.html.

Czech zoo hopes to save rare rhinos with Africa move - Feature

Fri, 18 Dec 2009

Prague - A Czech zoo plans on Saturday to move four extremely rare rhinos to a Kenyan reservation in a last-ditch effort to forestall their extinction. The four animals - two males and two females - belong to the northern white rhino subspecies that is presumed to have been wiped out in the wild by poachers.

Only eight, mostly old animals are known to live on earth at the moment - two in the Wild Animal Park in San Diego and six in the Dvur Kralove zoo in the Czech Republic.

The Czech zoo plans to fly the last four fertile northern white rhinos - females Fatu, 9, and Najin, 20, and males Suni, 29, and Sudan, 38 - to the privately-owned Ol Pejeta reservation in central Kenya in the hope that a change in their living environment will trigger their reproduction.

"Every time one was born it was a result of some change," zoo spokeswoman Jana Mysliveckova said.

Breeding the endangered subspecies in captivity has proved a struggle. Only four were born in Dvur Kralove in the north-eastern Czech Republic since the zoo began raising them in 1975. The last offspring was Fatu, born in 2000.

"On average we had one birth per decade. That is no success," said the zoo's chief zoologist, Pavel Moucha.

While in captivity, the females produce insufficient hormones needed for pregnancy. As a result, they are unattractive to the males, he explained.

Even if the animals do mate in captivity, low hormone levels can prevent a fertilized egg from implanting itself in the womb. Repeated attempts at artificial insemination have also failed.

"Assisted reproduction is not going to save this subspecies. It only delays the end," Moucha said.

Zoo officials still harbor hopes that a handful of northern white rhinos in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo have survived poaching, and that they might be brought to the Ol Pejeta conservancy for breeding with the Czech group.

However, trackers failed to confirm the most recent sightings of three animals in Sudan in 2008.

"There are plans for a team to go in next year and try to confirm if there are northern white rhinos," conservancy spokeswoman Elodie Sampere said. "But for the moment we consider them extinct in the wild."

Moucha said it would be a success if the Dvur Kralove animals at least conserve their genes through crossbreeding with 11 southern white rhinos that live in the Ol Pejeta park.

The long journey is planned to start on what promises to be a frosty Saturday morning in Dvur Kralove, where the rhinos are to board heated trucks and be escorted by police to Prague's international airport.

A commercial cargo plane will make a special stop in the Czech capital to pick up the precious load, which should reach its destination around noon on Sunday.

Twenty-degree temperatures, fresh grass, corrals and a fenced-off run are ready for the rhinos at their new home, where they will be monitored and guarded, the zoo said.

It may take up to two years for the newcomers, three of them born in Czech captivity, to fully adjust to the new environment.

But the project also has its critics and opponents. It has sparked a scientific debate worldwide as well as a charged controversy at home.

A group of Czech activists highly critical of the current zoo leadership, Safari Archa 2007, has attacked the transfer as too dangerous for the priceless beasts.

"They take a risk with treasure," activist and former Dvur Kralove zoo employee Roman Komeda said. "Aside from Sudan, the oldest male, these animals have never seen Africa."

The activists fear, Komeda said, that poaching and disease could threaten the new arrivals - claims that are rejected by the zoo.

Some rhino groups, such as the International Rhino Foundation and Save the Rhino, view the Kenyan park as safe for the foursome but are skeptical about whether the move could solve their reproductive problems.

The critics see the project, whose total cost the zoo puts at 300,000 dollars, as a waste of money that could have been used on rhino-saving missions with greater odds of succeeding.

But the zoo officials are unwavering.

"I understand the opponents. It is risky," chief zoologist Moucha said. "But it is the only chance to help these rhinos."

Czech government approves swine flu vaccination for children

Prague - The Czech Republic's caretaker government Wednesday approved an expansion of its voluntary H1N1 flu vaccination program to children between 10 and 17 years of age. Vaccines against the so-called swine flu will be available from next week to some 66,000 children with diagnoses such as chronic heart and kidney disease, cancer and asthma, Health Minister Dana Juraskova said.

Health authorities began vaccinating selected adults against the H1N1 flu last week. However, the interest in the program, which aims to vaccinate one-tenth of the population has been low, the CTK news agency reported on Tuesday.

Many health-care staff declined to be vaccinated, arguing that the program came too late to be effective. To health authorities' frustration, others have feared the vaccine's alleged side effects.

The Czech Republic's swine flu death toll has climbed to 11 as of Wednesday, a spokesman for the Health Ministry said.

Schwarzenberg elected chairman of new Czech party

Prague - Former Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg was elected Saturday chairman of a recently-established pro-European, fiscally-conservative Czech political party. The party, named TOP 09, has a realistic chance to win seats in the Czech Republic's parliament in a general election next year, according to recent surveys.

The surveys showed the party being backed by between 8 to 12 per cent, or above the 5-per-cent threshold required for entering the lower house.

The election, whose date is yet to be set, must take place before June 2010.

Schwarzenberg, 71, is a novice to high-level party politics. He previously earned political posts as a nominee of parties of which he was not a member.

In 2004, he won a Senate seat as a candidate for two now-defunct small centrist parties. The small centrist Greens nominated him to the top job at the foreign ministry in the previous center-right three-party cabinet of ex-premier Mirek Topolanek.

TOP 09 was partially founded by former right-wing members of the country's Christian Democrats who left their former party over disagreements with its left-leaning wing.

Delegates elected former Christian Democratic leader and finance minister Miroslav Kalousek, 48, the party's first deputy chairman.

Three ministers to join Czech interim government

Prague - Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer on Thursday announced the names of three ministers joining his caretaker cabinet expected to lead the Czech Republic until spring 2010. Ambassador to Australia, Juraj Chmiel, 49, is set to take over as European affairs minister from Stefan Fuele, who is the country's candidate for a post at the European Commission.

Lawyer Pavel Zarecky, 69, is to head the cabinet's legislative council, which has been held by Justice Minister Daniela Kovarova.

Their appointments are part of the European Commission nomination deal between the two leading Czech political parties, Mirek Topolanek's centre-right Civic Democrats and the rival Social Democrats of Jiri Paroubek.

Jan Dusik, 34, a deputy environment minister, is to replace Ladislav Miko at the helm of the Environment Ministry, as the outgoing minister plans to return to his job with the European Commission in Brussels.

Fischer's cabinet took over on May 8 with the aim of taking the country to a now-canceled early election in October. Due to the election's cancellation, the government's term has been expanded until the regular election that must take place before June 2010.

President Vaclav Klaus is expected to appoint the new ministers on Monday.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/296495,three-ministers-to-join-czech-interim-government.html.