Director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center Bjorn Lomborg addresses the APEC CEO Summit in Singapore November 14, 2009.

NEW YORK | Thu Mar 14, 2013 6:58pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Danish economist who gained fame as a skeptic of risks posed by global warming but now calls for international efforts to deal with it said the European Union should not approve a proposal to boost the price of carbon permits because that would not reduce emissions globally.

"Propping the price of carbon permits is wrong," said Bjorn Lomborg, director of Copenhagen Consensus Center, a think tank, and an adjunct professor at Copenhagen Business School. He said higher carbon prices would damage the EU economy and would not help to achieve any significant climate goals.

The price of European Union allowances for carbon emissions (EUAs) has tumbled about 60 percent in four months, as slowing industrial activity caused an excess of allowances.

But the benchmark contract rose more than 5 percent on Thursday to 3.70 euros a metric ton (1 metric ton = 1.102 tons), after the European Parliament signaled it favored a plan to prop up the price.

"The carbon price is low because we have had a big economic crisis so actually we are doing what the EU has promised to do, which is cutting the carbon emissions by 20 percent," Lomborg said. "Wanting a higher carbon price is wanting to cut more than 20 percent. It is just pushing the policy goal which seems a little bit arbitrary at best."

Lomborg spoke to Reuters late on Wednesday during an interview in New York during a U.S. trip to testify on climate policy before a Congressional panel. He has been named 'one of the 50 people who could save the world' by UK newspaper the Guardian and one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world.

The EU considers current prices for carbon permits too low to drive investments in clean energy to help cut greenhouse gas emissions. It plans to withdraw allowances from the market temporarily, a move known as backloading.

Lomborg's 2001 best-seller 'The Skeptical Environmentalist' suggested that many warnings about the dangers of global warming were overdone. The book drew praise from industry groups and opponents of greenhouse gas emissions limits, and criticism from many environmental groups and climate scientists.

In a more recent book, "Smart Solutions to Climate Change: Comparing Costs and Benefits," Lomborg called for a global tax on carbon dioxide emissions to fund $100 billion in new investment annually for clean energy development, climate engineering and infrastructure such as sea walls to deal with damage from rising sea levels and other effects of climate change.

The economist, whose Copenhagen Consensus think tank studies ways for governments and philanthropists to spend aid and development money, agreed with economists who put the social cost of carbon at around $5 per metric ton.

"If you want to do it right you should get it at about $5 not 20 euros ($25.96) and also you should recognize it only really makes sense if you get the rest of the world on board," he said.

EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard has said that while the 27-nation bloc is on track to meet its 2020 target to cut greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent below 1990 levels, low carbon prices risk slowing investments needed to help meet the aim of cutting emissions at least 80 percent by 2050.

Last week, Hedegaard said that once the EU has reached agreement on a short-term fix to prop up prices, it is also likely to start work on overhauling the world's biggest carbon market.

A DIFFERENT APPROACH

The benchmark contract for European Union carbon futures surged as much as 20 percent on Thursday, after the European Parliament signaled its intention to back a plan to rescue the emissions trading system. The contract retreated from its session high to post a 5.6 percent daily.

The EU carbon permits system caps the emissions of more than 11,000 power stations, factories and airlines, which collectively are responsible for around 40 percent of the EU's greenhouse gases blamed for warming the planet.

Lomborg says the EU should focus instead on different policies to help solve the environmental issue, because the lack of a global agreement simply moves emissions from regions regulated by a carbon scheme to those which are not subject to such regulation, an effect known as carbon leakage.

Almost 200 countries have pledged to strike a deal at the U.N. to cap emissions from 2020 but admit this falls short of what scientists say is required to prevent more floods, droughts and rising sea levels.

China, the world's biggest emitter, is testing several local carbon markets to rein its greenhouse gas output and expects to have a national scheme ready later this decade.

"All the EU has managed to do is to hurt its own economy a little bit, reduce its own emissions a little bit, shift most of the production to China and elsewhere and virtually no impact on a global level: that's a bad policy all around," Lomborg said, while also criticizing the validity of the proposed Chinese scheme.

He said the solution to climate change lies in boosting investment in research to make green technology cheaper, as this would incentivize everyone to switch from fossil fuels to carbon-free emissions.

"You should also realize that there is a very obvious alternative in the short run which is gas fracking. Through fracking the U.S. has reduced its carbon emissions twice as much as what the rest of the world has managed to do," Lomborg said.

"And where Europe is paying for it, the US consumers are making billion of dollars in cheaper gas prices."

U.S. natural gas production has soared and prices have fallen on the back of technological advances in fracking, which involves injecting water and chemicals to fracture rock formations and unlock deposits that are untappable by conventional means.

Switching from coal to natural gas has been one of the main reasons for a big drop in America's carbon emissions from energy in the last few years but some environmental groups have taken a hard line against fracking, saying it has the potential to pollute drinking water supplies. ($1 = 0.7704 euros)

(Editing by David Gregorio)

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U.S. President Barack Obama (R) salutes as he returns via Marine One from a Christmas visit with his family in Hawaii, to the White House in Washington, December 27, 2012.

WASHINGTON | Sun Dec 30, 2012 11:57am EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast on Sunday he hopes to get new U.S. gun control measures passed during the first year of his second term and is skeptical of a proposal by the National Rifle Association (NRA) gun lobby to put armed guards in schools.

Obama assigned Vice President Joe Biden to lead a task force to come up with proposals on guns at the beginning of 2013 after the massacre of 20 children and six adults by a gunman at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, this month.

"I'd like to get it done in the first year. I will put forward a very specific proposal based on the recommendations that Joe Biden's task force is putting together as we speak. And so this is not something that I will be putting off," Obama told NBC's "Meet the Press" in an interview taped on Saturday.

"I am not going to prejudge the recommendations that are given to me. I am skeptical that the only answer is putting more guns in schools. And I think the vast majority of the American people are skeptical that that somehow is going to solve our problem," he said.

The influential NRA has said new gun laws are not a good answer and has called for some form of armed guards to be present in all U.S. schools.

Obama, who said the shooting was the worst day of his presidency, attended a memorial service for the Newtown victims and promised he would take swift action to prevent further massacres like that one from being repeated.

The president has faced criticism for failing to take on the gun lobby after other mass shootings that have occurred during his time in office. While bristling at the criticism, the president has indicated that this time something will get done.

"I'm going to be putting forward a package and I'm going to be putting my full weight behind it. And I'm going to be making an argument to the American people about why this is important and why we have to do everything we can to make sure that something like what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary does not happen again," he said in the interview.

"And the question then becomes whether we are actually shook up enough by what happened here that it does not just become another one of these routine episodes where it gets a lot of attention for a couple of weeks and then it drifts away. It certainly won't feel like that to me."

Gun control is a divisive issue in the United States, where the right to bear arms is enshrined in the Constitution, and the NRA has significant political sway.

Proponents of tighter gun laws hope that not having to run for re-election again will give Obama a strengthened hand, but any legislative measures would have to pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, which has been reluctant to support initiatives proposed by the Democratic president.

(Editing by Sandra Maler)

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Germany's Katrin Holtwick takes part in a practice session with kinesio tape on her stomach at the Olympic beach bolleyball main court at the Horse Guards Parade in London July 26, 2012.

LONDON | Wed Aug 1, 2012 2:38pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - German beach volleyball player Ilka Semmler wears it on her buttocks - in pink. Swedish handball player Johanna Wiberg prefers it in blue from her knee to her groin. British sprinter Dwain Chambers has even worn it with a Union Jack design.

Athletic tape made in every color under the sun seems to be the latest must-have sports injury treatment at London 2012, where athletes may have been influenced by other big name tape fans such as Serena Williams and David Beckham.

Called Kinesio tape and developed by a Japanese doctor more than 30 years ago, the adhesive strapping is designed to provide muscle and joint support without restricting movement.

According to Kinesio's product website, it is also designed to be used with a particular taping technique - a skill practitioners need to learn on a special training course.

More than 4,000 people in Britain are now trained in the art of Kinesio taping, it says, and many of them look after some of the country's top sportsmen and women.

But does it really work?

Compared with the abundance of its use, rigorous scientific research on Kinesio tape is scant. But a handful of research papers suggest its ability to relieve pain or improve muscle strength is limited.

"Kinesio tape may be of some assistance to clinicians in improving pain-free active range of movement immediately after tape application for patients with shoulder pain," wrote scientists in one study published in the Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physiotherapy.

But the researchers added their findings did not support the use of Kinesio tape for decreasing pain intensity or disability in patients with shoulder problems.

SCIENTIFICALLY SUPPORTED?

In a review of all the scientific research so far, published in the Sports Medicine journal in February, researchers found "little quality evidence to support the use of Kinesio tape over other types of elastic taping in the management or prevention of sports injuries".

Kevin Anderson, managing director of Kinesio UK, which supplies the tape in Britain and trains people in how to apply it, says the scientific research has yet to catch up with what athletes and physiotherapists say about the tape's benefits.

"There's a lot more needed on the research side to confirm the positive results we're seeing so far," he told Reuters.

"There's nothing magical in the tape, it certainly can't improve your performance or make you into Superman, but the way people use the tape is to lift the skin, reduce the pressure and that helps relieve pain and swelling."

Whatever the science, German beach volleyball player Sara Goller sported two long pink strips of the tape on her left leg during matches on Tuesday, while her partner Laura Ludwig had two vertical blue strips on her stomach.

"I don't really mind the color, it's more about what it does. It can release or put tension on a muscle, it depends on what you want. Our physio is really good at doing it," Goller told Reuters.

FADS, FASHIONS AND PLACEBOS

John Brewer, a professor of sports science at Britain's University of Bedfordshire, remains doubtful.

"As a scientist, I'm still not convinced about the underlying mechanisms," he told Reuters, voicing skepticism about the supposed 'lifting' effect and the ability of tape applied to the skin to enhance the performance of muscles deep inside the body.

Steve Harridge, a professor of human and applied physiology at King's College London, said many athletes appeared to be wearing tape even when they had no injury, possible hoping for some preventative or enhancing effect.

"It may be a fashion accessory, and it may be just one of those fads that come along from time to time, but to my knowledge there's no firm scientific evidence to suggest it will enhance muscle performance," he told Reuters.

Both scientists agreed, however, that there may be a benefit, in the form of the placebo effect.

"The fact that athletes think it's going to do them some good can help in a psychological way," said Harridge.

An effective placebo, Brewer said, "could make all the difference between success and failure".

(Additional reporting by Ross Chainey, Thomas Pilcher and Nigel Hunt, editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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