Climate change task forceThe Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has set up a climate change task force, consisting of the chairmen and chief executives of some of the UK’s leading businesses. It will take as its starting point the Stern Review, and will come to its own independent conclusions and then make recommendations to the government, businesses and the CBI.
Chaired by BT’s chief executive, Ben Verwaayen, the group is one of the most senior groups ever assembled by the CBI to tackle an “issue of fundamental concern”. Companies represented on the task force employ more than 1.5m people.
Members of the taskforce include chief executives and chairmen from Barclays, McKinsey & Company, BP, Ineos ChlorVinyls, RWE, npower, London Stock Exchange, Aviva, Tesco, SunMicrosystems, George Wimpey, Rolls-Royce, Shell, Corus, British Airways, and Siemens. Contact Louise Richardson CBI 020 7395 8058 www.cbi.org.uk
Meeting Kyoto targets
The EBRD-EIB Multilateral Carbon Credit Fund will allow countries and companies from Central Europe to Central Asia to invest €165m in clean energy to enable them to better meet their Kyoto targets. Countries – which must be shareholders of the European Investment Bank or European Bank of Reconstruction and Development – and companies, who are part of the fund will be able to buy carbon credits from emission reduction projects financed by either of the organisations. Typical projects will include renewable energy and landfill gas extraction projects, and will help the eastern European region to use its energy more efficiently, following its command economy past. Contact Jazz Singh 020 7338 7931 www.ebrd.com; Orlando Arango 0032 2 235 0084 www.eib.org
Businesses demand action
Tesco, B&Q and Shell are among 25 businesses who wrote a letter to EU president, Jose Manuel Barroso, at the end of November about the need for the EU to address global warming. Although they agree that the EU Emissions Trading Scheme has had some positive impact on investment in emissions reduction, the letter argues that more must be done “to achieve the shift to a low-carbon economy within the necessary timescales”. The signatories are all members of the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry and the letter comes in response to the European Commission’s call in 2005 for businesses to take account of climate change. Contact University of Cambridge Programme for Industry 01223 342 100 www.cpi.cam.ac.uk
In brief
UK insurance group Aviva has announced its commitment to become the first UK insurer to make its operations carbon neutral globally. The company will offset its emissions by investing in projects that generate carbon credits, such as tree-planting and renewable energy generation projects. Contact Aviva www.aviva.com
Swiss Re has launched COYou2 reduce and gain, a programme to support employee investment in measures that contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, particularly in relation to mobility, heating and electrical energy. These include low-emission hybrid cars, use of public transport, installation of solar panels or heat pumps. Swiss Re said the investment aimed to encourage employees to make a personal contribution and raise awareness of climate change. Contact Swiss Re www.swissre.com
EnvironmentSakhalin II funding withdrawn
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), based in London, has withdrawn a $300m loan for the development of Sakhalin II, which is 85% completed. The EBRD believes that “the closer the project comes to completion, however, the less value EBRD financing could add”. The Sakhalin Energy Investment Company was owned by Shell, Mitsui and Mitsubishi but the Russian company, Gazprom, has recently acquired a majority stake, which, the EBRD says, is “a significant material change to the project”. The bank stated that this acquisition means that the “shareholders and the structure of the company have changed and the approach to financing has yet to be decided by the new shareholders, meaning it is not feasible for the EBRD to pursue the current project”.
The project will produce offshore gas and oil from Russia’s far eastern coast and the EBRD has been working with Sakhalin Energy during the development of the project. Due to the involvement of the bank, the company has re-routed pipelines to accommodate the Western Gray whale that feeds in the region, whale experts monitor and advise on operations, policies were introduced to protect river crossings affected by on-land pipelines and indigenous people are protected. The EBRD has stated that “if the new group of shareholders were to request it and make a case that the project could be eligible for EBRD investment, the bank could consider financing in the future”. Contact EBRD 020 7338 6000 www.ebrd.com
Re-usable paper
Scientists at Xerox have invented a method of creating images on paper that last just one day, making the paper reusable. Research by the company indicates that in an average office, two out of every five printed documents are for “daily” use, suggesting that, in time, the new technology could have a significant impact on paper use. Palo Alto Research Centre Inc (PARC), which collaborated with Xerox on the project, are in the process of designing a “printer”, using a light bar, to create images on the paper. However, Xerox says the technology is still at the experimental stage and significant progress must be made before the technology can be commercialised. Contact Xerox UK 01895 843 196 www.xerox.com
Earth calling
Forum for the Future has published Earth Calling 2006 – a look at the environmental impact of the mobile telecommunications industry. The research found that the processes with the biggest environmental impact are the extraction of raw materials that are used in the manufacture of phone and network equipment, the running of the networks as well as managing of phones and network equipment when the components have reached end-of-life. The report suggests that the following steps can be taken by the industry: it can develop infrastructure to deal with the electronic waste issue in developing countries and increase network efficiency and use of renewable energy. It can also develop products that encourage and support better environmental behaviour. Contact Forum for the Future 020 7324 3639 www.forumforthefuture.org.uk
In brief
HSBC’s global head office in Canary Wharf has received an Energy Efficiency Accreditation from the National Energy Foundation, supported by the Energy Institute and the Carbon Trust. Contact HSBC
020 7991 8888 www.hsbc.com
BSkyB won first prize in the large business category as well as the national champion award at the National Energy Efficiency Awards 2006 on December 6. The inaugural awards were launched by UK Centre for Economic and Environmental Development in partnership with EDF Energy. The ceremony was held at the Science Museum in London. Contact UK CEED 01733 311 644 www.ukceed.org; www.energyawards.co.uk
Windy matters
The UK government has given the go-ahead for two major offshore wind farms to be built in the Thames Estuary. The London Array offshore wind farm will be run by a consortium of Shell, E.ON and Core. Warwick Energy is to build the 100 turbines of the Thanet wind farm. When fully operational, the schemes combined will generate enough green energy to supply a third of London’s three million households, totally 1.3GW. Contact Department of Trade and Industry 020 7215 5000 www.dti.gov.uk; London Array www.londonarray.com; Warwick Energy
01789 471 091 www.warwickenergy.com
Climate change in the classroom
BP is launching its Carbon Challenge education programme for secondary schools in the UK in September 2007. The main themes will be carbon footprinting and climate change and activities will be linked to the school curriculum – specifically science, mathematics and enterprise.
The project is in partnership with the Science Museum, in London, and is designed to reach over 400 schools and will target 60,000 14 to 16 year old students each year.
The initiative will use BP’s Carbon Footprint Toolkit, which provides teachers with information on how to teach students about carbon emissions, impacts, choices for reduction and alternative energy supplies. The Science Museum will offer advice on science communication in one-day teacher training programmes that will take place regionally across the UK. These training days will help teachers to facilitate and manage dialogue, debate and discussion around issues such as the EU energy policy and that climate change bill, which are at the forefront of national and international policy discussions.
The training days will be followed by the BP Carbon Challenge Day Roadshow, where students will learn about their carbon footprint, they will conduct tests to measure it and they will also be encouraged to devise strategies to help reduce carbon emissions.
Schools will be invited to register for the BP Carbon Challenge from May 2007. Contact BP 020 7496 4000 www.bp.com; Science Museum 020 7942 4340 www.sciencemuseum.org.uk
COMMENTS