Vox Polis

If there’s one thing the current administration like it’s targets. So it’s not surprising to hear of a proposal today to set binding targets for (issue of the week) carbon emissions. The draft Climate Change Bill calls for an independent panel (though with final approval still lying with ministers) to be set up which will set 5-yearly “carbon budgets”. The final aim is to cut carbon emissions by 60% by 2050.

It’s all very ambitious and forward thinking but what it’s not, and what there’s a lack of in general amongst all the green posturing, is actual action. The only actual action we’ve seen in the past week has come from the EU in the form of a ban on inefficient lightbulbs. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for accountability and at some point it will be important that we can hold the government to task but right now someone has to actually break from the pack and do something concrete.

Not only do we need to see some action, it’s also time for an end to the myth that none of this is going to hurt. The government line tonight seems to be that they can achieve their targets solely by extending the emissions trading scheme (err…presumably in a form that works) to cover more companies and by soft measures (loft insulation grants etc.) for the rest of us. I don’t personally believe that this is the most effective way of going about things. The vast majority of us piss away energy in a vast number of pointless ways every day (the school run, lights left on…). No one can claim to be uninformed about the causes or potential dangers of climate change but the amount that most people have shifted their way, in spite of what we know, is tiny. It’s time, in my opinion, for punitive measures to break us out of our bad habits. By changing the ways of the people there would hopefully be a significantly reduced need for undesirable options such as nuclear power and potentially competitiveness damaging (or plain ineffective) schemes for industry.

I’ve never understood what getting a bunch of over paid, egotistical, hedonistic rock stars together, to sing about love and sex will do to help the world. Did it really help with Africa? Will it really help climate change? If anything having concerts around the world is likely to be worse for the environment.

I’m a big supporter of renewable energy and believe that it is the only way the UK will meet its targets and reduce its carbon emissions. These views have been presented a number of times on this blog. But recently I have become a little more sceptical about wind turbines. There have been a series of stories in the MSM that draws on some interesting findings.

First of all, there was a report by Renewable Energy Foundation on the efficiency of wind turbines, which only generate about 28% of their capacity. This especially highlighted the problem of inland wind turbines, including one on the M25 which generated 8% of its capacity.

So build more at sea seems to be what this suggests, and this is certainly what the Government intends to do, with the world’s biggest wind farm to be built off the Kent coast. Of course this has annoyed some of the locals who complain about the eyesore (I think they look impressive personally) and the damage to the local birds (just like buildings!). But even those at sea rarely achieve their optimum output.

Currently there are 30 wind turbines on the Kentish Flats. Interestingly there have been some issues. After just one year of operations, 9 are out of action waiting repair, with the tops of the turbines having to be sheared off and the gear boxes replaced. I hope this isn’t a recurring problem.

One of the problems is of course that not enough has been invested in the past to make current wind turbines as efficient as they could be, but this will hopefully change over time.

We’ve mentioned the UKs abysmal performance at battery recycling a couple of times before so I pleased to read this morning that battery collection schemes are to become more widespread.  The extension, announced by Waste and Resources Action Programme, will bring battery collections to a total of 750000 households (still quite a few to go obviously).  It has to be said that changes to the design of personal electronics from using disposable batteries to rechargeable packs have significantly decreased the number of batteries that I get through a year but recycling schemes for the remainder are still inaccessible (or very badly publicised).  With an EU target of 25% of batteries recycled by 2012 we can hopefully expect to see more announcements of this sort.

Via HippyShopper.

The Environment Minister Ben Bradshaw has suggested that the best way to deal with excessive packaging is to dump it at the checkout, forcing supermarkets to deal with it. One example of wasteful packaging Bradshaw mentions is 4 apples in a polystyrene tray wrapped in plastic - which can’t be recycled.

Clearly we need to do more to tackle waste. Yesterday’s Today programme mentioned that we throw out our body weight in waste every 2 months. The Waste and Resources Action Plan is also far from meeting its targets. Unfortunately there’s not enough incentive - yet!

Supermarkets sell goods, such as the apples in a polystyrene tray, for a premium, because the shopper is convinced that those apples are picked from magic trees more hygienic and look prettier (that’s usually the plastic that makes them look shiny). It’s also a matter of convenience - think how many seconds you save grabbing pre-packed fruit and veg instead of choosing them for yourself. It’s this that has to be dealt with.

One way forward would be the one layer policy i’ve mentioned before - but this won’t tackle the above problem. For that you have to convince people to dump their packaging at the checkout. That incentive isn’t present yet.

There’s an article in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph which highlights the ways people are making money out of climate change, called “Guilt-edged profits”- as if this in itself is a bad thing. Personally i have no problem of people making money if the scheme works- unfortunately many of them don’t reduce the problem- offsetting and the ETS don’t work.

And it looks like some in the government have realised this, if we are to believe the policy paper leaked to the Daily Mail over the weekend, and the move towards green taxes. It also looks like the UK government might even sort out the ETS by expanding the use of auctioning- something we’re very supportive of.

Now that Al Gore’s going to advise the Government, I think he’ll also press for the uptake of CSS- he stresses in The Inconvenient Truth how important it is and that “we’ll be hearing loads about that soon”.

Whether this all amounts to more spin, we’ll have to wait and find out. What is certain is that the government has been under pressure to do something, especially when all the opposition parties have promised to introduce green taxes.

David Miliband announced plans today to bury the nuclear waste from new round of nuclear power plants. Now your first thought might be “Who in their right mind is going to agree to having radioactive waste buried underneath them?” A reasonable question but Miliband’s got it covered - local councils will volunteer to take the waste. Same question as before right? Once again there’s an answer - the councils that are…err…lucky enough to get a nuclear dump will benefit financially from the multi-billion pound construction project for the facility. If that sounds a bit like a bribe then you should probably take a long hard look at how cynical you are. As a side note, Miliband has apparently taken to referring to this method of dealing with the problem as “geological disposal” rather than “burying nuclear waste with a half life of thousands of years” presumably because the latter’s a bit of a mouthful (and true).

Via The Register.

Looks like the EU environmental commissioner Stravos Dimas has admitted what we’ve known for a while - the EU ETS scheme as it currently stands will not reduce emissions - see Vox Polis’ view here and here. Dimas said that the scheme could become “pointless”. Unfortunately it already is.

The only way to get this to work is to take the allocation out of the hands of member states and allow the markets to allocate them (i.e. through auctioning).

It’s Energy Saving Week, and to kick it all off the Energy Saving Trust has a nice survey showing that the UK is the top energy waster in Europe (well out of the 5 European countries surveyed). The survey points out how us Britons fail to switch off lights and unplug chargers.

To make a difference they’ve come up with an action plan for Energy Saving Week. Today (Monday) we’re supposed to go out and buy lots of new energy effiicient appliances - If we actually did that then think of the damage we would be doing to the country. The fridge mountains would double.

The other suggestions are sensible (Tuesday we’re to boil less water), however there is no mention of the key things mentioned in the survey - such as not leaving things on standby, unplugging chargers etc. Wouldn’t that be more sensible than buying new appliances?

The RSAs Carbon Limited project is trying to convince MPs to enter into an individual Emissions Trading Scheme, which works just like the dysfunctional EU ETS scheme. An individual scheme gives everyone equal numbers of carbon credits, which are used up each time we consume energy. If we run out we can buy more credits, if we have a surplus we can sell them.

However it has equality problems. Poor people are more likely to live in poorly insulated housing, therefore their energy costs may be higher. People with higher incomes may have the spare cash to pay for insulation, reduce their emissions and therefore make money out of the scheme. Let’s show some of these inequalities with an example:

David Miliband has already joined the scheme. According to the CarbonDAQ, Miliband’s emissions are below the 5 tonnes of CO2 prescribed as a maximum (he’s on about 3.5 tonnes). Luckily for him the scheme only includes personal energy use, and doesn’t include all the official travel he does.

As you can see in the first diagram below (produced by CarbonDAQ so you can have a go yourself) - my once yearly (well deserved) holiday produces much more CO2 than Miliband’s. Apparently Miliband’s not flying on holiday next year. This year he flew to Ireland.

My car journeys (to get to work) are also consume more CO2. No ministerial car for me.

My household energy consumption is high, although I do share a house with 3 other people:

Overall Miliband wins!

So just like in real life, ministers are better off than me. Based on current prices, Miliband will make around £12.50 out of the scheme - a new gravy train for ministers!