Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Monday, 27 May 2013
Environment synopticity
http://m.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/may/26/green-campaigners-attack-government-climate-change
Thursday, 23 May 2013
Friday, 11 January 2013
Mid term review Jan 2013 Coalition and Energy/Climate Change
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20969435
Original coalition agreement pledges:
ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE
- Push for increase in EU emissions reduction target to 30% by 2020
- Generate more energy from renewable sources
- Invest in carbon capture and storage
- Found green investment bank
- Encourage marine energy, and energy from waste through anaerobic digestion
- Block third runway at Heathrow, and expansion of Gatwick and Stansted
- Improve home energy efficiency
- £3bn allocated to new green investment bank
- Energy derived from renewables increasing
- £1bn investment in carbon capture and storage
- The pledge to cut EU emissions by 30% by 2020 has been dropped in favour of getting the EU "back on track" to cutting energy consumption by 20% by 2020
- A planned rise in the renewable energy target has been abandoned
- A commitment to replace air passenger duty with a per-flight tax was axed amid fears about "legality and feasibility"
- "Green financial products" were to have enabled individuals to invest in green infrastructure, but seem to have been severely limited in scope
- Solar power industry hit by changes to feed-in tariffs
- Investment in renewables has halved
- Treble support to low-carbon energy up to 2020
- Invest in gas-fired power and carbon capture and storage projects
- Encourage the exploitation of shale gas
- Clarify rules on tax relief available for North Sea oil and gas decommissioning
- Support investment in renewable energy
- Encourage private-sector investment in nuclear power stations
- Introduce smart meters
- Encourage energy efficiency via the "Green Deal"
- Continue to support the Green Investment Bank.
- Promote electric cars
BBC environment correspondent Matt McGrath says: The coalition has tried to square the circle between their need to keep the lights on and their legal commitment to reduce carbon emissions. Thanks to their Energy Bill, people will need to pay more to fund clean power. But they've also signalled a greater reliance on natural gas and have lifted a temporary ban on fracking for shale gas. For critics, this move has undermined claims to be the "greenest government ever".
Tuesday, 1 January 2013
Thursday, 13 December 2012
Coalition and fuel duty Dec 2012
Important:
Conservative consultation document 2008.
Freight Transport Association document that was published before the autumn statement 2012 (when Osbourne) cancelled the planned 3p rise in fuel duty. Includes good explanation of the fuel duty stabiliser.
Guardian article on the cancellation of aforementioned rise in fuel duty November 2012.
Excellent summary here.
- Fuel duty escalator - above inflation increases to fuel duty - cancelled in 2000 following protests. From then on no automatic increases were added to petrol - they were handled on a budget-by-budget basis.
- Governments have still increased duty on petrol. Yet, this is not as much nor as 'automatic' as it used to be under the escalator system.
- Cons manifesto 2010 promised a 'fair fuel stabiliser'. It was introducedin the March 2012 Budget. What did this mean? Well, it did not mean an end to fuel duty increases. The government can and will increase fuel duty at some point (as of Dec 2012 it stands at around 57p per litre). The 'stabiliser' simply means that when oil prices are high, fuel duty will increase by RPI inflation only. However, if the oil price falls below a set trigger price on a sustainable basis, fuel duty will be increased by RPI plus one pence per litre in each such year. So really it is designed to function when fuel prices are high.
- Oil prices are currently high. HOWEVER, the Chancellor has either postponed or cancelled several fuel duty rises since 2010. Thus the fuel duty stabiliser has not yet been employed. As and when the government do raise the fuel duty THEN the fuel duty stabiliser will be referred to.
- So it is designed to limit fuel duty when oil prices are high and then let fuel duty increase when price of oil is low. Environmentalists argue that this will not disincentivise road use which is what they argue fuel duty should be used for.
Conservative consultation document 2008.
Freight Transport Association document that was published before the autumn statement 2012 (when Osbourne) cancelled the planned 3p rise in fuel duty. Includes good explanation of the fuel duty stabiliser.
Guardian article on the cancellation of aforementioned rise in fuel duty November 2012.
Excellent summary here.
Sunday, 9 December 2012
Nov 2012: Energy Bill video
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20538037
Summary:
Renewable energies to be relied upon (wind and nuclear) - to be paid for by consumersthrough bills. Good for energy industry.
Summary:
Renewable energies to be relied upon (wind and nuclear) - to be paid for by consumersthrough bills. Good for energy industry.
Energy minister Ed Davey has unveiled the government's much-trailed Energy Bill, setting out the roadmap for the UK's switch to "a low-carbon economy".
Energy firms can increase the "green" levy from £3bn to £7.6bn a year by 2020, potentially increasing annual household bills by £100.
However, big, energy-intensive companies could be exempt from the extra costs of the switch to renewable energy, as John Moylan reports.
Nov 2012: Energy Bill and Labour opposition
A lack of clarity over the decarbonisation of the energy market will "push bills up", Labour has said.
Shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint told BBC News that she welcomed the Energy Bill, but the cost of energy for customers interests had not been adequately addressed.
Energy minister Ed Davey unveiled the government's much-trailed Energy Bill, setting out the roadmap for the UK's switch to "a low-carbon economy".
Energy firms can increase the "green" levy from £3bn to £7.6bn a year by 2020, potentially increasing household bills by £100.
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