Entries for March 2009

Bristol has missed out on being crowned the first European green capital, beaten by cities Stockholm and Hamburg, which will hold the title next year and 2011 respectively.

London Thames Gateway Development Corporation announced that the first energy-from-waste facility will be at London Sustainable Industries Park in Dagenham. 

A multi-disciplinary consortium of businesses, including Watkins Gray International, Gardiner & Theobold, Regeneration Investments and Hurleypalmerflatt, have come together to launch a new integrated development team specialising in an innovative and self funding approach to the sustainable delivery of services such as heat, power and broadband to communities.  

The low carbon economy and the need to retrofit Britain’s existing buildings were two recurring themes at this years’ Ecobuild exhibition in London’s Earls Court. Ella Taylor found out why, plus how young people in dungarees could be reading Vogue Retrofit in the future.

Over 20 MPs have backed an Early Day Motion by independent MP Dai Davies, highlighting the Government failure to back the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act 2000. 

Referring to the Department for Communities and Local Government annual report’s claims that its partners think it is getting better at involving them in eco town policy changes, MPs on the Communities Select Committee state brusquely in a new report that “those involved with the eco towns policy may find this difficult to believe.

Margaret Beckett has told Dr Howard Stoate, Labour MP for Dartford, in written answers that DCLG “maintains technical and business operating standards that energy assessors are expected to adhere to in creating energy performance certificates.”

Without sufficient improvements in energy efficiency, energy consumption may rise again, MPs on the influential Public Accounts Committee (PAC) have warned in a hard-hitting new report, Programmes to reduce household energy consumption.

Among the priorities set out in the European Commission’s document Action Plan for Energy Efficiency: Realising the Potential is for the Commission to develop a strategy to promote the widespread deployment of very low energy buildings by 2015. 

A Parliamentary motion by former Conservative environment spokesman Peter Ainsworth, highlighting the importance of the Green Energy Bill, had received support from over 120 MPs at the time of going to press.

Following on from the CLG-led consultation on what constitutes (or should constitute) ‘zero carbon’ (SB January 2009), the Department for Energy and Climate Change has now launched its own – this time on what the term ‘carbon neutral’ should mean.

With the start of the Carbon Reduction Commitment just a year away, more details of the scheme are being announced. The Climate Change Act, which received Royal Assent at the end of November last year, contained the primary legislation needed to enable the CRC to come into existence.

UK energy companies will now be able to promote themselves abroad under one common standard, as part of a UK Trade and Investment strategy.

The spat between Russia and Ukraine over the New Year, which resulted in parts of the EU being without gas supplies during one of the coldest winters for decades, has engendered a sense of urgency within the European Commission and the Council of Ministers.

Visitors at this year’s Ecobuild exhibition could have been forgiven for thinking that the recession was over; such was the volume of new products and companies on display around the two halls.