Posted by jamie — 15 December 2008 at 3:33pm
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Despite the gloom coming out of the EU climate talks at the end of last week (and the non-event that UN discussions on the same topic in Poznan appear to have been), there is one ray of hope shining from Brussels in the form of the Renewable Energy
Target which will set binding goals for EU governments on sourcing energy from
renewable sources.
It's been a tough road, not least because of ex-business
secretary John Hutton's attempts to weaken the deal. Then it looked like some
countries - Italy and Poland
were the ringleaders - were going to knobble the agreement by demanding it be
reviewed in 2014 but a compromise was put forward and a deal has been reached.
Posted by jamie — 12 December 2008 at 9:37am
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If you need some cheering up on this dark, dark afternoon (and who doesn't given the news spilling out of the various climate talks in Brussels and Poznan - I don't think we'll be able to update until next week, but it's not good), try this. An exuberant Hank Green from Ecogeek has done some ad-hoc light bulb testing to show how incandescents, CFLs and LEDs compare. Shame this wasn't done in time for the recent EU vote on light bulbs.
Posted by jamie — 12 December 2008 at 8:36am
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If you've been wondering what's been happening
on the light bulb front since our Woolworths campaign last year (and much as
they were in our bad books, it's sorry to see them go), there's been some developments
on the European stage where politicians have been voting on plans to improve
their efficiency and so reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the EU.
The good news is that, on Tuesday, the EU has
at long last agreed on a ban of inefficient incandescent light bulbs; the somewhat
worse news is that we'll have to wait several years for it to come into full
effect. In the meantime, inefficient bulbs will still be on sale and given the
desperate need to reduce emissions, it's not enough and it's not soon enough.
NGOs across Europe united today to warn their political leaders that
horse trading and diplomatic brinkmanship could destroy a historic package of
measures aimed at tackling climate change.
Representatives from the Climate
Action Network, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth have sent a joint letter to
the heads of Europe's main institutions
demanding that leaders have the courage to face down those countries determined
to massively weaken the climate change deal.
The most recent draft of the
package, if accepted, would result in a totally inadequate
deal:
Posted by jossc — 10 December 2008 at 3:34pm
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Clean coal technology like this is at work right now in a coal-fired power station near you
Energy companies putting in bids to run new coal-fired power stations have been quick to seize upon carbon capture and storage (CCS) as the ideal solution to their biggest problem - explaining why they're so keen to return to using the dirtiest fossil-fuel possible at a time when we need to cut CO2 emissions dramatically to reign-in climate change.
Posted by jamie — 10 December 2008 at 1:38pm
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I've just received an email about this action being spearheaded by the UK Youth Delegation at Poznan. Pick up the phone and make the call!
Right now, Gordon Brown is preparing to meet with other European heads of state to sign a crucial climate change deal. This deal is the first of its kind - and the rest of the world will use this as their example. If it’s not ambitious enough (and all signs point that way) this deal will jeopardise our future.
We have a small window of opportunity to change this.
In the next 24 hours let’s get as many of us as possible to call Gordon Brown and ask him for the strong climate deal that we deserve!
1. Call this number - 0207 930 4433 (No.10 switchboard)
2. Say who you are, where you’re from and ask to leave a message for Gordon Brown
3. The operator will tell you that you can’t leave a message and should
send a letter instead. Tell him/her that this is urgent, and you want
to see Gordon push for a strong climate deal on Thursday
4. Call three friends and get them to call Gordon too
5. Forward this video on to everyone you know
6. Feel warm and fuzzy that you’ve exercised your democratic right!
Posted by jamie — 8 December 2008 at 2:54pm
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The noble art of Google bombing - of making a website rise up the search results by encouraging other websites to link to them in a particular way - is being harnessed by blogs campaigning against new coal-fired power stations, especially Kingsnorth. The idea is to make the No New Coal website appear at the top of the list anytime a search is done for 'Eon' (which is, of course, the company so intent on building a plant at Kingsnorth).
Anyone with a website, blog or profile on the likes of MySpace or Facebook can help out, so if you'd like to help here are the full instructions I purloined from Climate Change Action:
