© Alison Walters

Really - Left Behind On GM?

This week's comments on GM crops by Environment Secretary Owen Patterson at the National Farmers Union Conference were astonishing, if not predictable. It's depressing to hear yet again how deeply our Government has bought into the rhetoric that UK farmers are somehow missing out by not being able to adopt GM crops.

In an attempt to cheer ourselves up, we can only conclude that Mr Patterson has been receiving some rather one-sided briefings. If he had been advised on the extent of the problems GM crops are causing farmers worldwide he wouldn't be seriously suggesting the UK heads down that rocky road.

There may be trouble ahead

Those GM crops that the US, Brazil and others are "ploughing ahead" with are not the miracle crops we've been promised for decades; crops that will tolerate drought, salty soils and fix their own nitrogen. No, those crops are still in the research pipeline, a pipedream draining vast amounts of funding in the hope that they will one day deliver for food security. more ...

© NASA

Ecocide: crime-fighting for the planet

** this blog is by our lawyer Gita Parihar **

It seems as if every day that passes brings news of large-scale future or current harm to the environment. Greenpeace recently produced a "Point of No Return" report highlighting 14 "carbon bomb" projects which, if they were all to go ahead, would raise global CO2 emissions by 20%, pushing us into runaway climate change.  The destruction caused by activities such as mining tin for smartphones, highlighted in Friends of the Earth's Make It Better campaign, also harms people and nature.

It is difficult to bring legal challenges in this area. In the past few weeks, a Dutch court rejected four out of five claims in a case brought against Shell for oil pollution in Nigeria. It upheld the principle that parent companies can be responsible for what their subsidiaries do in other parts of the world, but did not find the parent company liable in that particular case. more ...

© Amelia Collins

What do they want? An action replay?

The next few weeks could be historic for our bees.

European governments are due to decide whether to act on the latest scientific evidence and restrict use of some pesticides because of 'high acute risk' to bees.

Who knows if the British Government will support the plan and start protecting bees?

Some media reports say the UK Environment and Agriculture Secretary, Owen Paterson MP, will oppose any restriction on neonicotinoids used by farmers and growers.

But during the whole 'neonics' saga he's said his Government will not hesitate to act if there is evidence of harm to bees and beneficial pollinating insects from the use of neonicotinoids.

How much more evidence is needed?

On Tuesday the Government's advisers on pesticides said there is a 'growing weight of evidence' about the risk to bees.

They had examined the latest review of risks to bees by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and scientists from EU Member States including Britain. more ...

© Friends of the Earth International

We need to stop burning fossil fuels. Because we just do

Not that I was much of a fan of it in the first place, but can we now scratch the 'peak oil' idea? Fossil fuels aren't about to run out, not in any kind of useful timescale anyway. Instead, buckle up for what looks like a 20 per cent increase in global oil production by 2020. 

This is what you get when you mesh together growing demand, sharply improved extractive technology and techniques, and all the wrong price signals being sent by Governments, including perverse subsidies. As energy pundit Dieter Helm has said, the real problem is not that there aren't enough fossil fuels, but that we have more than sufficient to "fry the planet several times over".    more ...

© farmer giles

This is not a horsemeat blog - lets transform our food system

I confess I've been here before. Back in 2000 I wrote a book called Perfectly Safe to Eat? which looked at topical food scares like salmonella and mad cow disease, and additional problems associated with the UK food system. The book's publication coincided with the creation of the shiny new Food Standards Agency (FSA).

Being a hardened doom-monger, I suggested the FSA may not be fit for purpose if it wasn't tough enough on bad practice or able to address the drivers causing our increasingly broken food system. These included the over-dominant food retail sector, poor deals for farmers and a lack of control over junk food marketing.

Clearly, and depressingly, it's done neither - despite oh so many meetings, roundtables and expert reports on what needs to change.

But maybe we are now on the cusp of a real transformation, given how much the horsemeat saga is revealing about our complex and uncontrollable food chains. Across the board - from political leaders to ordinary consumers - we've had enough. We're asking why this keeps happening. And the wider, deeper problems in the food system are getting a valuable airing. more ...

© jurvetson

Review of news, views and action - January 2013

Fear not, President Obama will save the day. After defeating Mitt Romney in the US Presidential election, Obama used his inauguration speech to tell us that he gets climate change and he's going to do something about it.  Whilst it would be easy to be cynical and dismiss the speech - or to be analytical and say that the maths in Congress makes his aims difficult - it is a very welcome start to the year.

Not the same can be said about David Cameron's speech on the European Union, which as our blog shows, makes no sense from a environmental perspective because, as we all know, global and regional pollution requires global and regional solutions. Even now, the EU looks set to take action on pesticides that endanger our bees whilst the UK Government dithers - although thankfully some retailers are responding to our pressure and scores of MPs are supporting us.   more ...

© think4photop

Yee-haw! Osborne's oil bonanza

Fossil fuel subsidies are a really bad idea: they increase the risks of climate change, keep economies hooked on oil and gas, give unneeded strength to the arm of some of the world's biggest, dirtiest corporations, and make it harder for clean energy to break through.

But our new research shows that the Chancellor, George Osborne, appears not to think so. He has provided the best part of £1 billion worth of tax breaks to oil and gas producers in the last ten months alone, as Larry Elliott covered in the Guardian earlier this week.

Friends of the Earth's research quantifies by how much the Chancellor's tax breaks for oil and gas production, called "field allowances", have been massively ramped up since Budget 2012.

Field allowances work by reducing the amount of tax that that certain types of field have to pay on their profits. They are deliberately designed to encourage oil and gas extraction from smaller, declining or tricky fields, where it would otherwise not make economic sense to do so. That is: the Chancellor is fiddling with the marginal economics of oil and gas investment decisions, to make sure the pumps continue to, er, pump. more ...

© Marten van Dijl/Milieudefensie

Breakthrough ruling in the Hague on Shell's Nigerian subsidiary

Yesterday in the Hague a judge ruled on claims against Shell's Nigerian subsidiary and its Dutch parent company, the multinational Royal Dutch Shell, calling on Shell to address four cases of oil pollution in Nigeria.

Four Nigerian farmers and Friends of the Earth Netherlands brought the case. (Pictured right - one of the plaintiffs, Eric Dooh, near his village in Ogoniland.)

It is unique - as it's the first time the Dutch multinational has been brought before the court in its own country for environmental damage caused abroad. It's also the first time Shell has been ordered to pay compensation for damage caused in Nigeria.

The court ruled that Shell's Nigerian subsidiary was liable for failing to prevent the pollution of farmlands at Ikot Ada Udo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The level of compensation payable will be determined at a subsequent court hearing.

The court did not return a similar verdict in the cases brought by the plaintiffs from Goi and Oruma communities, dismissing the claims relating to wells in these communities. The plaintiffs and Friends of the Earth Netherlands plan to appeal this ruling, and in particular the point of principle about the liability of the Royal Dutch Shell (RDS) parent company. more ...

© Thinkstock

Why Friends of the Earth supports the call for a sugary drinks tax

Friends of the Earth has joined more than 60 other organisations to support Sustain's new report calling for a sugary drinks tax. The report, covered in the Guardian and Telegraph, argues that a 20p per litre sugary drinks duty could be used to create a Children's Future Fund that would invest in programmes to promote children's health and the health of the environments they grow up in.

Obesity is a sign of a broken food system, and sugary drinks are one part of the problem. More fast foods, snacks and soft drinks are consumed in the UK than anywhere else in Europe, and fruit and vegetable consumption is well below daily recommended levels. Meanwhile, the production of sugary drinks is extremely energy and water intensive, huge sugar plantations, for example in Brazil and India, are damaging to ecosystems and a drain on increasingly scarce resources like water, and plastic bottles and cans contribute to unnecessary levels of refuse. more ...

Climate change and slavery

I read an interesting piece from Simon Leadbetter today, naming climate change sceptics as "our generation's slavery apologists". It made me dig out a speech from Lord Puttnam from 2007, when the Climate Change Bill was going through parliament. I think it's the most powerful speech I've ever heard on climate change.

As the stakes on climate change get ever higher, with time running out so fast, and with political leadership as absent as ever, Lord Puttnam's speech is more relevant than ever. Here's a long extract from it - do read it, and pass it on, and press our political leaders to act.

"It was a Bill, the 200th anniversary of which we unanimously celebrated earlier this year, which led to the abolition of the slave trade. So, 200 years apart, we find ourselves facing the same timeless question of whether we have a duty of care towards our fellow human beings: "Are we our brother's keeper?". In both cases the same economic question arises: what is the true cost of the energy we use to drive our economy? more ...

© Friends of the Earth

Energy - the hot issue on a cold night in the Pennines

"Energy is one of the big issues of the moment - both in how we generate it and how we pay for it."

That was my opening gambit in a packed hall at a public meeting at Slaithwaite Civic Hall on Friday night. Slaithwaite is a beautiful village 600 feet up in the South Pennines in the heart of the Colne Valley.

Its stone built houses add to the beauty of the place (think Last of the Summer Wine country) but also present great challenges for residents as they grapple with cold weather and increasingly expensive energy costs.

The evening was chaired by Iain from the Kirklees Campaign Against Climate Change. They're doing a huge amount locally to promote the Clean British Energy and Energy Bill Revolution campaigns. If you're in the area, why not go along to their stall and stunt this Saturday 19 January?

  more ...

© iStock

2052 by Jorgen Randers

In our fast changing world it's a brave man that makes predictions as far ahead as 2052. But Jorgen Randers is an old hand at this; he was one of the authors of the famous book Limits to Growth published in 1972. Based on an early computer model, the book suggested that if the trends up to 1972 were to continue unchanged "the limits to growth on this planet will be reached sometime within the next 100 years", with a resulting "sudden and rather uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity". Forty years on, and aided by an updated computer model, Jorgen Randers revisits these predictions in his new book, 2052.

2052 is a worthwhile - albeit dense - read, although Randers' pessimism about humankind's likelihood of rising to meet the challenges ahead is at times uncomfortable. He warns about undue optimism stating "to this day, six billion people are being misled into believing that there are no natural constraints and they can have it all because human ingenuity will come to the rescue." Instead he says "I believe the world will be sufficiently stupid to postpone meaningful action." more ...

© Alison Walters

4 reasons not to build the Bexhill to Hastings Link Road

This year the government gave approval for a 3 mile stretch of road near Hastings to open up one of the most tranquil valleys in the South East of England for housing and out of town development.  We campaigned long and hard against this scheme - as well as its predecessors - the Eastern and Western Hastings Bypasses. For over ten years I worked with local people who believed this project would not solve the area's transport problems, nor its economic ones. We used all the avenues possible including attempting to take a Judicial Review against the decision. It's hard to swallow, but none of this worked and the bulldozers are expected to move in in a few weeks. In fact tree felling has already started.

 The project is flawed because: more ...

The Energy Bill will give more power to the Big Six

This week MPs debated the Government's new Energy Bill. It should be a golden opportunity to develop clean energy and break the stranglehold of the Big Six energy companies on the UK power market. But the Coalition's proposals as they stand could make it virtually impossible for community groups to set up renewable energy projects, and could hand the Big Six even more control than they have already.

The Government has spurned pressures to establish a simple system, used in Germany, of fixed payments through Feed-in Tariffs that would offer an even playing field to community energy schemes as well as multinational corporations. Thanks to campaigning by organisations like Friends of the Earth, the UK did introduce a Feed-In Tariff in 2010. But it is limited to small-scale projects up to 5MW and the Coalition's current plans won't increase this. Incentives for larger renewable energy schemes like wind farms and solar arrays may only be available for very big power companies that can trade directly on electricity markets. more ...

Davey should have folded on fracking, not raised the stakes

Starting a blog by quoting a Kenny Rogers song seems a surefire way to lose credibility. Johnny Cash is fine, but not Kenny. However his song 'The Gambler' get into my head as an annoying earworm yesterday and it contains a couple of lines that should be resonating with Ed Davey at the moment.

    Every gambler knows that the secret to surviving
    Is knowing what to throw away and knowing what to keep

Poker is about looking at the odds of success, the potential prize and whether the reward justifies the risk. I don't know if Ed Davey plays poker but, if he does, then he doesn't seem to have translated that key lesson into the day job. His decision yesterday to allow fracking to start again in the UK is gambling on a risk we don't need to take.

Fracking isn't the answer to our energy problems

more ...

After the dash for gas, the headache

This is going to be a short post, for two reasons.

Firstly, because I am feeling a tad delicate after indulgence at our work Christmas do last night.

Were things slightly less foggy, I could here embark upon an analogy which would compare clumsily the state of my bonce with the massive rise in energy bills to which the Chancellor's dash for gas is likely to expose us.

I'd start by talking about a new report by the Committee on Climate Change. It goes on the offensive over silly talk about "green costs" on bills - patiently pointing out that a bit of front-loaded investment now is a considerably wiser economic path than letting fossil fuel prices soar and/or frying the planet. (I previously blogged about the 2011 edition of this report). more ...

© Christian Payne

Cameron to defend green record

At approximately 4.45pm this afternoon David Cameron will spend three quarters of an hour being grilled on the environment by the Liaison Committee - a group of senior MPs.

I'll be watching online and tweeting about it because this is the first time since he became Prime Minister that we'll hear Cameron put on the spot about his Government's environmental record.

In the past Cameron has given some truly compelling green speeches. Who in the environment movement would disagree with much of this belter from 2008?

But since assuming power in 2010 his green silence has been deafening.

For more than two years Cameron has batted away questions about his "greenest government ever" pledge with half-hearted boasts about two stuttering initiatives - the Green Investment Bank and the Green Deal.

They're vitally important projects, but both are at big risk of falling flat and virtually unheard of in the real world. more ...

© iStockphoto.com

A chill wind from the Chancellor

Another bitterly cold night in Yorkshire last night. And this morning, a gas bill on the mat, with a reminder that prices are going up again.

In Britain, a killer combination of expensive gas and poorly insulated housing makes cold homes a misery for millions. Last winter, there were 24,000 extra winter deaths in England and Wales alone; the World Health Organisation estimates that 30 per cent of these deaths are attributable to cold homes.

This is completely preventable - with a major programme of insulating homes. It would boost the economy, create jobs, cut gas imports, slash bills and save lives.

But George Osborne won't do it. He's even cut the main Government-funded fuel poverty scheme - Warm Front will stop completely from March next year.

more ...

© Friends of the Earth

Where's the Pesticides Plan?

As we approach the end of No Pesticides Use Week I find myself wondering when we will get to see the Government's new plan on the sustainable use of pesticides.

more ...

© istock

Tesco and the rest - 9 busy years to curb supermarket behaviour

Success in our long fight to stop the supermarket bullies

This week has been a major success for food justice campaigners - with the announcement that the  new Grocery Code Adjudicator going through its final stages in Parliament will be able to fine supermarkets for non-compliance. 

Friends of the Earth has long been fighting with others for such measures, to ensure that farmers and workers - here and overseas - can maintain sustainable and viable livelihoods when dealing with hugely powerful large corporations. 

Tesco et al - the long fight to stop the supermarket bullies. more ...

© Friend s of the Earth

Review of 2012

What a year 2012 was.

Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah, a diamond jubilee and even news of a royal baby - so much to talk about; so much joy.  It's also been a busy year for environmental issues, although sadly not quite so joyful, nor with the same public profile.

Here's a quick review of 2012 with a heads-up for what could be a good 2013.

Climate and Energy

Researchers now think that once global temperatures get above 1.6 degrees the Greenland ice sheet may begin irreversible melting, sending sea levels many meters higher over following centuries. Unfortunately scientists now tell us that we are on the path to a 4-6 degree rise. To have any chance of staying below 2 degrees, emissions need to peak by 2020 and we need to start taking carbon out of the air.  The World Bank has warned us that a 4 degree rise "is so different from the current one that it comes with high uncertainty and new risks that threaten our ability to anticipate and plan for future adaptation needs. The lack of action on climate change not only risks putting prosperity out of reach of millions of people in the developing world, it threatens to roll back decades of sustainable development". more ...

© Eskinder Debebe

Half way through - a view from on the ground in Doha

The scientific reports that show the devastating impacts of climate change and its consequences for the planet and its people could fill even the huge Doha Convention Centre. Yet rather than grappling with the need for urgent action, developed countries have come here with broken promise after broken promise.

The Doha talks are critical. They will decide what the world will do about climate change over the next decade and lay foundations for a new global climate treaty from 2020-2030.

The first week of heated debate has focused primarily on the following 4 key issues:

The Kyoto Protocol

In Durban, it was agreed that there would be a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. It is now, in Doha, that rich industrial countries must fulfil this promise by setting emissions reduction targets. But, at the end of week one, many are already wriggling out of this agreement. more ...

© Dave Gunn

Government failing on nature

Here's a quick test for you.

When you hear the term 'greenest Government ever' do you guffaw or beam with pride at what's been achieved since 2010?

Perhaps the term is a turn off? I know many people who are weary of debates about 'GGE' - there, I've used an acronym to ease your pain.

Many don't know what to think. For all, help is at hand with the Nature Check report from 39 leading nature conservation and animal welfare organisations - all members of Wildlife and Countryside Link, including Friends of the Earth.

Nature Check helps us tell if Prime Minister Cameron's pledge - made soon after he swept to power in spring 2010 - is on track.

Nature Check also sets out why being on track matters.

Nature Check has something for everyone with traffic light scores given for everything from farming, water, flooding and marine issues to animal welfare, public access to open spaces and the changes to our planning system.

Protection of whales, elephants and other endangered species also gets a score (green).

Some things do score well and the future may be as green as Messrs Cameron and Shapps pledge. more ...

© UNclimatechange

Welcome to hell - climate talks and climate reality

Welcome to hell.

This could easily be the sign outside of the international climate talks - currently at Doha - which are characterised by painfully slow negotiations, political manoeuvrings and posturing, and limited steps both forwards and backwards. But, if the spate of recent research reports is correct, the sign could as easily be posted at the entrance to Planet Earth well before this century is out.

But despair not - although these reports make grim reading, as I show below, it is not yet too late to avert climate chaos, although the clock is ticking and time is beginning to run out.

The World Bank report - Turn down the heat, why a 4^oC world must be avoided  - tells us that "even with the current mitigation commitments and pledges fully implemented, there is roughly a 20 percent likelihood of exceeding 4°C by 2100. If they are not met, a warming of 4°C could occur as early as the 2060s". more ...

© Ulet Ifansasti

Make It Better: a new campaign for products that don't cost the Earth

A few weeks ago I visited the Indonesian island of Bangka. About the size of Yorkshire, Bangka's a mite as islands go, but a giant in one important respect: its contribution to the global tin trade. Intensive mining on the island, with its smaller neighbours and surrounding waters, is almost entirely responsible for making Indonesia the world's largest exporter of tin. That might be good for some miners and make those in charge of government and mining company coffers smile, but it comes at a staggering cost to the environment and the many other communities that depend upon it.

I knew before my research trip that mining had made a mess of Bangka, but I was stunned by how visible this is. It's bearing the brunt of a 'tin rush' that is trashing forests, devastating coral reefs and causing scores of deaths and injuries every year. You can see the testimonies of some of the affected people I met here, and also read about the situation in this article from this weekend's Guardian. more ...

© W. W. Norton & Company

Book review: Full Planet, Empty Plates by Lester Brown

You might want to sit down before reading Lester Brown's new book Full Planet, Empty Plate because it is a fact based horror story waiting to happen.

In it he pulls together research on many, but not all, of the major threats to feeding a growing population.

He tells us there has been a fivefold increase in global meat consumption since 1950 and how fish consumption has also soared, with a third of fish now coming from fish farming.  He says these trends are continuing as developing countries move towards a more western diet; and a third of the global annual grain harvest and most of the soybean harvest is now destined for inefficient meat production. Not only do we need to reduce consumption of these products he says, but when we do eat meat or fish we should be consuming those that are much more efficient at turning feed into protein, for example carp instead of salmon, chicken instead of beef.

He laments the folly of using grain to power our cars rather than to feed people. A third of the US grain harvest now goes to produce ethanol for cars rather than feeding people or restocking the dangerous low global food stores. He rightly asks, why aren't we moving faster on producing electric cars instead? more ...

© www.CGPGrey.com

Is marine renewable energy good for wildlife?

Surely it is too good to be true that that building thousands of wind turbines at sea could actually benefit wildlife and fisheries? All that concrete, steel and electrical wires would surely cause havoc?

Not so, says leading marine biologist Professor Martin Attrill of the Marine Institute at Plymouth University. Done well, he says, it should be possible to avoid significant negative impacts and instead may even create new opportunities for wildlife to flourish. Also the alternative, he says, is much worse as it means greater levels of climate change, ocean warming and acidification.

Martin and I agreed that this positive message needs to be heard loud and clear. So Martin - together with academic colleagues at Plymouth and Exeter - has agreed to write a series of briefings for Friends of the Earth on marine renewable energy and marine biodiversity.

As the Business Green website report, the first of these briefings is an overview of current research, providing an overall picture of the impact of marine renewables on wildlife and fisheries that has been missing until now. more ...

© iStock

Dirtier than Coal?

So, the joint Friends of the Earth, RSPB and Greenpeace report "Dirtier than coal?" - about the burning of trees in power stations - has been getting quite a bit of attention, including reports on the BBC News, the Today Programme, BBC World service, Radio 4's Material World, The Times and the Telegraph.  

What is it actually about?

The report is based on research commissioned and published by the Department for Energy and Climate Change about the climate impacts of burning trees for energy in power stations.
The (now outdated) theory was that when you cut down and burn trees then this is carbon-neutral because the carbon released into the atmosphere when burning a tree is eventually re-absorbed into a new tree growing in its place.

Unfortunately the reality is that it can take decades or longer for the carbon to be reabsorbed from the atmosphere. This creates a carbon debt. more ...

© npower renewables

Wind power - helping keep the lights on

This month UK wind generation hit a new record of 4.2 Gigawatts - great news for the UK's renewable electricity future.

With predicted increases in both offshore and onshore wind capacity, by 2020 this figure could quadruple - more good news I say. But some people worry that, because wind's output is variable, will the electricity system be able to cope with sudden drops in wind generation?

This article looks at UK's electricity generation data to see where there might be problems. I deliberately picked January 2012 - a month where demand was very high, and where there might have been trouble with wind: for example a high-pressure system lasting for several days.

Here's the data for wind:

Sure enough, there was a big fall in wind power for one 5 day stretch, and other days where power was also low. On other days, generation often topped 3GW - displacing more polluting power generation. Wind power never went to zero, but it did go very low. more ...

© Friends of the Earth

Green economics and food - a new, irresistible recipe for progress!

Why the Green economist should not ignore food

If, like me, you eat food, may find it surprising that there is little in the burgeoning literature, webinars and debates on the Green Economy to suggest we eat anything.

There is scant reference to the potential economic gains from a greener food and farming system (aside from the occasional reference to investment in 'greening agriculture'). This is not good and this blog aims to show why the green economy advocates needs to learn to love food. more ...