news20100827gdn1

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[guardian.co.uk > Environment > Activism]

High UK legal costs deter challenges to environmental damage, UN warns
Government is obliged to financially assist citizens in legal challenges but court procedures are 'prohibitively expensive'

> Comment: Planning challenges and the right of appeal
> Join Piece by piece, the Guardian's campaign to help protect the UK's natural world

Adam Vaughan
guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 August 2010 12.34 BST
Article history

{Pesticides campaigner Georgina Downs celebrates outside the UK's high court after her legal victory, which was then overturned. She welcomed the UN's ruling. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA}

The government is making it too expensive for campaigners to take environmental planning battles through UK courts, a UN tribunal has warned.

The judgment, hailed as hugely important by environmental law experts, could open the door to new rules covering legal costs and encourage more individuals and community groups to take their cases to the courts.

Under the Aarhus convention, which came into force in 2001 and was ratified by the UK in 2005, the government is obliged to give rights and financial help for citizens to mount legal challenges to cases of environmental damage – such as fighting the building of a new road, housing development or a local incinerator. The convention does not cover the legal defence of environmental protesters who commit vandalism or criminal damage to highlight their cause.

But in draft findings published on Wednesday, the convention's compliance committee said the UK was failing to ensure court procedures were not "prohibitively expensive". The committee called on the UK to introduce legislation and practical measures to overcome the financial barriers to environmental justice. Such access to justice is one of the three key pillars of the convention, which also gives the public rights to access environmental information.

James Thornton, CEO of the environment law NGO Client Earth, which brought the case to the compliance committee last year with the Marine Conservation Society, said: "These findings are game-changing for anyone fighting for their environmental rights. At the moment, the government and industries can ride roughshod over their environmental responsibilities, confident that the legal system's failings will make challenges impossible."

He continued: "If the government's word is to mean anything on the international stage, it must move effectively and decisively to remedy the gross unfairness of the UK legal system. For the first time citizens will be able to scrutinise and challenge environmental decisions from a fair position."

The UK courts are an expensive place to fight environmental cases, particularly compared with some of the other 43 European and central Asian countries that have ratified the Aarhus convention. A single day hearing in the UK can cost £100,000, said Client Earth. What's more, the combination of high legal costs of lawyers; loser pays principle; and risk of paying damages to commercial companies in the UK often deters many green campaigners from taking their cases to court in the first place.

The Environmental Law Foundation, which advises individuals and groups on environmental cases, has said nearly a third of its clients cited cost as a barrier to bringing a case to a successful conclusion. A 2007 report commissioned by the European Commission ranked the UK in the bottom five of European countries for affordable legal costs and legal aid, and warned the UK it was making it "prohibitively expensive" to mount environmental court challenges. In March this year, European environment commissioner Janez Potocnik issued Britain a "final warning" over the issue.

Georgina Downs, a British pesticides campaigner who has taken her case to the European Court of Human Rights after UK courts first ruled in her favour and then overturned decision, said: "This is a very important ruling that again highlights the current failings of the UK system for obtaining access to justice for those bringing critical health and environmental challenges that are clearly in the public interest."

She added: "The reason why costs in legal challenges are so high is often because of the amount that legal representatives, particularly barristers, are allowed to charge. For example, some QCs now charge up to £800 an hour for their services, which is outrageous." Downs said costs also deter many cases from ever reaching courts, unless individuals find a barrister to represent them pro bono or – as in her case – work at a reduced rate, with the individual or group doing some of the legal work themselves.

Polly Higgins, a lawyer who is campaigning for the destruction of ecosystems to be recognised as a crime against peace, said: "This recommendation now opens the door to the UK implementing similar rules of procedure for environmental cases as were implemented by the Philippines Supreme Court in April 2010 to protect those who wish to turn to the courts to protect their territory from damage and destruction without fear of escalating costs." The Philippines rules protect eco whistleblowers and allow citizens to file environmental cases where they defer payment of fees until after judgment.

A spokesperson for Defra and the Ministry of Justice said the government was considering the findings. "The UK government fully supports the principles set out in the Aarhus convention, including those relating to access to justice in environmental matters. We are carefully considering the committee's recently published draft findings along with our comments for submission to the committee," he said.

news20100827gdn2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[guardian.co.uk > News > World news > Chile]

How to keep the trapped Chilean miners alive
The challenge of the rescue operation is ensuring that the 33 men remain healthy, sane and busy

Jonathan Franklin in Copiapo, Chile
guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 August 2010 21.06 BST
Article history

{One of the 33 miners who have been trapped 700 meters underground since 5 August in Copiapo, northern Chile. Photograph: Codelco handout/EPA}

As 33 miners enter their third week trapped 688 metres underground, the logistics of keeping them alive has been reduced to a single dimension: 12cm.

"That's the size of the tube by which we can supply them," said the Chilean health minister, Jaime Mañalich. "Everything we develop must be this size or smaller." He described a laboratory of inventors behind the scenes designing everything from collapsible cots to miniature sandwiches for lunch.

A tiny video camera lowered to the depths of the mine on Thursday showed the stark contrast between the men's cavernous living quarters — a two kilometer long stretch of mine tunnels, filled with vehicles and cave like crevices – and the nearly impossible task of providing them with anything more than the most basic sustenance.

The logistics of designing and sending supplies down a hole not much wider than a lemon has challenged engineers from Chile and from around the world as well as Nasa scientists and submarine commanders. The challenge of the rescue operation now is how to keep 33 trapped men healthy, sane and busy while a 40-tonne Australian-built drilling rig slowly rips open an escape tunnel.

Medical literature has revealed little about managing such a crisis, Mañalich said. "The closest comparison is the submarine programme in which the submarines deliberately lay dormant at the bottom of the sea. That's why we have Captain Ramon Navarro, head of the Chilean submarine school, here."

"The submarine has the water outside, the miners have a 700-metre high column of rock, yet the sense of confinement is the same," said Navarro, looking out of place in the Atacama Desert with his stiff uniform and regulation cap. As he spoke, Navarro did little to hide pride for his fellow Chileans. "If I am ever in a similar situation, I'd hope to have the resilience, the desire and the strength of spirit these miners have."

The miners do not appear to be in immediate danger: they began eating solid food on yesterday and are receiving water and handwritten messages from their families. Sets of dominos and other board games were sent down in an effort to stave off monotony and an evangelical priest arrived with a cache of tiny bibles. Special fluorescent tubes are being designed which will then be set on timers to create a sense of day and night in an attempt to keep the men on a normal schedule.

Mañalich said his team was preparing for medical emergencies. "How do you treat appendicitis without surgery? Our staff is scouring the old medical texts to find ways these kind of conditions can be treated without intervention, only using painkillers and other remedies."

One miner, Johny Berrios, has been designated doctor, and given the task of taking urine and blood samples which will be carefully placed in the tiny tubes and shot up to ground level where a makeshift laboratory has been built to analyse and monitor the health of each man. Miners with skin ailments or lesions will be asked to parade before the video camera, allowing a team of doctors to first diagnose the problem and then design a solution that fits inside a "dove", a carrying pod that passes through the hole.

The living conditions of the miners presents so many logistical and mental health issues that the support staff at this remote mine now includes 300 people, including engineers, psychologists, nutritionists, lab technicians and a detachment of Chilean carabineros. In total, there are roughly 10 professionals fully at work for each trapped miner.

After a week of consultation with Nasa, a team of astronaut specialists will be brought to the mine to monitor the miners. Mañalich appeared relieved by the swell of outside help and cited Nasa's expertise as key to maintaining the miners' physical and mental health intact for the ensuing 90 days. "Nasa told us that we need to give them four litres a day of water, given the extreme heat and humidity."

"I would have to compare this to being trapped behind enemy lines or participating in a space mission," said Rodrigo Figueroa, one of Chile's leading psychiatrists who was brought in by the government. "Really I have studied the medical literature and there are no similar situations like this, they simply don't exist."

news20100827nn1

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[nature.com > Nature News]

Published online 27 August 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.437
News

Cold empties Bolivian rivers of fish
Antarctic cold snap kills millions of aquatic animals in the Amazon.

Anna Petherick

{The San Julián fish farm in the Santa Cruz department of Bolivia lost 15 tonnes of pacú fish in the extreme cold.
Never Tejerina}

With high Andean peaks and a humid tropical forest, Bolivia is a country of ecological extremes. But during the Southern Hemisphere's recent winter, unusually low temperatures in part of the country's tropical region hit freshwater species hard, killing an estimated 6 million fish and thousands of alligators, turtles and river dolphins.

Scientists who have visited the affected rivers say the event is the biggest ecological disaster Bolivia has known, and, as an example of a sudden climatic change wreaking havoc on wildlife, it is unprecedented in recorded history.

"There's just a huge number of dead fish," says Michel Jégu, a researcher from the Institute for Developmental Research in Marseilles, France, who is currently working at the Noel Kempff Mercado Natural History Museum in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. "In the rivers near Santa Cruz there's about 1,000 dead fish for every 100 metres of river."

With such extreme climatic events potentially becoming more common due to climate change, scientists are hurrying to coordinate research into the impact, and how quickly the ecosystem is likely to recover.

The extraordinary quantity of decomposing fish flesh has polluted the waters of the Grande, Pirai and Ichilo rivers to the extent that local authorities have had to provide alternative sources of drinking water for towns along the rivers' banks. Many fishermen have lost their main source of income, having been banned from removing any more fish from populations that will probably struggle to recover.

The blame lies, at least indirectly, with a mass of Antarctic air that settled over the Southern Cone of South America for most of July. The prolonged cold snap has also been linked to the deaths of at least 550 penguins along the coasts of Brazil and thousands of cattle in Paraguay and Brazil, as well as hundreds of people in the region.

Water temperatures in Bolivian rivers that normally register about 15 ˚C during the day fell to as low as 4 ˚C.

Hugo Mamani, head of forecasting at Senamhi, Bolivia's national weather centre, confirms that the air temperature in the city of Santa Cruz fell to 4 ˚C this July, a low beaten only by a record of 2.5 ˚C in 1955.

Dearth of surveys

But exactly how the cold temperatures caused such devastation remains a mystery. So far, there have been no rigorous surveys of the ecological damage, only anecdotal observations.

Fons Smolders, a fisheries scientist at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, is one expert who has visited the area and is keen for the phenomenon to receive proper study because such freak climatic events may become more common in the future.

{Bolivia has a wealth of freshwater species, including the Arrau turtle
(Podocnemis expansa).
ANDREW ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images}

Often, when cold weather causes fish deaths in lakes, the mortalities are directly due to hypoxia, when oxygen levels are too low to supply the animals' cells and tissues. This is because the colder surface temperatures can reduce mixing in the water column.

Because the deaths occurred mainly in rivers, Smolders suspects that they are linked to infection. "Some of the fish that I saw had white spots that may indicate disease. The cold probably made them very susceptible to all kinds of infections," he explains.

"When fish die, it's usually not a single stressor, but multiple stressors interacting," agrees Steven Cooke, an aquatic ecologist at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, who last year wrote a review of cold shock in fish¹. "So, if cold shock or cooler temperatures are being implicated in mortality, there's probably something else going on as well."

Most of the research in the field of cold shock in fish has been carried out on rivers in temperate climates, rather than tropical ones. For example, fish in temperate rivers often die when a power station pumping warm water into a river suddenly shuts down.

Jégu has another hypothesis. He thinks that the burning of farmland around Santa Cruz, a regular part of the farming cycle locally, has occurred at particularly high levels this year. That might have been a contributing factor in the fish deaths, possibly because the smoke added to river pollution.

"We hope to secure financing for these studies to find out why the fish are dying," he says. With luck, and money, these will start in October.

References
1. Donaldson, M. R. et al. J. Fish Biol. 73, 1491-1530 (2008).

news20100827nn2

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[nature.com > Nature News]

Published online 27 August 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.438
News: Q&A

Where conflict meets conservation
Animals as hidden victims of war are the focus of a groundbreaking initiative.

Rhiannon Smith

{The Marjan Centre's academic director Michael Rainsborough and colleagues are exploring the impact of war and conflict on biodiversity.}

From Agent Orange to deliberate oil spills, conflict carries massive environmental costs. But apart from high-profile cases such as Rwanda's mountain gorillas, the impact of war on animals and biodiversity remains a largely unexplored and underfunded area, despite the United Nations naming 2010 the 'International Year of Biodiversity'. Now, with the launch of the first specialist centre to investigate the issue, all that could change.

Concerned about the lack of academic research in the field of conflict in relation to biodiversity, academics from the Department of War Studies at King's College London established the Marjan Centre for the Study of Conflict & Conservation on 2 July. The fledgling centre is developing fast, with the former director-general of the World Society for the Protection of Animals, Peter Davies, elected chair of the management committee last week.

Nature spoke to Michael Rainsborough, the centre's academic director, about the importance of this research and his hopes for the future.

Why did you set up the centre?

I had an intuitive interest in this area, and we were concerned that the study of the impact of war was very human-centric, quite understandably, because humans are both the cause and victims of war. But up until this point, no attention whatsoever — at least in the academic sense — has been given to what the impact of war, conflict and political instability is on animals and the environment.

Also, I think popular opinion is moving in relation to how we understand the role and place of animals in society. You can see that in the growth of animal-welfare charities and concerns for the wider environment.

What exactly are the implications of war and conflict for wildlife?

In examples of state breakdown or civil war, in addition to the organized poaching gangs, you may have semi-starving people who hunt down animals for bushmeat either for their own survival or to sell on. So conflict exacerbates pressures on animal species.

If you think about the difficulties many African states face with respect to weak civil institutions and conflicts over resources, part of the resource base to be exploited is likely to be animal populations. Needless to say, this has gone on for a long time, but we can be more conscious of it, and we can see it all leads, ultimately, to the threat of species' disappearance.

We are also beginning to see that certain countries are becoming increasingly conscious that if they don't defend their sensitive animal populations from poaching and exploitation, they are going to damage tourism.

This raises an issue that we're quite interested in: when does it ever become right to have military intervention to defend a sensitive animal population? You're finding that governments are increasingly deploying their own armed forces to protect animals against poaching gangs.

In Botswana, 10% of the army is actually committed to animal protection, because it had a severe problem with elephant poaching.

And there are still large areas of Mozambique that are heavily mined because of the civil war, so you have whole areas that are relatively untouched by humans and large animals. But the impact of that has been incredible growth in flora — apparently it's some of the most amazing you'll find anywhere.

You can see that the potential for investigation is limitless.

This is a vast area. How will you approach the research?

This is our biggest challenge because the centre's scope is enormous. Our research can straddle hard scientific investigation and social-science investigation, and it all connects with very complex sociological factors.

I have started by looking at some of the more general factors, such as the increasing militarization of wildlife protection. But we are trying to create a framework to generate wider interest that will attract PhD and master's students, and guest speakers to come and purvey their own research ideas.

One of the things we would like to do is to interface with the animal-wildlife charities that do have 'on the ground' experience of what the issues are, because it often falls to wildlife charities, such as the WWF, to actually take on the burden of protecting animal species.

Why is it important to have academic research if animal charities and conservation groups already have this experience?

We can contribute in a valid way to raising public awareness and understanding of the complexities of the issues, in the hope that this will have positive policy outcomes. Because if you start putting up serious, impartial research, policy-makers will listen to you, in a way that perhaps they will tend not to listen to animal charities — not because they think that they don't do good work, but because they think that charities have an agenda.
How are you feeling about the future development of the Marjan Centre?

I'm optimistic, but daunted, because it's attracted a lot of interest, even in its infancy. We've got Peter Davies involved, and he's done a lot to spur the interest.

We're not a big organization at the moment, but we hope to kick off a systematic academic investigation that will look at the impact both of current instabilities and of the impact of war and conflict on animal populations in the past.

news20100827bg1

[News] from [businessgreen.com]

[BusinessGreen.com > News > Investment]

US offers international help with shale gas extraction
Dirty gas better than dirty coal, US energy officials argue

Danny Bradbury, BusinessGreen, 27 Aug 2010

The US has offered to help developing countries use shale gas as a cleaner alternative to coal.

Making the offer at a conference earlier this week involving 20 countries, US officials pointed to national security and climate change mitigation as key drivers.

Shale gas is derived from underground shale deposits that are broken up using a process known as hydraulic fracturing. Liquid is injected into faults in the shale, extending them and opening them up, which in turn frees up gas to be lifted to the surface.

The hydraulic fracturing process involved with shale gas extraction comes with its own severe environmental implications and it costs more to recover than conventional gas or coal. But, proponents argue, even accounting for the environmental penalty of extraction, burning shale gas is less carbon intensive than burning coal – which is the only viable alternative for many countries.

Analyst reports suggest that shale gas could provide up to half of America’s gas supply by 2020. And a study by Rice University indicates that US and Canadian shale gas could could help European countries reduce their dependence on Russian gas supplies.

State-owned Russian gas export company Gazprom cut off supplies to the Ukraine in early 2009 over payment disputes. It took similar steps with Belarus this June.

Reports suggest that developing countries are already moving to capitalise on their own shale deposits and others overseas. China opened a centre to research shale gas earlier this month, based on data suggesting that it may have up to 30 trillion cubic metres of the resource at its disposal.

Indian state-run oil company Oil India also announced that it would partner with several banks and other Indian oil companies to acquire shale gas deposits in the US or Australia during this fiscal year.


[BusinessGreen.com > News > Renewables]

Anaerobic digestion offers farmers food for thought
Farmgen starts work on £30m anaerobic digestion project as Heathrow signs deal to turn food waste into fertiliser

Jessica Shankleman, BusinessGreen, 27 Aug 2010

The UK's emerging anaerobic digestion (AD) industry was thrust into the limelight this week after two major new projects that promise to demonstrate the viability of the waste-to-energy technology were unveiled.

First up, energy firm Farmgen broke ground on the first in a wave of anaerobic digestion plants, designed to provide farmers with an additional revenue stream from "energy farming".

The £2.5m project at Carr Farm in Warton, Preston will be the first AD plant built under Farmgen's proposed £30m UK-wide investment programme. Local crops will be used to create biogas that will generate 1MW of electricity, which will then be exported to the national grid.

Farmgen said that it also plans to build a second £2.5m plant in Silloth, Cumbria later this year and is preparing planning applications for sites in Lancashire and Staffordshire.

The coalition government has earmarked the accelerated roll out of AD plants as a key part of its renewable energy strategy and last month launched a consultation designed to assess how new policies could help increase support for the emerging sector.

Under the existing feed-in tariff scheme, farmers or businesses installing AD systems generating up to 500 kilowatt hours (kWh) a year are eligible for payments of 11.5p per kWh, while those installing larger systems producing 500kWh to 5MW receive 9p per kWh.

Industry insiders have warned that the rates are not currently high enough to drive the widespread roll out of AD plants and have been calling on the government to increase in the incentive.

In related news, airport operator BAA announced yesterday that it has signed a deal with food management firm Vertal that will see travellers food and drink waste turned into fertiliser for use on local farms.

The company said that food waste from Heathrow's daily 180,000 passengers will be collected separately and sent to Vertal’s recycling facility in South London where it will be composted within 72 hours.

It added that it hoped the initiative would save carbon emissions equivalent to around half a million air miles.

Vertal founder and managing director Leon Mekitarian said he hoped the deal would encourage other firms with large amounts of food waste to invest in composting technology to reduce their carbon footprint.

"Our accelerated composting technology is significantly more carbon positive than any other process," he said. "And as the market matures and new legislation comes on stream, that's becoming a very important business factor."


[BusinessGreen.com > News > Technology]

Exclusive: Microsoft opens up about Windows 7 energy savings
Online modelling tool to help businesses work out how much energy they can save with new operating system

James Murray, BusinessGreen, 27 Aug 2010

Microsoft has revealed that it is working on a major project with Reading University designed to highlight the energy savings that companies can realise by switching to its latest Windows 7 operating system.

According to the company, Windows 7 operates using about 30 per cent less energy that its previous operating system Windows XP – savings that when multiplied globally are likely to lead to significant cuts in carbon emissions.

"IT accounts for somewhere between three and five per cent of global carbon emissions and when you consider that there are a billion Windows PCs around the world, we have the ability to deliver substantial carbon savings," said Darren Strange, head of environmental sustainability at the company. "We are currently working on modelling the savings that Windows 7 can deliver with a team at Reading University."

Strange said the research would not only allow the company to calculate potential cuts in global carbon emissions, but would also provide the foundations for a new online tool that will provide companies with the ability to work out how much energy they can save by upgrading to Windows 7.

"An organisation will be able to say how many PCs or laptops they have in their estate and then work out how much energy and carbon they could save," he explained.

Strange predicted that the new service would help highlight the extent to which effective use of technology can help firms cut their energy use. "When you say to people that technology can help them save energy, they tend to agree but will then often fail to take action," he observed. "But when you go in and can say 'this can save you £200,000 a year and save you this much carbon', then people tend to react."

In addition to the modelling tool, Microsoft has just completed a pilot project with two mid-sized firms where the company undertook a carbon and energy efficiency audit of their IT estates and provided recommendations on how to cut their energy bills.

Strange said that once the modelling tool is in place, the company is likely to work with consultancy partners to also offer onsite energy and carbon audits for customers.

The work to highlight the energy savings offered by Windows 7 is part of a wider energy efficiency push from Microsoft that has also seen the company use the prospect of reduced carbon emissions and energy bills to promote its cloud services, whereby Microsoft hosts applications for businesses in its own datacentres.

"The cloud has huge potential to improve energy efficiency," said Strange. " Businesses can move applications into our state-of-the-art datacentres, the latest of which are 50 per cent more efficient than facilities built just three years ago."

news20100827bg2

[News] from [businessgreen.com]

[BusinessGreen.com > News > Climate Change]

Rich nations accused of rehashing old funding to help the poor
Developed nations appear surprisingly close to hitting finance target to help poorer countries fight climate change

BusinessGreen.com staff, BusinessGreen, 27 Aug 2010

Rich nations’ commitment to help poor countries fight climate change has been called into question once again, after reports show some countries may be rehashing old funding and presenting it as new.

Developed nations have already pledged $29.8bn of new and additional funding for poorer countries as agreed in the Copenhagen Accord in December last year, according to analysis from Reuters.

The calculations mean rich countries have "all but met" the $30bn target of "fast start" finance, originally agreed to run from 2010 to 2012.

But as there are no rules determining exactly what qualifies as “new and additional” funding, many countries appear to be renaming old aid pledges to make them count towards the $30bn goal, said the newswire.

For example, Japan has promised $15bn, much of which originates from its 2008 Cool Earth Partnership, promising $10bn to developing nations by 2013. The US and European Union were also accused of re-pledging money which had been commited before the Copenhagen summit.

“I'm afraid the pledges of Copenhagen will not be realised," Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research director Hans Joachim Schellnhuber told Reuters. "It would be a little political miracle if it happened. I'm fairly pessimistic."

Many of the developed nations are struggling to meet the targets while trying to pay back their own debts, while some have accused poorer nations of unrealistically “demanding staggering sums”.

Earlier this month, Dessima Williams, a Grenadian diplomat who represents the group of island states, confirmed that poorer nations were likely to push for an increase in the $100bn (£62.8bn) a year of climate-related funding, also agreed in the Accord.


[BusinessGreen.com > News > Climare Change]

Americans underestimate personal power consumption and overestimate saving potential
Light bulb responses to survey not very bright

Andrew Charlesworth, BusinessGreen, 27 Aug 2010

Many Americans believe the best effort they can make towards energy conservation is to use low-power light bulbs and recycle glass bottles, according to a study recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The same citizens also severely underestimate the amount of energy they could save by switching to currently available alternative technologies.

Governments and environmental groups should do more to educate citizens as to the more effective contributions they can make to reduce their energy consumption, conclude the researchers.

Researchers at Columbia University recruited over 500 volunteers via web marketplace Craigslist and asked them to estimate the energy consumption of nine household devices, such as a washing machine, TV and air conditioner. They were also asked to estimate the energy savings they could make through adopting various behaviours, from using lower-wattage light bulbs and recycling glass to line-drying rather than tumble-drying clothes and driving a more fuel-efficient car.

The largest group, nearly 20 percent, cited turning off lights as the best approach to saving energy. Very few cited buying decisions that experts say would cut US energy consumption dramatically, such as more efficient cars (cited by only 2.8 percent), more efficient appliances (cited by 3.2 percent) or insulating homes (cited by 2.1 percent).

Previous studies have concluded that households could reduce energy consumption some 30 percent by making such choices without waiting for new technologies, making big economic sacrifices or dramatically reducing their standard of living.

“When people think of themselves, they may tend to think of what they can do that is cheap and easy at the moment,” said Shahzeen Attari, lead author of the report and a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University’s Earth Institute.

The survey shows that governments and environmental groups have failed to communicate more sophisticated messages about energy conservation and gone for easy green initiatives, such as recycling and focussing on lighting, concludes Attari.

More worryingly, it shows that US citizens view green behaviour as small curtailments of current behaviour – doing less of the same things – rather than adopting new ways of doing things.

“But switching to efficient technologies generally allows you to maintain your behaviour and save a great deal more energy,” said Attari.

On average, the respondents to the survey underestimated their own energy use and overestimated the savings they could make by a factor of 2.8.

This shows a lack of understanding about the relative consumption of familiar household devices, for example, that a 3kW drier uses 30 times more energy than a 100W light bulb.

More environmentally aware respondents, and those with a better understanding of basic maths, were more accurate in their estimates, the survey found.


[BusinessGreen.com > News > Legislation]

DECC publishes licensing plans for undersea carbon storage
Response to industry consultation lays out regime similar to offshore oil and gas exploration

Andrew Charlesworth, BusinessGreen, 27 Aug 2010

The Department of energy and Climate Change (DECC) has published details of how it will license the storage of carbon dioxide under the sea bed in a response to industry comments on its recent proposal for carbon storage schemes.

Licensing of carbon storage activities will be in conjunction with The Crown Estate and follow largely the pattern set for offshore oil and gas exploration. Only licensed entities will be issued with a permit to operate storage facilities.

“Carbon capture and storage is essential for mitigating climate change while maintaining energy security, said energy minister Charles Hendry in a statement. “There is enough potential under the North Sea to store more than 100 years-worth of carbon dioxide emissions from the UK’s power fleet and we need to make the most of that.”

A licence would cover exploration and appraisal, operation and post-closure and would convey an exclusive but time-limited right to apply for the storage permit required by the EC Directive on carbon storage (2009/31/EC) which came into force on 25 June 2009.

DECC envisages that its licences will refer to an essentially two dimensional plan, authorising the relevant activities within that area and its downward projection, in the same way as the established petroleum licences. But the storage permit when issued will contain three-dimensional definitions of the storage site and the storage complex.

The initial agreement for lease issued by The Crown Estate will relate to the same area as the licence, and the subsequent lease will incorporate the same definition of the site as that in the permit.

Non-intrusive exploration can be conducted under a general non-site specific licence issued by DECC, which applies throughout the UK offshore area, and allows non-intrusive investigation as well as drilling to a depth of 350m. But once a developer has identified a specific site to explore in greater detail, a carbon storage licence will be required. At this stage it will also be necessary to obtain property access rights from TCE to enable intrusive exploration, and to enable test injection where necessary.

DECC is keen that the regulatory regime for storage does not slow the development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and will lay the regulations before Parliament as soon as possible.

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[News] from [businessgreen.com]

[BusinessGreen.com > News > Incentives]

Environment Agency looks for green pioneers
Competition in eight categories looks to promote and reward inspiring environmental action

Andrew Charlesworth, BusinessGreen, 27 Aug 2010

The Environment Agency is calling for entries for its inaugural Environmental Pioneer Awards.

The awards, which will be judged by a panel led by energy and climate change secretary Chris Huhne, will recognise companies, government bodies, local authorities, charities and other organisations that lead the way on environmental performance.

The awards are split into eight categories:

> Best private sector organisation and best public sector organisation: one business and one public sector organisation that consistently achieves outstanding results on carbon emissions, energy use, waste and environmental impact, encouraging staff and customers to take similar steps

> Technology and innovation award: a pioneering product or innovation that will significantly reduce waste, pollution, energy use or carbon emissions

> Cleaner water award: an organisation that has achieved outstanding results in preventing pollution or improving water quality in rivers, seas or lakes

> Waste reduction award: an organisation that has achieved outstanding results on resource efficiency, recycling, reuse, energy reduction or water efficiency

> Biodiversity programme: a biodiversity project delivered in the last 10 years that has achieved significant and measurable benefits for biodiversity adaptation to climate change, such as the creation of a new habitat or re-introduction of a species into more suitable areas

> Energy performance and CO2 emissions reduction: outstanding leadership through significant energy and emissions savings from business operations, which could include energy use in buildings, transport or equipment

> Environment Agency staff award for environmental achievement: outstanding achievements of an organisation or individual on environmental issues.

The closing date is 8 October and short listing will take place on 18 October. The winners will be announced by Huhne at the Environment Agency’s conference on 24 November in London.

“I hope that we are overwhelmed by the number of entries we receive." said Environment Agency chief executive Dr Paul Leinster. “I am confident that the entrants will clearly demonstrate that reducing environmental impacts makes good business sense.”


[BusinessGreen.com > News > Renewables]

Brazil gives go-ahead to massive Amazonian hydro project
Long-disputed tributary dam signed off by president who previously opposed the scheme

Andrew Charlesworth, BusinessGreen, 27 Aug 2010

Brazil’s government has green-lighted the construction of what will be the world’s largest hydroelectric dam across a tributary of the Amazon.

Proposals to dam the Xingu river have a long and chequered history and at one point were even abandoned in the 1990s.

Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has spoken out against the proposed dam on several occasions. But on signing the construction contract with Norte Energia, the consortium that will build the dam, he admitted he hadn’t looked in detail at the scheme before and hailed it as “a victory for Brazil’s energy sector”.

Environmental groups are angry at da Silva’s volte-face, claiming the dam will destroy natural habitat and render 50,000 indigenous people homeless.

The dam will be 6km long and flood 500 sq km of land upstream.

The president now says the dam is necessary for development and to create jobs.

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[GreenBiz.com > News > Design & Innovation, Materials]

NEC Makes Cashew-Based Bioplastic for Electronics

By GreenerDesign Staff
Published August 27, 2010
Tags: Design & Innovation, Materials

TOKYO, Japan — Electronics company NEC has developed a bioplastic made with an extract from cashew nut shells and plant cellulose that is twice as strong as another bioplastic typically made from corn starch.

NEC says its using only non-edible plant resources to make its bioplastic, which is 70 percent plant material. That portion is mainly cellulose that is modified with cardanol, an oil-like material taken from cashew shells and a byproduct from cashew processing.

The company says its material is twice as strong, more than twice as heat resistant and molds in half the time as bioplastic made from polylactic acid resin, which is typically derived from corn starch or sugarcane. NEC's bioplastic is also three times more water resistant and almost one and half times more heat resistant than bioplastic made from cellulose acetate.

NEC plans to continue research on the bioplastic and work towards mass production of the material, expecting to make it available for use in electronics by mid-2014.


[GreenBiz.com > News > Energy Efficiency, Government, More...]

German Army Enlists Johnson Controls to Boost Energy Efficiency

By GreenerBuildings Staff
Published August 27, 2010
Tags: Energy Efficiency, Government, More... Energy Efficiency, Government, Renewable Energy, Resource Efficiency, Retrofits, Sustainable Sites

DIEZ, Germany — As the U.S. military musters efforts to lighten its environmental bootprint, the German Army also is striving to march down a green path and has enlisted Johnson Controls Inc. to retrofit the Oranienstein base in Diez.

The 9-acre facility that houses the medical command center for the German Army occupies a historic site whose distinguishing features include a 17th castle, Schloss Oranienstein (pictured left) and a museum.

Johnson Controls announced yesterday that it had signed a 10-year energy performance contract with the German Army and has already begun the retrofit at Oranienstein, where energy costs are currently about 475,000 a year (almost $606,000 in U.S. dollars).

The project, which is scheduled for completion before the end of the year, is expected to deliver annual energy cost savings of 49 percent and an annual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 55 percent.

The 1.3 million-euro project (about $1.7 million USD), whose costs will be covered by the savings realized during the 10 years of the performance contract, emphasizes renewable energy, lighting upgrades and stepping up the building control system on the site.

The project calls for:

> Replacing an 850kW oil boiler by a woodchip boiler.
> Installing two mini-gas fired combined heat and power plants (CHP).
> Constructing a gas pipeline for the CHP.
> Changing the warm water supply in several buildings.
> Installing a central water-softening plant.
> Replacing lighting.
> Installing meters and modernizing controls and the monitoring station at the site.

Johnson Controls also has an efficiency retrofit underway at the Germany Army base in Aulenbach, where performance targets following the project are a hefty 69 percent reduction in annual energy costs and a 76 percent reduction in GHG emissions.

Johnson Controls' projects with the U.S. military include a $34.1 million energy efficiency and conservation project at the naval base in Guam, an energy savings performance contract with the army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, and an energy savings performance plan at Fort Bliss in Texas