climate change

Visit EfficienCity, our climate friendly town

If a picture speaks a thousand words, a multimedia-packed, animation-filled interactive town must speak a million. Which is why we've launched EfficienCity - to explain exactly what decentralised energy is and how it works in practice (which can otherwise be a wordy business).

Following the disclosure last week that power-generating company Eon has been negotiating behind the scenes to get the government's backing to build the UK's first new coal-fired power station for 30 years, Greenpeace's lawyers have written to the energy minister, John Hutton, to insist that the government hold a public inquiry.

You wouldn't necessarily expect the Financial Times, that bible of the corporate world and the money markets, to be a champion of environmental causes but they've been upping the ante on renewable energy, specifically wind power.

This week, they've been publishing a series of articles and news reports on the UK wind farm industry and they've been particularly critical of how various government policies, which were put in place to encourage the development of renewable energy industries, are actually having the opposite effect. It has been scathing about the renewables obligation, a mechanism which has all of us paying extra on our energy bills to subsidise new projects such as wind farms.

Climate campaigner talks to the coal conference organiser

Update: Now with video.

Well, it's all been going on at our barricade of the government / coal industry shindig. This morning, an interested - and vaguely familiar looking - passer-by stopped to have a chinwag with with the volunteers chained to the barricades. After a 10 minute chat about climate change, coal, and climate change's impacts on disease migration, the passer-by wished everyone luck and wandered off.

There's still time to let the government know how you feel about BAA's plans to build a third runway at Heathrow Airport, but the consultation process end on the 27th February so time is running out. If you live in London you can make your voice heard at the public meetings listed below.

As one fossil fuel giant sidelines its alternative energy projects and invests in even more damaging technologies such as tar sands, the former head of another multinational has made some startling demands vis a vis car efficiency. To all intents and purposes, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart- ex-chairmen of Shell - wants to see all gas guzzlers banned.

Expanding on a column he wrote for the BBC website, Sir Mark said that the EU should bring in a minimum standard of 35 miles per gallon (mpg). "Nobody needs a car that does 10-15mpg," he said. "We need very tough regulation saying that you can't drive or build something less than a certain standard. You would be allowed to drive an Aston Martin - but only if it did 50-60mpg."

Coal UK: cancelled due to climate change

This morning, energy minister Malcolm Wicks made his way to Lord's Cricket ground in London to deliver the opening speech for the coal industry's annual shindig.

He was expecting, we assume, to evangelise on the glorious future of coal in the UK, to the rapt and thunderous applause of his chums in the industry.

He probably wasn't expecting to find two metre fences blocking four of the entrances to the industry-government love-in, complete with climate change campaigners chained to the barricades.