The Green Village News for the ‘Environmental Politics’ Category
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
Waiting lists of up to 9 years across different areas of Wales have led to calls for more to be done to increase growing spaces across the country. Growing your own vegetables is becoming ever more popular, with allotments still being the prime location for most if they can get their hands on a vacant plot.
The summit, which took place at the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff, aims to address the problem of waiting lists and how more allotment sites can be made available to the communities who want them, but is also looking to provide those with private allotments with more rights. Although legally councils should provide more growing spaces if people within the community are demanding them, this law is not being upheld in a lot of cases.
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Tags: allotment, fruit, Grow Your Own, landshare, the good life, vegetables, wales
Posted in Environmental Politics, Food and Farming, Green Living, Green Planet, Grow Your Own | No Comments
Saturday, August 1st, 2009
The UK’s first Green Skills Training Centre will be built in Tredegar in the South Wales Valleys later this year according to an announcement from British Gas and the Welsh Assembly Government. The centre will provide training for up to 1300 people a year, including up-skilling existing British Gas employees in renewable energy technologies.
The new green jobs created by the training provided through the Green Skills Training Centre will help the Welsh Assembly Government meet its commitment to reducing carbon emissions through increasing the energy efficiency of 40,000 homes. In addition, the programme aims to reduce fuel poverty experienced by many in one of the worst affected areas of the UK, therefore providing social as well as environmental benefits.
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Tags: blaenau gwent, british gas, energy efficiency, heads of the valleys programme, micro generation, renewable energy, wales
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Eco Home, Energy and Resources, Environmental Politics, Green Living, Green Planet, Sustainable Development | 2 Comments
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009
Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis has announced government plans to improve the green credentials of the UK’s transport networks. Through the introduction of a number of new ambitious schemes, it is hoped that the carbon emissions caused by transportation within the UK can be significantly reduced.
Transport is currently responsible for causing 21% of the UK’s total carbon emissions, and as a result, Lord Adonis has identified this as a key area for helping Britain meet its targets for cutting emissions by 80% by 2050. The government will achieve this by investing in public transport, such as improving train services and further electrification of the rail network, investing in low carbon vehicles and, something which Adonis says is close to his own heart, ensuring a greater provision of bicycle storage facilities at railway stations to encourage greater transport integration through a promise of £5 million worth of investment.
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Tags: andrew adonis, buses, carbon emissions, climate change, eco-driving, green transport, greenhouse gases, low emissions, pollution, public transport, trains
Posted in Environmental Impact, Environmental Politics, Green Planet, Transport and Travel | No Comments
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
The day after the release of the DECC White Paper announcing the government’s intention to invest more in wind power, committing to a target of 30% of the country’s energy to be generated through renewable energy sources by 2020 and promising the creation of jobs in the environment sector, environmental campaigners Friends of the Earth have called for the government to safeguard the jobs we already have.
Vestas Blades wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight, home to 600 jobs, is due to close in July, and FOE have joined forces with trade union ‘Unite’ and are calling on people to show their support for the UK’s only wind turbine manufacturers by sending letters to Lord Mandelson, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, asking him to act to save the UK’s wind industry.
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Tags: friends of the earth, green jobs, lord mandelson, vestas blades, wind energy, wind turbine factory, wind turbines
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Energy and Resources, Environmental Politics, Green Planet | No Comments
Monday, July 13th, 2009
City of York Council has submitted proposals for sustainable development of the former British Sugar site, currently owned by Associated British Foods. The bid for £60 million of government funding would secure the use of part of the site of the former factory to build 60 eco homes, and would put York on the map as home of one of the most environmentally friendly developments to be built in the next two to three years.
If the proposal is accepted, the complex of eco homes would showcase a number of environmentally friendly features and technologies designed to minimise their carbon footprints and limit the amount of carbon emissions they produce. As well as being built to incorporate high energy and water efficiency standards, the homes would be built from locally sourced and recycled materials, therefore cutting down on transportation costs for building materials and also supporting the local economy, as well as reducing the demand for virgin materials and cutting the amount going to landfill.
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Tags: allotment, carbon neutral housing, eco development, low impact living, recycling, sustainable housing
Posted in Eco Home, Environmental Impact, Environmental Politics, Green Living, Green Planet, Sustainable Development | 1 Comment
Sunday, July 5th, 2009
After three years of campaigning for stronger commitments in reducing carbon emissions, Stop Climate Chaos Scotland’s work has paid off. On 24th June the Scottish Parliament announced that Scotland would be implementing its own Climate Bill; one that gives a stronger commitment to cutting CO2 emissions than any other act around the world.
The Scottish Climate Change Bill will see commitments to reduce emissions by at least 42% by 2020, a significant difference to the 34% reduction target set by the UK government last year, and additionally commits Scotland to have cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% compared to 1990 levels by 2050, which is in line with current UK targets.
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Tags: carbon emissions, climate change, greenhouse gases, scotland, scottish parliament, stop climate chaos scotland
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Environmental Impact, Environmental Politics, Green Planet | No Comments
Saturday, July 4th, 2009
At an event organised by nine organisations looking to make people’s feelings about the importance of acting against climate change known, more than 1000 people joined hands to make a ‘Mili-band’ around Kingsnorth power station.
Organisations responsible for making the event a success include Oxfam, RSPB, NUS, People and Plant and Greenpeace, and it is hoped that both Climate Secretary Ed Miliband and owners of the Kingsnorth power station, E-on, will heed the call from those making their protest against the proposal for a new coal fired power plant at the site, as Ed Miliband will shortly be making the decision about whether to allow the new development to go ahead.
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Tags: coal, coal fired power stations, coal power station, ed miliband, greenpeace, kingsnorth, mili-band, oxfam
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Environmental Impact, Environmental Politics, Events and Courses, Green Leisure and Tourism, Green Living, Green Planet | No Comments
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
Following the intervention of President Barack Obama signing a Presidential Memorandum requesting the Environmental Protection Agency to review the decision to deny the greenhouse gas waiver request submitted by California. The waiver will apply to California’s greenhouse gas emission standards for vehicles produced in 2009.
Under the Clean Air Act, California is given the authority to introduce and enforce stricter standards for cars and trucks than current federal law dictates. The original request was submitted in December 2005 by the California Air Resources Board but was denied in March 2006 on the basis that there was no need for California’s greenhouse gas emissions standards to meet “compelling and extraordinary conditions”.
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Tags: barack obama, california, carbon emissions, clean air act, epa, fuel efficiency, greenhouse gases
Posted in Environmental Impact, Environmental Politics, Green Planet, Transport and Travel | 1 Comment
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth have launched a new campaign promoting the reduction of carbon emissions by challenging local councils to get serious about CO2. The campaign was launched with the release of independent research conducted by Carbon Descent, leading climate change advisors for councils.
The campaign aims to highlight the role that local councils should be playing in helping reduce the UK’s carbon footprint by making a commitment to achieve a 40% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020 in their local area. In addition, councils are being asked to draw up action plans to explain how they’ll make their cuts in CO2, which Friends of the Earth’s research demonstrates could create 77,000 jobs in green industries across the UK. Jobs could be created in industries such as insulation, loft lagging and green building techniques, and that is without the consideration of warehouse and admin staff required behind the scenes.
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Tags: campaign, carbon emissions, co2, friends of the earth, get serious about CO2, local councils
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Environmental Impact, Environmental Politics, Green Planet | No Comments
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Barack Obama has been accused of watering down the climate change bill following pressure from coal and oil companies. The policy that originally would have required companies wanting to build greenhouse gas emitting power stations and producing carbon emissions to pay for a permit and penalised them per tonne for carbon emitted has been diluted following discussions in Congress.
Criticism is borne from a number of changes, including a dramatic change in the percentage reduction in carbon emissions compared to 1990. This stands to be down to 4%, which Greenpeace’s Joss Garman pointed out on Newsnight tonight ought to be 40%. In addition, the carbon permits that were originally planned to be paid for will now be given out free to 85% of emitters; another aspect of the bill that is receiving criticism.
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Tags: barack obama, carbon emissions, climate change, climate change bill, co2, us
Posted in Energy and Resources, Environmental Impact, Environmental Politics, Green Planet | No Comments
