We will reduce our global warming emissions by 80% – it’s official!..?
July 22, 2009 by Doug Kennedy
BE PREPARED TO PLAY YOUR PART IN REDUCING GLOBAL WARMING GAS EMISSIONS – we are all a part of this do need to act NOW.
The UK Government has now published it’s UK Low Carbon Transition Plan (available free through http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/publications/lc_trans_plan/lc_trans_plan.aspx). For concerned people, it makes exciting reading with it’s 5-point plan, setting out the issues and plans for action.
The Government believes that climate change is a huge threat (and provides evidence) and that the UK can lead the way in protecting us all, preparing for the future in order to limit negative impacts and helping us do our bit. A cynic might say that it was a shame that quite a number of T.Blare’s inspired pronouncements in the 90s were not actually turned into policy or action and 10 years later we are still producing white papers.
I’ve started to read the 228 A4 pages and like the emphasis on getting ground-up movements going, as well as looking at the big picture. It’s also good to see the urgency of the language. A cause for concern is that a great deal of emphasis in the early pages is put on carbon capture and storage as a means of mitigating the effects of burning coal and other fossil fuels. This is because:
A. Carbon capture and storage is not yet an industrial reality and
B. We shouldn’t be burning all that fossil fuel anyway. When you think about it, if this strategy is enacted, we are going to leave a World for the next generation that has CO2 dumps instead of coal, oil and gas and toxic nuclear waste in huge quanities instead of uranium ore.
What is good about this, however, is that the paper does seem to think through how we will get our energy. Let’s hope that it IS acted upon this time, unlike the Energy White Paper of 2001.
Incentives for going green?
July 13, 2009 by Doug Kennedy
Ed Miliband has been on the media quite a lot, treading a tight rope in justifying a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth whilst assuring us that the UK Government wanted to be in the forfront of green energy generation.
Apparently it has been decided that there will be a new pricing structure for electricity that provides incentives for MICROGENERATION – that is, you own some photovoltaic cells or a wind turbine and sell some energy back to the National Grid. The thing that has been holding this up seems to be that big government likes big business, which likes big profits from captive markets, and anyway, if we are all producing our own electricity. how will the government earn tax revenues from it? Collecting VAT is so simple from electricity bills.
The CBI has declared that nuclear and ‘clean’ coal are the prefered route and that wind power should not be backed too heavily. Well, they would say that wouldn’t they? Just look at the profits of the power companies! Nuclear power stations take many years to come online, and the last lot we built were enormously over budget and late. Clean coal power generation does not exist yet. If they are prepared for us to invest in such developing technologies, why not cheap and easy microgeneration and ultra-low emissions cars? Because these technologies could stop them being able to bill us for large amounts of money.
We do need a mix of energy, but in order to get there, we need an ENERGY POLICY – no-one makes progress and changes things without a plan in the real world. Sadly, that does not exist.
However, we can look forward to announcements that should make it possible to install and run technologies and sell power back to the grid – I will be looking into this with interest and am ready to pass on what I find out to you. Whether it will go far enough to bring us up to speed with Germany, Denmark and Bangladesh is another matter.
Green Britain Day…?
July 9, 2009 by Doug Kennedy
Energy company EDF have announced that Friday July 10th is Green Britain Day. Others, including some energy companies, have denounced this as GREENWASH, that is marketing under the ‘green’ banner with no intention of backing it up with appropriate action. Tim Smit (CEO of The Eden Project) says that it has value, that it is about “small cultural changes that people are happy to make, but that collectively make a big difference.” Such as, if everyone turned their computer off for a day, it would save millions of tons of CO2.
Whether it is valid ‘Day’ or not, the key word is CULTURAL. We all want life to go on as it is, and to only get better. The problem is that ‘better’ usually translates into more consumption and more travel; at least that is the case since the war… well, actually since the industrial revolution. The environmental problems that are likely to spoil the future are in our minds and in our faces. Last evening, I was at a meeting of Support Aylesbury Vale Environment, came home to a TV programme about how Britain is well behind the curve on the environment, followed by a 10pm News item on The Age Of Stupid, followed at 10:30 by the Dimbleby lecture which was Prince Charles talking about the challenge of the future. In ALL of these the same question was asked:
What will make the human race take on the environmental challenges that face us?
It is a question of BELIEF which is sufficient to lead to a change of behaviour. We (most of us anyway) believe that something needs to be done, so instead of being cynical about ‘Green Britain Day’, why not make a start? Treat Friday July 10th as Tim Smit suggests and make a difference.
And here’s a thought for you that still amazes me -How many miles do you have to do in your car to emit 1 kilogramme of CO2?
I get 50 mpg in mine, so that equals about 140 grammes per kilometre, or 1 kilogramme per 6 miles.
Just how stupid are we?
July 8, 2009 by Doug Kennedy
It is now 9 months since I presented the idea of ‘Carbon-Neutral Cuddington’ to the Cuddington Parish Council and, I’m afraid to say, I have little progress to report. There was a flurry of interest and activity when the village was in the running for the national village of the year competition, but since then we have aborted a group meeting and participation has been minimal.
It seems that throughout the UK, with certain noble exceptions, ‘The Environment’ is seen as a bore. People do a bit of recycling, often complaining that it’s probably a waste of time as ‘it all goes to China anyway’, and may install a few lightbulbs. But if one suggests putting in some serious effort, or changing the way things are done, or heaven forbid, some expense, then the look goes blank with incomprehension. People can get quite emotional about their ‘right’ to have as big an environmental footprint as they want.
Many people acknowledge that there IS a problem, but usually say that they believe there will be a technical fix that will rescue the situation…. IF Global Warming is a reality of course. (It is, by the way.)
The local hall was full for a showing of the film ‘The Age Of Stupid’ the other night, in which the question was asked, why didn’t the known threat of global warming in the first decade of the new millenium provoke a ‘Dunkirk spirit’? Why didn’t people take on the challenge and start to behave as if there were a threat to their entire planet and to their grand-childrens’ entire existence?
This is the question that is vexing me. Al Gore says that it is because we lack the political leadership to take the challenges on, and I agree with him. People seem unlikely to demand that leadership is shown on the environment whilst it remains more comfy to continue with business as usual.
Political leadership is at every level. A few of us around here are trying to kick start the process, but are currently kicking a lead football, and it hurts.