"One of the big challenges is the relationship between fish stocks and
global warming," David Griffith, general secretary of the International
Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), told Reuters at an annual four-day
ICES conference in Oslo.
"There has been global warming in some areas and a decrease in temperatures
in other areas. And (fish) stocks in general have been declining because of
the changes in some of these regions," he said.
ICES, which promotes research in the North Atlantic and elsewhere, is backed by 19 member countries and collaborates with more than 40 international organisations.
Griffith said the greatest scientific challenge was to measure and quantify the changes in the sea and air in order to improve overall forecasting capabilities, particularly as the fishing industry has seen its stocks depleted by rising demand.
WARMER WATERS
ICES analyst Keith Brander said changes in North Atlantic currents could be big enough to threaten the survival of fish.
"We know that in the 1880s the atmospheric circulation changed in a way which drove the ocean currents differently," he said. Ship captains at the time reported sailing through miles and miles of dead fish in warm water.
And in the 1920s, for instance, warm currents brought a substantial amount of cod to the coast of Greenland, where few were seen before. Sea bass around the British Isles have drifted north towards Norwegian waters over the past 20 years.
Brander said such changes in currents could prompt fish farmers to alter their stocks. Among the world's leading farmers of salmon are Dutch Nutreco and Norway's Pan Fish and Fjord Seafood . Also, governments could change the basis on which they form new policies, shifting away from using data based on historic catches.
In the last year, the European Commission has had to introduce emergency measures to curb cod fishing in the North Sea amid fears that cod may die out there.
The Commission plans to present a formal proposal at the end of the year for a new fishing regime to start in 2003 to ensure the long-term survival of the industry.
"In general we are at or near record highs in exploitation rate and at or near record lows in biomass for a large number of fish stocks," said Dr Jake Rice, Coordinator Canadian Stock Assessment Secretariat Fisheries Research Branch.
Story by Jeff Coelho
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
LONDON - British energy regulator Ofgem yesterday proposed measures to help
encourage the development of small power plants that are hooked up to local
networks rather than the national grid.
Ofgem in a consultation paper on "embedded generation" said it could
take steps as early as April 2002 to make it easier to set up such plants, which
include windfarms, solar power plants and mini combined-heat-and-power units
in private households.
"(The proposals) could have an important role to play in meeting the government's
target of providing 10 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2010,"
said Ofgem in a statement.
Among the potential measures Ofgem is consulting the industry on is allowing embedded generators to avoid paying a one-off, up front charge they currently have to pay to connect to networks.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
From January 2002 foreign electricity generators will only be allowed
access to the lucrative Dutch green power market if they have obtained
a certificate from the state-owned company running the scheme, Tenet.
But by government decree all hydropower will be ineligible.
In addition, certificates will only be granted to companies operating
in countries with a liberalised energy market - named as Germany,
Finland, Norway, Sweden and the UK.
The arrangement still needs EU approval, however, and may encounter
problems as the Dutch definition of green electricity is out of line
with that in the new renewables directive, which was adopted earlier
this month and classifies hydropower as renewable (ED 07/09/01
http://www.environmentdaily.com/articles/index.cfm?action=article&ref=10551).
An economics ministry official told Environment Daily today that the
move had been taken to prevent cheap Swedish hydro electricity flooding
the green certificate market and threatening the viability of Dutch
renewable energy projects. Currently, hydropower electricity benefits
under a Dutch support scheme that exempts renewables from an ecotax
levied on conventionally-generated electricity.
The scheme has made renewable electricity as cheap or cheaper than
"grey" power and prompted an explosion in uptake by Dutch households.
The number subscribing to green electricity in the Netherlands has shot
from 200,000 at the end of last year to around half a million now.
* In a related development, the Dutch buildings agency announced today
it would coordinate green energy purchases for various state agencies
from 2002 onwards. It said this would result in a 60% increase in
green energy consumption by the government. The economics ministry was
the first to move to 100% green energy use two years ago.
Follow-up: Dutch finance ministry press release
http://www.minez.nl/home.asp?page=/Persberichten/persberichten2001/2001126.htm;
Dutch environment ministry press release http://www.vrom.nl/pagina.html?id=5409.
Canada's energy and environment ministers hope to be in a position to endorse ratifying the Kyoto agreement on global warming by next May, said Natural Resources Minister Ralph Goodale. Mr. Goodale, speaking after a meeting of the ministers in Winnipeg yesterday, said this date would be in keeping with the federal government's "preferred target" of ratifying the treaty next year. Staff
The former has a number of production facilities in the UK, while
Mieco, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Marubeni, produces oil and gas in
the North Sea. Both are seeking to gain early experience in emission
trading through the deal, according to Natsource.
Britain's scheme is unique in that it covers the whole economy and all
six greenhouse gases controlled under the Kyoto protocol. Natsource
identified about about 60 inter-company trades around the world in a
recent study for the World Bank, but the DuPont-Mieco deal is the first
to take place in anticipation of gaining credits under a
government-backed trading scheme.
Under the UK rules, companies can become eligible to trade either by
agreeing targets for reducing emissions with the government or by
participating in an auction of emission allowances. The government is
offering incentive payments to successful bidders in the auction in
return for taking on voluntary emission ceilings. Framework rules for
the system were published in August (ED 16/08/01
http://www.environmentdaily.com/articles/index.cfm?action=article&ref=10437).
Natsource welcomed the DuPont-Mieco deal as "an important milestone in
the development of market mechanisms to limit greenhouse gas
emissions". The UK government also responded warmly, with environment
minister Michael Meacher calling the trade "an important kick-start for
the market".
The transaction is significant not only for the UK's scheme but also
for the EU's plans for a Europe-wide trading scheme, according to
Kristian Tangen of Norwegian carbon trading analysts Point Carbon.
"This will set the pace for other moves and stir up interest
elsewhere," he told Environment Daily. And when the UK system starts
to function it will give "very important practical experiences" as
well
as price signals.
Follow-up: Natsource http://www.natsource.com
See also UK emissions trading scheme
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/trading/index.htm.
-------------------------
Belgian boost for energy efficiency
ENDS 24/09/01
-------------------------
Belgium's federal government and its three regions of Brussels,
Flanders and Wallonia have agreed an annual euros 24.8m (BFr1bn)
national support package for energy efficiency measures, energy
minister Olivier Deleuze announced last week.
The funding will be generated from a levy on electricity distribution
prices; the exact tax rate will be back-calculated from historical
electricity consumption and is not yet available. The scheme is
expected to be in place from the start of next year and will run
indefinitely.
The decision to allocate the funds was taken by the government a year
ago; an accord with the regions was necessary because under Belgium's
complicated federal structure these have jurisdiction over spending on
energy efficiency, while the federal government is responsible for
electricity pricing.
The federal parliament must also approve the initiative but this step
is not expected to be controversial, a government source told
Environment Daily today.
Energy efficiency has been declared an EU presidency priority by
Belgium and Mr Deleuze hopes to reach a political agreement on a new EU
directive on efficiency in buildings before December
A formal common position will not be possible, the source said,
because the European parliament is unlikely to have finished its
deliberation on the dossier by then.
----------
ENDS ISSUE 1061 - MONDAY 17 SEPTEMBER 2001
EU
ministers debate sustainable transport
related story below: EU to call for international aviation fuel tax
EU environment and transport ministers met informally in Belgium this weekend
to exchange early reactions to the European Commission's transport white paper
(ED 12/09/01).
The meeting's main focus was the Commission proposal to reduce the market dominance of road transport by 2010. Other issues given an airing included harmonisation of transport fuel taxes and taxation of aviation fuel.
Organised by the Belgian government, current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, the meeting marked the second joint informal meeting of EU transport and environment ministers. The first was held in the UK in 1998 (ED 27/04/98).
Ministers gave a warm reception to the Commission's general goal of curbing road transport's growing market dominance and deemed the Commission's proposal for an EU 2010 target for a return to 1998 modal shares as "realistic".
However several countries, including Spain and Greece, thought the 1998 target would be too tough, one source told Environment Daily, and raised the possibility of differentiated national targets or indicative, non-binding ones. On the other hand, member states including Austria, Denmark and Sweden wanted a more ambitious modal shift target, the source added.
Ministers also supported forthcoming proposals aimed at redressing current imbalances in transport pricing, particularly the "unfair" advantages enjoyed by air and road transport. However they warned that any measures to alter pricing "would have to be calculated very carefully" and that the necessary popular support was absent in some member states.
Following talks on the vexed issue of harmonising EU fuel tax rates, ministers asked the Commission to investigate the possibility of "reactivating" proposals to harmonise excise duty for mineral oils across the bloc and they agreed to urge their countries' finance ministers to consider the issue. Attempts to agree EU-wide minimum energy product tax rates ran into the sand again earlier this year (ED 06/06/01).
Ministers also gave Belgian transport minister Isabelle Durant unanimous support
to lobby for the start to international negotiations aimed at agreeing a tax
on aviation fuel. Ms Durant promised to raise the issue with the International
civil aviation organisation (ICAO) later this month. If ICAO members reject
the call, ministers agreed that the EU should investigate unilateral measures,
which could include a tax on fuel used for intra-European flights or a tax on
air freight.
Follow-up: Belgian EU presidency, press
release; European Environment Agency's presentation
to ministers on transport trends.
--------------------------------
EU to call for international aviation fuel tax
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE - The European Union will call on the rest of the world to
tax aviation fuel as a way of curbing the environmental impact of air travel,
EU transport and environment ministers said on the weekend.
Despite the turmoil in the airline sector following terror attacks in the United
States, EU ministers said they would push for air fuel to lose its tax-free
status at a meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
this month.
The official who will represent the EU at the thrice-yearly meeting of global aviation's governing body, Belgian Transport Minister Isabelle Durant, said the European block was unanimous in wanting a global agreement on taxing air fuel or kerosene.
"This question has to be on the agenda (of the ICAO meeting) alongside other preoccupations," Durant said, acknowledging that airline security would dominate the ICAO agenda since the U.S. attacks last Tuesday.
"There was unanimity for something to be done, to apply a certain tax on kerosene," Durant said after a day-long meeting of EU transport and environment ministers.
She said if there was no movement towards taxing aviation fuel at the Montreal meeting, there would be substantial political support for unilateral EU action, for example taxing fuel used for internal EU flights or imposing some kind of charge on air freight.
"We can not say that unanimity (between ministers at the meeting) was complete," Durant added.
Under a long-standing international agreement, aviation fuel used for international flights can not be taxed.
Legally, the EU could agree internally to tax fuel, but the EU's executive Commission has warned against this option, pushing instead for a global agreement.
Environmentalists say kerosene's tax-free status is a subsidy to one of the fastest growing sources of carbon dioxide emissions - the gas blamed by many scientists for causing global warming, and that a tax would help suppress demand for air travel and air cargo shipments.
The thrice-yearly ICAO general assembly takes place in Montreal from September 25 to October 5.
Story Date: 17/9/2001
--------------------------------
European youth win their CO2 emissions bet against the EU
Edie.Net News
A European youth movement that bet EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström
that they could reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by 8% in eight months,
have succeeded.
'The Bet', in which around 52,000 young people from 16 European countries participated,
was officially launched on 22 November last year, following the climate change
talks in the Hague (see related story). Mrs Wallström will now have to
ride her bicycle to and from work for a month as her penalty for losing. Had
the 'Betties' failed in their task, they would have had to transported the Environment
Commissioner to all her Brussels meetings in a rickshaw for a week.
"I hoped to lose, and let the environment win, when I entered this bet,"
said Wallström. "When fighting climate change we shouldn't forget
what we as citizens can do in our everyday life. This is what the youth campaigners
and all the participants in The Bet have demonstrated, with their ambitious
and enthusiastic initiative. If multiplied by millions of people, many small
steps can make a big difference."
The Betties came from a total of 88 schools across Europe, and had to cut their
emissions both at home and at school, achieving their goal through measures
such as turning down the heating, installing energy-saving light bulbs, insulating
rooms, repairing leaking water taps, and setting up recycling systems for paper.
"Often very easy means can lead to a great saving," said Jeroen Kuiper,
the European co-ordinator of The Bet. "There is still a lot of educational
work to do."
"We really feel like winners with 300 participating schools saving over
four million kilograms of CO2. That is a great amount all together," said
Henricke Wegener, a volunteer working for the Bet. "We showed that everybody
can do something to stop climate change. We proved that CO2 emission reducing
can be done easily, fast and cheap. All it takes is your own will and creativity."
However, the European Environment Agency, which refereed the bet, also announced
that the Betties had failed in their second objective, of saving eight million
kilograms of carbon dioxide over the same period. Nevertheless, the organisation
congratulated the participants for clearly demonstrating that where there is
a will to combat climate change, there is a way.
http://www.edie.net/news/Archive/4681.cfm
--------------------------------
ENDS ISSUE 1060 - FRIDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 2001
Dutch
green decoupling "gathering pace"
An annual assessment of the Dutch environment was published yesterday by national
environmental research agency RIVM. "Environmental balance 2000" concludes
that green policies are beginning to bite in several areas and that evidence
of decoupling of environmental impacts from economic growth can now be seen
in sectors where progress has previously been painstakingly slow. However, further
advances will require much greater joined-up thinking from policymakers, it
says.
The report argues that decoupling is now emerging in waste generation trends, waste landfilling and eutrophication. Even projected greenhouse gas emissions offer a glimmer of hope, the report says, although much will depend on implementation of planned policies.
The big success story of 2000 was a sharp reduction in agricultural nitrate inputs to soils. After dropping only 9% over 20 years, last year saw a whopping 18% cut, apparently due to behavioural changes by farmers under the influence of the Netherlands' novel and controversial "Minas" nutrient accounting system.
Leon Janssen, RIVM's environmental balance project leader, told Environment Daily that the figures proved Minas to be effective through its threat of fines if farmers exceed nutrient loss limits. The European Commission has challenged the system in court, alleging it breaches the EU's nitrates directive in several respects and especially by failing to respect a fixed limit on manure application to land (ED 01/03/00).
The report also presents 2000 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Excluding carbon dioxide (CO2), the other five Kyoto gases fell by about 1%, with a 10% reduction in the three industrial fluorinated gases, Mr Janssen said. However, CO2 rose by about 1% and therefore emissions of all six gases combined remained stable with 1999 levels. This leaves Dutch GHG emissions at 3% above 1990 levels, while its target by under the protocol is a 6% reduction by 2008-12.
Other main points include a strong co-relation between the country's environmental blackspots and areas dominated by low-income households, and a warning that the risk of a major aircraft accident near Amsterdam's Schiphol airport is increasing.
Follow-up: RIVM, tel: +31 30 274 9111, a press
release and report
summary, An English summary will be published next month.
--------------------------------
EU
looks to ease traffic gridlock
see ENDS news report below on same issue
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BELGIUM: September 13, 2001
BRUSSELS - Europe must increase road safety, boost rail traffic and invest
in new technologies to avoid a traffic nightmare over the next 10 years, the
European Commission said in a policy paper released yesterday.
As the flip side to growing prosperity, the European Union faces a massive
increase in demand for transport - 25 percent more passenger traffic with 10
years and almost 40 percent more freight, the Commission warned in its strategy
paper.
Unchecked, the result would be more pollution, congestion and accidents and
a continued increase in road transport at the expense of most other modes, the
EU executive said.
The policy paper on improving all aspects of transport, "European transport policy for 2010: time to decide" will feed into discussions between transport and environment ministers from the 15-nation bloc who meet in Brussels this weekend.
Among its some 60 policy recommendations is a plan to radically alter the way transport infrastructure is funded.
FUNDS FROM ROAD TO RAIL
The Commission will propose a law next year that would lead to distance-based fees for road use, rather than flat rates such as an annual tax, which do nothing to discourage motoring.
Such plans would initially be aimed at truckers rather than private motorists, EU officials said.
The law would also allow money from these road-use charges to be ploughed into the railways, currently not allowed under EU rules.
The Community of European Railways (CER) hailed the strategy as great news for the sector. "The guidelines are the best the railways could have hoped for," CER Secretary General Anna Ottavianelli told Reuters.
But the road freight lobby called the strategy "naive" for failing to acknowledge the need for more roads to cope with the inevitable growth in transport demand.
"We accept the diagnosis, we mainly accept the (Commission's) forecasts, but we question the prescription," the International Road Transport Union's Soren Rasmussen said.
The haulage organisation said that, at worst, the Commission's ideas could stifle economic growth by failing to provide sufficient transport provision to keep goods moving.
The strategy envisages extra funding to freight railways, coastal shipping and "intermodal" facilities, which allow freight to be switched quickly from road to rail or water.
Despite the emphasis on "environmentally friendly" transport modes, green campaigners were unimpressed by the strategy.
"It falls far short of the objectives which were promised," Frazer Goodwin, policy director at European Federation for Transport and Environment, said. The group wants EU policies to discourage growth in demand for transport for passengers and goods.
But transport safety campaigners were delighted by the focus on passengers, particularly a target to halve road deaths by the end of the decade from the current annual level of 41,000.
"It will mean that the EU over 10 years will have to achieve more than what the best performers, Britain and Sweden, have achieved in the last 10 years," Jeanne Breen, executive director of the European Transport and Safety Council, said.
Story by Robin Pomeroy
Reuters News Service
Follow-up: T&E web page, contact Frazer Goodwin
--------------------------------
ENDS ISSUE 1058 - WEDNESDAY 12 SEPTEMBER 2001
EU
transport readied for "change in direction"
The European Commission today announced what it called a "first, essential"
step toward refocusing European transport policy along sustainable lines in
a long-awaited white paper. The document outlines how the Commission will seek
to promote "a qualitative change in direction" by 2010, in particular
to "gradually break the link" between transport demand and economic
growth.
Calling for "less concrete and more intelligence" the white paper details about 60 measures the Commission plans to propose, with environment-related items dominating. In addition to the decoupling goal, the paper also sets a goal of returning rail, short-sea shipping and inland waterways to their 1998 market shares by 2010.
The paper commits the Commission to proposing several measures aimed at correcting imbalances in transport pricing. In 2002, it will propose a "modern framework" for infrastructure-use charging to replace existing rules including the Eurovignette system. A structure will also be proposed for allowing some revenue from user charges to be recycled to fund green alternatives.
As reported by Environment Daily this summer, the directorate also plans to propose harmonisation of tax on diesel for commercial use in an effort to end infighting within the EU road haulage sector over the competition effects of different national fuel tax rates (ED 19/07/01).
Harmonisation should be in place by 2003, it says. A second measure aimed at pleasing hauliers will involve amending rules governing haulage contracts to allow hauliers to raise their prices if they face a sharp increase in fuel prices.
A number of measures focus on revitalising rail, which the paper identifies as the "strategic sector" for achieving modal shift, particularly for freight transport. A proposal on railway liberalisation will be published by the end of this year, by which time the Commission will also have begun talks on the creation of a voluntary agreement to reduce the sector's environmental impacts.
From 2003 a new programme, dubbed Marco Polo, will aim to develop rail freight. In the long term there will need to be a line network "dedicated exclusively to goods", the paper says. A proposal will also be presented to increase the proportion of EU funding available for "uneconomic" cross-border rail projects crossing natural barriers such as the Pyrenees. Alluding to rail's plummeting market share in EU candidate countries, the paper says that the aim should be to stabilise at a 35% market share by 2010.
Short sea shipping and inland waterway transport must also be promoted, the paper says. "Sea motorways" should be developed and an EU maritime traffic management system created.
Turning to air transport, the Commission will next year instigate a debate on the "inevitable expansion" of European airports and will pursue international agreement on taxes on air transport and jet fuel by 2004.
Continuing with the international theme, the paper says the Commission will aim to increase Europe's profile and power in global decision making. For example, the EU should join its member states as a full member of organisations such as the International Civil Aviation Organisation and the International Maritime Organisation.
Follow-up:
EU press release and the white paper.
Transport & Environment, contact Frazer
Goodwin
--------------------------------
ISSUE 1058 - WEDNESDAY 12 SEPTEMBER 2001
Small
not beautiful for German hydropower
Hydroelectric power generation in Germany can cause significant environmental
damage even though it nominally produces "green" electricity, the
country's environment agency has warned. The body says smaller plants cause
disproportionate disruption. It is recommending no new construction of facilities
under 1 megawatt capacity and no restarting of any that have been decommissioned.
Hydropower remains Germany's largest source of renewable energy despite the rapid rise of the country's wind power industry in recent years. It currently contributes about 4% of national electricity consumption.
In a report published on Monday, the environment agency concludes that "the smaller the plant and closer to nature the river, the more unfavourable the [environmental and economic] cost-benefit ratio". It recommends focusing on existing larger hydropower facilities, especially where dams would be required for other purposes.
The agency also recommends enabling larger hydropower plants to receive subsidies under Germany's renewable energy support law. This currently allows funding only of facilities under 5 megawatts capacity (ED 29/02/00).
Follow-up: German environment agency
tel: +49 30 89030 and press
statement.
--------------------------------
ENDS ISSUE 1058 - WEDNESDAY 12 SEPTEMBER 2001
EU
considers generic pollution permits
A possibility under the EU's 1996 integrated pollution prevention and control
(IPPC) directive for EU countries to use standardised environmental permits
for certain processes or installations should be given greater attention, concludes
a report by the bloc's informal network of national environmental inspectors
(Impel) and published by the European Commission on Monday.
The report focuses on a clause in the IPPC directive that allows environmental regulators to make use of "general binding rules" (GBRs) in certain situations when issuing permits. In appropriate cases, GBRs could offer a streamlined and cost-effective approach to IPPC permitting, the report says. In effect, they could become permit templates.
An Impel project on GBRs took place last autumn and the report outlines its findings. Participants concluded that GBRs would only be cost effective if they were used for a sufficient number of installations and in sectors where technology and techniques are relatively slow-moving.
GBRs should apply only to installations that have a "relatively uniform" environmental impact and in sectors well-represented by trade associations so as to ensure adequate feedback on the appropriateness and implementation of the rules, Impel adds.
No EU member state has finalised any GBRs, the report says, although the UK is developing a set for intensive animal units and Spain is working on some for the cement industry.
* The Commission has also published an Impel report on Dutch regulatory practices aimed at expanding firms' environmental responsibility. The report calls for EU-level discussions on the differences between the ISO 14001 and EMAS environmental management systems and raises the question of whether the use of only one system would be preferable.
Follow-up: Impel,
tel: +32 2 299 4383, general binding rules report,
Dutch comparison
report.
--------------------------------
RWE
hopes to launch fuel cell CHP systems by 2004
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UK: September 12, 2001
LONDON - German utility RWE has plans to launch small-scale Combined Heat and
Power (CHP) systems for residential and commercial use by the end of 2004, using
the newly developing clean fuel cell technology.
The new systems would enable groups of homes and commercial premises to become
more energy efficient and reduce greenhouse gases emissions by running their
own clean power and heat generating units.
"We're planning to have a commercially available product by the end of
2004," said Heinz Bergmann, project manager for fuel cells at RWE Plus
AG, at a fuel cell symposium in London yesterday.
The fuel cell technology, which can transform gas into electricity through an electrochemical reaction without combustion, is seen as one of the clean alternatives to produce power because of its very low emissions.
"In Germany alone, we believe fuel cell CHP technology could save up to 70 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per annum," said Bergmann.
RWE estimates that power production based on fuel cell could represents 10 percent of the wholesale market in Germany by 2015.
RWE is developing the fuel cell CHP system for residential use in cooperation with Italian-American fuel cell technology company Nuvera.
The technology is expected to generate between 70 and 80 percent of electricity and between 25 and 30 percent of heat.
"It would cover most needs for electricity, but conventional heating would be needed as well," said Bergmann.
The cost to the customer is estimated at between 2,500 marks and 3,000 marks per kilowatt of electricity (kWe), the measure used for CHP production, in addition to the cost of conventional systems.
The fuel cell CHP system for commercial use is being developed together with MTU, a subsidiary of car manufacturer DaimlerChrysler AG .
It is expected to generate around 55 percent of electricity and 45 percent of heat, said Bergmann.
Bergmann added that the technology, which still had to prove itself on the end-consumer market, needed financial support and government funding during the initial stage.
"Subsidies are necessary until 2007 to compensate for the costs," he told the conference.
He added that the German government had made 90 million euros available for research and development and initial production of the fuel cell technology, of which 15 million would go to CHP projects.
The fuel cell technology is also being developed in car manufacturing to replace the combustion engine and lower emissions.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
--------------------------------
E.ON
offers German customers choice of power mix
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GERMANY: September 12, 2001
FRANKFURT - German utility E.ON has started offering its retail customers a
new product which gives them a choice of power generating sources within their
electricity purchases.
Called MixPower, the product, currently the subject of a vigorous media campaign
featuring Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and several soccer personalities,
aims to tie E.ON's 10.5 million retail customers to the company while also giving
E.ON clues about future electricity demand.
"The customer signals which power mix he wants," E.ON spokesman Erwin
Haydn told Reuters.
"By offering MixPower, we are taking up the obligation to meet the customers' wishes."
He declined to give customer target figures.
E.ON polls have identified three power buying strategies among the target group for MixPower - one based on price, one on environmental concerns and a third forming a balance between the two, Haydn explained.
Customers would choose a basic model but then could fine-tune the percentage of contributing energy sources within the product mix.
Since they could not actually derive the chosen percentages of various power sources through their electricity socket, E.ON pledges to collate customer wishes and adjust its supplies to the general grid accordingly, Haydn said.
Big shifts in demand would result in the expansion or reduction of the corresponding power sources.
Merged from Veba and Viag last year, E.ON is Germany's biggest utility in terms of market capitalisation before RWE .
It presently feeds into the grid 51 percent of power derived from nuclear plants, 32 percent from hard coal, eight percent from lignite, seven percent hydropower, two percent from gas and oil-fired plants and the rest from other sources. (51+32+8+7+2=100. No wind or solar power in significant proportion)
E.ON's innovative advertising strategies in a saturated retail market with low margins last month suffered a setback when a Munich court told the firm to stop advertising its "Aquapower" product as purely derived from hydropower.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
--------------------------------
ENDS ISSUE 1055 - FRIDAY 7 SEPTEMBER 2001
Final
approval for EU renewable energy law
EU governments today formally approved the bloc's new directive on renewable
energy, opening the way for entry into force upon publication in the official
journal. The law will require member states to ensure that 12% of gross internal
energy consumption and 22.1% of electricity consumption comes from renewable
energies by 2010.
Proposed by the European Commission in 2000 after much controversy, the renewables directive forms a major plank in the EU's efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Its provisions were finalised before the summer break in a political deal between EU governments and the European parliament (ED 04/07/01).
With Belgium now holding the EU's rotating presidency, it was down to the country's energy and sustainable development minister Olivier Deleuze to welcome governments' formal adoption of the directive today. "In Bonn, Europe saved the Kyoto protocol," he said. "Now it has to give itself the means to achieve it."
Based on the summer compromise deal, the directive will introduce a legal framework to encourage promotion of renewable electricity while setting limits to preserve the EU's internal market. A hotly contested harmonised support regime will not take effect for 12 years, though the Commission will be able to make further proposals on this issue four years after entry into force.
Each EU country will be set targets for increasing the share of renewably generated electricity, with levels varying widely depending on national starting points and development potential. Within one year of entry into force and every five years thereafter governments will be required to set their own targets, taking into account those in the directive.
Within two years of the law's entry into force, governments will have to introduce systems to enable certification of renewable electricity, a development which is expected to do much to support growth in a pan-European market for green power.
The directive will also require non-discriminatory conditions for new renewable producers to connect to electricity grids, and enjoin governments to reduce regulatory or other barriers to greater renewable electricity production. The deadline for transposition into national law is two years after entry into force.
Follow-up: CNE page on renewables.
Deleuze statement below. See also the directive's
legislative history.
back to latest news
Press Release - Belgian Presidency
Title: Olivier Deleuze welcomes the adoption of the directive on renewable sources
of energy
Category: Press Releases by the Belgian EU Presidency
Description: The European Union Council adopted today the directive on the promotion of renewable energy sources. For Olivier Deleuze, State Secretary responsible for Energy and Sustainable Development, President of the Energy Council, this final adoption gives the green light for the development of clean energies in Europe while responding to the concerns of the citizens regarding the safeguard of their environment.
The directive creates a framework for an increase of the production of green electricity. It encourages the Member States to take the measures needed to guarantee the development of renewable energies in line with the national and Community objectives. It responses to the challenges concerning the reduction of the EU ’s energetic dependence, the preservation of its capacity to choose its energy in the future while limiting the greenhouse gas emissions and atmospheric pollutants dangerous for the health.
“In Bonn, Europe has saved the Kyoto Protocol. Now, it has to give to itself the means to achieve it”, said Olivier Deleuze.
The directive defines two global objectives for 2010 :
1) the share of gross internal energy consumption at Community level will have
to reach 12%
2) 22.1% of the consumed electricity will have to be produced from renewable
energy sources
The Member States committed themselves to set national objectives for domestic
consumption of electricity produced from renewable sources of energy (RSE).
In Belgium, for example, the share of electricity produced with those energy
sources will have to reach 6% in 2010. The European Commission will have to
monitor the conformity of the actions taken at national level. Four years after
the implementation the directive, the Commission will have the opportunity to
propose a more harmonised system of aid, on the basis of the experience of the
Member States.
Other measures introduced by the directive are : the introduction of a system of certification of green electricity, the creation of accompanying measures designed to create suitable conditions for the introduction of RSE on the domestic market while respecting rules of competition, to ensure a certification within two years of entry into force of the directive, to accelerate the authorisation procedure applicable to the establishment of production centres for green electricity, to guarantee that the calculation of connection costs for new producers are non-discriminatory.
The main sources of renewable energy are : water power, solar energy, wind power, biomass, biogas (for example from mud coming from waste treatment, biological fuel).
Vincent Georis (0474/98 48 69)
Date: 07/09/2001
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ENDS ISSUE 1054 - THURSDAY 6 SEPTEMBER 2001
Blueprint
for low-carbon UK economy
The UK can successfully make a transition to a low-carbon economy without economic
disruption, the government's "champion" for low-carbon technologies
said today. The Carbon Trust stressed the need for technical progress and innovation.
It said that official support was particularly needed for energy efficiency,
wind and biomass energy and carbon sequestration.
Launched last year, the Carbon Trust has a mission to encourage achievement of carbon dioxide emission cuts by business and local government and support emergence of competitive "low-carbon" industries. Its new report is designed to support development of a research, development and demonstration programme in low-carbon technologies.
"The [report's] main lesson is that the transition to a low-carbon economy is both technologically and economically feasible," the body said in a statement today. "It will enable energy to be used and produced more efficiently, with greater reliance on renewables". "We now need to turn this blueprint into reality."
Follow-up: Carbon Trust, tel:
+44 20 79 44 66 32
ENDS ISSUE 1053 - WEDNESDAY 5 SEPTEMBER 2001
German
cabinet agrees nuke phase-out law
The German cabinet today approved a draft law designed to set into statute the
government's agreement with the nation's electricity industry to phase out nuclear
power. Under the measure, power generators will also have to provide intermediate
spent fuel storage facilities close to their plants, and shipments of waste
for reprocessing will be banned from 2005.
At the heart of the so-called consensus is a 32-year limit on the service life of each of the existing 19 nuclear stations. This has been defined by a complex formula that prescribes the amount of electricity that can be produced by each reactor while allowing transfers of allowable output from older to newer plant but not vice versa.
The law's first reading in the lower parliamentary house is scheduled for next week. Environment minister Jürgen Trittin said in a statement that he expected the process to be complete by the end of the year.
The measure does not need backing from the upper house of state representatives, but has been hotly contested by some of Germany's states and at stakeholder hearings (ED 09/08/01). The environment ministry said today that this had resulted in "numerous detailed changes and additions to the draft".
Environmental group Bund accused the government of thrashing out the text of the law with the electricity generation industry while NGOs were excluded. It called on MPs to vote against it, saying the legislation did not fulfil the government's initial promises.
Follow-up: German environment ministry tel:
+49 30 285500 and press statement;
Bund tel: +49 30 275860 and press
statement.
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Leisure
centre gets UK's first fuel cell system
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UK: September 6, 2001
LONDON - Britain's first commercial fuel cell system, which produces clean
electricity via electrochemical reaction, will soon be powering a local authority's
leisure centre, its manufacturers said this week.
International Fuel Cells (IFC), part of United Technologies Corp, said its
200-kilowatt fuel cell system will provide electricity and heat for Woking Borough
Council's Pool in the Park leisure centre.
Fuel cells produce electricity and heat in an electrochemical reaction between
hydrogen or hydrogen-rich fuel and oxygen. Fuel cells work without combustion
and water is the main by-product.
Woking, in southern England, said installing fuel cells was part of its strategy to prompt the use of sustainable energy sources.
"We are proud to be the first site in the United Kingdom to employ fuel cell technology in everyday use", said the Council's Allan Jones.
Interest in fuel cells has grown in recent years because the technology produces little or no toxic emissions. It has found applications in such diverse locations as an Alaskan post office and the U.S. space programme.
One of IFC's PC25 fuel cell system, which will be working in Woking by the end of the year, creates less than one ounce (28.35 gram) of pollution to generate 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity compared with 25 pounds (11.34 kilogram) of pollutants for conventional, combustion generating systems.
In recent years the world's automakers have been working on building a fuel cell engine for vehicles with the world's largest car manufacturer General Motors, the latest to unveil last month its version of a fuel cell.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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UK
minister mulls allowing new nuclear power plants
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UK: September 6, 2001
ABERDEEN, Scotland - Britain's government review of energy policy will consider
the possibility of new nuclear power stations built by the private sector, Energy
Minister Brian Wilson said yesterday.
Although none has been built for 14 years, Wilson said there was no moratorium
on building new nuclear reactors in Britain, unlike some European countries.
And the country faces some stark options as the existing stations near the end
of their life.
"The review will have to ask the question of whether there is a place for
nuclear new build," he told Reuters at an oil industry exhibition in Aberdeen.
Britain launched a review of its energy policy in July to tackle the problems of increasingly strict emissions targets, growing reliance on imported energy, and the expected decommissioning most of its nuclear plants within 20 years.
The powerful environmental lobby is opposed to atomic power because of its radiation risks, but nuclear helps Britain meet strict carbon dioxide emissions targets because it does not create pollution suspected of contributing to global warming.
"The question needs to be asked because nuclear accounts for 25 percent of the UK's electricity and if you lose nuclear and at the same time you are trying to reduce emissions, it is difficult to square that circle," Wilson added.
Britain's governing Labour Party was fiercely anti-nuclear in the 1970s and 1980s, but the current government has distanced itself from that policy, despite continued popular opposition.
Wilson said there was no question of the government building a new station itself, as it is seeking private sector solutions to power generation.
"The question is whether someone will make the commercial decision to build new stations as the existing ones approach the end of their lives," he said.
The government plans to sell a 49 percent stake in British Nuclear Fuels.
Wilson said the review had yet to reveal its findings, but said he personally supported nuclear power.
"I am supportive of the contribution of nuclear power, but my personal preferences aren't the determining factor," he said.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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Netherlands
Battens Its Ramparts Against Warming Climate
By Colin Woodard
Christian Science Monitor
September 4, 2001
Petten in the Netherlands is a seaside village, but not one of its tidy homes,
hotels, or restaurants has a view of the sea.
You can hear the seabirds and feel the cool North Sea wind, but the sea itself
is hidden behind a massive seawall, a long artificial hill 42 feet (13 meters)
high and perhaps 50 yards (46 meters) thick at its base. Only by climbing the
stairs to the top can you see the surf crashing against reinforced stone and
concrete and appreciate how low-lying and vulnerable Petten really is.
Dutch authorities have raised the height of the Pettener seawall several times
since 1976, when it stood only half as tall, trying to keep ahead of storms
and coastal erosion. But it may not be tall enough yet.
With half of its territory below sea level-and much of the rest threatened by coastal or river flooding-the Netherlands is taking climate change very seriously.
Global warming is expected to cause the seas to rise by somewhere between four inches (ten centimeters) and three feet (one meter) during this century, while increased rainfall may enhance the flood risk for low-lying towns and cities behind the Dutch sea defenses.
Unlike the United States and many other countries, there is no debate in the Netherlands over the need to take action to ensure that the country is prepared for the possible effects of rising seas, increased storms, and surging rivers.
The Dutch expect to invest an extra U.S. $10 billion to $25 billion in flood and sea defenses over the next century, and are already drafting plans to upgrade dikes, pumping stations, and seawalls.
"It's better to be safe than sorry when you live below sea level," says Peter C. G. Glas, director of inland water systems at Delft Hydraulics, which designs much of the country's extensive water management infrastructure. "We've had a tradition over the past century of being frightened of the water, and rightly so."
Long-Time Problem
When it comes to water management and flood protection, probably no country in the world has as much experience as the Netherlands. The Dutch have been fighting the North Sea and the Rhine and Meuse Rivers for millennia, ever since Roman-era farmers began draining marshland to plant crops.
Unfortunately, drained land tends to settle and sink with the water table, and the Dutch were soon surrounding fields and towns with dikes and canals and using windmills to keep them pumped dry. The land has continued to sink, and much of it is below sea level. But the Netherlands has had the wealth and technology to continue building ever larger dikes, pumping stations, and seawalls.
During the last century, the Dutch sealed off the entire Zuider Sea with a huge dam that turned it into the huge freshwater Lake IJssel. Entirely new provinces were created by reclaiming parts of the sea floor with more dikes, pumps, and canals. Huge levees were built to tame the Rhine and Meuse, and enormous storm surge gates have been built at their mouths.
But as the water defenses have grown ever larger, so too have the consequences of their failure. In 1953 a storm surge smashed through the sea defenses in southern Holland and nearly 2,000 people drowned. A 1995 river flood forced the evacuation of 200,000 people and millions of animals from endangered areas. Much of the countryside would drown in the continuous rain if pumping stations didn't lift the water up, over the seawalls, and into the North Sea.
A decade ago, Dutch authorities started studying their options for dealing with not only sinking land, but rising seas, more powerful storms, and ever larger floods. Government engineers considered several strategies, including a plan to simply surrender large parts of the country to the sea. The most cost-effective plan was selected: strengthen the existing defenses and pumping stations, at a cost of $19 billion to $25 billion.
"These are enormous figures if you had to spend them all at once, but we're able to spread it out over 50 to 100 years," says John de Ronde of the National Institute for Coastal and Marine Management in The Hague, which prepared the estimates. "And it's relatively simple for us to cope with sea-level rise because we already have [U.S. $2.5 trillion worth of] existing infrastructure."
"If you really have to start from scratch and build all of this infrastructure, you'd probably have to consider giving the land to the sea," he says. It's a situation low-lying regions from Bangladesh and the Marshall Islands to southern Louisiana and the Florida Everglades may soon be facing.
The Dutch also plan to surrender hard-fought land to the water-not to the sea but to the Rhine and Meuse rivers, which end in the Netherlands after draining much of the land between here and the Alps. They call the plan "making room for water."
"Giving Up" Land
Naturally flowing rivers spread over vast floodplains every spring, leaving behind the organic material that makes these areas so fertile. As in many parts of the world, the Dutch wanted to farm and settle in those flood-prone areas. So the rivers were imprisoned between artificial levees.
But when a particularly large flood came, the surging rivers sometimes breached the levees, crashing through towns like a tidal wave. Larger levees were built, which, when breached by an even larger flood or a winter ice jam, caused ever greater disasters. Since global warming is expected to increase precipitation in the Rhine Valley, levees would have to be raised even higher.
"There are flood plains that are inhabited that should not be," says Jeroen van der Sommen, managing director of the Delft-based Netherlands Water Partnership. "We have to change our thinking and say, 'If you don't want to get your feet wet, you need to get out!'"
The new strategy will give the rivers more room, allowing them to flood more naturally, rather than trying to force them into artificial channels. By 2050, 222,000 acres (90,000 hectares) of land will be surrendered to increase the size of the river flood plains, which will be allowed to turn into natural forests and marshland.
Another 62,000 acres (25,000 hectares) of pasture will be earmarked as huge temporary storage pools for floodwaters. Land use practices on another 185,000 acres (75,000 hectares) of farmland will be changed so they can tolerate soggy conditions in winter and spring.
In the densely populated Netherlands, sacrificing land won't be easy. One company is designing giant floating farms, commercial parks, and towns that could be stationed in flood-storage areas. Some towns and villages will be told they can't build new infrastructure, because their surroundings will be given back to the rivers in the coming decades.
Copyright 2001 The Christian Science Monitor
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UPDATE
- UK Ofgem says green energy may need help
2nd article below: UK small generators not pooling output - Ofgem
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UK: September 4, 2001
LONDON - Britain's energy regulator Ofgem has warned the government it needs
to consider extra subsidies for green electricity companies if it is to meet
its targets on cutting emissions.
Ofgem said sliding electricity prices under a new power market launched earlier
this year meant ministers may need to give more support to renewable energy
schemes which are key to the government's bid to slash emissions of greenhouse
gases.
The government ordered Ofgem, which designed the new trading arrangements, to
look at their impact after complaints from green generators that they are being
penalised by the new system and that their calls for change have gone unheeded.
"With lower prices for all generators, including those producing green energy, there is a need for the government to review whether its targets for renewables can be met within the levels of subsidy now proposed by the government," said Ofgem Chief Executive Callum McCarthy in a statement.
Britain wants to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 23 percent on 1990 levels by 2010. It wants half the reductions to come through greater use of renewable energy.
New electricity trading arrangements (NETA), launched in March, have triggered a 20-25 percent drop in wholesale electricity prices, with smaller generators reporting a 17 percent drop, Ofgem said.
Renewable generators, like wind farms, complain they have been hit particularly hard because NETA penalises producers which cannot predict their power output.
CALLS FOR CHANGE
National Wind Power, the UK's leading developer of wind farms, said changes to NETA's design - not extra subsidies - were the only way to help the industry.
"We don't see the need for the government to change the basic Renewables Obligation support mechanism," said Peter Musgrove, the company's head of development.
"There is a need for NETA to be improved. The problem with NETA is the penalties for intermittent generators are disproportionate," he told Reuters.
He said penalties under NETA were several times higher than the company had been expecting and unless the system was changed, the development of wind power would be restricted.
David Green, director of small generators' lobby group Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Association said NETA was failing to encourage the development of energy-efficient projects. CHP cuts down emissions and increases efficiency by re-using surplus heat.
"...Ofgem has passed the buck to the government - and the challenge is now to ensure that the government does put in place all the measures needed to secure its targets for combined heat and power and renewables," he said in a statement.
Green noted that consolidation, where small generators pool their output and sell it via intermediaries, had failed to take off.
Ofgem, which promoted consolidation as a way to help small generators avoid grid imbalance charges under NETA, said only one company had taken up the role. Prior to NETA's launch eight companies said they would become consolidators.
Green said his group would meet ministers shortly to discuss the plight of small generators.
But Ofgem's McCarthy ruled out fundamental changes to NETA, saying they would put benefits to customers at risk.
Britain's new support mechanism for green energy was set out under the governent's Renewables Obligation (RO) scheme, announced in early August.
Under the RO, electricity suppliers will have to buy three percent of their power from green producers from next year, a figure rising to just over 10 percent in 2011.
A number of studies have warned the government that it would not meet its renewable production targets unless more help was given to green electricity producers.
Story by Stuart Penson
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
UK
small generators not pooling output - Ofgem
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UK: September 4, 2001
LONDON - UK energy regulator Ofgem on Friday said consolidation, or pooling
of electricity from several small generators and selling it in one block, is
struggling to take off under new trading arrangements (NETA).
In the run up to NETA's launch in March Ofgem promoted consolidation as a way
to help small generators operate under the new arrangements.
Small generators such as energy-efficient combined heat and power plants are
crucial to the government's push to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
"Concerns have been raised by small generators about consolidators," said Steve Smith, Ofgem's director of trading arrangements.
"There are concerns about the speed at which they have become available," he told Reuters.
Citing reports from small generators, he said only one company was actively working as a consolidator.
Industry sources said Concert Energy, a unit of UK utility Innogy , was the most active consolidator.
Seven companies are listed on Ofgem's website as potential consolidators.
Graham Meeks of the Combined Heat and Power Association (CHPA), an industry group representing small generators, said Ofgem had made consolidation too complex for it to work.
"Consolidation facilities proposed by Ofgem are incredibly complicated and are not proving workable," he said.
Earlier, Ofgem said sliding electricity prices under NETA meant the government may need to give more support to renewable energy schemes which are key to the government's bid to slash emissions of greenhouse gases.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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ENDS ISSUE 1051 - MONDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2001
Øresund
region - Rising transport CO2 in the spotlight
A Danish-Swedish research group has found that transport movements in the Øresund
region, the densely populated Copenhagen-Malmö area, are now generating
more carbon dioxide (CO2) than local power stations, industrial activities and
households combined, Berlingske Tidende newspaper reports.
The figures underline the enormous sustainability challenge posed by rising mobility of freight and people. Across the EU, transport is the fastest growing energy consumer; by 1988 road transport alone contributed one-fifth of total CO2 emissions.
The study attributes about 10m tonnes of CO2 per year to air traffic at Kastrup airport, ferry traffic in the Øresund itself and increased road traffic following the recently opened bridge linking Denmark and Sweden . This alone is more than double the volume that can be absorbed by local vegetation.
"These figures underline the importance of the aims of the Kyoto agreement", Henrik Søgaard of Copenhagen University, leader of the research team, told the newspaper. "We need more wind turbines and fewer coal- or oil-fired power stations."
Follow-up: Berlingske Tidende, tel: +45 33 75
75 33, and the article.
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ENDS ISSUE 1051 - MONDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2001
Austrian
NGOs urge Rio+10 commitment
A coalition of Austrian environmental and development NGOs today pressed the
government to make a stronger commitment to global sustainable development in
the run up to next year's international "Rio+10" conference. The meeting
will mark one decade since the 1992 Earth Summit and is expected to provide
a focus for debate on sustainability and environmental governance issues.
According to more than 40 Austrian NGOs, the government has shown a "passivity" on environment and development issues from which it must be "woken up". The groups launched a one-year, ten-point action plan including greater efforts towards Third World debt reduction, finance for clean water, support for fair trade and a commitment to involving NGOs in preparations for Rio+10.
They are also demanding greater efforts by Austria to achieve its commitment under the Kyoto climate protocol to cut greenhouse gas emissions 13% between 1990 and 2008-12. Emissions are currently 5% above 1990 levels, the groups complain, putting both the target and Austria's environmental reputation in jeopardy.
Follow-up: Association for Development
Cooperation, tel: +43 1 317 4016, and statement.
back to latest news
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