UK Launches Carbon Footprint Standard

Environmental Leader, October 30, 2008

BSI British Standards, the Carbon Trust and Defra have launched a new standard to help businesses assess the carbon footprint of their goods and services. The standard, called PAS 2050, measures the GHG emissions in goods and services throughout their entire life cycle, from sourcing raw materials, through to manufacture, distribution, use and disposal.
The aim of the new standard is to help businesses move beyond managing the emissions their own processes create and to look at the opportunities for reducing emissions in the design, making and supplying of products. Read more...

Waste-to-energy plans get EU's nod of approval

EuroActiv, October 21, 2008

Environment ministers from the 27 EU countries yesterday (20 October) approved a new framework waste directive that includes provisions to burn waste for energy use as part of a five-step hierarchy prioritising prevention.
"By promoting the use of waste as a secondary resource, the new directive is intended to reduce the landfill of waste as well as potent greenhouse gases arising from such landfill sites," the ministers said in a statement following the Environment Council on 20 October.
Central to the revised EU approach is the introduction of a strict waste management hierarchy that governments and local authorities must apply when developing waste policy. Read more...

Report: Demand on nature reaching critical proportions

EurActiv, October 29, 2008

Growing populations are putting so much pressure on the Earth's natural resources that two planets will be required by early 2030s if we are to maintain our current lifestyles, according to figures released today (29 October).
The biannual Living Planet Report by the Global Footprint Network, WWF and the Zoological Society of London reveals that the timetable for reaching the 'two-planet threshold' has been cut by 20 years since the previous figures. Read more...

Ivory auction opens amid concerns

BBC News, October 28, 2008

The first officially sanctioned sale of ivory in southern Africa for almost a decade opened on Tuesday. Namibia, Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe will auction more than 100 tonnes of ivory from stockpiles to buyers from China and Japan.
The money raised will go into elephant conservation projects. Read more...

Η Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση διατηρεί το γενικό στόχο της για το κλίμα

In.gr, 16 Οκτωβρίου 2008

Παρά τις αντιδράσεις πολλών χωρών-μελών που ανησυχούν για το κόστος, οι ηγέτες της ΕΕ συμφώνησαν στη Σύνοδο Κορυφής να επιμείνουν στο στόχο τους για μείωση των αερίων του θερμοκηπίου, λαμβάνοντας όμως υπόψη τις «ιδιαίτερες συνθήκες» σε κάθε χώρα. Το φιλόδοξο σχέδιο της η ΕΕ κατά της κλιματικής αλλαγής προβλέπουν ότι πολλές βαριές βιομηχανίες θα πρέπει να πληρώνουν για τα δικαιώματα εκπομπής αερίων του θερμοκηπίου. Στόχος είναι να μειωθούν οι εκπομπές κατά 20% έως το 2020, σε σχέση με τα επίπεδα του 1990. Διαβάστε περισσότερα...

Analysts say global carbon market will pass $100B by year's end

ENN, October 13, 2008

The global carbon market is on pace to grow more than 80 percent this year to $116 billion, according to the clean-technology research and analytics firm New Energy Finance.
The burgeoning market -- which hinges on the buying and selling of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions-- grew almost 36 percent, from $64 billion at the start of January to $87 billion at the end of September. Read more...

Britain exceeds biofuels target - govt agency

ENN, October 8, 2008

Britain is exceeding its 2.5 percent target for biofuels use in motor fuel but several oil companies have failed to meet environmental goals, a government agency said on Tuesday.'These early figures demonstrate that some companies have risen to the challenge of sourcing biofuels to meet good sustainability standards,' Nick Goodall, chief executive officer of the Renewable Fuels Agency said in a statement. Read more...

Berlin aims to become solar powerhouse

Planet 2025, October 5, 2008

Berlin wants to become a world leader in the solar energy field, both as a user of the sun's rays for energy and as a pioneer in solar technology despite its northern, cloud-covered location, its economy minister said. "You don't necessarily have to have the best natural geographic conditions to be a solar power capital," Harald Wolf told Reuters in an interview, referring to the German capital's 52-degree north latitude and its cloud cover for about two-thirds of daylight hours. Read more...

Europe hopes world will follow mercury ban

EurActiv, September 25, 2008

EU Ministers in the Competitiveness Council yesterday (25 September) adopted a regulation banning all exports of mercury from the EU in 2011, wrapping up a key part of a European strategy to limit emissions of the toxic heavy metal into the environment. Read more...

Norway's Efforts to Contain Greenhouse Gases Move Forward -- and Backfire

The Wall Street Journal, September 30, 2008

In 1991, Norway became one of the first countries in the world to impose a stiff tax on harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Since then, the country's emissions should have dropped. Instead, they have risen by 15%.
Although the tax forced Norway's oil and gas sector to become among the greenest in the world, soaring energy prices led to a boom in offshore production, which in turn boosted overall emissions. Read more...