Almost £50 trillion must be spent on green technology over the coming decades if the world is to avert a “major planetary catastrophe”, the United Nations has claimed.
By Jon Swaine, New York
11:43PM BST 06 Jul 2011
Governments must invest three per cent of world GDP – about £1.2 trillion in 2010 – annually for 40 years to stop climate change and famine, according to the UN's department of economic and social affairs.
At least £688 billion of that will need to be spent each year in developing countries, in order to meet their populations' increasing demands for resources, the 2011 World Economic and Social Survey said.
Rob Vos, the lead author of the report, said that “business as usual is not an option” if the world were to “reverse the ongoing ecological destruction”.
His report said that to feed a rapidly growing number of mouths, farmers around the world will have to essentially double total international food production between now and 2050.
But to do this sustainably would require huge spending on “clean” energy production, on reducing the non-bio-degradable waste and on other improvements to farming and forestry techniques, it said.
This broader analysis prompted a rise of about 50 per cent in the amount of money said to be required to make human life sustainable. Last year's survey called for spending of up to £750 billion a year.
The report said that the extent of technological transformation required was greater in scale, and must be done more quickly, than the industrial revolution.
"It is rapidly expanding energy use, mainly driven by fossil fuels, that explains why humanity is on the verge of breaching planetary sustainability boundaries," the report said.
"A comprehensive global energy transition is urgently needed in order to avert a major planetary catastrophe."
Thursday, 7 July 2011
Marine energy budget slashed despite PM's pledge of support
David Cameron promised to put 'rockets' under the sector but funds are cut to just £20m
Terry Macalister
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 6 July 2011 18.29 BST
The government has taken an axe to funding for marine energy despite the prime minister's promise before he took office to put "rocket boosters" under the sector.
Ministers have decided to give £20m to kickstart commercial wave and tidal operations, instead of the £50m that was originally set aside under the marine renewables deployment fund.
The cash promised by Greg Barker, the energy and climate change minister, has been dismissed as a "drop in the ocean" by green energy leaders.
The row comes as the government is embroiled in another manufacturing row. It is being blamed for huge redundancies at the Bombardier train factory in Derby despite recent promises to lead the "march of the makers" and rebalance the economy away from financial services.
The decision to earmark only £20m for wave and tidal out of a larger £200m pot held by the Department of Energy and Climate Change to support low-carbon technologies has attracted anger because of previous statements by the Conservative party on the issue.
In June 2008, David Cameron said: "I am today committing a Conservative government to making this [marine energy] research and development a priority for Britain. The next Conservative government will put rocket boosters behind this area of research."
The prime minister later promised to lead the "greenest government yet", but its record over the last year remains patchy, including cuts to the feed-in tariff for large solar arrays, and a scaling down of environment budgets.
A host of innovative British companies such as Pelamis, Aquamarine and others have been developing new products for wave power at the European Marine Energy Centre in the Orkneys.
But the projects are all at an early stage of development and need public money to help them become commercially viable. Only one, the Marine Current Turbines operation in Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland, is producing a meaningful amount of electricity for the National Grid. A smaller scheme, Limpet, produces electricity for the Scottish island of Islay.
But larger power companies such as E.ON are beginning to become involved, and the world's largest tidal stream energy array has just been given planning permission for the Sound of Islay. ScottishPower Renewables says its £40m project will be able to generate enough electricity for more than 5,000 homes – more than double the number on Islay.
Britain is considered to have the best natural resources for tidal and wind power in Europe and the Carbon Trust, a government thinktank, has predicted that the sector could be worth £76bn to the economy and support 68,000 jobs by 2050 with the right early funding in place.
The cut in the marine energy budget was announced by Barker on a recent visit to the Pelamis head office in Edinburgh. The minister said the £20m was still enough to help marine meet 15-20% of Britain's present electricity demand by 2050, as well as helping to reduce emissions to fight climate change.
Barker said: "Britain can be a world leader as we have decades of expertise in offshore industries and the most advanced devices are already being developed here. Our geography gives us access to rich marine resources which act as a natural laboratory to test and run devices in realistic conditions, especially in Scotland and the south-west, where innovative work is already being carried out.
"The money we're announcing will take marine power to the next stage of development in the UK and a step closer to being a real contender in the future energy market."
But the lobby group RenewableUK warned that £20m was "insufficient". Other measures were urgently needed, including a further £60m funding from the Green Investment Bank, support from new regional enterprise zones, and a guarantee of five renewables obligation certificates per megawatt (MW) hour – more than double that for wind – to ensure the nascent industry was financially viable.
Maria McCaffery, chief executive of RenewableUK, said: "The first generation of marine energy projects is likely to cost £80m per 10MW scheme, and we need at least three or four projects to drive costs down and achieve the best technical solutions to maintain our premier global position in this field. So £20m is a good start – but it's only a drop in the ocean."
Terry Macalister
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 6 July 2011 18.29 BST
The government has taken an axe to funding for marine energy despite the prime minister's promise before he took office to put "rocket boosters" under the sector.
Ministers have decided to give £20m to kickstart commercial wave and tidal operations, instead of the £50m that was originally set aside under the marine renewables deployment fund.
The cash promised by Greg Barker, the energy and climate change minister, has been dismissed as a "drop in the ocean" by green energy leaders.
The row comes as the government is embroiled in another manufacturing row. It is being blamed for huge redundancies at the Bombardier train factory in Derby despite recent promises to lead the "march of the makers" and rebalance the economy away from financial services.
The decision to earmark only £20m for wave and tidal out of a larger £200m pot held by the Department of Energy and Climate Change to support low-carbon technologies has attracted anger because of previous statements by the Conservative party on the issue.
In June 2008, David Cameron said: "I am today committing a Conservative government to making this [marine energy] research and development a priority for Britain. The next Conservative government will put rocket boosters behind this area of research."
The prime minister later promised to lead the "greenest government yet", but its record over the last year remains patchy, including cuts to the feed-in tariff for large solar arrays, and a scaling down of environment budgets.
A host of innovative British companies such as Pelamis, Aquamarine and others have been developing new products for wave power at the European Marine Energy Centre in the Orkneys.
But the projects are all at an early stage of development and need public money to help them become commercially viable. Only one, the Marine Current Turbines operation in Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland, is producing a meaningful amount of electricity for the National Grid. A smaller scheme, Limpet, produces electricity for the Scottish island of Islay.
But larger power companies such as E.ON are beginning to become involved, and the world's largest tidal stream energy array has just been given planning permission for the Sound of Islay. ScottishPower Renewables says its £40m project will be able to generate enough electricity for more than 5,000 homes – more than double the number on Islay.
Britain is considered to have the best natural resources for tidal and wind power in Europe and the Carbon Trust, a government thinktank, has predicted that the sector could be worth £76bn to the economy and support 68,000 jobs by 2050 with the right early funding in place.
The cut in the marine energy budget was announced by Barker on a recent visit to the Pelamis head office in Edinburgh. The minister said the £20m was still enough to help marine meet 15-20% of Britain's present electricity demand by 2050, as well as helping to reduce emissions to fight climate change.
Barker said: "Britain can be a world leader as we have decades of expertise in offshore industries and the most advanced devices are already being developed here. Our geography gives us access to rich marine resources which act as a natural laboratory to test and run devices in realistic conditions, especially in Scotland and the south-west, where innovative work is already being carried out.
"The money we're announcing will take marine power to the next stage of development in the UK and a step closer to being a real contender in the future energy market."
But the lobby group RenewableUK warned that £20m was "insufficient". Other measures were urgently needed, including a further £60m funding from the Green Investment Bank, support from new regional enterprise zones, and a guarantee of five renewables obligation certificates per megawatt (MW) hour – more than double that for wind – to ensure the nascent industry was financially viable.
Maria McCaffery, chief executive of RenewableUK, said: "The first generation of marine energy projects is likely to cost £80m per 10MW scheme, and we need at least three or four projects to drive costs down and achieve the best technical solutions to maintain our premier global position in this field. So £20m is a good start – but it's only a drop in the ocean."
UK's two biggest solar installations start generating energy
Developers of farms in Cornwall and Lincolnshire have rushed to beat the cut in government subsidies for large-scale solar installations
Jenny Roper
The Guardian, Thursday 7 July 2011
A huge solar farm in Lincolnshire and another in Cornwall started generating green electricity on Thursday to become the UK's two biggest solar installations, as developers rushed to beat an imminent cut in government subsidies.
The 1MW Fen Farm solar park and the 1.4MW Wheal Jane park in Truro are two of several such large-scale projects rushing to connect to the grid. They are trying to benefit from a higher level of feed-in tariff payments before the government cuts the rates by up 75% on 1 August.
When the cuts were confirmed last month, ministers defended them on the grounds that the funding for payments needed to be protected for householders. But energy industry figures and campaigners warned that making such large projects financially unviable would "crush" the solar industry and cost the UK "major manufacturing opportunities, jobs and global competitiveness".
The developers of the Truro park on the site of a disused tin mine worked around the clock to finish the project in time to beat the tariff cuts. Solarcentury and Lightsource Renewables originally planned to finish the park by the end of August. They were forced to bring both projects forward, at significant extra cost.
Although the solar park in Lincolnshire was always planned for completion before August, its developers, Ecotricity, experienced similar concerns about not completing the project in time. Founder Dale Vince, said that connecting to the grid by 1 August is an insecure business. "When you think that we're finishing three weeks ahead of the deadline, we're cutting it fine enough for my liking," he said. "You've got a situation where the grid companies aren't that amenable. They don't get anything out of accommodating renewable energy on the grids so it's never an easy thing. It's a bureaucratic process and more often than not there will be a delay."
Not all the projects are fortunate enough to have even three weeks' leeway. Silicon Vineyards, the developer of a solar park at Benbole Farm in Cornwall, is working right up to the deadline.
Despite the cut in payments – from 30.7p per Kwh currently to 8.5p from August for field-size installations over 250Kw - some companies are pushing ahead with large-scale projects that will miss the deadline.
They are hoping that the government will announce in mid-July that renewable sources of energy including solar are now eligible for a higher level of a separate subsidy scheme, Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROC).
Hopes in the industry are also being pinned on the exploitation of a legal loophole in the feed-in tariff system. Ray Noble, solar specialist at the Renewable Energy Association, said companies are putting plans on hold while they seek legal advice and wait for Ofgem to indicate whether smaller solar power projects could later be increased in size and still retain the higher rates.
"There'll be some innovative ways of trying to make it work," Noble said. "Most of the developers have kept very quiet while they lobby government to say they're losing lots of money and that the system needs to be changed for them to make any plans."
Ecotricity's Vince was critical of the government's support for solar power. "Our government has got its eyes focused on big nuclear and clean coal, and solar has become an inconvenient success story. But it seems crazy to me to have a cap. We need large scale solar to make the UK more energy independent and reduce our carbon. Large-scale solar is critical if this government is serious about being the greenest ever."
Jenny Roper
The Guardian, Thursday 7 July 2011
A huge solar farm in Lincolnshire and another in Cornwall started generating green electricity on Thursday to become the UK's two biggest solar installations, as developers rushed to beat an imminent cut in government subsidies.
The 1MW Fen Farm solar park and the 1.4MW Wheal Jane park in Truro are two of several such large-scale projects rushing to connect to the grid. They are trying to benefit from a higher level of feed-in tariff payments before the government cuts the rates by up 75% on 1 August.
When the cuts were confirmed last month, ministers defended them on the grounds that the funding for payments needed to be protected for householders. But energy industry figures and campaigners warned that making such large projects financially unviable would "crush" the solar industry and cost the UK "major manufacturing opportunities, jobs and global competitiveness".
The developers of the Truro park on the site of a disused tin mine worked around the clock to finish the project in time to beat the tariff cuts. Solarcentury and Lightsource Renewables originally planned to finish the park by the end of August. They were forced to bring both projects forward, at significant extra cost.
Although the solar park in Lincolnshire was always planned for completion before August, its developers, Ecotricity, experienced similar concerns about not completing the project in time. Founder Dale Vince, said that connecting to the grid by 1 August is an insecure business. "When you think that we're finishing three weeks ahead of the deadline, we're cutting it fine enough for my liking," he said. "You've got a situation where the grid companies aren't that amenable. They don't get anything out of accommodating renewable energy on the grids so it's never an easy thing. It's a bureaucratic process and more often than not there will be a delay."
Not all the projects are fortunate enough to have even three weeks' leeway. Silicon Vineyards, the developer of a solar park at Benbole Farm in Cornwall, is working right up to the deadline.
Despite the cut in payments – from 30.7p per Kwh currently to 8.5p from August for field-size installations over 250Kw - some companies are pushing ahead with large-scale projects that will miss the deadline.
They are hoping that the government will announce in mid-July that renewable sources of energy including solar are now eligible for a higher level of a separate subsidy scheme, Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROC).
Hopes in the industry are also being pinned on the exploitation of a legal loophole in the feed-in tariff system. Ray Noble, solar specialist at the Renewable Energy Association, said companies are putting plans on hold while they seek legal advice and wait for Ofgem to indicate whether smaller solar power projects could later be increased in size and still retain the higher rates.
"There'll be some innovative ways of trying to make it work," Noble said. "Most of the developers have kept very quiet while they lobby government to say they're losing lots of money and that the system needs to be changed for them to make any plans."
Ecotricity's Vince was critical of the government's support for solar power. "Our government has got its eyes focused on big nuclear and clean coal, and solar has become an inconvenient success story. But it seems crazy to me to have a cap. We need large scale solar to make the UK more energy independent and reduce our carbon. Large-scale solar is critical if this government is serious about being the greenest ever."
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