The Committee on Climate Change has called for a massive roll-out of electric vehicles and a revolution in home energy efficiency as part of a ‘step change’ to meet carbon budgets.
In its first annual report to Parliament, the committee reported that greenhouse gas emissions are falling at an average of 0.5% per annum, but cuts of 2-3% are required to meet targets.
The economic downturn is likely to have produced an emissions cut of 2% in 2008, but the committee warns that ‘recession-induced reductions must not be confused with underlying progress’.
It calls for the introduction of 240,000 electric cars and plug-in hybrids by 2015, and 1.7m by 2020, supported by appropriate charging infrastructure. The Government should also commit to a phased roll-out of ‘smarter’ travel towns and cities to encourage more public transport use, based on the success of the sustainable travel town projects – in Darlington, Worcester and Peterborough – in reducing emissions.
In addition, a new strategy is required to ensure land use planning decisions fully reflect implications for transport emissions. For example, promoting urban regeneration rather than moving populations away from urban areas would reduce emissions. This especially applies to the Government’s plans to build 3m new homes by 2020. The committee says the transport proposals, which also include road pricing, would result in a 25% emissions reduction on 2007 levels by 2020.
Meanwhile, energy efficiency in homes could be improved by 35% by 2020 with improved insulation, the installation of 12m energy efficient condensing boilers and improvements in electrical appliance efficiency.
But this would require a shift from the existing Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) approach in which electricity companies meet their supplier obligation through specific measures. Whole house approaches and street-by-street approaches involving councils and energy companies within a strategy defined by the Government are likely to be required.
Lord Turner, chair of the CCC said: ‘With the carbon budgets in place, we now need to achieve a step change in the pace of emissions reduction.
‘The Government needs to build on its “Low Carbon Transition Plan” and put in place a comprehensive delivery framework. What we have proposed is achievable and affordable but action needs to be taken now if we are to make our contribution to combating climate change.’
Read full story at localgov
Climate change committee demands 'step change'
Climate change delivers a boost to marine industry
A positive effect of climate change that is helping to support the £30 million scallop industry has been revealed by new research.
Ocean warming in UK waters is increasing stocks of the great scallop Pecten maximus, according to the study published in the journal Marine Biology.
However the researchers have warned that further rises in water temperatures could have the opposite effect on scallops and better management of these fisheries is needed to protect sensitive seabed habitats.
The findings have emerged from the analysis of 20 years of data by scientists at Bangor University and the Universities of York and Liverpool.
Dr Bryce Beukers-Stewart, from the University of York’s Environment Department, said: “It’s great to provide some good news about one of our fisheries for a change. However, scallop fisheries are difficult to manage and have a history of boom and bust around the world.
“We must ensure this valuable resource is fished in a way that maximises yields and reproduction to ensure healthy stocks in the future.”
Dr Samuel Shephard, who led the analysis and is now at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, said: “Temperature can be a strong driver of growth and reproduction in scallops, and this was expressed across almost two decades of ocean warming. It was disconcerting to see first-hand how climate change may affect important fisheries.”
The study focused on the scallop fishery around the Isle of Man which has been surveyed since 1990. It found that numbers of young scallops each year were, on average, positively related to water temperature in the spring when they were spawned. The gonads of adult scallops were also larger, indicating higher egg production, in warmer years.
While the research suggests that climate change is helping support scallop populations they face other pressures including dredging on sensitive seabed habitats.
Professor Mike Kaiser, from the School of Ocean Science at Bangor University, said: “The scallop industry in the UK has the potential to be even more valuable in the future, but this will only happen if European and national legislation is introduced to control effort and to deal with the issue of latent capacity in the fleet. These climate-related benefits could easily be erased by an uncontrolled increase in landings and fishing activity.”
A continued growth in ocean temperatures and greenhouse gas emissions, raising the acidity levels of the water, could also eventually affect the ability of scallops to form proper shells and cause widespread mortality.
Read full story at clickgreen
George Soros pledges $1bn to search for clean energy
Billionaire financier and philanthropist George Soros has pledged to invest more than $1bn (£625m) of his own money in clean energy technology to tackle climate change. Speaking in Copenhagen on Saturday evening, the Hungarian-born Soros also announced the foundation of the Climate Policy Initiative, which he will fund with $10m annually for the next decade.
Soros, ranked the world's 29th wealthiest individual by Forbes magazine, said: "There is no magic bullet for climate change, but there is a lethal bullet: coal." Soros, who already holds limited investments in clean coal technology ventures, explained he would apply "stringent conditions" to the disbursement of the $1bn. "I will look for profitable opportunities, but I will also insist that the investments make a real contribution to solving the problem of climate change."
The Climate Policy Initiative, formally launched in Berlin next month, would focus on the efficacy and implementation of policy, said Soros, "to protect the public interest against special interests". The new global climate watchdog will be based in San Francisco and headed by Stanford professor Thomas Heller.
Soros's speech at the Project Syndicate editors' forum came a day after climate talks in Bangkok ended in deadlock and 57 days before world leaders gather in the Danish capital to thrash out a new climate agreement. Soros said: "Global warming is a political problem. The science is clear; what is less clear is whether world leaders will demonstrate the political will necessary to solve the problem."
Soros revealed that he had been converted to the cause of tackling climate change by former US vice-president Al Gore. While he lacked any scientific expertise, he said, "the one thing I have is the ability to put money to work".
Soros's intervention came as pressure mounted on national leaders to attend the Copenhagen talks in person. The former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, Danish prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and Nicholas Stern, author of a review into the economics of climate change, all urged heads of government to attend. "This is about the future of government-level commitment," Stern said. "It is very important that the heads of government are there."
Read full story at The Guardian
Caritas report calls for new global ethic on climate change
Caritas is calling for a fresh approach to tackling climate change in a new report Climate Justice: Seeking a new global ethic. The harsh effects of climate change are already becoming a daily reality to poor communities in many of the 200 countries Caritas Internationalis works. It is undermining the humanitarian and development work of its 164 members and threatens to increase the number of emergencies in the future.
Climate Justice: Seeking a new global ethic goes beyond the science of climate change to focus on the ethical, moral and theological dimensions of the crisis. In view of the Copenhagen climate summit in December, the report urges governments to adopt an effective legal binding agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions and increase financial and technological aid for poor countries so they can adapt to harsher climatic conditions. The report recognises that poor countries need support to be able to develop in a sustainable way that will not further impact climate change. Beyond Copenhagen, the report looks for seismic shifts in daily lifestyle patterns that will be central to combating climate change.
Caritas Internationalis President Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga said, “The new report, Climate Justice: Seeking a new global ethic, develops clear moral arguments based on the Bible and Catholic Social Teaching that seek to transcend narrow personal and national interests in favour of the common good and that will drive political and social action.
“UN climate change talks in Copenhagen in December will offer a once in a generation opportunity for world leaders to take the necessary action to respond to climate change challenges. The science and economics of what must be done are clear, but for any new deal to be a success it must lead to more moderate lifestyles for us all.
Report highlights: The suffering that is already taking place as a result of extreme weather events; theological, moral and ethical arguments relating to climate change; how the devastating effects of climate change are being dealt with; what Caritas Internationalis is calling for at the global level, regional level, national level and individual level to campaign for real and effective change.
Read full story at alertnet
Anaerobic digesters will help tackle climate change, say Government advisors
The UK can reduce emissions from buildings and industry if it increases its use of renewable heat technologies including biogas from landfills and anaerobic digesters, according to Government advisors.
The Committee on Climate Change has published its report Meeting Carbon Budgets – the need for a step change.
In the report it states that increased deployment of renewable heat should aim at meeting carbon budgets in the “most cost-effective way and developing a portfolio of options for possible deployment in the 2020s on the way to meeting longer term emissions reduction goals”. The Committee claims that this should include biogas, biomass boilers and combined heat and power.
The report also states that there is a need to increase renewable heat in the UK from the current level of less than one per cent of total heat demand, in order to both reduce emissions and meet the European Union 15 per cent renewable energy target.
CCC chair Lord Turner said: “With the carbon budgets in place, we now need to achieve a step change in the pace of emissions reduction. The Government needs to build on its Low Carbon Transition Plan and put in place a comprehensive delivery framework. What we have proposed is achievable and affordable but action needs to be taken now if we are to make our contribution to combating climate change.”
The report is published after energy watchdog Ofgem called for an investment of up to £200 billion in the next decade in power plants and infrastructure such as biowaste plants. It published its report called Project Discovery: Energy Market Scenarios (see MRW story).
Speaking about the Ofgem report, consultancy McKinnon & Clarke energy consultant David Hunter told MRW: “Biomass and biofuels have a role to play in the UK's future energy mix, although at least initially this will be at the margins. The big focus - and controversy - will remain on large scale thermal and renewable plant - nuclear, wind and clean coal. Bio- generation can develop perhaps by exploiting the need for 'decentralised' power - as the strain on the national grid continues to grow, small-scale localised plant, connected to the local distribution networks or even direct to customers, will be attractive. This will also be the case for smaller onshore wind farm developments.
“The Government can help by continuing to provide taxation and investment incentives, and allowing for fair and straightforward access to distribution networks for localised generation. The main thrust of energy policy will however continue to be directed at the larger projects such as nuclear, carbon capture, offshore wind and transmission network investment.”
UK manufacturing lobby group, EEF, has welcomed the CCC’s report as providing the necessary direction to Government on the need for a step change in action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
However, EEF head of climate change and environment policy Gareth Stace said that there remains an over reliance on large and heavy industry to deliver further reductions, even though it has made “significant” improvements.
He said: “The Government must deliver on its responsibility to ensure that UK industry is able to keep up with the pace of change. It also has to ensure industry is best placed to take advantage of the opportunities available from the booming environmental goods and services markets.”
Read full story at mrw
Climate change committee puts electric cars at the heart of new transport policy
The roads of the 2020s could look and sound very different if the climate change committee's vision of transport policy is realised. Electric cars will zip noiselessly along roads depleted of commuters by better planning and more effective public transport.
Those who do still drive old-fashioned fossil-fuelled cars will use their right feet less. Needless braking and accelerating will have been eliminated by eco-driving lessons, and fleets of vehicles, stripped of excess weight, will glide along motorways at a legal and fuel-efficient 70mph.
Today's report says: "Transport is currently responsible for a quarter of emissions in the UK and, if left unchecked, emissions will rise significantly by 2020. Dramatic improvements in the carbon efficiency of cars need to be combined with measures which will constrain growth in traffic volumes."
Road pricing has been suggested as one way of cutting traffic and David Kennedy, CCC chief executive, said: "We're not calling for the government to go ahead with national road pricing, but we're saying that it shouldn't be taken off the agenda."
He said a series of "smarter choices" such as increased working from home could help cut road transport emissions. He also highlighted the 1.4m tonnes of carbon dioxide each year that could be saved by stricter enforcement of the 70mph speed limit, a measure that was considered but rejected by ministers in 2005.
Transport emissions increased 11% between 1990 and 2007 and now account for more than 131m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.
Car use rose by 20% during that period, and though it has since dipped slightly because of the recession, growth is expected to return as the recession ends.
Much of the emissions growth could be offset by improved fuel efficiency. Last year, the committee said the UK could cut emissions from cars to 95 grammes of CO2 per km by 2020 – it is currently 160gCO2/km – by replacing old models with new versions with more efficient engines, increased numbers of hybrid and electric cars, improved design and use of biofuels.
"Major manufacturers are planning electric car launches over the next two years, with scope for battery cost reduction up to 70% in the period to 2020, which would make electric cars competitively priced," the report says. "The government should lead in developing a charging infrastructure which … would make people more comfortable purchasing electric cars." It envisages 1.7m electric cars on the roads by 2020.
This year ministers unveiled incentives of up to £5,000 to buy an electric car from 2011 under a plans that will also see the creation of electric car cities.
Read full story at The guardian
Climate change protest on Parliament continues
20 protesters remain on the roof of Westminster Hall after arrests were made
Activists plan to continue their occupation of the roof of Parliament for a second day to raise awareness in the run up to the Copenhagen climate change conference this December.
Yesterday 54 demonstrators faced little police resistance as they scaled Westminster Hall using ladders and ropes, before setting up an overnight camp. 23 protesters climbed down after almost five hours and were promptly arrested for trespassing on a "protected site." Those who remain have vowed to stay throughout Monday in order to confront MPs returning from Parliament's summer recess.
Activsts plan to urge them to sign up to a 12-point manifesto that calls for a commitment to zero carbon emissions by 2030, as well as an end to airport expansion and further investment in renewable energy.
Their slogan is: "Change the politics, save the climate," seen on numerous flags and banners displayed from the roof.
Greenpeace denied the protest was dangerous and said the organisation was dismayed at the absence of attention to climate change at the party conferences. Executive director John Sauven said politicians had failed to come up with any concerete proposals thus far despite their strident rhetoric.
"They have got to act more seriously on the issue," he told the BBC. "It is missing from the political agenda and we have got to get it on the political agenda. That is why we are here."
Anna Jones, 28, a full-time Greenpeace activist from Headingley, Leeds, said from the roof this morning that direct action was necessary and effective. "Climate change is the biggest challenge we are facing. It takes action like this to make the politicians wake up. They are letting us down and letting down citizens around the world."
The relative ease with which protesters accessed Parliament has raised further security concerns after several high profile breaches in recent years.
The Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker said: "There is understandable concern about the need to move faster and more effectively to tackle climate change, and Greenpeace are right to seek to protest in a peaceful way. But I would have preferred it if they had not done it by breaching the House of Parliament.
"It shows that things are not as they should be in security terms. The House authorities really need to sort this out."
Read full story at newstatesman
Britain has the world's best climate policy: that's good news, and bad news
First the good news: the UK has the world's strongest policies for tackling climate change. Now the bad news: the UK has the world's strongest policies for tackling climate change. Although this is the first nation on earth to set legally binding emissions targets, and although the targets here are as tough as anywhere else, if every other nation followed the UK's example, we'd still be likely to hit a catastrophic 4C of global warming.
In its new progress report, the Committee on Climate Change shows that carbon emissions in the UK fell between 2003-2007 by only 0.6% a year. They should soon be falling, the committee says, by 2.6%. Even this annual target, which would require a very sharp shift in government policy, bears no relation to the ultimate aim: preventing more than 2C of warming.
As work by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research shows, global cuts of 3% a year, starting in 2020, are unlikely to avert even 4C by the end of the century. As the UK has higher emissions than most nations, it has to cut carbon by more than the global average. If we really want to avoid more than 2C of warming, we need to start with a 10% cut next year, as the 10:10 campaign demands.
But as David MacKay, chief scientist at the Department of Energy and Climate Change has pointed out, even the cuts the UK has made so far are illusory. If you count the emissions outsourced to countries like China, as industry has moved abroad while continuing to supply our markets, you find that our greenhouse gases have been rising, not falling.
The committee points out that the recession has helped to put us on track, but that emissions are likely to bounce back up as soon as growth resumes. The government, it says, should avoid the temptation to let the recession do the work, then bank the cuts it causes as if they were the result of policy.
The downturn also has the unfortunate effect of reducing the carbon price, and therefore the incentive to make cuts. The carbon cap under the European emissions trading scheme was already set too high. Now, the committeee says, the recession ensures that the carbon price is likely to be closer to €20 in 2020 than the €50 it predicted before.
The progress report makes the obvious point that the market alone won't deliver the necessary cuts: either the EU must lower the carbon cap, or the government must impose new taxes or new obligations on electricity providers. The low carbon price and the risks of an uncertain market mean that electricity companies would rather to splash out on expensive new gas plants than build renewables. This would cancel out a big chunk of the UK's cuts.
So what will the government do: abandon its commitment to free-market mayhem, or break its own legally binding commitments? It won't find either option attractive.
Read full story at The Guardian
