The Green Party’s Energy Minister Eamon Ryan has hailed major progress in green power generation, with Ireland already exceeding its 2010 target. He welcomed a report by Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland – Renewable Energy in Ireland – which shows that Ireland generated 14.5% of its electricity from renewable sources. The target for 2010 was 15%.
The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has just launched a new five-year strategic plan with a mission of transforming Ireland into a society based on sustainable energy structures, technologies and practices, and a vision of making Ireland a recognised global leader in sustainable energy.
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster is likely to cost BP $23bn (£15bn) and its shares can be expected to lag behind those of its competitors by 5% for the “lasting” future, analysts warned today.
More than $9bn will come from reputational damage as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill while the total costs are likely to drive up its net equity to debt ratio to 35%, much higher than its peers, according to Barclays Capital.
But this whole Gulf of Mexico fiasco sounds a bit like a trailer mash-up between a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie and Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth. Unfortunately, this isn’t Hollywood and we’ve have 5,000 barrels of crude oil bubbling into our ocean every single day–though some are reporting it’s closer to 26,000 barrels a day!
British tax authorities have arrested 21 people after raiding homes and offices across Europe as part of a crackdown on alleged carbon-trading fraud, HM Revenue & Customs confirmed today .
Some 450 staff took part in raids on Wednesday as tax authorities across the continent intensified an ongoing investigation into alleged carbon-trading fraud, which is estimated to have cost €5bn in unpaid taxes.
Royal Dutch Shell plc spilled nearly 14,000 tons of crude oil into the creeks of the Niger Delta last year, the company has announced, blaming thieves and militants for the environmental damage.
Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday vowed to realize the country’s green goal to cut energy intensity by 20 percent between 2006 and 2010, amid the strong economic recovery.
In a nationwide video and teleconference, Wen told governments at all levels to work with an “iron hand” to eliminate inefficient enterprises.
To that effect, he laid out new targets to shut down the outdated 10 GW capacity of small thermal power plants, 25 million tons of iron smelting, 6 million tons of steel production, 50 million tons of cement, 330,000 tons of aluminum, 6 million containers of glass sheets and 530,000 tons of paper production within this year.
Homes are responsible for more than 20% of energy consumption in the United States. But how do you pinpoint the sources of all that CO2? An impressive new data-visualization tool from GE and Pentagram’s Lisa Strausfeld, who knows from information design, helps determine precisely which household electronics do the most damage.
Sourcing power from a company whose generation comes principally from coal is a very risky business and if there is anything that investors shy away from, it is risk!
Why is it risky?
Coal has significant negative environmental effects from its mining through to its burning to generate electricity contaminating waterways, destroying ecosystems, generation of hundreds of millions of tons of waste products, including fly ash, bottom ash, flue gas desulfurisation sludge, that contain mercury, uranium, thorium, arsenic, and other heavy metals and emitting massive amounts of radiation.
current and projected concentrations of the six key well-mixed greenhouse gases–carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6)–in the atmosphere threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.
Note the wording “the public health and welfare of current and future generations”
Who knows what legislation the EPA will pass in the coming months and years to control CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants in the coming months and years – and the knock on effects this will have on costs.
Finally, when you factor in the recent revolts by investors in Shell and BP to decisions likely to land the companies in hot water down the road for pollution, the investors in FaceBook should be asking some serious questions right about now.
