September 2008

Greenpeace saying Yes to the new high speed rail link to Europe last November © Rose/Greenpeace

We've been hearing likely sounding noises for a while now but today, the Conservatives have formally announced that they'd say no to a third runway at Heathrow, and yes to a high speed rail link between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds instead.

And so I find myself a bit befuddled to be wholeheartedly agreeing with a Tory party spokesperson, Theresa Villiers. She said:

A screengrab from our virtual, climate-friendly town, EfficienCity

With the UK government apparently bending over backwards to stop renewable energy development at the moment, it's refreshing to hear some good news from elsewhere in Europe; the world's first commercial wave power farm has gone live in Portugal.

Catch them while you can - endangered bluefin tuna © Greenpeace/Gavin Newman

When we said a few weeks ago that customers of the Nobu chain of high-class sushi restaurants wouldn't be aware that the bluefin tuna being served there was endangered, we never thought they would respond to our complaint in quite such a literal manner. But now diners can clearly see which dishes include tuna from endangered stocks because it's written on the menu. As reported in the Sunday Telegraph and as a result of Greenpeace's investigative work and subsequent discussions with Nobu, customers at the up-market eatery will now be able to clearly identify the endangered species on the menu.

There are a few interesting stories about Kingsnorth on the web today:

The Independent reveals that the cabinet is split over the Kingsnorth decision: "John Hutton, the Business Secretary, wants to approve the project even if it is not chosen for an experiment in which its carbon emissions would be "captured" and stored under the sea. But his position is strongly opposed by Hilary Benn, the environment secretary, and his predecessor David Miliband, now the foreign secretary."

Across the pond meanwhile, Al Gore has renewed his call for young people to engage in civil disobedience over new coal plants, saying: "If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration".

Last but by no means least, the Kingsnorth Six have made it into the New York Times. Happy reading.

Some great news has come in from Greenpeace lobbyists at the European Parliament, where the EU environment committee have given the thumbs up to reducing CO2 emissions produced by cars.

The group of MEPs resisted efforts by German car manufacturers to weaken down the proposals and have recommended that by 2012 all new cars should emit no more than 130g of CO2 per km (the current EU average is 158g). Even those this doesn't match the 120g level we and other groups were proposing, this is a big turnaround as when the committee went into session, it seemed certain a compromise package riddled with loopholes would get the nod.

Just under a year ago, we revealed that Gordon Brown was planning to scupper the vital, and binding, European climate change deal to generate 20 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2020.

A brouhaha ensued; EU leaders were so furious at the UK's underhanded shenanigans that a red-faced Brown had to explicitly re-commit to the target soon afterwards.

Well, leaked documents (pdf) show it's happened again. This time, the man weilding the wrecking ball is John Hutton, the Business Secretary with an inordinate fondness for coal and nuclear power.