RECENT ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT NEWS

The UK is set to miss its target on cutting greenhouse gases
The Government has admitted that the UK is not now expected to meet its pledge to cut emissions of carbon dioxide. It had set itself the goal of reducing CO2 emissions to 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2010.
However, Tony Blair says the UK is on course to meet the 12.5 per cent reduction on 1990 levels imposed by the Kyoto Protocol.
Commenting on the failure to make progress Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett said she was positive that new ways could still be found to reduce our emissions at a faster rate.
She told ITN: "One of the things we are doing is to say: 'Let's reassess where we are, let's look at what the ideas are to help us get back on track'."
The Department of Environment, Food andRural Affairs has launched a consultation on the review of the UK Climate Change Programme.
www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/ukccp-review

'Mankind's demand for energy up 60 per cent by 2030? - new study.   In its World Energy Outlook 2004 the International Energy Agency estimates that energy demand will by nearly 60 per cent greater in 2030 than it was in 2002. The IEA says there are energy resources to meet demand for many decades to come. But it accepts that soaring oil and gas prices, vulnerability of energy supply routes and ever-increasing Greenhouse Gas emissions are 'symptoms of a considerable malaise in the world of energy'. It says the inexorable increase in energy demand and continuing heavy reliance on carbon-emitting fossil fuels are 'deeply troubling'
 www.iea.org  

New housing legislation has set a target of a 20 per cent improvement in domestic energy efficiency by the end of the decade for England and Wales. The new measure has been welcomed by the Energy Saving Trust, which says the household sector alone could improve efficiency and save the equivalent of eight million tonnes of carbon each year by 2010.
The legislation also paves the way for new Home Condition Reports, which all homeowners will have to offer when they sell their property. The reports are expected to include recommendations on cost-effective energy efficiency improvements.
www.est.org.uk  

The cost of warding off a dangerous rise in temperature is not as great as people think, according to a leading UK scientist. University of East Anglia professor John Schellnhuber thinks the bill for putting the brakes on climate change could be as little as a third of one per cent of the world's Gross Domestic Product. Schnellnhuber is research director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. On the eve of a conference in Berlin entitled Climate Change: Meeting the Challenge Together, he told the BBC that there is no 'magic bullet' for the climate problem but that a mix of strategies can deliver solutions.
www.bbc.co.uk  

The vegetable that once powered the cartoon character Popeye is supplying the key component for a new type of solar power cell that mimics the way plants harness the sun's energy. Scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have managed to make a power-generating cell using photosynthetic proteins from spinach leaves. The team told Science News that the advance has the potential to extend the usefulness of solar energy - the new cells are thinner and lighter than existing panels. www.sciencenews.org