All eyes were glued to the TV in the office this lunchtime to see whether Alistair Darling's budget would deliver the kind of changes we need to see if we want to give ourselves the chance to keep the lid on climate change. Read more »
Mega-inefficiency: Only 38 per cent of the coal burned at Drax actually generates power
Energy efficiency. What does that phrase make you think of? Here are a few free-association words I pulled out of my head: insulation, draught proofing, grey, tax return, boring, Germany. Yes, sometimes I do find it hard to get excited about using energy more smartly. But that's only because I'm an idiot.
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Investing in offshore wind, energy efficiency and renewable electricity links could make us a packet and slash carbon emissions. But the government aren't showing enough ambition
This morning, 'slightly shady' business secretary Peter Mandelson and 'could do better' PM Gordon Brown hosted a low carbon summit to unveil their plans for greening the UK manufacturing sector.
In theory it sounds great. Britain could finally get a bit of the green technology pie, catching up with countries like Germany, where they've created over 250,000 jobs, or the USA, where venture capitalists are flocking to wind and solar start-up companies.
Unfortunately the government's recent attempts at greening the economy have been relatively pathetic. Grand aspirations aren't backed by action. Gordon Brown's recently unveiled financial stimulus package included less investment in a green economy than almost any other G7 country. Oh dear.
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With our economy reeling under the worst economic conditions for over a decade, Gordon Brown held a much trumpeted 'jobs summit' today to outline his plans to keep the country at work. Facing the dangerous combination of a credit-fuelled financial crisis, concerns over energy security and prices and accelerating climate change, he has missed an historic opportunity to boost the economy and take an important step towards decarbonising it at the same time.
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This briefing paper outlines Greenpeace's plans for new measures to tackle fuel poverty, promote energy efficiency, stimulate the economy and help to meet the UK’s targets on climate change.
So we start to wave a fond farewell to the incandescent light - since its first demonstration in the 19th Century it has served us well, but the brutal march of progress has made it obsolete since the development of CFLs over 30 years ago. Even though the current depletion of 150W, 100W and 75W bulbs being reported in the press is only part of a voluntary agreement (no sensible efficiency standards here), there's a binding EU agreement (of sorts) on the way and the days of the filament bulb are numbered.
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If you need some cheering up on this dark, dark afternoon (and who doesn't given the news spilling out of the various climate talks in Brussels and Poznan - I don't think we'll be able to update until next week, but it's not good), try this. An exuberant Hank Green from Ecogeek has done some ad-hoc light bulb testing to show how incandescents, CFLs and LEDs compare. Shame this wasn't done in time for the recent EU vote on light bulbs.
(Thanks, Treehugger)
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If you've been wondering what's been happening on the light bulb front since our Woolworths campaign last year (and much as they were in our bad books, it's sorry to see them go), there's been some developments on the European stage where politicians have been voting on plans to improve their efficiency and so reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the EU.
The good news is that, on Tuesday, the EU has at long last agreed on a ban of inefficient incandescent light bulbs; the somewhat worse news is that we'll have to wait several years for it to come into full effect. In the meantime, inefficient bulbs will still be on sale and given the desperate need to reduce emissions, it's not enough and it's not soon enough.
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