The Global Issue

Climate change is a global issue that is increasingly impacting on our lives. The weather is becoming more unpredictable, crop yields are becoming more sporadic and the price we pay for consumable goods is rising.

 

We can all do our bit to help. For example, we can switch to energy efficient light bulbs saving the UK around five million tonnes of CO2; around 60% of our rubbish in the dustbin can be recycled; and we could all use our legs and walk or cycle a little more.

 

However, action on a personal level needs to be matched by action on a national and global level. So what is being done by big businesses to reduce their carbon footprint?

 

Well take mobile phone network provider Vodafone, for example. It is a massive multi-national communications company so will consume a huge amount of energy every year. Furthermore, it produces products such as mobile phones, which are among the least recycled products here in the UK. However, it has pledged to cut its own emissions by 50%.

 

It plans to do this by using more renewable energy, reducing the need for air conditioning, reducing diesel use on remote base stations and improving network energy efficiency.

 

Add to this its mobile ‘take-back’ scheme for recycling or refurbishing your old handset and you have a good example of what large companies should be doing.

 

Its ‘take back’ scheme will collect your unwanted handset and related accessories then refurbish it for reuse in the UK or the developing world. Alternatively, they will recycle the component parts reducing the amount of energy needed and raw materials required to make new phones.

 

Vodafone has grouped together with other communications companies to develop technology to help other industries and consumers avoid 7.8 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions – 15% of the predicted total global emissions.

 

It is now a widely acknowledged fact that standby mode wastefully uses a large amount of energy, so to combat this, 18 leading mobile operators are working on implementing an energy-efficient charger. This will cut energy use in standby mode by up to 50% and prevent the need to purchase replacement chargers, eliminating up to 51,000 tonnes of waste duplicate chargers.

 

When small- and large-scale action is taken our global impact on the environment might finally be reduced.

 

Carbon offsetting in action

Carbon offsetting schemes have often come under fire, chiefly because some of these schemes have been in dubious projects with limited (and sometimes non-existent) impact on reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

 

However, genuine carbon reduction schemes do exist and make a valuable contribution to protecting the environment.

 

One such example is run by the insurance company Climatesure. When you buy a policy, Climatesure will calculate the carbon dioxide you produce by flying overseas and pay for it to be ‘offset’ by Climate Care, a leading carbon offset company. This payment is part of the price, and doesn’t cost you any extra.

 

One of the projects funded includes renewable power in India, introducing stoves into schools that run off a renewable fuel source, replacing stoves that use fossil fuel LPG. Crop waste is being used to make biomass briquettes for the stoves, providing an extra income to farmers. For the schools this is good news because the new renewable fuel is cheaper. This project is expected to save 11,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.

 

Another project supplies efficient lighting in South Africa, working with organisations including community groups and housing associations to install energy efficient lighting into people's homes. Most of the lamps are being installed in low income households – and use only a fifth of the electricity when compared to a standard bulb. Expected savings are 14,100 tonnes of carbon emissions.

California approves first US carbon-trading scheme

California has become the first US state to approve a carbon-trading plan aimed at cutting greenhouse emissions. State regulators passed a "cap-and-trade" framework, which allows companies to buy and sell permits, thereby providing an incentive to emit fewer gases. State officials hope the scheme will be copied across the US, but opponents warn it may harm California's growth and lead to higher electricity prices. The scheme means that from 2012 California will allocate licences to pollute and create a market where they can be traded.

UK and India urged to follow low-carbon path by businesses

Closer co-operation between the UK and India could accelerate moves towards a low-carbon economy, according to business leaders from both countries. Retailers Marks and Spencer, wind energy giant Suzlon, and HSBC Bank are among the companies calling for closer ties. Among other things, they argue for more UK investment in clean energy in India. Prime Minister David Cameron said the collaboration could "deliver jobs, growth and environmental protection". The UK government believes that bilateral collaborations could potentially improve the prospects for a new deal within the UN climate negotiations.

Will carbon dioxide emissions defer the next Ice Age?

Climate sceptic groups who oppose limiting greenhouse gas emissions have already begun citing this research as a reason for continuing with industrialisation and carbon emissions (ironically including some who had previously disputed that carbon emissions contributed to global warming!) Read more

What is carbon neutral?

When insurance companies talk about being carbon neutral, they mean balancing a measured amount of carbon emissions with an equivalent amount that is captured through one process or another. With net emissions being zero it becomes ‘carbon neutral’.

The most environmentally aware insurance companies will always seek to firstly reduce their own emissions and those of their customers. This will include making their buildings more eco-friendly and cutting energy use. Customers will be encouraged to drive more fuel efficient cars and given advice and incentives to reduce their carbon footprint. Only after this will unavoidable emissions be offset.

Carbon emissions can be offset in a number of ways. For example, carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels can be balanced against renewable energy that creates a similar amount of useful energy, so that the carbon emissions are compensated. More dubiously, insurance companies can pay others to remove carbon emissions by planting trees or by funding 'carbon projects' that lead to the prevention of future greenhouse gas emissions, or by buying carbon credits to remove them through carbon trading.

Is carbon capture feasible? The race to bury carbon dioxide under ocean

Often touted as the solution to halting climate change, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) for electricity generation has not yet been carried out commercially anywhere across the globe. Early efforts in the UK and around the world have so far produced little in terms of practical and workable models... [read more]

Smaller families reduce carbon emissions

As the human population nears the 7 billion mark, questions have once again been raised about the ability of our planet to support this vast increase. Will there be enough food and water? How long will the population carry on growing? What will happen to already threatened eco systems and endangered species as they compete with humans for space?

According to the Guardian, more than 200 million sexually active women who do not wish to become pregnant do not have access to modern contraception. A quarter of all births worldwide are unplanned and 42 million abortions are performed each year, half of them clandestinely, killing 68,000 women. The human toll of denying women the fundamental right to plan their families is extraordinarily high and also a significant source of population growth.

The report goes on to state that if family planning was provided to all women who wanted it, then the reduction in carbon emissions by virtue of there being less people consuming more resources, would be the equivalent to stopping all deforestation or increasing the global use of wind power by forty fold.

These figures are truly staggering. Both in terms of the suffering caused to women worldwide and also with respect to unnecessary damage being caused to the environment.

These sentiments are echoed in a statement signed by 1600 senior scientists from 70 countries, including 102 Nobel Prize laureates - Pressures resulting from unrestrained population growth put demands on the natural world that can overwhelm any efforts to achieve a sustainable future. If we are to halt the destruction of our environment, we must accept limits to that growth.

China now the largest energy user in the world

Figures from the International Energy Agency (IEA) indicate that China's energy demand has doubled in the last decade. China’s surging economic growth means that it has now overtaken the US to become the world’s top energy user. Whilst China has challenged the IEA findings, it sets a precedent since the US has been the biggest consumer of energy for more than 100 years. The surge in demand for energy in China was further fuelled by its rising population.

A sign of things to come?

The abnormally warm and dry weather in Moscow, shrouded in a blistering haze of smoke from wildfires is another symptom of global warming according to experts from the environmental group WWF Russia.

The head of the climate and energy programme at WWF Russia, Alexei Kokorin, said the abnormal temperatures soaring to up to 40C increased the likelihood of wildfires around the capital.

"We have to get ready to fight such fires in the future because there is a great possibility that such a summer will be repeated. This tendency won't stop in the coming 40 years or so, until the greenhouse gas emissions are reduced," he said. "We can now say that the wave of abnormal phenomena that the rest of the world has been experiencing has finally reached central Russia," Dr Kokorin added.

Going green will be rewarded with gold

We always hear about China and US being the great polluters but is it the full truth? By international standards the UK’s spend in developing a green economy is very low; the US for example spends three times as much as we do relative to GDP on low-carbon innovation, whilst China is very active in renewable energy, energy-efficient buildings, electric cars and clean coal.

The MP Tim Yeo in his pamphlet Green Gold: The Case For Raising Our Game On Climate Change, has said "We must beware of China who, behind a smokescreen of recalcitrance in international talks, is moving faster than most Western countries to decarbonise its economy," he writes. "If we lead the way in switching to a low carbon economy, we will reap the rewards as going green will be rewarded with gold."

Five Thousand Gulf Oil Spills

That's the rate at which humans are releasing carbon into the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion and deforestation every single day. That’s the same as five thousand spills into the Gulf of Mexico, all going at once, each releasing 40,000 barrels a day, every day for decades and centuries on end. Mankind is burning a lot of carbon!

Steep rise in India’s carbon emissions

India's greenhouse gas emissions increased by around 60% between 1994 and 2007, a government study says. The government says that emissions grew from 1.2bn tonnes in 1994 to 1.9bn tonnes in 2007, providing India with the unenviable title of one of the world's biggest emitters.

The rapid increase in emissions has been blamed on the growth of industries such as cement production, electricity and transport as India’s economy surges.

Importantly, India did not sign up to binding targets at the climate change talks in Copenhagen last year.

However, India’s per capita emissions are far lower than that of most industrialised nations and its Environment Minister has argued that its emissions are not comparable with those of the US and China. "The emissions of the United States and China are almost four times that of India in 2007," he told the AFP news agency.

Air pollution and driving

Radical shift in transport policy needed to cut air pollution

Dr. Gary Robertshaw
March 2010

Air pollution is taking up to nine years off the lives of people who live in pollution hotspots or who have a respiratory illness, according to a report by the UK House of Commons' Environmental Audit Committee. Tiny particles of sulphate, carbon and dust are the most damaging to health, but nitrogen oxides and ozone also have an effect. In fact, the UK is in breach of European regulations for all of these, and could face fines of up to £300 million. Road transport is the main culprit. Power plants also churn out damaging particles but mostly away from cities.

Only a radical shift in transport policy will allow the UK to meet its targets, the report concludes. "But such a shift is unlikely to occur in the next 10 years, unless the government starts taking sustainable transport seriously," says Paul Firmin of the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds, UK.

Our view is that the incentive for drivers of large, inefficient vehicles such as 4x4s to switch to smaller, fuel-efficient cars is far too weak. A very significant increase in the road tax for the largest vehicles, most polluting vehicles is needed.

Finally, this isn’t just another debate surrounding global warming. It’s about ordinary people like us (I am asthmatic), who don’t want to be literally choked to death by air pollution.

Carbon offsetting

Carbon dioxide is responsible for 60% of the greenhouse effect and burning fossil fuels releases the carbon dioxide stored millions of years ago. Deforestation releases not only the carbon store in trees but means that less carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere, creating a vicious circle. Trees help combat the changes by `breathing in' carbon dioxide in a process called photosynthesis, and `breathing out' oxygen. The more trees we have, the more carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere, and the more we help to combat the change by compensating for the carbon dioxide we produce. This is called `carbon offsetting'. Carbon offsetting schemes do have a role to play but remember there is no magic way to buy ourselves out of climate change. Ultimately there is no solution to climate change other than to emit less pollution, which means adopting greener lifestyles. See our green tips section. "A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people." — Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Dirty oil and climate change

As the film 'Dirty Oil' premieres this week we cam across these interesting facts. We were particularly surprised to learn that most oil used in the US now comes from 'dirty oil' in Canada, rather than traditional suppliers such as Saudi Arabia. Dr. Gary Robertshaw The Green Providers Directory •Tar sands consist of oil trapped in a complex mixture of sand, water and clay. •The extraction and production of tar sands emits on average three times as much carbon dioxide as the extraction and production of conventional oil. •Canada has proven tar sand reserves of 174 billion barrels of oil, second only to Saudi Arabia's conventional reserves. •Canada has probable reserves of 315 billion barrels of oil, accessible using technology currently under development. •Canada's ultimate reserves of tar sands are thought to be 1.7 trillion barrels of oil. •Shell, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Total and BP all have projects and expansion plans or planned developments in Canada's tar sands. •Current production is in the region of 1.3 million barrels of oil per day. •$125 billion has been earmarked for tar sand developments within the next few years. The industry is calling for this to be trebled to $379 billion by 2025. •Oil companies have plans to extract 5.5 million barrels of oil per day by 2020. Production is forecast to increase to between 3.5 million and 6.2 million barrels per day by 2020. Licenses have been granted to increase production to 7 million barrels per day. Shale Oil•Shale oil consists of oil trapped in sedimentary rock, which is released when the rock is super-heated. •Shale oil extraction emits up to eight times more carbon dioxide than conventional oil extraction. •Shale oil exploitation is still at the research and development stage, but millions of dollars are being invested to make it viable. •The US has estimated shale oil reserves of 1.5 trillion barrels of oil, probable accessible reserves are thought to be 800 billion barrels of oil. •Shell, Chevron and ExxonMobil are all developing methods to exploit shale oil or have expressed an interest in doing so.

US to build two new nuclear power stations

President Barack Obama has announced more than $8bn (£5bn) of federal loan guarantees to begin building the first US nuclear power stations for 30 years.

Two new plants are to be constructed in the state of Georgia by US electricity firm Southern Company.

Mr Obama said the plants would be "safe and clean" and were needed to meet the country's future energy needs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8518670.stm