Small and medium businesses to start carbon trading?

The UK's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is considering a scheme in which small and medium-sized firms may face pollution limits in the UK's drive to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

If these businesses exceed their allocation of permits to emit CO2 they could soon have to buy additional pollution permits from a carbon market.

Large businesses in the EU, such as power stations and steel works, already have to operate within the constraints of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. However, medium-sized businesses, such as supermarkets, have so far been left outside the EU scheme.

The UK's Carbon Trust has proposed this move as a way of including more businesses in efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Although the government's much-delayed climate strategy review is due to be published in the next few weeks, the BBC's Roger Harrabin has discovered that the DTI is worried that businesses have already borne too much of the burden when it comes to reducing national emissions of carbon dioxide (17.5% cuts since 1990) and is resisting calls to ask much more of business.

This concern seems to miss the point that businesses are not charities and have a habit of passing on costs to their consumers!

This business-centric view also downgrades the importance of the available science, which consistently tells us that severe cuts in greenhouse emissions are necessary in order to keep CO2 concentrations within levels that are likely to be "safe" for humanity.

It also diminishes the input of the department for the environment (DEFRA) which has told ministers that bigger cuts will be needed in order to achieve the 20% cut in emissions by 2010 pledged during the past three elections.

It will be interesting to see which department has won this argument when the climate review is published...

"Back off Badgers!" says the RSPCA

The RSPCA is today tackling the government head-on in a desperate fight to prevent the senseless slaughter of thousands of badgers in England.

Badgers are protected by law, yet the government is now consulting on whether - and how - badgers should be killed. They could be shot, snared or even gassed. The public only has until 10 March to write and object to the proposals - badger killing could start as early as this summer.

In advertisements in the national press, the RSPCA is urging members of the public to tell the government to "back off badgers" in the hope that public outrage will prevent the slaughter.

"The RSPCA believes that badgers are being made the scapegoats for a rise in bovine TB in cattle," explains Colin Booty, senior scientific officer at the RSPCA. "This is in spite of the latest scientific evidence which indicates that culling badgers is very likely to make the situation significantly worse. The evidence comes from the government's own research, which took more than eight years, cost taxpayers £34 million and involved the killing of about 12,000 badgers."

The results of the long-term government research project were published in December 2005.

"For the first time ever ministers have a robust science base on which to base TB control and they are ignoring it," said Professor John Bourne, the chairman of the Independent Scientific Group that designed the study. (Western Morning News, 17 December 2005).

The RSPCA believes that one of the strongest arguments against a badger cull is that it simply won't work. While there is a link between badgers and bovine TB in cattle, the nature of the link is not clear. A whole range of scientific studies show that infected cattle are the key source of infection in other cattle.

Therefore the most effective way to combat the spread of bovine TB would be more - and better - pre-and post-movement testing of cattle, together with strict quarantining of new animals. There are more than 13 million cattle movements in the country each year and because of the current inadequacies of testing, there are far too many undiagnosed cattle moving about the country.

It has also been claimed that culling badgers would be for the badgers' own good - to save them from a horrible death from TB. But most badgers don't have TB and even those with the disease often show no symptoms at all, and live + breed normally.

Unfortunately, there is no reliable test for TB in live badgers; the only reliable test is for dead badgers. This means killing them to find out if they are infected, which is a very extreme measure if they are not infected after all especially as the vast majority of badgers do not have TB.

All members of the public are encouraged to respond to the current government consultation by writing to: Bovine TB and Badgers Consultation, Defra, 1a Page Street, London SW1 4PQ or sending an e-mail to: bTBconsultation@defra.gsi.gov.uk.

Visit the RSPCA's badger campaign area for more information

Climate Challenge Fund launched

On 26 January the UK government launched a Climate Challenge Fund which aims to support climate change communication at the local and regional levels.

The Fund will distribute a total of £6m over the next two financial years and support projects in England aimed at raising awareness and changing attitudes to climate change.

One imaginative element of the campaign is to find 10-18 year olds who can act as climate change “champions”, and help to spread the word about climate change in their region.

The closing date for proposal entries is 31 March 2006.

Good luck if you intend to have a go!!!

Although a welcome development, Earth Info feels that the Fund's criteria will exclude or hinder many obvious applicants, and that the sums available are rather inadequate, given the scale of the problem and the ambition of the scheme.

Innovative Westmill Wind Farm share offer

Westmill Wind Farm Co-operative Ltd. is seeking to raise £3.75 million to build the first community owned wind farm in southern England on the Oxfordshire/ Wiltshire border.

It is doing this through a Share Offer that will close on 28 February 2006. The Share Offer is open to individuals or organisations. The minimum investment is £250, the maximum is £20,000.

It is being supported and modelled on the Baywind Co-operative Wind Farm in Cumbria which has 1300 members and has been running successfully since 1996. Westmill also has widespread support from its local community including: businesses - The Midcounties Co-op; Councils - Faringdon Town Council; academics - Dr. Brenda Boardman MBE, University of Oxford; religious leaders - Bishop Crispian Hollis; climate change campaigning organisations – both Oxfordshire and Wiltshire Friends of the Earth; Government organisations - South East England Development Agency. It also has the support of the overwhelming majority of local people.

Westmill is a pioneering project that has been initiated and developed by individuals determined to take positive practical action in response to the threat of climate change. Westmill is more than the construction of 5 wind turbines; it acts as a focus encouraging the local debate about climate change, energy generation and consumption and how we as individuals and communities contribute to shaping the future. Westmill is setting up a template that communities across the UK will be able to replicate as a basis for establishing similar, community owned, projects.

Construction is due to start Spring this year, commissioning is planned for December 2006. The five wind turbines are predicted to produce 12.6 GWh/yr – equivalent to the domestic electricity consumption of over 3000 average households.

For more information visit www.westmill.coop. To request the prospectus phone 0870 234 2002.