April 2010 printable subscriber newsletter

Ecologist

29th March, 2010

In this month's newsletter, we report on the cost of sugar ethanol in Brazil, the growing restrictions on health food products, the dangerous advice given by local councils on energy saving lightbulbs, and the possibilities of personal tradable energy quotas. To download, log in and scroll to the bottom of the article...

What could possibly deliver an 8.6 per cent decrease in national greenhouse gas emissions in just one year, including a fall in CO2 from electricity generation of 11 per cent, from the business sector of 15 per cent, and from households of 4.9 per cent?

Answer: a recession.

The figures released by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) are, quite frankly, staggering. Although preliminary, they suggest that emissions fell more in the last year than in the entire term of this Government. They demonstrate the kind of reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that, if they could be repeated year on year, would see the economy almost completely decarbonised in a decade.

Of course, it’s not as simple as that – reductions in greenhouse gas emissions follow the law of diminishing returns, meaning that as emissions come down, each subsequent reduction becomes more difficult and more expensive. And, most importantly, recessions aren’t the way to do it. However much the Government might like to crow about its successes in containing the fallout of the economic downturn, the past 18...

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