Local and Regional

July 21 MEN reveals, via a Freedom of Information request, that Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester City Council spent £3,400 on 5 European trips last year.  [So what?]

July 21  Lancaster University is leading a £2.5m scientific UK/Malaysian research project on the biosphere and its interactions with the atmosphere and the Earth’s climate. The Natural Environment Research Council Consortium is funding the project, which is based in Danum Valley, one of the largest and most
important protected areas of pristine lowland rainforests in South East Asia. The three-year project aims to achieve a better understanding of how forests
control the composition and chemistry of the atmosphere and what their impact is on climate. [From Northwest Business Insider]

July 22  The Carbon Trust reports that companies in the north west are losing more than 3/4 of a million pounds a day because of poor energy efficiency.

July 22 The Institute of Directors is looking again at its opposition to the proposed congestion charge, after a presentation by Sir Howard Bernstein

July 22 Energos is going to build a £40m renewable energy powerplant on Merseyside

July 22 Green accountants praised Accountancy firm Armstrong Watson has been presented with a bronze award for its Future Vision programme. The award is recognised by Cumbria Business Environment Network (CBEN). Future Vision was launched earlier this year to implement awareness and commitment towards environmental improvement throughout its 17 offices. The CBEN award recognised the sustainable practices the company has developed for its nine offices in Cumbria. [From Northwest Business Insider]

July 22 The tender put out by Manchester Enterprise for companies to propose how Manchester could become a huge player in the Carbon Trading game closes.

July 24 GM are pondering using a Merseyside factory for their electric car

July 28  "MMU goes green" Manchester Metropolitan University’s (MMU) new business school is set to be the greenest building in the city – and, like all good greenhouses, it’s going to be made of glass. The university has a carbon footprint of 20,000 tonnes and came in at 91st in the Times Higher Education’s Green League 2007. Green measures include the appointment of a carbon reduction manager and investment in water conservation. MMU has moved up the Times chart to 67th place.

July 29 Manchester Airport Group profits up. Despite ongoing worries in the aviation and airport industries, Manchester Airport Group (MAG) has announced an increase in pre-tax profit of 8.5 per cent to £87.8m for the year ending 31 March 2008. Revenue was up from £385.5m to £395.7m for the same period. The group, which also owns East Midlands, Bournemouth and Humberside airports, said overall passenger numbers were up from 28.6 million to 29.2 million, although Manchester Airport saw a drop of 200,000.
Chairman Alan Jones said: “Safety and security, customer service, consolidation in the airline sector and environmental concerns all combine to present major challenges to our business. The group has responded positively to all these issues.”

July 28 Manchester Airport reports its small-scale wind turbine on Terminal Two is a success. It may install more as a way of reducing reliance on the grid.

August 1 A decision on the new chairman of the North West Development Agency won't be made until Autmn.  A Peel Holdings exectuvie and the current Mancheser Airports Group chief exec are both contenders.

Sustainable Stars is a competition open to people and organisations championing environmental causes in Blackburn with Darwen, Rossendale, Hyndburn, Burnley, Pendle adn Ribble Valley- the so-called Pennine Lancashire area. It has 13 categories, with awards for schools and community groups, for residents witht eh best eco-home renovation, and for environmental businesses. Entry is free and the closing date is 31 August. To apply contact Catherine Toon at Elevate East Lancashire on 01254 304 572 or catherine.toon@elevante-eastlancs.co.uk

 

National

July 17 Friends of the Earth reports on the progress of the Climate Bill: 83 Labour MPs signed our 80% amendment, and 84 Labour MPs signed our aviation and shipping amendment. This was an incredible achievement and is an unprecedented level of support from MPs for amendments to a government bill at its committee stage.

July 21 Axa Insurance says an extra £720m is needed to prevent a repeat of the damage cause by the 2007 floods

July 21 Ofcom, the media regulator, gives Channel 4 a very minor tap on the wrist for its egregious "Great Global Warming Swindle" 'documentary'

July 21  A coalition of green leaders launch "Green New Deal" proposals.

July 21  A wide-ranging audit of England's natural resources - its wildlife, habitats and ecosystems - was today launched by Environment Secretary Hilary Benn. The two year project will result in the most comprehensive picture ever of our natural environment, the benefits it provides to society, and how it is changing.

July 22 The Environmental Audit Committee releases a report saying that the government should set a deadline for coal-fired power stations to adopt "clean" technologies or close, and that the government is wrong to believe that a carbon market alone will persuade companies to invest in "clean coal".

July 23 A Plane Stupid activist's attempt to have Gordon Brown as a captive audience for a lecture on aviation erm, came unstuck, as the glue on his hand didn't properly attach him to the jacket of Our Supreme Leader.

July 24 The Guardian reports that the government has switched money meant for low-carbon and renewable technologies to clean up the waste from nuclear power stations. Figures released by BERR in February showed that at least £15m that was meant to be used on "sustainable energy capital grants" had been switched to the NDA. Ministers also plundered the defence budget as well as cash that should have been used for "regional selective assistance" to bolster the NDA."

July 24 Climate Change Minister Joan Ruddock today called on organisations across the public and private sector to develop imaginative and innovative approaches to deal with the  impact of a changing climate. Launching a new information hub that will help businesses, planners, and others to adapt to climate change, Ms Ruddock said that as the climate changed, there would be more extreme weather, with an increased risk of flooding and erosion, hotter and drier summers, loss of biodiversity and risks to human health – and society would have to adapt to those changes.

July 24 Julia King (who recently wrote a report on Low-Carbon cars) has been appointed to the Climate Committee

July 26 Two doctors, writing in the British Medical Journal have suggest that doctors talk to their patients about climate change and encourage them to think about the consequences of having a big family.

July 28  A WWF-UK report warns that Shell and BP's plans to get oil from tar sands and oil shale risk triggering climate catastrophe.

July 29  Ryanair share's fall 23 per cent because of fuel increases and falling ticket prices.

July 30  The free-market Taxpayers'  Alliance and the Renewable Energy Foundation claim that climate policies are adding more than £50 to household electricy bills.

July 31  Reports by the Stockholm Environment Institute reveal that UK greenhouse gas emissions have been in line with economic growth since the 1990s, not falling as advertised. One of the reports claims that emissions are 49% higher than reported.

July 31  Police raid the Climate Camp, and confiscate... crayons, board games and other dangerous equipment.

July 31 BP has moved its renewables division into a separate building, as part of its attempt to create a stand alone business.  And it buys half of one of the biggest wind farms in the world.

August 1 Malcome Wicks, energy minister, tells th FT that those opposing new coal-fired power stations are "wrong, naive and against the force of reason."  MCFly wonders if spewing millions more tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere is a reasonable thing to do.

August 3  British Energy doesn't get sold to EDF, and fur starts to fly.

Global

July 21 INEOS, the world's 3rd largest chemical company said it would be producing commercial quantities of bioethanol from municipal waste within 2 years.

July 21 Hobart's new billion-dollar public hospital would be built well above sea level, to protect it from the effects of climate change.

LONDON, Jul 23, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The newly released Maplecroft Climate Change Risk Report includes the first-ever climate change vulnerability index and a set of best-to-worst rankings for more than 168 countries worldwide. It identifies the world's highest carbon dioxide (CO2) emitters as well as those countries most and least vulnerable to climate change. The report finds many of the world's biggest CO2 emitters are also the countries least vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Despite being the biggest emitter, the United States is the 12th least vulnerable to climate change. And Canada is "the best haven from climate change". At the same time about 75% of the 20 nations most vulnerable to climate change are found in Africa, the continent with the lowest CO2 emissions.

July 23 DESERTEC proposal (loads of Saharan solar panels and a very long extension cord) discussed by EU.

July 28 SEOUL, South Korea, (ENS) - The South Korean government has decided that selected products will carry labels in the marketplace to show the size of their carbon footprints. During the testing phase, just 10 products will get carbon labels, but if the program is successful, it will be used more widely.

August 1 Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva has launched an international fund to protect the Amazon rainforest and help combat climate change. The fund will promote alternatives to forest-clearing for people living in the Amazon, and support conservation and sustainable development

August 1  California, Connecticut, New Jersey, Oregon, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and New York City are planning to sue the Environmental Protection Agency if it doesn't begin to reduce pollution from ships, aircraft and off-road vehicles

August 1 Climate Exchange, the AIM listed company which owns the European Climate Exchange (ECX) and the Chicago Climate Exchange, announced a deal with the Chinese National Petroleum Corp. Assets Management and Tianjin City to begin an emissions trading business in China.

August 1 Scientists at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology claim to have developed a way to store solar energy, in a technique inspired by photosynthesis.

August 3  Spanish government announces plans to cut speed limits in and around cities, to shrink fuel bills.
 

Scary Science

July 20 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The world's wetlands, threatened by development, dehydration and climate change, could release a planet-warming "carbon bomb" if they are destroyed, ecological scientists said on Sunday.

Wetlands contain 771 billion tons of greenhouse gases, one-fifth of all the carbon on Earth and about the same amount of carbon as is now in the atmosphere, the scientists said before an international conference linking wetlands and global warming.

If all the wetlands on the planet released the carbon they hold, it would contribute powerfully to the climate-warming greenhouse effect, said Paulo Teixeira, coordinator of the Pantanal Regional Environment Program in Brazil.

"We could call it the carbon bomb," Teixeira said by telephone from Cuiaba, Brazil, site of the conference. "It's a very tricky situation."

 

July 31  A 3000 year old slab of ice has broken off the Canadian Ward Hunt ice shelf, and is drifiting into the Arctic Ocean.  "Nobody is surprised any more", said the head of a global research project on sea ice. "We've been trying to get the word out for the lognest time now that things are happening fast and they're going to continue to happen fast."

 

July 30, 2008 11:09 AM Reuters

Birds fly north in climate change vanguard: study  By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

/wildlife/article/37804/printBy Alister Doyle, Environment CorrespondenOSLO (Reuters) - Birds have been moving north in Europe over the past 25 years because of climate change in the vanguard of likely huge shifts in the ranges of plants and animals, scientists said on Wednesday.

A study of 42 rare bird species in Britain showed that southern European bird species such as the Dartford warbler, Cirl bunting, little egret or Cetti's warbler had become more common in Britain from 1980-2004
 

Apocalypso Beat

July 28  Richard 'very concerned about climate change' Branson launches the 'mothership' that will send space tourists into sub-orbital flights. 250 people have already paid $200,000 each for to get flights.

July 31  A Middle East car owner flew his Lamborghini from Qatar to London and back for a service. Friends of the Earth said "the pollution from driving a Lamborghini is bad enough, but flying one thousands of miles for a service is taking climate-wrecking behaviour to new heights."  The deep green David Price of Lamborghini Club UK was more reasonable: "If someone owns something and wants to do something with it, what does it matter? If [the owner] wants to hire a plane and service it, it's his business. There are far more serious things to concern ourselves with."
 

What's Been Going On?
July 25 The Associaton of Greater Manchester Authorities decided that there would indeed be a referendum on the TIF. Sometime in December
July 27 Bury Friends of the Earth opened Peel Tower. The group talked to visitors about the biofuels campaign and encouraged people to sign postcards to MEPs.
July 31 The Three Billion Quid Question Debate
August 2 Save Woodhead Tunnel demo

What's Coming Up?

August 3 -11 Camp for Climate Action
court cases for the Drax Coltrane 
Wednesday August 13  Open meeting about at Friends Meeting House about  "Only Planet"- a book of articles about Manchester and Climate Change. It will be launched Saturday 6th September.