Continuing the coal theme (seam?) … for an astute insight to the coal issue in the UK read George Monbiot’s article Burnt Out, on his blog and published in todays Guardian.
coal – a great green scam?
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Category Archives: politics
oh no Darling …
In December 2007 Alistair Darling was quoted as saying:
“Sustainability will be at the heart of the next Budget.
This is not an optional extra. It is essential for all our futures”
So was it? – well hardly, pale green, maybe, at its best – but with the focus on plastic bags – just another greenwash exercise. (I have copied the Friends of the Earth budget comment on green homes below to illustrate)
The Governments Stern Report indicates we should be spending 13billion on environmental issues right now, to avoid higher costs in the future. Environmental commentators estimate our spend to currently be 1billion
This further illustrates the priority sustainability has within this government, which may be a good thing to be aware of, as it may, hopefully, generate more communalist approaches to sustainability, that is a grass roots, do it because its the right thing to do approach. We have seen this in the US – in spite of Bush’s negative stance – the GreenBuild industry has flourished – because it makes sense.
So, time to get on and do it, we cannot afford to wait to be led by government. As Ghandi said – “be the change you want to see in the world”
Not surprising then, as Mark Lynas commented in the Guardian earlier this week (Britain is stealing the US crown of No 1 climate villian)- we are seeing protests trying to enforce government policy against the wishes of the government. A truly shaming moment for the Brown government
one to watch?
Reported in todays Guardian….
A powerful new government climate change committee will meet today for the first time to decide how ministers will meet their commitment to cut carbon emissions by 60% by 2050, and whether the target needs to be strengthened in the face of worsening forecasts on climate change.
But is 60% by 2050 enough – the word from the science community is that it needs to be 80% – as Scotland and other are adopting. And if they do recommend a move to 80% that will affect all (ok most) Code targets and built environment targets set to date.
And Darlings forthcoming budget will be the greenest ever from Labour so I read. It will be interesting to see what home improvement, new home and non domestic building environmental targets and benefits are announced – if any
Eco … build, homes, villages and towns – pah… greenwash?
James Meikle’s article in yesterdays guardian paints a picture of growing concerns and gaps in the thinking behind the current push towards ‘eco‘ villages and towns.
As a flagship for the huge number of homes to be built and eco towns to be created, Northstowe, if the Guardian report is correct has problems:
As the town takes shape, en route to at least a 20% – and hopefully higher – supply of renewable energy, combined heat and power plants could prove more efficient and cost effective than solar gadgets and micro generation on separate houses.
Sounds great, but the debate is our on micro generation – but only 20% renewable? !!!
More recently, Cooper decided that Northstowe must not be delayed by having to meet zero-carbon standards subsequently imposed for all new houses from 2016.
Ah ha – explains the 20% but if we can do it as an eco-challenge at Hanham Hall in Bristol – why not here?
James too makes the point on the level expected on the homes:
To start with, … private homes will only be at level 3 on the code for sustainable homes, producing 25% lower emissions than legally required so far, but no more revolutionary than homes already being built on some smaller developments. The requirement for affordable homes will be slightly higher at code level 4 – a 44% improvement on minimum standards, but again not as tough as might have been expected, given the experimentation already under way elsewhere.
In my opinion this is not flagship or even eco…
David Bard, a senior councillor on South Cambridgeshire council, which, with the county council, will consider the Northstowe plans in the next few months, says: ” I am not sure that anyone actually knows what is meant by an ‘ecotown’, let alone a ‘prototype ecotown’.
Time to rethink? Time to get back to basics?
Time to recall where Eco comes from – as it is a prefix used in most ‘sustainable ‘ iniatives at the present. Eco-this eco-that and eco-other is indeed the zetigeist of the moment. Eco is of course an abreviation of ecological – and as a prefix used to describe things realted to ecological issues. Except it isnt today, at least in its use for eco homes and villages etc.
Eco villages stem back to 1960’s community living, alternative technologies, living off grid with alternative lifestyles. Are todays eco villages just a clever greenwashing of of that ideal? (A greenwash that probably covers all 6 of the greenwash sins!)
Where is the community, social enterprise, regeneration, ecological diversity protection thinking in these developments?
It would be very interesting to see calculations for the ecological footprint of eco-developments such as Hanham Hall and Northstowe and how they would compare to other or non eco developments. There is much focus on carbon footprints, understandably as its tangible and easy to understand – but if we use the prefix eco – lets focus on the ecological footprint as well.
I have posted on the LEED ND (neighbourhood development) scheme here a few times – it would be fascinating to assess Hanham Hall or Northstowe against this standard. Just looking at the evidence required for submission for this standard would (hopefully) cause a rethink, or dropping of the prefix Eco ! for example:
- Smart Location and Linkage, (smart location means ecological consideration!)
- Neighborhood Pattern and Design,
- Green Construction and Technology and
- Innovative Design
Any BREEAM assessors, any LEED ND assessors out there looking for a challenge? Anyone out there willing to fund a project to ‘test’ the claims being made? These projects underway now will shape our future housing construction, living, and social well being.
Why do I hear the Pete Seger song when I think of eco-towns
Little boxes on the hill side, little boxes made of ticky-tacky.
Little boxes, little boxes, little boxes all the same.
There’s a green one and a pink one and a blue one and a yellow one,
… more
So time for a rethink and real innovation – as Henry Ford famously said “If I asked people what they really wanted they would have asked for faster horses” Will we still get little boxes ?
And quietly the transition-towns movement gains pace …. but thats another post !
New coal fired power station gets go ahead
The news that Medway Council have given the green light to a coal fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent seems at complete odds with the current informed thinking on energy, on coal and on the current ‘mood’ or zeitgeist towards sustainability. It also appears as a developing country decision – not one taken by a nation attempting to be a leader in sustainability and carbon targets. Building Guardian
The decision can be seen in many ways as a damning comment on the built industry in not moving fast enough to address the energy issue within buildings and facilities.
76 % of the energy from this new power plant will be consumed by buildings. By reducing building energy use of new and renovated buildings by a minimum of 50%, we negate the need for new coal plants. (source)
How can the government and local authorities push forward with zero carbon homes to Code 6, zero carbon schools, zero carbon non-domestic buildings, insist on reductions through Merton Rule approaches, and demand organisations reduce their carbon emissions … when in one action we turn the carbon emissions clock back 30 years ( This will be the first plant to be built in 30 years)
And many of these targets come in to place before the new plant comes on stream.
Perhaps the Kent council and others should read the work from the excellent and influential Architecture 2030, who, in the USA are directly and indirectly influencing cities and states to cancel or shelve coal fire plants in favour of a green build approach .
Emissions from the new plant will blow the UK’s targets and commitments for carbon reductions out of the water. The notion of cleaned coal is an oxymoron, with environmentalists and scientists diasgreeing over the viability of any capture / claeaning / sequestration technology. It will take years and seems a high gamble to rely on a technology in the future.
In a time when we need positive actions and messages to prevent green fatigue – this will send a dangerous message – that it is ok to invest in traditional planet threatening energy sources whilst playing lip service to renewables and alternatives investment.
A very ominous start to 2008.
Cost of carbon
A good note to end the year on and a new perspective on the cost of carbon to start 2008 with was reported in the Guardian last Friday. (also picked up by fellow blogger Phil at Some Seasonal Cheer ). Effectively ministers will now have to include a cost for carbon emission on all projects, starting at £25.50 a carbon tonne for 2007, rising every year to reach £59.60 a tonne by 2050. (This seems lower than other figures suggested!)
It will be interesting to see how this plays out through construction and fm – what would the additional cost of PFI’s, and BSF, building schools for the future projects etc now be. Would these costs be predicted over the life of a building. Can they be offset by carbon reducing measures built in?
And the Code – suddenly the cost of zero carbon homes may well be less than business as usual carbon construction.
Will the costs be applied to construction process emissions as well – and if so will this be tracked back up stream to the cement industry for example.
Not sure who actually will pay for these costs – the developers?, the supply side? the clients? More questions than answers at the moment, more detail is still to announced, but as this is a Treasury initiative it will surely be forced into being rapidly and with teeth. A whole new carbon based currency is being created.
Lets hope there is not a cop out by allowing offsets to offset these costs, and that the costs are real contributions to tackling sustainability
Whatever the detail, we will start 2008 with a new, more meaningful perspective of sustainable construction, and more debates and discussion.
Brilliant.
Merton Rule ‘plus’ in new planning policy statement
The Guardian reports today that the Merton rule has now been embedded into a new planning policy statement.
The government will today publish a new planning policy designed to boost the use of renewable energy and community heating schemes in new buildings as it gears up for the introduction of carbon-free homes from 2016 … requiring new commercial buildings to produce at least 10% of their energy from on-site renewables.
So another target milestone for the industry looms. However in the (rising) scale of things only 10% from renewables by 2016 seems paltry.
poor building performance fuels coal demand – Ffos-y-fran
Coal is back in the news today … from the Guardian:
Around 30 climate activists and local residents this morning took mass direct action to prevent excavation work on Britain’s biggest ever open-cast coal mine at Ffos-y-fran in South Wales, (… timed to coincide with the Bali conference)
Climate protester, Tim Helweg-Larsen, said: “Coal is the filthiest fuel known to man and projects like this mine could destroy all our chances of tackling global warming. The battle over this hilltop in Wales is a fight for the stability of the global climate and it epitomises this government’s hypocrisy on climate change.”
When burned, this amount of coal will emit more than 30m tonnes of carbon dioxide.
More than 10,000 local people petitioned against the pit, the edge of which will be just 36 metres from people’s homes.
Merthyr resident, Leon Stanfield, said: “We’ve protested this mine in all the conventional ways. Now we’re turning to direct action as a last resort. This project is wrecking both the local and the global environment and is putting the health of our community and its children at risk.”
Miller Argent says it appreciates the concerns expressed by some (sic) local residents. Once works are commenced it said it would be able to ensure that the concerns of the local community are met.
(MillerArgents newsletter to keep people up to date with progress seems to have stalled at Issue 01 back in the Summer – which greenwash sin is this I wonder?)
But on a wider issue: Continue reading
Clinton @ Greenbuild365
I caught the live broadcast (webcast) of Bill Clintons speech at Greenbuild365* yesterday, and a few things stuck in my mind.
One was Clintons reference to this being an opportunity, a challenge but an opportunity, and that the transition from a carbon economy to a green economy will produce as many new jobs, skills and professions as the carbon industries loose.
he saw that the greenbuild sector was the place to be to really address climate change issues. “The sale has been made,” he said. “Otherwise Al Gore wouldn’t have got the Nobel Prize. Now what we have to do is to prove that this is not a bottle of castor oil that we’re being asked to drink”.
Secondly, Clintons call the need for an industry benchmark to keep score, and his pledge, I assume from his foundation, to create a tool for the AEC Industries – (Architecture, Engineering and Construction).
Watch this space…
In fact Clinton could be one to watch. The worldchanging writer and founder Alex Steffen ran a story on Clinton’s speech to US Mayors in Seattle recently and described it as …quite simply, the best speech on climate given by an American politician (other than Al Gore) I’ve ever heard — it’s the sort of speech I wish a sitting president would stand up and deliver before Congress and the nation
* As to Greenbuild, I understand7000 saw Clintons speech, 20,000 will attend over three days and most of the key speeches are webcast around the world. (An idea for the UK Think 2008 maybe Phil?) I just get a feeling something big is happening there, despite the rhetoric in American politics and leadership.
Contraction and Convergence – UK Gov response
I recently participated in an online petition to 10 Downing St on the governments response to C and C. The response here is well worth a read, covering C and C and personal; carbon trading, the climate bill and other carbon iniatives.
Cant help thinking there is some political greenwashing here.
Incidentally the petition was organised through Facebook and blogs – demonstrating the emerging recognition and influence these new social networks have.
Fairsnape 