[News] from [guardian.co.uk]
[Business > Utilities]
Green group threatens legal challenge to government's nuclear plans
Friends of the Earth says planning regime is fundamentally flawed and fails to assess carbon emissions
Tim Webb
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 21 January 2010 18.17 GMT Article history
Friends of the Earth has threatened to launch a legal challenge against the government over its "fundamentally flawed" plans to approve hundreds of new nuclear reactors, power plants, wind farms, electricity pylons and pipelines.
The group has written to energy secretary Ed Miliband warning him that government planning statements issued in November breach environmental regulations and had not followed proper consultation. Friends of the Earth said it was also supported by conservation groups, the WWF and RSPB.
The energy industry and ministers have been braced for a legal challenge for months, particularly over plans to build as many as 10 new nuclear reactors.
Friends of the Earth said it believed the statements, which new planning commission the IPC will use to block or approve applications, would result in Britain "locking-in" to a high-carbon energy infrastructure. It said the IPC should have to directly take into account the carbon emissions resulting from individual applications.
Friends of the Earth's executive director, Andy Atkins, said: "The government's draft national planning statements on energy are fundamentally flawed. The consultation was insufficient, the alternatives were inadequately explored, and the policies are poorly justified. And because they fail to assess the carbon impact that the proposed development will have they threaten to undermine UK carbon budgets."
A government spokesman said that the statements were set in accordance with its overall carbon budgets.
[Environment > Biofuels]
One quarter of US grain crops fed to cars - not people, new figures show
New analysis of 2009 US Department of Agriculture figures suggests biofuel revolution is impacting on world food supplies
John Vidal, environment editor
guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 January 2010 15.09 GMT Article history
One-quarter of all the maize and other grain crops grown in the US now ends up as biofuel in cars rather than being used to feed people, according to new analysis which suggests that the biofuel revolution launched by former President George Bush in 2007 is impacting on world food supplies.
The 2009 figures from the US Department of Agriculture shows ethanol production rising to record levels driven by farm subsidies and laws which require vehicles to use increasing amounts of biofuels.
"The grain grown to produce fuel in the US [in 2009] was enough to feed 330 million people for one year at average world consumption levels," said Lester Brown, the director of the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington thinktank ithat conducted the analysis.
Last year 107m tonnes of grain, mostly corn, was grown by US farmers to be blended with petrol. This was nearly twice as much as in 2007, when Bush challenged farmers to increase production by 500% by 2017 to save cut oil imports and reduce carbon emissions.
More than 80 new ethanol plants have been built since then, with more expected by 2015, by which time the US will need to produce a further 5bn gallons of ethanol if it is to meet its renewable fuel standard.
According to Brown, the growing demand for US ethanol derived from grains helped to push world grain prices to record highs between late 2006 and 2008. In 2008, the Guardian revealed a secret World Bank report that concluded that the drive for biofuels by American and European governments had pushed up food prices by 75%, in stark contrast to US claims that prices had risen only 2-3% as a result.
Since then, the number of hungry people in the world has increased to over 1 billion people, according to the UN's World Food programme.
"Continuing to divert more food to fuel, as is now mandated by the US federal government in its renewable fuel standard, will likely only reinforce the disturbing rise in world hunger. By subsidising the production of ethanol to the tune of some $6bn each year, US taxpayers are in effect subsidising rising food bills at home and around the world," said Brown.
"The worst economic crisis since the great depression has recently brought food prices down from their peak, but they still remain well above their long-term average levels."
The US is by far the world's leading grain exporter, exporting more than Argentina, Australia, Canada, and Russia combined. In 2008, the UN called for a comprehensive review of biofuel production from food crops.
"There is a direct link between biofuels and food prices. The needs of the hungry must come before the needs of cars," said Meredith Alexander, biofuels campaigner at ActionAid in London. As well as the effect on food, campaigners also argue that many scientists question whether biofuels made from food crops actually save any greenhouse gas emissions.
But ethanol producers deny that their record production means less food. "Continued innovation in ethanol production and agricultural technology means that we don't have to make a false choice between food and fuel. We can more than meet the demand for food and livestock feed while reducing our dependence on foreign oil through the production of homegrown renewable ethanol," said Tom Buis, the chief executive of industry group Growth Energy.
[Environment > Farming]
Kenyan herders to be offered livestock insurance against drought
Pioneering scheme uses satellite imagery which shows when available forage is so scarce that animals are likely to starve
Xan Rice, Nairobi
guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 January 2010 Article history
Herders in northern Kenya who suffered large cattle losses during recent droughts are to be offered livestock insurance in a pioneering project that uses satellite imagery of available grazing to determine when payouts occur.
The scheme, billed as a world first by the International Livestock Research Institute, is being launched today in the arid Marsabit district. Pastoralists in Marsabit keep more than 2m cows, camels, goats and sheep, worth an estimated $67m, but currently have no way of rebuilding herds decimated by starvation because of the lack of the grazing after rains fail with increasing frequency.
While there have been 28 droughts in the area over the past century, four have struck in the past decade alone, causing significant animal loss and pushing many families towards poverty.
Previously, insuring livestock for pastoralists has proved near impossible due to the difficulty of verifying the death of animals over a wide and remote area. But ILRI said it has found a way around the problem with a scheme that pays out not on death but when satellite imagery shows that available forage is so scarce that animals are likely to starve.
Under the new scheme, which will be administered by local firms Equity Bank and UAP insurance, around a thousand farming households are expected to pay between 3.25% and 5.5% of the value of their herds to insure them for a year. For a cow the cost would start at £3.25 an animal, for a goat or sheep 33p. Payouts will depend on the predicted mortality levels.
To build the insurance model, which was developed together with several US universities and local officials, ILRI researchers collected satellite images of plant growth in Marsabit since 1981 from the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index, a global database updated by Nasa and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The information was combined with data on livestock deaths in Marsabit since 2000 to produce a programme that can reliably predict when a reduction in grazing will lead to animal deaths.
There will be two potential payouts each year based on satellite images at the end of the long dry season in September, and the short dry season in February. ILRI said that the policies could also be used by herders as collateral to buy food or drugs to help their animals survive difficult periods.
"Insurance is something of a holy grail for those of us who work with African livestock, particularly for pastoralists who could use insurance both as a hedge against drought – a threat that will become more common in some regions as the climate changes – and to increase their earning potential," said ILRI director general Carlos Seré.
If successful, the project is expected to be expanded to other parts of east Africa.
[Business > Utilities]
Green group threatens legal challenge to government's nuclear plans
Friends of the Earth says planning regime is fundamentally flawed and fails to assess carbon emissions
Tim Webb
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 21 January 2010 18.17 GMT Article history
Friends of the Earth has threatened to launch a legal challenge against the government over its "fundamentally flawed" plans to approve hundreds of new nuclear reactors, power plants, wind farms, electricity pylons and pipelines.
The group has written to energy secretary Ed Miliband warning him that government planning statements issued in November breach environmental regulations and had not followed proper consultation. Friends of the Earth said it was also supported by conservation groups, the WWF and RSPB.
The energy industry and ministers have been braced for a legal challenge for months, particularly over plans to build as many as 10 new nuclear reactors.
Friends of the Earth said it believed the statements, which new planning commission the IPC will use to block or approve applications, would result in Britain "locking-in" to a high-carbon energy infrastructure. It said the IPC should have to directly take into account the carbon emissions resulting from individual applications.
Friends of the Earth's executive director, Andy Atkins, said: "The government's draft national planning statements on energy are fundamentally flawed. The consultation was insufficient, the alternatives were inadequately explored, and the policies are poorly justified. And because they fail to assess the carbon impact that the proposed development will have they threaten to undermine UK carbon budgets."
A government spokesman said that the statements were set in accordance with its overall carbon budgets.
[Environment > Biofuels]
One quarter of US grain crops fed to cars - not people, new figures show
New analysis of 2009 US Department of Agriculture figures suggests biofuel revolution is impacting on world food supplies
John Vidal, environment editor
guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 January 2010 15.09 GMT Article history
One-quarter of all the maize and other grain crops grown in the US now ends up as biofuel in cars rather than being used to feed people, according to new analysis which suggests that the biofuel revolution launched by former President George Bush in 2007 is impacting on world food supplies.
The 2009 figures from the US Department of Agriculture shows ethanol production rising to record levels driven by farm subsidies and laws which require vehicles to use increasing amounts of biofuels.
"The grain grown to produce fuel in the US [in 2009] was enough to feed 330 million people for one year at average world consumption levels," said Lester Brown, the director of the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington thinktank ithat conducted the analysis.
Last year 107m tonnes of grain, mostly corn, was grown by US farmers to be blended with petrol. This was nearly twice as much as in 2007, when Bush challenged farmers to increase production by 500% by 2017 to save cut oil imports and reduce carbon emissions.
More than 80 new ethanol plants have been built since then, with more expected by 2015, by which time the US will need to produce a further 5bn gallons of ethanol if it is to meet its renewable fuel standard.
According to Brown, the growing demand for US ethanol derived from grains helped to push world grain prices to record highs between late 2006 and 2008. In 2008, the Guardian revealed a secret World Bank report that concluded that the drive for biofuels by American and European governments had pushed up food prices by 75%, in stark contrast to US claims that prices had risen only 2-3% as a result.
Since then, the number of hungry people in the world has increased to over 1 billion people, according to the UN's World Food programme.
"Continuing to divert more food to fuel, as is now mandated by the US federal government in its renewable fuel standard, will likely only reinforce the disturbing rise in world hunger. By subsidising the production of ethanol to the tune of some $6bn each year, US taxpayers are in effect subsidising rising food bills at home and around the world," said Brown.
"The worst economic crisis since the great depression has recently brought food prices down from their peak, but they still remain well above their long-term average levels."
The US is by far the world's leading grain exporter, exporting more than Argentina, Australia, Canada, and Russia combined. In 2008, the UN called for a comprehensive review of biofuel production from food crops.
"There is a direct link between biofuels and food prices. The needs of the hungry must come before the needs of cars," said Meredith Alexander, biofuels campaigner at ActionAid in London. As well as the effect on food, campaigners also argue that many scientists question whether biofuels made from food crops actually save any greenhouse gas emissions.
But ethanol producers deny that their record production means less food. "Continued innovation in ethanol production and agricultural technology means that we don't have to make a false choice between food and fuel. We can more than meet the demand for food and livestock feed while reducing our dependence on foreign oil through the production of homegrown renewable ethanol," said Tom Buis, the chief executive of industry group Growth Energy.
[Environment > Farming]
Kenyan herders to be offered livestock insurance against drought
Pioneering scheme uses satellite imagery which shows when available forage is so scarce that animals are likely to starve
Xan Rice, Nairobi
guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 January 2010 Article history
Herders in northern Kenya who suffered large cattle losses during recent droughts are to be offered livestock insurance in a pioneering project that uses satellite imagery of available grazing to determine when payouts occur.
The scheme, billed as a world first by the International Livestock Research Institute, is being launched today in the arid Marsabit district. Pastoralists in Marsabit keep more than 2m cows, camels, goats and sheep, worth an estimated $67m, but currently have no way of rebuilding herds decimated by starvation because of the lack of the grazing after rains fail with increasing frequency.
While there have been 28 droughts in the area over the past century, four have struck in the past decade alone, causing significant animal loss and pushing many families towards poverty.
Previously, insuring livestock for pastoralists has proved near impossible due to the difficulty of verifying the death of animals over a wide and remote area. But ILRI said it has found a way around the problem with a scheme that pays out not on death but when satellite imagery shows that available forage is so scarce that animals are likely to starve.
Under the new scheme, which will be administered by local firms Equity Bank and UAP insurance, around a thousand farming households are expected to pay between 3.25% and 5.5% of the value of their herds to insure them for a year. For a cow the cost would start at £3.25 an animal, for a goat or sheep 33p. Payouts will depend on the predicted mortality levels.
To build the insurance model, which was developed together with several US universities and local officials, ILRI researchers collected satellite images of plant growth in Marsabit since 1981 from the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index, a global database updated by Nasa and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The information was combined with data on livestock deaths in Marsabit since 2000 to produce a programme that can reliably predict when a reduction in grazing will lead to animal deaths.
There will be two potential payouts each year based on satellite images at the end of the long dry season in September, and the short dry season in February. ILRI said that the policies could also be used by herders as collateral to buy food or drugs to help their animals survive difficult periods.
"Insurance is something of a holy grail for those of us who work with African livestock, particularly for pastoralists who could use insurance both as a hedge against drought – a threat that will become more common in some regions as the climate changes – and to increase their earning potential," said ILRI director general Carlos Seré.
If successful, the project is expected to be expanded to other parts of east Africa.
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