Green Options

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Earlier this week I wrote a particularly winging post, complaining about lack of UK government action on tackling climate change and arguing that many governments merely see green issues as an excuse to raise tax revenues.

Today I would like to look at a situation where the reverse is true, visiting the Germany eco-town of Freiburg .

At first glance, those Germans may appear to have limited green credentials. Fearful of potential impact on their high performance car industry, Germany has lobbied aggressively in recent months to delay new EU legislation aimed at improving vehicle fuel economy. Germany is also home to six of Europe’s ten most polluting power stations and has been keeping quiet about plans to build 24 additional coal powered plants.

However, in terms of concrete and practical actions aimed at making a real difference to the environment, this nation of passionate recyclers, high speed railway builders, and renewable energy nuts appear to be way out in front.

By many standards the UK Government is among the eco leaders of the world, with a clear commitment to make significant cuts in greenhouse emissions, numerous tax incentives for green behaviour, and longer term ambitions to reduce CO2 output by up to 80%. However, actions speak louder than words, particularly the words of politicians. When the British Government announced their most recent budget earlier this year, there was much applause from green groups after chancellor Alistair Darling announced almost draconian increases in taxation on gas guzzling cars. But how effective are these taxes? Do we have a clear set of policies that are making a real difference, or is there some truth in accusations that governments are using a green agenda to raise additional tax revenue?

Britain is not known for good weather. In fact, to be honest, the weather is lousy, and at certain times of the year only the most foolish Englishman ventures out without an umbrella.

For this reason, solar power has long been discounted in favour of wind on this blustery island where one’s neighbours are likely to raise a few eyebrows should one be so eccentric as to cover the roof in solar panels.

This was certainly on the mind of Ashley Seager when he laid out the princely sum of £8,500 ($16,900) in 2007 for the installation of a 3 kilowatt solar power generation system for his South London home. However, one year later and despite a year of weather that has been poor even by British standards, Ashley’s investment is beginning to pay dividends having generated 92% of the Seager household’s annual electricity requirement.

With much fanfare, President George Bush gave a recent speech announcing new commitments by the United States towards the prevention of climate change. The speech was widely covered here on Green Options and in the general media, with many feeling that this was a case of too little, too late. Of course, this was not particularly surprising, and few people were gearing themselves up for the potential announcement of a dramatic change in policy. But what has been interesting is the unprecedented criticism from world leaders disappointed with the lack of US commitment:

Some people are prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to promote environmental alternatives, demonstrating just what is possible in a world that has long been reliant on fossil fuels. I recently wrote of a Swiss family who are at the half way point of an epic round the world eco journey travelling only by foot, bicycle and wind power. During this journey they aim to cross seven seas and climb seven of the world’s highest mountains. Now, a Swiss doctor is undertaking an adventure of similar proportions. Matrin Vosseler, in a bid to raise awareness on climate change has walked across much of Europe and the Middle East, sailed a solar powered boat across the Atlantic, and is now walking across the United States from West to East.

The motorcar has undoubtedly been one of mankind’s most useful inventions to date, a fact which is evidenced by our continuing love affair with our four wheeled friends. They represent some of the largest investments we ever make, we spend hours talking about them, we spend small fortunes maintaining them, we cherish them, we love them. But our affair with the car has blinded us to some of the obvious drawbacks, such as its lack of compatibility with urban life which leaves our cities clogged by semi stationary vehicles with fuming engines and fuming drivers.

It’s been an intriguing week for British environmental activists, with the discovery of a spy in the camp at UK aviation protest group Plane Stupid. Ultimately the spy, an employee of C2i International who specialize in ’special risk management’ (otherwise known as industrial espionage) was little match for Plane Stupid, who described him as “more Austin Powers than James Bond”. Accounts of the episode reveal that Ken Tobias (real name Tobias Kendall), made a number of basic errors, including: Wearing expensive designer clothes (which he attempted to disguise by wearing a Palestinian scarf to give some environmental credibility) Turning up to meetings consistently early Demonstrating an unusual eagerness to reap mayhem on British airport infrastructure by suggesting the grandest and most aggressive schemes Allowing information on planned activities to be published almost immediately in the press

Following the tears and last minute dramas of last year’s Bali climate talks I’ve been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to write of intriguing political entanglements following last week’s United Nations Climate Change negotiations in Bangkok.

As expected, there were no major advances made, but unexpectedly there were few disagreements either. The wheels of diplomacy continue to grind slowly towards a solution which may or may not deliver some actual benefits. There are some who suspect that negotiators are biding their time until new US administration gets to work later this year. Then there is the other theory that the world has just gotten tired of seemingly never ending negotiations in tropical locations.

Putting pen to paper for Bus Transportation Week I began to make a few notes about bus travel in Switzerland – the country that I usually cover on EcoWorldly. My notes read: reliable, clean, efficient.

Not much of a story there.

When there is not much happening in Switzerland and I need to file an EcoWorldly post, I usually look at wider Europe. My notes on bus travel in other nations around Europe read: mostly reliable, mostly clean, mostly efficient.

Still not much to write home about.

And then I read Pem Charnley’s article about bus transportation in Britain, which struck much more of a chord. Having recently written here about the woeful state of British rail transportation, I thought it might be appropriate to continue Pem’s theme and recount my experience of bus travel when I returned to our sunny island for a brief visit recently.

The story starts in the West Midlands with a Saturday shopping trip from my residence in Warwick to the nearby town of Royal Leamington Spa. As before, I shall evaluate the transport infrastructure of the 4th richest nation in the world using some carefully chosen criteria.

In an endeavour hopefully better fated than that of the “unsinkable ship”, the Harland & Wolff shipyard of Belfast are now building the world’s biggest tidal electricity generation system. Named SeaGen, the 1.2 megawatt installation will generate power for over 1,000 homes using energy harvested from tides in Strangford Lough, east of Belfast.