The Switch � July 2008

Former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore has issued the bold challenge of 100 percent of U.S. electricity production to come from sources with zero carbon emissions within 10 years.

Gore stated that the over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of the economic, environmental and national security crises the United States is facing. "We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that's got to change."

The challenge includes:

an upgrading of the U.S.'s electricity infrastructure;
a switch by the car industry to the manufacture of plug-in electric cars;
improving the commitment to efficiency and conservation;
a sharp reduction in payroll taxes with the difference made up in CO2 taxes;
the fostering of international cooperation to secure a meaningful global partnership for solving the climate crisis;
overcoming the dysfunctioning of U.S. politics and its self-governing system as it exists today - which in recent years has served to avoid offending special interests.

Wind Can Produce Quarter of EU's Electricity

Wind energy could easily provide for more than one fourth of the EU's electricity by 2030 - provided that wind farms are better connected to existing electricity grids and that a new grid to exploit the offshore wind industry is built, according to a stakeholder action plan detailing research and political priorities for the sector.

In its long term strategic research agenda and market deployment strategy published this month, the European Wind Energy Technology Platform (TPWind) predicts that "in 2030, wind energy will be a major modern energy source; reliable and cost-competitive in terms of cost per kWh".

The objective of this action plan is to make wind provide up to 28% of EU electricity consumption by 2030, corresponding to a total of 300 GW. Currently, 57 GW are installed and connected to electricity grids, corresponding to some 3% of the total EU consumption. The yearly growth in EU's wind energy capacity is some 19-20%, corresponding to the rapid growth rates witnessed in the internet, mobile telephony and other high-technology sectors. In the future, even more rapid market development will, according to the platform, be driven by increasing concerns over:

sustainability and the impacts of climate change;
oil and gas depletion;
high costs and the unpredictable availability of fuel (security of supply), and;
CO2 allowance prices under the EU's emissions trading scheme.

According to TPWind, the main problem for reaching the 300 GW objective by 2030 is the availability of electricity grids and connecting wind farms to them. Other problems identified by the platform include the lack of a grid to exploit offshore wind industry as well as the lack of international markets due to poor availability of connection lines between the different countries.

Transport Remains Main Source of Health-Damaging Pollutants

A new report by the European Environment Agency (EEA) shows that road transport remains the single main source of nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO) and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), and the second-most important source of fine particulate emissions (PM10 and PM2.5) in the EU-27. This report contains essential data that helps understand the evolution of air pollutant emissions since 1990.

The emission inventory report shows that road transport remains the single most important source of sulphur oxides (SOx), carbon monoxide (CO) and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) in the EU-27.

It is also the second-most important source, behind the construction and residential sector, of fine particulate emissions (PM10 and PM2.5), which can cause respiratory diseases in humans.

Other main sources of air pollution were manufacturing industries and construction, the residential sector (particulate matters) and agriculture (mainly ammonia), according to the report, which compiles data submitted by the 27 EU member states between 1990 and 2006.
Overall, emissions of air pollutants have tended to decrease across the EU since 1990 the report says, noting that "reported emissions of nitrogen oxides in 2006 have decreased by more than 35 %, and sulphur dioxide by almost 70 %".

The largest reductions in emissions were achieved for the acidifying pollutant SOx, the report further notes, with emissions in 2006 almost 70 % lower than in 1990. In this sector, it is public electricity and heat production in the energy sector which are responsible for the bulk of the pollution, with 58.4% of reported emissions.

Emissions of the three air pollutants primarily responsible for the formation of harmful ground-level ozone also fell during that period, the report notes: CO emissions fell by 53%, NMVOCs by 44 % and NOX by 35%.

The EEA report was published as part of the EU's commitments under the 1979 Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, which is managed by the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).

Climate Change and Human Rights

Policies on climate change have so far ignored its likely human rights impacts, according to a new report by the International Council on Human Rights. The report, Climate Change and Human Rights: A Rough Guide, argues that human rights principles can guide climate change policy by focusing on individual suffering and exposure to risk. To date, little systematic research has examined the human rights dimensions of climate change, yet almost every human right is threatened. Climate change will create new health risks, threaten food and water supplies, destroy land and livelihoods, and lead to forced migration and conflict. Global warming will disproportionately affect countries already lacking the resources to meet basic human rights obligations.

Human rights principles can help mobilise and direct adaptation funding, the report finds. They provide criteria for evaluating mitigation and technology transfer policies. The report also examines decision-making processes and accountability, the merits of litigation, and a range of ethical and policy dilemmas that climate change generates.

Renewables vs Carbon Capture and Storage

A study commissioned by the German federal government and led by researchers at the German Aerospace Center in Stuttgart finds carbon capture and storage emits ten to forty times as much greenhouse gases as wind or solar energy and gives no protection against the rising cost of fossil fuels. The study Comparison of Carbon Capture and Storage with Renewable Energy Technologies Regarding Structural, Economic, and Ecological Aspects in Germany compared carbon capture and storage (CCS) with renewable energy technologies using a combined lifecycle analysis and cost assessment for Germany.

The results show that per KWh of electricity generated, CCS cuts CO2 emissions by 72-90 percent, and total greenhouse gas emissions by 65-79 percent, assuming that the technology works as planned and the geologically stored CO2 does not leak out at all; any leakage would compromise the mitigating potential of CCS. However, the net emissions from CCS are still 10 to 40 times those from renewable energies such as solar and wind.

The difference between CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions comes from the methane released when coal is mined; and methane has a global warming potential about 20 times that of CO2. If companies take steps to prevent the release of methane and capture it for use in combined heat and power generation plants, then the advantage gained is equivalent to fitting CCS for lignite power plants.

The assumption that the first commercially operated power plant with CCS will be operating by 2020 is built into the study because Germany faces the problem that a large number of its fossil power plants are reaching the end of their life in the next 15 years. So, only if CCS technology can be retrofitted by 2020 would it stand a chance of delivering the climate protection goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions at all.

CCS however remains unproven as a technological package. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change does not expect CCS to be commercially viable before the second half of the present century.

When further impacts are factored in, CCS increases photo-oxidants (that damage DNA), eutrophication (that destroy aquatic life), acidification (that damage trees and other plant life), and toxicity to humans, all by about 40 percent.

World's Biggest Rooftop Solar Panels

The largest rooftop solar power station in the world is being built in Spain. With a capacity of 12 megawatts of power, the station is made up of 85,000 lightweight panels covering an area of two million square feet.

Manufactured in rolls, rather like carpet, the photovoltaic panels are to be installed on the roof of a General Motors car factory in Zaragoza, eastern Spain. General Motors, which plans to install solar panels at another 11 plants across Europe, unveiled the �50m (�39.73m) project on 8 July. The power station should be producing energy by September.

The panels will produce an expected annual output of 15.1m kilowatt hours (kWh) - enough to meet the needs of 4,600 households with an average consumption of 3,300kWh, or power a third of the GM factory. The solar energy produced should cut CO2 emissions by 6,700 tonnes a year.

Solar panels on houses usually produce a few kilowatts of power. On large commercial buildings, installations of one or two megawatts are now common. A one-megawatt installation could run about 1,000 air-conditioners while the sun is shining.

Blessed with almost year-round sunshine, Spain's socialist government is trying to capitalise on this natural resource. In an effort to encourage private individuals and companies to install solar power, Spain introduced subsidies of �0.42 per kilowatt per hour. But the Spanish government is considering reducing this subsidy in September, a move which is likely to face opposition from within the solar energy industry.

Commission Adopts SCP Action Plan

The European Commission this month adopted proposals to expand the scope of existing eco design and labelling requirements to all products that impact on energy consumption. The Commission�s strategy was presented by Industry Commissioner Gunther Verheugen and Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas.

In the proposals, �energy-related� products like windows and shower heads are to fall under the scope of existing rules for energy-using items as set out by the 2005 Eco-design requirements for energy-using products (EuP) Directive. The continued energy focus reveals the heavy control of DG Enterprise, whose sustainable industrial policy focuses purely on energy and climate change. Narrowing the scope of the Directive�s extension to only �energy-related� products means that products with major environmental impacts such as paper, packaging, or furniture are not included.

The Action Plan urges industry to develop benchmarks and voluntary standards for the various products that would be affected by the plans. The Commission would step in and regulate specific standards in cases where industry initiatives are deemed insufficient. The dominance of the voluntary approach, however, sends the wrong signal to companies and investors.

The take-up of more sustainable products through public procurement is promoted, with 10 priority sectors highlighted. For many of these sectors, a European Ecolabel already exists, providing a key area of synergy between �environmental benchmark� products and their more systematic purchase. The European Ecolabel is given a stronger position as a �beacon� of environmental excellence. However, the proposed simplifications to the Ecolabel Regulation would counteract any of the benefits of this synergy and potentially put the label�s credibility into question.

Also, a Retailer Forum will be set up to identify key areas for the sector to improve its own ecological footprint and supply chain, while also making more sustainable products and sustainability information available to consumers. However, an unmonitored, voluntary approach as has been taken, has not proven effective in Europe in the past. There is also no reflection on introducing the producer responsibility principle to the retail or industry sectors.

The Commission will present the legislative proposals to the EU Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. The proposals will go through the co-decision procedure, in which the European Parliament adopts legislation jointly with the Council.

In September 2007, ANPED sent a series of recommendations on the SCP Action Plan to the European Commission.

Seven Ways to Encourage Pro-Environmental Behaviour

Changing behaviour on a long-term basis is a complex matter, which depends on being able to see 'rewards' from new behaviour, such as increased well-being. Promoting environmental behaviour, such as more recycling or driving less, has to be addressed simultaneously at all levels, from household and business to society level. A recent study of such environmental policies shows they are more likely to be successful if people are treated as active partners in the process of change and not as passive subjects.

The study, Promoting pro-environmental behaviour: existing evidence and policy implications, looked at fourteen policies and incentive schemes in the UK aimed at promoting pro-environmental behaviour. These included: the EU's Common Agricultural Policy Set-Aside programme encouraging farmers to set-aside fallow land, the UK Emissions Trading Scheme, a government grant scheme encouraging sustainable consumption and production, a fuel-saving and insulation initiative and a rural development scheme.

The policies were evaluated in terms of changing long-term behaviours, achieving objectives and producing a clear benefit for the environment. They were also assessed for unintended consequences, such as conflict with other policies, impact on international competitiveness, availability of monitoring data and suitability for the most vulnerable sectors of society.

The study suggests that future policy-makers can learn lessons from past successes and failures by understanding barriers to behaviour change, and ways of overcoming these. It provides seven key recommendations:

1.Target audiences are more likely to adapt in line with a policy when they have been involved in its development;

2.Policies need to pull in the same direction and convey a consistent message to appear legitimate to their target audience;

3.Organisations need to have the relevant skills, resources and capacities to take on additional duties resulting from new policy initiatives;

4.Policies are more effective when responsibility for delivery is given to locally accountable bodies;

5.Policies are most effective when they simultaneously tackle several aspects of behaviour at multiple levels (a whole systems approach);

6.Effective policies must be context specific, while recognising the bigger picture;

7.It is important to lead by example.

UK Prime Minister: Stop Wasting Food

A new UK government report reveals that British families throw away a third of the food they buy, thus creating unnecessary demand which further increases prices and causes greenhouse gas emissions. "With the average household throwing away food worth hundreds of pounds each year, there is a clear opportunity both to save money and to cut back on waste," argues UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, commenting on the results of a government study reviewing the main trends in the country's food production and consumption and their effects to the economy, society and environment.

The report, Food Matters - Towards a Strategy for the 21st Century, was published on 7 July. Commissioned by the prime minister last autumn, the report by the UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) assesses the UK's current food policy framework and recommends changes.

According to the report, UK consumers throw away the equivalent of �10 billion (�12.5 billion) worth of food every year. That adds up to some �420 (�527) per family and �610 (�766) per family with children. According to the report, some seven million slices of bread, one million slices of ham, 4.4 million whole apples, 1.3m yoghurts and 440,000 home-made and ready-made meals every day.

Furthermore, according to the report, wasted food causes greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 18 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. Eliminating the unnecessary waste would deliver greenhouse gas savings "equivalent to taking one in five cars off UK roads," the study concludes.

Future government challenges identified by the report are namely to ensure an economically, socially and environmentally more sustainable food system, with "fair prices, choice, access to food and food security through open and competitive markets, continuous improvement in the safety of food, a further transition to healthier diets and a more environmentally sustainable food chain," lists the report.

Defra is currently preparing another paper on the key factors affecting food supply and pricing.

Seeing People Through the Trees

A new report by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), Seeing People through the Trees, warns that demand for land to grow food, fuel crops and wood is outstripping supply.

Only half of the extra land needed by 2030 is available without going into tropical forested areas. Rising demand for food, biofuels and wood for paper, building and industry means that 515 million hectares of extra land will be needed for growing crops and trees by 2030, RRI calculates. However, only 200 million hectares will be available without dipping into tropical forests.

If the current plateau in productivity continues, the amount of additional agricultural land required just to meet the world's projected food demand in 2050 would be about three billion hectares, nearly all of which would be required in developing countries. According to UN figures, the world currently has about 1.4 billion hectares of arable land and about 3.4 billion hectares of pasture.

Eating into tropical forests to create extra agricultural land would exacerbate climate change, with deforestation currently accounting for about 20% of greenhouse gas emissions.

One of RRI's key conclusions is that reform of land ownership is crucial, if large-scale pillage of tropical forests is to be avoided. The property rights of indigenous and local communities who play a vital role in protecting tropical forests therefore need to be secured.

How Green is Ethanol Made from Sugarcane?

A recent study, Expansion of sugarcane ethanol production in Brazil: environmental and social challenges, has concluded that expanding the amount of land in Brazil used to grow sugarcane for ethanol could have serious environmental and social consequences. It could lead to more pressure on natural rainforest if sugarcane displaces other crops northwards, degraded soil and water supplies, and exploitation of workers in the industry. Brazil provides an important case-study for policy makers worldwide considering expanding biofuel production.

Brazil has invested in producing ethanol from sugarcane since the oil crisis of the 1970s. In 2007, 19 billion litres were produced, a similar quantity to the amount of corn ethanol produced in the US. The OECD estimates that ethanol production in Brazil will increase to 44 billion litres by the year 2016. This will mean a doubling of the area of land planted with sugarcane to 14 million hectares.

Sugarcane requires a period of low rainfall in its growing cycle and is grown mainly in the south-east of the country. Soya is another major crop in Brazil, covering a much larger area of 23 million hectares. Soya can be grown more easily in tropical conditions. If sugarcane expands into central areas where soya is currently cultivated, it could lead to deforestation further north, with implications for the global carbon balance. It has also been suggested that an increase in sugarcane production could also displace grazing land and increase the rate of deforestation for ranching purposes. Ethanol has been viewed as a promising biofuel, but the negative effects on natural ecosystems and social structures of those working in the industry should be taken into account. For example:

Soil degradation caused by erosion and compaction, which reduces soil's ability to filter water;
Deterioration of wetlands, streams, rivers and reservoirs due to silt and sediment;
Transport via silt of pollutants and chemicals;
Banned substances such as organochlorides found in fish and sediments;
Waste water from processing sugarcane depleting oxygen in water systems;
Heavy use of nitrogen fertilisers leading to eutrophication of coastal water and estuaries;
Destruction of riparian forests with impact on biodiversity

Air pollution caused by burning sugarcane straw.

Conditions for workers harvesting the crop are also poor. Often employed by gang-leaders as short-term migrant workers from other parts of Brazil, labourers have long working days, low pay and a high death rate, with little protection through labour legislation.

The researchers say increasing ethanol production in Brazil is not a necessary or justified response to global warming if it entails the loss of natural resources.

Environment Committee: Scale Down Biofuels Target

In March 2007, EU leaders committed to raising the share of biofuels in transport from current levels of around 2% to 10% by 2020, amid growing concerns over rising oil prices, energy security and climate change. At that moment, biofuels were seen as a key means of diversifying energy supply and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The pledge was translated into legal proposals, presented on 23 January 2008 by the Commission, as part of a broader Directive on renewable energies. The Commission's draft directive proposes introducing a range of "sustainability criteria" for biofuels to counter these concerns.

This month, the European Parliament's Environment Committee has voted to scale down the proposed EU-wide 10% biofuels target by 2020 to 4% by 2015. The vote confirmed a cross-party and cross-national compromise tabled by Swedish MEP Anders Wijkman in the name of the EPP-ED Group, Dutch MEP Dorette Corbey in the name of the Socialist Group, Danish MEP Johannes Lebech in the name of ALDE, Marie Anne Isler B�guin (FR) and Claude Turmes (LU) in the name of the Greens/EFA, Italian Roberto Musacchio in the name of GUE/NGL and Dutch MEP Johannes Blokland in the name of IND/DEM.

It supports a target of "at least 4%" of "renewable sources" in road transport fuels by 2015, "out of which at least 20% is met by the use of electricity or hydrogen from renewable sources, biogas or transport fuels from ligno-cellulosic biomass and algae".

World Bank Report: Biofuels Fuel Food Crisis

According to a confidential World Bank report, completed in April 2008 and recently obtained by The Guardian, biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75 percent � far more than previously estimated. The report�s author, Don Mitchell, is a senior economist at the World Bank and carried out a detailed, month-by-month analysis of the surge in food prices, allowing a close examination of the link between biofuels and food supply.

Rising food prices have pushed 100 million people worldwide below the poverty line, and have sparked riots. Meanwhile, political leaders seem intent on suppressing and ignoring the strong evidence that biofuels are a major factor in recent food price rises. US President Bush has linked higher food prices to higher demand from India and China, but the World Bank report disputes this: �Rapid income growth in developing countries has not led to large increases in global grain consumption and was not a major factor responsible for the large price increases.�

Instead, the report argues that the EU and US drive for biofuels has had by far the biggest impact on food supply and prices, distorting food markets in three main ways. First, it has diverted grain away from food for fuel, with over a third of US corn now used to produce ethanol and about half of vegetable oils in the EU going towards the production of biodiesel. Second, farmers have been encouraged to set land aside for biofuel production. Third, it has sparked financial speculation in grains, driving prices up higher.

European Union energy ministers stated this month they misread the energy and climate action plan, unveiled in January 2007, labouring under the false impression that the plan included an obligation to develop biofuels. Instead, they stated, the Commission�s plan specifies that 10 percent of transport needs must come from renewable energy.

Biofuels are quickly losing support in being the ideal alternative to fossil fuels. Their production drives up world food prices, divert precious crop land, and aggravate deforestation. Ethanol - produced by fermenting renewable crops like corn or sugarcane - consumes six units of energy to produce just one.

A switch to a society of sustainable consumption and production (SCP) is gaining popularity as the reasonable alternative to the present dilemma of climate change and peak oil. An SCP society - built on the premise of powering down so as not to run out - will require a fundamental shift in lifestyle and economic structures. The central challenge is for societies and stakeholders to face the facts, come together and shape a common vision � one based on common interests and sustainability.

Uranium Spills at French Nuclear Plants

A series of events at nuclear plants in France this month have caused environmental damage and exposed people to radiation.

On 7 July, The French rivers Gaffiere and Lauzon were contaminated by a spill of water containing uranium from a nuclear plant in southern France. The people of three nearby towns to the rivers in question have been told not to fish, use water from wells, swim in, or use water from the rivers on their crops and gardens.

The problem started at the Tricastin nuclear site at Bollene, some 40km from the city of Avignon. About 30 thousand liters of water containing 12g of uranium per litre leaked from an overflowing reservoir at the nuclear facility into the ground and into the rivers.

French nuclear corporation Areva, which built the facility, stated that 30 cubic meters of liquid containing uranium was accidentally poured on the ground and into a river at the Tricastin nuclear site. The incident occurred in the evening of 7 July and was only reported to France�s nuclear safety authority eight hours later. The affected residential areas were only informed the next day.

The second event occurred on 18 July. Uranium-bearing liquid leaked from a burst underground pipe at a nuclear plant owned by Areva in Romans-sur-Isere in southeastern France. Inspectors found that the pipe had been broken for several years and did not meet safety standards.

On the same day, 15 workers were exposed to radioactive contamination while carrying out maintenance at a plant in Saint-Alban-Saint-Maurice, 45km south of Lyon.

The fourth event occurred on 23 July at the Tricastin nuclear plant, where 100 employees were contaminated by radioactive particles that escaped from a pipe.

Meanwhile, Greenpeace has set up a blog around nuclear energy issues called Nuclear Reaction.

Nuclear energy is not a sustainable source of energy. For more information about nuclear energy, please read our statement on nuclear energy.

True Food Shopping Guide

What's going on 'behind the label' of the food on the supermarket shelves in the United States? A secret genetic experiment... and you should know that just because it's not listed on labels, doesn't mean it's not there. So what's a consumer in America to do? Go behind the label!

The Center for Food Safety has updated its True Food Shopping Guide for consumers in the United States, consisting of a elaborate shopping list focusing on foods made with ingredients that are commonly derived from genetically engineered (GE) crops; and a pocket shopper's guide to avoiding GE foods.