Sustainability Journey
Posted on | May 18, 2012 | No Comments
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Kyoto Treaty History
Posted on | May 18, 2012 | No Comments
The Eco Global Markets Blog
http://www.ecoglobalmarkets.com/media/egm-press/egm-blog/
Canada’s rules for oil and gas pollution
Posted on | May 18, 2012 | No Comments
Canada planned to decrease oil and gas pollutions through draft regulations by next year while facing questions about its upcoming withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol. The Canadian government was working towards draft regulations in the oil and gas sector, and it continued efforts to meet commitments to cut annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 to 17 per cent below 2005 levels. Saint-Jacques told his international counterparts, “Once we have finalized the oil and gas regulations, we will have covered some 60 per cent of our emissions.”
The government has estimated that the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country is the oilsands sector in Alberta. The sector produced seven per cent of Canada’s annual greenhouse gas pollution in 2010, and the entire oil and gas sector was responsible for 22 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gases in the same year.
Based on current government policies, Canada’s overall emissions were still expected to rise above existing levels, but new plans by provinces such as Quebec, Ontario, B.C. and Alberta, together with developing federal policies, would steadily improve the environmental performance. “It’s clear that more needs to be done to put Canada on a path meet its target,” said M.J. Mace from St. Lucia.
The motives behind Canada’s decision to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol were questioned by Naderev Sano, a climate change commissioner from the Philippines. Saint-Jacques replied the agreement wasn’t the best option since the government believed it didn’t sufficiently identify rising emissions from emerging economies.
Daily carbon market news, from Eco Global Markets
Resource: The Gazette
UK carbon targets at risk
Posted on | May 18, 2012 | No Comments
The national carbon targets could be met by placing a statutory duty on councils, leading to various new schemes that could also benefit the local residents. However, plans cannot be developed and implemented without adequate funding, putting the UK’s carbon targets at risk.
Andy Atkins, Friends of the Earth’s executive director, expressed: “This is a stark warning the government can’t afford to ignore – UK climate targets won’t be met unless ministers ensure every council plays its part in slashing emissions, and has the funds to do so. The government has failed to support local action on climate change – and only a few council leaders are currently championing action on the scale required.”
There are several ways to reduce carbon emissions and improve residents’ lives by the local authorities in which they have the power to supplement them with their own initiatives. The local authorities can take right actions in buildings, surface transport and waste that could cut emissions by 30% from 1990 levels. Some of the other methods include improving the public transport and other sustainable travel options, as well as developing advanced recycling programmes and giving planning permissions to local renewable energy projects.
Other options councils should consider involve better town planning to make towns and cities more “liveable”, plans to generate energy from waste such as decomposing food waste into biogas, and district heating schemes like using waste heat from power stations. Better cooperation among local organisations is required in understanding low-carbon strategies, as not many schemes have been implemented due to a lack of coordination and incentives.
Daily carbon market news, from Eco Global Markets
Resource: The Guardian
Solutions to reduce plane emissions
Posted on | May 18, 2012 | No Comments
In the UK now we are dependent on commercial airlines, as well as the Channel Tunnel and secure data networks. Rail and video-conference will help in sustainability, but air travel will still remain important and more people are going to fly, meaning negative consequences will be incurred, especially in greenhouse gas emissions. Although aviation currently accounts for a relatively small proportion of the global carbon emission, this will change fast and it is expected that by 2050 the aviation emissions will account for up to 20% of global emissions.
Including aviation in Europe’s carbon trading scheme this week is a positive progress, and more efficient aircraft will also contribute in improving the industry’s climate. Since planes built today will be in service many years after, replacing existing jet fuel (kerosene) with sustainable bio jet fuel is an option to deliver emission reductions and can be used by current aircraft.
Proportion of sustainable bio jet fuel should be raised for airport operators to provide airlines with a combination of jet fuel that would significantly reduce emissions from flights. This emission reduction strategy would benefit the airlines and might even attract environmentally conscious flyers. The international travel will continue to increase, particularly to and from the UK, and this will make a significant reduction in aviation emissions without declining the airport capacity to keep UK plc open both business and leisure.
Daily carbon market news, from Eco Global Markets
Resource: The Guardian
Is Solar Energy the Future?
Posted on | May 15, 2012 | No Comments
As long as the sun keeps shining, solar energy will be a renewable and almost inexhaustible resource for the planet. Just a small fraction of the world’s power, transport and heating is derived from solar power, yet every hour the sun emits enough energy to meet global demands for an entire year.
Solar power is seeing increased popularity in the 21st century. As the world’s supplies of fossil fuels diminish, scientists and engineers are making great strides in harnessing solar heat and using it for electricity generation. Earlier this year physicists at Cambridge University announced the development of a new breed of solar cell that boosts the efficiency of traditional solar panels by 25%. Meanwhile a recent YouGov survey revealed that 90% of the British public supported significant government investment in solar technologies and hoped to see solar power take a greater part in both domestic and business energy use.
UK residents can invest in the future of solar energy in a number of ways. Firstly by purchasing carbon credits from specialists such as Eco Global Markets, which channels investment into green projects across the world. By helping to fund the development of solar technology, individuals and business can offset their own emissions and shrink their carbon footprint on the earth.
Another way that businesses and households can invest in solar power is by installing PV panels. Solar PV panels capture heat from the sun and convert it into electricity to be used in a building. This reduces the amount of energy needed from a utility supplier and in some cases can generate enough electricity to meet all of a household’s or company’s energy requirements. Any additional electricity created is fed back into the National Grid and is eligible for the government’s Feed-in-Tariff, which provides savings on energy bills.
Solar thermal panels use the sun’s energy to heat the water in conventional boilers and central heating systems. As thermal panels only need daylight, rather than direct sunlight, they even work during cloudy days and can provide a third of a household’s hot water.
The future of solar energy is very much in the hands of the public. What ordinary householders and business owners choose to buy and support will dictate the trends of the future; investing in carbon credits, installing solar panels and voting for government measures that fund solar power research and development.
Resources
http://www.jc-solarhomes.com/solar_energy_facts.htm
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/08/us-solar-cell-idUSTRE8171IB20120208
UK music festivals to reward cyclists
Posted on | May 15, 2012 | No Comments
For music fans across the UK, the summer can only mean one thing: festivals. Now some of the country’s biggest events are encouraging ticket holders to offset carbon emissions and help the environment by cycling to the site.
The new festival cycling trend is set to be huge this summer, with many festival-goers planning to ‘go green’ before indulging in junk food, copious amounts of alcohol and live music in the nights to come. Many people are also using cycling to make new friends before an event and some are even asking their friends and family to sponsor their festival ride.
So why not leave the car at home this summer and raise money for a greener future? You can even help to reduce your carbon footprint further by using any sponsorship cash to purchase carbon credits from companies such as Eco Global Markets, who fund green projects across the world.
From Womad festival in Wiltshire to Green Man festival in Powys, music events this year are offering rewards for anyone arriving on a bike, such as free lock-up and VIP campsites dedicated to cyclists. Two festivals are even providing organised cycling parties from a number of starting points across the country.
The Bike to Bestival scheme will start on a section of London’s Olympic Road Race route on Tuesday 4th September and will take two days to get to the Isle of Wight festival. Fancy dress is encouraged and there will be a ‘travelling band’ to help get cyclists into the Bestival spirit. Organisers Dom and Warren will be raising money for Cancer Research UK throughout the ride.
The more ambitiously named Tour de Latitude starts in East London, then picks up more cyclists in Sudbury and again in Ipswich before concluding at Henham Park on the Suffolk Coast. Open to all standards of cyclists, this organised ride provides separate transport for baggage and secure storage for bikes upon arrival. Each participant is expected to raise £350 to cover a Latitude ticket and charity donations, but free food from Marks and Spencer, on hand bike mechanics and a bus ticket home if you can’t face the cycle back, are all included in the price. Online registration for Tour de Latitude is now open at www.give2go.co.uk.
Oil’d
Posted on | February 27, 2012 | No Comments
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South Korea delays bill to curtail carbon emissions
Posted on | February 27, 2012 | No Comments
A bill that would introduce a cap and trade system, slashing carbon emissions, has been set back by at least a month. Amongst industrial democracies, South Korea is one of the fastest-growing producers of greenhouse gases in the world.
The vote was delayed for a month by the National Assembly Legislative and Judiciary Committee and will likely move forward once the assembly reconvenes in April. Corporations in the region claim that it will hurt competitiveness and the program will likely not start for two years, until 2015. The accord is likely not to take effect until 2020.
Chung Suh Yong of the Korea University in Seoul reportedly commented: “There’s a long way to go until the emission trading system will be settled in the country.” The vice president of the state-run korea energy economics institute, Moon Young Seok, reportedly said: “The government doesn’t want to shock industries with the scheme. It is taking a step forward as planned, but abating the pace.”
Carbon market experts predict that by 2020, South Korea will emit 742 million tons of emissions. In other carbon market news, certified emissions reductions for December delivery in the UN clean development mechanism climbed by 0.8 per cent to 5.08 euros, according to the ICE Futures Europe Exchange in London.
Eco Global Markets homepage.
Grassroots green projects help UK become low carbon
Posted on | February 8, 2012 | No Comments
The best chance of making the UK a low-carbon economy comes through community-owned green energy projects. According to a collection of civil groups that represent 12 million people, government support to create a low carbon economy should be greater. Local people need a stake in energy generation and to be given the chance to produce low-carbon, low-cost energy.
The group includes some of the leading non-governmental organisation in the UK – The National Trust, the Church of England, the National Federation of Women’s Institutes and the Co-operative. The director of rural enterprise at the National Trust, Patrick Begg, was reported as saying: “Many other European countries are way ahead of the UK, as we found out when visiting German communities last year. Germany produces over 20% of its electricity from renewable sources, with communities generating about a quarter of this. In the UK, less than 1% is generated by our communities, a figure this [civil society] coalition wants to dramatically increase by 2020. We are asking the government to support us in this.”
Meanwhile, the head of social goals at the Co-operative, Paul Monaghan, reportedly said: “We want nothing less than a clean energy revolution, with communities controlling and benefiting from their own renewable energy. Talk of a new dash for [shale] gas, which could see up to 3,000 wells installed across the UK, highlights the choices we face – more and dirtier sources of fossil fuels or clean energy owned and controlled by communities.”
Need to offset your carbon emissions? Find out how at eco global markets.
Source: The Guardian