News

GFC FINAL REPORT
After two years of collating and reviewing evidence, the Green Fiscal Commission has been launched. Although this report provides significant evidence on the potential impacts of green fiscal reform - considering, for example, potential distributional and competitiveness impacts - further work is still to be done before such a reform could be implemented in a way that is both politically and publicly acceptable.
http://www.greenfiscalcommission.org.uk/

New report by Global Witness says governments have failed to acknowledge or prepare for an imminent oil supply crunch which risks economic chaos, conflict and threatens the climate. They should officially accept the problem and fast track safe, sustainable energy alternatives.
http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/853/en/government_...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/oct/19/oil-prices-rise-supply-wa...

A new report, 'The Great Transition', published by nef, marks the launch of a 40 year long initiative to transform the UK economy so that it is climate friendly while also solving a broad swathe of closely connected social problems related to inequality.

UK's livestock products accounts for around 8% of our total greenhouse gas emissions. Efforts to reduce these emissions, such as campaigns for consumers to eat less meat, have alienated livestock producers, who are concerned that they are being unfairly targeted, and who have pointed to potential unintended consequences. It is in the public interest to address such concerns and involve producers in shaping this important policy agenda.

A new edition of Sustainable development indicators in your pocket (2009) was published on 30 July 2009.
There are 68 national indicators supporting the UK Government Sustainable Development Strategy including measures of everyday concern such as health, housing, jobs, crime, education and our environment. The indicators also support one or more of the four priority areas outlined in the Strategy.
http://www.defra.gov.uk/sustainable/government/progress/documents/SDIYP2...

Changing the public’s use of energy at home and on the move is critical for reducing the UK’s overall emissions contributing to climate change. However, beyond the environmentally inclined, there is a very substantial group of people who are doing very little in response to communications and policies designed to promote behaviours and choices that will reduce emissions.

There is a "significant risk" that global production of conventional oil could "peak" and decline by 2020, a report has warned. The UK Energy Research Council study says there is a general consensus that the era of cheap oil is at an end.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8296096.stm
http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/support/tiki-index.php?page=Global+Oil+Depletion

New guidance to measure and tackle greenhouse gas emissions for businesses and organisations has been published by Defra and DECC. The guidance has been published alongside advice on what it means to be carbon neutral.
The guidance is aimed at all sizes of business as well as public and third sector organisations.

Global recession will hardly alter overconsumption trend says new report
In spite of one of the biggest global recessions for a century – the trend toward ever greater over-consumption is hardly changing according to The Consumption Explosion: the Third UK Interdependence Day Report. The report is published on the day - Friday 25 September - that the world as a whole goes into ‘ecological debt’, consuming more resources and generating more waste than ecosystems can produce and absorb.

The global average temperature could rise by 4C (7.2F) as early as 2060, according to a new study by the UK Met Office.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8279654.stm
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climatechange/news/latest/four-degrees.html