Quelle Surprise!

The BBC reports that hospital food cooked with fresh local ingredients may save the NHS millions of pounds every year. Sourcing meat, vegetable and dairy from surrounding areas also means less air/road mileage, carbon emissions and a boost for local producers. It’s a “no-brainer”.

Con-Lib coalition pledge a “low carbon and eco-friendly economy”

The Con-Lib coalition has agreed on the following environmental priorities for government:

The establishment of a smart grid and the roll-out of smart meters.

The creation of a green investment bank.

The provision of home energy improvement paid for by the savings from lower energy bills.

Retention of energy performance certificates while scrapping HIPs.

Measures to encourage marine energy.

The establishment of an emissions performance standard that will prevent coal-fired power stations being built unless they are equipped with sufficient CCS to meet the emissions performance standard.

The establishment of a high-speed rail network.

The cancellation of the third runway at Heathrow.

The refusal of additional runways at Gatwick and Stansted.

The replacement of the Air Passenger Duty with a per flight duty.

The provision of a floor price for carbon, as well as efforts to persuade the EU to move towards full auctioning of ETS permits.

Measures to make the import or possession of illegal timber a criminal offence.

Measures to promote green spaces and wildlife corridors in order to halt the loss of habitats and restore biodiversity.

Mandating a national recharging network for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Continuation of the present Government’s proposals for public sector investment in CCS technology for four coal-fired power stations; and a specific commitment to reduce central government carbon emissions by 10 per cent within 12 months.

An agreement to seek to increase the target for energy from renewable sources, subject to the advice of the Climate Change Committee.

Finally, the agreement also lays out a compromise on new nuclear power plants. The Conservatives will allow new plants to be built with the introduction of a planning policy statement, however, no public money will subsidise any nuclear works. The Lib Dems will in turn be able to abstain on any Commons vote on this issue.

Source: better generation

Five from the Web

Forty years ago this 22 April, Earth Day was first celebrated by 20 million Americans. Visit earthday.org to see how you can get involved in 2010.

An article in Treehugger looks at the energy impact of Twittering. How much does each Tweet cost in carbon footprint terms?

According to the Times, one side effect of the Eyjafjallajokull Volcano has been that carbon emissions have been cut dramatically over the past five days.

The Telegraph reports how the LibDem leader, Nick Clegg, today commited £3bn for a green jobs revolution.

And finally, Mark Lynas vowes to practise what he preaches.

Five Links

The Independent – on the secret of Stockholm, winner of the first ever Green capital award from the EU.

Commodity Online – EU emissions decreased by 11% in 2009. As the major European economies begin to move into positive growth one wonders how long this can last.

Edie – on the UK government’s plans to tackle climate change “in house”.

The Jakarta Post – details how Muslim communities worldwide will be uniting against global warming later this week.

earth2tech – on the iPad’s green apps.

Green Consumerism

The curtain has closed on the 25th London Fashion Week. It was all ‘strong shoulders, hard lines and lots and lots of black’ according to Grazia magazine. The former high priestess of punk, Vivienne Westwood, told the backstage press that she hopes people stop buying her clothes to ‘stop all this consumerism’. Her previous catwalk shows have highlighted the impact of mass consumerism on climate change.

Meanwhile in the world of football, Nike has decided to make the shirts of Brazil, Portugal, the Netherlands and others from recycled polyester in time for the World Cup in South Africa. This will reportedly cut manufacturing energy use by 30%. According to a spokesperson for the company:

The link between sustainability and Nike as a growth company has never been clearer and there is a real business case to be made for making Nike a more sustainable company

Indeed. Walmart is also on a charm offensive. Tree Hugger reports that the supermarket chain is to cut 20million metric tons of emissions over the next 15 years.