By Mark Seall •
March 17, 2008
Like this post? Subscribe to our RSS feed and stay up to date.
The fight against climate change has moved on considerably in the past year. Today, the debate is less about if, and more about what.
But concrete action has been slow, and whilst the world continues to talk, emissions continue to rise. However, another small but significant step has been made during the past week with an agreement between EU leaders to commit to legislation setting firm targets for a 20% reduction in Co2 emissions before 2020.
Janez Jansa , Prime Minister of Solvenia who currently holds the rotating EU presidency told reporters that EU leaders have taken a “huge step forward” with this agreement.
Princeton University’s new Sustainability Plan calls for the campus to reduce its carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
Under the plan, all new construction at Princeton will have to use half as much energy as is required under current building codes. The plan also aims to reduce campus car traffic by 10 percent by 2020.
“We feel that we have an obligation as an institution to create an environment where students, faculty and staff can see the institution trying out new technologies … or trying to change behavior,” said Mark Burstein, Princeton’s executive vice president.
Got some bad news for all those countries trying to hammer out a successor to the Kyoto Protocol: aiming for carbon dioxide emissions reductions of 25, 50, even 75 percent in the coming decades ain’t gonna cut it.
The only way to stabilize Earth’s climate, according to new research, is to cut carbon emissions to zero … and to do it quick.
Climate [...]
By Mark Seall •
February 10, 2008
Germany prides itself on its auto industry, and with good reason. German cars have a world reputation for performance, style, reliability and solid engineering. Its also one of the few countries where high performance cars can be fully put to the test, with many sections of its autobahns being free of speed restrictions - its not unusual when driving at very high speeds in Germany to be overtaken by other cars travelling at very very very high speeds.
So it was of little surprise that the German auto industry, represented by brands such as Mercedes, BMW, Porsche and Volkswagen Audi vigorously lobbied its government for concessions on new European fuel economy standards (see box text below). Manufacturers were chiefly concerned with loosing their dominance of the luxury car segment through being forced to manufacture smaller, more efficient cars.
“We don’t want Germany to became a nation of small car owners”
President of the German automotive industry association, Matthias Wissmann, told a news conference recently “We don’t want Germany to became a nation of small car owners”. The German government has backed its automakers, claiming that the EU proposals place an unfair burden on German industry in comparison to the French and Italians.
