Environmental News from United Kingdom

EarthWire UK provides a daily overview of the environment in the UK as reported in the media. The web site is updated every day by a team of editors that reviews media sources for environmental news stories.

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Policy

Shale gas stirs ecology fears in South Africa's Karoo
Reuters | 08 Apr 2011
South Africa's Karoo, a vast arid wilderness, may contain gas reserves that could solve the country's energy problems -- but only through an extraction process called fracking that has greens seeing red.

James Smith, Shell's outgoing UK boss
Guardian Unlimited | 08 Apr 2011
Chairman James Smith says Shell has had to respond to the global warming challenge. Now is a good time to be running an oil company. Prices are sky-high, energy demand is increasing at an unprecedented rate as the global economy recovers, and there are new markets to be explored. Royal Dutch Shell largely dodged the criticism heaped on the industry after BP's catastrophic oil spill last year in the Gulf of Mexico, and is delivering golden results to shareholders.

Green bankers can restore City's reputation
Guardian Unlimited | 07 Apr 2011
Such traders can help Britain earn its way in a competitive global economy while supporting the realisation of a greener and more sustainable future. After the events that led to the credit crunch and our current fiscal situation, the last thing people want is more bankers. But what if they were...

England | United Kingdom | Economy | Policy

Longer lorries in UK will increase road deaths
Guardian Unlimited | 31 Mar 2011
Cyclist groups condemn plans to allow the length of articulated lorries to increase by 2.05m. Road safety groups are warning that government plans to allow longer lorries in the UK will increase the number of fatal road accidents. In a statement to parliament on Wednesday, the roads minister, Mike...

England | Health | Policy | Transport

UK households to save £23 a year by 2020
Guardian Unlimited | 30 Mar 2011
Cost-saving potential set out in government plan for national roll-out of energy-saving technology. Smart meters, which monitor energy use in real-time, will save households £7.3bn over the next two decades, the government said on Wednesday as it set out its strategy for the roll-out of the energy-saving technology. The roll-out - the most comprehensive yet planned in any country – will require 53m smart meters to be installed in 30m homes and businesses, starting in 2014 and finishing in 2019.

UK must push on with nuclear plans: scientists
Reuters | 29 Mar 2011
Nuclear plants remain one of the safest ways to make electricity, and Britain should not allow Japan's tsunami-provoked problems to delay its new build plans, UK scientists said on Tuesday.

Budget 2011: Zero carbon homes plan 'watered down'
Guardian Unlimited | 23 Mar 2011
Osborne accused of bowing to pressure from housebuilders' lobby after relaxing targets ahead of 2016 deadline. The government has been accused of caving in to pressure from the housebuilding lobby by relaxing the criteria aimed at making all new homes "zero carbon" by 2016. Tucked away in an appendix to the budget was an announcement that carbon emissions produced by cooking and electrical appliances such as televisions were to be excluded from the definition.

Budget 2011: Osborne's green bank attacked from all sides
Guardian Unlimited | 23 Mar 2011
Business leaders, campaigners and investors slam chancellor's flagship green policy due to its limited borrowing powers. Business leaders, campaigners and investors slammed George Osborne's flagship green policy on Wednesday, reacting angrily to his decision to severely limit the powers of the new green investment bank. The bank - to be funded with £1bn from taxpayers and up to £2bn from sales of government assets – is the centrepiece of ministers' claims to be "the greenest government ever".

United Kingdom | Globalisation | Environment | and Sustainable Development | Governance

Budget 2011: Osborne poised to ditch CCS levy
Guardian Unlimited | 22 Mar 2011
FT reports suggest budget will scrap plans for carbon capture levy in favour of electricity market reforms. Chancellor George Osborne is tomorrow expected to confirm that plans for a new levy on energy bills that should help fund three carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects will be ditched....

Government to cut health and safety inspections by a third
Guardian Unlimited | 21 Mar 2011
Automatic practice inspections set to only focus on high risk sites, such as energy, nuclear sites and chemical industries. Health and safety inspections are to be cut by a third in the deregulatory drive being pushed through Whitehall ahead of the "go for growth" budget due to be introduced in April. The work and pensions minister Chris Grayling is to announce that future automatic practice inspections should only focus on high risk sites, such as energy, nuclear sites and chemical industries.

George Osborne must deliver a green budget
Guardian Unlimited | 21 Mar 2011
The chancellor must not bow to Treasury orthodoxy when it comes to the measures needed to build a green economy. When defending its deficit reduction strategy, the coalition government is quick to point out that it is a reforming government and not just about cuts. But this radical zeal seems to...

England | Economics and the Environment | Economy | Governance | Policy

Carbon Plan fails to claw back green credentials
Guardian Unlimited | 08 Mar 2011
Chris Huhne's big green plan contains some buds of promise - but most of them were planted by the last government. When his government's credibility was on the slide, Yes Minister's Jim Hacker always knew what to do. "We're getting unpopular – organise an initiative will you, Sir Humphrey?" And, at...

United Kingdom | Economics and the Environment | Environmental Awareness | Education

Soaring oil price reignites fossil fuel debate
Guardian Unlimited | 03 Mar 2011
As pressure grows on the government to stabilise fuel prices via tax breaks, green campaigners say this may be the ideal time to reduce the UK's dependence on oil and gas. High oil prices are a headache for governments. Ministers are acutely aware that the price at the petrol pump is one of the...

Climate Week is trying to galvanise the green movement - but it is splitting it
Guardian Unlimited | 02 Mar 2011
The backing of Cameron, Clegg and Kofi Annan isn't enough, say Climate Week's critics, it is blinkered - and RBS-sponsored Climate Week is coming. If that means nothing to you, how do you fancy a "supercharged national occasion that offers an annual renewal of our ambition and confidence to combat climate change"? Still not clear? Well, the plan, Climate Week founder Kevin Steele tells me, is "all about pointing people to real low-carbon actions that are already happening.

United Kingdom | Climate Change | Governance | Policy | Public Policy

EU proposal to ban fish discards - Greenpeace response
Greenpeace UK | 01 Mar 2011
Maria Damanaki, the European Fisheries commissioner, has drawn up a proposal to ban the controversial practice of discards - a perverse consequence of current quota rules imposed by Brussels, and will present it to a meeting of ministers and MEPs on Tuesday.

Economy | Fisheries | Policy

Battle in Tory heartlands over £30bn north-south rail link enters new phase
Guardian Unlimited | 27 Feb 2011
Transport secretary Philip Hammond launches consultation citing poll showing public support for network. A battle between the government and voters in the Tory heartlands over a £30bn north-south rail link enters a new phase as transport secretary Philip Hammond launches a consultation on the 250mph route. Hammond will cite a poll showing five times as many people support the High Speed Two network as oppose it.

England | Policy | Transport

High Court judge green lights legal challenge over deep sea oil drilling
Greenpeace UK | 24 Feb 2011
A High Court Judge has given the green light to a far reaching legal challenge that will have significant implications for the oil industry. The High Court will now review Energy Secretary Chris Huhnes decision to grant oil drilling licenses in deep waters off the Scottish coast.

Scotland | Energy Production | Fossil Fuels | Industry | Policy

Letters: When the rot set in at the Forestry Commission
Guardian Unlimited | 22 Feb 2011
I've worked in the commercial forestry sector for more than 30 years, and I welcome John Vidal's contribution to the current debate (England's forests are not out of the woods yet, 19 February). A more vibrant Forestry Commission (FC) is essential to the UK's forest industry; and yes, its commercial woodlands can and should finance amenity woodlands for public benefit. But how?

England | Forests and Woodlands | Governance | Policy

Green economy needs 2% of every nation's income, says UN
Guardian Unlimited | 21 Feb 2011
Global green investment drive 'would pay off in terms of jobs, cleaner air and energy use' Obama, Hu Jintao and big business back call for every country to contribute. The United Nations will call on Monday for 2% of worldwide income to be invested in the green economy, a move it says would boost...

Economics and the Environment | Economy | Greenhouse Gas Emissions | Industry | Policy

The Treasury growls as Nick Clegg pushes the green agenda
Guardian Unlimited | 17 Feb 2011
The Liberal Democrats want the green bank to be a proper bank. But Whitehall's powerbase is determined to frustrate them. The Treasury is the most powerful department in Whitehall, but it is busy making itself unpopular even by its own abrasive standards. Jeremy Heywood, the most judicious of civil servants, was recently heard to say that the government's attempt to create a new green bank had become a battle of "everybody against the Treasury".

England | Economics and the Environment | Governance | Policy

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