© Friends of the Earth

George and the Dragon: public backs clean British energy

Stripped down to its basics, politics is basically a popularity contest. Party leaders pore over polling data and personal ratings. So the mood at Number 10, where I handed in our Final Demand petition just a few weeks ago, must be relatively sombre at the moment. Under fire for granny taxes, Pastygate and petrol panic, David Cameron could do with a lucky break right now.

 At Friends of the Earth, we've found a big new idea for the Prime Minister that could rescue the Coalition's ratings - backed overwhelmingly by the great British public. According to new polling from YouGov, 85 per cent of the public want the Government to introduce legislation to make energy companies source our electricity from UK renewable energy - instead of relying on costly foreign gas - which Ofgem says is driving up fuel bills. By our reckoning, that's well over 40 million adults - more than one and half times the number of people who watched the finals of the X-Factor and Strictly combined. more ...

I'm dreaming of a green Budget

I had a dream last night in which George Osborne came round to my house for a cup of tea and started crying and telling me how sorry he is about all the things he's been saying about the environment. Was lovely.

But even in the dream I knew it was a dream, for two reasons. Firstly because George kept patting me on the head and calling me "Nick". And secondly because even dulled by sleep I had enough about me to realise that this was a magnificently unlikely thing to happen.

Less than a week until Budget day then, and everyone's hunkering down for the worst. In the Independent on Wednesday there was a grim fortelling of what looks like the day any pretence of this being the "greenest Government ever" finally plunged beneath the waves. It's been flailing and spluttering for a good year or so now; now the Chancellor looks set to shove it out of its misery with his size nines.

Headline horror in store looks like being the release of the Government's new national planning policy framework (NPPF), which, in the words of the Independent article, has more ...

Dash for gas is high-carbon dead end street

In the 1990s, a revolution took place in UK energy. The arrival of North Sea gas transformed electricity generation away from coal. The 'dash for gas' (as it became known) led to over a third of electricity being generated from gas within a decade.

I've spent the last few weeks getting to grips with what's happening at the moment in UK electricity generation, and the numbers show that the UK is on the brink of a second 'dash for gas'. This could be disastrous for household energy bills and tackling climate change.

Our new analysis shows that the Government, egged on by the Big Six energy companies, is giving permission for huge amounts of new gas-fired power plants. Yet more gas risks sending the UK down a high-carbon dead-end street, dumping ever-rising energy bills on households as worldwide gas prices continue to creep up.

Do we need gas?

It might seem counter-intuitive but, in the long term, electricity use is likely to rise not fall to tackle climate change. That's because  cars will be powered and homes will be heated by electricity - which can be zero-carbon, unlike gas and oil. more ...

© Luka Tomak

Hundreds protest inside UN climate talks to stand by Africa and small islands

The UN's blue-uniformed security guards were not quite sure what to do with themselves. Yesterday, gathered in the corridors of the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Durban, South Africa, hundreds of protestors voiced their support for Africa and the world's small-island states, and demanded action to from those inside the negotiating rooms to stop climate change.

Protestors - and a throng of press - were joined by the Environment Minister of the Maldives, Mohamed Aslam, Friends of the Earth South Africa's Bobby Peek and Greenpeace International's Kumi Naidoo. DIY placards read 'Stand With Africa' and the crowds called for rich, industrialised countries to listen to the people, not polluters. The Maldives' Minister made it clear: this was about survival. Unless bold action is taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions, his island, like many others, will be lost to rising sea levels.  

The protestors actually delivered the Minister to the door of the negotiations, sending their message to those discussing the future fate of the planet. The peaceful demonstrations even broke into song, with traditional African melodies ringing through the hall. It was intended to encourage those inside to stand strong and not to be bribed or bullied. The decision made here will impact billions across the world.
more ...

© cncd

Durban climate talks: 24 hours to close the gap

Just before Christmas last year Friends of the Earth published a report which identified how much more pollution the planet could take if we want a high chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. The answer was not very much.

Yet right now at the international climate talks in Durban there appears to be a reluctance to fully recognise the scale of the challenge ahead of us, even more reluctance to show leadership in cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and increased efforts to avoid responsibilities through dodgy offsets.

With just over 24 hours to go in the negotiations where does this leave us?

If we want a high chance of avoiding a two degree rise in global temperature, which all leading politicians have said we must do, we need huge cuts in global emissions. Our research shows that, based on 1990 levels, the USA would need to cut its emissions by around 95 per cent by 2030, the EU by 80 per cent, and China would need to peak its emissions in the next couple of years and then reduce them. These figures are far in excess of what politicians are willing to even contemplate.

Does this mean that dangerous climate change is now certain? No it doesn't.

The following five steps, if taken soon, could get us on the right path and still give us a chance: more ...

© Friends of the Earth International

Durban beyond Dirty Energy?

Last week, underneath the dark rainclouds of Durban, South Africa, before the world's governments descended for the latest round of international climate negotiations, Dirty Energy Week was taking place.

This grassroots conference organised by groundWork, aka Friends of the Earth South Africa, united people from across the continent who are fighting to stop polluting petrochemical corporations, mining companies and state-owned energy companies from trashing their local environments and the planet.

Our dependence on climate-changing fossil fuels is driving an unsustainable energy system that needs to change. The International Energy Agency recently warned that unless we urgently move away from fossil fuels, within five years we'll have emitted enough tonnes of CO₂ to guarantee at least two degrees of global warming, with catastrophic consequences for people and ecosystems in many areas of the world. more ...

© Jan Martin Will/Shutterstock

Does the Arctic melt matter?

Just about every environmentalist I know hears the news of the melting ice in the Arctic and reacts with a sense of horror. But in the pub the questions are: does it really matter? So what if the polar bear goes extinct? Aren't there bigger issues to worry about, like destruction of tropical rainforest and the acidification of the oceans?

There are three reasons why I think the melting of the Arctic matters:

1. It is a visible and measurable sign that climate change is happening. Sea ice levels are the lowest for probably 8,000 years. If politicians and some of the media aren't particularly interested in reading the thousands of pages of scientific research that says global climate change is happening then hopefully they will spare the time to look at the photographs and maps. If they do then perhaps they will stop the dithering and doubting and get on with the job of cutting emissions, and cutting them fast.

2. Arctic ice plays a very useful role in reflecting some of the sun's energy back to space (the so-called albedo effect). When the ice goes, more of the sun's energy is absorbed by the darker coloured sea. This means that as the ice goes the climate change problems get bigger and therefore more difficult to solve. more ...

© Friends of the Earth

Left wing? Right wing? or just green?

It looks like left-wing, anti-capitalist environmentalists are in for a bad week. This weekend's papers had plenty of reviews of Mark Lynas' new book The God Species - and the book's controversial themes will probably fuel discussion programmes for a while.

 Lynas complains that the green movement has been hijacked by the left, and as such has headed down a dead end road.  Painting all 'greenies' as radicals with ideas that the general public will never accept is  an easy criticism, but is it really true?

 Here's why I don't think so.

 Our right-wing friends

 At Friends of the Earth we work with politicians from all parties to get the job done. For example, the first major campaign I ran at Friends of the Earth in 1999 involved working very closely with Conservative MP David Amess. David was not just an unashamed Thatcherite MP, but a virtual hate figure on the left after 1992 TV footage of him grinning as he won his Basildon seat signalled another five years of Conservative rule under John Major. more ...

© Kevin Dooley

Great power, great responsibility

When I was small I used to think that dinosaurs were made up. Whopping great lizards flurping around the place, millions of years ago? Nonsense.

To be honest it's still a bit of a headbother when I think about it for too long. That's the problem with time on a planetary scale. There's been an awful lot of it. With apologies to Douglas Adams, it may seem to you like it's been a long time since breakfast, but that's just peanuts to the planet.

As far as the Earth is concerned, humans have been around for a heartbeat. But we've already done so much to the way the planet works that we've left an indelible mark. We've altered the climate, knackered the nitrogen cycle, and changed things like how efficiently plants can photosynthesise.

A growing movement of geologists reckon we've changed things so much that we've tipped over into a new geological era. They've called it the Anthropocene - "the recent age of man".

This is a big deal. So much so that the Economist led on it last week: "The sheer scale of what is going on," it says, means "treating humans not as insignificant observers of the natural world but as central to its working, elemental in their force". more ...

Three steps forward

Three steps forward...

Nick Clegg's speech today on the Green Economy was great news in the slow but steady progress towards a strong Green Investment Bank.

First, he committed to introduce legislation to set-up the Bank. This is essential to give it operational independence from the Treasury, and also to give investors confidence it will be there for the long-haul, and not be something the Government can get rid of on a whim.

Second, not in the main speech, but very clear in questions and answers afterwards, was that the Bank would have "full, independent borrowing powers" - it will definitely be able to borrow from the capital markets, essential for leveraging in the multi-billions necessary of green investment.

Third, for the first time he said the Government would look at using the Bank to support Green Deal home energy efficiency schemes - the Bank can have a major role in providing low-cost finance so that people can insulate their homes and have lower fuel bills.

So, great progress.

But there's still a long way to go, and there will be many obstacles put in the Bank's path by obstructive forces in the Treasury.

The first rock in the road is that there's as yet no timetable for legislation - the Government needs to spell out there will be legislation by 2012 at the latest. more ...

Cameron rides to the rescue

Two weeks ago we were tearing our hair out at Friends of the Earth, trying to work out how to make the vitally important, imminent decision on the level of the fourth carbon budget an issue of major political concern.

But after eight days which saw resignation calls, cabinet splits, leaked letters and the Prime Minister riding to the rescue, we can be proud of helping the issue explode into the public domain - and win a decision that, while not perfect, is certainly progress.

The story starts back in 2008, when the Climate Change Act was passed after a huge Friends of the Earth campaign. This ground-breaking law obliged politicians to set and meet a series of regular milestones for carbon emissions, rather than use the old trick of setting distant carbon targets for long after they leave power.

The Act required a series of five-year 'carbon budgets' to be set by Government. Just as a financial budget limits how much money you can spend, carbon budgets are a limit on the amount of greenhouse gas you can emit. more ...

© Energy4all Ltd

Everything we can do, Germany can do (ten times) better

Everyone knows the Germans are better at green kit than we are in the UK. But I hadn't realised the gulf between us until I did some jiggerypokery with a calculator.

It started with a report from the Pew Foundation in March. Its latest league table of investment in green energy saw the UK drop from fifth in 2009 to a miserable 13th in 2010. This was down, say the authors, to "a sharp decline in offshore wind energy investments and uncertainty surrounding the policy perspective of a new government" - not an auspicious start for the self-proclaimed 'Greenest Government Ever'. 

But are such country-v-country comparisons cricket? After all, our fair islands are quite a lot smaller than some other countries, in terms of energy use, population and even in some cases overall size of the economy. So how much does the UK actually spend per person, compared to other countries? And how much does it spend as a proportion of its GDP?

Here's the answer. And those hoping for a leap up the league table may wish to look away now. more ...

Midland Pig Producers....telling porkies?

Midland Pig Producers (MPP), who are behind the proposal for a massive pig factory farm in Foston, Derbyshire claim that it will bring "considerable environmental benefits".  Great news for lovers of bacon butties with an environmental conscience you may think.  But can such a claim be true for a farm of 25,000 indoor pigs that's thirty times the size of the average UK pig herd?

The claim certainly seemed hollow when the Environment Agency (EA) recommended that the planning application be refused due to serious concerns over the risk to groundwater pollution. 

This week Friends of the Earth will be submitting its own objection to the proposal which covers the following concerns:

• Significant increases in local traffic
  as thousands of pigs are transferred off-site every week
• More disease and greater antibiotic resistance which could transfer to humans
  due to the huge number of pigs housed in one location  
• Water and air pollution
  from treatment of slurry and other waste

MPP also claims that its farm would be good for the rural economy.  But small-scale farmers would struggle to compete with the mega farm - putting rural livelihoods at risk. 

Despite the massive scale of this proposal it would only create 18 jobs at the farm.  more ...

Snow predicted but climate change suggests warm times ahead

Snow will be falling across parts of the UK over the next few days according to weather forecasts in today's papers, but warnings from UN scientists earlier this week predict warmer times ahead.

One of the more challenging parts of being a climate campaigner is convincing the public and politicians about the need for urgent action on climate change whilst they are going about their business in freezing cold weather. The newspapers last winter were full of articles questioning whether climate change is fact or fiction as the UK suffered its coldest winter in decades. Not surprisingly people's perceptions are more informed by the experiences around them than the record keeping of meteorologists. Local weather patterns shape people's views more than the strong global trend of a warmer and warmer planet.

Earlier this week the UN published their analysis of the greenhouse gas reduction commitments made in the Copenhagen Accord by the major polluting countries and some others at the international climate change talks in Copenhagen a year ago. They show clearly that, even on a very optimistic reading of the commitments, the reductions promised fall well short of the cuts needed to achieve the G8 and EU's stated desire to keep average global temperatures less than 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels. more ...

ILUC who? Obscure acronym of the year 2010 awarded

Ok, one line into my first blog and I have lied already. Not a good start. There is no "Obscure acronym of the year" award really. But if there was - "ILUC" would be a strong contender.

Want proof? Over a few days in early November a single report on ILUC commissioned by Friends of the Earth and its allies attracted more than 300 pieces of media coverage across the world; as well as hurried responses from government ministers and the European Commission and furious denial from industry lobbyists. ("We are not quite sure what ILUC is, but we are certain it doesn't exist.")

 Ok, enough suspense building. What the heck is ILUC and why is everyone talking about it?

 ILUC stands for indirect land use change and it has single-handedly obliterated the case for biofuels, if ever there had been one.

The rush to biofuels creates severe pressure for more agricultural land. Where this expansion occurs at the expense of forests and peat land, it results in substantial increases in greenhouse gas emissions from the soil and the removed vegetation. more ...

Happy Talk

Lord Young got into trouble this morning for claiming that Britons have "never had it so good".

Whether he's right or wrong, it's clearly important for politicians to claim that their actions are going to make life better for people - Tony Blair did it too in 1997 with "things can only get better". But how do you know if people are doing better? It's not simple.

This difficulty meant it was easy to attack Mr Cameron's launch of a wellbeing indicator this week.  Some on the left say: well-being and happiness, well they're a bit abstract and airy fairy, aren't they? Especially in a country about to be hit by the deepest cuts in a generation. Jobs - now that's a real thing to be bothered about, not this happiness rubbish. And from some on the right: happiness? Just a load of hippy nonsense that distracts us from the important job of freeing up business to deliver more growth. more ...

Climate Act campaigner becomes peer

It isn't everyday that a friend gets nominated to sit in the House of Lords. So I was mightily shocked when I read in the Guardian this morning that Bryony Worthington is going to the "other place", as the House of Lords are described by those in the Commons.

Bryony is a great campaigner.

At Friends of the Earth she was one of the key architects of the successful Big Ask Campaign for the introduction of the Climate Change Act.  She deftly moved on from Friends of the Earth part way through the campaign to work in Government for the civil service team steering the legislation through Parliament.

Her commitment to tackling climate change is second to none, and her persistence and drive are legendary.  She's a damn fine woman.

The Lords will be a better place with Bryony.

Small is beautiful - except when it's nanotechnology?

EF Schumacher's 1973 classic book 'Small is Beautiful' is recognised as a must read for any aspiring environmentalists. It is a broadside against 'big is better' and 'growth is good'. Nanotechnology is incredibly small. A nanometer is a billionth of a metre (atomic  and molecular scale). But a new report published today by Friends of the Earth in the United States and Australia reveals it is not necessary beautiful.

There are already over 1000 nanotechnology products on sale, such as: easy to clean kitchen surfaces, wrinkle-free clothes, anti-odour socks, cleaning products, stronger golf clubs, electronics, anti-aging cream, health supplements, etc, etc. The list goes on.  Whilst the societal value of odour -free socks and anti-aging cream could be a hot topic of debate over the dinner table, there are undoubtedly some beneficial uses that are beyond dispute, such as cancer drugs, improved energy storage, and more effective renewable energy systems. 

But as the Friends of the Earth report reveals, the production and use of nanotechnology is not risk free, not always beneficial  and the hype surrounding nanotechnology is not necessary matched in practice. For example: more ...

Oil price increases bolster demands for climate change action

Environmentalists, scientists and many good policy makers are well aware of the ever-diminishing time-frame to avert dangerous climate change. Yet we know that our warnings are not resulting in the speed of change that is necessary. Here are five other reasons why a rapid transition to a low-carbon economy is necessary.

1. Oil prices are rising - the International Energy Agency said today that oil prices will continue to rise, largely due to increased demand in China. Chris Huhne, Climate Change & Energy Minister, has said even a "moderate rise in oil and gas prices would leave us critically exposed."

2. New technologies - the IEA report suggests that China might win the race to develop the industries of the future. The UK has aspirations to create jobs and wealth from leading on electric cars and off-shore wind. If we are win this global race we need to speed up the development of these technologies.

3. Fuel poverty - in October government statisticians announced that there are four million people in the UK living in fuel poverty; struggling to pay their fuels bills or getting into debt. Increasing the energy efficiency of their homes is a smart investment to increase their resilience to soaring bills. more ...

© Adrian Arbib

Are particles, parasites and pongs really less important than climate change?

Q    What have particles, pongs and parasites got in common?

A    The Government deems them all to be more important issues than climate change in their latest guidance.

The Government has issued a new consultation for National Policy Statements for energy - dull but important new guidance for the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) to use to decide what types of new power stations it should approve.

It clearly matters whether it's nuclear, offshore wind, coal or gas power stations that get built - but climate change is not something that the Government believes the IPC should think about when making that decision. Its new guidance has sections on how to tackle dust, odour, and even insect infestation - but nothing on preventing climate change. The new guidance does not even require applicants to set out what greenhouse gas emissions its proposal emits - a senior civil servant told me that's because it's not information the IPC need to know - because they are not supposed to take climate change into account. more ...

Climate change Minister weak on cold rented homes

Many of us have lived in cold houses where we've woken up on a winter's morning and had to scrape ice from the inside of the window. This week Chris Hunhe, the Government's Energy and Climate Minister, rode up on white charger to save us from freezing homes. Or did he?

In a speech at the London School of Economics he said the Government was going to take action in the forthcoming Energy Bill to get private landlords to insulate their homes. The private rented sector has got the highest proportion of chronically cold, leaky homes (Energy rating band F and G homes). He said "we will look to take powers to ensure that from 2015, any tenant who asks for energy efficiency improvements cannot be refused". He also promised to introduce a 'Pay and You Save' incentive for landlords and others to enable the cost of installing insulation measures to be paid back through savings on future energy bills.

But how's this going to work in practice? Some landlords will voluntarily respond to the 'Pay as you Save' incentive, and many have already taken action on energy efficiency, but a proportion will do nothing. Can you imagine the conversation between the worst landlords and their tenants?

Tenant: Please can you get the loft insulated, draught proof the doors and install double-glazing?

Landlord: Get stuffed. more ...

Clear blue skies or crash landing?

This week the European Aviation Industry announced plans to make its growth "carbon neutral" by 2020 by adding biofuels to its fuel mix. The industry set a target to use two million tonnes of biofuel by 2020. But will it make flying any greener?

What is driving aviation biofuels?

The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is the world‟s largest carbon trading mechanism, and one of the key policy drivers pushing airlines to pursue biofuels. Under the scheme, the EU‟s largest emitters of CO2 must report on their annual emissions. An upper limit (or cap) is then set and allowances (certificates) are given for the industry to emit up to this limit. The industry can sell certificates on the market if it emits below the limit and buy extra certificates if it emits above the limit.

The ETS has been extended to include the airline industry from 2012 onwards. The IATA has estimated that the ETS will cost the industry €3.5 billion in the first year, with costs rising after that. more ...

© Twicepix

Court on a loop: Government appeals solar ruling (again)

Yesterday the Government appealed - for what seems like the umpteenth time - against the high court ruling on our successful solar legal challenge. It took them 27 of their permitted 28 days to appeal to the Supreme Court and formally contest what four judges have so far ruled.

What took them so long? Taking four weeks to lodge an appeal (all the time maintaining the possibility that they might retract it altogether) was a draconian but effective tactic to drive down installations: the longer the uncertainty around tariff rates, the longer before installations pick up. This will no doubt have pleased the money men in the Treasury.

But aside from court room high-jinx there have been other important recent developments. 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 ...

© istock

Solar Plan C

Economics expert Robert Skidelsky wrote this week that Britain's economic recovery needs a "plan C". He argued that the UK economy is likely to stagnate and Mr Osborne's most likely candidate for a plan B - another dose of quantitative easing - is unlikely to work "if the public is not in a spending mood".

He argues instead for a National Investment Bank for infrastructure projects and that "the Chancellor already possesses the necessary instrument in the green bank, but with a meagre capitalisation of £3 billion and no borrowing power it cannot do any good over the period of the cuts". This part of a Plan C should be done now - bring the Bank's borrowing powers forward, not delay to 2016.

Another element of Plan C would be to encourage new industry to grow. But the Government's recent Feed-in-Tariff review has pushed us firmly in the wrong direction - by slashing tariffs it has put a brick wall in front of the rapidly growing UK solar industry. more ...

Resource revolution needs more than just price signals

I am simultaneously impressed and disappointed with the Resource Revolution report published this week by economic experts McKinsey Global Institute.

What is impressive about the report into pressure on global resources, is their detailed analysis of the scale of challenge over the next 20 years in meeting the world's energy, material, food and water needs, as well as the recognition that global environmental degradation must be addressed for the sake of human well-being and healthy economies.

What I found disappointing, but perhaps not surprising, is the overemphasis on price signals in meeting these challenges.

The challenges they identify are not new, for example: 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 ...

Remote tribe spared prying lens but not chainsaw

I'll no longer think of Museums as musty, inward looking places. Yesterday London's Natural History Museum responded to protests by suspending a planned expedition to a remote region of Paraguay, the Chaco.  Campaigners and local people were concerned that it might disturb one of the world's last un-contacted tribes - and the trip's organisers listened.

 The Chaco's indigenous tribes may be spared the scientists' probing lenses. But, thanks to the UK Government's reluctance to listen, its people and wildlife are more threatened than ever - and by a far more sinister invasion.

 The forest snatching spread of soy monocultures has been going on for some time.   The UK Government's decision last week to oppose the Sustainable Livestock Bill means it will for the time being at least continue unchecked.

 Vast areas of South American wildlife have been planted with soy for export and use in animal feed in Europe.  New areas are continually being cleared to feed our factory farms. more ...

Not too late to stop dangerous climate change

The report in today's Guardian newspaper that global carbon emissions reached record levels last year hardly made for a cheerful bank holiday. I heard the news from my boss Andy Atkins who called me as I was trying to keep track of my two small children at a playground in York. Does this news mean we should now give up on avoiding dangerous climate change, as implied in the article by the Chief Economist of the International Energy Agency? I don't think it does.

Last December Friends of the Earth published a report into how much carbon emissions can be released between now and 2050 to have a low probabillity (30 per cent) of a global temperature increase of two degrees (the level many politicians have defined as dangerous). By sharing out the emissions equally between nations based upon their populations we found that to reach this goal developed countries would need to cut emissions by around 8-15 per cent per year starting immediately, China would need to peak its emissions in the next couple of years and many developing countries would also need to peak their emissions within the next ten years. more ...

© Friends of the Earth International

Friends of the Earth International decends on Durban

Durban has been descended on: governments, NGOs, social movements and community activists have found their way here from some of the furthest flung corners of the world.

This year's UN international climate negotiations in South Africa will have a massive impact on the world. According to UN research, current commitments by industrialised nations will lead to catastrophic five degrees global warming. Will they up their ambition to stop it?  Will they provide the oft-promised finance and technology, enabling developing countries to grow without fossil fuels and adapt to impacts already being felt?   more ...