2 July: Annual revenues from Siemens’ environmental activities grew 12% in 2008 to €18.9 billion ($26.5 billion) – almost double the rate for the business as a whole.
Happiness lessons free bikes and growing vegetables in public flower beds are just some of the ways to save the planet advocated by the Government’s green adviser.
It’s been a long time since there were polarbears at London Zoo, but the famous attraction still houses many other specieswhich are threatened by the effects of climate change. So I can’t help butwonder whether this fact registered with Gordon Brown (himself an endangeredspecies) as he stood up at the zoo to present his blueprint for a global climateaction plan.
The polar bears’ old habitat has apparently been convertedinto a simulacrum of the Australian outback and it was beside this aridlandscape that Brown chose to lay some groundwork for the international climatetalks in Copenhagenthis December. According to my colleague Doug who went along, jokes about itnot being the outback but a vision of the Penninesin 50 years time buzzed around the crowd.
Brown is proposing a global climate fund whichwill provide money from developed countries to developing ones to help themmitigate and adapt to climate change. This is by no means a new idea, but nowthere’s a number on it – a ‘working figure’ of ?60bn per year by 2020, derivedfrom a combination of private funds, public purses and the carbon markets. Let’shope it gets worked up rather than down.
A significant sum, but small change comparedto the billions (or is it trillions now? I’ve lost track) which have beenthrown at the banks and corporations of late, and almost certainly not as muchas countries further down the economic ladder would be hoping for. There wasalso no mention of exactly how much the UK would contribute, only that itwould be a "fair share".
Still, it’s something and without sums of atleast this magnitude, the chances of a global consensus at Copenhagen are fairly slim. Brown alsomentioned his desire to bring aviation and shipping emissions into the deal,while climate secretary Ed Miliband is creating a warroom to encourage ministers to push the Copenhagen agenda on every overseas visit.
Our glorious leader has so often waxed lyricalabout the UKbeing a driving force on the international stage when it comes to climatechange (and yet actually done so very little) that it’s easy to be fiercelycynical. Tell us another one, Gordon, we’ve heard this all before. Yet maybethis means there’s change in the air – it might be more fun to writewitheringly scathing blog posts slagging off another ham-fisted initiative, butI’d rather Brown rolled up his sleeves and did his bit to pull the globalcommunity towards some kind of meaningful decision.
Of course, grandstanding at world summitswon’t mean anything without other leaders and governments joining the party.And there is the small matter of a raft of domestic policies – new coal powerstations, expanding airports, feeble investment vis a vis renewable energy sources -which make a nonsense of any UKcommitments vis-à-vis reducing our emissions.
Still, baby steps.
Japanese scientists will have bred a new “supertuna” within a decade that will be stronger more resistant to disease and taste better than the bluefin presently in the oceans.
If we try to get rid of plastics altogether from our lives, we know that it is quite impractical. So what is the next best thing? We can recycle plastic in such a manner that it is economical and produces clean and green energy for our utilization. Industrial designer Chris Allen has come up [...]
Posted in: Environment, Industry, Inventions
2 July: Venture capital investment in clean technologies rebounded to $1.2 billion in the second quarter of 2009, according to the Cleantech Group, but investment levels stayed well below the highs of 2007-08.
A last we can store vast amounts of wind energy and use it when we need it, as New Scientist reports
The International Energy Agency calls for limits on growth of energy demand for the first time
Electronic devices would start charging themselves as soon as their owner walks into their home or office
UK to provide ?60bn for global fund to fight climate change.