Caroline Lucas wins 2010 Ethical Politician of Year
13th June 2010
Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion and Green Party leader has been named ‘Ethical Politician of the Year' in the 5th annual Observer Ethical Awards.
Lucas beat David Cameron, and former climate secretary Ed Milliband, in picking up the award for the third time. Her previous two wins were in 2009 and 2007.
Caroline told Eco: "I am delighted to have been chosen by readers of the Observer a third time - it means a great deal to be recognised by such a prestigious award. I am proud to represent a party in parliament which is committed to putting people and our planet first. I'd like to thank Observer readers who voted for me.
"At a time of economic upheaval and environmental challenge, the Greens' positive vision for the future has never been more needed."
Plane Crazy
The Liberal Democrats have criticised government departments for spending more than £20m in a year on UK flights.
The party said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) spent the most - nearly £16m on 175,000 domestic flights last year.
Overall government departments spent more than £21.8m on more than 210,000 flights in 2008-09, it said.
Party spokesman Simon Hughes told Eco:
Government staff should "use trains and video-conferencing more so they fly around the country less".
"Civil servants are spending staggering amounts of taxpayers' cash flying around the UK," he added.
"The Civil Service Code needs to change so that environmental factors are considered when travel bookings are made."
The Lib Dem figures, based on answers to Parliamentary questions, suggest officials at the Department for Work and Pensions were the second highest spenders on domestic flights - with 25,860 flights costing £2.97m.
They also show the Department for Energy and Climate Change - which is leading the fight to reduce carbon emissions - paid out for more than 1,000 domestic flights.
A spokesman for the department told the Telegraph they had to "balance the use of teleconferences and lowest carbon travel methods with the occasional business need to be somewhere quickly".
He added: "On the rare occasions where air travel is unfortunately the only option, all of the carbon emissions are offset."
An MoD spokesperson said it was constantly seeking to cut costs by using alternatives like video and telephone conferencing, but added it was not always possible.
"All trips were absolutely necessary, with the vast majority being duty travel journeys made by military personnel," the spokesperson said.
"Reasons for these include post and mid-operational tour leave, compassionate leave, resettlement leave, individual postings and home visits when based in Northern Ireland."
Source: BBC
Power Crazy
13th February 2010
New research by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has found that while the love affair between men in the UK and their gadgets remains strong their recycling habits are certainly lacking the same passion. Despite the average UK male owning 12 battery operated gadgets, almost two thirds (63%) of male gadget users throw their used batteries away with 97% of these destined for landfill.
A significant 43% of men replace batteries in their gadgets (including MP3-players, mobile phones, electric razors and remote controls) more than once a month, with most of these old batteries being tossed in the bin. Since February 2010, shops selling more than 32kg of batteries a year (the equivalent of one four-pack of AAs per day) will be offering free battery recycling facilities - making it easier for gadget users, and consumers generally, to recycle old batteries.
This new government scheme aims to significantly increase the number of batteries recycled in the UK, up from the current rate of only 3-5%, to 25% by 2012, and at least 45% by 2016.
Members of the younger generation are currently the UK’s best battery recyclers with 30% of 16-18 year olds already recycling their old batteries. Their older counterparts, the 36-40 year old age group, fail to set any sort of good example – with the most gadgets (an average of 14) 78% of them are throwing their old batteries away instead of recycling them.
Gadget lovers in London are revealed as the worst recyclers with 74% of them throwing used batteries away whilst the Welsh, despite owning the least number of gadgets (9), are the best recyclers in the UK with 43% of males recycling their old batteries.
Environment Minister, Huw Irranca-Davies told Eco:
“We all use gadgets each and every day, this new legislation will make it very easy for us all to do the right thing and recycle our batteries. The next time you are on your way to the shops, take your used batteries with you and put them in the recycling unit. If not recycled they can cause harm to the environment.”
Legal Eagles
Challenge Government
Legal warning to Government over energy policy statements
26th January 2010
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband has been warned that the Government could face a judicial review unless its "fundamentally flawed" draft planning policies on major energy infrastructure are significantly changed.
Friends of the Earth's legal department has written to Mr Miliband raising a number of concerns about the Government's draft Energy National Policy Statements (NPSs), which will set the basis for individual planning decisions on major energy projects by the new Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) from March onwards.
The flaws in the Energy NPSs identified by Friends of the Earth include:
• Telling the IPC not to consider the carbon impacts of applications that come before it. The NPS should require the IPC and Committee on Climate Change to work together to ensure the UK's electricity sector decarbonises quickly, and in line with the UK's carbon budgets;
• Wrongly instructing the IPC to assume that all forms of energy infrastructure are ‘needed' - which threatens to lock the UK into high carbon energy infrastructure;
• Failing to follow European legal requirements on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA);
• Failing to consult properly.
Friends of the Earth's Executive Director Andy Atkins told Eco:
"The Government's draft National Planning Statements on energy are fundamentally flawed.
"The consultation was insufficient, the alternatives were inadequately explored, and the policies are poorly justified.
"And because they fail to assess the carbon impact that the proposed development will have they threaten to undermine UK Carbon Budgets.
"Friends of the Earth has written to Ed Miliband warning him that these proposals are probably unlawful and could lead to a challenge in the courts."
Friends of the Earth also said that the NPSs fail to set out an integrated framework for sustainable infrastructure development.
120 Whales Die in Mass NZ Beaching
29th December 2009
More than 120 whales have died over 48 hours in two separate beachings in New Zealand. However some were saved by prompt action by local people and holiday-makers who joined in rescue attempts.
Over 100 long finned pilot whales died after becoming stranded on a remote beach in the north of New Zealand's South Island on Saturday, while another 20 will be buried by a local Maori tribe after they beached themselves on the North Island's east coast.
While strandings are common in New Zealand — there are up to six mass strandings a year — it is rare for two to happen so close together.
Beachings can be a natural event, although some have been caused by disturbance from oil exploration or navy exercises.
Experts believe that in this case a pregnant cow in distress might have led one of the pods to their death on the Coromandel Pensinsula, on North Island.
She was among 63 whales, mostly cows with calves, that were beached at Colville Bay near Coromandel township early on Sunday.
One of the whales gave birth almost immediately after being refloated, leading to suggestions that it might have been her distress calls that brought the other whales into the shallow waters.
"The majority of strandings involve pilot whales," said Mr Donaghue. "They are highly social whales and if one gets into trouble the others are reluctant to abandon it.
"If a sick animal goes into shallow water the others will follow it in. Once they're in shallow water, their sonar doesn't work as the sand scatters their sonar waves and they become confused.
"This is what may have happened here. I have never seen a group so reluctant to go back to sea. Most of the time it takes a couple of minutes to refloat stranded whales but this time they kept milling about and squealing. At one point I thought they were going to re-strand, but they might just have been waiting for mummy to give birth."
Ingrid Visser, with the Orca Research Trust charity, who watched as the calf was born, said it was more than likely that the distressed mother had swum into the shallow bay to seek protection from predators, and her pod had followed to protect her.
"It was an amazing sight to see the calf pop like a cork out of the water," Ms Visser told The Times. "We had only just re-floated the calf's mother and once the calf was born the cow took it first to the group of whales nearest her, then to the other two. Within 15 minutes she had headed out to sea with the calf and the others had followed her.
Prince's rainforest fund
gets US backing
21st November 2009
Reacting to the news that the US has become the first country to pledge money to a short term fund to protect tropical rainforests which has been backed by the Prince of Wales, Greenpeace Executive Director John Sauven told Eco:
"We all rely on the world's tropical rainforests for food and rainfall, and to store vast amounts of our carbon emissions each year. Paying a relatively small amount to protect them is an absolute bargain, because without them the very basis for our economy could collapse and the climate would become increasingly hostile.
"The US Government has today promised a substantial amount of money for forest protection, and now there is real pressure on the British government to do the same. The longer we delay the more our international reputation for environmental leadership is put at risk."
At a ceremony at Clarence House in London this morning, US Ambassador Louis Susman read out a letter from chair of the US Senate Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs, Senator Patrick Leahy, in which he pledged to contribute $275m to a forest protection fund in 2010.
UK energy and environment secretary Ed Miliband failed to put a figure on any UK government contribution, but hinted that the Government may make an announcement at or around the UN Copenhagen conference in December.
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