A Green Degree Blog: New Angles On Sustainability

October 25th 2012

Somehow, UK Leads (Mostly) Europe-Wide Overachievement Towards Kyoto Targets

Well I must admit, I for one did not see this news coming, and it has come at quite the shock to me, and I would like to think much of the developed world and climate hawks all around. The EU is set to meet and surpass the greenhouse gas emission targets set out in the Kyoto Protocol way back in 1997, cutting overall amounts by at least 5% per country involved, which is a sizeable amount whichever way you cut it.

Considering many other developed nations have either long given up on reaching these goals, or have simply backed out in the interests of domestic markets (think Canada and their precious tar-sand resources), or never actually ratified the Protocol in the first place, the fact that the EU has achieved this is quite some show of progress in the right direction.

What surprised me even more so, and this is undoubtedly where my powerful cynicism comes into play, or what I like to think of as realistic cynicism at least, is that the United Kingdom is leading the pack in slashing GHG emissions in real terms (actual tonnes of emissions), cutting them by 6% in 2011, equivalent to roughly 36m tonnes of CO2. Compare this to 5% for France and just 2% for solar-rich Germany, and you see what all the fuss is about. Personally, and I don’t believe I was alone in this thought, I always mostly ignored the government’s claims of how well we were doing and how we would easily meet our targets and surpass them, and given recent developments in our energy policy, I would be mad to think of it as truth; but apparently I was wrong.

Now, there are multiple reasons as to why this sudden drop in emissions came to be, and when combined, they would seem to account for much of the cuts we are now seeing and inevitably will be boasting about on the global stage. Firstly, a milder year for weather all round depressed gas and electricity usage, and secondly, cleaner wind and solar energy has steadily been coming online since the mid-noughties, and even though there are relatively few numbers of MWs being produced via renewables, they obviously have a impact.

However, and possibly more importantly, a practically stagnant European economy drove down the use of any form of energy, be it fossil or renewable, in part forcing the decline in emissions, and in others the maddeningly new high bill costs supposedly ‘needed’ to keep the Big Six running our country’s supply of juice.

Posted at 10:00am and tagged with: energy, climate, emissions, EU, europe, UK, kyoto protocol, cut, carbon, pollution, canada, china, us, germany, france, nuclear, solar, wind, greenhouse, government, politics, economy, growth, investment, osborne, hayes, cameron, policy,.

July 27th 2012

How Long Will We Continue Denying Climate Change’s Link To Weather?

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There’s no denying the weather has been really quite screwed up of late, and this isn’t just on a local scale but a global one, affecting small and large nations alike.

Currently, large parts of SE Asia such as Beijing and Japan are suffering horrendous flooding after record-breaking precipitation falls for weeks on end, and there have been similar historical rains in many areas of Europe, the UK in particular. Alongside this, intense drought and insolation has been baking most of the entire United States for weeks, severely damaging crops across the agricultural belt of the continent and knocking food prices up globally, stirring fears of yet another food crisis if the weather is to continue.

Storms and hurricanes are of much higher magnitudes, striking with little warning to those in their paths, and regions of the globe so comfortably used to heavy snowfall and consistently cold winters are enduring some of the driest, mildest and frankly oddest seasonal variations seen in decades, perhaps centuries.

One theme slashes through all of these freak events like a warm knife through butter; the frequency and rapidity in which our weather systems are flipping from one extreme to the other is unprecedented in this day and age, and wouldn’t even fit into normal life some centuries past. Torrential rain which may have sat in place for weeks will be abruptly interrupted by beaming sunshine and glass-clear skies for yet more weeks, before thunderstorms and intense winds complete the freaky cycle. The fact these events are occurring within the same month, let alone the same season is reason to worry enough, and in many parts of the world, many are winning gold medals in trumping historical weather readings from as far back as records began.

Only recently NASA has posted studies demonstrating how far this weather screwing has gone. At some point during mid-July, the Greenland ice sheet, one of two major ice bodies on the Earth’s surface, the other being the Antarctic, experienced thawing of up to 97% of the entire ice mass, that’s 97%. For context, normal values read around 50% for the same time of year. This happens due to warming of and melting of the much thinner coastal ice and glaciers as summer comes round, and despite rates increasing steadily over recent decades, this year more than ever data fly through the roof. What makes this event so shocking, is that the normally impregnable central ice, which exceeds two miles thick in many places, melted just like any other part of the sheet, albeit to much shallower depths.

This scared scientists and followers alike as it not only flags up warnings in regards to future sea level rise and glacier loss, but such injections of fresh water can set up yet more complex and potentially devastating feedbacks in the ocean-atmosphere system, making things exponentially worse. Although much of the central meltwater will refreeze before long, it shows clear signs that the extreme weather we’ve been seeing can and potentially is having a direct effect on ice sheets globally, and the results can be incredibly quick and powerful. After further study, it’s suggested some 70% or more, perhaps even 95% of the melting can be attributed to climate warming and it’s associated impacts on weather systems.

However, it is necessary to note that this sort of abnormal melting does seem to occur in 150 year cycles, with the last in 1889, and therefore some of the alarming data can be tempered with this in mind, but this should not take away from a few key points. The fact that this sheet has experienced melt like this in the past, when man-made warming could not have been in effect, is important, but not absolute; if we see this melting occurring more commonly over the next few years, we’re seeing clear signs of breaking the natural flow of things. Even if we don’t, it’s a stark reminder of what could easily happen to the ice sheets globally if we continue to pump GHGs into the atmosphere. To ignore this, natural or not, would surely be foolish?

Posted at 11:31am and tagged with: climate, science, news, greenland, melting, change, warming, global, america, UK, europe, freak, weather, storms, rain, flooding, disaster, nature, humans, emissions, carbon, fossil fuel, denial, NASA, UN, IPCC, data, antarctic, extreme, chaos theory,.

May 27th 2012

UK Energy Policy Takes Yet Another Muddled Route - Solar Cut By 50%

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UK energy policy is sure one confusing and constantly changing subject, with many recent news stories no deviation from this pattern. Us English and our government just love mixing and muddling our energy futures as much as we cash, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, and sometimes it seems like it’s just for the kicks.

A little over half a year ago, I went to an open day for a course in environmental technology, energy and renewables at Imperial College London, and there I was given a brief talk regarding one of the key course options, aptly named ‘Energy Policy’. This was all very interesting and the main reason I intend to do a master there, but there was one particular comment which stuck with me, made by the course convenor.

He stated halfway through his introduction that, as a whole, “the UK government has tried every single energy policy ever thought of, and failed at most of them”. I feel this comment is pretty appropriate given the latest news on that very subject, of which I’ll brush over below.

Of late, the UK government and David Cameron have come to the decision to cut the solar feed-in-tariffs (FiTs) which are music to every solar-owner ears, which effectively pay the user for producing clean solar energy and feeding it back into the grid. This once sat at 21p per KWh, but is set to drop to 16p by August 1st, with similar drops on a 3 monthly basis, until the price is either frozen or adjusted once more.

This idea has provoked a stern response from many consumers of solar energy, who feel that these uncertain prices and abrupt slashes will deeply hurt the UK solar industry, which as we all know, is absolutely booming, both here and globally, and would be detrimental to everyone. However, these cuts must be made if the government is to be financially able to continue providing such FiTs, although many could argue their seemingly pointless endeavours into fossil fuel and nuclear could easily be rerouted to this sector.

On the other hand, this new FiT is still highly competitive in the global market, and as we’ve seen in Germany, has continued to drive strong growth in solar sales and installations, and so we shouldn’t be too hasty to condemn it.

May 11th 2012

A Pan-European/Continental Electricity Grid Could Monetise Surplus Renewable Energy

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This is simply a great idea, I just want to start by saying that. I love and am in awe of the vision and prospects this plan could bring to fruition, and it seems so ingenious to boot.

A future in which continent-spanning electricity grids feed the many hungry nations of Europe, Iceland and N. Africa has recently been plotted out by multiple energy ventures and renewable project giants such as DESERTEC and the EU. As you can see in the map above, the grid would stretch from the Saharan Desert, through all of Europe, up into Scandinavia and across the ocean to Iceland, connecting the entire region into one ‘energy-continent’.

This plan was initially suggested when people began noticing that energy projects in the UK, Europe and Iceland, as well as those in the deserts of Africa, were actually doing things thought irrational, uneconomic and plain stupid (think DESERTEC). Once this realisation set in, the idea of a pan-European/Saharan grid quickly formed.

With lines already laid connecting Ireland to the UK, France, the Netherlands, and now a record-breaking 950 mile long cable between Iceland and the UK, with plenty more in the works, this initially crazy daydream is rapidly becoming reality.

What is the real beauty of this project however is the renewable side of things; the whole grid will be supplied by low-carbon tech alone, none of that fossil fuel nonsense. As each country associated with the super-grid generates their renewable energy through different means, such as geothermal in Iceland, wind in the UK, or hydro in the Scandinavians, it plays to each and every country’s specialities. Rather than laying new lines and sticking wind turbines somewhere that ain’t windy, the grid will transport wind energy to the required regions from those nations which can easily provide.

With peak times being met by green energy flying in from abroad, for the states that have proven their worth in one or two particular renewable energy sources and produce surpluses at a consistent level, the monetary rewards are tantalising to say the least. Think of a scenario thus - France fears it can’t supply the energy needed to run its nation at full pelt, so it calls on the super-grid to supply some wind energy from us Brits, supplemented by some Swiss hydroelectric. Meanwhile, the Sahara (pumping out silly amounts of solar energy) is sending sunlight to Norway and Spain, and receiving a tasty return on their energy investment. It’s a complete win-win situation.

Posted at 10:02am and tagged with: renewable, energy, DESERTEC, EU, UN, grid, africa, sahara, europe, france, UK, wind, solar, hydroelectric, hydropower, fossil fuel, geothermal, science, policy, world, economy, money, smart, clever, amazing,.

May 2nd 2012

Billionaires Around The World & Environmentally Well-Behaved Nations - Fun With Maps

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I thought I’d share these simple but incredibly neat and telling maps of a couple of key factors of our modern global society and its foibles, not only to show you how fun it actually can be playing with maps and programs like GIS (geographical information systems) to produce such beauties, but how useful they are in teaching us about the world in a concise way.

I can assure you this love is not just because I’m currently a geographer…that has nothing to do with it.

The first of the maps that graced my presence today was the one you see above. It shows, in graded colours, how every country in the world has changed in regards to its Environmental Performance Index, a very clever way of showing whether a country has done good, or done bad. Basically, those in the red and orange fall into the latter category, such as Russia or South Africa, whilst the greens portray the golden apples.

It’s explained in the original study that this dark red smear over Russia is most likely down to the poor air quality, child health, forest felling and fish depletion, all of which are comfortable failing miserably, as is the case in those under the orange banner. On the other hand, us Europeans, a good portion of SE Asia and N America all appear to be greatly increasing their EPI, suggesting advances in all things environmental and green (forgive the pun), and that all is just lovely.

Of course, this map doesn’t take into account certain aspects of the entire sustainable debate, so I would hope it doesn’t get taken at face-value as a solid advocate for halting low-carbon investment and the like because the UK is ‘green’ on the scale.

This could easily be skewed in some part by the phenomenon of carbon leakage, in which developed nations offset their carbon emissions by simply relocating industry and dirty manufacturing in lesser developed nations, not only lowering their overall score, as seen by the orange and red, but at the same time raising the originators. However, this is unlikely to impact the criteria used in this map by too bigger a degree, as other factors will balance it. What I feel is important to take from this map, is that the world is actually making a pretty fine attempt at improving itself, even if sometimes it seems we’re surrounded by absolute fools.

This next one is particularly nice, and just one of a large set I urge you to check out on the subject of billionaires. Here we see the spread of billionaires depending upon where they currently reside, which is why the maps have been ballooned and shrunk in such an odd way.

To no surprise, the US dominates the map, with China and Russia alongside, whilst the rest of Europe sits with roughly the same amount of wallet-busting aficionados in the background; even Brazil has quite a sizeable impact on the global presence of money.

What is pretty astounding to me, even though it is again not too surprising, is the complete absence of Africa and many Middle East nations, pushed entirely out of the picture by their neighbourly states, demonstrating just how little of the world’s big money ever finds it way there.

I think a nice addition would be some sort of flow diagram or separate map showing how this money moves around, where it goes and whether the money is first generated in those nations not represented on this map, before being whisked away into the bank accounts somewhere in the US or Moscow.

One last note; if you combined the earnings of each and every one of these single people’s wallets, and shared this value over the global population, how much do you think each person would receive? Little, a lot, or just plain stupid and move on to the next subject?

http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/04/27/for-better-or-for-worse-a-decade-of-global-environmental-performance-trends-examined/

http://gislounge.com/geography-of-billionaires-mapping-nationalities-and-residency/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gislounge+%28GIS+Lounge%29

Posted at 10:13am and tagged with: GIS, map, geography, money, billionaires, africa, US, europe, environment, EPI, russia, depletion, sustainable, developed, western,.

April 22nd 2012

Iceland Is 100% Renewable - That Was Kept On The Lowdown?

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Well here’s a little fact I didn’t know, and how I didn’t know of this is almost shaming on my part, but I simply have to share it. That little ice-bound island sitting astride the mid-Atlantic ridge, which occasionally spews out a handful of ash big enough to shutdown our air-space, is touting a fully green energy mix; that’s right, Iceland is 100% renewable, and has been for a fair amount of time.

At this moment, Iceland generates its entire electricity needs via hydro and geothermal sources, with not a fossil fuel powered plant to speak of or point angrily at. Not only this, but their electricity prices are amongst the most competitive in Europe, with many of their price guarantees and policies locking in enticing costs for both the customer and the provider. It’s practically the perfect environment for judging how well an entirely renewable mix can work.

Not only that, it gets better and better. Iceland’s freezing climate may put many off from visiting the eclectic nation, but for power hungry energy companies, it’s the golden setting. With cold winds and temperatures abundant all year round, huge hosting and data centres can be efficiently cooled purely through the action of wall vents and the odd open window. Because of this, electricity slurping climate controls don’t need to be employed, enticing big names such as Verne Global to the little country.

Now many of the reasons for renewables dominating the Icelandic mix are down to its Goldilocks geographical location, and relatively small population of just 320,000. With abundant volcano-fuelled thermal energy year-round, with glacial meltwater streams, rivers and lakes, they simply don’t need anything else; combine this with a small population and you’re onto a winner.

The only real issue to us wannabe green-nations, is that it still doesn’t really offer us a viable look into the renewable world available that we want. Geothermal is relatively limited worldwide, especially to Europe and Asia, and a large majority of the current hydro energy is already tapped, with a strong social stigma attached to further damming. Our focus is on solar, wind and marine energies, of which Iceland employs none of, so in that respect, we can’t begin basing our own future policies on the Icelandics; but that’s a minor niggle, they’re sorted.

In coming years, Iceland desperately hopes that their intense slant towards green energy and smart low-carbon techniques will draw in an ever-growing number of multi-national companies and professionals craving renewable energies to power up it’s economy and quell the 6% unemployment rate hanging over their heads.

It looks like it’s already began, so from now on I will most certainly be keeping an eye on this silently forward-looking island of the Atlantic.

http://www.ecomagination.com/iceland-attracts-new-business-with-clean-energy

Posted at 12:02pm and tagged with: Iceland, Renewable, Energy, Hydroelectric, Geothermal, Economy, Jobs, Europe, Asia, Electricity, Unemployment,.