The UK Government has overturned the ban on local councils selling renewable electricity. Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has announced that councils across Britain will from 18th August be allowed to sell renewable electricity to the grid and should assume their rightful place leading a local power revolution. At present only 0.01% of electricity in England is generated by local authority-owned renewables, despite the scope that exists to install projects on their land and buildings. In Germany the equivalent figure is 100 times higher. Source: DECC
UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne announces the launch of the first Annual Energy Statement. He commented: “Our actions must be informed by the best information about the future. That is why I am publishing our work on 2050 energy pathways, which has been worked up in consultation with industry, scientists, engineers and economists. We are making the data and analysis available and we are inviting comments over the summer. We want to start a grown-up debate about what a low-carbon future will look like and the best way of achieving it”. Source: DECC
Our natural environment underpins our economic prosperity, our health and our wellbeing. As a result, protecting the environment and enhancing biodiversity is one of Defra’s top 3 priorities. Here UK Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman launches a discussion document on the new Natural Environment White Paper. Source: DEFRA
UK Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman visits Castle Bromwich Junior School to find out what pupils have been doing to make their school more environmentally sustainable. Organised by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), Green Day helps pupils learn about climate change and how it relates to the buildings and space around them. Source: DEFRA
The UK Government has announced that it is to carry out a full review of waste policy in England, looking at the most effective ways of reducing waste, maximising the money to be made from waste and recycling, and how waste policies affect local communities and individual households. Announcing the review at the Futuresource conference, Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said: “There is an economic and environmental urgency to developing the right waste strategy. We have been slowly moving in the right direction with recycling rates. The direction of travel is right – it’s the pace that’s the problem. We need to go faster and we need to go further”. Source: DEFRA
UN Climate Change Talks in Bonn have made important progress towards concluding what was left incomplete at the Copenhagen Conference in December 2009. Addressing the media on the final day of the session, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer said that progress made during the two weeks of talks opens the way for the COP 16 conference in Cancun at the end of this year to deliver the full package of operational measures that will allow developing countries to take faster, stronger action across all areas of climate change. Source: UNFCCC
The UK’s Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman and Communities Secretary Eric Pickles visited the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead to see the authority’s recycling reward scheme. The scheme rewards householders who volunteer to participate with points worth up to GBP135 a year, from over 100 reward partners including Marks & Spencer, Coffee Republic and Cineworld. Caroline Spelman commented: “Windsor and Maidenhead Council have got it right by rewarding people for voluntarily doing the right thing, not penalising them for doing the wrong thing – that is how we can change behaviour, improve the environment and get people to play their part”. Source: DEFRA
A rise of sulphur dioxide emissions in China’s air, despite emission reduction efforts, is making government officials less optimistic about achieving pollution cuts. Source: Clean Skies News
Findings from an EU-funded project “Wind Barriers” were released at the European Wind Energy Conference and Exhibition in Warsaw. The study reveals that it takes an average of 42 months to obtain consent to build wind farms across the EU and that there is significant variation between different member states. Source: EWEA
Scalloped hammerhead and oceanic white tip sharks are denied conservation measures that environmental campaigners argue are vital to safeguard their future. China and Russia helped Japan defeat a US-endorsed proposal at the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting in Qatar that would have boosted conservation efforts for these species of shark. Source: Reuters
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