The single most significant step we can take in the UK to reduce carbon emission is to make Britain truly energy efficient. With the right policies at national and local levels, we can deploy existing solutions on a scale large enough to bring about real changes.
Perhaps the only problem is deciding where to start. From badly insulated buildings to poorly designed appliances and gas guzzling vehicles, the UK needlessly throws away almost a third of the energy it uses. This is costing us all dearly – damaging the climate and hitting our pockets.
Britain is already committed to a 34 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. This is a big leap from where we are now, but in reality it's unlikely to be a big enough step to stop temperatures rising to levels that result in extreme weather events and droughts. Developed countries like the UK will need to go further.
Possibly the most useful - and least understood - step we could take is to reduce our overall energy demand.
This doesn't have to mean a drop in our living standards - wastefulness is built right into the system we use. Many of our power plants (whatever the fuel type) waste around two-thirds of the energy that goes into them; our homes and offices are poorly insulated; our appliances keep using energy even on standby; our cars use only a fraction of the energy in petrol and diesel... the list is goes on.
Posted by jamie — 1 December 2010 at 12:15pm
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Home sweet home: our London HQ
As organisational director at Greenpeace UK, Matthew Pollitt has the job of making us put our money where our mouth is by improving our environmental performance, and reporting on progress to our supporters.
As a campaigning organisation we measure success in terms of shifts in policy or public perception. Internal efficiency and effectiveness - my responsibilities as organisational director - are quite rightly seen as a means to an end rather than an end in themselves.
Similarly, people don't generally visit the Greenpeace website to learn about what I do. One exception is the interest we get in what we are doing to minimise our own impact on the environment.
Posted by jamie — 22 September 2010 at 1:31pm
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Not all of us can scamper up an oil rig's anchor chain - but we can all come up with ideas, and we need yours asap.
As our occupation of Chevron's massive drill ship goes on, we want a banner slogan from you to explain what our politicians need to do about deep water drilling.
Posted by jamie — 22 September 2010 at 9:45am
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As you probably know by now, the ship our climbers are currently sitting on is the Stena Carron, a 228m drill ship operated by US oil giant Chevron. Texaco, its petrol station subsidiary, is perhaps the name you may be more familiar with, but here are a few facts about the company that you might not know.
Chevron's boss, John S Watson, is a director and member of the executive committee of the American Petroleum Institute (API). The API is a major lobby group funding research which seeks to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change.
Posted by jamie — 9 September 2010 at 3:43pm
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Belatedly, here's a video from the Esperanza featuring climbing superstar Sim, one of the four activists who scaled Cairn Energy's rig last week. As well as revealing Sim's personal reasons for wanting to stop the drilling, there are some spectacular shots from the action itself.
Posted by jossc — 8 September 2010 at 4:55pm
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Great news - Britain's wind farms generated record levels of power on Monday, providing 5 per cent of all power supplied to the National Grid over the course of the day.
The Grid confirmed that 40.5GWh out of a total 809.5GWh was provided by wind farms over the 24-hour period, with wind output peaking at 1,860 megawatts at 8.30pm.
A National Grid spokesperson said that, including direct output from turbines not conected to the grid, "about 10 per cent of total electricity demand would have been met by wind power. It is a pretty big landmark for the industry."
Greenpeace lawyers today revealed they have threatened the UK government with legal action over deep sea drilling in British waters, as four Greenpeace climbers who spent nearly 48 hours in sub zero temperatures on an Arctic oil rig ended their occupation early this morning.
Freezing conditions and strong winds forced the climbers to abandon plans to spend a third day in tents suspended from ropes attached to the underside of the rig, owned by British company Cairn Energy.
