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United Kingdom: Public opposes push to frack national parks
Posted by BusinessGreen: James Murray on September 5th, 2014
BusinessGreen: Widespread public opposition to the government's fracking plans has again been underlined this week, as a new poll commissioned by the Guardian revealed a majority of people think fracking should be banned from national parks.
Ministers have said there would need to be "exceptional circumstances" to allow fracking in national parks, but have angered green groups by refusing to ban shale gas developments from the UK's most sensitive environments.
Now it appears that a clear majority of the public...
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Governments urged to clean up estuaries management
Posted by BusinessGreen: James Murray on July 1st, 2014
BusinessGreen: Policymakers around the world have been urged to work together to improve the governance of vulnerable estuary habitats or risk some of the planet's most valuable economic and biodiversity hubs being undermined by escalating climate change risks and worsening levels of pollution.
That was the stark warning on the first day of the Global Estuaries Forum in Deauville, France where experts from across the fields of politics, business and academia detailed how the management of estuary environments...
Obama announces plan for $1bn climate resilience fund
Posted by BusinessGreen: James Murray on February 18th, 2014
BusinessGreen: As David Cameron faces mounting calls for an increase in the UK government's funding for climate resilience efforts, US President Barack Obama is moving forward with plans to dramatically increase spending to tackle droughts and floods on the other side of the Atlantic.
Obama used a trip to drought-hit California late last week, where over 91 per cent of the state was classified as experiencing severe or exceptional drought, to announce that he will include a new $1bn "climate resilience fund"...
China announces $330bn water clean-up effort in latest environmental crackdown
Posted by BusinessGreen: James Murray on February 18th, 2014
BusinessGreen: The Chinese government has opened a new front in its increasingly wide-ranging efforts to tackle the country's worsening levels of environmental pollution, revealing plans to invest up to ¥2tr ($330bn) in projects designed to tackle water pollution.
The China State Securities Journal reported this week that the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) is still working on the finer details of the strategy, but the ¥2tr budget has been set.
The budget exceeds the ¥1.7tr that was recently announced...
United Kingdom: Miliband wades into climate change and flooding row
Posted by BusinessGreen: James Murray on February 17th, 2014
BusinessGreen: Labour leader Ed Miliband has made his boldest intervention to date in the long-running debate over the UK's climate policy, warning that floods have highlighted how the UK risks "sleepwalking into a national security crisis on climate change".
In an interview with the Observer newspaper, conducted while he toured flood hit areas last week, Miliband argued that the country's political class urgently needs to rebuild the political consensus on climate policy that held sway in the run up to the...
Obama announces “climate hubs” to help boost agricultural resilience
Posted by BusinessGreen: James Murray on February 6th, 2014
BusinessGreen: The Obama administration has unveiled plans for a network of seven "climate hubs" designed to help farmers and rural communities enhance their resilience to extreme weather.
Announced yesterday as the latest component in President Obama's wide-ranging climate action plan, the hubs will act as information centres, providing farmers and ranchers with detailed advice on how to minimise the impact of climate risks, such as droughts, floods, wild fires, and extreme cold snaps like the recent polar...
United Kingdom: Government hails fracking report as step towards unlocking shale gas “prize”
Posted by BusinessGreen: James Murray on December 17th, 2013
BusinessGreen: The government has once again welcomed the "exciting prospect" presented by the UK's nascent shale gas industry, after a major new independent report predicted new fracking activity could deliver up to 25 per cent of the UK's current gas demand in the 2020s while supporting between 16,000 and 32,000 additional jobs.
However, opponents of fracking were quick to seize on the report's admission that fracking would bring with it "significant negative effects", including a potential increase in greenhouse...
Well-managed fracking poses ‘low’ health risks
Posted by BusinessGreen: James Murray on November 1st, 2013
BusinessGreen: The public will only face low levels of health risk from shale gas projects, assuming that such projects are "properly run and regulated".
That is the conclusion of a new draft report from Public Health England published yesterday, which draws on scientific literature relating to the impact of chemicals and radioactive material associated with shale gas extraction.
"The currently available evidence indicates that the potential risks to public health from exposure to emissions associated with...
Green groups: Keystone XL to increase tar sands production by 36 per cent
Posted by BusinessGreen: James Murray on August 30th, 2013
BusinessGreen: The Keystone XL pipeline would boost oil production from Canadian tar sands by at least 36 per cent leading to an inevitable increase in greenhouse gas emissions, according to a major new report from a coalition of US green NGOs.
The group of more than a dozen organisations, including the Sierra Club, 350.org, and Oil Change International, released the report yesterday in response to President Obama's recent pledge that he would only approve the project if it "does not significantly exacerbate...
United Kingdom: Green groups signal willingness to defy campaigning crackdown
Posted by BusinessGreen: James Murray on August 30th, 2013
BusinessGreen: Some of the UK's green NGOs could be willing to break the law if the government passes its controversial Lobbying Bill in its current form. Fears are mounting across the NGO and think tank sector that the new legislation, which receives its second parliamentary reading next week, will place draconian restrictions on their activities in the year before an election. The proposed regulations were originally designed to require corporate lobbyists to sign up to a public register, but they were subsequently...