the Carbon Challenge

Eco-homies

I am very excited about our latest short film about energy saving, not least because it is fun and engaging but because it is done by a green celebrity I have actually heard of: Comedian Marcus Brigstocke.
Now to be honest I have heard of most of them, and consider myself in touch with generations other than my own. But Marcus crosses divides even better than me and can be heard not just on Radio 4, but various other channels from  BBC 3 to Dave. His work is as varied as his audience and covers live comedy performances, writing and acting. So it’s even more exciting that he had the time to appear in this short film, showing the energy saving measures he has taken in his own London home. Its all in the style of the MTV show Cribs so I had to blog out to all you energy aware homies and say “check it”! http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Resources/Watch-our-video-content/Celebrity-Green-ambassadors/Marcus-Brigstocke-in-Eco-pads

Mon dieu! Save the Earth – it’s the only planet with wine!

Even if you don’t care about climate change, the environment or the polar bears, this should be a reason to unite eco-warriors and climate sceptics alike: Australian vineyards are in crisis as rivers are drying up! As someone who appreciates a good wine (especially a good Australian Shiraz) I was rather alarmed to read this news in the Telegraph this morning.

Apparently almost half of Australia’s wine industry is facing disaster as a drought caused by climate change and the over-use of Australia’s biggest river system threatens to turn vines to dust. It is more important than ever that we address the damaging effects of climate change; my nightly glass is in peril!

Let's sort this labelling confusion!

We are pleased that the EU parliament has rejected the confusing new energy rating system that was proposed for TVs. The commission had proposed to introduce efficiency classes going beyond the current most efficient "A" rating for TVs and fridges. For example, "A-20%", which would mean a product that is 20% more efficient than an A-rated product. However, the new system will still go ahead for fridges and freezers. This is rather confusing for consumers!

You can see from my previous post ‘We’ve got the policies, now let’s see some action’ (30 January 2009) that we were worried that changing the rating system would confuse people. Our research showed that consumers prefer the existing system that rates the efficiency of products from A – G, and the vast majority thought the new system would be too confusing.

MEPs rightly opposed this new system because it wouldn’t be clear whether ‘A’ was in fact the most efficient product. We support keeping the simple A-G system, but it needs to be dynamic to ensure there is continued improvement in energy efficiency standards of products. The standards needed to achieve an A-rated product need to be regularly reviewed and updated to ensure ‘A’ really is the most efficient.

As we haven’t yet had a review of the standards needed to achieve an A-rating, we now also have A++ rated products – so not very straightforward! The EU is now planning to revise the energy labelling framework, so hopefully all the inconsistencies will be ironed out and we can have a simple, user-friendly system that ensures consumers know which products are the most efficient. We need to ensure this is supported by minimum energy efficiency standards for products too, which result in continuous improvement of performance.

Budget report

In the Times on Monday Nicholas Stern made the point that the budget would be a critical test of the consistency and credibility of the government’s policies on climate change. So how well did they do? Here is our Budget Report.

The £100m funding to improve insulation in social housing is an excellent start, but this must go hand in hand with measures for private sector housing especially those in private rented accommodation. We need more policies to support investment in to making energy efficiency for home owners more affordable and easy to do.

Equally the £100m package to build new homes with high energy efficient standards is a step in the right direction and the extra £405m for extra support for low carbon industries which will help kick start more energy efficient housing developments is to be applauded. However Government must then hold these builders accountable to build to a minimum of Code Level 3, enforced properly, and Government must stick to its long term commitment for even higher standard (Code Level 6) for all new builds.

By providing an extra £45m for microgeneration in the Low Carbon Building Programme the government is helping to ramp up industry capacity to meet the need for more renewable energy.

And we are also pleased to see investment going into four new projects that will capture and store carbon, technology that could make Britain more self sufficient in terms of its energy needs whilst reducing emissions and creating jobs.

There is however room for improvement. The carbon friendly announcements are contradicted, sadly, by the government’s scrappage scheme. This policy will increase car purchase regardless of CO2 emissions and the government has missed a significant opportunity by spending public money to incentivise any car upgrade when they could have incentivised the lowest carbon emission cars.

Overall, as budgets go – and considering the current climate – a 6/10!

Gone with the wind!

People have been forced to rethink their preconceptions about the power of wind as, last month, a wind powered vehicle not only travelled four times the speed of wind, but in doing so broke the world record for the fastest moving human on the planet. In a craft called the Green Bird, Richard Jenkins clocked 126.1 mph on a dry lake in Nevada. So whilst there may be some buzz in the news today about the pros and cons of electric cars, it is clear that some people are thinking way ahead of these issues and are exploring technology that could be even greener. http://blog.greenbird.co.uk/2009/03/27/greenbird-smashes-world-record/

Blitzing out waste

I was at the Imperial War Museum today talking about wartime life with some of our Great Green Ambassadors. I think we can all be glad that we are not facing the tough times of bombs, evacuations and rationing but equally there is a lot we can learn from this generation of resourceful people who made the best of everything; using things again and again – and even when they were broken finding ways to mend and repair them.

At the Imperial War museum you can walk around a wartime house, built to scale, that shows how previous generations lived. We sat in this house with the Great Green Ambassadors showing us how to knit and crochet whilst amusing us with tales from the war that included plotting fighter plane journeys and thonging…. but that’s a story for another time! In all seriousness though, you cannot help but have respect for a generation who knew the value of food and energy and did all they could to save and not waste either.

Read more here:

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Your-impact-on-climate-change/The-UK-s-opinion-on-climate-change-the-Green-Barometer/Green-barometer-seven
And read some of our coverage: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/5089236/Wartime-frugality-needed-to-help-fight-climate-change-says-Energy-Saving-Trust.html
 
 

Invasion of the present tense

Attended a really interesting dinner the other evening at which I heard William S Becker, Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project, talking about President Obama’s plans on Climate Change.  I won’t summarise such a comprehensive response so please go to the link for the full report www.climateactionproject.com, but it did raise some interesting thoughts and perspectives.

Like most people I don’t want to be negative about Obama's climate change plans, but I fear there may be something of a gap between expectation and reality. The aims of the current administration to reduce emissions by 20% by 2020 or to the level of 1990 emissions is by current European standards still an exceptionally modest target despite the sea change that’s taken place since the new President’s election less than 70 days ago. Could it be that the previous administration has held the American people in denial for so long that even this modest set of proposals, albeit large in cash terms, is represented as such a major step forward?

Arguments in The Guardian last week, pointed out that America is contributing 12% of its GDP compared to UK’s measly 1.5% but considering America represents 20% of the world’s economic activity relating to the environment, then, proportionally they should be contributing twice the current levels.

For further evidence of this the report sites that in terms of electricity generation, the United States wastes more energy than Japan uses to power its entire economy! 

The good news however is that the US could cost effectively reduce energy consumption by up to 30% over the next 20-25 years. As the strap line of the above report says, the President can.  I say the President must.

Electric Dreams (from a garage near you)

It’s the moment every eco friendly petrol head has been waiting for: the invention of an electric car that does 0 to 60mph in four seconds (that’s quicker than a Ferrari) and reaches speeds of up to 140mph. And after addressing the speed criticisms normally directed at the electric car this car also addresses the issues of recharging (fully charged in an hour) and that of using fossil fuels for the electricity - this car is powered entirely by wind. And the cherry on the cake?  This car has been developed in Britain, quickly and relatively cheaply.
This is fantastic news! Its shows that the love of speed, design and a love for the environment do not have to be mutually exclusive things…Jeremy! If we are clever we can have our cake and eat it. Furthermore these green innovations can help boost our struggling economy and create new jobs. This is what can be achieved by addressing the issues we face head on instead of finding all the flaws whilst offering no other solutions.
The full Guardian’s article is available here to read:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/15/windpower-motoring

Winds of change blow mainly on the plain (in Spain)

When it comes to renewable energy the Spanish tendency to do things “manana” seems not to apply. In recent years Spain has been investing huge sums in renewable energy projects with impressive results. In 2008 they generated 16,740MW of wind energy compared to only 3,241MW in the UK. That is despite us having 40 percent of Europe’s wind resource. Spain is also making rapid progress in solar power and all new homes are required to generate 30 to 70 percent of their hot water using solar power. This shows what’s possible when concerted action to address energy issues is taken and the Spanish have reaped the benefits of job creation and CO2 emission reductions that go with it. It’s about time we awoke from our siesta and did the same! However the UK is now making some progress on this front and the introduction of Feed In Tariffs and Renewable Heat Incentives will go a long way to promoting additional renewable energy capacity, particularly at the smaller scale. We now need to ensure these mechanisms are effective whilst continuing to invest heavily in large scale renewables and energy efficiency. Ole!

   

Throwing money away

Both the Telegraph and Yahoo online report that rubbish is up 500% from the 1960’s with the clean up costing about £500 million! Along with the fact that litter looks horrid and encourages rats (you’re never more than 10m away!), the rubbish is often made up of items that could have been recycled – so it’s not just a waste of money clearing it up, but a waste of resources. It goes to show that the rubbish issue goes beyond concerns about landfill space running out and even that of litter. We are simply producing too much stuff. So we need to find cleverer ways to use things (and re-use them) and we need to produce less in the first place. One of the organisations helping us get smart about waste is WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme). They are tackling climate change by helping us all to reduce waste and they go right to the source – packaging. Find out more about WRAP here: http://www.wrap.org.uk/index.html
They do report some good news too - the reduction in plastic bags has exceeded voluntary targets of 25% cuts and confectionary retailers say Easter egg packaging will also be reduced this year, by up to 50%....which I am delighted about because the important bit is surely the chocolate! 

For further tips on reducing waste and recycling click here: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/What-can-I-do-today/Reduce-waste/Tips-to-reduce-waste