Climate Change

An amendment to the energy bill, encouraging the take up of renewable energy technologies, was defeated last week despite widespread support form MPS and organisations.
The amendment could have lead to the introduction of a feed-in tariff, which rewards renewable generators of electricity with a fixed price for electricity they supply to the grid.  This [...]

New evidence reveals that the Earth’s natural feedback mechanisms regulated carbon dioxide for hundreds of years. However, humans are emitting CO2 so rapidly that the planet’s natural balancing mechanism can’t keep up. 
Read more here 
This provides further compelling evidence that humans, predominantly through industry, have upset the Earth’s natural mechanisms for moderating itself. This could lead [...]

Further warnings from Lord Stern of Brentford predict that the gloomy predictions of his high-profile review of the future effects of global warming underestimated the risks, and that climate change poses a bigger threat than he realised.
Stern stated that new scientific findings showed greenhouse gas emissions were causing more damage than was understood previously. He [...]

Recent food shortages are arguably down to the use of agricultural crops for fuel rather than food. As fewer fields are used for food crops this reduces the supply of staple crops and pushes up the price.  
This poses a real dilemma for both the world and individuals that want to act in an environmentally friendly [...]

The weather yesterday certainy showed the extremities of weather that we are receiving, arguably as a result of climate change. It was certainly no ordinary April shower! 
Many people are happy to have higher temperatures in the UK, and even snow in April does look nice! However, along with more tropical and extreme weather comes other [...]

Cities around the world have been turning out the lights for an hour to highlight the threat of climate change.
Lights were turned off for an hour in cities around the world, marking ‘Earth Hour’. In Britain, 26 councils dimmed lights, as did Prince Charles’ private residence, Highgrove House and Winchester cathedral. Read more here.
The [...]

Last month I met a telecoms business who had this great message to all visitors in their reception – ‘all our energy is from green sources’. How proud this message was felt by the employees, their employer was driving the green agenda and pushing renewable resources. But as I sat there in reception looking at [...]

The big question is will any of the measures outlined by Mr Darling actually make any significant difference and will the revenues generated actually go towards improving the planet and climate change?
There were some impressive initiatives such as smart metering for medium businesses and the inclusion of aviation into the EU Emissions Trading scheme. Are small [...]

Whilst saving energy must be our key focus to mitigate climate change, the secondary option has to be generate low carbon energy. Wind Farms albeit expensive to produce energy are fast becoming popular by energy companies, keen to enhance their green image. But are they an acceptable new feature of our landscape that we have to accept [...]

There have been fresh calls for a climate change minster to be appointed to help with the UKs fight against climate change.  Read more
Behind the calls are criticisms of timid use of environmental taxes such as the climate change levy. It is widely thought that these should be more widespread and have harsher financial implications. [...]