co-operatives addressing the climate threat... together

Tuesday, 9 March 2010

$2.9 million in renewables grants awarded in South Carolina, USA.


Four electric cooperatives will share $500,000 of the grant money, to install 70 solar themal water systems in the homes of members of Berkley Electric Cooperative, York Electric Cooperative, Santee Electric Cooperative and Pee Dee Electric Cooperative.


Applicants will invest $1.31 to every $1 of investment from the grant. The nine grants that have been awarded in total, hope to realise a total saving of $7.7 million in energy costs, over the life of the projects.


The electric co-operatives of South Carolina are currently taking part in a state wide energy efficiency and consumer education study. The 19 co-operatives taking part in the study named 'Help My House', will test different methods of energy efficiency accross a total of 1,200 existing homes. Methods that will be tested include heat pump installation, roof retrofitting, weather proofing assistance, energy efficient appliance upgrades and in home energy monitors.


The 'Help My House Study' will run on a budget of $3.3 million, $2.9 million of which was awarded by the South Carolina Budget and Control Board's State Enery Office.
Posted by ACT! at 04:15 0 comments

Tuesday, 2 March 2010

New Green Strategy For UK Homes


A green transformation of British homes is planned to take place over the next ten years. The UK government has set out plans today to make homes more comfortable, warmer, and cheaper for residents.


The plans include:


  • 'Pay as you save' green finance scheme to be launched, that will make energy efficiency measures financially viable.

  • Up to 7million houses to benefit from environmental upgrades by 2010.

  • Up to 65,000 jobs in the green home sector.

  • Energy companies and local authorities to link together to help consumers.

  • New standard for social and rented housing to be proposed.

With around 25% of UK emissons coming from energy used in homes, the 'Warmer Homes, Greener Homes' strategy is aimed at cutting emissions from UK homes by 29% by 2020.


The new startegy will help people use energy in their homes in a wiser way and thus help reduce their energy bills. Installing certain energy efficiency measures can have a dramatic effect on a household energy bill, for example installing solid wall insulation can reduce enrgy bils by £380 a year (average between 2013-2020).


Article source: DECC Press Release

Posted by ACT! at 07:09 1 comments

Spain and Germany lead the pack as Europe is set to exceed 2020 renewables target


A recent analysis by the European Wind Energy Association has found that the EU is on track to exceed its target of 20% of energy coming from renewable sources by 2020.


Bulgaria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg and Malta are reportedly not on track to meet their targets, but none are expected to be more than 1%below.

Larger countries such as Spain and Germany currently lead the way, with Spain expected to be producing 22.7% of its energy from renewables by 2020.


Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden are also expected to exceed their targets.


EU member states are required to submit a national action plan to the European Commission by June 2010, detailing how they are going to meet the target of 20% of energy from renewables by 2020, as part of the 2009 Renewable Energy Directive.


In a stark change of opinion from 2008 when many EU member states commented that the targets were unrealistic and would be difficult to meet, most EU countries are now on target to exceed or meet the 20% target. Christine Lins, secretary general of the European Renewable Energy Council commented "The clear majority of EU member states recognise the economic, social and environmental benefits of promoting a broad range of renewable energy technologies nationally, as reflected in their forecast documents".



Posted by ACT! at 01:18 0 comments

Thursday, 25 February 2010

In A Bid To Win Back Public Trust, 150 Years Of Temperature Data Will Be Re- Examined


The MET office of the UK has called for a 150 years of temperature measurements to be reviewed, during a meeting in Turkey today.


The call for ' A New International Analyisis Of Land Surface Air Tempreature Data' comes at a time when public conviction to fight the climate threat is falling, in the light of email scandals, aggressive if not unpredictable marketing from sceptics and lack of political action.


The current sets of data collated by the US and UK using different methodologies, clearly show temperatures are rising, but the MET office believes there is room for improvement in the analysis process.


The analysis will take three years and will be open to public scrutiny through out the process, the scientists do not expect to see any substantial changes in the data but hope it will add to the credibility of the science behind climate change.


A recent UK study from Ipsos Mori showed that the amount of adults that believe that climate change is 'definitely' a reality dropped by a huge 30% in 2009. Many people surveyed mentioned hacked emails for their doubts but a large proportion commented that the lack of political action has made them question the validity of claims.


There maybe no evidence being put forward by climate sceptic groups, but the small number of sceptics in the world are heavily funded and as a result are holding back climate action, in the same way that a similar group of sceptics held back action on the effect of CFC's, acid rain and indeed more recently the link between passive smoking and cancer for the benefit of big business.


To read an article on the 'Recycling of critics of old' see the article by Jeffrey Sachs in the Guardian UK, www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2010/feb/19/climate-change-sceptics-science

Posted by ACT! at 05:21 0 comments

Wednesday, 24 February 2010

The UN Have Stated, Emission Gaps Must Be Reduced Now



UN Environment Chief Achim Steiner, has announced that major emitters must move quickly to reduce the gap between their CO2 emission reduction pledges and the 2020 emission targets, if we are to have a chance of limiting temperature rise to under 2degrees.


A new report released yesterday by the UN environment programme ((UNEP), stated that we were clearly not on target to reach the 2020 emission targets. The UNEP Year Book 2010 report was distributed at a meeting in Bali this week and states that even if the current emission reductions being pledged are achieved, we are likely to fall some way short of limiting temperatures to a 2 degree rise, by 2020.


The document highlights the need for further investment in accelerating the creation of clean technologies and investing in marine and terrestrial ecosystems as key areas of focus.


It estimates that investing between $22-29 bn in Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degredation (REDD) could reduce deforestation by 25% by 2015. The crucial role of REDD was acknowledged by the Copenhagen accord, as it called for 'finacial incentives' to mobilise finacial resources.


Read the UNEP press release at http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=612&ArticleID=6472&l=en


Posted by ACT! at 03:48 0 comments

Tuesday, 23 February 2010

Is The EU Delivering On Climate Finance Commitments?New figures Suggest Not


The EU member states commitments on climate finance so far add up to less than two thirds of what was pledged in Copenhagen. The EU pledged €2.4 billion per year to help developing countries fight the effects of climate change.


The EU plans to hold talks on how it will spend the climate funds in June, yet a report from the World Resources Institute (WRI) has calculated that the sum so far committed reaches only €1.52billion a year. This includes commitments from Germany, Ireland, France, UK, and the Netherlands.


The global figure, which includes the only other two countries that agreed fast track financial commitments at Copenhagen,the USA and Japan, currently stands at $23billion some $7billion short of an agreed $30 billion a year.


The key concern raised in the WRI study is that the current financial contributions are not new and additional to existing aid and developmnt funds, something that was called for by developing nations during the climate talks in Copenhagen. NGO's such as Greenpeace and Oxfam have continually raised concerns that the financial commitments would simply be made from existing finances already set aside for aid in developing nations.


The WRI report shows that all of the €420m pledged by Germany will count towards their 0.7% Overseas Development Aid commitment, while over half of the £500m pledged by the UK was already paid out to the World Bank after being commited as far back as 2007.



Posted by ACT! at 02:15 2 comments

Monday, 22 February 2010

New Rules For Emissions Trading Scheme Approved By EU Member States


A committee of Member States has backed proposals to transfer carbon allowances recorded in national ETS (Emission Trading Scheme) registeries to a centralised, single, EU registry from 2012. Airlines will also be included in the future ETS.


National administartors will be given more power under the new proposal, allowing them to close accounts. Law enforcement agencies will also now be allowed to share information with the ETS administrators. It is hoped that tighter regulation will cut down the recent incidents of fraudulent behaviour, within the ETS.


Extracted from a Europa press release on the 18-02-10, for more details paste the following address in your internet browser.



Posted by ACT! at 07:12 0 comments
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