Domestic UNFCCC Kyoto Protocol Mechanisms Project Supply Coordination Through Tendering – Lessons from the New Zealand Experience

A United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Joint Implementation (JI) host country has to make sure that JI projects are additional to avoid extra costs to generate the reductions necessary to cover the deduction of Emission Reduction Units (ERUs) from the country’s Kyoto Protocol emissions budget. A tender of ERUs by the government allows to generate additional reductions beyond the ERUs issued if it thoroughly checks project additionality. The government of New Zealand is running a tender for JI projects under the title “Projects to Reduce Emissions” since 2003. In two rounds, 10 million ERUs have been awarded and several projects have already entered into contracts with European buyers. The ratio of ERUs awarded to reductions achieved was 0.8 in the second tender. However it remains to be seen whether the additionality test of this tender is sufficient to exclude clearly non-additional projects.     

Transabdominal chorionic villus sampling in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy: Chromosome quality,reporting time,and feto-maternal bleeding

Transabdominal chorionic villus sampling (TA-CVS) was performed in 210 pregnancies from 13 to 38 weeks using a double-needle technique. The sampling success was comparable to first-trimester TA-CVS and the diagnostic success rate was 98.2 per cent for the short-term technique and 99.3 per cent for cultured villi. Two fetuses could not be karyotyped. We found the chromosome quality to be similar to that in the first trimester, comparing the number of G-bands and other chromosome attributes. There were no unintended losses in a group (n = 142) with no sonographic abnormality, except for one death in utero at 38 weeks, 20 weeks after sampling. Chromosomal aberrations were seen in 19 per cent of cases with abnormal sonograms (n = 58). One case of a discordant karyotype was found (false-negative prediction of Down's syndrome by the short-term preparation). There were no cases of fetal demise due to feto-maternal bleeding. It is suggested that double-needle TA-CVS in advanced pregnancies combines the advantages of rapid karyotyping of chromosomes of good quality and low risk for the fetus, and seems to be easier to practise and is probably safer than cordocentesis.     

Prenatal diagnosis of a fetus with terminal deletion of chromosome 1 (q41)

Many authors have suggested that individuals affected by a terminal 1q deletion display a phenotypically definable and recognizable syndrome. In all of the 27 cases reported to date, the breakpoints were at band q42 or distally to it. To our knowledge, we report the first case of a terminal 1q41 deletion. Diagnosis was made prenatally by amniocentesis, following ultrasonographic diagnosis of omphalocele, cerebral ventriculomegaly, and increased nuchal fold thickness in a 19-week female fetus. Multiple facial and extremity features were consistent with the proposed distal 1q deletion syndrome; omphalocele, however, has not been reported previously. The absence of liver herniation into the omphalocele sac in this case supports the previously reported association of this finding with chromosomal anomalies.     

Selective survival of only the healthy fetus following prenatal diagnosis of thalassaemia major in binovular twin gestation

Selective feticide is the procedure of choice when, in twin binovular pregnancy, only one of the fetuses is shown to be affected. As the probabilities for this condition are almost 1:2 when the genetic disease is due to homozygosity for two autosomal recessive genes, the problem is expected to occur frequently among the ever increasing number of couples seeking prenatal diagnosis of thalassaemia and the haemoglobinopathies. The present report is the first case of this condition and the ninth in the overall medical literature.     

First-trimester prenatal diagnosis in quintuplets: A practical approach using step-by-step embryo reduction

A multiple pregnancy of high rank may occur in a couple at risk for a Mendelian disorder. Prenatal diagnosis is hampered by the difficulty of (1) obtaining chorionic villi from each zygote arid (2) unequivocally relating each sample to the corresponding embryo. The calculation of the genetic risk according to the number of zygotes led us to propose a diagnostic strategy based on embryo reduction, a technique initially designed to improve the perinatal outcome of multiple pregnancies with normal embryos. We report a case in which this approach allowed rational use of first-trimester chorionic villus sampling in a quintuplet pregnancy at risk for non-ketotic hyperglycinaemia, resulting in the selective birth of unaffected twins.