Carbon offsetters get kitemark system

Every time Greenbang sees a story about Hillary Benn, she imagines him going into a fancy dress shop in bowler hat and suit, changing his costume and having crazy adventures. But that’s by the by - Mr Benn has been up to more important things, announcing this week a code for voluntary carbon offsetting companies.

Soon any folk using Kyoto-approved carbon credits can get a stamp of approval from the government — so buyers know that when they buy a one tonne offset, that’s the amount they’ve actually offset — with a code of practice on the way.

Treat yourself to some more details, courtesy of Defra:

The principles that will need to be addressed by an industry standard are:
• additionality, meaning that the carbon savings must be in addition to reductions that would be made anyway;
• avoiding carbon leakage, or emissions avoided on one site simply being moved somewhere else;
• permanence, ensuring that emissions reductions were not simply put off until later;
• verification systems for emissions reductions;
• transparency on the methodologies and procedures used; and
• avoiding double counting, ensuring that emissions counted in an offset product are not counted elsewhere, for example as savings through an emissions trading scheme.
Once an industry consensus has been reached on a standard for voluntary credits and it has been fully operational for six months, the Government has asked that an independent audit is carried out.
The Government has appointed AEA to become the accreditation body for the Code, and they will today issue the final draft of the Code for industry comment on accreditation procedures. The quality mark associated with the work is currently being developed, and will be ready to be used when the first products are accredited later this year.

Cars to harvest carbon from the air

Like fuel-gathering pixies, scientists from Los Alamos have invented a new system, called -somewhat painfully - Green Freedom, to harvest carbon from the air and then turn it into fuel using electrochemical.

The principal market, according to those pixies, is see get the system carried on airplanes and cars.

“Our concept enhances U.S. energy and material security by reducing dependence on imported oil. Initial system and economic analyses indicate that the prices of Green Freedom commodities would be either comparable to the current market or competitive with those of other carbon-neutral, alternative technologies currently being considered,” said F. Jeffrey Martin of the Laboratory’s Decisions Applications Division, principal investigator on the project.

There’s also the possibility of getting the tech stuck on nuclear power cooling plants, to take advantage of existing carbon capture.

The researchers are now working on proving the ability of the system to capture and reuse carbbon, with a commercial venture, perhaps a slightly pixie-like one, soon to be set up to get Green Freedom on the market.

Carbon Connections - the conference

Check out Carbon Connections conference next week.

But don’t take our word for it - hear the p p p podcast…

The short version is: Stimulating Low Carbon Innovation through Knowledge Transfer

Thursday, February 28th at the RIBA headquarters, 66 Portland Place in London.

So there.

David Cameron warns of biofuels food crunch

“Watch out, farmers! Biofuels and climate change are coming to steal your crops!” Greenbang is paraphrasing Conservative leader David Cameron, speaking to the National Farmers’ Union yesterday.

Apparently the large-foreheaded one has warned assorted farming types that the times they are a changing. Here’s a snapshot of his speech:

changes are happening in our world…changes like global economic progress and what this means for peoples’ diets, climate change and the move to biofuels which directly affect the ability of the world’s farmers to fulfil their essential purpose: to grow enough food for us all.

We face the potential prospect that the abundance of food that we all take for granted will come to a crashing end.

And so, it is argued we should now completely re-examine all our assumptions about how food is produced in our country.

It’s all a bit like World War II isn’t it, don’t you think? Cameron does.

We have, of course, been here before.
During World War II, there were shortages of aeroplanes and guns and bullets.
But the most important shortage of all was of something even more fundamental - food.
Rationing brought home to everyone the simple fact that we had barely enough food to live on.

And there’s more.

And no one doubts that biofuels are an important part of the solution and offer new markets to our farmers. But they are not a panacea.

They’re not a panacea because unless they are truly sustainable, the may well harm the environment more than protect it.

That’s why the Conservatives voted against the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation.

And biofuels are not a panacea because the more land we use to make biofuels, the less land we have to produce the most valuable fuel of all: food.

The figures are stark. According to The Economist, last year, a third of America’s maize harvest was turned into ethanol to fuel cars.

That affects food markets directly - you could feed a person for a whole year from the grain that produces just one tank of fuel for a sports utility vehicle.

And indirectly too - as farmers, cashing in on biofuels, change to maize at the expense of other crops like wheat. These three factors - diet change, climate change, crop change - are contributing right now to global food crunch.

Grain stocks are at their lowest level for thirty years with food prices actually rising by six percent in the UK last year. And these factors will continue to make that global food crunch worse in the years to come.

Cadbury puts Easter egg packaging on a diet

Have you been walking around the supermarkets, secretly cursing the arrival of Easter eggs ever earlier on their shelves, but not wanting to admit it, in case it’s a sign on early onset curmudgeon-ness or old age? Greenbang has.

Still, Greenbang was slightly cheered to hear Cadbury is doing away with all the fluff and nonsense associated with the festival of Jesus’ death, and making a packaging free egg.

The eggs are called Treasure Eggs and will just be foil wrapped, rather than cased in a plastic sarcophagus, and “represent a reduction of over 75% plastic and 65% less cardboard than previously used in standard eggs” according to the chocolate firm.

Other eggs will find their packaging on a diet too. “This Easter, the amount of plastic used will be reduced by 247 tonnes and cardboard by 115 tonnes, saving over 2,000 trees as a result. In total, as a result of the combination of launching the un-boxed Treasure eggs to avoid excessive packaging and reducing packaging on the standard eggs, Cadbury will save 1130 tonnes of packaging this Easter,” says Cadbury.

UK biz says ‘bah humbug!’ to carbon cutting

Imagine the UK’s SMEs. No, nothing to do with Captain Hook’s sidekick, but the nation’s small and medium sized business. Are they a carbon loathing, eco-friendly bunch? Are they heck.

According to a survey by npower business, UK SMEs and, for that matter, some larger companies reckon that the government’s planned Carbon Reduction Commitment will make the UK uncompetitive.

Greenbang is tempted to suggest they might believe that thunder is in fact the sound of giants dropping furniture when they move house, but she won’t.

Here’s some more details from npower:

When asked about the implementation of such regulation, 63% of respondents said they thought the costs would outweigh the benefits. Only 48% believed that the CRC would achieve its target of removing 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere each year by 2020.

Demonstrating further concern, 75% of intensive energy users surveyed said they thought the combined pressures of the Climate Change Levy, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and the new CRC will place an undue burden on business.

Scientists beat nature in solar race

There are many things you can do with the sun. Many. Many, many. Like not look at it and then look at it when there are eclipses. Now there’s one more thing you can do with it.

According to Science Daily, researchers at Penn State have worked out a proof of concept system to make hydrogen from water and sunlight, using water photolysis - an in-the-lab sort of mimcking of the photosynthesis used by plants.

By using electrodes and synthetic dyes, the system can split water into hydrogen and oxygen and stop them recombining. Apparently, the process is even more efficient than nature’s photosynthesis. Take that nature.

Scientists find secret to corn oil yield

Scientists are making more plants bend to their will. According to the latest edition of Nature Genetics the white coated folk have come up with a way of milking corn for maximum oil.

Scientists have identified the gene determining the oil yield and, by monkeying around with it, can create oil-rich maize.

But not all is well in biofuels world (sound like a rubbish theme park) with some scientists warning that the likes of biodiesel will lead to peak food production. Here’s a neat summary from MIT:

High oil prices, energy security considerations and fears about global warming have helped revive interest in renewable energy sources like biofuels, which burn cleanly and can be produced from plants.

But there are a few catches, particularly regarding biofuels like corn-based ethanol: the more corn is used in ethanol production, the less is available for food–a reality that partly accounts for the recent run-up in world food prices. Moreover, most of the 6 billion gallons of ethanol produced annually in the United States comes from corn, but there’s not enough corn available to make it a viable long-term source.

Event: Green & Global Market Instability

Check out this event if you get time - Green & Global Market Instability: How to keep the Climate Change agenda on course.

Wednesday, 5th March 2008, 17.00-19.00, One Silk Street, London

Greenbang is a media sponsor for the event, so we’ll be there. Ben Patten of GreenBiz Events runs this.

Here’s what it’s about:

The credit crunch is hitting home everywhere. This event will explore the implications for the Climate Change agenda:

1.     Policy:             What the policy implications will be at home and abroad

2.     Consumers:     How consumers desire for green options and lifestyles will be affected

3.     Corporations:   What will happen with big business’ response to Climate Change

4.     Investors:         How investment flows into Clean Tech and climate –friendly businesses will be affected

This impromptu meeting will look at all these elements in isolation and then piece together the total picture and what it means for the global response to Climate Change and the implications for business. Our speakers and panel are made up of the following:

·         Roger Harrabin, Environment Analyst – BBC (Chair)

·         Tom Burke CBE, Environmental Policy - Rio Tinto

·         Nick Coad, Head of Group Environment Strategy - National Express

·         Mark Campanale, Director - London Bridge Capital

·         Maggie Brenneke, Director, Skoll Social Enterprise Program – SustainAbility

·         Chris Coulter, VP - Globescan

·         Vanessa Havard-Williams – Partner, Head of Environment Group – Linklaters

Shai Agassi - hear the interview

We’ve put this interview on podcast, if you want to listen…

Greenbang tracks the explosion of the environmental industry, reporting on news of green innovation and thought leadership.

We blog on this rather than the environmental problems of the world because we are interested in the answers to climate change.