Natural Environment Blog

A new agency will be formed in early 2009 to act as a driver for renewable energy on an international level.

Although there are other international energy agencies, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), which was initially driven by Germany, Spain and Denmark, will be the first worldwide agency dedicated to renewable energy.

IRENA says,

There is an urgent need for renewable energy to play a stronger part in international political processes – whether they deal with trade, investment, environment, energy or other issues. Its aim will be to generate momentum for renewable energy on an international level.

Large-Scale Adoption of Renewable Energy

IRENA’s objective is to foster and promote the large-scale adoption of renewable energy worldwide. 

The agency plans to break the objective down into the following tangable targets:

• Improved regulatory frameworks for renewable energy through enhanced policy advice 
• Improvements in the transfer of renewable energy technology 
• Progress and improvements on renewable energy skills and know-how; a scientifically sound information basis through applied policy research 
• Better financing of renewable energy

Greenpeace has published the second edition of their Energy [R]evolution report, which has been updated with the latest economic, technical and population data. 

The report provides a blueprint that the world can use to cut emissions, phase out nuclear power, save money and maintain global economic development - all without fuelling catastrophic climate change.

The report shows how the planet can get from where we are now, to where we need to be.

Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Currently, developed countries use much more energy per capita than developing countries. 

The report explains that by 2020 developed countries such as USA, Europe and Australia are projected to use two to  three times more energy per capita than China or India. And because of this, those developed countries need to reduce their carbon emissions much earlier than developing countries. 

Greenpeace say,

In the global fight against catastrophic climate change, global greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector must have peaked by 2015 and have returned to current levels by 2020.

The report says that industrialized economies such as the USA, the European Community and Australia, have to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by up to 30% below 1990 levels.

It also says that developing countries need to stabilize their carbon emissions by 2020, then start reducing emissions. 

3 Step Approach

The blueprint provides a 3 step approach:

Step 1: Electrical efficiency

• Exploit all technical potential for electrical efficiency via technical standards

Step 2: Structural changes

• Change the way we produce energy in large centralised power stations towards a decentralised energy system, using large-scale renewable resources that use locally available energy sources such as wind, sun or geothermal.
• Cogeneration – end the huge amounts of waste energy via cooling towers

Step 3: Energy-efficient transport

• Build up efficient public transport systems

Implement efficient cars, trucks, etc.

5 key Principles

Greenpeace say that the report is based on proven technologies the following key principles:

1. Equity and fairness
2. Respect natural limits
3. Phase out dirty, unsustainable energy
4. Implement renewable solutions and decentralise energy systems
5. Decouple growth from fossil fuel use

Greenpeace’s Message to the World Governments

In the report, Greenpeace makes a plea to governments around the world to:

1. Phase out all subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear energy
2. Internalise the external (social and environmental) costs of energy production through “cap and trade” emissions trading
3. Mandate strict efficiency standards for all energy-consuming appliances, buildings and vehicles
4. Establish legally binding targets for renewable energy and combined heat and power generation
5. Reform the electricity markets by guaranteeing priority access to the grid for renewable power generators
6. Provide defined and stable returns for investors, for example by feed-in tariff programmes
7. Increase research and development budgets for renewable energy and energy efficiency

The Report

The Energy [R]evolution was developed in conjunction with specialists from the Institute of Technical Thermodynamics at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and more than 30 scientists and engineers from universities, institutes and the renewable energy industry around the world.

View a Summary (PDF, 16 pages) | View the  Full report (PDF, 212 pages.

WWF, the global conservation organization, is expected to release the 2008 version of its “Living Planet Report” on Wednesday.

The Living Planet Report, released every couple of years by WWF, is an update of the state of the world’s ecosystems. The report is based on two indicators:

• the Living Planet Index, which reflects the health of the planet’s ecosystems; and 
• the Ecological Footprint, which shows the extent of human demand on these ecosystems. 

Previous reports have shown a bleak future for the planet. According to the 2006 report: 

Since the late 1980s we have been in overshoot – the Ecological Footprint has exceeded the Earth’s biocapacity – as of 2003 by about 25 per cent.

Earth’s regenerative capacity can no longer keep up with demand – people are turning resources into waste faster than nature can turn waste back into resources.

What this basically means is that, in 2003, it took around 1 year and 3 months for nature to produce the ecological resources that we used in that year. 

And the 2008 report is not expected to make things look any brighter - things are only going to get worse if we don’t do something to change this. 

The report should be available from WWF’s Living Planet Report page.

I just noticed that the Rainforest Alliance has created an online “Smarthouse” (and “Treehouse).

The Smarthouse is a novel way of learning about the various areas the Rainforest Alliance is involved in. It can also help us make better choices when it comes time to do our shopping. For example, if you’re looking for new furniture, you can check for Rainforest Alliance certification. Same thing with tea, coffee, bananas, pineapples, and more.

Checking for certification from the Rainforest Alliance (and other organizations) can help us live a more sustainable lifestyle.

As mentioned in a previous post, the Rainforest Alliance helps people/companies become more sustainable in the way they work the land.

You’ve probably heard of the terms carnivore (those who eat meat) and herbivore (those who eat plants). But one term you might not be as familiar with is localvore - a relatively new term being thrown around today.

Localvore a term to describe a person committed to eating food grown and produced locally. Eating local food can have provide many benefits for the person, their community, and for the environment.

Benefits of Becoming a Localvore

Here are some benefits from eating local produce:

• Better for the environment. For example…
  • Less transporting requirements. Your food doesn’t need to be transported thousands of kilometers. This saves fuel and other resources required to transport your food.
  • Less packaging. Most supermarket food uses plastic or tin packaging, thus requiring more fossil fuels.
• It supports the local community. By purchasing local produce, you are supporting your local farmers. More money stays within your local community.
• Healthier food. Local produce doesn’t need to be processed or contain preservatives. This is because the food doesn’t need to travel as far.
• Tastes better. Local food will typically taste better than food that has been mass produced for the supermarkets. Supermarkets will do all sorts of things with their produce (such as inject them with hormones) in order to extend the shelf life of their “fresh” produce.

All or Nothing?

Some people are “die-hard” localvores - they won’t eat anything unless it was grown and produced within say, a 100 mile radius from their home. Others are not as strict - they try to eat locally when they can, but still purchase some groceries from the supermarket.

Depending on where you live, some foods can be difficult to source locally. For example, you might have trouble finding local coffee beans. Local olive oil could be difficult to find too. But of course, I’m sure a true localvore will at least, try their hardest to source everything locally!

Now, unless you’re planning to go on a 100 mile diet or something similar, you’ll probably find yourself eating non-local cuisine most days. Don’t let that deter you though. You can use your awareness of the localvore concept to become more interested in where your food is sourced from. And if you prefer to switch to a local provider for some of your groceries - great!

And if you’re still wondering if becoming a localvore is your cup of tea, the 100 mile diet website offers 13 good reasons to eat locally.

The FSC certification is widely recognized as the most rigorous social and environmental certification program in the forestry industry. Basically, FSC certification helps save the world’s forests by ensuring that land owners manage their forests responsibly.

The good news is that the amount of forest that is being FSC certified is increasing at an impressive rate.

he following chart demonstrates the amount of land that has been FSC certified since 1995:

Furthermore, as of March this year, over 100 million hectares of forest is now FSC certified. To be more precise, 103,456,399 hectares of land across 79 countries is FSC certified.

This represents a significant increase in the amount of forestry land that has been approved for certification. Consider these facts:

• Within 10 years, FSC certified land has increased from less than 10 million hectares to more than 100 million.
• In 2006, FSC certified acreage grew by 33 percent.
• Globally, FSC certified land now represents 7 percent of production forests.

Andre de Freitas, FSC Head of Operations, commented…

The larger the forest area certified to FSC standards, the larger the forest area that is managed socially and environmentally responsibly. Each additional hectare certified to FSC standards brings us closer to achieving our mission: to improve forest management world wide.

About FSC

Established in 1993, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international organization that brings people together to find solutions which promote responsible stewardship of the world’s forests.

As mentioned, the FSC certification program is a rigorous social and environmental certification program for the forestry industry.

To learn more about FSC, visit the official FSC website.

Last night, the Australian government released its federal budget, which included increased spending for environmental issues.

Included in the budget, is:

• $200 million will be allocated to protecting the Great Barrier Reef
• $180 million will be allocated to new protected areas
• $150 million to be allocated to Indigenous conservation
• $500 million will be allocated to a fund for development and deployment of clean coal technologies
• $300 million to be used for a “green loan” scheme. Under the scheme, households will be able to borrow up to $10,000 to make their homes more green. This could include installing solar panels, rainwater tanks, greywater recycling, insulation, solar hot water heaters and energy-smart lighting. The loan will only be available to low to middle income households - those who earn less than $100,000 per year. The benefit of this loan is that it’s available at a low interest rate - a maximum of 2 percent of the annual gross income.

• Money will be spent on increasing the market penetration of renewable energy. Currently in Australia, only 8 percent of electricity comes from renewable sources. The government aims to increase that to 20 percent.
• $3 billion to be allocated to water buybacks.
• In total, $12.9 billion will be allocated to “Water for the Future Plan” over the next 10 years in order to improve Australia’s water supplies.

The response to the budget? Mixed. Although more money is being spent on environmental issues, many green groups believe too much is being allocated to the wrong areas, and that not enough is being done about climate change.

Here are some responses from various environmental groups:

• WWF-Australia’s response - Generally happy with the budget, but more action is required.
• Greenpeace’s response to the budget - Disappointed with the lack of measures to attack climate change. Renewable solutions have been sidelined whilst dirty coal is bankrolled.
• The Greens Party’s response - Budget utterly fails climate and oil challenge.

China has officially released its new standards for plastic bags. The standards, which will be implemented in June, are an attempt to help eliminate the devastating impact that plastic bags are having on the environment.

The new standards prevent supermarkets and other retailers from handing out colorized plastic bags. These bags are usually made from wasted plastics, which pollute the environment.

The standards also ban plastic bags less than 0.025 millimeters thick. The theory behind this is that, by having thicker bags, people are more likely to reuse their plastic bags. Many bags in China are currently only 0.001 to 0.020 millimeters thick.

As encouraging as it is to hear this news, it would be better if China could encourage larger eco-friendly shopping bags - such as reusable jute bags. Reusable bags like these can hold much more than plastic bags, and they can last for many years.

If you’re interested in seeing some beautiful photos of nature, check out the winning photos from the Rainforest Alliance’s Picture Sustainability Photo Contest.

The purpose of the photo contest was to raise awareness about conservation issues while allowing the Rainforest Alliance to expand its collection of photos for use in its publications and on its web site.

Winners were chosen from the following categories:

• Wildlife on farms, forests or other natural habitats
• Landscapes (forests, waterways, flowers and plants, beaches, wetlands)
• Eco-tourism in Latin America (bird watching, hiking, surfing, scuba diving, kayaking and other nature-based activities)
• Macro (a technique of close-up photography — here, applied to insects, flowers and plants, leafy vegetation, birds, reptiles and amphibians, mammals, textures)
• Conservation in action (people working to protect natural resources, including water, flora and fauna)

You can check out the photos here.

I recently read this article from Dallas News about the reactions from some checkout operators when customers bring their own reusable bags.

Here’s how some of the checkout operators reacted when the customer refused plastic bags:

Case 1:

When I plopped my cloth bags onto the counter and asked the cashier to use them instead of the plastic, he looked at me as if I weren’t speaking English. After a pause, he reluctantly put a few items in my bag. Then he stopped bagging my items altogether. So I did it.

Case 2 (customer put items straight back into the trolley):

The cashiers at the Tom Thumb by my house have been thinking I was nuts for years now.

Case 3:

I have to be sure to hand my bags over before the scanning starts or the baggers will start stuffing things into their plastic bags.

I suppose it’s something I never really think about anymore - how the checkout staff will react when I present my reusable bag. I’ve been using reusable bags for 4 or 5 years now, and I can’t think of one instance where the checkout operator didn’t know what to do.

I admit that I can relate to case 3. I’ve learned to place my reusable bag on the conveyor belt in front of my groceries. Otherwise the checkout operator will start placing my groceries straight into a plastic bag. This is to be expected though - if I don’t present a reusable bag how can I expect the checkout operator to know that I have one?

I suspect this checkout experience is different for each country, and even in different states within those countries. The Australian government has been discouraging plastic bags and encouraging reusable bags for many years. They even introduced the “green bag” which is sold at most, if not all, supermarkets.

The green bag resulted from a campaign in 2003 to discourage retailers from giving away plastic bags.

So, it appears that if nothing else, the government campaign from 2003 has instilled an awareness in Australian checkout operators, so that they know what to do when someone presents them with a resuable bag.