co2 emissions
Posted by jossc — 28 May 2008 at 3:39pm
-
Just a quick reminder to everyone who's been supporting the Stop Heathrow expansion campaign - don't forget to come along and add your voice at the Make a NOise carnival this Saturday. Decision time is fast approaching for the government - and they need a major reminder that if they are serious about tackling climate change, then 'NO' is the only sensible answer to the aviation industry's plans for unfettered airport expansion.
Posted by jamie — 27 May 2008 at 5:31pm
-
Protests by lorry drivers in London
and Wales
today show the strength of feeling surrounding fuel prices and, as oil hit
US$135 a barrel last week, they're unlikely to fall anytime soon. Hauliers want
the government to abandon proposed 2p tax increase and so ease the pain, but
that would only be a short-term fix for a long-term problem - what's really
needed is affirmative action on setting minimum fuel efficiency standards for
road transport.
Which is why, if you happened to be in Brussels yesterday morning,
you would have seen a bizarre site - six cavemen and women travelling the
streets in Flintstones-esque car. (Don't believe me? Watch the video.) They
were exposing the stone age thinking (geddit?) of
the car industry who, lead by German car manufacturers, have been stifling
attempts to improve car efficiency and reduce CO2 exhaust emissions for 17
years. First stop was the headquarters of the car manufacturer's lobby group,
the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA), to deliver copies of a new report about the
impact their industry is having on climate change.
Posted by jossc — 21 May 2008 at 4:23pm
-
Drax from a distance: the UK's biggest source of CO2 pollution
Silly question I know. A coal plant is a coal plant is a coal plant - still the dirtiest form of power generation known to us, no matter which way you look at it. But now that more and more people are uneasily waking up to the fact that the government are about to sanction a new generation of the things, suddenly we're knee-deep in spin about how environmentally friendly they could become. How surprising.
First there's been a great slew of CCS 'clean coal' stories. Carbon capture and storage may be theoretically feasible but it's expensive (up to twice the cost of unabated coal), technically complicated (involving deep cooling the CO2 into liquid form and creating a network to pump it out back under the North Sea where our oil and gas reserves originally resided) and commercially untried (so far no one is keen to pay for it themselves).
Posted by jossc — 2 April 2008 at 3:41pm
-
Greetings from the black hole: protesters at Ffos-y-Fran open cast pit in South Wales
Climate change campaigners marked the third annual "Fossil Fool's Day" on Tuesday with a series of protests around the world highlighting the need for us all to reduce the amount of carbon we burn. Here in the UK the focus was very much on coal, and sending a message to ministers that if new coal plants like Kingsnorth are built, they'll ruin any realistic chance that we have of meeting our commitments to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, and represent a devastating failure of the government's resolve to tackle climate change. Key events included:
Posted by jossc — 31 March 2008 at 5:06pm
-
Roll up, roll up! The climate circus is in town.
Confronted with melting ice caps, unprecedented species extinction,
droughts and extreme weather, climate change threatens our very
survival. The fools at the head of the fossil fuel empire continue to
plunder the earth, with the governments as willing court jesters at
their side.
They would have us believe that we can escape
climate change with techno-fixes, market mechanisms and offset schemes
- all technocratic acrobatics that distract us from the truth: the only
real solution to climate change is to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
Actions will be happening all over the world. Here in the UK there'll be a protest against new coal-fired power stations. From 8am London World Development Movement groups are
co-ordinating a protest outside the Department for Enterprise Business and
Regulatory Reform (or Dberr) to laugh at the minister for business, John Hutton.
Hutton is currently set to make a right fool of the government's climate
policy if he signs off on EON's new Kingsnorth power station.
Posted by jossc — 31 March 2008 at 3:55pm
-
Business secretary John Hutton's plans to see a new coal-fired power station under construction this summer suffered a significant setback after E.ON, the company behind the proposed plant at Kingsnorth in Kent, asked him to delay
the decision on whether the plant should be built.
Until now Hutton's Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Dberr) and E.ON had both been pushing for a decision to be made by 'end May 2008 at latest'. According to documents obtained by Greenpeace under the FoI Act, E.ON's plans were so advanced that contractors had already been secured to commence building work 'from summer 2008 on current tenders'.
Posted by jossc — 31 March 2008 at 2:55pm
-
Energy minister John Hutton has been caught trying to sabotage the EU renewable energy targets again. A minister from Hutton's department has been working in Brussels to try and redefine what constitutes 'renewable energy.' After last year's fiasco when Hutton’s department were seen trying to wreck EU renewable targets altogether, now the business minister Lady Vadera has been filmed trying to water them down at an EU energy council meeting.
Posted by jossc — 18 February 2008 at 1:27pm
-
With just over a week to go until the consultation process ends, London mayor Ken Livingstone is keeping up the pressure on the government to abandon plans to build a third runway at Heathrow airport. During a visit to Sipson, one of three villages threatened by the bulldozers if the plans go ahead, Ken said: "It is vital that all airport expansion in London and the South East, including Heathrow, is halted now as it is completely contrary to the growing evidence on the role of aviation in contributing towards catastrophic climate change.
Posted by jossc — 14 February 2008 at 1:34pm
-
A new report published today undermines the economic case for building a third runway at Heathrow Airport. It shows that the Department for Transport (DfT) based part of its case for expansion on an Oxford Economic Forecasting (OEF) study commissioned by BAA, the company who own and manage Heathrow.
Unsurprisingly, the BAA funded study over- estimates the benefits of a third runway, assuming it would generate an extra 3 million business passengers contributing £400 each to the UK economy (making it worth £5billion over 70 years) - the DfT's original estimate was for half a million new business passengers spending around £120 each.
Posted by jossc — 6 February 2008 at 12:31pm
-
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.