Posted by bex — 12 December 2007 at 4:49pm
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Some bad news from our Nordic office: around 4000 tonnes of raw oil has leaked into the North Sea, in the second largest oil spill in Norwegian history.
25,000 barrels-worth of oil leaked into a key herring and mackerel ground and is now drifting northwards. The waves are too high for any oil lenses to work, and a lot of the oil's being washed underwater.
The accident happened when a pipe broke during the loading of oil from the Statfjod A platform in bad weather.
"Today we are at the crossroads; one path leading towards a comprehensive new climate agreement, and the other towards oblivion."
And until yesterday, things were pottering along OK at the Bali negotiations. We were waiting for ministers from around the world to inject a sense of urgency into the negotiations, and to secure the much-needed commitments for industrialised countries to cut emissions by 25 to 40 per cent by 2020, and for all countries to halve emissions by 2050.
Responding to the news that the UK government is set to commit £15m to a World Bank scheme which aims to reduce tropical deforestation, John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK said:
"It would be unthinkable for the next phase of the Kyoto protocol not to address tropical deforestation, which is one of the biggest drivers of climate change. But world leaders can't use this as an excuse to avoid slashing emissions in their own countries - we urgently need to do both.
The government was today issued with a fresh legal threat from Greenpeace over a
new fleet of nuclear power stations.
Greenpeace
lawyers have contacted the government, saying "it would not be lawful" for the government to make a decision in favour of building new nuclear power stations.
Posted by jamie — 10 December 2007 at 3:59pm
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When you make a mistake, you tend to learn from the experience so you can avoid making similar blunders in the future. Not so the current government which, if it backs a new generation of nuclear power stations, could once again find itself at odds with the law.
Back in February, we took the government to the High Court over its first attempt to hold a public consultation on the future of nuclear power. The court found in our favour, ruling that the consultation was "unlawful" and "seriously flawed". It forced ministers back to the drawing board for a second consultation but once again it's been shaped and guided by a predetermined outcome: the UK will have new nuclear power stations. Members of the public who attended the consultation meetings posted messages on this site about how they felt attendees were lead into finding in favour of nuclear power.
We're used
to having some unusual people descending on our offices, but today's visit by
David Cameron and several other members of the shadow cabinet is the most
leftfield (or should that be rightfield?) visitation for some time. But they were
here to launch a new policy that uses many of our own demands for renewable
energy, a vital component in the struggle to limit the impacts of climate
change.
