The bad business of biofuels

Apparently austerity rules the UK.

Really?

So why does the Government want us to squander billions on a failed transport policy?

New research commissioned by Friends of the Earth and ActionAid to the International Institute for Sustainable Development's Global Subsidies Initiative has revealed that by 2020, UK motorists and taxpayers could be paying an extra £2 billion for petrol and diesel every year - if the UK chooses to meet its share of an EU 2020 renewable energy in transport target entirely through biofuels.

The research, which outlines different scenarios to 2020 looking at the cost of biofuel production as well as subsidies paid to farmers growing biofuel crops, also reveals that increasing the use of biofuel in in transport fuels to meet the EU's target could cost £114 billion (!) across all EU Member States. more ...

Nonsense on stilts: Policy Exchange's numbers don't add up, again.

After two new reports on the environment last week, Policy Exchange now seem to be competing with Lord Lawson's Global Warming Policy Foundation to see who can get the most scare stories about the cost of tackling climate change into the Daily Mail.

Last week Chris Huhne stuck the boot into their first report on the costs of renewables. He called it "nonsense on stilts" and full of "A-level howlers".

Mark Lynas's blog last week looks at one example of this - the cherry picking of top-end estimates of the costs of offshore renewables. more ...

George has got it wrong on Feed-in Tariffs

Following on from yesterday's blog, and ahead of today's Court ruling on Feed-in tariffs, here is Alan Simpson's response to George Monbiot's article on feed-in tariffs. Alan Simpson is a guest blogger, former Labour MP and is advisor to Friends of the Earth.

Part 2 - Feed-in tariffs

George's dislike for 'Feed in Tariffs' is visceral rather than analytical. To allow the dislike to spill over into describing the FOE legal challenge as 'misconceived' is to place himself in a position somewhere between the absurd and the obscene. The basis if FOE's challenge is simply that the government should not be allowed to make the law up as it goes along. Specifically, FOE argues that it is wrong for governments to assume a power to retrospectively change its own ground rules. more ...

Why the Green Deal will fail on fuel poverty

Our Policy & Politics blog will from time to time have guest bloggers.  This blog is from former Labour MP Alan Simpson, who now spends some of his time advising Friends of the Earth. The blog is in two parts. Today focussed on the Government's Green Deal and tomorrow's on George Monbiot's criticisms of Feed-in tariffs.

Part one - The Green Deal

We ought to begin by welcoming George Monbiot's critique of Green Deal.

The Government's flagship scheme is an 'Emperor's new clothes' initiative that will do little or nothing to alleviate fuel poverty. The government knows this and has been trailing the scheme round, in the vain hope that someone else will take ownership of it. Even the churches have been approached. It is a game of pass the parcel before the blame hits the fan.

Green Deal marks the first time in decades that Britain has been without any grants-based programme for improving the fabric of UK housing stock. It is also an attempt to sell debt to the poor at a time when the nation is being told that debt is the one thing we cannot afford. Faced with cuts in their wages, benefits and job prospects, I can really see the poor queuing up to acquire more debt.

"Ah, but it will be painless and neutral", replies the government. "The 'Golden Rule' will see to that". more ...

© Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

What Lord Lawson didn't tell you about shale gas

That charming Lord Lawson feller was on the Today programme this morning harping on about the potential of shale gas to bring cheap, practically limitless fuel to the hearths and hobs of the nation. Hooray, eh?

No. Three things.

First, we are not America. Shale-gas-huggers are going cockahoop about what's happened over in the States, where there's been a meteoric rise in the production of shale gas. In just five years the USA has gone from getting five per cent to nearly a quarter of its total gas production from shale. As a result the USA is now self-sufficient in natural gas, and the following things have happened: the gas price has fallen; investment in renewables has dropped; and the global gas market has noticed, with extra supplies of gas that would have been destined for the states being flogged off cheap. more ...

Friends sometimes differ (on high-speed rail and solar)

In the Daily Mail today environment writer Fred Pearce said Friends of the Earth and other green groups have lost our way, particularly by not enthusiastically waving the flag for high speed rail. Last Friday George Monbiot accused us of cherry-picking our facts in order to promote solar power.

I have huge respect for both George and Fred. Like me they've been in the business of fighting for the environment for over 20 years. I'm proud of what I've achieved in this time, particularly for leading Friends of the Earth's successful campaign for a Climate Change Act. And I'm impressed by George and Fred's work, particularly in reaching wide audiences with powerfully written accounts of how our environment is being used and abused. But it appears that on high-speed rail and on solar power we will have to differ.

High speed rail

Friends of the Earth has said that we are, in principle, in favour of high speed rail.

But we have also said that in cash-strapped times £32 billion might be better spent instead to address chronic over-crowding of existing rail-lines, improving other public transport, and getting more cars of the road. more ...

Being green is good for economies of UK cities says study

Here is a blog from my colleague Simon Bowens who works in the North of England:

In the age of austerity, some Government ministers seem to believe that they can create economic growth, new jobs and protect business interests and deal with climate change when the good times return.  

But even leaving the environmental reasons aside, rising energy prices driven by increased gas prices are damaging local economies. Stamping out energy waste should be front and centre of developing a healthy economy. What people want to know is - how much would it cost? And what would it do to the economy?

Anew expert report launched in Westminster today by the Centre for Low Carbon Futures looks at the measures that could be deployed in my neck of the woods, the Leeds City Region.

It kicks into touch once and for all any concerns that carbon cutting is bad for local economies. Quite the opposite, in fact, as it demonstrates that those local economies that are prepared to invest in low carbon make themselves more robust and resilient to the challenges ahead. more ...

Review of Sustainable Materials with both eyes open

A book about how we make and use steel, aluminium, cement, plastic and paper could easily be pretty dull, but in fact 'Sustainable Materials with Both Eyes Open' is surprisingly brilliant. As most of the things that surround us - from buildings and roads to cars and washing machines - are made from these materials, the authors bring them to life with this accessible, fact-filled and entertaining read.

As the book makes clear, we get through a lot of materials to make all our stuff.

Steel heavyweights

Take steel, for example. For every man, woman and child on the planet, an average of 200kg of steel is produced every year.

Much of this steel goes into buildings - 42% - as well as infrastructure (14%), mechanical equipment (13%), metal goods (12%), cars, trucks and ships (12%), domestic appliances (3%) and electricity industry equipment (3%).

In the UK, taking into account imports and exports of products, the average per capita consumption is 450kg. That's a shed-load of just one material.

Soaring demand

Demand for materials is rocketing, especially in developing countries. In wealthy countries most consumption is replacing items we don't want any more, while in developing countries it's mostly buying stuff for the first time.

The book authors wanted to answer the question: can we produce twice as much stuff and halve total carbon emissions at the same time - i.e. cut emissions per kg by three-quarters? more ...

Posted by Mike Childs  |  19 Dec 2011  |  Natural Resources

Life's a gas?

It's now a year and a half since BP's Macondo oil well exploded into the news, wrecking livelihoods and delicate ecosystems across America's Gulf of Mexico. BP has already had to pay out nearly $8 billion in compensation, and has earmarked $42.5 billion in total.

The court cases and buck-passing continue in the States, but yesterday our very own Department for Energy and Climate Change slipped out an official review into whether the same kind of incident could happen in UK waters.

It's written in establishment euphemisms, but there are some pretty stark findings. The UK's ability to respond adequately to a similar incident is in serious doubt. The panel found:

• question marks over the ability to implement disaster control plans;
• lessons haven't been learned from similar technology failures here; and
• if something does go wrong it's not clear who would pay for it and whether they could afford it.

It could happen again here, seems to be the stark conclusion. more ...

Dismantling the poppycock

Balderdash! Hokum! Piffle!

That's what a new report from the Government's independent advisers, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), says today (I'm paraphrasing a bit).

What about? Bonkers claims that certain bits of the media - egged on by a clutch of rather murkily-funded "thinktanks" - like to foam on about, such as green taxes adding a gazillion quid onto your energy bill.

Get real, say the CCC. Bills have skyrocketed over the last decade. But is this because of the malicious construction of a phalanx of colossally expensive bird-shredding wind turbines? No: it's because of the price of gas.

By 2020, although clean energy investment costs are going to rise by about £100 - er, rather lower than the "thousands" that some of the least grounded hysteria would have us believe - gas prices will probably have an even bigger impact on bills. And actually, if we have a proper stab at energy saving, we can even stop bills going up at all.

The killer facts from the CCC's new report: more ...