New Zealand Aims to be World’s First Carbon Neutral Nation

Some say it is government propaganda, but at least this government is speaking out loud their intention.

"New Zealand has declared its aim to be carbon neutral in electrical energy by 2025, in stationary manufacturing energy in 2030 and in transport energy by 2040.

The New Zealand government has a history of leadership in sustainable energy planning already signaled its intention to be a leader in carbon neutrality when it announced its Emissions Trading Scheme in September. The October launch of the New Zealand Energy Strategy to 2050, titled Powering our Future: Towards a sustainable low emissions energy system, has provided further detail of the steps."

Bron: New Zealand Aims to be World’s First Carbon Neutral Nation

What Al Gore doesn't understand about climate change.

"Gore has depicted the fundamental trade-off as one between environmental responsibility and personal greed. Of course, as everyone over the age of 12 is perfectly aware, the real trade-off is between the quality of our own lives and the quality of our descendants'.

In other words, climate policy is almost entirely about you and me making sacrifices for the benefit of future generations. To contribute usefully to the debate, you've got to think hard about the appropriate level of sacrifice. That in turn requires you to think hard about roughly half a dozen underlying issues

1. How much does human activity affect the climate?
2. How much harm (or good!) is likely to come from that climate change?
3. How much do we—or should we—care about future generations?
4. How likely are those future generations to be around, anyway?
5. Just how rich are those future generations likely to be?
6. How risk-averse are we?"

Read the article for further explanation.

Bron: What Al Gore doesn't understand about climate change. - By Steven E. Landsburg - Slate Magazine

Nuclear and CO2 storage 'key' to future EU energy mix

"Renewable energies alone will not be sufficient to deliver the ambitious CO2 reduction targets agreed by EU leaders for 2020, warned a top Commission official speaking to EurActiv. Nuclear power and 'clean' fossil fuels using carbon sequestration and storage will be needed if Europe is to make up for the shortfall, said Matthias Ruete, Director General of the Commission's Transport and Energy directorate."

Bron: http://www.wbcsd.org

Slachtafval als Methaan Brandstof

"A company in Sweden has developed a novel and environmentally sustainable -- if somewhat gruesome -- method of actually obtaining methane: boiling cow intestines.

The digestive tracts of all living creatures produce methane, a by-product of the action of bacteria breaking down ingested food matter. Because cows have four stomachs, they create considerably more of the gas than any other animal -- 75 percent of the total methane produced by all animals.

To date no viable method has been devised to capture this gas as it erupts from either end of the cow.

Swedish company Svenska Biogas, however, are currently doing the next best thing: taking the bits of cows that would otherwise be discarded during the slaughter process -- stomach and intestines primarily, but also udders, blood and parts of the liver and kidneys -- and extracting the residual methane directly from them.

"Depending on the cow's size, we can get 80-100 kilos of material from each animal," Carl Lilliehook, Managing Director of Svenska Biogas told CNN.

"These are all the things that would otherwise be classified as food-process waste and either incinerated or disposed of in landfill sites."

Bron: www.CNN.com