Climate | News & Views

Climate change ‘will wreak havoc on Britain’s coastline by 2050′

Reposted from The Guardian

On Benbecula, they know all too well that rising tides threaten the UK’s coastline. For the 1,200 inhabitants of the small, low-lying island in the Outer Hebrides, the sea’s encroachment is becoming a serious problem, especially on its western shores.

Impacts of Climate Change on Disadvantaged UK Coastal Communities, a report to be published tomorrow by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, an influential thinktank, records how local people have seen the coastline retreat before their eyes in just a few years.

The threat posed by erosion has been exacerbated by the fact that the sea has taken material from the island’s beaches that is normally used for constructing roads and buildings. But Benbecula is not alone: the report claims that rising sea levels are likely to have a “severe impact” on much of the UK’s coastline by 2080.

The authors note that “the total rise in sea levels off the UK coast may exceed one metre, and could potentially reach two metres”. They warn that “the frequency of intense storm events is expected to increase and, along with the rise in sea level, to lead to more coastal flooding”.

As a result, many of the 30 million people living near the UK’s coastline – which has 291 inhabited islands – will need to anticipate how climate change will affect them. “We haven’t devoted enough time to debating these issues,” said Jeremy Richardson, director of the engineering consultancy URS-Scott Wilson, who co-authored the report.

“Because we’re talking about what happens in 2050 to 2080, people tend not to talk about this, but the coast is going to be at the forefront of these climate change impacts. We’re not just talking about flooding or drought, but also rising sea levels and an increase in storminess; it will affect a lot of towns, many of which are especially vulnerable because they are isolated geographically.”

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Climate change raises flood risk

Taken from: The BBC online

Greenhouse gas emissions are making extreme rainfall events more common, scientists say – and in the UK, have increased the risk of flooding.

Two research groups present their findings in the journal Nature.

Using real-world data and computer models, one team says it has proven the link between greenhouse emissions and the observed increase in extreme rains in the Northern Hemisphere.

The other says greenhouse warming made the UK floods of 2000 more likely.

That autumn saw the highest rains in England and Wales since records began in 1766.

The Hampshire village of Hambledon was underwater for six weeks, and insurers put the final cost to the country at more than £1bn.

A research team led from Oxford University ran computer models of the atmosphere as it actually was, and parallel models of the atmosphere as it would have been without the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that had accumulated from humanity’s emissions.

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Report warns of climate change impact on infrastructure

Taken from Low Carbon Economy

Climate change could cripple UK infrastructure in the future if action is not taken to mitigate its effects, a new report has warned.

Engineering the Future was presented to the government’s chief scientific advisor this week and states, unless measures are taken to protect infrastructure, climate change “could have seriously detrimental effects on UK society and the economy”.

Lord Browne of Madingley, president of the Royal College of Engineering, which compiled the report, said: “Climate change is a genuine risk. While efforts must continue towards mitigating its effects, we need to think very carefully about how we adapt to the changing climatic conditions that are anticipated over the coming century.”

He added that engineering “is one of the best chances we have” of dealing with issues such as rising sea levels.

Last year, the Met Office dramatically revised its worst case scenario for rising sea levels, more than halving its prediction to 6ft from 13ft.

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US wind industry forged ahead in 2010

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), the national trade association of America’s wind industry, emphasises that the wind power industry combated challenges in 2010 and laid the foundations for a strong return in 2011.

While the industry “saw the all-too-real impacts of having no long-term US policies toward renewable energy”, the industry nevertheless made significant advances in 2010, said Denise Bode, CEO of the association.

Bode highlighted that wind power supply chain manufacturers continued to announce new US plants despite an uncertain economic climate. The industry reached over 50% domestic content for turbines installed in the US. In addition, advances were made in regional transmission plans, the market for smaller turbines grew 15%, and offshore wind took major steps on the path to the first US installations, said Bode.

The year 2010 closed out with Congress extending by one more year the Section 1603 Investment Tax Credit for renewable energy, a policy that helped the industry emerge as a bright spot in the US economy and keep 85,000 Americans working even at the depth of the recession, Bode said.

The numbers posted by the US wind industry in the third quarter of 2010 made for its slowest quarter since 2007. According to AWEA, once the year’s final numbers are tallied, they are expected to show that China installed approximately three times as much wind-powered electricity as the US in 2010, and Europe twice as much, as US installations fell to just over half of 2009.

Factors in the US decline included an absence of long-term US energy policies (such as a Renewable Electricity Standard), resulting in an unstable business environment, and utilities being less eager to enter wind energy power purchase agreements.

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Cancun delegates reach climate change deal

Delegates at the United Nations’ (UN) summit in Cancun reached an agreement on curbing climate change, although the pledge was not as strong as some had hoped.

The deal called for stricter restrictions to be placed on carbon emissions and efforts being made by developing countries to curb carbon emissions to be brought within the UN system.

Also included to aid developing countries in combating climate change, was the establishment of the Green Climate Fund and the creation of mechanisms which will allow them to access low carbon technology.

However, detailed information on how such measures will be achieved are not included.

Many believe the deal lays the foundations for creating a legally-binding agreement when the delegates meet again in South Africa next year.

UK energy and climate change secretary Chris Huhne commented: “A global deal on climate change is now back on track.”

Neil Bentley, Confederation of Business Industry director of business environment, added: “Such a deal could unlock great new low-carbon markets for our economy, and until this is reached, concerted action will be slow.”

The UN summit was attended by 15,000 delegates from 190 countries and produced 25,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.

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Climate change ‘affecting harvests’

Crop failure could become a more common occurrence as climate change begins to take effect, new research shows.

A team made up of experts from the University of Leeds, the Met Office Hadley Centre and University of Exeter conducted the study, which concluded that the extreme weather events caused by climate change will lead to increasing numbers of crop failures.

Forest fires in Russia caused by heat and drought over the summer led to an area of crops larger than the size of Hungary being unusable.

Using spring wheat crops in northern China as the basis for the study, the researchers used a climate model to predict the weather patterns and assess how this would affect yields. Socio-economic factors related to the farmers were also taken into account.

Lead author Dr Andy Challinor, from the University of Leeds School of Earth and Environment, said that solutions must be found to the problem.

“It is highly unlikely that we will find a single intervention that is a ’silver bullet’ for protecting crops from failure. What we need is an approach that combines building up crop tolerance to heath and water stress with socio-economic interventions,” he added.

The study appears in Environmental Research Letters.

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UK is ‘laughing stock of Europe’ for climate initiatives

The UK is the “laughing stock of Europe” in terms of eco-incentives and climate initiatives, according one microgeneration expert.

Commenting on the government’s recent announcement about the Green Deal, Andrew Moore, founder of British Eco, said that the initiative must form “part of the bigger picture”. Some 26 million households are expected to benefit from the Green Deal, which allows people to make energy-efficient improvements to their properties without the upfront cost, over the next 20 years.

The programme is intended to reduce both carbon emissions and energy bills, and, according to the Department of Energy and Climate Change, it will also help to support 250,000 UK jobs. Mr Moore said: “On climate issues, we are the laughing stock of Europe really, and we need to get going with it.”

However, he added that the Renewable Heat Incentive, which would reward homeowners for generating green thermal energy from technology such as solar thermal panels, biomass boilers and heat pumps, could “revolutionise the market”.

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Top 10 August Eco Pictures

Below we have listed the Eco Pic of The Day August Top 10 Eco Pic’s.

Click the link to see the picture;

1 - NO KINDA SURPRISE – PLASTIC POLLUTION

2 - PLASTIC MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

3 - PLASTIC BEACH RUBBISH IN LE TOUQUET

4 - THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH

5 - PLASTIC FOOD CHAIN

6 - PLASTIC BOTTLES IN SAINT MALO

7 - FRENCH SUPERMARKET MINI RECYCLING CENTER

8 - HEATHROW TERMINAL 1 RECYCLING BINS

9 - RUBBISH TIDE AT LE MONT SAINT MICHEL

10 - PORSCHE 918 SPYDER HYBRID SUPERCAR

Emissions Equality – The need to improve air quality

VOLVO ANNOUNCES THREE-POINT PLAN TO HELP THE CAR INDUSTRY IMPROVE UK AIR QUALITY.

Volvo Car UK has launched a three-point plan aimed at providing all motorists with a broader range of emissions information when they buy their next car – irrespective of marque – to help combat the UK’s rising problem of poor air quality.

With the UK facing a fine of up to £300m for its poor air quality and the Environmental Audit Committee predicting 50,000 premature deaths* through air pollution, Volvo believes it’s time to educate drivers of a car’s complete emissions picture rather than just CO2 in isolation.

Automotive emissions other than CO2 (NOx, Hydrocarbons and Particulates**) are the key contributors to poor air quality, particularly in urban areas, and are one of the main reasons why the UK suffers from one of the highest recordable asthma rates in the world***.

Volvo is proposing:

1. Volvo Car UK will encourage the Department for Transport and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders to mandate a second environmental label covering non-CO2 emissions for all new and used cars up to five years of age. This would sit alongside the current CO2 label on all cars displayed.

The CO2 and other emissions information shouldn’t be combined in one single label as drivers still need to understand CO2 emissions for tax purposes. All of this information is readily available on the VCA website but needs presenting in an easier to understand format such as www.CleanGreenCars.co.uk and be made more accessible to all drivers.

Volvo believes there is room for a new environmental label similar to the one in the United States of America, run by the US Environmental Protection Agency which scores the environmental impact of vehicles, including both air quality and CO2 emissions.

2. Volvo Car UK is launching a phone/PC App in the next few weeks to make all air pollution and CO2 emission information readily available to drivers for when they visit a showroom to choose their next car.

3. Volvo Car UK will create an Emissions Equality Automotive Air Pollution Think Tank to move the subject of emissions and air quality further up the agenda of the automotive industry over the coming 12-24 months.

The Think Tank already has a number of high-profile members covering all sides of the debate, including Environmental Protection UK’s Policy Officer Ed Dearnley, environmentalist andTV naturalist Chris Packham, Professor of Environmental Health from Kings College London Frank Kelly, the automotive environmental commentator Jay Nagley from www.CleanGreenCars.co.uk and Volvo’s own environmental consultant Don Potts.

To support the campaign they have developed a great animation which helps explain the issues in an easily to understand way. You can watch this great eco video here.

Further discussion and debate will also be directed to facebook and twitter, where conversation will be tagged #EmissionsEquality.

Additional Information;
*Source: Environmental Audit Committee
**The Vehicle Certification Agency’s description of non CO2 emissions is as follows:
CO – Carbon monoxide reduces the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood.
HC – Hydrocarbons contribute to ozone formation. Some kinds of HCs can also be carcinogens and are also indirect greenhouse gases.
NOx – Oxides of nitrogen react in the atmosphere to form nitrogen dioxide (NO2) which can have adverse effects on health, particularly among people with respiratory illness.
***http://www.asthma.org.uk/news_media/media_resources/for_journalists.html

Should we be looking beyond electricity in green car design?

Over the last few years, car manufacturers have been working away to create a viable alternative to a petrol-fuelled vehicle. The solution seemed to be the electric car.

Peugeot has recently announced that its electric car, the i0n, is due to go on sale in the UK by the end of the year. Nissan has created the concept car the Leaf, while Renault has been working on the futuristic Twizy concept car, which will soon be entering the virtual world of The Sims.

But behind the scenes researchers in Israel have been working on making hydrogen a viable competitor as an alternative to petrol.

Previous problems identified with hydrogen have been its flammable nature and the difficulty in storing the gas within a vehicle, as it requires large, heavy tanks.

The Israeli scientists believe that they have overcome one of these problems by creating much smaller and lightweight storage containers.

The gas would be stored in a series of very small glass tubes. Almost 400 of these tubes would then be bundled together to create an “array”, which is about the size of a drinking straw. Finally, 11,000 of these arrays would be place in the vehicle.

This would take up half the space and weigh half as much as other storage methods, yet still power the vehicle for 240 miles.

So does this mean that manufacturers will all start scrambling to create hydrogen powered cars? The answer is probably not.

Electric cars still have the upper hand when it comes to refuelling, as there is already a national grid established, meaning large amounts will not have to be laid out to create a charging infrastructure.

In addition, car makers will be looking at their profits and will be unwilling to dispose of all the equipment they invested in to produce electric cars before seeing a return.

Hydrogen fuel cells are also often used in electric vehicles to charge batteries and extend the distance they can travel without having to stop. The new research will mean that the two could be able to operate better hand in hand.

Car manufacturers will continue to look at the bottom line, and green enthusiasts will continue to look at the carbon footprint various fuels, but should they also be keeping one eye on hydrogen technology in the coming years?

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