All Time Low for Arctic Sea Ice

Arctic sea ice has just hit an all time low according to the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC).

It's the sort of thing that should be a warning sign but as i write this the US republican party are meeting and honing their climate skeptic message. Obama and the democrats are opening up the arctic to exploration for oil. So matters dont look perticuarly good for a rapid political response.

In the UK Campaign Against Climate Change are planning a demo at Downing Street to highlight this 'red flag' to humanity. The demo starts at 1pm (details here).

Further Reading:

• Carbon Brief goes into the details on sea ice decline.
• BBC Article
• Guardian Article 
• NSIDC on Twitter

Other Comments:

• It seems to me that record lows in sea ice should be a huge story as they represent huge changes in the global climate which we rely on. Unfortunately it isn't a terribly glamourous story. I do appreciate groups who are doing their best to raise the profile of key climate change markers like this. This is why i have just donated to campaign against climate change and why i hope you will do the same.

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Another energy bill? The battle is under way.

It seems like only yesterday that the 2011 energy act was established. Well, it wasn't long ago was it. But they are at it again!

New government new energy policy. The Department of Energy and Climate Change have an overview of the work done so far on a new energy bill, it's all being 'worked up' at the moment and thus parliament isnt yet involved although the same cant be said about politics.

The BBC are already reporting on a battle between DECC and their advisers at the Committee on Climate Change and the Treasury. 38 Degrees has already got a campaign going to prevent what they are calling a 'second dash for gas'. The Carbon Brief has done some good work looking into exactly what is going on at DECC in terms of policy on gas power policy.

The Primary Documents:

• The Draft Bill
• The Parliamentary Briefing
• The Energy and Climate Change Committee (HoP) response
• Informal Working Group response (HoL)

Some Summaries for those short on time:

• The Carbon Brief on The Energy Cold War Turning Hot
• The Carbon Brief summary of the Energy and Climate Change Committees' rather lengthy response.
• Guardian Eco-Audit of Draft Bill (with lots of interesting NGO responses).
• WWF Scotland response to the Draft Bill

Further Background:

•  Green Party MP,  Caroline Lucas responds.to the Energy and Climate Change Committee
• Generators and Industry respond to the Energy and Climate Change Committee
• Jim Watson of Sussex energy group contributes to this report by IPPR.
• Dieter Helm of Oxford University has written about the energy bill.

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Please Help Defeat Big Oil Republican in Wisconsin

The League of Conservation Voters has an urgent appeal out. They make their point better than me so...

''Last night, Wisconsin GOP primary voters went to the polls and elected former Wisconsin governor -- and former Bush administration official -- Tommy Thompson to be the Republican nominee for the Wisconsin Senate seat.

While many Americans have struggled over the past few years with a feeble economy and rising energy prices, Thompson has profited from hundreds of thousands of dollars from his investments in the oil and gas industry. He also supports Paul Ryan's extreme budget plan which would protect billions in Big Oil subsidies. If he wins the Wisconsin Senate seat in November, you can bet he’ll be one of Big Oil and Dirty Coal’s best friends in Washington.

We don’t need another crony of Big Oil and Dirty Coal in Washington. We need a leader who will fight to protect the air we breathe and the water we drink. That’s why it’s critical we show Tammy Baldwin that LCV supporters are committed to her campaign. Will you chip in with a donation today?'

 

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August Climate Update: Events, Campaigns and Fundraising

A brief update on UK climate change campaigns.

Friends of the Earth continues it's Clean British Energy campaign at it's annual conference in London on the 24th of september. For the first time ever this is a joint 'conference and open day' with all welcome; you neednt be a FOE member.

UK rail fairs continue to rise(1,2) at inflation + 3% as the coallition govornment fails to integrate climate change policy goals with its policy on transport. Sustainable transport for all? Not at these prices. The Campaign for Better Transport continues its Fair Fares Campaign. Please show your support. And why not give them a few quid while you are at it?

Greenpeace's amazing international Save the Arctic campaign is growing fast--now with over a MILLION signatures!-- but like all growing projects there are growing requirements for financial support.

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5 Minutes for UK Climate Change E-Activism?

There are always quite a few groups working on climate change campaigns here in the UK. Whilst there is no substitute for forming your own group or getting together with others in your local area their are still worthwhile opportunities to pressurise govornment via online petitions and letter writing.

 In this post i bring together a few of the biggest current online campaigns. If you computer is working ok (unlike mine) it shouldnt take long for you to sign up to these and do your good deed for the day.

1. Support Friends of the Earth's campaign for Clean British Energy.
2. Join Greenpeace International's effort to make the arctic a wildlife refuge and prevent arctic drilling.
3. Help the RSPB protect Sumatras Rainforest.
4. Work with Campaign against Climate Change to stop a second UK dash to gas,
5. Round Off your inspired if brief bout of e-activistm by joining Oxfam's GROW campaign.

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Online Climate Activism Highlight (USA)

If you live in the USA then you probably already know about the current battle over clean air legislation. If not, here is a summary.

One of the more interesting facts about the clean air act is it's economic payoff:

"The Clean Air Act is widely considered one of the most effective environmental laws ever passed.

In fact, it provides $30 in health benefits for every dollar invested in pollution controls."

Special interests have their reasons for opposing legislation but the common good is overwhelmingly best surved by  keeping a lid on polloution.

 Here is a online petition with >175'000 signatures where you can show your support for implementing the clean air act.

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Coal Plans in Scotland Shelved

A little bit of good news form Scotland. Plans for a new coal power plant at Hunterston have been shelved. This is at least in part due to campainging by Christian Aid and others who have consistently pointed out the difficulty of squaring coal power expansion with Scotlands ambitious climate targets.

Here is a potted history of the struggle to stop Henterston , writtem by the WWF.

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Climate Change Events (USA)

California Climate Ride - September 9^th - 13^th

 

This 5 day, 300-mile ride down the California coast is a mission to inspire and empower citizens to work toward a new energy future. Nightly inspirational speakers on energy, sustainability, and cycling follow the daily 40-60 mile rides, 

South by Southwest Eco - October 3^rd - 5^th

 

Hosting an international audience of innovators and executive level decision makers from the public and private sectors and academia; SXSW Eco is for professionals at the forefront of the post-recognition discussion who are dedicated to making progress towards solving the challenges facing the economy, the environment and civil society,

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Story Stub: Heating buildings.

The Low Carbon kid has a story on unclaimed renewable heat initative support as his latest post. This reminded me of what a huge deal space and water heating is. This is one of the least efficient parts of our economy but it recieves far less attention than say renewable electricity or transport--even if progress on transport is scarcely greater!

 I think i might do these short notes from time to time if i dont have long enough to write a whole article. I think the chart on the left is pretty surprising.

Useful Resources:

• Energy saving trust on the RHI.

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£10'000 of energy efficiency measures for no upfront cost!

Up until now I have only heard in passing about the Green Deal and i would suggest that this is something the government needs to worry about. If even energy and climate nerds don't know your big new policy you probably have some work to do. So it's just as well they are considering a major publicity drive.

The Green Deal is apparently a provision in the recent UK Energy Bill  and is basically a loan scheme aimed at overcoming the large upfront costs of energy efficiency measures, with the loan repayments expected to be lower than the savings on energy bills generated (details here).


It sounds like a promising idea and as such i hope very much that the press release i was sent recently docent prove to be right about the government trying to scrimp on assessment. The whole premise of this scheme is that actual savings will be made by improving energy efficiency of buildings, this certainly can be the case if installations are carried out with care and quality assurance. However Green Deal Consulting have pointed out that if the government sticks to it's neo-liberal orthodoxy where everything is left to the market, there is every likelyhood of assurance being carried out in a rushed tick box manner. This will no doubt be quickly noted by installers of efficiency measures who may then start cutting corners:

“If we are not careful, this will go the same way as the energy assessments needed for house sales and we could end up with a price war that brings the whole scheme to a grinding halt. Once again the Government is failing to show leadership....All the Government has said is they want fees to be determined by the market to enable flexibility. This is no way to run a scheme like this because the energy assessors are required to conduct a really thorough, un-rushed and detailed analysis of each premises so that a proper needs assessment is arrived at. Without this accurate assessment the energy savings could be wildly out, and the customer will have to make up the shortfall. It is vital that the customer is fully protected or they will find themselves out of pocket within months.”

Green Deal Consulting MD Andy Wynter.

Useful Resources:

• Green Deal on the Energy Saving Trust Website

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Good climate change science, policy and politics blogs.

I haven't updated this blog much recently. No promises but i think i`m going to get back into this in a pretty serious way, so check back here for climate change news, particularly if you are interested in a UK focus. Coming back to it i do wonder if i should change things in a major way, go to a new platform or change the theme. These are pretty serious decisions-in blogging terms--and i haven't decided any of them yet. What is quite obvious, however, is the need to update quite a few links. There are plenty of new resources and plenty of defunct old sources.

As a start i have updated my blog reading list and it now includes:

China Dialogue (link)
The Carbon Brief (link) NEW
Celsias (link)
De Smog Blog (link)
The Low Carbon Kid (link)
Grist (link)
Sustainablog (link)
TreeHugger (link)
ThinkProgress (link)
RenewableEnergyNews (link)
The Committee on Climate Change (link) NEW
Triple Pundit (link)
Foreign Policy Association on Climate Change (link)
Climate Policy (link)

A sizable number of these are already in my blogroll but they are mixed in with many now defunct sites so here they are; a list of interesting links, while i do the necessary pruning.

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Nick Clegg urged to resist Tory pressure for second dash to gas.

Pressure group 38 Degrees has just launched a campaign (supplementary blog post) to persuade Nick Clegg of the political importance of sticking to Lib Dem commitments on climate change.

The focus of this campaign is the electricity sector. When most people think carbon emissions they think electricity so this is an obvious target, and infact the importance of electricity as a target for emissions mitigation is growing as transport including railways and cars become electified.

The Chancellor is calling for more focus on gas turbines in order to cut emissions. Gas powered stations produce far lass (roughly half) the emissions per KWh of coal powered stations. The problem with this approach is that UK carbon emission reduction targets require an almost total decarbonisation in the electricity sector--the easiest in a series of not at all easy solutions to high levels of carbon emissions. While a second dash to gas dosent require much capital and is something we have done before it isn't as safe for consumers as it is for politicians. Gas prices are highly volotile and while gas may be a cheaper short term solution as the Treasury seem to be betting, this is far from certain. What is certain, is that once built gas power stations will need to be decomissioned and replaced with still lower carbon forms of energy. It looks like this absurdity acceptable to the chancellor as his immediate priority is recapturing the hearts of his backbenchers a number of whom are staunchly anti-wind.

One MP whom the chancellor is not impressing with this real politik approach to energy policy is conservative MP Tim Yeo, chair of the Energy and Climate Change Committee which has produced a report into the recent energy bill (if you are interested in govornment energy policy these reports are a superb place to start your investigations).

Please take part in the action here. And if you like the work that 38 degrees are doing and you are fortunate enough to be financially secure then please consider making a donation, it's more important than ever that those of us with the means support our causes during tough economic times.

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