positive news

positive news
Weaning Us Off Oil Making a complete switch to clean, sustainable power seems a bit of a tough sell at the moment, considering that oil still accounts for a whopping percentage of U. S. energy consumption. So what do we do now? Grist has a few ideas on how to slowly wean the nation off of oil (which should weaken the argument for offshore drilling at the same time):	27th May 2010
Cooling buildings with the power of the sun Sunlight can be used not just to warm homes but also to cool them and keep food fresh. Advanced and sustainable technologies for solar cooling already exist. But theyre still too expensive to be used on a global scale.	27th May 2010
Energy answer: Blowing in the wind? (Phys. Org. com) -- When the federal government approved the Cape Wind project in April, allowing 130 power- generating turbines to be placed in the waters off Cape Cod, it gave a significant boost to the prospects of wind energy. The comparatively high costs of wind power, however, remain a problem. But in a study, MIT researchers have concluded that some of the price problems associated with wind power can be remedied right now, given a couple of changes to the electricity grid.	27th May 2010
UK 'will push EU on CO2 targets' The UK government will push the EU to move to a higher target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.	20th May 2010
UK on course to reap massive renewable energy harvest Independent study says North Sea wind and wave power could make Britain the 'Saudi Arabia of renewable energy'Britain could become the "Saudi Arabia of the renewables world" on the back of North Sea wind and wave resources, according to a study carried out by government and industry.The review by independent consultants for the Offshore Valuation Group estimates that by 2050 the UK could generate the equivalent in electricity to the 1bn barrels of oil and gas being produced annually offshore.Green energy experts in the City are sceptical claiming it would require herculean efforts to put the infrastructure in place to hit even the most modest targets.The study, undertaken by the Boston Consulting Group, suggests that Britain could not only keep the lights on but would produce a surplus, suggesting the need for connections to a "super grid" to enable electricity to be exported via subsea cables. See also: Out of Sight, Out of Trouble	20th May 2010
Google-funded hot rock 'water' drill could reduce cost of geothermal energy Enhanced geothermal systems 'could be the killer app of energy world' says Dan Reicher, Google's climate and energy chiefA novel drill that is inspired by a jet engine and uses super-heated water to carve through rock could help make clean energy from underground rocks more economically viable, according to its backers at Google.Potter Drilling is part-funded by Google.org - the internet search giant's philanthropic arm - and wants to use its technology to develop geothermal energy, which involves tapping the energy from hot rocks deep in the Earth.Geothermal energy is seen by environmentalists as a vast potential source of clean, carbon-free energy if it can be tapped efficiently.	20th May 2010
The fight is on to save Kenya's green lung Poverty and climate change are threatening one of East Africa's most valuable forestry areas. Researchers from the University of Copenhagen, including researchers from the Faculty of Life Sciences and the Faculty of Law, have therefore just started a promising partnership with the Wangari Maathai Institute of Peace and Environmental Studies at the University of Nairobi as well as the grassroots Green Belt Movement, which has planted more than 40 million trees in Kenya.	20th May 2010
U.S. reports urge a price on climate emissions WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The best way to curb global warming is to put a price on climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions, according to a trio of reports from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences released on Wednesday.	20th May 2010
Fly the eco-friendly skies MIT-led team designs airplanes that would use 70 percent less fuel than current models.	20th May 2010
Bonuses can be a good thing - if they're linked to carbon emissions Growing numbers of firms are linking executive remuneration to environmental performance " Andrew Williams investigates those companies pioneering the concept of carbon bonusesWhen it's time for salary reviews at Minnesota-based utility Xcel Energy, earnings per share are not the only metric that matters.In its 2009 corporate proxy statement, Xcel explains how a range of sustainability indicators fit into annual incentive objectives for all executives so that it can weigh greenhouse gas reductions and safety performance alongside earnings per share when deciding how to divide up bonuses.Company spokeswoman Patti Nystuen recently told sustainable investment lobby group Ceres that the bonus policy underlined the company's commitment to environmental issues.	18th May 2010
US senators unveil climate bill US senators unveil a long-awaited climate change bill, which includes divisive plans on offshore oil-drilling.	17th May 2010
Europe looking at bigger CO2 cut Europe's climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard is to set out the case for a unilateral 30% EU cut in CO2.	17th May 2010
Govt shifts focus to renewable energy The ETS may have been shelved but the federal government is trying a new tack on climate change - spending money on renewable energy and energy efficiency.	17th May 2010
Climate Change's Secret Weapon - Mother Jones Pretty much everyone agrees that it doesn't make a lot of sense to regulate greenhouse gases using the Clean Air Act. The mechanisms in the CAA just don't fit the problem very well. Still, it's better than nothing, and there's long been an implicit threat from the Obama administration that if Congress doesn't pass a climate bill then the EPA will step in and do the job for them. Today, they ratcheted up the pressure:	17th May 2010
Open letter: How to get to 350ppm In your widely publicized May 2010 letter to Bill McKibben, you ask for specific strategies to achieve a global CO2 reduction down to 350ppm. Here's how, from the United States arm of the international Transition movement: Understand the full magnitude of the problem. Think 'radical system change.' Plan for resilience. Begin the Transition today. Use teamwork. read more	17th May 2010
US could become leader in desert solar, says IEA As Senate considers climate law, report says desert solar farms can be as cheap as coal by 2025The United States could position itself as the global leader in producing utility-scale solar power from its vast deserts, with immediate and appropriate government support, a new report from the International Energy Agency says.The study by the Paris"based energy policy adviser for developed nations says with RD backing, adoption of feed-in tariffs and binding renewable energy portfolio standards, the U.S. and other sunny nations could accelerate the cost reductions needed for widespread deployment of concentrating solar power (CSP) plants.	17th May 2010
The crucial role of activism in scrapping Heathrow's third runway The distinguishing feature of the campaign was the way in which it galvanised people into repeatedly taking direct actionIt was more than four years ago when George Monbiot wrote on these pages: "At last the battlelines have been drawn, and the first major fight over climate change is about to begin. All over the country, a coalition of homeowners and anarchists, Nimbys and internationalists is mustering to fight the greatest future cause of global warming: the growth of aviation."Now the frontline in that battle, the third runway at Heathrow, has been officially cancelled, and so too have the new runways that Labour planned for Stansted and Gatwick.	17th May 2010
Harnessing Ocean Power Generating renewable energy from the ocean through Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion has been studied for nearly a century. Now, several companies are working toward commercial projects.	17th May 2010

ENVIRONMENT: European Activists Against Economic Growth BERLIN, Apr 18 (Tierramérica) - The global environmental crisis requires replacing the existing capitalist model of production with one that promotes "selective degrowth" of the economy and the restricted and responsible exploitation of natural resources, according to European experts and activists.	20th April 2010
CLIMATE CHANGE: Voice of Civil Society Loud and Clear in Cochabamba SANTIAGO, Apr 19 (Tierramérica) - The success of the climate change conference taking place in the central Bolivian city of Cochabamba will depend on how unified civil society ultimately is in its efforts to influence the United Nations climate summit, in Mexico, say Latin American activists.	20th April 2010
Norway cuts Lofoten oil view, boosting greens OSLO (Reuters) - Norway on Friday slashed about a third off its oil and gas resource estimate for the waters off the Lofoten and Vesteraalen islands, bolstering those who oppose opening up the pristine Arctic region for drilling.	20th April 2010
Body Heat: Sweden's New Green Energy Source In Sweden, engineers are using body heat generated by commuters at a trainstation to keep a nearby office building warm -- a test of a futurepossible low-cost energy source	15th April 2010
Iceland volcanic ash disrupts flights April 15 2010: Plumes of volcanic ash following an eruption in Iceland are causing severe disruption to flights across the UK and Europe [Earth's new geo-engineering and and anti-aviation emissions experiment?]	15th April 2010
Postal Service as a Giant Battery? A Plan for Cashing In The U.S. Postal Service may earn millions by storing and stabilizing some of the nation's energy supply in its trucks.	15th April 2010
Geothermal Grows 26% in 2009 WASHINGTON----The US geothermal power industry continued strong growth in 2009, according to a new report by the Geothermal Energy Association . The April 2010 US Geothermal Power Production and Development Update showed 26% growth in new projects under development in the United States in the past year, with 188 projects underway in 15 states which could produce as much as 7,875 MW of new ...	13th April 2010
Solarbuzz Reports Soaring German Solar Photovoltaic Demand in December Global 2009 PV Market Size Reaches 7.3 GW (PRWeb Apr 12, 2010) Read the full story at [link]releases/Solarbuzz/solar_photovoltaic/prweb3863584.htm	13th April 2010
Biogas: The green gas? Biogas has become an attractive alternative source of energy in Europe as the renewable fuel serves several policy priorities, ranging from increased domestic energy production to the reduction of greenhouse gases and more efficient waste treatment.	12th April 2010
Going carbon neutral: California pours a foundation for cities to build on Communities adapt with own brands of sustainability planning and conservation. From SolveClimate, part of the Guardian Environment NetworkState governments are beginning to set the stage for widespread climate action with emissions laws, energy efficiency rules and renewable energy standards, but the hands-on work of actually achieving carbon-neutral status is happening in cities.Let's look at California as an example. The state is leading the nation down the green path overall, adopting statewide policies that encourage residents to reduce their carbon footprints and change their wasteful ways.It is implementing the first-ever law that uses regulatory and market mechanisms to reduce green house gas (GHG) emissions.	12th April 2010
US breaks wind energy record during 2009 Rachel Fielding, BusinessGreen , Friday 9 April 2010 at 10:55:00 American Wind Energy Association annual report shows that despite the recession the US installed a record-breaking 5,700 turbines last year The US retained its pole position in the global race for wind power supremacy last year, achieving a record number of wind turbine installations, according to new figures from the American Wind ...	10th April 2010
Closing in on a carbon-based solar cell To make large sheets of carbon available for light collection, Indiana University Bloomington chemists have devised an unusual solution -- attach what amounts to a 3-D bramble patch to each side of the carbon sheet. Using that method, the scientists say they were able to dissolve sheets containing as many as 168 carbon atoms, a first.	10th April 2010
China: low carbon sources to supply quarter of electricity by end of 2010 New government figures reveal the breakneck pace of China's renewable energy revolution, confirming growth in renewables is now outstripping expansion in coal power. From BusinessGreen, part of the Guardian Environment Network. Low carbon energy sources will account for more than a quarter of China's electricity supply by the end of 2010, according to official statistics released yesterday to the state-backed Xinhua news agency.	10th April 2010
Home truths on domestic solar There's another green rush: NSW residents are flat-out installing rooftop solar panels, due to the state's generous new feed-in tariff.	10th April 2010
Bless Bolivia for recharging the fight to rescue our climate Maybe we'll get a jolt of political energy from the south, courtesy of the groups and leaders assembling from across the world in Cochabamba, Bolivia. This People's Summit on Climate Change will be seen as naive by precisely the kind of people applauding the president for turning on the oil spigots today--after all, its by definition a People's Summit, free from the kind of corporate interference that helped sink the Copenhagen conference in December. read more	8th April 2010
U.S. climate scientist Hansen wins $100,000 prize U.S. climate scientist James Hansen won a $100,000 environmental prize on Wednesday for decades of work trying to alert politicians to what he called an unsolved emergency of global warming. See also: Hansen calls climate change predominant moral issue of the 21st century, slams Congress, Cantwell-Collins - NASA Scientist wins major environmental prize	8th April 2010
Against the Odds, a Green Economy Keeps Growing People are betting on a future of stricter environmental regulations -- and corporations are listening.	8th April 2010
Smart grid gets green light in Western Australia US-based company, American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC), has been brought on to build a smart grid for the 111 turbine Collgar wind farm in Western Australia.	8th April 2010
Lowering income taxes while raising pollution taxes reaps great returns by Lester Brown As economic decisionmakers"whether consumers, corporate planners, government policymakers, or investment bankers"we all depend on the market for guidance. In order for markets to work and economic actors to make sound decisions, the markets must give us good information, including the full cost of the products we buy.Unfortunately, markets largely ignore the indirect costs of goods and services, thus grossly distorting the structure of the economy. The market price of burning coal, for example, includes only the direct costs, those of mining the coal and transporting it to the power plant. By neglecting the substantial indirect costs of burning coal"the costs of air pollution, acid rain, devastated ecosystems, and climate change"the market is giving us bad information.	8th April 2010
Report Says Algal Biofuels May Not Cut Carbon Emissions, But Read More Closely Growing algae to make biofuels is less effective than growing land-based crops such as soya, canola	8th April 2010
Poll: California's greenhouse gas law has majority support The state's controversial global warming law still has the support of a majority of Californians despite growing doubts about its potential impact on the economy, according to a Field Poll released Tuesday. The poll shows 58 percent of registered voters support Assembly Bill 32, which will require significant reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions. The poll was commissioned by Next 10, a San Francisco nonprofit group that supports green technology and reducing gases blamed for global warming. See also: Texas Oil Firms Oppose California Climate Law	8th April 2010
Can we survive climate change? Bill McKibben sees a chance - USA Today USA Today. "We're not going to solve climate change one house household at a time," McKibben, 50, says in a Green House interview. "What we need is a law, national and international, that puts a cap on carbon and raises its price."	8th April 2010
The war against carbon starts now - Part 1: The Carbon War Room starts to bust barriers in shipping Readers are always asking what can been done to cut carbon beyond pushing for the bipartisan climate and clean energy jobs bill. I m launching a new series aimed at the kind of serious action people can push for at a local and state level " and even at a national and global level " without waiting for politicians. After all, the biggest, most money-saving strategies to cut carbon are already profitable (see McKinsey must-read: U.S. can meet entire 2020 emissions target with efficiency and cogeneration while lowering the nation's energy bill $700 billion! ) The impetus for this new series is my interview today (below) of Jigar Shah, the uber-innovative clean energy financing guru who founded Sun Edison and now heads the new nonprofit, the Carbon War Room.	6th April 2010
Offshore Wind Turbines Could Power Atlantic Seaboard A chain of 11 offshore wind power generators could provide all the power needed from Massachusetts to North Carolina, according to a new study.	6th April 2010
Berkeley Researchers Light Up White OLEDs (PhysOrg.com) -- Light-emitting diodes, which employ semiconductors to produce artificial light, could reduce electricity consumption and lighten the impact of greenhouse gas emissions. However, moving this technology beyond traffic signals and laser pointers to illumination for office buildings and homes -- the single largest use of electricity -- requires materials that emit bright, white light cheaply and efficiently. White light is the mix of all the colors, or wavelengths, in the visible spectrum.	6th April 2010
Hold the salt: Engineers develop revolutionary new desalination membrane (PhysOrg.com) -- The new reverse-osmosis membrane resists the clogging that typically occurs when seawater and brackish water are purified.	6th April 2010
Tokyo to trial electric 'filling stations' to boost green transport First step in Californian firm's bid to build the world's first infrastructure networks for electric cars by next yearThe first public trial of a system that "refills" electric cars in minutes will be launched this month. The Californian company Better Place will test its automated battery-swap stations in Tokyo.It is the latest element in the company's ambitious plans to build the world's first infrastructure networks for electric cars by the start of next year.Globally, road vehicles generate around a fifth of carbon dioxide emissions. The figure is the same for the UK. According to a study for the Department for Transport, widespread adoption of electric vehicles with a range of 30 miles or more could halve road transport emissions.One of the biggest challenges, however, to the large-scale implementation of electric cars is the problem of infrastructure for recharging.Better Place has come up with a ...	6th April 2010
We need birth control, not geoengineering The pill, condoms and IUDs are some of the most effective " and cheap " weapons the world has to fight climate change. From Grist, part of the Guardian Environment Network>I've written about my choice not to have children. What's all too easy to forget is that many women still don't have any reasonable choice about their fertility. An estimated 200 million women around the world don't have access to family-planning tools. If they did, 52 million unwanted pregnancies could be averted every year, according to the Guttmacher Institute [PDF]. I'm not talking government mandates or coercion or heavy-handed tactics " those approaches aren't just ethically dubious, they're wholly unnecessary.	6th April 2010
China's Wind Energy Sector Begins Expansion in Offshore Zones China's surging wind power industry will increasingly move offshore, experts say, as the nation's first offshore wind farm reaches full power this month and government officials push several additional projects. The 102-megawatt Shanghai wind farm is the first of several offshore wind projects planned by China, which last month opened bids for three to four large-scale offshore wind farms that officials say could generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity. Beijing-based energy consultants Azure International predict that by 2020 China will have invested $100 billion to install 30,000 megawatts of capacity off the Chinese coast.	6th April 2010
Climate-row professor Phil Jones should return to work, say MPs - Times Online The climate scientist at the centre of the row over stolen e-mails has no case to answer and should be reinstated, a crossparty group of MPs says.	31st March 2010
Renewable Synergy The news is that there is continuing progress towards a fully Renewable Europe. It is, after all, the only means to ensure a sustainable Economy into the future, given the twin blended threats of Climate Change Carbon Mitigation and Peak Fossil Fuels. Dr Gregor Czisch's meisterwerk is being translated into English for publication this Summer :- Scenarios for a Future Electricity Supply: Cost-Optimised Variations on Supplying Europe and Its Neighbours with Electricity from Renewable Energies You would never know from the plainspeaking title just how exciting this is : seriously cheap Energy and peacemaking collaboration all in one shot !	31st March 2010
That Which May Be Gained: A Return to Scale, Community, and Morality Bound by the tangled cord of its own sins, Industrial Civilization sits immobilized -- with the gun of reality pressed to its temple. Monumental changes are imminent " probably (hopefully) a swirling mix of both bad and good. In order to maintain our present sanity and maximize chances for the best possible futures, we need to both envision and embody the positive change we wish to see in the coming post-carbon era. As such, I suggest this: a return to life at a proper human scale, the reclamation of functional human communities, and the widespread internalization and application of a true morality.	31st March 2010
Global solar power capacity grew 44 pct in 2009 LONDON (Reuters) - Global installed solar photovoltaic power grew by 44 percent in 2009 on the back of German subsidies now under threat, the European Photovoltaic Industry Association said on Tuesday.	31st March 2010
The EPA weighs the hidden costs of carbon by Michael A. Livermore This week, the Environmental Protection Agency will do more than set new fuel efficiency standards for cars. It will put a price on carbon. Within this historic climate change regulation is a powerful new way of thinking about greenhouse gas emissions: as costs that will borne by society. Burning oil in cars imposes a steep price tag, from dirtier air now, to more expensive flood insurance in a decade, to potential climate catastrophe for our grandchildren. The federal government has taken note of these hidden costs and is now using them to weigh the benefits of curbing our emissions.	31st March 2010
Dark Optimism DARK OPTIMISM How do we handle Peak Oil AND climate change? Shaun Chamberlin from UK Transition Towns, energy writer Kurt Cobb, plus Richard Heinberg on renewable hope, with Lester Brown. You know we are going to run out of civilization's life-blood: fossil fuels. And if we burn what's left, the climate will tip into a mass extinction event. Meanwhile, barking madness seems to be the only growth industry. Is it time for more pills, booze, or end-time religion? Our first guest says there may be some hope left. Shaun Chamberlin's blog is called "dark optimism" - and that may be as good as it gets. Shaun is part of the "transition movement" in Britain. He's the author of the new book "The Transition Timeline, for a local resilient future," ...and, part of an upcoming report for the British Parliament, on a scheme to give everyone an energy quota.	29th March 2010
Researchers conclude 100 per cent renewable electricity supply is feasible - vnunet.com Europe could generate all the electricity it needs from renewable sources by the middle of the century, according to a major new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) that rejects concerns about the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources. The report – which was contributed to by researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and the European Climate Forum – concludes it is technically feasible to produce a pan-continental supersmart grid powered by solar farms in North Africa, hydro electric plants in Scandinavia and the European Alps, onshore and offshore wind farms in the Baltic and North Sea, marine energy, and biomass power facilities. Richard Gledhill, partner for sustainability and climate change at PwC, said the report "debunks some of the conventional criticisms of large-scale renewables" by demonstrating how "geographic and technological diversification can help address cost and security of supply concerns".	29th March 2010
In pictures: Cities dim the lights - BBC News Images as cities around the world turn off the lights to mark Earth Hour, an effort aimed at boosting climate change awareness.	29th March 2010
How my Youtube channel is converting climate change sceptics - The Guardian How my Youtube channel is converting climate change scepticsThe Guardian (blog). So you have this friend who just doesn't seem to get global warming. Showing him pictures of polar bears stranded on icebergs generates no sympathy. He is unmoved by computer images of New York under water. Could he really be a right-wing crackpot, unwilling to face the fact that the Earth is doomed? Well maybe not. After questioning and listening to hundreds of climate change "sceptics," I have found that not all are conspiracy theorists or religious fundamentalists. Many are keen to learn about the science of climate change, but they have been learning about it from rather dubious sources. So two years ago I began a series of videos on YouTube to explain the science, and rebut urban myths that spin round the internet and end up on the opinion pages of the Daily Express and the Wall Street Journal. The result has been astonishing. My channel, Potholer54, now has over 27,000 subscribers. The videos have been mirrored by others all over the internet, and several university lecturers have asked if they can use it in their environmental science classes. Most importantly, former sceptics tell me the videos have changed their minds about the reality of climate change.	29th March 2010
'Solar city' The Energy and Climate Change Committee said in 2008 there were 881,000 green sector jobs - but with extra funding that could rise by 44% by 2015. But it criticised slow uptake of carbon capture systems, electric cars and home insulation, calling on the government to invest more in the technologies.	29th March 2010
Court victory for anti-Heathrow protesters Campaigners against the third runway in Heathrow were celebrating after judges ordered a review of the plans, particularly with respect to their effect on climate change policy. Heathrow Coalition Against Aircraft Noise reported: The Government's airport expansion policy is in tatters this morning (26th March) after a Judge ruled that ministers did not properly consult on a number of key issues before attempting to give consent to a third runway at Heathrow airport. The Judge ruled that a January 2009 statement to the House of Commons by Geoff Hoon giving the green light to Heathrow expansion had no legal substance.	26th March 2010
New 'smart' roof reads the thermometer, saves energy in hot and cold climates Top a building with a light-colored "cool roof," and it reflects sunlight, cutting air conditioning bills in summer, but increasing winter heating costs. Choose black shingles, and the roof soaks up sunlight to cut winter heating costs but makes the roof bake in the summer sun. One or the other. You can't have it both ways. Until now.	25th March 2010
Ships can cut CO2 by slowing down: study LONDON (Reuters) - Merchant ships can cut their carbon emissions by as much as 30 percent over the next three years by traveling more slowly, a Brussels-based environmental group said on Wednesday.	25th March 2010
Budget 2010: Government to take £1bn stake in eco bank, says chancellor Sale of state-owned assets to help pay for green investment bank to finance North Sea wind farms and low-carbon transportThe government plans to take a direct equity stake in North Sea wind farms through a green investment bank, using cash raised from the sale of assets such as the Channel tunnel rail link.The move mirrors the state intervention in the early days of offshore oil, but the amount of public money involved, at £1bn, is regarded as "peanuts" by some critics, given the need for total infrastructure spending of £50bn a year.Alistair Darling said in his budget speech that a further £1bn at least would be sought from the private sector to pump into the new bank, which he hoped would open for business in the autumn of 2011.	25th March 2010
Climate Union I m in the Climate Union. Are you ? Finally, I have to admit that I have an personal stake in the outcomes of Climate Change and Energy policy. I have to confess to a utilitarian, yet enlightened, self-interest. And so say all of us. In the future, I want there to be jobs. New jobs, for young and old, for me. Productive, worthwhile employment, green jobs that don t permanently wreck the atmosphere for future generations. When I get sick, unabled or old, I want there to be social services. Not run on a shoestring budget owing to Carbon Taxes or Carbon Trading, but Low Carbon hospitals with well-motivated, sufficient staff ...	24th March 2010
Kevin Grandia: Mark 10:10:10 on your calendar for a global work party! - The Huffington Post I know, I know, work is pretty hard to sell as a party, but the Global Work Party being held on October 10, 2010 (10:10:10) is different.	24th March 2010
Memo to policymakers: Public STILL favors the transition to clean energy Conservatives have been doing their best to torpedo the movement toward clean energy by hyping controversies about the science behind global warming. But whatever effect these controversies have had on the public they do not appear to have undermined support for action on the clean energy front, as polling expert and CAP Senior Fellow Ruy Teixeira explains. Take support for a cap-and-trade approach to limiting carbon dioxide emissions. Back in October, views on this approach were running 50-39 in favor according to a Pew Research Center poll. Recently, Pew tested this approach again and actually found a slight widening of support to 52-35 in favor.	20th March 2010
Bolivia creates a fresh start for climate talks Bolivia will host an international meeting on climate change next month because it is not prepared to 'betray its people'In the aftermath of the Copenhagen climate conference, those who defended the widely condemned outcome tended to talk about it as a "step in the right direction". This was always a tendentious argument, given that tackling climate change can not be addressed by half measures. We can't make compromises with nature.Bolivia, however, believed that Copenhagen marked a backwards step, undoing the work built on since the climate talks in Kyoto. That is why, against strong pressure from industrialised countries, we and other developing nations refused to sign the Copenhagen accord and why we are hosting an international meeting on climate change next month.	20th March 2010
Aiming for a no-carbon economy \| Mike Mason Taking the 'low-carbon' path means we are designing an economy not fit for purposeWho would get on a flight across the Atlantic if most of the aeronautical engineers in the world were saying that the plane had a 50% chance of crashing before it got to the destination? No one. So why then are we prepared to take our chances on a planet which the vast majority of serious scientists say has a high chance of catastrophic system failure? I don't care whether the odds are 50% or 10% or even 1% - this is the only planet going and we're all on it.In that case, when governments talk of aiming for a "low-carbon economy" by 2050, shouldn't we all rejoice?	20th March 2010
What if we all traded energy between ourselves? The time may soon be coming when every government will need to think about rationing fossil fuel usage. What's the quickest and most equitable way to do it?	18th March 2010
Money spent on tar sands projects could decarbonise western economies Production from tar sands will rise to 4m barrels a day by 2025 Shareholders seek review of environmental impact of tar sandsThe £250bn cost of developing Canada's controversial tar sands between now and 2025 could be used to decarbonise the western economy by funding ambitious solar power schemes in the Sahara or a European wide shift to electric vehicles, according to a new report released today.The same amount of investment would also help the world to hit half of the Millenium Development Goals in the 50 least-developed countries, says the research from The Co-operative and conservation group, WWF, which is released to coincide with a new film, Dirty Oil, being premiered in 25 cinemas around the UK today.	16th March 2010
Two Robin Hood Taxes for the Price of One The subject of taxes certainly isn t the most riveting topic for cocktail party conversations...But we believe that the time has come to reframe the debate on taxes and build up some popular passion and energy for a few basic adjustments to the tax code. With these simple, easy-to-implement changes, it turns out that we could move the economy in a direction that works much better for people and the planet, including a more stable climate. read more	16th March 2010
Carbon Trust launches green fuel consortium - vnunet.com Cath Everett, BusinessGreen , Monday 15 March 2010 at 15:56:00 New £7m research project to accelerate the development of pyrolysis-based biofuels made from waste materials The Carbon Trust has today launched a new consortium of UK businesses committed to developing a commercially viable process for converting municipal and wood waste into a biofuel boasting higher levels of environmental ...	16th March 2010
British sea power - BBC News Tidal energy plans for thousands of green jobs	16th March 2010
Hot water for Chile's slums, courtesy of the sun By Helen Hughes " Special to GlobalPost SANTIAGO, Chile " Jacquelin Marin has no running hot water at home. For a while, she had no real home at all. But soon she ll have both, with the sun heating water for her showers. Marin and her neighbors are part of a pilot program to install solar water heaters in the houses of low-income families. For Chile " a country with stark economic inequality and few fossil fuels " it's a way to help the poor while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Chile's drastically different climate zones mean it's hard to devise any nationwide energy solution.	16th March 2010
New London Tower Will Generate 8 Percent Of Its Own Electricity A new 42-floor London skyscraper will be the world's first building to incorporate wind turbines in the design, an innovation developers say will generate 8 percent of the building's electricity needs. The Strata Tower, a 408-unit apartment building scheduled to open in July, will be topped with three 19-kilowatt turbines " each with five 29.5-foot blades designed to suck wind from various angles and accelerate it through tubes, generating as much as 50 megawatt-hours of electricity annually. It will also generate about £16,000 to £17,000 annually through the nation's new feed-in tariff, the developers say.	16th March 2010
The Woman Who Just Might Save the Planet and Our Pocketbooks What if our economy was not built on competition? Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom talks about her work on cooperation in economics.	16th March 2010
Cuba's green revolution - achieving sustainability Cuba's successful models of sustainable development " in areas of food, housing and health " are now being widely replicated throughout Latin America.	16th March 2010
Erik Assadourian: our society needs some serious cultural engineering The editor of the influential Worldwatch 'State of the World' report on the best ways to transform cultures from consumerism to sustainability	12th March 2010
EU to exceed 2020 green energy target: forecasts BRUSSELS (Reuters) - New forecasts suggest the European Union will exceed its target of getting 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources in 2020, the European Commission said Thursday.	11th March 2010
IEA calls for low-carbon revolution - UPI PARIS, March 10 (UPI) -- The International Energy Agency and technology officers from 30 global companies in Paris called Wednesday for dramatic action to usher in a low-carbon economy.	11th March 2010
China unsure on warming cause, to stick with CO2 cuts BEIJING (Reuters) - China's top climate negotiator said on Wednesday that the cause of global warming was still not clear but the problems it was creating were so serious that the world must anyway act to cut greenhouse gas emissions.	11th March 2010
Scientists figure out way to convert CO2 into carbon monoxide using visible light - Sify News A team of scientists has figured out a way to efficiently turn carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas, into carbon monoxide using visible light, like sunlight.	11th March 2010
The 'waterless' washing machine that could save you money New machine by Xeros cleans clothes with beads and a tiny amount of water and may cut household bills by 30%"Dry" cleaning is set to become a domestic activity with a washing machine that uses 90% less water than a normal laundry cycle and could be available by the end of 2011. The device, developed by Leeds-based Xeros Ltd, replaces water with tiny plastic beads that suck up stains and its producers claim it will shift stubborn pounds from household energy bills as well.The Xeros process uses 3mm-long nylon beads that can get into all the crevices and folds of clothing and can also be re-used hundreds of times.	11th March 2010
New Process Uses Concentrated Solar Heat to Vaporize Biomass A U.S. startup has developed a process that uses concentrated solar heat to vaporize biomass into synthetic fuels, a system the company says is cleaner and more efficient and can produce twice as much fuel per ton of biomass as existing systems. In the process, a network of solar mirrors direct sunlight at a mounted gasifying unit, heating ceramic tubes to 1,200 to 1,300 degrees C. Any biomass, such as wood and crop waste, that is passed through the tubes becomes vaporized and is converted into synthetic gas, the company says. At such extreme temperatures, the process leaves behind little tar residue, which the developers say can be expensive to get rid of and can kill the catalysts that reform the product into liquid fuel later in the process.	11th March 2010
Sweden Labels Food With CO2 Data Experts say these guidelines, if heeded by consumers, could decrease Sweden's emissions by 20 to 50 percent.	9th March 2010
German fishing boat flies giant kite to save fuel IJMUIDEN, Netherlands (Reuters) - Germany's largest fishing vessel will leave the Netherlands this week, towed by a giant kite harnessing trade winds for South America that will help cut its fuel consumption by up to a third.	9th March 2010
Team Finds Way to Clean Up Coal, Harvest Hydrogen (PhysOrg.com) -- The Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy has awarded researchers at UT Dallas $1 million over three years to create a new class of membranes that produce hydrogen from coal while scrubbing out greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.	8th March 2010
EU considers general carbon tax - BBC News The European Commission plans an EU-wide tax on carbon as part of the EU's green energy agenda - but the UK opposes such a move.	8th March 2010
How ocean bacterium turns carbon into fuel - Science Daily Researchers have uncovered details about how cyanobacteria, one of the most abundant organisms on Earth, digest carbon. These bacteria build miniature factories inside themselves that turn carbon into fuel. A new study shows the bacteria organize these factories spatially, lining them up in a neat row, revealing a structural sophistication not often seen in single-celled organisms.	8th March 2010
Environment Agency maps hydropower hotspots Report identifies thousands of potential small-scale hydropower sites in English and Welsh rivers that could power 850,000 homesThousands of small-scale hydroelectric schemes could power 850,000 homes and produce 1.5% of the UK's electricity needs, according to an Environment Agency study (EA) published today (pdf).The agency mapped the energy hotspots of English and Welsh rivers and identified almost 26,000 locations where turbines could be installed to generate electricity from the water.Not all those sites could be developed, as some could damage the environment or are in places with practical constraints, such as difficulty accessing the local electricity grid.Around half the sites are in environmentally sensitive areas and would need fish-friendly measures such as screens to stop fish getting killed by turbines.But the EA said that with many of the potential locations in areas where humans have interfered ... See also: Rivers' potential for electricity - BBC News	8th March 2010
Solar panels the hot new item as pay-as-you-save launches Get a loan of up to £15,000 to green your house " but the scheme could falter if the government loses the electionIf you want to install solar panels on your roof and take advantage of lucrative new feed-in tariffs but have been put off by a lack of funds, you could soon get a loan to cover the whole cost.This week the government unveiled plans to offer homeowners 20-year loans of up to £15,000 to allow families to invest in green technologies, safe in the knowledge that their loan would be taken over by the purchaser if they move before it's paid off.This follows an announcement by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) that it will start paying feed-in tariffs to households installing green technologies, most notably solar water heaters, typically costing £4,000, and electricity ...	8th March 2010
New energy saving targets to cost homeowners more than £7bn Homeowners will be able to take out loans for thousands of pounds to pay for insulation and solar panels, under legislation proposed by the governmentWell-off homeowners will be expected to borrow more than £7bn over the next decade to meet ambitious government energy saving targets announced today.Local authorities will be encouraged to borrow the money needed to make buildings greener and meet local carbon emission reduction targets, for example by entering into public-private partnerships.Energy suppliers will be required to meet about 60% of the estimated £18.6bn cost of insulating most of the UK's homes, for which the poorest households will not have to pay. See also: Green loans Q&A: how does Pay As You Save finance work?	5th March 2010
Norway plans the world's most powerful wind turbine Norway plans to build the world's most powerful wind turbine, hoping the new technology will increase the profitability of costly offhsore wind farms, partners behind the project said Friday.	5th March 2010
Trade row looms as adviser calls for carbon tax on China Lord Turner proposes levy on cheap imports Tariffs could antagonise developing countriesMinisters should consider a carbon tax on imports to help struggling British manufacturers, according to one of the government's key advisers, despite fears such a measure could lead to a global trade war.Lord Turner, who heads the UK committee on climate change, said the government should "rigorously assess" bringing in levies on cheap imports from countries outside the European Union, which are not subject to carbon-related costs such as the EU emissions trading scheme.Ministers have in the past resisted calls from European counterparts to introduce such carbon levies, arguing they would be anti-competitive.	5th March 2010
An Australian Group Rolls Out Plan for 100 Percent Renewable Energy by 2020 This is huge considering Australia now gets nearly 80 percent of its power from coal plants. Is their plan feasible?	5th March 2010
'Climate Hope': How a New Rebellion Against Coal Is Fueling the Drive for Clean Energy Ted Nace talks about his new book, "Climate Hope," and gives a behind-the-scenes look at the intense mobilizations that are working to overturn Big Coal.	5th March 2010
Sweden to build 2,000 new wind turbines: minister - AFP via Yahoo! UK & Ireland News Sweden will build 2,000 new wind turbines over the next decade as part of a bid to dramatically increase its production of renewable energy, Enterprise and Energy Minister Maud Olofsson said Tuesday.	5th March 2010
Spain proposes doubling of renewable energy capacity - vnunet.com Rachel Fielding, BusinessGreen , Tuesday 2 March 2010 at 11:09:00 Government sets out plan to generate over 22 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2020 Spain is hedging its bets on renewable energy sources as a means to revive its recession-hit economy " with a proposal to more than double production from clean energy to over 20 per cent of total energy use by 2020. According to Reuters ...	5th March 2010
India proposes coal tax to pay for clean energy push - vnunet.com James Murray, BusinessGreen , Wednesday 3 March 2010 at 00:15:00 Levy on coal production and imports to help pay for new renewable energy fund The Indian government is expected to back up its recent commitment to curb carbon emissions with a controversial move to levy a new tax on coal in order to pay for the roll out of renewable energy technologies. Speaking in his annual budget speech to the ...	5th March 2010
Scientists discover how ocean bacterium turns carbon into fuel - EurekAlert! ( Harvard Medical School ) Researchers have uncovered details about how cyanobacteria, one of the mostabundant organisms on Earth, digest carbon. These bacteria build miniaturefactories inside themselves that turn carbon into fuel. A new study showsthe bacteria organize these factories spatially, lining them up in a neatrow, revealing a structural sophistication not often seen in single ...	5th March 2010
Solar panels are not fashion accessories \| Jeremy Leggett Economies of scale in manufacturing are causing rapid reductions in costs and solar energy has a bright futureGeorge Monbiot's attack on solar energy and the government's "cash-back" solar photovoltaic (PV) market-building scheme paints a distorted picture of the industry I work in, and government policy towards it (Are we really going to let ourselves be duped into this solar panel rip-off?, 2 March).First, Monbiot gets the workability of solar wrong. He says: "The amount of power PV panels produce at this latitude is risible, [and] they also produce it at the wrong time." Those who buy panels, therefore, will own a mere "fashion accessory". See also: Are we really going to let ourselves be duped into this solar panel rip-off? \| George Monbiot	5th March 2010
China May Start Its First City-Wide Carbon Cap-and-Trade System - Bloomberg March 5 (Bloomberg) -- China may start its first city-wide carbon cap-and-trade system by June as the world's biggest polluter seeks to rein in emissions, a project adviser said.	5th March 2010
China to build industrial system of low-carbon emissions: Wen's report - People's Daily China will build an "industrial system" and "consumption pattern" with low carbon emissions, according to a government work report to be delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao at the parliament's annual session Friday. China will work hard to develop low-carbon technologies as well as new and renewable energy resources to actively respond to climate change. The report also outlines plans to increase ...	5th March 2010
ENERGY: Coal-Fired Power on the Way Out? - AlertNet Source: IPS The past two years have witnessed the emergence of a powerful movement opposing the construction of new coal-fired power plants in the United States.	28th February 2010
British firms face onslaught from tar sands campaigners British companies spearheading the drive to exploit the Canadian tar sands will come under renewed assault this week from an increasingly vocal group of shareholders and environmentalists who are planning to turn the forthcoming BP, Shell and Royal Bank of Scotland annual meetings into a referendum on these controversial operations. The Co-operative and the Fair Pensions lobby group are releasing a special briefing paper designed to counter recent statements by the oil companies that sought to justify their involvement in carbon-intensive oil extraction in Alberta on the basis that it was needed to meet rising oil demand. Friends of the Earth, Platform and other green groups are publishing a new report, Cashing in on Tar Sands – RBS, UK Banks and Canada's Blood Oil, which claims RBS has provided loans of $7.5bn (£4.9bn) in the past three years to companies carrying out this kind of mining in North America.	28th February 2010
China says moving to enforce greenhouse gas goals BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Sunday it will spell out greenhouse gas emissions goals and monitoring rules for regions and sectors in its next five-year plan, with monitoring to show it is serious about curbing emissions.	28th February 2010
Successful wind tunnel test of controllable rubber trailing edge flap for wind turbine blades - PhysOrg Today's wind turbine blades, which can measure more than 60 metres in length, are subjected to enormous loads, which means that a blade can flex as much as 4-6 metres during strong gusts. However, the blades are also so long that there can be considerable differences in the loading from the gusts along the blade. In wind farms, surrounding wind turbines also exert considerable influence and ...	27th February 2010
Waste Could Meet 7 Percent of Spain's Electricity Demand, Study Says The burning of solid urban waste, sludge from water treatment plants, and livestock slurry could generate more than 7 percent of Spain's electricity needs, according to a new report. Researchers at the University of Zaragoza say incineration of these materials has the potential to produce up to 20.95 terawatt hours annually. In 2008, that would have met 7.2 percent of the nation's electricity demand, according to the report published in the journal Renewable Energy. And burning solid urban waste rather than allowing it to reach landfill sites could prevent pernicious impacts, such as the release of methane and other gases into the atmosphere, researchers said.	27th February 2010
A Simple Carbon Tax Would Cost Only $2.50 A Gallon And Could Save The World - The Business Insider The Business InsiderA Simple Carbon Tax Would Cost Only $2.50 A Gallon And Could Save The WorldThe Business InsiderTrue, it is not certain that global warming will destroy the earth. But nothing is certain when you're talking about climate change. ...	22nd February 2010
New design raises hopes for renewable targets Aerogenerator turns conventional windmills on their side, with a 100m tall V-shaped blade rotating on a vertical axisA radical windmill design could hold the key to making offshore wind power more economical and helping the UK meet its ambitious renewable energy targets.The Aerogenerator turns conventional windmills on their side, with a 100m tall V-shaped blade rotating on a vertical, rather than the usual horizontal, axis. By building all the moving parts and machinery at the base of the windmill rather than the top of a tower, its designers claim it will be easier to build and maintain, making its renewable electricity cheaper.Nova (Novel Offshore Vertical Axis Demonstrator) " which came up with the design " is one of three projects being funded by the government-backed Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) as part of a project to find ways of bringing down the cost of ...	22nd February 2010
Time to think small on climate change Copenhagen's failure has created an opportunity for individuals to fill the void left by politicians.	20th February 2010
Solar water heaters come to the boil as cash incentive is dangled Payments of £400 a year offered to far-sighted households, but you'll need a south-facing roof, says Miles BrignallGovernment incentives are about to make solar water heating panels a financial no-brainer for millions of households across Britain, as long as they have a south-facing roof.Two weeks ago Guardian Money outlined the attractiveness of electricity generating panels as a result of the introduction of "feed-in" tariffs, which will pay households for the extra energy they produce. However, the installation cost " at around £12,500 " will put many people off.Less off-putting are solar water heating systems, which cost some £4,000-£5,500 for a typical 2kW system and are likely to pay an annual return of around £500 for the next 20 years.	20th February 2010
Norway outlines ways to reach deep 2020 CO2 cuts OSLO (Reuters) - Norway laid out ways to reach one of the world's toughest climate goals on Wednesday with measures to clean up sectors from oil to transport that it said would trim just 0.25 percent from the economy by 2020.	20th February 2010
Energy and Global Warming News for February 19: German Industrial Giant partners with U.S. Concentrated Solar Startup; $8 billion to jump-start work on 13 high-speed rail lines; CO2 Capture and Storage System Gains Foothold German Industrial Giant partners with U.S. Concentrated Solar Startup The German industrial giant Ferrostaal will use solar technology from the California startup eSolar in power plants to be built in Europe, the Middle East and South Africa. The partnership, announced on Thursday, comes a month after eSolar, which is backed by Google and other investors, signed an agreement with a Chinese industrial company to build solar power plants that would generate 2,000 megawatts of electricity. Last year, eSolar agreed to license its technology to an Indian developer that plans to build solar projects with a total capacity of 1,000 megawatts.	20th February 2010
Throw your iPhone into the climate debate Who says that the climate debate is not evolving? According to the daily newspaper the Guardian, a new application ( app ) has been written for iPhones that provides a list of climate dissidents arguments, and counter arguments based on more legitimate scientific substance. The app is developed by John Cook from Skeptical Science . It's apparently enough to have the climate dissidents up in arms " meaning that it's likely to have some effect? Some dissidents are now thinking of writing their own app. Here on RC, we have developed a wiki, to which I also would like to bring the reader's attention.	20th February 2010
Wind can power regeneration \| Adam Bell Using old shipyards to manufacture turbines will bring jobs to some of Britain's most disadvantaged areasUnemployment stands at 2.5 million people. Even though the economy is (marginally) picking up, we can't waste the opportunity to generate new jobs and income that the expansion of wind power in the North Sea represents. That's why EmbraceMyPlanet, the campaign for renewables, welcomes Nick Clegg's plans for linking the regeneration of disused shipyards to creating green jobs and supporting windfarms.The Lib Dem leader has outlined an initiative to convert old shipyards into wind turbine production centres, by providing a £400m redevelopment fund.	15th February 2010
Global Wind Energy Capacity Grew 31 Percent in 2009, Study Says Wind power capacity grew by 31 percent globally in 2009, with the steepest rise occurring in China, according to a new study. About 37.5 gigawatts of capacity were added last year, boosting the total capacity worldwide to 157.9 gigawatts, says the Global Wind Energy Council, an industry trade group based in Belgium. The growth occurred despite the weak global economy as major nations made renewable energy a priority of their economic stimulus plans, said Steve Sawyer, the council's secretary general. Copenhagen didn t bring us any closer to a global price on carbon, Click to enlargeGWECSince 2003, wind power capacity growth has been steepest in Asia and North America.	15th February 2010
UCLA Develops Synthetic Gene Designed to Capture CO2 Emissions Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles have created a synthetic gene they say can capture carbon dioxide emissions. Omar M. Yaghi, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, has developed thousands of so-called crystal sponges that absorb gases and have proven effective in the lab at storing CO2. The synthetic crystals, which code information in a DNA-like manner, have nanoscale-sized pores that Yaghi says allow molecules to go in and out. The latest results, which Yaghi says could lead to more efficient carbon capture at factories and power plants, are published in the journal Science.	15th February 2010
Vestas forecasts boost in orders - Financial Times Vestas , the world's biggest wind turbine maker, did little for hopes of a recovery in the renewable energy sector on Wednesday when it announced fourth-quarter results that showed growth was still sluggish.	15th February 2010
Zero emissions possible - at $40bn a year - The Age Australia could move to 100 per cent renewable energy within a decade if it spent heavily on cutting-edge solar thermal and wind technology, according to an analysis by advocacy group Beyond Zero Emissions.	15th February 2010
Pulling carbon out of the air - and out of coal smokestacks just might be possible by Tom Laskawy Admittedly, no one thinks clean coal is oxymoronic and misleading more than me. That said, we do appear to be hell bent on funding carbon capture and sequestration systems for coal-fired power plants. The real problem with CCS, of course, isn t so much the capture part as the sequestration part. What do you do with all that carbon that you re pulling out during coal combustion. The main technologies under consideration involve pulling the carbon out of the exhaust gases, then liquifying it and injecting it underground. That last part is a technology originally developed by the oil industry for keeping dying oil wells productive (the carbon dioxide forces more oil out of the ground).	15th February 2010
Obama budget seeks to end oil, gas subsidies WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Monday asked Congress for a second time to end some $36.5 billion in subsidies for oil and gas companies, saying it would help fight global warming.	2nd February 2010
U.K. to Pay Higher Rates for Clean-Power Production - Update2 - Bloomberg Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. will begin offering above- market rates for clean energy produced by homes and businesses, following policies pioneered by Germany and Spain to spur small- scale use of wind and solar plants to reduce carbon emissions.	2nd February 2010
Germany Greenhouse-Gas Emissions Fall 22%; Kyoto Target Achieved - Bloomberg Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Germany's greenhouse-gas emissions fell 22 percent between 1990 and 2008, the environment ministry said today, adding that the nation of 82 million people has now exceeded the cuts required of it under the Kyoto Protocol climate-change treaty.	2nd February 2010
Smart grid could reduce emissions by 12 percent (PhysOrg.com) -- A smart electrical power grid could decrease annual electric energy use and utility sector carbon emissions at least 12 percent by 2030, according to a new report from the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.	29th January 2010
U.S. Wind Energy Capacity Grew 39 Percent in 2009, Report Says The U.S. wind power industry continued to grow in 2009 despite a global recession, adding 9,900 megawatts " a capacity increase of about 39 percent " according to a new report. That growth, which was boosted by a federal stimulus package that extended the tax credit for wind energy production and offered other incentives, represents the largest single-year jump on record for the industry, according to the annual report released by the American Wind Energy Association. The added capacity was 18 percent greater than the growth in 2008. But that momentum could slow in 2010, the report said, since the sluggish economy has slowed orders for new turbines and will likely mean fewer installations this year.	27th January 2010
NREL study shows 20 percent wind possible by 2024 - Half a million jobs, 25% drop in utility carbon pollution for just 2 cents a day per household Back in May 2008, I reported on an amazing study on U.S. wind potential by the Bush Adminstration (see Bush DOE says wind can be 20% of U.S. power by 2030 " with no breakthroughs). The study concluded 20% penetration was straightforward: Annual installations need to increase by only a factor of three from current levels by 2018. Costs of integrating intermittent wind power into the grid are modest. 20 percent wind can be reliably integrated into the grid for less than 0.5 cents per kWh. No material constraints currently exist. This would require 300,000 MW of wind, delivering electricity for about 6 to 8.5 cents per kilowatt hour, unsubsidized (i.e.	22nd January 2010
Solar Power Is Now an Option for Even the Most Cash-Strapped Suburbanites Residential solar leases offer a no-money-down, low-monthly plan that makes solar electricity cheaper than the stuff we get by wire -- and you don't have to buy the panels.	18th January 2010
EU pushes for deeper carbon emissions cuts - AFP via Yahoo!Xtra News SEVILLE, Spain (AFP) - The EU on Saturday stood by its offer to move to a 30 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020 despite the failure of last month's UN climate summit to secure a legally-binding deal.	18th January 2010
Shell faces shareholder revolt over Canadian tar sands project Investors call for review of oil production in Alberta Tar sands deliver less than 2.5of total oil and gas production Shell chief executive Peter Voser will be forced to defend the company's controversial investment in Canada's tar sands at his first annual general meeting, after calls from shareholders that the project be put under further scrutiny.A coalition of institutional investors has forced a resolution onto the agenda calling for the Anglo-Dutch group's audit committee to undertake a special review of the risks attached to the carbon-heavy oil production at Athabasca in Alberta.Co-operative Asset Management and 141 other institutional and individual shareholders raise "concerns for the long-term success of the company arising from the risks associated with oil sands."Shell, which will hold its AGM in May, has been one of the lead companies in moves to develop oil reserves that are ...	18th January 2010
Energy supplies: When the wind blows Beware of suspiciously round figures. The only certain thing about the prime minister's claim yesterday that Britain's offshore wind industry "could be worth £75bn and support up to 70,000 jobs by 2020" is that none of those three numbers will turn out to be correct. He also omitted the most important fact, which is that the immense schemes given the go-ahead this week may eventually generate 32 gigawatts of electricity. On a windy night, that could be close to half of the national demand. Throw in other renewable sources and " one day " new nuclear plants, and Britain's low-carbon future suddenly seems like much more than rhetoric.The advantages of offshore wind " and Britain already has more turbines at sea than any other country " are obvious.	10th January 2010
There is an alternative to our unhealthy culture of overwork This year, we all need to become more like Utah, under its Republican governor " and then go further. No, dear reader, don t panic " I have not converted to Mormonism, nor have I tossed out my sanity with my old Santa hat and Christmas decorations. The people of one of the most conservative states in the US have stumbled across a simple policy that slashes greenhouse gas emissions by 13 percent, saves huge sums of money, improves public services, cuts traffic congestion, and makes 82 percent of workers happier. It can do the same for us " and point to an even better future beyond it " without the need for the Arch-Angel Moron (yes, Mormons really do believe in him) to offer his blessing.	10th January 2010
Paint away the carbon dioxide Repeated coatings of special paint absorb CO2 and deposit layers of "biolime" on a building, adding strength and insulation	10th January 2010
Obama awards $2.3 billion clean energy tax credits WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama unveiled a $2.3 billion tax credit on Friday to boost jobs by promoting clean energy, as new data showed the country's unemployment rate remained stuck in the double digits.	10th January 2010
A PENNY A MILE: Hull couple leads the charge with zero-emissions vehicle - The Patriot Ledger USA: HULL — While gas prices have jumped to an average of $2.65, Michael Connelly and Judeth VanHamm are spending only a penny per mile to get around. The Hull couple’s zero-emissions Club Car Village 2+2 became the first vehicle registered in Massachusetts as a “low-speed vehicle.”	10th January 2010
Boiler scrappage scheme launched Households with a working G-rated boiler will get £400 towards the installation of an A-rated boiler or renewable heating system	7th January 2010
Sarkozy wants French carbon tax to take effect in July by Agence France-Presse PARIS"The French government decided Tuesday that a new carbon tax to fight global warming will go into force in July, a week after the constitutional court struck down a previous version of the measure.President Nicolas Sarkozy told the council of ministers that the revamped tax would be presented to the cabinet later this month and that it would go into force on July 1, government spokesman Luc Chatel told reporters.The Constitutional Council last Tuesday declared the tax illegal, just days before it was to kick in, dealing a severe blow to Sarkozy, who had championed the measure aimed at encouraging French consumers to stop wasting energy.	7th January 2010
12 Innovations That Could Save Us With climate disruption, war, and a faltering economy, that was a tough decade. Still, seeds were sown for a more green and egalitarian 2010s.	7th January 2010
Sun, wind and wave-powered: Europe unites to build renewable energy 'supergrid' North Sea countries plan vast clean energy project 30bn scheme could offer weather-proof supply.It would connect turbines off the wind-lashed north coast of Scotland with Germany's vast arrays of solar panels, and join the power of waves crashing on to the Belgian and Danish coasts with the hydro-electric dams nestled in Norway's fjords: Europe's first electricity grid dedicated to renewable power will become a political reality this month, as nine countries formally draw up plans to link their clean energy projects around the North Sea.The network, made up of thousands of kilometres of highly efficient undersea cables that could cost up to 30bn (£26.5bn), would solve one of the biggest criticisms faced by renewable power " that unpredictable weather means it is unreliable.	4th January 2010
Geoffrey Lean is dead wrong, and here’s why by Ken Ward So where do we go from here? asks Geoffrey Lean. How do we get from the ... debacle of Copenhagen to a new and worthwhile climate treaty? The question reminds me of the old Bert & I tale about the Maine farmer who, when asked by a motorist for directions to Millinocket, answers, You cahn t get theyah from heea. Lean observes that Rarely have such high hopes [for Copenhagen] been dashed so swiftly, and says the summit was only saved from total disaster by unprecedented negotiations between the leaders themselves. I’m more inclined to see the unprecedented, last-minute, let’s-save-ourselves-from-complete-embarrassment negotiations as adding final insult to grievous injury, but be that as it may, what’s most interesting in Lean’s analysis are the “7 Steps” he outlines to get from debacle to a worthwhile treaty.	4th January 2010
California's renewable pipeline hits nearly 70 GW LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Renewable energy projects proposed in California total nearly 70 gigawatts, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Tuesday, a large pipeline that could help the state meet its renewable energy goals.	2nd January 2010
Quebec adopts California's auto emission standards TORONTO (Reuters) - Quebec will become the first province in Canada to adopt California's strict auto emissions standards, the province's environment ministry said on Tuesday.	2nd January 2010
CLIMATE CHANGE: Doors Opening for Carbon Tax BERLIN, Dec 30 (Tierramérica) - With the chance for a global climate change treaty on hold, a tax on greenhouse gases could be an effective alternative for discouraging the activities that create emissions, say economists and environmentalists.	2nd January 2010
Green technology to be harnessed by top firms and academics to overhaul UK infrastructure Sustainability scheme could create tens of thousands of jobs 'Retrofitting' homes could make Britain a pioneer in field. Some of Britain's leading firms are partnering top academic institutions to develop projects that will overhaul household energy, water, transport and waste provision to drastically cut carbon emissions.The groundbreaking partnership, led by Arup's global planning chief, Peter Head, involves 25 international companies including GE (the world's biggest company, according to Forbes). HSBC, French energy firm EDF, Thames Water, Marks Spencer and waste management firm Biffa are also behind the plan.Politicians and regulators are calling for a "green new deal" to help lift the economy out of recession.	2nd January 2010
James Hansen \| Copenhagen has given us the chance to face climate change with honesty A carbon-use dividend for everybody must replace the old, ineffectual 'cap-and-trade' schemeLast weekend's minimalist Copenhagen global climate accord provides a great opportunity. The old deceitful, ineffectual approach is severely wounded and must die. Now there is a chance for the world to get on to an honest, effective path to an agreement.The centrepiece of the old approach was a "cap-and-trade" scheme, festooned with offsets and bribes " bribes that purportedly, but hardly, reduced carbon emissions. It was analogous to the indulgences scheme of the Middle Ages, whereby sinners paid the Church for forgiveness.In today's indulgences the sinners, developed countries, buy off developing countries by paying for "offsets" to their own emissions and providing reparation money for adaptation to climate change.	29th December 2009
China introduces law to boost renewable energy BEIJING (Reuters) - A new Chinese law requires power grid operators to buy all the electricity produced by renewable energy generators, in a move that will increase the proportion of energy that comes from renewable sources in coal-dependent China.	29th December 2009
Toilet Power Trumps Nuclear Image Credit : NowPublic I still don t know what all the fuss is about Nuclear Power, when the BioMethane from all the toilets, farm slurry, hospital and food waste in the country could trounce the amount of power available from atoms by 2020. Without all that nasty radioactive leftover, massive expensive building projects, social tension, election nightmare and increasing security issues. With a bit of time on my paws over the Christmas Vortex (everything gets sucked up by Christmas and nothing ever gets spat out again until January), I started to dig into Professor David J.	29th December 2009
Which way will the wind - power blow in 2010? The United States became the No. 1 wind power market in the world in 2008. But under the credit crisis in 2009, the building of new wind farms slackened and the United States ceded its top global spot to China. With the demand for renewable energy still growing, the American Wind Energy Association is eyeing 2010 as a critical year. Here are some of their top trends to watch for: Second to natural gas: Wind power generates only 2 percent of the U.S. electrical supply. But new wind power generation in the United States has been second only to natural gas generation in terms of new capacity built each year since 2005. See also: Is clean tech the next bubble? - National Post	29th December 2009
Copenhagen was no disaster. Copenhagen was no disaster. On the contrary it was a triumph. Here is why:	21st December 2009
Evils of False Progress Interfere in Fight for Climate - Now It's up to Us Although one yearns for global warming to indeed not exceed 2 degrees Celsius (or less, as African countries demand), the take-home message from the Copenhagen COP meeting is that polluters and growth mongers, large and small, will not let up. This is because they are not being forced to -- whether by their own peoples or by natural forces such as ecological or economic collapse. Most diabolical is the intention to switch energy as the main strategy for climate protection, when it will not work.	21st December 2009
How Effective Are Renewables, Really? The last 10 years have seen massive amounts of taxpayer money invested in renewable energies in Germany. Growth in the industry has been rapid. But has the development been universally good? SPIEGEL ONLINE takes a look at those renewables with promise -- and those which might flop	18th December 2009
Copenhagen: why can't we write off Third World debt at the same as dealing with the environment? - Telegraph As climate change negotiations get into full swing ahead of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen, debate over the basis upon which developed countries should compensate developing countries for their historic emissions intensifies.	16th December 2009
Poll: Action on climate will heat up economy, jobs - The Associated Press WASHINGTON — More Americans believe steps taken to reduce global warming pollution will help the U.S. economy than say such measures will hurt it. It's a sign the public is showing more faith in President Barack Obama's economic arguments for limiting heat-trapping gases than in Republican claims that the actions would kill jobs.	16th December 2009
CLIMATE CHANGE: The Many Lives of the Tobin Tax BERLIN, Dec 15 (Tierramérica**) - In the decades since 1972, when Nobel laureate economist James Tobin (1918-2002) first proposed it, the idea of a tax on currency speculation has resurfaced and disappeared many times, according to the economic tides. See also: Climate conference: 'Make bankers pay for deal'	16th December 2009
A chat with Earl Blumenauer about his ‘carbon audit’ of the U.S. tax code by David Roberts Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.)Tucked away in the frantically assembled and hastily passed bailout bill of Sept. 2008 was a little-noticed provision that would empower the National Academy of Sciences to do a carbon audit of the U.S. tax code, scoring tax provisions according to their impact on the national carbon footprint. But the audit" brainchild of Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.)"never got underway, because Congress never appropriated any money for it. Until now, anyway: the minibus just approved by the House set aside $1.5 million for the NAS to get started.The program is based on the old saw that what gets measured get done.	13th December 2009
Plans in place to meet our green energy targets 'three times over' - The Scotsman SCOTLAND would meet its 2020 renewable energy targets three times over if all the schemes currently planned were granted permission.	8th December 2009
The papers that will carry the Copenhagen editorial Follow the links below to read the global editorial on each host news organisation's website Read the editorial In pictures: See also: Copenhagen climate change conference: 'Fourteen days to seal history's judgment on this generation'	8th December 2009
US climate agency declares CO2 public danger Environmental Protection Agency declaration allows it to impose emissions cuts without agreement of reluctant SenateThe Obama administration adopted its climate change plan B today, formally declaring carbon dioxide a public danger so that it can cut greenhouse gas emissions even without the agreement of a reluctant Senate.The timing of the announcement " in the opening hours of the UN's Copenhagen climate change summit " prevents Barack Obama from arriving at the talks without concrete evidence that America will do its bit to cut the emissions that cause global warming."Climate change has now become a household issue," said Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), adding that the evidence of climate change was real and increasingly alarming. See also: EPA's Carbon Decision Gives Obama Copenhagen Tool - Update1 - Bloomberg	8th December 2009
CLIMATE CHANGE: Negawatts and Smart Grids BERLIN, Dec 7 (IPS/TerraViva) - Electricity is indispensable to modern life, but its generation is responsible for 40 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming and climate change.	8th December 2009
A Direct Tax On Fossil Fuel Is What The World Needs Urgently A direct tax on fossil fuel will reduce the indiscriminate manner in which agricultural goods are being traded. I dont see any justification in importing Washington apples from America, while the US imports Chinese apples. I dont see any economic justification in importing oranges to India all the way from Chile, while the Indian oranges go rotting	7th December 2009
Leading article: One world, one agenda The world has already changed. Whatever is agreed or not agreed at the summit on climate change that begins in Copenhagen tomorrow, momentous change has already occurred.	7th December 2009
World newspapers unite on climate change - New Vision CBC.caWorld newspapers unite on climate changeNew VisionThe joint editorial, also run by The New Vision, points out that the facts on global warming have started to speak for themselves: 11 of the past 14 years ...World Concerns About Climate Change Dwindle - SurveyNew York TimesCopenhagen: the Climate SummitBoston Globe"Climate Gate" Casts Cloud on Change MeetCBS NewsSydney Morning Herald -Examiner.com -RadioFreeEurope/RadioLibertyall 2,696	7th December 2009
Buy time with two-track climate pact: UK economist LONDON (Reuters) - A leading British economist said leaders at climate talks in Copenhagen next week should agree a successor to the Kyoto Protocol without a U.S. commitment to cut its greenhouse gases.	4th December 2009
Novel carbon-trading scheme could stop large-scale extinctions A new strategy for saving tropical forest species was published in the leading journal Science on the eve of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark, by a team of researchers, including William Laurance, senior staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and distinguished professor at James Cook University. The authors state that wealthy countries should adopt a carbon-payment system that explicitly incorporates biodiversity values.	4th December 2009
Renewable Energy Investments Will Soar to $200 Billion Worldwide in 2010 Global investments in alternative energy projects will rise nearly 50 percent in 2010, climbing from $130 billion this year to $200 billion next year. In a survey of the green energy market, Bloomberg News reports that despite the dim prospects of forging a climate treaty in Copenhagen this month, companies and governments are moving rapidly ahead to build wind power farms, large solar arrays, and other green energy projects. Thanks in large part to state-funded economic stimulus programs, government spending on green energy will more than double in 2010 to about $60 billion, according to the report.	4th December 2009
A green industrial revolution calls \| Noreena Hertz Copenhagen pledges on carbon emissions will mean little unless we do some radical thinking about how to finance themWith the world's attention focused on what will be agreed at Copenhagen, the reality is that unless there is a massive rethink about how a transition to a low-carbon economy is to be financed, whatever is agreed will not be achievable.Take solar: the economies of solar mean that putting a panel on one's roof is a huge upfront investment, only at the moment recoupable in about 40 years. No wonder solar, an energy source with limitless potential, has not yet realised its ambitions.	4th December 2009
China completes climate circle - BBC News A fair bit of the doubt and confusion surrounding next month's UN climate summit has suddenly cleared, with the world's two biggest greenhouse gas emitters - the US and China - announcing pledges on curbing greenhouse gas emissions.	4th December 2009
Viable future? - BBC News Can the world's energy become 100% renewable?	4th December 2009
CLIMATE CHANGE-US: Citizens Back Action, Despite Lobbying Surge WASHINGTON, Dec 3 (IPS) - As both Washington and the international community come gradually closer to taking substantive action on climate change at a high-level conference in Copenhagen, a side effect of this progress has been a parallel increase in the intensity of campaigns opposing such action " which may be a factor in the slight dip in the U.S. public's concern about climate change.	4th December 2009
Europeans could save planet for $3 a day: study BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Europeans could help cut climate warming emissions to much safer levels for just 2 euros ($3) each per day, but they would also have to cut back on driving and meat eating, a report said Tuesday.	2nd December 2009
China May Seek Bigger Carbon Cut in Future, Morgan Stanley Says - Bloomberg Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- China may eventually aim for a larger cut in carbon-dioxide emissions by 2020 as the recently set target to reduce pollution is not as large as it seems, Morgan Stanley said.	2nd December 2009
Critic of 'Climate Oligarchy' Defends Case for CO2-Driven Warming A scientist critical of the "climate oligarchy" sees the basic case for human-driven global warming unchanged by the disclosed climate files.	2nd December 2009
Gaze into clean technology's crystal ball for 2010 Clean technology investors who have suffered through 2009 can find cheer in a new report by the Cleantech Group that gives its top ten predictions for 2010. The number one prediction: Private capital growth will recover, the research group said. The group believes that the amount of money from global venture capital and private equity in clean technology in 2010 will surpass that in 2009 by a healthy margin and could be a record year. The group also is watching for major investments like Khosla Ventures raising $1 billion for renewable energy and clean technology funds, more capital in Asia and innovative fund strategies.	30th November 2009
Seven Answers to Climate Contrarian Nonsense - Scientific American What follows is only a partial list of the contrarians' bad arguments and some brief rebuttals of them.	30th November 2009
Solar panel costs 'set to fall' The cost of installing and owning solar panels will fall even faster than expected according to new research.	30th November 2009
Its Possible To Avert Climate Crisis By James Hansen Science reveals what is needed to stabilise atmospheric composition and climate. Geophysical data on the carbon amounts in oil, gas and coal show that the problem is solvable, if we phase out global coal emissions within 20 years and prohibit emissions from unconventional fossil fuels such as tar sands and oil shale	30th November 2009
Buy Nothing day is only the beginning for a new counter-consumer culture \| Tony Juniper Our demand for resources now outstrips the natural world's ability to meet it. It's time to foster habits fit for a finite planetAsk a representative group of people what is the greatest threat facing humankind in the 21st century and a number of suggestions will follow. Terrorism, hunger, poverty and pandemics will probably be among them. Few would probably say that the way we consume should be at the top of the list, but there's good reason to believe that this is in fact the correct answer " especially now, one day before the official UK Buy Nothing day.The reason is simple.	28th November 2009
Catching rays cutting emissions The phrase "catching a few rays" might conjure up images of lying on a sunny beach. But Germany's Renewable Energy Act has given that phrase a whole new meaning. I've discovered that you can get paid for capturing the sun's energy on your roof, converting it into CO2-free electricity with the help of special equipment, and feeding it into the grid and watch the investment yield handsome long-term returns.	28th November 2009
US 'pledges major emissions cuts' President Obama is to pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions in several stages, beginning with 17% by 2020, officials say.	26th November 2009
Climate policies 'improve health' Cutting emissions to mitigate climate change will also make people healthier, according to research.	26th November 2009
Swiftboating Climate Science - aka. climategate - what you need to know swift boat veterasns.jpg One of my favorite bloggers Josh Nelson has put together the definitive guide to the hacked climate science email story. Below is the original article from his website Enviro Know.com. --- The SwiftHack Scandal: What You Need to Know First of all, this story should never have been called ClimateGate. Given the similarities between this smear job and the Swift Boat attacks on Senator John Kerry, SwiftHack is a far more appropriate name. I ve attempted to cover the major points of interest in this story. Consider this post a perpetual work in progress.	26th November 2009
'Organic farming may counter climate change,' report says Organic farming can play an important role in countering climate change, a new report suggests today.	26th November 2009
INDIA: Glacier Man Vows to Build More Artificial Glaciers LADAKH, India, Nov 22 (IPS) - He is well known as India's glacier man , but for 74-year-old retired government civil engineer, Chewang Norphel, accolades have made little dent in his quiet determination to build more high-altitude water conservation systems, or artificial glaciers , to beat the lack of water from receding Himalayan glaciers.	22nd November 2009
Low-carbon road map for China - New Scientist Report claims that the country can get all its new energy from renewable and nuclear power by 2050 while boosting economic growth	22nd November 2009
Wave machine to power homes - Times Online A hydroelectric wave-energy machine called the Oyster, which could revolutionise energy production in Scotland, was yesterday switched on to the National Grid by Alex Salmond, the First Minister.	22nd November 2009
Climate change survey says 83% willing to make sacrifices More than 80 per cent of people believe climate change is a serious threat and are willing to make sacrifices to combat it, a survey by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) showed today.	22nd November 2009
Cuts won't cost the earth - The New Statesman Economic reality is a curious thing. The term has a solid, reassuring sound. To go against it would be very foolish and immature. But what exactly is it?	19th November 2009
Battery Research Aims To Store Renewable Energy The biggest chemical battery in the United States is located near Interstate 90 in the small town of Luverne, Minn. The 80 ton device -- the size of two tractor-trailers stacked on top of each other -- stores as much energy as about 3 million rechargeable AA batteries and can power about 3,000 houses for more than an hour when discharging at its maximum rate.	19th November 2009
Review: 'The Ecotechnic Future' by John Michael Greer John Michael Greer has officially established himself as an institution within the peak oil community. Truly one of the finest minds working on the predicament of modern-day industrial civilization, he is so well-read in so many fields that he regularly gains access to insights that utterly elude his contemporaries. For this he is treasured by a growing number of loyal readers"and, I suspect, hated by equally many fellow bloggers who wish that they could be half as good. read more	19th November 2009
'Big drop' in Amazon deforestation The level of deforestation in the Amazon drops by 45% to the lowest on record, Brazil's government says.	14th November 2009
Big profit from nature protection - BBC News Money invested in protecting nature can bring huge financial returns, according to a study backed by the UK.	14th November 2009
Netherlands to levy 'green' road tax by the kilometre The Dutch government said Friday it wants to introduce a "green" road tax by the kilometre from 2012 aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent and halving congestion.	14th November 2009
ENERGY-SPAIN: Windfall for the Grid MADRID, Nov 9 (IPS) - Wind energy notched up a new record in Spain on Sunday, when it generated 53 percent of total electricity demand nationwide for part of the day, according to official figures announced Monday.	10th November 2009
Carbon ration account for all proposed by Environment Agency - Times Online Everyone should be given an annual carbon ration and face financial penalties if they exceed it, under a proposal by the Environment Agency.	10th November 2009
Gordon Brown is right: rich western banks should pay for the developing world to go green A global tax on banking transactions would curb speculation and the proceeds could break the deadlock on Copenhagen climate talksThe response was predictable. No sooner had Gordon Brown expressed enthusiasm for a global transaction tax than the backlash began. Not something we like, said the Americans. We want lower not higher taxes, said the Canadians. Too hard to enforce, said the International Monetary Fund.This is the last gasp of an ancien régime. The banks in 2009 are the Bourbons in 1789, the Romanovs in 1917. They existed in a bubble of privilege and took the public for a ride. They caused a financial crisis and triggered the biggest economic crash since the 1930s.	10th November 2009
Contraction & Convergence : Agreeable, Workable, Ethical This week, the campaigning organisation Friends of the Earth took the bold step of publishing their critical negative analysis of Carbon Trading. It is clear that money, alone, cannot buy you Carbon Emissions reductions, and as we come up to Copenhagen, it is essential that we reach beyond the ifs, buts, greys and muted tones to a framework that can be made to work, agreeable to all : Contraction & Convergence from the Global Commons Institute :- [link]contconv/cc.html A market-based system for Carbon control stands a good chance of failure.	10th November 2009
Global Solution for Global Disease After more than 10 years of research, in every possible spot, about the phenomenon. After being depressed to the edge for not finding one single headline in a newspaper or website in the whole world, that responsibly approaches the most important subject to human survival and the entire planet. Only after the human self-defeat to common sense the time has come to set what appears to be sci-fi, trying to stop the Climate Changes.	8th November 2009
'Road trains' get ready to roll A sensor system that joins vehicles in 'platoons' so they travel close together is being researched with European cash.	10th November 2009
Renewables & efficiency - Energy Bulletin -A Plan to Power 100 Percent of the Planet with Renewables -Farms going green to save and survive -Solar power from Sahara a step closer -Nearly 200 Organizations and Companies Urge Senate to Adopt Key Energy-Efficiency Provision in Climate Bill-Report Argues for a Decentralized System of Renewable Power Generation	8th November 2009
F1 designer unveils electric car A new sustainable electric car designed for city or town use is the result of a £9m investment programme.	6th November 2009
Light down a wire for solar power A modification to commercial optical fibre could be a promising route to solar power without large arrays, say researchers.	4th November 2009
Sahara Sun 'to power Europe' - BBC News A sustainable energy initiative that will start with a huge solar project in the Sahara desert is announced by a consortium of 12 European businesses.	3rd November 2009
If It's That Good, Why Aren't They Doing It Already ? When discussing Renewable Energy technologies with associates, acquaintances and relatives, I often hear tones of scorn and the invariable question : If it's that good, why aren t they doing it already ? This anti-sense meme from Classical (Neoliberal, Chicago School) Economics boils down to a perception problem. The obvious reason why Renewable Energy technologies are not already widely in use is due to the first-mover problem " it takes time to establish and roll out new technologies. People just don t like change. And they have to get over the investment bump " spending the money to install new technologies. See also: A Path to True Enlightenment	3rd November 2009
The peace movement and the cornucopian view If you want peace, work for justice. --Bumper Sticker (originally from the New Year's Day message of Pope Paul VI, 1972)The above statement seems so much a truism that when someone says it, we rarely think to inquire about what the speaker means by either peace or justice. Let me formulate it this way. By peace, I will mean the absence of violent conflict within or between nations. By justice I will mean the just distribution of goods and services including such services as education and health care and the upholding of internationally recognized human rights for all people.	3rd November 2009
CLIMATE CHANGE: Set That 110 Limit BERLIN, Oct 30 (IPS) - Every single person should set a cap of a total of 110 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over the next four decades to avoid irreversible and uncontrollable consequences of climate change, under a new proposal.	1st November 2009
Path to a peace economy I start with a basic truth. A persistent pattern of violence against people, community, and nature is inherent in the institutional structure of our existing economy. You don t treat a cancer with Band-Aids, and we can t resolve our current economic crisis with marginal regulatory adjustments. It is time to rethink and restructure. read more	29th October 2009
Swedish emissions cutting efforts focus on dinner plates - Bellona Foundation In the battle against climate change, Sweden has decided no crumb is too small to ignore. The country has been experimenting with food labeling that lists the carbon dioxide emissions associated with the production of foods in an effort it hopes will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, The New York Times reports.	28th October 2009
Swiss Zinc-Air Batteries Store Three Times the Energy of Lithium Ions A Swiss company has introduced a rechargeable zinc-air battery that has three times the storage of lithium ion batteries and costs only half as much. ReVolt plans to commercialize a small version of the battery for use in hearing aids by next year, and then continue introducing larger versions, including batteries for cellphones and electric bicycles " and, perhaps eventually, electric cars. The technology is based on a battery designed by the Norwegian research institute SINTEF. While the typical battery contains the reactants needed to generate electricity, zinc-air batteries utilize oxygen from the atmosphere, which makes them less volatile and allows for a larger storage capacity.	28th October 2009
Google's home power monitor arrives in UK Online tool allows householders to monitor energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, thereby reducing consumption and saving moneyGoogle may be best known for helping you find things on the web, but the online search company's latest move is a bid to make futuristic low-energy eco-homes a reality.Launching for the first time in the UK today, Google Powermeter is an online tool that allows householders to monitor their home's energy use and greenhouse gas emissions via the web, and so reduce their consumption and save money.Already being trialled in the US, the free energy-monitoring service uses new smart meters, or an add-on clip for conventional meters, to send electricity consumption to a personalised iGoogle web page.	28th October 2009
The Alba And Copenhagen By Fidel CastroAt the Cochabamba meeting, a new ALBA Summit was convened. The timetable will be: December 6, elections in Bolivia; December 13, ALBA summit in Havana; December 16, participation in the UN Copenhagen Summit. The small group of ALBA nations will be there. The issue is no longer Homeland or Death; it is truly and without exaggeration a matter of Life or Death for the human race	27th October 2009
EPA: Climate bill could cost family $100 annually (AP) -- A Senate plan to tackle global warming would add about $100 a year to the energy costs for a typical household, according to an analysis by the Environmental Protection Agency.	27th October 2009
A Global Focus on a Hot Number From the pyramids to an Antarctic mountaintop, people express a single global goal for CO2. See also: Campaign to Reduce Carbon Dioxide Picks a Number - New York Times Why 350 is the most important number	25th October 2009
CLIMATE CHANGE: Grassroots Campaign Calls for Bold Steps BUENOS AIRES, Oct 23 (IPS) - Through nearly 5,000 different actions planned in 170 countries for Saturday, climate change activists will try to raise public awareness on the need for a new global climate treaty which would set an upper limit for atmospheric carbon dioxide that would effectively prevent environmental catastrophes. See also: Can photo ops stop global warming? - Los Angeles Times Why 350 is the most important number	23rd October 2009
Interview with visionary bassist Kai Eckhardt If people have a sense of responsibility for the outcome of a situation, it will lift up the human race to deal with everything, even global warming. - Kai Eckhardt	23rd October 2009
From the sands of the desert . . . One of the most important moments at the recent Bangkok UNFCCC meeting was the release by the IEA of its Climate Change Excerpt to the World Energy Outlook 2009. The full World Energy Outlook will be released in November as usual, but the pre-release was done to coordinate with the talks in Bangkok. The excerpt lays out a possible 450 ppm energy scenario, built in part on the fact that the recession has given us something of an emissions break, with the IEA estimating that global emissions have fallen some 3% as a result. Whilst emissions will start growing again (and probably already have), the drop is akin to at least a 3 year reprieve, which means that the window of opportunity for 450 ppm is slightly open.	22nd October 2009
The Economic Case for Slashing Carbon Emissions Amid a growing call for reducing atmospheric concentrations of CO2 to 350 parts per million, a group of economists maintains that striving to meet that target is a smart investment " and the best insurance policy humanity could buy. BY FRANK ACKERMAN	20th October 2009
Water wonder How fog nets are helping Peru's parched capital	20th October 2009
US Chamber of Commerce in climate hoax Environmental activists held spoof press conference announcing U-turn in the organisation's stance on climate legislationIt looked " at first " eerily like a routine news event. A man in a nondescript dark suit standing at a podium in one of the smaller meeting rooms on the 13th floor of the National Press Club. But then suddenly it wasn't."There is only one way to do business and that is to pass a climate bill quickly so this December President Obama can go to Copenhagen and negotiate with a strong position," said the speaker " who said he represented the US Chamber of Commerce.The statement represented a complete repudiation of the Chamber's earlier opposition to climate change legislation.	20th October 2009
The New Wave of Solar-Thermal Energy Where did Desertec come from (and why did it take so long)?	20th October 2009
MIT Team Develops Roof Tile That Changes Color as Temperatures Shift A group of recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates has developed a roof tile that remains white in summer to reflect the sun's energy then turns black in winter to absorb the sun's rays and heat buildings. The so-called thermeleon (rhymes with chameleon) technology uses a common commercial polymer trapped between layers of plastic, including a black layer at the back. When the temperature drops, the white layer disappears, exposing the black layer. The MIT graduates say the tiles reflect about 80 percent of the sun's heat when they are white, translating into a 20 percent savings in cooling costs.	17th October 2009
Finland plans 80-pct carbon emissions cut by 2050 - SpaceDaily HELSINKI, Oct 15 (AFP) Oct 15, 2009 The Finnish government aims to reduce its carbon emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels, in order to minimise the risks caused by climate warming, it said Thursday.	17th October 2009
Blog Action Day - Big Bloggers Covering Climate Change Around the World bad-300-250.jpg I've been making sure all my blogger friends are signed up for Blog Action Day, but I write about the chosen topic for this year (climate change) everyday. So I thought I would share with you some of the Blog Action Day posts I am seeing from sites that normally don't cover the issue on a regular basis. Interesting to see their takes: The Official Google Blog: A Green Tour of the Google Campus No. 10 Gov: Gordon Brown's blog on climate change The Unofficial Apple Weblog: Blog Action Day: Five apps to help save the world Daily Blog Tips ...	17th October 2009
Go to Copenhagen with Gandhi's teachings in mind, says Dr Pachauri - New Kerala New Delhi, Oct 14 : Chairman of the Nobel prize winner Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change Dr R K Pachauri today called up on those going to Copenhagen for arriving at a deal on arresting global warming to take a leaf from the life and thoughts of Father of the Nation Mahatama Gandhi to succeed in their mission.	14th October 2009
Buying Time: Cutting Non-CO2 Pollutants Will Slow Climate Change - Triple Pundit Climate change isn’t only about carbon dioxide. So that’s why, in a world that is stepping close to a steep precipice, doing more to reduce non-CO2 climate change contributors such as black carbon, tropospheric ozone, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), as well as expanding bio-sequestration through biochar production, might head global warming off at the pass, according to Nobel Laureate Dr. Mario Molina and co-authors in a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The authors argue that this novel perspective could transform the debate at United Nations climate change conference slated for Copenhagen in December.	14th October 2009
U.S. hunters, anglers weigh in on climate change When people think of hunting and fishing politicians in America " at least prominent ones " two things spring to mind: 1. Republican and 2. Climate change skeptic. Former President George W. Bush, his vice president Dick Cheney and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin all fall into both categories. But the hunting and fishing crowd " widely seen as reliably Republican because of that's party's successful portrayal of itself as the defender of God and guns " has also started to take note of climate change. After all, hunters and anglers are in the outdoors in pursuit of wildlife season after season, year after year.	14th October 2009
Oceans seen as new front to fight climate change CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Preventing the destruction of marine life, from plankton to seagrasses and mangrove forests, could help offset between 3 to 7 percent of current fossil fuel emissions, a U.N. environment report said on Wednesday.	14th October 2009
Republican Sen. Graham backs U.S. climate bill WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prospects for climate-change legislation in Congress improved on Sunday when a Republican senator broke ranks with his party to outline a compromise with a leading Democrat on the issue.	13th October 2009
Retail giants take 10:10 vow - Guardian Unlimited BQ, Microsoft and Pret a Manger have become the latest household names to join the 10:10 climate change campaign, joining 25,000 individuals, 1000 businesses and hundreds of schools, hospitals and other organisations. The 10:10 campaign, which the Guardian supports, involves pledging to cut carbon emissions by 10% during 2010. Founded by the eco-documentary maker Franny Armstrong, the campaign ...	11th October 2009
Soros aims to invest $1 bln in green tech COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Billionaire George Soros said on Saturday that he would invest $1 billion in clean energy technology as part of an effort to combat climate change.	11th October 2009
BAA to give up on third Heathrow runway THE airport operator BAA has bowed to opposition to a third runway at Heathrow airport. It will not submit a planning application before the general election and will not sign large contracts to "bounce" a future Conservative government into accepting it. Senior BAA figures have also told the Tories the company will cease to fight for the third runway if they form the next government. Theresa Villiers, the shadow transport secretary, said: "Last week BAA conveyed to us at our party conference that it will not be submitting a planning application before the election.	11th October 2009
Woolly thinking Eco-living through carbon-neutral design	11th October 2009
ENVIRONMENT-US: Interfaith Leaders Back Climate Bill WASHINGTON, Oct 8 (IPS) - An interfaith group of religious leaders Thursday announced the launch of DaySix.org, an initiative aimed at influencing the passage of Senate legislation on climate change.	9th October 2009
Energy Secretary hails companies that left Chamber WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Thursday applauded companies that have quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because they disagree with the business group's climate change policy.	9th October 2009
An energy chance without Kingsnorth Ed Miliband may not be able to help fund a new coal-fired power station, but now he can focus on low-carbon solutions elsewhereFar from being a disaster for Ed Miliband, climate change and energy secretary, the decision by E.ON to shelve its plans for a giant coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent, may in fact present a golden opportunity to put in place a truly effective coal policy.Put bluntly, Miliband simply does not have the money to pay power companies to build the carbon capture and storage (CCS) equipment he has demanded to trap and bury some of the emissions from the new plant.	9th October 2009
Solar Shingles Unveiled Dow Chemical has developed a roof shingle that contains thin-film solar power cells and can be integrated into asphalt roofs, which are used in 90 percent of American homes. Dow executives said the solar shingles can be handled like a regular asphalt shingle and can be nailed right onto a roof and walked on by roofers. The company will begin test-marketing the shingles in mid-2010 and the company will initially target new home construction. By 2015, Dow estimates that the market for the solar shingles could be $5 billion a year as builders increasingly make the solar roofs standard on new construction.	9th October 2009
Give forests back to local people to save them Forests owned by local communities store more carbon than those managed by governments, suggesting a flaw in a plan to pay countries to protect forests	8th October 2009
Kingsnorth power station plans shelved Decision hailed by groups who staged Climate Camp protest Lower electricity demands due to recession cited as reasonEnvironmental campaigners were celebrating tonight after controversial plans for a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent were thrown into doubt, as the company behind the scheme postponed the project and blamed the recession.Energy group E.ON said recent falls in demand for electricity had forced it to rethink, but that the plant could still be built if economic conditions permitted.However, green campaigners were claiming a major victory over what they viewed as in effect a cancellation of the Kingsnorth station, which has become a focus for protest and concern over carbon dioxide emissions and climate change.In a statement to green groups including Greenpeace, the company said ...	8th October 2009
Climate Agency Sees China's Efforts Paying Dividends - New York Times A new report finds that China's emphasis on nuclear power and clean energy is achieving bigger cuts in carbon emissions than expected.	8th October 2009
Norway proposes 40-pct carbon emissions cut by 2020 - AFP via Yahoo! News The Norwegian government said Wednesday that it was prepared to toughen its target for cutting carbon emissions by 2020 to help support efforts to reach a global climate accord.	8th October 2009
ENERGY-BRAZIL: Putting - Human Waste to Work PETROPOLIS, Brazil, Oct 6 (IPS) - Biodigester technology, which originated in Asia as a natural process for treating sewage waste, is reemerging in Latin America as an integrated system providing cheap energy, improved sanitation, and even attractive landscaping.	7th October 2009
Downturn is 'climate opportunity' The recession provides a chance to build a low-carbon future, says the International Energy Agency, if governments act quickly.	6th October 2009
Wind power? It's an offshore thing Radical plans are afoot in Britain to build wind farms in the North Sea. Terry Macalister sees how it works in Lillgrund, SwedenImagine what it is like to open the bonnet of your car, stand on top of the engine and be hoisted 85m above the North Sea on a perilously narrow pole. The view on a clear day is breathtaking, but when the wind is blowing so hard the whole contraption swings 4m from side to side, it is grim " even for Leif Bolther.This 51-year-old Swede, with forearms that would shame Arnold Schwarzenegger, is a seasoned technician in the wind industry.	6th October 2009
Sweden calls for more carbon taxes - San Francisco Chronicle Sweden urged other European nations on Friday to follow its lead in linking new taxes to greenhouse gas emissions as governments seek additional sources of income in the wake of the financial crisis. Denmark, Finland and Slovenia already have taxes on... Sponsored Topics: Slovenia - Greenhouse gas - Sweden - Environment - Carbon Cycle	4th October 2009
Are the Governors Our Best Hope for the Climate? - TIME NewsHourAre the Governors Our Best Hope for the Climate?TIMEThis is the second time Schwarzenegger has held a global warming conference focused on what state and local governments can do about climate change, ...British Columbia's Commitment to Fight Global ChangeGov MonitorSchwarzenegger leads governors' summit on global warmingChristian Science MonitorStates push into global climate talks over forestsReutersSolveClimate -89.3 KPCCall 86 See also: 1,000 mayors agree to reduce greenhouse gas emissions - Los Angeles Times	4th October 2009
Green roofs save on carbon overheads Load your roof with vegetation and cut the planet's carbon burden	4th October 2009
Solar: What Do You Think of Solar Now, Perris? The City of Perris has saved over one-million dollars since installing the first solar system at City Hall.	4th October 2009
The Saviour of Africa - and the Environment? An Exclusive Interview With Nobel Prize-winner Wangari Maathai "As human beings, we are attacking our own life-support system," she says. "And if we carry on like this, we are digging our own grave."	30th September 2009
California establishes nation's first statewide carbon fee - CNews Despite industry objections and threats of lawsuits, California air regulators on Friday approved the nation's first statewide carbon fee on utilities, oil refineries and other polluting industries.	30th September 2009
NIKE Quits Chamber of Commerce Board Over Climate Rift The exodus continues. Nike announced today that the company simply cannot stand by and watch the Chamber of Commerce continue its campaign to derail much-needed action to address climate change. So Nike Just Did It. Here is Nike's statement [PDF copy courtesy of NRDC here]: Nike believes US businesses must advocate for aggressive climate change legislation and that the United States needs to move rapidly into a sustainable economy to remain competitive and ensure continued economic growth.As we've stated, we fundamentally disagree with the US Chamber of Commerce on the issue of climate change and their recent action challenging the EPA is inconsistent with our view that climate change is an issue in need of urgent action.We believe businesses and their representative associations need to take an active role to invest in sustainable business practices and innovative solutions. See also: Strike Three: Exelon Leaves Chamber of Commerce Over Climate Stance	30th September 2009
Ontario launches comprehensive system of feed-in tariffs by Paul Gipe Ontario, on Thursday, launched the province's long-awaited program of feed-in tariffs in response to its ground-breaking Green Energy Act. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, Minister of Energy and Infrastructure George Smitherman, and Minister of the Environment John Gerretsen made the announcement against the iconic backdrop of Toronto's cooperatively-owned wind turbine. This was the last in a series of announcements on implementation of the Green Energy Act this week by Energy Minister Smitherman. The announcements began with Minister Smitherman opening the Canadian Wind Energy Association's annual conference in Toronto.	27th September 2009
Stern: I'm optimistic about China and India This week's summit on climate change offered cause for confidence. But all nations now need to redouble their effortsThis week's summit on climate change at the United Nations in New York has given a strong boost to the negotiations over a major international treaty, but there remain a number of major obstacles that must be overcome before the crucial meeting in Copenhagen in December.China, India and Japan, along with the private sector, all made positive and significant contributions at the summit.Hu Jintao, the Chinese president, made specific commitments on curbing the growth in greenhouse gas emissions as China continues its extraordinary economic growth.	25th September 2009
PNM Resources Leaves U.S. Chamber Board, Slams Stance On Climate us_chamber_of_commerce.gif New Mexico-based utility holding company PNM Resources announced this week that the company's chief executive, Jeff Sterba, has given up his seat on the US Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. The Chamber has attracted severe criticism lately from some of its member companies due to its backwards stance on global warming.PNM issued a statement lambasting the Chamber for its recent antics: "We strongly disagree with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's position on climate change legislation and particularly reject its recent theatrics calling for a 'Scopes Monkey Trial' to put the science of climate change on trial.	25th September 2009
Bid to Delay EPA Regulation of Carbon Emissions Fails - Bloomberg Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) -- A Republican effort to block the Obama administration from regulating carbon dioxide from power plants, oil refineries and factories for a year failed in the U.S. Senate today.	25th September 2009
EU CO2 Permits Rise After Commission Vows to Prevent Surplus - Bloomberg Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- European Union carbon permits rose the most in almost eight weeks as the European Commission pledged to prevent surplus credits following a court ruling that overturned pollution limits on Poland and Estonia.	25th September 2009
World's biggest offshore wind farm launched eventually - Guardian Unlimited Fritz Schur, chairman of Dong, said his firm would triple its production capacity of clean energy by 2020 The world's largest offshore wind farm was inaugurated in the North Sea today with a high-profile display of the intermittent nature of this power source. Danish Crown Prince Frederik pressed the button to start the Horns Rev 2 project, which uses 91 turbines to generate enough green power ...	22nd September 2009
Fake NY Post draws attention - CNews A day before a U.N. summit on climate change, an activist prankster group distributed copies of a fake newspaper mimicking the New York Post to draw attention to global warming.	22nd September 2009
Climate deal in peril, says Brown Gordon Brown has become the first world leader to offer to go to the Danish capital to help seal the deal. He told Newsweek magazine there was no second chance to undo "catastrophic damage" to the environment if "we miss the opportunity to protect the planet".	21st September 2009
Climate change bill will have modest effect - The World WASHINGTON (AP) The long-term economic costs of a climate bill being considered in Congress would be comparatively modest in light of expected overall economic growth over the next 40 years, according to a congressional report released Friday. See also: Climate-Change Agreement May Create 10 Million Jobs, Blair Says - Bloomberg	21st September 2009
Windpowered stations to reach profitability by 2017 - Daily Telegraph Windpowered stations are likely to be profitable in the UK by 2017 according to the chief executive of Siemens Renewable Energy.	21st September 2009
CO2 emissions down about 2.6 percent in 2009: IEA LONDON (Reuters) - Global emissions of the commonest man-made greenhouse gas carbon dioxide will fall by about 2.6 percent in 2009, the steepest fall in at least 40 years, the International Energy Agency said on Monday.	21st September 2009
Firms Start to See Climate Change as Barrier to Profit - Washington Post As the real-world impacts of climate change begin to materialize and regulation of greenhouse gases appears more likely, corporate America has begun to grapple with a challenging question: How do you quantify the risks associated with climate change?	21st September 2009
Norway Ready For 30 Per Cent Cut In Carbon Emission - INO News (RTTNews) - Norwegian Prime Minister has hinted that his government is ready for a possible 30 per cent carbon emission cuts in order to secure an international climate change treaty this year-end.	21st September 2009
The people's planet: On the road to Copenhagen - Independent Eco-campaigners offer their own solutions to climate change ahead of the UN summit in New York this week – a meeting that holds the key to striking a new 'Kyoto' treaty in Denmark in December.	20th September 2009
China hydropower to near double by 2020: state media - AFP via Yahoo! UK & Ireland News China's hydropower capacity is expected to nearly double to 300,000 megawatts by 2020, state media said, as the nation powers ahead with the development of renewable energy sources. [suppose it's a bit better than coal...]	20th September 2009
Danish Conservative Prepares for Climate Debate - International Herald Tribune Denmark's minister of climate and energy will host United Nation-sponsored global climate treaty negotiations in December.	20th September 2009
Sarkozy, Merkel want carbon tax on imports - SpaceDaily PARIS, Sept 18 (AFP) Sep 18, 2009 The leaders of France and Germany called Friday for the United Nations to support a carbon tax on imports from countries who fail to back international efforts to fight global warming. See also: U.S. group urges "peace clause" in Senate climate bill	19th September 2009
Climate-Related Business Surges Past Aerospace and Defense Sectors The world s climate-related business sector grew by 75 percent in 2008, with revenues climbing to $530 billion, passing global aerospace or defense industries, HSBC Global Research has reported. By 2020 it could reach $2 trillion, far exceeding a 2006 Stern Review analysis that predicted climate-related revenues reaching $500 billion by 2050. HSBC analysts say revenue has shattered forecasts because more and more businesses are adapting their business models in the face of climate change concerns. Seventy-six percent of revenue occurred in the United States, Japan, France, Germany, and Spain. To reach the projected $2 trillion figure by 2020, the report notes, the climate sector will need continued government support and the world must continue to change the types of energy it produces.	19th September 2009
China’s rearview mirro r Even as China overtakes the US in the dubious category of world s leading greenhouse gas producer, it is also well ahead of the US in developing the technologies and policies to solve the problem and selling those solutions to us at massive profits which could have been ours. On a recent trip, I saw entire Chinese towns powered by farm waste and enough windmills for jousts with ten thousand Don Quixotes. As you read this, China will have just surpassed the US as the leading producer of wind turbines, many of which are exported at very high margins.	19th September 2009
Suddenly, a few reasons to be optimistic about Copenhagen by Geoffrey Lean Suddenly, unexpectedly, there is a ray of hope in the air, hope that a significant global climate deal may yet be struck at December s talks in Copenhagen. It could herald the start of a successful agreement, or it could dissolve just as rapidly into despair. And the coming week will do much to determine which. Key high-level meetings, starting Thursday and running until Friday next week, offer an unprecedented and probably unrepeatable chance to inject political will into the bogged down international negotiations. But back to that rare ray of optimism. The last session of international climate negotiations, in Bonn in August, got virtually nowhere, just like two others before it, leaving 2,500 points of disagreement to be settled in just 15 days of negotiating time before the delegates assemble in the Danish capital.	17th September 2009
Global investors call for binding climate policy NEW YORK (Reuters) - Banks, pension funds and other investment groups representing more than $13 trillion in assets called for a strong global agreement on climate policy on Wednesday, saying it would lead to a flood of investment into the low-carbon economy.	17th September 2009
Offshore energy could cover 10% of Europe's electricity needs: report - Eu Business A new report published by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) predicts that European offshore wind projects - both existing and planned - could soon supply 10% of Europe's electricity. The report, entitled 'Oceans of opportunity', was presented at the European Offshore Wind 2009 conference in Stockholm, Sweden on 14 September.	17th September 2009
Brixton introduces its own currency Tomorrow the Transition Town movement launches a currency designed to boost local trade and bring communities closer togetherIt has all the makings of a taxing pub quiz question: what links dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, environmental scientist James Lovelock, black civil rights activist Olive Morris and comedian Chris Morris with David Bowie, the Clash, Harold Macmillan and Sharon Osborne?The canny among you will have spotted that they are all one-time residents of Brixton in south London but the more astute answer is that they have also all been in the running to appear on one of Brixton's new bank notes, a local currency that is officially launched tomorrow night at Lambeth town hall.	16th September 2009
Better world: Generate a feed-in frenzy Paying people who generate green energy and feed it back to the grid is the best way to boost uptake of renewable energy	16th September 2009
Smart thinking - BBC News Changes to energy meters in your home	16th September 2009
EU plans 30 cities to lead world on "smart" energy - Reuters via Yahoo! UK & Ireland News Europe will select 30 cities to pioneer "smart" electricity grids and space-age insulation as it seeks to lead the global race for green technology, a draft European Union document shows.	16th September 2009
Report Says Wind Energy Could Meet China 's Energy Needs for Two Decades With steady growth in wind power capacity each of the last five years, China is expected to pass the United States as the fastest-growing market for wind installations this year. But this may only hint at the potential for wind energy in China, according to a new study published in the journal Science. After modeling China s wind availability and profitability, researchers from Harvard University and Tsinghua University in Beijing calculated that wind resources, particularly in the country s northern and western regions, could meet all of China s electricity demands until at least 2030. Specifically, researchers say wind turbines could produce 6.96 trillion kilowatt-hours of energy at a price of 0.516 Chinese yuan, or about 7.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is in keeping with the current government-set rates for wind energy.	15th September 2009
Will China's Planned Solar Field Lower the Cost of Alternative Energy? (PhysOrg.com) -- One of the biggest complaints that some have about solar power (and other forms of alternative energy) is that it is so much more expensive than the fossil fuels that are more commonly used today. However, this might change with China's ambitious plans to build a 2-gigawatt solar field in Inner Mogolia.	15th September 2009
Europe's $57 billion plan to put windmills in the ocean - The Christian Science Monitor Though questions remain about how to bring electricity to shore, Europe sees offshore wind power as a crucial component in its effort to reduce carbon emissions.	15th September 2009
A Cheap Fix for Climate: Retrofitting - International Herald Tribune More than one-third of all global energy is consumed by, or in, buildings, which in turn account for about 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.	15th September 2009
Carbon Trust gives a boost to marine power - vnunet.com The Carbon Trust is providing half a million pounds to help two marine energy firms develop technology needed to deploy their systems in the sea. Installation and maintenance currently account for up to 50 per cent of the project costs of wave and tidal energy and could delay more widespread deployment if not reduced. The Carbon Trust is providing £250,000 to help move a 180-metre electricity-generating "sea snake" developed by Pelamis Wave Power onto a mooring many kilometres offshore. The Carbon Trust and Pelamis are investigating a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that will assist with manoeuvring these giant machines into position. They will also integrate remote control technology into existing systems which will enable deployment in rougher seas. The Pelamis wave power project is sited off the coast of Portugal and consists of a series of semi-submerged hinged cylindrical sections. According to the backers, once the project is complete, it should provide enough energy for about 15,000 Portuguese households and potentially displace about 60,000 tonnes of C02 per year, which would have otherwise been consumed from conventional energy sources.	15th September 2009
No power cuts danger - Miliband - BBC News There is "no danger" of mass power cuts in the UK the next decade, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband says.	13th September 2009
Personal carbon trading urged for UK - BigPond News The government in the UK is being warned it may need to introduce personal carbon trading to cut pollution.	13th September 2009
Why France Wants to Introduce A New Tax on Carbon Emissions - Time.com via Yahoo! News Europe already has a cap and trade system in place -- but if the E.U. wants to hit its ambitious targets for carbon emissions reduction it has to do more	13th September 2009
Better world: Tax carbon and give the money to the people Goods should be taxed to reflect the damage they do to the planet, with revenues redistributed to society	13th September 2009
Anti-methane feed for cattle: marine algae - Queensland Country Life SLIMY green algae are usually a sign of something wrong with a river or backyard pool, but a team of James Cook University (JCU) researchers believes these much-villified organisms might have a role to play in reducing methane production in livestock.	13th September 2009
No power cuts danger - Miliband - BBC News There is "no danger" of mass power cuts in the UK the next decade, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband says.	13th September 2009
Personal carbon trading urged for UK - BigPond News The government in the UK is being warned it may need to introduce personal carbon trading to cut pollution.	13th September 2009
Why France Wants to Introduce A New Tax on Carbon Emissions - Time.com via Yahoo! News Europe already has a cap and trade system in place -- but if the E.U. wants to hit its ambitious targets for carbon emissions reduction it has to do more	13th September 2009
Better world: Tax carbon and give the money to the people Goods should be taxed to reflect the damage they do to the planet, with revenues redistributed to society	13th September 2009
Anti-methane feed for cattle: marine algae - Queensland Country Life SLIMY green algae are usually a sign of something wrong with a river or backyard pool, but a team of James Cook University (JCU) researchers believes these much-villified organisms might have a role to play in reducing methane production in livestock.	13th September 2009
Can he fix it? Sarkozy's carbon-tax plan derided by environmentalists A "carbon" tax on transport, homes and factories, intended to make France a "green" model for other large economies, was unveiled yesterday by President Nicolas Sarkozy.	12th September 2009
Winds of change Wind farms can be self-sustaining, concluded two Northeastern finance professors in a recent journal article. A few measures to increase productivity and decrease equipment costs could reduce the current dependence on government subsidies and incentives designed to make wind farms viable.	12th September 2009
Home power plants project unveiled in Germany by Agence France-Presse BERLIN - An ambitious project was unveiled in Germany on Wednesday to install mini gas-fired power plants in people s basements and produce as much electricity as two nuclear reactors within a year. The Hamburg-based renewable energy group Lichtblick and its automaker partner Volkswagen say the plants would produce not only heating and hot water but also electricity, with any excess power fed into the local grid. The two firms said the concept of SchwarmStrom (literally, swarm power ) would allow Germany to abandon nuclear and coal power stations sooner and help compensate for the volatility of renewables like wind and solar power.	10th September 2009
Google plans new mirror for cheaper solar power Google is disappointed with the lack of breakthrough investment ideas in the green technology sector but the company is working to develop its own new mirror technology that could reduce the cost of building solar thermal plants by a quarter or more.	10th September 2009
Scotland's first offshore wind farm starts producing energy - BBC News Scotland's first offshore wind farm development starts producing energy as one of its 60 turbines begins to turn.	10th September 2009
Sarkozy carbon tax to help 'save the human race' - Guardian Unlimited From 2010, France will become the biggest European economy to levy a carbon tax, following other successful schemes introduced by Nordic countries in the 1990s.	10th September 2009
'Sustainable' palm oil campaign banned - Guardian Unlimited Advertorial claimed that controversial oil business was 'green answer' and was important to alleviating poverty A press campaign making environmental claims about the controversial product Malaysian Palm Oil, including that it is "sustainable", has been banned as misleading by the advertising regulator. Palm Oil, which is used in a third of all groceries, has been at the centre of an ...	10th September 2009
Floating challenge World's first full- size floating wind turbine is unveiled	8th September 2009
Scots emissions 'down by fifth' - BBC News Scottish greenhouse gas emissions fell by almost a fifth between 1990 and 2007, new figures suggest.	8th September 2009
New start - BBC News Japan's emission pledge is a clear break with the past	8th September 2009
Implementing the Wedge Approach to Climate Change - World Resources Institute As the world rapidly reaches consensus on the scientific understanding of climate change, policymakers are increasingly looking at how to address the challenge. There is no doubt that new and especially low-carbon technologies will be essential to the effort.	8th September 2009
Japan vows big climate change cut - BBC News Japan's PM-elect Yukio Hatoyama pledges a 25% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, much more than his predecessor.	8th September 2009
Enabling Wind, Sun To Be Our Main Power Supplies: Quest for Storage -- "Holy Grail" of New Energy Economy -- Nears Goal For decades the "Holy Grail" of the New Energy Economy has been to find ways to store wind and solar energy. The answers are here, and they are much more plain and simple than we thought. Like Indiana Jones in his Last Crusade, we need to see the Grail that is right before our eyes. The means to enable solar and wind energy to serve as our primary energy supplies are at hand. read more	1st September 2009
Canadians want action on environment: poll - CNews OTTAWA - Canadians are telling governments not to let the recession become an excuse for easing up on efforts to protect the environment, a new poll suggests.	27th August 2009
Islay to be entirely powered by tides Exclusive: ScottishPower is to build turbines in the Sound of Islay that will generate enough electricity for the island's 3,500 inhabitants and its famous distilleriesScottishPower is planning a tidal energy project that will supply all the electricity for one of Scotland's most famous islands, the Guardian can reveal.The company is close to signing a supply contract with Diageo, the drinks group, to provide electricity from the project to eight distilleries and maltings on Islay including the makers of the renowned Laphroaig and Lagavulin whiskies.The 10MW tidal project, one of the world's largest, will provide enough electricity for Islay's 3,500 inhabitants for 23 hours a day.ScottishPower will submit a planning application in the next couple of months and expects the ten 30-metre underwater turbines to be operational in 2011.	27th August 2009
A breakthrough moment: IPCC's Dr. Pachauri supports 350 target Amazing news just arrived at 350 headquarters. Rajendra Pachauri, the U.N.'s top climate scientist, announced his support for a target of 350 ppm (parts per million of CO2). Dr. Pachauri leads the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which every five years produces the authoritative assessment of climate science. Previously, the IPCC had helped establish a target of 450 ppm. read more	27th August 2009
Chinese legislature passes its first climate change resolution New laws to combat global warming are highly likely, according to the state mediaChina's top legislative body approved its first climate change resolution today and announced plans to draw up new laws to combat global warming, according to the state media.The moves by the rubber-stamp National People's Congress are timed to strengthen China's negotiating position as it prepares a new announcement on emissions policy before the UN climate change talks in Copenhagen in December.Environmentalists welcomed the unusually high degree of attention that the NPC's standing committee paid to the environment during a week-long session in which lawmakers also debated a more ambitious target for renewable energy.Details of the final resolution were not immediately available, but a draft submitted this week called on the government to take further measures to control greenhouse gas emissions and invest more in low carbon technology.But there was tough language ...	27th August 2009
Bug power makes salt water sweet A bacterial fuel cell can provide the charge for desalinating seawater - a possible replacement for existing power-hungry plants	25th August 2009
Van Jones explains the “double, triple, quadruple” benefits of clean energy investment by Grist Related Links: Van Jones on a green collar economy Surprisingly popular Cash for Clunkers program raises hopes and questions Green electronics registry goes international	12th August 2009
Zogby Poll Confirms That Americans Want Strong Action on Climate and Energy A new Zogby poll commissioned by the National Wildlife Federation found that 71% of respondents supported the Waxman-Markey energy and climate bill recently passed in the House of Representatives. Only 19% of respondents said they were strongly opposed to the House bill, indicating that polluting industries and their front groups have failed in their grandiose efforts to convince the public that the House bill amounted to a sinister, hidden energy tax . Fifty-four percent of respondents to the Zogby poll agree that the Senate needs to act immediately to pass legislation to fight global warming. "We need a new energy plan right now that invests in American, renewable energy sources like wind and solar, in order to create clean energy jobs, address global warming and reduce our dependency on foreign oil," the 54% agreed.While support for Congressional action is overwhelming, 45% of respondents believe ... See also: Dueling Polls on Support for Climate Change Legislation - BusinessWeek	12th August 2009
Global poll finds 73% want climate as higher priority Britons among the most enthusiastic about action to stop global warming, while Americans among least willing to put environment first, according to global public opinion pollA majority of peoples around the world want their governments to put action on climate change at the top of the political agenda, a new global public opinion poll suggests.Unfortunately for Barack Obama though, who has put energy reform at the top of his White House to-do list, Americans are not necessarily among them.Only 44% of Americans thought climate change should be a major preoccupation for the Obama administration, the survey co-ordinated by the University of Maryland's Programme on International Policy Attitudes said.	1st August 2009
Energy efficiency could save U.S. $600 billion WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States could save about $600 billion in energy costs by 2020 if it hiked annual efficiency spending about five-fold, business consultants McKinsey and Co said in a report on Wednesday.	30th July 2009
IPCC chief: Benefits of tackling climate change will balance cost The cost of tackling climate change will be paid for by benefits that would come from better energy security, employment and health, Rajendra Pachauri says ahead of major announcement on 2013 reportsMeasures needed to tackle global warming could save economies more money than they cost, the world's top climate change expert said today.Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told the Guardian: "The cost could undoubtedly be negative overall." This is because of the additional benefits that reducing greenhouse gas emissions could bring, beyond limiting temperature rises.Until now, estimates of the price of preventing dangerous climate change have all indicated significant costs.	21st July 2009
ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: Take the Squeaky Clean Hydro Bus SAO PAULO, Jul 16 (IPS) - The government of the state of Sao Paulo in southern Brazil has launched the first hydrogen-fuelled bus in Latin America - the first step towards environmentally sustainable public transport of the future.	17th July 2009
Pakistanis set tree planting record: 1,800 each a day If you feel proud about having planted a tree sometime to help protect the environment, you may have to think again. Pakistan has apparently set a record for tree plantings, with volunteers planting about 1,800 mangroves each in a day in mud and temperatures of up to 37 Celsius, according to the WWF International conservation group. Maybe such competitions will catch on if a new U.N. climate treaty due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December includes measures to combat deforestation. Trees soak up greenhouse gases as they grow and release them when they burn or rot. According to a WWF statement, 300 volunteers planted 541,176 young mangroves without any mechanical equipment in the Indus River Delta, about 150 km south east of Karachi.	17th July 2009
Real-time 'CO2 intensity' site makes the case for midnight dishwashing The launch of the website Realtime Carbon could change the way we think about the environmental impact of electricityToday sees the launch of Realtime Carbon, a neat website that could change the way we think about the environmental impact of electricity. The purpose of the site is to report the carbon footprint of a unit of power as it changes over time.It may sound geeky but it's hugely significant. Over the course of 24 hours, demand for electricity fluctuates widely. Demand is lowest in the small hours hence energy tariffs such as Economy 7 and highest in the daytime and early evening, when the largest number of appliances and lights are in use.Demand also changes over the course of the year, as there's greater need for electric lighting and heating during dark, cold winter evenings.It goes without saying that the more electricity we consume, the ...	17th July 2009
Activists: we'll 'rush' parliament to pressure Copenhagen climate summit It may not have been the 'summer of rage' that was feared, but environmental activists have big plans for CopenhagenEnvironmental activists last night set up an alternative People's Parliament and called for drastic action to jolt the government into action, even as some of them admitted that the green movement is just temporarily a little "stuck".Beneath a rainy sky in the Old Palace Yard opposite the Houses of Parliament, around a hundred campaigners gathered to berate the government for dragging its feet. While speakers broadly welcomed yesterday's plan for a low carbon Britain, Darren Johnson of the Green Party said he deeply regretted the "dismal failure we've seen from the government," and Colin Challen MP revealed that direct government action since 1990 had cut carbon emissions by a dismal 15%.	17th July 2009
Is the clean energy cashback tariff high enough to stimulate investment? After months of deliberation, the UK government has announced a range of illustrative figures for feed-in tariffs. From Carbon Commentary, part of the Guardian Environment NetworkAfter months of deliberation, the UK government has announced a range of illustrative figures for feed-in tariffs (FITs), which it's calling a Clean Energy Cashback scheme. FITs are fixed payments made to the owners of small generating stations for the electricity that they export to the grid. Micro-generators need high payments to justify their expensive investment in buying and installing green generation.The proposed levels of FIT vary by the type of technology. See also: Home Solar Arrays Expand Rapidly in California	17th July 2009
First 'climate friendly' labels appear on foods Sweden has brought in the stickers in the hope is that consumers will buy greener products but will companies make claims they can't back up? See also: Wal-Mart Labels Will Rate Sustainability of Products	17th July 2009
Energy bill rises will be tiny Compared with wildly fluctuating wholesale gas and electricity prices, the cost of cutting emissions will scarcely be detectable on future energy billsThe ink isn't dry on the government's low carbon transition plan, and already the whingeing has begun. The talkshows are buzzing with complaints about the impact on energy prices. Some punters suggest that this will be the end of life as we know it: the government's plans will wreck the economy and bankrupt struggling families. There's no doubt that fuel poverty remains an important issue in this country. It still accelerates the deaths of elderly people every winter. Being able to maintain your home at a habitable temperature is a basic human right.	16th July 2009
Energy strategy boosts wave hub - BBC News A wave energy poject in Cornwall is to receive nearly £30m as part of moves to make the South West of England a world centre for wave and tidal energy.	15th July 2009
Capturing CO2 in a bowl - PhysOrg The accidental discovery of a bowl-shaped molecule that pulls carbon dioxide out of the air suggests exciting new possibilities for dealing with global warming, including genetically engineering microbes to manufacture those CO2 "catchers," a scientist from Maryland reports in an article scheduled for the August 3 issue of ACS' Inorganic Chemistry.	15th July 2009
How to store excess electricity - Guardian For years, the stumbling block for renewable energy has been how to store electricity for days when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing. But new technologies suggest this goal may be within reach, writes Jon R Luoma from Yale Environment 360, part of the Guardian Environment Network"Why are we ignoring things we know? We know that the sun doesn't always shine and that the wind doesn't always blow." So wrote former U.S. Energy Secretary James Schlesinger and Robert L. Hirsch last spring in the Washington Post, suggesting that because these key renewables produce power only intermittently, "solar and wind will probably only provide a modest percentage of future U.S.	15th July 2009
Marine energy firm gets £8m boost - BBC News An Orkney-based marine energy firm is given £8m funding by the UK Government to reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuels.	15th July 2009
Sun energy empowers Ethiopian village - BBC News A solar energy project is transforming the lives of people in rural Ethiopia	15th July 2009
Obama team sees jobs growth in health, environment - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jobs in the healthcare and environmental sectors are growing at a faster rate than those of the U.S. economy as a whole, President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers will say a report to be released on Monday.	14th July 2009
Desert dreams of the solar age - BBC Could Europe be powered from the Sahara Desert? The Desertec project's initial goal is "to produce sufficient power to meet around 15% of Europe's electricity requirements and a substantial portion of the power needs of the producer countries". These will be in North Africa and the Middle East, probably stretching round as far as Jordan, whose Prince Hassan bin Talal declared that "partnerships that will be formed across the regions as a result of the Desertec project will open a new chapter in relations between the people of the EU, West Asia and North Africa". But the dreams are even bigger. Why not power much more of Europe from the region? Why not electrify much of South America from the Atacama desert and the mountain tops of Patagonia? Sydney and Melbourne from the Simpson desert, and western China from the expanding Gobi?	14th July 2009
Exxon to invest $600 million in making fuel from algae - Reuters LONDON (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp has agreed to invest possibly more than $600 million in a venture to develop biofuels from algae, the oil major, which previously dismissed renewable energy as uneconomic, said on Tuesday. BUT - see also: Spot The Fatal Flaw #1 : Oil From Algae	14th July 2009
Scotland could be powered only by renewable energy in 20 years - The Herald A Green Scotland could scrap its fossil fuel power plants and still more than meet all its electricity demands from renewable sources by 2030, according to a major new study seen by The Herald.	14th July 2009
UK to set out route map for cutting emissions - Reuters LONDON (Reuters) - The British government will set out a route map on Wednesday showing how it plans to meet its 2020 target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 34 percent compared to 1990 levels, a minister said on Sunday. See also: Centrica and npower set to green light huge offshore wind farm projects - Guardian Unlimited Number of wind turbines to quadruple under Renewable Energy Strategy - Times Online Energy policy 'too wind focused' - BBC Gordon Brown: "Britain's green revolution will power economic recovery - Observer" Government rejects claims renewables will add £200 to energy bills - vnunet.com	13th July 2009
Solar power plants planned for Sahara - Financial Times Around a dozen companies are set to launch a renewable energy initiative on Monday that its backers claim could within a decade provide Europeans with electricity generated from the Sahara at a cost of 400bn ($557bn).	13th July 2009
Developing countries urge G8 to impose 40% emissions cut by 2020 - Guardian Developing nations are prepared to make concessions on climate change targets if the G8 fulfils its side of the bargain in the run-up to the climate change talks in Copenhagen in December, a key negotiator told the Guardian today. The developing countries want the G8 nations to sign up to a 40% cut by 2020, but that figure is off the radar of the EU and, given the unwieldy legislation laboriously passing through the senate, not a possibility for the US. In important forward steps this week, the G8 agreed to cut its emissions by 80% by 2050 and said worldwide emissions should fall 50% by the same date. However, the value of this pledge has been reduced by the lack of an agreed start date from which the emission cuts should be measured, making it a distant promise.	12th July 2009
People paid for supplying power - BBC People that contribute electricity to the National Grid are to receive payments under a new UK government scheme.	12th July 2009
Domestic wind turbines could 'power 800,000 UK homes' - Guardian Unlimited Small domestic wind turbines could provide enough clean electricity to power more than 800,000 UK homes, according to the Energy Saving Trust (EST). Previous studies have suggested that small turbines in residential areas fail to generate enough power to justify their installation. In total, small-scale wind in domestic properties could supply around 3.1% of the UK's energy demand from homes.	10th July 2009
Project to 'grow carbon sinks' - BBC News Ambitious plans to grow 24 million trees to soak up carbon dioxide and restore the rainforest have got underway in Ghana.	9th July 2009
Solar-powered blimp to fly across Channel - Guardian The blimp was designed and built by French students and its first flight will prove that CO2-free air travel is now a reality.	9th July 2009
Italian Power Plants Occupied by Greenpeace Activists - Bloomberg July 8 (Bloomberg) -- Greenpeace activists occupied four Italian coal-fired power plants, demanding action from world leaders to stave off climate change on the opening day of a Group of Eight summit being hosted by Italy.	8th July 2009
A new take on Kyoto - Guardian Obama faces major challenges on carbon emissions at the G8 but the best solution is a new, global system of regulationPresident Obama is facing a problem at this week's G8 meeting in L'Aquila, Italy. Having promised serious action on climate change, the legacy of GW Bush's inaction will be hard for him to overcome. Under the Kyoto protocol, the US should have reduced its emissions by 7% from 1990 levels. But last year it emitted 16% more than in 1990, or almost 25% above its Kyoto target. And to persuade the rest of the world to make meaningful cuts in emissions, the US will need to take on deep cuts for 2020 based on its Kyoto targets, rather than on where it is now.Obama's fear is the US will be unable to cut fast enough.	7th July 2009
EPA: A dollar a day could keep climate change away - AlertNet The average American family would pay at most $1 a day more to fight climate change, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told a Senate committee on Tuesday. EPA head Lisa Jackson said carbon-cutting legislation would, on average, amount to a 50-cent per day cost per household in 2020 and edge up for wealthier families, people who drive long distances and those living in states dependent on coal for electricity. But even a doubling of the national average would only cost families $1 per day, Jackson said. "Can anyone honestly say that the head of an American household would not spend a dollar a day to safeguard the well being of his or her children?" Jackson asked the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.	7th July 2009
Rice concrete can cut greenhouse emissions - MSNBC A new way of processing rice husks for use in concrete could lead to a boom in green construction.	7th July 2009
Incandescent Light Bulbs Live on in New, More Efficient Form - Yale e350 Spurred by U.S. government regulations requiring improved lighting efficiency by 2012, researchers around the country are successfully turning the old, energy-burning incandescent bulb into a more efficient source of light. The New York Times reports that one company has already succeeding in producing incandescent bulbs that are 30 percent more efficient than older bulbs, which have changed little since the days of Thomas Edison and produce far more heat than light. The new generation of incandescent bulbs still does not match the efficiency of compact fluorescent light bulbs, which use 75 percent less energy than old-style bulbs. But researchers say incandescent bulbs might one day become as energy-efficient as compact fluorescent bulbs by using new filaments and reflective coatings that bounce heat back onto the filament and convert that heat into light.	6th July 2009
Chinese to Break Ground On Massive Wind Power Installation - Yale e360 China will break ground this month on a gigantic, $17 billion wind power farm in the northwestern part of the country that will produce 5 gigawatts of power by next year and 20 gigawatts by 2020, according to the official Xinhua news service. The installation in Gansu Province is known as the Three Gorges of Wind Power after the gigantic Three Gorges hydroelectric dam on the Yangtze River. As the Wall Street Journal notes, the Gansu wind power installation is scheduled by 2020 to produce five times the power of T. Boone Pickens proposed wind power project on the U.S.	6th July 2009
Climate Declaration To Get Global Boost - Wall Street Journal WASHINGTON -- The U.S., European Union and 12 of the world's largest nations plan to embrace "an aspirational goal" of reducing emissions of global-warming gases by 50% by 2050, according to a draft declaration by world leaders set for release next week in Italy. The draft, seen by The Wall Street Journal, sets up a framework for detailed negotiations on the issue ahead of a United Nations climate conference in December. But it leaves key areas in the climate-change debate in dispute. The draft is subject to change ahead of a meeting of global leaders starting Wednesday. See also: India says watered down climate text likely in Italy - Reuters Climate Forum to seek 50% global emissions cut by 2050 - Business Standard India	5th July 2009
Plans for renewable energy bonds among 20 climate ideas to save the world - Guardian The idea is one of 20 radical solutions to the threat of global warming to be proposed during presentations at a conference in Manchester this weekendThe British public could invest their savings in the UK's renewable energy revolution and reap the financial rewards of helping to save the planet, under ambitious plans to be discussed this weekend.The Public Interest Research Centre, a thinktank based in Wales, says the government could sell "energy bonds" to pay for the required investment. The scheme would be similar to war bonds, which galvanised financial support in Britain during the second world war.The idea is one of 20 radical solutions to the threat of global warming to be proposed during presentations this weekend in Manchester.	3rd July 2009
Producing hydrogen from urine - PhysOrg (PhysOrg.com) -- You do two things at motorway services: fill up one tank and empty another. US chemists have combined refuelling your car and relieving yourself by creating a new catalyst that can extract hydrogen from urine.	3rd July 2009
Los Angeles will end use of coal-fired power - Reuters LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Los Angeles will eliminate the use of electricity made from coal by 2020, replacing it with power from cleaner renewable energy sources, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said.	3rd July 2009
German study sees job boom from Sahara solar project - Reuters BERLIN (Reuters) - A project linking solar power from the Sahara to energy users in Europe and North Africa could create 240,000 German jobs and generate 2 trillion euros ($2,822 billion) worth of power by 2050, a study published on Thursday found.	3rd July 2009
Wave energy gets cash injection - BBC Cornwall A £10m cash injection raises hopes that Devon and Cornwall will become a global centre of wave energy research.	3rd July 2009
Pacific Northwest forests could store more carbon, help address greenhouse issues - PhysOrg The forests of the Pacific Northwest hold significant potential to increase carbon storage and help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in coming years, a recent study concludes, if they are managed primarily for that purpose through timber harvest reductions and increased rotation ages.	3rd July 2009
Researchers design wind turbine kites to fly at 30,000 feet - Computerworld Look! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a high-altitude wind turbine? Jets would have to fly around the energy generators	3rd July 2009
New York inches closer to offshore wind farm - Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) - Government agencies and power companies said on Wednesday they are gauging interest from developers and manufacturers about building a wind farm about 13 miles off the New York city coast that could end up being the largest such project in the United States.	2nd July 2009
EPA affirms California’s right to set tougher automobile emissions standards - Grist The EPA announced on Tuesday that it will grant a waiver for California and 13 other states to set automobile emission standards that are higher than national ones. The move is important symbolically, though it isn t likely to lead to emission reductions in the next few years.	1st July 2009
Wind 'can revolutionise UK power' - BBC News Britain can massively expand wind power by 2030 without suffering power cuts, a report says.	1st July 2009
A breath of fresh air for batteries - Guardian Unlimited Is using air the answer to a longer-lasting lithium battery? It's a surprising question but one familiar to Professor Peter Bruce of the University of St Andrews. A new "air-fuelled" rechargeable lithium battery being developed in his research laboratory promises up to 10 times today's energy storage capacity.	30th June 2009
Transitions - Energy Bulletin Transition movement vs post-carbonistas The Transition Initiative: changing the scale of change, from The Orion magazine Transition Hohenwald: Rural Community Targets Energy Efficiency	28th June 2009
US House supports emissions bill - BBC The US House of Representatives narrowly backs legislation to cut carbon emissions, but the bill now faces a tough Senate battle. See also: One hurdle down for climate bill, 60 more to go - Grist Farm lobby: Shoot the climate bill, but keep the Peterson goodies - Grist China welcomes U.S. climate bill, says more needed - Reuters	28th June 2009
How Confucianism could curb global warming - The Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News Now here's a curveball to secular Western policy experts: China's intellectuals are openly debating the role of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism in promoting the Communist Party's vision of a harmonious society and ecologically sustainable economic development.	28th June 2009
Major economies consider halving world CO2 - Reuters OSLO (Reuters) - Major economies including the United States and China are considering setting a goal of halving world greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 when they hold a summit in Italy next month, a draft document showed.	26th June 2009
Growth of global carbon emissions halved in 2008, say Dutch researchers - Guardian Recession and oil price main drivers behind fall in consumption as developing world emissions rise above 50% for first timeThe growth of global carbon dioxide emissions fell by half in 2008, according to data released today. The global recession and high oil prices played a major role in reducing the rate of emissions. But measures to tackle global warming by cutting emissions such as renewable energy were only partly responsible. The data from the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (NEAA) also show that, for the first time, CO2 emissions from the developing world account for more than half of the global total.Analysis from the NEAA draws on fossil fuel consumption figures published last week by BP.	26th June 2009
UK's Brown proposes $100 bln annual climate fund - AlertNet Source: Reuters (Adds details) LONDON, June 26 (Reuters) - Developed countries must contribute collectively to a $100 billion annual fund to fight climate change in developing countries by 2020, UK Prime ...	26th June 2009
Carbon man shuns Washington trip - BBC News An academic turns down a flight to a US conference to discuss carbon emissions and others follow suit.	26th June 2009
Offshore wind 'could power 19m homes' - Guardian Offshore wind has the potential to power every home in the UK and provide up to 70,000 jobs, according to the governmentThe UK's seas could provide enough extra wind energy to power the equivalent of 19m homes, according to an assessment by the government.The government's strategic environmental assessment (Sea) confirmed projections that an extra 25GW of electricity generation capacity could be accommodated in UK waters.This would be in addition to the 8GW of wind power already built or planned offshore, bringing the potential total electricity capacity of offshore wind to 33GW enough to power every household in the UK.According to the government, offshore wind has the potential to meet more than a quarter of the UK's electricity needs, provide the UK with up to 70,000 new jobs and generate £8bn a year in revenue.The findings of the Sea mean the crown ...	25th June 2009
Poll: wide support to regulate emissions - UPI WASHINGTON, June 25 (UPI) -- Americans give wide support to regulation of atmospheric release of greenhouse gases from power plants, cars and factories, a poll indicated Thursday.	25th June 2009
Kites flying in high-altitude winds could provide clean electricity - PhysOrg (PhysOrg.com) -- At any moment, the winds in high-altitude jet streams hold roughly 100 times more energy than all the electricity being consumed on Earth, according to a study by Stanford environmental and climate scientists Cristina Archer and Ken Caldeira.	25th June 2009
Fatboy Slim And Others Fight Climate Change Until They're Blue In the Face - Ecorazzi Fatboy Slim And Others Fight Climate Change Until They're Blue In ...Ecorazzi, NY... Oxfam is launching Blue in the Face a brand new celebrity summer climate change campaign. The goal is to encourage world leaders at the climate summit in Copenhagen this December to get their asses in gear with this global warming stuff! ...	24th June 2009
Renewable energy: Sunny days ahead - Financial Times It was like the dotcom boom all over again. Everybody wanted to be in on the action. Everyone you met was doing something. It was all people talked about. This is how one energy executive describes the dash to register solar photovoltaic (PV) energy projects in Spain last year, as high incentives triggered a flood of licence applications. The clamour led to a speculative bubble in which investors presented schemes with a total capacity of 1,300 MW – against a government target of 375 MW – in a year in which more than half the new solar PV capacity in the world was installed in Spain. As the surge of applications – many of them containing errors or lacking adequate financial backing – swelled to a torrent, the government was forced to intervene, setting a deadline for registering projects and fixing new ceilings for total capacity.	23rd June 2009
Hot tub technology - Guardian Unlimited A tank with an immersion heater may be just an oversized kettle, but there are thought to be around 19m in Britain's homes, which collectively have the capacity to store huge amounts of energy as hot water. And this could be key to achieving an almost wholly renewable electricity supply. Dr Barrett says the heaters could be switched on and off rapidly to compensate for the erratic output of wind turbines and solar panels, each heater controlled by a gadget that responds to signals sent through the electricity grid – a system used since the second world war. "Everybody is always looking for a shiny new silver-bullet solution" says Dr Barrett, "but this idea is cheap, safe, and based on technology that's been around for decades".	23rd June 2009
Obama to urge direct climate action - Guardian Unlimited Climate impacts report warns of flooding, heat waves, drought and loss of wildlife that will occur if Americans fail to act on global warming	19th June 2009
Plan to turn Africa's sunshine into Europe's energy - Guardian Twenty blue chip German companies are pooling their resources with the aim of harnessing solar power in the deserts of north Africa and transporting the clean electricity to Europe. The businesses, which include some of the biggest names in European energy, finance and manufacturing, will form a consortium next month. If successful, the highly ambitious plan could see Europe fuelled by solar energy within a decade. The consortium behind what would be the biggest ever solar energy initiative will first raise awareness and interest among other investors for the project, known as Desertec, which is estimated to cost around €400bn (£338bn).	18th June 2009
Bjørn Lomborg Concedes Defeat - Mongabay Lomborg, a Danish business school professor and author who has riled environmentalists by arguing that addressing climate change should be a lesser priority than global health and nutrition initiatives, is calling for a $7 per ton tax on carbon dioxide emissions, reports the Wall Street Journal. According to the paper, Lomborg says a carbon tax "could address what he calls a 'market failure' in the development of solar-power systems and wind turbines effective enough and cheap enough to compete with fossil fuels." Supporters of a carbon tax say it is a more efficient approach to regulating CO2 emissions than a cap-and-trade system, which they say will be complex and full of loopholes.	18th June 2009
EU eyes more road tolls to curb transport emissions - Reuters BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Road charging should play a bigger role in managing Europe's booming transport industry, European Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani said on Wednesday as he outlined EU transport priorities for the next decade.	18th June 2009
Streetcar launches UK's first plug-in Prius hire scheme - Guardian Car club firm Streetcar has this week launched the UK's first electric car hire scheme, offering Londoners the chance to hire a plug-in hybrid version of Toyota's popular Prius. The modified version of the hybrid car is provided by UK firm Amberjac Projects and features a new lithium ion phosphate battery that can be charged from the mains, allowing the car to travel up to 30 miles without using the conventional engine. According to reports from the Evening Standard, the Amberjac Prius will be available for Streetcar members to hire from £5.95 an hour.	18th June 2009
World Bank Drops Loan to Brazilian Cattle Giant - Upside Down World Last week the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private lending arm of the World Bank, withdrew the $90 million dollar loan to Brazil’s cattle giant Bertin. The loan was used for the company to further expand into the Amazon region, which was causing destruction of the rainforest and fuelling global climate change. While on one hand Lula’s government was making commitments to reduce deforestation rates in the Amazon, on the other hand the IFC was helping to expand the Brazilian cattle sector which is now the largest single source of deforestation in the world.	16th June 2009
Nine out of ten 'worried' about climate change - The Copenhagen Post Denmark: Nine out of ten people say they are worried to some degree about climate change, according to a new Capacent / DR poll.	16th June 2009
Sunnier times ahead for solar energy as MPs back tariff for photovoltaic power - Guardian Unlimited UK: Last week 240 MPs signed a parliamentary motion supporting the mass rollout of solar photovoltaic (PV) power. The support was the biggest of any such motion introduced in this parliament. Colin Challen MP, who tabled the motion, said: "There is an enormous opportunity to drive forward this technology through the forthcoming feed-in tariffs." Feed-in tariffs (FITs) work by paying a guaranteed, above-market price for any electricity fed into the grid for a period of 20-25 years. They have been designed to offer returns close to 10%, thereby reducing payback times for any household investing in a PV system to 10 years or less.	16th June 2009
McCartney backs 'Meat Free Monday' Former Beatle, Chris Martin and Sheryl Crow launch campaign to reduce meat consumption to tackle climate changeFood blog: Jay Rayner: do high profile food campaigns draw you in or turn you off?Sir Paul McCartney has followed in the footsteps of the world's leading climate scientist and a small Belgian town by calling on people to go meat-free one day a week and cut carbon emissions.Backed by celebrities ranging from Chris Martin to Sheryl Crow, McCartney today launched his Meat Free Monday campaign asking households to cut out meat on Mondays and slow global warming."I think many of us feel helpless in the face of environmental challenges, and it can be hard to know how to sort through the advice about what we can do to make a meaningful contribution to a cleaner, more sustainable, healthier world," said McCartney.	15th June 2009
Australians demand climate action - BBC Thousands of demonstrators rally across Australia to demand greater government action on climate change. See also: Stop wasting time and save the planet, Mr Rudd - The Age Thousands rally for 100% renewables by 2020	14th June 2009
Home: a film by Yann Arthus- Bertrand - Energy Bulletin Magnificent! From belugas in the Arctic to skyscrapers in Dubai. From glaciers in Himalayas to devastated Easter Island. The images of the Earth captured from above are breathtaking. Home Project on YouTube.	14th June 2009
How to get involved in the fight against climate change - Grist Wondering what you can do? We ve rounded up good groups with climate campaigns, social networks, and info galore. Step right up!	14th June 2009
How To Boil A Frog - Energy Bulletin REVIEW: A lively film promoting activism via video that is in itself a sophisticated example of the medium. With a personal narrative from author/activist Jon Cooksey, this is a rapid fire account of five problems that are bringing the human race to the brink of disaster due to ecological deterioration of the planet.	12th June 2009
Bravo! Carole James: BC NDP Leader Accepts BC Carbon Tax - DeSmogBlog CANADA: After election defeat, a conscientious shift In a surprising and impressive political about-face, BC New Democratic Party leader Carole James withdrew her party's opposition to the BC carbon tax today - committing to improving the tax, rather than trying to undermine it. James lost a close provincial election only last month, at least in part because an influential group of environmentalists condemned her party's position on the carbon tax and campaigned against her. Given the bitterness that surrounded that debate, you might have expected James and the NDP to dig in even further on the issue, continuing to campaign against the tax.	12th June 2009
British 'Searaser' invention promises green power revolution on the waves - Guardian The 'Searaser' uses the power of the ocean to pump water inland for electricity generation. Mark Anslow reports on the simple invention that could soon be making waves in renewables. From the Ecologist, part of the Guardian Environment NetworkAlvin Smith had his eureka moment not in the bath, but in the swimming pool. 'I was swimming round the pool, making little waves, and it struck me how much power there was in the displacement of the water,' he remembers. 'You think of a 500-tonne boat: a wave comes along, lifts that whole boat, and then drops it down again.	12th June 2009
Swedish PM calls for national carbon taxes in Europe - SpaceDaily BRUSSELS, June 9 (AFP) Jun 09, 2009 Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt of Sweden, which will assume the rotating EU presidency next month, called Tuesday for European nations to tax carbon emissions to reduce greenhouse gases. See also: France moves to bring in carbon tax by 2011 - AFP via Yahoo! News	10th June 2009
Waxman-Markey could save $3,900 per household and create 650,000 jobs by 2030 The energy efficiency provisions in the House energy and climate bill (H.R. 2454) could save $750 per household by 2020 and $3,900 per household by 2030, according to an analysis by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. See also: Brookings: Fears that cap and trade will hurt farmers are baseless	10th June 2009
Nokia develops phone that recharges itself without mains electricity - Guardian Prototype harvests radiowaves from TV, radio and other mobiles.	10th June 2009
NVIRONMENT-EUROPE: The Light Could Go All Green by 2050 - IPS BERLIN, Jun 9 (IPS) - The EU could meet all its electricity demands from renewable energy sources such as wind and the sun by 2050 if governments take the right decisions now, leading environment and energy experts say.	9th June 2009
Australia wind farm gets go-ahead - BBC News Approval has been given for Australia's biggest wind farm to be built near Broken Hill in New South Wales. See also: Acciona expects 20 pct fall in wind turbine costs - Reuters via Yahoo! Philippines News	9th June 2009
Bonn: Tax on rich nations' ships and planes could fund climate aid - Guardian A levy on rich nations' international flights and shipping fuel could fund climate change adaptation in poorer countries under international global warming deal, conference hearsBritain and other rich countries could be asked to accept a levy on international flight tickets to raise billions of dollars to help the world's poorest nations adapt to climate change under an international global warming deal.The suggestions come at the start of the second week in the latest round of UN climate talks in Bonn, where 192 countries are starting to negotiate a global agreement to limit and then reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The issue of funding for adaptation is both critical to success but the hardest to agree.The aviation levy, expected to increase the price of long-haul fares by less than 1%, would raise $10bn a year.	8th June 2009
NY sees clean energy creating up to 50,000 jobs - Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York could create as many as 50,000 jobs by converting 45 percent of its electricity needs to renewable energy sources by 2015, Governor David Paterson said on Monday as he unveiled plans to reduce the state's reliance on Wall Street.	8th June 2009
UK may be baling up greenhouse gas emissions - Eastern Ontario AgriNews BELLEVILLE He s no expert on the Canadian scene, but a UK civil engineer says that with strong buy-in from the British government, the UK will see an increase in the use of crop-based building materials as it works to reduce its carbon emissions.	8th June 2009
Rainforest is worth more standing Protecting the Indonesian rainforest could raise more money than felling trees for agriculture, according to researchers.	6th June 2009
Floating wind turbine launched - BBC News The world's first floating wind turbine is to be towed out to sea off the coast of Norway this weekend.	6th June 2009
China Rejects $21.5 Billion of Polluting Projects - Bloomberg June 5 (Bloomberg) -- China, the world s second-biggest energy user, rejected 147 billion yuan ($21.5 billion) of project proposals in the past seven months because of concern they will worsen pollution.	6th June 2009
Modest carbon price could save Borneo forests: study - Reuters SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Tropical forests in Borneo under threat of conversion to palm oil plantations could be more profitable left standing if carbon credits were priced between $10 and $33 per tonne, a study has found.	5th June 2009
New Roll-Up Solar Panels - Yale e360 MIT Technology Review reports on an Ohio startup that has succeeded in manufacturing thin-film silicon solar cells that can be mass produced in long rolls and installed on roofs and building facades. The company, Xunlight of Toledo, Ohio, has produced solar film affixed to thin sheets of stainless steel that can be manufactured in rolls 18 feet long and roughly three feet wide. Such amorphous thin-film solar cells are highly inefficient, but Xunlight has boosted their efficiency by using three different materials that absorb energy from different parts of the solar spectrum, the MIT publication said. Still, the efficiency of Xunlight s solar panel sheets is only about 8 percent, compared to the 20 percent efficiency of some conventional solar panels.	5th June 2009
Small islands win U.N. vote on climate change security - Reuters UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Small Pacific islands vulnerable to rising sea levels won a symbolic victory at the United Nations on Wednesday with the passage of a resolution recognizing climate change as a possible threat to security.	4th June 2009
Green energy overtakes fossil fuel investment, says UN - Guardian Clean technologies attract $140bn compared with $110bn for gas, coal and electrical powerGreen energy overtook fossil fuels in attracting investment for power generation for the first time last year, according to figures released today by the United Nations.Wind, solar and other clean technologies attracted $140bn (£85bn) compared with $110bn for gas and coal for electrical power generation, with more than a third of the green cash destined for Britain and the rest of Europe.The biggest growth for renewable investment came from China, India and other developing countries, which are fast catching up on the West in switching out of fossil fuels to improve energy security and tackle climate change.	4th June 2009
Green energy goal to boost EU jobs, economy: study BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union will boost economies and create an additional 410,000 jobs if the bloc meets its target of getting one fifth of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, a new report shows.	3rd June 2009
Obama 'to stake political prestige' on US climate bill Congressional leaders working against a six-month deadline to pass a sweeping package of environmental legislation before global climate change talks begin in Copenhagen in DecemberBarack Obama is prepared to stake his own political prestige on getting climate change legislation through Congress, and would be willing to intervene directly to ensure passage of America's first law to reduce the carbon emissions that cause global warming.Nancy Sutley, who is pivotal in setting Obama's green agenda as the chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, told the Guardian that the president is ready to use his considerable personal popularity to rally Congress behind a sweeping climate change bill."When the bill is further along in the legislative process there are some things where it may make a difference in expressing a strong view," Sutley said in an interview.	3rd June 2009
Heat capture technology could save UK 10m tonnes of carbon a year, says study Heat capture technology on stations such as Kingsnorth would meet 5of the UK's requirements, say engineersThe UK could save 10m tonnes of carbon dioxide every year if the waste heat from some of the country's biggest power stations was diverted to warm homes and offices, according to a study by engineers.They say attaching heat capture technology to stations such as Kingsnorth and Drax would meet 5of the UK's heat requirements. And in future, any new big power stations should be built to capture and distribute heat as well as electricity. In addition, new housing developments should be designed and built with small local combined heat and power (CHP) plants.Heat accounts for around 49of all primary energy needs in the UK.	3rd June 2009
Rwanda: Country to Power Vehicles With Human Waste - AllAfrica.com Kigali With Rwanda's energy bill soaring, some investors are planning to start producing methane gas from human and animal waste. The gas will then be used to power vehicle engines and for cooking.	3rd June 2009
Japanese voters want tough climate goals: survey BONN, Germany (Reuters) - Japanese voters favor the deepest cuts in greenhouse gases under consideration by Prime Minister Taro Aso as part of a new U.N. climate pact, according to opinion poll results on Tuesday.	3rd June 2009
Eden Project reveals 'hot rocks' plan Geothermal plant would initially power Eden Project buildings but eventually aims to supply local community and National GridPlans to build the UK's first geothermal plant that would use heat from granite outcrops beneath the Earth's surface to power a small town were unveiled today.Initially the plant would be used to supply the Eden Project in Cornwall but could potentially feed spare carbon-neutral electricity winto the National Grid.Eden and its commercial partner claim, EGS Energy, believe this is the first in a series of projects that could lead to Cornwall's "hot rocks" supplying up to one-tenth of the UK's electricity.The government is watching the plans closely and Ed Miliband, the secretary of state for energy and climate change, attended the launch of the scheme in Westminster.	2nd June 2009
UN climate talks grudgingly accept treaty draft - Reuters UK BONN, Germany, June 1 (Reuters) - Rich and poor countries criticised a first draft text of a new United Nations climate treaty on Monday but grudgingly accepted it as the basis for six months of arduous negotiations. "We ... have some dismay about the way it has been structured," Jonathan Pershing, head of the U.S. delegation at the June 1-12 talks among 180 nations in Bonn, said of a 53-page draft outlining ideas from all countries. "This text should contain more balance," said Ibrahim Mirghani Ibrahim of Sudan, speaking on behalf of developing countries including China and India. Despite finding fault, delegates accepted the draft as the starting point for negotiations on a treaty due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December to curb the use of fossil fuels and widen the fight against climate change beyond the existing Kyoto Protocol. "The session here represents a significant new step ... Governments have on the table for the first time real negotiating texts," Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, told a news conference. "Clearly there are some hard nuts still to crack ... We have less than 200 days," he said. Offers so far of greenhouse gas cuts by rich countries, for instance, were not enough, he said.	1st June 2009
Why six Britons went to eco war - Guardian When six activists, protesting against climate pollution, scaled a tower at a coal-fired power station in 2007 the resulting court case drew support from the world's leading scientists. Their subsequent acquittal proved historic and changed government policy. Here, the 'Kingsnorth Six' tell their storySix ordinary people. One extraordinary feat of courage and endurance. Twenty thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide belched into the atmosphere in a single day. Twelve members of a jury, reaching a verdict that could change the future of the planet. From these ingredients, Nick Broomfield has fashioned a film that tells the gripping and (the description is unusually literal) life-changing story of the Kingsnorth Six.	31st May 2009
Ranchers driving wind revolution - BBC Wind farms on the US's high plains could eventually help power the country's coastal population centres, experts say.	31st May 2009
Unravelling the myth behind sustainable investing - InvestorDaily A common perception exists that sustainable responsible investment fund managers underperform their conventional counterparts. However, longterm performance figures show this is not the case. Vishal Teckchandani examines the ethical investment sub-sector of the funds management industry.	30th May 2009
How To Save The Planet - Countercurrents By Gideon PolyaThe World is acutely threatened by man-made global warming and many scientists now doubt that we can avoid further damaging temperature increases to over 2C above that in 1900. However resolute global action via an Accountability, Badge and Credo (ABC) protocol may yet save Man and the Biosphere	30th May 2009
How to shut down 93% of coal without building new plants or reducing power supply - Grist A quick analysis shows that the underutilized U.S. natural gas power plant fleet could quickly ramp up to take most coal off-line at fairly low cost. Paging a Mr. Pickens!	30th May 2009
Poo power to the people - Guardian German town to use cow and horse manure for green energy Biogas network could provide 30-40% of town's needsA German town will become the first in the world to be powered by animal waste when it launches a biogas network this year.Lünen, north of Dortmund, will use cow and horse manure as well as other organic material from local farms to provide cheap and sustainable electricity for its 90,000 residents.Biogas is already used around the world it will power buses in Oslo from September but Lünen claims to be the only town to build a dedicated biogas network.Material such as animal slurry and spoiled crops from local farms will be fed into heated tanks, where natural fermentation will break it down into methane and carbon dioxide the same basic ingredients as natural gas.	29th May 2009
Meters go the distance: smart meters are an essential part of a low-carbon energy system Smart meters are an essential part of a 21st Century low carbon energy system, as the battle against climate change heats up.	28th May 2009
China puts its faith in solar power with huge renewable energy investment By 2020, Chinese government is committed to raising the share of renewable energy in the energy mix to 6%China is to throw its economic might behind a national solar power plan that could result in it becoming one of the world's biggest harvesters of the sun's energy.The government body responsible for overseeing energy policy has finalised a proposal for billions of pounds of incentives for solar farms and rooftop panels, which will come from the government's £400bn economic stimulus fund.Once approved by the state council, it is expected to give a boost to the domestic solar power market, which has lagged behind China's wind, nuclear and hydroelectric power investments.	28th May 2009
Economic impacts of carbon pricing How much will a price on carbon affect power bills? Not much. Big Coal isn't worried about customers, it's worried about its own profits.	28th May 2009
Ont. moving ahead with cap-and-trade: McGuinty - CNews Ontario and Quebec are moving ahead with plans to create a cap-and-trade system to fight climate change because they couldn't wait any longer for the Canadian and U.S. governments to come up with one of their own, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said Wednesday.	28th May 2009
Russia makes major shift in climate policy - Nature Putin emphasizes the need for action on global warming.	27th May 2009
Why Obama Should Take Notes from Cuba on a Green Energy Revolution Cuba has successfully greened its energy sector over the last few years, and is now exporting its energy revolution.	27th May 2009
Carbon Plan in Ecuador Would Leave Jungle Oil Reserves Untapped - Yale 360 Conservationists are working on a plan that would leave a vast oil deposit in the pristine jungle of the Ecuadorean Amazon undeveloped, in exchange for billions of dollars in payments from governments and companies looking to purchase carbon offsets. The oil fields - which contain about 20 percent of Ecuador's oil reserves - lie under the Yasuni National Park in northeastern Ecuador, an undeveloped area that harbors some of the richest biological diversity on earth. Under the conservation plan, Ecuador would sell certificates on fledgling carbon markets that would allow governments or companies to emit carbon dioxide in amounts equal to the carbon left underground in Yasuni.	27th May 2009
Concentrated solar could generate '25of world's energy' - Guardian Industry groups call for solar thermal technology to expand in 'sun belt' around world as Spain leads the fieldSolar power stations that concentrate sunlight could generate up to one-quarter of the world's electricity needs by 2050, according to a study by environmental and solar industry groups. The technology, best suited to the desert regions of the world, could also create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and save millions of tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere.Concentrating solar power (CSP) uses mirrors to focus sunlight onto water. This produces steam that can then turn turbines and generate electricity.	27th May 2009
Emissions scheme would create 30,000 jobs: report - Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Climate Institute has released a report showing the Federal Government's emissions trading scheme and other environmental policies will create tens of thousands of jobs.	25th May 2009
Solar power could surge by 2050 in deserts: study - Reuters PARIS (Reuters) - Solar power plants in deserts using mirrors to concentrate the sun's rays have the potential to generate up to a quarter of the world's electricity by 2050, a report by pro-solar groups said on Monday.	25th May 2009
Green technology through the ages The Manchester International Festival and the Guardian are inviting submissions for ideas to help tackle climate change. From electric cars in 1919 and solar powered printing presses, to passive houses and wave power, here is a selection of green inventions past and present. Future innovations could be decided by you	24th May 2009
High hopes for high speed - The Christian Science Monitor USA: A $13 billion proposal could lay high-speed tracks in the midwest, California, and Florida.	24th May 2009
Wales plans for energy self-sufficiency with renewables in 20 years - Guardian Ambitious, legally binding plans 'set an example for the rest of the world to follow', says Jonathan PorrittWales today laid out radical plans to make it one of the most energy- and resource-efficient countries in the world within a generation.The government development plans, which are legally binding, are far in advance of anything planned for England or Scotland and would see it become energy self-sufficient in using renewable electricity within 20 years and reduce waste to zero by 2050.The proposals would make Wales one of only three countries in the world legally bound to develop "sustainably"."We intend to reduce by 80-90% our use of carbon-based energy, resulting in a similar reduction in our greenhouse gas generation," said Jane Davidson, the Welsh environment minister, launching the sustainable development scheme at the Guardian's Hay festival.	23rd May 2009
House panel approves climate change bill - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A key U.S. House of Representatives committee on Thursday approved legislation to tackle climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, one of President Barack Obama's chief policy goals.	21st May 2009
Eco-home is light years ahead - Guardian The dream of zero-carbon living is being realised on an estate in Denmark. Andrew Purcell takes a tour of the world's first Active HouseSolar panels warm underfloor heating. Fifty square metres of solar cells generate electricity. Computer-controlled windows automatically regulate internal temperature.This is the last place you would expect to find the solar-powered home of the future. Lystrup, a suburb of Denmark's second city, Aarhus, is grey from street to sky. The spring sun, hidden behind a bank of clouds that doesn't break once on my week- long visit, barely seems strong enough to run a pocket calculator, let alone meet the energy needs of a family of four.	21st May 2009
Wings that waggle could cut aircraft emissions by 20 percent - PhysOrg Wings which redirect air to waggle sideways could cut airline fuel bills by 20% according to research funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Airbus in the UK.	21st May 2009
Largest wind farm to be expanded Europe's largest onshore wind farm is to be expanded further, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond announces.	20th May 2009
U.S. energy CO2 output drops record 2.8 percent NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. emissions of the main greenhouse gas -- carbon dioxide -- from energy sources, such as gasoline, diesel and coal, fell a record 2.8 percent last year as the recession hit consumer demand for fuel, the government said on Wednesday.	20th May 2009
U.S. lawmakers reject nuclear in renewable power goa l WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers pushing to include greater recognition for existing nuclear power in a national renewable energy standard failed to win new breaks for the industry when a U.S. congressional panel on Wednesday voted down an amendment to a controversial climate change bill.	20th May 2009
House panel to approve climate change bill: Reuters poll WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have enough votes to approve historic legislation to cap and reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to a Reuters survey of specific lawmakers on the panel. See also: Waxman-Markey: Will Congress Cave to Big Industry and Kill One of Most Important Pieces of Legislation Ever?	20th May 2009
Obama to propose 30% cut in auto emissions - Detroit Free Press Updated at 2:25 p.m.: WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will lay out plans Tuesday to cut greenhouse gas emissions from new cars and trucks by 30% through 2016, while ending a dispute between the auto industry and California over state-level emissions laws.	19th May 2009
Caroline Lucas Decca Aitkenhead meets Green party leader Caroline Lucas. Caroline Lucas should be the luckiest woman in politics. More than 20 years ago she joined a minor, leftfield party: today its defining issue has become the biggest political issue in the world. Bingo! Only politics, of course, is not that simple. As Winston Churchill famously pointed out, democracy has been described as "the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried", and if you really want to see what he meant, spend an hour with the leader of the Green party.Less than three weeks away from the European elections, the dilemmas facing Lucas are daunting.	18th May 2009
How a B.C. carbon tax rose from Dion's ashes - The Globe and Mail The B.C. and federal elections offer valuable lessons to politicians in Canada and elsewhere. In particular, they show that a carbon tax is neither a political albatross, nor a silver bullet. The mistake is making it the central issue in a campaign. A carbon tax is a very good policy idea, both for the environment and the economy, but it is a means, not an end. It is the larger vision of a green economy, with good jobs and a healthy climate, that leaders must paint to really engage the public and succeed politically.	18th May 2009
Healing or Stealing? - "You are brilliant, and the earth is hiring" When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.” There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.	18th May 2009
CO2 release out of control says scientist - New Zealand Herald After first suggesting there could be negative effects from pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in 1957, the award-winning American scientist - who was in New Zealand last week to speak at a past climates symposium - has turned his attention to taking carbon out of the air and storing it. He believes the world has no chance of getting CO2 emissions under control in time to avoid dangerous global warming. He wants urgent research done to find ways to tuck atmospheric CO2 away until after human production of it has peaked. For New Zealand, he says, this could mean letting the Australians take care of it. Dr Broecker is a fan of a method developed by his friend and workmate at Columbia University, Dr Klaus Lackner, who has found a way to catch carbon using special plastic fibres attached to units the size of shipping containers.	18th May 2009
Clean Energy Poll: We Want it, We Really Want it - Public News Service Clean Energy Poll: We Want it, We Really Want itPublic News Service, COCheyenne, WY – It will be a long weekend for the US House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is working out details on climate-change and energy-policy legislation scheduled to debut Monday. Wyoming, a top coal-producer, has a lot at stake in such ...	17th May 2009
Say no to Westminster by voting Green From outside the Westminster bubble, there is a positive vision for the future – and some sensible rules on expensesHarriet Harman has said this week that the Westminster expenses row is creating "an anti-politics mood" – which is something of an understatement. As people feel the effects of the global economic collapse in their own pockets, the raw anger directed at the complacency and excess of politicians from all of the Westminster parties reaches fever pitch. Revelations that MPs claimed for mortgages they'd already paid off, or profited directly from properties paid for by the taxpayer, are profoundly incriminating.Then we have the ugly spectacle of Westminster politicians trying to outdo each other in the piety stakes ...	17th May 2009
Flat-screen light bulbs switch on Organic light-emitting diodes outperform fluorescent tubes, bringing closer their promise as the next generation of light bulbs.	17th May 2009
Carbon Tax Wins: Cheap Politics Loses in B.C. Election gordon campbell.jpg The only government in North America to implement a carbon tax to fight climate change has been re-elected handily in British Columbia. Liberal Premier Gordon Campbell introduced a carbon tax in February 2008 and launched it officially in July, regardless that the introduction date coincided with the highest oil prices in history. The Premier, surprisingly, held his ground, The left-leaning (and traditionally environmentally conscious) New Democratic Party on the other hand opted to attack the tax, characterizing it as an unfair effort to pick the pockets of the poor. She campaigned on a promise to "axe the tax." On Tuesday, British Columbians said, loudly, that they couldn't believe her.	14th May 2009
Thames offshore wind farm gets green light from investors Scheme to build the world's biggest offshore project is approved by backers E.ON, Dong Energy and MasdarThe world's largest offshore wind farm is to be built in the Thames estuary after the partners behind the scheme said they had agreed an initial €2.2bn (£2bn) investment.The London Array will be built 12 miles off the Kent and Essex coasts, with the first phase using 175 turbines, each the height of the tower housing Big Ben. Once complete, it could generate enough electricity to power a quarter of the homes in Greater London.The prime minister, Gordon Brown, described the London Array as a "flagship project" in the drive to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050.	14th May 2009
Republican lawmakers back carbon tax - yes, that's right - McClatchy Newspapers via Yahoo! News WASHINGTON - Reps. Bob Inglis of South Carolina and Jeff Flake of Arizona on Wednesday became the first Republican lawmakers to introduce legislation imposing a carbon tax on producers and distributors of fossil fuels.	14th May 2009
Swedes to push for CO2 tax at EU helm - EUActiv Sweden wants to push for a tax on CO2 in sectors that do not participate in the EU's emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) upon assuming the EU helm in July, said the country's environment minister, Andreas Carlgren.	13th May 2009
Cities Can Save the Earth - Foreign Policy In Focus The climate crisis won’t be solved by changing light bulbs and inflating your tires more, planting a tree and driving a little less. It’s going to require a truly fundamental shift in how we build our cities and live in them. The key to changing our cities involves the car. Cars dominate cities in the rich countries, and they are increasingly swamping poor countries as well. Big auto companies, are rapidly building car factories and highways in China and India. Many cities, like Berkeley, California where I lived for 30 years, don’t have a single pedestrian street — and their citizens don’t even notice how completely given over to the car their towns are. Only one out of 10 people on the planet actually drives cars, but drivers are causing a vastly disproportionate share of planetary damage through the automobile-sprawl pattern of development. The concepts behind the ecocity are fairly simple. They involve a shift in development toward centers of high diversity	13th May 2009
Cost of solar energy will match fossil fuels by 2013, claims Solarcentury - Guardian Falling production costs for solar panels and increasing nonrenewables electricity costs have brought parity closerSolar energy will fall in price to match the cost of conventional fossil fuel electricity far sooner than previously expected, the UK's largest solar company has claimed in a new report. Solarcentury said British homeowners will see solar achieve "grid parity" – the point where solar electricity rivals or becomes cheaper than conventional nonrenewable electricity – by 2013. Most predictions suggest that technological innovation will not bring the price down far enough until 2020 or later.The company suggested falling production costs for solar panels and increasing conventional electricity costs have brought parity closer.	13th May 2009
Going bananas for energy in Africa - BBC News Scientists have found a way to turn banana skins into a sustainable fuel source for Africa, writes the BBC's Matt McGrath.	13th May 2009
Quebec plans to cut emissions - Montreal Gazette The provincial government is to table a bill today that would make Quebec the first jurisdiction in North America to enforce a cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions.	13th May 2009
Insulation made from corn wins $200,000 prize - New Scientist A student-led team that designed insulation made from corn husks and other agricultural waste has won MIT's $200,000 Clean Energy Prize	13th May 2009
Is empathy the key to fighting climate change? - New Scientist A think tank suggests ways to inspire humanity to start caring more for each other and tackle climate change - but can it work?	13th May 2009
Australian Government Provides A$15 Billion To Cut Carbon Emissions - Nasdaq CANBERRA -(Dow Jones)- The Australian Government has earmarked more than A$15 billion for what Climate Change and Water Minister Penny Wong Tuesday said is a comprehensive and integrated suite of policies and programs aimed to cut carbon dioxide emissions and tackle climate change.	13th May 2009
'Distributed power' to save Earth - BBC News A sweeping plan to solve both the energy and the economic crises has been presented at a conference in Prague.	12th May 2009
Quebec to play tough with carbon emissions - Montreal Gazette Quebec is poised to become the first jurisdiction in North America to enforce a cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions with the tabling of a new bill Tuesday.	12th May 2009
Pinko bastion spawns capitalist solution to solar financing - Grist The hotbed of East Bay Bolshevism has become a wellspring of municipal eco-capitalism that's serving as a model for expanding the use of solar power in less leftist locales.	9th May 2009
Cuba And Dealing with Global Pollution - Culture Change Seventeen years ago, in June 1992, 172 governments, including 108 heads of state, met at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. That meeting produced the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the first international agreement that aimed "to achieve stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a low enough level to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system." In particular, the industrialized countries promised to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels. Like the Kyoto Accord that followed it, that agreement was a failure. The world's top politicians demonstrated their gross hypocrisy and their indifference to the future of humanity and nature by giving fine speeches and making promises -- and then continuing with business as usual. But there was one exception. In Rio one head of state spoke out strongly, and called for immediate emergency action -- and then returned home to support the implementation of practical policies for sustainable, low-emission development. That head of state was Fidel Castro.	9th May 2009
Banner year for wind - and coal - New Scientist Wind power capacity grew by 29% in 2008, but it still generates just 1.5of electricity globally	9th May 2009
Australia government rejects coal compensation report - Reuters CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's government shook off on Friday coal industry warnings that 10,000 jobs would be lost and 16 coal mines forced to close unless a planned national carbon emissions trading scheme was dramatically overhauled.	9th May 2009
RSPB embraces wind of change with its very own turbine After years of opposition to wind farms, the conservation group installs its own turbine. After years of barely concealed antipathy, the RSPB and the wind energy industry have today put the symbolic seal on their recent cessation of hostilities with the installation of the first RSPB wind turbine.The small-scale 15kW turbine has been installed at the RSPB's Rainham Marshes visitor centre in Purfleet, Essex, and together with a solar array already located at the site is expected to provide enough energy to meet the centre's requirements, cutting its carbon footprint by 9,000kg a year.Nick Bruce-White, manager of the Rainham Marshes site, said that the installation of the Proven Energy turbine demonstrated both the RSPB's commitment to tackling climate change and its support for appropriately sited renewable energy projects.	7th May 2009
'Anaconda' harnesses wave power - BBC News A rubber "sea snake" that can transform waves into power is tested in a giant shipping tank.	6th May 2009
Bill McKibben on Building A Climate Action Movement Bill McKibben first warned about global warming and its implications for the planet in his 1989 book, The End of Nature. But in the last few years, it has become the focus of his work as a key organizer of 350.org, an advocacy organization promoting global action to tackle climate change. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, McKibben described why he has been working Bill McKibben fulltime on the issue, why he thinks a citizens movement is essential for giving President Obama the “political space” necessary to address climate change, why a “cap-and-dividend” system might offer the most potential, and why he believes the jury is still out on whether the most serious impacts of climate change can be avoided.	6th May 2009
Rules to Limit Emissions in the Making of Ethanol - New York Times The Obama administration moved to help biofuel manufacturers, but it also introduced rules to curb carbon dioxide emissions in ethanol production. See also: Ethanol crops displaces climate-friendly ones, EPA says - CNews	6th May 2009
China triples wind power capacity goal: report - PhysOrg China has more than tripled its target for wind power capacity to 100 gigawatts by 2020, likely making it the world's fastest growing market for wind energy technology, state press said.	4th May 2009
Green energy gaining favor with investors - The News Journal Revenue from solar, wind power, ethanol and biodiesel fuel grew 50 percent to about $116 billion last year, according to Clean Edge Inc., a research and publishing firm. The spike in green revenue, and the backing of the federal government to explore these energy sources, has excited investors.	3rd May 2009
"Supertanker earth" can be steered towards safer waters - University of Manchester The global problems of economic collapse, climate change and poverty can be solved, but only if early action is taken, according to one of the world's leading economists. In his new book Professor Mohan Munasinghe from The University of Manchester says traditional models focusing mainly on economic growth have led to the major problems facing the world today. Instead, the co-laureate of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace and Vice Chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change-AR4 urges world leaders to simultaneously tackle social, environmental as well as economic problems within an integrated framework he calls ‘sustainomics’.	2nd May 2009
'Smart turbine blades' to improve wind power - PhysOrg Researchers have developed a technique that uses sensors and computational software to constantly monitor forces exerted on wind turbine blades, a step toward improving efficiency by adjusting for rapidly changing wind conditions.	2nd May 2009
Texas wind farm pioneers radar technology to protect migrating birds - Guardian US wind farms kill about 7,000 birds a year but radar systems developed for Nasa can prevent fatal collisions by detecting approaching birds and analysing weather conditionsIt could be considered an air traffic control system for birds who have flown perilously off course. A wind farm in southern Texas, situated on a flight path used by millions of birds each autumn and spring, is pioneering the use of radar technology to avoid deadly collisions between a 2,500lb rotating blade and bird.US wind farms kill about 7,000 birds a year, according to a recent study. Other studies of individual wind farms suggest a higher toll on bats and birds, who crash into towers, blades, power lines and other installations.	2nd May 2009
A bad week for U.S. coal projects It was a bad week to be planning a coal-fired power plant in the United States. The industry suffered its second blow of the week on Friday with the cancellation of a plant in Michigan. The move by power plant developer LS Power marks the ninth such plant to be dropped in the United States so far this year, according to a count by environmental group the Sierra Club. The company blamed regulatory uncertainty and the weak economy for the cancellation, which environmentalists cheered because coal-fired power plants are responsible for more than 30 percent of the United States' global warming emissions.	2nd May 2009
Americans Want to Limit Climate Gases, Even If It Raises Costs - Environment News Service Strong, comprehensive climate and energy legislation likely would reduce energy bills, not increase them, finds a new analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Based on a U.S. Department of Energy modeling system, the analysis performed by the Union of Concerned Scientists shows that combining a carbon dioxide cap-and-trade program with energy and transportation policies would result in "dramatic emissions reductions" and net savings for the typical U.S. household of $300 per year in 2020 and $900 per year in 2030.	2nd May 2009
Massive economic and policy reform: Easier than you think - Grist Big change doesn't require removing entire barriers, just a few key bricks.	2nd May 2009
US eyes ozone treaty to curb greenhouse gas - msnbc.com Momentum was building Thursday for a novel strategy by the Obama administration to deal in part with global warming: Use the existing U.N. treaty to fix the ozone hole as a way to enact mandatory reductions in a key greenhouse gas — not carbon dioxide but hydrofluorocarbons.	1st May 2009
Potential breakthrough for sun's energy - Guardian New solar thermal technology overcomes a major challenge facing solar power – how to store the sun's heat for use at night or on a rainy day. From Yale Environment 360, part of Guardian Environment NetworkIn the high desert of southern Spain, not far from Granada, the Mediterranean sun bounces off large arrays of precisely curved mirrors that cover an area as large as 70 soccer fields. These parabolic troughs follow the arc of the sun as it moves across the sky, concentrating the sun's rays onto pipes filled with a synthetic oil that can be heated to 750 degrees Fahrenheit.	1st May 2009
We count calories. Why not carbon? - The Christian Science Monitor If we can we list the nutritional value of a pickled egg, surely we can drive a healthier market and planet through system-cost comparison.	1st May 2009
Power to the people - Guardian How did a Cambridge physics professor come to write this year's must-read book about tackling our future energy needs? Leo Hickman went to meet himIt costs £45 in hardback. It has a crashingly dull cover and title. And it has been launched without marketing pizazz. But a new academic book written by David MacKay, a physics professor at the University of Cambridge, is being hailed by some as a "game changer": a text that could revolutionise popular thinking about our future energy needs and how we could supply them.First published online last summer, Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air has gathered fans and accolades from all corners of the energy and climate change debate - politicians, business leaders, environmentalists.	1st May 2009
Canada aims to end traditional coal power: report OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Canadian government plans new regulations that will effectively phase out traditional coal-fired power stations, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said in an interview published on Wednesday.	30th April 2009
Ocean power surges forward - The Christian Science Monitor Wave power and tidal power are still experimental, but may be little more than five years away from commercial development.	29th April 2009
Little power price impact seen from U.S. renewable mandate NEW YORK (Reuters) - A proposed federal mandate to force power companies to provide up to 25 percent renewable energy by 2025 is likely to have little impact on electric prices though 2020 and negligible impact after 2030, the Energy Information Administration said in a study Monday.	28th April 2009
Reveal carbon risks, oil firms told Oil giants involved in the exploitation of tar sand fields face calls this week to disclose future carbon liabilities. Co-operative Financial Services (CFS) and environmental charity WWF-UK are launching a campaign for a legal requirement for companies including Shell and BP to include this information in financial reporting. The Co-op says tar sands activities threaten to create a new class of toxic investment that could push the financial system into deeper crisis, while WWF wants the UK to take the lead and make London the centre of green finance. Nearly £40bn of UK pension assets is invested in British-based oil and gas companies.	28th April 2009
Winds of change blow for offshore power operators It's official: it's getting windier down south. This unexpected quirk of climate change has given a much needed boost to offshore wind-farm developers. For those struggling to make the economics of hugely expensive wind farms work, more wind equals more money. Experts said that the waters off the coast of East Anglia and Essex could host many more wind farms as a result. The research, from Atmos Consulting, has found that wind speeds in these areas have been rising so much that wind farms could generate 50% more electricity than envisaged a decade ago.More than 10GW of offshore wind projects - enough to power 10m homes - being planned for the southern part of the North Sea could benefit.Based on information taken from Nasa satellite images, the research found that average annual wind speed in the southern part of the North Sea had increased from about 7. ...	28th April 2009
Businesses see employment upside with carbon cap - Sacramento Bee Executives of leading corporations, as well as energy entrepreneurs, said that a shift away from dirty fuels offered opportunities.	25th April 2009
California adopts landmark low-carbon fuel rule - Reuters SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - California on Thursday adopted a first-ever rule to slash carbon emissions in automotive fuels, and spur the market for cleaner gasoline alternatives, after a last-ditch appeal to ethanol advocates who fought the plan.	24th April 2009
Vatican to build Europe's largest solar power plant - Guardian The Vatican plans to spend €500m building a 100-megawatt solar power plant supplying electricity to 40,000 homesThe Vatican is well versed in conversions, but there probably hasn't been something on this scale since its very own St Paul was on his way to Damascus: the world's smallest country has announced it is to spend €500m (£441m) building Europe's largest solar power plant.Once the 100-megawatt plant opens in 2014, the Vatican will become an electricity exporter to Italy supplying enough power for the needs of 40,000 households. It is latest in a string of pronouncements by the Holy See – or should it now be known as the Holy E?	21st April 2009
South Korea lights the way on carbon emissions with its £23bn green deal Seoul's huge financial stimulus package pledges 81% for a swath of environmental projects. But activists fear a wave of construction may increase the country's carbon footprint.	21st April 2009
Aborigine, Inuit tradition can fight climate change - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Alaskan Inuits, Australian aborigines and Pygmies from Cameroon have a message for a warming world: native traditions can be a potent weapon against climate change. See also: Indigenous Peoples Demand Greater Role in Climate Debate.	20th April 2009
Congress to pass energy bill this year: White House - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers will pass major energy legislation, possibly including measures to address climate change, by the end of this year, a top White House official said on Sunday.	20th April 2009
1970s lifestyle protects planet - BBC News Getting back to the slim, trim days of the 1970s would help to cut carbon emissions and tackle climate change, researchers say.	20th April 2009
We need an eco-revolution - Green Left Weekly The April 2 G20 summit brought together the leaders of some of the world’s most economically significant countries. They were intent on working out a rescue plan for the capitalist system, the very system that is killing the planet and condemning billions of people to poverty and oppression.	19th April 2009
Congress considers major global warming measure - Forbes Lawmakers this coming week begin hearings on an energy and global warming bill that could revolutionize how the country produces and uses energy. It also could reduce, for the first time, the pollution responsible for heating up the planet. If Congress balks, the Obama administration has signaled a willingness to use decades-old clean air laws to impose tough new regulations for motor vehicles and many industrial plants to limit their release of climate-changing pollution.	19th April 2009
Why we forgot how to grow food - Times Online As a food shortage looms, people are digging for Britain - and their dinner table. John-Paul Flintoff gets back to our roots	19th April 2009
Obama to regulate 'pollutant' CO2 - BBC News The US government is to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, having decided they pose a danger to human health and well-being. See also: Obama says greenhouse gases are hurting us - now what?	18th April 2009
Engineers set to convert carbon dioxide into solid rock - Guardian Icelandic experts hope to dispose of 30,000 tonnes of the greenhouse gas each yearEngineers in Iceland are set to convert carbon dioxide to solid rock as a way to tackle global warming.The experts want to exploit the country's volcanic origins to dispose of up to 30,000 tonnes of the greenhouse gas each year. They expect the gas to react with layers of volcanic rocks deep beneath the surface to form minerals that will lock the carbon pollution away for millions of years."This is a well-known natural process," said Holmfridur Sigurdardottir, project manager. "We are just trying to imitate what nature is doing."The project will take CO2 produced by an Icelandic geothermal energy plant and dissolve it in water under high pressures.	17th April 2009
New Zealand's Emissions Cuts May Beat Kyoto Target - Update1 - Bloomberg April 15 (Bloomberg) -- New Zealand may exceed its Kyoto Protocol emissions reduction target by 9.6 million tons, the government said today. The estimate covers the period from 2008 through 2012 and compares with a 21.7 million-ton deficit forecast a year earlier.	16th April 2009
Wangari Maathai film shows Kenyan tree planting as political subversion - Grist Taking Root has more to say about social change than about forest ecology-I'm not sure it even mentions the types of trees being planted. But it makes abundantly clear the connections between environmental health, human rights, and democracy.	14th April 2009
Risk of EPA move smoothes way for U.S carbon law: Rep - Reuters CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - The threat of tougher regulation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should ease industrial opposition to a cap-and-trade market on greenhouse gases, a U.S. lawmaker said on Monday.	14th April 2009
A cardboard box cooker wins top prize in an environmental competition - BBC News A solar cooker made from a cardboard bol wins a competition for bright environmental ideas.	9th April 2009
Hemp plan to build green houses - BBC Bristol A team at the University of Bath is researching the use of hemp in carbon-neutral construction materials in the UK.	9th April 2009
Tackling soot could help reduce Arctic ice melt - FT.com Blogs One factor that could help to slow the melting of the Arctic, but which has not yet received serious consideration at an international level, would be to cut the amount of “black carbon” – soot – that we spew into the air. Black carbon darkens ice when it falls, causing it to absorb more heat, and may be responsible for half of the warming effect in the Arctic, according to recent research published in Nature Geoscience. Cutting down on soot would not only remove large amounts of air pollution, but, according to some scientists, could be much quicker and easier than cutting carbon dioxide emissions.	9th April 2009
London mayor – 100,000 electric cars for capital - Guardian Boris Johnson announces commitment to making electric cars 'first choice for Londoners', pledging £20m of the GLA budgetLondon mayor Boris Johnson announced today his intent to make the city the electric car capital of Europe. He said he wanted to introduce 100,000 electric cars to the capital's streets and to build an infrastructure of 25,000 charging points in public streets, car parks and shops.Johnson said he would pay for a third of the £60m plan from the budget of the Greater London Authority (GLA), and challenged the government to fund the rest and make good its enthusiasm for electric vehicles, which Gordon Brown today said would feature in the upcoming budget announcement."The time for simply talking about electric vehicles is over – we need real action on the ground to make the electric vehicle an easy choice for Londoners," said Johnson. See also: On the two great issues of our time, Mayor Boris is a disaster	9th April 2009
First quarter cleantech VC funding hits $1 billion — green stimulus funds soar to $400 billion - Grist Clean tech venture capital funding in the first quarter of 2009 hit $1 billion, according to “findings released today by the Cleantech Group in cooperation with Deloitte.”	5th April 2009
Wind power could meet US needs - Guardian Wind turbines off US coastlines could potentially supply more than enough electricity to meet the country's current electricity demand, the US interior department reported today. Simply harnessing the wind in relatively shallow waters - the most accessible and technically feasible sites for offshore turbines - could produce at least 20% of the power demand for most coastal states, interior secretary Ken Salazar said, unveiling a report by the department's minerals management service that details the potential for oil, gas and renewable development on the Outer Continental Shelf.	4th April 2009
A Poem by Danny at Climate Camp in The City	3rd April 2009
Greenhouse gas targets bill passes 2nd reading - CBC A private member's bill that sets medium- and long-term targets for Canadian greenhouse gas emissions passed its second reading in the House of Commons Wednesday.	3rd April 2009
Economic cuts EU's CO2 emissions in '08: institute - AFP via Yahoo! News The economic crisis hitting the European Union caused the bloc's carbon dioxide emissions to drop by six percent last year, the Oslo-based research institute Point Carbon said.	3rd April 2009
What is the cost of staving off climate change? - Reuters Republicans in the U.S. Congress say they know how much it is going to cost to save the world from the predicted ravages of climate change. But others say their math is way off. "It would cost every family as much as $3,100 a year in additional energy costs and will drive millions of good-paying American jobs overseas," warned House of Representatives Republican leader John Boehner in response to House Democrats unveiling their climate-change bill on Tuesday. There's a problem, though. There’s a problem, though. USA/ The Republicans cite a Massachusetts Institute of Technology study as the basis for their cost estimate. But a lead author of that study complained in a letter to Boehner on Wednesday that the calculation is way off. John Reilly, an economist at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, said the average annual cost to U.S. families for controlling emissions of carbon and other harmful greenhouse gases is actually $340 - $440.	2nd April 2009
New exchange seeks funds for "green" start-ups - Reuters LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Seeking to breathe life into the bleak fund-raising environment for clean technology companies, a new private exchange wants to make it easier to invest in promising biofuels, solar or other green start-ups.	2nd April 2009
US House CO2 Bill Targets 20% Cut By '20 From 2005 Levels - CNNMoney.com U.S. House lawmakers are targeting a 20% reduction in greenhouse gases from 2005 levels by 2020 in a draft climate bill unveiled Tuesday that promises to raise energy costs for the country, but leaves many of the most important details for later negotiations. The draft document, published by the Energy and Commerce Committee, omitted specifics on the percentage of carbon dioxide credits to be auctioned off versus given freely to industry, a key determinant of how much such a program will cost.	1st April 2009
Simultaneous Policy for Global Problems - Policy Innovations As the shock of the global credit crunch subsides, the next phase inevitably kicks in: steeply rising unemployment and growing domestic political pressure for a return to protectionism. As the global economic hangover hits home, the world's nations, like a bunch of recalcitrant teenagers, sink into their morose, self-centered protectionist sulks. But is greater protectionism the answer, or should free trade and open markets be maintained?	1st April 2009
Scientists shown children's film - BBC News An animated film by Plymouth schoolchildren is premiered in front of more than 100 international scientists and policy makers.	1st April 2009
EU Carbon Trading System Shows Signs of Working - New York Times Europe?s flagship trading system to cut carbon emissions appears to be working, according to preliminary figures released by the European Commission.	1st April 2009
World switches off to save planet in "Earth Hour" - Reuters SYDNEY (Reuters) - Lights went out at tourism landmarks and homes across the globe on Saturday for Earth Hour 2009, a global event designed to highlight the threat from climate change.	29th March 2009
Clampdown on 'Easy' China Carbon Deals to Cost Firms - Bloomberg March 27 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union, frustrated that its 11,000 factories and power plants are failing to adequately reduce greenhouse-gas pollution, will seek tighter emission rules that may raise the price of burning fossil fuels.	27th March 2009
U.S. to move against greenhouse gases - International Herald Tribune The Environmental Protection Agency, about to declare heat-trapping gases to be dangerous pollutants, has embarked on one of the most ambitious regulatory challenges in U.S. history.	25th March 2009
White House gets global warming "endangerment" proposal - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed an "endangerment finding" that could designate climate-warming greenhouse pollution a threat to human or environmental health, a White House website showed on Monday.	24th March 2009
Build more wind farms, RSPB says - BBC News The UK can significantly increase the number of wind farms built onshore without harming wildlife, the RSPB says.	24th March 2009
Kite power potential soars - Mother Nature Network TED is a yearly conference where some of the smartest (and/or best connected) people around get together and talk about all the cool things they're doing to make the world a better place and what else needs to get done. In this eight minute video, Saul Griffith talks about the amazing potential giant kites have for generating electricity. The gist of his presentation is that a properly designed and built system of high altitude kites could allow us to unlock ourselves from the self imposed coal powered prison we've built ourselves into over the past 100 or so years. Mr. Griffith said that a kite the size of a 747 (~200 feet) can produce 6MW of energy- enough for around 6,000 homes and more than is generated by the largest of conventional turbines. With a few factories pumping out kites and a focused effort Mr. Griffith thinks we could replace be producing most of the nations energy within a decade.	24th March 2009
A Crisis Is a Terrible Thing to Waste - Alternet Let's use this chance to create an economy that links social justice, environmental restoration, and financial sustainability.	24th March 2009
New Yorker Slams U.S. CAP Members for "Donating to the Deniers" - DeSmogBlog Elizabeth Kolbert, author of the 2006 global warming book “Field Notes from a Catastrophe,” has a piece in the New Yorker today titled “Donating to the Deniers,” taking to task the corporate membership of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership for actively undermining the very goals the coalition claims to support. Kolbert’s piece looks at the recent analysis by Clean Air Watch detailing how many of the companies belonging to the U.S. CAP are working feverishly behind the scenes to fight against the very principles the coalition supposedly stands for.	21st March 2009
Clean Coal Opposition Mounting - DeSmogBlog The last month has seen a flurry of activity on the clean coal opposition front and it doesn't seem to be letting up. I thought it would make an interesting post to take some of the best blog post out there on so called "clean coal" and share them with you here on DeSmogBlog. As much as the multi-million dollar coal industry lobbyists want us to think their product is clean, it just ain't so. Celebrate, C'mon! (Seriously, please c'mon) Anti-coal protesters out on Monday: ~2,500 Pro-coal protesters out on Monday: 15 + this guy.	21st March 2009
Sweden to Go Carbon Neutral by 2050 - OneWorld WASHINGTON, Mar 20 (OneWorld.net) - Sweden, set to take over the European Union presidency in July, plans to lead the region on environmental sustainability by becoming carbon neutral by mid-century.	21st March 2009
New lights could reduce emissions - BBC News Converting street lights to a type which can be dimmed would save money and reduce carbon emissions, a council finds.	21st March 2009
Canada forced to to link climate change, polar bears - CNews Canada is conceding that a treaty on polar bears signed 35 years ago is now forcing it into action on climate change.	20th March 2009
Australian Parliament Committee Urges Deeper Carbon Cuts - Bloomberg March 19 (Bloomberg) -- An Australian parliamentary committee urged the government to commit to deeper cuts in carbon gas pollution as a “matter of urgency.”	19th March 2009
Shift to greener economy seen costing $750 billion: U.N. - Reuters OSLO (Reuters) - Investments of $750 billion could create a "Green New Deal" to revive the world economy and protect the environment, perhaps aided by a tax on oil, the head of the U.N. environment agency said Thursday.	19th March 2009
Greenpeace Plan Cuts CO2 Pollution 85% without Nuclear or Coal - SustainableBusiness.com The United States can meet the energy needs of a growing economy and achieve science-based cuts in global warming pollution without nuclear power or coal, according to a report released last week by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Greenpeace, the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC), and Dr. Joseph Romm of the Center for American Progress. The report, commissioned from the German Aerospace Center (the German equivalent of NASA), finds that off-the-shelf clean energy technology can cut U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels by at least 23% from current levels by 2020 and 85% by 2050.	19th March 2009
Europe's energy chiefs aim for carbon-neutral electricity by 2050 - Guardian The heads of 61 power groups in the EU tonight have committed to achieving carbon-neutral electricity within an integrated power market by 2050. Their declaration, handed to Andris Piebalgs, EU energy commissioner, comes as Europe is under attack for lowering its ambitions to combat climate change, handing over leadership to the US and China and reneging on efforts to help the poorest developing countries adapt to a low-carbon economy.	19th March 2009
Americans support action on global warming despite economic crisis - EurekAlert Even in the midst of a growing economic crisis last fall, over 90 percent of Americans said that the United States should act to reduce global warming, according to a national survey released today by researchers at Yale and George Mason Universities. The results included 34 percent who said the United States should make a large-scale effort, even if it has large economic costs. Two-thirds of Americans said that the United States should reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases regardless of what other countries do, while only seven percent said the nation should act only if other industrialized and developing countries reduce their emissions as well. "When you make a mess, you're supposed to clean up after yourself," said Anthony Leiserowitz of Yale University. "We think many Americans view climate change in a similar way. The United States should act to reduce it's own emissions regardless of what other countries do."	19th March 2009
Time to gamble on a post-carbon world - Guardian An economy that promotes quality over quantity will restore the confidence we need to live within our ecological meansThink of the last time you backed away from a gamble. What was it that stopped you placing the bet – a lack of money or a lack of confidence?Climate change represents an unprecedented challenge on so many levels. But beyond the climate science and the political manoeuvring, humanity needs to collectively prepare itself for the single biggest psychological challenge it has ever faced: the transition to a post-carbon society. And that's where the psychological analogy with a poker game comes in.Some suggest that a lack of liquidity spells disaster for the ambitious emissions cuts that are so desperately needed, while others see the ideal opportunity to take a gamble and radically reshuffle the global economy and labour market.	18th March 2009
A crash course in climate change - Mother Nature Network A new seminar gives Londoners all they ever wanted to know about global warming and were afraid to ask.	18th March 2009
Wind cuts exposure to fuel, carbon swings: lobby - Reuters MARSEILLE (Reuters) - Decision makers comparing wind power prices with apparently cheaper energy sources should take full account of the lower exposure to fuel and carbon price volatility that wind offers, a wind industry group said.	17th March 2009
Biochar: Is the hype justified? - BBC News The green guru James Lovelock claims that the only hope of mitigating catastrophic climate change is through biochar - biomass "cooked" by pyrolysis. There's a flurry of worldwide interest in biochar - but is the hype justified?	17th March 2009
Replacing Social Security With Carbon Taxes - Portfolio.com via Yahoo! Finance Hendrik Hertzberg gets stuck in to the fiscal-policy debate this week, with a proposal to essentially abolish payroll taxes and replace them with various sorts of carbon and consumption taxes.	17th March 2009
Gore upbeat on climate deal prospect - Guardian Unlimited Al Gore, the former US vice-president, delivers an upbeat assessment of the global response to climate change today, saying he believes a "political tipping point" has been reached which will enable leaders to avert environmental catastrophe. In his first newspaper interview since the US election, the Nobel peace prize winner tells the Guardian that Barack Obama's arrival in the White ...	17th March 2009
Economic crisis gives us a chance of repairing climate damage - Guardian Large-scale investment to fix global finances is an opportunity to move quickly to a low-carbon economyThe financial crisis that started in May 2007 is a global catastrophe. As central banks, one after another, reduce interest rates towards zero, they risk the world economy falling into a global liquidity trap in which monetary and fiscal policies become ineffective and regulation becomes the main instrument for recovery. The effect of such a trap is to risk global depression and mass unemployment for years to come.In the background lurks another crisis - the risk of dangerous climate change. Although these changes are slow-moving, increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases will risk more climate catastrophes that will damage human wellbeing and conceivably lead to mass unemployment in the very long run.These two crises are not independent.	17th March 2009
Let's bank on low carbon - Guardian The now-widespread notion of a global green new deal offers truly huge opportunities for government and industry to change history. We could create jobs faster than many think possible, especially in energy efficiency. We could cut emissions faster than many would imagine, especially in buildings – the biggest single source of emissions. We could soften the landing if the energy crisis so many fear materialises. We could engineer a system able to create wealth worth having, and communities worth living in. But we do need just a fraction of the billions being bunged at the banks if we are to have a chance of doing this.	14th March 2009
Plan for huge wind farm moves forward - Reuters BOSTON (Reuters) - A $1 billion proposal to build the first massive U.S. offshore wind-power farm has moved a step closer to overcoming permit requirements in Massachusetts, where it faces opposition from some influential residents.	14th March 2009
The climate is in breakdown - so, what next? - Business Green One study suggested that subsidies of just €10 to €20bn a year would allow the solar and wind energy industry to account for around 40 per cent of the global electricity mix by 2050. Similarly, £50bn could make the ambitious plan to generate Europe's energy from solar farms in the Sahara a reality, while there is growing evidence that such investments would actually deliver a net increase in GDP. The upfront costs might sound large, but they are miniscule compared to the amount governments have spent propping up failing banks. Many of the stimulus packages being rolled out around the world already have a green hue, but if we made them greener still we really could deliver deep cuts in emissions while restoring economic growth. Finally, while the change in the climate might be terrifyingly fast, rapid cultural and economic changes are possible too.	14th March 2009
'Biochar' goes industrial with giant microwaves to lock carbon in charcoal - Guardian Climate expert claims to have developed cleanest way of fixing CO2 in 'biochar' for burial on an industrial scaleGiant microwave ovens that can "cook" wood into charcoal could become our best tool in the fight against global warming, according to a leading British climate scientist.Chris Turney, a professor of geography at the University of Exeter, said that by burying the charcoal produced from microwaved wood, the carbon dioxide absorbed by a tree as it grows can remain safely locked away for thousands of years. The technique could take out billions of tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere every year.Fast-growing trees such as pine could be "farmed" to act specifically as carbon traps - microwaved, buried and replaced with a fresh crop to do the same thing again.Turney has built a 5m-long prototype of his microwave, which produces a tonne of CO2 for $65.	14th March 2009
£50bn of European investment needed to kick-start Saharan solar plan - Guardian Government investment worth £50bn would convince private companies that power from the Sahara solar scheme is feasible and attractive option, expert saysEuropean countries could transform their electricity supplies within a decade by investing in a giant network of solar panels in the Sahara desert, an expert told a global warming conference in Copenhagen today.Dr Anthony Patt of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Africa said some £50bn of government investment was needed over the next decade to make the scheme a reality. That would convince private companies that power from the Sahara was both feasible and an attractive investment, he said.In the long term, such a plan, combined with strings of windfarms along the north Africa coast, could "supply Europe with all the energy it needs".	13th March 2009
CO2 Reduction Commitment Could Save Cos GBP1 Billion - Nasdaq (Adds CBI comment.) LONDON -(Dow Jones)- The U.K. government's new mandatory Carbon Reduction Commitment scheme could save businesses GBP1 billion by 2020, U.K. Energy and Climate Change Minister Joan Ruddock said Thursday.	13th March 2009
Czech minister slams president over climate change - France24 Czech Environment Minister Martin Bursik on Thursday slammed President Vaclav Klaus over his speech at last week's conference on climate change where he said the planet had been cooling for the past decade. "I am sorry to say that in his public appearances Vaclav Klaus manifests a combination of activism and amateurism," said Green Party chairman Bursik, whose country holds the six-month European Union presidency.	13th March 2009
Aid needed to boost world's "green" energy - Reuters COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Wind and solar power could produce 40 percent of the world's electricity by 2050, but only if government subsidies are secured for the next two decades, scientists said on Wednesday.	12th March 2009
Scientists think they are on to a battery that 'charges in seconds' - BBC A simple change to lithium-ion battery manufacturing leads to cheaper, safer, faster-charging batteries.	12th March 2009
From AC to DC: Going green with supergrids - New Scientist Power lines stretching across continents would allow us to ditch fossil fuels for good – and prove Edison right about direct current in the process	12th March 2009
Solutions & sustainability - Energy Bulletin Creating a Home Graywater System Community as Technology Foodzoning the Foodshed	11th March 2009
EPA Proposes National CO2 Reporting System - CNNMoney.com The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed a national system for reporting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions by major emitters Tuesday. The registry, which was originally proposed in a 2007 energy bill and is funded in U.S. President Barack Obama's 2010 Budget outline, would lay the foundation for regulation of CO2 and other gases thought to contribute to global warming.	11th March 2009
US governors picture eco-friendly fuelling stations along western route - Guardian Governors in Washington, Oregon and California are considering a plan to create a 'green freeway'Washington state governor Chris Gregoire and her counterparts in Oregon and California are considering a plan they hope would help transform the Pacific north-west's Interstate 5 from a freeway ruled by gasoline burners to a haven for eco-friendly cars and trucks.The three governors envision a series of alternative fuelling stations stretching from the Canadian border to Mexico, creating what has been dubbed a "green freeway".	11th March 2009
The World of Tomorrow - transcript of filmed talk to Transition Town Kildare - Energy Bulletin Tonight I'm going to assume that you all know the basics of peak oil and climate change, and move past the debate about whether they are real, move past the more apocalyptic and fearful ideas, and think about what kind of futures we might realistically see. read more	10th March 2009
Getting into hot water: Solar water heating pays for itself five times over - Physorg An analysis of the engineering and economics for a solar water-heating system shows it to have a payback period of just two years, according to researchers in India. They report, in the International Journal of Global Energy Issues, on the success of the 1000-liter system operating at a university hostel.	10th March 2009
Sweden Will Raise Taxes on Auto Emissions to Protect Climate - Bloomberg March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Sweden will increase taxes on cars burning fossil fuels and exempt electric vehicles to help meet a national plan to slash greenhouse-gas emissions by 40 percent.	10th March 2009
US climate activists lead by example - Guardian For British climate activists, it was emboldening to see Americans leading the charge for a forever-renewable energy economy with the biggest protest against environmental damage ever seen in the USThe organisers of the Capitol Climate Action last week had made it quite clear that they were prepared to be arrested, with a decent number visibly determined to be taken into custody. But most of the 2,000 people leaving the largest civil disobedience demonstration on climate in US history were left wondering what else the Washington DC police might let them get away with. No arrests, no fines, no nothing.Seasoned activists Vandana Shiva, Robert Kennedy, and the father of American environmentalism, Wendell Berry, were all out in sub-zero temperatures to protest outside the coal plant that directly delivers energy to Congress.	9th March 2009
Calls for 'floor price' on carbon - Guardian Unlimited The steep drop in the price of carbon under the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) - from about €30 (£26.75) a tonne last summer to €8 (£7.13) last month - has recently prompted calls for a "floor" price. Today, Lord Turner, the chairman of the Committee on Climate Change, added an influential voice to calls for the move to be considered, though the committee said more evidence was needed to be sure if current low prices would continue. The recent prices compare poorly to an projected price of £40 per tonne of carbon dioxide in a report by Turner's committee last year, which led to the UK committing to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050.	8th March 2009
California And Detroit Go To War Over Gas Mileage - Time Magazine California's quest to regulate auto emissions may soon succeed, and that could lead to big changes in the cars we drive	8th March 2009
Crisis offers new chance for climate: Clinton - Reuters BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The financial crisis offers a new chance to rebuild economies based on a greener model with less dependence on unreliable overseas energy imports, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday.	8th March 2009
Countries that block climate change deal 'risk isolation' - Guardian Climate minister says Obama's commitment to environment has raised prospects of global agreement at UN summit in DecemberCountries that stand in the way of a global warming treaty now risk international isolation because of the US's new commitment under Barack Obama to reaching a deal, the climate change secretary, Ed Miliband has said.Miliband, who was in Washington this week, meeting members of Obama's green team, said the change in the administration had dramatically improved the prospects for reaching an agreement at a UN summit in Copenhagen in December."There is a real important point about the change that Obama creates and that is that nobody really wants to be the country that wrecks this global deal," Miliband said.Obama campaigned on a promise to commit America to a climate change treaty and to create new green jobs.	8th March 2009
Brown calls for 'green new deal' - BBC News Moving the UK to a low-carbon economy will create 400,000 new "green" jobs over the next eight years, the PM will say.	6th March 2009
US Treasury secretary attacks oil, gas tax breaks - Reuters UK U.S. oil and natural gas producing companies should not receive federal subsidies in the form of tax breaks because their businesses contribute to global warming, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress on Wednesday. It was one of the sharpest attacks yet on the oil and gas industry by a top Obama administration official, reinforcing the White House stance that new U.S. energy policy will focus on promoting renewable energy sources like wind and solar power and rely less on traditional fossil fuels like oil as America tackles climate change.	5th March 2009
U.S. Energy Dept to fund $84 million for geothermal energy WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Energy Department on Wednesday said it plans to provide up to $84 million in funding for geothermal energy projects.	5th March 2009
Car firms told to halve emissions - BBC News Four leading international agencies urge the car industry to halve CO2 emissions by 2050.	5th March 2009
Plans for green MOTs for UK's buildings • Proposal to cover commercial and public buildings• Successful trial could see plans extended to UK homesEvery building in the UK could be required to undergo a green "MOT" of its energy efficiency, water use and the waste it generates, following plans published today by an influential group of businesses and environmental organisations.A proposal for every commercial and public building – from the village hall to vast City towers – to have a "building MOT" is part of a report published by the Green Building Council, at an event attended by the cabinet minister for housing and planning, Margaret Beckett.If successful, the MOTs, modelled on the compulsory annual checks for motor vehicles which are named after the old Ministry of Transport, could in future be extended to homes, said Paul King, the council's chief executive, who recommends a maximum of five years between checks.A report on the ...	4th March 2009
Time to emulate Roosevelt's New Deal and create green jobs - Guardian A modern-day Conservation Corps would engage people in their local environment and create jobs – quicklyAs the economic downturn gathers pace, the number of people out of work is increasing also. Some commentators suggest that without remedial action UK unemployment could reach 3 million by the end of the year. Government measures to support businesses are welcome and will undoubtedly make a difference, but although some measures will have a swift effect others may not significantly impact employment figures for some time. So there is a need to take more steps which will help keep unemployment down now - not next year or in five years, but within months. We have plenty of models from history for what can be done.	3rd March 2009
Green shopping: Don't say 'eww,' to thrift stores - The Christian Science Monitor Current shopping: wasteful. The green alternative: repurposing.	2nd March 2009
Brass from muck - BBC Experiments with "humanure" can cut carbon emissions. It takes huge amounts of energy to fix the nitrogen used in most commercial fertilisers so large-scale "humanure" production could become an alternative source of low-carbon fertility for the soil. It could also reduce the 3.4% of the world emissions generated by waste processing.	1st March 2009
Obama's Backing Increases Hopes for Climate Pact - New York Times The perception that the United States is now serious about tackling climate change has set off a diplomatic flurry around the globe.	28th February 2009
Indigenous people in legal challenge against oil firms over tar sand project - Guardian Canada's Beaver Lake Cree Nation group say their traditional way of life is being devastated by the rush to extract oil from vast tar sand fields.	27th February 2009
Power Shift climate protest gathers momentum in Washington - Guardian Thousands of young Americans are converging on Washington to demand clean energy policy and action on climate changeI've just arrived in the middle of the embassy district in Washington DC, where an entire building crammed full of youth climate organisers is finalising plans for Power Shift.Last night, they opened the champagne. There are now more than 10,052 young people coming from all over America to the largest ever youth climate event in history, where they will lobby US political leaders to enact bold climate and energy policies that will rebuild our economy and halt global warming. It will be the largest climate lobby day in the country's history, and the first mass lobby of Obama's term in office.	27th February 2009
Polluters pay in Obama's 'green' budget - SpaceDaily WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (AFP) Feb 26, 2009 US President Barack Obama is banking on a landmark carbon gas cap-and-trade system to both fight climate change and pump 80 billion dollars into the Treasury purse to fund renewable energy programs.	27th February 2009
Boris Johnson could introduce London electric car hire scheme - Guardian Boris Johnson is considering the introduction of an electric car hire scheme in London as part of his attempts to make it the "electric capital of Europe".	26th February 2009
Toilet Paper and Other Moral Choices - New York Times Blogs What are the simplest — or the biggest bang for the lowest cost — changes that Americans can adopt that would make an environmental difference?	26th February 2009
Green fuel - BBC It's not every day you look in a compost heap and find a bug which might help save the planet. But a UK company is using just such a bug to make renewable fuel for cars. l	26th February 2009
Cut carbon for Lent says Bishop - BBC News The Bishop of Oxford is backing a call to cut carbon emissions during the fast of Lent, which begins today.	25th February 2009
No fridge? Cool! - Guardian Unlimited Doing without a fridge is a badge of honour for some green activists. But how do they cope? And how much does it help? Steven Kurutz reports.	21st February 2009
Nasa to launch Earth's first CO2 tracking satellite - Guardian The world's first satellite designed to map concentrations of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere will be launched by Nasa on Monday. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (Oco) will collect precise measurements of the greenhouse gas in the Earth's atmosphere, identifying where it is coming from, where it is absorbed and what happens to it in between.This improved tracking of CO2 will help scientists develop maps how the gas is concentrated around the world and give a better picture of how it affects the Earth's climate. Policymakers and governments will be able to use the data when setting and monitoring CO2 emissions targets designed to tackle climate change."It's critical that we understand the processes controlling carbon dioxide in our atmosphere today so we can predict how fast it will build up in the future and how quickly we'll have to adapt to climate change," said David Crisp, ... See also: Interview: David Crisp	21st February 2009
Fifth of world carbon emissions soaked up by extra forest growth - Guardian Trees across the tropics are getting bigger and offering unexpected help in the fight against climate change, scientists have discovered.A laborious study of the girth of 70,000 trees across Africa has shown that tropical forests are soaking up more carbon dioxide pollution that anybody realised. Almost one-fifth of our fossil fuel emissions are absorbed by forests across Africa, Amazonia and Asia, the research suggests.Simon Lewis, a climate expert at the University of Leeds, who led the study, said: "We are receiving a free subsidy from nature. Tropical forest trees are absorbing about 18% of the carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere each year from burning fossil fuels, substantially buffering the rate of change."The study measured trees in 79 areas of intact forest across 10 African countries from Liberia to Tanzania, and compared records going back 40 years.	20th February 2009
Carbon dioxide map of US released on Google Earth - PhysOrg (PhysOrg.com) -- Interactive maps that detail carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion are now available on the popular Google Earth platform. The maps, funded by NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy through the joint North American Carbon Program, can display fossil fuel emissions by the hour, geographic region, and fuel type. View the Vulcan carbon dioxide map on Google Earth	20th February 2009
Sun-powered device converts CO2 into fuel - New Scientist Solar panels packed with nanotubes can combine the greenhouse gas with water to make useful compounds and could help clean the atmosphere in the process	18th February 2009
From crisis to opportunity - Guardian Just as climate change was beginning to attain recognition as a critical challenge facing the human race, it has been eclipsed in popular attention by a crumbling global economy. It is tempting to shelve actions on global warming while turning the focus to shoring up the economy, but that would be a false choice. The downturn provides a last chance to switch tracks to a sustainable growth path, with green investments as an engine of recovery.The emerging global response to the economic crisis provides a unique opportunity. The US, UK and other major economies are planning trillions of dollars in expenditures to stem the recession.	18th February 2009
Climate Law Institute Launched in San Francisco - SustainableBusiness.com The Center for Biological Diversity has launched the San Francisco-based Climate Law Institute with initial funding of $17 million to fight global warming over the next five years.	18th February 2009
US energy chief flags carbon tax - The Age US ENERGY Secretary Steven Chu has floated the idea of a carbon emissions tax to fight global warming.	15th February 2009
Seeing the forest and the trees helps cut atmospheric carbon dioxide - EurekAlert! Putting a price tag on carbon dioxide emitted by different land use practices could dramatically change the way that land is used – forests become increasingly valuable for storing carbon and overall carbon emissions reductions become cheaper, according to research presented today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.	15th February 2009
What's Green About the New Stimulus Deal? - Alertnet There's lots of good news -- from a tax credit for renewables to the $50 billion nuclear industry giveaway being axed. Here's the highlights.	15th February 2009
Downturn a window for climate - The Age THE global financial crisis could give the world two or three years of much-needed time to step up the fight to slow climate change.	13th February 2009
Europe's big lenders still backing green power BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The credit crunch is starting to make an impact on smaller European green energy projects, but cash-rich utilities and the bigger lending institutions will continue to get deals done, green power experts say.	13th February 2009
Ordinary family home pioneers low-carbon future Guardian Looking around it's hard to find clues. There are few obvious clues that Penney Poyzer and Gil Schalom live in one of the most radical homes in the UK. In the kitchen is a recently plastered wall; on the floor an organic veg box; and upstairs a dual-flush loo. Otherwise it's hard to find evidence that the couple have taken the sort of eco-nightmare draughty Victorian house lived in by millions of people in the UK and turned it into an almost totally carbon-free home, with a gas bill of £20 a year.The house, in a suburb of Nottingham, is part of Old Home SuperHome, a growing network of eco-showhomes, aimed at persuading people to transform their homes into ecofriendly buildings.	13th February 2009
Coming Soon: Google Your Electricity Use New software would allow you to monitor your home's electricity use in near real-time over the Web.	13th February 2009
Merged climate, pollution fight seen saving cash - Reuters Merged climate, pollution fight seen saving cashReuters. ... and climate change could save cash and encourage developing nations such as China to do more to curb global warming, researchers said on Tuesday. ...	13th February 2009
The solar revolution starts in Amareleja	13th February 2009
UK plans efficiency retrofits for all homes - Reuters LONDON (Reuters) - Britain proposed on Thursday to allow all households from 2012 to apply for loans and cash to save energy and cut carbon emissions, costs energy companies are likely to meet and pass on to all consumers.	13th February 2009
EU plans new charges for lorries - BBC Euro MPs back a draft law that would bring in extra road charges to curb congestion and pollution from lorries.	13th February 2009
Leo Hickman: The future of work is green - Guardian Unlimited Who says two wrongs don't make a right? On the one hand, you have the worst economic climate in living memory; on the other, you have an unprecedented environmental crisis. But what do you get when you mix the two together? "Green-collar" jobs. Politicians are currently tripping over themselves to talk up this form of modern-day alchemy. We can help to reduce both of the grave threats facing us, ...	13th February 2009
Iceland strides toward a hydrogen economy - The Christian Science Monitor Global economic crises underscores urgency of the goal, even as it delays progress.	13th February 2009
Environmentalists launch cheeky anti-oilsands campaign in newspaper personal ads - CNews CALGARY - Environmentalists are fighting Alberta's oilsands in an unlikely forum - personal ads.	13th February 2009
Miliband announces green makeover for every home - Guardian Unlimited All UK households will have a green makeover by 2030 under government plans to reduce carbon emissions and cut energy bills. Cavity wall and loft insulation will be available for all suitable homes, with plans to retrofit 400,000 homes a year by 2015. Financial incentives for householders will also be available for low-carbon technologies such as solar panels, biomass boilers and ground source ...	13th February 2009
For east Europe, geothermal can replace some gas - Reuters MAKO, Hungary (Reuters) - Lajos Barath last year took an ancient route to energy for his hospital. Switching the heating and hot water entirely to geothermal energy, he was building on a Roman discovery continued by the Turks.	11th February 2009
$400 billion: The price of our future - New Scientist Just 0.8% of global GDP will ensure global finances and the global environment prosper in the 21st century, according to a report by leading economists	11th February 2009
Batteries get a - nanoboost - PhysOrg Need to store electricity more efficiently? Put it behind bars. That's essentially the finding of a team of Rice University researchers who have created hybrid carbon nanotube metal oxide arrays as electrode material that may improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries.	11th February 2009
High winds slash Spanish energy prices - Guardian Wild weather across southern Europe this week is expected to produce a record amount of renewable electricity. As Spaniards were today warned to batten down windows in order to fend off fierce Atlantic gales, the country's electricity distributors were anticipating a windfall – a huge boost in power generation from the country's wind farms.Spain has built so many wind farms in recent years that the arrival of high winds and the subsequent surge of electricity into the national grid now has an immediate impact on the price at which it is sold.The country's meteorological office today put parts of the country, especially the north-west region of Galicia, on the second highest warning level for extreme winds.	11th February 2009
New tool gets handle on cropland CO2 emissions - PhysOrg For the first time, farmers have data that tracks at the county level on-site and off-site energy use and carbon dioxide emissions associated with growing crops in the United States.	11th February 2009
Landmark Settlement Makes U.S. Agencies Acknowledge Climate Change - DeSmogBlog Under the terms of a landmark settlement reached last Friday, U.S. financing agencies will no longer be able to ignore the climate change repercussions of their actions. Close to seven years and several bruising court battles later, a coalition of environmental groups and eco-minded cities have succeeded in forcing the Export-Import Bank and Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) to do the unthinkable: acknowledge the reality of climate change and obey the law.<!--break--> Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and the city of Boulder, Colorado, originally filed suit against the two U.S.	11th February 2009
EU cities in joint green pledge - BBC News More than 350 cities across Europe - including 15 in the UK - pledge to make cuts of more than 20% in CO2 emissions by 2020.	11th February 2009
Meet the new vanguard – Britain leads the way in electric vehicles - Guardian We've found you a green shoot! Yes we have. Smith Electric Vehicles is the world's largest manufacturer of electric commerical vehicles – and it's a British company. And they've just made the world's largest electric road vehicle.The Newton truck isn't articulated, it's an HGV removal truck, built specially for moving specialists Cadogan Tate. It has a range of 150 miles, and can charge to 75% in 45 minutes. The firm says the fuel bills will be less than a fifth of their diesel bills, and with no congestion charge and road tax the running costs will be significantly lower than standard vehicles.	11th February 2009
Quarter of UK homes to be offered a green makeover - Guardian More than one in four homes in the UK will be offered a complete eco-makeover under ambitious plans expected to be announced this week to slash fuel bills and cut global warming pollution. The campaign is thought to involve giving 7m houses and flats a complete refit to improve insulation, and will be compared to the 10-year programme that converted British homes to gas central heating in the 1960s and 1970s. Householders could also be encouraged to install small-scale renewable and low-carbon heating systems such as solar panels and wood-burning boilers.	9th February 2009
Microsoft crunches numbers on energy, carbon - CNET Part of an environmental sustainability push, Microsoft updates is Dynamics packaged applications for mid-size companies to tally energy use and to calculate greenhouse gas emissions.	9th February 2009
TED ends with hope clever solutions will trump daunting woes - PhysOrg Giants of technology, science and the arts ended a brain-sparking gathering with hope that collaborations and clever solutions will trump the world's alarming woes.	9th February 2009
Carbon catalyst could herald cut-price fuel cells - New Scientist The high cost of the platinum needed to make fuel cells work efficiently has been a major barrier to their use, but carbon nanotubes might be a cheap replacement	8th February 2009
United on climate change: Obama's Chinese revolution - Independent Barack Obama is to invite China to join the United States in an effort by the world's two biggest polluters to stop global warming running out of control. See also: U.S.-China seen needing close climate partnership now - Reuters Chance for a green alliance that could still save the world - Independent	8th February 2009
India is poised to be the biggest cleantech market - Express India Another year has gone by with annual carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels and manufacturing cement measuring nine billion metric tonne. This despite the widespread concern about climate change.	8th February 2009
Make methane while the sun shines - Nature Nanotubes help turn carbon dioxide and water into natural gas.	6th February 2009
U.S. stimulus would cut climate emissions: report - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Energy efficiency and conservation proposals in President Barack Obama's original economic stimulus plan would cut climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions by 61 million tonnes a year, a new report says.	6th February 2009
Aussie firm sees buoyant future in wave power - Reuters SINGAPORE (Reuters) - For millennia, Australia's rugged southern coast has been carved by the relentless action of waves crashing ashore.	6th February 2009
Trial produces encouraging results for backers of personal carbon budgets - Guardian Royal Society forecasts scheme to encourage individuals to cut their global warming emissions could be in place in just over a decade.	5th February 2009
ENERGY: Parasails Can Move Ships - IPS DÜSSELDORF, Germany, Feb 4 (Tierramérica) - They say that faith can move mountains. Now, faith in the wind has led to a new way to move ships. The technique, developed in Germany, is powerful enough to move today's deep-draught cargo vessels and can reduce fuel consumption by 50 percent.	5th February 2009
Digging deep - BBC News School heated from 300ft underground source	5th February 2009
From the Bottom Up - Monbiot A new mobilisation could revitalise politics in the UK - but only if you get involved.	5th February 2009
U.S. becomes top wind producer, solar next - Reuters LONDON (Reuters) - The United States overtook Germany as the biggest producer of wind power last year, new figures showed, and will likely take the lead in solar power this year, analysts said on Monday.	3rd February 2009
Lease Your Roof for the Solar Energy Revolution - Alternet Rooftop solar installations are a way to get around the regulatory red tape and infrastructure bottlenecks delaying much solar development.	3rd February 2009
'Green' gas could help heat homes - BBC Biogas produced from waste could heat almost half the UK's homes, lowering greenhouse gas emissions, a report says.	3rd February 2009
Social attitudes survey: Takeoff time for guilt over air travel - Guardian Unlimited Voters are ready to accept a steep rise in air fares to reduce the environmental damage caused by flying, the annual British social attitudes survey reveals today.	3rd February 2009
Power plant scrapped on regulatory "uncertainty" - Reuters HOUSTON (Reuters) - A group of Montana electric cooperatives on Monday dropped plans to build a new coal-fired power plant, the first apparent casualty in President Barack Obama's regulatory push to build cleaner power sources.	3rd February 2009
US states may regain control of vehicle emissions - New Scientist President Obama has ordered the US Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider Bush's policy of banning states from implementing their own standards for car emissions	1st February 2009
Waste could be crucial in search for cleaner fuels - Reuters LONDON (Reuters) - What we throw away could soon be used to power our cars, if projects to produce ethanol from commercial waste are ramped up.	31st January 2009
The climate freeloaders: emerging nations need to act - Guardian Now that George W. Bush is not around to misinterpret, it is probably safe to point out something climate negotiators rarely mention. There are quite a few countries out there that don't have targets to cut their carbon dioxide emissions, but who really ought to. They are not poor, and they are not low emitters. They are climate freeloaders.I am not talking about large Asian countries like India or Indonesia or even China, where national emissions may be large but per capita emissions remain very low by rich-world standards. The average Indian is responsible for roughly a tenth the emissions of the average American.	31st January 2009
Fixing our climate -- no handwringing required - UC Berkeley NewsCenter It would require the same number of workers to install rooftop solar panels on every house in the U.S., helping to mitigate the effects of global warming, as we currently have military personnel deployed in Iraq. That's just one eye-opening stat from a new book, co-authored by Berkeley faculty expert John Harte, on practical ways to solve the climate crisis.	31st January 2009
Flush hour: Oslo to run buses powered by biomethane from human sewage - Guardian It is available for free in huge quantities, is not owned by Saudi Arabia and it contributes minimally towards climate change. The latest green fuel might seem like the dream answer to climate crisis, but until recently raw sewage has been seen as a waste disposal problem rather than a power source. Now Norway's capital city is proving that its citizens can contribute to the city's green credentials without even realising it.In Oslo, air pollution from public and private transport has increased by approximately 10% since 2000, contributing to more than 50% of total CO2 emissions in the city. With Norway's ambitious target of being carbon neutral by 2050 Oslo City Council began investigating alternatives to fossil fuel-powered public transport and decided on biomethane.Biomethane is a by-product of treated sewage.	28th January 2009
Sea power potential mapped - BBC News The Scottish Government commissions a report showing the challenges and opportunities in northern waters.	28th January 2009
Senators debate alternative energy tax breaks - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday debated some $31 billion in tax credits and financial incentives to boost alternative energy supplies and promote energy-savings steps as part of the Obama administration's much bigger U.S. economic recovery plan.	28th January 2009
Canadian bishop slams oil sands development - Reuters CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - The rapid-fire development of Canada's oil sands region has garnered a new critic -- the Catholic bishop whose diocese extends over the world's second-largest oil reserves .	28th January 2009
Only 1% of Global GDP Needed to Fight Climate Change - Report - SustainableBusiness.com The cost of rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade to slow the progress of global warming could be less than 1% of world domestic product by 2030, according to a new report. "Pathways to a Low Carbon Economy," a detailed report by McKinsey & Co, lists more than 200 opportunities, spread across ten sectors and twenty-one geographical regions, that have the potential to cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 35% below 1990 levels by 2030, a reduction of 70% from the business as usual scenario.	28th January 2009
State-by-state rules best for US carbon from cars? - Reuters President Barack Obama set in motion a process on Monday that may eventually allow California and other states to set tougher greenhouse gas pollution and efficiency standards on cars than those mandated by the federal government. Obama's move sends a signal to the world that the United States is beginning to join the rest of the developed countries to act on emissions blamed for warming the planet. But some say allowing the states to take control of car emissions could lead to complications within the auto industry by forcing them make two sets of cars. Consumers in California and as many as 18 other states would have to buy one set of cars built according to a set of guidelines and regulations and the other states would have another set of cars that are built differently. See also: America goes green - Independent Geography Is Dividing Democrats Over Energy - New York Times	27th January 2009
Off-shore wind could power every home in the UK by end next decade, says government - Guardian Unlimited Offshore wind power could generate enough electricity to supply every home in the UK by the end of the next decade, the government announced yesterday. The Department for Energy and Climate Change study concluded that another 5,000-7,000 wind turbines could be built off the coast by 2020, generating 25 GW of energy, equivalent to 25 large coal-fired power stations. The new capacity would be on top of 8GW already being built or in planning, making a total of 33GW.	27th January 2009
'Climate hope' in economic plans - BBC News Economic stimulus packages being drawn up around the world show governments are taking the environment seriously, the UN's top climate official believes.	27th January 2009
Obama 'to act over car emissions' - BBC News President Obama is expected to allow US states to set their own stricter standards for vehicle exhaust emissions.	26th January 2009

Climate change activists rally - BBC News London: Thousands of protesters have joined a mass rally in London to call on the government to combat climate change.. See also: Hundreds rally in SF to fight global warming - San Francisco Chronicle Green activists hold parade in Taiwan to call attention to global warming. - eTaiwan News Climate protesters demand swifter UN action - Reuters	7th December 2008
To Reduce Greenhouse Gases, Start by Shrinking Buildings - Washington Post New Mexico architect Edward Mazria has a proposal to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. His target: buildings.	7th December 2008
Burning peat bogs may be a good way to capture carbon from the atmosphere - New Kerala Washington, Dec 6 : A new research has suggested that burning peat bogs in a controlled way may be a good way to capture carbon from the atmosphere.	6th December 2008
How to unplug from the grid - New Scientist Is it possible to live in comfort without mains electricity or water? Perez, a renewable-energy researcher at the University at Albany, State University of New York, lives "off-grid" - unconnected to the power grid and the water, gas and sewerage supplies that most of us rely on. He generates his own electricity, sources his own water and manages his own waste disposal - and prefers it that way. "There are times when the grid blacks out," he says. "I like the security of having my own electricity company."	5th December 2008
Groundbreaking study shows Canada can tackle climate change and prosper economically - CNW Telbec Canada can be a leader in tackling climate change and still experience strong economic and employment growth according to a groundbreaking study released today. Deep Reductions, Strong Growth: An economic analysis showing Canada can prosper economically while doing its share to prevent dangerous climate change, shows that governments - and Ottawa in particular - can no longer argue fighting climate change means job losses and declining standards of living. The study was commissioned by the Pembina Institute and the David Suzuki Foundation, with modeling by M.K. Jaccard and Associates Inc.	5th December 2008
Giant wind farm gets go-ahead One of the world's largest wind farms, which will help power around a half a million homes, has been approved.	5th December 2008
Efficiency Is Our Best Untapped Energy Source The world's biggest untapped energy source, according to energy expert Amory Lovins, is efficiency. But don't call it "conservation."	5th December 2008
Rubbish power, not recycling, is the future, claims the Institution of Mechanical Engineers - Guardian Unlimited Household rubbish should be used to produce green power rather than being sent for recycling, according to energy experts. At a briefing today to launch a new report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on dealing with waste, the authors said that converting waste could provide up to a fifth of the UK's electricity needs in future and help the country meet its renewable energy targets.	5th December 2008
The 10 big energy myths - Guardian Unlimited There has never been a more important time to invest in green technologies, yet many of us believe these efforts are doomed to failure. What nonsense, writes Chris Goodall	2nd December 2008
A 'green lining' in China's economic stimulus plan - Guardian Unlimited It may be counter-intuitive, but a global economic slowdown could help the United States and China work together on climate change, writes Deborah Seligsohn from the World Resources Institute, part of the Guardian Environment Network	30th November 2008
UK takes legal lead on climate change - Guardian Unlimited Climate change bill brings into law world's first legally-binding targets for a nation to cut its greenhouse gas emissions	28th November 2008
A carbon-neutral way to power your home - PhysOrg (PhysOrg.com) -- A super-efficient system that has the potential to power, heat and cool homes across the UK is being developed at Newcastle University.	28th November 2008
Turning sewage into electricity - BBC News Work has begun on a plant that will generate 40GWh of electricity a year from human waste.	27th November 2008
'World mandate' on climate action - BBC News An opinion survey carried out in 11 countries finds consensus on the need for action on climate change.	26th November 2008
Wind power meets record demand in Spain: industry group - PhysOrg Wind power supplied a record 43 percent of all electricity demand in Spain, which is being lashed by heavy winds and rain, for a brief period on Monday, the Spanish wind power association said.	26th November 2008
Phytocapping: Growing Plants And Trees On Dumps Could Help Save The Planet - Medical News Today Landfill sites produce the greenhouse gases, methane and carbon dioxide, as putrescible waste decays. Growing plants and trees on top of a landfill, a process known as 'Phytocapping', could reduce the production and release of these gases, according to Australian scientists writing in a forthcoming issue of International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management.	26th November 2008
Think tank calls for 'home MOTs' - BBC News A Government advisory body says major changes must be made to technology and policy to meet the UK's emissions goals.	26th November 2008
More Americans Are Getting On The Bus - Planet Ark NEW YORK - Many Americans have abandoned their love of getting behind the wheel during the last year, and opted to hop on buses instead, according to a study released this week.	26th November 2008
New push for cutting greenhouse gases - Financial Times Legislators from across the Americas on Monday called for a reduction in greenhouse gases produced by industrialised countries by up to 40 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020.	26th November 2008
Power in the desert: solar towers will harness sunshine of southern Spain - Guardian Unlimited In the desert of southern Spain, 20 miles outside Seville, more than 1,000 mirrors are being carefully positioned. Each is about half the size of a tennis court, so the adjustments will take time. But when they are complete in a few weeks, it will mark a major moment in the quest for renewable energy. The mirrors are part of the world's biggest solar tower plant, a technology that reflects sunlight to superheat water at a central tower. Once this €80m (£67m) plant is inaugurated in January, it will generate 20MW of electricity, enough to power 11,000 Spanish homes.	25th November 2008
Obama vows climate 'engagement' - BBC News US President-elect Barack Obama promises to "engage vigorously" on climate change, ahead of a major UN summit.	19th November 2008
'It's part of the addiction' Kroft: When the price of oil was at $147 a barrel, there were a lot of spirited and profitable discussions that were held on energy independence. Now you've got the price of oil under $60. Obama: Right. Kroft: Does doing something about energy ... is it less important now than ... Obama: It's more important. It may be a little harder politically, but it's more important. Kroft: Why? Obama: Well, because this has been our pattern. We go from shock to trance. You know, oil prices go up, gas prices at the pump go up, everybody goes into a flurry of activity. And then the prices go back down and suddenly we act like it's not important, and we start, you know, filling up our SUVs again. And, as a consequence, we never make any progress. It's part of the addiction, all right. That has to be broken. Now is the time to break it.	18th November 2008
Windfarm consortium to invest billions off UK coast - Guardian Unlimited Two of the world's leading wind farm operators have teamed up to make joint bids for the next round of offshore licences in Britain. ScottishPower Renewables, part of Spain's Iberdrola Renovables, is joining forces with Sweden's Vattenfall with the aim of developing 6,000 megawatts of installed capacity.	18th November 2008
Jelly blobs may hold key to climate change - ABC Online Australian scientists say a jellyfish-like creature which has the ability to double its numbers in one day could play an important role in battling climate change. If you swim or surf on the east coast, you've probably already noticed the small jelly-like blobs, which are now being found in the area in far greater numbers than ever before. Not a lot is known about the creatures but scientists at the CSIRO are hopeful that their carbon storing capacity may be useful in slowing down global warming.	17th November 2008
The environment: Green giant step for mankind - Scotsman The clue to its ambition is in the name. Barack Obama says his No 1 priority on getting into the Oval Office will be something he calls "the Apollo project". By giving his plans for a green energy revolution, the same name as Nasa's programme to put a man on the moon, he has shown the importance he attaches to it, and signalled the amount of effort and vision it will require to work.	9th November 2008
Is It Time to Kill Off the Flush Toilet? - Time Magazine At the 2008 World Toilet Summit and Expo in Macau, the common Western toilet, whose design hasn't changed much since the sixteenth century, comes under fire for failing the green test. "The human body is designed to separate solids from liquid waste," and we should follow suit, he says. By separating fecal matter from urine at the source in what's called a "urine diversion toilet," a wider ecological system of waste disposal becomes possible. Solids can be composted for fertilizer and harvested for methane gas. Urine can be used to produce phosphorous and nitrogen and clean, drinkable water.	8th November 2008
DAVID SUZUKI: The answer is blowing in the wind - Victoria News Energy underpins everything we do. Human societies have become increasingly complex, requiring ever larger-scale sources of continuous energy. Now, energy fuels not only our activities but our economies as well. If we don't choose our energy sources wisely, we can do more harm than good.	8th November 2008
100 percent renewables in 10 years - Gristmill Following up on Wednesday's "Now what?" ads, the Alliance for Climate Protection has launched a new website, RepowerAmerica.org, calling for 100 percent of U.S. electricity to be drawn from renewable sources within the next 10 years.	8th November 2008
Al Gore Group Urges Obama To Create US Power Grid - Planet Ark WASHINGTON - Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection has some environmental advice for the incoming Obama administration: focus on energy efficiency and renewable resources, and create a unified US power grid. See also Yes we can... build the smart grid - Independent	7th November 2008
Portable Power: Tiny Solar Cells Show Promise - Planet Ark CHICAGO - Researchers have developed some of the tiniest solar cells ever made and said on Thursday the organic material could potentially be painted on to surfaces.	7th November 2008
China set to take the initiative in climate talks - Reuters BEIJING (Reuters) - China is seeking to seize the initiative in talks on cutting the world's greenhouse gas pollution, pressing rich nations even as global financial turmoil and Barack Obama's victory recast climate change diplomacy. See also: Rich nations should ditch 'unsustainable' lifestyles: China's Wen - AFP Tax polluters for global warming funds-UN official - Reuters AlertNet	7th November 2008
Little bugs, lots of sun, make great deal for one lucky business interested in alternative energy - Observer The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission is getting even more inventive with their use of Kearny's landfills. Ever since 1987, the Commission has been successfully converting methane gas into energy on neglected landfills throughout the meadowlands.	6th November 2008
A green lesson from Iceland - The Christian Science Monitor Since the 1970s, Iceland has gone from relying on imported coal for 75 percent of its energy to getting more than 82 percent of its energy from geothermal and hydro power.	6th November 2008
Rocks could be harnessed to sponge vast amounts of CO2 from air - PhysOrg Scientists say that a type of rock found at or near the surface in the Mideast nation of Oman and other areas around the world could be harnessed to soak up huge quantities of globe-warming carbon dioxide. Their studies show that the rock, known as peridotite, reacts naturally at surprisingly high rates with CO2 to form solid minerals - and that the process could be speeded a million times or more with simple drilling and injection methods. The study appears in this week's early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.	6th November 2008
ENERGY-EU: Zero Carbon Communities - IPS MOURA, Portugal, Nov 3 (IPS) - This small municipality in the south of Portugal is becoming increasingly well-known for its alternative energy initiatives. The latest is the Sunflower project, which also involves communities in seven other European Union countries. The aim of the project is to transform communities in Bulgaria, Britain, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain into what the EU’s Intelligent Energy - Europe programme (IEE) calls a "Zero Carbon Community." The IEE seeks to convert the communities into areas free of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, where only renewable energies are used.	4th November 2008
Quebec greenhouse gas emissions drop - Montreal Gazette Quebec's greenhouse gas emissions have dropped for the fourth year in a row, the Ministry of the Environment announced Monday.	4th November 2008
Coating helps solar panels soak up more of the sun - Reuters CHICAGO (Reuters) - A new type of reflective coating can make solar panels far more efficient, soaking up nearly all available sunlight from nearly any angle, U.S. researchers said on Monday.	4th November 2008
Scientists discover Patagonian diesel that grows on trees - Guardian Unlimited A tree fungus could provide green fuel that can be pumped directly into vehicle tanks, US scientists say. The organism, found in the Patagonian rainforest, naturally produces a mixture of chemicals that is remarkably similar to diesel. "This is the only organism that has ever been shown to produce such an important combination of fuel substances," said Gary Strobel, a plant scientist from ...	4th November 2008
Dried mushrooms slow climate warming in Northern forests - PhysOrg The fight against climate warming has an unexpected ally in mushrooms growing in dry spruce forests covering Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia and other northern regions, a new UC Irvine study finds. When soil in these forests is warmed, fungi that feed on dead plant material dry out and produce significantly less climate-warming carbon dioxide than fungi in cooler, wetter soil. This came as a surprise to scientists, who expected warmer soil to emit larger amounts of carbon dioxide because extreme cold is believed to slow down the process by which fungi convert soil carbon into carbon dioxide. Knowing how forests cycle carbon is crucial to accurately predicting global climate warming, which in turn guides public policy to curb greenhouse gas emissions. This is especially important in northern forests, which contain an estimated 30 percent of the Earth's soil carbon, equivalent to the amount of atmospheric carbon.	3rd November 2008
Chemical released by trees can help cool planet - Guardian Unlimited Trees Scientists in the UK and Germany have discovered that trees release a chemical that thickens clouds above them, which reflects more sunlight and so cools the Earth. The research suggests that chopping down forests could accelerate global warming more than was thought, and that protecting existing trees could be one of the best ways to tackle the problem.	2nd November 2008
A Splash of Green for the Rust Belt - New York Times In the face of rising unemployment, renewable energy has become a crucial source of good jobs for laid-off Rust Belt workers.	2nd November 2008
Environmentalists protest at Australian coal plant - Reuters SYDNEY (Reuters) - Environmental activists chained themselves to a conveyor belt at one of Australia's largest coal-fired electricity plants Saturday to protest slow government action on climate change, a spokeswoman said.	2nd November 2008
China to invest $280 billion in rail network 'as a stimulus measure' - Gristmill By Joseph Romm Australian media reports: China will invest nearly $A445 billion (US$ 280 billion) in its overburdened rail system as a stimulus measure aimed at blunting the impact of the global financial crisis. The investment is part of plans to extend the country's railway network from the current roughly 125,502km to nearly 160,900km by 2010, Shanghai's Oriental Morning Post reported. The Beijing News quoted a rail official as saying that, while the network needed extending, the massive investment was also intended to help lift the nation's economy as it suffers amid the global woes. "New rail investment will become a shining light in efforts to push forward economic growth," railway ministry spokesman Wang Yongping said.	31st October 2008
UK aims to support small renewable power from 2010 LONDON (Reuters) - Britain says it wants to guarantee a price premium for small producers of renewable power, for example from the wind and sun, from 2010.	31st October 2008
Emissions scheme to cost households $1 a day - The West Australian Emissions trading will cost households a dollar a day when it starts in 2010. Comprehensive economic modelling released today has painted a rosy picture of how emissions trading will affect the econo See also: Emissions cuts: 'little economic impact' - Sydney Morning Herald	31st October 2008
Chris Ames: Flying in the face of reason - Guardian Unlimited Chris Ames: Government efforts to manipulate the 'consultation' process on Heathrow's expansion seem to be coming unstuck	31st October 2008
Activists sail towards Kingsnorth - BBC News Environmental campaigners in a flotilla of craft, led by the ship Rainbow Warrior, are sailing towards Kingsnorth power station.	30th October 2008
"Carbon army" hopes to grab slice of New Deal cash - Reuters LONDON, Oct 30 - A growing "carbon army" of environmentalists, bankers and investors has seized on official backing last week for major public spending announced in Britain and the United States.	30th October 2008
Act fast on emissions: Swan - The Age AUSTRALIA could lower the cost of tackling global warming by 15% if it moves quickly rather than waiting until the world is ready to act, according to Treasury modelling to be released today. See also: Australia carbon plan no company killer-Government - Interactive Investor	30th October 2008
ENVIRONMENT: Massive Shift to Clean Energy Could Start Tomorrow - IPS NEW YORK, Oct 28 (IPS) - An aggressive shift towards renewable power generation and energy effiency could save the world from the most devastating impacts of climate change, and at the same time create a multi-billion-dollar industry and save trillions of dollars in future fuel costs, experts say.	29th October 2008
In pictures: Green technologies - BBC News Alternative transport companies show off their goods to industry experts at the UK's first national low carbon vehicle event.	29th October 2008
Revealed: Secret plot by Labour MPs to scupper Heathrow third runway - Daily Mail UK: Ministers are stirring up a rebellion among Labour MPs in a bid to scupper plans for a third Heathrow runway, it was claimed yesterday.	29th October 2008
Van Jones on “The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix ... - Democracy Now In a new book, the well-known community activist and attorney Van Jones lays out a plan for a green economy he says could help solve the nation’s economic inequality while also addressing the long-term environmental threats to our survival as a planet. See also: Now is the perfect time to save the planet - Guardian Unlimited	29th October 2008
UK unveils CO2 footprint standard - BBC News A new standard that allows UK firms to measure the size of their products' carbon footprints is launched.	29th October 2008
World can halt fossil fuel use by 2090: study - Reuters OSLO (Reuters) - The world could eliminate fossil fuel use by 2090 by spending trillions of dollars on a renewable energy revolution, the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) and environmental group Greenpeace said on Monday.	27th October 2008
Future of green is not so black, say some - PhysOrg The deepening economic crisis may appear to be the perfect storm for environmentalism, but many in and around the green movement contend the opposite, seeing in it a time of opportunity.	27th October 2008
Steaming off - Canoe.ca Iceland gets 99% of its electricity from renewable sources: Kinetic energy from rivers and glaciers is harnessed to generate hydropower, and about 20% of the country is run on geothermal energy. In the winter, geothermal systems melt snow on sidewalks and driveways and heat 90% of homes.	26th October 2008
Good Thing We're Going to Have to Live with Less Stuff -- We'll Stay Alive on Earth for Longer That Way If we scale down economic activity -- especially if the rich do -- we could all live in a cleaner world.	26th October 2008
How I made it: Jeremy Leggett - Times Online AS a professor of earth sciences at Imperial College in the mid-1980s, Jeremy Leggett ran a research project on the geological history of the planet. His studies left him extremely concerned. “I got really worried about global warming and climate change - well ahead of it being fashionable,” he said. “Everything I have done from then on has been trying to do something about that.” Leggett left his teaching post determined to make a difference. He became an environmental campaigner and the scientific director of Greenpeace International’s climate campaign.	26th October 2008
£100m electric car test planned - BBC News Ministers plan a £100m scheme to test the use of electric cars and vans in cities, the BBC learns. Monbiot:"It's crazy that the government is subsidising the motor industry for what it should be doing anyway. "Years ago, in 1998, the industry promised it would make a radical cut in the amount of carbon dioxide its cars are producing. "It's broken that promise, and now the government is paying it to do what it should have been forced to do through regulation".	26th October 2008
EU confirms aviation in emissions trading scheme BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union governments gave their formal approval on Friday to include aviation in the bloc's emissions trading scheme, they said in a statement.	25th October 2008
Big Chinese companies join climate group - Guardian Unlimited One of China's biggest companies will today become the first state-controlled business in the country to join an international agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The powerful Climate Group will announce three Chinese members, including the majority state-owned China Mobile, which has 420 million customers and is one of the country's 10 biggest companies. It is the world's biggest mobile phone operator.	25th October 2008
Ninety Percent of Young People Want Action on Climate Change - It's Getting Hot In Here Talk about a consensus: 90 percent of young people around the world think global leaders should do “whatever it takes” to tackle climate change, according to a new United Nations Environment Program survey. The survey questioned 12-to-18 year-old’s in five countries (Brazil, India, Russia, South Africa, and the United States), all key players in upcoming international climate negotiations. Concern about global warming is highest in Brazil (96 percent) and South Africa (91 percent), followed by India (85 percent) and the U.S. (82 percent). Fewer youth in frigid Russia (70 percent) seem to be concerned, but they still constitute a clear majority.	25th October 2008
Danish PM says China onboard for climate pact goal - Reuters BEIJING (Reuters) - China is committed to seeking a climate change pact at key talks next year, the prime minister of Denmark said on Thursday, urging countries not to use global economic upheaval as a reason for delaying a deal.	24th October 2008
Van Jones: How We Can Lead Our Country Out of Crisis - Alternet Van Jones talks about a new vision for America in which progressives go from protest to governance.	24th October 2008
UK announces world's largest algal biofuel project - Guardian Unlimited The world's biggest publicly funded project to make transport fuels from algae will be launched today by a government agency which develops low-carbon technologies. The Carbon Trust will today announce a project to make algal biofuels a commercial reality by 2020. The plan could see up to £26m spent on developing the technology and infrastructure to ensure that algal biofuels replace a signficant proportion of the fossil fuels used by UK drivers.	24th October 2008
UK to boost wind farm power generation by a third - Reuters LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will boost the generation of power from wind farms by a third next year as part of efforts to hit renewable energy targets, a government minister said on Wednesday.	23rd October 2008
How many jobs does it create to screw in a lightbulb? - Reuters Change to an energy-saving lightbulb – create a job? Energy efficiency efforts in California over the past three decades have created or saved 1.5 million jobs and added $45 billion to payrolls in the state, according to a report from David Roland-Holst of the Center for Energy, Resources and Economic Sustainability at the University of California, Berkeley. It comes as the Golden State is debating whether plans to radically cut carbon dioxide emissions will be a financial burden for California or spur economic growth in a state that already leads in energy efficiency. When people save money on utility bills and buying gasoline for cars, it frees up money for buying other things from groceries to appliances to theater tickets, Roland-Holst said.	22nd October 2008
Rolls-Royce brings propeller engines back in vogue - Guardian Unlimited Aviation company claims the design could cut an airline's fuel bills and greenhouse gas emissions by 30%	22nd October 2008
Going down - Gristmill Hybrid production costs may drop two-thirds within 10 years	22nd October 2008
FRANCOPHONIE TO CUT CO2 EMISSIONS IN HALF BY 2050 - The Tocqueville Connection QUEBEC CITY, Oct 19, 2008 (AFP) - Governments of 70 French-speaking nations pledged to help cut global greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, at the close of the 12th Francophonie summit on Sunday.	20th October 2008
Candidates Agree on Need to Address Global Warming - New York Times Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama part company on many issues, but they agree that the Bush administration’s policies on global warming were far too weak. Both candidates say that human-caused climate change is real and urgent, and that they would sharply diverge from President Bush’s course by proposing legislation requiring sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by midcentury.	19th October 2008
Completely Unplugged, Fully Green - New York Times Many people who can comfortably use “carbon footprint,” “global warming” and “energy offset” in a sentence will toss a bottle or can into a blue recycling bin and call it a day. Those who are somewhat more committed may swap incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescents, rely on cloth shopping bags and turn to mass transit. Then there are people like Ms. Astyk...	17th October 2008
Italy aims for carbon-neutral farm - BBC News Italy: A range of new technologies is being installed at the farm in the central region of Umbria as part of an experiment to cut its CO2 emissions to zero over the course of the next year. They include everything from electric farm vehicles to sun-reflecting paint on storage buildings.	17th October 2008
Major tidal power plan revealed - BBC News Hundreds of jobs and heat for Prince Charles' greenhouses are identified as spin offs of project.	17th October 2008
In echo of Kingsnorth Six, US climate change activists go on trial over blockade of $1.8bn coal-fired power plant - Guardian Unlimited • Eleven face criminal charges after blockading $1.8bn plant• James Hansen offers to lend support	17th October 2008
U.S. solar field foresees cost parity with coal, gas - Reuters SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - U.S. producers of solar power will no longer need federal subsidies within eight years because by then solar power will cost less than electricity generated by conventional power plants, industry players said this week.	17th October 2008
Britain to pledge legally-binding emissions cut - The Independent Britain is to sign up to a legally-binding pledge to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, the new Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband announced today. The move makes the UK the first country in the world to commit to such swingeing cuts in the production of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming.	16th October 2008
Obama to Declare Carbon Dioxide Dangerous Pollutant If Elected - Bloomberg By Jim Efstathiou Jr. Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama will classify carbon dioxide as a dangerous pollutant that can be regulated should he win the presidential election on Nov. 4, opening the way for new rules on greenhouse gas emissions.	16th October 2008
EU vows "cost-effective" climate plan amid crisis BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders planned on Thursday to appease critics of the bloc's bold plans to fight climate change amid economic turmoil with concessions to heavy industry and former communist nations.	16th October 2008
California issues plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions - Los Angeles Times Over the next 12 years, new regulations would seek to turn the climate change clock back to 1990 levels. More efficient electricity use, less traffic and cleaner cars are goals. California forged ahead Wednesday in its bold attempt to turn back the clock of climate change, issuing its final draft of an economywide plan to slash the state's greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels.	16th October 2008
Off-grid data centre powered by tidal energy planned for Scotland - Guardian Unlimited Morgan Stanley scheme sidesteps major barrier to renewables – the long wait for connection to the national grid	16th October 2008
Build wind farms near land to cut costs, UK study finds - Reuters LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will fall woefully short of its own renewable energy targets unless the government allows wind farms to be built closer to shore, the Carbon Trust said in a report on Tuesday.	15th October 2008
Safeguarding forests could halve cost of fixing climate - Guardian Unlimited Editorial: Consider two propositions. First, avoiding climate catastrophe could require cuts in carbon emissions of as much as 80%. Second, deforestation accounts for 17% of the total. The upshot is obvious. Unless we somehow safeguard the forests, the carbon savings needed elsewhere could entail virtually shutting down the fossil fuel economy. Yesterday a government-commissioned review by the businessman Johan Eliasch spelled out this steely logic. It made an overpowering financial case for investing in the world's arboreal lungs.	15th October 2008
Byproduct of steel shows potential in CO2 sequestration - PhysOrg With steelworks around the world emitting huge amounts of carbon dioxide, scientists are reporting that a byproduct of steel production could be used to absorb that greenhouse gas to help control global warming. The study is scheduled for the October 15 issue of ACS' Industrial Engineering Chemistry Research.	14th October 2008
Barrage 'could benefit wildlife' - BBC News The proposed Severn Barrage could encourage more diverse wildlife, one researcher says.	14th October 2008
Carbon Tax Seen as Best Way to Slow Global Warming - Planet Ark NEW YORK - Climate taxes, not cap and trade markets alone, will lead to the vast technological changes the world's energy system needs to fight global warming, a top US economist said on Thursday.	13th October 2008
End of our affair with air travel? - The Independent Air travel is declining for the first time in almost 20 years, The Independent on Sunday discloses today. Airline failures, harder economic times and a dismal airport experience have caused a sharp downturn in the number of travellers boarding planes at British airports.	13th October 2008
U.N. says credit crisis could enable "green growth" - Reuters UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Instead of sidelining the fight against climate change, the global credit crisis could hasten countries' efforts to create "green growth" industries by revamping the financial system behind them, the U.N. climate chief said on Friday.	11th October 2008
AFRICA: Research and Tradition Could Save Environment - IPS CAPE TOWN, Oct 10 (IPS) - Africa risks losing up to 50 percent of its indigenous species over the next century due to global warming.	11th October 2008
ENVIRONMENT-US: Florida Hopes Energy Farm Will Be First of Many - IPS TAMPA, Florida, Oct 10 (IPS) - If an experiment to plant sweet sorghum in rural Florida and convert it to fuel ethanol pans out, it could herald a fundamental change in how the U.S. and other countries create and use renewable bio-energy, researchers say.	11th October 2008
Carbon tax seen as best way to slow global warming - Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) - Climate taxes, not cap and trade markets alone, will lead to the vast technological changes the world's energy system needs to fight global warming, a top U.S. economist said on Thursday. ,See also: Canada -The case for carbon taxes - Georgia Straight	10th October 2008
U.S. focus on climate could ease financial crisis - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If the United States focused on curbing climate change as soon as a new president took office -- or sooner -- it could help pull the world from the financial brink, environmental policy experts told Reuters.	10th October 2008
Warm welcome for house powered by hydrogen fuel cell - Guardian Unlimited House in Lye, near Stourbridge, will be opened as the first of its kind connected to the national grid	10th October 2008
Are shiny hothouses keeping Spain cool? - New Scientist The roofs of Spanish horticulture hothouses are reflecting so much sunlight that local temperatures have cooled in recent decades	9th October 2008
Mushroom enzyme could strip pollutants from fuel cells - Guardian Unlimited A chemical found in mushrooms could one day replace the expensive and polluting heavy metals at the heart of fuel cells and conventional batteries, say chemists at Oxford University, boosting the development of clean power. They have demonstrated that laccase, an enzyme produced by fungi that grow on rotting wood, can be used as a cheaper and more efficient catalyst. Fuel cells use chemical ...	9th October 2008
Back carbon tax, leading economists tell politicians - Ottawa Citizen Canada: More than 230 academic economists have signed an open letter to the leaders of the federal political parties, urging them to acknowledge that putting a price on carbon is "the best approach" to combatting climate change.	8th October 2008
Geothermal energy development gathers steam - CNNMoney.com An unusual combination of economic and environmental forces have created a "perfect storm" that could help geothermal shed its back-seat status to its renewable cousins wind and solar energy, experts said at an international conference.	8th October 2008
Green Policies Can Have Big Economic Spinoffs - UN - Planet Ark BARCELONA, Spain - The credit crunch is distracting from a shift to green policies that have big but often overlooked economic benefits, the head of the UN Environment Programme said on Monday.	8th October 2008
Canal plan to power 45,000 homes - BBC Turbines along British canals and rivers could power 45,000 homes within five years under new plans.	8th October 2008
Solar power and plug-in hybrids win big - Gristmill By Joseph RommThe bailout legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush on Friday has a $17 billion energy tax package. This post will focus on the clean energy credits. Part 2 will focus on the dirty ones. The biggest winner is certainly solar. As Scott Sklar, former head of the Solar Energy Industries Association and now President of the Stella Group summarizes: This package extends the 30-percent federal investment tax credit for both residential and commercial solar, small wind, ground-coupled heat pumps installations from 4 - 8 years. This bill also completely eliminates the $2,000 monetary cap for residential solar electric installations.	8th October 2008
A Green Bailout: We Need Help for People Who Want to Save the Planet - AlterNet Don't give platinum parachutes to those who wrecked the economy, let's throw a green lifeline to the people who want to rebuild it.	7th October 2008
Scientists Develop Solar Cells With a Twist - Planet Ark CHICAGO - US researchers have found a way to make efficient silicon-based solar cells that are flexible enough to be rolled around a pencil and transparent enough to be used to tint windows on buildings or cars.	6th October 2008
UK MPs tipped to call for greater cut in carbon emissions - Guardian Unlimited The UK's independent climate change committee is expected to recommend next week that the government sets a binding target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050, campaigners say. The increase in the target from 60%, hinted at by the prime minister, Gordon Brown, in his party conference speech last month, would bring the UK in line with several other governments including Germany, France and California, although the British target would have the strongest enforcement.	4th October 2008
How white roofs shine bright green - The Christian Science Monitor Can you help save the planet by painting your roof white? Hashem Akbari thinks so. Global warming's complexity and momentum have led to a try-everything approach by scientists. In that spirit, Dr. Akbari offers his simple yet profound innovation for slowing that warming way down. It has long been known that a white roof makes a dwelling cooler.	4th October 2008
CSIRO's UltraBattery goes global in the auto sector - PhysOrg The CSIRO-invented UltraBattery is set to have a global impact on greenhouse gas emissions after Japan's Furukawa Battery Company, which has already begun production of the UltraBattery, and US manufacturer, East Penn, today signed an international commercialisation and distribution agreement for the technology.	3rd October 2008
Renewable energy made from waste - BBC News A company in Swindon has developed technology which it claims turns household rubbish into clean renewable energy.	3rd October 2008
Local authority bonds benefit the economy and the planet - Guardian Unlimited Colin Hines: They've been out of fashion for a while, but local authority bonds benefit the economy and the planet	3rd October 2008
Sowing the seas - CNN The Seawater Foundation turns barren coastal deserts into fertile green land. Founder Carl Hodges currently overseeing irrigation work along the coast of Mexico. The atmospheric physicist hopes his work will help in climate change mitigation	3rd October 2008
U.S. could create 4.2 million green jobs by 2038 - Reuters MIAMI (Reuters) - The U.S. economy could generate 4.2 million new "green" jobs in the next 30 years, about 10 percent of all the jobs created, according to a study for the U.S. Conference of Mayors released on Thursday.	3rd October 2008
How to create change In your community: finding or forming a local group - Energy Bulletin When we live locally and strengthen our communities, we become stronger and better able to adapt to changes in the economy, climate, and energy availability. But we discuss much about how to go about this. So... how do you create change in your community? And how do you form a group of people who can tackle these community needs? read more	2nd October 2008
Microwave factory to act as carbon sink - New Scientist The world's first commercial plant that uses microwave technology to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to help reduce the effects of global warming has started operating in New Zealand.	2nd October 2008
Schwarzenegger signs greenhouse gas bill - The Fresno Bee Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation Tuesday that attempts to ease greenhouse gas emissions by giving priority to transportation projects that limit commutes and curb urban sprawl.	2nd October 2008
Turbines 'no risk to farm birds' - BBC Wind turbines pose less of a threat to farmland birds than previously thought, a study concludes.	2nd October 2008
Green coffee-growing practices buffer climate-change impacts - PhysOrg Chalk up another environmental benefit for shade-grown Latin American coffee: University of Michigan researchers say the technique will provide a buffer against the ravages of climate change in the coming decades.	2nd October 2008
Garnaut to fire for zero emissions by 2050 - Queensland Country Life Australia: Government climate adviser Ross Garnaut will use his final report to set out a framework to cut Australia's greenhouse emissions to near zero by the middle of the century through clean power generation.	30th September 2008
Vatican installs solar panel roof - BBC News Pope Benedict XVI becomes the first pontiff to harness solar power to provide energy for the Vatican.	30th September 2008
Tories urge new age of the train - BBC News BBC political correspondent Carole Walker looks at the Conservatives' plans to build a new high speed rail link rather than a third runway at Heathrow.	30th September 2008
Carbon dioxide 'scrubber' captures greenhouse gases - PhysOrg University of Calgary climate change scientist David Keith and his team are working to efficiently capture the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide directly from the air, using near-commercial technology.	30th September 2008
Solar water heaters growing in power-hungry Burkina Faso - PhysOrg A solar panel lies on the roof of Pierre Guissou's home in Burkina Faso, feeding power to his water heater and allowing his family to take precious hot showers in a country where most homes lack electricity.	29th September 2008
Huge Nationwide Rallies Call for 'Green Jobs Now!' - PR Newswire via Yahoo! News With a reeling economy, soaring gas prices and rising fears of a global climate crisis, more than 100,000 people rallied at events across the country to urge leaders to jump start the clean energy economy. The events, "Green Jobs Now: A Day to Build the New Economy," urged policy makers to think beyond the short-sighted distraction of drilling and, instead, create real energy solutions that build a new green economy strong enough to create millions of green jobs and lift people out of poverty.	28th September 2008
Donors pledge $6.1 billion to climate change funds - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Industrialized countries pledged more than $6.1 billion on Friday to international investment funds aimed at helping developing countries adopt cleaner technologies and mitigate growth in greenhouse gas emissions, the World Bank said.	27th September 2008
Wind power dollars pour into west Texas economy - Reuters BLACKWELL, Texas (Reuters) - Millions of dollars in new tax revenue generated from the wind power boom sweeping rural west Texas have helped fund a rash of school building projects, the first signs of an expected economic revival.	27th September 2008
Ten States With a Plan - New York Times Until Washington takes more responsibility for addressing global warming, the states should take the lead.	26th September 2008
ECONOMY: It Pays to Go Green - IPS UNITED NATIONS, Sep 25 (IPS) - A new report shows how a greener economy could eradicate poverty by creating tens of millions of new jobs. But it will not happen solely through the market's "magic hand".	26th September 2008
Brazil unveils deforestation plan - BBC News Brazil sets out a plan to end net deforestation by 2015, but with no targets on emission cuts.	26th September 2008
Gore urges civil disobedience to stop coal plants - Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmental crusader Al Gore urged young people on Wednesday to engage in civil disobedience to stop the construction of coal plants without the ability to store carbon.	25th September 2008
Sahara solar scheme could power poor West Africa - Reuters Nigeria ACCRA, Sept 24 (Reuters) - West African legislators worried by climate change and soaring energy costs want regional leaders to back plans to harness sun and wind energy that experts say could bring electricity to some of the poorest people on earth. NASA scientists have identified a site in the Sahara desert in northern Niger as the sunniest piece of land in the world. "We have the natural resource -- enough sunshine that can supply our total power requirements," Kwame Ampofo, an energy expert and a member of Ghana's parliament, told Reuters late on Tuesday after legislators from the region discussed the project.	25th September 2008
Blow to carmakers - BBC There's been a surprising defeat for European carmakers and their allies over the new plans to cut back greenhouse gases. A carefully stitched-together deal between the two big groupings of left and right in the European Parliament came apart at the seams, as Socialists worried about their green credentials voted against the party line in the environment committee.	25th September 2008
Strategic online eco-voters aim to thwart Tory win - CNews Canada:A website asking eco-voters to unite and vote strategically against the Tories has become the latest online weapon trying to thwart a Conservative victory.	25th September 2008
Portugal embraces wave power - BBC Can Portugal's pioneer help wave power to float?	25th September 2008
UN launches program to cut deforestation emissions - Reuters UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations launched a program on Wednesday that it hopes could be the foundation for a system in which rich countries would pay poor ones to slow climate change by protecting and planting forests. The new program, called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Program, or UN-REDD, will assist nine developing countries, including Bolivia, Indonesia and Zambia, in establishing systems to monitor, assess and report forest cover. See also: Old-growth forests soak up CO2 - The Christian Science Monitor	25th September 2008
Toward a Movement for Peace and Climate Justice - Toward Freedom Global warming can represent a future of deprivation and scarcity for all but the world’s wealthiest, or this global emergency can compel us to imagine a radically transformed society—both in the North and the South—where communities of people are newly empowered to remake their own future. The crisis can drive us to break free from a predatory global economy that fabulously enriches the top tenth of one percent, while leaving the rest of us scrambling after the crumbs. The reality is too urgent, and the outlook far too bleak, to settle for status-quo false solutions that only appear to be addressing the urgency of global climate disruption. We can embrace the reconstructive potential of a radically ecological social and political vision, prevent catastrophe, and begin to make our way toward a fundamentally different kind of future. In practical terms, real solutions to global warming, as Van Jones of San Francisco’s Ella Baker Center, points out, are far more likely to benefit our inner cities and put millions of people to work installing decentralized, energy-saving technologies. In the longer term, Al Gore is correct when he emphasizes that political will is the main obstacle to addressing global warming, but we also need to be able to look beyond the status-quo and be willing to struggle for a radically different kind of world.	25th September 2008
Environment Agency calls for carbon-capture on all new coal power stations - Guardian Unlimited The Environment Agency has told the government that all new power stations must be built with the CO2-capturing technology	25th September 2008
Western states pitch plan to reduce greenhouse emissions - Los Angeles Times Four Canadian provinces are also included in the initiative, which aims to cut regional emissions by 15% below 2005 levels. Seven Western states and four Canadian provinces proposed a sweeping plan to crack down on global warming emissions today, across a region that represents 20% of the U.S. economy and 73% of Canada's economy.	24th September 2008
Crisis must be turned to green benefit, scientist says - Guardian Unlimited Governments must show same boldness to move to a low-carbon economy as demonstrated when helping banks	23rd September 2008
Elevator Pitch: Click4Carbon wants your search clicks - Guardian Unlimited Click4Carbon wants to convince us to use their search service over Google's home page. The advantage? Click4Carbon uses Google's search technology but every search donates a small amount ot carbon offsetting projects, as well as green news.	23rd September 2008
Burying CO2 could pay for itself by 2030: report - Reuters BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Trapping and burying carbon dioxide from power plants could become viable without public funding by 2030, helping nations reduce their dependence on energy imports and meet climate goals, a report said on Monday.	23rd September 2008
U.S. conservation win – in Canada - The Christian Science Monitor Forestland half the size of Texas is being saved to help thwart climate change.	22nd September 2008
You Can Change The World - Newsweek From Bill Clinton to Oprah Winfrey, advice on how to make a difference, from improving health and education to bringing peace and justice.	21st September 2008
Einstein fridge design can help global cooling - Guardian Unlimited Scientists relaunch a 1930 invention that uses no electricity and would reduce greenhouse gases.	21st September 2008
'No time to lose' to start thinking sustainability - PhysOrg As director of the University of Oregon's Climate Leadership Initiative, the need to address human contributions to global warming is a no-brainer that Bob Doppelt says in his new book requires a mindset tuned into "The Power of Sustainable Thinking."	20th September 2008
Australians Back Carbon Reduction Scheme - Angus Reid (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The majority of people in Australia agree with a government-proposed scheme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a poll by Newspoll published in The Australian. 59 per cent of respondents think the plan will help slow global warming, and 58 per cent are willing to pay more for oil, electricity and gas in order to help curb pollution.	20th September 2008
Live Earth show to help boost solar energy - Reuters MUMBAI (Reuters) - India will host the next Live Earth concert to raise funds for lighting homes with solar energy in places where people do not have access to electricity, organizers said.	20th September 2008
Global warming fight will boost California economy, study says - The Sacramento Bee Costly as it may seem, California's mandate to cut climate-altering exhausts from vehicles and industry by nearly one-third in the next 12 years actually will boost the economy, a state analysis released Wednesday predicts. See also: Californian city approves solar loans - Guardian Unlimited	19th September 2008
Business chiefs urge action on climate change - Guardian Unlimited Business leaders including directors at Tesco, Lloyds TSB and other top high street names have urged Gordon Brown to drop his slowly, slowly approach to tackling global warming and go for "transformational change", saying the prime minister should not be held back by fears over the current financial crisis. But the involvement in the initiative of BAA, owner of Heathrow, and the energy firm E.ON angered environmentalists, who said the companies that encouraged flying and built coal-fired power stations showed "hypocrisy of the purest strain".	19th September 2008
Topless protestor disrupts Ryanair meeting - Car Rentals Topless protestor disrupts Ryanair meetingCar Rentals, UK. According to the Irish Times, a man who simply called himself “Rob Mac” decided that the best way to draw attention to climate change and global warming was ...	19th September 2008
Economic downturn 'a chance to invest' in green energy: Gore - SpaceDaily MUMBAI, Sept 18 (AFP) Sep 18, 2008 The global economic downturn and the crisis in the US financial markets offers the chance for investment in green energy, former US vice-president Al Gore said Thursday.	19th September 2008
Chemistry for the climate - Nature Chemists claim that by mimicking photosynthesis in the lab, they could revolutionize fuel production within five years. Katharine Sanderson reports.	19th September 2008
CarrotMobbing rewards green businesses - Guardian Unlimited Forget negative campaigning, why not reward green businesses instead - with a group spending spree? CarrotMobbing emerged in the US earlier this year. It uses the "carrot" of consumer buying rather than the "stick" of boycotting or bad publicity to encourage ethical business. Alone, our consumer choices make a minimal impact, but together and organised we unlock a bigger bargaining power. CarrotMobbers talk about "liberating" their capital. They make demands of their suppliers; green improvements in exchange for loyalty. And they are prepared to reward in a language that companies understand: cash.	18th September 2008
Europe's cleanest tech firms revealed - Guardian Unlimited Solar cell maker Odersun tops the Guardian/Library House CleanTech 100 list	18th September 2008
Norway joins fight to save Amazon - BBC News Norway pledges $1bn to a new fund to help Brazil preserve its Amazon rainforest and cut greenhouse gas emissions.	18th September 2008
Physicists urge U.S. to prioritize energy efficiency - PhysOrg The U.S. can reduce its dependence on foreign oil and greenhouse gas emissions by making cars and buildings much more energy efficient, according to a study released Tuesday by a large national association of physicists.	17th September 2008
Communities plan for a low-energy future - CS Monitor 'Transition initiatives,' begun in Britain, aim to empower people to tackle effects of climate change and decline of oil.	16th September 2008
Investors press for disclosure of tar sands' climate risk - Guardian Unlimited Move reflects changing attitudes among mainstream investors to impact of commercial activities	15th September 2008
The public are ahead of the game on climate change - Independent Kingsnorth 6: The jury in effect sat through a six-and-a-half-day seminar on global warming, in a forum where lying was illegal, and every statement could be challenged by top barristers. And, at the end, they decided that the danger was so immediate and serious that it justified taking extreme - and normally illegal - action against it. "That is something the Government and the utilities need to take extremely seriously," says Professor Tom Burke, an aide to three environment secretaries. "It shows how seriously the public takes climate change." Yet a report last week by the Green Alliance and seven top pressure groups concluded that, over the past year, the Government's approach to the crisis had been "contradictory and incoherent", the Tories' had been "more presentation than substance", while the traditionally green Lib Dems had been "markedly quieter" on the issues. It's time for them to raise, and change, their game. For, in the end, the public, while on the same side, is likely to be less forgiving than the turbulent jurors of Kent.	14th September 2008
Think globally, power up locally - San Francisco Chronicle The "locavore" movement is big, especially in California. With the bounty of food found locally in the Bay Area, living off the land - and sea - is not only possible, but also a delicious exercise. But there's another, less obvious, revolution brewing here in the Bay Area: the "locavolt" movement. In response to high gasoline and natural gas prices, global warming and an increasingly unstable, scary world, residents more than ever are looking to generate power right in their own homes and neighborhoods with free energy from nature.	14th September 2008
Australia seeks to lower carbon emissions from cars - Reuters via Yahoo! UK & Ireland News The Australian government issued a discussion paper on reducing automobile carbon emissions on Saturday, with recommendations such as providing financial incentives for manufacturing low-emission cars.	14th September 2008
China mulls green tax to curb pollution: report - Reuters SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China is studying whether to impose an environmental tax on polluters to cut their emissions, the official China Daily reported on Saturday.	14th September 2008
Spain to Plant 45 Million Trees in 4 Years - OhmyNews International Recognizing the real threats of climate change, the Spanish council of ministers approved a reforestation project on Friday to plant 45 million trees in the next four years in the Spanish peninsula and in the Balearic Islands, which have been suffering from frequent forest fires due to desertification and costing the government major economic loss.	13th September 2008
Terra Preta: Biochar and the MEGO effect - Energy Bulletin "Terra preta" refers to the rich, fertile artificial soils found in the Amazon. In this post I'll have a look at modern day techniques to produce terra preta (often called biochar or agrichar) which have the potential to increase soil fertility, generate energy and sequester carbon all at the same time. read more	13th September 2008
Curbing coal emissions alone might avert climate danger, say researchers - PhysOrg An ongoing rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide from burning of fossil fuels might be kept below harmful levels if emissions from coal are phased out within the next few decades, say researchers. They say that less plentiful oil and gas should be used sparingly as well, but that far greater supplies of coal mean that it must be the main target of reductions. Their study appears in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles.	13th September 2008
Climb every chimney - Guardian Unlimited The 'Kingsnorth Six' admitted causing £30,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station - yet a jury still refused to find them guilty. The verdict has left the government's energy plans in the balance and given a huge boost to climate change protesters. See also: British Court Rules Direct Action OK Because Global Warming Risks So Bad - Infoshop News	13th September 2008
Saltwater solution to save crops - PhysOrg Technology under development at the University of New South Wales could offer new hope to farmers in drought-affected and marginal areas by enabling crops to grow using salty groundwater.	12th September 2008
Review backs yellow school buses - BBC News The government is being urged to introduce US-style yellow school buses for all primary schools in Britain.