Wind power myths and spin.

Wind power is the cheapest form of renewable energy. If we dont want to take the nuclear option and associated risks then our current best chance at reducing carbon emissions and dependence on volatile fossil fuel prices is to use wind power.

On the down side, wind turbines are not a reliable form of energy. In a diverse energy grid this isn't a major issue but it is an issue that critics of wind power have siezed on and blown out of all proportion.

Their are numerous critics of wind power, some of whom are genuine, some of whom have been misled by vested interests and some of whom are the spokespeople of those interests. At the moment their focus is on not the unreliability of wind power but rather the unrealiability of the grid (which they blame on wind power).

As already mentioned wind power is not a constant form of power. This can be dealt with, however, by having other forms of generation that can step into the breach. Luckily we already have certain forms of energy such as combined cycle gas turbines, pumped storage and regular hydro electric which can do this job. What we dont have is an electricity system which can accept large quantities of wind power. Partly this is a matter of transmission but in the future the poor flexibility of some of our generation types such as nuclear power will be of increasing concern.

Because licensed generating units are entitled to sell their energy on the UK market, compensation payments are made if the grid isn't up to the job and wotd give them access. If you rephrase 'being denied market access' and turn it into 'getting paid for doing nothing' you will be in line with current rhetoric flowing out of the Telegraph, Times et al.,

Whatever the current debate over wind power. The encouraging truth of the matter is that 9% of the UK's energy was produced from wind power during the last quater and this number is expected to rise rapidly in the coming years.

One group that has been getting more than it's fair share of attention is the Renewable Energy Foundation. A group that, ironically, spends most of its time attacking wind power. A look into their background will explain it's position but not why the sunday times and other ostensibly reputable news papers are taking their 'research' as gospel without revealing the groups funding sources or it's directors backgrounds to the public.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

New Directions for Climate Action: 9th-10th July

At the Common Ground meeting in June we got together to continue some of the discussions around radical climate action that were started at Space for Change. The conversation is progressing with lots of discussion around identity, structure, how to organise non/anti-hierarchically, how to keep a radical perspective and more.

A follow-on meeting, ‘New Directions’ has been planned for the 9-10th of July.

As with Common Ground, the meeting is for people who have previously been involved in organising the Camp for Climate Action, or other radicalgrassroots climate action, who are interested in and feel positive about co-ordinating nationally.

If you didn’t make it to Common Ground, you’re still very welcome to attend, though please bear in mind that the meeting will be building on the discussions that took place last time – ie. we’ll be picking up wherewe left off. So do make sure you read the minutes.


Also, we feel it’s important to stress that this is not really a meeting to ‘get involved’. We recognise the need to bring new people in, but this is not the best occasion, as it’s a meeting for organisers who have time and energy to develop new directions based on their common ground.

A group was formed at Common Ground to arrange the details of the nextmeeting, including the agenda and facilitation. As with Common Ground there will be external facilitators (from Rhizome), but this time there may also be some facilitation from the group attending.

It will be a two day meeting, at the fabulous Grow Heathrow again.

• Saturday 9th - Sunday 10th July 2011 (more details: e.g venue + map)

Crash space will be available Fri/Sat/Sun and food provided on Sat and Sun. Let us know via spaceforchange[at]climatecamp.org.uk if you want crash space.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Validity of Studies on Economics of Shale Gas

The 2nd of July 2011 issue of new scientist reports that Thomas Kinnaman of Bucknel University in Lewisburg (PA) has examined six studies of the economics of shale gas extaction. Kinnaman reportedly "found that they all contain flaws that exagerated the benefits of shale gas extraction to local economies". Most of these studies also use a model called IMPLAN which makes significant oversiplifications such as assuming that local hotel rooms are going unused until the gas industry comes along.

Notes:
1)Kinnaman's study is published in Ecological Economics
2) Documentary about Shale Gas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEB_Wwe-uBM

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Coal Action Scotland Update

Here's a brief update of what's been going on with Coal Action Scotland and what's coming up. There's a week to go before the Autumn Gathering and lots has been happening!

1. New THWAC! short film
2. (Finished so Omitted) THWAC Gathering 6th-10th November
3. Coal Action Scotland October Newsletter
4. Action Roundup
5. Recent News

1. New THWAC! short film

A short film about the Happendon Wood Action Camp and fighting Scottish Coal in the Douglas Valley + Publicising Next Weeks Gathering

4. Omitted

3. October Newsletter

Download and distribute the Coal Action Scotland October Newsletter! Find it here:

front three pages: http://coalaction.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Oct-10-first-three-pages.pdf
back page: http://coalaction.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Oct-10-back-page.pdf

4. Action Round-up

Borehole Drilling Machine sabotaged in solidarity with The Happendon Wood Action Camp

Action against RPS group Glasgow in Solidarity with communities in Co. Mayo and South Lanarkshire

“Nae Coal at Hunterston”: Action against Ayrshire Power and Peel Holdings

CONsultations by Scottish Coal marked by actions against the mines in Douglas Valley

Beginnings of a new wave of direct action in the Douglas Valley against Scottish Coal

5. Recent News

Deadly Coal Tour Visits THWAC

Scottish Coal given a slap on the wrist for environmental damage in Ayrshire

Victory against Scottish Coal in Midlothian!

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Camp for Climate Action: 2010 Edinburgh

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Hello again - haven't done this for a while

I hope you don't mind the intrusion after so long. Maybe we could all do with a laugh

These cartoons originally appeared in either Ethical Consumer magazine or the New Internationalist magazine.
For more cartoony goodness please visit the NEW WEBSITE

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Forget aid: just stop robbing us!

British oil company Tullow & UK Embassy push disputed deal that could cut Congo's revenues by $10 billion

Confidential oil contracts held by UK companies Tullow and Heritage in the Democratic Republic of Congo were leaked today, revealing the danger of economic rip-off and rights abuses in one of Africa's most unstable countries.

The Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs) are accompanied by a legal analysis,

''A Lake of Oil - Congo's controversial contracts compromise rights, environment
& safety''

published by oil watchdog PLATFORM in partnership with the African Institute for Energy Governance (Afiego). [1]

As the dispute between Tullow/Heritage and the South African-led Divine Inspiration consortium over lucrative oil licences on Lake Albert comes to a head [2], the contract terms have been released for the first time.

[3] PLATFORM's analysis compares revenues delivered by two competing contracts, revealing that:

• Both Tullow/Heritage & Divine/H Oil's contracts guarantee excessive profits, at the expense of Congo's poor


• Tullow's contract terms reduce the Congolese take by around 15%, compared to Divine's.


• If recognised, Tullow's contract will cut Congolese government revenues by over $10 billion - a figure equivalent to the country's entire national debt.


• Tullow and the British Embassy in Kinshasa have been lobbying hard for these contract terms.


• This represents a significant transfer of wealth from some of Africa's poorest to British and Irish investors.
  

In ''A Lake of Oil", PLATFORM also raises concerns about:

• Co-operation between oil companies and military groups and the likelihood of escalating resource-driven war in eastern Congo. (p26 & 33)


• The legal rights granted to flare natural gas (p.24)


• The complete absence of penalties for environmental damage (p.21),


• The 'stabilisation clause', which will restrict DRC's ability to improve its environmental protection and human rights standards in the future (p.27)
  

Alfred Buju, head of the Justice and Peace Commission in Ituri, DRC, at the heart of Exploration Block 2, said:

''This report reveals the contracts that will affect our communities and raises
serious concerns about who will benefit from oil extraction in Ituri. We need
the government and international companies to be honest and clear - will our
environment be protected? The history of natural resources in eastern DRC makes
us worry that oil will lead to more conflict.''

PLATFORM Campaigner Mika Minio said,

''The reality is that extracting Congolese crude will escalate resource wars,
transfer wealth from Congo's poorest to London's richest, create new health
problems for local communities, increase corruption and pollute the land, water
and air. It is up to social movements and civil society to create the pressure
to defend rights, livelihoods and Uganda's rich environment."

NOTE 1:
The analysis was carried out by PLATFORM, in partnership with the African Institute for Energy Governance
The report is available at http://www.carbonweb.org/drc

NOTE 2:
The Congolese blocks on Lake Albert are widely assumed to hold large reserves of crude oil, following Tullow and Heritage's major discoveries on the adjoining blocks on the Ugandan side of the border. See http://www.carbonweb.org/uganda/

NOTE 3:
PLATFORM has obtained and released copies of Tullow/Heritage’s 2006 PSA for Blocks 1 & 2 and Divine Inspiration/H Oil's 2008 PSA for Block 1, on Lake Albert. The 2006 contract is disputed by both sides since the Congolese Ministry of Energy appeared to annul it in October 2007, prior to reassigning Block 1 to the Divine Inspiration consortium in 2008. The Congolese government has expressed a desire to finalise the status of contracts and begin exploration during 2010.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Climate Justice Action: Join the planning, support the day.

Climate Justice Action

• Planning meeting: Bonn, Germany, 29-31 May 2010
• Climate Justice Action : Call for a day of action October 2010
  

Human-induced and capitalist-driven climate change caused by CO2 and other green house gases is an imminent threat to the planet as we know it. It is happening now and it is happening fast. Centuries of exploitation and destruction have passed. It is the world's poor, who did not cause the problem, who will suffer the most and do not have the means to implement solutions.

Fifteen years of empty governmental chatter and false corporate solutions reached a climactic breakdown in Copenhagen. Their outrageous farce demonstrated one thing above all: the currently dominant approaches to tackling climate change are not only ineffective, they are also unjust. The liberal consensus is incapable of delivering any serious solutions to the triple crises of environment, economy and governance. It is time to stop relying on governments and orporations to solve the problem. Only collective action from below can save us —"we are the ones we have been waiting for."

The social movements met in Copenhagen to call for a day of action to fight for system change, not climate change in the autumn of 2010. Climate Justice Action is taking up this call to propose direct actions for climate justice around the week of October 12 to 16, to coincide with the “Global Minga (Mobilization) In Defense of Mother Earth” that was announced by the 4th Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples of Abya Yala (the Americas).

An open international meeting to organize and coordinate this day of action will be held in Bonn on 29-31 May 2010, where we will be able to reach out to the many people and movements that are increasingly disaffected with the official UN process and the apolitical NGO lobbying.

JOIN US--RECLAIM POWER

Website: http://www.climate-justice-action.org/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/actforclimate

Related:

• Climate Justice Radio (podcast)
• Naomi Klien on Climate Justice Action (video)
• CJA Protestor in Copenhagen (vide0)

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

New Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change: Chris Huhne

Chris Huhne (1,2) is the new Department for Energy and Climate Change head.

8th of May 2007 (url)

Chris Huhne proposes several climate change policies:

1. That this House calls on the Government to set targets for carbon emissions informed by science and not political convenience which will help to hold global warming to within two degrees of pre-industrial levels; recognises that the best current estimate is that this requires stabilisation at between 400 and 450 parts per million of carbon dioxide equivalent in the atmosphere.


2. and urges Ministers to inject a new sense of urgency into efforts at home by setting out an annual action plan to curb the UK’s own carbon emissions, establishing a climate change committee of the Cabinet to ensure joined up government,


3. tackling quickly the most rapidly growing emissions in the transport sector by a more steeply graduated vehicle excise duty and a rebasing of air passenger duty onto the emissions of each flight, offset by other tax cuts,


4. speeding up the effort to curb the waste of energy and the high emissions from buildings not just by raising thermal efficiency requirements in new homes but also by renovating existing homes, changing the incentives on energy companies so that they make more money by saving and not selling more energy, providing comprehensive insulation packages funded mainly by energy mortgages repayable through utility bills and


5. setting an example by ensuring that all future buildings on the Government’s own estate are built to the highest energy efficiency standards.

Chris Huhne arguing with Shadow Environment Secretary Gregory Barker

Chris Huhne: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

Gregory Barker: It was a great shame that the hon. Gentleman tore up the cross-party agreement that was so meticulously put together by the hon. Member for East Surrey (Mr. Ainsworth) and the hon. Member for Lewes (Norman Baker), and I hope that when he intervenes, he will confirm that he will be more constructive in his politics in future.

Chris Huhne: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for finally giving way. He will know very well that when we suspended our participation in our agreement with the Conservative party it was because the Conservatives were unwilling to bring forward any specific policies whatever on the subject, and that continues to be the case. Before he gives us any lectures about following in his wake, or about the efforts of the right hon. Member for Witney (Mr. Cameron), he should be aware that the latter’s local authority, West Oxfordshire, has just cut its recycling budget. That will have an effect on global warming, through the effects on landfill and methane. When the right hon. Member for Witney is able to show that he has some influence over his own—

Madam Deputy Speaker: Order. The hon. Gentleman knows that interventions
must be brief.

Gregory Barker: We have had 25 minutes of listening to the dirge of the hon. Member for Eastleigh (Chris Huhne); that is quite enough, and I do not intend to take many more interventions from him. It is a shame that he could not be a little more constructive. Obviously, the new politics of climate change have yet to infect the Liberal Democrats.

The Liberal Democrat motion contains many good ideas, several of which have been championed by Conservative Members, but the motion is nevertheless uncosted, broad-brush and loosely worded, which is fine for a party facing perpetual opposition, but somewhat more problematic for a party clearly focused on forming the next
Government.

Chris Huhne Supported EDM 592, it would be nice to see him act on that now that he is in power.

That this House believes that it is vitally important to involve, rather than simply
instruct, people and communities and local authorities in efforts to combat
climate change; notes that the Sustainable Energy (Local Action) Bill,
introduced by a cross-party group of hon. Members, will set in motion that
process by giving councils and citizens a co-operative role in drawing up and
implementing sustainable energy plans whose objectives would be to help combat
climate change, protect energy security and alleviate fuel poverty; further
notes that the bottom-up mechanisms in the Bill are based on those in the
Sustainable Communities Act 2007, which was warmly supported on all sides of the
House; and therefore supports the measures in the Bill and hopes they will be
enacted soon.

Chris Huhne worked with Labour MP's to try and introduce sectoral climate change targets. Nice idea, will he try again?

1. Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYubTaRMPaw
2. They Work for You page: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/christopher_huhne/eastleigh

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Note on CCS Policy

There are limits to what you can say in 140 charachters so here is a quick note on my thougts about CCS. I`m not an expert but it is a topic that i have been looking at for some time.

I started out enthusiastic about CCS and annoyed with environmentalists who where against the technology. My positions was due to my concern about the development of China and India and the potential for shifting these economies over to renewable forms of power(1).

However, after reading a superb report (2) by the Wuppertal institute i started to question both the merrits of ccs and the promise when compared to alternatives. The big point that comes out of this report is that when you consider total carbon emissions from coal rather than just the percentage of emissions that you can capture from the coal you end up with carbon reduction of around 65% rather than 90% when we look purely at direct coal emissions.

It is also worrying to me that by simply swapping coal for coal + ccs will give you a more pollouting plant in terms of local air quality. Given the air quality in asia i do have some feeling about the morality of promoting a very expensive and more pollouting form of power that has the sole advantage of reducing carbon emissions.

I realise that there is some interest in these technologies within Russia, hopefully more than in asia. I don't have references to hand but i did some reading on political/technical/scientific opinions in China about CCS and the attitude was one of extreme skepticism. Let me know if you want the paper.

These are my concerns about CCS. With limited govornment budgets i do think that offshore renewables should be a priority for the UK. So i do have some concerns about expenditure on CCS displacing expenditure on what i think deserve to be national priorities exploiting our natural advantage.

If money is to be expended on CCS technologies then i would not disagree with this so long as the warnings of the Environmental Audit Committee are taken seriously:

'“The possibility of ccs should not be used as a fig leaf to give unabated coal-fired power plants an appearance of environmental acceptability” .

In order for CCS to be seen as anthing other than an expensive and distracting measure, it will have to be tested on entirel ccs plants, not 20% CCS plants. Indeed, we alread have plenty of old coal plants to test post-combustion technology on.


REF:

(1)
My initial view that CCS isn't nessicary for UK electricity supplies and is more usefully considered an export technology is unchanged. We have a vast offshore wind resource, soon to be quantified more acurately by Boston Consulting Group. The key question is one of transmission: r&d and investment in infrastructure would be an alternative to investing in CCS which is VERY expensive.

(2)
The Wuppertal institue report is so notable because it looks not only at emissions per net unit of energy produced, but also at transport, mining and processing emissions.
http://www.wupperinst.org/en/projects/proj/index.html?projekt_id=25&bid=155

(3)

http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/environmental_audit_committee/eac_220708.cfm

Home del.icio.us Digg This!