This is a weekly email briefing from environmentguardian.co.uk, bringing you the best news, analysis and debate
Environment editor
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 14 April 2010 12.13 BST
the race to 6 May in full swing, we're hosting a climate change election debate between the three main parties
Green election
• Labour election manifesto: weak, not tough, on causes of climate change• Environment policies the parties should adopt in election 2010• Tories plan controversial reform to UK renewable energy incentives• Ask Leo: How big will the carbon footprint of party leaders be during the election?For the election we've also rounded up civil society's environment demands, put Labour's manifesto under our green microscope and Leo Hickman wants your help calculating the carbon footprint of the party leaders.
Ever wondered what a clean green electric scooter's like to ride? Find out with Bibi van der Zee. For more sedate thrills, take a look at our gallery of the Royal Mail's new range of conservation-themed stamps.
• Japanese whalers blame Sea Shepherd for smallest catch in years• Clouded leopard caught on camera• British campaigner urges UN to accept 'ecocide' as international crime• Ecologists unveil plan for 'barometer of natural life'This week Japan's fleet of ships returned home with 507 whales, short of 935 target - and it blamed conservation group Sea Shepherd for the fall. Elsewhere, British lawyer-turned-activist Polly Higgins launched her This is Ecocide campaign and a rare photograph emerged of a clouded leopard.
Climate change
• Lord Oxburgh inquiry clears UEA scientists of malpractice• Peruvian glacier split triggers deadly tsunami• Hollywood stars join politicians at Bolivia's 'cool' global warming summit• Copenhagen destroyed by Danish draft leak, says India's environment minister• Confidential document reveals Obama's hardline US climate talk strategyThe latest inquiry into the hacked climate science emails today cleared the scientists involved of any wrongdoing, saying the science was conducted "fairly and properly". John Vidal also reported on Bolivia's contribution to international climate talks and revealed a vital US climate document left on a hotel PC in Europe.
Green living
• Is Mooncup's mass marketing strategy a model for green campaigns?• Paul Priestman's innovation: The Waterpebble• Can I do my hair and be green?• Innocent smoothie denies sell-out after Coca-Cola gets majority stake• ArcelorMittal's emissions make a monumental joke of Olympic park towerThis week in green living it's all about vaginas, hair-dos and phallic symbols. Ed Gillespie took a look at ethical firm Mooncup, Lucy Siegle offered up some eco hair-care tips, and Felicity Carus asked if the ArcelorMittal Orbit is really a good monument for a green Olympics.
Best of the web
• From BusinessGreen: White House hints that it is gearing up for climate bill fight• From SolveClimate: California pours a foundation for cities to build on• From BusinessGreen: China says low carbon sources to supply quarter of electricity by end of 2010For more of the best environment comment and news from around the web, visit the Guardian Environment Network.
...And finally
• Doctor Who does nothing for tweed that cyclists haven't planned for monthsHead to the bike blog to return to an era when lady and gentlemen riders ruled the road
Wednesday, 14 April 2010
The pedal-powered hotel
A green hotel in Copenhagen is claiming a world first by using guests on exercise bikes to generate electricity
Tom Robbins
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 14 April 2010 13.36 BST
Bright idea ... an iPhone attached to the handlebars shows how much power is being fed into the hotel's system
Forget solar panels and wind turbines, a hotel that bills itself as one of the "greenest" in the world has found a new source of renewable energy – its guests.
From next Monday, those staying at the 366-room Crown Plaza Copenhagen Towers will be encouraged to head down to the gym to spend time on its new fleet of electricity-generating exercise bikes. The bikes have iPhones mounted on the handlebars which monitor how much power is being produced and fed into the mains supply of the hotel. Any guest producing 10 watt hours or more will be rewarded with a free meal.
The scheme is a pilot project that will run for a year, and if successful, could be rolled out to all 21 Crowne Plaza hotels in the UK.
"The electric bikes offer our guests the chance to get fit and help power the hotel at the same time," said Allan Agerholm, the hotel's general manager. "It will be interesting to see how many guests take part and how much electricity we generate."
Getting the free meal is surprisingly easy. The hotel's calculations suggest one guest cycling at 30kmph for an hour will produce around 100 watt hours of electricity, meaning that reaching the threshold for the meal should take only six minutes.
Critics might argue that even those who cycle for a full hour will be making a rather token contribution to the energy use of a huge city hotel – 100 watt hours of energy is only enough to light a single 100 watt bulb for one hour. However the hotel counters that it wanted the target to be "achievable" so as many people as possible take part.
The hotel, which opened in November last year, is attempting to become carbon neutral. It has EU Green Building and Green Key certification and uses a groundwater-based cooling and heating system, low energy lighting and hand dryers, and is covered in solar panels on its south-facing aspects. So will its latest scheme catch on at other hotels around the world?
"Realistically, this isn't a practical way of generating a useful amount of energy, but I certainly wouldn't criticise it," said Alex Randall, a spokesman for the Centre for Alternative Technology. "As a lesson, and a means of public engagement, it's excellent – if you sit someone on a bike, pedalling hard, and show them they are only generating enough to power one lightbulb or TV, is makes them appreciate how difficult energy is to produce, and therefore why we should be careful not to waste it."
Tom Robbins
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 14 April 2010 13.36 BST
Bright idea ... an iPhone attached to the handlebars shows how much power is being fed into the hotel's system
Forget solar panels and wind turbines, a hotel that bills itself as one of the "greenest" in the world has found a new source of renewable energy – its guests.
From next Monday, those staying at the 366-room Crown Plaza Copenhagen Towers will be encouraged to head down to the gym to spend time on its new fleet of electricity-generating exercise bikes. The bikes have iPhones mounted on the handlebars which monitor how much power is being produced and fed into the mains supply of the hotel. Any guest producing 10 watt hours or more will be rewarded with a free meal.
The scheme is a pilot project that will run for a year, and if successful, could be rolled out to all 21 Crowne Plaza hotels in the UK.
"The electric bikes offer our guests the chance to get fit and help power the hotel at the same time," said Allan Agerholm, the hotel's general manager. "It will be interesting to see how many guests take part and how much electricity we generate."
Getting the free meal is surprisingly easy. The hotel's calculations suggest one guest cycling at 30kmph for an hour will produce around 100 watt hours of electricity, meaning that reaching the threshold for the meal should take only six minutes.
Critics might argue that even those who cycle for a full hour will be making a rather token contribution to the energy use of a huge city hotel – 100 watt hours of energy is only enough to light a single 100 watt bulb for one hour. However the hotel counters that it wanted the target to be "achievable" so as many people as possible take part.
The hotel, which opened in November last year, is attempting to become carbon neutral. It has EU Green Building and Green Key certification and uses a groundwater-based cooling and heating system, low energy lighting and hand dryers, and is covered in solar panels on its south-facing aspects. So will its latest scheme catch on at other hotels around the world?
"Realistically, this isn't a practical way of generating a useful amount of energy, but I certainly wouldn't criticise it," said Alex Randall, a spokesman for the Centre for Alternative Technology. "As a lesson, and a means of public engagement, it's excellent – if you sit someone on a bike, pedalling hard, and show them they are only generating enough to power one lightbulb or TV, is makes them appreciate how difficult energy is to produce, and therefore why we should be careful not to waste it."
Hollywood stars join politicians at Bolivia's 'cool' global warming summit
Evo Morales says talks will give a voice to world's poorest and encourage governments to be ambitious after Copenhagen
John Vidal, environment editor
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 13 April 2010 17.03 BST
In what is becoming the hippest environment meeting of the year, presidents, politicians, intellectuals, scientists and Hollywood stars will join more than 15,000 indigenous people and thousands of grass roots groups from more than 100 countries to debate climate change in one of the world's poorest nations.
The World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth which opens next week in the small Bolivian town of Cochabamba, will have no direct bearing on the UN climate talks being conducted by 192 governments. But Bolivian President Evo Morales says it will give a voice to the poorest people of the world and encourage governments to be far more ambitious following the failure of the Copenhagen summit.
Morales will use the meeting to announce the world's largest referendum, with up to 2 billion people being asked to vote on ways out of the climate crisis. Bolivia also wants to create a UN charter of rights and to draft an action plan to set up an international climate justice tribunal.
"The only way to get climate negotiations back on track not just for Bolivia or other countries, but for all of life, biodiversity, our Mother Earth is to put civil society back into the process. The only thing that can save mankind from a [climate] tragedy is the exercise of global democracy," said Bolivia's United Nations Ambassador Pablo Solon in Bonn, at the end of the latest UN talks.
"There will be no secret discussions behind closed doors. The debate and the proposals will be led by communities on the frontlines of climate change and by organisations and individuals from civil society dedicated to tackling the climate crisis," he said.
More than 90 governments are sending delegations to Cochabamba, Bolivia's third largest city. Also expected to attend are scientists such as James Hansen, James Cameron, the director of Avatar, the linguist Noam Chomsky, author Naomi Klein of Canada, anti-globalisation activist José Bové of France, and actors Danny Glover, Robert Redford and Susan Sarandon are expected.
The meeting will coincide with celebrations of the Cochabamba "water war" of 2000 when a revolt against the privatisation of water in the city acted as an inspiration for social movements across Latin America and indirectly to the election of Morales as Bolivia's president.
"We hope that this unique format will help shift power back to the people, which is where it needs to be on this critical issue for all humanity. We don't expect agreement on everything, but at least we can start to discuss openly and sincerely in a way that didn't happen in Copenhagen," said Solón.
John Vidal, environment editor
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 13 April 2010 17.03 BST
In what is becoming the hippest environment meeting of the year, presidents, politicians, intellectuals, scientists and Hollywood stars will join more than 15,000 indigenous people and thousands of grass roots groups from more than 100 countries to debate climate change in one of the world's poorest nations.
The World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth which opens next week in the small Bolivian town of Cochabamba, will have no direct bearing on the UN climate talks being conducted by 192 governments. But Bolivian President Evo Morales says it will give a voice to the poorest people of the world and encourage governments to be far more ambitious following the failure of the Copenhagen summit.
Morales will use the meeting to announce the world's largest referendum, with up to 2 billion people being asked to vote on ways out of the climate crisis. Bolivia also wants to create a UN charter of rights and to draft an action plan to set up an international climate justice tribunal.
"The only way to get climate negotiations back on track not just for Bolivia or other countries, but for all of life, biodiversity, our Mother Earth is to put civil society back into the process. The only thing that can save mankind from a [climate] tragedy is the exercise of global democracy," said Bolivia's United Nations Ambassador Pablo Solon in Bonn, at the end of the latest UN talks.
"There will be no secret discussions behind closed doors. The debate and the proposals will be led by communities on the frontlines of climate change and by organisations and individuals from civil society dedicated to tackling the climate crisis," he said.
More than 90 governments are sending delegations to Cochabamba, Bolivia's third largest city. Also expected to attend are scientists such as James Hansen, James Cameron, the director of Avatar, the linguist Noam Chomsky, author Naomi Klein of Canada, anti-globalisation activist José Bové of France, and actors Danny Glover, Robert Redford and Susan Sarandon are expected.
The meeting will coincide with celebrations of the Cochabamba "water war" of 2000 when a revolt against the privatisation of water in the city acted as an inspiration for social movements across Latin America and indirectly to the election of Morales as Bolivia's president.
"We hope that this unique format will help shift power back to the people, which is where it needs to be on this critical issue for all humanity. We don't expect agreement on everything, but at least we can start to discuss openly and sincerely in a way that didn't happen in Copenhagen," said Solón.
Peruvian glacier split triggers deadly tsunami
Chunk of ice the size of four football pitches falls from Hualcan glacier into Andean lake, resulting in at least one death
Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 13 April 2010 18.01 BST
A massive ice block broke from a glacier and crashed into a lake in the Peruvian Andes, unleashing a 23-metre tsunami and sending muddy torrents through nearby towns, killing at least one person.
The chunk of ice, estimated at the size of four football pitches, detached from the Hualcan glacier near Carhuaz, about 200 miles north of the capital, Lima, on Sunday. It plunged into a lagoon known as lake 513, triggering a tsunami that breached 23 metre (75ft) high levees and damaged Carhuaz and other villages, according to authorities.
The Indeci civil defence institute said 50 homes and a water processing plant serving 60,000 residents were wrecked. Trout fishermen initially presumed dead survived, leaving one confirmed death.
Authorities evacuated mountain valley settlements fearing that the ice block, measuring 500 metres by 200 metres, could be followed by more ruptures as the glacier melts.
César Álvarez, governor of Ancash region, which includes the affected area, blamed climate change. "Because of global warming the glaciers are going to detach and fall on these overflowing lakes. This is what happened," he told Canal N.
Two people were injured when they saw the torrent of water, panicked in their car and crashed. The number of casualties could have been much greater had the lake level been higher when the ice block fell.
"This slide into the lake generated a tsunami wave, which breached the lake's levees, which are 23 metres high – meaning the wave was 23 metres high," said Patricio Vaderrama, an expert on glaciers at Peru's Institute of Mine Engineers.
It was the latest evidence that glaciers are vanishing from Peru, which has 70% of the world's tropical icefields. They have retreated by 22% since 1975, according to a World Bank report, and warmer temperatures are expected to erase them entirely within 20 years.
The same phenomenon is under way in neighbouring Bolivia, where the Chacaltaya glacier, 5,000 metres (17,400ft) up in the Andes, used to be the world's highest ski run. Predictions that it would survive until 2015 seem to be optimistic: according to recent pictures a few lumps of ice near the summit are all that remains.
The World Bank report warned that the disappearance of Andean ice sheets would threaten hydro-electric power and the water supplies of nearly 80 million people.
Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 13 April 2010 18.01 BST
A massive ice block broke from a glacier and crashed into a lake in the Peruvian Andes, unleashing a 23-metre tsunami and sending muddy torrents through nearby towns, killing at least one person.
The chunk of ice, estimated at the size of four football pitches, detached from the Hualcan glacier near Carhuaz, about 200 miles north of the capital, Lima, on Sunday. It plunged into a lagoon known as lake 513, triggering a tsunami that breached 23 metre (75ft) high levees and damaged Carhuaz and other villages, according to authorities.
The Indeci civil defence institute said 50 homes and a water processing plant serving 60,000 residents were wrecked. Trout fishermen initially presumed dead survived, leaving one confirmed death.
Authorities evacuated mountain valley settlements fearing that the ice block, measuring 500 metres by 200 metres, could be followed by more ruptures as the glacier melts.
César Álvarez, governor of Ancash region, which includes the affected area, blamed climate change. "Because of global warming the glaciers are going to detach and fall on these overflowing lakes. This is what happened," he told Canal N.
Two people were injured when they saw the torrent of water, panicked in their car and crashed. The number of casualties could have been much greater had the lake level been higher when the ice block fell.
"This slide into the lake generated a tsunami wave, which breached the lake's levees, which are 23 metres high – meaning the wave was 23 metres high," said Patricio Vaderrama, an expert on glaciers at Peru's Institute of Mine Engineers.
It was the latest evidence that glaciers are vanishing from Peru, which has 70% of the world's tropical icefields. They have retreated by 22% since 1975, according to a World Bank report, and warmer temperatures are expected to erase them entirely within 20 years.
The same phenomenon is under way in neighbouring Bolivia, where the Chacaltaya glacier, 5,000 metres (17,400ft) up in the Andes, used to be the world's highest ski run. Predictions that it would survive until 2015 seem to be optimistic: according to recent pictures a few lumps of ice near the summit are all that remains.
The World Bank report warned that the disappearance of Andean ice sheets would threaten hydro-electric power and the water supplies of nearly 80 million people.
White House hints that it is gearing up for climate bill fight
Top advisor says it is "imperative" for the US to tackle climate change and address reliance on foreign oil. From BusinessGreen, part of the Guardian Environment Network
Wednesday 14 April 2010 09.22 BST
In a clear signal that the White House is preparing to turn its attention from healthcare reform to climate change legislation, one of president Obama's top advisors launched an impassioned call for the US to embrace low-carbon policies last week.
Speaking at a Washington energy conference, Larry Summers, head of the White House's National Economic Council, warned the long-term economic health of the US would be jeopardised if it failed to pass ambitious climate change legislation.
Describing it as "imperative" for the US to tackle climate change and " address the consequences of excessive dependence on oil for our national security", Summers underlined the importance of the administration's plan to pass climate change legislation.
"If you think about the risks to our ecology, the risks to our security, we minimise those risks with comprehensive energy policy," he said. "And if you think about the opportunity to lead in what is really important, we maximise that opportunity with comprehensive energy legislation. That's why energy is so crucial a part of president Obama's economic strategy."
Capitol Hill insiders said Summers' speech suggested president Obama was gearing up to try to pass the draft climate change bill being prepared by Democrat senator John Kerry, Republican senator Lindsey Graham and independent senator Joe Lieberman ahead of November's mid-term elections.
The Democrat leadership has consistently said it would try to pass the bill this year, but a number of Democrat senators had warned that they would prefer to see a vote delayed until next year after the battle to pass healthcare legislation proved so divisive.
Dan Weiss, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress think-tank, told the New York Times that the president was likely to intervene directly to help secure the 60 votes necessary to pass the legislation.
The president met recently with a group of senators who are expected to hold crucial swing votes and Weiss predicted further meetings could be on the cards as the administration rushes to pass the bill ahead of mid-term elections during which the Democrat's Congressional majority is expected to come under fire.
"There's something about the president or vice president of the United States talking to you about these things that helps get to 'yes,'" he said.
Meanwhile, green businesses are also preparing for what promises to be a brutal fight with Republican senators and climate-sceptic lobby groups over climate change legislation with the launch of a new advertising campaign in support of the proposed climate bill.
The campaign is backed by more than 3,000 businesses, including the American Businesses for Clean Energy and the US Climate Action Partnership, and has secured support from a number of America's leading brands, including Google, Nike and Timberland.
The print ad, titled "A Question of American Leadership", urges Congress to enact bipartisan climate and energy legislation that "increases our security and limits emissions, as it preserves and creates jobs".
Wednesday 14 April 2010 09.22 BST
In a clear signal that the White House is preparing to turn its attention from healthcare reform to climate change legislation, one of president Obama's top advisors launched an impassioned call for the US to embrace low-carbon policies last week.
Speaking at a Washington energy conference, Larry Summers, head of the White House's National Economic Council, warned the long-term economic health of the US would be jeopardised if it failed to pass ambitious climate change legislation.
Describing it as "imperative" for the US to tackle climate change and " address the consequences of excessive dependence on oil for our national security", Summers underlined the importance of the administration's plan to pass climate change legislation.
"If you think about the risks to our ecology, the risks to our security, we minimise those risks with comprehensive energy policy," he said. "And if you think about the opportunity to lead in what is really important, we maximise that opportunity with comprehensive energy legislation. That's why energy is so crucial a part of president Obama's economic strategy."
Capitol Hill insiders said Summers' speech suggested president Obama was gearing up to try to pass the draft climate change bill being prepared by Democrat senator John Kerry, Republican senator Lindsey Graham and independent senator Joe Lieberman ahead of November's mid-term elections.
The Democrat leadership has consistently said it would try to pass the bill this year, but a number of Democrat senators had warned that they would prefer to see a vote delayed until next year after the battle to pass healthcare legislation proved so divisive.
Dan Weiss, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress think-tank, told the New York Times that the president was likely to intervene directly to help secure the 60 votes necessary to pass the legislation.
The president met recently with a group of senators who are expected to hold crucial swing votes and Weiss predicted further meetings could be on the cards as the administration rushes to pass the bill ahead of mid-term elections during which the Democrat's Congressional majority is expected to come under fire.
"There's something about the president or vice president of the United States talking to you about these things that helps get to 'yes,'" he said.
Meanwhile, green businesses are also preparing for what promises to be a brutal fight with Republican senators and climate-sceptic lobby groups over climate change legislation with the launch of a new advertising campaign in support of the proposed climate bill.
The campaign is backed by more than 3,000 businesses, including the American Businesses for Clean Energy and the US Climate Action Partnership, and has secured support from a number of America's leading brands, including Google, Nike and Timberland.
The print ad, titled "A Question of American Leadership", urges Congress to enact bipartisan climate and energy legislation that "increases our security and limits emissions, as it preserves and creates jobs".
Scientists cleared of malpractice in UEA's hacked emails inquiry
Researchers 'dedicated if slightly disorganised', but basic science was fair, finds inquiry commissioned by university
David Adam and James Randerson
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 14 April 2010 11.11 BST
The scientists at the centre of the row over the hacked climate emails have been cleared of any deliberate malpractice by the second of three inquiries into their conduct.
The inquiry panel, led by the former chair of the House of Lords science and technology select committee Lord Oxburgh, was commissioned by the University of East Anglia with investigating the research produced by the scientists at its Climatic Research Unit (CRU).
The work of the unit has come under intense scrutiny since November when thousands of private emails between the researchers were released onto the internet. At a press conference earlier today Lord Oxburgh said, "Whatever was said in the emails, the basic science seems to have been done fairly and properly," although his panel did criticise the scientists for not using the best statistical techniques at times.
The report concluded: "We saw no evidence of any deliberate scientific malpractice in any of the work of the Climatic Research Unit and had it been there we believe that it is likely that we would have detected it. Rather we found a small group of dedicated if slightly disorganised researchers who were ill-prepared for being the focus of public attention. As with many small research groups their internal procedures were rather informal."
In a formal response to the report the UEA wrote: "It is gratifying to us that the Oxburgh report points out that CRU has done a public service of great value by carrying out meticulous work on temperature records when it was unfashionable and attracted little scientific interest, and that the unit has been among the leaders in international efforts to determine the overall uncertainty in the derived temperature records."
The panel was not tasked specifically with looking at the way CRU handled access to its data and Freedom of Information requests from members of the public but it commented that there were "a host of important unresolved questions" arising from the application of FoI to academic research. "We agree with the CRU view that the authority for releasing unpublished raw data to third parties should stay with those who collected it," the report said.
It did criticise the government's policy of charging for access to data. "This is unfortunate and seems inconsistent with policies of open access to data promoted elsewhere in government."
The panel did raise doubts about the statistical input into scientific papers authored by researchers at CRU. "We cannot help remarking that it is very surprising that research in an area that depends so heavily on statistical methods has not been carried out in close collaboration with professional statisticians," it concluded.
In UEA's formal response it noted: "Specialists in many areas of research acquire and develop the statistical skills pertinent to their own particular data analysis requirements. However, we do see the sense in engaging more fully with the wider statistics community to ensure that the most effective and up-to-date statistical techniques are adopted and will now consider further how best to achieve this."
The University of East Anglia set up and funded the review in March. The appointment of Oxburgh, who is a former industry scientist and academic has been criticised by some who are suspicious of CRU's work. He is currently president of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association and has business interests in wind energy so critics have alleged that he has a vested interested in defending the science of climate change. Oxburgh denies that the review panel had a pre-conceived opinion about the science.
His is the second of three inquiries into the release of private emails from researchers at UEA. The first, by the House of Commons Science and Technology select committee criticised UEA for not tackling a "culture of withholding information" among the scientists. It did not blame CRU or Prof Phil Jones for these failings and concluded that his scientific reputation was untarnished. Third inquiry into the hacked emails, headed by Sir Muir Russel, who was appointed by UEA in December to look at four key allegations arising from the correspondence, is due to report shortly.
The members of Oxburgh's panel were: Prof Huw Davies at ETH Zurich, Prof Kerry Emanual at MIT, Prof Lisa Graumlich of the University of Arizona, Prof David Hand of Imperial College London, and Prof Herbert Huppert and Prof Michael Kelly at the University of Cambridge.
• You can read Fred Pearce's full investigation into the hacked climate emails here.
David Adam and James Randerson
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 14 April 2010 11.11 BST
The scientists at the centre of the row over the hacked climate emails have been cleared of any deliberate malpractice by the second of three inquiries into their conduct.
The inquiry panel, led by the former chair of the House of Lords science and technology select committee Lord Oxburgh, was commissioned by the University of East Anglia with investigating the research produced by the scientists at its Climatic Research Unit (CRU).
The work of the unit has come under intense scrutiny since November when thousands of private emails between the researchers were released onto the internet. At a press conference earlier today Lord Oxburgh said, "Whatever was said in the emails, the basic science seems to have been done fairly and properly," although his panel did criticise the scientists for not using the best statistical techniques at times.
The report concluded: "We saw no evidence of any deliberate scientific malpractice in any of the work of the Climatic Research Unit and had it been there we believe that it is likely that we would have detected it. Rather we found a small group of dedicated if slightly disorganised researchers who were ill-prepared for being the focus of public attention. As with many small research groups their internal procedures were rather informal."
In a formal response to the report the UEA wrote: "It is gratifying to us that the Oxburgh report points out that CRU has done a public service of great value by carrying out meticulous work on temperature records when it was unfashionable and attracted little scientific interest, and that the unit has been among the leaders in international efforts to determine the overall uncertainty in the derived temperature records."
The panel was not tasked specifically with looking at the way CRU handled access to its data and Freedom of Information requests from members of the public but it commented that there were "a host of important unresolved questions" arising from the application of FoI to academic research. "We agree with the CRU view that the authority for releasing unpublished raw data to third parties should stay with those who collected it," the report said.
It did criticise the government's policy of charging for access to data. "This is unfortunate and seems inconsistent with policies of open access to data promoted elsewhere in government."
The panel did raise doubts about the statistical input into scientific papers authored by researchers at CRU. "We cannot help remarking that it is very surprising that research in an area that depends so heavily on statistical methods has not been carried out in close collaboration with professional statisticians," it concluded.
In UEA's formal response it noted: "Specialists in many areas of research acquire and develop the statistical skills pertinent to their own particular data analysis requirements. However, we do see the sense in engaging more fully with the wider statistics community to ensure that the most effective and up-to-date statistical techniques are adopted and will now consider further how best to achieve this."
The University of East Anglia set up and funded the review in March. The appointment of Oxburgh, who is a former industry scientist and academic has been criticised by some who are suspicious of CRU's work. He is currently president of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association and has business interests in wind energy so critics have alleged that he has a vested interested in defending the science of climate change. Oxburgh denies that the review panel had a pre-conceived opinion about the science.
His is the second of three inquiries into the release of private emails from researchers at UEA. The first, by the House of Commons Science and Technology select committee criticised UEA for not tackling a "culture of withholding information" among the scientists. It did not blame CRU or Prof Phil Jones for these failings and concluded that his scientific reputation was untarnished. Third inquiry into the hacked emails, headed by Sir Muir Russel, who was appointed by UEA in December to look at four key allegations arising from the correspondence, is due to report shortly.
The members of Oxburgh's panel were: Prof Huw Davies at ETH Zurich, Prof Kerry Emanual at MIT, Prof Lisa Graumlich of the University of Arizona, Prof David Hand of Imperial College London, and Prof Herbert Huppert and Prof Michael Kelly at the University of Cambridge.
• You can read Fred Pearce's full investigation into the hacked climate emails here.
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
Dubai to host international energy efficiency meet
Dubai, April 13 : UAE Environment and Water Minister Rashid Ahmad Bin Fahad will open an international Energy Efficiency conference 2010 at Grand Habtoor Hotel here April 14.
The one-day meet is organised by the Emirates Authority for Standardisation and Metrology (ESMA) to educate key stakeholders on details of certification and will feature speakers from the US, Australia and Korea, among others, to give information and guidance to manufacturers and sellers. On this occasion, ESMA has announced its new energy efficient labelling and standards scheme, an important step to make the UAE an energy efficient country, Mohammed Badri, ESMA director general, said Monday. Given the overall consumption of electricity in the UAE, particularly through air-conditioning usage, the scheme will make great strides to reduce the environmental impact of electrical usage by consumers and businesses.
--IANS
The one-day meet is organised by the Emirates Authority for Standardisation and Metrology (ESMA) to educate key stakeholders on details of certification and will feature speakers from the US, Australia and Korea, among others, to give information and guidance to manufacturers and sellers. On this occasion, ESMA has announced its new energy efficient labelling and standards scheme, an important step to make the UAE an energy efficient country, Mohammed Badri, ESMA director general, said Monday. Given the overall consumption of electricity in the UAE, particularly through air-conditioning usage, the scheme will make great strides to reduce the environmental impact of electrical usage by consumers and businesses.
--IANS
Cameron: "I'll make the Welsh dragon roar again"
Apr 8 2010 by David Williamson, Western Mail
TORY leader David Cameron arrived in Cardiff last night and pledged to make the Welsh dragon “breathe some fire”.
Within minutes of getting out of the election battle bus he launched a fierce attack on Labour’s plan for a rise in National Insurance.
Declaring it “just about the craziest thing you could do”, he declared: “I believe this is a jobs tax. I think this is a huge mistake.
“If you are trying to get an economy to recover the worst thing you can do is to tax every additional job.”
The Conservative leader insisted the “economy is the absolutely key issue in this election” and before a small audience of local business people in a Cardiff cash-and-carry he presented his vision for Wales’ future. As part of that vision he argued for the return of coal mining to the UK.
He said: “We still have coal that we can mine. We have coal-fired power stations we can build.
“And with carbon capture and storage we can take the carbon dioxide out of that coal and we have the North Sea where we can store it. We should be world leaders in this technology and then selling it and licensing it around the world.”
Mr Cameron said the logic behind the proposed Defence Training College in the Vale of Glamorgan was “right” but a strategic defence review must be held first.
The visit, coming just a day after the calling of the election, underscored Tory hopes of pushing the number of Welsh Conservative MPs beyond the present total of three out of 40.
Mr Cameron said: “Wales is very important to me. There has been quite a Conservative recovery in Wales over these last four years and I’m proud to have played, I hope, a small part in that.
“You saw it in the Assembly elections, you saw it in the European elections and now I want it to happen in the parliamentary elections. I think we’ve got some great candidates, we’ve got a very good machine. The dragon has awoken, as I’ve put it, and I want to make sure it’s breathing some fire.”
Mr Cameron did not directly address the unanimous vote by AMs to request a referendum on full law-making powers for the Assembly; nor did he confirm that an autumn vote could be facilitated.
He said: “If the Welsh Assembly votes for one we will have the referendum, we will name the date. We’re in slight abeyance at the moment as the election is taking place but people should be in doubt, if they want one they can have one but no-one has yet set a date for it.”
He also stated there were no plans to raise VAT.
“We’ve set our plans and they don’t involve increasing VAT,” he said. “We’ve said, ‘You know, here is the waste we’re going to find, here are the taxes that we’re not getting rid of – because we can’t get rid of all of Labour’s tax rises – but VAT isn’t part of our plans.”
But he was adamant that the national debt must be tackled, saying: “We all know from our own lives that if you have big outstanding debts the longer you put it off the worse it gets.”
Claiming Britain had to “grab this problem”, he said: “I think the danger is not doing something about the deficit. We’re borrowing 11% of our GDP this year.
“That’s about the same level as Greece. This is a problem level of borrowing and we think putting off the problem won’t help.
“So we say it’s right to make some reductions in wasteful spending in this coming year, in 2010, and we’ve set out how we’d do that.”
In a bid to present Labour as a party of tax rises, he said: “The Government’s plans involve people earning over £20,000 paying more in tax.
“Now, I don’t think people earning over £20,000 are rich. I don’t think those are the ones who should be bearing the biggest burden.”
Turning his fire on Labour by insisting the Government should not delay cuts to “waste”, Mr Cameron said: “The Government itself has identified £11bn of waste in our economy but they’ve said [they won’t] do anything about it until 2011.
“So they are wasting that money in 2010 and then putting up everyone’s taxes in 2011 to pay for it.
“But why should we have to pay higher taxes for Government waste?
“Why not cut out the waste now and stop the tax rises?”
He continued: “We think that this National Insurance rise they are proposing is an economy killer, is a recovery killer, is a jobs killer.”
Mr Cameron’s visit came at the end of a day of clashes on this subject.
More business leaders yesterday went public with their support for the Tory suggestion that the rise should be cancelled.
The new backers included Corus chief executive Kirby Adams, Northern Foods chief executive Stefan Barden, Reed Elsevier chairman Anthony Habgood and Jewson chief executive Peter Hindle.
Gordon Brown also said last night that Labour would not raise the basic rate of income tax if it won the General Election, promising to keep it at 20p in the pound. “The income tax rate has come down from 23p to 20p and we’ve kept it at 20p and that is what we will pledge to do in our manifesto,” Mr Brown told Channel 4 News.
TORY leader David Cameron arrived in Cardiff last night and pledged to make the Welsh dragon “breathe some fire”.
Within minutes of getting out of the election battle bus he launched a fierce attack on Labour’s plan for a rise in National Insurance.
Declaring it “just about the craziest thing you could do”, he declared: “I believe this is a jobs tax. I think this is a huge mistake.
“If you are trying to get an economy to recover the worst thing you can do is to tax every additional job.”
The Conservative leader insisted the “economy is the absolutely key issue in this election” and before a small audience of local business people in a Cardiff cash-and-carry he presented his vision for Wales’ future. As part of that vision he argued for the return of coal mining to the UK.
He said: “We still have coal that we can mine. We have coal-fired power stations we can build.
“And with carbon capture and storage we can take the carbon dioxide out of that coal and we have the North Sea where we can store it. We should be world leaders in this technology and then selling it and licensing it around the world.”
Mr Cameron said the logic behind the proposed Defence Training College in the Vale of Glamorgan was “right” but a strategic defence review must be held first.
The visit, coming just a day after the calling of the election, underscored Tory hopes of pushing the number of Welsh Conservative MPs beyond the present total of three out of 40.
Mr Cameron said: “Wales is very important to me. There has been quite a Conservative recovery in Wales over these last four years and I’m proud to have played, I hope, a small part in that.
“You saw it in the Assembly elections, you saw it in the European elections and now I want it to happen in the parliamentary elections. I think we’ve got some great candidates, we’ve got a very good machine. The dragon has awoken, as I’ve put it, and I want to make sure it’s breathing some fire.”
Mr Cameron did not directly address the unanimous vote by AMs to request a referendum on full law-making powers for the Assembly; nor did he confirm that an autumn vote could be facilitated.
He said: “If the Welsh Assembly votes for one we will have the referendum, we will name the date. We’re in slight abeyance at the moment as the election is taking place but people should be in doubt, if they want one they can have one but no-one has yet set a date for it.”
He also stated there were no plans to raise VAT.
“We’ve set our plans and they don’t involve increasing VAT,” he said. “We’ve said, ‘You know, here is the waste we’re going to find, here are the taxes that we’re not getting rid of – because we can’t get rid of all of Labour’s tax rises – but VAT isn’t part of our plans.”
But he was adamant that the national debt must be tackled, saying: “We all know from our own lives that if you have big outstanding debts the longer you put it off the worse it gets.”
Claiming Britain had to “grab this problem”, he said: “I think the danger is not doing something about the deficit. We’re borrowing 11% of our GDP this year.
“That’s about the same level as Greece. This is a problem level of borrowing and we think putting off the problem won’t help.
“So we say it’s right to make some reductions in wasteful spending in this coming year, in 2010, and we’ve set out how we’d do that.”
In a bid to present Labour as a party of tax rises, he said: “The Government’s plans involve people earning over £20,000 paying more in tax.
“Now, I don’t think people earning over £20,000 are rich. I don’t think those are the ones who should be bearing the biggest burden.”
Turning his fire on Labour by insisting the Government should not delay cuts to “waste”, Mr Cameron said: “The Government itself has identified £11bn of waste in our economy but they’ve said [they won’t] do anything about it until 2011.
“So they are wasting that money in 2010 and then putting up everyone’s taxes in 2011 to pay for it.
“But why should we have to pay higher taxes for Government waste?
“Why not cut out the waste now and stop the tax rises?”
He continued: “We think that this National Insurance rise they are proposing is an economy killer, is a recovery killer, is a jobs killer.”
Mr Cameron’s visit came at the end of a day of clashes on this subject.
More business leaders yesterday went public with their support for the Tory suggestion that the rise should be cancelled.
The new backers included Corus chief executive Kirby Adams, Northern Foods chief executive Stefan Barden, Reed Elsevier chairman Anthony Habgood and Jewson chief executive Peter Hindle.
Gordon Brown also said last night that Labour would not raise the basic rate of income tax if it won the General Election, promising to keep it at 20p in the pound. “The income tax rate has come down from 23p to 20p and we’ve kept it at 20p and that is what we will pledge to do in our manifesto,” Mr Brown told Channel 4 News.
Gazeley leases space for photovoltaic installation
12 April 2010
Solergy AG recently inked a deal with Gazeley, a part of Economic Zones WorldEconomic Zones World group headquartered in Dubai, taking on lease a 24,000 square meters of roof space of one of Gazeley’s buildings in Ontigola to build a photovoltaic (PV) installation. According to a Gazeley statement, the electricity produced by the photovoltaic roof installation would be supplied to the city’s main power grid. The PV Installation would be capable of producing 1.285kWp (Kilowatts-peak or the peak output of the device), which is approximately twice the amount of energy needed for the building, the statement added. The PV installation is expected to reduce carbon footprint by 724 tons per year. It is also expected to substantially reduce solar radiation resulting in a healthier environment inside the building. The building is leased to CEVA Logistics, one of the world’s leading supply chain management companies. This is one of the two buildings Gazeley leased out to CEVA in Ontigola in 2009. We at Gazeley take pains to develop sustainable logistics developments and include various standard eco-initiatives into our designs at no extra cost to our customers.
Solergy AG recently inked a deal with Gazeley, a part of Economic Zones WorldEconomic Zones World group headquartered in Dubai, taking on lease a 24,000 square meters of roof space of one of Gazeley’s buildings in Ontigola to build a photovoltaic (PV) installation. According to a Gazeley statement, the electricity produced by the photovoltaic roof installation would be supplied to the city’s main power grid. The PV Installation would be capable of producing 1.285kWp (Kilowatts-peak or the peak output of the device), which is approximately twice the amount of energy needed for the building, the statement added. The PV installation is expected to reduce carbon footprint by 724 tons per year. It is also expected to substantially reduce solar radiation resulting in a healthier environment inside the building. The building is leased to CEVA Logistics, one of the world’s leading supply chain management companies. This is one of the two buildings Gazeley leased out to CEVA in Ontigola in 2009. We at Gazeley take pains to develop sustainable logistics developments and include various standard eco-initiatives into our designs at no extra cost to our customers.
Researchers plan to utilize greenhouse gas CO2 with solar energy
Germany Posted on April 12th, 2010
Utilizing carbon dioxide as an energy source with the aid of sunlight is the goal being pursued in a new research project for recycling of greenhouse gases. Researchers from BASF, Energie Baden-Württemberg AG (EnBW), Heidelberg University and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) are seeking to convert CO2 into a fuel for fuel cells or retrofitted internal combustion engines - a step towards implementing environmentally conscious mobility technologies and simultaneously an alternative to existing carbon dioxide storage plans. The Verbund project "Solar2fuel" belongs to the "Forum Organic Electronics" excellence cluster and is being sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with more than €1 million over two years.While public discussion has so far centered mainly on the underground storage of carbon dioxide, the "Solar2fuel" project is focusing on the direct utilization of carbon dioxide. In this project, the carbon in carbon dioxide is converted into climate neutral fuels with the aid of sunlight. "A photocatalytic process of this nature could open up new ways of generating easy-to-handle energy sources," says Prof. Dr. Michael Grunze of the Physical-Chemical Institute of Heidelberg University. The aim is to combine approaches based on nanotechnology and material research with catalytic processes.The scientists at Heidelberg University are cooperating with BASF experts headed by Dr. Jan Schoeneboom to develop an air and light stable combination of dyes and functionalized nanoscale semiconductor particles. Under these conditions, sunlight can be absorbed in the optimal range with the aid of organic dyes and supply energy for the conversion of carbon dioxide. Photocatalysis is therefore used to convert the carbon dioxide - generated for example by combustion processes in a power plant - together with water into the energy source methanol. In this way, sunlight can be used directly as a regenerative energy source in the recycling of CO2 - a process not unlike plant photosynthesis but, the researchers hope, much more efficient.The experts at EnBW are investigating the energy, emission and cost balances of the overall process - from the power plant waste gas through the actual photocatalysis up to the utilization of the products. The cost of supplying carbon dioxide from power stations is also being analyzed. "With these activities, EnBW is attempting to establish the conditions under which such processes could be economically viable," explains Prof. Dr. Wolfram Münch, Head of the Research and Innovation Department at EnBW.The technical engineering aspects of "Solar2fuel" are being implemented by KIT scientists under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Henning Bockhorn. These experts are investigating the physico-chemical and process technology aspects within the overall process. Based on an analysis of the overall system, the design of a photochemical reactor is to be developed and simulated using computer assisted methods.In the "Forum Organic Electronics" excellence cluster sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, university and non-university research institutes are cooperating with industry in pursuing future-oriented developments in the field of organic electronics. Activities relating to the "Solar2fuel" project commenced in October of last year, BASF serves as coordinator for the consortium.
####
About BASFBASF is the world’s leading chemical company: The Chemical Company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics and performance products to agricultural products, fine chemicals as well as oil and gas. As a reliable partner BASF creates chemistry to help its customers in virtually all industries to be more successful. With its high-value products and intelligent solutions, BASF plays an important role in finding answers to global challenges such as climate protection, energy efficiency, nutrition and mobility. BASF posted sales of more than €50 billion in 2009 and had approximately 105,000employees as of the end of the year. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt (BAS), London (BFA) and Zurich (AN).
Utilizing carbon dioxide as an energy source with the aid of sunlight is the goal being pursued in a new research project for recycling of greenhouse gases. Researchers from BASF, Energie Baden-Württemberg AG (EnBW), Heidelberg University and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) are seeking to convert CO2 into a fuel for fuel cells or retrofitted internal combustion engines - a step towards implementing environmentally conscious mobility technologies and simultaneously an alternative to existing carbon dioxide storage plans. The Verbund project "Solar2fuel" belongs to the "Forum Organic Electronics" excellence cluster and is being sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with more than €1 million over two years.While public discussion has so far centered mainly on the underground storage of carbon dioxide, the "Solar2fuel" project is focusing on the direct utilization of carbon dioxide. In this project, the carbon in carbon dioxide is converted into climate neutral fuels with the aid of sunlight. "A photocatalytic process of this nature could open up new ways of generating easy-to-handle energy sources," says Prof. Dr. Michael Grunze of the Physical-Chemical Institute of Heidelberg University. The aim is to combine approaches based on nanotechnology and material research with catalytic processes.The scientists at Heidelberg University are cooperating with BASF experts headed by Dr. Jan Schoeneboom to develop an air and light stable combination of dyes and functionalized nanoscale semiconductor particles. Under these conditions, sunlight can be absorbed in the optimal range with the aid of organic dyes and supply energy for the conversion of carbon dioxide. Photocatalysis is therefore used to convert the carbon dioxide - generated for example by combustion processes in a power plant - together with water into the energy source methanol. In this way, sunlight can be used directly as a regenerative energy source in the recycling of CO2 - a process not unlike plant photosynthesis but, the researchers hope, much more efficient.The experts at EnBW are investigating the energy, emission and cost balances of the overall process - from the power plant waste gas through the actual photocatalysis up to the utilization of the products. The cost of supplying carbon dioxide from power stations is also being analyzed. "With these activities, EnBW is attempting to establish the conditions under which such processes could be economically viable," explains Prof. Dr. Wolfram Münch, Head of the Research and Innovation Department at EnBW.The technical engineering aspects of "Solar2fuel" are being implemented by KIT scientists under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Henning Bockhorn. These experts are investigating the physico-chemical and process technology aspects within the overall process. Based on an analysis of the overall system, the design of a photochemical reactor is to be developed and simulated using computer assisted methods.In the "Forum Organic Electronics" excellence cluster sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, university and non-university research institutes are cooperating with industry in pursuing future-oriented developments in the field of organic electronics. Activities relating to the "Solar2fuel" project commenced in October of last year, BASF serves as coordinator for the consortium.
####
About BASFBASF is the world’s leading chemical company: The Chemical Company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics and performance products to agricultural products, fine chemicals as well as oil and gas. As a reliable partner BASF creates chemistry to help its customers in virtually all industries to be more successful. With its high-value products and intelligent solutions, BASF plays an important role in finding answers to global challenges such as climate protection, energy efficiency, nutrition and mobility. BASF posted sales of more than €50 billion in 2009 and had approximately 105,000employees as of the end of the year. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt (BAS), London (BFA) and Zurich (AN).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
