Planners and developers will be required to connect new buildings to decentralised local energy supplies, meet high sustainable building standards and achieve a 20 per cent emissions reduction using onsite renewable energy.
This assumption, according to independent nuclear engineer, John Large, is "entirely unjustified". This "reflects what seems to be an almost total lack of preparation to defend against the inevitability of terrorist attack," he says.
Local MP David Heath has raised concerns about Tony Blair's embrace of nuclear energy.
"Tony Blair is again making up policy as he goes along. He has already disregarded the view of one energy review and is now pre-empting a second. The Prime Minister pays lip service to renewables and energy efficiency but it seems clear where his preference lies. The issues of climate change and energy security are fundamentally important and after too much inaction it is essential that the right decisions are made.
"Nuclear power is being presented as our saviour from climate change which is simply not the case. Nuclear energy suffers from a number of faults which have not yet been solved. By focusing on nuclear power there is a diversion of assets and attention away from renewable sources such as wave and tidal which offer substantial gains and would benefit considerably from added investment. This is an area where the UK could, and should, lead the world.
"It is not enough for people to flout their supposed green credentials. Action is needed to engage with the monumental threat we face from climate change. We must be bold and back a radical alternative, not simply embrace an approach which supports the status quo and stores up serious problems for the future."
Crispin Blunt, MP for Reigate, today welcomed the Ten-Minute Rule Motion placed before the House of Commons by former Environment Minister, John Gummer MP. In a speech to the House of Commons Mr Gummer put forward a series of proposals that would oblige developers to assess the impact of new housing on the water supply. The speech came on the day that much of the South-East learnt that it faced the worst drought in decades.
The impact of new housing on the water supply has been consistently over-looked despite contributing to the current water crisis. One of the reasons for this is that whereas rainwater falling in the south would previously have drained into the water table, as more and more of the region has been developed rainwater runs off roads and pavements into drains rather than into the underground water supply. For similar reasons flooding has been worse in times of wet weather as run-off has flowed straight into streams and rivers as development has reduced the number of fields and green spaces.
Alan Whitehead, MP for Southampton Test, is celebrating today as the Climate Change & Sustainable Energy Bill achieves House of Commons acceptance.
The Bill which has had to continually ward off the juvenile tactics of two maverick Tory MPs was successful today in its final stages in the House of Commons and now passes to the House of Lords. This has been hailed as a notable achievement across all the parties and by many interest groups.
The Bill had been adjourned at Third Reading as the Rt Hon Eric Forth had continued to talk thus preventing the Bill from passing to the Lords. Dr Whitehead's own Private Members Bill (PMB) 'Management of Energy in Buildings' was derailed earlier in this parliamentary session by similar tactics - during the Second Reading of Dr Whitehead's PMB Mr Forth talked his Bill out which effectively meant there was not sufficient parliamentary time to pursue it further.
However, at the Committee stage of the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill, Dr Whitehead successfully achieved the incorporation of all the key clauses from his own PMB including;
- the better compliance of building regulations in energy efficiency
- the removal of planning permission for micro-generation in homes
- and new regulations to ensure a minimum energy standard in new homes including micro-generation
The cost of the first is estimated at £2bn and it will take 10 years to put up even if the builders work like the clappers and the Government finds a way to ignore all those pesky protests and legal challenges. To build 10 will take at least two decades. But critics say that blows a hole in Mr Blair's argument for having them. The severe energy shortage that Britain is facing will occur in the next 10 to 15 years. Environmentalists say spending the same billions on the speedier (and cheaper) harnessing of renewable sources such as wind would be better.
One conclusion to draw from the figures, which indicate that areas of relative affluence are the worst performers, is that people who have more money, spend more on energy.
This may, for example, be in the heating and lighting of bigger homes. In Reading, at the heart of the Thames Valley commuter belt, it may well indicate that local people have more electrical appliances than in other places.
The party's environmental spokesman Chris Huhne said it was vital "to use green taxes as a lever in order to make our behaviour sustainable".
He said he wanted to "change the cars that we buy rather than the cars that we're using at the moment".
In between the wars many American cities had fully functioning electric tram systems that shuttled millions of citizens from their homes to their jobs without the need for a private car. American cities were more compact, more walkable and had vibrant downtowns that were the centre of urban life.
Even in southern California, which is now seen as the ultimate creation of the automobile, railways and trams were a huge part of life. Los Angeles was served by the largest mass transit system in the nation, including 1,000 trains a day running on the Pacific Electric Railway's 760 miles of track.
The CIS will be celebrating the completion of their solar tower tomorrow. All 7000 photovoltaic panels are now feeding power to the miller street building.
Links later if I can find any.
BBC political correspondent Carole Walker said she believed Mr Blair had been happy to stir up a "whole storm of controversies" this week, on issues such as animal experimentation.
She said the prime minister wanted to show he was ready to take on controversial decisions.
She said: "He cannot afford to be seen as somebody who is simply languishing in Number 10 while people are waiting for his days to be over.
"He is trying to distract from all the speculation there is about when he is going to go."
"Nuclear power does not make economic or environmental sense. The amount of money invested in producing nuclear power could produce far more sustainable energy, much more rapidly."
[Elliot Morley] told The Guardian newspaper the energy review, which is headed by Department of Trade and Industry Minister Malcolm Wicks, might well point to renewable sources of energy if it was "open, transparent and fair".
He complained that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs had not had the involvement it should in the technical aspects of the review.
He had seen no official government figures on the real cost of nuclear power.
Mr Morley said: "To have new nuclear power is going to involve very large sums of money.
"If nuclear power was so great then you would have the private sector willing to invest in it.
"The reality is that economically the risks are great and the returns are low.
"No private sector company is going to take on the long-term risks, the cost of decommissioning, the storage, reprocessing and the responsibility for the waste."
The roof provides a viewing area for visitors and lets them get close enough to watch the zoo's 130 king penguins, gentoos and macaronis breed and nest.
Richard Millar, technical manager at parent company Icopal, said: "Garden roofs not only look much more pleasant but they take in the rain and spread out the water or use it to grow. The lawns are drought tolerant and don't need much watering."
"Young people are keenly aware of, and highly motivated by, environmental issues. In many ways they are ahead of adults in their attitudes to recycling and conservation. Channelling this enthusiasm helps raise achievement and improve behaviour and could save money as well as addressing big issues such as climate change - it really is a win-win solution."
David Lepper, Labour and Co-operative MP for Brighton Pavilion, will speak on combating Ghost Town Britain and the need for local sustainability and community involvement at a meeting in the Brighton Centre on Thursday 18 May.
The meeting is organised by Local Works – the campaign for a Sustainable Communities Bill to encourage thriving local economies based on environmental protection, community involvement and democratic participation.
David Lepper said
"I am concerned about the various signs of community decline which could threaten neighbourhoods in Brighton and Hove and are already doing so in some parts of Sussex through, for example, the closures of Post Offices, community pharmacies and local independent newsagents. Businesses which should be at the centre of local community life.
"I am also concerned at the increasing threat to independent shops by the big
supermarkets extending the range of products they offer and moving into locations where they had previously not been represented."
Bolton North East MP David Crausby is calling on the Government to speed up the introduction of measures to tackle climate change.
He is co-sponsoring a House of Commons Early Day Motion commenting on the Government's March 2006 publication Climate Change - the UK programme 2006 which sets out the UK's current and proposed initiatives to cut UK emissions of greenhouse gases.
Mr. Crausby said:
"The UK accounts for about two per cent of the world's annual greenhouse gas emissions, with most other countries' emissions still increasing. Too few people in the UK or abroad are much inclined to abandon, for example, their cars or their cheap flights and the danger is that climate change will increase greatly in the next few decades.
I’m disappointed to note that less than 10 per cent of the publication is devoted to dealing with the UK's adaptation to the effects of climate change. It talks too much about yet more studies and a quite insufficient amount relates to concrete actions to adapt to the actual effects of climate change on the UK."
He added: "This is just another example of the yawning gap between New Labour's rhetoric and reality. One of the first things Alistair Darling [the Transport Secretary] could do is to bash heads together around the cabinet table so ministers start setting an example. If Woking can do this, why can't Whitehall?"
"Nearly all of this is down to increases in greenhouse gas emissions," said Dr Vecchi.
"We know this air current has an influence on weather in many regions, so we can expect there to be changes locally. Ecosystems are complex, but our concern would be that this could also affect biological productivity over a large part of the Pacific," he added.
"Going green can be smart and stylish," commented SCR co-chair Ed Mayo, "but it is not yet simple.
"We want to call the bluff of politicians, to take action to make the sustainable choice the easier choice."
