“How Green is your Stadium?“: There was an interesting article under this heading in the Metro pointing out that Ajax’s stadium has ‘ carbon neutral ‘Sweet Seats’ made in Brazil from sugar cane ethanol and that Wembley uses all its waste to generate power. But its ‘Lowly, non league Dartford FC [who] have perhaps become English football’s eco pioneers, with a £6.5 million stadium described as Britain’s greenest. Solar panels power most of the ground’s hot water and under-floor heating while its roof is turf covered” with organisers saying that they ‘”hope that we will take ‘sustainability’ into consideration if we ever do construct a new stadium- it makes economic sense if nothing else.” One blogger adds “We all know how windy it can get at Holker Street, a few turbines would be very productive and with the support of Dong Energy could be installed at low cost. Our location, near to the coast and Ormsgill reservoir, also makes Holker Street one of the best grounds for bird watching with low flying wildfowl and cormorants often distracting me from the football. If a new stand roof were to be covered in insect supporting wild flowers it could bring in more bird life too (there is one such roof that even supports skylarks)”.
Denmark is aiming to become fully sustainable on self generated energy by 2050 moving completely away from oil and coal to wind power and electricity generated form biomass. Danish government proposals have called for generating just over half of its electricity from wind turbines by 2020 and all of its energy from renewable sources in 2050. The government’s proposal called for coal-fired power plants and oil-fired heating to be phased out by 2030. Coal energy would be replaced by biomass.
The UK’s oldest green NGO, Environmental Protection UK, is closing after cuts to local authority budgets severely reduced its income. Formed as the Coal Smoke Abatement Society the EPUK analyses air quality and more recently on contaminated land. Ten people at the Brighton based agency will lose their jobs
Canada’s shameful oil tar sands mining is being supported by the United Kingdom the Guardian has revealed. It seems that Canada oil tar sands, the World’s second largest reserve of fossil fuels after Saudi Arabia’s oil, are of great interest to the UK who have set up a consulate in Alberta to ‘support British commercial interests’ and have agreed to lobby at Brussels. Mining oil tar is hugely costly in terms of greenhouse gases emitted in the extraction process and with widespread environmental damage.
The UN Environment Programme has said that wood is not the sustainable fuel we all think it is, and is a major contributor to climate change. Wood fires, along with diesel vehicles, are the two biggest contributors to climate change in developing countries as both produce black carbon soot – also a major contributor to poor health. Modern wood burning stoves which burn pellets usually have particle catching technology and modern diesel cars are much less polluting – but more expensive. In fact in the UK an interesting letter in the Times newspaper explains that the UK Government’s subsidy of biomass for energy projects is distorting the market in wood.Alistair Kerr, Director General of the Wood Panel Industries Federation said that subsidising wood burning was bad for the taxpayer – and for the environment – and for British companies that manufacture products from wood and is “destroying the UK’s forest industries”.
Latest figures from the Met Office confirm climate change scientist’s predictions that temperatures across the World are continuing to rise. As the UN meets in Durban in South Africa to discuss the worlds response climate change, the average global temperatures for the first 10 moths of 2011 were 14.36C, 0.36C above the long term average. This is actually cooler than 2010, explained by the weather phenomenon La Nina which brings cooler water to the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Phil Jones, director of Research at UEA, said that the the figures provided ‘overwhelming’ evidence of climate change. In parts of Russia temperatures were more than 4C above average, Many southern European countries including Spain have had their hottest year for 140 years as have many in South America. In Durban only the EU and a number of small countries severely affected by climate change are pushing for a new ‘Kyoto’ style deal. Kyoto expires in 2012.
A biomass project originally due to be completed this year has doubled in cost to £120m it was revealed today. In 2008 E.ON was given the green light to build a £60M plant on the site of a former coal-fired power station outside Sheffield called Blackburn Meadows. The plant was originally targeted as 25MW and was meant to go into operation this year.
The Isle of Wight aims to become a net green energy exporter to the rest of the UK and Europe by capitalising on its renewable power capabilities At a launch event today (November 15) at the House of Commons in central London business leaders from the island and around the world laid out a vision for an ‘Eco-Island’. According to Eco Island Partnership founder and chief executive, David Green, the Isle of Wight can not only become energy self-sufficient but also be an energy exporter.
Edie.net reports that One of the UK’s largest solar businesses has revealed it is behind a second legal challenge on cuts to Feed-In Tariffs (FITs). Earlier FRIENDS OF THE EARTH had said that it was taking legal action over proposed cuts to FITs level, which are due to come in on December 12 before the consultation finishes two weeks later on December 23. At that time the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) confirmed it had received ‘two letters indicating an intention to start legal proceedings’.
Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman has called the waste sector a “bright star of economic growth”, saying it was one of the few industries predicted to grow against the backdrop of a challenging economic climate. Speaking at WRAP’s annual conference in London, Spelman told delegates the sector was forecast to grow between 3-5% per annum over the coming years. She said: “I constantly see people coming to me with new opportunities for materials that have previously been discarded or buried in the ground. Good resource management will help rebalance the economy and put it on a more sustainable footing.”
Coca-Cola has announced it is planning to recycle all clear plastic waste collected at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games into 80 million new coke bottles.
