TalkClimateChange

Late last year, the European Union sensibly decided to impose strict targets on its car manufacturers to improve fuel efficiency standards. Fuel efficiency, which has barely improved in previous years, is seen as a key opportunity to bridge the growing energy gap in the near term future.
Under the scheme, manufacturers were, sensibly, given a […]

On the surface, Japan fails miserably on just about every measure when it comes to tackling climate change - rejecting a global 2 degree Celsius maximum warming target, and relying on voluntary industrial emissions targets which have so far seen Japan fall short of its Kyoto obligations.
Even so, Japan’s Prime Minister is keen to […]

I’ve written on EcoWorldly this week about proposed legislation to ban the use of products which generate high levels of Co2 emissions. The EU is close to banning patio heaters, and calls for a total ban on high emissions vehicles have recently been made by the former head of oil giant Shell.
There is an important […]

This post was recently published at EcoWorldly.
Arthur C. Clarke once said that any sufficiently mature technology is indistinguishable from magic. However, as much as it has transformed our lives, the magic of electricity is something that we mostly take for granted – it’s readily available, relatively dependable, and cheap.
But this may change during the […]

Delegates from the latest US sponsored climate talks in Hawaii have given mixed reports on its success, indicating that the initial stand-off between the US, India and China is still very much an issue.
An unnamed EU delegate gave a very positive statement leading to a number of encouraging headlines in conservative newspapers: “I came expecting […]

Yesterday the European Union announced a new energy emissions plan in its latest bid to fight climate change. As usual, nobody is happy, with businesses warning of higher prices and environmental groups claiming that the measures fall short of the actions needed.
In typical EU style, the plan aims to please everybody and is a […]

Continuing our commentary on the madness of biofuels we have been happy to note that a group of British Members of Parliament  have come to their senses and are petitioning the EU to rethink their biofuels policy.  The report follows a previous admission from the Environment minister of the European Commission that certain environmental and […]

First tensions are emerging between EU lawmakers and businesses as plans are cemented to implement EU targets for climate change.
Joining the Red Team this week are French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and the European Trade Union Confederation, and joining the Green Team please welcome European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
Unions in Europe have expressed […]

The EU has at long last admitted that it’s policies on biofuels were a “mistake” and is implementing a policy review to redress the issue. Environment minister of the European Commission Stavros Dimas admitted that certain environmental and social problems associated with biofuels had not been foreseen.
Our view is that the impacts of many green […]

The European Union is currently considering proposals to levy import taxes on goods from countries that do not sign up to emissions treaties.
Taxes will likely be charged based on the equivalent price of an EU emissions permit for specific goods as a way of levelling the playing field between goods manufactured subject to emissions cap […]

2007 was a big year in Climate Change, which saw the US u-turn on climate policy (on the surface at least), the emergence of the EU and the UK as world climate leaders, continued climate record breaking as temperatures soared and the North West passage was opened up, the worldwide release of An Inconvenient Truth, […]

Against expectations US President George Bush has signed a bill mandating a 35mpg fleet average for the American auto industry to be achieved by 2020 amongst other measures aimed at reducing US Co2 emissions.

EU ministers are set to agree a deal which will see aircraft emissions continue to rise, and potentially offer a large cash bonus to airlines.
Environmental campaigners will be unsatisfied with a scheme which is likely to do little to reduce emissions, while the rest of us can grumble at funding another EU bureaucratic nightmare which […]

With the Bali summit finally wrapped up we’ve been reading mixed messages from around the world. Some news outlets are reporting a positive conclusion with the signing of an acceptable deal at the 11th hour, with others taking a more critical view of the results.
So what happened, and what does it mean? Here is our […]

Just as we were getting bored of talking about Bali the European Union has added some additional drama, threatening to boycott further talks if the United States continues to”block progress”. The EU claims that  attending the next exotic climate meeting in Hawaii next month would be pointless if the US continues to reject the current […]