But, as gold-medal winning Chinese-American teenager Eileen Gu spun four and a half times in the air, the backdrop was three Olympic-ring branded cooling towers.

On social media, it was mocked as “dystopian”, a “hellscape” and a symbol of climate change. Users speculated that it was a nuclear power or coal plant.

It’s actually the disused Shougang steel mill. Previously the city’s biggest polluter and one of its biggest employers, it shut down before the 2008 Olympics due to concerns over air pollution.

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Asked about the mockery, Beijing-based Greenpeace activist Li Shuo told Climate Home News: “I can’t comment on other people’s taste… For me, it is breathtaking. Just stunning,” he said.

The cooling towers were compared to The Simpson’s fictional Springfield nuclear power plant but Li said: “There are at least two themes that are meaningful if one bothers to dig a little deeper than Homer Simpson”.

First, he said, “it tells people that sports could be close to you, not necessarily in the Alps thousands of miles away”.

Second, he said, “it highlights a city’s transition towards a low-carbon economy and the tangible progress that can be achieved”.

Referring to London’s disused coal plant turned art gallery, he asked: “How come Tate Modern is cool and Big Air Shougang is not?”

London’s Tate Modern used to be a coal power plant but is now a modern art gallery (Photo: ReservasdeCoches.com/Flickr)

Over the last two decades, China’s capital has reduced its air pollution significantly by curbing coal smoke from heavy industry and home heating.

The area around the steel mill, which was built in 1919, was tranformed into a destination for tourism and cultural events, hosting weddings, electronic music festivals and breweries.

Engineering firm Arup, who redeveloped the site, claims it did so in a low-carbon way with green buildings, transport and energy. The company also claims the area’s design helps absorb rainwater, reducing the risk of flooding.

While Beijing’s air quality has benefitted from the mill’s closure though, the atmosphere hasn’t. The Shougang company opened a new mill a few hours’ drive out of town in Hebei province. So coal is still being burned to make steel, just not in Beijing.

Steel plants (red and orange) have moved from Beijing to neighbouring Hebei province (Photo: Global Energy Monitor/Global steel plant tracker)

On top of this, according to Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air analyst Lauri Myllyvirta, some of the pollution wasn’t banished far enough away for Beijingers.

“All the heavy industry from Beijing was moved to different parts of Hebei [before the 2008 olympics], assuming that’s so far away – 300/400 km – that it is not going to affect Beijing any more,” he said .

“But in the following half a decade the industry mushroomed to such a size in Hebei that that became a much bigger problem for Beijing’s air quality,” he added.

The games’ environmental critics have pointed to the use of energy and water intensive fake snow, both at the venues in Beijing and at the Zhangjiakou ski slopes, a three hour drive north of Beijing.

This is the Winter Olympics in the era of climate breakdown. The first winter games to rely almost entirely on fake snow. The hills outside Beijing are snow-free, so 49 million gallons of water and 300 snow guns have been used to create this. pic.twitter.com/wYtB6qMGII

— XR Cambridge (@xr_cambridge) February 6, 2022

Fake snow is needed because, although it is cold, the area is dry. Evaluting Beijing’s bid, the International Olympic Committee said: “Northern China suffers from severe water stress and the Beijing-Zhangjiakou area is becoming increasingly arid.” It blamed this stress on climate change, intensive industrial and agricultural use and high domestic demand.

Beijing is not the first host city to struggle for snow. As early as 1964, Austrian volunteers had to carry and hand-pack ice into snow for the Innsbruck games. New York’s Lake Placid was the first games to use snow machines in 1980. In recent years, their use has become routine. They were used in Vancouver in 2010, Sochi in 2014 and PyeongChang in 2018.

But Beijing is the first games to rely completely on fake snow. Strasbourg University geographer Carmen de Jong told the Wall Street Journal that making this snow could use two million cubic metres of water, worsening the region’s water stress.

Turning water to snow is also energy-intensive although the venues’ developer claims the snow canons are powered by nearby wind farms.

The trend towards fake snow is likely to intensify at future Winter Olympics as the climate heats up. Of the 21 past venues, a study by the University of Waterloo found that only 12 will be cold enough to host it with real snow again in the 2050s, even if the world meets its Paris climate targets.

Places like Russia’s black sea resort of Sochi and the Alpine towns of Grenoble, Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Chamonix will be too warm, they found.

This study only took into account temperature, not rainfall levels. So it included Beijing in its list of  eight hosts which will stay “climate reliable” even in a high-emissions scenario in the 2080s.

The next games will be hosted by the Italian city of Milan and the nearby ski resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo. According to Waterloo University, this will be reliably cold enough for snow.

The post Cooling towers, fake snow: What the Beijing Winter Olympics says about climate change appeared first on Climate Home News.

Brazilian fans watch the 2014 football World Cup
(Pic: Flickr/Ben Tavener)

By Megan Darby

Brazil may have suffered a humiliating defeat on the pitch in this year’s football World Cup, but it won a victory for climate change.

That was the upbeat narrative endorsed by a top UN climate official at Brazil’s London embassy last week.

Halldor Thorgeirsson praised the Brazilian government for its scheme to neutralise the tournament’s carbon emissions – a “win-win” model he said could be used for future sporting events.

But programme director Jose Miguez revealed that scheme actually covered less than one fifth of the total emissions associated with the FIFA World Cup.

And Brazil’s approach failed to raise any investment for low carbon projects or connect with fans.

So as Brazil gears up for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, what can we learn from its offsetting experiment?

Goal for Brazil!!! Was able to offset all GHG emissions immediately arising from FIFA World Cup using CERs http://t.co/QDyglNHEmH @FIFAcom

— Christiana Figueres (@CFigueres) November 6, 2014

To put Brazil’s initiative in context, you need to understand the chequered history of carbon offsetting.

It springs from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the first climate treaty to set legally binding targets to cut emissions.

The targets only applied to developed countries – the ones that signed up, notably excluding the US – and offsetting gave them the flexibility to outsource some of that effort.

Effectively, rich countries pay poorer ones to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, so they don’t have to.

In principle, it could be cheaper to plant trees or build a hydropower dam in India than shift Europe away from its reliance on fossil fuels.

If the carbon accounting is sound – and that turned out to be a big “if” – you get the same result for the climate.

In 2004, the UN launched its clean development mechanism (CDM) to make this happen.

Through this scheme, project developers show they can cut a certain amount of carbon and get credits, known as certified emission reductions (CERs).

These can be bought and sold on the “compliance market”, for countries to meet their Kyoto obligations. (There is also a voluntary carbon market – we will come to that later.)

Demand crash

The market has been dogged with concerns about inefficiency, fraud and “additionality” – the difficulty of showing that emissions cuts are extra to what would have happened anyway.

Leaving aside those issues, it came up against a fundamental economic problem: supply of carbon credits far outstripped demand.

Before the 2008 financial crisis, CERs were trading at €20 a tonne of carbon dioxide – a level that could drive meaningful investment.

After, it fell to €5/t. Today, they are worth a pitiful €0.10/t.

The economic crash caused emissions from industrialised countries to fall with no effort at all (albeit a certain level of pain).

The European Union is set to overachieve its 2020 climate goals, while the US has cut its own emissions, limiting the impetus to seek reductions overseas.

In the past few years, climate politics has shifted. Kyoto is all but forgotten as countries look forward to a global deal in Paris next year.

This is set to be a far more inclusive deal, with all parties contributing something to international efforts. Even the US is on board.

As for financing climate-friendly initiatives in poor countries, the developed world has come to see this as an obligation separate from their own emission reduction plans.

Several countries have already pledged money to the UN-backed Green Climate Fund, which is aiming to raise US$10 billion by the end of the year.

The CDM looks increasingly irrelevant.

(Pic: Flickr/Jon De Keyser)

So what has this got to do with the World Cup?

The Brazilian government wanted to offset the emissions associated with building stadiums, hosting delegations and getting everyone around.

Its idea was to invite companies that have been awarded CERs to voluntarily cancel them, instead of selling them.

This would reduce some of the oversupply in the market – and the companies got a shot of good publicity.

Estimates of the tournament’s carbon footprint ranged from 59,000 to 2.9 million tonnes, depending on what was counted.

The higher figure covered all the supply chain and air travel emissions, including cement and steel used to construct the stadiums.

Companies donated 550,000t worth of credits – enough to cover domestic flights and some international flights, but only 19% of the grand total emissions.

Brazilian utility Tractebel Energia was the biggest donor, with 105,000t, followed by chemical company Rhodia on 100,000t, Arcelor Mittal and Gerdau SA on 70,000t each.

These might seem like generous contributions, but the market value of CERs at the time was around €0.50/t.

That puts the value of Tractabel’s offer at around €50,000, a drop in the ocean of its R$5.6 billion (€1.7 billion) turnover last year.

It was not enough to boost the CER price, which on the contrary has since fallen to bargain basement levels of around €0.10/t.

“I don’t think it had any impact on the market in general,” Thomson Reuters analyst Frank Melum told RTCC.

“The market is very oversupplied. They would need a lot of demand to save the CDM.”

REPORT: UN climate deal could ‘revive’ offset market says CDM chief

But the UN is sticking by its creation. Thorgeirsson highlighted the US$396 billion of investment in 7,600 projects delivered by the CDM in the last 10 years.

“There is a temporary hiatus in demand,” he admitted. But he held out hope that a global climate deal in Paris next year could reinvigorate the ailing scheme.

“Potential demand is significant when parties are serious about the 2C target,” he said, referring to the politically agreed limit on temperature rise.

Melum does not foresee the price picking up significantly, although he said there could be a “niche market” in linking international sports events with new projects.

Voluntary market

A number of business representatives at the Brazilian embassy meeting were keen to promote voluntary alternatives to the CDM.

Unlike the government-led scheme, these can engage fans directly in a conversation about their carbon impact.

Carbon trading firm Allcot is working with Spanish football club Getafe, for example, to offset its emissions.

Fans had a say in which project to support, opting for a rainforest protection scheme in the Brazilian Amazon.

At the next home game, the Spanish club will present an award to a “super-fan” who has travelled a long way to each match.

The award is for loyalty, but it is also a hook to explain how the club is offsetting those transport emissions.

And the company’s website sells offsets from named projects for €5-10/t, a price which sends a more meaningful signal than the CDM.

Trust deficit

Whether through the CDM or the voluntary market, carbon trading has a reputation problem.

Google “carbon credits” and one of the first results to come up is the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority warning it is “most likely a scam”.

The watchdog is commenting on the way carbon credits have been mis-sold to consumers as investments, not the inherent value of offsetting projects.

But it is not a great association to have if you are trying to boost demand for a product.

Sporting events give an opportunity to overcome that barrier, mobilising cash for green projects and raising awareness of climate issues.

In the voluntary cancellation of CERs, the UN is backing an approach that neither raises investment nor connects with ordinary people.

Some would call that a lose-lose.

The post Brazil’s World Cup carbon offset scheme missed its mark appeared first on Climate Home News.

Source: BBC

By Sophie Yeo

Over 100 Olympic athletes have signed a letter to world leaders calling for action on climate change, which they say threatens the world of winter sports.

Competing athletes have written to politicians signalling their concern over global warming and highlighting the importance of signing an international climate change treaty at a UN meeting scheduled for 2015 in Paris.

They have told world leaders to “Recognize climate change by reducing emissions, embracing clean energy and preparing a commitment to a global agreement at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris 2015.”

The letter has been signed by 105 athletes who are taking part in the games, representing countries including the US, Switzerland, Norway, Estonia, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Italy and Sweden.

They include American snowboarders Gretchen Bleiler and Danny Davis and Norwegian cross-country skiers Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen and Vibeke Skofterud.

Andrew Newell, who is representing the US ski team for the third time this year, says the the changes that have taken place since he first started skiing as a two-year-old have led to a “heightened awareness of climate change”.

He writes: “What has changed since that day in 1985 when I first experienced that thrill and came to love this sport?

“Thankfully, much is the same, but there is no escaping the fact that the once-consistent winters that I saw as a young kid are no more, especially near my home in Vermont…Our climate is changing, and we are losing our winters.”

The Games got underway in Sochi last week, amid concerns over lack of snow and tropical temperatures.

On the weather – IOC says it’s causing a few problems but there’s ‘plenty of snow’ and while it’s a little warm it’s not unbearable

— David Bond (@DavidBondBBC) February 11, 2014

The summertime temperatures in Sochi, a city on the Black Sea Coast in Russia, have caused lively discussions of the impact that climate change could have on the future of the Winter Olympics.

On Monday, the temperature hit 16C, and is forecast to rise by the end of the week. The subtropical climate along the resort has led to extensive plans by the Russians to ensure that there is sufficient snow throughout the games, including 710,000 cubic metres of snow that has been stockpiled over the past two years.

“These measures will mean that snow is guaranteed, whatever the weather,” said a Sochi spokesperson. Yesterday, officials at the games confirmed that they had started shovelling this snow onto the racing venues.

But athletes say they are already feeling the pressure of the slushy snow. “It was pretty warm snow and I don’t think I adapted to it well,” American skier Stacey Cook told AP. “It slides under your ski more.”

Meanwhile, the first of three jumps at the RusSki Gorki Jumping Center were cancelled after the hot weather softened the snow in the landing area.

A recent study by researchers from Canada and Austria found that, under the IPCC’s high emissions scenario, only six of the 19 cities that have hosted the Winter Olympics in the past could be relied upon to receive enough snow to make them suitable venues for the winter games in the 2080s – and Sochi is not one.

Source: Daniel Scott, University of Waterloo

Even with the most conservative assumptions, only ten of the past cities could conceivably host the Winter Olympics in 60 years’ time.

“The cultural legacy of the world’s celebration of winter sport is increasingly at risk,” said Professor Daniel Scott, lead author of the study. “Fewer and fewer traditional winter sports regions will be able to host a Olympic Winter Games in a warmer world.”

International efforts

According to Andrew Newell, individual actions are not enough to reverse the trend of climate change.

“Where is the big legislation that can implement the real change we need?” he says. Like the Olympics themselves, he says that next year’s conference in Paris is a chance for leaders to put politics and religion aside, and come together to take meaningful action.

At this UN meeting, world leaders have agreed that they will sign a treaty to reduce global emissions in an attempt to keep the world below the dangerous levels of warming that would be calamitous not only for winter sport, but for food, water, security and the health of the planet.

“Previous climate conferences have ended with nothing to show for it, but Paris needs to be different,” he says.

“We can’t risk inaction any longer, and we’re asking our world leaders to come together in the spirit of something bigger than just our individual goals.”

The post Sochi Olympians warn climate change ‘threatens’ winter sports appeared first on Climate Home News.

The 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro will have the theme of sustainability at its core, the city’s Secretary of State for Culture has told RTCC.

Speaking at the Brazilian cultural embassy next to the River Thames, Adriana Rattes said she hoped Rio could build on London’s legacy as a ‘green’ games.

“What I hope will happen is that the Olympics will commit the politicians with the idea of city sustainability,” she said.

“It will help us to clean places like the Guanabara, lagoons, the beaches because this is now an official commitment of the Brazilian govt, so in this way I think the Olympic Games will help us a lot.”

Producing a ‘green’ Games was a core goal of the 2012 organisers, and while it is (currently) impossible to run a carbon zero event of this size, the aim was to run one that produced 50% fewer emissions than a ‘business as usual’ scenario.

London’s Olympic Park incorporated wind turbines, solar panels, recycled shipping containers and venues that can be taken down and reused, instead of being sent to landfill.

Spectators were encouraged to take public transport wherever possible, and although bike parking facilities were woeful, they were at least matched by a paucity of spaces for people to leave their cars.

More than two million tonnes of contaminated soil were removed and cleaned – and a ‘quintessential’ English meadow together with a ‘rare wet woodland’ are legacies of these Games.

One major concern for the 2016 organisers will be traffic. The recent Rio+20 Earth Summit demonstrated the city’s inability to deal with large numbers of travellers.

One journey I took during the conference from Copacabana Beach to the main conference centre took three hours due to the congested roads, and the metro network does not currently extend to the Barra area where the Olympic Stadium, Velodrome and Aquatic Centre will be located.

Related stories:

Sustainability in the favelas: Swapping guns for gardens

London 2012: A medal for innovation in the road race?

Gary Neville: Power of sport can make sustainability sexy

A Bus Rapid Transit system is currently being built in this area, but Rattes admitted that the city has much work to do over the next four years to ensure it can cope with a massive influx of vistors.

“The transport was horrible [at Rio+20], but the other most important commitment is to invest a lot of money in the next few years to have a really good transport system in Rio,” she said.

“Since the bid for the Olympics and also because of Rio+20 everything we are planning and all the infrastructure is starting to be conceived in terms of green.

“For instance we are building two very important buildings in Rio – one is the new public library – the other is the new museum of image and sound.

“Both are huge buildings and they are both green – sustainable. They both have the gold certificates (for environmental standards) so everything now is starting to be conceived in terms of green.

“It’s a long way we have in front of us but I think things will be better now in terms of sustainability.”

VIDEO: Rio architects explain how local favelas have inspired them to experiment with recycled materials

The post Rio 2016 Olympic organisers promise greenest Games yet appeared first on Climate Home News.

It is the biggest peacetime logistical exercise Britain has ever faced – the equivalent of holding 26 world championships simultaneously in the heart of the biggest and busiest city in Europe.

For more than two weeks, nine million spectators and 300,000 athletes, officials and media descend on a city whose aging public transport infrastructure and sclerotic roads network struggles to keep its seven million residents and businesses moving.

Keeping London moving during the Olympics is a major logistical challenge. (Source: Flickr/ArthursSword)

Small wonder that in the weeks leading up to the Games, the media was predicting transport chaos: a city-wide traffic jam as the capital’s arteries seize up. And yet the more lasting legacy may be quite the opposite. First, an array of new rail lines and cycleways, and truckloads of freight shifting from road to river, is helping to ease the flow. And second, good green habits learned during the Games – some of them out of necessity – could be a tipping point for lasting change.

Far from being a horror story of urban gridlock, says Shaun McCarthy, chairman of the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012, the independent body set up to monitor the sustainability of the Games, the Olympics “provide an incredible opportunity and we must grasp it with both hands”.

For the first time in its (modern) history, the organisers promised that 100% of the spectators, along with most of the workforce, would travel by public transport, bike or foot. (A few exceptions have been made for disabled drivers and taxis.) And 50% of the construction material, too, had to be delivered by rail or barge (the target was smashed with 64% being moved this way).

It was an ambitious goal which needed some sleek new infrastructure to get there. Hence the £6.5 billion spent on transforming East London from transport desert to one of the most well-connected parts of town.

There’s a second Docklands Light Railway line, a new branch of the East London line, and greater capacity on other routes, too. By comparison, a mere £10 million has been judged enough for 75km of new walking and cycling routes for the area, with the Barclays (‘Boris Bike’) cycle hire scheme being extended to embrace the Olympic Park.

Cycling’s not only the cheaper option – it’s also one with a huge potential for growth. That is the conclusion of a ‘transport legacy action plan’ drawn up by Transport for London [TfL] and a number of the capital’s authorities. Only 1% of all journeys in East London are made by bike – just half the city’s (still low, by European standards) average. TfL hopes that by promoting cycling heavily in schools and recruiting some high-profile cycle champions, through the London 2012 Active Travel Programme, it’ll provide a kick to the pedals.

A row of for hire cycles in London. The scheme has proved hugely popular with commuters looking to avoid the tube. (Source: Flickr/SirPecanGum)

London’s waterways, such as the Thames and the Lea, were once its principal freight highways. That’s a role which the Olympics organisers were keen to revive.

They dredged a stretch of the Lea to make it navigable by the big barges which ferried construction waste off the site. Logistics company UPS, which is handling the entire logistics of the Games, trialled using barges to transport some of the 750,000 items of furniture required for the Athletes’ Village from its warehouse at the Port of Tilbury to the Olympic Park.

Peter Harris, Director of Sustainability for UPS EMEA, explains that each barge can take the load of 20 container lorries. The trial will help establish the extent to which shifting freight onto the water can cut carbon and other emissions, and so help inform plans for the river’s future.

But no amount of tinkering with top-down modal shift will have much of an impact if people can’t be persuaded to change their travel choices. If all the new infrastructure works as hoped, says the legacy plan, then it could be “a once in a lifetime opportunity to change people’s perceptions of travel”.

It could have added that it will be a once in a lifetime essential, too. The height of the Games will see three million more daily journeys than normal in London.

Cue the media predictions of terminal snarl-up.

To keep the city moving, TfL aims to cut by 30% the ‘background’ traffic of those who would normally take public transport. Working with local authorities, Sustrans, the NHS, the Ramblers and others, it is encouraging Londoners to shift to walking or cycling through its Active Travel Programme – or even stay at home altogether.

A key feature is high-tech journey planning, with up to the minute information on the length of time different modes of transport will take to get from A to B. TfL hopes that when people realise how quick it is to walk or cycle, for example, instead of their usual habit of jumping on the Tube, they’ll form the sustainable habits of a lifetime.

The same message is going out to business, too. Groups such as the London Chamber of Commerce and London First are encouraging more deliveries by cycle or on foot, and where that isn’t possible, to streamline them via the use of TfL’s newly launched online freight journey planner.

They are also calling on businesses to adopt techniques like homeworking and video conferencing to cut out the need for the daily commute. In February, mobile phone network operator O2 asked a quarter of its 12,000 strong workforce to work remotely, to test the robustness of its IT systems. The company sees flexible working not just as a contingency plan for the Olympics, but as integral to its goal of saving 500,000 miles of travel over the next three years.

All these changes might be triggered by the necessity of avoiding an Olympian-scale jam during a few weeks in 2012 – but the long-term goal is to change the city’s travel habits for good.

This article originally appeared in Green Futures, the leading magazine on environmental solutions and sustainable futures, published by Forum for the Future. Terry Slavin is a freelance journalist specialising in business and environment.

The post Will 2012 Olympics win gold for curing London’s congestion curse? appeared first on Climate Home News.

The London 2012 Olympics have been given the seal of approval from the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) chief Achim Steiner.

Visiting the Olympic Park on the eve of tonight’s Opening Ceremony, Steiner said London 2012 had raised the bar on sustainability and would leave a lasting legacy for the UK and the Olympics.

The London 2012 organisers set out with the aims to be the greenest Games to date (Source: ODA)

“Every Olympic Games represents unique challenges and opportunities in terms of raising the bar of the third pillar of Olympism – namely the environment – and London is no exception,” he said.

The stadium – the lightest in the history of the Games – was among the key achievements complimented by Steiner.

As RTCC reported the stadium’s builders used recycled gas pipes in its construction, and sits in a hollowed-out bowl designed to minimise the need for external construction materials.

He also praised the restoration of local waterways and the clean-up of the historic docklands, that saw 700,000 cubic meters of contaminated soil cleansed and used again.

“London’s clean-up of an old industrial site; the restoration of flows and habitats on the River Lea; the greening of supply chains; the low energy linked with the design and construction of a stadium including utilizing old gas pipes for the facility’s Olympic Ring,” he said.

“The use of temporary structures to reduce emissions are among the actions that can assist in inspiring the organisers of the Rio 2016 Games and beyond.”

In their pre-Games sustainability report, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) said it had met the vast majority of its targets.

Having committed to zero waste to landfill and reusing or recycling over 98% of the waste during the construction phase, the Games have also received praise from NGOs WWF and Bioregional.

However, some complaints have been made over missed renewable energy commitments for the Olympic Park site.

The original proposal was to generate 20% of the park’s energy needs form renewable energy sources, including an on-site wind turbine. Planners pulled the plug on the project and opted for a combined heat-and-power plant fueled by natural gas instead.

UNEP has had a longstanding partnership with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in the greening of the Games – spanning Athens 2004, Torino 2006, Beijing 2008 and Vancouver 2010.

It also co-founded the Global Reporting Initiative – the new sustainability assessment guide which has been used for London 2012.

RELATED POSTS:

London 2012 Olympics: A story of sustainable architecture

London’s Cable Car: Olympic gimmick or a new sustainable transport concept?

Transport focus: Can London 2012 mimic Beijing’s Olympic carbon cuts?

The post UNEP chief says London 2012 Olympics has raised sustainability bar for future Games appeared first on Climate Home News.

– The day’s top climate change stories as chosen by RTCC
– Tweet @RTCCnewswire and use #RTCCLive hashtag
– Send your thoughts to ts@rtcc.org
– Updated from 0900 BST (GMT+1) Last updated 1700

Latest news – Monday 23 July

1700 Is UK government energy and climate policy failing the green economy? Check this comment piece from two experts who think the 2012 draft energy bill is yet another example of how not to promote renewable energy and meet climate targets.

1600 Latest from the fall-out of the the energy and climate change committee report in the UK.

A letter, published in the Guardian, shows an exchange between Chancellor George Osborne to Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey on 9 July. Osborne offers a deal to hold off cuts to wind power subsidies in exchange for Davey’s support on future gas-power.

It does not appear to mention the 2008 Climate Change Act, which is legally binding and sets clear ‘emission budgets’ for UK governments to abide by.

1500 Top tweets this afternoon

Make no mistake this is an all out assault on the entire green energy sector, based on a perverse desire to make UK a “gas hub”

— James Murray (@James_BG) July 23, 2012

Our potted history of George Osborne’s climate record – from a few months ago – still relevant! bit.ly/NriK7N

— carbon brief (@carbonbrief) July 23, 2012

Osborne ‘unabated gas… a core part of our electricity generation to at least 2030’ – will bust climate targets – bbc.in/QevmRj

— Richard Black (@BBCRBlack) July 23, 2012

1300 The worst drought to hit the US in half a century is adding pressure on natural-gas drillers to conserve the millions of gallons of water used in fracking. Farmers, activists and opponents of the process say the shortage of rain shows how important it is for the industry to recycle water and reduce its usage – efforts which could be costly.

1100 A new report from the Australian Climate Commission is warning of less rainfall and greater risks of bushfires in Victoria as climate change takes hold. Meanwhile, Tony Moore, manger of the climate change programme at the Australian Conservation Foundation said legislation which removes wind farms from a ‘level playing field’ with coal-fired power in the region should be overhauled to help combat climate change.

1000 In the UK, Tim Yeo, chair of the House of Commons’ energy and climate change committee has accused the UK Treasury of undermining government attempts to secure the future energy requirement of the country and improve green energy supply by meddling with the energy bill. MPs now say the bill is ‘unworkable’.

Representatives of Indigenous Pacific tribes plan to meet regularly to share information about how their coastal communities can deal with rising sea water, as the initial First Stewards symposium wraps up in Washington. The meeting brought together representatives from Hawaii, Guam, New Zealand, American Samoa and the Northern Marianas.

0900 A new study published in Nature Climate Change has said manmade climate change could be the main driver behind the unexpected emergence of a group of bacteria in Northern Europe that can cause gastroenteritis.

Just five days before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, RTCC takes a look at some of the interesting and innovative design features which have made some of the arenas the most sustainable in an Olympics to date.

Top Tweets this morning

Some of the reaction to the accusations the Treasury is undermining the Energy Bill…

Overall Select Committee #energybillreport is damning for HMT, but a lifeline for Decc, if they’re smart enough to take it.

— jessica lennard (@JessicaLennard) July 22, 2012

The pub fight between Osborne and Davey over #energybill has spilled onto the streets ft.com/cms/s/0/7e18cb… and guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/… — Gareth Parry (@LawAndBiscuits) July 23, 2012

Interesting blog on how to go about encouraging green behaviour…

How best to encourage greener behaviour? Change people’s values, or work with the values they already have?blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/07/23/we-…

— TonyJuniper (@TonyJuniper) July 23, 2012

Picture of the day

While drought in the US is raising concerns over global food prices…here in the UK, shops are also feeling the impacts of the local summer weather.

This picture comes from @clv101 on Twitter…

The post Climate Live: Australia to expect more bushfires appeared first on Climate Home News.

London’s new cable car was launched last month to great acclaim – mainly it has to be said from Mayor Boris Johnson and sponsors Emirates.

The Air Line soars 90 metres above the river Thames, linking the ExCel exhibition centre at the Royal Docks in east London to the O2 Arena in Greenwich, south-east London.

For visitors to the city this summer’s Olympics it offers stunning views of the financial district, the Olympic Park and the Thames Barrier (providing it’s not raining).

Following cities such as Barcelona and Lisbon, launching the line, London Mayor Boris Johnson said he hopes the cable car can strike a balance between the needs of commuters and tourists. But how green is this new cable car, and is this really a form of sustainable transport – as has been suggested by the Mayor’s office.

The cable car can transport 2,500 people across the river hourly (Source: David Catchpole/Creative Commons)

With the capacity to transport 2,500 passengers every hour in each direction the cable car could replace 30 buses in the same time frame – and it offers better views for those that use it.

It also allows cyclists to travel with their bikes, promoting foot and cycle journeys – a major plus for promoting sustainable travel around the city.

Each pod can hold 10 people (Source: Dave Catchpole/Creative Commons)

The cable car spans 1km from the North Woolwich Peninsula to the Royals Victoria Dock – for those of you who this means nothing too, it goes from the 02 Area at North Greenwich to the Excel Centre the other side of the river.

To offer not only a nifty new form of transport for those wishing to travel across the river – and in between Olympic venues over the next two months – the cable car slows it speeds from five to ten minutes during the day to offer an added benefit to the City’s visitors.

At £4.30 a go (£3.20 with an Oyster Card – London’s electronic ticket system) it is more expensive than other transport options, compared to bus fares at £2.30 (£1.35 with your Oyster).

Criteria laid down by the UNFCCC stipulate that how ‘green’ cable cars are depend on what is used to power them, capacity and how people actually get to the ‘stations’ in the first instance. In other words most Alpine ski-resort lifts are not that green.

And as campaigning group Friends of the Earth pointed out yesterday – commenting on the UK government’s decision to invest £9.4 Billion in the national rail system: “electric rail lines are only as green as the electricity used to power them – and with energy firms relying on gas and coal to supply a massive three quarters of our electricity, we need to make big changes and soon.”

My experience (Monday 16 July, 2012)

The cable car is easy to reach by public transport – I took London’s Jubilee line and got off at North Greenwich Underground station.

But arriving a little after 9am in the morning (the end of rush hour) it would appear that any novelty there was when the cable car first launched is gone.

As I buy my ticket (I was disappointed to see my travel card couldn’t be used) I saw one man coming out the station. He was dressed in a suit – so it looks as though he was commuting.

Going inside to catch my ‘pod’, I didn’t encounter anyone else but staff.

Onboard the route I only saw two other cars pass by with people in them, one with a family and one with just one person on board. Perhaps the rain put people off?

The journey takes between five and ten minutes (Source: Dave Catchpole/Creative Commons)

And yet in terms of the ease of travel, it rates highly.

Once you have found the pier at North Greenwich – for those with an Oyster Card – you can swipe and go. If you need to buy a ticket, there are both machines and manned desks to choose from.

It takes five to ten minutes in a pod to travel between North Greenwich and Royal Victoria. That’s a similar journey time to the same trip via  Underground services, and it does offer a reliable alternative for those who make the journey regularly.

It’s also a wonderful way to travel. The views of the financial district and the Thames Barrier are great from this height – even on a muggy Monday morning.

First timers may be a little nervous – the pod does swing a little as they begin their journey – but once you are up and over the Thames, the journey is enjoyable and with few other people travelling this morning, it gave me a nice break from the busy trains I am used to.

The cars offers views of the city's financial district, the Thames Barrier and the Olympic Park (Source: Dave Catchpole/Creative Commons)

Designed to help promote foot and bicycle travel across London, if the cable car continues to allow bikes on board it could be a major plus – offering a great way across the river for cyclists.

So far cyclists appear happy with the service they are getting on the new cable car, but if this continues if the high numbers predicted are hit remains to be seen.

Final verdict

I am still not convinced it will be the new ‘sustainable’ way to commute*.

Even with a bike friendly staff, however, the biggest issue I see standing in the cable cars way is the price.

With a single journey significantly higher than other forms of transport – even with an Oyster Card – and travel cards not accepted, it is unlikely it will become a realistic alternative to a daily commute.

And while I imagine the Olympics will give the visitor numbers a boost, both in terms of people trying to get between Arenas (the O2 hosts basketball and gymnastics, while the Excel is home to boxing, table tennis, weightlifting, and wrestling), and tourists wanting a new way to view the city, the real test will be how the car will be used after the Games have finished.

Much like the river buses, the cable car could be a relaxing way to travel for those living and working in the area, but whether it becomes part of people longer routes, I am less sure.

Last but not least, as Friends of the Earth have pointed out electric transport is ultimately only as ‘low carbon’ as the electricity used to produce it.

So long as London still relies on coal and gas to generate electricity – electric cars, cable cars, the London Underground and electric trains will lack that glowing green sheen.

*A spokesperson for Transport for London got back to us this morning. While they do not have the exact figures for the carbon emissions of the cable car, they stressed the system is run electrically and as more renewable energy is added to the grid the green credentials of the Air Line would also improve. 

They also said the design incorporated a solar roof installation and rain harvesting system. 50 trees have been planted in the vicinity to ensure they are “a responsible neighbour”. 

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