Ban on illegal timber within EU

The European Parliament approved in early July of this year to close EU markets to illegal timbers. The EU has been interested in this issue since 2003, but the approach then centred on voluntary partnership agreements between the EU and timber producing countries. however, these voluntary agreements proved not very succesful and this year the EU has issued legislation against illigally harvested timber that covers from logging to products delivered to the final consumer within the EU. More information on this is available here.

Cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico

I bumped accross this video taken recently off the coasts of Louisiana detaling the extent fo the clean-up operations. Aparently it is difficult to monitor the cleaning operations becuase there is a large restricted area. However this airplane managed to go beyond the approved zone and filemd the extent of the devastation and the "clean-up". Have a look.

EU Climate Change commissioner proposes a Carbon Tax

Commissioner Connie Hedegaard proposed a tax on what you burn and threw her weight behind an EU carbon tax. This approach is spelled out in the EU's Energy Taxation Directive. This approach will colour Europe's efforts to stay ahead of the game in international climate negotiations.

On 26 May 2010, Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard presented a communication analysing the options for increasing the EU's emissions reduction target from 20% from 1990 levels by 2020 to 30%. It concluded that the recession had brought down the cost of reducing emissions significantly, and meeting a 30% target would cost just €11bn more than the estimate for 20% envisaged two years ago (EurActiv 27/05/10).

Hedegaard was speaking in a session dedicated to climate change. Hedegaard thinks that energy taxation can provide a lot of positive results. The commissioner argued that a shift from taxing labour to taxing energy would encourage people to stay longer in the job market and find ways to finance Europe's "relatively expensive welfare societies". For instance, this tax could encourage the agriculture sector to explore possibilities like biogas.

Importing Solar Energy from the Sahara

The EU contemplates importing solar generated electricity from the Sahara within the next 5 years. Günther Oettinger European Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger said in an interview on Sunday that the EU is hoping to reach its long-term goal of de-carbonising its economy by topping up domestic renewable energy production with solar electricity imports from North Africa. The EU has been investing heavily into alternative energy projects of which
Desertec Industrial Initiative is one of the most prominent. Desertec was launched in July 2009 by 12 companies who agreed to establish financing plans to develop solar projects in the Sahara Desert (EurActiv 22/07/09). The €400 billion project aims to eventually provide 15% of Europe's electricity needs with solar power imported via a high-voltage cable. Please go to the EuroActive website for more information.

Credits

Photo of solar pannel by GreenlaGirl

Stories needed

We would like to showcase stories form Eco Congregations in their strives to reduce their carbon footprint.

Congregations new to the mouvement, might feel that it is impossible to reduce their carbon footprint but, we know that there is plenty of evidence to show that it is possible to have a year on year reduction. please, if you have a tip on how to reeuce the carbon footprint of your church, post it up in our Church and Society Facebook group page.

Eco Congregation's Impact Overseas

A number of Church of Scotland congregations abroad have responded very favourably to the challenge of reducing their carbon footprint by 5% every year. The Climate Change Project has received the calculators from the churches in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Gibraltar and Valletta in Malta. All of these congregations have made a commitment to reduce their carbon footprint every year by 5% in agreement with the instruction of the 2009 General Assembly.

It is really encouraging to see that Eco-Congregation's work is having an impact on overseas congregations.

Wind Farms for Scotland

The Scotsman is running an article where Scottish people apparently favour wind farms over nuclear technology. EDP ran a survey in YouGov asking about preferred sources of technology and Scottish people favoured wind farms. More than eight out of ten Scots backed offshore wind farms and 69 per cent were in favour of onshore turbines. Similarly, when questioned about different energy sources for producing electricity, 74 per cent said their impression of wind farms was favourable, compared to just 43 per cent for nuclear.

However, the overall position in the UK concerning and active interest in climate change has significantly decreased from 80% in 2006 to 62% in 2010. the results are based on a sample of 4300 adults.