January 2008

As much as any announcement from the EU can generate enormous anticipation, the proposed renewable energy targets for member states has been eagerly awaited by our climate change team. It's been pretty much public knowledge for some time what the target for the UK is expected to be but never the less, being told to produce 15 per cent of our energy from renewable sources by 2020 will necessarily kick-start a clean energy revolution - currently our renewable energy total is less than 3 per cent, just behind Malta in the EU league table.

After eleven days successfully preventing the Japanese whaling fleet from killing whales in the Southern Ocean, the crew of the Esperanza were this morning able to inconvenience them still further by delaying the refuelling of their factory ship, the Nisshin Maru.

Yet more questions have been raised in political circles about biofuel targets. Following last week's statements from the European environment commissioner, Defra's chief scientist and the Royal Society, a parliamentary committee has released its own report which says that pursuing mandatory targets without any form of sustainability criteria attached is not a good idea.

Earlier this week the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) released a report identifying things the public should be doing to limit climate change. Third on the list is to "avoid unnecessary short-haul flights". Apparently we find this hard to do because of "divided consumer attitudes" - ie, we want to have our cake and eat it.

Here's the latest video update from Esperanza, on patrol in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary protecting fin and minke whales from whalers, plus a blog update from Dave, our intrepid onboard webbie:

In the past, I've been a bit sniffy about carbon calculators and have tended to dismiss them, although if I'm honest it's been on principle rather than first-hand experience. From what I've seen, they oversimplify an incredibly complex issue and, as a colleague pointed out, shift the weight of responsibility onto individuals when it should be an energy-efficient government that leads the way.

But then I came across mobGAS, a calculator produced by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre which sits on your mobile phone and allows you to enter daily updates about your energy consumption. Hurray, a new application for me to fiddle with in a borderline obsessive-compulsive manner, and an excuse for a broader look at carbon calculators in general.