Home/Posts Tagged ‘policy’
Posts Tagged ‘policy’
Climate Change, Politics, Aug 4th, 2010,
You might think you can do a better job than the UK government at cutting CO2, becoming more energy efficient and deciding how Britain should move towards a low carbon economy. Well the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change let’s you try it out – in a computer simulation, of course. The Independent’s environment editor loves it, as he explains in a recent article: Doing it yourself gives an unusual and vivid insight into the difficulties faced by real policymakers in grappling with our energy future. The software tool that makes it possible is called the 2050 Pathways Calculator…
Tags: Britain, carbon, Climate change, cuts, DECC, Department, emissions, energy, environmental, government, Green, Guardian, Independent, McCarthy, policy, power, schemes, UK, wind
Climate Change, Politics, Jun 30th, 2010,
Ready for some negative news? The 8.6% fall in UK greenhouse gas emissions last year was down to the economic slump rather than government initiatives. According to an article in the Guardian, the government needs to take significant action over the next year in order to reach legally binding emissions targets (34% on 1990 levels by 2020). The head of the Committee on Climate Change says these actions must come in the form of improving the energy market, making homes more energy efficient, reducing emissions from farming and encouraging electric vehicle development. He also stressed the need to cut air…
Tags: Climate change, economic, emissions, energy, government, Green, greenwashing, Lord Turner, policy, renewable, UK
Climate Change, Green living, Politics, Weird Stuff, Jun 17th, 2010,
Last year’s COP-15 event may have achieved “epic fail” status, but that’s certainly not going to stop the former host city—Copenhagen, Denmark—from pushing their green standards a bit further. Copenhagen is now the first Scandinavian city to put a mandatory green roof policy into action. The new policy requires vegetation and soil to be a mandatory part in architectural planning; in particular, it covers all roofs with a slope less than 30 degrees, plus the refurbishment of older roofs. By putting this new green roof policy into action, it pushes the great Danish city one step closer to reaching their…
Tags: architecture, carbon neutral, copenhagen, denmark, design, first, green roofs, green space, mandatory, policy, Scandinavia
Climate Change, Nature, Politics, Wildlife & Flora, Jun 9th, 2010,
2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity, under the auspices of the UN and the Convention on Biological Diversity. This week in Busan, South Korea, governments will meet to discuss the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, modeled after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Environmental groups and the governments of France and Japan champion the creation of such an organization. The need for recognition and knowledge about how humanity benefits from and depends on ecosystems is crucial to future development, sustainability and the integrity of the natural world. Simply put, we cannot exist by…
Tags: biodiversity, change, Climate change, ecosystem, EU, Europe, European, intergovernmental, platform, policy, UN
Climate Change, Politics, Apr 13th, 2010,
An article in the Guardian, which I linked in yesterday’s post on the results of the Bonn climate talks, reproduces the text to a supposed confidential document outlining US policy vis-à-vis international climate negotiations. The document is described as revealing of US President Barack Obama’s ‘hardline’ climate talk strategy. The most incriminatingly hardline-sounding part of the text is this point: 5) Deepen support and understanding from the developing world that advanced developing countries must be part of any meaningful solution to climate change including taking responsibilities under a legally binding treaty. Maybe I’m too cynical or I’m missing some nuance…
Tags: accord, Bonn, climate, document, hardline, policy, talks, UN, US
Climate Change, Green living, Politics, Feb 12th, 2010,
![]( "<!--:en-->China")
' src='http://gf3.statico.be/wp-content/themes/greenfudge/thumbnails/7322.jpg' alt='chinas-one-child-policy-30-years-on' class='art-teaser' width='95' height='95' /> Since 1979 China has more or less followed a government enforced policy of one child per family. It is a policy which dictates that urban couples are allowed only one child, whereas those in the countryside may have two – so long as the first child is a girl. Ethnic minorities, those with dangerous jobs and couples who give birth to a disabled child are also exceptions. Has China’s radical one child policy – enacted by then chairman of the communist party Deng Xiaoping – been a global disaster or boon? Zhao Baige, vice-minister of National Population and Family Planning…
Tags: birth, child, China, Chinese, co2, emissions, girls, one, one child policy, policy, population
Climate Change, Green living, Jan 27th, 2010,
The 2010 Environmental Performance Index or EPI – a biennial study by Yale and Colombia Universities – ranks 163 countries on the basis of ten policy categories including ‘environmental health, air quality, water resource management, biodiversity and habitat, forestry, fisheries, agriculture, and climate change.’ This year’s EPI shows some interesting results: Iceland rocketed to number one from an already laudable 11th place in 2008. Maybe having a huge financial crisis is good for the environment, as has been argued in terms of global greenhouse gas emission levels, which fell as the price of oil climbed. However, in Iceland’s case, though…
Tags: China, energy, environmental, EPI, geothermal, Iceland, index, policy, rank, ranking, U.S., Yale
