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The current UK government carries the scars of repeated blows from the environmental lobby over its failure to “walk the walk” on climate change.
So with some interest as to whether the umbrella of the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan would shelter it from further blows, I decided to ride the ride by bicycle from the BBC’s Bush House to a news conference telling us about the plan at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – a journey of about a mile under the rain-pregnant London skies.
It was not a promising start. Within seconds I was tucked up underneath the high-emitting end of a diesel-powered double-decker bus, stopped in my tracks by congestion, the particulate wind chugging through the holes in my cycle helmet.
Half of the journey was a frustrating scoot past serried ranks of stationary buses, vans and cabs – moving faster than them, swallowing their exhaust, forced onto the cobbled Strand central reservation by their blockage of the road surface.
So it was with some irony that I subsequently listened to Business Secretary Lord Mandelson comment that one impact of the low carbon plan would be that he could ride his bicycle more.
London Mayor Boris Johnson is also a cyclist – I have overtaken him several times down the years, though I doubt he recognised it – but still, the reality of cycling in London, as in most other British cities, is all too often a frustrating, particulate-drenched crawl along gutters of urban canyons blocked solid with angry metal.
Transports of delight
Transport finds a place in the low carbon vision – that in itself is worth a remark, given the Department of Transport’s traditional reluctance to espouse anything with a hint of greenery.
Twenty percent of the carbon cuts to 2020 is supposed to come from transport; the bulk of that is from road traffic.
The government is pushing major increases in vehicle fuel efficiency.
Statistics suggest that for cars at least, something is happening, with emissions on a plateau for the last decade despite the continued rise in kilometres travelled; even so, a hike of 40% in the fuel efficiency of new cars in just 11 years is nothing if not ambitious.
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Japan has announced a target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 15% over the next 11 years – a figure derided by environmentalists as “appalling”.
The target equates to a cut of about 8% from 1990 levels, the commonly used baseline. By comparison, the EU plans a 20% reduction over the same period.
The announcement comes in the middle of talks on the UN climate treaty in Bonn.
Some observers say Japan’s goal is not enough to persuade developing countries to cut their own emissions.
“The target is not strong enough to convince developing nations to sign up for a new climate change pact,” said Hidefumi Kurasaka, professor of environmental policies at Japan’s Chiba University.
Announcing the target, Prime Minister Taro Aso argued it was as strong as the EU’s because it does not include “flexible mechanisms” such as international carbon trading.
But Kim Carstensen, leader of the global climate initiative at environment group WWF, said the 8% target represented virtually no advance from the 6% cut that Japan had pledged, under the Kyoto Protocol, to achieve by 2012.
“Prime Minister Aso’s plan is appalling,” he said.
“[It] would mean that Japan effectively gives dirty industries the freedom to pollute without limits for eight years.”
Lobby concerns
Japan’s annual emissions are currently about 6% above 1990 levels, despite its Kyoto Protocol pledge to make cuts.
But the government points out that the society uses energy much more efficiently than other industrialised countries.
Per-capita greenhouse gas emissions are about half the rates in Australia and the US.
Last year, Mr Aso’s predecessor Yasuo Fukuda set a longer term target of cutting emissions by 60-80% by 2050, and indicated the 2020 target would be close to the EU’s.
Japan is a leader in technologies such as solar power.
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Developed and developing nations have agreed that global temperatures should not rise more than 2C above 1900 levels, a G8 summit declaration says.
That is the level above which, the UN says, the Earth’s climate system would become dangerously unstable.
US President Barack Obama said the countries had made important strides in dealing with climate change.
But the G8 failed to persuade developing countries to accept targets of cutting emissions by 50% by 2050.
On Wednesday, the G8 agreed its own members would work towards 80% cuts by the same date.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the G8 had not done enough and should also set 2020 targets.
He said that while the G8’s Wednesday agreement was welcome, its leaders also needed to establish a strong and ambitious mid-term target for emissions cuts.
See how global temperatures have risen
The second day of the summit, in the Italian city of L’Aquila, opened its discussions to take in the so-called G5 nations – Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa. Egypt is a special invitee.
In other developments:
• The world’s biggest economies have agreed to work to reach a global trade deal by 2010
• Leaders of major developed and developing nations have agreed not to resort to competitive currency devaluations
• In a joint statement, President Obama and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the detention of British embassy staff by the Iranian authorities was unacceptable.
Significant step
The latest declaration was issued by the Major Economies Forum, of 16 developed and developing nations – the G8, G5, Australia, South Korea and Indonesia – plus the European Union.
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The worst-case scenarios on climate change envisaged by the UN two years ago are already being realised, say scientists at an international meeting.
In a statement in Copenhagen on their six key messages to political leaders, they say there is a increasing risk of abrupt or irreversible climate shifts.
Even modest temperature rises will affect millions of people, particularly in the developing world, they warn.
But, they say, most tools needed to cut carbon dioxide emissions already exist.
More than 2,500 researchers and economists attended this meeting designed to update the world on the state of climate research ahead of key political negotiations set for December this year.
New data was presented in Copenhagen on sea level rise, which indicated that the best estimates of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made two years ago were woefully out of date.
Scientists heard that waters could rise by over a metre across the world with huge impacts for hundreds of millions of people.
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Some regions of the UK are likely to see more floods, especially in winter.
The UK needs to plan now for a future that will be hotter and bring greater extremes of flood and drought, says Environment Secretary Hilary Benn.
Launching the UK Climate Projections 2009 report (UKCP09), Mr Benn told MPs that the UK climate will change even with a global deal on emissions.
By 2080, London will be between 2C and 6C hotter than it is now, he said.
Every part of the UK is likely to be wetter in winter and drier in summer, according to the projections.
Summer rainfall could decrease by about 20% in the south of England and in Yorkshire and Humberside by the middle of the century.
Scotland and the north-west of England could see winter rainfall increase by a similar amount.
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A plan has been launched in England to boost the supply of woodfuel.
Ministers say using more wood for energy could provide new rural jobs and help Britain meet its climate targets.
The new strategy, developed by the Forestry Commission, aims to source an extra two million tonnes of wood a year by 2020 for burning in boilers.
Energy-efficient boilers would burn wood chips
Environment minister Barry Gardiner says if this is taken from properly managed woodlands it should save 400,000 tonnes of carbon annually.
“It also has huge benefits in terms of biodiversity and improvement of habitats for all the species we want to preserve within the countryside,” he told the BBC.
Burning wood is considered broadly carbon neutral because the CO2 released in combustion matches that absorbed by the trees as they grew – provided the woodland it is taken from is restocked, and that harvesting and processing does not itself use too much fossil fuel.
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Climate change could be the “last straw” for rare woodlands in the far north of Scotland already damaged by overgrazing animals, it is claimed.
The warning from the North Highland Forest Trust (NHFT) came as it received £250,000 from charities to help in its work to protect trees.
The biodiversity project team wants to preserve woodlands
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The researchers fear that the diversity found in woodlands could be lost forever.
British woodlands are less biologically distinctive than they were 70 years ago, says a team of UK researchers.
The use of fertilisers in farming had increased soil fertility, while tree canopies had grown thicker and cut light levels, they explained.
As a result, the woodlands were becoming home to the same species, resulting in the unique characteristics of individual sites being lost.
The findings appear online in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The research was carried out by scientists from Bournemouth University, Natural England and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH).
“This study shows that increased pollution and poor countryside management have led to increasing homogenisation of biodiversity in British woodlands,” said co-author Professor James Bullock, an ecologist from CEH.
“These two issues must be addressed in future if we wish to restore the diverse woodland communities of the past.”
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You will need a brolly on holiday in the UK in August – the Met Office is issuing a revised forecast for more unsettled weather well into the month.
It is a far cry from the “barbecue summer” it predicted back in April.
The news will raise questions about the Met Office’s ability to make reliable seasonal forecasts.
But the organisation has defended its record, saying people have already forgotten the hot weather experienced across many parts of Britain in June.
It also highlights the absence of the sort of major floods that blighted 2007 and 2008; and the largely fine weather for the Wimbledon tennis championship, the cricket Tests and the Open golf.
The Met Office also says temperatures have been around or above normal, and that the end of August might be better again.
It did indeed stress at the time of the summer forecast in April that the odds of a scorching summer were 65%. It explains that it coined the phrase “barbecue summer” to help journalists’ headlines.
But this has come back to bite the organisation because many people do not feel like they have been enjoying a “good” summer, especially compared with previous searing years.
Jet stream
Some now ask if the Met Office risks its reputation by attempting to popularise its work this way.
Certainly, at the time of the forecast there was pressure on the Met Office from tourism chiefs in the UK to be positive about holidays at home. Did Met Office staff feel an obligation to put on a sunny face?
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A startup unveils a high-yield process for making fuel from carbon dioxide and sunlight.
A startup based in Cambridge, MA–Joule Biotechnologies–today revealed details of a process that it says can make 20,000 gallons of biofuel per acre per year. If this yield proves realistic, it could make it practical to replace all fossil fuels used for transportation with biofuels. The company also claims that the fuel can be sold for prices competitive with fossil fuels.
Solar farming: A photobioreactor houses photosynthetic microorganisms that use the energy in sunlight to make fuel and other chemicals from carbon dioxide and water.
Joule Biotechnologies grows genetically engineered microorganisms in specially designed photobioreactors. The microorganisms use energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide and water into ethanol or hydrocarbon fuels (such as diesel or components of gasoline). The organisms excrete the fuel, which can then be collected using conventional chemical-separation technologies.
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